DAVE MANSELL certain circumstances, be justifi.able against a tyrannical majority". This apologia for the use of "violence" against "democratic power" carne from a man who, as lrish Secretary, had employed the "democratic power" of the British state (coercion laws, armed police) to defeat the lrish National League's "plan of campaign" (designed and animated by William O'Brien to force rent reductions for tenant farmers, mainly in the South and West). Balfour's double standard - on the one hand virtually legitimizing an extra-parliamentary militia, on the other using state power to crush a "subversive" !ayer of the Catholic small owners - is typical of the Machiavellian use made by British Conservative leaders of Ireland in the late 19th century and early 20th century as a pawn in their ploy to gain and retain power in Britain. Not that the lrish unionist leaders were any less Machiavellian in their intents. KILLING HOME RULE WITH KINDNESS When Balfour had taken office in 1887 as Irish Secretary he had promised "repression as stern as Cromwell's" to defeat the agitational activities of the National League (in fact, only three people were killed, when police opened ifire on a crowd in Mitchelstown); but a major component of his strategy was to liquidate the lrish question by "killing Home Rule with kindness", by granting "concessions as great as Mr Parnell and anyone else can desire" (short of Home Rule, that is). Balfour concentrated on improving economic conditions, assuming that every Irish "native" had his price, that nationalism was "born in the peasant's cottage, where men forgive if the belly gain". Particular economic measures such as the tacking of governement sponsored light railways in the West on the network that had been developed through the rest of the country by British capitalists ( to open up a new market) had the net effect of an increase in the emigration of landless labourers and the consolidation of the larger farmers. Attempts were made by the British government to foster lacemaking, knitting, weaving and fishing to provide the landless with sorne economic basis for staying put. In this they were supported by the Roman Catholic clergy who felt that the pastoral care of their flocks could only be ensured in a rural setting away from the atheistic influence of the "big cities" 38
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