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diff --git a/20016-8.txt b/20016-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfd56c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/20016-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6751 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Home Rule, by Harold Spender + +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: Home Rule + Second Edition + +Author: Harold Spender + +Release Date: December 4, 2006 [EBook #20016] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOME RULE *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this | + | text. For a complete list, please see the end of this | + | document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + On and after the appointed day there shall be in Ireland an + Irish Parliament, consisting of his Majesty the King and two + Houses, namely, the Irish Senate and the Irish House of + Commons. + + Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish Parliament, or + anything contained in this Act, the supreme power and authority + of the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall remain unaffected + and undiminished over all persons, matters, and things within + his Majesty's dominions. + + THE HOME RULE BILL (1912). + (THE GOVERNING CLAUSE.) + + + + + "If we conciliate Ireland, we can do nothing amiss; if we do + not we can do nothing well." + + SYDNEY SMITH. + + + "The cry of disaffection will not, in the end, prevail against + the principle of liberty." + + GRATTAN. + + + + + HOME RULE + + BY + HAROLD SPENDER + + + WITH A PREFACE + BY THE + RT. HON. SIR EDWARD GREY, BART., M.P., + SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS + + _SECOND EDITION_ + _With Text of Home Rule Bill (1912)_ + + HODDER AND STOUGHTON + LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO + + + + + "There can be no nobler spectacle than that which we think is + now dawning upon us, the spectacle of a nation deliberately set + on the removal of injustice, deliberately determined to break + with whatever remains still existing of an evil tradition, and + determined in that way at once to pay a debt of justice and to + consult, by a bold, wise and good act, its own interests and + its own honour." + + GLADSTONE + (1893). + + + + +PREFACE + + +It must surely be clear to-day to many of those who opposed the Home +Rule Bill of 1893 that there is a problem of which the solution is now +more urgent than ever. We who were Gladstonian Home Rulers approached +the problem originally from the Irish side: those who did not then +approach it from that side refused to admit the existence of any +problem at all. Since that time circumstances have made it necessary to +approach the problem from the British as well as from the Irish side. + +The British Parliament has hitherto been regarded as a model to be +imitated; if it continues to attempt the impossible task of transacting +in detail both local and Imperial business, it will end as an example +to be avoided. In the last fifty years the amount of work demanded for +particular portions of the United Kingdom, for the United Kingdom as a +whole, or for the Empire has increased enormously; in all three +categories the work is still increasing and will increase: one +Parliament cannot do it all. This is one new aspect of the Home Rule +question. + +Mr. Spender states the case with force and sympathy from the Irish +point of view, with which none of us, who were convinced supporters of +Home Rule twenty years ago can ever lose sympathy, and with which the +younger generation should make itself acquainted. He makes also a very +valuable and opportune review of recent changes in the situation, and +considers how Home Rule should be adapted to British and Imperial +needs, and should serve them. The whole book is the result of his own +reflection, observation and research; the conclusions to which he comes +for the settlement of the financial and other details of Home Rule +ought to receive most careful consideration as valuable contributions +to the discussion of the subject. But, of course, they must not be +assumed necessarily to be mine or to be those that will be adopted in +the Government Bill. + +But I agree with him entirely that Home Rule is necessary to heal +bitterness in Ireland, and to effect that reconciliation without which +there cannot be real union: that it is necessary to relieve Parliament +at Westminster and to set it free for work that concerns the United +Kingdom as a whole or the Empire: in other words, that there is a +problem to be solved, and that the first step in solving it must be +Irish Home Rule in a form that opens the way for Federal Home Rule. + +In the autumn of 1910 a considerable part, at any rate, of the +Conservative Party seemed ready to admit the need for some solution: +to-day they have apparently drifted back to the barren position of +opposing all proposals for Home Rule: if they were to render this +solution impossible, they would but make the problem more urgent. + + EDWARD GREY. + + _February, 1912._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. +THE HOME RULE CASE 3 + The Case that Does Not Change: + (i.) The Sea. + (ii.) The Race. + (iii.) The Creed. + + +CHAPTER II. +THE HOME RULE CASE 19 + The Case that Has Changed and is Now Stronger: + (i.) The Councils and + (ii.) The Land. + + +CHAPTER III. +THE HOME RULE CASE 35 + The Case that Has Changed--(_continued_): + (i.) The Congested Districts. + (ii.) The Board of Agriculture. + (iii.) Old-Age Pensions. + (iv.) The Universities. + + +CHAPTER IV. +THE HOME RULE PLAN 47 + The Nineteenth Century Bills and the Bill of 1912. + + +CHAPTER V. +HOME RULE DIFFICULTIES 63 + Ulster. + + +CHAPTER VI. +HOME RULE DIFFICULTIES 77 + Rome Rule _or_ Home Rule? + +CHAPTER VII. +HOME RULE IN HISTORY 89 + Five Centuries of Limited Home Rule (1265-1780). + +CHAPTER VIII. +HOME RULE IN HISTORY 99 + Grattan's Parliament. + +CHAPTER IX. +HOME RULE IN THE WORLD 113 + The Case from Analogy. + +CHAPTER X. +HOME RULE FINANCE 125 + +APPENDICES. + +A. The Home Rule Bill of 1912 143 +B. The Shrinkage of Ireland 160 +C. The Act of Union 163 +D. The Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893 167 +E. The Irish Board of Agriculture 184 +F. The Reduction in Irish Pauperism 186 +G. The Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881 187 +H. The Congested Districts Board 188 +J. Irish Canals and Railways 190 +K. Home Rule Parliaments in the British Empire 191 + + + + + THE HOME RULE CASE + + THE CASE THAT DOES NOT CHANGE + + i.--THE SEA. + ii.--THE RACE. + iii.--THE CREED. + + + "Ireland hears the ocean protesting against Separation, but she + hears the sea likewise protesting against Union. She follows + her physical destination and obeys the dispensations of + Providence." + + GRATTAN + (First speech against the Union 15th January, 1800). + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE HOME RULE CASE + + +Very nearly a generation of time has elapsed since, in 1886, Mr. +Gladstone expounded in the British House of Commons his first Bill for +restoring to Ireland a Home Rule Parliament. Nearly twenty years have +passed since that same great man, indomitably defying age and +infirmities in the pursuit of his great ideal, passed the second Home +Rule Bill (1893) through the British House of Commons. That Bill stands +to-day unshaken in regard to all its vital clauses. Some of us still +hold the faith that that Bill would, if it had become law in 1893, have +saved Ireland from many years of wastage, and would have built up, to +face our enemies in the gate, a stronger and stouter fabric of Empire. + +The Bill of 1893 only survived the perilous tempests of the House of +Commons[1] to fall a victim to the House of Lords.[2] + +Nearly twenty years have elapsed since that day, and now the successors +of Mr. Gladstone, the Progressives of the United Kingdom, Liberals, +Labour Members and Nationalists, approach the same task with the Bill +of 1912.[3] Some of them are veterans of the former strife. They can +turn, like the present writer, to the thumbed diaries of that great +combat,[4] and can recall the great scenes of that prolonged +Parliamentary agony with a sense of treading again some well-worn road. +Others are new to the issue, and can only hear, like "horns of Elf-land +faintly blowing," some faint echo from the dawn of consciousness. + +But young or old, we must again set forth on our travels, and this +time-- + +"It may be that we shall touch the Happy Isles." + +It will be the memory of the "Great Achilles" that will sustain us. For +this task comes to Liberals as a sacred trust from Mr. Gladstone. It is +from him that they have learnt that race-hatred is poison, and that the +only true union between nations is--in a phrase that has outlived the +silly laughter of the shallow--the "Union of Hearts."[5] It is Mr. +Gladstone's work that they design to accomplish. It is the memory of +his passionate and sustained devotion through the last twenty years of +that glorious life that has thrown a halo round this cause, and still +gilds it with a "heavenly alchemy." + +But, before we "smite the sounding furrows," our first duty is to +survey once more the seas over which we shall have to voyage. We have +to consider again both the old and the new "case for Home Rule"--not +merely the case of 1886 or 1893, but the still stronger case of 1912. + +For the world never stands still, and in every generation every great +human problem presents different aspects, and shows new lights and +shadows. Every great human question is like a great mountain which on a +second or third visit reveals new and unsuspected depths and heights, +new valleys and new peaks, slopes which new avalanches have furrowed, +and glaciers which have receded or advanced. + +Not that the real, great, main outline ever changes. As with the +mountains, so with the great human problems; there are always certain +great features which remain permanent. + + +THE SEA + +There are, for instance, in the Irish case the sixty-five miles of sea +which, since the earliest dawn of human memory, have divided Ireland +from Great Britain. A fact absurdly simple and obvious, but the +greatest feature of all in this mighty problem of human government! + +"The sea forbids Union, and the Channel forbids Separation." There is +no change in that great physical condition. Those sixty-five miles of +sea have neither increased nor diminished since 1893. That sea is still +too broad for "Union"--in the Parliamentary sense of that word--and too +narrow for Separation. + +To anyone standing on the deck of one of those swift steamships which +now cross to Ireland from so many points on the British coast, there +must, if he has any imagination, come some vision of the vast +impediment which this sea has placed in the way of direct control by +England over Ireland's domestic affairs. Looking back down the vista of +history, he must see a succession of fleets delayed by contrary winds, +of sea-sick kings and storm-battered convoys, of conquest thwarted by +the caprice of ocean, of peace messengers and high administrators +brought to anchor in the midst of their proud schemes. + +The same causes still operate. In this respect, indeed, Ireland appears +to be simply one instance of a general law. It may almost be laid down +as an axiom that no nation can govern another across the sea. How often +it has been tried, and how often it has failed! France has tried it +with England, and England has tried it with France. Great Britain tried +it with North America, and Spain tried it with South. In this matter +even the great quickening of modern communications, even the miracles +of steam and electricity, seem to have made little difference. For even +at the present moment, if we look around, we shall see how great a part +the sea has played as the deciding factor in forms of government. It is +the sea which has made us give self-government to Canada, Australia, +and South Africa. It is the sea which keeps Newfoundland apart from the +Canadian Federation, and New Zealand apart from Australia. Even within +the scope of these islands the same law prevails. It is the sea which +makes us give self-government to the Isle of Man and the Channel +Islands. Almost the only exception is Ireland. In Ireland we have +defied this great law; and in Ireland that defiance is a failure. + +And yet not defied it completely; for the very facts of Nature forbade. +While we have taken away the Irish Legislature, we have been obliged to +leave the Irish their separate laws, their separate Administration and +Estimates, and their separate Executive in Dublin. That Executive has +been for a whole century practically uncontrolled by any effective +Parliamentary check. The result is that it has grown, like some plant +in the dark, into such quaint and eccentric shapes and forms as to defy +the control of any Minister or any public opinion[6]. Perhaps the worst +condemnation of the Act of Union has been that while we destroyed the +Irish Parliament we have been obliged to leave Dublin Castle. + + +THE RACE + +Then there is the permanent, abiding difference of Race. It is a truism +of history that the Englishman who settles in Ireland becomes more +Irish than the Irish. The records of the past are filled with great +examples. The Norman adventurers who spread into Ireland after the +Conquest have become in modern times the chiefs of great Irish +communities, until names like Joyce and Burke have come to be regarded +as typical Hibernian surnames. It is a commonplace of modern history +that the counties settled by Cromwellian soldiers have become most +typically Irish. Tipperary, Waterford, and Wexford--there were great +Cromwellian settlements in those counties. And yet they have taken the +lead in the fiercest insurrections of modern Irish democracy. + +It is only in the North of Ireland, within the confines of the province +of Ulster, and there only in the extreme north-east corner, within the +counties of Londonderry, Antrim, and Down, that the settlers have +formed a distinct and definite racial breakwater against purely Irish +influences. The plantation of Ulster in the reign of James I. took into +Ireland some of the most dogged members of the Scotch race, men filled +with the new fire of the Reformation, men stalwart for their race and +creed. They went as conquerors and as confiscators, and for centuries +they worked with arms in their hands. They slew and were slain, and +were divided from the native Irish by an overflowing river of blood. +That river is not yet bridged. + +It has been said that there is no human hatred so great as that felt +towards men whom one has wronged. The planters of Ulster inflicted +upon Ireland many grievous wrongs and endured some fierce revenges. The +result is that even to-day there is a section of them that still stands +apart from the other colonisers of Ireland--a race still distinct and +apart. Is it impossible that even there the binding and unifying +principle of Irish life may begin to work? That is the question of the +future. + +But though Ireland thus contains at least one instance of a mixture of +races not altogether dissimilar from that of England, it still remains +true that, taken as a whole, Ireland is a country marked with the +Celtic stamp. There, too, the power of the sea comes in. If there had +been only a land frontier, it is possible that the Teutonic influence +would have overpowered the Celtic. But the sea forms a sufficient +barrier to cut off every new band of immigrants from the country of +their origin. This isolation drives them into insular communion with +the country of their invasion. Thus, however often invaded and +"planted," Ireland has continued detached. + +This detachment has been apparent ever since the earliest dawn of +Western civilisation. Right up to the Norman Conquest Ireland remained +apart and aloof from Central European influences. For long ages she had +been the rallying-place of the Celt as he was driven westward by the +Teuton and the Roman. Even after Great Britain had been absorbed by the +Roman Empire, Ireland still remained unconquered, the one home of +freedom in Western Europe. This independence of Rome continued far into +the Christian era. Ireland developed a separate Christianity of a +peculiarly elevated and noble type, full of missionary zeal and +inspired by high culture. That Christianity even swept eastward, and +for a time dominated Scotland and England from its homes in Iona and +Lindisfarne. This Irish Christianity brought upon itself the enmity of +Rome by continuing the Eastern tonsure and the Eastern ritual, and +finally, at the great Synod at Whitby in the year 664[7], Rome +conquered in the struggle for Britain, and the Irish religion was +driven back across the sea. + +But Rome and European Christianity, as it was represented in the Roman +spirit, achieved a very slow victory over Ireland herself. The English +Pope Adrian gave to Henry II. a full permission to conquer Ireland for +the faith. But it was fated that Irish Catholicism should be built up +not by submission to the Catholic Kings of England, but by resistance +to the Protestant Kings from Henry VIII. onward. Thus it is that, even +in religion, in spite of the passionate loyalty of the modern Irishman +to the Roman See, Ireland still stands somewhat distinct and aloof from +the rest of Europe. + +But if that be so in religion, still more is it so in customs and +manners. Take the analogy of a mould. The Celtic civilisation of +Ireland is like a mould, into which fresh metal has been always +pouring; white-hot, glowing metal from all over the world, from England +and Scotland, from France, from Rome, and even from far-off Spain. But +though the metal has always been changing, the mould still remains +unbroken, and as the metal has emerged in its fixed form it has always +taken the Celtic shape. So that to-day, in face of the Imperialistic +tendencies of the British Empire, Ireland remains more than ever +passionately attached to her nationalism, and more than ever potent to +influence all newcomers with her national ideas. + +It is in that sense that the question of race still remains a +permanent feature in the Irish problem. It is precisely because the +Irish nationality is so persistent that it is hopeless to expect a +permanent settlement of her government problem within the scope of such +an iron uniformity as the Act of Union. It is because Ireland nurses +this "unconquerable hope" that the only golden key to these +difficulties lies in some form of self-government. + + +THE CREED + +But besides the sea and the race, there is yet one more feature of the +Irish problem which remains practically unchanged. Ireland still +remains predominantly Catholic, while Great Britain is still +predominantly Protestant. The great movement of the sixteenth century, +known as the Reformation, passed from Germany through Holland and +France into Great Britain. It won Scotland completely. In England, +after a prolonged struggle with a powerful Catholic tradition, it ended +in the compromise still represented by the Anglican Church. But there +the victory of the Reformation closed. The movement was checked at St. +George's Channel. In Ireland Catholicism stood with its back against +the Atlantic, and fought a stern, long fight against all the political +and social forces of the British Empire. The attack of Protestantism +was supported by the full power and authority of the conqueror. It +lasted for two centuries. It began with Elizabeth and James as a simple +imperative, mercilessly applied without regard to national conditions. +It came under Cromwell as a scorching, devastating flame. It remained +under William and the Georges as a slow, cruel torture applied through +all the avenues of the law. The end of all that effort was, not to +convert or destroy, but to weld the national and religious spirits +into one common force, acting together throughout the nineteenth +century as if identical. + +Purified by persecution, Catholicism in Ireland, almost alone among the +religions of Western Europe, stands out still to-day as a great +national and democratic force. + +But though the persecution failed, it built up, by a double process of +immigration and monopoly, a very powerful Protestant population with +all the stiff pride of ascendancy. For generations the Protestants of +Ireland enjoyed all the offices of government, and had the sole right +of inheritance. Thus both the land and the government slipped into +their hands. Since no Catholic could inherit land under the penal laws, +and since the penal laws lasted for nearly a century, it followed +inevitably that the whole land of Ireland fell into the hands of the +Protestants. That is why even at the present day the vast majority of +the Irish landed and leisured classes are Protestants. The Catholics, +during that dark period, became hewers of wood and drawers of water. +Thus property in Ireland came to mean, not merely a division of +classes, but also a division of creeds. In spite of all the great +reforms, the descendants of these Protestants still retain most of the +wealth and most of the Government offices in Ireland.[8] Their +resistance to any change is not, therefore, altogether surprising; and +we must remember amid all the various war-cries of the present +agitation that these gentlemen are fighting, not merely for the +integrity of the Empire, but also for position, income and power. + +This state of affairs has varied very little for the last +half-century. + +The Census of 1911 contains, like most previous Irish Census returns, a +schedule asking for a statement of religious faith. That enables us to +tell with comparative accuracy the proportions between the Catholics +and Protestants in Ireland since 1861, when the schedule was first +introduced, right up to the present day. + +The Preliminary Report shows that the variation has been very slight. +The round figures for 1911 are:-- + + Roman Catholics 3,238,000 + Protestant Episcopalians 575,000 + Presbyterians 439,000 + Methodists 61,000 + +The figures for 1861 were:-- + + Roman Catholics 4,500,000 + Protestant Episcopalians 693,000 + Presbyterians 523,000 + Methodists 45,000[9] + +There has been an all-round decrease, corresponding to the decrease of +the population. That decrease has been brought about by emigration, and +that emigration has taken place mainly from the Catholic provinces of +Munster and Connaught. It is inevitable, therefore, that the Catholics +should have diminished more than the Protestants. The result of forty +years' wastage of the Irish Catholic peasantry is that the proportions +of Catholics to Protestants are now three to one, as against four to +one in 1861. Allowing for the great fact of westward emigration, this +means that the relations between these two forms of Christianity in +Ireland are practically stationary. + +The Protestants, too, we must not forget, are divided into two +sects--Episcopalian and Presbyterian--which in their history have been +almost divided from one another as Catholicism and Protestantism, so +much so that several times in Irish history--as, for instance, in +1798--the Catholic and Presbyterian have been brought together by a +common persecution at the hands of the Episcopalian. + +We must also bear in mind that the Protestants are mainly concentrated +in the two provinces of Ulster and Leinster. Ulster contains nearly all +the Irish Presbyterians--421,000 out of 439,000--men who are rather +Scotch by descent than actually native Irish. Ulster also contains +366,000 Episcopalians, making, with 48,000 Methodists, 835,000 +Protestants in Ulster, out of 1,075,000 in the whole of Ireland. The +rest of the Episcopalians are in Leinster--round Dublin--where 140,000 +are domiciled. Munster contains less than 60,000 Protestants in all, +and Connaught contains little over 20,000.[10] It is practically a +Catholic province. + +The great fact about this religious situation in Ireland, therefore, is +that you have a Catholic country with a strong Protestant minority. + +We are asked to believe that this presents an insuperable obstacle to +the gift of self-government. But Ireland does not stand alone in this +respect. There are many other countries in the world where the same +difficulty has been faced and overcome. Take the German Empire. It has +included since 1870 the great state of Bavaria, where the great +struggle of the Reformation ended with honours divided. Modern Bavaria +contains a population which, according to the Religious Census of +December 1st, 1905, is thus divided:-- + + Roman Catholics 4,600,000 + Protestants 1,844,000 + Jews 55,000 + +Strangely enough, the proportions are almost precisely the same as in +Ireland. But this state of affairs has not prevented the German Empire +from leaving to Bavaria, not merely a king and parliament, but also an +army subject to purely Bavarian control in time of peace, and a +separate system of posts, telegraphs, and state railways.[11] Are we to +say that trust and tolerance are German virtues, unknown to the British +people? + +But they are not unknown to the British people. Our own colonists have +set us a better example. Canada has a far more difficult religious +problem than Great Britain. She has two provinces side by side--Quebec +and Ontario--both with the same religious problem as Ireland. In both +there are strong religious minorities. Quebec is predominantly +Catholic, and Ontario is predominantly Protestant. Thus:-- + + _Quebec_-- + Catholics 1,429,000 + Protestants 189,000 + + _Ontario_-- + Protestants 1,626,000 + Catholics 390,000 + +How is this problem solved? Why, by Home Rule. For a long time--from +1840 to 1887--Canada made the experiment of governing these two +provinces under one Parliament and from one centre. That experiment +never succeeded. As long as they were under one government, the +minority in each of these provinces insisted on appealing for help to +the majority in the other. There arose the evil of "Ascendancy "--the +government of a majority by a minority. At last the Canadians faced the +problem. In 1867 they divided the provinces, and gave them each a Home +Rule government of their own, subject to the Dominion Parliament. Since +then there has been no more trouble about Ascendancy. Quebec and +Ontario now settle their own affairs, including Education and all other +local matters, and no one ever hears anything about the ill-treatment +of minorities. + +So much, then, for the permanent factors--Sea, Race, and Religion. +There is no insuperable obstacle there. Rather it is here--in these +great dominating facts--that the strongest argument for Home Rule must +ever be found. For it is those things that constitute nationality. + +The real difficulties in the way of Home Rule were found, both in 1886 +and 1893, not in these permanent things, but in the changing facets of +human laws. It was the Land Question that in all the speeches of 1886 +provided the strongest argument. It was the absence of local +government, and the presumed incapacity for local government, that +filled so many Unionist speeches. It was the quarrel over University +Education that provided the best evidence of incompatibility of temper +between Irish Catholic and Irish Protestant. + +I shall show that in all these respects the problem has completely and +radically changed since 1893. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] By a majority of 34 on the third reading--301 to 267--September +1st, 1893. + +[2] Friday, September 8th, 1893. 419 to 41; majority against the Bill +of 378. + +[3] See Appendix A for this Bill. + +[4] "The Story of the Home Rule Session." (1893.) Written by Harold +Spender, sketched by F. Carruthers Gould (now Sir Francis C. Gould). +London: _The Westminster Gazette_ and Fisher Unwin. + +[5] This famous phrase was first coined by Grattan, but was so often +said by Gladstone that it was, in 1886, regarded as his. + +[6] See a very interesting account of the present Irish Executive in +"Home Rule Problems" (P.S. King and Son. London. 1s.) in a chapter +(iv.) entitled "The Present System of Government, in Ireland," by +G.F.H. Berkeley. There are 67 Boards, of which only 26 are under direct +control of the Irish Secretary. No Parliamentary statute applies to +Ireland, of course, unless that country is expressly included by name. + +[7] See, for a popular account of this Synod, Green's "History of the +English People," Vol. I., p. 55. + +[8] The central Civil Service is predominantly Protestant, and in +municipalities like Belfast the Catholics hold a very small proportion +of the salaried posts. + +[9] Census for 1911. Preliminary Report. Page 6. + +[10] Census Summary. Preliminary Report. Page 6. + +[11] See "The Statesman's Year Book," 1911, pp. 877-8. + + + + + THE HOME RULE CASE + + THE CASE THAT HAS CHANGED--AND IS + NOW STRONGER + + i.--THE COUNCILS AND + ii.--THE LAND. + + "They saved the country because they lived in it, as the others + abandoned it because they lived out of it." + + GRATTAN. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE HOME RULE CASE + + +Those who, like myself, visited Ireland last summer as delegates of the +Eighty Club included some who had not thoroughly explored that country +since the early nineties. They were all agreed that a great change had +taken place in the internal condition of Ireland. They noticed a great +increase of self-confidence, of prosperity, of hope. Many who entered +upon that tour with doubts as to the power of the Irish people to take +up the burden of self-government came back convinced that her increase +in material prosperity would form a firm and secure basis on which to +build the new fabric. + +What does this new prosperity amount to? The new Census figures leave +us in no doubt as to its existence. For the first time there is a real +check in that deplorable wastage of population that has been going on +for more than half a century. The diminution of population in Ireland +revealed by the 1901 Census amounted to 245,000 persons. The diminution +revealed by the 1911 Census amounts to 76,000. In other words, the +decrease of 1901-11 is 1.5 per cent., as against 5.2 per cent, for +1891-1901, or only one against five in the previous decade[12]. This is +far and away the smallest decrease that has taken place in any of the +decennial periods since 1841; and this decrease is, of course, +accompanied by a corresponding decline in the emigration figures.[13] + +What is even more refreshing is the evidence which goes to show that +the population left behind in Ireland has become more prosperous. For +the first time since 1841, the Census now shows an increase--small, +indeed, but real--of inhabited houses in Ireland, and a corresponding +increase in the number of families[14]. + +It is the first slight rally of a country sick almost unto death. We +must not exaggerate its significance. Ireland has fallen very low, and +she is not yet out of danger. There is no real sign of rise in the +extraordinarily small yield of the Irish income tax. That yield shows +us a country, with a tenth of the population, which has only a +thirtieth of the wealth of Great Britain--a country, in a word, at +least three times as poor[15]. The diminution in the Irish pauper +returns is entirely due to Old-age Pensions.[16] The much-advertised +increase in savings and bank deposits, always in Ireland greatly out of +proportion to her well-being, is chiefly eloquent of the extraordinary +lack of good Irish investments. + +The birth-rate in Ireland, although the Irish are the most prolific +race in the world, is still--owing to the emigration of the +child-bearers--the lowest in Europe. The record in lunacy is still the +worst, and the dark cloud of consumption, though slightly lifted by the +heroic efforts of Lady Aberdeen, still hangs low over Ireland.[17] + +Finally, while we rejoice that the rate of decline in the population is +checked, we must never forget that the Irish population is still +declining, while that of England, Wales and Scotland is still going +up.[18] + +But still the sky is brightening, and ushering in a day suitable for +fair weather enterprises. Perhaps the surest and most satisfactory sign +of revival in Irish life is to be found in the steady upward movement +of the Irish Trade Returns.[19] That movement has been going on +steadily since the beginning of the twentieth century.[20] It is +displayed quite as much in Irish agricultural produce as in Irish +manufactured goods; and in view of certain boasts it may be worth while +to place on record the fact that the agricultural export trade of +Ireland is greater by more than a third than the export of linen and +ships.[21] Denmark preceded Ireland in her agricultural development, +but it must be put to the credit of Irish industry and energy that +Ireland is now steadily overhauling her rivals.[22] + +The mere recital of these facts, indeed, gives but a faint impression +of the actual dawn of social hope across the St. George's Channel. In +order to make them realise this fully, it would be necessary to take my +readers over the ground covered by the Eighty Club last summer, in +light railways or motor-cars, through the north, west, east and south +of Ireland. Everywhere there is the same revival. New labourers' +cottages dot the landscape, and the old mud cabins are crumbling +back--"dust to dust"--into nothingness. Cultivation is improving. The +new peasant proprietors are putting real work into the land which they +now own, and there is an advance even in dress and manners. Drinking is +said to be on the decline, and the natural gaiety of the Irish people, +so sadly overshadowed during the last half-century, is beginning to +return. + +It is like the clearing of the sky after long rain and storm. The +clouds have, for the moment, rolled away towards the horizon, and the +blue is appearing. Will the clouds return, or is this improvement to be +sure and lasting? That will depend on the events of the next few years. + + * * * * * + +What has produced this great change in the situation since 1893? To +answer that question we must look at the Statute Book. We shall then +realise that defeat in the division lobbies was not the end of Mr. +Gladstone's policy in 1886 and 1893. That policy has since borne rich +fruit. It has been largely carried into effect by the very men who +opposed and denounced it. Not even they could make the sun stand still +in the heavens. + +The Tories and Liberal dissentients who defeated Mr. Gladstone gave us +no promise of these concessions. The only policy of the Tory Party at +that time was expressed by Lord Salisbury in the famous phrase, "Twenty +years of resolute government." Although the Liberal Unionists were +inclined to some concession on local government, Lord Salisbury himself +held the opinion that the grant of local government to Ireland would be +even more dangerous to the United Kingdom than the grant of Home +Rule.[23] + +If we turn back, indeed, to the early Parliamentary debates and the +speeches in the country, we find that Mr. Chamberlain in 1886 +concentrated his attack rather on Mr. Gladstone's Land Bill[24] than on +his Home Rule scheme. In his speech on the second reading of the 1886 +Bill, indeed, Mr. Chamberlain proclaimed himself a Home Ruler on a +larger scale than Mr. Gladstone--a federal Home Ruler. But in the +country, he brought every resource of his intellect to oppose the +scheme of land purchase. + +Similarly with John Bright. Lord Morley, in his "Life of Gladstone," +describes Bright's speech on July 1st, 1886, as the "death warrant" of +the first Home Rule Bill. But if we turn to that speech we find that +Bright, too, based his opposition to Home Rule almost entirely on his +hatred of the great land purchase scheme of that year. He called it a +"most monstrous proposal." "If it were not for a Bill like this," he +said, "to alter the Government of Ireland, to revolutionise it, no one +would dream of this extravagant and monstrous proposition in regard to +Irish land; and if the political proposition makes the economic +necessary, then the economic or land purchase proposition, in my +opinion, absolutely condemns the political proposition." In other +words, John Bright held to the view that it was the necessity for the +Irish Land Bill of 1886 which condemned the Home Rule Bill of that +year. + +So powerfully did that argument work on the feelings of the British +public that in the Home Rule Bill of 1893, not only was the land +purchase proposition dropped, but in its place a clause was actually +inserted forbidding the new Irish Parliament to pass any legislation +"respecting the relations of landlord and tenant for the sale, purchase +or re-letting of land" for a period of three years after the passing of +the Act.[25] + +So anxious was Mr. Gladstone to show to the English people that Home +Rule could be given to Ireland without the necessity of expenditure on +land purchase, and with comparative safety to the continuance of the +landlord system in Ireland! + +Such was the record on these questions up to the year 1895, when the +Unionists brought the short Liberal Parliament to a close, and entered +upon a period of ten years' power, sustained in two elections with a +Parliamentary majority of 150 in 1895 and of 130 in 1900. + +But the biggest Parliamentary majorities have limits to their powers. +Crises arise. Accidents happen. There is always a shadow of coming doom +hanging over the most powerful Parliamentary Governments. With it comes +an anxiety to settle matters in their own way, before they can be +settled in a way which they dislike. Thus it is that we find that +between 1895 and 1905, during that ten years of Unionist power, two +great steps were taken towards a peaceful settlement of the Irish +question. + +One was the Irish Local Government Act of 1898, which extended to +Ireland the system of local government already granted in 1889 to the +country districts of England. The other was the great Land Purchase Act +of 1903, which carried out Mr. Gladstone's policy of 1886, and set on +foot a gigantic scheme of land-transference from Irish landlord to +Irish tenant. That scheme is still to-day in process of completion. + +It is these two Acts which have largely changed the face of Ireland. + + +LOCAL GOVERNMENT + +Take first the Act of 1898. Up to that year the county government of +Ireland was carried on entirely by a system of grand jurors, consisting +chiefly of magistrates, and selected almost entirely from the +Protestant minority. These gentlemen assembled at stated times, and +settled all the local concerns of Ireland, fixing the rates, deciding +on the expenditure, and carrying out all the local Acts. They formed, +with Dublin Castle, part of the great machinery of Protestant +Ascendancy. Very few Catholics penetrated within that sacred circle. + +These gentlemen, even now for the most part Protestants, still hold the +power of justice. But the power of local government has passed from +their hands. Every county of Ireland now has its County Council. +Beneath the County Councils there are also District Councils exercising +in Ireland, as in England, the powers of Boards of Guardians. Neither +the Irish counties nor the corporations of Ireland's great cities have +power over their police. There are no Irish Parish Councils. Otherwise +Ireland now possesses powers of local government almost as complete as +those of England and Scotland. + +How has this system worked? In the discussions that preceded the +establishment of local government in Ireland we heard many prophecies +of doom. So great was the fear of trusting Ireland with any powers of +self-government that the Unionists actually proposed, in 1892, a Local +Government Bill, which would have established local bodies subject to +special powers of punishment and coercion.[26] + +It was with much fear and trembling, then, that the Protestant Party in +Ireland entered upon the new period of local government. As a matter of +fact, all these fears have been falsified. Instead of proving +inefficient and corrupt, the Irish County Councils have gained the +praises of all parties. They have received testimonials in nearly every +report of the Irish Local Government Board. If, indeed, they possess +any fault, it is that they are too thrifty and economical.[27] + +In one respect, indeed, these County and District Councils of Ireland +have conspicuously surpassed the corresponding bodies that exist in +England. + +One of the most important measures passed by the British Parliament +during this period of Irish revival has been the Irish Labourers' Act. +It was one of the first measures passed by the new Liberal Parliament +of 1906, and it has been since often amended and supplemented. But its +main provisions still stand. In this Act the Imperial Government grants +to the local authorities in Ireland loans at cheap rates for the +purpose of re-housing the Irish agricultural labourers. It places the +whole administration of these loans in the hands of the Irish District +Councils--a very delicate and difficult task. + +So efficiently have the District Councils done their work that more +than half the Irish labourers have already been re-housed. It is fully +expected that within a few years the whole Irish agricultural labouring +population will have received under this Act good houses, accompanied +always with a plot of land at a small rent. + +Compare with this the administration of the Small Holdings Act by the +English local authorities. That Act, passed in 1908, placed the actual +allocation of small holdings in the hands of the English County +Councils. It is not necessary to dwell here upon the notorious failure +of most of the high hopes with which that measure was passed through +the British Parliament. The cause of that failure is obvious. The +promise of the Small Holdings Act has been practically destroyed by the +refusal of the County Councils to throw either goodwill or efficiency +into its administration. + + +LAND PURCHASE + +But the second of the two great renovating measures--the Irish Land +Purchase Act of 1903--has contributed even more powerfully than the +first to the recovery of Ireland during the last ten years. There again +we have a great instance of the supremacy of the spirit of Parliament +over the prejudices of Party. The whole tendency of democratic +government is so rootedly opposed to coercion that it is difficult for +any party to continue on purely coercive lines for any long period. And +yet, as Mr. Gladstone always pointed out with such prescience, the only +alternatives in Ireland were either coercion or government according to +Irish ideas. + +Now, the most noted Irish idea was the desire for personal ownership of +the soil by the cultivator himself. In the years 1901 and 1902, just +when the Unionists were embarrassed with all the complications of the +South African trouble, the Tory Government were faced again with this +imperious desire. They found arising in Ireland a new revolt against +the power of the landlords. The Land Courts of Ireland, set up under +the Act of 1881, had given to the Irish tenant two revisions of +rent--the first in 1882, and the second in 1896--amounting in all to +nearly 40 per cent. But these sweeping reductions had produced a new +trouble. They had brought about a state of acute hostility between +landlord and tenant without any real control of the land by either. The +landlords, deprived of their powers of eviction and rent-raising, were +in a state of sullen fury. The tenants had made the fatal discovery +that their best interest lay in bad cultivation. Both parties were +opposed to the existing land administration, and the Irish people were +on the eve of another great effort to attain their ideals. + +The Tory Government of 1902-3, then, either had to change the whole +system, or they had to enter upon a new period of coercion with a view +of suppressing the increased passion of the tenants for the full +possession of the land. Looking down such a vista, the Irish landlords +themselves could see nothing but ruin at the end. The Irish tenants +might suffer, indeed, but they would be able to drag down their +landlords in the common ruin along with them. The prospect facing the +Irish landlord was nothing less than the entire, gradual disappearance +of all rent. + +With such a black prospect ahead, the time was ripe for a remarkable +new movement, started by two distinguished Irishmen--Mr. William +O'Brien on the side of the tenants, and Lord Dunraven on the side of +the landlords. The omens were auspicious. Lord Cadogan, one of the old +guard, had retired from the Viceroyalty, and had been succeeded in 1902 +by a younger and more open-minded man, Lord Dudley. A still more +remarkable man, Sir Anthony MacDonnell (now Lord MacDonnell) had been +appointed to the Under-Secretaryship of Dublin Castle under +circumstances which have not even yet been clearly explained. Sir +Anthony MacDonnell was known to be a Nationalist, although his +Nationalist tendencies had been strongly modified by a prolonged and +distinguished career in India. Mr. Wyndham, then Chief Secretary, made +the remarkable statement that Sir Anthony MacDonnell was "invited by me +rather as a colleague than as a mere Under-Secretary to register my +will." There is, indeed, no doubt that if the full facts were known, it +would be found that the new Under-Secretary was appointed on terms +which practically implied the adoption of a new Irish policy by the +Tory Government. In other words, the party which is at the present +moment (1912) entering upon an uncompromising fight against Home Rule +was, in 1903, contemplating a policy not far removed from that very +idea. + +In the mind of Sir Anthony MacDonnell himself--and probably of several +members of the Government--the policy took two forms. One was to settle +the problem of Irish land, and the other was to settle the problem of +Irish Government. + +The first of these great enterprises went through with remarkable +smoothness. Both landlords and tenants were weary of the strife, and +ready for peace on terms. The leaden, merciless pressure of the great +Land Courts set up by Mr. Gladstone's Act of 1881 had gradually worn +down the dour and obstinate wills of the Irish landlords. The very men +who had denounced land purchase as the worst element in the scheme of +1886 were now enthusiastic on its behalf. The only opposition that +could have come to such a scheme was from the House of Lords, and the +opposition of the House of Lords, as we all know, did not exist in +those blessed years. Mr. Wyndham was sanguine and enthusiastic, and +both Irish tenants and Irish landlords found a common term of agreement +in mutual generosity at the expense of the taxpayer. With the help of +that taxpayer--commonly called "British," but including, be it +remembered, the Irish taxpayer also--the landlords were able to go off +with a generous bonus, and the tenants were able to obtain prospective +possession of their farms, while paying for a period of years an annual +instalment considerably less than their old rent. + +The terms to both landlords and tenants were so favourable that the Act +of 1903 was, after a short period of pause, followed in Ireland by +results which transcended the expectations of Parliament. There was a +rush on one side to sell, and on the other to buy. From 1904 to 1909 +the applications kept streaming in, and the Land Commissioners were +kept at high pressure arranging the sale of estates. The pace, indeed, +was so rapid that it laid too heavy a strain on the too sanguine +finance of Mr. Wyndham's Act. The double burden of the war and Irish +land proved too great. The British Treasury found that they could not +pour out money at the rate demanded by the working of the Act. In 1909 +it was found necessary to pass an amending Act, which has given rise to +fierce controversy in Ireland. That Act slightly modified the generous +terms of the Act of 1903, but not before under those terms a revolution +had already been effected. Practically half the land of Ireland had +passed before 1909 from the hands of the landlords into those of the +tenants. + +Even on the new terms the process will go on. By voluntary means if +possible, but if not, by compulsion, the land of Ireland will pass back +within twenty years into the hands of the people. + + * * * * * + +Here, then--in land purchase and the new machinery of local +government--are the two leading facts in the great change which had +come over Ireland since 1893. What do they signify? + +Why, this. In 1886 and 1893 the Unionists pointed out, not without some +heat and passion, two main difficulties in the path to Home Rule. One +was the incompetence of the Irish people for local government. "They +are by character incapable of self-rule," was the cry; and we all +remember how Mr. Gladstone humorously described this incapacity as a +"double dose of original sin." + +That incapacity has been disproved. The Irish have been shown to be +fully as capable of self-government as the English, Scotch, and Welsh. + +The other great difficulty was the unsolved land question. "We cannot +desert the English garrison--the Irish landlords," was the cry. "We +cannot trust the Irish people to treat them justly." But the Irish land +question is now settled. The Irish landlords are either gone or going. +The Irish tenants are becoming peasant-proprietors. All that is +required now is a national authority to stand as trustee and guardian +of the Irish peasantry in paying their debt to the British people--or, +perhaps, even if the material condition of Ireland under Home Rule +should justify that course, to take over the debt. That is the new +"felt want," and the only way to supply it is to create a responsible +Irish self-governing Parliament. + +Thus the two principal changes in Ireland since 1893 have not weakened, +but immensely strengthened, the case for Home Rule. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] See Appendix B. + +[13] Appendix B (4), 31,000 in 1911, the lowest figure since the +Famine. There is a similar decline in the number of the Migratory +Labourers, from 15,000 in 1907 to 10,000 in 1910 (Cd. 6019). + +[14] Appendix B (2) and (3). 2,000 families and nearly 3,000 inhabited +houses. + +[15] The yield of Irish income tax is practically stationary at +£1,000,000, as against £30,000,000 yielded by Great Britain. (Inland +Revenue Report, 1910-11, page 100.) The assessment to income tax is +£40,000,000 for Ireland, as against £93,000,000 for Scotland (with +about the same population), and £878,000,000 for England. + +[16] See Appendix F. The diminution is from 99,000 to 80,000. + +[17] The deaths from consumption in Ireland declined from 10,594 in +1909 to 10,016 in 1910. (Irish Registrar-General's Report, 1911, p. +xxvi.) + +[18] See Appendix B. + +[19] The most trustworthy thermometer of Irish trade is to be found in +the volume now yearly issued by the Irish Government--the Report on the +Trade in Imports and Exports at Irish Ports. In the absence of Irish +Customs there must be some uncertainty in the tests, but the Government +figures are collected from the "manifests" of exporters and importers. +(The latest report comes up to the 31st December, 1910. Cd. 5965.) + +[20] The growth of Irish trade since 1900 can be seen at a glance in +the following table (including exports and imports):-- + + £ + 1904 103,790,799 + 1905 106,973,043 + 1906 113,208,940 + 1907 120,572,755 + 1908 116,120,618 + 1909 124,725,895 + 1910 130,888,732 + + + +[21] The export of manufactured goods increased from £20,000,000 in +1906 to £26,000,000 in 1910. Those goods consisted mostly of linen and +ships from Belfast. The export of farm stuffs increased from +£31,000,000 in 1905 to £35,000,000 in 1910. + +[22] Ireland now exports into England three times as much live stock as +any other country. She imports more potatoes and poultry than any +other. She also stands in butter only second to Denmark, in eggs only +second to Russia, and in bacon and hams only third to the United States +and Denmark (Cd. 5966). + +[23] "Local authorities are more exposed to the temptation of enabling +the majority to be unjust to the minority when they obtain jurisdiction +over a small area, than is the case when the authority derives its +sanction and extends its jurisdiction over a wider area. In a large +central authority the wisdom of several parts of the country will +correct the folly and mistakes of one. In a local authority that +correction is to a much greater extent wanting, and it would be +impossible to leave that out of sight in any extension of any such +local authority in Ireland."--Lord Salisbury (1885). + +[24] Proposing to buy out the Irish landlords at an estimated cost of +£100,000,000. + +[25] See Appendix D for a summary of the 1893 Home Rule Bill. + +[26] It was named by Mr. Sexton the "Put 'em in the dock Bill," and +that phrase practically killed it. + +[27] See the Local Government Board Reports _passim_:-- + +"Before concluding our reference to the Local Government Act we may be +permitted to observe that the predictions of those who affirmed that +the new local bodies entrusted with the administration of a complex +system of County Government would inevitably break down have certainly +not been verified. On the contrary, the County and District Councils +have, with few exceptions, properly discharged the statutory duties +devolving upon them. Instances have, no doubt, occurred in which these +bodies have, owing to inexperience and to an inadequate staff, found +themselves in difficulties and have had to receive some special +assistance from us in regulating their affairs; but this has been of +rare occurrence." (Annual Report of the Irish Local Government Board +for year ending March, 1900.) + +"In no other matter have the Councils been more successful than in +their financial administration. After the heavy preliminary expenses +necessarily attending the introduction of a new system of local +government had been provided for, and the Councils and their officers +had succeeded in obtaining a satisfactory basis on which to make their +estimates of future expenditure, they found it possible to effect +considerable reductions in their rates, and there seems to be every +reason to anticipate that, with extended experience, there will be a +still further general reduction of county rates." (Annual Report of the +Irish Local Government Board for year ending March, 1902.) + +Our impression as travellers was that the Irish County Councils do not +yet spend enough money on their roads. + + + + + THE HOME RULE CASE + + THE CASE THAT HAS CHANGED--(CONTINUED) + + i.--THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS + ii.--THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE + iii.--OLD-AGE PENSIONS + iv.--THE UNIVERSITIES + + "Although while I live I shall oppose separation, yet it is my + opinion that continuing the Legislative Union must endanger the + connection." + + O'CONNELL + (1834). + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE HOME RULE CASE + + +But Land Purchase and County Councils are only part of the great change +that has come over Ireland since 1893. + +There are other great transformations. There is the redemption of the +congested districts. There is the revival of agriculture. There is the +Old Age Pensions Act. Finally, there is the reform of the Universities. + + +THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOARD + +Take, first, the daring policy of social renovation by which the +forlorn peasantry of the West are being saved from the grey wilderness +into which they had been thrust by the landlordism of 1830 to 1880. + +It is the habit of the Unionist Press to claim the whole of this work +as their own. That is rather bold of a party that lifted not a finger +while these people--said by those who know them to be the best +peasantry in Europe--were driven from the rich lands of Ireland to till +the barren moorland and scratch the very rocks on the shores of the +Atlantic. The Tories do not explain why they allowed the House of Lords +for a whole half century to seal up the exile of these poor folk by +rejecting every measure proposed for their welfare. As a matter of +fact, of course, the policy of redeeming the congested districts was +not first proposed either by the Tories or by the Liberals, but by the +Irish members themselves. + +The Tory claim is based, of course, on the fact that the first step +towards action by the British Government dates from the famous Western +tour of Mr. Arthur Balfour in the early nineties. Perhaps Mr. Balfour +was tired of the monotony of five years of coercion. At any rate, he +took that journey, and it was the best act of his political life. He +travelled along that misty fringe of the Atlantic. He saw--as we saw +last summer, and I saw in 1891--the utter poverty of that unhappy land, +where human life, sustained only by the charity of American exiles, +still pays its doleful toll to far-off, indifferent landlords. Who can +tell whether some touch of remorse did not enter into the heart of the +man who up to that time had been the greatest of Irish coercionists +since Castlereagh, when he saw with his own eyes the sorry plight of +the poorest people in Europe--the people who, in the opinion of General +Gordon, were, as a result of a century of British civilisation, more +destitute and miserable than the savages of Central Africa? + +Mr. Balfour, at any rate, relented from his policy of more oppression. +He even entered upon the first small beginnings of a policy of +restoration. + +It was a very small beginning--that first Congested Board--and a +Commission that reported on its work nearly twenty years after[28] +decided that the Board had neither powers nor cash sufficient for its +work. The Liberal Government of 1906-10 frankly accepted the opinion of +the Commission, and gave the Board both new powers and new funds in the +Irish Land Act of 1909. Under that Act the Congested Board is endowed +with £250,000 a year, and has authority over half the area and a third +of the population of Ireland.[29] Over these great regions[30] this +authority now possesses extensive powers of purchase, rehousing, +replanting, creation of fisheries, provision of seed and +stocks--powers, in short, extending to the complete restoration, by +compulsion if necessary, of a whole community. The Board is appointed +by the Chief Secretary,[31] and already in two short years it has +accomplished great work. Estates are being bought and replanted; +holders are being migrated from bad land to good; villages are being +rebuilt; industries encouraged; health safeguarded; fisheries revived. +Those who examine its work as we did last summer will experience the +feeling of men looking on at a splendid and gallant effort to salvage a +race submerged. + +This work, indeed, is still in its infancy. There are many absentee +landlords who are still holding out for heavy and extravagant prices as +a reward for the poverty and misery which they have often in large part +caused by their own neglect. The Board appears to be reaching the +limits of voluntary action. Much of the hope for the future of Ireland +rests on their courage and skill. + + +THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE + +The passing of landlordism has produced a great revival of energy and +life in the rural districts. That revival began in the nineties, and +the credit for first realising its importance and significance must be +given to Sir Horace Plunkett. But private organisation alone could not +meet the needs of the situation. In 1899 the Government were persuaded +by the Irish party to pass an Act founding a new Irish Board of +Agriculture on broad and generous lines.[32] + +This Irish Board of Agriculture is a very remarkable body. It is +practically a Home Rule authority for agricultural purposes only. The +Irish Minister for Agriculture by no means rules as an autocrat. He has +to submit his policy to a large "Advisory Council" of over 100 members +elected by all the County Councils of Ireland. Out of this Council a +committee is chosen which is practically a Cabinet. This Agricultural +Parliament now plays a most important part in the life of Ireland. It +speaks for the whole nation more than any other public body. Its +discussions are practical and useful. It is a training ground for the +rulers of the future, and it is playing a vital part in bringing +together the best men of the North and South. The Ulster members are +already, in agricultural matters, working in a friendly spirit side by +side with the men from the South. + +Thus advised and kept in touch with public opinion, the Board of +Agriculture is the most popular and effective Department in Dublin +Castle. It gives us a foretaste of the new power that will be given to +Irish administration by the Home Rule spirit. + +For it is just this central guidance that the other great new Irish +developments chiefly lack. Take local government. There is not a County +Council in Ireland which would not be stronger if it were directed--and +sometimes, perhaps, even commanded--from the centre by a sympathetic +national authority. There is not a Board in Ireland, whether it be the +Congested Districts Board, or the Estates Commissioners, or the Land +Commission, that would not be more wisely directed if there were some +central arena in which the great principles of administration could be +seriously and responsibly debated and settled. For, in spite of the +popular notion that Irishmen are too talkative, there is really too +little discussion in Ireland on practical affairs. The great unsolved +political problem blocks the way. The block cannot be removed except by +settlement. One of the strongest reasons for granting Home Rule is in +order to free the mind of the nation for attention to the national +housekeeping. + + +OLD-AGE PENSIONS + +One of the most remarkable events of the last few years has been the +unexpected side-share of Ireland in the great social legislation of +Great Britain. Even the Irish members themselves have scarcely foreseen +how immensely Ireland, being the poorest partner in the United Kingdom, +would benefit by a policy "tender to the poor." The most conspicuous +example of that effect has been Old-age Pensions. Old-age Pensions have +fallen on Ireland as a shower of gold. Her share is already well over +£2,000,000. The great new fact in Irish social welfare is that she now +draws that great draught from the Imperial Exchequer. + +Travelling along the Atlantic coast last summer, I inquired in many +local post-offices as to the amount of pensions given weekly in those +little grey villages. I found that often the old-age pensioners would +number between 100 and 200 in small villages of less than 2,000 people. +The emigration of the youth has left a disproportionate number of the +old, and it is not necessary to bring any railing accusation against +the honesty of the Irish race in order to understand why it is that +Old-age Pensions have done so much for Ireland. But the fact remains, +and it carries with it a great and unexpected relief to the Irish +ratepayer.[33] + + +THE NEW UNIVERSITY ACT + +Last, but not least, we have the great stimulus given to higher +education by the passage of Mr. Birrell's Irish University Act. For a +whole generation the progress of higher education in Ireland has been +held up by a barren and wearisome religious quarrel. Now that quarrel +has vanished, and Ireland is organising a great system of University +education for her Catholic as well as her Protestant youth. Not the +least stimulating experience of the Eighty Club in Ireland was the day +which we spent, under the guidance of the distinguished Principal, at +Cork University College, where we saw Catholics and Protestants, men +and women, young and old, working together in friendly harmony in the +splendid buildings which have sprung up to house the undergraduates of +the south-west. The same process is going on at Dublin, Galway, and +Belfast. The machinery is being rapidly prepared for training up in the +best possible atmosphere of mutual tolerance the new rulers of Home +Rule Ireland. + + * * * * * + +Such have been the great Acts of Parliament which have created a +changed situation in Ireland. But the crown is still wanting to the +work. Those who travel in Ireland and make any close inquiry into the +work of these Acts must feel that there is a great gap unfilled. It is +a gap at the top. All these new roads of reform are well and truly +laid--but they all lead nowhere. + +Take one startling fact. Two Commissions of late years have considered +the great and glaring need of Ireland in the want of swift, cheap, and +convenient transport both for persons and goods. One of these +Commissions was on Canals, and the other on Railways. Both decided in +favour of national control. But as there is no national authority which +anyone trusts, both reports have been stillborn.[34] + +It was probably some such facts that led, as far back as August, 1903, +to the uprising among the more moderate Unionist Irishmen of a +remarkable movement which is still affecting Ireland. This movement +took shape in a body; called the Irish Reform Association, presided +over, like the Land Conference, by that remarkable Irish peer Lord +Dunraven. That Conference put forward a set of proposals which are now +historical, and which have since, in varying forms, inspired the +movement for what is popularly known as "Devolution."[35] + +Mild as are the proposals of this new party, they do not differ in +principle from the proposals of the Home Rulers. + +These proposals obtained the backing of a large section of the Unionist +Party. They undoubtedly had the sympathy of Sir Anthony MacDonnell. It +is difficult to say, at the present moment, what precise part was +played by Mr. George Wyndham, then still the Irish Chief Secretary. But +the eloquent fact remains that the ultimate triumph of the Ulster +Unionists over the Devolution Party of 1903 was marked by his +resignation. There would seem to be no substantial doubt that in 1903 +there arose in the Unionist Party the same division in regard to Home +Rule as arose in 1885, when Lord Carnarvon, the Tory Viceroy, met Mr. +Parnell. For the moment the better spirits seriously contemplated +removing once and for all the bitterness of the Irish grievance. There +was a return of that feeling in the autumn of 1910, when, for the +moment, at a period still known politically as the "age of reason," +most of the Unionist Press admitted how much good reason and +common-sense there was on the side of Home Rule. On each of these +occasions the same result has occurred. At the critical moment the +extreme faction of the Ulster Unionists has intervened and driven back +the Tory Party to its fatal enslavement. + +But the great fact which produced these movements still remains as +valid and potent as ever. It is that, whatever improvements you +introduce into the Irish machine, it can never work properly until the +central motive power is a self-governing authority. + +So deeply have the better Unionists been committed to that view in the +past, in 1885, 1903, and 1910, that they are now shaping a new argument +to face the situation of 1912. This argument is simple. It is that the +new prosperity of Ireland is not a help, but a bar to Home Rule. + +"If Ireland can prosper so well without Home Rule," so runs this line +of reasoning, "why give her Home Rule at all?" + +This is indeed a strange and cruel argument. We all know the people who +used to say Home Rule was impossible because Ireland was disturbed. +They are now occupied in saying that she must be denied Home Rule +because she is so peaceful. + +But now it appears that this ingenious dilemma is to be applied to her +material condition also. As with order, so with finance. In the old +days Ireland was refused Home Rule because she was too poor. How could +she get on without England? She would be bankrupt. But now that she is +better off she is to be refused it because she is too prosperous! + +Is it not quite obvious that these are arguments after judgment? That +the people who use them are merely seeking excuses for refusing Home +Rule altogether and at all seasons? + +The British people, essentially a just and serious people, will not +listen to these last desperate pleas, the coward fugitives of a routed +case. + +They will rather believe that all these material improvements in the +condition of Ireland only make the need for Home Rule stronger and more +urgent. They will realise that Ireland requires not a material, but a +moral cure to give her the full value of the new reforms. Her need is +to be removed once and for all from the class of dependent communities. +She wants the great tonic cure of self-reliance and +self-responsibility. + +For it is as true to-day as it was when Mr. Gladstone spoke these wise +and searching words in April, 1886[36]:-- + + "The fault of the administration of Ireland is simply this: + that its spring and source of action, and what is called its + motor muscle, is English and not Irish. Without providing a + domestic Legislature for Ireland, without having an Irish + Parliament, I want to know how you will bring about this + wonderful, superhuman, and, I believe, in this condition, + impossible result, that your administrative system shall be + Irish and not English?" + +The greatest need is still this--to make the "motor-muscle" Irish. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] The Report of the Congested Districts Commission was issued in +1908. + +[29] See 19th Report (1911), Cd. 5712. The Act of 1909 more than +doubled the area and population, bringing the area to 4,000,000 acres, +and the population to 600,000. The former endowment was £86,000. + +[30] Comprising the whole of the counties of Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, +Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, and parts of the counties of Clare and +Cork. + +[31] The members of this admirable Board are Mr. Birrell, Lord +Shaftesbury, Mr. O'Donnell, Dr. Mangan, Sir Horace Plunkett, Sir David +Harrel, and six others. + +[32] For the governing clauses of that Act see Appendix E. + +[33] May not the Insurance Act do the same? It is very likely. + +[34] See Appendix J. + +[35] Private Bill legislation to be settled in Dublin. Irish internal +expenditure to be handed to a financial council half elected and half +nominated. An Irish Assembly to be created with a small power of +initiative. + +[36] April 8th.--Second Reading Speech on 1886 Home Rule Bill. + + + + + THE HOME RULE PLAN + + THE NINETEENTH CENTURY BILLS AND THE + BILL OF 1912. + + + "Without union of hearts identification is extinction, is + dishonour, is conquest--not identification." + + GRATTAN. + + + + + "It would be a misery to me if I had forgotten or omitted, in + these my closing years, any measure possible for me to take + towards upholding and promoting the cause, not of one Party or + another, of one nation or another, but of all Parties and of + all nations inhabiting these islands; and to these nations, + viewing them as I do with all their vast opportunities, under a + living union for power and for progress, I say, let me entreat + you to let the dead bury the dead, and to cast behind you every + recollection of bygone evils, and to cherish, to love, and + sustain one another through all the vicissitudes of human + affairs in the times that are to come." + + Mr. GLADSTONE + (First reading of 1893 Bill, 13th February). + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE HOME RULE PLAN + + +The Home Rule Bill of 1912 is now before the country, both in the clear +and simple statement of the Prime Minister and in the test of the Bill +itself[37]. The Bill has already passed through the fire of one +Parliamentary debate, and secured one great majority of 94 in the House +of Commons. + +What are the general outlines of this great measure? Its central +proposal is the creation of an Irish Parliament, responsible for the +administration of Irish affairs. That Parliament is to consist of a +Senate and a House of Commons, numbering respectively 40 and 164, +guided by an Irish Executive, chosen in the same manner as the British +Imperial Cabinet. Ireland, in other words, is to be governed by +responsible Parliamentary chiefs, commanding a majority in the Irish +House of Commons. In this honest recognition of facts and terms we have +an advance on the vagueness of former proposals. Otherwise, both this +Parliament and this Executive are to have the same liberty and are to +be restrained by almost precisely the same checks and safeguards, in +regard both to religious rights and Imperial sovereignty, as those +which existed in the Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893. Ireland is to +retain at Westminster a representation of forty-two members. + +What is to happen if the two Irish Chambers differ? According to the +Bill, the Senate is to be nominated, at first by the Imperial +Government, and afterwards by the Irish Parliament, and the members are +to sit by rotation for eight years. The Irish House of Commons, on the +other hand, is to be elected by the same constituencies as at present, +and the membership is to be distributed in proportion to the +population--an arrangement which will give Ulster fifty-nine +representatives.[38] It is clear that under those conditions a powerful +Irish Government remaining in office beyond a certain period would have +command of both Houses, as indeed happens at present under similar +conditions both in Canada and New Zealand.[39] But if one Party should +hold power for a prolonged period, and then give place to another, the +new Government will find itself, as Mr. Borden finds himself in Canada +at present, restrained from precipitate change by an Upper House +nominated by his predecessors. + +What would happen in that case? To settle that problem, the Home Rule +Bill contains a clause[40] adopting the provisions of the South Africa +Act, enabling both Houses to hold a joint sitting, in which the +majority will prevail. As long as that provision holds, it matters very +little whether the Upper Chamber is nominated or is elected, as some +propose, by proportional representation. In either case, the Irish +House of Commons will be the real governing body, as indeed it must be +if the Irish Executive is to be properly responsible, and the new Irish +Constitution to work smoothly. + +So much for the general provisions of the present Bill. The details as +to safe-guards and exclusions will be found in the full text of the +Bill contained in Appendix A, and I shall leave the question of finance +to the chapter specifically devoted to that subject. + +Let us turn now to the chief arguments against the measure as set forth +in the recent debate, and as expressed with ability and power in a +pamphlet entitled "Against Home Rule," to which practically all the +chief leaders of the Unionist cause contribute articles[41]. Apart from +the Ulster case, dealt with in a previous chapter, the main argument +seems to be that the English people have not been sufficiently +consulted. "It is all so sudden," said the elderly lady when she +received a proposal from an elderly suitor who had been delaying his +passion for a score or so of years. The same painful outcry comes from +the Unionist Party twenty-seven years after the first beginning of the +discussions of Home Rule in this country. + +One can imagine, indeed, that a foreign visitor, coming to this land in +ignorance of the past of English politics, would suppose that the Home +Rule controversy had now arisen for the first time. Attending Unionist +meetings, he would hear an immense amount of eloquence devoted to the +wrongs of the English people in being rushed into a premature decision, +and being asked to give judgment without proper trial. The Home Rulers +would be represented to him as men of rash and precipitate temper, who +wanted to bring about in a few months a change which would affect the +United Kingdom for centuries. And finally he would hear men thanking +God that there existed a House of Lords which, in spite of the +machinations of the Home Rulers, could still give the British public +two more years to ruminate over the question of Home Rule. + +He would naturally gather from this that the proposal of Home Rule for +Ireland had come upon this country with entire freshness, and had never +before been discussed among rational men. Filled with this impression +he might perhaps be surprised if he obtained the chance of hearing the +"still, small voice" of truth through the clamour and the uproar, to +discover that this plan of Home Rule was not born yesterday, but no +less than twenty-five years ago. He would find that for a whole +generation every nook and cranny of this proposal has been meticulously +explored, and that there have been on this subject thousands, if not +millions, of speeches and leading articles, hundreds of books, and +dozens of Parliamentary debates. He would even learn from many +politicians that their chief difficulty was the utter boredom of their +constituents over a subject which has been worn down by argument to the +very threads. + +But he would be more surprised than all to discover that this proposal +had already been considered in at least four General Elections--1886, +1892, and the two elections of 1910.[42] "It has been deliberately +rejected by the people on two occasions" would be the cry which he +would hear most commonly from his Tory friends, and he would find that +they referred to the elections of 1886 and 1895. Our friend the +foreigner would naturally be impressed by that argument. But what would +be his amazement to discover that his informants had forgotten to +enlighten him on the equally important fact that Home Rule had been +definitely accepted and approved by the British electorate, not in two, +but in three elections--the election of 1892 and the two elections of +1910? He would discover that on all these three occasions the subject +had been definitely placed before them, that on all three occasions the +electorate had definitely supported Home Rule, by majorities varying +from forty in 1892 to 124 in December, 1910. As to the other General +Elections, might not our foreigner reflect that if an electorate were +really to discover that its vote for the approval of a measure was +treated--as in 1892--with indifference, it might naturally weary of +well-doing? + +Might he not even, if he were a shrewd man, suspect that that was the +very object and aim which his informants had in view? + +But perhaps his surprise would reach its highest point when he +discovered that this Home Rule proposal, so far from appearing now for +the first time in a definite form, had actually twice before taken the +definite and statutory form of Home Rule Bills, both the specific and +considered proposals of Liberal Governments, both fully drafted and +laid before Parliament, and both still to be purchased at any +Government printers. The first of these Bills, the Bill of 1886, was, +indeed, rejected by the House of Commons on the second reading, and +never ran the gauntlet of full Parliamentary debate. But the second, +the Bill of 1893, occupied fully five months of Parliamentary time, and +was carried successfully by Mr. Gladstone through all its stages in the +House of Commons. It was amended on many points without the +interference of Government authority. It presents a full scheme of +self-government for Ireland, so clearly and minutely considered as to +provide an efficient and reasoned basis for the measure of 1912. + + +THE BILLS OF 1886 AND 1893 + +The aim of both these great measures--the Bills of 1886 and 1893--was +to give the Irish control of their own local affairs and to distinguish +as clearly as possible between those affairs and Imperial matters. The +method chosen in both Bills is to follow the Parnell scheme of +enumerating the subjects excluded from the legislative power of the +Irish Parliament. The excluding clause became considerably enlarged in +the Bill of 1893 as it was left by the House of Commons. The 1893 Bill +also contains a far more definite and stronger assertion of Imperial +authority, which is inserted twice--first in the Preamble, and then in +the second clause of the Bill.[43] + +In both Bills there was a safeguarding clause as well as an excluding +clause. The safeguarding clause also grew considerably between 1886 and +1893. It is almost entirely directed to preventing the Irish +Legislature from establishing any new religious privileges, or +interfering with any existing religious rights. The clause, as it +emerged in 1893, not only forbade any new establishment or endowment of +religion, but seemed to leave the claims of all denominations precisely +as they stand at present. + +This safeguarding clause reappears in the Bill of 1912, but it has been +shortened and redrafted by the Government. It contains very important +additional safeguards to prevent the adoption by the Irish civil power +of the principles contained in the recent Papal Decrees against mixed +marriages, and in regard to the right of Catholic clergy to claim +exclusion from the courts of justice. The Irish Parliament will be +debarred from acting on these decrees, and thus the whole agitation +against "Ne Temere" falls to the ground. + + +THE TWO CHAMBERS + +The 1886 Bill established, as we have seen, an arrangement by which +Ireland should be governed by one legislative body consisting of two +orders, a first and a second. These orders were to deliberate and vote +together, except in regard to matters which should come directly under +the Home Rule Act, amendments of the Act, or Standing Orders in +pursuance of the Act. In such cases the first order possessed the right +of voting separately, and seemed to possess an absolute veto. + +The first order of the legislative body created by the 1886 Bill +consisted of 103 members, of whom 75 were elected members and 28 +peerage members. The elected members were to be chosen under a +restricted suffrage, and the peerage members were to be the +representative Irish Peers. The second order was to consist of 204 +members, elected under the existing franchise. + +All this was rather complicated and confusing, and was, perhaps +rightly, brushed aside by the framers of the 1893 Bill. They +constituted the Irish Legislature on the model of an ordinary Colonial +Parliament with two Chambers--a Legislative Assembly and a Legislative +Council. The Legislative Council was to consist of 48 members, elected +by large constituencies voting under a £20 property franchise. The +Legislative Assembly was to consist of 103 members, elected by the +existing constituencies under the existing franchise. In cases of +disagreement between the two Houses, it was proposed that, either after +a dissolution or after a period of two years, the Houses were to vote +together, and that the majority vote should decide the matter. Since +1893 that provision, in almost precisely the same form, has been +adopted by the Australian Commonwealth, and, in a more progressive +form, by, the South African Parliament. + +In the Bill of 1912 these provisions of 1893 reappear, but in a broader +and more liberal form. The Irish Legislative Assembly and Legislative +Council--names which seem to give to Ireland a position of a +subordinate--have given way, as we have seen, to the frank and +generous titles of Senate and House of Commons, both forming the Irish +Parliament. The machinery for settling disagreements has come back from +its journey round the world refreshed by a new draft of democracy, +imbibed from the climates of Australia and South Africa. In cases of +differences between the Assemblies they will meet and decide by common +vote, without the necessity of a dissolution. That is a great and +important simplification, and for it the Irish have to thank the genius +of the founders of the South African Constitution. + + +IN OR OUT? + +Every student of the Home Rule question knows that Mr. Gladstone +several times varied his proposals in regard to the Irish +representation at Westminster. The Irish Party were, from the +beginning, indifferent on the point; but it was quite clear that this +was a matter vitally affecting Imperial interests. The first proposal +grafted into the Bill of 1886 was that the Irish should cease to attend +at Westminster altogether. But, after seven years of consideration, +there grew up a general agreement that the entire absence of the Irish +Party at Westminster might create a series of difficult relations +between the Parliaments, and might even gradually lead to separation. +The first proposal of the Bill of 1893 was that the Irish members +should attend in slightly reduced numbers and vote at Westminster only +on Irish concerns. But this proposal--known as the "In and Out" +clause--found little favour in debate, and suffered severely at the +hands of Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Gladstone finally left the matter to the +judgment of the House of Commons, and--after a severe Parliamentary +crisis, in which the Government narrowly escaped destruction--it was +decided that 80 Irish members should sit in the British House of +Commons without any restriction of their power or authority. + +In the Bill of 1912 the solution finally reached in 1893 is again +adopted, with one vital difference--that the Irish members to be +summoned to Westminster will be reduced not to 80, but to 42. Those +members will possess full Parliamentary powers, as indeed it is right +and necessary they should, as long as the Parliament at Westminster +continues to exercise such large powers over Ireland. But Mr. Asquith +threw out the suggestion that the British House of Commons should, by +its Standing Orders, arrange for a further delegation of Parliamentary +power to national groups. The House of Commons has already a Scotch +Committee, and to that might be added an English Committee and a Welsh +Committee. It would be a serious thing for the central body to +over-ride the opinions of these committees. + +But Mr. Asquith also threw out an even more important hint as to the +future development of the Home Rule policy. It is clear that if the +Irish Home Rule Bill is simply the first stage in a process which will +lead to the creation of Home Rule Parliaments for local affairs in +Scotland, England and Wales, then such slight control as the 42 Irish +members may retain over British affairs will be only temporary. What, +then, is the present Parliamentary relationship between Irish Home Rule +and the Federal idea? + + +THE NEW FEDERALISM + +Since the year 1893 there has been a great change of feeling in regard +to the whole Home Rule question. The British Parliament has gone +through a great crisis in its procedure, and it has, for the moment, +accepted a temporary way out in the form of a drastic use of the +closure, applied by Mr. Balfour, under Standing Orders, to so vital a +matter as Supply. That violent remedy known as the "Compartment +Closure" is now almost automatically extended by both parties, under +the very thin veil of liberty left by a special resolution, to almost +every great measure that comes before the House of Commons. + +This development of the British Parliamentary system has created a new +outlook on the Home Rule question. The case of Ireland still stands by +itself, with great grievances and strong historical claims behind it. +Home Rule for Ireland will always have a peculiar urgency, arising from +conditions of geographical position. But the passion for Irish liberty +is now mingled in the average British mind with the passion for the +liberty of the British House of Commons. It is recognised that unless +Ireland is freed the British Parliament will remain in chains. + +This new attitude has widened the outlook of Home Rulers until Home +Rule has ceased to be a merely Irish question. Nothing was more +dramatic during the recent debates over the Insurance Bill than the +sudden wave of federal feeling in the House of Commons which compelled +the Government to grant a separate administrative insurance authority, +not merely to Ireland, but also to Scotland and Wales. Similarly with +Home Rule. What was in 1893 only a pale glimmer of foresight, is with +many, in the year 1912, a passionate conviction. It is that after Home +Rule has been given to Ireland it must be extended also to Scotland, +Wales, and possibly England. + +Now it would be plainly useless to grant Home Rule to any of these +countries until there is a wider and deeper demand for it. The issue of +Home Rule for Ireland was definitely raised in both the elections of +1910, and when the people gave their votes they knew, and were +actually warned by Mr. Balfour himself, and by most of the other +Unionist chiefs, that the result would be the creation of a Home Rule +Parliament in Ireland. But it cannot be said that the same proposal was +so definitely and effectively put forward in regard to Scotland and +Wales. In both those countries there is a very widespread desire for +Home Rule. But there has not yet been any definite democratic vote on +that desire. It may be necessary, therefore, to delay the extension of +Home Rule to those countries. But the desire is sufficiently strong +both in Scotland and in Wales to justify the Government in so framing a +Home Rule Bill as to enable those other parts of the United Kingdom to +be brought under its provisions in due time. There is a strict analogy +for that proceeding in the North America Act of 1867, which created the +Dominion of Canada. That Act joined together three provinces at first, +but left the door open for other provinces to come in. They have since +come in, one by one--all except the island of Newfoundland--until the +great federation of States which we now know as the Canadian Dominion +has been gradually built up.[44] + +What follows from all this? Surely that a Home Rule Bill for Ireland +must be so framed as to render it a possible basis of a federal +Constitution in the near future. But if the Irish members were entirely +excluded from the British Parliament, as in 1886, then we should be +turning our backs on Federalism. The only analogy to such a +Constitution would be that of Austria-Hungary, where two countries are +united in one Government, but work through two Parliaments. Lord Morley +tells us that Mr. Parnell was very anxious to imitate in the 1886 Bill +the ingenious machinery of "Delegations," by which the relations of the +Austrian and Hungarian Parliaments combine for common affairs.[45] + +There is much to be said for that machinery in Austria-Hungary, +strongly binding together two countries which must otherwise have +inevitably drifted asunder. But Mr. Parnell was thinking only of +Ireland, and he was not a Federalist. We are thinking of the whole +United Kingdom, and many of us are Federalists. The machinery of +"Delegations" therefore would not suit our purpose. + +What seems to be required ultimately at Westminster is a small +Parliament devoted to Imperial affairs--Imperial finance, Imperial +legislation, and Imperial administration--and leaving to subordinate +Parliaments the administration of local matters. Many are firmly +convinced that in that way the United Kingdom would become a more +successful and efficient country, with legislation better adapted to +the needs of its inhabitants, and with a mind more free for the +consideration of great Imperial affairs. This now seems to them the +only way to produce order out of the present constitutional chaos. + +What, then, are the lines that should be followed if we are to go +forward to that goal? An Imperial Parliament of that nature would +probably be a smaller assembly than the present House of Commons, +which is far too large for modern conditions. There is, therefore, good +ground for reducing the representation of Ireland to 42, or 38 less +than in 1893. That will clear the way for a future Imperial assembly of +between 300 and 400, it being understood that as each section of the +United Kingdom obtains its own Home Rule Parliament it will consent to +have its representation at Westminster reduced in proportion. + +As long as the present system of Cabinet Government resting on +majorities exists--and it is the only conceivable system for a +completely self-governing democracy--it still seems, as it seemed to +the men of 1893, impossible to agree to any "in and out" arrangement. +Under such a plan the Government might possess a majority on Imperial +or English affairs, while it could be out-voted on Irish affairs. +Although such a situation might conceivably work for a time, it might +come to a sudden deadlock in a moment of emergency. It seems best, +therefore, that the 42 Irish members at Westminster should possess full +voting powers. If any Liberal dreads the prospect of having 42 Irish +members still possibly giving votes hostile to Liberal views--say, on +education--I would ask him to remember that the Liberal Party will not +have to mourn the loss of Irish votes still almost certain to be cast +in their favour on behalf of many democratic measures. + + * * * * * + +The prospect of this larger federal settlement opens a larger vision +than that of 1886 or 1893. Strangely enough, it is the same vision as +that sketched by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain in the daring speech which he +made on the second reading of the Home Rule Bill of 1886:-- + + "In my view the solution of this question should be sought in + some form of federation, which would really maintain the + Imperial unity, and which would, at the same time, conciliate + the desire for a national local government which is felt so + strongly in Ireland. I say I believe it is on this line, and + not on the line of our relations with our self-governing + Colonies, that it is possible to seek for and to find a + solution of this difficulty."[46] + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[37] See Appendix A for the text of the 1912 Bill. + +[38] It is proposed that the representation be divided as +follows:--Ulster, 59 members; Leinster, 41; Munster, 37; Connaught, 25; +The Universities, 2; making a total of 164. + +[39] In Canada the Senators are selected for life. Since 1891 the New +Zealand Senators are selected for seven years only. + +[40] See Appendix C. + +[41] "Against Home Rule." London: Warne and Co., 1/-net. + +[42] Home Rule was not properly debated in the General Election of +1895, which turned on other issues, and in the General Elections of +1900 and 1906 it was laid aside by common consent. + +[43] See Appendix D. + +[44] The 146th clause of the British North America Act (1867) reads as +follows:-- + +ADMISSION OF OTHER COLONIES. + +"It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the advice of Her +Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, on Addresses from the Houses +of Parliament of Canada, and from the Houses of the respective +Legislatures of the Colonies or Provinces of Newfoundland, Prince +Edward Island, and British Columbia, to admit those Colonies or +Provinces, or any of them, into the Union, and on Address from the +Houses of Parliament of Canada to admit Ruperts Land and the North +Western Territory, or either of them, into the Union, on such terms and +conditions in each case as are in the Addresses expressed, and as the +Queen thinks fit to approve, subject to the provisions of this Act: and +the provisions of any Order in Council in that behalf shall have effect +as if they had been enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of +Great Britain and Ireland." + +[45] For a description of this machinery see Chap. IX., "Home Rule in +the World," p. 121. + +[46] April 9th, 1886. + + + + + HOME RULE DIFFICULTIES + + ULSTER + + + + + "Violent measures have been threatened. I think the best + compliment I can pay to those who have threatened us is to take + no notice whatever of the threats, but to treat them as + momentary ebullitions, which will pass away with the fears from + which they spring, and at the same time to adopt on our part + every reasonable measure for disarming those fears." + + * * * * * + + "Sir, I cannot allow it to be said that a Protestant minority + in Ulster or elsewhere is to rule the question for Ireland. I + am aware of no constitutional doctrine on which such a + conclusion could be adopted or justified. But I think that the + Protestant minority should have its wishes considered to the + utmost practicable extent in any form which they may assume." + + GLADSTONE (1893). + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +HOME RULE DIFFICULTIES + + +"Sooner or later," said a wise man to me the other day, "always sooner +or later in the Home Rule question you bump up against religion." That +is, unhappily, still true, though not so true to-day as in 1886 or in +1893. No one who visits Ireland to-day can doubt that the religious +hatreds of the past are being softened; but, unhappily, this process, +as recent events have vividly shown us, is still fiercely resisted by a +small minority. + +It may almost be said that in Ireland religious intolerance is a +political vested interest. It would indeed be impossible to justify the +immense preponderance of salaried power and place still given at the +centre to the Protestant minority[47] unless you could maintain the +idea that the Catholic is a dangerous man when in a place of power. +That consideration, doubtless largely unconscious, may yet partly +explain the immense amount of energy devoted in the north-east of +Ireland to the encouragement of religious prejudice--honest in many of +the rank-and-file, artificial, I fear, in many of the organisers. + + +BELFAST + +Belfast, so like a great modern city in its magnificent outward aspect, +is still largely mediæval at heart. Its chief social energies are +thrown into that vast and powerful organisation known as the "Orange +Society"--still wearing the badges of the seventeenth century, still +uttering its war-cries, and still feeding on its passions. This immense +religious club has to support in the modern age that theory of +religious incompatibility which nearly every other community has long +ago abandoned. It has to justify itself in excluding from the municipal +honours of Belfast almost every Roman Catholic. It has to justify the +majority of 300,000 Belfast Protestants in giving a small and +inadequate representation among the rulers of this great wealthy town +to the minority of 100,000 Catholics. To maintain this policy of +Ulster ascendancy the Orange chiefs watch every document that comes +from Rome with a lynx eye, and try to catch a glimpse of the "Scarlet +Woman" behind every Latin rescript. + +All this may appear to some good politics; but surely it is past +tolerance when these manufacturers of intolerance talk of the +intolerance of others. + +In all these respects Belfast stands almost alone in Ireland. A canon +of the Catholic Church--a man of winning manners and charming +personality, who lives on quite friendly terms with his Protestant +neighbours in the South of Ireland--told me that on the only occasion +when he visited Belfast he was spat at in the streets. The story is +quite credible to those who have watched the deliberate manipulation of +the worst religious passions by the party organisers of Ulster, not +always unassisted by their colleagues in London. + +One result is that if you ask any question as to the character of a man +in the city of Belfast, the answer will always come to you in terms of +religion. In the South the reply will be, "He is a Nationalist," or "He +is a Unionist." But in Belfast it will be, "He is a Catholic," or "He +is a Protestant." + +So fierce is this feeling in Belfast that until recently all political +and social differences were submerged by it, and every fresh effort +towards local progress was broken up by the revival of religious +prejudice. Things have been somewhat changed by the wonderful social +and political crusade, quite independent of all religious differences, +carried on by that remarkable young citizen of Belfast, Mr. Joseph +Devlin, who captured the constituency of West Belfast in 1906 and +retained it in 1910 largely on a social reform policy. He has for the +first time given Ulster a glimpse of something better than religious +fanaticism--a social policy based on the unions of religions for the +good of all.[48] + +This break in the dark clouds must surely spread until a better spirit +prevails. + +For Belfast, perhaps, has more to gain than any other great Irish city +by a policy that would pacify Ireland. If Belfast could once shake off +the memory of her immigrant origin, and look to Ireland rather than +Great Britain as her native country, she would perceive that the gain +of Catholic Ireland must be her gain also. Her prosperity can never be +sure or certain as long as it stands out against a background of Irish +poverty. The linen industry can never rest secure as long as there are +so few industries to support it. The linen merchants cannot really gain +by their isolation. Belfast at present has a great export trade. She +clothes Great Britain in fine linen. But what about her home trade? +Would not Belfast be even more prosperous if she could clothe Ireland +too?--if Ireland could afford to put aside her rags and replace them +with "purple and fine linen" from the factories of the North? + +Might not Belfast, in that case, be able not merely to enrich her +merchants but to raise the social conditions of her own people? For it +is unhappily the case that the researches of the Women's Trade Unions +have disclosed in Belfast conditions of sweated labour that have +surprised and alarmed even the most hardened investigators. The lofty +buildings and humming mills of Belfast are revealed to be resting on a +swamp of social misery. Nor is this at all remarkable, for the mass of +the people are kept helpless and divided by their religious divisions, +which are too often used as a weapon to prevent them from combining for +higher wages and shorter hours. Religious fanaticism is not quite so +self-sacrificing in its commercial results as superficial observers +might suppose. + +It is impossible, indeed, that Belfast can continue for ever in a +prosperity isolated and aloof from the country in which she is +situated. Either she must throw in her lot with Ireland or Ireland must +drag Ireland down into one common pit of adversity. Lord Pirrie, the +enterprising and fearless director of the great shipbuilding works on +Queen's Island--works which maintained their pre-eminence and continued +their output through the dark days of the shipbuilding trade on the +Clyde and the Thames--has been converted to Home Rule. Other business +men will follow his example, for Belfast, as much as any other town in +Ireland, suffers in Private Bill legislation from the remoteness of the +Legislature and the Administration. She, too, has too often to endure a +financial policy not suited to her needs. She, like the rest of +Ireland, has everything to gain and nothing to lose by a policy that +will enable Ireland to obtain legislation better fitted to the needs of +the Irish people. + +In spite, indeed, of her outcries, Ulster has already gained more from +the policy of the Nationalists at Westminster than from that of the +Orange reactionaries who represent half the province at Westminster. +Those Orangemen have identified the robust Radicalism and +Presbyterianism of Ulster with the narrowest demands of the Anglican +landlords and Tories of England. Happily for Ulster, they have been +defeated. The farmers of Ulster are at present buying their farms under +the policy of Land Purchase which the Orange Ulstermen resisted. These +farmers have freely used the Land Courts which their representatives +denounced as revolution and the "end of all things." They are profiting +by the triumphs of Nationalist policy even while they denounce the +Nationalists in terms which are reserved by other people for criminals +and wild beasts. + +The best men in Ulster will probably think twice before prolonging a +campaign of rebellion. We have heard of late threats of refusal to pay +taxes or rents to the Irish Parliament. But what could be more +dangerous to a city like Belfast than a no-rent campaign under the +guidance of English lawyers? If the farmers are advised not to pay +their rents to Dublin, is it not likely that the working-class tenants +of Belfast may refuse to pay their rents to their own landlords? At +their own peril, indeed, will a class which largely lives on rent and +interest strike a blow at the habits and customs which enforce such +payments. The kid-glove revolution of linen merchants might suddenly +and swiftly turn into something nearer to the real, red thing. It is +dangerous to set examples in revolution. + +As Ulster gradually swings round to the inevitable, she will discover +that there is a very bright silver lining to what seems to her so black +a cloud. Ulster, while still represented at Westminster, will send 59 +members to Dublin under the 1912 Bill. Thus she will have no small or +mean representation in the future Irish Parliament. She may have far +more power than she imagines, if she uses it with wisdom. A strong +Progressive section from the industrial North may hold the balance +between the parties of the South and centre. It would be rash to +predict the future. But there are many causes--education, Free Trade, +enlightened local government, to take a few--in which Ireland will gain +immensely by a strong, clear progressive lead. "The best is yet to +be." Why should not Belfast--Belfast Protestant united with Belfast +Catholic--have in these matters a greater and nobler part to play under +Home Rule than under the present system of distant, ignorant, +absent-minded, rule? + +As for religious persecution, the thing would be absurdly impossible +under any Home Rule Bill that possessed the guarantees and safeguards +of the 1912 Bill. But, beyond those safeguards, Ulster will always +have, in any such extreme and improbable event, an appeal to all the +forces of the Empire--an appeal which would certainly not be in vain. + +The conviction of these truths will gradually penetrate the shrewd +brain of Ulster and save her from the madness of rebellion or +secession. The patience and moderation of the Government will gradually +disarm these men. Who knows whether in the end the majority in Belfast, +as in Ulster, as a whole may not voluntarily prefer to join rather than +hold aloof from a great national restoration? + + * * * * * + +In one of his 1893 Home Rule speeches, Mr. Gladstone reminded the House +of Commons, with impressive power, of the splendid reception given in +1793 to the Protestant delegates from Grattan's Parliament at Dublin, +who had come to plead for the concession of their rights to the +Catholics of Ireland. + +It was the Act of Union that destroyed all that generous feeling, and +revived again the passions of ascendancy and fanaticism among the +Orangemen of North-east Ulster. + +But the old, generous feelings may yet return again. + + +SOUTHERN ULSTER + +The great majority of the Protestants in Ireland stand outside this +ring. They have no more share in the good things than the average +Catholic. Those men, Irishmen first and Protestants afterwards, are now +taking their part in public life and earning their proper share in the +rewards of public zeal. + +The delegates of the Eighty Club made a special public appeal for +information as to cases of religious intolerance. They received a great +many responses to this appeal, but it is hardly any exaggeration to say +that they found no genuine cases of religious intolerance outside the +North-east corner of Ulster, where they received some conspicuous +examples of the religious persecution of Liberal Protestants by their +Orange co-religionists.[49] + +Journeying southwards, however, the Eighty Club delegates passed with +every mile into a serener atmosphere. They received deputations at +every wayside station from the public bodies in the south of Ulster. +These presented documents stating the bare facts as to the +representation of these two forms of the Christian religion--so often, +alas! belying the doctrine of Christian love by the practice of mutual +hatred--on their public bodies. They found, for instance, in Monaghan, +a predominantly Catholic town, that seven seats on the local Council +went to the Unionist and Protestant Party, a considerable concession +from a majority large enough in numbers to pack the whole of the +council if they so desired. That little town might give a good lesson +to some of the boroughs of our great county of London, where it is an +almost universal practice for either party to seize the whole of the +seats if they are capable of doing so. + +Take one more instance in that district--out of the many--in the town +of Cavan, a preponderantly Catholic borough. There, out of twenty-three +candidates at the last election standing for eighteen seats, four +Unionists were elected by a similar method of compromise. Where is the +evidence of the Orangemen in their strongholds meting out similar +measure to the Catholics? + +Passing further south they found that although the great majority of +the public bodies was naturally Nationalist and Catholic, there was no +sign of that spirit of rigid exclusiveness extended towards the +Catholics by the Protestants in the city of Belfast. Of course, a large +number of the Protestant officials found so frequently in the service +of these public bodies are appointed in Ireland by the Crown, and not, +as in England, by the local authorities. But the Protestants are not +confined to those offices. Dublin has several times freely elected a +Protestant to the Lord Mayoralty of that city. In other parts of +southern Ireland the Eighty Club found Protestants as masters in the +county schools, surveyors of taxes, local registrars, clerks of the +works, rate collectors, and public librarians. The Catholics on the +local bodies recognise that the Protestants in the south possess, owing +to their superior advantages in education, a great proportion of the +brains, and they are not slow to do justice to this fact in filling +public posts. + +In regard to elections, let us be quite candid. It is not to be +expected that an Irish elector will return at the head of the poll men +who hurl abuse and calumny at the Irish race and at the religion held +by the great majority of the Irish race. Treachery to one's cause and +one's faith is not required by any proper doctrine of tolerance. +Surrender is not the same thing as compromise. We do not, for instance, +expect in England that a Unionist constituency should return a Liberal, +or a Liberal constituency should return a Tory. We expect men to live +up to their faith, and even admire them for doing so. In Ireland, +similarly, Nationalist voters, as a whole, prefer Nationalist members, +and will continue to do so until this great issue of Home Rule is +settled. + + +CHANCES OF PEACE + +But when a Unionist or a Protestant comes forward with a single eye to +the public good, and displays in public affairs a broad and generous +spirit, he finds no difficulty in securing his place in public life. In +county Cork and Tipperary we found Protestant landlords who had sold +their estates. Having ceased to be rent collectors, they are becoming +real leaders of their people. These landlords are reorganising +co-operative societies, encouraging agricultural experiments, looking +after schools, and helping generally in the regrowth of Ireland with a +real good will. Many of these men are Devolutionists. Take, for +instance, Sir Nugent Everard, the public-spirited squire who, with +great enterprise, enthusiasm, and perseverance, is reviving that old +Irish tobacco industry which once played so big a part in the +prosperity of Ireland. Sir Nugent Everard is a Protestant, but he has +been elected to his county council. On that council, too, he has been +appointed chairman of several committees by his Catholic fellow county +councillors. + +There is, indeed, at the present moment throughout the south of Ireland +a new spirit of willingness, amounting almost to eagerness, to accept +the services of all distinguished Protestants who will work for the +common good of Ireland. That is not at all surprising when we remember +that the Irish Party have, in the past, numbered among their leaders at +least three distinguished Protestants--Grattan, Butt, and Parnell--and +at the present day always return a steady percentage of Protestant +representatives to the Imperial Parliament.[50] + +The plain fact is that, except in the north-east corner, religious +intolerance is a dying cause in Ireland, and even in Belfast it is +mainly kept alive by artificial respiration frequently administered by +English Unionist leaders. + +Every phase of Irish life is expressed in Irish humour. Two Irish +stories commonly related to-day in the south really throw some light on +the change of feeling in Ireland. One is that of a Protestant parson in +the south who found that the Bishop was about to visit his parish for a +confirmation. But, unhappily, it so happened that there were no young +people to confirm. The parson was in despair. After long reflection, he +took a great decision. He went across to the Catholic priest and +described his unhappy plight. "Indeed," he said, "I shall be a ruined +man." "Sure," said the priest sympathetically, "I will lend you a +congregation." "How will you do that?" said the parson. "Faith! I'll +tell the boys and girls to go across." And the story relates that when +the Bishop came down he actually found the church full of "boys and +girls" who, for the moment, figured as Protestants. + +The second story comes from Ulster, and seems to show that there is +some softening even in the rigour of that climate. It is said that +"once upon a time," when July 11th came round one of the Orange +drummers found that on the last occasion he had broken his drum, and +could not get it mended. Finding himself faced with disgrace, he +wandered through the town after a drum, and finally found himself +looking at a very beautiful specimen of its kind standing in a Catholic +schoolroom. After much heart-searching, the Orangeman at last went in, +and timidly told the Catholic priest the extremity of his Protestant +need. "You shall have the drum," said the priest; "but you must not +break it this time." And so, on that condition, the drum was handed +over. + +Perhaps if such relations were to become more common the drums would +actually beat more softly in the north of Ireland. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[47] Take the facts given by Mr. John J. Horgan, in his interesting +pamphlet entitled "Home Rule--A Critical Consideration":--"In a country +of which three-fourths of the population are Catholic there has not +been a Catholic Viceroy since 1688. There never was a Catholic Chief +Secretary. There have been three Catholic Under-Secretaries. There have +been two Catholic Chancellors. In the High Court of Justice there are +seventeen Judges; _three_ of them are Catholics. There are twenty-one +County Court Judges and Recorders; eight of them are Catholics. There +are thirty-seven County Inspectors of Police; five of them are +Catholics. There are 202 District Inspectors of Police; sixty-two of +them are Catholics. There are over 5,000 Justices of the Peace; a +little more than one-fifth of them are Catholics. There are sixty-eight +Privy Councillors; eight of them are Catholics. + +"Let us now consider some of the large Government Departments. Take the +Local Government Board. This body consists of two elements--the +nominated and highly paid officials and those who secure admission +through competitive examinations. From the latter class Catholics +cannot, of course, be excluded. The permanent Vice-President is to all +intents and purposes the Local Government Board. He is a Protestant and +a Unionist. Of the three Commissioners, two are Protestants, one a +Catholic. On the permanent staff we find forty-seven nominated +officials, thirty-four of whom are Protestants: and the balance of +thirteen Catholics. The thirty-four Protestants draw an average yearly +salary of £653 13s., while the average yearly salary of the thirteen +Catholic officials only amounts to £580. On the permanent staff created +by competitive examination the story is very different. Here we find +forty-three Catholics and twenty-five Protestants. Brains and ability +could not be kept out. But what about their remuneration? The average +salary of the forty-three Catholics amounts to £207 13s. 6d., while +that of the twenty-five Protestants is £304 8s. Can any sensible man +believe that there is no favour here?" + +[48] The result is that since 1906 Ulster has been half Nationalist in +its Parliamentary representation. Taking the last three General +Elections together, the Nationalists have nearly an average hold over +half the seats in Ulster:--1906: Nationalist and Liberal, 17; Unionist, +16. 1910 (January): Nationalist and Liberal, 15; Unionist, 18. 1910 +(December): Nationalist and Liberal, 16; Unionist, 17. And yet people +talk as if Ulster was entirely Unionist! + +[49] Many of these experiences were narrated to me personally by the +sufferers, and consisted of boycotting in religion, trade and social +life. + +[50] There are now eight Protestants among the Nationalist Party. The +directors of Maynooth College told us that the two best friends of +their college were Burke and Grattan. A portrait of Grattan hangs in +their hall. It was, too, a Catholic Corporation that re-gilded the +statue of William III.--William of Orange--at Dublin. + + + + + HOME RULE DIFFICULTIES + + ROME RULE _or_ HOME RULE? + + + "There is a principle on our part which must ever prevent + (Catholicism being established) in Ireland. It is this--that we + are thoroughly convinced that it would be the surest way of + de-Catholicising Ireland. We believe that tainting our Church + with tithes and giving temporalities to it would degrade it in + the affections of the people." + + O'CONNELL. + + + + + "I want soldiers and sailors for the State; I want to make a + greater use than I now can do of a poor country full of men. I + want to render the military service popular among the Irish; to + make every possible exertion for the safety of Europe ... and + then you, and ten other such boobies as you, call out 'for + God's sake, do not think of raising cavalry and infantry in + Ireland....' They interpret the Epistle to Timothy in a + different manner from what we do!" + + "'They eat a bit of wafer every Sunday, which they call their + God!' ... I wish to my soul they would eat you, and such + reasoners as you are!" + + SYDNEY SMITH + (Peter Plymley's Letters). + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HOME RULE DIFFICULTIES + + +Those who watch closely the exploitation of the religious cry against +Home Rule will have observed that its exploiters always endeavour to +make the best of both worlds. One world is expressed in the phrase, +"Home Rule means Rome Rule." The other by the watchword, "Priest-ridden +Ireland." Those who use the first of these cries are always trying to +persuade themselves that the gift of Home Rule will increase the power +of the Catholic Church in Ireland and produce a kind of religious +tyranny over the Protestant minority. How that could be done under a +measure so carefully safeguarded as, for instance, the Bill of +1912,[51] they never condescend to tell us. It is part of their policy +never to enter into details, but to produce a general atmosphere of +distrust and unreason. + +But it is often these very same people who draw terrible pictures of +the power of the Roman Catholic Church already existing in Ireland at +the present moment. They do not explain how both of these propositions +can be true--how, if Ireland is already "priest-ridden"--a superlative +phrase--without Home Rule, there is any room for an increase of that +evil under Home Rule. They never seem to contemplate the possibility +that the proper and natural corrective to the power of the priest, if +it be excessive, is the creation of a strong rival civil power. + +Is it, indeed, so certain that "Home Rule" would increase the power of +Rome in Ireland? I have even heard it said that the Home Rule cause +finds its headquarters at Rome, and that it is part of a gigantic +conspiracy of the Vatican to break up a Protestant Empire. Do those who +reason thus ever reflect how it is that the English Catholics are often +among the most formidable opponents of the Home Rule cause? + +Why are the English Catholics so often opposed to Home Rule? The answer +was given by Cardinal Manning in the famous phrase quoted by Lord +Morley: "We want every one of their eighty votes." + + +UNIONISM AS "ROME RULE" + +Those who fear Home Rule as "Rome Rule" in Ireland had better, indeed, +examine themselves as to whether their action in defeating the Home +Rule Bill of 1893 has not, so far as it goes, led to this very same +effect in England. It must never be forgotten that it was with the help +of the 80 Irish votes, pressed back to Westminster by the Irish Bishops +in sympathy with the Catholic Bishops in England, that the British +Parliament passed those clauses of the 1902 Education Act which are +most offensive to English Nonconformists. Dr. Clifford has coined the +expression "Rome on the rates." It is not, perhaps, a phrase that tells +the whole story. We cannot forget how many of the poorer Catholics in +our great cities are the descendants of the unhappy Irishmen who were +evicted between 1840 and 1880 from the cabins of Ireland. Those poor +exiles have a special call on our purses. But Anglicanism--rich +Anglicanism--has also been placed on the rates. It has been placed +there through a working alliance between the English Church and Rome, +carrying out its aims by means of the votes of the Catholic Irish +members. Those members only acted up to their principles in so voting. +It was Great Britain that compelled them to remain as full voters in +full strength at the British Parliament. As long as they are there the +Irish must be expected to vote for the interests of their own religion +and their own people. But what of the sincerity of the people who, +after using the aid of the Irish to endow the Catholic and Anglican +schools in England, now raise this outcry about "Rome Rule" in Ireland? + +It is vital, indeed, to point out that in these matters Home Rule for +Ireland is the only possible road to Home Rule for England also. Under +the 1912 Bill the Irish vote at Westminster is reduced to 42, and will, +if English self-government be also extended, be excluded from education +altogether. Thus the first plain and practical result of Irish Home +Rule would be not so much to give the Roman Catholics more power in +Ireland as to give the Protestants more liberty in England. But who can +doubt that it would also introduce a new element of civil power into +the schools of Ireland?[52] + + +NATIONALISM AND RELIGION + +As to Ireland itself, indeed, there can be no doubt that the great +national wrongs of the Irish people have immensely strengthened the +hold of the Roman Catholic Church over that island during the last +century. + +Let us look back for a moment at the historic relations between Roman +Catholicism and the Irish National cause. + +No doubt the iron hammer of Cromwell--in England the rebel, in Ireland +the conqueror--and the long torture of the penal laws both contributed +to weld together the religious and political faith of Ireland. During +those dark days, Nationalism and Catholicism were almost identical +terms. It has been shrewdly remarked that Henry VIII. and Elizabeth +might probably have converted Ireland to Protestantism if they had +preached the reformed faith in the Irish language. However that may be, +it is quite certain that Protestantism stood throughout the eighteenth +century as the sign and uniform of the conqueror and the devastator. +Catholicism remained as the hope and sign of the conquered. Any +Irishman who became a Protestant was naturally suspected of being a +traitor, not merely to his religion but also to his nation. + +Yet at the end of the eighteenth century the British Government had a +great opportunity of dividing the national from the religious cause. +Grattan's Parliament, with all its brilliancy and efficiency, was, +after all, a Parliament from which every Catholic was excluded. That +Parliament, indeed, as we have noted, granted the franchise to the +Catholic peasant and abolished the penal laws. But it was part of the +policy of the British Government to show that Grattan's Parliament +could not grant Catholic emancipation in its full sense. The grant was +to be kept as a bribe by which to achieve the policy of the Union. +Anyone who reads the story in the pages of Lecky[53] must see how that +motive ran like a sinister thread throughout the whole working of +British policy from 1795 to 1800. + +Well, that policy succeeded only too thoroughly for the time. Among the +various forms of bribery which induced the Irish Parliament to give a +vote for the Union at the second time of asking, the gift of money and +titles were, perhaps, less powerful than the offer of Catholic +emancipation. Recent researches have shown that that offer led to the +conversion of Bishops and their clergy throughout the whole of Ireland, +besides winning over the great body of Catholic Peers. + +It is now known, indeed, to be the fact that the British Government +actually induced the Vatican to bring pressure upon the Irish leaders +and the Irish bishops in order to achieve their object. It is almost +certain that unless that offer had been made, and unless the Catholic +Party in Ireland had been informed that the Act of Union was the +inevitable price for Catholic emancipation, Lord Castlereagh would +never have succeeded in closing the Irish Parliament.[54] + +That bargain was broken. It is unhappily the case that the British +Ministers must have given their pledge to the Catholic Party in Ireland +with the conscious knowledge of their inability to carry it out. For +over them all was their King, George III., still with the Royal +privilege of dismissal for his Ministers, and resolutely, fiercely +resolved not to grant Catholic emancipation. Pitt relieved his +conscience by a two-years' resignation, but he returned to Parliament +without achieving his pledge. For another thirty years the struggle +went on. It is the Duke of Wellington himself who has handed down to +history the testimony that Catholic emancipation was only finally +granted in 1829 in order to save Ireland from a second rebellion. + +It is that record that has driven Ireland into the arms of Rome, and +who can wonder? + +England has now only paid the price of that great betrayal of 1800--a +betrayal almost as great as the broken treaty of Limerick. Those who +read the story of 1800 to 1830, and especially the brilliant sketch of +O'Connell's life in Lecky's "Leaders of Irish Public Opinion," will +know that it was in the course of this prolonged struggle for Catholic +emancipation that the forces of religion and politics were first thrown +into close alliance in Ireland. It was not until after 1820 that the +Catholic priest took the place of the Irish landlord, and became what +he was throughout most of the nineteenth century, the political leader +of his district. It was O'Connell who first carried out that great +revolution in political strategy. It was he who first placed the flocks +of the Irish people under the guidance of shepherds who carried the +crook and not the rent-book. If the Home Rule movement has been +assisted by religious fervour, that has been the fault of British +statesmen. If the Irish have stood apart from the rest of Europe by a +steadily deepening loyalty to their faith, the reason is largely to be +found in the British policy of 1800. + + +ROME AND HOME RULE + +What is the moral of all this? Some of the Unionists themselves give a +shrewd though cynical comment on the situation when they suggest, in +the intervals of crying "Home Rule means Rome Rule," that probably the +Roman Catholic priests have no great zeal for Home Rule. I do not, +myself, for a moment believe that that is the case. The Roman Catholic +priests of Ireland have themselves been elevated and purified by the +great struggle, both social and political, through which they have +passed. They stand apart from the rest of the priesthood of Europe, +distinguished above all others by their deep and strong democratic +sympathies. When all others deserted the people of Ireland in the black +times of the '98 Rebellion, in the dark and evil days of the famine of +1847, or through the murderous retaliations that followed, the Irish +priesthood stood staunchly by Ireland. Those who remained faithful then +are not likely to desert the cause of their people now that it is on +the verge of success. A broader and more enlightened view of the future +was expressed to me by that distinguished man the Vice-president of +Maynooth College, when he said:--"We do not expect any direct gain for +our faith, but as Irishmen we are with Ireland, and as Catholics we +cannot but believe that the prosperity of a Catholic nation must +redound to the glory of Catholicism." That is the view of a good +Catholic who is also a good citizen. + +But though we may believe in their resisting power to this great +temptation, we must remember that the failure to settle the Home Rule +question would give to the bishops and priests a great power in +Ireland. They would remain the great, pre-eminent centre of national +authority. Look at their position now. They are public men; they are +allowed, without envy or opposition, to maintain an unchallenged +control over the schools; they have a voice in all great public +decisions of policy, even in regard to such matters as old-age +pensions, insurance, or agriculture. The present position plays into +their hands. "Rome Rule" is far more powerful without "Home Rule." + +So much for the Irish clergy. But what of Rome itself? Looked at from +the distance of the Seven Hills, and viewed from the standpoint of a +Church that contemplates all forms of human government with equal +indifference, always regarding only the good of their Church, is it not +possible that the acute diplomatists of the Eternal City may think +that they stand to gain more by prolonging than by satisfying the +present hunger of Ireland? At present Rome holds Ireland in fee. As +long as Ireland possesses no strong secular central power she must +always lean on the authority of her bishops and archbishops. But Rome +thinks probably more of the 40,000,000 people of Britain than of the +4,000,000 of Ireland. As long as England persists in holding Ireland in +bondage she must pay to Rome some compensation. The eighty votes at +Westminster are still doing the work which Cardinal Manning required of +them. Is it likely that Rome is so beset with anxiety to drive them +across the Channel? Is it altogether unlikely that some of the more +shrewd Italian or Spanish diplomatists at the Vatican--advised, +perhaps, by their English bishops and dukes--may hope to affect the +issue rather in the Unionist than in the Home Rule direction? Such +suspicions may be entirely baseless, but it will be impossible to +disregard them entirely during the events of the next few years. + +It would not be the first time, nor the latest since Castlereagh, when +the extreme Protestant Unionists of this country conspired with the +Tory Ultramontanes of the Vatican to traffic away the liberties of +Ireland.[55] + +Amid all these doubts and perplexities we shall be wise to stick fast +to the central doctrine that civil liberty and religious liberty stand +together. This is the one truth that emerges from the history of Europe +during the last three centuries. Wherever we look--whether in Germany, +France, Holland, Scotland, or England--we see that these two rights +have always gone hand in hand. + +Is there, indeed, a single instance in human history when the grant of +civil liberty has led to the forging of religious chains? Look to the +West, and note how, in the freest countries of the world--in the United +States and Canada, where there is not even a shadow of an establishment +for any form of religion--every kind of human faith lives together in +simple human brotherhood, and draws from that brotherhood new food for +the refreshment of mankind. In Ireland the one reason why the religious +quarrel has been maintained is to be found in the absence of civil +liberty. At every crisis of Ireland's fate the passion of religious +hatred has been worked--then as now--in order to prolong civil and +political despotism. + +May we not be sure that Home Rule, instead of strengthening this evil +tendency, will weaken it? May we not be equally sure that it will take +no blood or muscle from the cause of true religion, certain to flourish +with greater richness and power where Christian love prevails? + +Is it possible, in short, that in Ireland alone, of all countries, +freedom should mean persecution? On the contrary, is it not far more +likely that Home Rule for Ireland will mean neither Rome Rule nor +Orange Rule, but the "rule of the best for the good of all"? + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[51] See Appendix A for the text of the Bill. + +[52] The priests have now practically complete power of dismissal over +the elementary teachers in the Irish schools. The only appeal is to the +Bishops. + +[53] In his "History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century." That book +is one of the most conscientious pieces of work in all modern +historical literature. It should be read by all who wish to gain a +thorough understanding of the Irish problem. + +[54] See a very interesting pamphlet entitled "The Closing of the Irish +Parliament," by John Roche Ardill, LL.D. (Dublin). Dublin: Hodges, +Figgis and Co. Price 1s. 6d. + +[55] For instance, it was by a Unionist intrigue at the Vatican that +the Pope was induced to denounce the "Plan of Campaign," and to +restrain the agitation among the Irish priests. + + + + + HOME RULE IN HISTORY + + FIVE CENTURIES OF LIMITED HOME RULE + (1265-1780) + + + + + "You parade a great deal upon the vast concessions made by this + country to the Irish before the Union. I deny that any + voluntary concession was ever made by England to Ireland. What + did Ireland ever ask that was granted? What did she ever demand + that was not refused? How did she get her Mutiny Bill--a + limited Parliament--a repeal of Poynings' Law--a Constitution? + Not by the concessions of England, but by her fears. When + Ireland asked for all these things upon her knees, her + petitions were rejected with Percevalism and contempt; when she + demanded them with the voice of 60,000 armed men, they were + granted with every mark of consternation and dismay" + + SYDNEY SMITH. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HOME RULE IN HISTORY + + +What is the fact of Irish history vital to our present cause? Surely it +is this, that up to the year 1800--the year of the Act of +Union--Ireland had possessed for practically five centuries a Home Rule +Government in some shape or form. In other words, self-government had +been the rule and not the exception throughout the centuries preceding +1800. This is a complete and sufficient answer to those who argue that +the supporters of Irish Home Rule are making a proposal of a completely +novel and revolutionary kind, without precedent in the history of the +Western world. + +As a matter of plain fact, it was the framers of the Act of Union who +were the revolutionaries, and it is the supporters of Home Rule who are +returning to the ancient paths. The Home Rulers have five centuries +behind them, as against the one century behind the Unionists. From the +days of Simon de Montfort[56] the Irish Parliament developed side by +side with the English, growing with the growth of English rule in +Ireland, and varying with its limitations. Its powers, indeed, were +placed under a grave and serious limitation by Poynings' Law, passed +in the reign of Henry VII.,[57] and strengthened in the reign of Mary +Tudor.[58] They were for a brief time entirely taken away by Oliver +Cromwell, who was, strangely enough, the first great Unionist ruler of +Ireland. Restored by Charles II., the Irish Parliament was again +limited in power by the Government of George I.[59] But in 1782 it +broke through all these limitations, and became for a short brilliant +period a fully self-governing Parliament. + +We have thus the illuminating fact that, with one single exception--and +that an example eminent in English affairs, but certainly not to be +followed in Irish--every great English ruler and monarch governed +Ireland under a distinct Irish Home Rule Parliament up to the year +1800. If Home Rule is so certain to be ruinous to Empire, how, we may +well ask, did these rulers build up the British Empire? How did +Marlborough and Clive, Chatham and Walpole, do their great world-work +with an Irish Parliament behind them? The answer is, of course, that +they did it better, and not worse, because Ireland was so far satisfied +with her fortunes as to be willing to put her full force into the +struggle for Empire. + +For as long as Ireland possessed a Parliament she always possessed +hope. + + +THE UNION CENTURY + +As against these five centuries, we have one century of Irish rule +under a united Parliament--1800 to 1911. One against five. But as the +one is more recent, we have here not a bad provision of material for an +answer to the question: "Which has proved in the past the best way of +governing Ireland--Union or Home Rule?" + +In regard to the century of Union, the record lies before us, open and +palpable, a tale of disaster and tragedy almost without parallel in the +modern history of the world. We see in the statistics of Irish +population, of Irish disease, of Irish poverty during the nineteenth +century[60] a black picture of material decay that literally "cries to +Heaven" for redress. + +Side by side with these statistics, too, we have others to clinch the +evidence which traces the cause to the Act of Union. For the nineteenth +century was no century of decay. On the contrary, in almost every other +Western country, and especially in countries of the same racial and +religious fusion--in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and in +the British Colonies--the nineteenth century was a period of rising +population, advancing commerce, and abounding prosperity. + +Nor is it the fact that British Ministers had any deliberate malice +against Ireland. On the contrary, many noble Englishmen worked +themselves grey during the nineteenth century in their efforts to make +the best of the Union system. Viceroy after Viceroy, and Chief +Secretary after Chief Secretary, have gone to Ireland full of hope, and +have come back converted reluctantly to the admission that their +efforts have been in vain and their work wasted under the present form +of Government.[61] + + "For forms of government let fools contest; + Whate'er is best administered is best" + +sang Pope. But there are some forms of government so bad that they +cannot be well administered. Among them is the form of government +established under the Act of Union. + +Unionist writers who are honest enough to admit the decay of Ireland +between 1800-1900 attempt to trace it to any other cause than the Act +of Union--to over-population, to the Catholic religion, to the Irish +character, or even to the potato. But they labour in vain. If Ireland +stood alone, they might succeed. But it does not stand alone. Precisely +at the time when Ireland was decaying, all other Western nations were +flourishing. Precisely when the Irish race was withering in Ireland, +the same race, with the same religion and the same national +characteristics, was prospering exceedingly in America, and was even +contributing much of the power, skill and value for building up the +white British Colonies. + +Unvarying progress on one side--on the other, unvarying decline, until +checked by the willingness of England to listen to the voice of +Ireland. What evidence could you have more convincing, what witnesses +more eloquent? + +Perhaps, indeed, the most convincing statement of this very case was +given to the world, not by an Irishman or by any Liberal statesman, but +by the great Lord Salisbury. Speaking in 1865 as Lord Robert Cecil, he +uttered the following wise and statesmanlike summary of the policy of +the Union up to that date:-- + + "What is the reason that a people with so bountiful a soil, + with such enormous resources (as the Irish), lag so far behind + the English in the race? Some say that it is to be found in the + character of the Celtic race, but I look to France, and I see a + Celtic race there going forward in the path of prosperity with + most rapid strides--I believe at the present moment more + rapidly than England herself. Some people say that it is to be + found in the Roman Catholic religion; but I look to Belgium, + and there I see a people second to none in Europe, except the + English, for industry, singularly prosperous, considering the + small space of country that they occupy, having improved to the + utmost the natural resources of that country, but distinguished + among all the peoples of Europe for the earnestness and + intensity of their Roman Catholic belief. Therefore, I cannot + say that the cause of the Irish distress is to be found in the + Roman Catholic religion. An hon. friend near me says that it + arises from the Irish people listening to demagogues. I have as + much dislike to demagogues as he has, but when I look to the + Northern States of America I see there people who listen to + demagogues, but who undoubtedly have not been wanting in + material prosperity. It cannot be demagogues, Romanism, or the + Celtic race. What then is it? I am afraid that the one thing + which has been peculiar to Ireland has been the Government of + England."[62] + +Nothing has occurred since 1865 to vary that judgment. + + +THE HOME RULE FIVE + +So much for the one century of Union. What about the five of Home Rule? + +"Were there no black centuries before 1800? Had Ireland no grievances? +What of the 'curse of Cromwell,' the broken 'Treaty of Limerick,' and +the penal laws?" + +Thus I shall be challenged. + +There were, indeed, black centuries before 1800, and black events. +Ireland endured a special share of the agony inflicted upon Europe by +the great religious struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. She suffered, perhaps, more than any other country from the +divisions of Christian Europe following on the revolt of Luther against +Rome in 1520. The statutory limitations of the Irish Parliament during +that period led to many interferences from England, and the gradual +exclusion of Catholics divided the Parliament from the Irish nation. +The artificial infusion of a fanatical Protestant population by James +I. and Cromwell produced a terrible embitterment of the struggle. There +were crimes on both sides, and calamities beyond telling. But, with all +that, it is still to be doubted whether any of those centuries presents +such a picture of national decay, both industrial and social, as is +presented by the Ireland of the nineteenth century. + +For through the blackness of that night the Irish Parliament always +shone like a star. Ireland grew with its growth, and withered with its +decay. Precisely as she had more Home Rule she advanced, and precisely +as she had less she fell back. But as long as the Parliament existed at +all it could never be said that the final spark of liberty had been +stamped out. + +Even in the eighteenth century, when Catholic Ireland seemed to be +crushed, and Ireland lay supine beneath the double weight of the penal +laws and the commercial restrictions of England--an Ireland pictured +for all time by the keen, merciless pen of Dean Swift--still the vestal +flame was not quite extinguished. Captured by ascendancy, dominated by +fanaticism, narrowed to one faith, or even to one section of that +faith, the Irish Parliament still always provided a framework and +machinery for a possible moment of regeneration and recovery. + +That moment came in 1782--came, unhappily both for England and for +Ireland, in such a form as to seem to justify the hard +saying--"England's danger is Ireland's opportunity." + +The story of 1782 has been told with surpassing brilliancy in the +greatest of all Mr. Lecky's books--the darling of his youth and the +worry of his old age--his "Leaders of Irish Public Opinion."[63] The +disastrous and wasting struggle against our own kith and kin in the +American colonies--forced on England by the folly of the same type of +statesmen now resisting Home Rule--had reduced these islands to an +almost defenceless condition. The British Army, intended for the +defence of Great Britain, had been sent away into the forests and +prairies of Northern America to fight an invisible foe, and to meet +with a disastrous and undeserved defeat. But in their blind passion to +subdue the Americans the British Government had for the moment +forgotten Ireland. In their eagerness to conquer their colonies they +had forgotten to maintain their hold on the half-conquered country at +their side. The British troops had been withdrawn from Ireland as well +as from England. At that dramatic moment France came into the struggle +with her fleet, and Ireland, with her great harbours and her accessible +coastline, could not be left defenceless. As Ireland had no British +troops to defend her, it was inevitable that she should be allowed to +defend herself. + +Ireland, never slow in a fight, rose to this crisis. In a few months +there sprang up throughout the country that wonderful movement of the +Irish Volunteers. Ireland in a few weeks produced an army that kept +Europe from her shores. Sixty thousand Irishmen stood to arms. Ireland +could no longer be hectored or bullied. She was, for the moment--for +the only time in her history--mistress of her own fate. + +The American War came to its only possible end with the grant of +American Independence. Great Britain turned to look to her own domestic +affairs, and found herself face to face with the possibility of a +second war. For Ireland, having once armed to resist Europe, refused to +disarm until she received her liberty. The Volunteers, in other words, +would not disperse except on the conditions that the Irish Parliament +should become a reality. Poynings' Law was to be repealed. The right of +legislative initiative was to be given back to the Irish Parliament, +and England was to admit solemnly and categorically the right of +Ireland to make laws for herself. + +It was a tremendous demand, but the British Government had no choice +except to yield. Exhausted with the American struggle, the British +Ministers could not face a second war. The demands of Ireland were +granted, and thus in a moment Grattan's Parliament, in the full panoply +of armed strength, sprang into existence. + +Well might Grattan exclaim, at the opening of that Parliament, in words +that still send a thrill through every true lover of freedom:-- + + "I found Ireland on her knees. I watched over her with an + eternal solicitude. I have traced her progress from injuries to + arms, and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift! Spirit of + Molyneux! Your genius has prevailed. Ireland is now a Nation! + In that new character I now hail her! And, bowing to her august + presence, I say, _Esto Perpetua_."[64] + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[56] The first real representative English Parliament, of course, was +summoned by Simon de Montfort in 1265. Grattan was accustomed to claim +"seven centuries" as the lifetime of the Irish Constitution; but in +that, of course, he went back behind the days of a representative +Parliament. + +[57] Poynings' Law was passed by the Irish Parliament, at Drogheda, in +1495, under the influence of Sir Edward Poynings, the Lord Deputy of +Ireland to the Viceroy Prince Henry, afterwards King Henry VIII. The +essential provision of Poynings' Law was that it secured all initiative +in legislation to the English Privy Council, leaving to Ireland nothing +but the simple power of acceptance or rejection. Ireland was thus left +only a veto, though a veto is often a considerable weapon. + +[58] An Act in the reign of Mary forbade the Irish Parliament to alter +or add to an Act of Parliament returned to her from England. + +[59] 6 of George I. made the Irish Parliament subordinate and +dependent. + +[60] See Appendix B. + +[61] Among the Viceroys converted of later years to Home Rule by +experience of the present system of Irish Government may be named Lord +Spencer, Lord Dudley, and probably the last Lord Carnarvon. The +resignation of Mr. George Wyndham was due to the suspicion of his +conversion. + +[62] Quoted by Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., in his brilliant book "The Case +for Home Rule." (Maunsel & Co., Dublin.) + +[63] See the essays on Flood and Grattan. (Longmans, 2 vols., 1903.) + +[64] Grattan, 16th April, 1782. + + + + + HOME RULE IN HISTORY + + GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT + + + "To destroy is easy: the edifices of the mind, like the fabrics + of marble, require an age to build, but ask only minutes to + precipitate: and as the fall of both is an effort of no time, + so neither is it a business of any strength. A pick-axe and a + common labourer will do the one--a little lawyer, a little + pimp, a wicked Minister the other." + + GRATTAN (1800.) + + + + + "Yet I do not give up my country. I see her in a swoon, but she + is not dead--though in her tomb she lies helpless and + motionless, still there is on her lips a spirit of life, and on + her cheeks a glow of beauty-- + + 'Thou art not conquered: Beauty's ensign yet + Is crimson on thy lips and in thy cheeks, + And Death's pale flag is not advanced there.'" + + GRATTAN + (In the final debate on the Act of Union, + May 26th, 1800). + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HOME RULE IN HISTORY + + +Grattan's Parliament was the first Parliament with full legislative +authority possessed by Ireland since the time of Henry VII. It existed +for nearly twenty years, and in that brief time it did a great work for +Ireland. If we look for its epitaph we shall find it, strangely enough, +in the words spoken in 1798 by the man who pursued Grattan's Parliament +with his venomous hate, and finally compassed its doom--the famous +Irish Chancellor, Lord Clare:-- + + "=There is not a nation on the face of the habitable globe + which has advanced in cultivation, in agriculture, in + manufactures, with the same rapidity, in the same period, as + Ireland.="[65] + +But, great and splendid as was Grattan's victory, there were two points +of weakness in the settlement of 1782, soon to be revealed by +experience. One was that although the Irish Parliament obtained the +right of legislation, the appointment of the Government and the +Executive was still placed in the hands of the Irish Privy Council, and +therefore of the British Central Government. That meant, in the end, +that the British Government still possessed the leverage for recovering +the powers of legislative initiative and legislative veto. + +As far as Ireland possessed separate executive powers, she used them +with loyalty and patriotism. Take, for instance, her finance. Ireland +possessed, under the settlement, a separate Irish Exchequer, and the +British Government could levy no war taxes in Ireland, except with the +consent of the Irish Parliament. That gave to the Irish Parliament an +immense power of checking and hampering England in her struggle against +Napoleon. If we were to judge from some of the talk heard at the +present moment, one would take for granted that Ireland must have +refused all help to England in that struggle. + +On the contrary, the Irish Parliament voted sums freely to Pitt for the +wars against France. The Irish statesmen would have no dealings with +the English Whigs in their pro-French policy. Like that other great +Irishman, Edmund Burke, Grattan was opposed to the spirit of the French +Revolution. In that great European crisis Ireland showed herself what +she really is--a nation inclined in all essentials to conservative +rather than revolutionary ideas. + + +"CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION" + +But it was the existence of a separate external executive, gradually +limiting the legislative powers of the Irish Parliament, that finally +brought out the gravity of the other signal defect in the settlement of +1782. That defect was the failure to effect a complete settlement of +the Catholic question. For the Irish Parliament, even after 1782, was +still confined to Protestants. Could any reasonable man call that a +final solution of the problem of government in a country where +four-fifths of the people were Catholics? With a truer foresight than +Grattan, Flood desired that the Volunteers should refuse to lay down +their arms until the Catholic question had been settled. But Grattan, +still filled with that spirit of generous trust which has been the +undoing of so many noble Irishmen, refused to use the military power +for any further exaction of terms. He disbanded the Volunteers. + +Grattan trusted that once the Irish Parliament was endowed with full +powers, the Catholic question would settle itself. He could rely with +certainty on his own Protestant followers. He persuaded them to repeal +the penal laws. He prevailed upon them to extend the franchise to the +Catholic peasant. Both those great reforms were passed through the +Irish Parliament in the fulness of its strength and power, and the +British Government were compelled to acquiesce. But there Grattan +reached the limit of his authority. There was one more great step which +had to be taken before the Catholic claims could be satisfied. It was +necessary to concede the right to a Catholic, as to a Protestant, to +sit in the Irish Parliament. When Grattan made that proposal, he found +himself faced with new forces. The British Government and the +Ascendancy Party in Ireland had already begun to regain their hold over +the Irish Parliament. The forces of patronage and corruption were +already at work. + +If those had been the only powers Grattan might have defeated them. +Neither he nor his admirers were perhaps wholly aware of what we now +know to be the centre of this resistance--the dogged, almost insane, +obstinacy of George III. Pitt indeed had already lost his earlier +reforming zeal. The shadow of the French struggle had already fallen +across his path, and had already shaken his early faith in freedom and +progress. But if Pitt had been left alone he might still have done +justice. It was George III. that lost us the soul of Ireland, as he +lost us both the body and soul of North America. + +There were, indeed, moments in those difficult days when the British +people seemed to realise dimly the wisdom of what Burke saw to be the +wisest British fighting policy--the policy of rallying Catholic +Ireland against revolutionary France. There was, for instance, the +mission of Lord Fitzwilliam in 1795--a Whig mission extorted from Pitt +against his will, due to a Parliamentary complication, and backed from +London with but half-hearted support. That famous mission which sent +through Ireland such a strange, sad thrill of hope, soon closed in mist +and darkness. Lord Fitzwilliam went to Ireland, as many Englishmen have +gone since, with the intention of doing justice. He was thwarted, like +most others, by the resistance of the local Ascendancy Party, fighting +doggedly for the remnants of its power. It was the place-holders of +Ireland who, intriguing with the Ministry in London, led to the recall +of Lord Fitzwilliam.[66] + +For that party was then playing the same part as it is attempting to +play to-day. They were playing then, as ever since, on the nerves of +Protestant England. They were conjuring up the dread of Catholic power, +and the terror of Irish disloyalty. Unhappily, in the confusions of the +moment--the confusions of the French wars--they succeeded. By +compelling the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam they wrecked the hopes of the +Grattan Parliament. + +For after 1795 that Parliament was practically doomed, and events moved +rapidly to their climax. Grattan, thwarted in his policy, and unwilling +to be responsible for a body over which he had no control, withdrew +into retirement. The Irish Catholics, feeling themselves again betrayed +and deserted, relapsed all over Ireland into sullen indifference and +detachment. The Protestant Parliament, deprived of their leader, swung +more and more towards the Ascendancy Party. Even so, indeed, the virtue +of self-government continued to work. No Parliament has left a better +record of good local work for the prosperity of its country than +Grattan's Parliament. From end to end of Ireland new industries had +sprung up, and new life had been put into old industries. Ireland then +was prosperous. Her exports had doubled. Her wealth was increasing. Her +towns overflowed with life, and Dublin for the moment almost rivalled +London in its brilliancy and its wit.[67] + + +THE GREAT REBELLION + +This prosperity might have saved Grattan's Parliament but for a new +movement which had crossed the two channels from France. It is doubtful +whether the Catholics alone could have wrecked Grattan's Parliament. It +was, curiously enough, the Irish Presbyterians of Ulster--our friends, +the Orangemen--who sowed the seeds of revolt against the Protestant +Parliament of 1782. It was they, in the combination known as the +"United Irishmen," who started the movement that culminated in the +Irish Rebellion in 1798. These Presbyterian Nonconformists had all been +deeply affected by the doctrines of the French Revolution. They had for +years past been agitating for a reform of the Irish Parliament on the +lines subsequently adopted in 1831--chiefly by the abolition of the +rotten boroughs. Grattan was with them, but again he was powerless. He +was opposed, both in Dublin and in London, by the existing executives. +Those executives now rested their power almost entirely on the members +returned by those very same rotten boroughs. For ever since 1782 +bribery had been going on, and as early as 1790 England had been +rapidly buying back the hold she had lost in 1782. These being her +weapons, it was not likely that the Irish executive was going to yield +to the claims of the Irish Presbyterians. The Government resisted, and +the movement of the Irish Reformers became more and more formidable. + +All these causes of unrest culminated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798--a +horrible event, beginning with the lawlessness of the revolutionary +Presbyterians in the north--lawlessness so feebly checked as to raise +grave suspicions in regard to the attitude of the Irish Government +itself towards a possible revolution. But the outrages of the Orangemen +on the Catholics in Ulster, and the Catholic feeling of desertion by +the Government, soon produced a far more terrible outbreak in the +south. That practically culminated in a religious war between Catholic +and Protestant. From that moment the Rebellion was marked by atrocities +on both sides almost as terrible as anything which occurred in the +French Revolution. The Rebellion was extinguished in blood and fire. + +The period of exhaustion and despair that followed in Ireland was +seized upon by Castlereagh and Pitt for destroying the Irish +Parliament. An immense machinery of bribery and corruption, assisted by +pledges that were broken and prophecies that failed, all working under +the double shadow of rebellion and war, drove the Irish Parliament to +reluctant suicide, and passed into law, both at Dublin and Westminster, +the Union Act of 1800. + +That great light of the Irish Parliament thus passed suddenly into +darkness. The Chamber which had resounded with the eloquence of Flood +and Grattan passed over to the money-changers, and ever since the clink +of coin has taken the place of the silver voices of the Irish +orators.[68] + + +AFTER THE UNION + +The events of 1800 left Ireland, for the moment, prostrate under the +heel of Great Britain. The last remnants of self-government disappeared +with the absorption of the two exchequers in 1817. Although Ireland +still retained a separate administration, that administration was not +under the control of any self-governing authority. Out of the Dragon's +teeth of the Union rose the sinister army of a new bureaucracy, +recruited almost entirely by the enemies of Ireland, and for the most +part even working with its guns trained against the hopes and +aspirations of the Irish race. + +The artificial stimulus given to agriculture by the French wars +concealed for some years the greatness of the disaster. The population +of Ireland continued to rise. The Irish landlords, indeed, had for the +moment a strong motive to multiply their tenants, in the existence of +the forty shilling freehold vote granted by the Irish Parliament. +Holdings were sub-divided, and the cultivation of the potato encouraged +an even larger population on a lower level of subsistence. This +prepared the way for the great catastrophe of the Irish famine in +1847. It was that famine which brought out fully, for the first time, +the tremendous calamity inflicted on Ireland by the destruction of her +Parliament. + +For it was not that England showed any lack of sympathy in dealing with +the Irish famine. It was indeed that event which finally converted Sir +Robert Peel to the abolition of the Corn Laws, and, more even than the +agitation of Richard Cobden or the speeches of John Bright, contributed +to the final triumph of Free Trade. It was not want of sympathy that +wrecked Ireland then. It was want of understanding. For it was only an +Irish Government, living on the spot, and responsible to the people of +Ireland itself, that could have risen to the great height of that +tremendous emergency. + +The monstrous human disaster that followed--the loss of 2,000,000 of +population in twenty years--was the direct result of the destruction of +all the means of prompt salvage and repair which could have been +brought to bear only by a Home Rule Government. + +During those calamitous decades another great evil emerged as a result +of the Union. Many bad things have been said against the Irish land +laws, and many of them are justified. But the Irish land laws in their +old working were simply rather an exaggerated form of the very same +laws that have survived in England right up to the present moment. Why +is it that these laws proved intolerable in Ireland, and have yet +survived up to the present moment in England? Simply because, after the +passing of the Act of Union, they were aggravated by the great and +terrible social evil of Absenteeism. + +Even those bad laws could be made to work as long as there was a human +relationship between the landlords and their tenants. Up to 1830, at +any rate, there was a strong motive for that relationship. The victory +of Catholic emancipation was a colossal triumph for the genius of +Daniel O'Connell. It removed one of the worst surviving religious +injustices in this kingdom. But in Ireland it was a victory of the +tenant over the landlord, and it was achieved by a new alliance between +tenant and priest against the landlord. While giving emancipation to +the Catholics, the Act of 1830 also raised the level of the franchise, +and abolished the forty shilling freehold vote, thus removing the +landlord's motive for preserving the small tenancies. + +The result was that the Irish landlords as a class--always, of course, +with many conspicuous individual exceptions--entered from 1830 onwards +upon a new career of hostility towards their tenants, amounting to +little less than a passion for revenge. Being, for the most part, both +Protestant and Absentee, they lost all interest in their tenantry, +except that of rent collectors. The Irish famine made matters far +worse. For the famine deprived the Irish tenant, for the moment, of the +power of paying rent. Not only so, but by reducing him to pauperism it +turned him into a distinct and definite burden on the rates. + +The Irish landlords then first conceived the idea that, by getting rid +of the people, they could save their pockets. At the same time, they +made the great discovery that beasts were more profitable than +peasants. Hence the great clearances and evictions of the period +between 1840-1870. Hence the cruel compulsory exodus of vast masses of +the people of Ireland to the shores of America. Hence, finally, the +bitter cleavage between landlords and tenantry which brought the whole +land system of Ireland crashing into ruin. + +These disasters had one good effect. They roused the Irish people from +their indifference. The bitter proofs of mis-government shown by the +breakdown of their land system brought home to every cottager the need +of a Home Rule Government. The great agitations for land reform and +Home Rule went on side by side--sometimes taking a form of violence, +but more and more of orderly constitutional pressure--until in the +seventies there emerged at Westminster a powerful Irish Party, too +strong either for the neglect or the indifference of any British +Government. + + +ENGLAND'S NEED + +It was impossible, indeed, for Great Britain to be indifferent, for she +had suffered almost as much as Ireland. The hostility of the Irish +Party formed a perpetual source of danger to her Governments, both +Liberal and Tory, and a chronic source of instability in her +administration. The democratic movement in England was continually +weakened by the necessity of keeping Ireland down. That necessity +largely broke the strength of the great reform movement of the +thirties. It destroyed Sir Robert Peel's Government in the forties. It +broke down the strength of Mr. Gladstone's Government in the eighties. +Ireland and Irish affairs absorbed so much of the time of the British +Parliament that the affairs of Great Britain herself were neglected. +The old free and easy ways of the British Parliament were brought to a +summary close by the obstruction of the Irish Party in the eighties, +and the modern rules of compartment closure and strict limitation of +debate were forced upon the Mother of Parliaments. + +It was these consequences, quite as much as the sufferings of Ireland, +that gradually converted a great body of the British people to the +cause of Home Rule. That process was going on throughout the seventies +and the eighties, and was brought to a climax by the conversion of Mr. +Gladstone in 1886. Since then the cause which was so despised in the +days of O'Connell has had one of the great English parties behind it, +and has so steadily made its way in the favour of the British nation +that it now stands on the threshold of accomplishment. + + * * * * * + +What, then, emerges from this survey? It is that in returning to Home +Rule as the mode of governing Ireland we are simply going back to the +old and traditional method of Irish rule. It is also that, on surveying +the past, we find not merely that Home Rule has often saved Ireland, +but that always the wider and the more generous the form of Home Rule +the more it has helped Ireland. The wiser course of accepting Irish +advice in Irish affairs has always turned the tide of disaster, and +brought the hope of a new happiness for Ireland. Surely here we have a +convincing proof that the logical consummation of this policy by the +restoration of Home Rule is the only means of bringing back Ireland to +a full and secure enjoyment of lasting well-being. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[65] For confirmation of this see Lecky's "Leaders of Public Opinion in +Ireland," Vol. I., p. 120. + +[66] It is clear from Lecky's account that Lord Fitzwilliam's recall +was due, not so much to any change of policy in London as to his action +in dismissing Beresford, one of the most prominent figures of the Irish +Protestant Party. + +[67] There is a very close and minute account of the growth of Irish +prosperity under the Grattan Parliament in O'Connell's great Repeal +speeches to the British Parliament in 1834. Between 1782 and 1797 the +consumption of coffee in Ireland went up by 600 per cent., the +consumption of tea by 84 per cent., of tobacco by 100 per cent., and +wine by 74 per cent. All these figures ran down rapidly after 1800. + +[68] The Irish Parliament House, built in the eighteenth century, was, +after the Act of Union, handed over to the Bank of Ireland. The House +of Lords has been left intact, but special secret instructions were +given that the Irish House of Commons should be divided into +compartments in order that the memories of the Irish Parliament should +be forgotten. Those instructions were carried out, and the Chamber of +the Irish House of Commons ceased to exist. + + + + + HOME RULE IN THE WORLD + + THE CASE FROM ANALOGY + + + + + "I wish the Irish were negroes, and then we should have an + advocate in the Hon. Baronet. His erratic humanity wanders + beyond the ocean, and visits the hot islands of the West + Indies, and thus having discharged the duties of kindness + there, it returns burning and desolating, to treat with + indignity and to trample upon the people of Ireland." + + O'CONNELL. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOME RULE IN THE WORLD + + +"Ah!" but I shall be told by Unionist critics who have followed me so +far, "but the tendency of the world at present is all towards great +empires and away from little states. You are reversing the process." + +This will probably be one of the most frequent arguments that we shall +hear during the present discussions. We shall, perhaps, have thrown at +our heads cases like the absorption of Persia by Russia, of Tripoli by +Italy, of Morocco by France, and of the Congo by Germany. + +If we are to argue the matter on those lines it will be fair to point +out, on the other side, that during the last decade Norway has +separated from Sweden, new provincial and state governments have been +created in Canada and the United States, new self-governing powers have +been given to Cuba and the Philippines by the Americans in faithful and +loyal adherence to their word at the time of the Spanish-American war, +and, even more recently, new powers have been given to Alsace and +Lorraine by the German Empire. + +So the argument might go on, to and fro, each party pelting one another +with cases from other parts of the world. Perhaps at that point it +might be well to remember the grave and wise warning given us by Lord +Morley in his "Life of Gladstone"--that each case of political +re-adjustment really stands by itself, and that often little light can +be thrown, but rather darkness deepened, by studying too closely the +analogies from other communities. + +Still, though the case of the relations between England and Ireland +must always stand on its own merits, there are general tendencies in +the world which come under law. There are certain lessons to be +gathered from other countries which we should be unwise to ignore. The +Greeks, who were great constitution builders, amused themselves in +their later period by making immense collections of political specimens +from among the Hellenic States. Doubtless their politicians derived +some advantage from this practice of their philosophers. + +There are general tendencies, and those tendencies may be classified +under the two familiar heads of (1) the tendency towards unity and (2) +the tendency towards division. These two tendencies are always going on +side by side in various parts of the world. But the puzzling part of +political study is that very often what seems a tendency towards unity +conceals a tendency towards division, and that what seems a tendency +towards division is really a tendency to unity. + + +THE BRITISH EMPIRE + +Take, for instance, the famous case of the British Empire. Any +superficial observer from another clime or another planet might +conclude from reading the records, that the tendency within the British +Empire during the last century lay toward division. He would find on +looking the matter up in any book of reference that the British Empire +now includes nearly thirty Parliaments.[69] He would discover that the +powers of the central authority have been gradually waning until +practically every great white community outside the United Kingdom has +now complete control over its own local affairs. He might even be +excused some astonishment if he discovered also that these communities +placed heavy taxes on the imports of the mother country, and were in no +degree restrained from doing so, and that there even existed a party in +the home country who contended that that act of filial attention ought +to be rewarded by special preferences to colonial imports at home. +Perhaps he would be most astonished when he discovered that these +colonies were now engaged in raising their own navies and armies, which +might possibly in the future be used for purposes independent of the +central control. + +Pursuing his enquiries, he would discover that this country of Great +Britain had conducted at great cost of life and money, less than ten +years ago, a war to prevent the separation and secession of one great +white community--that of South Africa--and that, having carried that +war to a successful conclusion, the central government had followed up +that war by granting to that great white community a strong central +local government, with complete control of its local affairs. "You talk +about the tendency to unity," he would say, "but have we not here a +clear instance of division?" + +To all of which we should reply, and reply correctly--"Not at all! The +secret of our Empire is that we have found unity in difference. We have +achieved the miracle of combination by means of division of power." + +We should probably have some difficulty in persuading him of this +truth. He might be some Rip Van Winkle, who had gone to sleep during +the War of American Independence, and still derived from those days his +notions of the right principles of colonial government. But if he +conducted his enquiries further he would end by being fully persuaded. +For what would he discover? He would find out that in spite of, or +perhaps by means of, this principle of division the British Empire was +now the most united Empire in the world. He would learn the amazing +story, incredible to almost any other nation, of the great rally of +colonial troops to the help of the Empire at the time of the Boer War. +He would read of the periodical Imperial Conferences at the Centre in +London. He would learn of the new drawing together now going on both in +regard to foreign policy and military strategy. He would contrast all +this with the spirit of the American Colonies between 1776 and 1782. He +would look back, perhaps, to the beginning of this new era of +self-government, and recall the memory of Canada in rebellion, of +Australia in a state of permanent quarrel with Downing Street, and of +South Africa in perpetual, recurring, chronic confusion and disorder. +He would learn that before 1837 every white British colony was +discontented,[70] and that now every colony was loyal. He would +contrast these two pictures of Empire. Perhaps, then, he would realise +that the true secret of the strength of the modern British Empire lay +neither in militarism nor Imperialism, neither in swagger nor bounce +nor boasting nor pride, but in the gradual development of that amazing +policy of generosity and goodwill which is best typified in the phrase, +"Home Rule." + +It is Home Rule that has saved the British Empire up to the present. Is +it not likely that it is Home Rule that will save her in the future? + +"Ah! but"--again will come the cry of the critic of the narrow +vision--"look at the South African Union. Is not that an instance of +unionism as against Home Rule? Have we not there in this latest +achievement a specimen of State authorities over-ruled by a central +power?" + +In answer to that cry, I turn to the eighty-fifth clause of the South +African Act, 1909. In that clause I find the following powers reserved +for the local authorities of Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and the +Orange River Colony:-- + + (1) Direct taxation within their provinces. + (2) The right of borrowing money on their own credit. + (3) All education other than higher education. + (4) Agriculture. + (5) Hospitals. + (6) Municipal institutions. + (7) All local works and undertakings within their provinces. + (8) All roads and bridges within their provinces. + (9) Markets and towns. + (10) Fish and game preservation. + (11) The right of fine and imprisonment, and + (12) Generally all matters which, in the opinion of the + Governor-General in Council, are of a merely local or private + nature. + +Ireland would not very much mind that kind of unionism! + +The fact is, of course, that this instance of South Africa is a typical +example of the principles of unity and division working at the same +time. In regard to South Africa as a whole, the Union Act was a great +and beneficent grant of Home Rule. It was the end of a long period of +harassing interferences with the affairs of South Africa on the part of +the Imperial Government at home, through its High Commissioner on the +spot. That process is even now unfinished. It will probably in the end +have to be brought to completion by the inclusion within the authority +of the South African Parliament of countries like Rhodesia, and even, +perhaps, of Basutoland. + +But in regard to South Africa itself, the same Act was a case of true +unionism required and necessitated by the conditions of the country. +Before 1909 the South African states were suffering within themselves +from excessive division of functions. They were quarrelling over +railways and tariffs. They were unable to pursue any common policy or +common aim. That perpetual division of functions weakened them in the +presence of the world, and rendered them unfit for local guidance. We +should have a similar situation in this country if England, Ireland, +Scotland, and Wales were all under separate governments, with separate +tariffs and separate policy. In that case the doctrine we should be +preaching to-day would not be Home Rule, but Unionism. For these two +tendencies throughout the world are like a see-saw. Both are required +for efficient government. Both may be carried to excessive and +exaggerated lengths. Our case in regard to the United Kingdom is that +unionism has been carried to excessive lengths, and requires to be +tempered by Home Rule. + +For let any Unionist glance round the world outside the British Empire. +He will find that the British do not stand alone in their trust in the +Home Rule principle. Nearly every great Empire in the world rests upon +Home Rule as its basis. Even Russia, perhaps the most centralised of +all, has its provincial councils, known as the Zemstvos, and it was one +of M. Stolypin's most daring actions that he even broke the letter of +the Russian Constitution in order to strengthen the Zemstvos of Eastern +Russia. Finland, too, a province of Russia, possesses a larger form of +local government than is even being demanded by Ireland. It is a +curious irony of the present situation that many of those Britons who +refuse self-government to Ireland are most diligent in watching the +action of Russia in relation to the powerful and--up to the +present--almost independent Parliament of Finland. + + +THE GERMAN EMPIRE + +If we pass from Russia to the other great human combinations, we shall +find the principle of Home Rule far more extensively and powerfully +developed. Take China, a combination of 400,000,000 of human beings, +now changing before our eyes from an absolute monarchy to a +constitutional republic. But whether as a monarchy or a republic, China +has always rested her rule on gigantic and almost autonomous provinces, +under separate Viceroys. Those provinces have doubtless been subject to +the same autocratic control as China herself, but with the change in +her central government they will probably pass by an easy transition +into Home Rule provinces. Or come nearer home to an Empire which most +Englishmen imagine to be the most centralised in the world--the German +Empire. That Empire rests upon a basis of twenty-six autonomous +governments, varying from autocracies at one end to republics at the +other. The German Empire contains within it every form and shape of +human community, varying from sheer mediævalism to extreme modernism. +But whatever the form or shape of these separate governments, they are +all alike in having control over their own local affairs. Most of the +great states of Germany still possess control even over their own +railways. They have their own Parliaments, their own judges, and, in +many cases, their own reigning sovereigns. It was part of the wisdom of +the founders of the German Empire that they made no attempt to +interfere with these local powers. They contented themselves with +combining all those forces for common defence, including them under a +common tariff, and giving to them a common vote for a common assembly +at the centre. In other words, Germany rests upon the two principles of +unity and division, and in that combination lies its strength. + + +THE UNITED STATES + +Or turn to the United States. There you have another of those powerful +human governments resting on a basis of forty-six State authorities, +each with its own legislature, and even with its own little army. Each +of those state governments has control over such great matters as +criminal and civil law, marriage and divorce, licensing, education, +game laws, and the regulation of labour. They have the right to place a +direct tax upon property. They have their own governors and their own +ministries. And yet they all work harmoniously within the central +authority of the Federal States. Probably by no other means could that +great combination be held together. + + +AUSTRIA-HUNGARY + +Or come back to Europe, and take the astonishing case of Austria and +Hungary. There you have two countries of different race and different +language, with different ideals, and with bitter memories of past +strife lying between them. A generation ago it was a commonplace among +all politicians that the Austrian Empire must break up. Yet it still +holds together, and has recently shown itself capable even of +aggressive action. The prophecy of decay is being pushed further and +further forward, and Austria still remains the great Christian bulwark +of Europe. How has that miracle been achieved after the terrible +internecine struggles of the mid-nineteenth century? How is it that +Hungary has forgotten the hangings and the butcheries of the sixties, +and still works within the Austrian Empire? Why, simply by virtue of +the principle of Home Rule. + +Austria and Hungary, indeed, represent a far more extreme and daring +instance of this principle than it is necessary to put forward in +regard to Ireland. They possess distinct Parliaments and distinct +ministries. Those Parliaments sit apart and legislate apart and neither +possess any representation in the other. But they have, as we have +already seen, their link, not merely in a common Emperor and King, but +in a common body called the Delegations. There is the Austrian +Delegation and the Hungarian Delegation, both consisting of sixty +members, twenty from each Upper House, and forty from each Lower House. +The delegations sit alternately at Vienna and Buda Pesth, and they +deliberately and independently communicate their decisions by writing. +But if after three such interchanges no decision is arrived at, then +the whole 120 meet together and settle the matter by vote without +discussion. They possess a common Minister for Foreign Affairs, a +common Minister of War, and a common Minister of Finance. Count Von +Aehrenthal, who has in late years produced so startling an effect on +European politics, is the common Minister for Foreign Affairs for +Austria and Hungary, two countries with distinct Parliaments. + + +INDIA + +I return from this tour of the world back to the British Empire. Here, +too, the principle of Home Rule has been working, not merely in regard +to our white dominions, but during the last ten years even more +daringly in regard to the countries of our black subjects. The great +Indian Reform Act of 1909 has created in India what are practically the +first beginnings of Home Rule Councils. Seven great provinces of India +have now each of them Legislative Councils of their own, and on nearly +all of these Councils the unofficial members are in the majority.[71] + +The powers of these Legislative Councils are still very limited; but +who can doubt that they will increase? + +We are, in other words, faced with the fact that while Ireland has been +waiting for Home Rule we have taken the first great step in granting +Home Rule to India. Surely this is a fact that presents a new challenge +to the reactionary Unionist of the United Kingdom. Does he really +contend that Ireland is incapable of receiving the same liberties as we +are granting to India? Or will he make the wicked and dangerous +suggestion that we are only conceding these things to India by force +from fear of disorder, and in that way threaten the happy peace of +Ireland? + +Surely the concession of Home Rule to India removes the last vestige of +an Imperial argument against Home Rule for Ireland also! + + * * * * * + +Such are the results of a general survey at the present moment. They +show that in proposing Home Rule for Ireland we are not rowing against +the tide, but following the drift of a general law which is prevailing +all over the world. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[69] See Appendix K. This figure includes, of course, the Isle of Man +and the Channel Islands. + +[70] See the Letters of Lord Aberdeen quoted by Mr. Gladstone. + +[71] The Governors of Madras and Bombay and the five +Lieutenant-Governors each have Legislative Councils. Under the new +scheme the Legislative Councils of the provinces are constituted as +follows:-- + + Madras 48 members. 20 official. 26 unofficial. 2 experts. + Bombay 48 " 18 " 28 " 2 " + Bengal 51 " 18 " 31 " 2 " + United 49 " 21 " 26 " 2 " + Provinces + East Bengal 43 " 18 " 23 " 2 " + and Assam + Punjab 27 " 11 " 14 " 2 " + Burma 18 " 7 " 9 " 2 " + + + + + + + + HOME RULE FINANCE + + "You gave £20,000,000 to the negroes or to their masters. Will + you give £20,000,000 to the Irish?" + + O'CONNELL + + + + + "The noble Lord, towards the conclusion of his speech, spoke of + the cloud which rests at present over Ireland. It is a dark and + heavy cloud, and its darkness extends over the feelings of men + in all parts of the British Empire. But there is a consolation + which we may all take to ourselves. An inspired King and bard + and prophet has left us words which are not only the expression + of a fact, but which we may take as the utterance of a + prophecy. He says, 'To the upright there ariseth light in the + darkness.' Let us try in this matter to be upright. Let us try + to be just. That cloud will be dispelled. The dangers which + surround us will vanish, and we may yet have the happiness of + leaving to our children the heritage of an honourable + citizenship in a united and prosperous Empire." + + JOHN BRIGHT (1868) + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HOME RULE FINANCE + + +Home Rule finance is already the subject of a whole library of books +and pamphlets, and there is some danger that the money question may +occupy a place out of all perspective and proportion in the coming +controversy. Men quarrel over money very easily, and some of the +fiercest opponents of Home Rule still imagine that they can silence the +Home Rulers by talking "money" at the top of their voices. But the Home +Rulers must not be drawn into that net. They must refuse to view this +matter as a question merely of book-keeping and accounts. They must +remember always that the financial difficulty is simply another +statement of the fact of Irish poverty, and that Irish poverty is due +to the Act of Union. It is not any financial arrangement, but Home Rule +itself, that will cure the difficulties of Irish finance. + +On the one side, the English are being told that they are going to be +bled white in order to please Ireland. On the other side, the Irish are +being warned by their extremists that England hopes to undo the effects +of Home Rule by a dowry of impoverishment. On both sides of the Channel +the enemies of Home Rule hope to use this as a weapon to defeat the +cause. Let us, therefore, keep our heads, and look at the problem +calmly and sanely. + +What is the present position in regard to Irish finance? It has totally +changed since 1893. It follows, therefore, that the financial proposals +of the 1886 and the 1893 Bills are of little value to us as a guide to +the policy of 1912.[72] In those days the British Government could +cheerfully propose a fixed contribution of over £4,000,000 from the new +Irish Parliament, as in the Bill of 1886, or an allocation of one-third +of the general revenue of Ireland, for Imperial expenditure, as in the +Bill of 1893. Lord Morley has told us that in 1886 Mr. Parnell was +gravely disturbed over the finance proposals of Mr. Gladstone. We +thought him unreasonable at the time, and perhaps a little mean. I can +remember Liberals saying hard things about the Irish attitude in those +days. But the events that have occurred since prove that Mr. Parnell, +on that occasion, was only exercising his customary shrewdness. He saw +to the root of the matter. He was evidently possessed with the fear +that he might be saddled with a poverty-stricken Home Rule Parliament, +and the course of events since 1886 has somewhat justified his fear. + + +THE NEW IRISH DEFICIT + +For since 1886, two events have happened. The first has been that +Ireland instead of being the creditor is now the debtor of England. The +most recent Treasury estimate, as given by Mr. Asquith in his first +reading speech on the Home Rule Bill of 1912 gives the true deficit of +Ireland for 1912-3 at £1,500,000. I am aware that the Treasury +estimates are open to many criticisms, which have been brilliantly +stated by Professor Kettle in his handbook on "Home Rule Finance,"[73] +but for our present purposes we are bound to accept these figures. + +What do they show? In the first place, they fully bear out the forecast +of the Financial Relations Commission that the position of Ireland +under the Act of Union would become steadily worse. We have probably +not yet reached the bottom of the hill. Ireland is so poor that each +new Act for the relief of poverty increases the disproportion between +the expenditure of Great Britain and Ireland. There is no way out of +that vicious circle. If England were to increase Irish taxation she +would simply increase the poverty which she has to relieve. During the +last fifty years, in fact, the British Government has had to give back +in some form of relief an equivalent for almost every increase of +taxation enforced upon Ireland. If Ireland cannot pay, England must +pay. That means that unless Home Rule is given during the next twenty +years Ireland will become an increasingly heavy charge upon Great +Britain. + +In face of these facts, it is clear that Great Britain will be wise to +"cut the loss." Considerable scorn has been thrown on the suggestion +made by Professor Kettle and others that Great Britain should present +Ireland with a dowry of £20,000,000 on the occasion of setting up a +Home Rule Parliament. Mr. Kettle called it a "wedding present," to +which Mr. F.E. Smith retaliated with some humour that it was really a +"separation allowance." Mr. Kettle has since replied with even better +humour that as Home Rule is the only true marriage between the nations +his description is the more correct. This is all a pretty play of wit, +but we must not allow it to conceal from us the fact that if John Bull +deals generously with Ireland at this present moment he will be playing +the part, not merely of a philanthropist, but of a good business man. + +There are many ways in which this generosity can be shown. A big +capital sum of money would probably be bad both for England and for +Ireland. It would give Ireland a sense of dependence, and it would +leave England with a sense of injury. There are many other better ways +of making this financial adjustment. The charge which has turned +Ireland into a debtor to England, for instance, is the £2,500,000 drawn +from the Imperial Exchequer for Irish Old-age Pensions. The men and +women who are receiving those pensions are the veterans of the famine +period, and England has a special obligation towards them. + +The Home Rule Bill of 1912 provides that these old age pensions should +be kept for the moment as an Imperial charge. That will be both a +generous and humane provision. + +Another proposal made by Irish financial reformers is that the Royal +Irish Constabulary, a force which costs £1,370,000 a year, should be +regarded and paid for as an Imperial force. The argument is that the +Royal Irish Constabulary was created in the interests of the English +garrison--was, in fact, an army of occupation, which, since the new +settlement of the Irish land question, has become, in Mr. Kettle's +witty phrase, an "army of no occupation." + +That proposal is not adopted in the Home Rule Bill of 1912. The force +is kept under the control of the British Government for six years, and +it will then be handed over to Ireland. In the meantime, it will be +paid for out of the money reserved from Irish revenue by the Imperial +Government. We shall have to wait, therefore, for six years before the +Irish Government is able to apply economy to what is perhaps the most +expensive and most extravagant service in the whole administration of +Ireland. + +The general financial proposals of the 1912 Bill are as follows:-- + +The British Treasury takes the Irish revenue and divides it into three +portions. The first is the postal revenue, which will be both collected +and controlled by the Irish Government, as the Post Office will be +handed over immediately. The second is the "transferred" revenue, +amounting to £6,350,000, which is the estimated cost of the services +delegated to the Irish Parliament, such as the Civil Service, the +payment of judges, and so forth. This revenue will still be collected +by the Imperial Government, but handed over to Ireland. The third +portion will be the "reserved" revenue, consisting of the amount +retained by the British Treasury for the services over which it will +retain control. Those services will be as follows:-- + + £ + Old Age Pensions 2,660,000 + National Insurance 190,000 + Land Purchase 616,000 + Constabulary (Royal Irish) 1,380,000 + Collection of Revenue 300,000 + --------- + 5,146,000 + --------- + +This leaves the profit and loss account for Great Britain as follows:-- + + Receipts. Expenditure. + £9,485,000 On "Reserved Services" £5,046,000 + On "Transferred Sum" 6,350,000 + ----------- + £11,396,000 + ----------- + +The upshot is that the British deficit, which stands at present at +£1,500,000, will rise to £1,911,000. That will be covered by a grant of +£500,000 a year. That grant will be reduced annually by decrements of +£50,000 until it reaches £200,000. + +There is no need for the British taxpayer to be alarmed at this +balance-sheet. The essential fact is that Home Rule will work steadily +on the side of thrift and saving. The substantial points are--(1) that +pensions will from this time forward steadily decrease; (2) that the +Royal Irish Constabulary will be diminished; and (3) that any increase +in the prosperity of Ireland will result in an increasing yield of +taxation collected by the British Treasury and devoted to the benefit +of the British taxpayer. The British taxpayer, in a word, is thoroughly +well looked after. + +Doubtless these proposals will be subjected to much criticism in +committee, and no one would pretend that they could not be improved in +detail. It might be argued, for instance, that it would be better for +Great Britain to make herself responsible for the Royal Irish +Constabulary as an Imperial charge, and therefore have a motive for +reducing it. That action might be taken as a generous substitute for +the bonus of £500,000 a year, which may possibly not produce favourable +effects on the relations between the two countries. As against the +extra charge to the British Treasury, you would have the fact that the +British Government could immediately proceed to reduce the +Constabulary. + +But once give Ireland a chance by some such settlement as this, and +then the main problem of finance will solve itself. For we cannot +ignore one very important aspect of that problem--the extravagance of +Irish government. One of the most startling revelations of the +Financial Commission Report was that Ireland, a poor country, cost +twice as much to govern as Belgium, a country of nearly twice the +population. Mr. Kettle has shown since that the Civil Service of +Ireland is four times as great, and costs more than four times as much, +as the Civil Service of Scotland.[74] + +Why is this? Because at the present moment two systems of government +are existing in Ireland side by side--the old and the new. The old is +for the most part an encumbrance and an impediment, but the new is +required for doing the work of land purchase and agricultural +development. Ireland is like a household into which a new staff of +servants is being imported, while nobody dares to disturb the old. +Could there be a more extravagant way of governing a country? + +The only way to put that house in order is to give it Home Rule. All +the rights of existing civil servants must be respected, and therefore +the saving on that account will only be gradual. Mr. Kettle estimates +it at £700,000 within a reasonable time. That is probably even an +under-estimate. For once this kind of saving begins, it soon tells on a +nation's expenditure. Ireland is at present governed from the point of +view of the place-hunters. Once Ireland begins to be governed from the +point of view of the Irish people, then the reign of extravagance will +be at an end. + +Once the Home Rule Parliament is set up we shall be able to distinguish +clearly between Ireland's local and her Imperial obligations. We shall +hear much indignant talk against any proposal that Ireland shall pay +less than her full proportional contribution for Imperial Defence. +Those who are so moved on this question seem to forget that the British +Colonies pay practically nothing. Yet we have never heard that they +are paupers on that account. They certainly derive more from the +Empire than Ireland. Therefore, there would be nothing either degrading +or unjust even if Ireland were relieved from all Imperial expenditure +for a term of years. For Ireland requires time to recover from the +impoverishment of the past, and it may be wise to give her that time. +But once that time is over, the Irish Parliament will probably wish to +follow in the steps of the Grattan Parliament, and contribute her +honest due to the Empire of which she will be a part. But that due must +be paid, not out of deficit, but out of surplus. As long as Ireland has +a deficit produced by poverty, it is absurd to talk to her about +Empire. Once she has a surplus--and a surplus will soon come with the +working of Home Rule--then she will play her part in a manly way. + +For we must never forget that Home Rule in itself is a great financial +asset. During the brief period of the Grattan Parliament, as we have +seen, Ireland doubled her exports. During that time the Parliament +carried out public works in every part of Ireland, and industry throve. +Those things cannot be done by an absentee Parliament. They can only be +done by a Parliament on the spot. They are intensely and earnestly +needed by Ireland at present. For Ireland is largely an industrial +derelict, waiting for the restoring hand of a central governing power. +It is impossible to put this aspect of the matter into figures. Here we +must move in faith. But we cannot see this matter clearly unless we +believe firmly--as we have every justification for believing--that Home +Rule means wealth to Ireland. + + +THE FINANCIAL COMMISSION + +But we have to remember that since 1893 a great and authoritative +Financial Commission has reported that England stands in debt to +Ireland. + +The British public has never quite realised what the Report of 1896 +signified, or quite understood the effect which it produced on the +Irish nation. The Financial Relations Commission was a body created by +the Liberal Government in 1894, soon after the defeat of the Home Rule +Bill, and partly as a consequence of that defeat. It consisted of +fifteen of the ablest financiers in the United Kingdom, including two +great Treasury Chiefs, Lord Farrer and Lord Welby, Sir Robert Hamilton, +Sir David Barbour, and that great Parliamentary financial expert Mr. +W.A. Hunter. The chair was occupied by an ex-Chancellor of the +Exchequer, Mr. Childers.[75] The Commission sat for two years, and +carried out a most searching investigation. They reported in 1896. +Their united Report consists of only two pages in the Blue Book,[76] +and the essence of it is contained in five short paragraphs, as +follows:-- + + (1) That Great Britain and Ireland must, for the purpose 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. + +Now, what does this amount to? As worked out in the various minority +reports, it means that, in the opinion of this Commission, Ireland has +been over-taxed for many years at the rate of over £2,000,000 a year. +As to the precise sum the Commissioners differ. Some went as high as +£3,500,000, others down to £2,000,000, but all, except Sir Thomas +Sutherland and Sir David Barbour, set it at about £2,000,000. Mr. +Childers, unhappily, died before the close of the Commission. But he +wrote an epoch-making Report, in which he estimated the excess of +taxation at £2,250,000.[77] + +Now, it is useless to make light of this Report. It was the solemn +judgment of the highest financiers of the day on the financial workings +of the Act of Union. If we turn back to the debates in Parliament in +1800, especially to the speeches of Pitt, prophesying that the Act of +Union would take the wealth of England across St. George's Channel, and +apply it to Ireland, we cannot escape some sombre reflections on the +short-sightedness of great statesmen. Pitt's judgment was disturbed by +the existence of a war with France, which created in him an intense +desire to unite the two countries. Otherwise he would probably have +foreseen that for a rich partner to unite his finances with a poor +partner certainly meant bankruptcy for the one, and probably, in the +end, also ruin for the other. Taking the nineteenth century as a whole, +the fundamental financial error has been this--that Ireland has been +taxed on the theory of equality with England in point of wealth. That +equality has not existed. What was a light burden for the one country +has proved for the other a burden too heavy to be borne. + +The result has been that Ireland, being continually overtaxed, has sunk +steadily in her resources, and has gradually become less and less of a +taxable country. The taxes have returned less and less, and have had to +be returned in the form of relief of poverty. A crisis in that +situation is now reached, and it is quite clear that we stand at the +parting of two roads. Now that the balance is beginning to work against +England, it is certain that the only alternative to the restoration of +Ireland is the gradual dragging down of England. + +It is useless and unjust to argue, in answer to this great Report, that +Ireland ought not to have been regarded as a financial unit at all. Any +country that is an island, and possesses a social organisation of its +own, with a definite relationship between rich and poor, must +necessarily be a financial unit. But even if that were not so, it is +too late to argue the question with any honour. For we must never +forget that the whole financial legislation of the United Kingdom in +regard to Ireland is based upon the Act of Union, which was practically +a solemn treaty between the two countries, passed--we will not say +how--by both the British and the Irish Parliaments. It is the essence +of that treaty that Ireland entered into it upon certain financial +terms, and among those terms was the condition that she should be +treated as a separate financial unit. + +This Report, therefore, immensely strengthens the claim of Ireland to +more generous financial terms in 1912 than in 1886 or in 1893. + +We want to set up in Ireland a high and strong sense of financial +responsibility. The control therefore, as well as the expenditure, must +be placed as far as possible in Irish hands, and for that purpose the +management, as well as the collection, of Irish taxes ought to be left +as far as possible with the Irish Exchequer that must be set up. + +The tendency is started by the principle of the Bill of 1912, and the +policy of the next decade will be to place in Irish hands as rapidly +as possible both the collection and the administration of the finance +for all the great Irish services, including those at present "reserved" +as well as those at present "transferred." + +This brings us finally to the vexed problem of Customs and Excise. It +is notorious that the greater part of the Irish revenue--the revenue of +a poor country, derived for the most part through indirect taxation--is +drawn from Customs and Excise.[78] + +It is not, perhaps, surprising, therefore, that the Bill of 1912 should +go some way towards meeting the demand that has sprung up in various +quarters, both in Ireland and in England, for the control of customs +and excise by the Irish Parliament. The proposal of the Government is +that we should extend to Ireland, with some variations, what is at +present the financial arrangement in regard to customs and excise +between the British Treasury and the Isle of Man. The first fact to be +remembered quite clearly is that the Irish Parliament is absolutely +debarred from creating any new duty. It will not be able to draw up any +new set of tariffs. In other words, it will have to adapt its revenue +to the general financial policy of the central government, whether that +be a free trade policy or a tariff reform policy. But Ireland is to be +allowed to vary her customs within certain limits. She may, for +instance, reduce her customs to the lowest point, on the only condition +that she loses thereby equivalent revenue. But on the main custom +duties which fall on such articles as tea, sugar, cocoa, tobacco, and +so forth, she cannot raise her customs beyond 10 per cent. The only +exceptions will be beer and spirits, on which Ireland may raise her +customs or her excise to any point that she desires. It will be +necessary, of course, to have rebates or countervailing duties in +regard to articles transferred from Great Britain to Ireland, or _vice +versa_, and to that very slight extent alone will these proposals +affect the trade relations between Ireland and England. + +I may add that the same power of reduction or addition will extend both +to income tax and death duties up to the limit of 10 per cent. for +increase--a provision which will safeguard the industries of the North +from being sacrificed to the needs of the South.[79] + +Such are the proposals of the 1912 Home Rule Bill. They appear to +present an ingenious compromise between the complete delegation of +customs and excise and the complete centralisation. There are very +serious objections to the complete separation of these duties. One is +that separation of customs has been accepted everywhere as vitally +inconsistent with the Federal idea. No State of the American Union has +separate customs. Even Bavaria, a State of the German Empire which +possesses, as we have seen, a separate army, post office, and national +railways, has no separate customs. Such a plan could, therefore, hardly +fit in with Federalism, as at present realised in any part of the +world. The second objection would be the very grave offence given to +the free trade sentiment of Great Britain, and the very grave injury to +trade between Britain and Ireland, if we were to hand over to Ireland +the right of placing taxes on English goods. Under such circumstances +it would certainly be impossible to persuade the British public to +grant a bonus to Ireland in order to give her the power of taxing +British goods. That would clearly be too great a strain upon the +Christian sentiment even of John Bull. + +Parnell, it is well known, felt a strong temptation to make a demand +for separate customs. But he always put it aside as impolitic, probably +on this very ground; and the rise of the Tariff Reform movement since +his death has certainly not weakened those considerations, because it +has led to a corresponding rise of free trade feeling among a large +part of the British public on this side of the Channel. + +It is quite clear that the Government's compromise on customs and +excise, ingenious as it is, will be subject to very close and shrewd +criticism. But the first duty of Home Rulers, both in Great Britain and +Ireland, is to avoid the carefully-baited trap of a quarrel on points +of detail. That is the obvious game of the enemies of Home Rule. The +proper policy of every true Home Ruler is to preserve through all the +vicissitudes of those financial discussions a sane and steady +perspective, well knowing that, after all, finance is not really the +true heart of this problem. + + +THE MIGHTY HOPE + +We must not reduce a great human problem to a squabble over +pocket-money. We must in this, too, as in the religious and political +sides of the question, have faith in the result of freedom. We must +believe, as we have every right to believe, that liberty will bring to +Ireland a new power over her resources, and a new skill in using +them--that her magnificent harbours will no longer be silent, or her +rivers empty; that her factories will hum once more with a new life and +industry; that the grass will cease to grow in her streets and on her +wharves, and that the rich and strong will cease to fly from her +shores. All this must be taken into account in any reasonable +calculation of the future. It is just as foolish to err from lack of +faith as it is to blunder from excess of credulity. + +For here, indeed, we have an excellent precedent to give us hope. It +was the common evidence of all experts at the time that Ireland grew +greatly richer under the twenty years of Grattan's Parliament. The +future Irish Parliament will, just as it will be more representative, +so supply Ireland with a machine even more efficient than Grattan's +Parliament. If so, we have every reason to suppose that within twenty +years we shall have a richer Ireland, with a far greater taxable +capacity. For can we doubt that the alchemy of liberty will here, too, +even in this sordid realm of finance, repeat its ancient power? + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[72] For these proposals see Appendix D. + +[73] For instance, in the absence of Irish Customs the estimates of +true Irish revenue can only be approximate. On the expenditure side, +too, there are grave matters of consideration. For instance, should the +vote for Irish Constabulary be regarded as a local or Imperial charge? +Or Irish judges, or even Irish poverty? It was the definite opinion of +the Financial Relations Commission that until Home Rule was set up +there could be no possible way of distinguishing between local and +Imperial expenditure in Ireland. + +[74] There are 4,397 civil servants in Ireland with incomes over £160 a +year, as against 944 for Scotland. (Inland Revenue Report, 1909-1910.) + +[75] The members of this Commission were:--The Rt. Hon. Hugh Childers, +Lord Farrer, Lord Welby, the Rt. Hon. O'Conor Don, Sir Robt. Hamilton, +Sir Thomas Sutherland, K.C.M.G., Sir David Barbour, K.C.S.I., the Hon. +Ed. Blake, M.P., Bertram W. Currie, Esq., W.A. Hunter, Esq., M.P., C.E. +Martin, Esq., J.E. Redmond, Esq., M.P., Thomas Sexton, Esq., M.P., and +added in June, 1894, Henry F. Slattery, Esq., and G.W. Wolff, Esq., +M.P. + +[76] C. 8262, price 1s. 10d. + +[77] Lord MacDonnell has estimated the total over-payment of Ireland in +the nineteenth century as exceeding £300,000,000. + +[78] Out of a total tax-revenue of £24,000,000 from 1906-9 Ireland paid +no less than £18,000,000 in Customs and Excise. (Inland Revenue +Report.) + +[79] See the Government Outline of Financial Provisions, Appendix A. + + + + +HOME RULE + +APPENDICES + + +A. THE HOME RULE BILL OF 1912. + +B. THE SHRINKAGE OF IRELAND. + +C. THE ACT OF UNION. + +D. THE HOME RULE BILLS OF 1886 AND 1893. + +E. THE IRISH BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. + +F. THE REDUCTION IN IRISH PAUPERISM. + +G. THE LAND LAW (IRELAND) ACT, 1881. + +H. THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOARD. + +J. IRISH CANALS AND RAILWAYS. + +K. HOME RULE PARLIAMENTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE. + + + + +APPENDIX A + +THE HOME RULE BILL OF 1912. + + +A BILL TO + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1912.] + +AMEND the PROVISION for the Government of Ireland. BE it enacted by the +King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of +the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present +Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-- + + +_Legislative Authority._ + +[Sidenote: Establishment of Irish Parliament.] + +1.--(1) On and after the appointed day there shall be in Ireland an +Irish Parliament consisting of His Majesty the King and two Houses, +namely, the Irish Senate and the Irish House of Commons. + +(2) Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish Parliament or +anything contained in this Act, the supreme power and authority of the +Parliament of the United Kingdom shall remain unaffected and +undiminished over all persons, matters, and things within His Majesty's +dominions. + +[Sidenote: Legislative powers of Irish Parliament.] + +2. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Irish Parliament shall +have power to make laws for the peace, order, and government of Ireland +with the following limitations, namely, that they shall not have power +to make laws except in respect of matters exclusively relating to +Ireland or some part thereof, and (without prejudice to that general +limitation) that they shall not have power to make laws in respect of +the following matters in particular, or any of them, namely-- + + (1) The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency; or + the Lord Lieutenant except as respects the exercise of his + executive power in relation to Irish services as defined + for the purposes of this Act; or + + (2) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state + of war; or the regulation of the conduct of any portion of + His Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities + between Foreign States with which His Majesty is at peace, + in relation to those hostilities; or + + (3) The navy, the army, the territorial force, or any other + naval or military force, or the defence of the realm, or any + other naval or military matter; or + + (4) Treaties, or any relations, with Foreign States, or + relations with other parts of His Majesty's dominions, or + offences connected with any such treaties or relations, or + procedure connected with the extradition of criminals under + any treaty, or the return of fugitive offenders from or to + any part of His Majesty's dominions; or + + (5) Dignities or titles of honour; or + + (6) Treason, treason felony, alienage, naturalisation, or aliens + as such; or + + (7) Trade with any place out of Ireland (except so far as trade + may be affected by the exercise of the powers of taxation + given to the Irish Parliament, or by the regulation of + importation for the sole purpose of preventing contagious + disease); quarantine; or navigation, including merchant + shipping (except as respects inland waters and local health + or harbour regulations); or + + (8) Lighthouses, buoys, or beacons (except so far as they can + consistently with any general Act of the Parliament of the + United Kingdom) be constructed or maintained by a local + harbour authority; or + + (9) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of + weights and measures; or + + (10) Trade marks, designs, merchandise marks, copyright, or + patent rights; or + + (11) Any of the following matters (in this Act referred to as + reserved matters), namely-- + + [Sidenote: 8 Edw. 7. c. 40 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 16. 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. + 55. 9 Edw. c. 7.] + + (a) The general subject-matter of the Acts relating + to Land Purchase in Ireland, the Old Age Pensions Acts, + 1908 and 1911, the National Insurance Act, 1911, and + the Labour Exchanges Act, 1909; + + (b) The collection of taxes; + + (c) The Royal Irish Constabulary and the management + and control of that force; + + (d) Post Office Savings Banks, Trustee Savings Banks, + and Friendly Societies; and + + (e) Public loans made in Ireland _before the passing + of this Act_: + + Provided that the limitation on the powers of the + Irish Parliament under this section shall cease as + respects any such reserved matter if the corresponding + reserved service is transferred to the Irish Government + under the provisions of this Act. + +Any law made in contravention of the limitations imposed by this +section shall, so far as it contravenes those limitations, be void. + +[Sidenote: Prohibition of laws interfering with religious equality, +&c.] + +3. In the exercise of their power to make laws under this Act the Irish +Parliament shall not make a law so as either directly or indirectly to +establish or endow any religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof, +or give a preference, privilege, or advantage, or impose any disability +or disadvantage, on account of religious belief or religious or +ecclesiastical status, or make any religious belief or religious +ceremony a condition of the validity of any marriage. + +Any law made in contravention of the restrictions imposed by this +section shall, so far as it contravenes those restrictions, be void. + + +_Executive Authority._ + +[Sidenote: Executive power in Ireland.] + +4.--(1) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in His +Majesty the King, and nothing in this Act shall affect the exercise of +that power except as respects Irish services as defined for the +purposes of this Act. + +(2) As respects those Irish services the Lord Lieutenant or other chief +executive officer or officers for the time being appointed in his +place, on behalf of His Majesty, shall exercise any prerogative or +other executive power of His Majesty the exercise of which may be +delegated to him by His Majesty. + +(3) The power so delegated shall be exercised through such Irish +Departments as may be established by Irish Act, or subject thereto, by +the Lord Lieutenant, and the Lord Lieutenant may appoint officers to +administer those Departments, and those officers shall hold office +during the pleasure of the Lord Lieutenant. + +(4) The persons who are for the time being heads of such Irish +Departments as may be determined by Irish Act, or, in the absence of +any such determination, by the Lord Lieutenant, and such other persons +(if any) as the Lord Lieutenant may appoint, shall be the Irish +Ministers. + +Provided that-- + + (a) No such person shall be an Irish Minister unless he is a + member of the Privy Council of Ireland; and + + (b) No such person shall hold office as an Irish Minister for a + longer period than six months, unless he is or becomes a + member of one of the Houses of the Irish Parliament; and + + (c) Any such person not being the head of an Irish Department + shall hold office as an Irish Minister during the pleasure + of the Lord Lieutenant in the same manner as the head of an + Irish Department holds his office. + +(5) The persons who are Irish Ministers for the time being shall be an +Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Ireland (in this Act +referred to as the "Executive Committee"), to aid and advise the Lord +Lieutenant in the exercise of his executive power in relation to Irish +services. + +(6) For the purposes of this Act, "Irish services" are all public +services in connexion with the administration of the civil government +of Ireland except the administration of matters with respect to which +the Irish Parliament have no power to make laws, including in the +exception all public services in connexion with the administration of +the reserved matters (in this Act referred to as "reserved services"). + +[Sidenote: Future transfer of certain reserved services.] + +5.--(1) The public services in connexion with the administration of the +Acts relating to the Royal Irish Constabulary and the management and +control of that force, shall by virtue of this Act be transferred from +the Government of the United Kingdom to the Irish Government on the +expiration of a period of six years from the appointed day and those +public services shall then cease to be reserved services and become +Irish services. + +(2) If a resolution is passed by both Houses of the Irish Parliament +providing for the transfer from the Government of the United Kingdom to +the Irish Government of the following reserved services, namely-- + + (a) All public services in connexion with the administration of + the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908 and 1911; or + + (b) All public services in connexion with the administration of + Part I. of the National Insurance Act, 1911; or + + (c) All public services in connexion with the administration of + Part II. of the National Insurance Act, 1911, and the Labour + Exchanges Act, 1909; or + + (d) All public services in connexion with the administration of + Post Office Savings Banks, Trustee Savings Banks, and + Friendly Societies; + +the public services to which the resolution relates shall be +transferred accordingly as from a date fixed by the resolution, being a +date not less than a year after the date on which the resolution is +passed, and shall on the transfer taking effect cease to be reserved +services and become Irish services: + +Provided that this provision shall not take effect as respects the +transfer of the services in connexion with Post Office Savings Banks, +Trustee Savings Banks, and Friendly Societies until the expiration of +ten years from the appointed day. + +(3) On any transfer under or by virtue of this section, the transitory +provisions of this Act (so far as applicable) and the provisions of +this Act as to existing Irish officers shall apply with respect to the +transfer, with the substitution of the date of the transfer for the +appointed day, and of a period of five years from that date for the +transitional period. + + +_Irish Parliament._ + +[Sidenote: Summoning, &c., of Irish Parliament.] + +6.--(1) There shall be a session of the Irish Parliament once at least +in every year, so that twelve months shall not intervene between the +last sitting of the Parliament in one session and their first sitting +in the next session. + +(2) The Lord Lieutenant shall, in His Majesty's name, summon, prorogue, +and dissolve the Irish Parliament. + +[Sidenote: Royal assent to Bills of Irish Parliament] + +7. The Lord Lieutenant shall give or withhold the assent of His Majesty +to Bills passed by the two Houses of the Irish Parliament, subject to +the following limitations; namely-- + + (1) He shall comply with any instructions given by His Majesty + in respect of any such Bill; and + + (2) He shall, if so directed by His Majesty, postpone giving the + assent of His Majesty to any such Bill presented to him for + assent for such period as His Majesty may direct. + +[Sidenote: Composition of Irish Senate.] + +8.--(1) The Irish Senate shall consist of forty senators nominated as +respects the first senators by the Lord Lieutenant subject to any +instructions given by His Majesty in respect of the nomination, and +afterwards by the Lord Lieutenant on the advice of the Executive +Committee. + +(2) The term of office of every senator shall be eight years, and shall +not be affected by a dissolution; one fourth of the senators shall +retire in every second year, and their seats shall be filled by a new +nomination. + +(3) If the place of a senator becomes vacant before the expiration of +his term of office, the Lord Lieutenant shall, unless the place becomes +vacant not more than six months before the expiration of that term of +office, nominate a senator in the stead of the senator whose place is +vacant, but any senator so nominated to fill a vacancy shall hold +office only so long as the senator in whose stead he is nominated would +have held office. + +[Sidenote: Composition of Irish House of Commons.] + +9.--(1) The Irish House of Commons shall consist of one hundred and +sixty-four members, returned by the constituencies in Ireland named in +the First Part of the First Schedule to this Act in accordance with +that Schedule, and elected by the same electors and in the same manner +as members returned by constituencies in Ireland to serve in the +Parliament of the United Kingdom. + +(2) The Irish House of Commons when summoned shall, unless sooner +dissolved, have continuance for five years from the day on which the +summons directs the House to meet and no longer. + +(3) After _three years from the passing of this Act_, the Irish +Parliament may alter, as respects the Irish House of Commons, the +qualification of the electors, the mode of election, the +constituencies, and the distribution of the members of the House among +the constituencies, provided that in any new distribution the number of +the members of the House shall not be altered, and due regard shall be +had to the population of the constituencies other than University +constituencies. + +[Sidenote: Money Bills.] + +10.--(1) Bills appropriating revenue or money, or imposing taxation, +shall originate only in the Irish House of Commons, but a Bill shall +not be taken to appropriate revenue or money, or to impose taxation by +reason only of its containing provisions for the imposition or +appropriation of fines or other pecuniary penalties, or for the payment +or appropriation of fees for licences or fees for services under the +Bill. + +(2) The Irish House of Commons shall not adopt or pass any resolution, +address, or Bill for the appropriation for any purpose of any part of +the public revenue of Ireland or of any tax, except in pursuance of a +recommendation from the Lord Lieutenant in the session in which the +vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed. + +(3) The Irish Senate may not reject any Bill which deals only with the +imposition of taxation or appropriation of revenue or money for the +services of the Irish Government, and may not amend any Bill so far as +the Bill imposes taxation or appropriates revenue or money for the +services of the Irish Government, and the Irish Senate may not amend +any Bill so as to increase any proposed charges or burden on the +people. + +(4) Any Bill which appropriates revenue or money for the ordinary +annual services of the Irish Government shall deal only with that +appropriation. + +[Sidenote: Disagreement between two Houses of Irish Parliament.] + +11.--(1) If the Irish House of Commons pass any Bill and the Irish +Senate reject or fail to pass it, or pass it with amendments to which +the Irish House of Commons will not agree, and if the Irish House of +Commons in the next session again pass the Bill with or without any +amendments which have been made or agreed to by the Irish Senate, and +the Irish Senate reject or fail to pass it, or pass it with amendments +to which the Irish House of Commons will not agree, the Lord Lieutenant +may during that session convene a joint sitting of the members of the +two Houses. + +(2) The members present at any such joint sitting may deliberate and +shall vote together upon the Bill as last proposed by the Irish House +of Commons, and upon the amendments (if any) which have been made +therein by the one House and not agreed to by the other; and any such +amendments which are affirmed by a majority of the total number of +members of the two Houses present at the sitting shall be taken to have +been carried. + +(3) If the Bill with the amendments (if any) so taken to have been +carried is affirmed by a majority of the total number of members of the +two Houses present at any such sitting, it shall be taken to have been +duly passed by both Houses. + +[Sidenote: Privileges, qualifications, &c. of members of Irish +Parliament.] + +12.--(1) The powers, privileges, and immunities of the Irish Senate and +of the Irish House of Commons, and of the members and of the committees +of the Irish Senate and the Irish House of Commons, shall be such as +may be defined by Irish Act, but so that they shall never exceed those +for the time being held and enjoyed by the Commons House of Parliament +of the United Kingdom and its members and committees, and, until so +defined, shall be those held and enjoyed by the Commons House of +Parliament of the United Kingdom, and its members and committees at the +date of _the passing of this Act_. + +(2) The law, as for the time being in force, relating to the +qualification and disqualification of members of the Commons House of +Parliament of the United Kingdom, and the taking of any oath required +to be taken by a member of that House, shall apply to members of the +Irish House of Commons. + +(3) Any peer, whether of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, +Scotland, or Ireland, shall be qualified to be a member of either +House. + +(4) A member of either House shall be incapable of being nominated or +elected, or of sitting, as a member of the other House, but an Irish +Minister who is a member of either House shall have the right to sit +and speak in both Houses, but shall vote only in the House of which he +is a member. + +(5) A member of either House may resign his seat by giving notice of +resignation to the person and in the manner directed by standing orders +of the House, or if there is no such direction, by notice in writing of +resignation sent to the Lord Lieutenant, and his seat shall become +vacant on notice of resignation being given. + +(6) The powers of either House shall not be affected by any vacancy +therein, or by any defect in the nomination, election, or +qualification, of any member thereof. + +(7) His Majesty may by Order in Council declare that the holders of the +offices in the Irish Executive named in the Order shall not be +disqualified for being members of either House of the Irish Parliament +by reason of holding office under the Crown, and except as otherwise +provided by Irish Act, the Order shall have effect as if it were +enacted in this Act, but on acceptance of any such office the seat of +any such person in the Irish House of Commons shall be vacated unless +he has accepted the office in succession to some other of the said +offices. + + +_Irish Representation in the House of Commons._ + +[Sidenote: Representation of Ireland in the House of Commons of the +United Kingdom.] + +13. Unless and until the Parliament of the United Kingdom otherwise +determine, the following provisions shall have effect:-- + + (1) After the appointed day the number of members returned by + constituencies in Ireland to serve in the Parliament of the + United Kingdom shall be forty-two and the constituencies + returning those members shall (in lieu of the existing + constituencies) be the constituencies named in the second + Part of the First Schedule to this Act, and no University + in Ireland shall return a member to the Parliament of the + United Kingdom. + + (2) The election laws and the laws relating to the qualification + of parliamentary electors shall not, so far as they relate + to elections of members returned by constituencies in + Ireland to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, be + altered by the Irish Parliament, but this enactment shall + not prevent the Irish Parliament from dealing with any + officers concerned with the issue of writs of election, and + if any officers are so dealt with, it shall be lawful for + His Majesty by Order in Council to arrange for the issue of + any such writs, and the writs issued in pursuance of the + Order shall be of the same effect as if issued in manner + heretofore accustomed. + + * * * * * + +So far for the constitutional clauses. The clauses from 14 to 26 are +occupied with finance. They are so technical that it will be more +convenient to substitute the terms of the very clear Memorandum issued +by the Government:-- + + +OUTLINE OF FINANCIAL PROVISIONS. + +_Present Irish Revenue and Expenditure._ + +It is estimated that the revenue to be derived from Ireland in the year +1912-13 will be as follows:-- + + £ + Customs 3,230,000 + Excise 3,320,000 + Income tax 1,512,000 + Estate duties 939,000 + Stamps 347,000 + Miscellaneous 137,000 + Post Office 1,354,000 + ----------- + Total 10,839,000 + ----------- + +It is estimated that the expenditure for Irish purposes in the year +1912-13 will amount to £12,354,000. The expenditure may be divided for +the purposes of this Memorandum as follows:-- + + £ + All purposes not separately specified 5,462,000 + Post Office 1,600,000 + Old Age Pensions 2,664,000 + Charges under the Land Purchase Acts 761,000 + National Insurance and Labour Exchanges 191,500 + Royal Irish Constabulary 1,377,500 + Collection of revenue 298,000 + ---------- + Total 12,354,000 + ---------- + +The expenditure therefore exceeds the revenue by £1,515,000. + +It is anticipated that in a period of ten or fifteen years the charges +under the existing Land Purchase Acts will increase by £450,000, and +under the National Insurance Act by £300,000. On the other hand, it is +estimated that within twenty years the cost of Old Age Pensions will +decrease by £200,000. + + +_Charges upon the Irish Exchequer._ + +The Bill provides for the establishment of an Irish Exchequer and an +Irish Consolidated Fund. + +From the Irish Exchequer will be defrayed the whole of the present and +future cost of Irish government, with the exception of the expenditure +on certain services, termed in the Bill Reserved Services. + + +_Charges upon the Imperial Exchequer._ + +The Imperial Government will retain the control, and the Imperial +Exchequer will continue to bear the cost, of the Reserved Services, +namely, Old Age Pensions, National Insurance, Labour Exchanges, Land +Purchase, and Collection of Taxes. For a period of six years the Royal +Irish Constabulary will also be one of the Reserved Services. + +There are provisions for the transfer to the Irish Government of +certain of the Reserved Services under the conditions stated below. + + +_Revenue of the Irish Exchequer._ + +The Bill provides, in the first instance, for the period during which +the yield of Irish taxes is less than the cost of Irish administration, +and contemplates certain modifications after a financial equilibrium +has been attained. + +During that period the revenue of the Irish Exchequer will consist of a +sum transferred annually from the Imperial Exchequer, and termed in the +Bill the Transferred Sum, together with the receipts of the Irish Post +Office. + +The Transferred Sum will be fixed at the outset at such amount as will +cover, with the addition of the Post Office revenue, the present +expenditure on Irish Government, with the exception of the cost of the +Reserved Services. Included in the Transferred Sum will also be a +specified sum as surplus. The amount of this surplus will be £500,000 +annually for a period of three years, then diminishing by £50,000 a +year for six years till it reaches £200,000, at which sum it will +remain. + +Subject to this variation in the amount of the surplus and to certain +minor variations specified in the Bill, and subject also to any changes +consequent upon the exercise by the Irish Parliament of the powers of +increasing or reducing taxation which are defined below, the amount of +the Transferred Sum, fixed in the first year after the passing of the +Act, will remain the same until an equilibrium is reached between the +total revenue derived from Ireland and the total expenditure on Irish +purposes. + + +_Revenue of the Imperial Exchequer from Ireland._ + +The Bill provides that until such equilibrium is established the whole +of the proceeds of all Irish taxes shall be collected by the Treasury +of the United Kingdom, and be paid into the Imperial Exchequer. (This +provision does not apply to Post Office revenue.) + +The revenue so collected should be sufficient to cover the Transferred +Sum and to provide a balance sufficient to defray a part of the cost of +the Reserved Services. As the revenue from Ireland increases in the +future, the receipts of the Imperial Exchequer will increase +proportionately, and the yearly deficit which will fall at the outset +upon the Imperial Exchequer will gradually be lessened and ultimately +disappear. + + +_Joint Exchequer Board._ + +The Bill establishes a Joint Exchequer Board of Great Britain and +Ireland, consisting of two members appointed by the Imperial Treasury +and two by the Irish Treasury, with a Chairman appointed by His Majesty +the King. + +The duty of the Board will be to determine certain questions of fact +arising from time to time under the financial provisions of the Bill. + +The figures given in this Paper are estimates only, and do not purport +to be final. The Bill, therefore, does not rest upon these figures, but +enables fuller returns to be obtained after the passing of the Act, and +it provides that the amounts of Irish Revenue and Expenditure for the +purposes of the Act shall be, not the figures given in this Paper, but +such sums as may be determined after the passing of the Act, upon the +basis of these fuller returns and of the more accurate figures of +Revenue and Expenditure which will then be available, by the Joint +Exchequer Board. + + +_Revenue and Expenditure Accounts._ + +If, however, the estimates given above are assumed, for purposes of +illustration, to be the figures finally determined, the Irish +Government's Budget in the first year would balance as follows:-- + +------------------------------+------------------------------ + _Revenue._ | _Expenditure._ + £ | £ +Transferred Sum 6,127,000 | All purposes not +Post Office 1,354,000 | separately + | specified - 5,462,000 +Fee Stamps 81,000 | Post Office - 1,600,000 + | ---------- + | 7,062,000 + | Surplus - 500,000* + ---------- | ---------- + Total - 7,562,000 | Total - 7,562,000 +------------------------------+------------------------------- +* Subject to subsequent reduction as stated above. + +The Imperial Government's receipts and expenditure on Irish account +would balance as follows:-- + +------------------------------+-------------------------------- + _Revenue._ | _Expenditure._ + £ | £ +Irish Revenue | Transferred Sum 6,127,000 + (excluding Post | Old Age Pensions 2,664,000 + Office and fee | National Insurance + stamps) 9,404,000 | and Labour +Deficit 2,015,000 | Exchanges 191,500 + | Land Purchase-- + | (1.) Land + | Commission 592,000 + | (2.) Other + | Charges 169,000 + | Constabulary 1,377,500 + | Collection of + | Revenue 298,000 + ---------- | ---------- + 11,419,000 | Total 11,419,000 +------------------------------+-------------------------------- + + +_Powers of Varying Taxation._ + +The Bill confers on the Irish Parliament the following financial +powers:-- + +1. It may add to the rates of Excise Duties, Customs Duties on beer and +spirits, Stamp Duties (with certain exceptions), Land Taxes, or +Miscellaneous Taxes, imposed by the Imperial Parliament. + +2. It may add to an extent not exceeding 10 per cent, to the Income +Tax, Death Duties, or Customs Duties other than the duties on beer and +spirits, imposed by the Imperial Parliament. + +3. It may levy any new taxes, other than new Customs Duties. + +4. It may reduce any tax levied in Ireland, with the exception of +certain Stamp Duties. + +The Imperial Treasury will collect the revenue arising from any +increases in taxation enacted by the Irish Parliament in the exercise +of these powers; and an addition will be made to the Transferred Sum of +such amount as the Joint Exchequer Board may determine to be the +produce of the additional taxation. Similarly, if taxation, is reduced +by the Irish Parliament, a deduction will be made from the Transferred +Sum corresponding to the loss of revenue due to the repeal of a tax or +to collection at the lower rates. + +The Irish Exchequer will therefore gain or lose by any increase or +decrease in taxation enacted by the Irish Parliament, and the net +revenue of the Imperial Exchequer will remain unaffected by such +changes. + +If Excise or Customs Duties are imposed at different rates in Great +Britain and Ireland respectively, provision is made for the adjustment +of the taxes paid in respect of articles passing from one country to +the other. + +As administrative difficulties might arise in certain cases if the 10 +per cent. limitation mentioned above were in terms to prohibit +additions to the taxes in question to an extent of more than 10 per +cent. of the rates of tax, the Bill effects the object in view by +enacting that only such proceeds of the tax as do not exceed 10 per +cent. of the yield of the Imperial tax shall be transferred to the +Irish Exchequer. + +The Bill makes no specific reference to the powers of the Imperial +Parliament to levy taxation in Ireland. The provision in clause 1 that +the supreme power and authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom +shall remain unaffected retains the existing powers of the Imperial +Parliament in this regard. + + +_Transfer of the Reserved Services to the Irish Government._ + +After six years, the control of the Royal Irish Constabulary will pass +to the Irish Executive. The Irish Parliament is empowered to assume at +any time, with twelve months' notice, legislative and executive control +with respect to Old Age Pensions, to National Health Insurance, or to +Unemployment Insurance, together with Labour Exchanges. When any such +transfer of Reserved Services is effected, the financial burden will be +assumed by the Irish Exchequer, and an addition will be made to the +Transferred Sum corresponding to the financial relief given to the +Imperial Exchequer. + + +_Loans and Capital Liabilities._ + +Loans made for the purposes of land purchase and loans made before the +passing of the Act for other Irish purposes will be among the Reserved +Services, and the payment of interest and sinking fund charges will be +made by the Imperial Exchequer. + +New loans may be raised by the Irish Parliament on the security of the +Irish revenue. Provision is also made for enabling the joint Exchequer +Board, if so authorised by the Irish Parliament, to issue the loans and +to meet the interest and sinking fund charges by means of deductions +from the Transferred Sum. + +The Bill provides for the apportionment between the two Exchequers of +liability for existing loans raised for Irish services. + + +_Readjustment when Financial Equilibrium is reached._ + +When the total revenue received from Ireland by the Imperial Treasury +has been sufficient, during three consecutive years, to meet the total +charges for Irish purposes, the Exchequer Board shall report the fact +with a view to a revision of the financial arrangements. Since it is +impossible now to foresee what services may remain at that time as +Reserved Services, what loans may have been contracted during the +intervening years, and what changes may have been made in the rates of +taxation, the Bill does not attempt to enact the modifications which +may then be desirable. + +It contemplates, however, as part of the present financial settlement, +that Parliament will then consider, on the one hand, the fixing of such +contribution by Ireland to the common expenses of the United Kingdom as +may be equitable, and, on the other hand, the transfer to the Irish +Legislature and Government of the control and collection of such taxes +as may be deemed advisable. + +The remaining clauses--from 27 to 47--are concerned with readjustments +as to judges, civil servants, police and other matters, and do not vary +substantially from the corresponding clauses in the Bill of 1893 +(published in Appendix D). The first meeting of the Irish Parliament +is fixed for the first Tuesday in September, 1913. + +There are only two other clauses which require special notice, as +adding fresh provisions to those laid down in the Bill of 1893. + +The first is the 26th clause, which gives to the Irish special powers +of representation at Westminster in the case of a revision of the +financial arrangements:-- + +"For the purpose of revising the financial provisions of this Act in +pursuance of this section, there shall be summoned to the Commons House +of Parliament of the United Kingdom such number of members of the Irish +House of Commons as will make the representation of Ireland in the +Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom equivalent to the +representation of Great Britain on the basis of population; and the +members of the Irish House of Commons so summoned shall be deemed to be +members of the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom for +the purpose of any such revision." + +The second--Clause 42--provides that Irish laws shall be interpreted +always in legal subordination to Acts of the Imperial Parliament:-- + +"(2) Where any Act of the Irish Parliament deals with any matter with +respect to which the Irish Parliament have power to make laws which is +dealt with by any Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed +after the passing of this Act and extending to Ireland, the Act of the +Irish Parliament shall be read subject to the Act of the Parliament of +the United Kingdom, and so far as it is repugnant to that Act, but no +further, shall be void." + + + + +APPENDIX B + +THE SHRINKAGE OF IRELAND + + +(1.) THE DECREASE IN POPULATION SINCE 1841. + + +------+--------------+-----------+-----------+------------------------ +Year. | Population. | Decrease. | Decrease | Great Britain. + | | | per cent. | Increase per cent. + | | | +-----------+------------ + | | | | England. | Scotland. +------+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ +1841 | 8,196,597 | -- | -- | -- | -- +1851 | 6,574,278 | 1,622,319 | 19.8 | 12.65 | 10.2 +1861 | 5,798,967 | 775,311 | 11.8 | 11.9 | 6.0 +1871 | 5,412,377 | 386,590 | 6.7 | 13.21 | 9.7 +1881 | 5,174,836 | 237,541 | 4.4 | 14.36 | 11.2 +1891 | 4,704,750 | 470,086 | 9.1 | 11.65 | 7.8 +1901 | 4,458,775 | 245,975 | 5.2 | 12.17 | 11.1 +1911 | 4,381,951 | 76,824 | 1.7 | 10.9 | 6.4 +------+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + +N.B.--This Table is compiled from the Preliminary Reports of the Census +of 1911, which give the population returns only as far back as 1841. +There was, of course, a Census of the United Kingdom as early as 1801, +but the official returns extended at first only to England and +Scotland, and it was not until 1813 that there was any official census +of Ireland. Even then it was far from correct. The first trustworthy +Irish Census was that of 1821. For 1821 and 1831 the Census figures are +given in "Whitaker" as follows:-- + + 1821 6,801,827 + 1831 7,767,401 + +It is probable that the apparent rise of the population from 1821 to +1841 amounts to little more than the more correct taking of the Census +among an illiterate population. But on the whole subject of the rise of +population between 1821 and 1841, see my remarks in Chapter VIII. p. +105. It was due of course very largely to the creation of faggot votes +by Protestant landlords desirous of being returned to Parliament under +the old law before the passing of Catholic Emancipation in 1829. It was +an artificial rise in the poorest section of the population going along +with a steady decline in the general material prosperity of Ireland. +Hence the great collapse of the famine period. + + +(2.) IRISH FAMILIES SINCE 1841. + +(From Preliminary Census Report, 1911.) + +----------------+---------------------------------------- + Year. | Number of Families. +----------------+---------------------------------------- + 1841 | 1,472,787 + 1851 | 1,204,319 + 1861 | 1,128,300 + 1871 | 1,067,598 + 1881 | 995,074 + 1891 | 932,113 + 1901 | 910,256 + 1911 | 912,711 _First Increase since 1841._ +----------------+---------------------------------------- + + +(3.) INHABITED HOUSES SINCE 1841. + +(From same source.) + +----------------+---------------------------------------- + Year. | Number of Inhabited Houses. +----------------+---------------------------------------- + 1841 | 1,328,839 + 1851 | 1,046,223 + 1861 | 995,156 + 1871 | 961,380 + 1881 | 914,108 + 1891 | 870,578 + 1901 | 858,158 + 1911 | 861,057 _First Increase since 1841._ +----------------+---------------------------------------- + + +(4.) EMIGRATION. + +For Decennial Periods, 1852-1910. + +----------+----------------------+------------------- +Period. | Average Number of | Per 1,000 of + | Emigrants, per year. | Population. +----------+----------------------+------------------- + 1852-9 | 115,842 | 15.2 + 1860-9 | 85,960 | 15.2 + 1870-9 | 60,327 | 11.2 + 1880-9 | 80,491 | 16.0 + 1890-9 | 44,955 | 9.7 + 1900-9 | 35,886 | 8.1 + 1910 | 32,457 | 7.4 + 1911 | 31,058 | 7. +----------+----------------------+------------------- + + + + +APPENDIX C + +TEXT OF THE ACT OF UNION + + +An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.--[2d July 1800.] + +WHEREAS in pursuance of His Majesty's most gracious Recommendation to +the Two Houses of Parliament in _Great Britain_ and _Ireland_ +respectively, to consider of such Measures as might best tend to +strengthen and consolidate the Connection between the Two Kingdoms, the +Two Houses of the Parliament of _Great Britain_ and the Two Houses of +the Parliament of _Ireland_ have severally agreed and resolved, that, +in order to promote and secure the essential Interests of _Great +Britain_ and _Ireland_, and to consolidate the Strength, Power, and +Resources of the _British_ Empire, it will be advisable to concur in +such Measures as may best tend to unite the Two Kingdoms of _Great +Britain_ and _Ireland_ into One Kingdom, in such Manner, and on such +Terms and Conditions, as may be established by the Acts of the +respective Parliaments of _Great Britain_ and _Ireland:_ + +And whereas, in furtherance of the said Resolution, both Houses of the +said Two Parliaments respectively have likewise agreed upon certain +Articles for effectuating and establishing the said Purposes, in the +Tenor following: + + +ARTICLE FIRST. + +[Sidenote: That _Great Britain_ and _Ireland_ shall, upon _Jan. 1, +1801_, be united into One Kingdom; and that the Titles appertaining to +the Crown &c., shall be such as His Majesty shall be pleased to +appoint.] + +That it be the First Article of the Union of the Kingdoms of _Great +Britain_ and _Ireland_, that the said Kingdoms of _Great Britain_ and +_Ireland_ shall, upon the First Day of _January_ which shall be in the +Year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and one, and for ever +after, be united into One Kingdom, by the Name of _The United Kingdom +of Great Britain and Ireland;_ and that the Royal Stile and Titles +appertaining to the Imperial Crown of the said United Kingdom and its +Dependencies; and also the Ensigns, Armorial Flags and Banners thereof, +shall be such as His Majesty, by His Royal Proclamation under the Great +Seal of the United Kingdom, shall be pleased to appoint. + + +ARTICLE SECOND. + +[Sidenote: That the Succession to the Crown shall continue limited and +settled as at present.] + +That it be the Second Article of Union, that the Succession to the +Imperial Crown of the said United Kingdom, and of the Dominions +thereunto belonging, shall continue limited and settled in the same +Manner as the Succession to the Imperial Crown of the said Kingdoms of +_Great Britain_ and _Ireland_ now stands limited and settled, according +to the existing Laws, and to the Terms of Union between _England_ and +_Scotland_. + + +ARTICLE THIRD. + +[Sidenote: That the United Kingdom be represented in One Parliament.] + +That it be the Third Article of Union, that the said United Kingdom be +represented in One and the same Parliament, to be stiled _The +Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland._ + + +ARTICLE FOURTH. + +[Sidenote: That the Number of Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and of +Commoners herein specified, shall sit and vote on the Part of _Ireland_ +in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.] + +That it be the Fourth Article of Union, that Four Lords Spiritual of +_Ireland_ by Rotation of Sessions, and Twenty-eight Lords Temporal of +_Ireland_ elected for Life by the Peers of _Ireland_, shall be the +Number to sit and vote on the Part of _Ireland_ in the House of Lords +of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; and One hundred Commoners (Two +for each County of _Ireland_, Two for the City of _Dublin_, Two for the +City of _Cork_, One for the University of _Trinity College_, and One +for each of the Thirty-one most considerable Cities, Towns, and +Boroughs), be the Number to sit and vote on the Part of _Ireland_ in +the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom: + +[Sidenote: That such Act as shall be passed in _Ireland_ to regulate +the Mode of summoning and returning the Lords and Commoners to serve in +the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall be considered as Part of the +Treaty of the Union.] + +That such Act as shall be passed in the Parliament of _Ireland_ +previous to the Union, to regulate the Mode by which the Lords +Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, to serve in the Parliament of +the United Kingdom on the Part of _Ireland_, shall be summoned and +returned to the said Parliament, shall be considered as forming Part of +the Treaty of Union, and shall be incorporated in the Acts of the +respective Parliaments by which the said Union shall be ratified and +established: + +Here follow clauses making provision (1) that the House of Lords shall +decide all questions of rotation or election in regard to Peers from +Ireland, (2) that Irish Peers not sitting in the Lords may be elected +to Commons, but loses thereby all privileges of Peerage, (3) that the +Crown may create Irish Peerages in proportion of one for each three +that become extinct until the Irish Peerage is reduced to 100, when +they can go on creating enough to keep up to the 100. + +The rest of this article consists of machinery provisions. + + +ARTICLE FIFTH. + +[Sidenote: The Churches of _England_ and _Ireland_ to be united into +One Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Doctrine of the Church of +_Scotland_ to remain as now established.] + +That it be the Fifth Article of Union, That the Churches of _England_ +and _Ireland_, as now by Law established, be united into One Protestant +Episcopal Church, to be called, _The United Church of England and +Ireland_; and that the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Government of +the said United Church shall be, and shall remain in full force for +ever, as the same are now by Law established for the Church of +_England_; and that the Continuance and Preservation of the said United +Church, as the established Church of _England_ and _Ireland_, shall be +deemed and taken to be an essential and fundamental Part of the Union; +and that in like Manner the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and +Government of the Church of _Scotland_, shall remain and be preserved +as the same are now established by Law, and by the Acts for the Union +of the Two Kingdoms of _England_ and _Scotland_. + + +ARTICLE SIXTH + +places Irish subjects under same laws and provisions in regard to trade +and navigation prohibitions and bounties, imports and exports, and +provides for the gradual abolition of customs duties between Great +Britain and Ireland. + + +ARTICLE SEVENTH + +provides that the Irish National Debt shall be kept distinct from the +British National Debt. It fixes the proportions of contributions to +revenue at 15 for Great Britain as to 2 for Ireland for 20 years. To be +revised at the end of 20 years on a variety of alternative bases of +calculation (Customs, trade, income, etc.). The contributions to be +raised in both countries by taxes fixed by the United Parliament, and +Parliament to have power to vary taxes, unify debt, and any Irish +surplus to be reduced by reduction of taxation. Loans in future to be +common. + + +ARTICLE EIGHTH + +first recites that all present laws to remain in force till repealed. +Provides also that these Articles not to become Act until passed by +Parliament. + +Ends by reciting the measure to be passed through Irish Parliament +regulating the representation of Ireland at Westminster after 1801. + + + + +APPENDIX D + +THE HOME RULE BILLS OF 1886 AND 1893 + + +(1) THE BILL OF 1886. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1886] + +A Bill to Amend the provision for the future Government of Ireland. + +BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the +advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in +this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as +follows: + + +PART I. + +_Legislative Authority._ + +[Sidenote: Establishment of Irish Legislature.] + +1. On and after the appointed day there shall be established in Ireland +a Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and an Irish +Legislative Body. + +[Sidenote: Powers of Irish Legislature.] + +2. With the exceptions and subject to the restrictions in this Act +mentioned, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen, by and with +the advice of the Irish Legislative Body, to make laws for the peace, +order, and good government of Ireland, and by any such law to alter and +repeal any law in Ireland. + +[Sidenote: Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.] + +3. The Legislature of Ireland shall not make laws relating to the +following matters or any of them:-- + + (1.) The status or dignity of the Crown, or the succession to + the Crown, or a Regency; + + (2.) The making of peace or war; + + (3.) The army, navy, militia, volunteers, or other military or + naval forces, or the defence of the realm; + + (4.) Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the + relations between the various parts of Her Majesty's + dominions; + + (5.) Dignities or titles of honour; + + (6.) Prize or booty of war; + + (7.) Offences against the law of nations; or offences committed + in violation of any treaty made, or hereafter to be made, + between Her Majesty and any foreign State; or offences + committed on the high seas; + + (8.) Treason, alienage, or naturalization; + + (9.) Trade, navigation, or quarantine; + + (10.) The postal and telegraph service, except as hereafter in + this Act mentioned with respect to the transmission of + letters and telegrams in Ireland; + + (11.) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea marks; + + (12.) The coinage; the value of foreign money; legal tender; or + weights and measures; or + + (13.) Copyright, patent rights, or other exclusive rights to the + use or profits of any works or inventions. + +Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void. + +[Sidenote: Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.] + +4. The Irish Legislature shall not make any law-- + + (1.) Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, or + prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or + + (2.) Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, on + account of religious belief; or + + (3.) Abrogating or derogating from the right to establish or + maintain any place of denominational education or any + denominational institution or charity; or + + (4.) Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a + school receiving public money without attending the + religious instruction at that school; or + + (5.) Impairing, without either the leave of Her Majesty in + Council first obtained on an address presented by the + Legislative Body of Ireland, or the consent of the + corporation interested, the rights, property, or privileges + of any existing corporation incorporated by royal charter + or local and general Act of Parliament; or + + (6.) Imposing or relating to duties of customs and duties of + excise, as defined by this Act, or either of such duties or + affecting any Act relating to such duties or any of them; + or + + (7.) Affecting this Act, except in so far as it is declared to + be alterable by the Irish Legislature. + +[Sidenote: Prerogatives of Her Majesty as to Irish Legislative Body.] + +5. Her Majesty the Queen shall have the same prerogatives with respect +to summoning, proroguing, and dissolving the Irish Legislative Body as +Her Majesty has with respect to summoning, proroguing, and dissolving +the Imperial Parliament. + +[Sidenote: Duration of the Irish Legislative Body.] + +6. The Irish Legislative Body whenever summoned may have continuance +for _five years_ and no longer, to be reckoned from the day on which +any such Legislative Body is appointed to meet. + + +_Executive Authority._ + +[Sidenote: Constitution of the Executive Authority.] + +7.--(1.) The Executive Government of Ireland shall continue vested in +Her Majesty, and shall be carried on by the Lord Lieutenant on behalf +of Her Majesty with the aid of such officers and such council as to Her +Majesty may from time to time seem fit. + +(2.) Subject to any instructions which may from time to time be given +by Her Majesty, the Lord Lieutenant shall give or withhold the assent +of Her Majesty to Bills passed by the Irish Legislative Body, and shall +exercise the prerogatives of Her Majesty in respect of the summoning, +proroguing, and dissolving of the Irish Legislative Body, and any +prerogatives the exercise of which may be delegated to him by Her +Majesty. + +[Sidenote: Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.] + +8. Her Majesty may, by Order in Council, from time to time place under +the control of the Irish Government, for the purposes of that +Government, any such lands and buildings in Ireland as may be vested in +or held in trust for Her Majesty. + + +_Constitution of Legislative Body._ + +[Sidenote: Constitution of Irish Legislative Body.] + +9.--(1.) The Irish Legislative Body shall consist of a first and second +order. + +(2.) The two orders shall deliberate together, and shall vote together, +except that, if any question arises in relation to legislation or to +the Standing Orders or Rules of Procedure or to any other matter in +that behalf in this Act specified, and such question is to be +determined by vote, each order shall, if a majority of the members +present of either order demand a separate vote, give their votes in +like manner as if they were separate Legislative Bodies; and if the +result of the voting of the two orders does not agree the question +shall be resolved in the negative. + +[Sidenote: First order.] + +10.--(1.) The first order of the Irish Legislative Body shall consist +of one hundred and three members, of whom seventy-five shall be +elective members and twenty-eight peerage members. + +(2.) Each elective member shall at the date of his election and during +his period of membership be bonâ fide possessed of property which-- + + (a.) if realty, or partly realty and partly personalty, + yields two hundred pounds a year or upwards, free of all + charges; or + + (b.) if personalty yields the same income, or is of the + capital value of four thousand pounds or upwards, free of + all charges. + +(2.) For the purpose of electing the elective members of the first +order of the Legislative Body, Ireland shall be divided into the +electoral districts specified in the First Schedule to this Act, and +each such district shall return the number of members in that behalf +specified in that Schedule. + +(3.) The elective members shall be elected by the registered electors +of each electoral district, and for that purpose a register of electors +shall be made annually. + +(4.) An elector in each electoral district shall be qualified as +follows, that is to say, he shall be of full age and not subject to any +legal incapacity, and shall have been during the twelve months next +preceding the _twentieth day of July_ in any year the owner or occupier +of some land or tenement within the district of a net annual value of +twenty-five pounds or upwards. + +(5.) The term of office of an elective member shall be _ten years_. + +(6.) In every fifth year thirty-seven or thirty-eight of the elective +members, as the case requires, shall retire from office, and their +places shall be filled by election; the members to retire shall be +those who have been members for the longest time without re-election. + +(7.) The offices of the peerage members shall be filled as follows; +that is to say,-- + + (a.) Each of the Irish peers who on the appointed day is one + of the twenty-eight Irish representative peers, shall, on + giving his written assent to the Lord Lieutenant, become a + peerage member of the first order of the Irish Legislative + Body; and if at any time within _thirty years_ after the + appointed day any such peer vacates his office by death or + resignation, the vacancy shall be filled by the election + to that office by the Irish peers of one of their number + in manner heretofore in use respecting the election of + Irish representative peers, subject to adaptation as + provided by this Act, and if the vacancy is not so filled + within the proper time it shall be filled by the election + of an elective member. + + (b.) If any of the twenty-eight peers aforesaid does not + within _one month_ after the appointed day give such assent + to be a peerage member of the first order, the vacancy so + created shall be filled up as if he had assented and + vacated his office by resignation. + +(8.) A peerage member shall be entitled to hold office during his life +or until the expiration of _thirty years_ from the appointed day, +whichever period is the shortest. At the expiration of such _thirty +years_ the offices of all the peerage members shall be vacated as if +they were dead, and their places shall be filled by elective members +qualified and elected in manner provided by this Act with respect to +elective members of the first order, and such elective members may be +distributed by the Irish Legislature among the electoral districts, so, +however, that care shall be taken to give additional members to the +most populous places. + +(9.) The offices of members of the first order shall not be vacated by +the dissolution of the Legislative Body. + +(10.) The provisions in the Second Schedule to this Act relating to +members of the first order of the Legislative Body shall be of the same +force as if they were enacted in the body of this Act. + +[Sidenote: Second order.] + +11.--(1.) Subject as in this section hereafter mentioned, the second +order of the Legislative Body shall consist of two hundred and four +members. + +(2.) The members of the second order shall be chosen by the existing +constituencies of Ireland, two by each constituency, with the exception +of the city of Cork, which shall be divided into two divisions in +manner set forth in the Third Schedule to this Act, and two members +shall be chosen by each of such divisions. + +(3.) Any person who, on the appointed day, is a member representing an +existing Irish constituency in the House of Commons shall, on giving +his written assent to the Lord Lieutenant, become a member of the +second order of the Irish Legislative Body as if he had been elected by +the constituency which he was representing in the House of Commons. +Each of the members for the city of Cork, on the said day, may elect +for which of the divisions of that city he wishes to be deemed to have +been elected. + +(4.) If any member does not give such written assent within _one month_ +after the appointed day, his place shall be filled by election in the +same manner and at the same time as if he had assented and vacated his +office by death. + +(5.) If the same person is elected to both orders, he shall, within +_seven days_ after the meeting of the Legislative Body, or if the Body +is sitting at the time of the election, within _seven days_ after the +election, elect in which order he will serve, and his membership of the +other order shall be void and be filled by a fresh election. + +(6.) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, it shall be lawful for the +Legislature of Ireland at any time to pass an Act enabling the Royal +University of Ireland to return not more than two members to the second +order of the Irish Legislative Body in addition to the number of +members above mentioned. + +(7.) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, it shall be lawful for the +Irish Legislature, after the first dissolution of the Legislative Body +which occurs, to alter the constitution or election of the second order +of that body, due regard being had in the distribution of members to +the population of the constituencies; provided that no alteration +shall be made in the number of such order. + +Clauses 12 to 20 are the Finance Clauses, which are dealt with at the +end of this Appendix. + + +_Police._ + +21. The following regulations shall be made with respect to police in +Ireland: + +(_a._) The Dublin Metropolitan Police shall continue and be subject as +heretofore to the control of the Lord Lieutenant as representing Her +Majesty for a period of _two years_ from the passing of this Act, and +thereafter until any alteration is made by Act of the Legislature of +Ireland, but such Act shall provide for the proper saving of all then +existing interests, whether as regards pay, pensions, superannuation +allowances, or otherwise. + +(_b._) The Royal Irish Constabulary shall, while that force subsists, +continue and be subject as heretofore to the control of the Lord +Lieutenant as representing Her Majesty. + +(_c._) The Irish Legislature may provide for the establishment and +maintenance of a police force in counties and boroughs in Ireland under +the control of local authorities, and arrangements may be made between +the Treasury and the Irish Government for the establishment and +maintenance of police reserves. + +Clause 22 reserves to the Crown the power of erecting forts, dockyards, +etc. + + +_Legislative Body._ + +[Sidenote: Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how over-ruled.] + +23. If a Bill or any provision of a Bill is lost by disagreement +between the two orders of the Legislative Body, and after a period +ending with a dissolution of the Legislative Body, or the period of +_three years_ whichever period is longest, such Bill, or a Bill +containing the said provision, is again considered by the Legislative +Body, and such Bill or provision is adopted by the second order and +negatived by the first order, the same shall be submitted to the whole +Legislative Body, both orders of which shall vote together on the Bill +or provision, and the same shall be adopted or rejected according to +the decision of the majority of the members so voting together. + +[Sidenote: Ceaser of power of Ireland to return members to Parliament.] + +24. On and after the appointed day Ireland shall cease, except in the +event hereafter in this Act mentioned, to return representative peers +to the House of Lords or members to the House of Commons, and the +persons who on the said day are such representative peers and members +shall cease as such to be members of the House of Lords and House of +Commons respectively. + +Clause 25 refers constitutional questions to the Judicial Committee of +the Privy Council. + +Clause 26 abolishes religious test for the Lord Lieutenant. + +Clauses 27-30 safeguards interests of Judges and Civil Servants. + +Clauses 31-36, transitory and miscellaneous. + +37. Save as herein expressly provided all matters in relation to which +it is not competent for the Irish Legislative Body to make or repeal +laws shall remain and be within the exclusive authority of the Imperial +Parliament save as aforesaid, whose power and authority in relation +thereto shall in nowise be diminished or restrained by anything herein +contained. + +Clause 38 continues existing laws, courts and officers. + +[Sidenote: Mode of alteration of Act.] + +39.--(1.) On and after the appointed day this Act shall not, except +such provisions thereof as are declared to be alterable by the +Legislature of Ireland, be altered except-- + + (a.) by Act of the Imperial Parliament and with the consent + of the Irish Legislative Body testified by an address to + Her Majesty, or + + (b.) by an Act of the Imperial Parliament for the passing of + which there shall be summoned to the House of Lords the + peerage members of the first order of the Irish Legislative + Body, and if there are no such members then twenty-eight + Irish representative peers elected by the Irish peers in + manner heretofore in use, subject to adaptation as provided + by this Act; and there shall be summoned to the House of + Commons such one of the members of each constituency, or in + the case of a constituency returning four members such two + of those members, as the Legislative Body of Ireland may + select, and such peers and members shall respectively be + deemed, for the purpose of passing any such Act, to be + members of the said Houses of Parliament respectively. + +(2.) For the purposes of this section it shall be lawful for Her +Majesty by Order in Council to make such provisions for summoning the +said peers of Ireland to the House of Lords and the said members from +Ireland to the House of Commons as to Her Majesty may seem necessary or +proper, and any provisions contained in such Order in Council shall +have the same effect as if they had been enacted by Parliament. + +Clause 40, definition clause. + + +_Summary of Finance Provisions._ + +(Clauses 12-20.) + +Clause 13. The Irish Parliament is to have the right to impose all +taxes except customs and excise. + +The Irish Parliament to pay annually to the British Exchequer these +sums, fixed at the level for the following 30 years:-- + + £1,466,000 as interest on the Irish share in the National Debt. + 1,666,000 towards the Army and Navy. + 110,000 towards the Imperial Civil expenditure. + 1,000,000 towards the Irish Constabulary. + ---------- + £4,242,000 in all. + +The Irish Exchequer to pay annually £360,000 towards the reduction of +the National Debt, and their payment of interest to be reduced in +proportion. + +If any reduction takes place in Army and Navy to the extent of reducing +British proportions below 15 times the Irish, then the Irish to be +reduced by 1-15th. + +The Irish Government to receive the revenues of Crown Lands in Ireland. + +If the Irish Constabulary is reduced, then the Irish contribution +towards Constabulary to be reduced accordingly. + +Clause 14. The first charge for the Irish contributions to be on the +customs and excise collected in Ireland. The rest to go to the Irish +Government. + +The first charge on other Irish taxes to be (1) any deficit in Irish +contribution to British Exchequer, (2) any interest on any Irish debt, +(3) Irish public service, (4) Irish judges, etc. + +Duty laid upon Irish Government to raise taxes equal to paying these +charges. + +Clauses 16 and 17. Provisions as to Irish Church Fund and Irish loans +(now obsolete). + +Clause 18. In case of war Irish Government "_may_" contribute more +money for the prosecution of war. + +Clauses 19 and 20. Machinery clauses. + + +(2) THE BILL OF 1893. + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1893.] + +A Bill intitled an Act to amend the provision for the Government of +Ireland. + +WHEREAS it is expedient that without impairing or restricting the +supreme authority of Parliament, an Irish Legislature should be created +for such purposes in Ireland as in this Act mentioned: + +Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and +with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and +Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of +the same, as follows: + + +_Legislative Authority._ + +[Sidenote: Establishment of Irish Legislature.] + +1. On and after the appointed day there shall be in Ireland a +Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and of two Houses, the +Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. + +[Sidenote: Powers of Irish Legislature.] + +2. With the exceptions and subject to the restrictions in this Act +mentioned, there shall be granted to the Irish Legislature power to +make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland in +respect of matters exclusively relating to Ireland or some part +thereof. Provided that, notwithstanding anything in this Act contained, +the supreme power and authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom +of Great Britain and Ireland shall remain unaffected and undiminished +over all persons, matters, and things within the Queen's dominions. + +[Sidenote: Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.] + +3. The Irish Legislature shall not have power to make laws in respect +of the following matters or any of them:-- + + (1.) The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency; + or the Lord Lieutenant as representative of the Crown; or + + (2.) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state + of war; or the regulation of the conduct of any portion of + Her Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities + between foreign states with which Her Majesty is at peace, + in respect of such hostilities; or + + (3.) Navy, army, militia, volunteers, and any other military + forces, or the defence of the realm, or forts, permanent + military camps, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other + needful buildings, or any places purchased for the erection + thereof; or + + (4.) Authorising either the carrying or using of arms for + military purposes, or the formation of associations for + drill or practice in the use of arms for military purposes; + or + + (5.) Treaties or any relations with foreign States, or the + relations between different parts of Her Majesty's + dominions, or offences connected with such treaties or + relations, or procedure connected with the extradition of + criminals under any treaty; or + + (6.) Dignities or titles of honour; or + + (7.) Treason, treason-felony, alienage, aliens as such, or + naturalization; or + + (8.) Trade with any place out of Ireland; or quarantine, or + navigation, including merchant shipping (except as respects + inland waters and local health or harbour regulations); or + + (9.) Lighthouses, buoys, or beacons within the meaning of the + Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and the Acts amending the same + (except so far as they can consistently with any general + Act of Parliament be constructed or maintained by a local + harbour authority); or + + (10.) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of + weights and measures; or + + (11.) Trade marks, designs, merchandise marks, copyright, or + patent rights. + +Provided always, that nothing in this section shall prevent the passing +of any Irish Act to provide for any charges imposed by Act of +Parliament, or to prescribe conditions regulating importation from any +place outside Ireland for the sole purpose of preventing the +introduction of any contagious disease. + +It is hereby declared that the exceptions from the powers of the Irish +Legislature contained in this section are set forth and enumerated for +greater certainty, and not so as to restrict the generality of the +limitation imposed in the previous section on the powers of the Irish +Legislature. + +Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void. + +4. The powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making +of any law-- + + (1.) Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, + whether directly or indirectly, or prohibiting the free + exercise thereof; or + + (2.) Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, + advantage, or benefit, on account of religious belief, or + raising or appropriating directly or indirectly, save as + heretofore, any public revenue for any religious purpose, + or for the benefit of the holder of any religious office as + such; or + + (3.) Diverting the property or without its consent altering the + constitution of any religious body; or + + (4.) Abrogating or prejudicially affecting the right to + establish or maintain any place of denominational education + or any denominational institution or charity; or + + (5.) Whereby there may be established and endowed out of public + funds any theological professorship or any university or + college in which the conditions set out in the University + of Dublin Tests Act, 1873, are not observed; or + + (6.) Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a + school receiving public money, without attending the + religious instruction at that school; or + + (7.) Directly or indirectly imposing any disability, or + conferring any privilege, benefit, or advantage upon any + subject of the Crown on account of his parentage or place + of birth, or of the place where any part of his business is + carried on, or upon any corporation or institution + constituted or existing by virtue of the law of some part + of the Queen's dominions, and carrying on operations in + Ireland, on account of the persons by whom or in whose + favour or the place in which any of its operations are + carried on; or + + (8.) Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or + property without due process of law in accordance with + settled principles and precedents, or may be denied the + equal protection of the laws, or whereby private property + may be taken without just compensation; or + + (9.) Whereby any existing corporation incorporated by Royal + Charter or by any local or general Act of Parliament may, + unless it consents, or the leave of Her Majesty is first + obtained on address from the two Houses of the Irish + Legislature, be deprived of its rights, privileges, or + property without due process of law in accordance with + settled principles and precedents, and so far as respects + property without just compensation. Provided nothing in + this subsection shall prevent the Irish Legislature from + dealing with any public department, municipal corporation, + or local authority, or with any corporation administering + for public purposes taxes, rates, cess, dues, or tolls, so + far as concerns the same. + +Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void. + + +_Executive Authority._ + +5.--(1.) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in Her +Majesty the Queen, and the Lord Lieutenant, or other chief executive +officer or officers for the time being appointed in his place, on +behalf of Her Majesty, shall exercise any prerogatives or other +executive power of the Queen the exercise of which may be delegated to +him by Her Majesty, and shall, in Her Majesty's name, summon, at least +once in every year, prorogue, and dissolve the Irish Legislature; and +every instrument conveying any such delegation of any prerogative or +other executive power shall be presented to the two Houses of +Parliament as soon as conveniently may be. Provided always that the +lieutenants of counties shall be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of +Ireland as representing Her Majesty. + +(2.) There shall be an Executive Committee of the Privy Council of +Ireland to aid and advise in the government of Ireland, being of such +numbers, and comprising persons holding such offices under the Crown as +Her Majesty or, if so authorised, the Lord Lieutenant may think fit, +save as may be otherwise directed by Irish Act. + +(3.) The Lord Lieutenant shall, on the advice of the said Executive +Committee, give or withhold the assent of Her Majesty to Bills passed +by the two Houses of the Irish Legislature, subject nevertheless to any +instructions given by Her Majesty in respect of any such Bill. + +6. All the powers and jurisdiction to be exercised in accordance with +the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, and the Fugitive +Offenders Act, 1881, by the Lord Lieutenant or Lord Justices, or other +Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, or the Chief Secretary of the +Lord Lieutenant, shall be exercised by the Lord Lieutenant in pursuance +of instructions given by Her Majesty. + + +_Constitution of Legislature._ + +7.--(1.) The Irish Legislative Council shall consist of forty-eight +councillors. + +(2.) Each of the constituencies mentioned in the First Schedule to this +Act shall return the number of councillors named opposite thereto in +that schedule. + +(3.) Every man shall be entitled to be registered as an elector, and +when registered to vote at an election, of a councillor for a +constituency, who owns or occupies any land or tenement in the +constituency of a rateable value of more than twenty pounds, subject to +the like conditions as a man is entitled at the passing of this Act to +be registered and vote as a parliamentary elector in respect of an +ownership qualification or of the qualification specified in section +five of the Representation of the People Act, 1884, as the case may be: +Provided that a man shall not be entitled to be registered, nor if +registered to vote, at an election of a councillor in more than one +constituency in the same year. + +(4.) The term of office of every councillor shall be eight years, and +shall not be affected by a dissolution; and one half of the councillors +shall retire in every fourth year, and their seats shall be filled by a +new election. + +8.--(1.) The Irish Legislative Assembly shall consist of one hundred +and three members, returned by the existing parliamentary +constituencies in Ireland, or the existing divisions thereof, and +elected by the parliamentary electors for the time being in those +constituencies or divisions. + +(2.) The Irish Legislative Assembly when summoned may, unless sooner +dissolved, have continuance for five years from the day on which the +summons directs it to meet and no longer. + +(3.) After six years from the passing of this Act, the Irish +Legislature may alter the qualification of the electors, and the +constituencies, and the distribution of the members among the +constituencies, provided that in such distribution due regard is had to +the population of the constituencies. + +9. If a Bill or any provision of a Bill adopted by the Legislative +Assembly is lost by the disagreement of the Legislative Council, and +after a dissolution, or the period of two years from such disagreement, +such Bill, or a Bill for enacting the said provision, is again adopted +by the Legislative Assembly and fails within three months afterwards to +be adopted by the Legislative Council, the same shall forthwith be +submitted to the members of the two Houses deliberating and voting +together thereon, and shall be adopted or rejected according to the +decision of the majority of those members present and voting on the +question. + + +_Irish Representation in House of Commons._ + +10. Unless and until Parliament otherwise determines, the following +provisions shall have effect-- + + (1.) After the appointed day each of the constituencies named + in the Second Schedule to this Act shall return to serve + in Parliament the number of members named opposite thereto + in that schedule, and no more, and Dublin University shall + cease to return any member. + + (2.) The existing divisions of the constituencies shall, save as + provided in that schedule, be abolished. + + (3.) The election laws and the laws relating to the + qualification of parliamentary electors shall not, so far + as they relate to parliamentary elections, be altered by + the Irish Legislature, but this enactment shall not prevent + the Irish Legislature from dealing with any officers + concerned with the issue of writs of election, and if any + officers are so dealt with, it shall be lawful for Her + Majesty by Order in Council to arrange for the issue of + such writs, and the writs issued in pursuance of such Order + shall be of the same effect as if issued in manner + heretofore accustomed. + +Clauses 11-20 are the finance clauses, which are dealt with at the end +of this Appendix. + +Clauses 21 and 22 substitute the Judicial Committee of the Privy +Council as Court of Appeal for Ireland in place of House of Lords. + +Clause 23 abolishes religious test for the Lord Lieutenant. + +Clauses 25-28 safeguard interests of Judges, Civil Servants. + +29.--(1.) The forces of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin +Metropolitan Police shall, when and as local police forces are from +time to time established in Ireland in accordance with the Fifth +Schedule to this Act, be gradually reduced and ultimately cease to +exist as mentioned in that Schedule; and thereupon the Acts relating to +such forces shall be repealed, and no forces organised and armed in +like manner, or otherwise than according to the accustomed manner of a +civil police, shall be created under any Irish Act; and after the +passing of this Act, no officer or man shall be appointed to either of +those forces; + +Provided that until the expiration of six years from the appointed day, +nothing in this Act shall require the Lord Lieutenant to cause either +of the said forces to cease to exist, if as representing Her Majesty +the Queen he considers it inexpedient. + +Sections (2) to (5) safeguard interests of existing police. + +Clauses 30-33. Miscellaneous. + +34.--(1.) During three years from the passing of this Act, and if +Parliament is then sitting until the end of that session of Parliament, +the Irish Legislature shall not pass an Act respecting the relations of +landlord and tenant, or the sale, purchase, or letting of land +generally: Provided that nothing in this section shall prevent the +passing of any Irish Act with a view to the purchase of land for +railways, harbours, waterworks, town improvements, or other local +undertakings. + +(2.) During six years from the passing of this Act, the appointment of +a judge of the Supreme Court or other superior court in Ireland (other +than one of the Exchequer judges) shall be made in pursuance of a +warrant from Her Majesty countersigned as heretofore. + +Clause 35. Transitory. + +Clause 39. Definitions, etc. + + +_Summary of Finance Provisions._ + +(Clauses 11-20.) + +The General Revenue of Ireland to be kept apart as specified. One-third +to be allocated to Imperial expenditure. Two-thirds to form the special +revenue of Ireland and to be spent in purely Irish expenditure. + +War taxes to be imposed on Ireland simultaneously and identically with +Great Britain and to be paid into the British exchequer. + +After six years all taxation except customs and excise to be +transferred to Ireland and all these arrangements to be revised. + + + + +APPENDIX E + +THE IRISH BOARD OF AGRICULTURE + + +This Board was set up in 1899 by the Agriculture and Technical +Instruction (Ireland) Act. + +The constructive clauses of this Act are the following:-- + +Clause 1 establishes a Department of Agriculture, its powers to be +exercised either by the President or Vice-President. + +Clauses 2, 3, 4 and 5 define its powers. + +Part II. creates the advisory machinery to which reference is made in +the text, and they run as follows:-- + + +_Consultative Council, Agricultural Board and Board of Technical +Instruction, and Financial Provisions._ + +7. For the purpose of assisting the Department in carrying out the +objects of this Act there shall be established-- + + (a) a Council of Agriculture; + + (b) an Agricultural Board; and + + (c) a Board of Technical Instruction. + +8.--(1.) The Council of Agriculture shall consist of the following +members:-- + + (a) Two persons to be appointed by the county council of each + county (other than a county borough) in each province; and + + (b) A number of persons resident in each province equal to the + number of counties (exclusive of county boroughs) in the + province, to be appointed by the Department with due regard + to the representation on the council of any agricultural or + industrial organisations in the province. + +(2.) For the purposes of this section the county of Cork shall be +regarded as two counties, and four persons shall be appointed by the +council of that county. + +(3.) The members representing each province shall constitute separate +committees on the Council and shall be styled the provincial committees +of the respective provinces. + +9. The Agricultural Board shall consist of the following members:-- + + (a.) Two persons to be appointed by the provincial committee + of each province; and + + (b.) Four persons to be appointed by the Department. + +10. The Board of Technical Instruction shall consist of the following +members:-- + + (a.) Three persons to be appointed by the county council of + each of the county boroughs of Dublin and Belfast; + + (b.) One person to be appointed by a joint committee of the + councils of the several urban county districts in the + county of Dublin; such committee to consist of one member + chosen out of their body by the council of each such + district; + + (c.) One person to be appointed by the council of each county + borough not above mentioned; + + (d.) One person to be appointed by the provincial committee of + each province; + + (e.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National + Education; + + (f.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education + Board; and + + (g.) Four persons to be appointed by the Department. + +11. The Council of Agriculture shall meet at least once a year for the +purpose of discussing matters of public interest in connexion with any +of the purposes of this Act. + +12. The Agricultural Board shall advise the Department with respect to +all matters and questions submitted to them by the Department in +connexion with the purposes of agriculture and other rural industries. + +13. The Board of Technical Instruction shall advise the Department with +respect to all matters and questions submitted to them by the +Department in connexion with technical instruction. + + + + +APPENDIX F + +THE REDUCTION IN IRISH PAUPERISM OWING TO OLD AGE PENSIONS + + +The Report of the Irish Local Government Board for 1911 shows a +reduction in Irish pauperism between March, 1910, and March 26th, 1911, +amounting to over 18,000:-- + +March 26th, 1910 99,607 +March 25th, 1911 80,942 + ------ + 18,665 + +An analysis of the figures shows that the reduction is almost entirely +due to the Old-age Pensions Act. There is little or no reduction in +children, lunatics, or mothers, while there are the following +reductions in aged and infirm paupers:-- + +-----------------------------------+---------+---------+------------ + | 1910. | 1911. | Reduction. +-----------------------------------+---------+---------+------------ +Aged and infirm in work-houses | 13,478 | 11,291 | 2,187 + | | | +Aged and infirm on out-door relief | 51,304 | 35,681 | 15,623 +-----------------------------------+---------+---------+------------ + Total | 17,810 + +------------ + +leaving only 855 of the reduction unaccounted for. + + + + +APPENDIX G + +THE LAND LAW (IRELAND) ACT, 1881 + + +The provisions which have revolutionised the land system of Ireland are +contained in Clause 8 of the Land Act of 1881, which runs as follows:-- + +8.--(1.) The tenant of any present tenancy to which this Act applies, +or such tenant and the landlord jointly, or the landlord, after having +demanded from such tenant an increase of rent which the tenant has +declined to accept, or after the parties have otherwise failed to come +to an agreement, may from time to time during the continuance of such +tenancy apply to the court to fix the fair rent to be paid by such +tenant to the landlord for the holding, and thereupon the court, after +hearing the parties, and having regard to the interest of the landlord +and tenant respectively, and considering all the circumstances of the +case, holding, and district, may determine what is such fair rent. + +(2.) The rent fixed by the court (in this Act referred to as the +judicial rent) shall be deemed to be the rent payable by the tenant as +from the period commencing at the rent day next succeeding the decision +of the court. + +(3.) Where the judicial rent of any present tenancy has been fixed by +the court, then, until the expiration of a term of fifteen years from +the rent day next succeeding the day on which the determination of the +court has been given (in this Act referred to as a statutory term), +such present tenancy shall (if it so long continue to subsist) be +deemed to be a tenancy subject to statutory conditions, and having the +same incidents as a tenancy subject to statutory conditions consequent +on an increase of rent by a landlord. + + + + +APPENDIX H + +THE IRISH CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOARD + + +The present Congested Districts Board, so often referred to in the +text, is constituted under the following clauses of the Irish Land Act +of 1909:-- + +45.--(1.) From and after the appointed day, the Congested Districts +Board shall consist of the following members:-- + + (a.) The Chief Secretary, the Under Secretary to the Lord + Lieutenant, and the Vice-President of the Department of + Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, who + shall be ex officio members: + + (b.) Nine members appointed by His Majesty (in this Act + referred to as appointed members): + + (c.) Two paid members appointed by His Majesty (in this Act + referred to as permanent members). + +(2.) An appointed member shall hold office for five years, and shall be +eligible for re-appointment. On a casual vacancy occurring by reason of +the death, resignation, or incapacity of an appointed member or +otherwise, the person appointed by His Majesty to fill the vacancy +shall continue in office until the member in whose place he was +appointed would have retired, and shall then retire. + +46.--(1.) For the purposes of the Congested Districts Board (Ireland) +Acts, as amended by this Act, each of the following administrative +counties, that is to say, the counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, +Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, and Kerry, shall be a congested districts +county, the six rural districts of Ballyvaghan, Ennistymon, Kilrush, +Scariff, Tulla, and Killadysert, in the county of Clare, shall together +form one congested districts county, and the four rural districts of +Bantry, Castletown, Schull, and Skibbereen, in the county of Cork, +shall together form one congested districts county. + +(2.) No electoral division shall, after the passing of this Act, be or +form part of a congested districts county, unless it is included in a +congested districts county constituted under this section. + +The Act follows closely on the lines of the Report of the 1908 +Commission, and places a third of Ireland under the Board. + + + + +APPENDIX J + +(1.) RECOMMENDATION IN REGARD TO IRELAND OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON +CANALS AND INLAND NAVIGATION + + +(1.) That such waterways in Ireland as, on a review of all the facts, +your Majesty's Government may deem of importance to the cause of cheap +inland transport, should come under State control; and + +(2.) That a Controlling Authority should be constituted for the purpose +of taking over those inland waterways which are already under the +control of the State, of Local Authorities, or of a public trust, and +of acquiring such other waterways as are determined to be of importance +either to the drainage of the country, or to the cause of cheap inland +transport. + + +(2.) IN REGARD TO IRISH RAILWAYS + +The principal recommendation of the Majority Report of the Viceregal +Commission on Irish Railways (1910) runs as follows:-- + + (1.) That an Irish Authority be instituted to acquire the + Irish Railways and work them as a single system. + + (2.) That this Authority be a Railway Board of twenty + Directors, four nominated and sixteen elected. + + (3.) That the general terms of purchase be those prescribed by + the Regulation of Railways Act of 1844 (7 and 8 Vic. cap. 85. + sec. 2), with supplementary provisions as to redemption of + guarantees, and purchase of non-dividend paying or non-profit + earning lines. + + (4.) That the financial medium be a Railway Stock; and that + such stock be charged upon (1) the Consolidated Fund; (2) the + net revenues of the unified Railway system; (3) an annual grant + from the Imperial Exchequer; and (4) a general rate, to be + struck by the Irish Railway Authority if and when required. + + + + +APPENDIX K + +(1.) HOME RULE PARLIAMENTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE + + + Canada 10 + Australia 7 + South Africa 5 + Newfoundland 1 + New Zealand 1 + -- + Total 24 + -- + +Besides these Autonomous Parliaments-- + + (1.) India has also now seven "Legislative Councils," partly + elective. + + (2.) The Isle of Man has "House of Keys," with almost complete + legislative power. + + (3.) The Channel Islands have their own semi-independent + governing Assemblies. + + (4.) The Crown Colonies have Assemblies possessing a + considerable local representative element. + + + + +WYMAN & SONS, LTD., Printers, Fetter Lane, London, E.C.; and Reading. + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 146: etablished replaced with established | + | Page 176: intituled replaced with intitled | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Home Rule, by Harold Spender + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOME RULE *** + +***** This file should be named 20016-8.txt or 20016-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/0/1/20016/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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