I am
Yours very faithfully,
Randolph S. Churchill.
James Whyte, Esq.,
United Kingdom Alliance.
Lord Randolph Churchill on Home Rule.
2 Connaught Place, W.: February 10, 1891.
Dear Sir,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th inst.
I am not at all surprised to learn that you, in common with, I expect, the overwhelming majority of members of the English Home Rule party, find yourself puzzled, embarrassed and anxious in consequence of the recent very interesting disturbance of the harmony of the Irish Home Rule party.
I have always been of opinion that, however attractive Home Rule for Ireland might be in theory, it was an absolute impossibility to put Home Rule into a Bill. You might just as well try to square the circle.
The dispute between Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Parnell as to what took place at what you call ‘the notorious interview at Hawarden’ brings out this fact with exceeding clearness; and if you, and those who agree with you politically, insist upon shutting your eyes rather than contemplate a disagreeable truth, it will, I fear, be the sad fate of your party to waste years of time and strength in fruitless efforts to arrive at a solution of the hopeless problem ‘How to put Home Rule into a Bill.’
You ask me, in conclusion, for my opinion as to what would be the best policy for Ireland.
In reply I would refer you to several speeches which I have delivered and letters which I have written in recent years, in which I have declared my conviction that in a large, liberal, generous and courageous development of Local Government in Ireland on lines similar to those which have been so successfully followed in this country and in Scotland, will be found the best and the only prospect of political tranquillity for the Irish people.