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diff --git a/old/13998.txt b/old/13998.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00b85da --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13998.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8466 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ireland and the Home Rule Movement, by +Michael F. J. McDonnell, et al + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Ireland and the Home Rule Movement + +Author: Michael F. J. McDonnell + +Release Date: November 9, 2004 [eBook #13998] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND AND THE HOME RULE +MOVEMENT*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Leah Moser, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +IRELAND AND THE HOME RULE MOVEMENT + +by + +MICHAEL F. J. McDONNELL + +With a Preface by John Redmond, M.P. + +1908 + + + + + + + +_Matri dilectissimae_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +Without agreeing with every expression of opinion contained in the +following pages I heartily recommend this book, especially to Englishmen +and Scotchmen, as a thoughtful, well-informed, and scholarly study of +several of the more important features of the Irish question. + +It has always been my conviction that one of the chief causes of the +difficulty of persuading the British people of the justice and +expediency of conceding a full measure of National autonomy to Ireland +was to be found in the deep and almost universal ignorance in Great +Britain regarding Irish affairs present and past--an ignorance which has +enabled every unscrupulous opponent of Irish demands to appeal with more +or less success to inherited and anti-Irish prejudice as his chief +bulwark against reform. It was this conviction that led Mr. Parnell and +his leading colleagues, after the defeat of the first Home Rule Bill in +1886, to establish an agency in England for the express purpose of +removing the ignorance and combating its effects, and no advocate of +Irish claims in England or Scotland has failed to find traces down to +this day of the good effects of the propaganda thus set on foot, the +discontinuance of which was one of the lamentable results of the +dissensions in the Irish National Party between 1890 and 1900. + +This book carries on the work of combating British ignorance of Irish +affairs and the effects of that ignorance in a manner which seems to me +singularly effective. The writer is no mere rhetorician or dealer in +generalities. On the contrary, he deals in particular facts and gives +his authorities. Nothing is more striking than the care he has +obviously taken to ascertain the details of the subjects with which he +has concerned himself and the inexorable logic of his method. It is +perfectly safe to say that he neglected few sources of information which +promised any valuable results, and that he has condensed into a few +pages the more vital points of many volumes. It is not necessary to say +anything of his style except that the cultured reader will most +appreciate and enjoy it. + +I shall not anticipate what the author has to say except in respect of +one particular matter to which it seems to me expedient that particular +public attention should be directed, especially by English and Scotch +readers. The study of Irish history throws an inglorious light on the +character of many British statesmen, and one of the salient facts +brought into prominence in this little volume is that, even since the +conversion of Mr. Gladstone to Home Rule, more than one leader of each +of the two great political parties in Great Britain have displayed an +utter lack of political principle in their dealings with Ireland, and +especially with the Irish National question. I cannot but think that if +the facts, as told by the author of this volume, were universally, or +even widely, known amongst Englishmen and Scotchmen there would be much +less heard in the future regarding Home Rule eventuating in Rome Rule or +endangering the existence of the Empire. + +This volume will, I hope, have a wide circulation not only in Great +Britain, where such works are specially needed but in Ireland itself, +where also it is well calculated to strengthen the faith of convinced +Home Rulers and to bring light to the few who are still opposed to the +Irish National demand for self-government, and to other important, +though minor, reforms. + +J. E. REDMOND. + +December, 1907. + + + + +CONTENTS + +INTRODUCTION + +CHAPTER I +THE EXECUTIVE IN IRELAND + +CHAPTER II +THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND + +CHAPTER III +THE ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF IRELAND + +CHAPTER IV +THE LAND QUESTION + +CHAPTER V +THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION + +CHAPTER VI +THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM + +CHAPTER VII +UNIONISM IN IRELAND + +CHAPTER VIII +IRELAND AND DEMOCRACY + +CHAPTER IX +IRELAND AND GREAT BRITAIN + +CHAPTER X +CONCLUSION + +NOTES + +ADDENDUM + + + + + "You desire my thoughts on the affairs of Ireland, a subject + little considered, and consequently not understood in + England." + + --JOHN HELY HUTCHINSON, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, + in a letter written in 1779 to the Lord Lieutenant of + Ireland. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +A decree of Pope Adrian IV., the only Englishman who has sat in the +chair of St. Peter, in virtue of the professed jurisdiction of the +Papacy over all islands, by a strange irony, sanctioned the invasion of +Ireland by Strongbow in the reign of Henry II. Three years ago I stood +in the crypt of St. Peter's in Rome, and the Englishman who was with me +expatiated on the appropriate nature of the massive sarcophagus of red +granite, adorned only with a carved bull's head at each of the four +corners, which seemed to him to stand as a type of British might and +British simplicity, and in which the sacristan had told us lay all that +was mortal of Nicholas Breakspeare. Seeing that I took no part in this +panegyric, he took me on one side and said that he had observed that all +the English Protestants to whom he showed that tomb, situated as it is +literally _ad limina Apostolorum_, waxed eloquent, but, on the other +hand, the Irish Catholics whom he told that it contained the bones of +the dead Pontiff invariably shook their fists at the ashes of the +unwitting, but none the less actual, source of their country's ills. To +this I replied by quoting to him a saying of Robert Louis Stevenson, who +as a Scot viewed the matter impartially, and who declared "that the +Irishman should not love the Englishman is not disgraceful, rather, +indeed, honourable, since it depends on wrongs ancient like the race and +not personal to him who cherishes the indignation." + + * * * * * + +The great tendency which has been so marked a feature of Irish life in +the course of the last decade to turn the attention of the people +towards efforts at self-improvement and the development of self-reliance +without regard to English aid, English neglect, or English opinion, +excellent though it has been in every other respect, has had this one +drawback--that there has grown up a generation of Englishmen, +well-intentioned towards our country, to whom the problems of Irish +Government are an unknown quantity. The ignorance of Irish affairs in +England is due partly to ourselves, but also to a natural heedlessness +arising from distance and preoccupation with problems with which +Englishmen are more intimately concerned. + +In view of the awakening of the democratic forces of Great Britain it is +vital that Irish questions should be set before the eyes of the +electorate of Great Britain, in order that, when for the first time the +constitutional questions involved are placed before voters unprejudiced +by class interests or a fellow-feeling for the pretensions of property +wherever situate, there may be a body of electors who realise the +gravity of the problems in question, and who have a full appreciation of +the history of the case. + +The Irish question has at no time been brought before the English public +less than at the present day. Fenianism in the seventies and the various +agrarian agitations in the eighties served to keep it constantly before +the English eyes, and after the acquittal of Mr. Parnell and his +colleagues of the charges brought against them by the _Times_ much +educative work was done for a short time by Irish Members of Parliament +on English platforms. + +The demands of Ireland have always been met by an unjust dilemma. When +she has been disturbed the reply has been that till quiet is restored +nothing can be done, and when a peaceful Ireland has demanded +legislation the absence of agitation has been adduced as a reason for +the retort that the request is not widespread, and can, in consequence, +be ignored. + +The remedy against such inaction proving successful in the future lies +in the existence of a strong body of public opinion in Great Britain, +educated to such a degree in the facts of the case as to brook no delay +in the application of remedies. As for us, we cannot expect to be +believed on our mere _ipse dixit_, and must state our case frankly and +fully. The present moment seems timely, before the smoke of conflict has +once again obscured the broad principles at issue. I propose to deal +with reform in a plea of urgency, endeavouring at the same time to trace +the evolution of things as they are to-day, quoting history as I go, +with one aim only in view, to point a moral and adorn a tale. It will +serve, I hope, to explain the past, to illustrate the present and to +provide a warning for the future. + +The Irish question, as Lord Rosebery has said, has never passed into +history, because it has never passed out of politics. + +M.F.J. McD. + +Goldsmith Building, Temple. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE EXECUTIVE IN IRELAND + + "La 'Garnison' a occupee le pays sans le 'gouverner,' ou en ne + le gouvernant que de son propre interet de classe: son + hegemonie a ete toute sa politique." + + --L. PAUL-DUBOIS, _L'Irlande Contemporaine_, 1907. + + "A regarder de pres on percoit pourtant que cette imitation + Irlandaise de la justice brittanique n'en est sur bien des + points qu'une assez grossiere caricature, ce qui prouve une + fois de plus que les meilleures institutions ne vaient que ce + que valent les hommes qui les appliquent, et que les lois sent + pen de choses quand elles ne sont pas soutenus par les + moeurs."--Ibid. + + +"What does Ireland want now; what would she have more?" asked Pitt of +Grattan at the dinner table of the Duke of Portland in 1794, and +Englishmen have echoed and re-echoed the question throughout the century +which has elapsed. The mode in which it is asked reminds me, I must +confess, of that first sentence in Bacon's Essays--"What is truth? said +jesting Pilate, and would not wait for an answer." + +When, at the end of the nineteenth century, the nations of Europe +devoted themselves to a retrospective study of the progress which the +passing of a hundred years had brought in its train, Ireland alone was +unable to join in the chorus of self-congratulation which arose on every +side. + +To her it was the centenary of the great betrayal to which, as a +distinguished writer has said, the whole of her unbribed intellect was +opposed, and which formed the climax to a century of suffering. The +ancients who held that when ill-fortune befell their country the gods +must be asleep would have said so, I have no doubt, of Ireland at the +end of the eighteenth century. The people, in a phrase which has become +historic, had put their money on the wrong horse in their devotion to +the Stuart cause, but, more than this, while they thereby earned the +detestation of the Whigs, they were not compensated for it by the +sympathy of the Tories, who feared their Catholicism even more than they +liked their Jacobitism. In this way the country fell between two stools, +and was not governed, even as English Statesmen professed to govern it, +as a dependency, but rather it was exploited in the interest of the +ruling caste with an eye to the commercial interests of Great Britain in +so far as its competition was injurious. Religious persecution, aiming +frankly at proselytism, and restrictions imposed so as to choke every +industry which in any way hit English manufactures were the keynotes of +the whole policy, and in the pages of Edmund Burke one may find a more +searching indictment of English rule in Ireland in the eighteenth +century than any which has since been drawn up. + +The concession of Parliamentary independence in 1782 was, as the whole +world knows, yielded as a counsel of prudence in the panic fright +resulting from the American war and the French revolution. Under +Grattan's Parliament the country began to enjoy a degree of prosperity +such as she had never known before, and the destruction of that +Parliament was effected, as Castlereagh, the Chief Secretary, himself +expressed it, by "buying up the fee-simple of Irish corruption"; in +other words, by the creation of twenty-six peerages and the expenditure +of one and a half million in bribing borough-mongers. + +In very truth, the Act of Union was one which, by uniting the +legislatures, divided the peoples; and it has been pointed out as +significant that when the legislatures of England and Scotland were +amalgamated a common name was found for the whole island, but that no +such name has been adopted for the three kingdoms which were united in +1800. + +The new epoch began in such a way as might have been expected from its +conception. The bigotry of George III., undismayed by what he used to +call Pitt's "damned long obstinate face," delayed for more than a +quarter of a century the grant of Emancipation to the Catholics, by +promises of which a certain amount of their hostility had been disarmed. +The tenantry asked in vain for nearly three-quarters of the century for +some alleviation of the land system under which they groaned, and for an +equal length of time three-quarters of the population were forced to +endure the tyranny of being bound to support a Church to which they did +not belong. The cause of struggling nationality on the Continent of +Europe, in Italy, in Hungary, in Poland, in the Slav provinces, has in +each case gained sympathy in Great Britain, but the cause of Irish +nationality has received far other treatment. That charity should begin +at home may be a counsel of perfection, but in point of fact one rarely +sees it applied. Sympathy for the poor relation at one's door is a rare +thing indeed. Increasing prosperity makes nations, as it makes men, more +intolerant of growing adversity, and the poor man is apt to get more +kicks than half-pence from the rich kinsmen under the shadow of whose +palace he spends his life, and to whom his poverty, his relationship, +and his dependence are a standing reproach. When I hear surprise +expressed by Englishmen at the fact that England is not loved in Ireland +I wonder at the deep-seated ignorance of the mutual feelings which have +so long subsisted, one side of which one may find expressed in the +literature of England, from Shakespeare's references to the "rough, +uncivil kernes of Ireland" down to the contemptuous sneers of Charles +Kingsley, that most English of all writers in the language, each of whom +provides, as I think, a sure index to the feelings of his contemporaries +and serves to illustrate the inveterate sentiment of hostility, +flavoured with contempt, which, as Mr. Gladstone once said, has from +time immemorial formed the basis of English tradition, and in regard to +which the _locus classicus_ was the statement of his great opponent, +Lord Salisbury, that as to Home Rule the Irish were not fit for it, for, +he went on to say, "nations like the Hottentots, and even the Hindoos, +are incapable of self-government." + +A cynical Irish Secretary once asked whether the Irish people blamed the +Government for the weather; but it must be conceded that the mode of +government made the Irish people more dependent than otherwise they +would have been on climatic conditions, for this reason, that the margin +between their means and a starvation wage was extremely small, and thus +it was that in the middle of the century an act of God brought +sufferings in its train, the results of which have not yet been effaced. +Through it all the country was governed not in the interests of the +majority, but according to the fiat of a small minority kept in power by +armed force, not by the use of the common law, but of a specially +enacted coercive code applicable to the whole or any part of the country +at the mere caprice of the chief of the Executive. The record, it must +be admitted, is not edifying. Irish history, one may well say, is not of +such a nature as to put one "on the side of the angels." Lecky's +"History of the Eighteenth Century" has made many converts to Home Rule, +and I venture to think that when another Lecky comes to write of the +history of the nineteenth century the converts which he will make will +be even more numerous. + +Among the anomalies of Irish government there is none greater than that +of the Executive, the head of which is the Viceroy. The position of +this official is very different from that of the governor of a +self-governing colony. If the Viceroy is in the Cabinet his Chief +Secretary is not; but the more common practice of recent years has been +for the Chief Secretary to have a seat in the Cabinet to the exclusion +of the Lord Lieutenant. Whether the latter be in the Cabinet or not he +has no ministers as has a colonial governor, to whose advice he must +listen because they possess the confidence of a representative body, and +moreover, although the Lord Lieutenant is a Minister of the Crown, his +salary is charged on the Consolidated Fund, with the result that his +acts do not come before the House of Commons on Committee of Supply as +do those of the Chief Secretary on the occasion of the annual vote for +his salary. + +As early as 1823 Joseph Hume ventilated the question of the abolition of +the Lord Lieutenancy, and a motion introduced by him to that effect in +1830 received a considerable measure of support. Lord Clarendon, who in +1847 succeeded Lord Bessborough as Viceroy, accepted the office on the +express condition that the Government should take the first opportunity +of removing the anomaly. In pursuance of this agreement Lord John +Russell, in 1850, introduced a Bill, which was supported by Peel, with +the abolition of the office for its object. On its second reading it was +passed by the House of Commons by 295 votes to 70. In spite of this +enormous majority in its favour the Bill was dropped in an unprecedented +manner, and never reached the Committee stage owing, it is said, to the +opposition of Wellington, who objected to the fact that it would deprive +the Crown of its direct control over the forces in Ireland and to the +fact that it would leave the Lord Mayor of Dublin, a person who was +elected by a more or less popular vote, as the chief authority in that +city. + +In 1857 the question was mooted once more, but no action ensued; and +again, on the resignation of Lord Londonderry in 1889, a number of Irish +Unionists, headed by the Marquis of Waterford, urged Lord Salisbury to +consider the advisability of abolishing the office, together with the +Viceregal Court, which a recent French observer has stigmatised as +"peuple de snobs, de parasites et de parvenus."[1] In the event Lord +Salisbury, so far from acceding to the request, nominated the Marquis of +Zetland to the vacant post, and the proposal to abolish it has not since +been raised in public. Men like Archbishop Whately, in the middle of the +nineteenth century, whose ambition it was to see what they called the +consolidation of Great Britain and Ireland effected, were strongly in +favour of the proposal, and its rejection on so many occasions has been +doubtless due to the fact that to mix and confound the administration of +Ireland with that of Great Britain would necessitate the abandonment of +the extreme centralisation of Irish Government, and those who were most +anxious, as the phrase went, to make Cork like York were the very people +who were most opposed to any abdication of Executive powers which an +assimilation of methods of government would have inevitably brought in +its train. + +The government of Ireland is effected by more than forty boards--the +forty thieves the late Mr. Davitt used to call them--and it will be for +the reader, after he has studied the account which I propose to give of +them, to say whether or not they deserve the name. + +It is nearly twenty years since Mr. Chamberlain, in a celebrated speech +at Islington, made the following remarkable declaration:--"I say the +time has come to reform altogether the absurd and irritating anachronism +which is known as Dublin Castle, to sweep away altogether the alien +boards of foreign officials and to substitute for them a genuine Irish +administration for purely Irish business." Change of opinions, no one +can refuse to admit, in a statesman any more than in other men, and as +regards the latter part of the extract which I have quoted Mr. +Chamberlain may have changed his views, but it is to the earlier part of +the sentence that I would refer. There is in it a definite statement of +facts which no change in opinion on the part of the speaker could alter, +and which express, as well as they can be expressed, the views of the +Nationalists as to the Castle, the alien boards of foreign officials in +which remained undisturbed during the course of the seven years after +the coalition of Unionists and Tories, in which Mr. Chamberlain was the +most powerful Minister of the Crown. + +Of the purely domestic branches of the Civil Service in Great Britain, +the Treasury, the Home Office, the Boards of Education, of Trade, and of +Agriculture, the Post Office, the Local Government Board, and the Office +of Works, are all responsible to the public directly, through +representative Ministers with seats in the House of Commons, the +liability of whom to be examined by private members as to minutiae of +their departmental policy is one of the most valuable checks against +official incompetence or scandals, and is the only protection under the +constitution against arbitrary rule. The whole administrative machinery +of the forty-three boards in Ireland has been represented in Parliament +by one member, the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, but he is +supported since a few months ago by the Vice-president of the Department +of Agriculture. The result is that, while in Great Britain a watchful +eye can be kept on extravagance or mismanagement of the public services, +the maintenance of a diametrically opposite system of government in +Ireland, under which it is impossible to let in the same amount of +light, leads to the bureaucratic conditions of which Mr. Chamberlain +spoke in the speech from which I have quoted. + +In answer to these complaints it is usual to point to the case of +Scotland as analogous, and to ask why Ireland should complain when the +Scottish form of government arouses no resentment in that country. The +parallel in no sense holds good, for Scotland has not a separate +Executive as has Ireland, although she has, like Ireland, a separate +Secretary in the House of Commons. Scottish legislation generally +follows that of England and Wales, and in any case Scotland has not +passed through a period of travail as has Ireland, nor have exceptional +remedies at recurring periods in her history been demanded by the social +conditions of the country; and last, but by no means least, one has only +to look at a list of Ministers of the Crown in the case of this +Government, or of that which preceded it, to see that the interests of +Scotland are well represented by the occupants of the Treasury Bench, +whichever party is in power, so that it is no matter for surprise that +she is precluded by her long acquiescence from demanding constitutional +change. + +More than half a century ago Lord John Russell promised O'Connell to +substitute County Boards for the Grand Jury, in its capacity of Local +Authority, but the latter survived until ten years ago. The members of +the Grand Jury were nominated by the High Sheriffs of the Counties, and +as was natural, seeing that they were the nominees of a great landlord, +they were almost entirely composed of landlords, and the score of +gentlemen who served on these bodies in many instances imposed taxation, +as is now freely admitted, for the benefit of their own property on a +rack-rented tenantry. A reform of this system of local government was +promised by the Liberals in the Queen's Speech of 1881, but so far was +the powerful Government at that time in office from fulfilling its +pledges that not only was no Bill to that effect introduced, but, +further, in April, 1883, a Bill to establish elective County Councils, +which was introduced by the Irish Party, was thrown out in the House of +Commons by 231 votes to 58. In his famous speech at Newport in 1885, +when the Tories were, as all the world thought, coquetting with Home +Rule, Lord Salisbury declared that of the two, popular local government +would be even more dangerous than Home Rule. He based his view partly on +the difficulty of finding thirty or forty suitable persons in each of +the thirty-two counties to sit on local bodies, which would be greater +than that of finding three or four suitable M.P.s for the same divisions +of the country; but, even more than this, he insisted on the fact that a +local body has more opportunity for inflicting injustice on minorities +than has an authority deriving its sanction and extending its +jurisdiction over a wider area, where, as he declared, "the wisdom of +the several parts of the country will correct the folly or mistakes of +one." In spite of this explicit declaration, when, in the following +year, the Tories had definitely ranged themselves on the side of +Unionism, the alternative policy to the proposals of Mr. Gladstone was +nothing less than the establishment of a system of popular local +government. Speaking with all the premeditation which a full sense of +the importance of the occasion must have demanded, Lord Randolph +Churchill, on a motion for an Address in reply to the Queen's Speech +after the general election of 1886 had resulted in a Unionist victory, +made use of these words in his capacity of leader in the House of +Commons:-- + +"The great sign posts of our policy are equality, similarity, and, if I +may use such a word, simultaneity of treatment, so far as is practicable +in the development of a genuinely popular system of local government in +all the four countries which form the United Kingdom." + +In 1888 this pledge was fulfilled so far as the counties of England and +Wales were concerned, and in regard to those of Scotland in the +following year. When the Irish members, in 1888, introduced an Irish +Local Government Bill, Mr. Arthur Balfour, as Chief Secretary, opposed +it on behalf of the Government, and Lord Randolph Churchill, who at +that time, having "forgotten Goschen," was a private member, gave +further effect to the solemnity of the declaration, which, as leader of +the party, he had made two years before, by his strong condemnation of +the line adopted by the Chief Secretary in respect of a measure, to +which, as he said, "the Tories were pledged, and which formed the +foundation of the Unionist Party." In 1892 the Unionist Government +introduced, under the care of Mr. Arthur Balfour, a Bill purporting to +redeem these pledges. By one clause, which became known as the "put them +in the dock clause," on the petition of any twenty ratepayers a whole +Council might be charged with "misconduct," and, after trial by two +judges, was to be disbanded, the Lord Lieutenant being empowered to +nominate, without any form of election, a Council which would succeed +the members who were removed in this manner. The criticism which this +provision aroused was, as was natural, acute. The _Times_ at this +juncture declared that to attempt to legislate would be to court danger. +The Local Government Bill was abandoned, and in this connection a +sidelight is shed on the sincerity of the promises which had been made, +in a letter from Lord Randolph Churchill to Lord Justice FitzGibbon on +this question, dated January 13th, 1892, at the time when the Government +of 1886 was drawing to a close, and Mr. Balfour was about to introduce +the unworkable Bill which was clearly not intended to pass into law. + +"My information," writes Lord Randolph, "is that a large, influential, +and to some extent independent, section of Tories kick awfully against +Irish Local Government, and do not mean to vote for it. This comes from +a very knowledgable member of the Government outside the Cabinet. If the +Government proceed with their project they will either split or +seriously dishearten the party, and to do either on the verge of a +general election would be suicidal. This is what they ought to do. They +ought to say that Irish Local Government is far too large a question to +be dealt with by a moribund Parliament; they ought to say that there is +not sufficient agreement among their supporters as to the nature and +extent of such a measure such as would favour the chances of successful +legislation, and that they have determined to reserve the matter for a +new Parliament when the mind of the country upon Irish administration +has been fully ascertained."[2] + +The reflections suggested by this account of the evolution of a measure +of party policy cannot be edifying to an Englishman or calculated to +appeal as wise statesmanship to an Irishman. For what were the facts? A +policy denounced as dangerous in the extreme in 1886 by the leader of +the party was propounded as part of the policy of the same party in the +following year with the acquiescence and, one must suppose, the +imprimatur of its chief. Two years later pledges were thrown to the +winds, and the excluded minister was provoked to criticism by the +dropping of that line of action, of which he himself four years later is +found in a private letter to be advising the abandonment on the most +frankly avowed grounds of pure partisan tactics. + +Twelve years were allowed to elapse before the promises made by Unionist +leaders in the campaign of 1886 were fulfilled by the Local Government +Act of 1898, which, for the first time in the history of Ireland, +established by law democratic bodies in the country. One feels inclined +to quote, in reference to the history of this question, that phrase of +the largest master of civil wisdom in our tongue, as some one has called +Edmund Burke, "that there is a way of so withholding as to excite +desire, and of so giving as to excite contempt." + +Under the provisions of the Act, County Councils, Urban District +Councils, and Rural Councils were set up, and some notion of the +revolution which it effected may be gathered from the fact that in a +country which had hitherto been governed by the Grand Jury in local +affairs the new Act at a sweep established a Nationalist authority in +twenty-seven out of thirty-two counties. + +Under the old _regime_ the landlord used to pay one-half of the poor +rate and the occupier the other half. The outcry of the landed interest, +that under the County Councils they would be liable to be robbed by +excessive poor rates, resulted in their share being made a charge on the +Imperial Treasury, by which means they secured a dole of L350,000 a year +out of the L725,000 concerned in the financial arrangements under the +Act. Of the recipients of this _solatium_ it was pointed out by an +observer that the family motto of the Marquis of Downshire, who was +relieved under the Act of liabilities to the extent of more than L2,000, +is--"By God and my sword have I obtained"; while that of Earl +Fitzwilliam, who had to be content with one-half of that amount, +is--"Let the appetite be obedient to reason." The best answer to the +pessimists in whom one suspects the wish was father to the thought, who +prophesied disaster from an Act which they declared would open the door +to peculation and jobbery, is to be found in the Local Government Board +Report for 1903, issued on the expiry of the first term of office of the +County Councils. It expressly declares that in no matter have the +Councils been more successful than in their financial administration, +and goes on to say that the introduction of political differences in the +giving of contracts and the appointment of officers has occurred only in +quite exceptional cases, and it concludes by declaring its opinion that +the conduct of their affairs by the various local authorities will +continue to justify the delegation to them of large powers transferred +to their control by the Local Government Acts. + +So much for the working of an Act, of which Lord Londonderry spoke as +one "which the Loyalists view with apprehension and dismay." So far as +certain loss of their supremacy was concerned they might indeed do so, +but it is not for Englishmen to throw stones, since events have proved +that it is not in the Irish local bodies, but in some of those of London +itself, that financial scandals have been rife. + +The one important respect in which the system of local government in +Ireland differs from that established in England, Scotland, and Wales is +that in the first named country the control of the constabulary is ruled +out of the functions of the local bodies, and is still maintained under +the central executive. The plethora of police in the country is one of +the most striking features that meet the eye of anyone visiting it for +the first time. The observant foreigner who, after travelling in +England, crosses to Ireland and there sees on every wayside station at +least two policemen varying the _ennui_ of their unoccupied days by +watching the few trains that pass through, feels homely pleasure at the +thought that the _octroi_ system which he has missed in England is in +force in Ireland, and supposes that the men in uniform whom he cannot +fail to see are the officials of the municipal customs. The tradition in +Ireland is that half a century ago Smith O'Brien, who was under warrant +for arrest, was detained at the station at Thurles by a railway guard, +and that atonement has been made ever since for the absence of police on +that occasion. + +The Royal Irish Constabulary, than whom it would be difficult to find a +physically finer lot of men, is a semi-military force living in +barracks, armed with rifles, bayonets, swords, and revolvers. Well may a +French writer exclaim--"Combien differents du legendaire et corpulent +'bobby,' cette 'institution populaire' de la Grande Bretagne," who goes +without even a truncheon as a weapon of offence. The numbers of the +Royal Irish Constabulary, which were largely increased in the days of +widespread agitation, are still maintained with scarcely any +diminution. The force, when established just seventy years ago, at a +time when the population of the country was nearly eight millions, +numbered only 7,400 men; the population of the island is to-day only +half what it was then, but there are now on the force of the +constabulary 12,000 men, and 8,000 pensioners are maintained out of the +taxes. In addition to this, there is a separate body of Dublin +Metropolitan Police, and smaller bodies in Belfast and Derry are also +maintained. The Dublin police force costs nearly six times as much per +head of population as does that of London. It comprises 1,200 men, and +there has been a remarkable increase in cost in the last twenty years, +rising to its present charge of L160,950, with no apparent corresponding +increase in numbers or in pay. The total cost of the police system of +Ireland is one and a half million pounds per annum; that of Scotland, +with an almost equal population, is half a million sterling. To +appreciate the point of this it must be realised that the indictable +offences committed in Ireland in a year are in the proportion of 18 as +compared with 26 committed in Scotland, while criminal convicts are in +the ratio of 13 in Ireland to 22 in Scotland. + +Such a state of things as this, by which the cost of police per head of +population is no less than 7s., has only been maintained by the busy +efforts, which Lord Dunraven denounced a couple of years ago, of those +who paint a grossly exaggerated picture of Ireland, so as "to suggest to +Englishmen that the country is in a state of extreme unrest and seething +with crime." The columns of the English Unionist Press show the manner +in which these impressions are disseminated, and there is in London a +bureau for the supply of details of examples of violence in Ireland for +the consumption of English readers. The Chief Secretary, in the House of +Commons last session, spoke of the fact that he received large numbers +of letters of complaint, purporting to come from different sufferers +from violence and intimidation in Ireland, but which, on close +examination, turned out to be signed by one man. The recent disgraceful +attempt to beat up prejudice on the part of the _Daily Graphic_, which +reproduced what purported to be not the photograph of an actual +moonlighting scene, but a photograph of "the real moonlighters, who +obligingly re-enacted their drama for the benefit of our photographer," +incurred the disgust which it deserved; but it was only one instance of +an organised campaign of bruiting abroad invented stories of lawlessness +in Ireland which constitutes the deliberate policy of the "carrion +crows," whose action Mr. Birrell so justly reprobated, and of which the +most flagrant instances were the purely fictitious plots to blow up the +Exhibition in Dublin; an outrage at Drumdoe, which on investigation +proved to be the work of residents in the house which was supposed to be +attacked, and the allegation of a dynamite outrage at Clonroe, in County +Cork, which the police reported had never occurred. One would have +thought that the experience which the _Times_ and the Loyal Irish and +Patriotic Union gained at the hands of Richard Pigott would at least +have made people chary of this form of propaganda. The comparison of the +criminal statistics of Ireland with those of Scotland which I have made +shows how much truth there is in the imputations of widespread +lawlessness, as does also the number of times on which in each year the +Judges of Assize comment favourably on the presentment of the Grand +Jury; and, moreover, the closing of unnecessary prisons which is going +on throughout the country is a further proof, if any be needed, of the +falsity of the charges which are so industriously spread abroad. The +only gaol in the County of Wexford was closed a few years ago; that at +Lifford, the only one in the County of Donegal, has since been closed as +superfluous. Of the two which existed till recently in County +Tipperary, that at Nenagh is now occupied as a convent, in which the +Sisters give classes in technical instruction to the girls of the +neighbourhood; but perhaps the most piquant instance is to be found in +Westmeath, where an unnecessary gaol at Mullingar, having been for some +time closed, is now used for the executive meetings of the local branch +of the United Irish League. All these, it should be noted, are to be +found in districts which are inhabited not by "loyal and law-abiding" +Unionists, but by a strongly Nationalist population. + +Enough insistence has not been laid on one important fact in the +administration of the criminal law in Ireland. In England anyone who +alleges that he has been wronged can institute a criminal process, and +this is a frequent mode of effecting prosecutions. In Ireland the social +conditions in the past have brought it about that the investigation and +prosecution of crime is left to the police, who, as a result, have +attained something of the protection which _droit administratif_ throws +over police and magistrates in France and other Continental countries, +by which State officials are to a large extent protected from the +ordinary law of the land, are exempted from the jurisdiction of the +ordinary tribunals, and are subject instead to official law administered +by official bodies. + +The principles on which it is based in countries where it forms an +actual doctrine of the constitution are the privilege of the State over +and above those of the private citizen, and, secondly, the _separation +des pouvoirs_ by which, while ordinary judges ought to be irremovable +and independent of the Executive, Government officials ought, _qua_ +officials, to be independent to a great extent of the jurisdiction of +the ordinary courts, and their _actes administratifs_ ought not to be +amenable to the ordinary tribunals and judges. The absorption by the +constabulary of the conduct of prosecutions has tended towards such a +state of things as this; but a far more potent factor in the same +direction has been the confusion of administrative and judicial +functions which the relations of the resident magistrates to the police +have engendered, and to an even greater degree has this tendency been +accentuated in the case of the special "removable" magistrates appointed +in proclaimed districts under the Coercion Acts, for they are officials +in whom the judicial and the constabulary functions are inextricably +confounded. That this suspicion of officialism detracts from the +authority of the police force in popular esteem is undoubted. Their +complete dissociation from popular control, the fact that they receive +extra pay for any work performed for local bodies, in addition to +rewards received from the Inland Revenue for the detection of illicit +stills, and the fact the only connection of police administration with +local bodies occurs when any county is called upon to pay for the +additional force drafted into it on account of local disturbance, all +exert their influence in the same direction. + +That the same curse of extravagance extends to the judiciary in Ireland +one would expect from the fact that the number of the High Court Judges +is greater than in Scotland, though, as we have seen, the population is +smaller and the crime is less. According to a statement made by the +Financial Secretary to the Treasury a few months ago the salaries of the +judges of the Superior Courts charged on the Consolidated Fund amount to +1s. 1d. per head of population in England and Wales, to 2s. 8d. per head +in Scotland, to no less a sum than 3s. 3d. per head in Ireland. And this +discrepancy in cost occurs at a time when the complaint in England is +that there are not enough judges of the King's Bench, while in Ireland +their numbers are excessive. + +The difference between the attitude of the judiciary in England and in +Ireland is to be seen from the fact that M. Paul-Dubois, after quoting +with approval the Comte de Franqueville's tribute to the fact that the +summing up of a judge in England is a model of impartiality, goes on to +say that in Ireland, "c'est trop souvent un acte d'accusation." + +The fact is that in Ireland, where the salaries of judges are higher +than the incomes earned by even the most successful barristers, the +judiciary has become to an extent far greater than in England a place of +political recompense for Unionist Members of Parliament, who, unlike +their English brethren, carry their political prejudices with them on +appointment to the Bench. As recently as 1890 Mr. Justice Harrison, at +Galway Assizes, asked why the garrison did not have recourse to Lynch +law, and until his death Judge O'Connor Morris, unchecked by either +party when in power, month by month contributed articles to the reviews, +in which he denounced in unmeasured terms the provisions of Acts of +Parliament which, in his capacity of Judge of a Civil Bill or County +Court, he was called upon to apply. + +The jury system is discredited in Ireland by every possible means. Many +crimes, which in England are classed as felonies, have been statutorily +reduced to misdemeanours in Ireland so as to limit the right of +challenge possessed by the accused from twenty jurors to six, and at the +same time, after Lord O'Hagan's Act had withdrawn from the sheriff the +power of preparing jury lists, which he used for political purposes; by +resuscitating a common law right of the Crown which has not been used in +England for fifty years, arbitrarily to order jurors to "stand aside," +the provisions of O'Hagan's Act have been evaded, and a panel hostile to +the accused is most frequently secured. + +The natural protection by which the balance is artificially redressed +when the application of the laws has not the sympathy of those who are +subject to them is a common symptom in every country and every age. When +all felonies were capital offences in England, the wit of juries, by +what Blackstone called "a kind of pious perjury," was engaged in +devising means by which those who were legally guilty could escape from +the penalty; and if it be true that an unpacked jury would possibly in +many instances of political offences in Ireland have a prejudice in +favour of the accused, the inference is not consequently to be drawn +that the ends of justice can only be secured by substituting, as is +done, a jury which has a prejudice against him. It is not by methods +like these that are inspired sentiments, such as those which prompted +Victor Hugo eloquently to describe a tribunal:--"Ou dans l'obscurite, la +laideur, et la tristesse, se degageait une impression austere et +auguste. Car on y sentait cette grande chose humaine qu'on appelle la +loi, et cette grande chose divine qu'on appelle la justice." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND + + "It will not do to deny the obligation. The case (of Ireland's + alleged over-taxation) has been heard before a competent + tribunal, established and set up by England. The verdict has + been delivered; it is against England and in favour of + Ireland's contention. Until this verdict is set aside by a + higher court, and a more competent tribunal, the obligation of + England to Ireland stands proved." + + --T.W. RUSSELL, _Ireland and the Empire_. + + +The contrast between the history of Great Britain and that of Ireland +during the last century--in the one case showing progress and +prosperity, advancing, it is not too much to say, by leaps and bounds, +and in the other a stagnation which was relatively, if not absolutely, +retrograde--is one of the most dismal factors in English politics. Those +who would explain it by natural, racial, or religious considerations are +probing too deep for an explanation which is in reality much closer at +hand. If the external forces in the two countries throughout that period +had been the same it would be right and proper to search for an +explanation in such directions as have been named, but that these forces +have not been so distributed it is my contention to prove. + +The closing years of the eighteenth century in Ireland, coinciding as +they did with the achievement of Parliamentary independence, witnessed +in that country a remarkable growth of national prosperity. Up to the +year 1795 the taxation of the country never exceeded one and a half +millions of pounds, and the National Debt was not more than one million. +In the succeeding years the French war and the rebellion of '98 swelled +the expenditure, as did the maintenance of an armed force in the +country, which was the corollary of the rebellion, and that process +which Lord Cornwallis, the Lord Lieutenant, described as "courting those +whom he longed to kick," by which the Act of Union was passed, added +another million and a half to the national expenditure. + +The result of the various causes was that in the year 1799-1800 the +taxation of the country had risen to three millions, and the National +Debt amounted to just under four millions of pounds. + +It is necessary to enter into these details, because it was on the basis +of the years 1799-1800, and not on that of a year of normal expenditure, +such as was 1795, that Pitt and Castlereagh framed the financial clauses +of the Act of Union, which were to establish the taxable relations +between Great Britain and Ireland. + +Having said so much we need not pause to consider how far the financial +clauses were justified. It will suffice to say that they provided that +Ireland should pay two-seventeenths of the joint expenditure of the +United Kingdom, together with the annual charge upon her pre-union debt. +One should add, however, that the Irish House of Lords protested that +the relative taxable capacities of Ireland and England did not bear to +each other the ratio which the Act enunciated of 1 to 7-1/2, but in +reality of 1 to 18. + +It was no part of Pitt's scheme that there should be fiscal union. A +separate Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, drawing up an Irish budget +and regulating an Irish debt, remained after the union of the +legislatures. Speaking in 1800 on this very point Lord Castlereagh +declared that:-- + +"It must be evident to every man that if our manufactures keep pace in +advancement for the next twenty years with the progress they have made +in the last twenty, they may at the expiration of it be fully able to +cope with the British, and that the two kingdoms may be safely left like +any two countries of the same kingdom to a free competition." + +The seventh article of the Act of Union, which comprised the financial +proposals of the Act, has been summarised as follows in the report of a +Royal Commission, to which we shall have occasion to refer later:-- + +"Ireland and Great Britain had entered into legislative partnership on +the clear understanding that they were still, for the purposes of +taxation, to be regarded as separate and distinct entities. Ireland was +to contribute to the common expenditure in proportion to her resources, +so far as the same could be ascertained, and even after the imposition +of indiscriminate taxation, if circumstances permitted, she might claim +special exemptions and abatements." + +We have seen how the taxation of Ireland at the time of the Union was +three millions. Five years later the figure had risen to four millions, +and it went on increasing at this rate until in 1815 it amounted to no +less than six and a half millions, having more than doubled in amount in +a space of fifteen years, while during the same time the National Debt +had risen from four and a half to ten and a half millions. + +To understand the significance of these figures it must be realised that +the Napoleonic war was in progress, and that the supply, on the part of +Ireland, of provisions at enhanced war prices was the only means by +which she was able to cope with her increasing liabilities. The +conclusion of the war and the consequent fall in prices accelerated a +crisis in Irish finance. Even in the years of plenty not more than +one-half of what the Act of Union proposed could be squeezed out of the +country, and the balance, which was added to her debt, raised the ratio +which it bore to that of Great Britain from the proportion of 1 to +15-1/2 in 1800 to that of 2 to 17 in 1817. One would have thought that +such an increase of debt would have made Ireland less fitted to bear +equal taxation with Great Britain, but the statesmen of the day thought +otherwise, and in 1817 the Exchequers were amalgamated. Even then the +fiscal systems of the two countries were not in all respects +assimilated, though in regard to some taxes an equalisation was +effected, as, for example, in the case of tobacco, the duty on the +unmanufactured variety of which was raised from 1s. to 3s. per lb., +while that on cigars and manufactured tobacco was raised from 1s. to +16s. per lb. The manner in which the change affected social conditions +in Ireland at this time may best be illustrated by the fact that the +taxes on commodities, which necessarily hit the poorest classes hardest, +rose from 4s. a head per annum in 1790 to 11s. a head per annum in 1820. +After the Consolidating Act of 1817 the annual taxation fell to about +five millions, abatements and exemptions being made every year. The +tobacco tax and the Stamp Duty of 1842, which realised about L120,000 a +year, were, it is true, equalised in the two countries, but for many +years the system of special treatment was pursued. To Sir Robert Peel +credit is due for having refused in 1842 to extend to Ireland the Income +Tax, which he re-imposed in England, and for reducing the duty on Irish +whiskey to its original figure by the remission of an additional 1s. per +gallon which he had imposed. + +Soon after this the country supped full of horrors in the famine of +1846-1847. In the decade from 1845 to 1855 more than a quarter of +Ireland's population was lost. No sooner did she begin to recover from +the effects of this visitation than the Repeal of the Corn Laws dealt +her an almost equally disastrous blow. The absence of an industrial side +which she might develop, as did England, the almost complete dependence +on agriculture, joined to the enfeebled condition in which the lean +years had left her, made the adoption at this moment of the principle of +Free Trade--in her case--deplorable. Nor was this all. It was at this +moment that the opportunity was taken by Mr. Gladstone, at that time +Chancellor of the Exchequer, to reverse the discriminative policy upon +which Peel had so strongly insisted. + +The Income Tax was applied to Ireland in 1853 at the rate of seven pence +in the pound. Ten years later it had risen to seventeen pence. At the +same time an additional duty of eight pence a gallon on Irish whiskey +was exacted, which in two years was multiplied fourfold, while in 1858 +Disraeli assimilated for the first time the whiskey duty in the two +islands by raising it in Ireland to 8s. a gallon. The result of this new +departure in taxation may be summarised by saying that the Irish revenue +was raised from just under five millions in 1850 to nearly eight +millions in 1860, and that, too, at a time when, of all others, her +distress demanded special treatment and care. + +Although the process of assimilation was carried far in 1853 and the +subsequent years, fiscal unity has never been completely effected. To +this day Ireland secures exemption from the Land Tax, the Inhabited +House Duty, the Railway Passenger Duty, and the tax on horses, +carriages, patent medicines, and armorial bearings. It will be said, no +doubt, that Ireland ought to show due gratitude for these exemptions, +but though they raise collectively a sum of L4,000,000 by their +incidence in England, Scotland, and Wales, it is calculated that if +applied to Ireland they would bring in not more than L150,000 a year, a +sum so small that one may ask whether it would bear the cost of +collecting. + +By way of set-off to the imposition of income tax, which it should be +noted was at the time said to be "temporary," Mr. Gladstone wiped out a +capital debt of four millions, but it must be pointed out that, in the +fifty years which have ensued, a sum of between twenty millions and +thirty millions has been collected in Ireland as income tax. Objection +cannot--beyond a certain point--be taken to the incidence of this tax, +seeing that it does not fall upon the poorest classes, and that no +country benefits more than does Ireland from the substitution of direct +for indirect taxation. But what does call for censure is that its +application was not made an occasion for the remission of other taxes. + +In 1864 the Conservative Government recognised the serious problem of +the unequal incidence of taxation in the two islands, and appointed a +committee to consider their financial relations. Sir Stafford Northcote, +the chairman of this committee, declared that, notwithstanding the fact +that they were both subject to the same taxation, "Ireland was the most +heavily taxed and England the most lightly taxed country in Europe." +Twenty-five years later Mr. Goschen, the Conservative Chancellor of the +Exchequer, consented to the appointment of another Committee on the same +subject, but no report was ever issued. In 1895 a Royal Commission was +appointed, comprising representatives of all political parties, and +presided over by a man of commanding ability in the person of Mr. +Childers, a former Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer. The terms of +reference were "to inquire into the financial relations between Great +Britain and Ireland and their relative taxable capacity." The following +extract will serve to show the conclusions of the Commissioners:-- + +"In carrying out the inquiry we have ascertained that there are certain +questions upon which we are practically unanimous, and we think it +expedient to set them out in this report. Our joint conclusions on these +questions are as follows:-- + +"(1) That Great Britain and Ireland must, for the purposes of this +inquiry, be considered as separate entities. + +"(2) That the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland a burden which, as +events showed, she was unable to bear. + +"(3) That the increase of taxation laid upon Ireland between 1853 and +1860 was not justified by the then existing circumstances. + +"(4) That identity of rates of taxation does not necessarily involve +equality of burden. + +"(5) That whilst the actual tax revenue of Ireland is about one-eleventh +of that of Great Britain, the relative taxable capacity of Ireland is +very much smaller, and is not estimated by any of us as exceeding +one-twentieth." + +It is difficult to conceive a more damning indictment of English rule in +Ireland. One cannot help recalling the glowing promises of Pitt in +1800:-- + +"But it has been said, 'What security can you give to Ireland for the +performance of the conditions?' If I were asked what security was +necessary, without hesitation I should answer 'None.' The liberality, +the justice, the honour of the people of England have never yet been +found deficient." + +One is reminded of Dr. Johnson's remark to an Irishman who discussed +with him the possibility of the union of the Parliaments:-- + +"Do not make a union with us, sir; we should unite with you only to rob +you." + +It is a striking testimony to the fact that the approach to some men's +hearts is through their pockets; that the report of the Commissioners +brought all Ulster into line with the Nationalists. Such a vision of the +Protestant lion lying down with the Catholic lamb had not been seen +since the Volunteers had mustered in 1778, and then, too, curiously +enough, the common cause was financial, being the demand for the removal +of the commercial restraints on the island. + +A conference was held in 1896, presided over by Col. Saunderson, the +leader of the Orangemen, and was attended by all the Irish members, +irrespective of party. The outcome was a resolution in the House of +Commons, proposed by Mr. John Redmond, and seconded by Mr. Lecky. The +rejoinder of the Government to the demands made was to the effect that +the postulate of the Commissioners that Ireland and Great Britain must, +for the purposes of the inquiry, be considered as separate entities +stultified the report. + +One cannot characterise this attitude otherwise than as a piece of +special pleading. The appointment, not merely of the Royal Commission, +but of the Select Committees of 1865 and 1890, presupposed a disparity +between the conditions in the two countries which not only existed in +fact but were recognised by law. + +In regard to the Church, the kind, the police, education, and even +marriage, the laws are different in the two countries; and we have seen +how, in respect of such widely separate things as land, railway +passengers, and armorial bearings, the systems of taxation are distinct. + +The position of the official Conservatives was well stigmatised by one +of the most distinguished among their own body--Mr. Lecky--when he +declared that-- + +"Some people seem to consider Ireland as a kind of intermittent +personality--something like Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll--an integral part +when it was a question of taxation, and, therefore, entitled to no +exemptions, a separate entity when it was a question of rating, and, +therefore, entitled to no relief." + +To the argument that Ireland has no greater claim to relief, on the +score of her poverty, than have the more backward agricultural counties +of England, the answer is that Wiltshire or Somersetshire--shall we +say--have always received equal treatment with the rest of the country, +and have never entered into a mutual partnership as did Ireland when she +trusted to the pledges made to her by England, and expressed in these +terms by Castlereagh:-- + +"Ireland has the utmost possible security that she cannot be taxed +beyond the measure of her comparative ability, and that the ratio of her +contribution must ever correspond with her relative wealth and +prosperity." + +The attitude of Ireland in this matter is perfectly plain. While +deprecating in the strongest terms the means by which the Union was +carried, she is prepared, so long as it remains in force, to abide by +its terms. It partakes of the nature of what lawyers call a bilateral +contract, imposing duties and obligations on both sides, and these +liabilities can only be removed--as in the case of the Disestablished +Irish Church--by the consent of both the contracting parties to the +treaty. + +The spectacle of the richest country in Europe haggling over shekels +with the poorest is a sight to give pause, while Great Britain's +insistence upon her pound of flesh is the more unpardonable because +Ireland declares that it is not in the bond. That the highest estimate +of the taxable capacity of Ireland arrived at by the Commissioners was +one-twentieth, while the actual revenue contribution of Ireland was +one-eleventh of the total for the United Kingdom, throws much light upon +the social conditions of the smaller island. The rate of taxation per +head per annum went up in the second half of the nineteenth century more +than 250 per cent.--rising from about L1 in 1850 to more than L2 10s. in +1900. This occurred simultaneously with a diminution of population in +the same period from seven millions to four and a half millions, a +change which is in glaring contrast with the concurrent increase in +Great Britain from twenty millions in 1850 to more than thirty-eight +millions at the present day. Whatever may be the other causes which have +led to the stream of emigration from Ireland it may certainly be claimed +that not least among them is the ever-increasing incidence of taxation +which is year by year laying a greater burden upon the privilege of +living in that country. + +A recent Report, issued by the Labour Department of the Board of Trade, +gives statistics with reference to the earnings of agricultural +labourers throughout the three kingdoms. It concludes that on an average +a labourer in England obtains 18s. 3d. a week, in Wales 17s. 3d., in +Scotland 19s. 3d., and in Ireland 10s. 11d. It may be noted that in no +English county is the average lower than 14s. 6d., while in Ireland in +seven counties it is less than 10s., Mayo being the lowest with an +average wage of 8s. 9d. The present writer has had occasion in the +course of the last few months to hear old men on political platforms in +a typical English agricultural constituency pointing a moral from their +own or their fathers' recollections of the days before the Corn Laws +when wages ran from 8s. to 9s. a week. What is recalled with horror in +England as the state of affairs in the "hungry forties" is the present +condition in several of the Irish counties. It would be idle to multiply +proofs to show the desperate condition of the country. Even in the ten +years which have elapsed since the issue of the Report of the Royal +Commission the taxation of the country has increased by more than two +and a half million pounds, while the population, it is estimated, has in +the same period diminished by no less than 200,000. On the assumption +arrived at by the Commissioners, that the proper share which Ireland +should pay was one-twentieth of the contribution of Great Britain, the +country was overtaxed ten years ago to the extent of two and +three-quarter millions; yet in spite of that fact in the course of those +ten years two millions of additional taxation has been imposed. Two +years ago the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in answer to an inquiry, +announced to the House of Commons that in the year 1903-4, the latest +for which figures were available, the proportions of tax revenue derived +from direct and indirect taxes were:-- + + Great Britain Ireland + Direct Taxes 50.6 per cent. 27.8 per cent. + Indirect Taxes 49.4 per cent. 72.2 per cent. + +These figures show very clearly to what an extent in Ireland taxation +falls, not on the luxuries of the rich, but on the commodities which are +to a great extent the necessaries of the poor. The manner in which this +state of things is maintained was expressed by Sir Robert Giffen in his +evidence before the Royal Commission:-- + +"It is only evident that in matters of taxation Ireland is virtually +discriminated against by the character of the direct taxes which happen +to be on articles of Irish consumption." + +The heavy duties on tea, tobacco, and alcohol--articles which form a +larger part of the family budget of the Irish peasant than of the +English labourer--are the causes of this burden. The reasons for the +larger consumption of what may be roughly called stimulants by the +Irishman is undoubtedly to be found in climatic conditions, and also in +the smaller amount of nourishing food which he is able to afford. With +regard to alcohol, the form in which it is most used in England--namely, +beer--is subjected to a special exemption at the expense of the +whiskey-drinking people of Ireland and Scotland. Cider is not taxed. The +tax on whiskey is between two-thirds and three-fourths its price, while +that on beer is one-sixth of its price; so that sixty gallons of beer +bear the same weight of taxation as does one gallon of whiskey. The +usual standard of taxation of liquor is its alcoholic strength, but the +special treatment accorded to the Englishman's principal drink +reduced--according to the Royal Commissioners--the taxation to which, in +proportion to its alcohol it should be subjected, from 1s. to 2d. per +gallon. Even in respect of tea and tobacco, the inequitable treatment of +Ireland is obvious to any one who considers that what is spoken of as +equality of taxation is, in reality, identical taxation on articles +consumed in vastly different proportions in Great Britain and Ireland. + +The argument by which the charge that Ireland is overtaxed was rebutted +by the late Unionist Government was that the balance is restored by the +amount of money spent in the administration of that country. When the +complaint is heard that she is contributing at this day no less a sum +than,L9,750,000 to revenue, the answer is made that she has no grievance +since the cost of Irish services amounts to more than L7,500,000, the +balance, a paltry two and a quarter millions, forming her Imperial +contribution. + +Ireland is being bled to death, and to her complaints the answer is that +she is being expensively administered. To fleece a poor man of his +pittance and to justify the action by telling him that it is on every +appurtenance of a spendthrift to which he objects that it is being spent +is scarcely to provide a satisfactory justification. The two cases are +exactly parallel, and it is a weak position which has to entrench itself +behind the fact that the cost of government per head is in Ireland +double what it is in England. + +The country is against its will saddled with a Viceregal Court, of which +the Lord Lieutenant enjoys a salary twice as great as that of the +President of the United States. The government is conducted by more than +forty boards, only one of which is responsible, through a Minister in +the House of Commons, to the country. Official returns show that +Scotland, with a population slightly larger than that of Ireland, +possesses 942 Government officials as against 2,691 in Ireland. In +Scotland the salaries of these public servants amount to less than +L300,000, while in Ireland the corresponding cost is more than +L1,000,000 per annum, showing that the average salaries in the poorer +country are considerably higher than in the richer. Of the L7,500,000 +devoted to Irish services, L1,500,000 goes to the Post Office and +Customs, while one half of the remainder is consumed by the salaries and +pensions of policemen and officials. + +To take a single example--the Prison Boards of Scotland and Ireland work +under identical Acts, dating from 1877. It is instructive, therefore, +to compare the conditions of the two. The estimates for the year 1905 +were calculated on the assumption that there were 120 fewer prisoners a +day in Irish prisons than in Scotland. In spite of this the cost of the +Irish Board for the last year of which I have seen the figures was +L144,597, and that of the Scottish Board was only L105,588. The ratio +between these figures is as 1.3 to 1, which is in nearly the same +proportion as is the number of the officials on the two boards--namely, +622 in Ireland and in Scotland 467, and this, too, in spite of the fact +that further statistics show, namely, that there are five convicted +criminals in Scotland for every three in Ireland. + +These are a few facts which show the value of the case for the present +state of affairs, based on the assumption that over-taxation is balanced +by profligate expenditure. The maintenance--to take only one point--of a +police force about half the size of the United States army, when at the +present time white gloves--the symbol of a crimeless charge--are being +given to the judges on every circuit, is a state of affairs which is +intolerable, while the small proportion which in the returns Ireland is +shown to bear of the Imperial contribution is the result of the +inclusion of the Viceregal and Civil Service charges, not, as should be +the case, in the Imperial account, but in the separate Irish account. + +As an instance showing how exorbitant exactions defeat their own end by +diminishing, and not raising, the available revenue, it should be noted +that in 1853 an income tax of 7d. in the pound raised L200,000 more than +did an income tax of 8d. in the pound at the date of the Royal +Commission. Of the remedies which are suggested, the alteration of the +Fiscal system, by making abatements in the Irish Excise and Customs, is +not likely to be attempted. Reduction of expenditure, liberating money +which may be made to serve a useful purpose, is obviously the first +step, but any scheme of allocation of large sums for Irish development, +without full and proper financial control, will undoubtedly fail to meet +the case. The multiplication of irresponsible boards must be stopped, +and to what extent anything, save economies in expenditure, can be +effected without far larger changes remains a moot point. Of one thing, +at any rate, one may be certain--the present Liberal Government when in +Opposition joined forces with the Irish members in driving home the +tremendous admissions of the Royal Commissioners, and it is impossible +to think that, now they are in power, they will repudiate their +obligations, the more so as the present Chancellor of the Exchequer last +year announced the intention of the Government to see how far it is +possible to adjust the financial relations between the two kingdoms on a +fairer basis. + +Sir Hercules Langrishe, the friend and correspondent of Edmund Burke, is +said to have accounted for the swampy condition of the Phoenix Park by +saying--"The English Government are too much engaged in _draining_ the +rest of the kingdom to find time to attend to it." + +Enough has been said to show that the process of which Sir Hercules +spoke is still going on. One would have thought that counsels of +prudence would have made an end of it. It remains to be seen whether the +uncontestable facts to which they themselves have subscribed will +prevail with the Government. "The liberality, the justice, the honour of +the people of England" are concerned in it now, as truly as when Pitt +spoke. Moreover, it is one of the instances in which the claims of +justice and of expediency coincide. The findings of the Financial +Relations' Commission fully justified the attitude of the Irish Party to +the proposal, under Mr. Gladstone's Bill, that the Irish contribution to +the Imperial Treasury should be one-fourteenth of that of Great Britain, +while Mr. Parnell declared that it ought to have been one-twentieth. +The population, since the publication of the Report of the Commission, +has decreased by a quarter of a million, but taxation has increased +from,L7,500,000 to L10,500,000. If Ireland had secured the fixed +contribution, against the height of which she protested, she would +nevertheless have been guarded from such a disproportionate rise of +taxation. + +Whatever test be taken, be it population, a comparison of exports and of +imports, the consumption of certain dutiable articles, relative +assessments to death duties, income tax, or the estimated value of +commodities of primary importance consumed, every one of them shows the +relative backwardness of Ireland as compared with Great Britain, in view +of which the fact that the cost of government per head of population is +double in Ireland what it is in England, shows the extent to which the +one is liable in damages to the other. The increased expenditure on the +navy obviously does not benefit equally the two countries, of which the +one only has dockyards and manufactories, and this is especially the +case seeing that the country which lacks these things is also without a +commerce needing defence; while any advantage resulting from a portion +of the army being quartered in Ireland is minimised when it is found +that arms and accoutrements are purchased in England. + +The attempt to stultify the findings of the Commission on the ground +that its report was based on a fallacy, since Ireland has no more right +to be considered as a separate entity than an English county, is +remarkably disingenuous in view of the acknowledgment of this in the +separate treatment which she received in the matter of grants made in +relief of local taxation and for the establishment of free education in +the years 1888 and 1890 and 1891. Moreover, it was impliedly admitted +that she was a separate entity in the appointment of a Select Committee +on taxation in 1864, and again by Lord Goschen in 1890, and the whole +history of her separate legislation bears the same construction. One +cannot give a better commentary on what has been seen of the economic +condition of the island than by quoting the peroration of the speech of +John Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare, the "great father of the Union," +speaking in the Irish House of Parliament:--"It is with a cordial +sincerity and a full conviction that it will give to this, my native +country, lasting peace and security for her religion, her laws, her +liberty, and her property, an increase of strength, riches, and trade, +and the final extinction of national jealousy and animosity, that I now +propose to this grave assembly for their adoption an entire and perfect +Union of the Kingdom of Ireland with Great Britain. If I live to see it +completed, to my latest hour I shall feel an honourable pride in +reflecting on the little share I may have in contributing to effect it." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF IRELAND + + "When the inhabitants of a country leave it in crowds because + the government does not leave them room in which to live, that + government is judged and condemned."--JOHN STUART MILL, + _Political Economy_. + + +I have shown something of the incubus of taxation which overpowers +Ireland from the fact that she--the poorest country in Western +Europe--is bound to the richest in such a manner that the latter has not +the common prudence to recognise the flagitious injustice which she is +inflicting, while, by a refinement of cruelty, she repeats her +assurances that Ireland is a spoilt child, and for this reason alone +does not appreciate the blessings of British rule. In the light of the +facts before us one may well ask whether it was an extreme hyperbole of +which Grattan made use when he declared that "Ireland, like every +enslaved country, will be compelled to pay for her own subjugation." + +When we are urged to put into practice the counsels of perfection and +study the virtue of patience while we wait for the opportune moment for +reform, from the point of view of English party politics, our reply is +that things have reached so desperate a pass that to submit to the +delays entailed by the exigencies of political strategy is a suicidal +policy which we cannot afford to endure without protest. + +The inhabitants of Great Britain had their Imperial taxation cut down in +the nineteenth century by one-half, that of the Irish people was +doubled. Every year that passes without radical change in the relations +between the two countries makes it more serious, and makes the changes +more drastic which will be required when the need for them is at last +fully realised. + +At the present day more than ten millions per annum are raised by +taxation in Ireland. Of these seven and a half are spent on the _home_ +government of the country, which in 1890 cost only just over five +millions, while that of Scotland at this moment costs a little +more--namely, five and a half millions. + +If one looks at the case of Denmark one finds a rich agricultural +country with a population of six and a half millions, which is able to +maintain her home and foreign government, a Royal Family, a debt, an +army with a war strength of 70,000, a fleet, and the expense of three +colonies, on an expenditure of four and a half millions. + +Sweden, to take another case, with a population of six and a half +millions, a large commerce, and many industries, is able to support her +whole government, army, navy, diplomatic and consular service on a +budget of little more than five millions; and the cost of civil +government of Belgium, with a greater population and four times the +trade, is one-half that of Ireland. The relative cost of _home_ +government per head of population, which amounts in Ireland to L1 14s. +3d., in England and Wales to L1 3s., and in Scotland to L1 3s. 3d., +illustrates in a striking manner the ruinous condition of the present +incidence in Ireland. + +If this administrative waste is palliated by the statement that it +retains money in Ireland, the reply is that the excess of administrative +expenditure which is included in this sum is enough to effect large +measures of social reform in the country, the benefit of which is not to +be named in the same breath with the present mode of maintaining an +extravagant staff of highly-paid officials. As things are, however, all +motives to secure economies in the Irish services are vitiated by the +existing system by which any economies in Irish administration go, not +to Ireland, but to the Imperial Treasury, and in this way economical +government is not merely not encouraged but actually discouraged, and +hence it is that one has such contrasts as that to be seen in each +year's Civil Service Estimates, where, under the item of stationery and +postage in respect of public departments, the amount for the last year +which I have seen is, for Scotland L24,000, and for Ireland,L43,000, and +that the Department of Agriculture, out of a total income from +Parliamentary Grant of L190,000, spends no less than L80,000 on salaries +and wages, and another L10,000 on travelling expenses. + +Sir Robert Giffen has calculated that the incomes of the wage-earning +classes in Ireland are, man for man, one-half those of the members of +the same classes in England. Statistics of every kind bear out the +striking difference in the conditions of the two countries. The average +poor law valuation in Ireland is about equal to that of the poorest East +London Unions, where it is L3. Though the population is between +one-seventh and one-eighth of that of England, the number of railway +passengers is one-thirty-seventh, the tons of railway freight is +one-seventeenth, the telegrams are one-eighteenth, the postal and money +orders are one-nineteenth of those of England. + +Ireland, to take another test of prosperity, is the fourth +meat-producing country in the world and the sixteenth meat-eating, while +England, by a curious coincidence, is the sixteenth meat-producing, but +the fourth meat-eating, country in the world. The one direction in which +the extension of the powers and duties of the Executive has often been +urged has not been pursued. I mean the matter of railways. Though in +1834 a Royal Commission recommended that Irish railways should be built +with money from the British Treasury, and should be subject to State +control, nothing was done in the matter. Lord Salisbury and Lord +Randolph Churchill were in 1886 in favour of the nationalisation of +Irish railways, but at that date again no steps were taken. Mr. Balfour, +it is true, when Chief Secretary, secured the passing of the Light +Railways Act, under which powers were obtained to open up the Congested +Districts by means of light railways, such as those which have been +built to Clifden, in County Galway, and to Burtonport, in County +Donegal. But the policy which was followed in this Act was to build the +railway out of a Treasury grant, and after it had been built to hand it +over to one of the existing railway companies. + +There are to-day 3,000 odd miles of railway in Ireland--a mileage +scarcely exceeding that of a single company, the Great Western Railway, +in England. They are owned by nearly thirty companies, each with a +separate staff of directors and salaried officials, the directors alone +being over 130 in number. The railways of the country are, without +exception, notoriously bad, the delay and dislocation incident to the +transfer of goods from one line to another, and the high rates which +prevail, inevitably serve to impede any traffic in goods, especially if +they are of a perishable character. + +It is not traffic that makes communications, but cheap communications +that make traffic. The Belgian Government, fifty years ago, took over +the railways of that country, and reduced the freights to such a degree +that in eight years the quantity of goods carried was doubled, the +receipts of the railways were increased fifty per cent., and the profits +of the producers were multiplied five-fold. I am not quoting this +instance by way of plea that the present remedy for the grave economic +problems of Ireland lies in nationalisation of railways. I have said +enough to show the extravagance and irresponsibility of the present +Executive system, and in view of that no sane man would propose to endow +it with further powers than those which it already possesses; but let +me say this, that if the present state of diffusive impotence which +rules in the matter of transit in the country continues, some very +drastic remedies may before long have to be devised. + +The cheapest freights for grain in the world are those between Chicago +and New York, and the reason why this is so is that there exists keen +competition on the part of the inland waterways. Of the 580 miles of +canals in Ireland a considerable part are owned by the railway +companies, and their weed-choked condition shows the use to which they +are put in the national economy. + +Whoever it was that said the carriers of freight hold the keys of trade +was stating what appears almost an axiom, and an illustration is +afforded of the results of reduced rates in an analogous business in the +way in which the establishment of penny postage sent up the receipts of +the General Post Office. + +The difference in the freights in the three kingdoms may be seen by a +comparison of the average rate per ton of merchandise in the year 1900-- + + In England In Scotland In Ireland + + 4s. 10.26d. 4s. 11.64d. 6s. 7.90d. + +In the decade from 1890-1900 the figure in England and Wales decreased +8.79d., in Scotland 1.7d., and in Ireland increased by 1.92d. + +Again, the control of the great English railway corporations over the +small companies in Ireland has led to a state of things by which +freights for imported goods are relatively lower than are those for +purely internal carriage, and by this means the railways of Great +Britain maintain their grip of the carrying trade, and incidentally +destroy the industry of Ireland. + +The trade of Ireland is not two per cent. of that of the three kingdoms, +and this policy of swamping the Irish market with English-made goods at +low rates to such an extent that over twelve million pounds' worth of +imported goods are sold annually in Ireland shows the manner in which +the principles of free trade are applied to that country; and so it has +come to pass that the opening up of the country by railways has often +tended to destroy local industries and to substitute for their products +articles manufactured in England and Continental Europe at a cheaper +cost, carried in either case by English railways, which, in consequence, +reap the benefit of the freight. The carriage per ton paid by eggs to +London, to take one example, is 16s. 8d. from Normandy, 24s. from +Denmark, and no less that 94s. from Galway. + +The bearing of the transit question on the agricultural problem is seen +by a consideration of the rates for every form of farm produce, which in +Ireland are fifteen to twenty per cent. of their value. On the Continent +the average is five to six per cent., and in the United States and +Canada it is three per cent. The discouragement of such a tariff to +agricultural enterprise has had a great bearing on the transformation of +plough land into cattle ranches, and the extent to which this has +occurred may be seen from the fact that there are to-day twelve million +acres of pasture to three millions of arable land in the island, and +fertile land, like that of the plains of Meath, is to be seen growing, +not corn for men, but grass for cattle. The success of the country in +stock-raising may very easily be rendered nugatory if the exclusion of +Argentine and Canadian cattle from the English market be ended by the +passing of an Act giving the Board of Agriculture a discretionary power +to maintain or remove the embargo on their importation, according as the +danger of an introduction of cattle disease exists or disappears. The +enormous import trade which is done in Danish butter, Italian cheese, +and even Siberian eggs, shows the commercial possibilities of farm +produce when freights are low. As a tangible example of the +discrimination which the railways pursue may be mentioned the fact that +the freight for goods per ton from Liverpool to Cavan is 10s. 8d., while +that from Cavan to Liverpool is 16s. 8d. The numbers employed on +agriculture have diminished, not only in proportion to the population +but also relatively to its decrease. According to Mr. Charles Booth land +employs as many people to-day in England as it did in 1841, and it +probably supports nearly as many, and though in that country, building +and manufacture employ a vast number more, in Ireland there has been in +the same time a decrease of nearly eleven per cent. of those so +employed--the total decrease being 626,000. + +The population of England has in the last century been multiplied by +four, that of Scotland has increased threefold, while that of Ireland +has decreased by one-fourth. If we take the last sixty years it will be +seen that the people of England have doubled their numbers, but those of +Ireland have divided by two. It would be idle to pretend that the great +exodus which took place after the famine was in all respects to be +regretted. The abnormal increase in population which took place in the +first forty years of the nineteenth century was in itself out of all +proportion to the increase of productive capacity in the country, and +was closely related to the unnatural inflation of prices, and consequent +spurious appearance of prosperity, due to the great war. When the climax +came this was rapidly followed by a reaction, and when emigration +reduced the numbers of eight million people who were in the island in +1841, the modified competition in the labour market and in the land +market tended to restore prices to a normal figure. + +Emigration was at one time a well-recognised remedy with English +statesmen for Irish ills. Did not Michael Davitt once say that manacles +and Manitoba were the two cures for Ireland which they could propose? +Even then, no attempt was made to regulate emigration by the State. The +ball which was thus set rolling at that date has been in motion ever +since, and that which half a century ago was regarded as the hand of the +_deus ex machina_ setting right a grave economic problem has continued, +so that it has become at this day a problem no less grave, which to an +equal degree presses for solution. + +Four million people in the last sixty-five years fled from the country, +and though the figures, as they are published, seem to show a slight +decrease each year, the apparent diminution is to a large extent +fallacious, since the residue of population from which emigrants are +drawn becomes each year less, and an apparent decrease may in truth be a +relative increase. + +We heard much a few years ago in England of the evils of immigration +into the British Isles of aliens, whom the Board of Trade returns show +amount to eight thousand per annum--a figure which appears paltry when +compared with the forty thousand people who leave Ireland every year. It +is a cry which one is told should make the thirty-seven million +inhabitants of England and Scotland burn with indignation that this +number of foreigners land on their shores every year. Surely we Irishmen +have a far greater cause of complaint in the fact that out of a +population of four and a half millions, less than is that of London, a +number greater than those of a town of the size of Limerick emigrate +every year. Most of these emigrants are in the prime of life. Their +average age is from twenty to twenty-five, and more than ninety per +cent. are between the ages of ten and forty-five years. Here is the +crucial fact, that it is the young, the active, and the plucky who are +being tempted by promises of success abroad, to which they see no +likelihood of attaining at home, and in this way is established a system +of the survival of the unfittest, an artificial selection of the most +malignant kind, which is leaving the old, the infirm, the poor, and the +unadventurous behind to swell the figures of pauperism and to propagate +the race. All the authorities are agreed in attributing to this cause +the lamentable increase of lunacy, which is one of the most terrible +factors in the economy of modern Ireland. The last Census report shows +the total number of lunatics and idiots to have been in 1851 equal to a +ratio of 1 in 637 of the population, and to be in 1901 equal to a ratio +of 1 in 178. The proportion is, as one would expect, highest in the +purely agricultural districts and lowest in the neighbourhood of cities, +such as Dublin and Belfast, where industrial conditions imply better +wages and food, and a less monotonous existence. + +It should be remembered that the proportion of imbeciles in Great +Britain has risen in the period of fifty years as it has in +Ireland--partly, no doubt, owing to a better system of registration of +lunacy--but, at the same time, the fact remains that the average in +Ireland is very much greater than in England and Wales, rising in some +Irish counties to a proportion twice, and in another to a ratio thrice, +as high as that of the average of the whole of England and Wales. + +If urban industrial conditions militate against an increase of lunacy, +on the other hand it must be remembered that in most Irish towns there +is an appalling amount of overcrowding. The death-rate of Dublin--the +highest of any city in Europe--is, in consequence, no less than 25 per +1,000, as against 16 per 1,000 in Paris and New York, and 17 per 1,000 +in London. The percentage of families, consisting on an average of four +persons, living in one room is in London 14.6, in Edinburgh 16.9, in +Glasgow 26.1, in Cork 10.6, in Limerick, 15.8, while in Dublin it +reaches the appalling percentage of 36. In Belfast, which, unlike any +other of the cities which I have mentioned, is for the most part modern, +the percentage is not higher than 1, and this fact has a very great +bearing on the industrial conditions in that city. Side by side with +these figures may be placed those of the death-rate from tuberculosis, +which from 1864 to 1906 in England decreased from 3.3 per 1,000 to 1.6, +in Scotland decreased from 3.6 per 1,000 to 2.1, and in Ireland +_increased_ from 2.4 to 2.7 per 1,000. + +The rate war of the steamship companies, which reduced the cost of +passage across the Atlantic in 1904, caused the emigration returns to +rise from 45,000 to 58,000 in a single year, and at the same time there +were employed in Ireland two hundred emigration agents of one company +alone--the Cunard--each of whom received six shillings a head for each +banished Irishman and Irishwoman whom he got safely out of the country. +It is easy for the Irishman to wax eloquent about the exiles who, from +the time when O'Neil and O'Donnell weighed anchor in Lough Swilly at the +very beginning of the seventeenth century, sailed from their country to +seek their fortunes abroad in Church or State or camp, since +proscription deprived them of the _carriere ouverte aux talents_ at +home. The history of the "wild geese" in the service of France, Spain, +Italy, Austria, Prussia, and of Russia; of the Irishmen who were +respectively the first Quartermaster-General of the United States Army +and the first Commodore of the United States Navy, or of the seven Irish +Field Marshals of Austria, or of those who served as Viceroys to Chili, +Peru, and Mexico, is the story of the citizens of no mean city. Catholic +Europe is flecked with the white graves of the Irish exiles of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; from Rome to Valladolid, from +Douai to Prague, from Salamanca to Louvain, and from Tournai to Paris +you will find their bones. But the pathos of this is, to my mind, as +nothing compared with the pathos of what is occurring now. For one +thing, it was only men in those days that went in any large numbers, +while to-day it is both men and women. From the point of view of England +the result has been in no small degree serious. Of the four million +people who have emigrated since the great tidal wave began with the +famine, nearly ninety per cent. have gone, not to British Colonies, but +to the United States. Of the fifty thousand who emigrated in 1905 more +than forty-four thousand went to the North-American Republic. + +_Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt_; the Ulster +Protestants who were driven from their country by the commercial +restrictions of the eighteenth century formed the nucleus of the most +implacable enemies of Great Britain in the War of Independence--half +Washington's army was recruited from Irishmen in America; and in the +same way the exiles of the nineteenth century became, and have remained +even to the second generation, irreconcilable adversaries of the system +of government which, by affording for too long no relief to the +conditions in Ireland, was responsible for the flight from their home to +a land which was, by comparison, flowing with milk and honey. + +Side by side with emigration goes on another factor in the social life +of the country which is very significant of the stress under which, in +some districts, the Irish peasant ekes out an existence. I am referring +to the migratory labourers, of whom nearly 18,000 leave their homes in +Ireland every year to work in the harvest fields of England and +Scotland, that they may there secure a wage by which they are able to +make both ends meet in a manner which the uneconomic nature of their +holdings does not permit. How small is the diminution in this annual +migration is seen by the fact that the highest figures in connection +with it recorded in the last quarter of a century are those of 1880, in +which year nearly 23,000 migrated, while within the last six years--in +1901--the figures were as high as 19,700. More than three-quarters of +these labourers come from Connacht, and of the total number more than +one-half from County Mayo, from which every year 47.8 per thousand of +the population migrate, and if one takes the adult male +population--_i.e._, that of men over twenty years of age--one finds that +the number of migratory labourers represents a proportion of 177.4 per +thousand. Nearly three-quarters of them go to England, and the harvest +fields of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire are in a large measure reaped by +their hands. From February till June the migration occurs, and the +labourers return in the late autumn to their homes. The fact that the +sum brought back by them is, at the highest estimate, said to be about +L18 after nine months of labour, and that the wages which they earn +amount to an average of 17s. a week, while, in addition to the cost of +living for three-quarters of the year, about L2 is spent on their +railway fare, all serve to show the nature of the economic conditions in +the West of Ireland which make such a migration for such a wage worth +while on the part of nearly twenty thousand people. One factor in this +connection which should be noted is that the number of girls who migrate +every year is said to be increasing, and is estimated to amount to +nearly half the total throughout the country. The precariousness of a +dependence on such a means of subsistence as this, is seen from the fact +that a bad harvest in England or a development in agricultural machinery +would put an end to the source of livelihood which it provides. If from +no other point of view the problem should be regarded seriously by +Englishmen in the light of the depopulation of the English countryside, +with its direct bearing upon the material for recruiting the army and +navy, and the problem of unemployment in general. + +It is a surprising thing that the support of home industries, which was +one of the foibles of Dean Swift, who advised Irishmen to burn +everything that came from England except its coal, has only of very +recent years been resuscitated. So much is this the case that the action +of the South Dublin Board of Guardians, who in 1881 insisted that the +workhouse inmates should be clothed in Irish produce, was conspicuous by +its exceptional nature. At this day all are agreed, whatever be their +religious or political opinions, on the advocacy of this form of +exclusive dealing at which economists may scowl as at a deliberate +attempt to fly in the face of the regular play of the forces of supply +and demand, but the success which has so far attended the concerted +policy of insisting upon being supplied with Irish produce, and the fact +that it is, after all, the only mode of restoring to their natural +functions the economic forces in a country where industrial conditions +were, by artificial means, thrown out of their natural course, is the +justification for its employment. + +If for no other reason, the activity displayed by "religious" in Ireland +in the encouragement and development of local industries as a check on +emigration should protect them from the attacks which have been made +upon them, as tending to encourage the uneconomic aspect of the +situation in Ireland. To name only a few that come into one's mind, the +nuns' co-operative factories, which have revived Irish point lace at +Youghal, Kenmare, Gort, Carrick-on-Suir, Carrickmacross, and Galway, are +instances. Father Dooley, in Galway, has started a woollen factory, with +a capital of L10,000, in which nearly two hundred girls are employed, of +whom many earn L1 10s. a week. Father Quin, at Ballina, has founded a +co-operative shoe factory, and at Castlebar Father Lyons has established +an electric power station. The work of the Sisters of Charity at Foxford +is well known, and stands in need of no praise, and at Kiltimagh, in +Mayo, they employ a hundred and twenty girls at dress and lace making; +while Father Maguire, at Dromore, in Tyrone, has established a lace and +crochet factory on co-operative principles, which has over a hundred +employees; and at Lough Glynn, in Connacht, a carpet and cheese making +industry has been built up solely through the efforts of a religious +order of nuns. These are random examples, and I do not claim that they +are typical. They are, on the other hand, not exceptional. + +It is impossible to exaggerate the effect of the English commercial +policy towards Ireland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. +Wool, cotton, sailcloth, sugar refining, shipping, glass, the cattle and +provision trade, were all deliberately strangled. And besides the loss +of wealth to Ireland which was the consequence, one must take into +account the fact that traditions of commercial enterprise perished +through desuetude, so that in the industrial revolution at the beginning +of the nineteenth century Ireland was too severely crippled to derive +any benefit from the new order, as to which she was still further +handicapped by the poverty of her coal fields. + +The land system, which is only now disappearing, served, moreover, not +to inculcate habits of thrift, but positively as a discouragement of +economic virtues. Until the legal recognition of tenant-right had been +secured, the tenant who made improvements was liable to have his rent +raised, and was aware that he had no legal right to compensation for +them on his removal from the holding. Further, the judicial fixing of +rents, which, as the time for rent revision has approached, has +presented to the tenant the temptation not to make the best of his land, +and so run the risk of an augmentation of rent, has been a source of +insidious demoralisation to the occupant of the soil. + +The social upheaval resulting from land purchase will nowhere be more +marked than in this respect in the stability which it will produce in +the financial conditions of the country, and it may be expected to do +something to remedy the lamentable state of things which so far has but +little altered from that of twenty years ago, when it was estimated that +five-sixths of the total capital of the country was invested abroad. A +great opportunity presents itself at the present moment. It was stated a +few years ago that eleven millions of rent were spent out of the island. +At this day when, under the Land Purchase Act, an immense amount of +property is being realised, the patriotic Irish landlord seeking an +investment for his money can, by starting industries in Ireland, at one +and the same time do a patriotic work by providing against the stream of +emigration, and can secure a safe and profitable investment for his +purchase-money. There are very nearly eighty million pounds of capital +to be set free under the Act, and it is scarcely too much to expect that +a large proportion of it will be invested by the expropriated landlords +in their own country. The possibility of an industrial revival in +Ireland is well illustrated by the increase in the number of +co-operative societies, in which there are at the present day 100,000 +members, while less than twenty years ago there were only fifty. + +The effect of the Dairy, Agricultural, and Poultry Societies is very +important, but perhaps of still greater importance are the Raffeisin +banks, which aim at the promotion of farming by means of co-operative +credit. The loans which they make, at an interest of five per cent. or +six per cent., are dealing a death-blow at that curse of Irish life--the +gombeen man, whose usury used to mount up to thirty per cent. The +extremely rare cases of default in the repayment of these loans for +agricultural purposes will not be surprising to those who recall the +tribute paid by Mr. Wyndham, in connection with land purchase annuities, +to the Irish peasant as a debtor whose reliability is unimpeachable. +More than twenty years ago the Baroness Burdett Coutts made a loan of +L10,000 to the fishermen of Baltimore, with a view to the development of +their industry, and the unfailing punctuality with which payments were +made afforded another instance of the reliability which is a +characteristic of the Irish peasant. This brings one to note in passing +that of all others the fishing industry has probably suffered most from +the lack of proper means of transit. The 2,500 miles of coast line offer +great scope, but the catch of fish off the Irish coast is only +one-eighth of that off Scotland, and one-sixteenth of that off England +and Wales, and Irish waters are to a very large extent fished by boats +from the coasts of Scotland, the Isle of Man, France, and Norway. Oyster +fisheries used to abound--the celebrated beds at Arcachon in the Landes +were stocked from Ireland--but they have fallen into disuse, and with +their disappearance a very remunerative business has been lost. The need +for extensive and scientific forestry one may also note is obvious, from +the fact that there are seven million acres of former woodland which are +now reduced to a waste. The results of planting a shelter bed of pines +on the north and west coasts, as a protection from the Atlantic winds, +would be very great, while the industrial effect of systematised +forestry would be immense. Bark for tanning, charcoal, moss, resin, +manure from fallen leaves, litter, fuel, and mushrooms are some of the +bye-products of this reproductive industry, while by planting willows, +which yield a rapid return, along bogs a basket weaving industry might +very rapidly be developed. The need, however, for planting on an +extensive scale and the inevitable delay before any returns for +expenditure accrue, make forestry essentially an object not for private +but for public enterprise. + +It is not generally known that in 1831 Ireland grew one-fifth of the +tobacco consumed in the three kingdoms, but that in that year the first +Liberal Government which was in power for a generation put down a +profitable industry for which the turfy soil of the country was +particularly well adapted. With the help of a shilling rebate it is +being shown, on an experimental area, that tobacco can be grown +successfully in Ireland. At present the Treasury has refused to allow +any extension of the area under cultivation, and it remains to be seen +whether the united demands of Irish members--Unionist as well as +Nationalist--will secure the removal of the prohibition against its +growth, and so possibly lead to a re-establishment of its cultivation on +a similar scale to that of three-quarters of a century ago. + +Perhaps the most important and, one may surmise, far-reaching step +which has been taken in respect of Irish industries in the last few +years is to be found in the registration, under the Merchandise Marks +Act of 1905, of a national trade-mark, the property in which is vested +in an association, which, on payment of a fee, grants the right to use +it to manufacturers of the nature of whose credentials it is satisfied. +The value of this is obvious as giving a guarantee of the country of +origin of goods at a time when the increased demand for Irish produce +has added to the number of unscrupulous traders who sell as "made in +Ireland" goods which are not of Irish manufacture. It is said that +twenty years ago most of the tweed which was placed upon the market +which had been made in Ireland was sold as Cheviot, and that to-day the +_roles_ are reversed, and it is certain that for many years the great +bulk of Irish butter masqueraded in English provision shops as Danish. +The income of the association is devoted to the taking of legal action +against traders who fraudulently sell as Irish, foreign including +English made goods. If an instance is needed of the results which the +protection of a national trade-mark gives in the encouragement of +industry, by the guarantee of origin which it entails, it is to be found +in the success of similar action in the cases of the butter industries +of Sweden and Austria. It is a great tribute to the Trade-Mark +Association that within two years of its incorporation the Congested +Districts Board has applied for the use of the trade-mark for the +products of its lace classes and for its homespuns. + +The task proposed by Henry Grattan to the Irish Parliament may well be +taken to heart by the Irish people to-day:--"In the arts that polish +life, the manufactures that adorn it, you will for many years be +inferior to some other parts of Europe, but to nurse a growing people, +to mature a struggling, though hardy, community, to mould, to multiply, +to consolidate, to inspire, and to exalt a young nation, be these your +barbarous accomplishments." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAND QUESTION + + "I can imagine no fault attaching to any land system which + does not attach to the Irish system. It has all the faults of + a peasant proprietary, it has all the faults of feudal + landlordism, it has all the faults incident to a system under + which the landlords spend no money on their property, and + under which a large part of the land is managed by a Court; it + has all the faults incident to the fact that it is to the + tenant's interest to let his farm run out of cultivation as + the term for revising the judicial rent approaches." + + --A.J. BALFOUR, on the Second Reading of the Land Bill, May + 4th, 1903. + + +The reason for the importance of the system of land tenure in the social +conditions of Ireland is to be found in the manner in which the +restrictions on Irish commerce in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries drove the population to secure a livelihood in the only +direction left open to them--namely, agriculture. The results of this +are to be seen to-day in the fact that there are 590,000 holdings in the +island, and that out of a total population of four and a half million +people it is well within the mark to say that three and a half million +are dependent, directly or indirectly, on the land for their means of +existence. + +The system of tenure in Ireland was as different as possible from that +existing in Great Britain. The gist of the difference lay in this, that +in England and Scotland landlords let farms, while in Ireland they let +land. "In Ireland," wrote an English observer more than a hundred years +ago, "landlords never erect buildings on their property, nor expend +anything in repairs." This feature, which was the result of historical +reasons, was due to the fact that Irish land-owners were the descendants +of settlers intruded on Irish land, who brought with them English +notions of tenure, but had not the capital to render economic the +numerous small holdings situated on their estates. Hence it came about +that the provision of capital by an English landlord for the equipment +of farms with cottages, outhouses, fencing, and a drainage system, which +results in a sort of partnership between landlord and tenant, was, to a +large extent, a thing unknown in Ireland, where, as was aptly said, +tenants' improvements were landlords' perquisites, and where point was +lent to the differences by the fact that the few properties on which the +equipment of the holdings was provided by the landlord were known as +"English-managed estates," and the number of these, Lord Cowper told the +House of Lords in 1887, could be counted on one's fingers. + +Irish landlords have been compared, not to English squires, but to the +ground landlords of London, bound to the occupiers only in so far as +they received from their tenants a rent-charge liable to increase as the +tenant improved the holding, or as competition arose with the growth of +population. + +The reasons for this state of things are to be found in the number and +the small size of the Irish holdings, but more than this in the fact +that from the first landlords came there in a business capacity. + +"Les uns comme les autres," says a French writer, M. Paul-Dubois, "ils +n'ont vu dans la terre Irlandaise qu'une affaire, et non une patrie. Ils +sont restes conquerants en pays de conquete. De la cette consequence +que, conscients d'etre des etrangers, des intrus, ils se sont crus +libres et quittes de toute dette envers le pays, de tous les devoirs de +la propriete."[3] + +Planted on land which was confiscated, and, as a result, insecurely +held, to risk the expenditure of money would have been unnatural, the +more so since the expenditure which, in the circumstances, fell upon the +tenant in the matter of improvements, provided the best possible +security to the landlord by making the tenant all the more anxious to +remain on the holding on which he had sunk what little capital he +possessed, and in consequence virtually obliged, at risk of ejection, to +submit unwillingly to periodical enhancements of rent. + +In addition to the few English-managed estates it was only in Ulster +that matters were otherwise, owing to the existence of the custom--an +embryo copyhold, Lord Devon called it--known as tenant-right. On the +various confiscations of land, grants of which had been made to the +"undertakers," many of the latter were either public bodies, such as the +great City Companies, others were landlords who, even if not resident at +a distance, had neither the means nor the inclination to spend the +necessary money on their estates. This was provided by the tenant, who, +without aid from the landlord, made improvements on his holding by his +own labour; and in Ulster, where the tenants were settlers from England +and Scotland, there arose an equitable proprietorship vested in the +occupier, by which, on quitting the farm, he was entitled to claim from +the new tenant a sum of money partly in compensation for the money and +labour he had invested in the holding and partly as a price paid for the +goodwill or possession, which the new tenant would have no other means +of acquiring. The nature of this "Ulster Custom," which, until 1870, had +no sanction or protection from the law, was clearly defined by the +Master of the Rolls, in the case of M'Elroy _v._ Brooke, in the +following words:--"The essentials of the custom are the right to sell, to +have the incoming tenant, if there be no reasonable objection to him, +recognised by the landlord, and to have a sum of money paid for the +interest in the tenancy transferred." The English system we see then, +with its competitive rent fixed by contract, and subject to the laws of +supply and demand, did not exist; the social and prescriptive ties which +in England bound the owner and the occupier to each other never arose +under this state of things, and in their absence did not arise one of +the strongest inducements to a landed gentry to live on their estates +and to concern themselves in the welfare of their tenants, a social +system which, by the interchange of kindly offices wherever in England +the proprietors live on their property, does much to make the +countryside attractive to the poorer classes and to check migration. + +There is no more erroneous idea than to suppose, as do some people, that +there was a large body of resident landed proprietors in Ireland until +the land war drove them to seek safety across the Channel. As a matter +of fact, long before this had begun there existed an absentee +aristocracy dependent on middlemen or agents--"the vermin of the +country," Arthur Young called them--who constituted a mere mechanical +medium for the collection of rent, and as such were the worst exponents +of the amenities which, in happier circumstances, are supposed to +subsist between owners and occupiers of agrarian land. At the beginning +of the nineteenth century the increase of population in the island and +the high prices resulting from the war led to a very great sub-division +of holdings, while the exercise of the franchise by the forty shillings +freeholder until the year 1829 provided an additional inducement to the +landlord to multiply the number of tenants on his land, since by doing +so he increased the number of votes under his control, and, _pari +passu_, his political influence. + +After the famine, when it was found that one-third of the Irish +landlords were bankrupt, the Encumbered Estates Court Act was passed to +cope with the situation which had arisen of a country full of numerous +landlords saddled with land which, owing to mortgages, debts, and +incumbrances, was inalienable. Under the Act the Court was empowered, on +the petition of any person sufficiently interested, to sell the +encumbered estate and give an indefeasible title, so that persons who +before had a claim on the estate should now have a claim only on the +purchase-money. It was a piece of strong legislation in its disregard of +vested rights and in the manner in which it set aside express contracts +under which creditors had a claim on the land which could only be +disturbed by paying off that claim. + +In the event the rush of creditors to this Court--created to afford +relief from the delays of Chancery in effecting alienation--was so great +that, as a result of the consequent fall in prices, land became a drug +in the market, and properties in many instances did not realise enough +to meet the mortgages. To the landlords ruined in this manner succeeded +a new class, who bought up bankrupt estates, often with borrowed money, +as a commercial speculation, and caring nothing for the tenant or his +welfare, looking only on the business side of the transaction, raised +rents arbitrarily to such a pitch that the tenantry were unable to meet +their liabilities. Wholesale evictions ensued, and in this wise arose +the condition of things in which the _Times_--never an unfriendly critic +of the landed interest--was constrained to admit in 1852 that "the name +of an Irish landlord stinks in the nostrils of Christendom." + +By an Act of 1858 the Encumbered Estates Court was replaced by the +Landed Estates Court, which had power to carry out the sale of, and give +an indefeasible title to, any interests in land, whether hypothecated or +not, and after the passing of the Judicature Act of 1877 the name of the +Court became the Land Judges' Court. + +The disfranchising clauses of the Emancipation Act, and the consequent +disappearance of the advantages accruing to the landlords from a +multiplication of holdings on their estates, the miserable poverty +resulting from the famine, the anxiety of the proprietors to escape the +burdens of the remodeled Poor Law, and the demand by the new class of +land speculators for large grazing or tillage farms, to form which the +consolidation of existing holdings was demanded, were the factors which +resulted in the clearances of 1849 and the subsequent years. "Notices to +quit," in a historic phrase, "fell like snowflakes," at a time when it +was truly said that an eviction was equal to a sentence of death. In a +few months whole counties, such as those of Meath and Tipperary, were +converted into prairies; cabins were thrown down, fences removed, and +peasants swept off, and in ten years nearly 300,000 families were +evicted from their homes, and a million and a half of the population +fled across the Atlantic. "I do not think," said Sir Robert Peel--and +his verdict has been endorsed by the judgment of history--"I do not +think that any country, civilised or uncivilised, can offer similar +scenes of horror." + +The Devon Commission, the Report of which was issued in 1845, +recommended that in future compensation should be given to Irish tenants +for permanent improvements effected by them. Bills to carry out the +recommendation of the Commission were introduced in 1845 by Lord +Stanley, in 1846 by Lord Lincoln, and in 1852 by Mr. Napier, the +Attorney-General for Ireland. But it was not until the Act of 1870 was +passed--a quarter of a century after the Report of the Commissioners had +been issued--that its recommendations were embodied in an Act of +Parliament. So far was this from being the case with the next statute +dealing with Irish land--Deasy's Act, passed in 1860--that it aimed at +the substitution of the commercial principles of contract for the +equitable principles of custom in the relations between landlord and +tenant, in this respect that it refused to allow compensation to the +tenant for improvements other than those made with the landlord's +consent. The object of this Act--the last word of the Manchester School +on the Irish Land Question--was, therefore, to destroy any claim by a +tenant in respect of future improvements, unless under the terms of +some contract, express or implied. In point of fact, the Act proved +almost a dead letter, and the one result which ensued from its passing +into law was to make the position of the tenant less secure, in so far +as it made the process of ejectment less costly and more simple, and +enabled the landlord in many instances to confiscate improvements. + +Twenty-three Bills in favour of the tenants were thrown out in the forty +years which followed Emancipation. The struggle between landlord and +tenant was occupied with the attempts of the latter to enforce the +custom of tenant-right in Ulster, and secure its application in the +other provinces. The Land Act of 1870, for the first time, gave legal +sanction to this principle by giving the tenant a claim to compensation +for disturbance. It gave its imprimatur to the doctrine that an Irish +tenant does not contract for the occupation of a farm, that Irish land +is not the subject of an undivided ownership, but of a simple +partnership. The pecuniary damages to which a landlord was liable under +its provisions was a blow aimed at wanton evictions, and with the +curtailment of the power arbitrarily to effect these, the threats by +which landlords had been able unjustly to raise rents were robbed of +much of their force. + +The tenant under the Act secured a recognition of his property in the +land and of his right to occupy it, provided he complied with certain +conditions, and, in addition, he obtained compensation, albeit +inadequate, for disturbance for non-payment of rent, in cases in which +the Court considered the rent exorbitant, and in which failure to pay +was due to bad seasons. Thus tenant-right, which Lord Palmerston had +dismissed with epigrammatic flippancy as landlord wrong only a few years +before, received the sanction of law from his own party. + +In actual practice under the Act the landlords recouped themselves for +the compensation which they had to pay to an evicted tenant by raising +the rent on his successor in the tenancy in the comparatively few cases +in which the evicted tenant could afford the legal costs which the +filing of a claim for compensation entailed, but this much at least had +been secured, that the virtual confiscation of the tenants' improvements +had been stopped. The Act of 1870 had been passed to prevent arbitrary +evictions and to secure to the tenant compensation for improvements, and +in certain cases for disturbance. It succeeded only in making arbitrary +evictions more costly for the landlord, it gave the tenant no fixity of +tenure since the compensation for disturbance was inadequate. To remedy +this Isaac Butt in 1876 introduced a Bill based on the "three F.s"--fair +rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure--but it was rejected by 290 votes +to 56, and several other amending Bills were thrown out by the House of +Commons between 1876 and 1879. In 1880 the Government were at last +stirred to action in the introduction of the Compensation for +Disturbance Bill, which caused the retirement of Lord Lansdowne from the +Cabinet, and was followed by threats of resignation on the part of the +Duke of Argyll. Under the Act of 1870 only those occupiers were entitled +to claim compensation for disturbance whose rents were not in arrear. By +this Bill it was proposed to extend the right to that claim to all those +who were unable to pay as a result of bad harvests, and who were willing +to hold their farms on just and reasonable terms, which the landlord +refused. + +After passing through the House of Commons, in spite of Lord Randolph +Churchill's denunciation of it as the first step in a social war, the +Bill, although there had been a large majority in its favour in the +lower House, was thrown out by the House of Lords at a time when the +need for remedial legislation was illustrated by the presence in Ireland +of 30,000 soldiers and 12,000 policemen for the protection of life and +property. + +The Royal Commission, under the chairmanship of Lord Bessborough, which +was then appointed, reported in the following year that the Land Act of +1870 afforded no protection to the tenant who remained in his holding, +since compensation for improvements could only be claimed on giving up a +tenancy. The Commissioners, by a majority of four to one, declared +themselves in favour of the "three F.s," which the leader of the +Opposition denounced as "Force, Fraud, and Folly," and the Commissioners +justified their attitude by this statement, which was echoed by the +Richmond Commission, which reported soon after,--"freedom of contract, +in the case of the majority of Irish tenants, large and small, does not +really exist," the reason being that tenants in occupation were ready to +pay any rent rather than sacrifice the capital and labour they had sunk +in their holdings. The good seasons after 1870 had made this rise in +rent possible, but with the bad winter of 1880 the results became +disastrous. + +In this manner the "three F.s," which the Land League demanded, and +which were secured by the Act of 1881, were conceded against the will of +the Government by sheer force of circumstances. A rumour which gained +currency early in 1880, that the Bessborough Commission would report in +their favour, was stigmatised by Mr. Gladstone as incredible, and the +adoption of the principle enunciated by the Commissioners resulted in +the resignation from the Cabinet of the Duke of Argyll. The demands +which had been made in 1850 by the Tenant League, the first concerted +action of North and South since the Union, were repeated. They included +a fair valuation of rent, the right of a tenant to sell his interest at +the highest market value, and security from eviction so long as he paid +his rent. Their claims were scouted in 1870, and it was not till eleven +years had passed that in 1881 these "three F.s"--fair rent, free sale, +and fixity of tenure, the notion of which had so recently been +repudiated by Mr. Gladstone--were secured by the Land Act of that year, +which recognised to the full the dual ownership of Irish land by +occupier and landlord. Under this Act also was created a Court to fix +fair rents for judicial periods of fifteen years. + +Mr. Gladstone himself had admitted that the Land Act of 1870, which a +Conservative member, destined to be a future Chief Secretary--Mr. James +Lowther--described as "pure Communism," together with the Church Act of +1869, was the outcome of the Fenian agitation of the sixties, which drew +the attention of English statesmen to the Irish question. In the same +way the passing of the Act of 1881, which made a far more active assault +upon their prerogatives, secured from a house of landlords through fear +that which they denied on grounds of equity. "In view of the prevailing +agitation in Ireland," said Lord Salisbury of this measure which +assailed every Tory principle as to the sacredness of property, "I +cannot recommend my followers to vote against the second reading of the +Bill." What Fenianism had effected in 1870 the Land League secured in +1881. "I must record my firm opinion," said Mr. Gladstone ten years +later, "that the Land Act of 1881 would not have become the law of the +land if it had not been for the agitation with which Irish society was +convulsed." + +The Bill was denounced by the Tories as one of the most unquestionable +and, indeed, extreme violations of the rights of property in the whole +history of English legislation.[4] Lord Salisbury declared that it would +not bring peace, and that henceforth the Irish landowner would look upon +Parliament and the Imperial Government as their worst enemies. The Earl +of Lytton declared that it was revolutionary, dangerous, and unjust; +that it would organise pauperism and paralyse capital; yet for all that +he warned their lordships that its rejection might be the signal for an +insurrection, of which the whole responsibility would be thrown on the +House of Lords. But perhaps Lord Elcho expressed the feeling which +predominated in the Gilded Chamber when he expressed the opinion that +the Bill was the product of "Brummagem girondists." In the event, as we +have seen, Lord Lytton's warning bore fruit, and the Bill was passed. +"There is scarcely a less dignified entity," as Disraeli had said in +Coningsby thirty years before, "than a patrician in a panic." + +Under the Act, let me repeat, for the first time was frankly recognised +the legal partnership between the tenant who provided the working gear +and the landlord who provided the bare soil. The latter could only evict +the tenant on default, the tenant was at liberty to sell his occupancy +interest at will without the leave of the landlord, and the rent payable +by the tenant to the landlord was to be fixed by a judicial +tribunal--the Land Commission--the establishment of which was but the +carrying out of a suggestion made three years before by Parnell. The +results of the agitation which had brought about the passing of the Act +were seen when the Court decreed an average reduction of Irish rents by +20 per cent., knocking off no less than L1,500,000 at one stroke from +the rack-rentals of the country. + +The Act was not applicable to tenants whose rent was in arrear--those, +that is to say, who were in the poorest circumstances--and a Bill +introduced by Parnell in 1882 to wipe out these arrears by a grant of +public money, was thrown out, being denounced by Lord Salisbury as a +dangerous precedent of public plunder to mislead future generations. + +As ballast to lighten the Act of 1881 the leaseholders were thrown +overboard. For this exclusion from the benefits of the Act there was, on +principle, no excuse. A Bill of Parnell's to remedy it was thrown out in +1883 by a majority of four to one, and the 35,000 tenants who suffered +from it were not entirely accorded the privileges of the other tenants +until the passing of the Rent Redemption Act of 1890. The average +reduction in rent effected for this class of tenant has amounted to 35 +per cent. + +One further fact in connection with the Act of 1881 deserves mention as +showing that though Parliament may propose a remedy for an admitted +grievance, the Courts of law are able to dispose its application by +their interpretation in direct contravention of the intentions of the +legislature. + +Section 8, sub-section 9, of the Act of 1881 provided:--"No rent shall +be allowed or made payable in any proceedings under this Act in respect +of improvements made by the tenant or his predecessors in title, and for +which, in the opinion of the Court, the tenant or his predecessors in +title shall not have been paid or otherwise compensated by the landlord +or his predecessors in title." In the case of Adams _v_. Dunseath, in +February, 1882, it was held by the Court of Appeal, in the teeth of the +obvious intention of Parliament, that the fact that a tenant had for a +longer or shorter period of time enjoyed the benefit of his improvements +might be taken into consideration by the judge as being an equivalent +for compensation and as serving to limit the reductions in rent effected +by the Commission on land which had been subjected to these +improvements. By this interpretation many thousands of pounds were put +into the landlords' pockets during the years which intervened before +1896, when it was superseded by a provision in the Act of that year +which re-affirmed and established the principle, the enactment of which +had been intended in 1881. + +We must now turn to the introduction of land purchase. In 1847 Lord John +Russell, in a project which was subsequently dropped, advocated, as did +J.S. Mill in later years, the solution of the land question by the +establishment of a peasant proprietary. The nidus, however, out of which +this policy germinated was the right of pre-emption which John Bright +secured for the tenants of ecclesiastical land under the Church Act of +1869. A further step in the same direction was taken in the Land Act of +1870--not more than two-thirds of the purchase-money being advanced to +the tenant under its provisions. Under the Church Act 6,000, and under +the Act of 1870 1,000, tenants purchased their farms. + +In 1878 Parnell urged the establishment of peasant proprietorship, and +under the Act of 1881 three-quarters of the purchase-money was to be +advanced on such terms as to be repayable by instalments of five per +cent, per annum for thirty-five years, but only 1,000 tenants took +advantage of the facilities thereby offered. + +Four years later was passed the Ashbourne Act, so called from the Irish +Lord Chancellor responsible for its introduction, and in it we have the +first Act--purely for land purchase--which has been applied to Ireland. +By it the Treasury found the whole of the purchase-money up to a total +of five millions sterling out of the Irish Church Surplus Fund, and +forty-nine years were allowed for repayment of the purchase-money to the +State at 4 per cent., of which L2 15s. was interest on the advance and +L1 5s. went to a sinking fund for the liquidation of the loan. + +Only 2,000 tenants took advantage of the terms of this Act, but it is +nevertheless of importance as marking the point at which the principle +of peasant proprietorship was recognised as the solution by both English +parties. In this way was realised, not much more than twenty years ago, +the importance of that change of ownership which, in Arthur Young's +well-known phrase, turns sand into gold, and which has progressed ever +since. A shrewd French observer--Gustave de Beaumont--saw in 1837 that +this was the way out of the _impasse_ of the Irish land system, and half +a century ago a great opportunity presented itself at the time of the +Encumbered Estates Act of establishing a peasant proprietary, when more +than two million acres--one-sixth of the whole soil of Ireland--were +sold in ten years, and were bought in lots of 200 to 250 acres by some +8,000 to 10,000 land-jobbers. + +The Land Bill which Mr. Gladstone introduced as a pendant to the Home +Rule Bill of 1886 offered to every Irish landlord the option of selling +his estate to his tenants, who would thereby become occupying owners at +once, paying an interest of 4 per cent. for forty-nine years on the +price, which would be twenty years' purchase of the judicial rents, paid +by the State issue of fifty million pounds of Consols with the revenues +of Ireland as security. After the Unionist victory of 1886 Mr. Parnell +brought in a Bill which also was destined never to receive the Royal +Assent, but which again is of importance in view of subsequent +legislation. + +He based his demand upon the fall in prices which prevented tenants from +paying judicial rents. By this Bill it was proposed that the Land Court +should have power to abate rents fixed prior to 1885 if it were proved +that the tenants could not pay the whole amount, and would pay one half +and arrears, and further, if these amounts were paid evictions and +proceedings for the recovery of rent should be suspended, and, lastly, +the Bill aimed at the inclusion of leaseholders under the Act of 1881. + +It was roundly denounced by the landlords.[5] Lord Hartington declared +that were it to pass it would have the effect of stopping the payment of +rent all over Ireland, and Sir Michael Hicks Beach spoke of it as "one +which, though purporting to be a mere instalment of justice to the poor +Irish tenant, is an act of gross injustice and confiscation to the +landlords of Ireland." The Bill was thrown out by a majority of +ninety-five, and the Plan of Campaign on the part of tenants against the +payment of impossible rents was the result. + +A Royal Commission, under the chairmanship of Lord Cowper, was appointed +to inquire into the administration of the Land Laws. The Commission +reported in January, 1887, and bore out the grounds on which Parnell +had based his Bill of the previous year. It felt "constrained to +recommend an earlier revision of judicial rents on account of the +straitened circumstances of Irish farmers." It recommended that the term +of judicial rents should be lowered from fifteen years to five, that +those rents already fixed should be revised, and that leaseholders +should be brought under the Act of 1881. In reference to the Bill of the +year before Lord Salisbury had said that the revision of judicial rents +would not be honest and would be exceedingly inexpedient.[6] The Bill, +which is known as Lord Cadogan's, which was introduced on the last day +of March, 1887, and which purported to carry out the recommendations of +the Cowper Commission, opened the Land Court to leaseholders, setting +aside in this way the more solemn forms of agrarian contract. As regards +authorising the reduction of judicial rents on the ground of the fall in +prices, it did nothing, and the Prime Minister repeated his opinion that +"to do so would be to lay your axe at the root of the fabric of +civilised society."[7] + +Mr. Balfour, who, in the month of March, had become Chief Secretary, +proclaimed with equal force that it would be folly and madness to break +these solemn contracts.[8] In the Bill, as at first brought in, the +Court had, in fact, power to vary contracts by fixing a composition for +outstanding debts and determining the period over which payment should +extend. In May the Government accepted the principle that the Court +should not only do this (settle the sum due by an applicant for relief +for outstanding debt), but also should fix a reasonable rent for the +rest of the term. The Ulster tenants insisted on this, but, at the +bidding of the landlords, it was subsequently withdrawn, and, finally, +in July the Premier summoned his party and, telling them that if the +Bill were not altered Ulster would be lost to the Unionist cause, passed +into law a Bill sanctioning a general revision of judicial rents for +three years, and in this way did the Tories lower rents in breach of a +clause in the Act of 1881 that guaranteed rents fixed under its +provisions for a term of fifteen years. + +As a speaker of the day put it--"You have the Prime Minister rejecting +in April the policy which in May he accepts, rejecting in June the +policy which he had accepted in May, and then in July accepting the +policy which he had rejected in June, and which had been within a few +weeks declared by himself and his colleagues to be inexpedient and +dishonest, to be madness and folly, and to be laying an axe to the very +root of the fabric of civilised society." + +When the advance of five millions for land purchase under the Act of +1885 was nearly exhausted, a further sum of equal amount was earmarked +for the same purpose in 1888. Lord Randolph Churchill in 1889 expressed +the opinion that something like L100,000,000 of credit should be pledged +to effect purchase. In 1891 Mr. Balfour authorised the devotion of a +further sum of L33,000,000 for this purpose. The whole of the +purchase-money was to be advanced by the State by the issue of +guaranteed land stock, limited to the amount stated, and giving a +dividend at two and three-quarters per cent., repayment being effected +in forty-nine years by the purchaser by the payment of an annuity on his +holding of four per cent. The Act was too complicated to work well, but +under its provisions 30,000 sales occurred, in comparison with 25,000 +which had been effected under the Acts of 1885 and 1888. The passing of +this Act marks the close of the experimental stage in land purchase. +Under the Land Act of 1896 was asserted the principle of compulsory sale +in the case of estates in the Landed Estates Court, whose duty it was to +sell bankrupt property, if they came under certain specified conditions, +and if a receiver had been appointed to them. + +This roused the fury of the landlords to the highest pitch. "You would +suppose," said Sir Edward Carson, "the Government were revolutionists +verging on socialism.... I ask myself whether they are mad or I am mad? +I am quite sure one of us must be mad." In spite of denunciations of +this order the clause respecting compulsory sale of the estates +mentioned was passed, occupying tenants having in those cases the right +of pre-emption. Under its provisions the period for the repayment of the +money advanced was extended to sixty-eight years. The annuity payable by +the tenant during the first decade was to be calculated and made payable +upon the total purchase-money advanced, but at the end of each of the +first three decennial periods, as the debt was reduced by the +accumulation of sinking fund, the annuity was to be re-calculated and +made payable on the portions of the advance remaining unpaid. Under the +Act every purchaser was to start with a reduction of not less than 25 +per cent. on the rent which he had hitherto paid, and this amount was to +be still further reduced by not less than 10 per cent. at the end of +each of the first three periods of ten years. This Act effected the sale +of 37,000 holdings. The applications for sale under it numbered 8,000 in +1898, and in the succeeding years the number steadily diminished, so +that they amounted in 1899 to 6,000, in 1900 to 5,000, and in 1901 to +only 3,000. The reasons for this are not difficult to find. The payment +in Consols was profitable so long as securities stood at a high figure, +but the expenses arising from the South African war resulted in a fall +of Stocks from 112 to 85, and as a result new terms for land purchase +became imperatively needed. In consequence Mr. Wyndham brought in a Bill +in 1902, which was, however, stillborn, but its withdrawal was +accompanied with a promise of legislation in the following session. The +situation in the winter of 1902 was critical. An Irish Land Trust had +been formed by the landlords to oppose the United Irish League, and on +the 1st of September there was issued a Viceregal proclamation, putting +the Coercion Act in force in Dublin and Limerick. By a curious +coincidence, the papers published the same day a letter from Captain +Shaw Taylor, an Irish landlord, inviting representatives of tenants and +landlords to meet in conference in Dublin and discuss a way out of the +agrarian _impasse_. The proposal was scouted by the _Times_, the _Daily +Express_, and the Dublin _Daily Express_, but was favourably received by +the Press in other quarters. A motion by Lord Mayo at the Landowners' +Convention, in favour of the conference, was rejected by 77 votes to 14. +A poll on the question being demanded, 4,000 landlords, each with an +estate of more than 500 acres, received voting papers, and of these +1,706 replied, 1,128 in favour and 578 against a conference, while the +small landlords were almost unanimously in its favour. A second appeal +was then made to the Landowners' Convention through its president, Lord +Abercorn, but an answer in the negative was received, for it went on to +say--"It would be merely to give long-discredited politicians a +certificate of good sense and of just views, we might almost say of +legislative capacity to sit in an Irish Parliament in Dublin, were we to +accept Captain Shaw Taylor's invitation to join them." + +The criticism of an unbiassed foreign observer on this attitude of rigid +cast-iron _non possumus_ is instructive. "Rappelons nous," writes M. +Bechaux, "que le parti irlandais au Parlement, si grossierement insulte +represente 4/5 du peuple irlandais, nous avons un specimen de l'esprit +reactionnaire et irreconciliable du landlordisme irlandais." In spite of +this the Conference met at the end of the year. The landlords' +representatives were:--Lord Dunraven, Lord Mayo, Col. Hutcheson Poee, and +Col. Nugent Everard; and those of the tenants were:--Mr. John Redmond, +Mr. W. O'Brien, Mr. T.W. Russell, and Mr. T.C. Harrington. On the 3rd +January, 1903, a joint report to serve as the basis of the new Bill was +issued. + +The Report was in favour of purchase as the only possible policy to be +carried out on such terms that the yearly payments of the tenants +should be 15 to 25 per cent. lower than second term rents, while the sum +received by the landlords was to be such as at 3 or 3-1/4 per cent. +interest would yield them the same income as second term rents, less 10 +per cent. deduction, as an equivalent for the cost of collection under +the old system. The difference between these two sums was to be bridged +by a bonus from the Treasury to the landlords in the interests of +agrarian peace. The Report was further in favour of enlarging small +holdings by dividing up grazing lands, and under it evicted tenants who, +as such, were not entitled to have judicial rents fixed were to be given +the option to purchase. + +Second term rents are those fixed for the second judicial period of +fifteen years under the Act of 1881, and they were on an average 37 per +cent. less than those before the passing of that Act. + +Under the Act which Mr. Wyndham introduced on March 25th, 1903, the +Treasury may advance a sum up to one hundred millions at 2-3/4 per cent. +interest, with another 1/2 per cent. sinking fund. The advances to the +tenants, which are limited to L5,000 or, in exceptional circumstances, +L7,000, are made in cash by the Land Commissioners, of whom three, +serving as the Estates Commissioners, are expressly responsible for the +working of the Act. A Treasury loan at 2-3/4 per cent. provides the +necessary funds. Under the Act the issue of this Stock was limited to +five million pounds a year for the first three years, but in January, +1905, this was changed to a sum of six million. By adding to the 2-3/4 +per cent. interest which the tenants pay on the loan the further sum of +1/2 per cent. which they contribute to sinking fund for repayment, we +arrive at 3-1/4 per cent. which they have to pay for sixty-eight and a +half years to obtain the fee-simple of their land. The security which +Mr. Wyndham produced for the repayment of interest was the credit of the +Irish peasantry, of whom, out of more than seventy thousand purchasers +owing an eighth of a million to the State under previous Purchase Acts, +only two had incurred bad debts, which, as being irrecoverable, had +fallen on the taxpayer. As a further safeguard the payment is secured by +the annual grants-in-aid paid by the Treasury to the County Councils, +which can be withheld on default to pay interest on purchase advances. +In order to facilitate sales the system of "zones," which has been so +much canvassed, was devised. Under it the Estates Commissioners are +bound to make advances of purchase-money in all cases in which the total +annuity paid by the tenant ranges from 10 to 40 per cent. less than the +rent which he has hitherto paid. If it be a first term rent the +reduction must be at least 20 and not more than 40 per cent. less, and +if it be a second term rent there must be a reduction of not less than +10 and not more than 30 per cent. It will be, perhaps, clearer if put in +this way. If a first term rent amounts to L100, then the +tenant-purchaser has to pay at least L60, and at most L80, as annuity, +while if the L100 represent second term rent the yearly payment varies +from a minimum of L70 to a maximum of L90. + +If purchases are proposed outside the zones, in which, that is to say, +the annuity proposed is under 10 or over 40 per cent. of the judicial +rent, the estate must, before sales are effected, be surveyed by the +Estates Commissioners in order that they may see whether the security is +sound, and whether the equitable rights of all parties concerned seem to +be safeguarded, and without this sanction advances will not be made in +the case of sales in these circumstances. The amount received by the +landlord, of course, does not, if invested in Trust Securities at 3-1/4 +per cent., provide the same income as did his rent roll, even when one +takes into account the 10 per cent. for collection to which we have +referred. On the other hand, he is secured from the possibility of +further reductions in rent in the future, and there is a likelihood that +the securities in which he invests may rise, but, in addition to this, +a sum of twelve millions of bonus is to be devoted to bridge the gap +between his former rent from the tenant and his present income from his +investments. + +Under this provision every landlord gets 12 per cent. bonus on his sale, +and this sum is part of his life estate, and need not, therefore, be +invested in trust securities, but may be invested in stock yielding a +higher rate of interest. This point was not clear in the Act of 1903, +but was explicitly enacted in an amending Act of 1904. + +In order further to accelerate sale an investigation of title deeds, +documents which a great English lawyer--Lord Westbury--once described as +"difficult to decipher, disgusting to touch, and impossible to +understand," is not necessary prior to sale; for an enjoyment for six +years of the rents of an estate brings with it the right to sell, and +proof of title is needed only after purchase has been completed in order +that the vendor may establish his right of disposal of the proceeds, and +as further inducement he gets a sum not exceeding one full year's +arrears of rent, or at most 5 per cent. of the purchase price. + +The good results which have accrued where a peasant proprietary has +arisen are admitted on all sides. Mr. Long himself, in words which form +an illuminating commentary on landlordism, confessed that the blessings +and advantages of a change of ownership are obvious. Everyone is agreed +that the happiness, bred of security on the part of the occupying owner, +brings in its train sobriety and industry. The business of the gombeen +man is going, and one may well hope to see arise before long that thrift +and energy characteristic of the peasant proprietor, whether in France, +Belgium, or Lombardy. + +It must not be forgotten, however, that land purchase to bring peace +must be universal. In 1901 the De Freyne tenants rebelled against the +payment to their landlord of a rent which was 25 to 30 per cent. higher +than the purchase annuities paid by the neighbouring tenants on the +Dillon estate, which had been bought up by the Congested Districts +Board. Under the Wyndham Act there are in progress reductions of annual +charges, ranging from 10 to 40 per cent., on holdings adjacent to those +where either the landlord is recalcitrant and refuses to sell or where +the slowness of administration has delayed progress and secured no sale, +and, as a result, dissatisfaction reigns among the less fortunate +tenants. + +According to the last report of the Estates Commissioners nearly 90,000 +holdings had been sold in the period of the application of the Act, from +November 1st, 1903, to March 31st, 1906. The total price of all the +sales agreed upon was nearly forty millions, but the amount advanced by +the Commission was less than ten millions. There is little doubt that +the number of agreements for sale would have been half as many again but +for the lack of money and administrative powers. One of the Estates +Commissioners, in his evidence before the Arterial Drainage Commission, +stated that under the Land Purchase Acts passed before that of 1903 in +twenty-five years 75,000 tenants had purchased at a price of twenty-five +millions, and if to these are added the ninety thousand purchasers under +the Act of Mr. Wyndham the result is seen that nearly a third of the +tenants have in the last quarter of a century become occupying owners. + +The immense acceleration in the rate of sale which these figures +indicate, leads one to ask how far the sales under the Wyndham Act have +been as advantageous to the tenants as those concluded under former +statutes. In the first place, it must be noted that more than +four-fifths of the direct sales which have occurred have taken place +under the zones. When the price proposed is above the zones the reason +why inspection is demanded is obviously that the solvency of the +purchaser, with which the State, as creditor, is concerned, is in +question. The minimum limit of the zones was said to be necessary to +protect those with rights superior to those of the landlord, but, as was +observed, the value of land does not depend on the mortgages with which +it is charged. In view of the modern methods by which, on purchase, +there is a Treasury guarantee, inspection before sale tends to reduce +the price, and the absence of inspection under the zones has tended to +enhance prices. It must be further noticed that the minimum price fixed +by the zones is higher than the mean price of sales effected under +Purchase Acts from 1885 to 1903, and by this method in the case of every +sale brought about without the delay of inspection, the provisions of +the Act have secured an artificial inflation of price for the benefit of +the landlord, amounting to a minimum of one year's rent. The reduction +of the annuity payable by the tenants from 4 per cent. to 3-1/4 per +cent, of the capital has served to obscure the amount of purchase price +paid by tenants who are apt to fail to appreciate the fact that the +annuity is payable over a more extended period of years, and the +provisions as to the sale and re-purchase of demesnes have at the same +time secured for the landlords themselves facilities for obtaining +advances of ready money on reasonable terms. These are the factors in +the Wyndham Act which have made M. Paul-Dubois declare of it +that--"Emanee d'un gouvernment, ami des landlords, elle cache mal, sous +un apparence d'impartialite d'adroits efforts pour faire aux landlords +de la part belle pour hausser en leur faveur le prix de la terre." + +The average price per acre for the five years before 1903 was L8 9s.; +since the Act it has been L13 4s., or taking into account the bonus L15. +The prices before the Wyndham Act rarely exceeded eighteen years' +purchase, and were, moreover, paid in Land Stock and without a bonus. +Under this Act the reasons which I have tried to outline have brought it +to pass that twenty-five years of second term rents are being paid in +cash, which, with the bonus, makes the total purchase price amount to +twenty-eight years. Hence it is that there is widespread anxiety in +Ireland lest land is being sold under the zones at prices which the Land +Commission, had it been entitled to inspect, would have been unable to +sanction as offering a safe security, seeing that the purchaser must pay +his annuity for sixty-eight years without hope of reduction--a danger, +in the event of bad seasons, which might have been diminished if the +sinking fund had been fixed at a higher rate and the decadal reductions +of earlier Acts retained, so as to reduce the incidence of the burden in +its later stages. This, be it noted, is one of the points in which the +provisions of the Act differ from the recommendations of the Land +Conference. + +I have referred already to the block in sales under the Act owing to the +scarcity of money which is forthcoming to meet sales already effected. +By the financial provisions of the statute, so as not to demoralise the +market, a definite check was put upon the issue of the land stock, and +just before the late Government resigned Mr. Long, as Chief Secretary, +made a proposal, which was not received with enthusiasm by the parties +concerned, that the landlords should in future be paid partly in stock +at a nominal value and partly in cash. Nothing has since been done, and +the only step taken so far has been the appointment of a judge in +addition to those formerly so engaged, to accelerate the judicial +inquiries necessitated by the process of transfer. The whole cost of the +finance of the Act falls on the Irish taxpayer, and before the +introduction of Mr. Wyndham's proposal the idea was mooted--only to be +abandoned--of reviving a proposal made by Sir Robert Giffen in the +_Economist_ twenty years ago, which would have made the annuities paid +on purchase the basis of the funds from which the local bodies in +Ireland would draw their revenue, while the Imperial Exchequer would be +relieved to an equivalent amount by deductions from its grants to local +services. + +The cost of the flotation of the Land Stock is borne by the Irish +Development Fund of L185,000 per annum, which is the share of Ireland, +equivalent to the grant for the increased cost of education in England +under the Act of 1902. More than one-half of this fund has already been +hypothecated for the costs of flotation of the twenty millions of Land +Stock which have already been issued, and under the present system of +finance, after a further issue of another twenty millions of stock, the +whole loss will be thrown on the County Councils, and through them on +the ratepayers, who have already been called upon to pay L70,000 to meet +certain of the losses in this connection, which amount to twelve per +cent. of the value of the stock floated. + +The breaking up of the grazing lands, which in many instances the +landlords are keeping back from the market, has not met with much +success under the Act, and it is difficult to see how compulsion is to +be avoided if the country is to be saved from the economically +disastrous position of having established in it a number of occupying +owners on tenancies which are not large enough to secure to them a +living wage. + +Under the Land Act of 1891 was created the Congested Districts Board, +with an annual income of L55,000, for the purpose of promoting the +permanent improvement of the backward districts of the West. The +districts which come under its control are those which answer the +following test, that more than twenty per cent. of the population of a +county live in electoral divisions, of which the total rateable value +gives a sum of less than 30s. per head of population. Such electoral +divisions occur in the nine counties of Kerry, Cork, Galway, Mayo, +Clare, Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo, Donegal. In these counties there are +1,264 electoral divisions, of which 429 are congested. The setting up of +particular districts as "congested" is, of course, quite arbitrary. +There may be places outside the congested areas the condition of which +is much worse than that of some of the congested districts, but if the +population of these districts does not form one-fifth of that of the +whole county they are ruled out of the scope of the Board's activities. + +The conditions which subsist in them have been ably described by M. +Bechaux from personal observation, and he declares that the standard of +living is lower than in any other country of Western Europe. Their +inhabitants number more than half a million--that is to say, 10 per +cent. of the total population of the island. Most of them have farms of +two to four acres, and they pay from a few shillings to several pounds +for rent. In many instances the rent which they pay is rather for a roof +than for the soil. They eke out a precarious livelihood by migration to +England, for there is but little demand for agricultural labour owing to +the prevalence of pasture in the West. Fishing has served as a secondary +source of income, and kelp burning was a profitable addition to their +means until the discovery of iodine in Peru sent down the price to a +marked extent. + +The right of turbary, which nearly every tenancy possesses, is the one +thing which has kept this population from starvation, and in the case of +seaside tenancies a further gain accrues from the use made of seaweed as +manure, which, owing to the absence of stall-feeding, is only to be +obtained in this way. Home industries, such as weaving, form another +source of profit, and last, but not least, must be reckoned the money +sent home by relatives who have emigrated to America. Calves, pigs, and +poultry are maintained in these circumstances, and, owing to the sale of +the best of the stock, the breed has steadily deteriorated. In the +winter months potatoes, milk, and tea are the main articles of diet, and +after the potato harvest is used up American meal, ground from maize, +and American bacon of the worst possible kind take their place. The +bacon of their own pigs is far too expensive for them to eat. The maize +flour serves also as fodder for the live stock, and the oats which are +grown are-eaten as gruel by the people as well as by the animals which +they rear. The Congested Districts Board was established to remedy, as +far as possible, this state of things--primarily by reorganising +tenancies and amalgamating them into economic holdings, and at the same +time enlarging them by the purchase of untenanted land, followed by its +addition to existing tenancies. The slowness of its operations is seen +from the fact that after fourteen years it had purchased less than +240,000 acres, of which three-quarters were untenanted land, while the +whole extent of the congested districts is more than three and a half +million acres. In justice to the Board, however, one must add that it +has concerned itself with many other branches of rural economy--notably +the improvement of the breed of horses, cattle, and pigs, the sale at +cost price of chemical manures and seed, the making of harbours and +roads, and the sale on instalment terms of fishing boats. + +It is impossible to exaggerate the work done by the Board on the Dillon +estate in Counties Mayo and Roscommon and in Clare Island. But when one +reads in the Report for 1906--the fifteenth annual report of the +Board--that since its establishment the Board has enlarged 1,220 +tenures, re-arranged 537, and created 220, and realises, further, that +there are in Ireland 200,000 uneconomic holdings, one may well ask what +are these among so many? + +Under the Act of 1903 the Board's purchases are financed by the Land +Commission, and the results are to be seen in an acceleration of +purchases, for while in the twelve years 1891 to 1903 the Board had +bought about 200,000 acres, of which less than 45,000 were unlet land, +in the three years from November, 1903, to the end of March, 1905, the +acreage bought was over 160,000 acres, of which 48,000 were unlet, and +negotiations were in progress for the transfer of another 100,000 acres, +of which 20,500 were unlet. + +Under the Act, however, in the case of "Congested Estates," which are +defined as those in which one-half at least of the holdings are of +valuation of L5 or under, or which consist of mountain or bog, the Land +Commission is empowered to purchase and re-sell to the tenants, even at +a loss, so long as the total loss on the purchase and improvements of +these holdings does not exceed 10 per cent. of the cost of the total +sales effected in the course of the same year. The amendments of the +House of Lords, however, made the part of the Act dealing with this +question a dead letter, and the Land Commissioners have given up the +attempt to put it in force. The landlords, having a choice between sale +direct to their tenants and to the Land Commission, have refused to give +their consent to the declaration of their estate as a congested estate, +which is necessary for the application of this section, unless they +receive a guarantee that the holdings shall not be sold to the tenants +at a lower price than they themselves could have obtained. The result is +that if the Commissioners were to pay these maximum prices there would +be nothing left for them out of which to make the necessary +improvements, and, in consequence, this provision of the Act has been a +failure. + +As regards the evicted tenants, the first condition in the settlement +arrived at by the Land Conference, and embodied in the Wyndham Act, was +that they--the wounded soldiers in the land war, as they have been +called--to whose sacrifices in the common cause is due the ameliorative +legislation enacted by Parliament, should be restored to their holdings. +In actual practice, by means of restrictive instructions issued by the +late Government to the Commissioners, two of whom protested against this +action in their report for 1906, the provisions of the Act which +promised this reinstatement were made a dead letter--the Executive once +again, in a historic phrase, driving a coach and four through the +statute. + +With the advent to power of the Liberal Government these instructions +were withdrawn, but a further serious obstacle was to be found in the +refusal of some landlords--and those, too, the worst--to allow their +estates to be inspected with a view to find holdings for evicted +tenants. This was the condition of affairs to which Mr. Bryce--at that +time Chief Secretary--referred, when he said--"If the remedy for this +state of things is compulsion, then to compulsion for that remedy we +must go." + +It is to be observed that the three Estates Commissioners were unanimous +in thinking compulsion necessary, and that which was demanded was that +the occupants, or planters, who in some cases have been _bona fide_ +farmers, but whom the Land Commission inspectors reported had in many +cases allowed the land to get into a bad and dirty state, should, on +dispossession, be generously compensated or given their choice of other +lands. It was originally thought that one thousand would be the limit of +the number of applications which would be made for reinstatement, but, +in the event, out of ten thousand tenants evicted in the last quarter of +a century, such applications were made in 6,700 cases, and some notion +of the poverty of these peasants who were turned out upon the roadside +may be inferred from the fact that nearly one-half paid a rental of less +than L10 a year. + +At the beginning of the session of 1907, out of the total number of +applicants 1,300 had been rejected as not coming within the scope of the +provisions relating to them, and 650, or less than 10 per cent. of the +whole number who applied, had been reinstated. In the case of more than +half the total number of applicants no report had been made, and in more +than 450 cases, including, of course, those on the Clanricarde and Lewis +estates, inspection of the property had been, as it is still, refused by +the landlords. At this juncture Mr. Birrell declared that further +legislation was imperatively needed, and to this announcement Mr. Walter +Long replied that he accepted the view of his predecessor, Mr. Wyndham, +as to the bargain which had been come to in regard to this question, and +he went on to say:--[9] + +"There can be no doubt whatever that in the interest not merely of these +unfortunate people, whatever their past history may have been, but in +the interest of the successful working of the Land Purchase Act, their +reinstatement is looked upon as an essential element and a thing +promised by Parliament." + +The voluntary system, to which a tentative agreement was given under the +Act of 1903, having broken down, the Evicted Tenants Bill was designed +as a tardy act of justice to remove the cause for disaffection on the +part of a tenantry to which Mr. T.W. Russell paid a notable tribute the +other day as being not naturally lawless, but in point of fact the most +God-fearing, purest-minded, and simplest peasantry on the face of the +earth. That his diagnosis, that unrest is merely the product of +suffering under cruel circumstances, is valid, is illustrated by the +complete restoration of peace on the Massereene estate, when, on the +death of the late peer, the planters were replaced by the tenants who +had been evicted. + +The land which it was proposed to affect by the Bill was a mere matter +of some 80,000 acres, a bagatelle to the landed interest of Ireland, but +involving vital consequences to the poverty-stricken peasants of the +West. It was a Bill, as the Lord Chancellor declared, to deal with the +tail of an agrarian revolution, and to effect this with the minimum of +suffering, compulsory powers and a simple and expeditious procedure were +demanded, but in spite of the lip service which Unionists paid to the +principles involved, in spite of their admissions that it proposed only +to carry out their part of the agreement, arrived at no less than four +years ago; by their amendments in the House of Lords, introducing +limitations and appeals involving delays and costs, they succeeded in +large measure in destroying the value of the measure. One can understand +the attitude of Lord Clanricarde, who roundly denounced the whole +proposal as "tainted with the callous levity of despotism," but it is +difficult to speak charitably of the members of the Opposition, who, +while repeatedly protesting their anxiety to see the evicted tenants +restored, took care, through the agency of the House of Lords, to place +every possible obstacle in the way of their speedy re-instatement. + +Many of the amendments designed by the House of Lords were proposed by +two of the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, who sit in that House primarily +as judges, and who are supposed to keep free from political +entanglements. They aimed at an enhancement of the prices at which +compulsory purchase should take effect, with a view, it was admitted by +their organs in the Press, to afford a precedent for further schemes of +land purchase at large. Of this nature was the compensation which they +demanded--fortunately without success--in accordance with the provisions +of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, which, if accepted by +Government, would have given to the landlords on sale a douceur of 10 +per cent. in addition to the 12 per cent. bonus which they already enjoy +over and above the market value of the land, and the fixation of such a +price would have prevented any reinstatement, for this reason, that the +instalments of the tenants in those circumstances would have been too +high to have been within the means of the tenants whom it was proposed +to reinstate. + +There was a curious irony in the spectacle of the House of Lords +standing out for the principle of fixity of tenure, and defending tooth +and nail the tenant-right of a few hundred planters, when little more +than thirty years ago this same body offered the most relentless +opposition to any recognition of the right of compensation for +disturbance on the part of four millions of Irish tenants. In this +matter the Lords gained their point, and compulsory powers are not to be +applied under the Act to the holdings on which the landlords have placed +planters, who are held to be _bona fide_ farmers. An amendment to this +effect was thrown out by the House of Commons, by a majority of more +than four to one, on a division in which only 66 voted for the +amendment, but although the Bill in its original form offered sitting +tenants the fullest compensation ever offered to such persons, and +although most of the planters would be only too glad to accept such +terms, the Upper House insisted on over-riding the will of the great +majority in the Commons. + +Lord Lansdowne, on the second reading, gave three reasons why the Bill +should not be incontinently rejected by the Peers. In the first place, +it came to them, he said, supported by an enormous majority in the other +House, "and their Lordships always desired to treat attentively and +respectfully Bills which came to them with such a recommendation." +Secondly, the late Government, as well as the present, had pledged +themselves to a measure of reinstatement of some kind, and if they threw +out the Bill on a second reading "it would be said that they had receded +from a kind of understanding arrived at in 1903," and lastly, "the +summary rejection of the Bill might greatly increase the difficulties of +the Executive Government in Ireland." One would have thought that the +fact that the Bill was given a second reading did little to exonerate +the Upper House from similar consequences as a result of their +mutilation of the Bill in Committee. + +In its final form the Act allows an appeal on questions of value from +the inspector, to two Estates Commissioners, and from them to Mr. +Justice Wylie, sitting as Judicial Commissioner with a valuer. On +questions of price there is no appeal from him. Other appeals, on +questions of law and fact, are, by Section 6, to be heard by a Judge of +the King's Bench, with whom rests the final decision whether a +particular planter is or is not to be evicted. Demesne lands and other +lands, purchase of which would interfere with the value of adjoining +property, are omitted from the scope of the statute, and its operation +is limited to the case of 2,000 tenants, whose claims must be disposed +of within four years. The power vested in the Estates Commissioners +compulsorily to acquire untenanted land, not necessarily their former +holdings, for the reinstatement of the evicted tenants, is of no +practical value in the case of the Clanricarde estate, since all the +land on it is occupied, and the fact that on that plague-spot--the +nucleus of the whole disturbance--no settlement will be possible under +the Act, shows to what an extent was justified Mr. Birrell's declaration +that the final form of the statute was a triumph for Lord Clanricarde, +and affords a curious commentary on the repeated declarations of the +Unionist leaders, that nothing was further from their desire than to +effect the wrecking of the Bill.[10] + +Rejection of similar measures of relief--notably the Tenants' +Compensation Bill of 1880--has led in the past to a recrudescence of +strife in Ireland, and Mr. Balfour's unworthy retort to Mr. Redmond's +deduction from every precedent in the history of the struggle for the +land, that it was an incitement to lawlessness, was a mere partisan +retort to an avowal of a danger which every unbiassed observer must see +arises from the betrayal by the House of Lords of a confidence in a +final settlement which was formerly encouraged by a Conservative Govern +merit. + +One of the weapons used by the Orangemen in their attack on this Bill +was to be found in their repeated insinuations as to the unfitness of +the Estates Commissioners to exercise dispassionately the functions +which would be demanded of them. In this the Unionists were hoist with +their own petard, for the necessity recognised by the Government for +placing the Estates Commissioners in a position other than that of mere +Executive officers, by giving them a judicial tenure independent of +ministerial pressure or party influences, was strongly shown by the +incident of the Moore-Bailey correspondence of last session, which +should provide food for reflection on the part of those who imagine that +intimidation is to be found in Ireland in use only on the National side. +Mr. Moore, the most active of the Orangemen, asked in a supplementary +question whether it was not a fact that the delay in the Estates +Commissioners' Office was due to Mr. Commissioner Bailey's continued +presence in London. These visits, it should be noted, were paid to +London by Mr. Bailey in the discharge of his official duties for the +purpose of consultations with the Government in connection with the +Evicted Tenants Bill. On reading in the papers Mr. Moore's question +implying negligence to his duties on his part, Mr. Bailey wrote to Mr. +Moore the following letter, marked private:-- + + "UNIVERSITY CLUB, + + "DUBLIN, March, 1907. + + "DEAR MOORE,--I see that as a supplemental question you asked + the other day whether the delay in land purchase was due to the + continued absence of Mr. Bailey. I do not know, of course, what + was your object, but it may interest you to know that for the + last year I attended more days in the office than either of my + colleagues, and that, as a matter of fact, I did not take much + more than half the vacation to which I was entitled. You will + thus see that you have been strangely misinformed, and I can + only surmise that another of my colleagues was meant. + + "Faithfully yours, + + "W.F. BAILEY." + +To this Mr. Moore replied:-- + + "ULSTER CLUB, + + "BELFAST, March 19th. + + "DEAR BAILEY,--You were appointed by a Unionist Government to + see fair play between Wrench and Finucane, and you have sold + the pass on every occasion. The first thing my colleagues and I + will do when we come back, which will not be very far off, will + be to press for an inquiry into the working of your department. + You can destroy your evidence now, and show this to whom you + please. + + "Yours truly, + + "W. MOORE." + +In reply the Estates Commissioner wrote:-- + + "Mr. Bailey desires to acknowledge receipt of Mr. Moore's + letter of the 19th inst., and inasmuch as it contains grave + statements of a threatening and unfounded character he will + take an early opportunity of bringing the matter under notice + in the proper quarter." + +The final letter was Mr. Moore's reply:-- + + "ULSTER CLUB, + + "BELFAST, March 25th. + + "Mr. Moore hopes that when Mr. Bailey publishes the + correspondence he will make it clear that Mr. Moore's reply was + directed to a disloyal attack by Mr. Bailey on one of his + colleagues in his letter to Mr. Moore. This is all that was + omitted from Mr. Moore's reply." + +The next step in this discreditable incident occurred on July 23rd, on +which day Mr. Moore denounced Mr. Bailey in the House of Commons for his +partisanship towards the Nationalists, and gave a graphic picture of the +private letter which Mr. Bailey had written to him to protest against +his personal attacks. Mr. Redmond rose and asked that Mr. Russell should +read to the House Mr. Moore's reply, and Mr. Russell thereupon read the +second of the letters given above, upon which Mr. Balfour, regardless of +his own share in the partial suppression of the Wyndham-MacDonnell +_dossier_ a few years before, demanded the production of the whole +correspondence. This was done on July 26th, when Mr. Moore read the +letters in the order given above. In his personal explanation he +represented it as an extremely suspicious circumstance that Mr. Bailey +had been seen in the Lobby in conversation with the Nationalists. "That +may be legitimate," he said, "but I think it very undesirable," and in +the very next breath he confessed that another of the Commissioners was +a particular and personal friend of his own, to whom he would have shown +the first letter from Mr. Bailey if it had not been marked private. + +The comment of the _Times_--in which Mr. Moore as a rule finds an active +admirer of his political methods--is interesting:-- + +"Mr. Bailey is a public servant entrusted with certain quasi-judicial +functions. That a member of Parliament, whatever may be his opinions of +the conduct of such an official, should inform him that he had been +appointed 'to see fair play' between his colleagues, and that he had not +seen it, and should couple this charge with a promise to press for an +inquiry into the working of the department whenever there should be a +change of Government, is indefensible." + +The whole incident is worthy of attention as showing the atmosphere of +suspicious hostility with which the Orange faction in Ireland surrounds +every act even of Civil Servants and Executive Officers who are not as +active supporters of the ascendancy as they would wish. + +Of further legislation dealing with the laws of tenure, the Town Tenants +Act of 1906, which Mr. Balfour denounced as highway robbery, gives +tenants in towns compensation for disturbance so as to prevent a +landlord making a vexatious use of his rights. An attempt was made by +the House of Lords to limit the compensation so paid to one year's rent, +but the rejection of the amendment by the House of Commons was +acquiesced in, and no such limitation exists in the Act. + +With regard to the question of the agricultural labourers, the fact that +the last Census Report discloses that there are in Ireland nearly 10,000 +"houses" with one room and one window apiece, wretched cabins inhabited +by about 40,000 people, the peat smoke from the fire in which escapes +through a hole in the thatch, gives some idea of the miserable +conditions existing in parts of the West of Ireland. Of the quarter of a +million of cottages in the second class of the Census--those, that is, +with from one to four doors and windows--a large number also no doubt +are quite unfit for habitation, and do much in the way of leading to the +asylum or to emigration. It is to secure the replacement of these by +cheap sanitary and comfortable cottages that the Labourers' Acts, ever +since the first of the series introduced by the Irish Party in 1883, +have been passed. By them Boards of Guardians, and by the Local +Government Act, Rural District Councils, may build such cottages. In +1905, 18,000 cottages had been built under existing Acts, and they are +let to tenants at rents of from 10d. to 1s. a week, but the difficulty +had always been to effect the improvements sufficiently rapidly owing to +the costly and elaborate procedure which involved an appeal to the Privy +Council and a heavy burden on the rates of a poverty-stricken community. +The Act of 1906 has simplified procedure by replacing the appeal to the +Privy Council by an appeal to the Local Government Board, and that it +was needful is seen from the fact that under Wyndham's Act only 25 +cottages were built. It is hoped thereby to circumvent the apathy of +District Councils, and their parsimony is to be appeased by the fact +that the funds, which are largely derived from economics in the Irish +Executive are advanced at a rate of interest, not as heretofore of 4-7/8 +per cent., but, as in the case of land purchase advances, of 3-1/4 per +cent., repayable in a period of 68-1/2 years. The urgency of the problem +is obvious. The bearing of this state of affairs in rural housing on the +fact that in 1904 two out of every thirteen deaths were due to +tuberculosis shows that it is impossible to overestimate its importance, +and I think that this condition of things, put side by side with the +other economic facts with which I have dealt, are a sufficient reply to +those who declare that conditions in Ireland would appear _couleur de +rose_ were they not seen through the jaundiced eyes of a discontented +people. + +If the catalogue of Acts of Parliament which have been found necessary +to effect the transformation of the system of tenure in Ireland from the +state in which it was forty years ago to that in which it is to-day is +evidence of the pressing grievance under which the country has suffered; +it is also proof that there cannot be legislation other than by shreds +and patches on the part of a legislature which lacks sympathy for and +knowledge of the country for which it is making laws. + +The need for exceptional and separate legislation in Ireland has been +admitted, and the system which existed in fact, obtained legal sanction +only in 1881, to be in its turn swept away by further legislation which +will have a deeper economic bearing on the future of the country than +any other change since the relaxation of the Penal Laws. For the rest I +cannot do better than quote, in this connection, the opinion of the most +dispassionate critic of Ireland of recent years--Herr Moritz Bonn. +Speaking of the landlord who has sold his estate he says--"He has no +further cause of friction with his former tenants, who now pay him no +rent. He no longer regards himself as part of an English garrison. He +will again become an Irish patriot. He no longer talks of the unity of +the Empire, for Home Rule has few terrors for him now. He talks of +'Devolution,' of the concession of a kind of self-government for +Ireland. He will struggle for a while against the designation Home Rule, +because not so long ago he was declaring that he would die in the last +ditch for the union of the three kingdoms, but he will soon be +reconciled to it. It will not be very long till the former landlords, +whose chief interests lie in Ireland, have become enthusiastic +Nationalists." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION + + "I am convinced that if the void in the lay leadership of the + country be filled up by higher education of the better classes + among the Catholic laity, the power of the priests, so far as + it is abnormal or unnecessary, will pass away." + + --DR. O'DEA, now Bishop of Clonfert, speaking in evidence + before the Robertson Commission on University Education, as + the representative of Maynooth College. Appendix to Third + Report, p. 296. + + +The scruples of George III., who although as King of Ireland he yielded +to the claims of Catholics to the suffrage by giving the Royal consent +to the enfranchising Act of Grattan's Parliament in 1793, were such that +they made him declare that his coronation oath compelled him to maintain +the Protestantism of the United Parliament of the three kingdoms and +express himself to Dundas of opinion that Pitt's emancipation proposals +were "the most Jacobinical thing ever seen." + +The continuance for thirty years of these political disabilities, and +the obligation incumbent on Catholics to support an alien Church with +the full weight of endowments and tithes, did more than anything else to +maintain the wall of prejudice between the two creeds which the eighteen +years of Grattan's Parliament had done much to destroy. + +It was James Anthony Froude who said that the absenteeism of her men of +genius was a worse wrong to Ireland than the absenteeism of her +landlords. This evil the Union accentuated by reducing Dublin from the +seat of Government, which in the middle of the eighteenth century had +been the second only to London in size and importance, to the status of +a provincial city from which were drawn the leaders of that liberal +school of Protestantism the rise of which was the marked feature of +Irish politics at the end of the eighteenth century. + +The dividing line between parties in England has never been one of caste +or of creed, still less of both combined. In the past the Whigs could +claim as aristocratic and as exclusive a prestige as could the Tories. +In point of wealth there was little to choose, and, most important of +all, in respect of religion, though the minor clergy were very largely +Tory and the Dissenters were allied to the Whigs, yet the Anglicanism of +the great Whig families, and their appointments when in power to the +Episcopal bench and to other places of preferment, saved the Church of +England from being identified _in toto_ with either party in the State. + +In Ireland, unfortunately, the case was far different, for there +property and the Established Church found themselves ranged side by side +in the maintenance of their respective privileges against the democracy, +which, as it happened, was Catholic, and which for many years after the +Union did not recover from the long and demoralising persecution of the +Penal Laws. + +The aristocracy resisted emancipation, in spite of the fact that it was +advocated by all the greatest statesmen and orators of two generations, +and it did so quite as much because it was emancipation of the masses as +because it was emancipation of the Catholics. The Church of Ireland at +the same time dreaded the reform since it had the foresight to perceive +that the outcome would be an attack upon her prerogatives and an assault +upon her position. The anticipations of both were well founded. Nine +years after the Emancipation Act, tithe, which an English Prime Minister +had declared was as sacred as rent, was by Act of Parliament commuted +into a rent-charge no longer collected directly from the tenant, but +paid by the landlord, who, however, compensated himself for its +incidence on his shoulders by raising rents. Forty years later the +Church Act was passed, and almost simultaneously was begun the assault +on the land system which had given support to, and received it from, the +Church Establishment. + +I have heard it said by Englishmen who have watched the course of +politics for some years that the jingling watchword which Lord Randolph +Churchill coined for the Unionists twenty years ago, that Home Rule +would spell Rome Rule, if used again to-day would to a very great extent +fall flat. They have based this view, not on the assumption that +Englishmen love Rome more, but rather upon the opinion that they care +for all religions less, and that hence the appeal to bigotry would make +less play. + +The fact, however, remains that one meets men in England with every +sympathy for Irish claims who shrink nevertheless from the advocacy of +the principle of self-government through fear lest the Protestant +minority should suffer. This fear for the rights of minorities serves +always as the last ditch in which a losing cause entrenches itself, and +timid souls have always been found who hesitate at the approach of every +reform on the ground that the devil you know may turn out to be not so +bad as the devil you do not know. The legislative history of the House +of Lords during the last century, if examples of this were needed, would +provide them in large numbers; and as to the question of whether it is +better that the majority or the minority of a nation should be governed +against its will, one need scarcely say which is the principle adopted +in a normal system of Parliamentary government. The rapidity with which +under Grattan's Parliament an emancipated Ireland ceased to be +intolerant leads one to suspect that the bigotry of creeds which is +attributed to us as a race is not a natural characteristic, but rather +the outcome of external causes. This view is borne out by the opinion +of Lecky, who declared that the deliberate policy of English statesmen +was "to dig a deep chasm between Catholics and Protestants," and if +proof of the allegation is needed it is to be found in the fact that in +the middle of the eighteenth century the Protestant Primate, Archbishop +Boulter, wrote to Government concerning a certain proposal that "it +united Protestants and Papists, and if that conciliation takes place, +farewell to English influence in Ireland." + +Under Grattan's Parliament Trinity College, Dublin, opened its doors, +though not its endowments, to Catholics. In 1795 a petition from +Maynooth, the lay college in which was not till twenty years later +suppressed by Government for political reasons, was presented to the +Irish House of Commons by Henry Grattan, protesting against the +exclusion of Protestants from its halls. In the ranks of the Volunteers, +who secured free trade in 1779 and Parliamentary Independence in 1782, +Catholics and Protestants stood shoulder to shoulder, and the +independent legislature, which was the outcome of their efforts, granted +the franchise to the Catholics. + +It was of course natural, when Catholics were excluded from Parliament, +that the leaders of the people should have been members of the +Protestant Church, but in view of the alleged bigotry at the present day +of the mass of the Irish people it is surely significant that Isaac Butt +and Parnell were both members of the Church of minority, that to take +three of the fiercest opponents of the maintenance of the Union John +Mitchell was a Unitarian, Thomas Davis an Episcopalian Protestant, and +Joseph Biggar a Presbyterian. At this moment of the Nationalist Members +of Parliament nine, or more than ten per cent., are Protestants, and one +may well ask if the Orangemen have ever had a like proportion of +Catholic members of their party, and _a fortiori_ what would be thought +of the suggestion that a member of that religion should lead them in +the House of Commons. The difficulty experienced in Great Britain by +would-be candidates of either party in securing their adoption by local +associations if they are Catholics is so common as to make the excessive +bigotry alleged against the Irish Catholics, one-tenth of whose +representatives are Protestants, appear very much exaggerated. + +That bigotry exists among Catholics to some extent I should be the last, +albeit regretfully, to deny, but I leave it to the reader to judge how +far this is the result and the natural outcome of a policy the direct +opposite of that pursued in Scotland, where shortly after the union of +her Parliament with that of England, the Church of the majority of the +people was for the sake of peace established and has remained in this +privileged position ever since. In view of the use to which the "No +Popery" cry has been put in its bearings on the Irish question, it is +interesting to consider the relations of the English Government with the +Catholic Church throughout the last century and to see how far it throws +light on the justice and applicability of the taunt that Ireland is +priest-ridden. + +In 1814 the Catholics of England, in spite of the opposition of the +Irish people, secured from Mgr. Quarantotti, the Vice-Prefect of the +Propaganda in Rome, who was acting in the absence of Pope Pius VII., at +that date still a prisoner in France, a letter declaring that in his +judgment the Royal veto should be exercised on ecclesiastical +appointments in Ireland. Under O'Connell's leadership, the bishops, +clergy, and people of Ireland refused to submit to the decree, and +there, in spite of the indignation of the English Catholics as a whole +and of the Catholic aristocracy of Ireland, the proposal was allowed to +drop, which would have virtually given a right of _conge d'elire_ to the +English ministry. + +In 1782 Edmund Burke had written in his letter to a peer of Ireland on +the Penal Laws--"Never were the members of a religious sect fit to +appoint the pastors of another. It is a good deal to suppose that even +the present Castle would nominate bishops for the Irish Catholic Church +with a religious regard for its welfare." If this was the case under +Grattan's Parliament, its application thirty years later was very much +more cogent. Behind the scenes, however, the wires continued to be +pulled, as is seen by what Melbourne told Greville in 1835, after the +latter had expressed the opinion that the sound course in Irish affairs +was to open a negotiation with Rome.[11] "He then told me ... that an +application had been made to the Pope very lately (through Seymour) +expressive of the particular wish of the British Government that he +would not appoint MacHale to the vacant bishopric--anyone but him. But +on this occasion the Pope made a shrewd observation. His Holiness said +that he had remarked that no place of preferment of any value ever fell +vacant in Ireland that he did not get an application from the British +Government asking for the appointment. Lord Melbourne supposed that he +was determined to show that he had the power of refusal and of opposing +the wishes of the Government, and in reply to my questions he admitted +that the Pope had generally conferred the appointment according to the +wishes of the Government." + +These facts must be borne in mind on the part of those by whom the +admitted support given by the Whig Catholic "Castle Bishops" of the +early part of the nineteenth century to the Government is urged as +evidence of a consistent tendency on the part of the Church in Ireland, +the political views of the prelates of which, so soon as in the second +half of the nineteenth century Governmental lobbying ceased, were of an +entirely different colour. + +At a later date Greville returned to the topic and noted that[12] +"Palmerston said there was nothing to prevent our sending a minister to +Rome; but they had not dared to do it on account of their supposed +Popish tendencies. Peel might." Melbourne was not alone among Prime +Ministers of the time in his appeals to the Holy See. In 1844 the +Government of Sir Robert Peel, when troubled with the manifestations of +sympathy which O'Connell was arousing, made an appeal to Gregory XVI. to +discourage the agitation, and three years later, when the Whigs under +Lord John Russell were in office, Lord Minto, Lord Privy Seal, who was +Palmerston's father-in-law, was sent to Rome in the autumn recess to +secure the adherence of Pius IX., then in the first months of his +Pontificate, to the same line of action, and to bring to the notice of +His Holiness the conduct of the Irish priesthood in supporting +O'Connell. The fact that neither Gregory XVI. nor Pio Nono made any +response to these appeals lends point to the sardonic comment of +Disraeli on the Minto mission--that he had gone to teach diplomacy to +the countrymen of Machiavelli. The views of Palmerston, on the other +hand, are to be seen from a letter addressed to Minto, which is extant, +in which, with characteristic bluntness, the Foreign Secretary wrote +that public opinion against the Irish priests at home was so exasperated +that nothing would give English people more satisfaction than to see a +few of them hanged. + +"Can anything be more absurd," Greville had written concerning the +relations which Melbourne revealed to him as subsisting between Downing +Street and the Vatican, and the quotation is as appropriate to these +later overtures. "Can anything be more absurd or anomalous than such +relations as these? The law prohibits any intercourse with Rome, and the +Government, whose business it is to enforce the law, establishes a +regular, but underhand, intercourse through the medium of a diplomatic +agent, whose character cannot be avowed, and the ministers of this +Protestant kingdom are continually soliciting the Pope to confer +appointments, the validity, even the existence, of which they do not +recognise, while the Pope, who is the chief object of our abhorrence and +dread, good humouredly complies with all or nearly all their requests." + +Two years after the Minto mission, and a few months before he succeeded +to power in place of Peel, Lord John Russell told Charles Greville that +the Government was "the greatest curse to Ireland," and he spoke of +"their policy of first truckling to the Orangemen, insulting, and then +making useless concessions to the Catholics, without firmness and +justice."[13] It is only fair to Lord John to say that in the following +year he ordered a Bill to be drawn up to legalise intercourse with the +Pope and to put an end to these repeated acts of _praemunire_ on the part +of Ministers of the Crown; for a large number of constitutional +authorities believed that their action amounted to this offence, which +has been defined as consisting of acts tending to introduce into the +realm some foreign power, more particularly that of the Pope, to the +diminution of the King's authority. + +The Diplomatic Relations with the Court of Rome Bill was introduced and +passed into law, with one important amendment which we shall have +occasion to notice later, in 1848, less than two years after Peel's +ministry had been succeeded by that of Russell. The grounds upon which +its acceptance by Parliament was demanded were that the complications +resulting from the revolutionary crisis throughout the Continent made it +essential that the Foreign Office should be in a position, in dealing +with the chancelleries of Europe, to obtain direct recognition, and as a +result first-hand information, as to the attitude of the Holy See in any +situations which might arise; and the acceptance by Parliament of the +change of policy which the Bill was intended to effect, on the +understanding that diplomatic negotiations should be confined to foreign +affairs, may be seen in the words of Earl Fitzwilliam in the House of +Lords. In his speech in support of the Bill he declared that "the very +last subject upon which the Government should communicate with the +Court of Rome was that which had reference to relations which it should +have with its own Roman Catholic subjects."[14] + +The Act was an enabling Act, and its proposals, like those as to +concurrent endowment which Russell had made three years earlier, were +forgotten in 1850, when, in the matter of the Ecclesiastical Titles +Bill, the Prime Minister played the part which Leech immortalised as +that of "the little boy who chalked up 'No Popery' and then ran away." + +Even in the interval before this occurred the provisions of the Act were +not put in force. No appointment pursuant to the statute was ever made, +but its object was indirectly secured by the fact that a Secretary of +Legation, nominally accredited to the Court of the Grand Duke of +Tuscany, was kept in residence in Rome, where he served as a _de facto_ +Minister to the Vatican. This state of affairs was maintained until Lord +Derby recalled Jervoise, who was then Secretary, from Rome, and from +that date even this measure of diplomatic representation at the Vatican +has ceased to exist. + +The Bill of 1848, as we have seen, was directed to the establishment of +relations with "the Court of Rome." An amendment on the part of the +Bishop of Winchester, which was accepted and passed into law, +substituted for these words the phrase "Sovereign of the Roman States," +and in consequence, after the loss of the Temporal Power, the Act was +repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1875, so that the law was +restored to that condition, in regard to this subject, in which it had +been before Lord John Russell introduced the Act of 1848. + +All this, it will be said, is ancient history, but the fact that it is +fifty years old does not affect my point, which is this--that the +maintenance of an unnatural polity can only be secured by means of a +series of subterfuges such as these employed by Unionist Governments, +both Whig and Tory, by which, while sympathy was extended to Orangemen +in the open, the Ministry endeavoured to twitch the red sleeves of the +Roman Curia in the back stairs of the Vatican. + +As Macaulay picturesquely put it, at any moment Exeter Hall might raise +its war whoop and the Orangemen would begin to bray, and there was no +choice, one must suppose, but that you should not let your right hand +know what your left hand was doing. + +In 1881 Mr. Gladstone appealed to Cardinal Newman to apprise the Pope of +the violent speeches which were being delivered by certain priests in +Ireland, for whose language he said he held the Pope, if informed of it, +morally responsible, and he asked the English Cardinal for his +assistance. To this Newman replied that the Pope was not supreme in +political matters, his action as to whether a political party is +censurable is not direct, and, moreover, it lay with the bishops to +censure the clergy for their language if they thought it intemperate, +and the interposition of the Holy See was not called for by the +circumstances of the case. + +The policy, however, which had been applied before was employed once +more in another direction in the teeth of British sentiment if not of +British law. A mortgage had been foreclosed on Parnell's estate, and the +Irish newspapers having obtained knowledge of the fact raised a +collection which became known as the Parnell Tribute, and which was +headed by a subscription from the Archbishop of Cashel. If precedent +were needed for this form of recognition of national services it was to +be found in the grant of L50,000--which might, had he been willing, have +been double that amount--which was made to Grattan by the emancipated +Irish House of Commons, but more exact parallels perhaps are to be found +in "O'Connel's Rent," which Greville described as "nobly paid and nobly +earned," or in the great collection which marked the popular +appreciation in Great Britain of Cobden's services in securing the +repeal of the Corn Laws. In the autumn of 1881, when the Parnell +Tribute was initiated, the Land League agitation was in full swing in +Ireland, and about the same time Mr. George Errington, an English +Catholic Whig Member of Parliament, who was about to spend the winter in +Rome, called on Lord Granville, the Foreign Secretary, and was given by +him an introduction to the Cardinal Secretary of State. In this wise Mr. +Errington went, in the phrase of the day, "to keep the Vatican in good +humour," and if he was not the accredited representative of Her +Brittanic Majesty--for that would have been illegal--at any rate he went +with the sanction and under the aegis of the Foreign Office. + +The upshot was a Papal rescript, signed by Cardinal Simeoni, the +Prefect, and Mgr. Jacobini, the Secretary of the Sacred Congregation De +Propagatione Fide, which condemned the Tribute owing to the Land League +agitation. + +"The collection called 'The Parnell Testimonial Fund,'" so ran the +rescript, "cannot be approved, and consequently it cannot be tolerated +that any ecclesiastic, much less a bishop, should take any part whatever +in recommending or promoting it." + +The bishops and clergy withdrew from any further action in connection +with the Tribute Fund, but the laity gave the lie to the suggestion that +they are under the thumb of their priests in matters which are not +within the sphere of faith or morals. The rescript was promulgated in +May, and at this time the subscription list amounted to less than +L8,000. Within a month it had doubled, and by the end of the year it +amounted to L37,000. The amount of the mortgage was L13,000. As Parnell, +in a characteristically laconic way, put it in his evidence before the +Commission, "The Irish people raised a collection for me to pay off the +amount of a mortgage. The amount of the collection considerably exceeded +the amount necessary." The retort of the country to the document +"_Qualecumque de Parnellio_," had been, in the phrase then current, to +"make Peter's pence into Parnell's pounds." + +Two years after the Simeoni letter Mr. Errington was again in Rome, +attempting this time to secure the exclusion from the successorship to +Cardinal M'Cabe, of Dr. Walsh of Maynooth, as Archbishop of Dublin. A +letter on the subject fell into the hands of the editor of _United +Ireland_, who published it in his paper, and so in this way thwarted the +objects of the second Errington mission. "If we want to hold Ireland by +force," said Joseph Cowen, the Radical member for Newcastle, "let us do +it ourselves; let us not call in the Pope, whom we are always attacking, +to help us." + +A further instance may be recounted of the manner in which the people of +what is, after Spain, the most Catholic country in Europe, while +submitting to the Pope implicitly in matters which are _de fide_, +refused to take their cue in purely political matters from Rome. + +The rejection of the Home Rule Bill and of the Land Bill of 1886, and +the return of the Conservatives to power, led to a recrudescence of the +land war, to which the hope of ameliorative legislation had temporarily +put a truce. The Plan of Campaign, which was then launched--of which it +has been said that no agrarian movement was ever so unstained by +crime--was of the following nature:--The tenants of a locality were to +form themselves into an association, each member of which was to proffer +to the landlord or his agent a sum which was estimated by the general +body as a fair rent for his holding. These sums, if refused by the +landlord, were pooled and divided by the association for the maintenance +of those tenants who were evicted. + +The wheels were set in motion in Rome to obtain a ruling from the Holy +Office as to whether such action was justifiable or not. Mgr. Persico, +the head of the Oriental rite in the Propaganda, who had had much +experience of English speaking people in the East, was sent to Ireland +in July, 1887, to investigate the question on the spot. In April, 1888, +a rescript was issued by the Holy Office to the bishops of Ireland +condemning the Plan of Campaign and boycotting on the ground that they +were contrary to both natural justice and Christian charity. With the +Decree was sent to the bishops a circular letter, signed by Cardinal +Monaco, the Secretary of the Holy Office, which contained the following +statement:--"The justice of the decision will be readily seen by anyone +who applies his mind to consider that a rent agreed upon by mutual +consent cannot, without violation of a contract, be diminished at the +mere will of a tenant, especially when there are tribunals appointed for +settling such controversies and reducing unjust rents within the bounds +of equity after taking into account the causes which diminish the value +of the land.... Finally, it is contrary to justice and to charity to +persecute by a social interdict those who are satisfied to pay rents +agreed upon, or those who, in the exercise of their right, take vacant +lands." + +The _Tablet_, the organ of English Catholicism, speaking of the +decision, said that happily there was no suspicion of politics about it, +and as to the letter of Cardinal Monaco la Valetta, it wrote--"It adds +certain reasons which perhaps may have led the Congregation to answer as +they have done, but these constitute no part of the official reply." The +next step in this episode should be well pondered by those who accuse +the Irish of a blind Ultramontanism. The bishops, with one exception, +omitted to publish the rescript to their flocks, and the Archbishop of +Cashel went so far as to send L50 to the funds of the Plan of Campaign. +Parnell, referring publicly to the rescript as "a document from a +distant country," declared that his Catholic colleagues must decide for +themselves what action to take. Mr. Dillon contradicted the statements +in Cardinal Monaco's letter to the effect that the contracts were +voluntary or that the campaign fund of the Land League had been +collected by extortion. A meeting of forty Catholic members of +Parliament assembled in Dublin, and in the Mansion House in that city +signed a document denying the allegations about free contracts, fair +rent, the Land Commission, and the rest, declared that the conclusions +had been drawn from erroneous premises, and while asserting their +complete obedience to the Holy See in spiritual matters, no less +strongly repudiated the suggestion that Rome had any right to interfere +in matters of a political nature. Mass meetings were held in the Phoenix +Park in Dublin, and in Cork, which indorsed this position by popular +vote. The Orangemen were delighted at the imminence of a schism, and the +discomfiture of the Catholics under a decree, the result of internal +division, was hailed with pleasure only by the enemies of the Church. In +the event they were doomed to disappointment, for in the closing days of +the year the Holy Father wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Dublin +concerning his action, which had been "so sadly misunderstood," in which +he wrote that "as to the counsels that we have given to the people of +Ireland from time to time and our recent decree, we were moved in these +things, not only by the consideration of what is conformable to truth +and justice, but also by the desire of advancing your interests. For +such is our affection for you that it does not suffer us to allow the +cause in which Ireland is struggling to be weakened by the introduction +of anything that could justly be brought in reproach against it." + +In this manner was closed an incident which was expected by its foes to +threaten the allegiance of Ireland, and with it that of more than half +the Catholics in England, to the Holy See. + +The Nationalist members at the Mansion House had flatly declared that +the decree was an instrument of the unscrupulous enemies both of Ireland +and of the Holy See. The _Tablet_, which declared that it had been +promulgated with full and intimate knowledge of all the circumstances, +retorted--"As a matter of fact we believe that the English Government +has taken no steps, direct or indirect, to obtain the pronouncement, +which is based solely on the reports of Mgr. Persico and the documents +and evidence which accompanied them." And it went on to add that Persico +was expected to return to Ireland to watch the application of the +decree. + +Beyond this, until recently, nothing more was known except that it was +remarked that negotiations between the Duke of Norfolk and the Vatican +were broken off, and that the former left Rome suddenly for England +without having an audience with the Pope, for which arrangements had +been made. The forecast of the _Tablet_ as to Mgr. Persico's return to +Ireland to see that the terms of the decree were enforced and applied, +was not correct. The responsibility for the decree was everywhere laid +on his shoulders, and the _Tablet_ for April 27th, 1889, records that an +Address was presented to Mgr. Persico after his return to Rome "as an +expression of respect, and in the fervent hope that his Excellency's +mission might largely conduce to the glory of God, the increase of +charity, and the restoration of peace and goodwill among men." + +It is only in the last couple of years, with the publications of +Persico's correspondence with Cardinal Manning,[15] that the real facts +of the case have been known. After spending six months in Ireland, the +envoy was obliged, for reasons of health, to move to Devonshire in +January, 1888. He had orders from Rome to remain in the British Islands, +but further, so he told the Cardinal in his letter, "I must not reside +in London so as to give not the least suspicion that I have anything to +do with the British Government." As to the promulgation of the decree, +it was done without his knowledge and, what is more, against his +judgment. Having arrived in Ireland in July, 1887, he had concluded his +investigations by the middle of the month of December of that year. His +requests that the mission might be terminated were met by the reply that +it was to continue indefinitely, and he was told that if he wished, for +reasons of health, to leave Ireland during the winter months he might do +so, but that he must remain in the British Isles. + +After the issue of the rescript he wrote to the English Cardinal in +these words:--"It is known to your Eminence that I did not expect at all +the said decree, that I was never so much surprised in my life as when I +received the bare circular from Propaganda on the morning of the 28th +ulto. And fancy, I received the bare circular, as I suppose every Irish +bishop did, without a letter or a word of instruction or explanation. +And what is more unaccountable to me, only the day before I had received +a letter from the Secretary for the Extraordinary Ecclesiastical +Affairs, telling me that nothing had been done about Irish affairs, and +that my report and other letters were still _nell casetta del Emo. +Rampolla!_ And yet the whole world thinks and says that the Holy Office +has acted on my report, and that the decree is based upon the same! Not +only all the Roman correspondents but all the newspapers _avec le Tablet +en tete_ proclaim and report the same thing! I wish that my report and +all my letters had been studied and seriously considered, and that +action had been taken from the same! Above all, I had proposed and +insisted upon it, that whatever was necessary to be done ought to be +done with, and through, the bishops." Of this there is ample proof in +the earlier letters, and the proposal which he made was that the four +archbishops and one bishop for every province should be summoned to Rome +to "prepare and settle things." Writing on the Feast of the Epiphany in +1888, he said to Manning:--"I agree fully with your Eminence that the +true Nunciatura for England and Ireland is the Episcopate. If the +bishops do not know the state of the country they are not fit to be +bishops. If they do, what more can _una persona ufficiosa o ufficiale_ +do for the Holy See?" And again--"I fully understand what your Eminence +adds, the English people tolerate the Catholic Church as a spiritual +body. The first sign of a political action on the Government would +rekindle all the old fears, suspicions, and hostility. It is a great +pity they do not realise this in Rome. And it is also a great pity that +English Catholics do not understand all this. I am sure that His +Holiness understands it well, but I share your fears that those about +him may harass him with the fickle and vain glory that would accrue to +the Holy See by having an accredited representative from England also." + +It is impossible not to infer from this that the English Catholics were +engaged in an attempt to secure diplomatic recognition by Great Britain +of the Holy See, and that their anxiety to secure this was in some +measure connected with their desire to override the feelings and +opinions of the Irish Episcopate, but the overtures of Lord Salisbury +were as fruitless as those of Russell forty years before. + +The last letter from Mgr. Persico to the English Cardinal, which has +been reprinted, reiterates the disclaimer of responsibility for the +action of the Vatican, in these words:-- + +"I had no idea that anything had been done about Irish affairs much less +thought that some questions had been referred to the Holy Office, and +the first knowledge I had of the decree was on the morning of the 28th +April, when I received the bare circular sent me by Propaganda. I must +add that had I known of such a thing I would have felt it my duty to +make proper representations to the Holy See." + +In view of this it is interesting to read the naive record in the +_Tablet_ of those who signed the address to Persico on the totally wrong +assumption that he and his report were the _causa causans_ of the +decree. "The signatures," says the _Tablet_, "comprise those of all the +Catholic peers in Ireland (14 in number), four Privy Councillors, ten +honourables, two Lords Lieutenants of counties, nineteen baronets, +fifty-four deputy-lieutenants, two hundred and ninety-seven magistrates, +and a large number of the learned and military professions." The +remarkable thing about this memorial was the absence of the names of any +clerics, regular or secular, parish priests or prelates. + +There are in Ireland a great many more Protestant Nationalists than the +English Press allows its readers to suspect, and it is one of these who, +in a recent novel, declares in a wild hyperbole that if the bishops can +secure the continuance of English Government for the next half century +Ireland will have become the Church's property. No one, of course, with +any sense of proportion takes seriously such a statement as this, but I +allude to it as showing, in its extreme anti-clericalism, the same +tendency, very much magnified, as I have observed to a great extent in +the Protestant Nationalist as a class, who has not, as I believe, had +time to eliminate the last taint of No Popery feeling in which for +generations he and his forbears have been steeped. The existence of this +anti-clerical spirit, and, what is more to the point, its expression +with the proverbial tactlessness of the political convert, for such a +one the Protestant Nationalist usually is, make it very essential that +the Catholic clergy should walk warily and avoid giving any handle to +their detractors, for in Ireland, and perhaps most of all in the Church +in Ireland, there is need to use the prayer of the faithful +Commons--"that the best possible construction be put on one's motives." +How small is the basis for the allegation that the clergy are playing +only for the Church's hand and are prepared to sacrifice for this end +the welfare of the country is shown, I think, by the evidence which I +have adduced. But in spite of their ill success in the past there is a +persistent notion on the part of both English parties that they can drag +in ecclesiastical influence to redress the political balance in their +favour. The exposure in the Life of Lord Randolph Churchill of the +manner in which he proposed to Lord Salisbury to win over the Church to +Unionism is an example of what I mean:--[16] + +"I have no objection to Sexton and Healy knowing the deliberate +intention of the Government on the subject of Irish education, but it +would not do for the letter or communication to be made public, for the +effect of publicity on Lancashire would be unfortunate.... It is the +bishops entirely to whom I look in future to mitigate or postpone the +Home Rule onslaught. Let us only be enabled to occupy a year with the +education question. By that time I am certain Parnell's party will have +become seriously disintegrated. Personal jealousies, Government +influences, Davitt and Fenian intrigues, will be at work upon the +devoted band of eighty. The bishops, who in their hearts hate Parnell, +and don't care a scrap for Home Rule, having safely acquired control of +Irish education, will, according to my calculation, complete the rout. +That is my policy, and I know it is sound and good, and the only +possible Tory policy." And again he wrote--"My opinion is that if you +approach the archbishops through proper channels, if you deal in +friendly remonstrances and active assurances ... the tremendous force of +the Catholic Church will gradually and insensibly come over to the side +of the Tory Party." + +All this, of course, is perfectly consistent with the views which in +1884 the leader of the Fourth Party had expressed when, speaking on the +Franchise Bill, he declared his opinion that "the agricultural peasant +is much more under the proper and legitimate influence of the Roman +Catholic priesthood than the lower classes in the towns."[17] But how is +one to reconcile either of these declarations with his action in 1886, +when, the tremendous force of the Catholic Church not having come over +to the Tory side, he "decided to play the Orange card, which, please +God, will prove a trump," and went, with his hands red from making +overtures to what they considered the scarlet woman, to rally the +Orangemen with the haunting jingle that Home Rule would be Rome Rule. + +This was before the general election of 1886. Seven years later, when +another election was approaching, he returned to the charge, this time +in a letter to Lord Justice FitzGibbon:--"What is the great feature," he +wrote, "of the political situation in Ireland now? The resurrection in +great force of priestly domination in political matters. Now I would +cool the ardour of these potentates for Mr. G. by at once offering them +the largest concessions on education--primary, intermediate, and +university--which justice and generosity could admit of. I would not +give them everything before the general election, but I would give a +good lot, and keep a good lot for the new Parliament. I do not think +they could resist the bribe, and the soothing effect of such a policy on +the Irish vote and attitude would be marked. Of course the concessions +would have to be very large--almost as large as what the bishops have +ever asked for, but preserving intact Trinity College. It would assume +the material shape of a money subsidy."[18] + +I have set down without omissions and with nothing extenuate the data on +which is based the indictment that the clergy have been, and are, +anti-national, and I ask the reader to say whether the charge is +unsupported or not. That overtures have again and again been made _sub +rosa_ to the clergy to wean them from the popular side is proved up to +the hilt, but that in any single instance they have closed with the +offers or been forced by the rigours of ecclesiastical discipline into +compliance, appears to me not proven, as is also the imputation that the +people have in any degree departed from the lines of O'Connell's +dictum--that we take our theology from Rome, but our politics we prefer +of home manufacture. If the action of Cardinal Cullen with regard to the +Tenant League in 1855 be adduced as an argument in favour of the +proposition, it must be remembered that though as Primate his voice was +preponderant and his policy was affected, in Dr. MacHale, the Archbishop +of Tuam, an exponent of opposite views was to be found, and that it is +on the lines laid down by MacHale, and not those advocated by Cullen, +that the policy of the Catholic Church in Ireland has as a rule been +based. + +The clergy in the early part of the nineteenth century were brought up +in foreign seminaries, where passive obedience to the established order +was inculcated, and where, as was natural in such places, a horror of +the Jacobinical principles of the French revolution created among them +an antagonism to any violent agitation, which admittedly or not drew its +inspiration from that source, but the names of Dr. Doyle of Kildare, of +Dr. Duggan of Clonfert, of Dr. Croke of Cashel, of Dr. M'Cormick, to +name only four, show how much support was given to the popular cause in +Ireland by a considerable section of the higher clergy. + +To Protestant Nationalists I would commend that expression of opinion of +the greatest of their number--Edmund Burke--who, speaking of the +religion of the mass of his countrymen, declared that in his opinion "it +ought to be cherished as a good, though not the most preferable good if +a choice was now to be made, and not tolerated as an inevitable evil. It +is extraordinary that there should still be need to emphasise the fact +that the Catholicism of Ireland is inevitable and that there is no hope +of making the country abjure it--but this is the case." + +Half a century ago, when proselytism was in full swing in a country +weakened by famine, Protestants were sanguine on this point. Sir +Francis Head, in a volume which bears the very naive title of "A +Fortnight in Ireland," declared that within a couple of years there can +exist no doubt whatever that the Protestant population of Ireland will +form the majority, and Rev. A.R. Dallas, one of the leading +proselytisers in the country, borrowing a Biblical metaphor, announced +that "the walls of Irish Romanism had been circumvented again and +again, and at the trumpet blast that sounded in the wailings of the +famine they may be said to have fallen flat. This is the point of hope +in Ireland's present crisis." + +With the maintenance by the Church of her hold over the people +governments have recognised the influence of the priests, and have tried +to turn it to their own use by methods into which they have been afraid +to let the light of day; and for the rest, with every trouble and every +discontent, has arisen the parrot cry of _cherchez le pretre_. +Conscientious objections to certain forms of education are respected in +England when they are emphasised by passive resistance. How many times +have the same objections in Ireland been put down to clerical +obscurantism? The priest in politics we have been told _ad nauseam_ is +the curse of Ireland, but clerical interference is not unknown in +English villages, and one has heard of dissenting ministers whose hands +are not quite unstained by the defilement of political partisanship. It +is not the habit that makes the monk, and it is possible for +sacerdotalism to be as rampant among the most rigid of dissenters as in +Church itself. An example of the falsehoods which have at intervals to +be nailed to the counter was the one which declared that under the +compulsion of their priests a considerable part of the Irish electorate +falsely declared themselves to be illiterate, so that the secrecy of the +ballot might be avoided and their votes might be regulated by the +clergy. On a comparison of the statistics of illiterate voters and the +Census of illiteracy a similar proportion was found to exist as that +between the total number of voters and the whole population, in this way +completely disproving the allegation. + +A great deal of capital has of late been made of the alleged excessive +church building in Ireland during the last few years. In the light of +the fact that less than forty years have passed since the money of these +same peasants for the expenditure of which so much concern is now +expressed, was devoted to the maintenance of what Disraeli admitted to +be an alien Church, it is a little surprising to hear this taunt from +Englishmen and Protestants. Relieved, as the people have been only in +the last generation, from this obligation it is not strange that the +work of providing churches for their own worship should have been +undertaken. The Catholic churches have in large measure been built by +the contributions of successful emigrants, subscribed in many instances +with the secondary object of providing work in building during times of +distress. There are 2,400 Catholic and 1,500 Protestant churches in +Ireland at the present moment, and there is one Episcopalian Protestant +church for every 320 members of that creed and one Catholic church for +every 1,368 Catholics. + +Sir Horace Plunkett, who started this new fashion of attack by giving it +the cachet of respectability in the first edition of "Ireland in the New +Century," after declaring that he has "come to the conclusion that the +immense power of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy has been singularly +little abused," goes on to add in connection with the topic on which we +are touching that "without a doubt a good many motives are unfortunately +at work in the church-building movement which have but remote connection +with religion." What is meant by this I cannot pretend to say. It seems +to me unworthy of a gentleman in Sir Horace's position, and with his +acknowledged good intentions to adopt an attitude which can only be +compared to that which Pope satirised in the lines:-- + + "Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, + And without sneering teach the rest to sneer, + Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, + Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike." + +But the remarkable part of the facts about this unframed charge is that +in the popular edition of Sir Horace's book, published in 1905, the +passage which I have quoted is omitted, and in spite of the fact that +nearly forty pages are devoted to an Epilogue containing answers to his +critics, the author makes no mention of its omission, and gives no +reason for the implied retractation of what may be interpreted as being +a very grave charge. + +The books of one or two writers on the abuses of clericalism in Ireland, +written in violent, unmeasured invective, and innocent--which is more +important--of all notion of the value of evidence, are, I understand, +eagerly snapped up and readily believed by pious Protestants in England, +and it is from these books that many Englishmen have learnt all that +they know to-day about the Church in Ireland. + +The picture which is presented of the Irish priest as a money-grabbing +martinet, whom his flock regard with mingled sentiments of detestation +and fear, is a caricature as libellous as it is grotesque. Even the high +standard of sexual morality which prevails in the country is attacked as +being merely the result of early marriages, inculcated by a priesthood +thirsting for marriage fees, and virtue itself is in this way depicted +as being nothing but the bye-product of grasping avarice. I would not +have thought it necessary to have touched on this subject if I were not +assured of the vast circulation of the type of books to which I refer, +which are not worth powder and shot, more particularly in dissenting and +evangelical circles in England. The reiterated assertion by their +author that he is a Catholic produces the entirely false impression +that he is the spokesman of a considerable body of Catholics in Ireland +whose mouths are closed by the fear of consequences. + +One fact which shows how bitter is the hatred towards the religion of +Ireland on the part of a section of the population of England is +this--that there is no more certain method by which a book on that +country can be assured of advertisement and quotation in the English +party Press of the baser kind, which for partisan reasons plays on the +bigotry of English people by the booming of such books, no matter how +scurrilous or how vile are their innuendoes. The comment of M. +Paul-Dubois on these attempts to foist on the Catholic Church +responsibility for the evil case in which Ireland finds herself, +deserves quotation:--"Cette these grossiere et fanatique ne vaut +l'honneur d'un devellopment ni d'une discussion: contentons nous de +remarquer comme il est habile et simple de rejeter sur Rome la +responsabilite des malheurs d'Erin en disculpant ainsi et l'Angleterre +et la colonie anglaise en Irlande!" + +The energy of the Irish priesthood in the advocacy of temperance--an +energy which in a climate like that of Ireland can never be excessive; +their social work in the encouragement of the industrial revival by the +starting of agricultural and co-operative societies, and, most of all at +this time, of the Industrial Development Association; their +whole-hearted assistance in the work of the Gaelic League, and their aid +in the discouragement of emigration--all these, apart from their +spiritual labours, are factors which have increased their claims to the +affection of the people to whom they minister and the respect of their +non-Catholic fellow-countrymen. They have discouraged violence, and the +weight of their Church has always been directed against secret +societies, and if their power has been great it is only because they +have been in full sympathy with their flocks. In 1848 the clergy made +such efforts to check the excesses of the abortive insurrection of that +year that Lord Clarendon, the Viceroy, wrote to Lord John Russell to +tell him that something must be done for the clergy, but the bigotry of +the English and Scottish people stood in the way. The No Rent Manifesto +of 1881 fell flat owing to the ecclesiastical condemnation which it +incurred on the ground that it involved repudiation of debts. Every +article in the Press of Europe and America on the problem of "race +suicide" contained a well-deserved tribute to the moral influence of the +Irish clergy on their flocks in this direction, and the figures of +illegitimacy show the same results of their inculcation of sexual +morality. In 1904 there were 3.9 per cent. of such births in England and +Wales, in Scotland 6.46, and in Ireland 2.5. The highest rate in +Ireland--3.4 in Ulster--is almost the same as the lowest in Scotland--in +Dumbartonshire--and the contrast between the Scottish maximum of 14.3 in +Kincardine and the Irish minimum of .7 in Connacht needs no comment. + +With regard to ecclesiasticism in the lower branches of education, while +convinced that popular control over the secular branches, leaving the +religious branches of such education completely in the hands of the +clergy, is the ideal arrangement, one must admit that there is a +striking testimony contained in the Report on Primary Education drawn up +in 1904 by Mr. F.H. Dale, as to the efficiency and good management of +the Convent Schools in Ireland, which, it should be noted, are at the +same time those of least expense to the State. The cleanliness and +neatness of the premises, the supervision and management on the part of +the Community, the order and tone of the children, are all highly +praised; and in a further Report on Intermediate Education, prepared by +the same Inspector of Schools jointly with a colleague, will be found +equally strong insistence on the well-known success and efficiency of +the three hundred schools of the Christian Brothers, in which, without +a penny of State aid, are educated some 30,000 pupils; and it was no +doubt to the education given by the Christian Brothers that the +Protestant Bishop of Killaloe referred when, in an address to his +diocesan synod five years ago, he generously recognised the superiority +of the Catholic over the Protestant schools in Ireland. + +It was Lord Lytton, I think, who described the Established Church in +Ireland as the greatest bull in the language, since it was so called +because it was a church not for the Irish. All who are acquainted with +those masterpieces of Swift's satire--the Drapier Letters--and who +appreciate the fact that Berkeley--the most distinguished of Irish +Protestant bishops--was refused the Primacy of Ireland because he was an +Irishman, and that to appoint any but an Englishman or a Scotsman would +be to depart from the policy followed throughout the whole of the +eighteenth century, will see that at that time, at any rate, it deserved +the censure which it has received as a foreign body maintained for +denationalising purposes. + +The maintenance until thirty-eight years ago of the Established Church, +which raised its mitred head in a country where its adherents formed +one-eighth of the population, but where its funds were extorted from +those who regarded its doctrines as heresy, was, I verily believe, the +_fons et origo_ of the sectarian bitterness which still persists among +Catholics, "Lui demander," wrote a French observer of the position of +the Catholic Church in the days before 1870, "de s'associer a une telle +entreprise lui parait une injure; lui forcer est une violence; la +continuance de cette violence est une persecution." You would find it +hard to make me believe that had England been the scene of a similar +anomaly, with the _roles_, of course, exchanged, the feelings towards +the Catholic Church, even forty years after its disestablishment, would +be the most cordial. The proposals of Pitt for the State payment of +the Catholic priesthood were constantly revived and advocated throughout +the century. Lord Clarendon's views, which have just been quoted, were a +mere echo of the opinion expressed by Lord John Russell in favour of +concurrent endowment in 1844, and there is a significant allusion on the +part of Charles Greville fourteen years earlier to the feeling of that +time, in which, after speaking about Irish disaffection, he shows the +results which were expected from concurrent endowment by commenting +unfavourably on the policy which the Government pursued "instead of +depriving him (O'Connell) of half his influence by paying the priests +and so getting them under the influence of the Government."[19] + +The whole question was considered merely in the abstract until the +Fenian outburst of the sixties--as Mr. Gladstone freely admitted--opened +men's eyes to this among the other serious problems of Irish government. +It required all the violence of desperate men to call, attention to a +condition of things in which the Church which was established numbered +less than one-eighth of the inhabitants of the country among its +adherents. + +The part of the country in which the greatest proportion of Episcopalian +Protestants was to be found was Ulster, and there they were only 20 per +cent. of the people, while in Munster and Connacht they were only 5 and +4 per cent. respectively. In 199 out of 2,428 parishes in Ireland there +was not a single member of the Established Church. The net revenue of +the Church was L600,000, and of this two archbishops and ten bishops +received one-tenth. The mode of solving the inequitable state of affairs +which produced least resistance lay in the direction of concurrent +endowment. Earl Russell suggested the endowment of Catholics and +Presbyterians and the reduction of Episcopalian revenues to one-eighth +of their existing amount. To the Presbyterians his plan would have +entailed a gain, in so far as the Regium Donum would have been +increased, but the opposition to it of the Catholics, in spite of the +fact that levelling up rather than planing down appealed not only to +Russell but to Grey and Disraeli, resulted in its abandonment, and the +question of disestablishment became the recognised solution of the +difficulty. + +With the introduction of the Bill in 1869 began those dire prophecies +and grim forebodings which have formed a running accompaniment to every +Irish reform, and Mr. Gladstone and the Liberals were denounced for +having sanctioned sacrilege. In the end the Church saved from the +burning more than in any equitable sense she was entitled to claim. The +Representative Body, which was incorporated in 1870, received about nine +millions for commuted salaries, half a million in lieu of private +endowments, and another three-quarters of a million was handed over to +lay patrons. + +The commutation paid to the Non-Conformists for the Regium Donum and +other payments was nearly L800,000, and in lieu of the Maynooth grant +the Catholic Church received less than L400,000, the income from which +fund only covers about one-third of the annual cost of maintenance of +Maynooth. The history of this grant dates from the L9,000 given to the +College by the Irish Parliament, which was increased by Peel in 1844 to +L26,000 a year. When in the following year he brought in a Bill to make +it a vote of,L30,000 for building purposes, the _Times_, according to +Greville, "kept pegging away at Peel in a series of articles as +mischievous as malignity could make them, and by far the most +disgraceful that have ever appeared on a political subject in any public +journal." + +That on the purely financial side the Catholic Church in Ireland would +have gained by concurrent endowment these figures, which represent the +whole of her receipts from public funds, amply bear witness, but that +she gained in a moral sense far more than in a material sense she might +have secured, no one will for one moment deny. + +The glaring discrepancy between the amount of public funds at her +disposal and the amount held by the other religious bodies from public +sources did not abate the virulence with which the Church Act was +assailed, but at this day what is of interest is that the jeremiads of +the Protestants as to the consequences either to the country at large or +to their Church in particular were in every respect uncalled for, as was +acknowledged by no less a person than Lord Plunket, at a later time +Archbishop of Dublin, who, when in that position, admitted that the +Church Act had proved not a curse, as was expected, but a blessing to +the Episcopalian Protestant Church. This body has at the present moment +in Ireland 1,500 churches, to which 1,600 clergy minister, and as the +population of that sect amounts to very little more than half a million +it appears that there is one parson for every 363 parishioners, 800 +Presbyterian ministers serve nearly a half million of people in the +proportion of one for every 554 of that communion. 250 Methodist +ministers are sufficient for 62,000 people in the ratio of one for every +248, and the 3,711 Catholic priests, who serve nearly four million of +souls, are in the proportion of one for every 891, while in England the +priests of the same communion amount to one for every 542. These figures +show the measure of truth in the alleged swamping of Ireland with +priests. In proportion to the number of their flocks all the other +denominations have a much larger relative number of clergy in the +country, and until the very much more flagrant drainage due to +emigration has ceased, it is to be hoped that we shall hear a good deal +less about the danger in an increase of celibates in Ireland, a +danger--if it be one--which after all she shares with every other +Catholic country in the world. The alleged extortion of money by the +clergy from a poverty-stricken peasantry is scarcely borne out by the +evidence before the Royal Commission on the Financial Relations, in +which Dr. O'Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe, calculated that the average +contribution to the clergy in the West of Ireland, including +subscriptions for the building and maintenance of churches, is 6s. or +7s. a year per family. + +That strange accusation of Sir Horace Plunkett, that "the clergy are +taking the joy--the innocent joy--from the social side of the home +life," was, I think, sufficiently answered by the apposite reply of M. +Paul-Dubois, that this is a strange reproach in the mouth of a +Protestant who has undergone the experience of spending a Sunday in +Belfast. The truth is that attacks on the Irish priesthood came ill from +Englishmen or Anglo-Irishmen who have found in the Catholic Church the +most powerful agent of social peace in the country. That Irishmen have +on this ground any reason to blame the priesthood for lack of patriotism +I as strongly deny, for though one may not think necessarily that God is +on the side of the big battalions, armed resistance, which from the +nature of things must be borne down by sheer force of weight, is as +insensate as it is destructive. + +The figure of Father O'Flynn, drawn by the son of a bishop of the +Protestant Church, professes to be as much a picture of a type as the +French _cure_ whom Mr. Austin Dobson has so gracefully depicted, and it +is difficult to see how such a figure of genial kindliness could have +been portrayed in such a quarter or have received such general +acceptance if there were to be found in any number worth considering the +hard and worldly beggars on horseback whom their enemies allege +constitute the characteristic type of the Irish clergy. + +If in the religious nature of the Irish people is to be found one reason +for the influence of the clergy in secular matters, a far more potent +factor is to be seen in the historical fact that the priest has for +centuries been the only guide, counsellor, and friend of the Irish +peasant. The absence of a well-educated middle class, which, failing a +sympathetic aristocracy, would, in a normal condition of things, provide +popular leaders, is the only thing which has maintained any such undue +predominance on the part of the clergy in secular affairs as exists. +With the development of an educated Catholic laity, among some members +of which one may expect to see evolved that critical acumen and balanced +judgment which are what the fine flower of a university culture is +supposed to produce, this preponderance will disappear, but in the +meanwhile, be it noted, it is the refusal of Englishmen to found an +acceptable university which is maintaining the very state of affairs in +this direction against which they protest. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM + + "When I consider how munificently the Colleges of Oxford and + Cambridge are endowed ... when I remember from whom all this + splendour and plenty is derived; when I remember what was the + faith of Edward the Third, and of Henry the Sixth, of Margaret + of Anjou, and Margaret of Richmond, of William of Wykeham, and + of William of Waynefleet, of Archbishop Chicheley, and + Cardinal Wolsey; when I remember what we have taken from the + Roman Catholics, King's College, New College, Christ Church, + my own Trinity; and when I look at the miserable Dotheboys + Hall which we have given them in exchange, I feel, I must own, + less proud than I could wish of being a Protestant and a + Cambridge man."--T.B. MACAULAY, Speech on the Maynooth + Grant, 1845. + + "What the Irish are proposing is nothing so enormous or + chimerical. They propose merely to put an end to one very + cruel result of the Protestant ascendancy, the result that + they--the immense majority of the Irish people--have no + University, while the Protestants in Ireland, the small + minority, have one. For this plain hardship they propose a + plain remedy, and to their proposal they want a plain, + straightforward answer."--MATTHEW ARNOLD, _Mixed Essays_, + 1880. + + +The fact that the recurrent educational problem in England is that of +the Elementary Schools, while as to Ireland the only question which is +ever to any extent ventilated is that of University Education, has led +to the totally wrong impression that everything in this sphere in +Ireland, with the exception of Higher Education, is in a satisfactory +condition. Nothing, in point of fact, could be further from the truth, +and perhaps the strongest indictment against the present Executive +system in the country is to be found in the chaos which exists in +educational matters. + +The National system of Education in Ireland was started by Lord Stanley +in 1833. Up to that date there had been no organised education in the +country, and in fact there were still many living who could recall the +time when for a Catholic to receive education from his co-religionists +was a penal offence, involving legal and equitable disabilities. + +The main vehicles of elementary education up to this date were the +Charter Schools and the Kildare Street Schools. The former, which were +founded about 1730 by Primate Boulter, and lasted a hundred years, were +frankly proselytising agencies--the address for the charter to the Crown +specifically setting out that it was a society for teaching the +Protestant religion to Papist children. John Howard, the philanthropist, +condemned them as a disgrace to Protestantism and a disgrace to all +society, but for all that, in the course of their career, they cost the +public nearly two millions of money. The Kildare Street Schools, which +were founded in 1811, and which secured a Government grant for the first +time in 1814, professed to be non-sectarian, and so long as they kept to +their professions were successful, but their subsequent association with +proselytising agencies, such as the Hibernian Society, was their ruin, +and in 1831 the public grant was withdrawn from them by the Chief +Secretary, who two years later introduced the National System. + +On the establishment of the National Board all creeds and parties in +Ireland were anxious that the basis of the system should be +denominational, but in the teeth of this unanimity the principle adopted +was that of united secular and separate religious instruction. + +One would have thought that on the establishment of the National System +the danger of its capture by the Protestant ascendancy, which was very +obviously anxious to secure its control, would have ensured the +insistence on safeguards for the rights of the weaker section of the +community at a time when no longer held good that _obiter dictum_ +pronounced from the Bench in 1758, which was equally true for many years +after, that "the law does not suppose a Papist to exist in the kingdom, +nor can they breathe without the connivance of the Government." On its +formation the National Board included among its members Dr. Murray, the +Catholic Archbishop of Dublin; Dr. Whately, the Protestant Archbishop of +that city; and Dr. Carlisle, a Presbyterian Minister. No attempt was +made to effect anything approaching a proportional representation of the +creeds concerned, and the two Catholic members were outvoted by their +five Protestant colleagues on the Board for the control of the education +of the children of a population in which Catholics were to Protestants +in the ratio of about 4 to 1. + +The English Archbishop and the Scottish Presbyterian, in whom power was +in this way placed, set themselves by their regulations to effect the +Anglicising of the Irish children in the schools of the country. The use +of the English language was enforced for the education of children, +thousands of whom spoke Gaelic, and though this may possibly be +justified on grounds of its greater use in the transactions of everyday +life, the same cannot be said of the manner in which the history books +employed were of a kind in which the subjection of Ireland by Elizabeth, +James I., and William of Orange were extolled, as was also the defection +from Rome of England in the sixteenth century. + +Whately's policy was avowedly to Anglicise the children in the schools, +to effect the "consolidation," as he called it, of Great Britain and +Ireland, and in a reading book produced under his auspices occur the +following lines, written with that aim in view:--"On the east of Ireland +is England, where the Queen lives. Many people who live in Ireland were +born in England, and we speak the same language, and are called one +nation." + +From the reading-books as first published were expunged such verses as +Campbell's "Downfall of Roland" and Scott's "Breathes There a Man with a +Soul so Dead," owing to their tendency, one must suppose, to suggest +emotions other than those which it was deemed fitting to inculcate, and +in their place was inserted a verse from the Archbishop's own pen which +is familiar to most Irishmen, but which is, I find, unknown to most +Englishmen:-- + + "I thank the goodness and the grace which on my birth have smiled, + And made me in these Christian days a happy English child." + +To appreciate fully the irony of the divergence between the sentiments +expressed and the real facts, one must remember that these lines were +written at a time when land reform and church disestablishment were +regarded by those in authority as the proposals of unspeakable +demagogues. + +The views of Whately on the value of the educational machine which he +controlled, as an instrument of proselytism are very frankly set out in +a conversation which he had with Nassau Senior, which is quoted from the +diary of the latter in the Archbishop's biography:-- + +"I believe," he said, "that mixed education is gradually enlightening +the mass of the people, and that if we give it up we give up the only +hope of weaning the Irish from the abuses of Popery. But I cannot +venture openly to profess this opinion. I cannot openly support the +Education Board as an instrument of conversion. I have to fight its +battles with one hand, and that my best, tied behind me."[20] + +This extract more than justifies the policy by which, when Dr. MacHale +succeeded Dr. Murray in Dublin, a bland acquiescence in Governmental +action began to be no longer the line of action of Catholic prelates. + +The system of National Education was, as I have said, founded at its +inception on the principles of undenominationalism, but, as a matter of +fact, the determined views of all creeds in Ireland prevailed to a very +great extent, so that at the end of the nineteenth century out of a +total of 8,700 schools in the country more than 5,000 were attended by +children of one religion only; of these 4,000 were Catholic schools, the +remaining 1,000 belonging to one or other of the Protestant +denominations. Of the 3,700 schools which are not purely denominational, +there are many in which the great majority of the pupils belong to one +religion, but in these, of course, the minority is safeguarded by a +conscience clause. + +The members of the National Board are appointed to-day--as they were in +1833--by Dublin Castle. They are nominees in no sense responsible to +anyone, amateurs in educational matters, whose debates are carried on +_in camera_, and when they have arrived at decisions their fiat goes +forth without reason being given for changes of system or of policy, and +without opportunity being afforded for revision or appeal. + +In these circumstances it is not surprising that the system of +elementary education in Ireland does not meet with the popular attention +that it should. There is no consultation on the part of the Board with +those responsible for carrying on changes which it orders, and when +innovations are introduced without reasons being offered, those who have +to apply them are not likely to do so with good grace, still less with +enthusiasm. When the arguments and reasons in favour of alterations are +unknown to the public such changes almost invariably meet with +opposition at the hands of those who have to effect them. + +The multiplication of schools arising partly from the denominationalism +which so largely holds the field is accentuated by the financial system +which is adopted by the National Board. In all the schools under its +control, with the exception of the 300 convent and monastery schools, +where the State-aid takes the form of a capitation grant, the grant is +ear-marked for the payment of teachers' salaries, the largest charge +incurred by the school; and in this way the responsibility on that +account and the occasion for economy on that score of the managers is +removed, leaving to them only the control of the school buildings. +Moreover, the non-application of the capitation system of grants fails +to bring into play what would be a direct financial inducement to the +locality to improve the school attendance of the children, as would also +any system of local control. The small size of existing school areas +results in inevitable mischief, for under it the poorest districts are +those in which the school accommodation is worst, and since more money +has to be raised than in richer localities the poorer districts have to +pay most and the richest least for elementary education. + +A primary effect of the larger number of schools is that the average +attendance is much smaller than in Scotland, where conditions are in +many respects similar, and side by side with the small size of the +schools goes the very low standard of salaries paid to the teachers, +which begin at L56 a year for men and L44 each for women, and advance by +triennial increments to L172 for men and L140 for women. Two-thirds of +the primary school teachers of Ireland have a salary of less than 30s. a +week. The average payment to head teachers is in Scotland 75 per cent. +and in England 48 per cent. higher than in Ireland. The general state of +inefficiency of education in Ireland may be gathered from the fact that +the Census of 1901 showed that of persons over five years of age no less +than 13.7 per cent. could neither read nor write, the percentage of +illiteracy being in the four provinces, 11.3 in Leinster, 12.5 in +Ulster, 14 in Munster, and 20.7 in Connaught. The children in Scottish +schools attend on 85 per cent. of the days on which the schools are +open, in English on 84 per cent., and in Irish schools only on 65 per +cent.; but in considering these figures allowance must be made for the +fact that school attendance in Great Britain has been compulsory for +just over thirty years, while in Ireland it was only in 1892 that an Act +was passed sanctioning the formation of School Attendance Committees +with power to enforce the attendance of children at school. + +In addition to the Board of National Education there are in Dublin the +Intermediate Board, the Commissioners of Education, who deal with the +few Educational endowments in the country, the Department of Agriculture +and Technical Instruction, the Senate of the Royal University, the Local +Government Board attending to the education of children in work-houses, +industrial, and reformatory schools, all concerned with primary and +secondary education in its administrative aspect, while the Board of +Works is occupied with the erection of school buildings. The +extravagance and inefficiency which results from this diffusion and +consequent overlapping of power and duties on the part of officials +scattered about in Tyrone House, in Hume Street, in Merrion Place, and +three or four other parts of Dublin, is well illustrated by the fact +that out of every 20s. given as Exchequer aid to education-- + + In England and Wales + 17/- goes to Education and 3/- to Administration and Inspection. + + In Scotland + 16/2 goes to Education and 3/10 to Administration and Inspection. + + In Ireland + 13/6 goes to Education and 6/6 to Administration and Inspection. + +Administrative extravagance, it will be seen, is in inverse ratio to the +quality of the educational service. If we take the three Irish Boards of +National, Intermediate, and Technical Education, the total cost of +administration and inspection is L120,000 per annum; the similar charge +on Scotland is exactly half that sum, and yet Scotland prides herself on +her education, and Ireland is taunted with her illiteracy. + +The state of secondary education in Ireland differs fundamentally from +that of England in this--that the number of educational endowments in +the country are extremely few. Practically the whole of the money spent +on this branch of education comes from taxation and school fees. It is +controlled by the Intermediate Board, which was established some thirty +years ago, and is in its management entirely dissociated from the +National Board, so that all arrangements with a view to the transfer of +clever pupils from the schools of the one type to those of the other are +made as difficult as possible. + +The Intermediate schools are, on the other hand, subject to the +Department of Technical Instruction as well as to the Intermediate +Board. Each of these awards grants, in some instances, for the same +subjects, but dependent in many cases on different standards and +conditions, so that it sometimes happens that schools earn grants twice +over for the same subjects; and in other cases they enjoy aid from one +Department of State which is refused for the same subject by another, +owing to failure to comply with its conditions or to attain to its +standard. Just as the connection of the Elementary schools with the +Intermediate schools is very imperfect, so at the other end is the +connection with the universities. The system of payment by results, +under which the Intermediate schools are subsidised, is notoriously +unsound from the point of view of education, since it leads to +"cramming," and, moreover, under it the amount of grant earned by a +school is subject to extreme variations. Lastly, if the pupils suffer +from existing arrangements, the case of the teachers is no better, for +from a recent report it will be seen that the average salary of lay +teachers in Intermediate schools in Ireland is at least half what it is +in corresponding schools in England. + +In a country where elementary and intermediate education are in so +unsatisfactory condition as we have seen them to be, one would expect +university education to be seriously crippled, but in Ireland there +arise in this connection further complications from religious +differences which serve to perpetuate a state of affairs which twenty +years ago Mr. Balfour declared was an intolerable grievance, and which +still remains one of the chief disabilities of Ireland. There are at the +present moment two universities in the country, but since one of these +is only an examining board let us begin by considering the status of the +other. Trinity College, Dublin, was founded by Queen Elizabeth with the +proceeds of confiscated Catholic lands, both monastic and lay, with the +avowed intention of propagating the principles of the Protestant +religion. During Grattan's Parliament, at the end of the eighteenth +century, it threw open its gates to others than members of the +Established Church--an example which was not followed by Oxford and +Cambridge for three-quarters of a century. There could be no greater +mistake than to imply from this that it thereby lost its strong +sectarian character. After Mr. Gladstone's attempt in 1873 to solve the +University question had failed, Fawcett's Act removed the religious +tests which barred not only Catholics but also Presbyterians from its +offices and scholarships, and thereby made the College, in theory, +undenominational. In point of fact it is little less Episcopalian than +it has ever been. Its chapel services are Protestant, as are also its +Divinity schools. Its governing body, comprising the Provost and seven +Senior Fellows, is entirely Protestant, while of the 4,200 names on its +electoral roll 2,600 are those of Protestant clergymen. + +Of other institutions affording opportunities for higher education in +Ireland, the three Queen's Colleges in Cork, Galway, and Belfast were +destined by their founder, Sir Robert Peel, who established them in +1838, to supply the higher education which was lacking among the +Catholics of the country. The Protestant "atmosphere" of Trinity being +the great obstacle in the way of Catholics who wished for higher +education for their sons, it was thought that by removing this and +setting up undenominational colleges all would be well and the religious +difficulty would be solved. It was as great a mistake as it was possible +to commit. They were stigmatised by a leading Protestant of the time as +godless colleges; they ran counter to all Catholic principles of +education, which demand at least some connection between secular and +religious teaching, and the taboo to which they have in large measure +been subjected has to a great extent resulted in making a failure of +Cork College, and still more of Galway College. The undenominationalism +of Queen's College, Belfast, not being in opposition to the consciences +of the Presbyterians of that city, has resulted in the fact that the +College there has succeeded to a far greater extent than have the other +two. + +The Royal University, founded in 1882, is, as I have said, nothing more +than an examining body, established on the lines of the London +University as it existed at that date, with power to award scholarships +and fellowships. About fifty years ago John Henry Newman founded the +Catholic University in St. Stephen's Green. Unendowed and depending on +the voluntary contributions of the poorest people in Western Europe, it +is not surprising that the venture failed. From it, however, rose the +University College, controlled by the Jesuit Fathers, which occupies the +same buildings, and the pupils of which compete for the degrees of the +Royal University as those of the Queen's Colleges have done ever since, +on the foundation of the Royal University, the Queen's University--of +which the three colleges were components--was destroyed. The indirect +mode in which the Catholic University College is endowed is worthy of +attention. The Royal University, out of its income from the Irish Church +Fund, maintains twenty-nine fellows, each with an income of L400 a year +on condition that they should act as examiners in the Royal University, +and in addition give their services as teachers in colleges appointed by +the Senate (namely, the three Queen's Colleges, University College, +Dublin, and the Magee College in Derry). Of these Fellows fifteen are +allotted to University College. On the assumption that of their salary +one-quarter represents the payment as examiners to the University--and +the estimate is generous in view of the payment of only L30 to each +examiner in the Cambridge Triposes--if this be assumed to be the case, +the remaining L300 stands for the salary given as teacher in University +College, which thus, albeit indirectly, is endowed to the extent of +L4,500 a year--a fact which, though contrasting unfavourably with the +L12,000 or L13,000 enjoyed by each of the Queen's Colleges, nevertheless +would have seemed to cut the ground from under the feet of those who +argued that the University question was insoluble since they would not +countenance the application of public funds to a sectarian college. + +It is often alleged that the anxiety of the Irish for other facilities +for higher education than are at present afforded arises from their +priest-ridden condition, and that the clergy urge the demand only in +order that they may obtain more power than they already possess. The +conditions in University College are some answer to this charge. It is, +as I have said, under the control of the Jesuits, and a very able member +of that Society is its President. Founded though it was for Catholics, +the proportion--namely, about 10 per cent.--of non-Catholic students has +for the last twenty years been greater than that of Catholics attending +Queen's College, Belfast. Of its professorial staff only five out of +twenty-one are priests. There have always been some Protestants among +them, and on the governing council only one member is a priest, and of +the five laymen one is a Protestant. + +The history of the University question in recent years is instructive. +In 1868 Lord Mayo, the Chief Secretary, endeavoured without success to +formulate a scheme. In 1873 Mr. Gladstone brought in a Bill which risked +the life of his Government, and failed to pass. Three years later a Bill +of Isaac Butt's was introduced, but was unsuccessful, and after another +three years, in 1879, was established the federal Royal University. In +1885 the Conservative Chief Secretary, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, +expressed a hope on the part of the Government that in the following +session they would be able to bring in a Bill in settlement of the +question. The letter of Lord Randolph Churchill to Lord Justice +FitzGibbon, which has been quoted elsewhere, shows that at the end of +the same year the Conservative Government was anxious to make an end of +the matter by legislation. In 1889 Mr. Balfour, as Chief Secretary, on +two occasions expressed in the House of Commons the intention of the +Government to proceed to a solution, for the conditions in Ireland, he +went on to say, were "such as to leave them no alternative but to devise +a scheme by which the wants of the Roman Catholics would be met." We +have seen in another connection the quotation from the Life of Lord +Randolph Churchill urging legislation in 1892, and in 1896 Lord Cadogan, +as Viceroy, explicitly spoke of it as "a question with which the present +Government will have to deal." + +Eight years ago, in 1899, Mr. Balfour launched a manifesto on this +question which proposed the maintenance of Dublin University with its +Episcopalian atmosphere, while a St. Patrick's University was to be +founded in Dublin with a Catholic atmosphere, and a University of +Belfast with a Presbyterian atmosphere was to be founded on the basis of +the existing Queen's College in that city. The reasons which Mr. +Balfour gave for desiring a settlement of the question deserve +quotation:-- + +"For myself I hope a University will be granted, and I hope it will be +granted soon. I hope so, as a Unionist, because otherwise I do not know +how to claim for a British Parliament that it can do for Ireland all, +and more than all, that Ireland could do for herself. I hope so as a +lover of education, because otherwise the educational interests both of +Irish Protestants and of Irish Roman Catholics must grievously suffer, +and suffer in that department of education, the national importance of +which is from day to day more fully recognised. I hope so as a +Protestant, because otherwise too easy an occasion is given for the +taunt that in the judgment of Protestants themselves Protestantism has +something to fear from the spread of knowledge." + +Two years after this declaration a Royal Commission on the whole +question was mooted, and immediately the cry of "Hands off Trinity" was +raised, in spite of the fact that no Royal Commission had sat on that +College since 1853, an interval of time in which there had been four +Commissions on Oxford and Cambridge, and three on the Scottish +Universities. The terms of reference of the Commission of 1901 on its +appointment under the chairmanship of Lord Robertson were vague. A Judge +of the High Court in Ireland threatened to resign if Trinity +College--the main centre of University education in the island--were +included in the scope of the inquiry of a Commission on the means for +obtaining such education in the country. The Commission sat in private, +and it was not till the first volume of evidence was published that it +was discovered that the terms of reference had been so interpreted as to +exclude Trinity from the inquiry, and to retain the services of the +learned Judge. + +After discussing the alternatives of a new Catholic University, or a +reconstitution of the Royal University with the addition of a new +Catholic College, the Commissioners decided in favour of the latter. +Their plan comprised a federal teaching University with four constituent +Colleges, the three Queen's Colleges and a new Catholic College to be +situated in Dublin. Changes in the constitution of the Queen's Colleges, +to remove the religious objections at present entertained towards them +were proposed, and in reference to the endowment of the new Catholic +College it was claimed that it was not truly open to the objection that +it introduced denominational endowment into the University system of +Ireland since the Jesuit University College receives, and has received +for nearly a quarter of a century, a large annual sum out of moneys +provided by Acts of Parliament for University purposes. The reason which +the Commissioners gave fer not making this institution the basis of a +new College was declared to be its meagre scale which makes it +unsuitable for expansion. + +In January, 1904, Lord Dunraven propounded a scheme in a letter to the +Press by which the question was to be solved by enlarging the University +of Dublin so as to include the present Queen's College, Belfast, and a +new College which should satisfy Catholic needs in Dublin, each of the +Colleges being autonomous and residential, and on August 3rd, 1904, Mr. +Clancy, in the House of Commons, read a telegram from the Archbishop of +Dublin saying that the bishops would accept either the Dunraven scheme +or that of the Robertson Commission. + +So matters were allowed to rest until, with the advent to power of the +present Government, the lacuna, which owing to the recalcitrancy of Mr. +Justice Madden, had been left in the public information on the problem +by the omission of Trinity from the Robertson report, was filled up by +the appointment of a new Royal Commission. + +Early this year their report was published. Five of the Commissioners +are in favour of a modified Dunraven scheme, three follow the Robertson +scheme, and one--the only Catholic Fellow of Trinity, one of the very +few of that faith who had ever been elected to that office--is in favour +of no change, an opinion which he expounds in three lines. + +It must be remembered in connection with the minority recommendation +that the importance of its coincidence with that of the Robertson report +may easily be exaggerated if sufficiently strong insistence be not laid +upon the exclusion of the University of Dublin from the purview of the +latter. + +The chief respect in which the majority recommendations differ from +those of Lord Dunraven is in the inclusion in the new federal Dublin +University of the present Queen's College in Cork, and possibly of that +of Galway. It is important to study this proposal, because it is, +according to Mr. Bryce's last words on resigning office, to be the means +by which the Government hope to effect a solution. + +The fact that both the Robertson and the Fry Commissions reported +against Mr. Balfour's plan, to the promotion of the success of which in +the eight years which have elapsed he has done nothing, on the grounds +of the difficulty of bringing it into play, show that for the moment +opinion is set against the multiplication of Universities, and the +choice for the present lies between the two methods of dealing with the +two existing Universities, one of which does not teach, while to the +other the students of the country cannot in conscience go to be taught. + +After Mr. Bryce's speech we can no longer ask British statesmen, "How +long halt ye between two opinions?" That the plan adopted by the +Government is the better of the two at present mooted I shall endeavour +to show. In the first place, it is a mere accident that Trinity College +has continued so long the sole College in the University of Dublin, +Chief Baron Palles, in a very able note appended to the report, +disentangles from a number of legal decisions and statutory declarations +the distinctions between Trinity College and the University of Dublin +which it is endeavoured to confound. The Charter of James I., conferring +on Dublin the privilege of a University, foreshadowed the establishment +of other Colleges. Both the Act of Settlement, 14 & 15 Car. II. (1660), +and the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1793, expressly authorise the +erection of another College in the University--a fact which makes the +proposed change which partisans are anxious to paint as revolutionary +vandalism appear in truth merely the belated performance of a +long-expressed intention. The advantages to Trinity in making it a part +of a great National University are hard to exaggerate. She has long been +described as the only successful British institution in Ireland, and in +that may perhaps be found the comparatively evil days on which she has +fallen, as her admission lists every year testify, and as was explained +to me recently by a member of the very class from which she used to draw +her undergraduates, when he said--"The respectable Protestant country +gentry don't send their sons to Trinity now in the numbers in which they +used to. They send them to Oxford and Cambridge." The last part of his +remark I was able to indorse from my own personal observation. + +On two occasions advances have been made by the Board of Trinity College +to the heads of the Catholic hierarchy, asking them what would be their +attitude if Trinity were to allow Catholic students in the College the +same facilities for religious teaching by the members of their own +Church as are at present provided for undergraduate members of the +Episcopalian Protestant Church. On the first occasion Cardinal Cullen, +shortly after the passing of the University Tests Act, replied that he +could be no party to such a proposal. When the process of sounding the +Catholic bishops was repeated in November, 1903, the Provost and Senior +Fellows expressed their willingness to consent to the erection of a +Catholic chapel in the College grounds provided a sufficient sum of +money was forthcoming for its erection. A similar advance was made to +the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and +the reply in each case was the same--that the parties concerned could +not accept the offers made by the College Board. The failure on the part +of Presbyterians to make use of the College has been attributed by the +Commissioners to the ancient alienation of the Presbyterians from +Trinity, as well as to the existence of the useful work done for that +body by the Queen's College, Belfast. That this ancient alienation +exists in the case of Catholics far more than in that of the +Presbyterians is but natural, seeing that the College was founded by +Elizabeth to undermine the Catholicism of the people. For all that, +however, the taunt is raised with some superficial measure of +plausibility that in refusing the offer the Catholics and their bishops +lay themselves open to a charge of narrowmindedness, seeing that they +have not a College suitable to their needs as have the Presbyterians in +Belfast. That the _genius loci_ is Episcopalian Protestant no one will +deny. At an inaugural meeting of the College Historical Society a few +years ago Judge Webb declared--"Their University was founded by +Protestants, for Protestants, and in the Protestant interest. A +Protestant spirit had from the first animated every member of its body +corporate. At the present moment, with all its toleration, all its +liberality, all its comprehensiveness, and all its scrupulous honour, +the _genius loci_, the guardian spirit of the place, was Protestant. And +as a Protestant he said, and said it boldly, Protestant might it +evermore remain." To this exposition of the spirit of the College two of +its most distinguished members--Lord Justice FitzGibbon and Professor +Mahaffy--gave their assent. + +In the light of this frank admission the attitude of the Catholics +takes a new complexion. No suggestion, it will be noted, is made in the +overtures to the bishops to give Catholics any--not to speak of a +proportionate--representation on the Councils of the College. As at +present constituted, the Board, owing to the abolition of celibacy as a +condition of Fellowship and the extinction of the advowsons belonging to +the College by the Irish Church Act of 1869, has become a body of men, +the average age of whom is over seventy and the average time since the +graduation of whom is a little more than half a century. There is at +present one Catholic Junior Fellow in the College, and from the above +facts it will be seen that he may get on the governing board, if he +survives, in about forty years from now. + +The government in a college by men whose undergraduate days were fifty +years ago is not calculated to inspire hope for a liberality of +treatment with which a more modern generation might be imbued. The +suggestion that Catholics show narrowmindedness in refusing to throng +the halls of a College admittedly envious of its Protestantism and +maintaining automatically its purely Protestant government for +three-quarters of a century more is very disingenuous. + +That if they were to comply, Protestantism would have by some special +means to maintain its supremacy is obvious, for the Episcopalian +Protestants are only thirteen per cent. of the population of Ireland, +and if Catholics were to swamp Trinity and to succeed in obtaining a +share in its councils proportionate to their numbers in the country, the +body for which Trinity was founded would find themselves unable to +obtain any dominant voice in its government. + +"Trinity College is quite free from clerical control," said the +Vice-Provost in his statement to the Commissioners, regardless +apparently of the fact that of the seven Senior Fellows who, together +with the Provost, form the College Board, no less than four are +clergymen. In this connection I cannot do better than quote from the +statement submitted by the Committee on Higher Education of the General +Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland for the information of +the last Royal Commission:-- + +"So long as Trinity College remains practically as it is there is a real +grievance for all denominations except the Protestant Episcopalian, and +the members of those denominations will still be able to say that the +best education in the country--and whether it is the best academically +or simply possesses a greater social acceptance and prestige it is +needless here to discuss--is withheld from them, except on conditions +that tempt their sons to abandon the faith of their fathers or to become +weakened in their attachment to it." + +No one--least of all an Irishman--can deny the greatness of a College on +the boards of which are such names as Berkeley, Swift, Grattan, Flood, +and Burke, but it will be admitted by all that as far as the fame of her +_alumni_ is concerned--and there is no other test for a collegiate +foundation--Trinity reached the zenith of her greatness during the years +in which a free Parliament served to break down the barriers of religion +in the island. With the passing of that phase of political history she +relapsed into her place as the "silent sister" in the country, but not +of it, taking no part in national life other than to offer opposition to +the legislative changes, which even she is now constrained to admit were +reforms. + +As owner of some 200,000 acres, Trinity College has proved herself one +of the worst landlords in Ireland. An estate belonging to the College in +County Kerry gave rise to one of the bitterest struggles of the land +war. In view of the cry which is being raised in England to-day as to +the broad tolerance which is alleged to hold the field in the College +to-day, the bitterly anti-Catholic spirit of the present Provost and of +his predecessors deserves mention; but I must further call the reader's +notice to a recent event which attracted much attention in Ireland, but +was passed unnoticed in Great Britain. In a sonnet, written by a leading +Fellow of the College in "T.C.D.," the College magazine, the writer +spoke of the Catholic churches in Ireland as "grim monuments of cold +observance, the incestuous mate of superstition," of which "to seeing +eyes each tall steeple lifts its tall head and lies." Sentiments of this +kind, expressed in such taste, are not calculated to encourage Catholic +parents to send their sons to a college where they may come under +influences of which the writer is an example. + +The idea of putting into practice the proposed expedient of swamping +Trinity by the encouragement of all Catholics to send their sons to that +College is to a member of an old university as attractive as on paper it +appears easy, but there are drawbacks to its practical application other +than the presence in the College of such a spirit as I have exemplified. + +In England, where there are public schools, and Oxford and Cambridge +colleges, many of which have behind them a career of three or four +hundred years, one is inclined to overestimate the value of tradition in +a country where educational endowments are rare and ancient endowments +are the exception. The traditions, moreover, of the origin and of the +mission of Trinity are not such as to foster for her the same feelings +as Oxford and Cambridge have the power of provoking in England. The part +which Trinity has played in Irish history is in no sense analogous to +that played by the English Universities in the history of that country. +English Catholics make use of Oxford and Cambridge for the education of +their sons because in view of their numbers the notion of a separate +university or even a separate college would be ridiculous. In England +Catholics are a small sect. In Ireland they form the great bulk of the +nation. In Montreal, where Catholics form only forty per cent. of the +population, a Catholic University was established by Royal Charter, and +the same principle has been applied in the establishment of Catholic +Universities in Nova Scotia, in Malta, in New South Wales, and in the +founding of the Mahommedan Gordon College at Khartoum. + +As long as Trinity maintained tests, so long did the Catholics demand as +of right a purely Catholic University on the grounds of civic equity, +but in these days of open doors they have again and again expressed +their demand for a college or university open to men of all +creeds--Catholic in the sense that Oxford and Cambridge are Protestant, +and are in consequence thronged with young Englishmen; Catholic in the +way that the Scottish Universities are Presbyterian and that Trinity, +Dublin, is Episcopalian. Not a rich man's college, but one to which all +may go as they do to those in Scotland and like those racy of the soil, +and for the rest, in Cardinal Newman's words--"Not a seminary, not a +convent, but a place where men of the world may be fitted for the +world." + +Everyone recognises to-day the grievance of the Dissenters in England +and Wales in single school areas under the Education Act of 1902. +Ireland may not unjustly be said to be a single university area, for to +call an examining Board a university is a misnomer. It is surely not too +much to assert that the conscientious scruples of the Irish Catholics to +forms of education of which they do not approve are as strong as the +feelings of the Non-conformist conscience. The attempt to force +undenominationalism on the country has been an expensive failure. +Recognising this, the denominational--nay, more, the Jesuit--University +College has in a niggardly fashion and by a back door been subsidised by +the State. The demand is for no more than a university which shall be +Catholic in the sense that it shall be national, and this in a +preponderatingly Catholic country implies Catholicism. The Irish +Catholic bishops in 1897 declared they are prepared to accept a +university without tests in which the majority of the governing body +are laymen, with a provision that no State funds should be employed for +the promotion of religious education. It is idle, in view of this, to +protest that the demand is urged only on behalf of rampant clericalism, +and that the only form of university which Catholics will accept is of +such a kind as would serve to strengthen the hand of the priests, whose +sole aim in this demand is to secure that increase of power. The shifts +of intolerance are many, but I cannot believe that it will long continue +to masquerade in this manner as the statesmanlike buffer between a +priest-ridden country and an aggressive clergy. Granting, for the sake +of argument, that this was the case, one would have thought that a +well-educated laity was better able than one without education to +withstand the encroaches of clericalism. We do not ask for a +denominational college, but remember that the only colleges, Keble and +Selwyn, founded in Oxford and Cambridge in the last eighty years are +purely denominational. In the last forty years six new universities have +been founded in England, and the number of university students has risen +from 2,300 to 13,000. In Ireland, on the other hand, for three-fourths +of the population knowledge must still remain a fountain sealed; it is +as though one were applying literally to that country the text--"He that +increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." + +In connection with what one may call the Bryce scheme it may be well to +point out that as long ago as 1871 the hierarchy proposed a solution on +the same lines. In a Pastoral letter of that year, after insisting on +the principle of equality, the following passage occurred--"All this +can, we believe, be attained by modifying the constitution of the +University of Dublin, so as to admit the establishment of a second +College within it, in every respect equal to Trinity College, and +conducted on purely Catholic principles." + +On the motion to go into Committee on the Bill for the abolition of +tests in 1873 an Irish member moved a motion to the effect that a +Catholic College should be founded in the University of Dublin, in +addition to Trinity College. Two years later Mr. Isaac Butt, the +Protestant leader of the Irish Nationalists (himself a Trinity man), and +The O'Conor Don, a Catholic Unionist, brought in a Bill on the same +lines, but both motion and Bill were defeated. The advantages of this +mode of dealing with the question are seen from its acceptance by the +hierarchy and the general mass of the Catholic laity. The Senate of the +Royal University have since its promulgation readily recognised its +soundness and have given it their support, as have the Professors of +University College, Dublin. It will serve to make an end of the +underhand manner by which, as we have seen, that College, though not +merely a denominational, but, moreover, a Jesuit institution, is +subsidised by public money, though we are always told that State +endowment of religious education is alien to all modern principles of +government. + +One would have thought that the authorities of Trinity would have felt +themselves estopped from refusing to accept this solution. The offer of +facilities inside Trinity itself--if it is the generous concession it +professes to be--must be made with a full recognition that, if accepted, +the process of "capturing" the College would be effected before long, +thus modifying the Protestantism which is its proudest boast. If, on the +other hand, the expense of life in Trinity College would prove +prohibitive to any but a small section of the four thousand matriculated +students in the Royal University, the much-vaunted liberality of Trinity +is seen to be very greatly restricted, since the results of acceptance +of the offer would only touch the mere fringe of the educational demand. + +Last year, of the 1,114 students on the books of the College only 261 +were resident within the College--there being accommodation for only +275. Of the 853 returned as residing outside the College, more than a +hundred do not attend lectures or classes, and are entitled to call +themselves members of the College though their only connection with it +is in the examination hall--an evil system which the Commission has +condemned, and which one must suppose was borrowed from the Royal +University. + +Everyone is agreed that a university to be worth the name should, if +possible, be residential. The absence of disciplinary control in Trinity +on those residing out of College, the omission on the part of the +authorities to enact rules which would allow terms to be kept only in +licensed lodging-houses, subject to inspection and to a rigid "lock-up +rule" at twelve o'clock, are absent in Dublin not only at Trinity, but +at the University College, where one can only suppose its absence to be +due to the unorganised condition of a small and temporary makeshift. Not +only, however, for the exercise of disciplinary control, but also +because of the close association of men with each other which residence +ensures, is this to be regarded as the best means of getting the heart +out of a university education. + +This being the case, if Trinity were to receive a new accession of +numbers its accommodation would have to be largely increased, so that +the line of least resistance, which leaves the very largely autonomous +constitution of Trinity unimpaired, will be seen to lie in the direction +of the establishment of a new college, in which, moreover, it will be +possible to make expenses more economical than they are in Trinity. + +"It is not for us," said Mr. Balfour at Partick in December, 1889, "to +consider how far the undoubtedly conscientious objections of the Roman +Catholic population to use the means at their disposal are wise or +unwise. That is not our business. What we have to do is to consider what +we can do consistently with our conscience to meet their wants." + +The proposals of the Government, as outlined by Mr. Bryce and +recommended by the Royal Commission, offend against no one's conscience. +They assail no vested interest unless one so calls that of which Matthew +Arnold spoke as one very cruel result of the Protestant ascendancy; they +tend to establish something approaching equality between creeds; they +make an end of the mischievous system by which the Royal University has +encouraged a false ideal of success by making examination the end-all +and the be-all of a so-called university education, and which, moreover, +according to the final report of the Robertson Commission, "fails to +exhibit the one virtue which is associated with a university of this +kind--that of inspiring public confidence in its examination results." +The advantages of the present proposal over a reorganised Royal +University are that the size and poverty of the country are strong +reasons against the creation of two universities when one would be +equally efficient. The scheme will be readily accepted by the +Presbyterians as well as by the Catholics, which would not be the case +with a reconstituted Royal University, and it is the only solution of +the question which will bring the young men of different creeds in the +country together at an impressionable age when friendships are formed +which may serve to break down the barrier between creeds. + +The objection of Trinity College to the inclusion on the roll of the +University under the new conditions of the present M.A.s of the Royal +University is scarcely consistent with its recent action in admitting to +_ad eundem_ degrees women who have passed the final degree examinations +at Oxford and Cambridge, and if the objection to the proposal is based +on the change in political complexion which the electoral roll of the +University would undergo, the answer is that University representation +is an anomaly which in any circumstances is not likely to continue for +many years more in the case, not merely of Dublin, but of the other +universities of the three kingdoms. + + * * * * * + +Since the foregoing chapter was written the Provost of Trinity has +announced to a meeting of Graduates of the College that he has received +assurances from the Chief Secretary that in the forthcoming Bill the +University of Dublin will be left untouched. I have said enough to show +that Irish Nationalist opinion has not been committed to the Bryce +scheme to the exclusion of every other solution, but it is to be +regretted, in the interests of education, that the proposal which the +majority of Irishmen regarded as the solution nearest approaching the +ideal should have been launched by the Government merely as a _ballon +d'essai_, to be withdrawn at the first breath of opposition, and to be +replaced by what, at the best, can only prove to be a less hopeful +compromise. One guarantee of a speedy solution the country at any rate +holds--namely, that the Government is pledged to introduce legislation +next session, and that the Chief Secretary has bound himself to stand or +fall by the fate of the Bill. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +UNIONISM IN IRELAND + + "When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only + effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an + unalterable fool. There are always a set of worthy and + moderately gifted men who bawl out death and ruin upon every + valuable change which the varying aspect of human affairs + absolutely and imperiously requires ... I admit that to a + certain extent the Government will lose the affections of the + Orangemen ... but you must perceive that it is better to have + four friends and one enemy than four enemies and one friend." + + --SYDNEY SMITH, _Letters of Peter Plymley_, 1807. + + +From the outcry which arose in the last years of the late Government at +the revelations which came to be known as the MacDonnell mystery one +would have thought that Conservatives could look back to a record +unstained by any traffic with the unclean thing for which they express +such horror. I will try to show how small is the measure of truth in +this belief, and in what manner it has proved impossible to maintain the +_status quo_ in the teeth of democratic feeling without _pourparlers_ +behind the scenes, even when in the open such dealings have had perforce +to be denounced as impossible. + +Twenty-five years ago the rigid application of the Crimes Act by Lord +Spencer, the Viceroy, after the Phoenix Park murders had put an end to +the "Kilmainham Treaty," and the failure on the part of the Government +to amend the Land Act of 1881, together with the sympathetic attitude of +Lord Randolph Churchill, then conducting his guerilla tactics as leader +of the Fourth Party, all served to make opposition on the part of the +Irish members to the Liberal Government increase, and it was by their +aid that in June, 1885, it was thrown out of office on a defeat by +twelve votes on the Budget. Lord Salisbury then took office with his +"ministry of care-takers," with a minority in the House of Commons, for +a general election could not take place until the provisions of the new +Franchise Act had come into force. + +Colour was lent to the general impression which was abroad that the +Conservatives were flirting with Home Rule by the appointment to the +Lord Lieutenancy with a seat in the Cabinet of Lord Carnarvon, the +statesman who had established federation in Canada and had attempted to +bring it about in South Africa, who was familiar with the machinery of +subordinate legislatures and Colonial parliaments, and whose sympathies +with the Irish people were to be inferred from the fact that he had +voted for Disestablishment in 1869, and for the Land Bill of the +following year, in a speech on which measure he had urged the House of +Lords not to delay concession till it could no longer have the charm of +free consent, nor be regulated by the counsels of prudent statesmanship. + +The defeat of the Liberals had been primarily due to the revolt on the +part of the radical section over the question of whether a new Coercion +Bill should be introduced. In the light of this fact special importance +was attached to the declaration, made in the House of Lords, as to the +Irish policy of the Government, the more so because in an unprecedented +manner not the Premier but the Viceroy was the spokesman. He began by a +repudiation of coercion, with which he declared the recent +enfranchisement of the Irish people would not be consistent. "My Lords," +he went on to say, speaking of the general question, "I do not believe +that with honesty and singlemindedness of purpose on the one side, and +with the willingness of the Irish people on the other, it is hopeless to +look for some satisfactory solution of this terrible question. My +Lords, these I believe to be the opinions and views of my colleagues." + +A further step in securing Irish support occurred at the end of July, +and perhaps of all the strange events which have occurred in the +government of Ireland it is the strangest. Lord Carnarvon solicited +through one of his colleagues, and obtained, an interview with Mr. +Parnell, and the circumstances under which this occurred between the +Queen's Lord Lieutenant and the leader to whom men attributed treason +and condoning assassinations is perhaps the most curious part of the +whole story. + +The meeting took place at the very end of the London season, not in the +Houses of Parliament nor in a club of which one or other of the parties +was a member, but in an empty house in Grosvenor Square, from which all +the servants had gone away. It is a piquant feature of the event, +shrouded as it was with all these circumstances of mystery, that the +gentleman who was in the secret and offered his house for the meeting +was no other than that rigid Imperialist, Col. Sir Howard Vincent, who +had only the year before retired from the Criminal Investigation +Department at Scotland Yard. When the occurrence of this interview +became known, nearly a year later, Mr. Parnell declared--and the fact +was never denied by Lord Carnarvon--that the latter had pronounced +himself in favour of an Irish Parliament with the power of protecting +Irish industries. The insistence by the Viceroy that he spoke only for +himself appeared to the Irish leader to be mere formality, but in truth +the Cabinet knew nothing of the interview. Lord Salisbury was informed +that it was going to take place, raised no objection to its occurrence, +and on receiving afterwards, both _verbatim_ and in writing, accounts of +what had occurred, praised the discretion of his Viceroy. + +In view of what had happened it was not surprising that in the month of +August Mr. Parnell made an explicit demand for the restoration of +Grattan's Parliament, with the right of taxing foreign and even English +imports for the benefit of the Irish home trade--a proposal not so +revolutionary as it would now appear, seeing that less than forty years +had elapsed since the Irish Custom House had for the first time begun to +admit all English goods duty free. + +Mr. Parnell's manifesto was followed by Lord Salisbury's speech at +Newport, from which quotation has already been made, in which he +expressed himself of opinion that Home Rule would be safer than popular +local government, and further enhanced the impression that he was moving +in the direction of the safer policy, by proceeding to frame what has +been described as the nearest approach to an apologia for boycotting +which has ever been made by an English statesman. The election address +of Lord Randolph Churchill--the most popular and influential minister in +the country--contained no allusion to the threatened "dismemberment of +the Empire," and in his campaign his only allusion to Ireland was +comprised in boasts of the success of the anti-coercion policy of +Carnarvon; while Sir John Gorst, who had been Solicitor-General, +referred in his election address in disparaging terms to "the +reactionary Ulster members." All the symptoms pointed in the one +direction of an alliance between Salisbury and Parnell on the basis of a +scheme for self-government, and an additional point was given to the +indications in that direction by the fact that Mr. Chamberlain and Lord +Hartington, at variance on most points of policy, were united in +opposition to Mr. Parnell's demand. + +The statesmanlike manner in which at this juncture Mr. Gladstone +endeavoured, as he himself put it, to keep the strife of nations from +forming the dividing line between parties, has become very apparent with +the recent publication of documents of the period. Two years before, he +had told the Queen that the Irish question could only be settled by a +conjunction of parties, and on December 20th, 1885, he wrote to the +Conservative leader on the urgency of the Irish question, and declared +that it would be a public calamity if this great subject should fall +into lines of party conflict. If Salisbury would bring forward a +proposal for settling the whole question of future government in Ireland +he would treat it in the same spirit as that which he had shown in the +matters of Afghanistan and the Balkans, and he illustrated the +advantages which such a spirit of concession could produce by the +conferences on the Reform Bill, and the fact that the existing +Conservative ministry had been maintained in office by Liberal +forbearance. "His hypocrisy," wrote a minister to whom this letter had +been shown, "makes me sick." In this connection a letter from Lord +Randolph Churchill to Lord Salisbury, written on the following day, is +of interest:-- + +"Labouchere came to see me this morning.... He proceeded to tell me +that, on Sunday week last, Lord Carnarvon had met Justin MacCarthy and +had confided to him that he was in favour of Home Rule in some shape, +but that his colleagues and his party were not ready, and asked whether +Justin MacCarthy's party would agree to an inquiry which he thought +there was a chance of the Government agreeing to, and which would +educate his colleagues and his party if granted and carried through. I +was consternated, but replied that such a statement was an obvious lie, +but, between ourselves, I fear it is not, perhaps not even an +exaggeration or a misrepresentation. Justin MacCarthy is on the staff of +the _Daily News_, Labouchere is one of the proprietors, and I cannot +imagine any motive for his inventing such a statement. If it is true +Lord Carnarvon has played the devil."[21] + +With regard to the overtures which Mr. Gladstone had made, for which +precedents in plenty were supplied by the repeal of the Test Act in +1828, Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the Repeal of the Corn Laws in +1848, and the extension of the franchise in 1867, Lord Salisbury saw in +it only anxiety to take office on the part of his great opponent, and +prophesied that if his hunger were not prematurely gratified he would be +forced into some line of conduct which would be discreditable to him and +disastrous, and when the Liberal leader on the 23rd again pressed for a +definite answer to his approaches he was refused a communication of +views. + +"Thus idly," says Mr. Winston Churchill, "drifted away what was perhaps +the best hope of the settlement of Ireland which that generation was to +see." + +The view which Mr. Gladstone took of the events of the winter of 1885-6 +is illustrated by a memorandum which he wrote in 1897, in which he +says:-- + +"I attached value to the acts and language of Lord Carnarvon and the +other favourable manifestations. Subsequently we had but too much +evidence of a deliberate intention to deceive the Irish with a view to +their support at the election."[22] + +The attitude of the Tories and the rankling memory of the bitter debates +on the Liberal Coercion Bill of 1882, coupled with the attitude of the +Tories and the deception which they practised, resulted, not +unnaturally, in the fact that Parnell threw his weight in favour of the +Conservatives at the general election which ensued, and by this means, +it is estimated, lost at least twenty seats to the Liberals. Immediately +after the election the Viceroy and the Chief Secretary retired, but +though their successors were appointed in the third week in December, it +was not till the middle of January that the resignations were made +public. The first act of the new Chief Secretary was to announce that, +in spite of the emphatic disclaimers of the previous June, a Coercion +Bill was to be introduced, and as a result of the Irish voting with the +Liberals the Tories were defeated, and Mr. Gladstone took office. The +Home Rule Bill which was introduced was thrown out in the month of June, +the Government being in a minority of thirty. Had it not been for +Parnell's manifesto, urging Irishmen in Great Britain to vote for +Conservatives, the Government would have had a majority of between ten +and twenty, and, moreover, if a general election had followed, the +morale of the Liberals would have been much greater if they had been +fighting for the second time within a few months shoulder to shoulder +with the Irishmen, and not been in the position in which in fact they +were--of enjoying the support in June of those who had opposed them in +November. + +Let us now turn to the MacDonnell incident. One of the first acts of Mr. +Balfour, on becoming Prime Minister in July, 1902, on the retirement of +Lord Salisbury was to give Mr. Wyndham, the Chief Secretary, a seat in +the Cabinet. In September Mr. Wyndham appointed as Under Secretary Sir +Antony MacDonnell, a distinguished Indian Civil Servant and Member of +the Indian Council, who had been in turn head of the Government of +Burma, the Central Provinces, and the North-West Provinces, and who had +with conspicuous ability carried on financial and agrarian reforms in +the East. Lord Lansdowne, during his tenure of the Viceroyalty, formed a +high estimate of his knowledge and ability, and it was on his +recommendation that Mr. Wyndham appointed this official to the post. The +correspondence between the two, which Mr. Redmond elicited from the +Government two and a half years later, shows that it was with some +reluctance that the Under Secretary yielded to the pressure brought to +bear on him to accept the office. + +"I am an Irishman, a Roman Catholic, and a Liberal in politics," he +wrote. "I have strong Irish sympathies. I do not see eye to eye with you +in all matters of Irish administration, and I think that there is no +likelihood of good coming from such a _regime_ of coercion as the +_Times_ has recently outlined." For all that, being anxious to do some +service to Ireland, he declared his willingness to take office provided +there was some chance of his succeeding, which he thought there would +be, "on this condition, that I should have adequate opportunities of +influencing the policy and acts of the Irish administration, and +subject, of course, to your control, freedom of action in Executive +matters. For many years in India I directed administration on the +largest scale, and I know that if you send me to Ireland the opportunity +of mere secretarial criticism would fall short of the requirements of my +position. If I were installed in office in Ireland my aims, broadly +stated, would be:--(1) The maintenance of order; (2) the solution of the +land question on the basis of voluntary sale; (3) where sale does not +operate the fixation of rent on some self-acting principle whereby local +inquiries would be obviated; (4) the co-ordination, control, and +direction of boards and other administrative bodies; (5) the settlement +of the education question in the general spirit of Mr. Balfour's views, +and generally the promotion of general administrative improvement and +conciliation." + +Mr. Wyndham's acceptance of these terms was explicit, and it was +understood, as the Chief Secretary put it in the House of Commons when +the whole subject came up for review, that Sir Antony was appointed +rather as a colleague than as a mere Under Secretary to register Mr. +Wyndham's will, and although in the House of Commons Mr. Balfour said +that Sir Antony was bound by the rules applying to all Civil Servants, +in the House of Lords Lord Lansdowne declared that, "it had been +recognised that the Under Secretary would have greater freedom of +action, greater opportunities of initiative, than if he had been a +candidate in the ordinary way." + +One of the first results of the new departure was the withdrawal of the +application of the Coercion Act, which had been in force since April, +1902, an action which roused angry protests from the Orangemen, as did +also the words used, in what was almost his first speech, by Lord +Dudley, the new Viceroy, who had succeeded Lord Cadogan, and who +announced that, "the opinion of the Government was, and it was his own +opinion, that the only way to govern Ireland properly was to govern it +according to Irish ideas instead of according to British ideas." + +During 1903 interest was largely engrossed in the fate of the Land Act, +and it was not till the autumn of 1904 that it became known that before +drafting in its final form the programme of the Irish Reform Association +Lord Dunraven had secured the assistance of the Under Secretary with the +knowledge of the Chief Secretary and the Viceroy, the latter of whom, +according to Lord Lansdowne's declaration in the House of Lords, "did +not think that Sir Antony was exceeding his functions"--a fact to which +colour was given by the circumstance that on several occasions the Under +Secretary discussed the reforms with the Lord Lieutenant. + +Mr. Wyndham, on behalf of the Government, had taken the unusual course +of repudiating the Dunraven scheme in a letter to the _Times_, but in +spite of this, Irish Unionists wrote to the _Times_ to express their +suspicions "whether in short the devolution scheme is not the price +secretly arranged to be paid for the Nationalist acquiescence in a +settlement of the land question on generous terms." + +Then it was that the _Times_ expressed its opinion that when a Unionist +Lord Lieutenant and a Unionist Under Secretary are discussing reforms +which the Cabinet condemn as Home Rule in a thin disguise, it is +obviously time that they quitted their posts. Three weeks later Mr. +Wyndham resigned, but Sir Antony, who had had the refusal of the +Governorship of Bombay--the third greatest Governorship in the British +Empire--retained his position, though his presence at Dublin Castle had +been described by some fervent Orangemen as a menace to the loyal and +law-abiding inhabitants of Ireland, and by the Irish Attorney-General as +a gross betrayal of the Unionist position and an injury to the Unionist +cause. Mr. Long, however, very rapidly won the hearts of those who had +succeeded in securing the resignation of Mr. Wyndham by his description +of devolution as "a cowardly surrender to the forces of disorder," and +in the same strain the Earl of Westmeath spoke of "truckling to +disloyalty and trying to conciliate those who will not be conciliated." + +At the opening of the session of 1905 the whole question was ventilated. +The official explanations proving unsatisfactory, the Orangemen decided +to withdraw their support from the Government on all questions affecting +Ireland, and the leader of the party went so far as to utter the threat +that "Ulster might have to draw upon her reserves," which was taken to +mean that the Orangemen who were members of the Government would resign +_en masse_--an action which, in the moribund condition of the Ministry, +would have meant an instant dissolution. At the very beginning of the +session Mr. Wyndham had announced that the matter of Sir Antony's +dealings with Lord Dunraven had been considered by the Cabinet, and "the +Government expressed through me their view that the action of Sir Antony +MacDonnell was indefensible. But they authorised me to add that they +were thoroughly satisfied that his conduct was not open to the +imputation of disloyalty." + +The equivocal and ambiguous position in which the Unionists placed +themselves in the course of this episode is a striking commentary on the +impossibility of governing a country against its will. The Tories tried +once again, in the historic phrase, to catch the Whigs bathing and steal +their clothes, but this time they failed. When the Orangemen held a +pistol at the Government's head and bade its members stand and deliver, +Mr. Wyndham had perforce to resign, but the mystery, which has not yet +been cleared up, is the reason why the Viceroy and the Under Secretary, +who were tarred with the same brush, retained their posts. + +It should in frankness be stated, however, that when during the session +of 1907 the Prime Minister remarked on a certain occasion that he always +thought Mr. Wyndham resigned the Chief Secretaryship in consequence of +criticisms from the Orangemen below the gangway on his own side, Mr. +Balfour interrupted with the remark--"That is a complete mis-statement, +and I think the right honourable gentleman must know it." + +One may well ask, in view of this, what was meant by Mr. Wyndham when, +speaking on the reasons for his retirement, on May 9th, 1905, he +accounted for it by the fact that "the situation in Ireland was +complicated by personal misunderstandings," producing "an atmosphere of +suspicion," which was an obvious reference, as most people supposed, to +such denunciations as that of Mr. William Moore of the Chief Secretary's +"wretched, rotten, sickening policy of conciliation." The +disingenuousness marking the whole proceeding is well shown by the fact +that although on announcing Mr. Wyndham's resignation Mr. Balfour +said:--"The ground of his resignation is not ill-health,"[23] less than +a year later, when asked during the election at Manchester by a heckler +to state the reason why Mr. Wyndham retired, the reply of Mr. Balfour +was--"He retired chiefly on account of health."[24] + +From the correspondence which passed in March, 1906, between Lord Dudley +and Sir Edward Carson, and which was published in the Press, we have the +express statement from the ex-Lord Lieutenant that Mr. Balfour "never +conveyed to me any intimation that he or the Government disapproved +strongly or otherwise of my conduct." + +The correspondence arose over a remark made by Sir Edward Carson, to the +effect that Lord Dudley had made statements both ways as to the +desirability of governing Ireland according to Irish ideas. Challenged +to make good the assertion, which he declared was based on a private +conversation, Sir Edward Carson went on to assert that the Viceroy had +on another occasion expressed the opinion to him that Ireland should be +governed through the agency of the Catholic priesthood. This Lord Dudley +denied as vehemently as he did the imputation of facing both ways, and +in reply went on to write:-- + +"That you should have formed an impression of that kind from any +conversation with me confirms my belief that the violence of your +opinions on Irish political questions make it quite impossible for you +to estimate justly the standpoint of anyone whose views on such +questions may be more moderate and tolerant than your own. It is not, +however, by violence and intolerance that the cause of union is best +served, and my experience in Ireland has shown me very clearly that the +present system of government constantly receives from its most clamorous +advocates blows as heavy and as effective as any that could be dealt to +it by its avowed enemies." + +The Government tried to ride two horses abreast--to rule Ireland +otherwise than by force, and to maintain itself in power with the help +of Orange votes--two courses, each irreconcilable with the other. Their +position reminds me of Alphonse Daudet's immortal creation, Tartarin de +Tarascon, with a double nature, partly that of Don Quixote and partly of +Sancho Panza, at one moment urged on by the glory, and at the next held +back by the prospect of the hardships, of lion-hunting in +Africa--"Couvre toi de gloire," dit Tartarin Quichotte, "Couvre toi de +flanelle dit Tartarin Sancho." + +It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a +government which does not recognise democratic principles to make any +headway in the work of amelioration in Ireland. The moral is that those +responsible for the administration of the country have found themselves +by the force of circumstances, even against their will, driven to apply +popular principles of government in order that they may secure fairness +and efficiency, and my contention that this is so is borne out by the +two incidents to which I have referred, in which the Conservatives +escaped only by the skin of their teeth from committing themselves to a +policy which would have won them the hostility of their Orange allies. + +The latter have in truth secured their own way to a remarkable extent. +The promise has not been fulfilled which Mr. Chamberlain made after the +Unionist victory of 1886, to the effect that Lord Salisbury and the +Conservative leaders were prepared to consider and review the +"irritating centralising system of administration which is known as +Dublin Castle." At the time of the ill-fated Round Table Conference, +which Sir William Harcourt convened, Mr. Chamberlain committed himself +to the expediency of establishing some form of legislative authority in +Dublin, and admitted that such a body should be allowed to organise the +form of Executive Government on whatever lines it thought fit, and Sir +West Ridgeway, as Under Secretary, subsequently carried out the behests +of the same Government by outlining a scheme of self-government by means +of Provincial Councils with a partly elected board to control finance. +All these facts serve to show the injustice--in view of acknowledged +facts--of the description by the late Attorney-General for Ireland of +the Wyndham proposals as "mean and cruel desertion." + +There is no part of the Irish question in respect of which more has been +said which is misleading than what is known as the problem of Ulster. I +have already explained what a misnomer this is. In the Counties of +Donegal, Tyrone, Monaghan, Fermanagh, and Cavan there are more +Catholics than Protestants, while in the Counties of Armagh and Down the +numbers of the two creeds are almost equally divided. What is known as +the question of Ulster should in truth be known as that of Belfast, for +it is only in that city and in the adjacent Counties of Antrim and Down +that the religious question is most acute. + +The social conditions of the country, which have always been to some +extent, though not to that existing in recent years, agricultural, lead +one to seek a cause in the conditions of Land Tenure for the different +degrees of prosperity pervading the North-East corner of Ulster and the +rest of Ireland. It is impossible to doubt that the Ulster Custom of +Tenant Right had an immense effect on the economic status of the +province. Under it the system of tenure which held the field in the +other three provinces was replaced by one in which the tenants had +security against arbitrary eviction so long as they paid their rents, +and, in addition, were entitled to sell their interest in the property +to the incoming tenant, and this Tenant Right sold often for as much as +half, and sometimes for as much as the full, fee-simple of the holding. +The sum could be obtained on the tenant voluntarily vacating the holding +or on his being unable to pay the rent, the landlord being entitled to +be consulted with a view to approval by him of the incoming tenant. + +The importance of the custom can be recognised in the light of the fact +that in England, where improvements are effected in nearly every case +not by the tenant but by the landlord, it has been found necessary, +nevertheless, to give legislative sanction to Tenant Right. + +This has been effected by the Agricultural Holdings Acts, 1875, 1883, +and 1900, under which tenants are entitled to statutory compensation for +improvements, whether permanent, as, for example, buildings; for +drainage purposes; or, as in the case of manure, for the improvement of +the soil. + +The result of the Ulster Custom on the industry of the Northern +tenant-farmer, who enjoyed a freedom of sale and a fixity of tenure, +and, further, a compensation for improvements long before the tenants of +the South and West secured these advantages, are impossible to +over-estimate. Again, in considering the relative economic positions of +the members of the two religions, it is impossible to blink the fact +that little more than a century has passed since the Irish Catholics +were treated as helots under a penal code, and that, if they have been +behind hand in the industrial race, account must be taken of the lead in +the saddle to which in that way they were subjected. The resulting +preponderance of Protestants among the landed gentry led to a further +factor in the ostracism which in the past they exercised as employers of +labour, whether agricultural or industrial, which, besides its direct +effect of breeding and perpetuating sectarian hate, served in an +economic sense to unfit Catholics for employment, and to persuade those +who in fact were least unfitted and retained their perceptive faculties, +that the scope for their energies was to be found only abroad, and so +tended to leave behind a residue of labourers rendered unfit for +employment as against the time when the prejudice of the richer classes +was removed. The non-application in the more purely Protestant parts of +Ulster of the principles which held the field in other parts of Ireland +made for prosperity in that province by tending towards an economic +condition of the labour market, unimpeded by artificial restrictions, +arising from religious differences and imposed at the hands of employers +of labour. Another factor in the contentment of the Ulster Presbyterians +under the varying vicissitudes of Irish government is to be found in the +history of the Regium Donum. The Scottish settlers in 1610 having +brought with them their ministers, the latter were put in possession of +the tithes of the parishes in which they were planted. These they +enjoyed till the death of Charles I., but payments were stopped on their +refusal to recognise the Commonwealth. Henry Cromwell, however, allowed +the body L100, which Charles II. increased to L600, per annum, but +towards the end of his reign, and during that of James II., it was +discontinued. William III. renewed the grant, increasing it to L1,200, +and it was still further augmented in 1785 and 1792. After the Union +Castlereagh largely increased the amount of the Regium Donum, and +completely altered its mode of distribution, making it in fact +contingent on the loyalty of the parson to the Union. The spirit in +which it was granted is well shown in a letter in Castlereagh's memoirs, +in which the writer, addressing the Chief Secretary just after the votes +had been passed by Parliament, declared--"Never before was Ulster under +the dominion of the British Crown. It had a distinct moral existence +before, and now the Presbyterian ministry will be a subordinate +ecclesiastical aristocracy, whose feeling will be that of zealous +loyalty, and whose influence on those people will be as purely sedative +when it should be, and exciting when it should be, as it was the reverse +before." Those who blame Pitt for not having carried through his schemes +of concurrent endowment, and who see in his failure to do so, one reason +for the ill success of his policy of Union, must admit the importance of +the fact that the Presbyterian clergy were pensioners of the State. A +notion of the extent to which they were subsidised may be inferred from +the fact that by the Commutation Clauses of the Church Disestablishment +Act of 1869, the Dissenters secured as compensation for the loss of the +Regium Donum and other payments a sum of L770,000, while the equivalent +amount paid in lieu of the Maynooth grant to the Catholics--numbering at +least eight times as many--amounted to only L372,000. + +It was Froude who declared that if the woollen and linen industries had +not been hampered there would now be four Ulsters instead of one. Even +in the days before restrictions were placed on the production of Irish +linen for the better encouragement of the English trade, the North of +Ireland was far ahead of the rest of the country in the matter of +flax-spinning, and this pre-eminence was mainly due to the fact that the +climate there is more suited to that plant than in other parts of +Ireland. + +Starting with this advantage, linen was able in that province to survive +the impositions placed on its production, while in places less favoured +by a suitable climate the industry went to the wall. To assume off-hand, +without going into the innumerable causes which effect such movements of +commerce, that innate thrift was responsible, apart from all other +causes, for the progress of Belfast is an attitude similar to that of +one who should hold that nothing but the stupidity of the East Anglian +yokel has prevented that country from becoming as much a centre of +industry as is Lancashire, for such a sweeping generalisation would take +no account of other forces at work in the development of the great +commercial centres of the North as, for example, the fact that the +peculiar conditions of the Lancashire climate are such that the +processes of cotton-spinning can be best effected in an atmosphere +containing the amount of moisture which there prevails. + +In Belfast the interdependence of the linen and the ship-building +trades--in one of which the men, while in the other the women, of many +families are employed--is one of the most powerful instruments of social +progress. The narrow sea which separates it from Scotland and the +geographical conformation of Belfast Lough have, moreover, a great +bearing on its prosperity. Independence of Irish railways with their +excessive freights, crippling by their incidence all export trade, in a +town like Belfast, nine-tenths of the industrial output of which goes +across the sea, and the advantage which it has over all other Irish +towns in its proximity, again independently of Irish railways, to the +Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, and Cumberland coalfields, are very important +considerations in view of the obstacle which the scarcity of coal is to +all commercial enterprises in the island. + +Finally, it must not be forgotten, in reference to the greatest of the +industries of the North of Ireland, that a very exceptional impetus was +given to the development of the commercial enterprise of Belfast at a +time which might otherwise have proved a critical period in her +industrial career, by the fact that the American Civil War caused a +slump in cotton which resulted in the failure of a very large number of +Lancashire cotton mills, the place of which was taken by the linen mills +of Belfast, which have profited ever since from the advantage gained in +that crisis and the growth of their trade which it effected. + +I have said enough, I think, to show that the attempt to foist the blame +for the backwardness--in an industrial sense--of the rest of the country +as compared with the North-East corner, on the difference of religion, +is to close one's eyes to half a dozen other factors which must in truth +also be appreciated in order that one may arrive at a proper estimate of +the real reason for the disparity which undoubtedly exists. The facts +which I have mentioned serve to show the unwarrantable nature of the +assumption which accounts for the prosperity of North-East Ulster by +considerations of race and religion alone. That several generations of +progress in the industrial field have had a great effect on the +character of the people of Belfast in respect of thrift, energy, and +industry I am not concerned to deny, but on what ground in this light is +to be explained the decrease in population of Antrim and Down which has +gone on concurrently with the enormous increase in that of Belfast? That +extrinsic factors such as those of geographical situation have much to +do with increase of prosperity is well illustrated by the industrial +growth of Wexford, with its manufactories of agricultural implements and +dairy machinery, which is largely attributable to the close proximity of +that town to the coalfields and iron of South Wales. + +As to the argument that political preoccupation is responsible for +national backwardness, in the case of Finland the convulsions of a +bitter political agitation have not been found incompatible with an +increase of wealth and of population. + +In this connection it is germane to ask what the Protestant people of +Ulster have done for the rest of the country, and to inquire if, with +all their commercial success, they have been in the van of progress. +That they have never produced a great leader of men or framer of policy +is a remarkable fact, and to every demand of their fellow-countrymen +they have answered with a reiterated _non possumus_, backed by threats +of their intentions in case they are ignored, which, in point of fact, +they have never carried into effect. + +The Orangemen in turn opposed Emancipation, Tithe Reform, Land Reform, +Church Disestablishment, the Ballot, Local Government, and the +settlement of the University question. Their attitude to the Land +Conference we have seen elsewhere, and in view of this record one may +ask whether or not they deserve Mr. Morley's condemnation as "an +irreconcilable junto, always unteachable, always wrong." + +That their loyalty is contingent on the maintenance of their ascendancy +and the enforcement of their views, their reception of the Church Act of +1869 well shows, as does also the manner in which in 1886 they +threatened armed resistance if the Bill to which they were opposed was +carried. That they submitted to the Church Act without carrying out +their threats is a matter of history, and there is at least a strong +probability that in the latter event a similar effect would have been +witnessed. + +The removal of religious tests in the public life of Great Britain has +been accomplished so completely that it is difficult for Englishmen to +realise the extent to which the spirit, if not the letter, of tests at +this day persists in Ireland. + +We have recently seen the adjournment of the House of Commons moved by +the Orangemen because a rate collector in Ballinasloe did not receive +the appointment to a post for which he applied, and the demands of +Catholics for a due share of position and of influence is denounced as a +claim for monopoly. + +To show how much evidence there is to sustain the charge I will quote a +Protestant writer on this question of preferment--"Three-quarters of the +Irish people," she writes, "are Catholics. Of 23 Lords Lieutenant since +1832 not one has been a Catholic, nor ever by law can be a Catholic, and +only 3 have been Irishmen, tame Irish, as the word goes in Ireland of +the denationalised Irishman who has shaken off allegiance to his own +people. Of 30 Chief Secretaries, almost all English, not one has been a +Catholic. It is not necessary that the Chief Secretary or the Commander +of the Forces should be Protestant, but no Catholic has ever yet been +allowed to fill either of these exalted offices. Of the 173 Irish peers +only 14 (including Viscount Taafe of Austria) are Catholics, and the 28 +representative peers in the House of Lords are all free from the taint +of the religion of the Irish people, and powerful to drive opinion +against it. Out of 60 Privy Councillors in Ireland 4 only are Catholics, +and 3 out of 17 judges. Eleven out of the 60 Sub-Commissioners are +Catholics; 7 out of the 21 County Court Judges. The head of the police +is a Protestant. One only of the 36 County Inspectors is a Catholic. Of +170 District Inspectors only 10 are of that faith, and of 65 Resident +Magistrates only 15 are Catholics. If we take the Valuation Offices, the +Registration Offices, the Inspectorship of Factories, the Board of +Works, the Woods and Forests, the Ordnance Survey, and any and every +public department, Protestants hold three places out of four, though +they are but one-quarter of the whole population. The extreme party, as +we have seen, have secured no less than seven offices in the Government, +and their followers and friends hold about 90 per cent. of the higher +salaried posts under the Crown in Ireland."[25] + +The same writer attributes the glaring discrepancy between the figures +which have just been quoted and the ratio of Catholics and Protestants +in the population of Ireland to "a union of Protestant fanaticism and +place-hunting greed." That it is due to any lack of ability among Irish +Catholics I scarcely think anyone will urge, and in this connection an +amazing article, which I remember reading in an English paper, is of +interest. The writer, a Unionist from Ulster, strove to show the manner +in which the influence of the Vatican was making itself felt in English +politics by pointing to the number of Catholics--mostly Irishmen--who +held high posts in the British Diplomatic, Civil, Military, and Naval +Services, the presence of whom, which he tried to indicate as a menace, +but which most Englishmen view with equanimity, shows by contrast the +extent to which a taboo is placed in Ireland on officials who adhere to +the creed of the majority of their countrymen. + +Enough has been said as to the preference shown to one caste, religious +and political, to explain the reason for the fact that in Ireland the +_soi-disant_ loyalist has become synonymous with place-hunter. If +Unionism in Ireland pervades the richer classes, it does so also in +Great Britain, but in Ireland the inherent weakness of an established +Church, by which its prestige and the cachet which it gives, make it a +harbour of refuge for those who wish for advancement, and who think that +if they creep and intrude and climb into the fold they will secure it, +all these are factors, which are present in Dublin, where the +Establishment is Unionism with Dublin Castle as its cathedral. Social +ambition, anxiety for preferment or for an _entree_ into society, are +all at work to bring it to pass that a large amount of wealth and +influence are ranged on the side of the Union. It is a damaging +indictment which has been drawn up against the Irish landlords by Mr. +T.W. Russell in his recent book, where he declares of this class, with +which he fought side by side against the two Home Rule Bills, that he +has come to the conclusion, slowly but surely, "that in pretending to +fight for the Union these men were simply fighting for their own +interests, that Rent and not Patriotism was their guiding motive,"[26] +and the same charge was formulated a few years ago by Lord Rossmore, a +former Grand Master of the Orange Society, when he made a public +declaration that the so-called Loyalist minority in Ireland were blindly +following the lead of a few professional politicians, who felt that +their salaries and positions depended on the divisions and antipathies +of those who should be working together for the good of their common +country. + +There is no aspect of the Irish question in regard to which more dust is +thrown in Englishmen's eyes than that which is summed up in the one word +disloyalty. The prestige of the Crown in Great Britain, where its +functions are atrophied to a greater extent than in any other country in +Europe, is one of the most striking features in contemporary English +life. The loyalty of a nation is chiefly due to associations formed by +events in its history. The extreme unpopularity of Queen Victoria in +Great Britain in the earlier years of her reign, which arose from her +retirement as far as possible from public life on the death of the +Prince Consort, completely disappeared with the passage of years, when +her age, her sex, and her private virtues overcame the antipathy which a +very natural reticence on the part of a grief-stricken widow had +aroused throughout Great Britain. The associations connected with the +Crown in Ireland are not many. From the day on which Dutch William beat +English James at the Boyne in circumstances not calculated to arouse the +enthusiasm of Irish Catholics for either the lawful king or the usurper, +no Sovereign set foot in Ireland till George IV. visited the country in +1824. The main function of Ireland as regards the monarchs of that time +was that its pension list served to provide for the maintenance of Royal +favourites as to whose income they wished no questions to be asked. +Curran thundered against the Irish pension list as "containing every +variety of person, from the excellence of a Hawke or a Rodney to the +base situation of a lady who humbleth herself that she may be exalted." +In saying this he was understating rather than overstating the case, +since a very cursory inspection of the State papers will reveal the fact +that the mistresses and bastards of every English King, from Charles II. +to George II., drew their incomes from the Irish establishment free from +the inquisitive prying of the English House of Commons. Although George +III. had no need to conceal any palace scandals in this way, we have +seen how the bigotry of "an old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king" +postponed Emancipation for more than a generation, and one of the +"princes, the dregs of their dull race," of whom Shelley went on to +speak, the Duke of York, declared in the House of Lords in 1825--"I will +oppose the Catholic claims whatever may be my situation in life. So help +me God." + +The respectful reception accorded to Queen Victoria--whose dislike of +Ireland was notorious--on the very rare occasions on which she visited +the country serves to show the absence of hostility to the Crown on the +part of the great mass of the people, but the small number of these +visits during the course of the longest reign in English history lends +point to a question asked by Mr. James Bryce in a book published more +than twenty years ago--Why has the most obvious service a monarch can +render been so strangely neglected? When the present King visited the +South of Ireland as Prince of Wales in 1885, at a time when Mr. Charles +Parnell's prestige was at its zenith, he was greeted with the half +humorous sally--"We will have no Prince but Charley," which at any rate +contrasts favourably with the shouts of "Popish Ned," which his alleged +sympathy with the popular side evoked on his visit a few years later to +Londonderry. + +The trivial fact that the English National Anthem was drowned at the +degree day of the Royal University a few years ago by the fact that the +students insisted on singing "God Save Ireland" at the end of a ceremony +which even in the decorous surroundings of the Sheldonian and the Senate +House is marked by a large amount of disrespectful licence, nevertheless +provided the _Times_ and the Unionist Press in general, for several days +with a text upon which they hung their leading articles in the +exploitation of their favourite theme, but no attention has been drawn +in these quarters to the periodical threat of Orange exponents of a +contingent loyalty to "throw the Crown into the Boyne" as a protest +against the various assaults which have been made upon their prerogative +by Parliament, and no mention was made in the English Press of the fact +that on the day of the postponement of the coronation, owing to the +illness of the King, the organ of the "disloyalists"--the _Freeman's +Journal_--ended its leading article with the words "God Save the King," +which were a mere expression of the feelings of the bulk of its readers. + +Loyalty, said Swift, is the foible of the Irish people, and it is a +remarkable fact, in spite of the detestable insult to their religious +views which the law exacts from the Sovereign at his accession, that the +popular welcome accorded to his Majesty, on the part of individuals, +should remove any ground for the suggestion that the Crown, which +Grattan always declared was an Imperial Crown, is viewed with any animus +in Ireland. + +That public bodies as such refuse to offer addresses of welcome is due +to a conviction that to do so would be interpreted as an abdication of +the popular position, an acquiescence in the _status quo_, a recognition +of the system of government of which the Sovereign is head; and it must +not be forgotten in this connection that, if the Sovereign is neutral, +his representative in Ireland is a strong party man, and that the +tendency which his Majesty has so strongly deprecated in England on more +than one occasion, of employing emblems of royalty as symbols of party, +has been ineradicably established by the ascendancy faction in Ireland, +where the Union Jack is a party badge and God Save the King has been +monopolised as a party song. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IRELAND AND DEMOCRACY + + "A majority of Irish members turned the balance in favour of + the great Reform Bill of 1832, and from that day there has + been scarcely a democratic measure which they have not + powerfully assisted. When, indeed, we consider the votes which + they have given, the principles they have been the means of + introducing into English legislation, and the influence they + have exercised upon the tone and character of the House of + Commons, it is probably not too much to say that their + presence in the British Parliament has proved the most + powerful of all agents in accelerating the democratic + transformation of English politics." + + --W.E.H. LECKY, _History of England in the Eighteenth + Century_, Vol. VIII., p. 483. + + +In Ireland perhaps more than in most countries history repeats itself. +The lament of Lord Anglesea, the Lord Lieutenant, in 1831, who, finding +himself a _roi faineant_, declared that "Things are now come to that +pass that the question is whether O'Connell or I shall govern Ireland," +found its echo just fifty years later when Parnell enjoyed so powerful a +position that writers were fain to draw a contrast between the coroneted +impotence of the head of the Executive and the uncrowned power of the +Irish leader. + +The history of Irish representation at Westminster is one of the most +curious chapters in Parliamentary annals. It is only in the last thirty +years that it has reached the importance which it now possesses, +although of all Liberal Governments since the great Reform Bill, that of +1880 and that which is in power to-day are the only two which have had a +majority independently of the Irish vote, and it is worth remembering +that the Ministry of 1880 ended its career amid the pitfalls of an Irish +Coercion Bill. The maxim to beware when all men speak well of you, +there has been no need to impress on Irish members since the days of +Parnell, as there was at the time when under Butt's leadership a +punctilious observance of Parliamentary procedure earned for the Irish +representatives a contumelious respect which laughed their demands out +of court. + +If Parnell had not set out with the deliberate intention of making +Ireland stink in the nostrils of the respectable English gentlemen who +thronged the benches of the finest club in London, the protest against +misgovernment would have taken the form of violence in Ireland and not +of obstruction in the House of Commons. The orderly debates of Butt's +time were as unproductive in showing the Irish representatives to be in +earnest as were the wholesale suspensions of the later _regime_ +profitable, and if proof of this be needed it is to be found in the fact +that in 1877 there were but eight English Home Rulers in the House of +Commons, and that to attempt to secure reforms was to knock one's head +against a stone wall. Speaking of the Irish representation in 1880 Mr. +Gladstone made this solemn declaration:--"I believe a greater calumny, a +more gross and injurious statement, could not possibly be made against +the Irish nation. We believe we are at issue with an organised attempt +to override the free will and judgment of the Irish nation." That bubble +was pricked after the Franchise Act of 1885, when Parnell returned to +the House of Commons with nearly twenty more followers than he had had +before. + +There is a quotation of Blackstone's from Lord Burghley to the effect +that England could never be ruined but by a Parliament, and Englishmen +must admit that they have paid a price, though by no means as we think +too dearly, for insisting on the maintenance in their chamber, under +existing conditions of a foreign body against its will and admittedly +hostile to the traditions of which they are so proud. The closure, +which Lord Randolph Churchill used to pronounce with elaborate emphasis +as _cloture_, the curtailment of the rights of private members, the +growth in the power of the Cabinet, and _pari passu_ the loss in power +on the part of the House, all these are instances of the way in which +the sand in the bearings has been able to thwart the Parliamentary +machine. "If we cannot rule ourselves," said Parnell in 1884, "we can, +at least, cause them to be ruled as we choose." + +In spite of the odium which it entailed, Parnell, once he had "taken his +coat off," maintained this attitude regardless of the feelings it +evoked, which are perhaps as well expressed as anywhere in a letter of +Lord Salisbury to Lord Randolph Churchill when he declared "the +instinctive feeling of an Englishman is to wish to get rid of an +Irishman," to which one may reply--"What! did the hand then of the +Potter shake?" + +Though abuse of the plaintiff's attorney has been indulged in so often, +neither English party has scorned, as from its expressions one would +have expected, to make use of the Irish vote when its own career has +been in danger. The appeals which in spite of this one sees addressed at +intervals to the Irish leaders to abandon their attitude of _Nolo +episcopari_ and take Ministerial office, for which some, at any rate, of +their number have by their ability been conspicuously fitted, is to +ignore the fundamental protest on which this self-denying ordnance +depends. The protest against the _status quo_ has been traditionally +made in this manner; to waive it would be tantamount to an abdication of +the claims which have been so consistently made. To accept office might +be to curry favour with one party or the other, but its +refusal--especially as compared with its acceptance by the Irish +Unionists--does much to deprive the enemy of the occasion to suggest +sordid motives as reasons for the continuance of the Parliamentary +agitation. + +In urging his great reform, Lord Durham was wont to lay great stress on +the evil effect of the English party system on Canadian politics. The +party system in Great Britain acts as a corrective and an adjusting +mechanism to a degree which is never known in Ireland, where the +principle of government with consent of the governed has only been +applied to one corner of the island. + +The supreme example of so many, in which concessions have been made to +Ireland in times of public danger, which had been obstinately refused in +times of public security is that of Emancipation, concerning which Peel +in June, 1828, reaffirmed his determination never to surrender, but in +January, 1829, on the ground that five-sixths of the infantry force of +the three kingdoms was engaged in police work in Ireland, introduced the +Bill which obtained the Royal consent in circumstances such as to rob it +of its grace and to make gratitude impossible. I am not, however, here +concerned with emancipation as such, but with the set-off for its +concession, under which on the principle of taking away with one hand, +while giving with the other, the forty shilling freeholders, who had +returned O'Connell at the Clare election, were disfranchised to the +number of 200,000, and in this way was gilded the pill for the purpose +of placating the English governing classes. The same principle was +followed in 1841, when the Corporations of Ireland were thrown open to +Catholics, for out of some sixty-five all except ten or eleven were +abolished. The results of the disfranchising clauses of the Act of 1829 +are to be seen in the fact that in 1850, while in England the electors +were twenty-eight per cent. of the adult male population, in Ireland +they were only two per cent. A Bill introduced in that year would, if it +had passed into law, have raised the percentage in Ireland to fifteen. +The Lords amendments altered the percentage to eight, and in its final +form it was left at about ten. Instead of imposing an L8 rental +qualification one of L12 was imposed, and by this means were excluded +900,000 voters who would have secured the suffrage under the lower +qualification. Speaking of the Franchise, Mr. Lecky, in "Democracy and +Liberty," declared that--"The elements of good government must be sought +for in Ireland, on a higher electoral plane than in England." This is a +matter of opinion, and I find it interesting to reflect that the ablest +Conservative of my acquaintance--a Tory of the school of Lord Eldon--has +on several occasions expressed to me a deliberate opinion in exact +contradiction of this, to the effect that owing to the relative mental +calibres of the races there is need of a higher franchise qualification +in England than in either Ireland or Scotland. Speculations of this +kind, however, are unprofitable, seeing that the competency of the Irish +peasants as citizens has been acknowledged by the grant of a wide +household suffrage safeguarded by a careful system of ballot. + +When the last great extension of the franchise to householders in the +country was made in 1884 there were those who asserted that its +application to Ireland would be folly. Mr. W.H. Smith, the leader of the +Conservatives in the House of Commons, declared that any extension of +the suffrage in Ireland would lead to "confiscation of property, ruin of +industry, withdrawal of capital, misery, wretchedness, and war"; the +leading Whig statesman said the concession to Ireland of equal electoral +privileges with those of England would be folly, but in spite of these +gloomy prognostications the omission of Ireland from the scope of the +Act was not proposed by Conservative statesmen, and Lord Hartington +himself undertook the duty of moving the second reading of a Bill +containing provisions which a few weeks before he had described as most +unwise. By this Act the enfranchised inhabitants of Ireland were +multiplied more than threefold, and the share of Ireland of the "two +million intelligent voters" who were added to the electorate was +200,000. In the redistribution of seats which accompanied the Franchise +Act of 1884 the representation of Ireland was, by an arrangement between +parties, left unimpaired, and this leads me to a matter which serves, I +think, to show with what speed events move and how true was that remark +of Disraeli's to Lord Lytton that "in politics two years are an +eternity." It is little more than two years since the burning political +question was the redistribution of seats on the lines proposed by Mr. +Gerald Balfour. The Unionist Press has for some years been endeavouring +to rouse public opinion on this question of the alleged +over-representation of Ireland in the House of Commons, and in view of +the share of attention which the matter received in the closing days of +the last Parliament it is as well to devote some attention to the topic. + +By the Act of Union, which our opponents hold so sacred, Ireland was +given 100 members in the House of Commons, and in the House of Lords 28 +representative Peers, together with Bishops of the then Established +Church, and it was further enacted that this should be her +representation "for ever." On the population basis, which to-day is +urged by Unionists as the only fair mode of apportioning +representatives, Ireland was entitled at the date of the Union to many +more members than in fact she obtained. Her population at that time was +nearly five and a half millions, that of Great Britain was less than ten +and a half millions, and so, though she could claim more than a third of +the inhabitants of the three kingdoms, her representation was less than +one-sixth. + +By the Reform Bill of 1832 the Irish members were increased to 105. Two +seats have since been disfranchised, and we thus arrive at 103--the +figure at which the representation of the country stands to-day. The +disproportion from which Ireland suffered at the time of the Union had +become still more acute by the time of the great Reform Bill, and no one +can seriously suggest that the addition of five seats redressed the +inequality. According to the Census of 1831 the population of Great +Britain was little over sixteen millions, and that of Ireland was seven +and three-quarter millions. If these figures had formed the basis of a +proportionate representation, Ireland would have had a little more than +200 members--just about double the number which she actually returned. + +By an agreement between parties, as I have said, in the last +Redistribution of Seats Bill--that of 1885--the number of +representatives of Ireland was left unchanged, and it is only since the +Conservative Party has definitely thrown in its lot as an opponent of +Irish demands as formulated to-day that this method of reducing the +force of their political opponents has begun to find favour amongst its +members: Under the Bill of Mr. Gerald Balfour, by an ingenious +arrangement of raising the limits of population under which boroughs and +counties should no longer have separate representation, the scheme +secured the transfer of twenty-two seats from Ireland to Great Britain. + +The limit of population above which boroughs would have had to reach to +maintain their separate existence was fixed at 18,500, and under this +arrangement three boroughs in Ireland and six in Great Britain would +have lost their seats. If the limit had been fixed at 25,000 a total of +19 seats in Great Britain and still only 3 in Ireland would have lost +their member, while a minimum population of 35,000 would have +disfranchised 25 boroughs in Great Britain and only 4 in Ireland. + +The actual proposal was elaborately calculated so as to produce the +least possible disturbance to the small boroughs in Great Britain, while +securing the maximum of disfranchisement in Ireland. + +At the same time the standard of population per member, which in the +case of counties was fixed at 65,000, secured the disfranchisement of +one Scottish county, the net disfranchisement of two English counties, +and the deprivation of no less than 20 Irish counties of their member. + +The grant of a new member to Belfast would have made the net loss to +Ireland 22 seats, and these were to be redistributed as between England, +Scotland and Wales in the proportion of 17:4:1. + +These, then, are the data upon which we have to reckon. The Conservative +Government, it should be added, greeted by a howl of disapproval even +from its own supporters at the anomalies which it proposed to leave +unredressed, appointed a Special Committee, the report of which was a +posthumous child of the ministry which created it. + +It is true that according to the terms of this report the borough limit +of population was raised to 25,000, and the rotten boroughs which for +"historical reasons" Mr. Balfour had been loth to disfranchise, were to +be swept away, but so far as we are concerned the results would have +been much the same, for under its provisions Ireland would have suffered +a net loss of 23 seats. + +O'Connell pointed out to the Corporation of Dublin in 1843 far greater +inconsistencies than can be indicated to-day. The population of Wales at +that day was 800,000, that of County of Cork was more than 700,000, but +the former was represented by 28 members and the latter by two; and +further, he was able to point to five English counties with a total +population of less than a million having 20 members to represent them, +while five Irish counties with a population of over two millions +returned only ten members. + +If it is the mere passion for a representation proportionate to +population which is evinced, it is remarkable that it has only arisen +since the time at which it began to tell against Ireland, that when the +boot was on the other leg there was no suggestion of redistribution on +the part of Conservatives. The truth is that for Unionists the idea of +paring the claws of the Irish Party offers a tempting prospect. Our +position in the matter is quite plain: so long as Great Britain insists +on maintaining the Act of Union she must do so consistently in the sense +that it is a contract, albeit secured by chicanery, to the breach of any +term of which the consent of the party which it trammelled at least is +necessary. It will be answered that the Disestablishment of the Irish +Church made a breach in a clause of as binding a solemnity as that which +guaranteed 100 members in the Imperial Parliament "for ever." The +difference is that in that case the consent of the two parties was given +by their representatives in the House of Commons, and the consent and +the sanction which it entails will never be secured--even possibly from +Ulster Orangemen--to a proposal for the curtailment of representation in +the Imperial Parliament under the present system of government. + +We do not pretend for one moment that according to the rule of three we +are not represented in the House of Commons by a number of members +greater than that to which our population at the present moment would, +taking the three kingdoms as whole, entitle us, but one must point out +that the system of electing representative peers robs us of even that +modicum of democratic peers of Parliament which Great Britain is able to +secure, and we repeat the argument of Mr. Gladstone that the distance of +Dublin from Westminster and the consequent deafness of the House of +Commons to Irish opinion is to a slight extent redressed by the small +excess--calculated on lines of proportion--which Irish representation +secures at Westminster. + +At any rate one has the satisfaction of knowing where one stands in the +matter, and one is aware that one part of the Conservative programme to +be applied whenever that party returns to power is that of which someone +has spoken as the detestable principle that to keep Ireland weak is the +most convenient way of governing her. And here let me in parenthesis +remark on one fact in the conditions of Irish representation--namely, +its solidarity. It is one of the commonplaces of politics that office is +the best adhesive which a party can enjoy, and the cold shades of +opposition are apt too often to dissolve a unity which in office +appeared secure. We have seen it of late years in the demoralisation of +the Liberals, who, after the retirement of Mr. Gladstone, fell to pieces +as a party only on their resignation of office in 1895; we are seeing it +now in the disintegration of the Unionists ever since the debacle of the +general election. + +There is a term which the Unionist Press is never tired of using in +connection with the Irish Party, the "fissiparous tendency" of which it +is passionately fond of dinning into English ears, regardless of the +many cleavages which have occurred in English parties in the last fifty +or even twenty years. + +Those divisions which there have been in the Nationalist ranks have been +for the most part concerned, not with measures, but with men, and even +so it cannot be urged that they have been more than temporary in +duration. The strength of wrist which has been displayed during the last +eight years by Mr. John Redmond in leading the United Irish Party has +been a source of admiration to all. "You need greater qualities," said +Cardinal de Retz, "to be a party leader than to be Emperor of the +Universe." Much wisdom is demanded of an Irish leader in deciding the +tactical questions arising from the vicissitudes of British parties. +That Irish Nationalists and British Liberals do not see eye to eye on +several points of policy is well known. It may well be urged that no +better proof of the unnatural form of the polity which holds the field +can be adduced than is to be found in the political allies of the two +parties in Ireland; for the Catholics, democratic though they may be, +are not associated with the party to which the traditions of a Church, +the most Conservative force in Europe, one might think would ally them, +and the Orange Presbyterians, who are at heart Radicals, are divorced +from their dissenting kinsmen in Great Britain and form the tail of the +Conservative Party. Hence it is that we have fallen between two stools, +and University reform, to the principle of which Lord Salisbury, Lord +Randolph Churchill, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Mr. Balfour, and Mr. +Wyndham have been pledged, was shelved over and over again at the +bidding of the Ulster Unionists, while the Conservative House of Lords +thwarted the application of the principles of self-government to which a +Liberal majority in the House of Commons gave its consent. Can anyone, +in view of these facts, feel surprised that "a plague on both your +Houses" expresses the feelings of the Irish people. + +Those nice people, to whom political barter is abhorrent, who at the +time of the general election deprecated the "sale for a price" of the +Nationalist vote, for so they were pleased to call what occurred, closed +their eyes to the very obvious price of the Orange vote in the last +Parliament, which took the form of the retirement from office of Mr. +Wyndham, on failure to secure which, as the Orange leader +declared--"Ulster would have to call upon her reserves," meaning, one +must suppose, that the Irish Unionist office holders who were members of +the Ministry in numbers altogether disproportionate to their strength +would be called upon by the Orange Lodges to hand in their seals. + +English Catholics are apt to say that if the Irish people in England had +been directed by the Nationalist Party to vote for Conservative +candidates the safety of Catholic schools would thereby have been +safeguarded, but they forget that to put a Conservative Party in power +would be to give a blank cheque to a party pledged to cut down the +Irish, and _pari passu_ the Catholic, representation in the House of +Commons. That the fate of the Catholic voluntary schools in England is a +direct concern of the Irish members is admitted by all who are aware +how vast a majority of the Catholic poor in Great Britain are Irish, if +not by birth, at any rate by origin. + +That the efforts in this connection of the Irish Party were appreciated +by the head of the Catholic Church in England is seen by the very +gracious letter which Archbishop Bourne addressed to Mr. Redmond at the +end of the session of 1906, and it is significant that the letter of +protest against the Archbishop's action in regard to the moderate +counsels to secure a compromise on the part of the Irish, which was sent +by certain English Catholic Peers to the Catholic bishops of Great +Britain, was treated by the latter, with only two exceptions, with the +contumelious neglect which its disloyalty, the outcome of Tory +_intransigeance_, deserved. + +English Catholics, among whom knights harbingers and banneret bearers of +the Primrose League are numerous, who have leant all their weight in the +scale to maintain the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, have been ever +ready when occasion arose to appeal to the religious loyalty of the +Irish members to support their interests. Their position has not been +very dignified, and its fruits will perhaps be seen if the reduction of +the Irish representation enters the sphere of practical politics. Party +loyalty will claim their support, but at the same time they will realise +that if they give it they will be taking a step to reduce the only body +in the House of Commons which can ever hope to represent Catholic +principles and uphold Catholic interests. + +I do not know whether it struck many people in the course of the general +election that the country in which the elections made the least +difference was the one of the three kingdoms in which politics claim +most public attention. There was a monotony in the unopposed returns, +and, in the result, in the place of 80 Nationalists, 1 Liberal, and 22 +Unionists, there appeared 83 Nationalists, 3 Liberals, and 18 Unionists, +To appreciate the full force of these numbers one must realise, +moreover, that of the Unionists in both cases, two out of the total +represent University seats, the Conservative nature of which, whether in +England, Ireland, or Scotland, is one of the features of political life +which is, it appears, immutable. A study of the results shows that +Unionism is in a minority in Ulster. There are in the present Parliament +15 Unionists as against 15 Nationalists, who, with 3 Liberals, go to +make up the 33 members sitting at Westminster for that province. + +These figures relieve me from the necessity of entering a caveat against +the use of the word Ulster as though the whole province were Unionist. +Virtually, all that is Unionist in Ireland is in Ulster, but it is very +far from the truth to say that all Ulster is Unionist. Not one of the +Counties of Donegal, Tyrone, Monaghan, or Cavan, out of the whole nine +of which the province consists, returns a Unionist. In the three +Counties of Down, Armagh, and Fermanagh, the representation is divided, +and as for the two Counties of Londonderry and Antrim, which are +ordinarily the sole strongholds of the Orangemen, even in them a breach +was effected in West Belfast, where the Labour vote returned a +Nationalist for the first time since Mr. Sexton sat for it from +1886-1892. + +The obviousness and permanence of the Irish representation in Parliament +is apt to cause its significance to be forgotten. "It doesn't matter +what we say, but for God's sake _let_ us be consistent," Lord Palmerston +is reported to have said concerning some question of policy at a Cabinet +Council. The Irish people, its worst enemies must admit, have been +consistent for the last thirty years in the demands which their +representatives have made ever since Isaac Butt crystallised the Irish +antagonism to the _status quo_ in the "Home Government Association," +which he formed and on the programme of which he returned, after the +general election of 1874, with 59 followers in the House of Commons, +pledged to support the demand for Irish self-government. If we exclude +the fact that the extension of the franchise in 1884 increased the +number of the popular representatives to more than 80, it is true to say +that since then there has been no change in the position of Irish +representation, just as there has been none in Irish demands. The +Liberalism of Non-conformist Wales, and to a lesser degree of +Presbyterian Scotland, are traditional, but their adherence to one side +or the other in politics appears vacillating if one studies the election +figures, compared with the unwavering permanence of the Irish returns. +When Lord Dudley declared that his aim as Viceroy would be to govern +Ireland according to Irish ideas a shout of protest arose from the +_Times_ and the Irish Unionists, whose organ the _Times_ has constituted +itself. Let us clear our minds of cant on the matter, and ask in view of +this open disclaimer of the democratic principles which are so much +vaunted in England, for what reason is maintained the travesty of +representative government, the decrees of which it is frankly avowed are +to be ignored? Every English Liberal must be impressed by the fact that +the party which has tried to arrogate to itself the sole claim to be +thought Imperialist has scouted Home Rule resolutions passed again and +again by the legislatures of every one of the self-governing colonies. +It was at Montreal that Parnell was first hailed as the uncrowned king +of Ireland, and what is more, that great apostle of Imperialism, Cecil +Rhodes, so far from seeing in Home Rule the first step towards the +dismemberment of the Empire, signified his sympathy with the movement in +that direction by giving Mr. Parnell a cheque for L10,000 for the Irish +Party funds on the one condition that he would support the retention of +some of the Irish members in the Imperial Parliament, as tending in the +direction of Imperial federation. + +Twenty years ago, when the present good feelings of England towards the +United States were not in existence, it was easy, as it has been since +on the occasions on which relations have been strained over the +Venezuelan and Alaskan questions, to denounce the aid granted to the +National movement by the Irish in America. To-day things are different; +these denunciations are not heard, and, moreover, as much aid and +encouragement has been forthcoming in a proportional degree from the +colonies of the British Empire as from the Republic of North America. As +a matter of fact there are twice as many people of Irish blood in the +United States as there are in Ireland, and thus, when in 1880 Congress +threw open its doors and invited Parnell to address it on the Irish +question, it was acting in accordance with the sentiments of a vast +number of the citizens of the United States. + +The Government of Lord North roused the American Colonies by attempts to +rule them against their own wishes, and the result was that they secured +their independence. Austria refused self-government to Italy, and in +consequence lost its Italian territory, while Hungary, to which it +granted the boon, was retained in the dual monarchy. Spain, by refusing +autonomy to her colonies, suffered the loss of South. America, Cuba, +Puerto Rica, and the Philippines, and the action of Holland in the same +way led to the separation from it of the kingdom of the Belgians. + +All these are cases in point, but the most interesting parallel is that +of Lower Canada, which, like Ireland, is Celtic and Catholic, and is, +moreover, a French-speaking province. There, too, there was a struggle +between races, and it was only by "merging"--as Lord Durham expressed +it--"the odious animosities of origin in the feelings of a nobler and +more comprehensive nationality" that peace was restored. The Tory +Cabinet of Peel gave Canada Parliamentary Government, and proclaimed +rebels became Ministers of the Crown, and who is there who will contend +that the application of the maxim "trust in the people" of that great +Imperial statesman, Lord Durham, was not justified by the results of the +grant of self-government not to a peaceful and loyal colony, but to one +which was boiling with discontent and rebellion. Twelve years after Lord +Durham's experiment, the Government of Lord Derby gave Australia similar +institutions, and that fact alone shows how successful the policy had +proved. Great Britain has just given representative government to the +Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. Within five years of the peace of +Vereeniging the pledges of that compact were honourably fulfilled in +spite of the forebodings of one of the political parties, and Louis +Botha, the Premier of one of the new colonies, is the most distinguished +of the generals who less than six years ago were leading their armies +against those of Great Britain. + +England has realised that it is only by government with the consent of +the governed that she can maintain her colonies, and the contrast +between her treatment of Ireland and that of her colonies is to be seen +in the fact that to them is extended the protection of the British +fleet, while they are at the same time left free to legislate in the +matter of trade, to deal with their own defence, and all the while +contribute nothing to Imperial charges. + +The failure of the policy of North and the success of that of Durham are +apparent. The former has been applied in Ireland, although the country +has consistently cried out for the latter. How long do those with whom +the last word in government is the policy applied to-day, imagine that +they can govern a country at the bayonet's edge in such a way that she +has neither the weight of an equal nor the freedom of a dependency? Lord +Rosebery, whose liberalism may be described in the same terms as those +in which Disraeli denounced the Conservatism of Peel--"the mule of +politics which engenders nothing"--has more than once in the last few +years declared his hostility to the principle of Irish self-government, +and the explanation of his position which he offers is that the absence +of loyalty on the part of Ireland is the obstacle which stands in the +way of his advocacy of such a policy. One may well ask in reply whether +Lord Rosebery is aware of the complete absence of loyalty at the time +when Canada was granted self-government, and the state of feeling +towards England in the new South African colonies two years ago is a +further case in point; but the most pertinent question which can be +asked of Lord Rosebery is on what ground he makes this his condition +precedent, in view of the fact that the loyalty or disloyalty of +Irishmen stands exactly as it did in 1886 and 1893, in both of which +years Lord Rosebery was a member of the Ministries which introduced Home +Rule Bills into Parliament. + +That hostility is evinced by large sections of Irishmen to England, as +well as by Englishmen to Ireland, and that much sympathy was felt, as it +was by the most distinguished of the members of the present Cabinet, for +the South African Republics, which Irishmen regarded as struggling +nationalities like their own, I am not concerned to deny. The same +feeling of hostility, as I have already said, was rampant at the time of +the Crimean war, and may be expected to continue till the end of the +present system of government arrives; but to those who, for party +purposes, declare that they see a risk that possible European +complications would be accentuated for Great Britain to the point of +danger by the proximity of an Ireland with a Parliament in Dublin, the +answer is, that it is difficult to conceive a state of affairs more +fraught with danger to England than would be found in the existence +during a great war of an adjacent island which has been haughtily denied +that mode of government which she claims, and which in the troubles of +the other country will see an opportunity of extracting by threats and +from fear in an hour of peril that which she was unable to secure by +other means in the day of prosperity. One may well ask whether this +prospect is one to which Great Britain can look forward with calmness, +that she should have to legislate at fever heat to cope with the +contingencies of the moment with no well-ordered scheme of things; not +that way lies an end by which she will secure peace conceived in the +spirit of peace. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IRELAND AND GREAT BRITAIN + + "In reason all government without the consent of the governed + is the very definition of slavery; but in fact eleven men well + armed will certainly subdue one single man in his shirt.... + Those who have used to cramp liberty have gone so far as to + resent even the liberty of complaining, although a man upon + the rack was never known to be refused the liberty of roaring + as loud as he thought fit."--JONATHAN SWIFT. + + +The loss of her language by Ireland was, politically, the worst calamity +which could have befallen her, for it lent colour to the otherwise +unsupported assertion that she was a mere geographical expression in no +way differing from the adjoining island. The manner in which the revival +of the Irish tongue has been taken up by the whole country with, +literally, the support of peasant and peer is one of the most remarkable +phenomena of modern Irish life. That it has any direct political +significance is untrue, for the aim of its pioneers in the Gaelic League +has been fulfilled, and it remains strictly non-sectarian and +non-political. From the purely utilitarian point of view, no doubt a +polytechnic could provide a dozen subjects in which a more profitable +return could be made for the money and time invested than does the study +of Gaelic, but book-keeping or shorthand would not have roused the +enthusiasm which this revival of a half dead language has evoked and +which is incidentally an educative movement in that the learning of a +new language is of a direct value as a mental training, while as a +social organisation it has done more in inculcating a public spirit and +a proper pride than could otherwise possibly have been achieved. The +revival of the Czech language when almost dead, at the beginning of the +nineteenth century, and the eminent success of bi-lingualism in +Flanders, are hopeful signs for the preservation of a National +characteristic, the disappearance of which would have been welcomed only +by those who hold that Ireland as a nationality has no existence apart +from Great Britain, and the preservation of which will produce the +mental alertness characteristic of a bi-lingual people. + +The temperance work done by the Gaelic League in providing occupation of +a pleasant nature and social intercourse of a harmless kind is one of +its chief titles to distinction, for in this aspect it has encouraged +the preservation of Irish songs, music, dances, and games. One other +thing it, and it alone, can do. One-half of the emigrants from Ireland +go on tickets or money sent from friends in the United States, and in my +opinion one of the most powerful influences in staying the present +lamentable tide in that direction will be to foster in the branches in +America the notion that the time has come when every Irishman and woman +who can by any possible means do so should be persuaded to remain in +Ireland, and not to emigrate. + +The ridiculous situation which was allowed by successive Governments to +persist in the Gaelic-speaking districts of the West until a few years +ago, in which teachers were appointed to the schools without any +knowledge of the only language spoken by the children whom they +purported to educate, is well illustrated by the statement on the part +of one of their number to the effect that it took two years to +extirpate, to "wring" the Irish speech out of the children and replace +it, one must suppose, by English, and this process, it must be +remembered, was gone through with the children of a peasantry whom a +distinguished French publicist--M.L. Paul-Dubois--has described as +perhaps the most intellectual in Europe. + +It is characteristic of English government that, whereas from 1878 +onwards Irish figured in the programme of the National Board, and +Government grants were made for proficiency therein as in other +subjects, one of the last acts of the late Government was to withdraw +these grants for the teaching of Irish. So long as there was no large +number of people anxious to learn Gaelic in Ireland, Government gave +help towards its study, but the very moment in which, with the rise of +the Gaelic League, the number learning the language began to increase, +Government put its foot down and proceeded to discourage it by a +withdrawal of grants. The order effecting this was withdrawn by Mr. +Bryce. The signal failure of the attempts made to kill the Gaelic +movement with ridicule, on the part of those who saw in it an +evil-disposed attempt to stop the Anglicising of the country, was as +conspicuous as has been the ill success of the petty tyranny of the +Inland Revenue authorities, who took out summonses against those who had +their names engraved on their dogs' collars in Gaelic. Trinity College +has had for half a century two scholarships and a prize in Gaelic +attached to its Divinity School, and the fact that the ultimate trust of +the fund of its Gaelic Professorship on cesser of appointment is to a +Protestant proselytising society shows the interest which has actuated +the study of Gaelic in that foundation, and its attitude towards the +Gaelic League found expression in Dr. Mahaffy, one of its most +distinguished scholars, who, having failed to kill the movement with +ridicule, changed his line and declared that the revival of Gaelic would +be unreasonable and dishonest if it were not impossible. + +In spite of this, the success of the League, which was only established +in 1893, is astonishing. In 1900 it consisted of 120 branches; to-day +there are more than 1,000. The circulation of Gaelic books published +under its auspices is over 200,000 a year. In the year 1899 it was +taught in 100 Primary Schools, it is now taught in 3,000. + +The number of people, including adults, learning Irish in evening +continuation classes was in 1899 little over 1,000, and is to-day over +100,000. + +The circumstance that in London on the Sunday nearest St. Patrick's Day +a service with Gaelic hymns and a Gaelic sermon is conducted every year, +and has been conducted for the last three years, at the Cathedral at +Westminster, and is attended by 6,000 or 7,000 Irish people, and that +last year Dr. Alexander held a Gaelic service in a Protestant Cathedral +in Dublin, should do much to show the manner in which the movement is +spreading among all classes, and to indicate that it will in time +demolish that false situation by which, for the greater part of the +Continent, Ireland has been looked upon as merely an island on the other +side of England to be seen through English glasses. + +That strange recuperative power which the country has evinced at +intervals in her history is, without a doubt, once again asserting +itself, and a new spirit of restlessness and of effort, which in no +sense can be supposed to supplant, or to do more than to supplement, +political aspirations, is making itself felt. + +It is doing so in a number of different directions, but the ultimate aim +of all the forces which are at work may be said to be, in a cant phrase, +to make it as much an object to desire to live in the country as +hitherto it has been to die for it. + +The inculcation of a spirit of self-reliance, the discouragement among +the poorer classes of the notion that emigration is an object at which +one should aim, the destruction among the richer of that spirit which is +known at "West British," and which implies an apologetic air on the part +of its owner for being Irish at all, these are among the effects of the +new movement. + +The desire to see Ireland Irish, and not a burlesque of what is English, +is its _raison d'etre_, and that it has made progress along the lines +mapped out, the Gaelic League, from which it gains its driving force, +the literary revival, and the movement for industrial development bear +ample witness. + +From the impression made by a few wits, English people have jumped to +the conclusion that as a people we are specially blessed with a sense of +humour, a curious _non sequitur_ which the restraint, consciously or +unconsciously inculcated by the Gaelic League, is likely to make more +apparent, for it is killing that conception of the Irishman as typically +a boisterous buffoon with intervals of maudlin sentimentality which the +stage and the popular song have so long been content to depict without +protest from us, and which left Englishmen with feelings not more +exalted than those of their sixteenth and seventeenth century ancestors, +to whom "mere Irish" was a term of opprobrium. + +In their appeals to sentiment, Englishmen have not been more successful. +The appointment of Mr. Wyndham to the Irish Office was hailed by them as +a certain success on the ground of his descent from Lord Edward +Fitzgerald, a traitor, on their own showing, descent from whom one would +have thought should have been rather concealed than advertised. They +waxed sentimental over the bravery of the Irish soldiers in the South +African war, among which the achievements of the Inniskillings at +Pieter's Hill and the Connaught Rangers at Colenso were only surpassed +by the Dublin Fusiliers at Talana Hill, out of a thousand of whom only +three hundred survived. But the strange thing was that while English +people in honour of these men wore shamrock on St. Patrick's Day, just +as in the case of the Crimea, the sympathy of their own country was not +on the side upon which they fought, and the people of their country +looked upon the Irish soldiers as _condottieri_ fighting in an alien +cause. One cannot draw up an indictment against a whole nation, and if +this be treason in the opinion of Englishmen, one can only reply that to +commit the unpardonable sin against the body politic there must be +something more on the part of a people than a continuance of feelings +towards a state of affairs against which they have always protested, and +in which they have never acquiesced. + +Historically we have been the home of lost causes, and the fact that so +many of the national heroes of Ireland have ended their lives in failure +has had no small effect in bringing it to pass that there, at any rate, +it is not true to say that nothing succeeds like success. Hugh O'Neill, +Red Hugh O'Donnell, Owen Roe O'Neill, Sarsfield, Wolfe Tone, Grattan, +the Young Irelanders, O'Connell, Butt, Parnell, not one of these ended +his career amid the glamour of achieved success, and the result of this, +I think, is an irresponsibility which looks not so much to the +probability of the fruition of movements as to their inception; and, +after all, a flash in the pan is apt to do more harm than good. + +To this fact I attribute the circumstance that there has always been a +small section of the population to which the ordinary methods of +constitutional agitation have appeared feeble and unavailing, but to +understand to the full the reason for it one must realise that if there +have been three insurrections in the history of the United Parliament, +there has twelve times in the same course of time been famine, that +parent of despairing violence, throughout the country. + +The ordinary Englishman seeing in the state a polity maintained by a +long tradition, which has undergone change gradually and in measured +progress, in which agitation, when it has been rife as it was before the +first Reform Bill, has died down on redress of grievances, almost as +soon as it has arisen has no conception of the relative, and indeed +absolute, unstable state of equilibrium in the affairs of Ireland. + +The fact that one has to go back to the battle of Sedgemoor for the last +occasion when in anything dignified by a higher name than riot, blood +has been shed in England; the fact that when a retiring English +Attorney-General appointed his son to a third-rate position in the legal +profession an outcry arose in which the salient feature was surprise +that so flagrant a job should have been perpetrated, are indications of +what I mean when I say that English people are in every circumstance of +their outlook precluded from eliminating in their view of Irish affairs +that deep-seated conviction, which in the case of their own country is +founded on indisputable fact, that radical change in the well-ordered +evolution of the State is out of keeping with the sequence which has +hitherto held sway, and in so far as it is so is a thing to be guarded +against and avoided. + +In Ireland no one can claim to see a similar gradual metamorphosis in +the light-of the history of the last one hundred, or even fifty, years, +Radicalism, experimentalism, empiricism have been let loose on every +institution of the country, and it is only when we take the greatest +common measure of the results that we can see that the upshot has been +on the whole rather good than bad. When Parnell declared that while +accepting Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule proposals he must nevertheless state +definitely that no one could set a limit to the march of a nation, he +was stating an axiom which is every day illustrated by English statesmen +of either party when they say, on the one hand, that the refusal, and on +the other hand the concession, of certain fiscal proposals will lead to +the dismemberment of the Empire. What can be stated in cold blood as a +possible contingency in the case of, say, Canada or New Zealand has only +to be adumbrated in that of Ireland to be denounced, not as a +justifiable retort to the flouting of local demands, but as a +treasonable aspiration to be put down with a strong hand. + +The new aspect of Imperial responsibility as entailing on the mother +country a position not of contempt of, but rather of deference to, the +wishes of the colonies cannot but have a direct bearing on Anglo-Irish +relations. + +It is the greatest feature in Parnell's achievement that he succeeded in +persuading ardent spirits to lay aside other weapons, while he strove +what he could do by stretching the British Constitution to the utmost, +linking up as he did all the forces of discontent to a methodical use of +the Parliamentary machine. In the very depth of the winter of our +discontent, in 1881, when he was in Kilmainham Gaol, crime became most +rampant; in truth--as he had grimly said would be the case--Captain +Moonlight had taken his place, and in the following year when he was let +out of gaol it was expressly to slow down the agitation. More than one +Prime Minister has had to echo those words of the Duke of Wellington of +seventy years ago--"If we don't preserve peace in Ireland we shall not +be a Government," and the periodic recrudescence of lawlessness which +the island has seen has, it is freely admitted, forced the hands of +Governments which were inflexible in the face of mere constitutional +opposition. + +The latest aspect which this anti-constitutional movement has taken in +Ireland is what is known as Sinn Fein, which adopts a rigid attitude of +protest against the existing condition of things, and which declares +that the recognition of the _status quo_ involved in any acquiescence in +the present mode of government is a betrayal of the whole position. The +existence of this spirit, which is entirely negligible outside two or +three large towns, is not surprising; although it advocates a passive +resistance it is the direct descendant of the party which advocated +physical force in the past, and in so far as it proposes to use morally +defensible weapons it is likely to have the more driving power. The +consistent opposition which the Catholic Church offered to revolutionary +violence and her sympathy with constitutionally-expressed Parliamentary +agitation have resulted in an anti-clerical colour which this new +movement has acquired, and to this, force is added by the measure of +strength which it has gained among a certain number of young Protestants +in Belfast, whose fathers must turn in their graves at this reversal of +opinion on a question which was to them a _chose jugee_, a veritable +article of faith. The proposals of Sinn Fein include a boycott of all +English institutions in Ireland, educational and of other kinds, the +abandonment of the attendance of Irish members in the Imperial +Parliament at Westminster, elections to which Sinn Fein candidates are, +if necessary, to contest on the undertaking that if elected they will +not take the oath at Westminster, but will attend a self-constituted +National Council in Dublin, under the control of which a system of +National education and of National arbitration courts, in addition to a +National Stock Exchange, will be established. To develop Irish +industries this body, it is suggested, will appoint in foreign ports +Irish Consuls, completely independent of the British Consular service, +who will attend to the interests and the development of Irish trade. +Lastly, the most practical of their proposals lies in the discouragement +of recruiting, a movement which, if applied on a large scale, would have +a remarkable effect on the resources of the three kingdoms under a +voluntary system of military service. + +These proposals, which, until a Gaelic name was thought necessary for +their acceptance in Ireland, were known as the Hungarian policy, are +admittedly based on the success of the struggle for Hungarian autonomy +which culminated in 1867, but the fact which the advocates of the +application of this policy to Ireland omit to mention, is that Hungary +was face to face with a divided and distracted Austria, defeated by the +Prussians at Sadowa, while in the case of Ireland we are concerned with +a united Great Britain, which has shown no great signs of diminution in +her power. A closer parallel than that of Hungary is to be found in the +case of Bohemia, which, in respect of general social conditions and the +proportion of national to hostile forces, bore a much stronger +resemblance to Ireland, and which adopted in 1867 a policy of withdrawal +of its representatives from a hostile legislature with results so +disastrous that after a few years she returned to the methods which the +Sinn Fein party are anxious to make an end of in Ireland. + +All foreign parallels, however, are apt to be misleading, but Irishmen +have only to remember the fact that the secession of Grattan and his +followers from the Irish Parliament in 1797 paved the way for the +passing of the Act of Union to find in it a warning against what is the +main plank in the platform of Sinn Fein--"the policy of +withdrawal"--which, moreover, would leave the control of Irish +legislation to the tender mercies of such Irish members as Mr. Walter +Long and Mr. William Moore, which would further involve the condemnation +of the policy pursued by every Irish leader since the Union, and would +mean the abandonment of the weapon by which every Irish reform has been +wrested from English prejudice--namely, an independent party in the +House of Commons, backed up by a vigorous organisation in Ireland. + +For the rest, those who have read the high-flown manifestoes of the Sinn +Fein party will be concerned to look around for the result of the +proposal which they have been preaching for the last three years, and if +they find nothing but a ridiculous mouse in the matter of achievement +will be inclined to declare that not a mountain but a molehill has been +in labour. It is a singular fact that although since the general +election there have been no less than ten by-elections in Ireland, of +which only two were in "safe" Unionist seats, in no single instance have +the advocates of the policy of abstention from attendance from +Westminster had the courage to go to the polls with a candidate of +their own. We are told by the exponents of the new policy that they are +sweeping the country before them, but the only certain data which +Irishmen have as to its popularity is that in ten per cent. of the +constituencies in the country, the only ones to which any test has been +applied, in no instance has Sinn Fein dared to show its face at the +hustings. + +Two Irish members, it is true, resigned uncompromisingly from the Irish +Party and joined the new organisation in disgust at the scope of the +Irish Council Bill. Sir Thomas Esmonde, who expressed his intention of +resigning, was, with what it must have come to regret as indecent haste, +elected a member of the Sinn Fein organisation, but within a few weeks +declared his willingness "to act with the Parliamentary Party, or any +other set of men who put the National question in the forefront," and +went on to express his opinion that the chances of a Sinn Fein candidate +in his constituency of North Wexford would be nil. + +So far at any rate Sinn Feiners must admit that "_beacoup de bruit, pen +de fruit_" sums up their action in regard to Irish affairs. Any success +in propagandism which they may have achieved is to be traced to a +natural impatience, especially among _dilletante_ politicians, whose +experience is purely academic, at the slowness of the Parliamentary +machine in effecting reforms, but any force which it possesses is +discounted by the fact that men whose views are extreme in youth tend to +become the most moderate with advancing years--a fact of which a classic +example is to be found in the career of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, one of +the most distinguished of the Young Irelanders, who, after a brilliant +career in Australia, returned to European his old age and spent several +years in the attempt to persuade Conservatives to adopt the policy of +Home Rule--a propaganda on his part to which the episode of Lord +Carnarvon bears witness, and which was advocated by him in the +_National_ and _Contemporary Reviews_ in 1884 and 1885. It may well be +that the political groundlings who are at present the backbone of the +Sinn Fein movement will, when they gain political experience, alter +their views in as complete a manner. One can draw an English parallel to +this movement in Ireland. There are in the former, as in the latter, +country a certain limited number of people who hold extreme political +views, which in the case of the English are pure socialism. The English +extremists have been so far successful as to secure the return of one +Member of Parliament in full sympathy with their aspirations. The Irish +extremists have not so far dared to put to the test their chance of +obtaining even one Parliamentary ewe lamb. Without the advantage which +the English _intransigeants_ possess, of a few weeks' knowledge on the +part of one person of the inside working of Parliamentary government, in +exactly the same manner as do the Englishmen of the same type, these +Irishmen spend their time reviling popular representatives as ignorant, +venal, and beneath contempt. A prophet who, on the basis of the election +of Mr. Grayson, foretold an imminent dissolution of the democratic +forces in Great Britain, would in truth have more ground on which to +base his forecast than has one who from the nebulous movements of the +Sinn Fein party, arrives at an analogous conclusion in the case of +Ireland. That the political landmarks in Ireland have in the last few +years shifted is obvious to the most superficial observer. The +devolutionist secession from orthodox Unionism, the Independent Orange +Lodge represented by Mr. Sloan, the "Russellite" Ulster tenant-farmers, +and the rise of a democratic vote in Belfast regardless of the strife of +sects, all serve as indications of this fact; but let it be noted that +while we have evidences in these directions of the forces at work in the +disintegration of the old Orange strongholds, we have no such obvious +indications of the upheaval going on in the traditional Nationalist +Party, save only the mere _ipse dixit_ of the very people who assure us +that they themselves are making it felt. There is every reason to +suppose that the Sinn Fein movement, in so far as it consists of passive +resistance, will be regarded by the Irish people as merely doing +nothing. They could understand a non-Parliamentary action were it +replaced by physical force, and the weakness of passive resistance lies +precisely in this, that the logical result of its failure is an appeal +to armed revolt which no man in his senses can in modern conditions in +Ireland think possible, or, if possible, calculated to be other than +disastrous. The attempt which the Sinn Fein organisation has +consistently, if unsuccessfully, made to arrogate to itself all credit +for the progress of the Gaelic League and of the Industrial Revival, is +singularly disingenuous in view of the assistance which both those +movements have received and are receiving from the Parliamentary Party +and its allies. The provisions of the Merchandise Marks Act, and the +fact that through the agency of members of the Irish Party the Foreign +Office has directed British Consuls abroad to publish separately the +returns of Irish imports, which have hitherto been lost by their +inclusion in the returns under the one head "British," will do far more +for the development of the Irish export trade than the well-meaning but +academic resolutions of their critics; and in the matter of social +reform I have yet to learn that any body of men have done such good work +for their country as have the Irish members by the passing into law, on +their initiative, of the Labourers Act, by which nearly half a million +of the Irish population will be rescued from conditions of life which, +with a population lacking the religious sense of the Irish poor, would +have resulted in absolute moral degradation. + +I have spoken throughout of the exponents of Sinn Fein as of a party, +but it is difficult to find the common measure of agreement which such +a term connotes in the heterogeneous elements which for the moment call +themselves by the same name. We read of old Fenians, who have ever +hankered after physical force, presiding over meetings to expound +passive resistance in which young Republicans from Belfast rub shoulders +with men whose ideal is vaguely expressed as repeal--a return one must +suppose to that anomalous constitution of Grattan's Parliament in which, +while the legislature was independent the Executive was not responsible +thereto, but went out of office with the Ministry in the Parliament at +Westminster. + +Irish Parliamentary candidates are selected under a system in which the +party caucus has far less share than in any part of the three kingdoms. +They have behind them the credentials of popular election which are not +possessed by a single one of the self-constituted group of critics who +assail them; and one need only say that vague, unfounded charges as to +political probity, in no instance substantiated by a single shred of +proof, do not redound to the credit of those who frame them. + +When the advocates of Sinn Fein can point to a record of services as +disinterested and as consistent as those of the Irish Parliamentary +Party, when they can produce evidence of work in the immediate past as +fruitful for the good of their country as the Labourers Act, the Town +Tenants Act, and the Merchandise Marks Act, they will have some ground +upon which to claim a hearing from their countrymen. Till then they have +no cause to throw stones at those who are honestly working for the good +of their country, although they do not proclaim themselves on the +housetops the only patriotic section of the Irish people. + +Not one of the advocates of this bloodless war which they propose has, +so far as I am aware, in spite of three years spent in preaching on the +subject, refused to pay income tax, the only tax resistance to which is +possible in Ireland. Those who hold Civil Service appointments under the +British Crown have not in a single instance, unless I am mistaken, +handed in their resignations. These are the criticisms which they +inevitably draw down on their heads by stooping to make imputations as +to men whose services to the country should put them above reach of +anything of the kind. Within the last few months two of the leaders of +Sinn Fein appeared, in the course of a few weeks--the one as plaintiff, +the other as defendant--represented by a Tory counsel, in the Four +Courts in Dublin, before a member of a foreign judiciary, which on their +fundamental axiom should be taboo. The reason is to be found, perhaps, +in the fact that they have not yet devised a means by which attachment +and committal for contempt of their proposed amateur tribunals will be +made effectual. The method by which the resolutions of the National +Council are to be carried into effect has not yet been explained, nor +have the means by which they will acquire a sanction in so far as their +breach will involve the offender in a punishment. We have yet to learn +what guarantee there is that the consuls in foreign parts, whom they +propose to establish and maintain by voluntary subscription, will be +given any facilities by the countries in which they are stationed, +without which their presence in those foreign countries would be of no +service whatever. + +Half a century ago a great voluntary effort, which may well be called +Sinn Fein, was made in the foundation of the Catholic University in +Dublin. In spite of the glamour of John Henry Newman's name it was +crippled from the fact of the poverty of the country on the voluntary +contributions of which it had to depend. One may well ask if the +exponents of the new policy have any confidence that the same obstacle +will not stand in the way of more than a trivial fraction of their +extensive, and as I think Utopian, proposals. The No Rent Manifesto +fell flat in the midst of the very bitterest struggle of the land war. +Does anyone think it likely that we shall see behind the doctrinaires of +the Sinn Fein group a country united in cold blood to repudiate its +obligations under the Land Purchase and Labourers' Acts? + +The Irish people are under no illusions as to the advocates of Sinn +Fein, and will, I am convinced, refuse to judge it on its own valuation. +If for no other reason its exponents would be suspect in that they have +not scrupled to assure a sympathetic Orange audience of the fact that +they are on the point of rending asunder the allegiance of Ireland to +the National cause. While protesting aloud their patriotism they have +not thought it incompatible with their declarations to flood the columns +of the Unionist Press--the most hostile to the democracy of their +country--with expositions of their views, coupled with strident +denunciations of their Nationalist opponents. + +Their tirades have been received with open arms by the Orangemen as +affording a weapon in the division of their common enemy, by which may +be maintained that _de facto_, if not _de jure_, ascendancy, which in +spite of the ballot, the extended franchise, and local government, +persists in Ireland. But, on the other hand, as has been well said, the +fact is not lost on the great bulk of the Irish people that it is from +the Sinn Fein section--the little coterie which professes to stand for +every sort of idealism--that all the imputations and innuendoes have +come. + +This extreme school, of course, will in no sense be pleased by +ameliorative legislation as applied by this or any other Government, +because the worse England treats Ireland the stronger will be their +position, and every concession gained by the country is so much ground +cut from under their feet; but the policy of refusing all attempts at +piecemeal improvement, on the ground that a complete reversal of the +existing system is called for, may be magnificent, and on this there +must be two opinions, but it is not practical politics which will +commend itself to the ordinary Irishman. "Men," wrote Edmund Burke more +than a hundred years ago, "do not live upon blotted paper; the +favourable or the unfavourable mind of the rulers is of more consequence +to a nation than the black letter of any statute." Irish people are not +likely to fail to realise this, and the experience of the past is such +as to show that remedial legislation has been powerless to stay the +National demand, and concessions, so far from putting a period to the +appeals of the people for the control of their own affairs, have rather +increased the vehemence of their demand, for with democracy, as with +most things, _l'appetit vient en mangeant_. + +As against the body which we have been considering one hears people +speaking of the liberal school of Unionists--the rise of which is so +marked a product of recent years in Ireland--as a body who represent the +moderate section of opinion, the demands of which are reasonable and +comprise all that the Liberal Party can be expected to concede; and +among this section of recent writers on Irish politics three stand out +prominently by reason of their position and of their proposals:--Mr. +T.W. Russell, in "Ireland and the Empire," preached with cogent force +the need for the last step in the expropriation of the Irish landlords, +the one great obstacle, in his eyes, to a prosperous and contented +Ireland. In the economic field Sir Horace Plunkett has pleaded, in +"Ireland in the New Century," for the salvation of the Irish race by the +development of industries; while in the political sphere Lord Dunraven, +in "The Outlook in Ireland," has urged the pressing need for the closer +association of Irishmen with the government of their own country. I am +not concerned to deny the remarkable fact which these volumes indicate +in the change of view on the part of three representative Protestant and +Unionist Irishmen; but in this connection two things, on which +sufficient stress has not so far been laid, must be recalled. In the +first place the members of what is called the middle party are recruits +not from Nationalism but from Unionism; it is some of the members of the +latter party who have abated their vehemence, and not any of those of +the former who have altered their orientation in respect of great +democratic principles. + +To speak of the new school of opinion as a party, moreover, is to +overstate the case as to the relative positions of three small groups of +Unionist opinion, which have little or nothing in common except a joint +denunciation of the present _regime_. + +The views of Mr. Russell with regard to compulsory purchase are not, one +suspects, those of Lord Dunraven. Lord Dunraven's views as to +Devolution, it may be surmised, are too democratic for Sir Horace +Plunkett, and are not sufficiently democratic for Mr. Russell. It is +impossible to conceive a plan of reform which would enjoy the support of +all these three while the ideas of ameliorative work entertained by the +body of Orangemen led by Mr. Sloan, who are disgusted by the attitude +traditionally attached to their order, would, there is no doubt, differ +from those of any others. It would be impossible to find a common +denominator between the views of these modern converts from the old +Unionism which presented an unbending refusal to every demand for reform +and held as sacrosanct the existing state of affairs, constitutional and +social. + +That the numbers of the moderate Unionists of all sections are at +present small is not surprising. The country has too long been governed +as a dependency, with the Protestant gentry as the _oculus reipublicae_, +for the "garrison" readily to waive that which they have come to look +upon as their inalienable heritage. That the numbers of Orangemen will +grow small by degrees as a result of land purchase is the general +belief; but it must not be forgotten that the more violent among them, +in their efforts to rake the ashes; and blow up the cinders of dead +prejudices and extinguished hate, will have the backing of a powerful +Press, the eagerness of the greatest organ of which in this matter in +the past led to the worst blow its prestige has ever endured. Liberal +statesmen during the recent general election were constrained to call +attention to the manner in which the power of the Press had been +exploited by a few persons who had endeavoured to secure a "corner" in +those sources of political education, and the obviousness of the policy, +it was admitted, did something to defeat its own ends. Of one thing we +may be certain, the Orange drum will be beaten once more, for the old +ascendancy spirit will die hard; all the devices of artificial +respiration will be called in to prolong its life, and when it does +breathe its last one may expect it to do so in the arms of its friends +in an attic in Printing House Square. + +One can only hope that the "ultras" will pitch their tone too high, and +that their efforts to revive the old perverse antipathies will fail, so +that Irish Unionists will realise, as some of them are doing already, +that patriotism, like charity, begins at home, and that they cannot +compound for distrust of their own countrymen by loud-voiced +protestations of loyalty to the blessings of British rule. + +It was very generally admitted that the logical outcome of Mr. Wyndham's +Land Act was an Irish authority to stand between the Irish tenant and +the British Exchequer, which, under the Act, is left in the invidious +position of an absentee landlord to people who dislike its ascendancy +and distrust its administrative methods, while an Irish authority with a +direct interest in the transaction would be able to see that payments +were punctually made. In the not very likely contingency of failure to +do this, under the Act as passed, the remedy which lies, is for the +Treasury to stop administrative payments to local bodies, an action +which would bring Government to a standstill and plunge the country +into disaffection. Mr. T.W. Russell has long advocated the creation at +Westminster of a Grand Committee of Irish members to deal with the +Estimates and with Irish legislation; and, as if there were not a +plethora of proposals for the modification of the present system of +Government, the plans of the Irish Reform Association have for the last +three years been before the country. + +The object of their first proposal is the creation of a Financial +Council to which the control of Irish expenditure should be handed by +the Treasury with the object of making it interested in economising in +finance for Irish purposes. + +Their proposal with regard to Private Bill Legislation is merely that +the principle adopted in 1899 in the case of Scottish Private Bills +should apply to Ireland, and this has not met with much objection. Under +it local inquiries, which are at present conducted at Westminster, would +be carried out in the localities affected, with much saving of expense; +and it is only necessary to add that as long ago as 1881 a Bill was +introduced to transfer from Westminster to Ireland the semi-judicial and +semi-legislative business entailed in the passage of Private Bills +through Parliament. + +The statutory administrative council proposed by the Irish Reform +Association was to consist of thirteen members, of whom six were to be +elected by the County Councils, six were to be the nominees of the +Crown, while the Lord Lieutenant, who was to preside as chairman, was to +have the right to exercise the privilege of a casting vote. From a +democratic point of view such a body would be an assembly _pour rire_, +and would only serve to entrench the present bureaucracy more securely +by the semblance of representation which it would offer, while retaining +the power of the purse in the hands of a body carefully constituted in +such a way that the small minority who comprise the ascendancy faction +in the country would be permanently maintained in a majority on the +council. A great deal more could be said in defence of another proposal +which has been mooted--namely, that the principle of proportional +representation should be adopted. In a country like Ireland, where the +dividing line between the two great parties is unusually wide, with an +ordinary system of small constituencies, the men of intermediate views +like those of Mr. Sloan or of the members of the Reform Association +would, even though they existed in much larger numbers than is the case, +not secure any great measure of representation, but in comparatively +large constituencies this would not be so. + +The attitude of the Nationalists in anticipation of the Government +proposal of last session was expressed by Mr. Redmond, speaking on St. +Patrick's Day at Bradford:-- + +"If the scheme gave the Irish people genuine power and control over +questions of administration alone, if it left unimpaired the National +movement and the National Party, and if it lightened the financial +burden under which Ireland staggered, then very possibly Ireland might +seriously consider whether such a scheme ought not to be accepted for +what it was worth." + +The Irish Council Bill, as all the world knows, proposed to set up in +Dublin an administrative Council, consisting of 82 elected, 24 +nominated, members, with the Under Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant as +an _ex officio_ member. This body was to have control over eight of the +forty-five departments which constitute "Dublin Castle"--namely, those +relating to Local Government, Public Works, National Education, +Intermediate Education, the Registrar-General's Office, Public Works, +the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, Congested +Districts, and Reformatory Schools. The nature of the departments +excluded from its jurisdiction is of more consequence, including as they +do the Supreme Court of Judicature, the Royal Irish Constabulary, the +Dublin Metropolitan Police, the Land Commission, and the Prisons' Board. + +The Bill proposed that the Council should be elected triennially on the +same franchise as that on which local authorities are at present +elected, and its powers were to be exercised by four Committees--of +Local Government, Finance, Education, and Public Works--the decisions of +which were to come up before the Council as a whole, for alteration or +approval. The Bill proposed to constitute an Irish Treasury with an +Irish fund of L4,000,000, made up of the moneys at present voted to the +departments concerned, together with an additional L650,000. The sums +paid into this fund were to be fixed by the Imperial Parliament every +five years. Finally, the resolutions of the Council, by Clause 3 of the +Bill, were subject to the confirmation of the Lord Lieutenant, who, by +the same clause, was to be empowered to reserve such resolutions for his +own consideration, to remit them for further consideration by the +Council, or, lastly, "if in the opinion of the Lord Lieutenant immediate +action is necessary with respect to the matter to which the resolution +relates, in order to preserve the efficiency of the service, or to +prevent public or private injury, the Lord Lieutenant may make such +order with respect to the matter as in his opinion the necessity of the +case requires, and any order so made shall have the same effect and +operate in the same manner as if it were the resolution of the Irish +Council." + +These were the provisions of the measure which the Liberals introduced +to the disappointment of their Unionist opponents, who had foretold that +it would be a Home Rule Bill under some form of alias, intended to dupe +the predominant partner. It is to be noted that in 1885 Mr. Chamberlain +made a proposal which was on the same lines as this, but went further in +one respect--that there was no nominated element on the Board which he +proposed to create, and furthermore, the powers of the departments would +under it have been transferred to a single elective Board, whereas under +the Council Bill the departments were to be suffered to continue, albeit +under control. Lord Randolph Churchill was prepared at the time of Mr. +Chamberlain's proposal to give even more than the latter wished to +concede, but both proposals were forgotten on the announcement by Mr. +Gladstone of his intention to legislate on a comprehensive basis. + +The attitude of Mr. Redmond on the first reading of the Bill has been so +grossly misrepresented by the English Press, both Liberal and +Conservative, which published only carefully-prepared epitomes of his +speech, that it is necessary that one should devote some attention to +what he actually said. After asserting that no one could expect him or +his colleagues--until they had the actual Bill in their hand and had +time to consider every portion of the scheme, and to elicit Irish public +opinion with reference to it--to offer a deliberate or final judgment, +Mr. Redmond went on to reaffirm what the Irish people have long +considered the minimum demand which can satisfy their aspirations, and +declared that since the measure was introduced as neither a substitute +nor an alternative for Home Rule, he would proceed to consider its +terms. "Does the scheme," the Irish leader went on to ask, "give a +genuine and effective control to Irish public opinion over those matters +of administration referred to the Council? If not the scheme is worse +than useless." After protesting strongly against the nominated element +in the Council as being undemocratic, Mr. Redmond went on to express his +willingness "to accept it or any other safeguard that the wit of man +could devise, consistent with the ordinary principles of representative +government, which is necessary to show the minority in Ireland that +their fears are groundless." He then proceeded strongly to criticise +the power of the Lord Lieutenant under Clause 3--a power not confined to +a mere exercise of veto such as is possessed by a colonial governor, but +something much more than this--"a power on the part of the Lord +Lieutenant to interfere with and thwart every single act, so that a +hostile Lord Lieutenant might stop the whole machine. If that was the +intention of the Government it destroyed the valuable and genuine +character of the power given to the Council." Having protested against +the proposal that the Chairmen of Committees were to be the nominees of +the Lord Lieutenant, and, therefore, not necessarily in sympathy with +the majority of the Council, Mr. Redmond went on to say:--"The whole +question hinges on whether the finance is adequate. The money grant is +ludicrously inadequate. I fear that the L650,000 would be mortgaged from +the day the measure passed, and that it would be impossible with such an +amount to work the scheme." + +Mr. Redmond then concluded his speech with the paragraph to which most +prominence was given in the English Press, with a view to suggest that +he accepted, with only minor reservations, the proposals of the +Government. I quote it _in extenso_ to show how slender is the ground +for this imputation:-- + +"I am most anxious to find, if I can, in this scheme an instrument +which, while admittedly it will not solve the Irish problem, will, at +any rate, remove some of the most glaring and palpable causes which keep +Ireland poverty-stricken and Irishmen hopeless and disaffected. It is in +that spirit that my colleagues and I will address ourselves to the Bill. +We shrink from the responsibility of rejecting anything which after the +full consideration which this Bill will secure, seems to our deliberate +judgment calculated to ease the suffering of Ireland, and hasten the day +of full convalescence."[27] + +No one can suggest, in view of these words, that Mr. Redmond committed +himself or his colleagues to anything further than to consider the Bill +in a critical but not a hostile spirit. As to the suggestion that a vote +for the first reading and the printing of the Bill in any sense involved +the party in even a modified acceptance of the measure, in doing so the +Irish members were acting in fulfilment of a pledge given by Mr. Redmond +six months before, when, speaking on September 23rd, he said:-- + +"When the scheme is produced it will be anxiously and carefully +examined. It will be submitted to the judgment of the Irish people, and +no decision will be come to, whether by me or by the Irish Party, until +the whole question has been submitted to a National Convention. When the +hour of that Convention comes any influence which I possess with my +fellow-countrymen will be used to induce them firmly to reject any +proposal, no matter how plausible, which, in my judgment, may be +calculated to injure the prestige of the Irish Party and disrupt the +National movement, because my first and my greatest policy, which +overshadows everything else, is to preserve a united National Party in +Parliament, and a United powerful organisation in Ireland, until we have +achieved the full measure of National freedom to which we are entitled." + +If the Irish Party had not voted for the first reading we should have +been told by their critics that their action was a despotic attempt to +override and smother the freely-expressed opinions of the Irish people, +but it must not be forgotten that it is due to Mr. Redmond's own +initiative that in the case of this Bill, as in the case of the Land +Bill of 1903, the final decision has rested, not, as in the case of the +Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893, with the members of the Parliamentary +Party, but, by a sort of referendum, with a National Convention +containing representative Irishmen elected for the purpose from every +part of the country in the most democratic manner. It is worthy of +attention that the very people who five years ago were declaring in +Great Britain that Home Rule was dead and damned were those who were +loudest during the general election in the attempt to raise latent +prejudice on that score, and to bring it to pass that the condition of +things existing twenty years ago was repeated when, as Lord Salisbury +declared in a speech to the National Conservative Club, "all the +politics of the moment are summarised in the one word--Ireland." + +In spite of these facts, Mr. Balfour, speaking on the first reading of +the Council Bill, was constrained to admit that it bore no resemblance +to any plan which the Irish people had ever advocated, and he went on to +declare his inability to see how by any process of development it was +capable of being turned into anything which the Nationalists ever +contemplated. The unanimity with which the Bill was repudiated by +Nationalist public opinion in Ireland is to be seen from the fact that +not a single voice was raised on its behalf at the National Convention, +comprising 3,000 delegates, which was the most representative meeting of +any kind which has ever been held in Ireland. The reasons for its +rejection are to be read in the light of the repeatedly expressed +opinions of the more radical section of the Ministerial Party, to the +effect that a bolder and more comprehensive scheme might have been well +introduced without any infringement of the election pledges of the +Government. Under Clause 3 the Lord Lieutenant, an officer under the new +_regime_, as now, of a British Ministry, would have been empowered to +act in defiance of the opinion of the Council either by modifying their +resolutions as to Executive action or by overriding them by orders of +his own, or rather of the Ministry of which he was a member. On points +such as this dealing with the constitution of the assembly, Mr. Redmond +was able to inform the Convention that no amendments would be accepted +by the Government, and experience has taught Irishmen that although +these powers might generally, under a Liberal Government, be exercised +in a legitimate manner, under a Unionist Lord Lieutenant they would be +exercised in a despotic fashion, just as, in the words of the Estates +Commissioners themselves, the instructions issued by the Lord Lieutenant +in February, 1905, were designed "seriously to impede the expeditious +working of the Land Act of 1903." Great objection was taken to the fact +that the resources of the Council would be such as to effect little +administrative improvement, since the departments under its control were +the very bodies which demanded increased expenditure, while it left +untouched the Police, the Prisons' Board, and the Judiciary, the +reckless extravagance of which afforded obvious sources from which, by +modification of their wasteful expense, one could make large economies +for the benefit of those portions of the Irish service which at the +present moment are starved. + +Though it may be said that the acceptance of the Bill without prejudice +would not have stultified the principles already vindicated in a long +struggle by the Irish people, the body as constituted, it was felt, +would have served the purpose of the Unionist party by dividing without +a sufficient _quid pro quo_ the attention of the Irish people from their +devotion to the cause for the broad principles of which they have been +striving, and there was this further danger that a body so restricted in +its scope and anti-democratic in its administration would have broken +down in action, and would have in this way provided Unionists with the +very strongest possible argument for opposition to a full autonomy. + +While a certain proportion of Liberals are prepared to admit that the +Bill made havoc of Liberal principles there is a Laodicean section who +have greatly blamed Irish Nationalists for having refused what was +offered them, when having asked for bread they were given a stone. To +such people as I have in mind I should like to quote what Mr. Gladstone +wrote to Lord Hartington on November 10th, 1885:-- + +"If that consummation--the concession to Ireland of full power to manage +her own local affairs--is in any way to be contemplated, action at a +stroke will be more honourable, less unsafe, less uneasy than the +jolting process of a series of partial measures."[28] + +The position of that section of Liberals is strange which is represented +by the assertion that their party has already made enough sacrifices in +regard to Irish affairs, and which is anxious to return to the _laissez +faire_ policy of their mid-Victorian predecessors. The point I submit is +this, either Liberals do or they do not believe in the principle of +self-government as applied to Ireland, and if they do adhere to it no +effort is too great, no difficulty too extreme, for them to face in the +attempt to solve so serious a problem. Those who think that because in +1886, and again in 1893, the Liberals, with Irish support, +unsuccessfully attempted to solve the Irish question, they have thereby +contracted out of their moral obligation, take a very curious view of +the responsibilities of popular government; but it is not so strange as +the position of those who hold that because in 1907 the Irish people +refused a particular form of change in the methods of government for +which they never asked, they have in consequence closed every avenue to +constitutional reform which can be opened for many years. + +In politics it is often the unexpected that happens, and he would be a +bold prophet who should declare it impossible that within a few years +Liberals may not return _in toto_ to the advocacy of sound principles in +regard to Ireland, the abandonment of which is to be traced to the +recrudescence of Whiggism after Mr. Gladstone's death and the desire to +find some line of policy which might be pilloried as a scapegoat to +account for the disgust of the country with a divided party in the years +following 1895. Liberalism, for its part, if it is to settle the +problem, must fully appreciate the fact that its proposals, if they are +to succeed, must be accepted with the full concurrence of the Irish +representative majority, and on the part of Irishmen what is demanded is +a recognition of the results of the dispensation which has placed the +two islands side by side; by these means only can a practicable policy +be ensured, but it must be remembered with regard to those in Ireland +who hold extreme views, that the continuance of the system of government +which holds the field, and the financial burden at the expense of +Ireland which it perpetuates, serve increasingly to obscure and at the +same time to counteract the advantages accruing from the connection +between the two countries, which one may hope would, in happier +circumstances, be obvious. + +The Irish people still appreciate the force of that maxim of Edmund +Burke's, that the things which are not practicable are not desirable. +While they claim that as of right they are entitled to demand a +separation of the bonds, to the forging of which they were not +consenting parties, as practical men they are prepared loyally to abide +by a compromise which will maintain the union of the crowns while +separating the Legislatures. An international contract leaving them an +independent Parliament with an Executive responsible to it, having +control over domestic affairs, is their demand. Grattan's constitution +comprised a sovereign Parliament with a non-Parliamentary Executive, in +so far as the latter was appointed and dismissed by English Ministers. +The constitution which is demanded to-day is the same as that enjoyed by +such a colony as Victoria, with a non-sovereign Parliament, having, that +is, a definite limit to its legislative powers, such as those under the +Bill of 1886 referring to Church Establishment and Customs, but having +an Executive directly responsible to it. + +The case of the Irish people has never been put with more clearness and +frankness than it was by Mr. Redmond in the House of Commons two years +ago. Having been accused by Unionists of adopting a more extreme line +outside Parliament than that which he followed at St. Stephen's, the +Irish leader in reply, after declaring that separation from Great +Britain would be better than a continuance of the present method of +government, and that he should feel bound to recommend armed revolt if +there were any chance of its success, went on to say:-- + +"I am profoundly convinced that by constitutional means, and within the +constitution, it is possible to arrive at a compromise based upon the +concession of self-government--or, as Mr. Gladstone used to call it, +autonomy--to Ireland, which would put an end to this ancient +international quarrel upon terms satisfactory and honourable to both +nations." + +An Orangeman described the late Government as being engaged in the +useless task of trying to conciliate those who will not be conciliated. +The words of Mr. Redmond indicate the one way in which a _Pacata +Hibernia_ can be secured within the Empire. It is a compromise, but it +has this one virtue which compromises rarely possess--that it will +satisfy the great mass of the Irish people, and it concedes, as we hold, +no vital principle. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CONCLUSION + + "Unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations." + + --EDMUND BURKE. + + +The position of the mass of the Irish people with regard to the present +form of government has nowhere been more cogently expressed than in the +chapter on the Union in the "Cambridge Modern History," the writer of +which describes it as a settlement by compulsion, not by consent; and +the penalty of such methods is, that the instrument possesses no moral +validity for those who do not accept the grounds on which it was +adopted. If Englishmen get this firmly fixed in their minds they will +understand that we regard all Unionist reforms, whether from Liberal or +Conservative Governments, as instalments of conscience money, in regard +to which, granting our premises, it would be sheer affectation to +express surprise or to feign disgust at the lack of effusive gratitude +with which we receive them. "Give us back our ancient liberties" has +been the cry of the Irish people ever since George III. gave his assent +to the Act of Union. The ties of sentiment which bind her colonies so +closely to Great Britain are conspicuous by their absence in the case of +Ireland. The ties of common interest which are not less strong in the +matter of her colonial possessions are, albeit in existence as far as +Great Britain and Ireland are concerned, obscured and vitiated by the +system of taxation which makes the poorer country contribute to the +joint expenses at a rate altogether disproportionate to her means, and +which, while making her in this wise pay the piper, in no sense allows +her to call the tune. + +Never has there been applied in Ireland that doctrine which the _Times_ +enunciated so sententiously half a century ago in speaking of the Papal +States--"The destiny of a nation ought to be determined not by the +opinions of other nations but by the opinion of the nation itself. To +decide whether they are well governed or not is for those who live under +that government." If the _Times_ were to apply the wisdom of these words +to the situation in Ireland instead of screaming "Separatism" at every +breath of a suggestion of the extension of democratic principles in +Ireland, it would take steps to secure a condition of things under which +the people would not be alienated and would be a source of strength and +not of weakness. + +Writing in that paper in 1880, at a time when Ireland was seething with +lawlessness, Charles Gordon declared--"I must say that the state of our +countrymen in the parts I have named is worse than that of any people in +the world, let alone Europe. I believe that these people are made as we +are, that they are patient beyond belief, loyal but broken-spirited and +desperate; lying on the verge of starvation where we would not keep +cattle." + +On the day after the murder of Mr. Burke in the Phoenix Park a permanent +Civil Servant was sent straight from the admiralty to take his place as +Under Secretary. Sir Robert Hamilton who served in Dublin in those +trying conditions became a convinced Home Ruler, as did his chief, Lord +Spencer; and it is generally said to have been Sir Robert who converted +Mr. Gladstone to Home Rule. On the return to power of the Conservatives, +after the defeat of the Home Rule Bill of 1886, Sir Robert Hamilton was +retired, and in his stead Sir Redvers Buller was sent to rule Ireland +_manu militari_. This officer, on being examined by Lord Cowper's +Commission, expressed his opinion that the National League had been the +tenants' best, if not their only, friend. "You have got," he said, "a +very ignorant, poor people, and the law should look after them, instead +of which it has only looked after the rich." To hold opinions so +unconventional in the service of a Unionist Viceroy was impossible, and +in a year other fields for Sir Redvers' activities were found. Sir West +Ridgeway, who succeeded him, served as Mr. Balfour's lieutenant during +the latter's efforts to "kill Home Rule with kindness," and it is +significant to find him at this day writing articles in the reviews on +the disappearance of Unionism, and pinning his faith to Dunravenism as +the next move. + +It is assuredly a remarkable fact that the shrewdest of English +statesmen have not been able to see the complication with which the +Irish problem is entangled. Macaulay imagined that the religious +difficulty was the crux of the Irish question, but Emancipation did not +bring the expected peace and contentment in its train. John Bright +imagined that the agrarian question was the only obstacle to +reconciliation, but a recognition three-quarters of a century after the +Union that the laws of tenure are made for man and not man for the laws +of tenure, failed to put an end to Irish disaffection. Mr. Gladstone +thought in 1870 that the Irish problem was solved. Complicated as the +question has been in its various aspects--religious, racial, economic, +and agrarian--our demands have too often and too long been met in the +spirit of the Levite who passed by on the other side, until violence has +forced tardy redress, acquiesced in with reluctance. If the action of +Wellington and Peel was pusillanimous in granting Emancipation, for the +express purpose of resisting which they were placed in power, backed as +they were in their refusal by their allies in Ireland, the next great +measures of reform forty years later were admitted by Mr. Gladstone +himself to be equally the result of violence and breaches of the law. +The Queen's Speech of 1880 contained but a passing reference to Ireland +and of the intention of the Government to rule without exceptional +legislation; the Queen's Speech of 1881 contained reference to little +but Ireland and of the intention of the Government to introduce a +Coercion Bill. + +In July, 1885, Lord Salisbury's Viceroy, on taking office, deprecated +the use of Coercion, but in January, 1886, the same Government +introduced a Coercion Bill, though less than six months before they had +repudiated it, and had beaten the Liberal Government on this very issue +with the aid of the Irish vote. The manner in which both English parties +have eaten their words is warranted to inculcate political cynicism. If +in 1881 the Liberals are declared to have jettisoned their principles +and to have perpetrated that which a few months before they declared +would stultify their whole policy, the same damaging admission must be +made by the Tories as to their acquiescence in the Franchise Bill of +1884 and their conduct of the Land Bill of 1887. + +"Anyone," said Cavour, "can govern in a state of siege," but I do not +think Englishmen realise the extent to which the ruling policy has been +to accentuate the repressive to the exclusion of the beneficent side of +government, and how ready they have been to make the government not one +of opinion, as in their own country, but one of force. When Mr. Balfour +introduced his perpetual Coercion Bill of 1887 it was estimated that +there had been one such measure for every year of the century that was +passing. + +In the first instance, the institutions of Ireland, being imposed by a +conquering country, never earned that measure of respect bred partly of +pride which attaches itself to the self-sown customs and processes of +nations; but, having introduced her legal system, England superseded it +and took steps to rule by a code outside the Common Law, so that respect +was, therefore, asked for legal institutions which, on her own showing, +and by her own admissions, had proved inadequate. In Ireland Government +did not "meet the headlong violence of angry power by covering the +accused all over with the armour of the law," as in Erskine's famous +phrase it did in England with regard to those imbued with revolutionary +principles. + +A rusty statute of Edward III., which was devised for the suppression of +brigandage, was used to condemn the leaders of the Irish people, +unheard, in a court of law. Trial by jury was suspended and the common +right of freedom of speech was infringed. In 1901 no less than ten +Members of Parliament were imprisoned under the Crimes Act, and it was +not until the appointment of Sir Antony MacDonnell to the Under +Secretaryship that the proclamation of the Coercion Act was withdrawn. + +It is no small matter that Mr. Bryce, when reviewing his period of +office, mentioned among the details of his policy that he had set his +face against jury-packing, and had allowed juries to be chosen perfectly +freely. The suspension of the most cherished Common Law rights of the +subject from Habeas Corpus downwards has been the inevitable result of a +failure to apply democratic principles of government. Jury-packing, +forbidden meetings, summary arrests and prosecutions, and police +reporters form a discreditable paraphernalia by which to maintain the +conduct of government. + +As examples of the differential treatment meted out to Ireland which is +not of a nature to impress her with confidence in English methods may be +mentioned the fact that the Irish militia are drafted out of the country +for their training, that no citizen army of volunteers is permitted, and +the desire of one faction to preserve these discriminations is to be +seen in the anger with which was greeted the omission the other day of +the Irish Arms Act from the Expiring Laws Continuation Bill. + +Under every bad government there arise popular organisations bred of the +wildness of despair which enjoy the moral sanction which the law has +failed to secure "When citizens," said Filangieri long ago, "see the +Sword of Justice idle they snatch a dagger." So long as the Government +sate on the safety valve, so long did periodic explosions of +revolutionary resentment arise, and one must appreciate the fact that in +a country so devoutly Catholic as is Ireland the natural conservatism +which attachment to an historic Church inculcates, and the direction on +its part of anathemas at secret societies and at violence, served to +make it more difficult by far to arouse revolutionary reprisals than it +would be in similar circumstances in England. + +"When bad men combine," wrote Edmund Burke, "the good must associate, +else they will fall one by one an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible +struggle." No one can accuse Burke--the apostle of constitutionalism, +the arch-enemy of the French revolution--of condoning violence, but even +he admitted that there is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a +virtue. + +England must blame herself for the war of classes with which the +National struggle has been complicated. It was the Act of Union which +made the landlord class look to England, and established it in the +anomalous position of a body drawing its income from one country and its +support from another; by this means it made them a veritable English +garrison appealing to England as being the only loyal people. Let us +hope it is not true to say at this date that like the Bourbons they have +learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. The rich, the proud, and the +powerful have had their day, and can one deny that the attempt to govern +Ireland in the sole interests of a minority has made Ireland what it is. +An unbiased French observer three-quarters of a century ago declared +that the cause of Irish distress was its _mauvaise aristocratic_. It was +the interest of this class, as they themselves admit, which was allowed +to dominate the policy of the Unionist Party, and to effect this, force +was the only available instrument. With the recognition of the fact that +the possession of property is no guarantee of intelligence has come the +crippling of the policy of _laissez faire_, supported though it was by +the brewers of Dublin and the shipbuilders of Belfast, for this +reason--that rich men tend always to rally to the defence of property. +The exercise of the duties which property imposes and the responsibility +which it entails being the chief advantages of a landed gentry, and +their main _raison d'etre_ as a ruling caste having been conspicuous by +its absence, with few exceptions, in Ireland, the passing of the +landowner as a social factor is looked upon with complacency. + +English statesmen seem to have applied that maxim of Machiavelli--that +benefits should be conferred little by little so as to be more fully +appreciated. It is hard to realise that little more than thirty years +have elapsed since the time when the landed interest was supreme in +these islands. Their power was first assailed by the Ballot Act of 1873, +and the Corrupt Practices Act of 1884 did much to put a term to a form +of intimidation at which Tories did not hold up their hands in horror, +while the Franchise Act of 1883 destroyed their power, so that in those +years passed away for ever the time when, as Archbishop Croke put it, an +Irish borough would elect Barabbas for thirty pieces of silver. + +Of one thing, indeed, we may be certain, and that is that we have +touched bottom in the matter of Unionist concessions. The manner in +which the programme mapped out between Mr. Wyndham and Sir Antony +MacDonnell was rendered nugatory is evidence of that. The administration +of the Land Act, under the secret instructions issued by Dublin Castle, +was such as to cripple the Estates Commissioners in their application of +its provisions. The proposals as to the settlement of the University +question were nipped in the bud after advances had been made to the +Catholic bishops to discover what was the minimum which they would +accept, and this was done although Mr. Balfour had declared at +Manchester in 1899--"Unless the University question can be settled +Unionism is a failure." + +Mr. F.H. Dale, an English Inspector of Schools, who, in the last couple +of years, has produced two comprehensive blue books on the state of +primary and secondary education in Ireland, declared that he found the +desire for higher education in Ireland greater than in England; but in +spite of this, so far, neither British party has advanced one step in +the direction of a permanent solution, pleading as excuse that the fear +of strengthening the hands of the priests blocks the way, albeit a +university under predominatingly lay control is all that even the +hierarchy in Ireland demand; while to add to the groundlessness on which +intolerance is based the only institution of a satisfactory kind which +is endowed by the State is a Jesuit College supported by what one can +only call circuitous means. + +Mr. Balfour himself has admitted that no Protestant parent could +conscientiously send his son to a college which was as Catholic as +Trinity is Protestant. If Oxford and Cambridge had been founded by +foreign Catholics for the express purpose of destroying the Protestant +religion in England, a thirty years' abolition of tests, which in no +sense affected their "atmosphere," would not have overcome the prejudice +and scruples persisting against them. + +The vicious circles round which Irish questions rotate is nowhere seen +more clearly than in this connection. When complaint is made that a +disproportionately small number of Catholics hold high appointments in +the public offices in Ireland, the reply is made that the number of +members of that Church with high educational qualifications is small; +when demands are made for facilities for higher education, the +reluctance of English people to publicly endow sectarian education is +urged as an excuse, although Irishmen have not, since Trinity abolished +tests, made any demands for a purely sectarian University or College. + +I have shown how, as a result of our aloofness from both English +parties, we find ourselves between the upper and the nether millstones, +and in what way in regard to the University question the old error which +for so long obstructed the land question is at work--mean the error of +denying reform for English reasons and endeavouring to force English +doctrines into the law and government of Ireland and of suppressing +Irish customs and Irish ideas. + +On the advent to power of the present Government the heads of the great +departments in Whitehall excused their apparent dilatoriness in +effecting those administrative changes which the country expected from a +Liberal Government, by the fact that after twenty years of Conservative +rule the permanent officials were so steeped in the methods of Toryism +their habits were to such a degree tinged and coloured by its policy, +that there was the greatest possible difficulty in making the necessary +alterations. In the case of Ireland this is so to a much greater extent, +and one must recognise the truth of that saying of some Irish member to +the effect that a new Chief Secretary was like the change of the dial on +a clock--the difference was not great, for the works remain the same. + +The main arguments against reform are founded on prophetic fears, and if +one is impressed by the threats of a _jacquerie_ on the part of the +Orangemen, led though they may be again, as they were twenty years ago, +by a Minister of Cabinet rank, Nationalists, on the other hand, may +remind Englishmen that the Irish volcanoes are not yet extinct, and that +the history of reform is such as to show the value of violence on the +failure of peaceful persuasion--a feature the most lamentable in Irish +politics; and in this connection let it never be forgotten that "the +warnings of Irish members," as Mr. Morley wrote in the _Pall Mall +Gazette_ on the introduction of the Coercion Bill which followed the +Phoenix Park murders, "have a most unpleasant knack of coming true." +When the counsels of prudence coincide with the claims of justice, +surely the last word had been said to disarm opposition. + +"Old Buckshot," said Parnell grimly enough in 1881, "thinks that by +making Ireland a gaol he will settle the Irish question." Throwing +over that theory Great Britain decided in 1884--in the phrase then +current--that to count heads was better than to break them, but having +counted them she ignored their verdict, and has continued so to do for +more than twenty years. One would have thought that she would have +applied the rigour of her theories and put an end to this travesty by +which she has conceded the letter of democracy--a phantom privilege +which she has rendered nugatory. It was the impossibility of ignoring +the constitutionally-expressed wishes of the Irish people after he had +extended the suffrage, which made Mr. Gladstone a Home Ruler, and +Englishmen have to remember that this, the only remedy in the whole of +their political materia medica which they have not tried, is the one +which has effected a cure wherever else it has been applied. + +I ask, to what does England look forward in a prolongation of the +present conditions? There is no finality in the politics of Ireland any +more than in those of other countries. She cannot say to Ireland--"Thus +far shalt thou go, and no further." As one burning question is solved +another arises to take its place and to demand redress. The battle for +the moment may seem to be to the strong, but in the long run might is +unable to resist the advances of right. Time, we may well declare, is on +our side; but one has to count the cost in the material damage to us, +and in the moral damage to Great Britain, in the ultimate concession, +perhaps under duress, of so much which has repeatedly been refused. +Ever since, in 1881, Mr. Gladstone "banished to Saturn the laws of +political economy," strong measures of State socialism have been enacted +by both parties. It is not for nothing that the tenants in the West find +themselves to-day paying less than half for their holdings of what they +paid twenty years ago, and paying it, moreover, not by way of rent but +as a terminable annuity. If there is one point which the events of the +last generation have established in their eyes it is this--that Parnell +was justified in telling them to keep a firm grip of their holdings, and +that Great Britain has admitted the justice of the grounds on which +their agitation was based, by the revolution in the social fabric which +she has set in train by the Land Purchase Acts. + +Who was the witty Frenchman who declared that England was an island and +that every Englishman was an island? It is not only because of this +preoccupation with their own affairs that their _amour propre_ has been +injured by their failure in Ireland. One cannot expect to gather figs +from thistles or grapes from thorns, and when Englishmen appreciate to +how small an extent the Union has enured to the advantage of Ireland, +they will understand the feelings which actuate the desire for +self-government. Is there anything which makes Englishmen believe that +the extension of Land Purchase or the foundation of a university will +make for a permanent settlement? The history of the last half century +can scarcely make them sanguine that when the burning questions of +to-day have been disposed of they will find in the Imperial Parliament +the knowledge, the interest, or the time necessary for dealing with new +questions as they arise--for arise they assuredly will. + +Great Britain may legislate with lazy, ill-informed, good intentions, as +Mr. Gladstone admitted was done in the case of the Encumbered Estates +Act, or she may grant concessions piecemeal, and the minority which +thereby she maintains will denounce every reform as mere _panem et +circenses_ by which she hopes to keep the majority subdued. + +The "loyal minority" have cried "wolf" too often. Nearly forty years +ago, when Disestablishment was threatened, the Protestant Archbishop of +Dublin said--"You will put to Irish Protestants the choice between +apostacy and expatriation, and every man among them who has money or +position, when he sees his Church go, will leave the country. If you do +that, you will find Ireland so difficult to manage that you will have to +depend on the gibbet and the sword." + +The twenty-five attempts to settle by legislation the land question were +in nearly every instance denounced as spoliation by the House of Lords, +which was constrained to let them pass into law. The pages of Hansard +are grey with unfulfilled forebodings as to what would be the effect of +the extension of the Franchise and of the grant of popular Local +Government. The results of the former took the wind out of the sails of +those who declared that popular wishes in Ireland were overridden by a +political caucus, the success of local government has given Orangemen +occasion to blaspheme. + +The history of Irish legislation on all these points has been one of +belated concession to demands repeatedly made, at first scouted and +finally surrendered. And withal, English statesmen have not killed Home +Rule with kindness. "Twenty years of resolute government" were +confidently expected to give Irish Nationalism its _quietus. E pur si +muove._ + + + + +NOTES + + +[1] L. Paul-Dubois. _L'Irlande Contemporaine_, p. 174. + +[2] "Life of Lord Randolph Churchill," Vol. II., p. 455. + +[3] _L'Irlande Contemporaine_, p. 232. + +[4] Hansard, August 1, 1881. + +[5] _Ibid._, September 3, 1886. + +[6] _Ibid._, August 19, 1886. + +[7] _Ibid._, March 22, 1887. + +[8] _Ibid._, April 22, 1887. + +[9] _Ibid._, February 14, 1907. + +[10] The statement in the text, written shortly after the +prorogation of Parliament, unexpectedly demands modification. Almost all +the planters on the Clanricarde estate have expressed their readiness to +clear out of the evicted lands and to accept re-settlement elsewhere. +The Lords' amendments will in consequence not prove the obstacle which +it was feared they would to the exercise of powers of compulsion by the +Estates Commissioners against the owner. + +[11] "Greville Memoirs," Series I., Vol. III., p. 269. + +[12] _Ibid._, Series II., p. 217, December, 1843. + +[13] _Ibid._, Series II., Vol. II., March, 1846. + +[14] Hansard, February, 1848. + +[15] _United Irishman_, May 14, 1904. + +[16] "Life of Lord Randolph Churchill," Vol. II., p. 4, October +14, 1885. + +[17] Hansard, May 20, 1884. + +[18] "Life of Lord Randolph Churchill," Vol. II., p. 456, +1892. + +[19] "Greville," Series I., Vol. II., p. 76, November, 1830. + +[20] "Life of Whately," Vol. II., p. 246, 1852. + +[21] "Life of Lord Randolph Churchill," Vol. II., p. 28, +December, 1885. + +[22] Morley's "Life of Gladstone," Vol. II., Bk. IX., Cap. 4, +p. 524. + +[23] Hansard, March 6, 1905. + +[24] _Times_, January 10, 1906. + +[25] Mrs. John Richard Green, _Independent Review_, June, +1905. + +[26] "Ireland and the Empire," p. 275. + +[27] Hansard, May 7, 1907. + +[28] Morley's "Life of Gladstone," Vol. II., Bk. IX., Cap. 1, +p. 481. + + + + +ADDENDUM + + +PAGE 51.--A Bill introduced last session by Mr. William Redmond which +passed through both Houses of Parliament without opposition or debate, +will, when at an early date it comes into force, repeal the Tobacco +Cultivation Act, 1831, which forbade the growth of tobacco in Ireland. +Under the new Act there will be no obstacle in the way of its +cultivation, provided the excise conditions which will be imposed are +complied with. + +Among the places in which experiments in tobacco growing have been made +in the last few years are Randalstown in Meath, Tagoat in Wexford, and +Tullamore in King's County, and in addition Lord Dunraven and Col. Hon. +Otway Cuffe have shown the success with which this crop may be +cultivated in other parts of Ireland. + + * * * * * + + + + + +NOTABLE IRISH BOOKS + +Eleventh Thousand--Now Ready. + +ECONOMICS FOR IRISHMEN. + +By "PAT." Cr. 8vo. Antique Paper. 164 pp., Cloth, 2s. net. Paper cover, +1s. net. Contents:--Introduction--Wealth--The Agents of +Production--Land--Labour--Capital--Resume--The Economic Influences of +Religion--Suggestions. + + "We strongly advise all interested in Ireland to read this + book; they will find in it much to think over."--_Catholic + Book Notes_. + + +New Book by the Author of "Economics for Irishmen." + +THE SORROWS OF IRELAND. + +By "PAT." Cr. 8vo, Paper cover, 1s. net. A limited number of copies in +Cloth, 2s. net. Chapters on:--The Irish Problem and How I Studied +it--Derivation of the Problem--Education--The Leagues--Sinn +Fein--Politics--Religion, &c., &c. + + "No more moving book than this has been written on Ireland for + a century past."--_Publisher and Bookseller_. + + +THE NEW IRELAND. + +SYDNEY BROOKS. Cr. 8vo. Paper cover, 1s. net. Cloth, 1s. 6d. net. Sinn +Fein and the New Nationalism--The Gaelic League--The I.A.O.S. and The +Industrial Revival--The Politicians--The Church--The Agrarian and some +other Problems--Devolution. + + "I have nothing but praise for Mr. Sydney Brooks book on _The + New Ireland_.... A masterpiece of clear statement and + comprehension ... he is always brilliant, thoughtful, and + persuasive. Everybody, both in England and Ireland, ought to + read this book."--R.W.L. (_Black and White_). + + +WHAT IS THE USE OF REVIVING IRISH? + +A Review of the Language Movement. By DERMOT CHENEVIX TRENCH. 3d. net. + + +CLERICALISED EDUCATION IN IRELAND. + +A Plea for Popular Control. By J.H.D. MILLER. 4d. net. + + +BY J.M. SYNGE. + +THE ARAN ISLANDS. + +By J.M. SYNGE. Large Paper Edition, with Twelve Drawings by JACK B. +YEATS, coloured by hand. Cr. 4to. Hand-made paper, limited to 150 +copies. 21s. net. Ordinary Edition, Demy 8vo., antique paper (with the +Drawings in Black and White), 5s. net. + + This book records the experience of several lengthy visits + paid by the author to Inishmaan and Aranmor, the chief islands + of the Aran group. He gives an intimate account of the general + manner of life on these islands, so isolated from + civilisation, where the life is in some ways the most + primitive that is left in Western Europe. + + * * * * * + + Worth any hundred ordinary travel books. It is full of strange + suggestions to the eye and to the imagination. It is + continuously interesting.--R. Lynd (_Sunday Sun_). + + No reader can put the book down without the feeling that he, + too, has actually been present upon those lonely Atlantic + rocks, cried over by the gulls, among the passionate, strange + people whose ways are described here, with so tender a + charity.--_Daily News_. + + Nothing written by the author of "The Playboy of the Western + World" can be uninteresting or unimportant ... A fine + achievement, and only a sympathetically gifted man would and + could have done it.--_The Times_. + + A charming book.--W.L. Courtney (_Daily Telegraph_). + + American Press Opinions of Mr. Synge's Work. + + "Mr. Synge's plays are the biggest contribution to Literature + made by any Irishman in out time.... If there is any man + living and writing for the stage with youth on his side and + the future before him, it is John Synge, whose four plays.... + represent accomplishment of the highest order. It is true that + these dramas do deal only with peasants, but they are handled + in the universal way that Ibsen used when he made the + bourgeois of slow Norwegian towns representative of the human + race everywhere.... it is not only in the avoidance of + joyless and pallid words that Mr. Synge has chosen the better + part. He has experienced the rich joy found only in what is + superb and wild in reality; and so it was just because 'The + Playboy' was so true in its presentation of the weaknesses--if + weaknesses they can be called--as well as the strength of his + men and women, that a furore was raised against it as a sort + of satire.... The sympathy of the dramatist with his people + makes itself felt in spite of his ability to stand apart + detachment from them."--_New York "Evening Sun."_ + + "'The Aran Islands'.... of vast importance as throwing a + light on this curious development.... is like no other book + we have ever read. This is not because the people described in + it are unique. With the most artful simplicity Mr. Synge gives + you first a just idea of the alternate beauty and bleakness of + that wonderful coast, and then makes you see the inhabitants + in their daily struggle for existence.... This book, with + its sympathetic insight, is the best possible return that Mr. + Synge could have made to his friends on the island."--_New + York "Evening Sun."_ + + "Synge is so real it is impossible to resist him. He seems to + have the masterful quality of taking a few scattered peasant + families, and giving to them a universal import.... His + plays are alive. They are real plays in real persons, and not + the least of their charm lies in the dialogue.... He is + tilling what is practically virgin soil, and already he has + demonstrated he is a skilled and sympathetic workman."--_New + York Press._ + + +Second Edition now ready. + +THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD. + +A Comedy in Three Acts. By J.M. SYNGE. Cr. 8vo. Cloth, with preface and +portrait of the Author, 2s. net. + +A few Copies of the hand-made paper edition still remain. The Price has +been raised to 7s. 6d. net. + + "The play, as I read it, is profoundly tragic.... It is a + tragedy that does not depress--it arouses and dilates. There + is cynicism on the surface, but a depth of ardent sympathy and + imaginative feeling below, and vistas of thought are opened up + that lead from the West of Ireland shebeen to the stars.... I + said to myself when I had read two pages, 'This is + literature,' and when I laid down the book at the last + line,'This is life.'"--T.W. Rolleston (_Independent_). + + "This intensely national Irish Play ... A comedy of amazing + fidelity to the Irish peasant's gift and passion for a special + quality of headlong, highly figured speech, that rushes on, + gathering pace from one stroke of vividness to another still + wider and better...."--_Manchester Guardian_. + + "Mr. Synge ... certainly does possess a very keen sense of + fact, as well as dramatic power and great charm of style ... + one of the finest comedies of the dramatic renaissance ... + sustained dramatic power.... These peasants are poets, as + certainly they are humorists, without knowing it. Certain + passages of 'The Playboy' read like parts of the English + Bible. There is the same direct and spontaneous beauty of + image.... Mr. Synge has achieved a masterpiece by simply + collaborating with nature. He and the Irish are to be + congratulated."--Holbrook Jackson (_The New Age_). + + "'The Playboy of the Western World' ... is a remarkable play + ... its imagery is touched with a wild, unruly, sensational + beauty, and the 'popular imagination that is fiery and + magnificent and tender' is reflected in it with a glow.... + There is a great deal of poetry and fire, beside the humour + and satire so obviously intended, in this drama."--Francis + Hackett in _Chicago Evening Post_. + + +THE WELL OF THE SAINTS. + +A Play in Three Acts. By J.M. SYNGE. Uniform with "The Playboy." Cr. +8vo. 2s. net. + + +THE TINKER'S WEDDING. + +A Play in Two Scenes. By J.M. SYNGE. Uniform with "The Playboy." Cr. +8vo. 2s. net. + + +BOOKS BY STEPHEN GWYNN. + +THE FAIR HILLS OF IRELAND. + +Written by STEPHEN GWYNN, and illustrated by HUGH THOMSON. 31 Drawings +in black and white and Four Coloured Illustrations. Cr. 8vo. 6s. + + This book is the record of a pilgrimage to historic and + beautiful places in Ireland, so arranged as to give an idea + not only of their physical aspect to-day, but also of the + history for which they stand. Places have been chosen whose + greatest fame was in the days before foreign rule, though + often, as at the Boyne, they are associated with the later + story of Ireland. In each chapter the whole range of + associations is handled, so that each reviews in some measure + the whole history of Irish civilisation as it concerned one + particular place. But in a fuller sense the chapters are + arranged so as to suggest a continuous idea of Irish life, + from the prehistoric period illustrated by cyclopean + monuments, down to the full development of purely Irish + civilisation which is typified by the buildings at Cashel. + Seats of ancient sovereignty like Tara, or of ancient art and + learning like Clonmacnoise, are described so as to show what + the observer can find to see there to-day, and what the + student can learn from native Irish Poetry and annals + regarding them. + + +FISHING HOLIDAYS. + +By STEPHEN GWYNN. Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d. + + "Very pleasant volume.... The general reader of angling books + will find much to interest him; and those thinking of visiting + the Donegal district will certainly find many useful hints and + alluring accounts of sport."--_Fishing Gazette_. + + +THE MEMOIRS OF MILES BYRNE. + +A new edition with an introduction by STEPHEN GWYNN, M.P. Two vols. Demy +8vo. Cloth. 15s. + + "His Memoirs are of incomparable value. Nowhere else can be + found such graphic and complete accounts of the action so + renowned in Irish Story. The descriptions convince by their + reticence and restraint, and by a certain spontaneity in the + narrative, which shows Byrne to have been a literary artist of + no mean calibre.... We cordially commend these two volumes to + the study of young Irishmen.... The production reflects great + credit on the publishers."--_Freeman's Journal_. + + "Everyone with a spice of adventure in his composition--and + who would care to confess that he has not?--will welcome this + handsome reprint."--_Irish Times_. + + "The first volume of these Memoirs is as exciting as any tale + of imaginary adventure, with the real horrors of a brutal + civil war for background. Byrne is no half-hearted partisan; + he hates well, but is not unjust, admitting alike the errors + committed by his comrades and the decencies of his + foes."--_The Academy_. + + "His account of those terrible days in Ireland is a + fascinating if often gruesome study, and may be recommended as + a vivid, if not perhaps calmly impartial, portrayal by an + eye-witness of a memorable struggle."--_Glasgow Evening News_. + + +THE GLADE IN THE FOREST AND OTHER STORIES. + +By STEPHEN GWYNN. Cr. 8vo. Irish Linen. 3s. 6d. + + +BY GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM. + +THE NORTHERN IRON. + +By GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM, Author of "The Seething Pot," "Hyacinth," and +"Benedict Kavanagh." Cr. 8vo. Antique Paper. Bound in Irish Linen. 6s. + + "There can be no doubt that this story will have a great + success, for it is intensely alive and holds the interest from + start to finish ... The story is very exciting; the author has + a wonderful power of keeping his grip on it and describing the + incidents with relentless force."--_Daily Telegraph_. + + "Its characters are finely drawn and its interest + compelling."--_Morning Leader_. + + "The book is extremely well done all round, and will be read + as much for its engrossing story as for the admirable picture + it gives of those stirring times which closed the eighteenth + century."--_Pall Mall Gazette_. + + +CAMBIA CARTY. + +By WILLIAM BUCKLEY, Author of "Croppies Lie Down." Cr. 8vo. Irish Linen. +3s. 6d. + + +THE QUEST. + +By JAMES H. COUSINS, 2s. 6d. net. Contains--The Going Forth of Dana: The +Sleep of the King: The Marriage of Lir and Niav, &c. + + +THE AWAKENING AND OTHER SONNETS. + +By JAMES H. COUSINS. With marginal designs by T. SCOTT. Royal 16mo. +Cloth, 1s. net; Paper, 6d. net. + + +THE GILLY OF CHRIST. + +By SEOSAMH MAC CATHMHAOIL. With three illustrations by A.M. WENTWORTH +SHEILDS. Royal 16mo. Cloth, 1s. net. + + +THE EGYPTIAN PILLAR. + +Poems by EVA GORE BOOTH. Royal 16mo. 1s. net. + + +ABOUT WOMEN. + +Verses by CHARLES WEEKES. Royal 16mo. 1s. net. + + +WILD EARTH. + +A Book of Verse. By PADRAIC COLUM. 1s. net. + + +POETRY. + +POEMS, 1899-1905. By W.B. YEATS. + +This volume contains the Plays--_The Shadowy Waters, The King's +Threshold_, and _On Baile's Strand_, entirely revised and largely +re-written, and the collection of Lyrics _In the Seven Woods_. Cr. 8vo. +6s. net. + + +DEIRDRE; a Play in One Act. By W.B. YEATS. + +(Plays for an Irish Theatre.) Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. + + +THE TAIN, + +An Irish Epic told in English Verse. By Mary A. Hutton. + +Fcap 4to. Antique Paper. Bound in Irish Linen gilt, gilt top. 10s. 6d. +net. + + This work is an attempt to tell the whole story of the Tain Bo + Cuailngne in a complete and artistic form. The writer, working + always from original sources, has taken the L.L. text of the + tale as the basis of her narrative, but much material has been + worked into its texture, not only from the L.U. version of the + Tain and fragments of other versions, but from very many other + Irish epic sources. Some of the material so used has not yet + been edited. The object always has been to bring out the great + human interests of the story in their own Gaelic atmosphere. + + The narrative is divided into fifteen books, and there is a + short introductory narrative called "The Finding of the Tain," + and a short closing narrative called "The Writing of the + Tain"; these form a sort of Early Christian frame to the great + Pagan tale. + + The medium chosen is blank verse; but the verse, being written + under the immediate influence of old Gaelic literature, has a + character of its own. + + The author has been engaged on the work for the past ten + years, and, in addition to writing the poem, has compiled a + series of Appendices, comprising a very complete set of + topographical notes, an account of the chief authorities used, + and various other notes and comments. The book should be of + great interest to scholars and folk-lorists, as well as to + lovers of poetry, and to all who are interested in the old + Irish stories. + + +DRAMA. + + +THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE. + +A Play in Three Acts. By PADRAIC COLUM. Paper cover. Cr. 8vo. 1s. net. + + +DEIRDRE. + +A Play in Three Acts. By A.E. Royal 16mo. 1s. net. + + +THE PAGAN. + +A Comedy in Two Scenes. By LEWIS PURCELL. Cr. 8vo. Antique Paper, 1s. +net. + + +THE TURN OF THE ROAD. + +A North of Ireland Play in two Scenes. By RUTHERFORD MAYNE. 1s. net. + + * * * * * + +ABBEY THEATRE SERIES OF IRISH PLAYS. + +Crown 8vo. 1s. net each. + +Kincora. By LADY GREGORY. + +The Land. By PADRAIC COLUM. + +The White Cockade. By LADY GREGORY. + +Spreading the News, The Rising of the Moon, by LADY GREGORY; and The +Poorhouse, by LADY GREGORY and DOUGLAS HYDE. + +The Building Fund. By WILLIAM BOYLE. + + * * * * * + +Samhain, 1906. Edited by W.B. YEATS. Containing _Hyacinth Halvey_, by +Lady Gregory. 6d. net. + + +THE SHANACHIE. + +An Irish Illustrated Quarterly. Fcap. 4to. 1s net each number. + + The _Spring_ Number contains "Pat's" Pastoral--An Act of + Thanksgiving; The People of the Glens, by J.M. SYNGE; The + Royal Hibernian Academy, by J.B. YEATS, R.H.A.; A National + Dramatist, by GEORGE ROBERTS; Stories by K.M. PURDON and L. + MACMANUS; Poems by JANE BARLOW, THOMAS KEOHLER, JAMES H. + COUSINS, and PADRAIC COLUM. Illustrations by WILLIAM ORPEN, + J.B. YEATS, &c. + + The _Summer_ Number contains The Rationale of Art, by J.B. + YEATS. The Resolution, by G.A. BIRMINGHAM; The Crows of + Mephistopheles, by GEORGE FITZMAURICE; A Note on Fanlights, by + J.H. ORWELL; and the first of a series of Articles on the + South West of Ireland, by J.M. SYNGE. + + The _Autumn_ Number contains Discoveries, W.B. YEATS; St. + Patrick on the Stage, by JOHN EGLINTON; The Blasket Islands, + by J.M. SYNGE; The Quail, a Story of Turgeniff's, translated + by MARGARET GOUGH; The Shanachie in the East, by Professor + HONWITZ; Poems by PADRAIC COLUM, SUSAN MITCHELL, and S.R. + LYSAGHT. Illustrations by C. MARSH, GRACE GIFFORD, W. DALY, + and O. CUNNINGHAM. + + The _Winter_ Number contains The Ballygullion Creamery + Society, a Story by LYNA C. DOYLE; The Passing, by T.D. + FITZGERALD; Mysticism in English Poetry, by J.H. COUSINS; + Marcus of Clooney, a Story by PADRAIC COLUM; On Bullying, by + G.A. BIRMINGHAM; In West Kerry, by J.M. SYNGE; The Doom of La + Traviata, by LORD DUNSANY; An Idle Hour with a Cyclopedia, by + MICHAEL ORKNEY; Poetry by SEUMAS O'SULLIVAN, GEORGE ROBERTS, + PADRAIC COLUM, GRACE MACNAMARA. Illustrations by R.C. ORPEN, + JACK B. YEATS, GRACE GIFFORD. + +_ANNUAL VOLUME_ contains above four Parts, bound in Belfast Buckram, 6s. + +Cases for binding the Parts can be obtained from the Publishers. 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