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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37853-8.txt b/37853-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ceb56a --- /dev/null +++ b/37853-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15497 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Present Irish Questions, by William O'Connor Morris + +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: Present Irish Questions + +Author: William O'Connor Morris + +Release Date: October 26, 2011 [EBook #37853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESENT IRISH QUESTIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +Present Irish Questions + + + + +Publisher's Announcement + +_By the Same Author_ + + The Campaign of 1815: Ligny, Quatre Bras, Waterloo. + + Demy 8vo, cloth, with Maps, 12_s._ 6_d._ net. + +M. Houssaye, in a letter to the author, says, "J'ai lu avec beaucoup de +plaisir votre livre sur La Campagna de 1815. C'est un excellent résumé, +copieux et critique, tres judicieux, tres précis, et tres clair." + +Captain Mahan, in a letter to the author, says, "Your narrative is very +clear, and to me quite convincing." + +_The Times_: "We can recommend this book as a painstaking and instructive +survey of the campaign." + +_The Spectator_: "Provides what has long been wanted--a study of the +campaign by one well qualified to sift evidence dispassionately." + +_Pall Mail Gazette_: "Will fill a high place in the all too scanty library +of British Military literature." + + LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS + 9 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W.C. + + + + + Present Irish Questions + + + BY WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS + + COUNTY COURT JUDGE AND CHAIRMAN OF + QUARTER SESSIONS OF ROSCOMMON AND + SLIGO, AND SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF + ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD + + + [Greek: Nosei de moi propas stolos, oud' eni + phrontidos egchos hô tis alexetai.]--SOPHOCLES. + + 'Blessed is the Amending Hand.'--_Old Proverb._ + + + London + Grant Richards + New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. + 1901 + + + + + I DEDICATE THIS BOOK + A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION AND ESTEEM + TO THE MARQUIS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA, K.P. + THE MOST DISTINGUISHED IRISHMAN OF HIS TIME + + + LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, + STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. + + + + +Preface + + +I have written much on Ireland from early youth, especially in the +_Edinburgh Review_ and the _Times_; and two works of mine, 'Ireland, +1494-1868' published in 'The Cambridge Historical Series,' and 'Ireland, +1798-1898,' have been received with more than ordinary favour. I have +ventured to think that the opinions of a veteran inquirer into Irish +affairs, with respect to 'Present Irish Questions' just now of much +importance, and certain to be ere long fully discussed in Parliament and +elsewhere, may be of some use to a younger generation, that will have to +examine and must be affected by them. I am not unaware of the cynical +remarks of Swift on the disregard shown to authors who may be said to have +had their day; and I do not pretend that, in the instance of myself, 'old +experience' has given something of a 'prophetic strain' to what is +contained in this volume. But I can say, with truth, that few living men +have had such opportunities as have fallen to my lot, during a long series +of years, to understand Ireland in its different parts, and the feelings +and sentiments of the Irish community; to form sound and moderate views on +the many and perplexing phenomena called 'Irish Questions;' to deal +reasonably with Irish political and social problems, free from the +influences of party prejudice and passion; in short, to do my subject +complete and impartial justice. How the accidents and associations of a +life already protracted beyond the ordinary span, have, as I hope, given +me these qualifications, I have explained at some length in my 'Ireland, +1798-1898;' I shall not repeat what I have already written. But Ireland +has constantly been uppermost in my thoughts; and as regards the +conclusions I have come to in these pages, I may say, with the Roman +historian, 'hæc senectuti seposui.' + +The examination of 'Present Irish Questions,' in this work, shows the +views I entertain with regard to the actual condition of Ireland in its +various aspects, and to her probable future destinies. These views may be +censured as too gloomy, and even paradoxical; but Ireland remains, as she +was when Macaulay wrote of her, 'A member indeed of the Empire, but a +withered and distorted member;' the revolution which has passed, nay, is +still passing, over her, has destroyed a great deal that ought to have +been preserved, and has put little that is solid and stable in its place; +there is much that is threatening and even dangerous in her political and +social order, and in the sentiments of the mass of her community. In the +case of Ireland, indeed, as in that of any other people, I have faith in +the effect of salutary legislation on wise and just principles, and of +consistent good government steadily carried out, of both of which there +has been but too little evidence, during the last twenty years, in Irish +affairs; above all, my trust is large in the healing influences of Time. +But I have not forgotten that the vision of 'Pacata Hibernia,' which +flitted even before the majestic understanding of Bacon, three centuries +ago, has not been realised; the thoughtless optimism, which, during the +last two generations, has represented Ireland to be in a state of +continual 'progress,' nay, as 'contented and happy,' whenever she has not +been convulsed by disorder and trouble, or racked by poverty and distress, +has been completely falsified; and with nations, as with individuals, the +profound remark of Butler is true; a life of repentance often fails to +redeem the errors of the past. I proceed to indicate some at least of the +authorities which relate to the different parts of my subject. The +material condition of Ireland of late years may, perhaps, be best +ascertained by studying, over some length of time, the large body of +statistics compiled by the Government, and contained in that valuable +publication, 'Thom's Directory,' and by a perusal of the Irish debates in +Hansard. Reference, too, should be made to the important papers of Mr. +Childers, of Lord Farrer, and of Mr. Sexton in the Report of the Childers +Commission, and especially to the evidence of Sir Robert Giffen, and even +of Sir Edward Hamilton, in the Blue Books appended to that inquiry. +'England's Wealth, Ireland's Poverty,' by Thomas Lough, M.P., though a +one-sided book, also deserves attention; and useful information may be +obtained from 'The Five Years in Ireland, 1895-1900,' of Mr. Michael J. F. +McCarthy, too much a eulogy, however, of things as they are, and marked by +a spirit of aversion to, and distrust of, the Irish priesthood, which are +a characteristic of a small section of the Irish Catholics. + +The sources of our knowledge respecting the moral, social, and political +state of Ireland are numerous and ample; I shall confine myself, as much +as I can, to those which relate to what may be called her recent +revolutionary period, though Irish history in the past, even in the +distant past, is anything but an 'old almanack.' This mass of evidence +faithfully represents the disturbances and the troubles that have +prevailed in Ireland, with intervals of time between, during the last +twenty years and upwards, and the fierce animosities and conflicts which +have been the consequence. Here a reader should again consult Hansard, +notably the debates on Ireland, during the agitated period from 1880 to +1889; of course he should only study the great speeches. The publications +on this subject are very many, and some of real importance; as regards +the policy and conduct of the Land, and even of the National Leagues, and +the frightful outbreak of disorder and crime which was the result, nothing +is equal in value to the Report of the Judges of the 'Special Commission,' +and to the immense body of evidence brought before them; 'The Verdict,' by +Professor Dicey, sums up well the conclusions at which they arrived. The +utterances of the so-called Irish 'Nationalist' Press, throughout these +years, fully verify the facts disclosed in the Report, and its findings; +they have, indeed, been continued in a less ferocious and violent, but in +a significant, strain ever since; a collection of them will be found in +the volumes published by the Irish Unionist Alliance. On this subject, and +also on the state of opinion existing among a large majority, probably, of +the Irish people, see 'The Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary +Movement,' by Professor Brougham Leech; 'The Truth about the Land League,' +by Mr. Arnold Foster, M.P.; 'Parnellism and Crime,' republished from the +_Times_; 'Incipient Irish Revolution,' anonymous but able; some valuable +articles on Ireland by the late Lord Grey that appeared in the _Nineteenth +Century_; 'Disturbed Ireland,' by Mr. T. W. Russell, M.P.; 'The Plan of +Campaign Illustrated;' and 'About Ireland,' by Mrs. E. Lynn Lynton. The +recent revolutionary and agrarian movements in Ireland have not found many +to vindicate them, or even fully to explain their causes; but reference +may be made to 'The Parnell Movement,' by T. P. O'Connor, M.P.; to the +'New Ireland' of Mr. A. M. Sullivan; to Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Irish Wrongs +and English Remedies;' and to a series of articles called 'Ungrateful +Ireland,' in the _Nineteenth Century_, from the pen of Sir G. Duffy. A +host of papers in quarterly, monthly, and other reviews and magazines on +the political and social condition of Ireland of late years has, also, +been published from time to time. Attempts have been made, quite recently, +to show that the troubles of Ireland have become things of the past, and +that she is a prosperous and happy land; but though real improvement has +certainly taken place, these are mere repetitions of the optimistic +fancies that have so often proved delusions. + +The great question of Home Rule, 'present' if for a time postponed, was +first put forward formally by the late Isaac Butt. His 'Irish Federalism' +is a thoughtful and able treatise that ought to be studied. The speeches +in Parliament, from 1874 to 1885, on this subject, collected in Hansard, +deserve attention; notably the violent attacks on this policy made during +many years by Mr. Gladstone. Hansard, too, should be perused, after that +statesman became a convert to Home Rule, for the speeches on both sides, +on the Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893; some are of marked power and +insight, though few rise to the heights of great constitutional +principles. Mr. Gladstone's defence of his sudden change of front will be +found in his 'History of an Idea,' a tract published soon after his defeat +at the polls in 1886; he has endeavoured to vindicate his later Irish +policy, in many pamphlets and speeches, in volumes collected by himself. +For a masterly examination of his public conduct on matters relating to +Ireland, and in some other passages in his career, I would especially +direct the reader to the 'Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne,' part ii. +vol. ii. pp. 339-360; Mr. Lecky's brilliant sketch in his 'Democracy and +Liberty,' Cabinet Edition, Introduction, pp. 19-56, is a composition of +rare excellence. Nothing is to be compared to Professor Dicey's 'England's +Case against Home Rule,' and his 'Leap in the Dark,' for a thorough +investigation, from the Unionist point of view, of the natural and the +probable consequences of the Gladstonian Irish policy, and for an analysis +of the two Home Rule Bills; few political works have attracted equal +attention. There have also been many publications, on the side of the +Union, of more or less merit; see 'Home Rule,' reprinted from the _Times_, +containing several very able letters and papers; 'The Truth about Home +Rule;' 'A Sketch of Unionist Policy;' and a number of articles in the +_Edinburgh_ and the _Quarterly Review_, and in other reviews and +magazines. The publications which advocate Home Rule have not been +numerous; a reader may consult the 'Hand Book of Home Rule,' edited by Mr. +Bryce, M.P.; 'Irish Members and English Gaolers,' and 'Combination and +Coercion,' by Mr. Shaw-Lefevre; and some contributions to a few reviews +and other serials. + +The 'Present Question' of the Irish land, and of Irish landed relations, +goes back to even remote antiquity, and is connected with the whole course +of Irish history. The characteristics and peculiarities of tribal land +tenure in Ireland, before the Anglo-Norman Conquest, have been admirably +explained in Sir Henry Maine's 'Early History of Institutions,' a very +valuable work. I may refer to an article on this book, from my pen, in the +_Edinburgh Review_ of July, 1875. See, also, the 'Senchus Mor,' and the +'Book of Aicile,' fragments of the Brehon Laws, well annotated by the late +Professor Richey. The state of the Irish land, from the Anglo-Norman +Conquest to the beginning of the Tudor period, has been fully illustrated +in the 'Statute of Kilkenny,' edited by James Hardiman, whose learned +commentary is useful and important; in the 'Discovery' of Sir John Davies; +in Spenser's 'View of the State of Ireland;' in the 'O'Conors of +Connaught,' by the O'Conor Don; in Hallam's 'Constitutional History,' vol. +iii. chapter on Ireland; and in Professor Richey's 'Lectures.' I have +glanced at the state of Irish land tenure during the tribal and the feudal +ages, in the introductory chapters to my 'Ireland, 1494-1868,' in the +'Cambridge Historical Series.' The most complete account, perhaps, of the +confiscations of the Irish land, from the reign of Henry VIII. to that of +Charles I., will be found in the 'Carew Papers,' edited by J. S. Brewer +and William Bullen; valuable information abounds in the 'State Papers +relating to the reign of Henry VIII.,' edited by Hans Claude Hamilton; in +'The Life of Sir John Perrott and his Letters;' in the 'Earls of Kildare,' +edited by the Marquis of Kildare; in the 'State Papers,' edited by +Hamilton, _ante_, 'relating to the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and +Elizabeth;' in the 'Annals of the Four Masters;' and see Davies and +Spenser, _ante_. Several modern writers have treated this subject in their +narratives of Irish history; Froude's 'History of England,' vol. ii. ch. +viii.; vol. iv. ch. xix.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.; vol. viii. chs. vii.-xi.; +vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii., may be consulted; but a reader +should be put on his guard against the brilliant but partisan historian. +There is a valuable chapter also, in a very different work, Mr. Lecky's +'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. ch. vi. pp. 92 +_seqq._; and a great deal may be learned from the 'O'Conors of Connaught,' +and Richey's 'Lectures,' _ante_; and especially from an 'Historical +Account of the Plantation of Ulster,' by the Rev. George Hill, and from +Sigerson's 'History of Irish Land Tenure.' In the momentous period of +confiscation, from the beginning of the reign of Charles I. to that of +William III., a reader should study 'Strafford's Letters;' Carte's 'Life +of Ormond;' Lord Clanricarde's 'Memoirs;' the 'Letters of Cromwell,' +edited by Carlyle; the 'Acts of Settlement and Explanation;' the 'Articles +of the Treaty of Limerick;' Sir William Petty's 'Political Anatomy of +Ireland;' 'Macariæ Excidium;' and the Abbe MacGeoghegan's 'History of +Ireland.' The modern authorities on this period are numerous and some of +great value; see Gardiner's 'History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate' +(the Irish chapters), notably vol. iii. ch. xliv.; 'The Cromwellian +Settlement of Ireland,' by John P. Prendergast; 'The Life of Sir William +Petty,' by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, with an article by me in the +_Edinburgh Review_ of July, 1895; 'The Patriot Parliament,' by Thomas +Davis; Macaulay's 'History of England' (the Irish chapters), vol. iv. ch. +xxii.; vol. v. ch. xiv.-xvi.; vol. vi. ch. xvii.; and Mr. Lecky's +'History,' _ante_, vol. ii. ch. ix. Many instructive and philosophic +passages on all these confiscations and their results, will be found +scattered among the writings of Burke; they are admirable. + +The era of violent confiscation closed with the reign of William III.; the +modern history of the Irish land system begins from this period. For an +account of the penal code, as it affected Irish landed relations, +reference may be made to Vincent Scully, 'On the Penal Laws;' to Howard's +'Popery Cases;' and especially to Burke's 'Tracts on the Popery Laws.' +Much, too, can be gathered from Curry's 'State of the Irish Catholics;' +from Primate Boulter's and Archbishop Synge's 'Letters;' from the writings +on Ireland of Swift and Berkeley; and from various passages in the 'Works +and Correspondence of Burke.' For the state of the Irish land from the +beginning of the reign of George III. to the Rebellion of 1798, study the +celebrated 'Tour' of Arthur Young, written in 1776-78; Crumpe's 'Essay;' +an admirable sketch by Mr. Lecky in his 'History,' _ante_, vol. vii. ch. +xxvii.; and Sir George Lewis on 'Irish Disturbances,' a book which gives +an account of the rise and progress of the Whiteboy movement, and carries +the narrative down to 1836. Froude has illustrated this subject very +skilfully in his 'Two Chiefs of Dunboy;' but his account, in his 'The +English in Ireland,' is very inaccurate and one-sided. The nature of Irish +landed relations during the troubled period before the Union is fully +explained in many passages of Mr. Lecky's 'History,' _ante_, vols. vii. +and viii.; and the reader should peruse Lord Clare's speech in the Irish +House of Lords during the debates on the Union. From the Union to the +present time, the authorities on the Irish land system are very numerous; +it is not easy to make compendious selection. For the period of the Great +War, Edward Wakefield's 'Account of Ireland' is valuable, and so is, for +the immediately subsequent period, the evidence on the state of Ireland +taken by a Committee of the House of Commons in 1825. The nature and the +characteristics of the Irish land system, in 1843-44, are fully explained +and commented upon in the well-known Report of the Devon Commission, and +the voluminous evidence; and for the revolution wrought in the Irish land +by the Famine of 1845-47, see the 'Irish Crisis,' by Sir Charles +Trevelyan, republished from the _Edinburgh Review_; and a 'History of the +Great Irish Famine,' by the Rev. John O'Rorke. Much information, too, on +the subject, as a whole, may be obtained from 'L'Irlande, Sociale, +Politique, et Religieuse,' of Gustave de Beaumont; from 'Ireland from the +Treaty of Limerick to 1851,' by John Mitchell; from parts of 'Two +Centuries of Irish History,' edited by James Bryce, M.P.; from several +'Reports' of the Loyal National Repeal Association; and from parts of Mr. +Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' and 'Irish Wrongs +and English Remedies.' + +The Irish land question has given birth to a literature of its own in the +last half-century; legislation on the Irish land system has been +extraordinarily active. With respect to the first, reference may be made +to 'Two Centuries of Irish History,' _ante_, and to Mr. Barry O'Brien's +works, _ante_; to 'Emigration and the Tenure of Irish Land,' by Lord +Dufferin; to John Stuart Mill's 'The Irish Land Question;' to 'The Irish +People and the Irish Land,' by Butt; to Sir George Campbell's 'The Irish +Land,' a very good little book; to Judge Longfield's essay on the Irish +land in 'Systems of Land Tenure;' and to my own 'Letters on the Land +Question of Ireland,' republished from the _Times_. I am happy to think +that, on this subject, I have always 'pitched my Whiggery low;' my first +essay was on the Encumbered Estates Act; when fresh from Oxford I +condemned that scheme of confiscation as unequivocally as, in the present +and other works, I have condemned Irish agrarian legislation since +1880-81. Other books contain passages on the Irish land system that may be +read with profit; see the 'Recollections and Suggestions' of Earl Russell; +'Ireland in 1868,' by Gerald Fitzgibbon; 'Ireland,' by Lord Grey; +'Journals, Conversations, and Essays relating to Ireland,' by Nassau +Senior; and 'New Views on Ireland,' by Lord Russell of Killowen. As +regards recent legislation on the Irish Land, from 1870 to 1896, the Acts +passed by Parliament must of course be studied, and also the important +debates reported in Hansard. Butt wrote a very able volume on the Land Act +of 1870; I contributed a short treatise; an exhaustive and technical work +of great value, on all the Irish Land Acts, has been produced by Messrs. +Cherry and Wakely; this, with the Irish Reports, supplies ample +professional, and even general, information. With respect to the +administration of the Irish Land Acts, see the Report of the Committee of +the House of Lords, and the evidence published in 1872; the Report of, and +the evidence collected by, the Bessborough Commission of 1880-81; the +Report of a Committee of the House of Lords on the working of the Land Act +of 1881, published, with the evidence, in 1882; the Report, with the +evidence, of the Cowper Commission, 1888-89; the Report, with the +evidence, of the Morley Commission, 1894-1895; and, especially, the Report +of Sir Edward Fry's Commission of 1897, with the important evidence it has +put together. Mr. Lecky, in his 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. ch. ii., +has criticised, almost as severely as I have done, recent Irish agrarian +legislation; no serious defence of it has ever been made or attempted. + +To understand the real state of the financial relations between Great +Britain and Ireland, it is necessary to go back to the times of the Union; +those who resist the Irish demand avoid an appeal to history. The debates +in the Irish Parliament in 1800 should be carefully studied, especially +the speeches of Castlereagh, Grattan, and Foster. The Seventh Article of +the Treaty of Union, set forth in this work, should also be diligently +scanned and perused. See, too, the debates in the Imperial Parliament in +1816; the resolutions passed by the House of Commons in that year; and the +Act abolishing the separate Exchequer of Ireland. Reference, moreover, +should be made to the evidence taken before General Dunne's Committee in +1864, in which sophistry triumphed for the moment over truth. All these +sources of information, however, are scanty and imperfect compared to the +celebrated Report of the Childers Commission, with the valuable evidence +annexed to it; this for the first time completely brings out the whole +facts on the subject. The debates in Hansard on the financial claims of +Ireland may also be looked at; but they are not of peculiar importance; +the same remark applies to nearly all the articles in reviews, magazines, +and journals, in which endeavours have been made to answer the Report. I +may be allowed to say that I have some claim to have a distinct opinion in +this matter; when still quite a boy I often heard my grand-uncle, the late +Sir John Newport, one of the ablest and last of the Chancellors of the +Irish Exchequer, condemn the financial treatment of Ireland from 1800 +onwards; many years afterwards I was intimately acquainted with several of +the independent Irish gentlemen, survivors of the great school of Grattan, +who protested against Mr. Gladstone's fiscal Irish measures from 1853 to a +later date; Butt and Judge Longfield, both very able economists, fully +concurred. With respect to local government and administration in Ireland, +see Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. i. +books iv. and v.; the Report of the Commissioners on Irish Corporate +Reform issued in 1833-34, and the Irish Municipal Corporation Reform Act +of 1840; the Irish Towns Commissioners Acts; a report made by Mr. W. P. +O'Brien in 1878; a good treatise by Mr. Bailey published in 1888; and the +recent Irish Local Government Act of 1898, with the debates in Hansard on +this measure, should be perused. The authorities on Irish education of all +kinds are numerous, and some valuable. Froude has glanced at the subject, +with characteristic unfairness, in his 'The English in Ireland;' the +refutation of Mr. Lecky, in his 'England in the Eighteenth Century,' is +complete. A good description of education in Ireland, in all its branches, +as it existed in 1812, will be found in Edward Wakefield's 'Account of +Ireland,' vol. ii. ch. xxiv.; another in Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years +of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. i. book i.; vol ii. book x.; the author +brings the narrative down to 1881. As regards high education in Ireland, +reference may be made to 'The History of the University of Dublin,' by the +Rev. W. Stubbs; to 'The Constitutional History of the University of +Dublin,' by D. C. Heron; to the Report of Archbishop Whateley's +Commission, in 1853, on the University of Dublin; to Mr. Gladstone's Irish +University Bill of 1873, and the able debates on the subject in Trinity +College and the House of Commons; to Mr. Fawcett's Act of 1873; to a +masterly pamphlet by Butt, on the whole question, published in 1875; and +to the 'Irish University Question,' by Archbishop Walsh, with recent +debates in Parliament on Irish University reform. For the nature, +constitution, and working of the Queen's Colleges and the Queen's +University, see the debates in Parliament when Peel introduced this +policy; many Reports; the work of Archbishop Walsh, _ante_; and the Act +creating the Royal University in Ireland may be examined. As regards +primary and secondary education in Ireland, see the Reports of the +Education Commissioners from 1810 to 1825; the Reports of the National +Education Board; the Reports of the Kildare, Rosse, and Powis +Commissions, noticed in this work; and Mr. Godkin's 'Education in +Ireland.' An excellent synopsis of the subject, as a whole, will be found +in 'The Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland,' by Mr. Graham +Balfour. + +WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS. + + GARTNAMONA, TULLAMORE, + _14th May, 1901_. + + + + +Contents + + + PAGES + + CHAPTER I + + IRELAND IN 1901 + + Ireland has passed through a revolution in the Victorian + age--Material progress--Dublin--Belfast--Improvement in + Catholic places of worship and in the habitations of the + people--State of the Irish community--Symptoms of + retrogression--Decline of agriculture--The progress of Ireland + Ireland much less than that of England and Scotland, and + why--State of the Irish land system--Recent legislation has + done some good, but it has been unjust, and has had pernicious + effects--Ireland divided into three peoples--Notwithstanding + great reforms Catholic Ireland is still, in the main, + disaffected--Presbyterian Ireland--Cry for the confiscation of + the Irish land--Protestant Ireland--Fall of its old + ascendency--Discontent among the landed gentry--Nature of the + government of Ireland by the Imperial Parliament--Its merits + and defects--Attitude of the greater part of Ireland towards + it--The administration of Irish affairs--The bureaucracy of + the Castle--The Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic Irish + Churches--The administration of justice in Ireland--Irish + literature and public opinion--General survey of the present + state of Ireland--Irish policy of Lord Salisbury's + Ministry--'Present Irish Questions' to be discussed in this + work 1-38 + + + CHAPTER II + + THE QUESTION OF HOME RULE + + The question of Home Rule not extinct--The reasons--Butt's + scheme of Home Rule--It is denounced and ridiculed by Mr. + Gladstone, and defeated in the House of Commons--Death of + Butt--The Home Rule movement becomes allied with a foreign + conspiracy--Davitt and Parnell--The Land League--Mr. + Gladstone's surrender to it--The movement makes no progress + in the Parliament of 1880-85--The General Election of + 1885--Mr. Gladstone suddenly adopts the policy of Home + Rule--The probable reasons--The Home Rule Bill of 1886--Its + nature and tendencies--Decisive objections to the + measure--It is rejected at the General Election of 1886, + having been previously rejected in the House of Commons-- + Policy and conduct of Mr. Gladstone--The Home Rule movement + makes some progress in England, and why--The Home Rule Bill + of 1893--It is much worse than that of 1886--The reasons--It + is rejected by the House of Lords--Home Rule under different + forms--The Union must be maintained--Proposal that Parliament + should occasionally sit in Dublin--The over-representation + of Ireland should be redressed 39-83 + + + CHAPTER III + + THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND--SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE + LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND TO THE YEAR 1870 + + Great importance in the history of Ireland of the conditions + of land tenure--The ancient Celtic land system and its + characteristics--The Norman conquest of Ireland--Norman + feudalism in the Irish land--The policy of Henry VII., and + especially of Henry VIII.--The era of the conquest and + confiscation of the Irish land--The possessions of the + O'Connors of Offaly wrested from them--Forfeiture of the + domains of Shane O'Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond--Attempts + at colonisation--All Ireland made shire land--The extinction + of the old Celtic land system--The Plantation of Ulster-- + Progress of confiscation during the reigns of the two first + Stuarts--The Civil War--Immense confiscations made by + Cromwell--His scheme of colonisation a failure--The era of + confiscation closes after the battle of the Boyne and the fall + of Limerick--The Penal Code of Ireland--Its fatal effects on + the Irish land--Dismal period in Irish landed relations-- + Gradual improvement--The period described by Arthur Young-- + Evil traces of the past remain--Whiteboyism and agrarian + disorder--State of Irish landed relations up to the rebellion + of 1798, and after the Union--Over-population and the + results--Distress after the Peace--State of Irish landed + relations up to 1844--The Report of the Devon Commission--The + Famine and its effects on the Irish land--The Encumbered + Estates Acts--State of Irish landed relations from 1848 to + 1868 84-129 + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--THE IRISH LAND + ACT OF 1870--THE LAND LEAGUE AND THE NATIONAL LEAGUE--THE LAND + ACT OF 1881--SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION AS REGARDS THE LAND SYSTEM + OF IRELAND + + State of landed relations in Ireland in 1869-70--Mr. Gladstone + Prime Minister--The Land Act of 1870--Its merits and defects-- + A short period of prosperity in Ireland--Ominous symptoms-- + Michael Davitt--The teaching of John Finton Lalor in 1848--The + 'New Departure' in Fenianism arranged in America--Foundation + of the Land League--It was a foreign rebellious conspiracy, + with an agrarian side, under a constitutional mask--Parnell + the master spirit of the League--His visit to America and the + results--A short period of distress in Ireland--Conduct of the + Irish landlords--Progress of the Land League--Mr. Gladstone + again Prime Minister in 1880--The Compensation for Disturbance + Bill rejected by the House of Lords--Outburst of agrarian + crime, as the Land League increases in power--Rents at + Griffith's valuation--Boycotting--Frightful state of Ireland + in 1881--After a short attempt to repress it, Mr. Gladstone + surrenders to the Land League--The Land Act of 1881--Mr. + Gladstone breaks the pledges he had made in 1870--His promise + of compensating the Irish landlords--The Land Act of 1881 a + bad and unjust measure directly inconsistent with that of + 1870--The 'No Rent Manifesto'--The Kilmainham Treaty--The + Phoenix Park tragedy--Coercion--Parnell founds the National + League, the successor of the Land League--Renewal of agitation + in 1886--Struggle with law and the Government--Subsequent + agrarian legislation for Ireland--This is really a concession + to agitation, for the benefit of Irish tenants, and to the + injury of Irish landlords 130-187 + + + CHAPTER V + + THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--THE ADMINISTRATION + OF THE IRISH LAND ACTS + + The administration of the Land Act of 1870 in the main + good--Difficulty about claims for tenants' improvements--The + administration of the Land Act of 1881, and of its + supplements--The Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions-- + Allowances to be made for these tribunals--Principles which + the Land Commission should have adopted in fixing 'fair + rents'--The procedure and practice it ought to have + established--It made mistakes as to both--The nature of the + Sub-Commission Courts--This was objectionable in the highest + degree--These Courts have, however unconsciously, done grave + wrong to Irish landlords--Causes of this--Characteristics of + their proceedings--They disregarded the principles they + ought to have followed, and adopted faulty and erroneous + methods--Different illustrations of these grave mistakes-- + The Land Commission and appeals as to 'fair rent'--Importance + of this subject--Faulty procedure of the Land Commission in + appeals--Valuers--The second Land Commission--Its procedure + worse than that of the first--Theory of occupation right-- + This another wrong done to landlords--The Fry Commission and + its report--Confiscation of the property of Irish + landlords--The proofs of this--Apologies made for the Land + Commission--The administration of the Land Purchase Acts 188-229 + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--PROPOSED REFORM + OF THE IRISH LAND SYSTEM + + Retrospect of the present Irish land system--Position of the + Irish landlords--Position of the Irish tenant class--This + not as advantageous as might be supposed--The effects of the + land code on Irish agriculture injurious--The effects on the + general Irish community--Confiscation, violation of + contracts, shock given to credit, increased alienation of + classes, and demoralisation--The land system considered on + the side of ownership--'Voluntary purchase'--Mischief of + this policy--It sets up a false standard against rent, and + creates unjust distinctions between different classes of + tenants--The results it has produced already--An instance of + the system--The demand for the compulsory purchase of the + Irish land caused by 'voluntary purchase'--Compulsory + purchase has some hold on opinion, but is an impossible, and + would be a disgraceful and ruinous policy--It would ruin + Irish landlords as a class--Instances--It would ultimately + bring Ireland into the state in which she was before the + Great Famine--Proposed plan for the reform of Irish land + tenure--Questions as to the means of compensating Irish + landlords, a deeply wronged order of men 230-270 + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE QUESTION OF THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN + AND IRELAND + + The subject briefly considered--Financial position of + Ireland before 1782, and under Grattan's Parliament--Her + taxation and debt small before 1798--Ireland financially a + distinct country--At the Union, Pitt wished to 'assimilate + her in finance' with Great Britain, but this impossible, and + why--Ireland's contribution after the Union--This was + unjust, but it left her financially a distinct country-- + Ireland made nearly bankrupt--The compromise of 1816--The + Irish Exchequer closed, and the Irish and British debts + consolidated--The object of the compromise was rather to + relieve Ireland from her burdens than to assimilate her in + finance with Great Britain--She still remained for many + years financially distinct from Great Britain, and is so + still to some extent--The conduct of Peel a striking proof + of this--Mr. Gladstone imposes the income tax on Ireland, + and her spirit duties are largely raised--Injustice of this + policy--The Committee of 1863-64--Ireland does not obtain + financial justice--The Report of the Childers Commission + made upon a reference by Mr. Gladstone following Mr. + Goschen--The Commission declares that Ireland has been + greatly overtaxed for many years--Evidence on which it has + founded this conclusion--Examination of arguments to the + contrary--Another Commission promised, but the promise not + fulfilled--Importance of settling this question 271-308 + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE QUESTIONS OF IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION--OTHER + QUESTIONS--CONCLUSION + + Irish county government--The grand jury system in the + eighteenth century--Its merits and defects--The grand jury + system in the nineteenth century, and especially since + 1836--The Irish poor law system--Elected and _ex-officio_ + guardians--The local government of cities and towns in + Ireland--Municipal institutions founded in Ireland by the + Norman kings--Why they did not prosper--Boroughs and + municipalities founded by James I. and the Stuarts--Their + condition in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries--The + Municipal Reform Act of 1840--The Towns Commissioners + Acts--Attempts to reform the municipal system of local + government in Ireland--The Local Government of Ireland Act, + 1898--Complete change in Irish local government--The County + Councils--The County Borough Councils--The District, Rural, + and the Urban District Councils--Their functions, rights, + and duties--All these bodies placed on a democratic basis-- + Attitude of the County Councils in the southern provinces-- + Education in Ireland--History of primary education--The + National system of education--The principles on which it is + founded--How it has worked, and what its results have + been--Secondary education in Ireland--Its history--Its + present condition very imperfect--The Intermediate + Education Act--University education in Ireland--Its + history--Trinity College--The Queen's Colleges and the + Queen's University founded by Peel--Their comparative + failure--Mr. Gladstone's Bill to reform University education + in Ireland--Its glaring errors and failures--Trinity College + thrown open in 1873--The Royal University founded in 1879-- + Present state of University education in Ireland--The true + principles of reform--Other Irish questions--Conclusion 309-360 + + APPENDIX 361-428 + + INDEX 429 + + + + +Present Irish Questions + + + + +CHAPTER I + +IRELAND IN 1901 + + Ireland has passed through a revolution in the Victorian age--Material + progress--Dublin--Belfast--Improvement in Catholic places of worship + and in the habitations of the people--State of the Irish + community--Symptoms of retrogression--Decline of agriculture--The + progress of Ireland much less than that of England and Scotland, and + why--State of the Irish land system--Recent legislation has done some + good, but it has been unjust, and has had pernicious effects--Ireland + divided into three peoples--Notwithstanding great reforms Catholic + Ireland is still, in the main, disaffected--Presbyterian Ireland--Cry + for the confiscation of the Irish land--Protestant Ireland--Fall of + its old ascendency--Discontent among the landed gentry--Nature of the + government of Ireland by the Imperial Parliament--Its merits and + defects--Attitude of the greater part of Ireland towards it--The + administration of Irish affairs--The bureaucracy of the Castle--The + Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic Irish Churches--The + administration of justice in Ireland--Irish literature and public + opinion--General survey of the present state of Ireland--Irish policy + of Lord Salisbury's ministry--'Present Irish Questions' to be + discussed in this work. + + +To understand thoroughly the Ireland of the present day, it is necessary +to have studied her history in the past. Nevertheless, if we go back to a +comparatively recent period, say to the beginning of the reign of +Victoria, we can obtain a reasonably clear idea of her existing +condition. A revolution has passed over her in this space of time almost +as complete as the revolution which has transformed France; the results +have not yet been fully developed, but in nearly all respects they have +been immense. The community has, for the most part, made material +progress; but this has been far from great or decisive; it has been +interrupted by seasons of distress, one culminating in a dire catastrophe, +and has been retarded by many causes of trouble. Taking the external +aspect of Ireland first, Dublin has certainly advanced in the last sixty +years; the capital has been surrounded by fine and increasing suburbs; the +squares, the streets, the shops have improved; above all, though much +remains yet to be done, the contrast between the dwellings of the rich and +the poor is much less painful than it was within living memory. No city, +however, has made such progress as Belfast: its population, which, in +1841, was not more than 75,000 souls, was, in 1891, upwards of 255,000;[1] +its opulence has probably grown tenfold; it is the centre of the great +manufacture of Ulster; its building-yards are renowned for its magnificent +ships; its estuary is crowded with the thronging fleets of commerce. The +towns dependent on it, too, and the whole adjoining region, are +flourishing from the great trade in linen, which has been aggregated +within a comparatively small space; indeed, this prosperity has extended +over all the north-east of Ireland, and Londonderry has long been a +thriving seaport. Few of the towns of the rest of Ulster and of the +southern provinces have improved; but signs of augmented wealth appear in +other directions; in this respect they are striking in the extreme. The +places of worship and the religious houses of the Catholic Church of +Ireland have been transformed; the mean 'chapels' of the past have largely +disappeared; most parishes have a suitable church; fine cathedrals +dominate many towns; we often admire monasteries and convents in +architectural splendour. The most remarkable phenomenon, however, of this +description is the great and fortunate change which has taken place in the +habitations of the community throughout the country. The dense and +wretched hovels which, sixty years ago, barely sheltered the millions of +Irish indigence, if still too frequent, have been, for the most part, +effaced; the houses of the better class have greatly increased in numbers, +though the population has enormously declined.[2] And the face of the +landscape in most counties bears witness, on the whole, to a still +perceptible progress. The chief industry of Ireland, indeed, as I shall +show afterwards, has certainly retrograded within the last twenty years; +her agricultural area and resources have much diminished. The advance, +too, which, from about 1853 to 1876, was manifest and rapid in most of her +rural districts, has been, to a considerable extent, checked; capital has, +for some time, been avoiding her soil. But if the process was stern, nay, +appalling, the land has, within the last half century, been thrown open to +husbandry, infinitely better and more fruitful than had existed before; +the exertions which were made, for a long space of time, to improve +cultivation have left far-spreading traces; we still behold the beneficent +results. The land over the greater part of its surface is not 'puckered +up' in thousands of squalid patches, the holdings of masses of cottar +paupers; it has been made more available for real farming; and it has been +largely drained, enclosed, and covered with woodland--at least, up to a +recent period. + +The material condition of the Irish community has, also, improved since +the late Queen ascended the throne. This, no doubt, is to be largely +ascribed to the effects of the great Famine of 1845-47, and of the immense +emigration that followed in its train. The resources of Ireland, before +that calamity, were unable to support, in anything like comfort, the +teeming multitudes crowded on her soil; an official report, made in 1838, +proved that two millions and a half of the poor in Ireland were for months +in the year on the brink of starvation; this huge mass of indigence, which +forced up rent, beat down wages, and was most injurious to good husbandry, +was almost incompatible with real social progress. The great and +continuing exodus of the Irish race, which has gone on for more than half +a century, has not been without untoward results; but it has relieved the +country from a destructive incubus; and this has certainly wrought a +beneficent change, though the population has declined from about eight +millions in 1837 to about four and a half millions in 1895.[3] Ireland, +indeed, is still, mainly, a poor country--in some districts she is +exceedingly poor; but the disappearance of overwhelmingly redundant +millions has enabled her to maintain the millions that have remained much +better than of old, and has distinctly raised the standard of living among +all the humbler classes. The wages of agricultural labour, seldom more +than six or seven shillings a week before the Famine, and then paid in +potatoes by a vile truck system, have risen to ten and even twelve +shillings, usually paid in cash; and they have not fallen, though Irish +agriculture is very far from prosperous. The wages of the higher kinds of +labour have also greatly increased; this is apparent in nearly all trades, +and is especially apparent in the trades of Ulster. At the same time, the +potato has long ceased to be the sole food of the poor; their dwellings, +though still too often mean and bad, are infinitely better than they once +were; their attire, and even their appearance, has greatly improved. I do +not think, indeed, that O'Connell's description of the peasantry of +Munster in 1825 could now be fairly applied to even the worst parts of +Ireland, the impoverished tracts on the seacoast of Connaught: 'They have +no clothes to change, they have none but what they wear at the moment.... +Their food consists of potatoes and water during the greater part of the +year; potatoes and sour milk during another portion; they use some salt +with their potatoes when they have nothing but water.'[4] There is +evidence, also, that, even of late years, the wealth of Ireland has, in +some measure, increased, especially in the middle and lower middle +classes. The landed gentry, indeed, owing partly to the effects of Free +Trade, and partly to those of legislation I shall describe afterwards, +have been impoverished in many instances, and in many ruined; and the +Irish tenant farmer, if gorged by the spoil of his landlord, has not +gained all that an agrarian revolution was expected to give him. But the +commerce of Ireland has made progress, within the last two decades, if +this has not been by any means great; and though the capital she holds in +the best securities has perceptibly diminished of late years, there has +been a very large increase in most kinds of other investments.[5] + +This picture of Ireland, however, has dark features; her welfare has been, +at best, partial; considerable deductions must be made from it. The +progress of the capital, as has been the case in London, is largely to be +ascribed to the depletion of many country districts, a change that has +been going on for a long period, and has been accelerated by the decline +of the landed gentry in wealth. The enormous advance of Belfast, and of +the adjoining neighbourhood, has been, to a great extent, caused by the +concentration of the linen manufacture within a small area; the hand-loom +has disappeared from Ireland; this has been injurious to many petty towns +and villages. The population and the trade of nearly all the chief towns +in the southern provinces have diminished; Cork, with its immense natural +advantages, has not prospered; Limerick and, notably, Galway are in decay; +most of the inland towns show few signs of improvement; the outskirts of +almost all are defaced by lines of ruined hovels, the wrecks of abodes a +dwindling tale of indwellers has left. Many of these urban centres were, +sixty years ago, seats of manufactures and of other industries, which, to +a certain extent, were flourishing; but these sources of wealth have, for +the most part, been dried up; they have been blotted out by the gigantic +manufactures of England and Scotland poured into Ireland, everywhere, +within a few hours, by steam. The collapse, indeed, of Irish manufactures +in the last half century has been striking and mournful; 696,000 persons +were employed in textile and dyeing industries in 1841; in 1881 there were +only 130,000; and though the growth of machinery may in part account for +this difference, it assuredly cannot fully explain it.[6] The same remark +applies to Irish fishing industry; the small craft which once swarmed +along the coast, and, rearing a breed of hardy mariners, gathered in the +prolific harvests of the sea, have been vanishing year after year; in +1867, 9332 boats, and 38,444 men and boys were engaged in this calling; +the numbers were 5646 and 21,940 in 1891.[7] Turning to the face of the +country, agriculture, we have seen, has improved, if we look back to the +period before the Famine; but it is still centuries behind that of England +and Scotland, and of late years it has markedly declined. It is not only +that the prices of agricultural produce are much less than they were, in +the last generation, and that its total value has fallen from £97,885,000 +in 1851-55, to £88,955,000 in 1889-93.[8] The agricultural area of Ireland +has diminished from 1879 to 1899 by rather more than 400,000 acres;[9] and +it is absolutely certain that within these decreasing limits, as I shall +point out in subsequent chapters, agriculture has made little or no +progress, and in some districts has distinctly become worse; we see the +results of the vicious legislation of the last twenty years in +deteriorated farms, in hundreds of cases, in a most injurious neglect of +arterial drainage, and in the destruction of thousands of acres of +woodland. And the ruin which has overtaken many of the landed gentry has +been made only too manifest in the desolate aspect of scores of country +seats, once happy homes, that now know their owners no more. + +It must be borne in mind, too, as we examine the present state of Ireland, +that if, on the whole, she has made some progress, she is still, as I have +said, a poor country, and that a considerable part of Connaught, her +western province, has, for years, been in so poor a condition, that the +Government of late has laudably made a great effort to raise it out of the +depths of indigence. Other considerations, moreover, must be taken into +account, if we would form a just conclusion as to the material position +of Ireland, and, especially, as to her material prospects. The reduction +of her population, up to a certain point, was an essential condition of +her social progress; but that limit appears to have been far surpassed; +this continuous decline, during more than half a century, has become an +ominous symptom. More than 3,700,000 of souls have emigrated from Ireland +since 1851;[10] and this number does not include the masses which fled +from the catastrophe of 1845-47. This immense drain on the life of a +nation has, for years, had a pernicious effect; in large parts of the +country labourers have become so scarce that it is often difficult to save +the harvest, which should be quickly gathered in, in a wet climate; and +hands are wanting to industry in many places. Emigration, too, has taken +away the best part of the people, men and women in the flower of +existence; the reproductive power of the community has, accordingly, +declined; the birth-rate of Ireland is less than it was; infirmity, +disease, and, notably, insanity have increased; the population of the +towns is seldom active and thriving.[11] At the same time, the taxation of +Ireland has become many degrees more excessive in the last sixty years; +the local rates have advanced from about £1,000,000 to nearly £4,000,000; +the general taxation has been well-nigh doubled; and a tribunal of the +very highest authority has recently declared that Ireland is immensely +overtaxed, and has been for upwards of forty years. Nor can there be a +real question but that large interests connected with the land have +suffered greatly in the period that has now extended from 1878-79. It is +unnecessary to refer to the condition of the landed gentry; I shall notice +it at some length afterwards; but, much as the Irish people dislike the +Poor-law, pauperism has distinctly increased during the last ten years, +though the population has fallen off in numbers, and the charge of +pauperism shows a corresponding increase.[12] The Income Tax returns, too, +as regards the land, are of sinister omen; those under Schedule A have +greatly diminished since 1890; and there is a considerable decline of +property in the Funds.[13] As to the argument that the Tenant Right of the +Irish farmer has risen in value, and that this proves Irish agriculture to +be in a prosperous state, this is a complete, nay, a grotesque, fallacy. +The rise in the value of Tenant Right is simply one of the many signs that +a huge confiscation has taken place in the Irish land. + +If Ireland, therefore, has made material progress, this has been slow, +partial, and with large drawbacks; such as it is, it must be mainly +ascribed to the results of the Famine, which liberated the soil from a +destructive burden. The whole country, it has truly been said, has still +too much the look of a 'great neglected estate,' requiring development in +most of its parts; large sections of the population are poor, feeble in +health, and backward. Any advance, moreover, which Ireland has made in +well being, since 1837-38, is as nothing compared with the extraordinary +growth of the prosperity of England and Scotland, within the same period. +True-hearted Irishmen grieve as they pass from the lesser to the greater +island, and contrast the husbandry of Galway and Mayo with that of the +Lothians and Kent; as they gaze on the Shannon, with scarcely a sail on +its waters, and the Clyde teeming with its fleets of commerce; above all, +as they turn from the decaying towns of their own country to such centres +of wealth and of gigantic trade, as some even of the provincial cities of +Britain, not to speak of the mighty world of London. The causes, indeed, +of this contrast may be easily found; the mineral resources of Ireland are +scanty; her commerce and manufactures are small; she is essentially an +agricultural land, which has lost much from the effects of Free Trade; she +has suffered greatly from misgovernment, agitation, and social disorder; +all this has kept her back in the national race. The mineral products, on +the other hand, of England and Scotland are immense, and of the first +importance in an age of invention; they have decisively contributed to the +huge development of the opulence and the trade of Great Britain; the +policy of Free Trade, carried out for years, has had marvellous results in +the same direction; if British agriculture is not progressing, British +commerce and manufactures are still supreme; and Great Britain has been +for ages a law-abiding land, in which order has been happily combined with +liberty. These considerations fully explain the wide and ever-increasing +distinction between Ireland and England and Scotland, only too manifest; +they have been amply verified by unerring statistics. Two figures may +suffice for a general reader; the resources of Ireland were estimated, a +few years ago, at a sum of about four hundred millions sterling, that of +Great Britain at not less than ten thousand millions.[14] + +The social structure of Ireland springs from the soil; it is most apparent +in the relations that have been formed in the land. I shall dwell, at some +length, in other chapters of this work, on the history and the +characteristics of the Irish land system, and on the revolution through +which it has passed; I can here only briefly glance at the subject. That +system, at the beginning of the late reign, still represented, in many +respects, the features it had borne in the eighteenth century, though +these had been, in a great degree, modified. The land, over four-fifths of +its surface, was still in the ownership of a small class of men, divided +in race and faith from its occupants; the conquests and confiscations +which had drawn deep lines of distinction between the Anglo-Protestant +landlord and the Catholic and even the Presbyterian peasant, had still +left their indelible traces, if these had been, to a considerable extent, +effaced. Absenteeism had increased since the Union, though absentee +estates were showing signs of improvement; middleman tenures, with their +manifold and complex mischiefs, were disappearing, but were still +numerous; various causes, to operate for many years, were diminishing the +security of the peasants' tenure. The power of the dominant landlord class +was declining; it was being weakened by the Castle bureaucracy, and by the +emancipation of Catholic Ireland; but it was still nearly supreme in +landed relations; this class was all but the absolute lords of the tillers +of the soil. It is untrue that it was oppressive and unjust as a rule; but +some of its members abused their excessive power; it had too much in +common with an exclusive caste; and a whole train of economic causes were +aggravating the evils of a land system from its origin placed on unsound +foundations. Agriculture was advancing in not a few counties; many of the +landed gentry were improving men, who were making a beginning in the +scientific farming, which, before long, was to be more fully developed. +But the population, we have seen, had increased by millions Ireland could +not support; over whole districts, especially in Munster and Connaught, +the land had been split up into petty holdings, the seats of a huge +multitude of human misery. Rents, therefore, were being unnaturally forced +up, and the wages of labour unnaturally cut down; the land system was +disorganised, and filled with dangerous elements. The worst vice of the +system, however, has yet to be noticed; from different causes which I +shall point out afterwards, the occupiers of the soil in Ireland had, as a +general rule, made even the permanent improvements on their farms, and +large sums had repeatedly been paid on the transfer of these; they had +thus gradually acquired concurrent rights in the land, in tens of +thousands of instances; and yet these were outside the pale of the law, +and could be annihilated by eviction, or even the raising of rent. These +rights had the support, in parts of Ulster, of a long-established custom, +and were usually respected in the southern provinces; but they ought long +before to have had full legal protection; and they were sometimes violated +or disregarded by unscrupulous landlords. The results were seen in the +White Boy and the agrarian disorders which had disturbed Ireland for more +than a century, and even ran back to the confiscations of the past. + +This land system, essentially bad as it was, marked by evil distinctions +and pregnant with wrong, scarcely attracted the attention of British +statesmen, until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century. Peel was the +first minister who, even dimly, perceived its vices; he appointed a +Commission to report on the subject. The labours of this body were, in +part, laudable; but the Commissioners, filled with prejudice as to the +excellence of British land tenure, and without experience of that of +Ireland, made a capital mistake in the suggestions they offered. Instead +of recommending that the concurrent rights of the Irish tenant in the +land, often equivalent to a real joint ownership, should receive, as was +but just, the sanction of law, they proposed to restrict these in many +ways; they put forward a plan of 'compensation,' as they called it, that +was worse than useless. Legislation to this effect was withdrawn from +Parliament; the terrible visitation of 1845-47 had ere long shattered the +Irish land system, bringing ruin on hundreds of the landed gentry, making +thousands of farmers of the better classes bankrupt, forcing the petty +holders of the land--the cottar population, as it was named--to fly from +the country in despairing multitudes. The land was largely set free from a +dense mass of wretchedness; it was the general belief of the public men of +the day, that what was most required, at this conjuncture, was to attract +men of capital to it to do it justice, and to get rid, as quickly as +possible, of the large body of Irish landlords, who, even before deeply +involved in debt, had been made hopelessly insolvent by recent events. The +Encumbered Estates Act became law, with scarcely an opposing protest; it +was to 'regenerate Ireland,' its authors proclaimed; its results were to +develop a bad class of landlords, to annihilate the rights of the Irish +peasant wholesale, and to cause an iniquitous confiscation on an enormous +scale. The Irish Land Question, as was the phrase, was now raised once +more; in 1852 the occupiers of the Irish soil set on foot an agitation to +vindicate their rights, destroyed or endangered by what had lately +occurred; the Government of Lord Derby lent a favourable ear; but it was +defeated in the House of Commons by intrigue; the land system remained in +the state in which it had been left; no real attempt to improve it was +made. A series of years followed in which Ireland made distinct progress, +and her agriculture advanced; it became a fixed idea with British +statesmen, that there was nothing radically bad in Irish land tenure, and +that its defects would gradually disappear; the grievances of the Irish +peasant were ignored; his claims to what was now known as his Tenant +Right, urged feebly by his advocates, were voted down in Parliament; and a +general belief prevailed that what Ireland most needed was a still further +and steady removal of what was deemed 'her surplus population' from her +soil. + +As has so often happened in the affairs of Ireland, her real condition at +this period was not understood; and the reform in her land system, which +had become essential, was indefinitely delayed with disastrous results. +Meanwhile, though things were serene on the surface, the inherent vices in +Irish landed relations were not really changed, and, in some respects, +were made worse. The Fenian troubles and outbreak of 1865-67 showed how +much there was still peccant in the state of Ireland; Mr. Gladstone +addressed himself, in 1870, to the task of effecting a reform in her land +system. The measure he carried through Parliament was bold, and, in the +main, statesmanlike; but it was injured by the predilection for English +land tenure its author avowed, a general misconception of British +statesmen; it was not without marked and even grave defects; and though +unquestionably it did real good, it did not satisfy the tenant class--at +least, the men who had become its leaders. In a few years the frightful +period of the Land League had begun; a Reign of Terror prevailed in about +a third part of Ireland, accompanied by far-spreading and atrocious crime. +The movement was really a huge conspiracy, formed in America to overthrow +British rule in Ireland; but Mr. Gladstone, now minister for the second +time, resolved to deal with it only on its agrarian side; he wrought a +complete revolution in the Irish land system, on principles wholly +different from those of his measure of 1870. This legislation was prepared +without reflection; it passed through Parliament when that assembly was +almost in a state of panic; its author professed that his only object was +to secure the occupier of the Irish soil in his legitimate rights; but the +methods he adopted to attain this end have never been heard of in modern +times, and have never been employed before in civilised lands. The +principle of the mediæval statutes, which endeavoured to fix the price of +bread, and the rate of wages, was extended to the Irish land system; rents +were to be adjusted through the agency of the State, by tribunals to which +no parallel can be found; tenants' improvements were declared exempted +from rent; and a mode of land tenure, hitherto condemned by Mr. Gladstone, +and known as the 'theory of the Three F's,' was applied to the great +majority of Irish tenancies, in an exaggerated, crude, and dangerous form. +This legislation, revolutionary and socialistic alike, has been given more +ample scope in the last twenty years; it probably affects four-fifths of +the rented lands in Ireland; it has fashioned the type of land tenure over +nearly all the country. The successors of Mr. Gladstone, who, indeed, had +boasted that it set the doctrines of Adam Smith at nought, were not blind +to the evils it soon developed; but it is questionable if their attempts +to mitigate these, and to place the Irish land system on a better basis, +have not been at least as open to censure. With the ignorance of Irish +land tenure common in British statesmen, they proclaimed, what assuredly +was not the fact, that Mr. Gladstone had 'created a dual ownership' in the +Irish land, and that, in order to get rid of this intolerable thing, it +was necessary, in accord with English ideas, to bring Ireland, as far as +possible, under 'single ownership,' and to make the occupiers of the Irish +soil, to a large extent, its owners. The system of 'Land Purchase' in +Ireland, begun in 1870, was freed from the limitations which made it safe +and just, and widely enlarged under new conditions; Irish tenants were +encouraged to acquire the fee in their holdings, by a process never +contemplated before; instead of having to pay any part of the price, the +State advanced them the whole purchase moneys, repayable by an annual +charge much less than any true rent. About a tenth part of the tenant +class of Ireland have become owners of their farms by these means; the +transaction has been in no sense a 'purchase;' though given the name, it +is really the exact opposite. + +I shall describe all this legislation, in detail, afterwards, and shall +indicate its far-reaching effects; here I can only take a cursory survey. +The attempts that have been made to reform the Irish land system, in the +last sixty years, have been, with scarcely an exception, failures; the +Irish land, it has truly been said, is strewn with the wrecks of repeated +errors. The Land Act of 1870 was, on the whole, a well-conceived measure; +but the recommendations made by the Devon Commission, the iniquitous and +destructive Encumbered Estates Act, the agrarian revolution wrought by Mr. +Gladstone, and the 'Land Purchase' Acts, as they are falsely called, have +been monuments of want of insight and knowledge. And, what is even worse, +legislation on the Irish land has, over and over again, been too long +delayed, and has been inconsistent, fitful, founded on no principle; the +results have been in a high degree disastrous. Reforms that would have +been gladly welcomed if made years before, have been treated with contempt +when made too late; and reforms have more than once been hasty +experiments, carried out under the stress of menacing troubles. The fable +of the Sibylline books has been realised in this matter; and not a few of +the efforts to improve Irish land tenures have been little better than +sudden leaps in the dark. As to recent legislation in this province, its +consequences and tendencies have become manifest. That it has effected +some good may be admitted; it has removed grievances that no doubt +existed; it has made the government of Ireland more easy for the time; it +has allayed discontent for a moment; but the good is far outweighed by +the evil. It is not only that the nostrum of the 'Three F's,' and the +adjustment of rent by the intervention of the State, have cut down the +rental of Ireland to an extent that cannot be justified, and have +transferred to the occupier of the Irish soil a large part of what was the +owner's property by a process of confiscation concealed, but certain. It +is not only that the status of the Irish landlord has been iniquitously +transformed to his extreme injury, and that the status of the Irish tenant +has been changed to his extreme advantage, in both instances without a +pretence to right. The Irish land system has been reduced to an almost +hopeless state; it presents some of the worst features of the past; its +conditions discourage the improvement of the land, promote its +deterioration in many ways, and banish capital away from it; and its plain +tendency has been to make agriculture decline. And the revolution, which +has been thus accomplished, has aggravated the divisions of classes in +Ireland, and has been attended with ruinous litigation on a huge scale; +and it has produced demoralisation far-reaching and profound, a sense of +insecurity in all landed relations, and a far too general disregard of the +respect due to contract. The policy, too, of so-called 'Land Purchase' has +been accompanied with a train of evils on the increase. It is not +creating, as its authors fondly hoped, a class of loyal and thriving +freeholders; it is not even creating a body of industrious and improving +farmers. It is, on the contrary, developing, in some of its parts, the bad +land system of the eighteenth century; it has proved injurious to +agriculture in one important respect. Above all, from the very nature of +the case, it has drawn harsh, nay, unjust, distinctions between the landed +classes, which necessarily have been a cause of much discontent; and it +has inevitably provoked a demand for a universal confiscation of the Irish +land even worse than any of those which have been the curse of Ireland. + +I pass from the material and general state of Ireland to that of the Irish +community, in its different parts. That community is still divided, as it +has been for ages, into three separate and distinct peoples, marked off +from each other in race and faith; whatever 'Nationalist' leaders may +assert, it is not, and has never been, in a real sense, a nation. The +lines of demarcation between Catholic, Presbyterian, and Protestant +Ireland are at least as clearly defined as they have always been; they +have probably been widened by the troubles of late years, and by the +legislation which has been a consequence. Catholic Ireland has a +population of some three millions and a half of souls; it is in the main a +Celtic race, but with a considerable admixture of other elements; it has +passed through a revolution remarkable and immense. Sixty years ago, the +worst parts of the Penal Code had long been things of the past; but the +Irish Catholics had only recently thrown off the last remains of that +thraldom, under O'Connell's guidance; and their emancipation had only been +effected by a great and very threatening movement. They were still +comparatively an alien and a subject people; they had not many owners of +land; they were not numerous in the upper trading and the professional +classes; education was greatly wanting among them; they were for the most +part a backward and poor peasantry, almost serfs of landlords distinct in +creed and in blood; and they formed the bulk of the teeming millions that +vegetated on the soil in indigent misery. The Irish Catholics, too, had +still many and real grievances; the tithe of the Established Church had +long been an unjust burden on the petty husbandman; it had recently given +rise to a frightful war of classes, and had only been commuted a short +time; the Established Church itself was a moral wrong, felt acutely by the +Irish priesthood at least. Catholic Ireland, besides, was deeply sunk in +ignorance; the system of national education had only begun to flourish; +and the Irish Catholic was still all but wholly excluded from county +administration and municipal government. The worst of these grievances, +however, was the state of the tenure of the land; this was especially +harsh on the Catholic peasant; if oppression was not general or even +common, he was too often subjected to excessive rent and unfair eviction. +This order of things has all but completely passed away; the position of +Catholic Ireland in the State has almost wholly been changed. Catholic +emancipation has long been an accomplished fact; Irish Catholics and +Protestants are equal before the law; and have really equal chances in +fighting the battle of life. Though still not numerous, the Catholic +owners of land have multiplied; the Irish Catholic middle classes have +made a marked advance; they have grown in knowledge and increased in +wealth; they have risen to a higher plane of existence. At the same time, +the grievances of the past have nearly all been removed by law, often +indeed very late, and by questionable means; but the Established Church +has fallen from its high estate; education has been diffused through the +Catholic masses; the Irish Catholics have obtained more than a just share +in local government and administration of all kinds; their ascendency in +this province is well-nigh assured. The most important, however, of these +changes is that which has taken place in the state of the Irish Catholic +peasantry. The process which lifted up millions of these from the land and +sent them into exile was, no doubt, terrible; but it was the condition of +the welfare and the progress of the population which remained. A great +deal of the legislation, besides, which has revolutionised the tenure of +land in Ireland, and has had a special effect on the Catholic occupiers of +the soil, has been essentially ill designed and unjust; above all, it has +been much too long delayed. But the Irish Catholic peasantry have long ago +ceased to be serfs; they are more the owners of their own holdings than +their former landlords; their rights in the land have been more than +protected; they have acquired the fee in their farms in thousands of +instances; the days of rack rents and harsh evictions have passed away for +ever. If the lines of the old Irish land system may still be traced, they +rather resemble, it has truly been said, the lineaments of a phantom than +of a living being. + +The attitude, however, of Catholic Ireland, and the sentiments of the +immense majority of the Irish Catholics, must cause painful misgivings in +reflecting minds. Their aristocracy, indeed, and their landed gentry have +always been loyal and true subjects; they can scarcely be distinguished +from their Protestant fellows. The Irish Catholics, too, of the upper +middle classes are generally attached to the institutions under which they +live; and Catholic Ireland has produced many eminent public servants, and +has given splendid ornaments to the Bench and the Bar. But the spirit that +prevails among the Irish Catholic lower middle classes, and notably among +the masses of the peasantry, and the opinions and feelings they +ostentatiously avow, are deeply to be regretted in many respects. +Notwithstanding all that has been done for it, and the immense reforms +made in its interest, this part of Catholic Ireland is, beyond question, +more disaffected and disloyal to the State than it was when O'Connell was +its master spirit; it is more hostile to government, law, and the existing +order of things. The teaching of the Land and the National Leagues, and of +the successor which has taken their place, has penetrated into the +Corporations and Local Boards, in which the Catholic Irish are supreme; +these assemblies echo with revolutionary and socialistic cries, and +denounce the whole system of British rule in Ireland, aiming especially at +the Sovereign and those in the highest places. The Irish Catholics, too, +in the three provinces of the south, have gained a complete ascendency in +county and municipal affairs; their first object has been to exclude the +landed gentry from them, and to destroy the influence which belongs to +property; and they have exhibited tendencies absolutely opposed to the +Constitution to which they owe their authority. The worst symptoms, +however, appear in the state of the peasantry; they have obtained +advantages of which their fathers never even dreamed; the land system has +been turned upside down for their behoof; they have no grievance in landed +relations; and yet they remain unfriendly to the State, and show no sign +of gratitude. This class contains the multitudes, who for more than twenty +years, have allied themselves with a conspiracy against our power in +Ireland, and who, at the bidding of designing men, shout treasonable +utterances at mob gatherings, and denounce the 'Saxon' and 'landlordism' +with one voice; and though they are a timid and somewhat inert mass, and +they would not rise like their fathers in 1798, they would not lift a hand +to support our rule were foreign invaders to descend on our shores. This +state of opinion, no doubt, is intelligible to the real student of Irish +history; the Irish Catholics are a people who have been cruelly wronged; +they have only slowly risen out of serf-like thraldom; above all, they +have only attained the position they hold in the State after long years of +trials, and by giving trouble; they treasure the Celtic traditions of the +past; we may regret that they are what they are, but can hardly feel +surprise. In other respects, the Irish Catholic masses, especially in a +democratic age, must arouse the solicitude of thinkers worthy of the name. +Many thousands of them are still illiterate; they are too generally the +mere followers of priests and demagogues, tossed hither and thither as +their masters direct; they are animated by crude and wild ideas, like the +peasantry of France before the Revolution; they have scarcely anything in +common with the corresponding class in England, trained for centuries in +habits of well-ordered liberty. They form, in a word, a dangerous and +easily led democracy; and yet, owing to recent legislation, ever to be +deplored, they possess almost a monopoly of political power in Ireland, +and have sent representatives to Parliament whose acts are a byword. + +Conciliation, therefore, as the phrase is, has failed in the case of the +greatest part of Catholic Ireland; this remains an alien, even a perilous, +element in the State; it is worse than useless to shut our eyes to the +truth; the time is still apparently distant when it will become contented +and loyal. Presbyterian Ireland is a people of rather more than half a +million of souls, almost concentrated within a nook of Ulster; it was +rebellious in sentiment a hundred years ago; it is now devotedly attached +to the British connection, and has firmly supported the Union during a +period of trouble. This community, nevertheless, of artisans and farmers +is rather widely separated from the aristocracy in their midst, for the +most part English in blood, and of the Anglican faith; and though the +Presbyterian farmer has obtained the benefit of the late reforms of land +tenure, and has received advantages far in excess of justice, he declares +himself to be discontented with his lot, and is clamouring for a vast +confiscation of the Irish land in his selfish interest. The Irish +Protestants are a population rather larger than the Presbyterians; but +they are scattered over all parts of the country; they do not possess the +political influence of their distant kinsmen in Ulster. They comprise at +least three-fourths of the leading landed gentry, and a considerable +number of the better class of farmers; they predominate in the learned +professions, and in the higher walks of commerce. But their lower orders +feel the loss of the ascendency which was once their birthright; they have +been thrust out from corporate and local government; they are isolated +amidst a population not in sympathy with them; as a people they can hardly +be described as prosperous. As to the Protestant landed gentry, they have +for centuries been the most loyal of subjects; it is significant that they +have been called the British garrison by the conspirators who seek to +overthrow our rule in Ireland; they have given many eminent worthies to +the State, and proved their devotion to it at the gravest crises; what +they are has been shown in the war in South Africa. At present, however, +profound and just discontent has sunk deep into the hearts of this order +of men. They are the heirs of conquest and confiscation, it is said; but +they were placed in the position they hold by English kings and +Parliaments; is that any reason that, within the last half-century, the +Nemesis of conquest and confiscation should have been invoked against +them, in the Encumbered Estates Act and predatory agrarian laws? They were +too much of an exclusive caste, separated from their dependents, and +possessing powers over the occupiers of the soil, which were sometimes +abused; is that any reason that they should have been deprived of +political influence, supplanted by the bureaucratic Castle, changed from +owners of their estates into mere pensioners, shut out by the force of law +from local and county government? What, however, the Irish landed gentry +most deeply feel is that, in the course of the last sixty years, they have +been deceived, nay, betrayed, by British statesmen, who, having repeatedly +assured them that their position was secure, have sacrificed them when it +seemed to suit their purpose. + +The Imperial Parliament has, during the last century, had absolute control +over the affairs of Ireland. No impartial student of history will deny +that it has governed Ireland very much better than her old Parliament +could possibly have done, after the dreadful rising of 1798 had literally +torn the country to pieces. The large majority of thinking persons have +long ago been convinced that the policy of Home Rule, that is, the +substitution for the Houses at Westminster of a statutory legislature +seated in Dublin, would be disastrous to the Empire and Ireland alike; and +that the evils attendant on the present system would be aggravated a +hundred-fold by the revolution Mr. Gladstone tried to effect. Nor can it +be questioned that the Imperial Parliament has, for a long period, +sincerely desired to legislate and rule for the good of Ireland, and has +accomplished important Irish reforms, whatever legitimate exceptions may +be taken to them. Protestant ascendency and the Established Church have +fallen; the law has long been indifferent to Irishmen of all classes; +education has been brought home to the mass of the people; the tenure of +land has been transformed, unwisely no doubt, but wholly in the interest +of the occupiers of the soil. Nevertheless, much that the Imperial +Parliament has done, and left undone, in the Victorian era, remains matter +of censure and regret; and its Irish administration has been in many +respects unfortunate. The neglect to make a provision for the Irish +Catholic priesthood, a main object of Pitt and of our best statesmen, when +the Anglican Church was disestablished in 1869, was a grave and a +calamitous mistake; the attempts that have been made to reform the Irish +land system have, with scarcely an exception, been sorry failures; the +results have been, in no doubtful sense, deplorable. Few, too, will +justify such measures as the establishment in Ireland of household +suffrage, that is, giving a monopoly of political power to an ignorant and +priest-ridden democracy,[15] and depriving property and intelligence of +all influence, or as the handing over county and city government, in +three-fourths of Ireland, to much the same classes. Nor are even positive +errors such as these the worst, perhaps, that can be laid to the charge of +the Imperial Parliament in the conduct of Irish affairs. With rare +exceptions, the reforms it has made have been, unhappily, too late, and +have been obtained only through menacing popular movements; it has over +and over again made Irish questions the mere subjects of the selfish +strife of party, with evil consequences for Irish interests; it has +occasionally, and even for large spaces of time, shown a marked +indifference to reasonable Irish demands; and its administration of +Ireland has repeatedly been inconsistent, even contradictory, +shortsighted, and feeble. It must be acknowledged, indeed, that the rule +of the Imperial Parliament, in the circumstances in which Ireland has been +placed, is, from the nature of the case, faulty in many respects; it is +that of a dominant assembly practically controlling a subject dependency; +and, as we see in the striking instances of Athens and Rome, this kind of +government has never been free from great and real objections. This, no +doubt, is no reason that we should fly from less to unbearable evils, and +adopt the fatal scheme of Home Rule; and the causes that have made our +Parliamentary _régime_ in Ireland as defective as it is are evident, and, +as I shall point out afterwards, may probably be removed, to some extent +at least, without subverting the constitution of these realms. But the +broad fact remains, and cannot be concealed; the Imperial Parliament, much +as it has done, has not reached the hearts or gained, in any degree, the +sympathy of an immense majority of the Irish people. + +This conclusion, indeed, has been made only too manifest, if we look back +at the history of Ireland within living memory. The Catholic Association +defied the Imperial Parliament, and was supreme in four-fifths of Ireland, +from 1824 to 1829; O'Connell, in 1843, rallied the Irish Catholic millions +to the cause of the Repeal of the Union, that is, to the subversion of +British rule from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear. Home Rule became a +popular cry when proclaimed by Butt; Parnell soon rose to the head of an +Irish faction, which deliberately tried to paralyse and cross Parliament, +and to make its sway in Ireland of no avail and contemptible. The Land +League and the National League were essentially conspiracies of foreign +origin, and they appealed to socialistic greed in a season of distress; +but their chief object was to annihilate British power in Ireland; they +had the support of huge Catholic masses; they returned to Parliament a +band of more than eighty men, one of whose purposes was to checkmate its +authority. Too much is not to be made of these movements; three-fourths at +least of the Irish community have repeatedly been led away by able but +unscrupulous leaders, and rush into courses to which they are not +earnestly inclined; but these unquestionable facts assuredly prove that +the institutions under which they exist are not acceptable to the great +body of the people of Ireland. This attitude has been displayed with +marked and too plain significance, within a period, as it were, of +yesterday. The United Irish League fills the place of the Land and the +National Leagues; it is a conspiracy against the State, like its +forerunners; it aims ultimately at the same objects; its organisation and +machinery are the same; it seeks to establish its domination by similar +methods. It is, no doubt, less formidable than the Land and the National +Leagues; it has received little support from America, and has no one to +compare with Parnell at its head; but it has sent more than three-fourths +of the representatives of Ireland into the House of Commons; and these +have combined to put in force the arts of obstruction with an audacity, a +perseverance, and a measure of success, perhaps never so conspicuous +before. Its authority is less far-reaching than that of its predecessors; +but it has established a reign of tyranny in not a few counties; it is +largely backed by the Irish priesthood and by much the greatest part of +Catholic Ireland; and its leaders boast, not without truth, that, disloyal +as many of their utterances are, they are completely in accord with +popular sympathies. The acts and the speeches, indeed, of these men have +never been more unequivocal than within the last two or three years;[16] +yet almost everywhere they obtain the applause and the support of the +multitude. An Irish contingent was sent to fight for the Boers; the war in +South Africa was yelled at, at huge public meetings, as an odious instance +of English tyranny and crime; every reverse that befell our arms was +welcomed; the Irish masses, especially of late, have made a display of +their antipathy to, and hatred of, the State. There was an outbreak of +disloyal rioting in Dublin at the Diamond Jubilee; but for the accident of +the Spanish War there would have been a great commemoration of the +rebellion of 1798; even the visit of the late Queen to Ireland was made an +occasion for seditious speeches; if her death was very generally mourned, +public bodies were found to refuse an expression of regret. + +Irish administration, I have remarked, is in many respects faulty; this is +mainly because it is dependent on British parties; it fluctuates as one or +the other prevails in Parliament. It sometimes represents completely +opposite principles; besides, as Lord-Lieutenants and Chief Secretaries +usually hold office for a short time only, they are tempted to adopt a +hand-to-mouth policy, and to govern with little thought of the morrow. A +marked change, however, has, in the course of time, passed over the +ordinary system of administration carried on at the Castle. The +aristocracy and the leading Irish gentry had still, even at the beginning +of the Victorian age, much influence in directing local affairs; their +authority was not nearly as great as it had been; but they were still +looked up to and consulted by the central government. This state of things +has long ago ceased to exist; this order of men has long ago lost all +political, and nearly all social, power; it has been superseded by a +bureaucratic _régime_, depending mainly on paid officials and police, +which rules Ireland from the Castle, with little external support. This +mode of government is imposing and apparently strong; but it is +essentially weak, and has little real hold on the country; the +information, with which it is amply supplied, is often false, and +occasionally causes grave mistakes; it forms an administrative system +resembling that of the old centralised monarchy of France, of which +Tocqueville has exposed the defects and the vices. Under this _régime_, +however, the law of the land has certainly been vindicated more +successfully than had been the case before; the Government has acquired +decidedly increased power in dealing with disorders dangerous to the +State, and perhaps in holding the scales of justice even between divided +classes; it has not diminished the strife of hostile Irish factions, but +it has maintained order more completely than of old; and this +unquestionably is a great advantage, and a real set-off against some +mischiefs and failures. It would be untrue to assert that this system of +rule has been the paramount and even a main cause of the great decline in +agrarian crime and trouble which Ireland has happily witnessed of late +years; other and far more potent causes have concurred; but it may fairly +be said that it has contributed to it. It would, however, be a complete +mistake to suppose that agrarian disorder, even in its worst aspects, has +become permanently a thing of the past in Ireland, or that this +destructive curse of Irish social life has not immense influence even at +this moment, though its outward manifestations have been greatly changed. +It was, so to speak, only yesterday that, under the auspices of the Land +and the National Leagues, there was the most frightful outbreak of +agrarian crime that had been seen since the great tithe conflict; it +assumed the proportions, in fact, of a horrible servile war; and shallow, +indeed, the understanding must be which imagines that this state of things +can never recur. If open agrarian disorder, too, has been largely +diminished, the spirit of agrarian disorder is still strong; and it is +doing infinite mischief in many parts of Ireland. Steadily adhering to the +precepts laid down by Parnell, the United Irish League has brought the +detestable system of 'boycotting' to a hideous perfection in several +counties; whole districts are subject to this secret but villainous +tyranny; the results are seen in numbers of derelict farms, in hundreds of +victims writhing under ever-present terror, in an infamous interference +with trade and industry. This malignant influence is more or less felt +through nearly the whole of the southern provinces, and even to a +considerable extent in Ulster; it should be added that the United Irish +League, for the present, discourages active agrarian crime, though its +agents hold this force in reserve; it believes it can compass its ends +without making use of this weapon.[17] + +A few words must be said, in this short survey, on the organisations that +uphold the Christian faith in Ireland. The disestablished Anglican Church +has certainly made progress in spiritual life; it has more moral and even, +perhaps, social influence than when it was an appurtenance of the Erastian +Castle. It has been admirably administered and ruled; the uses of +adversity have been sweet to it, and it has been successfully launched on +its new career; this is a strong proof of the inherent energy and capacity +of the Anglo-Protestant Irish people. Very different, too, from what had +been expected, moderation and wisdom prevail in its councils; its clergy +are sincerely pious, but not given to extreme doctrines; its members are +for the most part free from the narrow sectarian views which had formerly, +not without reason, been laid to their charge. Its funds, amassed by good +management, are, for the present, ample; but the rapid impoverishment of +the landed gentry, the class from which it chiefly obtains support, and +the confiscation with which they are threatened, no doubt expose it to +future dangers; and it must always be the Church of a small minority, +surrounded by influences hostile to it, but a Church which the State is +bound to protect. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland has but little +changed; it has felt the effect of the great religious movement, which has +stirred the Three Kingdoms in the last half-century, and it is less +rationalistic than it once was; but it is still what it always was, a +powerful centre of the faith of John Knox, with a communion of strong +democratic sympathies. The Catholic Church of Ireland still rests on the +old foundations; but it is hardly the unshaken structure it was in the +last generation. Its material resources have enormously increased; its +fine edifices spread over the land; it still exercises immense influence +over probably nine-tenths of Catholic Ireland. But a party has been +growing up within it which resents, and has even defied, its pretensions; +and though the power it possesses is, in the main, beneficent in the +extreme, this has too often been abused in the domain of politics, and +especially of late in Irish landed relations. The priesthood still largely +direct their flocks, but they are more dependent on them than they once +were; had it been otherwise, they would have hardly conformed to the +bidding of the Land and the National Leagues, as unhappily they did in too +many instances. Their leading men perceived from the first that these +conspiracies were destructive of their moral influence; and had the whole +body of the clergy received a just provision from the State, it would all +but certainly have condemned the methods of the Leagues as these were +decisively condemned by Rome. For the rest, the Catholic Church of Ireland +is no friend of Protestant England, and of many of the institutions that +exist in Ireland; but this has been inevitable from the events of Irish +history; and whatever may be said, it has been essentially an ally of the +State, by reason of its great religious authority. And if properly +understood, it is a mighty conservative power, which ought if possible to +be won over to the side of order and law; this is an ample, if there were +no other, reason that statesmen should comply with its most reasonable +demand, and remove the grievance, in high Catholic education, that only +blind bigotry can deny. + +The administration of justice in Ireland is better, on the whole, than it +was in the early Victorian era. It is not only that the law's delay has +been to a considerable extent, remedied, as it has been, in England, by an +improved procedure. Traces of Protestant ascendency were to be seen on +the Irish Bench sixty years ago, though these were evanescent and few; +such a trial as that of O'Connell in 1844, marked by partiality and even +by wrong, would be simply impossible at the present time. Trial by jury, +however, in Ireland too often reflects the animosities and prejudices of +class, and is liable to grave perversion and errors; it is sometimes +necessary, in causes where religious or political feeling is engaged, to +make a careful selection in forming juries, in order that common right +should be done; this inevitable, but invidious, process, held up to +execration by the name of 'packing,' is certainly a matter that causes +regret. The fairness seen in the administration of the law in Ireland has +been strikingly illustrated of late years; leaders and agents of the Land +and the National Leagues have had to answer for their offences in the +inferior courts; but despite rabid clamour against what is called +'coercion,' the conduct of these inquiries has not been really impugned. A +laudable attempt, however, to make the magisterial bench more popular, has +lately placed on it an order of men, of whom some have abused their power; +these instances, nevertheless, have not been frequent; the experiment +cannot be pronounced a failure. The intellect of Ireland is not so +fruitful as it was in the generation before the union; she has no +political thinkers to be named with Burke, no writer of fiction equal to +Maria Edgeworth, no dramatist to be compared to Sheridan, no orators who +have reached the heights of eloquence reached by Grattan, Curran, Plunket, +and other glories of her defunct Parliament. But there has been progress +in this respect within the last sixty years; Ireland cannot boast of such +public men as O'Connell, Sheil, and even Spring Rice; but she possesses +Dufferin in the diplomatic sphere, and Lecky, and one or two others of +repute in that of letters; she has only recently lost Lord Cairns and Lord +Russell. The improvement of primary education in Ireland has been +immense; the land is full of elementary schools, which, in the last +generation, were, comparatively, very few, and though a considerable part +of the population is still illiterate, the greater part, whose fathers +were sunk in ignorance, has felt the good influence of the light of +knowledge. High education, too, has advanced in Ireland; Trinity College +is greater than before as a place of learning; if two of the Queen's +Colleges have certainly failed, the Royal University has been, in a sense, +successful. But, as I shall point out, in subsequent pages, University +education in Ireland remains defective; a University for the Irish +Catholic upper middle class is a requirement rightly demanded from +Parliament. As for Irish secondary education, it is still backward, but +there is hope of improvement in this respect; the general standard of +Irish education, it should be added, is, except at Trinity College, low, +though this has been inevitable if we look back at the events of history. +Irish opinion generally still embodies the deep-seated animosities and +strife of race and faith, at least as fully as it ever did; with few +exceptions this appears in the tone of the newspaper press. The utterances +of many of the self-styled 'Nationalist' journals have been far more +hostile to the State, and are conceived in a much worse spirit, than those +of the same class of journals in O'Connell's day. + +If we examine the condition of Ireland, as a whole, we see that there has +been some material progress, but with retrogression in important respects; +and if a certain measure of good has been done, great wrong and evil have +been accomplished, in the principal and the most far-reaching of her +social relations. Her moral and political progress has been at least +doubtful; notwithstanding immense and searching reforms, the mass of the +population is more disaffected than of old; discontent largely pervades +the classes most loyal to the State; if the mere power of government has +increased, its beneficent influence is but little recognised; the great +body of the community maintains a hostile attitude. The crooked has not +been made straight in Ireland, nor the rough places plain; a state of +society exists, in which, as the Greek poet said, 'the fountains flow +backwards, and things are out of joint.' An old order has nearly passed +away; but the new order that is replacing it is but of little promise; a +type of society has been well-nigh broken up, but a strong and solid type +is not being formed in its stead; at all events, in the phrase of Bacon, +the time is still distant 'when the strings of the Irish harp will all be +in tune;' many respond to the player's hand in discord. 'The Constitution +in Ireland,' Peel once exclaimed, 'is not the British Constitution, but +its ghastly image;' let us see what it is in Ireland at the present time. +The Sovereign is, in England, a main pillar of the State; he is a great +political and social force; the Monarchy is enthroned in the heart of the +nation. In Ireland he is almost an unknown name, associated with not a few +evil memories; his influence, which ought to be immense over a Celtic +race, has never made itself sensibly felt. In England Parliament responds +to the national will, and has gathered the reverence of ages around it; in +Ireland it is a foreign and alien assembly, with which the mass of the +people has no sympathy. In England the aristocracy is at the head of +public affairs, leads society, commands universal respect; in Ireland it +has lost all authority; has no weight in the National Councils; has no +popular support, is even disliked at the Castle. In England the middle +class is enormously strong, and is the best bulwark of order and law; in +England the democracy is almost wholly free from revolutionary ideas, as +regards property, and seeks reforms by constitutional methods. In Ireland, +it is unhappily quite otherwise; the middle class is comparatively weak, +and, in its lower strata, is opposed to the existing order of things; the +democracy is an easily led multitude, ready at its leaders' bidding to +rush into socialistic courses. In England, too, the Commonwealth is +completely secure; in Ireland there is literally no Commonwealth; and such +organisations as the Land, the National, and the United Irish Leagues, are +dangerous symptoms of a kind of Jacobin antipathy to the State. The words +of Peel are still unhappily true; but painful as the contrast he pointed +out is, even this is not the worst circumstance in the present condition +of Irish affairs. What, I think, most alarms a reflecting mind, is the +restlessness that pervades the mass of the people, an eagerness for some +undefined change, a demand for the universal spoliation of a class, a +sense of insecurity spreading far and wide, a neglect of the pursuits of +calm industry in the hope of what a revolution may effect, an instability +in the social fabric from top to bottom. The agitation, the disorder, and, +I will add, the vicious legislation of late years, will, however, largely +explain these phenomena. + +Lord Salisbury's Ministry came into office, six years ago, at the head of +the most powerful majority that had been returned to the House of Commons +since the great Reform era. The time was singularly opportune to consider +the state of Ireland, and to deal with the Irish questions that required +sound and wise treatment. The Opposition was paralysed by a rout at the +polls; the National League conspiracy showed few signs of life; the +'Nationalist' party was rent asunder; the community was more quiescent +than it had been for years. It would be unfair to deny that, since it +acquired power, the Government has been beset by many and grave obstacles +in legislating on domestic subjects; it has been encompassed by a sea of +foreign troubles; it has had to conduct the protracted war in South +Africa. It would be absurd, too, to expect that it could, once for all, +have placed Irish affairs permanently on a secure basis; this can only be +the result of the wisdom of years aided by the healing influence of time. +But it has disappointed enlightened Irish opinion; it has not done, or +even tried to do, what it might have accomplished. Undoubtedly parts of +its policy have been good; it has effected something, if not much, in +developing the material resources of the west of Ireland, and in +mitigating the danger and the stress of Irish poverty; it has carried on +the excellent work of Mr. Arthur Balfour in this respect; the Department +of Agriculture it has lately formed will, not improbably, be of real use +in promoting industry and self-reliance among the peasantry, on the +principles advocated, a century and a half ago, by Berkeley. But +commendation, I think, must here end; the Government, I believe, has made +grave mistakes; it has assuredly not successfully dealt with the great +'Case of Ireland,' greater now than in the days of Molyneux and Swift. It +has not reduced the excessive representation of Ireland in the House of +Commons; until this is done the Union will not be secure. It has +disregarded the verdict of the important Commission which has declared +that Ireland has been immensely overtaxed for years; here it defies +universal Irish opinion; and having pledged itself to make a further +inquiry, it has not hitherto taken a step to redeem its pledge. It is +divided on the question of high education in Ireland, and professes that +this must be an 'open question,' as if this was not unwise and perilous; +and though it has appointed a Commission to report on the subject, +Catholic Ireland very possibly may not obtain the place of learning which +it is entitled to demand. Above all, on the capital question of the Irish +land, the Government has certainly all but ignored the recommendations of +a Commission chosen by itself, and has refused to lessen the injustice +proved to have been done wholesale; like its predecessors, in the case of +the Encumbered Estates Act, it is still bent on agrarian legislation that +has done infinite mischief. Its administration, too, up to this has not +been successful; it has allowed the United Irish League to grow up and to +gain strength, with far-spreading evil results; its conduct of Irish +affairs has been weak and empirical, and notably marked by false +optimistic fancies. Of late there has been improvement in this respect; we +can only hope it will not be abortive. + +'In this gigantic body,' Macaulay exclaimed fifty-seven years ago, 'there +is one vulnerable part near the heart.'[18] The Empire has expanded into +ampler proportions than those described by the orator; its subject kings, +dominations, princedoms, powers, above all, its myriads of many races and +tongues, are united by far more durable ties than those which held it +together in a generation that has passed away. Four years ago, Canada sent +messengers from her great lakes, Hindustan representatives of her ancient +dynasties, the great island continent envoys from her free nations, to do +homage to Queen Victoria; the pageant, gathered 'within London's streaming +roar,' was a magnificent spectacle of world-wide loyalty. England has seen +another and a still more wonderful sight; the martial sons of our great +self-governing colonies have flocked in thousands to do battle in her +cause, in the distant and ill-known wastes of South Africa; in a long, +bloody, and sometimes disastrous conflict, they have proved themselves to +be worthy companions in arms of the offspring of the soldiery of Blenheim +and Waterloo; they have fought and bled for England as if she was their +common country. But Ireland, as regards the mass of the people, has, on +both occasions, stood sullenly aloof; her heart has gone out in sympathy +with the Boers; she remains, for the most part, hostile to our rule and +disloyal. It is mere foolishness to shut our eyes to plain facts; still +more so to join in the false pæans of interested partisans, and ignorant +scribblers, who announce that because Ireland is, on the surface, +comparatively at peace, she is in every sense a contented or a happy land, +free from grave elements of political and social danger. She is still the +'vulnerable part at the heart of the Empire;' the spectre at the great +national festival; the warning token, as in the case of the Oriental +despot, that human grandeur and power are, in the nature of things, +mortal. She is still, as she was in the day of Spenser, a malign influence +across the path of our greatness, a riddle difficult to understand and +interpret; the many problems she still presents to the statesman are +perplexing in the extreme, and await solution. That any policy will +suddenly remove the many evils apparent in her organic structure is a +delusion a rational mind rejects; the deep-seated ills in that distempered +frame may never be completely and finally cured. Something effectual, +nevertheless, may, I think, be done; I proceed to examine, in the +following chapters, the 'Present Irish Questions' that confront our +rulers; and to consider what the amending hand may accomplish. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE QUESTION OF HOME RULE + + The question of Home Rule not extinct--The reasons--Butt's scheme of + Home Rule--It is denounced and ridiculed by Mr. Gladstone, and + defeated in the House of Commons--Death of Butt--The Home Rule + movement becomes allied with a foreign conspiracy--Davitt and + Parnell--The Land League--Mr. Gladstone's surrender to it--The + movement makes no progress in the Parliament of 1880-85--The General + Election of 1885--Mr. Gladstone suddenly adopts the policy of Home + Rule--The probable reasons--The Home Rule Bill of 1886--Its nature and + tendencies--Decisive objections to the measure--It is rejected at the + General Election of 1886, having been previously rejected in the House + of Commons--Policy and conduct of Mr. Gladstone--The Home Rule + movement makes some progress in England, and why--The Home Rule Bill + of 1893--It is much worse than that of 1886--The reasons--It is + rejected by the House of Lords--Home Rule under different forms--The + Union must be maintained--Proposal that Parliament should occasionally + sit in Dublin--The over-representation of Ireland should be redressed. + + +Home Rule, it is very generally assumed, has vanished into the domain of +extinct politics. Unlike what had been the case from 1886 to 1895, when +this was the main of our domestic questions, Home Rule was scarcely +referred to at the late election; it will receive little countenance at +the hands of the present House of Commons, however Irish Nationalists may +persist in urging their demand. It would, nevertheless, be imprudent to +believe that this policy, as has been said, 'is as dead as Queen Anne,' as +impossible as a return to Protection or to an unreformed Parliament. +Isaac Butt's scheme of Home Rule was treated with scorn and ridicule by +Mr. Gladstone during many years; Mr. Gladstone was the author of the Bills +of 1886 and 1893, embodying Home Rule in forms few will now approve of; +and he left nothing undone to convert them into law. At the General +Election of 1880, Home Rule was regarded as a mere Irish craze, and hardly +a candidate could be found, in England and Scotland, to consent to an +inquiry upon the subject; within six years Home Rule was a Ministerial +measure; and though the House of Commons pronounced against it, and its +decision was emphatically ratified at the General Election of 1886, still, +on this occasion, the votes in favour of Home Rule were not much less +numerous than those cast against it.[19] In 1892 England condemned Home +Rule, if not as decisively as six years before; but Ireland, Scotland, and +Wales declared for it; and a Home Rule Bill received the sanction of the +House of Commons, which, but for the resistance made by the House of +Lords, would now be a fundamental law of these realms. It deserves notice, +too, that not one of the Liberal leaders, although, as a rule, they +avoided the subject, repudiated this policy at the late election; two or +three, indeed, gave it a qualified support; and it is evident that they +keep the question in reserve, in the hope of turning it to account at a +more convenient season. Nor can it be denied, as long as Ireland can send +more than eighty Nationalists into the House of Commons, pledged to insist +on Home Rule as their country's right, that the subject must command more +or less attention; for many reasons it is impossible to ignore the claims +of a representation so large in numbers. It must be added that, under our +system of party government, especially as this has existed of late years, +a considerable group of politicians, with a fixed purpose, can effect much +by throwing its weight indifferently into the Ministerial or the +Opposition scale, and giving its support to either side, in order to +compass its own ends; it has, sometimes with successful results, swayed +majorities by these means, and not in vain. This is the hope of the Irish +Nationalist leaders; 'let parties in the House of Commons,' they cynically +argue, 'be equally divided, as must at some time happen,' and 'we shall +gain Home Rule from either Tories or Whigs, if we assist either by our +votes to keep them in office.' It cannot be said, if we look back at some +political events within the last twenty years, that this expectation is +wholly groundless; and though I am convinced it will not be realised, its +existence alone suffices to prove that Home Rule cannot yet be dismissed +as outside the sphere of practical politics. + +Home Rule, therefore, is a 'Present Irish Question,' and if not at this +moment urgent, it remains the most important of Irish questions, for it +directly affects the fortunes of the Three Kingdoms. It is necessary, +accordingly, to examine it, in its principles at least; and an inquiry is +opportune, at this juncture, for the subject can be fairly discussed in +its different bearings, apart from the obscuring influences of national +and party prejudice, and especially of political passion. Isaac Butt was +the true author of the conception of Home Rule; for though a movement in +favour of a Repeal of the Union had become dangerously active in 1843-44, +and had been feebly intermittent since that period, this peculiar +modification of the arrangements made at the Union, in fixing the +relations between Great Britain and Ireland, was wholly an idea of that +distinguished lawyer. The occasion, on which this scheme was put forward, +was not a little remarkable for various reasons. Mr. Gladstone had just +disestablished the Anglican Church in Ireland, and had disendowed it, to a +considerable extent; this policy was angrily resented by a party of Irish +Protestants; for the maintenance of the Established Irish Church had been +made an essential condition of the Treaty of Union. These men, who were +not without energy and parts, declared that a great international compact +had been broken; and they gradually obtained the support of leaders of the +'Young Ireland' following, of survivors of the 'Tail' of O'Connell, and +even of adherents of the Fenian cause, all, in different degrees, opposed +to the Union. Butt became the head and spokesman of this curiously +assorted band, composed of essentially discordant elements; but he +endeavoured to combine it into a strong Parliamentary force, by +propounding a plan of Home Rule for Ireland, which he had thought out with +patience and care, his hope being that this would unite his followers, and +that his project would at least be entertained in Parliament, and would +not be as hopeless as an attempt to repeal the Union. His views are set +forth in his 'Irish Federalism,' a long-forgotten work, but which, even +now, may be read with profit. Butt professed, and I have no doubt +sincerely, that he did not seek to disturb the Union, and that the +Imperial Parliament was to remain as it was; but he proposed to give +Ireland a Parliament of her own, with full powers of legislation on Irish +affairs, and an Executive practically appointed by this, which would have +the government of Ireland in its hands. Having thus called into existence +an Irish State, possessing State rights of supreme importance, he sought +to connect Ireland with Great Britain by a Federal tie; representatives +from Ireland were to repair to the Imperial Parliament, and to vote in +that assembly on Imperial questions, but not, as I believe Butt meant, on +those which belonged to England and Scotland.[20] + +The cry of Home Rule was welcomed in Ireland by her Catholic masses; at +the General Election of 1874, sixty men were returned to the House of +Commons to support this policy, a party formidable in numbers, if not in +essential strength. Butt brought forward his plan, in outline, on three or +four occasions; but the question was not discussed with the fulness of +knowledge and the breadth of view it certainly required; on the whole, it +was superficially treated. Neither Butt nor his opponents thoroughly +perceived that his proposals virtually repealed the Union, for if the +Imperial Parliament was, nominally, to be left intact, a real Parliament +was to be placed in its stead, in Ireland, which would practically annul +its effective authority, from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear; and they +seem not to have understood that 'Irish Federalism' implied Federalism for +Great Britain to a great extent, and introduced into the Constitution the +Federal principle with its far-reaching and dangerous effects. Butt's +scheme, however, was powerfully attacked in its details; by no one so +powerfully as by Mr. Gladstone, who had lately announced, to an approving +multitude, that Home Rule was sheer folly or worse, and had exultingly +asked, 'Can any sensible man, can any rational man, suppose that, at this +time of day, in this condition of the world, we are going to disintegrate +the great capital institutions of the country for the purpose of making +ourselves ridiculous in the sight of all mankind, and crippling any power +we possess for bestowing benefits, through legislation, on the country to +which we belong?'[21] Little knowing what the future was to bring forth, +Mr. Gladstone declared that Home Rule was not to be even thought of, until +it could be proved that the Irish affairs, to which the Irish Parliament +was to be confined, could be separated from Imperial and British affairs, +a partition he evidently deemed impossible; and he insisted that the +introduction of Irish members into the Imperial Parliament, which, +according to this plan, was to have nothing to do with Ireland, was not +only essentially unjust, but involved the absurdity that these men 'were +to judge as they might think fit of the general affairs of the Empire, and +also of exclusively English and Scotch questions,' an interpretation not, +I believe, correct. Home Rule was rejected by overwhelming majorities in +the Parliament of 1874-80; and at the General Election of the last-named +year, it found no countenance, I have said, in England or Scotland. The +subject was scarcely referred to by Mr. Gladstone, wholly preoccupied by +his Midlothian campaign, and by his persistent efforts to deprive Lord +Beaconsfield of power. + +Butt had sincere reverence for the Constitution and the Law; the Home Rule +movement, as long as he was at its head, was a constitutional and a lawful +movement. But this eminent man had been supplanted, by degrees, by a +politician of a very different nature; and when he had passed away in the +spring of 1879, Parnell, and what was called the 'active Irish party,' +which had baffled and incensed the House of Commons, became the directors +of the Home Rule policy. The character of the movement was almost wholly +changed; it became associated with a conspiracy hatched in the Far West, +which aimed at the separation of Ireland from Great Britain; Butt's +moderate followers fell away from it, especially the band of Protestants +who had first set it on foot. Meanwhile, American Fenianism, which had in +vain attempted open rebellion in Ireland in 1865-67, had, at the +instigation perhaps of Michael Davitt, made another effort to compass its +ends; the 'New Departure' in treason was made; the Land League was formed +with the avowed purpose of overthrowing 'Irish Landlordism,' as it was +called, as being the mainstay of British power in Ireland, and then of +wresting Ireland by force from her British rulers. But Davitt was not well +fitted for his work; Parnell became the leader of the Home Rule and the +Land League movements; and during a short visit to the United States, he +openly professed that his ultimate aim was 'to break the last link between +Great Britain and Ireland,' though he was still the chief of an apparently +constitutional cause. Ere long the Land League, availing itself of a +season of distress, and subsidised by Fenians across the Atlantic, had +taken root in different parts of Ireland; and gradually a reign of terror, +marked by detestable crime, and essentially of the Jacobin type, had +acquired a frightful ascendency in ten or eleven counties. By this time, +Mr. Gladstone had become Minister: how he denounced the League in +passionate language; endeavoured, for a few months, to hold it in check; +succumbed to it, when he made the 'Kilmainham Treaty;' and, finally, how, +after declaring that Parnell and his adherents were 'aiming at +dismemberment through rapine,' he became the author of the Land Act of +1881, and threw the Irish landed gentry as a sop to Cerberus,--is +sufficiently known, but I shall recur to the subject. During these years, +Parnell, artfully playing the double game, which this born conspirator +especially made his boast, and linking what he called 'a constitutional +with an illegal movement,' had more than once spoken on behalf of Home +Rule in the House of Commons, his moderate and even statesmanlike language +being in marked contrast with his treasonable harangues in Ireland. But +Parliament had been otherwise engaged with Irish affairs; it had become +more averse to Home Rule than ever; it had learned what the movement had +begun to involve, veiled, if not open, rebellion against the State, and it +voted down the question by immense majorities. Statesmen of all parties, +Tory, Whig, and Radical, without exception, concurred in this view; Lord +Salisbury, Lord Spencer, and John Bright alike condemned the very idea of +Home Rule. Mr. Gladstone indeed asserted afterwards that he had a policy +of this kind in his thoughts; but if he had, he kept it to himself; it +cannot be gathered from his speeches of the time; he never breathed to +his colleagues a word about it; he allowed them to pronounce against Home +Rule with his full apparent sanction.[22] + +Mr. Gladstone's Ministry fell in 1885; Majuba, Gordon, and his Irish +policy had set the best sense of the country against him. Lord Salisbury's +Government came in his place; for a short time the tendency, too often +seen in British parties, to temporise with sedition and even crime in +Ireland was exhibited with untoward results; the negotiations between +Parnell and Lord Carnarvon have not yet been explained. At the General +Election of 1885, Parnell openly took the Conservative side, denounced the +Liberals in the bitterest language, and perhaps, through the influence of +the Irish vote, deprived them of a few seats in England. His principal +object certainly was to increase his own power and that of his band by +weakening the strongest of British parties; but this association with the +Conservatives probably lessened the antipathy of their opponents to Home +Rule, and was not without effect on the events that followed. Ireland, +however, was by no means a prominent question in this electoral contest; +the Tory, Whig, and Radical leaders dealt, for the most part, with +different topics; and though Mr. Gladstone dropped ambiguous phrases, +which, he ere long contended, indicated his conversion to Home Rule, his +lieutenants continued to declare against this policy, their chief +remaining openly in accord with them; indeed, all that could be collected, +from what he wrote and said, was that he called upon the country to give +him such decisive support as would make him independent of all Irish +factions. The result of this General Election, taken as a whole, was to +gain for the Liberals a majority of some eighty seats in Great Britain; +but in Ireland it effected a notable change in politics. By a recent, +and, for Ireland, a most unwise statute, the electoral franchise had been +assimilated in the Three Kingdoms; political ascendency had, for the first +time, been secured for the masses of Catholic Ireland, largely an ignorant +and superstitious multitude; property and intelligence were overwhelmed at +the polls; and Parnell and his satellites, now called Nationalists, won +more than eighty seats out of a total of one hundred and three. The +Liberal majority, therefore, would be effaced should the Irish leader and +his men give the Conservatives their votes; a weak Government would be the +inevitable result; Mr. Gladstone, now in his seventy-sixth year, could +hardly expect to return to office. In these circumstances, it became +gradually known that Mr. Gladstone had accepted Home Rule in principle, +and was even prepared to legislate upon the subject. It would be unfair to +assert that personal motives alone determined this sudden resolve; though +obviously should the Liberal chief retain the allegiance of his party, and +draw Parnell and the Nationalists to his side, by inaugurating Home Rule +as a practical measure, he would inevitably be restored to power with a +great majority. Mr. Gladstone, ever ready to yield to a popular cry, may +have believed that five-sixths of Ireland were passionately eager for Home +Rule; he may have been convinced himself that, as affairs now stood, +Parliament would well-nigh be reduced to a deadlock should nothing be done +to redress the balanced state of parties, and that Home Rule was the +condition of a stable Government; he may have thought that since the +Conservative dalliance with Parnell, it had become impossible permanently +to resist this policy; yet these considerations form no apology for the +conduct of the aged, but most impulsive, statesman. Only a few years +before large parts of Ireland had been in a state of frightful anarchy; a +rebellious and socialistic movement against British rule and Irish landed +property had acquired great force; even at the present time, the National +League, replacing the Land League, kept disorder prevalent in many +counties. Was this the moment to effect a revolution in Ireland, to tamper +with, and to impair, the Union, to hand over the loyalty, the property, +and the worth of the island to the classes and the men against whom but, +as yesterday, it had been necessary to put the severest coercion in force? + +Lord Salisbury resigned office in the first months of 1886; Mr. Gladstone +became Prime Minister in his stead. Had parties in the House of Commons +remained unchanged, the prospect for the old statesman would have been +auspicious; the Liberals and Nationalists combined would have been +supreme; Home Rule would have been the fruit of the new alliance. But the +most distinguished men of the Liberal party, resenting a coalition far +worse than that of Fox and North, and convinced that Home Rule would be +ruinous to the State, fell off from their leader in large numbers; the +powerful Press of Great Britain, with few exceptions, emphatically +condemned the Minister's conduct. Mr. Gladstone, however, did not pause in +his violent course; he introduced his first Home Rule Bill in April, 1886. +I can only glance at the main features of this famous measure, and devote +to it a passing comment.[23] A Parliament was to be established in the +Irish capital; this, subject to the limitations set forth in the Bill, was +practically to exercise supreme power in Ireland. This Parliament was to +be composed of two Orders, the first containing one hundred and three +members, and formed of a few Irish peers and of men of some substance; the +second comprising two hundred and four or two hundred and six members +elected on the existing democratic franchise. The two Orders were +ordinarily to sit together; but should differences in legislative +measures arise, the first Order was, for a short time, to have a +suspensive veto on the decisions of the second Order, which, however, +possessing an immense majority, would almost necessarily in the long run +completely prevail. The Irish Parliament was precluded from legislating on +many subjects, for the most part Imperial, but partly domestic; it was +notably to have no control over the Customs and Excise of Ireland, which +were to be kept in the hands of the Imperial Parliament; and though it was +permitted to impose any other taxes, the whole revenue of Ireland was to +pass through the hands of a British official, who was to pay into the +Imperial Treasury a sum of about four millions sterling, as a contribution +from Ireland, for Imperial purposes, before the Irish Treasury could +receive a farthing. Bills voted by the Irish Parliament might be annulled +by the veto of the Lord-Lieutenant and perhaps of the British Ministry; +and the Judicial Committee of the English Privy Council, reinforced by a +small body of Irish judges, was to have the power to pronounce Acts of the +Irish Parliament void, if inconsistent with its constitutional rights. +Subject, however, to these restrictions and checks, the Irish Parliament +was to be a sovereign power in Ireland; it could practically appoint or +displace the Irish Executive Government; it could enact, change, or repeal +any laws it should think fit; it could pass any resolutions it pleased; if +an assembly partly subordinate, it would be largely supreme. Ireland was +to have no representatives in the Imperial Parliament, though this could +dispose of the Irish Customs and Excise; no Irish protest could be made at +Westminster against unjust fiscal exaction, by no means impossible. For +the rest, the Union was nominally not disturbed, and the Imperial +Parliament was nominally left intact; but it was declared that the Irish +Parliament was to possess the rights secured to it, unless these were +annulled by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, to which the Irish had +given its consent, or by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, in which +representatives from Ireland should have a voice. + +The Bill was debated with great force of argument, but hardly in its high +constitutional aspects. Like the plan of Butt, and every plan of the kind, +it impliedly, if not expressly, repealed the Union, for the very creation +of an Irish Parliament destroyed the real authority of the Imperial +Parliament, the symbol and guarantee of the Union, in one of the main +parts of the Three Kingdoms. It effected a radical change in our polity as +a whole, for practically it gave birth to three Parliaments, the Irish +sitting in College Green in Dublin, the British at Westminster without +Irish members, and the Imperial, properly to be only so-called, when +assembled upon one great occasion; and, even more distinctly than the +scheme of Butt, it let the principle of Federation into the constitution +of the State. And it did all this obscurely, indirectly, and, so to speak, +with reserve; the hand of a veiled prophet appeared in his work; this must +have led to endless controversies dangerous in the extreme. Nor did the +Bill even attempt to mark out the distinction between Irish, British, and +Imperial affairs, which its author had declared was a _sine quâ non_; this +distinction, in fact, cannot be drawn, as Mr. Gladstone acknowledged +afterwards; Irish, British, and Imperial affairs so run into each other, +that they cannot be divided into separate heads, to be under the +jurisdiction of different Parliaments. The conditions, too, which Mr. +Gladstone described, as essential to a measure of Home Rule, were, in no +sense, fulfilled. 'The Unity of the Empire,' that is, of Great Britain and +Ireland, as Mr. Gladstone no doubt had in his mind, was not secured, or, +even in name, preserved; the subordinate Irish Parliament and its superior +might, and probably would, come in serious conflict; this was absolutely +inconsistent with the unity to be maintained. The 'political equality of +England, Scotland, and Ireland' was not assured; the Bill placed Ireland +in a degraded position, especially in all that dealt with taxation, and +through the exclusion of Irish members from the British House of Commons. +It did not 'produce an equitable distribution of Imperial burdens,' for +the financial arrangements were thoroughly unjust, and subjected Ireland +arbitrarily to a most galling tribute, without giving her the means of +making a complaint. It did not 'provide safeguards for the minority,' that +is, for the loyal classes of Protestant and Catholic Ireland; it handed +them over to an Irish Parliament, certain to be for years an instrument of +their avowed enemies; and its supplement, a Land Purchase Bill, did not +furnish a third part of the funds required to buy out the Irish landlords, +a class which, Mr. Gladstone declared, it was 'an obligation of duty and +honour' to save harmless, and which he admitted an Irish Parliament would, +probably, plunder and destroy. Lastly, the Bill did not secure 'finality;' +it was in no sense in the nature of a 'permanent settlement,' as +subsequent events have conclusively proved.[24] + +It may be urged, however, that even if this measure made a fundamental +change in the constitution of these realms, and did not satisfy the +conditions its author laid down, still the real question was, would it +bring peace to Ireland, and improve the relations in which she stood +towards Great Britain? Mr. Gladstone and his followers assumed that this +would be the case; the 'Union of Hearts' was to accomplish marvels; but +this assumption was without the slightest warrant. The most favourable way +to consider the subject, from the point of view of the Home Rule party, is +to suppose that Great Britain and Ireland were two communities, in no +sense estranged from each other, and that Ireland was not a widely divided +people; and that both were not unwilling to accept the Bill, as a kind of +modification of the partnership made by the Treaty of Union. This +supposition would be obviously contrary to the facts; but, even on this +supposition, the proposed measure would have completely failed to attain +its objects, and, on any ordinary view of human nature, would have +exasperated Great Britain and Ireland alike, and could not have been a +'message of peace' to Ireland. The Parliament at Westminster would soon +have found out that its real sovereignty in Ireland had been practically +destroyed; that the Irish Parliament could, in many ways, interfere with +British and Imperial affairs; that most of the checks on its powers were +of little avail; this would certainly deeply offend the deceived British +nation. The Irish Parliament, on the other hand, would necessarily resent +the harsh limitations by which it had been bound; yet as it had most of +the powers of a real Parliament, it could very effectually evade or impair +these; could, through its Executive, largely annul them; could, at least, +make continual and powerful protests. Discord, and perhaps conflict, +between Great Britain and Ireland, from the nature of the case, would be +the result; and, besides, there were special provisions in the Bill which +would be deemed intolerable by five-sixths of Irishmen. Even loyal Ireland +would not endure the banishment of Irish representatives from the British +House of Commons, which would have power to impose the Irish Customs and +Excise; this would be taxation without representation, in the very worst +sense. It was monstrous that Ireland was to contribute a large sum for the +charge of the Empire and yet was to have no voice in the Empire's affairs; +it was humiliating that a British official was to have absolute control +over the whole Irish revenue. All this was subjecting Ireland to a +degrading tribute; it should be added that the prerogative of the English +Privy Council, to set aside practically Acts of the Irish Parliament, +would have provoked the deepest and most widespread discontent. The Bill, +in a word, revealed strange ignorance of the feelings of mankind; it would +have worked on the assumption only that human beings in Great Britain and +Ireland were without passions and wills of their own; it would have been +blown to the winds, when put to the test. + +But 'the circumstances,' to adopt the words of Burke, 'are what render +every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind;'[25] +what were the circumstances in the present instance? England and Catholic +Ireland had been long opposed; the Land and the National Leagues formed a +conspiracy against our rule in Ireland; England had interests in Ireland +of the first importance; she had a large community of her own blood and +faith in Ireland, attached to the Union and the old mother country. +Ireland had been distracted for ages by feuds of race and religion; +Protestant and Catholic Ireland stood apart from each other; the Irish +Parliament, created by the Bill, would certainly be an instrument of the +heads of the Catholic masses, supported by Parnell and his band, and by +Fenians across the Atlantic. Under these conditions, Home Rule would have +been a fatal gift, ruinous to Great Britain and Ireland alike. Suppose, +for example, that an Irish Parliament, established in College Green, since +1886, had ruled Ireland during the war in South Africa. It would +unquestionably have taken the side of the Boers, as the Nationalist +leaders have openly done; and it would have possessed the means of doing +infinite mischief. It could have passed resolutions condemning the war; +have called on Irishmen to keep aloof from the British army; have +discouraged recruiting throughout Ireland; have sent messages of good will +to the Boer Government. But probably it would have gone far beyond these, +its constitutional, rights; it could have winked at the preparation of an +armed force in Ireland to be despatched to the aid of the Boers; it +could have invited Foreign Powers to put a stop to the conflict; nay, it +could have laid hands on the Irish taxes, and refused to 'pay tribute to +an alien Government;' and what, in these cases, would have been England's +means of obtaining redress, save by the power of the sword? In the +instance of other wars, the same course would be followed; we cannot +forget that at Nationalist meetings, the Mahdi, the Dervishes, nay, all +our enemies, were the objects of the applause of shouting Irish +multitudes. And as the Irish Parliament could injure England in war, so it +could embarrass and annoy her, in a hundred ways, in peace. There was +nothing in the Bill to prevent Protection in Ireland, for the Irish +Parliament could vote bounties on Irish exports; there was nothing to +prevent the issue of Irish assignats, to mask confiscation of different +kinds; and recourse would not improbably be had to these very expedients. +It is unnecessary to dwell on what would be the legislation of the Irish +Parliament at home, and the administration of the Executive it would have +a right to set up. Composed as it would be, it would abolish 'landlordism' +by a stroke of the pen, or by merely preventing the recovery of rent; it +would simply turn society upside down, and establish a Catholic ascendency +by many degrees worse than Protestant ascendency ever was; it would, in a +word, let revolution loose in the island. Protestant Ireland would, as a +matter of course, resist; a savage war of race and creed would certainly +follow; the scenes of 1690 and 1798 might well be repeated; and the +struggle would end in general bankruptcy. England, in her own interest, +and in that of her friends in Ireland, would assuredly intervene, under +conditions like these; and the concession of Home Rule would probably lead +to reconquest. + +The Home Rule Bill of 1886--apart from the fatal evils it must have +caused--placed Ireland in such an inferior position, that every Irishman +of spirit ought to have treated it with contempt; it was so dangerous to +Great Britain, and, indeed, to the Empire, that John Bright declared that +not twenty English members approved of it at heart. Mr. Gladstone himself, +it should be remarked, regarded it with no doubtful misgivings; he +presented it to the House of Commons as 'but a choice of evils;' his +measure itself, in many passages, revealed the profoundest distrust of the +Parliament he proposed to create. Parnell, imposing his imperious will on +his followers, accepted the Bill with professions of delight; this was +effusively welcomed by the emotional statesman, deceived by an +unscrupulous plotter, over and over again; it is now known this was a mere +pretence; Home Rule, under the conditions of the scheme, would have been +made a stepping-stone only for larger demands; and this, indeed, might +have been easily foreseen. The Bill was rejected by a majority which did +not express the true sense of the House of Commons, and showed how strong +may be the ties of party; the great body of the Liberals, as, doubtless, +they now bitterly regret, threw in their lot with Mr. Gladstone in his +most reckless venture. It is of more importance to observe what the views +on the subject were of the conspirators in America, who had set the Land +and National Leagues on foot, and had supplied almost the whole of their +funds; without their assistance the movement led by Parnell would probably +have never struggled into life. The prospect opened by the Home Rule Bill +was thus welcomed by the Clan na Gael, the most energetic and daring of +the Fenian parties; it will be noted that it was to be a means only to a +very decisive end. 'The achievement of a National Parliament gives us a +footing on Irish soil; it gives us the agencies and instrumentalities of a +government _de facto_, at the very commencement of the Irish struggle. It +places the government of the land in the hands of our friends and +brothers. It removes the Castle's rings, and gives us what we may well +express as the plant of an armed revolution.'[26] And at a great Fenian +meeting held after the rejection of the Bill, one of the leading speakers +dropped these significant words: 'We have no desire to force the hand of +Parnell, or to drive the Irish people into war unprepared. All that we +demand is this, and we will be satisfied with nothing less--that no leader +of the Irish people, who is supposed to speak for them, shall commit +himself, or them, to accepting as a final settlement, bills of relief +unworthy of the dignity of Ireland's national demand. We are perfectly +willing to see them accept such bills as that of Gladstone, as a +settlement on account, but that must not be accepted as closing the +transaction. We see no wisdom in it. It lowers the tone of the national +cause. It lowers the spirit of the true people. To ask them to subside to +a species of mere provincialism is an outrage on their struggle of seven +hundred years for liberty. We admit that it may be good policy on the part +of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Davitt to be what is called moderate in tone; but +for us, who represent the national idea of the Irish people, it would be +worse than folly to conceal our sentiments. We recognise that Ireland is +incapable of fighting at present.'[27] + +Mr. Gladstone dissolved Parliament when it had thrown the Bill out; he +appears really to have believed that the nation would give its sanction to +Home Rule. At the General Election of 1886, he exerted himself 'in the +sacred cause of Ireland,' with the energy he had shown in his Midlothian +Campaign; he associated his new Irish policy with appeals to the +multitude; the opposition to him was that 'of the classes against the +masses;' in a word, the enthusiastic, and perhaps sincere, convert played, +with little scruple, the part of a mere demagogue. But England pronounced +against him, with no uncertain voice; 'men of education and property,' as +he sadly acknowledged, resisted him with the steadfastness of the English +nature; a great majority was sent into the House of Commons pledged +against Home Rule; Lord Salisbury's Government came again into office. It +deserves special notice that the rejection of the Bill did not, as was +predicted would be the case, arouse anything like real discontent in +Ireland, or cause her Catholic community to stir; this spectacle, which +has been seen over and over again, proves how little the main body of the +Irish people care for a political revolution of the kind; and how Home +Rule, as Parnell and his band conceived it, was the work of a conspiracy +of foreign origin, seeking, through it, to subvert British rule in +Ireland. The real purpose of these men was very clearly shown at a +Convention assembled at Chicago, in the summer of 1886; speeches of the +most incendiary nature were made; and two of Parnell's envoys, despatched +to collect funds 'for the cause,' announced that, after the failure of Mr. +Gladstone's measure, their 'duty was to make the government of Ireland by +England impossible.' Two or three years of trouble in Ireland followed; it +is unnecessary to refer to these at any length. A season of agricultural +distress and of a fall in prices made the payment of Irish rents +difficult; the occasion was seized by the heads of the National League, +which had gradually been acquiring formidable strength; the 'Plan of +Campaign' was set afoot; and another attack was made on the Irish landed +gentry, with the ultimate object of paralysing the Irish Government, as +had been solemnly proclaimed at Chicago. The social disorder of this +period was not so deeply marked with horrible deeds of blood, as the +Saturnalia of the Land League were; but the movement was, perhaps, not +less dangerous; the cruel practice of 'boycotting' was reduced to a +system, and caused widespread misery and distress; an agrarian war was +carried on in a few counties; judges, magistrates, and juries were +terrorised in the administration of the law; and there were too numerous +instances of atrocious crimes. But a firm hand was at the helm of the +Irish Government; Mr. Balfour did not palter with sedition and treason; +the conspiracy was before long put down; and it should be added that +'boycotting' and 'the Plan of Campaign' were unequivocally condemned at +Rome. + +In this struggle between the forces of disorder and law, the Rump of the +Liberal party, which had accepted Home Rule, freely declared itself on the +side of the National League and of anarchy. Mr. Gladstone, however, +towered over his fellows; his vehement and, when aroused, unscrupulous +nature, has never been more unfortunately displayed. He had been three +times at the head of the State, charged with the administration of Irish +affairs; the Government in office was engaged in a conflict with a +conspiracy of no contemptible strength; yet Mr. Gladstone did not shrink +from throwing his full weight into the scale against it, and giving his +sanction to the movement led by Parnell and his creatures. His conduct was +so flagrantly at odds with his former self, that, but for the gravity of +the situation, it would have been ludicrous; it consisted in adoring what +he had burned, and burning what he had adored; nothing like it had been +seen since Fox, breaking away from the traditions of British statesmen, +flung himself into the arms of Jacobin France, and rejoiced at every +reverse that befell England.[28] A remarkable episode in the politics of +the day was not without real effect on events that followed. The acts of +the Land and, in part, of the National Leagues, and of the leaders of the +revolutionary movements which had convulsed Ireland, were investigated by +the judges of the Special Commission appointed by Parliament for the +purpose; the inquiry, which lasted many months, was of supreme importance; +such a damning sentence was never pronounced on a body of public men, as +that pronounced on Parnell and his followers, though the accusation of +treason was not brought into question.[29] This decision was sufficient +for well-informed and sensible men; but Parnell was acquitted on a +personal, but minor, charge, that of having been the author of the +well-known forged letters all but approving of the assassinations in the +Phoenix Park; Mr. Gladstone and his adherents welcomed him as an injured +martyr; the House of Commons rang with their plaudits when he re-entered +its walls. For a few months Parnell became a popular personage in +democratic England; he had negotiations with Mr. Gladstone with respect to +Home Rule, the tenor of which has not transpired; his satellites appeared +at many public meetings, and split the ears of the groundlings with +plausible talk about 'self-government' for Ireland and the 'Union of +Hearts.' This mystification and falsehood were not without effect; the +cause of Home Rule made a kind of progress in England; and, strange to +say, the fall of Parnell which ere long followed--I shall not dwell on its +squalid and grotesque incidents--had an influence in the same direction. +Ireland had been brought into a state of comparative repose; the power of +the National League appeared broken; the formidable leader of the +conspiracy had left the stage; his adherents were scattered sheep, which +had not a shepherd. With the ignorance of Irish affairs so common to +Englishmen, and the desire, partly selfish, but partly generous, to 'get +rid of the Irish difficulty,' by any tolerable means, thousands in the +constituencies, even in England, lately bitterly hostile to it, were +gradually won over to the idea of Home Rule. + +The General Election of 1892 followed; a number of causes, in addition to +that I have set forth, contributed to favour the Home Rule movement. The +'swing of the pendulum,' seen in British politics, since Democracy has +gained the ascendant, very distinctly appeared; the 'idea that each side +ought to have its innings' was widely spread; many Unionist seats were +lost by these means. The extraordinary energy shown by Mr. Gladstone, at +an age far beyond the ordinary span, had considerable influence on the +masses; and though his real authority had been long on the wane, he was +still the popular figure in England and, above all, in Scotland. He had, +also, carefully kept his Home Rule scheme to himself; it was announced by +his followers that his next measure for securing 'self-government,' as it +was called, for Ireland, would be free from the manifest faults of that of +1886, and would finally, and happily, settle the question. A large part of +the electorate was gained in this way; but the influence that most +effectually assisted Mr. Gladstone was, essentially, of a very different +kind. The Anti-Unionist Liberals had been out of power for many years; +though they had long been split into separate groups, they resolved to +combine against the common enemy, and to drive the Unionist Government +from its seat, by appeals to the ideas they assumed were dominant in +democratic England and Scotland. The Newcastle programme was +ostentatiously published; the question of Home Rule was mixed up with +projects for disestablishing the Church in England and Wales, for the +destruction or the emasculation of the House of Lords, for enforcing +temperance by the tyranny of the Local Veto, for extending the suffrage +and raising the labourer's status; in this way they satisfied themselves +they 'would sweep the country.' They knew, indeed, that Mr. Gladstone had +no heart for much of their policy; but his passionate eagerness to +accomplish Home Rule was notorious; they believed that by giving him a +cordial support on this question, they would secure his powerful aid for +the others, and that by the process known as 'log-rolling,' they would +attain their objects. The Unionist party was weakened at the election; but +the sanguine hopes of its opponents were not fulfilled. Many of the +Radical cries were far from popular; they nearly all combined large +classes against them; England returned a large majority to the House of +Commons pledged against Home Rule, if not so considerable as six years +before; and though Scotland and Wales were, in the main, favourable to Mr. +Gladstone's policy, still the electorate of Great Britain, as a whole, +pronounced against it. The election in Ireland presented features which, +with respect to Home Rule, were of marked significance. In 1886, as in +1885, the educated and upper classes were swamped at the polls, by the +flood of illiterate and indigent multitudes; the Irish Catholic Church +used, nay, abused, its immense authority, to secure votes for Mr. +Gladstone's coming measure. The same spectacle was beheld in 1892; but an +element of confusion and disorder came in; the leaders of the factions, +divided by the fall of Parnell, though Nationalists, ferociously flew at +each other's throats; the election was marked by disgraceful scenes of +lawlessness. These certainly prefigured what would be the character of a +future Irish Parliament sitting in College Green. + +This election gave Mr. Gladstone a majority of some forty seats in the +House of Commons, but a majority composed of not well-united elements; and +the best opinion of England was strongly averse to his policy. But the +veteran statesman--he was in his eighty-third year--did not pause for a +moment in his headlong venture, though ominous sounds were being already +heard; after the resignation of Lord Salisbury, through a weak adverse +vote, his rival became Prime Minister for the fourth time. He had staked +everything to obtain the success of the cause to which he had passionately +devoted his declining years; he brought in his second Home Rule Bill in +the first months of 1893. The measure had much in common with that of +1886; but in some respects it was very different, especially in one +feature of supreme importance. An Irish Parliament was again to be set up +in Dublin; but it was to be a much smaller body than that proposed by the +previous Bill; it was to be composed of a Legislative Council of +forty-eight members only, and of a Legislative Assembly of only a hundred +and three; these were analogous to the First and Second Orders of 1886, +but were not to be even half in numbers; and no Irish peers were to have a +place in the new Parliament. The Legislative Council and Assembly, +differing here from the original scheme, were to sit, not together, but +apart; but the Legislative Council, like the First Order, was to have a +temporary suspensive veto on the Assembly's acts; the Assembly, too, like +the Second Order, possessing a majority which would place real power in +its hands; and both bodies, it should be added, being more democratic than +the two which were to have been created in 1886. The new Irish Parliament, +like that to be formed seven years before, was restricted by +limitations--these much the same as those contained in the former Bill--in +a number of Imperial and domestic matters; it was, like its predecessor, +to be subjected to the same kind of veto, and to nearly the same authority +of the English Privy Council. In finance, the 'tribute,' which had been +loudly condemned by all parties in Ireland, was given up; there was to be +no British official to lay his hands on Irish revenue, and to divert it +from its legitimate uses; but the Irish Customs were to be appropriated to +the Imperial charge, which Ireland was declared to be justly liable to +pay; and this was a sum of about two millions and a half, with an addition +for a time of one million, a sum less than the estimate made in 1886. The +Irish Parliament, however, if thus made largely subordinate, was like the +Parliament of the preceding Bill, to be in many, and most important, +respects supreme. It was to rule Ireland as a sovereign power, subject to +the limitations by which it was to be bound; it could make, change, and +repeal laws, as regards the Irish community, almost as it pleased; it +could, in a word, do nearly everything within the province of a real +Parliament. Above all, it could appoint and control the Irish Executive +Government, to which the administration of Irish affairs would belong; and +it would thus have complete power over the most important machinery of the +State. + +The Bills of 1886 and of 1893 so far resembled each other, with some +distinctions; but, in other respects, they markedly differed. The +supremacy of the Imperial Parliament, implied but not expressed in the +first scheme, was unequivocally asserted in the second, though this +supremacy could not be effective, as respects Ireland. The Imperial +Parliament was nominally left untouched by both Bills, though this was a +play on words only; but it was to hold a position in the second it was not +to hold in the first; the Union was not in terms repealed by either +measure, though virtually it was repealed by both, through the mere +creation of an Irish Parliament. The Bill of 1886 had, as its complement, +a Land Purchase Bill; in fact, both were made parts of the same policy; a +sum of £50,000,000 was to be an indemnity for Irish landlords who should +think fit to part with their estates; for Mr. Gladstone, we have seen, had +declared that it was 'an obligation of duty and honour' to protect this +order of men; and he asserted that Parliament would, doubtless, vote any +further sums required, a singular exhibition of credulous hope, for these +would have amounted to £150,000,000 at least; and he had himself, in a +speech addressed to Lord George Hamilton, valued the lands of Ireland at +£300,000,000. But what was to be deemed sacred, in 1886, had a very +different aspect in 1893; the settlement of the Irish land was, indeed, +withheld for three years from the Irish Parliament, but, after this brief +space of time, this was to be certainly left to a body, which Mr. +Gladstone had evidently thought would make short work of the Irish landed +gentry, and would drive them, in beggary, out of their own country. These +differences, however, between the two Bills, sank into insignificance +compared to a vital distinction which made them essentially unlike each +other, and made their projects of Home Rule completely dissimilar. The +exclusion of Irish representatives from the House of Commons at +Westminster, under the measure of 1886, was palpably unjust, and had been +condemned with much force of argument. Mr. Gladstone proposed to redress +this wrong by summoning eighty Irish members into the Imperial House of +Commons; these were to have no cognisance of British questions, but were +to have a right to vote on Imperial and even Irish questions, though the +Imperial Parliament was to have little or no power in Ireland, and an +Irish Parliament was practically to fill its place, and to have all but +supreme authority over Irish affairs. This strange expedient obviously +made the Home Rule schemes of 1886 and 1893 altogether different; but Mr. +Gladstone never saw the essential distinction; he maintained that the +inclusion of the Irish members was little more than a detail of the +measure. It would be perhaps unfair to insist that he introduced this +immense change in order only to strengthen his already enfeebled party, +which would be greatly in want of Irish votes at Westminster; more +probably his intellect, yielding to old age, did not thoroughly grasp all +that was involved in his project.[30] + +The Bill of 1893, from a purely constitutional point of view, was +infinitely more objectionable than that of 1886. It not only, I have said, +virtually repealed the Union; it created a kind of Federalism in these +realms to which there has never been a parallel. The Irish Parliament was +practically to rule Ireland; no British members were to show their faces +in it; it was to be all but the sovereign of the Irish State. The British +Parliament was nominally to be sovereign of the British State; +representatives from Ireland were not to appear in it, and, in theory, +they were not to deal with British questions. The Imperial Parliament was +to be analogous to a supreme Federal Council; this ought to have +jurisdiction over Imperial affairs alone; but eighty Irish members were to +have seats in it, and they were to have a right to vote on Imperial and +Irish questions, though Ireland was to have a separate Parliament of her +own. This arrangement, in conception, was simply monstrous; it gave +Ireland powers to which she had no pretence to a claim; it really +subjected Great Britain to her; it formed a Federation in which a weak and +small State was to have immense authority over another tenfold as strong; +it might be described as one-sided Federalism run mad. Passing from the +main principles to the details of the Bill, this, like its predecessor, +did not satisfy the conditions Mr. Gladstone had deemed to be essential. +It did not separate British, Irish, and Imperial affairs; its author +admitted at last that this was not possible. It asserted the supremacy of +the Imperial Parliament, and gave it a more imposing position than it had +under the Bill of 1886; but it did not maintain the Unity of the Three +Kingdoms; the mere creation of an Irish Parliament placed this in +jeopardy. It did not provide for the 'political equality' of Great Britain +and Ireland, for, in contradiction to the measure of seven years before, +it practically gave Ireland a kind of ascendency; her representatives were +to possess rights in no sense to be justified. It did not provide an +'equitable distribution of Imperial burdens;' in this province it would +have done wrong to Great Britain; for, while it abandoned the odious Irish +tribute of 1886, and an effective control over Irish revenue, its +expedient of allocating the Irish Customs, and nothing else, as the only +source for the payment of Imperial charges, would, in all probability, +have caused the Imperial Treasury a great loss; the Customs would have +been enormously reduced by smuggling, to which Irishmen have always been +much addicted, which the Irish Parliament would have no interest to +prevent, and which, very likely, it would directly encourage. Again, it +did not create 'safeguards for the minority;' as we have seen, it threw +the Irish landed gentry, after a brief respite, to the wolves, that is, to +the tender mercies of the Irish Parliament; and, like the measure of 1886, +it took no heed of Protestant and loyal Catholic Ireland, as a whole, +though this assuredly was 'a minority' that required protection. Finally, +it could not have effected a 'permanent settlement' of the affairs of +Ireland; a 'lopsided' and iniquitous arrangement like this would certainly +have had a very short existence. + +The measure of 1893, in short, would have effected a complete revolution +in the polity of these realms; it would have given the least important of +the Three Kingdoms an iniquitous authority over the most important; it +would unnaturally have placed weakness in superiority to power; it would +have subjected the dominant to the lesser partner; all this, it will be +observed, followed from the inclusion of Irish representatives in the +Imperial Parliament, who, though a Parliament in Dublin was to rule +Ireland, were to have a right to deal with Imperial and Irish questions. +Mr. Gladstone, I repeat, seems never to have understood the strange and +ruinous consequences this would involve; but this can be made manifest by +one or two examples. The Irish members would be excluded from the British +Parliament, and would have no right to vote on purely British questions, +say upon the extension of the British railway system, or the +disfranchisement of an English or Scottish borough. But they would have +eighty seats in the Imperial Parliament; and as it was impossible to +separate a number of British questions from those of an Imperial or Irish +character, they would have a most potent influence over British affairs; +for example, they could legitimately vote upon such subjects as the +confidence to be placed in a British Ministry, the financial relations +between Great Britain and Ireland, or the validity of British incumbrances +affecting Irish estates. The exclusion, however, of Irish members from the +British Parliament, and their introduction into the Imperial Parliament, +would have led to even more disastrous results; it must, in many +instances, have caused a complete paralysis of the State. This in-and-out +plan, as it was derisively called, must have made Parliamentary government +well-nigh impossible; if Irish members were to have a right to vote in the +same House of Commons on Imperial and Irish questions, but were not to +have a right to vote on British questions, to vote, say, upon a war with a +Foreign Power, and upon the domicile and status of Irish subjects, but not +to vote on matters of purely British commerce, there might, and very often +would be, two conflicting majorities in the leading House of Parliament; +Parliamentary affairs would be brought to a stand; the tenure of even the +strongest Ministry would be utterly insecure. It is needless to point out +that the relations between Great Britain and Ireland would almost +certainly have been more strained, under the Bill of 1893, than they would +have been under that of 1886; and that the government of Ireland by the +Irish Parliament, would, under both, have been much of the same character. +The British nation would have been indignant at the humiliation of their +ancient Parliament, which would be sometimes placed at the mercy of Irish +members; it would have condemned the weakening in Ireland of its +authority, through the mere establishment of an Irish Parliament; it would +have been sorely vexed that Irish smuggling would filch away a large part +of British revenue. It should be borne in mind, too, that the Irish +members, who would have been let into the Imperial Parliament, would have +been more difficult to deal with, by many degrees, more openly disloyal, +more obstructive, than Irish Nationalists could be, as affairs stand at +present; they would have the support of the Irish Parliament; the Imperial +Parliament could hardly impose a check on them. As for the rule of the +Irish Parliament, within its proper domain, it would have been the same, +or much the same, under either measure; that is, it would have been a +succession of angry wranglings with England and oppression in Ireland, +leading to anarchy and general ruin. + +The Home Rule Bill of 1886, in a word, bad measure as it was, was +innoxious compared to the Home Rule Bill of 1893. The fatal tendency of +the scheme was quickly perceived; the sound mind of England was profoundly +stirred; the Bill was publicly burned in the City of London; innumerable +petitions against it flowed in; an immense assembly, representing loyal +Catholic and Protestant Ireland, met in the capital, and denounced this +whole policy in most determined language. As had happened, too, seven +years before, the Press of Great Britain, all but universally, condemned +the new measure as hopelessly bad; it was significant that the Liberal +Press was well-nigh silent, and that Mr. Gladstone was supported by very +few petitions. The Opposition simply tore the Bill to shreds in the House +of Commons; but the self-deluded Minister desperately held his course; the +Radical groups servilely gave him their votes; the process of +'log-rolling,' never before so recklessly displayed, kept his petty +majority almost intact, a crying disgrace to any party in the State. At +last, whether afraid of the country rising against him or yielding to the +instigation of his Irish allies--his subserviency to their truculence had +been most painful--Mr. Gladstone forced the measure through the House of +Commons by a method never employed before; 'closure by compartments,' +rightly compared to the 'guillotine,' put an end to resistance by +iniquitous means. The Bill passed the Lower House by thirty-four votes +only; not half of it had been examined or discussed; the part that had, +had been so completely transformed, that its parent could hardly have +known his own offspring. The most notable of these changes was that the +in-and-out plan was given up; its ruinous effects had been fully dragged +into the light, but an arrangement, perhaps even worse, had been placed in +its stead. Ireland was to retain her Parliament in College Green; but the +eighty Irish members were to have a right to sit in the Imperial +Parliament, and to vote on all questions, not only Imperial and Irish, but +strictly British alike. A philosophic and calm-minded writer has indicated +what this would involve: 'Irish members may disestablish the Church of +England, though England is to have no voice in the pettiest of Irish +affairs. Irish members are to be allowed to impose taxes on England, say, +to double the income tax, though of these taxes no inhabitant of Ireland +will pay a penny; the Irish delegation, and this is the worst grievance of +all, is to be enabled, in combination with a British minority, to detach +Wales from England, or to vote Home Rule for Scotland, or to federalise +still further the United Kingdom by voting that Man, Jersey, and Guernsey +shall send members to the Imperial Parliament.'[31] To say that this +proposal would be unconstitutional would be to do it too much honour; it +was scandalous in the existing situation of affairs; it implied that heads +of the National League, leaders of a rebellious and socialistic movement, +would have the power, without restriction or check, to rule the Imperial +Parliament, in many instances, with reference to exclusively English and +Scottish questions; it practically bound Great Britain hand and foot in +fetters to Ireland; it was rightly called 'an absurd piece of infamy.' It +is unnecessary to say that the system it would have established could not +have stood a trial of even three months; England, whenever crossed, would +have indignantly swept it away. But Nemesis had commended the poisoned +chalice to Mr. Gladstone's lips; the project, on which he had staked his +fortunes, was that which he had incorrectly ascribed to Butt, and had +declared to be impossible and worse. + +The Bill, it was notorious, could not have passed the House of Commons had +not its rejection by the House of Lords been assured beforehand. It +received its quietus, in that assembly, by a majority of about ten to one; +the mind of England felt unquestionable relief; a great national peril had +been averted. Exactly as had happened in 1886, scarcely a sound of +discontent was heard in Ireland; the demand for Home Rule, in fact, is +largely a fictitious cry, with which the great body of Irishmen has little +or no sympathy; the evidence of this can be no longer doubtful. Mr. +Gladstone retired, within a few months, from public life; one of his last +acts was to shoot a Parthian arrow at the House of Lords, which, happily +for these realms, had wrecked his policy; since that time he has +disappeared from the scene; few eminent statesmen have been so soon +forgotten. Home Rule was scattered to the winds at the General Election of +1895; it has not been a prominent question at that of 1900; but if Ireland +has sent more than eighty of its supporters into the House of Commons, the +best elements in her community remain angrily hostile; and the opinion of +Great Britain is distinctly adverse. For many reasons, however, as I have +remarked, it is impossible to ignore the subject; in the strange chances +and changes of British politics, and under our system of party government, +a minister may again become an advocate of Home Rule, though certainly +not in the present Parliament. Mr. Gladstone's Bills, it is likely, will +not be heard of again; but Home Rule may be embodied in other forms; I may +briefly refer to, and comment, on these. The project of restoring the +Parliament of 1782-1800, an ideal of O'Connell during many years of his +life, will hardly be revived in these times; the conditions in Great +Britain and Ireland have so completely changed. The centripetal forces +which, a hundred years ago, held the British and Irish Parliaments, in the +main, together--they differed, however, on important questions--have long +ago been all but completely destroyed; the present Irish Parliament could +not be an assembly identified in race and faith with England; its House of +Commons could not be elected by a small body of Protestants, and latterly +by masses of Catholic peasants, the serfs of their landlords. The +centrifugal forces, on the other hand, those which would keep the two +Parliaments utterly apart, would probably be overwhelmingly strong; the +Irish House of Commons would practically, at least for years, be ruled by +the nominees of the National League and of the Irish Catholic priesthood; +its electorate would, for the most part, be subject to these dominant +powers; and Protestant Ireland would alike be swamped and incensed. +Nevertheless, the restoration of what has been called Grattan's +Parliament, would, in my judgment, be a much better project than either of +Mr. Gladstone's schemes of Home Rule. The Irish Parliament would be bound +by known and fixed precedents, which it would be difficult wholly to +disregard; an Irish House of Lords would exist as a check on the House of +Commons; above all--and this is of the very first importance--the Irish +Executive would not be subject to the Irish Parliament; it would be +appointed from Westminster by British statesmen. A Parliament of this type +could hardly effect the ruinous mischiefs which Mr. Gladstone's Irish +Parliaments could certainly effect. + +Ireland, it has been urged, would obtain Home Rule, if she were +assimilated to one of our self-governing colonies. These nations, as they +may fitly be called, are by no means, as is commonly supposed, wholly +independent of the Crown and the Imperial Parliament; they have +Parliaments and Executives of their own; but these in theory, and partly +in fact, are subordinate. No Act passed by the Parliament of a +self-governing colony can in any way contravene an Imperial statute; the +governor of a self-governing colony is a real governor; appeals run to the +English Privy Council from colonial Courts of Justice. Nevertheless, +self-governing colonies are practically all but independent; they pay no +contribution to Imperial charges; they maintain their own garrisons, +without a British army in their midst--at least, in a great many cases; +they are hardly ever interfered with by the Imperial Parliament, or by the +men in power at Westminster. Why, it may be argued, should not the same +liberties belong to Ireland, for centuries the peccant part of these +kingdoms; would not the concession make her as loyal as most of our +self-governing colonies? The answer is short, but amply sufficient; the +circumstances of our self-governing colonies and of Ireland are altogether +different. In none of these settlements is there the profound estrangement +which has long divided Great Britain from Ireland; in none is there a +community in which a loyal minority is separated from a disaffected +majority by long-standing discords of race and faith; Ireland is at our +doors, our self-governing colonies distant. Give Ireland a Parliament like +that of Victoria, and Ireland would break off from the British connection; +the Irish Parliament would possess ample power to trample on and oppress +hundreds of thousands of law-abiding men, of whom the protection was +England's duty; the Irish Parliament and Executive, within a few leagues +of our coasts, could, in innumerable ways, do infinite mischief. The +supposed analogy, therefore, completely fails; it would be treason to the +State, and to loyal Irishmen, to make Ireland a self-governing colony; and +no British politician has as yet countenanced this mode of Home Rule. It +has been hinted again, but with bated breath and humbleness, that the +relations of Great Britain and Ireland have been so long unfortunate, such +a dreary record of disputes and miseries, that we should say to our +intractable partner, 'Depart in peace;' in a word, separation is a +conceivable Home Rule policy. This proposal has never been discussed in +Parliament; the interest, the self-respect, the pride of Englishmen almost +forbid the thought. Yet separation, strange as it may appear, would be a +better and more safe expedient than either of Mr. Gladstone's schemes of +Home Rule. The Imperial Parliament would have complete liberty to exercise +its sovereign power in Great Britain; it would have a free hand to prevent +injustice in Ireland, either by the strong arm, or by fiscal and other +expedients, say, by laying an embargo on Irish products; it would not be +subject to the exasperating but often effective checks which Home Rule +would in any form involve; and the Imperial Executive would possess ample +means to protect the interests of England and of her friends in Ireland. +Let it not be forgotten that in perhaps the ablest speech ever made, in +the House of Commons, on this subject, Peel declared that he would +infinitely prefer separation to a repeal of the Union, by no means so evil +a policy as Home Rule. + +A few politicians, however, have put the theory forward that 'Home Rule +all round' will meet the 'national demand' of Ireland, and give her what +they are pleased to call 'self-government.' England, Scotland, Ireland, +and perhaps Wales are to have local Parliaments to deal with their own +affairs; Imperial affairs are to be directed by an Imperial Council. I am +willing to admit that a scheme of this kind would be better than Mr. +Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1893; it would be less illogical, possibly +not more disastrous. But I must be permitted to doubt whether these sages +understand what their project certainly involves; this, indeed, seems to +be rather in the nature of a device to angle for Nationalist votes, +without scruple, and then to propose a plan which England, Scotland, +Ireland, and Wales have never asked for, and which England and Scotland, +at least, would indignantly reject. This scheme is pure Federalism, in the +proper sense of the word; let us briefly consider what this means from the +very nature of the case. England, Scotland, Ireland, and, I assume, Wales +would form separate States; they would have separate Legislatures and +Executives to manage their local affairs, separate local forces, separate +Courts of Justice; they would be, essentially, separate countries. The +Imperial Parliament and its Executive would be the only link between them; +there would be an Imperial army, and navy, and Imperial tribunals; but the +Imperial Parliament and its Executive would only have jurisdiction over +Imperial affairs, and would be only the head of the separate States as +respects Foreign Powers. But as it would be difficult in the extreme, +under these conditions, to distinguish local from Imperial affairs, an +arbiter of some kind, armed with sufficient powers, would be necessary to +say what affairs were local and what Imperial, and decisively to pronounce +on the subject, on the innumerable occasions when the question would +arise; and it would be necessary, too, that there should be some means, +perhaps a Referendum to a popular vote, to effect any constitutional +change, to reform or to abolish the Constitution itself. This scheme +obviously would be complex, intricate, and difficult to carry into effect; +it would be a huge system of divided, and probably conflicting, powers, +not easy to reconcile with each other; for this, and other reasons, it +would require a formal Constitution reduced to writing, and setting forth, +under distinct heads or articles, the conditions of the Federation that +had been established, the spheres of the authority of the separate +States, and the sphere of the authority of the Imperial Council. Is it +possible to suppose that the Parliament of the United Kingdom would ever +break up this ancient and undivided Monarchy; would tamely surrender its +sovereign rights, and would substitute a new-fangled fabric of this kind +for the venerable and unwritten constitution of these realms--a majestic +temple that has grown up in silence; and that the British people, at all +events, would not rise up in wrath at the very thought of such a change? +For Federalism 'amounts to a proposal for changing the whole constitution +of the United Kingdom. It is, in fact, the most "revolutionary" proposal, +if the word "revolutionary" be used in its strict sense, which has ever +been submitted to an English Parliament. The abolition of the House of +Lords, the disestablishment of the Church, the abolition of the Monarchy, +might leave the English Constitution far less essentially changed than +would the adoption of Federalism.'[32] + +It should be observed, too, with respect to this subject, that the +conditions, under which Federalism would have a chance of success, would +be absolutely wanting in the present instance. England, Scotland, Ireland, +and Wales have long been moulded into a single sovereign State, and united +under a supreme Monarchy; no Federation, I venture to assert, has been +formed out of communities that have had a government of this kind. +Federations, in fact, have almost always grown out of an association of +existing States, which desire to remain separate, and yet to be a nation +for some purposes; they have not been evolved out of the fragments of one +State artificially rent asunder. Again, Federalism requires that no single +State should be enormously more powerful than the other partners; there +must be something like equality between the different States;[33] it is +unnecessary to remark that England has tenfold the resources and strength +of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; and, in truth, would annihilate the +Federation were her will really crossed, and break through the arbitrary +limitations imposed on her. Suppose, for example, that England had set her +heart on a great foreign war, and had the support of her own Parliament; +does any one suppose that, if she were outvoted, by deputies from +Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, in the Imperial Council, even though backed +by their own Parliaments, the people of England would submit to be +thwarted in this way; was Samson bound by the withs of the Philistines? +Something like this, indeed, was seen in the great Civil War; the result +was the subjugation of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and the complete +ascendency of England, under Cromwell; an attempt to federalise the Three +Kingdoms might lead to a similar issue. Let us assume, however, that, +through some evil stroke of destiny, Federalism were made the constitution +of these realms, and that this strange arrangement could be made to work +even for a few years; the inevitable consequences, from the nature of the +case, would follow. The omnipotence of the Imperial Parliament, the +mainstay of the Empire, would be gone; so would the omnipotence of the +Imperial Executive Government, the best security for justice and for equal +liberties. Their powers would be parcelled out and subdivided; they would +not survive anywhere in their complete fulness; they would be distributed +in fractions between separate States, and would be transformed and +impaired in the process; real Imperial unity and sovereignty could have no +existence. General national weakness would be the probable result, +leading, perhaps, to despotism within a short time; for Federalism is +essentially weak; I have no sympathy with Jacobin France, but the +Committee of Public Safety rightly put Federalism down, when they were +engaged in their death-struggle with Europe; and Napoleon--perhaps the +ablest ruler of the nineteenth century--approved of their conduct. But +weakness would not be the only consequence; the dissemination of different +powers would certainly produce disputes and conflicts between the Federal +and the State authorities; above all, the very existence of separate +States and of a Federal Government would divide allegiance, and powerfully +tend to disruption, as was seen in the great Civil War in America. As +regards Ireland, the establishment of 'Home Rule all round' would +necessarily be attended by all the evils inseparable from Mr. Gladstone's +schemes; but Federalism, having been thus made manifest, would probably +increase, and in some sense justify, the alienation of Ireland from the +other parts of these kingdoms. + +Home Rule, therefore, whatever the form it may assume, would be, it is my +firm conviction, incompatible with the welfare of the Three Kingdoms, +injurious to Great Britain, a curse to Ireland. In the peculiar +circumstances which exist in Ireland, and to which I have adverted before, +separation, I believe, would be an expedient less disastrous than Home +Rule of any description, this involving the creation of an Irish +Parliament, and of an Irish Executive, which would be its instrument. Home +Rule, in fact, gloss it over as you please, has been forced to the front +by an Irish faction, hostile to a man to the existence of British rule in +Ireland, and depending on Fenianism in the United States; this party would +be all-powerful in an Irish Parliament; and Home Rule would be made the +means to a ruinous and disgraceful end. Thousands of Irishmen, indeed, +honestly think Home Rule would do their country good, and have little or +nothing to do with this bad conspiracy; this too, doubtless, is the case +with the followers of Mr. Gladstone; but Home Rule is an Irish Nationalist +movement, and Irish Nationalist movements are dangerous to the safety of +the State. The Union, therefore, must be maintained in the interest of +Great Britain and Ireland alike; and the Union is an international +settlement that has endured for a century. But no candid student of Irish +history, no impartial observer of Irish affairs, from 1800 to the present +time, can deny that the Union has been in many respects a failure. It has +been an incident, perhaps a result, of the Union, that Presbyterian +Ireland, rebellious from 1795 to 1798, has, we have seen, become attached +to the British connection, and is now devotedly attached to England. The +power of the Imperial Parliament and of its Executive have kept +lawlessness and disorder down in Ireland, and has restrained the evil +passions of Irish factions more than was ever the case under the rule of +the Irish Parliament. The Imperial Parliament, too, has accomplished +reforms in Ireland, if often unwise, in the main beneficent; and, under +the Imperial Executive, justice in Ireland has been administered, for many +years, in a very different way from that which was seen a century ago; its +tribunals are perfectly free and impartial. But the Union was, in itself, +a bad half measure, tainted with iniquity and false promises; it did gross +wrong to Catholic Ireland; the evil consequences are felt to this hour. +The Union has not fulfilled the sanguine hopes of Pitt; Ireland, as I have +pointed out, is far more behind Great Britain in wealth than she was sixty +years ago; she is perhaps the poorest country in Europe at the door of the +richest. The Union, too, has not reconciled the feuds of religion and race +in Ireland; they are as marked as they were a century ago, if not attended +with such deeds of violence; above all, the Union has not made the chief +part of the Irish community attached to England, as Pitt confidently +predicted would certainly happen. Nor can it be denied that the Irish +reforms of the Imperial Parliament have too often been ill-designed and +faulty, especially, as we shall see, as regards the land; and they have +unfortunately, in many instances, been concessions to agitation and +dangerous social movements, and have been effected too late to do real +good. The administration of Ireland reveals the same defects; it has been +marked by good intentions, which, sometimes, have proved gross mistakes; +and notably it has, over and over again, been shifty, vacillating, without +principle, and showing a curious disregard of sound Irish opinion. +Unquestionably, too, Ireland has, on many occasions, to the indignation of +true-hearted Irishmen, been made the mere plaything of British faction, +with the worst results to her best interests; this has been perhaps the +most pernicious incident that has followed the Union; and in the immense +revolution which has transformed Ireland, within the last hundred years, +the effects that may be traced to the Union have by no means been wholly +on the side of good. + +These evil consequences cannot be really questioned; it is very advisable +to consider their causes, and if possible to see how they can be removed +or lessened. They are partly to be ascribed to the fact that Great Britain +and Ireland are countries differing from each other in most important +respects, and standing, so to speak, on different planes of existence; +this alone makes British rule in Ireland difficult, and perplexes and +embarrasses British statesmen. They are partly due to defects in the +English national character, essentially just in intention, and even +generous, but with no sympathy with races of a character unlike its own, +self-asserting, obstinate, sometimes rude and offensive; this has had +marked and evil effects in the affairs of Ireland. They are largely to be +attributed to the nature of Irish administration, seldom consistent, and +changing with party changes: British statesmen appear at the Castle; rule +for a few years; and then depart and give place to successors, who +probably carry out a very different policy. They are largely due to the +nature of the representation of Ireland, notably of late years; the +Nationalist party--and the same remark applies, in some degree, to the +'Tail' of O'Connell--have shown such an aversion to England, have used +such seditious and even criminal language, have been so extravagant and +wild in their demands, and have been such a dangerous element in the House +of Commons, that Englishmen and Scotchmen turn away from Irish questions +with disgust, and Ireland unfortunately has often been the sufferer. But +the most important of these causes, one which may be traced throughout +Irish history, and has been scarcely less evident since the Union, has +been the strange but signal ignorance of Irish affairs--of all, in a word, +that relates to Ireland--which has been but too characteristic of the +British people, and, in a lesser degree, of many British statesmen. This +capital fault aroused the _sæva indignatio_, of Swift; it was exposed by +Grattan, O'Connell, even by Lord Clare; it was condemned in severe but +thoughtful language by Burke; it has been conspicuous during the events of +the last twenty years.[34] The resulting mischiefs have been numerous and +grave in the extreme; can nothing be done to mitigate these and to make +them less, consistently with maintaining the Union in its full +completeness? I, for one, have long thought that much could be effected +were the Imperial Parliament occasionally to hold its sessions in Dublin, +and to govern Ireland directly, so to speak, on the spot. This very +measure was proposed by many distinguished Irishmen, during the agitation +for Repeal in 1843-44; it was made the subject of an eloquent eulogy by +Sheil at O'Connell's trial; it was seriously entertained by the Whig +opposition of the day, as we know from a remarkable letter of Lord +Waveney. This policy unfortunately passed out of sight; but even now, I +believe, it would do the greatest good in Ireland. It would be something +that the proposed change would cause the wealth of England and Scotland +largely to flow into a poor country; that Irish absenteeism would be +diminished; that Ireland would become, more than she is now, an attractive +place of resort to the traveller. But it would be far more that the +presence of the Imperial Parliament in College Green would necessarily +largely remove the ignorance of Irish affairs I have just referred to; it +would make English and Scotch members familiar with the requirements, the +feelings, the wishes of Irishmen; as has happily been said, it would +render our Irish legislation and administration 'racy of the Irish soil.' +And probably more than any other expedient, it would exorcise the weak +phantom of Home Rule by bringing Irishmen in contact with the majesty of +the Sovereign Assembly of the British Empire. I shall not comment on the +petty inconveniences the scheme might cause; really they are not worthy of +serious attention. + +The occasional presence of Royalty, too, in Ireland, as was made manifest +during the late Queen's visit, unquestionably would have beneficent +results. It would gratify a sentiment of Celtic nature, always attached to +persons rather than to institutions and laws, and especially attached to +rulers and chiefs, which, in Ireland, has been scarcely gratified before; +it would spread far and wide a happy and good influence; it would +certainly improve the social life of Ireland, and add something to her +scanty material wealth. The maintenance of the Union, however, is the +first requirement of a sound Irish and Imperial policy; one means of +strengthening that fundamental law of these realms, consistently with +strict constitutional justice, nay, if constitutional wrong is not to +continue, has long been apparent to impartial minds. The +over-representation of Ireland, in the House of Commons, is a flagrant +anomaly, acknowledged for years; as I have remarked, it was largely +expected that this important subject would have been taken up before this +by Lord Salisbury's Government, and have been settled in the Parliament of +1895-1900. Taking the test of population alone, Ireland has, compared to +England, Wales, and Scotland, an excess of twenty-three members; taking +the test of population and property combined, she has an excess probably +of from thirty to forty. I am willing to allow that, in this matter, we +ought not to follow arithmetic only; Ireland, a poor country, far away +from Westminster, may have a claim to a representation somewhat more +numerous than mere figures would give her. But can anything be more +unjust, nay, absurd, than that Ireland should have one hundred and three +members, and that the world of London, with a population about the same as +that of Ireland, and probably possessing tenfold wealth, should have +little more than half that number? This excessive representation must be +reduced, and Irish Nationalists cannot here appeal to the Union; the Union +did not save the Established Church of Ireland, secured by the Treaty in +emphatic terms; and the Union must not be wrested to work gross injustice. +The anomaly can be only removed by a large scheme for the redistribution +of seats, founded on sound constitutional principles; and should this +become law, as I confidently hope will be one of the achievements of the +existing Parliament, the Union will acquire a new security, for the +Nationalist vote in the House of Commons would be greatly reduced, and the +Irish Unionist vote would be greatly increased. A very few figures will +prove this: the rural populations of the Unionist counties of Antrim and +Down are upwards of four hundred and thirty thousand souls; the rural +populations of the Home Rule counties of Kildare, Kilkenny, King's, +Longford, Wicklow, and Louth have a population less than three hundred and +ninety-eight thousand;[35] yet Antrim and Down have only eight members, +the other six counties have no less than twelve. The same disparity runs +through all the Irish counties; in the boroughs of Ireland it is even more +visible. Protestant and Unionist Ireland, in a word, has probably fifteen +or sixteen members too few; Catholic and anti-Unionist Ireland fifteen or +sixteen too many; it is high time this plain wrong should be redressed; it +is unnecessary to point out how this would strengthen the Union. And what +probably is not less important, it would make the representation of +Ireland, not, what it is now, an utterly false index of Irish opinion, but +a reasonably fair and trustworthy index; were the Irish representation cut +down to eighty members, the Nationalists would probably command not more +than fifty seats; the Unionists would command about thirty; and this, +taking all things into account, would be a proportion approaching what is +just. The 'doing' of right, in this matter, has been too long deferred; +loyal Ireland feels strongly upon the subject; the reform would be +altogether in the interest of the State. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND--SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE LAND SYSTEM +OF IRELAND TO THE YEAR 1870 + + Great importance in the history of Ireland of the conditions of land + tenure--The ancient Celtic land system and its characteristics--The + Norman conquest of Ireland--Norman feudalism in the Irish land--The + policy of Henry VII., and especially of Henry VIII.--The era of the + conquest and confiscation of the Irish land--The possessions of the + O'Connors of Offaly wrested from them--Forfeiture of the domains of + Shane O'Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond--Attempts at + colonisation--All Ireland made shire land--The extinction of the old + Celtic land system--The Plantation of Ulster--Progress of confiscation + during the reigns of the two first Stuarts--The Civil War--Immense + confiscations made by Cromwell--His scheme of colonisation a + failure--The era of confiscation closes after the battle of the Boyne + and the fall of Limerick--The Penal Code of Ireland--Its fatal effects + on the Irish land--Dismal period in Irish landed relations--Gradual + improvement--The period described by Arthur Young--Evil traces of the + past remain--Whiteboyism and agrarian disorder--State of Irish landed + relations up to the rebellion of 1798, and after the + Union--Over-population and the results--Distress after the + Peace--State of Irish landed relations up to 1844--The Report of the + Devon Commission--The Famine and its effects on the Irish land--The + Encumbered Estates Acts--State of Irish landed relations from 1848 to + 1868. + + +The fortunes of many communities, it has truly been said, have been +decisively affected by the conditions of the ownership and the occupation +of the soil. The social, even the political, life of modern Europe has +been, in a great measure, moulded by the land tenures that have grown out +of the feudal system; I need only refer to the history of England, of +France, and of Germany. This remark, however, especially applies to the +events that make up the annals of Ireland; that long and unhappy tale of +misfortunes and errors is intimately associated, all through, with the +land, and with the relations connected with it. Modern research has shown +how grotesque and mischievous was the ignorance of the Tudor lawyers and +statesmen, who described the ancient organisation of the Irish land as a +medley of barbarian and pernicious usages; it was an archaic and imperfect +specimen of the feudal system, with differences indeed, but marked with +its essential features. Norman feudalism, lawless and ill-ordered, was for +centuries, after the first Conquest, placed beside this primitive form of +society, in parts of a country not half subdued; the results were seen in +incessant strife and discord, and in social anarchy, which prevented +civilisation growing up. The Irishry had well-nigh driven the Englishry +into the sea, when Henry VII. tried to make his authority felt in Ireland; +his successor, partly a Celt in blood, and a real statesman, devised a +noble scheme for bringing an ill-governed dependency within the domain of +order and law, by planting an Anglo-Norman and native aristocracy in the +soil, subject to a strong monarchy that would have protected the community +as a whole. Most unfortunately the policy of Henry VIII. was not carried +out; in the great conflict of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, +Ireland was drawn into a long struggle with England, and was repeatedly +made a place of arms for her foes; an era of savage conquest, accomplished +piecemeal, with ruthless confiscation following in its train, was +protracted during nearly a century and a half; and at the close of the +reign of William III., nine-tenths probably of the land of Ireland had +been wrested from its former possessors, and the old Celtic land system +had been destroyed by the sword and by law. Race and religion made this +position of affairs much worse; the age of Protestant ascendency in +Ireland began; in infinitely the greatest part of the island the land was +parcelled out among a caste of owners distinct in blood and faith from the +children of the soil, and lording it over an oppressed peasantry; and the +system was propped up by a code of cruel laws, which maintained and, so to +speak, stereotyped these evil divisions. The lines of the land system of +Ireland were thus finally laid down; a variety of economic and social +causes increased and deepened their extreme harshness; and though they +have gradually been softened, and are now all but effaced, their traces +and the results are still to be seen. The last thirty years have witnessed +repeated attempts to effect radical changes in the modes of the ownership +and the occupation of the land in Ireland; they have wrought a revolution +in Irish landed relations, and have well-nigh turned them upside down; but +the consequences have assuredly not been fortunate. The land system of +Ireland has been made a chaos of economic disorder, of dissensions of +class, of legalised wrong, absolutely incompatible with social progress +and the general welfare. + +I must glance, for an instant, at the distinctive features of the land +system of Ireland in the Celtic age, for despite the effects of +confiscation and conquest, faint traces of it may still be seen, and have +a kind of influence.[36] As was the case in all communities of the Aryan +stem, the land originally was largely held in collective ownership; but +agriculture developed individual ownership by degrees, though less so in +Ireland than in more progressive countries. The people were settled on the +soil in tribes, clans, and septs, these being the larger and the smaller +units; the modes of the tenure of the land, misinterpreted by Elizabethan +sages, differed widely from each other, but revealed the traditions of old +patriarchal usage and power, especially in their canons of descent and +succession. The feudalisation of the land, as it has been significantly +called, a process which took place in nearly the whole of Europe, was also +witnessed in Ireland, to a certain extent; but this was not so complete +and strongly marked as in France and England. The land, nevertheless, was, +throughout the island, held ultimately from a supreme monarch; it was +divided, under him, among families of princely chiefs, who ruled vast +tracts with scarcely controlled authority; inferior chiefs were subject to +these; the organisation of the land had much in common with the +organisation of the Anglo-Norman manor, and with the position of the Lord +Paramount of every manor, the head of the English State. The Irish kings +and chiefs had lands in demesne; they had a landed and a personal +_noblesse_; the territories they ruled were held by classes strongly +resembling the free tenants, the villeins, and the serfs of the feudal +system. All this, however, was not as perfectly defined as it was in lands +feudalised to a higher degree; and though the Davieses and Spensers were +wholly in error in representing the dependents of the Irish kings and +chiefs as little better than a horde of fighting men and slaves, Ireland +never fully possessed the liberties feudalism secured. The Ceile of +substance, who had lands of his own, seems to have been in an inferior +position to the English freeholder; the Saer stock and Daer stock tenants +held their lands by a tenure like that of the metayers of France; the +Fuidhirs were kept in complete subjection, and had not even the rights of +the villein. The land, too, was still largely held in collective +ownership; in its occupation this is even now seen in backward and poor +districts; and, curiously enough, distinctions were drawn between what was +a 'fair' and a 'rack rent,' words still common in the mouth of the Irish +peasant, and to which recent legislation has given its sanction. + +As in the case of most lands where anything resembling feudalism +prevailed, with the single exception of England, under her strong +Monarchy, Ireland in these circumstances was torn by continual discord, +increased by the recurring struggles with the Dane. The Celtic kings and +chiefs, nevertheless, were beloved by their people; the land system fell +in with Celtic tribal ideas and sentiments. I pass over the incidents of +the first Norman Conquest; in the course of time, an Anglo-Norman colony +was established, within a Pale ever-varying in extent, and held parts of +the country under feudal conditions, the remaining, and by far the +greatest, parts being left in the possession of the Celtic kings and +princes. Anglo-Norman feudalism, however, was completely different, in +Ireland, from what it was in England; it was not subject to vigorous +kingly rule; it was confined within comparatively small limits. In these +circumstances the Pale fell into the hands of a few leading and great +families; these, as had been largely the case in Scotland, formed a +domineering and oppressive _noblesse_, continually engaged in quarrels +between themselves, and in petty wars with the Celtic chiefs, and +completely superior to the royal power in England. The Geraldines, the +Butlers, the De Burghs, and other great houses, had no law but their own +wills in their vast lordships; their exactions and tyranny became a +byword; their lives were spent in savage feudal strife, and in 'hostings +against the Irish enemy.' Strange to say, too, these scions of a mighty +conquering race fell under the spell of the Celtic genius, and, as it was +said, 'became more Irish than the Irish themselves; they were at least +largely assimilated to a Celtic model, and they adopted many of the usages +of the Celt. It was not much otherwise in the Celtic region outside the +Pale; the Irish chiefs often blended in marriage with the Anglo-Norman +settlers; but they were continually at war with them, and with each +other. Under these conditions, feudalism, in its best aspects, could take +no root, in the land, in Ireland; and there is much reason to believe that +the archaic Irish land system was gradually changed and almost broken up, +the power of the kings and chiefs being greatly increased, and the +position of their dependents being made essentially worse. It is obvious +that in a land, a scene of such disorder and misrule, civilisation and all +that the word implies could not exist; Ireland was probably more barbarous +at the close of the fifteenth century than she had been when she first saw +Henry of Anjou. The Pale had been restricted within ever-narrowing bounds; +generations of colonising 'Englishry' had entered the country, and had +left it in angry despair; the 'Irishry' had encroached on their +conqueror's domain; the work of Strongbow and Fitzstephen appeared to be +undone. Especially it was observed that nothing like a middle class, even +then the best element in the social life of England, had been able to +develop itself in Ireland, and that the humbler classes were always in a +state of wretchedness, ground down by exaction, and exposed to incessant +wrongs of all kinds. 'What common folk of all the world'--these were the +words of a State paper of the age--'is so poor, so feeble, so evil be seen +in town and field, so greatly oppressed and trodden underfoot, fares so +evil, with so great misery, and with so wretched a life, as the common +folk of Ireland?' + +Henry VII. strengthened the authority of the Crown in Ireland; the +Viceroyalty of Poynings marks an epoch in her chequered annals; but the +conduct of the king was shifting and weak; the land fell under the control +of the great House of Kildare; the Irishry were driven back, but in no +sense subdued. Surrey, the victor of Flodden, intreated Henry VIII. to +make the country his own by sheer force of arms; but his master refused in +striking language; and proposed a scheme for bringing Ireland under the +control of the Monarchy, for encouraging civilisation and promoting order, +the wisest that has ever suggested itself to a British statesman. He made +several of 'the degenerate' Norman _noblesse_ peers; he extended the same +dignity to several Irish chiefs; he assembled representatives of Ireland +in a Parliament composed of both races; he appointed commissioners to go +through the country and to punish crime; above all--and this deserves +special notice--he tried to conciliate the Celtic community by bringing +their usages within the cognisance of the law, and giving them effectual +legal sanction; and he condemned the attempts being already made to force +laws on them peculiar to England. Had this enlightened policy been +steadily pursued, the history of Ireland would have run a wholly different +course; but destiny, that has played so sinister a part in Irish affairs, +interfered to thwart the admirable designs of the king. The great +Geraldine rebellion broke out, supported by irregular Celtic risings; from +this time forward, during five generations of man, the era of cruel but +intermittent conquest, accompanied by wholesale confiscation, set in. The +powerful tribe of the O'Connors of Offaly, closely associated with the +fallen House of Kildare, was the first to feel the weight of the arm of +England; its territories were forcibly overrun and annexed, given the name +of the King's and the Queen's Counties, and peopled with a colony of +settlers from England. Celtic Ireland ere long was brought into the +conflict between Elizabeth and Philip II., the representatives of the +faiths that were dividing Christendom; the princely chief, Shane O'Neill, +fell a victim to the English conquerors, though their quarrel with him was +not wholly one of seeking the assistance of a foreign enemy; his vast +domains were, also, in part forfeited, in part handed over to a puppet of +English power. The frightful Desmond rebellion followed; it was directly +encouraged by the Pope and by Spain; after a protracted struggle +approaching a real civil war, the immense lordships of the great Geraldine +House were confiscated, and granted to a colony of English blood. Tyrone, +the real successor of his kinsman, Shane O'Neill, a soldier and statesman +of no ordinary parts, seeing, as he bitterly said, that his 'lands were +marked down by the spoiler,' endeavoured, not without partial success, to +combine a great Irish League against England; he entered into an alliance +with Spain; a Spanish army landed on the southern coast of Munster; after +a long and sanguinary contest, Tyrone yielded, but his resistance had been +so formidable that he was allowed to retain his possessions. + +The subjugation of a large part of Ireland, in the Elizabethan wars, was +marked by incidents of a most atrocious character. The Government had no +regular army to act in the field; it was compelled largely to rely on +armed levies of the Englishry, and on bodies of the Irishry attached to +the conqueror's standards; for in this, as in nearly all instances +throughout their history, the Irish Celts were at feud with each other; +Celtic Ireland was a house divided against itself. The queen, it has been +written, 'ruled over blood and ashes,' when Mountjoy sheathed his +victorious sword; the memory of this period still lives in Irish +tradition. A season of exhaustion and repose ensued after James I. had +ascended the throne; but the time, in the phrase of Tacitus, had an evil +aspect in peace itself. The Pale had long before this been effaced; +conquest and confiscation had spread over nearly the whole island; the +domination of England was felt almost everywhere. As the result, the whole +of Ireland was made shire land; the old Celtic land system, which still +widely prevailed, was swept away by decisions of the Anglican Courts of +Justice; it was declared to be 'a lewd and not law-worthy thing;' all the +Irish land was subjected to English modes of tenure; they were imposed on +a people which detested these gifts of the stranger; innumerable tribal +rights were destroyed. Ere long the work of confiscation began again; the +domains of Tyrone and of his kinsman O'Donnell were pronounced forfeited +for reasons that have never been ascertained; the Crown was placed in +possession of nearly six counties of Ulster. Up to this time the +settlements of English colonists, which had been made in Ireland by Tudor +conquest, had failed; the colonists had been almost lost in the midst of +the Irishry, who hemmed them around. This immense confiscation was, +however, in part successful; it was carried out on comparatively +enlightened principles; it has produced the famous Plantation of Ulster; +and this, with other settlements in the counties of Antrim and Down, has +established, in a large part of the northern province of Ireland, a hardy +and thriving community, in the main, of Scottish blood. Confiscation, +nevertheless, did not stop here; 'the ravages of war,' in Burke's +language, were 'carried on amidst seeming peace;' enormous tracts were +torn from their former owners on pretexts usually of the flimsiest kind, +and were flung to Court favourites, to jobbing speculators, to greedy +adventurers of the baser sort. By this time three-fourths probably of the +soil of Ireland had passed into the hands of a new race of possessors; the +descendants of Anglo-Norman nobles and of the Celtic princes had been +sufferers well-nigh in the same proportion. At last Strafford marked out +the whole province of Connaught, for what has been called 'his majestic +rapine;' this and other innumerable acts of spoliation and wrong +unquestionably were the paramount cause of the great Celtic rising of +1641. Another and soon to be a most potent element of evils and troubles +had already begun to make its sinister presence felt in Ireland. In the +great religious schism of the sixteenth century, England had become +Protestant, Ireland had remained Catholic, and each had taken opposite +sides in the conflict that followed; though the Elizabethan wars were +rather struggles of race than of faith. But as conquest and confiscation +progressed in Ireland, the Anglican Church, a scion of the Norman Church +of the Pale, was erected on the ruins of its Celtic Catholic rival; the +land more and more became possessed by settlers alien in creed from the +old owners, and from the vanquished children of the soil; and harsh laws +had begun to deepen the distinctions between them. Nevertheless, though +its signs had in some measure appeared, the era of Protestant ascendency +and Catholic subjection had not been developed in Ireland, as yet, in its +worst aspects. + +The wild Celtic rising of 1641 was followed by a rising of the old +Englishry of the Pale--the descendants of the first Anglo-Norman settlers; +both movements were probably encouraged from France; though widely +different, they ran into each other. The great Civil War was now running +its course in England; Ireland, for the most part, took the side of the +king; the majority of Englishmen were certainly on the side of the +Parliament. I cannot retrace the scenes of the contest in Ireland; after a +fierce and protracted struggle, in which an envoy of the Pope became the +representative of an ill-united Irish League; in which Preston and Ormond +led the forces of the Pale, and Owen Roe O'Neill was at the head of the +Irish Celts,--the whole island was subjugated by the sword of Cromwell, as +it never had been subjugated before. Drogheda and Wexford are names of woe +in the annals of Ireland; but the conquest of the Protector, ruthless as +it was, was not so cruel as that of the Elizabethan soldiers; if deeply +stained with blood, it was rapid and completely decisive. The colony in +Ulster had begun to flourish; Cromwell designed a scheme for the +colonisation of the vanquished country more thorough and extensive than +any which had been designed before. Three-fourths of Ireland had been in +arms against the Parliament; that assembly had made grants by +anticipation of Irish forfeited lands to 'adventurers' who had advanced it +moneys; an opportunity for immense confiscations had arisen; the Protector +was not slow to take advantage of it; his Puritan fanaticism, his hatred +of the Irish people, especially of its 'idolatrous Papists,' his strong +English and religious sympathies, united to confirm him in his purpose. +The forfeited lands in four of the Irish counties were appropriated to the +Commonwealth and its uses; those in eighteen were to be granted to the +'adventurers' and the soldiery of the late conquest; those in seven were +to be allotted to the army in England. The grants were to be either free, +or to be purchased at nominal prices; the owners, who had lost their +lands, were to be deported to Connaught--'Hell' was the alternative, the +tradition runs--and 'Courts of Claims,' as they were called, were to be +set up, to adjudicate on the conduct of those who were to be +dispossessed--they were to be subjected to a test which scarcely one could +satisfy--and practically to measure confiscation out under the pretence of +law. By these means Cromwell calculated that some forty thousand +colonists, of English blood and of the Puritan faith, would be poured into +the millions of acres which the sword had placed in the hands of his +Government; these would form a prosperous settlement loyal to England; +would keep rebellion in Ireland for ever down; and would regenerate a land +taken from a race akin to the Amalekites of old. As a foretaste of the new +and glorious order of things, Sir William Petty, a very able man, +remarkably skilful in feathering his own nest, made a cadastral survey of +Ireland, which still remains. + +Cromwell's scheme of confiscation was thoroughly carried out, spite of +much angry wrangling between the Puritan warriors. The remains of the +defeated Irish armies went, in thousands, into exile in foreign lands; +they were the heralds of the renowned soldiery who, for a century and a +half, were deadly, but honourable foes of the British name. The rule of +the Protector in Ireland was stern but enforced peace; Ireland was +prostrate in the exhaustion of despair; there is much proof that, under +the Cromwellian settlement, the country made a kind of material progress. +But Cromwell's great scheme of colonisation failed, as such schemes had +failed in many instances before; a large majority of the 'adventurers' and +the soldiers sold their possessions, usually for a mere nothing: many +'degenerated' like the old Norman families, and, won over by the spells +'of the daughters of Heth,' had, in one or two generations, become 'mere +Irish.' The ultimate result of the Cromwellian conquest was to establish +in Ireland three or four thousand owners of the soil, of English blood and +Puritan leanings, without the support of inferior dependents, in the midst +of a vanquished population hostile in race and faith; the sentiments thus +engendered have never died out; to this day 'a Cromwellian landlord' is a +name of reproach in Catholic Ireland. At the Restoration hope for a moment +revived in the hearts of the ruined owners, who had been dispossessed by +Cromwell, and of whom hundreds had fought for the Crown; but this was +dashed by the perfidy of Charles II. and his courtiers; the Cromwellian +forfeitures were, in the main, confirmed; large tracts were given back to +favourites of the Stuarts, but thousands of beggared families lost their +estates for ever through a policy of cruel baseness and wrong. Ireland +remained quiescent for nearly thirty years; she even prospered under the +wise rule of Ormond--one of the noblest figures in her unhappy history; +but the bitter memories of the past lived in the conquered people, though, +as has repeatedly been seen in a Celtic race, they were treasured in +silence, and caused little apparent trouble. James II. ascended the throne +in 1685; he had a great opportunity to mitigate many of the wrongs of +Ireland; he might have removed some of the evils of the Cromwellian +conquest, and have effected changes in the settlement of the land, which, +at least, would have done partial justice. But the unfortunate king was a +bigot, and, in no sense, a statesman; like his father he tried the +desperate policy of making use of Ireland in his designs against English +liberties; he sent Tyrconnell to Dublin, and, in a few months, revolution +had broken out through the country; English and Protestant Ireland was +well-nigh trampled underfoot; Catholic and Celtic Ireland rose up in a +wild hope of revenge. I cannot even glance at the stirring events that +followed; the descendants of ruined barons of the Pale and of Celtic +princes driven from their lands and their homes, joined in a great effort +to raise a large armed force; the rising almost assumed a national aspect; +but after the Boyne and the fall of Limerick, it was finally quelled by +William III. The process of confiscation was once more renewed; thousands +of acres were taken forcibly from those who had resisted in the field, and +were handed over to a new race of colonists belonging to the blood and the +creed of the victors; and the shameful violation of a solemn Treaty made +all that was cruel in spoliation worse. + +The era of conquest in Ireland and of confiscation by force--an agony +prolonged for a century and a half--was brought to an end in the reign of +William III. This is not the place to examine the question on which side, +as between England and Ireland, the balance of the wrongs that were done +inclines; but if much that is cruel and shameful is to be laid to the +charge of England, Ireland, it cannot be forgotten, crossed her path +repeatedly in an age of grave national perils and troubles, and, moreover, +wrecked her own cause by her wretched dissensions. The Irish land had now +nearly all fallen into the hands of a caste of owners, of English and +Scottish descent, and in faith Protestant, divided from a people of +Catholic occupiers for the most part of the Irish race; wide lines of +demarcation had been drawn between them; and there was no middle class to +bridge over the gulf. In a part of Ulster alone where the proprietors and +the holders of the soil were largely of the same religion and blood, was +there the promise of a more auspicious order of things; even here causes +of disunion were not wanting. Nor were these the only vices and dangers of +a land system which has scarcely had a parallel. Enormous tracts had been +bestowed on owners who never saw their estates; absenteeism existed to an +immense extent; their lands, too, had, in thousands of instances, been +underlet to a class of intermediate owners, who were to form a body of +most oppressive landlords. In addition, the representatives of numbers of +ruined families still vegetated on the domains which had been their own; +the few families which had escaped from the spoilers, were held in +reverence by the peasantry around; elements of disorder and trouble +continued to fester. The destruction, too, of the old Celtic modes of land +tenure, and the substitution of the English system, had unjustly +annihilated tribal rights wholesale; the free, and other dependents of the +Irish chiefs, had sunk into the position of mere tenants at will, that is, +at the mercy of foreign and often unknown masters. One of the worst, if +not the most apparent evil, of the gigantic confiscations which had taken +place, and on which the land system had, so to speak, been founded, was +that the respect which attaches to the ancient ownership of land, and +which forms, perhaps, its surest support, could hardly exist in any part +of Ireland; the disastrous consequences may be traced to the present hour. +Landlords, with titles of yesterday, won by the sword, could not feel the +interest in their estates and in the inhabitants on them, naturally felt +by owners of gentle and ancient descent; the land which, as has been said, +had been flung like a fox to ravening hounds, could not attract to it +happy and peaceful memories; the very Government had learned to think it +could deal with the land as it pleased, and treated the rights gained by +confiscation with contempt. Prescription, the strongest cement of +property, had no place in this ill-compacted land system.[37] + +The era of Protestant ascendency bringing Catholic subjection with it, had +now set in for many years in Ireland; its evils were aggravated by harsh +divisions of race, and by more than a century of bitter memories; its +effects were more conspicuous in the land than in other social relations. +This unnatural and calamitous position of affairs might, however, have +been replaced ere long by a better order of things, had it not been +artificially maintained and made enduring by legislation unexampled for +its far-reaching cruelty. I cannot attempt to describe the Penal Code of +Ireland; in the emphatic words of Burke, 'it was a complete system, full +of coherence and consistency; well digested and well composed in all its +parts; it was a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance; and as well +fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, +and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from +the perverted ingenuity of man.'[38] The objects of these execrable laws +were threefold: to exclude the Irish Catholic whether of Anglo-Irish or +Celtic descent--misfortune had well-nigh effaced the distinction--from +every office of trust in the State, from every profession, almost from +every walk of life; to persecute and proscribe the Catholic Church of +Ireland, and to place its priesthood under a humiliating ban, and finally +to ruin and degrade the few remaining Catholic owners of the soil; to +prevent the Irish Catholic from acquiring any real interest in it; and, +above all, to keep the Catholic peasantry in a condition of thraldom.[39] +The Code was only too successful in compassing its ends; I pass from its +operation as regards the two first, to point out how it sought to attain +the third, and how its provisions affected the Irish land and the manifold +relations connected with it. The estate of the Irish Catholic owner was +not to follow the ordinary courses of descent; it was 'to gavel,' and to +be divided among many persons; this was for the avowed purpose of making +'the landed property of Papists crumble away, and disappear.' The Irish +Catholic owner was subjected to cruel enactments that literally set his +household against him; his wife and children were bribed to become his +foes; law sate at his hearth to make his existence wretched. The Irish +Catholic, too, was forbidden to acquire land by purchase or even to +possess an incumbrance on it; as far as possible the ownership of land was +strictly confined to the Protestant caste. But the wrong that, in its +consequences at least, was perhaps the worst, was that the Catholic +occupier of the Irish soil could not obtain anything like an advantageous +tenure; he could not have a lease for a period beyond thirty-one years, +and this, too, at an excessive rent; and, in the great mass of instances, +he was a serf holding merely at will. + +The forty years that succeeded the death of William III. are certainly the +most mournful period in Irish history. The memories of conquest and +confiscation were still fresh; the Penal Code kept Catholic Ireland in its +chains; society was fashioned on the type of the domination of a class, +separated from a whole community in race and faith. Nothing was left +undone to perpetuate this evil order of things; the Irish Parliament was a +mere oligarchy of the sons of the colonists of Elizabeth, Cromwell, and +William, apart from a few leading men in Ulster; its legislation for the +vanquished race was barbarous; Lords-Lieutenant spoke of the Irish +Catholics as of 'the common enemy;' a 'Papist was presumed not to exist' +in the Irish Courts of Justice. Meanwhile the penal laws were relentlessly +carried out for years; the Irish Catholic was placed under a universal +ban; the Catholic Church of Ireland lay, as it were, in the valley of the +shadow of death. But the direst consequences appeared in the land, and in +the social life of the landed classes; these were most calamitous and have +still left their traces. Many of the few Catholic owners abandoned their +estates, and carried their swords into foreign lands, where some rose to +well-deserved eminence; a small number conformed to the dominant faith in +order to exist in comparative peace at home; the majority clung to their +lands and bowed their heads to oppression. The Protestant lords of the +soil were what their antecedents and the law had made them; they were long +a harsh and exacting order of men, filled with bigotry and the pride of a +conquering race; they regarded the inferiors they ruled as pariahs and +helots. But, as usually happens, when society is in an unnatural state, +they did not prosper amidst the ruins around them; their lands were kept +on a kind of pernicious mortmain, as they could not mortgage or sell them +freely; absenteeism with all its mischiefs greatly increased; and +middleman tenures largely multiplied, subjecting the peasantry to a +detestable breed of landlords, Protestants and of English descent, like +their superiors, but much worse tyrants. As for the mass of the Catholic +occupiers of the soil, they were kept down in the lowest state of serfdom; +but multitudes found their way into foreign armies; 'the wild geese,' as +they were pathetically called, flew to Austria and, above all, to France, +where, in the ranks of the celebrated Irish Brigade--'ever and everywhere' +true to the Bourbon lilies--they won renown at Dettingen, Fontenoy, and +other fields of fame. The aspect of Ireland bore too faithful witness to +the misery engendered in this evil order of things. The country was still +covered with the wrecks of the late wars; the habitations, even of the +Protestant gentry, were squalid and mean; the towns were, in many +instances, sinking into decay; the peasantry were huddled together into +villages of huts; the traveller roamed through vast wastes of unfenced +pasturage, evidences of a land almost left in a state of nature. Hideous +famines were of repeated occurrence; one, that of 1739-41, swept the +population away in tens of thousands; the Irish Parliament +characteristically did nothing to help the sufferers; it met the emergency +by strengthening the means to enforce the payment of rent. The miserable +condition of Ireland was made worse by the legislation of the British +Parliament, which treated the country as a conquered colony; and, true to +the principles of the mercantile system, impeded or prevented the growth +of several Irish industries. This was, of course, most injurious to the +Protestant settlers; but these were held down by the ruling power; as was +finely said, 'they knelt to England on the necks of their countrymen.' The +state of things in the colonised parts of Ulster was somewhat better; but +the Scottish and Presbyterian population of this corner of Ireland had not +a few causes of serious complaint.[40] + +In the next generation a great but gradual change passed over the state of +the Irish community. The Penal Code was not in letter relaxed; but the +evil spirit which had conceived it lost much of its force. The men who had +fought at the Boyne and at Aghrim had passed away; the human conscience, +moved by the influences of the eighteenth century, revolted from the +barbarous legislation of a half-fanatical age. The Irish Catholics slowly +began to make themselves felt in the State; many amassed large fortunes in +foreign commerce; shut out as they still were by law from almost every +profession and office, they made their way into the medical calling, and +especially at the Bar, where their disabilities were evaded or ignored. +The Catholic Church was no longer proscribed; its worship, indeed, was +still carried on under degrading conditions; but its priesthood were +permitted to perform their sacred functions in peace; its dignitaries were +even countenanced by the men in power at the Castle. This great social +change was conspicuously seen in the land; landed relations were markedly +improved, and partly transformed. The Catholic owners were permitted to +hold their estates free from the cruel vexations of the past; they began +to live on terms of friendship with the Protestant caste; legal fictions +annulled the laws which had made their lives wretched; their lands were, +in many instances, held by the Protestant gentry on secret trusts; and +these, though contrary to law, were, as a rule, most honourably fulfilled. +The principal, however, and most decisive change appeared in the position +and the sentiments of the Protestant lords of the soil. As time rolled on, +and threw its kindly growths over the settlement of confiscation and the +sword, these men began to feel that Ireland was their country and home; +they became, to a certain extent, Irishmen; they felt sympathy, by +degrees, with the conquered serfs in their midst. This feeling was +strengthened by the tyrannous selfishness of the British Parliament, which +treated Ireland as if she were its footstool, and of the official class, +nearly all Englishmen, who lorded it over the land they despised; an +'Irish interest' grew up in the Parliament at College Green, composed very +largely of the Protestant landlords; this became patriotic, in a certain +sense, and a protector of the scanty rights of Ireland. As social order, +too, was seldom disturbed, the wealth of the country had considerably +increased; the gentry acquired a greater interest in their estates, and +became more and more attached to them; absenteeism, as the result, +perceptibly lessened; and middleman tenures, though still prevalent, +diminished remarkably in the more progressive counties. The deep lines of +demarcation which kept apart the owners and the occupiers of the soil were +thus to a certain extent bridged over; the Irish landlord, especially if +resident, became a kindlier superior than his fathers had been; the Irish +peasant became less a stranger to him. + +The evidences of this better order of things became manifest on the face +of the country. Agriculture, though still backward, made real progress; +the breeds of farming animals greatly improved; the huge breadths of +pasturage had a less deserted aspect. The country towns had generally +advanced; the land had been opened by good roads; the means of locomotion +had been largely multiplied. The rental of Ireland had doubled within +living memory; in some counties, indeed, it was nearly as high as it is +now; the land was at a price of more years' purchase than it is at the +close of the nineteenth century. It was at this period that the great +country houses of Ireland were built, and their vast demesnes laid out; +the wages of labour were low, but had distinctly risen; the peasant hind, +Arthur Young tells us, in point of food and clothing, was as well off as +his fellow in England. The land was largely parcelled out into +considerable farms; but small holdings were on the increase; and the +cottar system, in the course of time to become a source of manifold evils, +was not yet a cause of much mischief; the pressure of population on the +soil was not severely felt. Many of the great landlords, too, were +excellent men; they ruled the country well, and greatly improved their +estates; in numberless instances they had won the hearts of dependents, +who regarded them as kind masters. Yet the picture was not without a dark +side; this land system still had evil, nay, repulsive, features. Except in +the best part of Ulster the deep divisions of race and faith continued to +be profoundly marked; the Penal Code had made these, to a great extent, +indelible. There was still much oppression and exaction in landed +relations; the class of small landlords and the class of middlemen were +too generally tyrannical and harsh; complaints of over-renting were not +infrequent; and if the great landlords, as a rule, were not severe +superiors, many were extravagant, addicted to excess, and reckless +duellists; they bore a strong resemblance to the seigneurie of the old +French Monarchy. The peasantry, too, remained serfs, illiterate, +ignorant, and superstitious; the good feelings they often had for their +lords had too much of the submissiveness of the slave; and virtuous as +their women ordinarily were, they too generally yielded to the lusts of +their masters. The habitations, besides, of this population were still +wretched; if their lot had assuredly become better, it was often hard, +above all, degraded. They had begun to feel more acutely the ills they +suffered; in many counties they had banded themselves together into +lawless leagues, to protect themselves and to resist authority. These +associations, known by the general name of Whiteboys--perhaps taken from +the Camisards of the Cevennes--had as their objects the preservation of +rights of commonage, the extinction of tithes, and the reduction of rents; +they may be traced back to the great confiscations of the past; they were +held together by secret leaders and passwords; and they often kept whole +districts in a state of terror. A Draconic Code was directed against them; +though often put down they have risen to life again; Ireland has never +since been completely free from them; their influence still is distinctly +apparent. Associations of somewhat a similar kind, known as Steelboys and +Oakboys, were formed even in the good parts of Ulster; but they were much +less dangerous and were not permanent. It is a characteristic of +Whiteboyism, as it has ever since been called, that it has always had a +political side, and lends itself to revolutionary movements against +government itself.[41] + +Though Protestant ascendency was still supreme at this period, the +confiscations of the past had not been forgotten; they were treasured in +the minds of the descendants of the old Catholic families, and of the +population among which they lived. The extinction, too, of the tribal +Irish tenures, had, we have seen, been a cause of grievous wrongs; this +was a tradition, also, handed down from father to son, and was still fresh +in the remembrance of a whole race. The land system, though to outward +seeming secure, nevertheless rested on unstable foundations, as was to +appear in the course of time; another element of disturbance was being +formed, which ultimately was to have immense force. Under the modes of +land tenure, which prevailed in England, since the system of small +holdings had been broken up, the land had generally been laid out in large +farms; partly from this circumstance, and partly owing to custom, the +charge of making permanent improvements of the land had almost everywhere +devolved on the owner of the soil; a tenant, who rented a farm, took it, +so to speak, equipped with the buildings and other things of the kind that +were suitable to it. But in Ireland, partly because small farms were +numerous, and partly because the custom had never grown up--the history of +the past fully accounts for this--the permanent improvements were very +seldom made by the landlord; the tenant, who held land, had to add, as it +were, its plant to it; he had to do much that gave it any real value. As +the inevitable result, the Irish occupier of the soil felt that he had +acquired a concurrent right in it; this, if the improvements were solid +and lasting, might almost amount to a partial joint-ownership, at least +give him, in equity, a real hold on the land. But a right of this kind was +not recognised by the law, founded as this was upon notions of English +tenure; it was liable to be destroyed should the tenant be dispossessed; +and as the tenure of the immense majority of the occupiers of the soil in +Ireland was either at will, or for a short term at a high rent, this +right, essentially of a quasi-proprietary kind, was made precarious, and +had no legal protection. With the prescience of genius, Burke perceived +the evils that might grow out of this state of things, though, as yet, +these were not much felt; he saw that it discouraged improvement of almost +every kind; especially he saw that the denial of legal sanction to the +rights in the land a tenant might have, and the fact that his tenure was +short and uncertain, might become a source of grave wrong, and of +far-reaching discontent. In a word, he detected an economic vice in the +land system of Ireland which, in the long run, was to do great mischief; +and curiously enough he indicated the remedies that ought to be applied, +and pointed out the true principles of a reform of Irish land tenure. It +would have been well had British statesmen adopted these; his simple, +just, and statesmanlike plan puts to shame the ill-designed and +unsuccessful attempts that have been made to recast the Irish land system +of late years, and the false, reckless, and socialistic theories at +present current on this important subject.[42] + +I must pass over even the main events of the history of Ireland, after +this period, up to the close of the eighteenth century. The 'Irish +interest,' mainly composed of the great landed gentry, and turning to +account the American War, compelled the Parliament at Westminster to relax +many of the commercial restraints on Ireland, and to concede her a partial +free trade; under the guidance of the illustrious Grattan it obtained +legislative independence for the Irish Parliament. At the same time the +Penal Code was largely repealed; the Irish Catholic was permitted to +acquire the ownership of the soil; before long he received the electoral +franchise, though he was still excluded from the Irish Houses of Lords and +Commons. In these circumstances, Ireland made real material and social +progress; the wealth of the country rapidly increased; the Protestant and +Catholic upper classes began to unite in marriage; a commercial middle +class, if still very weak, grew up. Ireland seemed about to enter a +happier era; yet there were drawbacks to this partial welfare, especially +as regards the land system. Middleman tenures were becoming much less +frequent; absenteeism was markedly on the decline; but partly owing to +their contact with the Parliament in College Green, and to the brilliant +social life it created in Dublin, the landed gentry became more +extravagant than their fathers had been; they began to raise their rents +and to encumber their estates; over-renting became more common than +before; Whiteboy movements and agrarian disorder prevailed in many +districts. Ireland, however, probably would have made a great advance but +for the evil passions which the French Revolution engendered in the frame +of a society still deeply diseased. I cannot dwell on the unhappy years +that followed, leading to the Rebellion of 1798; I must confine myself to +their influence on the Irish land system. The object of Tone and of the +United Irish leaders was to combine Scottish and Presbyterian Ulster, and +the great mass of the Irish Catholics, into a league against British rule +and for 'Irish freedom;' unhappily, they were but too successful. They +appealed, not in vain, to thousands of farmers and traders in the Northern +Province, who had long had solid grounds of discontent, and had been +deeply stirred by the Revolution in France; they laid hold on the elements +of disorder and of division of race and faith, abounding in Catholic +Ireland, but largely concealed, and called on the peasantry to overthrow +their Protestant tyrants, and to strike a decisive blow in 'the cause of +Ireland.' Evil incentives were recklessly employed to arouse popular +passions; maps of the old confiscated lands were made; and active +emissaries went through the country, reviving dangerous traditions of the +past, and stimulating the worst sentiments of hatred, greed, and revenge. +As the result, sedition ran riot in Ulster; in the Southern Provinces +there was a great outburst of Whiteboy crime, and a widespread rising +against the payment of rent; and thousands of the occupiers of the soil +were swept into the United Irish ranks, scarcely conscious of the perils +to which they were exposed. How the movement led to the bloody rebellion +of 1798, and how this was put down after a desperate struggle, it is +unnecessary to consider here; the consequences in Irish landed relations +were most unfortunate. It is untrue that the large majority of the owners +of the Irish soil were guilty of the crimes that have been laid to their +charge; but they bitterly resented the allusions to the confiscations of a +bygone past; they became more estranged from their inferiors than they had +been for years.[43] + +This terrible outbreak shook society in Ireland to its base, revived the +old divisions of race and faith which had been disappearing to a +considerable extent, and left memories behind which have not been +forgotten. Its inevitable result was to lead to the Union, a measure long +in the contemplation of British statesmen, and especially of Pitt, and +perhaps necessary in the most critical circumstances of the time. I cannot +even refer to the events attending this great constitutional change; a +large majority of the leading Irish landlords disliked it at heart; but a +minority, alarmed for their possessions, gave it support; how strong this +feeling was may be seen in a famous speech of Lord Clare, who described +the whole order of men as 'the heirs of confiscation hemmed in by enemies +brooding on their wrongs.' The Union greatly weakened the influence of +the Irish landed gentry, which had been very powerful in the defunct +Parliament; the 'Irish interest,' for many years a real force, was almost +subverted; English officials became again supreme at the Castle; a +bureaucracy gradually began to supplant the aristocracy of landlords in +every sphere of government. As respects the land and landed relations, the +class of Catholic owners slowly augmented; but the consequences were +trivial and not marked; middleman tenures continued steadily to disappear; +but absenteeism certainly increased, though absentee estates were usually +better managed than before. Meanwhile causes of grave importance, tending +to momentous social results, were profoundly affecting the whole land +system, and the position of the classes dependent on it. Partly owing to +the corn laws of the Irish Parliament, partly to the extension of the +Parliamentary franchise, in 1793, to the great mass of the Catholic +peasantry, but principally to the effects of the long war with France, +Ireland, it may be said, was well-nigh changed from a pastoral to an +agricultural country; large farms were generally replaced by small; the +land in most districts was divided into little tillage holdings; the +cottar system multiplied apace; the population, about three millions of +souls in the day of Arthur Young, increased to more than six millions at +the Peace of 1815; and this population becoming every year more dense, for +the most part eked existence out on a precarious root. The economic and +social consequences were very great, and continued in operation during a +long series of years. The competition for the possession of land became +intensely keen; rents were unnaturally forced up in thousands of cases; +the value of landed property enormously rose; all this encouraged +extravagance among the landed gentry, and especially induced them largely +to encumber their estates. At the same time the wages of labour distinctly +declined; the condition of the Irish labouring peasant, when Edward +Wakefield, a very industrious and able observer, wrote on the state of +Ireland in 1812, was markedly worse than it had been in the time of Arthur +Young. Yet these were not the most serious, at least, the most lasting, +effects of the revolution taking place in landed relations. As the large +farm system was being broken up, as the small farm system had come in its +stead, and as population had rapidly grown, the occupiers of the soil had +more and more made the permanent additions to their holdings; they had +built, fenced, and reclaimed land, more and more; and in the general +eagerness to obtain the possession of land, considerable sums were often +paid for farms on their transfer. The concurrent rights of the tenant +classes in Ireland had thus become enormously increased; they often +amounted, equitably, to a real joint-ownership; yet these rights were +without the support of law, and were liable to be extinguished often at +the mere will of the landlord. In Ulster alone, in its Presbyterian and +Scottish parts, where the landed classes had been less disunited than in +the South, a custom, now of considerable strength, had for a long time +made the tenure of the peasant comparatively secure; yet even this was not +under the ægis of law.[44] + +Made wise, after the event, we now clearly perceive what ought to have +been done for Ireland in this position of affairs. There never had been an +Irish poor law; Protestant property was not to be charged for Catholic +want; but the population was fast increasing; a mass of wretched poverty +was being formed; this should have been supported, and yet checked, by a +poor law. At the same time legislation, as Burke had contended, should +have vindicated the moral rights of the occupier of the soil, should have +made what really was his property his own, should have rendered his tenure +profitable and secure. Nothing of the kind, however, came into the minds +of British statesmen, or even, it must be said, of the best Irishmen of +the day--the age was one of Toryism harsh and unfeeling; the abuses of the +poor law in England were great; it was not contemplated to apply it to +Ireland; above all, the equitable claims of the Irish tenant were not +understood or deemed worthy of notice; English tenure, utterly unfitted to +his true position, was good enough for him. The land system, nevertheless, +was not much disturbed while the high prices of the war prevailed; there +was a good deal indeed of disorder connected with the land, but society +was not deeply affected. And it is only just to observe that the +landlords, as a class, did respect the concurrent rights of their tenants +in the soil; the conclusive proof is that these could not have grown up +had they been generally, or even largely, set at nought. But a great and +calamitous change passed over Ireland when the comparative wealth caused +by the war collapsed, and when the return to cash payments made the +effects worse. Rents suddenly fell greatly, and even disappeared; the +wages of labour, which had usually been paid through what may be called a +wretched truck system, were reduced to a remarkable degree; hundreds of +thousands of the cottar peasantry sank to the lowest depths of indigence. +A great social convulsion, in a word, took place; this culminated in +famine in several counties; a miserable population was deprived of the +means of subsistence. In these circumstances the owners of the soil acted +as a class would ordinarily act; many, impoverished themselves, let things +drift; many made themselves conspicuous for good works of charity; a +minority had recourse to severe measures, like the English landlords of +the sixteenth century, to get rid of a mass of poverty clinging in despair +to the land. The old divisions of race and faith unquestionably +aggravated this state of things; but the Government of the day showed +little forethought, and, in fact, was infinitely the most to blame; it met +the emergency, not by wise and healing measures, but by legislation, which +made the eviction of the peasant from his holding easy and cheap, and by +having recourse to repression unjust and severe in the extreme. In too +many instances, 'clearances' of estates, an evil word, were witnessed; +hundreds of families were driven from their homes and cast on the world; +as the necessary result, in numberless cases, the equitable rights of the +Irish tenant were ruthlessly destroyed. As a matter of course, +Whiteboyism, never completely suppressed, broke out in formidable agrarian +disorder; the peasantry, deprived of the protection of law, leagued +themselves together to enforce a law of their own; crime multiplied to an +immense extent; all the machinery of coercion could not wholly keep it +under.[45] + +I must pass rapidly over the next twenty years, though a very important +period in Irish history. Catholic emancipation was wrung by O'Connell, +from a reluctant Ministry, through violent agitation, which distracted +Ireland for years; the Irish Catholic was admitted into Parliament at +last. This great event was followed by the savage Tithe War, a movement +against the Anglican Church in Ireland stained with detestable deeds of +blood; the representation of Ireland passed largely into O'Connell's +hands, the head of what was called 'his Catholic Tail.' Protestant +ascendency in Ireland received a mortal blow; the influence of the Irish +landed gentry still further declined; that of the bureaucracy at the +Castle increased. From this time forward the Irish landlord began to feel +his position really insecure; it is remarkable how few large mansions and +demesnes have ever since been designed or completed by this order of men. +After the disastrous period which came to an end about 1826, the wealth of +Ireland perceptibly grew; a kind of prosperity existed in many parts of +the country. The age, too, had become more liberal and humane; the +middleman was got rid of in not a few districts; the absentee landlords +devoted more attention to their estates than they had ever devoted before. +The process of eviction, moreover, became much less frequent, though too +frequent for social order and peace; a considerable number of Irish +landlords expended large sums in improving their lands; farms were +consolidated, with good results, in many parts of the country. But the +essential features of the land system were not much changed; its economic +conditions became, in important respects, worse. The landed gentry, if +much less extravagant than their fathers had been, were, nevertheless, as +a class, much involved in debt; and, as usually has been seen in cases of +the kind, they became less really prosperous, as their authority declined. +Meanwhile, the population had continued rapidly to increase; by the close +of this period it exceeded eight millions of souls, a total far too great +for the resources of the land. The phenomena, already critical, became +more sinister; rents were again forced up as the wealth of the country +augmented, and reached the highest level they have ever attained; the +wages of labour did not fall, indeed, they could hardly fall lower; but +the cottar population had become more than ever dense; the competition for +the possession of the soil grew fierce; as necessarily followed, the +quasi-proprietary rights of the tenant in his holding had been enlarged, +and yet these were still outside the pale of the law. A Report, made in +1837-38, disclosed the appalling fact that two millions and a half of the +Irish community were for months in every year on the verge of starvation, +and always in a condition of extreme misery. Though Ireland had made, in a +sense, progress, her economic state had thus become dangerous, and very +bad; and a poor law, enacted at last in 1838, was utterly unable to cope +with the evil. Whiteboy crime and disorders continued to abound; in 1844, +an average year, there were more than a thousand instances of offences in +landed relations. + +The year 1843 was that of the great Repeal movement, of which O'Connell +was the master spirit. Peel had been Prime Minister for two years; his +attention had been already turned to the vices and the perils of the Irish +land system. He had been Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1812 to 1818; +but he had been identified with the Tory misrule of that time; and though, +like Chesterfield in another age, he had been too sagacious not to see +that poverty made the social ills of Ireland more acute and worse, he had +been the ablest opponent of the Catholic cause, had supported Protestant +ascendency in many ways; and had not been in any sense an Irish reformer. +A strong Conservative of the great middle class in England, he looked on +Ireland as an almost foreign land, and had scarcely any knowledge of her +real needs; and though his severe administration at the Castle had been +wise and just, he carried out coercion with a steady hand, and is supposed +to have been the author of the code of cheap ejectment, a cause of a great +deal of evil and wrong. But his mind, if slow in moving, was moved at +last; he saw that Ireland largely required the amending hand; the conduct +of O'Connell, no doubt, had quickened his purpose. I cannot dwell on +Peel's other Irish measures; at the close of 1843 he appointed a +Commission charged to inquire into the state of Irish landed relations; +had he continued long at the head of the State, he would probably have +done much to improve the Irish land system. The Commission had, as +President, the chief of the great House of Courtenay; it was almost wholly +composed of Englishmen, more or less associated with land in England; it +was, therefore, ill constituted to deal with what may be called the Irish +Land Question. But it investigated the subject it treated with most +praiseworthy care; entering into every detail of Irish landed relations, +their history in the past, the state of land tenure, the condition of the +different classes seated on the land, the working of the law with respect +to tenant's improvements, the means of diminishing the wretched millions +squatting on the soil, agrarian crime and all that it involved; the mass +of evidence it collected is still of the greatest value. The Report it +made, if somewhat over-cautious and timid, was very instructive in many +respects; especially it showed how the Irish land system grew out of the +conquests and confiscations of the past, and still bore the marks of its +ill-omened origin, notably in the lines drawn between the owners and the +occupiers of the soil marked by a profound division of race and faith; and +many of the suggestions it made were wise, nay, excellent. But on the +capital subject of land tenure, by many degrees the most important, the +Report only too clearly revealed the ignorance of Englishmen as regards +Ireland, and, above all, as regards her landed relations. The Commission +ought to have fully recognised the concurrent rights in the soil, which +the Irish occupier had acquired in tens of thousands of instances, rights +often equivalent to more or less joint-ownership; it ought to have +insisted that the Tenant Right, as it was now called, of the Ulster +Custom, and the claims arising from improvements, the work of the tenant, +and from sums paid on the transfer of farms, should be made law-worthy, +and effectually secured. With a want of insight which would have made +Burke gnash his teeth, it took exactly an opposite course; it warned the +Irish landlord that these concurrent rights were creating against him 'an +embryo copyhold,' and eating away his freehold ownership; it plainly +hinted that he would do well to get rid of them. It even refused to +acknowledge that the tenant had a claim to any improvements if made in the +past; but it proposed a scheme for compensating him for improvements made +in the future, so limited and fenced round with restrictions, that it was +quite illusory, and indeed deceptive. The Report caused intense +indignation in Ulster, and was not well received in any part of +Ireland.[46] + +Bills, founded on the Report of the Devon Commission, as it was called, +were brought into Parliament, but never became law. Within a few months +Ireland was in the throes of an agony, the most terrible, perhaps, that +has befallen any land in the nineteenth century. In the autumn of 1845, +the potato, which formed the only food of the indigent multitudes fastened +on the land, failed, to a considerable extent, in many districts; in the +following year the crop was all but completely destroyed. Famine, far more +general and appalling than that of twenty-five years before, had soon held +a wretched population in its grasp; the results may almost be compared to +those of the Black Death, and of the famines of the Middle Ages. The land +system went to wreck in whole counties, especially in the west and along +the seaboard; hundreds of the landed gentry were involved in ruin; +thousands of farmers of the better class became bankrupt; the dense cottar +multitudes were literally lifted up from the soil, and cast adrift, the +waifs and strays of a far-reaching tempest. This is not the place to +review the measures adopted to meet the dread visitation; if not free from +errors, inevitable in a situation of the kind, they were, essentially, +and, in the main, successful. Peel was still in office in 1845; well +knowing what poverty in Ireland was, he introduced supplies of food into +the remote and backward districts, which the energies of commerce could +hardly reach; this wise policy saved tens of thousands of lives; as is +notorious, he repealed the corn laws in the interest of the afflicted +country. The Government of Lord John Russell had succeeded him in 1846; it +had to confront an emergency infinitely worse; it followed, in many +respects, the example of Peel, who had established 'relief works' in many +counties; but it did not assist the most impoverished parts of Ireland +with food through the agency of the State; this possibly was a real +mistake. Nevertheless, it manfully and humanely met the tremendous crisis; +it is easy to censure some of its acts, for instance, the wasteful and +useless public works it set on foot, and the gigantic outdoor relief it +was compelled to lavish; but millions in starvation were thrown on its +hands; and the poor law, only lately in operation, could not cope with +universal distress. On the whole, the statesmen in power did their duty +wisely and well; thousands of unhappy victims succumbed, indeed, to +famine, and to dire diseases following in its train; but Ireland as a +people was saved; assuredly she could not have saved herself. A word, too, +must be said on the magnificent charity which flowed in from many lands +into the community in its woe. England had turned in sympathy towards +Ireland in the season of distress which had followed the Peace; she +bestowed great sums on her, in 1845-46, through private subscription. The +United States, France, Germany, and Italy joined in the good work; even +the Ottoman Empire was not behindhand. + +I must dwell for a moment on the conduct and the position of the classes +connected with the land during this appalling trial. The attitude of the +landed gentry was much the same as it had been at an infinitely less +disastrous crisis; but, on the whole, it was marked by nobler and more +attractive features. The charity of the great landlords of Ireland was +most praiseworthy; many devoted large sums for the support of the poor on +their lands by instituting fine works of enclosure and drainage; some, I +know, even mortgaged their estates for this very purpose. Hundreds of the +lesser gentry, stricken down as they were, imitated their superiors as +well as they could; old divisions were forgotten in the common misfortune; +spite of the interested lies of a calumnious faction, as an order of men +they acted extremely well. One of their bitterest enemies, who wrote at +the time, has placed it on record, 'that the resident landlords and their +families did, in many cases, devote themselves to the task of saving these +poor people alive. Many remitted their rents or half their rents; and +ladies kept their servants busy and their kitchens smoking with continual +preparation of food for the poor.'[47] Many, however, of the Irish +landlords, as was to be expected, looked hopelessly on at the misery +around them; this was the case with feeble and incapable men, and the +sight has always been seen in grave social crises; it was but in +conformity with our frail and imperfect nature. A certain number, +moreover, of the class had recourse to severe measures to remove from +their lands the masses of wretchedness crowded upon them; the process of +eviction became too frequent; hundreds of families were in this way +dispossessed of their holdings. These acts of harshness were certainly to +be deplored; but it was almost universally believed that the cottar in +Ireland could not live from the land after the failure of almost his only +means of subsistence; it must be added that, in this very matter, the +conduct of Parliament and the Government was by many degrees more severe. +A strict test of destitution had to be applied; a law was passed that, as +a condition of obtaining relief, no person possessing more than a quarter +of an acre of land should be entitled to support from the State; thousands +of families abandoned their homes, through the effects of this measure; +for one evicted by a landlord, fifty perhaps were practically evicted by +this stern policy. The law was possibly required in the terrible +circumstances of the time; but it was condemned by the Lord-Lieutenant, +Lord Bessborough, a great Irish peer, and an able man; at all events, it +justified, to a considerable extent, all that could be laid to the charge +of a few Irish landlords whose acts were most unfairly denounced by many +writers, and were falsely described as common to the great body of the +class. For the rest, as I have said, the land system was broken up in many +districts; and not only the owners but the occupiers of the soil suffered +cruelly from the highest to the lowest grade. + +After the first months of the famine, the immense exodus of the Irish +race, as it has fitly been called, began. The population fled from the +country in hundreds of thousands; some found a home in England and in our +Australian colonies; nine-tenths, probably, in the great Republic of the +West. The sufferings of numbers of the emigrants were terribly severe; +huddled together in the ill-found vessels of the time, hundreds perished +before they beheld the lands they were seeking; that some check was not +placed on the greed of the merchants, who subjected these victims to +horrors like those of the Middle Passage, was certainly the worst mistake +of the Government of the day. During the agony of the famine there was +comparatively little crime; the minds of men were engrossed by a dire +calamity; but in a few months Whiteboyism had been again aroused; there +was a widespread outbreak of agrarian disorder followed by the abortive +rising of 1848. The time was now ripe, in the judgment of even leading +statesmen, for making another of the great experiments on the Irish land, +which had been their policy since the age of the Tudors. Many of the Irish +landed gentry had been ruined; the estates of many were heavily charged +with debt, in part caused by extravagance in the past, but chiefly by +large provisions made for their families in more prosperous times, +especially during the period of the high prices of the war.[48] The +object of the Government--and Peel concurred--was to make a clean sweep of +the embarrassed owners, and to transfer their lands to a new order of men; +'English and Scottish capital was to be attracted to the Irish soil;' the +Irish landlord was to be 'sold out cheap;' his successor was to be a +person fit 'to discharge the duties of property;' the 'regeneration of +Ireland' was to be the magnificent result.[49] The sale of encumbered +estates in Ireland had from various causes been a slow and a costly +process, an Act was run through Parliament with scarcely an expression of +dissent,[50] making the process as rapid and inexpensive as the wit of man +could devise; a Commission was appointed to carry the law into effect; and +intending purchasers were to be given an indefeasible title to any lands +they might acquire. This was a strong measure, but it was not nearly all; +the concurrent rights of the tenants in the estates to be sold were +absolutely ignored, and left without protection; the new possessors were +empowered to destroy them if they pleased. The results were such as might +have been looked for when lands were forced into the market wholesale, +when Ireland was still reeling from the strokes of a terrible famine, and +agricultural ruin was seen everywhere. The Commission acted as such +tribunals invariably act when skilfully selected to carry out a policy; it +addressed itself to its task of 'selling land cheap;' it was egged on by +the Lord-Lieutenant of the day; and it sacrificed estates, in scores of +instances, at less than half their value. This iniquitous proceeding went +on for years, until the market for land in Ireland righted itself at last; +but the Encumbered Estates Act was often renewed; about a sixth part of +the lands of Ireland has been transferred by these means. As the result +many of the Irish gentry, who might have tided over the crisis, were +beggared and cast on the world penniless; and confiscation from above had +its counterpart in confiscation from below; the partial joint-ownership of +thousands of the occupiers of the soil was ruthlessly annihilated in +numbers of cases. And what were the consequences of this scheme of +spoliation and wrong, which English politicians would never have thought +of but for their traditional contempt of the rights of property in land in +Ireland? English and Scottish capital, indeed, reached the Irish soil; but +it reached it in the form of large mortgages, a heavy drain on the +country's resources; the English and Scottish purchasers of the Irish land +were a mere handful of men. The estates, in fact, transferred under the +Encumbered Estates Acts, as a rule, passed into the ownership of jobbers, +speculators, and mortgagees, people without the associations old +possession ensures; they have formed, as a class, harsh and exacting +landlords, the true successors of the almost defunct middleman; they are +responsible for much that is bad in Irish landed relations of late years. +A huge confiscation, in a word, failed, as those of Elizabeth and Cromwell +failed before; the fact ought to be a warning to public men, who have been +parading theories about the Irish land--strewn as this has been with +monuments of misdeeds and errors--as false and more dangerous than those +which produced the Encumbered Estates Acts.[51] + +The exodus had, by 1851, reduced the population of Ireland by nearly two +millions of souls; this decline has continued ever since; the population +which, in 1846, was considerably more than eight millions, is now, we +have seen, only about four and a half millions. In 1852 an agitation +sprang up, which might have wrought a great change in Irish landed +relations, had it not been brought by mere accident to an untimely end. +The Report of the Devon Commission, I have said, had troubled Ulster; the +Famine had driven peasants, in tens of thousands, from their homes; the +operation of the Encumbered Estates Act was destroying their concurrent +rights in their holdings. At the General Election of 1852 Ireland returned +a large party of representatives to the House of Commons pledged to +vindicate the claims of the tenant farmers; these were expressed in a +demand that has been called the 'Three F's,' 'Fair Rent,' 'Fixity of +Tenure,' and 'Free Sale,' a mode of occupation which had been largely +secured by the Custom of Ulster, and to which O'Connell had given his +sanction. The Government of Lord Derby was now in office; it had brought +in measures which, in some degree, would have legalised the rights of the +Irish tenant; but the Ministry was defeated, partly through an +intrigue;[52] the cause of the Irish farmer was baffled and kept in +suspense for years, largely owing to dissensions and treachery on the part +of some of the Irish members. By this time the country had begun to +revive, and to throw off the worst effects of the Famine; vast depopulated +tracts had been opened to new husbandry; the land had been set free, over +an immense area, from the incubus of a mass of wretchedness which had +preyed on it, and had completely disorganised the land system, unnaturally +forcing up rent and cutting down wages. Under these conditions the +statesmen in power, already expecting great things from the Encumbered +Estates Act, believed that the Irish land system would right itself, and +that it was unnecessary to consider or to protect the rights of the +tenant classes; these would either disappear, or would be fairly adjusted +in the improved landed relations that were being formed. At all events, +there was no legislation to secure these claims; the scanty legislation, +that dealt with the Irish land, was unfavourable, in many ways, to these, +and endeavoured to assimilate Irish to English tenures, as Tudor lawyers +had done three centuries before; and Lord Palmerston, for a long time the +head of the State, discouraged Irish tenant right, in more than one +speech, and declared that it only meant landlord wrong, unwise utterances +that showed he did not understand the subject. At the same time, the +policy of clearing the land for cultivators of a capitalist class, able to +occupy and do justice to large farms, was generally advocated in high +places; more than one Lord-Lieutenant announced that nature had made +Ireland a great grazing tract, and that her petty occupiers were little +better than a social nuisance.[53] + +For some time it seemed as though the forecasts made by the great majority +of our statesmen would prove correct. The immense emigration from Ireland +to the United States had important results, unfortunate in many respects; +but the uplifting of redundant millions from the soil greatly contributed +to the country's welfare. Holdings were consolidated over very large +areas, a beneficent process, if humanely carried out; a certain number of +Englishmen and Scotsmen rented large farms; the progress of husbandry of +all kinds was distinct; a vast field for agriculture, really worthy of the +name, was opened. A new standard for the management of land was, in fact, +set up; at the same time a few purchasers, under the Encumbered Estates +Acts, laid out considerable sums in improving their estates; the Treasury +made large advances to many Irish landlords; these did much in works of +enclosure, draining, planting, and the like. Ireland began to wear a new +aspect in several counties, especially in the more thriving parts of the +southern provinces; the ruins made by the Famine, indeed, caused hideous +eyesores, in wrecks of villages and the remains of peasant dwellings; but +the mud hovels of the cottar population had largely disappeared, and the +habitations of farmers of the better class very markedly improved. The +economic conditions of landed relations became more conducive to +prosperity than they had ever been before; rents fell considerably during +a series of years, as the intense competition for land diminished; though +they gradually rose in the course of time, they never reached the +excessive rates of 1840-45; and the wages of labour greatly increased, and +attained a level that, happily, has since been preserved. Many +circumstances concurred to quicken and augment this unquestionable social +and material progress. Agricultural prices were high from about 1852 +onward; Free Trade was as yet adding to the wealth of Ireland; and there +was a long succession of good harvests, the most important element in her +general welfare. The railway system, too, introduced of late years, opened +a number of new markets to her products, and greatly facilitated their +access to British markets. At the same time the turnip replaced the potato +over hundreds of thousands of acres; farm machinery greatly improved in +Ireland; the importation of the best stock from England and Scotland had +excellent results, and almost transformed the old breeds of Irish farming +animals. An era of prosperity, in a word, had seemed to dawn on Ireland; +and though agrarian disorder had not disappeared, the Whiteboy secret +societies were greatly broken up, and political agitation well-nigh +ceased. + +In these circumstances, it was a common belief in England that 'the Irish +difficulty,' as it was called, was passing away, and that the 'Hibernia +Pacata' had at last become a happy reality. Yet the progress and +tranquillity of this brief period were largely superficial and even +deceptive; fires were still alive beneath the smouldering ashes. The +partial prosperity of Ireland mainly depended on good harvests and high +prices; it was interrupted, even in these years, by two or three seasons +of distress. Notwithstanding the widespread consolidation of farms, and +the removal from the soil of indigent millions, the land still, for the +most part, remained in the possession of a mere peasantry; very few of the +English and Scottish capitalist farmers settled in Ireland, and really +throve; the great majority left the country, like the 'Englishry' of a +bygone age. And though things wore a serene aspect, the inherent vices of +the land system continued to exist; in some respects they increased, or +were more painfully felt. The old divisions of race and faith between the +owners and the occupiers of the soil remained; they had but little changed +and even had perhaps widened; much had happened to keep the landed classes +more apart than before. The new purchasers, under the Encumbered Estates +Acts, were, we have seen, often hard-fisted and grasping landlords; they +raised their rents, without scruple, in too many instances; standing on +the letter of the law, they too often ignored the partial joint-ownership +in their farms of their tenants; they had sometimes recourse to unjust and +severe evictions. The old landlords, too, never recovered from the effects +of the Famine; they were overshadowed by the bureaucracy of the Castle, +which, for many years, had been growing in power; they thus became an +order of men with privileges, but without authority, in the midst of +inferiors, who had little sympathy with them, a dangerous position like +that of the French seigneurie in the later years of the eighteenth +century--a position described by Tocqueville in very striking language. At +the same time the peasantry stood aloof from them more than in the days of +their fathers; and though they remained quiescent for years, as has often +happened in Irish history, there were causes for this increasing +estrangement. They were no longer the grossly ignorant multitude of fifty +years before; education had made some way among them, though in this +respect they were still backward; they felt more acutely all that was hard +in their lot, like the French peasantry before the great Revolution of +1789-94. This sentiment, however, owed its principal force to sentiments +engendered in far distant lands. The thousands of the exodus had left +their country with memories embittered against some Irish landlords, and, +notably, against the British Government; a new Ireland was rising across +the Atlantic; the emigrants and their sons were in constant communication +with the old Ireland once their home; socialistic ideas as regards the +land, blending with dislike of the superiors and the rulers, under whom +they lived, were gradually diffused among the Irish peasantry. The +economic conditions, too, of landed relations by degrees made these +feelings more general and intense. Rents were rising as the wealth of the +country increased, though, except in the cases of the new landlords, and +of a very few surviving middlemen, they were, as a rule, by no means +excessive. Simultaneously a concurrence of causes had extinguished +leasehold tenures in most parts of Ireland, and had reduced the status of +the Irish farmer to that of a mere tenant at will, liable to be +dispossessed by a notice to quit, at the mercy, in fact, of the lord of +the soil. And, meanwhile, the equitable rights of the occupiers as a +class, due to improvements, and to sums paid for the goodwill of farms, +had been increasing to an immense extent; and yet a grievous wrong--they +were not even recognised by law. Law and fact had long been sharply +clashing in landed relations; there was much that was essentially bad in +the land system; and agrarian trouble and crime was on the increase. + +The mind of England had turned away from Ireland after the petty outbreak +of 1848; it charged the Irish community with ungrateful folly, as it +recollected the charity lavished during the Famine. This sentiment was +replaced by what was worse, indifference; throughout this period--from +1850 to 1868--Parliament gave little attention to the affairs of Ireland. +British statesmen continued to pin their faith to their policy; they +disregarded ominous symptoms on the increase; Ireland was rapidly becoming +more prosperous; the claims of the Irish tenant farmer were a delusion, or +worse. This apathy was augmented by the state of the representation of +Ireland in these years; this was in a feeble, even a degraded condition; +and largely owing to the authority of Cardinal Cullen, who prohibited the +Irish priesthood from taking any part in politics, agitation, I have said, +had become a mere tradition of the past. Yet the causes I have glanced at +were silently at work, which ultimately were to lead to grave social +troubles. The first sign of disturbance was seen in a little outbreak, the +result of a conspiracy hatched by one of the rebels of 1848, and supported +to some extent from America: but the 'Phoenix plot,' as it was called, +almost at once collapsed; the Government thought it hardly worthy of +notice. Another and much more formidable conspiracy was matured in +1864-65; and though it was put down with little difficulty in time, it +showed that there was much that was peccant in the state of Ireland; and +it deeply affected the minds of Englishmen, aroused as it were out of a +fool's paradise. The millions of the Irish race in the Far West were +passionately appealed to by leaders, not without parts, to assist in a +crusade against 'landlordism,' and British rule in Ireland; they gave the +movement very general support; they found numerous allies in thousands of +Irishmen disbanded after the great conflict between the North and the +South. The Fenian conspiracy was launched on its course; its directors +made skilful attempts to debauch whole regiments, and to stir up the +passions of the mob in many of the towns of Ireland; and they especially +turned their attention to the mass of the peasantry. Here, however, their +policy was injudicious and ill-conceived; they promised the Irish land as +a spoil to those who would join the ranks of the 'patriot Irish army;' but +all this alarmed the occupiers of the soil, whose only object was to +acquire a better mode of tenure for their farms, and who rightly thought +the Fenian movement made their possessions insecure, a belief generally +encouraged by the Catholic priesthood. A short-lived rising, conducted by +a few American soldiers, and backed by the rabble of a few villages and +towns, found no real support in Ireland, and was finally quelled in 1867; +but in England there was a spurt of Fenian disorder, and this, though +easily quenched, made a profound impression. It was generally felt in +England and Scotland that, notwithstanding the optimism of a generation of +public men, there was still much that was rotten in the state of Ireland, +and that this should be removed by large and searching reforms. The chief +sign of this change in British opinion was seen in the result of the +General Election of 1868; Mr. Gladstone, who, hitherto, had taken +comparatively little part in Irish affairs, but who, with his keen +instinct of every turn in the public mind, had been vehemently enlarging +on the wrongs of Ireland, was placed in power with a great majority, and +at once addressed himself to the task of Irish reform.[54] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--THE IRISH LAND ACT OF +1870--THE LAND LEAGUE AND THE NATIONAL LEAGUE--THE LAND OF +1881--SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION AS REGARDS THE LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND + + State of landed relations in Ireland in 1869-70--Mr. Gladstone Prime + Minister--The Land Act of 1870--Its merits and defects--A short period + of prosperity in Ireland--Ominous symptoms--Michael Davitt--The + teaching of John Finton Lalor in 1848--The 'New Departure' in + Fenianism arranged in America--Foundation of the Land League--It was a + foreign rebellious conspiracy, with an agrarian side, under a + constitutional mask--Parnell the master spirit of the League--His + visit to America and the results--A short period of distress in + Ireland--Conduct of the Irish landlords--Progress of the Land + League--Mr. Gladstone again Prime Minister in 1880--The Compensation + for Disturbance Bill rejected by the House of Lords--Outburst of + agrarian crime, as the Land League increases in power--Rents at + Griffith's valuation--Boycotting--Frightful state of Ireland in + 1881--After a short attempt to repress it, Mr. Gladstone surrenders to + the Land League--The Land Act of 1881--Mr. Gladstone breaks the + pledges he had made in 1870--His promise of compensating the Irish + landlords--The Land Act of 1881 a bad and unjust measure directly + inconsistent with that of 1870--The 'No Rent Manifesto'--The + Kilmainham Treaty--The Phoenix Park tragedy--Coercion--Parnell + founds the National League, the successor of the Land League--Renewal + of agitation in 1886--Struggle with law and the Government--Subsequent + agrarian legislation for Ireland--This is really a concession to + agitation, for the benefit of Irish tenants, and to the injury of + Irish landlords. + + +Mr. Gladstone, after his conversion to Home Rule, more than once declared +that, almost from early manhood he had given special attention to +Ireland; either his memory was at fault, or he had kept the fact to +himself. He had been a conspicuous figure in politics, for many years +before 1868; but until he had been placed at the helm of the State, he had +shown little acquaintance with Irish questions, and, indeed, had expressed +few opinions on them. In 1866 he had said in the House of Commons, that +the existence of the Anglican Irish Church would be probably long; he had +been in high office almost since 1853, and, as a colleague of Lord +Palmerston, had acquiesced in the philippics of that statesman against +Irish tenant right, conduct that revealed ignorance of the land system of +Ireland. But, in 1868, when the Fenian outbreak had caused the nation to +demand large reforms in Ireland, he suddenly abandoned his attitude of +reserve; he threw himself into Irish affairs; his zeal, it may be +remarked, as often happened, fell in with his interests, and with those of +the Liberal party, and gave him a leverage to drive Disraeli from office. +During months before the General Election that ensued, the orator +thundered on Irish grievances, and on the manifold ills of Ireland; in +figurative and impassioned language, he said that the island was blighted +by a huge upas tree, the Church, the land, and education being the three +main branches. These harangues, addressed to the new democracy, +contributed powerfully to the fall of the Conservative Ministry; it was +little noticed, at the time, that one of the results was ere long to +compel Mr. Gladstone himself to subject Ireland to severe repressive +measures, for Whiteboy and agrarian outrages became frequent In 1869, the +Minister addressed himself to the task of hewing down the first branch of +the poisonous upas; he disestablished and disendowed the Protestant Church +of Ireland. This is not the place to comment upon that great measure; it +was well designed upon its professed principles; it dealt liberally, nay, +generously, with the voluntary Church, which replaced the Church of the +State it overthrew. But essentially it was a scheme of destruction, formed +in Nonconformist not in Irish interests, and opposed to the views of +generations of statesmen; it made no provision for the clergy of the Irish +Catholic Church, a policy which Pitt, Castlereagh, and Lord John Russell +had had at heart, which had been all but a condition of the Union, and +which, if carried into effect, would have done much to strengthen and +maintain that fundamental law, and to promote tranquillity in Ireland and +her general welfare. + +Mr. Gladstone now turned to the second branch of the upas, the land system +of Ireland and her landed relations. His whole career, especially in its +Home Rule phase, proves that his knowledge of Ireland was not exact or +profound; at this time he had had little experience of the Irish land +question. But the mind of England was still attracted to Irish affairs; a +number of distinguished Englishmen and Scotchmen went to Ireland, to +investigate the state of the country on the spot; the British Press sent +some of its best contributors; the time was singularly opportune for a +fair and complete inquiry; no Minister has had, before or since, such +assistance in dealing with Irish problems. I must glance at the state of +the Irish land system in 1869-70, as this was fully explored and made +manifest.[55] The material progress being made, since about 1854, had +been largely developed in by far the greatest part of the island. The +population was being still diminished by emigration and other causes; the +area for real husbandry had been greatly extended; the rural community, at +least in its lower grades, was infinitely better off than it had been +before the Famine. The look of the country, in most places, bore witness +to a change beneficent in the main; it had been almost transformed since +1844-45. The cottar system, no doubt, was to be found in backward +counties; but even in these it had been largely effaced; it was all but +passing away in the more thriving counties; masses of indigence were to be +seen only in tracts west of the Shannon; and these were aggregated on an +area comparatively small. The general consolidation of farms had, +meanwhile, gone on; and though Ireland remained, on the whole, a land of +small farms, her land system had, from top to bottom, ceased to depend for +its support on a perishable root. In every conceivable respect a marked +improvement was visible in the state of the peasantry; they were by many +degrees better clothed and fed than their fathers had been; the wages of +agricultural labour were still rising, and were now paid in money, and not +in plots of potatoes; and though the habitations of this whole class were, +as a rule, still mean, the dwellings of the class of substantial farmers +had shown signs of distinct social progress. At the same time agriculture +had made a marked advance, owing to the influences I have referred to +before; fine specimens of extensive farming were very commonly to be seen; +thousands of acres had been reclaimed and enclosed of late years; at no +period certainly had the landed gentry, in a great measure through moneys +borrowed from the State, expended such large sums in improving their +estates, especially in arterial drainage, and the introduction of the +best breeds of stock of all kinds. The wealth of Ireland, too, was +increasing, if not rapidly; and a change for the better might be traced in +what we may describe as her general social life. Her middle class was +still weak and small compared to that of England and Scotland; but it had +been growing in wealth and power; and this, to some extent, had had a good +effect on a community still mainly dependent on the land. + +The material and even the social progress of Ireland, since the Famine, +had thus been marked; it had been more decided than it has been, at any +period, except, possibly, that from 1782 to 1800. Her land system, too, +had become better in important parts; but in many respects it remained +vicious; some of its vices had been aggravated, or were more sensibly +felt. The hope that the land would pass generally into the hands of large +farmers, able to develop its resources, had not been realised, or had been +realised only to a relatively trivial extent; it was still held in the +main by a peasantry of small occupiers of the soil, though the +consolidation of farms had gone on over extensive areas, especially over +wide tracts of pasturage, in the eastern, midland, and western counties, +and this, in some instances, through a process of harsh eviction. The +profound divisions of race and faith, the distinctive feature in the +organic structure of the whole community, were at least as visible as ever +in the land system; from causes I have pointed out before, they had, not +improbably, been widened; this tended to increase the old dissension in +landed relations, and the long-standing separation between the landed +classes. Middleman tenures, with their mischievous effects, had, since the +Famine, well-nigh disappeared; but the new landlord had largely replaced +the middleman; absenteeism remained what it had been; and though absentee +estates, as a rule, were under good agents, there was too much of that +'absenteeism of the heart,' condemned by Tocqueville as a grave social +danger. The purchasers under the Encumbered Estates Acts, with some +honourable exceptions, no doubt, were too often oppressive landlords; the +old landlords, as a class, had, certainly, done much for their estates, +but they had lost their political and largely their social influence; +partly owing to apprehensions as regards tenant right, partly to the +assurances of statesmen that their position was safe, they had become +perhaps more exacting in their dealings with their dependents; in the +existing situation, they more and more resembled a weak caste, controlled +by the central Government, and isolated amidst a community, to a great +extent, not friendly. All this tended to produce a want of stability and +insecurity in the land system, which was ominous of social strife and +trouble; but the most active element of disturbance was to be certainly +found in the contact with the rebellious movement which Ireland had lately +witnessed. Fenianism had been scotched, but by no means slain; and though +the peasantry had held aloof from it, Fenian emissaries were going through +the country, appealing to the passions and the greed of the occupiers of +the soil, for different reasons not contented with their lot, hostile, in +a great degree, to the order of things around them, and more alive to +their grievances than in the past generation; at this very time a cry +against the payment of rent, and against 'landlordism,' as it was called, +was being heard in a few counties. It was significant that agrarian +crimes--some of the worst type--and agrarian disorder were distinctly +increasing; and it should be added, that, in spite of Cardinal Cullen, the +younger Catholic priests, in some districts, were beginning to play the +part of agitators again. + +Passing from the general state of landed relations, the conditions of land +tenure, briefly noticed before, had not improved of late years, and were, +in some respects, worse. Rents had been rising for a considerable time: +but except in comparatively few instances, they were not excessive, as +affairs stood; whatever mendacious calumny has since maintained, Ireland, +on the whole, was in no sense an over-rented land.[56] But the modes of +occupation were essentially bad; they were open to the gravest objections; +their vices had become more than ever apparent. The tenant right, under +the Ulster custom, had, I have remarked, largely secured the tenant +farmer, in parts of the province, what was generally known as the 'Three +F's,' Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure, the power of a Free Sale of the +holding;[57] though it should be especially borne in mind that the fair +rent was never adjusted by an external agency, but was settled by what +Adam Smith would have called 'higgling' between the owner and occupier of +the soil. The custom, however, had been very powerful; its violation, on +anything like a great scale, would have certainly caused a fierce war of +classes; and it gave the Ulster tenant, in tens of thousands of cases, a +real proprietary right in the land, whatever might be the terms of his +contract; a right equivalent to more or less joint-ownership, and that +might be described as a precious _peculium_, subject to conditions that +long had made it practically secure. But this most important right, +involving property worth many millions, still remained wholly unprotected +by law; and though its value had enormously increased, as the wealth of +Ulster had been developed, of late years, it was being 'nibbled away' on +not a few estates, and restricted by limitations of many kinds that had +greatly impaired it. An analogous right, like seed scattered by the +winds, had partially spread into the southern provinces, as the natural +result of the equitable claims, the occupiers of farms had repeatedly +acquired, though this had not been recognised on many estates, and its +efficacy was not as yet great; but this right, such as it was, like its +fellow, was not law-worthy, and depended wholly on the will of the lord of +the soil. In addition to the tenant right in the north and the south, the +concurrent claims of the tenant farmers, throughout the country, in +respect of improvements and of sums paid on the transfer of farms, for +'good-will,' had been greatly increasing of late years, especially as +prosperity was advancing; and yet tenures had continued to become more +precarious; leaseholds were being almost everywhere replaced by tenancies +at will. These claims were never so extensive before; often equivalent to +joint-ownership, in no doubtful sense, and, in almost all cases, of some +value, they were, nevertheless, still outside the ægis of the law, a fact +that must ever be borne in mind; they could be destroyed or greatly +reduced by the raising of rent, they could be annihilated by a notice to +quit, if eviction followed. Unquestionably in the great mass of instances, +these rights, whatever their nature, were not invaded; but they certainly +had been in a certain number; a single case of invasion created alarm and +distrust, and had a bad effect on landed relations; throw a stone into a +pond, and it makes a ripple; it has a disturbing influence far beyond the +surface it strikes. No wonder, then, that complaints of these modes of +tenure had become very general, and were loudly expressed, not only by +those who might suffer from them, but by intelligent minds which had +mastered the subject. It was an exaggeration to assert, as was said at the +time, that the peasant in Ireland lived under a sword of Damocles; but he +lived under a system in which law and right were very plainly opposed. + +Only a revolution, which Parliament would not have sanctioned, could have +effaced the inveterate ills of the Irish land system, running up to the +conquests and the confiscations of the past, and the divisions of race and +faith in the Irish land; the remark is as true now as it was thirty years +ago; and a revolution of the kind, I am firmly convinced, would, even +under the best conditions, make infinitely worse whatever was already bad. +But it was possible for legislation to remove or mitigate the essential +vices in the modes of Irish land tenure; Mr. Gladstone rightly confined +himself to this object. He brought in his first Irish Land Bill in the +early spring of 1870; he had to address a House of Commons not much in +sympathy with a project of the kind. Many of the members were ignorant of +the subject; many thought English land tenure perfect, and could not +understand why it would not do for Ireland, a prejudice at least three +centuries old; some believed Irish tenant right to be a violation of Free +Trade, then in the ascendant in every phase of commerce. The Minister's +speech was adapted to those who heard it; it was tentative, moderate, not +striking; he drew, indeed, very plain distinctions between British and +Irish land tenure, and showed how the first could be no rule of right for +the second; but if he enlarged on the just claims of the occupier of the +Irish soil, he did not venture to maintain, what he probably felt, that +these were often equivalent to a joint-ownership more or less developed. +He was, in short, dexterous, but not profound; very inferior to Burke, +who, a century before, had grasped the essential facts in this province, +though the question was still in the remote future. The most important +parts of Mr. Gladstone's speech, and indeed, of those of his leading +followers, regard being had to events by no means distant, were those in +which he repudiated, with no doubtful censure, the whole theory of the +'Three F's,' the extreme demand, at this time, of the tenant class in +Ireland. 'Fair Rent' he argued, especially if adjusted by the State, +deprives a landlord of his first proprietary right, and involves his +expropriation in the long run; 'Fixity of Tenure' means a perpetuity for +the tenant, to which he has no just claim, and involves confiscation +hardly disguised; 'Free Sale' was but a corollary to legislation on these +principles.[58] At the same time, Mr. Gladstone protested, with marked +emphasis, that the Bill he was introducing was to be absolutely a final +measure; it was to effect a permanent settlement of the Irish land; Irish +landlords would have nothing more to apprehend, Irish tenants to expect. +In this instance, as in that of Home Rule, the orator was to belie +himself, and to be a curious example of the irony of Fate; within a few +years he was to legislate on the lines he had denounced as dangerous and +false; to carry into effect a scheme for dealing with the Irish land, +infinitely worse than that of the 'Three F's;' to scatter the 'finality,' +to which he had pledged his word, to the winds. + +The Bill thus launched was a comprehensive and wise measure, if not free +from real, even grave, defects; it remains the only statesmanlike scheme +for the settlement of Irish landed relations that hitherto has received +the assent of Parliament.[59] It made the tenant right of Ulster, in its +various forms, as these existed in different estates, law-worthy, and +protected to the fullest extent; it gave the same sanction to the inchoate +tenant right of the southern provinces. This was, in itself, an immense +reform; but the Bill properly had a far wider sweep; it extended, with the +exception of certain kinds of lands, such as demesnes, town parks, +holdings of a residential type, and, in most cases, large pastoral +holdings, to nearly all the occupiers of the Irish soil; even the excepted +lands were partially within its scope. The first great object of the +measure was to secure to the Irish tenant the rights he had acquired to +improvements he may have made on his farm, a right hitherto not within the +pale of the law; its provisions, in this respect, were, I think, +excellent. With a true perception of the unquestionable fact that, though +the Irish landlords, especially of late years, had expended considerable +sums on their estates, still, as is inevitable under the small-farm +system, the Irish tenant, as a general rule, had made the greatest part of +the additions to the land, Mr. Gladstone provided that, subject to +limitations by no means severe, in order that the law should not run wild, +improvements made on farms, in the absence of proof to the contrary, +should be deemed to be the tenant's property, thus reversing the +presumption of English law, iniquitous when applied to Irish tenures, that +what is annexed to the soil belongs to the owner, and not to its occupant. +The ground being, so to speak, cleared, the Bill declared that, in almost +all cases, a tenant should have a right, when leaving his farm, even +though dispossessed for the failure to pay his rent, to claim +compensation, from his landlord, for his improvements; and facilities were +offered to landlords to discharge these claims through loans from the +State. In order, however, reasonably to secure right being done, in a +complex and very difficult matter, the Bill proceeded to define +improvements, and to impose restrictions on claims, to which objection +could fairly be made. Apart from unexhausted tillages and manures, an +improvement was to be a work 'suitable to a holding, and adding to its +letting value,' a description as equitable and precise as could well be +desired. And, speaking generally, claims in respect of improvements were +not to be preferred were the improvement twenty years old, except in the +case of buildings and the reclamation of waste land; nor if the +improvement were prohibited by the landlord, under the conditions laid +down; nor if it were made under a contract for value; nor if it were +forbidden by a special contract; nor if, in certain cases, the landlord +had agreed to make it; nor if the claim was barred by express written +contract, in the case of improvements made before the Bill became law; +nor, in the case, with some exceptions, of certain classes of leases; nor +if the landlord, under certain conditions, permitted a tenant to dispose +of his interest in his farm. + +This measure, therefore, gave the Irish tenant farmer complete property in +his improvements, within reasonable bounds, and yet did not here invade +the just rights of the landlord; it was only to be regretted that it had +not been proposed many years before. It proceeded, however, a great deal +further, and asserted a principle, for the behoof of the tenant, which has +since been very generally condemned,[60] though in my judgment, it was +essentially right, if carried somewhat beyond proper and safe limits. +Except in the case of leases granted before the Bill, and of a class of +leases granted when it was to become law, Mr. Gladstone engrafted on the +great mass of Irish tenancies what really was a new tenant right; he was +probably convinced, though he did not say so, that this was to be an +equivalent for the joint-ownership, more or less manifest, which, in +innumerable instances, the Irish occupier had acquired in the soil. This +tenant right was given the rather ambiguous name of 'Compensation,' in the +event of 'Disturbance;' a sum varying in amount from seven to one year's +rent, according to the size of the holding, but in no case to exceed £250, +was to be paid to a tenant when dispossessed by a notice to quit, and, in +some circumstances, by other means; this was to be over and above any sum +due in respect of improvements; but this, too, as in the case of the +last-named sum, was to be paid only when the tenant was 'quitting' the +land. Obviously this was a potential tenant right, if to be realised only +in one way; it practically gave a quasi-proprietary right in the fee, as, +when commenting on the Bill, I pointed out at the time; and I certainly +thought that the compensation was very large, and introduced a principle +into the Bill which might be abused. Two other provisions of the measure, +with respect to the position of the Irish tenant, may be briefly noticed. +No attempt was made to adjust rents, through the agency of the State, Mr. +Gladstone having expressly denounced the idea; but in the case of petty +occupiers, subjected to 'exorbitant rents,' compensation for disturbance +might be adjudged to them, even if evicted for not paying the rent, that +is, the landlord might be mulcted in very heavy penalties. In nearly all +instances, too, the tenant was declared to be entitled to 'his away-going +crops,' another privilege, sometimes of no little value, and analogous to +that secured by usage in many parts of England. So far the Bill dealt with +the Irish land on the side of occupation; but it dealt with it, also, on +the side of ownership. John Bright had urged the expediency, during +several years, of facilitating the transfer of the fee simple, in his +holding, to the Irish tenant; this policy had been carried out, to some +extent, by the Act disestablishing the Anglican Church in Ireland. The +Bill of 1870 extended the principle; it provided that the State might +advance moneys to Irish tenants, to enable them to become owners of their +farms; but--and this should especially be kept in mind--the tenant was to +supply a third part of the purchase money at least; and the transaction +was to be effected by free contract, that is, by the voluntary act of the +landlord disposing of his land. It remains to add, that the administration +of the measure, was, for the most part--subject to an appeal to the +Superior Courts--entrusted to the County Courts of Ireland, that is, to +long-established tribunals of repute. + +The Bill passed through both Houses with little change; it has long been +known as the Irish Land Act of 1870. It was, in the main, I repeat, a +great reforming measure; it effected a far-reaching improvement in the +tenure of land in Ireland, and that without any marked infringement of the +just rights of property. No impartial mind can fairly object to the +protection given to the tenant right of the north and the south, or to the +compensation secured for tenants' improvements; if 'Compensation for +Disturbance' was a bold experiment, still this Parliamentary tenant right, +as it may be called, was in harmony with fact in nearly all instances. +Nevertheless, the Act had three marked defects; these largely detracted +from its practical value. It bristled with such exceptions and limitations +that it was difficult even for the learned to understand; it seemed to the +unlettered peasant a dangerous puzzle, involving him, perhaps, in lawsuits +and costs; it did not strike his imagination as a substantial boon. +Though, too, it annexed a real tenant right to nearly all farms, and thus +secured to the Irish tenant, in almost all cases, any joint-ownership he +may have acquired in the land, still this was intelligible only to +educated men; 'Compensation for Disturbance' was to be given only when an +occupier was about to leave his holding; but this was exactly what he +could not bear to do; he was, therefore, ready to accept almost any terms, +rather than face consequences he dreaded to think of. Mr. Gladstone, +again, had, in this measure, shown that he wished to assimilate Irish to +English land tenure in the long run; he sought to vindicate the just +claims of the Irish tenant; but he desired ultimately to give him the +status of his fellow in England, a long-standing, false conception of +British statesmen. The Land Act, therefore, provided that most of the +rights it conferred on the tenant might be commuted by the grant of a +lease for thirty-one years or upwards; and it further enacted that tenants +of the larger kind might 'contract themselves out' of the privileges it +gave, by voluntary agreements made with their landlords. The object of +this was to place the Irish land, by degrees, no doubt, under rather long +leases, discharged from the tenant right and other claims; but in the +circumstances of Ireland this was a mistake. This part of the Act was a +temptation to landlords, to persuade or even to force tenants to accept +leases under conditions which might be too severe, with respect to rent +and many other things, and to forego rights they would otherwise have +enjoyed, by a process which might not be a free contract; it encouraged, +in a word, unfair evasion of the law. This flaw in the measure was pointed +out from the first; Mr. Gladstone, however, denied its existence, and +characteristically shut his ears to other schemes of reform, notably to an +ingenious proposal of the late Judge Longfield to extend the Ulster tenant +right to all Irish tenancies by a very simple and self-acting process, and +to a proposal of Butt to convert tenancies at will into long leaseholds, +at the rents then current. These projects certainly deserved attention; +and, whatever their shortcomings, were easy to understand. + +The Act of 1870, like the Act dealing with the Protestant Church, was +followed by a short-lived outbreak of agrarian crime put down only by +severe coercive measures. This phenomenon has been common in Irish +history, from the days of Tyrconnell to the present time; disorder has +been the immediate result of concessions; peccant humours discharge +themselves if you touch the head of an ulcer. There is some reason, too, +to believe that in a few instances--and they were very few--wrongheaded +landlords, alarmed at the prospect before them, began to harass and even +to dispossess tenants; they aimed at 'clearing' their estates, in order to +evade the law; conduct of this kind naturally provoked indignation in some +places.[61] Nevertheless, the Land Act of 1870 was generally well received +in Ireland, though it fell short of the popular demand, and it was ill +understood by the tenant classes;[62] many farmers availed themselves of +its benefits, especially those holding under the Ulster custom. Five or +six years of prosperity followed, the brightest perhaps ever seen in +Ireland; agricultural prices were high, harvests extremely good; the +material progress of the country was decided; the peasantry seemed, as a +rule, contented; agitation abandoned, as it were, the land, and +concentrated itself on the Home Rule movement. Mr. Gladstone, always +optimistic, and proud of his own offspring, boasted, towards the close of +his first Ministry, that his recent legislation had done wonders; the Land +Act had reconciled Irish landlords and tenants, and had greatly increased +the selling price of land; he refused to see how much of all this was due +to a cause wholly independent of himself, the comparative well-being of +nearly all Ireland. As had happened in the period from 1854 to 1870, this +tranquillity was not deeply founded or complete; as then, it was, in a +great degree, deceptive. The peasantry were living fast in a good time; +banks and traders had made large advances to them on the security of +tenure the law had created; their position became such, in some districts, +that a season of distress might reduce many to sudden poverty, and be +productive of the necessarily resulting evils. Rents, again, were rising +as the country grew in wealth, though except in comparatively few cases--a +fact that should be steadily kept in view--they were still, as a rule, by +no means excessive; they were far below the rents of thirty years before; +but this gradual rise was of course not popular. In some instances, +too--but these were very rare, as was conclusively proved at a subsequent +time--tenants, under more or less pressure on the part of their landlords, +had accepted leases excluding them from the advantages of the law, and not +equitable in some respects, or had wholly 'contracted themselves out' of +the Act; this naturally caused alarm and distrust in many peasant +dwellings. But the principal reasons that content was really less than it +seemed to be in landed relations were altogether of a different nature. +Like too many even excellent reforms in Ireland, the Land Act of 1870 +became law too late; twenty years before it would have been hailed as an +extraordinary boon; it was now regarded as almost a half measure, in view +of the socialistic ideas about the land afloat. At the same time, +Fenianism continued to make its influence felt; Irish-Americans continued +to flit through the country denouncing British rule and Irish landlords, +and calling upon the peasantry, as in 1798, to rise. Even in these years +of prosperity, though rents were well paid, there was a secret movement +against rent beneath the surface of things, so well concealed that it was +absolutely unknown by the Government. + +Meanwhile, in the midst of apparent peace, the elements of trouble in +Ireland still quiescent were to come to a head and to give rise to a +movement. The most formidable to British rule though skilfully masked, +which had been seen since the rebellion of 1798. Revolutionary schemes in +Ireland have always fastened on the land as the chief source from which +they could derive strength; the United Irish movement as I have pointed +out, was connected with a peasant movement against the payment of rent. +This idea had been brought into marked prominence by John Finton Lalor, +one of the rebels of 1848, a comparatively unknown but a sagacious man; +'You must associate' he wrote, 'the cause of Irish liberty, for which the +people really care little with a cause for which they care a great deal; +an inert mass must be yoked to a powerful engine; the Irish landlord must +be driven from the land and the peasant masses be made its owners; and the +fall of English power will follow that of its landlord garrison.' These +words fell for the moment on unheeding ears; but the tradition has +continued from that day to this the destruction of Irish 'landlordism' was +one of the objects of the Fenian leaders of 1865-67, and they denounced +the Irish gentry in atrocious language, though they did not know how to +carry out their policy. This teaching was eagerly adopted by Michael +Davitt, a Fenian, who had been convicted of a crime against the State; +during a long imprisonment at Dartmoor, he brooded 'on his country's +wrongs,' but satisfied himself that if the independence of Ireland was a +patriot's first object, this could be attained only by uprooting the +existing land system, by hounding on the occupiers of the soil against its +owners, and by handing it over as spoil to the peasantry. Davitt was +released from Dartmoor at the close of 1877; he attended a meeting in +Dublin at which Parnell was present, and two of the assassins of the +Phoenix Park tragedy; and he became supreme in the ranks of the Fenian +societies, known as 'the Irish Republican Brotherhood,' which still +retained a feeble life in Ireland, and even in England and Scotland. A +short time afterwards he made his way to the United States, where he found +the Fenians divided into two parties, known under the general name of the +Clan na Gael, but having different objects, though with a common purpose. +Both parties were for liberating Ireland 'from the Saxon yoke;' but the +most violent and the most active sought to attain this end by expedients +of desperate force; a 'skirmishing fund' had been established; 'England +was to be invaded' by small bodies of 'resolute men;' her capital and +chief towns were to be destroyed by dynamite. The other party, more +prudent, but with similar aims, had been struck by Parnell's attitude in +the House of Commons, and by the success of his unscrupulous tactics; its +leaders began to think that something might be done by 'constitutional +means;' they gradually came to an agreement with Davitt, that 'the +overthrow of English domination' was to be their ultimate end; but that +efforts in this direction were to be linked with energetic efforts to +subvert 'the landlord system, a disgrace to humanity and to the +civilisation of the present century;' to banish the Irish landed gentry +from their country, and to secure their estates for their tenantry. This +movement, though rebellious in no doubtful sense, was nevertheless to have +a legal disguise; the wolf was to wear sheep's clothing; the 'formation of +a peasant proprietary, and the abolition of arbitrary evictions,' were to +be its proposed objects.[63] + +Treason, seeking support from socialistic greed, was thus the origin of +the Land League conspiracy, for this was its only legitimate name. I have +glanced at this movement, on its political side, as it was associated with +the cause of Home Rule; I must here consider it on its agrarian side, the +most prominent, if not the most dangerous, to the State.[64] The compact +between Davitt and the moderates of the Clan na Gael was called the 'New +Departure;' Davitt returned to Ireland to stir up what became known as the +'Land War;' Fenian emissaries went to Ireland, about the same time, in +order to collect arms and to drill peasants, with a view to a possible +rising should the occasion be found. Meanwhile, Davitt had addressed +himself to what was more immediately at hand; in the spring of 1879 he got +a meeting together, in his native county, Mayo, at which 'landlordism' and +all its works were savagely denounced; during the following months other +meetings of the same sort were held, but as yet only in the western +province of Connaught. At these gatherings the crusade against the landed +gentry went on; rebellious utterances were blended with ferocious +diatribes against[65] landlords sometimes marked out for vengeance by +name; and the peasantry were called on to keep 'a firm grip on their +lands;' these would become their own should they only be steadfast. The +Land League movement was now launched on its course; but it was known to +be an essentially Fenian movement; it was subsidised from Clan na Gael +funds; it was supported by a murderous Clan na Gael print; it was +condemned in the severest language by an aged Catholic prelate, one of the +few of O'Connell's surviving friends. The movement, however, as yet was +not of much strength; Davitt had opinions about the 'nationalisation of +the land,' which, like those of the Fenian leaders of 1865-67, were not to +the mind of the peasantry; his efforts, hitherto, had not had much +success. In this position of affairs he addressed himself to Parnell, who +had had Fenian sympathies and associations for years, and had, we have +seen, attracted Fenian admiration abroad; what passed between the two men +has not transpired; but Parnell, if with reluctance, consented at last to +become the head of the Land League and to direct the movement. The +measures he adopted were skilfully designed, in harmony with the 'New +Departure,' and with the double-dealing nature of a true conspirator. A +Central Land League was established in Dublin; it was to have 'branches' +extending through the country; it was to make a steady attack on the land +system. Its professed objects, however, were constitutional, nay, fair; it +was 'to agitate against rack-rents and unjust evictions,' and to +'facilitate the ownership of the soil by its occupants.' The ultimate +purpose of the League, nevertheless, was that of the Fenian chiefs; of its +seven high officers four were Fenians; it was wholly supported by Fenian +moneys; its most prominent members made a boast of their Fenian +sentiments.[66] It was, in a word, a rebellious organisation in a +constitutional garb; it was the embodiment of what Parnell avowed +afterwards: 'A true revolutionary movement in Ireland should, in my +opinion, partake both of a constitutional and an illegal character. It +should be both an open and a secret organisation, using the Constitution +for its own purposes, but also taking advantage of its secret +combination.'[67] + +The Land League established, under these auspices, gradually made some +progress in the western parts of Ireland, always centres of poverty more +or less developed. It had not, however, as yet, become a power in the +land; Parnell went to the United States, as I have mentioned before, in +order to obtain support for the 'New Departure.' He was the grandson of a +distinguished American; the elections for a President were near; it was +necessary to bid for the Irish vote; the chief of the League was invited +to say what his Irish policy was in the Representative House of the +people; and this he did in moderate and carefully chosen language. His +real attitude, however, was very different; he associated with well-known +Fenian leaders, became acquainted with a contributor to the _Irish World_, +the worst journal of the Clan na Gael press; and more than once gave +utterance to what was plain treason, notably to the 'last-link' speech +already referred to. He obtained considerable funds for the League in +Ireland, and before long founded a similar League in America, which became +a Fenian organisation of the very worst type. Meanwhile a season of +distress had visited Ireland; this quickened the elements of disorder +being already let loose. The harvest of 1878 was not good; that of 1879 +was the worst known since the Great Famine; the prosperity of the country +suddenly came to an end. There was a universal calling in of demands, +especially from tenant farmers, who, I have said, had been rather +extravagant, and had become involved in debt;[68] the whole class suffered +more or less, though there was very little extreme indigence, and Lord +Beaconsfield's Government was not slow in providing relief, which private +charity largely increased. In these circumstances the landed gentry acted +as any class would naturally act; a considerable number made remissions of +rent; if a large majority, as certainly was the case, insisted upon their +legal rights--conduct which must be pronounced unfortunate--it must be +recollected that an agitation of extreme violence had been directed +against the whole order; and that Mr. Gladstone had declared that, after +the Land Act, there were to be no more concessions. The League now +acquired new power; its branches spread over large parts of the west; its +directors, from members in the House of Commons, to its avowed agents, and +to the 'village ruffians,' who carried out its bidding in many places, +rioted in atrocious threats against landlords whether good or bad; and a +movement against the payment of rent began. The teaching which had been +spread abroad during many months, bore the fruits which were to be +expected from it; there was a sudden outbreak of agrarian crime, and of +Whiteboyism in its worst aspect; it deserves special notice that this was +confined to the counties where the League was in real force. The +landlords, under these conditions, were often driven to enforce their +claims; attempts were made to show that the evictions that followed were +the sole causes of this social disorder. But it is absolutely certain that +this was not the case; it was the Land League which provoked the +evictions, and was responsible for the incidental crime.[69] + +The spring of 1880 had come; Lord Beaconsfield had been driven from +office, in an evil day for the renown of England; Mr. Gladstone had been +returned again to power, on the flood of a tide of democratic sympathy. +Lord Beaconsfield was not an author of any very large Irish reform, but he +understood Ireland much better than his impetuous rival; he had seen from +the first the real nature of the Land League movement; in his address to +the nation, when he dissolved Parliament, he declared that an 'attempt +scarcely less dangerous than famine and pestilence' was being made to +separate Ireland from Great Britain, words treated by Mr. Gladstone with +scornful ridicule, but words of real truth. The incoming Minister had of +late taken little heed of Irish affairs; he had been engaged in his +crusade in Midlothian, and in stirring up the multitude on the Eastern +question; but he had clung to his optimistic Irish faith; he had solemnly +announced that Ireland was 'contented and happy,' when the country was +suffering from unquestionable distress; he had even refused to renew a +measure for the repression of agrarian crime, when agrarian crime was +formidably on the increase, and the Land League was rapidly growing in +strength. At last, however, partly opening his eyes to the facts, he +appointed a Commission charged to report on Irish land tenure; and he +introduced a Bill slightly to amend the Land Act of 1870, showing thus +from the outset that he choose to regard a conspiracy against the State on +its economic side mainly, and not in its far more grave political aspect. +A word must be said on this measure, which had its origin, to a great +extent, in sheer and audacious falsehood. By this time Parnell was at the +head of some sixty adherents in the House of Commons; he had linked the +Home Rule and the Land League movements; his followers were, in many +instances, chiefs of the League; they induced Mr. Gladstone to listen to +them, on representations characteristically untrue. Evictions were on the +increase in Ireland, owing to the onslaught made by the League on the +landed gentry; Parnell and his band unscrupulously exaggerated the number, +perhaps twenty-fold, by confounding ejectment decrees of the Courts with +evictions actually carried out; Mr. Gladstone appears to have accepted +this shameful statement. The new 'Compensation for Disturbance' Bill, as +it was called, provided that in the case of certain classes of tenants, +although they had failed to pay their rents, compensation, withheld, we +have seen, under the Act of 1870, might be afforded them, under rather +strict conditions; this was certainly an innovation of a startling kind, +but something was to be said for it, in the existing position of affairs. +The House of Commons, however, disliked a measure nicknamed 'payment by +reason of non-payment,' and limited its application in many ways; and the +House of Lords, unfortunately, I think, threw it out. + +This Bill, closely circumscribed as it was, would not have extended, +perhaps, to many tenants; it was condemned by Parnell and his satellites +as a sham. Its rejection, however, gave an opportunity to the League; its +leaders proclaimed at meetings, never so frequent before, that Ireland +had nothing to expect from a foreign Parliament; the attack on +'landlordism' became more intense; treasonable and predatory harangues +increased in vehemence. The influence of the conspiracy spread beyond +Connaught, over nearly all Munster, and parts of Leinster; wherever it was +felt it was attended with agrarian crime; 'crime,' as Mr. Gladstone +exclaimed, 'always dogged its footsteps.' Offences of this kind +portentously multiplied; they had been eight hundred and sixty-three at +the close of 1879; they were two thousand five hundred and eighty-nine at +the close of 1880;[70] and these included a number of barbarous murders, +and of other atrocious deeds of outrage and blood, especially of the +mutilation of the cattle of those opposed to the League. A kind of servile +war springing from the land had set in; and during this whole period the +spokesmen of the League, whether in the highest or the lowest grades, +continued to denounce the landed gentry, though they knew that their +utterances were the direct incentive to far-spreading crime. Parnell, +however, infinitely the ablest of the conspirators, perceived that this +brutal disorder would incense Parliament, and, besides, could not have +decisive results; the cool, calculating schemer laid down a plan of +operations for the League, which he hoped would be less openly detestable, +and much more effective. Orders were issued that tenants should, in every +part of Ireland, repudiate the rents they had agreed to pay, and should +pay only such sums as had been assessed on land by a valuation made by the +State for rates, a standard long acknowledged to be much too low; every +landlord who should reject these terms was to incur the vengeance of the +League. By these means Parnell expected, and not without reason, that a +great combination for the forcible reduction of rent would be formed, and +that numbers of farmers would flock in to the League, but he knew that +his proposal was simply a defiance of the law, and that it would be +resisted by many of the landed gentry; he hit on an expedient through +which he believed he would attain his end. Should any landlord refuse to +accept the sum offered instead of the proper rent, and should proceed to +dispossess the defaulting tenant--and practically he could have no other +remedy--the evicted farm was to be left derelict; it was to be smitten, as +it were, by the interdict of the League; and any wretch who should dare to +take it was to be banned by the whole neighbourhood; he and his, and those +who dealt with him, 'were to be shunned as lepers,' and 'treated as +traitors to the cause.'[71] In this way, the crime of 'boycotting,' as it +has ever since been called--its origin may be traced to the great Tithe +War in Ireland--was made part of 'the unwritten law' of the League; and +Parnell professed, whether sincerely or not, that through this device the +League would baffle the law, and the landlords, as a class, as unhappily +it did, in too many instances. Having thus armed the conspiracy with +increased power, he cynically began to deprecate crimes of violence: the +device of 'boycotting' was a more excellent way; it would before long +'bring landlords to their knees,' and would ultimately 'plant the tenant +in his farm to be held at a nominal rent,' should he only be true to the +League. At the same time the astute plotter found other means to extend +his authority and that of the conspiracy he ruled. He appealed to the +elective Local Boards in each county, composed for the most part of tenant +farmers, to join the League, and to carry out his policy; and continuously +but steadily he brought the force of the League to bear upon the +administration of the law, by the intimidation of juries, magistrates, and +even judicial persons. + +The teaching of Parnell was disseminated by the League and its agencies, +especially at gatherings of peasant mobs; it was largely followed wherever +the League prevailed. In hundreds of instances tenant farmers were +compelled or induced to tender sums, 'at Griffith's valuation,' as it was +called, in lieu of the rents they were bound to pay; and on the rejection +of the offer, refused to pay anything. A widespread combination against +rent was thus set on foot, sustained by a principle of greed which held it +together; the League was more completely organised than it had been +before; it made its way into ten or eleven counties, the only centres in +which it was formidably strong. In these circumstances the landed gentry +acted, as an order of men so assailed would act; not a few accepted the +terms imposed on them, and took their rents at the reduced scale, the +majority resisted the mandates of the League, and appealed to the law to +enforce their rights. The terrors of the League were at once directed +against those who had dared to defy it; in a certain number of instances +landlords and agents were brutally murdered, for popular passions had been +let loose for years; in many more 'boycotting' was carried out with such +fatal effect that scores of families were driven out of Ireland, banned, +persecuted, deprived even of the necessaries of life; in many others the +demesnes of gentlemen were ravaged by 'Land League hunts,' overrun and +half destroyed by savage mob gatherings. Evictions of course increased as +the law was being trampled under foot; it is hardly necessary to say that +Parnell's doctrine was here ruthlessly applied; evicted farms were left +deserted and waste over thousands of acres; the fears caused by +'boycotting' had become so intense, that no 'land-grabber,' as the name +was, would dare to take them; the success of the League was in this +respect remarkable. The vengeance of the conspiracy, too, was extended +universally to another class of persons. Tenants in numbers of instances +paid their rents, either from an honest motive, or through dread of +eviction; the payment was often made at night, and under a pledge of +secrecy; but wherever they were discovered the League marked 'the +traitor's doom;' they were sometimes 'boycotted' almost to death; +sometimes murdered, often visited by gangs of ruffians--significantly +known as Parnell's police; the victims were shot in the legs, or the hair +of their women was cut off, or their cattle were cruelly mutilated and +maimed. It deserves special notice that, as was to be expected, Parnell's +warning against open crime was but little heeded; 'boycotting,' as Mr. +Gladstone said, truly 'was but a passive thing;' it 'required +assassination as its sanction;' the peasantry had been stirred up, in +places, to frenzy; although Parnell made few violent speeches at the time, +his satellites still gave a free rein to their wicked licence. Agrarian +crime increased to an appalling extent; it had reached in 1881 a total of +four thousand four hundred and thirty-nine cases, nearly two thousand more +than those of the preceding year.[72] + +In the spring and summer of 1881, the power of the League was at its +height; in its organisation and working it bore a strong resemblance to +the Jacobin societies of the Revolution in France. It was directed by a +council from a central office in Dublin; its orders were sent thence to +the bodies connected with it; these, scattered over many parts of the +country, enforced its decrees through 'boycotting' crime, and terror. +'Obnoxious' persons, landlords, agents, 'land-grabbers,' and tenants who +had paid their rents, were denounced and exposed to the League's +vengeance; officers of the law and of justice were especially banned; even +those thought to be 'luke-warm' in the cause were declared 'suspected.' In +some districts the regular government was practically superseded by the +government of the league, described by Mr. Gladstone as 'a scheme of +anarchic oppression;' in these a Reign of Terror was really supreme. It +will never be known to what extent the League made use of Whiteboyism and +its secret conclaves in order to carry out its purposes; the central body, +controlled by Parnell, probably did not, but the affiliated bodies +certainly did; it is impossible to account otherwise for the enormous +increase of agrarian crime; the branches of the League, it is generally +supposed, overshadowed, so to speak, the Whiteboy societies; these were +active agents in the atrocious deeds that were done. It is scarcely +necessary to refer to what the condition of social life was wherever the +influence of the League was great; despair settled on the hearts of +thousands, who felt themselves exposed to unseen perils, and existed, as +it were, in an atmosphere of crime; and it must be borne in mind that for +one member of the better class, fifty probably of the humbler, who had +transgressed the law of the League, were kept in a state of moral dread +and torture. By this time the Fenian League in the United States, formed +by Parnell, but ruled by the Clan na Gael, had completely joined hands +with the League at home; its emissaries were found in many parts of +Ireland; its organ, the _Irish World_, 'spread what it called the light,' +the teaching of treason, murder, and dynamite; and it supplied the parent +League with, probably, nine-tenths of its funds, for it is a significant +fact, deserving special notice, that the contributions of the peasantry to +the League were, from first to last, small. Large parts of Ireland were +thus in a deplorable state; but it is a complete mistake to suppose, as +has been asserted, that the authority of the League was general throughout +the whole island. Protestant Ulster, with a true instinct of what the +conspiracy was, a movement against British rule in Ireland, kept aloof +from the League, in angry contempt; and though its influence was more +widely diffused, it was confined, I have said, to comparatively few +counties if regarded as a dangerous and formidable power. It is also +absolutely untrue that the movement was the uprising of an injured +peasantry against oppressive landlords. There was little distress in 1880 +and 1881, when the League was rapidly growing in strength, for the +harvests of those years were above the average; and the Commission lately +appointed by Mr. Gladstone had reported that over-renting in Ireland was +not common, though instances of over-renting were of course to be +found.[73] + +The centre of disturbance formed by the Land League was, I have said, +comparatively small; and it was, for the most part, limited to backward +and poor districts; its wicked and sordid teaching did not command the +sympathies of the more intelligent and better parts of Ireland. Its +influence, however, spread, in different degrees of strength, over nearly +the whole of Catholic Ireland, and it was more or less supported by the +Catholic priesthood, in many instances yielding to the pressure of their +flocks. Within the bounds where it did not create a Reign of Terror, it +was joined by thousands who thought it a constitutional movement, +especially by peasants only seeking an improved tenure; and it is not +pretended that even a majority of those who took part in it had +treasonable or rebellious objects in view. But it was not the less a +conspiracy hatched abroad, and aiming at the subversion of British power +in Ireland; this was the policy its leaders avowed; and a conspiracy must +be judged by the acts and words of those who direct it. The state of +anarchy in Ireland had become such, in the spring of 1881, that the +Government was compelled to try to put it down; a prosecution against +Parnell and his chief lieutenants had failed; a Bill, resisted by +obstruction, more persistent than had been ever known before, passed +through Parliament with the object of repressing the Land League. The +measure, however, was not well designed; minor agents of the League, +'village ruffians,' 'Parnell's police,' and the like, were imprisoned in +large numbers, no real punishment; but the chiefs of the conspiracy were +not brought within the law; the funds of the League were removed to Paris; +the movement went on in its destructive course. 'Coercion,' nevertheless, +was beginning to produce its effects, as it has always done in Irish +disorders, when Mr. Gladstone made a sudden change in his policy, never +made before by a Minister at the head of the State. He had denounced the +conspiracy in passionate language; he had partly at least seen what its +objects were; 'it aimed at dismemberment through rapine;' but always a man +of phrases and not of action, he had shrunk in every passage of his career +from facing difficulties where popular feelings were involved; and while +Ireland was still in a terrible state, he resolved to make a great +concession to the League, and to effect a complete revolution in the Irish +land. It was a surrender akin to that of Majuba, made with little +information, and without mature reflection; whether its author believed, +as I have remarked, that the conspiracy was most dangerous on its agrarian +side, or was willing to propitiate Parnell, at the expense of the Irish +landed gentry, he inaugurated the legislation, ever since pursued, which +has resulted in destroying the property of the Irish landlord, without +gaining the sympathy of the occupier of the Irish soil, has reduced the +land system of Ireland to a ruinous chaos, and has, in essential respects, +been an absolute failure. + +Mr. Gladstone's position was difficult when he introduced his new Irish +Land Bill; his speech in the House of Commons, lucid as regards details, +was apologetic, ambiguous, often beside the subject. He went out of his +way to praise Irish landlords, 'acquitted,' he declared, by the late +Commission; he deeply regretted a new experiment on the Irish land. He +retained his admiration for the Act of 1870, but insinuated that it had +been injured in the House of Lords; had this not been the case, it would +have settled the Irish land question. He passed over his solemn pledges, +on the faith of which millions had been lent on Irish estates, that the +legislation of eleven years before was final; here he took refuge in +appeals to 'Divine Justice,' in the 'light of which' a statesman must +walk, as if Divine Justice was an excuse for a gross breach of faith. He +then unfolded his plan of reform; he endeavoured, with an ingenuity all +his own, to distinguish it from the schemes he had emphatically condemned +in 1870; but in this respect mystification was at fault; the measure was a +clumsy imitation of the 'Three F's,' and where it differed, it differed +greatly for the worse. Anticipating objections certain to be made, the +orator dismissed 'political economy to Saturn' with a confident gesture; +for some untold reason the philosophy of Adam Smith could not possibly +apply to the order of things in Ireland. But by many degrees the most +important part of the speech, in view of events which have since happened, +was that in which Mr. Gladstone announced that should the measure really +injure the Irish landlord, the State was bound to provide an indemnity. He +denied, indeed, that the Bill could have any such effect; it would be a +boon, he gravely said, to the Irish landed gentry; but should the contrary +be the case, 'compensation' would be clearly their right. 'I do not +hesitate to say'--these were his very words spoken after the Bill had made +much progress--'that if it can be shown, on clear and definite experience, +at the present time, that there is a probability, or if after experience +shall prove that, in fact, ruin and heavy loss has been brought on any +class in Ireland by the direct effect of this legislation, that is a +question which we ought to look very directly in the face.' The same +meaning was even more clearly expressed: 'I should certainly be very slow +to deny that where confiscation could be proved, compensation ought to +follow,' and several of Mr. Gladstone's lieutenants spoke in the same +sense.[74] + +The Bill, I have said, applied the principle of the 'Three F's' to the +relation of landlord and tenant in by far the greatest part of Ireland. As +in the case of the Land Act of 1870, it excluded certain classes of lands +from its scope, demesnes, residential holdings, town parks, and large +pastoral farms; it extended also only to tenants at will, that is, subject +to a notice to quit; it left tenants under leases outside its purview. It +was confined, too, to 'present tenants in occupation,' at or near the +existing time; it had no reference to 'future tenants,' that is, to +tenants holding by contracts made after the Bill should pass, or a few +months afterwards. Subject, however, to these exceptions, on the whole not +large, the measure placed tenancies in Ireland under the 'Three F's,' but +with conditions of tenure peculiar to itself, and hitherto unknown in +Ireland, or in any part of Europe. 'Fair Rent,' which, under the Ulster +Custom, was settled by a bargain between landlord and tenant, was to be +adjusted through the intervention of the State, legislation akin to the +mediæval statutes regulating the price of bread, and the wages of labour. +'Fixity of Tenure' was not to be a perpetuity in name; Mr. Gladstone +feared that the speeches would be thrown in his teeth, in which he had +declaimed against the idea; it was to be a lease for fifteen years, but +capable of being renewed for ever, as a rule, through a periodical and +costly lawsuit. 'Free Sale' was to be conceded under somewhat strict +conditions; and the landlord was to be afforded a right of pre-emption in +the case of such sales, in accordance with the analogy of the Ulster +Custom. An estate virtually perpetual, at a State-settled rent, was thus +to be carved out of the landlord's fee, and given to tenants actually in +possession of the land; it was created in absolute derogation from the +landlord's rights; it was a large if partial expropriation, in no doubtful +sense. As to the interest of landlords in what was left of their property, +they were to retain what are usually known as 'royalties'--timber, +minerals, mines, and privileges of sport; they were to have the ordinary +remedies for enforcing payment of rent; and the statutory leases were to +be subject to certain conditions, taken, for the most part, from the +Ulster Custom, the violation of which might lead to their forfeiture. A +tribunal, called the Land Commission, was to be set up to carry the law +into effect, that is, to 'fix fair rents,' and to make tenures 'fixed;' it +was to be assisted by dependent agencies, known as Sub-Commissions, which, +Mr. Gladstone intimated, were to be quite subordinate, and from which +appeals to the Land Commission were to run; but a sinister feature of an +untried revolutionary scheme--the decision of the Land Commission as +respects 'fair rent'--was to be final. Subject to an appeal to the Land +Commission, the Irish County Courts were empowered to administer the law; +but it was foreseen that they would not do much in this province. The new +modes of tenure might be applied to lands, by agreements between landlords +and tenants carefully guarded; and Mr. Gladstone believed that this would +be the ordinary course of dealing. The Bill, he thought, would not cause +litigation to any great extent; it would operate as a self-acting force to +lead to friendly contracts.[75] + +So much for the scope of the Bill and the classes of tenants to which its +benefits were to extend. A most important change was made in the measure, +which contained, originally, nothing of the kind; this has been attended +with far-reaching results. As we have seen, tenants were to be compensated +for their improvements, under the Act of 1870; but the compensation was +to be paid only when they were leaving the land; Mr. Healy, one of the +ablest of Parnell's lieutenants, induced Parliament to accept a provision +exempting tenants' improvements from rent, when the adjustment of 'fair +rent' was to be made. However equitable in principle this might appear to +be, it was, in the peculiar state of Irish land tenure, unjust in the +extreme to landlords, as I shall endeavour to point out afterwards; and it +has been a source of litigation, as mischievous and demoralising as can +well be conceived. The Bill, like the Act of 1870, prohibited the +subdivision and subletting of farms--an inveterate evil practice of the +Irish peasant--under conditions possibly rather too strict; and it made +changes, in that statute, which require attention. It added weight, so to +speak, to the law, in the tenant's interest; it increased the amount of +compensation in respect of disturbance; it limited the power of +'contracting out,' to a smaller class of tenants than had been the case +before, in fact, to large capitalist farmers; and it provided that +tenants, who had accepted leases excluding them from the benefits of the +Act of 1870, through illegitimate conduct on the part of their landlords, +should be exonerated from such unfair contracts. It thus greatly amended +the original Land Act; but it left many of its defects untouched; it is +only right here to add that despite the lying clamour raised by the +subsidised Press of Parnell--lying has ever since been part of its +stock-in-trade--the instances were exceedingly few in which 'forced +leases,' as they were called, were set aside by the Courts. A remarkable +feature of the Bill has yet to be noticed: Mr. Gladstone, as was the case +eleven years before, had still the wish, so characteristic of British +statesmen, to assimilate Irish to English land tenure; for this reason, as +I said, he deprived 'future tenants' of the advantages of the Bill; these +were to hold their farms on the footing of pure contract. This was a +shortsighted and bad arrangement; it tempted directly ill-conditioned +landlords to dispossess tenants, whenever a chance offered, and to create +'future' tenants so as to discharge their estates from a burden; it +revealed marked ignorance of the affairs of Ireland. The Bill dealt, also, +with the land on the side of ownership; it gave additional facilities to +tenants to purchase their holdings; the State was empowered to advance +three-fourths of the moneys; but the tenants were to find the remaining +fourth; the transaction was to be still a purchase, and not in the nature +of a gift.[76] + +The Bill became law, with very little change; the House of Lords, though +fully alive to its evils, did not amend it in any important respect; the +Peers had in mind, perhaps too much, what had followed the rejection of +the Bill of the year before. Mr. Gladstone and his followers maintained at +the time, and the statement has been ever since repeated, that the Land +Act of 1881, its popular title, was but a natural development of the +original Act of 1870; but this assertion is not only untrue, but +absolutely contrary to the truth. The Act of 1870, no doubt, considered as +a whole, annexed a large tenant right to the estate of the landlord, and +to that extent placed a burden on it; but it preserved for the landlord +the ownership of the land; it did not interfere with his rent, his first +proprietary right; above all, it was, in the main, in accord with fact, +and just. The Act of 1881 was almost the exact opposite; it deprived the +landlord of the ownership of his land, and nearly converted him into a +mere rent-charger; it created against him a perpetuity at a State-settled +rent; it really all but made the tenant the owner of the land; it was, in +short, inconsistent with fact, and essentially unjust. The Act of 1881, +too, established a principle, never heard of before in civilised +countries, that tribunals of the State were to fix the rate of rent; this +not only annihilated the most important of landed contracts, entirely to +the landlord's detriment, it inevitably tended to cut down rents +wholesale, as Judge Longfield had predicted would be the case. 'It is +probable,' wrote that great authority, 'that the value of land, as fixed +by any tenant-right measure, would be less than half the rent, which a +solvent tenant would be willing to pay;'[77] the prediction has been too +well verified. The Act of 1870, in a word, was a remedial law, fairly +adjusting the rights of landlord and tenant; the Act of 1881 was a +socialistic law, despoiling the landlord of his property wholesale, and +handing it over to a dependent who had no claim to it; it was sheer +confiscation hardly disguised; and it should be added that the exemption +of tenants' improvements from rent, as affairs stood in Ireland, was a +grave wrong to the landlord. The Act of 1881, to speak plainly, +transformed the Irish land system iniquitously for the benefit of a single +class; and it directly promoted litigation of the very worst kind, on an +enormous scale, embittering, and still further dividing, the classes +connected with the land. The evils of this legislation, a monument of +reckless unwisdom, were at once manifest to well-informed persons; the +Duke of Argyll and Lord Lansdowne resigned office rather than take part in +a measure of the kind; Lord Ashbourne, the present holder of the Great +Seal in Ireland, caustically remarked that Parliament would do much better +should it deprive Irish landlords of a fourth part of their rents on the +spot. The verdict of enlightened and impartial opinion in Ireland was very +much the same. + +I shall comment on the administration of this law in another chapter; +enough to say here that what was bad was made, by many degrees, worse. The +conduct of Parnell, as regards the measure, was characteristic; he assumed +an attitude of moderation, and proposed to make 'a trial of the Act by +test cases;' he wrote to his Fenian friends in the Far West that the Act +was a mockery; he allowed the Land League to riot in lawlessness as +before. Mr. Gladstone, always incensed when his will was crossed, shut him +up in prison under the recent statute, with several prominent leaders of +the League; the reply was a manifesto against the payment of any rent, +unhappily obeyed in some districts, though every symptom of exceptional +distress had passed away. A brief but violent struggle was the result; the +peasantry refused to pay a shilling in several counties; and as the +principal agents of the League were within four walls, flights of +viragoes, like those of the French Revolution, were let loose to preach, +far and near, the evangel of 'no rent.' This conflict, however, was not +lasting; agrarian crime and disorder, indeed, still continued frequent; +but the Government was too strong for the 'Ladies' Land League;' by the +spring of 1882 its triumph appeared to be certain. But Mr. Gladstone, +'unstable as water' in view of what he deemed popular movements, would not +steadily persist in vindicating the law; the imprisonment of the chiefs of +the conspiracy and their subordinates, in large numbers, seems to have +made him feel sore if unworthy misgivings; he surrendered to the enemies +of the State, for the second time, and entered with Parnell into the +famous 'Kilmainham Treaty,' as shameful as the Glamorgan Treaty which cost +Charles I. his head. The 'Suspects,' as they were called, were set free in +scores; the Lord-Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary indignantly left their +posts; a new Government for Ireland was formed, charged to carry +'conciliation,' as the phrase was, out, that is, to make fresh concessions +to Parnell and his creatures. But the auspicious prospect was suddenly +darkened by the frightful assassinations of the Phoenix Park; these +cannot be justly laid to the charge of the League, indeed were against +Parnell's interest, for it was generally expected he would obtain high +office; but two agents of the League were implicated in the crime; and the +Press of the League began soon to plead for the murderers. The mind of +England was now thoroughly roused; Mr. Gladstone, bowing at once to +England's will, carried through Parliament the severest repressive measure +that has ever, perhaps, been applied to Ireland. The battle with the +League was soon brought to a close; the conspiracy indeed resisted for a +time, and crime, as always, was attendant on it; and the Clan na Gael gave +it all the assistance it could, in large subsidies which had never ceased, +in the dissemination in Ireland of its incendiary journals, and especially +by 'carrying the war into England,' and fulfilling its threats to attack +her chief towns by fire and dynamite, outrages, however, that really came +to nothing. But 'coercion,' as has been invariably the case in Ireland, +produced its effects; agrarian crimes, which, in 1882, if less than those +of the year before, were, nevertheless, three thousand four hundred and +thirty-two in number, had fallen to eight hundred and seventy in 1883.[78] + +The Land League was paralysed, if not destroyed; its organisation was, in +name, suppressed by its framers. It reappeared, however, at once, in a new +form; the skill of Parnell in masking a conspiracy was never more fully +displayed. He felt that the Land League could not cope with the law; that +the crimes of violence and blood, which attended its course, gave the +Government opportunities to put it down; that its openly avowed purposes +were a danger to it. He set up, therefore, the 'National League' in its +stead; the professed object of the association was to promote 'Home Rule,' +while it upheld the rights of the occupiers of the Irish soil, and kept +the Irish land, so to speak, in view; it was thus apparently a mere centre +of a constitutional movement. Through these means, and under these +pretences, the astute and able plotter swept into his net thousands who +had held aloof from the Land League; many of the middle classes joined the +National League, notably hundreds of the clergy of the Catholic Church in +Ireland; the peasantry gave it increased support; its influence spread +beyond its predecessor's limits. The National League, however, was only +the Land League under another name;[79] its leaders and officials were the +same men; its 'branches' were those of the League it replaced; its real +objects were exactly the same, the overthrow of British rule in Ireland, +and the annihilation of the Irish landed gentry. But the methods it +employed to work out its ends were, to a great extent, different; open +agitation was kept down; public meetings, likely to be violent, were not +held; the perpetration of agrarian crime was not encouraged. The movement, +in a word, was comparatively secret and below the surface; but it was +essentially the successor of the Land League in its aims; we may say of +it, with a slight change, in the words of the poet-- + + 'Facies non una sororum, + Nec diversa tamen.' + +'Boycotting' was now made the chief weapon of the reformed conspiracy; +'National League Courts' were held regularly in many districts, at which +this barbarous interdict was systematically pronounced on persons +violating 'the unwritten law' of the old League; the persecution against +landlords, agents, 'land-grabbing' peasants who were 'disloyal and +traitors,' and traders suspected of dealing with 'rotten sheep,' was +carried on with a pertinacity and ingenuity hardly known before; the +number of derelict farms augmented; and the Government found it far from +easy to deal with these crimes. At the same time, 'the Nationalist Press,' +as it had been named, fully revealed the purpose of the conspirators; +trusting to impunity, under the law of libel, which depended upon the will +of juries, it was even more treasonable and seditious than before; and it +gave infamous license to defamation of personages in high places, worthy +of the abominations of the Père Duchesne.[80] Ireland, however, remained +in comparative peace while the recent measure of repression continued in +force; but this was injudiciously allowed to expire in 1885--a strange act +on the part of a Conservative Ministry; and in a short time agrarian +disorder broke out afresh. Crimes of this class had fallen, in 1884, to +seven hundred and sixty-two in number; they were one thousand and +fifty-six in 1886; and 'boycotting' had increased fourfold.[81] + +The National League remained quiescent, while Mr. Gladstone was making +another surrender, and endeavouring to carry Home Rule through Parliament. +Upon the rejection of the measure of 1886, its activity was renewed; and +it found considerable support from the American Fenians, who, from first +to last, had been its chief paymasters. I have referred to the Convention +at Chicago graced by Parnell's envoys, and to the wild boast that the +English 'government of Ireland was to be made impossible;' the treasonable +aspect of the conspiracy became at once manifest. The League was assisted +by another season of distress, from 1886 to 1888; the number of its +adherents greatly increased; it began, like its predecessor, to defy the +authority of the State. I have already dealt with this movement on its +political side; I shall not repeat what I have already written: how the +League endeavoured to stir up disorder in Ireland; how it declared open +war against the Castle; how it tried to terrorise the ministers of the +law; how it made 'boycotting' more effective than it had ever been; how, +if responsible for many grave deeds of blood, it mainly relied on this +malign influence, which tortured hundreds of victims in many districts, +and was fitly compared to 'the pestilence that walks in darkness;' how Mr. +Gladstone and the Opposition, to the disgrace of both, gave the conspiracy +their support and excused its crimes; and how it was ere long put down by +Mr. Balfour strongly seconded by Rome. But I must say a word on the +agrarian side of the movement; for this illustrated the increased +ingenuity of the League. Some of its leaders issued a mandate against the +payment of rent, except upon reductions to an enormous extent; should the +landlords refuse, the tenants, on every estate, were to lodge their rents +into what was called the 'War chest,' a common fund to be held in trust; +the object of this being to prevent the secret payment of rent, which had +repeatedly, we have seen, taken place, and to put a stop to 'defection +from the cause.' The 'Plan of Campaign' as was its name, was thus ushered +on; it was a criminal plot of the very basest kind; but though it proved +successful in some instances, and it caused much agrarian disorder and +crime, it was, on the whole, a comparative failure. The peasantry, +close-fisted and shrewd, distrusted the so-called 'trustees of the War +chest;' they generally declined to put their money in it; the 'Plan' was +only carried out on few estates, though it compelled many landlords to +make reductions of rent; it is remarkable that Parnell did not approve of +the swindle. Long, however, before the defeat of the League, there had +been a thousand instances of agrarian crime: five thousand miserable +beings had been 'boycotted,' in many cases with frightful results; a +thousand had been placed under the protection of the police. As had +happened during the _régime_ of the Land League, these victims were nearly +all of the humble classes. + +In 1887 another change was made in the Irish land system, essentially a +development of the Land Act of 1881. That measure, I have said, applied to +tenants at will only, that is, liable to be dispossessed by a notice to +quit; it did not apply to tenants under leasehold tenures. A sharp +distinction, therefore, was drawn between the two classes; a farmer, with +land on one side of a ditch, could secure the advantages of the 'Three +F's;' his neighbour, on the other side, could not; the distinction was so +palpably harsh, that many landlords in Ireland saw its injustice, and +enabled leasehold tenants to obtain the benefits of the law. An Act, +prepared by Lord Salisbury's Government, brought ordinary Irish +leaseholders within the Land Act of 1881; these were given a right to have +'fair rents' fixed, and 'fixity of tenure' and 'free sale' under certain +conditions. The Act of 1887, also, empowered the Courts to set aside +perpetual leases unfairly obtained; and it relaxed the restrictions of the +Act of 1881 with respect to subletting and subdivision, and the exclusion +of 'town parks.' It improved, moreover, the law of ejectment, +facilitating the vindication of the rights of the landlord; and--a strange +provision--it enabled a middleman, in certain events, to creep out of his +contract, and to free himself from the rent due to his superior landlord. +In consequence of the fall of prices that had lately occurred, and the +depression of agriculture that had been the result, the Act, too, reduced, +for a short period of time, 'fair rents' that had been already fixed; and +it contained other enactments wholly in the interest of the occupier of +the Irish soil. Regarded as a whole, something was to be said for the +measure, on the principles of the legislation of 1881; but the liberation +of the middleman from the payment of a debt has been attended with grave +wrong, and was an ominous precedent leading to others of the kind. The new +law was, of course, another inroad on the rights of the Irish landlord, +another innovation made against his interests; it has certainly +strengthened his claim to compensation for the loss of his property, +acknowledged by Mr. Gladstone to be unquestionable, should it be +reasonably made out. For the rest, the National League made a boast that +the Act had been wrung by its efforts from a foreign Parliament; the Act +certainly, like that of 1881, was a concession, derogating from the rights +of a powerless class, in the hope of weakening a conspiracy against the +State, by detaching from it large classes supported by it, and handing +over to these what had belonged to the Irish landed gentry.[82] + +The Land Act of 1887, it has been alleged, was the principal cause that +disorder in Ireland was suppressed, and that comparative peace was +restored. The measure may have had effects in this direction; but these +assuredly were not great; the number of leaseholders was not large; the +reductions made in 'fair rents' were temporary and small. In truth, as +agrarian war, stirred up by the Land League, did not diminish when the Act +of 1881 was passed, but was brought to an end by what is called coercion, +the agrarian war, stirred up by the National League, was quelled, not by +the Act of 1887, but by resolute government, assisted by a repressive +measure infinitely less stringent than that of 1882, and, in some degree, +I have said, by Rome. It is worse than unwise to ignore plain facts; grave +outbreaks of disorder and crime in Ireland can only be put down by severe +means, and invariably have been put down by these; that 'force is no +remedy' is mere false sentiment. The violence, nay, the power, of the +National League decreased rapidly and greatly after about 1889; the +conspiracy seemed well-nigh to have dwindled away. This was partly because +Parnell, negotiating with Mr. Gladstone, in the hope of obtaining Home +Rule, discouraged agitation of every kind in Ireland, and in order to +hoodwink the English people, and to bring about the 'Union of Hearts,' +represented, with his followers, that Ireland was at perfect peace, and +only awaited 'self-government' to be completely happy. But infinitely the +most potent reason was that the fall of Parnell almost broke up the +League; his creatures split into angry factions, exasperated against each +other by furious discord; as the result the organisation of the League was +shattered; the peasantry and the Catholic priesthood fell away from it. At +the same time the Fenians in the United States, much its best supporters, +withdrew the subsidies they had hitherto lavished; the League became +penniless and almost powerless. By 1895 the conspiracy showed scarcely a +sign of life; agrarian crime had sunk to a very low ebb; there was no sign +of a movement against the payment of rent; order prevailed, it may be +said, throughout the community. The conspiracy, nevertheless, was not +dead; its leaders, if quiescent, had not disappeared; well-informed +observers knew that the end had not come. I have described in another +chapter, by what means, and through what conditions, it revived gradually +under Lord Salisbury's third Government, and acquired strength that may be +on the increase; it is not yet formidable, in any real sense, and its +leaders are not to be named with Parnell; it is not receiving funds as yet +from America; but the United Irish League is its true successor; and this +commands eighty votes in the House of Commons. Time only can show if a +period of agrarian strife and crime may not be about to open again for +Ireland; it is foolish optimism to assert that this is impossible, or to +contend that the agrarian legislation of the last twenty years, as regards +the Irish land, will necessarily, or even probably, produce this fortunate +result. + +In 1891 another change was effected in Irish landed relations, as usual in +the interest of the tenant, and against his landlord. Middleman tenures +had well-nigh been extinguished; but some hundreds, probably, were still +to be found; and as a middleman, through the legislation of 1887, was +enabled to repudiate his contract, in certain cases, and to escape the +payment of rent to his superior landlord, he was now to obtain an +advantage in other instances. The large majority of this class of +intermediate owners, originally created in the eighteenth century, held, +at least, in present times, by perpetual leases, which had long ago, as a +rule, been converted into estates in fee farm, that is, estates in fee, +subject to a perpetual rent; Parliament passed an Act in 1891, enlarged +and amended five years afterwards, declaring that, in cases in which +tenants of this kind were 'in _bonâ fide_ occupation' of lands, under +rents which, in the judgment of the Land Commission, should be 'a full +agricultural rent,' they might either agree with their landlords to redeem +the rent at a price to be determined by that tribunal, or, should the +landlords refuse their consent, might have 'fair rents' fixed as in the +instance of common farming tenants.[83] The application of this law could +not extend far, for tenants of this description were very few; but it +asserted a strange, and, I think, a most vicious principle. The Act +practically forced a superior landlord, often a poor man, either to accept +a price assessed by a Court over which he had no control, in lieu of a +rent, in all probability reasonably well secured, or, as an alternative, +to submit to have a 'fair rent' fixed on the land, the rent to be +discharged from improvements made by the tenant. If, therefore, a tenant +of this kind had built, say, a valuable house, on his holding, which would +thus largely add to the security for the rent, this--at least, so it is +generally believed--was not to be taken into account in fixing 'the fair +rent;' and this principle, it may confidently be predicted, will be +extended further. Should a tenant, at a 'fair rent,' in this predicament, +be evicted for the failure to pay the rent, a law, in all human +probability, will be made, to obtain for him compensation, under the Act +of 1870, from the benefits of which he would be, as affairs stand, +excluded. The result might be that if, as would often happen, the +improvements he had made were of great value--his interest, in the land, +being a perpetual interest--the sum the landlord would be adjudged to pay, +might swallow up the whole value of the rent, and practically confiscate +his whole property.[84] + +In 1896 another inroad was made on the rights of Irish landlords, and +another dole given to the tenant class in Ireland; the descent to Avernus +had proved easy; a Conservative Government had followed it since 1887. +This fresh legislation was mainly in the interest of the Presbyterian +farmers of Ulster, who had supported the Union almost to a man, and +possessed no little political weight; but who, always separated more or +less from their landlords, had shown dissatisfaction with the fixing of +'fair rents,' and had begun to cry out for what is called 'the compulsory +purchase' of the estates of their landlords, a policy on which I shall +comment afterwards. The Bill contained just and well-devised provisions; +it improved the procedure for fixing 'fair rents,' if not nearly as +thoroughly as it ought to have done; it protected the leases creating +'fixity,' under the new tenure--Mr. Gladstone, flying in the face of the +ablest lawyers, had passionately declared that these were sacrosanct--in +instances in which these might have been annulled; it proposed, what I had +always considered right, that old arrears of rent ought not to be allowed +to hang over the heads of tenants, and that rent could not be recovered on +eviction, if due for upward of two years.[85] But the Bill abounded in +principles dangerous and false; it was, taken as a whole, a mischievous +measure; it was another mine sprung upon the Irish landed gentry. Lands +hitherto excluded from the benefits of the 'Three F's,' under the Acts of +1881 and 1887--that is, demesnes, town parks, residential, and pastoral +holdings--were largely brought within the scope of the Bill, that is, they +were made subject to 'fair rents,' and, if held by tenants, were +practically taken away from the landlords; the provisions of the Bill, as +to demesnes, were especially harsh; many a mansion and demesne, which +might happen to be let, would really become the property of the tenant, +the owner being put off with a rent-charge. The worst proposals of this +measure, however, were those relating to improvements made by tenants, +exempted from rent, we have seen, by the Act of 1881. The Courts of +Justice in Ireland had rightly declared with one voice, that improvements +of this kind were not to be discharged from rent, unless they were the +improvements treated by the Act of 1870, that is, rents might be charged +on tenants' improvements, if these did not fall within the definition laid +down by that law, or if they were outside the limitations it had imposed, +in order to shut out obsolete and unjust claims, which might harass and do +grievous wrong to landlords. All this was completely changed by the new +measure; the definition of improvements was wholly altered, in order to +secure their being exempted from rent; the restrictions in point of time, +and many other matters, as regards claims for improvements, were largely +swept away, and the power of 'contracting out' of such claims was still +further abridged. The whole law, in a word, as to tenants' improvements, +as these were to create exemption from rent, was placed on altogether a +new basis; this was detrimental in every respect to the landlord, and gave +advantages to the tenant, in my judgment, utterly unjust.[86] + +The Bill contained other provisions, all in the same direction, that is, +for the advantage of the Irish tenant, and to his landlord's loss, +especially one relaxing the law as to the subdivision and subletting of +farms, an inveterate and very pernicious practice. It introduced, also, a +new principle, on which I shall say some words afterwards, with respect to +another experiment on the Irish land, that is, what is called Land +Purchase, under conditions, not thought of before, until they were laid +down by a Conservative Government. The measure was hustled through the +House of Commons with such indecorous haste, that Sir Edward Carson, now a +law-officer of the Crown, walked out of that Assembly to express his +disgust; it narrowly escaped defeat in the House of Lords, loyal as the +Peers to Lord Salisbury are; indeed, though hardly debated, its vices were +soon made manifest. It is unnecessary to point out what the general +character of the Act is; it enlarged very considerably the sphere of the +'Three F's,' greatly increasing the wrong done to the Irish landlord, by +doing away with the restrictions, placed by Mr. Gladstone, in 1870, on +illegitimate claims in respect of improvements; its direct tendency was to +reduce rents wholesale, and to promote more litigation between landlord +and tenant; and if it encouraged tenants to make improvements on their +farms, its plain effect, I will not say its purpose, was to 'improve the +Irish landlords out of their estates,' the contemptuous phrase of a great +master of Equity. Its mischief, however, went a great deal further; +tenants making improvements are only exempted from rent, in respect of +these, by this Act; they are not within the protection of the Act of 1870, +if improvements of any kind are excluded by it; if a tenant, therefore, +makes an improvement on his farm, which is not 'suitable' to it in a real +sense, say, builds a mansion upon a petty holding, he will not be entitled +to compensation, should he quit it, even though dispossessed for +non-payment of his rent. But tenants, in these circumstances, like those I +have referred to before, would assuredly proclaim that they had here a +great and real grievance; and they would be relieved from it, doubtless, +by another law, giving them compensation, perhaps, to their landlord's +ruin. A dangerous principle is thus hidden within the Act; this will +probably be asserted against the owners of ground rents, not only in +Ireland, but in England and Scotland; and the law, taken as a whole, has +strengthened the claim of the Irish landed gentry to be indemnified, as +was solemnly promised, for what they have suffered from the legislation +begun in 1881. + +While the Irish land system was thus being dealt with, on the side of +occupation, during many years, experiments were made on it, likewise on +the side of ownership. Resenting the legislation that had produced the +'Three F's,' Conservative politicians took it into their heads that Mr. +Gladstone had 'created' 'dual ownership,' as they gave it the name, in +Ireland; they insisted that this was simply an intolerable thing. +Unfortunately Mr. Gladstone had no more 'created dual ownership' than he +had created the mountains and lakes of Ireland; he had only developed the +joint ownership, which the Irish tenant possessed in his holding, in +thousands of instances, if he had developed it under the very worst +conditions. This theory, however, at which Burke would have laughed with +contempt, and which revealed the incapacity to understand Irish land +tenure, ingrained, it would appear, in the English mind, was eagerly taken +up and found much support; it was resolved to extend the process of +converting tenants in Ireland into owners of their farms, by a method +hitherto untried, and unknown in any part of Europe. Under the Church +Disestablishment Act, and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881, the State had +advanced money to the occupier of the Irish soil, in order to enable him +to acquire his farm; but it had made it incumbent on him to contribute +part of the price; the transaction, therefore, was, in a real sense, a +purchase. This, the only security for honesty and thrift, was taken away +in 1885; Parliament passed an Act enabling the Irish tenant to become +owner of his holding without paying down a shilling; the State was to +advance the whole price; and the State was to be repaid by a terminable +annuity, charged on the land, and extinguished at the end of less than +half a century. This terminable annuity was to be much less than a true +rent, or even than a 'fair rent' adjusted by the State; the transaction, +therefore, was not a purchase, but a gift, akin to a bribe, another +largess bestowed on the tenant class in Ireland, and another injury, as I +shall prove, inflicted on the Irish landed gentry. This 'Land Purchase,' +as it was falsely called, was to be voluntary on the part of landlord and +tenant; it was to be conducted on the footing of free contract, as had +been the case under the preceding statutes; the State was to obtain a +guarantee from the landlord; and Parliament voted £5,000,000 to carry out +this policy. + +Exactly as had happened in the case of the Encumbered Estates Act, this +scheme of 'Land Purchase' was pronounced successful; some scores of +landlords sold land, some hundreds of tenants bought it; the real nature +of the proceeding and its inevitable results were ignored; it was even +boasted that 'dual ownership' would be got rid of, nay, that the Irish +Land Question was being finally 'settled.' But when the first sum of +£5,000,000 had been expended, and Parliament was asked to vote a second +sum, it began to hesitate as to this dealing with the Irish land; the +British taxpayer demurred and growled; with a true instinct he disliked +the security; it was found very difficult to procure the funds required, +large as the majority was of Lord Salisbury's Government. His Ministry, +however, adhered to the new policy; and Parliament enacted a measure in +1891, which I have always thought unconstitutional in the highest degree, +not to speak of the evils it was certain to produce. By this Act a sum of +about £30,000,000 was made forthcoming to facilitate 'Land Purchase,' to +abolish 'dual ownership,' and to change Irish tenants into owners of land; +this sum was to be secured by the methods before referred to, that is, by +terminable annuities less than any equitable rent, and by guarantees on +the part of selling landlords; but, furthermore, a whole series of funds, +devoted to Ireland, for Irish purposes, and absolutely essential to her +most important needs, were appropriated to make good any default on the +part of 'purchasing' tenants, in the payment of annuities charged on their +farms; and even the Irish counties were rendered liable in the last +resort. Should, therefore, tenants in Ireland, who had acquired the +ownership of their farms, refuse to pay those annuities on any pretence, +say, through an appeal made by a Land League conspiracy--the manifesto +against all rent cannot be forgotten--this extraordinary spectacle would +then be seen: the State would have a right to seize upon the grants made +for National schools and lunatic asylums throughout Ireland; these +institutions would be shut up; children and madmen would be let loose +through the country; and the owner of an Irish estate would have to pay +for the dishonesty perhaps of his former tenants. The late Lord Randolph +Churchill severely condemned this scheme; I agree with him it was utterly +unjust, and but too characteristic of the contempt of the rights of +Ireland, unhappily often displayed by British statesmen. + +Only a sum, it will be observed, of about £40,000,000, that is, two of +£5,000,000, and some £30,000,000 more, has thus been made available for +'Land Purchase;' this obviously could not transfer even a fourth part of +the Irish land, valued, we have seen, by Mr. Gladstone at £300,000,000--in +a remarkable speech in reply to Lord George Hamilton--and almost certainly +worth from £150,000,000 to £200,000,000. The process of doing away with +'dual ownership' and making tenants in Ireland owners of their farms, +having been pronounced by its authors slow, the Act of 1896, referred to +before, enabled the landlord's guarantee to be dispensed with, and +provided that, in the case of hopelessly embarrassed landlords, whose +estates were being offered for sale in the Courts, the tenants should +virtually have a right of pre-emption, thus asserting a principle, on +which I shall dwell afterwards, and known as the 'Compulsory Purchase' of +the Irish land. I shall point out, in another chapter, the present and the +inevitable future results of this policy of so-styled 'Land Purchase;' +suffice it to say here, that, in my judgment, it betrays utter ignorance +of the Irish land system, and of the customs and inclinations of the Irish +peasant; that it proceeds on an essentially immoral principle, the bribery +of a class to promote its welfare; that, from the very nature of the case, +it cannot abolish 'dual ownership;' that, human creatures being what they +are, it cannot, as is being already proved, establish a thriving body of +occupying owners on the Irish soil; that it must create sharp and unjust +distinctions in Irish land tenure, iniquitous to the landlord and to every +tenant, who may be excluded from its benefits; that it must directly tend, +as it is even now tending, to arouse a cry for a wholesale confiscation of +Irish estates, the most shameful and wrongful Ireland has yet witnessed; +and that so far from settling the Irish Land Question, it must necessarily +unsettle it from top to bottom. As respects the legislation I have briefly +described, on the side of the occupation of the Irish land--by many +degrees the most important--I shall also comment upon its results in a +subsequent chapter, after examining its administration by the tribunal it +has set up. But a word may be said, in this place, on its essential +character: from 1881 to the present time, it is absolutely without a +precedent in civilised lands; it has trampled on economic science and the +truths it teaches, as, indeed, its chief author made his boast; it has +created a mode of land tenure in Ireland not in accord with fact, which +has virtually deprived the Irish landlord of real ownership in his estate, +has turned him into a kind of annuitant, and has virtually changed the +Irish tenant into a kind of owner, but under conditions absolutely bad; +its inevitable tendency was to cut down rents wholesale, without regard to +the simplest justice; it established a system of mischievous litigation +between landlord and tenant, demoralising and increasing the division of +classes; it exhibited, on an enormous scale, characteristic contempt of +Irish rights of property; and finally, if Parliamentary pledges are to be +fulfilled, and gross wrong is not to be consecrated by law, it has given +the Irish landlord a great and legitimate claim to compensation from the +State. As we survey this unwise and destructive medley of law, we are +forcibly reminded of the words of Burke:--'I am unalterably persuaded that +the attempt to oppress, degrade, impoverish, confiscate, and extinguish +the original gentlemen, and landed property of a whole nation, cannot be +justified under any form it may assume.'[87] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE +IRISH LAND ACTS + + The administration of the Land Act of 1870 in the main + good--Difficulty about claims for tenants' improvements--The + administration of the Land Act of 1881, and of its supplements--The + Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions--Allowances to be made for + these tribunals--Principles which the Land Commission should have + adopted in fixing 'fair rents'--The procedure and practice it ought to + have established--It made mistakes as to both--The nature of the + Sub-Commission Courts--This was objectionable in the highest + degree--These Courts have, however unconsciously, done grave wrong to + Irish landlords--Causes of this--Characteristics of their + proceedings--They disregarded the principles they ought to have + followed, and adopted faulty and erroneous methods--Different + illustrations of these grave mistakes--The Land Commission and appeals + as to 'fair rent'--Importance of this subject--Faulty procedure of the + Land Commission in appeals--Valuers--The second Land Commission--Its + procedure worse than that of the first--Theory of occupation + right--This another wrong done to landlords--The Fry Commission and + its report--Confiscation of the property of Irish landlords--The + proofs of this--Apologies made for the Land Commission--The + administration of the Land Purchase Acts. + + +I turn to the administration of the new Irish Land Code, of which I have +described the distinctive features. The County Courts of Ireland, I have +said, were entrusted with the task of carrying out the Land Act of 1870; +the principal duty of the judges was to determine rights, under the Ulster +and analogous Customs in the south, and to declare the sums to be paid to +tenants, when leaving their holdings, for compensation for improvements, +and in respect of disturbance. As evictions were by no means frequent, in +the period between 1870 and 1879, the litigation before these tribunals, +under these different heads, though by no means trivial, was not +excessive; the applications on the part of tenants were not very numerous; +there was ample time to consider the law, whether in the subordinate or +the appellate Courts; and though there was much difference of opinion as +to the amount of compensation to be given to suitors, the administration +of the Act was not seriously impugned,[88] and, on the whole, was +reasonable and just. The most remarkable circumstance in the inquiries +held before the Courts was, certainly, the extravagance of the claims put +forward, on account of tenants' improvements, circumscribed as these were +by the limitations of the law; everything in the nature of an agricultural +work was called an improvement, from repairing an old fence to cleaning an +old drain; hours and days were lost in endeavours to disentangle the +truth, and to arrive at sound and legal conclusions. I could fill scores +of pages with descriptions of demands of this kind, usually pressed with +reckless and hard swearing; they ought to have been a warning, as +unhappily they were not, not to break down the restrictions contained in +the Act of 1870, and not to extend legislation, in this direction, against +the rights of the landlord. I confine myself to a single example: I tried +a case, in 1895, in which a tenant's claims, under the Act of 1870, were +£1130; I cut these down to £164; after deducting £155 found due to the +landlord, I adjudged to the tenant a sum of less than £10; and there was +no appeal from the decision I pronounced.[89] + +The Land Act of 1870 has been well-nigh superseded by the great measure +of 1881, and by the legislation which has been its supplement. The +administration of this part of the new Land Code, by many degrees the most +important, was given, as I have pointed out before, to a wholly new +tribunal, the Land Commission, and to Sub-Commissions dependent on it; a +concurrent jurisdiction was given to the Irish County Courts; but they +have had very little to do in this province. The principal work of the +Land Commission has been to fix 'fair rents,' and to make statutory +leases, 'fixity of tenure,' in a word, in a kind of disguise, and thus to +give effect to the policy adopted by Mr. Gladstone in 1881. The three +original members of the Land Commission, in all respects its directors, +were the late Mr. Justice O'Hagan, the late Mr. E. F. Litton, and the late +Mr. John E. Vernon; Lord Salisbury denounced these appointments in +emphatic language, as being against the just rights of Irish +landlords;[90] the charge was not without plausible grounds at least, for +Mr. Justice O'Hagan had been one of the 'Young Ireland' party, and Mr. +Litton had been a strong tenant-right advocate. These two gentlemen, +nevertheless, were most honourable men, and capable, if not very +distinguished, lawyers; Mr. Vernon was an excellent and experienced +country gentleman, if, in politics, of the Liberal faith; and as all three +have long ago passed away, it would be unjust to make charges of +illegitimate conduct, even if they may not have been wholly free from +unconscious bias. Great allowance ought to be made, in common justice, for +the Commissioners in the situation that had been made for them, and regard +being had to their most arduous duties. To fix 'fair rent,' even +approximately, was difficult in the extreme; as Judge Longfield predicted +many years before, and every well-informed Irishman knew, the adjustment +of rent, through the agency of the State, would inevitably cause a general +lowering of rents. Again, the Commissioners were, from the outset, +harassed by a rush of applications to fix 'fair rents;' these came in, +within a few weeks, in thousands; they were tempted, therefore, to set +about their work at once, without taking the careful precautions, or +entering into all the considerations, the nature of their duty required. +Two circumstances, also, no doubt, had effect on their minds; the Land +League was creating a Reign of Terror, and destroying the property of the +Irish landlords; the Commissioners probably hoped that they would weaken +the power of the League, by, so to speak, bidding against it, and cutting +rents down. Above all, the Land Commission, like the Encumbered Estates +Commission, was a tribunal set up to carry out a policy, that is, in word, +to abate rents; and all experience, Irish experience notably, proves that +such a body of men usually fulfils its mission. + +Mr. Gladstone, we have seen, had expressed a belief that 'fair rents,' as +a rule, would be fixed by contract; that the Act of 1881 would produce +this result; and that this part of the work of the Land Commission, +accordingly, would not be very great. Unquestionably, too, with his +leading followers, he was convinced that rents in Ireland would not be +largely reduced;[91] it is important to bear this distinctly in mind, +regard being had to subsequent events. These anticipations were to prove +vain; but the Land Commissioners possibly may have shared his views, and +may have resolved to act upon them, before they first addressed themselves +to the task of 'fixing fair rents.' After experience, it is easy to be +wise; but we can now clearly discern what they ought to have done, +considering the heavy work they were soon to find imposed on them. Their +first duty should have been to establish some standard, which would make a +reasonable criterion of rent; the means to accomplish this end were not +wanting. Mr. Law, the Irish Attorney-General of Mr. Gladstone, one of the +most distinguished lawyers of his day, and afterwards a holder of the +Great Seal of Ireland, had made a definition of 'fair rent' in the House +of Commons; 'a fair rent was to be a competition rent minus the yearly +value of the tenant's interest in the holding; that was what was intended, +and anything else would be monstrously unjust.'[92] For some reason that +has not transpired, this definition did not find a place in the Act; but +the authority of its framer was great; it must have been known to the Land +Commissioners; had they adopted it, and based their decisions upon it, +things would have been very different from what they are at the present +time. But there were other tests to indicate a standard of rent, to be +regarded at least, if not conclusive. The valuation of the lands of +Ireland made for the assessment of rates, Griffith's valuation, as it was +commonly called, which Parnell had made a measure of 'fair rent,' would +certainly have been of real use, though it varied greatly in different +counties; and the Commission appointed by Mr. Gladstone, only a few months +before, had, I have said, reported, that Ireland, as a whole, was in no +sense an over-rented land. There was another consideration, as regards +Irish rents, which the Land Commissioners ought to have borne in mind. The +rents on the estates of the great landlords, and of the gentry of old +descent, were, as a rule, low; the rents of the purchasers under the +Encumbered Estates Acts were high, nay, excessive, in not a few instances. + +Other circumstances, moreover, of great importance, ought to have been +taken into account, with respect to this subject. The rental of Ireland +was not as high as it had been before the Great Famine; where rents, +therefore, had not been increased, and had been regularly paid for a long +series of years, there was the strongest possible presumption that these +would be 'fair.' Again, the material progress of Ireland had been great +during the forty preceding years: the wages of labour had, indeed, risen; +but owing to the introduction of good farm machinery, the cost of +production, in agriculture, had diminished; the extension of the railway +system had opened new markets, and had brought even Connaught within a few +hours of Great Britain; steam navigation had multiplied and improved; the +modes of husbandry and the breeds of stock of all kinds had become +infinitely better than they had been; and prices of late had been very +high. These were all elements to be regarded in the determination of 'fair +rent;' they ought to have been examined with care; and inquiries on these +matters should have extended over a long space of time. Moreover, as the +Land Act of 1881 discharged improvements made by tenants from rent, as +these were defined and limited by the Act of 1870, the greatest pains +ought to have been taken that claims for exemption should be strictly +dealt with, and not permitted to run riot, especially as it was notorious +that demands of this kind, made under the law already in force, were +usually excessive, supported by untrue statements, and by no means easy to +resist and disprove. Another fact, also, of the gravest moment, ought to +have been thoroughly considered, as regards this question. As improvements +made by tenants were not to be charged with rent, it was but equitable +that the lands they might hold should be valued as if in their normal +state; that if these had been deteriorated, either through wilful +misconduct, or gross neglect, their occupiers were not to make profit of +their own wrong; that deterioration, in a word, was not to be allowed to +work rent down, and was to be taken into account, in adjudicating upon +'fair rent.' This was the more necessary because it was well known that +numbers of farms in Ireland had been more or less run out; and especially +because, as in the case of the ryot of Bengal, under the Permanent +Settlement of Lord Cornwallis, an Irish tenant would be strongly tempted +to injure his lands, if he believed that, when 'a fair rent' should be +fixed on them, he would be permitted to take advantage of his own default. +It should be added that, in the fixing of 'fair rents,' the large sums +which, in many instances, Irish landlords had laid out in improving their +estates, notably since the years that succeeded the Famine, ought, as a +matter of course, to have been kept in mind. + +These were the general principles which should have guided the Land +Commission in approaching the question of fixing 'fair rent.' There was +nothing in the Act of 1881 to prevent the Land Commissioners, as a Court +of first instance, adjudicating directly in cases of this kind, or to +compel them to refer these to their Sub-Commissions; indeed the plain +intention of the law was in a contrary sense. Had the Land Commissioners +adopted this course--and this, I venture to say, was their obvious +duty--they would, no doubt, have considered the questions before them at +length, and with close attention; have made their inquiries go back many +years, and have laid down, in elaborate judgments, the maxims and rules to +be applied in the fixing of 'fair rent.' The evidence that would have +come before them would have been of two kinds: that which depended upon +the statements of valuers, on the side of landlords and tenants alike; +this, of course, would be of great importance; but it should have been +borne in mind that it would be biassed evidence; and that, in the existing +state of Ireland, and of Irish opinion, the statements of tenants' valuers +would require to be strictly watched. The other head of evidence was of a +much more trustworthy kind; it was indicated by the circumstances of the +cases being heard, and was necessarily suggested by the inquiries +themselves. This class of evidence would be desired from a consideration +of the rate of rent in the neighbourhood or even of adjoining lands, in a +word, of what may be called the market price of rent; from an examination +of what a reasonable rent would be, payable by a solvent tenant to a +fair-minded landlord; and even from a review of rent fixed by the +competition of bidders for land, these circumstances, in every given case, +being, of course, controlled by a due regard being had, in the words of +the law, for the 'tenant's interest.' There was another and very important +test; the sums paid in Ulster and elsewhere on the transfer of farms were +usually large, sometimes not less than a third or even a half of the value +of the fee simple; and as these sums were always subject to the existing +rents, the first charges on the lands being sold, this would afford a +strong presumption that such rents would be 'fair.' No doubt the Act of +1881 declared that such payments were not to be taken into account, _per +se_, and apart from other considerations in the actual fixing of rent, so +far as regards a given farm; but the law certainly allowed--and it has +always been so held--that payments of this kind might be kept in view in +forming, generally, an estimate of what a 'fair rent' should be.[93] + +The Land Commissioners, but from a different point of view, might have +learned something from Parnell in this matter. They were, no doubt, +harassed by the prospect of the task before them; but had they taken a +certain number of 'test cases,' and investigated them as a Court of first +instance, they would have laid down principles to be followed in the +fixing of 'fair rent;' have explained these in well-considered judgments, +going over the whole field of inquiry; and, so far as in them lay, have +tried to do justice. Even if they had not adopted this course, one of +their members, as the Act of 1881 provided, might have taken part for some +time with their subordinates in the adjustment of rent; this would have +been in accord with Mr. Gladstone's assertions that the Land Commission +was to be the real arbiter of rent. Unfortunately the Commissioners acted +quite otherwise; their conduct, palliate as you may, was an abdication of +a plain duty, on the plea that they were overwhelmed by the work before +them. Not one of them ever sat in a Court of first instance to fix 'fair +rents;' they delegated this the most important of all their functions to +their Sub-Commissions, to which they thus committed the charge of +adjusting rent throughout the whole of Ireland. These Sub-Commissions +formed Courts, each composed of three members, one a legal Commissioner +and two laymen; the Sub-Commissioners were nominees of the Government, +whether appointed on the recommendation of the Land Commission or not is +not certain; the only qualifications for the legal Commissioners were that +they should be barristers or solicitors of six years' standing, and for +the lay Commissioners that they should have some knowledge of land. These +were strange tribunals to deal with property worth hundreds of millions; +but this was only a part of what must be called a scandal most +discreditable to those responsible for it. The Sub-Commissioners, one and +all, were much underpaid; their salaries were inadequate to secure fitting +men; and, one and all, they were at the sufferance of the men at the +Castle, liable to be dismissed at a moment's notice, and without the +independence which is the best guarantee of justice. Some of the +Sub-Commissioners, indeed, were only paid for the job, by the day; they +had, therefore, a direct personal interest to reduce rents, in order to +make work for themselves and to retain their places. Even in Ireland such +tribunals were never set on foot, since Cromwell assembled his Courts of +Claims to give their sanction to his huge forfeitures; that they were ever +thought of is one of the many proofs of the disregard shown to property in +land in Ireland. No wonder that it was significantly remarked: 'The whole +spirit of our judicial institutions suggests that officers with such +extensive powers should be selected with the greatest care and with +reference to their possession of high qualifications, and that they should +be placed in a position of independence, and should, so far as possible, +be lifted above the suspicions that surround them.'[94] + +Sixty or seventy officials of this type--the number was afterwards largely +increased--were thus, in the significant words of one, 'let loose over +Ireland' to deal with estates; it is very remarkable that they have never +received instructions from the Land Commission how to perform their +duties. The procedure of the Courts of the Sub-Commissions was, under +existing conditions, as well devised as could be fairly expected. The +three Commissioners, who formed a Court, nearly always sate together, and +heard the evidence brought before them as to what were 'fair rents;' the +legal Commissioner decided questions of law; and, this evidence having +been taken, the two lay Commissioners inspected the farms, the subjects of +the previous inquiries, and having conferred with their legal colleague, +determined with him what should be their 'fair rents.' This was the +ordinary if not the universal practice; if some deviations have been made +from it, these cannot be deemed of very great importance. Grave complaints +have been made, in not a few instances, of the lay Commissioners, when +engaged in examining lands; it has been said that they often neglected and +'scamped' their work; but these charges have been hardly, if at all, +sustained; my own experience--and it is tolerably large--is that the +Commissioners performed their functions with diligence and care, and +sometimes gave proof of real knowledge of husbandry.[95] But it was +utterly impossible that tribunals of this kind, not composed of experts of +a high order, dependent upon the breath of the Castle, without regulations +to direct their conduct, and acting, without concert, in many districts, +could adjust rent in a satisfactory way, and in conformity with true +methods, especially as the work they had to do was excessive; indeed, they +sometimes fixed 'fair rents' by dozens in a day. It was equally impossible +that the Sub-Commissions--and to do their members justice they never made +the attempt--could take into account all the manifold and far-reaching +elements which enter into the question of 'fair rent,' and could set +forth, in exhaustive judgments, the principles applicable to a most +intricate problem. On the contrary, as a rule, and no doubt wisely, they +avoided topics which might have tasked the highest judicial powers; they +decided the cases before them summarily, and with little reflection, +certainly without the protracted examination required to establish settled +rules and doctrines. And the result has been that they disregarded, and +even set at nought, a whole series of considerations, of supreme +importance, with reference to the fixing of 'fair rent;' and, however +unconsciously and innocently, they have been the authors, in the first +instance at least, of the gravest injustice, and of wrong, done wholesale, +to the landed gentry of Ireland. + +To make this plain, let us glance back at the principles which assuredly +ought to have been kept in view, in coming to sound conclusions on the +subject of 'fair rent.' It will be seen that the Sub-Commissioners either +gave little or no attention to these, or directly violated them in, +perhaps, tens of thousands of cases. They have never attempted to +establish some kind of standard, which would form a general measure of +'fair rent;' they have completely ignored the definition of Mr. Law, +precise and most valuable as it was; they have treated 'Griffith's +valuation' as though it did not exist; they have regarded the Report of +Mr. Gladstone's Commission, declaring that Ireland was not excessively +rented, as mere waste paper; they have apparently taken hardly any account +of the well-known distinction between the low rentals of the great and old +landlords, and the rack-rents too often exacted by purchasers under the +Encumbered Estates Acts. So, too, it would seem, they have refused to +consider the strong presumption that rents would be 'fair' if not raised +during a long series of years, and if reasonably well paid, within that +period; and they certainly have given no real weight, as an element in +adjusting rent, to the agricultural progress made by Ireland since the +Great Famine. Innumerable complaints have been made against their +decisions as to the exemption of tenants' improvements from rent; but my +belief is that they gave great attention to this subject; the wrong that +has been done was owing to the difficulty of the law, and of its +application to given cases; and the law, besides, was not, I think, just. +On the correlative and most important question of the deterioration of +farms through the default of tenants, they have hardly ever inquired into +this; they have repeatedly done the landlords wrong; they have made grave +and palpable mistakes; and in many instances they have made no allowances +for the expenditure of landlords upon their estates. Having thus refused +to follow the principles which ought to have been their guide, they have +widely deviated in the actual fixing of 'fair rents' from rules and +methods they should have observed and made effective. They have given too +much weight to the class of evidence that was least important and most +open to question; they have attached little and sometimes no value to the +class of evidence by far the most trustworthy, and that ought to possess +the greatest influence. This has especially been the case, as we shall +see, with respect to the sums paid on the transfer of farms, the strongest +possible indication that their rents must be 'fair,' on the ordinary +principles of human nature, and giving the purchasers credit for the +simplest common sense. + +These are grave charges against quasi-judicial bodies; let us see if they +are not completely justified. The Sub-Commissioners, I have said, have +taken no heed of Mr. Law's definition of 'fair rent;' but they have acted +as though they set it at defiance; they have ignored the principle of +competition in fixing 'fair' rents. Unquestionably, as Mr. Law pointed +out, a deduction should be made from a competition rent, regard being had +to 'the tenant's interest,' that is, to his rights in respect of +improvements, and perhaps to his rights on account of his tenure, a lease +renewable every fifteen years, when a 'fair rent' is being fixed on his +farm; but why the very idea of competition, that is, of market value, was +to be excluded as an element in estimating 'fair rent,' is what men of +common sense have never understood. This, in fact, was a portentous +mistake, with consequences of a far-reaching kind; you might as well argue +that because two partners had an interest in a fee simple estate, or two +peasants had each a share in a cow, the price of the land or the cow was +not to depend on what would be given for it at an auction mart or a county +fair. Yet this was a position the Sub-Commissions have always taken; they +have always insisted that competition had nothing to do with 'fair rent.' +The evidence on this subject is conclusive; I can only take a few samples +from the statements of a cloud of witnesses, who really seem to make a +boast of their faith. Colonel Bayley, a Sub-Commissioner of large +experience, has laid it down that the 'difference between a competition +rent and the fair rent would be more than 20 per cent.; it would, I +think, be more than that; there would be between 30 and 75 per cent. +difference between the fair rent and the competition rent.'[96] Mr. +Roberts, another Sub-Commissioner, has deposed to much the same effect: +'Decidedly, I believe that if the land was put in the market it would +bring 25 per cent. more than the rent I put on.'[97] So, too, Mr. Bailey, +a legal Sub-Commissioner, very much respected, has alleged: 'It would be +most misleading to take the evidence of letting value in the +neighbourhood, thus bringing in competition value, which we rigorously +exclude in fair-rent cases.'[98] Mr. Bomford, a well-known +Sub-Commissioner, has said, in much the same sense: 'We do not take the +competition rent, and cannot take it into consideration, when fixing what +the fair rent should be. Then you utterly exclude, when you come to the +fixing of the fair rent, the element of competition?--Yes, except in one +matter, when we have town parks.'[99] + +Let us now see what distinctions, in fixing 'fair rents,' the +Sub-Commissioners have drawn between landlords whose rentals were low and +landlords whose rentals were really high; and how they have dealt with +rents, paid for a long space of time, without having been raised; this is +a fair index of the equity of their proceedings. It should be remarked, at +the outset, that it soon appeared that rents had only been increased in +comparatively few instances, going back over a series of years; yet, as a +rule, nearly all rents were indiscriminately reduced. No attempt has been +made, by any official of the Land Commission, to answer this damaging +charge made, in 1897, at a judicial inquiry held upon the subject: 'The +result of that calculation, the accuracy of which cannot be challenged, +shows that, as the result of all the cases that were heard, in only 8 per +cent. of them was any increase of rent for many years prior to 1881 +proved. But whether the Sub-Commissioners are dealing with an estate on +which for centuries the rents had remained unchanged, and on which the +tenants had been fairly treated, or whether they were dealing with estates +that had come into the hands of speculators by purchase in the Landed +Estates Court, in all cases the average result was the same. They deducted +something between 15 and 20 per cent. from the existing rent, no matter +how long it had existed, and no matter upon what estate it was being +paid.'[100] This significant evidence, too, points to the same conclusion: +'There is nothing to justify the reductions that have been made in the +rents of good landlords, who did not raise their rents in the good years. +In fact, the landlords who did raise their rents got off a great deal +better, at the hands of the Sub-Commissioners, than the good landlords who +did not raise them.'[101] And Mr. Lecky, a calm-minded observer, if there +ever was one, has added these striking and pregnant remarks: 'The +landlords who have suffered least have probably been those who simplified +their properties by the wholesale evictions, the harsh clearances, that +too often followed the Famine. Next in the scale come those who exacted +extreme rack-rents from their tenants. These rents had been received for +many years, and though they were ultimately reduced more than rents which +had been always low, they still, in innumerable instances, remained higher +than the others. The large class who regarded land simply as a source of +revenue, and, without doing anything harsh, or extortionate, or unjust, +took no part in its management, have suffered very moderately. It is the +improving landlord, who took a real interest in his estate, who sank large +sums in draining and other purposes of improvement, who exercised a +constant and beneficent influence over his tenants, who has suffered most +from the legislation that reduced him to a mere powerless rent-charger, +and, in most cases, rendered the sums he had expended an absolute +loss.'[102] + +The Sub-Commissions dealt with the subject of the exemption of tenants' +improvements from rent, on the whole, as fairly, I think, as could be +expected; and on the different questions of law that arose, appeals ran +from them to the Land Commission, which usually investigated these cases +at length. But this part of the law, really an excrescence on the Act of +1881, was unfair to the landlords, in the circumstances in which they were +placed; they were confronted by innumerable and often obsolete and +worthless claims, which they had only seldom the means of refuting; and if +the demoralisation and false swearing under the Act of 1870 was bad, they +were infinitely worse under the Act of 1881. A witty Irishman, indeed, +once said that he could wish no severer punishment for Mr. Gladstone than +to see him in a Sub-Commission Court listening to those wrongful +statements; the mischief has, of course, been aggravated since the Act of +1896 has made the basis for the exemption larger and more ill-defined. The +Sub-Commissions, I have said, were gravely in error, almost, as a rule, +with respect to the deterioration of land, as an element to be considered +in fixing rent; in this respect gross injustice has been done to +landlords. There is scarcely any proof that, even in a single instance, +the Sub-Commissioners valued land 'for fair rent,' as in its normal state; +and yet, assuredly, this was what ought to have been done, if a premium +was not to be put on misconduct, and because farms had been injured and +exhausted in hundreds, throughout Ireland. The deterioration was usually +of two kinds--wilful waste committed in order to work down rent, and +passive waste caused by negligence and bad farming. Out of many +instances, under the first head, I shall refer to one; the +Sub-Commissioners usually gave little or no attention to wrongs of this +kind; in this instance they enabled the tenant to make money by his own +misdeeds; they reduced the rent nearly 30 per cent.: 'The dykes were full +of stuff and choked, and the sluice-gate, which we had repaired at our own +expense, was all choked up, and the water had been left on the land as +long as it could stay on it. I complained and remonstrated with the +tenant. I sent for Madden, and in Mr. Lyle's presence I stated this to +him. His answer to me was that he was not such a damned fool as to have +his land looking well when the Commissioners came to look at it. + +'SIR E. FRY: Did that case come before the Sub-commissioner Court?--It +did. + +'Did you give evidence of what the tenant said?--Yes, sir.... + +'MR. CAMPBELL: I will tell you, sir, what they did. + +'How much did they reduce the first judicial rent?--They reduced the first +judicial rent; they cut it down from £70 10_s._ to £51.'[103] + +As for passive waste, that is, the bad cultivation of farms, the proof is +conclusive that it has been seldom, if ever, considered by the +Sub-Commissions in fixing 'fair rents.' If we bear in mind that many +thousands of acres in Ireland have been well-nigh destroyed by the burning +done by tenants, and that hundreds of thousands have been run out by +slovenly farming, the injury thus done to landlords has been enormous, +especially as tenants' improvements have been exempted from rent against +them; the 'candle,' it has been justly said, 'has been melted down at +both ends.' I cite two instances, out of hundreds, of the injustice thus +done; it has been proved over and over again that, in the case of two +adjoining farms, in all respects of the same natural quality, the rent on +that which was deteriorated was fixed at a much lower rate than the rent +on that which was in good heart; in other words, the landlord was +despoiled of the difference, and the tenant had the benefit of his bad +husbandry. I take, almost at random, a case in Ulster: 'The Commissioners +always value the land as they see it. I have two cases on my property in +one townland. One tenant was an industrious, hard-working man, who had his +farm in very good order. The second tenant, his wife had died, he was in +poverty, with a lot of young children, and he himself was not quite "all +there." These two holdings came at the same time before the +Sub-Commissioners, and the rents were cut down in each case. When the +thing was over, I said to Quinn, who was one of the tenants, "Are you +satisfied with your reduction?" "How can I be satisfied," he said, "when +my rent is at the same rate as Hurson's rent?" I looked at the return and +saw he was quite right.... The deteriorated farm was cut down considerably +more than the cultivated farm.' Another remarkable case occurred in the +west: 'I had a case, I think decided this year; a farm that was divided +between two sons fifteen or twenty years ago; the father divided the land +before I came into the management of the property. + +'Did they get an equal portion? was it divided into halves?--Into halves, +and paid an equal rent. + +'Before the Act of 1881?--Before the Act of 1881. + +'And was the land of uniform quality?--Yes. + +'Had one of these men, before he went into Court, greatly deteriorated the +land?--Yes. + +'Had the other attended to it?--He had attended to it; he looked after the +land very well indeed. + +'What reduction did the man who had deteriorated his half get?--The man +who had deteriorated his half got 17-1/2 per cent, reduction. + +'What did the other get?--The other got 7-1/2 per cent. + +'The industrious tenant got 7-1/2?--He got 7-1/2.'[104] + +This was obviously gross and crying injustice; but two apologies have been +made for acts of this kind. It is said that were a deteriorated farm +rented as if it were in a normal state, the tenant could not afford to pay +the 'fair rent,' in other words, the landlord is to be despoiled for the +tenant's neglect. It is said again that the Sub-Commissioners are bound to +value the land as they find it, and cannot estimate it at its intrinsic +worth, that is, they are under no obligation to ascertain the truth, and +do their duty. Yet this sophistry has been gravely put forward as a +justification for palpable wrong, through which the property of landlords +has been filched away wholesale: 'The land to this day has suffered a very +serious deterioration in value; but we did not deal with that as against +the present tenant ...'[105] 'Have you frequently asked the +Sub-Commissioners why they do not attach sufficient importance to +deterioration?--No, but I heard them saying one reason was that if they +put the rent of the farm as if it had been fairly treated, the tenant +would not be able to pay that rent now in the deteriorated state.'[106] +The general result of these proceedings as regards exhausted farms has +been thus described: 'My view with reference to deterioration is this. Bad +tenants, who had ill-treated and worn out their land, undoubtedly, in my +opinion, have obtained larger reductions than they would have got had they +farmed well. Probably the reason is that were the Land Commissioners to +put a rent on the land according to its natural capacity, before a +deterioration, it would be an impossible rent for a broken-down bad +tenant to pay. This stereotypes the rent in such cases at a figure +unfairly low to the landlord; tends to lower the standard of fair rent +generally; is a premium on bad farming; and places tenants under a serious +temptation to ill-treat their land, so as to secure a larger reduction +from the Land Court than otherwise could be obtainable.'[107] + +The Sub-Commissions appear to have disregarded the just rights of +landlords in another important respect. Unquestionably, in the great mass +of instances, as is inevitable when the land is held in small farms, the +Irish tenant had made the improvements on his holding; but the landed +gentry, as I have pointed out, had done a good deal since the Great +Famine. There is nevertheless cogent evidence that, in 'fixing fair +rents,' the Sub-Commissions took hardly any account of the expenditure of +landlords under this head. In the case of the estate of the late Mr. +Talbot Crosbie, one of the best breeders of prize stock in the Three +Kingdoms, and a country gentleman of parts and intelligence, these +significant facts were conclusively proved: 'Table E gives the cases of +eight holdings upon which there was an expenditure by the landlord of +£1936?--Yes. + +'The old rent was £688?--Yes. + +'That was reduced by the Sub-Commissioners to £493?--Yes. A reduction of +about 30 per cent. + +'Notwithstanding the outlay by the landlord in the interval of nearly +£2000?--Yes, that is it. + +'Table F is a list of eleven farms, on which there was practically no +expenditure by the landlord?--Quite so, no recent expenditure. That is, +between 1863 and 1887?--There was a good deal done in the famine time, but +I did not take account of that. + +'You had no evidence in these eleven cases of expenditure for many years +prior to the fixing of the rent?--No. In these cases the old rents tot up +to £361?--Yes. And the reductions only brought them to £280?--A reduction +of 18 per cent. + +'In other words, on the unimproved farms the reductions only average 18, +while on the improved farms they went as high as 30 per cent.?--Quite so. + +'SIR E. FRY: Were these two sets of farms different classes of +farms?--They were practically of the same class.'[108] In the same way, in +the case of the estate of Lord Leconfield, a great and excellent landlord +in the County Clare, the Sub-Commission made no real allowance for a sum +of £20,500 expended on twenty-seven farms. 'Am I right in saying that from +1852 to 1881 there was spent by Lord Leconfield £20,500 in these +twenty-seven cases?--The return speaks for itself. That is the result of +it.' 'No. 4: As an example of the reductions of the Sub-Commissioners were +the rents put back to what they had been in 1852?--Very nearly. There is a +difference, I think, of about 1/2 per cent.?--About 1/2 per cent. The rent +in 1852 was £2524, and the judicial rents on these farms was £2632.'[109] + +I pass on to the methods pursued by the Sub-Commissioners in actually +fixing 'fair rents.' As I have said, they usually heard the cases at +length in Court; they usually devoted attention to them. I do not think +they set much store on the reports of valuers, on the part either of +landlords or tenants; they formed their decisions, as a general rule, on +the inspections made by the lay Commissioners of the lands they visited. +This was a much better method, as I shall point out afterwards, than that +adopted by their superiors; but obviously inspections of this kind made by +officials without local knowledge of the farms, which they examined and +valued, could not be a sufficient, or a satisfactory, way to fix 'fair +rents.' The great error, however, made, in this matter, by the +Sub-Commissions--and in this respect they had the countenance of the +higher tribunal--was that they had little or no regard for the evidence +which in adjusting rent was assuredly of the greatest importance. They +rejected, we have seen, the principle of competition in adjudicating on +rent; in fixing the 'fair rents' of holdings before them, they refused to +consider the rents of the neighbourhood and of adjoining lands, that is, +to consider the price of the market. Yet this was but a trifling compared +to their capital mistake, one that, indeed, can hardly be explained: in +investigating the subject of 'fair rent,' they would not take into account +sums paid on the transfer of farms, that is, their tenant right, in other +words, as an indication of what ought to be their 'fair rents.' If we bear +in mind, as I have said before, that these sums were given subject to the +existing rents, which always formed the first charge on the lands, it is +most difficult to understand, as we have seen, how this circumstance did +not create a very strong presumption that the rents in question must be +'fair' from the very nature of the case, assuming the Irish tenant to be a +rational being. The sums paid for this tenant right were sometimes +enormous, not uncommonly equal to one-third or one-half of the value of +the fee; I illustrate my meaning from the evidence, taken with reference +to the estate of Lord Downshire, one of the largest and best managed in +Ulster: 'What would you say the tenants' interest would be worth on the +Downshire estate?--Well, judging from the average prices obtained by +tenants on transfers, my opinion is that the tenants' interest would be +worth £1,000,000. + +'On the Downshire estate alone?--Yes. + +'Now, could that value in the tenants, or that interest in the tenants, +exist, unless the rents at which they were holding were low rents?--No, +the prices of tenant right are incompatible with high rents. Does it in +your opinion point to their being lower than the commercial rents?--Yes, +they are lower.'[110] And will it be believed that on this very estate, in +the case of thirteen farms, held at the rents fixed by the landlords, the +tenant right realised £7296, and yet the Sub-Commission reduced the rents +more than 20 per cent.? In other words, they declared that the old rents +were not fair, though these lands, when transferred, fetched £7296 paid by +their purchasers, subject to the rents in question![111] + +The Downshire was only one of many scores of estates in which the tenant +right was exceedingly high, that is, the sums paid, at existing rents, on +the transfer of farms, were very great, yet in all these instances this +striking fact was not taken into account. It cannot cause surprise that, +at a judicial inquiry held afterwards to review the subject, tenants' +advocates endeavoured to exclude the evidence which, in the judgment of +plain men of sense, affords almost a decisive indication as to whether +given rents are 'fair.' It has been argued, however, that the price of +tenant right, that is, the sums paid by incoming to outgoing tenants, on +the sale of farms, at the current rents, ought to form no element in the +fixing of 'fair rent;' it is only just to set forth the reasons. Mr. +Bailey, the able legal Sub-Commissioner, referred to before, has explained +them in this passage: 'Do you attend to tenant right in considering the +fair rent?--No, we do not. The view we take of it is this. The tenant +right paid for land is paid for something of an altogether different +character from the rent of the land.... When a tenant sells his interest +in his holding, he sells two things, first, the improvements on the +holding, and secondly, his goodwill or share of the gross product of the +holding.... When you put these two items together, viz. improvements and +goodwill, it seems to me that the prices paid for tenant right are not at +all remarkable. Then your view is that the price paid for tenant right +throws no light on what the fair rent ought to be?--No, no light at all.' +Mr. Bailey has added these significant words: 'The tenant does not buy at +the rent which the tenement at present stands at, but he buys with a +possible increase or reduction of the rent?--Quite so. And in latter years +with the fall of prices he was buying with the expectation of a very +considerable reduction?--Undoubtedly.'[112] + +The first of these arguments appears to me to be wholly irrelevant to the +real question. Undoubtedly the tenant right of a farm represents the +tenant's improvements and his interest in the land, and is completely +distinct from the rent; and this is acquired on a sale by an incoming +tenant. But the purchaser buys the tenant right, subject to the first +charge, the rent; if the rent were excessive, or even high, either he +would not buy at all, or he would pay a low price; when, therefore, we +find the tenant right commanding very large sums, the conclusion is +inevitable, that, taking human nature as it is, the rent must be in the +nature of a 'fair rent.' The Sub-Commissions rejected a plain inference +they ought to have drawn; that they refused to give weight to an +all-important fact cannot be justified in any sense; and the result has +been that in hundreds of cases they have done grave wrong to landlords. As +for the second argument, it is very probable that in many instances +tenants purchased farms in the anticipation of a reduction of rent; they +speculated--a significant fact--that the Sub-Commissions would 'bear' the +market; but even, on that supposition, this can hardly explain the huge +sums paid for tenant right while the existing rents were current. For the +rest, I refer to part of my own evidence given on this subject at the same +inquiry; readers of ordinary intelligence may judge for themselves: 'The +first question I ask the tenant is, "How much will you take for the land, +£100, £200, £300; ten, fifteen, twenty, or forty years' rent?" But I never +can get an answer. They say, "Oh, your honour, I am here to look after a +'fair rent,' and I am not going to tell your honour what I am going to ask +for the land." However, I have a very shrewd notion.... You take into +consideration in fixing the fair rent the price paid by the tenants?--Yes, +the price which an incoming tenant would give, because I am not one of +those who think that the Irish tenant is a fool; and when I find an +incoming tenant giving ten, fifteen, twenty, and thirty years' purchase +for a farm, I have a very shrewd suspicion that the rent is right.'[113] + +It was under these conditions, and by proceedings of this kind, that the +Sub-Commissions, bodies of ill-paid men, dependent upon the will of the +Government, and constituted to give effect to a policy, were sent +throughout Ireland to 'fix fair rents.' They had no assistance, we have +seen, from the Land Commission; they often entertained very different +views; but their uniform course was in the same direction; they +indiscriminately abated rents, as they would abate a nuisance. In fact, +they might have joined in the chorus of the doctors of Molière: 'Et +saignare, et purgare, et clystériasaire;' they applied the same remedies +to all their victims, and brought them nearly all into the same weak and +low condition. But there was a right of appeal from the Sub-Commissions to +the Land Commission; and this tribunal, certainly designed to have +absolute power in the determination of rent, ought surely to have been +expected to redress injustice. I approach a part of the subject on which +the plain truth must be told, without making personal imputations of any +kind. Appeals from the Sub-Commissions were numbered by many thousands; +and, as I have said--an iniquitous provision of the Act of 1881--the +decisions of the Land Commission on the subject of 'fair rent' was made +final, at least as regards the rate of rent; there was to be no further +appeal to a higher tribunal. I quote these significant remarks on this +restriction: 'In an ordinary case, I need not tell you, sir, who are +conversant with the procedure of Courts of Justice, a litigant, in a civil +case, no matter how much the issue may be involved, has the right, if he +thinks fit, of taking the case from one Court to another, until he reaches +the highest tribunal of the land, the House of Lords. And as you know, +there is a well-known case, which the House of Lords had to decide, in +which the amount involved was one penny, an alleged overcharge on a +railway ticket; but in these land cases, where there may be, and often is, +a sum of £200, £300, or £400 a year involved, because in some of the large +farms in this country there have been reductions of £300 and even of £400 +in the rent, under the Act of Parliament they cannot go beyond the Head +Land Commission, upon any question of value. That is the Act of Parliament +whether it be right or wrong. There it is, and I am not here to discuss +the policy of the Act. But when a rehearing is given by the Act of +Parliament to the Land Commission, and when the Land Commission are +constituted the final judges in such large and important matters, it is +obviously of great importance that the final rehearing should be full, and +in every respect what the Act of Parliament says it is to be, namely, a +rehearing.'[114] + +The Land Commission sometimes heard these appeals at length, though +usually their proceedings were summary in the extreme. The Commissioners +occasionally pronounced well-considered judgments, on the difficult +questions of law that came before them, especially as regards the +exemption of tenants' improvements from rent; in several instances the +results were curious. The lay Commissioner now and then dissented from his +legal colleagues; his plain common sense rejected theories in tenants' +interests; his decisions were more than once confirmed, on these points of +law, by the highest Court of Appeal in Ireland, a circumstance of no +slight significance. Nineteen-twentieths, however, of these appeals were +conversant only with the amount of 'fair rent,' as to which the +conclusions of the Land Commission could not be challenged. The Land +Commissioners undoubtedly heard these cases, and sometimes had much +evidence brought before them; in tolerably many instances they varied the +'fair rents' fixed by the Sub-Commissions, if these variations were seldom +important. But the Land Commission practically adopted, with scarcely a +single exception, the errors of principle and the faulty methods which had +marked the practice and the proceedings of the Sub-Commissions.[115] They +excluded the element of competition from the subject of 'fair rent;' they +never attempted to define 'fair rent,' or to establish a standard by which +to gauge it; they disregarded, to a considerable extent at least, the +distinction between the rentals of the old and the new landlords; they +paid little or no attention to the fact that rents had been paid for many +years without an increase; they hardly ever took deterioration into +account, or the expenditure made on their estates by landlords. And in the +actual fixing of 'fair rents' they virtually followed in the wake of their +inferiors; they rejected, as a rule, the evidence that was most relevant; +they refused to consider the rents of adjoining or neighbouring lands, in +a word, the price of the market, in determining rent; above all, they gave +scarcely any heed to the enormous sums paid for the tenant right of lands, +as an indication that their rents were 'fair.' On all these particulars, +in a word, supremely important as they were, they almost said ditto to the +Sub-Commissions; in these respects the appeals were well-nigh useless. It +should be added that the animus of the head of the Land Commission was +significantly exhibited on one striking occasion. When opening the +proceedings of the Land Commission, Mr. Justice O'Hagan pointedly laid it +down, that the object of the Act of 1881 was 'to make tenants live and +thrive;' in other words, as Lord Salisbury indignantly remarked, to compel +rent to gravitate to the level of the most indolent and worthless Irish +peasant, and practically to discourage industry. + +These considerations indicate, to some extent at least, the nature and +especially the value of these appeals. But this was not all, or nearly +all; there was a grave miscarriage of the simplest justice in this +important province. Appeals, I have said, came in, in thousands; the work +thrown on the Land Commissioners was immense; as one of their present +successors remarked, 'If proper consideration' (had been) 'given to all +the appeals you would' (have) 'wanted ten Appeal Courts to do it;'[116] as +was said again substantially, 'Appeals would have crushed the Land +Commissioners, had they not been crushed by them.'[117] In this position +of affairs, the Land Commissioners, no doubt with no bad or sinister +purpose, adopted what must be called a device, to enable them quickly to +dispose of appeals, nay, almost in a summary way. They were empowered, +under the Act of 1881, to appoint 'independent valuers' to examine lands, +and to report on the subject of their 'fair rents;' it was never +contemplated that statements of this kind were to dispense with the duty +of hearing appeals in detail, and pronouncing solemn judgments upon them; +but, practically, the Land Commissioners, in the great mass of instances, +when adjudicating on appeals, as regards 'fair rents,' almost wholly +relied on the reports of these valuers, who, be it observed, were in no +sense witnesses, and were not subject to examination on the part of the +suitors before the Court. In a word, the Land Commissioners did not +exclude other kinds of evidence; but unquestionably the dicta of the +valuers, as a rule, determined the decisions they made on 'fair rent.' +This expedient greatly accelerated appeals; but it reduced the right of +appeal well-nigh to a sham; and this procedure was by many degrees more +repugnant to justice than that of the Sub-Commissions. In an inquiry held +before the House of Lords in 1882, an eminent member of the Irish bar +remarked, 'It was the most unsatisfactory tribunal that I ever was before. +What occurred was this: they took up the figures of the old rent, which we +will say was £100, and the valuation £70, and the new rent £80. Then they +took up the valuer's report, which was a document concealed from the +parties. It was entirely for the information of the Court, and they turned +round to me, as the landlord's counsel, the landlord being the appellant, +and said, "Can you go on with this appeal in the face of this document?" +and they would show me the document.'[118] And in the inquiry I have often +referred to before, another distinguished lawyer has said, 'I have been in +cases where, in order to overcome the difficulty, I marshalled a perfect +phalanx of witnesses, for the landlord, but it was all no use. They +listened to them, I admit,--they suggested that I was wasting time, but I +am not stating they did not hear them,--but in the end, in the morning, +the announcement was made that the judicial rent was confirmed.'[119] + +As the general result these appeals, as it has been said, 'were +strangled;' in thousands of instances they were withdrawn, the decisions +of the Land Commission being final; expedition was attained; but it was +only attained at the cost of gross wrong done to the landlords, a singular +exhibition in a Court of Justice. I quote the following--and it should be +borne in mind that the Land Commissioners have never attempted to explain +this conduct, though the amplest opportunity was afforded, a few years +ago: 'The extraordinary and anomalous state of things is that the valuers, +not being assessors, do not sit with the Commissioners, and do not hear +the evidence, and yet they are not witnesses in the proper sense of the +term, because they are neither examined nor cross-examined. Common sense +and justice revolt at the idea, when it is the duty of the Land +Commissioners, upon the rehearing of a case, to sit and go through the +proceedings _de novo_, that they should receive the evidence of valuers, +which is not laid before the parties, and that those valuers should not be +examined and cross-examined in the regular way. There is another matter to +which I would refer. You will find, what is, indeed, what you might +expect, that when the Commissioners go to Dublin, or Cork, or elsewhere, +with a list of two or three hundred cases to be heard by them, involving, +it may be, thousands of pounds a year of rent, that list is gone through +in two or three days, and why? Because all the parties present know that +they are taking part in what really is a solemn farce, and that what will +happen in the morning after the hearing of their case is just this: John +Brown, landlord, James Fogarty, tenant; judicial rent affirmed; John +Robinson, landlord, James McNorth, tenant; judicial rent affirmed.'[120] + +The first set of Land Commissioners passed away; they were succeeded by a +second Land Commission, the president of which was Mr. Justice Bewley, an +accomplished, if not a very eminent, lawyer. This Commission, like the +other, was composed of honourable men; it is only just to remark that it +was bound by the bad precedents made by the tribunal which it had +replaced. The procedure of the Sub-Commissions was, in some degree, +improved; but the methods of the second Land Commission differed for the +worse where they differed from the methods of its predecessor. The Land +Commissioners appear to have not at all regarded the general principles in +fixing 'fair rent,' which ought to have had effect on their judgments; +they gave less weight, than Mr. Justice O'Hagan, and his colleagues did, +to the most important evidence, in this province, to which I have adverted +before, and laid too much stress on the least important evidence. As has +been truly remarked, 'We believe that much more attention was paid in the +early days of the Land Commission to the remaining kinds of popular +evidence than has been the case of late years; and we are assured by one +of the head Commissioners that the Act of 1896 has made a great change in +the fixing of fair rents by placing an emphasis on the technical evidence, +and throwing the popular evidence into the background.'[121] The +Commissioners, too, followed the bad example of the first Land Commission, +in the province of appeals; they practically disregarded almost everything +but the reports of their valuers, unchecked statements made by men who +were not even witnesses, were not sworn, and were not examined--a +procedure worthy of the Council of Ten at Venice; as before, the result +was that appeals were made all but fruitless, in the Court of which the +decisions were, in this respect, final. + +There was, too, another grave miscarriage of justice caused, perhaps, by a +mistake made by the head of the second Land Commission. The Act of 1881 +provided that 'fair rent' should be fixed, having due regard to the +'interest' of the tenant on the land, that is, to his improvements, and +perhaps to the mode of his tenure. Mr. Justice Bewley seems to have +decided that another element ought to be taken into account, and should +effect a reduction of rent; the tenant had 'an occupation right' in his +favour, over and above the 'interest' the law gave him; by reason of this +he had a right to have his rent cut down. The only plausible ground +alleged for this doctrine was that landlords would usually accept a lower +rent from a 'sitting' tenant in possession than from an incoming tenant; +in other words, their good nature was turned against them, and was to be +made a pretext for their being despoiled. It is just to observe that Mr. +Justice Bewley's colleagues dissented from this curious view of the law; +and the claim for 'occupation right' has since been blown to the winds in +the superior Courts of Ireland. But though many faint denials were made, +some of the Sub-Commissioners acted upon Mr. Justice Bewley's doctrine; +the evidence is conclusive that this imaginary right was made the means of +considerably reducing rent. Mr. Justice Bewley candidly admitted: 'From +the commencement, apparently, a number of the Sub-Commissioners have acted +on the principle that there is a certain occupation interest, which every +tenant has, varying according to circumstances, not any fixed amount, but +varying, and that that is to be taken into account in fixing the fair +rent.'[122] This statement has been confirmed by a host of witnesses by no +means willing in not a few instances. 'Would you make a difference between +the assessment of the fair rent in the case of a sitting tenant, and in +the case of an incoming tenant--a stranger? Certainly. Can you give us any +idea what that difference is, expressed in percentage?--I could not very +well answer that question. It is a mental calculation, and a good deal +would depend upon the length of the tenure of the tenant.'[123] And again: +'In your experience of the Land Commission Court, do you find the +"occupation interest" has been taken into account in fixing the fair +rent?--Yes, I cannot account for the reductions that have been made, +except on that supposition.'[124] And again: 'As far as your experience +goes, do they invariably value the holdings on the principle of giving an +occupation interest to the sitting tenant?--Yes, the tenants' valuers, as +a rule, give 40 or 50 per cent. as the interest of the sitting tenant.... +Do you find that the Sub-Commissioners fix the rent on what the valuers +state?--Well, no; that would be going too much out of the way.'[125] And +again: 'Have you any doubt that the rents are fixed on the basis of the +occupation interest in the sitting tenant?--I have none. I do not know how +else the rents could have been arrived at.'[126] And once more: 'Did the +Sub-Commissioners invariably take the occupation interest of the sitting +tenant into account?--I think so.' I conclude with these remarks of Mr. +Barnes, one of the best and most impartial of Irish valuers: 'When I came +to give evidence in Court I found that nothing else would be accepted as +evidence unless based on occupation interest. It was almost the first +question.... Whenever there was an answer made that the valuation was +based on what the landlord would get for the land in his own hands, it was +discounted at once.'[127] No wonder that it has been alleged by the +highest authority with respect to this claim, since proved to have been +unfounded, guarded and cautious as the language is: 'There is, however, +reason to believe that this notion of an occupation interest existed in +the minds of some of the early valuers, and did, in fact, influence them, +and it is very possible that some cases in which the reductions there made +appear startling, may be, in part, attributable to this doctrine.'[128] + +What amount of the rental of Ireland was unlawfully cut down owing to the +theory of 'occupation right,' it is, of course, impossible to ascertain. +Reductions of rent, too, were probably unjustly made through the +ignorance of the Land Commission as to agricultural matters. I refer to a +grotesque instance of this: 'You have marked a passage there in the +judgment, which, according to you, shows that owing to their ignorance as +experts they entirely mistook what six-course rotation meant?--Yes. The +fact is they took it to be the same crop in the whole seventy acres, that +instead of having so many different crops in this portion of the ground, +it was to be put into one crop for the year, and that is what they call +"rotation" in the Court of Rehearing.... It is plain enough, from the +authorised report of the judgment, that they made that mistake?--It is +clear as possible, and it was upon that that they threw me out. The tenant +himself knew that it was all absurdity and mistake.'[129] + +A remarkable incident occurred in 1897 which threw a strong, if not a +complete, light on the proceedings of the Land Commission and its +Sub-Commissions in the adjustment of rent. In 1896 the time had come for +renewing the first statutory leases, under the Act of 1881; the +Commissioners suddenly made such enormous reductions of rent that persons +who knew Ireland were simply astounded. The Irish landlords naturally were +indignant; after some hesitation, and with plain reluctance, the +Government gave its consent to a very imperfect inquiry. A Commission, +presided over by Sir Edward Fry, a judge of the highest eminence, retired +from office, and composed of four additional colleagues, two being +well-known agricultural experts, was appointed to investigate the subject +on the spot; but the scope of the inquiry was limited in the extreme; it +was confined, in this respect, to examining the procedure and practice +adopted in fixing 'fair rents;' it did not extend to the conduct generally +of the Land Commission and its dependent tribunals. The Commission was +engaged nearly three months in its task; it held its sittings in different +parts of Ireland; it had before it 183 witnesses; and restricted as it +was in this province, it pronounced, in grave and judicial language, a +marked censure on the methods that had been followed in fixing 'fair +rents' in Ireland. In fact, Sir Edward Fry and his colleagues confirmed, +in many respects, the charges which I have made with regard to this whole +system. No doubt they reported, in very guarded words, 'that they were +unable to conclude that the machinery of the Land Statutes has been +uniformly worked with injustice towards landlords;'[130] but as they +pointedly refused to rehear a single case, in which the Land Commission +and the Sub-Commissions had fixed a 'fair rent,' this statement, ambiguous +as it is, is of no real importance. In other particulars the expression of +these opinions cannot be mistaken; to impartial minds it will appear +decisive. They evidently thought that such wrong had been done to +landlords owing to the want of a definition of 'fair rent,' that they +actually framed a definition of their own, in order to establish some kind +of standard; this did not widely differ from that of Mr. Law, which, I +have said, would have made things very different had it been adopted.[131] +They pointed out that the Land Commissioners should have assisted the +Sub-Commissions in fixing 'fair rents,' and should not have left them +'like ships without a rudder or a compass on a stormy sea;' it is 'a +subject of regret,' they reported, 'that in the early days of the system +the Land Commissioners were unable to take a part in the tribunals of +first instance; and that the whole original business was left to +Sub-Commissions.'[132] They strongly condemned the nature of the +Sub-Commission Courts, as being composed of members inadequately paid and +mere tenants at sufferance; and they put forward an elaborate scheme to +make the administration of justice in these tribunals more above +suspicion.[133] They evidently believed that the Land Commission and the +Sub-Commissions did not give due weight to the class of evidence that was +most important, and gave too much weight to that which was the least; and +they made significant observations on this subject.[134] On the whole, +they arrived at the conclusion that the fixing of 'fair rents' 'gives +opportunity for dissatisfaction, and leaves much more for improvement; ... +and that the settlement of fair rents has been effected in an +unsatisfactory manner, with diversity of opinion and practice, sometimes +with carelessness, and sometimes with that bias towards one side or the +other which exists in many honest minds.'[135] But their strongest +animadversion was found in the system, through which, I have said, the +Land Commission really 'strangled' appeals, though in this province its +decisions were final: 'An almost universal dissatisfaction is expressed +with regard to these appeals, a dissatisfaction felt by some at least of +the Commissioners themselves. No witness, with, perhaps, a single +exception, spoke in favour of the existing system.'[136] + +Mr. Justice Bewley has retired from office, and has been replaced by Mr. +Justice Meredith, a capable and experienced lawyer. He has done, probably +as much as in him lay, to alleviate some of the wrong done to Irish +landlords; and for this he has been subjected to violent abuse, especially +on the part of an advocate of Ulster farmers, whose tongue is at odds with +his trade in temperance. But he is bound by the precedents set by those +who have gone before him; and though the work of the Land Commission is +now better done than it was before the Report of the Fry Commission +appeared, and its general procedure has improved, little change has been +effected in the reduction of rent in Ireland. The Government, as I have +pointed out in a preceding chapter, has made a few administrative reforms +in the composition and the arrangement of the Sub-Commissions; but it has +not taken a single step to give effect to the recommendations made by the +Fry Commission, so far as these are of real importance; it has refused to +legislate on the subject, and to bring in the measure that was required; +it has even refused to set a further inquiry on foot. The general results +of the labours of the Land Commission and of its subordinate tribunals in +fixing 'fair rents' may be summed up in a very few sentences. According to +the Report of the Fry Commission, the tenants of rural holdings in Ireland +are about 486,000 in number; 328,720 of these have had 'fair rents' fixed, +between August, 1881, and the end of March, 1900.[137] The tenants, who +have not had 'fair rents' fixed, are probably either tenants of lands not +within the Land Acts, or 'future tenants' since 1881-82, or tenants too +poor to pay law costs; but these, perhaps in nine cases out of ten, have +indirectly had the benefit of the law, and have had their rents reduced +like those of the large majority, by voluntary concessions on the part of +landlords. The great mass of 'fair rents' has been fixed by the Land +Commission and its dependents, and the proceedings of these tribunals +have, beyond question, formed a standard for the adjustment of rent; +whether 'fair rents' have been fixed by the County Courts,[138] or by +agreements between landlord and tenant, they have, in the main, conformed +to the measure established by the Courts set up in 1881. The reductions of +rent made, in every way, in the first statutory leases, were, on an +average, rather more than 20 per cent. on the old rental;[139] but those +on the second statutory leases have been 22 per cent. more,[140] that is, +the fixing of 'fair rents,' so far as it has gone, has reduced rents +rather more than 42 per cent. It may be asserted, with some confidence, +that through the operation of the new Irish land code, taking in tenancies +of all kinds, Irish rents have been cut down nearly 40 per cent.; little +doubt can exist that they are now lower than they were in the day of +Wakefield, and in some instances in the day of Arthur Young, when the +price of Irish agricultural produce was less than half what it is at the +present time.[141] + +The agricultural rental of Ireland, therefore, in all probability, has +been reduced almost 40 per cent., or will be in a short space of time; and +as long as the present system of fixing 'fair rent' continues, however it +may be lowered, it will certainly not be raised. The Act of 1881, I have +already said, would, by itself, necessarily reduce rents; but the faulty +administration of it, on which I have dwelt, has reduced them far more +than ought to have been the case. In fact, disguise it as you may, an +immense confiscation, gradual, indeed, and veiled, but not the less real, +has been made of the property of Irish landlords, even on the principles +of a bad law; the evidence of this is, I believe, conclusive. Rents have +been cut down indiscriminately in the great mass of instances; for +example, rents in country districts only opened to good markets of late +years, have been reduced quite as much as rents around Dublin, which had +almost a monopoly of the best market until about 1855-60. But the proof of +this spoliation is made most apparent by taking into account a single +fact, and drawing the natural inference from it. The value of the +landlords' interest in the land, before 1881, was from 20 to 25 years' +purchase; it is now between 15 and 18; at the same time the value of the +tenants' interest has, in thousands of cases, enormously increased. I +refer to a few examples out of scores to be found in the evidence given to +the Fry Commission. I take first an estate in Ulster: 'I only remember one +case of a holding before 1881 that went up (in a sale of the farm) to +anything like 20 years' purchase of the rent, and I have several cases +since then that have gone beyond it. I remember one case that struck me +very forcibly because of the great amount the man got--20 years' purchase. +Since then I have known, 29, 35, 36, 34 years' purchase to be given.' I +turn now to two estates in the south of Ireland: 'Charles Bolster, 112 +acres; rent £79 5_s._; sold for £570 in 1889. Daniel Buckley, 9 acres, at +rent of £3 3_s._; sold in 1889 for £45. Christopher Crofts, 131 acres; old +rent, £86; judicial rent fixed in 1893, £80; sold in 1889 for £120. +Timothy Reefe, 5 acres; rent, 29_s._; sold in 1891 for £47.' I pass on to +the second estate: 'Next case, 65 acres; old rent, £60; judicial rent, £56 +14_s._, fixed in 1883 by agreement; sold in 1883 for £330. Next, 76 +statute acres; old rent, £115; judicial rent fixed in 1885 at £108; sold +in December, 1885, for £1600.'[142] + +This great fall in the value of the fee simple in the Irish land, and this +great rise in the value of the tenant right, coinciding with the general +fixing of 'fair rents,' distinctly point to a plain conclusion: the +interest of the Irish landlord has been enormously reduced, a result never +contemplated by the author of the Act of 1881. In truth, there has been +little or no decline in the market price of land in Ireland; but property +that ought to belong to the landlord has been improperly taken from him, +and has been transferred to the tenant who had no right to it. Excuses, +however, have been made for this wholesale abolition of rent; they are +worthless, but may be briefly noticed. Ireland, it is said, is suffering, +like England, from the agricultural depression of late years; and rents +in Ireland have not been cut down more by the act of the State than they +have been reduced in England by the voluntary acts of landlords. But +agricultural depression in Ireland, a land of small holdings, and of +pasturage, to a considerable extent, is not, by many degrees, as severe as +in England, a land of large farms and largely of cereal culture; a signal +proof of this is that, while in England, tenants have, in hundreds of +instances, thrown up their farms, there has hardly been a case of the kind +in Ireland, as appears from the Report of the Fry Commission. Besides, if +agricultural prices have fallen in Ireland, compared to what they were, +say, twenty-five years ago, they are higher than they were in the years, +say, 1850-55, not to take into account the progress made by Ireland, in +the last half-century, in crops, farm machinery, and the breeds of farming +animals. As to the reduction of rents in England and Ireland, the supposed +analogy completely fails. The rental of England rose greatly from 1850 to +1880; there was no corresponding increase in Ireland; there was thus a +margin for reduction, in the greater island, which in the lesser did not +exist. Again, no comparison can be made between State-settled Irish rents +and English rents lowered by the voluntary acts of landlords. 'Fair rents' +have practically been reduced for all time; the reduction of English rents +is temporary, and can be at once annulled; this difference makes a +supposed resemblance a very striking contrast. As to the argument that the +Courts which have fixed 'fair rents' have been composed of honourable men, +and that it is extremely invidious to make charges against them, mere +leather and prunella may be brushed aside. No one disputes the honour of +the Land and the Sub-Commissioners, but it does not follow that they have +not done injustice; no one has disputed the honour of the Commission which +carried out the Encumbered Estates Act, and yet it repeatedly sold +estates at less than half their value. + +The Irish landlords, I repeat, have been iniquitously despoiled; a huge +confiscation has been made of their property. If the simplest right is to +be done in this province, their claim to compensation has been rendered +complete--apart from the utterances of Mr. Gladstone; should this be +disregarded, Parliament will have been chargeable with a grave breach of +faith, and a precedent will have been set from trampling on the just +rights of property in the Three Kingdoms, which will be dangerous in the +extreme. I pass on to consider the Irish land on the side of ownership, +and the administration of the system of so-called 'land purchase.' Of the +total of £40,000,000 alone available, some £20,000,000 appear to have been +expended; some 50,000 tenants have been made owners of their farms, +without having paid a shilling of their own, that is, rather more than one +in ten of the whole tenant class in Ireland. The politicians who declared +against 'dual ownership,' that bugbear of self-sufficient ignorance, can +find little consolation in these figures; I shall comment afterwards on +what this state of things has produced. The Government of Lord Salisbury +still proposes to seek to accelerate 'land purchase' of this kind; and +loud complaints have been made of the law's delay in not having made the +process more speedy. I have had no experience in this matter, and shall, +therefore, give no opinion on it; but it appears to me that there has been +some want of care in making advances to these so-styled 'purchasers;' not +a few were insolvent when they acquired their farms, and many are now on +the verge of bankruptcy. This, however, was perhaps inseparable from the +system that has been pursued; it is only an additional proof of its +essential vices. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--PROPOSED REFORM OF THE IRISH +LAND SYSTEM + + Retrospect of the present Irish land system--Position of the Irish + landlords--Position of the Irish tenant class--This not as + advantageous as might be supposed--The effects of the land code on + Irish agriculture injurious--The effects on the general Irish + community--Confiscation, violation of contracts, shock given to + credit, increased alienation of classes, and demoralisation--The land + system considered on the side of ownership--'Voluntary + purchase'--Mischief of this policy--It sets up a false standard + against rent, and creates unjust distinctions between different + classes of tenants--The results it has produced already--An instance + of the system--The demand for the compulsory purchase of the Irish + land caused by 'voluntary purchase'--Compulsory purchase has some hold + on opinion, but is an impossible, and would be a disgraceful and + ruinous policy--It would ruin Irish landlords as a + class--Instances--It would ultimately bring Ireland into the state in + which she was before the Great Famine--Proposed plan for the reform of + Irish land tenure--Questions as to the means of compensating Irish + landlords, a deeply wronged order of men. + + +Having traced the attempts that have been made to reform Irish land +tenure, in the last thirty years, and noticed the administration of the +new Irish land code, I must, for the sake of clearness, take a short +retrospect, and consider the Irish land system as it exists at this day; I +shall review it on the side of occupation first, that is, in the relations +of landlord and tenant. The agricultural rental of Ireland, we have seen, +has been, or is being, reduced about 40 per cent. since 1881, through the +operation of laws carried out by tribunals of the State; this proceeding, +unexampled in civilised lands, has been the means, I have proved, of doing +gross wrong to the Irish landed gentry. But this, if a signal, is only one +of the many acts of injustice perpetrated on a cruelly injured body of +men. The fee simple has been wrested from the Irish landlord, where he has +been subjected to the legislation of late years; he has been deprived of +the ownership which had been his birthright. An estate, nominally for +fifteen years, but really capable of being renewed for ever, has been +created against him by an unjust law; and this has been vested in his +former tenants, subject to the mode of land tenure known as the 'Three +F's,' the chief of these being 'fair,' that is, State-settled rents, in +the adjustment of which he has no voice. He may, no doubt, retain +fragments of his old proprietary rights; parts of his estate may be +excluded from the provisions of the law; he may be the lord of 'future +tenants;' he is left 'royalties,' such as minerals, mines, and timber; he +possesses most of his former legal remedies; and should the holders of the +lands, which had been his own, who have obtained the benefits of the +'Three F's,' infringe the statutory conditions imposed on them, they may +be dispossessed, and he may enter upon their farms again. But, +notwithstanding exceptions and possibilities like these, the Irish +landlord has, for practical purposes, been well-nigh assimilated to a +rent-charger, and his tenants have been nearly converted into owners of +the soil, an utter revolution in the whole land system, in truth, turning +it upside down. The status, indeed, of the Irish landed gentry now bears a +strong resemblance to that of the chief landlords of the eighteenth +century, who, separating themselves altogether from their lands, let them +in perpetuity at low rents, and, as a necessary consequence, produced the +middleman, the pest, as he has rightly been called, of Irish land tenure. + +The enormous and, as I believe, the unjust benefits secured by recent +legislation to the Irish tenant, are not, however, so complete as they +appear to be, and are not without disadvantages attendant on them. Tenants +of holdings, to which the law does not apply, such as tenants of demesnes +and large pastoral lands, if rightly excluded, nevertheless complain; and +'future tenants,' and petty occupants, who cannot afford to seek 'fair +rents' from the Courts, have, from their point of view, solid grounds of +complaint. The scope of the new land code is, therefore, to some extent, +restricted; and if the law has actually caused a general reduction of +rents, it has not secured the 'Three F's' for a considerable body of +farmers, not improbably a fourth or fifth part of the class as a whole. +And even the occupiers of the Irish soil, who have obtained the advantages +of the new mode of tenure, have not obtained these without a certain kind +of drawback. Completely separated as they now are from their former +landlords, they cannot expect indulgences from a class which considers +itself to have been shamefully wronged; the allowances, which, whatever +may be said, had been made to them, in thousands of cases, have, as a +rule, been altogether withdrawn; they get no help in making improvements; +they are usually obliged regularly to pay their 'fair rents;' above all, +landlords, of a strict or harsh nature, are sometimes on the look-out to +see if they do not violate the statutory conditions to which they are +subject, in order to convert them into 'future tenants,' outside of the +protection of the law, and even to reacquire their lands. These +circumstances are not without adverse effects; though unquestionably they +are far more than countervailed by the change which has been wrought in +Irish land tenure, and has given the Irish tenant the benefits already +described. Yet, even from this point of view, the law does not operate as +unreservedly in his favour as might be supposed. He has his 'fair rent,' +probably much too low; his 'fixity of tenure,' a perpetuity in all but +name; his right to 'free sale,' sometimes worth thousands of pounds. But, +as a rule, he can only gain these advantages at the cost of a lawsuit +recurring at short intervals of time, with the vexation and mischief this +brings with it, a lawsuit, too, of which the results may be more or less +doubtful. If, too, he is a saving and thrifty man he will hardly be able +to acquire lands for himself, as, in consequence of the right of 'free +sale,' the tenant right of these will have become immensely high; he will +be confined, in most instances, to the farm he holds. On the other hand, +if he be dishonest or imprudent, he will be tempted to run out and even to +injure his land, in order to effect a reduction of rent, or to sublet or +mortgage it should an opportunity be found. + +The new Irish land code has thus had this special feature: it has done +infinite harm to the despoiled landlord, but the tenant has not gained the +expected benefits. Let us now see what effect it has had on the great +industry on which the Irish landed classes depend, the main source of the +wealth of their country. Unquestionably, as I have remarked, over and over +again, the tenant in Ireland makes, for the most part, the plant of his +farm a necessary incident of the small-farm system; but the Irish landed +gentry, in the last half century, have done a great deal in the work of +improvement. Whatever interested calumny may falsely assert, they have +expended millions, as unerring statistics show, in planting, enclosure, +and, especially, in arterial drainage, this last beyond the reach of the +common peasant; they have, in thousands of instances, made the breeds of +stock better; they have made large allowances as regards farm buildings. +All this is now a thing of the past; the sometime landowner, in a real +sense, has been divorced from his former estate; law has prohibited him +from doing anything for it; his only interest is to collect the +rent-charge called, in mockery, 'fair rent.' On the other hand, tenants in +Ireland have, in a great many cases--I have briefly glanced at the +conclusive evidence--positively wasted or neglected their holdings, for +the express purpose of working rent down; this shameful expedient has been +hardly checked; the deterioration of a large area of land has been thus +accomplished. And, at the same time, as 'fair rent' is much lower than the +rent of the market, a considerable minority of this class have sublet or +mortgaged their lands, in order to get advances of which they stand in +need; this, no doubt, is a violation of the law; but it is a violation +difficult to prove, and they run the risk. In this way, as I have shown, +in a preceding chapter, the husbandry of Ireland has declined of late +years; woodland has been cut down recklessly to a great extent; main +drainage has been largely neglected, a ruinous thing in a wet climate; in +thousands of cases the farming of tenants at 'fair rents' is wretched. The +face of the country reveals these facts: Ireland is worse cultivated than +it was twenty years ago; indeed, the best farming, in the island, by many +degrees, is that conducted by a small number of men of substance, who +still hold on the footing of free contract, having settled with their +landlords, and taken out leases, a significant commentary on Irish +legislation since 1881. + +This subject, however, must be considered from a broader point of view, +and with reference to the community of Ireland, as a whole. A great +confiscation, I have said, has been wrought in the Irish land; the immense +fall in the value of the landlord's estate, and the immense rise in the +value of the tenant right, prove that property belonging to one class has +been transferred, wholesale, by law, to another, a result never +contemplated by responsible statesmen. And confiscation has produced its +inevitable effects; free dealing in land has been prevented; except to his +former tenants an Irish country gentleman cannot sell what remains to him +of his former estate, and that through the system of 'land purchase;' +capital shuns the Irish soil as if it were a quicksand; trustees and +mortgagees will not invest in it; in a word, as respects the class which +had been its owners, the Irish land has been bound in a kind of pernicious +mortmain. It is unnecessary to dwell on the resulting evils; one of the +sources of the wealth of Ireland has been made barren; a paralysis has +fallen on a member of Irish industry; what is, perhaps, even worse, a +sense of insecurity, of instability, of fear of unknown change, so widely +prevails in Irish landed relations, that they have become completely +unsettled, and are a mere chaos. And as vicious legislation has cut the +old landlord off from his estate, has assimilated him to the chief lord of +the eighteenth century, and is evolving, by degrees, the middleman, so the +effects of confiscation, by keeping land out of commerce, have unnaturally +limited and restricted its nominal ownership; in fact, many of the +features of the detestable penal laws of Ireland are reappearing in the +Irish land system, and are being reproduced by the modern Irish land code. +Another mischievous effect of this code, in another direction, requires +attention. The value of tenant right, we have seen, has enormously +increased; the sums paid by incoming to outgoing tenants, on the transfer +of farms, have, accordingly, become enormous; these purchasers, therefore, +are being subjected to heavy outlays, practically in the nature of +rack-rents, which hamper their industry, starve their capital, and most +injuriously affect good husbandry. One class of the community is thus +wronged for the behoof of another; and agriculture must, more or less, +suffer. + +Not the least, however, of the manifold evils caused by this legislation +have to be yet noticed. The ancient divisions of race and faith in the +Irish land system still continue; what was most harsh and oppressive in +them has been effaced; but they have become wider and more marked in the +last twenty years; and this is largely to be ascribed to the present land +code. A mode of land tenure, which produces harassing litigation at short +intervals of time, and makes landed relations cockpits for legal +conflicts, necessarily sets the landed classes against each other; it has +aggravated the old differences deep-rooted in the Irish soil. The +Protestant gentleman and the Catholic peasant are more estranged from each +other, in the southern provinces, than they have been, I believe, within +living memory; the same remark, too, applies to Presbyterian Ulster, where +the gentry belong, for the most part, to the late Established Church, and +the tenant classes are of the faith of John Knox; the lines of distinction +between these orders of men have deepened; and this alienation, concurring +with another cause, has contributed to the cry for the confiscation of the +Irish land, which is now being very generally raised, and to which I shall +refer afterwards. Another mischief of this legislation, at which I have +already glanced, is the widespread demoralisation it has caused, from the +nature of the case. The litigation in the Courts where 'fair rents' are +being fixed, is often a miserable spectacle of hard and mendacious +swearing productive of the worst effects on the human character. Peasants, +as a rule, do not scruple to pledge their oaths that their rents ought to +be at most a fourth of the rents they had paid for perhaps half a century; +the witnesses they call as valuers usually repeat these statements. The +claims, too, for exemption from rent, on account of improvements, are +often ridiculous, often shameful; I have seen sums paid for manures twenty +years old, gravely put forward as creating a claim for exemption; and the +subject of the deterioration of farms is another fruitful source of +falsehood. It is hardly necessary to comment on the results, as regards +self-respect and the moral sense of men, which must follow proceedings of +this kind, carried on, over whole counties, in thousands of cases; they +are, inevitably, in a very high degree, unfortunate; but, when law +encourages dishonesty, they were to be only expected. + +Such have been the fruits of the new Irish land code, on the side of the +occupation of the Irish land. Legislation, essentially faulty and unwise, +in conflict with economic science and the facts of the case, has taken +from the Irish landlords their chief proprietary rights, and forcibly +transferred these to their tenants; it has not conferred the benefits it +intended on an unfairly favoured class; it has wrought a revolution in the +Irish land system, in contravention to plain justice, and given it an +unnatural and evil aspect; it has caused iniquitous confiscation on a vast +scale and demoralisation profound and widespread, with the far-reaching +inherent mischiefs; and bad administration has made bad laws worse. +Political economy, spite of Mr. Gladstone, has not fled from this world at +his bidding; she looks on, so to speak, at the ruins in Ireland produced +by the violation of her most certain principles; I will add, she affirms +the claim to compensation of the Irish landlord, if the simplest equity is +not to be set at nought. As to the general situation evolved by the +present Irish land code, I may refer to these pregnant words of Mr. Lecky: +'It cannot be denied that this legislation has redressed some hard cases +and benefited a large number of tenants; and as few men look beyond +immediate consequences, or rightly estimate those which are indirect and +remote, this fact is accepted by many as its justification. For my own +part, I believe that it will one day be found that the evils resulting +from this policy have greatly outweighed its benefits, and that they will +fall far more heavily on another class than on the small class which was +directly injured. In a poor country, where increased capital, improved +credit, and secure industry are the greatest needs, it has shaken to the +very basis the idea of the sanctity and obligation of contract; made it +almost impossible to borrow any considerable sum on Irish land; +effectually stopped the influx of English gold; paralysed or prevented +nearly all industrial undertakings stretching into a distant future. It +has reacted powerfully upon trade, and thus contributed to impoverish the +Irish towns, while it has withdrawn the whole rental of Ireland from the +improvement of the soil, as the landlord can have no further inducement or +obligation to spend money on his estate. In combination, also, with the +Home Rule movement, it has driven much capital out of the land.'[143] + +I pass on to the legislation of late years, with respect to the Irish +land, on the side of ownership. I have briefly described what that +legislation is: a Conservative Ministry, impressed with the wrong idea +that Mr. Gladstone had 'created dual ownership,' by the ill-conceived +measure of 1881, resolved to abolish this evil thing if they could, though +it is the natural mould of Irish land tenure; and Parliament has allotted +£40,000,000 to attain this object, through the operation of what is +falsely called 'land purchase.' The mode of proceeding has been explained: +an Irish landlord, who desires to sell his estate to his tenants, can +obtain an advance for this purpose from the State, through the agency of +the Land Commission; the tenants are then made owners of their farms, +without contributing any moneys of their own, and hold at terminable +annuities much lower than even 'fair rents.' The transaction, therefore, +we have seen, is, in no sense, a purchase; it is a gift, in the nature of +a bribe; it is completely different from the policy of John Bright and the +sales of land made to tenants before 1885, in which these men paid part of +the price at least, the only real security for thrift and honesty. Of the +£40,000,000, nearly half, I have said, has been spent; and out of the +486,000 agricultural Irish tenants, some 50,000 have acquired their +holdings, in fee, under these conditions. The law thus applies to a mere +fraction of the class; it is idle to assert that this can do much to +extinguish 'dual ownership' in all Ireland; the sum required would be many +times more than that which alone has been made available; and the +process, at the present rate of 'purchases,' would not be accomplished +within a century. We may, therefore, pass away from this part of the +subject; but let us see how 'land purchase,' effected in this way, bears +on the position of the Irish landed gentry. The immense majority of this +order of men still cling to their native country and their homes; they +hate the idea of parting with the rights they retain in the land, trampled +down and injured as they have been; this is especially the case with the +best and most solvent landlords. But as the terminable annuities payable +on 'land purchase' are not nearly so high as even very low rents, not to +speak of the other conditions of this mode of tenure, it follows that +tenants who have thus been made owners are infinitely better off than +tenants still subject to rent; one class has great advantages, of which +the other is deprived; as a necessary consequence an artificial standard +is set up against rent, which does wrong to the landlord, from the nature +of the case; gives every tenant on his estate a grievance; and not +improbably may expose him to a determined refusal to pay any rent +whatever. + +'Land purchase,' therefore--the name is a mere untruth--has been a failure +as regards 'dual ownership;' and it is establishing against the Irish +landlord a false measure of rent, analogous to a base coinage, a strange +achievement of a Conservative Government. Let us next consider what has +been the working of this economic nostrum, with respect to the class, for +the benefit of which it was first prescribed, and which has reaped the +advantages it gives. The tenants, who have been made owners of their +farms, have, as a rule, discharged their obligations to the State very +well, though I could point to not a few exceptions; and there have been +strikes against the payment of the terminable annuities in some instances. +This may be sufficient for official bureaucrats; it is not sufficient for +those who know Ireland, and can impartially watch the course of events. +It was fondly expected that 'land purchase,' that is, bribing tenants in +Ireland to become owners of their farms, would create a powerful body of +freeholders loyal to the State; but this has already been seen to be a +mere delusion. As Parnell predicted would be the case, these 'purchasers' +are 'patriotic' in the highest degree; they fill the ranks of the United +Irish League, that is, of a conspiracy against our rule in Ireland, and +are numbered among its most efficient agents; human nature being what it +actually is, this is precisely what was to be expected. It was confidently +foretold, again, that these 'purchasers' would form a thriving class of +model farmers; and that their lands would be patterns of admirable and +improved peasant husbandry, but this forecast is being, in a great degree, +falsified. These men, 'rocked and dandled into their possessions,' in the +words of Burke, without a single guarantee for common prudence, and +especially without an effort of their own, have, in hundreds of instances, +turned out sorry failures; and it has been the almost universal practice +of the whole class to cut down every tree that grows on their lands, an +act of ruinous waste in a rain-drenched climate. Besides, as freehold +ownership is not an Irish idea--indeed, is opposed to Irish ideas--these +'purchasers' have, in many cases, following the example of tenants 'at +fair rents,' subdivided, sublet, or mortgaged their holdings; instead of +remaining owners in a true sense, they are becoming middlemen lording it +over rack-rented serfs. The agriculture, too, of hundreds of these farms +is slovenly in the extreme, for bribery does not promote industry; what is +'easy got, easy goes' is a true proverb; and, in addition, a number of +these men were really insolvent when they were made 'purchasers.' That +Ireland will blossom like a rose, under these conditions, is seen even now +to be a chimera; and there is much reason to believe that many of these +'purchasers' have become the prey of the race of local usurers, a +consummation that might have been predicted. 'I shall sell my estate,' a +witty Irishman once remarked, 'but I will keep two loan offices and four +public-houses; and in two generations my "purchasing" tenants will be too +happy to resell their lands to my grandsons.' + +A singular instance of 'land purchase,' and, indeed, of the working of +another part of the land code, has come under my notice of late; I can +answer for the accuracy of what I write; scores of similar cases could be, +probably, found. In 1852, an industrious Scottish tradesman invested the +savings of years of his life in buying a chief rent under the Encumbered +Estates Act; he gave £5000 for a perpetual rent-charge of £192, that is, +not quite 4 per cent. on his capital. The tenant of the lands subject to +the rent was a middleman, with an estate of about £3000 a year; he had +sublet the lands to a tenant in occupation of them, a slovenly, +ill-conditioned, and indolent farmer. The Land Act of 1887 passed; the +wealthy middleman, an excellent 'mark' for the chief rent, who, therefore, +had been obliged to pay the £192 a year, was empowered by the new law to +evade his contract, and practically to get rid of his interest; the owner +of the chief rent, therefore, had only the tenant in occupation to look to +for the discharge of his claim. This person was succeeded by his son, a +good-for-nothing and drunken man, who soon became head over ears in debt; +but he was declared 'a purchaser' by the Land Commission, and, subject to +a terminable annuity, was made owner of the lands. But the advance made +was not more than £2300; the representative of the hardworking Scotchman, +who had bought property, as secure, at the time, as Consols, was a loser +of more than half of his capital; he was simply cheated out of £2700, +through the operation of an iniquitous law; his indignant protests may +well be conceived. The subsequent history of this so-styled 'purchase' is +significant, and not without interest. The worthless owner took possession +of the lands; his first step was to cut down the woodland, until he was +stopped by a creditor to whom he owed a mortgage. Since that time he has +become insolvent in all but name, and cannot pay the annuity due to the +State; the Land Commission has been trying to sell the lands; but the +attempt has, hitherto, been a failure; the lands have been 'boycotted,' +and the market has been closed against a sale. These proceedings do not +require a word of comment; they strikingly illustrate how the agrarian +code of Ireland makes havoc of capital, annuls contracts, and confiscates +property for the behoof of dishonest thriftlessness. Meanwhile the happy +middleman enjoys his £3000 a year; I dare say he licks his lips as he +thinks of the Land Act of 1887, which scattered a just liability to the +winds. + +The most remarkable and the worst effect--with a revolutionary tendency in +no doubtful sense--of this mischievous system has, however, to be still +noticed. About one out of ten of the agricultural tenants of Ireland have +'purchased' their farms in the way described; the fund available for 'land +purchase' cannot include more than one in five; and the process is and +must be slow, owing to the law's delay. Legislation, therefore, with a +singular want of insight, has drawn, and is drawing, an unjust distinction +between 'purchasing' and rent-paying tenants; it is dividing them into a +small favoured class, and a multitude harshly left out in the cold--fat +sheep in one fold, lean goats in another; as the inevitable result, the +rent-paying tenant resents the benefits obtained by 'the purchaser;' and +the immense majority of the farmers of Ireland are made discontented with +their lot, from their point of view not without reason. It is idle to say +to this great body of men that they have already gained advantages from +the State, on which they never reckoned thirty years ago, and that they +have the 'Three F's,' and all that the phrase implies; those who have +secured much are eager to secure more; the unfair distinction arbitrarily +made against them is unintelligible and exasperating, man being what he +is. The policy of 'voluntary purchase,' as it is called, has, accordingly, +from the very nature of the case, provoked and called into being the cry +for the 'compulsory purchase' of the Irish land, now being heard far and +wide in Ireland--that is, for the forcible expropriation of all Irish +landlords, and for placing all their tenants, in their stead, as owners of +their estates. This demand has as yet been rejected by statesmen, and is, +I believe, both hopeless and shameful; but it has, nevertheless, some +logic on its side; it is a corollary from legislation essentially bad; +and, backed as it is by a large force of Irish opinion, it cannot be +ignored or treated with contempt. It is simply extraordinary that many +Irish landlords have been encouraging, and still encourage, 'voluntary +purchase,' on its existing lines, and will not perceive that it leads to +'compulsory purchase;' either from a desire to dispose of parts of their +estates, or from motives not easy to understand, they are promoting a +revolution, which, if accomplished, would assure their ruin, as I shall +conclusively prove afterwards. But the well-informed and most thoughtful +members of their class are not flies lured into a bottle by a bit of +sugar; they are alive to all that is involved in what is called 'land +purchase.' Many years ago, when Parliament was voting funds for 'voluntary +purchase,' on the present system, I indicated what would be the results; I +only claim credit for some share of common sense: 'Law will have been +severing the occupiers of the soil by an arbitrary process into a pampered +caste, marked off from a disfavoured multitude; and, as a necessary +consequence, the mass of tenants, kept in an inferior position, will be +filled with discontent--and from their point of view with perfect +justice--when, as the advances from the State run short, their prospects +of "land purchase" shall wane and diminish. An "ugly rush" will be made +throughout the country to force landlords, as a class, to sell, in order +to get a chance of buying; in Ulster the cry for "compulsory purchase," +already heard, will swell high and fierce.'[144] + +These, therefore, have been the fruits of the system called 'land +purchase' with euphemistic falsehood. 'Compulsory purchase,' a demand +caused by an unwise policy, is a question that must be fairly discussed; +it is nothing to the purpose that it has as yet made little way in +Parliament. This claim would have been regarded as sheer insanity thirty +years ago; it was scouted by John Bright as in the highest degree +mischievous, though John Bright was the first statesman who proposed +making tenants in Ireland owners of their farms, but through a real, not a +sham, mode of purchase. The compulsory purchase of the rented land of +Ireland is a policy that has advocates even in England and Scotland; and +it is lamentable to observe how British opinion seems to take little heed +how a measure of this kind would affect the position of the Irish +landlord, another of the many instances of its habitual disregard of the +plainest rights of property in land in Ireland. A set of doctrinaires, +ignorant of Irish nature and of the Irish land, imagine that 'the creation +of a peasant proprietary,' in all parts of Ireland, as the cant phrase is, +would, in any case, make the Union secure, and would promote tranquillity, +industry, and content. Some politicians still cherish the fond belief, +that thrusting Irish tenants, wholesale, into the place of their +landlords, by an act of violence without a parallel, would make Irish +government and administration more easy; and shut their eyes to the nature +of this policy. English and Scottish capitalists, who have made advances +on Irish estates, see in compulsory purchase the best probable means of +realising securities now in danger; a few great absentee landlords, eager +to part with their possessions in Ireland, at almost any price, are +possibly not opposed to this scheme; and so maybe a few bankrupt Irish +landlords, hoping to get a trifle out of a general shipwreck. The demand, +however, for compulsory purchase has its only real strength in Ireland; +and unquestionably it is widespread and far-reaching. The conspiracy +against British rule in Ireland, which has made the annihilation of Irish +'landlordism' one of its main objects, calls for compulsory purchase, as a +matter of course; it finds no difficulty in banding together the peasantry +of the southern provinces in support of a cry which means for this class +an improvement in their lot, and appeals to deep-rooted sentiments of +human nature. The Irish Catholic priesthood, too, back the movement to a +man, and so do the local Nationalist boards; for obvious reasons, both +these orders of men seek to drive the Irish landed gentry from their +homes, and to replace them by dependents in sympathy with them. The demand +has also extended to Ulster, chiefly on account of the harsh distinction +drawn between 'purchasing' and 'non-purchasing' tenants; it is economic +rather than social or political; but the cry for compulsory purchase is +perhaps loudest in parts of the northern province. Its principal champion, +at present, is an enthusiast, sincere, indeed, if without judgment and +insight; but he is sustained by bodies of farmers formidable in numbers at +least. + +The sharp and, as I think, the unfair distinction drawn by the present law +between tenant 'purchasers' and tenants still subject to the payment of +rent, has created, it cannot be said too often, the demand for the +compulsory purchase of the Irish land, and for this Lord Salisbury's +Government is largely responsible. But because an Irish peasant, on one +side of a fence, cannot obtain the benefits of land tenure, which his +neighbour, on the other side, has obtained, and may even have a right to +complain, it does not follow that compulsory purchase is a possible, or +aught but a disgraceful policy; other interests and considerations must be +taken into account. Let us first see how compulsory purchase would affect +the financial position of the Three Kingdoms. Great as the prosperity of +the Empire is, the strain on its resources is immense; the expenditure of +the State at home is vast, and on the increase; the war in South Africa, +and the settlement of that huge region, will cost unknown millions; the +reform of our military and even of our naval system, necessary to our +safety, will be a weighty burden for years; every Chancellor of the +Exchequer has declared that fiscal economy, as far as possible, is his +first duty. But what does the compulsory purchase of the Irish land +involve, and what, confessedly, are its essential conditions? Mr. +Gladstone, I have said, asserted, long ago, that the value of the +agricultural area of Ireland was £300,000,000; this estimate, I believe, +is too high; but, in the opinion of competent judges, it cannot be deemed +less than £150,000,000. But the forcible expropriation of the Irish landed +gentry on every principle of civilised law, as, indeed, Sir Michael Hicks +Beach has already insisted, would imply giving them a large additional +bonus; this probably would not be less than £50,000,000; the sum, +therefore, required for compulsory purchase, would, it may be assumed, be +not less than £200,000,000. Now, can any one imagine that the general +taxpayer, in the financial situation in which we are, and shall be for +years, will make himself liable for this colossal charge, equal to the +ransom Germany extorted from France, in order to bribe Irish peasants into +the ownership of their farms, and to effect an agrarian revolution, in +which he has no interest? I should like to see the Minister who would go +to the country on such an insane policy, and who would call on the hardly +taxed millions of England, Scotland, and Ireland, to burn huge holes in +their pockets for such an object, for simply robbing Peter to pay Paul, +and that without a pretence of right, or any conceivable good. And what +security would the Irish land afford for the payment of this enormous +impost? The terminable annuities due from the 'purchasing' tenants would, +it has pleasantly been said, be a sufficient guarantee; but men of common +sense are not to be caught by chaff; the idea is a vain and worthless +delusion. The 'No Rent Manifesto' and the 'Plan of Campaign' were +movements of Irish peasants, so to speak, of yesterday; what if another +Parnell were to arise and to issue a ukase that 'a foreign and alien +Government had no right to an unjust tribute;' and how could this be +collected by a Department of an absentee State? + +The general taxpayer, therefore, who, thirteen years ago, grumbled at a +demand of £5,000,000 only, will assuredly not fling £200,000,000, or half +that sum, into the Serbonian bog of the Irish land. It is hardly necessary +to dwell on so small a fact, 'that compulsory purchase would reduce the +income tax of Ireland about one-half, for nine-tenths of the tenant +'purchasers' would be below its level;' but even this cannot be left out +of sight. Conservative statesmen, it should be added, are especially bound +to reject this scheme; in 1886 they denounced, in emphatic language, Mr. +Gladstone's far less dangerous plan of making the State liable for +£50,000,000, to buy out Irish landlords; flagrant inconsistency in +politics should be eschewed. The probably fixed purpose of the general +taxpayer not to mulct himself heavily to fling the Irish soil to a mass of +peasants, is doubtless, and I say it with regret, the best security +against the destruction of the Irish landlords; this despoiled and +maltreated body of men just now fill the place in Irish affairs of the +'Injured Lady' of Swift's satire, gravely told by her lover across the +Channel that 'I had cost him ten times more than I was worth to maintain +me, and that it had been much better for him if I had been damned, or +burnt, or thrown to the bottom of the sea.'[145] Nevertheless, I have +faith in right-minded Englishmen, however prejudiced or ill-informed about +an unpopular class, if plain facts and figures are set before them; let us +see how it would fare with the Irish landlord were he forcibly +expropriated under compulsory purchase. I will take the case of an Irish +country gentleman, who, in the period between 1868 and 1878, had an income +from his estate of £1500 a year, subject to a family charge of £10,000 at +4 per cent., that is, had a net annual income of £1100. Owing to the +depression of agriculture since 1879, his rents would have naturally +fallen about £300 a year; but let us suppose that, through the operation +of the new Irish land code, they have been cut down to 'fair rents' of +£900 a year only. His annual income, therefore, would be £900 less by +£400, that is, he would still have £500 a year he could call his own; how +would it be with him were he forcibly sold out? Admit that his estate +would fetch eighteen years' purchase--the present average rate is +seventeen--that is, would realise £16,200; deducting, say, £200 for law +costs, this would be a net residue of £16,000. But the family charge would +absorb £10,000; the surplus would be £6000 only, producing, let us +calculate, £4 per cent.; this ruined man, therefore, who, little more than +twenty years ago, possessed an income of £1100 a year, would be left £240 +at the very utmost. I have taken care to understate the case; I challenge +attention to my figures; I ask honest Englishmen would not this be sheer +robbery, accomplished, to the disgrace of the State, in its name? + +It has been urged, however--and to those who know the facts, the statement +is cruel and shameful mockery--that the Irish landlord would only lose his +rented lands, and that 'he could live happily on the demesne land, which +he would still retain.' This would be simply impossible in the case of +nineteen-twentieths of the class; they would not have the means to keep +their demesnes up; they would be compelled to part with them at almost any +price; and the few, who would have the means, would, all but certainly, +with their beggared fellows, leave a country in which they had been foully +betrayed. It is notorious, indeed, that Irish Nationalist leaders, knowing +what compulsory purchase means, have marked down the demesnes of the Irish +landed gentry as their prey; associates of American Fenians and of the +Clan na Gael are to revel in the mansions of the Geraldines, the Butlers, +the O'Connors, the O'Neills, as Jacobins revelled in the mansions of the +La Tremouilles and the De Noailles. But man does not live by bread alone; +the material ruin of the Irish landlord would be bad enough; but the moral +consequences of his expropriation must not be left out of sight. Few of +the purchasers under the Encumbered Estates Acts care probably much about +the lands they have bought; the same remark probably applies to most Irish +absentees. But an immense majority of the Irish landed gentry are deeply +attached to their hearths and their homes; they are bound to their lands +by innumerable ties; they have been brought up with the sentiments which +property in land creates; in the pathetic words of an old chronicler, +'They do not wish to pray in foreign churches, or to lie in foreign +graves;' their hope has been to live and die amidst their ancestral +surroundings. The State has, in a special manner, encouraged this belief; +it rooted the Irish landlord in the soil to be its supporter; is it to +expel him from the position it has made for him, without a thought of the +shock to his best feelings this must produce? Would not such an act be +dishonourable, nay, infamous? Let us hear what the deepest of our +political thinkers, Burke, has written upon a somewhat parallel case: +'When men are encouraged to go into a certain mode of life by the +existing laws, and protected in that mode as in a lawful occupation--when +they have accommodated all their ideas, and all their habits to it, ... I +am sure it is unjust in legislature, by an arbitrary act, to offer a +sudden violence to their minds and their feelings; forcibly to degrade +them from their state and condition, and to stigmatise with shame and +infamy that character and those customs, which before had been made the +measure of their happiness and honour. If to this be added an expulsion +from their habitations, and a confiscation of all their goods, I am not +sagacious enough to discover how this despotick sport, made of the +feelings, consciences, prejudices, and properties of men, can be +discriminated from the rankest tyranny.'[146] + +I have referred to an instance, within my knowledge, of the operation of +the new Irish land code, in the case of a middleman, his under-tenant, and +a despoiled owner of a rent. I now refer to an instance, also within my +knowledge, of what compulsory purchase would do in the case of an Irish +landlord. This person is a scion of one of the princely Irish-Milesian +houses; his forefathers were lords of a tract extending from the Boyne to +the Shannon. They belonged to one of the famous 'five bloods of Ireland,' +acknowledged to be half-royal by Henry of Anjou; they intermarried with +the great Norman-Irish _noblesse_; one of their matronage was half-sister +of Surrey's fair Geraldine; the ruins of the abbeys they founded are still +to be seen. Their domains were torn from them in the reign of Mary Tudor; +but they fought stubbornly with their tribe in the great Desmond war; they +retained, though proscribed, the rank of princes, until the close of the +sixteenth century; leaders of the house then carried their swords into +foreign armies, and have given a field marshal to Austria and grandees to +Spain. The direct line of the chiefs, however, remained in Ireland; it +vegetated in obscurity until the Irish rising of 1689-90; one of its +members then appeared in the Parliament of James II. in Dublin, and +perished, at the head of his regiment, it is said, at Aughrim. The +fortunes of his descendants are not without interest; one is believed to +have been a companion-in-arms of Villars at Malplaquet and Dénain; two of +his remote offspring, the tradition exists, perished in the ranks of +Napoleon's armies. But the heir of the family bowed under the yoke of the +Irish penal laws, and became a Protestant, at least in name; his near +kindred gave Ireland Anthony Malone, one of the most illustrious Irishmen +of the eighteenth century, and gave England the best commentator on her +most immortal poet. One of his representatives, the person of whom I +write, still possesses a fragment of the immense possessions his fathers +ruled; of more than thirty of their castles he has the wreck of one; a +scroll on the roof of his house bears the touching legend that he has +sprung from the loins of the old Milesian princes. He is not wholly +unknown as an Irish landlord of this day; curiously, too, his rental has +been hardly reduced by the visitations of the Land and the +Sub-Commissions. Is this scion of the best and the most ancient _noblesse_ +of Ireland to be banished in his old age from his home, and to be replaced +in it by ornaments of the Land, the National, and the United Irish +Leagues, for this would be one result of compulsory purchase? + +Let us imagine, however, that, owing to the malign influence which, +Spenser said, attends England in Irish affairs, the Irish landed gentry +were removed from the land, and their former tenants were put in their +place as owners. What would be the consequences, economic, social, +political, of this sudden agrarian revolution in one of the Three +Kingdoms? The distribution of the Irish soil between the classes which +would possess it, would be unfavourable, in the highest degree, to the +establishment of a 'peasant proprietary,' the common name in use on this +subject. Of the 486,000 tenant farmers in Ireland, some 132,000 hold +patches of from less than one to five acres in extent; are these to be +stereotyped as real land owners? More than 90,000 occupy from fifty to +five hundred acres and upwards; these include the great graziers of the +rich tracts of pasturage; do these supply elements of a 'peasant +proprietary' in any rational sense? The only class which even on +plausible, _a priori_ grounds could be made occupying owners of the land +would contain much less than 300,000 families; and probably it occupies +less than two-thirds of the island as a whole. Are all these bodies of men +to be lumped, so to speak, together, and universally to receive the +ownership of the soil; would not compulsory purchase, even on these +conditions, be the sheerest folly? Furthermore, the configuration of +Ireland and her climate make it next to impossible that a 'peasant +proprietary' could generally thrive within her borders; Nature herself +forbids an attempt to carry out, on a large scale, a settlement of the +kind. The central area of the island is a low watershed of wide extent, +from which a succession of streams descends through vast tracts of morass +and bog; in other parts of the country there are large and deep rivers, +curving as they approach the sea, and flowing through mountain spaces; the +lands they traverse are swampy, and require main drainage; a large part of +Ireland is composed of wild hill ranges only fit for the rearing of young +and coarse breeds of cattle; she possesses a fine area of the best +pasturage, confined, however, to a few counties; her true agricultural +area is comparatively small. Her climate, moreover, is wet to a proverb; +torrents of rain from the Atlantic fall on her plains for months; above +all, her inland towns are far from each other, and petty; scarcely one is +peopled by more than 10,000 souls. Any well-informed and right-judging +person who knows the conditions under which a 'peasant proprietary' can +alone flourish, must know that, from the nature of the case, it would be +a failure, in the circumstances in which it would be necessarily placed, +were it forcibly established in every part of Ireland. Ireland has little +in common with Belgium, with Northern Italy, with France; this settlement +of confiscation would go the way of the Englishry of the Middle Ages and +the Cromwellian colonists. + +The most conclusive argument against compulsory purchase has, +nevertheless, to be yet put forward. The state of things 'voluntary +purchase' is evolving would assuredly be aggravated a hundred-fold were +every tenant in Ireland made the owner of his farm by a revolutionary act +on the part of the State. It is significant, in the highest degree, that +from the time of the 'New Departure' to this hour, the conspiracy against +our rule in Ireland has clamoured for the expropriation of the Irish +landed gentry by force, and for the conversion of their tenants into +possessors of these estates; far better informed than British statesmen, +it has rightly calculated that this violent change would increase the +'Nationalist' sympathies of the Irish peasant; and this opinion is being +confirmed, to a great extent, by the results of 'voluntary purchase' being +now developed. The coarse materialist view that bribery will make a class +law-abiding and loyal, is opposed to human nature and fact; bribery will +not efface ideas, feelings, and tendencies, deep-rooted in history and +ancient tradition; above all, if it is a concession to agitation and a +rebellious movement, it will only quicken the animosity to the State and +the greed of the favoured class. Parnell, I have said, had his mind made +up on this subject; he always insisted that the Irish tenant, wherever his +holding had been made his own, would be 'more true to the cause than +ever;' it is curious that the confident prediction of a most able man +appears to have been persistently ignored. For the rest, the mischief +'voluntary purchase' is already doing would be enormously aggravated by +the effects of compulsory purchase. The Irish tenant farmers, made owners +of the land everywhere, would, like the present 'purchasers,' cut down +woodland wholesale; the country would be disafforested over an immense +area; the consequences to agriculture would be as bad as possible. +Arterial and main drainage too would, as a rule, be neglected; but these +would, comparatively, be trifling results; the compulsory purchaser would +deal with the land as their 'voluntary' fellows are now largely dealing, +but, in all probability, more generally, and in much a greater proportion. +Holding as they would nine-tenths of the Irish soil at terminable +annuities much lower than any rent, they would inevitably subdivide, +sublet, and mortgage their farms in tens of thousands of cases; they would +become middlemen, over whole counties, the harsh oppressors of a multitude +ground down by rack-rents; the worst kind of 'landlordism' would be +reproduced in the worst aspect. The tendency of events is even now +confirming what I wrote a long time ago on this subject: 'Freehold +ownership, therefore, would disappear more or less quickly over extensive +tracts, the "yeomen" would become a diminishing quantity, and these would +be replaced by a new class of landlords with tenants at competition rents, +that is, determined by the land hunger of the Celt. The transformation +would inevitably go on, for its causes would operate with intense force; +and before many years probably two-thirds of Ireland would have become a +land of mere peasant landlords placed over a mass of rack-rented +tenants.'[147] The creation of a universal 'peasant proprietary,' by +force, would, in fact, bring the Irish land system back by degrees into +the state in which it was before the Great Famine, when millions of +serfdom squatted on the soil, disorganising agriculture and preventing +social progress. + +These considerations, however, by no means exhaust the case against the +compulsory purchase of the rented land of Ireland. Irish landlords have +been decried, for an evil purpose, during many years; their position is +difficult and open to attack; but if they are an unpopular class, they +have been a civilising influence in Ireland of real value, the most +civilising influence, perhaps, in her three southern provinces. Their +annihilation, despoiled and impoverished as they are, would still withdraw +a large fund from Irish rural labour; and it would be most injurious to +agriculture in many ways, especially as regards main and arterial +drainage, an absolute necessity for the Irish soil, and scarcely possible +except under a system of large estates. Their extinction, too, Englishmen +ought not to forget, would deprive the State of one of its mainstays in +Ireland; the idea to the contrary growing up is a mere delusion; it was +not for nothing that Parnell and Davitt described this order of men as +'the British garrison' and insisted that were it once out of the fortress +the power of England in Ireland would certainly perish. The conversion of +Irish farmers universally into landowners would also have a ruinous effect +on many Irish industries. It would do infinite harm to many branches of +commerce, especially to trades of the higher type; it would be disastrous +to such towns as Dublin and Belfast, already beginning to protest against +it; and, whatever may be said, the prospect of it is dreaded by +agricultural Irish labourers as a class, which has always been ill-treated +by their masters, the farmers, though, owing to the influence of priests +and demagogues, they are unwilling to express the sentiments they really +feel. Compulsory purchase, in fact, is by no means so generally asked for +in Ireland as is supposed; her representation demands it by a great +majority of votes; but this representation, as I have pointed out before, +is not a true index of Irish opinion. Another consideration, too, should +be taken into account in coming to a reasonable conclusion on this +subject. The land system of England and Scotland, from a variety of causes +sufficiently known, is essentially different from that of Ireland; +politically, socially, economically, it has little in common with it. But +were Parliament to declare that the whole tenant class of Ireland were to +be transformed into fee simple owners, subject only to renders, much less +than true rents, and payable for a short space of time, I much doubt if +English and Scottish tenants would acquiesce, and would not agitate for +legislation of a similar kind, especially as British agriculture is still +heavily depressed. Leaseholders of large houses in towns, for long terms +of years, at ground rents, and a whole class of builders, assuredly would +join in such a demand; the contagion of revolution and socialism is always +perilous. English and Scottish landlords have usually played the part of +the Jew to the Samaritan as regards their Irish fellows; but 'proximus +ardet Ucalegon' might be borne in mind.[148] + +The Irish land system, therefore, from every point of view, is simply in a +deplorable state; it is an economic and social chaos, pregnant with +mischiefs and dangers of many kinds. Confiscation has wrought its work on +the Irish landlord; has shaken the structure of Irish society; and has +produced its inevitable results in banishing capital from the land, and in +dealing a weighty blow to Irish credit. The legislation of 1881, and of +subsequent years, has conferred immense advantages on the tenant class in +Ireland; but these have fallen short of what might be supposed; this class +declares itself to be dissatisfied with its lot; it is clamouring for the +wholesale transfer to itself of the rented lands of Ireland, through what +is known as compulsory purchase, that is, corruption and spoliation +combined in an act of the State. And these efforts of legislation, +essentially unwise, in direct conflict with fact and economic science, a +mere makeshift to stave off agitation and trouble, are, in all +probability, by no means the worst. Demoralisation has spread throughout +Irish landed relations, affecting them, unfortunately, in many ways; +divisions of class have been made worse, as well as the old divisions of +race and faith; respect for contracts and obligations has been destroyed; +dishonesty and thriftlessness have been favoured, and industry and honesty +not encouraged; an evil spirit of discontent and desire for change is +abroad; agriculture is plainly on the decline; there is nothing secure or +settled in the land. Vicious as the Irish land system unquestionably was +before Mr. Gladstone first took it in hand, I believe that, having regard +to the general interests of the State, it is still more vicious at the +present time; it has been transformed, but, on the whole, transformed for +the worse. As I wrote before, when commenting on the position of affairs +in Ireland, before the Land Act of 1870, a revolution only could have +removed the deep-rooted ills in all that related to the land; a revolution +alone could remove them now. But in the one instance, as in the other, the +evil caused by a revolution would be infinitely greater than the good; a +new agrarian revolution in Ireland would be a curse to her; it is better, +as Burke has remarked, to try to repair even ruins than to blot out every +trace of the edifice. Still, taking it as we find it, can nothing be done +to amend, in some measure, at least, the existing land system? Much of it, +I admit, must be left untouched; the principle of settling rent, through +the agency of the State, false as it is, must continue to work; the +principle of so-called 'land purchase' must, within reasonable limits, be +still given free scope. But something in the nature of reform is, I think, +possible; the discussion of the subject may be of use; I contribute my +mite to it, if with unfeigned diffidence. + +In order to find out the truth, and thoroughly to clear the ground, a +Commission, I suggest, ought to be appointed, as important as the Devon +Commission of nearly sixty years ago; it should investigate the Irish Land +Question in all its branches. Its President should be a great English +nobleman--the nation would have confidence in the Duke of Bedford, a +princely and most liberal English landlord; but the judicial element +should be strong in it; English and Irish judges should be among its +members; it should include trained agricultural experts: it should have +representatives of Irish landlords and tenants. It should examine the +Irish land system as this existed before 1870; should review the whole +series of Irish Land Acts, from 1870 to the present time, and inquire into +their results and tendencies; should carefully consider the operation of +the tribunals selected to carry out the new Irish land code, especially as +regards the fixing of 'fair rents,' and that not with respect to their +procedure only, an unjust limit imposed on the Fry Commission, but with +respect to the principles that have been adopted and the methods pursued; +it should deal exhaustively with the subject of so-called 'land purchase,' +and see whether it has not directly led to the demand for compulsory +purchase; it should take evidence as to 'peasant proprietary' and its +creation; and it should make a complete and searching report, with a view +to the legislation it might recommend. And if I am not altogether +mistaken, such a Commission would state, in emphatic language, that the +present Irish land code was ill designed, even if it cannot be now much +changed; that its administration has been attended with grave errors; that +cruel wrong has been done to Irish landlords, while Irish tenants have not +obtained what was hoped for; that the economic and social results have +been deplorable; that if 'land purchase' cannot be stopped, it is a bad +expedient on its present lines, and that the cry for compulsory purchase +has been its evident effect; and that extensive, still more universal +peasant ownership, is an impossible and would be a pernicious policy. +Finally, if I am not much mistaken again, such a Commission would report +that a reform of the Irish land system, if very difficult, should be +attempted; and that, in its main scope and operation at least, it should +be carried out on the side of land tenure, that is, in the relations of +landlord and tenant, as has been the opinion of every thinker from Burke +onwards, who has not been swayed by the exigencies of agitation, or of +party politics. + +I proceed briefly to put my scheme forward, assuming that I have made a +reasonably correct forecast. I may say it has been a subject of reflection +during many years, indeed, since the legislation of 1881; Mr. Gladstone, +in his place in the House of Commons, pointedly approved of a tract in +which I set forth my views; and so, curiously enough, did Parnell. It is +impossible, I have said, to transform the existing system of Irish land +tenure; a wide departure from it cannot be made; but improvement is really +feasible within certain limits. My object would be to get rid of palpable +evils, inseparable from the present state of things; to make the positions +of both Irish landlords and tenants in some degree better than they now +are; to place the Irish land system on a somewhat less precarious basis. +In the first place, the law as to the exemption of tenants' improvements +from rent, an excrescence on the Land Act of 1881, and made extravagant by +the Land Act of 1896, should be restricted in its application to some +extent; as it stands, it is a fruitful cause of injustice, of +demoralisation, and of hard swearing, producing endless litigation to very +little purpose; claims in respect of improvements ought to be more +limited, in point of time, than they are; a check should be placed on +obsolete and illusory claims; this would be advantageous, I think, to all +interests involved. Again, it would be impracticable to exclude from the +operation of the present land code lands that have been already brought +within its scope; but a more precise definition should be made of the +lands that are intended to be now excluded--demesnes, town parks, +residential holdings, and large pastoral farms; the decisions of the +Courts, in this province, are very perplexing; a good definition would +make litigation very considerably less. These changes, I am convinced, +would do much appreciable good; but I would go a long way farther in +attempting to make the status of both landlord and tenant in Ireland less +insecure and vexatious than it now is. In the first place, leaving lands +now excluded out, I would make all agricultural and pastoral Irish tenants +entitled to the tenure of the 'Three F's,' removing the prohibition as to +'future tenants,' a distinction that never ought to have been made, and, +as far as possible, securing this mode of tenure to the poorest tenants, +by means to which I shall advert afterwards. In the next place, I would +make an earnest effort to lessen the ruinous litigation and the +instability caused by the statutory leases renewable at short intervals of +time. The tenant should have 'fixity of tenure' in a real sense; the +estate created in his favour against the landlord ought not to be one of +fifteen years only, however indefinitely it may be extended; I would +prefer to see it an estate for ever; but, as in the present state of +agriculture, there would be objections to this, on account of the +uncertainty of the rate of rent, it might be an estate for a limited term. +But the term ought not to be less than thirty years at least, renewable, +of course, like the shorter term of fifteen; this would quiet possession +and get rid of lawsuits for the period of a generation of men. The tenant +should retain his right of 'free sale;' but I would make the conditions +less stringent than they are under the existing law. + +The position of the Irish tenant would thus be greatly improved; the +sphere of the 'Three F's' would be largely extended; he would have 'fixity +of tenure,' for a long time, at least, without the hazard and loss of +litigation every fifteen years; his right of 'free sale' would be less +restricted; and he would have distinct advantages, as respects 'fair +rent,' under the part of my plan I am about to explain. I turn to the +position of the Irish 'landlord'--I still use this expression and that of +'tenant,' though both words are hardly applicable to existing facts; this, +too, in my judgment, would be made much better. The estate that is now +created against him would still be preserved; I wish it were a perpetual +estate, but it would be one for thirty years at least; he would, +therefore, remain assimilated to a rent-charger, as he is at present. But +like his tenant he would be comparatively free from lawsuits; he would be +less harassed by claims in respect of improvements; he would have, in many +particulars, a more stable tenure. He should, of course, retain the +'royalties' still reserved to him--mines, minerals, timber, and such +things; and he should have the title to the statutory conditions he now +has; but as his reversionary rights would be somewhat lessened, he should +be compensated for these by a small money payment. With one great +exception he should have the legal remedies to enforce the rights he now +possesses; and that exception would be of great importance. I have always +thought the law of ejectment for non-payment of rent harsh; it is an +innovation on the ancient Common Law; it sometimes causes forfeitures far +from just; it is not properly applicable to tenancies of long duration. I +would certainly abolish this mode of procedure; I would instead of it give +the landlord a power to sell the tenant's lands, by a procedure analogous +to that of bankruptcy, should default be made in the payment of the rent, +or rather the rent-charge that might be due. The advantage to both +landlord and tenant would be great: the first would have a remedy more +expeditious and just than he has; the second, should the land be sold and +lost to him, would, as a rule, have a surplus over and above his debts; +unlike what is sometimes the case in evictions, he would realise for +himself his whole legitimate interest in the land. This single reform +would do much to make 'fair rent' a less onerous charge than it now is. + +By these means the status of the Irish landlord would be made by many +degrees more secure; the Irish tenant would acquire an interest in the +land much more durable and stable than he has now, in fact, nearly +equivalent to full ownership, subject to a rent-charge; and if his +interest were made a perpetuity, as I hope would be the case at last, he +would be assimilated to an owner subject to a perpetual rent, or to an +English copyholder subject to a similar render. This is the position Burke +proposed he should have, considerably more than a century ago;[149] it is +that which has been advocated by John Stuart Mill, and, I am happy to add, +by Mr. John Morley; it is the only position, compatible with common sense +and justice, which the new Irish land code has left possible, for I put +the quackery of compulsory purchase out of sight, and voluntary purchase +is a bad half-measure. The great subject of fixing rent by the State would +remain; for, unjustifiable as this expedient is, it is impossible, after +what has happened, to dispense with it. Without imputing personal motives +or moral blame to any one, the Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions +ought, I am convinced, to cease to be the agency to fix 'fair rents;' +however unconsciously, in my judgment, they have often proceeded on false +principles, and have done immense, if not wilful wrong; they are decried +by landlords and tenants alike in Ireland. Besides, there is a +constitutional objection to their adjusting rent; the Land Commission is +entrusted with the task of carrying out 'land purchase;' it has a direct +inducement to whittle rents away, in order to facilitate the sale of land; +its interest and its duty are thus placed in conflict. Be this as it may, +my plan for fixing 'fair rents' in Ireland by the State would be +altogether different. In the first place, a definition of 'fair rent' +should be made by statute, and should dominate, so to speak, the subject; +the omission of this criterion has caused grave injustice. This having +been made, I would adjust Irish rents by a method much better, I believe, +than that now in existence. A body of competent and well-paid valuers of +land should be formed--there would be no difficulty about this in +Ireland; these men should visit, when required, estates; and having heard +what landlords and tenants had to say on the spot, should declare what +they consider the 'fair rents' of farms, making a deduction for +improvements as arranged by a reformed law, and taking waste and +deterioration into account. The reports made by the valuers should be +complete and explicit; they would probably satisfy landlords and tenants +in most instances; but dissatisfied persons should have a right to an +appeal, which should be a full rehearing of all the facts in issue; but +the appeal should be at the peril of costs against unsuccessful suitors. +The tribunals to decide the appeals should, I suggest, be composed of two +eminent judges, for each of the four provinces, assisted by trained +agricultural experts; but the authority of the judges should prevail on +all questions. From these Courts a further appeal should run to the Court +of Appeal in Ireland, on all matters of law and fact, and ultimately +should run to the House of Lords; the present restricted appeal to the +Land Commission has been little better than a sorry mockery of right. + +The scheme I propose has obvious defects; it sanctions the vicious +principle of State-settled rents, a thing unknown in lands outside of +Ireland, a defiance of the simplest axioms of economic science. But it +endeavours at least to improve a bad system of tenure dealing with +accomplished facts now beyond recall; I certainly think it would make the +relations of Irish landlords and tenants better than they are, and would +tend to place both classes in the positions which, as affairs now stand, +they will probably, in the long run, occupy. As regards 'alternative +policies,' as they have been called, I have set forth the reasons that the +compulsory purchase of the Irish land would be, I believe, impossible, +and, were it possible, would be a confiscation of the foullest kind, +ruinous to Great Britain and Ireland alike. I have also shown how the +present system of so-styled 'voluntary purchase' is, in my judgment, +essentially immoral, and pregnant with dangers; and I have indicated the +results being already produced. That system, however, must go on; for the +present it cannot be arrested; a Conservative Government still pins its +faith on it, as a Whig Government, half a century ago, pinned its faith on +the Encumbered Estates Act; but a 'peasant proprietary' rooted in +corruption will hardly succeed, and 'voluntary purchase' draws the worst +kind of distinctions in Irish land tenure. The acceleration, indeed, of +this 'remedy' has been deemed advisable; and as long as the sum voted by +Parliament is not expended, the system evidently must continue in force. +Some of its evils, however, would be lessened were the State to reserve to +itself the woodland, which tenant 'purchasers,' as a rule, cut down and +sell; and if tenants proved to be solvent were compelled to advance part +of the money required to transfer their lands to themselves. It is +revolting to my mind to see a wealthy Irish farmer bribed into the +ownership of his farm by an Act of the State, without having paid a +shilling of the price. I commend this spectacle to the hard-pressed +general taxpayer. + +I need hardly say that, under the scheme I propose, existing interests of +tenants should remain intact, and statutory leases should be allowed to +come to an end, before a change should be made by law in the position they +hold. The question of compensating the Irish landlords would remain; a +very few words on this will suffice. I must remind the reader, as I have +already shown, that the Land Act of 1881 was passed on the condition that, +should experience prove that real injury had been done to this order of +men, their right to indemnity would be plain; Mr. Gladstone's language was +unequivocal; the House of Commons approved. Nor can any reasonable doubt +exist that the course of legislation from 1881 to 1896 has confiscated the +property of the class to an immense extent; the simple fact that the +value in Ireland of the fee simple in land has been reduced by a third at +least, and that the value of the tenant right has been increased in about +the same proportion, points to a conclusion evident to impartial minds. I +am satisfied as to what would be the report on this subject of the +Commission I should wish to see appointed; it could not avoid drawing an +inference that cannot be resisted. The question, therefore, will have to +be faced; the good faith of Parliament is virtually at stake; and if a +pledge made in the name of the State is not to be broken, the right of the +Irish landlords to compensation is complete. Independently, too, of +considerations of this kind, it is a recognised principle that should a +policy have caused loss to a class, the State is morally bound to make the +loss up; a violation of this principle is unjust and dangerous alike. I +quote from John Stuart Mill on this very question: 'The principle of +property gives the landowners no right to the land, but only a right to +compensation for whatever portion of their interest in the land it may be +the policy of the State to deprive them of. To that their claim is +indefeasible. It is due to landowners and to owners of any property +whatever, recognised as such by the State, that they should not be +dispossessed of it without receiving its pecuniary value, or an annual +income equal to what they have derived from it. If the land was bought +with the produce of the labour of themselves or their ancestors, +compensation is due to them on that ground; even if otherwise, it is still +due on the ground of prescription. Nor can it ever be necessary for +accomplishing an object by which the community altogether will gain, that +a particular portion of the community should be immolated. When the +property is of a kind to which peculiar affections attach themselves, the +compensation ought to exceed a bare pecuniary equivalent.... The +legislature, which, if it pleased, might convert the whole body of +landlords into fundholders or pensioners, might, _à fortiori_, commute +the average receipts of Irish landowners into a fixed rent-charge, and +raise the tenants into proprietors; supposing always that the full market +value of the land was tendered to the landlords, in case they preferred +that to accepting the conditions proposed.'[150] + +Assuming, then, the case for compensating the Irish landlords to have been +made out, compensation can be afforded without the loss of a shilling to +the State. The _bonâ fide_ encumbrances on their estates, that is, those +which represent advances in cash, are now at an interest of from 4 to 5 +per cent.; the State could pay off those which were perfectly secure at an +interest of 2-1/4 per cent., and could make the landlords chargeable with +interest at 3 per cent., in order to provide against possible loss. As for +encumbrances that were not perfectly secure, the State should only pay off +what was well charged; but it should do this on the same conditions; and +it should declare hopeless encumbrances extinct. This would be a +considerable and just boon to the Irish landlords; the securities taken +by the State should be in the form of debentures, which would pass from +hand to hand in the market; and many owners of encumbrances would no doubt +accept sums less than their full demands, for these, they well know, are +at present in danger. I would go, however, farther in relieving the Irish +landlords; their estates are subject to a mass of family charges created +under a different order of things; if the State has arbitrarily cut down +the fund set apart for these, by a wholesale reduction of rents, I cannot +understand how it is not the simplest justice to cut the charges down in +some fair proportion. At all events, I make these suggestions for what +they may be worth; if right is to be done to the Irish landed gentry, and +a gross breach of public faith is not to be made, some relief of this kind +should be extended to them. Very possibly this will not be afforded; but I +venture to remind politicians that even an unpopular class cannot be +cruelly wronged and sacrificed, without doing injury to all classes, and +shaking to their foundations the clear rights of property. And I openly +avow that, in my judgment, it would be in the highest degree against the +national interest to annihilate this body of men, as must probably happen, +should things in Ireland be left as they are. What if they are the heirs +of conquest and confiscation in the past? Is that a reason for destroying +them after the lapse of centuries, and when England planted them in the +land to be her mainstay? What if, in instances, comparatively few in the +extreme, they have abused the social trust imposed on them? Was not this +because the opportunity was given by law, and was not the law the work of +successive Parliaments? Is it not a fact that British ministers, so to +speak, of yesterday, declared that they were secure in their proprietary +rights; and that Mr. Gladstone solemnly acquitted them of what had been +laid to their charge? On the other hand, have they not been for ages the +staunchest friends of England in Irish affairs, especially in troubled +and perilous times? Is it for nothing that they have been called the +British garrison by her foes, the strongest obstacle to rebellion and +treason? And is a class, which has, on the whole, been a civilising +influence, for many years, in Ireland, and which has given the State far +more than a due proportion of worthies--warriors, orators, statesmen, +thinkers, men of eminence in all the arts of life--to be sacrificed at the +bidding of a conspiracy bent on subverting British rule in Ireland, or in +deference to false and perilous theories? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE QUESTION OF THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND + + The subject briefly considered--Financial position of Ireland before + 1782, and under Grattan's Parliament--Her taxation and debt small + before 1798--Ireland financially a distinct country--At the Union, + Pitt wished to 'assimilate her in finance' with Great Britain, but + this impossible, and why--Ireland's contribution after the Union--This + was unjust, but it left her financially a distinct country--Ireland + made nearly bankrupt--The compromise of 1816--The Irish Exchequer + closed, and the Irish and British debts consolidated--The object of + the compromise was rather to relieve Ireland from her burdens than to + assimilate her in finance with Great Britain--She still remained for + many years financially distinct from Great Britain, and is so still to + some extent--The conduct of Peel a striking proof of this--Mr. + Gladstone imposes the income tax on Ireland, and her spirit duties are + largely raised--Injustice of this policy--The Committee of + 1863-64--Ireland does not obtain financial justice--The Report of the + Childers Commission made upon a reference by Mr. Gladstone following + Mr. Goschen--The Commission declares that Ireland has been greatly + overtaxed for many years--Evidence on which it has founded this + conclusion--Examination of arguments to the contrary--Another + Commission promised, but the promise not fulfilled--Importance of + settling this question. + + +The financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland have been a +subject, at intervals of time, no doubt, of strong controversy during a +whole century. I shall not harp on the saying of Johnson to an Irish +friend, 'Avoid a Union with England, she will only rob you;' but, in the +opinion of well-informed Irishmen, the fiscal treatment of Ireland, since +1800-01, strikingly illustrates the significant remark of Burke, 'When any +community is subordinately connected with another, the great danger of the +connection is, the extreme pride and self-complacency of the superior, +which, in all matters of controversy, will probably decide in its own +favour.' There is no reason to impeach the good faith of Pitt and +Castlereagh; but the financial arrangements they made for Ireland, when +the Union became law, were denounced by the most distinguished Irishmen of +the day; these imposed on Ireland an overwhelming burden, and, in fact, +reduced her to the very edge of bankruptcy. A compromise was effected in +1816-17; this has been described as a generous boon to Ireland; but it was +at best a slight relief from injustice; and it weakened securities she had +against fiscal exaction, while it involved her in liabilities which, if +remote, were not the less possible. It is a most significant fact that +Peel, who, as Chief Secretary from 1812 to 1818, was familiar with the +economic state of Ireland, refused, though under the strongest +inducements, to apply to Ireland the fiscal charges extended to her by one +of his brilliant successors; the most sagacious financier of the +nineteenth century played, in this matter, a very different part from the +most impulsive and not the least unscrupulous. In 1853, and from thence in +other years, Mr. Gladstone, in order to carry out a policy distinctly +opposed to many Irish interests, subjected Ireland to a sudden and heavy +load of taxation, exactly at the time when, for the plainest reasons, she +ought to have been exempted from it; from that day to this, Irishmen, who +understand the question, are agreed that this was gross, nay, cruel, +injustice. The whole subject of British and Irish financial relations was +sent by Mr. Gladstone to a Commission in 1893, here following the example +of Mr. Goschen; a careful inquiry was held during many months; the Report +of the Commission was startling and important in the extreme. This +tribunal, mainly composed of eminent English experts, announced, and that +almost with one voice, that Ireland was being enormously overtaxed, and +had been for upwards of forty years; and it plainly intimated that a +remedy for this wrong should be found. No real answer has been made to +this remarkable judgment; the attempts at answers that have been made are +nearly all mere trifling; Lord Salisbury's Government evidently believes +that an answer is not possible; it promised to appoint another Commission +to investigate certain parts of the subject; years have passed, and it has +not performed its promise. Meanwhile, even amidst the hurly-burly of Irish +politics, Irishmen of all parties have united in a demand for redress; and +if the demand is not pressed with extreme vehemence, it is sustained by +all that is best in Irish opinion. It is obviously unwise, and it may +become dangerous, to continue to ignore such a claim; in any event the +financial relations of the Three Kingdoms are not the least important of +'Present Irish Questions;' I shall briefly examine it in this chapter. + +It is unnecessary to dwell on the financial relations of Great Britain and +Ireland before 1782 and the Union. England held the position of an +absolutely dominant State before 1782, Ireland that of a conquered and +despised colony; Ireland was under the control of the British Parliament, +and was governed by English officials supreme at the Castle. Ireland was +excluded from the foreign and colonial trade of Great Britain; her +agriculture and manufactures were half destroyed by the selfish jealousy +and greed of her imperious neighbour. She contributed, on the other hand, +nothing to the treasury of the ruling power; she had little or no part in +British wars, or in building up the edifice of the Empire, except through +her soldiers in the British army; she was free from British debt and from +British taxation. In these circumstances, grievous as was the incubus of +Protestant ascendency upon the land, it is remarkable what material +progress she made; her Parliament, though little more than a local vestry, +unquestionably promoted her material welfare; she was very lightly taxed, +and was free from debt for many years. She was still so completely +distinct from Great Britain, that it was not until 1769 that her +Parliament agreed that 15,000 men, of whom 12,000 were to remain in +Ireland, should be enrolled for the defence of the State; before that +time, she was only obliged to maintain a small British force within her +borders. After a partial relaxation of the restraints on her commerce +caused by the stress of the American War, and by the famous volunteer +movement, Ireland obtained legislative independence in 1782; she ceased to +be subject to the British Parliament, and to fill the position of a +degraded colony; she became, in theory at least, an independent State in +many respects. Her Parliament was all but sovereign in name; Ireland was +now united to Great Britain only by the link of the Crown; by an executive +always despatched from Downing Street; and, it must be added, by the +corruption of her Houses of Lords and Commons. She was thus more than ever +a distinct country; in fact, most British statesmen had soon perceived +that the celebrated settlement of 1782 greatly weakened her old connection +with England. She advanced, however, markedly in prosperity for many +years, until the French Revolution arrested this; her debt was little more +than £2,000,000 for a long time, her taxation only about £1,000,000. But +by the close of the eighteenth century these figures had been disastrously +changed; her debt had risen to upwards of £28,000,000, her taxation to +about £2,500,000. This great increase had been partly caused by the costly +expenditure of her transformed Parliament, which had spent considerable +sums on public works, and on economic experiments of different kinds; but +five-sixths of it was probably caused by the enormous charge incurred by +the Rebellion of 1798--one of the most woeful tragedies of Irish +history--and by the suppression of that ill-starred movement.[151] + +The Rebellion led at once to the Union; it precipitated what had perhaps +become a necessity of State. The great measure of Pitt was badly designed, +and was, moreover, tainted by a grave breach of faith; it was only what +was called a 'Protestant Union,' that is, it rested upon false and narrow +foundations; it deceived Catholic Ireland, and did her gross wrong; above +all, it did not effect its main object, and incorporate the lesser with +the more powerful country. It left Ireland, hitherto completely distinct, +still, to a very considerable extent, a distinct State; she retained a +separate Government and Administration, separate Courts of Justice, a +separate Exchequer for many years; this shadow of separation, as Foster, +one of her ablest worthies, foretold, would give a demand for separation +substance.[152] The financial arrangements between Great Britain and +Ireland were practically altogether the work of Pitt. A disciple of Adam +Smith, the minister's wish was to 'assimilate the two countries in +finance;' to place both under the same fiscal system, to make taxation in +both uniform. But in 1800, the National Debt of Great Britain was more +than £446,000,000, and her taxation was about £3 a head; the National +Debt of Ireland, we have seen, was some £28,000,000, and her taxation by +the head not more than 10_s._; this immense inequality made 'assimilation +in finance' impossible. Besides, Pitt, as a matter of course, knew that +Great Britain was a very rich country, and Ireland perhaps the poorest in +Europe; he was too great a financier to accept the false and shallow +theory that, as between two communities wholly unequal in wealth, equal +taxes were really equal burdens, and could be just; he had emphatically +remarked in 1785, when his celebrated 'Commercial Propositions' were +opposed by the selfish monopolies of British commerce, 'If one country +exceeded another in wealth, population, and established commerce in a +proportion of two to one, he was nearly convinced that that country would +be able to bear near ten times the burden that the other would be equal +to.'[153] It had become necessary, therefore, at the time of the Union, to +place the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland on a basis +that had nothing in common with uniformity of taxation, and a common +fiscal system; 'assimilation in finance' was for the present to be +indefinitely postponed. + +The financial settlement made at the Union distinctly embodied these +principles, and was carried by Castlereagh through the Irish Parliament, +by what methods history records with shame. Like Pitt, the Chief Secretary +looked forward to a time when Great Britain and Ireland might be under the +same fiscal system; but at this juncture, this consummation was, he +acknowledged, hopeless. Ireland was, financially, to remain a separate +country; she was to have a separate exchequer and separate taxes; her +National Debt was to be kept distinct from that of Great Britain. She was +to furnish only a contribution to the State; and Castlereagh declared, +over and over again, that this contribution was to be only in proportion +to her means, and that in no event was she to be unduly taxed. 'The great +point to be ascertained is the best criterion that can be found of the +relative means of the two countries, in order to fix the relative +proportions of their contributions.... As to the future, it is expected +that the two countries will move forward together, and unite with regard +to their expenses in the measure of their relative abilities.' By a +comparison made between British and Irish imports and exports, and between +the values of certain commodities, Castlereagh came to the conclusion that +the contributions which Great Britain and Ireland ought to be expected to +make for the general support and administration of the State, should be, +respectively, fifteen- and two-seventeenths, that is, Great Britain was to +pay about 88 per cent., and Ireland about 12 per cent. of the sum total. +This proportion was to be made liable to revision at the end of twenty +years; for this provision, Castlereagh remarked, gave 'Ireland the utmost +possible security that she cannot be taxed beyond the measure of her +comparative ability, and that the ratio of her contributions must ever +correspond with her relative wealth and prosperity;' and then followed +arrangements which undoubtedly had the 'assimilation of Great Britain and +Ireland in finance' remotely in view; but subject to limitations that +would preserve for Ireland her fiscal rights, and would secure her from +taxation beyond her means, and unjust. It was proposed that if, at some +future time, the debts of both countries should be discharged, or if their +debts and their contributions were in the same proportion, Great Britain +and Ireland might be 'assimilated in finance,' and placed under the same +fiscal system; but this was to be on two express conditions, that the +circumstances of the two countries should admit of this change, and that, +in any case, should the change be made, Ireland--as was the case of +Scotland when her Union took place-should have the benefit of such +'exemptions and abatements' of taxation as might be deemed proper, and +the circumstances of the situation might allow. The meaning of the +technical words, 'exemptions and abatements,' interpreted of late years in +a pettifogging sense, was fully recognised at the time, and for a long +subsequent period, indeed, has been recognised to this day by most of our +leading statesmen, namely, that Ireland was not to be taxed unfairly or +beyond her resources, as Castlereagh had repeatedly promised.[154] + +The Opposition in the Irish Parliament had many able lawyers--the names of +Saurin, of Plunket, of Bushe are still known to fame; it is to be +regretted, perhaps, that these powerful minds did not examine with more +jealousy the conditions under which Great Britain and Ireland might be +'assimilated in finance,' distant as the contingency appeared to be; did +not criticise more sharply words that might be wrested from their accepted +sense; and trusted too much to Castlereagh's phrases. But the attention of +the Opposition was rather directed to the Union in its political than in +its financial aspect; it rather denounced the attempt to destroy the +settlement of 1782 than scrutinised the terms of the fiscal system to be +imposed on Ireland, at least, as these were concerned with the future. The +arrangements, nevertheless, by which Ireland was to make the contribution +of the two-seventeenths were fiercely assailed in both the Houses in +College Green; Foster described the calculations of Pitt and Castlereagh +as utterly false, and declared that the charge to be borne by Ireland was +much too large; Grattan echoed this opinion in characteristic language: +'Though I do not think the means of this country are unequal to any +necessary expense, yet I do think they are inadequate to that contributory +expense which the Union stipulates.... The attempt will exhaust the +country, at the same time that it enslaves her. Colour it as you please, +Ireland will pay more than she is able. Considering these the terms of the +Union so far as they relate to revenue, they amount to a continuation of +the double establishment, an increase of the separate establishment, and a +military government, with a prospect of soon succeeding to the full taxes +of England.'[155] The Opposition, too, in the Irish House of Commons +loudly protested: 'Your Majesty's faithful Commons are satisfied that this +calculation is extremely erroneous; and that on a just and fair inquiry +into the comparative means of each country, the Kingdom ought not, and is +not able to contribute anything like that proportion.'[156] And twenty +Irish peers placed this emphatic protest on record; I have space for a few +sentences only: 'Under such circumstances, it appears to us that if this +Kingdom should take upon herself irrevocably the payment of +two-seventeenths of these expenses, she will not have means to perform her +engagements unless by charging her landed property with 12_s._ or 13_s._ +in the pound; it must end in the draining from her her last guinea, in +totally annihilating her trade for want of capital, in rendering the taxes +unproductive, and consequently in finally putting her in a state of +bankruptcy. We think ourselves called upon to protest against a measure so +ruinous to our country, and to place the responsibility of its +consequences upon such persons as have brought it forward and supported +it.'[157] + +The Treaty of Union left Ireland, financially, still a separate country, +paying a fixed contribution for the uses of the State. The great war with +France soon broke out again; England was involved with Napoleon in a +life-and-death struggle; her fiscal resources were strained to the utmost; +her expenditure became prodigious for a series of years. In these +circumstances, the debt of Ireland rose from £28,000,000 to upwards of +£112,000,000; and her taxation from about £2,500,000 to about £4,500,000; +while the debt of Great Britain advanced from some £446,000,000 to some +£737,000,000, and her taxation from some £24,000,000 to £54,000,000; the +taxation of Ireland being by the head about £1 in 1816, that of Great +Britain being about £5, the figures sixteen years before being 10_s._ and +£3. The immense increase in the debt of Ireland, much greater in +proportion than that of Great Britain, was certainly due to a large extent +to the fact--and this was frankly admitted by Grattan--that the poorer +country could not keep pace with the richer in the gigantic charges of the +war; the case, it has justly been remarked, may be compared to a case of +this kind: 'If one man, A, who has been living at the rate of £100 per +annum, arranges to keep house with another man, B, who has for some time +been living at the rate of £700 per annum, and to spend £1 for every £7 +which B spends, then so long as B continues to live at the same rate as +before, the expenses of A will not be increased. But if B begins to live +at the rate of £2100 a year, A will have to spend £300 a year, and if his +means are not sufficient for this, he must become bankrupt.'[158] +Allowing, nevertheless, for all this, it is not the less certain that the +calculations of Pitt and Castlereagh were utterly falsified by the event, +and that the warnings of Foster, Grattan, and other well-informed +Irishmen, besides the protests made in the Irish Parliament, were verified +to the fullest extent; as has been remarked by a distinguished English +expert, 'The calculations of Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh, the ministers +who promoted the Union, and who declared that Ireland would be able to +pay, and ought to pay, two-seventeenths of the joint expenses of the +United Kingdom, turned out to be mistaken, and the opinions of Mr. +Grattan, Mr. Foster, and other Irish members, who denied that she would be +able to contribute so large a proportion, are proved by the event to have +been well founded.'[159] + +This contrast, it is hardly necessary to say, to persons acquainted with +Irish history, is only one of the innumerable proofs of the ignorance of +Ireland too common to British statesmen, and of their too common disregard +of the best Irish opinion. In 1815-16, at the close of the war, Ireland +was financially in a bankrupt condition; she could not pay the interest on +her debt; she could not bear the weight of further taxation; she was +exhausted and sucked dry by fiscal injustice. Her social state, too, had +become very alarming; her population had rapidly increased, and, mainly +depending on the frail potato, was already becoming an incubus on the +land; the collapse of the high war prices had caused a sudden fall in +rents and the wages of labour; there was general distress in several +counties, and Whiteboy and agrarian disorder widely prevailed. The +financial position of Ireland was necessarily taken up by Parliament; a +Committee of the House of Commons was selected to report upon it. By this +time one of the contingencies had taken place for the possible +'assimilation in finance' with Great Britain of the much weaker country; +the contribution of Ireland, compared with her debt, was even in less +proportion than the contribution of Great Britain to her own; she had been +left far behind in the effort to pay her way. In this position of affairs +the Committee made its report, after a long and careful examination of the +case; the House of Commons passed these resolutions in May, 1816: 'That it +is the opinion of this Committee that the values of the respective debts +of Great Britain and Ireland, estimated according to the provisions of the +Acts of Union, have been, at a period subsequent to these Acts, in the +same proportion to each other (within one-hundredth part of the said +value), with the respective contributions of each country respectively, +towards the annual expenditure of the United Kingdom; and that the +respective circumstances of the two countries will henceforth admit of +their contributing indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed upon the same +articles upon each, to the future expenditure of the United Kingdom; +subject only to such particular exemptions and abatements in Ireland and +in Scotland as circumstances may appear from time to time to demand; and +that it is no longer necessary to regulate the contribution of the two +countries according to any specific proportion, or according to the rules +prescribed by the Acts of Union, with respect to such proportions. That it +is the opinion of this Committee, that it is expedient that all expenses +henceforth to be incurred, together with the interest and charges of all +debts hitherto contracted, shall be so defrayed indiscriminately by equal +taxes to be imposed on the same articles in each country; and that from +time to time, as circumstances may require, such taxes should be imposed +and applied accordingly, subject only to such exemptions and abatements in +Ireland and Scotland as circumstances may appear to demand. That it is +the opinion of this Committee that such legislative measures should be +adopted as may be necessary to carry into further effect the purposes of +the said Acts of Union, by consolidating the public revenues of Great +Britain and Ireland into one fund, and applying the same to the general +services of the United Kingdom.'[160] + +These resolutions were partly embodied in an Act which received the Royal +assent in June, 1816. By this law the separate exchequer of Ireland was +shut up; there was to be but one exchequer for the Three Kingdoms; all the +revenues of Great Britain and Ireland were thrown into a general fund to +be applied to the requirements of the State; the separate debt of Ireland +was fused into that of Great Britain, the two making a common National +Debt. By these means Ireland was relieved from an intolerable load of +debt; but those who contend that an immense boon was thus conferred on +her, only illustrate the aphorism of Burke referred to before; the matter +was decided by the opinion of the dominant power. Ireland, no doubt, was +set free from an overwhelming burden; but the burden was one improperly +cast on her by the Union; the relief was only a small redress of +injustice.[161] On the other hand, the arrangements of 1816 abolished the +contribution of the two-seventeenths, and made Ireland less a separate +country, financially, than she had been before; the resolutions of the +House of Commons did not all become law, but they at least declared that +she might become 'assimilated in finance' to Great Britain at a convenient +time, and thus diminished her security against undue taxation; and the +amalgamation of her debt with that of Great Britain made her subject, at +least conceivably, to a gigantic charge, for which she was not in any way +liable. The compromise, however, effected at this time, rather +contemplated the relief of Ireland from existing debt than her ultimate +'assimilation in finance to Great Britain,' and the extension to both +countries of the same fiscal system. For many years after 1816 Ireland +remained, financially, completely distinct from Great Britain, and under a +scheme of taxation altogether different. Nor is the reason difficult to +seek; she was declared entitled, by the resolutions before mentioned, to +the 'exemptions and abatements' secured to her by the Treaty of Union; and +the Parliament of that day respected the treaty, interpreting these terms +in their true sense, that Ireland was not to be taxed beyond her means. +Her fiscal wrongs, besides, from 1800 to 1816, were still fresh in the +minds of statesmen; these did not wish to repeat injustice; above all, she +had many representatives of real weight at Westminster--Grattan was a +tower of strength in himself, and he had very able followers; these men +would certainly have fiercely resented attempts to impair the financial +rights of their country. + +The fiscal systems of Great Britain and Ireland, still altogether +distinct, continued nearly on this footing for a series of years. Great +Britain was gradually relieved from taxation peculiar to herself, +amounting to very considerable sums; Ireland was not relieved in the same +proportion; but this was hardly a real grievance; the taxation of Great +Britain during the war had been enormously higher than that of Ireland. In +1819-20 the charge on Great Britain, which had been about £5 per head, had +been reduced to £3 13_s._; that on Ireland, which had been about £1 a +head, had been reduced to 15_s._ 5_d._ There seems to have been little to +complain of in these figures. Some steps, however, but tentative only, +were made by degrees in 'assimilating the two countries in finance,' +according to the resolutions of 1816; the duties on tea were made equal +for the Three Kingdoms, and the duties on tobacco, as early as 1819; but +it deserves special notice that this policy was angrily opposed by many +Irishmen in the House of Commons, the most conspicuous of these being Sir +John Newport, a real master of Irish finance, who had been Chancellor of +the Irish Exchequer in 1806-07. Still, notwithstanding innovations like +these, the fiscal systems of Great Britain and Ireland remained +substantially distinct for a long period; this was notably made manifest +as late as 1842. At this time the population of England was in an alarming +state; the Chartist agitation was in full swing; British commerce was half +strangled by heavy duties on foreign imports; the corn laws crippled and +burdened industry. Peel was at the head of his great Ministry; he began to +carry into effect the policy of free trade, inaugurated by Pitt, but +unhappily delayed; in order to accomplish this he had to diminish or get +rid of the charges on foreign imports, and generally to substitute direct +for indirect taxation. He was under a strong temptation to 'assimilate +Great Britain and Ireland in finance;' but he had been a friend and +colleague of Castlereagh; he understood the true import of the Treaty of +Union; above all, he knew Ireland well for an Englishman; he had +practically been her ruler for nearly six years. In these circumstances he +imposed the income tax on Great Britain as an equivalent for many indirect +taxes; but he pointedly abstained from extending the tax to Ireland; he +felt that this would be an act of financial wrong; and though he increased +for a short time the duty on Irish spirits, he took off the increase +within a few months. The only 'assimilation in finance' he effected was to +make the stamp duties in Great Britain and Ireland equal, and this was +rather a legal than an economic reform. + +The life of the great minister was prematurely cut short; time brought +with it its changes on its wings. The statesman who had living traditions +of the Union and its finance had passed away; O'Connell had disappeared +from the scene; the representation of Ireland had fallen into a +deplorable state. Meanwhile the free trade policy of Peel had achieved +great results in England and Scotland; free trade had given an immense +impulse to our manufactures and our foreign commerce; the repeal of the +corn laws had wonderfully quickened industry, and had been a magnificent +boon to the mass of the people; the prosperity of Great Britain was +advancing by leaps and bounds. The development of free trade was the +object of nearly all our statesmen; to accomplish this it was essential +still further to lessen or to abolish the duties on foreign imports, and +to let in the raw materials of manufactures free; indirect taxation was +still further to give place to direct. In 1853, and during part of the +subsequent period, our finances were in the hands of a minister whose +impulsive nature was upheld by a most imperious will, and who, whatever +was his policy, seldom stuck at trifles. Apparently without mature +reflection, and, it is to be hoped, with little knowledge of the facts of +the case, Mr. Gladstone, setting the example of Peel at nought, suddenly +subjected Ireland to the income tax, and began to raise the duties on +Irish spirits; by 1860 these duties had been more than trebled; and the +taxation of Ireland had been increased by upwards of two millions +sterling. And what were the circumstances, during a large part of this +period, of the country on which this enormous burden had been laid? +Ireland, no doubt, had begun to revive from the effects of the catastrophe +of 1845-47; but, compared with Great Britain, she was miserably poor; and +the Great Famine had shaken her social structure to its base. Two millions +of her population had fled from their homes into exile; a large part of +the upper and of the middle classes had been involved in ruin; whole +tracts of her lands were derelict wastes; her local taxation was +exceedingly high. The imposition of this load of taxation on a country in +such a condition, unjustifiable in the abstract, and from every point of +view, was, in the existing position of affairs, an act of cruel wrong; no +wonder even one of Mr. Gladstone's colleagues has remarked, measured as is +his language, 'We think that if the House of Commons, in the period 1853 +to 1860, when the great enhancement of taxation took place, had fully +considered the circumstances of Ireland, they would not have felt +themselves justified in increasing the taxation of that country by means +of the income tax and the equalisation of the spirit duties.'[162] At this +time, in a word, the future Solon of Home Rule proved himself to be the +merciless Draco of Irish finance. + +This great increase of taxation, to a considerable extent, 'assimilated +Ireland to Great Britain in finance;' placed the two countries under +nearly the same fiscal system; made the taxes of each not far from equal. +This assimilation, however, was still by no means complete--indeed, is not +complete to the present day; Ireland has still fiscal privileges under the +Treaty of Union; and this should be carefully borne in mind. Mr. +Gladstone, moreover, when he made this increase, acknowledged that Ireland +remained a distinct country, entitled to immunities of her own; when he +made her liable to the income tax, he cancelled a debt of £4,000,000 which +he professed she owed; and if this was an illusory pretence, for her +liability for this reason was more than doubtful, and the income tax she +has since paid has exceeded £23,000,000, still he distinctly admitted the +principle--indeed, it has always been admitted by statesmen worthy of the +name. The enormous new burdens imposed on Ireland, from 1853 to 1860, +provoked widespread and profound discontent; a Parliamentary inquiry was +conceded; a Committee of the House of Commons went into the subject in +1863-64. But the representation of Ireland, I have said, was feeble; her +complaints were stifled by the arts of the treasury; the arguments of her +members were overborne by specious but utterly false sophistry; the +inquiry came to nothing as regards her interests. The question remained in +abeyance for years; the Irish reforms of Mr. Gladstone, from 1869 to 1873, +the troubles caused by the Land and the National Leagues, and the Home +Rule agitation that followed, turned public attention away from the +subject; but it was not forgotten by well-informed Irishmen; two real +economists, Butt and Judge Longfield, insisted that Ireland had here a +grievance; and this was the opinion of several independent gentlemen, +survivors of the illustrious school of Grattan. At last Mr. Goschen, +perhaps moved by remonstrances from Ireland being urged again, appointed a +Committee of the House of Commons to examine into, and to report upon, +'the equity of the financial relations in regard to the resources and the +population of the Three Kingdoms;' Mr. Gladstone, in 1893, recurred to the +subject, which, rather unaccountably, had been let drop. He directed a +Commission of great authority, composed for the most part of expert +Englishmen, and presided over by the late Mr. Childers, a Chancellor of +the Exchequer of Mr. Gladstone, to inquire thoroughly into the whole +question of the financial relations of Great Britain and Ireland, and +fully to set forth the conclusions they should form. The scope of the +investigation was to include the history of the subject since the Union; a +consideration of the financial resources of Great Britain and Ireland +regarded as distinct countries, and the principles to be kept in mind in +forming a correct judgment; and, finally, the charge of Ireland with +respect to the State, and the contribution which Ireland should make to +it.[163] + +This inquiry, set on foot by a British statesman who had made himself +notorious for 'assimilating Great Britain and Ireland in finance,' +proceeded, nevertheless, upon an admission that, financially, the two +countries were still distinct, and that the resources of each--their +'taxable capacity,' in other words, a phrase turned into absurd +ridicule--afforded the true and the only test, as to the equity of Irish +compared to British taxation. The Commissioners were engaged in their +arduous task for months; they explained, with a fulness and clearness +never before so complete, the history of the financial relations between +Great Britain and Ireland. They brought distinctly out the fiscal position +of the two countries before the Union; they set forth at length the +financial arrangements made in 1800-01; they described the compromise +effected in 1816; they dwelt on the fiscal policy of Peel to Ireland, and +placed it in significant contrast with that of Mr. Gladstone; and they +conclusively proved that, from the Union to the present time, Great +Britain and Ireland had been treated financially as separate countries, +despite the 'assimilation' of 1853-60, and that the right of Ireland, +under the Treaty of Union, to the 'exemptions and abatements' secured to +her, these being interpreted as the case requires, still give her +immunities from taxation especially her own, which must be recognised if +she is to obtain justice. Turning, then, to the resources of Great Britain +and Ireland, regarded as apart, as being the true criterion of the +taxation which Ireland ought to bear, the Commissioners reviewed a great +mass of evidence, which, as far as was perhaps possible, made the truth +manifest, and arrived at conclusions which appear to be decisive. +Comparing the death duties of Ireland and of Great Britain, the proportion +is about 1 to 18; comparing the income tax, it is about 1 to 22; taking a +great variety of other tests, receipts of railways, savings banks +deposits, money and postal orders, and letters and telegrams, it varies +from 1 to 24 and 16; and an estimate of the income of the two countries, +an estimate certainly not fair to Ireland, gives a proportion of about 1 +to 18. There are many reasons that these figures exaggerate the true +resources of Ireland, but, assuming them to be approximately correct, the +Commission has reported that Great Britain exceeds Ireland in resources by +20 to 1; in other words, that the 'taxable capacity of Ireland, as +contrasted with that of Great Britain, cannot now be more than as 1 to +20.'[164] Applying this inference to the taxation of the two countries, +the conclusions formed by this tribunal can hardly admit of question. The +revenue and taxation of Ireland compared with that of Great Britain from +1889 to 1894 has been £7,300,000 and £7,800,000 against from £85,000,000 +to £89,000,000, that is, Ireland contributed from 8 to 9 per cent. of the +sum total. But if the resources of Ireland are only one-twentieth of those +of Great Britain, her taxation ought to be one-twentieth only, that is, it +ought not to be from £7,300,000 to £7,800,000; it ought to be less than +£5,000,000; not 8 or 9 per cent., but less than 5 per cent. It follows +from this that Ireland has been overtaxed at the rate of between two and +three millions a year, and that for a very considerable space of +time.[165] + +Enormous against Ireland as is this excess of taxation, it may amount to a +very much larger sum, if the national account be taken on another, +perhaps a sounder, basis. There is the highest authority to show that +taxation ought only to fall, in the instance of any given country, on the +surplus remaining over and above the cost of the necessaries of life; and +as regards the populations of Great Britain and Ireland, this cost may be +assumed to be £12 a head. But if we take the income of Great Britain to be +1400 millions sterling, the cost of the necessaries of life at the above +rate would for Great Britain be a sum of 324 millions; and the surplus +available for taxation would be 1076 millions. On the other hand, if we +turn to Ireland, the poor country, and suppose her income to be 76 +millions sterling, the cost of the necessaries of life for Ireland would +be a sum of 46 millions; and the surplus available for taxation would be +30 millions only. On this hypothesis, the resources of Ireland which might +be fairly taxed--her taxable capacity, in a word--would, compared with the +resources of Great Britain, be, not as 1 to 20, but as 1 to 36 only; and +her taxation ought to be less than £3,000,000, not, as before mentioned, +less than £5,000,000. The Childers Commission, no doubt, with the +exception of one of its members, did not give its sanction to this +conclusion; but it was that formed by Sir Robert Giffen, a master of the +subject on all its bearings, and it cannot, in common fairness, be left +out of sight. Sir Robert Giffen's view is expressed in these words; it +will be observed that his figures do not correspond with those just cited; +but the only point to consider is the principle on which he takes his +stand: 'If you deduct a minimum sum, so much per head from each of the +community, as a sort of minimum sum, though you would not wish to take +anything from a man who had no more than that, then the taxable income +would be the whole income in each country above that sum. That was the +sort of general idea. If you apply that to Ireland, and take a minimum sum +of, say, £12 a head, you would get upon the basis of an Irish income of +£76,000,000 a taxable surplus, I think, now of about £22,000,000, and in +Great Britain your taxable surplus would come to over £900,000,000.'[166] + +Setting, however, these last considerations aside, the Childers Commission +has conclusively shown that Ireland is very largely overtaxed, and has +been so for a long series of years; and the figures that represent this +great overcharge by no means represent the real difference of the burdens +imposed on the two countries. It does not require the authority of Pitt to +tell us that even equal taxation, equally applied, is felt much more +acutely by a poor community than by one that is rich and prosperous; let +us assume, what is by no means the fact, that this equality exists as +between Great Britain and Ireland, still Ireland suffers much more than +Great Britain. As Mill remarked a long time ago, 'It is not the same thing +to take £2 from a man who has £40 a year, as to take £4 from a man who has +£80, or £40 from a man who has £800; the sacrifice imposed on the taxpayer +is greater upon the man from whom you take £2 out of £40 than it is on the +man from whom you take £40 out of £800, although the proportion is the +same.' A few examples, taken from the case of Great Britain and Ireland, +will make the truth of this proposition perfectly clear. The wages of an +agricultural labourer in Great Britain are, say, £40 a year; the wages of +an agricultural labourer in Ireland are, say, £26; the first pays £3 taxes +on his tea and tobacco; the second pays only £2; but the £2 are obviously +much the heavier charge. Or suppose that a British artisan has £100 a +year, and an Irish artisan no more than £80; is not the first more lightly +taxed than the second, if he contributes £5 to the revenue against £4? And +the same thing happens if we ascend the social scale; the £150 income tax +paid by a British landlord of £3000 a year is not felt by him to be such +a charge as the £50 paid by an Irish landlord of £1000 a year; the same +principle would extend to the profits of trade were there small sums in +Ireland and large sums in Great Britain. Make taxes, therefore, as equal +as possible, and make their incidence completely equal, still, in the case +of a poor compared to a wealthy country, the real burden on the taxpayer +will be very different; it was for this reason that the late Mr. Nassau +Senior, an economist of no ordinary parts, pointedly remarked, as regards +British and Irish taxation, 'England is the most lightly taxed and Ireland +the most heavily taxed country in Europe, although both are nominally +liable to equal taxation: I do not believe that Ireland is a poor country +because she is overtaxed, but I think she is overtaxed because she is +poor.'[167] + +Ireland, therefore, on a full review of the argument, has been overtaxed +at least between two and three millions sterling a year for certainly more +than forty years; and this excess, as she is a very poor country, is, in +her case especially severe. The trend of taxation, if the phrase may be +employed, as we follow its course, during a long period, clearly indicates +that she has suffered from grave financial wrong. In 1819-20, we have +seen, the taxation of Great Britain was at the rate of £3 13_s._ a head, +that of Ireland being 15_s._ 5_d._; the proportion was £2 13_s._ 1_d._ and +£1 6_s._ 7_d._ in 1859-60; in 1893 it was £2 4_s._ and £1 8_s._; in other +words, the imposts of the wealthy country were progressively decreased, +while the imposts of the poor country were progressively raised. This +distinction, no doubt, has been partly due to the fact that the population +of Great Britain has been largely augmented, and the population of Ireland +has been enormously reduced in numbers; the charge in Great Britain has +been distributed among ever growing millions, the charge in Ireland has +been concentrated upon ever lessening thousands; but this will not nearly +account for the difference; 'the wealthier country' it has been +caustically said, 'was taxed less and less as it became more wealthy; the +poorer country was burdened more and more as its poverty increased.'[168] +And the overcharge on Ireland is all the more grievous because it owed its +origin to the policy of free trade; and this policy has been a +questionable boon to Ireland, while to Great Britain it has been an +immense benefit. No doubt the cheapening of the price of the necessaries +and of some of the conveniences of life, which has been one of the results +of free trade, has been a great advantage to the Irish labourer, artisan, +and mere cottar peasant; but free trade has been injurious to the real +Irish farmer and the Irish landlord, and to most of the classes connected +with the land; and the land is the main source of the scanty wealth of +Ireland. Free trade, on the other hand, has been a principal cause of the +extraordinary development of the material welfare of England which has +been witnessed during the last fifty years; it has doubled and trebled her +gigantic manufactures and trade, if her agriculture is by no means +flourishing. This striking contrast gives pain to right-minded Irishmen; +they feel, as Grattan predicted would be the case, that their country's +interests have been sacrificed to British commerce; and the following +observations are essentially true and just: 'The change' (from protection +to free trade) 'has not been so advantageous to Ireland, a country in +which there is but little trade or manufacturing industry, as it has been +to England; although, as consumers, the Irish population may have gained +in some cases by the abolition of the duties on foodstuffs, yet, on the +other hand, as producers, chiefly dependent on agriculture, they have lost +in a far greater degree by the cheap prices in the British markets, +produced, in part at least, by the free and untaxed supply of foreign +corn, live stock, dead meat, butter, cheese, eggs, and other articles of +food.... It may even perhaps be said that just as Ireland suffered in the +last century from the protective and exclusive commercial policy of Great +Britain, so she has been at a disadvantage in this century from the +adoption of an almost unqualified free trade policy for the United +Kingdom.'[169] + +Many attempts, I have said, have been made to answer the conclusive Report +of the Childers Commission, to carp at its proceedings, to challenge its +statements, to deny that Ireland has been largely overtaxed; but, with +scarcely an exception, they have been grotesque failures. I need hardly +notice an audacious sally, which has been turned to account in the House +of Commons, and has split the ears of the groundlings in different parts +of England. England, the argument runs, has been too kind to Ireland; +Ireland pays no land tax and sundry other duties; in other respects she is +equally taxed with Great Britain; she has not even a semblance of a real +complaint; and--exactly in the manner of Swift's satire--'let her hold her +tongue, or it may be the worse for her.' Ireland, no doubt, 'assimilated +as she has been in finance,' is free from some charges imposed on England; +she has still 'exemptions and abatements' which, to some extent, preserve +her rights under the Treaty of Union, and show that she is still +financially a distinct country, as has been recognised by every leading +British statesman, from the day of Pitt to the day of Mr. Gladstone. But +the English land tax, properly speaking, is not a tax at all; it is a +rent-charge for centuries payable by the land; at all events, the Irish +Crown and quit rents may be set off against it; and, as to the other taxes +referred to, the cost of collection in Ireland would exceed the returns; +it would be a case of _in Thesauro nihil_, as in Plantagenet times. +Another argument, of which the late Mr. Lowe was the author, is more +plausible, and has done better service; but it is not the less shallow +and false sophistry, when brought to the test. Taxation, it is said, falls +on populations only; it is sheer nonsense to say that it falls on +countries; it is not levied from Great Britain and Ireland; it is levied +from the inhabitants within their borders. But the Englishman, the +Scotsman, and the Irishman are equally taxed; the Irishman, indeed, has a +small advantage; equality of taxation is the rule in this matter; and +obviously equality is the same thing as equity. An English landlord in +Kent, a Scotch landlord in Perthshire, an Irish landlord in Kildare, pay +the same income tax on the same rentals; so does a merchant in London, a +merchant in Edinburgh, a merchant in Belfast, on the same profits; and the +same principle extends to all other classes. A farmer in Surrey, a crofter +in Argyleshire, a shopkeeper in Galway, pay exactly the same tax on a +gallon of rum, a gallon of whiskey, a hogshead of beer; the charge is the +same for each commodity in the three households. This Irish grievance, +therefore, is a mere delusion; it is a sickly phantom that vanishes in the +light of the day. + +That taxation falls on populations and not on areas of land is a truism +really never disputed; the use of the word 'countries,' in this sense, is +a mere popular phrase. This argument keeps out of sight the fact that +equal taxes, however equally imposed, are much heavier in the case of a +poor than of a rich community; but, waiving this objection, it is a sheer +fallacy. If two populations had exactly the same tastes, used the same +commodities in the same proportions, and were in the possession of the +same resources; equality of taxation, if equally applied, would probably +be essentially just. But if two populations have different tastes, if they +differ in the use of even the same commodities, and if their resources are +very different, and especially if equal taxation be not equally applied, +this apparent equality, far from being equity, may become plain, nay, very +grave iniquity. This may be made intelligible, at a glance, by the +consideration of a few instances easily conceived. Impose an equal tax on +coals in England and Ireland: would the charge fall equally on Englishmen +in a land of coal and on Irishmen in a land of peat mosses? Tax Londoners +and Parisians at the same rate on coffee: would the Londoner, who drinks +comparatively little coffee, be as heavily mulcted as the Parisian, who +drinks a great deal? Or suppose that light taxes were laid on articles +that suit Englishmen, and enter into the consumption of the millions of +England, and that heavy taxes were laid on articles that suit Irishmen, +and are consumed by the Irish millions: would not this system favour +Englishmen, and injure Irishmen, though the taxes on all these articles +were the same in both countries? Examples by the hundred might be brought +forward; these suffice to prove that equality of taxation, as between +communities, differing from each other in the conditions and circumstances +of life, and notably if the incidence of this taxation is not the same, +may be made to effect the grossest injustice. And this financial wrong has +been done, to a very great extent, if we compare the taxation of Great +Britain and Ireland. The consumption of tea and tobacco by the head is +nearly the same in both countries; the taxes on these commodities are the +same; admit that this is equitable in a certain sense, though the impost +is relatively more burdensome on the poor community. The consumption of +spirits by the head, also, is much the same for the Three Kingdoms; the +taxation is precisely the same; this, for the sake of argument, I will +call justice. But the consumption of beer by the head in Great Britain is +about double what it is in Ireland; probably ten Englishmen drink beer +compared to one Irishman; whiskey is the ordinary spirituous drink of +Irishmen. Now, the taxes on beer and on whiskey are the same in Great +Britain and Ireland; but the tax on beer, measured by the alcoholic +standard, is about six times lower than the tax on whiskey;[170] beer, +therefore, compared with whiskey is greatly undertaxed; whiskey compared +with beer is greatly overtaxed; the ordinary drink of Englishmen is +treated differently from the ordinary drink of Irishmen, one being +encouraged, the other discouraged; though the taxes on each commodity may +be everywhere the same, the equality of taxation manifestly results in +wrong. The difference amounts to a very large sum; it is one of the causes +that Ireland is overtaxed.[171] + +Equality of taxation may, therefore, be not equity; it may, as I have +said, be sheer iniquity; and this is emphatically the case with respect to +Ireland. This system is productive of gross injustice as regards what may +be deemed the popular Irish drink; but arguments to support it have not +been wanting; they have been complacently gulped down at several public +meetings, it is unnecessary to add within the borders of England. The +'mere Irish,' it is said, have shocking bad tastes; let them take beer +instead of whiskey and they can have no grievance; besides, whiskey is a +nasty and unwholesome thing; it is in mercy to them that it is excessively +taxed. Is it possible that people who utter this stuff do not see that +sumptuary legislation of extreme harshness, nay, persecution of the worst +kind, may be justified on the same class of premises? Suppose that +Napoleon, in the plenitude of his power, had declared that the Parisians +did not know what was good for them, and had heavily taxed their coffee to +make them drink tea, even Austerlitz would not have saved the Empire. +Marie Antoinette actually made an attempt to banish from her Court the +velvets and silks of Lyons, and to make it adopt the cambrics and muslins +of Belgium; she would have been too glad to see the first taxed and the +second duty free, for she thought the French taste for heavy and gorgeous +apparel bad; she only aroused the indignation of Versailles. Or say that +the priests of the Jove of the Capitol had argued in this way: 'Really +these detestable Christians are fools for worshipping a crucified Jew; +they have only to bow down to Cæsar to escape the lions; otherwise they +have themselves alone to blame.' Nay, coming nearer home, might not a holy +prelate of the Irish Established Church in the eighteenth century have +reconciled the penal code to his conscience, by whispering to himself that +the deluded Papists had but to give up their vain superstitions, and to +conform to the pure well of faith that had its source in the Castle, and +that then they would be no longer outlaws; but let them take the +consequences if they were blind to their best interests on earth and in +heaven. In fact, any act of despotism on the part of the State might be +vindicated on these very laudable principles; but on this matter of the +taxation of Irish whiskey I shall confine myself to a single remark. +Reverse the cases of England and Ireland with respect to the imposts on +beer and on whiskey; tax beer very heavily and whiskey very lightly; and +what would Englishmen say of an argument that has been thought good enough +for Irishmen; how long would a Government exist that would try to carry +out such a policy? In truth, this reasoning, if it can be so called, is +the worst kind of sophistry: the frank brutality of the Roman proconsul, +who told the population of a subject province that they must endure their +burdens as they would endure the rain and the tempest, is less censurable, +to my mind at least, than this compound of absurd and offensive insolence. + +Another argument, really of no greater value, has had many supporters in +the House of Commons. True it is, it is admitted, that, compared with +Great Britain, Ireland has been hardly treated in finance; but this is +because she is a poor country, and a poor country must suffer from +taxation, fair as it may be, more than a wealthy country. But the same +inequality is seen in England: Dorset and Wiltshire are more heavily +burdened than Yorkshire and Lancashire, yet Dorset and Wiltshire make no +complaints as Ireland does. This argument, however, ignores history, and +sets the Treaty of Union at nought; Dorset and Wiltshire are mere +fractions of England; Ireland has always been financially a distinct +country, entitled to separate financial rights; and this has been +recognised by the ablest British statesmen, notably, of late years, by Mr. +Goschen, and by Mr. Gladstone. This reasoning, in a word, assumes that +Ireland is merely an aggregate of British counties; but this has never +been her true financial position; it is easy to sneer at the phrase +'separate entity' by which she has been called, that is, a land, +financially, apart from Great Britain, but sneers cannot get the better of +facts. These statements of distinguished English experts are +unquestionable in view of the record of history. Lord Farrer has remarked: +'It is abundantly clear that of the two conflicting theories--viz. the one +which regards Great Britain and Ireland as one country for the purpose of +taxation and expenditure, and the other which regards Great Britain and +Ireland as separate partners--the second is the one upon which our +instructions are founded; the one which has the greatest support in +history, and the one upon which all parties in Parliament have recently +acted.'[172] And Mr. Childers completely concurs: 'If apart from the +reference, it is asked why a distinction should be taken between Great +Britain and Ireland any more than between Kent and Yorkshire, the answer +is that Ireland entered into a partnership with Great Britain under a +formal Treaty of Union, which did, to a certain extent, by the recognition +of the claim of Ireland to abatements and exemptions, if circumstances +should require, maintain the position of Ireland as entitled to separate +treatment as a whole, so far as relates to taxation. It must also be +recollected that, as a matter of fact, Ireland has, at all times since the +Union, in various degrees received such separate treatment. Ireland, +therefore, cannot be regarded as merely a group of counties of the United +Kingdom.'[173] + +Two other arguments may be ascribed to the ingenuity, if this is the true +word, of the Treasury; but the first rests on a gross misrepresentation of +fact, the other upon a false theory; both, with a slight reservation, may +be dismissed as hopeless. Ireland, it is said, may possibly be +overtaxed--admit this for the sake of argument--but she has had more than +her fair share of loans from the State; a considerable part of these has +been freely remitted; this has not been the case in England and Scotland; +a large counterclaim, therefore, may be made against her. 'Out of a total +sum of about one hundred and nineteen millions and a half advanced in the +United Kingdom, a little over fifty-two millions, or 43.7 per cent., has +been advanced to Ireland, and of this, so large a proportion as one-fifth, +or over ten millions, had to be remitted, or treated as a free grant, +whilst only one fifty-eighth part of the advances made to Great Britain +were so treated.'[174] So far as these loans have been advances for the +real good of Ireland, for example, for the promotion of reproductive +works-these may fairly be taken into account; but millions have been +misapplied and wasted or spent in the unproductive relief of +distress;[175] these sums probably are greater than the excess made out by +the Treasury. As regards the remission of the £10,000,000, the assertion +relied on is simply deceptive. Not less than £4,000,000 of this sum +represent the fund the extinction of which was the consideration of +putting the income tax on Ireland by Mr. Gladstone; and, as the charge of +that tax has been since more than £23,000,000, it savours of impudence to +call this a remission; it was writing off a doubtful debt to justify a new +and portentous burden. The residue of the £10,000,000 is composed of +advances that have been misspent or spent on purposes really not Irish; +these were not remitted in the proper acceptation of the word. 'The +remaining portion of the ten millions of alleged remissions of loans +consists mainly of remissions of the repayment of expenditure by the Board +of Works, where it was shown that such expenditure had been wasteful, and +of advances to the clergy and laity of the Established Church of Ireland, +which advances Parliament, by legislation, deprived them of the ability of +repaying. Altogether it would appear, from Sir Edward Hamilton's evidence, +that in reality only about one million out of the ten corresponded in +their character to the advances made to Great Britain, and that +consequently the proportion of real remissions of loans to Ireland did not +differ very materially from that of the proportion of the remission in +Great Britain.' + +The second argument appears to be more plausible; but it is mischievous, +in a high degree, and dangerous; except to a slight extent, it is +completely fallacious. Ireland, it is allowed, contributes from £7,300,000 +to £7,800,000 to the exchequer; but of this sum £5,000,000 and upwards are +expended on her; she really hardly pays £2,000,000 to the State; the +£5,000,000 therefore, or nearly all this sum, create a just counterclaim +against her, even admitting she is excessively taxed. This expenditure on +Ireland, it is contended, is for Irish 'local' purposes; it is not +expenditure for 'Imperial' purposes; the account, as between Great Britain +and Ireland, is to be taken as if all this expenditure, or nearly so, were +purely local. But is not the expenditure for keeping up the +Lord-Lieutenant and his Court, is not the expenditure on the government +and administration of Ireland, essentially, and in the main, Imperial, and +not local in a legitimate sense, so long as the United Kingdom exists? Is +it not as Imperial, at least for the most part, as the expenditure on the +British army and navy and on the government and administration of England +and Scotland is Imperial, and not, properly speaking, local? This argument +could be retorted with decisive effect, if urged in the interest of +Ireland against Great Britain. If this kind of expenditure in Ireland is +held to be local, not Imperial, the same rule must apply to England and +Scotland; this expenditure in their case must be local and not Imperial. +Why, then, should Ireland contribute to such charges as public works in +Edinburgh and London, as the maintenance of the great English dockyards +and harbours, as the cost of the army and navy outside Ireland, and of the +government and administration of England and Scotland? Clearly on the +Treasury hypothesis she should not contribute; and if she does, she has an +immense counterclaim, so far as her contributions are applied to these +local objects. But, in truth, this whole argument, when examined, is a +mere sophism. The revenues of the Three Kingdoms are paid into a common +exchequer; they are distributed according to the uses of the State; this +expenditure, as a general rule, must be held to be Imperial, not local, +and cannot give a part of the Three Kingdoms a right to make a claim +against another. The State spends millions on London which it does not +spend on Surrey; it spends millions in Hants which it does not spend in +Berkshire: does this circumstance give Surrey or Berkshire a title to say +we can make a demand on London and Hants? Precisely in the same way, the +expenditure of the State on Ireland, as contra-distinguished from that on +Great Britain, cannot, at least as a general principle, give Great Britain +a right to make a counterclaim on Ireland. + +It is unnecessary to point out how this theory has a tendency to create +local and even national ill-will; to set parts of one country against +other parts, and two countries against each other; it distinctly alienates +Ireland from Great Britain; as I have said, it is full of mischief and +peril. In truth, however, it is a mere device to excuse the overcharge of +Irish taxation; it has never entered the minds of statesmen. Nothing can +be more certain than that every great British financier, from the day of +Pitt to the day of Peel, and to the day of Mr. Gladstone, has regarded the +expenditure of the Three Kingdoms, as this is paid into a common +exchequer, as a general fund to be allocated as the State requires; and +has not regarded it as a fund, under local heads, to be laid out in +separate districts, so as to give any one district a counterclaim against +another. I quote from a report of one of the members of the Childers +Commissions: 'A division of the expenditure of the United Kingdom into +"charge for Irish purposes" and "Imperial expenditure," cannot be made +under the system of finance embodied in the constitution established by +the Legislative Union. All expenditure under that system is "expenditure +of the United Kingdom," or, to express it more briefly, "Imperial +expenditure;" and all Imperial expenditure is defrayed from the common +fund of the Imperial Exchequer. If a part of the Imperial expenditure be +described as a charge "for Irish purposes," this classification does not +affect the fact that it is Imperial expenditure, and charged as such upon +the whole Imperial revenue. To regard this expenditure as non-Imperial, to +deduct it from the particular revenue contributed by Ireland to Imperial +expenditure, to treat the fraction of Irish revenue left as if it were the +whole of the Irish contribution to Imperial expenditure, and to regard +Imperial expenditure itself as not including "the charge for Irish +purposes," would be to do what the Constitution does not sanction: it +would be to deal with the revenue and expenditure of the United Kingdom as +if the revenues of Great Britain and Ireland were raised and administered +by separate authorities, each of which, having first, out of its own +revenue, defrayed its separate charges, then applied the balance to +payment of common expenses, which, in that case, would be properly +classified as Imperial.'[176] And the evidence of Sir Robert Giffen is to +the same effect: 'The opinion which I have formed is that, on the whole, +it is not possible to make the distinction between the different objects +of Imperial expenditure which is made in some of these discussions; that, +in fact, all the expenditure by an Imperial Government is to be considered +expenditure for Imperial purposes, and although part of it may be spent +locally, you cannot in any way call it expenditure for the special benefit +of that locality. It is expenditure for the general objects of the +Imperial Government.'[177] + +The theory of the Treasury is thus essentially false; but accidentally, it +contains, I think, a residuum of truth. When, as between two countries, +one pays a considerable sum, exclusively or mainly from local rates, and +the same charge in the other country is for the most part defrayed from +Imperial taxation by the State, it appears to me that a portion of the sum +so paid by the State may give one country a counterclaim against the other +to some extent. This is the case as between Great Britain and Ireland; the +cost of national education and of the police force is largely discharged +in Great Britain by local rates; in Ireland it amounts to about +£2,700,000, and is mainly defrayed from Imperial taxes; this may create a +counterclaim against Ireland within reasonable limits at least. No doubt +the charge of bringing up the young of the poorer classes and of +maintaining public order by a suitable force, ought largely to be an +Imperial charge; but when in one community it is chiefly borne by local +funds, and in another it is chiefly borne by the common Exchequer of both, +this seems to give the first community a partial claim against the second. +This counterclaim, such as it is, has been reckoned, in addition to a sum +for free grants, at about £500,000 a year by the Childers Commission; but +it did not thoroughly go into the subject; this estimate is believed to be +too low by well-informed persons; the counterclaim has been calculated to +be about £1,000,000 sterling. Lord Salisbury's Government, we have seen, +promised to appoint a second Commission to examine this question at +length, besides some other financial questions suggested by the Report of +the Childers Commission; for some unknown reason it has not redeemed its +pledge; it is very desirable that it should redeem it. Apart from the +mischief of a delay approaching a breach of public faith, the only +inference that can be drawn, if this promise is broken, is that the +Government accepts the view in this matter of the Childers Commission. + +The Childers Commission has conclusively proved that Ireland is much too +highly taxed; whatever counterclaim may be made against this excess, the +overcharge can be little less than two millions a year. The arguments +urged against this conclusion are mere leather and prunella that may be +brushed aside; the Report of the Commission has had the sanction of nearly +all economists of a high order. By all means let another Commission strike +a balance after making every fair allowance; but if it shall be struck, as +it must be in Ireland's favour, the only real question for impartial men +will be how it shall be best discharged. Ireland has practically +acquiesced for years in fiscal injustice; in any view of the case she has +no right to call for a change in our whole system of finance for her +special benefit. Still less has she a right to demand that her customs and +excise duties should be placed at a lower level than those of Great +Britain; this would raise a mischievous barrier between the two countries; +this policy would be, perhaps, impossible; if possible, it would probably +injure Ireland greatly in the long run. The only remaining alternative is +to leave our existing fiscal system intact, but to make an annual grant +from the exchequer for Irish uses, as compensation for excessive taxation; +this has the support of the Childers Commission. 'The third method, and +that which most strongly recommends itself to our judgment, is to give +compensation to Ireland by making an annual allocation of revenue in their +favour, to be employed in promoting the material prosperity and social +welfare of the country.'[178] It is difficult to suppose, should a large +yearly sum be found to be due to Ireland, as affairs now stand, that +Parliament will refuse to pay honourably a just debt; it would be a +shameful act to repudiate an obligation of the kind. Years ago Pitt +declared in his characteristic style that 'Ireland might safely rely on +Great Britain for the discharge of any fair claim on her; the liberality, +the justice, the honour of the people of Great Britain have never been +found deficient.' The time has come to test the value of this pledge; it +has been announced by the highest authority, in which English opinion +largely prevails, that Ireland has been immensely overtaxed for years: +will the 'people of Great Britain' give effect to this judgment, and make +good a claim which hardly admits of a doubt? The demand of Ireland, no +doubt, is not sustained by violent agitation and the shouts of multitudes; +but it is backed by all that is best in Irish opinion; it rests upon the +simplest financial justice. It is dangerous to treat a demand such as this +with contempt, and still more so with weak sophistry; not that Ireland can +make an effective resistance to fiscal wrong, however clearly proved; and +I for one deprecate rhodomontade about 'the Boston tea-ships.' But a claim +may have great moral force, though it be not supported by physical power; +the disregard of this claim would provoke well-informed Irishmen, and +weaken the Union perhaps greatly; and, after all, is it a seemly sight, is +it becoming in the eyes of the world, that the richest country in Europe +should practically impose an iniquitous burden upon the poorest? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE QUESTIONS OF IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION--OTHER +QUESTIONS--CONCLUSION + + Irish county government--The grand jury system in the eighteenth + century--Its merits and defects--The grand jury system in the + nineteenth century, and especially since 1836--The Irish poor law + system--Elected and _ex-officio_ guardians--The local government of + cities and towns in Ireland--Municipal institutions founded in Ireland + by the Norman kings--Why they did not prosper--Boroughs and + municipalities founded by James I. and the Stuarts--Their condition in + the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries--The Municipal Reform Act of + 1840--The Towns Commissioners Acts--Attempts to reform the municipal + system of local government in Ireland--The Local Government of Ireland + Act, 1898--Complete change in Irish local government--The County + Councils--The County Borough Councils--The District, Rural, and the + Urban District Councils--Their functions, rights, and duties--All + these bodies placed on a democratic basis--Attitude of the County + Councils in the southern provinces--Education in Ireland--History of + primary education--The national system of education--The principles on + which it is founded--How it has worked, and what its results have + been--Secondary education in Ireland--Its history--Its present + condition very imperfect--The Intermediate Education Act--University + education in Ireland--Its history--Trinity College--The Queen's + Colleges and the Queen's University founded by Peel--Their comparative + failure--Mr. Gladstone's Bill to reform University education in + Ireland--Its glaring errors and failure--Trinity College thrown open + in 1873--The Royal University founded in 1879--Present state of + University education in Ireland--The true principles of reform--Other + Irish questions--Conclusion. + + +That local government in Ireland should still be a 'Present Irish +Question,' may appear strange to persons only versed in the mere routine +of politics. The subject has been before Parliament for nearly thirty +years; it has engaged the attention of more than one of its Committees; +Butt endeavoured, to no purpose, to legislate on it. In 1892 Lord +Salisbury's Government brought in a measure which aimed at transforming +the whole system of administering local affairs in Ireland; but it had +unquestionable defects and was vehemently opposed; unfortunately, as I +believe, it was permitted to drop. Six years afterwards, that is, in 1898, +the greater part of a parliamentary session was employed in dealing with +the question again; a Bill became law which placed Irish local government, +in all its departments, upon a new basis, and completely changed the +characteristics it had had for centuries. The measure was to be a _ne plus +ultra_; it was extolled by applauding partisans as a magnificent scheme of +popular reform; these have since, over and over again, declared that its +success has been more than manifest. It is too soon to pronounce, with +anything like confidence, on what its ultimate results may be, or even to +say, with certainty, how it will practically work; but enough has already +been made apparent to cause thoughtful and fair-minded Irishmen to regard +the changes it has effected with grave misgivings; to question the +principles on which it rests, or at least the wisdom of applying them to +Ireland as she now is; and to ask whether it must not be amended if the +social structure of Ireland is not to be still more violently disturbed, +than it has been by the experiments that have been made on it. Besides, +the local government and administration of every community, especially if +formed on a popular type, affect its existence in many ways; strongly +indicate what its opinions are, what its qualities, what its evident +tendencies; in a word, largely represent its essential nature. It was not +for nothing that in his survey of the Revolution in France, Burke did not +confine himself to the sovereign assembly at Versailles, but turned his +penetrating glance on the petty assemblies which had been set up in the +new-made departments, for the conduct of their local affairs; these, he +insisted, formed the truest expression of the mind of the people and of +the leaders at its head. For these reasons, therefore, if we would +understand Ireland, her local government is a 'Present Irish Question;' it +is a question, moreover, which, whatever may be said, in all probability +has not been finally settled. + +In order to understand the subject, I must glance at the system of Irish +local government, as this existed until, as it were, yesterday; I turn, in +the first instance, to Irish county government. The beginnings of this +scheme have been traced back to the time of Strafford; but it was not +finally established until the reign of William III., when the subjugation +of Ireland had been made complete. The Irish grand juries always had +criminal jurisdiction in their countries like their English fellows; but +unlike these they were now entrusted with almost absolute control over +Irish county government. This was partly because they were representatives +of the conquering race, by this time the owners of nine-tenths of the +lands of the country; and partly because there was no local organisation +in Ireland, like the English parish, which could give local influence to +the conquered race. The grand juries were always composed of the leading +landed gentry of their respective counties; they were nominated by the +sheriffs, that is, by officials of the Central Government; they were +wholly devoid of a popular element; and as no Catholic could have a share +in their councils, until nearly the end of the eighteenth century, they +embodied, in the fullest sense, the Protestant ascendency of the day, +supreme in every sphere of authority in the State. The grand juries had +almost the exclusive power of administering the local affairs of their +counties, of managing their roads, public buildings, and police; and they +levied the charges for these by a local rate, known as the county cess to +this hour, and imposed almost wholly on the occupiers of the soil, that +is, in five cases out of six on the Catholic peasantry, a striking +instance of taxation without representation to check it. These assemblies +of local magnates met twice a year at the assizes which were held in their +counties. Miss Edgeworth has given us graphic accounts of them: how a seat +on a grand jury was deemed a prize to be sometimes fought for; how the +grand juries entertained the judges in state, and vied with these sages in +their mighty potations; and how, while wretches were hanged and jurymen +dined, the assize towns were scenes of not fastidious revelry. There was +much jobbing, corruption, and waste in the administration of the counties +in those days; much of the 'scratch me, and I will scratch you;' much +'give and take' at the cost of the ratepayers. But there was another and +better side to the picture: the Irish gentry of the time had the faculty +of command; they ruled their districts efficiently with their police; the +public works for which they were responsible were usually good. Arthur +Young has especially noticed that the roads they constructed were almost +always well laid out and kept up. + +Catholics were not admitted on grand juries until the great Relief Act of +1793, the first general relaxation of the execrable penal code. But the +Catholic members of these bodies have always been few; the large majority +of the Irish landlords remains still Protestant. The bureaucracy of the +Castle, after the Union, began to encroach on the domain of the grand +juries; at the same time the growing needs of the country made the +expenditure on local affairs much larger. The grand juries lost much of +their authority by degrees; they were more and more controlled by the +Central Government, which supplanted them in a variety of ways; and they +were ere long compelled to vote sums for public works of different kinds +for the behoof of their counties. This change effectually checked +corruption and jobbing; but as the requirements of the counties +increased, and the 'imperative presentments,' as they were called, were +augmented, the charge of the local rate or county cess became more +onerous--it has advanced enormously in the last sixty years; and this was +still mainly imposed on the Catholic peasantry. The civil or fiscal +administration, which the grand juries possessed until 1898, was finally +arranged by an Act of Parliament passed in 1836,[179] supplemented, from +time to time, by subsequent statutes. These bodies were composed of the +same elements, and nominated by the sheriffs as before; and they had a +general supervision over all the public works, roads, bridges, and +buildings for public purposes, comprised within their different counties, +including within these areas nearly all villages, and the large majority +of the lesser towns. But they were made strictly dependent on the Central +Government; this had the appointment of their chief officers; their +accounts were subjected to a regular audit; and their 'imperative +presentments' were largely extended. They acquired, too, an additional +jurisdiction in some respects, especially as regards inquiries into +criminal injuries and compensating persons who had been sufferers, and as +regards voting an extra police force in disturbed districts; but their old +local police had disappeared, and had been replaced by the great central +constabulary force. A change, too, was effected in the modes through which +local rates were voted in the counties for public purposes. These sums +were 'presented' in the first instance at 'baronial' and 'county at large' +sessions, held by county justices and ratepayers of substance; but these +bodies were subordinate to the grand juries, and to a considerable extent +drawn from the same classes; no popular element was infused in county +government, and the grand juries were, in the last resort, supreme, within +the limits which had been assigned to them. The local expenditure voted +and assessed in this way was subject to examination by a judge of assize, +who 'fiated' it, as a general rule; and ratepayers had a right to +challenge it, by a procedure called 'a traverse,' which, however, was +seldom turned to account. + +The Irish grand juries were thus oligarchic bodies, survivals of the +Protestant ascendency of a bygone age, and with a tendency, in their later +history, to become subordinate boards of the Castle. I pass on to the +Irish poor law system, another considerable department of Irish local +government. As we have seen, unlike what had been the case in England, no +poor law existed in Ireland until 1838; the want of such a measure was one +of the causes of the pressure of a huge mass of indigence on the soil +before the catastrophe of 1845-47. The Irish poor law, with some marked +distinctions, was analogous to the new English poor law, as it has long +been called; it has now been in operation for about sixty years. The +country was divided into a series of unions, which have varied from 130 to +163 in number; at present there are 159 of these; these were the principal +units for carrying the poor law system into effect. The unions were again +subdivided into lesser districts, electoral divisions for the county, +wards for the larger towns; the persons chosen to administer the poor law +were taken from these areas; and the unions and all that pertained to them +were placed under the control of the Central Government, represented by +the Local Government Board of Ireland. The persons returned from the +electoral divisions and the wards were selected by the votes of the +ratepayers, and were known as the elected guardians; a popular element was +thus introduced into the administration of the law, which had never been +introduced into Irish county government. The vote of the ratepayers, +however, was cumulative, not single; the largest ratepayers had the most +votes, a safeguard, it has been assumed, for property; and the elected +guardians, in theory at least, were balanced by an equal number of +_ex-officio_ guardians, composed of magistrates within the unions. The +chief duties of the elected and the _ex-officio_ guardians, collectively +known as Boards of Guardians, were to provide for the wants of the poor, +and to assess and levy poor rates for that purpose; but many other duties +were gradually imposed on them, the principal of these being the care of +the sanitary state of the lesser towns within their districts. There was a +marked difference between the incidence of the poor rate and of the county +rate, or cess, of the grand juries. The county cess, we have seen, was +mainly a charge on the Catholic occupiers of the soil, the poor rate was, +to a very considerable extent, a charge on the owners, for the most part +Protestants; for the landlord was bound to pay the whole poor rate in the +case of the pettiest holdings, and to allow his tenants half the poor rate +in the case of other holdings; by these means the burden of at least half +the poor rate, it is believed, was borne by the Irish landed gentry. It +should be added that the elected guardians have practically had the +administration of the poor law in their hands; the _ex-officio_ guardians, +especially of late years, took little part in it.[180] + +I turn from the administration of local rural affairs in Ireland to that +of its chief cities and its towns. The Irish towns, conquered and settled +by the Danes, had, perhaps, a kind of municipal government; the +Plantagenet kings conferred municipal rights as freely in Ireland as they +did in England. Thus Dublin received a charter from John, modelled on that +of his 'liegemen of Bristol;' Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, and several +other towns were incorporated and given powers of self-government at +different periods of the Middle Ages. But the municipal life and the +municipal spirit which grew up and gained strength in the thriving towns +of England, and secured for them a large measure of local liberty, had +hardly any existence in a land like Ireland, distracted by feudal and +tribal anarchy; the corporate cities and towns of Ireland fell into the +hands of great Anglo-Norman nobles and Celtic chiefs, and seem to have all +but lost their local franchises. During the long agony of the sixteenth +century, when Ireland was devastated by a horrible strife of race and +faith, these privileges were still further effaced; at the death of +Elizabeth the Irish municipal centres, with the exception of the capital, +were mere names and shadows. A great change took place when the subjugated +land passed under the domination of the first Stuarts. English law was now +extended over the whole of Ireland; a colonial caste of settlers was +becoming lords of the soil; the Government was conducted by the men at the +Castle, ruling through a Parliament largely composed of the new settlers. +James I. created forty-six Irish boroughs with a stroke of the pen, and +gave them a representation in the Parliament and municipal rights; but +these, for the most part, were mere villages; they obtained their large +privileges solely in order to support 'the English interest,' as it was +called, in the Irish House of Commons. This system was continued by the +later Stuarts; besides Dublin and the larger towns of Ireland, there were +about a hundred of these petty municipalities and parliamentary boroughs +in the eighteenth century. These places, however, could have no municipal +freedom, and were wholly devoid of municipal feeling; they became nearly +all the mere appanages of the neighbouring leading families; and, with +hardly an exception, they were extreme types of the Protestant ascendency +which prevailed everywhere. Something of the same kind was witnessed in +England, under the aristocratic rule of that age, but there was the +difference between a sorry caricature and a picture; the great cities and +the better towns of England still retained an ample measure of municipal +liberty, and, especially, did not lose the municipal spirit; the exact +contrary was the case in Ireland. + +A large majority of the little Irish boroughs were deprived of their +parliamentary representation at the Union, but they retained their nominal +municipal rights. They still remained under the control of the chief +landed gentry; and they became, as indeed they had always been, centres of +maladministration, corruption, and peculation of all kinds. When, after +the passing of the great Reform Act of 1832, statesmen directed their +minds to the questions of corporate and municipal reform in England, they +naturally turned their minds to Ireland also, where this reform was +notoriously still more imperative. After the publication of a masterly +report in 1834-35, which thoroughly illustrated the whole subject, the +abuses in the Irish corporations were shown to be such--they were enormous +even in the cities and larger towns--that Peel, the leader of the +Opposition, actually gave them up; he proposed to deprive the corporate +towns of all municipal rights and franchises, and to place them under the +authority of Commissioners appointed by the Crown. This plan, however, was +rejected by the Melbourne Government, and was not sanctioned by the House +of Commons; after a long and angry controversy, which continued for years, +a measure became law as late as 1840; and by this, with the exception of +ten, all the corporate towns of Ireland lost their municipal rights, and +were thus left without any power of self-government. With respect even to +the ten still enfranchised towns, their old privileges were greatly +curtailed and were transferred to the Central Government; and their +municipal liberties were restricted and narrowed. They retained, indeed, +many rights of self-government; but the municipal franchise was placed at +a high level; the great body of the townsmen did not possess it; and they +were subject to the supervision of the Local Government Board, that is, of +the Central Government, to a considerable extent at least. True municipal +life, and the municipal sentiment, could not, therefore, become well +developed, in the case of towns under such conditions; they showed but few +symptoms of the wonderful growth of prosperity and power which has been +such a marked feature in the history of the great corporate towns of +England, in what may be called the Victorian age, though, no doubt, the +cases were widely different--poor Ireland could not, in this respect, +compete with wealthy and progressive England. The deficiency of corporate +towns in Ireland was felt ere long to be such, that, in 1854, and +subsequent years, municipal rights were, in some measure, extended to +nearly a hundred of these towns. These places were governed by bodies +called Town Commissioners elected by a kind of popular vote; but the +authority of these bodies has never been large; the municipal franchise +was very high; and these towns were also under the Irish Local Government +Board. + +Municipal institutions, like others of English origin, had thus, from a +variety of causes, when transferred to Ireland, only a stunted, imperfect, +and maimed existence. We may briefly glance at the operation of the system +of rural and urban local government, of which we have endeavoured to +sketch the outlines. Except, perhaps, in the instance of criminal +injuries, and of the compensation to be adjudged by them, where they did +not always give proof of a judicial spirit, the grand juries, for upwards +of two generations, administered county affairs very well; they were +economical, prudent, and jealous of expense, if the public buildings they +sanctioned were, occasionally, too costly; but the system was an +anachronism, and had had its day. In ordinary times the Irish poor law was +reasonably well administered by the Boards of Guardians, as well, +probably, as was the case in England; they were rather parsimonious in +assessing rates, and gave little attention to the sanitary state of their +towns, but, on the whole, there was not much cause to complain of them; +and the Irish people, it must be recollected, have never liked the poor +law. The local administration of the cities and the larger towns of +Ireland was worse--a notable exception was seen in Belfast; but these, as +a rule, gave proof of the restricted system on which their government had +been formed; the results appeared in a high death rate, in bad supplies of +water, in crowds of squalid and deserted dwellings--in a word, in +stagnation and a want of progress, if other and powerful causes concurred. +When the movement conducted by Parnell acquired strength, almost a +revolution passed over the seats of Irish local government, where these, +except in Ulster, possessed a popular element. Parnell called on the +Boards of Guardians, the Corporations, and the Town Commissioners, in +places where the 'people' had any effective voice, to rally round the Land +and the National Leagues; he achieved remarkable success in the three +provinces of the south. This was especially made manifest in the Boards of +Guardians, composed largely of farmers of substance, and in which the +_ex-officio_ guardians had little real power; these bodies set a crusade +against the landed gentry on foot; marked them out for plunder in many +ways; encouraged 'boycotting' and defiance of the law; gave a free rein to +rebellious utterances of many kinds; and denounced Irish 'landlordism' and +British rule in Ireland, as fiercely as they had been denounced at Land +and National League gatherings.[181] The same phenomena appeared in many +of the corporate and inferior towns: the Corporation of Dublin indulged in +anti-British threats and speeches; the Corporation of Limerick refused to +pay a lawful tax; the Corporation of Cork proclaimed itself supreme in a +'rebel' city; the example was generally followed in the lesser towns of +the south; in short, these bodies became centres of sedition, socialism, +and resistance to the law, and widely disseminated their pernicious +teaching. In fact, they made themselves agencies of the Land and the +National Leagues; at the same time, in numerous instances, they set the +authority of the Local Government Board at naught.[182] + +The system of Irish local government was obviously so defective, so +antiquated, so contrary to the spirit of the age, that several attempts, +we have seen, were made, long ago, to reform it. It has now been +completely transformed on the principles applied to England and Scotland; +the occasion of this transformation was somewhat singular. In 1896 +considerable relief was given, in England and Scotland, to the landed +interest by a subvention made by the State, which defrayed half the charge +of the local county rates, the depression of agriculture being so +grievous; the justice of this measure was hardly disputed. But the Report +of the Childers Commission, declaring that Ireland was greatly overtaxed, +and had been for a long series of years, was published about the same +time; the Government, probably because it had made up its mind not to +countenance the report in any way, refused to extend the same relief to +Ireland, although it was as much required--a decision that simply nothing +could warrant. The indignation, however, expressed in Ireland, and the +remonstrances even of the Ministerial Press, angrily as it had challenged +the findings of the report, before long changed the Government's purpose; +it was formally announced, in 1897, that Ireland would obtain the same +boon as Great Britain, and, apparently, as a condition of this, that Irish +local government was to be reformed. The measure of 1898 was the result of +this compromise; the interdependence of two subjects, which have nothing +in common, has made it not easy to interpret; but, as we shall see, its +authors have provided, with skill, against one of the dangers the change +involved, that is, the probability that it might expose the Irish landed +gentry to predatory attacks. Before examining the recent law, I venture to +make a single remark. The question of the alleviation of the charge of +rates, a concession made to Ireland with bad grace, and made to England +and Scotland as a matter of course, has nothing to do with the infinitely +larger question of the excessive taxation imposed on Ireland; relief in +the one case does not imply relief in the other; the two subjects are +altogether distinct. It is essential carefully to keep this in mind, for +attempts are being made to confuse the two questions, and +characteristically to argue that Ireland ought to rest and be thankful, +and not to say a word about her overtaxation, because, forsooth, in common +with England and Scotland, she has received assistance as regards her +local rates. + +The transformation which has been effected in Irish local government has +completely changed the old order of things, and is of an extremely +democratic character. County government has been taken from the grand +juries, and has been extended to bodies known by the name of County +Councils, recently formed in Great Britain. The County Councils proper are +thirty-two in number, corresponding to the number of the Irish counties; +they are popular assemblies in the fullest sense of the word. They are +elected by the ratepayers of their districts, who possess the present +extravagantly low suffrage; the right of election is also bestowed on +women; and the protection of the cumulative vote has been removed; a +cottar has the same voting power as a man of forty thousand a year. Any of +these voters may have a seat in a County Council; the body, therefore, may +be crowded with petty ratepayers; and women also may have seats. Three +members of the grand jury, in each county, are entitled to sit in a County +Council, but for a short time only--a provision intended to reconcile the +old with the new; the County Councils are given a right to 'co-opt' a few +members; and the heads of bodies subordinate to them have the privilege of +taking part in their counsels. The rights and the responsibilities of the +grand juries have, as a rule, been transferred to the County Councils, +except in the instance of criminal injuries, and of determining +compensation for these; this jurisdiction, subject to an appeal to a judge +of assize, has been properly conferred on the County Court judges, for it +is essentially of a judicial nature. The powers of the County Councils +thus extend to the management and the supervision of the roads, bridges, +and buildings for public purposes comprised within their counties, and +also to the regulation of villages and petty towns; but, like the grand +juries, they are subject to the same control of the Central Government; +they must make 'imperative presentments' like the grand juries; and, as in +the instance of the grand juries, subordinate bodies have the initiative +in part of their duties. Their powers, however, have been made larger and +wider than those of the grand juries; they have been given the right to +assess and levy the poor rate in rural districts, the management of the +asylums of the lunatic poor, an authority, in cases of exceptional +distress, subject to the permission of the Local Government Board, to +sanction relief to poor people out-of-doors, and several other powers of +not much importance. It should be added that the County Councils are not +restricted in any way by judge's 'fiats' and by 'traverses' as the grand +juries were; these securities, such as they were, have disappeared; but +their conduct may be controlled to a certain extent by the Superior Courts +of Ireland, as that of most public bodies may be, if only through a +tedious and costly procedure, and they are more or less under the +authority of the Local Government Board. + +Six of the principal cities and towns of Ireland, Dublin, Belfast, Cork, +Limerick, Londonderry, and Waterford, have been made distinct counties, +with the appellation of County Boroughs. The scheme of County Councils has +been applied to these also; the townsmen and townswomen have the same +power of voting, and the same democratic suffrage as the counties proper; +the borough assemblies may have the same kinds of members; but the titles +of mayors, aldermen, and burgesses have been preserved, in recognition, so +to speak, of strictly urban government. These bodies, which, it will be +observed, are popular in the widest sense of the word, have the powers of +grand juries within their respective spheres; but they retain besides +their former administrative powers subject to the control of the Local +Government Board; they have thus been changed from narrow and close +oligarchies into democracies on the very broadest basis. The County +Councils have under them two minor bodies, the Rural District Councils and +the Urban District Councils, the characteristics of which may be briefly +noticed. The sphere of the authority of the Rural District Council +corresponds, for the most part, to the Poor Law Union; these councils are +elected and constituted under the same conditions as the larger councils +already described; they are, therefore, mere democracies in considerable +numbers. The Rural District Councils are given the powers of the Baronial +Presentment Sessions of the Grand Juries, that is, they may initiate +proceedings as their predecessors did; they are made the sole guardians of +the poor within their districts, the _ex-officio_ guardians having been +abolished; their chairmen are members of the County Councils; it may be +added here that rating for the poor has been extended generally over the +union, not as hitherto confined to the electoral division and the ward, a +questionable provision which will certainly increase the expenditure for +the relief of poverty. The sphere of the authority of the Urban District +Councils has been made that of the larger towns of Ireland, being sanitary +areas within themselves; but power has been taken to increase the number +of these towns, and this increase will be probably witnessed. The Urban +District Councils resemble, in their mode of election and their +constitution, the other assemblies, that is, they are democracies to the +fullest extent; but they retain the names of Corporate or Town +Commissioners towns, and of mayors, aldermen, and burgesses where they +possessed these before. The powers of the Urban District Councils are +those of the grand juries within the towns, except as respects the larger +public buildings, which were formerly charged on 'the county at large;' +these councils levy and assess the poor rate within their districts; and +they retain the powers of urban government they formerly possessed. The +Local Government Board has authority, also, over the Rural District and +the Urban District Councils. + +The entire system of Irish local government has thus been placed on an +extremely democratic basis, subject, however, to partial control by the +Central Government. This revolution, for it has been nothing less, was +obviously liable to be attended by the many mischiefs inseparable from a +sudden transfer of enormous powers to local assemblies of the most popular +type, to maladministration, waste, and extravagance, and, as especially +would be the case in Ireland, to violent or insidious attacks on the +landed gentry. The late measure has provided against these evils, if not +completely or adequately, with ingenuity and skill. The relief of Irish +agriculture was its first financial object; to effect this the county cess +and the poor rate have been consolidated into a single charge; and half of +this is to be defrayed by the State and appropriated to the relief of +agricultural lands, towns and lands, within municipal limits, being +excepted. The subvention is not to extend to sums payable in respect of +criminal injuries, nor to sums payable in respect of extra police in +disturbed districts; these charges are properly to be borne by local areas +as before. The relief afforded is an annual sum of about £700,000; it is +divided in tolerably equal shares between the owners and the occupiers of +the soil, that is, between the landlords and tenants of Ireland; it is +characteristic of Radical clamour, that a boon, the justice of which could +not be disputed, was denounced as an 'infamous job' for the behoof of the +Irish landed gentry. A powerful check has been placed on extravagance and +waste, and on attempts to injure property in land, exposed, we have seen, +to undoubted dangers. The relief afforded was calculated on the local +expenditure for 1897, in the words of the law, 'the standard year;' it was +regularly to be one-half of this sum. Should the local expenditure, +therefore, in subsequent years, be in excess of that of the standard year, +the proportionate value of the relief would fall; should it be a lesser +amount, the value would rise. A strong restraint was thus imposed on +attempts recklessly to job and waste local funds, and notably to plunder +Irish landlords; but this restriction only applies to agricultural lands; +it does not extend to property in towns; and it is difficult to say that +it will always prove effective against democratic sentiment, passion, and +greed. The extent of the relief afforded to Irish landlords differs widely +as between landlords of different classes of tenants; landlords of mere +cottars will get very little; landlords of farmers of substance will get +much more; but it is unnecessary here to enlarge on this special +subject.[183] + +This sweeping measure, in my judgment at least, might have been better +framed to carry out its policy. Like much of the legislation of the +Imperial Parliament, it has been fashioned too closely on the English +model; it gives to a poor and backward country, not trained in +self-government, local institutions naturally adapted only to an opulent +and well-ordered country accustomed for centuries to local liberties. +Having regard to the peculiar state of Ireland, it might have made the +powers of local government it conferred larger, but it ought not to have +been as purely democratic as it is; and it ought to have been accompanied +by safeguards it does not possess. I would have been disposed to give the +Irish County Councils a right to take evidence for private Bills on the +spot; this, if transmitted to the Irish Privy Council, and considered by +it, might be made the basis of reports by that body, which could be turned +into Acts of Parliament, by a summary process, thus getting rid of great +and useless expense, and silencing one of the few real arguments in favour +of Home Rule. I would also have allowed the County Councils of different +counties, in matters in which they had a common interest, say, in the +drainage of some of the great Irish rivers, to carry out together public +works of this kind, and to assess and levy rates for the purpose if, on +consideration, this was deemed expedient; at present they have no +authority like this; and such a power would, I think, be for the general +good of Ireland. The County Councils, too, I believe, might be given a +deliberative voice, in cases they have not at present; for example, should +the rate-payers of any county make a demand for sectarian education, +within its area, and declare themselves ready to pay a rate for it, the +County Council should have a right to entertain the project, and to report +on it to the Central Government. And I am convinced that members of the +County Councils ought to have some seats on the Local Government Board, +and on other boards now filled by the Castle bureaucracy; this would +introduce a popular element into these bodies, and, in many ways, would be +of real advantage. On the other hand, in the election and the constitution +of the County and other Councils, democracy has simply been let run riot; +and the resulting evils have already been made manifest. Illiterate +persons ought not to have been qualified to be electors; the single should +not have replaced the cumulative vote, property being thus deprived of its +legitimate weight; above all, as is evident, security should have been +taken that the landed gentry should have a proper representation on the +County Councils. The authority, too, of the Superior Courts over all these +assemblies should have been made more effective and less costly than it is +at present; and that of the Local Government Board should have been better +defined and increased. In all this province the checks possessed by the +Central Government over these local democracies are not, I think, +sufficient. + +It is impossible, I have remarked, to say with certainty what the end of +this social revolution will be; but some of the results are, even now, +apparent. There has, as yet, been little tendency in the local boards to +waste, or to attempts to despoil the landed gentry; the check in this +respect is of great force; but no one, I repeat, can predict what may be +done under the influence of democratic sympathies, especially should the +existing agitation acquire increased strength in Ireland. Some of the +councils have been very fairly managed; a few others have been badly +administered; as a rule, much time has been misspent in irrelevant talk; +there has been a good deal of squabbling with the Local Government Board; +but, on the whole, the local business of the counties and towns has been +conducted as reasonably well as could be expected in the case of a new and +immense experiment. But the consequences of giving raw democracies great +and sudden power have already been made but too manifest, as persons, who +knew Ireland, foresaw would happen. In parts of Ulster representatives of +the landed gentry have been elected to the County Councils; property in +these has still legitimate influence. But in Leinster, Munster, and +Connaught, this order of men has been all but completely shut out from +these boards; the land is not represented at all; this is an absolutely +unnatural position of affairs, pregnant with many ills to the community as +a whole. It is not only that the landed gentry have been deprived of an +influence they ought to possess, in a society in any degree well ordered; +this change has a tendency to make them more and more, what they have +largely been made already, a privileged class without duties, akin to the +old seigneurie of France, a state of things of which Tocqueville has +powerfully described the evils. In the southern provinces, too, the new +democracies, composed of Catholic 'Nationalists,' by large majorities, +have driven loyal, and especially Protestant, men and women from local +offices they had filled with credit, and this too at a considerable charge +on the rates, a clear proof how no restraints can be wholly effective. But +the main feature in the conduct of the County and other Councils is that +in most parts of Ireland they have followed the advice given by Parnell to +their weaker forerunners; they have made themselves agencies of the United +Irish League, as boards before them were agencies of the Land and the +National Leagues, and they have given but too ample proof of disaffection, +disloyalty, and hatred of British rule. In some counties, the councils +seized the court houses, and refused light and fire to the Superior and +the County Court judges. Throughout the South of Ireland most of the +boards vied with each other in wild expressions of sympathy with the +Boers, and of hopes that disaster would befall the British army; many gave +free voice to frankly rebellious language; many denounced Irishmen being +recruited for the British army. Nor did these sinister exhibitions end +here; some of these bodies went out of their way to sneer at their aged +sovereign, when she paid last year her last visit to the Irish shores, to +question her motives, to speak all kinds of evil; a few even refused to +say a word of regret for her death, nay, indulged in language of scarcely +veiled insult. These councils, in a word, in a number of instances, have +shown a marked resemblance to the Assemblies of the Communes of Jacobin +France, indignantly held up to execration by Burke; they have been petty +nests of seditious agitation and clamour. It is at least well that this +manner of men has not succeeded, in the great statesman's language, in +'ascending from parochial tyranny to federal anarchy' and have warned us +what would be the nature of a Home Rule Parliament. + +This scheme of local government must be given a trial; but ultimately it +will have to be reformed, in a Conservative sense, if things in Ireland +are not to be left upside down.[184] I turn to the subject of Irish +education, which has been lately attracting much public attention. +University education is the most prominent part of this question; but, in +order to understand it, we must briefly consider the history of Irish +education in all its branches. The first scheme of primary education in +Ireland, of which we have a record--I pass over the traditions of the +Middle Ages--was due to the policy of Henry VIII.; he procured an Act +from the Irish Parliament, to the effect that elementary schools should be +set up in different Irish parishes; but, true to the ideal of Tudor +statesmen--an ideal, however, which he did not always pursue--he required +that these should be 'English schools,' to teach the Irish poor 'the +English language.' Many years passed before these schools were found +beyond the borders of the Pale; but, as the march of conquest advanced, +they existed in many Irish parishes; there were more than five hundred of +them in 1810, the largest number probably they ever attained. These +schools were originally intended to be open without distinction of creed; +but, under the conditions of Irish history, they necessarily became +confined to the lower Protestant classes; they were under the control of +the clergy of the Established Church, and Catholic children were kept away +from them. Elizabeth founded another class of schools, in part elementary, +in part of a higher type; these were known as the Diocesan Irish Schools; +but there seem never to have been more than sixteen of these; and they, +too, became exclusively Protestant. To these schools should be added 'the +English Erasmus Smith Schools,' as they were called, foundations grafted, +so to speak, on grammar schools established by a wealthy Cromwellian +settler; at one time they were more than one hundred in number; and if not +wholly, they were nearly confined to Protestant children. A series of +Reports of Commissions and other records show that the education afforded +in all these schools was not what it ought to have been; but this was to +be expected in the case of a country where Protestant ascendency was +supreme, where all administration was selfish and corrupt, and where the +schools were the monopoly of a fraction of the people only. As to the +education of the Irish Catholic poor in these centuries, it was +discouraged, and ultimately prohibited by the penal code; the Catholic +child could not learn the rudiments in his own land; but in spite of +this, 'hedge schools,' a significant name, grew up, in hundreds, +throughout the country, in which, to adopt the words of Davis, a man of +genius-- + + 'Still crouching 'neath the sheltering hedge, or stretched on mountain + fern, + The teacher and his pupils met feloniously to learn.' + +As may, however, be supposed the instruction afforded in these schools was +usually bad; throughout the eighteenth century and a part of the +nineteenth, the young of Catholic Ireland were brought up in ignorance. In +1733 an odious experiment was made, and continued for a long period, to +cause education to wean the Catholic child from his faith. An institution, +called the Charter School, was established; the object of its founders was +to make 'the young of the Papists' Protestant, by attracting them to +seminaries where they were kept apart from their parents and priests, +boarded, lodged, and handed over to Protestant tradesmen; millions were +spent in furthering a detestable policy, which literally set up Mammon +against God. The Charter Schools, however, completely failed; they never +had more than fourteen hundred pupils, and they became wretched Dotheboys +Halls where cruel and pampered Squeerses, eating up funds set apart for +education such as it was, starved and ill-treated children victims of +every kind of disease. + +When the partial relaxation of the penal laws allowed the children of the +Irish Catholics to be taught the rudiments, the 'Christian Brothers' began +to found their schools, under the sanction of a Bull of Pius VI.; these +schools, sectarian, like the genius of the Irish people, have, though +receiving no endowment from the State, grown from small beginnings into a +number of excellent Catholic schools. The Quakers in Ireland had +established a few elementary schools before the Union; and so had the +Presbyterians of Ulster. The Charter Schools lingered down to the year +1832; they disappeared when their subsidies ceased; but the 'Incorporated +Irish Society' is in possession of the lands they once held, and it +supports a number of good Protestant schools. Primary education, however, +in Ireland remained very backward; the Protestant schools did not +flourish; the Catholic 'hedge schools' continued until the nineteenth +century had far advanced. Attempts were made to promote Irish primary +education, in different ways, after the Union; a Board of Commissioners of +Education was appointed, and made valuable reports; but these efforts were +of little avail for the benefit at least of the Catholic young; the +schools thus established were all Protestant; and the evangelical +movement, which was then powerful, made them proselytising with scarcely a +single exception, a danger which the example of the Charter Schools had +especially made the Catholic Irish priesthood dread. An institution, +however, called the 'Kildare Place Schools' had, for a time, considerable +success; these schools were thrown open to children of all creeds, and had +the high approval of O'Connell himself; but it was one of the rules that +the Bible should be read in the schools; they became proselytising in no +doubtful sense, and ultimately they were tabooed by the Catholic +priesthood. Primary education in Ireland was in this state, when the +subject was taken up by Mr. Stanley, the Chief Secretary for Ireland of +Lord Grey, and, in after years, the 'Rupert of Debate.' He founded in +1831-34 what has ever since been known as the 'National System of +Education' of an elementary kind in Ireland. The principles on which he +proceeded were in accord with the somewhat shallow Liberalism of the day, +but, it must be added, with the ideas of many enlightened Irishmen. +Primary education was to be endowed by the State, but it was to be divided +into two parts: secular instruction was to be given in the new schools to +children assembled together to learn, and that without distinction of +creed; but religious instruction was to be given to children kept apart, +Protestants and Catholics being completely separate, by the pastors of +their respective communions. By these means it was hoped that a sound +system of primary education would be formed; that proselytising would be +made impossible; and that the youth of the warring races and faiths of +Ireland, under the influence of a common teaching, would be made gradually +to forget the animosities of the past. The National Schools were to be the +Lethe of Irish discords. + +I can barely glance at the chequered history of the institution which was +thus established. The 'National System,' the name long in common use, was +angrily condemned by the clergy of the Established Church of Ireland, and +by a majority, perhaps, of the laity; this opposition was partly due to +the spirit of an ascendency that would not brook equality; but it was +largely to be ascribed to a higher motive. The new system, it was argued, +cut education in two; the separation of what is secular from what is +religious practically postpones what is divine to the human; and this is +especially the case under the arrangements in force, for religious +instruction in the schools may be a mere accident. The Irish Protestant +clergy, and many other Protestants, have never taken to the National +Schools; their sincerity is proved by the fact that a 'Church Education +Society' exists, which, though depending on voluntary subscriptions alone, +supports nearly two hundred exclusively Protestant schools. As for the +Presbyterians of Ireland, the National system of education fell in with +their views; its 'Liberalism' was congenial to them; but though schools of +this type have flourished in Ulster, the Presbyterians have given a great +deal of trouble to the Commissioners charged to carry out the law, and +have shown much animosity to the Catholic Irish. The Irish Catholic +priesthood at first accepted the National system almost with gratitude; it +gave their flocks a rudimentary instruction they were much in need of; it +seemed to provide against the proselytising they feared above all things; +and during some years the heads of their Church in Ireland, for the most +part not of the Ultramontane faith, were not indisposed to welcome a +compromise. By degrees, however, opposition grew up in Catholic Ireland +against the system; and, it must be allowed, not without reason. The +Catholic element on the Commission was much too weak; the purely secular +instruction in the schools was made partly religious, for books of a +Protestant complexion found their way into them; a cry of Protestant +proselytising was raised; and the National system was solemnly condemned +in 1850, at the great Catholic Synod of Thurles, a sentence, however, +which had no effect on the Government. But the real grievances of the +Irish Catholics, in this matter, have nearly all been removed; the +Catholic Commissioners have been made equal in number with the +Presbyterian and Protestant; secular instruction in the schools has again +been made strictly secular; attempts at proselytising have long been +rendered impossible; it should be added--and this is very important--the +Catholic priesthood have become the managers of a large majority of the +schools. The system has certainly struck deep roots in Ireland; there are +now nearly 9000 National Schools, endowed with about £1,300,000 by the +State, and teaching nearly 800,000 pupils; they are supported by model and +training schools, and have a large staff of competent teachers; the +instruction they afford, if not remarkable, is, on the whole, sufficiently +good. It may fairly be said that the National system has been a beneficent +influence of the greatest value; light has shone on a people that once +sate in darkness. The system, however, has become, insensibly, but +greatly, changed; the National Schools have long been, for the most part, +sectarian, that is, composed of Protestant or of Catholic children; the +'mixed' schools, as they are called, are comparatively few. But the main +principle of the system still is in force; the instruction given in the +schools, when the pupils sit together, is strictly secular; and this is +secured by a conscience clause; the Bible cannot be read, in school hours, +even in a Protestant school; no Catholic school can have a Catholic +emblem. The religious instruction given in the schools is hardly what it +ought to be, especially in the case of the Protestant schools; it must be +added that the hope of their founders that they would bridge over the gulf +of discords in Ireland has not been, in the slightest degree, realised. + +The Irish are, naturally, a religious people; their history, a long +conflict of races and faiths, has, necessarily, made them intensely +sectarian. The system of education, of which I have traced the outlines, +was certainly not well designed for them; it would have been severely +condemned by Burke, the deepest of thinkers on the affairs of Ireland. And +though the National system has had a real measure of success, it owes +this, in the main, to the immense subvention it receives from the State; +it has little or no support from voluntary aid; an attempt to impose an +education rate on Ireland would be a failure, would not improbably wreck +the system. Nor is this in harmony with genuine Irish sentiment; one of +the most conclusive proofs is that National education has become, to a +great extent, sectarian; the 'Christian Brothers' and the 'Church +Education Society' schools, sustained by voluntary effort alone, and +overweighted in the race by the endowed schools of the State, show how +strong is Irish sectarian feeling. The clergy, too, of the late +Established Church, and a considerable body of their communion, remain +hostile to the National Schools; and though the Catholic priesthood have +made them, to a great extent, their own, and avail themselves of the +advantages they afford, they are hardly in heartfelt sympathy with them. +Nor can it be denied that the conscientious objections to the National +system have real weight; the system, if not irreligious, is, we may say, +neutral; it does not make religion an essential part of school life. It +would, nevertheless, I believe, be exceedingly unwise to disturb a system +which, on the whole, has for many years had excellent results in Ireland. +The opposition to it is not strong; the children of the humbler classes +freely avail themselves of it, and that with the full consent of their +parents. Nor is the conscientious objection of much force in the case of +schools which are only day schools, and in which the rudiments alone are +taught; this is not the case of education of the higher kind, in which +this objection is perhaps decisive; and it cannot be said that the +National Schools have, in any sense, impaired the religion of the Irish +people.[185] + +I pass from elementary to schools of a secondary kind in Ireland. The +Diocesan Schools of Elizabeth were nearly all secondary schools; but they +were never numerous, and have all but disappeared. The two first Stuarts +made an attempt to establish secondary education in Ireland on a larger +scale. They founded the 'Free Royal Schools,' as they have been called, +now seen at Armagh, Cavan, Dungannon, Portora, and Raphoe; they endowed +them with lands perhaps worth in our day, £6000 a year; they looked +forward to a time when they might rival Eton, Winchester, and the great +public schools of England. Erasmus Smith established three considerable +'grammar schools,' and granted valuable estates for their support; a +tolerably large number of secondary schools was also founded, from time to +time, by benefactors of the dominant race in Ireland: of these Kilkenny +College, a seminary created by the House of Ormond, which reared Swift and +Berkeley, was the most conspicuous. These schools, though often nominally +open to different creeds, became, nevertheless, in the eighteenth century, +under the Protestant ascendency, supreme in the land, restricted to the +young of the Protestant caste; they felt the effects of monopoly, and of +the corruption prevailing in the State; the education they afforded was, +for the most part, bad; their governing bodies and masters were often +grasping and selfish. After the relaxation of the penal code, the Irish +Catholics began to found secondary schools; their exertions were, in a +high degree, praiseworthy; and though these schools received no support +from the State, some of them have done really excellent work. A number, +too, of secondary schools were established in Ulster, for the most part +for Presbyterian uses; some of these are sectarian, some open to all +faiths; some have, others have not, received assistance from the State; in +several the education given has been, on the whole, good. A few secondary +schools--St. Columba is much the best--have also been founded within the +last century, usually for the benefit of the late Established Church of +Ireland. + +The progress made by secondary schools in Ireland, even in the nineteenth +century, has not been rapid. It is not to be named with the immense +development of public schools in England, within the same period, caused, +in some measure, by the genius of Arnold; secondary Irish schools, in +fact, have been largely a failure, like other institutions of British +origin. This is mainly to be attributed to three reasons: the higher upper +classes in Ireland usually send their sons to be educated in the great +English public schools; the Irish secondary schools are seldom well +endowed; above all, the upper middle class in Ireland is small and has +little influence. Two Commissions, appointed in 1854 and in 1878, examined +secondary education in Ireland as it then existed; their reports give a +far from favourable account of the system. The secondary Irish schools +have not been much affected by an Act of Parliament passed in 1885, which +provided for making better schemes for their management; but certainly +they have derived very great benefit from the Intermediate Education Act +of Lord Cairns, which established a system of competition between them, +and secured prizes for successful competitors. In these honourable trials +the Catholic schools have done well; but even now the secondary schools +are decidedly inferior to what they ought to be, and do not exhibit many +signs of improvement. An impartial inquirer thus described them in +1871:[186] 'Upon the whole, secondary instruction, throughout the country, +was as some one--I believe Lord Cairns--said, "bad in quality and +deficient in quantity." The fact seems incredible, but there can be no +doubt of its authenticity, viz. that out of a total population of +5,500,000, there were only 10,814 boys in Ireland learning Latin, Greek, +or modern languages in 1871. Or, to put the matter in another way, while +in England about ten or fifteen in every 1000 were instructed in these +languages, only two in every 1000 were instructed in them in +Ireland.'[187] + +I pass on to University life in Ireland, the question, I have said, most +prominent at this time. Ireland had no Oxford or Cambridge in the Middle +Ages; an attempt to establish a University in Dublin failed; science and +literature could not grow up in a land distracted by feudal and tribal +strife, and in which two Churches were continually at war with each other. +Elizabeth founded Trinity College towards the close of her reign, on the +site of a monastery that had been suppressed; it was the intention of the +queen, and of her two first successors, that this seminary should expand +into a University in the true sense, containing a number of colleges +within its sphere, and probably open to all students whatever their race +or their faith. This happy consummation, however, was made impossible +during the long period of civil war and trouble, which only came to an end +with that of the seventeenth century. Trinity College remained a single +foundation; and, in the era of Protestant ascendency that ensued, when +Catholic Ireland lay under the ban of the penal code, it necessarily +became an exclusively Protestant place of learning, its dignities, its +honours, nay, admission to it, being reserved to members of the +Established Church. It had, however, been amply endowed; and, from an +early period, it possessed many distinguished worthies, the names of +Ussher, of King, of Browne, and of others, being still remembered. Trinity +College, strange to say, was very High Church during the reigns of the two +last Stuarts and of Anne; its leading divines preached the creed of +passive obedience; and it was remarkable for its aversion to Presbyterian +Ireland, as was clearly shown in the diatribes of Swift. The college, +however, became Whiggish and Low Church during the reign of Walpole--its +Provost was appointed by the Crown; and until nearly the close of the +eighteenth century, its professorships, its fellowships, its scholarships, +its degrees, even entrance to its walls, were strictly confined to the +dominant communion of the Anglican Church. But a liberal spirit grew up, +and gained strength within it; this appears in many of the admirable +writings of Berkeley, breathing the ideas that afterwards inspired +Grattan, and in the histories of Leland and Warner, on the whole just to +the vanquished Catholic people; and after the almost National movement +which produced the Revolution of 1782, Trinity College took a remarkable +step, which proved that it was in advance of the politics of that age. In +1793, when the Irish Parliament passed a great measure of Catholic relief, +the college made Catholics eligible for its degrees and its minor prizes; +and, but that its statutes made this impossible, it would, perhaps, have +allowed Catholics to become professors, fellows, and scholars--in short, +to have a share in its dignities and its government. Nothing like this was +done at Oxford and Cambridge until the nineteenth century had run far its +course. + +From this time onwards Trinity College, accessible to Presbyterians some +years before, received Catholics honourably within its precincts. A few +distinguished Catholic Irishmen have obtained the excellent education it +has always afforded; and these have been treated with scrupulous fairness; +no attempt at proselytising has ever been made or thought of. Their +numbers, however, have never been large; and they were necessarily placed +in an inferior position, for they could not become professors, fellows, or +scholars; the college remained an institution essentially Protestant, even +anti-Catholic, in much of its teaching, for example, in the predilection +it long showed for Locke. The college continued to thrive and to make +progress; the reproach cast on it that she was the 'silent sister,' was +rather due to the want of publishing enterprise in the Irish capital, than +to any deficiency in literary power; at all events, it has long ago been +removed; Trinity College has stood for a century in the foremost rank of +places of learning famed for scientific eminence. In 1843-44 an attempt +was made to introduce Catholics on the foundation, as scholars; but this +was prohibited by the statutes; some 'non-foundation' scholarships were +then endowed; and Catholics were enabled to compete for them. This was the +position of the college, when, in 1844-45, after the agitation for Repeal +had shown how disaffected Catholic Ireland still was, Peel turned his mind +to Irish remedial measures, and among these to a reform of high education +in Ireland. His policy was to maintain the Union intact, and all the +institutions closely connected with it, but to create institutions, so to +speak, alongside of these, to which Irish Presbyterians, and Catholics +especially, might freely resort, in complete equality with all Irishmen; +he therefore left Trinity College exactly as it was, but resolved to +establish and endow places of learning, which he hoped would be popular +supplements to it, and would give a University training to students who, +as affairs stood, were not on the same level as the favoured Protestants +in it. He founded the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, of Cork, and of Galway; +these were supplied with an ample staff of professors, endowed, and given +the means to bestow many prizes; and they were affiliated to the Queen's +University, empowered to confer degrees. The principle on which these +institutions were formed was, following the so-called liberalism of the +time, almost exactly the same as that on which the Irish National Schools +had been based. Secular education in them was to be united, religious +education was to be kept apart; their students were to learn the things +that belonged to this world together; but as to what belonged to another +world, this teaching was to be provided by their pastors outside their +colleges, and they were not to have it in common. The colleges, and the +University, therefore, were essentially seats of non-religious knowledge; +religious equality, it was said, could be only thus secured; and residence +in the colleges was not required. + +The principle pervading the Irish National education system was certainly +open to grave objections; these became infinitely stronger, when it was +applied to a system of high education in Ireland. Secular instruction +could be really combined, and given to children together, when limited to +the first rudiments: how could it be combined when it should embrace such +subjects as moral philosophy, metaphysics, modern history, nay, physical +science, and when taught to young men of the University age? Besides, +religious instruction, without a great shock to conscience, could be made +a subordinate consideration in mere day schools: how could it, +consistently with Christian duty, be practically excluded from a +University course, and left to undergraduates to be dealt with as they +might think fit, and that at the most critical time of their life? +Indifference to the Divine, masked in specious 'liberal' phrases, was, in +truth, the cardinal feature of this scheme; it would have been severely +reprobated by Burke; it was repugnant to the ideas of five-sixths of +Irishmen; its tendency was to form minds in superior men, like those of +Hume and Gibbon, in inferior men, to produce infidel, even atheistic, +sentiments. It was denounced as 'godless' in the House of Commons by the +High Church party; it was condemned by O'Connell, from the outset, though +the men of 'Young Ireland' were not adverse; after some hesitation, it was +rejected unequivocally by the Irish Catholic bishops,[188] and finally was +held up to anathema at the Synod of Thurles. That the bishops were sincere +is proved by the fact, that they established the Irish Catholic University +a few years afterwards--the first head of this creation was Newman; and +the foundation has been maintained ever since, though it could not give a +degree, and it received nothing from the State, and its only funds were +the contributions of a poor communion, a noble example of self-sacrifice +and of a true sense of duty. Meanwhile, the Queen's Colleges and +University were kept up and endowed, at the rate of about £30,000 a year; +the College of Belfast has done well, for it falls in with Presbyterian +ideas; but the Colleges of Cork and of Galway, notably the last, have been +sorry, nay, almost useless, failures; and Peel's hope that his project +would secure a good University training to Irish Catholics of the better +class has not been, to any real extent, fulfilled. Trinity College +remained for many years unchanged, that is, it gave an admirable education +to a very few Catholics; but it continued to be a Protestant institution +in its essential nature; its governing body and its hierarchy were all +Protestant; its teaching was Protestant in some of its parts; its higher +honours were a monopoly of the favoured communion. + +The extreme unfairness of this University system, the ascendency secured +to Trinity College, which, admirable institution as it was, was +practically nearly confined to Protestants of the upper class; the +failure, with respect to Catholic Ireland, of the Queen's Colleges and the +Queen's University, and the large and useless expenditure this involved; +above all, the denial to the Catholic University of any share in the +bounty of the State, though its claim to it could be hardly +doubtful,--attracted the attention of several statesmen, from 1850 to +1870; but nothing was done, or even attempted. The subject was taken up by +Mr. Gladstone, with characteristic earnestness, during his first Ministry; +he declared that University education in Ireland was 'a scandal;' indeed, +Irish education of the higher kind was the third branch of the upas tree +which threw its baleful shade over the land. He brought in a measure of +reform in the session of 1873; it was an ambitious and a comprehensive +scheme; but it was much the worst of his Irish reforms of this period; and +it ended in complete and disastrous failure. With the historical instinct +occasionally seen in his legislation, Mr. Gladstone proposed to revive the +idea of Elizabeth and the first Stuarts, and to found a great National +University, which was to have the management and control of the higher +education throughout Ireland. The governing body of this new institution +was to be composed partly of men chosen by the Lord-Lieutenant, and partly +of the heads of the colleges to be connected with it; and it was to have +the sole power of conferring degrees in Ireland. Trinity College was to +hand over to the National University a sum of £12,000 a year, that is, +more than a fourth of its endowments from the State; its professorships, +its fellowships, its scholarships, in a word, all its prizes, were to be +thrown open to all its students whatever their faith; but in most other +respects it was not to be essentially changed, except as to the power of +granting degrees. Trinity College was to be affiliated to the National +University as a dependent college, and so were a number of minor colleges; +but this remarkable distinction was made in homage to the 'liberalism' of +the day: the Queen's Colleges, that of Galway being suppressed as useless, +were to retain the endowments they received from the State, on the ground +that they were free to all comers; but the Catholic University was not to +obtain a shilling, nor yet other colleges of a sectarian type, on the +ground that they were 'close and exclusive,' this being the case of all +the Catholic colleges that could be affiliated to the new foundation. The +Queen's University was to be abolished, for the National University was to +be sole and supreme; and then came provisions, which, strange as they may +appear at first sight, were perhaps inevitable under the conditions on +which the project was formed. Moral philosophy, metaphysics, and modern +history were shut out from the National University course; they might be +taught in the colleges, but were to be no part of University learning. And +the National University, like the Queen's Colleges, was to be +'non-religious;' its system of education was to be secular and united, +that is its students were to be examined together in secular learning, but +in religious matters they were to stand apart; religion, indeed, might be +a subject of college teaching, but it was not to be heard of within the +University walls; in fact, it was probably to be left to the students and +their clergy. + +This complicated measure, not easy thoroughly to understand, was +sustained, for a few days, by the glamour of Mr. Gladstone's rhetoric. But +ere long it arrayed against it an immense preponderance of opinion in +Ireland, and was assailed with fatal effect in the House of Commons. The +Heads of Trinity College took the initiative in declaring against it; in +debates, wise, patriotic, and just alike, they recognised the claims of +Catholic Ireland; but they protested against the wrong being done to the +great and ancient foundation they represented, and especially against the +degradation to which it was subjected by the Bill. Trinity College was to +be deprived for no reason of a large part of its revenue; it was to be +placed under a governing body, in which nominees of the Castle would be +all-powerful--an influence pernicious to its independence and +self-government; above all, the National University was to supplant it, +and was to exclude from its teaching the noblest studies of the intellect +of man. The Platonism which had inspired Berkeley, the records which had +animated the genius of Burke, and had been fostered in the Alma mater of +these great worthies, were to be banished from a foundation which was to +be made the head of University life in Ireland. These sentiments were +fully shared by enlightened Irishmen: that moral and metaphysical science +and modern history should be virtually proscribed in the University about +to be set up, was, as it were, putting out one of the eyes of the +intellect, effacing what was best in the map of knowledge. But the most +decisive condemnation of the scheme was that pronounced by the Irish +Catholic bishops. Like their predecessors of nearly thirty years before, +and the Anglican High Church party of that day, they asserted that the +project was really 'godless;' it was irreligion in the mask of +non-religion; its liberalism was in the highest degree illiberal, for it +offered their flocks a system of education it was known they would reject; +and it was flagrantly, nay, basely, unjust, for while Trinity College, and +the Queen's Colleges, and the Queen's University, were to remain endowed, +the Catholic University and all Catholic colleges were to get nothing from +the State. These arguments made their way into the House of Commons, and +were vindicated in speeches of great ability. Disraeli dwelt especially on +the poverty and the imperfection of a University scheme, in which the +finest branches of knowledge were not to enter; he frankly denounced the +Bill as 'atheistic,' an epithet which Burke assuredly would have fastened +on it. Other speakers, notably Ball, a very brilliant Irishman, enlarged +on the wrong done to Trinity College, and earnestly advocated the Catholic +claims; not only was the minister offering a stone for bread, he was +virtually trying to bribe the Irish Catholic into accepting institutions +he disliked, and in the attempt was deeply offending his conscience. +Notwithstanding the efforts of a powerful Government, the Bill was +rejected by the House of Commons; nearly all the Irish members voted +against it, and so did the best men of the Liberal party. + +The year that witnessed the collapse of Mr. Gladstone's measure, +witnessed, also, a reform of Trinity College conceived in the spirit of +the 'liberalism' of the hour, and hailed as an illustration of what is +called progress. The government, the dignities, and the prizes of the +college were thrown open to all without regard to their creed; this was +welcomed as 'University equality' in the most perfect sense. It is a +mistake to suppose that a corresponding change was ever made at Oxford and +Cambridge; the extension of their privileges to persons whatever their +faith, has, thanks to the exertions of the late Lord Selborne, been +strictly confined to lay offices; the religious character and teaching of +the Universities have been carefully preserved.[189] Though Trinity +College has been made 'non-religious' by this measure, and that to such a +degree that its governing body might conceivably be composed of avowed +atheists, it has, nevertheless, to this day remained a Protestant +institution in all essential respects. Its professors, fellows, and +scholars have, since 1873, been nearly all Protestants; its Catholic +students are not eight in a hundred of the number as a whole; and the +chief practical result of the late reform has been to make the heads of +the Irish Catholic Church more opposed than before to seeing Catholics +enter its precincts. In 1879, Lord Beaconsfield's Ministry made an attempt +to diminish the injustice done to Irish Catholics by the system of +University education still in force in Ireland. The Queen's University was +abolished; a Royal University was established, which was enabled to confer +degrees on, and to give prizes to, the students of the Catholic University +and other colleges; but the Royal University is a mere Examining Board; it +is not a University properly so called. One incident connected with this +institution deserves attention; the success of the students of Catholic +colleges at the Royal University examinations has been so great, that it +ought to silence jeers at the 'superstition' which keeps them back, the +vulgar cant of ignorant prejudice or worse.[190] Meanwhile the iniquities +and anomalies of the Irish University system have continued but very +little changed.[191] Trinity College remains a Protestant institution +well endowed, almost a monopoly of the Protestant upper class in Ireland, +practically little resorted to by Irish Catholics; the Queen's Colleges +are avoided by the Irish Catholics, as being 'irreligious' if called +'non-religious,' though the College of Belfast suits Presbyterian views; +they, too, receive a large bounty from the State; but the Catholic +University, the true seminary for the upper middle Catholic classes, and +now divided into different colleges, is still, as such, left out in the +cold. Its students, no doubt, can obtain Royal University degrees, and +some of its professors have been placed as examiners on that foundation; +but it is the veriest mockery to call this justice when we look at Trinity +College and the Queen's Colleges. 'The words of scripture are reversed,' +in Macaulay's language; 'the rich are filled with good things and the +hungry are sent empty away.' + +I do not envy those who, whatever their reasons, refuse to acknowledge the +wrong done by these arrangements. It will hardly be denied, in the +twentieth century, that Protestant ascendency ought not to exist in any +sphere of Irish affairs, and that in University life, as in all matters, +Irish Catholics ought to have civil equality, and that without a violation +of the rights of conscience. It has been triumphantly maintained that, in +high education, these conditions are actually fulfilled in Ireland; +Trinity College and the Queen's Colleges are accessible to all students, +without regard to their religion or no religion; these have a perfectly +equal right to share in the government and the honours of institutions +thrown completely open. But those who argue in this way either shut their +eyes to facts, or will not perceive that this fine 'liberalism' in Ireland +works sheer injustice. Catholics are but a handful of students in Trinity +College and the Queen's Colleges compared to what their natural proportion +ought to be; Trinity College, if nominally open, is in all essential +respects Protestant; the Queen's Colleges as being 'non-religious,' that +is, in the view of their Church 'irreligious,' are practically avoided by +Irish Catholics; yet the State endows Trinity College and the Queen's +Colleges; it starves the Catholic University and other Catholic colleges, +which are thus unfairly handicapped by their rivals. If this is not +furthering Protestant ascendency in Irish high education, and denying +civil equality to Irish Catholics who, in this matter, will not forego the +rights of conscience, I do not know what else it can be; it seems to me to +be iniquity in no doubtful sense. And are the objections of the Irish +Catholics, in this province, as 'irrational' and 'superstitious' as has +been scoffingly said? Reverse the case of Trinity College: suppose that +England was a Catholic Power, and that she kept up a great Catholic +University in the Irish capital, discountenancing Protestant institutions +in many ways, how many Protestants would enter its walls, how soon would +the cry of Catholic ascendency be raised? Or suppose that Oxford and +Cambridge were made 'non-religious,' as the Queen's Colleges in Ireland +are, would not an immense majority of English parents declare that these +seats of learning were 'godless,' and persistently keep their sons away +from them? The simple truth is that the Catholic objections to Trinity +College and the Queen's Colleges are really those which, in this matter, +have been entertained by the deepest thinkers; to my mind, at least, they +seem perfectly well-founded. As to the statement that these objections are +those of the Irish Catholic bishops alone, and are mere 'superstitious +fancies,' it is enough to reply that, on two occasions, the Irish +Catholic laity have distinctly pronounced on this subject, and have +declared that they agree with the heads of their Church. And as to the +argument that Catholic States do not endow sectarian institutions like the +Catholic University and other Irish Catholic colleges, it will be quite +time enough to examine this when anything like such a state of things can +be found as that which at present exists in Ireland. + +One argument, however, seldom frankly set forth, but hinted at in a +variety of ways, has been a real obstacle to a reform of this vicious +system; it strongly appeals to British national prejudice, of all +aberrations of opinion the most difficult to overcome. 'Popery,' it is +said, is a 'detestable thing;' a 'Protestant' State 'must have nothing to +do with it;' to endow a Catholic University in Ireland, therefore, or any +colleges of the same complexion, would be 'sacrificing to Baal,' or +something as wicked. Catholic Ireland must put up with Trinity College and +the Queen's Colleges, which have been made open to all sorts and +conditions of men; its 'conscientious objections' are mere 'bigotry.' This +reasoning, which condemns as impious the religion of the greatest part of +Christendom, would unfortunately overthrow many arrangements by which +provision has been made in our 'Protestant' State for Catholic +institutions of different kinds; if pushed to its consequences, it would +revive the penal code in Ireland, and lead to the confiscation of Catholic +charities. But though it has still indirectly an effect on some +politicians, it is, in its naked simplicity, only the faith of Mr. Kensit +and of those who walk in his footsteps; it is worthy of the philosophy of +Lord George Gordon, of the meekness of Orangeism, of the bray of Exeter +Hall. For some time a turn in British opinion has happily taken place; +'liberalism,' it has been perceived, in Irish University education has +failed; Mr. Arthur Balfour has made himself conspicuous in advocating the +just claims of Catholic Ireland. Even as I write a Commission is being +appointed to consider the whole subject of University life in Ireland; +there can be no reasonable doubt that it will fully bring to light the +anomalies and the unfairness of the existing system, and will recommend +that the Catholic University, and other Catholic colleges perhaps, shall +be endowed. In truth, things have already come to such a pass that Trinity +College, the one institution of which, it is said, 'all Irishmen are +really proud,' will, owing to the exceptional favour it receives from the +State, be placed in grave danger, and the Queen's Colleges also, if a +Catholic University in Ireland be not established and endowed, in order to +secure to the Irish Catholic civil equality, in high education, through +the assistance of the State.[192] + +On what principles, then, and by what means, is University education in +Ireland to be so reformed as to do equal justice to all Irishmen, to place +Protestants, Presbyterians, and Catholics on the same level, and, +especially, to vindicate the rightful claims of Catholic Ireland? Two +leading projects have at least been sketched out: the first, the grander +and the more ambitious, but, in my judgment, scarcely possible to carry +into effect; the second, more simple, more in harmony with existing facts, +and, I think, safer and much more easy to realise. The first scheme, +following in some respects the measure of Mr. Gladstone of 1873, but +making a marked improvement on it, would aim at establishing and endowing +a National University for all Irishmen, which should have a power to +confer degrees, in common with the Royal University now existing, and +should have an ample professional staff; it should have its examinations +for degrees and for other honours. The governing body of this University +should be composed of the heads of the colleges affiliated to it--the +element of the Castle being excluded, according at least to the best +authorities--and Trinity College should not be deprived of any part of its +revenues, as it was to be under the Bill of 1873. Two of the Queen's +Colleges probably should be suppressed; but the College of Belfast, which +has been successful, should probably be made a Presbyterian college, at +least in the main; the endowments it would receive should be, doubtless, +increased. High Catholic education should be provided for in this way: The +Catholic University should be established and endowed, and placed +reasonably on a level with Trinity College, and perhaps other Catholic +colleges also; but, in consideration of this assistance from the State, a +lay element should be introduced into the Catholic University governing +body; this should not be composed wholly of Catholic clergymen; and the +teaching body should be composed of men, chosen without regard to +religious distinctions, but so constituted that a majority should be +Catholics, and that Catholic education should be predominant. Other +Catholic colleges might be connected with this institution; and Trinity +College, the Catholic University, and the Belfast and all other colleges, +should be subordinate to the National University in this sense; their +students should be obliged to resort to it, or to the Royal University if +they preferred it, in order to pass examinations, and to obtain degrees or +other honours, there being thus two Universities of different types in +Ireland. Education in all the affiliated colleges should be perfectly +free, that is, left to the arrangements made by their governing bodies; +but a certain standard of proficiency should exist, which, however, the +tests of University examinations would probably secure. + +An Irish National University, could it be founded on these lines, would +present many attractive features, would realise, indeed, a noble ideal. It +would preserve Trinity College as a great place of learning, would give +Presbyterian Ireland a college practically its own, and ought to satisfy +the legitimate demands of Catholic Ireland. That its dependent colleges +should compete with each other for its degrees and honours, and be +friendly rivals in the splendid race of learning, would also be an immense +advantage; and the Royal University would, doubtless, suffice for students +too poor to enter the dependent colleges, and yet aspiring to pass +examinations and to obtain degrees. But could a National University of +this type be set up in Ireland with a prospect that it would succeed or +flourish? Its governing body would be formed of the heads of the colleges +connected with it; these would be mainly composed of Catholic and +Protestant divines: could these, in the existing state of Ireland, agree +as to the University course that ought to be adopted? Suppose that +Archbishop Walsh and Dr. Salmon, the venerable provost of Trinity College, +were together members of this supreme board. Would the first approve of +Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding as a subject of examination in +the University schools? Would the second approve of Bellarmine and even of +Bossuet? Dissension, I fear, would be the inevitable result; and in that +case 'the Castle' would certainly try to gain authority over the governing +body, and to place on it nominees of its own, in my judgment, an +exceedingly mischievous thing. Very probably, too, the State, in the long +run, would deprive Trinity College of some of its revenues, on different +pleas that could be plausibly urged; to this there would be the gravest +objections. And how could moral philosophy, metaphysics, and modern +history, nay, even physical science itself, be made parts of University +studies? How could Protestants and Catholics be examined in them in +common? Would it not be necessary to exclude them from University +teaching, as in the case of Mr. Gladstone's ill-starred measure--to close +the University to the best works of the intellect of man, to deprive it of +the most fruitful branches of learning? I fear the idea of a National +University, as affairs now stand in Ireland, is not likely to become a +reality with results that could be deemed hopeful. No doubt the Royal +University does, to some extent, have examinations on these debateable +subjects; but they occupy a very small place in its teaching; and in a +National University this ought not to be the case. + +A National University would not be founded in Ireland under the second +project. Trinity College would remain completely intact; it would retain +its present governing body, its privileges, and its power of conferring +degrees. The Queen's Colleges--that of Galway being probably suppressed, +and its funds transferred to the College of Belfast--and the Royal +University would continue unchanged; the students of the Queen's Colleges +would probably seek degrees from the Royal University as they do at +present. But the Catholic University should be established and endowed, +and placed on the same level as Trinity College, as far as this could be +effected by law; the charge of the endowment would not be great--it would +be perhaps £100,000 for buildings, and perhaps £40,000 a year for other +purposes; but the students, and those of other colleges to be connected +with it, would not be numerous, at least for years; it should, of course, +have the power of conferring honours and degrees. In return for these +advantages, the State should have a right to insist that its governing +body should be in part laymen--the Irish Catholic bishops have already +agreed to this; and the State ought, also, to have a right to require +that the secular education it should afford should be good, a security +which could fully, if indirectly, be obtained. The advantages of this +scheme, it is obvious, are that it would get rid of the difficulties +inseparable from a National University in Ireland; it would preserve +Trinity College exactly as it is, an enormous gain for that great place of +learning; it would interfere as little as possible with things as they +are; and it would do all that Catholic Ireland could reasonably demand. It +is understood that a scheme of this description has the approval of the +authorities of Trinity College, and of their distinguished representative, +Mr. Lecky; their opinions are of the very greatest weight. The only real +objection made to this plan is one made by characteristic prejudice: the +education, in the Catholic University, it is said, would be bad, and its +degrees would be of no value. In the face of the success of Catholic +University students at the Royal University examinations, the first +assertion has been proved to be false; and besides, this is the affair of +the students and their parents alone. As to the inferiority of the +Catholic University degrees, there is no reason to believe that this would +exist; these degrees, moreover, would have to compete with those of the +Royal University and of Trinity College; if they were really inferior, +this would soon be found out, and the Catholic University would have to +increase their value. This is the true security the State and the public +would possess. + +A few 'Present Irish Questions' remain, on which I may offer passing +remarks. Ireland is essentially a poor country; her middle class is +comparatively very weak; her trade and manufactures are small; the greater +part of the community is a Celtic race. It has long been contended by +well-informed Irishmen that many undertakings, which, in Great Britain, +have properly been left to private enterprise, ought, in Ireland, to be +carried out by the State, as for centuries has been the case in France, a +Celtic land, as was largely the case in Ireland under her extinct +Parliament. This observation especially applies to the Irish railway +system. As long ago as 1836, Thomas Drummond, the Under Secretary of +well-known renown, strongly recommended that Irish railways should be laid +out, managed, and controlled by the Government; but this was inconsistent +with English ideas; the Irish railways were abandoned to private +companies. The results have been very far from fortunate; many of the +lines have been badly designed; the Irish railway fares are a great deal +too high; too numerous boards of directors are a heavy charge; railway +communication, in a word, in Ireland is of an inferior kind, and much too +costly in a backward and poor country. Not indeed that the State has not +made large advances to Irish railway companies, some of these on terms +very unjust to ratepayers; but the system is faulty and ill-developed; a +reform in this direction is greatly wanted.[193] As Drummond insisted, the +State, even now, ought to buy up and direct the Irish railways; but this +is only a part of what it ought to do in this province. The material +condition of Ireland is not prosperous; her main river basins require +drainage; her whole arterial drainage is in a bad state, and has suffered +much from the legislation of 1881, and from the policy of so-called 'land +purchase,' for ordinary Irish tenants will not keep it up, and their +landlords cannot now be expected to do so; these works must be undertaken +by the State, or assuredly they will not be undertaken at all. Mr. Arthur +Balfour has done something in this direction by the encouragement of light +railways in remote parts of Ireland, and by the foundation of the +'Congested Districts Board,' an institution that has had excellent +results. But this is only the fringe of the subject; an enormous amount of +work remains to be done; and this, in the circumstances of Ireland, can +only be done by the Government. + +In a book which has attracted some attention--'Ireland, 1798-1898'--I +wrote these words nearly four years ago: 'An Irishman, Wolseley, an +Irishman, Roberts, are the foremost of living British soldiers; but there +are no Irish Guards, and few Irishmen in our artillery; we see here a want +of tact and of sympathy.' Time, in this respect, has suddenly brought its +changes; has again illustrated the genius of the Irishman in war, and, in +some measure, has removed a reproach from England. It is true that the +conspiracy, which still exists in Ireland, did all that it could to +prevent Irishmen from taking part in the contest in South Africa, and that +even a petty Irish contingent appeared in the ranks of the Boers. But Lord +Wolseley had at least a great share in fitting out the largest expedition +which has ever left our shores to fight an enemy at a distance of six +thousand miles--no other power could do anything of the kind; and without +disparaging our other generals, the presence of a superior mind was at +once seen when Lord Roberts was given the supreme command in our army. And +the Irish soldiery who fought in the campaigns of 1899-1900 were true to +the noble traditions of their race; they were in the forefront of many a +bloody conflict; and now that a regiment of Irish Guards has been at last +embodied--a tardy acknowledgment of Irish military worth--England may rest +assured that these men will rival the famous Irish Brigade of another age, +'ever and everywhere true' to the Bourbon lilies, and conspicuous in the +service of France on many a field of renown. I may add a word on another +subject, in which Ireland perhaps has a just claim on England. The +descendants of the chiefs, who, in Scotland, clung to the cause of the +Stuarts, have, for the most part, regained their forfeited lands and +honours; no such reparation has been made to the descendants of Irish +nobles and princes, who supported the Stuarts in the nobler cause of +their country. The representative of the last of the Celtic kings of +Ireland--a man of large possessions and of unquestionable parts--has no +place on the roll of the peerage; the sons of ennobled Cromwellian +troopers and tradesmen have precedence at Court over the sons of the most +illustrious Milesian Houses. This is not a mere trifle as may carelessly +be said; it tends to revive memories that it were better to forget. Can +nothing be done to make a graceful concession, which would touch many an +Irish heart, and would go some way to promote a spirit of loyalty and hope +in Ireland, which it should be a great object of statesmanship to create +and foster? + +If the picture I have drawn of Ireland is correct in outline, there is +much of evil omen in her present condition. The ancient divisions of race +and faith, the most distinctive feature in her social structure, are at +least as deeply marked as they have been for a century; bad legislation +has made them deeper and wider. Catholic Ireland remains disaffected to +British rule, despite efforts of conciliation and concessions that cannot +be justified; no class in the community is completely satisfied; +discontent rankles in the hearts of the landed gentry. The Union, indeed, +has been successfully maintained; the frightful agrarian disorder of +1881-89 no longer exists. But the Union is not permanently assured as long +as the Liberal party and eighty Irish members demand Home Rule, and the +over-representation of Ireland continues; the conspiracy of the Land and +the National Leagues has revived in that of the United Irish League; and +this seeks to compass the ends of its prototypes by obstruction in +Parliament and detestable socialistic tyranny. And the frame of Irish +society has been well-nigh shattered; ruins have been made, nothing solid +has been put in their place. An aristocracy, long waning, has been +practically destroyed, and can no longer be a support of the State; the +bureaucracy of the Castle reigns in its stead; but this is essentially a +weak Government; it can maintain order, but has no hold on the people; the +Irish democracy, to which power has been transferred, regards it with a +dislike and a contempt it does not try to conceal. The country has made +hardly any progress of late years; if some improvement in the state of the +middle classes appears, agriculture, its leading industry, has perceptibly +declined. In by far the most important of Irish social relations, those +connected with the land, a revolution has taken place; a huge if a veiled +confiscation has gone on; the landed gentry have been shamefully wronged; +the occupiers of the soil have been most unduly favoured; yet both classes +declare they have been ill-treated, notably the last. And the Irish land +system has been turned upside down, with consequences disastrous and +far-reaching; the landlord has been cut off from his estate; the tenant +has been encouraged in thriftlessness and waste by law; the land has been +bound in a ruinous mortmain, like that which existed under the penal code, +and subjected to demoralising litigation, breeding a war of class; capital +and fruitful enterprise turn away from it. And, at the same time, in order +to lessen these evils, recourse has been had to remedies that are perhaps +worse; the system of so-called 'land purchase' has been devised; the +result has been to create a class of peasant owners reproducing the nearly +extinct middleman, and, above all, to arouse a cry for the 'compulsory +purchase' of the rented lands of Ireland, an act of wholesale spoliation +unjust and disastrous alike. In the position of affairs we now see in +Ireland, the stability of society has been rudely shaken; the sense of the +security of property has well-nigh disappeared; the sanctity of contracts +has no respect; the pillars on which order and prosperity rest have been +injured; violent revolution has been arrested, indeed, but revolutionary +and socialistic ideas spread far and wide. And will any impartial inquirer +deny that these untoward results may be largely ascribed to the faulty +legislation of late years, and to a system of administration shifty and +feeble? And what judgment is to be passed on the thoughtless optimism too +common in opinion with respect to Ireland? Meanwhile, reforms imperatively +required are not even attempted; they are passed over or postponed to some +more convenient season. The time surely has come to look things in Ireland +straight in the face; to see if statesmanship cannot do something really +effective for her good. This end assuredly will not be attained by +breaking up the Three Kingdoms under the guise of Home Rule, or by +promoting a confiscation the worst Ireland has ever seen; still less will +it be attained by the quackery in legislation and administration too +apparent of late years; nor can trifling and foolish optimism blind the +eyes of intelligent thinkers to facts. Ireland can only expect to make +progress by ruling the community on the just and sound principles to which +long experience has given its sanction; and this consummation can only be +the slow result of time. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +THE IRISH GOVERNMENT BILL, 1886. + +ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES. + +Part I. + + _Legislative Authority._ + + CLAUSE + + 1. Establishment of Irish Legislature. + 2. Powers of Irish Legislature. + 3. Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature. + 4. Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature. + 5. Prerogatives of Her Majesty as to Irish Legislative Body. + 6. Duration of the Irish Legislative Body. + + _Executive Authority._ + + 7. Constitution of the Executive Authority. + 8. Use of Crown Lands by Irish Government. + + _Constitution of Legislative Body._ + + 9. Constitution of Irish Legislative Body. + 10. First order. + 11. Second order. + + _Finance._ + + 12. Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund. + 13. Annual contributions from Ireland to Consolidated Fund of United + Kingdom. + 14. Collection and application of Customs and Excise duties in Ireland. + 15. Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund. + 16. Irish Church Fund. + 17. Public loans. + 18. Additional aid in case of war. + 19. Money bills and votes. + 20. Exchequer Division and revenue actions. + + _Police._ + + 21. Police. + + +PART II. + +_Supplemental Provisions._ + + Powers of Her Majesty. + + 22. Powers over certain lands reserved to Her Majesty. + + Legislative Body. + + 23. Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how overruled. + 24. Cesser of power of Ireland to return members of Parliament. + + Decision of Constitutional Questions. + + 25. Constitutional questions to be submitted to Judicial Committee. + + Lord-Lieutenant. + + 26. Office of Lord-Lieutenant. + + Judges and Civil Servants. + + 27. Judges to be removable only on address. + 28. Provisions as to Judges and other persons having salaries charged on + the Consolidated Fund. + 29. As to persons holding Civil Service appointments. + 30. Provision for existing pensions and superannuation allowances. + + _Transitory Provisions._ + + 31. Transitory provisions in Schedule. + + _Miscellaneous._ + + 32. Post office and savings banks. + 33. Audit. + 34. Application of parliamentary law. + 35. Regulations for carrying Act into effect. + 36. Saving of powers of House of Lords. + 37. Saving of rights of Parliament. + 38. Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc. + 39. Mode of alteration of Act. + 40. Definitions. + 41. Short title of Act. + + +SCHEDULES. + +_A Bill to amend the provision for the future Government of Ireland._ +[A.D. 1886. + +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 the 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 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 naturalisation; + + (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 either 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. + +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 place. + +(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. + +_Finance._ + +[Sidenote: Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund.] + +=12.=--(1) For the purpose of providing for the public service of Ireland, +the Irish Legislature may impose taxes, other than duties of Customs or +Excise as defined by this Act, which duties shall continue to be imposed +and levied by and under the direction of the Imperial Parliament only. + +(2) On and after the appointed day there shall be an Irish Consolidated +Fund separate from the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom. + +(3) All taxes imposed by the Legislature of Ireland and all other public +revenues under the control of the Government of Ireland shall, subject to +any provisions touching the disposal thereof contained in any Act passed +in the present session respecting the sale and purchase of land in +Ireland, be paid into the Irish Consolidated Fund, and be appropriated to +the public service of Ireland according to law. + +[Sidenote: Annual contributions from Ireland to Consolidated Fund of +United Kingdom.] + +=13.=--(1) Subject to the provisions for the reduction or cesser thereof +in this section mentioned, there shall be made on the part of Ireland to +the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom the following annual +contributions in every financial year; that is to say,-- + + (_a_) The sum of _one million four hundred and sixty-six thousand + pounds_ on account of the interest on and management of the Irish + share of the National Debt: + + (_b_) The sum of _one million six hundred and sixty-six thousand + pounds_ on account of the expenditure on the army and navy of the + United Kingdom: + + (_c_) The sum of _one hundred and ten thousand pounds_ on account of + the Imperial civil expenditure of the United Kingdom: + + (_d_) The sum of _one million pounds_ on account of the Royal Irish + Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. + +(2) During the period of _thirty years_ from this section taking effect +the said annual contributions shall not be increased, but may be reduced +or cease as hereinafter mentioned. After the expiration of the said +_thirty years_ the said contributions shall, save as otherwise provided by +this section, continue until altered in manner provided with respect to +the alteration of this Act. + +(3) The Irish share of the National Debt shall be reckoned at _forty-eight +million pounds_ Bank annuities, and there shall be paid in every financial +year on behalf of Ireland to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the +National Debt an annual sum of _three hundred and sixty thousand pounds_, +and the permanent annual charge for the National Debt on the Consolidated +Fund of the United Kingdom shall be reduced by that amount, and the said +annual sum shall be applied by the said Commissioners as a sinking fund +for the redemption of the National Debt, and the Irish share of the +National Debt shall be reduced by the amount of the National Debt so +redeemed, and the said annual contribution on account of the interest on +and management of the Irish share of the National Debt shall from time to +time be reduced by a sum equal to the interest upon the amount of the +National Debt from time to time so redeemed, but that last-mentioned sum +shall be paid annually to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the +National Debt in addition to the above-mentioned annual sinking fund, and +shall be so paid and be applied as if it were part of that sinking fund. + +(4) As soon as an amount of the National Debt equal to the said Irish +share thereof has been redeemed under the provisions of this section, the +said annual contribution on account of the interest on and management of +the Irish share of the National Debt, and the said annual sum for a +sinking fund shall cease. + +(5) If it appears to Her Majesty that the expenditure in respect of the +army and navy of the United Kingdom, or in respect of Imperial Civil +expenditure of the United Kingdom, for any financial year has been less +than _fifteen_ times the amount of the contributions above named on +account of the same matter, a sum equal to _one-fifteenth_ part of the +diminution shall be deducted from the current annual contribution for the +same matter. + +(6) The sum paid from time to time by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's +Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues to the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom on account of the hereditary revenues of the Crown in Ireland +shall be credited to the Irish Government, and go in reduction of the said +annual contribution payable on account of the Imperial Civil expenditure +of the United Kingdom, but shall not be taken into account in calculating +whether such diminution as above mentioned has or has not taken place in +such expenditure. + +(7) If it appears to Her Majesty that the expenditure in respect of the +Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police for any +financial year has been less than the contribution above-named on account +of such constabulary and police, the current contribution shall be +diminished by the amount of such difference. + +(8) This section shall take effect from and after the _thirty-first day of +March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven_. + +[Sidenote: Collection and application of Customs and Excise duties in +Ireland.] + +=14.=--(1) On and after such day as the Treasury may direct all moneys +from time to time collected in Ireland on account of the duties of Customs +or the duties of Excise as defined by this Act shall, under such +regulations as the Treasury from time to time make, be carried to a +separate account (in this Act referred to as the Customs and Excise +account) and applied in the payment of the following sums in priority as +mentioned in this section; that is to say,-- + + First, of such sum as is from time to time directed by the Treasury in + respect of the costs, charges, and expenses of and incident to the + collection and management of the said duties in Ireland not exceeding + four per cent. of the amount collected there; + + Secondly, of the annual contributions required by this Act to be made + to the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom; + + Thirdly, of the annual sums required by this Act to be paid to the + Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt; + + Fourthly, of all sums by this Act declared to be payable out of the + moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account; + + Fifthly, of all sums due to the Consolidated Fund of the United + Kingdom for interest or sinking fund, in respect of any loans made by + the issue of bank annuities or otherwise to the Government of Ireland + under any Act passed in the present session relating to the purchase + and sale of land in Ireland, so far as such sums are not defrayed out + of the moneys received under such Act. + +(2) So much of the moneys carried to a separate account under this section +as the Treasury consider are not, and are not likely to be, required to +meet the above-mentioned payments, shall from time to time be paid over +and applied as part of the public revenues under the control of the Irish +Government. + +[Sidenote: Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.] + +=15.=--(1) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund in +priority as mentioned in this section:-- + + First, such portion of the sums directed by this Act to be paid out of + the moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account in priority to + any payment for the public revenues of Ireland, as those moneys are + insufficient to pay; + + Secondly, all sums due in respect of any debt incurred by the + Government of Ireland, whether for interest, management, or sinking + fund; + + Thirdly, all sums which at the passing of this Act are charged on the + Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom in respect of Irish services + other than the salary of the Lord-Lieutenant; + + Fourthly, the salaries of all judges of the Supreme Court of + Judicature or other Superior Court in Ireland, or of any County or + other like Court, who are appointed after the passing of this Act, and + the pensions of such judges; + + Fifthly, any other sums charged by this Act on the Irish Consolidated + Fund. + +(2) It shall be the duty of the Legislature of Ireland to impose all such +taxes, duties, or imposts as will raise a sufficient revenue to meet all +sums charged for the time being on the Irish Consolidated Fund. + +[Sidenote: Irish Church Fund.] + +=16.=--(1) Until all charges which are payable out of the Church property +in Ireland, and are guaranteed by the Treasury, have been fully paid, the +Irish Land Commission shall continue as heretofore to exist, with such +Commissioners and officers receiving such salaries as the Treasury may +from time to time appoint, and to administer the Church property and apply +the income and other moneys receivable therefrom; and so much of the +salaries of such Commissioners and officers and expenses of the office as +is not paid out of the Church property shall be paid out of moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, and if these moneys are +insufficient, out of the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and if not so paid, +shall be paid out of the moneys provided by Parliament. Provided as +follows:-- + + (_a_) All charges on the Church property for which a guarantee has + been given by the Treasury before the passing of this Act shall, so + far as they are not paid out of such property, be paid out of the + moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, and + if such moneys are insufficient, the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, + without prejudice nevertheless to the guarantee of the Treasury; + + (_b_) All charges on the Church property, for which no guarantee has + been given by the Treasury before the passing of this Act shall be + charged on the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, but shall not be + guaranteed by the Treasury nor charged on the Consolidated Fund of the + United Kingdom. + +(2) Subject to any existing charges on the Church property, such property +shall belong to the Irish Government and any portion of the annual revenue +thereof which the Treasury, on the application of the Irish Government, +certify at the end of any financial year not to be required for meeting +charges, shall be paid over and applied as part of the public revenues +under the control of the Irish Government. + +(3) As soon as all charges on the Church property guaranteed by the +Treasury have been paid, such property may be managed and administered, +and subject to existing charges thereon disposed of, and the income or +proceeds thereof applied, in such manner as the Irish Legislature may from +time to time direct. + +[Sidenote: 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42.] + +[Sidenote: 44 & 45 Vict. c. 71.] + +(4) 'Church property' in this section means all property accruing under +the Irish Church Act, 1869, and transferred to the Irish Land Commission +by the Irish Church Act Amendment Act, 1881. + +[Sidenote: Public loans.] + +=17.=--(1) All sums due for principal or interest to the Public Works Loan +Commissioners or to the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland in +respect of existing loans advanced on any security in Ireland shall on and +after the appointed day be due to the Government of Ireland instead of the +said Commissioners, and such body of persons as the Government of Ireland +may appoint for the purpose shall have all the powers of the said +Commissioners or their secretary for enforcing payment of such sums, and +all securities for such sums given to such Commissioners or their +secretary shall have effect as if the said body were therein substituted +for those Commissioners or their secretary. + +(2) For the repayment of the said loans to the Consolidated Fund of the +United Kingdom, the Irish Government shall pay annually into that Fund by +half-yearly payments _on the first day of January_ and _the first day of +July_, or on such other days as may be agreed on, such instalments of the +principal of the said loans as will discharge all the loans within _thirty +years_ from the appointed day, and shall also pay interest half-yearly on +so much of the said principal as from time to time remains unpaid at the +rate of _three_ per cent. per annum, and such instalments of principal and +interest shall be paid out of the moneys carried to the Customs and Excise +account under this Act, and if those are insufficient, out of the +Consolidated Fund of Ireland. + +[Sidenote: Additional aid in case of war.] + +=18.= If Her Majesty declares that a state of war exists and is pleased to +signify such declaration to the Irish Legislative Body by speech or +message, it shall be lawful for the Irish Legislature to appropriate a +further sum out of the Consolidated Fund of Ireland in aid of the army or +navy, or other measures which Her Majesty may take for the prosecution of +the war and defence of the realm, and to provide and raise money for that +purpose; and all moneys so provided and raised, whether by loan, taxation, +or otherwise, shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom. + +[Sidenote: Money bills and votes.] + +=19.=--(1) It shall not be lawful for the Irish Legislative Body to adopt +or pass any vote, resolution, address, or Bill for the raising or +appropriation for any purpose of any part of the public revenue of +Ireland, or of any tax, duty, or impost, except in pursuance of a +recommendation from Her Majesty signified through the Lord-Lieutenant in +the session in which such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed. + +(2) Notwithstanding that the Irish Legislature is prohibited by this Act +from making laws relating to certain subjects, that Legislature may, with +the assent of Her Majesty in Council first obtained, appropriate any part +of the Irish public revenue, or any tax, duty, or impost imposed by such +Legislature, for the purpose of, or in connection with, such subjects. + +[Sidenote: Exchequer Division and revenue actions.] + +=20.=--(1) On and after the appointed day, the Exchequer Division of the +High Court of Justice shall continue to be a Court of Exchequer for +revenue purposes under this Act, and whenever any vacancy occurs in the +office of any judge of such Exchequer Division, his successor shall be +appointed by Her Majesty on the joint recommendation of the +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. + +(2) The judges of such Exchequer Division appointed after the passing of +this Act shall be removable only by Her Majesty on address from the two +Houses of the Imperial Parliament, and shall receive the same salaries and +pensions as those payable at the passing of this Act to the existing +judges of such division, unless with the assent of Her Majesty in Council +first obtained, the Irish Legislature alters such salaries or pensions, +and such salaries and pensions shall be paid out of the moneys carried to +the Customs and Excise account in pursuance of this Act, and if the same +are insufficient shall be paid out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and if +not so paid shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom. + +(3) An alteration of any rules relating to the procedure in such legal +proceedings as are mentioned in this section shall not be made except with +the approval of the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, and the +sittings of the Exchequer Division and the judges thereof shall be +regulated with the like approval. + +(4) All legal proceedings instituted in Ireland by or against the +Commissioners or any officers of Customs or Excise, or the Treasury, +shall, if so required by any party in such proceedings, be heard and +determined before the judges of such Exchequer Division, or some or one of +them, and any appeal from the decision in any such legal proceeding, if by +a judge, shall lie to the said division, and if by the Exchequer Division, +shall lie to the House of Lords, and not to any other tribunal; and if it +is made to appear to such judges, or any of them, that any decree or +judgment in any such proceeding as aforesaid, has not been duly enforced +by the sheriff or other officer whose duty it is to enforce the same, such +judges or judge shall appoint some officer to enforce such judgment or +decree; and it shall be the duty of such officer to take proper steps to +enforce the same, and for that purpose such officer and all persons +employed by him shall be entitled to the same immunities, powers, and +privileges as are by law conferred on a sheriff and his officers. + +(5) All sums recovered in respect of duties of Customs and Excise, or +under any Act relating thereto, or by an officer of Customs or Excise, +shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid to the Treasury, +and carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act. + +_Police._ + +[Sidenote: 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. + + +PART II. + +_Supplemental Provisions._ + +Powers of Her Majesty. + +[Sidenote: Power over certain lands reserved to Her Majesty.] + +=22.=--On and after the appointed day there shall be reserved to Her +Majesty-- + + (1) The power of erecting forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and + other buildings for military or naval purposes; + + (2) The power of taking waste land, and, on making due compensation, + any other land for the purpose of erecting such forts, magazines, + arsenals, dockyards, or other buildings as aforesaid, and for any + other military or naval purpose, or the defence of the realm. + +Legislative Body. + +[Sidenote: Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how overruled.] + +=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: Cesser 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. + +Decision of Constitutional Questions. + +[Sidenote: Constitutional questions to be submitted to Judicial +Committee.] + +=25.= Questions arising as to the powers conferred on the Legislature of +Ireland under this Act shall be determined as follows:-- + + (_a_) If any such question arises on any Bill passed by the + Legislative Body, the Lord-Lieutenant may refer such question to Her + Majesty in Council; + + (_b_) If, in the course of any action or other legal proceeding, such + question arises on any Act of the Irish Legislature, any party to such + action or other legal proceeding may, subject to the rules in this + section mentioned, appeal from a decision on such question to Her + Majesty in Council; + + (_c_) If any such question arises otherwise than as aforesaid in any + Act of the Irish Legislature, the Lord-Lieutenant or one of Her + Majesty's principal Secretaries of State may refer such question to + Her Majesty in Council; + + (_d_) A question referred or appeal brought under this section to Her + Majesty in Council shall be referred for the consideration of the + Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; + + (_e_) The decision of Her Majesty in Council on any question referred + or appeal brought under this section shall be final, and a Bill which + may be so decided to be, or contain a provision, in excess of the + powers of the Irish Legislature shall not be assented to by the + Lord-Lieutenant; and a provision of any Act which is so decided to be + in excess of the powers of the Irish Legislature shall be void; + + (_f_) There shall be added to the Judicial Committee when sitting for + the purpose of considering questions under this section, such members + of Her Majesty's Privy Council, being or having been Irish judges, as + to Her Majesty may seem meet; + + (_g_) Her Majesty may, by Order in Council from time to time, make + rules as to the cases and mode in which and conditions under which, in + pursuance of this section, questions may be referred and appeals + brought to Her Majesty in Council, and as to the consideration thereof + by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and any rules so made + shall be of the same force as if they were enacted in this Act; + + (_h_) An appeal shall not lie to the House of Lords in respect of any + question in respect of which an appeal can be had to Her Majesty in + Council in pursuance of this section. + +Lord-Lieutenant. + +[Sidenote: Office of Lord-Lieutenant.] + +=26.=--(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any Act +of Parliament, every subject of Her Majesty shall be eligible to hold and +enjoy the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, without reference to his +religious belief. + +(2) The salary of the Lord-Lieutenant shall continue to be charged on the +Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, and the expenses of his household +and establishment shall continue to be defrayed out of moneys to be +provided by Parliament. + +(3) All existing powers vested by Act of Parliament or otherwise in the +Chief Secretary for Ireland may, if no such officer is appointed, be +exercised by the Lord-Lieutenant until other provision is made by Act of +the Irish Legislature. + +(4) The Legislature of Ireland shall not pass any Act relating to the +office or functions of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. + +Judges and Civil Servants. + +[Sidenote: Judges to be removable only on address.] + +=27.= A judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature or other Superior Court +of Ireland, or of any County Court or other Court with a like jurisdiction +in Ireland, appointed after the passing of this Act, shall not be removed +from his office except in pursuance of an address to Her Majesty from both +orders of the Legislative Body voting separately, nor shall his salary be +diminished or right to pension altered during his continuance in office. + +[Sidenote: Provisions as to judges and other persons having salaries +charged on the Consolidated Fund.] + +=28.=--(1) All persons who at the passing of this Act are judges of the +Supreme Court of Judicature or County Court judges, or hold any other +judicial position in Ireland shall, if they are removable at present on +address to Her Majesty of both Houses of Parliament, continue to be +removable only upon such address from both Houses of the Imperial +Parliament, and if removable in any other manner shall continue to be +removable in like manner as heretofore; and such persons, and also all +persons at the passing of this Act in the permanent Civil Service of the +Crown in Ireland whose salaries are charged on the Consolidated Fund of +the United Kingdom, shall continue to hold office and to be entitled to +the same salaries, pensions, and superannuation allowances as heretofore, +and to be liable to perform the same or analogous duties as heretofore; +and the salaries of such persons shall be paid out of the moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, or if these moneys are +insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and if the same are not +so paid shall continue charged on the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom. + +(2) If any of these said persons retires from office with the approbation +of Her Majesty before he has completed the period of service entitling him +to a pension, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, if she thinks fit, to +grant to that person such pension, not exceeding the pension to which he +would have been entitled if he had completed the said period of service, +as to Her Majesty seems meet. + +[Sidenote: As to persons holding Civil Service appointments.] + +=29.=--(1) All persons not above provided for and at the passing of this +Act serving in Ireland in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown shall +continue to hold their offices and receive the same salaries, and to be +entitled to the same gratuities and superannuation allowances as +heretofore, and shall be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore +or duties of similar rank, but any of such persons shall be entitled at +the expiration of _two years_ after the passing of this Act to retire from +office, and at any time if required by the Irish Government shall retire +from office, and on any such retirement shall be entitled to receive such +payment as the Treasury may award to him in accordance with the provisions +contained in the Fourth Schedule to this Act. + +(2) The amount of such payment shall be paid to him out of the moneys +carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, or, if those +moneys are insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and so far as +the same are not so paid shall be paid out of moneys provided by +Parliament. + +[Sidenote: 34 & 35 Vict. c. 36.] + +(3) The Pensions Commutation Act, 1871, shall apply to all persons who, +having retired from office, are entitled to any annual payment under this +section in like manner as if they had retired in consequence of the +abolition of their offices. + +(4) This section shall not apply to persons who are retained in the +service of the Imperial Government. + +[Sidenote: Provision for existing pensions and superannuation allowances.] + +=30.= Where before the passing of this Act any pension or superannuation +allowance has been granted to any person on account of service as a judge +of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Ireland, or of any Court +consolidated into that Court, or as a County Court judge, or in any other +judicial position, or on account of service in the permanent Civil Service +of the Crown in Ireland otherwise than in some office, the holder of which +is, after the passing of this Act, retained in the service of the Imperial +Government, such pension or allowance, whether payable out of the +Consolidated Fund or out of moneys provided by Parliament, shall continue +to be paid to such person, and shall be so paid out of the moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, or, if such moneys are +insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and so far as the same +is not so paid, shall be paid as heretofore out of the Consolidated Fund +of the United Kingdom or moneys provided by Parliament. + +_Transitory Provisions._ + +[Sidenote: Transitory provisions in Schedule.] + +=31.= The provisions contained in the Fifth Schedule to this Act relating +to the mode in which arrangements are to be made for setting in motion the +Irish Legislative Body and Government, and for the transfer to the Irish +Government of the powers and duties to be transferred to them under this +Act, or for otherwise bringing this Act into operation, shall be of the +same effect as if they were enacted in the body of this Act. + +_Miscellaneous._ + +[Sidenote: Post office and savings banks.] + +=32.= Whenever an Act of the Legislature of Ireland has provided for +carrying on the postal and telegraphic service with respect to the +transmission of letters and telegrams in Ireland, and the post office and +other savings banks in Ireland, and for protecting the officers then in +such service, and the existing depositors in such post-office savings +banks, the Treasury shall make arrangements for the transfer of the said +service and banks, in accordance with the said Act, and shall give public +notice of the transfer, and shall pay all depositors in such post-office +savings bank who request payment within _six months_ after the date fixed +for such transfer, and after the expiration of such _six months_ the said +depositors shall cease to have any claim against the Postmaster-General or +the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but shall have the like claim +against the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and the Treasury shall cause to +be transferred in accordance with the said Act the securities representing +the sums due to the said depositors in post-office savings banks, and the +securities held for other savings banks. + +[Sidenote: Audit.] + +=33.= Save as otherwise provided by the Irish Legislature-- + + (_a_) The existing law relating to the Exchequer and the Consolidated + Fund of the United Kingdom shall apply to the Irish Exchequer and + Consolidated Fund, and an officer shall from time to time be appointed + by the Lord-Lieutenant to fill the office of the Comptroller-General + of the receipt and issue of Her Majesty's Exchequer and + Auditor-General of public accounts so far as respects Ireland; and + +[Sidenote: 29 & 30 Vict. c. 39.] + + (_b_) The accounts of the Irish Consolidated Fund shall be audited as + appropriation accounts in manner provided by the Exchequer and Audit + Departments Act, 1866, by or under the direction of the holder of such + office. + +[Sidenote: Application of parliamentary law.] + +=34.=--(1) The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed, and +exercised by the Irish Legislative Body, and the members thereof, shall be +such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Irish Legislature, but +so that the same shall never exceed those at the passing of this Act, +held, enjoyed, and exercised by the House of Commons, and by the members +thereof. + +(2) Subject as in this Act mentioned, all existing laws and customs +relating to the members of the House of Commons and their election, +including the enactments respecting the questioning of elections, corrupt +and illegal practices, and registration of electors, shall, so far as +applicable, extend to elective members of the first order and to members +of the second order of the Irish Legislative Body. Provided that,-- + + (_a_) The law relating to the offices of profit enumerated in Schedule + H to the Representation of the People Act, 1867, shall apply to such + offices of profit in the Government of Ireland not exceeding ten, as + the Legislature of Ireland may from time to time direct; + + (_b_) After the first dissolution of the Legislative Body, the + Legislature of Ireland may, subject to the restrictions in this Act + mentioned, alter the laws and customs in this section mentioned. + +[Sidenote: Regulations for carrying Act into effect.] + +=35.=--(1) The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland may make regulations for the +following purposes:-- + + (_a_) The summoning of the Legislative Body and the election of a + Speaker, and such adaptation to the proceedings of the Legislative + Body of the procedure of the House of Commons as appears to him + expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by that body on + their first meeting; + + (_b_) The adaptation of any laws relating to the election of + representative peers; + + (_c_) The adaptation of any laws and customs relating to the House of + Commons or the members thereof to the elective members of the first + order and to members of the second order of the Legislative Body; and + + (_d_) The mode of signifying their assent or election under this Act + by representative peers or Irish members of the House of Commons as + regards becoming members of the Irish Legislative Body in pursuance of + this Act. + +(2) Any regulations so made shall, in so far as they concern the procedure +of the Legislative Body, be subject to alteration by Standing Orders of +that Body, and so far as they concern other matters, be subject to +alteration by the Legislature of Ireland, but shall, until alteration, +have the same effect as if they were inserted in this Act. + +[Sidenote: Saving of powers of House of Lords.] + +=36.= Save as in this Act provided with respect to matters to be decided +by Her Majesty in Council, nothing in this Act shall affect the appellate +jurisdiction of the House of Lords in respect of actions and suits in +Ireland, or the jurisdiction of the House of Lords to determine the +claims to Irish peerages. + +[Sidenote: Savings of rights of Parliament.] + +=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, whose power and authority in relation thereto, save as +aforesaid, shall in no wise be diminished or restrained by anything herein +contained. + +[Sidenote: Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc.] + +=38.=--(1) Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all existing laws in +force in Ireland, and all existing courts of civil and criminal +jurisdiction, and all existing legal commissions, powers, and authorities, +and all existing officers, judicial, administrative, and ministerial, and +all existing taxes, licence, and other duties, fees, and other receipts in +Ireland shall continue as if this Act had not been passed; subject, +nevertheless, to be repealed, abolished, or altered in manner and to the +extent provided by this Act; provided that, subject to the provisions of +this Act, such taxes, duties, fees, and other receipts, shall, after the +appointed day, form part of the public revenues of Ireland. + +(2) The Commissioners of Inland Revenue and Commissioners of Customs, and +the officers of such Commissioners respectively, shall have the same +powers in relation to any articles subject to any duty of excise or +customs, manufactured, imported, kept for sale, or sold, and any premises +where the same may be, and to any machinery, apparatus, vessels, utensils, +or conveyance used in connection therewith, or the removal thereof, and in +relation to the person manufacturing, importing, keeping for sale, +selling, or having the custody or possession of the same as they would +have had if this Act had not been passed. + +[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. + +[Sidenote: Definitions.] + +=40.= In this Act-- + + The expression 'the appointed day' shall mean such day after the + _thirty-first day of March in the year one thousand eight hundred and + eighty-seven_ as may be determined by order of Her Majesty in Council. + + The expression 'Lord-Lieutenant' includes the lords justices or any + other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time being. + + The expression 'Her Majesty the Queen,' or 'Her Majesty in Council,' + or 'the Queen,' includes the heirs and successors of Her Majesty the + Queen. + + The expression 'Treasury' means the Commissioners of Her Majesty's + Treasury. + + The expression 'Treaty' includes any convention or arrangement. + + The expression 'existing' means existing at the passing of this Act. + + The expression 'existing constituency' means any county or borough, + or division of a county or borough, or a University returning at the + passing of this Act a member or members to serve in Parliament. + + The expression 'duties of excise' does not include a duty received in + respect of any licence whether for the sale of intoxicating liquors or + otherwise. + + The expression 'financial year' means the twelve months ending on the + _thirty-first day of March_. + +[Sidenote: Short title of Act.] + +=41.= This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Irish Government Act, +1886. + + +SCHEDULES. + +FIRST SCHEDULE. + +First order of the Irish Legislative Body. + + ------------------------------------------------- + Electoral Districts.|Number of Members.|Rotation. + --------------------|------------------|--------- + | | + | | + | | + ------------------------------------------------- + +SECOND SCHEDULE. + +Provisions relating to the first order of the Irish Legislative Body. + +THIRD SCHEDULE. + +Boundaries of divisions of the City of Cork for the purpose of returning +members to the second order of the Legislative Body. + +FOURTH SCHEDULE. + +Provisions as to superannuation allowances of persons in the Permanent +Civil Service. + +FIFTH SCHEDULE. + +Transitory provisions. + + + + +THE IRISH GOVERNMENT BILL, 1893. + +ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES. + +PART I. + + _Legislative Authority._ + + CLAUSE + + 1. Establishment of Irish Legislature. + 2. Powers of Irish Legislature. + 3. Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature. + 4. Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature. + + _Executive Authority._ + + 5. Executive power in Ireland. + + _Constitution of Legislature._ + + 6. Composition of Irish Legislative Council. + 7. Composition of Irish Legislative Assembly. + 8. Disagreement between two Houses, how settled. + + _Irish Representation in House of Commons._ + + 9. Representation in Parliament of Irish counties and boroughs. + + _Finance._ + + 10. As to separate Consolidated Fund and taxes. + 11. Hereditary revenues and income tax. + 12. Financial arrangements as between United Kingdom and Ireland. + 13. Treasury Account (Ireland). + 14. Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund. + 15. Irish Church Fund. + 16. Local loans. + 17. Adaptation of Acts as to Local Taxation Accounts and Probate, etc., + duties. + 18. Money bills and votes. + 19. Exchequer judges for revenue actions, election petitions, etc. + + _Post Office, Postal Telegraphs, and Savings Banks._ + + 20. Transfer of post office and postal telegraphs. + 21. Transfer of savings banks. + + _Irish Appeals and Decision of Constitutional Questions._ + + 22. Irish appeals. + 23. Special provision for decision of constitutional questions. + + _Lord-Lieutenant and Crown Lands._ + + 24. Office of Lord-Lieutenant. + 25. Use of Crown lands by Irish Government. + + _Judges and Civil Servants._ + + 26. Tenure of future judges. + 27. As to existing judges and other persons having salaries charged on + the Consolidated Fund. + 28. As to persons holding Civil Service appointments. + 29. As to existing pensions and superannuation allowances. + + _Police._ + + 30. As to police. + + _Miscellaneous._ + + 31. Irish Exchequer Consolidated Fund and Audit. + 32. Law applicable to both Houses of Irish Legislature. + 33. Supplemental provisions as to powers of Irish Legislature. + 34. Limitation on borrowing by local authorities. + + _Transitory Provisions._ + + 35. Temporary restriction on powers of Irish Legislature and Executive. + 36. Transitory provisions. + 37. Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc. + 38. Appointed day. + 39. Definitions. + 40. Short title. + + +SCHEDULES. + +_A Bill to amend the provision for the Government of Ireland._ [A.D. 1893. + +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:-- + + +PART I. + +_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. + +[Sidenote: Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.] + +=3.= The Irish Legislature shall not have power to make powers of laws +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 + + (3) Naval or military forces, or the defence of the realm; or + + (4) Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the relations + between different parts of Her Majesty's dominions, or offences + connected with such treaties or relations; or + + (5) Dignities or titles of honour; or + + (6) Treason, treason-felony, alienage or naturalisation; or + + (7) Trade with any place out of Ireland; or quarantine, or navigation + (except as respects inland waters and local health or harbour + regulations); or + + (8) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea-marks (except so far as they can + consistently with any general Act of Parliament be constructed or + maintained by a local harbour authority); or + + (9) Coinage; legal tender; or the standard of weights and measures; or + + (10) Trade marks, merchandise marks, copyright, or patent rights. + +Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void. + +[Sidenote: Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.] + +=4.= The powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making of +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 prejudicially affecting 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) Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property + without due process of law, or may be denied the equal protection of + the laws, or whereby private property may be taken without just + compensation; or + + (6) Whereby any existing corporation incorporated by Royal Charter or + by any local or general Act of Parliament (not being a corporation + raising for public purposes taxes, rates, cess, dues, or tolls, or + administering funds so raised) 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; or + + (7) Whereby any inhabitant of the United Kingdom may be deprived of + equal rights as respects public sea fisheries. + +Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void. + +_Executive Authority._ + +[Sidenote: Executive power in Ireland.] + +=5.=--(1) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in Her +Majesty the Queen, and the Lord-Lieutenant, 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, prorogue, and dissolve the Irish Legislature. + +(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, as Her Majesty may think fit, or +as may be 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. + +_Constitution of Legislature._ + +[Sidenote: Composition of Irish Legislative Council.] + +=6.=--(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. + +[Sidenote: 48 & 49 Vict. c. 3.] + +(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. + +[Sidenote: Composition of Irish Legislative Assembly.] + +=7.=--(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. + +[Sidenote: Disagreement between two Houses, how settled.] + +=8.= 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._ + +[Sidenote: Representation in Parliament of Irish counties and boroughs.] + +=9.= 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) An Irish representative peer in the House of Lords and a member of + the House of Commons for an Irish constituency shall not be entitled + to deliberate or vote on-- + + (_a_) Any Bill or motion in relation thereto, the operation of + which Bill or motion is confined to Great Britain or some part + thereof; or + + (_b_) Any motion or resolution relating solely to some tax not + raised or to be raised in Ireland; or + + (_c_) Any vote or appropriation of money made exclusively for some + service not mentioned in the Third Schedule to this Act; or + + (_d_) Any motion or resolution exclusively affecting Great + Britain, or some part thereof, or some local authority, or some + person or thing therein; or + + (_e_) Any motion or resolution incidental to any such motion or + resolution, as either is last mentioned, or relates solely to some + tax not raised or to be raised in Ireland, or incidental to any + such vote or appropriation of money as aforesaid. + + (4) Compliance with the provisions of this section shall not be + questioned otherwise than in each House in manner provided by the + House. + + (5) 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. + +_Finance._ + +[Sidenote: As to separate Consolidated Fund and taxes.] + +=10.=--(1) On and after the appointed day there shall be an Irish +Exchequer and Consolidated Fund separate from those of the United Kingdom. + +(2) The duties of Customs and Excise and the duties on postage shall be +imposed by Act of Parliament, but subject to the provisions of this Act +the Irish Legislature may, in order to provide for the public service of +Ireland, impose any other taxes. + +(3) Save as in this Act mentioned, all matters relating to the taxes in +Ireland and the collection and management thereof shall be regulated by +Irish Act, and the same shall be collected and managed by the Irish +Government, and from part of the public revenues of Ireland: Provided +that-- + + (_a_) The duties of Customs shall be regulated, collected, managed, + and paid into the Exchequer of the United Kingdom as heretofore; and + + (_b_) All prohibitions in connection with the duties of Excise, and + so far as regards articles sent out of Ireland, all matters relating + to those duties, shall be regulated by Act of Parliament; and + + (_c_) The excise duties on articles consumed in Great Britain shall be + paid in Great Britain, or to an officer of the Government of the + United Kingdom. + +(4) Save as in this Act mentioned, all the public revenues of Ireland +shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer and form a Consolidated Fund, and +be appropriated to the public service of Ireland by Irish Act. + +(5) If the duties of Excise are increased above the rates in force on the +_first day of March one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three_ the net +proceeds in Ireland of the duties in excess of the said rates shall be +paid from the Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +(6) If the duties of Excise are reduced below the rates in force on the +said day, and the net proceeds of such duties in Ireland are in +consequence less than the net proceeds of the duties before the reduction, +a sum equal to the deficiency shall, unless it is otherwise agreed between +the Treasury and the Irish Government, be paid from the Exchequer of the +United Kingdom to the Irish Exchequer. + +[Sidenote: Hereditary revenues and income tax.] + +=11.=--(1) The hereditary revenues of the Crown in Ireland which are +managed by the Commissioners of Woods shall continue during the life of +Her present Majesty to be managed and collected by those Commissioners, +and the net amount payable by them to the Exchequer on account of those +revenues, after deducting all expenses (but including an allowance for +interest on such proceeds of the sale of those revenues as have not been +re-invested in Ireland), shall be paid into the Treasury Account (Ireland) +hereinafter mentioned, for the benefit of the Irish Exchequer. + +(2) A person shall not be required to pay income tax in Great Britain in +respect of property situate or business carried on in Ireland, and a +person shall not be required to pay income tax in Ireland in respect of +property situate or business carried on in Great Britain. + +(3) For the purpose of giving to Ireland the benefit of the difference +between the income tax collected in Great Britain from British, Colonial, +and foreign securities held by residents in Ireland, and the income tax +collected in Ireland from Irish securities held by residents in Great +Britain, there shall be made to Ireland out of the income tax collected in +Great Britain, an allowance of such amount as may be from time to time +determined by the Treasury, in accordance with a minute of the Treasury, +laid before Parliament before the appointed day, and such allowance shall +be paid into the Treasury Account (Ireland) for the benefit of the Irish +Exchequer. + +(4) Provided that the provisions of this section with respect to income +tax shall not apply to any excess of the rate of income tax in Great +Britain above the rate in Ireland or of the rate of income tax in Ireland +above the rate in Great Britain. + +[Sidenote: Financial arrangements as between United Kingdom and Ireland.] + +=12.=--(1) The duties of Customs contributed by Ireland and, save as +provided by this Act, that portion of any public revenue of the United +Kingdom to which Ireland may claim to be entitled, whether specified in +the Third Schedule to this Act or not, shall be carried to the +Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, as the contribution of Ireland to +Imperial liabilities and expenditure as defined in that Schedule. + +(2) The civil charges of the Government in Ireland shall, subject as in +this Act mentioned, be borne after the appointed day by Ireland. + +(3) After _fifteen_ years from the passing of this Act the arrangements +made by this Act for the contribution of Ireland to Imperial liabilities +and expenditure, and otherwise for the financial relations between the +United Kingdom and Ireland, may be revised in pursuance of an address to +Her Majesty from the House of Commons, or from the Irish Legislative +Assembly. + +[Sidenote: Treasury Account (Ireland)] + +=13.=--(1) There shall be established under the direction of the Treasury +an account (in this Act referred to as the Treasury Account (Ireland)). + +(2) There shall be paid into such account all sums payable from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, or from the latter to +the former Exchequer, and all sums directed to be paid into the account +for the benefit of either of the said Exchequers. + +(3) All sums which are payable from either of the said Exchequers to the +other of them, or being payable out of one of the said Exchequers are +repayable by the other Exchequer, shall in the first instance be payable +out of the said account so far as the money standing on the account is +sufficient; and for the purpose of meeting such sums the Treasury out of +the Customs revenue collected in Ireland, and the Irish Government out of +any of the public revenues in Ireland, may direct money to be paid to the +Treasury Account (Ireland) instead of into the Exchequer. + +(4) Any surplus standing on the account to the credit of either Exchequer, +and not required for meeting payments, shall at convenient times be paid +into that Exchequer, and where any sum so payable in to the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom is required by law to be forthwith paid to the National +Debt Commissioners, that sum may be paid to those Commissioners without +being paid into the Exchequer. + +(5) All sums payable by virtue of this Act out of the Consolidated Fund of +the United Kingdom or of Ireland shall be payable from the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom or of Ireland shall be payable from the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom or Ireland, as the case may be, within the meaning of +this Act, and all sums by this Act made payable from the Exchequer of the +United Kingdom shall, if not otherwise paid, be charged on and paid out of +the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom. + +[Sidenote: Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.] + +=14.=--(1) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund in favour +of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom as a first charge on sums which-- + + (_a_) Are payable to that Exchequer from the Irish Exchequer; or + +[Sidenote: 54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.] + + (_b_) Are required to repay to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom + sums issued to meet the dividends or sinking fund or guaranteed land + stock under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891: or + + (_c_) Otherwise have been or are required to be paid out of the + Exchequer of the United Kingdom in consequence of the non-payment + thereof out of the Exchequer of Ireland or otherwise by the Irish + Government. + +(2) If at any time the Controller and Auditor-General of the United +Kingdom is satisfied that any such charge is due, he shall certify the +amount of it, and the Treasury shall send such certificate to the +Lord-Lieutenant, who shall thereupon by order, without any +counter-signature, direct the payment of the amount from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, and such order shall be +duly obeyed by all persons, and until the amount is wholly paid no other +payment shall be made out of the Irish Exchequer for any purpose whatever. + +(3) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund next after the +foregoing charge-- + +[Sidenote: 54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.] + + (_a_) All sums, for dividends or sinking fund on guaranteed land stock + under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, which the Land + Purchase Account and the Guarantee Fund under that Act are + insufficient to pay; + + (_b_) All sums due in respect of any debt incurred by the Government + of Ireland, whether for interest management, or sinking fund; + + (_c_) An annual sum of _five thousand pounds_ for the expenses of the + household and establishment of the Lord-Lieutenant; + + (_d_) All existing charges on the Consolidated Fund of the United + Kingdom in respect of Irish services other than the salary of the + Lord-Lieutenant; and + + (_e_) The salaries and pensions of all judges of the Supreme Court or + other Superior Court in Ireland or of any County or other like Court, + who are appointed after the passing of this Act, and are not the + Exchequer judges hereafter mentioned. + +(4) Until all charges created by this Act upon the Irish Consolidated Fund +and for the time being due are paid, no money shall be issued from the +Irish Exchequer for any other purpose whatever. + +[Sidenote: Irish Church Fund. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42. 44 & 45 Vict. c. 71.] + +=15.=--(1) All existing charges on the Church property in Ireland--that is +to say, all property accruing under the Irish Church Act, 1869, and +transferred to the Irish Land Commission by the Irish Church Amendment +Act, 1881--shall so far as not paid out of the said property be charged on +the Irish Consolidated Fund, and any of those charges guaranteed by the +Treasury, if and so far as not paid, shall be paid out of the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom. + +(2) Subject to the existing charges thereon, the said Church property +shall belong to the Irish Government, and be managed, administered, and +disposed of as directed by Irish Act. + +[Sidenote: Local loans.] + +=16.=--(1) All sums paid or applicable in or towards the discharge of the +interest or principal of any local loan advanced before the appointed day +on security in Ireland, or otherwise in respect of such loan, which but +for this Act would be paid to the National Debt Commissioners, and carried +to the Local Loans Fund, shall, after the appointed day, be paid, until +otherwise provided by Irish Act, to the Irish Exchequer. + +(2) For the payment of the Local Loans Fund of the principal and interest +of such loans, the Irish Government shall after the appointed day pay by +half-yearly payments an annuity for _forty-nine_ years, at the rate of +_four_ per cent., on the principal of the said loans, exclusive of any +sums written off before the appointed day from the account of assets of +the Local Loans Fund, and such annuity shall be paid from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, and when so paid shall +be forthwith paid to the National Debt Commissioners for the credit of the +Local Loans Fund. + +(3) After the appointed day, money for loans in Ireland shall cease to be +advanced either by the Public Works Loan Commissioners or out of the Local +Loans Fund. + +[Sidenote: Adaptation of Acts as to Local Taxation Accounts and Probate, +etc., duties. See 50 & 51 Vict. c. 41. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.] + +=17.=--(1) So much of any Act as directs payment to the Local Taxation +(Ireland) Account of any share of Probate, Excise, or Customs duties +payable to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom shall, together with any +enactment amending the same, be repealed as from the appointed day without +prejudice to the adjustment of balances after that day; the like amounts +shall continue to be paid to the Local Taxation Accounts in England and +Scotland as would have been paid if this Act had not passed, and any +residue of the said share shall be paid into the Exchequer of the United +Kingdom. + +[Sidenote: See 21 & 22 Vict. c. 86, ss. 12-18. 21 & 22 Vict. c. 95, s. 29. +22 & 23 Vict. c. 31, s. 25. 39 & 40 Vict. c. 70, ss. 41-44.] + +(2) The stamp duty chargeable in respect of the personalty of a deceased +person, shall not in the case of administration granted in Great Britain +be chargeable in respect of any personalty situate in Ireland; nor in the +case of administration granted in Ireland be chargeable in respect of any +personalty situate in Great Britain; and any administration granted in +Great Britain shall not, if re-sealed in Ireland, be exempt from stamp +duty on administration granted in Ireland, and any administration granted +in Ireland shall not, when re-sealed in Great Britain, be exempt from +stamp duty on administration granted in Great Britain. + +(3) In this section the expression 'administration' means probate or +letters of administration, and as respects Scotland, confirmation +inclusive of the inventory required under the Acts relating to the said +stamp duty, and the expression 'personalty' means personal or movable +estate and effects. + +[Sidenote: Money bills and votes.] + +=18.=--(1) Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue or for +imposing any tax shall originate in the Legislative Assembly. + +(2) It shall not be lawful for the Legislative Assembly to adopt or pass +any vote, 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 such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed. + +[Sidenote: Exchequer judges for revenue actions, elections petitions, +etc.] + +=19.=--(1) Two of the judges of the Supreme Court in Ireland shall be +Exchequer judges, and shall be appointed under the Great Seal of the +United Kingdom; and their salaries and pensions shall be charged on and +paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom. + +(2) The Exchequer judges shall be removable only by Her Majesty on address +from the two Houses of Parliament, and each such judge shall, save as +otherwise provided by Parliament, receive the same salary and be entitled +to the same pension as is at the time of his appointment fixed for the +puisne judges of the Supreme Court, and during his continuance in office +his salary shall not be diminished, nor his right to pension altered, +without his consent. + +(3) An alteration of any rules relating to such legal proceedings as are +mentioned in this section shall not be made except with the approval of +Her Majesty the Queen in Council; and the sittings of the Exchequer judges +shall be regulated with the like approval. + +(4) All legal proceedings in Ireland, which are instituted at the instance +of or against the Treasury or Commissioners of Customs, or any of their +officers, or relate to the election of members to serve in Parliament, or +touch any matter within the powers of the Irish Legislature, or touch any +matter affected by a law which the Irish Legislature have not power to +repeal or alter, shall, if so required by any party to such proceedings, +be heard and determined before the Exchequer judges or (except where the +case requires to be determined by two judges) before one of them, and in +any such legal proceeding an appeal shall, if any party so requires, lie +from any Court of first instance in Ireland to the Exchequer judges, and +the decision of the Exchequer judges shall be subject to appeal to Her +Majesty the Queen in Council and not to any other tribunal. + +(5) If it is made to appear to an Exchequer judge that any decree or +judgment in any such proceeding as aforesaid has not been duly enforced by +the sheriff or other officer whose duty it is to enforce the same, such +judge shall appoint some officer whose duty it shall be to enforce the +judgment or decree; and for that purpose such officer and all persons +employed by him shall be entitled to the same privileges, immunities, and +powers as are by law conferred on a sheriff and his officers. + +(6) The Exchequer judges, when not engaged in hearing and determining such +legal proceedings as above in this section mentioned, shall perform such +of the duties ordinarily performed by other judges of the Supreme Court in +Ireland as may be assigned by Her Majesty the Queen in Council. + +(7) All sums recovered by the Treasury or the Commissioners of Customs or +any of their officers, or recovered under any Act relating to duties of +Customs, shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid to such +public account as the Treasury or the Commissioners direct. + +_Post Office, Postal Telegraphs, and Savings Banks._ + +[Sidenote: Transfer of post office and postal telegraphs.] + +=20.=--(1) As from the _appointed day_ the postal and telegraph service in +Ireland shall be transferred to the Irish Government, and may be regulated +by Irish Act, except as in this Act mentioned and except as regards +matters relating-- + + (_a_) To such conditions of the transmission or delivery of postal + packets and telegrams as are incidental to the duties on postage; or + + (_b_) To foreign mails or submarine telegraphs or through lines in + connection therewith; or + + (_c_) To any other postal or telegraph business in connection with + places out of the United Kingdom. + +(2) The administration of or incidental to the said excepted matters +shall, save as may be otherwise arranged with the Irish Post Office, +remain with the Postmaster-General. + +(3) As regards the revenue and expenses of the postal and telegraph +service, the Postmaster-General shall retain the revenue collected and +defray the expenses incurred in Great Britain, and the Irish Post Office +shall retain the revenue collected and defray the expenses incurred in +Ireland, subject to the provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Act; +which schedule shall have full effect, but may be varied or added to by +agreement between the Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office. + +(4) The sums payable by the Postmaster-General or Irish Post Office to the +other of them in pursuance of this Act shall, if not paid out of +Post-Office moneys, be paid from the Exchequer of the United Kingdom or of +Ireland, as the case requires, to the other Exchequer. + +[Sidenote: 26 & 27 Vict. c. 112.] + +(5) Sections forty-eight to fifty-two of the Telegraph Act, 1863, and any +enactment amending the same, shall apply to all telegraphic lines of the +Irish Government in like manner as to the telegraphs of a company within +the meaning of that Act. + +[Sidenote: Transfer of savings banks] + +=21.=--(1) As from the _appointed day_ there shall be transferred to the +Irish Government the post-office savings banks in Ireland, and all such +powers and duties of any department or officer in Great Britain as are +connected with post-office savings banks, trustee savings banks, or +friendly societies in Ireland, and the same may be regulated by Irish Act. + +(2) The Treasury shall publish not less than six months previous notice of +the transfer of savings banks. + +(3) If before the date of the transfer any depositor in a post-office +savings bank so requests, his deposit shall, according to his request, +either be paid to him or transferred to a post-office savings bank in +Great Britain, and after the said date the depositors in a post-office +savings bank in Ireland shall cease to have any claim against the +Postmaster-General or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but +shall have the like claim against the Government and Consolidated Fund of +Ireland. + +(4) If before the date of the transfer the trustees of any trustees +savings bank so request, then, according to the request, either all sums +due to them shall be repaid, and the savings bank closed, or those sums +shall be paid to the Irish Government, and after the said date the +trustees shall cease to have any claim against the National Debt +Commissioners or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but shall +have the like claim against the Government and Consolidated Fund of +Ireland. + +(5) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, if a sum due +on account of any annuity or policy of insurance which has before the +above-mentioned notice been granted through a post-office or trustee +savings bank, is not paid by the Irish Government, that sum shall be paid +out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +_Irish Appeals and Decision of Constitutional Questions._ + +[Sidenote: Irish appeals.] + +=22.=--(1) The appeal from Courts in Ireland to the House of Lords shall +cease; and where any person would, but for this Act, have a right to +appeal from any Court in Ireland to the House of Lords, such person shall +have the like right to appeal to Her Majesty the Queen in Council; and +the right so to appeal shall not be affected by any Irish Act; and all +enactments relating to appeals to Her Majesty the Queen in Council, and to +the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, shall apply accordingly. + +[Sidenote: 39 & 40 Vict. c. 59] + +(2) When the Judicial Committee sit for hearing appeals from a Court in +Ireland, there shall be present not less than four Lords of Appeal, within +the meaning of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, and at least one +member who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court in Ireland. + +(3) A rota of privy councillors to sit for hearing appeals from Courts in +Ireland shall be made annually by Her Majesty in Council, and the privy +councillors, or some of them, on that rota shall sit to hear the said +appeals. A casual vacancy in such rota during the year may be filled by +Order in Council. + +(4) Nothing in this Act shall affect the jurisdiction of the House of +Lords to determine the claims to Irish peerages. + +[Sidenote: Special provision for decision of constitutional questions.] + +=23.=--(1) If it appears to the Lord-Lieutenant or a Secretary of State +expedient in the public interest that steps shall be taken for the speedy +determination of the question whether any Irish Act, or any provision +thereof, is beyond the power of the Irish Legislature, he may represent +the same to Her Majesty in Council, and thereupon the said question shall +be forthwith referred to and heard and determined by the Judicial +Committee of the Privy Council, constituted as if hearing an appeal from a +Court in Ireland. + +(2) Upon the hearing of the question such persons as seem to the Judicial +Committee to be interested may be allowed to appear and be heard as +parties to the case, and the decision of the Judicial Committee shall be +given in like manner as if it were the decision of an appeal, the nature +of the report or recommendation to Her Majesty being stated in open Court. + +(3) Nothing in this Act shall prejudice any other power of Her Majesty in +Council to refer any question to the Judicial Committee, or the right of +any person to petition Her Majesty for such reference. + +_Lord-Lieutenant and Crown Lands._ + +[Sidenote: Office of Lord-Lieutenant.] + +=24.=--(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any Act, every +subject of the Queen shall be qualified to hold the office of +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, without reference to his religious belief. + +(2) The term of office of the Lord-Lieutenant shall be _six years_, +without prejudice to the power of Her Majesty the Queen at any time to +revoke the appointment. + +[Sidenote: Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.] + +=25.= Her Majesty the Queen in Council may place under the control of the +Irish Government, for the purposes of that Government, such of the lands +and buildings in Ireland vested in or held in trust for Her Majesty, and +subject to such conditions or restrictions (if any) as may seem expedient. + +_Judges and Civil Servants._ + +[Sidenote: Tenure of future judges.] + +=26.= A judge of the Supreme Court or other Superior Court in Ireland, or +of any County Court or other Court with a like jurisdiction in Ireland, +appointed after the passing of this Act, shall not be removed from his +office except in pursuance of an address from the two Houses of +Legislature of Ireland, nor during his continuance in office shall his +salary be diminished or right to pension altered without his consent. + +[Sidenote: As to existing judges and other persons having salaries charged +on the Consolidated Fund.] + +=27.=--(1) All existing judges of the Supreme Court, County Court judges, +and Land Commissioners in Ireland, and all existing officers serving in +Ireland in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown and receiving salaries +charged on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, shall, if they are +removable at present on address from both Houses of Parliament, continue +to be removable only upon such address, and if removable in any other +manner shall continue to be removable only in the same manner as +heretofore; and shall continue to receive the same salaries, gratuities, +and pensions, and to be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore, +or such duties as Her Majesty may declare to be analogous, and their +salaries and pensions, if and so far as not paid out of the Irish +Consolidated Fund, shall be paid out of the Exchequer of the United +Kingdom: Provided that this section shall be subject to the provisions of +this Act with respect to the Exchequer judges. + +(2) If any of the said judges, commissioners, or officers retires from +office with the Queen's approbation before completion of the period of +service entitling him to a pension, Her Majesty may, if she thinks fit, +grant to him such pension, not exceeding the pension to which he would on +that completion have been entitled, as to Her Majesty seems meet. + +[Sidenote: As to persons holding Civil Service appointments.] + +=28.=--(1) All existing officers in the permanent Civil Service of the +Crown, who are not above provided for, and are at the appointed day +serving in Ireland, shall, after that day, continue to hold their offices +by the same tenure, and to receive the same salaries, gratuities, and +pensions, and to be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore, or +such duties as the Treasury may declare to be analogous; and the said +gratuities and pensions, and until three years after the passing of this +Act, the salaries due to any of the said officers if remaining in his +existing office, shall be paid to the payees by the Treasury out of the +Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +(2) Any such officer may, after _three years_ from the passing of this +Act, retire from office, and shall, at any time during those three years, +if required by the Irish Government, retire from office, and on any such +retirement may be awarded by the Treasury a gratuity or pension in +accordance with the Fifth Schedule to this Act: Provided that-- + + (_a_) Six months' written notice shall, unless it is otherwise agreed, + be given either by the said officer or by the Irish Government, as the + case requires; and + + (_b_) Such number of officers only shall retire at one time, and at + such intervals of time as the Treasury, in communication with the + Irish Government, sanction. + +(3) If any such officer does not so retire, the Treasury may award him, +after the said three years, a pension in accordance with the Fifth +Schedule to this Act, which shall become payable to him on his ultimate +retirement from the service of the Crown. + +(4) The gratuities and pensions awarded in accordance with the Fifth +Schedule to this Act shall be paid by the Treasury to the payees out of +the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +(5) All sums paid out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom in pursuance +of this section shall be repaid to that Exchequer from the Irish +Exchequer. + +(6) This section shall not apply to officers retained in the service of +the Government of the United Kingdom. + +[Sidenote: As to existing pensions and superannuation allowances.] + +=29.= Any existing pension granted on account of service in Ireland as a +judge of the Supreme Court or of any Court consolidated into that Court, +or as a County Court judge, or in any other judicial position, or as an +officer in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown other than in an +office the holder of which is after the appointed day retained in the +service of the Government of the United Kingdom, shall be charged on the +Irish Consolidated Fund, and if and so far as not paid out of that fund, +shall be paid out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +_Police._ + +[Sidenote: As to police.] + +=30.=--(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 Sixth Schedule to +this Act, be gradually reduced and ultimately cease to exist as mentioned +in that Schedule; and after the passing of this Act, no officer or man +shall be appointed to either of these 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. + +(2) The said two forces shall, while they continue, be subject to the +control of the Lord-Lieutenant as representing Her Majesty, and the +members thereof shall continue to receive the same salaries, gratuities, +and pensions, and hold their appointments on the same tenure as +heretofore, and these salaries, gratuities, and pensions, and all the +expenditure incidental to either force, shall be paid out of the Exchequer +of the United Kingdom. + +(3) When any existing member of either force retires under the provisions +of the Sixth Schedule to this Act, the Treasury may award to him a +gratuity or pension in accordance with that Schedule. + +(4) Those gratuities and pensions and all existing pensions payable in +respect of service in either force, shall be paid by the Treasury to the +payees out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +(5) Two-thirds of the net amount payable in pursuance of this section out +of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom shall be repaid to that Exchequer +from the Irish Exchequer. + +_Miscellaneous._ + +[Sidenote: Irish Exchequer Consolidated Fund and Audit.] + +31. Save as may be otherwise provided by Irish Act-- + + (_a_) The existing law relating to the Exchequer and Consolidated Fund + of the United Kingdom shall apply with the necessary modifications to + the Exchequer and Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and an officer shall + be appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant to be the Irish Comptroller and + Auditor-General; and + +[Sidenote: 29 & 30 Vict. c. 39] + + (_b_) The accounts of the Irish Consolidated Fund shall be audited as + appropriation accounts in manner provided by the Exchequer and Audit + Departments Act, 1866, by or under the direction of such officer. + +[Sidenote: Law applicable to both Houses of Irish Legislature.] + +=32.=--(1) Subject as in this Act mentioned and particularly to the +Seventh Schedule to this Act (which Schedule shall have full effect), all +existing election laws relating to the House of Commons and the members +thereof shall, so far as applicable, extend to each of the two Houses of +the Irish Legislature and the members thereof, but such election laws so +far as hereby extended may be altered by Irish Act. + +(2) The privileges, rights, and immunities to be held and enjoyed by each +House and the members thereof shall be such as may be defined by Irish +Act, but so that the same shall never exceed those for the time being +held and enjoyed by the House of Commons, and the members thereof. + +[Sidenote: Supplemental provisions as to powers of Irish Legislature.] + +=33.=--(1) The Irish Legislature may repeal or alter any provision of this +Act which is by this Act expressly made alterable by that Legislature, and +also any enactments in force in Ireland, except such as either relate to +matters beyond the powers of the Irish Legislature, or being enacted by +Parliament after the passing of this Act, may be expressly extended to +Ireland. An Irish Act notwithstanding it is in any respect repugnant to +any enactment excepted as aforesaid, shall, though read subject to that +enactment, be, except to the extent of that repugnancy, valid. + +(2) An order, rule, or regulation, made in pursuance of, or having the +force of, an Act of Parliament, shall be deemed to be an enactment within +the meaning of this section. + +(3) Nothing in this Act shall affect Bills relating to the divorce or +marriage of individuals, and any such Bill shall be introduced and proceed +in Parliament in like manner as if this Act had not been passed. + +[Sidenote: Limitation of borrowing by local authorities.] + +=34.= The local authority for any county or borough or other area shall +not borrow money without either-- + + (_a_) A special authority from the Irish Legislature, or + + (_b_) The sanction of the proper department of the Irish Government; + +and shall not, without such special authority, borrow: + + (i.) In the case of municipal borough or town or area less than a + county, any loan which together with the then outstanding debt of the + local authority, will exceed twice the annual rateable value of the + property, in the municipal borough, town, or area; or + + (ii.) In the case of a county or larger area, any loan which together + with the then outstanding debt of the local authority, will exceed + one-tenth of the annual rateable value of the property in the county + or area; or + + (iii.) In any case a loan exceeding one-half of the above limits + without a local inquiry held in the county, borough, or area by a + person appointed for the purpose by the said department. + +_Transitory Provisions._ + +[Sidenote: Temporary restriction on powers of Irish Legislature and +Executive.] + +=35.=--(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, +water-works, 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 Courts in Ireland (other than +one of the Exchequer judges) shall be made in pursuance of a warrant from +Her Majesty countersigned as heretofore. + +[Sidenote: Transitory provisions.] + +=36.=--(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act Her Majesty the Queen in +Council may make or direct such arrangements as seem necessary or proper +for setting in motion the Irish Legislature and Government and for +otherwise bringing this Act into operation. + +(2) The Irish Legislature shall be summoned to meet on the _first Tuesday +in September, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four_, and the first +election of members of the two Houses of the Irish Legislature shall be +held at such time before that day as may be fixed by Her Majesty in +Council. + +(3) Upon the first meeting of the Irish Legislature the members of the +House of Commons then sitting for Irish constituencies, including the +members for Dublin University, shall vacate their seats, and writs shall, +as soon as conveniently may be, be issued by the Lord Chancellor of +Ireland for the purpose of holding an election of members to serve in +Parliament for the constituencies named in the Second Schedule of this +Act. + +(4) The existing Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and the senior of the +existing puisne judges of the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court, or +if they or either of them are or is dead or unable or unwilling to act, +such other of the judges of the Supreme Court as Her Majesty may appoint, +shall be the first Exchequer judges. + +(5) Where it appears to Her Majesty the Queen in Council, before the +expiration of _one year_ after the appointed day, that any existing +enactment respecting matters within the powers of the Irish Legislature +requires adaptation to Ireland, whether-- + + (_a_) By the substitution of the Lord-Lieutenant in Council, or of any + departments or office of the Executive Government in Ireland, for Her + Majesty in Council, a Secretary of State, the Treasury, the + Postmaster-General, the Board of Inland Revenue, or other public + department or offices in Great Britain; or + + (_b_) By the substitution of the Irish Consolidated Fund or moneys + provided by the Irish Legislature for the Consolidated Fund of the + United Kingdom, or moneys provided by Parliament, or + + (_c_) By the substitution or confirmation by, or other act to be done + by or to, the Irish Legislature for confirmation by or other act to be + done by or to Parliament; or + + (_d_) By any other adaptation; Her Majesty, by Order in Council, may + make that adaptation. + +(6) Her Majesty the Queen in Council may provide for the transfer of such +property, rights, and liabilities, and the doing of such other things as +may appear to Her Majesty necessary or proper for carrying into effect +this Act or any Order in Council under this Act. + +(7) An Order in Council under this section may make an adaptation or +provide for a transfer either unconditionally or subject to such +exceptions, conditions, and restrictions as may seem expedient. + +(8) The draft of every Order in Council under this section shall be laid +before both Houses of Parliament for not less than two months before it is +made, and such order when made shall, subject as respects Ireland to the +provisions of an Irish Act, have full effect, but shall not interfere with +the continued application to any place, authority, person, or thing, not +in Ireland, of the enactment to which the Order relates. + +[Sidenote: Continuance of existing laws, courts, offices, etc.] + +=37.=--Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all existing laws, +institutions, authorities, and officers in Ireland, whether judicial, +administrative, or ministerial, and all existing taxes in Ireland shall +continue as if this Act had not passed, but with the modifications +necessary for adapting the same to this Act, and subject to be repealed, +abolished, altered, and adapted in the manner and to the extent authorised +by this Act. + +[Sidenote: Appointed day.] + +=38.=--Subject as in this Act mentioned the appointed day for the purposes +of this Act shall be the day of the first meeting of the Irish +Legislature, or such other day not more than _seven_ months earlier or +later as may be fixed by order of Her Majesty in Council either generally +or with reference to any particular provision of this Act, and different +days may be appointed for different purposes and different provisions of +this Act, whether contained in the same section or in different sections. + +[Sidenote: Definitions.] + +=39.=--In this Act unless the context otherwise requires-- + + The expression 'existing' means existing at the passing of this Act. + + The expression 'constituency' means a parliamentary constituency or a + county or borough returning a member or members to serve in either + House of the Irish Legislature, as the case requires, and the + expression 'parliamentary constituency' means any county, borough, or + university returning a member or members to serve in Parliament. + + The expression 'parliamentary elector' means a person entitled to be + registered as a voter at a parliamentary election. + + The expression 'parliamentary election' means the election of a member + to serve in Parliament. + + The expression 'tax' includes duties and fees, and the expression + 'duties of excise' does not include licence duties. + + The expression 'foreign mails' means all postal packets, whether + letters, parcels, or other packets, posted in the United Kingdom and + sent to a place out of the United Kingdom, or posted in a place out of + the United Kingdom and sent to a place in the United Kingdom, or in + transit through the United Kingdom to a place out of the United + Kingdom. + + The expression 'telegraphic line' has the same meaning as in the + Telegraphs Acts, 1863 to 1892. + + The expression 'duties on postage' includes all rates and sums + chargeable for or in respect of postal packets, money orders, or + telegrams, or otherwise under the Post-office Acts or the Telegraph + Act, 1892. + + The expression 'Irish Act' means a law made by the Irish Legislature. + +[Sidenote: 26 & 27 Vict. c. 112. 41 & 42 Vict. c. 76. 55 & 56 Vict. c. 59. +7 Will. 4, and 1 Vict. c. 36. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 73. 48 & 49 Vict. c. 58.] + + The expression 'election laws' means the laws relating to the election + of members to serve in Parliament, other than those relating to the + qualification of electors, and includes all the laws respecting the + registration of electors, the issue and execution of writs, the + creation of polling districts, the taking of the poll, the questioning + of elections, corrupt and illegal practices, the disqualification of + members, and the vacating of seats. + + The expression 'rateable value' means the annual rateable value under + the Irish Valuation Acts. + + The expression 'salary' includes remuneration, allowances, and + emoluments. + + The expression 'pension' includes superannuation allowance. + +[Sidenote: Short title.] + +=40.=--This Act may be cited as the Irish Government Act, 1893. + + +SCHEDULES. + +FIRST SCHEDULE: LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL--CONSTITUENCIES AND NUMBER OF +COUNCILLORS. + + ------------------------------------------ + Constituencies. | Councillors. + ---------------------------|-------------- + Antrim County | Three + Armagh County | One + Belfast Borough | Two + Carlow County | One + Cavan County | One + Clare County | One + Cork County-- | + East Riding | Three + West Riding | One + Cork Borough | One + Donegal County | One + Down County | Three + Dublin County | Three + " Borough | Two + Fermanagh County | One + Galway County | Two + Kerry County | One + Kildare County | One + Kilkenny County | One + King's County | One + Leitrim and Sligo Counties | One + Limerick County | Two + Londonderry County | One + Longford County | One + Louth County | One + Mayo County | One + Meath County | One + Monaghan County | One + Queen's County | One + Roscommon County | One + Tipperary County | Two + Tyrone County | One + Waterford County | One + Westmeath County | One + Wexford County | One + Wicklow County | One + ---------------------------|-------------- + | Forty-eight + ------------------------------------------ + +The expression 'borough' in this schedule means an existing parliamentary +borough. Counties of cities and towns not named in this Schedule shall be +combined with the county at large in which they are included for +Parliamentary elections, and if not so included, then with the county at +large bearing the same name. + +A borough named in this Schedule shall not for the purposes of this +Schedule form part of any other constituency. + +SECOND SCHEDULE: IRISH MEMBERS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. + + --------------------------------------------------- + | Number of Members + Constituency. | for House + | of Commons. + ------------------------------|-------------------- + Antrim County | Three + Armagh County | Two + Belfast Borough (in divisions |} + as mentioned below) |} Four + Carlow County | One + Cavan County | Two + Clare County | Two + Cork County (in divisions |} + as mentioned below) |} Five + Cork Borough | Two + Donegal County | Three + Down County | Three + Dublin County | Two + " Borough (in divisions |} + as mentioned below) |} Four + Fermanagh County | One + Galway County | Three + " Borough | One + Kerry County | Three + Kildare County | One + Kilkenny County | One + " Borough | One + King's County | One + Leitrim County | Two + Limerick County | Two + " Borough | One + Londonderry County | Two + " Borough | One + Longford County | One + Louth County | One + Mayo County | Three + Meath County | Two + Monaghan County | Two + Newry Borough | One + Queen's County | One + Roscommon County | Two + Sligo County | Two + Tipperary County | Three + Tyrone County | Three + Waterford County | One + " Borough | One + Westmeath County | One + Wexford County | Two + Wicklow County | One + ------------------------------|-------------------- + | Eighty + --------------------------------------------------- + +(1) In this Schedule the expression 'borough' means an existing +parliamentary borough. + +(2) In the parliamentary boroughs of Belfast and Dublin, one member shall +be returned by each of the existing parliamentary divisions of those +boroughs, and the law relating to the divisions of boroughs shall apply +accordingly. + +(3) The county of Cork shall be divided into two divisions, consisting of +the East Riding and the West Riding, and three members shall be elected by +the East Riding, and two members shall be elected by the West Riding; and +the law relating to divisions of counties shall apply to these divisions. + +THIRD SCHEDULE: FINANCE-IMPERIAL LIABILITIES, EXPENDITURE, AND +MISCELLANEOUS REVENUE. + +_Liabilities._ + +For the purposes of this Act, 'Imperial liabilities' consist of:-- + +(1) The funded and unfunded debt of the United Kingdom, inclusive of +terminable annuities paid out of the permanent annual charge for the +National Debt, and inclusive of the cost of the management of the said +funded and unfunded debt, but exclusive of the Local Loans Stock and +Guaranteed Land Stock, and the cost of the management thereof; and + +(2) All other charges on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom for +the repayment of borrowed money, or to fulfil a guarantee. + +_Expenditure._ + +For the purpose of this Act Imperial expenditure consists of expenditure +for the following services:-- + +1. Naval and military expenditure (including Greenwich Hospital). + +2. Civil expenditure, that is to say-- + + (_a_) Civil list and Royal family. + + (_b_) Salaries, pensions, allowances, and incidental expenses of-- + + (i.) Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. + + (ii.) Exchequer judges in Ireland. + + (_c_) Buildings, works, salaries, pensions, printing, stationery, + allowances, and incidental expenses of-- + + (i.) Parliament; + + (ii.) National Debt Commissioners; + + (iii.) Foreign Office and diplomatic and consular service, + including secret service, special services, and telegraph + subsidies; + + (iv.) Colonial Office, including special services and telegraph + subsidies; + + (v.) Privy Council; + + (vi.) Board of Trade, including the Mercantile Marine Fund, Patent + Office, Railway Commission, and Wreck Commission, but excluding + Bankruptcy; + + (vii.) Mint; + + (viii.) Meteorological Society; + + (ix.) Slave trade service. + + (_d_) Foreign mails and telegraphic communication with places outside + the United Kingdom. + +_Revenue._ + +For the purposes of this Act the public revenue to a portion of which +Ireland may claim to be entitled consists of revenue from the following +sources:-- + +1. Suez Canal shares or payments on account thereof. + +2. Loans and advances to foreign countries. + +3. Annual payments by British possessions. + +4. Fees, stamps, and extra receipts received by departments, the expenses +of which are part of the Imperial expenditure. + +5. Small branches of the hereditary revenues of the Crown. + +6. Foreshores. + +FOURTH SCHEDULE: PROVISIONS AS TO POST OFFICE. + +(1) The Postmaster-General shall pay to the Irish Post Office in respect +of any foreign mails sent through Ireland and the Irish Post Office shall +pay to the Postmaster-General in respect of any foreign mails sent through +Great Britain, such sum as may be agreed upon for the carriage of those +mails in Ireland or Great Britain, as the case may be. + +(2) The Irish Post Office shall pay to the Postmaster-General; + + (i.) One-half of the expense of the packet service and submarine + telegraph lines between Great Britain and Ireland after deducting from + that expense of the sum fixed by the Postmaster-General as incurred on + account of foreign mails or telegraphic communication with a place out + of the United Kingdom, as the case may be; and + + (ii.) Five per cent. of the expenses of the conveyance outside the + United Kingdom of foreign mails, and of the transmission of telegrams + to places outside the United Kingdom; and + + (iii.) Such proportion of the receipts for telegrams to places out of + the United Kingdom as is due in respect of the transmission outside + the United Kingdom of such telegrams. + +(3) The Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office respectively shall +pay to the other of them on account of foreign money orders, of +compensation in respect of postal packets, and of any matters not +specifically provided for in this Schedule, such sums as may be agreed +upon. + +(4) Of the existing debt incurred in respect of telegraphs, a sum of five +hundred and fifty thousand pounds, two and three quarters per cent. +Consolidated Stock shall be treated as debt of the Irish Post Office, and +for paying the dividends on and redeeming such stock there shall be paid +half-yearly by the Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom +an annuity of _eighteen_ thousand pounds for _sixty_ years, and such +annuity when paid into the Exchequer shall be forthwith paid to the +National Debt Commissioners and applied for the reduction of the National +Debt. + +(5) The Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office may agree on the +facilities to be afforded by the Irish Post Office in Ireland in relation +to any matters the administration of which by virtue of this Act remains +with the Postmaster-General, and with respect to the use of the Irish +telegraphic lines for through lines in connection with submarine +telegraphs, or with telegraphic communication with any place out of the +United Kingdom. + +FIFTH SCHEDULE: REGULATIONS AS TO GRATUITIES AND PENSIONS FOR CIVIL +SERVANTS. + +SIXTH SCHEDULE: + + PART I.--REGULATIONS AS TO ESTABLISHMENT OF POLICE FORCES AND AS TO + THE ROYAL IRISH CONSTABULARY AND DUBLIN METROPOLITAN POLICE CEASING TO + EXIST. + +(1) Such local police forces shall be established under such local +authorities and for such counties, municipal boroughs, or other larger +areas, as may be provided by Irish Act. + +(2) Whenever the Executive Committee of the Privy Council in Ireland +certify to the Lord-Lieutenant that a police force, adequate for local +purposes, has been established in any area, then, subject to the +provisions of this Act, he shall within six months thereafter direct the +Royal Irish Constabulary to be withdrawn from the performance of regular +police duties in such area, and such order shall be forthwith carried into +effect. + +(3) Upon any such withdrawal the Lord-Lieutenant shall order measures to +be taken for a proportionate reduction of the numbers of the Royal Irish +Constabulary, and such order shall be duly executed. + +(4) Upon the Executive Committee of the Privy Council in Ireland +certifying to the Lord-Lieutenant that adequate local police forces have +been established in every part of Ireland, then subject to the provisions +of this Act, the Lord-Lieutenant shall within six months after such +certificate, order measures to be taken for causing the whole of the Royal +Irish Constabulary to cease to exist as a police force, and such order +shall be duly executed. + +(5) Where the area in which a local police force is established is part of +the Dublin Metropolitan Police District, the foregoing regulations shall +apply to the Dublin Metropolitan Police in like manner as if that force +were the Royal Irish Constabulary. + + +PART II.--REGULATIONS AS TO GRATUITIES AND PENSIONS FOR THE ROYAL IRISH +CONSTABULARY AND DUBLIN METROPOLITAN POLICE. + +SEVENTH SCHEDULE: REGULATIONS AS TO HOUSES OF THE LEGISLATURE AND THE +MEMBERS THEREOF. + +_Legislative Council._ + +(1) There shall be a separate register of electors of councillors of the +Legislative Council which shall be made, until otherwise provided by Irish +Act, in like manner as the Parliamentary register of electors. + +(2) Where, for the election of Councillors, any counties are combined so +as to form one constituency, then until otherwise provided by Irish Act, + + (_a_) The returning officer for the whole constituency shall be that + one of the returning officers for Parliamentary elections for those + counties to whom the writ is addressed, and the writ shall be + addressed to the returning officer for the constituency with the + largest population, according to the census of 1891. + + (_b_) The returning officer shall have the same authority throughout + the whole constituency as a returning officer to a Parliamentary + election for a county has in the county. + + (_c_) The registers of electors of each county shall jointly be the + register of electors for the constituency. + + (_d_) For the purposes of this Schedule 'county' includes a county of + a city or town, and this Schedule, and the law relating to the + qualification of electors, shall apply, as if the county of a city or + town formed part of the county at large with which it is combined, and + the qualification in the county of a city or town shall be the same as + in such county at large. + +(3) Writs shall be issued for the election of councillors at such time not +less than one or more than three months before the day for the periodical +retirement of councillors as the Lord-Lieutenant in Council may fix. + +(4) The day for the periodical retirement of councillors shall, until +otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the last day of August in every fourth +year. + +(5) For the purposes of such retirement, the constituencies shall be +divided into two equal divisions, and the constituencies in each province +shall be divided as nearly as may be equally between those divisions, and +constituencies returning two or more members shall be treated as two or +more constituencies, and placed in both divisions. + +(6) Subject as aforesaid, the particular constituencies which are to be in +each division shall be determined by lot. + +(7) The said division and lot shall be made and conducted before the +appointed day in manner directed by the Lord-Lieutenant in Council. + +(8) The first councillors elected for the constituencies in the first +division shall retire on the first day of retirement which occurs after +the first meeting of the Irish Legislature, and the first councillors for +the constituencies in the second division shall retire on the second day +of retirement after that meeting. + +(9) Any casual vacancy among the councillors shall be filled by a new +election, but the councillor filling the vacancy shall retire at the time +at which the vacating councillor would have retired. + +_Legislative Assembly._ + +(10) The Parliamentary register of electors for the time being shall, +until otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the register of electors of the +Legislative Assembly. + +_Both Houses._ + +(11) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the Lord-Lieutenant in Council +may make regulations for adapting the existing election laws to the +election of members of the two Houses of the Legislature. + +(12) Annual sessions of the Legislature shall be held. + +(13) Any peer, whether of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, +Scotland, or Ireland, shall be qualified to be a member of either House. + +(14) A member of either House may by writing under his hand resign his +seat, and the same shall thereupon be vacant. + +(15) The same person shall not be a member of both Houses. + +(16) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, if the same person is elected +to a seat in each House, he shall, before the eighth day after the next +sitting of either House, by written notice, elect in which House he will +serve, and upon such election his seat in the other House shall be vacant, +and if he does not so elect, his seat in both Houses shall be vacant. + +(17) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, any such notice electing in +which House a person will sit, or any notice of resignation, shall be +given in manner directed by the Standing Orders of the Houses, and if +there is no such direction, shall be given to the Lord-Lieutenant. + +(18) The powers of either House shall not be affected by any vacancy +therein, or any defect in the election or qualification of any member +thereof. + +(19) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the holders of such Irish +offices as may be named by Order of the Queen in Council before the +appointed day, shall be entitled to be elected to and sit in either House, +notwithstanding that they hold offices under the Crown, but on acceptance +of any such office the seat of any such person in either House shall be +vacated unless he has accepted the office in succession to some other of +the said offices. + +_Transitory._ + +(20) The Lord-Lieutenant in Council may, before the appointed day, make +regulations for the following purposes:-- + + (_a_) The making of a register of electors of councillors in time for + the election of the first councillors, and with that object for the + variation of the days relating to registration in the existing + election laws, and for prescribing the duties of officers, and for + making such adaptations of those laws as appear necessary or proper + for duly making a register; + + (_b_) The summoning of the two Houses of the Legislature of Ireland, + the issue of writs and any other things appearing to be necessary or + proper for the election of members of the two Houses; + + (_c_) The election of a chairman (whether called Speaker, President, + or by any other name) of each House, the quorum of each House, the + communications between the two Houses, and such adaptation to the + proceedings of the two Houses of the procedure of Parliament, as + appears expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by those + Houses on their first meeting; + + (_d_) The adaptation to the two Houses and the members thereof of any + laws and customs relating to the House of Commons or the members + thereof; + + (_e_) The deliberation and voting together of the two Houses in cases + provided by this Act. + +(21) The regulations maybe altered by Irish Act, and also in so far as +they concern the procedure of either House alone, by Standing Orders of +that House, but shall, until altered, have effect as if enacted in this +Act. + + + + +NOTE I + +FROM THE 'MEMOIRS OF THE LATE LORD SELBORNE' + +(Part ii. pp. 261-263). + + +... Each new step Gladstone takes is, as it seems to me, more and more on +the side of _moral_ as well as political evil. Much as I disapproved of +his surrender of last year to Parnell, I disapprove very much more of his +present endeavour to prevent the restoration in the present stage of the +Home Rule question, of the reign of law in Ireland, and of the _means_ he +is attempting to use for _that_ purpose. Deliberate and organised +obstruction in the House of Commons, and an attempt to overrule a majority +against him there, of more than one hundred, by violent appeals to popular +passions outside,--those appeals being supported by representing the cause +of anarchy and conspiring against law as the cause of liberty,--by denying +the existence of any case for strengthening the law, in the face of a +complete and manifest paralysis of law by the power of a seditious +organisation, into whose scale he has now thrown his whole influence,--and +by denouncing, in the most violent terms, the principle of measures for +the protection of the loyal, and for securing the due administration of +justice, which are the same (in their general character, for it is not +necessary here to go into questions of detail) with those by means of +which he himself governed Ireland for the last years of his power, and far +more consistent with all real ideas of liberty than the suspension of the +Habeas Corpus Act, which he introduced in 1881. It was quite open to him +(of course) to contend that, by the acceptance of his Home Rule scheme, +the necessity for any such measures might be prevented, and that he +prefers and insists upon that alternative,--so much as _that_ was involved +in his measures of last year; but it is quite a different thing to +denounce the principle of maintaining law and government, and defending +those who respect and obey law from the tyranny of conspirators against +it, and making the ordinary criminal law of the country a reality and not +a mere idle name,--'as coercion,' in the sense of an undue invasion of +liberty. To do this, and to appeal _ad populum_ against it from an +overwhelming majority in Parliament is _Acheronta movere_, with a +vengeance.... For a man who, with his attainments, his experience, his +professions, his fifty years' public service, his political education +under some of the greatest and best men of the time, has three times +filled the highest office in the State, and is now on the verge of the +grave, so to end his career, seems to me more shocking and disheartening +than anything else recorded in our history. It is only the old respect, +and old attachment, which makes one search about for the possible +explanations, in the workings of a very complex and intricate mind. If (as +I trust) the Government and the House of Commons stand firm, all his +efforts in the cause of anarchy will be in vain. The clause as to removing +trials to England may have to be given up; but the _permanence_ of the +Bill (its best feature of all) must remain, if any good is to be done. + +... I will spare you a long yarn about politics this time. The G.O.M. +seems to be determined to pull the whole Irish house down, parliamentary +government and all, unless he can have his own way. But I have no fear +that he _will_ have his way, just at present, whatever harm he may do in +the endeavour. But the struggle is very disagreeable, as well as sharp. + + + + +NOTE II + +REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSION (Vol. iv. pp. 544, 545). + +_Conclusions of the Report of the Judges._ + + +We have now pursued our inquiry over a sufficiently extended period to +enable us to report upon the several charges and allegations which have +been made against the respondents, and we have indicated in the course of +this statement our findings upon these charges and allegations, but it +will be convenient to repeat _seriatim_ the conclusions we have arrived +at upon the issues which have been raised for our consideration. + +I. We find that the respondent members of Parliament collectively were not +members of a conspiracy having for its object to establish the absolute +independence of Ireland, but we find that some of them, together with Mr. +Davitt, established and joined in the Land League organisation with the +intention by its means to bring about the absolute independence of Ireland +as a separate nation. The names of these respondents are set out on a +previous page. + +II. We find that the respondents did enter into a conspiracy by a system +of coercion and intimidation to promote an agrarian agitation against the +payment of agricultural rents, for the purpose of impoverishing and +expelling from the country the Irish landlords who were styled the +'English Garrison.' + +III. We find that the charge that 'when on certain occasions they thought +it politic to denounce, and did denounce, certain crimes in public they +afterwards led their supporters to believe such denunciations were not +sincere' is not established. We entirely acquit Mr. Parnell and the other +respondents of the charge of insincerity in their denunciation of the +Phoenix Park murders, and find that the 'facsimile' letters on which +this charge was chiefly based as against Mr. Parnell is a forgery. + +IV. We find that the respondents did disseminate the _Irish World_ and +other newspapers tending to incite to sedition and the commission of other +crime. + +V. We find that the respondents did not directly incite persons to the +commission of crime other than intimidation, but that they did incite to +intimidation, and that the consequence of that incitement was that crime +and outrage were committed by the persons incited. We find that it has not +been proved that the respondents made payments for the purpose of inciting +persons to commit crime. + +VI. We find as to the allegation that the respondents did nothing to +prevent crime and expressed no _bonâ fide_ disapproval, that some of the +respondents, and in particular Mr. Davitt, did express _bonâ fide_ +disapproval of crime and outrage, but that the respondents did not +denounce the system of intimidation which led to crime and outrage, but +persisted in it with knowledge of its effect. + +VII. We find that the respondents did defend persons charged with agrarian +crime, and supported their families, but that it has not been proved that +they subscribed to testimonials for, or were intimately associated with, +notorious criminals, or that they made payments to procure the escape of +criminals from justice. + +VIII. We find, as to the allegation that the respondents made payments to +compensate persons who had been injured in the commission of crime, that +they did make such payments. + +IX. As to the allegation that the respondents invited the assistance and +co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money from known advocates +of crime and the use of dynamite, we find that the respondents did invite +the assistance and co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money +from Patrick Ford, a known advocate of crime and the use of dynamite, but +that it has not been proved that the respondents, or any of them, knew +that the Clan-na-Gael controlled the League or was collecting money for +the Parliamentary Fund. It has been proved that the respondents invited +and obtained the assistance and co-operation of the Physical Force Party +in America, including the Clan-na-Gael, and in order to obtain that +assistance, abstained from repudiating or condemning the action of that +party. + + + + +Index + + + A + + Administration of the affairs of Ireland: its nature and defects, 28, 29. + + Agrarian crime in Ireland, 12, 29, 128, 135, 146. _See_ Whiteboyism + + Agriculture, state of, in Ireland, 3, 7, 204, 205, 206, 234 + + + B + + Balfour, Mr. Arthur: his successful policy when Chief Secretary for + Ireland, 58; + he establishes light railways in Ireland, and the Congested Districts + Board, 35, 36 + + Belfast, improvement in, within the last sixty years, 2 + + Bewley, Mr. Justice, the head of the Second Land Commission: his theory + of occupation right in the Irish land, 219, 220 + + Bureaucracy, the, of the Castle, 28, 29 + + Butt, Isaac: the true author of the conception of Home Rule, 41; + his work on Irish Federalism, 42 + + + C + + Chicago, the Convention at, in 1886: speeches of two of Parnell's + envoys, 57 + + Code, the Irish Penal: its effects on the Irish land, 99, 100. _See_ the + Question of the Irish Land, Chap. III., in several places + + Commissions appointed for considering and administering Irish affairs: + (1) the Devon Commission and its Report--the mistake it made as to + Irish land tenure, 116; + (2) the Childers Commission and its Report on Irish finance, 288-291 + (_see_ chapter on the Present Question of Irish Finance, _passim_); + (3) the Land Commission appointed to carry out the Land Act of 1881 + and its supplements, 166, 190, 191. _See_ Chaps. IV., V., VI., on + the Question of the Irish Land, in many places + + Confiscations of the Irish Land, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96. _See_ Chap. + III., on the Question of the Irish Land, in several places + + Cork has not prospered within the last sixty years, 2 + + Cromwell, Irish policy of, especially as to the land, 93, 94 + + + D + + Davitt, Michael, inaugurates the Irish Land League, 44 + + Derby, the Administration of Lord, brings in Irish Land Bills in 1852, + which do not become law, 123 + + Dublin, improvements in, within sixty years, 2 + + + E + + Emancipation, Catholic: its effects on Irish landed relations, 113, 114 + + Encumbered Estates Act: an iniquitous measure of confiscation, and its + results, 121, 122 + + Exodus, the, of the Irish race after the Famine, 120. _See_ Chap. III., + the Question of the Irish Land, in several places + + + F + + Famine, the Great Irish, of 1845-47, 117, 118, 119; + and _see_ Chap. III., on the Irish land, in several places + + Fenian outbreaks in Ireland, 128, 129; + the consequences, 129; + the influence of Fenianism in Ireland after 1870, 147 + + Finance, the question of Irish: the financial relations between Great + Britain and Ireland a subject of long controversy, 271; + what they were before 1782, 273, + and under Grattan's Parliament, 274; + increase of the debt and the taxation of Ireland by the close of the + eighteenth century, 274, 275; + the financial arrangements made at the Union, the work of Pitt, 275, + 276; + his object was to 'assimilate Great Britain and Ireland in finance,' + but this was impossible, and why, ibid.; + the financial settlement effected at the Union--Ireland to pay a + contribution, but not to be taxed beyond her means, ibid.; + the seventh article of the Treaty of Union and its constitutional + meaning, 277, 278; + the settlement denounced in the Irish Parliament, especially by Foster + and Grattan, 279; + protest of the twenty peers, 279, 280; + the Union left Ireland financially a distinct country, 280; + the settlement made at the Union reduced her to bankruptcy, and how, + 281, 282; + the compromise of 1816, 282, 283; + the real objects of this measure, 283, 284; + though theoretically to 'be assimilated' in finance, Ireland remained + for many years financially a completely distinct country, and the + reasons, 284; + this fully recognised by Peel in 1842, 285; + he refused to extend the income tax to Ireland, and permanently to + increase her spirit duties, ibid.; + Mr. Gladstone in 1853 suddenly disregards this policy, and imposes the + income tax on Ireland, and raises her spirit duties, 286; + gross injustice of this increase of taxation, especially under the + circumstances of Ireland, 286, 289; + Ireland to a considerable extent 'assimilated in finance' to Great + Britain, but not completely, even to the present day, a fact that + should be kept in mind, 287; + the Committee of 1863-64 on Irish finance, ibid.; + it fails to get Ireland justice, 288; + Mr. Goschen appoints a Committee to investigate the subject, ibid.; + this followed by the Childers Commission, appointed by Mr. Gladstone + in 1893, ibid.; + scope of the inquiry, 288, 289; + the work of the Childers Commission, 289; + it reports that Ireland has been overtaxed at the rate of between two + and three millions a year, and that for a very considerable space + of time, 290; + view of Sir R. Giffen that even this estimate falls short of the real + truth, 291, 292; + this overtaxation especially severe in the case of Ireland, a poor + country, 292-295; + the attempts that have been made to answer and refute the Report of + the Childers Commission have been grotesque failures, 295; + examination of these arguments and reply to them--they are either + fallacious, or mischievous and dangerous, 295-305; + question of a counterclaim against Ireland in finance, 306; + financial redress which Ireland has a right to demand, 307; + the question should be settled, 308 + + Foster, Mr., Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, opposes the + financial arrangements of the Union, 272 + + + G + + Galway in decay, 6 + + Gladstone, Mr.: he ridicules Butt's scheme of Home Rule, 44; + fall of his Administration in 1885, 46; + his attitude at the General Election of that year, ibid.; + he becomes a convert to Home Rule and the probable reasons, 47, 48; + the best members of the Liberal Party break away from him, 48; + he introduces his first Home Rule Bill, ibid.; + he dissolves Parliament after the rejection of that measure by the + House of Commons, 56; + he allies himself with the party of disorder in Ireland, 58, 59; + he negotiates with Parnell about Home Rule, 59; + he returns to office in 1892 with a small majority, 61; + he introduces his second Home Rule Bill in 1893, 62; + his Irish policy in 1868, 131; + he disestablishes and disendows the Protestant church in Ireland, + ibid.; + he makes no provision for the Irish Catholic clergy, a capital + mistake, 132; + he introduces the Land Act of 1870 for Ireland, 139, 140; + he declares against the Three F's, and announces that this measure is + to be final, ibid.; + he becomes Minister for the second time in 1880, 154; + he introduces the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, 155; + he surrenders to the Land League and introduces the Land Act of 1881, + 169; + he makes the Kilmainham treaty with Parnell, 170; + the fiscal wrong he does to Ireland in 1853-60, 286; + he appoints the Childers Commission in 1893 to investigate the subject + of Irish finance, 288; + his scheme of Irish University Reform, 343, 344. + And _see_ Chap. VIII., on Other Irish Questions + + Goschen, Mr., refers the question of the financial relations of Great + Britain and Ireland to a Committee, 288 + + Grattan: he denounces the financial settlement made at the Union for + Ireland, 279 + + + H + + Henry VII.: his Irish policy, 89 + + Henry VIII.: his wise policy for Ireland unhappily prevented, 89, 90 + + Home Rule, the question of: Home Rule not dead, 39; + the present attitude of the Liberal and the 'Nationalist' parties + towards Home Rule, 40; + it is a 'Present Irish Question,' 41; + Isaac Butt inaugurated this policy, ibid.; + his plan of Home Rule, 42; + the Irish Home Rule party, 43; + Butt's proposals powerfully attacked in Parliament, notably by Mr. + Gladstone, ibid.; + Butt is gradually supplanted by Parnell, 44; + Michael Davitt and the 'New Departure,' ibid.; + Parnell the head of the Land League, 44, 45; + Mr. Gladstone succumbs to it, 45; + Home Rule condemned by statesmen of all parties in 1880-84, ibid.; + Mr. Gladstone accepts Home Rule, 47; + the first Home Rule Bill of 1886, 48; + its characteristics and the objections to it, 48-50; + what its results would have been, 51-54; + the Bill is rejected in the House of Commons, 55; + attitude of the Fenians in America, 55, 56; + causes that promoted the Home Rule policy in Great Britain, 59, 60; + results of the General Election of 1892, 61; + the Home Rule Bill of 1893, 62; + its characteristics and vices, 62-64; + it is a much more objectionable measure than that of 1886, and why, + 65; + strong opposition to it in the country, 68; + the in-and-out plan given up, 69; + the Bill passes the House of Commons by a small majority through the + expedient of 'closure by compartments' 69; + it is rejected in the House of Lords by an overwhelming majority, 70; + Home Rule is scattered to the winds at the General Election of 1895, + ibid.; + it is not a prominent question at that of 1900, ibid.; + the subject cannot be dismissed, 71; + different forms of Home Rule, 71-73; + separation a better policy than Home Rule, 73; + 'Home Rule all round,' 73, 74; + conclusive objections to this scheme, 74-77; + the Union must be maintained, and Home Rule rejected by the nation, 78; + the rule of the Imperial Parliament has had some bad effects in Irish + affairs, and why, 79, 80; + proposal that the Imperial Parliament should occasionally sit in + Dublin, and the advantages of this, 81; + royalty should sometimes visit Ireland, 82; + necessity, in order to guard against Home Rule, and for other reasons, + to reduce the over-representation of Ireland in the House of + Commons, 82, 83 + + + I + + Ireland in 1901: a revolution has passed over Ireland, 2; + she has made some material progress, 2; + Dublin and Belfast, ibid.; + improvement in the habitations of the community and in Catholic places + of worship, 2, 3; + material progress of the community, 3-5; + the dark side of the picture, 5; + decline of several towns in Ireland, of manufactures, of fishing + industry, and of agriculture, 6, 7; + Ireland a poor country, 7; + excessive emigration, 8; + great increase of local and general taxation, 8; + the progress of Ireland as nothing compared to that of England and + Scotland, 9; + the Irish land system at the beginning of the reign of Victoria, 11; + sketch of it from that to the present time, 11-17 (and _see_ the + Question of the Irish Land, Chap. III., in many places); + Ireland and her three peoples, 18; + Catholic Ireland remains for the most part disaffected, despite the + great reforms effected in its interest, 19-21; + the Catholic democracy of Ireland, 21; + failure of the policy of conciliation, 22; + Presbyterian Ireland--its sentiments and demands, ibid.; + Protestant Ireland--its position in the community, 22, 23; + discontent of the landed gentry, 23; + character of the Irish legislation of the Imperial Parliament, 23-25, + and of its administration of Irish affairs, 28, 29; + the Anglican Church of Ireland, 30; + the Presbyterian Church, ibid.; + the Catholic Church, 31; + the administration of justice in Ireland, 31, 32; + Irish literature and education, 32, 33; + _resumé_ of the general condition of Ireland, 33-35; + the Irish policy of Lord Salisbury's Government during the last six + years, 35, 36; + Ireland still 'the vulnerable part near the heart of the Empire,' 37, + 38 + + + L + + Lalor, John Finton, a rebel of 1848: his teaching with respect to the + Irish land, 148 + + Land, the question of the Irish: importance of the subject, 184, 185; + the Celtic tribal land system in Ireland, 86, 87; + the tribes, clans, and septs, 87; + the partial feudalisation of the land system, 87; + collective ownership of which traces still exist, 87; + the Anglo-Norman Conquest of Ireland and the Colony of the Pale, 88; + the land falls into the hands of great families, ibid.; + miserable state of Ireland at the close of the fifteenth century, 89; + Henry VII. and Poynings, ibid.; + sagacious policy of Henry VIII., especially as regards the land, 90; + this, unfortunately, was not carried out, ibid.; + the era of conquest begins, and of the confiscation of the Irish land, + ibid.; + confiscation of the territories of the O'Connors of Offaly, of Shane + O'Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond, 90, 91; + rebellion of Tyrone, 91; + all Ireland made shireland, and the old Celtic land system is effaced + by law, ibid.; + English modes of land tenure imposed on the people, 91, 92; + confiscation of the territories of Tyrone and of O'Donnell, 92; + the Plantation of Ulster, ibid.; + further confiscation in times of peace, ibid.; + Strafford marks out Connaught for confiscation, 92; + beginning of Protestant ascendency in the land, 93; + vast confiscations effected by Cromwell, 93; + his scheme of a general colonisation of Ireland fails, 93-95; + results of the Cromwellian conquest in the land, 95; + policy of Charles II. as regards the land, ibid.; + confiscations after the Boyne and the fall of Limerick, 96; + state of the Irish land system when the period of violent confiscation + ends, 97, 98; + the era of Protestant ascendency and of Catholic subjection in + Ireland, 98, 99; + the Penal Code and its effects on the land, 99, 100; + mournful period in Irish history, 100-102; + gradual improvement in Irish landed relations, 102-104; + evil traces of the past: Whiteboyism, 105; + traditions of the ancient land system survive, 106; + Edmund Burke on Irish land tenures--he indicates a grave economic vice + in the land system, 107; + progress of Ireland after 1782, ibid.; + its effects on the land, 108; + evil results of the Rebellion of 1798, 109; + the Union Speech of Lord Clare on Irish landed relations, 109; + revolution in the land system in the first years of the nineteenth + century, 110; + the important social and economic results, 110, 111; + want of a poor-law, 111; + the concurrent rights of tenants in the land not protected by the law, + ibid.; + period of distress after the Peace of 1815, 112, 113; + evictions and clearances of estates, 113; + agrarian disorder, 113; + Catholic Emancipation, ibid.; + its results as regards Irish landed relations, 114; + Peel and the Irish land, 115; + the Devon Commission and its Report, 115, 116; + its recommendations as to land tenure ill conceived and condemned in + Ireland, 117; + the Famine of 1845-47, and its effects on the Irish land, 118, 119; + the exodus, 120; + the Encumbered Estates Act, and the effects of this scheme of + confiscation, 121, 122; + agrarian agitation of 1852 in Ireland fails, 123; + false ideas of British statesmen as regards the land, 129; + partial prosperity in Ireland for some years, 125; + this largely deceptive, 126; + growth of Fenianism, 128; + the Fenian outbreak, 128, 129; + change of opinion in England as regards Ireland, 129; + Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister, 130; + state of the Irish land system before the Land Act of 1870, 132-138; + the Land Act of 1870 and its provisions, 141-143; + merits and defects of this measure, 144, 145; + state of Irish landed relations after the Act, 146, 147; + origin of the Land League, 151, 152; + distress in Ireland, and the Land League, 152-154; + the Compensation for Disturbance Bill rejected by the House of Lords, + 155; + frightful state of Ireland and of landed relations in 1880-81, 155-161; + the Land Act of 1881, 165; + the provisions of the measure, 165, 166; + the Act is directly opposed to that of 1870, 168; + the no-rent movement, 179; + the National League replaces the Land League, 171, 172; + state of Irish landed relations in 1886 and 1887, 175; + the Land Act of 1887, 175; + the Land Act of 1891, 178, 179; + the land purchase section in the Irish Land Act, 183; + the principle of this system false and dangerous, ibid.; + the Land Purchase Act of 1891, 184; + recent legislation on the Irish land unjust and tending to + confiscation, 186, 187. + The administration of the Irish Land Acts, 188; + of the Act of 1870, 189; + of the Act of 1881, and its supplements, 190; + the first Land Commission--allowances to be made for it, 191; + principles it should have followed and course it should have pursued + in fixing 'fair rents,' 192-197; + the Sub-Commission--nature of these tribunals, 197, 198; + how they ought to have fixed 'fair rents,' 199, 203; + criticism of Mr. Lecky, 203, 204; + examples of injustice, 204, 209; + faulty methods of fixing 'fair rents,' 209, 213; + appeals to the Land Commission rendered almost nugatory, 215, 218; + the second Land Commission: Mr. Justice Bewley and his theory of + occupation right, 219, 221; + instance of a gross mistake, 222; + the Fry Commission--its Report a masked censure on the proceedings of + the Land Commission, 222, 224; + Mr. Justice Meredith head of the present Land Commission, 224; + conduct of the Government as regards the Report of the Fry Commission, + 225; + results of the labours of the Land Commission and the Sub-Commission + in fixing 'fair rents,' 225, 227; + confiscation of the property of landlords, 227; + excuses made for this false, 228, 229; + results of the system of land purchase so far, ibid.; + mischievous and dangerous consequences of all this legislation on the + Irish land; + a retrospect of it on the side of occupation, 230-237; + judgment of Mr. Lecky, 237, 238; + retrospect of it on the side of ownership, especially with regard to + the subject of 'compulsive purchase,' which the system of + 'voluntary purchase' has necessarily made a grave question, + 238-256; + judgment of Mr. Lecky, 256, 257; + the Irish land system in a deplorable state, 257-259; + plan of the author for the reform of this system approved by Mr. + Gladstone and by Parnell, 259-266; + the compensation of the Irish landlords must be accomplished if public + faith is to be kept and common justice done, 266-270 + + Land League, the: Reign of Terror caused by, 14; + its teaching and that of the National League, 20; + ascendency of the Land League in ten or eleven Irish counties, 45; + frightful state of Ireland due to it, 158-162 + + Law, Mr., the Irish Attorney-General of Mr. Gladstone in 1881: his + definition of 'fair rent,' 192 + + Limerick in decay, 6 + + Litton, Mr. E. F., a member of the first Land Commission, 192 + + Local Government, sketch of, in Ireland, 309-329. _See_ Chap. VIII., + Other Irish Questions, in several places + + + M + + Macaulay, Lord: speech on the state of Ireland in 1844, 36 + + Meredith, Mr. Justice, head of the present Land Commission: a capable + lawyer, but bound by the precedents of his forerunners, 229 + + + N + + National League, the: it replaces the Land League, 47, 48; + its leaders set on foot 'The Plan of Campaign,' 57; + it was founded by Parnell, 171; + its character, 172; + agrarian side of the National League movement, 174, 175; + decline of the power of the National League in 1889, 177; + it is at its lowest ebb in 1895, ibid. + + National system of education, 332-336. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Other + Present Irish Questions + + + O + + O'Connell: his evidence on the state of Ireland in 1825, 5; + he wrings Catholic Emancipation from a reluctant Government, 113; + leader of the Repeal movement of 1843-44, 115 + + O'Hagan, Mr. Justice, head of the first Land Commission, 190 + + 'Other Present Irish Questions,' Chap. VIII. + I. Local Government in Ireland, 309; + the grand juries, their composition and functions, 311-314; + the administration of the poor law and the Boards of Guardians, + 314-315; + the administration of cities and towns--its history, 315-318; + character of, in recent times, 318-320; + how the reform of 1898 was brought about, 320, 321; + sketch of the Local Government Act of 1898, 321-326; + and of its working up to the present time, 326-329. + II. Education in Ireland, history of, 330 _seqq._: + primary education, 330-332; + the National system founded by Mr. Stanley--its principles and + history, 332-336. + Secondary education, diocesan schools, 336; + Royal schools, ibid.; + Erasmus Smith schools, 337; + other schools; the system has not been successful, and why, 337, 338. + University education, Trinity College, its history and the character + of the institution, 338-341; + Peel founds the Queen's Colleges and University, 341; + character of these institutions, 392; + the Catholic University, ibid.; + Mr. Gladstone's scheme of Irish University reform, 343, 344; + grave objections to it, 345, 346; + it is rejected by the House of Commons, 346; + Trinity College "opened," ibid.; + the Royal University, 347; + injustice of the present system of University education in Ireland, + 347-351; + two plans of reform suggested, the second to be preferred, 351-360 + + + P + + Palmerston, Lord: he condemns Irish tenant right, 124 + + Parnell: supplants Butt, 44; + leader of the Land League, 44, 45; + he denounces the Conservative party in 1885, 46; + he pretends to accept the Home Rule Bill of 1886, 55; + the special commission and Parnell, 59; + he negotiates with Mr. Gladstone on Home Rule, ibid.; + his fall, 59 + + Peel: his remarks on the Constitution in Ireland, 32; + he appoints the Devon Commission, 115; + his policy during the famine, 117; + he refuses in 1842 to extend the income tax to Ireland, 285; + he founds the Queen's Colleges and the Queen's University in Ireland, + 341 + + Pitt: the author of the financial arrangements made at the Union, 275 + + Primary education in Ireland, 330-336. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Other + Present Irish Questions + + + Q + + Queen's Colleges and Queen's University: founded by Peel, 341. _See_ + Chap. VIII., on Other Present Irish Questions + + + R + + Rebellion of 1798: its effects on the Irish Land, 109 + + + S + + Salisbury, Lord: character of the Irish policy of his ministry, 35, 36 + + Stanley, Mr., founds the system of National Education in Ireland, 332 + + Strafford: his Irish policy, 92 + + + T + + Trinity College, 338-341. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Present Irish Questions + + + U + + Ulster Custom, the, 111, 123, 137, 141 + + Union, The, 78, 79, 109 + + United Irish League, the: fills the place of the Land and the National + Leagues, 26; + speeches and conduct of its leaders, 26, 27 + + + V + + Vernon, Mr. I. E., one of the members of the first Land Commission, 190 + + + W + + Whiteboyism in Ireland, 12, 105, 160, 161 + + + Y + + Young, Arthur: his tour in Ireland, 109, 110 + + + APPENDICES + + I. The Irish Government Bill, 1886, 361-387 + + II. The Irish Government Bill, 1893, 388-424 + + III. Note I. From the 'Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne,' 425, 426 + + IV. Report of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545. Conclusion + of the Report of the Judges, 426-428 + + +THE END + + + + + LONDON: + + PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, + STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] It considerably exceeds 300,000 by the figures of the census of 1901. + +[2] + + 1841 1891 + Houses of the first class 40,080 70,740 + " second class 264,184 466,632 + " third class 533,297 312,589 + " fourth class 491,278 20,617 + +These figures are taken from that most valuable publication, 'Thom's Irish +Directory for 1901,' p. 631. It contains the statistics of Ireland +carefully compiled from official sources. + +[3] There has been a small decrease since 1895. + +[4] Evidence taken before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, +1824-25, vol. i. p. 49. The whole of O'Connell's evidence should be +studied. + +[5] + + 1894 1900 + Funded Debt held in Ireland £22,917,530 £18,303,627 + + Government Funds and other securities: + India Stock, Land Stock, + War Stock, Joint Stock Banks, + Trustee Savings Banks, and Post + Office Savings Banks £67,432,000 £77,494,000 + + 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 718. + + +[6] See the remarkable evidence of Mr. Booth, a high authority, taken by +the Childers Commission, 'Minutes of Evidence,' vol. ii. pp. 212, 213. +This should all be studied. + +[7] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 699. + +[8] Report of Childers Commission, p. 43-- + + 1851-55 1889-93 + Crops £58,537,000 £34,643,000 + Stock £39,348,000 £53,312,000 + + +[9] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 684. + +[10] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 629. + +[11] See the striking observations of Mr. Childers, well worth serious +attention: 'Report of the Childers Commission,' pp. 186, 187. + +[12] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 662. Number of paupers relieved in 1890, +454,178; in 1898, 525,104. Charge in 1890, £856,008; in 1898, £981,333. +These are the latest returns. + +[13] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 674. Assessment of lands, in 1890, under +Schedule A, £12,736,967; in 1899, £11,664,453. Funded property at the same +periods, £803,300 and £615,630. These, too, are the latest returns. + +[14] 'Report of the Childers Commission,' p. 72. I cite also the following +from the Report, p. 43: 'The income-tax figures are, perhaps, the best and +most complete test of the comparative growth of the wealth of the two +countries. Taking the two years, 1854 and 1892, we find that the net +assessment for Great Britain was, in 1854, £245,389,931; and in 1892, +£570,971,740. The net assessment for Ireland was, in 1854, £21,334,448; +and in 1892, £26,851,585. In these thirty-eight years the net assessment +for Great Britain is more than two and a third times as great as it was in +1854, whilst that for Ireland has only increased by one quarter. Put in +percentage form, the figures are still more striking: In 1854 Great +Britain was assessed at 92 per cent. of the whole; Ireland 8 per cent. In +1892 Great Britain was assessed at 95.50 per cent, of the whole; Ireland +4.50 per cent. In other words, Ireland's assessment was to that of Great +Britain as 1 to 11 in 1854, and as 1 to 21 in 1892.' + +[15] See on this subject the true and indignant remarks of Mr. Lecky, +'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 27, 28. + +[16] The tone of disaffected opinion in Ireland can only be thoroughly +understood by a careful study of the conduct and the language of +'Nationalist' leaders. I select a few specimens out of hundreds of +instances. Mr. William O'Brien, the Corypheus of the United Irish League, +spake thus at Letterkenny in January, 1900: 'If ten thousand Frenchmen, or +Russians, or Germans were to land in Bantry Bay, with a supply of arms for +the people, they would walk over the country and drive the English +garrison into the sea.' The same worthy exclaimed at a monster meeting in +Dublin in September, 'English rule in Ireland was so bad that they would +be justified in chasing the English out of Ireland bag and baggage. What +was wanting to them, unfortunately, were the guns and artillery to do it.' +Mr. Michael Davitt, of Land League renown, speaking in the Queen's County +about the same time, said, 'England is unquestionably the greatest empire +of liars (loud cheers and laughter), of hypocrites, and of poltroons, +judged by its achievements in South Africa, that has ever postured before +mankind with a civilising mission.' Because the Corporation of Dublin +voted, by a small majority, an address to Queen Victoria when she paid her +last visit to Ireland, Mr. John Redmond, the chairman of the 'Irish +Parliamentary Party,' said, in January, 1901, 'It rests with the people +themselves to say whether they will redeem the reputation of Dublin from +the stain that has been cast on it.' So Mr. John Dillon, M.P., spoke in +the same sense, a few months ago, 'The voice of the capital will be the +voice of the rest of Ireland (applause), that we will not tolerate in this +old city that new type of politics which thinks it consistent with Irish +nationality to cringe and crouch before a foreign queen.' At least two +County Councils in Ireland, and more than one Local Board, refused to vote +an expression of condolence when the Queen died. It is painful to contrast +these sentiments with the loyalty of O'Connell when the Queen ascended the +throne. + +[17] Since the above lines were written, there has been a serious outbreak +of agrarian crime in Ireland in the form of incendiary fires, which may be +distinctly traced to the operations of the United Irish League. + +[18] Speech in the House of Commons, February 19, 1844. + +[19] The figures were 1,238,342 against 1,316,327: Dicey, 'England's Case +against Home Rule,' p. 35. + +[20] Butt maintained, in his place in Parliament (Hansard, March 20, +1874), that this was the true import of his project. + +[21] Speech on receiving the freedom of Aberdeen, September 26, 1871. + +[22] See Mr. Gladstone's 'History of an Idea,' an apology for his attitude +towards Home Rule at this time, which seems to me to be his condemnation. + +[23] For an admirable analysis of the Bill, see Dicey's 'England's Case +against Home Rule,' pp. 223-273. The text of the Bill will be found in the +Appendix to this volume. + +[24] For a full statement of Mr. Gladstone's 'conditions,' see his speech +in the House of Commons, April 8, 1886. + +[25] 'Reflections on the Revolution in France,' vol. i. p. 384, ed. 1834. + +[26] Report of the Special Commission, vol. iv. p. 542. + +[27] 'The Queen's Enemies in America,' p. 24. + +[28] For a scathing condemnation of Mr. Gladstone's public conduct in +these years, see several great speeches of Lord Hartington and Mr. +Goschen. See also 'The Memoirs of Lord Selborne,' Part II. vol. ii. pp. +261, _et seq._, and note in Appendix to this volume. See, too, Dicey's +'Leap in the Dark,' p. 190. Lord Selborne's sketch of Mr. Gladstone's +character as a statesman, 'Memoirs,' Part II. vol. ii. pp. 339-359, +deserves careful study. Mr. Lecky's admirable account, 'Democracy and +Liberty,' introduction to vol. i., second edition, is well known. + +[29] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545. See the note at the end +of this volume in the Appendix. + +[30] For a very able analysis of and commentary on the Bill of 1893, see +Professor Dicey's 'Leap in the Dark.' For the text of the Bill, see the +Appendix to this volume. + +[31] Dicey's 'Leap in the Dark,' p. 57. + +[32] 'England's Case against Home Rule,' p. 168. + +[33] The German Empire, in which Prussia is the leading State, may seem an +example to the contrary; but the German Empire is hardly a Federation +properly so called; it is a great military monarchy ruling subject +kingdoms. + +[34] I feel obliged to refer to these authorities; not in order to stir up +resentment against England in Ireland, but to point out a most important, +if unfortunate, fact in the relations between the two countries. Swift, in +his 'View of the State of Ireland,' Works, vol. ii. 8vo ed. 1890, says, +'We are in the condition of patients, who have physic sent them by doctors +at a distance, strangers to their constitution and the nature of the +disease.' Burke, 'Correspondence,' vol. iii. p. 438, has remarked, 'I have +never known any of the successive Governments of my time influenced by any +other feeling relative to Ireland than the wish that they should hear of +it and of its concerns as little as possible.' So Grattan, cited by Mr. +Lecky, vol. vii. p. 108, exclaimed, 'It is a matter of melancholy +reflection to consider how little the Cabinet knows of anything relating +to Ireland. Ireland is a subject it considers with a lazy contumely, and +picks up here and there, by accident or design, interested and erroneous +intelligence.' I quote this passage from one of the speeches of Lord +Clare: 'The people of England know less of this country than of any other +nation in Europe;' and this passage from one of the speeches of O'Connell: +'We are governed by foreigners; foreigners make our laws.... As to +Ireland, the Imperial Parliament has the additional disadvantage springing +from want of interest and total ignorance. I do not exaggerate; the +ministers are in total ignorance of this country.' This want of knowledge +of Ireland, too often associated with indifference, has, I repeat, been +distinctly made manifest of late years. + +[35] These figures are taken from the Irish census of 1891. By the census +of 1901, the population of Antrim and Down has increased, and that of +every other county in Ireland, except Dublin, has declined. The +over-representation of Ireland has thus become more than ever an unjust +anomaly. + +[36] For an admirable account of the ancient land system of Celtic +Ireland, see Maine's 'Early History of Institutions.' I may be allowed to +refer to an article on this work, from my pen, in the _Edinburgh Review_ +of July, 1875, and to the first chapter of my 'History of Ireland,' in the +Cambridge 'Historical Series.' + +[37] In the case of this, as of all the chapters, a list of the principal +authorities and sources of information will be found in the preface to +this book. For the conquest and confiscations of the Irish land, from the +Norman Conquest to the end of the reign of William III., see 'The Statute +of Kilkenny,' edited by James Hardiman; 'The Discoverie of Sir John +Davies;' 'The Carew Papers,' edited by J. S. Brewer and William Bullen; +Spenser's 'View of the State of Ireland;' Holingshead's 'Chronicles of +Ireland;' Carte's 'Life of Ormond;' Lord Clanricarde's 'Memoirs;' Sir +William Petty's 'Political Anatomy of Ireland;' 'Macariæ Excidium;' and +King's 'State of the Protestants of Ireland.' As regards modern +authorities, numerous, and some very valuable, the reader may be referred +to Froude's 'History of England,' vol. ii. ch. viii.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.; +vol. viii. chs. vii., xi.; vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii.; to Mr. +Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. ch. vi.; +and to the Irish chapters in Mr. Gardiner's 'History of England,' from the +Accession of James I. to the outbreak of the Civil War; to his 'History of +the Great Civil War,' vol. i. chs. vi., xi.; vol. ii. chs. xxvii., +xxxvii., xliv.; and to the Irish chapters of his 'History of the +Commonwealth and Protectorate.' Other modern works on the subject are +Sigerson's 'History of Land Tenure in Ireland;' 'An Historical Account of +the Plantation of Ulster,' by the Rev. George Hill; 'The Cromwellian +Settlement of Ireland,' by John P. Prendergast; and the 'Life of Sir +William Petty,' by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice. See a review by me of this +last work in the _Edinburgh Review_ of July, 1895; and also chs. iii., +iv., and v. of my 'History of Ireland, 1494-1868,' referred to before. +There are innumerable minor authorities; and Hallam's 'Chapter on +Ireland,' vol. iii., may be studied. + +[38] 'Letter to Sir Hercules Langriche:' 'Works,' vol. i. p. 560, ed. +1834. + +[39] For an account of the penal laws of Ireland, see Vincent Scully on +'The Irish Penal Laws;' Howard's 'Popery Laws;' and Burke's 'Tracts on the +Popery Laws,' a short but masterly work. + +[40] For the state of Ireland and of the Irish land at this period, see +the Irish Statute Book from 1700 to about 1750, and especially the +writings of Swift and Berkeley on Irish affairs. Swift, however, is not +just to the Irish landed gentry, many as were their faults. See also the +'Letters' of Archbishop Boulter, the virtual ruler of Ireland during a +series of years, and of Archbishop Synge. Reference, too, may be made to +Molyneux's 'Case of Ireland,' and to Hutchinson's and Caldwell's +'Restraints on the Trade of Ireland.' For modern authorities, consult +Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. ch. vii.; +vol. iv. chs. xvi., xvii. Froude's 'English in Ireland' is very inaccurate +and one-sided for this period; but his fine romance, the 'Two Chiefs of +Dunboy,' contains a brilliant, and, in the main, a true account of the +state of Irish social life in those days. + +[41] By far the best account of the state of Ireland, at this period, is +to be found in the celebrated 'Tour' of Arthur Young, who wrote in +1776-78. See also Mr. Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth +Century,' vol. vi. chs. xxiv., xxv.; vol. vii. ch. xxvii. The 'Irlande, +Sociale, Politique, et Religieuse' of Gustave de Beaumont may also be +consulted; but though a very able work, it is that of a democratic +doctrinaire. For the Whiteboy movements, see the Irish Statute Book, and +Sir George Lewis on 'Irish Disturbances.' + +[42] See Burke's 'Tracts on the Popery Laws,' vol. ii. pp. 445, 446. +Arthur Young, too, often dwells on this subject. + +[43] For an account of this period nothing can be compared to Mr. Lecky's +'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vols. vii., viii. These +contain all the information that can be obtained, collected from every +available source. I may refer to my 'Ireland, 1798-1898,' chs. i., ii. + +[44] There is no complete history of Ireland from the Union to the present +time, though the materials for such a work are abundant. I may refer to my +'Ireland, 1798-1898,' from the second chapter to the end. An excellent and +elaborate description of Ireland from 1800 to 1812 will be found in the +volumes of Edward Wakefield. + +[45] The best account of this period--the forerunner of one even more +calamitous--will be found in the proceedings of a Parliamentary Committee +on the state of Ireland in 1824-25, and in the mass of evidence collected +by it. The evidence of O'Connell is full of interest. + +[46] I perfectly recollect, though quite a boy, this strong and widespread +expression of sentiment. + +[47] Mitchel's 'History of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 213. Mitchel was a rebel, +but an honourable man, superior to the falsehoods disseminated by later +agitators against Irish landlords. + +[48] Every one acquainted with the history of Irish titles, from about +1790 to 1820, knows that this was the case. + +[49] 'Clarendon,' wrote Greville, 'told me he expected the Encumbered +Estates Act would prove the regeneration of Ireland.' + +[50] That great lawyer, Lord St. Leonards, protested. He had been Lord +Chancellor of Ireland. + +[51] For the state of Ireland during the Famine and the years that +followed, see 'The Irish Crisis,' by Sir Charles Trevelyan, reprinted from +the _Edinburgh Review_; and the 'Letters' of Mr. Campbell Foster, the +Commissioner of the _Times_. Valuable information will also be found in +the Greville 'Memoirs,' vols. v., vi. I may refer to my 'Ireland, +1798-1898,' chs. v. and part of vi. + +[52] For an account of these machinations of party, see Greville, +'Memoirs,' vol. vii. p. 33. + +[53] I heard several of these most injudicious and ill-informed +expressions of a false opinion. + +[54] For the state of Ireland from the end of the Famine to 1868, +reference may be made to 'Two Centuries of Irish History,' edited by Mr. +Bryce; to the Greville 'Memoirs,' vols. vii. and viii.; to Greville's +'Policy of England towards Ireland;' to the 'Recollections and Suggestions +of Earl Russell;' to parts of the 'Life of Lord Palmerston;' to 'Journals, +Conversations, and Essays relating to Ireland,' by Nassau Senior; to the +'Young Ireland,' the 'Four Years of Irish History,' and 'The League of the +North and South,' by Sir C. G. Duffy; to the 'New Ireland' of Mr. A. M. +Sullivan; and to the 'Parnell Movement' of Mr. T. P. O'Connor. Valuable +information as to this period will also be found in Mr. Barry O'Brien's +works, 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland' and 'Irish Wrongs and +English Remedies;' and there are many other authorities. This period is +dealt with in my 'Ireland, 1798-1898.' ch. vi. + +[55] From the mass of literature on this subject reference may especially +be made to 'The Irish Land,' by the late Sir George Campbell; Judge +Longfield's essay in 'Systems of Land Tenure;' the 'Irish Land and the +Irish People,' by Butt; and the 'Ireland, Industrial, Political, and +Social,' of the late Mr. J. N. Murphy. As Special Commissioner of the +_Times_, I went into the Irish land question at length on the spot; and it +would be affectation to deny that my letters, since republished, +powerfully contributed to the legislation which ere long followed. See, +for further information, 'The Irish Land Question' of John Stuart Mill; +'Emigration and the Tenure of Irish Land,' by Lord Dufferin; 'The New +Ireland' of the late Mr. A. M. Sullivan; parts of Mr. Barry O'Brien's +'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland'; 'Ireland in 1868,' by the late +Mr. G. Fitzgibbon, a Master of the Court of Chancery in Ireland; and Mr. +Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. ch. ii. + +[56] This fact has been established by conclusive and impartial evidence, +which hardly admits of question. It should be steadily kept in the +reader's mind; for an idea, largely countenanced by iniquitous legislation +badly administered, has prevailed of late years, that rack-renting in +Ireland was common, nay, general. Exactly the contrary has been the case +during the last half century. Butt, in his 'The Irish People and the Irish +Land,' published in 1867, hardly alludes to over-renting; he properly +dwells on the insecurity of Irish land tenure. Master Fitzgibbon, a great +authority on the subject, in his 'Ireland in 1868,' p. 268, pointedly +remarked, '452 estates are under my jurisdiction, in the Court of +Chancery, the rents of which amount to £330,809, paid by 18,287 tenants. I +have been now nearly eight years in office, during which time the rents +have been paid without murmuring or complaint worth noticing.... It is +well known that my ears are open to any just complaint from any tenant.' +The testimony of Judge Longfield, another great authority, is nearly to +the same effect. In 'Systems of Land Tenure,' published in 1870, he wrote +thus (p. 21): 'This complaint of high rents has been made without ceasing +for more than three hundred years. There was never less ground for it than +at the present day, although in some instances the rent demanded is still +too high; but this chiefly occurs where the landlords are middlemen, or +where the property is very small.' These views are fully confirmed by +evidence of a later period, to which I shall refer. I may add that, in +1869, I examined the rentals of many scores of Irish estates, and was +convinced that over-renting was very rare. See my 'Letters on the Land +Question of Ireland,' republished from the _Times_, _passim_. I quote a +single instance, from many to the same purpose (p. 221): 'It may be +asserted, too, without fear of contradiction, that if in some districts +rents are too high, they are not so as a general rule.' I have managed an +Irish estate for upwards of fifty years, and have some claim to be an +agricultural expert. + +[57] For the characteristics of the Ulster tenant right, see Butt's +'Landlord and Tenant Act, 1870,' ch. xv. pp. 296-310. As to the legal +authorities on the subject, reference may be made to the learned treatise +of Messrs. Cherry and Wakley, 'The Irish Land Law and Land Purchase Acts,' +pp. 150-152. A popular account of the Ulster custom will be found in my +'Letters on the Land Question of Ireland,' pp. 242-247, and a more +technical account in a legal treatise from my pen on the Land Act of 1870, +pp. 30-56. The best definition I have seen of the right is one made by the +late P. J. Blake, Q.C., C.C.J. of a northern county, 'Cherry and Wakley,' +p. 150: 'The right or custom in general of yearly tenants, or those +deriving through them, to continue in undisturbed possession so long as +they act properly as tenants and pay their rents. The correlative right of +the landlord periodically to raise the rent, so as to give him a just, +fair, and full participation in the increased value of the land, but not +so as to extinguish the tenant's interest by paying a rack rent. The usage +or custom of the yearly tenants to sell their interest, if they do not +wish to continue in possession, or if they become unable to pay the rent. +The correlative right of the landlord to be consulted, and to exercise a +potential voice in the approval or disapproval of the proposed assignee.' + +[58] I quote a few passages from the speeches of Mr. Gladstone, and +others, on this subject. Mr. Gladstone said, March 11, 1870, 'If you value +rents you may as well, for every available purpose, adopt perpetuity of +tenure at once. It is perpetuity of tenure only in a certain disguise.... +The man who becomes a mere annuitant loses all general interest in the +prosperity of the land.' And again, February 15, 1870: 'Perpetuity of +tenure on the part of the occupier is virtually expropriation of the +landlord.... The mere readjustment of rent can by no means dispose of all +contingencies the future may produce in his favour.' Sir Roundell Palmer, +afterwards Lord Selborne, said, March 10, 1870, 'Fixity of tenure, in +plain English, means taking away the property of one man and giving it to +another.' So Lord Granville, June 14, 1870, said in the House of Lords, +'They might have introduced a Bill--which they were determined not to +do--adopting fixity of tenure, taking away his property from the landlord, +and establishing a valuation rent.' Passages of this kind, at least as +strong, might be multiplied a hundred-fold. + +[59] It is impossible, in a sketch like this, to describe in detail the +agrarian legislation for Ireland, which Parliament has enacted from 1870 +to this time. The work of Butt referred to before is an admirable +commentary on the Bill of 1870, which soon became law. A brief account of +all this legislation will be found in Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' +vol. i. ch. ii. The legal treatises of Messrs. Cherry and Wakley, pp. +149-448, and of Mr. Justice Barton, are elaborate and complete. + +[60] Judge Longfield and Mr. Lecky are much the most distinguished of +these numerous censors. + +[61] By this time I was an Irish County Court Judge; and I had some +experience of reprehensible acts of this kind, extremely few as they were. + +[62] It is very remarkable that the stringent provisions of the Act +against exorbitant rents seem to have been almost unknown to the +peasantry, though exorbitant rents were, no doubt, existing here and +there. + +[63] Report of the Judges of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 478-480. + +[64] By many degrees the best account of the Land League movement will be +found in the 'Report of the Proceedings of the Special Commission of +1888-89,' republished by the _Times_ in four volumes. Reference may also +be made to 'Parnellism and Crime,' a series of essays in the _Times_; to +the 'Truth about the Land League,' by Mr. Arnold Foster; to 'The +Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary Movement,' by Professor Brougham +Leech; and to a pamphlet called 'The Queen's Enemies in America.' A kind +of apology for the conspiracy will be found in 'The Parnell Movement,' by +Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P.; but the Irish 'Nationalists' have judiciously +been reticent on the subject. I may refer to my 'Ireland, 1798-1898,' ch. +viii. + +[65] These infamous speeches, worthy of Marat and Hébert, were continued +for years, and fill a large part of the evidence in the proceedings of the +Special Commission. I select a sample or two taken at random. Mr. M. +Harris said, 'If the tenant farmers of Ireland shoot down landlords as +partridges are shot in September, Mat Harris would never say a word +against them' (vol. ii. p. 38). The same worthy, afterwards an M.P., +exclaimed on another occasion (vol. i. p. 26), 'Mrs. Blake of Keenoyle is +no better than a she-devil.... Mr. Robinson called the people of Connemara +vermin; the people of Connemara ought to treat him as vermin. Leonard of +Tuam I will say nothing about. I will denounce him at his own door.' So, +too, a Mr. Boyton said (vol. iv. p. 277), 'We have seen plenty of them, +landlords and agents, that deserve to be shot at any man's hand. I have +always denounced the commission of outrages by night, but meet him in the +broad daylight, and if you must blow his brains out, blow them out in the +daytime.' Multiply such speeches addressed to an excitable peasantry, and +the results which followed can easily be understood. + +[66] This has been established by conclusive evidence, and should be +carefully borne in mind. Mr. Egan, one of the treasurers of the League, +said, 'On my own behalf, and on behalf of my friends of the League, both +in prison and outside, I can say that we regard the land question only in +the light of a step towards national independence, which is, and shall +continue to be, the goal of all our efforts.' Mr. Healy, M.P., said, 'This +is a movement to win back from England the land of Ireland, which was +robbed from the people by the confiscating armies of Elizabeth and +Cromwell.... But I would remind you that Mr. Parnell ... explained the +basis of the movement when he told the Galway farmers that he would never +have taken off his coat in this movement were it not with Irish +nationality as its object.' Parnell occasionally let out the truth; he +said, 'Let every farmer, while he keeps a firm grip of his holding, +recognise also the great truth that he is serving his country and the +people at large, and helping to break down English misrule in Ireland' +(Report of the Proceedings of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 203, +204). These speeches were, in hundreds, imitated and followed by other +speakers. + +[67] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 486. + +[68] I was at this time judge of the County Kerry; these demands increased +more than twofold at a single Quarter Sessions. + +[69] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. pp. 522-525. + +[70] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. + +[71] Some of the cynical and wicked utterances of Parnell in proclaiming +and expounding the new policy of 'boycotting' must be quoted. These, it is +needless to say, were exaggerated in scores of speeches by orators of the +League. In view almost of the corpse of a land agent who had been foully +murdered, the arch-conspirator coolly remarked (Proceedings of the Special +Commission, vol. iv. p. 257): 'I had wished in referring to a sad +occurrence which took place lately, the shooting or attempted shooting of +a land agent in the neighbourhood (uproar)--I had wished to point out that +recourse to such measures of procedure is entirely unnecessary and +absolutely prejudicial where there is a suitable organisation amongst the +tenants themselves.' The methods to be adopted in 'boycotting'--the word +was so named from a Captain Boycott, who was one of the first +sufferers--were those set forth by Parnell (Report of the Judges, vol. iv. +p. 498): 'Now, what are you to do to a tenant who bids for a farm from +which his neighbour has been evicted? (Various shouts, among which, "Kill +him!" "Shoot him!") Now, I think I heard somebody say "Shoot him" ("Shoot +him!"); but I wish to point out to you a very much better way, a more +Christian and charitable way, which will give the lost sinner an +opportunity of repenting. (Hear, hear.) When a man takes a farm from which +another has been evicted, you must show[A] him on the roadside when you +meet him, you must show him in the streets of the town, you must show him +at the shop counter, you must show him in the fair and in the +market-place, and even in the house of worship, by leaving him severely +alone, by putting him into a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the +rest of his kind as if he was a leper of old. You must show him your +detestation of the crime he has committed, and you may depend upon it, if +the population of a county in Ireland carry out this doctrine, that there +will be no man so full of avarice, so lost to shame, as to dare the public +opinion of all right-thinking men within the county, and to transgress +your unwritten code of laws.' + + [A] In other, possibly more correct, reports, the word is 'shun,' not + 'show.' + +[72] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. + +[73] It is very important to bear this in mind, regard being had to the +circumstances of the time, which have been shamefully misrepresented, and +to subsequent legislation and its administration. I quote a few words from +the Report, p. 3: 'It was unusual in Ireland to exact what in England +would have been considered as a full or fair commercial rent. Such a rent +over many of the larger estates, the owners of which were resident, and +took an interest in the welfare of their tenants, it has never been the +custom to demand. The example has been largely followed, and is, to the +present day, rather the rule than the exception in Ireland.' M. de +Molinari, a very competent foreign observer, wrote to the same effect in +1881: 'Le taux général des rentes est modéré; autant que j'ai pu en juger, +il est à qualité égale de terrain de moitié plus bas que celui des terres +des Flandres' ('L'Irlande, le Canada, Jersey,' p. 138). See for further +authorities, Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. p. 179. + +[74] Mr. Gladstone, speeches in the House of Commons, July 22, 1881, and +May 10, 1881. Lord Carlingford, and notably Lord Selborne, said nearly the +same. + +[75] This I know to be the fact on the very best authority. + +[76] A good popular account of the law of 1881 will be found in Mr. +Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 182-197. See for an elaborate +and technical description, 'Cherry and Wakley,' pp. 217-343. + +[77] 'Systems of Land Tenure,' p. 59. + +[78] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. + +[79] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 532: 'We consider that the National +League, like the Ladies' Land League, was substantially the old Land +League under another name.' + +[80] I quote a few words from hundreds of these detestable writings, which +should be studied. Mr. William O'Brien, the editor of one of Parnell's +newspapers, and now the leader of the 'United Irish League,' published +this in _United Ireland_, April 18, 1885: 'It would be still more +gratifying if the Irish millions, scattered over the globe, should wake up +one of these mornings to hear the war chimes joyfully ringing the +declaration that would drive England on to downfall and destruction.' And +again, September 19, 1885: 'We cannot fight England in the open. We can +keep her in hot water. We cannot evict our rulers neck and crop. We can +make their rule more insupportable for them than for us.... It is no fault +of ours if we cannot organise Waterloos to decide our quarrels.' As to +personalities, I quote two passages. December 15, 1883: 'Monstrous and +incredible, surely, six hundred Irish gentlemen could not eat their dinner +without pouring out libations to the adoration of an old lady who is only +known in Ireland by her scarcely decently disguised hatred of this +country, and by the inordinate amount of her salary.' Again, June 13, +1885: 'With all the stubborn force of a cruel, narrow, dogged nature, Lord +Spencer struck murderous blow after blow at the people under his rod. He +stopped at nothing; not at subsidising red-handed murderers, not at +knighting jury-packers, not at sheltering black official villainy with a +coat of darkness, not at police quarterings, blood taxes, the bludgeoning +of peaceful meetings, the clapping of handcuffs and convict jackets on +M.P.'s, mayors, and editors, not at wholesale battues of hangings and +transportations by hook or crook.' + +[81] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. Mr. Gladstone in the House of +Commons, April 8, 1886. + +[82] For an elaborate account of the Act of 1887, see 'Cherry and Wakley,' +pp. 367-420. Reference, too, may be made to Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and +Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 198-200. + +[83] For an account of this legislation, which has not received the +attention it deserves, as it is limited in its scope, see 'Cherry and +Wakley,' pp. 468-472, and 'Barton,' pp. 104-106. + +[84] Upwards of thirty years ago, when the question of compensating Irish +tenants for their improvements was coming fully to the front, a wealthy +middleman, who held a large demesne in perpetuity, at a rather high rent, +and had built a valuable mansion on it, in addition to planting hundreds +of acres of woodland, asked me 'if I thought Parliament would compensate +him, for, in that case, he could make his landlord pay him £30,000.' My +reply was that 'Parliament would not be so insane.' I should be sorry to +make such a reply now, having regard to recent legislation. + +[85] I believe I may claim some credit for having contributed to this +provision. I had had large experience of the injustice of keeping tenants +subject to long-standing arrears; and, as a judge, had taken strong +measures to prevent and defeat the practice. + +[86] For an elaborate account of the Act which was the result of this +Bill, see the work of Mr. Justice Barton, 'The Land Law (Ireland) Act, +1896.' + +[87] 'Letter to a Member of the National Assembly,' vol. i. p. 478. + +[88] A Committee of the House of Lords sate, in 1872, to consider the +administration of the Land Act of 1870. The report and the evidence were, +in the main, in favour of the judges. + +[89] Rushe _v._ Whitney, Roscommon Quarter Sessions, October, 1895. + +[90] Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords, August 1, 1881: 'They are all +three strong Liberals, with strong views of tenant right.... There is no +doubt that all three are appointed with a strong prepossession in favour +of views which are advocated by the representatives of the tenantry in +Ireland, and which are deprecated by the landlords.... It is not the +relegation of landlord and tenant to an impartial tribunal.' + +[91] Mr. Gladstone, July 22, 1881: 'I shall be bitterly disappointed with +the operation of the Act if the property of the landlords of Ireland does +not come to be worth more than twenty years' purchase on the judicial +rent.' Mr. W. E. Forster, same date: 'I think the final result of the +measure will be, within a few years, that the landowners of Ireland, small +and large, will be better off than they are at this moment.' Lord +Carlingford, August 1, 1881: 'My Lords, I maintain that the provisions of +this Bill will cause the landlords no money loss whatever. I believe that +it will inflict upon them no loss of income, except in those cases in +which a certain number of landlords may have imposed upon their tenants +excessive and inequitable rents.' + +[92] Hansard, vol. 260, p. 1399. + +[93] The nature and character of these two classes of evidence has been +thus well described in the Report of the Edward Fry's Commission, p. 18: +'If the matter were perfectly open, it appears to us that two independent +lines of evidence might be pursued by a person inquiring what is the fair +rent to be fixed for a holding. One class of evidence may for shortness be +called the popular evidence; the other the technical. The popular evidence +would comprise the prices obtained by the tenant for a sale of his +interest or _bonâ fide_ offers which he had received for it, evidence of +the letting value or judicial rents of similar holdings, evidence of the +sums paid for conacre or agistment, evidence of the long and punctual +payment of a real rent, or of the long arrears of a nominal rent, and +evidence of the prosperity or poverty of the persons who had successively +lived off the produce of the holding. The technical evidence would be that +more familiar to professional valuators. They would inspect the land, +ascertain the acreages of the different classes of land on the farm, and +what they would produce or carry; they would consider the quantity and +value of the produce and the cost of production, and the shares of the +surplus remaining after the cost of production divisible between landlord +and tenant respectively. The popular evidence would be affected by all the +motives which make men in Ireland desirous to occupy land; the technical +evidence would assume the desire of making a money profit out of the +occupation of land as the sole motive of such occupation. The eighth +section of the Act of 1881 seems to admit of both lines of evidence with a +single exception. It provided that in fixing the fair rent consideration +should be given not to some but to all the circumstances of the case, the +holding and the district, with the single exception that (sub-sec. 10) the +price paid for the tenancy otherwise than to the landlord or his +predecessors was not of itself, apart from other considerations, to be +taken into account; though, conjoined with other considerations, it still +remains admissible.' + +[94] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 13. + +[95] Ibid., p. 14: 'Some specific charges of misconduct or negligence have +been made against lay Assistant Commissioners and Court valuers; as _e.g._ +visiting the land without due notice to the landlord; visiting the holding +when lying under snow or water, or when suffering from prolonged drought, +and refusing to wait whilst a trench was dug to show the condition of the +alleged drainage. We have investigated many of these cases, and the +explanations given have generally been satisfactory to us.' + +[96] Evidence taken by Mr. Morley's Commission on the Irish Land Acts, p. +236. + +[97] Ibid., p. 397. + +[98] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 131. + +[99] Ibid., p. 208. + +[100] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 41. + +[101] Ibid., p. 682. + +[102] 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 205, 206. + +[103] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 692. As a County Court +judge I have a concurrent jurisdiction, happily seldom exercised, in +fixing 'fair rents.' I had a somewhat similar case before me some +seventeen or eighteen years ago, and I adjourned the hearing for four +years to allow the land to recover. I believe I am the only official who +did anything of the kind until quite recently. + +[104] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 836. + +[105] Evidence taken by the Morley Commission, 1894-95, p. 333. + +[106] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 952. + +[107] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 607. The procedure of the +Sub-Commissions has, since 1896, been somewhat improved with respect to +deterioration and waste, but many years too late. + +[108] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 677. + +[109] Ibid., p. 842. + +[110] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, pp. 478, 476. + +[111] Ibid., p. 476. + +[112] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 129. + +[113] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 339. + +[114] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 25. + +[115] Mr. Vernon, the Lay Commissioner, was, of course, not responsible +for this. + +[116] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 156. + +[117] Ibid., p. 615. + +[118] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 33. + +[119] Ibid., p. 30. + +[120] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 30. + +[121] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 18. I entirely dissent from the +above opinion of the head Commissioner. + +[122] Evidence taken by the Morley Commission, p. 507. + +[123] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 461. + +[124] Ibid., p. 616. + +[125] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 628. + +[126] Ibid., p. 631. + +[127] Ibid., p. 941. + +[128] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 22. + +[129] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 676. + +[130] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 20. + +[131] Ibid., p. 21. + +[132] Ibid., p. 9. + +[133] Ibid., p. 14. + +[134] Report of the Fry Commission, pp. 18, 19. + +[135] Ibid., pp. 12-26. + +[136] Ibid., p. 15. + +[137] Report of the Irish Land Commission to March, 1900, p. 64. + +[138] It is but just to the Land Commission to state that the reductions +of rent made by the County Courts were somewhat higher than those it made. +But this was notoriously because rack-rented tenants, for the sake of +expedition, rushed first to these tribunals. + +[139] Report of the Irish Land Commission, p. 64. + +[140] Report of the Irish Land Commission, p. 3. + +[141] See a remarkable instance in the Evidence taken by the Fry +Commission, p. 683: 'The holding was let in 1771 at 30_s._ the Irish acre, +equal to about £1 per statute acre. The Sub-Commissioners have now cut it +down to less than 12_s._ 6_d._ per acre.' + +[142] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, pp. 496, 609, 670. + +[143] 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 202, 203. + +[144] Letters to the _Manchester Guardian_, written in 1890, and since +republished. This little work was much noticed at the time; attempts to +answer it were made to no purpose. The facts now speak for themselves. + +[145] Swift's 'Works,' vol. ii. p. 82, ed. 1870. + +[146] 'Reflections on the Revolution in France,' vol. i. p. 440. + +[147] The _Manchester Guardian_, 1890. I quote this passage, for I think +its substance was referred to by the late Mr. Rathbone, member for +Liverpool. + +[148] Mr. Lecky, 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. ii. pp. 487-489, rather +favours the policy of creating and extending peasant ownership in Ireland, +and, to a certain extent, approves of the so-called 'Land Purchase' Acts, +but only as a doubtful experiment, to endeavour to escape from a +hopelessly bad land system. The distinguished historian and thinker, in my +opinion, is not sufficiently alive to the iniquity of these measures as +they affect landlords who wish to retain their estates, or, rather, what +remains of them; but he clearly perceives some of the objections to this +vicious legislation. I quote his remarks at some length: 'In Ireland, as +is well known, great efforts are made to create such a proprietary; but +the conditions of Ireland are unlike those of any other part of the +civilised globe. It has been the deliberate policy of the Government to +break down, by almost annual Acts, the obligation of contracts, and the +existing ownership of land has been rendered so insecure, the political +power attached to it has been so effectually destroyed, and the influences +tending to anarchy and confiscation have been made so powerful, that most +good judges have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to force into +existence by strong legislative measures a new social type, which may, +perhaps, possess some elements of stability and conservatism. In order to +effect this object, the national credit has been made use of in such a way +that a tenant is enabled to purchase his farm without making the smallest +sacrifice for that object, the whole sum being advanced by the Government, +and advanced on such terms that the tenant is only obliged to pay for a +limited number of years a sum from 20 to 30 per cent. less than his +present rent. In other words, a man whose rent has been fixed by the Land +Court at £100 a year, can purchase his farm by paying, instead of that +sum, £70 or £80 a year for forty-nine years. The arrangement sounds more +like burlesque than serious legislation; but the belief that political +pressure can obtain still better terms for the tenant, and that further +confiscatory legislation may still more depreciate the value of land to +the owner who has inherited it, or purchased it in the open market, has +taken such deep root in Ireland that the tenants have shown little +alacrity to avail themselves of their new privilege. What may be the +ultimate issue of the attempt to govern a country in complete defiance of +all received economical principles remains to be seen. The future must +show whether a large peasant proprietary can be not only called into +existence, but permanently maintained, under these conditions, and whether +it will prove the loyal and conservative element that English politicians +believe. According to all past experience, peasant proprietors rarely +succeed, except when they possess something more than an average measure +of industrial qualities, and the Irish purchase laws give no preference to +the energetic, the industrious, and the thrifty. On the contrary, it is +very often the farmer who is on the verge of bankruptcy who is most eager +to buy, in order to reduce his annual charge. The tendency of the new +proprietors to mortgage, to sublet, and to subdivide, is already manifest, +and some of the best judges of Irish affairs, who look beyond the present +generation, are very despondent about the future. They believe that a +peasant proprietary, called into existence suddenly and artificially, with +no discrimination in favour of the better class, in a country where +industrial qualities are very low, and where the strongest wish of the +farmer is either to divide his farm among his children, or to burden it +with equal mortgages for their benefit, must eventually lead to economic +ruin, to fatal subdivision, to crushing charges on land. The new policy +must also, they contend, almost wholly withdraw from the country life, +where it is peculiarly needed, the civilising and guiding influence of a +resident gentry. Whether or not these apprehensions are exaggerated time +only can show. Two predictions may, I think, with some confidence be made. +The one is, that the transformation is likely to be most successful if it +is gradually effected. The other is, that a great part of the influence +once possessed by the landlord will, under the new conditions, pass to the +money-lender.' + +[149] I quote these remarks of Burke, a striking instance of his political +wisdom ('Tracts on the Popery Laws,' vol. ii. p. 446): 'It is on this +principle (to get rid of short and unprofitable tenures) that the Romans +established their _emphyteusis_, or fee-farm. For though they extended the +ordinary term of their creation to nine years only, yet they encouraged a +more permanent letting to farm, with the condition of improvement, as well +as of annual payment where the land had lain rough and neglected.' So John +Stuart Mill ('Irish Land Question,' p. 31, ed. 1870): 'The idea of +property does not, however, necessarily imply that there should be no +rent, any more than that there should be no taxes. It merely implies that +the rent should be a fixed charge, not liable to be raised against the +farmer by his own improvements, or by the will of a landlord. A tenant at +a quit rent is, to all intents and purposes, a proprietor; a copyholder is +not less so than a freeholder. What is wanted is permanent possession on +fixed terms.' Mr. Morley said not long ago, in his place in Parliament, +that, as things now stand in Ireland, the landlord must become a +rent-charger and the tenant a copyholder, a true utterance. + +[150] 'Principles of Political Economy,' book ii. chap. ii. p. 6. I may +refer, too, to these pregnant remarks of Bentham ('Theory of Legislation,' +chap, xv.): 'The principle of security requires that reform should be +attended with complete indemnity.... I cannot yet quit the subject, for +the establishment of the principle of security demands that error should +be pursued in all its retreats.... The interest of individuals, it is +said, ought to yield to the public interest; but what does that mean? Is +not one individual as much a part of the public as another? The public +interest which you introduce as a person is only an abstract term; it +represents nothing but the mass of individual interests.... Individual +interests are the only real interests. Take care of the individuals; never +molest them, never suffer any one to molest them, and you will have done +enough for the public.... I shall conclude by a general observation of +great importance. The more the principle of property is respected, the +stronger hold it takes on the popular mind. Slight attacks on this +principle prepare the way for heavier ones. A long time has been necessary +to carry property to the point where we now see it in civilised societies; +but a fatal experience has shown with what facility it may be shaken, and +how easily the savage instinct of plunder gets the better of the laws.' + +[151] For the constitutional position of the British and Irish Parliaments +before the Union, see Hallam's 'Constitutional History,' vol. iii., +chapter on Ireland, and Ball's 'Legislative Irish System,' chaps. v., xv. +See also Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. +chap. vii.; vol. iv. chaps. xvi., xvii. As to the financial position of +the two countries, see the opening pages of each of the Reports of the +Childers Commission. + +[152] Grattan described this vicious state of things in his inimitable +style ('Speeches,' p. 258, ed. published by Duffy): 'The Union is not an +identification of the two nations; it is merely a merger of the parliament +of one nation in that of another.... There is no identification in +anything save in legislature, in which there is complete and absolute +absorption. It follows that the two nations are not identified, though the +Irish legislature be absorbed, and by that act of absorption the feeling +of one of the nations is not identified, but alienated. The petitions on +our table bespeak that alienation.' + +[153] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 20. + +[154] I transcribe this part of the seventh article of the Treaty of +Union; I believe that I have fairly described its purport (Report of +Childers Commission, p. 140): 'That if at any future day the separate debt +of each country respectively shall have been liquidated, or if the values +of their respective debts ... shall be to each other in the same +proportion with the respective contributions of each country +respectively.... And if it shall appear to the Parliament of the United +Kingdom that the respective circumstances of the two countries will +thenceforth admit of their contributing indiscriminately by equal taxes +imposed on the same articles in each, to the future expenditure of the +United Kingdom to declare that all future expense thenceforth to be +incurred, together with the interest and charges of all joint debts +contracted previous to such declaration, shall be so defrayed +indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed on the same articles in each +country, and thenceforth from time to time, as circumstances may require, +to impose and apply such taxes accordingly, subject only to such +particular exemptions or abatements in Ireland, and in that part of Great +Britain called Scotland, as circumstances may appear, from time to time, +to demand.' + +[155] Grattan's speeches, quoted in a memorandum supplied to the Childers +Commission by Sir Edward Hamilton, p. 9. + +[156] 'Minutes of Evidence,' Childers Commission, vol. i. p. 329. + +[157] Memorandum of Sir Edward Hamilton, p. 9. + +[158] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 143. + +[159] Ibid., p. 32. + +[160] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 147, 148. + +[161] Ibid., p. 33. + +[162] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 158. + +[163] I think it necessary to set out verbatim the terms of reference to +the Commission; I have for the sake of clearness changed their order: 'To +inquire into the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland, +and their relative taxable capacity, and to report: I. Upon what +principles of comparison, and by the application of what specific +standards, the relative capacity of Great Britain and Ireland to bear +taxation may be most equitably determined. II. What, so far as can be +ascertained, is the true proportion, under the principles and specific +standards so determined, between the taxable capacity of Great Britain and +Ireland. III. The history of the financial relations between Great Britain +and Ireland, at and after the Legislative Union, the charge for Irish +purposes on the Imperial Exchequer during that period, and the amount of +Irish taxation remaining available for contribution to Imperial +expenditure; also the Imperial expenditure to which it is considered +equitable that Ireland should contribute.' + +[164] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 26. + +[165] Since 1896, when the Childers Commission made its report, the +overtaxation of Ireland has increased. + +[166] Report of Childers Commission: 'Minutes of Evidence,' vol. i. p. 17. + +[167] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 16. + +[168] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 89. + +[169] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 159, 160. + +[170] 'Minutes of Evidence,' Childers Commission, vol. ii. p. 218. + +[171] I quote from the Report of the Childers Commission, p. 68, these +valuable remarks on the subject: 'Neither can there then be any question +that a system of equal rates of taxes on the same subjects is compatible +with the utmost inequality of burdens between two countries contributing +to one exchequer. All that need be done in order to exact an undue +proportion--unlimited in extent--of the means of either of the countries +is to tax the commodities most consumed in that country, and in fixing the +rate of the tax on each commodity, to fix the higher rates on the +particular commodities most generally in use in that country, and the +lower rates on those most consumed in the other. The same kind of effect, +of course, may be produced, and the same discrimination exercised, by +totally exempting some commodities and taxing others, however lightly. In +fact, a system of equal rates of taxes may thus be rendered more easily +unjust and burdensome to the country discriminated against than one of +differential taxes, because in the latter case, the unequal treatment, and +the mode of it being manifest, are more liable to criticism and +limitation; whilst in the former, the true effect of the system is +disguised by the circumstances that each particular head of tax is at the +same rate in both countries.' + +[172] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 39. + +[173] Ibid., p. 166. + +[174] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 11. + +[175] Ibid.: Evidence of Mr. Munough O'Brien, pp. 12, 13: 'The system of +Imperial loans for temporary emergencies and charity tends to increase the +poverty of Ireland, whose future income is mortgaged to pay interest on +expenditure from which there is no return. There is no surer road to ruin +for an individual than borrowing money to live upon, and most of these +Imperial loans are practically made from time to time to enable the Irish +people to live or relieve acute distress and disorder. Loans are almost +annually made to keep the people quiet or to keep them alive. Yet this +expenditure does not prevent the recurrence of famine, distress, and +discontent; it rather tends to cause their recurrence.' + +[176] Report of the Childers Commission: Report of Mr. Sexton and others, +pp. 102, 103. + +[177] Report of the Childers Commission: 'Evidence,' vol. ii. p. 18. + +[178] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 194, 195. + +[179] 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 116. The works of Messrs. Vanston and Foote on +the grand juries of Ireland may be referred to. + +[180] The reader may be referred to Mr. Moore's work on the Irish poor +law. + +[181] See the Report of a Committee of the House of Lords, and especially +of the Evidence, taken in 1884-85, with respect to the administration of +the Irish poor law at the time. + +[182] For a further account of local government in Ireland, a reader may +consult the Report of Mr. W. P. O'Brien on Local Government, 1878, and +reports on the towns of Ireland and their taxation about the same date. An +excellent tract on the subject was published by Mr. William J. Bailey in +1888, called 'Local and Centralised Government in Ireland.' With respect +to the system of municipal government in Ireland as it existed before +1840, nothing is so valuable as the Reports of the Commissioners, very +able men, charged to inquire into the subject in 1834-35. A useful and +well-informed account will also be found in Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty +Years of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. i. book v. + +[183] I have only been able to sketch the outlines of the measure, the +Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, p. 1, 62 Vict. cap. 37. A good +commentary on it has been written by Mr. Brett of the Irish Bar. + +[184] Mr. Lecky, 'Democracy and Liberty,' Cabinet Edition, Introduction, +p. 13, has well described this vaunted reform: 'It was a measure +introduced in fulfilment of distinct pledges, and it contains very skilful +provisions intended to protect existing interests. But, after all is said, +it means a great transfer of power and influence from the loyal to the +disloyal, and it goes in the direction of democracy far beyond anything +that a few years ago would have been accepted by the Conservatives, or by +the moderate Liberals.' + +[185] For a description of elementary education in Ireland up to 1812, see +passages in Wakefield's 'Account of Ireland;' and for a description in +earlier and later times, see Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of +Concessions to Ireland,' book i. chs. i.-xiv.; Mr. Graham Balfour's +'Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland,' pp. 80-128; the Report +of the Commissioners of Irish Education, 1810-21; the important Report of +the Powis Commission, 1870-71; and the Reports of the Commissioners of +National Education in Ireland. Mr. Froude, in his 'English in Ireland,' +vol. i. p. 514; vol. ii. p. 491, has characteristically eulogised the +Charter Schools; but he stands alone; Mr. Lecky, 'History of England in +the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. pp. 200-304, has commented on this +odious system as it deserved. + +[186] Barry O'Brien, 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. ii. p. +322. + +[187] See Wakefield's 'Account of Ireland' for the state of her secondary +schools in 1812; Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' +book x. chs. i., ii., iii.; Graham Balfour's 'The Educational System of +Great Britain and Ireland,' pp. 203-218; and the Reports of the two +Commissions of 1854-57 and of 1878-80, of which the heads were Lord +Kildare and the Earl of Rosse. + +[188] See the resolutions in Duffy's 'Young Ireland,' pp. 713, 714. There +has been much misrepresentation on this subject. + +[189] See 'The Problem of Irish Education,' by Butt, a masterly and +impartial tract. + +[190] See for the figures 'The Irish University Question,' by Archbishop +Walsh, _passim_. + +[191] For further information on the history and the present state of the +University system in Ireland, see 'The History of the University of +Dublin,' by the Rev. J. W. Stubbs, and 'The Constitutional History of the +University of Dublin,' by D. C. Heron; Howley on 'Universities;' 'What is +meant by Freedom of Education,' by the O'Conor Don; 'University +Education,' by an Irish Protestant Celt; and especially 'The Problem of +Irish Education,' by Butt. See also the Irish University Debates in +Hansard for 1873, and the very able debate in Trinity College. The reader, +too, may be referred to Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to +Ireland,' book xi.; to Mr. Graham Balfour's 'Educational Systems of Great +Britain and Ireland,' pp. 273-288; to Mr. Godkin's 'Education in Ireland;' +and to Archbishop Walsh's 'The Irish University Question.' + +[192] Too much is not to be made of 'Nationalist' clamour; but these +remarks of Mr. Dillon, M.P., are significant (_Freeman's Journal_, April +13, 1901): 'I do not believe that these movements will ever succeed ... +until that fortress of English domination and anti-Irish bigotry, Trinity +College, is for ever swept away, or there is placed opposite to it a truly +National University, where the most honoured classes will be the classes +of Irish literature and Irish history.' Archbishop Walsh, a much abler +man, has written in the same sense in his work, 'The Irish University +Question.' The question, he contends, in many passages, must be settled by +levelling up or by levelling down, that is, by raising the Catholic +University to the position of Trinity College, or by disestablishing and +disendowing Trinity College. The evil precedent of the Act disestablishing +the Anglican Church in Ireland, will, it is hoped, be eschewed. + +[193] See on this subject Mr. Lough's 'England's Wealth, Ireland's +Poverty,' pp. 88-94. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. + +The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these +letters have been replaced with transliterations. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Present Irish Questions, by William O'Connor Morris + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESENT IRISH QUESTIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 37853-8.txt or 37853-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/5/37853/ + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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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: Present Irish Questions + +Author: William O'Connor Morris + +Release Date: October 26, 2011 [EBook #37853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESENT IRISH QUESTIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>Present Irish Questions</h1> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="verts"> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">Publisher’s Announcement</span></p> +<p class="center"><i>By the Same Author</i></p> + +<p class="center"><strong>The Campaign of 1815: Ligny, Quatre Bras, Waterloo.</strong><br /> +Demy 8vo, cloth, with Maps, 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net.</p> + +<p>M. Houssaye, in a letter to the author, says, “J’ai lu avec beaucoup de +plaisir votre livre sur La Campagna de 1815. C’est un excellent résumé, +copieux et critique, tres judicieux, tres précis, et tres clair.”</p> + +<p>Captain Mahan, in a letter to the author, says, “Your narrative is very +clear, and to me quite convincing.”</p> + +<p><i>The Times</i>: “We can recommend this book as a painstaking and instructive +survey of the campaign.”</p> + +<p><i>The Spectator</i>: “Provides what has long been wanted—a study of the +campaign by one well qualified to sift evidence dispassionately.”</p> + +<p><i>Pall Mail Gazette</i>: “Will fill a high place in the all too scanty library +of British Military literature.”</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London: Grant Richards</span><br /> +9 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W.C.</p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">Present<br /> +Irish Questions</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br /> +<span class="large">WILLIAM O’CONNOR MORRIS</span><br /> +<small><span class="smcap">County Court Judge and Chairman of Quarter Sessions of Roscommon</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">and Sligo, and</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Sometime Scholar of Oriel College, Oxford</span></small></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"> +<ins class="correction" title="Nosei de moi propas stolos, oud' eni phrontidos egchos hô tis alexetai.">Νοσει +δέ μοι πρόπας στόλος, οὐδ᾽ +ἔνι φροντίδος ἒγχος ὡ +τις ἀλέξεται.</ins><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">—<span class="smcap">Sophocles.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +‘Blessed is the Amending Hand.’—<i>Old Proverb.</i></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">London<br /> +Grant Richards<br /> +New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.<br /> +1901</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center">I DEDICATE THIS BOOK<br /> +<small>A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION AND ESTEEM</small><br /> +<small>TO</small><br /> +THE MARQUIS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA, K.P.<br /> +<small>THE MOST DISTINGUISHED IRISHMAN OF HIS TIME</small></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><small>LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,<br /> +STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.</small></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> +<h2>Preface</h2> + +<p>I have written much on Ireland from early youth, especially in the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i> and the <i>Times</i>; and two works of mine, ‘Ireland, +1494-1868’ published in ‘The Cambridge Historical Series,’ and ‘Ireland, +1798-1898,’ have been received with more than ordinary favour. I have +ventured to think that the opinions of a veteran inquirer into Irish +affairs, with respect to ‘Present Irish Questions’ just now of much +importance, and certain to be ere long fully discussed in Parliament and +elsewhere, may be of some use to a younger generation, that will have to +examine and must be affected by them. I am not unaware of the cynical +remarks of Swift on the disregard shown to authors who may be said to have +had their day; and I do not pretend that, in the instance of myself, ‘old +experience’ has given something of a ‘prophetic strain’ to what is +contained in this volume. But I can say, with truth, that few living men +have had such opportunities as have fallen to my lot, during a long series +of years, to understand Ireland in its different parts, and the feelings +and sentiments of the Irish community; to form sound and moderate views on +the many and perplexing phenomena called ‘Irish Questions;’ to deal +reasonably with Irish political and social problems, free from the +influences of party prejudice and passion; in short, to do my subject +complete and impartial justice. How the accidents and associations of a +life already protracted beyond the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> ordinary span, have, as I hope, given +me these qualifications, I have explained at some length in my ‘Ireland, +1798-1898;’ I shall not repeat what I have already written. But Ireland +has constantly been uppermost in my thoughts; and as regards the +conclusions I have come to in these pages, I may say, with the Roman +historian, ‘hæc senectuti seposui.’</p> + +<p>The examination of ‘Present Irish Questions,’ in this work, shows the +views I entertain with regard to the actual condition of Ireland in its +various aspects, and to her probable future destinies. These views may be +censured as too gloomy, and even paradoxical; but Ireland remains, as she +was when Macaulay wrote of her, ‘A member indeed of the Empire, but a +withered and distorted member;’ the revolution which has passed, nay, is +still passing, over her, has destroyed a great deal that ought to have +been preserved, and has put little that is solid and stable in its place; +there is much that is threatening and even dangerous in her political and +social order, and in the sentiments of the mass of her community. In the +case of Ireland, indeed, as in that of any other people, I have faith in +the effect of salutary legislation on wise and just principles, and of +consistent good government steadily carried out, of both of which there +has been but too little evidence, during the last twenty years, in Irish +affairs; above all, my trust is large in the healing influences of Time. +But I have not forgotten that the vision of ‘Pacata Hibernia,’ which +flitted even before the majestic understanding of Bacon, three centuries +ago, has not been realised; the thoughtless optimism, which, during the +last two generations, has represented Ireland to be in a state of +continual ‘progress,’ nay, as ‘contented and happy,’ whenever she has not +been convulsed by disorder and trouble, or racked by poverty and distress, +has been completely falsified; and with nations, as with individuals, the +profound remark of Butler is true; a life of repentance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> often fails to +redeem the errors of the past. I proceed to indicate some at least of the +authorities which relate to the different parts of my subject. The +material condition of Ireland of late years may, perhaps, be best +ascertained by studying, over some length of time, the large body of +statistics compiled by the Government, and contained in that valuable +publication, ‘Thom’s Directory,’ and by a perusal of the Irish debates in +Hansard. Reference, too, should be made to the important papers of Mr. +Childers, of Lord Farrer, and of Mr. Sexton in the Report of the Childers +Commission, and especially to the evidence of Sir Robert Giffen, and even +of Sir Edward Hamilton, in the Blue Books appended to that inquiry. +‘England’s Wealth, Ireland’s Poverty,’ by Thomas Lough, M.P., though a +one-sided book, also deserves attention; and useful information may be +obtained from ‘The Five Years in Ireland, 1895-1900,’ of Mr. Michael J. F. +McCarthy, too much a eulogy, however, of things as they are, and marked by +a spirit of aversion to, and distrust of, the Irish priesthood, which are +a characteristic of a small section of the Irish Catholics.</p> + +<p>The sources of our knowledge respecting the moral, social, and political +state of Ireland are numerous and ample; I shall confine myself, as much +as I can, to those which relate to what may be called her recent +revolutionary period, though Irish history in the past, even in the +distant past, is anything but an ‘old almanack.’ This mass of evidence +faithfully represents the disturbances and the troubles that have +prevailed in Ireland, with intervals of time between, during the last +twenty years and upwards, and the fierce animosities and conflicts which +have been the consequence. Here a reader should again consult Hansard, +notably the debates on Ireland, during the agitated period from 1880 to +1889; of course he should only study the great speeches. The publications +on this subject are very many, and some of real importance; as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> regards +the policy and conduct of the Land, and even of the National Leagues, and +the frightful outbreak of disorder and crime which was the result, nothing +is equal in value to the Report of the Judges of the ‘Special Commission,’ +and to the immense body of evidence brought before them; ‘The Verdict,’ by +Professor Dicey, sums up well the conclusions at which they arrived. The +utterances of the so-called Irish ‘Nationalist’ Press, throughout these +years, fully verify the facts disclosed in the Report, and its findings; +they have, indeed, been continued in a less ferocious and violent, but in +a significant, strain ever since; a collection of them will be found in +the volumes published by the Irish Unionist Alliance. On this subject, and +also on the state of opinion existing among a large majority, probably, of +the Irish people, see ‘The Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary +Movement,’ by Professor Brougham Leech; ‘The Truth about the Land League,’ +by Mr. Arnold Foster, M.P.; ‘Parnellism and Crime,’ republished from the +<i>Times</i>; ‘Incipient Irish Revolution,’ anonymous but able; some valuable +articles on Ireland by the late Lord Grey that appeared in the <i>Nineteenth +Century</i>; ‘Disturbed Ireland,’ by Mr. T. W. Russell, M.P.; ‘The Plan of +Campaign Illustrated;’ and ‘About Ireland,’ by Mrs. E. Lynn Lynton. The +recent revolutionary and agrarian movements in Ireland have not found many +to vindicate them, or even fully to explain their causes; but reference +may be made to ‘The Parnell Movement,’ by T. P. O’Connor, M.P.; to the +‘New Ireland’ of Mr. A. M. Sullivan; to Mr. Barry O’Brien’s ‘Irish Wrongs +and English Remedies;’ and to a series of articles called ‘Ungrateful +Ireland,’ in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, from the pen of Sir G. Duffy. A +host of papers in quarterly, monthly, and other reviews and magazines on +the political and social condition of Ireland of late years has, also, +been published from time to time. Attempts have been made, quite recently, +to show that the troubles of Ireland have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> become things of the past, and +that she is a prosperous and happy land; but though real improvement has +certainly taken place, these are mere repetitions of the optimistic +fancies that have so often proved delusions.</p> + +<p>The great question of Home Rule, ‘present’ if for a time postponed, was +first put forward formally by the late Isaac Butt. His ‘Irish Federalism’ +is a thoughtful and able treatise that ought to be studied. The speeches +in Parliament, from 1874 to 1885, on this subject, collected in Hansard, +deserve attention; notably the violent attacks on this policy made during +many years by Mr. Gladstone. Hansard, too, should be perused, after that +statesman became a convert to Home Rule, for the speeches on both sides, +on the Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893; some are of marked power and +insight, though few rise to the heights of great constitutional +principles. Mr. Gladstone’s defence of his sudden change of front will be +found in his ‘History of an Idea,’ a tract published soon after his defeat +at the polls in 1886; he has endeavoured to vindicate his later Irish +policy, in many pamphlets and speeches, in volumes collected by himself. +For a masterly examination of his public conduct on matters relating to +Ireland, and in some other passages in his career, I would especially +direct the reader to the ‘Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne,’ part ii. +vol. ii. pp. 339-360; Mr. Lecky’s brilliant sketch in his ‘Democracy and +Liberty,’ Cabinet Edition, Introduction, pp. 19-56, is a composition of +rare excellence. Nothing is to be compared to Professor Dicey’s ‘England’s +Case against Home Rule,’ and his ‘Leap in the Dark,’ for a thorough +investigation, from the Unionist point of view, of the natural and the +probable consequences of the Gladstonian Irish policy, and for an analysis +of the two Home Rule Bills; few political works have attracted equal +attention. There have also been many publications, on the side of the +Union, of more or less merit; see ‘Home Rule,’ reprinted from the <i>Times</i>, +containing several very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> able letters and papers; ‘The Truth about Home +Rule;’ ‘A Sketch of Unionist Policy;’ and a number of articles in the +<i>Edinburgh</i> and the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, and in other reviews and +magazines. The publications which advocate Home Rule have not been +numerous; a reader may consult the ‘Hand Book of Home Rule,’ edited by Mr. +Bryce, M.P.; ‘Irish Members and English Gaolers,’ and ‘Combination and +Coercion,’ by Mr. Shaw-Lefevre; and some contributions to a few reviews +and other serials.</p> + +<p>The ‘Present Question’ of the Irish land, and of Irish landed relations, +goes back to even remote antiquity, and is connected with the whole course +of Irish history. The characteristics and peculiarities of tribal land +tenure in Ireland, before the Anglo-Norman Conquest, have been admirably +explained in Sir Henry Maine’s ‘Early History of Institutions,’ a very +valuable work. I may refer to an article on this book, from my pen, in the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i> of July, 1875. See, also, the ‘Senchus Mor,’ and the +‘Book of Aicile,’ fragments of the Brehon Laws, well annotated by the late +Professor Richey. The state of the Irish land, from the Anglo-Norman +Conquest to the beginning of the Tudor period, has been fully illustrated +in the ‘Statute of Kilkenny,’ edited by James Hardiman, whose learned +commentary is useful and important; in the ‘Discovery’ of Sir John Davies; +in Spenser’s ‘View of the State of Ireland;’ in the ‘O’Conors of +Connaught,’ by the O’Conor Don; in Hallam’s ‘Constitutional History,’ vol. +iii. chapter on Ireland; and in Professor Richey’s ‘Lectures.’ I have +glanced at the state of Irish land tenure during the tribal and the feudal +ages, in the introductory chapters to my ‘Ireland, 1494-1868,’ in the +‘Cambridge Historical Series.’ The most complete account, perhaps, of the +confiscations of the Irish land, from the reign of Henry VIII. to that of +Charles I., will be found in the ‘Carew Papers,’ edited by J. S. Brewer +and William Bullen; valuable information abounds in the ‘State Papers +relating to the reign of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> Henry VIII.,’ edited by Hans Claude Hamilton; in +‘The Life of Sir John Perrott and his Letters;’ in the ‘Earls of Kildare,’ +edited by the Marquis of Kildare; in the ‘State Papers,’ edited by +Hamilton, <i>ante</i>, ‘relating to the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and +Elizabeth;’ in the ‘Annals of the Four Masters;’ and see Davies and +Spenser, <i>ante</i>. Several modern writers have treated this subject in their +narratives of Irish history; Froude’s ‘History of England,’ vol. ii. ch. +viii.; vol. iv. ch. xix.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.; vol. viii. chs. vii.-xi.; +vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii., may be consulted; but a reader +should be put on his guard against the brilliant but partisan historian. +There is a valuable chapter also, in a very different work, Mr. Lecky’s +‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. ch. vi. pp. 92 +<i>seqq.</i>; and a great deal may be learned from the ‘O’Conors of Connaught,’ +and Richey’s ‘Lectures,’ <i>ante</i>; and especially from an ‘Historical +Account of the Plantation of Ulster,’ by the Rev. George Hill, and from +Sigerson’s ‘History of Irish Land Tenure.’ In the momentous period of +confiscation, from the beginning of the reign of Charles I. to that of +William III., a reader should study ‘Strafford’s Letters;’ Carte’s ‘Life +of Ormond;’ Lord Clanricarde’s ‘Memoirs;’ the ‘Letters of Cromwell,’ +edited by Carlyle; the ‘Acts of Settlement and Explanation;’ the ‘Articles +of the Treaty of Limerick;’ Sir William Petty’s ‘Political Anatomy of +Ireland;’ ‘Macariæ Excidium;’ and the Abbe MacGeoghegan’s ‘History of +Ireland.’ The modern authorities on this period are numerous and some of +great value; see Gardiner’s ‘History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate’ +(the Irish chapters), notably vol. iii. ch. xliv.; ‘The Cromwellian +Settlement of Ireland,’ by John P. Prendergast; ‘The Life of Sir William +Petty,’ by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, with an article by me in the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i> of July, 1895; ‘The Patriot Parliament,’ by Thomas +Davis; Macaulay’s ‘History of England’ (the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> Irish chapters), vol. iv. ch. +xxii.; vol. v. ch. xiv.-xvi.; vol. vi. ch. xvii.; and Mr. Lecky’s +‘History,’ <i>ante</i>, vol. ii. ch. ix. Many instructive and philosophic +passages on all these confiscations and their results, will be found +scattered among the writings of Burke; they are admirable.</p> + +<p>The era of violent confiscation closed with the reign of William III.; the +modern history of the Irish land system begins from this period. For an +account of the penal code, as it affected Irish landed relations, +reference may be made to Vincent Scully, ‘On the Penal Laws;’ to Howard’s +‘Popery Cases;’ and especially to Burke’s ‘Tracts on the Popery Laws.’ +Much, too, can be gathered from Curry’s ‘State of the Irish Catholics;’ +from Primate Boulter’s and Archbishop Synge’s ‘Letters;’ from the writings +on Ireland of Swift and Berkeley; and from various passages in the ‘Works +and Correspondence of Burke.’ For the state of the Irish land from the +beginning of the reign of George III. to the Rebellion of 1798, study the +celebrated ‘Tour’ of Arthur Young, written in 1776-78; Crumpe’s ‘Essay;’ +an admirable sketch by Mr. Lecky in his ‘History,’ <i>ante</i>, vol. vii. ch. +xxvii.; and Sir George Lewis on ‘Irish Disturbances,’ a book which gives +an account of the rise and progress of the Whiteboy movement, and carries +the narrative down to 1836. Froude has illustrated this subject very +skilfully in his ‘Two Chiefs of Dunboy;’ but his account, in his ‘The +English in Ireland,’ is very inaccurate and one-sided. The nature of Irish +landed relations during the troubled period before the Union is fully +explained in many passages of Mr. Lecky’s ‘History,’ <i>ante</i>, vols. vii. +and viii.; and the reader should peruse Lord Clare’s speech in the Irish +House of Lords during the debates on the Union. From the Union to the +present time, the authorities on the Irish land system are very numerous; +it is not easy to make compendious selection. For the period of the Great +War, Edward Wakefield’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> ‘Account of Ireland’ is valuable, and so is, for +the immediately subsequent period, the evidence on the state of Ireland +taken by a Committee of the House of Commons in 1825. The nature and the +characteristics of the Irish land system, in 1843-44, are fully explained +and commented upon in the well-known Report of the Devon Commission, and +the voluminous evidence; and for the revolution wrought in the Irish land +by the Famine of 1845-47, see the ‘Irish Crisis,’ by Sir Charles +Trevelyan, republished from the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>; and a ‘History of the +Great Irish Famine,’ by the Rev. John O’Rorke. Much information, too, on +the subject, as a whole, may be obtained from ‘L’Irlande, Sociale, +Politique, et Religieuse,’ of Gustave de Beaumont; from ‘Ireland from the +Treaty of Limerick to 1851,’ by John Mitchell; from parts of ‘Two +Centuries of Irish History,’ edited by James Bryce, M.P.; from several +‘Reports’ of the Loyal National Repeal Association; and from parts of Mr. +Barry O’Brien’s ‘Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,’ and ‘Irish Wrongs +and English Remedies.’</p> + +<p>The Irish land question has given birth to a literature of its own in the +last half-century; legislation on the Irish land system has been +extraordinarily active. With respect to the first, reference may be made +to ‘Two Centuries of Irish History,’ <i>ante</i>, and to Mr. Barry O’Brien’s +works, <i>ante</i>; to ‘Emigration and the Tenure of Irish Land,’ by Lord +Dufferin; to John Stuart Mill’s ‘The Irish Land Question;’ to ‘The Irish +People and the Irish Land,’ by Butt; to Sir George Campbell’s ‘The Irish +Land,’ a very good little book; to Judge Longfield’s essay on the Irish +land in ‘Systems of Land Tenure;’ and to my own ‘Letters on the Land +Question of Ireland,’ republished from the <i>Times</i>. I am happy to think +that, on this subject, I have always ‘pitched my Whiggery low;’ my first +essay was on the Encumbered Estates Act; when fresh from Oxford I +condemned that scheme of confiscation as unequivocally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> as, in the present +and other works, I have condemned Irish agrarian legislation since +1880-81. Other books contain passages on the Irish land system that may be +read with profit; see the ‘Recollections and Suggestions’ of Earl Russell; +‘Ireland in 1868,’ by Gerald Fitzgibbon; ‘Ireland,’ by Lord Grey; +‘Journals, Conversations, and Essays relating to Ireland,’ by Nassau +Senior; and ‘New Views on Ireland,’ by Lord Russell of Killowen. As +regards recent legislation on the Irish Land, from 1870 to 1896, the Acts +passed by Parliament must of course be studied, and also the important +debates reported in Hansard. Butt wrote a very able volume on the Land Act +of 1870; I contributed a short treatise; an exhaustive and technical work +of great value, on all the Irish Land Acts, has been produced by Messrs. +Cherry and Wakely; this, with the Irish Reports, supplies ample +professional, and even general, information. With respect to the +administration of the Irish Land Acts, see the Report of the Committee of +the House of Lords, and the evidence published in 1872; the Report of, and +the evidence collected by, the Bessborough Commission of 1880-81; the +Report of a Committee of the House of Lords on the working of the Land Act +of 1881, published, with the evidence, in 1882; the Report, with the +evidence, of the Cowper Commission, 1888-89; the Report, with the +evidence, of the Morley Commission, 1894-1895; and, especially, the Report +of Sir Edward Fry’s Commission of 1897, with the important evidence it has +put together. Mr. Lecky, in his ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. i. ch. ii., +has criticised, almost as severely as I have done, recent Irish agrarian +legislation; no serious defence of it has ever been made or attempted.</p> + +<p>To understand the real state of the financial relations between Great +Britain and Ireland, it is necessary to go back to the times of the Union; +those who resist the Irish demand avoid an appeal to history. The debates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> +in the Irish Parliament in 1800 should be carefully studied, especially +the speeches of Castlereagh, Grattan, and Foster. The Seventh Article of +the Treaty of Union, set forth in this work, should also be diligently +scanned and perused. See, too, the debates in the Imperial Parliament in +1816; the resolutions passed by the House of Commons in that year; and the +Act abolishing the separate Exchequer of Ireland. Reference, moreover, +should be made to the evidence taken before General Dunne’s Committee in +1864, in which sophistry triumphed for the moment over truth. All these +sources of information, however, are scanty and imperfect compared to the +celebrated Report of the Childers Commission, with the valuable evidence +annexed to it; this for the first time completely brings out the whole +facts on the subject. The debates in Hansard on the financial claims of +Ireland may also be looked at; but they are not of peculiar importance; +the same remark applies to nearly all the articles in reviews, magazines, +and journals, in which endeavours have been made to answer the Report. I +may be allowed to say that I have some claim to have a distinct opinion in +this matter; when still quite a boy I often heard my grand-uncle, the late +Sir John Newport, one of the ablest and last of the Chancellors of the +Irish Exchequer, condemn the financial treatment of Ireland from 1800 +onwards; many years afterwards I was intimately acquainted with several of +the independent Irish gentlemen, survivors of the great school of Grattan, +who protested against Mr. Gladstone’s fiscal Irish measures from 1853 to a +later date; Butt and Judge Longfield, both very able economists, fully +concurred. With respect to local government and administration in Ireland, +see Mr. Barry O’Brien’s ‘Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,’ vol. i. +books iv. and v.; the Report of the Commissioners on Irish Corporate +Reform issued in 1833-34, and the Irish Municipal Corporation Reform Act +of 1840; the Irish Towns Commissioners Acts; a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> report made by Mr. W. P. +O’Brien in 1878; a good treatise by Mr. Bailey published in 1888; and the +recent Irish Local Government Act of 1898, with the debates in Hansard on +this measure, should be perused. The authorities on Irish education of all +kinds are numerous, and some valuable. Froude has glanced at the subject, +with characteristic unfairness, in his ‘The English in Ireland;’ the +refutation of Mr. Lecky, in his ‘England in the Eighteenth Century,’ is +complete. A good description of education in Ireland, in all its branches, +as it existed in 1812, will be found in Edward Wakefield’s ‘Account of +Ireland,’ vol. ii. ch. xxiv.; another in Mr. Barry O’Brien’s ‘Fifty Years +of Concessions to Ireland,’ vol. i. book i.; vol ii. book x.; the author +brings the narrative down to 1881. As regards high education in Ireland, +reference may be made to ‘The History of the University of Dublin,’ by the +Rev. W. Stubbs; to ‘The Constitutional History of the University of +Dublin,’ by D. C. Heron; to the Report of Archbishop Whateley’s +Commission, in 1853, on the University of Dublin; to Mr. Gladstone’s Irish +University Bill of 1873, and the able debates on the subject in Trinity +College and the House of Commons; to Mr. Fawcett’s Act of 1873; to a +masterly pamphlet by Butt, on the whole question, published in 1875; and +to the ‘Irish University Question,’ by Archbishop Walsh, with recent +debates in Parliament on Irish University reform. For the nature, +constitution, and working of the Queen’s Colleges and the Queen’s +University, see the debates in Parliament when Peel introduced this +policy; many Reports; the work of Archbishop Walsh, <i>ante</i>; and the Act +creating the Royal University in Ireland may be examined. As regards +primary and secondary education in Ireland, see the Reports of the +Education Commissioners from 1810 to 1825; the Reports of the National +Education Board; the Reports of the Kildare, Rosse, and Powis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> +Commissions, noticed in this work; and Mr. Godkin’s ‘Education in +Ireland.’ An excellent synopsis of the subject, as a whole, will be found +in ‘The Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland,’ by Mr. Graham +Balfour.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">WILLIAM O’CONNOR MORRIS.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gartnamona, Tullamore</span>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>14th May, 1901</i>.</span></span></p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span></p> +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table width="65%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGES</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">IRELAND IN 1901</td></tr> +<tr><td>Ireland has passed through a revolution in the Victorian age—Material progress—Dublin—Belfast—Improvement in +Catholic places of worship and in the habitations of the people—State of the Irish community—Symptoms of retrogression—Decline +of agriculture—The progress of Ireland much less than that of England and Scotland, and why—State of the Irish land system—Recent +legislation has done some good, but it has been unjust, and has had pernicious effects—Ireland divided into three peoples—Notwithstanding +great reforms Catholic Ireland is still, in the main, disaffected—Presbyterian Ireland—Cry for the confiscation of the +Irish land—Protestant Ireland—Fall of its old ascendency—Discontent among the landed gentry—Nature of the government +of Ireland by the Imperial Parliament—Its merits and defects—Attitude of the greater part of Ireland towards it—The +administration of Irish affairs—The bureaucracy of the Castle—The Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic Irish +Churches—The administration of justice in Ireland—Irish literature and public opinion—General survey of the present +state of Ireland—Irish policy of Lord Salisbury’s Ministry—‘Present Irish Questions’ to be discussed in this work</td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1-38</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE QUESTION OF HOME RULE</td></tr> +<tr><td>The question of Home Rule not extinct—The reasons—Butt’s scheme of Home Rule—It is denounced and ridiculed by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span>Mr. Gladstone, and defeated in the House of Commons—Death +of Butt—The Home Rule movement becomes allied with a foreign conspiracy—Davitt and Parnell—The Land +League—Mr. Gladstone’s surrender to it—The movement makes no progress in the Parliament of 1880-85—The +General Election of 1885—Mr. Gladstone suddenly adopts the policy of Home Rule—The probable reasons—The +Home Rule Bill of 1886—Its nature and tendencies—Decisive objections to the measure—It is rejected at the General +Election of 1886, having been previously rejected in the House of Commons—Policy and conduct of Mr. Gladstone—The +Home Rule movement makes some progress in England, and why—The Home Rule Bill of 1893—It is +much worse than that of 1886—The reasons—It is rejected by the House of Lords—Home Rule under different forms—The +Union must be maintained—Proposal that Parliament should occasionally sit in Dublin—The over-representation of Ireland should be redressed</td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39-83</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND—SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND TO THE YEAR 1870</td></tr> +<tr><td>Great importance in the history of Ireland of the conditions of land tenure—The ancient Celtic land system and its characteristics—The +Norman conquest of Ireland—Norman feudalism in the Irish land—The policy of Henry VII., and especially of Henry VIII.—The era of the +conquest and confiscation of the Irish land—The possessions of the O’Connors of Offaly wrested from them—Forfeiture of the domains of +Shane O’Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond—Attempts at colonisation—All Ireland made shire land—The extinction of the old Celtic +land system—The Plantation of Ulster—Progress of confiscation during the reigns of the two first Stuarts—The Civil War—Immense +confiscations made by Cromwell—His scheme of colonisation a failure—The era of confiscation closes after the battle of the Boyne and the fall +of Limerick—The Penal Code of Ireland—Its fatal effects on the Irish land—Dismal period in Irish landed relations—Gradual +improvement—The period described by Arthur Young—Evil traces of the past remain—Whiteboyism and agrarian disorder—State of Irish +landed relations up to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span>rebellion of 1798, and after the Union—Over-population +and the results—Distress after the Peace—State of Irish landed relations up to 1844—The Report of the Devon Commission—The +Famine and its effects on the Irish land—The Encumbered Estates Acts—State of Irish landed relations from 1848 to 1868</td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_84">84-129</a></td></tr> + + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (<i>continued</i>)—THE IRISH LAND ACT OF 1870—THE LAND LEAGUE AND +THE NATIONAL LEAGUE—THE LAND ACT OF 1881—SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION AS REGARDS THE LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND</td></tr> +<tr><td>State of landed relations in Ireland in 1869-70—Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister—The Land Act of 1870—Its merits and +defects—A short period of prosperity in Ireland—Ominous symptoms—Michael Davitt—The teaching of John Finton +Lalor in 1848—The ‘New Departure’ in Fenianism arranged in America—Foundation of the Land League—It was a +foreign rebellious conspiracy, with an agrarian side, under a constitutional mask—Parnell the master spirit of the League—His +visit to America and the results—A short period of distress in Ireland—Conduct of the Irish landlords—Progress +of the Land League—Mr. Gladstone again Prime Minister in 1880—The Compensation for Disturbance Bill rejected +by the House of Lords—Outburst of agrarian crime, as the Land League increases in power—Rents at Griffith’s valuation—Boycotting—Frightful +state of Ireland in 1881—After a short attempt to repress it, Mr. Gladstone surrenders to the Land League—The Land Act of 1881—Mr. +Gladstone breaks the pledges he had made in 1870—His promise of compensating the Irish landlords—The Land Act of 1881 a +bad and unjust measure directly inconsistent with that of 1870—The ‘No Rent Manifesto’—The Kilmainham Treaty—The +Phœnix Park tragedy—Coercion—Parnell founds the National League, the successor of the Land League—Renewal +of agitation in 1886—Struggle with law and the Government—Subsequent agrarian legislation for Ireland—This is really +a concession to agitation, for the benefit of Irish tenants, and to the injury of Irish landlords</td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_130">130-187</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (<i>continued</i>)—THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE IRISH LAND ACTS</td></tr> +<tr><td>The administration of the Land Act of 1870 in the main good—Difficulty about claims for tenants’ improvements—The administration +of the Land Act of 1881, and of its supplements—The Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions—Allowances +to be made for these tribunals—Principles which the Land Commission should have adopted in fixing ‘fair rents’—The +procedure and practice it ought to have established—It made mistakes as to both—The nature of the Sub-Commission Courts—This was +objectionable in the highest degree—These Courts have, however unconsciously, done grave wrong to Irish landlords—Causes of this—Characteristics +of their proceedings—They disregarded the principles they ought to have followed, and adopted faulty and erroneous +methods—Different illustrations of these grave mistakes—The Land Commission and appeals as to ‘fair rent’—Importance +of this subject—Faulty procedure of the Land Commission in appeals—Valuers—The second Land Commission—Its +procedure worse than that of the first—Theory of occupation right—This another wrong done to landlords—The +Fry Commission and its report—Confiscation of the property of Irish landlords—The proofs of this—Apologies +made for the Land Commission—The administration of the Land Purchase Acts</td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_188">188-229</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (<i>continued</i>)—PROPOSED REFORM OF THE IRISH LAND SYSTEM</td></tr> +<tr><td>Retrospect of the present Irish land system—Position of the Irish landlords—Position of the Irish tenant class—This not as +advantageous as might be supposed—The effects of the land code on Irish agriculture injurious—The effects on the general Irish +community—Confiscation, violation of contracts, shock given to credit, increased alienation of classes, and demoralisation—The land system +considered on the side of ownership—‘Voluntary purchase’—Mischief of this policy—It sets up a false standard against rent, +and creates <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span>unjust distinctions between different classes of tenants—The +results it has produced already—An instance of the system—The demand for the compulsory purchase of the Irish land caused by ‘voluntary +purchase’—Compulsory purchase has some hold on opinion, but is an impossible, and would be a disgraceful and ruinous policy—It would +ruin Irish landlords as a class—Instances—It would ultimately bring Ireland into the state in which she was before the Great Famine—Proposed +plan for the reform of Irish land tenure—Questions as to the means of compensating Irish landlords, a deeply wronged order of men</td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_230">230-270</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE QUESTION OF THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND</td></tr> +<tr><td>The subject briefly considered—Financial position of Ireland before 1782, and under Grattan’s Parliament—Her taxation +and debt small before 1798—Ireland financially a distinct country—At the Union, Pitt wished to ‘assimilate her in +finance’ with Great Britain, but this impossible, and why—Ireland’s contribution after the Union—This was unjust, but +it left her financially a distinct country—Ireland made nearly bankrupt—The compromise of 1816—The Irish Exchequer +closed, and the Irish and British debts consolidated—The object of the compromise was rather to relieve Ireland from +her burdens than to assimilate her in finance with Great Britain—She still remained for many years financially distinct +from Great Britain, and is so still to some extent—The conduct of Peel a striking proof of this—Mr. Gladstone +imposes the income tax on Ireland, and her spirit duties are largely raised—Injustice of this policy—The Committee +of 1863-64—Ireland does not obtain financial justice—The Report of the Childers Commission made upon a reference +by Mr. Gladstone following Mr. Goschen—The Commission declares that Ireland has been greatly overtaxed for many years—Evidence +on which it has founded this conclusion—Examination of arguments to the contrary—Another +Commission promised, but the promise not fulfilled—Importance of settling this question</td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_271">271-308</a></td></tr> + + +<tr><td> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE QUESTIONS OF IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION—OTHER QUESTIONS—CONCLUSION</td></tr> +<tr><td>Irish county government—The grand jury system in the eighteenth century—Its merits and defects—The grand jury +system in the nineteenth century, and especially since 1836—The Irish poor law system—Elected and <i>ex-officio</i> guardians—The +local government of cities and towns in Ireland—Municipal institutions founded in Ireland by the Norman kings—Why +they did not prosper—Boroughs and municipalities founded by James I. and the Stuarts—Their condition in the eighteenth and nineteenth +centuries—The Municipal Reform Act of 1840—The Towns Commissioners Acts—Attempts to reform the municipal system of local +government in Ireland—The Local Government of Ireland Act, 1898—Complete change in Irish local government—The +County Councils—The County Borough Councils—The District, Rural, and the Urban District Councils—Their +functions, rights, and duties—All these bodies placed on a democratic basis—Attitude of the County Councils in the +southern provinces—Education in Ireland—History of primary education—The National system of education—The +principles on which it is founded—How it has worked, and what its results have been—Secondary education in Ireland—Its +history—Its present condition very imperfect—The Intermediate Education Act—University education in +Ireland—Its history—Trinity College—The Queen’s Colleges and the Queen’s University founded by Peel—Their comparative +failure—Mr. Gladstone’s Bill to reform University education in Ireland—Its glaring errors and failures—Trinity +College thrown open in 1873—The Royal University founded in 1879—Present state of University education +in Ireland—The true principles of reform—Other Irish questions—Conclusion</td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_309">309-360</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Appendix</span></td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_361">361-428</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Index</span></td> + <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_429">429</a></td></tr></table> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">Present Irish Questions</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="large">IRELAND IN 1901</span></p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang">Ireland has passed through a revolution in the Victorian age—Material +progress—Dublin—Belfast—Improvement in Catholic places of worship +and in the habitations of the people—State of the Irish +community—Symptoms of retrogression—Decline of agriculture—The +progress of Ireland much less than that of England and Scotland, and +why—State of the Irish land system—Recent legislation has done some +good, but it has been unjust, and has had pernicious effects—Ireland +divided into three peoples—Notwithstanding great reforms Catholic +Ireland is still, in the main, disaffected—Presbyterian Ireland—Cry +for the confiscation of the Irish land—Protestant Ireland—Fall of +its old ascendency—Discontent among the landed gentry—Nature of the +government of Ireland by the Imperial Parliament—Its merits and +defects—Attitude of the greater part of Ireland towards it—The +administration of Irish affairs—The bureaucracy of the Castle—The +Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic Irish Churches—The +administration of justice in Ireland—Irish literature and public +opinion—General survey of the present state of Ireland—Irish policy +of Lord Salisbury’s ministry—‘Present Irish Questions’ to be +discussed in this work.</p></div> + + +<p>To understand thoroughly the Ireland of the present day, it is necessary +to have studied her history in the past. Nevertheless, if we go back to a +comparatively recent period, say to the beginning of the reign of +Victoria, we can obtain a reasonably clear idea of her existing +condition.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> A revolution has passed over her in this space of time almost +as complete as the revolution which has transformed France; the results +have not yet been fully developed, but in nearly all respects they have +been immense. The community has, for the most part, made material +progress; but this has been far from great or decisive; it has been +interrupted by seasons of distress, one culminating in a dire catastrophe, +and has been retarded by many causes of trouble. Taking the external +aspect of Ireland first, Dublin has certainly advanced in the last sixty +years; the capital has been surrounded by fine and increasing suburbs; the +squares, the streets, the shops have improved; above all, though much +remains yet to be done, the contrast between the dwellings of the rich and +the poor is much less painful than it was within living memory. No city, +however, has made such progress as Belfast: its population, which, in +1841, was not more than 75,000 souls, was, in 1891, upwards of 255,000;<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a> +its opulence has probably grown tenfold; it is the centre of the great +manufacture of Ulster; its building-yards are renowned for its magnificent +ships; its estuary is crowded with the thronging fleets of commerce. The +towns dependent on it, too, and the whole adjoining region, are +flourishing from the great trade in linen, which has been aggregated +within a comparatively small space; indeed, this prosperity has extended +over all the north-east of Ireland, and Londonderry has long been a +thriving seaport. Few of the towns of the rest of Ulster and of the +southern provinces have improved; but signs of augmented wealth appear in +other directions; in this respect they are striking in the extreme. The +places of worship and the religious houses of the Catholic Church of +Ireland have been transformed; the mean ‘chapels’ of the past have largely +disappeared; most parishes have a suitable church; fine cathedrals +dominate many towns;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> we often admire monasteries and convents in +architectural splendour. The most remarkable phenomenon, however, of this +description is the great and fortunate change which has taken place in the +habitations of the community throughout the country. The dense and +wretched hovels which, sixty years ago, barely sheltered the millions of +Irish indigence, if still too frequent, have been, for the most part, +effaced; the houses of the better class have greatly increased in numbers, +though the population has enormously declined.<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a> And the face of the +landscape in most counties bears witness, on the whole, to a still +perceptible progress. The chief industry of Ireland, indeed, as I shall +show afterwards, has certainly retrograded within the last twenty years; +her agricultural area and resources have much diminished. The advance, +too, which, from about 1853 to 1876, was manifest and rapid in most of her +rural districts, has been, to a considerable extent, checked; capital has, +for some time, been avoiding her soil. But if the process was stern, nay, +appalling, the land has, within the last half century, been thrown open to +husbandry, infinitely better and more fruitful than had existed before; +the exertions which were made, for a long space of time, to improve +cultivation have left far-spreading traces; we still behold the beneficent +results. The land over the greater part of its surface is not ‘puckered +up’ in thousands of squalid patches, the holdings of masses of cottar +paupers; it has been made more available for real farming; and it has been +largely drained, enclosed, and covered with woodland—at least, up to a +recent period.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>The material condition of the Irish community has, also, improved since +the late Queen ascended the throne. This, no doubt, is to be largely +ascribed to the effects of the great Famine of 1845-47, and of the immense +emigration that followed in its train. The resources of Ireland, before +that calamity, were unable to support, in anything like comfort, the +teeming multitudes crowded on her soil; an official report, made in 1838, +proved that two millions and a half of the poor in Ireland were for months +in the year on the brink of starvation; this huge mass of indigence, which +forced up rent, beat down wages, and was most injurious to good husbandry, +was almost incompatible with real social progress. The great and +continuing exodus of the Irish race, which has gone on for more than half +a century, has not been without untoward results; but it has relieved the +country from a destructive incubus; and this has certainly wrought a +beneficent change, though the population has declined from about eight +millions in 1837 to about four and a half millions in 1895.<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a> Ireland, +indeed, is still, mainly, a poor country—in some districts she is +exceedingly poor; but the disappearance of overwhelmingly redundant +millions has enabled her to maintain the millions that have remained much +better than of old, and has distinctly raised the standard of living among +all the humbler classes. The wages of agricultural labour, seldom more +than six or seven shillings a week before the Famine, and then paid in +potatoes by a vile truck system, have risen to ten and even twelve +shillings, usually paid in cash; and they have not fallen, though Irish +agriculture is very far from prosperous. The wages of the higher kinds of +labour have also greatly increased; this is apparent in nearly all trades, +and is especially apparent in the trades of Ulster. At the same time, the +potato has long ceased to be the sole food of the poor; their dwellings, +though still too often mean and bad, are infinitely better than they once +were; their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> attire, and even their appearance, has greatly improved. I do +not think, indeed, that O’Connell’s description of the peasantry of +Munster in 1825 could now be fairly applied to even the worst parts of +Ireland, the impoverished tracts on the seacoast of Connaught: ‘They have +no clothes to change, they have none but what they wear at the moment.... +Their food consists of potatoes and water during the greater part of the +year; potatoes and sour milk during another portion; they use some salt +with their potatoes when they have nothing but water.’<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a> There is +evidence, also, that, even of late years, the wealth of Ireland has, in +some measure, increased, especially in the middle and lower middle +classes. The landed gentry, indeed, owing partly to the effects of Free +Trade, and partly to those of legislation I shall describe afterwards, +have been impoverished in many instances, and in many ruined; and the +Irish tenant farmer, if gorged by the spoil of his landlord, has not +gained all that an agrarian revolution was expected to give him. But the +commerce of Ireland has made progress, within the last two decades, if +this has not been by any means great; and though the capital she holds in +the best securities has perceptibly diminished of late years, there has +been a very large increase in most kinds of other investments.<a name='fna_5' id='fna_5' href='#f_5'><small>[5]</small></a></p> + +<p>This picture of Ireland, however, has dark features; her welfare has been, +at best, partial; considerable deductions must be made from it. The +progress of the capital, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> has been the case in London, is largely to be +ascribed to the depletion of many country districts, a change that has +been going on for a long period, and has been accelerated by the decline +of the landed gentry in wealth. The enormous advance of Belfast, and of +the adjoining neighbourhood, has been, to a great extent, caused by the +concentration of the linen manufacture within a small area; the hand-loom +has disappeared from Ireland; this has been injurious to many petty towns +and villages. The population and the trade of nearly all the chief towns +in the southern provinces have diminished; Cork, with its immense natural +advantages, has not prospered; Limerick and, notably, Galway are in decay; +most of the inland towns show few signs of improvement; the outskirts of +almost all are defaced by lines of ruined hovels, the wrecks of abodes a +dwindling tale of indwellers has left. Many of these urban centres were, +sixty years ago, seats of manufactures and of other industries, which, to +a certain extent, were flourishing; but these sources of wealth have, for +the most part, been dried up; they have been blotted out by the gigantic +manufactures of England and Scotland poured into Ireland, everywhere, +within a few hours, by steam. The collapse, indeed, of Irish manufactures +in the last half century has been striking and mournful; 696,000 persons +were employed in textile and dyeing industries in 1841; in 1881 there were +only 130,000; and though the growth of machinery may in part account for +this difference, it assuredly cannot fully explain it.<a name='fna_6' id='fna_6' href='#f_6'><small>[6]</small></a> The same remark +applies to Irish fishing industry; the small craft which once swarmed +along the coast, and, rearing a breed of hardy mariners, gathered in the +prolific harvests of the sea, have been vanishing year after year; in +1867, 9332 boats, and 38,444 men and boys were engaged in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> this calling; +the numbers were 5646 and 21,940 in 1891.<a name='fna_7' id='fna_7' href='#f_7'><small>[7]</small></a> Turning to the face of the +country, agriculture, we have seen, has improved, if we look back to the +period before the Famine; but it is still centuries behind that of England +and Scotland, and of late years it has markedly declined. It is not only +that the prices of agricultural produce are much less than they were, in +the last generation, and that its total value has fallen from £97,885,000 +in 1851-55, to £88,955,000 in 1889-93.<a name='fna_8' id='fna_8' href='#f_8'><small>[8]</small></a> The agricultural area of Ireland +has diminished from 1879 to 1899 by rather more than 400,000 acres;<a name='fna_9' id='fna_9' href='#f_9'><small>[9]</small></a> and +it is absolutely certain that within these decreasing limits, as I shall +point out in subsequent chapters, agriculture has made little or no +progress, and in some districts has distinctly become worse; we see the +results of the vicious legislation of the last twenty years in +deteriorated farms, in hundreds of cases, in a most injurious neglect of +arterial drainage, and in the destruction of thousands of acres of +woodland. And the ruin which has overtaken many of the landed gentry has +been made only too manifest in the desolate aspect of scores of country +seats, once happy homes, that now know their owners no more.</p> + +<p>It must be borne in mind, too, as we examine the present state of Ireland, +that if, on the whole, she has made some progress, she is still, as I have +said, a poor country, and that a considerable part of Connaught, her +western province, has, for years, been in so poor a condition, that the +Government of late has laudably made a great effort to raise it out of the +depths of indigence. Other considerations, moreover, must be taken into +account, if we would form a just conclusion as to the material<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> position +of Ireland, and, especially, as to her material prospects. The reduction +of her population, up to a certain point, was an essential condition of +her social progress; but that limit appears to have been far surpassed; +this continuous decline, during more than half a century, has become an +ominous symptom. More than 3,700,000 of souls have emigrated from Ireland +since 1851;<a name='fna_10' id='fna_10' href='#f_10'><small>[10]</small></a> and this number does not include the masses which fled +from the catastrophe of 1845-47. This immense drain on the life of a +nation has, for years, had a pernicious effect; in large parts of the +country labourers have become so scarce that it is often difficult to save +the harvest, which should be quickly gathered in, in a wet climate; and +hands are wanting to industry in many places. Emigration, too, has taken +away the best part of the people, men and women in the flower of +existence; the reproductive power of the community has, accordingly, +declined; the birth-rate of Ireland is less than it was; infirmity, +disease, and, notably, insanity have increased; the population of the +towns is seldom active and thriving.<a name='fna_11' id='fna_11' href='#f_11'><small>[11]</small></a> At the same time, the taxation of +Ireland has become many degrees more excessive in the last sixty years; +the local rates have advanced from about £1,000,000 to nearly £4,000,000; +the general taxation has been well-nigh doubled; and a tribunal of the +very highest authority has recently declared that Ireland is immensely +overtaxed, and has been for upwards of forty years. Nor can there be a +real question but that large interests connected with the land have +suffered greatly in the period that has now extended from 1878-79. It is +unnecessary to refer to the condition of the landed gentry; I shall notice +it at some length afterwards; but, much as the Irish people dislike the +Poor-law, pauperism has distinctly increased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> during the last ten years, +though the population has fallen off in numbers, and the charge of +pauperism shows a corresponding increase.<a name='fna_12' id='fna_12' href='#f_12'><small>[12]</small></a> The Income Tax returns, too, +as regards the land, are of sinister omen; those under Schedule A have +greatly diminished since 1890; and there is a considerable decline of +property in the Funds.<a name='fna_13' id='fna_13' href='#f_13'><small>[13]</small></a> As to the argument that the Tenant Right of the +Irish farmer has risen in value, and that this proves Irish agriculture to +be in a prosperous state, this is a complete, nay, a grotesque, fallacy. +The rise in the value of Tenant Right is simply one of the many signs that +a huge confiscation has taken place in the Irish land.</p> + +<p>If Ireland, therefore, has made material progress, this has been slow, +partial, and with large drawbacks; such as it is, it must be mainly +ascribed to the results of the Famine, which liberated the soil from a +destructive burden. The whole country, it has truly been said, has still +too much the look of a ‘great neglected estate,’ requiring development in +most of its parts; large sections of the population are poor, feeble in +health, and backward. Any advance, moreover, which Ireland has made in +well being, since 1837-38, is as nothing compared with the extraordinary +growth of the prosperity of England and Scotland, within the same period. +True-hearted Irishmen grieve as they pass from the lesser to the greater +island, and contrast the husbandry of Galway and Mayo with that of the +Lothians and Kent; as they gaze on the Shannon, with scarcely a sail on +its waters, and the Clyde teeming with its fleets of commerce; above all, +as they turn from the decaying towns of their own country to such centres +of wealth and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> of gigantic trade, as some even of the provincial cities of +Britain, not to speak of the mighty world of London. The causes, indeed, +of this contrast may be easily found; the mineral resources of Ireland are +scanty; her commerce and manufactures are small; she is essentially an +agricultural land, which has lost much from the effects of Free Trade; she +has suffered greatly from misgovernment, agitation, and social disorder; +all this has kept her back in the national race. The mineral products, on +the other hand, of England and Scotland are immense, and of the first +importance in an age of invention; they have decisively contributed to the +huge development of the opulence and the trade of Great Britain; the +policy of Free Trade, carried out for years, has had marvellous results in +the same direction; if British agriculture is not progressing, British +commerce and manufactures are still supreme; and Great Britain has been +for ages a law-abiding land, in which order has been happily combined with +liberty. These considerations fully explain the wide and ever-increasing +distinction between Ireland and England and Scotland, only too manifest; +they have been amply verified by unerring statistics. Two figures may +suffice for a general reader; the resources of Ireland were estimated, a +few years ago, at a sum of about four hundred millions sterling, that of +Great Britain at not less than ten thousand millions.<a name='fna_14' id='fna_14' href='#f_14'><small>[14]</small></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>The social structure of Ireland springs from the soil; it is most apparent +in the relations that have been formed in the land. I shall dwell, at some +length, in other chapters of this work, on the history and the +characteristics of the Irish land system, and on the revolution through +which it has passed; I can here only briefly glance at the subject. That +system, at the beginning of the late reign, still represented, in many +respects, the features it had borne in the eighteenth century, though +these had been, in a great degree, modified. The land, over four-fifths of +its surface, was still in the ownership of a small class of men, divided +in race and faith from its occupants; the conquests and confiscations +which had drawn deep lines of distinction between the Anglo-Protestant +landlord and the Catholic and even the Presbyterian peasant, had still +left their indelible traces, if these had been, to a considerable extent, +effaced. Absenteeism had increased since the Union, though absentee +estates were showing signs of improvement; middleman tenures, with their +manifold and complex mischiefs, were disappearing, but were still +numerous; various causes, to operate for many years, were diminishing the +security of the peasants’ tenure. The power of the dominant landlord class +was declining; it was being weakened by the Castle bureaucracy, and by the +emancipation of Catholic Ireland; but it was still nearly supreme in +landed relations; this class was all but the absolute lords of the tillers +of the soil. It is untrue that it was oppressive and unjust as a rule; but +some of its members abused their excessive power; it had too much in +common with an exclusive caste; and a whole train of economic causes were +aggravating the evils of a land system from its origin placed on unsound +foundations. Agriculture was advancing in not a few counties; many of the +landed gentry were improving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> men, who were making a beginning in the +scientific farming, which, before long, was to be more fully developed. +But the population, we have seen, had increased by millions Ireland could +not support; over whole districts, especially in Munster and Connaught, +the land had been split up into petty holdings, the seats of a huge +multitude of human misery. Rents, therefore, were being unnaturally forced +up, and the wages of labour unnaturally cut down; the land system was +disorganised, and filled with dangerous elements. The worst vice of the +system, however, has yet to be noticed; from different causes which I +shall point out afterwards, the occupiers of the soil in Ireland had, as a +general rule, made even the permanent improvements on their farms, and +large sums had repeatedly been paid on the transfer of these; they had +thus gradually acquired concurrent rights in the land, in tens of +thousands of instances; and yet these were outside the pale of the law, +and could be annihilated by eviction, or even the raising of rent. These +rights had the support, in parts of Ulster, of a long-established custom, +and were usually respected in the southern provinces; but they ought long +before to have had full legal protection; and they were sometimes violated +or disregarded by unscrupulous landlords. The results were seen in the +White Boy and the agrarian disorders which had disturbed Ireland for more +than a century, and even ran back to the confiscations of the past.</p> + +<p>This land system, essentially bad as it was, marked by evil distinctions +and pregnant with wrong, scarcely attracted the attention of British +statesmen, until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century. Peel was the +first minister who, even dimly, perceived its vices; he appointed a +Commission to report on the subject. The labours of this body were, in +part, laudable; but the Commissioners, filled with prejudice as to the +excellence of British land tenure, and without experience of that of +Ireland, made a capital mistake in the suggestions they offered. Instead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +of recommending that the concurrent rights of the Irish tenant in the +land, often equivalent to a real joint ownership, should receive, as was +but just, the sanction of law, they proposed to restrict these in many +ways; they put forward a plan of ‘compensation,’ as they called it, that +was worse than useless. Legislation to this effect was withdrawn from +Parliament; the terrible visitation of 1845-47 had ere long shattered the +Irish land system, bringing ruin on hundreds of the landed gentry, making +thousands of farmers of the better classes bankrupt, forcing the petty +holders of the land—the cottar population, as it was named—to fly from +the country in despairing multitudes. The land was largely set free from a +dense mass of wretchedness; it was the general belief of the public men of +the day, that what was most required, at this conjuncture, was to attract +men of capital to it to do it justice, and to get rid, as quickly as +possible, of the large body of Irish landlords, who, even before deeply +involved in debt, had been made hopelessly insolvent by recent events. The +Encumbered Estates Act became law, with scarcely an opposing protest; it +was to ‘regenerate Ireland,’ its authors proclaimed; its results were to +develop a bad class of landlords, to annihilate the rights of the Irish +peasant wholesale, and to cause an iniquitous confiscation on an enormous +scale. The Irish Land Question, as was the phrase, was now raised once +more; in 1852 the occupiers of the Irish soil set on foot an agitation to +vindicate their rights, destroyed or endangered by what had lately +occurred; the Government of Lord Derby lent a favourable ear; but it was +defeated in the House of Commons by intrigue; the land system remained in +the state in which it had been left; no real attempt to improve it was +made. A series of years followed in which Ireland made distinct progress, +and her agriculture advanced; it became a fixed idea with British +statesmen, that there was nothing radically bad in Irish land tenure, and +that its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> defects would gradually disappear; the grievances of the Irish +peasant were ignored; his claims to what was now known as his Tenant +Right, urged feebly by his advocates, were voted down in Parliament; and a +general belief prevailed that what Ireland most needed was a still further +and steady removal of what was deemed ‘her surplus population’ from her +soil.</p> + +<p>As has so often happened in the affairs of Ireland, her real condition at +this period was not understood; and the reform in her land system, which +had become essential, was indefinitely delayed with disastrous results. +Meanwhile, though things were serene on the surface, the inherent vices in +Irish landed relations were not really changed, and, in some respects, +were made worse. The Fenian troubles and outbreak of 1865-67 showed how +much there was still peccant in the state of Ireland; Mr. Gladstone +addressed himself, in 1870, to the task of effecting a reform in her land +system. The measure he carried through Parliament was bold, and, in the +main, statesmanlike; but it was injured by the predilection for English +land tenure its author avowed, a general misconception of British +statesmen; it was not without marked and even grave defects; and though +unquestionably it did real good, it did not satisfy the tenant class—at +least, the men who had become its leaders. In a few years the frightful +period of the Land League had begun; a Reign of Terror prevailed in about +a third part of Ireland, accompanied by far-spreading and atrocious crime. +The movement was really a huge conspiracy, formed in America to overthrow +British rule in Ireland; but Mr. Gladstone, now minister for the second +time, resolved to deal with it only on its agrarian side; he wrought a +complete revolution in the Irish land system, on principles wholly +different from those of his measure of 1870. This legislation was prepared +without reflection; it passed through Parliament when that assembly was +almost in a state of panic; its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> author professed that his only object was +to secure the occupier of the Irish soil in his legitimate rights; but the +methods he adopted to attain this end have never been heard of in modern +times, and have never been employed before in civilised lands. The +principle of the mediæval statutes, which endeavoured to fix the price of +bread, and the rate of wages, was extended to the Irish land system; rents +were to be adjusted through the agency of the State, by tribunals to which +no parallel can be found; tenants’ improvements were declared exempted +from rent; and a mode of land tenure, hitherto condemned by Mr. Gladstone, +and known as the ‘theory of the Three F’s,’ was applied to the great +majority of Irish tenancies, in an exaggerated, crude, and dangerous form. +This legislation, revolutionary and socialistic alike, has been given more +ample scope in the last twenty years; it probably affects four-fifths of +the rented lands in Ireland; it has fashioned the type of land tenure over +nearly all the country. The successors of Mr. Gladstone, who, indeed, had +boasted that it set the doctrines of Adam Smith at nought, were not blind +to the evils it soon developed; but it is questionable if their attempts +to mitigate these, and to place the Irish land system on a better basis, +have not been at least as open to censure. With the ignorance of Irish +land tenure common in British statesmen, they proclaimed, what assuredly +was not the fact, that Mr. Gladstone had ‘created a dual ownership’ in the +Irish land, and that, in order to get rid of this intolerable thing, it +was necessary, in accord with English ideas, to bring Ireland, as far as +possible, under ‘single ownership,’ and to make the occupiers of the Irish +soil, to a large extent, its owners. The system of ‘Land Purchase’ in +Ireland, begun in 1870, was freed from the limitations which made it safe +and just, and widely enlarged under new conditions; Irish tenants were +encouraged to acquire the fee in their holdings, by a process never +contemplated before; instead of having to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> pay any part of the price, the +State advanced them the whole purchase moneys, repayable by an annual +charge much less than any true rent. About a tenth part of the tenant +class of Ireland have become owners of their farms by these means; the +transaction has been in no sense a ‘purchase;’ though given the name, it +is really the exact opposite.</p> + +<p>I shall describe all this legislation, in detail, afterwards, and shall +indicate its far-reaching effects; here I can only take a cursory survey. +The attempts that have been made to reform the Irish land system, in the +last sixty years, have been, with scarcely an exception, failures; the +Irish land, it has truly been said, is strewn with the wrecks of repeated +errors. The Land Act of 1870 was, on the whole, a well-conceived measure; +but the recommendations made by the Devon Commission, the iniquitous and +destructive Encumbered Estates Act, the agrarian revolution wrought by Mr. +Gladstone, and the ‘Land Purchase’ Acts, as they are falsely called, have +been monuments of want of insight and knowledge. And, what is even worse, +legislation on the Irish land has, over and over again, been too long +delayed, and has been inconsistent, fitful, founded on no principle; the +results have been in a high degree disastrous. Reforms that would have +been gladly welcomed if made years before, have been treated with contempt +when made too late; and reforms have more than once been hasty +experiments, carried out under the stress of menacing troubles. The fable +of the Sibylline books has been realised in this matter; and not a few of +the efforts to improve Irish land tenures have been little better than +sudden leaps in the dark. As to recent legislation in this province, its +consequences and tendencies have become manifest. That it has effected +some good may be admitted; it has removed grievances that no doubt +existed; it has made the government of Ireland more easy for the time; it +has allayed discontent for a moment; but the good is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> far outweighed by +the evil. It is not only that the nostrum of the ‘Three F’s,’ and the +adjustment of rent by the intervention of the State, have cut down the +rental of Ireland to an extent that cannot be justified, and have +transferred to the occupier of the Irish soil a large part of what was the +owner’s property by a process of confiscation concealed, but certain. It +is not only that the status of the Irish landlord has been iniquitously +transformed to his extreme injury, and that the status of the Irish tenant +has been changed to his extreme advantage, in both instances without a +pretence to right. The Irish land system has been reduced to an almost +hopeless state; it presents some of the worst features of the past; its +conditions discourage the improvement of the land, promote its +deterioration in many ways, and banish capital away from it; and its plain +tendency has been to make agriculture decline. And the revolution, which +has been thus accomplished, has aggravated the divisions of classes in +Ireland, and has been attended with ruinous litigation on a huge scale; +and it has produced demoralisation far-reaching and profound, a sense of +insecurity in all landed relations, and a far too general disregard of the +respect due to contract. The policy, too, of so-called ‘Land Purchase’ has +been accompanied with a train of evils on the increase. It is not +creating, as its authors fondly hoped, a class of loyal and thriving +freeholders; it is not even creating a body of industrious and improving +farmers. It is, on the contrary, developing, in some of its parts, the bad +land system of the eighteenth century; it has proved injurious to +agriculture in one important respect. Above all, from the very nature of +the case, it has drawn harsh, nay, unjust, distinctions between the landed +classes, which necessarily have been a cause of much discontent; and it +has inevitably provoked a demand for a universal confiscation of the Irish +land even worse than any of those which have been the curse of Ireland.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>I pass from the material and general state of Ireland to that of the Irish +community, in its different parts. That community is still divided, as it +has been for ages, into three separate and distinct peoples, marked off +from each other in race and faith; whatever ‘Nationalist’ leaders may +assert, it is not, and has never been, in a real sense, a nation. The +lines of demarcation between Catholic, Presbyterian, and Protestant +Ireland are at least as clearly defined as they have always been; they +have probably been widened by the troubles of late years, and by the +legislation which has been a consequence. Catholic Ireland has a +population of some three millions and a half of souls; it is in the main a +Celtic race, but with a considerable admixture of other elements; it has +passed through a revolution remarkable and immense. Sixty years ago, the +worst parts of the Penal Code had long been things of the past; but the +Irish Catholics had only recently thrown off the last remains of that +thraldom, under O’Connell’s guidance; and their emancipation had only been +effected by a great and very threatening movement. They were still +comparatively an alien and a subject people; they had not many owners of +land; they were not numerous in the upper trading and the professional +classes; education was greatly wanting among them; they were for the most +part a backward and poor peasantry, almost serfs of landlords distinct in +creed and in blood; and they formed the bulk of the teeming millions that +vegetated on the soil in indigent misery. The Irish Catholics, too, had +still many and real grievances; the tithe of the Established Church had +long been an unjust burden on the petty husbandman; it had recently given +rise to a frightful war of classes, and had only been commuted a short +time; the Established Church itself was a moral wrong, felt acutely by the +Irish priesthood at least. Catholic Ireland, besides, was deeply sunk in +ignorance; the system of national education had only begun to flourish; +and the Irish Catholic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> was still all but wholly excluded from county +administration and municipal government. The worst of these grievances, +however, was the state of the tenure of the land; this was especially +harsh on the Catholic peasant; if oppression was not general or even +common, he was too often subjected to excessive rent and unfair eviction. +This order of things has all but completely passed away; the position of +Catholic Ireland in the State has almost wholly been changed. Catholic +emancipation has long been an accomplished fact; Irish Catholics and +Protestants are equal before the law; and have really equal chances in +fighting the battle of life. Though still not numerous, the Catholic +owners of land have multiplied; the Irish Catholic middle classes have +made a marked advance; they have grown in knowledge and increased in +wealth; they have risen to a higher plane of existence. At the same time, +the grievances of the past have nearly all been removed by law, often +indeed very late, and by questionable means; but the Established Church +has fallen from its high estate; education has been diffused through the +Catholic masses; the Irish Catholics have obtained more than a just share +in local government and administration of all kinds; their ascendency in +this province is well-nigh assured. The most important, however, of these +changes is that which has taken place in the state of the Irish Catholic +peasantry. The process which lifted up millions of these from the land and +sent them into exile was, no doubt, terrible; but it was the condition of +the welfare and the progress of the population which remained. A great +deal of the legislation, besides, which has revolutionised the tenure of +land in Ireland, and has had a special effect on the Catholic occupiers of +the soil, has been essentially ill designed and unjust; above all, it has +been much too long delayed. But the Irish Catholic peasantry have long ago +ceased to be serfs; they are more the owners of their own holdings than +their former landlords; their rights in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> the land have been more than +protected; they have acquired the fee in their farms in thousands of +instances; the days of rack rents and harsh evictions have passed away for +ever. If the lines of the old Irish land system may still be traced, they +rather resemble, it has truly been said, the lineaments of a phantom than +of a living being.</p> + +<p>The attitude, however, of Catholic Ireland, and the sentiments of the +immense majority of the Irish Catholics, must cause painful misgivings in +reflecting minds. Their aristocracy, indeed, and their landed gentry have +always been loyal and true subjects; they can scarcely be distinguished +from their Protestant fellows. The Irish Catholics, too, of the upper +middle classes are generally attached to the institutions under which they +live; and Catholic Ireland has produced many eminent public servants, and +has given splendid ornaments to the Bench and the Bar. But the spirit that +prevails among the Irish Catholic lower middle classes, and notably among +the masses of the peasantry, and the opinions and feelings they +ostentatiously avow, are deeply to be regretted in many respects. +Notwithstanding all that has been done for it, and the immense reforms +made in its interest, this part of Catholic Ireland is, beyond question, +more disaffected and disloyal to the State than it was when O’Connell was +its master spirit; it is more hostile to government, law, and the existing +order of things. The teaching of the Land and the National Leagues, and of +the successor which has taken their place, has penetrated into the +Corporations and Local Boards, in which the Catholic Irish are supreme; +these assemblies echo with revolutionary and socialistic cries, and +denounce the whole system of British rule in Ireland, aiming especially at +the Sovereign and those in the highest places. The Irish Catholics, too, +in the three provinces of the south, have gained a complete ascendency in +county and municipal affairs; their first object has been to exclude the +landed gentry from them, and to destroy the influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> which belongs to +property; and they have exhibited tendencies absolutely opposed to the +Constitution to which they owe their authority. The worst symptoms, +however, appear in the state of the peasantry; they have obtained +advantages of which their fathers never even dreamed; the land system has +been turned upside down for their behoof; they have no grievance in landed +relations; and yet they remain unfriendly to the State, and show no sign +of gratitude. This class contains the multitudes, who for more than twenty +years, have allied themselves with a conspiracy against our power in +Ireland, and who, at the bidding of designing men, shout treasonable +utterances at mob gatherings, and denounce the ‘Saxon’ and ‘landlordism’ +with one voice; and though they are a timid and somewhat inert mass, and +they would not rise like their fathers in 1798, they would not lift a hand +to support our rule were foreign invaders to descend on our shores. This +state of opinion, no doubt, is intelligible to the real student of Irish +history; the Irish Catholics are a people who have been cruelly wronged; +they have only slowly risen out of serf-like thraldom; above all, they +have only attained the position they hold in the State after long years of +trials, and by giving trouble; they treasure the Celtic traditions of the +past; we may regret that they are what they are, but can hardly feel +surprise. In other respects, the Irish Catholic masses, especially in a +democratic age, must arouse the solicitude of thinkers worthy of the name. +Many thousands of them are still illiterate; they are too generally the +mere followers of priests and demagogues, tossed hither and thither as +their masters direct; they are animated by crude and wild ideas, like the +peasantry of France before the Revolution; they have scarcely anything in +common with the corresponding class in England, trained for centuries in +habits of well-ordered liberty. They form, in a word, a dangerous and +easily led democracy; and yet, owing to recent legislation, ever to be +deplored, they possess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> almost a monopoly of political power in Ireland, +and have sent representatives to Parliament whose acts are a byword.</p> + +<p>Conciliation, therefore, as the phrase is, has failed in the case of the +greatest part of Catholic Ireland; this remains an alien, even a perilous, +element in the State; it is worse than useless to shut our eyes to the +truth; the time is still apparently distant when it will become contented +and loyal. Presbyterian Ireland is a people of rather more than half a +million of souls, almost concentrated within a nook of Ulster; it was +rebellious in sentiment a hundred years ago; it is now devotedly attached +to the British connection, and has firmly supported the Union during a +period of trouble. This community, nevertheless, of artisans and farmers +is rather widely separated from the aristocracy in their midst, for the +most part English in blood, and of the Anglican faith; and though the +Presbyterian farmer has obtained the benefit of the late reforms of land +tenure, and has received advantages far in excess of justice, he declares +himself to be discontented with his lot, and is clamouring for a vast +confiscation of the Irish land in his selfish interest. The Irish +Protestants are a population rather larger than the Presbyterians; but +they are scattered over all parts of the country; they do not possess the +political influence of their distant kinsmen in Ulster. They comprise at +least three-fourths of the leading landed gentry, and a considerable +number of the better class of farmers; they predominate in the learned +professions, and in the higher walks of commerce. But their lower orders +feel the loss of the ascendency which was once their birthright; they have +been thrust out from corporate and local government; they are isolated +amidst a population not in sympathy with them; as a people they can hardly +be described as prosperous. As to the Protestant landed gentry, they have +for centuries been the most loyal of subjects; it is significant that they +have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> called the British garrison by the conspirators who seek to +overthrow our rule in Ireland; they have given many eminent worthies to +the State, and proved their devotion to it at the gravest crises; what +they are has been shown in the war in South Africa. At present, however, +profound and just discontent has sunk deep into the hearts of this order +of men. They are the heirs of conquest and confiscation, it is said; but +they were placed in the position they hold by English kings and +Parliaments; is that any reason that, within the last half-century, the +Nemesis of conquest and confiscation should have been invoked against +them, in the Encumbered Estates Act and predatory agrarian laws? They were +too much of an exclusive caste, separated from their dependents, and +possessing powers over the occupiers of the soil, which were sometimes +abused; is that any reason that they should have been deprived of +political influence, supplanted by the bureaucratic Castle, changed from +owners of their estates into mere pensioners, shut out by the force of law +from local and county government? What, however, the Irish landed gentry +most deeply feel is that, in the course of the last sixty years, they have +been deceived, nay, betrayed, by British statesmen, who, having repeatedly +assured them that their position was secure, have sacrificed them when it +seemed to suit their purpose.</p> + +<p>The Imperial Parliament has, during the last century, had absolute control +over the affairs of Ireland. No impartial student of history will deny +that it has governed Ireland very much better than her old Parliament +could possibly have done, after the dreadful rising of 1798 had literally +torn the country to pieces. The large majority of thinking persons have +long ago been convinced that the policy of Home Rule, that is, the +substitution for the Houses at Westminster of a statutory legislature +seated in Dublin, would be disastrous to the Empire and Ireland alike; and +that the evils attendant on the present system<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> would be aggravated a +hundred-fold by the revolution Mr. Gladstone tried to effect. Nor can it +be questioned that the Imperial Parliament has, for a long period, +sincerely desired to legislate and rule for the good of Ireland, and has +accomplished important Irish reforms, whatever legitimate exceptions may +be taken to them. Protestant ascendency and the Established Church have +fallen; the law has long been indifferent to Irishmen of all classes; +education has been brought home to the mass of the people; the tenure of +land has been transformed, unwisely no doubt, but wholly in the interest +of the occupiers of the soil. Nevertheless, much that the Imperial +Parliament has done, and left undone, in the Victorian era, remains matter +of censure and regret; and its Irish administration has been in many +respects unfortunate. The neglect to make a provision for the Irish +Catholic priesthood, a main object of Pitt and of our best statesmen, when +the Anglican Church was disestablished in 1869, was a grave and a +calamitous mistake; the attempts that have been made to reform the Irish +land system have, with scarcely an exception, been sorry failures; the +results have been, in no doubtful sense, deplorable. Few, too, will +justify such measures as the establishment in Ireland of household +suffrage, that is, giving a monopoly of political power to an ignorant and +priest-ridden democracy,<a name='fna_15' id='fna_15' href='#f_15'><small>[15]</small></a> and depriving property and intelligence of +all influence, or as the handing over county and city government, in +three-fourths of Ireland, to much the same classes. Nor are even positive +errors such as these the worst, perhaps, that can be laid to the charge of +the Imperial Parliament in the conduct of Irish affairs. With rare +exceptions, the reforms it has made have been, unhappily, too late, and +have been obtained only through menacing popular movements; it has over +and over again<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> made Irish questions the mere subjects of the selfish +strife of party, with evil consequences for Irish interests; it has +occasionally, and even for large spaces of time, shown a marked +indifference to reasonable Irish demands; and its administration of +Ireland has repeatedly been inconsistent, even contradictory, +shortsighted, and feeble. It must be acknowledged, indeed, that the rule +of the Imperial Parliament, in the circumstances in which Ireland has been +placed, is, from the nature of the case, faulty in many respects; it is +that of a dominant assembly practically controlling a subject dependency; +and, as we see in the striking instances of Athens and Rome, this kind of +government has never been free from great and real objections. This, no +doubt, is no reason that we should fly from less to unbearable evils, and +adopt the fatal scheme of Home Rule; and the causes that have made our +Parliamentary <i>régime</i> in Ireland as defective as it is are evident, and, +as I shall point out afterwards, may probably be removed, to some extent +at least, without subverting the constitution of these realms. But the +broad fact remains, and cannot be concealed; the Imperial Parliament, much +as it has done, has not reached the hearts or gained, in any degree, the +sympathy of an immense majority of the Irish people.</p> + +<p>This conclusion, indeed, has been made only too manifest, if we look back +at the history of Ireland within living memory. The Catholic Association +defied the Imperial Parliament, and was supreme in four-fifths of Ireland, +from 1824 to 1829; O’Connell, in 1843, rallied the Irish Catholic millions +to the cause of the Repeal of the Union, that is, to the subversion of +British rule from the Giant’s Causeway to Cape Clear. Home Rule became a +popular cry when proclaimed by Butt; Parnell soon rose to the head of an +Irish faction, which deliberately tried to paralyse and cross Parliament, +and to make its sway in Ireland of no avail and contemptible. The Land +League and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> National League were essentially conspiracies of foreign +origin, and they appealed to socialistic greed in a season of distress; +but their chief object was to annihilate British power in Ireland; they +had the support of huge Catholic masses; they returned to Parliament a +band of more than eighty men, one of whose purposes was to checkmate its +authority. Too much is not to be made of these movements; three-fourths at +least of the Irish community have repeatedly been led away by able but +unscrupulous leaders, and rush into courses to which they are not +earnestly inclined; but these unquestionable facts assuredly prove that +the institutions under which they exist are not acceptable to the great +body of the people of Ireland. This attitude has been displayed with +marked and too plain significance, within a period, as it were, of +yesterday. The United Irish League fills the place of the Land and the +National Leagues; it is a conspiracy against the State, like its +forerunners; it aims ultimately at the same objects; its organisation and +machinery are the same; it seeks to establish its domination by similar +methods. It is, no doubt, less formidable than the Land and the National +Leagues; it has received little support from America, and has no one to +compare with Parnell at its head; but it has sent more than three-fourths +of the representatives of Ireland into the House of Commons; and these +have combined to put in force the arts of obstruction with an audacity, a +perseverance, and a measure of success, perhaps never so conspicuous +before. Its authority is less far-reaching than that of its predecessors; +but it has established a reign of tyranny in not a few counties; it is +largely backed by the Irish priesthood and by much the greatest part of +Catholic Ireland; and its leaders boast, not without truth, that, disloyal +as many of their utterances are, they are completely in accord with +popular sympathies. The acts and the speeches, indeed, of these men have +never been more unequivocal than within the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> last two or three years;<a name='fna_16' id='fna_16' href='#f_16'><small>[16]</small></a> +yet almost everywhere they obtain the applause and the support of the +multitude. An Irish contingent was sent to fight for the Boers; the war in +South Africa was yelled at, at huge public meetings, as an odious instance +of English tyranny and crime; every reverse that befell our arms was +welcomed; the Irish masses, especially of late, have made a display of +their antipathy to, and hatred of, the State. There was an outbreak of +disloyal rioting in Dublin at the Diamond Jubilee; but for the accident of +the Spanish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> War there would have been a great commemoration of the +rebellion of 1798; even the visit of the late Queen to Ireland was made an +occasion for seditious speeches; if her death was very generally mourned, +public bodies were found to refuse an expression of regret.</p> + +<p>Irish administration, I have remarked, is in many respects faulty; this is +mainly because it is dependent on British parties; it fluctuates as one or +the other prevails in Parliament. It sometimes represents completely +opposite principles; besides, as Lord-Lieutenants and Chief Secretaries +usually hold office for a short time only, they are tempted to adopt a +hand-to-mouth policy, and to govern with little thought of the morrow. A +marked change, however, has, in the course of time, passed over the +ordinary system of administration carried on at the Castle. The +aristocracy and the leading Irish gentry had still, even at the beginning +of the Victorian age, much influence in directing local affairs; their +authority was not nearly as great as it had been; but they were still +looked up to and consulted by the central government. This state of things +has long ago ceased to exist; this order of men has long ago lost all +political, and nearly all social, power; it has been superseded by a +bureaucratic <i>régime</i>, depending mainly on paid officials and police, +which rules Ireland from the Castle, with little external support. This +mode of government is imposing and apparently strong; but it is +essentially weak, and has little real hold on the country; the +information, with which it is amply supplied, is often false, and +occasionally causes grave mistakes; it forms an administrative system +resembling that of the old centralised monarchy of France, of which +Tocqueville has exposed the defects and the vices. Under this <i>régime</i>, +however, the law of the land has certainly been vindicated more +successfully than had been the case before; the Government has acquired +decidedly increased power in dealing with disorders dangerous to the +State, and perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> in holding the scales of justice even between divided +classes; it has not diminished the strife of hostile Irish factions, but +it has maintained order more completely than of old; and this +unquestionably is a great advantage, and a real set-off against some +mischiefs and failures. It would be untrue to assert that this system of +rule has been the paramount and even a main cause of the great decline in +agrarian crime and trouble which Ireland has happily witnessed of late +years; other and far more potent causes have concurred; but it may fairly +be said that it has contributed to it. It would, however, be a complete +mistake to suppose that agrarian disorder, even in its worst aspects, has +become permanently a thing of the past in Ireland, or that this +destructive curse of Irish social life has not immense influence even at +this moment, though its outward manifestations have been greatly changed. +It was, so to speak, only yesterday that, under the auspices of the Land +and the National Leagues, there was the most frightful outbreak of +agrarian crime that had been seen since the great tithe conflict; it +assumed the proportions, in fact, of a horrible servile war; and shallow, +indeed, the understanding must be which imagines that this state of things +can never recur. If open agrarian disorder, too, has been largely +diminished, the spirit of agrarian disorder is still strong; and it is +doing infinite mischief in many parts of Ireland. Steadily adhering to the +precepts laid down by Parnell, the United Irish League has brought the +detestable system of ‘boycotting’ to a hideous perfection in several +counties; whole districts are subject to this secret but villainous +tyranny; the results are seen in numbers of derelict farms, in hundreds of +victims writhing under ever-present terror, in an infamous interference +with trade and industry. This malignant influence is more or less felt +through nearly the whole of the southern provinces, and even to a +considerable extent in Ulster; it should be added that the United Irish +League, for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> present, discourages active agrarian crime, though its +agents hold this force in reserve; it believes it can compass its ends +without making use of this weapon.<a name='fna_17' id='fna_17' href='#f_17'><small>[17]</small></a></p> + +<p>A few words must be said, in this short survey, on the organisations that +uphold the Christian faith in Ireland. The disestablished Anglican Church +has certainly made progress in spiritual life; it has more moral and even, +perhaps, social influence than when it was an appurtenance of the Erastian +Castle. It has been admirably administered and ruled; the uses of +adversity have been sweet to it, and it has been successfully launched on +its new career; this is a strong proof of the inherent energy and capacity +of the Anglo-Protestant Irish people. Very different, too, from what had +been expected, moderation and wisdom prevail in its councils; its clergy +are sincerely pious, but not given to extreme doctrines; its members are +for the most part free from the narrow sectarian views which had formerly, +not without reason, been laid to their charge. Its funds, amassed by good +management, are, for the present, ample; but the rapid impoverishment of +the landed gentry, the class from which it chiefly obtains support, and +the confiscation with which they are threatened, no doubt expose it to +future dangers; and it must always be the Church of a small minority, +surrounded by influences hostile to it, but a Church which the State is +bound to protect. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland has but little +changed; it has felt the effect of the great religious movement, which has +stirred the Three Kingdoms in the last half-century, and it is less +rationalistic than it once was; but it is still what it always was, a +powerful centre of the faith of John Knox, with a communion of strong +democratic sympathies. The Catholic Church of Ireland still rests on the +old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> foundations; but it is hardly the unshaken structure it was in the +last generation. Its material resources have enormously increased; its +fine edifices spread over the land; it still exercises immense influence +over probably nine-tenths of Catholic Ireland. But a party has been +growing up within it which resents, and has even defied, its pretensions; +and though the power it possesses is, in the main, beneficent in the +extreme, this has too often been abused in the domain of politics, and +especially of late in Irish landed relations. The priesthood still largely +direct their flocks, but they are more dependent on them than they once +were; had it been otherwise, they would have hardly conformed to the +bidding of the Land and the National Leagues, as unhappily they did in too +many instances. Their leading men perceived from the first that these +conspiracies were destructive of their moral influence; and had the whole +body of the clergy received a just provision from the State, it would all +but certainly have condemned the methods of the Leagues as these were +decisively condemned by Rome. For the rest, the Catholic Church of Ireland +is no friend of Protestant England, and of many of the institutions that +exist in Ireland; but this has been inevitable from the events of Irish +history; and whatever may be said, it has been essentially an ally of the +State, by reason of its great religious authority. And if properly +understood, it is a mighty conservative power, which ought if possible to +be won over to the side of order and law; this is an ample, if there were +no other, reason that statesmen should comply with its most reasonable +demand, and remove the grievance, in high Catholic education, that only +blind bigotry can deny.</p> + +<p>The administration of justice in Ireland is better, on the whole, than it +was in the early Victorian era. It is not only that the law’s delay has +been to a considerable extent, remedied, as it has been, in England, by an +improved procedure. Traces of Protestant ascendency<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> were to be seen on +the Irish Bench sixty years ago, though these were evanescent and few; +such a trial as that of O’Connell in 1844, marked by partiality and even +by wrong, would be simply impossible at the present time. Trial by jury, +however, in Ireland too often reflects the animosities and prejudices of +class, and is liable to grave perversion and errors; it is sometimes +necessary, in causes where religious or political feeling is engaged, to +make a careful selection in forming juries, in order that common right +should be done; this inevitable, but invidious, process, held up to +execration by the name of ‘packing,’ is certainly a matter that causes +regret. The fairness seen in the administration of the law in Ireland has +been strikingly illustrated of late years; leaders and agents of the Land +and the National Leagues have had to answer for their offences in the +inferior courts; but despite rabid clamour against what is called +‘coercion,’ the conduct of these inquiries has not been really impugned. A +laudable attempt, however, to make the magisterial bench more popular, has +lately placed on it an order of men, of whom some have abused their power; +these instances, nevertheless, have not been frequent; the experiment +cannot be pronounced a failure. The intellect of Ireland is not so +fruitful as it was in the generation before the union; she has no +political thinkers to be named with Burke, no writer of fiction equal to +Maria Edgeworth, no dramatist to be compared to Sheridan, no orators who +have reached the heights of eloquence reached by Grattan, Curran, Plunket, +and other glories of her defunct Parliament. But there has been progress +in this respect within the last sixty years; Ireland cannot boast of such +public men as O’Connell, Sheil, and even Spring Rice; but she possesses +Dufferin in the diplomatic sphere, and Lecky, and one or two others of +repute in that of letters; she has only recently lost Lord Cairns and Lord +Russell. The improvement of primary education in Ireland<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> has been +immense; the land is full of elementary schools, which, in the last +generation, were, comparatively, very few, and though a considerable part +of the population is still illiterate, the greater part, whose fathers +were sunk in ignorance, has felt the good influence of the light of +knowledge. High education, too, has advanced in Ireland; Trinity College +is greater than before as a place of learning; if two of the Queen’s +Colleges have certainly failed, the Royal University has been, in a sense, +successful. But, as I shall point out, in subsequent pages, University +education in Ireland remains defective; a University for the Irish +Catholic upper middle class is a requirement rightly demanded from +Parliament. As for Irish secondary education, it is still backward, but +there is hope of improvement in this respect; the general standard of +Irish education, it should be added, is, except at Trinity College, low, +though this has been inevitable if we look back at the events of history. +Irish opinion generally still embodies the deep-seated animosities and +strife of race and faith, at least as fully as it ever did; with few +exceptions this appears in the tone of the newspaper press. The utterances +of many of the self-styled ‘Nationalist’ journals have been far more +hostile to the State, and are conceived in a much worse spirit, than those +of the same class of journals in O’Connell’s day.</p> + +<p>If we examine the condition of Ireland, as a whole, we see that there has +been some material progress, but with retrogression in important respects; +and if a certain measure of good has been done, great wrong and evil have +been accomplished, in the principal and the most far-reaching of her +social relations. Her moral and political progress has been at least +doubtful; notwithstanding immense and searching reforms, the mass of the +population is more disaffected than of old; discontent largely pervades +the classes most loyal to the State; if the mere power of government has +increased, its beneficent influence is but little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> recognised; the great +body of the community maintains a hostile attitude. The crooked has not +been made straight in Ireland, nor the rough places plain; a state of +society exists, in which, as the Greek poet said, ‘the fountains flow +backwards, and things are out of joint.’ An old order has nearly passed +away; but the new order that is replacing it is but of little promise; a +type of society has been well-nigh broken up, but a strong and solid type +is not being formed in its stead; at all events, in the phrase of Bacon, +the time is still distant ‘when the strings of the Irish harp will all be +in tune;’ many respond to the player’s hand in discord. ‘The Constitution +in Ireland,’ Peel once exclaimed, ‘is not the British Constitution, but +its ghastly image;’ let us see what it is in Ireland at the present time. +The Sovereign is, in England, a main pillar of the State; he is a great +political and social force; the Monarchy is enthroned in the heart of the +nation. In Ireland he is almost an unknown name, associated with not a few +evil memories; his influence, which ought to be immense over a Celtic +race, has never made itself sensibly felt. In England Parliament responds +to the national will, and has gathered the reverence of ages around it; in +Ireland it is a foreign and alien assembly, with which the mass of the +people has no sympathy. In England the aristocracy is at the head of +public affairs, leads society, commands universal respect; in Ireland it +has lost all authority; has no weight in the National Councils; has no +popular support, is even disliked at the Castle. In England the middle +class is enormously strong, and is the best bulwark of order and law; in +England the democracy is almost wholly free from revolutionary ideas, as +regards property, and seeks reforms by constitutional methods. In Ireland, +it is unhappily quite otherwise; the middle class is comparatively weak, +and, in its lower strata, is opposed to the existing order of things; the +democracy is an easily led multitude, ready at its leaders’ bidding to +rush into socialistic courses. In England, too, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> Commonwealth is +completely secure; in Ireland there is literally no Commonwealth; and such +organisations as the Land, the National, and the United Irish Leagues, are +dangerous symptoms of a kind of Jacobin antipathy to the State. The words +of Peel are still unhappily true; but painful as the contrast he pointed +out is, even this is not the worst circumstance in the present condition +of Irish affairs. What, I think, most alarms a reflecting mind, is the +restlessness that pervades the mass of the people, an eagerness for some +undefined change, a demand for the universal spoliation of a class, a +sense of insecurity spreading far and wide, a neglect of the pursuits of +calm industry in the hope of what a revolution may effect, an instability +in the social fabric from top to bottom. The agitation, the disorder, and, +I will add, the vicious legislation of late years, will, however, largely +explain these phenomena.</p> + +<p>Lord Salisbury’s Ministry came into office, six years ago, at the head of +the most powerful majority that had been returned to the House of Commons +since the great Reform era. The time was singularly opportune to consider +the state of Ireland, and to deal with the Irish questions that required +sound and wise treatment. The Opposition was paralysed by a rout at the +polls; the National League conspiracy showed few signs of life; the +‘Nationalist’ party was rent asunder; the community was more quiescent +than it had been for years. It would be unfair to deny that, since it +acquired power, the Government has been beset by many and grave obstacles +in legislating on domestic subjects; it has been encompassed by a sea of +foreign troubles; it has had to conduct the protracted war in South +Africa. It would be absurd, too, to expect that it could, once for all, +have placed Irish affairs permanently on a secure basis; this can only be +the result of the wisdom of years aided by the healing influence of time. +But it has disappointed enlightened Irish opinion; it has not done, or +even tried to do, what it might have accomplished.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> Undoubtedly parts of +its policy have been good; it has effected something, if not much, in +developing the material resources of the west of Ireland, and in +mitigating the danger and the stress of Irish poverty; it has carried on +the excellent work of Mr. Arthur Balfour in this respect; the Department +of Agriculture it has lately formed will, not improbably, be of real use +in promoting industry and self-reliance among the peasantry, on the +principles advocated, a century and a half ago, by Berkeley. But +commendation, I think, must here end; the Government, I believe, has made +grave mistakes; it has assuredly not successfully dealt with the great +‘Case of Ireland,’ greater now than in the days of Molyneux and Swift. It +has not reduced the excessive representation of Ireland in the House of +Commons; until this is done the Union will not be secure. It has +disregarded the verdict of the important Commission which has declared +that Ireland has been immensely overtaxed for years; here it defies +universal Irish opinion; and having pledged itself to make a further +inquiry, it has not hitherto taken a step to redeem its pledge. It is +divided on the question of high education in Ireland, and professes that +this must be an ‘open question,’ as if this was not unwise and perilous; +and though it has appointed a Commission to report on the subject, +Catholic Ireland very possibly may not obtain the place of learning which +it is entitled to demand. Above all, on the capital question of the Irish +land, the Government has certainly all but ignored the recommendations of +a Commission chosen by itself, and has refused to lessen the injustice +proved to have been done wholesale; like its predecessors, in the case of +the Encumbered Estates Act, it is still bent on agrarian legislation that +has done infinite mischief. Its administration, too, up to this has not +been successful; it has allowed the United Irish League to grow up and to +gain strength, with far-spreading evil results; its conduct of Irish +affairs has been weak and empirical, and notably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> marked by false +optimistic fancies. Of late there has been improvement in this respect; we +can only hope it will not be abortive.</p> + +<p>‘In this gigantic body,’ Macaulay exclaimed fifty-seven years ago, ‘there +is one vulnerable part near the heart.’<a name='fna_18' id='fna_18' href='#f_18'><small>[18]</small></a> The Empire has expanded into +ampler proportions than those described by the orator; its subject kings, +dominations, princedoms, powers, above all, its myriads of many races and +tongues, are united by far more durable ties than those which held it +together in a generation that has passed away. Four years ago, Canada sent +messengers from her great lakes, Hindustan representatives of her ancient +dynasties, the great island continent envoys from her free nations, to do +homage to Queen Victoria; the pageant, gathered ‘within London’s streaming +roar,’ was a magnificent spectacle of world-wide loyalty. England has seen +another and a still more wonderful sight; the martial sons of our great +self-governing colonies have flocked in thousands to do battle in her +cause, in the distant and ill-known wastes of South Africa; in a long, +bloody, and sometimes disastrous conflict, they have proved themselves to +be worthy companions in arms of the offspring of the soldiery of Blenheim +and Waterloo; they have fought and bled for England as if she was their +common country. But Ireland, as regards the mass of the people, has, on +both occasions, stood sullenly aloof; her heart has gone out in sympathy +with the Boers; she remains, for the most part, hostile to our rule and +disloyal. It is mere foolishness to shut our eyes to plain facts; still +more so to join in the false pæans of interested partisans, and ignorant +scribblers, who announce that because Ireland is, on the surface, +comparatively at peace, she is in every sense a contented or a happy land, +free from grave elements of political and social danger. She is still the +‘vulnerable part at the heart of the Empire;’ the spectre at the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +national festival; the warning token, as in the case of the Oriental +despot, that human grandeur and power are, in the nature of things, +mortal. She is still, as she was in the day of Spenser, a malign influence +across the path of our greatness, a riddle difficult to understand and +interpret; the many problems she still presents to the statesman are +perplexing in the extreme, and await solution. That any policy will +suddenly remove the many evils apparent in her organic structure is a +delusion a rational mind rejects; the deep-seated ills in that distempered +frame may never be completely and finally cured. Something effectual, +nevertheless, may, I think, be done; I proceed to examine, in the +following chapters, the ‘Present Irish Questions’ that confront our +rulers; and to consider what the amending hand may accomplish.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE QUESTION OF HOME RULE</span></p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang">The question of Home Rule not extinct—The reasons—Butt’s scheme of +Home Rule—It is denounced and ridiculed by Mr. Gladstone, and +defeated in the House of Commons—Death of Butt—The Home Rule +movement becomes allied with a foreign conspiracy—Davitt and +Parnell—The Land League—Mr. Gladstone’s surrender to it—The +movement makes no progress in the Parliament of 1880-85—The General +Election of 1885—Mr. Gladstone suddenly adopts the policy of Home +Rule—The probable reasons—The Home Rule Bill of 1886—Its nature and +tendencies—Decisive objections to the measure—It is rejected at the +General Election of 1886, having been previously rejected in the House +of Commons—Policy and conduct of Mr. Gladstone—The Home Rule +movement makes some progress in England, and why—The Home Rule Bill +of 1893—It is much worse than that of 1886—The reasons—It is +rejected by the House of Lords—Home Rule under different forms—The +Union must be maintained—Proposal that Parliament should occasionally +sit in Dublin—The over-representation of Ireland should be redressed.</p></div> + + +<p>Home Rule, it is very generally assumed, has vanished into the domain of +extinct politics. Unlike what had been the case from 1886 to 1895, when +this was the main of our domestic questions, Home Rule was scarcely +referred to at the late election; it will receive little countenance at +the hands of the present House of Commons, however Irish Nationalists may +persist in urging their demand. It would, nevertheless, be imprudent to +believe that this policy, as has been said, ‘is as dead as Queen Anne,’ as +impossible as a return to Protection or to an unreformed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> Parliament. +Isaac Butt’s scheme of Home Rule was treated with scorn and ridicule by +Mr. Gladstone during many years; Mr. Gladstone was the author of the Bills +of 1886 and 1893, embodying Home Rule in forms few will now approve of; +and he left nothing undone to convert them into law. At the General +Election of 1880, Home Rule was regarded as a mere Irish craze, and hardly +a candidate could be found, in England and Scotland, to consent to an +inquiry upon the subject; within six years Home Rule was a Ministerial +measure; and though the House of Commons pronounced against it, and its +decision was emphatically ratified at the General Election of 1886, still, +on this occasion, the votes in favour of Home Rule were not much less +numerous than those cast against it.<a name='fna_19' id='fna_19' href='#f_19'><small>[19]</small></a> In 1892 England condemned Home +Rule, if not as decisively as six years before; but Ireland, Scotland, and +Wales declared for it; and a Home Rule Bill received the sanction of the +House of Commons, which, but for the resistance made by the House of +Lords, would now be a fundamental law of these realms. It deserves notice, +too, that not one of the Liberal leaders, although, as a rule, they +avoided the subject, repudiated this policy at the late election; two or +three, indeed, gave it a qualified support; and it is evident that they +keep the question in reserve, in the hope of turning it to account at a +more convenient season. Nor can it be denied, as long as Ireland can send +more than eighty Nationalists into the House of Commons, pledged to insist +on Home Rule as their country’s right, that the subject must command more +or less attention; for many reasons it is impossible to ignore the claims +of a representation so large in numbers. It must be added that, under our +system of party government, especially as this has existed of late years, +a considerable group of politicians, with a fixed purpose, can effect much +by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> throwing its weight indifferently into the Ministerial or the +Opposition scale, and giving its support to either side, in order to +compass its own ends; it has, sometimes with successful results, swayed +majorities by these means, and not in vain. This is the hope of the Irish +Nationalist leaders; ‘let parties in the House of Commons,’ they cynically +argue, ‘be equally divided, as must at some time happen,’ and ‘we shall +gain Home Rule from either Tories or Whigs, if we assist either by our +votes to keep them in office.’ It cannot be said, if we look back at some +political events within the last twenty years, that this expectation is +wholly groundless; and though I am convinced it will not be realised, its +existence alone suffices to prove that Home Rule cannot yet be dismissed +as outside the sphere of practical politics.</p> + +<p>Home Rule, therefore, is a ‘Present Irish Question,’ and if not at this +moment urgent, it remains the most important of Irish questions, for it +directly affects the fortunes of the Three Kingdoms. It is necessary, +accordingly, to examine it, in its principles at least; and an inquiry is +opportune, at this juncture, for the subject can be fairly discussed in +its different bearings, apart from the obscuring influences of national +and party prejudice, and especially of political passion. Isaac Butt was +the true author of the conception of Home Rule; for though a movement in +favour of a Repeal of the Union had become dangerously active in 1843-44, +and had been feebly intermittent since that period, this peculiar +modification of the arrangements made at the Union, in fixing the +relations between Great Britain and Ireland, was wholly an idea of that +distinguished lawyer. The occasion, on which this scheme was put forward, +was not a little remarkable for various reasons. Mr. Gladstone had just +disestablished the Anglican Church in Ireland, and had disendowed it, to a +considerable extent; this policy was angrily resented by a party of Irish +Protestants; for the maintenance of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> Established Irish Church had been +made an essential condition of the Treaty of Union. These men, who were +not without energy and parts, declared that a great international compact +had been broken; and they gradually obtained the support of leaders of the +‘Young Ireland’ following, of survivors of the ‘Tail’ of O’Connell, and +even of adherents of the Fenian cause, all, in different degrees, opposed +to the Union. Butt became the head and spokesman of this curiously +assorted band, composed of essentially discordant elements; but he +endeavoured to combine it into a strong Parliamentary force, by +propounding a plan of Home Rule for Ireland, which he had thought out with +patience and care, his hope being that this would unite his followers, and +that his project would at least be entertained in Parliament, and would +not be as hopeless as an attempt to repeal the Union. His views are set +forth in his ‘Irish Federalism,’ a long-forgotten work, but which, even +now, may be read with profit. Butt professed, and I have no doubt +sincerely, that he did not seek to disturb the Union, and that the +Imperial Parliament was to remain as it was; but he proposed to give +Ireland a Parliament of her own, with full powers of legislation on Irish +affairs, and an Executive practically appointed by this, which would have +the government of Ireland in its hands. Having thus called into existence +an Irish State, possessing State rights of supreme importance, he sought +to connect Ireland with Great Britain by a Federal tie; representatives +from Ireland were to repair to the Imperial Parliament, and to vote in +that assembly on Imperial questions, but not, as I believe Butt meant, on +those which belonged to England and Scotland.<a name='fna_20' id='fna_20' href='#f_20'><small>[20]</small></a></p> + +<p>The cry of Home Rule was welcomed in Ireland by her Catholic masses; at +the General Election of 1874, sixty men were returned to the House of +Commons to support<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> this policy, a party formidable in numbers, if not in +essential strength. Butt brought forward his plan, in outline, on three or +four occasions; but the question was not discussed with the fulness of +knowledge and the breadth of view it certainly required; on the whole, it +was superficially treated. Neither Butt nor his opponents thoroughly +perceived that his proposals virtually repealed the Union, for if the +Imperial Parliament was, nominally, to be left intact, a real Parliament +was to be placed in its stead, in Ireland, which would practically annul +its effective authority, from the Giant’s Causeway to Cape Clear; and they +seem not to have understood that ‘Irish Federalism’ implied Federalism for +Great Britain to a great extent, and introduced into the Constitution the +Federal principle with its far-reaching and dangerous effects. Butt’s +scheme, however, was powerfully attacked in its details; by no one so +powerfully as by Mr. Gladstone, who had lately announced, to an approving +multitude, that Home Rule was sheer folly or worse, and had exultingly +asked, ‘Can any sensible man, can any rational man, suppose that, at this +time of day, in this condition of the world, we are going to disintegrate +the great capital institutions of the country for the purpose of making +ourselves ridiculous in the sight of all mankind, and crippling any power +we possess for bestowing benefits, through legislation, on the country to +which we belong?’<a name='fna_21' id='fna_21' href='#f_21'><small>[21]</small></a> Little knowing what the future was to bring forth, +Mr. Gladstone declared that Home Rule was not to be even thought of, until +it could be proved that the Irish affairs, to which the Irish Parliament +was to be confined, could be separated from Imperial and British affairs, +a partition he evidently deemed impossible; and he insisted that the +introduction of Irish members into the Imperial Parliament, which, +according to this plan, was to have nothing to do with Ireland, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> not +only essentially unjust, but involved the absurdity that these men ‘were +to judge as they might think fit of the general affairs of the Empire, and +also of exclusively English and Scotch questions,’ an interpretation not, +I believe, correct. Home Rule was rejected by overwhelming majorities in +the Parliament of 1874-80; and at the General Election of the last-named +year, it found no countenance, I have said, in England or Scotland. The +subject was scarcely referred to by Mr. Gladstone, wholly preoccupied by +his Midlothian campaign, and by his persistent efforts to deprive Lord +Beaconsfield of power.</p> + +<p>Butt had sincere reverence for the Constitution and the Law; the Home Rule +movement, as long as he was at its head, was a constitutional and a lawful +movement. But this eminent man had been supplanted, by degrees, by a +politician of a very different nature; and when he had passed away in the +spring of 1879, Parnell, and what was called the ‘active Irish party,’ +which had baffled and incensed the House of Commons, became the directors +of the Home Rule policy. The character of the movement was almost wholly +changed; it became associated with a conspiracy hatched in the Far West, +which aimed at the separation of Ireland from Great Britain; Butt’s +moderate followers fell away from it, especially the band of Protestants +who had first set it on foot. Meanwhile, American Fenianism, which had in +vain attempted open rebellion in Ireland in 1865-67, had, at the +instigation perhaps of Michael Davitt, made another effort to compass its +ends; the ‘New Departure’ in treason was made; the Land League was formed +with the avowed purpose of overthrowing ‘Irish Landlordism,’ as it was +called, as being the mainstay of British power in Ireland, and then of +wresting Ireland by force from her British rulers. But Davitt was not well +fitted for his work; Parnell became the leader of the Home Rule and the +Land League movements; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> during a short visit to the United States, he +openly professed that his ultimate aim was ‘to break the last link between +Great Britain and Ireland,’ though he was still the chief of an apparently +constitutional cause. Ere long the Land League, availing itself of a +season of distress, and subsidised by Fenians across the Atlantic, had +taken root in different parts of Ireland; and gradually a reign of terror, +marked by detestable crime, and essentially of the Jacobin type, had +acquired a frightful ascendency in ten or eleven counties. By this time, +Mr. Gladstone had become Minister: how he denounced the League in +passionate language; endeavoured, for a few months, to hold it in check; +succumbed to it, when he made the ‘Kilmainham Treaty;’ and, finally, how, +after declaring that Parnell and his adherents were ‘aiming at +dismemberment through rapine,’ he became the author of the Land Act of +1881, and threw the Irish landed gentry as a sop to Cerberus,—is +sufficiently known, but I shall recur to the subject. During these years, +Parnell, artfully playing the double game, which this born conspirator +especially made his boast, and linking what he called ‘a constitutional +with an illegal movement,’ had more than once spoken on behalf of Home +Rule in the House of Commons, his moderate and even statesmanlike language +being in marked contrast with his treasonable harangues in Ireland. But +Parliament had been otherwise engaged with Irish affairs; it had become +more averse to Home Rule than ever; it had learned what the movement had +begun to involve, veiled, if not open, rebellion against the State, and it +voted down the question by immense majorities. Statesmen of all parties, +Tory, Whig, and Radical, without exception, concurred in this view; Lord +Salisbury, Lord Spencer, and John Bright alike condemned the very idea of +Home Rule. Mr. Gladstone indeed asserted afterwards that he had a policy +of this kind in his thoughts; but if he had, he kept it to himself; it +cannot be gathered from his speeches of the time;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> he never breathed to +his colleagues a word about it; he allowed them to pronounce against Home +Rule with his full apparent sanction.<a name='fna_22' id='fna_22' href='#f_22'><small>[22]</small></a></p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone’s Ministry fell in 1885; Majuba, Gordon, and his Irish +policy had set the best sense of the country against him. Lord Salisbury’s +Government came in his place; for a short time the tendency, too often +seen in British parties, to temporise with sedition and even crime in +Ireland was exhibited with untoward results; the negotiations between +Parnell and Lord Carnarvon have not yet been explained. At the General +Election of 1885, Parnell openly took the Conservative side, denounced the +Liberals in the bitterest language, and perhaps, through the influence of +the Irish vote, deprived them of a few seats in England. His principal +object certainly was to increase his own power and that of his band by +weakening the strongest of British parties; but this association with the +Conservatives probably lessened the antipathy of their opponents to Home +Rule, and was not without effect on the events that followed. Ireland, +however, was by no means a prominent question in this electoral contest; +the Tory, Whig, and Radical leaders dealt, for the most part, with +different topics; and though Mr. Gladstone dropped ambiguous phrases, +which, he ere long contended, indicated his conversion to Home Rule, his +lieutenants continued to declare against this policy, their chief +remaining openly in accord with them; indeed, all that could be collected, +from what he wrote and said, was that he called upon the country to give +him such decisive support as would make him independent of all Irish +factions. The result of this General Election, taken as a whole, was to +gain for the Liberals a majority of some eighty seats in Great Britain; +but in Ireland it effected a notable change in politics. By a recent,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +and, for Ireland, a most unwise statute, the electoral franchise had been +assimilated in the Three Kingdoms; political ascendency had, for the first +time, been secured for the masses of Catholic Ireland, largely an ignorant +and superstitious multitude; property and intelligence were overwhelmed at +the polls; and Parnell and his satellites, now called Nationalists, won +more than eighty seats out of a total of one hundred and three. The +Liberal majority, therefore, would be effaced should the Irish leader and +his men give the Conservatives their votes; a weak Government would be the +inevitable result; Mr. Gladstone, now in his seventy-sixth year, could +hardly expect to return to office. In these circumstances, it became +gradually known that Mr. Gladstone had accepted Home Rule in principle, +and was even prepared to legislate upon the subject. It would be unfair to +assert that personal motives alone determined this sudden resolve; though +obviously should the Liberal chief retain the allegiance of his party, and +draw Parnell and the Nationalists to his side, by inaugurating Home Rule +as a practical measure, he would inevitably be restored to power with a +great majority. Mr. Gladstone, ever ready to yield to a popular cry, may +have believed that five-sixths of Ireland were passionately eager for Home +Rule; he may have been convinced himself that, as affairs now stood, +Parliament would well-nigh be reduced to a deadlock should nothing be done +to redress the balanced state of parties, and that Home Rule was the +condition of a stable Government; he may have thought that since the +Conservative dalliance with Parnell, it had become impossible permanently +to resist this policy; yet these considerations form no apology for the +conduct of the aged, but most impulsive, statesman. Only a few years +before large parts of Ireland had been in a state of frightful anarchy; a +rebellious and socialistic movement against British rule and Irish landed +property had acquired great force; even at the present time, the National +League,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> replacing the Land League, kept disorder prevalent in many +counties. Was this the moment to effect a revolution in Ireland, to tamper +with, and to impair, the Union, to hand over the loyalty, the property, +and the worth of the island to the classes and the men against whom but, +as yesterday, it had been necessary to put the severest coercion in force?</p> + +<p>Lord Salisbury resigned office in the first months of 1886; Mr. Gladstone +became Prime Minister in his stead. Had parties in the House of Commons +remained unchanged, the prospect for the old statesman would have been +auspicious; the Liberals and Nationalists combined would have been +supreme; Home Rule would have been the fruit of the new alliance. But the +most distinguished men of the Liberal party, resenting a coalition far +worse than that of Fox and North, and convinced that Home Rule would be +ruinous to the State, fell off from their leader in large numbers; the +powerful Press of Great Britain, with few exceptions, emphatically +condemned the Minister’s conduct. Mr. Gladstone, however, did not pause in +his violent course; he introduced his first Home Rule Bill in April, 1886. +I can only glance at the main features of this famous measure, and devote +to it a passing comment.<a name='fna_23' id='fna_23' href='#f_23'><small>[23]</small></a> A Parliament was to be established in the +Irish capital; this, subject to the limitations set forth in the Bill, was +practically to exercise supreme power in Ireland. This Parliament was to +be composed of two Orders, the first containing one hundred and three +members, and formed of a few Irish peers and of men of some substance; the +second comprising two hundred and four or two hundred and six members +elected on the existing democratic franchise. The two Orders were +ordinarily to sit together; but should differences in legislative +measures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> arise, the first Order was, for a short time, to have a +suspensive veto on the decisions of the second Order, which, however, +possessing an immense majority, would almost necessarily in the long run +completely prevail. The Irish Parliament was precluded from legislating on +many subjects, for the most part Imperial, but partly domestic; it was +notably to have no control over the Customs and Excise of Ireland, which +were to be kept in the hands of the Imperial Parliament; and though it was +permitted to impose any other taxes, the whole revenue of Ireland was to +pass through the hands of a British official, who was to pay into the +Imperial Treasury a sum of about four millions sterling, as a contribution +from Ireland, for Imperial purposes, before the Irish Treasury could +receive a farthing. Bills voted by the Irish Parliament might be annulled +by the veto of the Lord-Lieutenant and perhaps of the British Ministry; +and the Judicial Committee of the English Privy Council, reinforced by a +small body of Irish judges, was to have the power to pronounce Acts of the +Irish Parliament void, if inconsistent with its constitutional rights. +Subject, however, to these restrictions and checks, the Irish Parliament +was to be a sovereign power in Ireland; it could practically appoint or +displace the Irish Executive Government; it could enact, change, or repeal +any laws it should think fit; it could pass any resolutions it pleased; if +an assembly partly subordinate, it would be largely supreme. Ireland was +to have no representatives in the Imperial Parliament, though this could +dispose of the Irish Customs and Excise; no Irish protest could be made at +Westminster against unjust fiscal exaction, by no means impossible. For +the rest, the Union was nominally not disturbed, and the Imperial +Parliament was nominally left intact; but it was declared that the Irish +Parliament was to possess the rights secured to it, unless these were +annulled by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, to which the Irish had +given its consent, or by an Act of the Imperial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> Parliament, in which +representatives from Ireland should have a voice.</p> + +<p>The Bill was debated with great force of argument, but hardly in its high +constitutional aspects. Like the plan of Butt, and every plan of the kind, +it impliedly, if not expressly, repealed the Union, for the very creation +of an Irish Parliament destroyed the real authority of the Imperial +Parliament, the symbol and guarantee of the Union, in one of the main +parts of the Three Kingdoms. It effected a radical change in our polity as +a whole, for practically it gave birth to three Parliaments, the Irish +sitting in College Green in Dublin, the British at Westminster without +Irish members, and the Imperial, properly to be only so-called, when +assembled upon one great occasion; and, even more distinctly than the +scheme of Butt, it let the principle of Federation into the constitution +of the State. And it did all this obscurely, indirectly, and, so to speak, +with reserve; the hand of a veiled prophet appeared in his work; this must +have led to endless controversies dangerous in the extreme. Nor did the +Bill even attempt to mark out the distinction between Irish, British, and +Imperial affairs, which its author had declared was a <i>sine quâ non</i>; this +distinction, in fact, cannot be drawn, as Mr. Gladstone acknowledged +afterwards; Irish, British, and Imperial affairs so run into each other, +that they cannot be divided into separate heads, to be under the +jurisdiction of different Parliaments. The conditions, too, which Mr. +Gladstone described, as essential to a measure of Home Rule, were, in no +sense, fulfilled. ‘The Unity of the Empire,’ that is, of Great Britain and +Ireland, as Mr. Gladstone no doubt had in his mind, was not secured, or, +even in name, preserved; the subordinate Irish Parliament and its superior +might, and probably would, come in serious conflict; this was absolutely +inconsistent with the unity to be maintained. The ‘political equality of +England, Scotland, and Ireland’ was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> assured; the Bill placed Ireland +in a degraded position, especially in all that dealt with taxation, and +through the exclusion of Irish members from the British House of Commons. +It did not ‘produce an equitable distribution of Imperial burdens,’ for +the financial arrangements were thoroughly unjust, and subjected Ireland +arbitrarily to a most galling tribute, without giving her the means of +making a complaint. It did not ‘provide safeguards for the minority,’ that +is, for the loyal classes of Protestant and Catholic Ireland; it handed +them over to an Irish Parliament, certain to be for years an instrument of +their avowed enemies; and its supplement, a Land Purchase Bill, did not +furnish a third part of the funds required to buy out the Irish landlords, +a class which, Mr. Gladstone declared, it was ‘an obligation of duty and +honour’ to save harmless, and which he admitted an Irish Parliament would, +probably, plunder and destroy. Lastly, the Bill did not secure ‘finality;’ +it was in no sense in the nature of a ‘permanent settlement,’ as +subsequent events have conclusively proved.<a name='fna_24' id='fna_24' href='#f_24'><small>[24]</small></a></p> + +<p>It may be urged, however, that even if this measure made a fundamental +change in the constitution of these realms, and did not satisfy the +conditions its author laid down, still the real question was, would it +bring peace to Ireland, and improve the relations in which she stood +towards Great Britain? Mr. Gladstone and his followers assumed that this +would be the case; the ‘Union of Hearts’ was to accomplish marvels; but +this assumption was without the slightest warrant. The most favourable way +to consider the subject, from the point of view of the Home Rule party, is +to suppose that Great Britain and Ireland were two communities, in no +sense estranged from each other, and that Ireland was not a widely divided +people; and that both were not unwilling to accept the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> Bill, as a kind of +modification of the partnership made by the Treaty of Union. This +supposition would be obviously contrary to the facts; but, even on this +supposition, the proposed measure would have completely failed to attain +its objects, and, on any ordinary view of human nature, would have +exasperated Great Britain and Ireland alike, and could not have been a +‘message of peace’ to Ireland. The Parliament at Westminster would soon +have found out that its real sovereignty in Ireland had been practically +destroyed; that the Irish Parliament could, in many ways, interfere with +British and Imperial affairs; that most of the checks on its powers were +of little avail; this would certainly deeply offend the deceived British +nation. The Irish Parliament, on the other hand, would necessarily resent +the harsh limitations by which it had been bound; yet as it had most of +the powers of a real Parliament, it could very effectually evade or impair +these; could, through its Executive, largely annul them; could, at least, +make continual and powerful protests. Discord, and perhaps conflict, +between Great Britain and Ireland, from the nature of the case, would be +the result; and, besides, there were special provisions in the Bill which +would be deemed intolerable by five-sixths of Irishmen. Even loyal Ireland +would not endure the banishment of Irish representatives from the British +House of Commons, which would have power to impose the Irish Customs and +Excise; this would be taxation without representation, in the very worst +sense. It was monstrous that Ireland was to contribute a large sum for the +charge of the Empire and yet was to have no voice in the Empire’s affairs; +it was humiliating that a British official was to have absolute control +over the whole Irish revenue. All this was subjecting Ireland to a +degrading tribute; it should be added that the prerogative of the English +Privy Council, to set aside practically Acts of the Irish Parliament, +would have provoked the deepest and most widespread discontent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> The Bill, +in a word, revealed strange ignorance of the feelings of mankind; it would +have worked on the assumption only that human beings in Great Britain and +Ireland were without passions and wills of their own; it would have been +blown to the winds, when put to the test.</p> + +<p>But ‘the circumstances,’ to adopt the words of Burke, ‘are what render +every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind;’<a name='fna_25' id='fna_25' href='#f_25'><small>[25]</small></a> +what were the circumstances in the present instance? England and Catholic +Ireland had been long opposed; the Land and the National Leagues formed a +conspiracy against our rule in Ireland; England had interests in Ireland +of the first importance; she had a large community of her own blood and +faith in Ireland, attached to the Union and the old mother country. +Ireland had been distracted for ages by feuds of race and religion; +Protestant and Catholic Ireland stood apart from each other; the Irish +Parliament, created by the Bill, would certainly be an instrument of the +heads of the Catholic masses, supported by Parnell and his band, and by +Fenians across the Atlantic. Under these conditions, Home Rule would have +been a fatal gift, ruinous to Great Britain and Ireland alike. Suppose, +for example, that an Irish Parliament, established in College Green, since +1886, had ruled Ireland during the war in South Africa. It would +unquestionably have taken the side of the Boers, as the Nationalist +leaders have openly done; and it would have possessed the means of doing +infinite mischief. It could have passed resolutions condemning the war; +have called on Irishmen to keep aloof from the British army; have +discouraged recruiting throughout Ireland; have sent messages of good will +to the Boer Government. But probably it would have gone far beyond these, +its constitutional, rights; it could have winked at the preparation of an +armed force in Ireland to be despatched to the aid of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> the Boers; it +could have invited Foreign Powers to put a stop to the conflict; nay, it +could have laid hands on the Irish taxes, and refused to ‘pay tribute to +an alien Government;’ and what, in these cases, would have been England’s +means of obtaining redress, save by the power of the sword? In the +instance of other wars, the same course would be followed; we cannot +forget that at Nationalist meetings, the Mahdi, the Dervishes, nay, all +our enemies, were the objects of the applause of shouting Irish +multitudes. And as the Irish Parliament could injure England in war, so it +could embarrass and annoy her, in a hundred ways, in peace. There was +nothing in the Bill to prevent Protection in Ireland, for the Irish +Parliament could vote bounties on Irish exports; there was nothing to +prevent the issue of Irish assignats, to mask confiscation of different +kinds; and recourse would not improbably be had to these very expedients. +It is unnecessary to dwell on what would be the legislation of the Irish +Parliament at home, and the administration of the Executive it would have +a right to set up. Composed as it would be, it would abolish ‘landlordism’ +by a stroke of the pen, or by merely preventing the recovery of rent; it +would simply turn society upside down, and establish a Catholic ascendency +by many degrees worse than Protestant ascendency ever was; it would, in a +word, let revolution loose in the island. Protestant Ireland would, as a +matter of course, resist; a savage war of race and creed would certainly +follow; the scenes of 1690 and 1798 might well be repeated; and the +struggle would end in general bankruptcy. England, in her own interest, +and in that of her friends in Ireland, would assuredly intervene, under +conditions like these; and the concession of Home Rule would probably lead +to reconquest.</p> + +<p>The Home Rule Bill of 1886—apart from the fatal evils it must have +caused—placed Ireland in such an inferior position, that every Irishman +of spirit ought to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> treated it with contempt; it was so dangerous to +Great Britain, and, indeed, to the Empire, that John Bright declared that +not twenty English members approved of it at heart. Mr. Gladstone himself, +it should be remarked, regarded it with no doubtful misgivings; he +presented it to the House of Commons as ‘but a choice of evils;’ his +measure itself, in many passages, revealed the profoundest distrust of the +Parliament he proposed to create. Parnell, imposing his imperious will on +his followers, accepted the Bill with professions of delight; this was +effusively welcomed by the emotional statesman, deceived by an +unscrupulous plotter, over and over again; it is now known this was a mere +pretence; Home Rule, under the conditions of the scheme, would have been +made a stepping-stone only for larger demands; and this, indeed, might +have been easily foreseen. The Bill was rejected by a majority which did +not express the true sense of the House of Commons, and showed how strong +may be the ties of party; the great body of the Liberals, as, doubtless, +they now bitterly regret, threw in their lot with Mr. Gladstone in his +most reckless venture. It is of more importance to observe what the views +on the subject were of the conspirators in America, who had set the Land +and National Leagues on foot, and had supplied almost the whole of their +funds; without their assistance the movement led by Parnell would probably +have never struggled into life. The prospect opened by the Home Rule Bill +was thus welcomed by the Clan na Gael, the most energetic and daring of +the Fenian parties; it will be noted that it was to be a means only to a +very decisive end. ‘The achievement of a National Parliament gives us a +footing on Irish soil; it gives us the agencies and instrumentalities of a +government <i>de facto</i>, at the very commencement of the Irish struggle. It +places the government of the land in the hands of our friends and +brothers. It removes the Castle’s rings, and gives us what we may well +express as the plant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> of an armed revolution.’<a name='fna_26' id='fna_26' href='#f_26'><small>[26]</small></a> And at a great Fenian +meeting held after the rejection of the Bill, one of the leading speakers +dropped these significant words: ‘We have no desire to force the hand of +Parnell, or to drive the Irish people into war unprepared. All that we +demand is this, and we will be satisfied with nothing less—that no leader +of the Irish people, who is supposed to speak for them, shall commit +himself, or them, to accepting as a final settlement, bills of relief +unworthy of the dignity of Ireland’s national demand. We are perfectly +willing to see them accept such bills as that of Gladstone, as a +settlement on account, but that must not be accepted as closing the +transaction. We see no wisdom in it. It lowers the tone of the national +cause. It lowers the spirit of the true people. To ask them to subside to +a species of mere provincialism is an outrage on their struggle of seven +hundred years for liberty. We admit that it may be good policy on the part +of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Davitt to be what is called moderate in tone; but +for us, who represent the national idea of the Irish people, it would be +worse than folly to conceal our sentiments. We recognise that Ireland is +incapable of fighting at present.’<a name='fna_27' id='fna_27' href='#f_27'><small>[27]</small></a></p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone dissolved Parliament when it had thrown the Bill out; he +appears really to have believed that the nation would give its sanction to +Home Rule. At the General Election of 1886, he exerted himself ‘in the +sacred cause of Ireland,’ with the energy he had shown in his Midlothian +Campaign; he associated his new Irish policy with appeals to the +multitude; the opposition to him was that ‘of the classes against the +masses;’ in a word, the enthusiastic, and perhaps sincere, convert played, +with little scruple, the part of a mere demagogue. But England pronounced +against him, with no uncertain voice; ‘men of education and property,’ as +he sadly acknowledged,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> resisted him with the steadfastness of the English +nature; a great majority was sent into the House of Commons pledged +against Home Rule; Lord Salisbury’s Government came again into office. It +deserves special notice that the rejection of the Bill did not, as was +predicted would be the case, arouse anything like real discontent in +Ireland, or cause her Catholic community to stir; this spectacle, which +has been seen over and over again, proves how little the main body of the +Irish people care for a political revolution of the kind; and how Home +Rule, as Parnell and his band conceived it, was the work of a conspiracy +of foreign origin, seeking, through it, to subvert British rule in +Ireland. The real purpose of these men was very clearly shown at a +Convention assembled at Chicago, in the summer of 1886; speeches of the +most incendiary nature were made; and two of Parnell’s envoys, despatched +to collect funds ‘for the cause,’ announced that, after the failure of Mr. +Gladstone’s measure, their ‘duty was to make the government of Ireland by +England impossible.’ Two or three years of trouble in Ireland followed; it +is unnecessary to refer to these at any length. A season of agricultural +distress and of a fall in prices made the payment of Irish rents +difficult; the occasion was seized by the heads of the National League, +which had gradually been acquiring formidable strength; the ‘Plan of +Campaign’ was set afoot; and another attack was made on the Irish landed +gentry, with the ultimate object of paralysing the Irish Government, as +had been solemnly proclaimed at Chicago. The social disorder of this +period was not so deeply marked with horrible deeds of blood, as the +Saturnalia of the Land League were; but the movement was, perhaps, not +less dangerous; the cruel practice of ‘boycotting’ was reduced to a +system, and caused widespread misery and distress; an agrarian war was +carried on in a few counties; judges, magistrates, and juries were +terrorised in the administration of the law; and there were too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> numerous +instances of atrocious crimes. But a firm hand was at the helm of the +Irish Government; Mr. Balfour did not palter with sedition and treason; +the conspiracy was before long put down; and it should be added that +‘boycotting’ and ‘the Plan of Campaign’ were unequivocally condemned at +Rome.</p> + +<p>In this struggle between the forces of disorder and law, the Rump of the +Liberal party, which had accepted Home Rule, freely declared itself on the +side of the National League and of anarchy. Mr. Gladstone, however, +towered over his fellows; his vehement and, when aroused, unscrupulous +nature, has never been more unfortunately displayed. He had been three +times at the head of the State, charged with the administration of Irish +affairs; the Government in office was engaged in a conflict with a +conspiracy of no contemptible strength; yet Mr. Gladstone did not shrink +from throwing his full weight into the scale against it, and giving his +sanction to the movement led by Parnell and his creatures. His conduct was +so flagrantly at odds with his former self, that, but for the gravity of +the situation, it would have been ludicrous; it consisted in adoring what +he had burned, and burning what he had adored; nothing like it had been +seen since Fox, breaking away from the traditions of British statesmen, +flung himself into the arms of Jacobin France, and rejoiced at every +reverse that befell England.<a name='fna_28' id='fna_28' href='#f_28'><small>[28]</small></a> A remarkable episode in the politics of +the day was not without real effect on events that followed. The acts of +the Land and, in part, of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> National Leagues, and of the leaders of the +revolutionary movements which had convulsed Ireland, were investigated by +the judges of the Special Commission appointed by Parliament for the +purpose; the inquiry, which lasted many months, was of supreme importance; +such a damning sentence was never pronounced on a body of public men, as +that pronounced on Parnell and his followers, though the accusation of +treason was not brought into question.<a name='fna_29' id='fna_29' href='#f_29'><small>[29]</small></a> This decision was sufficient +for well-informed and sensible men; but Parnell was acquitted on a +personal, but minor, charge, that of having been the author of the +well-known forged letters all but approving of the assassinations in the +Phœnix Park; Mr. Gladstone and his adherents welcomed him as an injured +martyr; the House of Commons rang with their plaudits when he re-entered +its walls. For a few months Parnell became a popular personage in +democratic England; he had negotiations with Mr. Gladstone with respect to +Home Rule, the tenor of which has not transpired; his satellites appeared +at many public meetings, and split the ears of the groundlings with +plausible talk about ‘self-government’ for Ireland and the ‘Union of +Hearts.’ This mystification and falsehood were not without effect; the +cause of Home Rule made a kind of progress in England; and, strange to +say, the fall of Parnell which ere long followed—I shall not dwell on its +squalid and grotesque incidents—had an influence in the same direction. +Ireland had been brought into a state of comparative repose; the power of +the National League appeared broken; the formidable leader of the +conspiracy had left the stage; his adherents were scattered sheep, which +had not a shepherd. With the ignorance of Irish affairs so common to +Englishmen, and the desire, partly selfish, but partly generous, to ‘get +rid of the Irish difficulty,’ by any tolerable means, thousands in the +constituencies, even in England,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> lately bitterly hostile to it, were +gradually won over to the idea of Home Rule.</p> + +<p>The General Election of 1892 followed; a number of causes, in addition to +that I have set forth, contributed to favour the Home Rule movement. The +‘swing of the pendulum,’ seen in British politics, since Democracy has +gained the ascendant, very distinctly appeared; the ‘idea that each side +ought to have its innings’ was widely spread; many Unionist seats were +lost by these means. The extraordinary energy shown by Mr. Gladstone, at +an age far beyond the ordinary span, had considerable influence on the +masses; and though his real authority had been long on the wane, he was +still the popular figure in England and, above all, in Scotland. He had, +also, carefully kept his Home Rule scheme to himself; it was announced by +his followers that his next measure for securing ‘self-government,’ as it +was called, for Ireland, would be free from the manifest faults of that of +1886, and would finally, and happily, settle the question. A large part of +the electorate was gained in this way; but the influence that most +effectually assisted Mr. Gladstone was, essentially, of a very different +kind. The Anti-Unionist Liberals had been out of power for many years; +though they had long been split into separate groups, they resolved to +combine against the common enemy, and to drive the Unionist Government +from its seat, by appeals to the ideas they assumed were dominant in +democratic England and Scotland. The Newcastle programme was +ostentatiously published; the question of Home Rule was mixed up with +projects for disestablishing the Church in England and Wales, for the +destruction or the emasculation of the House of Lords, for enforcing +temperance by the tyranny of the Local Veto, for extending the suffrage +and raising the labourer’s status; in this way they satisfied themselves +they ‘would sweep the country.’ They knew, indeed, that Mr. Gladstone had +no heart for much of their policy; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> his passionate eagerness to +accomplish Home Rule was notorious; they believed that by giving him a +cordial support on this question, they would secure his powerful aid for +the others, and that by the process known as ‘log-rolling,’ they would +attain their objects. The Unionist party was weakened at the election; but +the sanguine hopes of its opponents were not fulfilled. Many of the +Radical cries were far from popular; they nearly all combined large +classes against them; England returned a large majority to the House of +Commons pledged against Home Rule, if not so considerable as six years +before; and though Scotland and Wales were, in the main, favourable to Mr. +Gladstone’s policy, still the electorate of Great Britain, as a whole, +pronounced against it. The election in Ireland presented features which, +with respect to Home Rule, were of marked significance. In 1886, as in +1885, the educated and upper classes were swamped at the polls, by the +flood of illiterate and indigent multitudes; the Irish Catholic Church +used, nay, abused, its immense authority, to secure votes for Mr. +Gladstone’s coming measure. The same spectacle was beheld in 1892; but an +element of confusion and disorder came in; the leaders of the factions, +divided by the fall of Parnell, though Nationalists, ferociously flew at +each other’s throats; the election was marked by disgraceful scenes of +lawlessness. These certainly prefigured what would be the character of a +future Irish Parliament sitting in College Green.</p> + +<p>This election gave Mr. Gladstone a majority of some forty seats in the +House of Commons, but a majority composed of not well-united elements; and +the best opinion of England was strongly averse to his policy. But the +veteran statesman—he was in his eighty-third year—did not pause for a +moment in his headlong venture, though ominous sounds were being already +heard; after the resignation of Lord Salisbury, through a weak adverse +vote, his rival became Prime Minister for the fourth time.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> He had staked +everything to obtain the success of the cause to which he had passionately +devoted his declining years; he brought in his second Home Rule Bill in +the first months of 1893. The measure had much in common with that of +1886; but in some respects it was very different, especially in one +feature of supreme importance. An Irish Parliament was again to be set up +in Dublin; but it was to be a much smaller body than that proposed by the +previous Bill; it was to be composed of a Legislative Council of +forty-eight members only, and of a Legislative Assembly of only a hundred +and three; these were analogous to the First and Second Orders of 1886, +but were not to be even half in numbers; and no Irish peers were to have a +place in the new Parliament. The Legislative Council and Assembly, +differing here from the original scheme, were to sit, not together, but +apart; but the Legislative Council, like the First Order, was to have a +temporary suspensive veto on the Assembly’s acts; the Assembly, too, like +the Second Order, possessing a majority which would place real power in +its hands; and both bodies, it should be added, being more democratic than +the two which were to have been created in 1886. The new Irish Parliament, +like that to be formed seven years before, was restricted by +limitations—these much the same as those contained in the former Bill—in +a number of Imperial and domestic matters; it was, like its predecessor, +to be subjected to the same kind of veto, and to nearly the same authority +of the English Privy Council. In finance, the ‘tribute,’ which had been +loudly condemned by all parties in Ireland, was given up; there was to be +no British official to lay his hands on Irish revenue, and to divert it +from its legitimate uses; but the Irish Customs were to be appropriated to +the Imperial charge, which Ireland was declared to be justly liable to +pay; and this was a sum of about two millions and a half, with an addition +for a time of one million, a sum less than the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> estimate made in 1886. The +Irish Parliament, however, if thus made largely subordinate, was like the +Parliament of the preceding Bill, to be in many, and most important, +respects supreme. It was to rule Ireland as a sovereign power, subject to +the limitations by which it was to be bound; it could make, change, and +repeal laws, as regards the Irish community, almost as it pleased; it +could, in a word, do nearly everything within the province of a real +Parliament. Above all, it could appoint and control the Irish Executive +Government, to which the administration of Irish affairs would belong; and +it would thus have complete power over the most important machinery of the +State.</p> + +<p>The Bills of 1886 and of 1893 so far resembled each other, with some +distinctions; but, in other respects, they markedly differed. The +supremacy of the Imperial Parliament, implied but not expressed in the +first scheme, was unequivocally asserted in the second, though this +supremacy could not be effective, as respects Ireland. The Imperial +Parliament was nominally left untouched by both Bills, though this was a +play on words only; but it was to hold a position in the second it was not +to hold in the first; the Union was not in terms repealed by either +measure, though virtually it was repealed by both, through the mere +creation of an Irish Parliament. The Bill of 1886 had, as its complement, +a Land Purchase Bill; in fact, both were made parts of the same policy; a +sum of £50,000,000 was to be an indemnity for Irish landlords who should +think fit to part with their estates; for Mr. Gladstone, we have seen, had +declared that it was ‘an obligation of duty and honour’ to protect this +order of men; and he asserted that Parliament would, doubtless, vote any +further sums required, a singular exhibition of credulous hope, for these +would have amounted to £150,000,000 at least; and he had himself, in a +speech addressed to Lord George Hamilton, valued the lands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Ireland at +£300,000,000. But what was to be deemed sacred, in 1886, had a very +different aspect in 1893; the settlement of the Irish land was, indeed, +withheld for three years from the Irish Parliament, but, after this brief +space of time, this was to be certainly left to a body, which Mr. +Gladstone had evidently thought would make short work of the Irish landed +gentry, and would drive them, in beggary, out of their own country. These +differences, however, between the two Bills, sank into insignificance +compared to a vital distinction which made them essentially unlike each +other, and made their projects of Home Rule completely dissimilar. The +exclusion of Irish representatives from the House of Commons at +Westminster, under the measure of 1886, was palpably unjust, and had been +condemned with much force of argument. Mr. Gladstone proposed to redress +this wrong by summoning eighty Irish members into the Imperial House of +Commons; these were to have no cognisance of British questions, but were +to have a right to vote on Imperial and even Irish questions, though the +Imperial Parliament was to have little or no power in Ireland, and an +Irish Parliament was practically to fill its place, and to have all but +supreme authority over Irish affairs. This strange expedient obviously +made the Home Rule schemes of 1886 and 1893 altogether different; but Mr. +Gladstone never saw the essential distinction; he maintained that the +inclusion of the Irish members was little more than a detail of the +measure. It would be perhaps unfair to insist that he introduced this +immense change in order only to strengthen his already enfeebled party, +which would be greatly in want of Irish votes at Westminster; more +probably his intellect, yielding to old age, did not thoroughly grasp all +that was involved in his project.<a name='fna_30' id='fna_30' href='#f_30'><small>[30]</small></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>The Bill of 1893, from a purely constitutional point of view, was +infinitely more objectionable than that of 1886. It not only, I have said, +virtually repealed the Union; it created a kind of Federalism in these +realms to which there has never been a parallel. The Irish Parliament was +practically to rule Ireland; no British members were to show their faces +in it; it was to be all but the sovereign of the Irish State. The British +Parliament was nominally to be sovereign of the British State; +representatives from Ireland were not to appear in it, and, in theory, +they were not to deal with British questions. The Imperial Parliament was +to be analogous to a supreme Federal Council; this ought to have +jurisdiction over Imperial affairs alone; but eighty Irish members were to +have seats in it, and they were to have a right to vote on Imperial and +Irish questions, though Ireland was to have a separate Parliament of her +own. This arrangement, in conception, was simply monstrous; it gave +Ireland powers to which she had no pretence to a claim; it really +subjected Great Britain to her; it formed a Federation in which a weak and +small State was to have immense authority over another tenfold as strong; +it might be described as one-sided Federalism run mad. Passing from the +main principles to the details of the Bill, this, like its predecessor, +did not satisfy the conditions Mr. Gladstone had deemed to be essential. +It did not separate British, Irish, and Imperial affairs; its author +admitted at last that this was not possible. It asserted the supremacy of +the Imperial Parliament, and gave it a more imposing position than it had +under the Bill of 1886; but it did not maintain the Unity of the Three +Kingdoms; the mere creation of an Irish Parliament placed this in +jeopardy. It did not provide for the ‘political equality’ of Great Britain +and Ireland, for, in contradiction to the measure of seven years before, +it practically gave Ireland a kind of ascendency; her representatives were +to possess rights in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> no sense to be justified. It did not provide an +‘equitable distribution of Imperial burdens;’ in this province it would +have done wrong to Great Britain; for, while it abandoned the odious Irish +tribute of 1886, and an effective control over Irish revenue, its +expedient of allocating the Irish Customs, and nothing else, as the only +source for the payment of Imperial charges, would, in all probability, +have caused the Imperial Treasury a great loss; the Customs would have +been enormously reduced by smuggling, to which Irishmen have always been +much addicted, which the Irish Parliament would have no interest to +prevent, and which, very likely, it would directly encourage. Again, it +did not create ‘safeguards for the minority;’ as we have seen, it threw +the Irish landed gentry, after a brief respite, to the wolves, that is, to +the tender mercies of the Irish Parliament; and, like the measure of 1886, +it took no heed of Protestant and loyal Catholic Ireland, as a whole, +though this assuredly was ‘a minority’ that required protection. Finally, +it could not have effected a ‘permanent settlement’ of the affairs of +Ireland; a ‘lopsided’ and iniquitous arrangement like this would certainly +have had a very short existence.</p> + +<p>The measure of 1893, in short, would have effected a complete revolution +in the polity of these realms; it would have given the least important of +the Three Kingdoms an iniquitous authority over the most important; it +would unnaturally have placed weakness in superiority to power; it would +have subjected the dominant to the lesser partner; all this, it will be +observed, followed from the inclusion of Irish representatives in the +Imperial Parliament, who, though a Parliament in Dublin was to rule +Ireland, were to have a right to deal with Imperial and Irish questions. +Mr. Gladstone, I repeat, seems never to have understood the strange and +ruinous consequences this would involve; but this can be made manifest by +one or two examples. The Irish members<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> would be excluded from the British +Parliament, and would have no right to vote on purely British questions, +say upon the extension of the British railway system, or the +disfranchisement of an English or Scottish borough. But they would have +eighty seats in the Imperial Parliament; and as it was impossible to +separate a number of British questions from those of an Imperial or Irish +character, they would have a most potent influence over British affairs; +for example, they could legitimately vote upon such subjects as the +confidence to be placed in a British Ministry, the financial relations +between Great Britain and Ireland, or the validity of British incumbrances +affecting Irish estates. The exclusion, however, of Irish members from the +British Parliament, and their introduction into the Imperial Parliament, +would have led to even more disastrous results; it must, in many +instances, have caused a complete paralysis of the State. This in-and-out +plan, as it was derisively called, must have made Parliamentary government +well-nigh impossible; if Irish members were to have a right to vote in the +same House of Commons on Imperial and Irish questions, but were not to +have a right to vote on British questions, to vote, say, upon a war with a +Foreign Power, and upon the domicile and status of Irish subjects, but not +to vote on matters of purely British commerce, there might, and very often +would be, two conflicting majorities in the leading House of Parliament; +Parliamentary affairs would be brought to a stand; the tenure of even the +strongest Ministry would be utterly insecure. It is needless to point out +that the relations between Great Britain and Ireland would almost +certainly have been more strained, under the Bill of 1893, than they would +have been under that of 1886; and that the government of Ireland by the +Irish Parliament, would, under both, have been much of the same character. +The British nation would have been indignant at the humiliation of their +ancient Parliament, which would be sometimes placed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> at the mercy of Irish +members; it would have condemned the weakening in Ireland of its +authority, through the mere establishment of an Irish Parliament; it would +have been sorely vexed that Irish smuggling would filch away a large part +of British revenue. It should be borne in mind, too, that the Irish +members, who would have been let into the Imperial Parliament, would have +been more difficult to deal with, by many degrees, more openly disloyal, +more obstructive, than Irish Nationalists could be, as affairs stand at +present; they would have the support of the Irish Parliament; the Imperial +Parliament could hardly impose a check on them. As for the rule of the +Irish Parliament, within its proper domain, it would have been the same, +or much the same, under either measure; that is, it would have been a +succession of angry wranglings with England and oppression in Ireland, +leading to anarchy and general ruin.</p> + +<p>The Home Rule Bill of 1886, in a word, bad measure as it was, was +innoxious compared to the Home Rule Bill of 1893. The fatal tendency of +the scheme was quickly perceived; the sound mind of England was profoundly +stirred; the Bill was publicly burned in the City of London; innumerable +petitions against it flowed in; an immense assembly, representing loyal +Catholic and Protestant Ireland, met in the capital, and denounced this +whole policy in most determined language. As had happened, too, seven +years before, the Press of Great Britain, all but universally, condemned +the new measure as hopelessly bad; it was significant that the Liberal +Press was well-nigh silent, and that Mr. Gladstone was supported by very +few petitions. The Opposition simply tore the Bill to shreds in the House +of Commons; but the self-deluded Minister desperately held his course; the +Radical groups servilely gave him their votes; the process of +‘log-rolling,’ never before so recklessly displayed, kept his petty +majority almost intact, a crying disgrace to any party in the State. At +last, whether afraid of the country rising against him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> or yielding to the +instigation of his Irish allies—his subserviency to their truculence had +been most painful—Mr. Gladstone forced the measure through the House of +Commons by a method never employed before; ‘closure by compartments,’ +rightly compared to the ‘guillotine,’ put an end to resistance by +iniquitous means. The Bill passed the Lower House by thirty-four votes +only; not half of it had been examined or discussed; the part that had, +had been so completely transformed, that its parent could hardly have +known his own offspring. The most notable of these changes was that the +in-and-out plan was given up; its ruinous effects had been fully dragged +into the light, but an arrangement, perhaps even worse, had been placed in +its stead. Ireland was to retain her Parliament in College Green; but the +eighty Irish members were to have a right to sit in the Imperial +Parliament, and to vote on all questions, not only Imperial and Irish, but +strictly British alike. A philosophic and calm-minded writer has indicated +what this would involve: ‘Irish members may disestablish the Church of +England, though England is to have no voice in the pettiest of Irish +affairs. Irish members are to be allowed to impose taxes on England, say, +to double the income tax, though of these taxes no inhabitant of Ireland +will pay a penny; the Irish delegation, and this is the worst grievance of +all, is to be enabled, in combination with a British minority, to detach +Wales from England, or to vote Home Rule for Scotland, or to federalise +still further the United Kingdom by voting that Man, Jersey, and Guernsey +shall send members to the Imperial Parliament.’<a name='fna_31' id='fna_31' href='#f_31'><small>[31]</small></a> To say that this +proposal would be unconstitutional would be to do it too much honour; it +was scandalous in the existing situation of affairs; it implied that heads +of the National League, leaders of a rebellious and socialistic movement, +would have the power, without restriction or check, to rule the Imperial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +Parliament, in many instances, with reference to exclusively English and +Scottish questions; it practically bound Great Britain hand and foot in +fetters to Ireland; it was rightly called ‘an absurd piece of infamy.’ It +is unnecessary to say that the system it would have established could not +have stood a trial of even three months; England, whenever crossed, would +have indignantly swept it away. But Nemesis had commended the poisoned +chalice to Mr. Gladstone’s lips; the project, on which he had staked his +fortunes, was that which he had incorrectly ascribed to Butt, and had +declared to be impossible and worse.</p> + +<p>The Bill, it was notorious, could not have passed the House of Commons had +not its rejection by the House of Lords been assured beforehand. It +received its quietus, in that assembly, by a majority of about ten to one; +the mind of England felt unquestionable relief; a great national peril had +been averted. Exactly as had happened in 1886, scarcely a sound of +discontent was heard in Ireland; the demand for Home Rule, in fact, is +largely a fictitious cry, with which the great body of Irishmen has little +or no sympathy; the evidence of this can be no longer doubtful. Mr. +Gladstone retired, within a few months, from public life; one of his last +acts was to shoot a Parthian arrow at the House of Lords, which, happily +for these realms, had wrecked his policy; since that time he has +disappeared from the scene; few eminent statesmen have been so soon +forgotten. Home Rule was scattered to the winds at the General Election of +1895; it has not been a prominent question at that of 1900; but if Ireland +has sent more than eighty of its supporters into the House of Commons, the +best elements in her community remain angrily hostile; and the opinion of +Great Britain is distinctly adverse. For many reasons, however, as I have +remarked, it is impossible to ignore the subject; in the strange chances +and changes of British politics, and under our system of party government, +a minister may again<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> become an advocate of Home Rule, though certainly +not in the present Parliament. Mr. Gladstone’s Bills, it is likely, will +not be heard of again; but Home Rule may be embodied in other forms; I may +briefly refer to, and comment, on these. The project of restoring the +Parliament of 1782-1800, an ideal of O’Connell during many years of his +life, will hardly be revived in these times; the conditions in Great +Britain and Ireland have so completely changed. The centripetal forces +which, a hundred years ago, held the British and Irish Parliaments, in the +main, together—they differed, however, on important questions—have long +ago been all but completely destroyed; the present Irish Parliament could +not be an assembly identified in race and faith with England; its House of +Commons could not be elected by a small body of Protestants, and latterly +by masses of Catholic peasants, the serfs of their landlords. The +centrifugal forces, on the other hand, those which would keep the two +Parliaments utterly apart, would probably be overwhelmingly strong; the +Irish House of Commons would practically, at least for years, be ruled by +the nominees of the National League and of the Irish Catholic priesthood; +its electorate would, for the most part, be subject to these dominant +powers; and Protestant Ireland would alike be swamped and incensed. +Nevertheless, the restoration of what has been called Grattan’s +Parliament, would, in my judgment, be a much better project than either of +Mr. Gladstone’s schemes of Home Rule. The Irish Parliament would be bound +by known and fixed precedents, which it would be difficult wholly to +disregard; an Irish House of Lords would exist as a check on the House of +Commons; above all—and this is of the very first importance—the Irish +Executive would not be subject to the Irish Parliament; it would be +appointed from Westminster by British statesmen. A Parliament of this type +could hardly effect the ruinous mischiefs which Mr. Gladstone’s Irish +Parliaments could certainly effect.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>Ireland, it has been urged, would obtain Home Rule, if she were +assimilated to one of our self-governing colonies. These nations, as they +may fitly be called, are by no means, as is commonly supposed, wholly +independent of the Crown and the Imperial Parliament; they have +Parliaments and Executives of their own; but these in theory, and partly +in fact, are subordinate. No Act passed by the Parliament of a +self-governing colony can in any way contravene an Imperial statute; the +governor of a self-governing colony is a real governor; appeals run to the +English Privy Council from colonial Courts of Justice. Nevertheless, +self-governing colonies are practically all but independent; they pay no +contribution to Imperial charges; they maintain their own garrisons, +without a British army in their midst—at least, in a great many cases; +they are hardly ever interfered with by the Imperial Parliament, or by the +men in power at Westminster. Why, it may be argued, should not the same +liberties belong to Ireland, for centuries the peccant part of these +kingdoms; would not the concession make her as loyal as most of our +self-governing colonies? The answer is short, but amply sufficient; the +circumstances of our self-governing colonies and of Ireland are altogether +different. In none of these settlements is there the profound estrangement +which has long divided Great Britain from Ireland; in none is there a +community in which a loyal minority is separated from a disaffected +majority by long-standing discords of race and faith; Ireland is at our +doors, our self-governing colonies distant. Give Ireland a Parliament like +that of Victoria, and Ireland would break off from the British connection; +the Irish Parliament would possess ample power to trample on and oppress +hundreds of thousands of law-abiding men, of whom the protection was +England’s duty; the Irish Parliament and Executive, within a few leagues +of our coasts, could, in innumerable ways, do infinite mischief. The +supposed analogy, therefore, completely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> fails; it would be treason to the +State, and to loyal Irishmen, to make Ireland a self-governing colony; and +no British politician has as yet countenanced this mode of Home Rule. It +has been hinted again, but with bated breath and humbleness, that the +relations of Great Britain and Ireland have been so long unfortunate, such +a dreary record of disputes and miseries, that we should say to our +intractable partner, ‘Depart in peace;’ in a word, separation is a +conceivable Home Rule policy. This proposal has never been discussed in +Parliament; the interest, the self-respect, the pride of Englishmen almost +forbid the thought. Yet separation, strange as it may appear, would be a +better and more safe expedient than either of Mr. Gladstone’s schemes of +Home Rule. The Imperial Parliament would have complete liberty to exercise +its sovereign power in Great Britain; it would have a free hand to prevent +injustice in Ireland, either by the strong arm, or by fiscal and other +expedients, say, by laying an embargo on Irish products; it would not be +subject to the exasperating but often effective checks which Home Rule +would in any form involve; and the Imperial Executive would possess ample +means to protect the interests of England and of her friends in Ireland. +Let it not be forgotten that in perhaps the ablest speech ever made, in +the House of Commons, on this subject, Peel declared that he would +infinitely prefer separation to a repeal of the Union, by no means so evil +a policy as Home Rule.</p> + +<p>A few politicians, however, have put the theory forward that ‘Home Rule +all round’ will meet the ‘national demand’ of Ireland, and give her what +they are pleased to call ‘self-government.’ England, Scotland, Ireland, +and perhaps Wales are to have local Parliaments to deal with their own +affairs; Imperial affairs are to be directed by an Imperial Council. I am +willing to admit that a scheme of this kind would be better than Mr. +Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill of 1893; it would be less illogical, possibly +not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> more disastrous. But I must be permitted to doubt whether these sages +understand what their project certainly involves; this, indeed, seems to +be rather in the nature of a device to angle for Nationalist votes, +without scruple, and then to propose a plan which England, Scotland, +Ireland, and Wales have never asked for, and which England and Scotland, +at least, would indignantly reject. This scheme is pure Federalism, in the +proper sense of the word; let us briefly consider what this means from the +very nature of the case. England, Scotland, Ireland, and, I assume, Wales +would form separate States; they would have separate Legislatures and +Executives to manage their local affairs, separate local forces, separate +Courts of Justice; they would be, essentially, separate countries. The +Imperial Parliament and its Executive would be the only link between them; +there would be an Imperial army, and navy, and Imperial tribunals; but the +Imperial Parliament and its Executive would only have jurisdiction over +Imperial affairs, and would be only the head of the separate States as +respects Foreign Powers. But as it would be difficult in the extreme, +under these conditions, to distinguish local from Imperial affairs, an +arbiter of some kind, armed with sufficient powers, would be necessary to +say what affairs were local and what Imperial, and decisively to pronounce +on the subject, on the innumerable occasions when the question would +arise; and it would be necessary, too, that there should be some means, +perhaps a Referendum to a popular vote, to effect any constitutional +change, to reform or to abolish the Constitution itself. This scheme +obviously would be complex, intricate, and difficult to carry into effect; +it would be a huge system of divided, and probably conflicting, powers, +not easy to reconcile with each other; for this, and other reasons, it +would require a formal Constitution reduced to writing, and setting forth, +under distinct heads or articles, the conditions of the Federation that +had been established,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> the spheres of the authority of the separate +States, and the sphere of the authority of the Imperial Council. Is it +possible to suppose that the Parliament of the United Kingdom would ever +break up this ancient and undivided Monarchy; would tamely surrender its +sovereign rights, and would substitute a new-fangled fabric of this kind +for the venerable and unwritten constitution of these realms—a majestic +temple that has grown up in silence; and that the British people, at all +events, would not rise up in wrath at the very thought of such a change? +For Federalism ‘amounts to a proposal for changing the whole constitution +of the United Kingdom. It is, in fact, the most “revolutionary” proposal, +if the word “revolutionary” be used in its strict sense, which has ever +been submitted to an English Parliament. The abolition of the House of +Lords, the disestablishment of the Church, the abolition of the Monarchy, +might leave the English Constitution far less essentially changed than +would the adoption of Federalism.’<a name='fna_32' id='fna_32' href='#f_32'><small>[32]</small></a></p> + +<p>It should be observed, too, with respect to this subject, that the +conditions, under which Federalism would have a chance of success, would +be absolutely wanting in the present instance. England, Scotland, Ireland, +and Wales have long been moulded into a single sovereign State, and united +under a supreme Monarchy; no Federation, I venture to assert, has been +formed out of communities that have had a government of this kind. +Federations, in fact, have almost always grown out of an association of +existing States, which desire to remain separate, and yet to be a nation +for some purposes; they have not been evolved out of the fragments of one +State artificially rent asunder. Again, Federalism requires that no single +State should be enormously more powerful than the other partners; there +must be something like equality between the different States;<a name='fna_33' id='fna_33' href='#f_33'><small>[33]</small></a> it is +unnecessary to remark that England has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> tenfold the resources and strength +of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; and, in truth, would annihilate the +Federation were her will really crossed, and break through the arbitrary +limitations imposed on her. Suppose, for example, that England had set her +heart on a great foreign war, and had the support of her own Parliament; +does any one suppose that, if she were outvoted, by deputies from +Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, in the Imperial Council, even though backed +by their own Parliaments, the people of England would submit to be +thwarted in this way; was Samson bound by the withs of the Philistines? +Something like this, indeed, was seen in the great Civil War; the result +was the subjugation of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and the complete +ascendency of England, under Cromwell; an attempt to federalise the Three +Kingdoms might lead to a similar issue. Let us assume, however, that, +through some evil stroke of destiny, Federalism were made the constitution +of these realms, and that this strange arrangement could be made to work +even for a few years; the inevitable consequences, from the nature of the +case, would follow. The omnipotence of the Imperial Parliament, the +mainstay of the Empire, would be gone; so would the omnipotence of the +Imperial Executive Government, the best security for justice and for equal +liberties. Their powers would be parcelled out and subdivided; they would +not survive anywhere in their complete fulness; they would be distributed +in fractions between separate States, and would be transformed and +impaired in the process; real Imperial unity and sovereignty could have no +existence. General national weakness would be the probable result, +leading, perhaps, to despotism within a short time; for Federalism is +essentially weak; I have no sympathy with Jacobin France, but the +Committee of Public Safety rightly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> put Federalism down, when they were +engaged in their death-struggle with Europe; and Napoleon—perhaps the +ablest ruler of the nineteenth century—approved of their conduct. But +weakness would not be the only consequence; the dissemination of different +powers would certainly produce disputes and conflicts between the Federal +and the State authorities; above all, the very existence of separate +States and of a Federal Government would divide allegiance, and powerfully +tend to disruption, as was seen in the great Civil War in America. As +regards Ireland, the establishment of ‘Home Rule all round’ would +necessarily be attended by all the evils inseparable from Mr. Gladstone’s +schemes; but Federalism, having been thus made manifest, would probably +increase, and in some sense justify, the alienation of Ireland from the +other parts of these kingdoms.</p> + +<p>Home Rule, therefore, whatever the form it may assume, would be, it is my +firm conviction, incompatible with the welfare of the Three Kingdoms, +injurious to Great Britain, a curse to Ireland. In the peculiar +circumstances which exist in Ireland, and to which I have adverted before, +separation, I believe, would be an expedient less disastrous than Home +Rule of any description, this involving the creation of an Irish +Parliament, and of an Irish Executive, which would be its instrument. Home +Rule, in fact, gloss it over as you please, has been forced to the front +by an Irish faction, hostile to a man to the existence of British rule in +Ireland, and depending on Fenianism in the United States; this party would +be all-powerful in an Irish Parliament; and Home Rule would be made the +means to a ruinous and disgraceful end. Thousands of Irishmen, indeed, +honestly think Home Rule would do their country good, and have little or +nothing to do with this bad conspiracy; this too, doubtless, is the case +with the followers of Mr. Gladstone; but Home Rule is an Irish Nationalist +movement, and Irish Nationalist movements are dangerous to the safety of +the State. The Union, therefore, must be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> maintained in the interest of +Great Britain and Ireland alike; and the Union is an international +settlement that has endured for a century. But no candid student of Irish +history, no impartial observer of Irish affairs, from 1800 to the present +time, can deny that the Union has been in many respects a failure. It has +been an incident, perhaps a result, of the Union, that Presbyterian +Ireland, rebellious from 1795 to 1798, has, we have seen, become attached +to the British connection, and is now devotedly attached to England. The +power of the Imperial Parliament and of its Executive have kept +lawlessness and disorder down in Ireland, and has restrained the evil +passions of Irish factions more than was ever the case under the rule of +the Irish Parliament. The Imperial Parliament, too, has accomplished +reforms in Ireland, if often unwise, in the main beneficent; and, under +the Imperial Executive, justice in Ireland has been administered, for many +years, in a very different way from that which was seen a century ago; its +tribunals are perfectly free and impartial. But the Union was, in itself, +a bad half measure, tainted with iniquity and false promises; it did gross +wrong to Catholic Ireland; the evil consequences are felt to this hour. +The Union has not fulfilled the sanguine hopes of Pitt; Ireland, as I have +pointed out, is far more behind Great Britain in wealth than she was sixty +years ago; she is perhaps the poorest country in Europe at the door of the +richest. The Union, too, has not reconciled the feuds of religion and race +in Ireland; they are as marked as they were a century ago, if not attended +with such deeds of violence; above all, the Union has not made the chief +part of the Irish community attached to England, as Pitt confidently +predicted would certainly happen. Nor can it be denied that the Irish +reforms of the Imperial Parliament have too often been ill-designed and +faulty, especially, as we shall see, as regards the land; and they have +unfortunately, in many instances, been concessions to agitation and +dangerous social<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> movements, and have been effected too late to do real +good. The administration of Ireland reveals the same defects; it has been +marked by good intentions, which, sometimes, have proved gross mistakes; +and notably it has, over and over again, been shifty, vacillating, without +principle, and showing a curious disregard of sound Irish opinion. +Unquestionably, too, Ireland has, on many occasions, to the indignation of +true-hearted Irishmen, been made the mere plaything of British faction, +with the worst results to her best interests; this has been perhaps the +most pernicious incident that has followed the Union; and in the immense +revolution which has transformed Ireland, within the last hundred years, +the effects that may be traced to the Union have by no means been wholly +on the side of good.</p> + +<p>These evil consequences cannot be really questioned; it is very advisable +to consider their causes, and if possible to see how they can be removed +or lessened. They are partly to be ascribed to the fact that Great Britain +and Ireland are countries differing from each other in most important +respects, and standing, so to speak, on different planes of existence; +this alone makes British rule in Ireland difficult, and perplexes and +embarrasses British statesmen. They are partly due to defects in the +English national character, essentially just in intention, and even +generous, but with no sympathy with races of a character unlike its own, +self-asserting, obstinate, sometimes rude and offensive; this has had +marked and evil effects in the affairs of Ireland. They are largely to be +attributed to the nature of Irish administration, seldom consistent, and +changing with party changes: British statesmen appear at the Castle; rule +for a few years; and then depart and give place to successors, who +probably carry out a very different policy. They are largely due to the +nature of the representation of Ireland, notably of late years; the +Nationalist party—and the same remark applies, in some degree, to the +‘Tail’ of O’Connell—have shown such an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> aversion to England, have used +such seditious and even criminal language, have been so extravagant and +wild in their demands, and have been such a dangerous element in the House +of Commons, that Englishmen and Scotchmen turn away from Irish questions +with disgust, and Ireland unfortunately has often been the sufferer. But +the most important of these causes, one which may be traced throughout +Irish history, and has been scarcely less evident since the Union, has +been the strange but signal ignorance of Irish affairs—of all, in a word, +that relates to Ireland—which has been but too characteristic of the +British people, and, in a lesser degree, of many British statesmen. This +capital fault aroused the <i>sæva indignatio</i>, of Swift; it was exposed by +Grattan, O’Connell, even by Lord Clare; it was condemned in severe but +thoughtful language by Burke; it has been conspicuous during the events of +the last twenty years.<a name='fna_34' id='fna_34' href='#f_34'><small>[34]</small></a> The resulting mischiefs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> have been numerous and +grave in the extreme; can nothing be done to mitigate these and to make +them less, consistently with maintaining the Union in its full +completeness? I, for one, have long thought that much could be effected +were the Imperial Parliament occasionally to hold its sessions in Dublin, +and to govern Ireland directly, so to speak, on the spot. This very +measure was proposed by many distinguished Irishmen, during the agitation +for Repeal in 1843-44; it was made the subject of an eloquent eulogy by +Sheil at O’Connell’s trial; it was seriously entertained by the Whig +opposition of the day, as we know from a remarkable letter of Lord +Waveney. This policy unfortunately passed out of sight; but even now, I +believe, it would do the greatest good in Ireland. It would be something +that the proposed change would cause the wealth of England and Scotland +largely to flow into a poor country; that Irish absenteeism would be +diminished; that Ireland would become, more than she is now, an attractive +place of resort to the traveller. But it would be far more that the +presence of the Imperial Parliament in College Green would necessarily +largely remove the ignorance of Irish affairs I have just referred to; it +would make English and Scotch members familiar with the requirements, the +feelings, the wishes of Irishmen; as has happily been said, it would +render our Irish legislation and administration ‘racy of the Irish soil.’ +And probably more than any other expedient, it would exorcise the weak +phantom of Home Rule by bringing Irishmen in contact with the majesty of +the Sovereign Assembly of the British Empire. I shall not comment on the +petty inconveniences the scheme might cause; really they are not worthy of +serious attention.</p> + +<p>The occasional presence of Royalty, too, in Ireland, as was made manifest +during the late Queen’s visit, unquestionably would have beneficent +results. It would gratify a sentiment of Celtic nature, always attached to +persons rather than to institutions and laws, and especially attached<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> to +rulers and chiefs, which, in Ireland, has been scarcely gratified before; +it would spread far and wide a happy and good influence; it would +certainly improve the social life of Ireland, and add something to her +scanty material wealth. The maintenance of the Union, however, is the +first requirement of a sound Irish and Imperial policy; one means of +strengthening that fundamental law of these realms, consistently with +strict constitutional justice, nay, if constitutional wrong is not to +continue, has long been apparent to impartial minds. The +over-representation of Ireland, in the House of Commons, is a flagrant +anomaly, acknowledged for years; as I have remarked, it was largely +expected that this important subject would have been taken up before this +by Lord Salisbury’s Government, and have been settled in the Parliament of +1895-1900. Taking the test of population alone, Ireland has, compared to +England, Wales, and Scotland, an excess of twenty-three members; taking +the test of population and property combined, she has an excess probably +of from thirty to forty. I am willing to allow that, in this matter, we +ought not to follow arithmetic only; Ireland, a poor country, far away +from Westminster, may have a claim to a representation somewhat more +numerous than mere figures would give her. But can anything be more +unjust, nay, absurd, than that Ireland should have one hundred and three +members, and that the world of London, with a population about the same as +that of Ireland, and probably possessing tenfold wealth, should have +little more than half that number? This excessive representation must be +reduced, and Irish Nationalists cannot here appeal to the Union; the Union +did not save the Established Church of Ireland, secured by the Treaty in +emphatic terms; and the Union must not be wrested to work gross injustice. +The anomaly can be only removed by a large scheme for the redistribution +of seats, founded on sound constitutional principles; and should this +become law, as I confidently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> hope will be one of the achievements of the +existing Parliament, the Union will acquire a new security, for the +Nationalist vote in the House of Commons would be greatly reduced, and the +Irish Unionist vote would be greatly increased. A very few figures will +prove this: the rural populations of the Unionist counties of Antrim and +Down are upwards of four hundred and thirty thousand souls; the rural +populations of the Home Rule counties of Kildare, Kilkenny, King’s, +Longford, Wicklow, and Louth have a population less than three hundred and +ninety-eight thousand;<a name='fna_35' id='fna_35' href='#f_35'><small>[35]</small></a> yet Antrim and Down have only eight members, +the other six counties have no less than twelve. The same disparity runs +through all the Irish counties; in the boroughs of Ireland it is even more +visible. Protestant and Unionist Ireland, in a word, has probably fifteen +or sixteen members too few; Catholic and anti-Unionist Ireland fifteen or +sixteen too many; it is high time this plain wrong should be redressed; it +is unnecessary to point out how this would strengthen the Union. And what +probably is not less important, it would make the representation of +Ireland, not, what it is now, an utterly false index of Irish opinion, but +a reasonably fair and trustworthy index; were the Irish representation cut +down to eighty members, the Nationalists would probably command not more +than fifty seats; the Unionists would command about thirty; and this, +taking all things into account, would be a proportion approaching what is +just. The ‘doing’ of right, in this matter, has been too long deferred; +loyal Ireland feels strongly upon the subject; the reform would be +altogether in the interest of the State.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND—SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND TO THE YEAR 1870</span></p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang">Great importance in the history of Ireland of the conditions of land +tenure—The ancient Celtic land system and its characteristics—The +Norman conquest of Ireland—Norman feudalism in the Irish land—The +policy of Henry VII., and especially of Henry VIII.—The era of the +conquest and confiscation of the Irish land—The possessions of the +O’Connors of Offaly wrested from them—Forfeiture of the domains of +Shane O’Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond—Attempts at +colonisation—All Ireland made shire land—The extinction of the old +Celtic land system—The Plantation of Ulster—Progress of confiscation +during the reigns of the two first Stuarts—The Civil War—Immense +confiscations made by Cromwell—His scheme of colonisation a +failure—The era of confiscation closes after the battle of the Boyne +and the fall of Limerick—The Penal Code of Ireland—Its fatal effects +on the Irish land—Dismal period in Irish landed relations—Gradual +improvement—The period described by Arthur Young—Evil traces of the +past remain—Whiteboyism and agrarian disorder—State of Irish landed +relations up to the rebellion of 1798, and after the +Union—Over-population and the results—Distress after the +Peace—State of Irish landed relations up to 1844—The Report of the +Devon Commission—The Famine and its effects on the Irish land—The +Encumbered Estates Acts—State of Irish landed relations from 1848 to +1868.</p></div> + + +<p>The fortunes of many communities, it has truly been said, have been +decisively affected by the conditions of the ownership and the occupation +of the soil. The social, even the political, life of modern Europe has +been, in a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> measure, moulded by the land tenures that have grown out +of the feudal system; I need only refer to the history of England, of +France, and of Germany. This remark, however, especially applies to the +events that make up the annals of Ireland; that long and unhappy tale of +misfortunes and errors is intimately associated, all through, with the +land, and with the relations connected with it. Modern research has shown +how grotesque and mischievous was the ignorance of the Tudor lawyers and +statesmen, who described the ancient organisation of the Irish land as a +medley of barbarian and pernicious usages; it was an archaic and imperfect +specimen of the feudal system, with differences indeed, but marked with +its essential features. Norman feudalism, lawless and ill-ordered, was for +centuries, after the first Conquest, placed beside this primitive form of +society, in parts of a country not half subdued; the results were seen in +incessant strife and discord, and in social anarchy, which prevented +civilisation growing up. The Irishry had well-nigh driven the Englishry +into the sea, when Henry VII. tried to make his authority felt in Ireland; +his successor, partly a Celt in blood, and a real statesman, devised a +noble scheme for bringing an ill-governed dependency within the domain of +order and law, by planting an Anglo-Norman and native aristocracy in the +soil, subject to a strong monarchy that would have protected the community +as a whole. Most unfortunately the policy of Henry VIII. was not carried +out; in the great conflict of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, +Ireland was drawn into a long struggle with England, and was repeatedly +made a place of arms for her foes; an era of savage conquest, accomplished +piecemeal, with ruthless confiscation following in its train, was +protracted during nearly a century and a half; and at the close of the +reign of William III., nine-tenths probably of the land of Ireland had +been wrested from its former possessors, and the old Celtic land system +had been destroyed by the sword and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> by law. Race and religion made this +position of affairs much worse; the age of Protestant ascendency in +Ireland began; in infinitely the greatest part of the island the land was +parcelled out among a caste of owners distinct in blood and faith from the +children of the soil, and lording it over an oppressed peasantry; and the +system was propped up by a code of cruel laws, which maintained and, so to +speak, stereotyped these evil divisions. The lines of the land system of +Ireland were thus finally laid down; a variety of economic and social +causes increased and deepened their extreme harshness; and though they +have gradually been softened, and are now all but effaced, their traces +and the results are still to be seen. The last thirty years have witnessed +repeated attempts to effect radical changes in the modes of the ownership +and the occupation of the land in Ireland; they have wrought a revolution +in Irish landed relations, and have well-nigh turned them upside down; but +the consequences have assuredly not been fortunate. The land system of +Ireland has been made a chaos of economic disorder, of dissensions of +class, of legalised wrong, absolutely incompatible with social progress +and the general welfare.</p> + +<p>I must glance, for an instant, at the distinctive features of the land +system of Ireland in the Celtic age, for despite the effects of +confiscation and conquest, faint traces of it may still be seen, and have +a kind of influence.<a name='fna_36' id='fna_36' href='#f_36'><small>[36]</small></a> As was the case in all communities of the Aryan +stem, the land originally was largely held in collective ownership; but +agriculture developed individual ownership by degrees, though less so in +Ireland than in more progressive countries. The people were settled on the +soil in tribes, clans, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> septs, these being the larger and the smaller +units; the modes of the tenure of the land, misinterpreted by Elizabethan +sages, differed widely from each other, but revealed the traditions of old +patriarchal usage and power, especially in their canons of descent and +succession. The feudalisation of the land, as it has been significantly +called, a process which took place in nearly the whole of Europe, was also +witnessed in Ireland, to a certain extent; but this was not so complete +and strongly marked as in France and England. The land, nevertheless, was, +throughout the island, held ultimately from a supreme monarch; it was +divided, under him, among families of princely chiefs, who ruled vast +tracts with scarcely controlled authority; inferior chiefs were subject to +these; the organisation of the land had much in common with the +organisation of the Anglo-Norman manor, and with the position of the Lord +Paramount of every manor, the head of the English State. The Irish kings +and chiefs had lands in demesne; they had a landed and a personal +<i>noblesse</i>; the territories they ruled were held by classes strongly +resembling the free tenants, the villeins, and the serfs of the feudal +system. All this, however, was not as perfectly defined as it was in lands +feudalised to a higher degree; and though the Davieses and Spensers were +wholly in error in representing the dependents of the Irish kings and +chiefs as little better than a horde of fighting men and slaves, Ireland +never fully possessed the liberties feudalism secured. The Ceile of +substance, who had lands of his own, seems to have been in an inferior +position to the English freeholder; the Saer stock and Daer stock tenants +held their lands by a tenure like that of the metayers of France; the +Fuidhirs were kept in complete subjection, and had not even the rights of +the villein. The land, too, was still largely held in collective +ownership; in its occupation this is even now seen in backward and poor +districts; and, curiously enough, distinctions were drawn between what was +a ‘fair’ and a ‘rack rent,’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> words still common in the mouth of the Irish +peasant, and to which recent legislation has given its sanction.</p> + +<p>As in the case of most lands where anything resembling feudalism +prevailed, with the single exception of England, under her strong +Monarchy, Ireland in these circumstances was torn by continual discord, +increased by the recurring struggles with the Dane. The Celtic kings and +chiefs, nevertheless, were beloved by their people; the land system fell +in with Celtic tribal ideas and sentiments. I pass over the incidents of +the first Norman Conquest; in the course of time, an Anglo-Norman colony +was established, within a Pale ever-varying in extent, and held parts of +the country under feudal conditions, the remaining, and by far the +greatest, parts being left in the possession of the Celtic kings and +princes. Anglo-Norman feudalism, however, was completely different, in +Ireland, from what it was in England; it was not subject to vigorous +kingly rule; it was confined within comparatively small limits. In these +circumstances the Pale fell into the hands of a few leading and great +families; these, as had been largely the case in Scotland, formed a +domineering and oppressive <i>noblesse</i>, continually engaged in quarrels +between themselves, and in petty wars with the Celtic chiefs, and +completely superior to the royal power in England. The Geraldines, the +Butlers, the De Burghs, and other great houses, had no law but their own +wills in their vast lordships; their exactions and tyranny became a +byword; their lives were spent in savage feudal strife, and in ‘hostings +against the Irish enemy.’ Strange to say, too, these scions of a mighty +conquering race fell under the spell of the Celtic genius, and, as it was +said, ‘became more Irish than the Irish themselves; they were at least +largely assimilated to a Celtic model, and they adopted many of the usages +of the Celt. It was not much otherwise in the Celtic region outside the +Pale; the Irish chiefs often blended in marriage with the Anglo-Norman +settlers;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> but they were continually at war with them, and with each +other. Under these conditions, feudalism, in its best aspects, could take +no root, in the land, in Ireland; and there is much reason to believe that +the archaic Irish land system was gradually changed and almost broken up, +the power of the kings and chiefs being greatly increased, and the +position of their dependents being made essentially worse. It is obvious +that in a land, a scene of such disorder and misrule, civilisation and all +that the word implies could not exist; Ireland was probably more barbarous +at the close of the fifteenth century than she had been when she first saw +Henry of Anjou. The Pale had been restricted within ever-narrowing bounds; +generations of colonising ‘Englishry’ had entered the country, and had +left it in angry despair; the ‘Irishry’ had encroached on their +conqueror’s domain; the work of Strongbow and Fitzstephen appeared to be +undone. Especially it was observed that nothing like a middle class, even +then the best element in the social life of England, had been able to +develop itself in Ireland, and that the humbler classes were always in a +state of wretchedness, ground down by exaction, and exposed to incessant +wrongs of all kinds. ‘What common folk of all the world’—these were the +words of a State paper of the age—‘is so poor, so feeble, so evil be seen +in town and field, so greatly oppressed and trodden underfoot, fares so +evil, with so great misery, and with so wretched a life, as the common +folk of Ireland?’</p> + +<p>Henry VII. strengthened the authority of the Crown in Ireland; the +Viceroyalty of Poynings marks an epoch in her chequered annals; but the +conduct of the king was shifting and weak; the land fell under the control +of the great House of Kildare; the Irishry were driven back, but in no +sense subdued. Surrey, the victor of Flodden, intreated Henry VIII. to +make the country his own by sheer force of arms; but his master refused in +striking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> language; and proposed a scheme for bringing Ireland under the +control of the Monarchy, for encouraging civilisation and promoting order, +the wisest that has ever suggested itself to a British statesman. He made +several of ‘the degenerate’ Norman <i>noblesse</i> peers; he extended the same +dignity to several Irish chiefs; he assembled representatives of Ireland +in a Parliament composed of both races; he appointed commissioners to go +through the country and to punish crime; above all—and this deserves +special notice—he tried to conciliate the Celtic community by bringing +their usages within the cognisance of the law, and giving them effectual +legal sanction; and he condemned the attempts being already made to force +laws on them peculiar to England. Had this enlightened policy been +steadily pursued, the history of Ireland would have run a wholly different +course; but destiny, that has played so sinister a part in Irish affairs, +interfered to thwart the admirable designs of the king. The great +Geraldine rebellion broke out, supported by irregular Celtic risings; from +this time forward, during five generations of man, the era of cruel but +intermittent conquest, accompanied by wholesale confiscation, set in. The +powerful tribe of the O’Connors of Offaly, closely associated with the +fallen House of Kildare, was the first to feel the weight of the arm of +England; its territories were forcibly overrun and annexed, given the name +of the King’s and the Queen’s Counties, and peopled with a colony of +settlers from England. Celtic Ireland ere long was brought into the +conflict between Elizabeth and Philip II., the representatives of the +faiths that were dividing Christendom; the princely chief, Shane O’Neill, +fell a victim to the English conquerors, though their quarrel with him was +not wholly one of seeking the assistance of a foreign enemy; his vast +domains were, also, in part forfeited, in part handed over to a puppet of +English power. The frightful Desmond rebellion followed; it was directly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +encouraged by the Pope and by Spain; after a protracted struggle +approaching a real civil war, the immense lordships of the great Geraldine +House were confiscated, and granted to a colony of English blood. Tyrone, +the real successor of his kinsman, Shane O’Neill, a soldier and statesman +of no ordinary parts, seeing, as he bitterly said, that his ‘lands were +marked down by the spoiler,’ endeavoured, not without partial success, to +combine a great Irish League against England; he entered into an alliance +with Spain; a Spanish army landed on the southern coast of Munster; after +a long and sanguinary contest, Tyrone yielded, but his resistance had been +so formidable that he was allowed to retain his possessions.</p> + +<p>The subjugation of a large part of Ireland, in the Elizabethan wars, was +marked by incidents of a most atrocious character. The Government had no +regular army to act in the field; it was compelled largely to rely on +armed levies of the Englishry, and on bodies of the Irishry attached to +the conqueror’s standards; for in this, as in nearly all instances +throughout their history, the Irish Celts were at feud with each other; +Celtic Ireland was a house divided against itself. The queen, it has been +written, ‘ruled over blood and ashes,’ when Mountjoy sheathed his +victorious sword; the memory of this period still lives in Irish +tradition. A season of exhaustion and repose ensued after James I. had +ascended the throne; but the time, in the phrase of Tacitus, had an evil +aspect in peace itself. The Pale had long before this been effaced; +conquest and confiscation had spread over nearly the whole island; the +domination of England was felt almost everywhere. As the result, the whole +of Ireland was made shire land; the old Celtic land system, which still +widely prevailed, was swept away by decisions of the Anglican Courts of +Justice; it was declared to be ‘a lewd and not law-worthy thing;’ all the +Irish land was subjected to English modes of tenure; they were imposed on +a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> people which detested these gifts of the stranger; innumerable tribal +rights were destroyed. Ere long the work of confiscation began again; the +domains of Tyrone and of his kinsman O’Donnell were pronounced forfeited +for reasons that have never been ascertained; the Crown was placed in +possession of nearly six counties of Ulster. Up to this time the +settlements of English colonists, which had been made in Ireland by Tudor +conquest, had failed; the colonists had been almost lost in the midst of +the Irishry, who hemmed them around. This immense confiscation was, +however, in part successful; it was carried out on comparatively +enlightened principles; it has produced the famous Plantation of Ulster; +and this, with other settlements in the counties of Antrim and Down, has +established, in a large part of the northern province of Ireland, a hardy +and thriving community, in the main, of Scottish blood. Confiscation, +nevertheless, did not stop here; ‘the ravages of war,’ in Burke’s +language, were ‘carried on amidst seeming peace;’ enormous tracts were +torn from their former owners on pretexts usually of the flimsiest kind, +and were flung to Court favourites, to jobbing speculators, to greedy +adventurers of the baser sort. By this time three-fourths probably of the +soil of Ireland had passed into the hands of a new race of possessors; the +descendants of Anglo-Norman nobles and of the Celtic princes had been +sufferers well-nigh in the same proportion. At last Strafford marked out +the whole province of Connaught, for what has been called ‘his majestic +rapine;’ this and other innumerable acts of spoliation and wrong +unquestionably were the paramount cause of the great Celtic rising of +1641. Another and soon to be a most potent element of evils and troubles +had already begun to make its sinister presence felt in Ireland. In the +great religious schism of the sixteenth century, England had become +Protestant, Ireland had remained Catholic, and each had taken opposite +sides in the conflict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> that followed; though the Elizabethan wars were +rather struggles of race than of faith. But as conquest and confiscation +progressed in Ireland, the Anglican Church, a scion of the Norman Church +of the Pale, was erected on the ruins of its Celtic Catholic rival; the +land more and more became possessed by settlers alien in creed from the +old owners, and from the vanquished children of the soil; and harsh laws +had begun to deepen the distinctions between them. Nevertheless, though +its signs had in some measure appeared, the era of Protestant ascendency +and Catholic subjection had not been developed in Ireland, as yet, in its +worst aspects.</p> + +<p>The wild Celtic rising of 1641 was followed by a rising of the old +Englishry of the Pale—the descendants of the first Anglo-Norman settlers; +both movements were probably encouraged from France; though widely +different, they ran into each other. The great Civil War was now running +its course in England; Ireland, for the most part, took the side of the +king; the majority of Englishmen were certainly on the side of the +Parliament. I cannot retrace the scenes of the contest in Ireland; after a +fierce and protracted struggle, in which an envoy of the Pope became the +representative of an ill-united Irish League; in which Preston and Ormond +led the forces of the Pale, and Owen Roe O’Neill was at the head of the +Irish Celts,—the whole island was subjugated by the sword of Cromwell, as +it never had been subjugated before. Drogheda and Wexford are names of woe +in the annals of Ireland; but the conquest of the Protector, ruthless as +it was, was not so cruel as that of the Elizabethan soldiers; if deeply +stained with blood, it was rapid and completely decisive. The colony in +Ulster had begun to flourish; Cromwell designed a scheme for the +colonisation of the vanquished country more thorough and extensive than +any which had been designed before. Three-fourths of Ireland had been in +arms against the Parliament; that assembly had made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> grants by +anticipation of Irish forfeited lands to ‘adventurers’ who had advanced it +moneys; an opportunity for immense confiscations had arisen; the Protector +was not slow to take advantage of it; his Puritan fanaticism, his hatred +of the Irish people, especially of its ‘idolatrous Papists,’ his strong +English and religious sympathies, united to confirm him in his purpose. +The forfeited lands in four of the Irish counties were appropriated to the +Commonwealth and its uses; those in eighteen were to be granted to the +‘adventurers’ and the soldiery of the late conquest; those in seven were +to be allotted to the army in England. The grants were to be either free, +or to be purchased at nominal prices; the owners, who had lost their +lands, were to be deported to Connaught—‘Hell’ was the alternative, the +tradition runs—and ‘Courts of Claims,’ as they were called, were to be +set up, to adjudicate on the conduct of those who were to be +dispossessed—they were to be subjected to a test which scarcely one could +satisfy—and practically to measure confiscation out under the pretence of +law. By these means Cromwell calculated that some forty thousand +colonists, of English blood and of the Puritan faith, would be poured into +the millions of acres which the sword had placed in the hands of his +Government; these would form a prosperous settlement loyal to England; +would keep rebellion in Ireland for ever down; and would regenerate a land +taken from a race akin to the Amalekites of old. As a foretaste of the new +and glorious order of things, Sir William Petty, a very able man, +remarkably skilful in feathering his own nest, made a cadastral survey of +Ireland, which still remains.</p> + +<p>Cromwell’s scheme of confiscation was thoroughly carried out, spite of +much angry wrangling between the Puritan warriors. The remains of the +defeated Irish armies went, in thousands, into exile in foreign lands; +they were the heralds of the renowned soldiery who, for a century and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> a +half, were deadly, but honourable foes of the British name. The rule of +the Protector in Ireland was stern but enforced peace; Ireland was +prostrate in the exhaustion of despair; there is much proof that, under +the Cromwellian settlement, the country made a kind of material progress. +But Cromwell’s great scheme of colonisation failed, as such schemes had +failed in many instances before; a large majority of the ‘adventurers’ and +the soldiers sold their possessions, usually for a mere nothing: many +‘degenerated’ like the old Norman families, and, won over by the spells +‘of the daughters of Heth,’ had, in one or two generations, become ‘mere +Irish.’ The ultimate result of the Cromwellian conquest was to establish +in Ireland three or four thousand owners of the soil, of English blood and +Puritan leanings, without the support of inferior dependents, in the midst +of a vanquished population hostile in race and faith; the sentiments thus +engendered have never died out; to this day ‘a Cromwellian landlord’ is a +name of reproach in Catholic Ireland. At the Restoration hope for a moment +revived in the hearts of the ruined owners, who had been dispossessed by +Cromwell, and of whom hundreds had fought for the Crown; but this was +dashed by the perfidy of Charles II. and his courtiers; the Cromwellian +forfeitures were, in the main, confirmed; large tracts were given back to +favourites of the Stuarts, but thousands of beggared families lost their +estates for ever through a policy of cruel baseness and wrong. Ireland +remained quiescent for nearly thirty years; she even prospered under the +wise rule of Ormond—one of the noblest figures in her unhappy history; +but the bitter memories of the past lived in the conquered people, though, +as has repeatedly been seen in a Celtic race, they were treasured in +silence, and caused little apparent trouble. James II. ascended the throne +in 1685; he had a great opportunity to mitigate many of the wrongs of +Ireland; he might have removed some of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> evils of the Cromwellian +conquest, and have effected changes in the settlement of the land, which, +at least, would have done partial justice. But the unfortunate king was a +bigot, and, in no sense, a statesman; like his father he tried the +desperate policy of making use of Ireland in his designs against English +liberties; he sent Tyrconnell to Dublin, and, in a few months, revolution +had broken out through the country; English and Protestant Ireland was +well-nigh trampled underfoot; Catholic and Celtic Ireland rose up in a +wild hope of revenge. I cannot even glance at the stirring events that +followed; the descendants of ruined barons of the Pale and of Celtic +princes driven from their lands and their homes, joined in a great effort +to raise a large armed force; the rising almost assumed a national aspect; +but after the Boyne and the fall of Limerick, it was finally quelled by +William III. The process of confiscation was once more renewed; thousands +of acres were taken forcibly from those who had resisted in the field, and +were handed over to a new race of colonists belonging to the blood and the +creed of the victors; and the shameful violation of a solemn Treaty made +all that was cruel in spoliation worse.</p> + +<p>The era of conquest in Ireland and of confiscation by force—an agony +prolonged for a century and a half—was brought to an end in the reign of +William III. This is not the place to examine the question on which side, +as between England and Ireland, the balance of the wrongs that were done +inclines; but if much that is cruel and shameful is to be laid to the +charge of England, Ireland, it cannot be forgotten, crossed her path +repeatedly in an age of grave national perils and troubles, and, moreover, +wrecked her own cause by her wretched dissensions. The Irish land had now +nearly all fallen into the hands of a caste of owners, of English and +Scottish descent, and in faith Protestant, divided from a people of +Catholic occupiers for the most part of the Irish race;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> wide lines of +demarcation had been drawn between them; and there was no middle class to +bridge over the gulf. In a part of Ulster alone where the proprietors and +the holders of the soil were largely of the same religion and blood, was +there the promise of a more auspicious order of things; even here causes +of disunion were not wanting. Nor were these the only vices and dangers of +a land system which has scarcely had a parallel. Enormous tracts had been +bestowed on owners who never saw their estates; absenteeism existed to an +immense extent; their lands, too, had, in thousands of instances, been +underlet to a class of intermediate owners, who were to form a body of +most oppressive landlords. In addition, the representatives of numbers of +ruined families still vegetated on the domains which had been their own; +the few families which had escaped from the spoilers, were held in +reverence by the peasantry around; elements of disorder and trouble +continued to fester. The destruction, too, of the old Celtic modes of land +tenure, and the substitution of the English system, had unjustly +annihilated tribal rights wholesale; the free, and other dependents of the +Irish chiefs, had sunk into the position of mere tenants at will, that is, +at the mercy of foreign and often unknown masters. One of the worst, if +not the most apparent evil, of the gigantic confiscations which had taken +place, and on which the land system had, so to speak, been founded, was +that the respect which attaches to the ancient ownership of land, and +which forms, perhaps, its surest support, could hardly exist in any part +of Ireland; the disastrous consequences may be traced to the present hour. +Landlords, with titles of yesterday, won by the sword, could not feel the +interest in their estates and in the inhabitants on them, naturally felt +by owners of gentle and ancient descent; the land which, as has been said, +had been flung like a fox to ravening hounds, could not attract to it +happy and peaceful memories; the very Government had learned to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> think it +could deal with the land as it pleased, and treated the rights gained by +confiscation with contempt. Prescription, the strongest cement of +property, had no place in this ill-compacted land system.<a name='fna_37' id='fna_37' href='#f_37'><small>[37]</small></a></p> + +<p>The era of Protestant ascendency bringing Catholic subjection with it, had +now set in for many years in Ireland; its evils were aggravated by harsh +divisions of race, and by more than a century of bitter memories; its +effects were more conspicuous in the land than in other social relations. +This unnatural and calamitous position of affairs might, however, have +been replaced ere long by a better order of things, had it not been +artificially maintained and made enduring by legislation unexampled for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +its far-reaching cruelty. I cannot attempt to describe the Penal Code of +Ireland; in the emphatic words of Burke, ‘it was a complete system, full +of coherence and consistency; well digested and well composed in all its +parts; it was a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance; and as well +fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, +and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from +the perverted ingenuity of man.’<a name='fna_38' id='fna_38' href='#f_38'><small>[38]</small></a> The objects of these execrable laws +were threefold: to exclude the Irish Catholic whether of Anglo-Irish or +Celtic descent—misfortune had well-nigh effaced the distinction—from +every office of trust in the State, from every profession, almost from +every walk of life; to persecute and proscribe the Catholic Church of +Ireland, and to place its priesthood under a humiliating ban, and finally +to ruin and degrade the few remaining Catholic owners of the soil; to +prevent the Irish Catholic from acquiring any real interest in it; and, +above all, to keep the Catholic peasantry in a condition of thraldom.<a name='fna_39' id='fna_39' href='#f_39'><small>[39]</small></a> +The Code was only too successful in compassing its ends; I pass from its +operation as regards the two first, to point out how it sought to attain +the third, and how its provisions affected the Irish land and the manifold +relations connected with it. The estate of the Irish Catholic owner was +not to follow the ordinary courses of descent; it was ‘to gavel,’ and to +be divided among many persons; this was for the avowed purpose of making +‘the landed property of Papists crumble away, and disappear.’ The Irish +Catholic owner was subjected to cruel enactments that literally set his +household against him; his wife and children were bribed to become his +foes; law sate at his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> hearth to make his existence wretched. The Irish +Catholic, too, was forbidden to acquire land by purchase or even to +possess an incumbrance on it; as far as possible the ownership of land was +strictly confined to the Protestant caste. But the wrong that, in its +consequences at least, was perhaps the worst, was that the Catholic +occupier of the Irish soil could not obtain anything like an advantageous +tenure; he could not have a lease for a period beyond thirty-one years, +and this, too, at an excessive rent; and, in the great mass of instances, +he was a serf holding merely at will.</p> + +<p>The forty years that succeeded the death of William III. are certainly the +most mournful period in Irish history. The memories of conquest and +confiscation were still fresh; the Penal Code kept Catholic Ireland in its +chains; society was fashioned on the type of the domination of a class, +separated from a whole community in race and faith. Nothing was left +undone to perpetuate this evil order of things; the Irish Parliament was a +mere oligarchy of the sons of the colonists of Elizabeth, Cromwell, and +William, apart from a few leading men in Ulster; its legislation for the +vanquished race was barbarous; Lords-Lieutenant spoke of the Irish +Catholics as of ‘the common enemy;’ a ‘Papist was presumed not to exist’ +in the Irish Courts of Justice. Meanwhile the penal laws were relentlessly +carried out for years; the Irish Catholic was placed under a universal +ban; the Catholic Church of Ireland lay, as it were, in the valley of the +shadow of death. But the direst consequences appeared in the land, and in +the social life of the landed classes; these were most calamitous and have +still left their traces. Many of the few Catholic owners abandoned their +estates, and carried their swords into foreign lands, where some rose to +well-deserved eminence; a small number conformed to the dominant faith in +order to exist in comparative peace at home; the majority clung to their +lands and bowed their heads to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> oppression. The Protestant lords of the +soil were what their antecedents and the law had made them; they were long +a harsh and exacting order of men, filled with bigotry and the pride of a +conquering race; they regarded the inferiors they ruled as pariahs and +helots. But, as usually happens, when society is in an unnatural state, +they did not prosper amidst the ruins around them; their lands were kept +on a kind of pernicious mortmain, as they could not mortgage or sell them +freely; absenteeism with all its mischiefs greatly increased; and +middleman tenures largely multiplied, subjecting the peasantry to a +detestable breed of landlords, Protestants and of English descent, like +their superiors, but much worse tyrants. As for the mass of the Catholic +occupiers of the soil, they were kept down in the lowest state of serfdom; +but multitudes found their way into foreign armies; ‘the wild geese,’ as +they were pathetically called, flew to Austria and, above all, to France, +where, in the ranks of the celebrated Irish Brigade—‘ever and everywhere’ +true to the Bourbon lilies—they won renown at Dettingen, Fontenoy, and +other fields of fame. The aspect of Ireland bore too faithful witness to +the misery engendered in this evil order of things. The country was still +covered with the wrecks of the late wars; the habitations, even of the +Protestant gentry, were squalid and mean; the towns were, in many +instances, sinking into decay; the peasantry were huddled together into +villages of huts; the traveller roamed through vast wastes of unfenced +pasturage, evidences of a land almost left in a state of nature. Hideous +famines were of repeated occurrence; one, that of 1739-41, swept the +population away in tens of thousands; the Irish Parliament +characteristically did nothing to help the sufferers; it met the emergency +by strengthening the means to enforce the payment of rent. The miserable +condition of Ireland was made worse by the legislation of the British +Parliament, which treated the country as a conquered colony; and, true to +the principles of the mercantile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> system, impeded or prevented the growth +of several Irish industries. This was, of course, most injurious to the +Protestant settlers; but these were held down by the ruling power; as was +finely said, ‘they knelt to England on the necks of their countrymen.’ The +state of things in the colonised parts of Ulster was somewhat better; but +the Scottish and Presbyterian population of this corner of Ireland had not +a few causes of serious complaint.<a name='fna_40' id='fna_40' href='#f_40'><small>[40]</small></a></p> + +<p>In the next generation a great but gradual change passed over the state of +the Irish community. The Penal Code was not in letter relaxed; but the +evil spirit which had conceived it lost much of its force. The men who had +fought at the Boyne and at Aghrim had passed away; the human conscience, +moved by the influences of the eighteenth century, revolted from the +barbarous legislation of a half-fanatical age. The Irish Catholics slowly +began to make themselves felt in the State; many amassed large fortunes in +foreign commerce; shut out as they still were by law from almost every +profession and office, they made their way into the medical calling, and +especially at the Bar, where their disabilities were evaded or ignored. +The Catholic Church was no longer proscribed; its worship, indeed, was +still carried on under degrading conditions; but its priesthood were +permitted to perform their sacred functions in peace; its dignitaries were +even countenanced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> by the men in power at the Castle. This great social +change was conspicuously seen in the land; landed relations were markedly +improved, and partly transformed. The Catholic owners were permitted to +hold their estates free from the cruel vexations of the past; they began +to live on terms of friendship with the Protestant caste; legal fictions +annulled the laws which had made their lives wretched; their lands were, +in many instances, held by the Protestant gentry on secret trusts; and +these, though contrary to law, were, as a rule, most honourably fulfilled. +The principal, however, and most decisive change appeared in the position +and the sentiments of the Protestant lords of the soil. As time rolled on, +and threw its kindly growths over the settlement of confiscation and the +sword, these men began to feel that Ireland was their country and home; +they became, to a certain extent, Irishmen; they felt sympathy, by +degrees, with the conquered serfs in their midst. This feeling was +strengthened by the tyrannous selfishness of the British Parliament, which +treated Ireland as if she were its footstool, and of the official class, +nearly all Englishmen, who lorded it over the land they despised; an +‘Irish interest’ grew up in the Parliament at College Green, composed very +largely of the Protestant landlords; this became patriotic, in a certain +sense, and a protector of the scanty rights of Ireland. As social order, +too, was seldom disturbed, the wealth of the country had considerably +increased; the gentry acquired a greater interest in their estates, and +became more and more attached to them; absenteeism, as the result, +perceptibly lessened; and middleman tenures, though still prevalent, +diminished remarkably in the more progressive counties. The deep lines of +demarcation which kept apart the owners and the occupiers of the soil were +thus to a certain extent bridged over; the Irish landlord, especially if +resident, became a kindlier superior than his fathers had been; the Irish +peasant became less a stranger to him.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>The evidences of this better order of things became manifest on the face +of the country. Agriculture, though still backward, made real progress; +the breeds of farming animals greatly improved; the huge breadths of +pasturage had a less deserted aspect. The country towns had generally +advanced; the land had been opened by good roads; the means of locomotion +had been largely multiplied. The rental of Ireland had doubled within +living memory; in some counties, indeed, it was nearly as high as it is +now; the land was at a price of more years’ purchase than it is at the +close of the nineteenth century. It was at this period that the great +country houses of Ireland were built, and their vast demesnes laid out; +the wages of labour were low, but had distinctly risen; the peasant hind, +Arthur Young tells us, in point of food and clothing, was as well off as +his fellow in England. The land was largely parcelled out into +considerable farms; but small holdings were on the increase; and the +cottar system, in the course of time to become a source of manifold evils, +was not yet a cause of much mischief; the pressure of population on the +soil was not severely felt. Many of the great landlords, too, were +excellent men; they ruled the country well, and greatly improved their +estates; in numberless instances they had won the hearts of dependents, +who regarded them as kind masters. Yet the picture was not without a dark +side; this land system still had evil, nay, repulsive, features. Except in +the best part of Ulster the deep divisions of race and faith continued to +be profoundly marked; the Penal Code had made these, to a great extent, +indelible. There was still much oppression and exaction in landed +relations; the class of small landlords and the class of middlemen were +too generally tyrannical and harsh; complaints of over-renting were not +infrequent; and if the great landlords, as a rule, were not severe +superiors, many were extravagant, addicted to excess, and reckless +duellists; they bore a strong resemblance to the seigneurie of the old +French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> Monarchy. The peasantry, too, remained serfs, illiterate, +ignorant, and superstitious; the good feelings they often had for their +lords had too much of the submissiveness of the slave; and virtuous as +their women ordinarily were, they too generally yielded to the lusts of +their masters. The habitations, besides, of this population were still +wretched; if their lot had assuredly become better, it was often hard, +above all, degraded. They had begun to feel more acutely the ills they +suffered; in many counties they had banded themselves together into +lawless leagues, to protect themselves and to resist authority. These +associations, known by the general name of Whiteboys—perhaps taken from +the Camisards of the Cevennes—had as their objects the preservation of +rights of commonage, the extinction of tithes, and the reduction of rents; +they may be traced back to the great confiscations of the past; they were +held together by secret leaders and passwords; and they often kept whole +districts in a state of terror. A Draconic Code was directed against them; +though often put down they have risen to life again; Ireland has never +since been completely free from them; their influence still is distinctly +apparent. Associations of somewhat a similar kind, known as Steelboys and +Oakboys, were formed even in the good parts of Ulster; but they were much +less dangerous and were not permanent. It is a characteristic of +Whiteboyism, as it has ever since been called, that it has always had a +political side, and lends itself to revolutionary movements against +government itself.<a name='fna_41' id='fna_41' href='#f_41'><small>[41]</small></a></p> + +<p>Though Protestant ascendency was still supreme at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> this period, the +confiscations of the past had not been forgotten; they were treasured in +the minds of the descendants of the old Catholic families, and of the +population among which they lived. The extinction, too, of the tribal +Irish tenures, had, we have seen, been a cause of grievous wrongs; this +was a tradition, also, handed down from father to son, and was still fresh +in the remembrance of a whole race. The land system, though to outward +seeming secure, nevertheless rested on unstable foundations, as was to +appear in the course of time; another element of disturbance was being +formed, which ultimately was to have immense force. Under the modes of +land tenure, which prevailed in England, since the system of small +holdings had been broken up, the land had generally been laid out in large +farms; partly from this circumstance, and partly owing to custom, the +charge of making permanent improvements of the land had almost everywhere +devolved on the owner of the soil; a tenant, who rented a farm, took it, +so to speak, equipped with the buildings and other things of the kind that +were suitable to it. But in Ireland, partly because small farms were +numerous, and partly because the custom had never grown up—the history of +the past fully accounts for this—the permanent improvements were very +seldom made by the landlord; the tenant, who held land, had to add, as it +were, its plant to it; he had to do much that gave it any real value. As +the inevitable result, the Irish occupier of the soil felt that he had +acquired a concurrent right in it; this, if the improvements were solid +and lasting, might almost amount to a partial joint-ownership, at least +give him, in equity, a real hold on the land. But a right of this kind was +not recognised by the law, founded as this was upon notions of English +tenure; it was liable to be destroyed should the tenant be dispossessed; +and as the tenure of the immense majority of the occupiers of the soil in +Ireland was either at will, or for a short term at a high rent, this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +right, essentially of a quasi-proprietary kind, was made precarious, and +had no legal protection. With the prescience of genius, Burke perceived +the evils that might grow out of this state of things, though, as yet, +these were not much felt; he saw that it discouraged improvement of almost +every kind; especially he saw that the denial of legal sanction to the +rights in the land a tenant might have, and the fact that his tenure was +short and uncertain, might become a source of grave wrong, and of +far-reaching discontent. In a word, he detected an economic vice in the +land system of Ireland which, in the long run, was to do great mischief; +and curiously enough he indicated the remedies that ought to be applied, +and pointed out the true principles of a reform of Irish land tenure. It +would have been well had British statesmen adopted these; his simple, +just, and statesmanlike plan puts to shame the ill-designed and +unsuccessful attempts that have been made to recast the Irish land system +of late years, and the false, reckless, and socialistic theories at +present current on this important subject.<a name='fna_42' id='fna_42' href='#f_42'><small>[42]</small></a></p> + +<p>I must pass over even the main events of the history of Ireland, after +this period, up to the close of the eighteenth century. The ‘Irish +interest,’ mainly composed of the great landed gentry, and turning to +account the American War, compelled the Parliament at Westminster to relax +many of the commercial restraints on Ireland, and to concede her a partial +free trade; under the guidance of the illustrious Grattan it obtained +legislative independence for the Irish Parliament. At the same time the +Penal Code was largely repealed; the Irish Catholic was permitted to +acquire the ownership of the soil; before long he received the electoral +franchise, though he was still excluded from the Irish Houses of Lords and +Commons. In these circumstances, Ireland made real material and social +progress;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> the wealth of the country rapidly increased; the Protestant and +Catholic upper classes began to unite in marriage; a commercial middle +class, if still very weak, grew up. Ireland seemed about to enter a +happier era; yet there were drawbacks to this partial welfare, especially +as regards the land system. Middleman tenures were becoming much less +frequent; absenteeism was markedly on the decline; but partly owing to +their contact with the Parliament in College Green, and to the brilliant +social life it created in Dublin, the landed gentry became more +extravagant than their fathers had been; they began to raise their rents +and to encumber their estates; over-renting became more common than +before; Whiteboy movements and agrarian disorder prevailed in many +districts. Ireland, however, probably would have made a great advance but +for the evil passions which the French Revolution engendered in the frame +of a society still deeply diseased. I cannot dwell on the unhappy years +that followed, leading to the Rebellion of 1798; I must confine myself to +their influence on the Irish land system. The object of Tone and of the +United Irish leaders was to combine Scottish and Presbyterian Ulster, and +the great mass of the Irish Catholics, into a league against British rule +and for ‘Irish freedom;’ unhappily, they were but too successful. They +appealed, not in vain, to thousands of farmers and traders in the Northern +Province, who had long had solid grounds of discontent, and had been +deeply stirred by the Revolution in France; they laid hold on the elements +of disorder and of division of race and faith, abounding in Catholic +Ireland, but largely concealed, and called on the peasantry to overthrow +their Protestant tyrants, and to strike a decisive blow in ‘the cause of +Ireland.’ Evil incentives were recklessly employed to arouse popular +passions; maps of the old confiscated lands were made; and active +emissaries went through the country, reviving dangerous traditions of the +past, and stimulating the worst sentiments of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> hatred, greed, and revenge. +As the result, sedition ran riot in Ulster; in the Southern Provinces +there was a great outburst of Whiteboy crime, and a widespread rising +against the payment of rent; and thousands of the occupiers of the soil +were swept into the United Irish ranks, scarcely conscious of the perils +to which they were exposed. How the movement led to the bloody rebellion +of 1798, and how this was put down after a desperate struggle, it is +unnecessary to consider here; the consequences in Irish landed relations +were most unfortunate. It is untrue that the large majority of the owners +of the Irish soil were guilty of the crimes that have been laid to their +charge; but they bitterly resented the allusions to the confiscations of a +bygone past; they became more estranged from their inferiors than they had +been for years.<a name='fna_43' id='fna_43' href='#f_43'><small>[43]</small></a></p> + +<p>This terrible outbreak shook society in Ireland to its base, revived the +old divisions of race and faith which had been disappearing to a +considerable extent, and left memories behind which have not been +forgotten. Its inevitable result was to lead to the Union, a measure long +in the contemplation of British statesmen, and especially of Pitt, and +perhaps necessary in the most critical circumstances of the time. I cannot +even refer to the events attending this great constitutional change; a +large majority of the leading Irish landlords disliked it at heart; but a +minority, alarmed for their possessions, gave it support; how strong this +feeling was may be seen in a famous speech of Lord Clare, who described +the whole order of men as ‘the heirs of confiscation hemmed in by enemies +brooding on their wrongs.’ The Union greatly weakened the influence of +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> Irish landed gentry, which had been very powerful in the defunct +Parliament; the ‘Irish interest,’ for many years a real force, was almost +subverted; English officials became again supreme at the Castle; a +bureaucracy gradually began to supplant the aristocracy of landlords in +every sphere of government. As respects the land and landed relations, the +class of Catholic owners slowly augmented; but the consequences were +trivial and not marked; middleman tenures continued steadily to disappear; +but absenteeism certainly increased, though absentee estates were usually +better managed than before. Meanwhile causes of grave importance, tending +to momentous social results, were profoundly affecting the whole land +system, and the position of the classes dependent on it. Partly owing to +the corn laws of the Irish Parliament, partly to the extension of the +Parliamentary franchise, in 1793, to the great mass of the Catholic +peasantry, but principally to the effects of the long war with France, +Ireland, it may be said, was well-nigh changed from a pastoral to an +agricultural country; large farms were generally replaced by small; the +land in most districts was divided into little tillage holdings; the +cottar system multiplied apace; the population, about three millions of +souls in the day of Arthur Young, increased to more than six millions at +the Peace of 1815; and this population becoming every year more dense, for +the most part eked existence out on a precarious root. The economic and +social consequences were very great, and continued in operation during a +long series of years. The competition for the possession of land became +intensely keen; rents were unnaturally forced up in thousands of cases; +the value of landed property enormously rose; all this encouraged +extravagance among the landed gentry, and especially induced them largely +to encumber their estates. At the same time the wages of labour distinctly +declined; the condition of the Irish labouring peasant, when Edward +Wakefield, a very industrious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> and able observer, wrote on the state of +Ireland in 1812, was markedly worse than it had been in the time of Arthur +Young. Yet these were not the most serious, at least, the most lasting, +effects of the revolution taking place in landed relations. As the large +farm system was being broken up, as the small farm system had come in its +stead, and as population had rapidly grown, the occupiers of the soil had +more and more made the permanent additions to their holdings; they had +built, fenced, and reclaimed land, more and more; and in the general +eagerness to obtain the possession of land, considerable sums were often +paid for farms on their transfer. The concurrent rights of the tenant +classes in Ireland had thus become enormously increased; they often +amounted, equitably, to a real joint-ownership; yet these rights were +without the support of law, and were liable to be extinguished often at +the mere will of the landlord. In Ulster alone, in its Presbyterian and +Scottish parts, where the landed classes had been less disunited than in +the South, a custom, now of considerable strength, had for a long time +made the tenure of the peasant comparatively secure; yet even this was not +under the ægis of law.<a name='fna_44' id='fna_44' href='#f_44'><small>[44]</small></a></p> + +<p>Made wise, after the event, we now clearly perceive what ought to have +been done for Ireland in this position of affairs. There never had been an +Irish poor law; Protestant property was not to be charged for Catholic +want; but the population was fast increasing; a mass of wretched poverty +was being formed; this should have been supported, and yet checked, by a +poor law. At the same time legislation, as Burke had contended, should +have vindicated the moral rights of the occupier of the soil,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> should have +made what really was his property his own, should have rendered his tenure +profitable and secure. Nothing of the kind, however, came into the minds +of British statesmen, or even, it must be said, of the best Irishmen of +the day—the age was one of Toryism harsh and unfeeling; the abuses of the +poor law in England were great; it was not contemplated to apply it to +Ireland; above all, the equitable claims of the Irish tenant were not +understood or deemed worthy of notice; English tenure, utterly unfitted to +his true position, was good enough for him. The land system, nevertheless, +was not much disturbed while the high prices of the war prevailed; there +was a good deal indeed of disorder connected with the land, but society +was not deeply affected. And it is only just to observe that the +landlords, as a class, did respect the concurrent rights of their tenants +in the soil; the conclusive proof is that these could not have grown up +had they been generally, or even largely, set at nought. But a great and +calamitous change passed over Ireland when the comparative wealth caused +by the war collapsed, and when the return to cash payments made the +effects worse. Rents suddenly fell greatly, and even disappeared; the +wages of labour, which had usually been paid through what may be called a +wretched truck system, were reduced to a remarkable degree; hundreds of +thousands of the cottar peasantry sank to the lowest depths of indigence. +A great social convulsion, in a word, took place; this culminated in +famine in several counties; a miserable population was deprived of the +means of subsistence. In these circumstances the owners of the soil acted +as a class would ordinarily act; many, impoverished themselves, let things +drift; many made themselves conspicuous for good works of charity; a +minority had recourse to severe measures, like the English landlords of +the sixteenth century, to get rid of a mass of poverty clinging in despair +to the land.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> The old divisions of race and faith unquestionably +aggravated this state of things; but the Government of the day showed +little forethought, and, in fact, was infinitely the most to blame; it met +the emergency, not by wise and healing measures, but by legislation, which +made the eviction of the peasant from his holding easy and cheap, and by +having recourse to repression unjust and severe in the extreme. In too +many instances, ‘clearances’ of estates, an evil word, were witnessed; +hundreds of families were driven from their homes and cast on the world; +as the necessary result, in numberless cases, the equitable rights of the +Irish tenant were ruthlessly destroyed. As a matter of course, +Whiteboyism, never completely suppressed, broke out in formidable agrarian +disorder; the peasantry, deprived of the protection of law, leagued +themselves together to enforce a law of their own; crime multiplied to an +immense extent; all the machinery of coercion could not wholly keep it +under.<a name='fna_45' id='fna_45' href='#f_45'><small>[45]</small></a></p> + +<p>I must pass rapidly over the next twenty years, though a very important +period in Irish history. Catholic emancipation was wrung by O’Connell, +from a reluctant Ministry, through violent agitation, which distracted +Ireland for years; the Irish Catholic was admitted into Parliament at +last. This great event was followed by the savage Tithe War, a movement +against the Anglican Church in Ireland stained with detestable deeds of +blood; the representation of Ireland passed largely into O’Connell’s +hands, the head of what was called ‘his Catholic Tail.’ Protestant +ascendency in Ireland received a mortal blow; the influence of the Irish +landed gentry still further declined; that of the bureaucracy at the +Castle increased. From this time forward the Irish landlord began to feel +his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> position really insecure; it is remarkable how few large mansions and +demesnes have ever since been designed or completed by this order of men. +After the disastrous period which came to an end about 1826, the wealth of +Ireland perceptibly grew; a kind of prosperity existed in many parts of +the country. The age, too, had become more liberal and humane; the +middleman was got rid of in not a few districts; the absentee landlords +devoted more attention to their estates than they had ever devoted before. +The process of eviction, moreover, became much less frequent, though too +frequent for social order and peace; a considerable number of Irish +landlords expended large sums in improving their lands; farms were +consolidated, with good results, in many parts of the country. But the +essential features of the land system were not much changed; its economic +conditions became, in important respects, worse. The landed gentry, if +much less extravagant than their fathers had been, were, nevertheless, as +a class, much involved in debt; and, as usually has been seen in cases of +the kind, they became less really prosperous, as their authority declined. +Meanwhile, the population had continued rapidly to increase; by the close +of this period it exceeded eight millions of souls, a total far too great +for the resources of the land. The phenomena, already critical, became +more sinister; rents were again forced up as the wealth of the country +augmented, and reached the highest level they have ever attained; the +wages of labour did not fall, indeed, they could hardly fall lower; but +the cottar population had become more than ever dense; the competition for +the possession of the soil grew fierce; as necessarily followed, the +quasi-proprietary rights of the tenant in his holding had been enlarged, +and yet these were still outside the pale of the law. A Report, made in +1837-38, disclosed the appalling fact that two millions and a half of the +Irish community were for months in every year on the verge of starvation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +and always in a condition of extreme misery. Though Ireland had made, in a +sense, progress, her economic state had thus become dangerous, and very +bad; and a poor law, enacted at last in 1838, was utterly unable to cope +with the evil. Whiteboy crime and disorders continued to abound; in 1844, +an average year, there were more than a thousand instances of offences in +landed relations.</p> + +<p>The year 1843 was that of the great Repeal movement, of which O’Connell +was the master spirit. Peel had been Prime Minister for two years; his +attention had been already turned to the vices and the perils of the Irish +land system. He had been Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1812 to 1818; +but he had been identified with the Tory misrule of that time; and though, +like Chesterfield in another age, he had been too sagacious not to see +that poverty made the social ills of Ireland more acute and worse, he had +been the ablest opponent of the Catholic cause, had supported Protestant +ascendency in many ways; and had not been in any sense an Irish reformer. +A strong Conservative of the great middle class in England, he looked on +Ireland as an almost foreign land, and had scarcely any knowledge of her +real needs; and though his severe administration at the Castle had been +wise and just, he carried out coercion with a steady hand, and is supposed +to have been the author of the code of cheap ejectment, a cause of a great +deal of evil and wrong. But his mind, if slow in moving, was moved at +last; he saw that Ireland largely required the amending hand; the conduct +of O’Connell, no doubt, had quickened his purpose. I cannot dwell on +Peel’s other Irish measures; at the close of 1843 he appointed a +Commission charged to inquire into the state of Irish landed relations; +had he continued long at the head of the State, he would probably have +done much to improve the Irish land system. The Commission had, as +President, the chief of the great House of Courtenay; it was almost wholly +composed of Englishmen, more or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> less associated with land in England; it +was, therefore, ill constituted to deal with what may be called the Irish +Land Question. But it investigated the subject it treated with most +praiseworthy care; entering into every detail of Irish landed relations, +their history in the past, the state of land tenure, the condition of the +different classes seated on the land, the working of the law with respect +to tenant’s improvements, the means of diminishing the wretched millions +squatting on the soil, agrarian crime and all that it involved; the mass +of evidence it collected is still of the greatest value. The Report it +made, if somewhat over-cautious and timid, was very instructive in many +respects; especially it showed how the Irish land system grew out of the +conquests and confiscations of the past, and still bore the marks of its +ill-omened origin, notably in the lines drawn between the owners and the +occupiers of the soil marked by a profound division of race and faith; and +many of the suggestions it made were wise, nay, excellent. But on the +capital subject of land tenure, by many degrees the most important, the +Report only too clearly revealed the ignorance of Englishmen as regards +Ireland, and, above all, as regards her landed relations. The Commission +ought to have fully recognised the concurrent rights in the soil, which +the Irish occupier had acquired in tens of thousands of instances, rights +often equivalent to more or less joint-ownership; it ought to have +insisted that the Tenant Right, as it was now called, of the Ulster +Custom, and the claims arising from improvements, the work of the tenant, +and from sums paid on the transfer of farms, should be made law-worthy, +and effectually secured. With a want of insight which would have made +Burke gnash his teeth, it took exactly an opposite course; it warned the +Irish landlord that these concurrent rights were creating against him ‘an +embryo copyhold,’ and eating away his freehold ownership; it plainly +hinted that he would do well to get rid of them. It even refused to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +acknowledge that the tenant had a claim to any improvements if made in the +past; but it proposed a scheme for compensating him for improvements made +in the future, so limited and fenced round with restrictions, that it was +quite illusory, and indeed deceptive. The Report caused intense +indignation in Ulster, and was not well received in any part of +Ireland.<a name='fna_46' id='fna_46' href='#f_46'><small>[46]</small></a></p> + +<p>Bills, founded on the Report of the Devon Commission, as it was called, +were brought into Parliament, but never became law. Within a few months +Ireland was in the throes of an agony, the most terrible, perhaps, that +has befallen any land in the nineteenth century. In the autumn of 1845, +the potato, which formed the only food of the indigent multitudes fastened +on the land, failed, to a considerable extent, in many districts; in the +following year the crop was all but completely destroyed. Famine, far more +general and appalling than that of twenty-five years before, had soon held +a wretched population in its grasp; the results may almost be compared to +those of the Black Death, and of the famines of the Middle Ages. The land +system went to wreck in whole counties, especially in the west and along +the seaboard; hundreds of the landed gentry were involved in ruin; +thousands of farmers of the better class became bankrupt; the dense cottar +multitudes were literally lifted up from the soil, and cast adrift, the +waifs and strays of a far-reaching tempest. This is not the place to +review the measures adopted to meet the dread visitation; if not free from +errors, inevitable in a situation of the kind, they were, essentially, +and, in the main, successful. Peel was still in office in 1845; well +knowing what poverty in Ireland was, he introduced supplies of food into +the remote and backward districts, which the energies of commerce could +hardly reach; this wise policy saved tens of thousands of lives; as is +notorious,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> he repealed the corn laws in the interest of the afflicted +country. The Government of Lord John Russell had succeeded him in 1846; it +had to confront an emergency infinitely worse; it followed, in many +respects, the example of Peel, who had established ‘relief works’ in many +counties; but it did not assist the most impoverished parts of Ireland +with food through the agency of the State; this possibly was a real +mistake. Nevertheless, it manfully and humanely met the tremendous crisis; +it is easy to censure some of its acts, for instance, the wasteful and +useless public works it set on foot, and the gigantic outdoor relief it +was compelled to lavish; but millions in starvation were thrown on its +hands; and the poor law, only lately in operation, could not cope with +universal distress. On the whole, the statesmen in power did their duty +wisely and well; thousands of unhappy victims succumbed, indeed, to +famine, and to dire diseases following in its train; but Ireland as a +people was saved; assuredly she could not have saved herself. A word, too, +must be said on the magnificent charity which flowed in from many lands +into the community in its woe. England had turned in sympathy towards +Ireland in the season of distress which had followed the Peace; she +bestowed great sums on her, in 1845-46, through private subscription. The +United States, France, Germany, and Italy joined in the good work; even +the Ottoman Empire was not behindhand.</p> + +<p>I must dwell for a moment on the conduct and the position of the classes +connected with the land during this appalling trial. The attitude of the +landed gentry was much the same as it had been at an infinitely less +disastrous crisis; but, on the whole, it was marked by nobler and more +attractive features. The charity of the great landlords of Ireland was +most praiseworthy; many devoted large sums for the support of the poor on +their lands by instituting fine works of enclosure and drainage; some, I +know, even mortgaged their estates for this very purpose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Hundreds of the +lesser gentry, stricken down as they were, imitated their superiors as +well as they could; old divisions were forgotten in the common misfortune; +spite of the interested lies of a calumnious faction, as an order of men +they acted extremely well. One of their bitterest enemies, who wrote at +the time, has placed it on record, ‘that the resident landlords and their +families did, in many cases, devote themselves to the task of saving these +poor people alive. Many remitted their rents or half their rents; and +ladies kept their servants busy and their kitchens smoking with continual +preparation of food for the poor.’<a name='fna_47' id='fna_47' href='#f_47'><small>[47]</small></a> Many, however, of the Irish +landlords, as was to be expected, looked hopelessly on at the misery +around them; this was the case with feeble and incapable men, and the +sight has always been seen in grave social crises; it was but in +conformity with our frail and imperfect nature. A certain number, +moreover, of the class had recourse to severe measures to remove from +their lands the masses of wretchedness crowded upon them; the process of +eviction became too frequent; hundreds of families were in this way +dispossessed of their holdings. These acts of harshness were certainly to +be deplored; but it was almost universally believed that the cottar in +Ireland could not live from the land after the failure of almost his only +means of subsistence; it must be added that, in this very matter, the +conduct of Parliament and the Government was by many degrees more severe. +A strict test of destitution had to be applied; a law was passed that, as +a condition of obtaining relief, no person possessing more than a quarter +of an acre of land should be entitled to support from the State; thousands +of families abandoned their homes, through the effects of this measure; +for one evicted by a landlord, fifty perhaps were practically evicted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> by +this stern policy. The law was possibly required in the terrible +circumstances of the time; but it was condemned by the Lord-Lieutenant, +Lord Bessborough, a great Irish peer, and an able man; at all events, it +justified, to a considerable extent, all that could be laid to the charge +of a few Irish landlords whose acts were most unfairly denounced by many +writers, and were falsely described as common to the great body of the +class. For the rest, as I have said, the land system was broken up in many +districts; and not only the owners but the occupiers of the soil suffered +cruelly from the highest to the lowest grade.</p> + +<p>After the first months of the famine, the immense exodus of the Irish +race, as it has fitly been called, began. The population fled from the +country in hundreds of thousands; some found a home in England and in our +Australian colonies; nine-tenths, probably, in the great Republic of the +West. The sufferings of numbers of the emigrants were terribly severe; +huddled together in the ill-found vessels of the time, hundreds perished +before they beheld the lands they were seeking; that some check was not +placed on the greed of the merchants, who subjected these victims to +horrors like those of the Middle Passage, was certainly the worst mistake +of the Government of the day. During the agony of the famine there was +comparatively little crime; the minds of men were engrossed by a dire +calamity; but in a few months Whiteboyism had been again aroused; there +was a widespread outbreak of agrarian disorder followed by the abortive +rising of 1848. The time was now ripe, in the judgment of even leading +statesmen, for making another of the great experiments on the Irish land, +which had been their policy since the age of the Tudors. Many of the Irish +landed gentry had been ruined; the estates of many were heavily charged +with debt, in part caused by extravagance in the past, but chiefly by +large provisions made for their families in more prosperous times, +especially during the period of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> the high prices of the war.<a name='fna_48' id='fna_48' href='#f_48'><small>[48]</small></a> The +object of the Government—and Peel concurred—was to make a clean sweep of +the embarrassed owners, and to transfer their lands to a new order of men; +‘English and Scottish capital was to be attracted to the Irish soil;’ the +Irish landlord was to be ‘sold out cheap;’ his successor was to be a +person fit ‘to discharge the duties of property;’ the ‘regeneration of +Ireland’ was to be the magnificent result.<a name='fna_49' id='fna_49' href='#f_49'><small>[49]</small></a> The sale of encumbered +estates in Ireland had from various causes been a slow and a costly +process, an Act was run through Parliament with scarcely an expression of +dissent,<a name='fna_50' id='fna_50' href='#f_50'><small>[50]</small></a> making the process as rapid and inexpensive as the wit of man +could devise; a Commission was appointed to carry the law into effect; and +intending purchasers were to be given an indefeasible title to any lands +they might acquire. This was a strong measure, but it was not nearly all; +the concurrent rights of the tenants in the estates to be sold were +absolutely ignored, and left without protection; the new possessors were +empowered to destroy them if they pleased. The results were such as might +have been looked for when lands were forced into the market wholesale, +when Ireland was still reeling from the strokes of a terrible famine, and +agricultural ruin was seen everywhere. The Commission acted as such +tribunals invariably act when skilfully selected to carry out a policy; it +addressed itself to its task of ‘selling land cheap;’ it was egged on by +the Lord-Lieutenant of the day; and it sacrificed estates, in scores of +instances, at less than half their value. This iniquitous proceeding went +on for years, until the market for land in Ireland righted itself at last; +but the Encumbered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> Estates Act was often renewed; about a sixth part of +the lands of Ireland has been transferred by these means. As the result +many of the Irish gentry, who might have tided over the crisis, were +beggared and cast on the world penniless; and confiscation from above had +its counterpart in confiscation from below; the partial joint-ownership of +thousands of the occupiers of the soil was ruthlessly annihilated in +numbers of cases. And what were the consequences of this scheme of +spoliation and wrong, which English politicians would never have thought +of but for their traditional contempt of the rights of property in land in +Ireland? English and Scottish capital, indeed, reached the Irish soil; but +it reached it in the form of large mortgages, a heavy drain on the +country’s resources; the English and Scottish purchasers of the Irish land +were a mere handful of men. The estates, in fact, transferred under the +Encumbered Estates Acts, as a rule, passed into the ownership of jobbers, +speculators, and mortgagees, people without the associations old +possession ensures; they have formed, as a class, harsh and exacting +landlords, the true successors of the almost defunct middleman; they are +responsible for much that is bad in Irish landed relations of late years. +A huge confiscation, in a word, failed, as those of Elizabeth and Cromwell +failed before; the fact ought to be a warning to public men, who have been +parading theories about the Irish land—strewn as this has been with +monuments of misdeeds and errors—as false and more dangerous than those +which produced the Encumbered Estates Acts.<a name='fna_51' id='fna_51' href='#f_51'><small>[51]</small></a></p> + +<p>The exodus had, by 1851, reduced the population of Ireland by nearly two +millions of souls; this decline has continued ever since; the population +which, in 1846, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> considerably more than eight millions, is now, we +have seen, only about four and a half millions. In 1852 an agitation +sprang up, which might have wrought a great change in Irish landed +relations, had it not been brought by mere accident to an untimely end. +The Report of the Devon Commission, I have said, had troubled Ulster; the +Famine had driven peasants, in tens of thousands, from their homes; the +operation of the Encumbered Estates Act was destroying their concurrent +rights in their holdings. At the General Election of 1852 Ireland returned +a large party of representatives to the House of Commons pledged to +vindicate the claims of the tenant farmers; these were expressed in a +demand that has been called the ‘Three F’s,’ ‘Fair Rent,’ ‘Fixity of +Tenure,’ and ‘Free Sale,’ a mode of occupation which had been largely +secured by the Custom of Ulster, and to which O’Connell had given his +sanction. The Government of Lord Derby was now in office; it had brought +in measures which, in some degree, would have legalised the rights of the +Irish tenant; but the Ministry was defeated, partly through an +intrigue;<a name='fna_52' id='fna_52' href='#f_52'><small>[52]</small></a> the cause of the Irish farmer was baffled and kept in +suspense for years, largely owing to dissensions and treachery on the part +of some of the Irish members. By this time the country had begun to +revive, and to throw off the worst effects of the Famine; vast depopulated +tracts had been opened to new husbandry; the land had been set free, over +an immense area, from the incubus of a mass of wretchedness which had +preyed on it, and had completely disorganised the land system, unnaturally +forcing up rent and cutting down wages. Under these conditions the +statesmen in power, already expecting great things from the Encumbered +Estates Act, believed that the Irish land system would right itself, and +that it was unnecessary to consider or to protect the rights of the +tenant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> classes; these would either disappear, or would be fairly adjusted +in the improved landed relations that were being formed. At all events, +there was no legislation to secure these claims; the scanty legislation, +that dealt with the Irish land, was unfavourable, in many ways, to these, +and endeavoured to assimilate Irish to English tenures, as Tudor lawyers +had done three centuries before; and Lord Palmerston, for a long time the +head of the State, discouraged Irish tenant right, in more than one +speech, and declared that it only meant landlord wrong, unwise utterances +that showed he did not understand the subject. At the same time, the +policy of clearing the land for cultivators of a capitalist class, able to +occupy and do justice to large farms, was generally advocated in high +places; more than one Lord-Lieutenant announced that nature had made +Ireland a great grazing tract, and that her petty occupiers were little +better than a social nuisance.<a name='fna_53' id='fna_53' href='#f_53'><small>[53]</small></a></p> + +<p>For some time it seemed as though the forecasts made by the great majority +of our statesmen would prove correct. The immense emigration from Ireland +to the United States had important results, unfortunate in many respects; +but the uplifting of redundant millions from the soil greatly contributed +to the country’s welfare. Holdings were consolidated over very large +areas, a beneficent process, if humanely carried out; a certain number of +Englishmen and Scotsmen rented large farms; the progress of husbandry of +all kinds was distinct; a vast field for agriculture, really worthy of the +name, was opened. A new standard for the management of land was, in fact, +set up; at the same time a few purchasers, under the Encumbered Estates +Acts, laid out considerable sums in improving their estates; the Treasury +made large advances to many Irish landlords; these did much in works of +enclosure, draining, planting, and the like. Ireland<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> began to wear a new +aspect in several counties, especially in the more thriving parts of the +southern provinces; the ruins made by the Famine, indeed, caused hideous +eyesores, in wrecks of villages and the remains of peasant dwellings; but +the mud hovels of the cottar population had largely disappeared, and the +habitations of farmers of the better class very markedly improved. The +economic conditions of landed relations became more conducive to +prosperity than they had ever been before; rents fell considerably during +a series of years, as the intense competition for land diminished; though +they gradually rose in the course of time, they never reached the +excessive rates of 1840-45; and the wages of labour greatly increased, and +attained a level that, happily, has since been preserved. Many +circumstances concurred to quicken and augment this unquestionable social +and material progress. Agricultural prices were high from about 1852 +onward; Free Trade was as yet adding to the wealth of Ireland; and there +was a long succession of good harvests, the most important element in her +general welfare. The railway system, too, introduced of late years, opened +a number of new markets to her products, and greatly facilitated their +access to British markets. At the same time the turnip replaced the potato +over hundreds of thousands of acres; farm machinery greatly improved in +Ireland; the importation of the best stock from England and Scotland had +excellent results, and almost transformed the old breeds of Irish farming +animals. An era of prosperity, in a word, had seemed to dawn on Ireland; +and though agrarian disorder had not disappeared, the Whiteboy secret +societies were greatly broken up, and political agitation well-nigh +ceased.</p> + +<p>In these circumstances, it was a common belief in England that ‘the Irish +difficulty,’ as it was called, was passing away, and that the ‘Hibernia +Pacata’ had at last become a happy reality. Yet the progress and +tranquillity of this brief period were largely superficial and even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +deceptive; fires were still alive beneath the smouldering ashes. The +partial prosperity of Ireland mainly depended on good harvests and high +prices; it was interrupted, even in these years, by two or three seasons +of distress. Notwithstanding the widespread consolidation of farms, and +the removal from the soil of indigent millions, the land still, for the +most part, remained in the possession of a mere peasantry; very few of the +English and Scottish capitalist farmers settled in Ireland, and really +throve; the great majority left the country, like the ‘Englishry’ of a +bygone age. And though things wore a serene aspect, the inherent vices of +the land system continued to exist; in some respects they increased, or +were more painfully felt. The old divisions of race and faith between the +owners and the occupiers of the soil remained; they had but little changed +and even had perhaps widened; much had happened to keep the landed classes +more apart than before. The new purchasers, under the Encumbered Estates +Acts, were, we have seen, often hard-fisted and grasping landlords; they +raised their rents, without scruple, in too many instances; standing on +the letter of the law, they too often ignored the partial joint-ownership +in their farms of their tenants; they had sometimes recourse to unjust and +severe evictions. The old landlords, too, never recovered from the effects +of the Famine; they were overshadowed by the bureaucracy of the Castle, +which, for many years, had been growing in power; they thus became an +order of men with privileges, but without authority, in the midst of +inferiors, who had little sympathy with them, a dangerous position like +that of the French seigneurie in the later years of the eighteenth +century—a position described by Tocqueville in very striking language. At +the same time the peasantry stood aloof from them more than in the days of +their fathers; and though they remained quiescent for years, as has often +happened in Irish history, there were causes for this increasing +estrangement. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> were no longer the grossly ignorant multitude of fifty +years before; education had made some way among them, though in this +respect they were still backward; they felt more acutely all that was hard +in their lot, like the French peasantry before the great Revolution of +1789-94. This sentiment, however, owed its principal force to sentiments +engendered in far distant lands. The thousands of the exodus had left +their country with memories embittered against some Irish landlords, and, +notably, against the British Government; a new Ireland was rising across +the Atlantic; the emigrants and their sons were in constant communication +with the old Ireland once their home; socialistic ideas as regards the +land, blending with dislike of the superiors and the rulers, under whom +they lived, were gradually diffused among the Irish peasantry. The +economic conditions, too, of landed relations by degrees made these +feelings more general and intense. Rents were rising as the wealth of the +country increased, though, except in the cases of the new landlords, and +of a very few surviving middlemen, they were, as a rule, by no means +excessive. Simultaneously a concurrence of causes had extinguished +leasehold tenures in most parts of Ireland, and had reduced the status of +the Irish farmer to that of a mere tenant at will, liable to be +dispossessed by a notice to quit, at the mercy, in fact, of the lord of +the soil. And, meanwhile, the equitable rights of the occupiers as a +class, due to improvements, and to sums paid for the goodwill of farms, +had been increasing to an immense extent; and yet a grievous wrong—they +were not even recognised by law. Law and fact had long been sharply +clashing in landed relations; there was much that was essentially bad in +the land system; and agrarian trouble and crime was on the increase.</p> + +<p>The mind of England had turned away from Ireland after the petty outbreak +of 1848; it charged the Irish community with ungrateful folly, as it +recollected the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> charity lavished during the Famine. This sentiment was +replaced by what was worse, indifference; throughout this period—from +1850 to 1868—Parliament gave little attention to the affairs of Ireland. +British statesmen continued to pin their faith to their policy; they +disregarded ominous symptoms on the increase; Ireland was rapidly becoming +more prosperous; the claims of the Irish tenant farmer were a delusion, or +worse. This apathy was augmented by the state of the representation of +Ireland in these years; this was in a feeble, even a degraded condition; +and largely owing to the authority of Cardinal Cullen, who prohibited the +Irish priesthood from taking any part in politics, agitation, I have said, +had become a mere tradition of the past. Yet the causes I have glanced at +were silently at work, which ultimately were to lead to grave social +troubles. The first sign of disturbance was seen in a little outbreak, the +result of a conspiracy hatched by one of the rebels of 1848, and supported +to some extent from America: but the ‘Phœnix plot,’ as it was called, +almost at once collapsed; the Government thought it hardly worthy of +notice. Another and much more formidable conspiracy was matured in +1864-65; and though it was put down with little difficulty in time, it +showed that there was much that was peccant in the state of Ireland; and +it deeply affected the minds of Englishmen, aroused as it were out of a +fool’s paradise. The millions of the Irish race in the Far West were +passionately appealed to by leaders, not without parts, to assist in a +crusade against ‘landlordism,’ and British rule in Ireland; they gave the +movement very general support; they found numerous allies in thousands of +Irishmen disbanded after the great conflict between the North and the +South. The Fenian conspiracy was launched on its course; its directors +made skilful attempts to debauch whole regiments, and to stir up the +passions of the mob in many of the towns of Ireland; and they especially +turned their attention to the mass of the peasantry. Here,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> however, their +policy was injudicious and ill-conceived; they promised the Irish land as +a spoil to those who would join the ranks of the ‘patriot Irish army;’ but +all this alarmed the occupiers of the soil, whose only object was to +acquire a better mode of tenure for their farms, and who rightly thought +the Fenian movement made their possessions insecure, a belief generally +encouraged by the Catholic priesthood. A short-lived rising, conducted by +a few American soldiers, and backed by the rabble of a few villages and +towns, found no real support in Ireland, and was finally quelled in 1867; +but in England there was a spurt of Fenian disorder, and this, though +easily quenched, made a profound impression. It was generally felt in +England and Scotland that, notwithstanding the optimism of a generation of +public men, there was still much that was rotten in the state of Ireland, +and that this should be removed by large and searching reforms. The chief +sign of this change in British opinion was seen in the result of the +General Election of 1868; Mr. Gladstone, who, hitherto, had taken +comparatively little part in Irish affairs, but who, with his keen +instinct of every turn in the public mind, had been vehemently enlarging +on the wrongs of Ireland, was placed in power with a great majority, and +at once addressed himself to the task of Irish reform.<a name='fna_54' id='fna_54' href='#f_54'><small>[54]</small></a></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (<i>continued</i>)—THE IRISH LAND ACT OF +1870—THE LAND LEAGUE AND THE NATIONAL LEAGUE—THE LAND OF +1881—SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION AS REGARDS THE LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND</span></p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang">State of landed relations in Ireland in 1869-70—Mr. Gladstone Prime +Minister—The Land Act of 1870—Its merits and defects—A short period +of prosperity in Ireland—Ominous symptoms—Michael Davitt—The +teaching of John Finton Lalor in 1848—The ‘New Departure’ in +Fenianism arranged in America—Foundation of the Land League—It was a +foreign rebellious conspiracy, with an agrarian side, under a +constitutional mask—Parnell the master spirit of the League—His +visit to America and the results—A short period of distress in +Ireland—Conduct of the Irish landlords—Progress of the Land +League—Mr. Gladstone again Prime Minister in 1880—The Compensation +for Disturbance Bill rejected by the House of Lords—Outburst of +agrarian crime, as the Land League increases in power—Rents at +Griffith’s valuation—Boycotting—Frightful state of Ireland in +1881—After a short attempt to repress it, Mr. Gladstone surrenders +to the Land League—The Land Act of 1881—Mr. Gladstone breaks the +pledges he had made in 1870—His promise of compensating the Irish +landlords—The Land Act of 1881 a bad and unjust measure directly +inconsistent with that of 1870—The ‘No Rent Manifesto’—The +Kilmainham Treaty—The Phœnix Park tragedy—Coercion—Parnell +founds the National League, the successor of the Land League—Renewal +of agitation in 1886—Struggle with law and the Government—Subsequent +agrarian legislation for Ireland—This is really a concession to +agitation, for the benefit of Irish tenants, and to the injury of +Irish landlords.</p></div> + + +<p>Mr. Gladstone, after his conversion to Home Rule, more than once declared +that, almost from early manhood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> he had given special attention to +Ireland; either his memory was at fault, or he had kept the fact to +himself. He had been a conspicuous figure in politics, for many years +before 1868; but until he had been placed at the helm of the State, he had +shown little acquaintance with Irish questions, and, indeed, had expressed +few opinions on them. In 1866 he had said in the House of Commons, that +the existence of the Anglican Irish Church would be probably long; he had +been in high office almost since 1853, and, as a colleague of Lord +Palmerston, had acquiesced in the philippics of that statesman against +Irish tenant right, conduct that revealed ignorance of the land system of +Ireland. But, in 1868, when the Fenian outbreak had caused the nation to +demand large reforms in Ireland, he suddenly abandoned his attitude of +reserve; he threw himself into Irish affairs; his zeal, it may be +remarked, as often happened, fell in with his interests, and with those of +the Liberal party, and gave him a leverage to drive Disraeli from office. +During months before the General Election that ensued, the orator +thundered on Irish grievances, and on the manifold ills of Ireland; in +figurative and impassioned language, he said that the island was blighted +by a huge upas tree, the Church, the land, and education being the three +main branches. These harangues, addressed to the new democracy, +contributed powerfully to the fall of the Conservative Ministry; it was +little noticed, at the time, that one of the results was ere long to +compel Mr. Gladstone himself to subject Ireland to severe repressive +measures, for Whiteboy and agrarian outrages became frequent In 1869, the +Minister addressed himself to the task of hewing down the first branch of +the poisonous upas; he disestablished and disendowed the Protestant Church +of Ireland. This is not the place to comment upon that great measure; it +was well designed upon its professed principles; it dealt liberally, nay, +generously, with the voluntary Church, which replaced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> the Church of the +State it overthrew. But essentially it was a scheme of destruction, formed +in Nonconformist not in Irish interests, and opposed to the views of +generations of statesmen; it made no provision for the clergy of the Irish +Catholic Church, a policy which Pitt, Castlereagh, and Lord John Russell +had had at heart, which had been all but a condition of the Union, and +which, if carried into effect, would have done much to strengthen and +maintain that fundamental law, and to promote tranquillity in Ireland and +her general welfare.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone now turned to the second branch of the upas, the land system +of Ireland and her landed relations. His whole career, especially in its +Home Rule phase, proves that his knowledge of Ireland was not exact or +profound; at this time he had had little experience of the Irish land +question. But the mind of England was still attracted to Irish affairs; a +number of distinguished Englishmen and Scotchmen went to Ireland, to +investigate the state of the country on the spot; the British Press sent +some of its best contributors; the time was singularly opportune for a +fair and complete inquiry; no Minister has had, before or since, such +assistance in dealing with Irish problems. I must glance at the state of +the Irish land system in 1869-70, as this was fully explored and made +manifest.<a name='fna_55' id='fna_55' href='#f_55'><small>[55]</small></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> The material progress being made, since about 1854, had +been largely developed in by far the greatest part of the island. The +population was being still diminished by emigration and other causes; the +area for real husbandry had been greatly extended; the rural community, at +least in its lower grades, was infinitely better off than it had been +before the Famine. The look of the country, in most places, bore witness +to a change beneficent in the main; it had been almost transformed since +1844-45. The cottar system, no doubt, was to be found in backward +counties; but even in these it had been largely effaced; it was all but +passing away in the more thriving counties; masses of indigence were to be +seen only in tracts west of the Shannon; and these were aggregated on an +area comparatively small. The general consolidation of farms had, +meanwhile, gone on; and though Ireland remained, on the whole, a land of +small farms, her land system had, from top to bottom, ceased to depend for +its support on a perishable root. In every conceivable respect a marked +improvement was visible in the state of the peasantry; they were by many +degrees better clothed and fed than their fathers had been; the wages of +agricultural labour were still rising, and were now paid in money, and not +in plots of potatoes; and though the habitations of this whole class were, +as a rule, still mean, the dwellings of the class of substantial farmers +had shown signs of distinct social progress. At the same time agriculture +had made a marked advance, owing to the influences I have referred to +before; fine specimens of extensive farming were very commonly to be seen; +thousands of acres had been reclaimed and enclosed of late years; at no +period certainly had the landed gentry, in a great measure through moneys +borrowed from the State, expended such large sums in improving their +estates, especially in arterial drainage, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> the introduction of the +best breeds of stock of all kinds. The wealth of Ireland, too, was +increasing, if not rapidly; and a change for the better might be traced in +what we may describe as her general social life. Her middle class was +still weak and small compared to that of England and Scotland; but it had +been growing in wealth and power; and this, to some extent, had had a good +effect on a community still mainly dependent on the land.</p> + +<p>The material and even the social progress of Ireland, since the Famine, +had thus been marked; it had been more decided than it has been, at any +period, except, possibly, that from 1782 to 1800. Her land system, too, +had become better in important parts; but in many respects it remained +vicious; some of its vices had been aggravated, or were more sensibly +felt. The hope that the land would pass generally into the hands of large +farmers, able to develop its resources, had not been realised, or had been +realised only to a relatively trivial extent; it was still held in the +main by a peasantry of small occupiers of the soil, though the +consolidation of farms had gone on over extensive areas, especially over +wide tracts of pasturage, in the eastern, midland, and western counties, +and this, in some instances, through a process of harsh eviction. The +profound divisions of race and faith, the distinctive feature in the +organic structure of the whole community, were at least as visible as ever +in the land system; from causes I have pointed out before, they had, not +improbably, been widened; this tended to increase the old dissension in +landed relations, and the long-standing separation between the landed +classes. Middleman tenures, with their mischievous effects, had, since the +Famine, well-nigh disappeared; but the new landlord had largely replaced +the middleman; absenteeism remained what it had been; and though absentee +estates, as a rule, were under good agents, there was too much of that +‘absenteeism of the heart,’ condemned by Tocqueville<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> as a grave social +danger. The purchasers under the Encumbered Estates Acts, with some +honourable exceptions, no doubt, were too often oppressive landlords; the +old landlords, as a class, had, certainly, done much for their estates, +but they had lost their political and largely their social influence; +partly owing to apprehensions as regards tenant right, partly to the +assurances of statesmen that their position was safe, they had become +perhaps more exacting in their dealings with their dependents; in the +existing situation, they more and more resembled a weak caste, controlled +by the central Government, and isolated amidst a community, to a great +extent, not friendly. All this tended to produce a want of stability and +insecurity in the land system, which was ominous of social strife and +trouble; but the most active element of disturbance was to be certainly +found in the contact with the rebellious movement which Ireland had lately +witnessed. Fenianism had been scotched, but by no means slain; and though +the peasantry had held aloof from it, Fenian emissaries were going through +the country, appealing to the passions and the greed of the occupiers of +the soil, for different reasons not contented with their lot, hostile, in +a great degree, to the order of things around them, and more alive to +their grievances than in the past generation; at this very time a cry +against the payment of rent, and against ‘landlordism,’ as it was called, +was being heard in a few counties. It was significant that agrarian +crimes—some of the worst type—and agrarian disorder were distinctly +increasing; and it should be added, that, in spite of Cardinal Cullen, the +younger Catholic priests, in some districts, were beginning to play the +part of agitators again.</p> + +<p>Passing from the general state of landed relations, the conditions of land +tenure, briefly noticed before, had not improved of late years, and were, +in some respects, worse. Rents had been rising for a considerable time:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +but except in comparatively few instances, they were not excessive, as +affairs stood; whatever mendacious calumny has since maintained, Ireland, +on the whole, was in no sense an over-rented land.<a name='fna_56' id='fna_56' href='#f_56'><small>[56]</small></a> But the modes of +occupation were essentially bad; they were open to the gravest objections; +their vices had become more than ever apparent. The tenant right, under +the Ulster custom, had, I have remarked, largely secured the tenant +farmer, in parts of the province, what was generally known as the ‘Three +F’s,’ Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure, the power of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> a Free Sale of the +holding;<a name='fna_57' id='fna_57' href='#f_57'><small>[57]</small></a> though it should be especially borne in mind that the fair +rent was never adjusted by an external agency, but was settled by what +Adam Smith would have called ‘higgling’ between the owner and occupier of +the soil. The custom, however, had been very powerful; its violation, on +anything like a great scale, would have certainly caused a fierce war of +classes; and it gave the Ulster tenant, in tens of thousands of cases, a +real proprietary right in the land, whatever might be the terms of his +contract; a right equivalent to more or less joint-ownership, and that +might be described as a precious <i>peculium</i>, subject to conditions that +long had made it practically secure. But this most important right, +involving property worth many millions, still remained wholly unprotected +by law; and though its value had enormously increased, as the wealth of +Ulster had been developed, of late years, it was being ‘nibbled away’ on +not a few estates, and restricted by limitations of many kinds that had +greatly impaired it. An analogous right,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> like seed scattered by the +winds, had partially spread into the southern provinces, as the natural +result of the equitable claims, the occupiers of farms had repeatedly +acquired, though this had not been recognised on many estates, and its +efficacy was not as yet great; but this right, such as it was, like its +fellow, was not law-worthy, and depended wholly on the will of the lord of +the soil. In addition to the tenant right in the north and the south, the +concurrent claims of the tenant farmers, throughout the country, in +respect of improvements and of sums paid on the transfer of farms, for +‘good-will,’ had been greatly increasing of late years, especially as +prosperity was advancing; and yet tenures had continued to become more +precarious; leaseholds were being almost everywhere replaced by tenancies +at will. These claims were never so extensive before; often equivalent to +joint-ownership, in no doubtful sense, and, in almost all cases, of some +value, they were, nevertheless, still outside the ægis of the law, a fact +that must ever be borne in mind; they could be destroyed or greatly +reduced by the raising of rent, they could be annihilated by a notice to +quit, if eviction followed. Unquestionably in the great mass of instances, +these rights, whatever their nature, were not invaded; but they certainly +had been in a certain number; a single case of invasion created alarm and +distrust, and had a bad effect on landed relations; throw a stone into a +pond, and it makes a ripple; it has a disturbing influence far beyond the +surface it strikes. No wonder, then, that complaints of these modes of +tenure had become very general, and were loudly expressed, not only by +those who might suffer from them, but by intelligent minds which had +mastered the subject. It was an exaggeration to assert, as was said at the +time, that the peasant in Ireland lived under a sword of Damocles; but he +lived under a system in which law and right were very plainly opposed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>Only a revolution, which Parliament would not have sanctioned, could have +effaced the inveterate ills of the Irish land system, running up to the +conquests and the confiscations of the past, and the divisions of race and +faith in the Irish land; the remark is as true now as it was thirty years +ago; and a revolution of the kind, I am firmly convinced, would, even +under the best conditions, make infinitely worse whatever was already bad. +But it was possible for legislation to remove or mitigate the essential +vices in the modes of Irish land tenure; Mr. Gladstone rightly confined +himself to this object. He brought in his first Irish Land Bill in the +early spring of 1870; he had to address a House of Commons not much in +sympathy with a project of the kind. Many of the members were ignorant of +the subject; many thought English land tenure perfect, and could not +understand why it would not do for Ireland, a prejudice at least three +centuries old; some believed Irish tenant right to be a violation of Free +Trade, then in the ascendant in every phase of commerce. The Minister’s +speech was adapted to those who heard it; it was tentative, moderate, not +striking; he drew, indeed, very plain distinctions between British and +Irish land tenure, and showed how the first could be no rule of right for +the second; but if he enlarged on the just claims of the occupier of the +Irish soil, he did not venture to maintain, what he probably felt, that +these were often equivalent to a joint-ownership more or less developed. +He was, in short, dexterous, but not profound; very inferior to Burke, +who, a century before, had grasped the essential facts in this province, +though the question was still in the remote future. The most important +parts of Mr. Gladstone’s speech, and indeed, of those of his leading +followers, regard being had to events by no means distant, were those in +which he repudiated, with no doubtful censure, the whole theory of the +‘Three F’s,’ the extreme demand, at this time, of the tenant class<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> in +Ireland. ‘Fair Rent’ he argued, especially if adjusted by the State, +deprives a landlord of his first proprietary right, and involves his +expropriation in the long run; ‘Fixity of Tenure’ means a perpetuity for +the tenant, to which he has no just claim, and involves confiscation +hardly disguised; ‘Free Sale’ was but a corollary to legislation on these +principles.<a name='fna_58' id='fna_58' href='#f_58'><small>[58]</small></a> At the same time, Mr. Gladstone protested, with marked +emphasis, that the Bill he was introducing was to be absolutely a final +measure; it was to effect a permanent settlement of the Irish land; Irish +landlords would have nothing more to apprehend, Irish tenants to expect. +In this instance, as in that of Home Rule, the orator was to belie +himself, and to be a curious example of the irony of Fate; within a few +years he was to legislate on the lines he had denounced as dangerous and +false; to carry into effect a scheme for dealing with the Irish land, +infinitely worse than that of the ‘Three F’s;’ to scatter the ‘finality,’ +to which he had pledged his word, to the winds.</p> + +<p>The Bill thus launched was a comprehensive and wise measure, if not free +from real, even grave, defects; it remains the only statesmanlike scheme +for the settlement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> of Irish landed relations that hitherto has received +the assent of Parliament.<a name='fna_59' id='fna_59' href='#f_59'><small>[59]</small></a> It made the tenant right of Ulster, in its +various forms, as these existed in different estates, law-worthy, and +protected to the fullest extent; it gave the same sanction to the inchoate +tenant right of the southern provinces. This was, in itself, an immense +reform; but the Bill properly had a far wider sweep; it extended, with the +exception of certain kinds of lands, such as demesnes, town parks, +holdings of a residential type, and, in most cases, large pastoral +holdings, to nearly all the occupiers of the Irish soil; even the excepted +lands were partially within its scope. The first great object of the +measure was to secure to the Irish tenant the rights he had acquired to +improvements he may have made on his farm, a right hitherto not within the +pale of the law; its provisions, in this respect, were, I think, +excellent. With a true perception of the unquestionable fact that, though +the Irish landlords, especially of late years, had expended considerable +sums on their estates, still, as is inevitable under the small-farm +system, the Irish tenant, as a general rule, had made the greatest part of +the additions to the land, Mr. Gladstone provided that, subject to +limitations by no means severe, in order that the law should not run wild, +improvements made on farms, in the absence of proof to the contrary, +should be deemed to be the tenant’s property, thus reversing the +presumption of English law, iniquitous when applied to Irish tenures, that +what is annexed to the soil belongs to the owner, and not to its occupant. +The ground being, so to speak, cleared,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> the Bill declared that, in almost +all cases, a tenant should have a right, when leaving his farm, even +though dispossessed for the failure to pay his rent, to claim +compensation, from his landlord, for his improvements; and facilities were +offered to landlords to discharge these claims through loans from the +State. In order, however, reasonably to secure right being done, in a +complex and very difficult matter, the Bill proceeded to define +improvements, and to impose restrictions on claims, to which objection +could fairly be made. Apart from unexhausted tillages and manures, an +improvement was to be a work ‘suitable to a holding, and adding to its +letting value,’ a description as equitable and precise as could well be +desired. And, speaking generally, claims in respect of improvements were +not to be preferred were the improvement twenty years old, except in the +case of buildings and the reclamation of waste land; nor if the +improvement were prohibited by the landlord, under the conditions laid +down; nor if it were made under a contract for value; nor if it were +forbidden by a special contract; nor if, in certain cases, the landlord +had agreed to make it; nor if the claim was barred by express written +contract, in the case of improvements made before the Bill became law; +nor, in the case, with some exceptions, of certain classes of leases; nor +if the landlord, under certain conditions, permitted a tenant to dispose +of his interest in his farm.</p> + +<p>This measure, therefore, gave the Irish tenant farmer complete property in +his improvements, within reasonable bounds, and yet did not here invade +the just rights of the landlord; it was only to be regretted that it had +not been proposed many years before. It proceeded, however, a great deal +further, and asserted a principle, for the behoof of the tenant, which has +since been very generally condemned,<a name='fna_60' id='fna_60' href='#f_60'><small>[60]</small></a> though in my judgment, it was +essentially right,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> if carried somewhat beyond proper and safe limits. +Except in the case of leases granted before the Bill, and of a class of +leases granted when it was to become law, Mr. Gladstone engrafted on the +great mass of Irish tenancies what really was a new tenant right; he was +probably convinced, though he did not say so, that this was to be an +equivalent for the joint-ownership, more or less manifest, which, in +innumerable instances, the Irish occupier had acquired in the soil. This +tenant right was given the rather ambiguous name of ‘Compensation,’ in the +event of ‘Disturbance;’ a sum varying in amount from seven to one year’s +rent, according to the size of the holding, but in no case to exceed £250, +was to be paid to a tenant when dispossessed by a notice to quit, and, in +some circumstances, by other means; this was to be over and above any sum +due in respect of improvements; but this, too, as in the case of the +last-named sum, was to be paid only when the tenant was ‘quitting’ the +land. Obviously this was a potential tenant right, if to be realised only +in one way; it practically gave a quasi-proprietary right in the fee, as, +when commenting on the Bill, I pointed out at the time; and I certainly +thought that the compensation was very large, and introduced a principle +into the Bill which might be abused. Two other provisions of the measure, +with respect to the position of the Irish tenant, may be briefly noticed. +No attempt was made to adjust rents, through the agency of the State, Mr. +Gladstone having expressly denounced the idea; but in the case of petty +occupiers, subjected to ‘exorbitant rents,’ compensation for disturbance +might be adjudged to them, even if evicted for not paying the rent, that +is, the landlord might be mulcted in very heavy penalties. In nearly all +instances, too, the tenant was declared to be entitled to ‘his away-going +crops,’ another privilege, sometimes of no little value, and analogous to +that secured by usage in many parts of England. So far the Bill dealt with +the Irish land on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> the side of occupation; but it dealt with it, also, on +the side of ownership. John Bright had urged the expediency, during +several years, of facilitating the transfer of the fee simple, in his +holding, to the Irish tenant; this policy had been carried out, to some +extent, by the Act disestablishing the Anglican Church in Ireland. The +Bill of 1870 extended the principle; it provided that the State might +advance moneys to Irish tenants, to enable them to become owners of their +farms; but—and this should especially be kept in mind—the tenant was to +supply a third part of the purchase money at least; and the transaction +was to be effected by free contract, that is, by the voluntary act of the +landlord disposing of his land. It remains to add, that the administration +of the measure, was, for the most part—subject to an appeal to the +Superior Courts—entrusted to the County Courts of Ireland, that is, to +long-established tribunals of repute.</p> + +<p>The Bill passed through both Houses with little change; it has long been +known as the Irish Land Act of 1870. It was, in the main, I repeat, a +great reforming measure; it effected a far-reaching improvement in the +tenure of land in Ireland, and that without any marked infringement of the +just rights of property. No impartial mind can fairly object to the +protection given to the tenant right of the north and the south, or to the +compensation secured for tenants’ improvements; if ‘Compensation for +Disturbance’ was a bold experiment, still this Parliamentary tenant right, +as it may be called, was in harmony with fact in nearly all instances. +Nevertheless, the Act had three marked defects; these largely detracted +from its practical value. It bristled with such exceptions and limitations +that it was difficult even for the learned to understand; it seemed to the +unlettered peasant a dangerous puzzle, involving him, perhaps, in lawsuits +and costs; it did not strike his imagination as a substantial boon. +Though, too, it annexed a real tenant right to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> nearly all farms, and thus +secured to the Irish tenant, in almost all cases, any joint-ownership he +may have acquired in the land, still this was intelligible only to +educated men; ‘Compensation for Disturbance’ was to be given only when an +occupier was about to leave his holding; but this was exactly what he +could not bear to do; he was, therefore, ready to accept almost any terms, +rather than face consequences he dreaded to think of. Mr. Gladstone, +again, had, in this measure, shown that he wished to assimilate Irish to +English land tenure in the long run; he sought to vindicate the just +claims of the Irish tenant; but he desired ultimately to give him the +status of his fellow in England, a long-standing, false conception of +British statesmen. The Land Act, therefore, provided that most of the +rights it conferred on the tenant might be commuted by the grant of a +lease for thirty-one years or upwards; and it further enacted that tenants +of the larger kind might ‘contract themselves out’ of the privileges it +gave, by voluntary agreements made with their landlords. The object of +this was to place the Irish land, by degrees, no doubt, under rather long +leases, discharged from the tenant right and other claims; but in the +circumstances of Ireland this was a mistake. This part of the Act was a +temptation to landlords, to persuade or even to force tenants to accept +leases under conditions which might be too severe, with respect to rent +and many other things, and to forego rights they would otherwise have +enjoyed, by a process which might not be a free contract; it encouraged, +in a word, unfair evasion of the law. This flaw in the measure was pointed +out from the first; Mr. Gladstone, however, denied its existence, and +characteristically shut his ears to other schemes of reform, notably to an +ingenious proposal of the late Judge Longfield to extend the Ulster tenant +right to all Irish tenancies by a very simple and self-acting process, and +to a proposal of Butt to convert tenancies at will into long leaseholds, +at the rents then current. These<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> projects certainly deserved attention; +and, whatever their shortcomings, were easy to understand.</p> + +<p>The Act of 1870, like the Act dealing with the Protestant Church, was +followed by a short-lived outbreak of agrarian crime put down only by +severe coercive measures. This phenomenon has been common in Irish +history, from the days of Tyrconnell to the present time; disorder has +been the immediate result of concessions; peccant humours discharge +themselves if you touch the head of an ulcer. There is some reason, too, +to believe that in a few instances—and they were very few—wrongheaded +landlords, alarmed at the prospect before them, began to harass and even +to dispossess tenants; they aimed at ‘clearing’ their estates, in order to +evade the law; conduct of this kind naturally provoked indignation in some +places.<a name='fna_61' id='fna_61' href='#f_61'><small>[61]</small></a> Nevertheless, the Land Act of 1870 was generally well received +in Ireland, though it fell short of the popular demand, and it was ill +understood by the tenant classes;<a name='fna_62' id='fna_62' href='#f_62'><small>[62]</small></a> many farmers availed themselves of +its benefits, especially those holding under the Ulster custom. Five or +six years of prosperity followed, the brightest perhaps ever seen in +Ireland; agricultural prices were high, harvests extremely good; the +material progress of the country was decided; the peasantry seemed, as a +rule, contented; agitation abandoned, as it were, the land, and +concentrated itself on the Home Rule movement. Mr. Gladstone, always +optimistic, and proud of his own offspring, boasted, towards the close of +his first Ministry, that his recent legislation had done wonders; the Land +Act had reconciled Irish landlords and tenants, and had greatly increased +the selling price of land; he refused to see how much of all this was due +to a cause wholly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> independent of himself, the comparative well-being of +nearly all Ireland. As had happened in the period from 1854 to 1870, this +tranquillity was not deeply founded or complete; as then, it was, in a +great degree, deceptive. The peasantry were living fast in a good time; +banks and traders had made large advances to them on the security of +tenure the law had created; their position became such, in some districts, +that a season of distress might reduce many to sudden poverty, and be +productive of the necessarily resulting evils. Rents, again, were rising +as the country grew in wealth, though except in comparatively few cases—a +fact that should be steadily kept in view—they were still, as a rule, by +no means excessive; they were far below the rents of thirty years before; +but this gradual rise was of course not popular. In some instances, +too—but these were very rare, as was conclusively proved at a subsequent +time—tenants, under more or less pressure on the part of their landlords, +had accepted leases excluding them from the advantages of the law, and not +equitable in some respects, or had wholly ‘contracted themselves out’ of +the Act; this naturally caused alarm and distrust in many peasant +dwellings. But the principal reasons that content was really less than it +seemed to be in landed relations were altogether of a different nature. +Like too many even excellent reforms in Ireland, the Land Act of 1870 +became law too late; twenty years before it would have been hailed as an +extraordinary boon; it was now regarded as almost a half measure, in view +of the socialistic ideas about the land afloat. At the same time, +Fenianism continued to make its influence felt; Irish-Americans continued +to flit through the country denouncing British rule and Irish landlords, +and calling upon the peasantry, as in 1798, to rise. Even in these years +of prosperity, though rents were well paid, there was a secret movement +against rent beneath the surface of things, so well concealed that it was +absolutely unknown by the Government.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>Meanwhile, in the midst of apparent peace, the elements of trouble in +Ireland still quiescent were to come to a head and to give rise to a +movement. The most formidable to British rule though skilfully masked, +which had been seen since the rebellion of 1798. Revolutionary schemes in +Ireland have always fastened on the land as the chief source from which +they could derive strength; the United Irish movement as I have pointed +out, was connected with a peasant movement against the payment of rent. +This idea had been brought into marked prominence by John Finton Lalor, +one of the rebels of 1848, a comparatively unknown but a sagacious man; +‘You must associate’ he wrote, ‘the cause of Irish liberty, for which the +people really care little with a cause for which they care a great deal; +an inert mass must be yoked to a powerful engine; the Irish landlord must +be driven from the land and the peasant masses be made its owners; and the +fall of English power will follow that of its landlord garrison.’ These +words fell for the moment on unheeding ears; but the tradition has +continued from that day to this the destruction of Irish ‘landlordism’ was +one of the objects of the Fenian leaders of 1865-67, and they denounced +the Irish gentry in atrocious language, though they did not know how to +carry out their policy. This teaching was eagerly adopted by Michael +Davitt, a Fenian, who had been convicted of a crime against the State; +during a long imprisonment at Dartmoor, he brooded ‘on his country’s +wrongs,’ but satisfied himself that if the independence of Ireland was a +patriot’s first object, this could be attained only by uprooting the +existing land system, by hounding on the occupiers of the soil against its +owners, and by handing it over as spoil to the peasantry. Davitt was +released from Dartmoor at the close of 1877; he attended a meeting in +Dublin at which Parnell was present, and two of the assassins of the +Phoenix Park tragedy; and he became supreme in the ranks of the Fenian +societies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> known as ‘the Irish Republican Brotherhood,’ which still +retained a feeble life in Ireland, and even in England and Scotland. A +short time afterwards he made his way to the United States, where he found +the Fenians divided into two parties, known under the general name of the +Clan na Gael, but having different objects, though with a common purpose. +Both parties were for liberating Ireland ‘from the Saxon yoke;’ but the +most violent and the most active sought to attain this end by expedients +of desperate force; a ‘skirmishing fund’ had been established; ‘England +was to be invaded’ by small bodies of ‘resolute men;’ her capital and +chief towns were to be destroyed by dynamite. The other party, more +prudent, but with similar aims, had been struck by Parnell’s attitude in +the House of Commons, and by the success of his unscrupulous tactics; its +leaders began to think that something might be done by ‘constitutional +means;’ they gradually came to an agreement with Davitt, that ‘the +overthrow of English domination’ was to be their ultimate end; but that +efforts in this direction were to be linked with energetic efforts to +subvert ‘the landlord system, a disgrace to humanity and to the +civilisation of the present century;’ to banish the Irish landed gentry +from their country, and to secure their estates for their tenantry. This +movement, though rebellious in no doubtful sense, was nevertheless to have +a legal disguise; the wolf was to wear sheep’s clothing; the ‘formation of +a peasant proprietary, and the abolition of arbitrary evictions,’ were to +be its proposed objects.<a name='fna_63' id='fna_63' href='#f_63'><small>[63]</small></a></p> + +<p>Treason, seeking support from socialistic greed, was thus the origin of +the Land League conspiracy, for this was its only legitimate name. I have +glanced at this movement, on its political side, as it was associated with +the cause of Home Rule; I must here consider it on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> its agrarian side, the +most prominent, if not the most dangerous, to the State.<a name='fna_64' id='fna_64' href='#f_64'><small>[64]</small></a> The compact +between Davitt and the moderates of the Clan na Gael was called the ‘New +Departure;’ Davitt returned to Ireland to stir up what became known as the +‘Land War;’ Fenian emissaries went to Ireland, about the same time, in +order to collect arms and to drill peasants, with a view to a possible +rising should the occasion be found. Meanwhile, Davitt had addressed +himself to what was more immediately at hand; in the spring of 1879 he got +a meeting together, in his native county, Mayo, at which ‘landlordism’ and +all its works were savagely denounced; during the following months other +meetings of the same sort were held, but as yet only in the western +province of Connaught. At these gatherings the crusade against the landed +gentry went on; rebellious utterances were blended with ferocious +diatribes against<a name='fna_65' id='fna_65' href='#f_65'><small>[65]</small></a> landlords sometimes marked out for vengeance by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +name; and the peasantry were called on to keep ‘a firm grip on their +lands;’ these would become their own should they only be steadfast. The +Land League movement was now launched on its course; but it was known to +be an essentially Fenian movement; it was subsidised from Clan na Gael +funds; it was supported by a murderous Clan na Gael print; it was +condemned in the severest language by an aged Catholic prelate, one of the +few of O’Connell’s surviving friends. The movement, however, as yet was +not of much strength; Davitt had opinions about the ‘nationalisation of +the land,’ which, like those of the Fenian leaders of 1865-67, were not to +the mind of the peasantry; his efforts, hitherto, had not had much +success. In this position of affairs he addressed himself to Parnell, who +had had Fenian sympathies and associations for years, and had, we have +seen, attracted Fenian admiration abroad; what passed between the two men +has not transpired; but Parnell, if with reluctance, consented at last to +become the head of the Land League and to direct the movement. The +measures he adopted were skilfully designed, in harmony with the ‘New +Departure,’ and with the double-dealing nature of a true conspirator. A +Central Land League was established in Dublin; it was to have ‘branches’ +extending through the country; it was to make a steady attack on the land +system. Its professed objects, however, were constitutional, nay, fair; it +was ‘to agitate against rack-rents and unjust evictions,’ and to +‘facilitate the ownership of the soil by its occupants.’ The ultimate +purpose of the League, nevertheless, was that of the Fenian chiefs; of its +seven high officers four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> were Fenians; it was wholly supported by Fenian +moneys; its most prominent members made a boast of their Fenian +sentiments.<a name='fna_66' id='fna_66' href='#f_66'><small>[66]</small></a> It was, in a word, a rebellious organisation in a +constitutional garb; it was the embodiment of what Parnell avowed +afterwards: ‘A true revolutionary movement in Ireland should, in my +opinion, partake both of a constitutional and an illegal character. It +should be both an open and a secret organisation, using the Constitution +for its own purposes, but also taking advantage of its secret +combination.’<a name='fna_67' id='fna_67' href='#f_67'><small>[67]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Land League established, under these auspices, gradually made some +progress in the western parts of Ireland, always centres of poverty more +or less developed. It had not, however, as yet, become a power in the +land; Parnell went to the United States, as I have mentioned before, in +order to obtain support for the ‘New Departure.’ He was the grandson of a +distinguished American; the elections for a President were near; it was +necessary to bid for the Irish vote; the chief of the League was invited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +to say what his Irish policy was in the Representative House of the +people; and this he did in moderate and carefully chosen language. His +real attitude, however, was very different; he associated with well-known +Fenian leaders, became acquainted with a contributor to the <i>Irish World</i>, +the worst journal of the Clan na Gael press; and more than once gave +utterance to what was plain treason, notably to the ‘last-link’ speech +already referred to. He obtained considerable funds for the League in +Ireland, and before long founded a similar League in America, which became +a Fenian organisation of the very worst type. Meanwhile a season of +distress had visited Ireland; this quickened the elements of disorder +being already let loose. The harvest of 1878 was not good; that of 1879 +was the worst known since the Great Famine; the prosperity of the country +suddenly came to an end. There was a universal calling in of demands, +especially from tenant farmers, who, I have said, had been rather +extravagant, and had become involved in debt;<a name='fna_68' id='fna_68' href='#f_68'><small>[68]</small></a> the whole class suffered +more or less, though there was very little extreme indigence, and Lord +Beaconsfield’s Government was not slow in providing relief, which private +charity largely increased. In these circumstances the landed gentry acted +as any class would naturally act; a considerable number made remissions of +rent; if a large majority, as certainly was the case, insisted upon their +legal rights—conduct which must be pronounced unfortunate—it must be +recollected that an agitation of extreme violence had been directed +against the whole order; and that Mr. Gladstone had declared that, after +the Land Act, there were to be no more concessions. The League now +acquired new power; its branches spread over large parts of the west; its +directors, from members in the House of Commons, to its avowed agents, and +to the ‘village ruffians,’ who carried out its bidding in many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> places, +rioted in atrocious threats against landlords whether good or bad; and a +movement against the payment of rent began. The teaching which had been +spread abroad during many months, bore the fruits which were to be +expected from it; there was a sudden outbreak of agrarian crime, and of +Whiteboyism in its worst aspect; it deserves special notice that this was +confined to the counties where the League was in real force. The +landlords, under these conditions, were often driven to enforce their +claims; attempts were made to show that the evictions that followed were +the sole causes of this social disorder. But it is absolutely certain that +this was not the case; it was the Land League which provoked the +evictions, and was responsible for the incidental crime.<a name='fna_69' id='fna_69' href='#f_69'><small>[69]</small></a></p> + +<p>The spring of 1880 had come; Lord Beaconsfield had been driven from +office, in an evil day for the renown of England; Mr. Gladstone had been +returned again to power, on the flood of a tide of democratic sympathy. +Lord Beaconsfield was not an author of any very large Irish reform, but he +understood Ireland much better than his impetuous rival; he had seen from +the first the real nature of the Land League movement; in his address to +the nation, when he dissolved Parliament, he declared that an ‘attempt +scarcely less dangerous than famine and pestilence’ was being made to +separate Ireland from Great Britain, words treated by Mr. Gladstone with +scornful ridicule, but words of real truth. The incoming Minister had of +late taken little heed of Irish affairs; he had been engaged in his +crusade in Midlothian, and in stirring up the multitude on the Eastern +question; but he had clung to his optimistic Irish faith; he had solemnly +announced that Ireland was ‘contented and happy,’ when the country was +suffering from unquestionable distress; he had even refused to renew a +measure for the repression of agrarian crime, when agrarian crime was +formidably on the increase,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> and the Land League was rapidly growing in +strength. At last, however, partly opening his eyes to the facts, he +appointed a Commission charged to report on Irish land tenure; and he +introduced a Bill slightly to amend the Land Act of 1870, showing thus +from the outset that he choose to regard a conspiracy against the State on +its economic side mainly, and not in its far more grave political aspect. +A word must be said on this measure, which had its origin, to a great +extent, in sheer and audacious falsehood. By this time Parnell was at the +head of some sixty adherents in the House of Commons; he had linked the +Home Rule and the Land League movements; his followers were, in many +instances, chiefs of the League; they induced Mr. Gladstone to listen to +them, on representations characteristically untrue. Evictions were on the +increase in Ireland, owing to the onslaught made by the League on the +landed gentry; Parnell and his band unscrupulously exaggerated the number, +perhaps twenty-fold, by confounding ejectment decrees of the Courts with +evictions actually carried out; Mr. Gladstone appears to have accepted +this shameful statement. The new ‘Compensation for Disturbance’ Bill, as +it was called, provided that in the case of certain classes of tenants, +although they had failed to pay their rents, compensation, withheld, we +have seen, under the Act of 1870, might be afforded them, under rather +strict conditions; this was certainly an innovation of a startling kind, +but something was to be said for it, in the existing position of affairs. +The House of Commons, however, disliked a measure nicknamed ‘payment by +reason of non-payment,’ and limited its application in many ways; and the +House of Lords, unfortunately, I think, threw it out.</p> + +<p>This Bill, closely circumscribed as it was, would not have extended, +perhaps, to many tenants; it was condemned by Parnell and his satellites +as a sham. Its rejection, however, gave an opportunity to the League; its +leaders proclaimed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> at meetings, never so frequent before, that Ireland +had nothing to expect from a foreign Parliament; the attack on +‘landlordism’ became more intense; treasonable and predatory harangues +increased in vehemence. The influence of the conspiracy spread beyond +Connaught, over nearly all Munster, and parts of Leinster; wherever it was +felt it was attended with agrarian crime; ‘crime,’ as Mr. Gladstone +exclaimed, ‘always dogged its footsteps.’ Offences of this kind +portentously multiplied; they had been eight hundred and sixty-three at +the close of 1879; they were two thousand five hundred and eighty-nine at +the close of 1880;<a name='fna_70' id='fna_70' href='#f_70'><small>[70]</small></a> and these included a number of barbarous murders, +and of other atrocious deeds of outrage and blood, especially of the +mutilation of the cattle of those opposed to the League. A kind of servile +war springing from the land had set in; and during this whole period the +spokesmen of the League, whether in the highest or the lowest grades, +continued to denounce the landed gentry, though they knew that their +utterances were the direct incentive to far-spreading crime. Parnell, +however, infinitely the ablest of the conspirators, perceived that this +brutal disorder would incense Parliament, and, besides, could not have +decisive results; the cool, calculating schemer laid down a plan of +operations for the League, which he hoped would be less openly detestable, +and much more effective. Orders were issued that tenants should, in every +part of Ireland, repudiate the rents they had agreed to pay, and should +pay only such sums as had been assessed on land by a valuation made by the +State for rates, a standard long acknowledged to be much too low; every +landlord who should reject these terms was to incur the vengeance of the +League. By these means Parnell expected, and not without reason, that a +great combination for the forcible reduction of rent would be formed, and +that numbers of farmers would flock<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> in to the League, but he knew that +his proposal was simply a defiance of the law, and that it would be +resisted by many of the landed gentry; he hit on an expedient through +which he believed he would attain his end. Should any landlord refuse to +accept the sum offered instead of the proper rent, and should proceed to +dispossess the defaulting tenant—and practically he could have no other +remedy—the evicted farm was to be left derelict; it was to be smitten, as +it were, by the interdict of the League; and any wretch who should dare to +take it was to be banned by the whole neighbourhood; he and his, and those +who dealt with him, ‘were to be shunned as lepers,’ and ‘treated as +traitors to the cause.’<a name='fna_71' id='fna_71' href='#f_71'><small>[71]</small></a> In this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> way, the crime of ‘boycotting,’ as it +has ever since been called—its origin may be traced to the great Tithe +War in Ireland—was made part of ‘the unwritten law’ of the League; and +Parnell professed, whether sincerely or not, that through this device the +League would baffle the law, and the landlords, as a class, as unhappily +it did, in too many instances. Having thus armed the conspiracy with +increased power, he cynically began to deprecate crimes of violence: the +device of ‘boycotting’ was a more excellent way; it would before long +‘bring landlords to their knees,’ and would ultimately ‘plant the tenant +in his farm to be held at a nominal rent,’ should he only be true to the +League. At the same time the astute plotter found other means to extend +his authority and that of the conspiracy he ruled. He appealed to the +elective Local Boards in each county, composed for the most part of tenant +farmers, to join the League, and to carry out his policy; and continuously +but steadily he brought the force of the League to bear upon the +administration of the law, by the intimidation of juries, magistrates, and +even judicial persons.</p> + +<p>The teaching of Parnell was disseminated by the League and its agencies, +especially at gatherings of peasant mobs; it was largely followed wherever +the League prevailed. In hundreds of instances tenant farmers were +compelled or induced to tender sums, ‘at Griffith’s valuation,’ as it was +called, in lieu of the rents they were bound to pay; and on the rejection +of the offer, refused to pay anything. A widespread combination against +rent was thus set on foot, sustained by a principle of greed which held it +together;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> the League was more completely organised than it had been +before; it made its way into ten or eleven counties, the only centres in +which it was formidably strong. In these circumstances the landed gentry +acted, as an order of men so assailed would act; not a few accepted the +terms imposed on them, and took their rents at the reduced scale, the +majority resisted the mandates of the League, and appealed to the law to +enforce their rights. The terrors of the League were at once directed +against those who had dared to defy it; in a certain number of instances +landlords and agents were brutally murdered, for popular passions had been +let loose for years; in many more ‘boycotting’ was carried out with such +fatal effect that scores of families were driven out of Ireland, banned, +persecuted, deprived even of the necessaries of life; in many others the +demesnes of gentlemen were ravaged by ‘Land League hunts,’ overrun and +half destroyed by savage mob gatherings. Evictions of course increased as +the law was being trampled under foot; it is hardly necessary to say that +Parnell’s doctrine was here ruthlessly applied; evicted farms were left +deserted and waste over thousands of acres; the fears caused by +‘boycotting’ had become so intense, that no ‘land-grabber,’ as the name +was, would dare to take them; the success of the League was in this +respect remarkable. The vengeance of the conspiracy, too, was extended +universally to another class of persons. Tenants in numbers of instances +paid their rents, either from an honest motive, or through dread of +eviction; the payment was often made at night, and under a pledge of +secrecy; but wherever they were discovered the League marked ‘the +traitor’s doom;’ they were sometimes ‘boycotted’ almost to death; +sometimes murdered, often visited by gangs of ruffians—significantly +known as Parnell’s police; the victims were shot in the legs, or the hair +of their women was cut off, or their cattle were cruelly mutilated and +maimed. It deserves special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> notice that, as was to be expected, Parnell’s +warning against open crime was but little heeded; ‘boycotting,’ as Mr. +Gladstone said, truly ‘was but a passive thing;’ it ‘required +assassination as its sanction;’ the peasantry had been stirred up, in +places, to frenzy; although Parnell made few violent speeches at the time, +his satellites still gave a free rein to their wicked licence. Agrarian +crime increased to an appalling extent; it had reached in 1881 a total of +four thousand four hundred and thirty-nine cases, nearly two thousand more +than those of the preceding year.<a name='fna_72' id='fna_72' href='#f_72'><small>[72]</small></a></p> + +<p>In the spring and summer of 1881, the power of the League was at its +height; in its organisation and working it bore a strong resemblance to +the Jacobin societies of the Revolution in France. It was directed by a +council from a central office in Dublin; its orders were sent thence to +the bodies connected with it; these, scattered over many parts of the +country, enforced its decrees through ‘boycotting’ crime, and terror. +‘Obnoxious’ persons, landlords, agents, ‘land-grabbers,’ and tenants who +had paid their rents, were denounced and exposed to the League’s +vengeance; officers of the law and of justice were especially banned; even +those thought to be ‘luke-warm’ in the cause were declared ‘suspected.’ In +some districts the regular government was practically superseded by the +government of the league, described by Mr. Gladstone as ‘a scheme of +anarchic oppression;’ in these a Reign of Terror was really supreme. It +will never be known to what extent the League made use of Whiteboyism and +its secret conclaves in order to carry out its purposes; the central body, +controlled by Parnell, probably did not, but the affiliated bodies +certainly did; it is impossible to account otherwise for the enormous +increase of agrarian crime; the branches of the League, it is generally +supposed, overshadowed, so to speak, the Whiteboy societies; these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> were +active agents in the atrocious deeds that were done. It is scarcely +necessary to refer to what the condition of social life was wherever the +influence of the League was great; despair settled on the hearts of +thousands, who felt themselves exposed to unseen perils, and existed, as +it were, in an atmosphere of crime; and it must be borne in mind that for +one member of the better class, fifty probably of the humbler, who had +transgressed the law of the League, were kept in a state of moral dread +and torture. By this time the Fenian League in the United States, formed +by Parnell, but ruled by the Clan na Gael, had completely joined hands +with the League at home; its emissaries were found in many parts of +Ireland; its organ, the <i>Irish World</i>, ‘spread what it called the light,’ +the teaching of treason, murder, and dynamite; and it supplied the parent +League with, probably, nine-tenths of its funds, for it is a significant +fact, deserving special notice, that the contributions of the peasantry to +the League were, from first to last, small. Large parts of Ireland were +thus in a deplorable state; but it is a complete mistake to suppose, as +has been asserted, that the authority of the League was general throughout +the whole island. Protestant Ulster, with a true instinct of what the +conspiracy was, a movement against British rule in Ireland, kept aloof +from the League, in angry contempt; and though its influence was more +widely diffused, it was confined, I have said, to comparatively few +counties if regarded as a dangerous and formidable power. It is also +absolutely untrue that the movement was the uprising of an injured +peasantry against oppressive landlords. There was little distress in 1880 +and 1881, when the League was rapidly growing in strength, for the +harvests of those years were above the average; and the Commission lately +appointed by Mr. Gladstone had reported that over-renting in Ireland was +not common, though instances of over-renting were of course to be +found.<a name='fna_73' id='fna_73' href='#f_73'><small>[73]</small></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>The centre of disturbance formed by the Land League was, I have said, +comparatively small; and it was, for the most part, limited to backward +and poor districts; its wicked and sordid teaching did not command the +sympathies of the more intelligent and better parts of Ireland. Its +influence, however, spread, in different degrees of strength, over nearly +the whole of Catholic Ireland, and it was more or less supported by the +Catholic priesthood, in many instances yielding to the pressure of their +flocks. Within the bounds where it did not create a Reign of Terror, it +was joined by thousands who thought it a constitutional movement, +especially by peasants only seeking an improved tenure; and it is not +pretended that even a majority of those who took part in it had +treasonable or rebellious objects in view. But it was not the less a +conspiracy hatched abroad, and aiming at the subversion of British power +in Ireland; this was the policy its leaders avowed; and a conspiracy must +be judged by the acts and words of those who direct it. The state of +anarchy in Ireland had become such, in the spring of 1881, that the +Government was compelled to try to put it down; a prosecution against +Parnell and his chief lieutenants had failed; a Bill, resisted by +obstruction, more persistent than had been ever known before, passed +through Parliament with the object of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> repressing the Land League. The +measure, however, was not well designed; minor agents of the League, +‘village ruffians,’ ‘Parnell’s police,’ and the like, were imprisoned in +large numbers, no real punishment; but the chiefs of the conspiracy were +not brought within the law; the funds of the League were removed to Paris; +the movement went on in its destructive course. ‘Coercion,’ nevertheless, +was beginning to produce its effects, as it has always done in Irish +disorders, when Mr. Gladstone made a sudden change in his policy, never +made before by a Minister at the head of the State. He had denounced the +conspiracy in passionate language; he had partly at least seen what its +objects were; ‘it aimed at dismemberment through rapine;’ but always a man +of phrases and not of action, he had shrunk in every passage of his career +from facing difficulties where popular feelings were involved; and while +Ireland was still in a terrible state, he resolved to make a great +concession to the League, and to effect a complete revolution in the Irish +land. It was a surrender akin to that of Majuba, made with little +information, and without mature reflection; whether its author believed, +as I have remarked, that the conspiracy was most dangerous on its agrarian +side, or was willing to propitiate Parnell, at the expense of the Irish +landed gentry, he inaugurated the legislation, ever since pursued, which +has resulted in destroying the property of the Irish landlord, without +gaining the sympathy of the occupier of the Irish soil, has reduced the +land system of Ireland to a ruinous chaos, and has, in essential respects, +been an absolute failure.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone’s position was difficult when he introduced his new Irish +Land Bill; his speech in the House of Commons, lucid as regards details, +was apologetic, ambiguous, often beside the subject. He went out of his +way to praise Irish landlords, ‘acquitted,’ he declared, by the late +Commission; he deeply regretted a new experiment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> on the Irish land. He +retained his admiration for the Act of 1870, but insinuated that it had +been injured in the House of Lords; had this not been the case, it would +have settled the Irish land question. He passed over his solemn pledges, +on the faith of which millions had been lent on Irish estates, that the +legislation of eleven years before was final; here he took refuge in +appeals to ‘Divine Justice,’ in the ‘light of which’ a statesman must +walk, as if Divine Justice was an excuse for a gross breach of faith. He +then unfolded his plan of reform; he endeavoured, with an ingenuity all +his own, to distinguish it from the schemes he had emphatically condemned +in 1870; but in this respect mystification was at fault; the measure was a +clumsy imitation of the ‘Three F’s,’ and where it differed, it differed +greatly for the worse. Anticipating objections certain to be made, the +orator dismissed ‘political economy to Saturn’ with a confident gesture; +for some untold reason the philosophy of Adam Smith could not possibly +apply to the order of things in Ireland. But by many degrees the most +important part of the speech, in view of events which have since happened, +was that in which Mr. Gladstone announced that should the measure really +injure the Irish landlord, the State was bound to provide an indemnity. He +denied, indeed, that the Bill could have any such effect; it would be a +boon, he gravely said, to the Irish landed gentry; but should the contrary +be the case, ‘compensation’ would be clearly their right. ‘I do not +hesitate to say’—these were his very words spoken after the Bill had made +much progress—‘that if it can be shown, on clear and definite experience, +at the present time, that there is a probability, or if after experience +shall prove that, in fact, ruin and heavy loss has been brought on any +class in Ireland by the direct effect of this legislation, that is a +question which we ought to look very directly in the face.’ The same +meaning was even more clearly expressed: ‘I should certainly be very slow +to deny that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> where confiscation could be proved, compensation ought to +follow,’ and several of Mr. Gladstone’s lieutenants spoke in the same +sense.<a name='fna_74' id='fna_74' href='#f_74'><small>[74]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Bill, I have said, applied the principle of the ‘Three F’s’ to the +relation of landlord and tenant in by far the greatest part of Ireland. As +in the case of the Land Act of 1870, it excluded certain classes of lands +from its scope, demesnes, residential holdings, town parks, and large +pastoral farms; it extended also only to tenants at will, that is, subject +to a notice to quit; it left tenants under leases outside its purview. It +was confined, too, to ‘present tenants in occupation,’ at or near the +existing time; it had no reference to ‘future tenants,’ that is, to +tenants holding by contracts made after the Bill should pass, or a few +months afterwards. Subject, however, to these exceptions, on the whole not +large, the measure placed tenancies in Ireland under the ‘Three F’s,’ but +with conditions of tenure peculiar to itself, and hitherto unknown in +Ireland, or in any part of Europe. ‘Fair Rent,’ which, under the Ulster +Custom, was settled by a bargain between landlord and tenant, was to be +adjusted through the intervention of the State, legislation akin to the +mediæval statutes regulating the price of bread, and the wages of labour. +‘Fixity of Tenure’ was not to be a perpetuity in name; Mr. Gladstone +feared that the speeches would be thrown in his teeth, in which he had +declaimed against the idea; it was to be a lease for fifteen years, but +capable of being renewed for ever, as a rule, through a periodical and +costly lawsuit. ‘Free Sale’ was to be conceded under somewhat strict +conditions; and the landlord was to be afforded a right of pre-emption in +the case of such sales, in accordance with the analogy of the Ulster +Custom. An estate virtually perpetual, at a State-settled rent, was thus +to be carved out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> of the landlord’s fee, and given to tenants actually in +possession of the land; it was created in absolute derogation from the +landlord’s rights; it was a large if partial expropriation, in no doubtful +sense. As to the interest of landlords in what was left of their property, +they were to retain what are usually known as ‘royalties’—timber, +minerals, mines, and privileges of sport; they were to have the ordinary +remedies for enforcing payment of rent; and the statutory leases were to +be subject to certain conditions, taken, for the most part, from the +Ulster Custom, the violation of which might lead to their forfeiture. A +tribunal, called the Land Commission, was to be set up to carry the law +into effect, that is, to ‘fix fair rents,’ and to make tenures ‘fixed;’ it +was to be assisted by dependent agencies, known as Sub-Commissions, which, +Mr. Gladstone intimated, were to be quite subordinate, and from which +appeals to the Land Commission were to run; but a sinister feature of an +untried revolutionary scheme—the decision of the Land Commission as +respects ‘fair rent’—was to be final. Subject to an appeal to the Land +Commission, the Irish County Courts were empowered to administer the law; +but it was foreseen that they would not do much in this province. The new +modes of tenure might be applied to lands, by agreements between landlords +and tenants carefully guarded; and Mr. Gladstone believed that this would +be the ordinary course of dealing. The Bill, he thought, would not cause +litigation to any great extent; it would operate as a self-acting force to +lead to friendly contracts.<a name='fna_75' id='fna_75' href='#f_75'><small>[75]</small></a></p> + +<p>So much for the scope of the Bill and the classes of tenants to which its +benefits were to extend. A most important change was made in the measure, +which contained, originally, nothing of the kind; this has been attended +with far-reaching results. As we have seen, tenants were to be compensated +for their improvements,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> under the Act of 1870; but the compensation was +to be paid only when they were leaving the land; Mr. Healy, one of the +ablest of Parnell’s lieutenants, induced Parliament to accept a provision +exempting tenants’ improvements from rent, when the adjustment of ‘fair +rent’ was to be made. However equitable in principle this might appear to +be, it was, in the peculiar state of Irish land tenure, unjust in the +extreme to landlords, as I shall endeavour to point out afterwards; and it +has been a source of litigation, as mischievous and demoralising as can +well be conceived. The Bill, like the Act of 1870, prohibited the +subdivision and subletting of farms—an inveterate evil practice of the +Irish peasant—under conditions possibly rather too strict; and it made +changes, in that statute, which require attention. It added weight, so to +speak, to the law, in the tenant’s interest; it increased the amount of +compensation in respect of disturbance; it limited the power of +‘contracting out,’ to a smaller class of tenants than had been the case +before, in fact, to large capitalist farmers; and it provided that +tenants, who had accepted leases excluding them from the benefits of the +Act of 1870, through illegitimate conduct on the part of their landlords, +should be exonerated from such unfair contracts. It thus greatly amended +the original Land Act; but it left many of its defects untouched; it is +only right here to add that despite the lying clamour raised by the +subsidised Press of Parnell—lying has ever since been part of its +stock-in-trade—the instances were exceedingly few in which ‘forced +leases,’ as they were called, were set aside by the Courts. A remarkable +feature of the Bill has yet to be noticed: Mr. Gladstone, as was the case +eleven years before, had still the wish, so characteristic of British +statesmen, to assimilate Irish to English land tenure; for this reason, as +I said, he deprived ‘future tenants’ of the advantages of the Bill; these +were to hold their farms on the footing of pure contract. This was a +shortsighted and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> bad arrangement; it tempted directly ill-conditioned +landlords to dispossess tenants, whenever a chance offered, and to create +‘future’ tenants so as to discharge their estates from a burden; it +revealed marked ignorance of the affairs of Ireland. The Bill dealt, also, +with the land on the side of ownership; it gave additional facilities to +tenants to purchase their holdings; the State was empowered to advance +three-fourths of the moneys; but the tenants were to find the remaining +fourth; the transaction was to be still a purchase, and not in the nature +of a gift.<a name='fna_76' id='fna_76' href='#f_76'><small>[76]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Bill became law, with very little change; the House of Lords, though +fully alive to its evils, did not amend it in any important respect; the +Peers had in mind, perhaps too much, what had followed the rejection of +the Bill of the year before. Mr. Gladstone and his followers maintained at +the time, and the statement has been ever since repeated, that the Land +Act of 1881, its popular title, was but a natural development of the +original Act of 1870; but this assertion is not only untrue, but +absolutely contrary to the truth. The Act of 1870, no doubt, considered as +a whole, annexed a large tenant right to the estate of the landlord, and +to that extent placed a burden on it; but it preserved for the landlord +the ownership of the land; it did not interfere with his rent, his first +proprietary right; above all, it was, in the main, in accord with fact, +and just. The Act of 1881 was almost the exact opposite; it deprived the +landlord of the ownership of his land, and nearly converted him into a +mere rent-charger; it created against him a perpetuity at a State-settled +rent; it really all but made the tenant the owner of the land; it was, in +short, inconsistent with fact, and essentially unjust. The Act of 1881, +too, established a principle, never heard of before in civilised +countries, that tribunals of the State<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> were to fix the rate of rent; this +not only annihilated the most important of landed contracts, entirely to +the landlord’s detriment, it inevitably tended to cut down rents +wholesale, as Judge Longfield had predicted would be the case. ‘It is +probable,’ wrote that great authority, ‘that the value of land, as fixed +by any tenant-right measure, would be less than half the rent, which a +solvent tenant would be willing to pay;’<a name='fna_77' id='fna_77' href='#f_77'><small>[77]</small></a> the prediction has been too +well verified. The Act of 1870, in a word, was a remedial law, fairly +adjusting the rights of landlord and tenant; the Act of 1881 was a +socialistic law, despoiling the landlord of his property wholesale, and +handing it over to a dependent who had no claim to it; it was sheer +confiscation hardly disguised; and it should be added that the exemption +of tenants’ improvements from rent, as affairs stood in Ireland, was a +grave wrong to the landlord. The Act of 1881, to speak plainly, +transformed the Irish land system iniquitously for the benefit of a single +class; and it directly promoted litigation of the very worst kind, on an +enormous scale, embittering, and still further dividing, the classes +connected with the land. The evils of this legislation, a monument of +reckless unwisdom, were at once manifest to well-informed persons; the +Duke of Argyll and Lord Lansdowne resigned office rather than take part in +a measure of the kind; Lord Ashbourne, the present holder of the Great +Seal in Ireland, caustically remarked that Parliament would do much better +should it deprive Irish landlords of a fourth part of their rents on the +spot. The verdict of enlightened and impartial opinion in Ireland was very +much the same.</p> + +<p>I shall comment on the administration of this law in another chapter; +enough to say here that what was bad was made, by many degrees, worse. The +conduct of Parnell, as regards the measure, was characteristic; he assumed +an attitude of moderation, and proposed to make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> ‘a trial of the Act by +test cases;’ he wrote to his Fenian friends in the Far West that the Act +was a mockery; he allowed the Land League to riot in lawlessness as +before. Mr. Gladstone, always incensed when his will was crossed, shut him +up in prison under the recent statute, with several prominent leaders of +the League; the reply was a manifesto against the payment of any rent, +unhappily obeyed in some districts, though every symptom of exceptional +distress had passed away. A brief but violent struggle was the result; the +peasantry refused to pay a shilling in several counties; and as the +principal agents of the League were within four walls, flights of +viragoes, like those of the French Revolution, were let loose to preach, +far and near, the evangel of ‘no rent.’ This conflict, however, was not +lasting; agrarian crime and disorder, indeed, still continued frequent; +but the Government was too strong for the ‘Ladies’ Land League;’ by the +spring of 1882 its triumph appeared to be certain. But Mr. Gladstone, +‘unstable as water’ in view of what he deemed popular movements, would not +steadily persist in vindicating the law; the imprisonment of the chiefs of +the conspiracy and their subordinates, in large numbers, seems to have +made him feel sore if unworthy misgivings; he surrendered to the enemies +of the State, for the second time, and entered with Parnell into the +famous ‘Kilmainham Treaty,’ as shameful as the Glamorgan Treaty which cost +Charles I. his head. The ‘Suspects,’ as they were called, were set free in +scores; the Lord-Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary indignantly left their +posts; a new Government for Ireland was formed, charged to carry +‘conciliation,’ as the phrase was, out, that is, to make fresh concessions +to Parnell and his creatures. But the auspicious prospect was suddenly +darkened by the frightful assassinations of the Phœnix Park; these +cannot be justly laid to the charge of the League, indeed were against +Parnell’s interest, for it was generally expected he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> would obtain high +office; but two agents of the League were implicated in the crime; and the +Press of the League began soon to plead for the murderers. The mind of +England was now thoroughly roused; Mr. Gladstone, bowing at once to +England’s will, carried through Parliament the severest repressive measure +that has ever, perhaps, been applied to Ireland. The battle with the +League was soon brought to a close; the conspiracy indeed resisted for a +time, and crime, as always, was attendant on it; and the Clan na Gael gave +it all the assistance it could, in large subsidies which had never ceased, +in the dissemination in Ireland of its incendiary journals, and especially +by ‘carrying the war into England,’ and fulfilling its threats to attack +her chief towns by fire and dynamite, outrages, however, that really came +to nothing. But ‘coercion,’ as has been invariably the case in Ireland, +produced its effects; agrarian crimes, which, in 1882, if less than those +of the year before, were, nevertheless, three thousand four hundred and +thirty-two in number, had fallen to eight hundred and seventy in 1883.<a name='fna_78' id='fna_78' href='#f_78'><small>[78]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Land League was paralysed, if not destroyed; its organisation was, in +name, suppressed by its framers. It reappeared, however, at once, in a new +form; the skill of Parnell in masking a conspiracy was never more fully +displayed. He felt that the Land League could not cope with the law; that +the crimes of violence and blood, which attended its course, gave the +Government opportunities to put it down; that its openly avowed purposes +were a danger to it. He set up, therefore, the ‘National League’ in its +stead; the professed object of the association was to promote ‘Home Rule,’ +while it upheld the rights of the occupiers of the Irish soil, and kept +the Irish land, so to speak, in view; it was thus apparently a mere centre +of a constitutional movement. Through these means, and under these +pretences, the astute and able plotter swept<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> into his net thousands who +had held aloof from the Land League; many of the middle classes joined the +National League, notably hundreds of the clergy of the Catholic Church in +Ireland; the peasantry gave it increased support; its influence spread +beyond its predecessor’s limits. The National League, however, was only +the Land League under another name;<a name='fna_79' id='fna_79' href='#f_79'><small>[79]</small></a> its leaders and officials were the +same men; its ‘branches’ were those of the League it replaced; its real +objects were exactly the same, the overthrow of British rule in Ireland, +and the annihilation of the Irish landed gentry. But the methods it +employed to work out its ends were, to a great extent, different; open +agitation was kept down; public meetings, likely to be violent, were not +held; the perpetration of agrarian crime was not encouraged. The movement, +in a word, was comparatively secret and below the surface; but it was +essentially the successor of the Land League in its aims; we may say of +it, with a slight change, in the words of the poet—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">‘Facies non una sororum,</span><br /> +Nec diversa tamen.’</p> + +<p>‘Boycotting’ was now made the chief weapon of the reformed conspiracy; +‘National League Courts’ were held regularly in many districts, at which +this barbarous interdict was systematically pronounced on persons +violating ‘the unwritten law’ of the old League; the persecution against +landlords, agents, ‘land-grabbing’ peasants who were ‘disloyal and +traitors,’ and traders suspected of dealing with ‘rotten sheep,’ was +carried on with a pertinacity and ingenuity hardly known before; the +number of derelict farms augmented; and the Government found it far from +easy to deal with these crimes. At the same time, ‘the Nationalist Press,’ +as it had been named, fully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> revealed the purpose of the conspirators; +trusting to impunity, under the law of libel, which depended upon the will +of juries, it was even more treasonable and seditious than before; and it +gave infamous license to defamation of personages in high places, worthy +of the abominations of the Père Duchesne.<a name='fna_80' id='fna_80' href='#f_80'><small>[80]</small></a> Ireland, however, remained +in comparative peace while the recent measure of repression continued in +force; but this was injudiciously allowed to expire in 1885—a strange act +on the part of a Conservative Ministry; and in a short time agrarian +disorder broke out afresh. Crimes of this class had fallen, in 1884, to +seven hundred and sixty-two in number; they were one thousand and +fifty-six in 1886; and ‘boycotting’ had increased fourfold.<a name='fna_81' id='fna_81' href='#f_81'><small>[81]</small></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>The National League remained quiescent, while Mr. Gladstone was making +another surrender, and endeavouring to carry Home Rule through Parliament. +Upon the rejection of the measure of 1886, its activity was renewed; and +it found considerable support from the American Fenians, who, from first +to last, had been its chief paymasters. I have referred to the Convention +at Chicago graced by Parnell’s envoys, and to the wild boast that the +English ‘government of Ireland was to be made impossible;’ the treasonable +aspect of the conspiracy became at once manifest. The League was assisted +by another season of distress, from 1886 to 1888; the number of its +adherents greatly increased; it began, like its predecessor, to defy the +authority of the State. I have already dealt with this movement on its +political side; I shall not repeat what I have already written: how the +League endeavoured to stir up disorder in Ireland; how it declared open +war against the Castle; how it tried to terrorise the ministers of the +law; how it made ‘boycotting’ more effective than it had ever been; how, +if responsible for many grave deeds of blood, it mainly relied on this +malign influence, which tortured hundreds of victims in many districts, +and was fitly compared to ‘the pestilence that walks in darkness;’ how Mr. +Gladstone and the Opposition, to the disgrace of both, gave the conspiracy +their support and excused its crimes; and how it was ere long put down by +Mr. Balfour strongly seconded by Rome. But I must say a word on the +agrarian side of the movement; for this illustrated the increased +ingenuity of the League. Some of its leaders issued a mandate against the +payment of rent, except upon reductions to an enormous extent; should the +landlords refuse, the tenants, on every estate, were to lodge their rents +into what was called the ‘War chest,’ a common fund to be held in trust; +the object of this being to prevent the secret payment of rent, which had +repeatedly, we have seen, taken place, and to put a stop to ‘defection +from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> cause.’ The ‘Plan of Campaign’ as was its name, was thus ushered +on; it was a criminal plot of the very basest kind; but though it proved +successful in some instances, and it caused much agrarian disorder and +crime, it was, on the whole, a comparative failure. The peasantry, +close-fisted and shrewd, distrusted the so-called ‘trustees of the War +chest;’ they generally declined to put their money in it; the ‘Plan’ was +only carried out on few estates, though it compelled many landlords to +make reductions of rent; it is remarkable that Parnell did not approve of +the swindle. Long, however, before the defeat of the League, there had +been a thousand instances of agrarian crime: five thousand miserable +beings had been ‘boycotted,’ in many cases with frightful results; a +thousand had been placed under the protection of the police. As had +happened during the <i>régime</i> of the Land League, these victims were nearly +all of the humble classes.</p> + +<p>In 1887 another change was made in the Irish land system, essentially a +development of the Land Act of 1881. That measure, I have said, applied to +tenants at will only, that is, liable to be dispossessed by a notice to +quit; it did not apply to tenants under leasehold tenures. A sharp +distinction, therefore, was drawn between the two classes; a farmer, with +land on one side of a ditch, could secure the advantages of the ‘Three +F’s;’ his neighbour, on the other side, could not; the distinction was so +palpably harsh, that many landlords in Ireland saw its injustice, and +enabled leasehold tenants to obtain the benefits of the law. An Act, +prepared by Lord Salisbury’s Government, brought ordinary Irish +leaseholders within the Land Act of 1881; these were given a right to have +‘fair rents’ fixed, and ‘fixity of tenure’ and ‘free sale’ under certain +conditions. The Act of 1887, also, empowered the Courts to set aside +perpetual leases unfairly obtained; and it relaxed the restrictions of the +Act of 1881 with respect to subletting and subdivision, and the exclusion +of ‘town parks.’ It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> improved, moreover, the law of ejectment, +facilitating the vindication of the rights of the landlord; and—a strange +provision—it enabled a middleman, in certain events, to creep out of his +contract, and to free himself from the rent due to his superior landlord. +In consequence of the fall of prices that had lately occurred, and the +depression of agriculture that had been the result, the Act, too, reduced, +for a short period of time, ‘fair rents’ that had been already fixed; and +it contained other enactments wholly in the interest of the occupier of +the Irish soil. Regarded as a whole, something was to be said for the +measure, on the principles of the legislation of 1881; but the liberation +of the middleman from the payment of a debt has been attended with grave +wrong, and was an ominous precedent leading to others of the kind. The new +law was, of course, another inroad on the rights of the Irish landlord, +another innovation made against his interests; it has certainly +strengthened his claim to compensation for the loss of his property, +acknowledged by Mr. Gladstone to be unquestionable, should it be +reasonably made out. For the rest, the National League made a boast that +the Act had been wrung by its efforts from a foreign Parliament; the Act +certainly, like that of 1881, was a concession, derogating from the rights +of a powerless class, in the hope of weakening a conspiracy against the +State, by detaching from it large classes supported by it, and handing +over to these what had belonged to the Irish landed gentry.<a name='fna_82' id='fna_82' href='#f_82'><small>[82]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Land Act of 1887, it has been alleged, was the principal cause that +disorder in Ireland was suppressed, and that comparative peace was +restored. The measure may have had effects in this direction; but these +assuredly were not great; the number of leaseholders was not large; the +reductions made in ‘fair rents’ were temporary and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> small. In truth, as +agrarian war, stirred up by the Land League, did not diminish when the Act +of 1881 was passed, but was brought to an end by what is called coercion, +the agrarian war, stirred up by the National League, was quelled, not by +the Act of 1887, but by resolute government, assisted by a repressive +measure infinitely less stringent than that of 1882, and, in some degree, +I have said, by Rome. It is worse than unwise to ignore plain facts; grave +outbreaks of disorder and crime in Ireland can only be put down by severe +means, and invariably have been put down by these; that ‘force is no +remedy’ is mere false sentiment. The violence, nay, the power, of the +National League decreased rapidly and greatly after about 1889; the +conspiracy seemed well-nigh to have dwindled away. This was partly because +Parnell, negotiating with Mr. Gladstone, in the hope of obtaining Home +Rule, discouraged agitation of every kind in Ireland, and in order to +hoodwink the English people, and to bring about the ‘Union of Hearts,’ +represented, with his followers, that Ireland was at perfect peace, and +only awaited ‘self-government’ to be completely happy. But infinitely the +most potent reason was that the fall of Parnell almost broke up the +League; his creatures split into angry factions, exasperated against each +other by furious discord; as the result the organisation of the League was +shattered; the peasantry and the Catholic priesthood fell away from it. At +the same time the Fenians in the United States, much its best supporters, +withdrew the subsidies they had hitherto lavished; the League became +penniless and almost powerless. By 1895 the conspiracy showed scarcely a +sign of life; agrarian crime had sunk to a very low ebb; there was no sign +of a movement against the payment of rent; order prevailed, it may be +said, throughout the community. The conspiracy, nevertheless, was not +dead; its leaders, if quiescent, had not disappeared; well-informed +observers knew that the end had not come. I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> described in another +chapter, by what means, and through what conditions, it revived gradually +under Lord Salisbury’s third Government, and acquired strength that may be +on the increase; it is not yet formidable, in any real sense, and its +leaders are not to be named with Parnell; it is not receiving funds as yet +from America; but the United Irish League is its true successor; and this +commands eighty votes in the House of Commons. Time only can show if a +period of agrarian strife and crime may not be about to open again for +Ireland; it is foolish optimism to assert that this is impossible, or to +contend that the agrarian legislation of the last twenty years, as regards +the Irish land, will necessarily, or even probably, produce this fortunate +result.</p> + +<p>In 1891 another change was effected in Irish landed relations, as usual in +the interest of the tenant, and against his landlord. Middleman tenures +had well-nigh been extinguished; but some hundreds, probably, were still +to be found; and as a middleman, through the legislation of 1887, was +enabled to repudiate his contract, in certain cases, and to escape the +payment of rent to his superior landlord, he was now to obtain an +advantage in other instances. The large majority of this class of +intermediate owners, originally created in the eighteenth century, held, +at least, in present times, by perpetual leases, which had long ago, as a +rule, been converted into estates in fee farm, that is, estates in fee, +subject to a perpetual rent; Parliament passed an Act in 1891, enlarged +and amended five years afterwards, declaring that, in cases in which +tenants of this kind were ‘in <i>bonâ fide</i> occupation’ of lands, under +rents which, in the judgment of the Land Commission, should be ‘a full +agricultural rent,’ they might either agree with their landlords to redeem +the rent at a price to be determined by that tribunal, or, should the +landlords refuse their consent, might have ‘fair rents’ fixed as in the +instance of common farming tenants.<a name='fna_83' id='fna_83' href='#f_83'><small>[83]</small></a> The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> application of this law could +not extend far, for tenants of this description were very few; but it +asserted a strange, and, I think, a most vicious principle. The Act +practically forced a superior landlord, often a poor man, either to accept +a price assessed by a Court over which he had no control, in lieu of a +rent, in all probability reasonably well secured, or, as an alternative, +to submit to have a ‘fair rent’ fixed on the land, the rent to be +discharged from improvements made by the tenant. If, therefore, a tenant +of this kind had built, say, a valuable house, on his holding, which would +thus largely add to the security for the rent, this—at least, so it is +generally believed—was not to be taken into account in fixing ‘the fair +rent;’ and this principle, it may confidently be predicted, will be +extended further. Should a tenant, at a ‘fair rent,’ in this predicament, +be evicted for the failure to pay the rent, a law, in all human +probability, will be made, to obtain for him compensation, under the Act +of 1870, from the benefits of which he would be, as affairs stand, +excluded. The result might be that if, as would often happen, the +improvements he had made were of great value—his interest, in the land, +being a perpetual interest—the sum the landlord would be adjudged to pay, +might swallow up the whole value of the rent, and practically confiscate +his whole property.<a name='fna_84' id='fna_84' href='#f_84'><small>[84]</small></a></p> + +<p>In 1896 another inroad was made on the rights of Irish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> landlords, and +another dole given to the tenant class in Ireland; the descent to Avernus +had proved easy; a Conservative Government had followed it since 1887. +This fresh legislation was mainly in the interest of the Presbyterian +farmers of Ulster, who had supported the Union almost to a man, and +possessed no little political weight; but who, always separated more or +less from their landlords, had shown dissatisfaction with the fixing of +‘fair rents,’ and had begun to cry out for what is called ‘the compulsory +purchase’ of the estates of their landlords, a policy on which I shall +comment afterwards. The Bill contained just and well-devised provisions; +it improved the procedure for fixing ‘fair rents,’ if not nearly as +thoroughly as it ought to have done; it protected the leases creating +‘fixity,’ under the new tenure—Mr. Gladstone, flying in the face of the +ablest lawyers, had passionately declared that these were sacrosanct—in +instances in which these might have been annulled; it proposed, what I had +always considered right, that old arrears of rent ought not to be allowed +to hang over the heads of tenants, and that rent could not be recovered on +eviction, if due for upward of two years.<a name='fna_85' id='fna_85' href='#f_85'><small>[85]</small></a> But the Bill abounded in +principles dangerous and false; it was, taken as a whole, a mischievous +measure; it was another mine sprung upon the Irish landed gentry. Lands +hitherto excluded from the benefits of the ‘Three F’s,’ under the Acts of +1881 and 1887—that is, demesnes, town parks, residential, and pastoral +holdings—were largely brought within the scope of the Bill, that is, they +were made subject to ‘fair rents,’ and, if held by tenants, were +practically taken away from the landlords; the provisions of the Bill, as +to demesnes, were especially harsh; many a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> mansion and demesne, which +might happen to be let, would really become the property of the tenant, +the owner being put off with a rent-charge. The worst proposals of this +measure, however, were those relating to improvements made by tenants, +exempted from rent, we have seen, by the Act of 1881. The Courts of +Justice in Ireland had rightly declared with one voice, that improvements +of this kind were not to be discharged from rent, unless they were the +improvements treated by the Act of 1870, that is, rents might be charged +on tenants’ improvements, if these did not fall within the definition laid +down by that law, or if they were outside the limitations it had imposed, +in order to shut out obsolete and unjust claims, which might harass and do +grievous wrong to landlords. All this was completely changed by the new +measure; the definition of improvements was wholly altered, in order to +secure their being exempted from rent; the restrictions in point of time, +and many other matters, as regards claims for improvements, were largely +swept away, and the power of ‘contracting out’ of such claims was still +further abridged. The whole law, in a word, as to tenants’ improvements, +as these were to create exemption from rent, was placed on altogether a +new basis; this was detrimental in every respect to the landlord, and gave +advantages to the tenant, in my judgment, utterly unjust.<a name='fna_86' id='fna_86' href='#f_86'><small>[86]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Bill contained other provisions, all in the same direction, that is, +for the advantage of the Irish tenant, and to his landlord’s loss, +especially one relaxing the law as to the subdivision and subletting of +farms, an inveterate and very pernicious practice. It introduced, also, a +new principle, on which I shall say some words afterwards, with respect to +another experiment on the Irish land, that is, what is called Land +Purchase, under conditions, not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> thought of before, until they were laid +down by a Conservative Government. The measure was hustled through the +House of Commons with such indecorous haste, that Sir Edward Carson, now a +law-officer of the Crown, walked out of that Assembly to express his +disgust; it narrowly escaped defeat in the House of Lords, loyal as the +Peers to Lord Salisbury are; indeed, though hardly debated, its vices were +soon made manifest. It is unnecessary to point out what the general +character of the Act is; it enlarged very considerably the sphere of the +‘Three F’s,’ greatly increasing the wrong done to the Irish landlord, by +doing away with the restrictions, placed by Mr. Gladstone, in 1870, on +illegitimate claims in respect of improvements; its direct tendency was to +reduce rents wholesale, and to promote more litigation between landlord +and tenant; and if it encouraged tenants to make improvements on their +farms, its plain effect, I will not say its purpose, was to ‘improve the +Irish landlords out of their estates,’ the contemptuous phrase of a great +master of Equity. Its mischief, however, went a great deal further; +tenants making improvements are only exempted from rent, in respect of +these, by this Act; they are not within the protection of the Act of 1870, +if improvements of any kind are excluded by it; if a tenant, therefore, +makes an improvement on his farm, which is not ‘suitable’ to it in a real +sense, say, builds a mansion upon a petty holding, he will not be entitled +to compensation, should he quit it, even though dispossessed for +non-payment of his rent. But tenants, in these circumstances, like those I +have referred to before, would assuredly proclaim that they had here a +great and real grievance; and they would be relieved from it, doubtless, +by another law, giving them compensation, perhaps, to their landlord’s +ruin. A dangerous principle is thus hidden within the Act; this will +probably be asserted against the owners of ground rents, not only in +Ireland, but in England and Scotland; and the law,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> taken as a whole, has +strengthened the claim of the Irish landed gentry to be indemnified, as +was solemnly promised, for what they have suffered from the legislation +begun in 1881.</p> + +<p>While the Irish land system was thus being dealt with, on the side of +occupation, during many years, experiments were made on it, likewise on +the side of ownership. Resenting the legislation that had produced the +‘Three F’s,’ Conservative politicians took it into their heads that Mr. +Gladstone had ‘created’ ‘dual ownership,’ as they gave it the name, in +Ireland; they insisted that this was simply an intolerable thing. +Unfortunately Mr. Gladstone had no more ‘created dual ownership’ than he +had created the mountains and lakes of Ireland; he had only developed the +joint ownership, which the Irish tenant possessed in his holding, in +thousands of instances, if he had developed it under the very worst +conditions. This theory, however, at which Burke would have laughed with +contempt, and which revealed the incapacity to understand Irish land +tenure, ingrained, it would appear, in the English mind, was eagerly taken +up and found much support; it was resolved to extend the process of +converting tenants in Ireland into owners of their farms, by a method +hitherto untried, and unknown in any part of Europe. Under the Church +Disestablishment Act, and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881, the State had +advanced money to the occupier of the Irish soil, in order to enable him +to acquire his farm; but it had made it incumbent on him to contribute +part of the price; the transaction, therefore, was, in a real sense, a +purchase. This, the only security for honesty and thrift, was taken away +in 1885; Parliament passed an Act enabling the Irish tenant to become +owner of his holding without paying down a shilling; the State was to +advance the whole price; and the State was to be repaid by a terminable +annuity, charged on the land, and extinguished at the end of less than +half a century. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> terminable annuity was to be much less than a true +rent, or even than a ‘fair rent’ adjusted by the State; the transaction, +therefore, was not a purchase, but a gift, akin to a bribe, another +largess bestowed on the tenant class in Ireland, and another injury, as I +shall prove, inflicted on the Irish landed gentry. This ‘Land Purchase,’ +as it was falsely called, was to be voluntary on the part of landlord and +tenant; it was to be conducted on the footing of free contract, as had +been the case under the preceding statutes; the State was to obtain a +guarantee from the landlord; and Parliament voted £5,000,000 to carry out +this policy.</p> + +<p>Exactly as had happened in the case of the Encumbered Estates Act, this +scheme of ‘Land Purchase’ was pronounced successful; some scores of +landlords sold land, some hundreds of tenants bought it; the real nature +of the proceeding and its inevitable results were ignored; it was even +boasted that ‘dual ownership’ would be got rid of, nay, that the Irish +Land Question was being finally ‘settled.’ But when the first sum of +£5,000,000 had been expended, and Parliament was asked to vote a second +sum, it began to hesitate as to this dealing with the Irish land; the +British taxpayer demurred and growled; with a true instinct he disliked +the security; it was found very difficult to procure the funds required, +large as the majority was of Lord Salisbury’s Government. His Ministry, +however, adhered to the new policy; and Parliament enacted a measure in +1891, which I have always thought unconstitutional in the highest degree, +not to speak of the evils it was certain to produce. By this Act a sum of +about £30,000,000 was made forthcoming to facilitate ‘Land Purchase,’ to +abolish ‘dual ownership,’ and to change Irish tenants into owners of land; +this sum was to be secured by the methods before referred to, that is, by +terminable annuities less than any equitable rent, and by guarantees on +the part of selling landlords; but, furthermore, a whole series of funds, +devoted to Ireland, for Irish purposes, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> absolutely essential to her +most important needs, were appropriated to make good any default on the +part of ‘purchasing’ tenants, in the payment of annuities charged on their +farms; and even the Irish counties were rendered liable in the last +resort. Should, therefore, tenants in Ireland, who had acquired the +ownership of their farms, refuse to pay those annuities on any pretence, +say, through an appeal made by a Land League conspiracy—the manifesto +against all rent cannot be forgotten—this extraordinary spectacle would +then be seen: the State would have a right to seize upon the grants made +for National schools and lunatic asylums throughout Ireland; these +institutions would be shut up; children and madmen would be let loose +through the country; and the owner of an Irish estate would have to pay +for the dishonesty perhaps of his former tenants. The late Lord Randolph +Churchill severely condemned this scheme; I agree with him it was utterly +unjust, and but too characteristic of the contempt of the rights of +Ireland, unhappily often displayed by British statesmen.</p> + +<p>Only a sum, it will be observed, of about £40,000,000, that is, two of +£5,000,000, and some £30,000,000 more, has thus been made available for +‘Land Purchase;’ this obviously could not transfer even a fourth part of +the Irish land, valued, we have seen, by Mr. Gladstone at £300,000,000—in +a remarkable speech in reply to Lord George Hamilton—and almost certainly +worth from £150,000,000 to £200,000,000. The process of doing away with +‘dual ownership’ and making tenants in Ireland owners of their farms, +having been pronounced by its authors slow, the Act of 1896, referred to +before, enabled the landlord’s guarantee to be dispensed with, and +provided that, in the case of hopelessly embarrassed landlords, whose +estates were being offered for sale in the Courts, the tenants should +virtually have a right of pre-emption, thus asserting a principle, on +which I shall dwell afterwards, and known as the ‘Compulsory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> Purchase’ of +the Irish land. I shall point out, in another chapter, the present and the +inevitable future results of this policy of so-styled ‘Land Purchase;’ +suffice it to say here, that, in my judgment, it betrays utter ignorance +of the Irish land system, and of the customs and inclinations of the Irish +peasant; that it proceeds on an essentially immoral principle, the bribery +of a class to promote its welfare; that, from the very nature of the case, +it cannot abolish ‘dual ownership;’ that, human creatures being what they +are, it cannot, as is being already proved, establish a thriving body of +occupying owners on the Irish soil; that it must create sharp and unjust +distinctions in Irish land tenure, iniquitous to the landlord and to every +tenant, who may be excluded from its benefits; that it must directly tend, +as it is even now tending, to arouse a cry for a wholesale confiscation of +Irish estates, the most shameful and wrongful Ireland has yet witnessed; +and that so far from settling the Irish Land Question, it must necessarily +unsettle it from top to bottom. As respects the legislation I have briefly +described, on the side of the occupation of the Irish land—by many +degrees the most important—I shall also comment upon its results in a +subsequent chapter, after examining its administration by the tribunal it +has set up. But a word may be said, in this place, on its essential +character: from 1881 to the present time, it is absolutely without a +precedent in civilised lands; it has trampled on economic science and the +truths it teaches, as, indeed, its chief author made his boast; it has +created a mode of land tenure in Ireland not in accord with fact, which +has virtually deprived the Irish landlord of real ownership in his estate, +has turned him into a kind of annuitant, and has virtually changed the +Irish tenant into a kind of owner, but under conditions absolutely bad; +its inevitable tendency was to cut down rents wholesale, without regard to +the simplest justice; it established a system of mischievous litigation +between landlord and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> tenant, demoralising and increasing the division of +classes; it exhibited, on an enormous scale, characteristic contempt of +Irish rights of property; and finally, if Parliamentary pledges are to be +fulfilled, and gross wrong is not to be consecrated by law, it has given +the Irish landlord a great and legitimate claim to compensation from the +State. As we survey this unwise and destructive medley of law, we are +forcibly reminded of the words of Burke:—‘I am unalterably persuaded that +the attempt to oppress, degrade, impoverish, confiscate, and extinguish +the original gentlemen, and landed property of a whole nation, cannot be +justified under any form it may assume.’<a name='fna_87' id='fna_87' href='#f_87'><small>[87]</small></a></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (<i>continued</i>)—THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE IRISH LAND ACTS</span></p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang">The administration of the Land Act of 1870 in the main +good—Difficulty about claims for tenants’ improvements—The +administration of the Land Act of 1881, and of its supplements—The +Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions—Allowances to be made for +these tribunals—Principles which the Land Commission should have +adopted in fixing ‘fair rents’—The procedure and practice it ought to +have established—It made mistakes as to both—The nature of the +Sub-Commission Courts—This was objectionable in the highest +degree—These Courts have, however unconsciously, done grave wrong to +Irish landlords—Causes of this—Characteristics of their +proceedings—They disregarded the principles they ought to have +followed, and adopted faulty and erroneous methods—Different +illustrations of these grave mistakes—The Land Commission and appeals +as to ‘fair rent’—Importance of this subject—Faulty procedure of the +Land Commission in appeals—Valuers—The second Land Commission—Its +procedure worse than that of the first—Theory of occupation +right—This another wrong done to landlords—The Fry Commission and +its report—Confiscation of the property of Irish landlords—The +proofs of this—Apologies made for the Land Commission—The +administration of the Land Purchase Acts.</p></div> + + +<p>I turn to the administration of the new Irish Land Code, of which I have +described the distinctive features. The County Courts of Ireland, I have +said, were entrusted with the task of carrying out the Land Act of 1870; +the principal duty of the judges was to determine rights, under the Ulster +and analogous Customs in the south, and to declare the sums to be paid to +tenants, when leaving their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> holdings, for compensation for improvements, +and in respect of disturbance. As evictions were by no means frequent, in +the period between 1870 and 1879, the litigation before these tribunals, +under these different heads, though by no means trivial, was not +excessive; the applications on the part of tenants were not very numerous; +there was ample time to consider the law, whether in the subordinate or +the appellate Courts; and though there was much difference of opinion as +to the amount of compensation to be given to suitors, the administration +of the Act was not seriously impugned,<a name='fna_88' id='fna_88' href='#f_88'><small>[88]</small></a> and, on the whole, was +reasonable and just. The most remarkable circumstance in the inquiries +held before the Courts was, certainly, the extravagance of the claims put +forward, on account of tenants’ improvements, circumscribed as these were +by the limitations of the law; everything in the nature of an agricultural +work was called an improvement, from repairing an old fence to cleaning an +old drain; hours and days were lost in endeavours to disentangle the +truth, and to arrive at sound and legal conclusions. I could fill scores +of pages with descriptions of demands of this kind, usually pressed with +reckless and hard swearing; they ought to have been a warning, as +unhappily they were not, not to break down the restrictions contained in +the Act of 1870, and not to extend legislation, in this direction, against +the rights of the landlord. I confine myself to a single example: I tried +a case, in 1895, in which a tenant’s claims, under the Act of 1870, were +£1130; I cut these down to £164; after deducting £155 found due to the +landlord, I adjudged to the tenant a sum of less than £10; and there was +no appeal from the decision I pronounced.<a name='fna_89' id='fna_89' href='#f_89'><small>[89]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Land Act of 1870 has been well-nigh superseded by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> the great measure +of 1881, and by the legislation which has been its supplement. The +administration of this part of the new Land Code, by many degrees the most +important, was given, as I have pointed out before, to a wholly new +tribunal, the Land Commission, and to Sub-Commissions dependent on it; a +concurrent jurisdiction was given to the Irish County Courts; but they +have had very little to do in this province. The principal work of the +Land Commission has been to fix ‘fair rents,’ and to make statutory +leases, ‘fixity of tenure,’ in a word, in a kind of disguise, and thus to +give effect to the policy adopted by Mr. Gladstone in 1881. The three +original members of the Land Commission, in all respects its directors, +were the late Mr. Justice O’Hagan, the late Mr. E. F. Litton, and the late +Mr. John E. Vernon; Lord Salisbury denounced these appointments in +emphatic language, as being against the just rights of Irish +landlords;<a name='fna_90' id='fna_90' href='#f_90'><small>[90]</small></a> the charge was not without plausible grounds at least, for +Mr. Justice O’Hagan had been one of the ‘Young Ireland’ party, and Mr. +Litton had been a strong tenant-right advocate. These two gentlemen, +nevertheless, were most honourable men, and capable, if not very +distinguished, lawyers; Mr. Vernon was an excellent and experienced +country gentleman, if, in politics, of the Liberal faith; and as all three +have long ago passed away, it would be unjust to make charges of +illegitimate conduct, even if they may not have been wholly free from +unconscious bias. Great allowance ought to be made, in common justice, for +the Commissioners in the situation that had been made for them, and regard +being had to their most arduous duties.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> To fix ‘fair rent,’ even +approximately, was difficult in the extreme; as Judge Longfield predicted +many years before, and every well-informed Irishman knew, the adjustment +of rent, through the agency of the State, would inevitably cause a general +lowering of rents. Again, the Commissioners were, from the outset, +harassed by a rush of applications to fix ‘fair rents;’ these came in, +within a few weeks, in thousands; they were tempted, therefore, to set +about their work at once, without taking the careful precautions, or +entering into all the considerations, the nature of their duty required. +Two circumstances, also, no doubt, had effect on their minds; the Land +League was creating a Reign of Terror, and destroying the property of the +Irish landlords; the Commissioners probably hoped that they would weaken +the power of the League, by, so to speak, bidding against it, and cutting +rents down. Above all, the Land Commission, like the Encumbered Estates +Commission, was a tribunal set up to carry out a policy, that is, in word, +to abate rents; and all experience, Irish experience notably, proves that +such a body of men usually fulfils its mission.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone, we have seen, had expressed a belief that ‘fair rents,’ as +a rule, would be fixed by contract; that the Act of 1881 would produce +this result; and that this part of the work of the Land Commission, +accordingly, would not be very great. Unquestionably, too, with his +leading followers, he was convinced that rents in Ireland would not be +largely reduced;<a name='fna_91' id='fna_91' href='#f_91'><small>[91]</small></a> it is important to bear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> this distinctly in mind, +regard being had to subsequent events. These anticipations were to prove +vain; but the Land Commissioners possibly may have shared his views, and +may have resolved to act upon them, before they first addressed themselves +to the task of ‘fixing fair rents.’ After experience, it is easy to be +wise; but we can now clearly discern what they ought to have done, +considering the heavy work they were soon to find imposed on them. Their +first duty should have been to establish some standard, which would make a +reasonable criterion of rent; the means to accomplish this end were not +wanting. Mr. Law, the Irish Attorney-General of Mr. Gladstone, one of the +most distinguished lawyers of his day, and afterwards a holder of the +Great Seal of Ireland, had made a definition of ‘fair rent’ in the House +of Commons; ‘a fair rent was to be a competition rent minus the yearly +value of the tenant’s interest in the holding; that was what was intended, +and anything else would be monstrously unjust.’<a name='fna_92' id='fna_92' href='#f_92'><small>[92]</small></a> For some reason that +has not transpired, this definition did not find a place in the Act; but +the authority of its framer was great; it must have been known to the Land +Commissioners; had they adopted it, and based their decisions upon it, +things would have been very different from what they are at the present +time. But there were other tests to indicate a standard of rent, to be +regarded at least, if not conclusive. The valuation of the lands of +Ireland made for the assessment of rates, Griffith’s valuation, as it was +commonly called, which Parnell had made a measure of ‘fair rent,’ would +certainly have been of real use, though it varied greatly in different +counties; and the Commission appointed by Mr. Gladstone, only a few months +before, had, I have said, reported, that Ireland, as a whole, was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> no +sense an over-rented land. There was another consideration, as regards +Irish rents, which the Land Commissioners ought to have borne in mind. The +rents on the estates of the great landlords, and of the gentry of old +descent, were, as a rule, low; the rents of the purchasers under the +Encumbered Estates Acts were high, nay, excessive, in not a few instances.</p> + +<p>Other circumstances, moreover, of great importance, ought to have been +taken into account, with respect to this subject. The rental of Ireland +was not as high as it had been before the Great Famine; where rents, +therefore, had not been increased, and had been regularly paid for a long +series of years, there was the strongest possible presumption that these +would be ‘fair.’ Again, the material progress of Ireland had been great +during the forty preceding years: the wages of labour had, indeed, risen; +but owing to the introduction of good farm machinery, the cost of +production, in agriculture, had diminished; the extension of the railway +system had opened new markets, and had brought even Connaught within a few +hours of Great Britain; steam navigation had multiplied and improved; the +modes of husbandry and the breeds of stock of all kinds had become +infinitely better than they had been; and prices of late had been very +high. These were all elements to be regarded in the determination of ‘fair +rent;’ they ought to have been examined with care; and inquiries on these +matters should have extended over a long space of time. Moreover, as the +Land Act of 1881 discharged improvements made by tenants from rent, as +these were defined and limited by the Act of 1870, the greatest pains +ought to have been taken that claims for exemption should be strictly +dealt with, and not permitted to run riot, especially as it was notorious +that demands of this kind, made under the law already in force, were +usually excessive, supported by untrue statements, and by no means easy to +resist and disprove. Another fact, also,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> of the gravest moment, ought to +have been thoroughly considered, as regards this question. As improvements +made by tenants were not to be charged with rent, it was but equitable +that the lands they might hold should be valued as if in their normal +state; that if these had been deteriorated, either through wilful +misconduct, or gross neglect, their occupiers were not to make profit of +their own wrong; that deterioration, in a word, was not to be allowed to +work rent down, and was to be taken into account, in adjudicating upon +‘fair rent.’ This was the more necessary because it was well known that +numbers of farms in Ireland had been more or less run out; and especially +because, as in the case of the ryot of Bengal, under the Permanent +Settlement of Lord Cornwallis, an Irish tenant would be strongly tempted +to injure his lands, if he believed that, when ‘a fair rent’ should be +fixed on them, he would be permitted to take advantage of his own default. +It should be added that, in the fixing of ‘fair rents,’ the large sums +which, in many instances, Irish landlords had laid out in improving their +estates, notably since the years that succeeded the Famine, ought, as a +matter of course, to have been kept in mind.</p> + +<p>These were the general principles which should have guided the Land +Commission in approaching the question of fixing ‘fair rent.’ There was +nothing in the Act of 1881 to prevent the Land Commissioners, as a Court +of first instance, adjudicating directly in cases of this kind, or to +compel them to refer these to their Sub-Commissions; indeed the plain +intention of the law was in a contrary sense. Had the Land Commissioners +adopted this course—and this, I venture to say, was their obvious +duty—they would, no doubt, have considered the questions before them at +length, and with close attention; have made their inquiries go back many +years, and have laid down, in elaborate judgments, the maxims and rules to +be applied in the fixing of ‘fair rent.’ The evidence that would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +come before them would have been of two kinds: that which depended upon +the statements of valuers, on the side of landlords and tenants alike; +this, of course, would be of great importance; but it should have been +borne in mind that it would be biassed evidence; and that, in the existing +state of Ireland, and of Irish opinion, the statements of tenants’ valuers +would require to be strictly watched. The other head of evidence was of a +much more trustworthy kind; it was indicated by the circumstances of the +cases being heard, and was necessarily suggested by the inquiries +themselves. This class of evidence would be desired from a consideration +of the rate of rent in the neighbourhood or even of adjoining lands, in a +word, of what may be called the market price of rent; from an examination +of what a reasonable rent would be, payable by a solvent tenant to a +fair-minded landlord; and even from a review of rent fixed by the +competition of bidders for land, these circumstances, in every given case, +being, of course, controlled by a due regard being had, in the words of +the law, for the ‘tenant’s interest.’ There was another and very important +test; the sums paid in Ulster and elsewhere on the transfer of farms were +usually large, sometimes not less than a third or even a half of the value +of the fee simple; and as these sums were always subject to the existing +rents, the first charges on the lands being sold, this would afford a +strong presumption that such rents would be ‘fair.’ No doubt the Act of +1881 declared that such payments were not to be taken into account, <i>per +se</i>, and apart from other considerations in the actual fixing of rent, so +far as regards a given farm; but the law certainly allowed—and it has +always been so held—that payments of this kind might be kept in view in +forming, generally, an estimate of what a ‘fair rent’ should be.<a name='fna_93' id='fna_93' href='#f_93'><small>[93]</small></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>The Land Commissioners, but from a different point of view, might have +learned something from Parnell in this matter. They were, no doubt, +harassed by the prospect of the task before them; but had they taken a +certain number of ‘test cases,’ and investigated them as a Court of first +instance, they would have laid down principles to be followed in the +fixing of ‘fair rent;’ have explained these in well-considered judgments, +going over the whole field of inquiry; and, so far as in them lay, have +tried to do justice. Even if they had not adopted this course, one of +their members, as the Act of 1881 provided, might have taken part for some +time with their subordinates in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> adjustment of rent; this would have +been in accord with Mr. Gladstone’s assertions that the Land Commission +was to be the real arbiter of rent. Unfortunately the Commissioners acted +quite otherwise; their conduct, palliate as you may, was an abdication of +a plain duty, on the plea that they were overwhelmed by the work before +them. Not one of them ever sat in a Court of first instance to fix ‘fair +rents;’ they delegated this the most important of all their functions to +their Sub-Commissions, to which they thus committed the charge of +adjusting rent throughout the whole of Ireland. These Sub-Commissions +formed Courts, each composed of three members, one a legal Commissioner +and two laymen; the Sub-Commissioners were nominees of the Government, +whether appointed on the recommendation of the Land Commission or not is +not certain; the only qualifications for the legal Commissioners were that +they should be barristers or solicitors of six years’ standing, and for +the lay Commissioners that they should have some knowledge of land. These +were strange tribunals to deal with property worth hundreds of millions; +but this was only a part of what must be called a scandal most +discreditable to those responsible for it. The Sub-Commissioners, one and +all, were much underpaid; their salaries were inadequate to secure fitting +men; and, one and all, they were at the sufferance of the men at the +Castle, liable to be dismissed at a moment’s notice, and without the +independence which is the best guarantee of justice. Some of the +Sub-Commissioners, indeed, were only paid for the job, by the day; they +had, therefore, a direct personal interest to reduce rents, in order to +make work for themselves and to retain their places. Even in Ireland such +tribunals were never set on foot, since Cromwell assembled his Courts of +Claims to give their sanction to his huge forfeitures; that they were ever +thought of is one of the many proofs of the disregard shown to property in +land in Ireland. No wonder that it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> significantly remarked: ‘The whole +spirit of our judicial institutions suggests that officers with such +extensive powers should be selected with the greatest care and with +reference to their possession of high qualifications, and that they should +be placed in a position of independence, and should, so far as possible, +be lifted above the suspicions that surround them.’<a name='fna_94' id='fna_94' href='#f_94'><small>[94]</small></a></p> + +<p>Sixty or seventy officials of this type—the number was afterwards largely +increased—were thus, in the significant words of one, ‘let loose over +Ireland’ to deal with estates; it is very remarkable that they have never +received instructions from the Land Commission how to perform their +duties. The procedure of the Courts of the Sub-Commissions was, under +existing conditions, as well devised as could be fairly expected. The +three Commissioners, who formed a Court, nearly always sate together, and +heard the evidence brought before them as to what were ‘fair rents;’ the +legal Commissioner decided questions of law; and, this evidence having +been taken, the two lay Commissioners inspected the farms, the subjects of +the previous inquiries, and having conferred with their legal colleague, +determined with him what should be their ‘fair rents.’ This was the +ordinary if not the universal practice; if some deviations have been made +from it, these cannot be deemed of very great importance. Grave complaints +have been made, in not a few instances, of the lay Commissioners, when +engaged in examining lands; it has been said that they often neglected and +‘scamped’ their work; but these charges have been hardly, if at all, +sustained; my own experience—and it is tolerably large—is that the +Commissioners performed their functions with diligence and care, and +sometimes gave proof of real knowledge of husbandry.<a name='fna_95' id='fna_95' href='#f_95'><small>[95]</small></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> But it was +utterly impossible that tribunals of this kind, not composed of experts of +a high order, dependent upon the breath of the Castle, without regulations +to direct their conduct, and acting, without concert, in many districts, +could adjust rent in a satisfactory way, and in conformity with true +methods, especially as the work they had to do was excessive; indeed, they +sometimes fixed ‘fair rents’ by dozens in a day. It was equally impossible +that the Sub-Commissions—and to do their members justice they never made +the attempt—could take into account all the manifold and far-reaching +elements which enter into the question of ‘fair rent,’ and could set +forth, in exhaustive judgments, the principles applicable to a most +intricate problem. On the contrary, as a rule, and no doubt wisely, they +avoided topics which might have tasked the highest judicial powers; they +decided the cases before them summarily, and with little reflection, +certainly without the protracted examination required to establish settled +rules and doctrines. And the result has been that they disregarded, and +even set at nought, a whole series of considerations, of supreme +importance, with reference to the fixing of ‘fair rent;’ and, however +unconsciously and innocently, they have been the authors, in the first +instance at least, of the gravest injustice, and of wrong, done wholesale, +to the landed gentry of Ireland.</p> + +<p>To make this plain, let us glance back at the principles which assuredly +ought to have been kept in view, in coming to sound conclusions on the +subject of ‘fair rent.’ It will be seen that the Sub-Commissioners either +gave little or no attention to these, or directly violated them in, +perhaps, tens of thousands of cases. They have never attempted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> to +establish some kind of standard, which would form a general measure of +‘fair rent;’ they have completely ignored the definition of Mr. Law, +precise and most valuable as it was; they have treated ‘Griffith’s +valuation’ as though it did not exist; they have regarded the Report of +Mr. Gladstone’s Commission, declaring that Ireland was not excessively +rented, as mere waste paper; they have apparently taken hardly any account +of the well-known distinction between the low rentals of the great and old +landlords, and the rack-rents too often exacted by purchasers under the +Encumbered Estates Acts. So, too, it would seem, they have refused to +consider the strong presumption that rents would be ‘fair’ if not raised +during a long series of years, and if reasonably well paid, within that +period; and they certainly have given no real weight, as an element in +adjusting rent, to the agricultural progress made by Ireland since the +Great Famine. Innumerable complaints have been made against their +decisions as to the exemption of tenants’ improvements from rent; but my +belief is that they gave great attention to this subject; the wrong that +has been done was owing to the difficulty of the law, and of its +application to given cases; and the law, besides, was not, I think, just. +On the correlative and most important question of the deterioration of +farms through the default of tenants, they have hardly ever inquired into +this; they have repeatedly done the landlords wrong; they have made grave +and palpable mistakes; and in many instances they have made no allowances +for the expenditure of landlords upon their estates. Having thus refused +to follow the principles which ought to have been their guide, they have +widely deviated in the actual fixing of ‘fair rents’ from rules and +methods they should have observed and made effective. They have given too +much weight to the class of evidence that was least important and most +open to question; they have attached little and sometimes no value to the +class of evidence by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> far the most trustworthy, and that ought to possess +the greatest influence. This has especially been the case, as we shall +see, with respect to the sums paid on the transfer of farms, the strongest +possible indication that their rents must be ‘fair,’ on the ordinary +principles of human nature, and giving the purchasers credit for the +simplest common sense.</p> + +<p>These are grave charges against quasi-judicial bodies; let us see if they +are not completely justified. The Sub-Commissioners, I have said, have +taken no heed of Mr. Law’s definition of ‘fair rent;’ but they have acted +as though they set it at defiance; they have ignored the principle of +competition in fixing ‘fair’ rents. Unquestionably, as Mr. Law pointed +out, a deduction should be made from a competition rent, regard being had +to ‘the tenant’s interest,’ that is, to his rights in respect of +improvements, and perhaps to his rights on account of his tenure, a lease +renewable every fifteen years, when a ‘fair rent’ is being fixed on his +farm; but why the very idea of competition, that is, of market value, was +to be excluded as an element in estimating ‘fair rent,’ is what men of +common sense have never understood. This, in fact, was a portentous +mistake, with consequences of a far-reaching kind; you might as well argue +that because two partners had an interest in a fee simple estate, or two +peasants had each a share in a cow, the price of the land or the cow was +not to depend on what would be given for it at an auction mart or a county +fair. Yet this was a position the Sub-Commissions have always taken; they +have always insisted that competition had nothing to do with ‘fair rent.’ +The evidence on this subject is conclusive; I can only take a few samples +from the statements of a cloud of witnesses, who really seem to make a +boast of their faith. Colonel Bayley, a Sub-Commissioner of large +experience, has laid it down that the ‘difference between a competition +rent and the fair rent would be more than 20 per cent.; it would,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> I +think, be more than that; there would be between 30 and 75 per cent. +difference between the fair rent and the competition rent.’<a name='fna_96' id='fna_96' href='#f_96'><small>[96]</small></a> Mr. +Roberts, another Sub-Commissioner, has deposed to much the same effect: +‘Decidedly, I believe that if the land was put in the market it would +bring 25 per cent. more than the rent I put on.’<a name='fna_97' id='fna_97' href='#f_97'><small>[97]</small></a> So, too, Mr. Bailey, +a legal Sub-Commissioner, very much respected, has alleged: ‘It would be +most misleading to take the evidence of letting value in the +neighbourhood, thus bringing in competition value, which we rigorously +exclude in fair-rent cases.’<a name='fna_98' id='fna_98' href='#f_98'><small>[98]</small></a> Mr. Bomford, a well-known +Sub-Commissioner, has said, in much the same sense: ‘We do not take the +competition rent, and cannot take it into consideration, when fixing what +the fair rent should be. Then you utterly exclude, when you come to the +fixing of the fair rent, the element of competition?—Yes, except in one +matter, when we have town parks.’<a name='fna_99' id='fna_99' href='#f_99'><small>[99]</small></a></p> + +<p>Let us now see what distinctions, in fixing ‘fair rents,’ the +Sub-Commissioners have drawn between landlords whose rentals were low and +landlords whose rentals were really high; and how they have dealt with +rents, paid for a long space of time, without having been raised; this is +a fair index of the equity of their proceedings. It should be remarked, at +the outset, that it soon appeared that rents had only been increased in +comparatively few instances, going back over a series of years; yet, as a +rule, nearly all rents were indiscriminately reduced. No attempt has been +made, by any official of the Land Commission, to answer this damaging +charge made, in 1897, at a judicial inquiry held upon the subject: ‘The +result of that calculation, the accuracy of which cannot be challenged, +shows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> that, as the result of all the cases that were heard, in only 8 per +cent. of them was any increase of rent for many years prior to 1881 +proved. But whether the Sub-Commissioners are dealing with an estate on +which for centuries the rents had remained unchanged, and on which the +tenants had been fairly treated, or whether they were dealing with estates +that had come into the hands of speculators by purchase in the Landed +Estates Court, in all cases the average result was the same. They deducted +something between 15 and 20 per cent. from the existing rent, no matter +how long it had existed, and no matter upon what estate it was being +paid.’<a name='fna_100' id='fna_100' href='#f_100'><small>[100]</small></a> This significant evidence, too, points to the same conclusion: +‘There is nothing to justify the reductions that have been made in the +rents of good landlords, who did not raise their rents in the good years. +In fact, the landlords who did raise their rents got off a great deal +better, at the hands of the Sub-Commissioners, than the good landlords who +did not raise them.’<a name='fna_101' id='fna_101' href='#f_101'><small>[101]</small></a> And Mr. Lecky, a calm-minded observer, if there +ever was one, has added these striking and pregnant remarks: ‘The +landlords who have suffered least have probably been those who simplified +their properties by the wholesale evictions, the harsh clearances, that +too often followed the Famine. Next in the scale come those who exacted +extreme rack-rents from their tenants. These rents had been received for +many years, and though they were ultimately reduced more than rents which +had been always low, they still, in innumerable instances, remained higher +than the others. The large class who regarded land simply as a source of +revenue, and, without doing anything harsh, or extortionate, or unjust, +took no part in its management, have suffered very moderately. It is the +improving landlord, who took a real interest in his estate, who sank large +sums in draining and other purposes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> improvement, who exercised a +constant and beneficent influence over his tenants, who has suffered most +from the legislation that reduced him to a mere powerless rent-charger, +and, in most cases, rendered the sums he had expended an absolute +loss.’<a name='fna_102' id='fna_102' href='#f_102'><small>[102]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Sub-Commissions dealt with the subject of the exemption of tenants’ +improvements from rent, on the whole, as fairly, I think, as could be +expected; and on the different questions of law that arose, appeals ran +from them to the Land Commission, which usually investigated these cases +at length. But this part of the law, really an excrescence on the Act of +1881, was unfair to the landlords, in the circumstances in which they were +placed; they were confronted by innumerable and often obsolete and +worthless claims, which they had only seldom the means of refuting; and if +the demoralisation and false swearing under the Act of 1870 was bad, they +were infinitely worse under the Act of 1881. A witty Irishman, indeed, +once said that he could wish no severer punishment for Mr. Gladstone than +to see him in a Sub-Commission Court listening to those wrongful +statements; the mischief has, of course, been aggravated since the Act of +1896 has made the basis for the exemption larger and more ill-defined. The +Sub-Commissions, I have said, were gravely in error, almost, as a rule, +with respect to the deterioration of land, as an element to be considered +in fixing rent; in this respect gross injustice has been done to +landlords. There is scarcely any proof that, even in a single instance, +the Sub-Commissioners valued land ‘for fair rent,’ as in its normal state; +and yet, assuredly, this was what ought to have been done, if a premium +was not to be put on misconduct, and because farms had been injured and +exhausted in hundreds, throughout Ireland. The deterioration was usually +of two kinds—wilful waste committed in order to work down rent, and +passive waste<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> caused by negligence and bad farming. Out of many +instances, under the first head, I shall refer to one; the +Sub-Commissioners usually gave little or no attention to wrongs of this +kind; in this instance they enabled the tenant to make money by his own +misdeeds; they reduced the rent nearly 30 per cent.: ‘The dykes were full +of stuff and choked, and the sluice-gate, which we had repaired at our own +expense, was all choked up, and the water had been left on the land as +long as it could stay on it. I complained and remonstrated with the +tenant. I sent for Madden, and in Mr. Lyle’s presence I stated this to +him. His answer to me was that he was not such a damned fool as to have +his land looking well when the Commissioners came to look at it.</p> + +<p>‘<span class="smcap">Sir E. Fry</span>: Did that case come before the Sub-commissioner Court?—It +did.</p> + +<p>‘Did you give evidence of what the tenant said?—Yes, sir....</p> + +<p>‘<span class="smcap">Mr. Campbell</span>: I will tell you, sir, what they did.</p> + +<p>‘How much did they reduce the first judicial rent?—They reduced the first +judicial rent; they cut it down from £70 10<i>s.</i> to £51.’<a name='fna_103' id='fna_103' href='#f_103'><small>[103]</small></a></p> + +<p>As for passive waste, that is, the bad cultivation of farms, the proof is +conclusive that it has been seldom, if ever, considered by the +Sub-Commissions in fixing ‘fair rents.’ If we bear in mind that many +thousands of acres in Ireland have been well-nigh destroyed by the burning +done by tenants, and that hundreds of thousands have been run out by +slovenly farming, the injury thus done to landlords has been enormous, +especially as tenants’ improvements have been exempted from rent against +them; the ‘candle,’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> it has been justly said, ‘has been melted down at +both ends.’ I cite two instances, out of hundreds, of the injustice thus +done; it has been proved over and over again that, in the case of two +adjoining farms, in all respects of the same natural quality, the rent on +that which was deteriorated was fixed at a much lower rate than the rent +on that which was in good heart; in other words, the landlord was +despoiled of the difference, and the tenant had the benefit of his bad +husbandry. I take, almost at random, a case in Ulster: ‘The Commissioners +always value the land as they see it. I have two cases on my property in +one townland. One tenant was an industrious, hard-working man, who had his +farm in very good order. The second tenant, his wife had died, he was in +poverty, with a lot of young children, and he himself was not quite “all +there.” These two holdings came at the same time before the +Sub-Commissioners, and the rents were cut down in each case. When the +thing was over, I said to Quinn, who was one of the tenants, “Are you +satisfied with your reduction?” “How can I be satisfied,” he said, “when +my rent is at the same rate as Hurson’s rent?” I looked at the return and +saw he was quite right.... The deteriorated farm was cut down considerably +more than the cultivated farm.’ Another remarkable case occurred in the +west: ‘I had a case, I think decided this year; a farm that was divided +between two sons fifteen or twenty years ago; the father divided the land +before I came into the management of the property.</p> + +<p>‘Did they get an equal portion? was it divided into halves?—Into halves, +and paid an equal rent.</p> + +<p>‘Before the Act of 1881?—Before the Act of 1881.</p> + +<p>‘And was the land of uniform quality?—Yes.</p> + +<p>‘Had one of these men, before he went into Court, greatly deteriorated the +land?—Yes.</p> + +<p>‘Had the other attended to it?—He had attended to it; he looked after the +land very well indeed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>‘What reduction did the man who had deteriorated his half get?—The man +who had deteriorated his half got 17½ per cent, reduction.</p> + +<p>‘What did the other get?—The other got 7½ per cent.</p> + +<p>‘The industrious tenant got 7½?—He got 7½.’<a name='fna_104' id='fna_104' href='#f_104'><small>[104]</small></a></p> + +<p>This was obviously gross and crying injustice; but two apologies have been +made for acts of this kind. It is said that were a deteriorated farm +rented as if it were in a normal state, the tenant could not afford to pay +the ‘fair rent,’ in other words, the landlord is to be despoiled for the +tenant’s neglect. It is said again that the Sub-Commissioners are bound to +value the land as they find it, and cannot estimate it at its intrinsic +worth, that is, they are under no obligation to ascertain the truth, and +do their duty. Yet this sophistry has been gravely put forward as a +justification for palpable wrong, through which the property of landlords +has been filched away wholesale: ‘The land to this day has suffered a very +serious deterioration in value; but we did not deal with that as against +the present tenant ...’<a name='fna_105' id='fna_105' href='#f_105'><small>[105]</small></a> ‘Have you frequently asked the +Sub-Commissioners why they do not attach sufficient importance to +deterioration?—No, but I heard them saying one reason was that if they +put the rent of the farm as if it had been fairly treated, the tenant +would not be able to pay that rent now in the deteriorated state.’<a name='fna_106' id='fna_106' href='#f_106'><small>[106]</small></a> +The general result of these proceedings as regards exhausted farms has +been thus described: ‘My view with reference to deterioration is this. Bad +tenants, who had ill-treated and worn out their land, undoubtedly, in my +opinion, have obtained larger reductions than they would have got had they +farmed well. Probably the reason is that were the Land Commissioners to +put a rent on the land according to its natural capacity, before a +deterioration, it would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> an impossible rent for a broken-down bad +tenant to pay. This stereotypes the rent in such cases at a figure +unfairly low to the landlord; tends to lower the standard of fair rent +generally; is a premium on bad farming; and places tenants under a serious +temptation to ill-treat their land, so as to secure a larger reduction +from the Land Court than otherwise could be obtainable.’<a name='fna_107' id='fna_107' href='#f_107'><small>[107]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Sub-Commissions appear to have disregarded the just rights of +landlords in another important respect. Unquestionably, in the great mass +of instances, as is inevitable when the land is held in small farms, the +Irish tenant had made the improvements on his holding; but the landed +gentry, as I have pointed out, had done a good deal since the Great +Famine. There is nevertheless cogent evidence that, in ‘fixing fair +rents,’ the Sub-Commissions took hardly any account of the expenditure of +landlords under this head. In the case of the estate of the late Mr. +Talbot Crosbie, one of the best breeders of prize stock in the Three +Kingdoms, and a country gentleman of parts and intelligence, these +significant facts were conclusively proved: ‘Table E gives the cases of +eight holdings upon which there was an expenditure by the landlord of +£1936?—Yes.</p> + +<p>‘The old rent was £688?—Yes.</p> + +<p>‘That was reduced by the Sub-Commissioners to £493?—Yes. A reduction of +about 30 per cent.</p> + +<p>‘Notwithstanding the outlay by the landlord in the interval of nearly +£2000?—Yes, that is it.</p> + +<p>‘Table F is a list of eleven farms, on which there was practically no +expenditure by the landlord?—Quite so, no recent expenditure. That is, +between 1863 and 1887?—There was a good deal done in the famine time, but +I did not take account of that.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>‘You had no evidence in these eleven cases of expenditure for many years +prior to the fixing of the rent?—No. In these cases the old rents tot up +to £361?—Yes. And the reductions only brought them to £280?—A reduction +of 18 per cent.</p> + +<p>‘In other words, on the unimproved farms the reductions only average 18, +while on the improved farms they went as high as 30 per cent.?—Quite so.</p> + +<p>‘<span class="smcap">Sir E. Fry</span>: Were these two sets of farms different classes of +farms?—They were practically of the same class.’<a name='fna_108' id='fna_108' href='#f_108'><small>[108]</small></a> In the same way, in +the case of the estate of Lord Leconfield, a great and excellent landlord +in the County Clare, the Sub-Commission made no real allowance for a sum +of £20,500 expended on twenty-seven farms. ‘Am I right in saying that from +1852 to 1881 there was spent by Lord Leconfield £20,500 in these +twenty-seven cases?—The return speaks for itself. That is the result of +it.’ ‘No. 4: As an example of the reductions of the Sub-Commissioners were +the rents put back to what they had been in 1852?—Very nearly. There is a +difference, I think, of about ½ per cent.?—About ½ per cent. The rent +in 1852 was £2524, and the judicial rents on these farms was £2632.’<a name='fna_109' id='fna_109' href='#f_109'><small>[109]</small></a></p> + +<p>I pass on to the methods pursued by the Sub-Commissioners in actually +fixing ‘fair rents.’ As I have said, they usually heard the cases at +length in Court; they usually devoted attention to them. I do not think +they set much store on the reports of valuers, on the part either of +landlords or tenants; they formed their decisions, as a general rule, on +the inspections made by the lay Commissioners of the lands they visited. +This was a much better method, as I shall point out afterwards, than that +adopted by their superiors; but obviously inspections of this kind made by +officials without local knowledge of the farms, which they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> examined and +valued, could not be a sufficient, or a satisfactory, way to fix ‘fair +rents.’ The great error, however, made, in this matter, by the +Sub-Commissions—and in this respect they had the countenance of the +higher tribunal—was that they had little or no regard for the evidence +which in adjusting rent was assuredly of the greatest importance. They +rejected, we have seen, the principle of competition in adjudicating on +rent; in fixing the ‘fair rents’ of holdings before them, they refused to +consider the rents of the neighbourhood and of adjoining lands, that is, +to consider the price of the market. Yet this was but a trifling compared +to their capital mistake, one that, indeed, can hardly be explained: in +investigating the subject of ‘fair rent,’ they would not take into account +sums paid on the transfer of farms, that is, their tenant right, in other +words, as an indication of what ought to be their ‘fair rents.’ If we bear +in mind, as I have said before, that these sums were given subject to the +existing rents, which always formed the first charge on the lands, it is +most difficult to understand, as we have seen, how this circumstance did +not create a very strong presumption that the rents in question must be +‘fair’ from the very nature of the case, assuming the Irish tenant to be a +rational being. The sums paid for this tenant right were sometimes +enormous, not uncommonly equal to one-third or one-half of the value of +the fee; I illustrate my meaning from the evidence, taken with reference +to the estate of Lord Downshire, one of the largest and best managed in +Ulster: ‘What would you say the tenants’ interest would be worth on the +Downshire estate?—Well, judging from the average prices obtained by +tenants on transfers, my opinion is that the tenants’ interest would be +worth £1,000,000.</p> + +<p>‘On the Downshire estate alone?—Yes.</p> + +<p>‘Now, could that value in the tenants, or that interest in the tenants, +exist, unless the rents at which they were holding were low rents?—No, +the prices of tenant right are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> incompatible with high rents. Does it in +your opinion point to their being lower than the commercial rents?—Yes, +they are lower.’<a name='fna_110' id='fna_110' href='#f_110'><small>[110]</small></a> And will it be believed that on this very estate, in +the case of thirteen farms, held at the rents fixed by the landlords, the +tenant right realised £7296, and yet the Sub-Commission reduced the rents +more than 20 per cent.? In other words, they declared that the old rents +were not fair, though these lands, when transferred, fetched £7296 paid by +their purchasers, subject to the rents in question!<a name='fna_111' id='fna_111' href='#f_111'><small>[111]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Downshire was only one of many scores of estates in which the tenant +right was exceedingly high, that is, the sums paid, at existing rents, on +the transfer of farms, were very great, yet in all these instances this +striking fact was not taken into account. It cannot cause surprise that, +at a judicial inquiry held afterwards to review the subject, tenants’ +advocates endeavoured to exclude the evidence which, in the judgment of +plain men of sense, affords almost a decisive indication as to whether +given rents are ‘fair.’ It has been argued, however, that the price of +tenant right, that is, the sums paid by incoming to outgoing tenants, on +the sale of farms, at the current rents, ought to form no element in the +fixing of ‘fair rent;’ it is only just to set forth the reasons. Mr. +Bailey, the able legal Sub-Commissioner, referred to before, has explained +them in this passage: ‘Do you attend to tenant right in considering the +fair rent?—No, we do not. The view we take of it is this. The tenant +right paid for land is paid for something of an altogether different +character from the rent of the land.... When a tenant sells his interest +in his holding, he sells two things, first, the improvements on the +holding, and secondly, his goodwill or share of the gross product of the +holding.... When you put these two items together, viz. improvements and +goodwill, it seems<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> to me that the prices paid for tenant right are not at +all remarkable. Then your view is that the price paid for tenant right +throws no light on what the fair rent ought to be?—No, no light at all.’ +Mr. Bailey has added these significant words: ‘The tenant does not buy at +the rent which the tenement at present stands at, but he buys with a +possible increase or reduction of the rent?—Quite so. And in latter years +with the fall of prices he was buying with the expectation of a very +considerable reduction?—Undoubtedly.’<a name='fna_112' id='fna_112' href='#f_112'><small>[112]</small></a></p> + +<p>The first of these arguments appears to me to be wholly irrelevant to the +real question. Undoubtedly the tenant right of a farm represents the +tenant’s improvements and his interest in the land, and is completely +distinct from the rent; and this is acquired on a sale by an incoming +tenant. But the purchaser buys the tenant right, subject to the first +charge, the rent; if the rent were excessive, or even high, either he +would not buy at all, or he would pay a low price; when, therefore, we +find the tenant right commanding very large sums, the conclusion is +inevitable, that, taking human nature as it is, the rent must be in the +nature of a ‘fair rent.’ The Sub-Commissions rejected a plain inference +they ought to have drawn; that they refused to give weight to an +all-important fact cannot be justified in any sense; and the result has +been that in hundreds of cases they have done grave wrong to landlords. As +for the second argument, it is very probable that in many instances +tenants purchased farms in the anticipation of a reduction of rent; they +speculated—a significant fact—that the Sub-Commissions would ‘bear’ the +market; but even, on that supposition, this can hardly explain the huge +sums paid for tenant right while the existing rents were current. For the +rest, I refer to part of my own evidence given on this subject at the same +inquiry; readers of ordinary intelligence may judge for themselves: ‘The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +first question I ask the tenant is, “How much will you take for the land, +£100, £200, £300; ten, fifteen, twenty, or forty years’ rent?” But I never +can get an answer. They say, “Oh, your honour, I am here to look after a +‘fair rent,’ and I am not going to tell your honour what I am going to ask +for the land.” However, I have a very shrewd notion.... You take into +consideration in fixing the fair rent the price paid by the tenants?—Yes, +the price which an incoming tenant would give, because I am not one of +those who think that the Irish tenant is a fool; and when I find an +incoming tenant giving ten, fifteen, twenty, and thirty years’ purchase +for a farm, I have a very shrewd suspicion that the rent is right.’<a name='fna_113' id='fna_113' href='#f_113'><small>[113]</small></a></p> + +<p>It was under these conditions, and by proceedings of this kind, that the +Sub-Commissions, bodies of ill-paid men, dependent upon the will of the +Government, and constituted to give effect to a policy, were sent +throughout Ireland to ‘fix fair rents.’ They had no assistance, we have +seen, from the Land Commission; they often entertained very different +views; but their uniform course was in the same direction; they +indiscriminately abated rents, as they would abate a nuisance. In fact, +they might have joined in the chorus of the doctors of Molière: ‘Et +saignare, et purgare, et clystériasaire;’ they applied the same remedies +to all their victims, and brought them nearly all into the same weak and +low condition. But there was a right of appeal from the Sub-Commissions to +the Land Commission; and this tribunal, certainly designed to have +absolute power in the determination of rent, ought surely to have been +expected to redress injustice. I approach a part of the subject on which +the plain truth must be told, without making personal imputations of any +kind. Appeals from the Sub-Commissions were numbered by many thousands; +and, as I have said—an iniquitous provision of the Act of 1881—the +decisions of the Land Commission on the subject<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> of ‘fair rent’ was made +final, at least as regards the rate of rent; there was to be no further +appeal to a higher tribunal. I quote these significant remarks on this +restriction: ‘In an ordinary case, I need not tell you, sir, who are +conversant with the procedure of Courts of Justice, a litigant, in a civil +case, no matter how much the issue may be involved, has the right, if he +thinks fit, of taking the case from one Court to another, until he reaches +the highest tribunal of the land, the House of Lords. And as you know, +there is a well-known case, which the House of Lords had to decide, in +which the amount involved was one penny, an alleged overcharge on a +railway ticket; but in these land cases, where there may be, and often is, +a sum of £200, £300, or £400 a year involved, because in some of the large +farms in this country there have been reductions of £300 and even of £400 +in the rent, under the Act of Parliament they cannot go beyond the Head +Land Commission, upon any question of value. That is the Act of Parliament +whether it be right or wrong. There it is, and I am not here to discuss +the policy of the Act. But when a rehearing is given by the Act of +Parliament to the Land Commission, and when the Land Commission are +constituted the final judges in such large and important matters, it is +obviously of great importance that the final rehearing should be full, and +in every respect what the Act of Parliament says it is to be, namely, a +rehearing.’<a name='fna_114' id='fna_114' href='#f_114'><small>[114]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Land Commission sometimes heard these appeals at length, though +usually their proceedings were summary in the extreme. The Commissioners +occasionally pronounced well-considered judgments, on the difficult +questions of law that came before them, especially as regards the +exemption of tenants’ improvements from rent; in several instances the +results were curious. The lay Commissioner now and then dissented from his +legal colleagues; his plain common sense rejected theories in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> tenants’ +interests; his decisions were more than once confirmed, on these points of +law, by the highest Court of Appeal in Ireland, a circumstance of no +slight significance. Nineteen-twentieths, however, of these appeals were +conversant only with the amount of ‘fair rent,’ as to which the +conclusions of the Land Commission could not be challenged. The Land +Commissioners undoubtedly heard these cases, and sometimes had much +evidence brought before them; in tolerably many instances they varied the +‘fair rents’ fixed by the Sub-Commissions, if these variations were seldom +important. But the Land Commission practically adopted, with scarcely a +single exception, the errors of principle and the faulty methods which had +marked the practice and the proceedings of the Sub-Commissions.<a name='fna_115' id='fna_115' href='#f_115'><small>[115]</small></a> They +excluded the element of competition from the subject of ‘fair rent;’ they +never attempted to define ‘fair rent,’ or to establish a standard by which +to gauge it; they disregarded, to a considerable extent at least, the +distinction between the rentals of the old and the new landlords; they +paid little or no attention to the fact that rents had been paid for many +years without an increase; they hardly ever took deterioration into +account, or the expenditure made on their estates by landlords. And in the +actual fixing of ‘fair rents’ they virtually followed in the wake of their +inferiors; they rejected, as a rule, the evidence that was most relevant; +they refused to consider the rents of adjoining or neighbouring lands, in +a word, the price of the market, in determining rent; above all, they gave +scarcely any heed to the enormous sums paid for the tenant right of lands, +as an indication that their rents were ‘fair.’ On all these particulars, +in a word, supremely important as they were, they almost said ditto to the +Sub-Commissions; in these respects the appeals were well-nigh useless. It +should be added that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> animus of the head of the Land Commission was +significantly exhibited on one striking occasion. When opening the +proceedings of the Land Commission, Mr. Justice O’Hagan pointedly laid it +down, that the object of the Act of 1881 was ‘to make tenants live and +thrive;’ in other words, as Lord Salisbury indignantly remarked, to compel +rent to gravitate to the level of the most indolent and worthless Irish +peasant, and practically to discourage industry.</p> + +<p>These considerations indicate, to some extent at least, the nature and +especially the value of these appeals. But this was not all, or nearly +all; there was a grave miscarriage of the simplest justice in this +important province. Appeals, I have said, came in, in thousands; the work +thrown on the Land Commissioners was immense; as one of their present +successors remarked, ‘If proper consideration’ (had been) ‘given to all +the appeals you would’ (have) ‘wanted ten Appeal Courts to do it;’<a name='fna_116' id='fna_116' href='#f_116'><small>[116]</small></a> as +was said again substantially, ‘Appeals would have crushed the Land +Commissioners, had they not been crushed by them.’<a name='fna_117' id='fna_117' href='#f_117'><small>[117]</small></a> In this position +of affairs, the Land Commissioners, no doubt with no bad or sinister +purpose, adopted what must be called a device, to enable them quickly to +dispose of appeals, nay, almost in a summary way. They were empowered, +under the Act of 1881, to appoint ‘independent valuers’ to examine lands, +and to report on the subject of their ‘fair rents;’ it was never +contemplated that statements of this kind were to dispense with the duty +of hearing appeals in detail, and pronouncing solemn judgments upon them; +but, practically, the Land Commissioners, in the great mass of instances, +when adjudicating on appeals, as regards ‘fair rents,’ almost wholly +relied on the reports of these valuers, who, be it observed, were in no +sense witnesses, and were not subject to examination on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> part of the +suitors before the Court. In a word, the Land Commissioners did not +exclude other kinds of evidence; but unquestionably the dicta of the +valuers, as a rule, determined the decisions they made on ‘fair rent.’ +This expedient greatly accelerated appeals; but it reduced the right of +appeal well-nigh to a sham; and this procedure was by many degrees more +repugnant to justice than that of the Sub-Commissions. In an inquiry held +before the House of Lords in 1882, an eminent member of the Irish bar +remarked, ‘It was the most unsatisfactory tribunal that I ever was before. +What occurred was this: they took up the figures of the old rent, which we +will say was £100, and the valuation £70, and the new rent £80. Then they +took up the valuer’s report, which was a document concealed from the +parties. It was entirely for the information of the Court, and they turned +round to me, as the landlord’s counsel, the landlord being the appellant, +and said, “Can you go on with this appeal in the face of this document?” +and they would show me the document.’<a name='fna_118' id='fna_118' href='#f_118'><small>[118]</small></a> And in the inquiry I have often +referred to before, another distinguished lawyer has said, ‘I have been in +cases where, in order to overcome the difficulty, I marshalled a perfect +phalanx of witnesses, for the landlord, but it was all no use. They +listened to them, I admit,—they suggested that I was wasting time, but I +am not stating they did not hear them,—but in the end, in the morning, +the announcement was made that the judicial rent was confirmed.’<a name='fna_119' id='fna_119' href='#f_119'><small>[119]</small></a></p> + +<p>As the general result these appeals, as it has been said, ‘were +strangled;’ in thousands of instances they were withdrawn, the decisions +of the Land Commission being final; expedition was attained; but it was +only attained at the cost of gross wrong done to the landlords, a singular +exhibition in a Court of Justice. I quote the following—and it should be +borne in mind that the Land Commissioners<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> have never attempted to explain +this conduct, though the amplest opportunity was afforded, a few years +ago: ‘The extraordinary and anomalous state of things is that the valuers, +not being assessors, do not sit with the Commissioners, and do not hear +the evidence, and yet they are not witnesses in the proper sense of the +term, because they are neither examined nor cross-examined. Common sense +and justice revolt at the idea, when it is the duty of the Land +Commissioners, upon the rehearing of a case, to sit and go through the +proceedings <i>de novo</i>, that they should receive the evidence of valuers, +which is not laid before the parties, and that those valuers should not be +examined and cross-examined in the regular way. There is another matter to +which I would refer. You will find, what is, indeed, what you might +expect, that when the Commissioners go to Dublin, or Cork, or elsewhere, +with a list of two or three hundred cases to be heard by them, involving, +it may be, thousands of pounds a year of rent, that list is gone through +in two or three days, and why? Because all the parties present know that +they are taking part in what really is a solemn farce, and that what will +happen in the morning after the hearing of their case is just this: John +Brown, landlord, James Fogarty, tenant; judicial rent affirmed; John +Robinson, landlord, James McNorth, tenant; judicial rent affirmed.’<a name='fna_120' id='fna_120' href='#f_120'><small>[120]</small></a></p> + +<p>The first set of Land Commissioners passed away; they were succeeded by a +second Land Commission, the president of which was Mr. Justice Bewley, an +accomplished, if not a very eminent, lawyer. This Commission, like the +other, was composed of honourable men; it is only just to remark that it +was bound by the bad precedents made by the tribunal which it had +replaced. The procedure of the Sub-Commissions was, in some degree, +improved; but the methods of the second Land Commission differed for the +worse where they differed from the methods of its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> predecessor. The Land +Commissioners appear to have not at all regarded the general principles in +fixing ‘fair rent,’ which ought to have had effect on their judgments; +they gave less weight, than Mr. Justice O’Hagan, and his colleagues did, +to the most important evidence, in this province, to which I have adverted +before, and laid too much stress on the least important evidence. As has +been truly remarked, ‘We believe that much more attention was paid in the +early days of the Land Commission to the remaining kinds of popular +evidence than has been the case of late years; and we are assured by one +of the head Commissioners that the Act of 1896 has made a great change in +the fixing of fair rents by placing an emphasis on the technical evidence, +and throwing the popular evidence into the background.’<a name='fna_121' id='fna_121' href='#f_121'><small>[121]</small></a> The +Commissioners, too, followed the bad example of the first Land Commission, +in the province of appeals; they practically disregarded almost everything +but the reports of their valuers, unchecked statements made by men who +were not even witnesses, were not sworn, and were not examined—a +procedure worthy of the Council of Ten at Venice; as before, the result +was that appeals were made all but fruitless, in the Court of which the +decisions were, in this respect, final.</p> + +<p>There was, too, another grave miscarriage of justice caused, perhaps, by a +mistake made by the head of the second Land Commission. The Act of 1881 +provided that ‘fair rent’ should be fixed, having due regard to the +‘interest’ of the tenant on the land, that is, to his improvements, and +perhaps to the mode of his tenure. Mr. Justice Bewley seems to have +decided that another element ought to be taken into account, and should +effect a reduction of rent; the tenant had ‘an occupation right’ in his +favour, over and above the ‘interest’ the law gave him; by reason of this +he had a right to have his rent cut down.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> The only plausible ground +alleged for this doctrine was that landlords would usually accept a lower +rent from a ‘sitting’ tenant in possession than from an incoming tenant; +in other words, their good nature was turned against them, and was to be +made a pretext for their being despoiled. It is just to observe that Mr. +Justice Bewley’s colleagues dissented from this curious view of the law; +and the claim for ‘occupation right’ has since been blown to the winds in +the superior Courts of Ireland. But though many faint denials were made, +some of the Sub-Commissioners acted upon Mr. Justice Bewley’s doctrine; +the evidence is conclusive that this imaginary right was made the means of +considerably reducing rent. Mr. Justice Bewley candidly admitted: ‘From +the commencement, apparently, a number of the Sub-Commissioners have acted +on the principle that there is a certain occupation interest, which every +tenant has, varying according to circumstances, not any fixed amount, but +varying, and that that is to be taken into account in fixing the fair +rent.’<a name='fna_122' id='fna_122' href='#f_122'><small>[122]</small></a> This statement has been confirmed by a host of witnesses by no +means willing in not a few instances. ‘Would you make a difference between +the assessment of the fair rent in the case of a sitting tenant, and in +the case of an incoming tenant—a stranger? Certainly. Can you give us any +idea what that difference is, expressed in percentage?—I could not very +well answer that question. It is a mental calculation, and a good deal +would depend upon the length of the tenure of the tenant.’<a name='fna_123' id='fna_123' href='#f_123'><small>[123]</small></a> And again: +‘In your experience of the Land Commission Court, do you find the +“occupation interest” has been taken into account in fixing the fair +rent?—Yes, I cannot account for the reductions that have been made, +except on that supposition.’<a name='fna_124' id='fna_124' href='#f_124'><small>[124]</small></a> And again: ‘As far as your experience<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +goes, do they invariably value the holdings on the principle of giving an +occupation interest to the sitting tenant?—Yes, the tenants’ valuers, as +a rule, give 40 or 50 per cent. as the interest of the sitting tenant.... +Do you find that the Sub-Commissioners fix the rent on what the valuers +state?—Well, no; that would be going too much out of the way.’<a name='fna_125' id='fna_125' href='#f_125'><small>[125]</small></a> And +again: ‘Have you any doubt that the rents are fixed on the basis of the +occupation interest in the sitting tenant?—I have none. I do not know how +else the rents could have been arrived at.’<a name='fna_126' id='fna_126' href='#f_126'><small>[126]</small></a> And once more: ‘Did the +Sub-Commissioners invariably take the occupation interest of the sitting +tenant into account?—I think so.’ I conclude with these remarks of Mr. +Barnes, one of the best and most impartial of Irish valuers: ‘When I came +to give evidence in Court I found that nothing else would be accepted as +evidence unless based on occupation interest. It was almost the first +question.... Whenever there was an answer made that the valuation was +based on what the landlord would get for the land in his own hands, it was +discounted at once.’<a name='fna_127' id='fna_127' href='#f_127'><small>[127]</small></a> No wonder that it has been alleged by the +highest authority with respect to this claim, since proved to have been +unfounded, guarded and cautious as the language is: ‘There is, however, +reason to believe that this notion of an occupation interest existed in +the minds of some of the early valuers, and did, in fact, influence them, +and it is very possible that some cases in which the reductions there made +appear startling, may be, in part, attributable to this doctrine.’<a name='fna_128' id='fna_128' href='#f_128'><small>[128]</small></a></p> + +<p>What amount of the rental of Ireland was unlawfully cut down owing to the +theory of ‘occupation right,’ it is, of course, impossible to ascertain. +Reductions of rent, too, were probably unjustly made through the +ignorance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> of the Land Commission as to agricultural matters. I refer to a +grotesque instance of this: ‘You have marked a passage there in the +judgment, which, according to you, shows that owing to their ignorance as +experts they entirely mistook what six-course rotation meant?—Yes. The +fact is they took it to be the same crop in the whole seventy acres, that +instead of having so many different crops in this portion of the ground, +it was to be put into one crop for the year, and that is what they call +“rotation” in the Court of Rehearing.... It is plain enough, from the +authorised report of the judgment, that they made that mistake?—It is +clear as possible, and it was upon that that they threw me out. The tenant +himself knew that it was all absurdity and mistake.’<a name='fna_129' id='fna_129' href='#f_129'><small>[129]</small></a></p> + +<p>A remarkable incident occurred in 1897 which threw a strong, if not a +complete, light on the proceedings of the Land Commission and its +Sub-Commissions in the adjustment of rent. In 1896 the time had come for +renewing the first statutory leases, under the Act of 1881; the +Commissioners suddenly made such enormous reductions of rent that persons +who knew Ireland were simply astounded. The Irish landlords naturally were +indignant; after some hesitation, and with plain reluctance, the +Government gave its consent to a very imperfect inquiry. A Commission, +presided over by Sir Edward Fry, a judge of the highest eminence, retired +from office, and composed of four additional colleagues, two being +well-known agricultural experts, was appointed to investigate the subject +on the spot; but the scope of the inquiry was limited in the extreme; it +was confined, in this respect, to examining the procedure and practice +adopted in fixing ‘fair rents;’ it did not extend to the conduct generally +of the Land Commission and its dependent tribunals. The Commission was +engaged nearly three months in its task; it held its sittings in different +parts of Ireland; it had before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> it 183 witnesses; and restricted as it +was in this province, it pronounced, in grave and judicial language, a +marked censure on the methods that had been followed in fixing ‘fair +rents’ in Ireland. In fact, Sir Edward Fry and his colleagues confirmed, +in many respects, the charges which I have made with regard to this whole +system. No doubt they reported, in very guarded words, ‘that they were +unable to conclude that the machinery of the Land Statutes has been +uniformly worked with injustice towards landlords;’<a name='fna_130' id='fna_130' href='#f_130'><small>[130]</small></a> but as they +pointedly refused to rehear a single case, in which the Land Commission +and the Sub-Commissions had fixed a ‘fair rent,’ this statement, ambiguous +as it is, is of no real importance. In other particulars the expression of +these opinions cannot be mistaken; to impartial minds it will appear +decisive. They evidently thought that such wrong had been done to +landlords owing to the want of a definition of ‘fair rent,’ that they +actually framed a definition of their own, in order to establish some kind +of standard; this did not widely differ from that of Mr. Law, which, I +have said, would have made things very different had it been adopted.<a name='fna_131' id='fna_131' href='#f_131'><small>[131]</small></a> +They pointed out that the Land Commissioners should have assisted the +Sub-Commissions in fixing ‘fair rents,’ and should not have left them +‘like ships without a rudder or a compass on a stormy sea;’ it is ‘a +subject of regret,’ they reported, ‘that in the early days of the system +the Land Commissioners were unable to take a part in the tribunals of +first instance; and that the whole original business was left to +Sub-Commissions.’<a name='fna_132' id='fna_132' href='#f_132'><small>[132]</small></a> They strongly condemned the nature of the +Sub-Commission Courts, as being composed of members inadequately paid and +mere tenants at sufferance; and they put forward an elaborate scheme to +make the administration of justice in these tribunals more above +suspicion.<a name='fna_133' id='fna_133' href='#f_133'><small>[133]</small></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> They evidently believed that the Land Commission and the +Sub-Commissions did not give due weight to the class of evidence that was +most important, and gave too much weight to that which was the least; and +they made significant observations on this subject.<a name='fna_134' id='fna_134' href='#f_134'><small>[134]</small></a> On the whole, +they arrived at the conclusion that the fixing of ‘fair rents’ ‘gives +opportunity for dissatisfaction, and leaves much more for improvement; ... +and that the settlement of fair rents has been effected in an +unsatisfactory manner, with diversity of opinion and practice, sometimes +with carelessness, and sometimes with that bias towards one side or the +other which exists in many honest minds.’<a name='fna_135' id='fna_135' href='#f_135'><small>[135]</small></a> But their strongest +animadversion was found in the system, through which, I have said, the +Land Commission really ‘strangled’ appeals, though in this province its +decisions were final: ‘An almost universal dissatisfaction is expressed +with regard to these appeals, a dissatisfaction felt by some at least of +the Commissioners themselves. No witness, with, perhaps, a single +exception, spoke in favour of the existing system.’<a name='fna_136' id='fna_136' href='#f_136'><small>[136]</small></a></p> + +<p>Mr. Justice Bewley has retired from office, and has been replaced by Mr. +Justice Meredith, a capable and experienced lawyer. He has done, probably +as much as in him lay, to alleviate some of the wrong done to Irish +landlords; and for this he has been subjected to violent abuse, especially +on the part of an advocate of Ulster farmers, whose tongue is at odds with +his trade in temperance. But he is bound by the precedents set by those +who have gone before him; and though the work of the Land Commission is +now better done than it was before the Report of the Fry Commission +appeared, and its general procedure has improved, little change has been +effected in the reduction of rent in Ireland. The Government, as I have +pointed out in a preceding chapter, has made a few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> administrative reforms +in the composition and the arrangement of the Sub-Commissions; but it has +not taken a single step to give effect to the recommendations made by the +Fry Commission, so far as these are of real importance; it has refused to +legislate on the subject, and to bring in the measure that was required; +it has even refused to set a further inquiry on foot. The general results +of the labours of the Land Commission and of its subordinate tribunals in +fixing ‘fair rents’ may be summed up in a very few sentences. According to +the Report of the Fry Commission, the tenants of rural holdings in Ireland +are about 486,000 in number; 328,720 of these have had ‘fair rents’ fixed, +between August, 1881, and the end of March, 1900.<a name='fna_137' id='fna_137' href='#f_137'><small>[137]</small></a> The tenants, who +have not had ‘fair rents’ fixed, are probably either tenants of lands not +within the Land Acts, or ‘future tenants’ since 1881-82, or tenants too +poor to pay law costs; but these, perhaps in nine cases out of ten, have +indirectly had the benefit of the law, and have had their rents reduced +like those of the large majority, by voluntary concessions on the part of +landlords. The great mass of ‘fair rents’ has been fixed by the Land +Commission and its dependents, and the proceedings of these tribunals +have, beyond question, formed a standard for the adjustment of rent; +whether ‘fair rents’ have been fixed by the County Courts,<a name='fna_138' id='fna_138' href='#f_138'><small>[138]</small></a> or by +agreements between landlord and tenant, they have, in the main, conformed +to the measure established by the Courts set up in 1881. The reductions of +rent made, in every way, in the first statutory leases, were, on an +average, rather more than 20 per cent. on the old rental;<a name='fna_139' id='fna_139' href='#f_139'><small>[139]</small></a> but those +on the second statutory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> leases have been 22 per cent. more,<a name='fna_140' id='fna_140' href='#f_140'><small>[140]</small></a> that is, +the fixing of ‘fair rents,’ so far as it has gone, has reduced rents +rather more than 42 per cent. It may be asserted, with some confidence, +that through the operation of the new Irish land code, taking in tenancies +of all kinds, Irish rents have been cut down nearly 40 per cent.; little +doubt can exist that they are now lower than they were in the day of +Wakefield, and in some instances in the day of Arthur Young, when the +price of Irish agricultural produce was less than half what it is at the +present time.<a name='fna_141' id='fna_141' href='#f_141'><small>[141]</small></a></p> + +<p>The agricultural rental of Ireland, therefore, in all probability, has +been reduced almost 40 per cent., or will be in a short space of time; and +as long as the present system of fixing ‘fair rent’ continues, however it +may be lowered, it will certainly not be raised. The Act of 1881, I have +already said, would, by itself, necessarily reduce rents; but the faulty +administration of it, on which I have dwelt, has reduced them far more +than ought to have been the case. In fact, disguise it as you may, an +immense confiscation, gradual, indeed, and veiled, but not the less real, +has been made of the property of Irish landlords, even on the principles +of a bad law; the evidence of this is, I believe, conclusive. Rents have +been cut down indiscriminately in the great mass of instances; for +example, rents in country districts only opened to good markets of late +years, have been reduced quite as much as rents around Dublin, which had +almost a monopoly of the best market until about 1855-60. But the proof of +this spoliation is made most apparent by taking into account a single +fact, and drawing the natural inference from it. The value of the +landlords’ interest in the land, before 1881, was from 20 to 25 years’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +purchase; it is now between 15 and 18; at the same time the value of the +tenants’ interest has, in thousands of cases, enormously increased. I +refer to a few examples out of scores to be found in the evidence given to +the Fry Commission. I take first an estate in Ulster: ‘I only remember one +case of a holding before 1881 that went up (in a sale of the farm) to +anything like 20 years’ purchase of the rent, and I have several cases +since then that have gone beyond it. I remember one case that struck me +very forcibly because of the great amount the man got—20 years’ purchase. +Since then I have known, 29, 35, 36, 34 years’ purchase to be given.’ I +turn now to two estates in the south of Ireland: ‘Charles Bolster, 112 +acres; rent £79 5<i>s.</i>; sold for £570 in 1889. Daniel Buckley, 9 acres, at +rent of £3 3<i>s.</i>; sold in 1889 for £45. Christopher Crofts, 131 acres; old +rent, £86; judicial rent fixed in 1893, £80; sold in 1889 for £120. +Timothy Reefe, 5 acres; rent, 29<i>s.</i>; sold in 1891 for £47.’ I pass on to +the second estate: ‘Next case, 65 acres; old rent, £60; judicial rent, £56 +14<i>s.</i>, fixed in 1883 by agreement; sold in 1883 for £330. Next, 76 +statute acres; old rent, £115; judicial rent fixed in 1885 at £108; sold +in December, 1885, for £1600.’<a name='fna_142' id='fna_142' href='#f_142'><small>[142]</small></a></p> + +<p>This great fall in the value of the fee simple in the Irish land, and this +great rise in the value of the tenant right, coinciding with the general +fixing of ‘fair rents,’ distinctly point to a plain conclusion: the +interest of the Irish landlord has been enormously reduced, a result never +contemplated by the author of the Act of 1881. In truth, there has been +little or no decline in the market price of land in Ireland; but property +that ought to belong to the landlord has been improperly taken from him, +and has been transferred to the tenant who had no right to it. Excuses, +however, have been made for this wholesale abolition of rent; they are +worthless, but may be briefly noticed. Ireland, it is said, is suffering, +like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> England, from the agricultural depression of late years; and rents +in Ireland have not been cut down more by the act of the State than they +have been reduced in England by the voluntary acts of landlords. But +agricultural depression in Ireland, a land of small holdings, and of +pasturage, to a considerable extent, is not, by many degrees, as severe as +in England, a land of large farms and largely of cereal culture; a signal +proof of this is that, while in England, tenants have, in hundreds of +instances, thrown up their farms, there has hardly been a case of the kind +in Ireland, as appears from the Report of the Fry Commission. Besides, if +agricultural prices have fallen in Ireland, compared to what they were, +say, twenty-five years ago, they are higher than they were in the years, +say, 1850-55, not to take into account the progress made by Ireland, in +the last half-century, in crops, farm machinery, and the breeds of farming +animals. As to the reduction of rents in England and Ireland, the supposed +analogy completely fails. The rental of England rose greatly from 1850 to +1880; there was no corresponding increase in Ireland; there was thus a +margin for reduction, in the greater island, which in the lesser did not +exist. Again, no comparison can be made between State-settled Irish rents +and English rents lowered by the voluntary acts of landlords. ‘Fair rents’ +have practically been reduced for all time; the reduction of English rents +is temporary, and can be at once annulled; this difference makes a +supposed resemblance a very striking contrast. As to the argument that the +Courts which have fixed ‘fair rents’ have been composed of honourable men, +and that it is extremely invidious to make charges against them, mere +leather and prunella may be brushed aside. No one disputes the honour of +the Land and the Sub-Commissioners, but it does not follow that they have +not done injustice; no one has disputed the honour of the Commission which +carried out the Encumbered Estates Act,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> and yet it repeatedly sold +estates at less than half their value.</p> + +<p>The Irish landlords, I repeat, have been iniquitously despoiled; a huge +confiscation has been made of their property. If the simplest right is to +be done in this province, their claim to compensation has been rendered +complete—apart from the utterances of Mr. Gladstone; should this be +disregarded, Parliament will have been chargeable with a grave breach of +faith, and a precedent will have been set from trampling on the just +rights of property in the Three Kingdoms, which will be dangerous in the +extreme. I pass on to consider the Irish land on the side of ownership, +and the administration of the system of so-called ‘land purchase.’ Of the +total of £40,000,000 alone available, some £20,000,000 appear to have been +expended; some 50,000 tenants have been made owners of their farms, +without having paid a shilling of their own, that is, rather more than one +in ten of the whole tenant class in Ireland. The politicians who declared +against ‘dual ownership,’ that bugbear of self-sufficient ignorance, can +find little consolation in these figures; I shall comment afterwards on +what this state of things has produced. The Government of Lord Salisbury +still proposes to seek to accelerate ‘land purchase’ of this kind; and +loud complaints have been made of the law’s delay in not having made the +process more speedy. I have had no experience in this matter, and shall, +therefore, give no opinion on it; but it appears to me that there has been +some want of care in making advances to these so-styled ‘purchasers;’ not +a few were insolvent when they acquired their farms, and many are now on +the verge of bankruptcy. This, however, was perhaps inseparable from the +system that has been pursued; it is only an additional proof of its +essential vices.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (<i>continued</i>)—PROPOSED REFORM OF THE IRISH LAND SYSTEM</span></p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang">Retrospect of the present Irish land system—Position of the Irish +landlords—Position of the Irish tenant class—This not as +advantageous as might be supposed—The effects of the land code on +Irish agriculture injurious—The effects on the general Irish +community—Confiscation, violation of contracts, shock given to +credit, increased alienation of classes, and demoralisation—The land +system considered on the side of ownership—‘Voluntary +purchase’—Mischief of this policy—It sets up a false standard +against rent, and creates unjust distinctions between different +classes of tenants—The results it has produced already—An instance +of the system—The demand for the compulsory purchase of the Irish +land caused by ‘voluntary purchase’—Compulsory purchase has some hold +on opinion, but is an impossible, and would be a disgraceful and +ruinous policy—It would ruin Irish landlords as a +class—Instances—It would ultimately bring Ireland into the state in +which she was before the Great Famine—Proposed plan for the reform of +Irish land tenure—Questions as to the means of compensating Irish +landlords, a deeply wronged order of men.</p></div> + + +<p>Having traced the attempts that have been made to reform Irish land +tenure, in the last thirty years, and noticed the administration of the +new Irish land code, I must, for the sake of clearness, take a short +retrospect, and consider the Irish land system as it exists at this day; I +shall review it on the side of occupation first, that is, in the relations +of landlord and tenant. The agricultural rental of Ireland, we have seen, +has been, or is being,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> reduced about 40 per cent. since 1881, through the +operation of laws carried out by tribunals of the State; this proceeding, +unexampled in civilised lands, has been the means, I have proved, of doing +gross wrong to the Irish landed gentry. But this, if a signal, is only one +of the many acts of injustice perpetrated on a cruelly injured body of +men. The fee simple has been wrested from the Irish landlord, where he has +been subjected to the legislation of late years; he has been deprived of +the ownership which had been his birthright. An estate, nominally for +fifteen years, but really capable of being renewed for ever, has been +created against him by an unjust law; and this has been vested in his +former tenants, subject to the mode of land tenure known as the ‘Three +F’s,’ the chief of these being ‘fair,’ that is, State-settled rents, in +the adjustment of which he has no voice. He may, no doubt, retain +fragments of his old proprietary rights; parts of his estate may be +excluded from the provisions of the law; he may be the lord of ‘future +tenants;’ he is left ‘royalties,’ such as minerals, mines, and timber; he +possesses most of his former legal remedies; and should the holders of the +lands, which had been his own, who have obtained the benefits of the +‘Three F’s,’ infringe the statutory conditions imposed on them, they may +be dispossessed, and he may enter upon their farms again. But, +notwithstanding exceptions and possibilities like these, the Irish +landlord has, for practical purposes, been well-nigh assimilated to a +rent-charger, and his tenants have been nearly converted into owners of +the soil, an utter revolution in the whole land system, in truth, turning +it upside down. The status, indeed, of the Irish landed gentry now bears a +strong resemblance to that of the chief landlords of the eighteenth +century, who, separating themselves altogether from their lands, let them +in perpetuity at low rents, and, as a necessary consequence, produced the +middleman, the pest, as he has rightly been called, of Irish land tenure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>The enormous and, as I believe, the unjust benefits secured by recent +legislation to the Irish tenant, are not, however, so complete as they +appear to be, and are not without disadvantages attendant on them. Tenants +of holdings, to which the law does not apply, such as tenants of demesnes +and large pastoral lands, if rightly excluded, nevertheless complain; and +‘future tenants,’ and petty occupants, who cannot afford to seek ‘fair +rents’ from the Courts, have, from their point of view, solid grounds of +complaint. The scope of the new land code is, therefore, to some extent, +restricted; and if the law has actually caused a general reduction of +rents, it has not secured the ‘Three F’s’ for a considerable body of +farmers, not improbably a fourth or fifth part of the class as a whole. +And even the occupiers of the Irish soil, who have obtained the advantages +of the new mode of tenure, have not obtained these without a certain kind +of drawback. Completely separated as they now are from their former +landlords, they cannot expect indulgences from a class which considers +itself to have been shamefully wronged; the allowances, which, whatever +may be said, had been made to them, in thousands of cases, have, as a +rule, been altogether withdrawn; they get no help in making improvements; +they are usually obliged regularly to pay their ‘fair rents;’ above all, +landlords, of a strict or harsh nature, are sometimes on the look-out to +see if they do not violate the statutory conditions to which they are +subject, in order to convert them into ‘future tenants,’ outside of the +protection of the law, and even to reacquire their lands. These +circumstances are not without adverse effects; though unquestionably they +are far more than countervailed by the change which has been wrought in +Irish land tenure, and has given the Irish tenant the benefits already +described. Yet, even from this point of view, the law does not operate as +unreservedly in his favour as might be supposed. He has his ‘fair rent,’ +probably much too low;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> his ‘fixity of tenure,’ a perpetuity in all but +name; his right to ‘free sale,’ sometimes worth thousands of pounds. But, +as a rule, he can only gain these advantages at the cost of a lawsuit +recurring at short intervals of time, with the vexation and mischief this +brings with it, a lawsuit, too, of which the results may be more or less +doubtful. If, too, he is a saving and thrifty man he will hardly be able +to acquire lands for himself, as, in consequence of the right of ‘free +sale,’ the tenant right of these will have become immensely high; he will +be confined, in most instances, to the farm he holds. On the other hand, +if he be dishonest or imprudent, he will be tempted to run out and even to +injure his land, in order to effect a reduction of rent, or to sublet or +mortgage it should an opportunity be found.</p> + +<p>The new Irish land code has thus had this special feature: it has done +infinite harm to the despoiled landlord, but the tenant has not gained the +expected benefits. Let us now see what effect it has had on the great +industry on which the Irish landed classes depend, the main source of the +wealth of their country. Unquestionably, as I have remarked, over and over +again, the tenant in Ireland makes, for the most part, the plant of his +farm a necessary incident of the small-farm system; but the Irish landed +gentry, in the last half century, have done a great deal in the work of +improvement. Whatever interested calumny may falsely assert, they have +expended millions, as unerring statistics show, in planting, enclosure, +and, especially, in arterial drainage, this last beyond the reach of the +common peasant; they have, in thousands of instances, made the breeds of +stock better; they have made large allowances as regards farm buildings. +All this is now a thing of the past; the sometime landowner, in a real +sense, has been divorced from his former estate; law has prohibited him +from doing anything for it; his only interest is to collect the +rent-charge called, in mockery, ‘fair rent.’ On the other hand, tenants in +Ireland have, in a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> many cases—I have briefly glanced at the +conclusive evidence—positively wasted or neglected their holdings, for +the express purpose of working rent down; this shameful expedient has been +hardly checked; the deterioration of a large area of land has been thus +accomplished. And, at the same time, as ‘fair rent’ is much lower than the +rent of the market, a considerable minority of this class have sublet or +mortgaged their lands, in order to get advances of which they stand in +need; this, no doubt, is a violation of the law; but it is a violation +difficult to prove, and they run the risk. In this way, as I have shown, +in a preceding chapter, the husbandry of Ireland has declined of late +years; woodland has been cut down recklessly to a great extent; main +drainage has been largely neglected, a ruinous thing in a wet climate; in +thousands of cases the farming of tenants at ‘fair rents’ is wretched. The +face of the country reveals these facts: Ireland is worse cultivated than +it was twenty years ago; indeed, the best farming, in the island, by many +degrees, is that conducted by a small number of men of substance, who +still hold on the footing of free contract, having settled with their +landlords, and taken out leases, a significant commentary on Irish +legislation since 1881.</p> + +<p>This subject, however, must be considered from a broader point of view, +and with reference to the community of Ireland, as a whole. A great +confiscation, I have said, has been wrought in the Irish land; the immense +fall in the value of the landlord’s estate, and the immense rise in the +value of the tenant right, prove that property belonging to one class has +been transferred, wholesale, by law, to another, a result never +contemplated by responsible statesmen. And confiscation has produced its +inevitable effects; free dealing in land has been prevented; except to his +former tenants an Irish country gentleman cannot sell what remains to him +of his former estate, and that through the system of ‘land purchase;’ +capital shuns the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> Irish soil as if it were a quicksand; trustees and +mortgagees will not invest in it; in a word, as respects the class which +had been its owners, the Irish land has been bound in a kind of pernicious +mortmain. It is unnecessary to dwell on the resulting evils; one of the +sources of the wealth of Ireland has been made barren; a paralysis has +fallen on a member of Irish industry; what is, perhaps, even worse, a +sense of insecurity, of instability, of fear of unknown change, so widely +prevails in Irish landed relations, that they have become completely +unsettled, and are a mere chaos. And as vicious legislation has cut the +old landlord off from his estate, has assimilated him to the chief lord of +the eighteenth century, and is evolving, by degrees, the middleman, so the +effects of confiscation, by keeping land out of commerce, have unnaturally +limited and restricted its nominal ownership; in fact, many of the +features of the detestable penal laws of Ireland are reappearing in the +Irish land system, and are being reproduced by the modern Irish land code. +Another mischievous effect of this code, in another direction, requires +attention. The value of tenant right, we have seen, has enormously +increased; the sums paid by incoming to outgoing tenants, on the transfer +of farms, have, accordingly, become enormous; these purchasers, therefore, +are being subjected to heavy outlays, practically in the nature of +rack-rents, which hamper their industry, starve their capital, and most +injuriously affect good husbandry. One class of the community is thus +wronged for the behoof of another; and agriculture must, more or less, +suffer.</p> + +<p>Not the least, however, of the manifold evils caused by this legislation +have to be yet noticed. The ancient divisions of race and faith in the +Irish land system still continue; what was most harsh and oppressive in +them has been effaced; but they have become wider and more marked in the +last twenty years; and this is largely to be ascribed to the present land +code. A mode of land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> tenure, which produces harassing litigation at short +intervals of time, and makes landed relations cockpits for legal +conflicts, necessarily sets the landed classes against each other; it has +aggravated the old differences deep-rooted in the Irish soil. The +Protestant gentleman and the Catholic peasant are more estranged from each +other, in the southern provinces, than they have been, I believe, within +living memory; the same remark, too, applies to Presbyterian Ulster, where +the gentry belong, for the most part, to the late Established Church, and +the tenant classes are of the faith of John Knox; the lines of distinction +between these orders of men have deepened; and this alienation, concurring +with another cause, has contributed to the cry for the confiscation of the +Irish land, which is now being very generally raised, and to which I shall +refer afterwards. Another mischief of this legislation, at which I have +already glanced, is the widespread demoralisation it has caused, from the +nature of the case. The litigation in the Courts where ‘fair rents’ are +being fixed, is often a miserable spectacle of hard and mendacious +swearing productive of the worst effects on the human character. Peasants, +as a rule, do not scruple to pledge their oaths that their rents ought to +be at most a fourth of the rents they had paid for perhaps half a century; +the witnesses they call as valuers usually repeat these statements. The +claims, too, for exemption from rent, on account of improvements, are +often ridiculous, often shameful; I have seen sums paid for manures twenty +years old, gravely put forward as creating a claim for exemption; and the +subject of the deterioration of farms is another fruitful source of +falsehood. It is hardly necessary to comment on the results, as regards +self-respect and the moral sense of men, which must follow proceedings of +this kind, carried on, over whole counties, in thousands of cases; they +are, inevitably, in a very high degree, unfortunate; but, when law +encourages dishonesty, they were to be only expected.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>Such have been the fruits of the new Irish land code, on the side of the +occupation of the Irish land. Legislation, essentially faulty and unwise, +in conflict with economic science and the facts of the case, has taken +from the Irish landlords their chief proprietary rights, and forcibly +transferred these to their tenants; it has not conferred the benefits it +intended on an unfairly favoured class; it has wrought a revolution in the +Irish land system, in contravention to plain justice, and given it an +unnatural and evil aspect; it has caused iniquitous confiscation on a vast +scale and demoralisation profound and widespread, with the far-reaching +inherent mischiefs; and bad administration has made bad laws worse. +Political economy, spite of Mr. Gladstone, has not fled from this world at +his bidding; she looks on, so to speak, at the ruins in Ireland produced +by the violation of her most certain principles; I will add, she affirms +the claim to compensation of the Irish landlord, if the simplest equity is +not to be set at nought. As to the general situation evolved by the +present Irish land code, I may refer to these pregnant words of Mr. Lecky: +‘It cannot be denied that this legislation has redressed some hard cases +and benefited a large number of tenants; and as few men look beyond +immediate consequences, or rightly estimate those which are indirect and +remote, this fact is accepted by many as its justification. For my own +part, I believe that it will one day be found that the evils resulting +from this policy have greatly outweighed its benefits, and that they will +fall far more heavily on another class than on the small class which was +directly injured. In a poor country, where increased capital, improved +credit, and secure industry are the greatest needs, it has shaken to the +very basis the idea of the sanctity and obligation of contract; made it +almost impossible to borrow any considerable sum on Irish land; +effectually stopped the influx of English gold; paralysed or prevented +nearly all industrial undertakings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> stretching into a distant future. It +has reacted powerfully upon trade, and thus contributed to impoverish the +Irish towns, while it has withdrawn the whole rental of Ireland from the +improvement of the soil, as the landlord can have no further inducement or +obligation to spend money on his estate. In combination, also, with the +Home Rule movement, it has driven much capital out of the land.’<a name='fna_143' id='fna_143' href='#f_143'><small>[143]</small></a></p> + +<p>I pass on to the legislation of late years, with respect to the Irish +land, on the side of ownership. I have briefly described what that +legislation is: a Conservative Ministry, impressed with the wrong idea +that Mr. Gladstone had ‘created dual ownership,’ by the ill-conceived +measure of 1881, resolved to abolish this evil thing if they could, though +it is the natural mould of Irish land tenure; and Parliament has allotted +£40,000,000 to attain this object, through the operation of what is +falsely called ‘land purchase.’ The mode of proceeding has been explained: +an Irish landlord, who desires to sell his estate to his tenants, can +obtain an advance for this purpose from the State, through the agency of +the Land Commission; the tenants are then made owners of their farms, +without contributing any moneys of their own, and hold at terminable +annuities much lower than even ‘fair rents.’ The transaction, therefore, +we have seen, is, in no sense, a purchase; it is a gift, in the nature of +a bribe; it is completely different from the policy of John Bright and the +sales of land made to tenants before 1885, in which these men paid part of +the price at least, the only real security for thrift and honesty. Of the +£40,000,000, nearly half, I have said, has been spent; and out of the +486,000 agricultural Irish tenants, some 50,000 have acquired their +holdings, in fee, under these conditions. The law thus applies to a mere +fraction of the class; it is idle to assert that this can do much to +extinguish ‘dual ownership’ in all Ireland; the sum required would be many +times more than that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> which alone has been made available; and the +process, at the present rate of ‘purchases,’ would not be accomplished +within a century. We may, therefore, pass away from this part of the +subject; but let us see how ‘land purchase,’ effected in this way, bears +on the position of the Irish landed gentry. The immense majority of this +order of men still cling to their native country and their homes; they +hate the idea of parting with the rights they retain in the land, trampled +down and injured as they have been; this is especially the case with the +best and most solvent landlords. But as the terminable annuities payable +on ‘land purchase’ are not nearly so high as even very low rents, not to +speak of the other conditions of this mode of tenure, it follows that +tenants who have thus been made owners are infinitely better off than +tenants still subject to rent; one class has great advantages, of which +the other is deprived; as a necessary consequence an artificial standard +is set up against rent, which does wrong to the landlord, from the nature +of the case; gives every tenant on his estate a grievance; and not +improbably may expose him to a determined refusal to pay any rent +whatever.</p> + +<p>‘Land purchase,’ therefore—the name is a mere untruth—has been a failure +as regards ‘dual ownership;’ and it is establishing against the Irish +landlord a false measure of rent, analogous to a base coinage, a strange +achievement of a Conservative Government. Let us next consider what has +been the working of this economic nostrum, with respect to the class, for +the benefit of which it was first prescribed, and which has reaped the +advantages it gives. The tenants, who have been made owners of their +farms, have, as a rule, discharged their obligations to the State very +well, though I could point to not a few exceptions; and there have been +strikes against the payment of the terminable annuities in some instances. +This may be sufficient for official bureaucrats; it is not sufficient for +those who know Ireland, and can impartially watch the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> course of events. +It was fondly expected that ‘land purchase,’ that is, bribing tenants in +Ireland to become owners of their farms, would create a powerful body of +freeholders loyal to the State; but this has already been seen to be a +mere delusion. As Parnell predicted would be the case, these ‘purchasers’ +are ‘patriotic’ in the highest degree; they fill the ranks of the United +Irish League, that is, of a conspiracy against our rule in Ireland, and +are numbered among its most efficient agents; human nature being what it +actually is, this is precisely what was to be expected. It was confidently +foretold, again, that these ‘purchasers’ would form a thriving class of +model farmers; and that their lands would be patterns of admirable and +improved peasant husbandry, but this forecast is being, in a great degree, +falsified. These men, ‘rocked and dandled into their possessions,’ in the +words of Burke, without a single guarantee for common prudence, and +especially without an effort of their own, have, in hundreds of instances, +turned out sorry failures; and it has been the almost universal practice +of the whole class to cut down every tree that grows on their lands, an +act of ruinous waste in a rain-drenched climate. Besides, as freehold +ownership is not an Irish idea—indeed, is opposed to Irish ideas—these +‘purchasers’ have, in many cases, following the example of tenants ‘at +fair rents,’ subdivided, sublet, or mortgaged their holdings; instead of +remaining owners in a true sense, they are becoming middlemen lording it +over rack-rented serfs. The agriculture, too, of hundreds of these farms +is slovenly in the extreme, for bribery does not promote industry; what is +‘easy got, easy goes’ is a true proverb; and, in addition, a number of +these men were really insolvent when they were made ‘purchasers.’ That +Ireland will blossom like a rose, under these conditions, is seen even now +to be a chimera; and there is much reason to believe that many of these +‘purchasers’ have become the prey of the race of local usurers, a +consummation that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> might have been predicted. ‘I shall sell my estate,’ a +witty Irishman once remarked, ‘but I will keep two loan offices and four +public-houses; and in two generations my “purchasing” tenants will be too +happy to resell their lands to my grandsons.’</p> + +<p>A singular instance of ‘land purchase,’ and, indeed, of the working of +another part of the land code, has come under my notice of late; I can +answer for the accuracy of what I write; scores of similar cases could be, +probably, found. In 1852, an industrious Scottish tradesman invested the +savings of years of his life in buying a chief rent under the Encumbered +Estates Act; he gave £5000 for a perpetual rent-charge of £192, that is, +not quite 4 per cent. on his capital. The tenant of the lands subject to +the rent was a middleman, with an estate of about £3000 a year; he had +sublet the lands to a tenant in occupation of them, a slovenly, +ill-conditioned, and indolent farmer. The Land Act of 1887 passed; the +wealthy middleman, an excellent ‘mark’ for the chief rent, who, therefore, +had been obliged to pay the £192 a year, was empowered by the new law to +evade his contract, and practically to get rid of his interest; the owner +of the chief rent, therefore, had only the tenant in occupation to look to +for the discharge of his claim. This person was succeeded by his son, a +good-for-nothing and drunken man, who soon became head over ears in debt; +but he was declared ‘a purchaser’ by the Land Commission, and, subject to +a terminable annuity, was made owner of the lands. But the advance made +was not more than £2300; the representative of the hardworking Scotchman, +who had bought property, as secure, at the time, as Consols, was a loser +of more than half of his capital; he was simply cheated out of £2700, +through the operation of an iniquitous law; his indignant protests may +well be conceived. The subsequent history of this so-styled ‘purchase’ is +significant, and not without interest. The worthless owner took possession +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> the lands; his first step was to cut down the woodland, until he was +stopped by a creditor to whom he owed a mortgage. Since that time he has +become insolvent in all but name, and cannot pay the annuity due to the +State; the Land Commission has been trying to sell the lands; but the +attempt has, hitherto, been a failure; the lands have been ‘boycotted,’ +and the market has been closed against a sale. These proceedings do not +require a word of comment; they strikingly illustrate how the agrarian +code of Ireland makes havoc of capital, annuls contracts, and confiscates +property for the behoof of dishonest thriftlessness. Meanwhile the happy +middleman enjoys his £3000 a year; I dare say he licks his lips as he +thinks of the Land Act of 1887, which scattered a just liability to the +winds.</p> + +<p>The most remarkable and the worst effect—with a revolutionary tendency in +no doubtful sense—of this mischievous system has, however, to be still +noticed. About one out of ten of the agricultural tenants of Ireland have +‘purchased’ their farms in the way described; the fund available for ‘land +purchase’ cannot include more than one in five; and the process is and +must be slow, owing to the law’s delay. Legislation, therefore, with a +singular want of insight, has drawn, and is drawing, an unjust distinction +between ‘purchasing’ and rent-paying tenants; it is dividing them into a +small favoured class, and a multitude harshly left out in the cold—fat +sheep in one fold, lean goats in another; as the inevitable result, the +rent-paying tenant resents the benefits obtained by ‘the purchaser;’ and +the immense majority of the farmers of Ireland are made discontented with +their lot, from their point of view not without reason. It is idle to say +to this great body of men that they have already gained advantages from +the State, on which they never reckoned thirty years ago, and that they +have the ‘Three F’s,’ and all that the phrase implies; those who have +secured much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> are eager to secure more; the unfair distinction arbitrarily +made against them is unintelligible and exasperating, man being what he +is. The policy of ‘voluntary purchase,’ as it is called, has, accordingly, +from the very nature of the case, provoked and called into being the cry +for the ‘compulsory purchase’ of the Irish land, now being heard far and +wide in Ireland—that is, for the forcible expropriation of all Irish +landlords, and for placing all their tenants, in their stead, as owners of +their estates. This demand has as yet been rejected by statesmen, and is, +I believe, both hopeless and shameful; but it has, nevertheless, some +logic on its side; it is a corollary from legislation essentially bad; +and, backed as it is by a large force of Irish opinion, it cannot be +ignored or treated with contempt. It is simply extraordinary that many +Irish landlords have been encouraging, and still encourage, ‘voluntary +purchase,’ on its existing lines, and will not perceive that it leads to +‘compulsory purchase;’ either from a desire to dispose of parts of their +estates, or from motives not easy to understand, they are promoting a +revolution, which, if accomplished, would assure their ruin, as I shall +conclusively prove afterwards. But the well-informed and most thoughtful +members of their class are not flies lured into a bottle by a bit of +sugar; they are alive to all that is involved in what is called ‘land +purchase.’ Many years ago, when Parliament was voting funds for ‘voluntary +purchase,’ on the present system, I indicated what would be the results; I +only claim credit for some share of common sense: ‘Law will have been +severing the occupiers of the soil by an arbitrary process into a pampered +caste, marked off from a disfavoured multitude; and, as a necessary +consequence, the mass of tenants, kept in an inferior position, will be +filled with discontent—and from their point of view with perfect +justice—when, as the advances from the State run short, their prospects +of “land purchase” shall wane and diminish. An “ugly rush” will be made +throughout the country to force<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> landlords, as a class, to sell, in order +to get a chance of buying; in Ulster the cry for “compulsory purchase,” +already heard, will swell high and fierce.’<a name='fna_144' id='fna_144' href='#f_144'><small>[144]</small></a></p> + +<p>These, therefore, have been the fruits of the system called ‘land +purchase’ with euphemistic falsehood. ‘Compulsory purchase,’ a demand +caused by an unwise policy, is a question that must be fairly discussed; +it is nothing to the purpose that it has as yet made little way in +Parliament. This claim would have been regarded as sheer insanity thirty +years ago; it was scouted by John Bright as in the highest degree +mischievous, though John Bright was the first statesman who proposed +making tenants in Ireland owners of their farms, but through a real, not a +sham, mode of purchase. The compulsory purchase of the rented land of +Ireland is a policy that has advocates even in England and Scotland; and +it is lamentable to observe how British opinion seems to take little heed +how a measure of this kind would affect the position of the Irish +landlord, another of the many instances of its habitual disregard of the +plainest rights of property in land in Ireland. A set of doctrinaires, +ignorant of Irish nature and of the Irish land, imagine that ‘the creation +of a peasant proprietary,’ in all parts of Ireland, as the cant phrase is, +would, in any case, make the Union secure, and would promote tranquillity, +industry, and content. Some politicians still cherish the fond belief, +that thrusting Irish tenants, wholesale, into the place of their +landlords, by an act of violence without a parallel, would make Irish +government and administration more easy; and shut their eyes to the nature +of this policy. English and Scottish capitalists, who have made advances +on Irish estates, see in compulsory purchase the best probable means of +realising<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> securities now in danger; a few great absentee landlords, eager +to part with their possessions in Ireland, at almost any price, are +possibly not opposed to this scheme; and so maybe a few bankrupt Irish +landlords, hoping to get a trifle out of a general shipwreck. The demand, +however, for compulsory purchase has its only real strength in Ireland; +and unquestionably it is widespread and far-reaching. The conspiracy +against British rule in Ireland, which has made the annihilation of Irish +‘landlordism’ one of its main objects, calls for compulsory purchase, as a +matter of course; it finds no difficulty in banding together the peasantry +of the southern provinces in support of a cry which means for this class +an improvement in their lot, and appeals to deep-rooted sentiments of +human nature. The Irish Catholic priesthood, too, back the movement to a +man, and so do the local Nationalist boards; for obvious reasons, both +these orders of men seek to drive the Irish landed gentry from their +homes, and to replace them by dependents in sympathy with them. The demand +has also extended to Ulster, chiefly on account of the harsh distinction +drawn between ‘purchasing’ and ‘non-purchasing’ tenants; it is economic +rather than social or political; but the cry for compulsory purchase is +perhaps loudest in parts of the northern province. Its principal champion, +at present, is an enthusiast, sincere, indeed, if without judgment and +insight; but he is sustained by bodies of farmers formidable in numbers at +least.</p> + +<p>The sharp and, as I think, the unfair distinction drawn by the present law +between tenant ‘purchasers’ and tenants still subject to the payment of +rent, has created, it cannot be said too often, the demand for the +compulsory purchase of the Irish land, and for this Lord Salisbury’s +Government is largely responsible. But because an Irish peasant, on one +side of a fence, cannot obtain the benefits of land tenure, which his +neighbour, on the other side,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> has obtained, and may even have a right to +complain, it does not follow that compulsory purchase is a possible, or +aught but a disgraceful policy; other interests and considerations must be +taken into account. Let us first see how compulsory purchase would affect +the financial position of the Three Kingdoms. Great as the prosperity of +the Empire is, the strain on its resources is immense; the expenditure of +the State at home is vast, and on the increase; the war in South Africa, +and the settlement of that huge region, will cost unknown millions; the +reform of our military and even of our naval system, necessary to our +safety, will be a weighty burden for years; every Chancellor of the +Exchequer has declared that fiscal economy, as far as possible, is his +first duty. But what does the compulsory purchase of the Irish land +involve, and what, confessedly, are its essential conditions? Mr. +Gladstone, I have said, asserted, long ago, that the value of the +agricultural area of Ireland was £300,000,000; this estimate, I believe, +is too high; but, in the opinion of competent judges, it cannot be deemed +less than £150,000,000. But the forcible expropriation of the Irish landed +gentry on every principle of civilised law, as, indeed, Sir Michael Hicks +Beach has already insisted, would imply giving them a large additional +bonus; this probably would not be less than £50,000,000; the sum, +therefore, required for compulsory purchase, would, it may be assumed, be +not less than £200,000,000. Now, can any one imagine that the general +taxpayer, in the financial situation in which we are, and shall be for +years, will make himself liable for this colossal charge, equal to the +ransom Germany extorted from France, in order to bribe Irish peasants into +the ownership of their farms, and to effect an agrarian revolution, in +which he has no interest? I should like to see the Minister who would go +to the country on such an insane policy, and who would call on the hardly +taxed millions of England,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> Scotland, and Ireland, to burn huge holes in +their pockets for such an object, for simply robbing Peter to pay Paul, +and that without a pretence of right, or any conceivable good. And what +security would the Irish land afford for the payment of this enormous +impost? The terminable annuities due from the ‘purchasing’ tenants would, +it has pleasantly been said, be a sufficient guarantee; but men of common +sense are not to be caught by chaff; the idea is a vain and worthless +delusion. The ‘No Rent Manifesto’ and the ‘Plan of Campaign’ were +movements of Irish peasants, so to speak, of yesterday; what if another +Parnell were to arise and to issue a ukase that ‘a foreign and alien +Government had no right to an unjust tribute;’ and how could this be +collected by a Department of an absentee State?</p> + +<p>The general taxpayer, therefore, who, thirteen years ago, grumbled at a +demand of £5,000,000 only, will assuredly not fling £200,000,000, or half +that sum, into the Serbonian bog of the Irish land. It is hardly necessary +to dwell on so small a fact, ‘that compulsory purchase would reduce the +income tax of Ireland about one-half, for nine-tenths of the tenant +‘purchasers’ would be below its level;’ but even this cannot be left out of +sight. Conservative statesmen, it should be added, are especially bound to +reject this scheme; in 1886 they denounced, in emphatic language, Mr. +Gladstone’s far less dangerous plan of making the State liable for +£50,000,000, to buy out Irish landlords; flagrant inconsistency in +politics should be eschewed. The probably fixed purpose of the general +taxpayer not to mulct himself heavily to fling the Irish soil to a mass of +peasants, is doubtless, and I say it with regret, the best security +against the destruction of the Irish landlords; this despoiled and +maltreated body of men just now fill the place in Irish affairs of the +‘Injured Lady’ of Swift’s satire, gravely told by her lover across the +Channel that ‘I had cost him ten times more than I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> was worth to maintain +me, and that it had been much better for him if I had been damned, or +burnt, or thrown to the bottom of the sea.’<a name='fna_145' id='fna_145' href='#f_145'><small>[145]</small></a> Nevertheless, I have +faith in right-minded Englishmen, however prejudiced or ill-informed about +an unpopular class, if plain facts and figures are set before them; let us +see how it would fare with the Irish landlord were he forcibly +expropriated under compulsory purchase. I will take the case of an Irish +country gentleman, who, in the period between 1868 and 1878, had an income +from his estate of £1500 a year, subject to a family charge of £10,000 at +4 per cent., that is, had a net annual income of £1100. Owing to the +depression of agriculture since 1879, his rents would have naturally +fallen about £300 a year; but let us suppose that, through the operation +of the new Irish land code, they have been cut down to ‘fair rents’ of +£900 a year only. His annual income, therefore, would be £900 less by +£400, that is, he would still have £500 a year he could call his own; how +would it be with him were he forcibly sold out? Admit that his estate +would fetch eighteen years’ purchase—the present average rate is +seventeen—that is, would realise £16,200; deducting, say, £200 for law +costs, this would be a net residue of £16,000. But the family charge would +absorb £10,000; the surplus would be £6000 only, producing, let us +calculate, £4 per cent.; this ruined man, therefore, who, little more than +twenty years ago, possessed an income of £1100 a year, would be left £240 +at the very utmost. I have taken care to understate the case; I challenge +attention to my figures; I ask honest Englishmen would not this be sheer +robbery, accomplished, to the disgrace of the State, in its name?</p> + +<p>It has been urged, however—and to those who know the facts, the statement +is cruel and shameful mockery—that the Irish landlord would only lose his +rented lands, and that ‘he could live happily on the demesne land, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +he would still retain.’ This would be simply impossible in the case of +nineteen-twentieths of the class; they would not have the means to keep +their demesnes up; they would be compelled to part with them at almost any +price; and the few, who would have the means, would, all but certainly, +with their beggared fellows, leave a country in which they had been foully +betrayed. It is notorious, indeed, that Irish Nationalist leaders, knowing +what compulsory purchase means, have marked down the demesnes of the Irish +landed gentry as their prey; associates of American Fenians and of the +Clan na Gael are to revel in the mansions of the Geraldines, the Butlers, +the O’Connors, the O’Neills, as Jacobins revelled in the mansions of the +La Tremouilles and the De Noailles. But man does not live by bread alone; +the material ruin of the Irish landlord would be bad enough; but the moral +consequences of his expropriation must not be left out of sight. Few of +the purchasers under the Encumbered Estates Acts care probably much about +the lands they have bought; the same remark probably applies to most Irish +absentees. But an immense majority of the Irish landed gentry are deeply +attached to their hearths and their homes; they are bound to their lands +by innumerable ties; they have been brought up with the sentiments which +property in land creates; in the pathetic words of an old chronicler, +‘They do not wish to pray in foreign churches, or to lie in foreign +graves;’ their hope has been to live and die amidst their ancestral +surroundings. The State has, in a special manner, encouraged this belief; +it rooted the Irish landlord in the soil to be its supporter; is it to +expel him from the position it has made for him, without a thought of the +shock to his best feelings this must produce? Would not such an act be +dishonourable, nay, infamous? Let us hear what the deepest of our +political thinkers, Burke, has written upon a somewhat parallel case: +‘When men are encouraged to go into a certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> mode of life by the +existing laws, and protected in that mode as in a lawful occupation—when +they have accommodated all their ideas, and all their habits to it, ... I +am sure it is unjust in legislature, by an arbitrary act, to offer a +sudden violence to their minds and their feelings; forcibly to degrade +them from their state and condition, and to stigmatise with shame and +infamy that character and those customs, which before had been made the +measure of their happiness and honour. If to this be added an expulsion +from their habitations, and a confiscation of all their goods, I am not +sagacious enough to discover how this despotick sport, made of the +feelings, consciences, prejudices, and properties of men, can be +discriminated from the rankest tyranny.’<a name='fna_146' id='fna_146' href='#f_146'><small>[146]</small></a></p> + +<p>I have referred to an instance, within my knowledge, of the operation of +the new Irish land code, in the case of a middleman, his under-tenant, and +a despoiled owner of a rent. I now refer to an instance, also within my +knowledge, of what compulsory purchase would do in the case of an Irish +landlord. This person is a scion of one of the princely Irish-Milesian +houses; his forefathers were lords of a tract extending from the Boyne to +the Shannon. They belonged to one of the famous ‘five bloods of Ireland,’ +acknowledged to be half-royal by Henry of Anjou; they intermarried with +the great Norman-Irish <i>noblesse</i>; one of their matronage was half-sister +of Surrey’s fair Geraldine; the ruins of the abbeys they founded are still +to be seen. Their domains were torn from them in the reign of Mary Tudor; +but they fought stubbornly with their tribe in the great Desmond war; they +retained, though proscribed, the rank of princes, until the close of the +sixteenth century; leaders of the house then carried their swords into +foreign armies, and have given a field marshal to Austria and grandees to +Spain. The direct line of the chiefs, however, remained in Ireland; it +vegetated in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> obscurity until the Irish rising of 1689-90; one of its +members then appeared in the Parliament of James II. in Dublin, and +perished, at the head of his regiment, it is said, at Aughrim. The +fortunes of his descendants are not without interest; one is believed to +have been a companion-in-arms of Villars at Malplaquet and Dénain; two of +his remote offspring, the tradition exists, perished in the ranks of +Napoleon’s armies. But the heir of the family bowed under the yoke of the +Irish penal laws, and became a Protestant, at least in name; his near +kindred gave Ireland Anthony Malone, one of the most illustrious Irishmen +of the eighteenth century, and gave England the best commentator on her +most immortal poet. One of his representatives, the person of whom I +write, still possesses a fragment of the immense possessions his fathers +ruled; of more than thirty of their castles he has the wreck of one; a +scroll on the roof of his house bears the touching legend that he has +sprung from the loins of the old Milesian princes. He is not wholly +unknown as an Irish landlord of this day; curiously, too, his rental has +been hardly reduced by the visitations of the Land and the +Sub-Commissions. Is this scion of the best and the most ancient <i>noblesse</i> +of Ireland to be banished in his old age from his home, and to be replaced +in it by ornaments of the Land, the National, and the United Irish +Leagues, for this would be one result of compulsory purchase?</p> + +<p>Let us imagine, however, that, owing to the malign influence which, +Spenser said, attends England in Irish affairs, the Irish landed gentry +were removed from the land, and their former tenants were put in their +place as owners. What would be the consequences, economic, social, +political, of this sudden agrarian revolution in one of the Three +Kingdoms? The distribution of the Irish soil between the classes which +would possess it, would be unfavourable, in the highest degree, to the +establishment of a ‘peasant proprietary,’ the common name in use on this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +subject. Of the 486,000 tenant farmers in Ireland, some 132,000 hold +patches of from less than one to five acres in extent; are these to be +stereotyped as real land owners? More than 90,000 occupy from fifty to +five hundred acres and upwards; these include the great graziers of the +rich tracts of pasturage; do these supply elements of a ‘peasant +proprietary’ in any rational sense? The only class which even on +plausible, <i>a priori</i> grounds could be made occupying owners of the land +would contain much less than 300,000 families; and probably it occupies +less than two-thirds of the island as a whole. Are all these bodies of men +to be lumped, so to speak, together, and universally to receive the +ownership of the soil; would not compulsory purchase, even on these +conditions, be the sheerest folly? Furthermore, the configuration of +Ireland and her climate make it next to impossible that a ‘peasant +proprietary’ could generally thrive within her borders; Nature herself +forbids an attempt to carry out, on a large scale, a settlement of the +kind. The central area of the island is a low watershed of wide extent, +from which a succession of streams descends through vast tracts of morass +and bog; in other parts of the country there are large and deep rivers, +curving as they approach the sea, and flowing through mountain spaces; the +lands they traverse are swampy, and require main drainage; a large part of +Ireland is composed of wild hill ranges only fit for the rearing of young +and coarse breeds of cattle; she possesses a fine area of the best +pasturage, confined, however, to a few counties; her true agricultural +area is comparatively small. Her climate, moreover, is wet to a proverb; +torrents of rain from the Atlantic fall on her plains for months; above +all, her inland towns are far from each other, and petty; scarcely one is +peopled by more than 10,000 souls. Any well-informed and right-judging +person who knows the conditions under which a ‘peasant proprietary’ can +alone flourish, must know that, from the nature of the case, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> would be +a failure, in the circumstances in which it would be necessarily placed, +were it forcibly established in every part of Ireland. Ireland has little +in common with Belgium, with Northern Italy, with France; this settlement +of confiscation would go the way of the Englishry of the Middle Ages and +the Cromwellian colonists.</p> + +<p>The most conclusive argument against compulsory purchase has, +nevertheless, to be yet put forward. The state of things ‘voluntary +purchase’ is evolving would assuredly be aggravated a hundred-fold were +every tenant in Ireland made the owner of his farm by a revolutionary act +on the part of the State. It is significant, in the highest degree, that +from the time of the ‘New Departure’ to this hour, the conspiracy against +our rule in Ireland has clamoured for the expropriation of the Irish +landed gentry by force, and for the conversion of their tenants into +possessors of these estates; far better informed than British statesmen, +it has rightly calculated that this violent change would increase the +‘Nationalist’ sympathies of the Irish peasant; and this opinion is being +confirmed, to a great extent, by the results of ‘voluntary purchase’ being +now developed. The coarse materialist view that bribery will make a class +law-abiding and loyal, is opposed to human nature and fact; bribery will +not efface ideas, feelings, and tendencies, deep-rooted in history and +ancient tradition; above all, if it is a concession to agitation and a +rebellious movement, it will only quicken the animosity to the State and +the greed of the favoured class. Parnell, I have said, had his mind made +up on this subject; he always insisted that the Irish tenant, wherever his +holding had been made his own, would be ‘more true to the cause than +ever;’ it is curious that the confident prediction of a most able man +appears to have been persistently ignored. For the rest, the mischief +‘voluntary purchase’ is already doing would be enormously aggravated by +the effects of compulsory purchase. The Irish tenant farmers, made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> owners +of the land everywhere, would, like the present ‘purchasers,’ cut down +woodland wholesale; the country would be disafforested over an immense +area; the consequences to agriculture would be as bad as possible. +Arterial and main drainage too would, as a rule, be neglected; but these +would, comparatively, be trifling results; the compulsory purchaser would +deal with the land as their ‘voluntary’ fellows are now largely dealing, +but, in all probability, more generally, and in much a greater proportion. +Holding as they would nine-tenths of the Irish soil at terminable +annuities much lower than any rent, they would inevitably subdivide, +sublet, and mortgage their farms in tens of thousands of cases; they would +become middlemen, over whole counties, the harsh oppressors of a multitude +ground down by rack-rents; the worst kind of ‘landlordism’ would be +reproduced in the worst aspect. The tendency of events is even now +confirming what I wrote a long time ago on this subject: ‘Freehold +ownership, therefore, would disappear more or less quickly over extensive +tracts, the “yeomen” would become a diminishing quantity, and these would +be replaced by a new class of landlords with tenants at competition rents, +that is, determined by the land hunger of the Celt. The transformation +would inevitably go on, for its causes would operate with intense force; +and before many years probably two-thirds of Ireland would have become a +land of mere peasant landlords placed over a mass of rack-rented +tenants.’<a name='fna_147' id='fna_147' href='#f_147'><small>[147]</small></a> The creation of a universal ‘peasant proprietary,’ by +force, would, in fact, bring the Irish land system back by degrees into +the state in which it was before the Great Famine, when millions of +serfdom squatted on the soil, disorganising agriculture and preventing +social progress.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>These considerations, however, by no means exhaust the case against the +compulsory purchase of the rented land of Ireland. Irish landlords have +been decried, for an evil purpose, during many years; their position is +difficult and open to attack; but if they are an unpopular class, they +have been a civilising influence in Ireland of real value, the most +civilising influence, perhaps, in her three southern provinces. Their +annihilation, despoiled and impoverished as they are, would still withdraw +a large fund from Irish rural labour; and it would be most injurious to +agriculture in many ways, especially as regards main and arterial +drainage, an absolute necessity for the Irish soil, and scarcely possible +except under a system of large estates. Their extinction, too, Englishmen +ought not to forget, would deprive the State of one of its mainstays in +Ireland; the idea to the contrary growing up is a mere delusion; it was +not for nothing that Parnell and Davitt described this order of men as +‘the British garrison’ and insisted that were it once out of the fortress +the power of England in Ireland would certainly perish. The conversion of +Irish farmers universally into landowners would also have a ruinous effect +on many Irish industries. It would do infinite harm to many branches of +commerce, especially to trades of the higher type; it would be disastrous +to such towns as Dublin and Belfast, already beginning to protest against +it; and, whatever may be said, the prospect of it is dreaded by +agricultural Irish labourers as a class, which has always been ill-treated +by their masters, the farmers, though, owing to the influence of priests +and demagogues, they are unwilling to express the sentiments they really +feel. Compulsory purchase, in fact, is by no means so generally asked for +in Ireland as is supposed; her representation demands it by a great +majority of votes; but this representation, as I have pointed out before, +is not a true index of Irish opinion. Another consideration, too, should +be taken into account<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> in coming to a reasonable conclusion on this +subject. The land system of England and Scotland, from a variety of causes +sufficiently known, is essentially different from that of Ireland; +politically, socially, economically, it has little in common with it. But +were Parliament to declare that the whole tenant class of Ireland were to +be transformed into fee simple owners, subject only to renders, much less +than true rents, and payable for a short space of time, I much doubt if +English and Scottish tenants would acquiesce, and would not agitate for +legislation of a similar kind, especially as British agriculture is still +heavily depressed. Leaseholders of large houses in towns, for long terms +of years, at ground rents, and a whole class of builders, assuredly would +join in such a demand; the contagion of revolution and socialism is always +perilous. English and Scottish landlords have usually played the part of +the Jew to the Samaritan as regards their Irish fellows; but ‘proximus +ardet Ucalegon’ might be borne in mind.<a name='fna_148' id='fna_148' href='#f_148'><small>[148]</small></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257 & 258]</a></span>The Irish land system, therefore, from every point of view, is simply in a +deplorable state; it is an economic and social chaos, pregnant with +mischiefs and dangers of many kinds. Confiscation has wrought its work on +the Irish landlord; has shaken the structure of Irish society; and has +produced its inevitable results in banishing capital from the land, and in +dealing a weighty blow to Irish credit. The legislation of 1881, and of +subsequent years, has conferred immense advantages on the tenant class in +Ireland; but these have fallen short of what might be supposed; this class +declares itself to be dissatisfied with its lot; it is clamouring for the +wholesale transfer to itself of the rented lands of Ireland, through what +is known as compulsory purchase, that is, corruption and spoliation +combined in an act of the State. And these efforts of legislation, +essentially unwise, in direct conflict with fact and economic science, a +mere makeshift to stave off agitation and trouble, are, in all +probability, by no means the worst. Demoralisation has spread throughout +Irish landed relations, affecting them, unfortunately, in many ways; +divisions of class have been made worse, as well as the old divisions of +race and faith; respect for contracts and obligations has been destroyed; +dishonesty and thriftlessness have been favoured, and industry and honesty +not encouraged; an evil spirit of discontent and desire for change is +abroad; agriculture is plainly on the decline; there is nothing secure or +settled in the land. Vicious as the Irish land system unquestionably was +before Mr. Gladstone first took it in hand, I believe that, having regard +to the general interests of the State, it is still more vicious at the +present time; it has been transformed, but, on the whole, transformed for +the worse. As I wrote before, when commenting on the position of affairs +in Ireland, before the Land Act of 1870, a revolution only could have +removed the deep-rooted ills in all that related to the land; a revolution +alone could remove them now. But in the one instance, as in the other, the +evil caused by a revolution would be infinitely greater than the good; a +new agrarian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> revolution in Ireland would be a curse to her; it is better, +as Burke has remarked, to try to repair even ruins than to blot out every +trace of the edifice. Still, taking it as we find it, can nothing be done +to amend, in some measure, at least, the existing land system? Much of it, +I admit, must be left untouched; the principle of settling rent, through +the agency of the State, false as it is, must continue to work; the +principle of so-called ‘land purchase’ must, within reasonable limits, be +still given free scope. But something in the nature of reform is, I think, +possible; the discussion of the subject may be of use; I contribute my +mite to it, if with unfeigned diffidence.</p> + +<p>In order to find out the truth, and thoroughly to clear the ground, a +Commission, I suggest, ought to be appointed, as important as the Devon +Commission of nearly sixty years ago; it should investigate the Irish Land +Question in all its branches. Its President should be a great English +nobleman—the nation would have confidence in the Duke of Bedford, a +princely and most liberal English landlord; but the judicial element +should be strong in it; English and Irish judges should be among its +members; it should include trained agricultural experts: it should have +representatives of Irish landlords and tenants. It should examine the +Irish land system as this existed before 1870; should review the whole +series of Irish Land Acts, from 1870 to the present time, and inquire into +their results and tendencies; should carefully consider the operation of +the tribunals selected to carry out the new Irish land code, especially as +regards the fixing of ‘fair rents,’ and that not with respect to their +procedure only, an unjust limit imposed on the Fry Commission, but with +respect to the principles that have been adopted and the methods pursued; +it should deal exhaustively with the subject of so-called ‘land purchase,’ +and see whether it has not directly led to the demand for compulsory +purchase; it should take evidence as to ‘peasant proprietary’ and its +creation; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> it should make a complete and searching report, with a view +to the legislation it might recommend. And if I am not altogether +mistaken, such a Commission would state, in emphatic language, that the +present Irish land code was ill designed, even if it cannot be now much +changed; that its administration has been attended with grave errors; that +cruel wrong has been done to Irish landlords, while Irish tenants have not +obtained what was hoped for; that the economic and social results have +been deplorable; that if ‘land purchase’ cannot be stopped, it is a bad +expedient on its present lines, and that the cry for compulsory purchase +has been its evident effect; and that extensive, still more universal +peasant ownership, is an impossible and would be a pernicious policy. +Finally, if I am not much mistaken again, such a Commission would report +that a reform of the Irish land system, if very difficult, should be +attempted; and that, in its main scope and operation at least, it should +be carried out on the side of land tenure, that is, in the relations of +landlord and tenant, as has been the opinion of every thinker from Burke +onwards, who has not been swayed by the exigencies of agitation, or of +party politics.</p> + +<p>I proceed briefly to put my scheme forward, assuming that I have made a +reasonably correct forecast. I may say it has been a subject of reflection +during many years, indeed, since the legislation of 1881; Mr. Gladstone, +in his place in the House of Commons, pointedly approved of a tract in +which I set forth my views; and so, curiously enough, did Parnell. It is +impossible, I have said, to transform the existing system of Irish land +tenure; a wide departure from it cannot be made; but improvement is really +feasible within certain limits. My object would be to get rid of palpable +evils, inseparable from the present state of things; to make the positions +of both Irish landlords and tenants in some degree better than they now +are; to place the Irish land system on a somewhat less<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> precarious basis. +In the first place, the law as to the exemption of tenants’ improvements +from rent, an excrescence on the Land Act of 1881, and made extravagant by +the Land Act of 1896, should be restricted in its application to some +extent; as it stands, it is a fruitful cause of injustice, of +demoralisation, and of hard swearing, producing endless litigation to very +little purpose; claims in respect of improvements ought to be more +limited, in point of time, than they are; a check should be placed on +obsolete and illusory claims; this would be advantageous, I think, to all +interests involved. Again, it would be impracticable to exclude from the +operation of the present land code lands that have been already brought +within its scope; but a more precise definition should be made of the +lands that are intended to be now excluded—demesnes, town parks, +residential holdings, and large pastoral farms; the decisions of the +Courts, in this province, are very perplexing; a good definition would +make litigation very considerably less. These changes, I am convinced, +would do much appreciable good; but I would go a long way farther in +attempting to make the status of both landlord and tenant in Ireland less +insecure and vexatious than it now is. In the first place, leaving lands +now excluded out, I would make all agricultural and pastoral Irish tenants +entitled to the tenure of the ‘Three F’s,’ removing the prohibition as to +‘future tenants,’ a distinction that never ought to have been made, and, +as far as possible, securing this mode of tenure to the poorest tenants, +by means to which I shall advert afterwards. In the next place, I would +make an earnest effort to lessen the ruinous litigation and the +instability caused by the statutory leases renewable at short intervals of +time. The tenant should have ‘fixity of tenure’ in a real sense; the +estate created in his favour against the landlord ought not to be one of +fifteen years only, however indefinitely it may be extended; I would +prefer to see it an estate for ever; but, as in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> present state of +agriculture, there would be objections to this, on account of the +uncertainty of the rate of rent, it might be an estate for a limited term. +But the term ought not to be less than thirty years at least, renewable, +of course, like the shorter term of fifteen; this would quiet possession +and get rid of lawsuits for the period of a generation of men. The tenant +should retain his right of ‘free sale;’ but I would make the conditions +less stringent than they are under the existing law.</p> + +<p>The position of the Irish tenant would thus be greatly improved; the +sphere of the ‘Three F’s’ would be largely extended; he would have ‘fixity +of tenure,’ for a long time, at least, without the hazard and loss of +litigation every fifteen years; his right of ‘free sale’ would be less +restricted; and he would have distinct advantages, as respects ‘fair +rent,’ under the part of my plan I am about to explain. I turn to the +position of the Irish ‘landlord’—I still use this expression and that of +‘tenant,’ though both words are hardly applicable to existing facts; this, +too, in my judgment, would be made much better. The estate that is now +created against him would still be preserved; I wish it were a perpetual +estate, but it would be one for thirty years at least; he would, +therefore, remain assimilated to a rent-charger, as he is at present. But +like his tenant he would be comparatively free from lawsuits; he would be +less harassed by claims in respect of improvements; he would have, in many +particulars, a more stable tenure. He should, of course, retain the +‘royalties’ still reserved to him—mines, minerals, timber, and such +things; and he should have the title to the statutory conditions he now +has; but as his reversionary rights would be somewhat lessened, he should +be compensated for these by a small money payment. With one great +exception he should have the legal remedies to enforce the rights he now +possesses; and that exception would be of great importance. I have always +thought the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> law of ejectment for non-payment of rent harsh; it is an +innovation on the ancient Common Law; it sometimes causes forfeitures far +from just; it is not properly applicable to tenancies of long duration. I +would certainly abolish this mode of procedure; I would instead of it give +the landlord a power to sell the tenant’s lands, by a procedure analogous +to that of bankruptcy, should default be made in the payment of the rent, +or rather the rent-charge that might be due. The advantage to both +landlord and tenant would be great: the first would have a remedy more +expeditious and just than he has; the second, should the land be sold and +lost to him, would, as a rule, have a surplus over and above his debts; +unlike what is sometimes the case in evictions, he would realise for +himself his whole legitimate interest in the land. This single reform +would do much to make ‘fair rent’ a less onerous charge than it now is.</p> + +<p>By these means the status of the Irish landlord would be made by many +degrees more secure; the Irish tenant would acquire an interest in the +land much more durable and stable than he has now, in fact, nearly +equivalent to full ownership, subject to a rent-charge; and if his +interest were made a perpetuity, as I hope would be the case at last, he +would be assimilated to an owner subject to a perpetual rent, or to an +English copyholder subject to a similar render. This is the position Burke +proposed he should have, considerably more than a century ago;<a name='fna_149' id='fna_149' href='#f_149'><small>[149]</small></a> it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> is +that which has been advocated by John Stuart Mill, and, I am happy to add, +by Mr. John Morley; it is the only position, compatible with common sense +and justice, which the new Irish land code has left possible, for I put +the quackery of compulsory purchase out of sight, and voluntary purchase +is a bad half-measure. The great subject of fixing rent by the State would +remain; for, unjustifiable as this expedient is, it is impossible, after +what has happened, to dispense with it. Without imputing personal motives +or moral blame to any one, the Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions +ought, I am convinced, to cease to be the agency to fix ‘fair rents;’ +however unconsciously, in my judgment, they have often proceeded on false +principles, and have done immense, if not wilful wrong; they are decried +by landlords and tenants alike in Ireland. Besides, there is a +constitutional objection to their adjusting rent; the Land Commission is +entrusted with the task of carrying out ‘land purchase;’ it has a direct +inducement to whittle rents away, in order to facilitate the sale of land; +its interest and its duty are thus placed in conflict. Be this as it may, +my plan for fixing ‘fair rents’ in Ireland by the State would be +altogether different. In the first place, a definition of ‘fair rent’ +should be made by statute, and should dominate, so to speak, the subject; +the omission of this criterion has caused grave injustice. This having +been made, I would adjust Irish rents by a method much better, I believe, +than that now in existence. A body of competent and well-paid valuers of +land should be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>formed—there would be no difficulty about this in +Ireland; these men should visit, when required, estates; and having heard +what landlords and tenants had to say on the spot, should declare what +they consider the ‘fair rents’ of farms, making a deduction for +improvements as arranged by a reformed law, and taking waste and +deterioration into account. The reports made by the valuers should be +complete and explicit; they would probably satisfy landlords and tenants +in most instances; but dissatisfied persons should have a right to an +appeal, which should be a full rehearing of all the facts in issue; but +the appeal should be at the peril of costs against unsuccessful suitors. +The tribunals to decide the appeals should, I suggest, be composed of two +eminent judges, for each of the four provinces, assisted by trained +agricultural experts; but the authority of the judges should prevail on +all questions. From these Courts a further appeal should run to the Court +of Appeal in Ireland, on all matters of law and fact, and ultimately +should run to the House of Lords; the present restricted appeal to the +Land Commission has been little better than a sorry mockery of right.</p> + +<p>The scheme I propose has obvious defects; it sanctions the vicious +principle of State-settled rents, a thing unknown in lands outside of +Ireland, a defiance of the simplest axioms of economic science. But it +endeavours at least to improve a bad system of tenure dealing with +accomplished facts now beyond recall; I certainly think it would make the +relations of Irish landlords and tenants better than they are, and would +tend to place both classes in the positions which, as affairs now stand, +they will probably, in the long run, occupy. As regards ‘alternative +policies,’ as they have been called, I have set forth the reasons that the +compulsory purchase of the Irish land would be, I believe, impossible, +and, were it possible, would be a confiscation of the foullest kind, +ruinous to Great Britain and Ireland alike. I have also shown how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> the +present system of so-styled ‘voluntary purchase’ is, in my judgment, +essentially immoral, and pregnant with dangers; and I have indicated the +results being already produced. That system, however, must go on; for the +present it cannot be arrested; a Conservative Government still pins its +faith on it, as a Whig Government, half a century ago, pinned its faith on +the Encumbered Estates Act; but a ‘peasant proprietary’ rooted in +corruption will hardly succeed, and ‘voluntary purchase’ draws the worst +kind of distinctions in Irish land tenure. The acceleration, indeed, of +this ‘remedy’ has been deemed advisable; and as long as the sum voted by +Parliament is not expended, the system evidently must continue in force. +Some of its evils, however, would be lessened were the State to reserve to +itself the woodland, which tenant ‘purchasers,’ as a rule, cut down and +sell; and if tenants proved to be solvent were compelled to advance part +of the money required to transfer their lands to themselves. It is +revolting to my mind to see a wealthy Irish farmer bribed into the +ownership of his farm by an Act of the State, without having paid a +shilling of the price. I commend this spectacle to the hard-pressed +general taxpayer.</p> + +<p>I need hardly say that, under the scheme I propose, existing interests of +tenants should remain intact, and statutory leases should be allowed to +come to an end, before a change should be made by law in the position they +hold. The question of compensating the Irish landlords would remain; a +very few words on this will suffice. I must remind the reader, as I have +already shown, that the Land Act of 1881 was passed on the condition that, +should experience prove that real injury had been done to this order of +men, their right to indemnity would be plain; Mr. Gladstone’s language was +unequivocal; the House of Commons approved. Nor can any reasonable doubt +exist that the course of legislation from 1881 to 1896 has confiscated the +property of the class to an immense extent;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> the simple fact that the +value in Ireland of the fee simple in land has been reduced by a third at +least, and that the value of the tenant right has been increased in about +the same proportion, points to a conclusion evident to impartial minds. I +am satisfied as to what would be the report on this subject of the +Commission I should wish to see appointed; it could not avoid drawing an +inference that cannot be resisted. The question, therefore, will have to +be faced; the good faith of Parliament is virtually at stake; and if a +pledge made in the name of the State is not to be broken, the right of the +Irish landlords to compensation is complete. Independently, too, of +considerations of this kind, it is a recognised principle that should a +policy have caused loss to a class, the State is morally bound to make the +loss up; a violation of this principle is unjust and dangerous alike. I +quote from John Stuart Mill on this very question: ‘The principle of +property gives the landowners no right to the land, but only a right to +compensation for whatever portion of their interest in the land it may be +the policy of the State to deprive them of. To that their claim is +indefeasible. It is due to landowners and to owners of any property +whatever, recognised as such by the State, that they should not be +dispossessed of it without receiving its pecuniary value, or an annual +income equal to what they have derived from it. If the land was bought +with the produce of the labour of themselves or their ancestors, +compensation is due to them on that ground; even if otherwise, it is still +due on the ground of prescription. Nor can it ever be necessary for +accomplishing an object by which the community altogether will gain, that +a particular portion of the community should be immolated. When the +property is of a kind to which peculiar affections attach themselves, the +compensation ought to exceed a bare pecuniary equivalent.... The +legislature, which, if it pleased, might convert the whole body of +landlords into fundholders or pensioners, might,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> <i>à fortiori</i>, commute +the average receipts of Irish landowners into a fixed rent-charge, and +raise the tenants into proprietors; supposing always that the full market +value of the land was tendered to the landlords, in case they preferred +that to accepting the conditions proposed.’<a name='fna_150' id='fna_150' href='#f_150'><small>[150]</small></a></p> + +<p>Assuming, then, the case for compensating the Irish landlords to have been +made out, compensation can be afforded without the loss of a shilling to +the State. The <i>bonâ fide</i> encumbrances on their estates, that is, those +which represent advances in cash, are now at an interest of from 4 to 5 +per cent.; the State could pay off those which were perfectly secure at an +interest of 2¼ per cent., and could make the landlords chargeable with +interest at 3 per cent., in order to provide against possible loss. As for +encumbrances that were not perfectly secure, the State should only pay off +what was well charged; but it should do this on the same conditions; and +it should declare hopeless encumbrances extinct. This would be a +considerable and just boon to the Irish landlords; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> securities taken +by the State should be in the form of debentures, which would pass from +hand to hand in the market; and many owners of encumbrances would no doubt +accept sums less than their full demands, for these, they well know, are +at present in danger. I would go, however, farther in relieving the Irish +landlords; their estates are subject to a mass of family charges created +under a different order of things; if the State has arbitrarily cut down +the fund set apart for these, by a wholesale reduction of rents, I cannot +understand how it is not the simplest justice to cut the charges down in +some fair proportion. At all events, I make these suggestions for what +they may be worth; if right is to be done to the Irish landed gentry, and +a gross breach of public faith is not to be made, some relief of this kind +should be extended to them. Very possibly this will not be afforded; but I +venture to remind politicians that even an unpopular class cannot be +cruelly wronged and sacrificed, without doing injury to all classes, and +shaking to their foundations the clear rights of property. And I openly +avow that, in my judgment, it would be in the highest degree against the +national interest to annihilate this body of men, as must probably happen, +should things in Ireland be left as they are. What if they are the heirs +of conquest and confiscation in the past? Is that a reason for destroying +them after the lapse of centuries, and when England planted them in the +land to be her mainstay? What if, in instances, comparatively few in the +extreme, they have abused the social trust imposed on them? Was not this +because the opportunity was given by law, and was not the law the work of +successive Parliaments? Is it not a fact that British ministers, so to +speak, of yesterday, declared that they were secure in their proprietary +rights; and that Mr. Gladstone solemnly acquitted them of what had been +laid to their charge? On the other hand, have they not been for ages the +staunchest friends of England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> in Irish affairs, especially in troubled +and perilous times? Is it for nothing that they have been called the +British garrison by her foes, the strongest obstacle to rebellion and +treason? And is a class, which has, on the whole, been a civilising +influence, for many years, in Ireland, and which has given the State far +more than a due proportion of worthies—warriors, orators, statesmen, +thinkers, men of eminence in all the arts of life—to be sacrificed at the +bidding of a conspiracy bent on subverting British rule in Ireland, or in +deference to false and perilous theories?</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE QUESTION OF THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND</span></p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang">The subject briefly considered—Financial position of Ireland before +1782, and under Grattan’s Parliament—Her taxation and debt small +before 1798—Ireland financially a distinct country—At the Union, +Pitt wished to ‘assimilate her in finance’ with Great Britain, but +this impossible, and why—Ireland’s contribution after the Union—This +was unjust, but it left her financially a distinct country—Ireland +made nearly bankrupt—The compromise of 1816—The Irish Exchequer +closed, and the Irish and British debts consolidated—The object of +the compromise was rather to relieve Ireland from her burdens than to +assimilate her in finance with Great Britain—She still remained for +many years financially distinct from Great Britain, and is so still to +some extent—The conduct of Peel a striking proof of this—Mr. +Gladstone imposes the income tax on Ireland, and her spirit duties are +largely raised—Injustice of this policy—The Committee of +1863-64—Ireland does not obtain financial justice—The Report of the +Childers Commission made upon a reference by Mr. Gladstone following +Mr. Goschen—The Commission declares that Ireland has been greatly +overtaxed for many years—Evidence on which it has founded this +conclusion—Examination of arguments to the contrary—Another +Commission promised, but the promise not fulfilled—Importance of +settling this question.</p></div> + + +<p>The financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland have been a +subject, at intervals of time, no doubt, of strong controversy during a +whole century. I shall not harp on the saying of Johnson to an Irish +friend, ‘Avoid a Union with England, she will only rob you;’ but, in the +opinion of well-informed Irishmen, the fiscal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> treatment of Ireland, since +1800-01, strikingly illustrates the significant remark of Burke, ‘When any +community is subordinately connected with another, the great danger of the +connection is, the extreme pride and self-complacency of the superior, +which, in all matters of controversy, will probably decide in its own +favour.’ There is no reason to impeach the good faith of Pitt and +Castlereagh; but the financial arrangements they made for Ireland, when +the Union became law, were denounced by the most distinguished Irishmen of +the day; these imposed on Ireland an overwhelming burden, and, in fact, +reduced her to the very edge of bankruptcy. A compromise was effected in +1816-17; this has been described as a generous boon to Ireland; but it was +at best a slight relief from injustice; and it weakened securities she had +against fiscal exaction, while it involved her in liabilities which, if +remote, were not the less possible. It is a most significant fact that +Peel, who, as Chief Secretary from 1812 to 1818, was familiar with the +economic state of Ireland, refused, though under the strongest +inducements, to apply to Ireland the fiscal charges extended to her by one +of his brilliant successors; the most sagacious financier of the +nineteenth century played, in this matter, a very different part from the +most impulsive and not the least unscrupulous. In 1853, and from thence in +other years, Mr. Gladstone, in order to carry out a policy distinctly +opposed to many Irish interests, subjected Ireland to a sudden and heavy +load of taxation, exactly at the time when, for the plainest reasons, she +ought to have been exempted from it; from that day to this, Irishmen, who +understand the question, are agreed that this was gross, nay, cruel, +injustice. The whole subject of British and Irish financial relations was +sent by Mr. Gladstone to a Commission in 1893, here following the example +of Mr. Goschen; a careful inquiry was held during many months; the Report +of the Commission was startling and important in the extreme. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +tribunal, mainly composed of eminent English experts, announced, and that +almost with one voice, that Ireland was being enormously overtaxed, and +had been for upwards of forty years; and it plainly intimated that a +remedy for this wrong should be found. No real answer has been made to +this remarkable judgment; the attempts at answers that have been made are +nearly all mere trifling; Lord Salisbury’s Government evidently believes +that an answer is not possible; it promised to appoint another Commission +to investigate certain parts of the subject; years have passed, and it has +not performed its promise. Meanwhile, even amidst the hurly-burly of Irish +politics, Irishmen of all parties have united in a demand for redress; and +if the demand is not pressed with extreme vehemence, it is sustained by +all that is best in Irish opinion. It is obviously unwise, and it may +become dangerous, to continue to ignore such a claim; in any event the +financial relations of the Three Kingdoms are not the least important of +‘Present Irish Questions;’ I shall briefly examine it in this chapter.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to dwell on the financial relations of Great Britain and +Ireland before 1782 and the Union. England held the position of an +absolutely dominant State before 1782, Ireland that of a conquered and +despised colony; Ireland was under the control of the British Parliament, +and was governed by English officials supreme at the Castle. Ireland was +excluded from the foreign and colonial trade of Great Britain; her +agriculture and manufactures were half destroyed by the selfish jealousy +and greed of her imperious neighbour. She contributed, on the other hand, +nothing to the treasury of the ruling power; she had little or no part in +British wars, or in building up the edifice of the Empire, except through +her soldiers in the British army; she was free from British debt and from +British taxation. In these circumstances, grievous as was the incubus of +Protestant ascendency upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> land, it is remarkable what material +progress she made; her Parliament, though little more than a local vestry, +unquestionably promoted her material welfare; she was very lightly taxed, +and was free from debt for many years. She was still so completely +distinct from Great Britain, that it was not until 1769 that her +Parliament agreed that 15,000 men, of whom 12,000 were to remain in +Ireland, should be enrolled for the defence of the State; before that +time, she was only obliged to maintain a small British force within her +borders. After a partial relaxation of the restraints on her commerce +caused by the stress of the American War, and by the famous volunteer +movement, Ireland obtained legislative independence in 1782; she ceased to +be subject to the British Parliament, and to fill the position of a +degraded colony; she became, in theory at least, an independent State in +many respects. Her Parliament was all but sovereign in name; Ireland was +now united to Great Britain only by the link of the Crown; by an executive +always despatched from Downing Street; and, it must be added, by the +corruption of her Houses of Lords and Commons. She was thus more than ever +a distinct country; in fact, most British statesmen had soon perceived +that the celebrated settlement of 1782 greatly weakened her old connection +with England. She advanced, however, markedly in prosperity for many +years, until the French Revolution arrested this; her debt was little more +than £2,000,000 for a long time, her taxation only about £1,000,000. But +by the close of the eighteenth century these figures had been disastrously +changed; her debt had risen to upwards of £28,000,000, her taxation to +about £2,500,000. This great increase had been partly caused by the costly +expenditure of her transformed Parliament, which had spent considerable +sums on public works, and on economic experiments of different kinds; but +five-sixths of it was probably caused by the enormous charge incurred by +the Rebellion of 1798—one of the most woeful tragedies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> of Irish +history—and by the suppression of that ill-starred movement.<a name='fna_151' id='fna_151' href='#f_151'><small>[151]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Rebellion led at once to the Union; it precipitated what had perhaps +become a necessity of State. The great measure of Pitt was badly designed, +and was, moreover, tainted by a grave breach of faith; it was only what +was called a ‘Protestant Union,’ that is, it rested upon false and narrow +foundations; it deceived Catholic Ireland, and did her gross wrong; above +all, it did not effect its main object, and incorporate the lesser with +the more powerful country. It left Ireland, hitherto completely distinct, +still, to a very considerable extent, a distinct State; she retained a +separate Government and Administration, separate Courts of Justice, a +separate Exchequer for many years; this shadow of separation, as Foster, +one of her ablest worthies, foretold, would give a demand for separation +substance.<a name='fna_152' id='fna_152' href='#f_152'><small>[152]</small></a> The financial arrangements between Great Britain and +Ireland were practically altogether the work of Pitt. A disciple of Adam +Smith, the minister’s wish was to ‘assimilate the two countries in +finance;’ to place both under the same fiscal system, to make taxation in +both uniform. But in 1800, the National Debt of Great Britain was more +than £446,000,000, and her taxation was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> about £3 a head; the National +Debt of Ireland, we have seen, was some £28,000,000, and her taxation by +the head not more than 10<i>s.</i>; this immense inequality made ‘assimilation +in finance’ impossible. Besides, Pitt, as a matter of course, knew that +Great Britain was a very rich country, and Ireland perhaps the poorest in +Europe; he was too great a financier to accept the false and shallow +theory that, as between two communities wholly unequal in wealth, equal +taxes were really equal burdens, and could be just; he had emphatically +remarked in 1785, when his celebrated ‘Commercial Propositions’ were +opposed by the selfish monopolies of British commerce, ‘If one country +exceeded another in wealth, population, and established commerce in a +proportion of two to one, he was nearly convinced that that country would +be able to bear near ten times the burden that the other would be equal +to.’<a name='fna_153' id='fna_153' href='#f_153'><small>[153]</small></a> It had become necessary, therefore, at the time of the Union, to +place the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland on a basis +that had nothing in common with uniformity of taxation, and a common +fiscal system; ‘assimilation in finance’ was for the present to be +indefinitely postponed.</p> + +<p>The financial settlement made at the Union distinctly embodied these +principles, and was carried by Castlereagh through the Irish Parliament, +by what methods history records with shame. Like Pitt, the Chief Secretary +looked forward to a time when Great Britain and Ireland might be under the +same fiscal system; but at this juncture, this consummation was, he +acknowledged, hopeless. Ireland was, financially, to remain a separate +country; she was to have a separate exchequer and separate taxes; her +National Debt was to be kept distinct from that of Great Britain. She was +to furnish only a contribution to the State; and Castlereagh declared, +over and over again, that this contribution was to be only in proportion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +to her means, and that in no event was she to be unduly taxed. ‘The great +point to be ascertained is the best criterion that can be found of the +relative means of the two countries, in order to fix the relative +proportions of their contributions.... As to the future, it is expected +that the two countries will move forward together, and unite with regard +to their expenses in the measure of their relative abilities.’ By a +comparison made between British and Irish imports and exports, and between +the values of certain commodities, Castlereagh came to the conclusion that +the contributions which Great Britain and Ireland ought to be expected to +make for the general support and administration of the State, should be, +respectively, fifteen- and two-seventeenths, that is, Great Britain was to +pay about 88 per cent., and Ireland about 12 per cent. of the sum total. +This proportion was to be made liable to revision at the end of twenty +years; for this provision, Castlereagh remarked, gave ‘Ireland the utmost +possible security that she cannot be taxed beyond the measure of her +comparative ability, and that the ratio of her contributions must ever +correspond with her relative wealth and prosperity;’ and then followed +arrangements which undoubtedly had the ‘assimilation of Great Britain and +Ireland in finance’ remotely in view; but subject to limitations that +would preserve for Ireland her fiscal rights, and would secure her from +taxation beyond her means, and unjust. It was proposed that if, at some +future time, the debts of both countries should be discharged, or if their +debts and their contributions were in the same proportion, Great Britain +and Ireland might be ‘assimilated in finance,’ and placed under the same +fiscal system; but this was to be on two express conditions, that the +circumstances of the two countries should admit of this change, and that, +in any case, should the change be made, Ireland—as was the case of +Scotland when her Union took place-should have the benefit of such +‘exemptions and abatements’ of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> taxation as might be deemed proper, and +the circumstances of the situation might allow. The meaning of the +technical words, ‘exemptions and abatements,’ interpreted of late years in +a pettifogging sense, was fully recognised at the time, and for a long +subsequent period, indeed, has been recognised to this day by most of our +leading statesmen, namely, that Ireland was not to be taxed unfairly or +beyond her resources, as Castlereagh had repeatedly promised.<a name='fna_154' id='fna_154' href='#f_154'><small>[154]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Opposition in the Irish Parliament had many able lawyers—the names of +Saurin, of Plunket, of Bushe are still known to fame; it is to be +regretted, perhaps, that these powerful minds did not examine with more +jealousy the conditions under which Great Britain and Ireland might be +‘assimilated in finance,’ distant as the contingency appeared to be; did +not criticise more sharply words that might be wrested from their accepted +sense; and trusted too much to Castlereagh’s phrases. But the attention of +the Opposition was rather directed to the Union in its political than in +its financial aspect; it rather denounced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> the attempt to destroy the +settlement of 1782 than scrutinised the terms of the fiscal system to be +imposed on Ireland, at least, as these were concerned with the future. The +arrangements, nevertheless, by which Ireland was to make the contribution +of the two-seventeenths were fiercely assailed in both the Houses in +College Green; Foster described the calculations of Pitt and Castlereagh +as utterly false, and declared that the charge to be borne by Ireland was +much too large; Grattan echoed this opinion in characteristic language: +‘Though I do not think the means of this country are unequal to any +necessary expense, yet I do think they are inadequate to that contributory +expense which the Union stipulates.... The attempt will exhaust the +country, at the same time that it enslaves her. Colour it as you please, +Ireland will pay more than she is able. Considering these the terms of the +Union so far as they relate to revenue, they amount to a continuation of +the double establishment, an increase of the separate establishment, and a +military government, with a prospect of soon succeeding to the full taxes +of England.’<a name='fna_155' id='fna_155' href='#f_155'><small>[155]</small></a> The Opposition, too, in the Irish House of Commons +loudly protested: ‘Your Majesty’s faithful Commons are satisfied that this +calculation is extremely erroneous; and that on a just and fair inquiry +into the comparative means of each country, the Kingdom ought not, and is +not able to contribute anything like that proportion.’<a name='fna_156' id='fna_156' href='#f_156'><small>[156]</small></a> And twenty +Irish peers placed this emphatic protest on record; I have space for a few +sentences only: ‘Under such circumstances, it appears to us that if this +Kingdom should take upon herself irrevocably the payment of +two-seventeenths of these expenses, she will not have means to perform her +engagements unless by charging her landed property with 12<i>s.</i> or 13<i>s.</i> +in the pound; it must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> end in the draining from her her last guinea, in +totally annihilating her trade for want of capital, in rendering the taxes +unproductive, and consequently in finally putting her in a state of +bankruptcy. We think ourselves called upon to protest against a measure so +ruinous to our country, and to place the responsibility of its +consequences upon such persons as have brought it forward and supported +it.’<a name='fna_157' id='fna_157' href='#f_157'><small>[157]</small></a></p> + +<p>The Treaty of Union left Ireland, financially, still a separate country, +paying a fixed contribution for the uses of the State. The great war with +France soon broke out again; England was involved with Napoleon in a +life-and-death struggle; her fiscal resources were strained to the utmost; +her expenditure became prodigious for a series of years. In these +circumstances, the debt of Ireland rose from £28,000,000 to upwards of +£112,000,000; and her taxation from about £2,500,000 to about £4,500,000; +while the debt of Great Britain advanced from some £446,000,000 to some +£737,000,000, and her taxation from some £24,000,000 to £54,000,000; the +taxation of Ireland being by the head about £1 in 1816, that of Great +Britain being about £5, the figures sixteen years before being 10<i>s.</i> and +£3. The immense increase in the debt of Ireland, much greater in +proportion than that of Great Britain, was certainly due to a large extent +to the fact—and this was frankly admitted by Grattan—that the poorer +country could not keep pace with the richer in the gigantic charges of the +war; the case, it has justly been remarked, may be compared to a case of +this kind: ‘If one man, A, who has been living at the rate of £100 per +annum, arranges to keep house with another man, B, who has for some time +been living at the rate of £700 per annum, and to spend £1 for every £7 +which B spends, then so long as B continues to live at the same rate as +before, the expenses of A will not be increased. But if B begins to live +at the rate of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> £2100 a year, A will have to spend £300 a year, and if his +means are not sufficient for this, he must become bankrupt.’<a name='fna_158' id='fna_158' href='#f_158'><small>[158]</small></a> +Allowing, nevertheless, for all this, it is not the less certain that the +calculations of Pitt and Castlereagh were utterly falsified by the event, +and that the warnings of Foster, Grattan, and other well-informed +Irishmen, besides the protests made in the Irish Parliament, were verified +to the fullest extent; as has been remarked by a distinguished English +expert, ‘The calculations of Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh, the ministers +who promoted the Union, and who declared that Ireland would be able to +pay, and ought to pay, two-seventeenths of the joint expenses of the +United Kingdom, turned out to be mistaken, and the opinions of Mr. +Grattan, Mr. Foster, and other Irish members, who denied that she would be +able to contribute so large a proportion, are proved by the event to have +been well founded.’<a name='fna_159' id='fna_159' href='#f_159'><small>[159]</small></a></p> + +<p>This contrast, it is hardly necessary to say, to persons acquainted with +Irish history, is only one of the innumerable proofs of the ignorance of +Ireland too common to British statesmen, and of their too common disregard +of the best Irish opinion. In 1815-16, at the close of the war, Ireland +was financially in a bankrupt condition; she could not pay the interest on +her debt; she could not bear the weight of further taxation; she was +exhausted and sucked dry by fiscal injustice. Her social state, too, had +become very alarming; her population had rapidly increased, and, mainly +depending on the frail potato, was already becoming an incubus on the +land; the collapse of the high war prices had caused a sudden fall in +rents and the wages of labour; there was general distress in several +counties, and Whiteboy and agrarian disorder widely prevailed. The +financial position of Ireland was necessarily taken up by Parliament; a +Committee of the House of Commons was selected to report upon it. By<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> this +time one of the contingencies had taken place for the possible +‘assimilation in finance’ with Great Britain of the much weaker country; +the contribution of Ireland, compared with her debt, was even in less +proportion than the contribution of Great Britain to her own; she had been +left far behind in the effort to pay her way. In this position of affairs +the Committee made its report, after a long and careful examination of the +case; the House of Commons passed these resolutions in May, 1816: ‘That it +is the opinion of this Committee that the values of the respective debts +of Great Britain and Ireland, estimated according to the provisions of the +Acts of Union, have been, at a period subsequent to these Acts, in the +same proportion to each other (within one-hundredth part of the said +value), with the respective contributions of each country respectively, +towards the annual expenditure of the United Kingdom; and that the +respective circumstances of the two countries will henceforth admit of +their contributing indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed upon the same +articles upon each, to the future expenditure of the United Kingdom; +subject only to such particular exemptions and abatements in Ireland and +in Scotland as circumstances may appear from time to time to demand; and +that it is no longer necessary to regulate the contribution of the two +countries according to any specific proportion, or according to the rules +prescribed by the Acts of Union, with respect to such proportions. That it +is the opinion of this Committee, that it is expedient that all expenses +henceforth to be incurred, together with the interest and charges of all +debts hitherto contracted, shall be so defrayed indiscriminately by equal +taxes to be imposed on the same articles in each country; and that from +time to time, as circumstances may require, such taxes should be imposed +and applied accordingly, subject only to such exemptions and abatements in +Ireland and Scotland as circumstances may appear to demand. That it is +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> opinion of this Committee that such legislative measures should be +adopted as may be necessary to carry into further effect the purposes of +the said Acts of Union, by consolidating the public revenues of Great +Britain and Ireland into one fund, and applying the same to the general +services of the United Kingdom.’<a name='fna_160' id='fna_160' href='#f_160'><small>[160]</small></a></p> + +<p>These resolutions were partly embodied in an Act which received the Royal +assent in June, 1816. By this law the separate exchequer of Ireland was +shut up; there was to be but one exchequer for the Three Kingdoms; all the +revenues of Great Britain and Ireland were thrown into a general fund to +be applied to the requirements of the State; the separate debt of Ireland +was fused into that of Great Britain, the two making a common National +Debt. By these means Ireland was relieved from an intolerable load of +debt; but those who contend that an immense boon was thus conferred on +her, only illustrate the aphorism of Burke referred to before; the matter +was decided by the opinion of the dominant power. Ireland, no doubt, was +set free from an overwhelming burden; but the burden was one improperly +cast on her by the Union; the relief was only a small redress of +injustice.<a name='fna_161' id='fna_161' href='#f_161'><small>[161]</small></a> On the other hand, the arrangements of 1816 abolished the +contribution of the two-seventeenths, and made Ireland less a separate +country, financially, than she had been before; the resolutions of the +House of Commons did not all become law, but they at least declared that +she might become ‘assimilated in finance’ to Great Britain at a convenient +time, and thus diminished her security against undue taxation; and the +amalgamation of her debt with that of Great Britain made her subject, at +least conceivably, to a gigantic charge, for which she was not in any way +liable. The compromise, however, effected at this time, rather +contemplated the relief of Ireland from existing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> debt than her ultimate +‘assimilation in finance to Great Britain,’ and the extension to both +countries of the same fiscal system. For many years after 1816 Ireland +remained, financially, completely distinct from Great Britain, and under a +scheme of taxation altogether different. Nor is the reason difficult to +seek; she was declared entitled, by the resolutions before mentioned, to +the ‘exemptions and abatements’ secured to her by the Treaty of Union; and +the Parliament of that day respected the treaty, interpreting these terms +in their true sense, that Ireland was not to be taxed beyond her means. +Her fiscal wrongs, besides, from 1800 to 1816, were still fresh in the +minds of statesmen; these did not wish to repeat injustice; above all, she +had many representatives of real weight at Westminster—Grattan was a +tower of strength in himself, and he had very able followers; these men +would certainly have fiercely resented attempts to impair the financial +rights of their country.</p> + +<p>The fiscal systems of Great Britain and Ireland, still altogether +distinct, continued nearly on this footing for a series of years. Great +Britain was gradually relieved from taxation peculiar to herself, +amounting to very considerable sums; Ireland was not relieved in the same +proportion; but this was hardly a real grievance; the taxation of Great +Britain during the war had been enormously higher than that of Ireland. In +1819-20 the charge on Great Britain, which had been about £5 per head, had +been reduced to £3 13<i>s.</i>; that on Ireland, which had been about £1 a +head, had been reduced to 15<i>s.</i> 5<i>d.</i> There seems to have been little to +complain of in these figures. Some steps, however, but tentative only, +were made by degrees in ‘assimilating the two countries in finance,’ +according to the resolutions of 1816; the duties on tea were made equal +for the Three Kingdoms, and the duties on tobacco, as early as 1819; but +it deserves special notice that this policy was angrily opposed by many +Irishmen in the House<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> of Commons, the most conspicuous of these being Sir +John Newport, a real master of Irish finance, who had been Chancellor of +the Irish Exchequer in 1806-07. Still, notwithstanding innovations like +these, the fiscal systems of Great Britain and Ireland remained +substantially distinct for a long period; this was notably made manifest +as late as 1842. At this time the population of England was in an alarming +state; the Chartist agitation was in full swing; British commerce was half +strangled by heavy duties on foreign imports; the corn laws crippled and +burdened industry. Peel was at the head of his great Ministry; he began to +carry into effect the policy of free trade, inaugurated by Pitt, but +unhappily delayed; in order to accomplish this he had to diminish or get +rid of the charges on foreign imports, and generally to substitute direct +for indirect taxation. He was under a strong temptation to ‘assimilate +Great Britain and Ireland in finance;’ but he had been a friend and +colleague of Castlereagh; he understood the true import of the Treaty of +Union; above all, he knew Ireland well for an Englishman; he had +practically been her ruler for nearly six years. In these circumstances he +imposed the income tax on Great Britain as an equivalent for many indirect +taxes; but he pointedly abstained from extending the tax to Ireland; he +felt that this would be an act of financial wrong; and though he increased +for a short time the duty on Irish spirits, he took off the increase +within a few months. The only ‘assimilation in finance’ he effected was to +make the stamp duties in Great Britain and Ireland equal, and this was +rather a legal than an economic reform.</p> + +<p>The life of the great minister was prematurely cut short; time brought +with it its changes on its wings. The statesman who had living traditions +of the Union and its finance had passed away; O’Connell had disappeared +from the scene; the representation of Ireland had fallen into a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +deplorable state. Meanwhile the free trade policy of Peel had achieved +great results in England and Scotland; free trade had given an immense +impulse to our manufactures and our foreign commerce; the repeal of the +corn laws had wonderfully quickened industry, and had been a magnificent +boon to the mass of the people; the prosperity of Great Britain was +advancing by leaps and bounds. The development of free trade was the +object of nearly all our statesmen; to accomplish this it was essential +still further to lessen or to abolish the duties on foreign imports, and +to let in the raw materials of manufactures free; indirect taxation was +still further to give place to direct. In 1853, and during part of the +subsequent period, our finances were in the hands of a minister whose +impulsive nature was upheld by a most imperious will, and who, whatever +was his policy, seldom stuck at trifles. Apparently without mature +reflection, and, it is to be hoped, with little knowledge of the facts of +the case, Mr. Gladstone, setting the example of Peel at nought, suddenly +subjected Ireland to the income tax, and began to raise the duties on +Irish spirits; by 1860 these duties had been more than trebled; and the +taxation of Ireland had been increased by upwards of two millions +sterling. And what were the circumstances, during a large part of this +period, of the country on which this enormous burden had been laid? +Ireland, no doubt, had begun to revive from the effects of the catastrophe +of 1845-47; but, compared with Great Britain, she was miserably poor; and +the Great Famine had shaken her social structure to its base. Two millions +of her population had fled from their homes into exile; a large part of +the upper and of the middle classes had been involved in ruin; whole +tracts of her lands were derelict wastes; her local taxation was +exceedingly high. The imposition of this load of taxation on a country in +such a condition, unjustifiable in the abstract, and from every point of +view, was, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> existing position of affairs, an act of cruel wrong; no +wonder even one of Mr. Gladstone’s colleagues has remarked, measured as is +his language, ‘We think that if the House of Commons, in the period 1853 +to 1860, when the great enhancement of taxation took place, had fully +considered the circumstances of Ireland, they would not have felt +themselves justified in increasing the taxation of that country by means +of the income tax and the equalisation of the spirit duties.’<a name='fna_162' id='fna_162' href='#f_162'><small>[162]</small></a> At this +time, in a word, the future Solon of Home Rule proved himself to be the +merciless Draco of Irish finance.</p> + +<p>This great increase of taxation, to a considerable extent, ‘assimilated +Ireland to Great Britain in finance;’ placed the two countries under +nearly the same fiscal system; made the taxes of each not far from equal. +This assimilation, however, was still by no means complete—indeed, is not +complete to the present day; Ireland has still fiscal privileges under the +Treaty of Union; and this should be carefully borne in mind. Mr. +Gladstone, moreover, when he made this increase, acknowledged that Ireland +remained a distinct country, entitled to immunities of her own; when he +made her liable to the income tax, he cancelled a debt of £4,000,000 which +he professed she owed; and if this was an illusory pretence, for her +liability for this reason was more than doubtful, and the income tax she +has since paid has exceeded £23,000,000, still he distinctly admitted the +principle—indeed, it has always been admitted by statesmen worthy of the +name. The enormous new burdens imposed on Ireland, from 1853 to 1860, +provoked widespread and profound discontent; a Parliamentary inquiry was +conceded; a Committee of the House of Commons went into the subject in +1863-64. But the representation of Ireland, I have said, was feeble; her +complaints were stifled by the arts of the treasury; the arguments of her +members were overborne by specious but utterly false<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> sophistry; the +inquiry came to nothing as regards her interests. The question remained in +abeyance for years; the Irish reforms of Mr. Gladstone, from 1869 to 1873, +the troubles caused by the Land and the National Leagues, and the Home +Rule agitation that followed, turned public attention away from the +subject; but it was not forgotten by well-informed Irishmen; two real +economists, Butt and Judge Longfield, insisted that Ireland had here a +grievance; and this was the opinion of several independent gentlemen, +survivors of the illustrious school of Grattan. At last Mr. Goschen, +perhaps moved by remonstrances from Ireland being urged again, appointed a +Committee of the House of Commons to examine into, and to report upon, +‘the equity of the financial relations in regard to the resources and the +population of the Three Kingdoms;’ Mr. Gladstone, in 1893, recurred to the +subject, which, rather unaccountably, had been let drop. He directed a +Commission of great authority, composed for the most part of expert +Englishmen, and presided over by the late Mr. Childers, a Chancellor of +the Exchequer of Mr. Gladstone, to inquire thoroughly into the whole +question of the financial relations of Great Britain and Ireland, and +fully to set forth the conclusions they should form. The scope of the +investigation was to include the history of the subject since the Union; a +consideration of the financial resources of Great Britain and Ireland +regarded as distinct countries, and the principles to be kept in mind in +forming a correct judgment; and, finally, the charge of Ireland with +respect to the State, and the contribution which Ireland should make to +it.<a name='fna_163' id='fna_163' href='#f_163'><small>[163]</small></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>This inquiry, set on foot by a British statesman who had made himself +notorious for ‘assimilating Great Britain and Ireland in finance,’ +proceeded, nevertheless, upon an admission that, financially, the two +countries were still distinct, and that the resources of each—their +‘taxable capacity,’ in other words, a phrase turned into absurd +ridicule—afforded the true and the only test, as to the equity of Irish +compared to British taxation. The Commissioners were engaged in their +arduous task for months; they explained, with a fulness and clearness +never before so complete, the history of the financial relations between +Great Britain and Ireland. They brought distinctly out the fiscal position +of the two countries before the Union; they set forth at length the +financial arrangements made in 1800-01; they described the compromise +effected in 1816; they dwelt on the fiscal policy of Peel to Ireland, and +placed it in significant contrast with that of Mr. Gladstone; and they +conclusively proved that, from the Union to the present time, Great +Britain and Ireland had been treated financially as separate countries, +despite the ‘assimilation’ of 1853-60, and that the right of Ireland, +under the Treaty of Union, to the ‘exemptions and abatements’ secured to +her, these being interpreted as the case requires, still give her +immunities from taxation especially her own, which must be recognised if +she is to obtain justice. Turning, then, to the resources of Great Britain +and Ireland, regarded as apart, as being the true criterion of the +taxation which Ireland ought to bear, the Commissioners reviewed a great +mass of evidence, which, as far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> as was perhaps possible, made the truth +manifest, and arrived at conclusions which appear to be decisive. +Comparing the death duties of Ireland and of Great Britain, the proportion +is about 1 to 18; comparing the income tax, it is about 1 to 22; taking a +great variety of other tests, receipts of railways, savings banks +deposits, money and postal orders, and letters and telegrams, it varies +from 1 to 24 and 16; and an estimate of the income of the two countries, +an estimate certainly not fair to Ireland, gives a proportion of about 1 +to 18. There are many reasons that these figures exaggerate the true +resources of Ireland, but, assuming them to be approximately correct, the +Commission has reported that Great Britain exceeds Ireland in resources by +20 to 1; in other words, that the ‘taxable capacity of Ireland, as +contrasted with that of Great Britain, cannot now be more than as 1 to +20.’<a name='fna_164' id='fna_164' href='#f_164'><small>[164]</small></a> Applying this inference to the taxation of the two countries, +the conclusions formed by this tribunal can hardly admit of question. The +revenue and taxation of Ireland compared with that of Great Britain from +1889 to 1894 has been £7,300,000 and £7,800,000 against from £85,000,000 +to £89,000,000, that is, Ireland contributed from 8 to 9 per cent. of the +sum total. But if the resources of Ireland are only one-twentieth of those +of Great Britain, her taxation ought to be one-twentieth only, that is, it +ought not to be from £7,300,000 to £7,800,000; it ought to be less than +£5,000,000; not 8 or 9 per cent., but less than 5 per cent. It follows +from this that Ireland has been overtaxed at the rate of between two and +three millions a year, and that for a very considerable space of +time.<a name='fna_165' id='fna_165' href='#f_165'><small>[165]</small></a></p> + +<p>Enormous against Ireland as is this excess of taxation, it may amount to a +very much larger sum, if the national<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> account be taken on another, +perhaps a sounder, basis. There is the highest authority to show that +taxation ought only to fall, in the instance of any given country, on the +surplus remaining over and above the cost of the necessaries of life; and +as regards the populations of Great Britain and Ireland, this cost may be +assumed to be £12 a head. But if we take the income of Great Britain to be +1400 millions sterling, the cost of the necessaries of life at the above +rate would for Great Britain be a sum of 324 millions; and the surplus +available for taxation would be 1076 millions. On the other hand, if we +turn to Ireland, the poor country, and suppose her income to be 76 +millions sterling, the cost of the necessaries of life for Ireland would +be a sum of 46 millions; and the surplus available for taxation would be +30 millions only. On this hypothesis, the resources of Ireland which might +be fairly taxed—her taxable capacity, in a word—would, compared with the +resources of Great Britain, be, not as 1 to 20, but as 1 to 36 only; and +her taxation ought to be less than £3,000,000, not, as before mentioned, +less than £5,000,000. The Childers Commission, no doubt, with the +exception of one of its members, did not give its sanction to this +conclusion; but it was that formed by Sir Robert Giffen, a master of the +subject on all its bearings, and it cannot, in common fairness, be left +out of sight. Sir Robert Giffen’s view is expressed in these words; it +will be observed that his figures do not correspond with those just cited; +but the only point to consider is the principle on which he takes his +stand: ‘If you deduct a minimum sum, so much per head from each of the +community, as a sort of minimum sum, though you would not wish to take +anything from a man who had no more than that, then the taxable income +would be the whole income in each country above that sum. That was the +sort of general idea. If you apply that to Ireland, and take a minimum sum +of, say, £12 a head, you would get upon the basis of an Irish income of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +£76,000,000 a taxable surplus, I think, now of about £22,000,000, and in +Great Britain your taxable surplus would come to over £900,000,000.’<a name='fna_166' id='fna_166' href='#f_166'><small>[166]</small></a></p> + +<p>Setting, however, these last considerations aside, the Childers Commission +has conclusively shown that Ireland is very largely overtaxed, and has +been so for a long series of years; and the figures that represent this +great overcharge by no means represent the real difference of the burdens +imposed on the two countries. It does not require the authority of Pitt to +tell us that even equal taxation, equally applied, is felt much more +acutely by a poor community than by one that is rich and prosperous; let +us assume, what is by no means the fact, that this equality exists as +between Great Britain and Ireland, still Ireland suffers much more than +Great Britain. As Mill remarked a long time ago, ‘It is not the same thing +to take £2 from a man who has £40 a year, as to take £4 from a man who has +£80, or £40 from a man who has £800; the sacrifice imposed on the taxpayer +is greater upon the man from whom you take £2 out of £40 than it is on the +man from whom you take £40 out of £800, although the proportion is the +same.’ A few examples, taken from the case of Great Britain and Ireland, +will make the truth of this proposition perfectly clear. The wages of an +agricultural labourer in Great Britain are, say, £40 a year; the wages of +an agricultural labourer in Ireland are, say, £26; the first pays £3 taxes +on his tea and tobacco; the second pays only £2; but the £2 are obviously +much the heavier charge. Or suppose that a British artisan has £100 a +year, and an Irish artisan no more than £80; is not the first more lightly +taxed than the second, if he contributes £5 to the revenue against £4? And +the same thing happens if we ascend the social scale; the £150 income tax +paid by a British landlord of £3000 a year is not felt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> by him to be such +a charge as the £50 paid by an Irish landlord of £1000 a year; the same +principle would extend to the profits of trade were there small sums in +Ireland and large sums in Great Britain. Make taxes, therefore, as equal +as possible, and make their incidence completely equal, still, in the case +of a poor compared to a wealthy country, the real burden on the taxpayer +will be very different; it was for this reason that the late Mr. Nassau +Senior, an economist of no ordinary parts, pointedly remarked, as regards +British and Irish taxation, ‘England is the most lightly taxed and Ireland +the most heavily taxed country in Europe, although both are nominally +liable to equal taxation: I do not believe that Ireland is a poor country +because she is overtaxed, but I think she is overtaxed because she is +poor.’<a name='fna_167' id='fna_167' href='#f_167'><small>[167]</small></a></p> + +<p>Ireland, therefore, on a full review of the argument, has been overtaxed +at least between two and three millions sterling a year for certainly more +than forty years; and this excess, as she is a very poor country, is, in +her case especially severe. The trend of taxation, if the phrase may be +employed, as we follow its course, during a long period, clearly indicates +that she has suffered from grave financial wrong. In 1819-20, we have +seen, the taxation of Great Britain was at the rate of £3 13<i>s.</i> a head, +that of Ireland being 15<i>s.</i> 5<i>d.</i>; the proportion was £2 13<i>s.</i> 1<i>d.</i> and +£1 6<i>s.</i> 7<i>d.</i> in 1859-60; in 1893 it was £2 4<i>s.</i> and £1 8<i>s.</i>; in other +words, the imposts of the wealthy country were progressively decreased, +while the imposts of the poor country were progressively raised. This +distinction, no doubt, has been partly due to the fact that the population +of Great Britain has been largely augmented, and the population of Ireland +has been enormously reduced in numbers; the charge in Great Britain has +been distributed among ever growing millions, the charge in Ireland has +been concentrated upon ever lessening thousands; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> this will not nearly +account for the difference; ‘the wealthier country’ it has been +caustically said, ‘was taxed less and less as it became more wealthy; the +poorer country was burdened more and more as its poverty increased.’<a name='fna_168' id='fna_168' href='#f_168'><small>[168]</small></a> +And the overcharge on Ireland is all the more grievous because it owed its +origin to the policy of free trade; and this policy has been a +questionable boon to Ireland, while to Great Britain it has been an +immense benefit. No doubt the cheapening of the price of the necessaries +and of some of the conveniences of life, which has been one of the results +of free trade, has been a great advantage to the Irish labourer, artisan, +and mere cottar peasant; but free trade has been injurious to the real +Irish farmer and the Irish landlord, and to most of the classes connected +with the land; and the land is the main source of the scanty wealth of +Ireland. Free trade, on the other hand, has been a principal cause of the +extraordinary development of the material welfare of England which has +been witnessed during the last fifty years; it has doubled and trebled her +gigantic manufactures and trade, if her agriculture is by no means +flourishing. This striking contrast gives pain to right-minded Irishmen; +they feel, as Grattan predicted would be the case, that their country’s +interests have been sacrificed to British commerce; and the following +observations are essentially true and just: ‘The change’ (from protection +to free trade) ‘has not been so advantageous to Ireland, a country in +which there is but little trade or manufacturing industry, as it has been +to England; although, as consumers, the Irish population may have gained +in some cases by the abolition of the duties on foodstuffs, yet, on the +other hand, as producers, chiefly dependent on agriculture, they have lost +in a far greater degree by the cheap prices in the British markets, +produced, in part at least, by the free and untaxed supply of foreign +corn, live stock, dead meat, butter, cheese, eggs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> and other articles of +food.... It may even perhaps be said that just as Ireland suffered in the +last century from the protective and exclusive commercial policy of Great +Britain, so she has been at a disadvantage in this century from the +adoption of an almost unqualified free trade policy for the United +Kingdom.’<a name='fna_169' id='fna_169' href='#f_169'><small>[169]</small></a></p> + +<p>Many attempts, I have said, have been made to answer the conclusive Report +of the Childers Commission, to carp at its proceedings, to challenge its +statements, to deny that Ireland has been largely overtaxed; but, with +scarcely an exception, they have been grotesque failures. I need hardly +notice an audacious sally, which has been turned to account in the House +of Commons, and has split the ears of the groundlings in different parts +of England. England, the argument runs, has been too kind to Ireland; +Ireland pays no land tax and sundry other duties; in other respects she is +equally taxed with Great Britain; she has not even a semblance of a real +complaint; and—exactly in the manner of Swift’s satire—‘let her hold her +tongue, or it may be the worse for her.’ Ireland, no doubt, ‘assimilated +as she has been in finance,’ is free from some charges imposed on England; +she has still ‘exemptions and abatements’ which, to some extent, preserve +her rights under the Treaty of Union, and show that she is still +financially a distinct country, as has been recognised by every leading +British statesman, from the day of Pitt to the day of Mr. Gladstone. But +the English land tax, properly speaking, is not a tax at all; it is a +rent-charge for centuries payable by the land; at all events, the Irish +Crown and quit rents may be set off against it; and, as to the other taxes +referred to, the cost of collection in Ireland would exceed the returns; +it would be a case of <i>in Thesauro nihil</i>, as in Plantagenet times. +Another argument, of which the late Mr. Lowe was the author, is more +plausible, and has done better service; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> it is not the less shallow +and false sophistry, when brought to the test. Taxation, it is said, falls +on populations only; it is sheer nonsense to say that it falls on +countries; it is not levied from Great Britain and Ireland; it is levied +from the inhabitants within their borders. But the Englishman, the +Scotsman, and the Irishman are equally taxed; the Irishman, indeed, has a +small advantage; equality of taxation is the rule in this matter; and +obviously equality is the same thing as equity. An English landlord in +Kent, a Scotch landlord in Perthshire, an Irish landlord in Kildare, pay +the same income tax on the same rentals; so does a merchant in London, a +merchant in Edinburgh, a merchant in Belfast, on the same profits; and the +same principle extends to all other classes. A farmer in Surrey, a crofter +in Argyleshire, a shopkeeper in Galway, pay exactly the same tax on a +gallon of rum, a gallon of whiskey, a hogshead of beer; the charge is the +same for each commodity in the three households. This Irish grievance, +therefore, is a mere delusion; it is a sickly phantom that vanishes in the +light of the day.</p> + +<p>That taxation falls on populations and not on areas of land is a truism +really never disputed; the use of the word ‘countries,’ in this sense, is +a mere popular phrase. This argument keeps out of sight the fact that +equal taxes, however equally imposed, are much heavier in the case of a +poor than of a rich community; but, waiving this objection, it is a sheer +fallacy. If two populations had exactly the same tastes, used the same +commodities in the same proportions, and were in the possession of the +same resources; equality of taxation, if equally applied, would probably +be essentially just. But if two populations have different tastes, if they +differ in the use of even the same commodities, and if their resources are +very different, and especially if equal taxation be not equally applied, +this apparent equality, far from being equity, may become plain, nay, very +grave iniquity. This may be made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> intelligible, at a glance, by the +consideration of a few instances easily conceived. Impose an equal tax on +coals in England and Ireland: would the charge fall equally on Englishmen +in a land of coal and on Irishmen in a land of peat mosses? Tax Londoners +and Parisians at the same rate on coffee: would the Londoner, who drinks +comparatively little coffee, be as heavily mulcted as the Parisian, who +drinks a great deal? Or suppose that light taxes were laid on articles +that suit Englishmen, and enter into the consumption of the millions of +England, and that heavy taxes were laid on articles that suit Irishmen, +and are consumed by the Irish millions: would not this system favour +Englishmen, and injure Irishmen, though the taxes on all these articles +were the same in both countries? Examples by the hundred might be brought +forward; these suffice to prove that equality of taxation, as between +communities, differing from each other in the conditions and circumstances +of life, and notably if the incidence of this taxation is not the same, +may be made to effect the grossest injustice. And this financial wrong has +been done, to a very great extent, if we compare the taxation of Great +Britain and Ireland. The consumption of tea and tobacco by the head is +nearly the same in both countries; the taxes on these commodities are the +same; admit that this is equitable in a certain sense, though the impost +is relatively more burdensome on the poor community. The consumption of +spirits by the head, also, is much the same for the Three Kingdoms; the +taxation is precisely the same; this, for the sake of argument, I will +call justice. But the consumption of beer by the head in Great Britain is +about double what it is in Ireland; probably ten Englishmen drink beer +compared to one Irishman; whiskey is the ordinary spirituous drink of +Irishmen. Now, the taxes on beer and on whiskey are the same in Great +Britain and Ireland; but the tax on beer, measured by the alcoholic +standard,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> is about six times lower than the tax on whiskey;<a name='fna_170' id='fna_170' href='#f_170'><small>[170]</small></a> beer, +therefore, compared with whiskey is greatly undertaxed; whiskey compared +with beer is greatly overtaxed; the ordinary drink of Englishmen is +treated differently from the ordinary drink of Irishmen, one being +encouraged, the other discouraged; though the taxes on each commodity may +be everywhere the same, the equality of taxation manifestly results in +wrong. The difference amounts to a very large sum; it is one of the causes +that Ireland is overtaxed.<a name='fna_171' id='fna_171' href='#f_171'><small>[171]</small></a></p> + +<p>Equality of taxation may, therefore, be not equity; it may, as I have +said, be sheer iniquity; and this is emphatically the case with respect to +Ireland. This system is productive of gross injustice as regards what may +be deemed the popular Irish drink; but arguments to support it have not +been wanting; they have been complacently gulped down at several public +meetings, it is unnecessary to add within the borders of England. The +‘mere Irish,’ it is said, have shocking bad tastes; let<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> them take beer +instead of whiskey and they can have no grievance; besides, whiskey is a +nasty and unwholesome thing; it is in mercy to them that it is excessively +taxed. Is it possible that people who utter this stuff do not see that +sumptuary legislation of extreme harshness, nay, persecution of the worst +kind, may be justified on the same class of premises? Suppose that +Napoleon, in the plenitude of his power, had declared that the Parisians +did not know what was good for them, and had heavily taxed their coffee to +make them drink tea, even Austerlitz would not have saved the Empire. +Marie Antoinette actually made an attempt to banish from her Court the +velvets and silks of Lyons, and to make it adopt the cambrics and muslins +of Belgium; she would have been too glad to see the first taxed and the +second duty free, for she thought the French taste for heavy and gorgeous +apparel bad; she only aroused the indignation of Versailles. Or say that +the priests of the Jove of the Capitol had argued in this way: ‘Really +these detestable Christians are fools for worshipping a crucified Jew; +they have only to bow down to Cæsar to escape the lions; otherwise they +have themselves alone to blame.’ Nay, coming nearer home, might not a holy +prelate of the Irish Established Church in the eighteenth century have +reconciled the penal code to his conscience, by whispering to himself that +the deluded Papists had but to give up their vain superstitions, and to +conform to the pure well of faith that had its source in the Castle, and +that then they would be no longer outlaws; but let them take the +consequences if they were blind to their best interests on earth and in +heaven. In fact, any act of despotism on the part of the State might be +vindicated on these very laudable principles; but on this matter of the +taxation of Irish whiskey I shall confine myself to a single remark. +Reverse the cases of England and Ireland with respect to the imposts on +beer and on whiskey; tax beer very heavily and whiskey very lightly;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> and +what would Englishmen say of an argument that has been thought good enough +for Irishmen; how long would a Government exist that would try to carry +out such a policy? In truth, this reasoning, if it can be so called, is +the worst kind of sophistry: the frank brutality of the Roman proconsul, +who told the population of a subject province that they must endure their +burdens as they would endure the rain and the tempest, is less censurable, +to my mind at least, than this compound of absurd and offensive insolence.</p> + +<p>Another argument, really of no greater value, has had many supporters in +the House of Commons. True it is, it is admitted, that, compared with +Great Britain, Ireland has been hardly treated in finance; but this is +because she is a poor country, and a poor country must suffer from +taxation, fair as it may be, more than a wealthy country. But the same +inequality is seen in England: Dorset and Wiltshire are more heavily +burdened than Yorkshire and Lancashire, yet Dorset and Wiltshire make no +complaints as Ireland does. This argument, however, ignores history, and +sets the Treaty of Union at nought; Dorset and Wiltshire are mere +fractions of England; Ireland has always been financially a distinct +country, entitled to separate financial rights; and this has been +recognised by the ablest British statesmen, notably, of late years, by Mr. +Goschen, and by Mr. Gladstone. This reasoning, in a word, assumes that +Ireland is merely an aggregate of British counties; but this has never +been her true financial position; it is easy to sneer at the phrase +‘separate entity’ by which she has been called, that is, a land, +financially, apart from Great Britain, but sneers cannot get the better of +facts. These statements of distinguished English experts are +unquestionable in view of the record of history. Lord Farrer has remarked: +‘It is abundantly clear that of the two conflicting theories—viz. the one +which regards Great Britain and Ireland as one country for the purpose of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +taxation and expenditure, and the other which regards Great Britain and +Ireland as separate partners—the second is the one upon which our +instructions are founded; the one which has the greatest support in +history, and the one upon which all parties in Parliament have recently +acted.’<a name='fna_172' id='fna_172' href='#f_172'><small>[172]</small></a> And Mr. Childers completely concurs: ‘If apart from the +reference, it is asked why a distinction should be taken between Great +Britain and Ireland any more than between Kent and Yorkshire, the answer +is that Ireland entered into a partnership with Great Britain under a +formal Treaty of Union, which did, to a certain extent, by the recognition +of the claim of Ireland to abatements and exemptions, if circumstances +should require, maintain the position of Ireland as entitled to separate +treatment as a whole, so far as relates to taxation. It must also be +recollected that, as a matter of fact, Ireland has, at all times since the +Union, in various degrees received such separate treatment. Ireland, +therefore, cannot be regarded as merely a group of counties of the United +Kingdom.’<a name='fna_173' id='fna_173' href='#f_173'><small>[173]</small></a></p> + +<p>Two other arguments may be ascribed to the ingenuity, if this is the true +word, of the Treasury; but the first rests on a gross misrepresentation of +fact, the other upon a false theory; both, with a slight reservation, may +be dismissed as hopeless. Ireland, it is said, may possibly be +overtaxed—admit this for the sake of argument—but she has had more than +her fair share of loans from the State; a considerable part of these has +been freely remitted; this has not been the case in England and Scotland; +a large counterclaim, therefore, may be made against her. ‘Out of a total +sum of about one hundred and nineteen millions and a half advanced in the +United Kingdom, a little over fifty-two millions, or 43.7 per cent., has +been advanced to Ireland, and of this, so large a proportion as one-fifth, +or over ten millions, had to be remitted, or treated as a free grant, +whilst only one fifty-eighth part of the advances made to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> Great Britain +were so treated.’<a name='fna_174' id='fna_174' href='#f_174'><small>[174]</small></a> So far as these loans have been advances for the +real good of Ireland, for example, for the promotion of reproductive +works-these may fairly be taken into account; but millions have been +misapplied and wasted or spent in the unproductive relief of +distress;<a name='fna_175' id='fna_175' href='#f_175'><small>[175]</small></a> these sums probably are greater than the excess made out by +the Treasury. As regards the remission of the £10,000,000, the assertion +relied on is simply deceptive. Not less than £4,000,000 of this sum +represent the fund the extinction of which was the consideration of +putting the income tax on Ireland by Mr. Gladstone; and, as the charge of +that tax has been since more than £23,000,000, it savours of impudence to +call this a remission; it was writing off a doubtful debt to justify a new +and portentous burden. The residue of the £10,000,000 is composed of +advances that have been misspent or spent on purposes really not Irish; +these were not remitted in the proper acceptation of the word. ‘The +remaining portion of the ten millions of alleged remissions of loans +consists mainly of remissions of the repayment of expenditure by the Board +of Works, where it was shown that such expenditure had been wasteful, and +of advances to the clergy and laity of the Established Church of Ireland, +which advances Parliament, by legislation, deprived them of the ability of +repaying. Altogether it would appear, from Sir Edward Hamilton’s evidence, +that in reality only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> about one million out of the ten corresponded in +their character to the advances made to Great Britain, and that +consequently the proportion of real remissions of loans to Ireland did not +differ very materially from that of the proportion of the remission in +Great Britain.’</p> + +<p>The second argument appears to be more plausible; but it is mischievous, +in a high degree, and dangerous; except to a slight extent, it is +completely fallacious. Ireland, it is allowed, contributes from £7,300,000 +to £7,800,000 to the exchequer; but of this sum £5,000,000 and upwards are +expended on her; she really hardly pays £2,000,000 to the State; the +£5,000,000 therefore, or nearly all this sum, create a just counterclaim +against her, even admitting she is excessively taxed. This expenditure on +Ireland, it is contended, is for Irish ‘local’ purposes; it is not +expenditure for ‘Imperial’ purposes; the account, as between Great Britain +and Ireland, is to be taken as if all this expenditure, or nearly so, were +purely local. But is not the expenditure for keeping up the +Lord-Lieutenant and his Court, is not the expenditure on the government +and administration of Ireland, essentially, and in the main, Imperial, and +not local in a legitimate sense, so long as the United Kingdom exists? Is +it not as Imperial, at least for the most part, as the expenditure on the +British army and navy and on the government and administration of England +and Scotland is Imperial, and not, properly speaking, local? This argument +could be retorted with decisive effect, if urged in the interest of +Ireland against Great Britain. If this kind of expenditure in Ireland is +held to be local, not Imperial, the same rule must apply to England and +Scotland; this expenditure in their case must be local and not Imperial. +Why, then, should Ireland contribute to such charges as public works in +Edinburgh and London, as the maintenance of the great English dockyards +and harbours, as the cost of the army and navy outside Ireland, and of the +government and administration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> of England and Scotland? Clearly on the +Treasury hypothesis she should not contribute; and if she does, she has an +immense counterclaim, so far as her contributions are applied to these +local objects. But, in truth, this whole argument, when examined, is a +mere sophism. The revenues of the Three Kingdoms are paid into a common +exchequer; they are distributed according to the uses of the State; this +expenditure, as a general rule, must be held to be Imperial, not local, +and cannot give a part of the Three Kingdoms a right to make a claim +against another. The State spends millions on London which it does not +spend on Surrey; it spends millions in Hants which it does not spend in +Berkshire: does this circumstance give Surrey or Berkshire a title to say +we can make a demand on London and Hants? Precisely in the same way, the +expenditure of the State on Ireland, as contra-distinguished from that on +Great Britain, cannot, at least as a general principle, give Great Britain +a right to make a counterclaim on Ireland.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to point out how this theory has a tendency to create +local and even national ill-will; to set parts of one country against +other parts, and two countries against each other; it distinctly alienates +Ireland from Great Britain; as I have said, it is full of mischief and +peril. In truth, however, it is a mere device to excuse the overcharge of +Irish taxation; it has never entered the minds of statesmen. Nothing can +be more certain than that every great British financier, from the day of +Pitt to the day of Peel, and to the day of Mr. Gladstone, has regarded the +expenditure of the Three Kingdoms, as this is paid into a common +exchequer, as a general fund to be allocated as the State requires; and +has not regarded it as a fund, under local heads, to be laid out in +separate districts, so as to give any one district a counterclaim against +another. I quote from a report of one of the members of the Childers +Commissions: ‘A division of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> expenditure of the United Kingdom into +“charge for Irish purposes” and “Imperial expenditure,” cannot be made +under the system of finance embodied in the constitution established by +the Legislative Union. All expenditure under that system is “expenditure +of the United Kingdom,” or, to express it more briefly, “Imperial +expenditure;” and all Imperial expenditure is defrayed from the common +fund of the Imperial Exchequer. If a part of the Imperial expenditure be +described as a charge “for Irish purposes,” this classification does not +affect the fact that it is Imperial expenditure, and charged as such upon +the whole Imperial revenue. To regard this expenditure as non-Imperial, to +deduct it from the particular revenue contributed by Ireland to Imperial +expenditure, to treat the fraction of Irish revenue left as if it were the +whole of the Irish contribution to Imperial expenditure, and to regard +Imperial expenditure itself as not including “the charge for Irish +purposes,” would be to do what the Constitution does not sanction: it +would be to deal with the revenue and expenditure of the United Kingdom as +if the revenues of Great Britain and Ireland were raised and administered +by separate authorities, each of which, having first, out of its own +revenue, defrayed its separate charges, then applied the balance to +payment of common expenses, which, in that case, would be properly +classified as Imperial.’<a name='fna_176' id='fna_176' href='#f_176'><small>[176]</small></a> And the evidence of Sir Robert Giffen is to +the same effect: ‘The opinion which I have formed is that, on the whole, +it is not possible to make the distinction between the different objects +of Imperial expenditure which is made in some of these discussions; that, +in fact, all the expenditure by an Imperial Government is to be considered +expenditure for Imperial purposes, and although part of it may be spent +locally, you cannot in any way call it expenditure for the special benefit +of that locality.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> It is expenditure for the general objects of the +Imperial Government.’<a name='fna_177' id='fna_177' href='#f_177'><small>[177]</small></a></p> + +<p>The theory of the Treasury is thus essentially false; but accidentally, it +contains, I think, a residuum of truth. When, as between two countries, +one pays a considerable sum, exclusively or mainly from local rates, and +the same charge in the other country is for the most part defrayed from +Imperial taxation by the State, it appears to me that a portion of the sum +so paid by the State may give one country a counterclaim against the other +to some extent. This is the case as between Great Britain and Ireland; the +cost of national education and of the police force is largely discharged +in Great Britain by local rates; in Ireland it amounts to about +£2,700,000, and is mainly defrayed from Imperial taxes; this may create a +counterclaim against Ireland within reasonable limits at least. No doubt +the charge of bringing up the young of the poorer classes and of +maintaining public order by a suitable force, ought largely to be an +Imperial charge; but when in one community it is chiefly borne by local +funds, and in another it is chiefly borne by the common Exchequer of both, +this seems to give the first community a partial claim against the second. +This counterclaim, such as it is, has been reckoned, in addition to a sum +for free grants, at about £500,000 a year by the Childers Commission; but +it did not thoroughly go into the subject; this estimate is believed to be +too low by well-informed persons; the counterclaim has been calculated to +be about £1,000,000 sterling. Lord Salisbury’s Government, we have seen, +promised to appoint a second Commission to examine this question at +length, besides some other financial questions suggested by the Report of +the Childers Commission; for some unknown reason it has not redeemed its +pledge; it is very desirable that it should redeem it. Apart from the +mischief of a delay approaching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> a breach of public faith, the only +inference that can be drawn, if this promise is broken, is that the +Government accepts the view in this matter of the Childers Commission.</p> + +<p>The Childers Commission has conclusively proved that Ireland is much too +highly taxed; whatever counterclaim may be made against this excess, the +overcharge can be little less than two millions a year. The arguments +urged against this conclusion are mere leather and prunella that may be +brushed aside; the Report of the Commission has had the sanction of nearly +all economists of a high order. By all means let another Commission strike +a balance after making every fair allowance; but if it shall be struck, as +it must be in Ireland’s favour, the only real question for impartial men +will be how it shall be best discharged. Ireland has practically +acquiesced for years in fiscal injustice; in any view of the case she has +no right to call for a change in our whole system of finance for her +special benefit. Still less has she a right to demand that her customs and +excise duties should be placed at a lower level than those of Great +Britain; this would raise a mischievous barrier between the two countries; +this policy would be, perhaps, impossible; if possible, it would probably +injure Ireland greatly in the long run. The only remaining alternative is +to leave our existing fiscal system intact, but to make an annual grant +from the exchequer for Irish uses, as compensation for excessive taxation; +this has the support of the Childers Commission. ‘The third method, and +that which most strongly recommends itself to our judgment, is to give +compensation to Ireland by making an annual allocation of revenue in their +favour, to be employed in promoting the material prosperity and social +welfare of the country.’<a name='fna_178' id='fna_178' href='#f_178'><small>[178]</small></a> It is difficult to suppose, should a large +yearly sum be found to be due to Ireland, as affairs now stand, that +Parliament will refuse to pay honourably a just debt; it would be a +shameful act to repudiate an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> obligation of the kind. Years ago Pitt +declared in his characteristic style that ‘Ireland might safely rely on +Great Britain for the discharge of any fair claim on her; the liberality, +the justice, the honour of the people of Great Britain have never been +found deficient.’ The time has come to test the value of this pledge; it +has been announced by the highest authority, in which English opinion +largely prevails, that Ireland has been immensely overtaxed for years: +will the ‘people of Great Britain’ give effect to this judgment, and make +good a claim which hardly admits of a doubt? The demand of Ireland, no +doubt, is not sustained by violent agitation and the shouts of multitudes; +but it is backed by all that is best in Irish opinion; it rests upon the +simplest financial justice. It is dangerous to treat a demand such as this +with contempt, and still more so with weak sophistry; not that Ireland can +make an effective resistance to fiscal wrong, however clearly proved; and +I for one deprecate rhodomontade about ‘the Boston tea-ships.’ But a claim +may have great moral force, though it be not supported by physical power; +the disregard of this claim would provoke well-informed Irishmen, and +weaken the Union perhaps greatly; and, after all, is it a seemly sight, is +it becoming in the eyes of the world, that the richest country in Europe +should practically impose an iniquitous burden upon the poorest?</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE QUESTIONS OF IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION—OTHER QUESTIONS—CONCLUSION</span></p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang">Irish county government—The grand jury system in the eighteenth +century—Its merits and defects—The grand jury system in the +nineteenth century, and especially since 1836—The Irish poor law +system—Elected and <i>ex-officio</i> guardians—The local government of +cities and towns in Ireland—Municipal institutions founded in Ireland +by the Norman kings—Why they did not prosper—Boroughs and +municipalities founded by James I. and the Stuarts—Their condition in +the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—The Municipal Reform Act of +1840—The Towns Commissioners Acts—Attempts to reform the municipal +system of local government in Ireland—The Local Government of Ireland +Act, 1898—Complete change in Irish local government—The County +Councils—The County Borough Councils—The District, Rural, and the +Urban District Councils—Their functions, rights, and duties—All +these bodies placed on a democratic basis—Attitude of the County +Councils in the southern provinces—Education in Ireland—History of +primary education—The national system of education—The principles on +which it is founded—How it has worked, and what its results have +been—Secondary education in Ireland—Its history—Its present +condition very imperfect—The Intermediate Education Act—University +education in Ireland—Its history—Trinity College—The Queen’s +Colleges and the Queen’s University founded by Peel—Their comparative +failure—Mr. Gladstone’s Bill to reform University education in +Ireland—Its glaring errors and failure—Trinity College thrown open +in 1873—The Royal University founded in 1879—Present state of +University education in Ireland—The true principles of reform—Other +Irish questions—Conclusion.</p></div> + + +<p>That local government in Ireland should still be a ‘Present Irish +Question,’ may appear strange to persons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> only versed in the mere routine +of politics. The subject has been before Parliament for nearly thirty +years; it has engaged the attention of more than one of its Committees; +Butt endeavoured, to no purpose, to legislate on it. In 1892 Lord +Salisbury’s Government brought in a measure which aimed at transforming +the whole system of administering local affairs in Ireland; but it had +unquestionable defects and was vehemently opposed; unfortunately, as I +believe, it was permitted to drop. Six years afterwards, that is, in 1898, +the greater part of a parliamentary session was employed in dealing with +the question again; a Bill became law which placed Irish local government, +in all its departments, upon a new basis, and completely changed the +characteristics it had had for centuries. The measure was to be a <i>ne plus +ultra</i>; it was extolled by applauding partisans as a magnificent scheme of +popular reform; these have since, over and over again, declared that its +success has been more than manifest. It is too soon to pronounce, with +anything like confidence, on what its ultimate results may be, or even to +say, with certainty, how it will practically work; but enough has already +been made apparent to cause thoughtful and fair-minded Irishmen to regard +the changes it has effected with grave misgivings; to question the +principles on which it rests, or at least the wisdom of applying them to +Ireland as she now is; and to ask whether it must not be amended if the +social structure of Ireland is not to be still more violently disturbed, +than it has been by the experiments that have been made on it. Besides, +the local government and administration of every community, especially if +formed on a popular type, affect its existence in many ways; strongly +indicate what its opinions are, what its qualities, what its evident +tendencies; in a word, largely represent its essential nature. It was not +for nothing that in his survey of the Revolution in France, Burke did not +confine himself to the sovereign assembly at Versailles, but turned his +penetrating glance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> on the petty assemblies which had been set up in the +new-made departments, for the conduct of their local affairs; these, he +insisted, formed the truest expression of the mind of the people and of +the leaders at its head. For these reasons, therefore, if we would +understand Ireland, her local government is a ‘Present Irish Question;’ it +is a question, moreover, which, whatever may be said, in all probability +has not been finally settled.</p> + +<p>In order to understand the subject, I must glance at the system of Irish +local government, as this existed until, as it were, yesterday; I turn, in +the first instance, to Irish county government. The beginnings of this +scheme have been traced back to the time of Strafford; but it was not +finally established until the reign of William III., when the subjugation +of Ireland had been made complete. The Irish grand juries always had +criminal jurisdiction in their countries like their English fellows; but +unlike these they were now entrusted with almost absolute control over +Irish county government. This was partly because they were representatives +of the conquering race, by this time the owners of nine-tenths of the +lands of the country; and partly because there was no local organisation +in Ireland, like the English parish, which could give local influence to +the conquered race. The grand juries were always composed of the leading +landed gentry of their respective counties; they were nominated by the +sheriffs, that is, by officials of the Central Government; they were +wholly devoid of a popular element; and as no Catholic could have a share +in their councils, until nearly the end of the eighteenth century, they +embodied, in the fullest sense, the Protestant ascendency of the day, +supreme in every sphere of authority in the State. The grand juries had +almost the exclusive power of administering the local affairs of their +counties, of managing their roads, public buildings, and police; and they +levied the charges for these by a local rate, known as the county cess to +this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> hour, and imposed almost wholly on the occupiers of the soil, that +is, in five cases out of six on the Catholic peasantry, a striking +instance of taxation without representation to check it. These assemblies +of local magnates met twice a year at the assizes which were held in their +counties. Miss Edgeworth has given us graphic accounts of them: how a seat +on a grand jury was deemed a prize to be sometimes fought for; how the +grand juries entertained the judges in state, and vied with these sages in +their mighty potations; and how, while wretches were hanged and jurymen +dined, the assize towns were scenes of not fastidious revelry. There was +much jobbing, corruption, and waste in the administration of the counties +in those days; much of the ‘scratch me, and I will scratch you;’ much +‘give and take’ at the cost of the ratepayers. But there was another and +better side to the picture: the Irish gentry of the time had the faculty +of command; they ruled their districts efficiently with their police; the +public works for which they were responsible were usually good. Arthur +Young has especially noticed that the roads they constructed were almost +always well laid out and kept up.</p> + +<p>Catholics were not admitted on grand juries until the great Relief Act of +1793, the first general relaxation of the execrable penal code. But the +Catholic members of these bodies have always been few; the large majority +of the Irish landlords remains still Protestant. The bureaucracy of the +Castle, after the Union, began to encroach on the domain of the grand +juries; at the same time the growing needs of the country made the +expenditure on local affairs much larger. The grand juries lost much of +their authority by degrees; they were more and more controlled by the +Central Government, which supplanted them in a variety of ways; and they +were ere long compelled to vote sums for public works of different kinds +for the behoof of their counties. This change effectually checked +corruption and jobbing; but as the requirements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> of the counties +increased, and the ‘imperative presentments,’ as they were called, were +augmented, the charge of the local rate or county cess became more +onerous—it has advanced enormously in the last sixty years; and this was +still mainly imposed on the Catholic peasantry. The civil or fiscal +administration, which the grand juries possessed until 1898, was finally +arranged by an Act of Parliament passed in 1836,<a name='fna_179' id='fna_179' href='#f_179'><small>[179]</small></a> supplemented, from +time to time, by subsequent statutes. These bodies were composed of the +same elements, and nominated by the sheriffs as before; and they had a +general supervision over all the public works, roads, bridges, and +buildings for public purposes, comprised within their different counties, +including within these areas nearly all villages, and the large majority +of the lesser towns. But they were made strictly dependent on the Central +Government; this had the appointment of their chief officers; their +accounts were subjected to a regular audit; and their ‘imperative +presentments’ were largely extended. They acquired, too, an additional +jurisdiction in some respects, especially as regards inquiries into +criminal injuries and compensating persons who had been sufferers, and as +regards voting an extra police force in disturbed districts; but their old +local police had disappeared, and had been replaced by the great central +constabulary force. A change, too, was effected in the modes through which +local rates were voted in the counties for public purposes. These sums +were ‘presented’ in the first instance at ‘baronial’ and ‘county at large’ +sessions, held by county justices and ratepayers of substance; but these +bodies were subordinate to the grand juries, and to a considerable extent +drawn from the same classes; no popular element was infused in county +government, and the grand juries were, in the last resort, supreme, within +the limits which had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> been assigned to them. The local expenditure voted +and assessed in this way was subject to examination by a judge of assize, +who ‘fiated’ it, as a general rule; and ratepayers had a right to +challenge it, by a procedure called ‘a traverse,’ which, however, was +seldom turned to account.</p> + +<p>The Irish grand juries were thus oligarchic bodies, survivals of the +Protestant ascendency of a bygone age, and with a tendency, in their later +history, to become subordinate boards of the Castle. I pass on to the +Irish poor law system, another considerable department of Irish local +government. As we have seen, unlike what had been the case in England, no +poor law existed in Ireland until 1838; the want of such a measure was one +of the causes of the pressure of a huge mass of indigence on the soil +before the catastrophe of 1845-47. The Irish poor law, with some marked +distinctions, was analogous to the new English poor law, as it has long +been called; it has now been in operation for about sixty years. The +country was divided into a series of unions, which have varied from 130 to +163 in number; at present there are 159 of these; these were the principal +units for carrying the poor law system into effect. The unions were again +subdivided into lesser districts, electoral divisions for the county, +wards for the larger towns; the persons chosen to administer the poor law +were taken from these areas; and the unions and all that pertained to them +were placed under the control of the Central Government, represented by +the Local Government Board of Ireland. The persons returned from the +electoral divisions and the wards were selected by the votes of the +ratepayers, and were known as the elected guardians; a popular element was +thus introduced into the administration of the law, which had never been +introduced into Irish county government. The vote of the ratepayers, +however, was cumulative, not single; the largest ratepayers had the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +votes, a safeguard, it has been assumed, for property; and the elected +guardians, in theory at least, were balanced by an equal number of +<i>ex-officio</i> guardians, composed of magistrates within the unions. The +chief duties of the elected and the <i>ex-officio</i> guardians, collectively +known as Boards of Guardians, were to provide for the wants of the poor, +and to assess and levy poor rates for that purpose; but many other duties +were gradually imposed on them, the principal of these being the care of +the sanitary state of the lesser towns within their districts. There was a +marked difference between the incidence of the poor rate and of the county +rate, or cess, of the grand juries. The county cess, we have seen, was +mainly a charge on the Catholic occupiers of the soil, the poor rate was, +to a very considerable extent, a charge on the owners, for the most part +Protestants; for the landlord was bound to pay the whole poor rate in the +case of the pettiest holdings, and to allow his tenants half the poor rate +in the case of other holdings; by these means the burden of at least half +the poor rate, it is believed, was borne by the Irish landed gentry. It +should be added that the elected guardians have practically had the +administration of the poor law in their hands; the <i>ex-officio</i> guardians, +especially of late years, took little part in it.<a name='fna_180' id='fna_180' href='#f_180'><small>[180]</small></a></p> + +<p>I turn from the administration of local rural affairs in Ireland to that +of its chief cities and its towns. The Irish towns, conquered and settled +by the Danes, had, perhaps, a kind of municipal government; the +Plantagenet kings conferred municipal rights as freely in Ireland as they +did in England. Thus Dublin received a charter from John, modelled on that +of his ‘liegemen of Bristol;’ Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, and several +other towns were incorporated and given powers of self-government at +different periods of the Middle Ages. But the municipal life and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> the +municipal spirit which grew up and gained strength in the thriving towns +of England, and secured for them a large measure of local liberty, had +hardly any existence in a land like Ireland, distracted by feudal and +tribal anarchy; the corporate cities and towns of Ireland fell into the +hands of great Anglo-Norman nobles and Celtic chiefs, and seem to have all +but lost their local franchises. During the long agony of the sixteenth +century, when Ireland was devastated by a horrible strife of race and +faith, these privileges were still further effaced; at the death of +Elizabeth the Irish municipal centres, with the exception of the capital, +were mere names and shadows. A great change took place when the subjugated +land passed under the domination of the first Stuarts. English law was now +extended over the whole of Ireland; a colonial caste of settlers was +becoming lords of the soil; the Government was conducted by the men at the +Castle, ruling through a Parliament largely composed of the new settlers. +James I. created forty-six Irish boroughs with a stroke of the pen, and +gave them a representation in the Parliament and municipal rights; but +these, for the most part, were mere villages; they obtained their large +privileges solely in order to support ‘the English interest,’ as it was +called, in the Irish House of Commons. This system was continued by the +later Stuarts; besides Dublin and the larger towns of Ireland, there were +about a hundred of these petty municipalities and parliamentary boroughs +in the eighteenth century. These places, however, could have no municipal +freedom, and were wholly devoid of municipal feeling; they became nearly +all the mere appanages of the neighbouring leading families; and, with +hardly an exception, they were extreme types of the Protestant ascendency +which prevailed everywhere. Something of the same kind was witnessed in +England, under the aristocratic rule of that age, but there was the +difference between a sorry caricature and a picture; the great cities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> and +the better towns of England still retained an ample measure of municipal +liberty, and, especially, did not lose the municipal spirit; the exact +contrary was the case in Ireland.</p> + +<p>A large majority of the little Irish boroughs were deprived of their +parliamentary representation at the Union, but they retained their nominal +municipal rights. They still remained under the control of the chief +landed gentry; and they became, as indeed they had always been, centres of +maladministration, corruption, and peculation of all kinds. When, after +the passing of the great Reform Act of 1832, statesmen directed their +minds to the questions of corporate and municipal reform in England, they +naturally turned their minds to Ireland also, where this reform was +notoriously still more imperative. After the publication of a masterly +report in 1834-35, which thoroughly illustrated the whole subject, the +abuses in the Irish corporations were shown to be such—they were enormous +even in the cities and larger towns—that Peel, the leader of the +Opposition, actually gave them up; he proposed to deprive the corporate +towns of all municipal rights and franchises, and to place them under the +authority of Commissioners appointed by the Crown. This plan, however, was +rejected by the Melbourne Government, and was not sanctioned by the House +of Commons; after a long and angry controversy, which continued for years, +a measure became law as late as 1840; and by this, with the exception of +ten, all the corporate towns of Ireland lost their municipal rights, and +were thus left without any power of self-government. With respect even to +the ten still enfranchised towns, their old privileges were greatly +curtailed and were transferred to the Central Government; and their +municipal liberties were restricted and narrowed. They retained, indeed, +many rights of self-government; but the municipal franchise was placed at +a high level; the great body of the townsmen did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> possess it; and they +were subject to the supervision of the Local Government Board, that is, of +the Central Government, to a considerable extent at least. True municipal +life, and the municipal sentiment, could not, therefore, become well +developed, in the case of towns under such conditions; they showed but few +symptoms of the wonderful growth of prosperity and power which has been +such a marked feature in the history of the great corporate towns of +England, in what may be called the Victorian age, though, no doubt, the +cases were widely different—poor Ireland could not, in this respect, +compete with wealthy and progressive England. The deficiency of corporate +towns in Ireland was felt ere long to be such, that, in 1854, and +subsequent years, municipal rights were, in some measure, extended to +nearly a hundred of these towns. These places were governed by bodies +called Town Commissioners elected by a kind of popular vote; but the +authority of these bodies has never been large; the municipal franchise +was very high; and these towns were also under the Irish Local Government +Board.</p> + +<p>Municipal institutions, like others of English origin, had thus, from a +variety of causes, when transferred to Ireland, only a stunted, imperfect, +and maimed existence. We may briefly glance at the operation of the system +of rural and urban local government, of which we have endeavoured to +sketch the outlines. Except, perhaps, in the instance of criminal +injuries, and of the compensation to be adjudged by them, where they did +not always give proof of a judicial spirit, the grand juries, for upwards +of two generations, administered county affairs very well; they were +economical, prudent, and jealous of expense, if the public buildings they +sanctioned were, occasionally, too costly; but the system was an +anachronism, and had had its day. In ordinary times the Irish poor law was +reasonably well administered by the Boards of Guardians, as well, +probably, as was the case in England; they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> rather parsimonious in +assessing rates, and gave little attention to the sanitary state of their +towns, but, on the whole, there was not much cause to complain of them; +and the Irish people, it must be recollected, have never liked the poor +law. The local administration of the cities and the larger towns of +Ireland was worse—a notable exception was seen in Belfast; but these, as +a rule, gave proof of the restricted system on which their government had +been formed; the results appeared in a high death rate, in bad supplies of +water, in crowds of squalid and deserted dwellings—in a word, in +stagnation and a want of progress, if other and powerful causes concurred. +When the movement conducted by Parnell acquired strength, almost a +revolution passed over the seats of Irish local government, where these, +except in Ulster, possessed a popular element. Parnell called on the +Boards of Guardians, the Corporations, and the Town Commissioners, in +places where the ‘people’ had any effective voice, to rally round the Land +and the National Leagues; he achieved remarkable success in the three +provinces of the south. This was especially made manifest in the Boards of +Guardians, composed largely of farmers of substance, and in which the +<i>ex-officio</i> guardians had little real power; these bodies set a crusade +against the landed gentry on foot; marked them out for plunder in many +ways; encouraged ‘boycotting’ and defiance of the law; gave a free rein to +rebellious utterances of many kinds; and denounced Irish ‘landlordism’ and +British rule in Ireland, as fiercely as they had been denounced at Land +and National League gatherings.<a name='fna_181' id='fna_181' href='#f_181'><small>[181]</small></a> The same phenomena appeared in many +of the corporate and inferior towns: the Corporation of Dublin indulged in +anti-British threats and speeches; the Corporation of Limerick refused to +pay a lawful tax;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> the Corporation of Cork proclaimed itself supreme in a +‘rebel’ city; the example was generally followed in the lesser towns of +the south; in short, these bodies became centres of sedition, socialism, +and resistance to the law, and widely disseminated their pernicious +teaching. In fact, they made themselves agencies of the Land and the +National Leagues; at the same time, in numerous instances, they set the +authority of the Local Government Board at naught.<a name='fna_182' id='fna_182' href='#f_182'><small>[182]</small></a></p> + +<p>The system of Irish local government was obviously so defective, so +antiquated, so contrary to the spirit of the age, that several attempts, +we have seen, were made, long ago, to reform it. It has now been +completely transformed on the principles applied to England and Scotland; +the occasion of this transformation was somewhat singular. In 1896 +considerable relief was given, in England and Scotland, to the landed +interest by a subvention made by the State, which defrayed half the charge +of the local county rates, the depression of agriculture being so +grievous; the justice of this measure was hardly disputed. But the Report +of the Childers Commission, declaring that Ireland was greatly overtaxed, +and had been for a long series of years, was published about the same +time; the Government, probably because it had made up its mind not to +countenance the report in any way, refused to extend the same relief to +Ireland, although it was as much required—a decision that simply nothing +could warrant.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> The indignation, however, expressed in Ireland, and the +remonstrances even of the Ministerial Press, angrily as it had challenged +the findings of the report, before long changed the Government’s purpose; +it was formally announced, in 1897, that Ireland would obtain the same +boon as Great Britain, and, apparently, as a condition of this, that Irish +local government was to be reformed. The measure of 1898 was the result of +this compromise; the interdependence of two subjects, which have nothing +in common, has made it not easy to interpret; but, as we shall see, its +authors have provided, with skill, against one of the dangers the change +involved, that is, the probability that it might expose the Irish landed +gentry to predatory attacks. Before examining the recent law, I venture to +make a single remark. The question of the alleviation of the charge of +rates, a concession made to Ireland with bad grace, and made to England +and Scotland as a matter of course, has nothing to do with the infinitely +larger question of the excessive taxation imposed on Ireland; relief in +the one case does not imply relief in the other; the two subjects are +altogether distinct. It is essential carefully to keep this in mind, for +attempts are being made to confuse the two questions, and +characteristically to argue that Ireland ought to rest and be thankful, +and not to say a word about her overtaxation, because, forsooth, in common +with England and Scotland, she has received assistance as regards her +local rates.</p> + +<p>The transformation which has been effected in Irish local government has +completely changed the old order of things, and is of an extremely +democratic character. County government has been taken from the grand +juries, and has been extended to bodies known by the name of County +Councils, recently formed in Great Britain. The County Councils proper are +thirty-two in number, corresponding to the number of the Irish counties; +they are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> popular assemblies in the fullest sense of the word. They are +elected by the ratepayers of their districts, who possess the present +extravagantly low suffrage; the right of election is also bestowed on +women; and the protection of the cumulative vote has been removed; a +cottar has the same voting power as a man of forty thousand a year. Any of +these voters may have a seat in a County Council; the body, therefore, may +be crowded with petty ratepayers; and women also may have seats. Three +members of the grand jury, in each county, are entitled to sit in a County +Council, but for a short time only—a provision intended to reconcile the +old with the new; the County Councils are given a right to ‘co-opt’ a few +members; and the heads of bodies subordinate to them have the privilege of +taking part in their counsels. The rights and the responsibilities of the +grand juries have, as a rule, been transferred to the County Councils, +except in the instance of criminal injuries, and of determining +compensation for these; this jurisdiction, subject to an appeal to a judge +of assize, has been properly conferred on the County Court judges, for it +is essentially of a judicial nature. The powers of the County Councils +thus extend to the management and the supervision of the roads, bridges, +and buildings for public purposes comprised within their counties, and +also to the regulation of villages and petty towns; but, like the grand +juries, they are subject to the same control of the Central Government; +they must make ‘imperative presentments’ like the grand juries; and, as in +the instance of the grand juries, subordinate bodies have the initiative +in part of their duties. Their powers, however, have been made larger and +wider than those of the grand juries; they have been given the right to +assess and levy the poor rate in rural districts, the management of the +asylums of the lunatic poor, an authority, in cases of exceptional +distress, subject to the permission of the Local Government Board, to +sanction relief to poor people out-of-doors, and several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> other powers of +not much importance. It should be added that the County Councils are not +restricted in any way by judge’s ‘fiats’ and by ‘traverses’ as the grand +juries were; these securities, such as they were, have disappeared; but +their conduct may be controlled to a certain extent by the Superior Courts +of Ireland, as that of most public bodies may be, if only through a +tedious and costly procedure, and they are more or less under the +authority of the Local Government Board.</p> + +<p>Six of the principal cities and towns of Ireland, Dublin, Belfast, Cork, +Limerick, Londonderry, and Waterford, have been made distinct counties, +with the appellation of County Boroughs. The scheme of County Councils has +been applied to these also; the townsmen and townswomen have the same +power of voting, and the same democratic suffrage as the counties proper; +the borough assemblies may have the same kinds of members; but the titles +of mayors, aldermen, and burgesses have been preserved, in recognition, so +to speak, of strictly urban government. These bodies, which, it will be +observed, are popular in the widest sense of the word, have the powers of +grand juries within their respective spheres; but they retain besides +their former administrative powers subject to the control of the Local +Government Board; they have thus been changed from narrow and close +oligarchies into democracies on the very broadest basis. The County +Councils have under them two minor bodies, the Rural District Councils and +the Urban District Councils, the characteristics of which may be briefly +noticed. The sphere of the authority of the Rural District Council +corresponds, for the most part, to the Poor Law Union; these councils are +elected and constituted under the same conditions as the larger councils +already described; they are, therefore, mere democracies in considerable +numbers. The Rural District Councils are given the powers of the Baronial +Presentment Sessions of the Grand Juries, that is, they may initiate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +proceedings as their predecessors did; they are made the sole guardians of +the poor within their districts, the <i>ex-officio</i> guardians having been +abolished; their chairmen are members of the County Councils; it may be +added here that rating for the poor has been extended generally over the +union, not as hitherto confined to the electoral division and the ward, a +questionable provision which will certainly increase the expenditure for +the relief of poverty. The sphere of the authority of the Urban District +Councils has been made that of the larger towns of Ireland, being sanitary +areas within themselves; but power has been taken to increase the number +of these towns, and this increase will be probably witnessed. The Urban +District Councils resemble, in their mode of election and their +constitution, the other assemblies, that is, they are democracies to the +fullest extent; but they retain the names of Corporate or Town +Commissioners towns, and of mayors, aldermen, and burgesses where they +possessed these before. The powers of the Urban District Councils are +those of the grand juries within the towns, except as respects the larger +public buildings, which were formerly charged on ‘the county at large;’ +these councils levy and assess the poor rate within their districts; and +they retain the powers of urban government they formerly possessed. The +Local Government Board has authority, also, over the Rural District and +the Urban District Councils.</p> + +<p>The entire system of Irish local government has thus been placed on an +extremely democratic basis, subject, however, to partial control by the +Central Government. This revolution, for it has been nothing less, was +obviously liable to be attended by the many mischiefs inseparable from a +sudden transfer of enormous powers to local assemblies of the most popular +type, to maladministration, waste, and extravagance, and, as especially +would be the case in Ireland, to violent or insidious attacks on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +landed gentry. The late measure has provided against these evils, if not +completely or adequately, with ingenuity and skill. The relief of Irish +agriculture was its first financial object; to effect this the county cess +and the poor rate have been consolidated into a single charge; and half of +this is to be defrayed by the State and appropriated to the relief of +agricultural lands, towns and lands, within municipal limits, being +excepted. The subvention is not to extend to sums payable in respect of +criminal injuries, nor to sums payable in respect of extra police in +disturbed districts; these charges are properly to be borne by local areas +as before. The relief afforded is an annual sum of about £700,000; it is +divided in tolerably equal shares between the owners and the occupiers of +the soil, that is, between the landlords and tenants of Ireland; it is +characteristic of Radical clamour, that a boon, the justice of which could +not be disputed, was denounced as an ‘infamous job’ for the behoof of the +Irish landed gentry. A powerful check has been placed on extravagance and +waste, and on attempts to injure property in land, exposed, we have seen, +to undoubted dangers. The relief afforded was calculated on the local +expenditure for 1897, in the words of the law, ‘the standard year;’ it was +regularly to be one-half of this sum. Should the local expenditure, +therefore, in subsequent years, be in excess of that of the standard year, +the proportionate value of the relief would fall; should it be a lesser +amount, the value would rise. A strong restraint was thus imposed on +attempts recklessly to job and waste local funds, and notably to plunder +Irish landlords; but this restriction only applies to agricultural lands; +it does not extend to property in towns; and it is difficult to say that +it will always prove effective against democratic sentiment, passion, and +greed. The extent of the relief afforded to Irish landlords differs widely +as between landlords of different classes of tenants; landlords of mere +cottars will get very little; landlords of farmers of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> substance will get +much more; but it is unnecessary here to enlarge on this special +subject.<a name='fna_183' id='fna_183' href='#f_183'><small>[183]</small></a></p> + +<p>This sweeping measure, in my judgment at least, might have been better +framed to carry out its policy. Like much of the legislation of the +Imperial Parliament, it has been fashioned too closely on the English +model; it gives to a poor and backward country, not trained in +self-government, local institutions naturally adapted only to an opulent +and well-ordered country accustomed for centuries to local liberties. +Having regard to the peculiar state of Ireland, it might have made the +powers of local government it conferred larger, but it ought not to have +been as purely democratic as it is; and it ought to have been accompanied +by safeguards it does not possess. I would have been disposed to give the +Irish County Councils a right to take evidence for private Bills on the +spot; this, if transmitted to the Irish Privy Council, and considered by +it, might be made the basis of reports by that body, which could be turned +into Acts of Parliament, by a summary process, thus getting rid of great +and useless expense, and silencing one of the few real arguments in favour +of Home Rule. I would also have allowed the County Councils of different +counties, in matters in which they had a common interest, say, in the +drainage of some of the great Irish rivers, to carry out together public +works of this kind, and to assess and levy rates for the purpose if, on +consideration, this was deemed expedient; at present they have no +authority like this; and such a power would, I think, be for the general +good of Ireland. The County Councils, too, I believe, might be given a +deliberative voice, in cases they have not at present; for example, should +the rate-payers of any county make a demand for sectarian education, +within its area, and declare themselves ready to pay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> a rate for it, the +County Council should have a right to entertain the project, and to report +on it to the Central Government. And I am convinced that members of the +County Councils ought to have some seats on the Local Government Board, +and on other boards now filled by the Castle bureaucracy; this would +introduce a popular element into these bodies, and, in many ways, would be +of real advantage. On the other hand, in the election and the constitution +of the County and other Councils, democracy has simply been let run riot; +and the resulting evils have already been made manifest. Illiterate +persons ought not to have been qualified to be electors; the single should +not have replaced the cumulative vote, property being thus deprived of its +legitimate weight; above all, as is evident, security should have been +taken that the landed gentry should have a proper representation on the +County Councils. The authority, too, of the Superior Courts over all these +assemblies should have been made more effective and less costly than it is +at present; and that of the Local Government Board should have been better +defined and increased. In all this province the checks possessed by the +Central Government over these local democracies are not, I think, +sufficient.</p> + +<p>It is impossible, I have remarked, to say with certainty what the end of +this social revolution will be; but some of the results are, even now, +apparent. There has, as yet, been little tendency in the local boards to +waste, or to attempts to despoil the landed gentry; the check in this +respect is of great force; but no one, I repeat, can predict what may be +done under the influence of democratic sympathies, especially should the +existing agitation acquire increased strength in Ireland. Some of the +councils have been very fairly managed; a few others have been badly +administered; as a rule, much time has been misspent in irrelevant talk; +there has been a good deal of squabbling with the Local Government Board; +but, on the whole, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> local business of the counties and towns has been +conducted as reasonably well as could be expected in the case of a new and +immense experiment. But the consequences of giving raw democracies great +and sudden power have already been made but too manifest, as persons, who +knew Ireland, foresaw would happen. In parts of Ulster representatives of +the landed gentry have been elected to the County Councils; property in +these has still legitimate influence. But in Leinster, Munster, and +Connaught, this order of men has been all but completely shut out from +these boards; the land is not represented at all; this is an absolutely +unnatural position of affairs, pregnant with many ills to the community as +a whole. It is not only that the landed gentry have been deprived of an +influence they ought to possess, in a society in any degree well ordered; +this change has a tendency to make them more and more, what they have +largely been made already, a privileged class without duties, akin to the +old seigneurie of France, a state of things of which Tocqueville has +powerfully described the evils. In the southern provinces, too, the new +democracies, composed of Catholic ‘Nationalists,’ by large majorities, +have driven loyal, and especially Protestant, men and women from local +offices they had filled with credit, and this too at a considerable charge +on the rates, a clear proof how no restraints can be wholly effective. But +the main feature in the conduct of the County and other Councils is that +in most parts of Ireland they have followed the advice given by Parnell to +their weaker forerunners; they have made themselves agencies of the United +Irish League, as boards before them were agencies of the Land and the +National Leagues, and they have given but too ample proof of disaffection, +disloyalty, and hatred of British rule. In some counties, the councils +seized the court houses, and refused light and fire to the Superior and +the County Court judges. Throughout the South of Ireland most of the +boards vied with each other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> in wild expressions of sympathy with the +Boers, and of hopes that disaster would befall the British army; many gave +free voice to frankly rebellious language; many denounced Irishmen being +recruited for the British army. Nor did these sinister exhibitions end +here; some of these bodies went out of their way to sneer at their aged +sovereign, when she paid last year her last visit to the Irish shores, to +question her motives, to speak all kinds of evil; a few even refused to +say a word of regret for her death, nay, indulged in language of scarcely +veiled insult. These councils, in a word, in a number of instances, have +shown a marked resemblance to the Assemblies of the Communes of Jacobin +France, indignantly held up to execration by Burke; they have been petty +nests of seditious agitation and clamour. It is at least well that this +manner of men has not succeeded, in the great statesman’s language, in +‘ascending from parochial tyranny to federal anarchy’ and have warned us +what would be the nature of a Home Rule Parliament.</p> + +<p>This scheme of local government must be given a trial; but ultimately it +will have to be reformed, in a Conservative sense, if things in Ireland +are not to be left upside down.<a name='fna_184' id='fna_184' href='#f_184'><small>[184]</small></a> I turn to the subject of Irish +education, which has been lately attracting much public attention. +University education is the most prominent part of this question; but, in +order to understand it, we must briefly consider the history of Irish +education in all its branches. The first scheme of primary education in +Ireland, of which we have a record—I pass over the traditions of the +Middle Ages—was due to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> the policy of Henry VIII.; he procured an Act +from the Irish Parliament, to the effect that elementary schools should be +set up in different Irish parishes; but, true to the ideal of Tudor +statesmen—an ideal, however, which he did not always pursue—he required +that these should be ‘English schools,’ to teach the Irish poor ‘the +English language.’ Many years passed before these schools were found +beyond the borders of the Pale; but, as the march of conquest advanced, +they existed in many Irish parishes; there were more than five hundred of +them in 1810, the largest number probably they ever attained. These +schools were originally intended to be open without distinction of creed; +but, under the conditions of Irish history, they necessarily became +confined to the lower Protestant classes; they were under the control of +the clergy of the Established Church, and Catholic children were kept away +from them. Elizabeth founded another class of schools, in part elementary, +in part of a higher type; these were known as the Diocesan Irish Schools; +but there seem never to have been more than sixteen of these; and they, +too, became exclusively Protestant. To these schools should be added ‘the +English Erasmus Smith Schools,’ as they were called, foundations grafted, +so to speak, on grammar schools established by a wealthy Cromwellian +settler; at one time they were more than one hundred in number; and if not +wholly, they were nearly confined to Protestant children. A series of +Reports of Commissions and other records show that the education afforded +in all these schools was not what it ought to have been; but this was to +be expected in the case of a country where Protestant ascendency was +supreme, where all administration was selfish and corrupt, and where the +schools were the monopoly of a fraction of the people only. As to the +education of the Irish Catholic poor in these centuries, it was +discouraged, and ultimately prohibited by the penal code; the Catholic +child could not learn the rudiments in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> own land; but in spite of +this, ‘hedge schools,’ a significant name, grew up, in hundreds, +throughout the country, in which, to adopt the words of Davis, a man of +genius—</p> + +<p class="poem">‘Still crouching ’neath the sheltering hedge, or stretched on mountain fern,<br /> +The teacher and his pupils met feloniously to learn.’</p> + +<p>As may, however, be supposed the instruction afforded in these schools was +usually bad; throughout the eighteenth century and a part of the +nineteenth, the young of Catholic Ireland were brought up in ignorance. In +1733 an odious experiment was made, and continued for a long period, to +cause education to wean the Catholic child from his faith. An institution, +called the Charter School, was established; the object of its founders was +to make ‘the young of the Papists’ Protestant, by attracting them to +seminaries where they were kept apart from their parents and priests, +boarded, lodged, and handed over to Protestant tradesmen; millions were +spent in furthering a detestable policy, which literally set up Mammon +against God. The Charter Schools, however, completely failed; they never +had more than fourteen hundred pupils, and they became wretched Dotheboys +Halls where cruel and pampered Squeerses, eating up funds set apart for +education such as it was, starved and ill-treated children victims of +every kind of disease.</p> + +<p>When the partial relaxation of the penal laws allowed the children of the +Irish Catholics to be taught the rudiments, the ‘Christian Brothers’ began +to found their schools, under the sanction of a Bull of Pius VI.; these +schools, sectarian, like the genius of the Irish people, have, though +receiving no endowment from the State, grown from small beginnings into a +number of excellent Catholic schools. The Quakers in Ireland had +established a few elementary schools before the Union; and so had the +Presbyterians of Ulster. The Charter Schools lingered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> down to the year +1832; they disappeared when their subsidies ceased; but the ‘Incorporated +Irish Society’ is in possession of the lands they once held, and it +supports a number of good Protestant schools. Primary education, however, +in Ireland remained very backward; the Protestant schools did not +flourish; the Catholic ‘hedge schools’ continued until the nineteenth +century had far advanced. Attempts were made to promote Irish primary +education, in different ways, after the Union; a Board of Commissioners of +Education was appointed, and made valuable reports; but these efforts were +of little avail for the benefit at least of the Catholic young; the +schools thus established were all Protestant; and the evangelical +movement, which was then powerful, made them proselytising with scarcely a +single exception, a danger which the example of the Charter Schools had +especially made the Catholic Irish priesthood dread. An institution, +however, called the ‘Kildare Place Schools’ had, for a time, considerable +success; these schools were thrown open to children of all creeds, and had +the high approval of O’Connell himself; but it was one of the rules that +the Bible should be read in the schools; they became proselytising in no +doubtful sense, and ultimately they were tabooed by the Catholic +priesthood. Primary education in Ireland was in this state, when the +subject was taken up by Mr. Stanley, the Chief Secretary for Ireland of +Lord Grey, and, in after years, the ‘Rupert of Debate.’ He founded in +1831-34 what has ever since been known as the ‘National System of +Education’ of an elementary kind in Ireland. The principles on which he +proceeded were in accord with the somewhat shallow Liberalism of the day, +but, it must be added, with the ideas of many enlightened Irishmen. +Primary education was to be endowed by the State, but it was to be divided +into two parts: secular instruction was to be given in the new schools to +children assembled together to learn, and that without distinction of +creed;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> but religious instruction was to be given to children kept apart, +Protestants and Catholics being completely separate, by the pastors of +their respective communions. By these means it was hoped that a sound +system of primary education would be formed; that proselytising would be +made impossible; and that the youth of the warring races and faiths of +Ireland, under the influence of a common teaching, would be made gradually +to forget the animosities of the past. The National Schools were to be the +Lethe of Irish discords.</p> + +<p>I can barely glance at the chequered history of the institution which was +thus established. The ‘National System,’ the name long in common use, was +angrily condemned by the clergy of the Established Church of Ireland, and +by a majority, perhaps, of the laity; this opposition was partly due to +the spirit of an ascendency that would not brook equality; but it was +largely to be ascribed to a higher motive. The new system, it was argued, +cut education in two; the separation of what is secular from what is +religious practically postpones what is divine to the human; and this is +especially the case under the arrangements in force, for religious +instruction in the schools may be a mere accident. The Irish Protestant +clergy, and many other Protestants, have never taken to the National +Schools; their sincerity is proved by the fact that a ‘Church Education +Society’ exists, which, though depending on voluntary subscriptions alone, +supports nearly two hundred exclusively Protestant schools. As for the +Presbyterians of Ireland, the National system of education fell in with +their views; its ‘Liberalism’ was congenial to them; but though schools of +this type have flourished in Ulster, the Presbyterians have given a great +deal of trouble to the Commissioners charged to carry out the law, and +have shown much animosity to the Catholic Irish. The Irish Catholic +priesthood at first accepted the National system almost with gratitude; it +gave their flocks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> a rudimentary instruction they were much in need of; it +seemed to provide against the proselytising they feared above all things; +and during some years the heads of their Church in Ireland, for the most +part not of the Ultramontane faith, were not indisposed to welcome a +compromise. By degrees, however, opposition grew up in Catholic Ireland +against the system; and, it must be allowed, not without reason. The +Catholic element on the Commission was much too weak; the purely secular +instruction in the schools was made partly religious, for books of a +Protestant complexion found their way into them; a cry of Protestant +proselytising was raised; and the National system was solemnly condemned +in 1850, at the great Catholic Synod of Thurles, a sentence, however, +which had no effect on the Government. But the real grievances of the +Irish Catholics, in this matter, have nearly all been removed; the +Catholic Commissioners have been made equal in number with the +Presbyterian and Protestant; secular instruction in the schools has again +been made strictly secular; attempts at proselytising have long been +rendered impossible; it should be added—and this is very important—the +Catholic priesthood have become the managers of a large majority of the +schools. The system has certainly struck deep roots in Ireland; there are +now nearly 9000 National Schools, endowed with about £1,300,000 by the +State, and teaching nearly 800,000 pupils; they are supported by model and +training schools, and have a large staff of competent teachers; the +instruction they afford, if not remarkable, is, on the whole, sufficiently +good. It may fairly be said that the National system has been a beneficent +influence of the greatest value; light has shone on a people that once +sate in darkness. The system, however, has become, insensibly, but +greatly, changed; the National Schools have long been, for the most part, +sectarian, that is, composed of Protestant or of Catholic children; the +‘mixed’ schools,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> as they are called, are comparatively few. But the main +principle of the system still is in force; the instruction given in the +schools, when the pupils sit together, is strictly secular; and this is +secured by a conscience clause; the Bible cannot be read, in school hours, +even in a Protestant school; no Catholic school can have a Catholic +emblem. The religious instruction given in the schools is hardly what it +ought to be, especially in the case of the Protestant schools; it must be +added that the hope of their founders that they would bridge over the gulf +of discords in Ireland has not been, in the slightest degree, realised.</p> + +<p>The Irish are, naturally, a religious people; their history, a long +conflict of races and faiths, has, necessarily, made them intensely +sectarian. The system of education, of which I have traced the outlines, +was certainly not well designed for them; it would have been severely +condemned by Burke, the deepest of thinkers on the affairs of Ireland. And +though the National system has had a real measure of success, it owes +this, in the main, to the immense subvention it receives from the State; +it has little or no support from voluntary aid; an attempt to impose an +education rate on Ireland would be a failure, would not improbably wreck +the system. Nor is this in harmony with genuine Irish sentiment; one of +the most conclusive proofs is that National education has become, to a +great extent, sectarian; the ‘Christian Brothers’ and the ‘Church +Education Society’ schools, sustained by voluntary effort alone, and +overweighted in the race by the endowed schools of the State, show how +strong is Irish sectarian feeling. The clergy, too, of the late +Established Church, and a considerable body of their communion, remain +hostile to the National Schools; and though the Catholic priesthood have +made them, to a great extent, their own, and avail themselves of the +advantages they afford, they are hardly in heartfelt sympathy with them. +Nor can it be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> denied that the conscientious objections to the National +system have real weight; the system, if not irreligious, is, we may say, +neutral; it does not make religion an essential part of school life. It +would, nevertheless, I believe, be exceedingly unwise to disturb a system +which, on the whole, has for many years had excellent results in Ireland. +The opposition to it is not strong; the children of the humbler classes +freely avail themselves of it, and that with the full consent of their +parents. Nor is the conscientious objection of much force in the case of +schools which are only day schools, and in which the rudiments alone are +taught; this is not the case of education of the higher kind, in which +this objection is perhaps decisive; and it cannot be said that the +National Schools have, in any sense, impaired the religion of the Irish +people.<a name='fna_185' id='fna_185' href='#f_185'><small>[185]</small></a></p> + +<p>I pass from elementary to schools of a secondary kind in Ireland. The +Diocesan Schools of Elizabeth were nearly all secondary schools; but they +were never numerous, and have all but disappeared. The two first Stuarts +made an attempt to establish secondary education in Ireland on a larger +scale. They founded the ‘Free Royal Schools,’ as they have been called, +now seen at Armagh, Cavan, Dungannon, Portora, and Raphoe; they endowed +them with lands perhaps worth in our day, £6000 a year; they looked +forward to a time when they might rival Eton, Winchester, and the great +public schools of England.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> Erasmus Smith established three considerable +‘grammar schools,’ and granted valuable estates for their support; a +tolerably large number of secondary schools was also founded, from time to +time, by benefactors of the dominant race in Ireland: of these Kilkenny +College, a seminary created by the House of Ormond, which reared Swift and +Berkeley, was the most conspicuous. These schools, though often nominally +open to different creeds, became, nevertheless, in the eighteenth century, +under the Protestant ascendency, supreme in the land, restricted to the +young of the Protestant caste; they felt the effects of monopoly, and of +the corruption prevailing in the State; the education they afforded was, +for the most part, bad; their governing bodies and masters were often +grasping and selfish. After the relaxation of the penal code, the Irish +Catholics began to found secondary schools; their exertions were, in a +high degree, praiseworthy; and though these schools received no support +from the State, some of them have done really excellent work. A number, +too, of secondary schools were established in Ulster, for the most part +for Presbyterian uses; some of these are sectarian, some open to all +faiths; some have, others have not, received assistance from the State; in +several the education given has been, on the whole, good. A few secondary +schools—St. Columba is much the best—have also been founded within the +last century, usually for the benefit of the late Established Church of +Ireland.</p> + +<p>The progress made by secondary schools in Ireland, even in the nineteenth +century, has not been rapid. It is not to be named with the immense +development of public schools in England, within the same period, caused, +in some measure, by the genius of Arnold; secondary Irish schools, in +fact, have been largely a failure, like other institutions of British +origin. This is mainly to be attributed to three reasons: the higher upper +classes in Ireland usually send their sons to be educated in the great +English public<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> schools; the Irish secondary schools are seldom well +endowed; above all, the upper middle class in Ireland is small and has +little influence. Two Commissions, appointed in 1854 and in 1878, examined +secondary education in Ireland as it then existed; their reports give a +far from favourable account of the system. The secondary Irish schools +have not been much affected by an Act of Parliament passed in 1885, which +provided for making better schemes for their management; but certainly +they have derived very great benefit from the Intermediate Education Act +of Lord Cairns, which established a system of competition between them, +and secured prizes for successful competitors. In these honourable trials +the Catholic schools have done well; but even now the secondary schools +are decidedly inferior to what they ought to be, and do not exhibit many +signs of improvement. An impartial inquirer thus described them in +1871:<a name='fna_186' id='fna_186' href='#f_186'><small>[186]</small></a> ‘Upon the whole, secondary instruction, throughout the country, +was as some one—I believe Lord Cairns—said, “bad in quality and +deficient in quantity.” The fact seems incredible, but there can be no +doubt of its authenticity, viz. that out of a total population of +5,500,000, there were only 10,814 boys in Ireland learning Latin, Greek, +or modern languages in 1871. Or, to put the matter in another way, while +in England about ten or fifteen in every 1000 were instructed in these +languages, only two in every 1000 were instructed in them in +Ireland.’<a name='fna_187' id='fna_187' href='#f_187'><small>[187]</small></a></p> + +<p>I pass on to University life in Ireland, the question, I have said, most +prominent at this time. Ireland had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> Oxford or Cambridge in the Middle +Ages; an attempt to establish a University in Dublin failed; science and +literature could not grow up in a land distracted by feudal and tribal +strife, and in which two Churches were continually at war with each other. +Elizabeth founded Trinity College towards the close of her reign, on the +site of a monastery that had been suppressed; it was the intention of the +queen, and of her two first successors, that this seminary should expand +into a University in the true sense, containing a number of colleges +within its sphere, and probably open to all students whatever their race +or their faith. This happy consummation, however, was made impossible +during the long period of civil war and trouble, which only came to an end +with that of the seventeenth century. Trinity College remained a single +foundation; and, in the era of Protestant ascendency that ensued, when +Catholic Ireland lay under the ban of the penal code, it necessarily +became an exclusively Protestant place of learning, its dignities, its +honours, nay, admission to it, being reserved to members of the +Established Church. It had, however, been amply endowed; and, from an +early period, it possessed many distinguished worthies, the names of +Ussher, of King, of Browne, and of others, being still remembered. Trinity +College, strange to say, was very High Church during the reigns of the two +last Stuarts and of Anne; its leading divines preached the creed of +passive obedience; and it was remarkable for its aversion to Presbyterian +Ireland, as was clearly shown in the diatribes of Swift. The college, +however, became Whiggish and Low Church during the reign of Walpole—its +Provost was appointed by the Crown; and until nearly the close of the +eighteenth century, its professorships, its fellowships, its scholarships, +its degrees, even entrance to its walls, were strictly confined to the +dominant communion of the Anglican Church. But a liberal spirit grew up, +and gained strength within it; this appears in many of the admirable +writings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> of Berkeley, breathing the ideas that afterwards inspired +Grattan, and in the histories of Leland and Warner, on the whole just to +the vanquished Catholic people; and after the almost National movement +which produced the Revolution of 1782, Trinity College took a remarkable +step, which proved that it was in advance of the politics of that age. In +1793, when the Irish Parliament passed a great measure of Catholic relief, +the college made Catholics eligible for its degrees and its minor prizes; +and, but that its statutes made this impossible, it would, perhaps, have +allowed Catholics to become professors, fellows, and scholars—in short, +to have a share in its dignities and its government. Nothing like this was +done at Oxford and Cambridge until the nineteenth century had run far its +course.</p> + +<p>From this time onwards Trinity College, accessible to Presbyterians some +years before, received Catholics honourably within its precincts. A few +distinguished Catholic Irishmen have obtained the excellent education it +has always afforded; and these have been treated with scrupulous fairness; +no attempt at proselytising has ever been made or thought of. Their +numbers, however, have never been large; and they were necessarily placed +in an inferior position, for they could not become professors, fellows, or +scholars; the college remained an institution essentially Protestant, even +anti-Catholic, in much of its teaching, for example, in the predilection +it long showed for Locke. The college continued to thrive and to make +progress; the reproach cast on it that she was the ‘silent sister,’ was +rather due to the want of publishing enterprise in the Irish capital, than +to any deficiency in literary power; at all events, it has long ago been +removed; Trinity College has stood for a century in the foremost rank of +places of learning famed for scientific eminence. In 1843-44 an attempt +was made to introduce Catholics on the foundation, as scholars; but this +was prohibited by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> the statutes; some ‘non-foundation’ scholarships were +then endowed; and Catholics were enabled to compete for them. This was the +position of the college, when, in 1844-45, after the agitation for Repeal +had shown how disaffected Catholic Ireland still was, Peel turned his mind +to Irish remedial measures, and among these to a reform of high education +in Ireland. His policy was to maintain the Union intact, and all the +institutions closely connected with it, but to create institutions, so to +speak, alongside of these, to which Irish Presbyterians, and Catholics +especially, might freely resort, in complete equality with all Irishmen; +he therefore left Trinity College exactly as it was, but resolved to +establish and endow places of learning, which he hoped would be popular +supplements to it, and would give a University training to students who, +as affairs stood, were not on the same level as the favoured Protestants +in it. He founded the Queen’s Colleges of Belfast, of Cork, and of Galway; +these were supplied with an ample staff of professors, endowed, and given +the means to bestow many prizes; and they were affiliated to the Queen’s +University, empowered to confer degrees. The principle on which these +institutions were formed was, following the so-called liberalism of the +time, almost exactly the same as that on which the Irish National Schools +had been based. Secular education in them was to be united, religious +education was to be kept apart; their students were to learn the things +that belonged to this world together; but as to what belonged to another +world, this teaching was to be provided by their pastors outside their +colleges, and they were not to have it in common. The colleges, and the +University, therefore, were essentially seats of non-religious knowledge; +religious equality, it was said, could be only thus secured; and residence +in the colleges was not required.</p> + +<p>The principle pervading the Irish National education system was certainly +open to grave objections; these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> became infinitely stronger, when it was +applied to a system of high education in Ireland. Secular instruction +could be really combined, and given to children together, when limited to +the first rudiments: how could it be combined when it should embrace such +subjects as moral philosophy, metaphysics, modern history, nay, physical +science, and when taught to young men of the University age? Besides, +religious instruction, without a great shock to conscience, could be made +a subordinate consideration in mere day schools: how could it, +consistently with Christian duty, be practically excluded from a +University course, and left to undergraduates to be dealt with as they +might think fit, and that at the most critical time of their life? +Indifference to the Divine, masked in specious ‘liberal’ phrases, was, in +truth, the cardinal feature of this scheme; it would have been severely +reprobated by Burke; it was repugnant to the ideas of five-sixths of +Irishmen; its tendency was to form minds in superior men, like those of +Hume and Gibbon, in inferior men, to produce infidel, even atheistic, +sentiments. It was denounced as ‘godless’ in the House of Commons by the +High Church party; it was condemned by O’Connell, from the outset, though +the men of ‘Young Ireland’ were not adverse; after some hesitation, it was +rejected unequivocally by the Irish Catholic bishops,<a name='fna_188' id='fna_188' href='#f_188'><small>[188]</small></a> and finally was +held up to anathema at the Synod of Thurles. That the bishops were sincere +is proved by the fact, that they established the Irish Catholic University +a few years afterwards—the first head of this creation was Newman; and +the foundation has been maintained ever since, though it could not give a +degree, and it received nothing from the State, and its only funds were +the contributions of a poor communion, a noble example of self-sacrifice +and of a true sense of duty. Meanwhile, the Queen’s Colleges and +University were kept up and endowed, at the rate of about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> £30,000 a year; +the College of Belfast has done well, for it falls in with Presbyterian +ideas; but the Colleges of Cork and of Galway, notably the last, have been +sorry, nay, almost useless, failures; and Peel’s hope that his project +would secure a good University training to Irish Catholics of the better +class has not been, to any real extent, fulfilled. Trinity College +remained for many years unchanged, that is, it gave an admirable education +to a very few Catholics; but it continued to be a Protestant institution +in its essential nature; its governing body and its hierarchy were all +Protestant; its teaching was Protestant in some of its parts; its higher +honours were a monopoly of the favoured communion.</p> + +<p>The extreme unfairness of this University system, the ascendency secured +to Trinity College, which, admirable institution as it was, was +practically nearly confined to Protestants of the upper class; the +failure, with respect to Catholic Ireland, of the Queen’s Colleges and the +Queen’s University, and the large and useless expenditure this involved; +above all, the denial to the Catholic University of any share in the +bounty of the State, though its claim to it could be hardly +doubtful,—attracted the attention of several statesmen, from 1850 to +1870; but nothing was done, or even attempted. The subject was taken up by +Mr. Gladstone, with characteristic earnestness, during his first Ministry; +he declared that University education in Ireland was ‘a scandal;’ indeed, +Irish education of the higher kind was the third branch of the upas tree +which threw its baleful shade over the land. He brought in a measure of +reform in the session of 1873; it was an ambitious and a comprehensive +scheme; but it was much the worst of his Irish reforms of this period; and +it ended in complete and disastrous failure. With the historical instinct +occasionally seen in his legislation, Mr. Gladstone proposed to revive the +idea of Elizabeth and the first Stuarts, and to found a great National +University, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> was to have the management and control of the higher +education throughout Ireland. The governing body of this new institution +was to be composed partly of men chosen by the Lord-Lieutenant, and partly +of the heads of the colleges to be connected with it; and it was to have +the sole power of conferring degrees in Ireland. Trinity College was to +hand over to the National University a sum of £12,000 a year, that is, +more than a fourth of its endowments from the State; its professorships, +its fellowships, its scholarships, in a word, all its prizes, were to be +thrown open to all its students whatever their faith; but in most other +respects it was not to be essentially changed, except as to the power of +granting degrees. Trinity College was to be affiliated to the National +University as a dependent college, and so were a number of minor colleges; +but this remarkable distinction was made in homage to the ‘liberalism’ of +the day: the Queen’s Colleges, that of Galway being suppressed as useless, +were to retain the endowments they received from the State, on the ground +that they were free to all comers; but the Catholic University was not to +obtain a shilling, nor yet other colleges of a sectarian type, on the +ground that they were ‘close and exclusive,’ this being the case of all +the Catholic colleges that could be affiliated to the new foundation. The +Queen’s University was to be abolished, for the National University was to +be sole and supreme; and then came provisions, which, strange as they may +appear at first sight, were perhaps inevitable under the conditions on +which the project was formed. Moral philosophy, metaphysics, and modern +history were shut out from the National University course; they might be +taught in the colleges, but were to be no part of University learning. And +the National University, like the Queen’s Colleges, was to be +‘non-religious;’ its system of education was to be secular and united, +that is its students were to be examined together in secular learning, but +in religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> matters they were to stand apart; religion, indeed, might be +a subject of college teaching, but it was not to be heard of within the +University walls; in fact, it was probably to be left to the students and +their clergy.</p> + +<p>This complicated measure, not easy thoroughly to understand, was +sustained, for a few days, by the glamour of Mr. Gladstone’s rhetoric. But +ere long it arrayed against it an immense preponderance of opinion in +Ireland, and was assailed with fatal effect in the House of Commons. The +Heads of Trinity College took the initiative in declaring against it; in +debates, wise, patriotic, and just alike, they recognised the claims of +Catholic Ireland; but they protested against the wrong being done to the +great and ancient foundation they represented, and especially against the +degradation to which it was subjected by the Bill. Trinity College was to +be deprived for no reason of a large part of its revenue; it was to be +placed under a governing body, in which nominees of the Castle would be +all-powerful—an influence pernicious to its independence and +self-government; above all, the National University was to supplant it, +and was to exclude from its teaching the noblest studies of the intellect +of man. The Platonism which had inspired Berkeley, the records which had +animated the genius of Burke, and had been fostered in the Alma mater of +these great worthies, were to be banished from a foundation which was to +be made the head of University life in Ireland. These sentiments were +fully shared by enlightened Irishmen: that moral and metaphysical science +and modern history should be virtually proscribed in the University about +to be set up, was, as it were, putting out one of the eyes of the +intellect, effacing what was best in the map of knowledge. But the most +decisive condemnation of the scheme was that pronounced by the Irish +Catholic bishops. Like their predecessors of nearly thirty years before, +and the Anglican High Church party of that day, they asserted that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> +project was really ‘godless;’ it was irreligion in the mask of +non-religion; its liberalism was in the highest degree illiberal, for it +offered their flocks a system of education it was known they would reject; +and it was flagrantly, nay, basely, unjust, for while Trinity College, and +the Queen’s Colleges, and the Queen’s University, were to remain endowed, +the Catholic University and all Catholic colleges were to get nothing from +the State. These arguments made their way into the House of Commons, and +were vindicated in speeches of great ability. Disraeli dwelt especially on +the poverty and the imperfection of a University scheme, in which the +finest branches of knowledge were not to enter; he frankly denounced the +Bill as ‘atheistic,’ an epithet which Burke assuredly would have fastened +on it. Other speakers, notably Ball, a very brilliant Irishman, enlarged +on the wrong done to Trinity College, and earnestly advocated the Catholic +claims; not only was the minister offering a stone for bread, he was +virtually trying to bribe the Irish Catholic into accepting institutions +he disliked, and in the attempt was deeply offending his conscience. +Notwithstanding the efforts of a powerful Government, the Bill was +rejected by the House of Commons; nearly all the Irish members voted +against it, and so did the best men of the Liberal party.</p> + +<p>The year that witnessed the collapse of Mr. Gladstone’s measure, +witnessed, also, a reform of Trinity College conceived in the spirit of +the ‘liberalism’ of the hour, and hailed as an illustration of what is +called progress. The government, the dignities, and the prizes of the +college were thrown open to all without regard to their creed; this was +welcomed as ‘University equality’ in the most perfect sense. It is a +mistake to suppose that a corresponding change was ever made at Oxford and +Cambridge; the extension of their privileges to persons whatever their +faith, has, thanks to the exertions of the late Lord Selborne, been +strictly confined to lay offices; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> religious character and teaching of +the Universities have been carefully preserved.<a name='fna_189' id='fna_189' href='#f_189'><small>[189]</small></a> Though Trinity +College has been made ‘non-religious’ by this measure, and that to such a +degree that its governing body might conceivably be composed of avowed +atheists, it has, nevertheless, to this day remained a Protestant +institution in all essential respects. Its professors, fellows, and +scholars have, since 1873, been nearly all Protestants; its Catholic +students are not eight in a hundred of the number as a whole; and the +chief practical result of the late reform has been to make the heads of +the Irish Catholic Church more opposed than before to seeing Catholics +enter its precincts. In 1879, Lord Beaconsfield’s Ministry made an attempt +to diminish the injustice done to Irish Catholics by the system of +University education still in force in Ireland. The Queen’s University was +abolished; a Royal University was established, which was enabled to confer +degrees on, and to give prizes to, the students of the Catholic University +and other colleges; but the Royal University is a mere Examining Board; it +is not a University properly so called. One incident connected with this +institution deserves attention; the success of the students of Catholic +colleges at the Royal University examinations has been so great, that it +ought to silence jeers at the ‘superstition’ which keeps them back, the +vulgar cant of ignorant prejudice or worse.<a name='fna_190' id='fna_190' href='#f_190'><small>[190]</small></a> Meanwhile the iniquities +and anomalies of the Irish University system have continued but very +little changed.<a name='fna_191' id='fna_191' href='#f_191'><small>[191]</small></a> Trinity College remains a Protestant institution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> +well endowed, almost a monopoly of the Protestant upper class in Ireland, +practically little resorted to by Irish Catholics; the Queen’s Colleges +are avoided by the Irish Catholics, as being ‘irreligious’ if called +‘non-religious,’ though the College of Belfast suits Presbyterian views; +they, too, receive a large bounty from the State; but the Catholic +University, the true seminary for the upper middle Catholic classes, and +now divided into different colleges, is still, as such, left out in the +cold. Its students, no doubt, can obtain Royal University degrees, and +some of its professors have been placed as examiners on that foundation; +but it is the veriest mockery to call this justice when we look at Trinity +College and the Queen’s Colleges. ‘The words of scripture are reversed,’ +in Macaulay’s language; ‘the rich are filled with good things and the +hungry are sent empty away.’</p> + +<p>I do not envy those who, whatever their reasons, refuse to acknowledge the +wrong done by these arrangements. It will hardly be denied, in the +twentieth century, that Protestant ascendency ought not to exist in any +sphere of Irish affairs, and that in University life, as in all matters, +Irish Catholics ought to have civil equality, and that without a violation +of the rights of conscience. It has been triumphantly maintained that, in +high education, these conditions are actually fulfilled in Ireland; +Trinity College and the Queen’s Colleges are accessible to all students, +without regard to their religion or no religion; these have a perfectly +equal right to share in the government and the honours of institutions +thrown completely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> open. But those who argue in this way either shut their +eyes to facts, or will not perceive that this fine ‘liberalism’ in Ireland +works sheer injustice. Catholics are but a handful of students in Trinity +College and the Queen’s Colleges compared to what their natural proportion +ought to be; Trinity College, if nominally open, is in all essential +respects Protestant; the Queen’s Colleges as being ‘non-religious,’ that +is, in the view of their Church ‘irreligious,’ are practically avoided by +Irish Catholics; yet the State endows Trinity College and the Queen’s +Colleges; it starves the Catholic University and other Catholic colleges, +which are thus unfairly handicapped by their rivals. If this is not +furthering Protestant ascendency in Irish high education, and denying +civil equality to Irish Catholics who, in this matter, will not forego the +rights of conscience, I do not know what else it can be; it seems to me to +be iniquity in no doubtful sense. And are the objections of the Irish +Catholics, in this province, as ‘irrational’ and ‘superstitious’ as has +been scoffingly said? Reverse the case of Trinity College: suppose that +England was a Catholic Power, and that she kept up a great Catholic +University in the Irish capital, discountenancing Protestant institutions +in many ways, how many Protestants would enter its walls, how soon would +the cry of Catholic ascendency be raised? Or suppose that Oxford and +Cambridge were made ‘non-religious,’ as the Queen’s Colleges in Ireland +are, would not an immense majority of English parents declare that these +seats of learning were ‘godless,’ and persistently keep their sons away +from them? The simple truth is that the Catholic objections to Trinity +College and the Queen’s Colleges are really those which, in this matter, +have been entertained by the deepest thinkers; to my mind, at least, they +seem perfectly well-founded. As to the statement that these objections are +those of the Irish Catholic bishops alone, and are mere ‘superstitious +fancies,’ it is enough to reply<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> that, on two occasions, the Irish +Catholic laity have distinctly pronounced on this subject, and have +declared that they agree with the heads of their Church. And as to the +argument that Catholic States do not endow sectarian institutions like the +Catholic University and other Irish Catholic colleges, it will be quite +time enough to examine this when anything like such a state of things can +be found as that which at present exists in Ireland.</p> + +<p>One argument, however, seldom frankly set forth, but hinted at in a +variety of ways, has been a real obstacle to a reform of this vicious +system; it strongly appeals to British national prejudice, of all +aberrations of opinion the most difficult to overcome. ‘Popery,’ it is +said, is a ‘detestable thing;’ a ‘Protestant’ State ‘must have nothing to +do with it;’ to endow a Catholic University in Ireland, therefore, or any +colleges of the same complexion, would be ‘sacrificing to Baal,’ or +something as wicked. Catholic Ireland must put up with Trinity College and +the Queen’s Colleges, which have been made open to all sorts and +conditions of men; its ‘conscientious objections’ are mere ‘bigotry.’ This +reasoning, which condemns as impious the religion of the greatest part of +Christendom, would unfortunately overthrow many arrangements by which +provision has been made in our ‘Protestant’ State for Catholic +institutions of different kinds; if pushed to its consequences, it would +revive the penal code in Ireland, and lead to the confiscation of Catholic +charities. But though it has still indirectly an effect on some +politicians, it is, in its naked simplicity, only the faith of Mr. Kensit +and of those who walk in his footsteps; it is worthy of the philosophy of +Lord George Gordon, of the meekness of Orangeism, of the bray of Exeter +Hall. For some time a turn in British opinion has happily taken place; +‘liberalism,’ it has been perceived, in Irish University education has +failed; Mr. Arthur Balfour has made himself conspicuous in advocating the +just claims<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> of Catholic Ireland. Even as I write a Commission is being +appointed to consider the whole subject of University life in Ireland; +there can be no reasonable doubt that it will fully bring to light the +anomalies and the unfairness of the existing system, and will recommend +that the Catholic University, and other Catholic colleges perhaps, shall +be endowed. In truth, things have already come to such a pass that Trinity +College, the one institution of which, it is said, ‘all Irishmen are +really proud,’ will, owing to the exceptional favour it receives from the +State, be placed in grave danger, and the Queen’s Colleges also, if a +Catholic University in Ireland be not established and endowed, in order to +secure to the Irish Catholic civil equality, in high education, through +the assistance of the State.<a name='fna_192' id='fna_192' href='#f_192'><small>[192]</small></a></p> + +<p>On what principles, then, and by what means, is University education in +Ireland to be so reformed as to do equal justice to all Irishmen, to place +Protestants, Presbyterians, and Catholics on the same level, and, +especially, to vindicate the rightful claims of Catholic Ireland? Two +leading projects have at least been sketched out: the first, the grander +and the more ambitious, but, in my judgment, scarcely possible to carry +into effect; the second, more simple, more in harmony with existing facts, +and, I think, safer and much more easy to realise. The first scheme,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> +following in some respects the measure of Mr. Gladstone of 1873, but +making a marked improvement on it, would aim at establishing and endowing +a National University for all Irishmen, which should have a power to +confer degrees, in common with the Royal University now existing, and +should have an ample professional staff; it should have its examinations +for degrees and for other honours. The governing body of this University +should be composed of the heads of the colleges affiliated to it—the +element of the Castle being excluded, according at least to the best +authorities—and Trinity College should not be deprived of any part of its +revenues, as it was to be under the Bill of 1873. Two of the Queen’s +Colleges probably should be suppressed; but the College of Belfast, which +has been successful, should probably be made a Presbyterian college, at +least in the main; the endowments it would receive should be, doubtless, +increased. High Catholic education should be provided for in this way: The +Catholic University should be established and endowed, and placed +reasonably on a level with Trinity College, and perhaps other Catholic +colleges also; but, in consideration of this assistance from the State, a +lay element should be introduced into the Catholic University governing +body; this should not be composed wholly of Catholic clergymen; and the +teaching body should be composed of men, chosen without regard to +religious distinctions, but so constituted that a majority should be +Catholics, and that Catholic education should be predominant. Other +Catholic colleges might be connected with this institution; and Trinity +College, the Catholic University, and the Belfast and all other colleges, +should be subordinate to the National University in this sense; their +students should be obliged to resort to it, or to the Royal University if +they preferred it, in order to pass examinations, and to obtain degrees or +other honours, there being thus two Universities of different types in +Ireland. Education in all the affiliated colleges<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> should be perfectly +free, that is, left to the arrangements made by their governing bodies; +but a certain standard of proficiency should exist, which, however, the +tests of University examinations would probably secure.</p> + +<p>An Irish National University, could it be founded on these lines, would +present many attractive features, would realise, indeed, a noble ideal. It +would preserve Trinity College as a great place of learning, would give +Presbyterian Ireland a college practically its own, and ought to satisfy +the legitimate demands of Catholic Ireland. That its dependent colleges +should compete with each other for its degrees and honours, and be +friendly rivals in the splendid race of learning, would also be an immense +advantage; and the Royal University would, doubtless, suffice for students +too poor to enter the dependent colleges, and yet aspiring to pass +examinations and to obtain degrees. But could a National University of +this type be set up in Ireland with a prospect that it would succeed or +flourish? Its governing body would be formed of the heads of the colleges +connected with it; these would be mainly composed of Catholic and +Protestant divines: could these, in the existing state of Ireland, agree +as to the University course that ought to be adopted? Suppose that +Archbishop Walsh and Dr. Salmon, the venerable provost of Trinity College, +were together members of this supreme board. Would the first approve of +Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding as a subject of examination in +the University schools? Would the second approve of Bellarmine and even of +Bossuet? Dissension, I fear, would be the inevitable result; and in that +case ‘the Castle’ would certainly try to gain authority over the governing +body, and to place on it nominees of its own, in my judgment, an +exceedingly mischievous thing. Very probably, too, the State, in the long +run, would deprive Trinity College of some of its revenues, on different +pleas that could be plausibly urged; to this there would be the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> gravest +objections. And how could moral philosophy, metaphysics, and modern +history, nay, even physical science itself, be made parts of University +studies? How could Protestants and Catholics be examined in them in +common? Would it not be necessary to exclude them from University +teaching, as in the case of Mr. Gladstone’s ill-starred measure—to close +the University to the best works of the intellect of man, to deprive it of +the most fruitful branches of learning? I fear the idea of a National +University, as affairs now stand in Ireland, is not likely to become a +reality with results that could be deemed hopeful. No doubt the Royal +University does, to some extent, have examinations on these debateable +subjects; but they occupy a very small place in its teaching; and in a +National University this ought not to be the case.</p> + +<p>A National University would not be founded in Ireland under the second +project. Trinity College would remain completely intact; it would retain +its present governing body, its privileges, and its power of conferring +degrees. The Queen’s Colleges—that of Galway being probably suppressed, +and its funds transferred to the College of Belfast—and the Royal +University would continue unchanged; the students of the Queen’s Colleges +would probably seek degrees from the Royal University as they do at +present. But the Catholic University should be established and endowed, +and placed on the same level as Trinity College, as far as this could be +effected by law; the charge of the endowment would not be great—it would +be perhaps £100,000 for buildings, and perhaps £40,000 a year for other +purposes; but the students, and those of other colleges to be connected +with it, would not be numerous, at least for years; it should, of course, +have the power of conferring honours and degrees. In return for these +advantages, the State should have a right to insist that its governing +body should be in part laymen—the Irish Catholic bishops have already +agreed to this;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> and the State ought, also, to have a right to require +that the secular education it should afford should be good, a security +which could fully, if indirectly, be obtained. The advantages of this +scheme, it is obvious, are that it would get rid of the difficulties +inseparable from a National University in Ireland; it would preserve +Trinity College exactly as it is, an enormous gain for that great place of +learning; it would interfere as little as possible with things as they +are; and it would do all that Catholic Ireland could reasonably demand. It +is understood that a scheme of this description has the approval of the +authorities of Trinity College, and of their distinguished representative, +Mr. Lecky; their opinions are of the very greatest weight. The only real +objection made to this plan is one made by characteristic prejudice: the +education, in the Catholic University, it is said, would be bad, and its +degrees would be of no value. In the face of the success of Catholic +University students at the Royal University examinations, the first +assertion has been proved to be false; and besides, this is the affair of +the students and their parents alone. As to the inferiority of the +Catholic University degrees, there is no reason to believe that this would +exist; these degrees, moreover, would have to compete with those of the +Royal University and of Trinity College; if they were really inferior, +this would soon be found out, and the Catholic University would have to +increase their value. This is the true security the State and the public +would possess.</p> + +<p>A few ‘Present Irish Questions’ remain, on which I may offer passing +remarks. Ireland is essentially a poor country; her middle class is +comparatively very weak; her trade and manufactures are small; the greater +part of the community is a Celtic race. It has long been contended by +well-informed Irishmen that many undertakings, which, in Great Britain, +have properly been left to private enterprise, ought, in Ireland, to be +carried out by the State,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> as for centuries has been the case in France, a +Celtic land, as was largely the case in Ireland under her extinct +Parliament. This observation especially applies to the Irish railway +system. As long ago as 1836, Thomas Drummond, the Under Secretary of +well-known renown, strongly recommended that Irish railways should be laid +out, managed, and controlled by the Government; but this was inconsistent +with English ideas; the Irish railways were abandoned to private +companies. The results have been very far from fortunate; many of the +lines have been badly designed; the Irish railway fares are a great deal +too high; too numerous boards of directors are a heavy charge; railway +communication, in a word, in Ireland is of an inferior kind, and much too +costly in a backward and poor country. Not indeed that the State has not +made large advances to Irish railway companies, some of these on terms +very unjust to ratepayers; but the system is faulty and ill-developed; a +reform in this direction is greatly wanted.<a name='fna_193' id='fna_193' href='#f_193'><small>[193]</small></a> As Drummond insisted, the +State, even now, ought to buy up and direct the Irish railways; but this +is only a part of what it ought to do in this province. The material +condition of Ireland is not prosperous; her main river basins require +drainage; her whole arterial drainage is in a bad state, and has suffered +much from the legislation of 1881, and from the policy of so-called ‘land +purchase,’ for ordinary Irish tenants will not keep it up, and their +landlords cannot now be expected to do so; these works must be undertaken +by the State, or assuredly they will not be undertaken at all. Mr. Arthur +Balfour has done something in this direction by the encouragement of light +railways in remote parts of Ireland, and by the foundation of the +‘Congested Districts Board,’ an institution that has had excellent +results. But this is only the fringe of the subject; an enormous amount of +work remains to be done; and this,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> in the circumstances of Ireland, can +only be done by the Government.</p> + +<p>In a book which has attracted some attention—‘Ireland, 1798-1898’—I +wrote these words nearly four years ago: ‘An Irishman, Wolseley, an +Irishman, Roberts, are the foremost of living British soldiers; but there +are no Irish Guards, and few Irishmen in our artillery; we see here a want +of tact and of sympathy.’ Time, in this respect, has suddenly brought its +changes; has again illustrated the genius of the Irishman in war, and, in +some measure, has removed a reproach from England. It is true that the +conspiracy, which still exists in Ireland, did all that it could to +prevent Irishmen from taking part in the contest in South Africa, and that +even a petty Irish contingent appeared in the ranks of the Boers. But Lord +Wolseley had at least a great share in fitting out the largest expedition +which has ever left our shores to fight an enemy at a distance of six +thousand miles—no other power could do anything of the kind; and without +disparaging our other generals, the presence of a superior mind was at +once seen when Lord Roberts was given the supreme command in our army. And +the Irish soldiery who fought in the campaigns of 1899-1900 were true to +the noble traditions of their race; they were in the forefront of many a +bloody conflict; and now that a regiment of Irish Guards has been at last +embodied—a tardy acknowledgment of Irish military worth—England may rest +assured that these men will rival the famous Irish Brigade of another age, +‘ever and everywhere true’ to the Bourbon lilies, and conspicuous in the +service of France on many a field of renown. I may add a word on another +subject, in which Ireland perhaps has a just claim on England. The +descendants of the chiefs, who, in Scotland, clung to the cause of the +Stuarts, have, for the most part, regained their forfeited lands and +honours; no such reparation has been made to the descendants of Irish +nobles and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> princes, who supported the Stuarts in the nobler cause of +their country. The representative of the last of the Celtic kings of +Ireland—a man of large possessions and of unquestionable parts—has no +place on the roll of the peerage; the sons of ennobled Cromwellian +troopers and tradesmen have precedence at Court over the sons of the most +illustrious Milesian Houses. This is not a mere trifle as may carelessly +be said; it tends to revive memories that it were better to forget. Can +nothing be done to make a graceful concession, which would touch many an +Irish heart, and would go some way to promote a spirit of loyalty and hope +in Ireland, which it should be a great object of statesmanship to create +and foster?</p> + +<p>If the picture I have drawn of Ireland is correct in outline, there is +much of evil omen in her present condition. The ancient divisions of race +and faith, the most distinctive feature in her social structure, are at +least as deeply marked as they have been for a century; bad legislation +has made them deeper and wider. Catholic Ireland remains disaffected to +British rule, despite efforts of conciliation and concessions that cannot +be justified; no class in the community is completely satisfied; +discontent rankles in the hearts of the landed gentry. The Union, indeed, +has been successfully maintained; the frightful agrarian disorder of +1881-89 no longer exists. But the Union is not permanently assured as long +as the Liberal party and eighty Irish members demand Home Rule, and the +over-representation of Ireland continues; the conspiracy of the Land and +the National Leagues has revived in that of the United Irish League; and +this seeks to compass the ends of its prototypes by obstruction in +Parliament and detestable socialistic tyranny. And the frame of Irish +society has been well-nigh shattered; ruins have been made, nothing solid +has been put in their place. An aristocracy, long waning, has been +practically destroyed, and can no longer be a support of the State; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +bureaucracy of the Castle reigns in its stead; but this is essentially a +weak Government; it can maintain order, but has no hold on the people; the +Irish democracy, to which power has been transferred, regards it with a +dislike and a contempt it does not try to conceal. The country has made +hardly any progress of late years; if some improvement in the state of the +middle classes appears, agriculture, its leading industry, has perceptibly +declined. In by far the most important of Irish social relations, those +connected with the land, a revolution has taken place; a huge if a veiled +confiscation has gone on; the landed gentry have been shamefully wronged; +the occupiers of the soil have been most unduly favoured; yet both classes +declare they have been ill-treated, notably the last. And the Irish land +system has been turned upside down, with consequences disastrous and +far-reaching; the landlord has been cut off from his estate; the tenant +has been encouraged in thriftlessness and waste by law; the land has been +bound in a ruinous mortmain, like that which existed under the penal code, +and subjected to demoralising litigation, breeding a war of class; capital +and fruitful enterprise turn away from it. And, at the same time, in order +to lessen these evils, recourse has been had to remedies that are perhaps +worse; the system of so-called ‘land purchase’ has been devised; the +result has been to create a class of peasant owners reproducing the nearly +extinct middleman, and, above all, to arouse a cry for the ‘compulsory +purchase’ of the rented lands of Ireland, an act of wholesale spoliation +unjust and disastrous alike. In the position of affairs we now see in +Ireland, the stability of society has been rudely shaken; the sense of the +security of property has well-nigh disappeared; the sanctity of contracts +has no respect; the pillars on which order and prosperity rest have been +injured; violent revolution has been arrested, indeed, but revolutionary +and socialistic ideas spread far and wide. And will any impartial inquirer +deny that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> these untoward results may be largely ascribed to the faulty +legislation of late years, and to a system of administration shifty and +feeble? And what judgment is to be passed on the thoughtless optimism too +common in opinion with respect to Ireland? Meanwhile, reforms imperatively +required are not even attempted; they are passed over or postponed to some +more convenient season. The time surely has come to look things in Ireland +straight in the face; to see if statesmanship cannot do something really +effective for her good. This end assuredly will not be attained by +breaking up the Three Kingdoms under the guise of Home Rule, or by +promoting a confiscation the worst Ireland has ever seen; still less will +it be attained by the quackery in legislation and administration too +apparent of late years; nor can trifling and foolish optimism blind the +eyes of intelligent thinkers to facts. Ireland can only expect to make +progress by ruling the community on the just and sound principles to which +long experience has given its sanction; and this consummation can only be +the slow result of time.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span></p> +<h2>APPENDIX</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE IRISH GOVERNMENT BILL, 1886.</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES.</p> + +<p class="center">Part I.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Legislative Authority.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><small>CLAUSE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">1. </td><td>Establishment of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">2. </td><td>Powers of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">3. </td><td>Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">4. </td><td>Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">5. </td><td>Prerogatives of Her Majesty as to Irish Legislative Body.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">6. </td><td>Duration of the Irish Legislative Body.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Executive Authority.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">7. </td><td>Constitution of the Executive Authority.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">8. </td><td>Use of Crown Lands by Irish Government.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Constitution of Legislative Body.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">9. </td><td>Constitution of Irish Legislative Body.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">10. </td><td>First order.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">11. </td><td>Second order.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Finance.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">12. </td><td>Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">13. </td><td>Annual contributions from Ireland to Consolidated Fund of United Kingdom.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">14. </td><td>Collection and application of Customs and Excise duties in Ireland.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">15. </td><td>Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>16. </td><td>Irish Church Fund.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">17. </td><td>Public loans.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">18. </td><td>Additional aid in case of war.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">19. </td><td>Money bills and votes.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">20. </td><td>Exchequer Division and revenue actions.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Police.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">21. </td><td>Police.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><span class="smcap">Part II.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Supplemental Provisions.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">Powers of Her Majesty.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">22. </td><td>Powers over certain lands reserved to Her Majesty.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">Legislative Body.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">23. </td><td>Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how overruled.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">24. </td><td>Cesser of power of Ireland to return members of Parliament.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">Decision of Constitutional Questions.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">25. </td><td>Constitutional questions to be submitted to Judicial Committee.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">Lord-Lieutenant.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">26. </td><td>Office of Lord-Lieutenant.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">Judges and Civil Servants.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">27. </td><td>Judges to be removable only on address.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">28. </td><td>Provisions as to Judges and other persons having salaries charged on the Consolidated Fund.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">29. </td><td>As to persons holding Civil Service appointments.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">30. </td><td>Provision for existing pensions and superannuation allowances.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Transitory Provisions.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">31. </td><td>Transitory provisions in Schedule.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Miscellaneous.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">32. </td><td>Post office and savings banks.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">33. </td><td>Audit.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>34. </td><td>Application of parliamentary law.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">35. </td><td>Regulations for carrying Act into effect.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">36. </td><td>Saving of powers of House of Lords.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">37. </td><td>Saving of rights of Parliament.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">38. </td><td>Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">39. </td><td>Mode of alteration of Act.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">40. </td><td>Definitions.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">41. </td><td>Short title of Act.</td></tr></table> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Schedules.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>A Bill to amend the provision for the future Government of Ireland.</i> +[<span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 1886.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Part I.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Legislative Authority.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Establishment of Irish Legislature.<br /><br /> +Powers of Irish Legislature.<br /><br /> +Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.</div> + +<p><b>1.</b> On and after the appointed day there shall be established in Ireland a +Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and the Irish Legislative +Body.</p> + +<p><b>2.</b> 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.</p> + +<p><b>3.</b> The Legislature of Ireland shall not make laws relating to the +following matters, or any of them:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">(1) The status or dignity of the Crown, or the succession the Crown or a Regency;</p> + +<p class="hang">(2) The making of peace or war;</p> + +<p class="hang">(3) The army, navy, militia, volunteers, or other military or naval +forces, or the defence of the realm;</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(4) Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the +relations between the various parts of Her Majesty’s dominions;</p> + +<p class="hang">(5) Dignities or titles of honour;</p> + +<p class="hang">(6) Prize or booty of war;</p> + +<p class="hang">(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;</p> + +<p class="hang">(8) Treason, alienage, or naturalisation;</p> + +<p class="hang">(9) Trade, navigation, or quarantine;</p> + +<p class="hang">(10) The postal and telegraph service, except as hereafter in this Act +mentioned with respect to the transmission of letters and telegrams in +Ireland;</p> + +<p class="hang">(11) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea-marks;</p> + +<p class="hang">(12) The coinage; the value of foreign money; legal tender; or weights +and measures; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(13) Copyright, patent rights, or other exclusive rights to the use or +profits of any works or inventions.</p></div> + +<p>Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.</div> + +<p><b>4.</b> The Irish Legislature shall not make any law—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">(1) Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, or +prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(2) Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, on account +of religious belief; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(3) Abrogating or derogating from the right to establish or maintain +any place of denominational education or any denominational +institution or charity; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(4) Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a school +receiving public money without attending the religious instruction at +that school; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(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</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(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 either of them; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(7) Affecting this Act, except in so far as it is declared to be +alterable by the Irish Legislature.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Prerogatives of Her Majesty as to Irish Legislative Body.<br /><br /> +Duration of the Irish Legislative Body.<br /><br /> +Constitution of the Executive Authority.</div> + +<p><b>5.</b>—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.</p> + +<p><b>6.</b>—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.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Executive Authority.</i></p> + +<p><b>7.</b>—(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.</p> + +<p>(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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.</div> + +<p><b>8.</b>—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.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Constitution of Legislative Body.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Constitution of Irish Legislative Body.</div> + +<p><b>9.</b>—(1) The Irish Legislative Body shall consist of a first and second order.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>(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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">First order.</div> + +<p><b>10.</b>—(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.</p> + +<p>(2) Each elective member shall at the date of his election and during his +period of membership be <i>bonâ fide</i> possessed of property which—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) If realty, or partly realty and partly personalty, yields two +hundred pounds a year or upwards, free of all charges; or—</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) If personalty yields the same income, or is of the capital value +of four thousand pounds or upwards, free of all charges.</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>(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.</p> + +<p>(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 <i>twentieth day of July</i> 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.</p> + +<p>(5) The term of office of an elective member shall be <i>ten years</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>(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.</p> + +<p>(7) The offices of the peerage members shall be filled as follows, that is +to say,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) 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 <i>thirty +years</i> 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.</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) If any of the twenty-eight peers aforesaid does not within <i>one +month</i> 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.</p></div> + +<p>(8) A peerage member shall be entitled to hold office during his life, or +until the expiration of <i>thirty years</i> from the appointed day, whichever +period is the shortest. At the expiration of such <i>thirty years</i> 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 place.</p> + +<p>(9) The offices of members of the first order shall not be vacated by the +dissolution of the Legislative Body.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>(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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Second order.</div> + +<p><b>11.</b>—(1) Subject as in this section hereafter mentioned, the second order +of the Legislative Body shall consist of two hundred and four members.</p> + +<p>(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.</p> + +<p>(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.</p> + +<p>(4) If any member does not give such written assent within <i>one month</i> +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.</p> + +<p>(5) If the same person is elected to both orders, he shall, within <i>seven +days</i> after the meeting of the Legislative Body, or if the Body is sitting +at the time of the election, within <i>seven days</i> 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.</p> + +<p>(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.</p> + +<p>(7) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, it shall be lawful for the Irish +Legislature, after the first dissolution of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Finance.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund.</div> + +<p><b>12.</b>—(1) For the purpose of providing for the public service of Ireland, +the Irish Legislature may impose taxes, other than duties of Customs or +Excise as defined by this Act, which duties shall continue to be imposed +and levied by and under the direction of the Imperial Parliament only.</p> + +<p>(2) On and after the appointed day there shall be an Irish Consolidated +Fund separate from the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(3) All taxes imposed by the Legislature of Ireland and all other public +revenues under the control of the Government of Ireland shall, subject to +any provisions touching the disposal thereof contained in any Act passed +in the present session respecting the sale and purchase of land in +Ireland, be paid into the Irish Consolidated Fund, and be appropriated to +the public service of Ireland according to law.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Annual contributions from Ireland to Consolidated Fund of +United Kingdom.</div> + +<p><b>13.</b>—(1) Subject to the provisions for the reduction or cesser thereof in +this section mentioned, there shall be made on the part of Ireland to the +Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom the following annual contributions +in every financial year; that is to say,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) The sum of <i>one million four hundred and sixty-six thousand +pounds</i> on account of the interest on and management of the Irish +share of the National Debt:</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) The sum of <i>one million six hundred and sixty-six thousand +pounds</i> on account of the expenditure on the army and navy of the +United Kingdom:</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) The sum of <i>one hundred and ten thousand pounds</i> on account of +the Imperial civil expenditure of the United Kingdom:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) The sum of <i>one million pounds</i> on account of the Royal Irish +Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police.</p></div> + +<p>(2) During the period of <i>thirty years</i> from this section taking effect +the said annual contributions shall not be increased, but may be reduced +or cease as hereinafter mentioned. After the expiration of the said +<i>thirty years</i> the said contributions shall, save as otherwise provided by +this section, continue until altered in manner provided with respect to +the alteration of this Act.</p> + +<p>(3) The Irish share of the National Debt shall be reckoned at <i>forty-eight +million pounds</i> Bank annuities, and there shall be paid in every financial +year on behalf of Ireland to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the +National Debt an annual sum of <i>three hundred and sixty thousand pounds</i>, +and the permanent annual charge for the National Debt on the Consolidated +Fund of the United Kingdom shall be reduced by that amount, and the said +annual sum shall be applied by the said Commissioners as a sinking fund +for the redemption of the National Debt, and the Irish share of the +National Debt shall be reduced by the amount of the National Debt so +redeemed, and the said annual contribution on account of the interest on +and management of the Irish share of the National Debt shall from time to +time be reduced by a sum equal to the interest upon the amount of the +National Debt from time to time so redeemed, but that last-mentioned sum +shall be paid annually to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the +National Debt in addition to the above-mentioned annual sinking fund, and +shall be so paid and be applied as if it were part of that sinking fund.</p> + +<p>(4) As soon as an amount of the National Debt equal to the said Irish +share thereof has been redeemed under the provisions of this section, the +said annual contribution on account of the interest on and management of +the Irish share of the National Debt, and the said annual sum for a +sinking fund shall cease.</p> + +<p>(5) If it appears to Her Majesty that the expenditure in respect of the +army and navy of the United Kingdom, or in respect of Imperial Civil +expenditure of the United<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> Kingdom, for any financial year has been less +than <i>fifteen</i> times the amount of the contributions above named on +account of the same matter, a sum equal to <i>one-fifteenth</i> part of the +diminution shall be deducted from the current annual contribution for the +same matter.</p> + +<p>(6) The sum paid from time to time by the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s +Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues to the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom on account of the hereditary revenues of the Crown in Ireland +shall be credited to the Irish Government, and go in reduction of the said +annual contribution payable on account of the Imperial Civil expenditure +of the United Kingdom, but shall not be taken into account in calculating +whether such diminution as above mentioned has or has not taken place in +such expenditure.</p> + +<p>(7) If it appears to Her Majesty that the expenditure in respect of the +Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police for any +financial year has been less than the contribution above-named on account +of such constabulary and police, the current contribution shall be +diminished by the amount of such difference.</p> + +<p>(8) This section shall take effect from and after the <i>thirty-first day of +March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven</i>.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Collection and application of Customs and Excise duties in +Ireland.</div> + +<p><b>14.</b>—(1) On and after such day as the Treasury may direct all moneys from +time to time collected in Ireland on account of the duties of Customs or +the duties of Excise as defined by this Act shall, under such regulations +as the Treasury from time to time make, be carried to a separate account +(in this Act referred to as the Customs and Excise account) and applied in +the payment of the following sums in priority as mentioned in this +section; that is to say,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">First, of such sum as is from time to time directed by the Treasury in +respect of the costs, charges, and expenses of and incident to the +collection and management of the said duties in Ireland not exceeding +four per cent. of the amount collected there;</p> + +<p class="hang">Secondly, of the annual contributions required by this Act to be made +to the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom;</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">Thirdly, of the annual sums required by this Act to be paid to the +Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt;</p> + +<p class="hang">Fourthly, of all sums by this Act declared to be payable out of the +moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account;</p> + +<p class="hang">Fifthly, of all sums due to the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom for interest or sinking fund, in respect of any loans made by +the issue of bank annuities or otherwise to the Government of Ireland +under any Act passed in the present session relating to the purchase +and sale of land in Ireland, so far as such sums are not defrayed out +of the moneys received under such Act.</p></div> + +<p>(2) So much of the moneys carried to a separate account under this section +as the Treasury consider are not, and are not likely to be, required to +meet the above-mentioned payments, shall from time to time be paid over +and applied as part of the public revenues under the control of the Irish +Government.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.</div> + +<p><b>15.</b>—(1) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund in priority +as mentioned in this section:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">First, such portion of the sums directed by this Act to be paid out of +the moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account in priority to +any payment for the public revenues of Ireland, as those moneys are +insufficient to pay;</p> + +<p class="hang">Secondly, all sums due in respect of any debt incurred by the +Government of Ireland, whether for interest, management, or sinking +fund;</p> + +<p class="hang">Thirdly, all sums which at the passing of this Act are charged on the +Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom in respect of Irish services +other than the salary of the Lord-Lieutenant;</p> + +<p class="hang">Fourthly, the salaries of all judges of the Supreme Court of +Judicature or other Superior Court in Ireland, or of any County or +other like Court, who are appointed after the passing of this Act, and +the pensions of such judges;</p> + +<p class="hang">Fifthly, any other sums charged by this Act on the Irish Consolidated Fund.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span>(2) It shall be the duty of the Legislature of Ireland to impose all such +taxes, duties, or imposts as will raise a sufficient revenue to meet all +sums charged for the time being on the Irish Consolidated Fund.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Irish Church Fund.</div> + +<p><b>16.</b>—(1) Until all charges which are payable out of the Church property in +Ireland, and are guaranteed by the Treasury, have been fully paid, the +Irish Land Commission shall continue as heretofore to exist, with such +Commissioners and officers receiving such salaries as the Treasury may +from time to time appoint, and to administer the Church property and apply +the income and other moneys receivable therefrom; and so much of the +salaries of such Commissioners and officers and expenses of the office as +is not paid out of the Church property shall be paid out of moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, and if these moneys are +insufficient, out of the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and if not so paid, +shall be paid out of the moneys provided by Parliament. Provided as +follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) All charges on the Church property for which a guarantee has +been given by the Treasury before the passing of this Act shall, so +far as they are not paid out of such property, be paid out of the +moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, and +if such moneys are insufficient, the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, +without prejudice nevertheless to the guarantee of the Treasury;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) All charges on the Church property, for which no guarantee has +been given by the Treasury before the passing of this Act shall be +charged on the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, but shall not be +guaranteed by the Treasury nor charged on the Consolidated Fund of the +United Kingdom.</p></div> + +<p>(2) Subject to any existing charges on the Church property, such property +shall belong to the Irish Government and any portion of the annual revenue +thereof which the Treasury, on the application of the Irish Government, +certify at the end of any financial year not to be required for meeting +charges, shall be paid over and applied as part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> of the public revenues +under the control of the Irish Government.</p> + +<p>(3) As soon as all charges on the Church property guaranteed by the +Treasury have been paid, such property may be managed and administered, +and subject to existing charges thereon disposed of, and the income or +proceeds thereof applied, in such manner as the Irish Legislature may from +time to time direct.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">32 & 33 Vict. c. 42.</div> + +<div class="sidenote">44 & 45 Vict. c. 71.</div> + +<p>(4) ‘Church property’ in this section means all property accruing under +the Irish Church Act, 1869, and transferred to the Irish Land Commission +by the Irish Church Act Amendment Act, 1881.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Public loans.</div> + +<p><b>17.</b>—(1) All sums due for principal or interest to the Public Works Loan +Commissioners or to the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland in +respect of existing loans advanced on any security in Ireland shall on and +after the appointed day be due to the Government of Ireland instead of the +said Commissioners, and such body of persons as the Government of Ireland +may appoint for the purpose shall have all the powers of the said +Commissioners or their secretary for enforcing payment of such sums, and +all securities for such sums given to such Commissioners or their +secretary shall have effect as if the said body were therein substituted +for those Commissioners or their secretary.</p> + +<p>(2) For the repayment of the said loans to the Consolidated Fund of the +United Kingdom, the Irish Government shall pay annually into that Fund by +half-yearly payments <i>on the first day of January</i> and <i>the first day of +July</i>, or on such other days as may be agreed on, such instalments of the +principal of the said loans as will discharge all the loans within <i>thirty +years</i> from the appointed day, and shall also pay interest half-yearly on +so much of the said principal as from time to time remains unpaid at the +rate of <i>three</i> per cent. per annum, and such instalments of principal and +interest shall be paid out of the moneys carried to the Customs and Excise +account under this Act, and if those are insufficient, out of the +Consolidated Fund of Ireland.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Additional aid in case of war.</div> + +<p><b>18.</b> If Her Majesty declares that a state of war exists and is pleased to +signify such declaration to the Irish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> Legislative Body by speech or +message, it shall be lawful for the Irish Legislature to appropriate a +further sum out of the Consolidated Fund of Ireland in aid of the army or +navy, or other measures which Her Majesty may take for the prosecution of +the war and defence of the realm, and to provide and raise money for that +purpose; and all moneys so provided and raised, whether by loan, taxation, +or otherwise, shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Money bills and votes.</div> + +<p><b>19.</b>—(1) It shall not be lawful for the Irish Legislative Body to adopt or +pass any vote, resolution, address, or Bill for the raising or +appropriation for any purpose of any part of the public revenue of +Ireland, or of any tax, duty, or impost, except in pursuance of a +recommendation from Her Majesty signified through the Lord-Lieutenant in +the session in which such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed.</p> + +<p>(2) Notwithstanding that the Irish Legislature is prohibited by this Act +from making laws relating to certain subjects, that Legislature may, with +the assent of Her Majesty in Council first obtained, appropriate any part +of the Irish public revenue, or any tax, duty, or impost imposed by such +Legislature, for the purpose of, or in connection with, such subjects.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Exchequer Division and revenue actions.</div> + +<p><b>20.</b>—(1) On and after the appointed day, the Exchequer Division of the +High Court of Justice shall continue to be a Court of Exchequer for +revenue purposes under this Act, and whenever any vacancy occurs in the +office of any judge of such Exchequer Division, his successor shall be +appointed by Her Majesty on the joint recommendation of the +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.</p> + +<p>(2) The judges of such Exchequer Division appointed after the passing of +this Act shall be removable only by Her Majesty on address from the two +Houses of the Imperial Parliament, and shall receive the same salaries and +pensions as those payable at the passing of this Act to the existing +judges of such division, unless with the assent of Her Majesty in Council +first obtained, the Irish Legislature alters such salaries or pensions, +and such salaries and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> pensions shall be paid out of the moneys carried to +the Customs and Excise account in pursuance of this Act, and if the same +are insufficient shall be paid out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and if +not so paid shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(3) An alteration of any rules relating to the procedure in such legal +proceedings as are mentioned in this section shall not be made except with +the approval of the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, and the +sittings of the Exchequer Division and the judges thereof shall be +regulated with the like approval.</p> + +<p>(4) All legal proceedings instituted in Ireland by or against the +Commissioners or any officers of Customs or Excise, or the Treasury, +shall, if so required by any party in such proceedings, be heard and +determined before the judges of such Exchequer Division, or some or one of +them, and any appeal from the decision in any such legal proceeding, if by +a judge, shall lie to the said division, and if by the Exchequer Division, +shall lie to the House of Lords, and not to any other tribunal; and if it +is made to appear to such judges, or any of them, that any decree or +judgment in any such proceeding as aforesaid, has not been duly enforced +by the sheriff or other officer whose duty it is to enforce the same, such +judges or judge shall appoint some officer to enforce such judgment or +decree; and it shall be the duty of such officer to take proper steps to +enforce the same, and for that purpose such officer and all persons +employed by him shall be entitled to the same immunities, powers, and +privileges as are by law conferred on a sheriff and his officers.</p> + +<p>(5) All sums recovered in respect of duties of Customs and Excise, or +under any Act relating thereto, or by an officer of Customs or Excise, +shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid to the Treasury, +and carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Police.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Police.</div> + +<p><b>21.</b>—The following regulations shall be made with respect to police in +Ireland:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) 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 <i>two years</i> 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.</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) 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.</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) 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.</p></div> + + +<p class="center"><br /><br /><span class="smcap">Part II.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Supplemental Provisions.</i></p> + +<p class="center">Powers of Her Majesty.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Power over certain lands reserved to Her Majesty.</div> + +<p><b>22.</b>—On and after the appointed day there shall be reserved to Her +Majesty—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) The power of erecting forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and +other buildings for military or naval purposes;</p> + +<p class="hang">(2) The power of taking waste land, and, on making due compensation, +any other land for the purpose of erecting such forts, magazines, +arsenals, dockyards, or other buildings as aforesaid, and for any +other military or naval purpose, or the defence of the realm.</p></div> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>Legislative Body.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how overruled.</div> + +<p><b>23.</b>—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 <i>three years</i>, +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Cesser of power of Ireland to return members to Parliament.</div> + +<p><b>24.</b>—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.</p> + +<p class="center"><br />Decision of Constitutional Questions.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Constitutional questions to be submitted to Judicial Committee.</div> + +<p><b>25.</b> Questions arising as to the powers conferred on the Legislature of +Ireland under this Act shall be determined as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) If any such question arises on any Bill passed by the +Legislative Body, the Lord-Lieutenant may refer such question to Her +Majesty in Council;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) If, in the course of any action or other legal proceeding, such +question arises on any Act of the Irish Legislature, any party to such +action or other legal proceeding may, subject to the rules in this +section mentioned, appeal from a decision on such question to Her +Majesty in Council;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) If any such question arises otherwise than as aforesaid in any +Act of the Irish Legislature, the Lord-Lieutenant or one of Her +Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State may refer such question to +Her Majesty in Council;</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) A question referred or appeal brought under this section to Her +Majesty in Council shall be referred for the consideration of the +Judicial Committee of the Privy Council;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>e</i>) The decision of Her Majesty in Council on any question referred +or appeal brought under this section shall be final, and a Bill which +may be so decided to be, or contain a provision, in excess of the +powers of the Irish Legislature shall not be assented to by the +Lord-Lieutenant; and a provision of any Act which is so decided to be +in excess of the powers of the Irish Legislature shall be void;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>f</i>) There shall be added to the Judicial Committee when sitting for +the purpose of considering questions under this section, such members +of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, being or having been Irish judges, as +to Her Majesty may seem meet;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>g</i>) Her Majesty may, by Order in Council from time to time, make +rules as to the cases and mode in which and conditions under which, in +pursuance of this section, questions may be referred and appeals +brought to Her Majesty in Council, and as to the consideration thereof +by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and any rules so made +shall be of the same force as if they were enacted in this Act;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>h</i>) An appeal shall not lie to the House of Lords in respect of any +question in respect of which an appeal can be had to Her Majesty in +Council in pursuance of this section.</p></div> + +<p class="center"><br />Lord-Lieutenant.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Office of Lord-Lieutenant.</div> + +<p><b>26.</b>—(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any Act of +Parliament, every subject of Her Majesty shall be eligible to hold and +enjoy the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, without reference to his +religious belief.</p> + +<p>(2) The salary of the Lord-Lieutenant shall continue to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> be charged on the +Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, and the expenses of his household +and establishment shall continue to be defrayed out of moneys to be +provided by Parliament.</p> + +<p>(3) All existing powers vested by Act of Parliament or otherwise in the +Chief Secretary for Ireland may, if no such officer is appointed, be +exercised by the Lord-Lieutenant until other provision is made by Act of +the Irish Legislature.</p> + +<p>(4) The Legislature of Ireland shall not pass any Act relating to the +office or functions of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.</p> + +<p class="center"><br />Judges and Civil Servants.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Judges to be removable only on address.<br /><br /> +Provisions as to judges and other persons having salaries charged on the Consolidated Fund.</div> + +<p><b>27.</b> A judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature or other Superior Court of +Ireland, or of any County Court or other Court with a like jurisdiction in +Ireland, appointed after the passing of this Act, shall not be removed +from his office except in pursuance of an address to Her Majesty from both +orders of the Legislative Body voting separately, nor shall his salary be +diminished or right to pension altered during his continuance in office.</p> + +<p><b>28.</b>—(1) All persons who at the passing of this Act are judges of the +Supreme Court of Judicature or County Court judges, or hold any other +judicial position in Ireland shall, if they are removable at present on +address to Her Majesty of both Houses of Parliament, continue to be +removable only upon such address from both Houses of the Imperial +Parliament, and if removable in any other manner shall continue to be +removable in like manner as heretofore; and such persons, and also all +persons at the passing of this Act in the permanent Civil Service of the +Crown in Ireland whose salaries are charged on the Consolidated Fund of +the United Kingdom, shall continue to hold office and to be entitled to +the same salaries, pensions, and superannuation allowances as heretofore, +and to be liable to perform the same or analogous duties as heretofore; +and the salaries of such persons shall be paid out of the moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> this Act, or if these moneys are +insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and if the same are not +so paid shall continue charged on the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(2) If any of these said persons retires from office with the approbation +of Her Majesty before he has completed the period of service entitling him +to a pension, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, if she thinks fit, to +grant to that person such pension, not exceeding the pension to which he +would have been entitled if he had completed the said period of service, +as to Her Majesty seems meet.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">As to persons holding Civil Service appointments.</div> + +<p><b>29.</b>—(1) All persons not above provided for and at the passing of this Act +serving in Ireland in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown shall +continue to hold their offices and receive the same salaries, and to be +entitled to the same gratuities and superannuation allowances as +heretofore, and shall be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore +or duties of similar rank, but any of such persons shall be entitled at +the expiration of <i>two years</i> after the passing of this Act to retire from +office, and at any time if required by the Irish Government shall retire +from office, and on any such retirement shall be entitled to receive such +payment as the Treasury may award to him in accordance with the provisions +contained in the Fourth Schedule to this Act.</p> + +<p>(2) The amount of such payment shall be paid to him out of the moneys +carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, or, if those +moneys are insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and so far as +the same are not so paid shall be paid out of moneys provided by +Parliament.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">34 & 35 Vict. c. 36.</div> + +<p>(3) The Pensions Commutation Act, 1871, shall apply to all persons who, +having retired from office, are entitled to any annual payment under this +section in like manner as if they had retired in consequence of the +abolition of their offices.</p> + +<p>(4) This section shall not apply to persons who are retained in the +service of the Imperial Government.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Provision for existing pensions and superannuation allowances.</div> + +<p><b>30.</b> Where before the passing of this Act any pension or superannuation +allowance has been granted to any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> person on account of service as a judge +of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Ireland, or of any Court +consolidated into that Court, or as a County Court judge, or in any other +judicial position, or on account of service in the permanent Civil Service +of the Crown in Ireland otherwise than in some office, the holder of which +is, after the passing of this Act, retained in the service of the Imperial +Government, such pension or allowance, whether payable out of the +Consolidated Fund or out of moneys provided by Parliament, shall continue +to be paid to such person, and shall be so paid out of the moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, or, if such moneys are +insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and so far as the same +is not so paid, shall be paid as heretofore out of the Consolidated Fund +of the United Kingdom or moneys provided by Parliament.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Transitory Provisions.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Transitory provisions in Schedule.</div> + +<p><b>31.</b> The provisions contained in the Fifth Schedule to this Act relating to +the mode in which arrangements are to be made for setting in motion the +Irish Legislative Body and Government, and for the transfer to the Irish +Government of the powers and duties to be transferred to them under this +Act, or for otherwise bringing this Act into operation, shall be of the +same effect as if they were enacted in the body of this Act.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Miscellaneous.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Post office and savings banks.</div> + +<p><b>32.</b> Whenever an Act of the Legislature of Ireland has provided for +carrying on the postal and telegraphic service with respect to the +transmission of letters and telegrams in Ireland, and the post office and +other savings banks in Ireland, and for protecting the officers then in +such service, and the existing depositors in such post-office savings +banks, the Treasury shall make arrangements for the transfer of the said +service and banks, in accordance with the said Act, and shall give public +notice of the transfer, and shall pay all depositors in such post-office +savings bank who request payment within <i>six months</i> after the date fixed +for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> such transfer, and after the expiration of such <i>six months</i> the said +depositors shall cease to have any claim against the Postmaster-General or +the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but shall have the like claim +against the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and the Treasury shall cause to +be transferred in accordance with the said Act the securities representing +the sums due to the said depositors in post-office savings banks, and the +securities held for other savings banks.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Audit.</div> + +<p><b>33.</b> Save as otherwise provided by the Irish Legislature—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) The existing law relating to the Exchequer and the Consolidated +Fund of the United Kingdom shall apply to the Irish Exchequer and +Consolidated Fund, and an officer shall from time to time be appointed +by the Lord-Lieutenant to fill the office of the Comptroller-General +of the receipt and issue of Her Majesty’s Exchequer and +Auditor-General of public accounts so far as respects Ireland; and</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">29 & 30 Vict. c. 39.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) The accounts of the Irish Consolidated Fund shall be audited as +appropriation accounts in manner provided by the Exchequer and Audit +Departments Act, 1866, by or under the direction of the holder of such +office.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Application of parliamentary law.</div> + +<p><b>34.</b>—(1) The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed, and +exercised by the Irish Legislative Body, and the members thereof, shall be +such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Irish Legislature, but +so that the same shall never exceed those at the passing of this Act, +held, enjoyed, and exercised by the House of Commons, and by the members +thereof.</p> + +<p>(2) Subject as in this Act mentioned, all existing laws and customs +relating to the members of the House of Commons and their election, +including the enactments respecting the questioning of elections, corrupt +and illegal practices, and registration of electors, shall, so far as +applicable, extend to elective members of the first order and to members +of the second order of the Irish Legislative Body. Provided that,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) The law relating to the offices of profit enumerated in Schedule +H to the Representation of the People Act, 1867, shall apply to such +offices of profit in the Government of Ireland not exceeding ten, as +the Legislature of Ireland may from time to time direct;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) After the first dissolution of the Legislative Body, the +Legislature of Ireland may, subject to the restrictions in this Act +mentioned, alter the laws and customs in this section mentioned.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Regulations for carrying Act into effect.</div> + +<p><b>35.</b>—(1) The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland may make regulations for the +following purposes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) The summoning of the Legislative Body and the election of a +Speaker, and such adaptation to the proceedings of the Legislative +Body of the procedure of the House of Commons as appears to him +expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by that body on +their first meeting;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) The adaptation of any laws relating to the election of +representative peers;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) The adaptation of any laws and customs relating to the House of +Commons or the members thereof to the elective members of the first +order and to members of the second order of the Legislative Body; and</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) The mode of signifying their assent or election under this Act +by representative peers or Irish members of the House of Commons as +regards becoming members of the Irish Legislative Body in pursuance of +this Act.</p></div> + +<p>(2) Any regulations so made shall, in so far as they concern the procedure +of the Legislative Body, be subject to alteration by Standing Orders of +that Body, and so far as they concern other matters, be subject to +alteration by the Legislature of Ireland, but shall, until alteration, +have the same effect as if they were inserted in this Act.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Saving of powers of House of Lords.<br /><br /> +Savings of rights of Parliament.<br /><br /> +Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc.</div> + +<p><b>36.</b> Save as in this Act provided with respect to matters to be decided by +Her Majesty in Council, nothing in this Act shall affect the appellate +jurisdiction of the House of Lords in respect of actions and suits in +Ireland, or the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> jurisdiction of the House of Lords to determine the +claims to Irish peerages.</p> + +<p><b>37.</b> 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, whose power and authority in relation thereto, save as +aforesaid, shall in no wise be diminished or restrained by anything herein +contained.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"></div> + +<p><b>38.</b>—(1) Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all existing laws in +force in Ireland, and all existing courts of civil and criminal +jurisdiction, and all existing legal commissions, powers, and authorities, +and all existing officers, judicial, administrative, and ministerial, and +all existing taxes, licence, and other duties, fees, and other receipts in +Ireland shall continue as if this Act had not been passed; subject, +nevertheless, to be repealed, abolished, or altered in manner and to the +extent provided by this Act; provided that, subject to the provisions of +this Act, such taxes, duties, fees, and other receipts, shall, after the +appointed day, form part of the public revenues of Ireland.</p> + +<p>(2) The Commissioners of Inland Revenue and Commissioners of Customs, and +the officers of such Commissioners respectively, shall have the same +powers in relation to any articles subject to any duty of excise or +customs, manufactured, imported, kept for sale, or sold, and any premises +where the same may be, and to any machinery, apparatus, vessels, utensils, +or conveyance used in connection therewith, or the removal thereof, and in +relation to the person manufacturing, importing, keeping for sale, +selling, or having the custody or possession of the same as they would +have had if this Act had not been passed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Mode of alteration of Act.</div> + +<p><b>39.</b>—(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—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) By Act of the Imperial Parliament and with the consent of the +Irish Legislative Body testified by an address to Her Majesty, or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) By an Act of the Imperial Parliament, for the passing of which +there shall be summoned to the House<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> 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.</p></div> + +<p>(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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Definitions.</div> + +<p><b>40.</b> In this Act—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The expression ‘the appointed day’ shall mean such day after the +<i>thirty-first day of March in the year one thousand eight hundred and +eighty-seven</i> as may be determined by order of Her Majesty in Council.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘Lord-Lieutenant’ includes the lords justices or any +other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time being.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘Her Majesty the Queen,’ or ‘Her Majesty in Council,’ +or ‘the Queen,’ includes the heirs and successors of Her Majesty the Queen.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘Treasury’ means the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘Treaty’ includes any convention or arrangement.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘existing’ means existing at the passing of this Act.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">The expression ‘existing constituency’ means any county or borough, +or division of a county or borough, or a University returning at the +passing of this Act a member or members to serve in Parliament.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘duties of excise’ does not include a duty received in +respect of any licence whether for the sale of intoxicating liquors or +otherwise.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘financial year’ means the twelve months ending on the +<i>thirty-first day of March</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Short title of Act.</div> + +<p><b>41.</b> This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Irish Government Act, +1886.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">SCHEDULES.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">First Schedule.</span></p> + +<p>First order of the Irish Legislative Body.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td class="btr" align="center">Electoral Districts.</td> + <td class="btr" align="center">Number of Members.</td> + <td class="bt" align="center">Rotation.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="btr"> </td> + <td class="bt"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"> </td> + <td class="br"> </td> + <td> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="bbr"> </td> + <td class="bbr"> </td> + <td class="bb"> </td></tr></table> + + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Second Schedule.</span></p> + +<p>Provisions relating to the first order of the Irish Legislative Body.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Third Schedule.</span></p> + +<p>Boundaries of divisions of the City of Cork for the purpose of returning +members to the second order of the Legislative Body.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Fourth Schedule.</span></p> + +<p>Provisions as to superannuation allowances of persons in the Permanent +Civil Service.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Fifth Schedule.</span></p> + +<p>Transitory provisions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="large">THE IRISH GOVERNMENT BILL, 1893.</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Part I.</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Legislative Authority.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><small>CLAUSE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">1. </td><td>Establishment of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">2. </td><td>Powers of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">3. </td><td>Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">4. </td><td>Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Executive Authority.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">5. </td><td>Executive power in Ireland.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Constitution of Legislature.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">6. </td><td>Composition of Irish Legislative Council.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">7. </td><td>Composition of Irish Legislative Assembly.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">8. </td><td>Disagreement between two Houses, how settled.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Irish Representation in House of Commons.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">9. </td><td>Representation in Parliament of Irish counties and boroughs.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Finance.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">10. </td><td>As to separate Consolidated Fund and taxes.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">11. </td><td>Hereditary revenues and income tax.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">12. </td><td>Financial arrangements as between United Kingdom and Ireland.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">13. </td><td>Treasury Account (Ireland).</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">14. </td><td>Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>15. </td><td>Irish Church Fund.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">16. </td><td>Local loans.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">17. </td><td>Adaptation of Acts as to Local Taxation Accounts and Probate, etc., duties.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">18. </td><td>Money bills and votes.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">19. </td><td>Exchequer judges for revenue actions, election petitions, etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Post Office, Postal Telegraphs, and Savings Banks.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">20. </td><td>Transfer of post office and postal telegraphs.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">21. </td><td>Transfer of savings banks.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Irish Appeals and Decision of Constitutional Questions.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">22. </td><td>Irish appeals.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">23. </td><td>Special provision for decision of constitutional questions.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Lord-Lieutenant and Crown Lands.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">24. </td><td>Office of Lord-Lieutenant.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">25. </td><td>Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Judges and Civil Servants.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">26. </td><td>Tenure of future judges.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">27. </td><td>As to existing judges and other persons having salaries charged on the Consolidated Fund.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">28. </td><td>As to persons holding Civil Service appointments.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">29. </td><td>As to existing pensions and superannuation allowances.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Police.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">30. </td><td>As to police.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Miscellaneous.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">31. </td><td>Irish Exchequer Consolidated Fund and Audit.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">32. </td><td>Law applicable to both Houses of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">33. </td><td>Supplemental provisions as to powers of Irish Legislature.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">34. </td><td>Limitation on borrowing by local authorities.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><i>Transitory Provisions.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">35. </td><td>Temporary restriction on powers of Irish Legislature and Executive.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>36. </td><td>Transitory provisions.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">37. </td><td>Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">38. </td><td>Appointed day.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">39. </td><td>Definitions.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">40. </td><td>Short title.</td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Schedules.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>A Bill to amend the provision for the Government of Ireland.</i> [<span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 1893.</p> + +<p>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:—</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Part I.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Legislative Authority.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Establishment of Irish Legislature.</div> + +<p><b>1.</b> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Powers of Irish Legislature.</div> + +<p><b>2.</b> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.</div> + +<p><b>3.</b> The Irish Legislature shall not have power to make powers of laws +respect of the following matters or any of them:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency; or the +Lord-Lieutenant as representative of the Crown; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(2) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state of war; or</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(3) Naval or military forces, or the defence of the realm; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(4) Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the relations +between different parts of Her Majesty’s dominions, or offences +connected with such treaties or relations; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(5) Dignities or titles of honour; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(6) Treason, treason-felony, alienage or naturalisation; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(7) Trade with any place out of Ireland; or quarantine, or navigation +(except as respects inland waters and local health or harbour +regulations); or</p> + +<p class="hang">(8) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea-marks (except so far as they can +consistently with any general Act of Parliament be constructed or +maintained by a local harbour authority); or</p> + +<p class="hang">(9) Coinage; legal tender; or the standard of weights and measures; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(10) Trade marks, merchandise marks, copyright, or patent rights.</p></div> + +<p>Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.</div> + +<p><b>4.</b> The powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making of +any law—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, or +prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(2) Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, on account +of religious belief; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(3) Abrogating or prejudicially affecting the right to establish or +maintain any place of denominational education or any denominational +institution or charity; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(4) Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a school +receiving public money, without attending the religious instruction at +that school; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(5) Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property +without due process of law, or may be denied the equal protection of +the laws, or whereby private property may be taken without just +compensation; or</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(6) Whereby any existing corporation incorporated by Royal Charter or +by any local or general Act of Parliament (not being a corporation +raising for public purposes taxes, rates, cess, dues, or tolls, or +administering funds so raised) 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; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(7) Whereby any inhabitant of the United Kingdom may be deprived of +equal rights as respects public sea fisheries.</p></div> + +<p>Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Executive Authority.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Executive power in Ireland.</div> + +<p><b>5.</b>—(1) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in Her +Majesty the Queen, and the Lord-Lieutenant, 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, prorogue, and dissolve the Irish Legislature.</p> + +<p>(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, as Her Majesty may think fit, or +as may be directed by Irish Act.</p> + +<p>(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.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Constitution of Legislature.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Composition of Irish Legislative Council.<br /><br /> +48 & 49 Vict. c. 3.</div> + +<p><b>6.</b>—(1) The Irish Legislative Council shall consist of <i>forty-eight</i> +councillors.</p> + +<p>(2) Each of the constituencies mentioned in the First<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> Schedule to this +Act shall return the number of councillors named opposite thereto in that +schedule.</p> + +<p>(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 <i>twenty</i> 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.</p> + +<p>(4) The term of office of every councillor shall be <i>eight</i> years, and +shall not be affected by a dissolution; and one <i>half</i> of the Councillors +shall retire in every <i>fourth</i> year, and their seats shall be filled by a +new election.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Composition of Irish Legislative Assembly.</div> + +<p><b>7.</b>—(1) The Irish Legislative Assembly shall consist of <i>one hundred and +three</i> 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.</p> + +<p>(2) The Irish Legislative Assembly when summoned may, unless sooner +dissolved, have continuance for <i>five</i> years from the day on which the +summons directs it to meet and no longer.</p> + +<p>(3) After <i>six</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Disagreement between two Houses, how settled.</div> + +<p><b>8.</b> 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 <i>two years</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Irish Representation in House of Commons.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Representation in Parliament of Irish counties and boroughs.</div> + +<p><b>9.</b> Unless and until Parliament otherwise determines, the following +provisions shall have effect:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(1) After the <i>appointed day</i> 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.</p> + +<p class="hang">(2) The existing divisions of the constituencies shall, save as +provided in that Schedule, be abolished.</p> + +<p class="hang">(3) An Irish representative peer in the House of Lords and a member of +the House of Commons for an Irish constituency shall not be entitled +to deliberate or vote on—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) Any Bill or motion in relation thereto, the operation of which +Bill or motion is confined to Great Britain or some part thereof; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) Any motion or resolution relating solely to some tax not raised +or to be raised in Ireland; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) Any vote or appropriation of money made exclusively for some +service not mentioned in the Third Schedule to this Act; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) Any motion or resolution exclusively affecting Great Britain, or +some part thereof, or some local authority, or some person or thing +therein; or</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(<i>e</i>) Any motion or resolution incidental to any such motion or +resolution, as either is last mentioned, or relates solely to some +tax not raised or to be raised in Ireland, or incidental to any such +vote or appropriation of money as aforesaid.</p></div> + +<p class="hang">(4) Compliance with the provisions of this section shall not be questioned +otherwise than in each House in manner provided by the House.</p> + +<p class="hang">(5) 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.</p></div> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Finance.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">As to separate Consolidated Fund and taxes.</div> + +<p><b>10.</b>—(1) On and after the appointed day there shall be an Irish Exchequer +and Consolidated Fund separate from those of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(2) The duties of Customs and Excise and the duties on postage shall be +imposed by Act of Parliament, but subject to the provisions of this Act +the Irish Legislature may, in order to provide for the public service of +Ireland, impose any other taxes.</p> + +<p>(3) Save as in this Act mentioned, all matters relating to the taxes in +Ireland and the collection and management thereof shall be regulated by +Irish Act, and the same shall be collected and managed by the Irish +Government, and from part of the public revenues of Ireland: Provided +that—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) The duties of Customs shall be regulated, collected, managed, +and paid into the Exchequer of the United Kingdom as heretofore; and</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) All prohibitions in connection with the duties of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> Excise, and +so far as regards articles sent out of Ireland, all matters relating +to those duties, shall be regulated by Act of Parliament; and</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) The excise duties on articles consumed in Great Britain shall be +paid in Great Britain, or to an officer of the Government of the +United Kingdom.</p></div> + +<p>(4) Save as in this Act mentioned, all the public revenues of Ireland +shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer and form a Consolidated Fund, and +be appropriated to the public service of Ireland by Irish Act.</p> + +<p>(5) If the duties of Excise are increased above the rates in force on the +<i>first day of March one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three</i> the net +proceeds in Ireland of the duties in excess of the said rates shall be +paid from the Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(6) If the duties of Excise are reduced below the rates in force on the +said day, and the net proceeds of such duties in Ireland are in +consequence less than the net proceeds of the duties before the reduction, +a sum equal to the deficiency shall, unless it is otherwise agreed between +the Treasury and the Irish Government, be paid from the Exchequer of the +United Kingdom to the Irish Exchequer.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Hereditary revenues and income tax.</div> + +<p><b>11.</b>—(1) The hereditary revenues of the Crown in Ireland which are managed +by the Commissioners of Woods shall continue during the life of Her +present Majesty to be managed and collected by those Commissioners, and +the net amount payable by them to the Exchequer on account of those +revenues, after deducting all expenses (but including an allowance for +interest on such proceeds of the sale of those revenues as have not been +re-invested in Ireland), shall be paid into the Treasury Account (Ireland) +hereinafter mentioned, for the benefit of the Irish Exchequer.</p> + +<p>(2) A person shall not be required to pay income tax in Great Britain in +respect of property situate or business carried on in Ireland, and a +person shall not be required to pay income tax in Ireland in respect of +property situate or business carried on in Great Britain.</p> + +<p>(3) For the purpose of giving to Ireland the benefit of the difference +between the income tax collected in Great Britain from British, Colonial, +and foreign securities held<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> by residents in Ireland, and the income tax +collected in Ireland from Irish securities held by residents in Great +Britain, there shall be made to Ireland out of the income tax collected in +Great Britain, an allowance of such amount as may be from time to time +determined by the Treasury, in accordance with a minute of the Treasury, +laid before Parliament before the appointed day, and such allowance shall +be paid into the Treasury Account (Ireland) for the benefit of the Irish +Exchequer.</p> + +<p>(4) Provided that the provisions of this section with respect to income +tax shall not apply to any excess of the rate of income tax in Great +Britain above the rate in Ireland or of the rate of income tax in Ireland +above the rate in Great Britain.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Financial arrangements as between United Kingdom and Ireland.</div> + +<p><b>12.</b>—(1) The duties of Customs contributed by Ireland and, save as +provided by this Act, that portion of any public revenue of the United +Kingdom to which Ireland may claim to be entitled, whether specified in +the Third Schedule to this Act or not, shall be carried to the +Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, as the contribution of Ireland to +Imperial liabilities and expenditure as defined in that Schedule.</p> + +<p>(2) The civil charges of the Government in Ireland shall, subject as in +this Act mentioned, be borne after the appointed day by Ireland.</p> + +<p>(3) After <i>fifteen</i> years from the passing of this Act the arrangements +made by this Act for the contribution of Ireland to Imperial liabilities +and expenditure, and otherwise for the financial relations between the +United Kingdom and Ireland, may be revised in pursuance of an address to +Her Majesty from the House of Commons, or from the Irish Legislative +Assembly.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Treasury Account (Ireland)</div> + +<p><b>13.</b>—(1) There shall be established under the direction of the Treasury an +account (in this Act referred to as the Treasury Account (Ireland)).</p> + +<p>(2) There shall be paid into such account all sums payable from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, or from the latter to +the former Exchequer, and all sums directed to be paid into the account +for the benefit of either of the said Exchequers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>(3) All sums which are payable from either of the said Exchequers to the +other of them, or being payable out of one of the said Exchequers are +repayable by the other Exchequer, shall in the first instance be payable +out of the said account so far as the money standing on the account is +sufficient; and for the purpose of meeting such sums the Treasury out of +the Customs revenue collected in Ireland, and the Irish Government out of +any of the public revenues in Ireland, may direct money to be paid to the +Treasury Account (Ireland) instead of into the Exchequer.</p> + +<p>(4) Any surplus standing on the account to the credit of either Exchequer, +and not required for meeting payments, shall at convenient times be paid +into that Exchequer, and where any sum so payable in to the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom is required by law to be forthwith paid to the National +Debt Commissioners, that sum may be paid to those Commissioners without +being paid into the Exchequer.</p> + +<p>(5) All sums payable by virtue of this Act out of the Consolidated Fund of +the United Kingdom or of Ireland shall be payable from the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom or of Ireland shall be payable from the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom or Ireland, as the case may be, within the meaning of +this Act, and all sums by this Act made payable from the Exchequer of the +United Kingdom shall, if not otherwise paid, be charged on and paid out of +the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.<br /><br /> +54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.</div> + +<p><b>14.</b>—(1) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund in favour +of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom as a first charge on sums which—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) Are payable to that Exchequer from the Irish Exchequer; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) Are required to repay to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom +sums issued to meet the dividends or sinking fund or guaranteed land +stock under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891: or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) Otherwise have been or are required to be paid out of the +Exchequer of the United Kingdom in consequence of the non-payment +thereof out of the Exchequer of Ireland or otherwise by the Irish +Government.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>(2) If at any time the Controller and Auditor-General of the United +Kingdom is satisfied that any such charge is due, he shall certify the +amount of it, and the Treasury shall send such certificate to the +Lord-Lieutenant, who shall thereupon by order, without any +counter-signature, direct the payment of the amount from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, and such order shall be +duly obeyed by all persons, and until the amount is wholly paid no other +payment shall be made out of the Irish Exchequer for any purpose whatever.</p> + +<p>(3) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund next after the +foregoing charge—</p> + +<div class="sidenote">54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) All sums, for dividends or sinking fund on guaranteed land stock +under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, which the Land +Purchase Account and the Guarantee Fund under that Act are +insufficient to pay;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) All sums due in respect of any debt incurred by the Government +of Ireland, whether for interest management, or sinking fund;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) An annual sum of <i>five thousand pounds</i> for the expenses of the +household and establishment of the Lord-Lieutenant;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) All existing charges on the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom in respect of Irish services other than the salary of the +Lord-Lieutenant; and</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>e</i>) The salaries and pensions of all judges of the Supreme Court or +other Superior Court in Ireland or of any County or other like Court, +who are appointed after the passing of this Act, and are not the +Exchequer judges hereafter mentioned.</p></div> + +<p>(4) Until all charges created by this Act upon the Irish Consolidated Fund +and for the time being due are paid, no money shall be issued from the +Irish Exchequer for any other purpose whatever.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Irish Church Fund. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42. 44 & 45 Vict. c. 71.</div> + +<p><b>15.</b>—(1) All existing charges on the Church property in Ireland—that is +to say, all property accruing under the Irish Church Act, 1869, and +transferred to the Irish Land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> Commission by the Irish Church Amendment +Act, 1881—shall so far as not paid out of the said property be charged on +the Irish Consolidated Fund, and any of those charges guaranteed by the +Treasury, if and so far as not paid, shall be paid out of the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(2) Subject to the existing charges thereon, the said Church property +shall belong to the Irish Government, and be managed, administered, and +disposed of as directed by Irish Act.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Local loans.</div> + +<p><b>16.</b>—(1) All sums paid or applicable in or towards the discharge of the +interest or principal of any local loan advanced before the appointed day +on security in Ireland, or otherwise in respect of such loan, which but +for this Act would be paid to the National Debt Commissioners, and carried +to the Local Loans Fund, shall, after the appointed day, be paid, until +otherwise provided by Irish Act, to the Irish Exchequer.</p> + +<p>(2) For the payment of the Local Loans Fund of the principal and interest +of such loans, the Irish Government shall after the appointed day pay by +half-yearly payments an annuity for <i>forty-nine</i> years, at the rate of +<i>four</i> per cent., on the principal of the said loans, exclusive of any +sums written off before the appointed day from the account of assets of +the Local Loans Fund, and such annuity shall be paid from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, and when so paid shall +be forthwith paid to the National Debt Commissioners for the credit of the +Local Loans Fund.</p> + +<p>(3) After the appointed day, money for loans in Ireland shall cease to be +advanced either by the Public Works Loan Commissioners or out of the Local +Loans Fund.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Adaptation of Acts as to Local Taxation Accounts and Probate, etc., duties. See 50 & 51 Vict. c. 41. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.<br /><br /> +See 21 & 22 Vict. c. 86, ss. 12-18. 21 & 22 Vict. c. 95, s. 29. 22 & 23 Vict. c. 31, s. 25. 39 & 40 Vict. c. 70, ss. 41-44.<br /><br /> +Money bills and votes.<br /><br /> +Exchequer judges for revenue actions, elections petitions, etc.</div> + +<p><b>17.</b>—(1) So much of any Act as directs payment to the Local Taxation +(Ireland) Account of any share of Probate, Excise, or Customs duties +payable to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom shall, together with any +enactment amending the same, be repealed as from the appointed day without +prejudice to the adjustment of balances after that day; the like amounts +shall continue to be paid to the Local Taxation Accounts in England and +Scotland as would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> been paid if this Act had not passed, and any +residue of the said share shall be paid into the Exchequer of the United +Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(2) The stamp duty chargeable in respect of the personalty of a deceased +person, shall not in the case of administration granted in Great Britain +be chargeable in respect of any personalty situate in Ireland; nor in the +case of administration granted in Ireland be chargeable in respect of any +personalty situate in Great Britain; and any administration granted in +Great Britain shall not, if re-sealed in Ireland, be exempt from stamp +duty on administration granted in Ireland, and any administration granted +in Ireland shall not, when re-sealed in Great Britain, be exempt from +stamp duty on administration granted in Great Britain.</p> + +<p>(3) In this section the expression ‘administration’ means probate or +letters of administration, and as respects Scotland, confirmation +inclusive of the inventory required under the Acts relating to the said +stamp duty, and the expression ‘personalty’ means personal or movable +estate and effects.</p> + +<p><b>18.</b>—(1) Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue or for +imposing any tax shall originate in the Legislative Assembly.</p> + +<p>(2) It shall not be lawful for the Legislative Assembly to adopt or pass +any vote, 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 such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed.</p> + +<p><b>19.</b>—(1) Two of the judges of the Supreme Court in Ireland shall be +Exchequer judges, and shall be appointed under the Great Seal of the +United Kingdom; and their salaries and pensions shall be charged on and +paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(2) The Exchequer judges shall be removable only by Her Majesty on address +from the two Houses of Parliament, and each such judge shall, save as +otherwise provided by Parliament, receive the same salary and be entitled +to the same pension as is at the time of his appointment fixed for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> the +puisne judges of the Supreme Court, and during his continuance in office +his salary shall not be diminished, nor his right to pension altered, +without his consent.</p> + +<p>(3) An alteration of any rules relating to such legal proceedings as are +mentioned in this section shall not be made except with the approval of +Her Majesty the Queen in Council; and the sittings of the Exchequer judges +shall be regulated with the like approval.</p> + +<p>(4) All legal proceedings in Ireland, which are instituted at the instance +of or against the Treasury or Commissioners of Customs, or any of their +officers, or relate to the election of members to serve in Parliament, or +touch any matter within the powers of the Irish Legislature, or touch any +matter affected by a law which the Irish Legislature have not power to +repeal or alter, shall, if so required by any party to such proceedings, +be heard and determined before the Exchequer judges or (except where the +case requires to be determined by two judges) before one of them, and in +any such legal proceeding an appeal shall, if any party so requires, lie +from any Court of first instance in Ireland to the Exchequer judges, and +the decision of the Exchequer judges shall be subject to appeal to Her +Majesty the Queen in Council and not to any other tribunal.</p> + +<p>(5) If it is made to appear to an Exchequer judge that any decree or +judgment in any such proceeding as aforesaid has not been duly enforced by +the sheriff or other officer whose duty it is to enforce the same, such +judge shall appoint some officer whose duty it shall be to enforce the +judgment or decree; and for that purpose such officer and all persons +employed by him shall be entitled to the same privileges, immunities, and +powers as are by law conferred on a sheriff and his officers.</p> + +<p>(6) The Exchequer judges, when not engaged in hearing and determining such +legal proceedings as above in this section mentioned, shall perform such +of the duties ordinarily performed by other judges of the Supreme Court in +Ireland as may be assigned by Her Majesty the Queen in Council.</p> + +<p>(7) All sums recovered by the Treasury or the Commissioners of Customs or +any of their officers, or recovered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> under any Act relating to duties of +Customs, shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid to such +public account as the Treasury or the Commissioners direct.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Post Office, Postal Telegraphs, and Savings Banks.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Transfer of post office and postal telegraphs.</div> + +<p><b>20.</b>—(1) As from the <i>appointed day</i> the postal and telegraph service in +Ireland shall be transferred to the Irish Government, and may be regulated +by Irish Act, except as in this Act mentioned and except as regards +matters relating—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) To such conditions of the transmission or delivery of postal +packets and telegrams as are incidental to the duties on postage; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) To foreign mails or submarine telegraphs or through lines in +connection therewith; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) To any other postal or telegraph business in connection with +places out of the United Kingdom.</p></div> + +<p>(2) The administration of or incidental to the said excepted matters +shall, save as may be otherwise arranged with the Irish Post Office, +remain with the Postmaster-General.</p> + +<p>(3) As regards the revenue and expenses of the postal and telegraph +service, the Postmaster-General shall retain the revenue collected and +defray the expenses incurred in Great Britain, and the Irish Post Office +shall retain the revenue collected and defray the expenses incurred in +Ireland, subject to the provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Act; +which schedule shall have full effect, but may be varied or added to by +agreement between the Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office.</p> + +<p>(4) The sums payable by the Postmaster-General or Irish Post Office to the +other of them in pursuance of this Act shall, if not paid out of +Post-Office moneys, be paid from the Exchequer of the United Kingdom or of +Ireland, as the case requires, to the other Exchequer.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">26 & 27 Vict. c. 112.</div> + +<p>(5) Sections forty-eight to fifty-two of the Telegraph Act, 1863, and any +enactment amending the same, shall apply to all telegraphic lines of the +Irish Government in like manner as to the telegraphs of a company within +the meaning of that Act.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Transfer of savings banks</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span><b>21.</b>—(1) As from the <i>appointed day</i> there shall be transferred to the +Irish Government the post-office savings banks in Ireland, and all such +powers and duties of any department or officer in Great Britain as are +connected with post-office savings banks, trustee savings banks, or +friendly societies in Ireland, and the same may be regulated by Irish Act.</p> + +<p>(2) The Treasury shall publish not less than six months previous notice of +the transfer of savings banks.</p> + +<p>(3) If before the date of the transfer any depositor in a post-office +savings bank so requests, his deposit shall, according to his request, +either be paid to him or transferred to a post-office savings bank in +Great Britain, and after the said date the depositors in a post-office +savings bank in Ireland shall cease to have any claim against the +Postmaster-General or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but +shall have the like claim against the Government and Consolidated Fund of +Ireland.</p> + +<p>(4) If before the date of the transfer the trustees of any trustees +savings bank so request, then, according to the request, either all sums +due to them shall be repaid, and the savings bank closed, or those sums +shall be paid to the Irish Government, and after the said date the +trustees shall cease to have any claim against the National Debt +Commissioners or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but shall +have the like claim against the Government and Consolidated Fund of +Ireland.</p> + +<p>(5) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, if a sum due +on account of any annuity or policy of insurance which has before the +above-mentioned notice been granted through a post-office or trustee +savings bank, is not paid by the Irish Government, that sum shall be paid +out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Irish Appeals and Decision of Constitutional Questions.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Irish appeals.</div> + +<p><b>22.</b>—(1) The appeal from Courts in Ireland to the House of Lords shall +cease; and where any person would, but for this Act, have a right to +appeal from any Court in Ireland to the House of Lords, such person shall +have the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> like right to appeal to Her Majesty the Queen in Council; and +the right so to appeal shall not be affected by any Irish Act; and all +enactments relating to appeals to Her Majesty the Queen in Council, and to +the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, shall apply accordingly.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">39 & 40 Vict. c. 59</div> + +<p>(2) When the Judicial Committee sit for hearing appeals from a Court in +Ireland, there shall be present not less than four Lords of Appeal, within +the meaning of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, and at least one +member who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court in Ireland.</p> + +<p>(3) A rota of privy councillors to sit for hearing appeals from Courts in +Ireland shall be made annually by Her Majesty in Council, and the privy +councillors, or some of them, on that rota shall sit to hear the said +appeals. A casual vacancy in such rota during the year may be filled by +Order in Council.</p> + +<p>(4) Nothing in this Act shall affect the jurisdiction of the House of +Lords to determine the claims to Irish peerages.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Special provision for decision of constitutional questions.</div> + +<p><b>23.</b>—(1) If it appears to the Lord-Lieutenant or a Secretary of State +expedient in the public interest that steps shall be taken for the speedy +determination of the question whether any Irish Act, or any provision +thereof, is beyond the power of the Irish Legislature, he may represent +the same to Her Majesty in Council, and thereupon the said question shall +be forthwith referred to and heard and determined by the Judicial +Committee of the Privy Council, constituted as if hearing an appeal from a +Court in Ireland.</p> + +<p>(2) Upon the hearing of the question such persons as seem to the Judicial +Committee to be interested may be allowed to appear and be heard as +parties to the case, and the decision of the Judicial Committee shall be +given in like manner as if it were the decision of an appeal, the nature +of the report or recommendation to Her Majesty being stated in open Court.</p> + +<p>(3) Nothing in this Act shall prejudice any other power of Her Majesty in +Council to refer any question to the Judicial Committee, or the right of +any person to petition Her Majesty for such reference.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span><i>Lord-Lieutenant and Crown Lands.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Office of Lord-Lieutenant.</div> + +<p><b>24.</b>—(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any Act, every +subject of the Queen shall be qualified to hold the office of +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, without reference to his religious belief.</p> + +<p>(2) The term of office of the Lord-Lieutenant shall be <i>six years</i>, +without prejudice to the power of Her Majesty the Queen at any time to +revoke the appointment.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.</div> + +<p><b>25.</b> Her Majesty the Queen in Council may place under the control of the +Irish Government, for the purposes of that Government, such of the lands +and buildings in Ireland vested in or held in trust for Her Majesty, and +subject to such conditions or restrictions (if any) as may seem expedient.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Judges and Civil Servants.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Tenure of future judges.</div> + +<p><b>26.</b> A judge of the Supreme Court or other Superior Court in Ireland, or of +any County Court or other Court with a like jurisdiction in Ireland, +appointed after the passing of this Act, shall not be removed from his +office except in pursuance of an address from the two Houses of +Legislature of Ireland, nor during his continuance in office shall his +salary be diminished or right to pension altered without his consent.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">As to existing judges and other persons having salaries charged +on the Consolidated Fund.</div> + +<p><b>27.</b>—(1) All existing judges of the Supreme Court, County Court judges, +and Land Commissioners in Ireland, and all existing officers serving in +Ireland in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown and receiving salaries +charged on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, shall, if they are +removable at present on address from both Houses of Parliament, continue +to be removable only upon such address, and if removable in any other +manner shall continue to be removable only in the same manner as +heretofore; and shall continue to receive the same salaries, gratuities, +and pensions, and to be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore, +or such duties as Her Majesty may declare to be analogous, and their +salaries and pensions, if and so far as not paid out of the Irish +Consolidated Fund,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> shall be paid out of the Exchequer of the United +Kingdom: Provided that this section shall be subject to the provisions of +this Act with respect to the Exchequer judges.</p> + +<p>(2) If any of the said judges, commissioners, or officers retires from +office with the Queen’s approbation before completion of the period of +service entitling him to a pension, Her Majesty may, if she thinks fit, +grant to him such pension, not exceeding the pension to which he would on +that completion have been entitled, as to Her Majesty seems meet.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">As to persons holding Civil Service appointments.</div> + +<p><b>28.</b>—(1) All existing officers in the permanent Civil Service of the +Crown, who are not above provided for, and are at the appointed day +serving in Ireland, shall, after that day, continue to hold their offices +by the same tenure, and to receive the same salaries, gratuities, and +pensions, and to be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore, or +such duties as the Treasury may declare to be analogous; and the said +gratuities and pensions, and until three years after the passing of this +Act, the salaries due to any of the said officers if remaining in his +existing office, shall be paid to the payees by the Treasury out of the +Exchequer of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(2) Any such officer may, after <i>three years</i> from the passing of this +Act, retire from office, and shall, at any time during those three years, +if required by the Irish Government, retire from office, and on any such +retirement may be awarded by the Treasury a gratuity or pension in +accordance with the Fifth Schedule to this Act: Provided that—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) Six months’ written notice shall, unless it is otherwise agreed, +be given either by the said officer or by the Irish Government, as the +case requires; and</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) Such number of officers only shall retire at one time, and at +such intervals of time as the Treasury, in communication with the +Irish Government, sanction.</p></div> + +<p>(3) If any such officer does not so retire, the Treasury may award him, +after the said three years, a pension in accordance with the Fifth +Schedule to this Act, which shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> become payable to him on his ultimate +retirement from the service of the Crown.</p> + +<p>(4) The gratuities and pensions awarded in accordance with the Fifth +Schedule to this Act shall be paid by the Treasury to the payees out of +the Exchequer of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(5) All sums paid out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom in pursuance +of this section shall be repaid to that Exchequer from the Irish +Exchequer.</p> + +<p>(6) This section shall not apply to officers retained in the service of +the Government of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">As to existing pensions and superannuation allowances.</div> + +<p><b>29.</b> Any existing pension granted on account of service in Ireland as a +judge of the Supreme Court or of any Court consolidated into that Court, +or as a County Court judge, or in any other judicial position, or as an +officer in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown other than in an +office the holder of which is after the appointed day retained in the +service of the Government of the United Kingdom, shall be charged on the +Irish Consolidated Fund, and if and so far as not paid out of that fund, +shall be paid out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Police.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">As to police.</div> + +<p><b>30.</b>—(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 Sixth Schedule to +this Act, be gradually reduced and ultimately cease to exist as mentioned +in that Schedule; and after the passing of this Act, no officer or man +shall be appointed to either of these forces; Provided that until the +expiration of <i>six</i> 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.</p> + +<p>(2) The said two forces shall, while they continue, be subject to the +control of the Lord-Lieutenant as representing Her Majesty, and the +members thereof shall continue to receive the same salaries, gratuities, +and pensions, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> hold their appointments on the same tenure as +heretofore, and these salaries, gratuities, and pensions, and all the +expenditure incidental to either force, shall be paid out of the Exchequer +of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(3) When any existing member of either force retires under the provisions +of the Sixth Schedule to this Act, the Treasury may award to him a +gratuity or pension in accordance with that Schedule.</p> + +<p>(4) Those gratuities and pensions and all existing pensions payable in +respect of service in either force, shall be paid by the Treasury to the +payees out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>(5) Two-thirds of the net amount payable in pursuance of this section out +of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom shall be repaid to that Exchequer +from the Irish Exchequer.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Miscellaneous.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Irish Exchequer Consolidated Fund and Audit.</div> + +<p>31. Save as may be otherwise provided by Irish Act—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) The existing law relating to the Exchequer and Consolidated Fund +of the United Kingdom shall apply with the necessary modifications to +the Exchequer and Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and an officer shall +be appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant to be the Irish Comptroller and +Auditor-General; and</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">29 & 30 Vict. c. 39</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) The accounts of the Irish Consolidated Fund shall be audited as +appropriation accounts in manner provided by the Exchequer and Audit +Departments Act, 1866, by or under the direction of such officer.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Law applicable to both Houses of Irish Legislature.</div> + +<p><b>32.</b>—(1) Subject as in this Act mentioned and particularly to the Seventh +Schedule to this Act (which Schedule shall have full effect), all existing +election laws relating to the House of Commons and the members thereof +shall, so far as applicable, extend to each of the two Houses of the Irish +Legislature and the members thereof, but such election laws so far as +hereby extended may be altered by Irish Act.</p> + +<p>(2) The privileges, rights, and immunities to be held and enjoyed by each +House and the members thereof shall be such as may be defined by Irish +Act, but so that the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> shall never exceed those for the time being +held and enjoyed by the House of Commons, and the members thereof.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Supplemental provisions as to powers of Irish Legislature.</div> + +<p><b>33.</b>—(1) The Irish Legislature may repeal or alter any provision of this +Act which is by this Act expressly made alterable by that Legislature, and +also any enactments in force in Ireland, except such as either relate to +matters beyond the powers of the Irish Legislature, or being enacted by +Parliament after the passing of this Act, may be expressly extended to +Ireland. An Irish Act notwithstanding it is in any respect repugnant to +any enactment excepted as aforesaid, shall, though read subject to that +enactment, be, except to the extent of that repugnancy, valid.</p> + +<p>(2) An order, rule, or regulation, made in pursuance of, or having the +force of, an Act of Parliament, shall be deemed to be an enactment within +the meaning of this section.</p> + +<p>(3) Nothing in this Act shall affect Bills relating to the divorce or +marriage of individuals, and any such Bill shall be introduced and proceed +in Parliament in like manner as if this Act had not been passed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Limitation of borrowing by local authorities.</div> + +<p><b>34.</b> The local authority for any county or borough or other area shall not +borrow money without either—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) A special authority from the Irish Legislature, or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) The sanction of the proper department of the Irish Government;</p></div> + +<p>and shall not, without such special authority, borrow:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(i.) In the case of municipal borough or town or area less than a +county, any loan which together with the then outstanding debt of the +local authority, will exceed twice the annual rateable value of the +property, in the municipal borough, town, or area; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(ii.) In the case of a county or larger area, any loan which together +with the then outstanding debt of the local authority, will exceed +one-tenth of the annual rateable value of the property in the county +or area; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(iii.) In any case a loan exceeding one-half of the above limits +without a local inquiry held in the county, borough, or area by a +person appointed for the purpose by the said department.</p></div> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span><i>Transitory Provisions.</i></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Temporary restriction on powers of Irish Legislature and +Executive.</div> + +<p><b>35.</b>—(1) During <i>three</i> 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, +water-works, town improvements, or other local undertakings.</p> + +<p>(2) During <i>six</i> years from the passing of this Act, the appointment of a +judge of the Supreme Court or other Superior Courts in Ireland (other than +one of the Exchequer judges) shall be made in pursuance of a warrant from +Her Majesty countersigned as heretofore.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Transitory provisions.</div> + +<p><b>36.</b>—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act Her Majesty the Queen in +Council may make or direct such arrangements as seem necessary or proper +for setting in motion the Irish Legislature and Government and for +otherwise bringing this Act into operation.</p> + +<p>(2) The Irish Legislature shall be summoned to meet on the <i>first Tuesday +in September, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four</i>, and the first +election of members of the two Houses of the Irish Legislature shall be +held at such time before that day as may be fixed by Her Majesty in +Council.</p> + +<p>(3) Upon the first meeting of the Irish Legislature the members of the +House of Commons then sitting for Irish constituencies, including the +members for Dublin University, shall vacate their seats, and writs shall, +as soon as conveniently may be, be issued by the Lord Chancellor of +Ireland for the purpose of holding an election of members to serve in +Parliament for the constituencies named in the Second Schedule of this +Act.</p> + +<p>(4) The existing Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and the senior of the +existing puisne judges of the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court, or +if they or either of them are or is dead or unable or unwilling to act, +such other of the judges of the Supreme Court as Her Majesty may appoint, +shall be the first Exchequer judges.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>(5) Where it appears to Her Majesty the Queen in Council, before the +expiration of <i>one year</i> after the appointed day, that any existing +enactment respecting matters within the powers of the Irish Legislature +requires adaptation to Ireland, whether—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) By the substitution of the Lord-Lieutenant in Council, or of any +departments or office of the Executive Government in Ireland, for Her +Majesty in Council, a Secretary of State, the Treasury, the +Postmaster-General, the Board of Inland Revenue, or other public +department or offices in Great Britain; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) By the substitution of the Irish Consolidated Fund or moneys +provided by the Irish Legislature for the Consolidated Fund of the +United Kingdom, or moneys provided by Parliament, or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) By the substitution or confirmation by, or other act to be done +by or to, the Irish Legislature for confirmation by or other act to be +done by or to Parliament; or</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) By any other adaptation; Her Majesty, by Order in Council, may +make that adaptation.</p></div> + +<p>(6) Her Majesty the Queen in Council may provide for the transfer of such +property, rights, and liabilities, and the doing of such other things as +may appear to Her Majesty necessary or proper for carrying into effect +this Act or any Order in Council under this Act.</p> + +<p>(7) An Order in Council under this section may make an adaptation or +provide for a transfer either unconditionally or subject to such +exceptions, conditions, and restrictions as may seem expedient.</p> + +<p>(8) The draft of every Order in Council under this section shall be laid +before both Houses of Parliament for not less than two months before it is +made, and such order when made shall, subject as respects Ireland to the +provisions of an Irish Act, have full effect, but shall not interfere with +the continued application to any place, authority, person, or thing, not +in Ireland, of the enactment to which the Order relates.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Continuance of existing laws, courts, offices, etc.<br /><br /> +Appointed day.</div> + +<p><b>37.</b>—Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> existing laws, +institutions, authorities, and officers in Ireland, whether judicial, +administrative, or ministerial, and all existing taxes in Ireland shall +continue as if this Act had not passed, but with the modifications +necessary for adapting the same to this Act, and subject to be repealed, +abolished, altered, and adapted in the manner and to the extent authorised +by this Act.</p> + +<p><b>38.</b>—Subject as in this Act mentioned the appointed day for the purposes +of this Act shall be the day of the first meeting of the Irish +Legislature, or such other day not more than <i>seven</i> months earlier or +later as may be fixed by order of Her Majesty in Council either generally +or with reference to any particular provision of this Act, and different +days may be appointed for different purposes and different provisions of +this Act, whether contained in the same section or in different sections.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Definitions.</div> + +<p><b>39.</b>—In this Act unless the context otherwise requires—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The expression ‘existing’ means existing at the passing of this Act.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘constituency’ means a parliamentary constituency or a +county or borough returning a member or members to serve in either +House of the Irish Legislature, as the case requires, and the +expression ‘parliamentary constituency’ means any county, borough, or +university returning a member or members to serve in Parliament.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘parliamentary elector’ means a person entitled to be +registered as a voter at a parliamentary election.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘parliamentary election’ means the election of a member +to serve in Parliament.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘tax’ includes duties and fees, and the expression +‘duties of excise’ does not include licence duties.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘foreign mails’ means all postal packets, whether +letters, parcels, or other packets, posted in the United Kingdom and +sent to a place out of the United Kingdom, or posted in a place out of +the United Kingdom and sent to a place in the United Kingdom, or in +transit through the United Kingdom to a place out of the United +Kingdom.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">The expression ‘telegraphic line’ has the same meaning as in the +Telegraphs Acts, 1863 to 1892.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘duties on postage’ includes all rates and sums +chargeable for or in respect of postal packets, money orders, or +telegrams, or otherwise under the Post-office Acts or the Telegraph +Act, 1892.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘Irish Act’ means a law made by the Irish Legislature.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">26 & 27 Vict. c. 112. 41 & 42 Vict. c. 76. 55 & 56 Vict. c. 59. +7 Will. 4, and 1 Vict. c. 36. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 73. 48 & 49 Vict. c. 58.<br /><br /> +Short title.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The expression ‘election laws’ means the laws relating to the election +of members to serve in Parliament, other than those relating to the +qualification of electors, and includes all the laws respecting the +registration of electors, the issue and execution of writs, the +creation of polling districts, the taking of the poll, the questioning +of elections, corrupt and illegal practices, the disqualification of +members, and the vacating of seats.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘rateable value’ means the annual rateable value under +the Irish Valuation Acts.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘salary’ includes remuneration, allowances, and +emoluments.</p> + +<p class="hang">The expression ‘pension’ includes superannuation allowance.</p></div> + +<p><b>40.</b>—This Act may be cited as the Irish Government Act, 1893.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">SCHEDULES.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">First Schedule: Legislative Council—Constituencies and Number of Councillors.</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td class="btr" align="center">Constituencies.</td> + <td class="bt" align="center">Councillors.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="btr">Antrim County</td> + <td class="bt" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Armagh County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Belfast Borough</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Carlow County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Cavan County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Clare County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>Cork County—</td> + <td class="dent" align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">East Riding</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">West Riding</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Cork Borough</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Donegal County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Down County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Dublin County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1.25em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 1.25em;">Borough</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Fermanagh County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Galway County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Kerry County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Kildare County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Kilkenny County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">King’s County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Leitrim and Sligo Counties</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Limerick County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Londonderry County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Longford County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Louth County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Mayo County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Meath County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Monaghan County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Queen’s County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Roscommon County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Tipperary County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Tyrone County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Waterford County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Westmeath County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Wexford County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="bbr">Wicklow County</td> + <td class="bb" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="bbr"> </td> + <td class="bb" align="center">Forty-eight</td></tr></table> + +<p>The expression ‘borough’ in this schedule means an existing parliamentary +borough. Counties of cities and towns not named in this Schedule shall be +combined with the county at large in which they are included for +Parliamentary elections, and if not so included, then with the county at +large bearing the same name.</p> + +<p>A borough named in this Schedule shall not for the purposes of this +Schedule form part of any other constituency.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span><span class="smcap"> +Second Schedule: Irish Members in the House of Commons.</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td class="btr" align="center">Constituency.</td> + <td class="bt" align="center">Number of Members<br />for House<br />of Commons.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="btr">Antrim County</td> + <td class="bt" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Armagh County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Belfast Borough (in divisions as mentioned below)</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Four</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Carlow County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Cavan County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Clare County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Cork County (in divisions as mentioned below)</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Five</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Cork Borough</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Donegal County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Down County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Dublin County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1.25em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 1.25em;">Borough (in divisions as mentioned below)</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Four</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Fermanagh County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Galway County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1.25em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 1.65em;">Borough</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Kerry County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Kildare County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Kilkenny County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 1.8em;">Borough</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">King’s County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Leitrim County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Limerick County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 1.75em;">Borough</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Londonderry County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Borough</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Longford County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Louth County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Mayo County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Meath County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Monaghan County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Newry Borough</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Queen’s County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Roscommon County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Sligo County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Tipperary County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Tyrone County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Three</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Waterford County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Borough</span></td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Westmeath County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="br">Wexford County</td> + <td class="dent" align="center">Two</td></tr> +<tr><td class="bbr">Wicklow County</td> + <td class="bb" align="center">One</td></tr> +<tr><td class="bbr"> </td> + <td class="bb" align="center">Eighty</td></tr></table> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span>(1) In this Schedule the expression ‘borough’ means an existing +parliamentary borough.</p> + +<p>(2) In the parliamentary boroughs of Belfast and Dublin, one member shall +be returned by each of the existing parliamentary divisions of those +boroughs, and the law relating to the divisions of boroughs shall apply +accordingly.</p> + +<p>(3) The county of Cork shall be divided into two divisions, consisting of +the East Riding and the West Riding, and three members shall be elected by +the East Riding, and two members shall be elected by the West Riding; and +the law relating to divisions of counties shall apply to these divisions.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Third Schedule: Finance-Imperial Liabilities, Expenditure, and +Miscellaneous Revenue.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Liabilities.</i></p> + +<p>For the purposes of this Act, ‘Imperial liabilities’ consist of:—</p> + +<p class="hang">(1) The funded and unfunded debt of the United Kingdom, inclusive of +terminable annuities paid out of the permanent annual charge for the +National Debt, and inclusive of the cost of the management of the said +funded and unfunded debt, but exclusive of the Local Loans Stock and +Guaranteed Land Stock, and the cost of the management thereof; and</p> + +<p class="hang">(2) All other charges on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom for +the repayment of borrowed money, or to fulfil a guarantee.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Expenditure.</i></p> + +<p>For the purpose of this Act Imperial expenditure consists of expenditure +for the following services:—</p> + +<p>1. Naval and military expenditure (including Greenwich Hospital).</p> + +<p>2. Civil expenditure, that is to say—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) Civil list and Royal family.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) Salaries, pensions, allowances, and incidental expenses of—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">(i.) Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.</p> + +<p class="hang">(ii.) Exchequer judges in Ireland.</p></div> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) Buildings, works, salaries, pensions, printing, stationery, allowances, and incidental expenses of—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">(i.) Parliament;</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">(ii.) National Debt Commissioners;</p> + +<p class="hang">(iii.) Foreign Office and diplomatic and consular service, including +secret service, special services, and telegraph subsidies;</p> + +<p class="hang">(iv.) Colonial Office, including special services and telegraph subsidies;</p> + +<p class="hang">(v.) Privy Council;</p> + +<p class="hang">(vi.) Board of Trade, including the Mercantile Marine Fund, Patent +Office, Railway Commission, and Wreck Commission, but excluding Bankruptcy;</p> + +<p class="hang">(vii.) Mint;</p> + +<p class="hang">(viii.) Meteorological Society;</p> + +<p class="hang">(ix.) Slave trade service.</p></div> + +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) Foreign mails and telegraphic communication with places outside the +United Kingdom.</p></div> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Revenue.</i></p> + +<p>For the purposes of this Act the public revenue to a portion of which +Ireland may claim to be entitled consists of revenue from the following +sources:—</p> + +<p>1. Suez Canal shares or payments on account thereof.</p> + +<p>2. Loans and advances to foreign countries.</p> + +<p>3. Annual payments by British possessions.</p> + +<p>4. Fees, stamps, and extra receipts received by departments, the expenses +of which are part of the Imperial expenditure.</p> + +<p>5. Small branches of the hereditary revenues of the Crown.</p> + +<p>6. Foreshores.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span><span class="smcap">Fourth Schedule: Provisions as to Post Office.</span></p> + +<p>(1) The Postmaster-General shall pay to the Irish Post Office in respect +of any foreign mails sent through Ireland and the Irish Post Office shall +pay to the Postmaster-General in respect of any foreign mails sent through +Great Britain, such sum as may be agreed upon for the carriage of those +mails in Ireland or Great Britain, as the case may be.</p> + +<p>(2) The Irish Post Office shall pay to the Postmaster-General;</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(i.) One-half of the expense of the packet service and submarine +telegraph lines between Great Britain and Ireland after deducting from +that expense of the sum fixed by the Postmaster-General as incurred on +account of foreign mails or telegraphic communication with a place out +of the United Kingdom, as the case may be; and</p> + +<p class="hang">(ii.) Five per cent. of the expenses of the conveyance outside the +United Kingdom of foreign mails, and of the transmission of telegrams +to places outside the United Kingdom; and</p> + +<p class="hang">(iii.) Such proportion of the receipts for telegrams to places out of +the United Kingdom as is due in respect of the transmission outside +the United Kingdom of such telegrams.</p></div> + +<p>(3) The Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office respectively shall +pay to the other of them on account of foreign money orders, of +compensation in respect of postal packets, and of any matters not +specifically provided for in this Schedule, such sums as may be agreed +upon.</p> + +<p>(4) Of the existing debt incurred in respect of telegraphs, a sum of five +hundred and fifty thousand pounds, two and three quarters per cent. +Consolidated Stock shall be treated as debt of the Irish Post Office, and +for paying the dividends on and redeeming such stock there shall be paid +half-yearly by the Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom +an annuity of <i>eighteen</i> thousand pounds for <i>sixty</i> years, and such +annuity when paid into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> the Exchequer shall be forthwith paid to the +National Debt Commissioners and applied for the reduction of the National +Debt.</p> + +<p>(5) The Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office may agree on the +facilities to be afforded by the Irish Post Office in Ireland in relation +to any matters the administration of which by virtue of this Act remains +with the Postmaster-General, and with respect to the use of the Irish +telegraphic lines for through lines in connection with submarine +telegraphs, or with telegraphic communication with any place out of the +United Kingdom.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Fifth Schedule: Regulations as to Gratuities and Pensions for Civil +Servants.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Sixth Schedule</span>:</p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Part I.—Regulations as to Establishment of Police Forces and as to +the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police ceasing to exist.</span></p></div> + +<p>(1) Such local police forces shall be established under such local +authorities and for such counties, municipal boroughs, or other larger +areas, as may be provided by Irish Act.</p> + +<p>(2) Whenever the Executive Committee of the Privy Council in Ireland +certify to the Lord-Lieutenant that a police force, adequate for local +purposes, has been established in any area, then, subject to the +provisions of this Act, he shall within six months thereafter direct the +Royal Irish Constabulary to be withdrawn from the performance of regular +police duties in such area, and such order shall be forthwith carried into +effect.</p> + +<p>(3) Upon any such withdrawal the Lord-Lieutenant shall order measures to +be taken for a proportionate reduction of the numbers of the Royal Irish +Constabulary, and such order shall be duly executed.</p> + +<p>(4) Upon the Executive Committee of the Privy Council<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> in Ireland +certifying to the Lord-Lieutenant that adequate local police forces have +been established in every part of Ireland, then subject to the provisions +of this Act, the Lord-Lieutenant shall within six months after such +certificate, order measures to be taken for causing the whole of the Royal +Irish Constabulary to cease to exist as a police force, and such order +shall be duly executed.</p> + +<p>(5) Where the area in which a local police force is established is part of +the Dublin Metropolitan Police District, the foregoing regulations shall +apply to the Dublin Metropolitan Police in like manner as if that force +were the Royal Irish Constabulary.</p> + +<div class="note"><p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Part II.—Regulations as to Gratuities and Pensions for the Royal Irish +Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police.</span></p></div> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcap">Seventh Schedule: Regulations as to Houses of the Legislature and the Members thereof.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Legislative Council.</i></p> + +<p>(1) There shall be a separate register of electors of councillors of the +Legislative Council which shall be made, until otherwise provided by Irish +Act, in like manner as the Parliamentary register of electors.</p> + +<p>(2) Where, for the election of Councillors, any counties are combined so +as to form one constituency, then until otherwise provided by Irish Act,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) The returning officer for the whole constituency shall be that +one of the returning officers for Parliamentary elections for those +counties to whom the writ is addressed, and the writ shall be +addressed to the returning officer for the constituency with the +largest population, according to the census of 1891.</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) The returning officer shall have the same authority throughout +the whole constituency as a returning officer to a Parliamentary +election for a county has in the county.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span></p> +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) The registers of electors of each county shall jointly be the +register of electors for the constituency.</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) For the purposes of this Schedule ‘county’ includes a county of +a city or town, and this Schedule, and the law relating to the +qualification of electors, shall apply, as if the county of a city or +town formed part of the county at large with which it is combined, and +the qualification in the county of a city or town shall be the same as +in such county at large.</p></div> + +<p>(3) Writs shall be issued for the election of councillors at such time not +less than one or more than three months before the day for the periodical +retirement of councillors as the Lord-Lieutenant in Council may fix.</p> + +<p>(4) The day for the periodical retirement of councillors shall, until +otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the last day of August in every fourth +year.</p> + +<p>(5) For the purposes of such retirement, the constituencies shall be +divided into two equal divisions, and the constituencies in each province +shall be divided as nearly as may be equally between those divisions, and +constituencies returning two or more members shall be treated as two or +more constituencies, and placed in both divisions.</p> + +<p>(6) Subject as aforesaid, the particular constituencies which are to be in +each division shall be determined by lot.</p> + +<p>(7) The said division and lot shall be made and conducted before the +appointed day in manner directed by the Lord-Lieutenant in Council.</p> + +<p>(8) The first councillors elected for the constituencies in the first +division shall retire on the first day of retirement which occurs after +the first meeting of the Irish Legislature, and the first councillors for +the constituencies in the second division shall retire on the second day +of retirement after that meeting.</p> + +<p>(9) Any casual vacancy among the councillors shall be filled by a new +election, but the councillor filling the vacancy shall retire at the time +at which the vacating councillor would have retired.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span><i>Legislative Assembly.</i></p> + +<p>(10) The Parliamentary register of electors for the time being shall, +until otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the register of electors of the +Legislative Assembly.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Both Houses.</i></p> + +<p>(11) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the Lord-Lieutenant in Council +may make regulations for adapting the existing election laws to the +election of members of the two Houses of the Legislature.</p> + +<p>(12) Annual sessions of the Legislature shall be held.</p> + +<p>(13) Any peer, whether of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, +Scotland, or Ireland, shall be qualified to be a member of either House.</p> + +<p>(14) A member of either House may by writing under his hand resign his +seat, and the same shall thereupon be vacant.</p> + +<p>(15) The same person shall not be a member of both Houses.</p> + +<p>(16) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, if the same person is elected +to a seat in each House, he shall, before the eighth day after the next +sitting of either House, by written notice, elect in which House he will +serve, and upon such election his seat in the other House shall be vacant, +and if he does not so elect, his seat in both Houses shall be vacant.</p> + +<p>(17) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, any such notice electing in +which House a person will sit, or any notice of resignation, shall be +given in manner directed by the Standing Orders of the Houses, and if +there is no such direction, shall be given to the Lord-Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>(18) The powers of either House shall not be affected by any vacancy +therein, or any defect in the election or qualification of any member +thereof.</p> + +<p>(19) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the holders of such Irish +offices as may be named by Order of the Queen in Council before the +appointed day, shall be entitled to be elected to and sit in either House, +notwithstanding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> that they hold offices under the Crown, but on acceptance +of any such office the seat of any such person in either House shall be +vacated unless he has accepted the office in succession to some other of +the said offices.</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Transitory.</i></p> + +<p>(20) The Lord-Lieutenant in Council may, before the appointed day, make +regulations for the following purposes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">(<i>a</i>) The making of a register of electors of councillors in time for +the election of the first councillors, and with that object for the +variation of the days relating to registration in the existing +election laws, and for prescribing the duties of officers, and for +making such adaptations of those laws as appear necessary or proper +for duly making a register;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>b</i>) The summoning of the two Houses of the Legislature of Ireland, +the issue of writs and any other things appearing to be necessary or +proper for the election of members of the two Houses;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>c</i>) The election of a chairman (whether called Speaker, President, +or by any other name) of each House, the quorum of each House, the +communications between the two Houses, and such adaptation to the +proceedings of the two Houses of the procedure of Parliament, as +appears expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by those +Houses on their first meeting;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>d</i>) The adaptation to the two Houses and the members thereof of any +laws and customs relating to the House of Commons or the members +thereof;</p> + +<p class="hang">(<i>e</i>) The deliberation and voting together of the two Houses in cases +provided by this Act.</p></div> + +<p>(21) The regulations maybe altered by Irish Act, and also in so far as +they concern the procedure of either House alone, by Standing Orders of +that House, but shall, until altered, have effect as if enacted in this Act.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span></p> +<h2>NOTE I</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">From the ‘Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne’</span></p> +<p class="center">(Part ii. pp. 261-263).</p> + +<p>... Each new step Gladstone takes is, as it seems to me, more and more on +the side of <i>moral</i> as well as political evil. Much as I disapproved of +his surrender of last year to Parnell, I disapprove very much more of his +present endeavour to prevent the restoration in the present stage of the +Home Rule question, of the reign of law in Ireland, and of the <i>means</i> he +is attempting to use for <i>that</i> purpose. Deliberate and organised +obstruction in the House of Commons, and an attempt to overrule a majority +against him there, of more than one hundred, by violent appeals to popular +passions outside,—those appeals being supported by representing the cause +of anarchy and conspiring against law as the cause of liberty,—by denying +the existence of any case for strengthening the law, in the face of a +complete and manifest paralysis of law by the power of a seditious +organisation, into whose scale he has now thrown his whole influence,—and +by denouncing, in the most violent terms, the principle of measures for +the protection of the loyal, and for securing the due administration of +justice, which are the same (in their general character, for it is not +necessary here to go into questions of detail) with those by means of +which he himself governed Ireland for the last years of his power, and far +more consistent with all real ideas of liberty than the suspension of the +Habeas Corpus Act, which he introduced in 1881. It was quite open to him +(of course) to contend that, by the acceptance of his Home Rule scheme, +the necessity for any such measures might be prevented, and that he +prefers and insists upon that alternative,—so much as <i>that</i> was involved +in his measures of last year; but it is quite a different<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> thing to +denounce the principle of maintaining law and government, and defending +those who respect and obey law from the tyranny of conspirators against +it, and making the ordinary criminal law of the country a reality and not +a mere idle name,—‘as coercion,’ in the sense of an undue invasion of +liberty. To do this, and to appeal <i>ad populum</i> against it from an +overwhelming majority in Parliament is <i>Acheronta movere</i>, with a +vengeance.... For a man who, with his attainments, his experience, his +professions, his fifty years’ public service, his political education +under some of the greatest and best men of the time, has three times +filled the highest office in the State, and is now on the verge of the +grave, so to end his career, seems to me more shocking and disheartening +than anything else recorded in our history. It is only the old respect, +and old attachment, which makes one search about for the possible +explanations, in the workings of a very complex and intricate mind. If (as +I trust) the Government and the House of Commons stand firm, all his +efforts in the cause of anarchy will be in vain. The clause as to removing +trials to England may have to be given up; but the <i>permanence</i> of the +Bill (its best feature of all) must remain, if any good is to be done.</p> + +<p>... I will spare you a long yarn about politics this time. The G.O.M. +seems to be determined to pull the whole Irish house down, parliamentary +government and all, unless he can have his own way. But I have no fear +that he <i>will</i> have his way, just at present, whatever harm he may do in +the endeavour. But the struggle is very disagreeable, as well as sharp.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<h2>NOTE II</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Report of Special Commission</span> (Vol. iv. pp. 544, 545).</p> +<p class="center"><i>Conclusions of the Report of the Judges.</i></p> + +<p>We have now pursued our inquiry over a sufficiently extended period to +enable us to report upon the several charges and allegations which have +been made against the respondents, and we have indicated in the course of +this statement our findings upon these charges and allegations, but it +will be convenient to repeat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> <i>seriatim</i> the conclusions we have arrived +at upon the issues which have been raised for our consideration.</p> + +<p>I. We find that the respondent members of Parliament collectively were not +members of a conspiracy having for its object to establish the absolute +independence of Ireland, but we find that some of them, together with Mr. +Davitt, established and joined in the Land League organisation with the +intention by its means to bring about the absolute independence of Ireland +as a separate nation. The names of these respondents are set out on a +previous page.</p> + +<p>II. We find that the respondents did enter into a conspiracy by a system +of coercion and intimidation to promote an agrarian agitation against the +payment of agricultural rents, for the purpose of impoverishing and +expelling from the country the Irish landlords who were styled the +‘English Garrison.’</p> + +<p>III. We find that the charge that ‘when on certain occasions they thought +it politic to denounce, and did denounce, certain crimes in public they +afterwards led their supporters to believe such denunciations were not +sincere’ is not established. We entirely acquit Mr. Parnell and the other +respondents of the charge of insincerity in their denunciation of the +Phœnix Park murders, and find that the ‘facsimile’ letters on which +this charge was chiefly based as against Mr. Parnell is a forgery.</p> + +<p>IV. We find that the respondents did disseminate the <i>Irish World</i> and +other newspapers tending to incite to sedition and the commission of other +crime.</p> + +<p>V. We find that the respondents did not directly incite persons to the +commission of crime other than intimidation, but that they did incite to +intimidation, and that the consequence of that incitement was that crime +and outrage were committed by the persons incited. We find that it has not +been proved that the respondents made payments for the purpose of inciting +persons to commit crime.</p> + +<p>VI. We find as to the allegation that the respondents did nothing to +prevent crime and expressed no <i>bonâ fide</i> disapproval, that some of the +respondents, and in particular Mr. Davitt, did express <i>bonâ fide</i> +disapproval of crime and outrage, but that the respondents did not +denounce the system of intimidation which led to crime and outrage, but +persisted in it with knowledge of its effect.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span>VII. We find that the respondents did defend persons charged with agrarian +crime, and supported their families, but that it has not been proved that +they subscribed to testimonials for, or were intimately associated with, +notorious criminals, or that they made payments to procure the escape of +criminals from justice.</p> + +<p>VIII. We find, as to the allegation that the respondents made payments to +compensate persons who had been injured in the commission of crime, that +they did make such payments.</p> + +<p>IX. As to the allegation that the respondents invited the assistance and +co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money from known advocates +of crime and the use of dynamite, we find that the respondents did invite +the assistance and co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money +from Patrick Ford, a known advocate of crime and the use of dynamite, but +that it has not been proved that the respondents, or any of them, knew +that the Clan-na-Gael controlled the League or was collecting money for +the Parliamentary Fund. It has been proved that the respondents invited +and obtained the assistance and co-operation of the Physical Force Party +in America, including the Clan-na-Gael, and in order to obtain that +assistance, abstained from repudiating or condemning the action of that party.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span></p> +<h2>Index</h2> + +<p> +A<br /> +<br /> +Administration of the affairs of Ireland: its nature and defects, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br /> +<br /> +Agrarian crime in Ireland, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>. <i>See</i> Whiteboyism<br /> +<br /> +Agriculture, state of, in Ireland, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +B<br /> +<br /> +Balfour, Mr. Arthur: his successful policy when Chief Secretary for Ireland, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he establishes light railways in Ireland, and the Congested Districts Board, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Belfast, improvement in, within the last sixty years, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br /> +<br /> +Bewley, Mr. Justice, the head of the Second Land Commission: his theory of occupation right in the Irish land, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br /> +<br /> +Bureaucracy, the, of the Castle, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br /> +<br /> +Butt, Isaac: the true author of the conception of Home Rule, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his work on Irish Federalism, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +C<br /> +<br /> +Chicago, the Convention at, in 1886: speeches of two of Parnell’s envoys, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br /> +<br /> +Code, the Irish Penal: its effects on the Irish land, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>. <i>See</i> the Question of the Irish Land, Chap. III., in several places<br /> +<br /> +Commissions appointed for considering and administering Irish affairs: (1) the Devon Commission and its Report—the mistake it made as to Irish land tenure, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(2) the Childers Commission and its Report on Irish finance, <a href="#Page_288">288-291</a> (<i>see</i> chapter on the Present Question of Irish Finance, <i>passim</i>);</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(3) the Land Commission appointed to carry out the Land Act of 1881 and its supplements, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>. <i>See</i> Chaps. IV., V., VI., on the Question of the Irish Land, in many places</span><br /> +<br /> +Confiscations of the Irish Land, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>. <i>See</i> Chap. III., on the Question of the Irish Land, in several places<br /> +<br /> +Cork has not prospered within the last sixty years, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br /> +<br /> +Cromwell, Irish policy of, especially as to the land, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +D<br /> +<br /> +Davitt, Michael, inaugurates the Irish Land League, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +Derby, the Administration of Lord, brings in Irish Land Bills in 1852, which do not become law, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br /> +<br /> +Dublin, improvements in, within sixty years, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +E<br /> +<br /> +Emancipation, Catholic: its effects on Irish landed relations, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +<br /> +Encumbered Estates Act: an iniquitous measure of confiscation, and its results, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span><br /> +Exodus, the, of the Irish race after the Famine, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>. <i>See</i> Chap. III., the Question of the Irish Land, in several places<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +F<br /> +<br /> +Famine, the Great Irish, of 1845-47, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">and <i>see</i> Chap. III., on the Irish land, in several places</span><br /> +<br /> +Fenian outbreaks in Ireland, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the consequences, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the influence of Fenianism in Ireland after 1870, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Finance, the question of Irish: the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland a subject of long controversy, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">what they were before 1782, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and under Grattan’s Parliament, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">increase of the debt and the taxation of Ireland by the close of the eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the financial arrangements made at the Union, the work of Pitt, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his object was to ‘assimilate Great Britain and Ireland in finance,’ but this was impossible, and why, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the financial settlement effected at the Union—Ireland to pay a contribution, but not to be taxed beyond her means, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the seventh article of the Treaty of Union and its constitutional meaning, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the settlement denounced in the Irish Parliament, especially by Foster and Grattan, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protest of the twenty peers, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Union left Ireland financially a distinct country, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the settlement made at the Union reduced her to bankruptcy, and how, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the compromise of 1816, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the real objects of this measure, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">though theoretically to ‘be assimilated’ in finance, Ireland remained for many years financially a completely distinct country, and the reasons, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">this fully recognised by Peel in 1842, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he refused to extend the income tax to Ireland, and permanently to increase her spirit duties, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone in 1853 suddenly disregards this policy, and imposes the income tax on Ireland, and raises her spirit duties, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gross injustice of this increase of taxation, especially under the circumstances of Ireland, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ireland to a considerable extent ‘assimilated in finance’ to Great Britain, but not completely, even to the present day, a fact that should be kept in mind, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Committee of 1863-64 on Irish finance, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it fails to get Ireland justice, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Goschen appoints a Committee to investigate the subject, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">this followed by the Childers Commission, appointed by Mr. Gladstone in 1893, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scope of the inquiry, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the work of the Childers Commission, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it reports that Ireland has been overtaxed at the rate of between two and three millions a year, and that for a very considerable space of time, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">view of Sir R. Giffen that even this estimate falls short of the real truth, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">this overtaxation especially severe in the case of Ireland, a poor country, <a href="#Page_292">292-295</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the attempts that have been made to answer and refute the Report of the Childers Commission have been grotesque failures, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examination of these arguments and reply to them—they are either fallacious, or mischievous and dangerous, <a href="#Page_295">295-305</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">question of a counterclaim against Ireland in finance, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">financial redress which Ireland has a right to demand, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the question should be settled, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Foster, Mr., Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, opposes the financial arrangements of the Union, <a href="#Page_272">272</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +G<br /> +<br /> +Galway in decay, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Gladstone, Mr.: he ridicules Butt’s scheme of Home Rule, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fall of his Administration in 1885, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude at the General Election of that year, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he becomes a convert to Home Rule and the probable reasons, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the best members of the Liberal Party break away from him, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he introduces his first Home Rule Bill, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he dissolves Parliament after the rejection of that measure by the House of Commons, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he allies himself with the party of disorder in Ireland, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he negotiates with Parnell about Home Rule, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he returns to office in 1892 with a small majority, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he introduces his second Home Rule Bill in 1893, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his Irish policy in 1868, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he disestablishes and disendows the Protestant church in Ireland, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he makes no provision for the Irish Catholic clergy, a capital mistake, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he introduces the Land Act of 1870 for Ireland, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he declares against the Three F’s, and announces that this measure is to be final, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he becomes Minister for the second time in 1880, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he introduces the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he surrenders to the Land League and introduces the Land Act of 1881, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he makes the Kilmainham treaty with Parnell, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the fiscal wrong he does to Ireland in 1853-60, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he appoints the Childers Commission in 1893 to investigate the subject of Irish finance, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his scheme of Irish University Reform, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And <i>see</i> Chap. VIII., on Other Irish Questions</span><br /> +<br /> +Goschen, Mr., refers the question of the financial relations of Great Britain and Ireland to a Committee, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br /> +<br /> +Grattan: he denounces the financial settlement made at the Union for Ireland, <a href="#Page_279">279</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +H<br /> +<br /> +Henry VII.: his Irish policy, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Henry VIII.: his wise policy for Ireland unhappily prevented, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br /> +<br /> +Home Rule, the question of: Home Rule not dead, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the present attitude of the Liberal and the ‘Nationalist’ parties towards Home Rule, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it is a ‘Present Irish Question,’ <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Isaac Butt inaugurated this policy, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his plan of Home Rule, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Irish Home Rule party, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Butt’s proposals powerfully attacked in Parliament, notably by Mr. Gladstone, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Butt is gradually supplanted by Parnell, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Michael Davitt and the ‘New Departure,’ ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Parnell the head of the Land League, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone succumbs to it, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Home Rule condemned by statesmen of all parties in 1880-84, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone accepts Home Rule, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the first Home Rule Bill of 1886, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its characteristics and the objections to it, <a href="#Page_48">48-50</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">what its results would have been, <a href="#Page_51">51-54</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Bill is rejected in the House of Commons, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of the Fenians in America, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">causes that promoted the Home Rule policy in Great Britain, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">results of the General Election of 1892, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Home Rule Bill of 1893, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its characteristics and vices, <a href="#Page_62">62-64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it is a much more objectionable measure than that of 1886, and why, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strong opposition to it in the country, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the in-and-out plan given up, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Bill passes the House of Commons by a small majority through the expedient of ‘closure by compartments’ <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it is rejected in the House of Lords by an overwhelming majority, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Home Rule is scattered to the winds at the General Election of 1895, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it is not a prominent question at that of 1900, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the subject cannot be dismissed, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">different forms of Home Rule, <a href="#Page_71">71-73</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">separation a better policy than Home Rule, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Home Rule all round,’ <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conclusive objections to this scheme, <a href="#Page_74">74-77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Union must be maintained, and Home Rule rejected by the nation, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the rule of the Imperial Parliament has had some bad effects in Irish affairs, and why, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposal that the Imperial Parliament should occasionally sit in Dublin, and the advantages of this, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">royalty should sometimes visit Ireland, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">necessity, in order to guard against Home Rule, and for other reasons, to reduce the over-representation of Ireland in the House of Commons, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +I<br /> +<br /> +Ireland in 1901: a revolution has passed over Ireland, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">she has made some material progress, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dublin and Belfast, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">improvement in the habitations of the community and in Catholic places of worship, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">material progress of the community, <a href="#Page_3">3-5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the dark side of the picture, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decline of several towns in Ireland, of manufactures, of fishing industry, and of agriculture, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ireland a poor country, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">excessive emigration, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">great increase of local and general taxation, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the progress of Ireland as nothing compared to that of England and Scotland, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Irish land system at the beginning of the reign of Victoria, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sketch of it from that to the present time, <a href="#Page_11">11-17</a> (and <i>see</i> the Question of the Irish Land, Chap. III., in many places);</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ireland and her three peoples, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Catholic Ireland remains for the most part disaffected, despite the great reforms effected in its interest, <a href="#Page_19">19-21</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Catholic democracy of Ireland, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">failure of the policy of conciliation, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Presbyterian Ireland—its sentiments and demands, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Protestant Ireland—its position in the community, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discontent of the landed gentry, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">character of the Irish legislation of the Imperial Parliament, <a href="#Page_23">23-25</a>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">and of its administration of Irish affairs, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Anglican Church of Ireland, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Presbyterian Church, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Catholic Church, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the administration of justice in Ireland, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Irish literature and education, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>resumé</i> of the general condition of Ireland, <a href="#Page_33">33-35</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Irish policy of Lord Salisbury’s Government during the last six years, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ireland still ‘the vulnerable part near the heart of the Empire,’ <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +L<br /> +<br /> +Lalor, John Finton, a rebel of 1848: his teaching with respect to the Irish land, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br /> +<br /> +Land, the question of the Irish: importance of the subject, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Celtic tribal land system in Ireland, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the tribes, clans, and septs, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the partial feudalisation of the land system, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">collective ownership of which traces still exist, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Anglo-Norman Conquest of Ireland and the Colony of the Pale, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the land falls into the hands of great families, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">miserable state of Ireland at the close of the fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Henry VII. and Poynings, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sagacious policy of Henry VIII., especially as regards the land, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">this, unfortunately, was not carried out, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the era of conquest begins, and of the confiscation of the Irish land, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confiscation of the territories of the O’Connors of Offaly, of Shane O’Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rebellion of Tyrone, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">all Ireland made shireland, and the old Celtic land system is effaced by law, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">English modes of land tenure imposed on the people, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confiscation of the territories of Tyrone and of O’Donnell, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Plantation of Ulster, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">further confiscation in times of peace, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Strafford marks out Connaught for confiscation, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">beginning of Protestant ascendency in the land, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vast confiscations effected by Cromwell, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his scheme of a general colonisation of Ireland fails, <a href="#Page_93">93-95</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">results of the Cromwellian conquest in the land, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">policy of Charles II. as regards the land, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confiscations after the Boyne and the fall of Limerick, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">state of the Irish land system when the period of violent confiscation ends, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the era of Protestant ascendency and of Catholic subjection in Ireland, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Penal Code and its effects on the land, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mournful period in Irish history, <a href="#Page_100">100-102</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">gradual improvement in Irish landed relations, <a href="#Page_102">102-104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evil traces of the past: Whiteboyism, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">traditions of the ancient land system survive, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edmund Burke on Irish land tenures—he indicates a grave economic vice in the land system, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">progress of Ireland after 1782, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its effects on the land, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evil results of the Rebellion of 1798, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Union Speech of Lord Clare on Irish landed relations, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">revolution in the land system in the first years of the nineteenth century, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the important social and economic results, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">want of a poor-law, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the concurrent rights of tenants in the land not protected by the law, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">period of distress after the Peace of 1815, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evictions and clearances of estates, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agrarian disorder, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Catholic Emancipation, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its results as regards Irish landed relations, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peel and the Irish land, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Devon Commission and its Report, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its recommendations as to land tenure ill conceived and condemned in Ireland, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Famine of 1845-47, and its effects on the Irish land, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the exodus, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Encumbered Estates Act, and the effects of this scheme of confiscation, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agrarian agitation of 1852 in Ireland fails, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">false ideas of British statesmen as regards the land, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">partial prosperity in Ireland for some years, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">this largely deceptive, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">growth of Fenianism, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Fenian outbreak, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">change of opinion in England as regards Ireland, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">state of the Irish land system before the Land Act of 1870, <a href="#Page_132">132-138</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Land Act of 1870 and its provisions, <a href="#Page_141">141-143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">merits and defects of this measure, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">state of Irish landed relations after the Act, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of the Land League, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distress in Ireland, and the Land League, <a href="#Page_152">152-154</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Compensation for Disturbance Bill rejected by the House of Lords, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frightful state of Ireland and of landed relations in 1880-81, <a href="#Page_155">155-161</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Land Act of 1881, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the provisions of the measure, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Act is directly opposed to that of 1870, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the no-rent movement, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the National League replaces the Land League, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">state of Irish landed relations in 1886 and 1887, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Land Act of 1887, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Land Act of 1891, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the land purchase section in the Irish Land Act, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the principle of this system false and dangerous, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Land Purchase Act of 1891, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">recent legislation on the Irish land unjust and tending to confiscation, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The administration of the Irish Land Acts, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Act of 1870, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Act of 1881, and its supplements, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the first Land Commission—allowances to be made for it, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">principles it should have followed and course it should have pursued in fixing ‘fair rents,’ <a href="#Page_192">192-197</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Sub-Commission—nature of these tribunals, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how they ought to have fixed ‘fair rents,’ <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criticism of Mr. Lecky, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examples of injustice, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">faulty methods of fixing ‘fair rents,’ <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appeals to the Land Commission rendered almost nugatory, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the second Land Commission: Mr. Justice Bewley and his theory of occupation right, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">instance of a gross mistake, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Fry Commission—its Report a masked censure on the proceedings of the Land Commission, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Justice Meredith head of the present Land Commission, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conduct of the Government as regards the Report of the Fry Commission, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">results of the labours of the Land Commission and the Sub-Commission in fixing ‘fair rents,’ <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confiscation of the property of landlords, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">excuses made for this false, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">results of the system of land purchase so far, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mischievous and dangerous consequences of all this legislation on the Irish land;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a retrospect of it on the side of occupation, <a href="#Page_230">230-237</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">judgment of Mr. Lecky, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">retrospect of it on the side of ownership, especially with regard to the subject of ‘compulsive purchase,’ which the system of ‘voluntary purchase’ has necessarily made a grave question, <a href="#Page_238">238-256</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">judgment of Mr. Lecky, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Irish land system in a deplorable state, <a href="#Page_257">257-259</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plan of the author for the reform of this system approved by Mr. Gladstone and by Parnell, <a href="#Page_259">259-266</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the compensation of the Irish landlords must be accomplished if public faith is to be kept and common justice done, <a href="#Page_266">266-270</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Land League, the: Reign of Terror caused by, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its teaching and that of the National League, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ascendency of the Land League in ten or eleven Irish counties, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frightful state of Ireland due to it, <a href="#Page_158">158-162</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Law, Mr., the Irish Attorney-General of Mr. Gladstone in 1881: his definition of ‘fair rent,’ <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +<br /> +Limerick in decay, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Litton, Mr. E. F., a member of the first Land Commission, <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +<br /> +Local Government, sketch of, in Ireland, <a href="#Page_309">309-329</a>. <i>See</i> Chap. VIII., Other Irish Questions, in several places<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +M<br /> +<br /> +Macaulay, Lord: speech on the state of Ireland in 1844, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br /> +<br /> +Meredith, Mr. Justice, head of the present Land Commission: a capable lawyer, but bound by the precedents of his forerunners, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +N<br /> +<br /> +National League, the: it replaces the Land League, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its leaders set on foot ‘The Plan of Campaign,’ <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it was founded by Parnell, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its character, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agrarian side of the National League movement, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decline of the power of the National League in 1889, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it is at its lowest ebb in 1895, ibid.</span><br /> +<br /> +National system of education, <a href="#Page_332">332-336</a>. <i>See</i> Chap. VIII., on Other Present Irish Questions<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +O<br /> +<br /> +O’Connell: his evidence on the state of Ireland in 1825, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he wrings Catholic Emancipation from a reluctant Government, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">leader of the Repeal movement of 1843-44, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> +<br /> +O’Hagan, Mr. Justice, head of the first Land Commission, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br /> +<br /> +‘Other Present Irish Questions,’ Chap. VIII.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I. Local Government in Ireland, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the grand juries, their composition and functions, <a href="#Page_311">311-314</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the administration of the poor law and the Boards of Guardians, <a href="#Page_314">314-315</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the administration of cities and towns—its history, <a href="#Page_315">315-318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">character of, in recent times, <a href="#Page_318">318-320</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how the reform of 1898 was brought about, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sketch of the Local Government Act of 1898, <a href="#Page_321">321-326</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and of its working up to the present time, <a href="#Page_326">326-329</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">II. Education in Ireland, history of, <a href="#Page_330">330</a> <i>seqq.</i>:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">primary education, <a href="#Page_330">330-332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the National system founded by Mr. Stanley—its principles and history, <a href="#Page_332">332-336</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secondary education, diocesan schools, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Royal schools, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Erasmus Smith schools, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">other schools; the system has not been successful, and why, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">University education, Trinity College, its history and the character of the institution, <a href="#Page_338">338-341</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peel founds the Queen’s Colleges and University, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">character of these institutions, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Catholic University, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone’s scheme of Irish University reform, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">grave objections to it, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it is rejected by the House of Commons, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trinity College “opened,” ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Royal University, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">injustice of the present system of University education in Ireland, <a href="#Page_347">347-351</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two plans of reform suggested, the second to be preferred, <a href="#Page_351">351-360</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +P<br /> +<br /> +Palmerston, Lord: he condemns Irish tenant right, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<br /> +Parnell: supplants Butt, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">leader of the Land League, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he denounces the Conservative party in 1885, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he pretends to accept the Home Rule Bill of 1886, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the special commission and Parnell, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he negotiates with Mr. Gladstone on Home Rule, ibid.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his fall, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Peel: his remarks on the Constitution in Ireland, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he appoints the Devon Commission, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his policy during the famine, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he refuses in 1842 to extend the income tax to Ireland, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he founds the Queen’s Colleges and the Queen’s University in Ireland, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Pitt: the author of the financial arrangements made at the Union, <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br /> +<br /> +Primary education in Ireland, <a href="#Page_330">330-336</a>. <i>See</i> Chap. VIII., on Other Present Irish Questions<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Q<br /> +<br /> +Queen’s Colleges and Queen’s University: founded by Peel, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>. <i>See</i> Chap. VIII., on Other Present Irish Questions<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +R<br /> +<br /> +Rebellion of 1798: its effects on the Irish Land, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +S<br /> +<br /> +Salisbury, Lord: character of the Irish policy of his ministry, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br /> +<br /> +Stanley, Mr., founds the system of National Education in Ireland, <a href="#Page_332">332</a><br /> +<br /> +Strafford: his Irish policy, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +T<br /> +<br /> +Trinity College, <a href="#Page_338">338-341</a>. <i>See</i> Chap. VIII., on Present Irish Questions<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +U<br /> +<br /> +Ulster Custom, the, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a><br /> +<br /> +Union, The, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br /> +<br /> +United Irish League, the: fills the place of the Land and the National Leagues, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speeches and conduct of its leaders, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +V<br /> +<br /> +Vernon, Mr. I. E., one of the members of the first Land Commission, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +W<br /> +<br /> +Whiteboyism in Ireland, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Y<br /> +<br /> +Young, Arthur: his tour in Ireland, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Appendices</span><br /> +<br /> +I. The Irish Government Bill, 1886, <a href="#Page_361">361-387</a><br /> +<br /> +II. The Irish Government Bill, 1893, <a href="#Page_388">388-424</a><br /> +<br /> +III. Note I. From the ‘Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne,’ <a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a><br /> +<br /> +IV. Report of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545. Conclusion of the Report of the Judges, <a href="#Page_426">426-428</a><br /> +</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">THE END</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">LONDON:<br /> +<br /> +PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,<br /> +STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p> + +<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> It considerably exceeds 300,000 by the figures of the census of 1901.</p> + +<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td align="center">1841</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td align="center">1891</td></tr> +<tr><td>Houses of the first class</td><td> </td> + <td align="center"><span style="margin-left: .5em;">40,080</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center"><span style="margin-left: .5em;">70,740</span></td></tr> +<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 3em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">second class</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">264,184</td><td> </td> + <td align="center">466,632</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 3em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">third class</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">533,297</td><td> </td> + <td align="center">312,589</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 3em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">fourth class</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">491,278</td><td> </td> + <td align="center"><span style="margin-left: .5em;">20,617</span></td></tr></table> + +<p>These figures are taken from that most valuable publication, ‘Thom’s Irish +Directory for 1901,’ p. 631. It contains the statistics of Ireland +carefully compiled from official sources.</p> + +<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> There has been a small decrease since 1895.</p> + +<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a> Evidence taken before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, +1824-25, vol. i. p. 49. The whole of O’Connell’s evidence should be +studied.</p> + +<p><a name='f_5' id='f_5' href='#fna_5'>[5]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td align="center">1894</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td align="center">1900</td></tr> +<tr><td>Funded Debt held in Ireland</td><td> </td> + <td align="center">£22,917,530</td><td> </td> + <td align="center">£18,303,627</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style="margin-left: -1em;">Government Funds and other securities:</span><br /> +India Stock, Land Stock, War<br />Stock, Joint Stock Banks,<br />Trustee Savings Banks, and<br />Post Office Savings Banks</td><td> </td> + <td align="center" valign="bottom">£67,432,000</td><td> </td> + <td align="center" valign="bottom">£77,494,000</td></tr></table> + +<p>‘Thom’s Directory, 1901,’ p. 718.</p> + +<p><a name='f_6' id='f_6' href='#fna_6'>[6]</a> See the remarkable evidence of Mr. Booth, a high authority, taken by +the Childers Commission, ‘Minutes of Evidence,’ vol. ii. pp. 212, 213. +This should all be studied.</p> + +<p><a name='f_7' id='f_7' href='#fna_7'>[7]</a> ‘Thom’s Directory, 1901,’ p. 699.</p> + +<p><a name='f_8' id='f_8' href='#fna_8'>[8]</a> Report of Childers Commission, p. 43—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td align="center">1851-55</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td align="center">1889-93</td></tr> +<tr><td>Crops</td><td> </td> + <td align="center">£58,537,000</td><td> </td> + <td align="center">£34,643,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>Stock</td><td> </td> + <td align="center">£39,348,000</td><td> </td> + <td align="center">£53,312,000</td></tr></table> + +<p><a name='f_9' id='f_9' href='#fna_9'>[9]</a> ‘Thom’s Directory, 1901,’ p. 684.</p> + +<p><a name='f_10' id='f_10' href='#fna_10'>[10]</a> ‘Thom’s Directory, 1901,’ p. 629.</p> + +<p><a name='f_11' id='f_11' href='#fna_11'>[11]</a> See the striking observations of Mr. Childers, well worth serious +attention: ‘Report of the Childers Commission,’ pp. 186, 187.</p> + +<p><a name='f_12' id='f_12' href='#fna_12'>[12]</a> ‘Thom’s Directory, 1901,’ p. 662. Number of paupers relieved in 1890, +454,178; in 1898, 525,104. Charge in 1890, £856,008; in 1898, £981,333. +These are the latest returns.</p> + +<p><a name='f_13' id='f_13' href='#fna_13'>[13]</a> ‘Thom’s Directory, 1901,’ p. 674. Assessment of lands, in 1890, under +Schedule A, £12,736,967; in 1899, £11,664,453. Funded property at the same +periods, £803,300 and £615,630. These, too, are the latest returns.</p> + +<p><a name='f_14' id='f_14' href='#fna_14'>[14]</a> ‘Report of the Childers Commission,’ p. 72. I cite also the following +from the Report, p. 43: ‘The income-tax figures are, perhaps, the best and +most complete test of the comparative growth of the wealth of the two +countries. Taking the two years, 1854 and 1892, we find that the net +assessment for Great Britain was, in 1854, £245,389,931; and in 1892, +£570,971,740. The net assessment for Ireland was, in 1854, £21,334,448; +and in 1892, £26,851,585. In these thirty-eight years the net assessment +for Great Britain is more than two and a third times as great as it was in +1854, whilst that for Ireland has only increased by one quarter. Put in +percentage form, the figures are still more striking: In 1854 Great +Britain was assessed at 92 per cent. of the whole; Ireland 8 per cent. In +1892 Great Britain was assessed at 95.50 per cent, of the whole; Ireland +4.50 per cent. In other words, Ireland’s assessment was to that of Great +Britain as 1 to 11 in 1854, and as 1 to 21 in 1892.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_15' id='f_15' href='#fna_15'>[15]</a> See on this subject the true and indignant remarks of Mr. Lecky, +‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. i. pp. 27, 28.</p> + +<p><a name='f_16' id='f_16' href='#fna_16'>[16]</a> The tone of disaffected opinion in Ireland can only be thoroughly +understood by a careful study of the conduct and the language of +‘Nationalist’ leaders. I select a few specimens out of hundreds of +instances. Mr. William O’Brien, the Corypheus of the United Irish League, +spake thus at Letterkenny in January, 1900: ‘If ten thousand Frenchmen, or +Russians, or Germans were to land in Bantry Bay, with a supply of arms for +the people, they would walk over the country and drive the English +garrison into the sea.’ The same worthy exclaimed at a monster meeting in +Dublin in September, ‘English rule in Ireland was so bad that they would +be justified in chasing the English out of Ireland bag and baggage. What +was wanting to them, unfortunately, were the guns and artillery to do it.’ +Mr. Michael Davitt, of Land League renown, speaking in the Queen’s County +about the same time, said, ‘England is unquestionably the greatest empire +of liars (loud cheers and laughter), of hypocrites, and of poltroons, +judged by its achievements in South Africa, that has ever postured before +mankind with a civilising mission.’ Because the Corporation of Dublin +voted, by a small majority, an address to Queen Victoria when she paid her +last visit to Ireland, Mr. John Redmond, the chairman of the ‘Irish +Parliamentary Party,’ said, in January, 1901, ‘It rests with the people +themselves to say whether they will redeem the reputation of Dublin from +the stain that has been cast on it.’ So Mr. John Dillon, M.P., spoke in +the same sense, a few months ago, ‘The voice of the capital will be the +voice of the rest of Ireland (applause), that we will not tolerate in this +old city that new type of politics which thinks it consistent with Irish +nationality to cringe and crouch before a foreign queen.’ At least two +County Councils in Ireland, and more than one Local Board, refused to vote +an expression of condolence when the Queen died. It is painful to contrast +these sentiments with the loyalty of O’Connell when the Queen ascended the +throne.</p> + +<p><a name='f_17' id='f_17' href='#fna_17'>[17]</a> Since the above lines were written, there has been a serious outbreak +of agrarian crime in Ireland in the form of incendiary fires, which may be +distinctly traced to the operations of the United Irish League.</p> + +<p><a name='f_18' id='f_18' href='#fna_18'>[18]</a> Speech in the House of Commons, February 19, 1844.</p> + +<p><a name='f_19' id='f_19' href='#fna_19'>[19]</a> The figures were 1,238,342 against 1,316,327: Dicey, ‘England’s Case +against Home Rule,’ p. 35.</p> + +<p><a name='f_20' id='f_20' href='#fna_20'>[20]</a> Butt maintained, in his place in Parliament (Hansard, March 20, 1874), +that this was the true import of his project.</p> + +<p><a name='f_21' id='f_21' href='#fna_21'>[21]</a> Speech on receiving the freedom of Aberdeen, September 26, 1871.</p> + +<p><a name='f_22' id='f_22' href='#fna_22'>[22]</a> See Mr. Gladstone’s ‘History of an Idea,’ an apology for his attitude +towards Home Rule at this time, which seems to me to be his condemnation.</p> + +<p><a name='f_23' id='f_23' href='#fna_23'>[23]</a> For an admirable analysis of the Bill, see Dicey’s ‘England’s Case +against Home Rule,’ pp. 223-273. The text of the Bill will be found in the +Appendix to this volume.</p> + +<p><a name='f_24' id='f_24' href='#fna_24'>[24]</a> For a full statement of Mr. Gladstone’s ‘conditions,’ see his speech +in the House of Commons, April 8, 1886.</p> + +<p><a name='f_25' id='f_25' href='#fna_25'>[25]</a> ‘Reflections on the Revolution in France,’ vol. i. p. 384, ed. 1834.</p> + +<p><a name='f_26' id='f_26' href='#fna_26'>[26]</a> Report of the Special Commission, vol. iv. p. 542.</p> + +<p><a name='f_27' id='f_27' href='#fna_27'>[27]</a> ‘The Queen’s Enemies in America,’ p. 24.</p> + +<p><a name='f_28' id='f_28' href='#fna_28'>[28]</a> For a scathing condemnation of Mr. Gladstone’s public conduct in +these years, see several great speeches of Lord Hartington and Mr. +Goschen. See also ‘The Memoirs of Lord Selborne,’ Part II. vol. ii. pp. +261, <i>et seq.</i>, and note in Appendix to this volume. See, too, Dicey’s +‘Leap in the Dark,’ p. 190. Lord Selborne’s sketch of Mr. Gladstone’s +character as a statesman, ‘Memoirs,’ Part II. vol. ii. pp. 339-359, +deserves careful study. Mr. Lecky’s admirable account, ‘Democracy and +Liberty,’ introduction to vol. i., second edition, is well known.</p> + +<p><a name='f_29' id='f_29' href='#fna_29'>[29]</a> Report of the Judges, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545. See the note at the end +of this volume in the Appendix.</p> + +<p><a name='f_30' id='f_30' href='#fna_30'>[30]</a> For a very able analysis of and commentary on the Bill of 1893, see +Professor Dicey’s ‘Leap in the Dark.’ For the text of the Bill, see the +Appendix to this volume.</p> + +<p><a name='f_31' id='f_31' href='#fna_31'>[31]</a> Dicey’s ‘Leap in the Dark,’ p. 57.</p> + +<p><a name='f_32' id='f_32' href='#fna_32'>[32]</a> ‘England’s Case against Home Rule,’ p. 168.</p> + +<p><a name='f_33' id='f_33' href='#fna_33'>[33]</a> The German Empire, in which Prussia is the leading State, may seem an +example to the contrary; but the German Empire is hardly a Federation +properly so called; it is a great military monarchy ruling subject +kingdoms.</p> + +<p><a name='f_34' id='f_34' href='#fna_34'>[34]</a> I feel obliged to refer to these authorities; not in order to stir up +resentment against England in Ireland, but to point out a most important, +if unfortunate, fact in the relations between the two countries. Swift, in +his ‘View of the State of Ireland,’ Works, vol. ii. 8vo ed. 1890, says, +‘We are in the condition of patients, who have physic sent them by doctors +at a distance, strangers to their constitution and the nature of the +disease.’ Burke, ‘Correspondence,’ vol. iii. p. 438, has remarked, ‘I have +never known any of the successive Governments of my time influenced by any +other feeling relative to Ireland than the wish that they should hear of +it and of its concerns as little as possible.’ So Grattan, cited by Mr. +Lecky, vol. vii. p. 108, exclaimed, ‘It is a matter of melancholy +reflection to consider how little the Cabinet knows of anything relating +to Ireland. Ireland is a subject it considers with a lazy contumely, and +picks up here and there, by accident or design, interested and erroneous +intelligence.’ I quote this passage from one of the speeches of Lord +Clare: ‘The people of England know less of this country than of any other +nation in Europe;’ and this passage from one of the speeches of O’Connell: +‘We are governed by foreigners; foreigners make our laws.... As to +Ireland, the Imperial Parliament has the additional disadvantage springing +from want of interest and total ignorance. I do not exaggerate; the +ministers are in total ignorance of this country.’ This want of knowledge +of Ireland, too often associated with indifference, has, I repeat, been +distinctly made manifest of late years.</p> + +<p><a name='f_35' id='f_35' href='#fna_35'>[35]</a> These figures are taken from the Irish census of 1891. By the census +of 1901, the population of Antrim and Down has increased, and that of +every other county in Ireland, except Dublin, has declined. The +over-representation of Ireland has thus become more than ever an unjust +anomaly.</p> + +<p><a name='f_36' id='f_36' href='#fna_36'>[36]</a> For an admirable account of the ancient land system of Celtic +Ireland, see Maine’s ‘Early History of Institutions.’ I may be allowed to +refer to an article on this work, from my pen, in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> +of July, 1875, and to the first chapter of my ‘History of Ireland,’ in the +Cambridge ‘Historical Series.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_37' id='f_37' href='#fna_37'>[37]</a> In the case of this, as of all the chapters, a list of the principal +authorities and sources of information will be found in the preface to +this book. For the conquest and confiscations of the Irish land, from the +Norman Conquest to the end of the reign of William III., see ‘The Statute +of Kilkenny,’ edited by James Hardiman; ‘The Discoverie of Sir John +Davies;’ ‘The Carew Papers,’ edited by J. S. Brewer and William Bullen; +Spenser’s ‘View of the State of Ireland;’ Holingshead’s ‘Chronicles of +Ireland;’ Carte’s ‘Life of Ormond;’ Lord Clanricarde’s ‘Memoirs;’ Sir +William Petty’s ‘Political Anatomy of Ireland;’ ‘Macariæ Excidium;’ and +King’s ‘State of the Protestants of Ireland.’ As regards modern +authorities, numerous, and some very valuable, the reader may be referred +to Froude’s ‘History of England,’ vol. ii. ch. viii.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.; +vol. viii. chs. vii., xi.; vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii.; to Mr. +Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. ch. vi.; +and to the Irish chapters in Mr. Gardiner’s ‘History of England,’ from the +Accession of James I. to the outbreak of the Civil War; to his ‘History of +the Great Civil War,’ vol. i. chs. vi., xi.; vol. ii. chs. xxvii., +xxxvii., xliv.; and to the Irish chapters of his ‘History of the +Commonwealth and Protectorate.’ Other modern works on the subject are +Sigerson’s ‘History of Land Tenure in Ireland;’ ‘An Historical Account of +the Plantation of Ulster,’ by the Rev. George Hill; ‘The Cromwellian +Settlement of Ireland,’ by John P. Prendergast; and the ‘Life of Sir +William Petty,’ by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice. See a review by me of this +last work in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> of July, 1895; and also chs. iii., +iv., and v. of my ‘History of Ireland, 1494-1868,’ referred to before. +There are innumerable minor authorities; and Hallam’s ‘Chapter on +Ireland,’ vol. iii., may be studied.</p> + +<p><a name='f_38' id='f_38' href='#fna_38'>[38]</a> ‘Letter to Sir Hercules Langriche:’ ‘Works,’ vol. i. p. 560, ed. +1834.</p> + +<p><a name='f_39' id='f_39' href='#fna_39'>[39]</a> For an account of the penal laws of Ireland, see Vincent Scully on +‘The Irish Penal Laws;’ Howard’s ‘Popery Laws;’ and Burke’s ‘Tracts on the +Popery Laws,’ a short but masterly work.</p> + +<p><a name='f_40' id='f_40' href='#fna_40'>[40]</a> For the state of Ireland and of the Irish land at this period, see +the Irish Statute Book from 1700 to about 1750, and especially the +writings of Swift and Berkeley on Irish affairs. Swift, however, is not +just to the Irish landed gentry, many as were their faults. See also the +‘Letters’ of Archbishop Boulter, the virtual ruler of Ireland during a +series of years, and of Archbishop Synge. Reference, too, may be made to +Molyneux’s ‘Case of Ireland,’ and to Hutchinson’s and Caldwell’s +‘Restraints on the Trade of Ireland.’ For modern authorities, consult +Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. ch. vii.; +vol. iv. chs. xvi., xvii. Froude’s ‘English in Ireland’ is very inaccurate +and one-sided for this period; but his fine romance, the ‘Two Chiefs of +Dunboy,’ contains a brilliant, and, in the main, a true account of the +state of Irish social life in those days.</p> + +<p><a name='f_41' id='f_41' href='#fna_41'>[41]</a> By far the best account of the state of Ireland, at this period, is +to be found in the celebrated ‘Tour’ of Arthur Young, who wrote in +1776-78. See also Mr. Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth +Century,’ vol. vi. chs. xxiv., xxv.; vol. vii. ch. xxvii. The ‘Irlande, +Sociale, Politique, et Religieuse’ of Gustave de Beaumont may also be +consulted; but though a very able work, it is that of a democratic +doctrinaire. For the Whiteboy movements, see the Irish Statute Book, and +Sir George Lewis on ‘Irish Disturbances.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_42' id='f_42' href='#fna_42'>[42]</a> See Burke’s ‘Tracts on the Popery Laws,’ vol. ii. pp. 445, 446. +Arthur Young, too, often dwells on this subject.</p> + +<p><a name='f_43' id='f_43' href='#fna_43'>[43]</a> For an account of this period nothing can be compared to Mr. Lecky’s +‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vols. vii., viii. These +contain all the information that can be obtained, collected from every +available source. I may refer to my ‘Ireland, 1798-1898,’ chs. i., ii.</p> + +<p><a name='f_44' id='f_44' href='#fna_44'>[44]</a> There is no complete history of Ireland from the Union to the present +time, though the materials for such a work are abundant. I may refer to my +‘Ireland, 1798-1898,’ from the second chapter to the end. An excellent and +elaborate description of Ireland from 1800 to 1812 will be found in the +volumes of Edward Wakefield.</p> + +<p><a name='f_45' id='f_45' href='#fna_45'>[45]</a> The best account of this period—the forerunner of one even more +calamitous—will be found in the proceedings of a Parliamentary Committee +on the state of Ireland in 1824-25, and in the mass of evidence collected +by it. The evidence of O’Connell is full of interest.</p> + +<p><a name='f_46' id='f_46' href='#fna_46'>[46]</a> I perfectly recollect, though quite a boy, this strong and widespread +expression of sentiment.</p> + +<p><a name='f_47' id='f_47' href='#fna_47'>[47]</a> Mitchel’s ‘History of Ireland,’ vol. ii. p. 213. Mitchel was a rebel, +but an honourable man, superior to the falsehoods disseminated by later +agitators against Irish landlords.</p> + +<p><a name='f_48' id='f_48' href='#fna_48'>[48]</a> Every one acquainted with the history of Irish titles, from about +1790 to 1820, knows that this was the case.</p> + +<p><a name='f_49' id='f_49' href='#fna_49'>[49]</a> ‘Clarendon,’ wrote Greville, ‘told me he expected the Encumbered +Estates Act would prove the regeneration of Ireland.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_50' id='f_50' href='#fna_50'>[50]</a> That great lawyer, Lord St. Leonards, protested. He had been Lord +Chancellor of Ireland.</p> + +<p><a name='f_51' id='f_51' href='#fna_51'>[51]</a> For the state of Ireland during the Famine and the years that +followed, see ‘The Irish Crisis,’ by Sir Charles Trevelyan, reprinted from +the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>; and the ‘Letters’ of Mr. Campbell Foster, the +Commissioner of the <i>Times</i>. Valuable information will also be found in +the Greville ‘Memoirs,’ vols. v., vi. I may refer to my ‘Ireland, +1798-1898,’ chs. v. and part of vi.</p> + +<p><a name='f_52' id='f_52' href='#fna_52'>[52]</a> For an account of these machinations of party, see Greville, +‘Memoirs,’ vol. vii. p. 33.</p> + +<p><a name='f_53' id='f_53' href='#fna_53'>[53]</a> I heard several of these most injudicious and ill-informed +expressions of a false opinion.</p> + +<p><a name='f_54' id='f_54' href='#fna_54'>[54]</a> For the state of Ireland from the end of the Famine to 1868, +reference may be made to ‘Two Centuries of Irish History,’ edited by Mr. +Bryce; to the Greville ‘Memoirs,’ vols. vii. and viii.; to Greville’s +‘Policy of England towards Ireland;’ to the ‘Recollections and Suggestions +of Earl Russell;’ to parts of the ‘Life of Lord Palmerston;’ to ‘Journals, +Conversations, and Essays relating to Ireland,’ by Nassau Senior; to the +‘Young Ireland,’ the ‘Four Years of Irish History,’ and ‘The League of the +North and South,’ by Sir C. G. Duffy; to the ‘New Ireland’ of Mr. A. M. +Sullivan; and to the ‘Parnell Movement’ of Mr. T. P. O’Connor. Valuable +information as to this period will also be found in Mr. Barry O’Brien’s +works, ‘Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland’ and ‘Irish Wrongs and +English Remedies;’ and there are many other authorities. This period is +dealt with in my ‘Ireland, 1798-1898.’ ch. vi.</p> + +<p><a name='f_55' id='f_55' href='#fna_55'>[55]</a> From the mass of literature on this subject reference may especially +be made to ‘The Irish Land,’ by the late Sir George Campbell; Judge +Longfield’s essay in ‘Systems of Land Tenure;’ the ‘Irish Land and the +Irish People,’ by Butt; and the ‘Ireland, Industrial, Political, and +Social,’ of the late Mr. J. N. Murphy. As Special Commissioner of the +<i>Times</i>, I went into the Irish land question at length on the spot; and it +would be affectation to deny that my letters, since republished, +powerfully contributed to the legislation which ere long followed. See, +for further information, ‘The Irish Land Question’ of John Stuart Mill; +‘Emigration and the Tenure of Irish Land,’ by Lord Dufferin; ‘The New +Ireland’ of the late Mr. A. M. Sullivan; parts of Mr. Barry O’Brien’s +‘Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland’; ‘Ireland in 1868,’ by the late Mr. +G. Fitzgibbon, a Master of the Court of Chancery in Ireland; and Mr. +Lecky’s ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. i. ch. ii.</p> + +<p><a name='f_56' id='f_56' href='#fna_56'>[56]</a> This fact has been established by conclusive and impartial evidence, +which hardly admits of question. It should be steadily kept in the +reader’s mind; for an idea, largely countenanced by iniquitous legislation +badly administered, has prevailed of late years, that rack-renting in +Ireland was common, nay, general. Exactly the contrary has been the case +during the last half century. Butt, in his ‘The Irish People and the Irish +Land,’ published in 1867, hardly alludes to over-renting; he properly +dwells on the insecurity of Irish land tenure. Master Fitzgibbon, a great +authority on the subject, in his ‘Ireland in 1868,’ p. 268, pointedly +remarked, ‘452 estates are under my jurisdiction, in the Court of +Chancery, the rents of which amount to £330,809, paid by 18,287 tenants. I +have been now nearly eight years in office, during which time the rents +have been paid without murmuring or complaint worth noticing.... It is +well known that my ears are open to any just complaint from any tenant.’ +The testimony of Judge Longfield, another great authority, is nearly to +the same effect. In ‘Systems of Land Tenure,’ published in 1870, he wrote +thus (p. 21): ‘This complaint of high rents has been made without ceasing +for more than three hundred years. There was never less ground for it than +at the present day, although in some instances the rent demanded is still +too high; but this chiefly occurs where the landlords are middlemen, or +where the property is very small.’ These views are fully confirmed by +evidence of a later period, to which I shall refer. I may add that, in +1869, I examined the rentals of many scores of Irish estates, and was +convinced that over-renting was very rare. See my ‘Letters on the Land +Question of Ireland,’ republished from the <i>Times</i>, <i>passim</i>. I quote a +single instance, from many to the same purpose (p. 221): ‘It may be +asserted, too, without fear of contradiction, that if in some districts +rents are too high, they are not so as a general rule.’ I have managed an +Irish estate for upwards of fifty years, and have some claim to be an +agricultural expert.</p> + +<p><a name='f_57' id='f_57' href='#fna_57'>[57]</a> For the characteristics of the Ulster tenant right, see Butt’s +‘Landlord and Tenant Act, 1870,’ ch. xv. pp. 296-310. As to the legal +authorities on the subject, reference may be made to the learned treatise +of Messrs. Cherry and Wakley, ‘The Irish Land Law and Land Purchase Acts,’ +pp. 150-152. A popular account of the Ulster custom will be found in my +‘Letters on the Land Question of Ireland,’ pp. 242-247, and a more +technical account in a legal treatise from my pen on the Land Act of 1870, +pp. 30-56. The best definition I have seen of the right is one made by the +late P. J. Blake, Q.C., C.C.J. of a northern county, ‘Cherry and Wakley,’ +p. 150: ‘The right or custom in general of yearly tenants, or those +deriving through them, to continue in undisturbed possession so long as +they act properly as tenants and pay their rents. The correlative right of +the landlord periodically to raise the rent, so as to give him a just, +fair, and full participation in the increased value of the land, but not +so as to extinguish the tenant’s interest by paying a rack rent. The usage +or custom of the yearly tenants to sell their interest, if they do not +wish to continue in possession, or if they become unable to pay the rent. +The correlative right of the landlord to be consulted, and to exercise a +potential voice in the approval or disapproval of the proposed assignee.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_58' id='f_58' href='#fna_58'>[58]</a> I quote a few passages from the speeches of Mr. Gladstone, and +others, on this subject. Mr. Gladstone said, March 11, 1870, ‘If you value +rents you may as well, for every available purpose, adopt perpetuity of +tenure at once. It is perpetuity of tenure only in a certain disguise.... +The man who becomes a mere annuitant loses all general interest in the +prosperity of the land.’ And again, February 15, 1870: ‘Perpetuity of +tenure on the part of the occupier is virtually expropriation of the +landlord.... The mere readjustment of rent can by no means dispose of all +contingencies the future may produce in his favour.’ Sir Roundell Palmer, +afterwards Lord Selborne, said, March 10, 1870, ‘Fixity of tenure, in +plain English, means taking away the property of one man and giving it to +another.’ So Lord Granville, June 14, 1870, said in the House of Lords, +‘They might have introduced a Bill—which they were determined not to +do—adopting fixity of tenure, taking away his property from the landlord, +and establishing a valuation rent.’ Passages of this kind, at least as +strong, might be multiplied a hundred-fold.</p> + +<p><a name='f_59' id='f_59' href='#fna_59'>[59]</a> It is impossible, in a sketch like this, to describe in detail the +agrarian legislation for Ireland, which Parliament has enacted from 1870 +to this time. The work of Butt referred to before is an admirable +commentary on the Bill of 1870, which soon became law. A brief account of +all this legislation will be found in Mr. Lecky’s ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ +vol. i. ch. ii. The legal treatises of Messrs. Cherry and Wakley, pp. +149-448, and of Mr. Justice Barton, are elaborate and complete.</p> + +<p><a name='f_60' id='f_60' href='#fna_60'>[60]</a> Judge Longfield and Mr. Lecky are much the most distinguished of +these numerous censors.</p> + +<p><a name='f_61' id='f_61' href='#fna_61'>[61]</a> By this time I was an Irish County Court Judge; and I had some +experience of reprehensible acts of this kind, extremely few as they were.</p> + +<p><a name='f_62' id='f_62' href='#fna_62'>[62]</a> It is very remarkable that the stringent provisions of the Act +against exorbitant rents seem to have been almost unknown to the +peasantry, though exorbitant rents were, no doubt, existing here and +there.</p> + +<p><a name='f_63' id='f_63' href='#fna_63'>[63]</a> Report of the Judges of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 478-480.</p> + +<p><a name='f_64' id='f_64' href='#fna_64'>[64]</a> By many degrees the best account of the Land League movement will be +found in the ‘Report of the Proceedings of the Special Commission of +1888-89,’ republished by the <i>Times</i> in four volumes. Reference may also +be made to ‘Parnellism and Crime,’ a series of essays in the <i>Times</i>; to +the ‘Truth about the Land League,’ by Mr. Arnold Foster; to ‘The +Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary Movement,’ by Professor Brougham +Leech; and to a pamphlet called ‘The Queen’s Enemies in America.’ A kind +of apology for the conspiracy will be found in ‘The Parnell Movement,’ by +Mr. T. P. O’Connor, M.P.; but the Irish ‘Nationalists’ have judiciously +been reticent on the subject. I may refer to my ‘Ireland, 1798-1898,’ ch. +viii.</p> + +<p><a name='f_65' id='f_65' href='#fna_65'>[65]</a> These infamous speeches, worthy of Marat and Hébert, were continued +for years, and fill a large part of the evidence in the proceedings of the +Special Commission. I select a sample or two taken at random. Mr. M. +Harris said, ‘If the tenant farmers of Ireland shoot down landlords as +partridges are shot in September, Mat Harris would never say a word +against them’ (vol. ii. p. 38). The same worthy, afterwards an M.P., +exclaimed on another occasion (vol. i. p. 26), ‘Mrs. Blake of Keenoyle is +no better than a she-devil.... Mr. Robinson called the people of Connemara +vermin; the people of Connemara ought to treat him as vermin. Leonard of +Tuam I will say nothing about. I will denounce him at his own door.’ So, +too, a Mr. Boyton said (vol. iv. p. 277), ‘We have seen plenty of them, +landlords and agents, that deserve to be shot at any man’s hand. I have +always denounced the commission of outrages by night, but meet him in the +broad daylight, and if you must blow his brains out, blow them out in the +daytime.’ Multiply such speeches addressed to an excitable peasantry, and +the results which followed can easily be understood.</p> + +<p><a name='f_66' id='f_66' href='#fna_66'>[66]</a> This has been established by conclusive evidence, and should be +carefully borne in mind. Mr. Egan, one of the treasurers of the League, +said, ‘On my own behalf, and on behalf of my friends of the League, both +in prison and outside, I can say that we regard the land question only in +the light of a step towards national independence, which is, and shall +continue to be, the goal of all our efforts.’ Mr. Healy, M.P., said, ‘This +is a movement to win back from England the land of Ireland, which was +robbed from the people by the confiscating armies of Elizabeth and +Cromwell.... But I would remind you that Mr. Parnell ... explained the +basis of the movement when he told the Galway farmers that he would never +have taken off his coat in this movement were it not with Irish +nationality as its object.’ Parnell occasionally let out the truth; he +said, ‘Let every farmer, while he keeps a firm grip of his holding, +recognise also the great truth that he is serving his country and the +people at large, and helping to break down English misrule in Ireland’ +(Report of the Proceedings of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 203, +204). These speeches were, in hundreds, imitated and followed by other +speakers.</p> + +<p><a name='f_67' id='f_67' href='#fna_67'>[67]</a> Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 486.</p> + +<p><a name='f_68' id='f_68' href='#fna_68'>[68]</a> I was at this time judge of the County Kerry; these demands increased +more than twofold at a single Quarter Sessions.</p> + +<p><a name='f_69' id='f_69' href='#fna_69'>[69]</a> Report of the Judges, vol. iv. pp. 522-525.</p> + +<p><a name='f_70' id='f_70' href='#fna_70'>[70]</a> Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522.</p> + +<p><a name='f_71' id='f_71' href='#fna_71'>[71]</a> Some of the cynical and wicked utterances of Parnell in proclaiming +and expounding the new policy of ‘boycotting’ must be quoted. These, it is +needless to say, were exaggerated in scores of speeches by orators of the +League. In view almost of the corpse of a land agent who had been foully +murdered, the arch-conspirator coolly remarked (Proceedings of the Special +Commission, vol. iv. p. 257): ‘I had wished in referring to a sad +occurrence which took place lately, the shooting or attempted shooting of +a land agent in the neighbourhood (uproar)—I had wished to point out that +recourse to such measures of procedure is entirely unnecessary and +absolutely prejudicial where there is a suitable organisation amongst the +tenants themselves.’ The methods to be adopted in ‘boycotting’—the word +was so named from a Captain Boycott, who was one of the first +sufferers—were those set forth by Parnell (Report of the Judges, vol. iv. +p. 498): ‘Now, what are you to do to a tenant who bids for a farm from +which his neighbour has been evicted? (Various shouts, among which, “Kill +him!” “Shoot him!”) Now, I think I heard somebody say “Shoot him” (“Shoot +him!”); but I wish to point out to you a very much better way, a more +Christian and charitable way, which will give the lost sinner an +opportunity of repenting. (Hear, hear.) When a man takes a farm from which +another has been evicted, you must show<small><a name="fa.1" id="fa.1" href="#fa">[A]</a></small> him on the roadside when you +meet him, you must show him in the streets of the town, you must show him +at the shop counter, you must show him in the fair and in the +market-place, and even in the house of worship, by leaving him severely +alone, by putting him into a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the +rest of his kind as if he was a leper of old. You must show him your +detestation of the crime he has committed, and you may depend upon it, if +the population of a county in Ireland carry out this doctrine, that there +will be no man so full of avarice, so lost to shame, as to dare the public +opinion of all right-thinking men within the county, and to transgress +your unwritten code of laws.’</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><a name="fa" id="fa" href="#fa.1">[A]</a> In other, possibly more correct, reports, the word is ‘shun,’ not ‘show.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_72' id='f_72' href='#fna_72'>[72]</a> Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522.</p> + +<p><a name='f_73' id='f_73' href='#fna_73'>[73]</a> It is very important to bear this in mind, regard being had to the +circumstances of the time, which have been shamefully misrepresented, and +to subsequent legislation and its administration. I quote a few words from +the Report, p. 3: ‘It was unusual in Ireland to exact what in England +would have been considered as a full or fair commercial rent. Such a rent +over many of the larger estates, the owners of which were resident, and +took an interest in the welfare of their tenants, it has never been the +custom to demand. The example has been largely followed, and is, to the +present day, rather the rule than the exception in Ireland.’ M. de +Molinari, a very competent foreign observer, wrote to the same effect in +1881: ‘Le taux général des rentes est modéré; autant que j’ai pu en juger, +il est à qualité égale de terrain de moitié plus bas que celui des terres +des Flandres’ (‘L’Irlande, le Canada, Jersey,’ p. 138). See for further +authorities, Mr. Lecky’s ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. i. p. 179.</p> + +<p><a name='f_74' id='f_74' href='#fna_74'>[74]</a> Mr. Gladstone, speeches in the House of Commons, July 22, 1881, and +May 10, 1881. Lord Carlingford, and notably Lord Selborne, said nearly the +same.</p> + +<p><a name='f_75' id='f_75' href='#fna_75'>[75]</a> This I know to be the fact on the very best authority.</p> + +<p><a name='f_76' id='f_76' href='#fna_76'>[76]</a> A good popular account of the law of 1881 will be found in Mr. +Lecky’s ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. i. pp. 182-197. See for an elaborate +and technical description, ‘Cherry and Wakley,’ pp. 217-343.</p> + +<p><a name='f_77' id='f_77' href='#fna_77'>[77]</a> ‘Systems of Land Tenure,’ p. 59.</p> + +<p><a name='f_78' id='f_78' href='#fna_78'>[78]</a> Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522.</p> + +<p><a name='f_79' id='f_79' href='#fna_79'>[79]</a> Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 532: ‘We consider that the National +League, like the Ladies’ Land League, was substantially the old Land +League under another name.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_80' id='f_80' href='#fna_80'>[80]</a> I quote a few words from hundreds of these detestable writings, which +should be studied. Mr. William O’Brien, the editor of one of Parnell’s +newspapers, and now the leader of the ‘United Irish League,’ published +this in <i>United Ireland</i>, April 18, 1885: ‘It would be still more +gratifying if the Irish millions, scattered over the globe, should wake up +one of these mornings to hear the war chimes joyfully ringing the +declaration that would drive England on to downfall and destruction.’ And +again, September 19, 1885: ‘We cannot fight England in the open. We can +keep her in hot water. We cannot evict our rulers neck and crop. We can +make their rule more insupportable for them than for us.... It is no fault +of ours if we cannot organise Waterloos to decide our quarrels.’ As to +personalities, I quote two passages. December 15, 1883: ‘Monstrous and +incredible, surely, six hundred Irish gentlemen could not eat their dinner +without pouring out libations to the adoration of an old lady who is only +known in Ireland by her scarcely decently disguised hatred of this +country, and by the inordinate amount of her salary.’ Again, June 13, +1885: ‘With all the stubborn force of a cruel, narrow, dogged nature, Lord +Spencer struck murderous blow after blow at the people under his rod. He +stopped at nothing; not at subsidising red-handed murderers, not at +knighting jury-packers, not at sheltering black official villainy with a +coat of darkness, not at police quarterings, blood taxes, the bludgeoning +of peaceful meetings, the clapping of handcuffs and convict jackets on +M.P.’s, mayors, and editors, not at wholesale battues of hangings and +transportations by hook or crook.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_81' id='f_81' href='#fna_81'>[81]</a> Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. Mr. Gladstone in the House of +Commons, April 8, 1886.</p> + +<p><a name='f_82' id='f_82' href='#fna_82'>[82]</a> For an elaborate account of the Act of 1887, see ‘Cherry and Wakley,’ +pp. 367-420. Reference, too, may be made to Mr. Lecky’s ‘Democracy and +Liberty,’ vol. i. pp. 198-200.</p> + +<p><a name='f_83' id='f_83' href='#fna_83'>[83]</a> For an account of this legislation, which has not received the +attention it deserves, as it is limited in its scope, see ‘Cherry and +Wakley,’ pp. 468-472, and ‘Barton,’ pp. 104-106.</p> + +<p><a name='f_84' id='f_84' href='#fna_84'>[84]</a> Upwards of thirty years ago, when the question of compensating Irish +tenants for their improvements was coming fully to the front, a wealthy +middleman, who held a large demesne in perpetuity, at a rather high rent, +and had built a valuable mansion on it, in addition to planting hundreds +of acres of woodland, asked me ‘if I thought Parliament would compensate +him, for, in that case, he could make his landlord pay him £30,000.’ My +reply was that ‘Parliament would not be so insane.’ I should be sorry to +make such a reply now, having regard to recent legislation.</p> + +<p><a name='f_85' id='f_85' href='#fna_85'>[85]</a> I believe I may claim some credit for having contributed to this +provision. I had had large experience of the injustice of keeping tenants +subject to long-standing arrears; and, as a judge, had taken strong +measures to prevent and defeat the practice.</p> + +<p><a name='f_86' id='f_86' href='#fna_86'>[86]</a> For an elaborate account of the Act which was the result of this +Bill, see the work of Mr. Justice Barton, ‘The Land Law (Ireland) Act, +1896.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_87' id='f_87' href='#fna_87'>[87]</a> ‘Letter to a Member of the National Assembly,’ vol. i. p. 478.</p> + +<p><a name='f_88' id='f_88' href='#fna_88'>[88]</a> A Committee of the House of Lords sate, in 1872, to consider the +administration of the Land Act of 1870. The report and the evidence were, +in the main, in favour of the judges.</p> + +<p><a name='f_89' id='f_89' href='#fna_89'>[89]</a> Rushe <i>v.</i> Whitney, Roscommon Quarter Sessions, October, 1895.</p> + +<p><a name='f_90' id='f_90' href='#fna_90'>[90]</a> Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords, August 1, 1881: ‘They are all +three strong Liberals, with strong views of tenant right.... There is no +doubt that all three are appointed with a strong prepossession in favour +of views which are advocated by the representatives of the tenantry in +Ireland, and which are deprecated by the landlords.... It is not the +relegation of landlord and tenant to an impartial tribunal.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_91' id='f_91' href='#fna_91'>[91]</a> Mr. Gladstone, July 22, 1881: ‘I shall be bitterly disappointed with +the operation of the Act if the property of the landlords of Ireland does +not come to be worth more than twenty years’ purchase on the judicial +rent.’ Mr. W. E. Forster, same date: ‘I think the final result of the +measure will be, within a few years, that the landowners of Ireland, small +and large, will be better off than they are at this moment.’ Lord +Carlingford, August 1, 1881: ‘My Lords, I maintain that the provisions of +this Bill will cause the landlords no money loss whatever. I believe that +it will inflict upon them no loss of income, except in those cases in +which a certain number of landlords may have imposed upon their tenants +excessive and inequitable rents.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_92' id='f_92' href='#fna_92'>[92]</a> Hansard, vol. 260, p. 1399.</p> + +<p><a name='f_93' id='f_93' href='#fna_93'>[93]</a> The nature and character of these two classes of evidence has been +thus well described in the Report of the Edward Fry’s Commission, p. 18: +‘If the matter were perfectly open, it appears to us that two independent +lines of evidence might be pursued by a person inquiring what is the fair +rent to be fixed for a holding. One class of evidence may for shortness be +called the popular evidence; the other the technical. The popular evidence +would comprise the prices obtained by the tenant for a sale of his +interest or <i>bonâ fide</i> offers which he had received for it, evidence of +the letting value or judicial rents of similar holdings, evidence of the +sums paid for conacre or agistment, evidence of the long and punctual +payment of a real rent, or of the long arrears of a nominal rent, and +evidence of the prosperity or poverty of the persons who had successively +lived off the produce of the holding. The technical evidence would be that +more familiar to professional valuators. They would inspect the land, +ascertain the acreages of the different classes of land on the farm, and +what they would produce or carry; they would consider the quantity and +value of the produce and the cost of production, and the shares of the +surplus remaining after the cost of production divisible between landlord +and tenant respectively. The popular evidence would be affected by all the +motives which make men in Ireland desirous to occupy land; the technical +evidence would assume the desire of making a money profit out of the +occupation of land as the sole motive of such occupation. The eighth +section of the Act of 1881 seems to admit of both lines of evidence with a +single exception. It provided that in fixing the fair rent consideration +should be given not to some but to all the circumstances of the case, the +holding and the district, with the single exception that (sub-sec. 10) the +price paid for the tenancy otherwise than to the landlord or his +predecessors was not of itself, apart from other considerations, to be +taken into account; though, conjoined with other considerations, it still +remains admissible.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_94' id='f_94' href='#fna_94'>[94]</a> Report of the Fry Commission, p. 13.</p> + +<p><a name='f_95' id='f_95' href='#fna_95'>[95]</a> Ibid., p. 14: ‘Some specific charges of misconduct or negligence have +been made against lay Assistant Commissioners and Court valuers; as <i>e.g.</i> +visiting the land without due notice to the landlord; visiting the holding +when lying under snow or water, or when suffering from prolonged drought, +and refusing to wait whilst a trench was dug to show the condition of the +alleged drainage. We have investigated many of these cases, and the +explanations given have generally been satisfactory to us.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_96' id='f_96' href='#fna_96'>[96]</a> Evidence taken by Mr. Morley’s Commission on the Irish Land Acts, p. +236.</p> + +<p><a name='f_97' id='f_97' href='#fna_97'>[97]</a> Ibid., p. 397.</p> + +<p><a name='f_98' id='f_98' href='#fna_98'>[98]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 131.</p> + +<p><a name='f_99' id='f_99' href='#fna_99'>[99]</a> Ibid., p. 208.</p> + +<p><a name='f_100' id='f_100' href='#fna_100'>[100]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 41.</p> + +<p><a name='f_101' id='f_101' href='#fna_101'>[101]</a> Ibid., p. 682.</p> + +<p><a name='f_102' id='f_102' href='#fna_102'>[102]</a> ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. i. pp. 205, 206.</p> + +<p><a name='f_103' id='f_103' href='#fna_103'>[103]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 692. As a County Court +judge I have a concurrent jurisdiction, happily seldom exercised, in +fixing ‘fair rents.’ I had a somewhat similar case before me some +seventeen or eighteen years ago, and I adjourned the hearing for four +years to allow the land to recover. I believe I am the only official who +did anything of the kind until quite recently.</p> + +<p><a name='f_104' id='f_104' href='#fna_104'>[104]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 836.</p> + +<p><a name='f_105' id='f_105' href='#fna_105'>[105]</a> Evidence taken by the Morley Commission, 1894-95, p. 333.</p> + +<p><a name='f_106' id='f_106' href='#fna_106'>[106]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 952.</p> + +<p><a name='f_107' id='f_107' href='#fna_107'>[107]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 607. The procedure of the +Sub-Commissions has, since 1896, been somewhat improved with respect to +deterioration and waste, but many years too late.</p> + +<p><a name='f_108' id='f_108' href='#fna_108'>[108]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 677.</p> + +<p><a name='f_109' id='f_109' href='#fna_109'>[109]</a> Ibid., p. 842.</p> + +<p><a name='f_110' id='f_110' href='#fna_110'>[110]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, pp. 478, 476.</p> + +<p><a name='f_111' id='f_111' href='#fna_111'>[111]</a> Ibid., p. 476.</p> + +<p><a name='f_112' id='f_112' href='#fna_112'>[112]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 129.</p> + +<p><a name='f_113' id='f_113' href='#fna_113'>[113]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 339.</p> + +<p><a name='f_114' id='f_114' href='#fna_114'>[114]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 25.</p> + +<p><a name='f_115' id='f_115' href='#fna_115'>[115]</a> Mr. Vernon, the Lay Commissioner, was, of course, not responsible for +this.</p> + +<p><a name='f_116' id='f_116' href='#fna_116'>[116]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 156.</p> + +<p><a name='f_117' id='f_117' href='#fna_117'>[117]</a> Ibid., p. 615.</p> + +<p><a name='f_118' id='f_118' href='#fna_118'>[118]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 33.</p> + +<p><a name='f_119' id='f_119' href='#fna_119'>[119]</a> Ibid., p. 30.</p> + +<p><a name='f_120' id='f_120' href='#fna_120'>[120]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 30.</p> + +<p><a name='f_121' id='f_121' href='#fna_121'>[121]</a> Report of the Fry Commission, p. 18. I entirely dissent from the +above opinion of the head Commissioner.</p> + +<p><a name='f_122' id='f_122' href='#fna_122'>[122]</a> Evidence taken by the Morley Commission, p. 507.</p> + +<p><a name='f_123' id='f_123' href='#fna_123'>[123]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 461.</p> + +<p><a name='f_124' id='f_124' href='#fna_124'>[124]</a> Ibid., p. 616.</p> + +<p><a name='f_125' id='f_125' href='#fna_125'>[125]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 628.</p> + +<p><a name='f_126' id='f_126' href='#fna_126'>[126]</a> Ibid., p. 631.</p> + +<p><a name='f_127' id='f_127' href='#fna_127'>[127]</a> Ibid., p. 941.</p> + +<p><a name='f_128' id='f_128' href='#fna_128'>[128]</a> Report of the Fry Commission, p. 22.</p> + +<p><a name='f_129' id='f_129' href='#fna_129'>[129]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 676.</p> + +<p><a name='f_130' id='f_130' href='#fna_130'>[130]</a> Report of the Fry Commission, p. 20.</p> + +<p><a name='f_131' id='f_131' href='#fna_131'>[131]</a> Ibid., p. 21.</p> + +<p><a name='f_132' id='f_132' href='#fna_132'>[132]</a> Ibid., p. 9.</p> + +<p><a name='f_133' id='f_133' href='#fna_133'>[133]</a> Ibid., p. 14.</p> + +<p><a name='f_134' id='f_134' href='#fna_134'>[134]</a> Report of the Fry Commission, pp. 18, 19.</p> + +<p><a name='f_135' id='f_135' href='#fna_135'>[135]</a> Ibid., pp. 12-26.</p> + +<p><a name='f_136' id='f_136' href='#fna_136'>[136]</a> Ibid., p. 15.</p> + +<p><a name='f_137' id='f_137' href='#fna_137'>[137]</a> Report of the Irish Land Commission to March, 1900, p. 64.</p> + +<p><a name='f_138' id='f_138' href='#fna_138'>[138]</a> It is but just to the Land Commission to state that the reductions +of rent made by the County Courts were somewhat higher than those it made. +But this was notoriously because rack-rented tenants, for the sake of +expedition, rushed first to these tribunals.</p> + +<p><a name='f_139' id='f_139' href='#fna_139'>[139]</a> Report of the Irish Land Commission, p. 64.</p> + +<p><a name='f_140' id='f_140' href='#fna_140'>[140]</a> Report of the Irish Land Commission, p. 3.</p> + +<p><a name='f_141' id='f_141' href='#fna_141'>[141]</a> See a remarkable instance in the Evidence taken by the Fry +Commission, p. 683: ‘The holding was let in 1771 at 30<i>s.</i> the Irish acre, +equal to about £1 per statute acre. The Sub-Commissioners have now cut it +down to less than 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per acre.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_142' id='f_142' href='#fna_142'>[142]</a> Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, pp. 496, 609, 670.</p> + +<p><a name='f_143' id='f_143' href='#fna_143'>[143]</a> ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. i. pp. 202, 203.</p> + +<p><a name='f_144' id='f_144' href='#fna_144'>[144]</a> Letters to the <i>Manchester Guardian</i>, written in 1890, and since +republished. This little work was much noticed at the time; attempts to +answer it were made to no purpose. The facts now speak for themselves.</p> + +<p><a name='f_145' id='f_145' href='#fna_145'>[145]</a> Swift’s ‘Works,’ vol. ii. p. 82, ed. 1870.</p> + +<p><a name='f_146' id='f_146' href='#fna_146'>[146]</a> ‘Reflections on the Revolution in France,’ vol. i. p. 440.</p> + +<p><a name='f_147' id='f_147' href='#fna_147'>[147]</a> The <i>Manchester Guardian</i>, 1890. I quote this passage, for I think +its substance was referred to by the late Mr. Rathbone, member for +Liverpool.</p> + +<p><a name='f_148' id='f_148' href='#fna_148'>[148]</a> Mr. Lecky, ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. ii. pp. 487-489, rather +favours the policy of creating and extending peasant ownership in Ireland, +and, to a certain extent, approves of the so-called ‘Land Purchase’ Acts, +but only as a doubtful experiment, to endeavour to escape from a +hopelessly bad land system. The distinguished historian and thinker, in my +opinion, is not sufficiently alive to the iniquity of these measures as +they affect landlords who wish to retain their estates, or, rather, what +remains of them; but he clearly perceives some of the objections to this +vicious legislation. I quote his remarks at some length: ‘In Ireland, as +is well known, great efforts are made to create such a proprietary; but +the conditions of Ireland are unlike those of any other part of the +civilised globe. It has been the deliberate policy of the Government to +break down, by almost annual Acts, the obligation of contracts, and the +existing ownership of land has been rendered so insecure, the political +power attached to it has been so effectually destroyed, and the influences +tending to anarchy and confiscation have been made so powerful, that most +good judges have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to force into +existence by strong legislative measures a new social type, which may, +perhaps, possess some elements of stability and conservatism. In order to +effect this object, the national credit has been made use of in such a way +that a tenant is enabled to purchase his farm without making the smallest +sacrifice for that object, the whole sum being advanced by the Government, +and advanced on such terms that the tenant is only obliged to pay for a +limited number of years a sum from 20 to 30 per cent. less than his +present rent. In other words, a man whose rent has been fixed by the Land +Court at £100 a year, can purchase his farm by paying, instead of that +sum, £70 or £80 a year for forty-nine years. The arrangement sounds more +like burlesque than serious legislation; but the belief that political +pressure can obtain still better terms for the tenant, and that further +confiscatory legislation may still more depreciate the value of land to +the owner who has inherited it, or purchased it in the open market, has +taken such deep root in Ireland that the tenants have shown little +alacrity to avail themselves of their new privilege. What may be the +ultimate issue of the attempt to govern a country in complete defiance of +all received economical principles remains to be seen. The future must +show whether a large peasant proprietary can be not only called into +existence, but permanently maintained, under these conditions, and whether +it will prove the loyal and conservative element that English politicians +believe. According to all past experience, peasant proprietors rarely +succeed, except when they possess something more than an average measure +of industrial qualities, and the Irish purchase laws give no preference to +the energetic, the industrious, and the thrifty. On the contrary, it is +very often the farmer who is on the verge of bankruptcy who is most eager +to buy, in order to reduce his annual charge. The tendency of the new +proprietors to mortgage, to sublet, and to subdivide, is already manifest, +and some of the best judges of Irish affairs, who look beyond the present +generation, are very despondent about the future. They believe that a +peasant proprietary, called into existence suddenly and artificially, with +no discrimination in favour of the better class, in a country where +industrial qualities are very low, and where the strongest wish of the +farmer is either to divide his farm among his children, or to burden it +with equal mortgages for their benefit, must eventually lead to economic +ruin, to fatal subdivision, to crushing charges on land. The new policy +must also, they contend, almost wholly withdraw from the country life, +where it is peculiarly needed, the civilising and guiding influence of a +resident gentry. Whether or not these apprehensions are exaggerated time +only can show. Two predictions may, I think, with some confidence be made. +The one is, that the transformation is likely to be most successful if it +is gradually effected. The other is, that a great part of the influence +once possessed by the landlord will, under the new conditions, pass to the +money-lender.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_149' id='f_149' href='#fna_149'>[149]</a> I quote these remarks of Burke, a striking instance of his political +wisdom (‘Tracts on the Popery Laws,’ vol. ii. p. 446): ‘It is on this +principle (to get rid of short and unprofitable tenures) that the Romans +established their <i>emphyteusis</i>, or fee-farm. For though they extended the +ordinary term of their creation to nine years only, yet they encouraged a +more permanent letting to farm, with the condition of improvement, as well +as of annual payment where the land had lain rough and neglected.’ So John +Stuart Mill (‘Irish Land Question,’ p. 31, ed. 1870): ‘The idea of +property does not, however, necessarily imply that there should be no +rent, any more than that there should be no taxes. It merely implies that +the rent should be a fixed charge, not liable to be raised against the +farmer by his own improvements, or by the will of a landlord. A tenant at +a quit rent is, to all intents and purposes, a proprietor; a copyholder is +not less so than a freeholder. What is wanted is permanent possession on +fixed terms.’ Mr. Morley said not long ago, in his place in Parliament, +that, as things now stand in Ireland, the landlord must become a +rent-charger and the tenant a copyholder, a true utterance.</p> + +<p><a name='f_150' id='f_150' href='#fna_150'>[150]</a> ‘Principles of Political Economy,’ book ii. chap. ii. p. 6. I may +refer, too, to these pregnant remarks of Bentham (‘Theory of Legislation,’ +chap, xv.): ‘The principle of security requires that reform should be +attended with complete indemnity.... I cannot yet quit the subject, for +the establishment of the principle of security demands that error should +be pursued in all its retreats.... The interest of individuals, it is +said, ought to yield to the public interest; but what does that mean? Is +not one individual as much a part of the public as another? The public +interest which you introduce as a person is only an abstract term; it +represents nothing but the mass of individual interests.... Individual +interests are the only real interests. Take care of the individuals; never +molest them, never suffer any one to molest them, and you will have done +enough for the public.... I shall conclude by a general observation of +great importance. The more the principle of property is respected, the +stronger hold it takes on the popular mind. Slight attacks on this +principle prepare the way for heavier ones. A long time has been necessary +to carry property to the point where we now see it in civilised societies; +but a fatal experience has shown with what facility it may be shaken, and +how easily the savage instinct of plunder gets the better of the laws.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_151' id='f_151' href='#fna_151'>[151]</a> For the constitutional position of the British and Irish Parliaments +before the Union, see Hallam’s ‘Constitutional History,’ vol. iii., +chapter on Ireland, and Ball’s ‘Legislative Irish System,’ chaps. v., xv. +See also Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. +chap. vii.; vol. iv. chaps. xvi., xvii. As to the financial position of +the two countries, see the opening pages of each of the Reports of the +Childers Commission.</p> + +<p><a name='f_152' id='f_152' href='#fna_152'>[152]</a> Grattan described this vicious state of things in his inimitable +style (‘Speeches,’ p. 258, ed. published by Duffy): ‘The Union is not an +identification of the two nations; it is merely a merger of the parliament +of one nation in that of another.... There is no identification in +anything save in legislature, in which there is complete and absolute +absorption. It follows that the two nations are not identified, though the +Irish legislature be absorbed, and by that act of absorption the feeling +of one of the nations is not identified, but alienated. The petitions on +our table bespeak that alienation.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_153' id='f_153' href='#fna_153'>[153]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, p. 20.</p> + +<p><a name='f_154' id='f_154' href='#fna_154'>[154]</a> I transcribe this part of the seventh article of the Treaty of +Union; I believe that I have fairly described its purport (Report of +Childers Commission, p. 140): ‘That if at any future day the separate debt +of each country respectively shall have been liquidated, or if the values +of their respective debts ... shall be to each other in the same +proportion with the respective contributions of each country +respectively.... And if it shall appear to the Parliament of the United +Kingdom that the respective circumstances of the two countries will +thenceforth admit of their contributing indiscriminately by equal taxes +imposed on the same articles in each, to the future expenditure of the +United Kingdom to declare that all future expense thenceforth to be +incurred, together with the interest and charges of all joint debts +contracted previous to such declaration, shall be so defrayed +indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed on the same articles in each +country, and thenceforth from time to time, as circumstances may require, +to impose and apply such taxes accordingly, subject only to such +particular exemptions or abatements in Ireland, and in that part of Great +Britain called Scotland, as circumstances may appear, from time to time, +to demand.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_155' id='f_155' href='#fna_155'>[155]</a> Grattan’s speeches, quoted in a memorandum supplied to the Childers +Commission by Sir Edward Hamilton, p. 9.</p> + +<p><a name='f_156' id='f_156' href='#fna_156'>[156]</a> ‘Minutes of Evidence,’ Childers Commission, vol. i. p. 329.</p> + +<p><a name='f_157' id='f_157' href='#fna_157'>[157]</a> Memorandum of Sir Edward Hamilton, p. 9.</p> + +<p><a name='f_158' id='f_158' href='#fna_158'>[158]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, p. 143.</p> + +<p><a name='f_159' id='f_159' href='#fna_159'>[159]</a> Ibid., p. 32.</p> + +<p><a name='f_160' id='f_160' href='#fna_160'>[160]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 147, 148.</p> + +<p><a name='f_161' id='f_161' href='#fna_161'>[161]</a> Ibid., p. 33.</p> + +<p><a name='f_162' id='f_162' href='#fna_162'>[162]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, p. 158.</p> + +<p><a name='f_163' id='f_163' href='#fna_163'>[163]</a> I think it necessary to set out verbatim the terms of reference to +the Commission; I have for the sake of clearness changed their order: ‘To +inquire into the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland, +and their relative taxable capacity, and to report: I. Upon what +principles of comparison, and by the application of what specific +standards, the relative capacity of Great Britain and Ireland to bear +taxation may be most equitably determined. II. What, so far as can be +ascertained, is the true proportion, under the principles and specific +standards so determined, between the taxable capacity of Great Britain and +Ireland. III. The history of the financial relations between Great Britain +and Ireland, at and after the Legislative Union, the charge for Irish +purposes on the Imperial Exchequer during that period, and the amount of +Irish taxation remaining available for contribution to Imperial +expenditure; also the Imperial expenditure to which it is considered +equitable that Ireland should contribute.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_164' id='f_164' href='#fna_164'>[164]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, p. 26.</p> + +<p><a name='f_165' id='f_165' href='#fna_165'>[165]</a> Since 1896, when the Childers Commission made its report, the +overtaxation of Ireland has increased.</p> + +<p><a name='f_166' id='f_166' href='#fna_166'>[166]</a> Report of Childers Commission: ‘Minutes of Evidence,’ vol. i. p. 17.</p> + +<p><a name='f_167' id='f_167' href='#fna_167'>[167]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, p. 16.</p> + +<p><a name='f_168' id='f_168' href='#fna_168'>[168]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, p. 89.</p> + +<p><a name='f_169' id='f_169' href='#fna_169'>[169]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 159, 160.</p> + +<p><a name='f_170' id='f_170' href='#fna_170'>[170]</a> ‘Minutes of Evidence,’ Childers Commission, vol. ii. p. 218.</p> + +<p><a name='f_171' id='f_171' href='#fna_171'>[171]</a> I quote from the Report of the Childers Commission, p. 68, these +valuable remarks on the subject: ‘Neither can there then be any question +that a system of equal rates of taxes on the same subjects is compatible +with the utmost inequality of burdens between two countries contributing +to one exchequer. All that need be done in order to exact an undue +proportion—unlimited in extent—of the means of either of the countries +is to tax the commodities most consumed in that country, and in fixing the +rate of the tax on each commodity, to fix the higher rates on the +particular commodities most generally in use in that country, and the +lower rates on those most consumed in the other. The same kind of effect, +of course, may be produced, and the same discrimination exercised, by +totally exempting some commodities and taxing others, however lightly. In +fact, a system of equal rates of taxes may thus be rendered more easily +unjust and burdensome to the country discriminated against than one of +differential taxes, because in the latter case, the unequal treatment, and +the mode of it being manifest, are more liable to criticism and +limitation; whilst in the former, the true effect of the system is +disguised by the circumstances that each particular head of tax is at the +same rate in both countries.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_172' id='f_172' href='#fna_172'>[172]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, p. 39.</p> + +<p><a name='f_173' id='f_173' href='#fna_173'>[173]</a> Ibid., p. 166.</p> + +<p><a name='f_174' id='f_174' href='#fna_174'>[174]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, p. 11.</p> + +<p><a name='f_175' id='f_175' href='#fna_175'>[175]</a> Ibid.: Evidence of Mr. Munough O’Brien, pp. 12, 13: ‘The system of +Imperial loans for temporary emergencies and charity tends to increase the +poverty of Ireland, whose future income is mortgaged to pay interest on +expenditure from which there is no return. There is no surer road to ruin +for an individual than borrowing money to live upon, and most of these +Imperial loans are practically made from time to time to enable the Irish +people to live or relieve acute distress and disorder. Loans are almost +annually made to keep the people quiet or to keep them alive. Yet this +expenditure does not prevent the recurrence of famine, distress, and +discontent; it rather tends to cause their recurrence.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_176' id='f_176' href='#fna_176'>[176]</a> Report of the Childers Commission: Report of Mr. Sexton and others, +pp. 102, 103.</p> + +<p><a name='f_177' id='f_177' href='#fna_177'>[177]</a> Report of the Childers Commission: ‘Evidence,’ vol. ii. p. 18.</p> + +<p><a name='f_178' id='f_178' href='#fna_178'>[178]</a> Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 194, 195.</p> + +<p><a name='f_179' id='f_179' href='#fna_179'>[179]</a> 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 116. The works of Messrs. Vanston and Foote on +the grand juries of Ireland may be referred to.</p> + +<p><a name='f_180' id='f_180' href='#fna_180'>[180]</a> The reader may be referred to Mr. Moore’s work on the Irish poor +law.</p> + +<p><a name='f_181' id='f_181' href='#fna_181'>[181]</a> See the Report of a Committee of the House of Lords, and especially +of the Evidence, taken in 1884-85, with respect to the administration of +the Irish poor law at the time.</p> + +<p><a name='f_182' id='f_182' href='#fna_182'>[182]</a> For a further account of local government in Ireland, a reader may +consult the Report of Mr. W. P. O’Brien on Local Government, 1878, and +reports on the towns of Ireland and their taxation about the same date. An +excellent tract on the subject was published by Mr. William J. Bailey in +1888, called ‘Local and Centralised Government in Ireland.’ With respect +to the system of municipal government in Ireland as it existed before +1840, nothing is so valuable as the Reports of the Commissioners, very +able men, charged to inquire into the subject in 1834-35. A useful and +well-informed account will also be found in Mr. Barry O’Brien’s ‘Fifty +Years of Concessions to Ireland,’ vol. i. book v.</p> + +<p><a name='f_183' id='f_183' href='#fna_183'>[183]</a> I have only been able to sketch the outlines of the measure, the +Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, p. 1, 62 Vict. cap. 37. A good +commentary on it has been written by Mr. Brett of the Irish Bar.</p> + +<p><a name='f_184' id='f_184' href='#fna_184'>[184]</a> Mr. Lecky, ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ Cabinet Edition, Introduction, +p. 13, has well described this vaunted reform: ‘It was a measure +introduced in fulfilment of distinct pledges, and it contains very skilful +provisions intended to protect existing interests. But, after all is said, +it means a great transfer of power and influence from the loyal to the +disloyal, and it goes in the direction of democracy far beyond anything +that a few years ago would have been accepted by the Conservatives, or by +the moderate Liberals.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_185' id='f_185' href='#fna_185'>[185]</a> For a description of elementary education in Ireland up to 1812, see +passages in Wakefield’s ‘Account of Ireland;’ and for a description in +earlier and later times, see Mr. Barry O’Brien’s ‘Fifty Years of +Concessions to Ireland,’ book i. chs. i.-xiv.; Mr. Graham Balfour’s +‘Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland,’ pp. 80-128; the Report +of the Commissioners of Irish Education, 1810-21; the important Report of +the Powis Commission, 1870-71; and the Reports of the Commissioners of +National Education in Ireland. Mr. Froude, in his ‘English in Ireland,’ +vol. i. p. 514; vol. ii. p. 491, has characteristically eulogised the +Charter Schools; but he stands alone; Mr. Lecky, ‘History of England in +the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. pp. 200-304, has commented on this +odious system as it deserved.</p> + +<p><a name='f_186' id='f_186' href='#fna_186'>[186]</a> Barry O’Brien, ‘Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,’ vol. ii. p. +322.</p> + +<p><a name='f_187' id='f_187' href='#fna_187'>[187]</a> See Wakefield’s ‘Account of Ireland’ for the state of her secondary +schools in 1812; Barry O’Brien’s ‘Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,’ +book x. chs. i., ii., iii.; Graham Balfour’s ‘The Educational System of +Great Britain and Ireland,’ pp. 203-218; and the Reports of the two +Commissions of 1854-57 and of 1878-80, of which the heads were Lord +Kildare and the Earl of Rosse.</p> + +<p><a name='f_188' id='f_188' href='#fna_188'>[188]</a> See the resolutions in Duffy’s ‘Young Ireland,’ pp. 713, 714. There +has been much misrepresentation on this subject.</p> + +<p><a name='f_189' id='f_189' href='#fna_189'>[189]</a> See ‘The Problem of Irish Education,’ by Butt, a masterly and +impartial tract.</p> + +<p><a name='f_190' id='f_190' href='#fna_190'>[190]</a> See for the figures ‘The Irish University Question,’ by Archbishop +Walsh, <i>passim</i>.</p> + +<p><a name='f_191' id='f_191' href='#fna_191'>[191]</a> For further information on the history and the present state of the +University system in Ireland, see ‘The History of the University of +Dublin,’ by the Rev. J. W. Stubbs, and ‘The Constitutional History of the +University of Dublin,’ by D. C. Heron; Howley on ‘Universities;’ ‘What is +meant by Freedom of Education,’ by the O’Conor Don; ‘University +Education,’ by an Irish Protestant Celt; and especially ‘The Problem of +Irish Education,’ by Butt. See also the Irish University Debates in +Hansard for 1873, and the very able debate in Trinity College. The reader, +too, may be referred to Mr. Barry O’Brien’s ‘Fifty Years of Concessions to +Ireland,’ book xi.; to Mr. Graham Balfour’s ‘Educational Systems of Great +Britain and Ireland,’ pp. 273-288; to Mr. Godkin’s ‘Education in Ireland;’ +and to Archbishop Walsh’s ‘The Irish University Question.’</p> + +<p><a name='f_192' id='f_192' href='#fna_192'>[192]</a> Too much is not to be made of ‘Nationalist’ clamour; but these +remarks of Mr. Dillon, M.P., are significant (<i>Freeman’s Journal</i>, April +13, 1901): ‘I do not believe that these movements will ever succeed ... +until that fortress of English domination and anti-Irish bigotry, Trinity +College, is for ever swept away, or there is placed opposite to it a truly +National University, where the most honoured classes will be the classes +of Irish literature and Irish history.’ Archbishop Walsh, a much abler +man, has written in the same sense in his work, ‘The Irish University +Question.’ The question, he contends, in many passages, must be settled by +levelling up or by levelling down, that is, by raising the Catholic +University to the position of Trinity College, or by disestablishing and +disendowing Trinity College. The evil precedent of the Act disestablishing +the Anglican Church in Ireland, will, it is hoped, be eschewed.</p> + +<p><a name='f_193' id='f_193' href='#fna_193'>[193]</a> See on this subject Mr. Lough’s ‘England’s Wealth, Ireland’s +Poverty,’ pp. 88-94.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Present Irish Questions, by William O'Connor Morris + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESENT IRISH QUESTIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 37853-h.htm or 37853-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/5/37853/ + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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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: Present Irish Questions + +Author: William O'Connor Morris + +Release Date: October 26, 2011 [EBook #37853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESENT IRISH QUESTIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +Present Irish Questions + + + + +Publisher's Announcement + +_By the Same Author_ + + The Campaign of 1815: Ligny, Quatre Bras, Waterloo. + + Demy 8vo, cloth, with Maps, 12_s._ 6_d._ net. + +M. Houssaye, in a letter to the author, says, "J'ai lu avec beaucoup de +plaisir votre livre sur La Campagna de 1815. C'est un excellent resume, +copieux et critique, tres judicieux, tres precis, et tres clair." + +Captain Mahan, in a letter to the author, says, "Your narrative is very +clear, and to me quite convincing." + +_The Times_: "We can recommend this book as a painstaking and instructive +survey of the campaign." + +_The Spectator_: "Provides what has long been wanted--a study of the +campaign by one well qualified to sift evidence dispassionately." + +_Pall Mail Gazette_: "Will fill a high place in the all too scanty library +of British Military literature." + + LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS + 9 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W.C. + + + + + Present Irish Questions + + + BY WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS + + COUNTY COURT JUDGE AND CHAIRMAN OF + QUARTER SESSIONS OF ROSCOMMON AND + SLIGO, AND SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF + ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD + + + [Greek: Nosei de moi propas stolos, oud' eni + phrontidos egchos ho tis alexetai.]--SOPHOCLES. + + 'Blessed is the Amending Hand.'--_Old Proverb._ + + + London + Grant Richards + New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. + 1901 + + + + + I DEDICATE THIS BOOK + A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION AND ESTEEM + TO THE MARQUIS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA, K.P. + THE MOST DISTINGUISHED IRISHMAN OF HIS TIME + + + LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, + STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. + + + + +Preface + + +I have written much on Ireland from early youth, especially in the +_Edinburgh Review_ and the _Times_; and two works of mine, 'Ireland, +1494-1868' published in 'The Cambridge Historical Series,' and 'Ireland, +1798-1898,' have been received with more than ordinary favour. I have +ventured to think that the opinions of a veteran inquirer into Irish +affairs, with respect to 'Present Irish Questions' just now of much +importance, and certain to be ere long fully discussed in Parliament and +elsewhere, may be of some use to a younger generation, that will have to +examine and must be affected by them. I am not unaware of the cynical +remarks of Swift on the disregard shown to authors who may be said to have +had their day; and I do not pretend that, in the instance of myself, 'old +experience' has given something of a 'prophetic strain' to what is +contained in this volume. But I can say, with truth, that few living men +have had such opportunities as have fallen to my lot, during a long series +of years, to understand Ireland in its different parts, and the feelings +and sentiments of the Irish community; to form sound and moderate views on +the many and perplexing phenomena called 'Irish Questions;' to deal +reasonably with Irish political and social problems, free from the +influences of party prejudice and passion; in short, to do my subject +complete and impartial justice. How the accidents and associations of a +life already protracted beyond the ordinary span, have, as I hope, given +me these qualifications, I have explained at some length in my 'Ireland, +1798-1898;' I shall not repeat what I have already written. But Ireland +has constantly been uppermost in my thoughts; and as regards the +conclusions I have come to in these pages, I may say, with the Roman +historian, 'haec senectuti seposui.' + +The examination of 'Present Irish Questions,' in this work, shows the +views I entertain with regard to the actual condition of Ireland in its +various aspects, and to her probable future destinies. These views may be +censured as too gloomy, and even paradoxical; but Ireland remains, as she +was when Macaulay wrote of her, 'A member indeed of the Empire, but a +withered and distorted member;' the revolution which has passed, nay, is +still passing, over her, has destroyed a great deal that ought to have +been preserved, and has put little that is solid and stable in its place; +there is much that is threatening and even dangerous in her political and +social order, and in the sentiments of the mass of her community. In the +case of Ireland, indeed, as in that of any other people, I have faith in +the effect of salutary legislation on wise and just principles, and of +consistent good government steadily carried out, of both of which there +has been but too little evidence, during the last twenty years, in Irish +affairs; above all, my trust is large in the healing influences of Time. +But I have not forgotten that the vision of 'Pacata Hibernia,' which +flitted even before the majestic understanding of Bacon, three centuries +ago, has not been realised; the thoughtless optimism, which, during the +last two generations, has represented Ireland to be in a state of +continual 'progress,' nay, as 'contented and happy,' whenever she has not +been convulsed by disorder and trouble, or racked by poverty and distress, +has been completely falsified; and with nations, as with individuals, the +profound remark of Butler is true; a life of repentance often fails to +redeem the errors of the past. I proceed to indicate some at least of the +authorities which relate to the different parts of my subject. The +material condition of Ireland of late years may, perhaps, be best +ascertained by studying, over some length of time, the large body of +statistics compiled by the Government, and contained in that valuable +publication, 'Thom's Directory,' and by a perusal of the Irish debates in +Hansard. Reference, too, should be made to the important papers of Mr. +Childers, of Lord Farrer, and of Mr. Sexton in the Report of the Childers +Commission, and especially to the evidence of Sir Robert Giffen, and even +of Sir Edward Hamilton, in the Blue Books appended to that inquiry. +'England's Wealth, Ireland's Poverty,' by Thomas Lough, M.P., though a +one-sided book, also deserves attention; and useful information may be +obtained from 'The Five Years in Ireland, 1895-1900,' of Mr. Michael J. F. +McCarthy, too much a eulogy, however, of things as they are, and marked by +a spirit of aversion to, and distrust of, the Irish priesthood, which are +a characteristic of a small section of the Irish Catholics. + +The sources of our knowledge respecting the moral, social, and political +state of Ireland are numerous and ample; I shall confine myself, as much +as I can, to those which relate to what may be called her recent +revolutionary period, though Irish history in the past, even in the +distant past, is anything but an 'old almanack.' This mass of evidence +faithfully represents the disturbances and the troubles that have +prevailed in Ireland, with intervals of time between, during the last +twenty years and upwards, and the fierce animosities and conflicts which +have been the consequence. Here a reader should again consult Hansard, +notably the debates on Ireland, during the agitated period from 1880 to +1889; of course he should only study the great speeches. The publications +on this subject are very many, and some of real importance; as regards +the policy and conduct of the Land, and even of the National Leagues, and +the frightful outbreak of disorder and crime which was the result, nothing +is equal in value to the Report of the Judges of the 'Special Commission,' +and to the immense body of evidence brought before them; 'The Verdict,' by +Professor Dicey, sums up well the conclusions at which they arrived. The +utterances of the so-called Irish 'Nationalist' Press, throughout these +years, fully verify the facts disclosed in the Report, and its findings; +they have, indeed, been continued in a less ferocious and violent, but in +a significant, strain ever since; a collection of them will be found in +the volumes published by the Irish Unionist Alliance. On this subject, and +also on the state of opinion existing among a large majority, probably, of +the Irish people, see 'The Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary +Movement,' by Professor Brougham Leech; 'The Truth about the Land League,' +by Mr. Arnold Foster, M.P.; 'Parnellism and Crime,' republished from the +_Times_; 'Incipient Irish Revolution,' anonymous but able; some valuable +articles on Ireland by the late Lord Grey that appeared in the _Nineteenth +Century_; 'Disturbed Ireland,' by Mr. T. W. Russell, M.P.; 'The Plan of +Campaign Illustrated;' and 'About Ireland,' by Mrs. E. Lynn Lynton. The +recent revolutionary and agrarian movements in Ireland have not found many +to vindicate them, or even fully to explain their causes; but reference +may be made to 'The Parnell Movement,' by T. P. O'Connor, M.P.; to the +'New Ireland' of Mr. A. M. Sullivan; to Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Irish Wrongs +and English Remedies;' and to a series of articles called 'Ungrateful +Ireland,' in the _Nineteenth Century_, from the pen of Sir G. Duffy. A +host of papers in quarterly, monthly, and other reviews and magazines on +the political and social condition of Ireland of late years has, also, +been published from time to time. Attempts have been made, quite recently, +to show that the troubles of Ireland have become things of the past, and +that she is a prosperous and happy land; but though real improvement has +certainly taken place, these are mere repetitions of the optimistic +fancies that have so often proved delusions. + +The great question of Home Rule, 'present' if for a time postponed, was +first put forward formally by the late Isaac Butt. His 'Irish Federalism' +is a thoughtful and able treatise that ought to be studied. The speeches +in Parliament, from 1874 to 1885, on this subject, collected in Hansard, +deserve attention; notably the violent attacks on this policy made during +many years by Mr. Gladstone. Hansard, too, should be perused, after that +statesman became a convert to Home Rule, for the speeches on both sides, +on the Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893; some are of marked power and +insight, though few rise to the heights of great constitutional +principles. Mr. Gladstone's defence of his sudden change of front will be +found in his 'History of an Idea,' a tract published soon after his defeat +at the polls in 1886; he has endeavoured to vindicate his later Irish +policy, in many pamphlets and speeches, in volumes collected by himself. +For a masterly examination of his public conduct on matters relating to +Ireland, and in some other passages in his career, I would especially +direct the reader to the 'Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne,' part ii. +vol. ii. pp. 339-360; Mr. Lecky's brilliant sketch in his 'Democracy and +Liberty,' Cabinet Edition, Introduction, pp. 19-56, is a composition of +rare excellence. Nothing is to be compared to Professor Dicey's 'England's +Case against Home Rule,' and his 'Leap in the Dark,' for a thorough +investigation, from the Unionist point of view, of the natural and the +probable consequences of the Gladstonian Irish policy, and for an analysis +of the two Home Rule Bills; few political works have attracted equal +attention. There have also been many publications, on the side of the +Union, of more or less merit; see 'Home Rule,' reprinted from the _Times_, +containing several very able letters and papers; 'The Truth about Home +Rule;' 'A Sketch of Unionist Policy;' and a number of articles in the +_Edinburgh_ and the _Quarterly Review_, and in other reviews and +magazines. The publications which advocate Home Rule have not been +numerous; a reader may consult the 'Hand Book of Home Rule,' edited by Mr. +Bryce, M.P.; 'Irish Members and English Gaolers,' and 'Combination and +Coercion,' by Mr. Shaw-Lefevre; and some contributions to a few reviews +and other serials. + +The 'Present Question' of the Irish land, and of Irish landed relations, +goes back to even remote antiquity, and is connected with the whole course +of Irish history. The characteristics and peculiarities of tribal land +tenure in Ireland, before the Anglo-Norman Conquest, have been admirably +explained in Sir Henry Maine's 'Early History of Institutions,' a very +valuable work. I may refer to an article on this book, from my pen, in the +_Edinburgh Review_ of July, 1875. See, also, the 'Senchus Mor,' and the +'Book of Aicile,' fragments of the Brehon Laws, well annotated by the late +Professor Richey. The state of the Irish land, from the Anglo-Norman +Conquest to the beginning of the Tudor period, has been fully illustrated +in the 'Statute of Kilkenny,' edited by James Hardiman, whose learned +commentary is useful and important; in the 'Discovery' of Sir John Davies; +in Spenser's 'View of the State of Ireland;' in the 'O'Conors of +Connaught,' by the O'Conor Don; in Hallam's 'Constitutional History,' vol. +iii. chapter on Ireland; and in Professor Richey's 'Lectures.' I have +glanced at the state of Irish land tenure during the tribal and the feudal +ages, in the introductory chapters to my 'Ireland, 1494-1868,' in the +'Cambridge Historical Series.' The most complete account, perhaps, of the +confiscations of the Irish land, from the reign of Henry VIII. to that of +Charles I., will be found in the 'Carew Papers,' edited by J. S. Brewer +and William Bullen; valuable information abounds in the 'State Papers +relating to the reign of Henry VIII.,' edited by Hans Claude Hamilton; in +'The Life of Sir John Perrott and his Letters;' in the 'Earls of Kildare,' +edited by the Marquis of Kildare; in the 'State Papers,' edited by +Hamilton, _ante_, 'relating to the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and +Elizabeth;' in the 'Annals of the Four Masters;' and see Davies and +Spenser, _ante_. Several modern writers have treated this subject in their +narratives of Irish history; Froude's 'History of England,' vol. ii. ch. +viii.; vol. iv. ch. xix.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.; vol. viii. chs. vii.-xi.; +vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii., may be consulted; but a reader +should be put on his guard against the brilliant but partisan historian. +There is a valuable chapter also, in a very different work, Mr. Lecky's +'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. ch. vi. pp. 92 +_seqq._; and a great deal may be learned from the 'O'Conors of Connaught,' +and Richey's 'Lectures,' _ante_; and especially from an 'Historical +Account of the Plantation of Ulster,' by the Rev. George Hill, and from +Sigerson's 'History of Irish Land Tenure.' In the momentous period of +confiscation, from the beginning of the reign of Charles I. to that of +William III., a reader should study 'Strafford's Letters;' Carte's 'Life +of Ormond;' Lord Clanricarde's 'Memoirs;' the 'Letters of Cromwell,' +edited by Carlyle; the 'Acts of Settlement and Explanation;' the 'Articles +of the Treaty of Limerick;' Sir William Petty's 'Political Anatomy of +Ireland;' 'Macariae Excidium;' and the Abbe MacGeoghegan's 'History of +Ireland.' The modern authorities on this period are numerous and some of +great value; see Gardiner's 'History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate' +(the Irish chapters), notably vol. iii. ch. xliv.; 'The Cromwellian +Settlement of Ireland,' by John P. Prendergast; 'The Life of Sir William +Petty,' by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, with an article by me in the +_Edinburgh Review_ of July, 1895; 'The Patriot Parliament,' by Thomas +Davis; Macaulay's 'History of England' (the Irish chapters), vol. iv. ch. +xxii.; vol. v. ch. xiv.-xvi.; vol. vi. ch. xvii.; and Mr. Lecky's +'History,' _ante_, vol. ii. ch. ix. Many instructive and philosophic +passages on all these confiscations and their results, will be found +scattered among the writings of Burke; they are admirable. + +The era of violent confiscation closed with the reign of William III.; the +modern history of the Irish land system begins from this period. For an +account of the penal code, as it affected Irish landed relations, +reference may be made to Vincent Scully, 'On the Penal Laws;' to Howard's +'Popery Cases;' and especially to Burke's 'Tracts on the Popery Laws.' +Much, too, can be gathered from Curry's 'State of the Irish Catholics;' +from Primate Boulter's and Archbishop Synge's 'Letters;' from the writings +on Ireland of Swift and Berkeley; and from various passages in the 'Works +and Correspondence of Burke.' For the state of the Irish land from the +beginning of the reign of George III. to the Rebellion of 1798, study the +celebrated 'Tour' of Arthur Young, written in 1776-78; Crumpe's 'Essay;' +an admirable sketch by Mr. Lecky in his 'History,' _ante_, vol. vii. ch. +xxvii.; and Sir George Lewis on 'Irish Disturbances,' a book which gives +an account of the rise and progress of the Whiteboy movement, and carries +the narrative down to 1836. Froude has illustrated this subject very +skilfully in his 'Two Chiefs of Dunboy;' but his account, in his 'The +English in Ireland,' is very inaccurate and one-sided. The nature of Irish +landed relations during the troubled period before the Union is fully +explained in many passages of Mr. Lecky's 'History,' _ante_, vols. vii. +and viii.; and the reader should peruse Lord Clare's speech in the Irish +House of Lords during the debates on the Union. From the Union to the +present time, the authorities on the Irish land system are very numerous; +it is not easy to make compendious selection. For the period of the Great +War, Edward Wakefield's 'Account of Ireland' is valuable, and so is, for +the immediately subsequent period, the evidence on the state of Ireland +taken by a Committee of the House of Commons in 1825. The nature and the +characteristics of the Irish land system, in 1843-44, are fully explained +and commented upon in the well-known Report of the Devon Commission, and +the voluminous evidence; and for the revolution wrought in the Irish land +by the Famine of 1845-47, see the 'Irish Crisis,' by Sir Charles +Trevelyan, republished from the _Edinburgh Review_; and a 'History of the +Great Irish Famine,' by the Rev. John O'Rorke. Much information, too, on +the subject, as a whole, may be obtained from 'L'Irlande, Sociale, +Politique, et Religieuse,' of Gustave de Beaumont; from 'Ireland from the +Treaty of Limerick to 1851,' by John Mitchell; from parts of 'Two +Centuries of Irish History,' edited by James Bryce, M.P.; from several +'Reports' of the Loyal National Repeal Association; and from parts of Mr. +Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' and 'Irish Wrongs +and English Remedies.' + +The Irish land question has given birth to a literature of its own in the +last half-century; legislation on the Irish land system has been +extraordinarily active. With respect to the first, reference may be made +to 'Two Centuries of Irish History,' _ante_, and to Mr. Barry O'Brien's +works, _ante_; to 'Emigration and the Tenure of Irish Land,' by Lord +Dufferin; to John Stuart Mill's 'The Irish Land Question;' to 'The Irish +People and the Irish Land,' by Butt; to Sir George Campbell's 'The Irish +Land,' a very good little book; to Judge Longfield's essay on the Irish +land in 'Systems of Land Tenure;' and to my own 'Letters on the Land +Question of Ireland,' republished from the _Times_. I am happy to think +that, on this subject, I have always 'pitched my Whiggery low;' my first +essay was on the Encumbered Estates Act; when fresh from Oxford I +condemned that scheme of confiscation as unequivocally as, in the present +and other works, I have condemned Irish agrarian legislation since +1880-81. Other books contain passages on the Irish land system that may be +read with profit; see the 'Recollections and Suggestions' of Earl Russell; +'Ireland in 1868,' by Gerald Fitzgibbon; 'Ireland,' by Lord Grey; +'Journals, Conversations, and Essays relating to Ireland,' by Nassau +Senior; and 'New Views on Ireland,' by Lord Russell of Killowen. As +regards recent legislation on the Irish Land, from 1870 to 1896, the Acts +passed by Parliament must of course be studied, and also the important +debates reported in Hansard. Butt wrote a very able volume on the Land Act +of 1870; I contributed a short treatise; an exhaustive and technical work +of great value, on all the Irish Land Acts, has been produced by Messrs. +Cherry and Wakely; this, with the Irish Reports, supplies ample +professional, and even general, information. With respect to the +administration of the Irish Land Acts, see the Report of the Committee of +the House of Lords, and the evidence published in 1872; the Report of, and +the evidence collected by, the Bessborough Commission of 1880-81; the +Report of a Committee of the House of Lords on the working of the Land Act +of 1881, published, with the evidence, in 1882; the Report, with the +evidence, of the Cowper Commission, 1888-89; the Report, with the +evidence, of the Morley Commission, 1894-1895; and, especially, the Report +of Sir Edward Fry's Commission of 1897, with the important evidence it has +put together. Mr. Lecky, in his 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. ch. ii., +has criticised, almost as severely as I have done, recent Irish agrarian +legislation; no serious defence of it has ever been made or attempted. + +To understand the real state of the financial relations between Great +Britain and Ireland, it is necessary to go back to the times of the Union; +those who resist the Irish demand avoid an appeal to history. The debates +in the Irish Parliament in 1800 should be carefully studied, especially +the speeches of Castlereagh, Grattan, and Foster. The Seventh Article of +the Treaty of Union, set forth in this work, should also be diligently +scanned and perused. See, too, the debates in the Imperial Parliament in +1816; the resolutions passed by the House of Commons in that year; and the +Act abolishing the separate Exchequer of Ireland. Reference, moreover, +should be made to the evidence taken before General Dunne's Committee in +1864, in which sophistry triumphed for the moment over truth. All these +sources of information, however, are scanty and imperfect compared to the +celebrated Report of the Childers Commission, with the valuable evidence +annexed to it; this for the first time completely brings out the whole +facts on the subject. The debates in Hansard on the financial claims of +Ireland may also be looked at; but they are not of peculiar importance; +the same remark applies to nearly all the articles in reviews, magazines, +and journals, in which endeavours have been made to answer the Report. I +may be allowed to say that I have some claim to have a distinct opinion in +this matter; when still quite a boy I often heard my grand-uncle, the late +Sir John Newport, one of the ablest and last of the Chancellors of the +Irish Exchequer, condemn the financial treatment of Ireland from 1800 +onwards; many years afterwards I was intimately acquainted with several of +the independent Irish gentlemen, survivors of the great school of Grattan, +who protested against Mr. Gladstone's fiscal Irish measures from 1853 to a +later date; Butt and Judge Longfield, both very able economists, fully +concurred. With respect to local government and administration in Ireland, +see Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. i. +books iv. and v.; the Report of the Commissioners on Irish Corporate +Reform issued in 1833-34, and the Irish Municipal Corporation Reform Act +of 1840; the Irish Towns Commissioners Acts; a report made by Mr. W. P. +O'Brien in 1878; a good treatise by Mr. Bailey published in 1888; and the +recent Irish Local Government Act of 1898, with the debates in Hansard on +this measure, should be perused. The authorities on Irish education of all +kinds are numerous, and some valuable. Froude has glanced at the subject, +with characteristic unfairness, in his 'The English in Ireland;' the +refutation of Mr. Lecky, in his 'England in the Eighteenth Century,' is +complete. A good description of education in Ireland, in all its branches, +as it existed in 1812, will be found in Edward Wakefield's 'Account of +Ireland,' vol. ii. ch. xxiv.; another in Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years +of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. i. book i.; vol ii. book x.; the author +brings the narrative down to 1881. As regards high education in Ireland, +reference may be made to 'The History of the University of Dublin,' by the +Rev. W. Stubbs; to 'The Constitutional History of the University of +Dublin,' by D. C. Heron; to the Report of Archbishop Whateley's +Commission, in 1853, on the University of Dublin; to Mr. Gladstone's Irish +University Bill of 1873, and the able debates on the subject in Trinity +College and the House of Commons; to Mr. Fawcett's Act of 1873; to a +masterly pamphlet by Butt, on the whole question, published in 1875; and +to the 'Irish University Question,' by Archbishop Walsh, with recent +debates in Parliament on Irish University reform. For the nature, +constitution, and working of the Queen's Colleges and the Queen's +University, see the debates in Parliament when Peel introduced this +policy; many Reports; the work of Archbishop Walsh, _ante_; and the Act +creating the Royal University in Ireland may be examined. As regards +primary and secondary education in Ireland, see the Reports of the +Education Commissioners from 1810 to 1825; the Reports of the National +Education Board; the Reports of the Kildare, Rosse, and Powis +Commissions, noticed in this work; and Mr. Godkin's 'Education in +Ireland.' An excellent synopsis of the subject, as a whole, will be found +in 'The Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland,' by Mr. Graham +Balfour. + +WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS. + + GARTNAMONA, TULLAMORE, + _14th May, 1901_. + + + + +Contents + + + PAGES + + CHAPTER I + + IRELAND IN 1901 + + Ireland has passed through a revolution in the Victorian + age--Material progress--Dublin--Belfast--Improvement in + Catholic places of worship and in the habitations of the + people--State of the Irish community--Symptoms of + retrogression--Decline of agriculture--The progress of Ireland + Ireland much less than that of England and Scotland, and + why--State of the Irish land system--Recent legislation has + done some good, but it has been unjust, and has had pernicious + effects--Ireland divided into three peoples--Notwithstanding + great reforms Catholic Ireland is still, in the main, + disaffected--Presbyterian Ireland--Cry for the confiscation of + the Irish land--Protestant Ireland--Fall of its old + ascendency--Discontent among the landed gentry--Nature of the + government of Ireland by the Imperial Parliament--Its merits + and defects--Attitude of the greater part of Ireland towards + it--The administration of Irish affairs--The bureaucracy of + the Castle--The Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic Irish + Churches--The administration of justice in Ireland--Irish + literature and public opinion--General survey of the present + state of Ireland--Irish policy of Lord Salisbury's + Ministry--'Present Irish Questions' to be discussed in this + work 1-38 + + + CHAPTER II + + THE QUESTION OF HOME RULE + + The question of Home Rule not extinct--The reasons--Butt's + scheme of Home Rule--It is denounced and ridiculed by Mr. + Gladstone, and defeated in the House of Commons--Death of + Butt--The Home Rule movement becomes allied with a foreign + conspiracy--Davitt and Parnell--The Land League--Mr. + Gladstone's surrender to it--The movement makes no progress + in the Parliament of 1880-85--The General Election of + 1885--Mr. Gladstone suddenly adopts the policy of Home + Rule--The probable reasons--The Home Rule Bill of 1886--Its + nature and tendencies--Decisive objections to the + measure--It is rejected at the General Election of 1886, + having been previously rejected in the House of Commons-- + Policy and conduct of Mr. Gladstone--The Home Rule movement + makes some progress in England, and why--The Home Rule Bill + of 1893--It is much worse than that of 1886--The reasons--It + is rejected by the House of Lords--Home Rule under different + forms--The Union must be maintained--Proposal that Parliament + should occasionally sit in Dublin--The over-representation + of Ireland should be redressed 39-83 + + + CHAPTER III + + THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND--SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE + LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND TO THE YEAR 1870 + + Great importance in the history of Ireland of the conditions + of land tenure--The ancient Celtic land system and its + characteristics--The Norman conquest of Ireland--Norman + feudalism in the Irish land--The policy of Henry VII., and + especially of Henry VIII.--The era of the conquest and + confiscation of the Irish land--The possessions of the + O'Connors of Offaly wrested from them--Forfeiture of the + domains of Shane O'Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond--Attempts + at colonisation--All Ireland made shire land--The extinction + of the old Celtic land system--The Plantation of Ulster-- + Progress of confiscation during the reigns of the two first + Stuarts--The Civil War--Immense confiscations made by + Cromwell--His scheme of colonisation a failure--The era of + confiscation closes after the battle of the Boyne and the fall + of Limerick--The Penal Code of Ireland--Its fatal effects on + the Irish land--Dismal period in Irish landed relations-- + Gradual improvement--The period described by Arthur Young-- + Evil traces of the past remain--Whiteboyism and agrarian + disorder--State of Irish landed relations up to the rebellion + of 1798, and after the Union--Over-population and the + results--Distress after the Peace--State of Irish landed + relations up to 1844--The Report of the Devon Commission--The + Famine and its effects on the Irish land--The Encumbered + Estates Acts--State of Irish landed relations from 1848 to + 1868 84-129 + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--THE IRISH LAND + ACT OF 1870--THE LAND LEAGUE AND THE NATIONAL LEAGUE--THE LAND + ACT OF 1881--SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION AS REGARDS THE LAND SYSTEM + OF IRELAND + + State of landed relations in Ireland in 1869-70--Mr. Gladstone + Prime Minister--The Land Act of 1870--Its merits and defects-- + A short period of prosperity in Ireland--Ominous symptoms-- + Michael Davitt--The teaching of John Finton Lalor in 1848--The + 'New Departure' in Fenianism arranged in America--Foundation + of the Land League--It was a foreign rebellious conspiracy, + with an agrarian side, under a constitutional mask--Parnell + the master spirit of the League--His visit to America and the + results--A short period of distress in Ireland--Conduct of the + Irish landlords--Progress of the Land League--Mr. Gladstone + again Prime Minister in 1880--The Compensation for Disturbance + Bill rejected by the House of Lords--Outburst of agrarian + crime, as the Land League increases in power--Rents at + Griffith's valuation--Boycotting--Frightful state of Ireland + in 1881--After a short attempt to repress it, Mr. Gladstone + surrenders to the Land League--The Land Act of 1881--Mr. + Gladstone breaks the pledges he had made in 1870--His promise + of compensating the Irish landlords--The Land Act of 1881 a + bad and unjust measure directly inconsistent with that of + 1870--The 'No Rent Manifesto'--The Kilmainham Treaty--The + Phoenix Park tragedy--Coercion--Parnell founds the National + League, the successor of the Land League--Renewal of agitation + in 1886--Struggle with law and the Government--Subsequent + agrarian legislation for Ireland--This is really a concession + to agitation, for the benefit of Irish tenants, and to the + injury of Irish landlords 130-187 + + + CHAPTER V + + THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--THE ADMINISTRATION + OF THE IRISH LAND ACTS + + The administration of the Land Act of 1870 in the main + good--Difficulty about claims for tenants' improvements--The + administration of the Land Act of 1881, and of its + supplements--The Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions-- + Allowances to be made for these tribunals--Principles which + the Land Commission should have adopted in fixing 'fair + rents'--The procedure and practice it ought to have + established--It made mistakes as to both--The nature of the + Sub-Commission Courts--This was objectionable in the highest + degree--These Courts have, however unconsciously, done grave + wrong to Irish landlords--Causes of this--Characteristics of + their proceedings--They disregarded the principles they + ought to have followed, and adopted faulty and erroneous + methods--Different illustrations of these grave mistakes-- + The Land Commission and appeals as to 'fair rent'--Importance + of this subject--Faulty procedure of the Land Commission in + appeals--Valuers--The second Land Commission--Its procedure + worse than that of the first--Theory of occupation right-- + This another wrong done to landlords--The Fry Commission and + its report--Confiscation of the property of Irish + landlords--The proofs of this--Apologies made for the Land + Commission--The administration of the Land Purchase Acts 188-229 + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--PROPOSED REFORM + OF THE IRISH LAND SYSTEM + + Retrospect of the present Irish land system--Position of the + Irish landlords--Position of the Irish tenant class--This + not as advantageous as might be supposed--The effects of the + land code on Irish agriculture injurious--The effects on the + general Irish community--Confiscation, violation of + contracts, shock given to credit, increased alienation of + classes, and demoralisation--The land system considered on + the side of ownership--'Voluntary purchase'--Mischief of + this policy--It sets up a false standard against rent, and + creates unjust distinctions between different classes of + tenants--The results it has produced already--An instance of + the system--The demand for the compulsory purchase of the + Irish land caused by 'voluntary purchase'--Compulsory + purchase has some hold on opinion, but is an impossible, and + would be a disgraceful and ruinous policy--It would ruin + Irish landlords as a class--Instances--It would ultimately + bring Ireland into the state in which she was before the + Great Famine--Proposed plan for the reform of Irish land + tenure--Questions as to the means of compensating Irish + landlords, a deeply wronged order of men 230-270 + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE QUESTION OF THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN + AND IRELAND + + The subject briefly considered--Financial position of + Ireland before 1782, and under Grattan's Parliament--Her + taxation and debt small before 1798--Ireland financially a + distinct country--At the Union, Pitt wished to 'assimilate + her in finance' with Great Britain, but this impossible, and + why--Ireland's contribution after the Union--This was + unjust, but it left her financially a distinct country-- + Ireland made nearly bankrupt--The compromise of 1816--The + Irish Exchequer closed, and the Irish and British debts + consolidated--The object of the compromise was rather to + relieve Ireland from her burdens than to assimilate her in + finance with Great Britain--She still remained for many + years financially distinct from Great Britain, and is so + still to some extent--The conduct of Peel a striking proof + of this--Mr. Gladstone imposes the income tax on Ireland, + and her spirit duties are largely raised--Injustice of this + policy--The Committee of 1863-64--Ireland does not obtain + financial justice--The Report of the Childers Commission + made upon a reference by Mr. Gladstone following Mr. + Goschen--The Commission declares that Ireland has been + greatly overtaxed for many years--Evidence on which it has + founded this conclusion--Examination of arguments to the + contrary--Another Commission promised, but the promise not + fulfilled--Importance of settling this question 271-308 + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE QUESTIONS OF IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION--OTHER + QUESTIONS--CONCLUSION + + Irish county government--The grand jury system in the + eighteenth century--Its merits and defects--The grand jury + system in the nineteenth century, and especially since + 1836--The Irish poor law system--Elected and _ex-officio_ + guardians--The local government of cities and towns in + Ireland--Municipal institutions founded in Ireland by the + Norman kings--Why they did not prosper--Boroughs and + municipalities founded by James I. and the Stuarts--Their + condition in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries--The + Municipal Reform Act of 1840--The Towns Commissioners + Acts--Attempts to reform the municipal system of local + government in Ireland--The Local Government of Ireland Act, + 1898--Complete change in Irish local government--The County + Councils--The County Borough Councils--The District, Rural, + and the Urban District Councils--Their functions, rights, + and duties--All these bodies placed on a democratic basis-- + Attitude of the County Councils in the southern provinces-- + Education in Ireland--History of primary education--The + National system of education--The principles on which it is + founded--How it has worked, and what its results have + been--Secondary education in Ireland--Its history--Its + present condition very imperfect--The Intermediate + Education Act--University education in Ireland--Its + history--Trinity College--The Queen's Colleges and the + Queen's University founded by Peel--Their comparative + failure--Mr. Gladstone's Bill to reform University education + in Ireland--Its glaring errors and failures--Trinity College + thrown open in 1873--The Royal University founded in 1879-- + Present state of University education in Ireland--The true + principles of reform--Other Irish questions--Conclusion 309-360 + + APPENDIX 361-428 + + INDEX 429 + + + + +Present Irish Questions + + + + +CHAPTER I + +IRELAND IN 1901 + + Ireland has passed through a revolution in the Victorian age--Material + progress--Dublin--Belfast--Improvement in Catholic places of worship + and in the habitations of the people--State of the Irish + community--Symptoms of retrogression--Decline of agriculture--The + progress of Ireland much less than that of England and Scotland, and + why--State of the Irish land system--Recent legislation has done some + good, but it has been unjust, and has had pernicious effects--Ireland + divided into three peoples--Notwithstanding great reforms Catholic + Ireland is still, in the main, disaffected--Presbyterian Ireland--Cry + for the confiscation of the Irish land--Protestant Ireland--Fall of + its old ascendency--Discontent among the landed gentry--Nature of the + government of Ireland by the Imperial Parliament--Its merits and + defects--Attitude of the greater part of Ireland towards it--The + administration of Irish affairs--The bureaucracy of the Castle--The + Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic Irish Churches--The + administration of justice in Ireland--Irish literature and public + opinion--General survey of the present state of Ireland--Irish policy + of Lord Salisbury's ministry--'Present Irish Questions' to be + discussed in this work. + + +To understand thoroughly the Ireland of the present day, it is necessary +to have studied her history in the past. Nevertheless, if we go back to a +comparatively recent period, say to the beginning of the reign of +Victoria, we can obtain a reasonably clear idea of her existing +condition. A revolution has passed over her in this space of time almost +as complete as the revolution which has transformed France; the results +have not yet been fully developed, but in nearly all respects they have +been immense. The community has, for the most part, made material +progress; but this has been far from great or decisive; it has been +interrupted by seasons of distress, one culminating in a dire catastrophe, +and has been retarded by many causes of trouble. Taking the external +aspect of Ireland first, Dublin has certainly advanced in the last sixty +years; the capital has been surrounded by fine and increasing suburbs; the +squares, the streets, the shops have improved; above all, though much +remains yet to be done, the contrast between the dwellings of the rich and +the poor is much less painful than it was within living memory. No city, +however, has made such progress as Belfast: its population, which, in +1841, was not more than 75,000 souls, was, in 1891, upwards of 255,000;[1] +its opulence has probably grown tenfold; it is the centre of the great +manufacture of Ulster; its building-yards are renowned for its magnificent +ships; its estuary is crowded with the thronging fleets of commerce. The +towns dependent on it, too, and the whole adjoining region, are +flourishing from the great trade in linen, which has been aggregated +within a comparatively small space; indeed, this prosperity has extended +over all the north-east of Ireland, and Londonderry has long been a +thriving seaport. Few of the towns of the rest of Ulster and of the +southern provinces have improved; but signs of augmented wealth appear in +other directions; in this respect they are striking in the extreme. The +places of worship and the religious houses of the Catholic Church of +Ireland have been transformed; the mean 'chapels' of the past have largely +disappeared; most parishes have a suitable church; fine cathedrals +dominate many towns; we often admire monasteries and convents in +architectural splendour. The most remarkable phenomenon, however, of this +description is the great and fortunate change which has taken place in the +habitations of the community throughout the country. The dense and +wretched hovels which, sixty years ago, barely sheltered the millions of +Irish indigence, if still too frequent, have been, for the most part, +effaced; the houses of the better class have greatly increased in numbers, +though the population has enormously declined.[2] And the face of the +landscape in most counties bears witness, on the whole, to a still +perceptible progress. The chief industry of Ireland, indeed, as I shall +show afterwards, has certainly retrograded within the last twenty years; +her agricultural area and resources have much diminished. The advance, +too, which, from about 1853 to 1876, was manifest and rapid in most of her +rural districts, has been, to a considerable extent, checked; capital has, +for some time, been avoiding her soil. But if the process was stern, nay, +appalling, the land has, within the last half century, been thrown open to +husbandry, infinitely better and more fruitful than had existed before; +the exertions which were made, for a long space of time, to improve +cultivation have left far-spreading traces; we still behold the beneficent +results. The land over the greater part of its surface is not 'puckered +up' in thousands of squalid patches, the holdings of masses of cottar +paupers; it has been made more available for real farming; and it has been +largely drained, enclosed, and covered with woodland--at least, up to a +recent period. + +The material condition of the Irish community has, also, improved since +the late Queen ascended the throne. This, no doubt, is to be largely +ascribed to the effects of the great Famine of 1845-47, and of the immense +emigration that followed in its train. The resources of Ireland, before +that calamity, were unable to support, in anything like comfort, the +teeming multitudes crowded on her soil; an official report, made in 1838, +proved that two millions and a half of the poor in Ireland were for months +in the year on the brink of starvation; this huge mass of indigence, which +forced up rent, beat down wages, and was most injurious to good husbandry, +was almost incompatible with real social progress. The great and +continuing exodus of the Irish race, which has gone on for more than half +a century, has not been without untoward results; but it has relieved the +country from a destructive incubus; and this has certainly wrought a +beneficent change, though the population has declined from about eight +millions in 1837 to about four and a half millions in 1895.[3] Ireland, +indeed, is still, mainly, a poor country--in some districts she is +exceedingly poor; but the disappearance of overwhelmingly redundant +millions has enabled her to maintain the millions that have remained much +better than of old, and has distinctly raised the standard of living among +all the humbler classes. The wages of agricultural labour, seldom more +than six or seven shillings a week before the Famine, and then paid in +potatoes by a vile truck system, have risen to ten and even twelve +shillings, usually paid in cash; and they have not fallen, though Irish +agriculture is very far from prosperous. The wages of the higher kinds of +labour have also greatly increased; this is apparent in nearly all trades, +and is especially apparent in the trades of Ulster. At the same time, the +potato has long ceased to be the sole food of the poor; their dwellings, +though still too often mean and bad, are infinitely better than they once +were; their attire, and even their appearance, has greatly improved. I do +not think, indeed, that O'Connell's description of the peasantry of +Munster in 1825 could now be fairly applied to even the worst parts of +Ireland, the impoverished tracts on the seacoast of Connaught: 'They have +no clothes to change, they have none but what they wear at the moment.... +Their food consists of potatoes and water during the greater part of the +year; potatoes and sour milk during another portion; they use some salt +with their potatoes when they have nothing but water.'[4] There is +evidence, also, that, even of late years, the wealth of Ireland has, in +some measure, increased, especially in the middle and lower middle +classes. The landed gentry, indeed, owing partly to the effects of Free +Trade, and partly to those of legislation I shall describe afterwards, +have been impoverished in many instances, and in many ruined; and the +Irish tenant farmer, if gorged by the spoil of his landlord, has not +gained all that an agrarian revolution was expected to give him. But the +commerce of Ireland has made progress, within the last two decades, if +this has not been by any means great; and though the capital she holds in +the best securities has perceptibly diminished of late years, there has +been a very large increase in most kinds of other investments.[5] + +This picture of Ireland, however, has dark features; her welfare has been, +at best, partial; considerable deductions must be made from it. The +progress of the capital, as has been the case in London, is largely to be +ascribed to the depletion of many country districts, a change that has +been going on for a long period, and has been accelerated by the decline +of the landed gentry in wealth. The enormous advance of Belfast, and of +the adjoining neighbourhood, has been, to a great extent, caused by the +concentration of the linen manufacture within a small area; the hand-loom +has disappeared from Ireland; this has been injurious to many petty towns +and villages. The population and the trade of nearly all the chief towns +in the southern provinces have diminished; Cork, with its immense natural +advantages, has not prospered; Limerick and, notably, Galway are in decay; +most of the inland towns show few signs of improvement; the outskirts of +almost all are defaced by lines of ruined hovels, the wrecks of abodes a +dwindling tale of indwellers has left. Many of these urban centres were, +sixty years ago, seats of manufactures and of other industries, which, to +a certain extent, were flourishing; but these sources of wealth have, for +the most part, been dried up; they have been blotted out by the gigantic +manufactures of England and Scotland poured into Ireland, everywhere, +within a few hours, by steam. The collapse, indeed, of Irish manufactures +in the last half century has been striking and mournful; 696,000 persons +were employed in textile and dyeing industries in 1841; in 1881 there were +only 130,000; and though the growth of machinery may in part account for +this difference, it assuredly cannot fully explain it.[6] The same remark +applies to Irish fishing industry; the small craft which once swarmed +along the coast, and, rearing a breed of hardy mariners, gathered in the +prolific harvests of the sea, have been vanishing year after year; in +1867, 9332 boats, and 38,444 men and boys were engaged in this calling; +the numbers were 5646 and 21,940 in 1891.[7] Turning to the face of the +country, agriculture, we have seen, has improved, if we look back to the +period before the Famine; but it is still centuries behind that of England +and Scotland, and of late years it has markedly declined. It is not only +that the prices of agricultural produce are much less than they were, in +the last generation, and that its total value has fallen from L97,885,000 +in 1851-55, to L88,955,000 in 1889-93.[8] The agricultural area of Ireland +has diminished from 1879 to 1899 by rather more than 400,000 acres;[9] and +it is absolutely certain that within these decreasing limits, as I shall +point out in subsequent chapters, agriculture has made little or no +progress, and in some districts has distinctly become worse; we see the +results of the vicious legislation of the last twenty years in +deteriorated farms, in hundreds of cases, in a most injurious neglect of +arterial drainage, and in the destruction of thousands of acres of +woodland. And the ruin which has overtaken many of the landed gentry has +been made only too manifest in the desolate aspect of scores of country +seats, once happy homes, that now know their owners no more. + +It must be borne in mind, too, as we examine the present state of Ireland, +that if, on the whole, she has made some progress, she is still, as I have +said, a poor country, and that a considerable part of Connaught, her +western province, has, for years, been in so poor a condition, that the +Government of late has laudably made a great effort to raise it out of the +depths of indigence. Other considerations, moreover, must be taken into +account, if we would form a just conclusion as to the material position +of Ireland, and, especially, as to her material prospects. The reduction +of her population, up to a certain point, was an essential condition of +her social progress; but that limit appears to have been far surpassed; +this continuous decline, during more than half a century, has become an +ominous symptom. More than 3,700,000 of souls have emigrated from Ireland +since 1851;[10] and this number does not include the masses which fled +from the catastrophe of 1845-47. This immense drain on the life of a +nation has, for years, had a pernicious effect; in large parts of the +country labourers have become so scarce that it is often difficult to save +the harvest, which should be quickly gathered in, in a wet climate; and +hands are wanting to industry in many places. Emigration, too, has taken +away the best part of the people, men and women in the flower of +existence; the reproductive power of the community has, accordingly, +declined; the birth-rate of Ireland is less than it was; infirmity, +disease, and, notably, insanity have increased; the population of the +towns is seldom active and thriving.[11] At the same time, the taxation of +Ireland has become many degrees more excessive in the last sixty years; +the local rates have advanced from about L1,000,000 to nearly L4,000,000; +the general taxation has been well-nigh doubled; and a tribunal of the +very highest authority has recently declared that Ireland is immensely +overtaxed, and has been for upwards of forty years. Nor can there be a +real question but that large interests connected with the land have +suffered greatly in the period that has now extended from 1878-79. It is +unnecessary to refer to the condition of the landed gentry; I shall notice +it at some length afterwards; but, much as the Irish people dislike the +Poor-law, pauperism has distinctly increased during the last ten years, +though the population has fallen off in numbers, and the charge of +pauperism shows a corresponding increase.[12] The Income Tax returns, too, +as regards the land, are of sinister omen; those under Schedule A have +greatly diminished since 1890; and there is a considerable decline of +property in the Funds.[13] As to the argument that the Tenant Right of the +Irish farmer has risen in value, and that this proves Irish agriculture to +be in a prosperous state, this is a complete, nay, a grotesque, fallacy. +The rise in the value of Tenant Right is simply one of the many signs that +a huge confiscation has taken place in the Irish land. + +If Ireland, therefore, has made material progress, this has been slow, +partial, and with large drawbacks; such as it is, it must be mainly +ascribed to the results of the Famine, which liberated the soil from a +destructive burden. The whole country, it has truly been said, has still +too much the look of a 'great neglected estate,' requiring development in +most of its parts; large sections of the population are poor, feeble in +health, and backward. Any advance, moreover, which Ireland has made in +well being, since 1837-38, is as nothing compared with the extraordinary +growth of the prosperity of England and Scotland, within the same period. +True-hearted Irishmen grieve as they pass from the lesser to the greater +island, and contrast the husbandry of Galway and Mayo with that of the +Lothians and Kent; as they gaze on the Shannon, with scarcely a sail on +its waters, and the Clyde teeming with its fleets of commerce; above all, +as they turn from the decaying towns of their own country to such centres +of wealth and of gigantic trade, as some even of the provincial cities of +Britain, not to speak of the mighty world of London. The causes, indeed, +of this contrast may be easily found; the mineral resources of Ireland are +scanty; her commerce and manufactures are small; she is essentially an +agricultural land, which has lost much from the effects of Free Trade; she +has suffered greatly from misgovernment, agitation, and social disorder; +all this has kept her back in the national race. The mineral products, on +the other hand, of England and Scotland are immense, and of the first +importance in an age of invention; they have decisively contributed to the +huge development of the opulence and the trade of Great Britain; the +policy of Free Trade, carried out for years, has had marvellous results in +the same direction; if British agriculture is not progressing, British +commerce and manufactures are still supreme; and Great Britain has been +for ages a law-abiding land, in which order has been happily combined with +liberty. These considerations fully explain the wide and ever-increasing +distinction between Ireland and England and Scotland, only too manifest; +they have been amply verified by unerring statistics. Two figures may +suffice for a general reader; the resources of Ireland were estimated, a +few years ago, at a sum of about four hundred millions sterling, that of +Great Britain at not less than ten thousand millions.[14] + +The social structure of Ireland springs from the soil; it is most apparent +in the relations that have been formed in the land. I shall dwell, at some +length, in other chapters of this work, on the history and the +characteristics of the Irish land system, and on the revolution through +which it has passed; I can here only briefly glance at the subject. That +system, at the beginning of the late reign, still represented, in many +respects, the features it had borne in the eighteenth century, though +these had been, in a great degree, modified. The land, over four-fifths of +its surface, was still in the ownership of a small class of men, divided +in race and faith from its occupants; the conquests and confiscations +which had drawn deep lines of distinction between the Anglo-Protestant +landlord and the Catholic and even the Presbyterian peasant, had still +left their indelible traces, if these had been, to a considerable extent, +effaced. Absenteeism had increased since the Union, though absentee +estates were showing signs of improvement; middleman tenures, with their +manifold and complex mischiefs, were disappearing, but were still +numerous; various causes, to operate for many years, were diminishing the +security of the peasants' tenure. The power of the dominant landlord class +was declining; it was being weakened by the Castle bureaucracy, and by the +emancipation of Catholic Ireland; but it was still nearly supreme in +landed relations; this class was all but the absolute lords of the tillers +of the soil. It is untrue that it was oppressive and unjust as a rule; but +some of its members abused their excessive power; it had too much in +common with an exclusive caste; and a whole train of economic causes were +aggravating the evils of a land system from its origin placed on unsound +foundations. Agriculture was advancing in not a few counties; many of the +landed gentry were improving men, who were making a beginning in the +scientific farming, which, before long, was to be more fully developed. +But the population, we have seen, had increased by millions Ireland could +not support; over whole districts, especially in Munster and Connaught, +the land had been split up into petty holdings, the seats of a huge +multitude of human misery. Rents, therefore, were being unnaturally forced +up, and the wages of labour unnaturally cut down; the land system was +disorganised, and filled with dangerous elements. The worst vice of the +system, however, has yet to be noticed; from different causes which I +shall point out afterwards, the occupiers of the soil in Ireland had, as a +general rule, made even the permanent improvements on their farms, and +large sums had repeatedly been paid on the transfer of these; they had +thus gradually acquired concurrent rights in the land, in tens of +thousands of instances; and yet these were outside the pale of the law, +and could be annihilated by eviction, or even the raising of rent. These +rights had the support, in parts of Ulster, of a long-established custom, +and were usually respected in the southern provinces; but they ought long +before to have had full legal protection; and they were sometimes violated +or disregarded by unscrupulous landlords. The results were seen in the +White Boy and the agrarian disorders which had disturbed Ireland for more +than a century, and even ran back to the confiscations of the past. + +This land system, essentially bad as it was, marked by evil distinctions +and pregnant with wrong, scarcely attracted the attention of British +statesmen, until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century. Peel was the +first minister who, even dimly, perceived its vices; he appointed a +Commission to report on the subject. The labours of this body were, in +part, laudable; but the Commissioners, filled with prejudice as to the +excellence of British land tenure, and without experience of that of +Ireland, made a capital mistake in the suggestions they offered. Instead +of recommending that the concurrent rights of the Irish tenant in the +land, often equivalent to a real joint ownership, should receive, as was +but just, the sanction of law, they proposed to restrict these in many +ways; they put forward a plan of 'compensation,' as they called it, that +was worse than useless. Legislation to this effect was withdrawn from +Parliament; the terrible visitation of 1845-47 had ere long shattered the +Irish land system, bringing ruin on hundreds of the landed gentry, making +thousands of farmers of the better classes bankrupt, forcing the petty +holders of the land--the cottar population, as it was named--to fly from +the country in despairing multitudes. The land was largely set free from a +dense mass of wretchedness; it was the general belief of the public men of +the day, that what was most required, at this conjuncture, was to attract +men of capital to it to do it justice, and to get rid, as quickly as +possible, of the large body of Irish landlords, who, even before deeply +involved in debt, had been made hopelessly insolvent by recent events. The +Encumbered Estates Act became law, with scarcely an opposing protest; it +was to 'regenerate Ireland,' its authors proclaimed; its results were to +develop a bad class of landlords, to annihilate the rights of the Irish +peasant wholesale, and to cause an iniquitous confiscation on an enormous +scale. The Irish Land Question, as was the phrase, was now raised once +more; in 1852 the occupiers of the Irish soil set on foot an agitation to +vindicate their rights, destroyed or endangered by what had lately +occurred; the Government of Lord Derby lent a favourable ear; but it was +defeated in the House of Commons by intrigue; the land system remained in +the state in which it had been left; no real attempt to improve it was +made. A series of years followed in which Ireland made distinct progress, +and her agriculture advanced; it became a fixed idea with British +statesmen, that there was nothing radically bad in Irish land tenure, and +that its defects would gradually disappear; the grievances of the Irish +peasant were ignored; his claims to what was now known as his Tenant +Right, urged feebly by his advocates, were voted down in Parliament; and a +general belief prevailed that what Ireland most needed was a still further +and steady removal of what was deemed 'her surplus population' from her +soil. + +As has so often happened in the affairs of Ireland, her real condition at +this period was not understood; and the reform in her land system, which +had become essential, was indefinitely delayed with disastrous results. +Meanwhile, though things were serene on the surface, the inherent vices in +Irish landed relations were not really changed, and, in some respects, +were made worse. The Fenian troubles and outbreak of 1865-67 showed how +much there was still peccant in the state of Ireland; Mr. Gladstone +addressed himself, in 1870, to the task of effecting a reform in her land +system. The measure he carried through Parliament was bold, and, in the +main, statesmanlike; but it was injured by the predilection for English +land tenure its author avowed, a general misconception of British +statesmen; it was not without marked and even grave defects; and though +unquestionably it did real good, it did not satisfy the tenant class--at +least, the men who had become its leaders. In a few years the frightful +period of the Land League had begun; a Reign of Terror prevailed in about +a third part of Ireland, accompanied by far-spreading and atrocious crime. +The movement was really a huge conspiracy, formed in America to overthrow +British rule in Ireland; but Mr. Gladstone, now minister for the second +time, resolved to deal with it only on its agrarian side; he wrought a +complete revolution in the Irish land system, on principles wholly +different from those of his measure of 1870. This legislation was prepared +without reflection; it passed through Parliament when that assembly was +almost in a state of panic; its author professed that his only object was +to secure the occupier of the Irish soil in his legitimate rights; but the +methods he adopted to attain this end have never been heard of in modern +times, and have never been employed before in civilised lands. The +principle of the mediaeval statutes, which endeavoured to fix the price of +bread, and the rate of wages, was extended to the Irish land system; rents +were to be adjusted through the agency of the State, by tribunals to which +no parallel can be found; tenants' improvements were declared exempted +from rent; and a mode of land tenure, hitherto condemned by Mr. Gladstone, +and known as the 'theory of the Three F's,' was applied to the great +majority of Irish tenancies, in an exaggerated, crude, and dangerous form. +This legislation, revolutionary and socialistic alike, has been given more +ample scope in the last twenty years; it probably affects four-fifths of +the rented lands in Ireland; it has fashioned the type of land tenure over +nearly all the country. The successors of Mr. Gladstone, who, indeed, had +boasted that it set the doctrines of Adam Smith at nought, were not blind +to the evils it soon developed; but it is questionable if their attempts +to mitigate these, and to place the Irish land system on a better basis, +have not been at least as open to censure. With the ignorance of Irish +land tenure common in British statesmen, they proclaimed, what assuredly +was not the fact, that Mr. Gladstone had 'created a dual ownership' in the +Irish land, and that, in order to get rid of this intolerable thing, it +was necessary, in accord with English ideas, to bring Ireland, as far as +possible, under 'single ownership,' and to make the occupiers of the Irish +soil, to a large extent, its owners. The system of 'Land Purchase' in +Ireland, begun in 1870, was freed from the limitations which made it safe +and just, and widely enlarged under new conditions; Irish tenants were +encouraged to acquire the fee in their holdings, by a process never +contemplated before; instead of having to pay any part of the price, the +State advanced them the whole purchase moneys, repayable by an annual +charge much less than any true rent. About a tenth part of the tenant +class of Ireland have become owners of their farms by these means; the +transaction has been in no sense a 'purchase;' though given the name, it +is really the exact opposite. + +I shall describe all this legislation, in detail, afterwards, and shall +indicate its far-reaching effects; here I can only take a cursory survey. +The attempts that have been made to reform the Irish land system, in the +last sixty years, have been, with scarcely an exception, failures; the +Irish land, it has truly been said, is strewn with the wrecks of repeated +errors. The Land Act of 1870 was, on the whole, a well-conceived measure; +but the recommendations made by the Devon Commission, the iniquitous and +destructive Encumbered Estates Act, the agrarian revolution wrought by Mr. +Gladstone, and the 'Land Purchase' Acts, as they are falsely called, have +been monuments of want of insight and knowledge. And, what is even worse, +legislation on the Irish land has, over and over again, been too long +delayed, and has been inconsistent, fitful, founded on no principle; the +results have been in a high degree disastrous. Reforms that would have +been gladly welcomed if made years before, have been treated with contempt +when made too late; and reforms have more than once been hasty +experiments, carried out under the stress of menacing troubles. The fable +of the Sibylline books has been realised in this matter; and not a few of +the efforts to improve Irish land tenures have been little better than +sudden leaps in the dark. As to recent legislation in this province, its +consequences and tendencies have become manifest. That it has effected +some good may be admitted; it has removed grievances that no doubt +existed; it has made the government of Ireland more easy for the time; it +has allayed discontent for a moment; but the good is far outweighed by +the evil. It is not only that the nostrum of the 'Three F's,' and the +adjustment of rent by the intervention of the State, have cut down the +rental of Ireland to an extent that cannot be justified, and have +transferred to the occupier of the Irish soil a large part of what was the +owner's property by a process of confiscation concealed, but certain. It +is not only that the status of the Irish landlord has been iniquitously +transformed to his extreme injury, and that the status of the Irish tenant +has been changed to his extreme advantage, in both instances without a +pretence to right. The Irish land system has been reduced to an almost +hopeless state; it presents some of the worst features of the past; its +conditions discourage the improvement of the land, promote its +deterioration in many ways, and banish capital away from it; and its plain +tendency has been to make agriculture decline. And the revolution, which +has been thus accomplished, has aggravated the divisions of classes in +Ireland, and has been attended with ruinous litigation on a huge scale; +and it has produced demoralisation far-reaching and profound, a sense of +insecurity in all landed relations, and a far too general disregard of the +respect due to contract. The policy, too, of so-called 'Land Purchase' has +been accompanied with a train of evils on the increase. It is not +creating, as its authors fondly hoped, a class of loyal and thriving +freeholders; it is not even creating a body of industrious and improving +farmers. It is, on the contrary, developing, in some of its parts, the bad +land system of the eighteenth century; it has proved injurious to +agriculture in one important respect. Above all, from the very nature of +the case, it has drawn harsh, nay, unjust, distinctions between the landed +classes, which necessarily have been a cause of much discontent; and it +has inevitably provoked a demand for a universal confiscation of the Irish +land even worse than any of those which have been the curse of Ireland. + +I pass from the material and general state of Ireland to that of the Irish +community, in its different parts. That community is still divided, as it +has been for ages, into three separate and distinct peoples, marked off +from each other in race and faith; whatever 'Nationalist' leaders may +assert, it is not, and has never been, in a real sense, a nation. The +lines of demarcation between Catholic, Presbyterian, and Protestant +Ireland are at least as clearly defined as they have always been; they +have probably been widened by the troubles of late years, and by the +legislation which has been a consequence. Catholic Ireland has a +population of some three millions and a half of souls; it is in the main a +Celtic race, but with a considerable admixture of other elements; it has +passed through a revolution remarkable and immense. Sixty years ago, the +worst parts of the Penal Code had long been things of the past; but the +Irish Catholics had only recently thrown off the last remains of that +thraldom, under O'Connell's guidance; and their emancipation had only been +effected by a great and very threatening movement. They were still +comparatively an alien and a subject people; they had not many owners of +land; they were not numerous in the upper trading and the professional +classes; education was greatly wanting among them; they were for the most +part a backward and poor peasantry, almost serfs of landlords distinct in +creed and in blood; and they formed the bulk of the teeming millions that +vegetated on the soil in indigent misery. The Irish Catholics, too, had +still many and real grievances; the tithe of the Established Church had +long been an unjust burden on the petty husbandman; it had recently given +rise to a frightful war of classes, and had only been commuted a short +time; the Established Church itself was a moral wrong, felt acutely by the +Irish priesthood at least. Catholic Ireland, besides, was deeply sunk in +ignorance; the system of national education had only begun to flourish; +and the Irish Catholic was still all but wholly excluded from county +administration and municipal government. The worst of these grievances, +however, was the state of the tenure of the land; this was especially +harsh on the Catholic peasant; if oppression was not general or even +common, he was too often subjected to excessive rent and unfair eviction. +This order of things has all but completely passed away; the position of +Catholic Ireland in the State has almost wholly been changed. Catholic +emancipation has long been an accomplished fact; Irish Catholics and +Protestants are equal before the law; and have really equal chances in +fighting the battle of life. Though still not numerous, the Catholic +owners of land have multiplied; the Irish Catholic middle classes have +made a marked advance; they have grown in knowledge and increased in +wealth; they have risen to a higher plane of existence. At the same time, +the grievances of the past have nearly all been removed by law, often +indeed very late, and by questionable means; but the Established Church +has fallen from its high estate; education has been diffused through the +Catholic masses; the Irish Catholics have obtained more than a just share +in local government and administration of all kinds; their ascendency in +this province is well-nigh assured. The most important, however, of these +changes is that which has taken place in the state of the Irish Catholic +peasantry. The process which lifted up millions of these from the land and +sent them into exile was, no doubt, terrible; but it was the condition of +the welfare and the progress of the population which remained. A great +deal of the legislation, besides, which has revolutionised the tenure of +land in Ireland, and has had a special effect on the Catholic occupiers of +the soil, has been essentially ill designed and unjust; above all, it has +been much too long delayed. But the Irish Catholic peasantry have long ago +ceased to be serfs; they are more the owners of their own holdings than +their former landlords; their rights in the land have been more than +protected; they have acquired the fee in their farms in thousands of +instances; the days of rack rents and harsh evictions have passed away for +ever. If the lines of the old Irish land system may still be traced, they +rather resemble, it has truly been said, the lineaments of a phantom than +of a living being. + +The attitude, however, of Catholic Ireland, and the sentiments of the +immense majority of the Irish Catholics, must cause painful misgivings in +reflecting minds. Their aristocracy, indeed, and their landed gentry have +always been loyal and true subjects; they can scarcely be distinguished +from their Protestant fellows. The Irish Catholics, too, of the upper +middle classes are generally attached to the institutions under which they +live; and Catholic Ireland has produced many eminent public servants, and +has given splendid ornaments to the Bench and the Bar. But the spirit that +prevails among the Irish Catholic lower middle classes, and notably among +the masses of the peasantry, and the opinions and feelings they +ostentatiously avow, are deeply to be regretted in many respects. +Notwithstanding all that has been done for it, and the immense reforms +made in its interest, this part of Catholic Ireland is, beyond question, +more disaffected and disloyal to the State than it was when O'Connell was +its master spirit; it is more hostile to government, law, and the existing +order of things. The teaching of the Land and the National Leagues, and of +the successor which has taken their place, has penetrated into the +Corporations and Local Boards, in which the Catholic Irish are supreme; +these assemblies echo with revolutionary and socialistic cries, and +denounce the whole system of British rule in Ireland, aiming especially at +the Sovereign and those in the highest places. The Irish Catholics, too, +in the three provinces of the south, have gained a complete ascendency in +county and municipal affairs; their first object has been to exclude the +landed gentry from them, and to destroy the influence which belongs to +property; and they have exhibited tendencies absolutely opposed to the +Constitution to which they owe their authority. The worst symptoms, +however, appear in the state of the peasantry; they have obtained +advantages of which their fathers never even dreamed; the land system has +been turned upside down for their behoof; they have no grievance in landed +relations; and yet they remain unfriendly to the State, and show no sign +of gratitude. This class contains the multitudes, who for more than twenty +years, have allied themselves with a conspiracy against our power in +Ireland, and who, at the bidding of designing men, shout treasonable +utterances at mob gatherings, and denounce the 'Saxon' and 'landlordism' +with one voice; and though they are a timid and somewhat inert mass, and +they would not rise like their fathers in 1798, they would not lift a hand +to support our rule were foreign invaders to descend on our shores. This +state of opinion, no doubt, is intelligible to the real student of Irish +history; the Irish Catholics are a people who have been cruelly wronged; +they have only slowly risen out of serf-like thraldom; above all, they +have only attained the position they hold in the State after long years of +trials, and by giving trouble; they treasure the Celtic traditions of the +past; we may regret that they are what they are, but can hardly feel +surprise. In other respects, the Irish Catholic masses, especially in a +democratic age, must arouse the solicitude of thinkers worthy of the name. +Many thousands of them are still illiterate; they are too generally the +mere followers of priests and demagogues, tossed hither and thither as +their masters direct; they are animated by crude and wild ideas, like the +peasantry of France before the Revolution; they have scarcely anything in +common with the corresponding class in England, trained for centuries in +habits of well-ordered liberty. They form, in a word, a dangerous and +easily led democracy; and yet, owing to recent legislation, ever to be +deplored, they possess almost a monopoly of political power in Ireland, +and have sent representatives to Parliament whose acts are a byword. + +Conciliation, therefore, as the phrase is, has failed in the case of the +greatest part of Catholic Ireland; this remains an alien, even a perilous, +element in the State; it is worse than useless to shut our eyes to the +truth; the time is still apparently distant when it will become contented +and loyal. Presbyterian Ireland is a people of rather more than half a +million of souls, almost concentrated within a nook of Ulster; it was +rebellious in sentiment a hundred years ago; it is now devotedly attached +to the British connection, and has firmly supported the Union during a +period of trouble. This community, nevertheless, of artisans and farmers +is rather widely separated from the aristocracy in their midst, for the +most part English in blood, and of the Anglican faith; and though the +Presbyterian farmer has obtained the benefit of the late reforms of land +tenure, and has received advantages far in excess of justice, he declares +himself to be discontented with his lot, and is clamouring for a vast +confiscation of the Irish land in his selfish interest. The Irish +Protestants are a population rather larger than the Presbyterians; but +they are scattered over all parts of the country; they do not possess the +political influence of their distant kinsmen in Ulster. They comprise at +least three-fourths of the leading landed gentry, and a considerable +number of the better class of farmers; they predominate in the learned +professions, and in the higher walks of commerce. But their lower orders +feel the loss of the ascendency which was once their birthright; they have +been thrust out from corporate and local government; they are isolated +amidst a population not in sympathy with them; as a people they can hardly +be described as prosperous. As to the Protestant landed gentry, they have +for centuries been the most loyal of subjects; it is significant that they +have been called the British garrison by the conspirators who seek to +overthrow our rule in Ireland; they have given many eminent worthies to +the State, and proved their devotion to it at the gravest crises; what +they are has been shown in the war in South Africa. At present, however, +profound and just discontent has sunk deep into the hearts of this order +of men. They are the heirs of conquest and confiscation, it is said; but +they were placed in the position they hold by English kings and +Parliaments; is that any reason that, within the last half-century, the +Nemesis of conquest and confiscation should have been invoked against +them, in the Encumbered Estates Act and predatory agrarian laws? They were +too much of an exclusive caste, separated from their dependents, and +possessing powers over the occupiers of the soil, which were sometimes +abused; is that any reason that they should have been deprived of +political influence, supplanted by the bureaucratic Castle, changed from +owners of their estates into mere pensioners, shut out by the force of law +from local and county government? What, however, the Irish landed gentry +most deeply feel is that, in the course of the last sixty years, they have +been deceived, nay, betrayed, by British statesmen, who, having repeatedly +assured them that their position was secure, have sacrificed them when it +seemed to suit their purpose. + +The Imperial Parliament has, during the last century, had absolute control +over the affairs of Ireland. No impartial student of history will deny +that it has governed Ireland very much better than her old Parliament +could possibly have done, after the dreadful rising of 1798 had literally +torn the country to pieces. The large majority of thinking persons have +long ago been convinced that the policy of Home Rule, that is, the +substitution for the Houses at Westminster of a statutory legislature +seated in Dublin, would be disastrous to the Empire and Ireland alike; and +that the evils attendant on the present system would be aggravated a +hundred-fold by the revolution Mr. Gladstone tried to effect. Nor can it +be questioned that the Imperial Parliament has, for a long period, +sincerely desired to legislate and rule for the good of Ireland, and has +accomplished important Irish reforms, whatever legitimate exceptions may +be taken to them. Protestant ascendency and the Established Church have +fallen; the law has long been indifferent to Irishmen of all classes; +education has been brought home to the mass of the people; the tenure of +land has been transformed, unwisely no doubt, but wholly in the interest +of the occupiers of the soil. Nevertheless, much that the Imperial +Parliament has done, and left undone, in the Victorian era, remains matter +of censure and regret; and its Irish administration has been in many +respects unfortunate. The neglect to make a provision for the Irish +Catholic priesthood, a main object of Pitt and of our best statesmen, when +the Anglican Church was disestablished in 1869, was a grave and a +calamitous mistake; the attempts that have been made to reform the Irish +land system have, with scarcely an exception, been sorry failures; the +results have been, in no doubtful sense, deplorable. Few, too, will +justify such measures as the establishment in Ireland of household +suffrage, that is, giving a monopoly of political power to an ignorant and +priest-ridden democracy,[15] and depriving property and intelligence of +all influence, or as the handing over county and city government, in +three-fourths of Ireland, to much the same classes. Nor are even positive +errors such as these the worst, perhaps, that can be laid to the charge of +the Imperial Parliament in the conduct of Irish affairs. With rare +exceptions, the reforms it has made have been, unhappily, too late, and +have been obtained only through menacing popular movements; it has over +and over again made Irish questions the mere subjects of the selfish +strife of party, with evil consequences for Irish interests; it has +occasionally, and even for large spaces of time, shown a marked +indifference to reasonable Irish demands; and its administration of +Ireland has repeatedly been inconsistent, even contradictory, +shortsighted, and feeble. It must be acknowledged, indeed, that the rule +of the Imperial Parliament, in the circumstances in which Ireland has been +placed, is, from the nature of the case, faulty in many respects; it is +that of a dominant assembly practically controlling a subject dependency; +and, as we see in the striking instances of Athens and Rome, this kind of +government has never been free from great and real objections. This, no +doubt, is no reason that we should fly from less to unbearable evils, and +adopt the fatal scheme of Home Rule; and the causes that have made our +Parliamentary _regime_ in Ireland as defective as it is are evident, and, +as I shall point out afterwards, may probably be removed, to some extent +at least, without subverting the constitution of these realms. But the +broad fact remains, and cannot be concealed; the Imperial Parliament, much +as it has done, has not reached the hearts or gained, in any degree, the +sympathy of an immense majority of the Irish people. + +This conclusion, indeed, has been made only too manifest, if we look back +at the history of Ireland within living memory. The Catholic Association +defied the Imperial Parliament, and was supreme in four-fifths of Ireland, +from 1824 to 1829; O'Connell, in 1843, rallied the Irish Catholic millions +to the cause of the Repeal of the Union, that is, to the subversion of +British rule from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear. Home Rule became a +popular cry when proclaimed by Butt; Parnell soon rose to the head of an +Irish faction, which deliberately tried to paralyse and cross Parliament, +and to make its sway in Ireland of no avail and contemptible. The Land +League and the National League were essentially conspiracies of foreign +origin, and they appealed to socialistic greed in a season of distress; +but their chief object was to annihilate British power in Ireland; they +had the support of huge Catholic masses; they returned to Parliament a +band of more than eighty men, one of whose purposes was to checkmate its +authority. Too much is not to be made of these movements; three-fourths at +least of the Irish community have repeatedly been led away by able but +unscrupulous leaders, and rush into courses to which they are not +earnestly inclined; but these unquestionable facts assuredly prove that +the institutions under which they exist are not acceptable to the great +body of the people of Ireland. This attitude has been displayed with +marked and too plain significance, within a period, as it were, of +yesterday. The United Irish League fills the place of the Land and the +National Leagues; it is a conspiracy against the State, like its +forerunners; it aims ultimately at the same objects; its organisation and +machinery are the same; it seeks to establish its domination by similar +methods. It is, no doubt, less formidable than the Land and the National +Leagues; it has received little support from America, and has no one to +compare with Parnell at its head; but it has sent more than three-fourths +of the representatives of Ireland into the House of Commons; and these +have combined to put in force the arts of obstruction with an audacity, a +perseverance, and a measure of success, perhaps never so conspicuous +before. Its authority is less far-reaching than that of its predecessors; +but it has established a reign of tyranny in not a few counties; it is +largely backed by the Irish priesthood and by much the greatest part of +Catholic Ireland; and its leaders boast, not without truth, that, disloyal +as many of their utterances are, they are completely in accord with +popular sympathies. The acts and the speeches, indeed, of these men have +never been more unequivocal than within the last two or three years;[16] +yet almost everywhere they obtain the applause and the support of the +multitude. An Irish contingent was sent to fight for the Boers; the war in +South Africa was yelled at, at huge public meetings, as an odious instance +of English tyranny and crime; every reverse that befell our arms was +welcomed; the Irish masses, especially of late, have made a display of +their antipathy to, and hatred of, the State. There was an outbreak of +disloyal rioting in Dublin at the Diamond Jubilee; but for the accident of +the Spanish War there would have been a great commemoration of the +rebellion of 1798; even the visit of the late Queen to Ireland was made an +occasion for seditious speeches; if her death was very generally mourned, +public bodies were found to refuse an expression of regret. + +Irish administration, I have remarked, is in many respects faulty; this is +mainly because it is dependent on British parties; it fluctuates as one or +the other prevails in Parliament. It sometimes represents completely +opposite principles; besides, as Lord-Lieutenants and Chief Secretaries +usually hold office for a short time only, they are tempted to adopt a +hand-to-mouth policy, and to govern with little thought of the morrow. A +marked change, however, has, in the course of time, passed over the +ordinary system of administration carried on at the Castle. The +aristocracy and the leading Irish gentry had still, even at the beginning +of the Victorian age, much influence in directing local affairs; their +authority was not nearly as great as it had been; but they were still +looked up to and consulted by the central government. This state of things +has long ago ceased to exist; this order of men has long ago lost all +political, and nearly all social, power; it has been superseded by a +bureaucratic _regime_, depending mainly on paid officials and police, +which rules Ireland from the Castle, with little external support. This +mode of government is imposing and apparently strong; but it is +essentially weak, and has little real hold on the country; the +information, with which it is amply supplied, is often false, and +occasionally causes grave mistakes; it forms an administrative system +resembling that of the old centralised monarchy of France, of which +Tocqueville has exposed the defects and the vices. Under this _regime_, +however, the law of the land has certainly been vindicated more +successfully than had been the case before; the Government has acquired +decidedly increased power in dealing with disorders dangerous to the +State, and perhaps in holding the scales of justice even between divided +classes; it has not diminished the strife of hostile Irish factions, but +it has maintained order more completely than of old; and this +unquestionably is a great advantage, and a real set-off against some +mischiefs and failures. It would be untrue to assert that this system of +rule has been the paramount and even a main cause of the great decline in +agrarian crime and trouble which Ireland has happily witnessed of late +years; other and far more potent causes have concurred; but it may fairly +be said that it has contributed to it. It would, however, be a complete +mistake to suppose that agrarian disorder, even in its worst aspects, has +become permanently a thing of the past in Ireland, or that this +destructive curse of Irish social life has not immense influence even at +this moment, though its outward manifestations have been greatly changed. +It was, so to speak, only yesterday that, under the auspices of the Land +and the National Leagues, there was the most frightful outbreak of +agrarian crime that had been seen since the great tithe conflict; it +assumed the proportions, in fact, of a horrible servile war; and shallow, +indeed, the understanding must be which imagines that this state of things +can never recur. If open agrarian disorder, too, has been largely +diminished, the spirit of agrarian disorder is still strong; and it is +doing infinite mischief in many parts of Ireland. Steadily adhering to the +precepts laid down by Parnell, the United Irish League has brought the +detestable system of 'boycotting' to a hideous perfection in several +counties; whole districts are subject to this secret but villainous +tyranny; the results are seen in numbers of derelict farms, in hundreds of +victims writhing under ever-present terror, in an infamous interference +with trade and industry. This malignant influence is more or less felt +through nearly the whole of the southern provinces, and even to a +considerable extent in Ulster; it should be added that the United Irish +League, for the present, discourages active agrarian crime, though its +agents hold this force in reserve; it believes it can compass its ends +without making use of this weapon.[17] + +A few words must be said, in this short survey, on the organisations that +uphold the Christian faith in Ireland. The disestablished Anglican Church +has certainly made progress in spiritual life; it has more moral and even, +perhaps, social influence than when it was an appurtenance of the Erastian +Castle. It has been admirably administered and ruled; the uses of +adversity have been sweet to it, and it has been successfully launched on +its new career; this is a strong proof of the inherent energy and capacity +of the Anglo-Protestant Irish people. Very different, too, from what had +been expected, moderation and wisdom prevail in its councils; its clergy +are sincerely pious, but not given to extreme doctrines; its members are +for the most part free from the narrow sectarian views which had formerly, +not without reason, been laid to their charge. Its funds, amassed by good +management, are, for the present, ample; but the rapid impoverishment of +the landed gentry, the class from which it chiefly obtains support, and +the confiscation with which they are threatened, no doubt expose it to +future dangers; and it must always be the Church of a small minority, +surrounded by influences hostile to it, but a Church which the State is +bound to protect. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland has but little +changed; it has felt the effect of the great religious movement, which has +stirred the Three Kingdoms in the last half-century, and it is less +rationalistic than it once was; but it is still what it always was, a +powerful centre of the faith of John Knox, with a communion of strong +democratic sympathies. The Catholic Church of Ireland still rests on the +old foundations; but it is hardly the unshaken structure it was in the +last generation. Its material resources have enormously increased; its +fine edifices spread over the land; it still exercises immense influence +over probably nine-tenths of Catholic Ireland. But a party has been +growing up within it which resents, and has even defied, its pretensions; +and though the power it possesses is, in the main, beneficent in the +extreme, this has too often been abused in the domain of politics, and +especially of late in Irish landed relations. The priesthood still largely +direct their flocks, but they are more dependent on them than they once +were; had it been otherwise, they would have hardly conformed to the +bidding of the Land and the National Leagues, as unhappily they did in too +many instances. Their leading men perceived from the first that these +conspiracies were destructive of their moral influence; and had the whole +body of the clergy received a just provision from the State, it would all +but certainly have condemned the methods of the Leagues as these were +decisively condemned by Rome. For the rest, the Catholic Church of Ireland +is no friend of Protestant England, and of many of the institutions that +exist in Ireland; but this has been inevitable from the events of Irish +history; and whatever may be said, it has been essentially an ally of the +State, by reason of its great religious authority. And if properly +understood, it is a mighty conservative power, which ought if possible to +be won over to the side of order and law; this is an ample, if there were +no other, reason that statesmen should comply with its most reasonable +demand, and remove the grievance, in high Catholic education, that only +blind bigotry can deny. + +The administration of justice in Ireland is better, on the whole, than it +was in the early Victorian era. It is not only that the law's delay has +been to a considerable extent, remedied, as it has been, in England, by an +improved procedure. Traces of Protestant ascendency were to be seen on +the Irish Bench sixty years ago, though these were evanescent and few; +such a trial as that of O'Connell in 1844, marked by partiality and even +by wrong, would be simply impossible at the present time. Trial by jury, +however, in Ireland too often reflects the animosities and prejudices of +class, and is liable to grave perversion and errors; it is sometimes +necessary, in causes where religious or political feeling is engaged, to +make a careful selection in forming juries, in order that common right +should be done; this inevitable, but invidious, process, held up to +execration by the name of 'packing,' is certainly a matter that causes +regret. The fairness seen in the administration of the law in Ireland has +been strikingly illustrated of late years; leaders and agents of the Land +and the National Leagues have had to answer for their offences in the +inferior courts; but despite rabid clamour against what is called +'coercion,' the conduct of these inquiries has not been really impugned. A +laudable attempt, however, to make the magisterial bench more popular, has +lately placed on it an order of men, of whom some have abused their power; +these instances, nevertheless, have not been frequent; the experiment +cannot be pronounced a failure. The intellect of Ireland is not so +fruitful as it was in the generation before the union; she has no +political thinkers to be named with Burke, no writer of fiction equal to +Maria Edgeworth, no dramatist to be compared to Sheridan, no orators who +have reached the heights of eloquence reached by Grattan, Curran, Plunket, +and other glories of her defunct Parliament. But there has been progress +in this respect within the last sixty years; Ireland cannot boast of such +public men as O'Connell, Sheil, and even Spring Rice; but she possesses +Dufferin in the diplomatic sphere, and Lecky, and one or two others of +repute in that of letters; she has only recently lost Lord Cairns and Lord +Russell. The improvement of primary education in Ireland has been +immense; the land is full of elementary schools, which, in the last +generation, were, comparatively, very few, and though a considerable part +of the population is still illiterate, the greater part, whose fathers +were sunk in ignorance, has felt the good influence of the light of +knowledge. High education, too, has advanced in Ireland; Trinity College +is greater than before as a place of learning; if two of the Queen's +Colleges have certainly failed, the Royal University has been, in a sense, +successful. But, as I shall point out, in subsequent pages, University +education in Ireland remains defective; a University for the Irish +Catholic upper middle class is a requirement rightly demanded from +Parliament. As for Irish secondary education, it is still backward, but +there is hope of improvement in this respect; the general standard of +Irish education, it should be added, is, except at Trinity College, low, +though this has been inevitable if we look back at the events of history. +Irish opinion generally still embodies the deep-seated animosities and +strife of race and faith, at least as fully as it ever did; with few +exceptions this appears in the tone of the newspaper press. The utterances +of many of the self-styled 'Nationalist' journals have been far more +hostile to the State, and are conceived in a much worse spirit, than those +of the same class of journals in O'Connell's day. + +If we examine the condition of Ireland, as a whole, we see that there has +been some material progress, but with retrogression in important respects; +and if a certain measure of good has been done, great wrong and evil have +been accomplished, in the principal and the most far-reaching of her +social relations. Her moral and political progress has been at least +doubtful; notwithstanding immense and searching reforms, the mass of the +population is more disaffected than of old; discontent largely pervades +the classes most loyal to the State; if the mere power of government has +increased, its beneficent influence is but little recognised; the great +body of the community maintains a hostile attitude. The crooked has not +been made straight in Ireland, nor the rough places plain; a state of +society exists, in which, as the Greek poet said, 'the fountains flow +backwards, and things are out of joint.' An old order has nearly passed +away; but the new order that is replacing it is but of little promise; a +type of society has been well-nigh broken up, but a strong and solid type +is not being formed in its stead; at all events, in the phrase of Bacon, +the time is still distant 'when the strings of the Irish harp will all be +in tune;' many respond to the player's hand in discord. 'The Constitution +in Ireland,' Peel once exclaimed, 'is not the British Constitution, but +its ghastly image;' let us see what it is in Ireland at the present time. +The Sovereign is, in England, a main pillar of the State; he is a great +political and social force; the Monarchy is enthroned in the heart of the +nation. In Ireland he is almost an unknown name, associated with not a few +evil memories; his influence, which ought to be immense over a Celtic +race, has never made itself sensibly felt. In England Parliament responds +to the national will, and has gathered the reverence of ages around it; in +Ireland it is a foreign and alien assembly, with which the mass of the +people has no sympathy. In England the aristocracy is at the head of +public affairs, leads society, commands universal respect; in Ireland it +has lost all authority; has no weight in the National Councils; has no +popular support, is even disliked at the Castle. In England the middle +class is enormously strong, and is the best bulwark of order and law; in +England the democracy is almost wholly free from revolutionary ideas, as +regards property, and seeks reforms by constitutional methods. In Ireland, +it is unhappily quite otherwise; the middle class is comparatively weak, +and, in its lower strata, is opposed to the existing order of things; the +democracy is an easily led multitude, ready at its leaders' bidding to +rush into socialistic courses. In England, too, the Commonwealth is +completely secure; in Ireland there is literally no Commonwealth; and such +organisations as the Land, the National, and the United Irish Leagues, are +dangerous symptoms of a kind of Jacobin antipathy to the State. The words +of Peel are still unhappily true; but painful as the contrast he pointed +out is, even this is not the worst circumstance in the present condition +of Irish affairs. What, I think, most alarms a reflecting mind, is the +restlessness that pervades the mass of the people, an eagerness for some +undefined change, a demand for the universal spoliation of a class, a +sense of insecurity spreading far and wide, a neglect of the pursuits of +calm industry in the hope of what a revolution may effect, an instability +in the social fabric from top to bottom. The agitation, the disorder, and, +I will add, the vicious legislation of late years, will, however, largely +explain these phenomena. + +Lord Salisbury's Ministry came into office, six years ago, at the head of +the most powerful majority that had been returned to the House of Commons +since the great Reform era. The time was singularly opportune to consider +the state of Ireland, and to deal with the Irish questions that required +sound and wise treatment. The Opposition was paralysed by a rout at the +polls; the National League conspiracy showed few signs of life; the +'Nationalist' party was rent asunder; the community was more quiescent +than it had been for years. It would be unfair to deny that, since it +acquired power, the Government has been beset by many and grave obstacles +in legislating on domestic subjects; it has been encompassed by a sea of +foreign troubles; it has had to conduct the protracted war in South +Africa. It would be absurd, too, to expect that it could, once for all, +have placed Irish affairs permanently on a secure basis; this can only be +the result of the wisdom of years aided by the healing influence of time. +But it has disappointed enlightened Irish opinion; it has not done, or +even tried to do, what it might have accomplished. Undoubtedly parts of +its policy have been good; it has effected something, if not much, in +developing the material resources of the west of Ireland, and in +mitigating the danger and the stress of Irish poverty; it has carried on +the excellent work of Mr. Arthur Balfour in this respect; the Department +of Agriculture it has lately formed will, not improbably, be of real use +in promoting industry and self-reliance among the peasantry, on the +principles advocated, a century and a half ago, by Berkeley. But +commendation, I think, must here end; the Government, I believe, has made +grave mistakes; it has assuredly not successfully dealt with the great +'Case of Ireland,' greater now than in the days of Molyneux and Swift. It +has not reduced the excessive representation of Ireland in the House of +Commons; until this is done the Union will not be secure. It has +disregarded the verdict of the important Commission which has declared +that Ireland has been immensely overtaxed for years; here it defies +universal Irish opinion; and having pledged itself to make a further +inquiry, it has not hitherto taken a step to redeem its pledge. It is +divided on the question of high education in Ireland, and professes that +this must be an 'open question,' as if this was not unwise and perilous; +and though it has appointed a Commission to report on the subject, +Catholic Ireland very possibly may not obtain the place of learning which +it is entitled to demand. Above all, on the capital question of the Irish +land, the Government has certainly all but ignored the recommendations of +a Commission chosen by itself, and has refused to lessen the injustice +proved to have been done wholesale; like its predecessors, in the case of +the Encumbered Estates Act, it is still bent on agrarian legislation that +has done infinite mischief. Its administration, too, up to this has not +been successful; it has allowed the United Irish League to grow up and to +gain strength, with far-spreading evil results; its conduct of Irish +affairs has been weak and empirical, and notably marked by false +optimistic fancies. Of late there has been improvement in this respect; we +can only hope it will not be abortive. + +'In this gigantic body,' Macaulay exclaimed fifty-seven years ago, 'there +is one vulnerable part near the heart.'[18] The Empire has expanded into +ampler proportions than those described by the orator; its subject kings, +dominations, princedoms, powers, above all, its myriads of many races and +tongues, are united by far more durable ties than those which held it +together in a generation that has passed away. Four years ago, Canada sent +messengers from her great lakes, Hindustan representatives of her ancient +dynasties, the great island continent envoys from her free nations, to do +homage to Queen Victoria; the pageant, gathered 'within London's streaming +roar,' was a magnificent spectacle of world-wide loyalty. England has seen +another and a still more wonderful sight; the martial sons of our great +self-governing colonies have flocked in thousands to do battle in her +cause, in the distant and ill-known wastes of South Africa; in a long, +bloody, and sometimes disastrous conflict, they have proved themselves to +be worthy companions in arms of the offspring of the soldiery of Blenheim +and Waterloo; they have fought and bled for England as if she was their +common country. But Ireland, as regards the mass of the people, has, on +both occasions, stood sullenly aloof; her heart has gone out in sympathy +with the Boers; she remains, for the most part, hostile to our rule and +disloyal. It is mere foolishness to shut our eyes to plain facts; still +more so to join in the false paeans of interested partisans, and ignorant +scribblers, who announce that because Ireland is, on the surface, +comparatively at peace, she is in every sense a contented or a happy land, +free from grave elements of political and social danger. She is still the +'vulnerable part at the heart of the Empire;' the spectre at the great +national festival; the warning token, as in the case of the Oriental +despot, that human grandeur and power are, in the nature of things, +mortal. She is still, as she was in the day of Spenser, a malign influence +across the path of our greatness, a riddle difficult to understand and +interpret; the many problems she still presents to the statesman are +perplexing in the extreme, and await solution. That any policy will +suddenly remove the many evils apparent in her organic structure is a +delusion a rational mind rejects; the deep-seated ills in that distempered +frame may never be completely and finally cured. Something effectual, +nevertheless, may, I think, be done; I proceed to examine, in the +following chapters, the 'Present Irish Questions' that confront our +rulers; and to consider what the amending hand may accomplish. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE QUESTION OF HOME RULE + + The question of Home Rule not extinct--The reasons--Butt's scheme of + Home Rule--It is denounced and ridiculed by Mr. Gladstone, and + defeated in the House of Commons--Death of Butt--The Home Rule + movement becomes allied with a foreign conspiracy--Davitt and + Parnell--The Land League--Mr. Gladstone's surrender to it--The + movement makes no progress in the Parliament of 1880-85--The General + Election of 1885--Mr. Gladstone suddenly adopts the policy of Home + Rule--The probable reasons--The Home Rule Bill of 1886--Its nature and + tendencies--Decisive objections to the measure--It is rejected at the + General Election of 1886, having been previously rejected in the House + of Commons--Policy and conduct of Mr. Gladstone--The Home Rule + movement makes some progress in England, and why--The Home Rule Bill + of 1893--It is much worse than that of 1886--The reasons--It is + rejected by the House of Lords--Home Rule under different forms--The + Union must be maintained--Proposal that Parliament should occasionally + sit in Dublin--The over-representation of Ireland should be redressed. + + +Home Rule, it is very generally assumed, has vanished into the domain of +extinct politics. Unlike what had been the case from 1886 to 1895, when +this was the main of our domestic questions, Home Rule was scarcely +referred to at the late election; it will receive little countenance at +the hands of the present House of Commons, however Irish Nationalists may +persist in urging their demand. It would, nevertheless, be imprudent to +believe that this policy, as has been said, 'is as dead as Queen Anne,' as +impossible as a return to Protection or to an unreformed Parliament. +Isaac Butt's scheme of Home Rule was treated with scorn and ridicule by +Mr. Gladstone during many years; Mr. Gladstone was the author of the Bills +of 1886 and 1893, embodying Home Rule in forms few will now approve of; +and he left nothing undone to convert them into law. At the General +Election of 1880, Home Rule was regarded as a mere Irish craze, and hardly +a candidate could be found, in England and Scotland, to consent to an +inquiry upon the subject; within six years Home Rule was a Ministerial +measure; and though the House of Commons pronounced against it, and its +decision was emphatically ratified at the General Election of 1886, still, +on this occasion, the votes in favour of Home Rule were not much less +numerous than those cast against it.[19] In 1892 England condemned Home +Rule, if not as decisively as six years before; but Ireland, Scotland, and +Wales declared for it; and a Home Rule Bill received the sanction of the +House of Commons, which, but for the resistance made by the House of +Lords, would now be a fundamental law of these realms. It deserves notice, +too, that not one of the Liberal leaders, although, as a rule, they +avoided the subject, repudiated this policy at the late election; two or +three, indeed, gave it a qualified support; and it is evident that they +keep the question in reserve, in the hope of turning it to account at a +more convenient season. Nor can it be denied, as long as Ireland can send +more than eighty Nationalists into the House of Commons, pledged to insist +on Home Rule as their country's right, that the subject must command more +or less attention; for many reasons it is impossible to ignore the claims +of a representation so large in numbers. It must be added that, under our +system of party government, especially as this has existed of late years, +a considerable group of politicians, with a fixed purpose, can effect much +by throwing its weight indifferently into the Ministerial or the +Opposition scale, and giving its support to either side, in order to +compass its own ends; it has, sometimes with successful results, swayed +majorities by these means, and not in vain. This is the hope of the Irish +Nationalist leaders; 'let parties in the House of Commons,' they cynically +argue, 'be equally divided, as must at some time happen,' and 'we shall +gain Home Rule from either Tories or Whigs, if we assist either by our +votes to keep them in office.' It cannot be said, if we look back at some +political events within the last twenty years, that this expectation is +wholly groundless; and though I am convinced it will not be realised, its +existence alone suffices to prove that Home Rule cannot yet be dismissed +as outside the sphere of practical politics. + +Home Rule, therefore, is a 'Present Irish Question,' and if not at this +moment urgent, it remains the most important of Irish questions, for it +directly affects the fortunes of the Three Kingdoms. It is necessary, +accordingly, to examine it, in its principles at least; and an inquiry is +opportune, at this juncture, for the subject can be fairly discussed in +its different bearings, apart from the obscuring influences of national +and party prejudice, and especially of political passion. Isaac Butt was +the true author of the conception of Home Rule; for though a movement in +favour of a Repeal of the Union had become dangerously active in 1843-44, +and had been feebly intermittent since that period, this peculiar +modification of the arrangements made at the Union, in fixing the +relations between Great Britain and Ireland, was wholly an idea of that +distinguished lawyer. The occasion, on which this scheme was put forward, +was not a little remarkable for various reasons. Mr. Gladstone had just +disestablished the Anglican Church in Ireland, and had disendowed it, to a +considerable extent; this policy was angrily resented by a party of Irish +Protestants; for the maintenance of the Established Irish Church had been +made an essential condition of the Treaty of Union. These men, who were +not without energy and parts, declared that a great international compact +had been broken; and they gradually obtained the support of leaders of the +'Young Ireland' following, of survivors of the 'Tail' of O'Connell, and +even of adherents of the Fenian cause, all, in different degrees, opposed +to the Union. Butt became the head and spokesman of this curiously +assorted band, composed of essentially discordant elements; but he +endeavoured to combine it into a strong Parliamentary force, by +propounding a plan of Home Rule for Ireland, which he had thought out with +patience and care, his hope being that this would unite his followers, and +that his project would at least be entertained in Parliament, and would +not be as hopeless as an attempt to repeal the Union. His views are set +forth in his 'Irish Federalism,' a long-forgotten work, but which, even +now, may be read with profit. Butt professed, and I have no doubt +sincerely, that he did not seek to disturb the Union, and that the +Imperial Parliament was to remain as it was; but he proposed to give +Ireland a Parliament of her own, with full powers of legislation on Irish +affairs, and an Executive practically appointed by this, which would have +the government of Ireland in its hands. Having thus called into existence +an Irish State, possessing State rights of supreme importance, he sought +to connect Ireland with Great Britain by a Federal tie; representatives +from Ireland were to repair to the Imperial Parliament, and to vote in +that assembly on Imperial questions, but not, as I believe Butt meant, on +those which belonged to England and Scotland.[20] + +The cry of Home Rule was welcomed in Ireland by her Catholic masses; at +the General Election of 1874, sixty men were returned to the House of +Commons to support this policy, a party formidable in numbers, if not in +essential strength. Butt brought forward his plan, in outline, on three or +four occasions; but the question was not discussed with the fulness of +knowledge and the breadth of view it certainly required; on the whole, it +was superficially treated. Neither Butt nor his opponents thoroughly +perceived that his proposals virtually repealed the Union, for if the +Imperial Parliament was, nominally, to be left intact, a real Parliament +was to be placed in its stead, in Ireland, which would practically annul +its effective authority, from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear; and they +seem not to have understood that 'Irish Federalism' implied Federalism for +Great Britain to a great extent, and introduced into the Constitution the +Federal principle with its far-reaching and dangerous effects. Butt's +scheme, however, was powerfully attacked in its details; by no one so +powerfully as by Mr. Gladstone, who had lately announced, to an approving +multitude, that Home Rule was sheer folly or worse, and had exultingly +asked, 'Can any sensible man, can any rational man, suppose that, at this +time of day, in this condition of the world, we are going to disintegrate +the great capital institutions of the country for the purpose of making +ourselves ridiculous in the sight of all mankind, and crippling any power +we possess for bestowing benefits, through legislation, on the country to +which we belong?'[21] Little knowing what the future was to bring forth, +Mr. Gladstone declared that Home Rule was not to be even thought of, until +it could be proved that the Irish affairs, to which the Irish Parliament +was to be confined, could be separated from Imperial and British affairs, +a partition he evidently deemed impossible; and he insisted that the +introduction of Irish members into the Imperial Parliament, which, +according to this plan, was to have nothing to do with Ireland, was not +only essentially unjust, but involved the absurdity that these men 'were +to judge as they might think fit of the general affairs of the Empire, and +also of exclusively English and Scotch questions,' an interpretation not, +I believe, correct. Home Rule was rejected by overwhelming majorities in +the Parliament of 1874-80; and at the General Election of the last-named +year, it found no countenance, I have said, in England or Scotland. The +subject was scarcely referred to by Mr. Gladstone, wholly preoccupied by +his Midlothian campaign, and by his persistent efforts to deprive Lord +Beaconsfield of power. + +Butt had sincere reverence for the Constitution and the Law; the Home Rule +movement, as long as he was at its head, was a constitutional and a lawful +movement. But this eminent man had been supplanted, by degrees, by a +politician of a very different nature; and when he had passed away in the +spring of 1879, Parnell, and what was called the 'active Irish party,' +which had baffled and incensed the House of Commons, became the directors +of the Home Rule policy. The character of the movement was almost wholly +changed; it became associated with a conspiracy hatched in the Far West, +which aimed at the separation of Ireland from Great Britain; Butt's +moderate followers fell away from it, especially the band of Protestants +who had first set it on foot. Meanwhile, American Fenianism, which had in +vain attempted open rebellion in Ireland in 1865-67, had, at the +instigation perhaps of Michael Davitt, made another effort to compass its +ends; the 'New Departure' in treason was made; the Land League was formed +with the avowed purpose of overthrowing 'Irish Landlordism,' as it was +called, as being the mainstay of British power in Ireland, and then of +wresting Ireland by force from her British rulers. But Davitt was not well +fitted for his work; Parnell became the leader of the Home Rule and the +Land League movements; and during a short visit to the United States, he +openly professed that his ultimate aim was 'to break the last link between +Great Britain and Ireland,' though he was still the chief of an apparently +constitutional cause. Ere long the Land League, availing itself of a +season of distress, and subsidised by Fenians across the Atlantic, had +taken root in different parts of Ireland; and gradually a reign of terror, +marked by detestable crime, and essentially of the Jacobin type, had +acquired a frightful ascendency in ten or eleven counties. By this time, +Mr. Gladstone had become Minister: how he denounced the League in +passionate language; endeavoured, for a few months, to hold it in check; +succumbed to it, when he made the 'Kilmainham Treaty;' and, finally, how, +after declaring that Parnell and his adherents were 'aiming at +dismemberment through rapine,' he became the author of the Land Act of +1881, and threw the Irish landed gentry as a sop to Cerberus,--is +sufficiently known, but I shall recur to the subject. During these years, +Parnell, artfully playing the double game, which this born conspirator +especially made his boast, and linking what he called 'a constitutional +with an illegal movement,' had more than once spoken on behalf of Home +Rule in the House of Commons, his moderate and even statesmanlike language +being in marked contrast with his treasonable harangues in Ireland. But +Parliament had been otherwise engaged with Irish affairs; it had become +more averse to Home Rule than ever; it had learned what the movement had +begun to involve, veiled, if not open, rebellion against the State, and it +voted down the question by immense majorities. Statesmen of all parties, +Tory, Whig, and Radical, without exception, concurred in this view; Lord +Salisbury, Lord Spencer, and John Bright alike condemned the very idea of +Home Rule. Mr. Gladstone indeed asserted afterwards that he had a policy +of this kind in his thoughts; but if he had, he kept it to himself; it +cannot be gathered from his speeches of the time; he never breathed to +his colleagues a word about it; he allowed them to pronounce against Home +Rule with his full apparent sanction.[22] + +Mr. Gladstone's Ministry fell in 1885; Majuba, Gordon, and his Irish +policy had set the best sense of the country against him. Lord Salisbury's +Government came in his place; for a short time the tendency, too often +seen in British parties, to temporise with sedition and even crime in +Ireland was exhibited with untoward results; the negotiations between +Parnell and Lord Carnarvon have not yet been explained. At the General +Election of 1885, Parnell openly took the Conservative side, denounced the +Liberals in the bitterest language, and perhaps, through the influence of +the Irish vote, deprived them of a few seats in England. His principal +object certainly was to increase his own power and that of his band by +weakening the strongest of British parties; but this association with the +Conservatives probably lessened the antipathy of their opponents to Home +Rule, and was not without effect on the events that followed. Ireland, +however, was by no means a prominent question in this electoral contest; +the Tory, Whig, and Radical leaders dealt, for the most part, with +different topics; and though Mr. Gladstone dropped ambiguous phrases, +which, he ere long contended, indicated his conversion to Home Rule, his +lieutenants continued to declare against this policy, their chief +remaining openly in accord with them; indeed, all that could be collected, +from what he wrote and said, was that he called upon the country to give +him such decisive support as would make him independent of all Irish +factions. The result of this General Election, taken as a whole, was to +gain for the Liberals a majority of some eighty seats in Great Britain; +but in Ireland it effected a notable change in politics. By a recent, +and, for Ireland, a most unwise statute, the electoral franchise had been +assimilated in the Three Kingdoms; political ascendency had, for the first +time, been secured for the masses of Catholic Ireland, largely an ignorant +and superstitious multitude; property and intelligence were overwhelmed at +the polls; and Parnell and his satellites, now called Nationalists, won +more than eighty seats out of a total of one hundred and three. The +Liberal majority, therefore, would be effaced should the Irish leader and +his men give the Conservatives their votes; a weak Government would be the +inevitable result; Mr. Gladstone, now in his seventy-sixth year, could +hardly expect to return to office. In these circumstances, it became +gradually known that Mr. Gladstone had accepted Home Rule in principle, +and was even prepared to legislate upon the subject. It would be unfair to +assert that personal motives alone determined this sudden resolve; though +obviously should the Liberal chief retain the allegiance of his party, and +draw Parnell and the Nationalists to his side, by inaugurating Home Rule +as a practical measure, he would inevitably be restored to power with a +great majority. Mr. Gladstone, ever ready to yield to a popular cry, may +have believed that five-sixths of Ireland were passionately eager for Home +Rule; he may have been convinced himself that, as affairs now stood, +Parliament would well-nigh be reduced to a deadlock should nothing be done +to redress the balanced state of parties, and that Home Rule was the +condition of a stable Government; he may have thought that since the +Conservative dalliance with Parnell, it had become impossible permanently +to resist this policy; yet these considerations form no apology for the +conduct of the aged, but most impulsive, statesman. Only a few years +before large parts of Ireland had been in a state of frightful anarchy; a +rebellious and socialistic movement against British rule and Irish landed +property had acquired great force; even at the present time, the National +League, replacing the Land League, kept disorder prevalent in many +counties. Was this the moment to effect a revolution in Ireland, to tamper +with, and to impair, the Union, to hand over the loyalty, the property, +and the worth of the island to the classes and the men against whom but, +as yesterday, it had been necessary to put the severest coercion in force? + +Lord Salisbury resigned office in the first months of 1886; Mr. Gladstone +became Prime Minister in his stead. Had parties in the House of Commons +remained unchanged, the prospect for the old statesman would have been +auspicious; the Liberals and Nationalists combined would have been +supreme; Home Rule would have been the fruit of the new alliance. But the +most distinguished men of the Liberal party, resenting a coalition far +worse than that of Fox and North, and convinced that Home Rule would be +ruinous to the State, fell off from their leader in large numbers; the +powerful Press of Great Britain, with few exceptions, emphatically +condemned the Minister's conduct. Mr. Gladstone, however, did not pause in +his violent course; he introduced his first Home Rule Bill in April, 1886. +I can only glance at the main features of this famous measure, and devote +to it a passing comment.[23] A Parliament was to be established in the +Irish capital; this, subject to the limitations set forth in the Bill, was +practically to exercise supreme power in Ireland. This Parliament was to +be composed of two Orders, the first containing one hundred and three +members, and formed of a few Irish peers and of men of some substance; the +second comprising two hundred and four or two hundred and six members +elected on the existing democratic franchise. The two Orders were +ordinarily to sit together; but should differences in legislative +measures arise, the first Order was, for a short time, to have a +suspensive veto on the decisions of the second Order, which, however, +possessing an immense majority, would almost necessarily in the long run +completely prevail. The Irish Parliament was precluded from legislating on +many subjects, for the most part Imperial, but partly domestic; it was +notably to have no control over the Customs and Excise of Ireland, which +were to be kept in the hands of the Imperial Parliament; and though it was +permitted to impose any other taxes, the whole revenue of Ireland was to +pass through the hands of a British official, who was to pay into the +Imperial Treasury a sum of about four millions sterling, as a contribution +from Ireland, for Imperial purposes, before the Irish Treasury could +receive a farthing. Bills voted by the Irish Parliament might be annulled +by the veto of the Lord-Lieutenant and perhaps of the British Ministry; +and the Judicial Committee of the English Privy Council, reinforced by a +small body of Irish judges, was to have the power to pronounce Acts of the +Irish Parliament void, if inconsistent with its constitutional rights. +Subject, however, to these restrictions and checks, the Irish Parliament +was to be a sovereign power in Ireland; it could practically appoint or +displace the Irish Executive Government; it could enact, change, or repeal +any laws it should think fit; it could pass any resolutions it pleased; if +an assembly partly subordinate, it would be largely supreme. Ireland was +to have no representatives in the Imperial Parliament, though this could +dispose of the Irish Customs and Excise; no Irish protest could be made at +Westminster against unjust fiscal exaction, by no means impossible. For +the rest, the Union was nominally not disturbed, and the Imperial +Parliament was nominally left intact; but it was declared that the Irish +Parliament was to possess the rights secured to it, unless these were +annulled by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, to which the Irish had +given its consent, or by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, in which +representatives from Ireland should have a voice. + +The Bill was debated with great force of argument, but hardly in its high +constitutional aspects. Like the plan of Butt, and every plan of the kind, +it impliedly, if not expressly, repealed the Union, for the very creation +of an Irish Parliament destroyed the real authority of the Imperial +Parliament, the symbol and guarantee of the Union, in one of the main +parts of the Three Kingdoms. It effected a radical change in our polity as +a whole, for practically it gave birth to three Parliaments, the Irish +sitting in College Green in Dublin, the British at Westminster without +Irish members, and the Imperial, properly to be only so-called, when +assembled upon one great occasion; and, even more distinctly than the +scheme of Butt, it let the principle of Federation into the constitution +of the State. And it did all this obscurely, indirectly, and, so to speak, +with reserve; the hand of a veiled prophet appeared in his work; this must +have led to endless controversies dangerous in the extreme. Nor did the +Bill even attempt to mark out the distinction between Irish, British, and +Imperial affairs, which its author had declared was a _sine qua non_; this +distinction, in fact, cannot be drawn, as Mr. Gladstone acknowledged +afterwards; Irish, British, and Imperial affairs so run into each other, +that they cannot be divided into separate heads, to be under the +jurisdiction of different Parliaments. The conditions, too, which Mr. +Gladstone described, as essential to a measure of Home Rule, were, in no +sense, fulfilled. 'The Unity of the Empire,' that is, of Great Britain and +Ireland, as Mr. Gladstone no doubt had in his mind, was not secured, or, +even in name, preserved; the subordinate Irish Parliament and its superior +might, and probably would, come in serious conflict; this was absolutely +inconsistent with the unity to be maintained. The 'political equality of +England, Scotland, and Ireland' was not assured; the Bill placed Ireland +in a degraded position, especially in all that dealt with taxation, and +through the exclusion of Irish members from the British House of Commons. +It did not 'produce an equitable distribution of Imperial burdens,' for +the financial arrangements were thoroughly unjust, and subjected Ireland +arbitrarily to a most galling tribute, without giving her the means of +making a complaint. It did not 'provide safeguards for the minority,' that +is, for the loyal classes of Protestant and Catholic Ireland; it handed +them over to an Irish Parliament, certain to be for years an instrument of +their avowed enemies; and its supplement, a Land Purchase Bill, did not +furnish a third part of the funds required to buy out the Irish landlords, +a class which, Mr. Gladstone declared, it was 'an obligation of duty and +honour' to save harmless, and which he admitted an Irish Parliament would, +probably, plunder and destroy. Lastly, the Bill did not secure 'finality;' +it was in no sense in the nature of a 'permanent settlement,' as +subsequent events have conclusively proved.[24] + +It may be urged, however, that even if this measure made a fundamental +change in the constitution of these realms, and did not satisfy the +conditions its author laid down, still the real question was, would it +bring peace to Ireland, and improve the relations in which she stood +towards Great Britain? Mr. Gladstone and his followers assumed that this +would be the case; the 'Union of Hearts' was to accomplish marvels; but +this assumption was without the slightest warrant. The most favourable way +to consider the subject, from the point of view of the Home Rule party, is +to suppose that Great Britain and Ireland were two communities, in no +sense estranged from each other, and that Ireland was not a widely divided +people; and that both were not unwilling to accept the Bill, as a kind of +modification of the partnership made by the Treaty of Union. This +supposition would be obviously contrary to the facts; but, even on this +supposition, the proposed measure would have completely failed to attain +its objects, and, on any ordinary view of human nature, would have +exasperated Great Britain and Ireland alike, and could not have been a +'message of peace' to Ireland. The Parliament at Westminster would soon +have found out that its real sovereignty in Ireland had been practically +destroyed; that the Irish Parliament could, in many ways, interfere with +British and Imperial affairs; that most of the checks on its powers were +of little avail; this would certainly deeply offend the deceived British +nation. The Irish Parliament, on the other hand, would necessarily resent +the harsh limitations by which it had been bound; yet as it had most of +the powers of a real Parliament, it could very effectually evade or impair +these; could, through its Executive, largely annul them; could, at least, +make continual and powerful protests. Discord, and perhaps conflict, +between Great Britain and Ireland, from the nature of the case, would be +the result; and, besides, there were special provisions in the Bill which +would be deemed intolerable by five-sixths of Irishmen. Even loyal Ireland +would not endure the banishment of Irish representatives from the British +House of Commons, which would have power to impose the Irish Customs and +Excise; this would be taxation without representation, in the very worst +sense. It was monstrous that Ireland was to contribute a large sum for the +charge of the Empire and yet was to have no voice in the Empire's affairs; +it was humiliating that a British official was to have absolute control +over the whole Irish revenue. All this was subjecting Ireland to a +degrading tribute; it should be added that the prerogative of the English +Privy Council, to set aside practically Acts of the Irish Parliament, +would have provoked the deepest and most widespread discontent. The Bill, +in a word, revealed strange ignorance of the feelings of mankind; it would +have worked on the assumption only that human beings in Great Britain and +Ireland were without passions and wills of their own; it would have been +blown to the winds, when put to the test. + +But 'the circumstances,' to adopt the words of Burke, 'are what render +every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind;'[25] +what were the circumstances in the present instance? England and Catholic +Ireland had been long opposed; the Land and the National Leagues formed a +conspiracy against our rule in Ireland; England had interests in Ireland +of the first importance; she had a large community of her own blood and +faith in Ireland, attached to the Union and the old mother country. +Ireland had been distracted for ages by feuds of race and religion; +Protestant and Catholic Ireland stood apart from each other; the Irish +Parliament, created by the Bill, would certainly be an instrument of the +heads of the Catholic masses, supported by Parnell and his band, and by +Fenians across the Atlantic. Under these conditions, Home Rule would have +been a fatal gift, ruinous to Great Britain and Ireland alike. Suppose, +for example, that an Irish Parliament, established in College Green, since +1886, had ruled Ireland during the war in South Africa. It would +unquestionably have taken the side of the Boers, as the Nationalist +leaders have openly done; and it would have possessed the means of doing +infinite mischief. It could have passed resolutions condemning the war; +have called on Irishmen to keep aloof from the British army; have +discouraged recruiting throughout Ireland; have sent messages of good will +to the Boer Government. But probably it would have gone far beyond these, +its constitutional, rights; it could have winked at the preparation of an +armed force in Ireland to be despatched to the aid of the Boers; it +could have invited Foreign Powers to put a stop to the conflict; nay, it +could have laid hands on the Irish taxes, and refused to 'pay tribute to +an alien Government;' and what, in these cases, would have been England's +means of obtaining redress, save by the power of the sword? In the +instance of other wars, the same course would be followed; we cannot +forget that at Nationalist meetings, the Mahdi, the Dervishes, nay, all +our enemies, were the objects of the applause of shouting Irish +multitudes. And as the Irish Parliament could injure England in war, so it +could embarrass and annoy her, in a hundred ways, in peace. There was +nothing in the Bill to prevent Protection in Ireland, for the Irish +Parliament could vote bounties on Irish exports; there was nothing to +prevent the issue of Irish assignats, to mask confiscation of different +kinds; and recourse would not improbably be had to these very expedients. +It is unnecessary to dwell on what would be the legislation of the Irish +Parliament at home, and the administration of the Executive it would have +a right to set up. Composed as it would be, it would abolish 'landlordism' +by a stroke of the pen, or by merely preventing the recovery of rent; it +would simply turn society upside down, and establish a Catholic ascendency +by many degrees worse than Protestant ascendency ever was; it would, in a +word, let revolution loose in the island. Protestant Ireland would, as a +matter of course, resist; a savage war of race and creed would certainly +follow; the scenes of 1690 and 1798 might well be repeated; and the +struggle would end in general bankruptcy. England, in her own interest, +and in that of her friends in Ireland, would assuredly intervene, under +conditions like these; and the concession of Home Rule would probably lead +to reconquest. + +The Home Rule Bill of 1886--apart from the fatal evils it must have +caused--placed Ireland in such an inferior position, that every Irishman +of spirit ought to have treated it with contempt; it was so dangerous to +Great Britain, and, indeed, to the Empire, that John Bright declared that +not twenty English members approved of it at heart. Mr. Gladstone himself, +it should be remarked, regarded it with no doubtful misgivings; he +presented it to the House of Commons as 'but a choice of evils;' his +measure itself, in many passages, revealed the profoundest distrust of the +Parliament he proposed to create. Parnell, imposing his imperious will on +his followers, accepted the Bill with professions of delight; this was +effusively welcomed by the emotional statesman, deceived by an +unscrupulous plotter, over and over again; it is now known this was a mere +pretence; Home Rule, under the conditions of the scheme, would have been +made a stepping-stone only for larger demands; and this, indeed, might +have been easily foreseen. The Bill was rejected by a majority which did +not express the true sense of the House of Commons, and showed how strong +may be the ties of party; the great body of the Liberals, as, doubtless, +they now bitterly regret, threw in their lot with Mr. Gladstone in his +most reckless venture. It is of more importance to observe what the views +on the subject were of the conspirators in America, who had set the Land +and National Leagues on foot, and had supplied almost the whole of their +funds; without their assistance the movement led by Parnell would probably +have never struggled into life. The prospect opened by the Home Rule Bill +was thus welcomed by the Clan na Gael, the most energetic and daring of +the Fenian parties; it will be noted that it was to be a means only to a +very decisive end. 'The achievement of a National Parliament gives us a +footing on Irish soil; it gives us the agencies and instrumentalities of a +government _de facto_, at the very commencement of the Irish struggle. It +places the government of the land in the hands of our friends and +brothers. It removes the Castle's rings, and gives us what we may well +express as the plant of an armed revolution.'[26] And at a great Fenian +meeting held after the rejection of the Bill, one of the leading speakers +dropped these significant words: 'We have no desire to force the hand of +Parnell, or to drive the Irish people into war unprepared. All that we +demand is this, and we will be satisfied with nothing less--that no leader +of the Irish people, who is supposed to speak for them, shall commit +himself, or them, to accepting as a final settlement, bills of relief +unworthy of the dignity of Ireland's national demand. We are perfectly +willing to see them accept such bills as that of Gladstone, as a +settlement on account, but that must not be accepted as closing the +transaction. We see no wisdom in it. It lowers the tone of the national +cause. It lowers the spirit of the true people. To ask them to subside to +a species of mere provincialism is an outrage on their struggle of seven +hundred years for liberty. We admit that it may be good policy on the part +of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Davitt to be what is called moderate in tone; but +for us, who represent the national idea of the Irish people, it would be +worse than folly to conceal our sentiments. We recognise that Ireland is +incapable of fighting at present.'[27] + +Mr. Gladstone dissolved Parliament when it had thrown the Bill out; he +appears really to have believed that the nation would give its sanction to +Home Rule. At the General Election of 1886, he exerted himself 'in the +sacred cause of Ireland,' with the energy he had shown in his Midlothian +Campaign; he associated his new Irish policy with appeals to the +multitude; the opposition to him was that 'of the classes against the +masses;' in a word, the enthusiastic, and perhaps sincere, convert played, +with little scruple, the part of a mere demagogue. But England pronounced +against him, with no uncertain voice; 'men of education and property,' as +he sadly acknowledged, resisted him with the steadfastness of the English +nature; a great majority was sent into the House of Commons pledged +against Home Rule; Lord Salisbury's Government came again into office. It +deserves special notice that the rejection of the Bill did not, as was +predicted would be the case, arouse anything like real discontent in +Ireland, or cause her Catholic community to stir; this spectacle, which +has been seen over and over again, proves how little the main body of the +Irish people care for a political revolution of the kind; and how Home +Rule, as Parnell and his band conceived it, was the work of a conspiracy +of foreign origin, seeking, through it, to subvert British rule in +Ireland. The real purpose of these men was very clearly shown at a +Convention assembled at Chicago, in the summer of 1886; speeches of the +most incendiary nature were made; and two of Parnell's envoys, despatched +to collect funds 'for the cause,' announced that, after the failure of Mr. +Gladstone's measure, their 'duty was to make the government of Ireland by +England impossible.' Two or three years of trouble in Ireland followed; it +is unnecessary to refer to these at any length. A season of agricultural +distress and of a fall in prices made the payment of Irish rents +difficult; the occasion was seized by the heads of the National League, +which had gradually been acquiring formidable strength; the 'Plan of +Campaign' was set afoot; and another attack was made on the Irish landed +gentry, with the ultimate object of paralysing the Irish Government, as +had been solemnly proclaimed at Chicago. The social disorder of this +period was not so deeply marked with horrible deeds of blood, as the +Saturnalia of the Land League were; but the movement was, perhaps, not +less dangerous; the cruel practice of 'boycotting' was reduced to a +system, and caused widespread misery and distress; an agrarian war was +carried on in a few counties; judges, magistrates, and juries were +terrorised in the administration of the law; and there were too numerous +instances of atrocious crimes. But a firm hand was at the helm of the +Irish Government; Mr. Balfour did not palter with sedition and treason; +the conspiracy was before long put down; and it should be added that +'boycotting' and 'the Plan of Campaign' were unequivocally condemned at +Rome. + +In this struggle between the forces of disorder and law, the Rump of the +Liberal party, which had accepted Home Rule, freely declared itself on the +side of the National League and of anarchy. Mr. Gladstone, however, +towered over his fellows; his vehement and, when aroused, unscrupulous +nature, has never been more unfortunately displayed. He had been three +times at the head of the State, charged with the administration of Irish +affairs; the Government in office was engaged in a conflict with a +conspiracy of no contemptible strength; yet Mr. Gladstone did not shrink +from throwing his full weight into the scale against it, and giving his +sanction to the movement led by Parnell and his creatures. His conduct was +so flagrantly at odds with his former self, that, but for the gravity of +the situation, it would have been ludicrous; it consisted in adoring what +he had burned, and burning what he had adored; nothing like it had been +seen since Fox, breaking away from the traditions of British statesmen, +flung himself into the arms of Jacobin France, and rejoiced at every +reverse that befell England.[28] A remarkable episode in the politics of +the day was not without real effect on events that followed. The acts of +the Land and, in part, of the National Leagues, and of the leaders of the +revolutionary movements which had convulsed Ireland, were investigated by +the judges of the Special Commission appointed by Parliament for the +purpose; the inquiry, which lasted many months, was of supreme importance; +such a damning sentence was never pronounced on a body of public men, as +that pronounced on Parnell and his followers, though the accusation of +treason was not brought into question.[29] This decision was sufficient +for well-informed and sensible men; but Parnell was acquitted on a +personal, but minor, charge, that of having been the author of the +well-known forged letters all but approving of the assassinations in the +Phoenix Park; Mr. Gladstone and his adherents welcomed him as an injured +martyr; the House of Commons rang with their plaudits when he re-entered +its walls. For a few months Parnell became a popular personage in +democratic England; he had negotiations with Mr. Gladstone with respect to +Home Rule, the tenor of which has not transpired; his satellites appeared +at many public meetings, and split the ears of the groundlings with +plausible talk about 'self-government' for Ireland and the 'Union of +Hearts.' This mystification and falsehood were not without effect; the +cause of Home Rule made a kind of progress in England; and, strange to +say, the fall of Parnell which ere long followed--I shall not dwell on its +squalid and grotesque incidents--had an influence in the same direction. +Ireland had been brought into a state of comparative repose; the power of +the National League appeared broken; the formidable leader of the +conspiracy had left the stage; his adherents were scattered sheep, which +had not a shepherd. With the ignorance of Irish affairs so common to +Englishmen, and the desire, partly selfish, but partly generous, to 'get +rid of the Irish difficulty,' by any tolerable means, thousands in the +constituencies, even in England, lately bitterly hostile to it, were +gradually won over to the idea of Home Rule. + +The General Election of 1892 followed; a number of causes, in addition to +that I have set forth, contributed to favour the Home Rule movement. The +'swing of the pendulum,' seen in British politics, since Democracy has +gained the ascendant, very distinctly appeared; the 'idea that each side +ought to have its innings' was widely spread; many Unionist seats were +lost by these means. The extraordinary energy shown by Mr. Gladstone, at +an age far beyond the ordinary span, had considerable influence on the +masses; and though his real authority had been long on the wane, he was +still the popular figure in England and, above all, in Scotland. He had, +also, carefully kept his Home Rule scheme to himself; it was announced by +his followers that his next measure for securing 'self-government,' as it +was called, for Ireland, would be free from the manifest faults of that of +1886, and would finally, and happily, settle the question. A large part of +the electorate was gained in this way; but the influence that most +effectually assisted Mr. Gladstone was, essentially, of a very different +kind. The Anti-Unionist Liberals had been out of power for many years; +though they had long been split into separate groups, they resolved to +combine against the common enemy, and to drive the Unionist Government +from its seat, by appeals to the ideas they assumed were dominant in +democratic England and Scotland. The Newcastle programme was +ostentatiously published; the question of Home Rule was mixed up with +projects for disestablishing the Church in England and Wales, for the +destruction or the emasculation of the House of Lords, for enforcing +temperance by the tyranny of the Local Veto, for extending the suffrage +and raising the labourer's status; in this way they satisfied themselves +they 'would sweep the country.' They knew, indeed, that Mr. Gladstone had +no heart for much of their policy; but his passionate eagerness to +accomplish Home Rule was notorious; they believed that by giving him a +cordial support on this question, they would secure his powerful aid for +the others, and that by the process known as 'log-rolling,' they would +attain their objects. The Unionist party was weakened at the election; but +the sanguine hopes of its opponents were not fulfilled. Many of the +Radical cries were far from popular; they nearly all combined large +classes against them; England returned a large majority to the House of +Commons pledged against Home Rule, if not so considerable as six years +before; and though Scotland and Wales were, in the main, favourable to Mr. +Gladstone's policy, still the electorate of Great Britain, as a whole, +pronounced against it. The election in Ireland presented features which, +with respect to Home Rule, were of marked significance. In 1886, as in +1885, the educated and upper classes were swamped at the polls, by the +flood of illiterate and indigent multitudes; the Irish Catholic Church +used, nay, abused, its immense authority, to secure votes for Mr. +Gladstone's coming measure. The same spectacle was beheld in 1892; but an +element of confusion and disorder came in; the leaders of the factions, +divided by the fall of Parnell, though Nationalists, ferociously flew at +each other's throats; the election was marked by disgraceful scenes of +lawlessness. These certainly prefigured what would be the character of a +future Irish Parliament sitting in College Green. + +This election gave Mr. Gladstone a majority of some forty seats in the +House of Commons, but a majority composed of not well-united elements; and +the best opinion of England was strongly averse to his policy. But the +veteran statesman--he was in his eighty-third year--did not pause for a +moment in his headlong venture, though ominous sounds were being already +heard; after the resignation of Lord Salisbury, through a weak adverse +vote, his rival became Prime Minister for the fourth time. He had staked +everything to obtain the success of the cause to which he had passionately +devoted his declining years; he brought in his second Home Rule Bill in +the first months of 1893. The measure had much in common with that of +1886; but in some respects it was very different, especially in one +feature of supreme importance. An Irish Parliament was again to be set up +in Dublin; but it was to be a much smaller body than that proposed by the +previous Bill; it was to be composed of a Legislative Council of +forty-eight members only, and of a Legislative Assembly of only a hundred +and three; these were analogous to the First and Second Orders of 1886, +but were not to be even half in numbers; and no Irish peers were to have a +place in the new Parliament. The Legislative Council and Assembly, +differing here from the original scheme, were to sit, not together, but +apart; but the Legislative Council, like the First Order, was to have a +temporary suspensive veto on the Assembly's acts; the Assembly, too, like +the Second Order, possessing a majority which would place real power in +its hands; and both bodies, it should be added, being more democratic than +the two which were to have been created in 1886. The new Irish Parliament, +like that to be formed seven years before, was restricted by +limitations--these much the same as those contained in the former Bill--in +a number of Imperial and domestic matters; it was, like its predecessor, +to be subjected to the same kind of veto, and to nearly the same authority +of the English Privy Council. In finance, the 'tribute,' which had been +loudly condemned by all parties in Ireland, was given up; there was to be +no British official to lay his hands on Irish revenue, and to divert it +from its legitimate uses; but the Irish Customs were to be appropriated to +the Imperial charge, which Ireland was declared to be justly liable to +pay; and this was a sum of about two millions and a half, with an addition +for a time of one million, a sum less than the estimate made in 1886. The +Irish Parliament, however, if thus made largely subordinate, was like the +Parliament of the preceding Bill, to be in many, and most important, +respects supreme. It was to rule Ireland as a sovereign power, subject to +the limitations by which it was to be bound; it could make, change, and +repeal laws, as regards the Irish community, almost as it pleased; it +could, in a word, do nearly everything within the province of a real +Parliament. Above all, it could appoint and control the Irish Executive +Government, to which the administration of Irish affairs would belong; and +it would thus have complete power over the most important machinery of the +State. + +The Bills of 1886 and of 1893 so far resembled each other, with some +distinctions; but, in other respects, they markedly differed. The +supremacy of the Imperial Parliament, implied but not expressed in the +first scheme, was unequivocally asserted in the second, though this +supremacy could not be effective, as respects Ireland. The Imperial +Parliament was nominally left untouched by both Bills, though this was a +play on words only; but it was to hold a position in the second it was not +to hold in the first; the Union was not in terms repealed by either +measure, though virtually it was repealed by both, through the mere +creation of an Irish Parliament. The Bill of 1886 had, as its complement, +a Land Purchase Bill; in fact, both were made parts of the same policy; a +sum of L50,000,000 was to be an indemnity for Irish landlords who should +think fit to part with their estates; for Mr. Gladstone, we have seen, had +declared that it was 'an obligation of duty and honour' to protect this +order of men; and he asserted that Parliament would, doubtless, vote any +further sums required, a singular exhibition of credulous hope, for these +would have amounted to L150,000,000 at least; and he had himself, in a +speech addressed to Lord George Hamilton, valued the lands of Ireland at +L300,000,000. But what was to be deemed sacred, in 1886, had a very +different aspect in 1893; the settlement of the Irish land was, indeed, +withheld for three years from the Irish Parliament, but, after this brief +space of time, this was to be certainly left to a body, which Mr. +Gladstone had evidently thought would make short work of the Irish landed +gentry, and would drive them, in beggary, out of their own country. These +differences, however, between the two Bills, sank into insignificance +compared to a vital distinction which made them essentially unlike each +other, and made their projects of Home Rule completely dissimilar. The +exclusion of Irish representatives from the House of Commons at +Westminster, under the measure of 1886, was palpably unjust, and had been +condemned with much force of argument. Mr. Gladstone proposed to redress +this wrong by summoning eighty Irish members into the Imperial House of +Commons; these were to have no cognisance of British questions, but were +to have a right to vote on Imperial and even Irish questions, though the +Imperial Parliament was to have little or no power in Ireland, and an +Irish Parliament was practically to fill its place, and to have all but +supreme authority over Irish affairs. This strange expedient obviously +made the Home Rule schemes of 1886 and 1893 altogether different; but Mr. +Gladstone never saw the essential distinction; he maintained that the +inclusion of the Irish members was little more than a detail of the +measure. It would be perhaps unfair to insist that he introduced this +immense change in order only to strengthen his already enfeebled party, +which would be greatly in want of Irish votes at Westminster; more +probably his intellect, yielding to old age, did not thoroughly grasp all +that was involved in his project.[30] + +The Bill of 1893, from a purely constitutional point of view, was +infinitely more objectionable than that of 1886. It not only, I have said, +virtually repealed the Union; it created a kind of Federalism in these +realms to which there has never been a parallel. The Irish Parliament was +practically to rule Ireland; no British members were to show their faces +in it; it was to be all but the sovereign of the Irish State. The British +Parliament was nominally to be sovereign of the British State; +representatives from Ireland were not to appear in it, and, in theory, +they were not to deal with British questions. The Imperial Parliament was +to be analogous to a supreme Federal Council; this ought to have +jurisdiction over Imperial affairs alone; but eighty Irish members were to +have seats in it, and they were to have a right to vote on Imperial and +Irish questions, though Ireland was to have a separate Parliament of her +own. This arrangement, in conception, was simply monstrous; it gave +Ireland powers to which she had no pretence to a claim; it really +subjected Great Britain to her; it formed a Federation in which a weak and +small State was to have immense authority over another tenfold as strong; +it might be described as one-sided Federalism run mad. Passing from the +main principles to the details of the Bill, this, like its predecessor, +did not satisfy the conditions Mr. Gladstone had deemed to be essential. +It did not separate British, Irish, and Imperial affairs; its author +admitted at last that this was not possible. It asserted the supremacy of +the Imperial Parliament, and gave it a more imposing position than it had +under the Bill of 1886; but it did not maintain the Unity of the Three +Kingdoms; the mere creation of an Irish Parliament placed this in +jeopardy. It did not provide for the 'political equality' of Great Britain +and Ireland, for, in contradiction to the measure of seven years before, +it practically gave Ireland a kind of ascendency; her representatives were +to possess rights in no sense to be justified. It did not provide an +'equitable distribution of Imperial burdens;' in this province it would +have done wrong to Great Britain; for, while it abandoned the odious Irish +tribute of 1886, and an effective control over Irish revenue, its +expedient of allocating the Irish Customs, and nothing else, as the only +source for the payment of Imperial charges, would, in all probability, +have caused the Imperial Treasury a great loss; the Customs would have +been enormously reduced by smuggling, to which Irishmen have always been +much addicted, which the Irish Parliament would have no interest to +prevent, and which, very likely, it would directly encourage. Again, it +did not create 'safeguards for the minority;' as we have seen, it threw +the Irish landed gentry, after a brief respite, to the wolves, that is, to +the tender mercies of the Irish Parliament; and, like the measure of 1886, +it took no heed of Protestant and loyal Catholic Ireland, as a whole, +though this assuredly was 'a minority' that required protection. Finally, +it could not have effected a 'permanent settlement' of the affairs of +Ireland; a 'lopsided' and iniquitous arrangement like this would certainly +have had a very short existence. + +The measure of 1893, in short, would have effected a complete revolution +in the polity of these realms; it would have given the least important of +the Three Kingdoms an iniquitous authority over the most important; it +would unnaturally have placed weakness in superiority to power; it would +have subjected the dominant to the lesser partner; all this, it will be +observed, followed from the inclusion of Irish representatives in the +Imperial Parliament, who, though a Parliament in Dublin was to rule +Ireland, were to have a right to deal with Imperial and Irish questions. +Mr. Gladstone, I repeat, seems never to have understood the strange and +ruinous consequences this would involve; but this can be made manifest by +one or two examples. The Irish members would be excluded from the British +Parliament, and would have no right to vote on purely British questions, +say upon the extension of the British railway system, or the +disfranchisement of an English or Scottish borough. But they would have +eighty seats in the Imperial Parliament; and as it was impossible to +separate a number of British questions from those of an Imperial or Irish +character, they would have a most potent influence over British affairs; +for example, they could legitimately vote upon such subjects as the +confidence to be placed in a British Ministry, the financial relations +between Great Britain and Ireland, or the validity of British incumbrances +affecting Irish estates. The exclusion, however, of Irish members from the +British Parliament, and their introduction into the Imperial Parliament, +would have led to even more disastrous results; it must, in many +instances, have caused a complete paralysis of the State. This in-and-out +plan, as it was derisively called, must have made Parliamentary government +well-nigh impossible; if Irish members were to have a right to vote in the +same House of Commons on Imperial and Irish questions, but were not to +have a right to vote on British questions, to vote, say, upon a war with a +Foreign Power, and upon the domicile and status of Irish subjects, but not +to vote on matters of purely British commerce, there might, and very often +would be, two conflicting majorities in the leading House of Parliament; +Parliamentary affairs would be brought to a stand; the tenure of even the +strongest Ministry would be utterly insecure. It is needless to point out +that the relations between Great Britain and Ireland would almost +certainly have been more strained, under the Bill of 1893, than they would +have been under that of 1886; and that the government of Ireland by the +Irish Parliament, would, under both, have been much of the same character. +The British nation would have been indignant at the humiliation of their +ancient Parliament, which would be sometimes placed at the mercy of Irish +members; it would have condemned the weakening in Ireland of its +authority, through the mere establishment of an Irish Parliament; it would +have been sorely vexed that Irish smuggling would filch away a large part +of British revenue. It should be borne in mind, too, that the Irish +members, who would have been let into the Imperial Parliament, would have +been more difficult to deal with, by many degrees, more openly disloyal, +more obstructive, than Irish Nationalists could be, as affairs stand at +present; they would have the support of the Irish Parliament; the Imperial +Parliament could hardly impose a check on them. As for the rule of the +Irish Parliament, within its proper domain, it would have been the same, +or much the same, under either measure; that is, it would have been a +succession of angry wranglings with England and oppression in Ireland, +leading to anarchy and general ruin. + +The Home Rule Bill of 1886, in a word, bad measure as it was, was +innoxious compared to the Home Rule Bill of 1893. The fatal tendency of +the scheme was quickly perceived; the sound mind of England was profoundly +stirred; the Bill was publicly burned in the City of London; innumerable +petitions against it flowed in; an immense assembly, representing loyal +Catholic and Protestant Ireland, met in the capital, and denounced this +whole policy in most determined language. As had happened, too, seven +years before, the Press of Great Britain, all but universally, condemned +the new measure as hopelessly bad; it was significant that the Liberal +Press was well-nigh silent, and that Mr. Gladstone was supported by very +few petitions. The Opposition simply tore the Bill to shreds in the House +of Commons; but the self-deluded Minister desperately held his course; the +Radical groups servilely gave him their votes; the process of +'log-rolling,' never before so recklessly displayed, kept his petty +majority almost intact, a crying disgrace to any party in the State. At +last, whether afraid of the country rising against him or yielding to the +instigation of his Irish allies--his subserviency to their truculence had +been most painful--Mr. Gladstone forced the measure through the House of +Commons by a method never employed before; 'closure by compartments,' +rightly compared to the 'guillotine,' put an end to resistance by +iniquitous means. The Bill passed the Lower House by thirty-four votes +only; not half of it had been examined or discussed; the part that had, +had been so completely transformed, that its parent could hardly have +known his own offspring. The most notable of these changes was that the +in-and-out plan was given up; its ruinous effects had been fully dragged +into the light, but an arrangement, perhaps even worse, had been placed in +its stead. Ireland was to retain her Parliament in College Green; but the +eighty Irish members were to have a right to sit in the Imperial +Parliament, and to vote on all questions, not only Imperial and Irish, but +strictly British alike. A philosophic and calm-minded writer has indicated +what this would involve: 'Irish members may disestablish the Church of +England, though England is to have no voice in the pettiest of Irish +affairs. Irish members are to be allowed to impose taxes on England, say, +to double the income tax, though of these taxes no inhabitant of Ireland +will pay a penny; the Irish delegation, and this is the worst grievance of +all, is to be enabled, in combination with a British minority, to detach +Wales from England, or to vote Home Rule for Scotland, or to federalise +still further the United Kingdom by voting that Man, Jersey, and Guernsey +shall send members to the Imperial Parliament.'[31] To say that this +proposal would be unconstitutional would be to do it too much honour; it +was scandalous in the existing situation of affairs; it implied that heads +of the National League, leaders of a rebellious and socialistic movement, +would have the power, without restriction or check, to rule the Imperial +Parliament, in many instances, with reference to exclusively English and +Scottish questions; it practically bound Great Britain hand and foot in +fetters to Ireland; it was rightly called 'an absurd piece of infamy.' It +is unnecessary to say that the system it would have established could not +have stood a trial of even three months; England, whenever crossed, would +have indignantly swept it away. But Nemesis had commended the poisoned +chalice to Mr. Gladstone's lips; the project, on which he had staked his +fortunes, was that which he had incorrectly ascribed to Butt, and had +declared to be impossible and worse. + +The Bill, it was notorious, could not have passed the House of Commons had +not its rejection by the House of Lords been assured beforehand. It +received its quietus, in that assembly, by a majority of about ten to one; +the mind of England felt unquestionable relief; a great national peril had +been averted. Exactly as had happened in 1886, scarcely a sound of +discontent was heard in Ireland; the demand for Home Rule, in fact, is +largely a fictitious cry, with which the great body of Irishmen has little +or no sympathy; the evidence of this can be no longer doubtful. Mr. +Gladstone retired, within a few months, from public life; one of his last +acts was to shoot a Parthian arrow at the House of Lords, which, happily +for these realms, had wrecked his policy; since that time he has +disappeared from the scene; few eminent statesmen have been so soon +forgotten. Home Rule was scattered to the winds at the General Election of +1895; it has not been a prominent question at that of 1900; but if Ireland +has sent more than eighty of its supporters into the House of Commons, the +best elements in her community remain angrily hostile; and the opinion of +Great Britain is distinctly adverse. For many reasons, however, as I have +remarked, it is impossible to ignore the subject; in the strange chances +and changes of British politics, and under our system of party government, +a minister may again become an advocate of Home Rule, though certainly +not in the present Parliament. Mr. Gladstone's Bills, it is likely, will +not be heard of again; but Home Rule may be embodied in other forms; I may +briefly refer to, and comment, on these. The project of restoring the +Parliament of 1782-1800, an ideal of O'Connell during many years of his +life, will hardly be revived in these times; the conditions in Great +Britain and Ireland have so completely changed. The centripetal forces +which, a hundred years ago, held the British and Irish Parliaments, in the +main, together--they differed, however, on important questions--have long +ago been all but completely destroyed; the present Irish Parliament could +not be an assembly identified in race and faith with England; its House of +Commons could not be elected by a small body of Protestants, and latterly +by masses of Catholic peasants, the serfs of their landlords. The +centrifugal forces, on the other hand, those which would keep the two +Parliaments utterly apart, would probably be overwhelmingly strong; the +Irish House of Commons would practically, at least for years, be ruled by +the nominees of the National League and of the Irish Catholic priesthood; +its electorate would, for the most part, be subject to these dominant +powers; and Protestant Ireland would alike be swamped and incensed. +Nevertheless, the restoration of what has been called Grattan's +Parliament, would, in my judgment, be a much better project than either of +Mr. Gladstone's schemes of Home Rule. The Irish Parliament would be bound +by known and fixed precedents, which it would be difficult wholly to +disregard; an Irish House of Lords would exist as a check on the House of +Commons; above all--and this is of the very first importance--the Irish +Executive would not be subject to the Irish Parliament; it would be +appointed from Westminster by British statesmen. A Parliament of this type +could hardly effect the ruinous mischiefs which Mr. Gladstone's Irish +Parliaments could certainly effect. + +Ireland, it has been urged, would obtain Home Rule, if she were +assimilated to one of our self-governing colonies. These nations, as they +may fitly be called, are by no means, as is commonly supposed, wholly +independent of the Crown and the Imperial Parliament; they have +Parliaments and Executives of their own; but these in theory, and partly +in fact, are subordinate. No Act passed by the Parliament of a +self-governing colony can in any way contravene an Imperial statute; the +governor of a self-governing colony is a real governor; appeals run to the +English Privy Council from colonial Courts of Justice. Nevertheless, +self-governing colonies are practically all but independent; they pay no +contribution to Imperial charges; they maintain their own garrisons, +without a British army in their midst--at least, in a great many cases; +they are hardly ever interfered with by the Imperial Parliament, or by the +men in power at Westminster. Why, it may be argued, should not the same +liberties belong to Ireland, for centuries the peccant part of these +kingdoms; would not the concession make her as loyal as most of our +self-governing colonies? The answer is short, but amply sufficient; the +circumstances of our self-governing colonies and of Ireland are altogether +different. In none of these settlements is there the profound estrangement +which has long divided Great Britain from Ireland; in none is there a +community in which a loyal minority is separated from a disaffected +majority by long-standing discords of race and faith; Ireland is at our +doors, our self-governing colonies distant. Give Ireland a Parliament like +that of Victoria, and Ireland would break off from the British connection; +the Irish Parliament would possess ample power to trample on and oppress +hundreds of thousands of law-abiding men, of whom the protection was +England's duty; the Irish Parliament and Executive, within a few leagues +of our coasts, could, in innumerable ways, do infinite mischief. The +supposed analogy, therefore, completely fails; it would be treason to the +State, and to loyal Irishmen, to make Ireland a self-governing colony; and +no British politician has as yet countenanced this mode of Home Rule. It +has been hinted again, but with bated breath and humbleness, that the +relations of Great Britain and Ireland have been so long unfortunate, such +a dreary record of disputes and miseries, that we should say to our +intractable partner, 'Depart in peace;' in a word, separation is a +conceivable Home Rule policy. This proposal has never been discussed in +Parliament; the interest, the self-respect, the pride of Englishmen almost +forbid the thought. Yet separation, strange as it may appear, would be a +better and more safe expedient than either of Mr. Gladstone's schemes of +Home Rule. The Imperial Parliament would have complete liberty to exercise +its sovereign power in Great Britain; it would have a free hand to prevent +injustice in Ireland, either by the strong arm, or by fiscal and other +expedients, say, by laying an embargo on Irish products; it would not be +subject to the exasperating but often effective checks which Home Rule +would in any form involve; and the Imperial Executive would possess ample +means to protect the interests of England and of her friends in Ireland. +Let it not be forgotten that in perhaps the ablest speech ever made, in +the House of Commons, on this subject, Peel declared that he would +infinitely prefer separation to a repeal of the Union, by no means so evil +a policy as Home Rule. + +A few politicians, however, have put the theory forward that 'Home Rule +all round' will meet the 'national demand' of Ireland, and give her what +they are pleased to call 'self-government.' England, Scotland, Ireland, +and perhaps Wales are to have local Parliaments to deal with their own +affairs; Imperial affairs are to be directed by an Imperial Council. I am +willing to admit that a scheme of this kind would be better than Mr. +Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1893; it would be less illogical, possibly +not more disastrous. But I must be permitted to doubt whether these sages +understand what their project certainly involves; this, indeed, seems to +be rather in the nature of a device to angle for Nationalist votes, +without scruple, and then to propose a plan which England, Scotland, +Ireland, and Wales have never asked for, and which England and Scotland, +at least, would indignantly reject. This scheme is pure Federalism, in the +proper sense of the word; let us briefly consider what this means from the +very nature of the case. England, Scotland, Ireland, and, I assume, Wales +would form separate States; they would have separate Legislatures and +Executives to manage their local affairs, separate local forces, separate +Courts of Justice; they would be, essentially, separate countries. The +Imperial Parliament and its Executive would be the only link between them; +there would be an Imperial army, and navy, and Imperial tribunals; but the +Imperial Parliament and its Executive would only have jurisdiction over +Imperial affairs, and would be only the head of the separate States as +respects Foreign Powers. But as it would be difficult in the extreme, +under these conditions, to distinguish local from Imperial affairs, an +arbiter of some kind, armed with sufficient powers, would be necessary to +say what affairs were local and what Imperial, and decisively to pronounce +on the subject, on the innumerable occasions when the question would +arise; and it would be necessary, too, that there should be some means, +perhaps a Referendum to a popular vote, to effect any constitutional +change, to reform or to abolish the Constitution itself. This scheme +obviously would be complex, intricate, and difficult to carry into effect; +it would be a huge system of divided, and probably conflicting, powers, +not easy to reconcile with each other; for this, and other reasons, it +would require a formal Constitution reduced to writing, and setting forth, +under distinct heads or articles, the conditions of the Federation that +had been established, the spheres of the authority of the separate +States, and the sphere of the authority of the Imperial Council. Is it +possible to suppose that the Parliament of the United Kingdom would ever +break up this ancient and undivided Monarchy; would tamely surrender its +sovereign rights, and would substitute a new-fangled fabric of this kind +for the venerable and unwritten constitution of these realms--a majestic +temple that has grown up in silence; and that the British people, at all +events, would not rise up in wrath at the very thought of such a change? +For Federalism 'amounts to a proposal for changing the whole constitution +of the United Kingdom. It is, in fact, the most "revolutionary" proposal, +if the word "revolutionary" be used in its strict sense, which has ever +been submitted to an English Parliament. The abolition of the House of +Lords, the disestablishment of the Church, the abolition of the Monarchy, +might leave the English Constitution far less essentially changed than +would the adoption of Federalism.'[32] + +It should be observed, too, with respect to this subject, that the +conditions, under which Federalism would have a chance of success, would +be absolutely wanting in the present instance. England, Scotland, Ireland, +and Wales have long been moulded into a single sovereign State, and united +under a supreme Monarchy; no Federation, I venture to assert, has been +formed out of communities that have had a government of this kind. +Federations, in fact, have almost always grown out of an association of +existing States, which desire to remain separate, and yet to be a nation +for some purposes; they have not been evolved out of the fragments of one +State artificially rent asunder. Again, Federalism requires that no single +State should be enormously more powerful than the other partners; there +must be something like equality between the different States;[33] it is +unnecessary to remark that England has tenfold the resources and strength +of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; and, in truth, would annihilate the +Federation were her will really crossed, and break through the arbitrary +limitations imposed on her. Suppose, for example, that England had set her +heart on a great foreign war, and had the support of her own Parliament; +does any one suppose that, if she were outvoted, by deputies from +Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, in the Imperial Council, even though backed +by their own Parliaments, the people of England would submit to be +thwarted in this way; was Samson bound by the withs of the Philistines? +Something like this, indeed, was seen in the great Civil War; the result +was the subjugation of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and the complete +ascendency of England, under Cromwell; an attempt to federalise the Three +Kingdoms might lead to a similar issue. Let us assume, however, that, +through some evil stroke of destiny, Federalism were made the constitution +of these realms, and that this strange arrangement could be made to work +even for a few years; the inevitable consequences, from the nature of the +case, would follow. The omnipotence of the Imperial Parliament, the +mainstay of the Empire, would be gone; so would the omnipotence of the +Imperial Executive Government, the best security for justice and for equal +liberties. Their powers would be parcelled out and subdivided; they would +not survive anywhere in their complete fulness; they would be distributed +in fractions between separate States, and would be transformed and +impaired in the process; real Imperial unity and sovereignty could have no +existence. General national weakness would be the probable result, +leading, perhaps, to despotism within a short time; for Federalism is +essentially weak; I have no sympathy with Jacobin France, but the +Committee of Public Safety rightly put Federalism down, when they were +engaged in their death-struggle with Europe; and Napoleon--perhaps the +ablest ruler of the nineteenth century--approved of their conduct. But +weakness would not be the only consequence; the dissemination of different +powers would certainly produce disputes and conflicts between the Federal +and the State authorities; above all, the very existence of separate +States and of a Federal Government would divide allegiance, and powerfully +tend to disruption, as was seen in the great Civil War in America. As +regards Ireland, the establishment of 'Home Rule all round' would +necessarily be attended by all the evils inseparable from Mr. Gladstone's +schemes; but Federalism, having been thus made manifest, would probably +increase, and in some sense justify, the alienation of Ireland from the +other parts of these kingdoms. + +Home Rule, therefore, whatever the form it may assume, would be, it is my +firm conviction, incompatible with the welfare of the Three Kingdoms, +injurious to Great Britain, a curse to Ireland. In the peculiar +circumstances which exist in Ireland, and to which I have adverted before, +separation, I believe, would be an expedient less disastrous than Home +Rule of any description, this involving the creation of an Irish +Parliament, and of an Irish Executive, which would be its instrument. Home +Rule, in fact, gloss it over as you please, has been forced to the front +by an Irish faction, hostile to a man to the existence of British rule in +Ireland, and depending on Fenianism in the United States; this party would +be all-powerful in an Irish Parliament; and Home Rule would be made the +means to a ruinous and disgraceful end. Thousands of Irishmen, indeed, +honestly think Home Rule would do their country good, and have little or +nothing to do with this bad conspiracy; this too, doubtless, is the case +with the followers of Mr. Gladstone; but Home Rule is an Irish Nationalist +movement, and Irish Nationalist movements are dangerous to the safety of +the State. The Union, therefore, must be maintained in the interest of +Great Britain and Ireland alike; and the Union is an international +settlement that has endured for a century. But no candid student of Irish +history, no impartial observer of Irish affairs, from 1800 to the present +time, can deny that the Union has been in many respects a failure. It has +been an incident, perhaps a result, of the Union, that Presbyterian +Ireland, rebellious from 1795 to 1798, has, we have seen, become attached +to the British connection, and is now devotedly attached to England. The +power of the Imperial Parliament and of its Executive have kept +lawlessness and disorder down in Ireland, and has restrained the evil +passions of Irish factions more than was ever the case under the rule of +the Irish Parliament. The Imperial Parliament, too, has accomplished +reforms in Ireland, if often unwise, in the main beneficent; and, under +the Imperial Executive, justice in Ireland has been administered, for many +years, in a very different way from that which was seen a century ago; its +tribunals are perfectly free and impartial. But the Union was, in itself, +a bad half measure, tainted with iniquity and false promises; it did gross +wrong to Catholic Ireland; the evil consequences are felt to this hour. +The Union has not fulfilled the sanguine hopes of Pitt; Ireland, as I have +pointed out, is far more behind Great Britain in wealth than she was sixty +years ago; she is perhaps the poorest country in Europe at the door of the +richest. The Union, too, has not reconciled the feuds of religion and race +in Ireland; they are as marked as they were a century ago, if not attended +with such deeds of violence; above all, the Union has not made the chief +part of the Irish community attached to England, as Pitt confidently +predicted would certainly happen. Nor can it be denied that the Irish +reforms of the Imperial Parliament have too often been ill-designed and +faulty, especially, as we shall see, as regards the land; and they have +unfortunately, in many instances, been concessions to agitation and +dangerous social movements, and have been effected too late to do real +good. The administration of Ireland reveals the same defects; it has been +marked by good intentions, which, sometimes, have proved gross mistakes; +and notably it has, over and over again, been shifty, vacillating, without +principle, and showing a curious disregard of sound Irish opinion. +Unquestionably, too, Ireland has, on many occasions, to the indignation of +true-hearted Irishmen, been made the mere plaything of British faction, +with the worst results to her best interests; this has been perhaps the +most pernicious incident that has followed the Union; and in the immense +revolution which has transformed Ireland, within the last hundred years, +the effects that may be traced to the Union have by no means been wholly +on the side of good. + +These evil consequences cannot be really questioned; it is very advisable +to consider their causes, and if possible to see how they can be removed +or lessened. They are partly to be ascribed to the fact that Great Britain +and Ireland are countries differing from each other in most important +respects, and standing, so to speak, on different planes of existence; +this alone makes British rule in Ireland difficult, and perplexes and +embarrasses British statesmen. They are partly due to defects in the +English national character, essentially just in intention, and even +generous, but with no sympathy with races of a character unlike its own, +self-asserting, obstinate, sometimes rude and offensive; this has had +marked and evil effects in the affairs of Ireland. They are largely to be +attributed to the nature of Irish administration, seldom consistent, and +changing with party changes: British statesmen appear at the Castle; rule +for a few years; and then depart and give place to successors, who +probably carry out a very different policy. They are largely due to the +nature of the representation of Ireland, notably of late years; the +Nationalist party--and the same remark applies, in some degree, to the +'Tail' of O'Connell--have shown such an aversion to England, have used +such seditious and even criminal language, have been so extravagant and +wild in their demands, and have been such a dangerous element in the House +of Commons, that Englishmen and Scotchmen turn away from Irish questions +with disgust, and Ireland unfortunately has often been the sufferer. But +the most important of these causes, one which may be traced throughout +Irish history, and has been scarcely less evident since the Union, has +been the strange but signal ignorance of Irish affairs--of all, in a word, +that relates to Ireland--which has been but too characteristic of the +British people, and, in a lesser degree, of many British statesmen. This +capital fault aroused the _saeva indignatio_, of Swift; it was exposed by +Grattan, O'Connell, even by Lord Clare; it was condemned in severe but +thoughtful language by Burke; it has been conspicuous during the events of +the last twenty years.[34] The resulting mischiefs have been numerous and +grave in the extreme; can nothing be done to mitigate these and to make +them less, consistently with maintaining the Union in its full +completeness? I, for one, have long thought that much could be effected +were the Imperial Parliament occasionally to hold its sessions in Dublin, +and to govern Ireland directly, so to speak, on the spot. This very +measure was proposed by many distinguished Irishmen, during the agitation +for Repeal in 1843-44; it was made the subject of an eloquent eulogy by +Sheil at O'Connell's trial; it was seriously entertained by the Whig +opposition of the day, as we know from a remarkable letter of Lord +Waveney. This policy unfortunately passed out of sight; but even now, I +believe, it would do the greatest good in Ireland. It would be something +that the proposed change would cause the wealth of England and Scotland +largely to flow into a poor country; that Irish absenteeism would be +diminished; that Ireland would become, more than she is now, an attractive +place of resort to the traveller. But it would be far more that the +presence of the Imperial Parliament in College Green would necessarily +largely remove the ignorance of Irish affairs I have just referred to; it +would make English and Scotch members familiar with the requirements, the +feelings, the wishes of Irishmen; as has happily been said, it would +render our Irish legislation and administration 'racy of the Irish soil.' +And probably more than any other expedient, it would exorcise the weak +phantom of Home Rule by bringing Irishmen in contact with the majesty of +the Sovereign Assembly of the British Empire. I shall not comment on the +petty inconveniences the scheme might cause; really they are not worthy of +serious attention. + +The occasional presence of Royalty, too, in Ireland, as was made manifest +during the late Queen's visit, unquestionably would have beneficent +results. It would gratify a sentiment of Celtic nature, always attached to +persons rather than to institutions and laws, and especially attached to +rulers and chiefs, which, in Ireland, has been scarcely gratified before; +it would spread far and wide a happy and good influence; it would +certainly improve the social life of Ireland, and add something to her +scanty material wealth. The maintenance of the Union, however, is the +first requirement of a sound Irish and Imperial policy; one means of +strengthening that fundamental law of these realms, consistently with +strict constitutional justice, nay, if constitutional wrong is not to +continue, has long been apparent to impartial minds. The +over-representation of Ireland, in the House of Commons, is a flagrant +anomaly, acknowledged for years; as I have remarked, it was largely +expected that this important subject would have been taken up before this +by Lord Salisbury's Government, and have been settled in the Parliament of +1895-1900. Taking the test of population alone, Ireland has, compared to +England, Wales, and Scotland, an excess of twenty-three members; taking +the test of population and property combined, she has an excess probably +of from thirty to forty. I am willing to allow that, in this matter, we +ought not to follow arithmetic only; Ireland, a poor country, far away +from Westminster, may have a claim to a representation somewhat more +numerous than mere figures would give her. But can anything be more +unjust, nay, absurd, than that Ireland should have one hundred and three +members, and that the world of London, with a population about the same as +that of Ireland, and probably possessing tenfold wealth, should have +little more than half that number? This excessive representation must be +reduced, and Irish Nationalists cannot here appeal to the Union; the Union +did not save the Established Church of Ireland, secured by the Treaty in +emphatic terms; and the Union must not be wrested to work gross injustice. +The anomaly can be only removed by a large scheme for the redistribution +of seats, founded on sound constitutional principles; and should this +become law, as I confidently hope will be one of the achievements of the +existing Parliament, the Union will acquire a new security, for the +Nationalist vote in the House of Commons would be greatly reduced, and the +Irish Unionist vote would be greatly increased. A very few figures will +prove this: the rural populations of the Unionist counties of Antrim and +Down are upwards of four hundred and thirty thousand souls; the rural +populations of the Home Rule counties of Kildare, Kilkenny, King's, +Longford, Wicklow, and Louth have a population less than three hundred and +ninety-eight thousand;[35] yet Antrim and Down have only eight members, +the other six counties have no less than twelve. The same disparity runs +through all the Irish counties; in the boroughs of Ireland it is even more +visible. Protestant and Unionist Ireland, in a word, has probably fifteen +or sixteen members too few; Catholic and anti-Unionist Ireland fifteen or +sixteen too many; it is high time this plain wrong should be redressed; it +is unnecessary to point out how this would strengthen the Union. And what +probably is not less important, it would make the representation of +Ireland, not, what it is now, an utterly false index of Irish opinion, but +a reasonably fair and trustworthy index; were the Irish representation cut +down to eighty members, the Nationalists would probably command not more +than fifty seats; the Unionists would command about thirty; and this, +taking all things into account, would be a proportion approaching what is +just. The 'doing' of right, in this matter, has been too long deferred; +loyal Ireland feels strongly upon the subject; the reform would be +altogether in the interest of the State. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND--SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE LAND SYSTEM +OF IRELAND TO THE YEAR 1870 + + Great importance in the history of Ireland of the conditions of land + tenure--The ancient Celtic land system and its characteristics--The + Norman conquest of Ireland--Norman feudalism in the Irish land--The + policy of Henry VII., and especially of Henry VIII.--The era of the + conquest and confiscation of the Irish land--The possessions of the + O'Connors of Offaly wrested from them--Forfeiture of the domains of + Shane O'Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond--Attempts at + colonisation--All Ireland made shire land--The extinction of the old + Celtic land system--The Plantation of Ulster--Progress of confiscation + during the reigns of the two first Stuarts--The Civil War--Immense + confiscations made by Cromwell--His scheme of colonisation a + failure--The era of confiscation closes after the battle of the Boyne + and the fall of Limerick--The Penal Code of Ireland--Its fatal effects + on the Irish land--Dismal period in Irish landed relations--Gradual + improvement--The period described by Arthur Young--Evil traces of the + past remain--Whiteboyism and agrarian disorder--State of Irish landed + relations up to the rebellion of 1798, and after the + Union--Over-population and the results--Distress after the + Peace--State of Irish landed relations up to 1844--The Report of the + Devon Commission--The Famine and its effects on the Irish land--The + Encumbered Estates Acts--State of Irish landed relations from 1848 to + 1868. + + +The fortunes of many communities, it has truly been said, have been +decisively affected by the conditions of the ownership and the occupation +of the soil. The social, even the political, life of modern Europe has +been, in a great measure, moulded by the land tenures that have grown out +of the feudal system; I need only refer to the history of England, of +France, and of Germany. This remark, however, especially applies to the +events that make up the annals of Ireland; that long and unhappy tale of +misfortunes and errors is intimately associated, all through, with the +land, and with the relations connected with it. Modern research has shown +how grotesque and mischievous was the ignorance of the Tudor lawyers and +statesmen, who described the ancient organisation of the Irish land as a +medley of barbarian and pernicious usages; it was an archaic and imperfect +specimen of the feudal system, with differences indeed, but marked with +its essential features. Norman feudalism, lawless and ill-ordered, was for +centuries, after the first Conquest, placed beside this primitive form of +society, in parts of a country not half subdued; the results were seen in +incessant strife and discord, and in social anarchy, which prevented +civilisation growing up. The Irishry had well-nigh driven the Englishry +into the sea, when Henry VII. tried to make his authority felt in Ireland; +his successor, partly a Celt in blood, and a real statesman, devised a +noble scheme for bringing an ill-governed dependency within the domain of +order and law, by planting an Anglo-Norman and native aristocracy in the +soil, subject to a strong monarchy that would have protected the community +as a whole. Most unfortunately the policy of Henry VIII. was not carried +out; in the great conflict of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, +Ireland was drawn into a long struggle with England, and was repeatedly +made a place of arms for her foes; an era of savage conquest, accomplished +piecemeal, with ruthless confiscation following in its train, was +protracted during nearly a century and a half; and at the close of the +reign of William III., nine-tenths probably of the land of Ireland had +been wrested from its former possessors, and the old Celtic land system +had been destroyed by the sword and by law. Race and religion made this +position of affairs much worse; the age of Protestant ascendency in +Ireland began; in infinitely the greatest part of the island the land was +parcelled out among a caste of owners distinct in blood and faith from the +children of the soil, and lording it over an oppressed peasantry; and the +system was propped up by a code of cruel laws, which maintained and, so to +speak, stereotyped these evil divisions. The lines of the land system of +Ireland were thus finally laid down; a variety of economic and social +causes increased and deepened their extreme harshness; and though they +have gradually been softened, and are now all but effaced, their traces +and the results are still to be seen. The last thirty years have witnessed +repeated attempts to effect radical changes in the modes of the ownership +and the occupation of the land in Ireland; they have wrought a revolution +in Irish landed relations, and have well-nigh turned them upside down; but +the consequences have assuredly not been fortunate. The land system of +Ireland has been made a chaos of economic disorder, of dissensions of +class, of legalised wrong, absolutely incompatible with social progress +and the general welfare. + +I must glance, for an instant, at the distinctive features of the land +system of Ireland in the Celtic age, for despite the effects of +confiscation and conquest, faint traces of it may still be seen, and have +a kind of influence.[36] As was the case in all communities of the Aryan +stem, the land originally was largely held in collective ownership; but +agriculture developed individual ownership by degrees, though less so in +Ireland than in more progressive countries. The people were settled on the +soil in tribes, clans, and septs, these being the larger and the smaller +units; the modes of the tenure of the land, misinterpreted by Elizabethan +sages, differed widely from each other, but revealed the traditions of old +patriarchal usage and power, especially in their canons of descent and +succession. The feudalisation of the land, as it has been significantly +called, a process which took place in nearly the whole of Europe, was also +witnessed in Ireland, to a certain extent; but this was not so complete +and strongly marked as in France and England. The land, nevertheless, was, +throughout the island, held ultimately from a supreme monarch; it was +divided, under him, among families of princely chiefs, who ruled vast +tracts with scarcely controlled authority; inferior chiefs were subject to +these; the organisation of the land had much in common with the +organisation of the Anglo-Norman manor, and with the position of the Lord +Paramount of every manor, the head of the English State. The Irish kings +and chiefs had lands in demesne; they had a landed and a personal +_noblesse_; the territories they ruled were held by classes strongly +resembling the free tenants, the villeins, and the serfs of the feudal +system. All this, however, was not as perfectly defined as it was in lands +feudalised to a higher degree; and though the Davieses and Spensers were +wholly in error in representing the dependents of the Irish kings and +chiefs as little better than a horde of fighting men and slaves, Ireland +never fully possessed the liberties feudalism secured. The Ceile of +substance, who had lands of his own, seems to have been in an inferior +position to the English freeholder; the Saer stock and Daer stock tenants +held their lands by a tenure like that of the metayers of France; the +Fuidhirs were kept in complete subjection, and had not even the rights of +the villein. The land, too, was still largely held in collective +ownership; in its occupation this is even now seen in backward and poor +districts; and, curiously enough, distinctions were drawn between what was +a 'fair' and a 'rack rent,' words still common in the mouth of the Irish +peasant, and to which recent legislation has given its sanction. + +As in the case of most lands where anything resembling feudalism +prevailed, with the single exception of England, under her strong +Monarchy, Ireland in these circumstances was torn by continual discord, +increased by the recurring struggles with the Dane. The Celtic kings and +chiefs, nevertheless, were beloved by their people; the land system fell +in with Celtic tribal ideas and sentiments. I pass over the incidents of +the first Norman Conquest; in the course of time, an Anglo-Norman colony +was established, within a Pale ever-varying in extent, and held parts of +the country under feudal conditions, the remaining, and by far the +greatest, parts being left in the possession of the Celtic kings and +princes. Anglo-Norman feudalism, however, was completely different, in +Ireland, from what it was in England; it was not subject to vigorous +kingly rule; it was confined within comparatively small limits. In these +circumstances the Pale fell into the hands of a few leading and great +families; these, as had been largely the case in Scotland, formed a +domineering and oppressive _noblesse_, continually engaged in quarrels +between themselves, and in petty wars with the Celtic chiefs, and +completely superior to the royal power in England. The Geraldines, the +Butlers, the De Burghs, and other great houses, had no law but their own +wills in their vast lordships; their exactions and tyranny became a +byword; their lives were spent in savage feudal strife, and in 'hostings +against the Irish enemy.' Strange to say, too, these scions of a mighty +conquering race fell under the spell of the Celtic genius, and, as it was +said, 'became more Irish than the Irish themselves; they were at least +largely assimilated to a Celtic model, and they adopted many of the usages +of the Celt. It was not much otherwise in the Celtic region outside the +Pale; the Irish chiefs often blended in marriage with the Anglo-Norman +settlers; but they were continually at war with them, and with each +other. Under these conditions, feudalism, in its best aspects, could take +no root, in the land, in Ireland; and there is much reason to believe that +the archaic Irish land system was gradually changed and almost broken up, +the power of the kings and chiefs being greatly increased, and the +position of their dependents being made essentially worse. It is obvious +that in a land, a scene of such disorder and misrule, civilisation and all +that the word implies could not exist; Ireland was probably more barbarous +at the close of the fifteenth century than she had been when she first saw +Henry of Anjou. The Pale had been restricted within ever-narrowing bounds; +generations of colonising 'Englishry' had entered the country, and had +left it in angry despair; the 'Irishry' had encroached on their +conqueror's domain; the work of Strongbow and Fitzstephen appeared to be +undone. Especially it was observed that nothing like a middle class, even +then the best element in the social life of England, had been able to +develop itself in Ireland, and that the humbler classes were always in a +state of wretchedness, ground down by exaction, and exposed to incessant +wrongs of all kinds. 'What common folk of all the world'--these were the +words of a State paper of the age--'is so poor, so feeble, so evil be seen +in town and field, so greatly oppressed and trodden underfoot, fares so +evil, with so great misery, and with so wretched a life, as the common +folk of Ireland?' + +Henry VII. strengthened the authority of the Crown in Ireland; the +Viceroyalty of Poynings marks an epoch in her chequered annals; but the +conduct of the king was shifting and weak; the land fell under the control +of the great House of Kildare; the Irishry were driven back, but in no +sense subdued. Surrey, the victor of Flodden, intreated Henry VIII. to +make the country his own by sheer force of arms; but his master refused in +striking language; and proposed a scheme for bringing Ireland under the +control of the Monarchy, for encouraging civilisation and promoting order, +the wisest that has ever suggested itself to a British statesman. He made +several of 'the degenerate' Norman _noblesse_ peers; he extended the same +dignity to several Irish chiefs; he assembled representatives of Ireland +in a Parliament composed of both races; he appointed commissioners to go +through the country and to punish crime; above all--and this deserves +special notice--he tried to conciliate the Celtic community by bringing +their usages within the cognisance of the law, and giving them effectual +legal sanction; and he condemned the attempts being already made to force +laws on them peculiar to England. Had this enlightened policy been +steadily pursued, the history of Ireland would have run a wholly different +course; but destiny, that has played so sinister a part in Irish affairs, +interfered to thwart the admirable designs of the king. The great +Geraldine rebellion broke out, supported by irregular Celtic risings; from +this time forward, during five generations of man, the era of cruel but +intermittent conquest, accompanied by wholesale confiscation, set in. The +powerful tribe of the O'Connors of Offaly, closely associated with the +fallen House of Kildare, was the first to feel the weight of the arm of +England; its territories were forcibly overrun and annexed, given the name +of the King's and the Queen's Counties, and peopled with a colony of +settlers from England. Celtic Ireland ere long was brought into the +conflict between Elizabeth and Philip II., the representatives of the +faiths that were dividing Christendom; the princely chief, Shane O'Neill, +fell a victim to the English conquerors, though their quarrel with him was +not wholly one of seeking the assistance of a foreign enemy; his vast +domains were, also, in part forfeited, in part handed over to a puppet of +English power. The frightful Desmond rebellion followed; it was directly +encouraged by the Pope and by Spain; after a protracted struggle +approaching a real civil war, the immense lordships of the great Geraldine +House were confiscated, and granted to a colony of English blood. Tyrone, +the real successor of his kinsman, Shane O'Neill, a soldier and statesman +of no ordinary parts, seeing, as he bitterly said, that his 'lands were +marked down by the spoiler,' endeavoured, not without partial success, to +combine a great Irish League against England; he entered into an alliance +with Spain; a Spanish army landed on the southern coast of Munster; after +a long and sanguinary contest, Tyrone yielded, but his resistance had been +so formidable that he was allowed to retain his possessions. + +The subjugation of a large part of Ireland, in the Elizabethan wars, was +marked by incidents of a most atrocious character. The Government had no +regular army to act in the field; it was compelled largely to rely on +armed levies of the Englishry, and on bodies of the Irishry attached to +the conqueror's standards; for in this, as in nearly all instances +throughout their history, the Irish Celts were at feud with each other; +Celtic Ireland was a house divided against itself. The queen, it has been +written, 'ruled over blood and ashes,' when Mountjoy sheathed his +victorious sword; the memory of this period still lives in Irish +tradition. A season of exhaustion and repose ensued after James I. had +ascended the throne; but the time, in the phrase of Tacitus, had an evil +aspect in peace itself. The Pale had long before this been effaced; +conquest and confiscation had spread over nearly the whole island; the +domination of England was felt almost everywhere. As the result, the whole +of Ireland was made shire land; the old Celtic land system, which still +widely prevailed, was swept away by decisions of the Anglican Courts of +Justice; it was declared to be 'a lewd and not law-worthy thing;' all the +Irish land was subjected to English modes of tenure; they were imposed on +a people which detested these gifts of the stranger; innumerable tribal +rights were destroyed. Ere long the work of confiscation began again; the +domains of Tyrone and of his kinsman O'Donnell were pronounced forfeited +for reasons that have never been ascertained; the Crown was placed in +possession of nearly six counties of Ulster. Up to this time the +settlements of English colonists, which had been made in Ireland by Tudor +conquest, had failed; the colonists had been almost lost in the midst of +the Irishry, who hemmed them around. This immense confiscation was, +however, in part successful; it was carried out on comparatively +enlightened principles; it has produced the famous Plantation of Ulster; +and this, with other settlements in the counties of Antrim and Down, has +established, in a large part of the northern province of Ireland, a hardy +and thriving community, in the main, of Scottish blood. Confiscation, +nevertheless, did not stop here; 'the ravages of war,' in Burke's +language, were 'carried on amidst seeming peace;' enormous tracts were +torn from their former owners on pretexts usually of the flimsiest kind, +and were flung to Court favourites, to jobbing speculators, to greedy +adventurers of the baser sort. By this time three-fourths probably of the +soil of Ireland had passed into the hands of a new race of possessors; the +descendants of Anglo-Norman nobles and of the Celtic princes had been +sufferers well-nigh in the same proportion. At last Strafford marked out +the whole province of Connaught, for what has been called 'his majestic +rapine;' this and other innumerable acts of spoliation and wrong +unquestionably were the paramount cause of the great Celtic rising of +1641. Another and soon to be a most potent element of evils and troubles +had already begun to make its sinister presence felt in Ireland. In the +great religious schism of the sixteenth century, England had become +Protestant, Ireland had remained Catholic, and each had taken opposite +sides in the conflict that followed; though the Elizabethan wars were +rather struggles of race than of faith. But as conquest and confiscation +progressed in Ireland, the Anglican Church, a scion of the Norman Church +of the Pale, was erected on the ruins of its Celtic Catholic rival; the +land more and more became possessed by settlers alien in creed from the +old owners, and from the vanquished children of the soil; and harsh laws +had begun to deepen the distinctions between them. Nevertheless, though +its signs had in some measure appeared, the era of Protestant ascendency +and Catholic subjection had not been developed in Ireland, as yet, in its +worst aspects. + +The wild Celtic rising of 1641 was followed by a rising of the old +Englishry of the Pale--the descendants of the first Anglo-Norman settlers; +both movements were probably encouraged from France; though widely +different, they ran into each other. The great Civil War was now running +its course in England; Ireland, for the most part, took the side of the +king; the majority of Englishmen were certainly on the side of the +Parliament. I cannot retrace the scenes of the contest in Ireland; after a +fierce and protracted struggle, in which an envoy of the Pope became the +representative of an ill-united Irish League; in which Preston and Ormond +led the forces of the Pale, and Owen Roe O'Neill was at the head of the +Irish Celts,--the whole island was subjugated by the sword of Cromwell, as +it never had been subjugated before. Drogheda and Wexford are names of woe +in the annals of Ireland; but the conquest of the Protector, ruthless as +it was, was not so cruel as that of the Elizabethan soldiers; if deeply +stained with blood, it was rapid and completely decisive. The colony in +Ulster had begun to flourish; Cromwell designed a scheme for the +colonisation of the vanquished country more thorough and extensive than +any which had been designed before. Three-fourths of Ireland had been in +arms against the Parliament; that assembly had made grants by +anticipation of Irish forfeited lands to 'adventurers' who had advanced it +moneys; an opportunity for immense confiscations had arisen; the Protector +was not slow to take advantage of it; his Puritan fanaticism, his hatred +of the Irish people, especially of its 'idolatrous Papists,' his strong +English and religious sympathies, united to confirm him in his purpose. +The forfeited lands in four of the Irish counties were appropriated to the +Commonwealth and its uses; those in eighteen were to be granted to the +'adventurers' and the soldiery of the late conquest; those in seven were +to be allotted to the army in England. The grants were to be either free, +or to be purchased at nominal prices; the owners, who had lost their +lands, were to be deported to Connaught--'Hell' was the alternative, the +tradition runs--and 'Courts of Claims,' as they were called, were to be +set up, to adjudicate on the conduct of those who were to be +dispossessed--they were to be subjected to a test which scarcely one could +satisfy--and practically to measure confiscation out under the pretence of +law. By these means Cromwell calculated that some forty thousand +colonists, of English blood and of the Puritan faith, would be poured into +the millions of acres which the sword had placed in the hands of his +Government; these would form a prosperous settlement loyal to England; +would keep rebellion in Ireland for ever down; and would regenerate a land +taken from a race akin to the Amalekites of old. As a foretaste of the new +and glorious order of things, Sir William Petty, a very able man, +remarkably skilful in feathering his own nest, made a cadastral survey of +Ireland, which still remains. + +Cromwell's scheme of confiscation was thoroughly carried out, spite of +much angry wrangling between the Puritan warriors. The remains of the +defeated Irish armies went, in thousands, into exile in foreign lands; +they were the heralds of the renowned soldiery who, for a century and a +half, were deadly, but honourable foes of the British name. The rule of +the Protector in Ireland was stern but enforced peace; Ireland was +prostrate in the exhaustion of despair; there is much proof that, under +the Cromwellian settlement, the country made a kind of material progress. +But Cromwell's great scheme of colonisation failed, as such schemes had +failed in many instances before; a large majority of the 'adventurers' and +the soldiers sold their possessions, usually for a mere nothing: many +'degenerated' like the old Norman families, and, won over by the spells +'of the daughters of Heth,' had, in one or two generations, become 'mere +Irish.' The ultimate result of the Cromwellian conquest was to establish +in Ireland three or four thousand owners of the soil, of English blood and +Puritan leanings, without the support of inferior dependents, in the midst +of a vanquished population hostile in race and faith; the sentiments thus +engendered have never died out; to this day 'a Cromwellian landlord' is a +name of reproach in Catholic Ireland. At the Restoration hope for a moment +revived in the hearts of the ruined owners, who had been dispossessed by +Cromwell, and of whom hundreds had fought for the Crown; but this was +dashed by the perfidy of Charles II. and his courtiers; the Cromwellian +forfeitures were, in the main, confirmed; large tracts were given back to +favourites of the Stuarts, but thousands of beggared families lost their +estates for ever through a policy of cruel baseness and wrong. Ireland +remained quiescent for nearly thirty years; she even prospered under the +wise rule of Ormond--one of the noblest figures in her unhappy history; +but the bitter memories of the past lived in the conquered people, though, +as has repeatedly been seen in a Celtic race, they were treasured in +silence, and caused little apparent trouble. James II. ascended the throne +in 1685; he had a great opportunity to mitigate many of the wrongs of +Ireland; he might have removed some of the evils of the Cromwellian +conquest, and have effected changes in the settlement of the land, which, +at least, would have done partial justice. But the unfortunate king was a +bigot, and, in no sense, a statesman; like his father he tried the +desperate policy of making use of Ireland in his designs against English +liberties; he sent Tyrconnell to Dublin, and, in a few months, revolution +had broken out through the country; English and Protestant Ireland was +well-nigh trampled underfoot; Catholic and Celtic Ireland rose up in a +wild hope of revenge. I cannot even glance at the stirring events that +followed; the descendants of ruined barons of the Pale and of Celtic +princes driven from their lands and their homes, joined in a great effort +to raise a large armed force; the rising almost assumed a national aspect; +but after the Boyne and the fall of Limerick, it was finally quelled by +William III. The process of confiscation was once more renewed; thousands +of acres were taken forcibly from those who had resisted in the field, and +were handed over to a new race of colonists belonging to the blood and the +creed of the victors; and the shameful violation of a solemn Treaty made +all that was cruel in spoliation worse. + +The era of conquest in Ireland and of confiscation by force--an agony +prolonged for a century and a half--was brought to an end in the reign of +William III. This is not the place to examine the question on which side, +as between England and Ireland, the balance of the wrongs that were done +inclines; but if much that is cruel and shameful is to be laid to the +charge of England, Ireland, it cannot be forgotten, crossed her path +repeatedly in an age of grave national perils and troubles, and, moreover, +wrecked her own cause by her wretched dissensions. The Irish land had now +nearly all fallen into the hands of a caste of owners, of English and +Scottish descent, and in faith Protestant, divided from a people of +Catholic occupiers for the most part of the Irish race; wide lines of +demarcation had been drawn between them; and there was no middle class to +bridge over the gulf. In a part of Ulster alone where the proprietors and +the holders of the soil were largely of the same religion and blood, was +there the promise of a more auspicious order of things; even here causes +of disunion were not wanting. Nor were these the only vices and dangers of +a land system which has scarcely had a parallel. Enormous tracts had been +bestowed on owners who never saw their estates; absenteeism existed to an +immense extent; their lands, too, had, in thousands of instances, been +underlet to a class of intermediate owners, who were to form a body of +most oppressive landlords. In addition, the representatives of numbers of +ruined families still vegetated on the domains which had been their own; +the few families which had escaped from the spoilers, were held in +reverence by the peasantry around; elements of disorder and trouble +continued to fester. The destruction, too, of the old Celtic modes of land +tenure, and the substitution of the English system, had unjustly +annihilated tribal rights wholesale; the free, and other dependents of the +Irish chiefs, had sunk into the position of mere tenants at will, that is, +at the mercy of foreign and often unknown masters. One of the worst, if +not the most apparent evil, of the gigantic confiscations which had taken +place, and on which the land system had, so to speak, been founded, was +that the respect which attaches to the ancient ownership of land, and +which forms, perhaps, its surest support, could hardly exist in any part +of Ireland; the disastrous consequences may be traced to the present hour. +Landlords, with titles of yesterday, won by the sword, could not feel the +interest in their estates and in the inhabitants on them, naturally felt +by owners of gentle and ancient descent; the land which, as has been said, +had been flung like a fox to ravening hounds, could not attract to it +happy and peaceful memories; the very Government had learned to think it +could deal with the land as it pleased, and treated the rights gained by +confiscation with contempt. Prescription, the strongest cement of +property, had no place in this ill-compacted land system.[37] + +The era of Protestant ascendency bringing Catholic subjection with it, had +now set in for many years in Ireland; its evils were aggravated by harsh +divisions of race, and by more than a century of bitter memories; its +effects were more conspicuous in the land than in other social relations. +This unnatural and calamitous position of affairs might, however, have +been replaced ere long by a better order of things, had it not been +artificially maintained and made enduring by legislation unexampled for +its far-reaching cruelty. I cannot attempt to describe the Penal Code of +Ireland; in the emphatic words of Burke, 'it was a complete system, full +of coherence and consistency; well digested and well composed in all its +parts; it was a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance; and as well +fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, +and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from +the perverted ingenuity of man.'[38] The objects of these execrable laws +were threefold: to exclude the Irish Catholic whether of Anglo-Irish or +Celtic descent--misfortune had well-nigh effaced the distinction--from +every office of trust in the State, from every profession, almost from +every walk of life; to persecute and proscribe the Catholic Church of +Ireland, and to place its priesthood under a humiliating ban, and finally +to ruin and degrade the few remaining Catholic owners of the soil; to +prevent the Irish Catholic from acquiring any real interest in it; and, +above all, to keep the Catholic peasantry in a condition of thraldom.[39] +The Code was only too successful in compassing its ends; I pass from its +operation as regards the two first, to point out how it sought to attain +the third, and how its provisions affected the Irish land and the manifold +relations connected with it. The estate of the Irish Catholic owner was +not to follow the ordinary courses of descent; it was 'to gavel,' and to +be divided among many persons; this was for the avowed purpose of making +'the landed property of Papists crumble away, and disappear.' The Irish +Catholic owner was subjected to cruel enactments that literally set his +household against him; his wife and children were bribed to become his +foes; law sate at his hearth to make his existence wretched. The Irish +Catholic, too, was forbidden to acquire land by purchase or even to +possess an incumbrance on it; as far as possible the ownership of land was +strictly confined to the Protestant caste. But the wrong that, in its +consequences at least, was perhaps the worst, was that the Catholic +occupier of the Irish soil could not obtain anything like an advantageous +tenure; he could not have a lease for a period beyond thirty-one years, +and this, too, at an excessive rent; and, in the great mass of instances, +he was a serf holding merely at will. + +The forty years that succeeded the death of William III. are certainly the +most mournful period in Irish history. The memories of conquest and +confiscation were still fresh; the Penal Code kept Catholic Ireland in its +chains; society was fashioned on the type of the domination of a class, +separated from a whole community in race and faith. Nothing was left +undone to perpetuate this evil order of things; the Irish Parliament was a +mere oligarchy of the sons of the colonists of Elizabeth, Cromwell, and +William, apart from a few leading men in Ulster; its legislation for the +vanquished race was barbarous; Lords-Lieutenant spoke of the Irish +Catholics as of 'the common enemy;' a 'Papist was presumed not to exist' +in the Irish Courts of Justice. Meanwhile the penal laws were relentlessly +carried out for years; the Irish Catholic was placed under a universal +ban; the Catholic Church of Ireland lay, as it were, in the valley of the +shadow of death. But the direst consequences appeared in the land, and in +the social life of the landed classes; these were most calamitous and have +still left their traces. Many of the few Catholic owners abandoned their +estates, and carried their swords into foreign lands, where some rose to +well-deserved eminence; a small number conformed to the dominant faith in +order to exist in comparative peace at home; the majority clung to their +lands and bowed their heads to oppression. The Protestant lords of the +soil were what their antecedents and the law had made them; they were long +a harsh and exacting order of men, filled with bigotry and the pride of a +conquering race; they regarded the inferiors they ruled as pariahs and +helots. But, as usually happens, when society is in an unnatural state, +they did not prosper amidst the ruins around them; their lands were kept +on a kind of pernicious mortmain, as they could not mortgage or sell them +freely; absenteeism with all its mischiefs greatly increased; and +middleman tenures largely multiplied, subjecting the peasantry to a +detestable breed of landlords, Protestants and of English descent, like +their superiors, but much worse tyrants. As for the mass of the Catholic +occupiers of the soil, they were kept down in the lowest state of serfdom; +but multitudes found their way into foreign armies; 'the wild geese,' as +they were pathetically called, flew to Austria and, above all, to France, +where, in the ranks of the celebrated Irish Brigade--'ever and everywhere' +true to the Bourbon lilies--they won renown at Dettingen, Fontenoy, and +other fields of fame. The aspect of Ireland bore too faithful witness to +the misery engendered in this evil order of things. The country was still +covered with the wrecks of the late wars; the habitations, even of the +Protestant gentry, were squalid and mean; the towns were, in many +instances, sinking into decay; the peasantry were huddled together into +villages of huts; the traveller roamed through vast wastes of unfenced +pasturage, evidences of a land almost left in a state of nature. Hideous +famines were of repeated occurrence; one, that of 1739-41, swept the +population away in tens of thousands; the Irish Parliament +characteristically did nothing to help the sufferers; it met the emergency +by strengthening the means to enforce the payment of rent. The miserable +condition of Ireland was made worse by the legislation of the British +Parliament, which treated the country as a conquered colony; and, true to +the principles of the mercantile system, impeded or prevented the growth +of several Irish industries. This was, of course, most injurious to the +Protestant settlers; but these were held down by the ruling power; as was +finely said, 'they knelt to England on the necks of their countrymen.' The +state of things in the colonised parts of Ulster was somewhat better; but +the Scottish and Presbyterian population of this corner of Ireland had not +a few causes of serious complaint.[40] + +In the next generation a great but gradual change passed over the state of +the Irish community. The Penal Code was not in letter relaxed; but the +evil spirit which had conceived it lost much of its force. The men who had +fought at the Boyne and at Aghrim had passed away; the human conscience, +moved by the influences of the eighteenth century, revolted from the +barbarous legislation of a half-fanatical age. The Irish Catholics slowly +began to make themselves felt in the State; many amassed large fortunes in +foreign commerce; shut out as they still were by law from almost every +profession and office, they made their way into the medical calling, and +especially at the Bar, where their disabilities were evaded or ignored. +The Catholic Church was no longer proscribed; its worship, indeed, was +still carried on under degrading conditions; but its priesthood were +permitted to perform their sacred functions in peace; its dignitaries were +even countenanced by the men in power at the Castle. This great social +change was conspicuously seen in the land; landed relations were markedly +improved, and partly transformed. The Catholic owners were permitted to +hold their estates free from the cruel vexations of the past; they began +to live on terms of friendship with the Protestant caste; legal fictions +annulled the laws which had made their lives wretched; their lands were, +in many instances, held by the Protestant gentry on secret trusts; and +these, though contrary to law, were, as a rule, most honourably fulfilled. +The principal, however, and most decisive change appeared in the position +and the sentiments of the Protestant lords of the soil. As time rolled on, +and threw its kindly growths over the settlement of confiscation and the +sword, these men began to feel that Ireland was their country and home; +they became, to a certain extent, Irishmen; they felt sympathy, by +degrees, with the conquered serfs in their midst. This feeling was +strengthened by the tyrannous selfishness of the British Parliament, which +treated Ireland as if she were its footstool, and of the official class, +nearly all Englishmen, who lorded it over the land they despised; an +'Irish interest' grew up in the Parliament at College Green, composed very +largely of the Protestant landlords; this became patriotic, in a certain +sense, and a protector of the scanty rights of Ireland. As social order, +too, was seldom disturbed, the wealth of the country had considerably +increased; the gentry acquired a greater interest in their estates, and +became more and more attached to them; absenteeism, as the result, +perceptibly lessened; and middleman tenures, though still prevalent, +diminished remarkably in the more progressive counties. The deep lines of +demarcation which kept apart the owners and the occupiers of the soil were +thus to a certain extent bridged over; the Irish landlord, especially if +resident, became a kindlier superior than his fathers had been; the Irish +peasant became less a stranger to him. + +The evidences of this better order of things became manifest on the face +of the country. Agriculture, though still backward, made real progress; +the breeds of farming animals greatly improved; the huge breadths of +pasturage had a less deserted aspect. The country towns had generally +advanced; the land had been opened by good roads; the means of locomotion +had been largely multiplied. The rental of Ireland had doubled within +living memory; in some counties, indeed, it was nearly as high as it is +now; the land was at a price of more years' purchase than it is at the +close of the nineteenth century. It was at this period that the great +country houses of Ireland were built, and their vast demesnes laid out; +the wages of labour were low, but had distinctly risen; the peasant hind, +Arthur Young tells us, in point of food and clothing, was as well off as +his fellow in England. The land was largely parcelled out into +considerable farms; but small holdings were on the increase; and the +cottar system, in the course of time to become a source of manifold evils, +was not yet a cause of much mischief; the pressure of population on the +soil was not severely felt. Many of the great landlords, too, were +excellent men; they ruled the country well, and greatly improved their +estates; in numberless instances they had won the hearts of dependents, +who regarded them as kind masters. Yet the picture was not without a dark +side; this land system still had evil, nay, repulsive, features. Except in +the best part of Ulster the deep divisions of race and faith continued to +be profoundly marked; the Penal Code had made these, to a great extent, +indelible. There was still much oppression and exaction in landed +relations; the class of small landlords and the class of middlemen were +too generally tyrannical and harsh; complaints of over-renting were not +infrequent; and if the great landlords, as a rule, were not severe +superiors, many were extravagant, addicted to excess, and reckless +duellists; they bore a strong resemblance to the seigneurie of the old +French Monarchy. The peasantry, too, remained serfs, illiterate, +ignorant, and superstitious; the good feelings they often had for their +lords had too much of the submissiveness of the slave; and virtuous as +their women ordinarily were, they too generally yielded to the lusts of +their masters. The habitations, besides, of this population were still +wretched; if their lot had assuredly become better, it was often hard, +above all, degraded. They had begun to feel more acutely the ills they +suffered; in many counties they had banded themselves together into +lawless leagues, to protect themselves and to resist authority. These +associations, known by the general name of Whiteboys--perhaps taken from +the Camisards of the Cevennes--had as their objects the preservation of +rights of commonage, the extinction of tithes, and the reduction of rents; +they may be traced back to the great confiscations of the past; they were +held together by secret leaders and passwords; and they often kept whole +districts in a state of terror. A Draconic Code was directed against them; +though often put down they have risen to life again; Ireland has never +since been completely free from them; their influence still is distinctly +apparent. Associations of somewhat a similar kind, known as Steelboys and +Oakboys, were formed even in the good parts of Ulster; but they were much +less dangerous and were not permanent. It is a characteristic of +Whiteboyism, as it has ever since been called, that it has always had a +political side, and lends itself to revolutionary movements against +government itself.[41] + +Though Protestant ascendency was still supreme at this period, the +confiscations of the past had not been forgotten; they were treasured in +the minds of the descendants of the old Catholic families, and of the +population among which they lived. The extinction, too, of the tribal +Irish tenures, had, we have seen, been a cause of grievous wrongs; this +was a tradition, also, handed down from father to son, and was still fresh +in the remembrance of a whole race. The land system, though to outward +seeming secure, nevertheless rested on unstable foundations, as was to +appear in the course of time; another element of disturbance was being +formed, which ultimately was to have immense force. Under the modes of +land tenure, which prevailed in England, since the system of small +holdings had been broken up, the land had generally been laid out in large +farms; partly from this circumstance, and partly owing to custom, the +charge of making permanent improvements of the land had almost everywhere +devolved on the owner of the soil; a tenant, who rented a farm, took it, +so to speak, equipped with the buildings and other things of the kind that +were suitable to it. But in Ireland, partly because small farms were +numerous, and partly because the custom had never grown up--the history of +the past fully accounts for this--the permanent improvements were very +seldom made by the landlord; the tenant, who held land, had to add, as it +were, its plant to it; he had to do much that gave it any real value. As +the inevitable result, the Irish occupier of the soil felt that he had +acquired a concurrent right in it; this, if the improvements were solid +and lasting, might almost amount to a partial joint-ownership, at least +give him, in equity, a real hold on the land. But a right of this kind was +not recognised by the law, founded as this was upon notions of English +tenure; it was liable to be destroyed should the tenant be dispossessed; +and as the tenure of the immense majority of the occupiers of the soil in +Ireland was either at will, or for a short term at a high rent, this +right, essentially of a quasi-proprietary kind, was made precarious, and +had no legal protection. With the prescience of genius, Burke perceived +the evils that might grow out of this state of things, though, as yet, +these were not much felt; he saw that it discouraged improvement of almost +every kind; especially he saw that the denial of legal sanction to the +rights in the land a tenant might have, and the fact that his tenure was +short and uncertain, might become a source of grave wrong, and of +far-reaching discontent. In a word, he detected an economic vice in the +land system of Ireland which, in the long run, was to do great mischief; +and curiously enough he indicated the remedies that ought to be applied, +and pointed out the true principles of a reform of Irish land tenure. It +would have been well had British statesmen adopted these; his simple, +just, and statesmanlike plan puts to shame the ill-designed and +unsuccessful attempts that have been made to recast the Irish land system +of late years, and the false, reckless, and socialistic theories at +present current on this important subject.[42] + +I must pass over even the main events of the history of Ireland, after +this period, up to the close of the eighteenth century. The 'Irish +interest,' mainly composed of the great landed gentry, and turning to +account the American War, compelled the Parliament at Westminster to relax +many of the commercial restraints on Ireland, and to concede her a partial +free trade; under the guidance of the illustrious Grattan it obtained +legislative independence for the Irish Parliament. At the same time the +Penal Code was largely repealed; the Irish Catholic was permitted to +acquire the ownership of the soil; before long he received the electoral +franchise, though he was still excluded from the Irish Houses of Lords and +Commons. In these circumstances, Ireland made real material and social +progress; the wealth of the country rapidly increased; the Protestant and +Catholic upper classes began to unite in marriage; a commercial middle +class, if still very weak, grew up. Ireland seemed about to enter a +happier era; yet there were drawbacks to this partial welfare, especially +as regards the land system. Middleman tenures were becoming much less +frequent; absenteeism was markedly on the decline; but partly owing to +their contact with the Parliament in College Green, and to the brilliant +social life it created in Dublin, the landed gentry became more +extravagant than their fathers had been; they began to raise their rents +and to encumber their estates; over-renting became more common than +before; Whiteboy movements and agrarian disorder prevailed in many +districts. Ireland, however, probably would have made a great advance but +for the evil passions which the French Revolution engendered in the frame +of a society still deeply diseased. I cannot dwell on the unhappy years +that followed, leading to the Rebellion of 1798; I must confine myself to +their influence on the Irish land system. The object of Tone and of the +United Irish leaders was to combine Scottish and Presbyterian Ulster, and +the great mass of the Irish Catholics, into a league against British rule +and for 'Irish freedom;' unhappily, they were but too successful. They +appealed, not in vain, to thousands of farmers and traders in the Northern +Province, who had long had solid grounds of discontent, and had been +deeply stirred by the Revolution in France; they laid hold on the elements +of disorder and of division of race and faith, abounding in Catholic +Ireland, but largely concealed, and called on the peasantry to overthrow +their Protestant tyrants, and to strike a decisive blow in 'the cause of +Ireland.' Evil incentives were recklessly employed to arouse popular +passions; maps of the old confiscated lands were made; and active +emissaries went through the country, reviving dangerous traditions of the +past, and stimulating the worst sentiments of hatred, greed, and revenge. +As the result, sedition ran riot in Ulster; in the Southern Provinces +there was a great outburst of Whiteboy crime, and a widespread rising +against the payment of rent; and thousands of the occupiers of the soil +were swept into the United Irish ranks, scarcely conscious of the perils +to which they were exposed. How the movement led to the bloody rebellion +of 1798, and how this was put down after a desperate struggle, it is +unnecessary to consider here; the consequences in Irish landed relations +were most unfortunate. It is untrue that the large majority of the owners +of the Irish soil were guilty of the crimes that have been laid to their +charge; but they bitterly resented the allusions to the confiscations of a +bygone past; they became more estranged from their inferiors than they had +been for years.[43] + +This terrible outbreak shook society in Ireland to its base, revived the +old divisions of race and faith which had been disappearing to a +considerable extent, and left memories behind which have not been +forgotten. Its inevitable result was to lead to the Union, a measure long +in the contemplation of British statesmen, and especially of Pitt, and +perhaps necessary in the most critical circumstances of the time. I cannot +even refer to the events attending this great constitutional change; a +large majority of the leading Irish landlords disliked it at heart; but a +minority, alarmed for their possessions, gave it support; how strong this +feeling was may be seen in a famous speech of Lord Clare, who described +the whole order of men as 'the heirs of confiscation hemmed in by enemies +brooding on their wrongs.' The Union greatly weakened the influence of +the Irish landed gentry, which had been very powerful in the defunct +Parliament; the 'Irish interest,' for many years a real force, was almost +subverted; English officials became again supreme at the Castle; a +bureaucracy gradually began to supplant the aristocracy of landlords in +every sphere of government. As respects the land and landed relations, the +class of Catholic owners slowly augmented; but the consequences were +trivial and not marked; middleman tenures continued steadily to disappear; +but absenteeism certainly increased, though absentee estates were usually +better managed than before. Meanwhile causes of grave importance, tending +to momentous social results, were profoundly affecting the whole land +system, and the position of the classes dependent on it. Partly owing to +the corn laws of the Irish Parliament, partly to the extension of the +Parliamentary franchise, in 1793, to the great mass of the Catholic +peasantry, but principally to the effects of the long war with France, +Ireland, it may be said, was well-nigh changed from a pastoral to an +agricultural country; large farms were generally replaced by small; the +land in most districts was divided into little tillage holdings; the +cottar system multiplied apace; the population, about three millions of +souls in the day of Arthur Young, increased to more than six millions at +the Peace of 1815; and this population becoming every year more dense, for +the most part eked existence out on a precarious root. The economic and +social consequences were very great, and continued in operation during a +long series of years. The competition for the possession of land became +intensely keen; rents were unnaturally forced up in thousands of cases; +the value of landed property enormously rose; all this encouraged +extravagance among the landed gentry, and especially induced them largely +to encumber their estates. At the same time the wages of labour distinctly +declined; the condition of the Irish labouring peasant, when Edward +Wakefield, a very industrious and able observer, wrote on the state of +Ireland in 1812, was markedly worse than it had been in the time of Arthur +Young. Yet these were not the most serious, at least, the most lasting, +effects of the revolution taking place in landed relations. As the large +farm system was being broken up, as the small farm system had come in its +stead, and as population had rapidly grown, the occupiers of the soil had +more and more made the permanent additions to their holdings; they had +built, fenced, and reclaimed land, more and more; and in the general +eagerness to obtain the possession of land, considerable sums were often +paid for farms on their transfer. The concurrent rights of the tenant +classes in Ireland had thus become enormously increased; they often +amounted, equitably, to a real joint-ownership; yet these rights were +without the support of law, and were liable to be extinguished often at +the mere will of the landlord. In Ulster alone, in its Presbyterian and +Scottish parts, where the landed classes had been less disunited than in +the South, a custom, now of considerable strength, had for a long time +made the tenure of the peasant comparatively secure; yet even this was not +under the aegis of law.[44] + +Made wise, after the event, we now clearly perceive what ought to have +been done for Ireland in this position of affairs. There never had been an +Irish poor law; Protestant property was not to be charged for Catholic +want; but the population was fast increasing; a mass of wretched poverty +was being formed; this should have been supported, and yet checked, by a +poor law. At the same time legislation, as Burke had contended, should +have vindicated the moral rights of the occupier of the soil, should have +made what really was his property his own, should have rendered his tenure +profitable and secure. Nothing of the kind, however, came into the minds +of British statesmen, or even, it must be said, of the best Irishmen of +the day--the age was one of Toryism harsh and unfeeling; the abuses of the +poor law in England were great; it was not contemplated to apply it to +Ireland; above all, the equitable claims of the Irish tenant were not +understood or deemed worthy of notice; English tenure, utterly unfitted to +his true position, was good enough for him. The land system, nevertheless, +was not much disturbed while the high prices of the war prevailed; there +was a good deal indeed of disorder connected with the land, but society +was not deeply affected. And it is only just to observe that the +landlords, as a class, did respect the concurrent rights of their tenants +in the soil; the conclusive proof is that these could not have grown up +had they been generally, or even largely, set at nought. But a great and +calamitous change passed over Ireland when the comparative wealth caused +by the war collapsed, and when the return to cash payments made the +effects worse. Rents suddenly fell greatly, and even disappeared; the +wages of labour, which had usually been paid through what may be called a +wretched truck system, were reduced to a remarkable degree; hundreds of +thousands of the cottar peasantry sank to the lowest depths of indigence. +A great social convulsion, in a word, took place; this culminated in +famine in several counties; a miserable population was deprived of the +means of subsistence. In these circumstances the owners of the soil acted +as a class would ordinarily act; many, impoverished themselves, let things +drift; many made themselves conspicuous for good works of charity; a +minority had recourse to severe measures, like the English landlords of +the sixteenth century, to get rid of a mass of poverty clinging in despair +to the land. The old divisions of race and faith unquestionably +aggravated this state of things; but the Government of the day showed +little forethought, and, in fact, was infinitely the most to blame; it met +the emergency, not by wise and healing measures, but by legislation, which +made the eviction of the peasant from his holding easy and cheap, and by +having recourse to repression unjust and severe in the extreme. In too +many instances, 'clearances' of estates, an evil word, were witnessed; +hundreds of families were driven from their homes and cast on the world; +as the necessary result, in numberless cases, the equitable rights of the +Irish tenant were ruthlessly destroyed. As a matter of course, +Whiteboyism, never completely suppressed, broke out in formidable agrarian +disorder; the peasantry, deprived of the protection of law, leagued +themselves together to enforce a law of their own; crime multiplied to an +immense extent; all the machinery of coercion could not wholly keep it +under.[45] + +I must pass rapidly over the next twenty years, though a very important +period in Irish history. Catholic emancipation was wrung by O'Connell, +from a reluctant Ministry, through violent agitation, which distracted +Ireland for years; the Irish Catholic was admitted into Parliament at +last. This great event was followed by the savage Tithe War, a movement +against the Anglican Church in Ireland stained with detestable deeds of +blood; the representation of Ireland passed largely into O'Connell's +hands, the head of what was called 'his Catholic Tail.' Protestant +ascendency in Ireland received a mortal blow; the influence of the Irish +landed gentry still further declined; that of the bureaucracy at the +Castle increased. From this time forward the Irish landlord began to feel +his position really insecure; it is remarkable how few large mansions and +demesnes have ever since been designed or completed by this order of men. +After the disastrous period which came to an end about 1826, the wealth of +Ireland perceptibly grew; a kind of prosperity existed in many parts of +the country. The age, too, had become more liberal and humane; the +middleman was got rid of in not a few districts; the absentee landlords +devoted more attention to their estates than they had ever devoted before. +The process of eviction, moreover, became much less frequent, though too +frequent for social order and peace; a considerable number of Irish +landlords expended large sums in improving their lands; farms were +consolidated, with good results, in many parts of the country. But the +essential features of the land system were not much changed; its economic +conditions became, in important respects, worse. The landed gentry, if +much less extravagant than their fathers had been, were, nevertheless, as +a class, much involved in debt; and, as usually has been seen in cases of +the kind, they became less really prosperous, as their authority declined. +Meanwhile, the population had continued rapidly to increase; by the close +of this period it exceeded eight millions of souls, a total far too great +for the resources of the land. The phenomena, already critical, became +more sinister; rents were again forced up as the wealth of the country +augmented, and reached the highest level they have ever attained; the +wages of labour did not fall, indeed, they could hardly fall lower; but +the cottar population had become more than ever dense; the competition for +the possession of the soil grew fierce; as necessarily followed, the +quasi-proprietary rights of the tenant in his holding had been enlarged, +and yet these were still outside the pale of the law. A Report, made in +1837-38, disclosed the appalling fact that two millions and a half of the +Irish community were for months in every year on the verge of starvation, +and always in a condition of extreme misery. Though Ireland had made, in a +sense, progress, her economic state had thus become dangerous, and very +bad; and a poor law, enacted at last in 1838, was utterly unable to cope +with the evil. Whiteboy crime and disorders continued to abound; in 1844, +an average year, there were more than a thousand instances of offences in +landed relations. + +The year 1843 was that of the great Repeal movement, of which O'Connell +was the master spirit. Peel had been Prime Minister for two years; his +attention had been already turned to the vices and the perils of the Irish +land system. He had been Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1812 to 1818; +but he had been identified with the Tory misrule of that time; and though, +like Chesterfield in another age, he had been too sagacious not to see +that poverty made the social ills of Ireland more acute and worse, he had +been the ablest opponent of the Catholic cause, had supported Protestant +ascendency in many ways; and had not been in any sense an Irish reformer. +A strong Conservative of the great middle class in England, he looked on +Ireland as an almost foreign land, and had scarcely any knowledge of her +real needs; and though his severe administration at the Castle had been +wise and just, he carried out coercion with a steady hand, and is supposed +to have been the author of the code of cheap ejectment, a cause of a great +deal of evil and wrong. But his mind, if slow in moving, was moved at +last; he saw that Ireland largely required the amending hand; the conduct +of O'Connell, no doubt, had quickened his purpose. I cannot dwell on +Peel's other Irish measures; at the close of 1843 he appointed a +Commission charged to inquire into the state of Irish landed relations; +had he continued long at the head of the State, he would probably have +done much to improve the Irish land system. The Commission had, as +President, the chief of the great House of Courtenay; it was almost wholly +composed of Englishmen, more or less associated with land in England; it +was, therefore, ill constituted to deal with what may be called the Irish +Land Question. But it investigated the subject it treated with most +praiseworthy care; entering into every detail of Irish landed relations, +their history in the past, the state of land tenure, the condition of the +different classes seated on the land, the working of the law with respect +to tenant's improvements, the means of diminishing the wretched millions +squatting on the soil, agrarian crime and all that it involved; the mass +of evidence it collected is still of the greatest value. The Report it +made, if somewhat over-cautious and timid, was very instructive in many +respects; especially it showed how the Irish land system grew out of the +conquests and confiscations of the past, and still bore the marks of its +ill-omened origin, notably in the lines drawn between the owners and the +occupiers of the soil marked by a profound division of race and faith; and +many of the suggestions it made were wise, nay, excellent. But on the +capital subject of land tenure, by many degrees the most important, the +Report only too clearly revealed the ignorance of Englishmen as regards +Ireland, and, above all, as regards her landed relations. The Commission +ought to have fully recognised the concurrent rights in the soil, which +the Irish occupier had acquired in tens of thousands of instances, rights +often equivalent to more or less joint-ownership; it ought to have +insisted that the Tenant Right, as it was now called, of the Ulster +Custom, and the claims arising from improvements, the work of the tenant, +and from sums paid on the transfer of farms, should be made law-worthy, +and effectually secured. With a want of insight which would have made +Burke gnash his teeth, it took exactly an opposite course; it warned the +Irish landlord that these concurrent rights were creating against him 'an +embryo copyhold,' and eating away his freehold ownership; it plainly +hinted that he would do well to get rid of them. It even refused to +acknowledge that the tenant had a claim to any improvements if made in the +past; but it proposed a scheme for compensating him for improvements made +in the future, so limited and fenced round with restrictions, that it was +quite illusory, and indeed deceptive. The Report caused intense +indignation in Ulster, and was not well received in any part of +Ireland.[46] + +Bills, founded on the Report of the Devon Commission, as it was called, +were brought into Parliament, but never became law. Within a few months +Ireland was in the throes of an agony, the most terrible, perhaps, that +has befallen any land in the nineteenth century. In the autumn of 1845, +the potato, which formed the only food of the indigent multitudes fastened +on the land, failed, to a considerable extent, in many districts; in the +following year the crop was all but completely destroyed. Famine, far more +general and appalling than that of twenty-five years before, had soon held +a wretched population in its grasp; the results may almost be compared to +those of the Black Death, and of the famines of the Middle Ages. The land +system went to wreck in whole counties, especially in the west and along +the seaboard; hundreds of the landed gentry were involved in ruin; +thousands of farmers of the better class became bankrupt; the dense cottar +multitudes were literally lifted up from the soil, and cast adrift, the +waifs and strays of a far-reaching tempest. This is not the place to +review the measures adopted to meet the dread visitation; if not free from +errors, inevitable in a situation of the kind, they were, essentially, +and, in the main, successful. Peel was still in office in 1845; well +knowing what poverty in Ireland was, he introduced supplies of food into +the remote and backward districts, which the energies of commerce could +hardly reach; this wise policy saved tens of thousands of lives; as is +notorious, he repealed the corn laws in the interest of the afflicted +country. The Government of Lord John Russell had succeeded him in 1846; it +had to confront an emergency infinitely worse; it followed, in many +respects, the example of Peel, who had established 'relief works' in many +counties; but it did not assist the most impoverished parts of Ireland +with food through the agency of the State; this possibly was a real +mistake. Nevertheless, it manfully and humanely met the tremendous crisis; +it is easy to censure some of its acts, for instance, the wasteful and +useless public works it set on foot, and the gigantic outdoor relief it +was compelled to lavish; but millions in starvation were thrown on its +hands; and the poor law, only lately in operation, could not cope with +universal distress. On the whole, the statesmen in power did their duty +wisely and well; thousands of unhappy victims succumbed, indeed, to +famine, and to dire diseases following in its train; but Ireland as a +people was saved; assuredly she could not have saved herself. A word, too, +must be said on the magnificent charity which flowed in from many lands +into the community in its woe. England had turned in sympathy towards +Ireland in the season of distress which had followed the Peace; she +bestowed great sums on her, in 1845-46, through private subscription. The +United States, France, Germany, and Italy joined in the good work; even +the Ottoman Empire was not behindhand. + +I must dwell for a moment on the conduct and the position of the classes +connected with the land during this appalling trial. The attitude of the +landed gentry was much the same as it had been at an infinitely less +disastrous crisis; but, on the whole, it was marked by nobler and more +attractive features. The charity of the great landlords of Ireland was +most praiseworthy; many devoted large sums for the support of the poor on +their lands by instituting fine works of enclosure and drainage; some, I +know, even mortgaged their estates for this very purpose. Hundreds of the +lesser gentry, stricken down as they were, imitated their superiors as +well as they could; old divisions were forgotten in the common misfortune; +spite of the interested lies of a calumnious faction, as an order of men +they acted extremely well. One of their bitterest enemies, who wrote at +the time, has placed it on record, 'that the resident landlords and their +families did, in many cases, devote themselves to the task of saving these +poor people alive. Many remitted their rents or half their rents; and +ladies kept their servants busy and their kitchens smoking with continual +preparation of food for the poor.'[47] Many, however, of the Irish +landlords, as was to be expected, looked hopelessly on at the misery +around them; this was the case with feeble and incapable men, and the +sight has always been seen in grave social crises; it was but in +conformity with our frail and imperfect nature. A certain number, +moreover, of the class had recourse to severe measures to remove from +their lands the masses of wretchedness crowded upon them; the process of +eviction became too frequent; hundreds of families were in this way +dispossessed of their holdings. These acts of harshness were certainly to +be deplored; but it was almost universally believed that the cottar in +Ireland could not live from the land after the failure of almost his only +means of subsistence; it must be added that, in this very matter, the +conduct of Parliament and the Government was by many degrees more severe. +A strict test of destitution had to be applied; a law was passed that, as +a condition of obtaining relief, no person possessing more than a quarter +of an acre of land should be entitled to support from the State; thousands +of families abandoned their homes, through the effects of this measure; +for one evicted by a landlord, fifty perhaps were practically evicted by +this stern policy. The law was possibly required in the terrible +circumstances of the time; but it was condemned by the Lord-Lieutenant, +Lord Bessborough, a great Irish peer, and an able man; at all events, it +justified, to a considerable extent, all that could be laid to the charge +of a few Irish landlords whose acts were most unfairly denounced by many +writers, and were falsely described as common to the great body of the +class. For the rest, as I have said, the land system was broken up in many +districts; and not only the owners but the occupiers of the soil suffered +cruelly from the highest to the lowest grade. + +After the first months of the famine, the immense exodus of the Irish +race, as it has fitly been called, began. The population fled from the +country in hundreds of thousands; some found a home in England and in our +Australian colonies; nine-tenths, probably, in the great Republic of the +West. The sufferings of numbers of the emigrants were terribly severe; +huddled together in the ill-found vessels of the time, hundreds perished +before they beheld the lands they were seeking; that some check was not +placed on the greed of the merchants, who subjected these victims to +horrors like those of the Middle Passage, was certainly the worst mistake +of the Government of the day. During the agony of the famine there was +comparatively little crime; the minds of men were engrossed by a dire +calamity; but in a few months Whiteboyism had been again aroused; there +was a widespread outbreak of agrarian disorder followed by the abortive +rising of 1848. The time was now ripe, in the judgment of even leading +statesmen, for making another of the great experiments on the Irish land, +which had been their policy since the age of the Tudors. Many of the Irish +landed gentry had been ruined; the estates of many were heavily charged +with debt, in part caused by extravagance in the past, but chiefly by +large provisions made for their families in more prosperous times, +especially during the period of the high prices of the war.[48] The +object of the Government--and Peel concurred--was to make a clean sweep of +the embarrassed owners, and to transfer their lands to a new order of men; +'English and Scottish capital was to be attracted to the Irish soil;' the +Irish landlord was to be 'sold out cheap;' his successor was to be a +person fit 'to discharge the duties of property;' the 'regeneration of +Ireland' was to be the magnificent result.[49] The sale of encumbered +estates in Ireland had from various causes been a slow and a costly +process, an Act was run through Parliament with scarcely an expression of +dissent,[50] making the process as rapid and inexpensive as the wit of man +could devise; a Commission was appointed to carry the law into effect; and +intending purchasers were to be given an indefeasible title to any lands +they might acquire. This was a strong measure, but it was not nearly all; +the concurrent rights of the tenants in the estates to be sold were +absolutely ignored, and left without protection; the new possessors were +empowered to destroy them if they pleased. The results were such as might +have been looked for when lands were forced into the market wholesale, +when Ireland was still reeling from the strokes of a terrible famine, and +agricultural ruin was seen everywhere. The Commission acted as such +tribunals invariably act when skilfully selected to carry out a policy; it +addressed itself to its task of 'selling land cheap;' it was egged on by +the Lord-Lieutenant of the day; and it sacrificed estates, in scores of +instances, at less than half their value. This iniquitous proceeding went +on for years, until the market for land in Ireland righted itself at last; +but the Encumbered Estates Act was often renewed; about a sixth part of +the lands of Ireland has been transferred by these means. As the result +many of the Irish gentry, who might have tided over the crisis, were +beggared and cast on the world penniless; and confiscation from above had +its counterpart in confiscation from below; the partial joint-ownership of +thousands of the occupiers of the soil was ruthlessly annihilated in +numbers of cases. And what were the consequences of this scheme of +spoliation and wrong, which English politicians would never have thought +of but for their traditional contempt of the rights of property in land in +Ireland? English and Scottish capital, indeed, reached the Irish soil; but +it reached it in the form of large mortgages, a heavy drain on the +country's resources; the English and Scottish purchasers of the Irish land +were a mere handful of men. The estates, in fact, transferred under the +Encumbered Estates Acts, as a rule, passed into the ownership of jobbers, +speculators, and mortgagees, people without the associations old +possession ensures; they have formed, as a class, harsh and exacting +landlords, the true successors of the almost defunct middleman; they are +responsible for much that is bad in Irish landed relations of late years. +A huge confiscation, in a word, failed, as those of Elizabeth and Cromwell +failed before; the fact ought to be a warning to public men, who have been +parading theories about the Irish land--strewn as this has been with +monuments of misdeeds and errors--as false and more dangerous than those +which produced the Encumbered Estates Acts.[51] + +The exodus had, by 1851, reduced the population of Ireland by nearly two +millions of souls; this decline has continued ever since; the population +which, in 1846, was considerably more than eight millions, is now, we +have seen, only about four and a half millions. In 1852 an agitation +sprang up, which might have wrought a great change in Irish landed +relations, had it not been brought by mere accident to an untimely end. +The Report of the Devon Commission, I have said, had troubled Ulster; the +Famine had driven peasants, in tens of thousands, from their homes; the +operation of the Encumbered Estates Act was destroying their concurrent +rights in their holdings. At the General Election of 1852 Ireland returned +a large party of representatives to the House of Commons pledged to +vindicate the claims of the tenant farmers; these were expressed in a +demand that has been called the 'Three F's,' 'Fair Rent,' 'Fixity of +Tenure,' and 'Free Sale,' a mode of occupation which had been largely +secured by the Custom of Ulster, and to which O'Connell had given his +sanction. The Government of Lord Derby was now in office; it had brought +in measures which, in some degree, would have legalised the rights of the +Irish tenant; but the Ministry was defeated, partly through an +intrigue;[52] the cause of the Irish farmer was baffled and kept in +suspense for years, largely owing to dissensions and treachery on the part +of some of the Irish members. By this time the country had begun to +revive, and to throw off the worst effects of the Famine; vast depopulated +tracts had been opened to new husbandry; the land had been set free, over +an immense area, from the incubus of a mass of wretchedness which had +preyed on it, and had completely disorganised the land system, unnaturally +forcing up rent and cutting down wages. Under these conditions the +statesmen in power, already expecting great things from the Encumbered +Estates Act, believed that the Irish land system would right itself, and +that it was unnecessary to consider or to protect the rights of the +tenant classes; these would either disappear, or would be fairly adjusted +in the improved landed relations that were being formed. At all events, +there was no legislation to secure these claims; the scanty legislation, +that dealt with the Irish land, was unfavourable, in many ways, to these, +and endeavoured to assimilate Irish to English tenures, as Tudor lawyers +had done three centuries before; and Lord Palmerston, for a long time the +head of the State, discouraged Irish tenant right, in more than one +speech, and declared that it only meant landlord wrong, unwise utterances +that showed he did not understand the subject. At the same time, the +policy of clearing the land for cultivators of a capitalist class, able to +occupy and do justice to large farms, was generally advocated in high +places; more than one Lord-Lieutenant announced that nature had made +Ireland a great grazing tract, and that her petty occupiers were little +better than a social nuisance.[53] + +For some time it seemed as though the forecasts made by the great majority +of our statesmen would prove correct. The immense emigration from Ireland +to the United States had important results, unfortunate in many respects; +but the uplifting of redundant millions from the soil greatly contributed +to the country's welfare. Holdings were consolidated over very large +areas, a beneficent process, if humanely carried out; a certain number of +Englishmen and Scotsmen rented large farms; the progress of husbandry of +all kinds was distinct; a vast field for agriculture, really worthy of the +name, was opened. A new standard for the management of land was, in fact, +set up; at the same time a few purchasers, under the Encumbered Estates +Acts, laid out considerable sums in improving their estates; the Treasury +made large advances to many Irish landlords; these did much in works of +enclosure, draining, planting, and the like. Ireland began to wear a new +aspect in several counties, especially in the more thriving parts of the +southern provinces; the ruins made by the Famine, indeed, caused hideous +eyesores, in wrecks of villages and the remains of peasant dwellings; but +the mud hovels of the cottar population had largely disappeared, and the +habitations of farmers of the better class very markedly improved. The +economic conditions of landed relations became more conducive to +prosperity than they had ever been before; rents fell considerably during +a series of years, as the intense competition for land diminished; though +they gradually rose in the course of time, they never reached the +excessive rates of 1840-45; and the wages of labour greatly increased, and +attained a level that, happily, has since been preserved. Many +circumstances concurred to quicken and augment this unquestionable social +and material progress. Agricultural prices were high from about 1852 +onward; Free Trade was as yet adding to the wealth of Ireland; and there +was a long succession of good harvests, the most important element in her +general welfare. The railway system, too, introduced of late years, opened +a number of new markets to her products, and greatly facilitated their +access to British markets. At the same time the turnip replaced the potato +over hundreds of thousands of acres; farm machinery greatly improved in +Ireland; the importation of the best stock from England and Scotland had +excellent results, and almost transformed the old breeds of Irish farming +animals. An era of prosperity, in a word, had seemed to dawn on Ireland; +and though agrarian disorder had not disappeared, the Whiteboy secret +societies were greatly broken up, and political agitation well-nigh +ceased. + +In these circumstances, it was a common belief in England that 'the Irish +difficulty,' as it was called, was passing away, and that the 'Hibernia +Pacata' had at last become a happy reality. Yet the progress and +tranquillity of this brief period were largely superficial and even +deceptive; fires were still alive beneath the smouldering ashes. The +partial prosperity of Ireland mainly depended on good harvests and high +prices; it was interrupted, even in these years, by two or three seasons +of distress. Notwithstanding the widespread consolidation of farms, and +the removal from the soil of indigent millions, the land still, for the +most part, remained in the possession of a mere peasantry; very few of the +English and Scottish capitalist farmers settled in Ireland, and really +throve; the great majority left the country, like the 'Englishry' of a +bygone age. And though things wore a serene aspect, the inherent vices of +the land system continued to exist; in some respects they increased, or +were more painfully felt. The old divisions of race and faith between the +owners and the occupiers of the soil remained; they had but little changed +and even had perhaps widened; much had happened to keep the landed classes +more apart than before. The new purchasers, under the Encumbered Estates +Acts, were, we have seen, often hard-fisted and grasping landlords; they +raised their rents, without scruple, in too many instances; standing on +the letter of the law, they too often ignored the partial joint-ownership +in their farms of their tenants; they had sometimes recourse to unjust and +severe evictions. The old landlords, too, never recovered from the effects +of the Famine; they were overshadowed by the bureaucracy of the Castle, +which, for many years, had been growing in power; they thus became an +order of men with privileges, but without authority, in the midst of +inferiors, who had little sympathy with them, a dangerous position like +that of the French seigneurie in the later years of the eighteenth +century--a position described by Tocqueville in very striking language. At +the same time the peasantry stood aloof from them more than in the days of +their fathers; and though they remained quiescent for years, as has often +happened in Irish history, there were causes for this increasing +estrangement. They were no longer the grossly ignorant multitude of fifty +years before; education had made some way among them, though in this +respect they were still backward; they felt more acutely all that was hard +in their lot, like the French peasantry before the great Revolution of +1789-94. This sentiment, however, owed its principal force to sentiments +engendered in far distant lands. The thousands of the exodus had left +their country with memories embittered against some Irish landlords, and, +notably, against the British Government; a new Ireland was rising across +the Atlantic; the emigrants and their sons were in constant communication +with the old Ireland once their home; socialistic ideas as regards the +land, blending with dislike of the superiors and the rulers, under whom +they lived, were gradually diffused among the Irish peasantry. The +economic conditions, too, of landed relations by degrees made these +feelings more general and intense. Rents were rising as the wealth of the +country increased, though, except in the cases of the new landlords, and +of a very few surviving middlemen, they were, as a rule, by no means +excessive. Simultaneously a concurrence of causes had extinguished +leasehold tenures in most parts of Ireland, and had reduced the status of +the Irish farmer to that of a mere tenant at will, liable to be +dispossessed by a notice to quit, at the mercy, in fact, of the lord of +the soil. And, meanwhile, the equitable rights of the occupiers as a +class, due to improvements, and to sums paid for the goodwill of farms, +had been increasing to an immense extent; and yet a grievous wrong--they +were not even recognised by law. Law and fact had long been sharply +clashing in landed relations; there was much that was essentially bad in +the land system; and agrarian trouble and crime was on the increase. + +The mind of England had turned away from Ireland after the petty outbreak +of 1848; it charged the Irish community with ungrateful folly, as it +recollected the charity lavished during the Famine. This sentiment was +replaced by what was worse, indifference; throughout this period--from +1850 to 1868--Parliament gave little attention to the affairs of Ireland. +British statesmen continued to pin their faith to their policy; they +disregarded ominous symptoms on the increase; Ireland was rapidly becoming +more prosperous; the claims of the Irish tenant farmer were a delusion, or +worse. This apathy was augmented by the state of the representation of +Ireland in these years; this was in a feeble, even a degraded condition; +and largely owing to the authority of Cardinal Cullen, who prohibited the +Irish priesthood from taking any part in politics, agitation, I have said, +had become a mere tradition of the past. Yet the causes I have glanced at +were silently at work, which ultimately were to lead to grave social +troubles. The first sign of disturbance was seen in a little outbreak, the +result of a conspiracy hatched by one of the rebels of 1848, and supported +to some extent from America: but the 'Phoenix plot,' as it was called, +almost at once collapsed; the Government thought it hardly worthy of +notice. Another and much more formidable conspiracy was matured in +1864-65; and though it was put down with little difficulty in time, it +showed that there was much that was peccant in the state of Ireland; and +it deeply affected the minds of Englishmen, aroused as it were out of a +fool's paradise. The millions of the Irish race in the Far West were +passionately appealed to by leaders, not without parts, to assist in a +crusade against 'landlordism,' and British rule in Ireland; they gave the +movement very general support; they found numerous allies in thousands of +Irishmen disbanded after the great conflict between the North and the +South. The Fenian conspiracy was launched on its course; its directors +made skilful attempts to debauch whole regiments, and to stir up the +passions of the mob in many of the towns of Ireland; and they especially +turned their attention to the mass of the peasantry. Here, however, their +policy was injudicious and ill-conceived; they promised the Irish land as +a spoil to those who would join the ranks of the 'patriot Irish army;' but +all this alarmed the occupiers of the soil, whose only object was to +acquire a better mode of tenure for their farms, and who rightly thought +the Fenian movement made their possessions insecure, a belief generally +encouraged by the Catholic priesthood. A short-lived rising, conducted by +a few American soldiers, and backed by the rabble of a few villages and +towns, found no real support in Ireland, and was finally quelled in 1867; +but in England there was a spurt of Fenian disorder, and this, though +easily quenched, made a profound impression. It was generally felt in +England and Scotland that, notwithstanding the optimism of a generation of +public men, there was still much that was rotten in the state of Ireland, +and that this should be removed by large and searching reforms. The chief +sign of this change in British opinion was seen in the result of the +General Election of 1868; Mr. Gladstone, who, hitherto, had taken +comparatively little part in Irish affairs, but who, with his keen +instinct of every turn in the public mind, had been vehemently enlarging +on the wrongs of Ireland, was placed in power with a great majority, and +at once addressed himself to the task of Irish reform.[54] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--THE IRISH LAND ACT OF +1870--THE LAND LEAGUE AND THE NATIONAL LEAGUE--THE LAND OF +1881--SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION AS REGARDS THE LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND + + State of landed relations in Ireland in 1869-70--Mr. Gladstone Prime + Minister--The Land Act of 1870--Its merits and defects--A short period + of prosperity in Ireland--Ominous symptoms--Michael Davitt--The + teaching of John Finton Lalor in 1848--The 'New Departure' in + Fenianism arranged in America--Foundation of the Land League--It was a + foreign rebellious conspiracy, with an agrarian side, under a + constitutional mask--Parnell the master spirit of the League--His + visit to America and the results--A short period of distress in + Ireland--Conduct of the Irish landlords--Progress of the Land + League--Mr. Gladstone again Prime Minister in 1880--The Compensation + for Disturbance Bill rejected by the House of Lords--Outburst of + agrarian crime, as the Land League increases in power--Rents at + Griffith's valuation--Boycotting--Frightful state of Ireland in + 1881--After a short attempt to repress it, Mr. Gladstone surrenders to + the Land League--The Land Act of 1881--Mr. Gladstone breaks the + pledges he had made in 1870--His promise of compensating the Irish + landlords--The Land Act of 1881 a bad and unjust measure directly + inconsistent with that of 1870--The 'No Rent Manifesto'--The + Kilmainham Treaty--The Phoenix Park tragedy--Coercion--Parnell + founds the National League, the successor of the Land League--Renewal + of agitation in 1886--Struggle with law and the Government--Subsequent + agrarian legislation for Ireland--This is really a concession to + agitation, for the benefit of Irish tenants, and to the injury of + Irish landlords. + + +Mr. Gladstone, after his conversion to Home Rule, more than once declared +that, almost from early manhood he had given special attention to +Ireland; either his memory was at fault, or he had kept the fact to +himself. He had been a conspicuous figure in politics, for many years +before 1868; but until he had been placed at the helm of the State, he had +shown little acquaintance with Irish questions, and, indeed, had expressed +few opinions on them. In 1866 he had said in the House of Commons, that +the existence of the Anglican Irish Church would be probably long; he had +been in high office almost since 1853, and, as a colleague of Lord +Palmerston, had acquiesced in the philippics of that statesman against +Irish tenant right, conduct that revealed ignorance of the land system of +Ireland. But, in 1868, when the Fenian outbreak had caused the nation to +demand large reforms in Ireland, he suddenly abandoned his attitude of +reserve; he threw himself into Irish affairs; his zeal, it may be +remarked, as often happened, fell in with his interests, and with those of +the Liberal party, and gave him a leverage to drive Disraeli from office. +During months before the General Election that ensued, the orator +thundered on Irish grievances, and on the manifold ills of Ireland; in +figurative and impassioned language, he said that the island was blighted +by a huge upas tree, the Church, the land, and education being the three +main branches. These harangues, addressed to the new democracy, +contributed powerfully to the fall of the Conservative Ministry; it was +little noticed, at the time, that one of the results was ere long to +compel Mr. Gladstone himself to subject Ireland to severe repressive +measures, for Whiteboy and agrarian outrages became frequent In 1869, the +Minister addressed himself to the task of hewing down the first branch of +the poisonous upas; he disestablished and disendowed the Protestant Church +of Ireland. This is not the place to comment upon that great measure; it +was well designed upon its professed principles; it dealt liberally, nay, +generously, with the voluntary Church, which replaced the Church of the +State it overthrew. But essentially it was a scheme of destruction, formed +in Nonconformist not in Irish interests, and opposed to the views of +generations of statesmen; it made no provision for the clergy of the Irish +Catholic Church, a policy which Pitt, Castlereagh, and Lord John Russell +had had at heart, which had been all but a condition of the Union, and +which, if carried into effect, would have done much to strengthen and +maintain that fundamental law, and to promote tranquillity in Ireland and +her general welfare. + +Mr. Gladstone now turned to the second branch of the upas, the land system +of Ireland and her landed relations. His whole career, especially in its +Home Rule phase, proves that his knowledge of Ireland was not exact or +profound; at this time he had had little experience of the Irish land +question. But the mind of England was still attracted to Irish affairs; a +number of distinguished Englishmen and Scotchmen went to Ireland, to +investigate the state of the country on the spot; the British Press sent +some of its best contributors; the time was singularly opportune for a +fair and complete inquiry; no Minister has had, before or since, such +assistance in dealing with Irish problems. I must glance at the state of +the Irish land system in 1869-70, as this was fully explored and made +manifest.[55] The material progress being made, since about 1854, had +been largely developed in by far the greatest part of the island. The +population was being still diminished by emigration and other causes; the +area for real husbandry had been greatly extended; the rural community, at +least in its lower grades, was infinitely better off than it had been +before the Famine. The look of the country, in most places, bore witness +to a change beneficent in the main; it had been almost transformed since +1844-45. The cottar system, no doubt, was to be found in backward +counties; but even in these it had been largely effaced; it was all but +passing away in the more thriving counties; masses of indigence were to be +seen only in tracts west of the Shannon; and these were aggregated on an +area comparatively small. The general consolidation of farms had, +meanwhile, gone on; and though Ireland remained, on the whole, a land of +small farms, her land system had, from top to bottom, ceased to depend for +its support on a perishable root. In every conceivable respect a marked +improvement was visible in the state of the peasantry; they were by many +degrees better clothed and fed than their fathers had been; the wages of +agricultural labour were still rising, and were now paid in money, and not +in plots of potatoes; and though the habitations of this whole class were, +as a rule, still mean, the dwellings of the class of substantial farmers +had shown signs of distinct social progress. At the same time agriculture +had made a marked advance, owing to the influences I have referred to +before; fine specimens of extensive farming were very commonly to be seen; +thousands of acres had been reclaimed and enclosed of late years; at no +period certainly had the landed gentry, in a great measure through moneys +borrowed from the State, expended such large sums in improving their +estates, especially in arterial drainage, and the introduction of the +best breeds of stock of all kinds. The wealth of Ireland, too, was +increasing, if not rapidly; and a change for the better might be traced in +what we may describe as her general social life. Her middle class was +still weak and small compared to that of England and Scotland; but it had +been growing in wealth and power; and this, to some extent, had had a good +effect on a community still mainly dependent on the land. + +The material and even the social progress of Ireland, since the Famine, +had thus been marked; it had been more decided than it has been, at any +period, except, possibly, that from 1782 to 1800. Her land system, too, +had become better in important parts; but in many respects it remained +vicious; some of its vices had been aggravated, or were more sensibly +felt. The hope that the land would pass generally into the hands of large +farmers, able to develop its resources, had not been realised, or had been +realised only to a relatively trivial extent; it was still held in the +main by a peasantry of small occupiers of the soil, though the +consolidation of farms had gone on over extensive areas, especially over +wide tracts of pasturage, in the eastern, midland, and western counties, +and this, in some instances, through a process of harsh eviction. The +profound divisions of race and faith, the distinctive feature in the +organic structure of the whole community, were at least as visible as ever +in the land system; from causes I have pointed out before, they had, not +improbably, been widened; this tended to increase the old dissension in +landed relations, and the long-standing separation between the landed +classes. Middleman tenures, with their mischievous effects, had, since the +Famine, well-nigh disappeared; but the new landlord had largely replaced +the middleman; absenteeism remained what it had been; and though absentee +estates, as a rule, were under good agents, there was too much of that +'absenteeism of the heart,' condemned by Tocqueville as a grave social +danger. The purchasers under the Encumbered Estates Acts, with some +honourable exceptions, no doubt, were too often oppressive landlords; the +old landlords, as a class, had, certainly, done much for their estates, +but they had lost their political and largely their social influence; +partly owing to apprehensions as regards tenant right, partly to the +assurances of statesmen that their position was safe, they had become +perhaps more exacting in their dealings with their dependents; in the +existing situation, they more and more resembled a weak caste, controlled +by the central Government, and isolated amidst a community, to a great +extent, not friendly. All this tended to produce a want of stability and +insecurity in the land system, which was ominous of social strife and +trouble; but the most active element of disturbance was to be certainly +found in the contact with the rebellious movement which Ireland had lately +witnessed. Fenianism had been scotched, but by no means slain; and though +the peasantry had held aloof from it, Fenian emissaries were going through +the country, appealing to the passions and the greed of the occupiers of +the soil, for different reasons not contented with their lot, hostile, in +a great degree, to the order of things around them, and more alive to +their grievances than in the past generation; at this very time a cry +against the payment of rent, and against 'landlordism,' as it was called, +was being heard in a few counties. It was significant that agrarian +crimes--some of the worst type--and agrarian disorder were distinctly +increasing; and it should be added, that, in spite of Cardinal Cullen, the +younger Catholic priests, in some districts, were beginning to play the +part of agitators again. + +Passing from the general state of landed relations, the conditions of land +tenure, briefly noticed before, had not improved of late years, and were, +in some respects, worse. Rents had been rising for a considerable time: +but except in comparatively few instances, they were not excessive, as +affairs stood; whatever mendacious calumny has since maintained, Ireland, +on the whole, was in no sense an over-rented land.[56] But the modes of +occupation were essentially bad; they were open to the gravest objections; +their vices had become more than ever apparent. The tenant right, under +the Ulster custom, had, I have remarked, largely secured the tenant +farmer, in parts of the province, what was generally known as the 'Three +F's,' Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure, the power of a Free Sale of the +holding;[57] though it should be especially borne in mind that the fair +rent was never adjusted by an external agency, but was settled by what +Adam Smith would have called 'higgling' between the owner and occupier of +the soil. The custom, however, had been very powerful; its violation, on +anything like a great scale, would have certainly caused a fierce war of +classes; and it gave the Ulster tenant, in tens of thousands of cases, a +real proprietary right in the land, whatever might be the terms of his +contract; a right equivalent to more or less joint-ownership, and that +might be described as a precious _peculium_, subject to conditions that +long had made it practically secure. But this most important right, +involving property worth many millions, still remained wholly unprotected +by law; and though its value had enormously increased, as the wealth of +Ulster had been developed, of late years, it was being 'nibbled away' on +not a few estates, and restricted by limitations of many kinds that had +greatly impaired it. An analogous right, like seed scattered by the +winds, had partially spread into the southern provinces, as the natural +result of the equitable claims, the occupiers of farms had repeatedly +acquired, though this had not been recognised on many estates, and its +efficacy was not as yet great; but this right, such as it was, like its +fellow, was not law-worthy, and depended wholly on the will of the lord of +the soil. In addition to the tenant right in the north and the south, the +concurrent claims of the tenant farmers, throughout the country, in +respect of improvements and of sums paid on the transfer of farms, for +'good-will,' had been greatly increasing of late years, especially as +prosperity was advancing; and yet tenures had continued to become more +precarious; leaseholds were being almost everywhere replaced by tenancies +at will. These claims were never so extensive before; often equivalent to +joint-ownership, in no doubtful sense, and, in almost all cases, of some +value, they were, nevertheless, still outside the aegis of the law, a fact +that must ever be borne in mind; they could be destroyed or greatly +reduced by the raising of rent, they could be annihilated by a notice to +quit, if eviction followed. Unquestionably in the great mass of instances, +these rights, whatever their nature, were not invaded; but they certainly +had been in a certain number; a single case of invasion created alarm and +distrust, and had a bad effect on landed relations; throw a stone into a +pond, and it makes a ripple; it has a disturbing influence far beyond the +surface it strikes. No wonder, then, that complaints of these modes of +tenure had become very general, and were loudly expressed, not only by +those who might suffer from them, but by intelligent minds which had +mastered the subject. It was an exaggeration to assert, as was said at the +time, that the peasant in Ireland lived under a sword of Damocles; but he +lived under a system in which law and right were very plainly opposed. + +Only a revolution, which Parliament would not have sanctioned, could have +effaced the inveterate ills of the Irish land system, running up to the +conquests and the confiscations of the past, and the divisions of race and +faith in the Irish land; the remark is as true now as it was thirty years +ago; and a revolution of the kind, I am firmly convinced, would, even +under the best conditions, make infinitely worse whatever was already bad. +But it was possible for legislation to remove or mitigate the essential +vices in the modes of Irish land tenure; Mr. Gladstone rightly confined +himself to this object. He brought in his first Irish Land Bill in the +early spring of 1870; he had to address a House of Commons not much in +sympathy with a project of the kind. Many of the members were ignorant of +the subject; many thought English land tenure perfect, and could not +understand why it would not do for Ireland, a prejudice at least three +centuries old; some believed Irish tenant right to be a violation of Free +Trade, then in the ascendant in every phase of commerce. The Minister's +speech was adapted to those who heard it; it was tentative, moderate, not +striking; he drew, indeed, very plain distinctions between British and +Irish land tenure, and showed how the first could be no rule of right for +the second; but if he enlarged on the just claims of the occupier of the +Irish soil, he did not venture to maintain, what he probably felt, that +these were often equivalent to a joint-ownership more or less developed. +He was, in short, dexterous, but not profound; very inferior to Burke, +who, a century before, had grasped the essential facts in this province, +though the question was still in the remote future. The most important +parts of Mr. Gladstone's speech, and indeed, of those of his leading +followers, regard being had to events by no means distant, were those in +which he repudiated, with no doubtful censure, the whole theory of the +'Three F's,' the extreme demand, at this time, of the tenant class in +Ireland. 'Fair Rent' he argued, especially if adjusted by the State, +deprives a landlord of his first proprietary right, and involves his +expropriation in the long run; 'Fixity of Tenure' means a perpetuity for +the tenant, to which he has no just claim, and involves confiscation +hardly disguised; 'Free Sale' was but a corollary to legislation on these +principles.[58] At the same time, Mr. Gladstone protested, with marked +emphasis, that the Bill he was introducing was to be absolutely a final +measure; it was to effect a permanent settlement of the Irish land; Irish +landlords would have nothing more to apprehend, Irish tenants to expect. +In this instance, as in that of Home Rule, the orator was to belie +himself, and to be a curious example of the irony of Fate; within a few +years he was to legislate on the lines he had denounced as dangerous and +false; to carry into effect a scheme for dealing with the Irish land, +infinitely worse than that of the 'Three F's;' to scatter the 'finality,' +to which he had pledged his word, to the winds. + +The Bill thus launched was a comprehensive and wise measure, if not free +from real, even grave, defects; it remains the only statesmanlike scheme +for the settlement of Irish landed relations that hitherto has received +the assent of Parliament.[59] It made the tenant right of Ulster, in its +various forms, as these existed in different estates, law-worthy, and +protected to the fullest extent; it gave the same sanction to the inchoate +tenant right of the southern provinces. This was, in itself, an immense +reform; but the Bill properly had a far wider sweep; it extended, with the +exception of certain kinds of lands, such as demesnes, town parks, +holdings of a residential type, and, in most cases, large pastoral +holdings, to nearly all the occupiers of the Irish soil; even the excepted +lands were partially within its scope. The first great object of the +measure was to secure to the Irish tenant the rights he had acquired to +improvements he may have made on his farm, a right hitherto not within the +pale of the law; its provisions, in this respect, were, I think, +excellent. With a true perception of the unquestionable fact that, though +the Irish landlords, especially of late years, had expended considerable +sums on their estates, still, as is inevitable under the small-farm +system, the Irish tenant, as a general rule, had made the greatest part of +the additions to the land, Mr. Gladstone provided that, subject to +limitations by no means severe, in order that the law should not run wild, +improvements made on farms, in the absence of proof to the contrary, +should be deemed to be the tenant's property, thus reversing the +presumption of English law, iniquitous when applied to Irish tenures, that +what is annexed to the soil belongs to the owner, and not to its occupant. +The ground being, so to speak, cleared, the Bill declared that, in almost +all cases, a tenant should have a right, when leaving his farm, even +though dispossessed for the failure to pay his rent, to claim +compensation, from his landlord, for his improvements; and facilities were +offered to landlords to discharge these claims through loans from the +State. In order, however, reasonably to secure right being done, in a +complex and very difficult matter, the Bill proceeded to define +improvements, and to impose restrictions on claims, to which objection +could fairly be made. Apart from unexhausted tillages and manures, an +improvement was to be a work 'suitable to a holding, and adding to its +letting value,' a description as equitable and precise as could well be +desired. And, speaking generally, claims in respect of improvements were +not to be preferred were the improvement twenty years old, except in the +case of buildings and the reclamation of waste land; nor if the +improvement were prohibited by the landlord, under the conditions laid +down; nor if it were made under a contract for value; nor if it were +forbidden by a special contract; nor if, in certain cases, the landlord +had agreed to make it; nor if the claim was barred by express written +contract, in the case of improvements made before the Bill became law; +nor, in the case, with some exceptions, of certain classes of leases; nor +if the landlord, under certain conditions, permitted a tenant to dispose +of his interest in his farm. + +This measure, therefore, gave the Irish tenant farmer complete property in +his improvements, within reasonable bounds, and yet did not here invade +the just rights of the landlord; it was only to be regretted that it had +not been proposed many years before. It proceeded, however, a great deal +further, and asserted a principle, for the behoof of the tenant, which has +since been very generally condemned,[60] though in my judgment, it was +essentially right, if carried somewhat beyond proper and safe limits. +Except in the case of leases granted before the Bill, and of a class of +leases granted when it was to become law, Mr. Gladstone engrafted on the +great mass of Irish tenancies what really was a new tenant right; he was +probably convinced, though he did not say so, that this was to be an +equivalent for the joint-ownership, more or less manifest, which, in +innumerable instances, the Irish occupier had acquired in the soil. This +tenant right was given the rather ambiguous name of 'Compensation,' in the +event of 'Disturbance;' a sum varying in amount from seven to one year's +rent, according to the size of the holding, but in no case to exceed L250, +was to be paid to a tenant when dispossessed by a notice to quit, and, in +some circumstances, by other means; this was to be over and above any sum +due in respect of improvements; but this, too, as in the case of the +last-named sum, was to be paid only when the tenant was 'quitting' the +land. Obviously this was a potential tenant right, if to be realised only +in one way; it practically gave a quasi-proprietary right in the fee, as, +when commenting on the Bill, I pointed out at the time; and I certainly +thought that the compensation was very large, and introduced a principle +into the Bill which might be abused. Two other provisions of the measure, +with respect to the position of the Irish tenant, may be briefly noticed. +No attempt was made to adjust rents, through the agency of the State, Mr. +Gladstone having expressly denounced the idea; but in the case of petty +occupiers, subjected to 'exorbitant rents,' compensation for disturbance +might be adjudged to them, even if evicted for not paying the rent, that +is, the landlord might be mulcted in very heavy penalties. In nearly all +instances, too, the tenant was declared to be entitled to 'his away-going +crops,' another privilege, sometimes of no little value, and analogous to +that secured by usage in many parts of England. So far the Bill dealt with +the Irish land on the side of occupation; but it dealt with it, also, on +the side of ownership. John Bright had urged the expediency, during +several years, of facilitating the transfer of the fee simple, in his +holding, to the Irish tenant; this policy had been carried out, to some +extent, by the Act disestablishing the Anglican Church in Ireland. The +Bill of 1870 extended the principle; it provided that the State might +advance moneys to Irish tenants, to enable them to become owners of their +farms; but--and this should especially be kept in mind--the tenant was to +supply a third part of the purchase money at least; and the transaction +was to be effected by free contract, that is, by the voluntary act of the +landlord disposing of his land. It remains to add, that the administration +of the measure, was, for the most part--subject to an appeal to the +Superior Courts--entrusted to the County Courts of Ireland, that is, to +long-established tribunals of repute. + +The Bill passed through both Houses with little change; it has long been +known as the Irish Land Act of 1870. It was, in the main, I repeat, a +great reforming measure; it effected a far-reaching improvement in the +tenure of land in Ireland, and that without any marked infringement of the +just rights of property. No impartial mind can fairly object to the +protection given to the tenant right of the north and the south, or to the +compensation secured for tenants' improvements; if 'Compensation for +Disturbance' was a bold experiment, still this Parliamentary tenant right, +as it may be called, was in harmony with fact in nearly all instances. +Nevertheless, the Act had three marked defects; these largely detracted +from its practical value. It bristled with such exceptions and limitations +that it was difficult even for the learned to understand; it seemed to the +unlettered peasant a dangerous puzzle, involving him, perhaps, in lawsuits +and costs; it did not strike his imagination as a substantial boon. +Though, too, it annexed a real tenant right to nearly all farms, and thus +secured to the Irish tenant, in almost all cases, any joint-ownership he +may have acquired in the land, still this was intelligible only to +educated men; 'Compensation for Disturbance' was to be given only when an +occupier was about to leave his holding; but this was exactly what he +could not bear to do; he was, therefore, ready to accept almost any terms, +rather than face consequences he dreaded to think of. Mr. Gladstone, +again, had, in this measure, shown that he wished to assimilate Irish to +English land tenure in the long run; he sought to vindicate the just +claims of the Irish tenant; but he desired ultimately to give him the +status of his fellow in England, a long-standing, false conception of +British statesmen. The Land Act, therefore, provided that most of the +rights it conferred on the tenant might be commuted by the grant of a +lease for thirty-one years or upwards; and it further enacted that tenants +of the larger kind might 'contract themselves out' of the privileges it +gave, by voluntary agreements made with their landlords. The object of +this was to place the Irish land, by degrees, no doubt, under rather long +leases, discharged from the tenant right and other claims; but in the +circumstances of Ireland this was a mistake. This part of the Act was a +temptation to landlords, to persuade or even to force tenants to accept +leases under conditions which might be too severe, with respect to rent +and many other things, and to forego rights they would otherwise have +enjoyed, by a process which might not be a free contract; it encouraged, +in a word, unfair evasion of the law. This flaw in the measure was pointed +out from the first; Mr. Gladstone, however, denied its existence, and +characteristically shut his ears to other schemes of reform, notably to an +ingenious proposal of the late Judge Longfield to extend the Ulster tenant +right to all Irish tenancies by a very simple and self-acting process, and +to a proposal of Butt to convert tenancies at will into long leaseholds, +at the rents then current. These projects certainly deserved attention; +and, whatever their shortcomings, were easy to understand. + +The Act of 1870, like the Act dealing with the Protestant Church, was +followed by a short-lived outbreak of agrarian crime put down only by +severe coercive measures. This phenomenon has been common in Irish +history, from the days of Tyrconnell to the present time; disorder has +been the immediate result of concessions; peccant humours discharge +themselves if you touch the head of an ulcer. There is some reason, too, +to believe that in a few instances--and they were very few--wrongheaded +landlords, alarmed at the prospect before them, began to harass and even +to dispossess tenants; they aimed at 'clearing' their estates, in order to +evade the law; conduct of this kind naturally provoked indignation in some +places.[61] Nevertheless, the Land Act of 1870 was generally well received +in Ireland, though it fell short of the popular demand, and it was ill +understood by the tenant classes;[62] many farmers availed themselves of +its benefits, especially those holding under the Ulster custom. Five or +six years of prosperity followed, the brightest perhaps ever seen in +Ireland; agricultural prices were high, harvests extremely good; the +material progress of the country was decided; the peasantry seemed, as a +rule, contented; agitation abandoned, as it were, the land, and +concentrated itself on the Home Rule movement. Mr. Gladstone, always +optimistic, and proud of his own offspring, boasted, towards the close of +his first Ministry, that his recent legislation had done wonders; the Land +Act had reconciled Irish landlords and tenants, and had greatly increased +the selling price of land; he refused to see how much of all this was due +to a cause wholly independent of himself, the comparative well-being of +nearly all Ireland. As had happened in the period from 1854 to 1870, this +tranquillity was not deeply founded or complete; as then, it was, in a +great degree, deceptive. The peasantry were living fast in a good time; +banks and traders had made large advances to them on the security of +tenure the law had created; their position became such, in some districts, +that a season of distress might reduce many to sudden poverty, and be +productive of the necessarily resulting evils. Rents, again, were rising +as the country grew in wealth, though except in comparatively few cases--a +fact that should be steadily kept in view--they were still, as a rule, by +no means excessive; they were far below the rents of thirty years before; +but this gradual rise was of course not popular. In some instances, +too--but these were very rare, as was conclusively proved at a subsequent +time--tenants, under more or less pressure on the part of their landlords, +had accepted leases excluding them from the advantages of the law, and not +equitable in some respects, or had wholly 'contracted themselves out' of +the Act; this naturally caused alarm and distrust in many peasant +dwellings. But the principal reasons that content was really less than it +seemed to be in landed relations were altogether of a different nature. +Like too many even excellent reforms in Ireland, the Land Act of 1870 +became law too late; twenty years before it would have been hailed as an +extraordinary boon; it was now regarded as almost a half measure, in view +of the socialistic ideas about the land afloat. At the same time, +Fenianism continued to make its influence felt; Irish-Americans continued +to flit through the country denouncing British rule and Irish landlords, +and calling upon the peasantry, as in 1798, to rise. Even in these years +of prosperity, though rents were well paid, there was a secret movement +against rent beneath the surface of things, so well concealed that it was +absolutely unknown by the Government. + +Meanwhile, in the midst of apparent peace, the elements of trouble in +Ireland still quiescent were to come to a head and to give rise to a +movement. The most formidable to British rule though skilfully masked, +which had been seen since the rebellion of 1798. Revolutionary schemes in +Ireland have always fastened on the land as the chief source from which +they could derive strength; the United Irish movement as I have pointed +out, was connected with a peasant movement against the payment of rent. +This idea had been brought into marked prominence by John Finton Lalor, +one of the rebels of 1848, a comparatively unknown but a sagacious man; +'You must associate' he wrote, 'the cause of Irish liberty, for which the +people really care little with a cause for which they care a great deal; +an inert mass must be yoked to a powerful engine; the Irish landlord must +be driven from the land and the peasant masses be made its owners; and the +fall of English power will follow that of its landlord garrison.' These +words fell for the moment on unheeding ears; but the tradition has +continued from that day to this the destruction of Irish 'landlordism' was +one of the objects of the Fenian leaders of 1865-67, and they denounced +the Irish gentry in atrocious language, though they did not know how to +carry out their policy. This teaching was eagerly adopted by Michael +Davitt, a Fenian, who had been convicted of a crime against the State; +during a long imprisonment at Dartmoor, he brooded 'on his country's +wrongs,' but satisfied himself that if the independence of Ireland was a +patriot's first object, this could be attained only by uprooting the +existing land system, by hounding on the occupiers of the soil against its +owners, and by handing it over as spoil to the peasantry. Davitt was +released from Dartmoor at the close of 1877; he attended a meeting in +Dublin at which Parnell was present, and two of the assassins of the +Phoenix Park tragedy; and he became supreme in the ranks of the Fenian +societies, known as 'the Irish Republican Brotherhood,' which still +retained a feeble life in Ireland, and even in England and Scotland. A +short time afterwards he made his way to the United States, where he found +the Fenians divided into two parties, known under the general name of the +Clan na Gael, but having different objects, though with a common purpose. +Both parties were for liberating Ireland 'from the Saxon yoke;' but the +most violent and the most active sought to attain this end by expedients +of desperate force; a 'skirmishing fund' had been established; 'England +was to be invaded' by small bodies of 'resolute men;' her capital and +chief towns were to be destroyed by dynamite. The other party, more +prudent, but with similar aims, had been struck by Parnell's attitude in +the House of Commons, and by the success of his unscrupulous tactics; its +leaders began to think that something might be done by 'constitutional +means;' they gradually came to an agreement with Davitt, that 'the +overthrow of English domination' was to be their ultimate end; but that +efforts in this direction were to be linked with energetic efforts to +subvert 'the landlord system, a disgrace to humanity and to the +civilisation of the present century;' to banish the Irish landed gentry +from their country, and to secure their estates for their tenantry. This +movement, though rebellious in no doubtful sense, was nevertheless to have +a legal disguise; the wolf was to wear sheep's clothing; the 'formation of +a peasant proprietary, and the abolition of arbitrary evictions,' were to +be its proposed objects.[63] + +Treason, seeking support from socialistic greed, was thus the origin of +the Land League conspiracy, for this was its only legitimate name. I have +glanced at this movement, on its political side, as it was associated with +the cause of Home Rule; I must here consider it on its agrarian side, the +most prominent, if not the most dangerous, to the State.[64] The compact +between Davitt and the moderates of the Clan na Gael was called the 'New +Departure;' Davitt returned to Ireland to stir up what became known as the +'Land War;' Fenian emissaries went to Ireland, about the same time, in +order to collect arms and to drill peasants, with a view to a possible +rising should the occasion be found. Meanwhile, Davitt had addressed +himself to what was more immediately at hand; in the spring of 1879 he got +a meeting together, in his native county, Mayo, at which 'landlordism' and +all its works were savagely denounced; during the following months other +meetings of the same sort were held, but as yet only in the western +province of Connaught. At these gatherings the crusade against the landed +gentry went on; rebellious utterances were blended with ferocious +diatribes against[65] landlords sometimes marked out for vengeance by +name; and the peasantry were called on to keep 'a firm grip on their +lands;' these would become their own should they only be steadfast. The +Land League movement was now launched on its course; but it was known to +be an essentially Fenian movement; it was subsidised from Clan na Gael +funds; it was supported by a murderous Clan na Gael print; it was +condemned in the severest language by an aged Catholic prelate, one of the +few of O'Connell's surviving friends. The movement, however, as yet was +not of much strength; Davitt had opinions about the 'nationalisation of +the land,' which, like those of the Fenian leaders of 1865-67, were not to +the mind of the peasantry; his efforts, hitherto, had not had much +success. In this position of affairs he addressed himself to Parnell, who +had had Fenian sympathies and associations for years, and had, we have +seen, attracted Fenian admiration abroad; what passed between the two men +has not transpired; but Parnell, if with reluctance, consented at last to +become the head of the Land League and to direct the movement. The +measures he adopted were skilfully designed, in harmony with the 'New +Departure,' and with the double-dealing nature of a true conspirator. A +Central Land League was established in Dublin; it was to have 'branches' +extending through the country; it was to make a steady attack on the land +system. Its professed objects, however, were constitutional, nay, fair; it +was 'to agitate against rack-rents and unjust evictions,' and to +'facilitate the ownership of the soil by its occupants.' The ultimate +purpose of the League, nevertheless, was that of the Fenian chiefs; of its +seven high officers four were Fenians; it was wholly supported by Fenian +moneys; its most prominent members made a boast of their Fenian +sentiments.[66] It was, in a word, a rebellious organisation in a +constitutional garb; it was the embodiment of what Parnell avowed +afterwards: 'A true revolutionary movement in Ireland should, in my +opinion, partake both of a constitutional and an illegal character. It +should be both an open and a secret organisation, using the Constitution +for its own purposes, but also taking advantage of its secret +combination.'[67] + +The Land League established, under these auspices, gradually made some +progress in the western parts of Ireland, always centres of poverty more +or less developed. It had not, however, as yet, become a power in the +land; Parnell went to the United States, as I have mentioned before, in +order to obtain support for the 'New Departure.' He was the grandson of a +distinguished American; the elections for a President were near; it was +necessary to bid for the Irish vote; the chief of the League was invited +to say what his Irish policy was in the Representative House of the +people; and this he did in moderate and carefully chosen language. His +real attitude, however, was very different; he associated with well-known +Fenian leaders, became acquainted with a contributor to the _Irish World_, +the worst journal of the Clan na Gael press; and more than once gave +utterance to what was plain treason, notably to the 'last-link' speech +already referred to. He obtained considerable funds for the League in +Ireland, and before long founded a similar League in America, which became +a Fenian organisation of the very worst type. Meanwhile a season of +distress had visited Ireland; this quickened the elements of disorder +being already let loose. The harvest of 1878 was not good; that of 1879 +was the worst known since the Great Famine; the prosperity of the country +suddenly came to an end. There was a universal calling in of demands, +especially from tenant farmers, who, I have said, had been rather +extravagant, and had become involved in debt;[68] the whole class suffered +more or less, though there was very little extreme indigence, and Lord +Beaconsfield's Government was not slow in providing relief, which private +charity largely increased. In these circumstances the landed gentry acted +as any class would naturally act; a considerable number made remissions of +rent; if a large majority, as certainly was the case, insisted upon their +legal rights--conduct which must be pronounced unfortunate--it must be +recollected that an agitation of extreme violence had been directed +against the whole order; and that Mr. Gladstone had declared that, after +the Land Act, there were to be no more concessions. The League now +acquired new power; its branches spread over large parts of the west; its +directors, from members in the House of Commons, to its avowed agents, and +to the 'village ruffians,' who carried out its bidding in many places, +rioted in atrocious threats against landlords whether good or bad; and a +movement against the payment of rent began. The teaching which had been +spread abroad during many months, bore the fruits which were to be +expected from it; there was a sudden outbreak of agrarian crime, and of +Whiteboyism in its worst aspect; it deserves special notice that this was +confined to the counties where the League was in real force. The +landlords, under these conditions, were often driven to enforce their +claims; attempts were made to show that the evictions that followed were +the sole causes of this social disorder. But it is absolutely certain that +this was not the case; it was the Land League which provoked the +evictions, and was responsible for the incidental crime.[69] + +The spring of 1880 had come; Lord Beaconsfield had been driven from +office, in an evil day for the renown of England; Mr. Gladstone had been +returned again to power, on the flood of a tide of democratic sympathy. +Lord Beaconsfield was not an author of any very large Irish reform, but he +understood Ireland much better than his impetuous rival; he had seen from +the first the real nature of the Land League movement; in his address to +the nation, when he dissolved Parliament, he declared that an 'attempt +scarcely less dangerous than famine and pestilence' was being made to +separate Ireland from Great Britain, words treated by Mr. Gladstone with +scornful ridicule, but words of real truth. The incoming Minister had of +late taken little heed of Irish affairs; he had been engaged in his +crusade in Midlothian, and in stirring up the multitude on the Eastern +question; but he had clung to his optimistic Irish faith; he had solemnly +announced that Ireland was 'contented and happy,' when the country was +suffering from unquestionable distress; he had even refused to renew a +measure for the repression of agrarian crime, when agrarian crime was +formidably on the increase, and the Land League was rapidly growing in +strength. At last, however, partly opening his eyes to the facts, he +appointed a Commission charged to report on Irish land tenure; and he +introduced a Bill slightly to amend the Land Act of 1870, showing thus +from the outset that he choose to regard a conspiracy against the State on +its economic side mainly, and not in its far more grave political aspect. +A word must be said on this measure, which had its origin, to a great +extent, in sheer and audacious falsehood. By this time Parnell was at the +head of some sixty adherents in the House of Commons; he had linked the +Home Rule and the Land League movements; his followers were, in many +instances, chiefs of the League; they induced Mr. Gladstone to listen to +them, on representations characteristically untrue. Evictions were on the +increase in Ireland, owing to the onslaught made by the League on the +landed gentry; Parnell and his band unscrupulously exaggerated the number, +perhaps twenty-fold, by confounding ejectment decrees of the Courts with +evictions actually carried out; Mr. Gladstone appears to have accepted +this shameful statement. The new 'Compensation for Disturbance' Bill, as +it was called, provided that in the case of certain classes of tenants, +although they had failed to pay their rents, compensation, withheld, we +have seen, under the Act of 1870, might be afforded them, under rather +strict conditions; this was certainly an innovation of a startling kind, +but something was to be said for it, in the existing position of affairs. +The House of Commons, however, disliked a measure nicknamed 'payment by +reason of non-payment,' and limited its application in many ways; and the +House of Lords, unfortunately, I think, threw it out. + +This Bill, closely circumscribed as it was, would not have extended, +perhaps, to many tenants; it was condemned by Parnell and his satellites +as a sham. Its rejection, however, gave an opportunity to the League; its +leaders proclaimed at meetings, never so frequent before, that Ireland +had nothing to expect from a foreign Parliament; the attack on +'landlordism' became more intense; treasonable and predatory harangues +increased in vehemence. The influence of the conspiracy spread beyond +Connaught, over nearly all Munster, and parts of Leinster; wherever it was +felt it was attended with agrarian crime; 'crime,' as Mr. Gladstone +exclaimed, 'always dogged its footsteps.' Offences of this kind +portentously multiplied; they had been eight hundred and sixty-three at +the close of 1879; they were two thousand five hundred and eighty-nine at +the close of 1880;[70] and these included a number of barbarous murders, +and of other atrocious deeds of outrage and blood, especially of the +mutilation of the cattle of those opposed to the League. A kind of servile +war springing from the land had set in; and during this whole period the +spokesmen of the League, whether in the highest or the lowest grades, +continued to denounce the landed gentry, though they knew that their +utterances were the direct incentive to far-spreading crime. Parnell, +however, infinitely the ablest of the conspirators, perceived that this +brutal disorder would incense Parliament, and, besides, could not have +decisive results; the cool, calculating schemer laid down a plan of +operations for the League, which he hoped would be less openly detestable, +and much more effective. Orders were issued that tenants should, in every +part of Ireland, repudiate the rents they had agreed to pay, and should +pay only such sums as had been assessed on land by a valuation made by the +State for rates, a standard long acknowledged to be much too low; every +landlord who should reject these terms was to incur the vengeance of the +League. By these means Parnell expected, and not without reason, that a +great combination for the forcible reduction of rent would be formed, and +that numbers of farmers would flock in to the League, but he knew that +his proposal was simply a defiance of the law, and that it would be +resisted by many of the landed gentry; he hit on an expedient through +which he believed he would attain his end. Should any landlord refuse to +accept the sum offered instead of the proper rent, and should proceed to +dispossess the defaulting tenant--and practically he could have no other +remedy--the evicted farm was to be left derelict; it was to be smitten, as +it were, by the interdict of the League; and any wretch who should dare to +take it was to be banned by the whole neighbourhood; he and his, and those +who dealt with him, 'were to be shunned as lepers,' and 'treated as +traitors to the cause.'[71] In this way, the crime of 'boycotting,' as it +has ever since been called--its origin may be traced to the great Tithe +War in Ireland--was made part of 'the unwritten law' of the League; and +Parnell professed, whether sincerely or not, that through this device the +League would baffle the law, and the landlords, as a class, as unhappily +it did, in too many instances. Having thus armed the conspiracy with +increased power, he cynically began to deprecate crimes of violence: the +device of 'boycotting' was a more excellent way; it would before long +'bring landlords to their knees,' and would ultimately 'plant the tenant +in his farm to be held at a nominal rent,' should he only be true to the +League. At the same time the astute plotter found other means to extend +his authority and that of the conspiracy he ruled. He appealed to the +elective Local Boards in each county, composed for the most part of tenant +farmers, to join the League, and to carry out his policy; and continuously +but steadily he brought the force of the League to bear upon the +administration of the law, by the intimidation of juries, magistrates, and +even judicial persons. + +The teaching of Parnell was disseminated by the League and its agencies, +especially at gatherings of peasant mobs; it was largely followed wherever +the League prevailed. In hundreds of instances tenant farmers were +compelled or induced to tender sums, 'at Griffith's valuation,' as it was +called, in lieu of the rents they were bound to pay; and on the rejection +of the offer, refused to pay anything. A widespread combination against +rent was thus set on foot, sustained by a principle of greed which held it +together; the League was more completely organised than it had been +before; it made its way into ten or eleven counties, the only centres in +which it was formidably strong. In these circumstances the landed gentry +acted, as an order of men so assailed would act; not a few accepted the +terms imposed on them, and took their rents at the reduced scale, the +majority resisted the mandates of the League, and appealed to the law to +enforce their rights. The terrors of the League were at once directed +against those who had dared to defy it; in a certain number of instances +landlords and agents were brutally murdered, for popular passions had been +let loose for years; in many more 'boycotting' was carried out with such +fatal effect that scores of families were driven out of Ireland, banned, +persecuted, deprived even of the necessaries of life; in many others the +demesnes of gentlemen were ravaged by 'Land League hunts,' overrun and +half destroyed by savage mob gatherings. Evictions of course increased as +the law was being trampled under foot; it is hardly necessary to say that +Parnell's doctrine was here ruthlessly applied; evicted farms were left +deserted and waste over thousands of acres; the fears caused by +'boycotting' had become so intense, that no 'land-grabber,' as the name +was, would dare to take them; the success of the League was in this +respect remarkable. The vengeance of the conspiracy, too, was extended +universally to another class of persons. Tenants in numbers of instances +paid their rents, either from an honest motive, or through dread of +eviction; the payment was often made at night, and under a pledge of +secrecy; but wherever they were discovered the League marked 'the +traitor's doom;' they were sometimes 'boycotted' almost to death; +sometimes murdered, often visited by gangs of ruffians--significantly +known as Parnell's police; the victims were shot in the legs, or the hair +of their women was cut off, or their cattle were cruelly mutilated and +maimed. It deserves special notice that, as was to be expected, Parnell's +warning against open crime was but little heeded; 'boycotting,' as Mr. +Gladstone said, truly 'was but a passive thing;' it 'required +assassination as its sanction;' the peasantry had been stirred up, in +places, to frenzy; although Parnell made few violent speeches at the time, +his satellites still gave a free rein to their wicked licence. Agrarian +crime increased to an appalling extent; it had reached in 1881 a total of +four thousand four hundred and thirty-nine cases, nearly two thousand more +than those of the preceding year.[72] + +In the spring and summer of 1881, the power of the League was at its +height; in its organisation and working it bore a strong resemblance to +the Jacobin societies of the Revolution in France. It was directed by a +council from a central office in Dublin; its orders were sent thence to +the bodies connected with it; these, scattered over many parts of the +country, enforced its decrees through 'boycotting' crime, and terror. +'Obnoxious' persons, landlords, agents, 'land-grabbers,' and tenants who +had paid their rents, were denounced and exposed to the League's +vengeance; officers of the law and of justice were especially banned; even +those thought to be 'luke-warm' in the cause were declared 'suspected.' In +some districts the regular government was practically superseded by the +government of the league, described by Mr. Gladstone as 'a scheme of +anarchic oppression;' in these a Reign of Terror was really supreme. It +will never be known to what extent the League made use of Whiteboyism and +its secret conclaves in order to carry out its purposes; the central body, +controlled by Parnell, probably did not, but the affiliated bodies +certainly did; it is impossible to account otherwise for the enormous +increase of agrarian crime; the branches of the League, it is generally +supposed, overshadowed, so to speak, the Whiteboy societies; these were +active agents in the atrocious deeds that were done. It is scarcely +necessary to refer to what the condition of social life was wherever the +influence of the League was great; despair settled on the hearts of +thousands, who felt themselves exposed to unseen perils, and existed, as +it were, in an atmosphere of crime; and it must be borne in mind that for +one member of the better class, fifty probably of the humbler, who had +transgressed the law of the League, were kept in a state of moral dread +and torture. By this time the Fenian League in the United States, formed +by Parnell, but ruled by the Clan na Gael, had completely joined hands +with the League at home; its emissaries were found in many parts of +Ireland; its organ, the _Irish World_, 'spread what it called the light,' +the teaching of treason, murder, and dynamite; and it supplied the parent +League with, probably, nine-tenths of its funds, for it is a significant +fact, deserving special notice, that the contributions of the peasantry to +the League were, from first to last, small. Large parts of Ireland were +thus in a deplorable state; but it is a complete mistake to suppose, as +has been asserted, that the authority of the League was general throughout +the whole island. Protestant Ulster, with a true instinct of what the +conspiracy was, a movement against British rule in Ireland, kept aloof +from the League, in angry contempt; and though its influence was more +widely diffused, it was confined, I have said, to comparatively few +counties if regarded as a dangerous and formidable power. It is also +absolutely untrue that the movement was the uprising of an injured +peasantry against oppressive landlords. There was little distress in 1880 +and 1881, when the League was rapidly growing in strength, for the +harvests of those years were above the average; and the Commission lately +appointed by Mr. Gladstone had reported that over-renting in Ireland was +not common, though instances of over-renting were of course to be +found.[73] + +The centre of disturbance formed by the Land League was, I have said, +comparatively small; and it was, for the most part, limited to backward +and poor districts; its wicked and sordid teaching did not command the +sympathies of the more intelligent and better parts of Ireland. Its +influence, however, spread, in different degrees of strength, over nearly +the whole of Catholic Ireland, and it was more or less supported by the +Catholic priesthood, in many instances yielding to the pressure of their +flocks. Within the bounds where it did not create a Reign of Terror, it +was joined by thousands who thought it a constitutional movement, +especially by peasants only seeking an improved tenure; and it is not +pretended that even a majority of those who took part in it had +treasonable or rebellious objects in view. But it was not the less a +conspiracy hatched abroad, and aiming at the subversion of British power +in Ireland; this was the policy its leaders avowed; and a conspiracy must +be judged by the acts and words of those who direct it. The state of +anarchy in Ireland had become such, in the spring of 1881, that the +Government was compelled to try to put it down; a prosecution against +Parnell and his chief lieutenants had failed; a Bill, resisted by +obstruction, more persistent than had been ever known before, passed +through Parliament with the object of repressing the Land League. The +measure, however, was not well designed; minor agents of the League, +'village ruffians,' 'Parnell's police,' and the like, were imprisoned in +large numbers, no real punishment; but the chiefs of the conspiracy were +not brought within the law; the funds of the League were removed to Paris; +the movement went on in its destructive course. 'Coercion,' nevertheless, +was beginning to produce its effects, as it has always done in Irish +disorders, when Mr. Gladstone made a sudden change in his policy, never +made before by a Minister at the head of the State. He had denounced the +conspiracy in passionate language; he had partly at least seen what its +objects were; 'it aimed at dismemberment through rapine;' but always a man +of phrases and not of action, he had shrunk in every passage of his career +from facing difficulties where popular feelings were involved; and while +Ireland was still in a terrible state, he resolved to make a great +concession to the League, and to effect a complete revolution in the Irish +land. It was a surrender akin to that of Majuba, made with little +information, and without mature reflection; whether its author believed, +as I have remarked, that the conspiracy was most dangerous on its agrarian +side, or was willing to propitiate Parnell, at the expense of the Irish +landed gentry, he inaugurated the legislation, ever since pursued, which +has resulted in destroying the property of the Irish landlord, without +gaining the sympathy of the occupier of the Irish soil, has reduced the +land system of Ireland to a ruinous chaos, and has, in essential respects, +been an absolute failure. + +Mr. Gladstone's position was difficult when he introduced his new Irish +Land Bill; his speech in the House of Commons, lucid as regards details, +was apologetic, ambiguous, often beside the subject. He went out of his +way to praise Irish landlords, 'acquitted,' he declared, by the late +Commission; he deeply regretted a new experiment on the Irish land. He +retained his admiration for the Act of 1870, but insinuated that it had +been injured in the House of Lords; had this not been the case, it would +have settled the Irish land question. He passed over his solemn pledges, +on the faith of which millions had been lent on Irish estates, that the +legislation of eleven years before was final; here he took refuge in +appeals to 'Divine Justice,' in the 'light of which' a statesman must +walk, as if Divine Justice was an excuse for a gross breach of faith. He +then unfolded his plan of reform; he endeavoured, with an ingenuity all +his own, to distinguish it from the schemes he had emphatically condemned +in 1870; but in this respect mystification was at fault; the measure was a +clumsy imitation of the 'Three F's,' and where it differed, it differed +greatly for the worse. Anticipating objections certain to be made, the +orator dismissed 'political economy to Saturn' with a confident gesture; +for some untold reason the philosophy of Adam Smith could not possibly +apply to the order of things in Ireland. But by many degrees the most +important part of the speech, in view of events which have since happened, +was that in which Mr. Gladstone announced that should the measure really +injure the Irish landlord, the State was bound to provide an indemnity. He +denied, indeed, that the Bill could have any such effect; it would be a +boon, he gravely said, to the Irish landed gentry; but should the contrary +be the case, 'compensation' would be clearly their right. 'I do not +hesitate to say'--these were his very words spoken after the Bill had made +much progress--'that if it can be shown, on clear and definite experience, +at the present time, that there is a probability, or if after experience +shall prove that, in fact, ruin and heavy loss has been brought on any +class in Ireland by the direct effect of this legislation, that is a +question which we ought to look very directly in the face.' The same +meaning was even more clearly expressed: 'I should certainly be very slow +to deny that where confiscation could be proved, compensation ought to +follow,' and several of Mr. Gladstone's lieutenants spoke in the same +sense.[74] + +The Bill, I have said, applied the principle of the 'Three F's' to the +relation of landlord and tenant in by far the greatest part of Ireland. As +in the case of the Land Act of 1870, it excluded certain classes of lands +from its scope, demesnes, residential holdings, town parks, and large +pastoral farms; it extended also only to tenants at will, that is, subject +to a notice to quit; it left tenants under leases outside its purview. It +was confined, too, to 'present tenants in occupation,' at or near the +existing time; it had no reference to 'future tenants,' that is, to +tenants holding by contracts made after the Bill should pass, or a few +months afterwards. Subject, however, to these exceptions, on the whole not +large, the measure placed tenancies in Ireland under the 'Three F's,' but +with conditions of tenure peculiar to itself, and hitherto unknown in +Ireland, or in any part of Europe. 'Fair Rent,' which, under the Ulster +Custom, was settled by a bargain between landlord and tenant, was to be +adjusted through the intervention of the State, legislation akin to the +mediaeval statutes regulating the price of bread, and the wages of labour. +'Fixity of Tenure' was not to be a perpetuity in name; Mr. Gladstone +feared that the speeches would be thrown in his teeth, in which he had +declaimed against the idea; it was to be a lease for fifteen years, but +capable of being renewed for ever, as a rule, through a periodical and +costly lawsuit. 'Free Sale' was to be conceded under somewhat strict +conditions; and the landlord was to be afforded a right of pre-emption in +the case of such sales, in accordance with the analogy of the Ulster +Custom. An estate virtually perpetual, at a State-settled rent, was thus +to be carved out of the landlord's fee, and given to tenants actually in +possession of the land; it was created in absolute derogation from the +landlord's rights; it was a large if partial expropriation, in no doubtful +sense. As to the interest of landlords in what was left of their property, +they were to retain what are usually known as 'royalties'--timber, +minerals, mines, and privileges of sport; they were to have the ordinary +remedies for enforcing payment of rent; and the statutory leases were to +be subject to certain conditions, taken, for the most part, from the +Ulster Custom, the violation of which might lead to their forfeiture. A +tribunal, called the Land Commission, was to be set up to carry the law +into effect, that is, to 'fix fair rents,' and to make tenures 'fixed;' it +was to be assisted by dependent agencies, known as Sub-Commissions, which, +Mr. Gladstone intimated, were to be quite subordinate, and from which +appeals to the Land Commission were to run; but a sinister feature of an +untried revolutionary scheme--the decision of the Land Commission as +respects 'fair rent'--was to be final. Subject to an appeal to the Land +Commission, the Irish County Courts were empowered to administer the law; +but it was foreseen that they would not do much in this province. The new +modes of tenure might be applied to lands, by agreements between landlords +and tenants carefully guarded; and Mr. Gladstone believed that this would +be the ordinary course of dealing. The Bill, he thought, would not cause +litigation to any great extent; it would operate as a self-acting force to +lead to friendly contracts.[75] + +So much for the scope of the Bill and the classes of tenants to which its +benefits were to extend. A most important change was made in the measure, +which contained, originally, nothing of the kind; this has been attended +with far-reaching results. As we have seen, tenants were to be compensated +for their improvements, under the Act of 1870; but the compensation was +to be paid only when they were leaving the land; Mr. Healy, one of the +ablest of Parnell's lieutenants, induced Parliament to accept a provision +exempting tenants' improvements from rent, when the adjustment of 'fair +rent' was to be made. However equitable in principle this might appear to +be, it was, in the peculiar state of Irish land tenure, unjust in the +extreme to landlords, as I shall endeavour to point out afterwards; and it +has been a source of litigation, as mischievous and demoralising as can +well be conceived. The Bill, like the Act of 1870, prohibited the +subdivision and subletting of farms--an inveterate evil practice of the +Irish peasant--under conditions possibly rather too strict; and it made +changes, in that statute, which require attention. It added weight, so to +speak, to the law, in the tenant's interest; it increased the amount of +compensation in respect of disturbance; it limited the power of +'contracting out,' to a smaller class of tenants than had been the case +before, in fact, to large capitalist farmers; and it provided that +tenants, who had accepted leases excluding them from the benefits of the +Act of 1870, through illegitimate conduct on the part of their landlords, +should be exonerated from such unfair contracts. It thus greatly amended +the original Land Act; but it left many of its defects untouched; it is +only right here to add that despite the lying clamour raised by the +subsidised Press of Parnell--lying has ever since been part of its +stock-in-trade--the instances were exceedingly few in which 'forced +leases,' as they were called, were set aside by the Courts. A remarkable +feature of the Bill has yet to be noticed: Mr. Gladstone, as was the case +eleven years before, had still the wish, so characteristic of British +statesmen, to assimilate Irish to English land tenure; for this reason, as +I said, he deprived 'future tenants' of the advantages of the Bill; these +were to hold their farms on the footing of pure contract. This was a +shortsighted and bad arrangement; it tempted directly ill-conditioned +landlords to dispossess tenants, whenever a chance offered, and to create +'future' tenants so as to discharge their estates from a burden; it +revealed marked ignorance of the affairs of Ireland. The Bill dealt, also, +with the land on the side of ownership; it gave additional facilities to +tenants to purchase their holdings; the State was empowered to advance +three-fourths of the moneys; but the tenants were to find the remaining +fourth; the transaction was to be still a purchase, and not in the nature +of a gift.[76] + +The Bill became law, with very little change; the House of Lords, though +fully alive to its evils, did not amend it in any important respect; the +Peers had in mind, perhaps too much, what had followed the rejection of +the Bill of the year before. Mr. Gladstone and his followers maintained at +the time, and the statement has been ever since repeated, that the Land +Act of 1881, its popular title, was but a natural development of the +original Act of 1870; but this assertion is not only untrue, but +absolutely contrary to the truth. The Act of 1870, no doubt, considered as +a whole, annexed a large tenant right to the estate of the landlord, and +to that extent placed a burden on it; but it preserved for the landlord +the ownership of the land; it did not interfere with his rent, his first +proprietary right; above all, it was, in the main, in accord with fact, +and just. The Act of 1881 was almost the exact opposite; it deprived the +landlord of the ownership of his land, and nearly converted him into a +mere rent-charger; it created against him a perpetuity at a State-settled +rent; it really all but made the tenant the owner of the land; it was, in +short, inconsistent with fact, and essentially unjust. The Act of 1881, +too, established a principle, never heard of before in civilised +countries, that tribunals of the State were to fix the rate of rent; this +not only annihilated the most important of landed contracts, entirely to +the landlord's detriment, it inevitably tended to cut down rents +wholesale, as Judge Longfield had predicted would be the case. 'It is +probable,' wrote that great authority, 'that the value of land, as fixed +by any tenant-right measure, would be less than half the rent, which a +solvent tenant would be willing to pay;'[77] the prediction has been too +well verified. The Act of 1870, in a word, was a remedial law, fairly +adjusting the rights of landlord and tenant; the Act of 1881 was a +socialistic law, despoiling the landlord of his property wholesale, and +handing it over to a dependent who had no claim to it; it was sheer +confiscation hardly disguised; and it should be added that the exemption +of tenants' improvements from rent, as affairs stood in Ireland, was a +grave wrong to the landlord. The Act of 1881, to speak plainly, +transformed the Irish land system iniquitously for the benefit of a single +class; and it directly promoted litigation of the very worst kind, on an +enormous scale, embittering, and still further dividing, the classes +connected with the land. The evils of this legislation, a monument of +reckless unwisdom, were at once manifest to well-informed persons; the +Duke of Argyll and Lord Lansdowne resigned office rather than take part in +a measure of the kind; Lord Ashbourne, the present holder of the Great +Seal in Ireland, caustically remarked that Parliament would do much better +should it deprive Irish landlords of a fourth part of their rents on the +spot. The verdict of enlightened and impartial opinion in Ireland was very +much the same. + +I shall comment on the administration of this law in another chapter; +enough to say here that what was bad was made, by many degrees, worse. The +conduct of Parnell, as regards the measure, was characteristic; he assumed +an attitude of moderation, and proposed to make 'a trial of the Act by +test cases;' he wrote to his Fenian friends in the Far West that the Act +was a mockery; he allowed the Land League to riot in lawlessness as +before. Mr. Gladstone, always incensed when his will was crossed, shut him +up in prison under the recent statute, with several prominent leaders of +the League; the reply was a manifesto against the payment of any rent, +unhappily obeyed in some districts, though every symptom of exceptional +distress had passed away. A brief but violent struggle was the result; the +peasantry refused to pay a shilling in several counties; and as the +principal agents of the League were within four walls, flights of +viragoes, like those of the French Revolution, were let loose to preach, +far and near, the evangel of 'no rent.' This conflict, however, was not +lasting; agrarian crime and disorder, indeed, still continued frequent; +but the Government was too strong for the 'Ladies' Land League;' by the +spring of 1882 its triumph appeared to be certain. But Mr. Gladstone, +'unstable as water' in view of what he deemed popular movements, would not +steadily persist in vindicating the law; the imprisonment of the chiefs of +the conspiracy and their subordinates, in large numbers, seems to have +made him feel sore if unworthy misgivings; he surrendered to the enemies +of the State, for the second time, and entered with Parnell into the +famous 'Kilmainham Treaty,' as shameful as the Glamorgan Treaty which cost +Charles I. his head. The 'Suspects,' as they were called, were set free in +scores; the Lord-Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary indignantly left their +posts; a new Government for Ireland was formed, charged to carry +'conciliation,' as the phrase was, out, that is, to make fresh concessions +to Parnell and his creatures. But the auspicious prospect was suddenly +darkened by the frightful assassinations of the Phoenix Park; these +cannot be justly laid to the charge of the League, indeed were against +Parnell's interest, for it was generally expected he would obtain high +office; but two agents of the League were implicated in the crime; and the +Press of the League began soon to plead for the murderers. The mind of +England was now thoroughly roused; Mr. Gladstone, bowing at once to +England's will, carried through Parliament the severest repressive measure +that has ever, perhaps, been applied to Ireland. The battle with the +League was soon brought to a close; the conspiracy indeed resisted for a +time, and crime, as always, was attendant on it; and the Clan na Gael gave +it all the assistance it could, in large subsidies which had never ceased, +in the dissemination in Ireland of its incendiary journals, and especially +by 'carrying the war into England,' and fulfilling its threats to attack +her chief towns by fire and dynamite, outrages, however, that really came +to nothing. But 'coercion,' as has been invariably the case in Ireland, +produced its effects; agrarian crimes, which, in 1882, if less than those +of the year before, were, nevertheless, three thousand four hundred and +thirty-two in number, had fallen to eight hundred and seventy in 1883.[78] + +The Land League was paralysed, if not destroyed; its organisation was, in +name, suppressed by its framers. It reappeared, however, at once, in a new +form; the skill of Parnell in masking a conspiracy was never more fully +displayed. He felt that the Land League could not cope with the law; that +the crimes of violence and blood, which attended its course, gave the +Government opportunities to put it down; that its openly avowed purposes +were a danger to it. He set up, therefore, the 'National League' in its +stead; the professed object of the association was to promote 'Home Rule,' +while it upheld the rights of the occupiers of the Irish soil, and kept +the Irish land, so to speak, in view; it was thus apparently a mere centre +of a constitutional movement. Through these means, and under these +pretences, the astute and able plotter swept into his net thousands who +had held aloof from the Land League; many of the middle classes joined the +National League, notably hundreds of the clergy of the Catholic Church in +Ireland; the peasantry gave it increased support; its influence spread +beyond its predecessor's limits. The National League, however, was only +the Land League under another name;[79] its leaders and officials were the +same men; its 'branches' were those of the League it replaced; its real +objects were exactly the same, the overthrow of British rule in Ireland, +and the annihilation of the Irish landed gentry. But the methods it +employed to work out its ends were, to a great extent, different; open +agitation was kept down; public meetings, likely to be violent, were not +held; the perpetration of agrarian crime was not encouraged. The movement, +in a word, was comparatively secret and below the surface; but it was +essentially the successor of the Land League in its aims; we may say of +it, with a slight change, in the words of the poet-- + + 'Facies non una sororum, + Nec diversa tamen.' + +'Boycotting' was now made the chief weapon of the reformed conspiracy; +'National League Courts' were held regularly in many districts, at which +this barbarous interdict was systematically pronounced on persons +violating 'the unwritten law' of the old League; the persecution against +landlords, agents, 'land-grabbing' peasants who were 'disloyal and +traitors,' and traders suspected of dealing with 'rotten sheep,' was +carried on with a pertinacity and ingenuity hardly known before; the +number of derelict farms augmented; and the Government found it far from +easy to deal with these crimes. At the same time, 'the Nationalist Press,' +as it had been named, fully revealed the purpose of the conspirators; +trusting to impunity, under the law of libel, which depended upon the will +of juries, it was even more treasonable and seditious than before; and it +gave infamous license to defamation of personages in high places, worthy +of the abominations of the Pere Duchesne.[80] Ireland, however, remained +in comparative peace while the recent measure of repression continued in +force; but this was injudiciously allowed to expire in 1885--a strange act +on the part of a Conservative Ministry; and in a short time agrarian +disorder broke out afresh. Crimes of this class had fallen, in 1884, to +seven hundred and sixty-two in number; they were one thousand and +fifty-six in 1886; and 'boycotting' had increased fourfold.[81] + +The National League remained quiescent, while Mr. Gladstone was making +another surrender, and endeavouring to carry Home Rule through Parliament. +Upon the rejection of the measure of 1886, its activity was renewed; and +it found considerable support from the American Fenians, who, from first +to last, had been its chief paymasters. I have referred to the Convention +at Chicago graced by Parnell's envoys, and to the wild boast that the +English 'government of Ireland was to be made impossible;' the treasonable +aspect of the conspiracy became at once manifest. The League was assisted +by another season of distress, from 1886 to 1888; the number of its +adherents greatly increased; it began, like its predecessor, to defy the +authority of the State. I have already dealt with this movement on its +political side; I shall not repeat what I have already written: how the +League endeavoured to stir up disorder in Ireland; how it declared open +war against the Castle; how it tried to terrorise the ministers of the +law; how it made 'boycotting' more effective than it had ever been; how, +if responsible for many grave deeds of blood, it mainly relied on this +malign influence, which tortured hundreds of victims in many districts, +and was fitly compared to 'the pestilence that walks in darkness;' how Mr. +Gladstone and the Opposition, to the disgrace of both, gave the conspiracy +their support and excused its crimes; and how it was ere long put down by +Mr. Balfour strongly seconded by Rome. But I must say a word on the +agrarian side of the movement; for this illustrated the increased +ingenuity of the League. Some of its leaders issued a mandate against the +payment of rent, except upon reductions to an enormous extent; should the +landlords refuse, the tenants, on every estate, were to lodge their rents +into what was called the 'War chest,' a common fund to be held in trust; +the object of this being to prevent the secret payment of rent, which had +repeatedly, we have seen, taken place, and to put a stop to 'defection +from the cause.' The 'Plan of Campaign' as was its name, was thus ushered +on; it was a criminal plot of the very basest kind; but though it proved +successful in some instances, and it caused much agrarian disorder and +crime, it was, on the whole, a comparative failure. The peasantry, +close-fisted and shrewd, distrusted the so-called 'trustees of the War +chest;' they generally declined to put their money in it; the 'Plan' was +only carried out on few estates, though it compelled many landlords to +make reductions of rent; it is remarkable that Parnell did not approve of +the swindle. Long, however, before the defeat of the League, there had +been a thousand instances of agrarian crime: five thousand miserable +beings had been 'boycotted,' in many cases with frightful results; a +thousand had been placed under the protection of the police. As had +happened during the _regime_ of the Land League, these victims were nearly +all of the humble classes. + +In 1887 another change was made in the Irish land system, essentially a +development of the Land Act of 1881. That measure, I have said, applied to +tenants at will only, that is, liable to be dispossessed by a notice to +quit; it did not apply to tenants under leasehold tenures. A sharp +distinction, therefore, was drawn between the two classes; a farmer, with +land on one side of a ditch, could secure the advantages of the 'Three +F's;' his neighbour, on the other side, could not; the distinction was so +palpably harsh, that many landlords in Ireland saw its injustice, and +enabled leasehold tenants to obtain the benefits of the law. An Act, +prepared by Lord Salisbury's Government, brought ordinary Irish +leaseholders within the Land Act of 1881; these were given a right to have +'fair rents' fixed, and 'fixity of tenure' and 'free sale' under certain +conditions. The Act of 1887, also, empowered the Courts to set aside +perpetual leases unfairly obtained; and it relaxed the restrictions of the +Act of 1881 with respect to subletting and subdivision, and the exclusion +of 'town parks.' It improved, moreover, the law of ejectment, +facilitating the vindication of the rights of the landlord; and--a strange +provision--it enabled a middleman, in certain events, to creep out of his +contract, and to free himself from the rent due to his superior landlord. +In consequence of the fall of prices that had lately occurred, and the +depression of agriculture that had been the result, the Act, too, reduced, +for a short period of time, 'fair rents' that had been already fixed; and +it contained other enactments wholly in the interest of the occupier of +the Irish soil. Regarded as a whole, something was to be said for the +measure, on the principles of the legislation of 1881; but the liberation +of the middleman from the payment of a debt has been attended with grave +wrong, and was an ominous precedent leading to others of the kind. The new +law was, of course, another inroad on the rights of the Irish landlord, +another innovation made against his interests; it has certainly +strengthened his claim to compensation for the loss of his property, +acknowledged by Mr. Gladstone to be unquestionable, should it be +reasonably made out. For the rest, the National League made a boast that +the Act had been wrung by its efforts from a foreign Parliament; the Act +certainly, like that of 1881, was a concession, derogating from the rights +of a powerless class, in the hope of weakening a conspiracy against the +State, by detaching from it large classes supported by it, and handing +over to these what had belonged to the Irish landed gentry.[82] + +The Land Act of 1887, it has been alleged, was the principal cause that +disorder in Ireland was suppressed, and that comparative peace was +restored. The measure may have had effects in this direction; but these +assuredly were not great; the number of leaseholders was not large; the +reductions made in 'fair rents' were temporary and small. In truth, as +agrarian war, stirred up by the Land League, did not diminish when the Act +of 1881 was passed, but was brought to an end by what is called coercion, +the agrarian war, stirred up by the National League, was quelled, not by +the Act of 1887, but by resolute government, assisted by a repressive +measure infinitely less stringent than that of 1882, and, in some degree, +I have said, by Rome. It is worse than unwise to ignore plain facts; grave +outbreaks of disorder and crime in Ireland can only be put down by severe +means, and invariably have been put down by these; that 'force is no +remedy' is mere false sentiment. The violence, nay, the power, of the +National League decreased rapidly and greatly after about 1889; the +conspiracy seemed well-nigh to have dwindled away. This was partly because +Parnell, negotiating with Mr. Gladstone, in the hope of obtaining Home +Rule, discouraged agitation of every kind in Ireland, and in order to +hoodwink the English people, and to bring about the 'Union of Hearts,' +represented, with his followers, that Ireland was at perfect peace, and +only awaited 'self-government' to be completely happy. But infinitely the +most potent reason was that the fall of Parnell almost broke up the +League; his creatures split into angry factions, exasperated against each +other by furious discord; as the result the organisation of the League was +shattered; the peasantry and the Catholic priesthood fell away from it. At +the same time the Fenians in the United States, much its best supporters, +withdrew the subsidies they had hitherto lavished; the League became +penniless and almost powerless. By 1895 the conspiracy showed scarcely a +sign of life; agrarian crime had sunk to a very low ebb; there was no sign +of a movement against the payment of rent; order prevailed, it may be +said, throughout the community. The conspiracy, nevertheless, was not +dead; its leaders, if quiescent, had not disappeared; well-informed +observers knew that the end had not come. I have described in another +chapter, by what means, and through what conditions, it revived gradually +under Lord Salisbury's third Government, and acquired strength that may be +on the increase; it is not yet formidable, in any real sense, and its +leaders are not to be named with Parnell; it is not receiving funds as yet +from America; but the United Irish League is its true successor; and this +commands eighty votes in the House of Commons. Time only can show if a +period of agrarian strife and crime may not be about to open again for +Ireland; it is foolish optimism to assert that this is impossible, or to +contend that the agrarian legislation of the last twenty years, as regards +the Irish land, will necessarily, or even probably, produce this fortunate +result. + +In 1891 another change was effected in Irish landed relations, as usual in +the interest of the tenant, and against his landlord. Middleman tenures +had well-nigh been extinguished; but some hundreds, probably, were still +to be found; and as a middleman, through the legislation of 1887, was +enabled to repudiate his contract, in certain cases, and to escape the +payment of rent to his superior landlord, he was now to obtain an +advantage in other instances. The large majority of this class of +intermediate owners, originally created in the eighteenth century, held, +at least, in present times, by perpetual leases, which had long ago, as a +rule, been converted into estates in fee farm, that is, estates in fee, +subject to a perpetual rent; Parliament passed an Act in 1891, enlarged +and amended five years afterwards, declaring that, in cases in which +tenants of this kind were 'in _bona fide_ occupation' of lands, under +rents which, in the judgment of the Land Commission, should be 'a full +agricultural rent,' they might either agree with their landlords to redeem +the rent at a price to be determined by that tribunal, or, should the +landlords refuse their consent, might have 'fair rents' fixed as in the +instance of common farming tenants.[83] The application of this law could +not extend far, for tenants of this description were very few; but it +asserted a strange, and, I think, a most vicious principle. The Act +practically forced a superior landlord, often a poor man, either to accept +a price assessed by a Court over which he had no control, in lieu of a +rent, in all probability reasonably well secured, or, as an alternative, +to submit to have a 'fair rent' fixed on the land, the rent to be +discharged from improvements made by the tenant. If, therefore, a tenant +of this kind had built, say, a valuable house, on his holding, which would +thus largely add to the security for the rent, this--at least, so it is +generally believed--was not to be taken into account in fixing 'the fair +rent;' and this principle, it may confidently be predicted, will be +extended further. Should a tenant, at a 'fair rent,' in this predicament, +be evicted for the failure to pay the rent, a law, in all human +probability, will be made, to obtain for him compensation, under the Act +of 1870, from the benefits of which he would be, as affairs stand, +excluded. The result might be that if, as would often happen, the +improvements he had made were of great value--his interest, in the land, +being a perpetual interest--the sum the landlord would be adjudged to pay, +might swallow up the whole value of the rent, and practically confiscate +his whole property.[84] + +In 1896 another inroad was made on the rights of Irish landlords, and +another dole given to the tenant class in Ireland; the descent to Avernus +had proved easy; a Conservative Government had followed it since 1887. +This fresh legislation was mainly in the interest of the Presbyterian +farmers of Ulster, who had supported the Union almost to a man, and +possessed no little political weight; but who, always separated more or +less from their landlords, had shown dissatisfaction with the fixing of +'fair rents,' and had begun to cry out for what is called 'the compulsory +purchase' of the estates of their landlords, a policy on which I shall +comment afterwards. The Bill contained just and well-devised provisions; +it improved the procedure for fixing 'fair rents,' if not nearly as +thoroughly as it ought to have done; it protected the leases creating +'fixity,' under the new tenure--Mr. Gladstone, flying in the face of the +ablest lawyers, had passionately declared that these were sacrosanct--in +instances in which these might have been annulled; it proposed, what I had +always considered right, that old arrears of rent ought not to be allowed +to hang over the heads of tenants, and that rent could not be recovered on +eviction, if due for upward of two years.[85] But the Bill abounded in +principles dangerous and false; it was, taken as a whole, a mischievous +measure; it was another mine sprung upon the Irish landed gentry. Lands +hitherto excluded from the benefits of the 'Three F's,' under the Acts of +1881 and 1887--that is, demesnes, town parks, residential, and pastoral +holdings--were largely brought within the scope of the Bill, that is, they +were made subject to 'fair rents,' and, if held by tenants, were +practically taken away from the landlords; the provisions of the Bill, as +to demesnes, were especially harsh; many a mansion and demesne, which +might happen to be let, would really become the property of the tenant, +the owner being put off with a rent-charge. The worst proposals of this +measure, however, were those relating to improvements made by tenants, +exempted from rent, we have seen, by the Act of 1881. The Courts of +Justice in Ireland had rightly declared with one voice, that improvements +of this kind were not to be discharged from rent, unless they were the +improvements treated by the Act of 1870, that is, rents might be charged +on tenants' improvements, if these did not fall within the definition laid +down by that law, or if they were outside the limitations it had imposed, +in order to shut out obsolete and unjust claims, which might harass and do +grievous wrong to landlords. All this was completely changed by the new +measure; the definition of improvements was wholly altered, in order to +secure their being exempted from rent; the restrictions in point of time, +and many other matters, as regards claims for improvements, were largely +swept away, and the power of 'contracting out' of such claims was still +further abridged. The whole law, in a word, as to tenants' improvements, +as these were to create exemption from rent, was placed on altogether a +new basis; this was detrimental in every respect to the landlord, and gave +advantages to the tenant, in my judgment, utterly unjust.[86] + +The Bill contained other provisions, all in the same direction, that is, +for the advantage of the Irish tenant, and to his landlord's loss, +especially one relaxing the law as to the subdivision and subletting of +farms, an inveterate and very pernicious practice. It introduced, also, a +new principle, on which I shall say some words afterwards, with respect to +another experiment on the Irish land, that is, what is called Land +Purchase, under conditions, not thought of before, until they were laid +down by a Conservative Government. The measure was hustled through the +House of Commons with such indecorous haste, that Sir Edward Carson, now a +law-officer of the Crown, walked out of that Assembly to express his +disgust; it narrowly escaped defeat in the House of Lords, loyal as the +Peers to Lord Salisbury are; indeed, though hardly debated, its vices were +soon made manifest. It is unnecessary to point out what the general +character of the Act is; it enlarged very considerably the sphere of the +'Three F's,' greatly increasing the wrong done to the Irish landlord, by +doing away with the restrictions, placed by Mr. Gladstone, in 1870, on +illegitimate claims in respect of improvements; its direct tendency was to +reduce rents wholesale, and to promote more litigation between landlord +and tenant; and if it encouraged tenants to make improvements on their +farms, its plain effect, I will not say its purpose, was to 'improve the +Irish landlords out of their estates,' the contemptuous phrase of a great +master of Equity. Its mischief, however, went a great deal further; +tenants making improvements are only exempted from rent, in respect of +these, by this Act; they are not within the protection of the Act of 1870, +if improvements of any kind are excluded by it; if a tenant, therefore, +makes an improvement on his farm, which is not 'suitable' to it in a real +sense, say, builds a mansion upon a petty holding, he will not be entitled +to compensation, should he quit it, even though dispossessed for +non-payment of his rent. But tenants, in these circumstances, like those I +have referred to before, would assuredly proclaim that they had here a +great and real grievance; and they would be relieved from it, doubtless, +by another law, giving them compensation, perhaps, to their landlord's +ruin. A dangerous principle is thus hidden within the Act; this will +probably be asserted against the owners of ground rents, not only in +Ireland, but in England and Scotland; and the law, taken as a whole, has +strengthened the claim of the Irish landed gentry to be indemnified, as +was solemnly promised, for what they have suffered from the legislation +begun in 1881. + +While the Irish land system was thus being dealt with, on the side of +occupation, during many years, experiments were made on it, likewise on +the side of ownership. Resenting the legislation that had produced the +'Three F's,' Conservative politicians took it into their heads that Mr. +Gladstone had 'created' 'dual ownership,' as they gave it the name, in +Ireland; they insisted that this was simply an intolerable thing. +Unfortunately Mr. Gladstone had no more 'created dual ownership' than he +had created the mountains and lakes of Ireland; he had only developed the +joint ownership, which the Irish tenant possessed in his holding, in +thousands of instances, if he had developed it under the very worst +conditions. This theory, however, at which Burke would have laughed with +contempt, and which revealed the incapacity to understand Irish land +tenure, ingrained, it would appear, in the English mind, was eagerly taken +up and found much support; it was resolved to extend the process of +converting tenants in Ireland into owners of their farms, by a method +hitherto untried, and unknown in any part of Europe. Under the Church +Disestablishment Act, and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881, the State had +advanced money to the occupier of the Irish soil, in order to enable him +to acquire his farm; but it had made it incumbent on him to contribute +part of the price; the transaction, therefore, was, in a real sense, a +purchase. This, the only security for honesty and thrift, was taken away +in 1885; Parliament passed an Act enabling the Irish tenant to become +owner of his holding without paying down a shilling; the State was to +advance the whole price; and the State was to be repaid by a terminable +annuity, charged on the land, and extinguished at the end of less than +half a century. This terminable annuity was to be much less than a true +rent, or even than a 'fair rent' adjusted by the State; the transaction, +therefore, was not a purchase, but a gift, akin to a bribe, another +largess bestowed on the tenant class in Ireland, and another injury, as I +shall prove, inflicted on the Irish landed gentry. This 'Land Purchase,' +as it was falsely called, was to be voluntary on the part of landlord and +tenant; it was to be conducted on the footing of free contract, as had +been the case under the preceding statutes; the State was to obtain a +guarantee from the landlord; and Parliament voted L5,000,000 to carry out +this policy. + +Exactly as had happened in the case of the Encumbered Estates Act, this +scheme of 'Land Purchase' was pronounced successful; some scores of +landlords sold land, some hundreds of tenants bought it; the real nature +of the proceeding and its inevitable results were ignored; it was even +boasted that 'dual ownership' would be got rid of, nay, that the Irish +Land Question was being finally 'settled.' But when the first sum of +L5,000,000 had been expended, and Parliament was asked to vote a second +sum, it began to hesitate as to this dealing with the Irish land; the +British taxpayer demurred and growled; with a true instinct he disliked +the security; it was found very difficult to procure the funds required, +large as the majority was of Lord Salisbury's Government. His Ministry, +however, adhered to the new policy; and Parliament enacted a measure in +1891, which I have always thought unconstitutional in the highest degree, +not to speak of the evils it was certain to produce. By this Act a sum of +about L30,000,000 was made forthcoming to facilitate 'Land Purchase,' to +abolish 'dual ownership,' and to change Irish tenants into owners of land; +this sum was to be secured by the methods before referred to, that is, by +terminable annuities less than any equitable rent, and by guarantees on +the part of selling landlords; but, furthermore, a whole series of funds, +devoted to Ireland, for Irish purposes, and absolutely essential to her +most important needs, were appropriated to make good any default on the +part of 'purchasing' tenants, in the payment of annuities charged on their +farms; and even the Irish counties were rendered liable in the last +resort. Should, therefore, tenants in Ireland, who had acquired the +ownership of their farms, refuse to pay those annuities on any pretence, +say, through an appeal made by a Land League conspiracy--the manifesto +against all rent cannot be forgotten--this extraordinary spectacle would +then be seen: the State would have a right to seize upon the grants made +for National schools and lunatic asylums throughout Ireland; these +institutions would be shut up; children and madmen would be let loose +through the country; and the owner of an Irish estate would have to pay +for the dishonesty perhaps of his former tenants. The late Lord Randolph +Churchill severely condemned this scheme; I agree with him it was utterly +unjust, and but too characteristic of the contempt of the rights of +Ireland, unhappily often displayed by British statesmen. + +Only a sum, it will be observed, of about L40,000,000, that is, two of +L5,000,000, and some L30,000,000 more, has thus been made available for +'Land Purchase;' this obviously could not transfer even a fourth part of +the Irish land, valued, we have seen, by Mr. Gladstone at L300,000,000--in +a remarkable speech in reply to Lord George Hamilton--and almost certainly +worth from L150,000,000 to L200,000,000. The process of doing away with +'dual ownership' and making tenants in Ireland owners of their farms, +having been pronounced by its authors slow, the Act of 1896, referred to +before, enabled the landlord's guarantee to be dispensed with, and +provided that, in the case of hopelessly embarrassed landlords, whose +estates were being offered for sale in the Courts, the tenants should +virtually have a right of pre-emption, thus asserting a principle, on +which I shall dwell afterwards, and known as the 'Compulsory Purchase' of +the Irish land. I shall point out, in another chapter, the present and the +inevitable future results of this policy of so-styled 'Land Purchase;' +suffice it to say here, that, in my judgment, it betrays utter ignorance +of the Irish land system, and of the customs and inclinations of the Irish +peasant; that it proceeds on an essentially immoral principle, the bribery +of a class to promote its welfare; that, from the very nature of the case, +it cannot abolish 'dual ownership;' that, human creatures being what they +are, it cannot, as is being already proved, establish a thriving body of +occupying owners on the Irish soil; that it must create sharp and unjust +distinctions in Irish land tenure, iniquitous to the landlord and to every +tenant, who may be excluded from its benefits; that it must directly tend, +as it is even now tending, to arouse a cry for a wholesale confiscation of +Irish estates, the most shameful and wrongful Ireland has yet witnessed; +and that so far from settling the Irish Land Question, it must necessarily +unsettle it from top to bottom. As respects the legislation I have briefly +described, on the side of the occupation of the Irish land--by many +degrees the most important--I shall also comment upon its results in a +subsequent chapter, after examining its administration by the tribunal it +has set up. But a word may be said, in this place, on its essential +character: from 1881 to the present time, it is absolutely without a +precedent in civilised lands; it has trampled on economic science and the +truths it teaches, as, indeed, its chief author made his boast; it has +created a mode of land tenure in Ireland not in accord with fact, which +has virtually deprived the Irish landlord of real ownership in his estate, +has turned him into a kind of annuitant, and has virtually changed the +Irish tenant into a kind of owner, but under conditions absolutely bad; +its inevitable tendency was to cut down rents wholesale, without regard to +the simplest justice; it established a system of mischievous litigation +between landlord and tenant, demoralising and increasing the division of +classes; it exhibited, on an enormous scale, characteristic contempt of +Irish rights of property; and finally, if Parliamentary pledges are to be +fulfilled, and gross wrong is not to be consecrated by law, it has given +the Irish landlord a great and legitimate claim to compensation from the +State. As we survey this unwise and destructive medley of law, we are +forcibly reminded of the words of Burke:--'I am unalterably persuaded that +the attempt to oppress, degrade, impoverish, confiscate, and extinguish +the original gentlemen, and landed property of a whole nation, cannot be +justified under any form it may assume.'[87] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE +IRISH LAND ACTS + + The administration of the Land Act of 1870 in the main + good--Difficulty about claims for tenants' improvements--The + administration of the Land Act of 1881, and of its supplements--The + Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions--Allowances to be made for + these tribunals--Principles which the Land Commission should have + adopted in fixing 'fair rents'--The procedure and practice it ought to + have established--It made mistakes as to both--The nature of the + Sub-Commission Courts--This was objectionable in the highest + degree--These Courts have, however unconsciously, done grave wrong to + Irish landlords--Causes of this--Characteristics of their + proceedings--They disregarded the principles they ought to have + followed, and adopted faulty and erroneous methods--Different + illustrations of these grave mistakes--The Land Commission and appeals + as to 'fair rent'--Importance of this subject--Faulty procedure of the + Land Commission in appeals--Valuers--The second Land Commission--Its + procedure worse than that of the first--Theory of occupation + right--This another wrong done to landlords--The Fry Commission and + its report--Confiscation of the property of Irish landlords--The + proofs of this--Apologies made for the Land Commission--The + administration of the Land Purchase Acts. + + +I turn to the administration of the new Irish Land Code, of which I have +described the distinctive features. The County Courts of Ireland, I have +said, were entrusted with the task of carrying out the Land Act of 1870; +the principal duty of the judges was to determine rights, under the Ulster +and analogous Customs in the south, and to declare the sums to be paid to +tenants, when leaving their holdings, for compensation for improvements, +and in respect of disturbance. As evictions were by no means frequent, in +the period between 1870 and 1879, the litigation before these tribunals, +under these different heads, though by no means trivial, was not +excessive; the applications on the part of tenants were not very numerous; +there was ample time to consider the law, whether in the subordinate or +the appellate Courts; and though there was much difference of opinion as +to the amount of compensation to be given to suitors, the administration +of the Act was not seriously impugned,[88] and, on the whole, was +reasonable and just. The most remarkable circumstance in the inquiries +held before the Courts was, certainly, the extravagance of the claims put +forward, on account of tenants' improvements, circumscribed as these were +by the limitations of the law; everything in the nature of an agricultural +work was called an improvement, from repairing an old fence to cleaning an +old drain; hours and days were lost in endeavours to disentangle the +truth, and to arrive at sound and legal conclusions. I could fill scores +of pages with descriptions of demands of this kind, usually pressed with +reckless and hard swearing; they ought to have been a warning, as +unhappily they were not, not to break down the restrictions contained in +the Act of 1870, and not to extend legislation, in this direction, against +the rights of the landlord. I confine myself to a single example: I tried +a case, in 1895, in which a tenant's claims, under the Act of 1870, were +L1130; I cut these down to L164; after deducting L155 found due to the +landlord, I adjudged to the tenant a sum of less than L10; and there was +no appeal from the decision I pronounced.[89] + +The Land Act of 1870 has been well-nigh superseded by the great measure +of 1881, and by the legislation which has been its supplement. The +administration of this part of the new Land Code, by many degrees the most +important, was given, as I have pointed out before, to a wholly new +tribunal, the Land Commission, and to Sub-Commissions dependent on it; a +concurrent jurisdiction was given to the Irish County Courts; but they +have had very little to do in this province. The principal work of the +Land Commission has been to fix 'fair rents,' and to make statutory +leases, 'fixity of tenure,' in a word, in a kind of disguise, and thus to +give effect to the policy adopted by Mr. Gladstone in 1881. The three +original members of the Land Commission, in all respects its directors, +were the late Mr. Justice O'Hagan, the late Mr. E. F. Litton, and the late +Mr. John E. Vernon; Lord Salisbury denounced these appointments in +emphatic language, as being against the just rights of Irish +landlords;[90] the charge was not without plausible grounds at least, for +Mr. Justice O'Hagan had been one of the 'Young Ireland' party, and Mr. +Litton had been a strong tenant-right advocate. These two gentlemen, +nevertheless, were most honourable men, and capable, if not very +distinguished, lawyers; Mr. Vernon was an excellent and experienced +country gentleman, if, in politics, of the Liberal faith; and as all three +have long ago passed away, it would be unjust to make charges of +illegitimate conduct, even if they may not have been wholly free from +unconscious bias. Great allowance ought to be made, in common justice, for +the Commissioners in the situation that had been made for them, and regard +being had to their most arduous duties. To fix 'fair rent,' even +approximately, was difficult in the extreme; as Judge Longfield predicted +many years before, and every well-informed Irishman knew, the adjustment +of rent, through the agency of the State, would inevitably cause a general +lowering of rents. Again, the Commissioners were, from the outset, +harassed by a rush of applications to fix 'fair rents;' these came in, +within a few weeks, in thousands; they were tempted, therefore, to set +about their work at once, without taking the careful precautions, or +entering into all the considerations, the nature of their duty required. +Two circumstances, also, no doubt, had effect on their minds; the Land +League was creating a Reign of Terror, and destroying the property of the +Irish landlords; the Commissioners probably hoped that they would weaken +the power of the League, by, so to speak, bidding against it, and cutting +rents down. Above all, the Land Commission, like the Encumbered Estates +Commission, was a tribunal set up to carry out a policy, that is, in word, +to abate rents; and all experience, Irish experience notably, proves that +such a body of men usually fulfils its mission. + +Mr. Gladstone, we have seen, had expressed a belief that 'fair rents,' as +a rule, would be fixed by contract; that the Act of 1881 would produce +this result; and that this part of the work of the Land Commission, +accordingly, would not be very great. Unquestionably, too, with his +leading followers, he was convinced that rents in Ireland would not be +largely reduced;[91] it is important to bear this distinctly in mind, +regard being had to subsequent events. These anticipations were to prove +vain; but the Land Commissioners possibly may have shared his views, and +may have resolved to act upon them, before they first addressed themselves +to the task of 'fixing fair rents.' After experience, it is easy to be +wise; but we can now clearly discern what they ought to have done, +considering the heavy work they were soon to find imposed on them. Their +first duty should have been to establish some standard, which would make a +reasonable criterion of rent; the means to accomplish this end were not +wanting. Mr. Law, the Irish Attorney-General of Mr. Gladstone, one of the +most distinguished lawyers of his day, and afterwards a holder of the +Great Seal of Ireland, had made a definition of 'fair rent' in the House +of Commons; 'a fair rent was to be a competition rent minus the yearly +value of the tenant's interest in the holding; that was what was intended, +and anything else would be monstrously unjust.'[92] For some reason that +has not transpired, this definition did not find a place in the Act; but +the authority of its framer was great; it must have been known to the Land +Commissioners; had they adopted it, and based their decisions upon it, +things would have been very different from what they are at the present +time. But there were other tests to indicate a standard of rent, to be +regarded at least, if not conclusive. The valuation of the lands of +Ireland made for the assessment of rates, Griffith's valuation, as it was +commonly called, which Parnell had made a measure of 'fair rent,' would +certainly have been of real use, though it varied greatly in different +counties; and the Commission appointed by Mr. Gladstone, only a few months +before, had, I have said, reported, that Ireland, as a whole, was in no +sense an over-rented land. There was another consideration, as regards +Irish rents, which the Land Commissioners ought to have borne in mind. The +rents on the estates of the great landlords, and of the gentry of old +descent, were, as a rule, low; the rents of the purchasers under the +Encumbered Estates Acts were high, nay, excessive, in not a few instances. + +Other circumstances, moreover, of great importance, ought to have been +taken into account, with respect to this subject. The rental of Ireland +was not as high as it had been before the Great Famine; where rents, +therefore, had not been increased, and had been regularly paid for a long +series of years, there was the strongest possible presumption that these +would be 'fair.' Again, the material progress of Ireland had been great +during the forty preceding years: the wages of labour had, indeed, risen; +but owing to the introduction of good farm machinery, the cost of +production, in agriculture, had diminished; the extension of the railway +system had opened new markets, and had brought even Connaught within a few +hours of Great Britain; steam navigation had multiplied and improved; the +modes of husbandry and the breeds of stock of all kinds had become +infinitely better than they had been; and prices of late had been very +high. These were all elements to be regarded in the determination of 'fair +rent;' they ought to have been examined with care; and inquiries on these +matters should have extended over a long space of time. Moreover, as the +Land Act of 1881 discharged improvements made by tenants from rent, as +these were defined and limited by the Act of 1870, the greatest pains +ought to have been taken that claims for exemption should be strictly +dealt with, and not permitted to run riot, especially as it was notorious +that demands of this kind, made under the law already in force, were +usually excessive, supported by untrue statements, and by no means easy to +resist and disprove. Another fact, also, of the gravest moment, ought to +have been thoroughly considered, as regards this question. As improvements +made by tenants were not to be charged with rent, it was but equitable +that the lands they might hold should be valued as if in their normal +state; that if these had been deteriorated, either through wilful +misconduct, or gross neglect, their occupiers were not to make profit of +their own wrong; that deterioration, in a word, was not to be allowed to +work rent down, and was to be taken into account, in adjudicating upon +'fair rent.' This was the more necessary because it was well known that +numbers of farms in Ireland had been more or less run out; and especially +because, as in the case of the ryot of Bengal, under the Permanent +Settlement of Lord Cornwallis, an Irish tenant would be strongly tempted +to injure his lands, if he believed that, when 'a fair rent' should be +fixed on them, he would be permitted to take advantage of his own default. +It should be added that, in the fixing of 'fair rents,' the large sums +which, in many instances, Irish landlords had laid out in improving their +estates, notably since the years that succeeded the Famine, ought, as a +matter of course, to have been kept in mind. + +These were the general principles which should have guided the Land +Commission in approaching the question of fixing 'fair rent.' There was +nothing in the Act of 1881 to prevent the Land Commissioners, as a Court +of first instance, adjudicating directly in cases of this kind, or to +compel them to refer these to their Sub-Commissions; indeed the plain +intention of the law was in a contrary sense. Had the Land Commissioners +adopted this course--and this, I venture to say, was their obvious +duty--they would, no doubt, have considered the questions before them at +length, and with close attention; have made their inquiries go back many +years, and have laid down, in elaborate judgments, the maxims and rules to +be applied in the fixing of 'fair rent.' The evidence that would have +come before them would have been of two kinds: that which depended upon +the statements of valuers, on the side of landlords and tenants alike; +this, of course, would be of great importance; but it should have been +borne in mind that it would be biassed evidence; and that, in the existing +state of Ireland, and of Irish opinion, the statements of tenants' valuers +would require to be strictly watched. The other head of evidence was of a +much more trustworthy kind; it was indicated by the circumstances of the +cases being heard, and was necessarily suggested by the inquiries +themselves. This class of evidence would be desired from a consideration +of the rate of rent in the neighbourhood or even of adjoining lands, in a +word, of what may be called the market price of rent; from an examination +of what a reasonable rent would be, payable by a solvent tenant to a +fair-minded landlord; and even from a review of rent fixed by the +competition of bidders for land, these circumstances, in every given case, +being, of course, controlled by a due regard being had, in the words of +the law, for the 'tenant's interest.' There was another and very important +test; the sums paid in Ulster and elsewhere on the transfer of farms were +usually large, sometimes not less than a third or even a half of the value +of the fee simple; and as these sums were always subject to the existing +rents, the first charges on the lands being sold, this would afford a +strong presumption that such rents would be 'fair.' No doubt the Act of +1881 declared that such payments were not to be taken into account, _per +se_, and apart from other considerations in the actual fixing of rent, so +far as regards a given farm; but the law certainly allowed--and it has +always been so held--that payments of this kind might be kept in view in +forming, generally, an estimate of what a 'fair rent' should be.[93] + +The Land Commissioners, but from a different point of view, might have +learned something from Parnell in this matter. They were, no doubt, +harassed by the prospect of the task before them; but had they taken a +certain number of 'test cases,' and investigated them as a Court of first +instance, they would have laid down principles to be followed in the +fixing of 'fair rent;' have explained these in well-considered judgments, +going over the whole field of inquiry; and, so far as in them lay, have +tried to do justice. Even if they had not adopted this course, one of +their members, as the Act of 1881 provided, might have taken part for some +time with their subordinates in the adjustment of rent; this would have +been in accord with Mr. Gladstone's assertions that the Land Commission +was to be the real arbiter of rent. Unfortunately the Commissioners acted +quite otherwise; their conduct, palliate as you may, was an abdication of +a plain duty, on the plea that they were overwhelmed by the work before +them. Not one of them ever sat in a Court of first instance to fix 'fair +rents;' they delegated this the most important of all their functions to +their Sub-Commissions, to which they thus committed the charge of +adjusting rent throughout the whole of Ireland. These Sub-Commissions +formed Courts, each composed of three members, one a legal Commissioner +and two laymen; the Sub-Commissioners were nominees of the Government, +whether appointed on the recommendation of the Land Commission or not is +not certain; the only qualifications for the legal Commissioners were that +they should be barristers or solicitors of six years' standing, and for +the lay Commissioners that they should have some knowledge of land. These +were strange tribunals to deal with property worth hundreds of millions; +but this was only a part of what must be called a scandal most +discreditable to those responsible for it. The Sub-Commissioners, one and +all, were much underpaid; their salaries were inadequate to secure fitting +men; and, one and all, they were at the sufferance of the men at the +Castle, liable to be dismissed at a moment's notice, and without the +independence which is the best guarantee of justice. Some of the +Sub-Commissioners, indeed, were only paid for the job, by the day; they +had, therefore, a direct personal interest to reduce rents, in order to +make work for themselves and to retain their places. Even in Ireland such +tribunals were never set on foot, since Cromwell assembled his Courts of +Claims to give their sanction to his huge forfeitures; that they were ever +thought of is one of the many proofs of the disregard shown to property in +land in Ireland. No wonder that it was significantly remarked: 'The whole +spirit of our judicial institutions suggests that officers with such +extensive powers should be selected with the greatest care and with +reference to their possession of high qualifications, and that they should +be placed in a position of independence, and should, so far as possible, +be lifted above the suspicions that surround them.'[94] + +Sixty or seventy officials of this type--the number was afterwards largely +increased--were thus, in the significant words of one, 'let loose over +Ireland' to deal with estates; it is very remarkable that they have never +received instructions from the Land Commission how to perform their +duties. The procedure of the Courts of the Sub-Commissions was, under +existing conditions, as well devised as could be fairly expected. The +three Commissioners, who formed a Court, nearly always sate together, and +heard the evidence brought before them as to what were 'fair rents;' the +legal Commissioner decided questions of law; and, this evidence having +been taken, the two lay Commissioners inspected the farms, the subjects of +the previous inquiries, and having conferred with their legal colleague, +determined with him what should be their 'fair rents.' This was the +ordinary if not the universal practice; if some deviations have been made +from it, these cannot be deemed of very great importance. Grave complaints +have been made, in not a few instances, of the lay Commissioners, when +engaged in examining lands; it has been said that they often neglected and +'scamped' their work; but these charges have been hardly, if at all, +sustained; my own experience--and it is tolerably large--is that the +Commissioners performed their functions with diligence and care, and +sometimes gave proof of real knowledge of husbandry.[95] But it was +utterly impossible that tribunals of this kind, not composed of experts of +a high order, dependent upon the breath of the Castle, without regulations +to direct their conduct, and acting, without concert, in many districts, +could adjust rent in a satisfactory way, and in conformity with true +methods, especially as the work they had to do was excessive; indeed, they +sometimes fixed 'fair rents' by dozens in a day. It was equally impossible +that the Sub-Commissions--and to do their members justice they never made +the attempt--could take into account all the manifold and far-reaching +elements which enter into the question of 'fair rent,' and could set +forth, in exhaustive judgments, the principles applicable to a most +intricate problem. On the contrary, as a rule, and no doubt wisely, they +avoided topics which might have tasked the highest judicial powers; they +decided the cases before them summarily, and with little reflection, +certainly without the protracted examination required to establish settled +rules and doctrines. And the result has been that they disregarded, and +even set at nought, a whole series of considerations, of supreme +importance, with reference to the fixing of 'fair rent;' and, however +unconsciously and innocently, they have been the authors, in the first +instance at least, of the gravest injustice, and of wrong, done wholesale, +to the landed gentry of Ireland. + +To make this plain, let us glance back at the principles which assuredly +ought to have been kept in view, in coming to sound conclusions on the +subject of 'fair rent.' It will be seen that the Sub-Commissioners either +gave little or no attention to these, or directly violated them in, +perhaps, tens of thousands of cases. They have never attempted to +establish some kind of standard, which would form a general measure of +'fair rent;' they have completely ignored the definition of Mr. Law, +precise and most valuable as it was; they have treated 'Griffith's +valuation' as though it did not exist; they have regarded the Report of +Mr. Gladstone's Commission, declaring that Ireland was not excessively +rented, as mere waste paper; they have apparently taken hardly any account +of the well-known distinction between the low rentals of the great and old +landlords, and the rack-rents too often exacted by purchasers under the +Encumbered Estates Acts. So, too, it would seem, they have refused to +consider the strong presumption that rents would be 'fair' if not raised +during a long series of years, and if reasonably well paid, within that +period; and they certainly have given no real weight, as an element in +adjusting rent, to the agricultural progress made by Ireland since the +Great Famine. Innumerable complaints have been made against their +decisions as to the exemption of tenants' improvements from rent; but my +belief is that they gave great attention to this subject; the wrong that +has been done was owing to the difficulty of the law, and of its +application to given cases; and the law, besides, was not, I think, just. +On the correlative and most important question of the deterioration of +farms through the default of tenants, they have hardly ever inquired into +this; they have repeatedly done the landlords wrong; they have made grave +and palpable mistakes; and in many instances they have made no allowances +for the expenditure of landlords upon their estates. Having thus refused +to follow the principles which ought to have been their guide, they have +widely deviated in the actual fixing of 'fair rents' from rules and +methods they should have observed and made effective. They have given too +much weight to the class of evidence that was least important and most +open to question; they have attached little and sometimes no value to the +class of evidence by far the most trustworthy, and that ought to possess +the greatest influence. This has especially been the case, as we shall +see, with respect to the sums paid on the transfer of farms, the strongest +possible indication that their rents must be 'fair,' on the ordinary +principles of human nature, and giving the purchasers credit for the +simplest common sense. + +These are grave charges against quasi-judicial bodies; let us see if they +are not completely justified. The Sub-Commissioners, I have said, have +taken no heed of Mr. Law's definition of 'fair rent;' but they have acted +as though they set it at defiance; they have ignored the principle of +competition in fixing 'fair' rents. Unquestionably, as Mr. Law pointed +out, a deduction should be made from a competition rent, regard being had +to 'the tenant's interest,' that is, to his rights in respect of +improvements, and perhaps to his rights on account of his tenure, a lease +renewable every fifteen years, when a 'fair rent' is being fixed on his +farm; but why the very idea of competition, that is, of market value, was +to be excluded as an element in estimating 'fair rent,' is what men of +common sense have never understood. This, in fact, was a portentous +mistake, with consequences of a far-reaching kind; you might as well argue +that because two partners had an interest in a fee simple estate, or two +peasants had each a share in a cow, the price of the land or the cow was +not to depend on what would be given for it at an auction mart or a county +fair. Yet this was a position the Sub-Commissions have always taken; they +have always insisted that competition had nothing to do with 'fair rent.' +The evidence on this subject is conclusive; I can only take a few samples +from the statements of a cloud of witnesses, who really seem to make a +boast of their faith. Colonel Bayley, a Sub-Commissioner of large +experience, has laid it down that the 'difference between a competition +rent and the fair rent would be more than 20 per cent.; it would, I +think, be more than that; there would be between 30 and 75 per cent. +difference between the fair rent and the competition rent.'[96] Mr. +Roberts, another Sub-Commissioner, has deposed to much the same effect: +'Decidedly, I believe that if the land was put in the market it would +bring 25 per cent. more than the rent I put on.'[97] So, too, Mr. Bailey, +a legal Sub-Commissioner, very much respected, has alleged: 'It would be +most misleading to take the evidence of letting value in the +neighbourhood, thus bringing in competition value, which we rigorously +exclude in fair-rent cases.'[98] Mr. Bomford, a well-known +Sub-Commissioner, has said, in much the same sense: 'We do not take the +competition rent, and cannot take it into consideration, when fixing what +the fair rent should be. Then you utterly exclude, when you come to the +fixing of the fair rent, the element of competition?--Yes, except in one +matter, when we have town parks.'[99] + +Let us now see what distinctions, in fixing 'fair rents,' the +Sub-Commissioners have drawn between landlords whose rentals were low and +landlords whose rentals were really high; and how they have dealt with +rents, paid for a long space of time, without having been raised; this is +a fair index of the equity of their proceedings. It should be remarked, at +the outset, that it soon appeared that rents had only been increased in +comparatively few instances, going back over a series of years; yet, as a +rule, nearly all rents were indiscriminately reduced. No attempt has been +made, by any official of the Land Commission, to answer this damaging +charge made, in 1897, at a judicial inquiry held upon the subject: 'The +result of that calculation, the accuracy of which cannot be challenged, +shows that, as the result of all the cases that were heard, in only 8 per +cent. of them was any increase of rent for many years prior to 1881 +proved. But whether the Sub-Commissioners are dealing with an estate on +which for centuries the rents had remained unchanged, and on which the +tenants had been fairly treated, or whether they were dealing with estates +that had come into the hands of speculators by purchase in the Landed +Estates Court, in all cases the average result was the same. They deducted +something between 15 and 20 per cent. from the existing rent, no matter +how long it had existed, and no matter upon what estate it was being +paid.'[100] This significant evidence, too, points to the same conclusion: +'There is nothing to justify the reductions that have been made in the +rents of good landlords, who did not raise their rents in the good years. +In fact, the landlords who did raise their rents got off a great deal +better, at the hands of the Sub-Commissioners, than the good landlords who +did not raise them.'[101] And Mr. Lecky, a calm-minded observer, if there +ever was one, has added these striking and pregnant remarks: 'The +landlords who have suffered least have probably been those who simplified +their properties by the wholesale evictions, the harsh clearances, that +too often followed the Famine. Next in the scale come those who exacted +extreme rack-rents from their tenants. These rents had been received for +many years, and though they were ultimately reduced more than rents which +had been always low, they still, in innumerable instances, remained higher +than the others. The large class who regarded land simply as a source of +revenue, and, without doing anything harsh, or extortionate, or unjust, +took no part in its management, have suffered very moderately. It is the +improving landlord, who took a real interest in his estate, who sank large +sums in draining and other purposes of improvement, who exercised a +constant and beneficent influence over his tenants, who has suffered most +from the legislation that reduced him to a mere powerless rent-charger, +and, in most cases, rendered the sums he had expended an absolute +loss.'[102] + +The Sub-Commissions dealt with the subject of the exemption of tenants' +improvements from rent, on the whole, as fairly, I think, as could be +expected; and on the different questions of law that arose, appeals ran +from them to the Land Commission, which usually investigated these cases +at length. But this part of the law, really an excrescence on the Act of +1881, was unfair to the landlords, in the circumstances in which they were +placed; they were confronted by innumerable and often obsolete and +worthless claims, which they had only seldom the means of refuting; and if +the demoralisation and false swearing under the Act of 1870 was bad, they +were infinitely worse under the Act of 1881. A witty Irishman, indeed, +once said that he could wish no severer punishment for Mr. Gladstone than +to see him in a Sub-Commission Court listening to those wrongful +statements; the mischief has, of course, been aggravated since the Act of +1896 has made the basis for the exemption larger and more ill-defined. The +Sub-Commissions, I have said, were gravely in error, almost, as a rule, +with respect to the deterioration of land, as an element to be considered +in fixing rent; in this respect gross injustice has been done to +landlords. There is scarcely any proof that, even in a single instance, +the Sub-Commissioners valued land 'for fair rent,' as in its normal state; +and yet, assuredly, this was what ought to have been done, if a premium +was not to be put on misconduct, and because farms had been injured and +exhausted in hundreds, throughout Ireland. The deterioration was usually +of two kinds--wilful waste committed in order to work down rent, and +passive waste caused by negligence and bad farming. Out of many +instances, under the first head, I shall refer to one; the +Sub-Commissioners usually gave little or no attention to wrongs of this +kind; in this instance they enabled the tenant to make money by his own +misdeeds; they reduced the rent nearly 30 per cent.: 'The dykes were full +of stuff and choked, and the sluice-gate, which we had repaired at our own +expense, was all choked up, and the water had been left on the land as +long as it could stay on it. I complained and remonstrated with the +tenant. I sent for Madden, and in Mr. Lyle's presence I stated this to +him. His answer to me was that he was not such a damned fool as to have +his land looking well when the Commissioners came to look at it. + +'SIR E. FRY: Did that case come before the Sub-commissioner Court?--It +did. + +'Did you give evidence of what the tenant said?--Yes, sir.... + +'MR. CAMPBELL: I will tell you, sir, what they did. + +'How much did they reduce the first judicial rent?--They reduced the first +judicial rent; they cut it down from L70 10_s._ to L51.'[103] + +As for passive waste, that is, the bad cultivation of farms, the proof is +conclusive that it has been seldom, if ever, considered by the +Sub-Commissions in fixing 'fair rents.' If we bear in mind that many +thousands of acres in Ireland have been well-nigh destroyed by the burning +done by tenants, and that hundreds of thousands have been run out by +slovenly farming, the injury thus done to landlords has been enormous, +especially as tenants' improvements have been exempted from rent against +them; the 'candle,' it has been justly said, 'has been melted down at +both ends.' I cite two instances, out of hundreds, of the injustice thus +done; it has been proved over and over again that, in the case of two +adjoining farms, in all respects of the same natural quality, the rent on +that which was deteriorated was fixed at a much lower rate than the rent +on that which was in good heart; in other words, the landlord was +despoiled of the difference, and the tenant had the benefit of his bad +husbandry. I take, almost at random, a case in Ulster: 'The Commissioners +always value the land as they see it. I have two cases on my property in +one townland. One tenant was an industrious, hard-working man, who had his +farm in very good order. The second tenant, his wife had died, he was in +poverty, with a lot of young children, and he himself was not quite "all +there." These two holdings came at the same time before the +Sub-Commissioners, and the rents were cut down in each case. When the +thing was over, I said to Quinn, who was one of the tenants, "Are you +satisfied with your reduction?" "How can I be satisfied," he said, "when +my rent is at the same rate as Hurson's rent?" I looked at the return and +saw he was quite right.... The deteriorated farm was cut down considerably +more than the cultivated farm.' Another remarkable case occurred in the +west: 'I had a case, I think decided this year; a farm that was divided +between two sons fifteen or twenty years ago; the father divided the land +before I came into the management of the property. + +'Did they get an equal portion? was it divided into halves?--Into halves, +and paid an equal rent. + +'Before the Act of 1881?--Before the Act of 1881. + +'And was the land of uniform quality?--Yes. + +'Had one of these men, before he went into Court, greatly deteriorated the +land?--Yes. + +'Had the other attended to it?--He had attended to it; he looked after the +land very well indeed. + +'What reduction did the man who had deteriorated his half get?--The man +who had deteriorated his half got 17-1/2 per cent, reduction. + +'What did the other get?--The other got 7-1/2 per cent. + +'The industrious tenant got 7-1/2?--He got 7-1/2.'[104] + +This was obviously gross and crying injustice; but two apologies have been +made for acts of this kind. It is said that were a deteriorated farm +rented as if it were in a normal state, the tenant could not afford to pay +the 'fair rent,' in other words, the landlord is to be despoiled for the +tenant's neglect. It is said again that the Sub-Commissioners are bound to +value the land as they find it, and cannot estimate it at its intrinsic +worth, that is, they are under no obligation to ascertain the truth, and +do their duty. Yet this sophistry has been gravely put forward as a +justification for palpable wrong, through which the property of landlords +has been filched away wholesale: 'The land to this day has suffered a very +serious deterioration in value; but we did not deal with that as against +the present tenant ...'[105] 'Have you frequently asked the +Sub-Commissioners why they do not attach sufficient importance to +deterioration?--No, but I heard them saying one reason was that if they +put the rent of the farm as if it had been fairly treated, the tenant +would not be able to pay that rent now in the deteriorated state.'[106] +The general result of these proceedings as regards exhausted farms has +been thus described: 'My view with reference to deterioration is this. Bad +tenants, who had ill-treated and worn out their land, undoubtedly, in my +opinion, have obtained larger reductions than they would have got had they +farmed well. Probably the reason is that were the Land Commissioners to +put a rent on the land according to its natural capacity, before a +deterioration, it would be an impossible rent for a broken-down bad +tenant to pay. This stereotypes the rent in such cases at a figure +unfairly low to the landlord; tends to lower the standard of fair rent +generally; is a premium on bad farming; and places tenants under a serious +temptation to ill-treat their land, so as to secure a larger reduction +from the Land Court than otherwise could be obtainable.'[107] + +The Sub-Commissions appear to have disregarded the just rights of +landlords in another important respect. Unquestionably, in the great mass +of instances, as is inevitable when the land is held in small farms, the +Irish tenant had made the improvements on his holding; but the landed +gentry, as I have pointed out, had done a good deal since the Great +Famine. There is nevertheless cogent evidence that, in 'fixing fair +rents,' the Sub-Commissions took hardly any account of the expenditure of +landlords under this head. In the case of the estate of the late Mr. +Talbot Crosbie, one of the best breeders of prize stock in the Three +Kingdoms, and a country gentleman of parts and intelligence, these +significant facts were conclusively proved: 'Table E gives the cases of +eight holdings upon which there was an expenditure by the landlord of +L1936?--Yes. + +'The old rent was L688?--Yes. + +'That was reduced by the Sub-Commissioners to L493?--Yes. A reduction of +about 30 per cent. + +'Notwithstanding the outlay by the landlord in the interval of nearly +L2000?--Yes, that is it. + +'Table F is a list of eleven farms, on which there was practically no +expenditure by the landlord?--Quite so, no recent expenditure. That is, +between 1863 and 1887?--There was a good deal done in the famine time, but +I did not take account of that. + +'You had no evidence in these eleven cases of expenditure for many years +prior to the fixing of the rent?--No. In these cases the old rents tot up +to L361?--Yes. And the reductions only brought them to L280?--A reduction +of 18 per cent. + +'In other words, on the unimproved farms the reductions only average 18, +while on the improved farms they went as high as 30 per cent.?--Quite so. + +'SIR E. FRY: Were these two sets of farms different classes of +farms?--They were practically of the same class.'[108] In the same way, in +the case of the estate of Lord Leconfield, a great and excellent landlord +in the County Clare, the Sub-Commission made no real allowance for a sum +of L20,500 expended on twenty-seven farms. 'Am I right in saying that from +1852 to 1881 there was spent by Lord Leconfield L20,500 in these +twenty-seven cases?--The return speaks for itself. That is the result of +it.' 'No. 4: As an example of the reductions of the Sub-Commissioners were +the rents put back to what they had been in 1852?--Very nearly. There is a +difference, I think, of about 1/2 per cent.?--About 1/2 per cent. The rent +in 1852 was L2524, and the judicial rents on these farms was L2632.'[109] + +I pass on to the methods pursued by the Sub-Commissioners in actually +fixing 'fair rents.' As I have said, they usually heard the cases at +length in Court; they usually devoted attention to them. I do not think +they set much store on the reports of valuers, on the part either of +landlords or tenants; they formed their decisions, as a general rule, on +the inspections made by the lay Commissioners of the lands they visited. +This was a much better method, as I shall point out afterwards, than that +adopted by their superiors; but obviously inspections of this kind made by +officials without local knowledge of the farms, which they examined and +valued, could not be a sufficient, or a satisfactory, way to fix 'fair +rents.' The great error, however, made, in this matter, by the +Sub-Commissions--and in this respect they had the countenance of the +higher tribunal--was that they had little or no regard for the evidence +which in adjusting rent was assuredly of the greatest importance. They +rejected, we have seen, the principle of competition in adjudicating on +rent; in fixing the 'fair rents' of holdings before them, they refused to +consider the rents of the neighbourhood and of adjoining lands, that is, +to consider the price of the market. Yet this was but a trifling compared +to their capital mistake, one that, indeed, can hardly be explained: in +investigating the subject of 'fair rent,' they would not take into account +sums paid on the transfer of farms, that is, their tenant right, in other +words, as an indication of what ought to be their 'fair rents.' If we bear +in mind, as I have said before, that these sums were given subject to the +existing rents, which always formed the first charge on the lands, it is +most difficult to understand, as we have seen, how this circumstance did +not create a very strong presumption that the rents in question must be +'fair' from the very nature of the case, assuming the Irish tenant to be a +rational being. The sums paid for this tenant right were sometimes +enormous, not uncommonly equal to one-third or one-half of the value of +the fee; I illustrate my meaning from the evidence, taken with reference +to the estate of Lord Downshire, one of the largest and best managed in +Ulster: 'What would you say the tenants' interest would be worth on the +Downshire estate?--Well, judging from the average prices obtained by +tenants on transfers, my opinion is that the tenants' interest would be +worth L1,000,000. + +'On the Downshire estate alone?--Yes. + +'Now, could that value in the tenants, or that interest in the tenants, +exist, unless the rents at which they were holding were low rents?--No, +the prices of tenant right are incompatible with high rents. Does it in +your opinion point to their being lower than the commercial rents?--Yes, +they are lower.'[110] And will it be believed that on this very estate, in +the case of thirteen farms, held at the rents fixed by the landlords, the +tenant right realised L7296, and yet the Sub-Commission reduced the rents +more than 20 per cent.? In other words, they declared that the old rents +were not fair, though these lands, when transferred, fetched L7296 paid by +their purchasers, subject to the rents in question![111] + +The Downshire was only one of many scores of estates in which the tenant +right was exceedingly high, that is, the sums paid, at existing rents, on +the transfer of farms, were very great, yet in all these instances this +striking fact was not taken into account. It cannot cause surprise that, +at a judicial inquiry held afterwards to review the subject, tenants' +advocates endeavoured to exclude the evidence which, in the judgment of +plain men of sense, affords almost a decisive indication as to whether +given rents are 'fair.' It has been argued, however, that the price of +tenant right, that is, the sums paid by incoming to outgoing tenants, on +the sale of farms, at the current rents, ought to form no element in the +fixing of 'fair rent;' it is only just to set forth the reasons. Mr. +Bailey, the able legal Sub-Commissioner, referred to before, has explained +them in this passage: 'Do you attend to tenant right in considering the +fair rent?--No, we do not. The view we take of it is this. The tenant +right paid for land is paid for something of an altogether different +character from the rent of the land.... When a tenant sells his interest +in his holding, he sells two things, first, the improvements on the +holding, and secondly, his goodwill or share of the gross product of the +holding.... When you put these two items together, viz. improvements and +goodwill, it seems to me that the prices paid for tenant right are not at +all remarkable. Then your view is that the price paid for tenant right +throws no light on what the fair rent ought to be?--No, no light at all.' +Mr. Bailey has added these significant words: 'The tenant does not buy at +the rent which the tenement at present stands at, but he buys with a +possible increase or reduction of the rent?--Quite so. And in latter years +with the fall of prices he was buying with the expectation of a very +considerable reduction?--Undoubtedly.'[112] + +The first of these arguments appears to me to be wholly irrelevant to the +real question. Undoubtedly the tenant right of a farm represents the +tenant's improvements and his interest in the land, and is completely +distinct from the rent; and this is acquired on a sale by an incoming +tenant. But the purchaser buys the tenant right, subject to the first +charge, the rent; if the rent were excessive, or even high, either he +would not buy at all, or he would pay a low price; when, therefore, we +find the tenant right commanding very large sums, the conclusion is +inevitable, that, taking human nature as it is, the rent must be in the +nature of a 'fair rent.' The Sub-Commissions rejected a plain inference +they ought to have drawn; that they refused to give weight to an +all-important fact cannot be justified in any sense; and the result has +been that in hundreds of cases they have done grave wrong to landlords. As +for the second argument, it is very probable that in many instances +tenants purchased farms in the anticipation of a reduction of rent; they +speculated--a significant fact--that the Sub-Commissions would 'bear' the +market; but even, on that supposition, this can hardly explain the huge +sums paid for tenant right while the existing rents were current. For the +rest, I refer to part of my own evidence given on this subject at the same +inquiry; readers of ordinary intelligence may judge for themselves: 'The +first question I ask the tenant is, "How much will you take for the land, +L100, L200, L300; ten, fifteen, twenty, or forty years' rent?" But I never +can get an answer. They say, "Oh, your honour, I am here to look after a +'fair rent,' and I am not going to tell your honour what I am going to ask +for the land." However, I have a very shrewd notion.... You take into +consideration in fixing the fair rent the price paid by the tenants?--Yes, +the price which an incoming tenant would give, because I am not one of +those who think that the Irish tenant is a fool; and when I find an +incoming tenant giving ten, fifteen, twenty, and thirty years' purchase +for a farm, I have a very shrewd suspicion that the rent is right.'[113] + +It was under these conditions, and by proceedings of this kind, that the +Sub-Commissions, bodies of ill-paid men, dependent upon the will of the +Government, and constituted to give effect to a policy, were sent +throughout Ireland to 'fix fair rents.' They had no assistance, we have +seen, from the Land Commission; they often entertained very different +views; but their uniform course was in the same direction; they +indiscriminately abated rents, as they would abate a nuisance. In fact, +they might have joined in the chorus of the doctors of Moliere: 'Et +saignare, et purgare, et clysteriasaire;' they applied the same remedies +to all their victims, and brought them nearly all into the same weak and +low condition. But there was a right of appeal from the Sub-Commissions to +the Land Commission; and this tribunal, certainly designed to have +absolute power in the determination of rent, ought surely to have been +expected to redress injustice. I approach a part of the subject on which +the plain truth must be told, without making personal imputations of any +kind. Appeals from the Sub-Commissions were numbered by many thousands; +and, as I have said--an iniquitous provision of the Act of 1881--the +decisions of the Land Commission on the subject of 'fair rent' was made +final, at least as regards the rate of rent; there was to be no further +appeal to a higher tribunal. I quote these significant remarks on this +restriction: 'In an ordinary case, I need not tell you, sir, who are +conversant with the procedure of Courts of Justice, a litigant, in a civil +case, no matter how much the issue may be involved, has the right, if he +thinks fit, of taking the case from one Court to another, until he reaches +the highest tribunal of the land, the House of Lords. And as you know, +there is a well-known case, which the House of Lords had to decide, in +which the amount involved was one penny, an alleged overcharge on a +railway ticket; but in these land cases, where there may be, and often is, +a sum of L200, L300, or L400 a year involved, because in some of the large +farms in this country there have been reductions of L300 and even of L400 +in the rent, under the Act of Parliament they cannot go beyond the Head +Land Commission, upon any question of value. That is the Act of Parliament +whether it be right or wrong. There it is, and I am not here to discuss +the policy of the Act. But when a rehearing is given by the Act of +Parliament to the Land Commission, and when the Land Commission are +constituted the final judges in such large and important matters, it is +obviously of great importance that the final rehearing should be full, and +in every respect what the Act of Parliament says it is to be, namely, a +rehearing.'[114] + +The Land Commission sometimes heard these appeals at length, though +usually their proceedings were summary in the extreme. The Commissioners +occasionally pronounced well-considered judgments, on the difficult +questions of law that came before them, especially as regards the +exemption of tenants' improvements from rent; in several instances the +results were curious. The lay Commissioner now and then dissented from his +legal colleagues; his plain common sense rejected theories in tenants' +interests; his decisions were more than once confirmed, on these points of +law, by the highest Court of Appeal in Ireland, a circumstance of no +slight significance. Nineteen-twentieths, however, of these appeals were +conversant only with the amount of 'fair rent,' as to which the +conclusions of the Land Commission could not be challenged. The Land +Commissioners undoubtedly heard these cases, and sometimes had much +evidence brought before them; in tolerably many instances they varied the +'fair rents' fixed by the Sub-Commissions, if these variations were seldom +important. But the Land Commission practically adopted, with scarcely a +single exception, the errors of principle and the faulty methods which had +marked the practice and the proceedings of the Sub-Commissions.[115] They +excluded the element of competition from the subject of 'fair rent;' they +never attempted to define 'fair rent,' or to establish a standard by which +to gauge it; they disregarded, to a considerable extent at least, the +distinction between the rentals of the old and the new landlords; they +paid little or no attention to the fact that rents had been paid for many +years without an increase; they hardly ever took deterioration into +account, or the expenditure made on their estates by landlords. And in the +actual fixing of 'fair rents' they virtually followed in the wake of their +inferiors; they rejected, as a rule, the evidence that was most relevant; +they refused to consider the rents of adjoining or neighbouring lands, in +a word, the price of the market, in determining rent; above all, they gave +scarcely any heed to the enormous sums paid for the tenant right of lands, +as an indication that their rents were 'fair.' On all these particulars, +in a word, supremely important as they were, they almost said ditto to the +Sub-Commissions; in these respects the appeals were well-nigh useless. It +should be added that the animus of the head of the Land Commission was +significantly exhibited on one striking occasion. When opening the +proceedings of the Land Commission, Mr. Justice O'Hagan pointedly laid it +down, that the object of the Act of 1881 was 'to make tenants live and +thrive;' in other words, as Lord Salisbury indignantly remarked, to compel +rent to gravitate to the level of the most indolent and worthless Irish +peasant, and practically to discourage industry. + +These considerations indicate, to some extent at least, the nature and +especially the value of these appeals. But this was not all, or nearly +all; there was a grave miscarriage of the simplest justice in this +important province. Appeals, I have said, came in, in thousands; the work +thrown on the Land Commissioners was immense; as one of their present +successors remarked, 'If proper consideration' (had been) 'given to all +the appeals you would' (have) 'wanted ten Appeal Courts to do it;'[116] as +was said again substantially, 'Appeals would have crushed the Land +Commissioners, had they not been crushed by them.'[117] In this position +of affairs, the Land Commissioners, no doubt with no bad or sinister +purpose, adopted what must be called a device, to enable them quickly to +dispose of appeals, nay, almost in a summary way. They were empowered, +under the Act of 1881, to appoint 'independent valuers' to examine lands, +and to report on the subject of their 'fair rents;' it was never +contemplated that statements of this kind were to dispense with the duty +of hearing appeals in detail, and pronouncing solemn judgments upon them; +but, practically, the Land Commissioners, in the great mass of instances, +when adjudicating on appeals, as regards 'fair rents,' almost wholly +relied on the reports of these valuers, who, be it observed, were in no +sense witnesses, and were not subject to examination on the part of the +suitors before the Court. In a word, the Land Commissioners did not +exclude other kinds of evidence; but unquestionably the dicta of the +valuers, as a rule, determined the decisions they made on 'fair rent.' +This expedient greatly accelerated appeals; but it reduced the right of +appeal well-nigh to a sham; and this procedure was by many degrees more +repugnant to justice than that of the Sub-Commissions. In an inquiry held +before the House of Lords in 1882, an eminent member of the Irish bar +remarked, 'It was the most unsatisfactory tribunal that I ever was before. +What occurred was this: they took up the figures of the old rent, which we +will say was L100, and the valuation L70, and the new rent L80. Then they +took up the valuer's report, which was a document concealed from the +parties. It was entirely for the information of the Court, and they turned +round to me, as the landlord's counsel, the landlord being the appellant, +and said, "Can you go on with this appeal in the face of this document?" +and they would show me the document.'[118] And in the inquiry I have often +referred to before, another distinguished lawyer has said, 'I have been in +cases where, in order to overcome the difficulty, I marshalled a perfect +phalanx of witnesses, for the landlord, but it was all no use. They +listened to them, I admit,--they suggested that I was wasting time, but I +am not stating they did not hear them,--but in the end, in the morning, +the announcement was made that the judicial rent was confirmed.'[119] + +As the general result these appeals, as it has been said, 'were +strangled;' in thousands of instances they were withdrawn, the decisions +of the Land Commission being final; expedition was attained; but it was +only attained at the cost of gross wrong done to the landlords, a singular +exhibition in a Court of Justice. I quote the following--and it should be +borne in mind that the Land Commissioners have never attempted to explain +this conduct, though the amplest opportunity was afforded, a few years +ago: 'The extraordinary and anomalous state of things is that the valuers, +not being assessors, do not sit with the Commissioners, and do not hear +the evidence, and yet they are not witnesses in the proper sense of the +term, because they are neither examined nor cross-examined. Common sense +and justice revolt at the idea, when it is the duty of the Land +Commissioners, upon the rehearing of a case, to sit and go through the +proceedings _de novo_, that they should receive the evidence of valuers, +which is not laid before the parties, and that those valuers should not be +examined and cross-examined in the regular way. There is another matter to +which I would refer. You will find, what is, indeed, what you might +expect, that when the Commissioners go to Dublin, or Cork, or elsewhere, +with a list of two or three hundred cases to be heard by them, involving, +it may be, thousands of pounds a year of rent, that list is gone through +in two or three days, and why? Because all the parties present know that +they are taking part in what really is a solemn farce, and that what will +happen in the morning after the hearing of their case is just this: John +Brown, landlord, James Fogarty, tenant; judicial rent affirmed; John +Robinson, landlord, James McNorth, tenant; judicial rent affirmed.'[120] + +The first set of Land Commissioners passed away; they were succeeded by a +second Land Commission, the president of which was Mr. Justice Bewley, an +accomplished, if not a very eminent, lawyer. This Commission, like the +other, was composed of honourable men; it is only just to remark that it +was bound by the bad precedents made by the tribunal which it had +replaced. The procedure of the Sub-Commissions was, in some degree, +improved; but the methods of the second Land Commission differed for the +worse where they differed from the methods of its predecessor. The Land +Commissioners appear to have not at all regarded the general principles in +fixing 'fair rent,' which ought to have had effect on their judgments; +they gave less weight, than Mr. Justice O'Hagan, and his colleagues did, +to the most important evidence, in this province, to which I have adverted +before, and laid too much stress on the least important evidence. As has +been truly remarked, 'We believe that much more attention was paid in the +early days of the Land Commission to the remaining kinds of popular +evidence than has been the case of late years; and we are assured by one +of the head Commissioners that the Act of 1896 has made a great change in +the fixing of fair rents by placing an emphasis on the technical evidence, +and throwing the popular evidence into the background.'[121] The +Commissioners, too, followed the bad example of the first Land Commission, +in the province of appeals; they practically disregarded almost everything +but the reports of their valuers, unchecked statements made by men who +were not even witnesses, were not sworn, and were not examined--a +procedure worthy of the Council of Ten at Venice; as before, the result +was that appeals were made all but fruitless, in the Court of which the +decisions were, in this respect, final. + +There was, too, another grave miscarriage of justice caused, perhaps, by a +mistake made by the head of the second Land Commission. The Act of 1881 +provided that 'fair rent' should be fixed, having due regard to the +'interest' of the tenant on the land, that is, to his improvements, and +perhaps to the mode of his tenure. Mr. Justice Bewley seems to have +decided that another element ought to be taken into account, and should +effect a reduction of rent; the tenant had 'an occupation right' in his +favour, over and above the 'interest' the law gave him; by reason of this +he had a right to have his rent cut down. The only plausible ground +alleged for this doctrine was that landlords would usually accept a lower +rent from a 'sitting' tenant in possession than from an incoming tenant; +in other words, their good nature was turned against them, and was to be +made a pretext for their being despoiled. It is just to observe that Mr. +Justice Bewley's colleagues dissented from this curious view of the law; +and the claim for 'occupation right' has since been blown to the winds in +the superior Courts of Ireland. But though many faint denials were made, +some of the Sub-Commissioners acted upon Mr. Justice Bewley's doctrine; +the evidence is conclusive that this imaginary right was made the means of +considerably reducing rent. Mr. Justice Bewley candidly admitted: 'From +the commencement, apparently, a number of the Sub-Commissioners have acted +on the principle that there is a certain occupation interest, which every +tenant has, varying according to circumstances, not any fixed amount, but +varying, and that that is to be taken into account in fixing the fair +rent.'[122] This statement has been confirmed by a host of witnesses by no +means willing in not a few instances. 'Would you make a difference between +the assessment of the fair rent in the case of a sitting tenant, and in +the case of an incoming tenant--a stranger? Certainly. Can you give us any +idea what that difference is, expressed in percentage?--I could not very +well answer that question. It is a mental calculation, and a good deal +would depend upon the length of the tenure of the tenant.'[123] And again: +'In your experience of the Land Commission Court, do you find the +"occupation interest" has been taken into account in fixing the fair +rent?--Yes, I cannot account for the reductions that have been made, +except on that supposition.'[124] And again: 'As far as your experience +goes, do they invariably value the holdings on the principle of giving an +occupation interest to the sitting tenant?--Yes, the tenants' valuers, as +a rule, give 40 or 50 per cent. as the interest of the sitting tenant.... +Do you find that the Sub-Commissioners fix the rent on what the valuers +state?--Well, no; that would be going too much out of the way.'[125] And +again: 'Have you any doubt that the rents are fixed on the basis of the +occupation interest in the sitting tenant?--I have none. I do not know how +else the rents could have been arrived at.'[126] And once more: 'Did the +Sub-Commissioners invariably take the occupation interest of the sitting +tenant into account?--I think so.' I conclude with these remarks of Mr. +Barnes, one of the best and most impartial of Irish valuers: 'When I came +to give evidence in Court I found that nothing else would be accepted as +evidence unless based on occupation interest. It was almost the first +question.... Whenever there was an answer made that the valuation was +based on what the landlord would get for the land in his own hands, it was +discounted at once.'[127] No wonder that it has been alleged by the +highest authority with respect to this claim, since proved to have been +unfounded, guarded and cautious as the language is: 'There is, however, +reason to believe that this notion of an occupation interest existed in +the minds of some of the early valuers, and did, in fact, influence them, +and it is very possible that some cases in which the reductions there made +appear startling, may be, in part, attributable to this doctrine.'[128] + +What amount of the rental of Ireland was unlawfully cut down owing to the +theory of 'occupation right,' it is, of course, impossible to ascertain. +Reductions of rent, too, were probably unjustly made through the +ignorance of the Land Commission as to agricultural matters. I refer to a +grotesque instance of this: 'You have marked a passage there in the +judgment, which, according to you, shows that owing to their ignorance as +experts they entirely mistook what six-course rotation meant?--Yes. The +fact is they took it to be the same crop in the whole seventy acres, that +instead of having so many different crops in this portion of the ground, +it was to be put into one crop for the year, and that is what they call +"rotation" in the Court of Rehearing.... It is plain enough, from the +authorised report of the judgment, that they made that mistake?--It is +clear as possible, and it was upon that that they threw me out. The tenant +himself knew that it was all absurdity and mistake.'[129] + +A remarkable incident occurred in 1897 which threw a strong, if not a +complete, light on the proceedings of the Land Commission and its +Sub-Commissions in the adjustment of rent. In 1896 the time had come for +renewing the first statutory leases, under the Act of 1881; the +Commissioners suddenly made such enormous reductions of rent that persons +who knew Ireland were simply astounded. The Irish landlords naturally were +indignant; after some hesitation, and with plain reluctance, the +Government gave its consent to a very imperfect inquiry. A Commission, +presided over by Sir Edward Fry, a judge of the highest eminence, retired +from office, and composed of four additional colleagues, two being +well-known agricultural experts, was appointed to investigate the subject +on the spot; but the scope of the inquiry was limited in the extreme; it +was confined, in this respect, to examining the procedure and practice +adopted in fixing 'fair rents;' it did not extend to the conduct generally +of the Land Commission and its dependent tribunals. The Commission was +engaged nearly three months in its task; it held its sittings in different +parts of Ireland; it had before it 183 witnesses; and restricted as it +was in this province, it pronounced, in grave and judicial language, a +marked censure on the methods that had been followed in fixing 'fair +rents' in Ireland. In fact, Sir Edward Fry and his colleagues confirmed, +in many respects, the charges which I have made with regard to this whole +system. No doubt they reported, in very guarded words, 'that they were +unable to conclude that the machinery of the Land Statutes has been +uniformly worked with injustice towards landlords;'[130] but as they +pointedly refused to rehear a single case, in which the Land Commission +and the Sub-Commissions had fixed a 'fair rent,' this statement, ambiguous +as it is, is of no real importance. In other particulars the expression of +these opinions cannot be mistaken; to impartial minds it will appear +decisive. They evidently thought that such wrong had been done to +landlords owing to the want of a definition of 'fair rent,' that they +actually framed a definition of their own, in order to establish some kind +of standard; this did not widely differ from that of Mr. Law, which, I +have said, would have made things very different had it been adopted.[131] +They pointed out that the Land Commissioners should have assisted the +Sub-Commissions in fixing 'fair rents,' and should not have left them +'like ships without a rudder or a compass on a stormy sea;' it is 'a +subject of regret,' they reported, 'that in the early days of the system +the Land Commissioners were unable to take a part in the tribunals of +first instance; and that the whole original business was left to +Sub-Commissions.'[132] They strongly condemned the nature of the +Sub-Commission Courts, as being composed of members inadequately paid and +mere tenants at sufferance; and they put forward an elaborate scheme to +make the administration of justice in these tribunals more above +suspicion.[133] They evidently believed that the Land Commission and the +Sub-Commissions did not give due weight to the class of evidence that was +most important, and gave too much weight to that which was the least; and +they made significant observations on this subject.[134] On the whole, +they arrived at the conclusion that the fixing of 'fair rents' 'gives +opportunity for dissatisfaction, and leaves much more for improvement; ... +and that the settlement of fair rents has been effected in an +unsatisfactory manner, with diversity of opinion and practice, sometimes +with carelessness, and sometimes with that bias towards one side or the +other which exists in many honest minds.'[135] But their strongest +animadversion was found in the system, through which, I have said, the +Land Commission really 'strangled' appeals, though in this province its +decisions were final: 'An almost universal dissatisfaction is expressed +with regard to these appeals, a dissatisfaction felt by some at least of +the Commissioners themselves. No witness, with, perhaps, a single +exception, spoke in favour of the existing system.'[136] + +Mr. Justice Bewley has retired from office, and has been replaced by Mr. +Justice Meredith, a capable and experienced lawyer. He has done, probably +as much as in him lay, to alleviate some of the wrong done to Irish +landlords; and for this he has been subjected to violent abuse, especially +on the part of an advocate of Ulster farmers, whose tongue is at odds with +his trade in temperance. But he is bound by the precedents set by those +who have gone before him; and though the work of the Land Commission is +now better done than it was before the Report of the Fry Commission +appeared, and its general procedure has improved, little change has been +effected in the reduction of rent in Ireland. The Government, as I have +pointed out in a preceding chapter, has made a few administrative reforms +in the composition and the arrangement of the Sub-Commissions; but it has +not taken a single step to give effect to the recommendations made by the +Fry Commission, so far as these are of real importance; it has refused to +legislate on the subject, and to bring in the measure that was required; +it has even refused to set a further inquiry on foot. The general results +of the labours of the Land Commission and of its subordinate tribunals in +fixing 'fair rents' may be summed up in a very few sentences. According to +the Report of the Fry Commission, the tenants of rural holdings in Ireland +are about 486,000 in number; 328,720 of these have had 'fair rents' fixed, +between August, 1881, and the end of March, 1900.[137] The tenants, who +have not had 'fair rents' fixed, are probably either tenants of lands not +within the Land Acts, or 'future tenants' since 1881-82, or tenants too +poor to pay law costs; but these, perhaps in nine cases out of ten, have +indirectly had the benefit of the law, and have had their rents reduced +like those of the large majority, by voluntary concessions on the part of +landlords. The great mass of 'fair rents' has been fixed by the Land +Commission and its dependents, and the proceedings of these tribunals +have, beyond question, formed a standard for the adjustment of rent; +whether 'fair rents' have been fixed by the County Courts,[138] or by +agreements between landlord and tenant, they have, in the main, conformed +to the measure established by the Courts set up in 1881. The reductions of +rent made, in every way, in the first statutory leases, were, on an +average, rather more than 20 per cent. on the old rental;[139] but those +on the second statutory leases have been 22 per cent. more,[140] that is, +the fixing of 'fair rents,' so far as it has gone, has reduced rents +rather more than 42 per cent. It may be asserted, with some confidence, +that through the operation of the new Irish land code, taking in tenancies +of all kinds, Irish rents have been cut down nearly 40 per cent.; little +doubt can exist that they are now lower than they were in the day of +Wakefield, and in some instances in the day of Arthur Young, when the +price of Irish agricultural produce was less than half what it is at the +present time.[141] + +The agricultural rental of Ireland, therefore, in all probability, has +been reduced almost 40 per cent., or will be in a short space of time; and +as long as the present system of fixing 'fair rent' continues, however it +may be lowered, it will certainly not be raised. The Act of 1881, I have +already said, would, by itself, necessarily reduce rents; but the faulty +administration of it, on which I have dwelt, has reduced them far more +than ought to have been the case. In fact, disguise it as you may, an +immense confiscation, gradual, indeed, and veiled, but not the less real, +has been made of the property of Irish landlords, even on the principles +of a bad law; the evidence of this is, I believe, conclusive. Rents have +been cut down indiscriminately in the great mass of instances; for +example, rents in country districts only opened to good markets of late +years, have been reduced quite as much as rents around Dublin, which had +almost a monopoly of the best market until about 1855-60. But the proof of +this spoliation is made most apparent by taking into account a single +fact, and drawing the natural inference from it. The value of the +landlords' interest in the land, before 1881, was from 20 to 25 years' +purchase; it is now between 15 and 18; at the same time the value of the +tenants' interest has, in thousands of cases, enormously increased. I +refer to a few examples out of scores to be found in the evidence given to +the Fry Commission. I take first an estate in Ulster: 'I only remember one +case of a holding before 1881 that went up (in a sale of the farm) to +anything like 20 years' purchase of the rent, and I have several cases +since then that have gone beyond it. I remember one case that struck me +very forcibly because of the great amount the man got--20 years' purchase. +Since then I have known, 29, 35, 36, 34 years' purchase to be given.' I +turn now to two estates in the south of Ireland: 'Charles Bolster, 112 +acres; rent L79 5_s._; sold for L570 in 1889. Daniel Buckley, 9 acres, at +rent of L3 3_s._; sold in 1889 for L45. Christopher Crofts, 131 acres; old +rent, L86; judicial rent fixed in 1893, L80; sold in 1889 for L120. +Timothy Reefe, 5 acres; rent, 29_s._; sold in 1891 for L47.' I pass on to +the second estate: 'Next case, 65 acres; old rent, L60; judicial rent, L56 +14_s._, fixed in 1883 by agreement; sold in 1883 for L330. Next, 76 +statute acres; old rent, L115; judicial rent fixed in 1885 at L108; sold +in December, 1885, for L1600.'[142] + +This great fall in the value of the fee simple in the Irish land, and this +great rise in the value of the tenant right, coinciding with the general +fixing of 'fair rents,' distinctly point to a plain conclusion: the +interest of the Irish landlord has been enormously reduced, a result never +contemplated by the author of the Act of 1881. In truth, there has been +little or no decline in the market price of land in Ireland; but property +that ought to belong to the landlord has been improperly taken from him, +and has been transferred to the tenant who had no right to it. Excuses, +however, have been made for this wholesale abolition of rent; they are +worthless, but may be briefly noticed. Ireland, it is said, is suffering, +like England, from the agricultural depression of late years; and rents +in Ireland have not been cut down more by the act of the State than they +have been reduced in England by the voluntary acts of landlords. But +agricultural depression in Ireland, a land of small holdings, and of +pasturage, to a considerable extent, is not, by many degrees, as severe as +in England, a land of large farms and largely of cereal culture; a signal +proof of this is that, while in England, tenants have, in hundreds of +instances, thrown up their farms, there has hardly been a case of the kind +in Ireland, as appears from the Report of the Fry Commission. Besides, if +agricultural prices have fallen in Ireland, compared to what they were, +say, twenty-five years ago, they are higher than they were in the years, +say, 1850-55, not to take into account the progress made by Ireland, in +the last half-century, in crops, farm machinery, and the breeds of farming +animals. As to the reduction of rents in England and Ireland, the supposed +analogy completely fails. The rental of England rose greatly from 1850 to +1880; there was no corresponding increase in Ireland; there was thus a +margin for reduction, in the greater island, which in the lesser did not +exist. Again, no comparison can be made between State-settled Irish rents +and English rents lowered by the voluntary acts of landlords. 'Fair rents' +have practically been reduced for all time; the reduction of English rents +is temporary, and can be at once annulled; this difference makes a +supposed resemblance a very striking contrast. As to the argument that the +Courts which have fixed 'fair rents' have been composed of honourable men, +and that it is extremely invidious to make charges against them, mere +leather and prunella may be brushed aside. No one disputes the honour of +the Land and the Sub-Commissioners, but it does not follow that they have +not done injustice; no one has disputed the honour of the Commission which +carried out the Encumbered Estates Act, and yet it repeatedly sold +estates at less than half their value. + +The Irish landlords, I repeat, have been iniquitously despoiled; a huge +confiscation has been made of their property. If the simplest right is to +be done in this province, their claim to compensation has been rendered +complete--apart from the utterances of Mr. Gladstone; should this be +disregarded, Parliament will have been chargeable with a grave breach of +faith, and a precedent will have been set from trampling on the just +rights of property in the Three Kingdoms, which will be dangerous in the +extreme. I pass on to consider the Irish land on the side of ownership, +and the administration of the system of so-called 'land purchase.' Of the +total of L40,000,000 alone available, some L20,000,000 appear to have been +expended; some 50,000 tenants have been made owners of their farms, +without having paid a shilling of their own, that is, rather more than one +in ten of the whole tenant class in Ireland. The politicians who declared +against 'dual ownership,' that bugbear of self-sufficient ignorance, can +find little consolation in these figures; I shall comment afterwards on +what this state of things has produced. The Government of Lord Salisbury +still proposes to seek to accelerate 'land purchase' of this kind; and +loud complaints have been made of the law's delay in not having made the +process more speedy. I have had no experience in this matter, and shall, +therefore, give no opinion on it; but it appears to me that there has been +some want of care in making advances to these so-styled 'purchasers;' not +a few were insolvent when they acquired their farms, and many are now on +the verge of bankruptcy. This, however, was perhaps inseparable from the +system that has been pursued; it is only an additional proof of its +essential vices. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (_continued_)--PROPOSED REFORM OF THE IRISH +LAND SYSTEM + + Retrospect of the present Irish land system--Position of the Irish + landlords--Position of the Irish tenant class--This not as + advantageous as might be supposed--The effects of the land code on + Irish agriculture injurious--The effects on the general Irish + community--Confiscation, violation of contracts, shock given to + credit, increased alienation of classes, and demoralisation--The land + system considered on the side of ownership--'Voluntary + purchase'--Mischief of this policy--It sets up a false standard + against rent, and creates unjust distinctions between different + classes of tenants--The results it has produced already--An instance + of the system--The demand for the compulsory purchase of the Irish + land caused by 'voluntary purchase'--Compulsory purchase has some hold + on opinion, but is an impossible, and would be a disgraceful and + ruinous policy--It would ruin Irish landlords as a + class--Instances--It would ultimately bring Ireland into the state in + which she was before the Great Famine--Proposed plan for the reform of + Irish land tenure--Questions as to the means of compensating Irish + landlords, a deeply wronged order of men. + + +Having traced the attempts that have been made to reform Irish land +tenure, in the last thirty years, and noticed the administration of the +new Irish land code, I must, for the sake of clearness, take a short +retrospect, and consider the Irish land system as it exists at this day; I +shall review it on the side of occupation first, that is, in the relations +of landlord and tenant. The agricultural rental of Ireland, we have seen, +has been, or is being, reduced about 40 per cent. since 1881, through the +operation of laws carried out by tribunals of the State; this proceeding, +unexampled in civilised lands, has been the means, I have proved, of doing +gross wrong to the Irish landed gentry. But this, if a signal, is only one +of the many acts of injustice perpetrated on a cruelly injured body of +men. The fee simple has been wrested from the Irish landlord, where he has +been subjected to the legislation of late years; he has been deprived of +the ownership which had been his birthright. An estate, nominally for +fifteen years, but really capable of being renewed for ever, has been +created against him by an unjust law; and this has been vested in his +former tenants, subject to the mode of land tenure known as the 'Three +F's,' the chief of these being 'fair,' that is, State-settled rents, in +the adjustment of which he has no voice. He may, no doubt, retain +fragments of his old proprietary rights; parts of his estate may be +excluded from the provisions of the law; he may be the lord of 'future +tenants;' he is left 'royalties,' such as minerals, mines, and timber; he +possesses most of his former legal remedies; and should the holders of the +lands, which had been his own, who have obtained the benefits of the +'Three F's,' infringe the statutory conditions imposed on them, they may +be dispossessed, and he may enter upon their farms again. But, +notwithstanding exceptions and possibilities like these, the Irish +landlord has, for practical purposes, been well-nigh assimilated to a +rent-charger, and his tenants have been nearly converted into owners of +the soil, an utter revolution in the whole land system, in truth, turning +it upside down. The status, indeed, of the Irish landed gentry now bears a +strong resemblance to that of the chief landlords of the eighteenth +century, who, separating themselves altogether from their lands, let them +in perpetuity at low rents, and, as a necessary consequence, produced the +middleman, the pest, as he has rightly been called, of Irish land tenure. + +The enormous and, as I believe, the unjust benefits secured by recent +legislation to the Irish tenant, are not, however, so complete as they +appear to be, and are not without disadvantages attendant on them. Tenants +of holdings, to which the law does not apply, such as tenants of demesnes +and large pastoral lands, if rightly excluded, nevertheless complain; and +'future tenants,' and petty occupants, who cannot afford to seek 'fair +rents' from the Courts, have, from their point of view, solid grounds of +complaint. The scope of the new land code is, therefore, to some extent, +restricted; and if the law has actually caused a general reduction of +rents, it has not secured the 'Three F's' for a considerable body of +farmers, not improbably a fourth or fifth part of the class as a whole. +And even the occupiers of the Irish soil, who have obtained the advantages +of the new mode of tenure, have not obtained these without a certain kind +of drawback. Completely separated as they now are from their former +landlords, they cannot expect indulgences from a class which considers +itself to have been shamefully wronged; the allowances, which, whatever +may be said, had been made to them, in thousands of cases, have, as a +rule, been altogether withdrawn; they get no help in making improvements; +they are usually obliged regularly to pay their 'fair rents;' above all, +landlords, of a strict or harsh nature, are sometimes on the look-out to +see if they do not violate the statutory conditions to which they are +subject, in order to convert them into 'future tenants,' outside of the +protection of the law, and even to reacquire their lands. These +circumstances are not without adverse effects; though unquestionably they +are far more than countervailed by the change which has been wrought in +Irish land tenure, and has given the Irish tenant the benefits already +described. Yet, even from this point of view, the law does not operate as +unreservedly in his favour as might be supposed. He has his 'fair rent,' +probably much too low; his 'fixity of tenure,' a perpetuity in all but +name; his right to 'free sale,' sometimes worth thousands of pounds. But, +as a rule, he can only gain these advantages at the cost of a lawsuit +recurring at short intervals of time, with the vexation and mischief this +brings with it, a lawsuit, too, of which the results may be more or less +doubtful. If, too, he is a saving and thrifty man he will hardly be able +to acquire lands for himself, as, in consequence of the right of 'free +sale,' the tenant right of these will have become immensely high; he will +be confined, in most instances, to the farm he holds. On the other hand, +if he be dishonest or imprudent, he will be tempted to run out and even to +injure his land, in order to effect a reduction of rent, or to sublet or +mortgage it should an opportunity be found. + +The new Irish land code has thus had this special feature: it has done +infinite harm to the despoiled landlord, but the tenant has not gained the +expected benefits. Let us now see what effect it has had on the great +industry on which the Irish landed classes depend, the main source of the +wealth of their country. Unquestionably, as I have remarked, over and over +again, the tenant in Ireland makes, for the most part, the plant of his +farm a necessary incident of the small-farm system; but the Irish landed +gentry, in the last half century, have done a great deal in the work of +improvement. Whatever interested calumny may falsely assert, they have +expended millions, as unerring statistics show, in planting, enclosure, +and, especially, in arterial drainage, this last beyond the reach of the +common peasant; they have, in thousands of instances, made the breeds of +stock better; they have made large allowances as regards farm buildings. +All this is now a thing of the past; the sometime landowner, in a real +sense, has been divorced from his former estate; law has prohibited him +from doing anything for it; his only interest is to collect the +rent-charge called, in mockery, 'fair rent.' On the other hand, tenants in +Ireland have, in a great many cases--I have briefly glanced at the +conclusive evidence--positively wasted or neglected their holdings, for +the express purpose of working rent down; this shameful expedient has been +hardly checked; the deterioration of a large area of land has been thus +accomplished. And, at the same time, as 'fair rent' is much lower than the +rent of the market, a considerable minority of this class have sublet or +mortgaged their lands, in order to get advances of which they stand in +need; this, no doubt, is a violation of the law; but it is a violation +difficult to prove, and they run the risk. In this way, as I have shown, +in a preceding chapter, the husbandry of Ireland has declined of late +years; woodland has been cut down recklessly to a great extent; main +drainage has been largely neglected, a ruinous thing in a wet climate; in +thousands of cases the farming of tenants at 'fair rents' is wretched. The +face of the country reveals these facts: Ireland is worse cultivated than +it was twenty years ago; indeed, the best farming, in the island, by many +degrees, is that conducted by a small number of men of substance, who +still hold on the footing of free contract, having settled with their +landlords, and taken out leases, a significant commentary on Irish +legislation since 1881. + +This subject, however, must be considered from a broader point of view, +and with reference to the community of Ireland, as a whole. A great +confiscation, I have said, has been wrought in the Irish land; the immense +fall in the value of the landlord's estate, and the immense rise in the +value of the tenant right, prove that property belonging to one class has +been transferred, wholesale, by law, to another, a result never +contemplated by responsible statesmen. And confiscation has produced its +inevitable effects; free dealing in land has been prevented; except to his +former tenants an Irish country gentleman cannot sell what remains to him +of his former estate, and that through the system of 'land purchase;' +capital shuns the Irish soil as if it were a quicksand; trustees and +mortgagees will not invest in it; in a word, as respects the class which +had been its owners, the Irish land has been bound in a kind of pernicious +mortmain. It is unnecessary to dwell on the resulting evils; one of the +sources of the wealth of Ireland has been made barren; a paralysis has +fallen on a member of Irish industry; what is, perhaps, even worse, a +sense of insecurity, of instability, of fear of unknown change, so widely +prevails in Irish landed relations, that they have become completely +unsettled, and are a mere chaos. And as vicious legislation has cut the +old landlord off from his estate, has assimilated him to the chief lord of +the eighteenth century, and is evolving, by degrees, the middleman, so the +effects of confiscation, by keeping land out of commerce, have unnaturally +limited and restricted its nominal ownership; in fact, many of the +features of the detestable penal laws of Ireland are reappearing in the +Irish land system, and are being reproduced by the modern Irish land code. +Another mischievous effect of this code, in another direction, requires +attention. The value of tenant right, we have seen, has enormously +increased; the sums paid by incoming to outgoing tenants, on the transfer +of farms, have, accordingly, become enormous; these purchasers, therefore, +are being subjected to heavy outlays, practically in the nature of +rack-rents, which hamper their industry, starve their capital, and most +injuriously affect good husbandry. One class of the community is thus +wronged for the behoof of another; and agriculture must, more or less, +suffer. + +Not the least, however, of the manifold evils caused by this legislation +have to be yet noticed. The ancient divisions of race and faith in the +Irish land system still continue; what was most harsh and oppressive in +them has been effaced; but they have become wider and more marked in the +last twenty years; and this is largely to be ascribed to the present land +code. A mode of land tenure, which produces harassing litigation at short +intervals of time, and makes landed relations cockpits for legal +conflicts, necessarily sets the landed classes against each other; it has +aggravated the old differences deep-rooted in the Irish soil. The +Protestant gentleman and the Catholic peasant are more estranged from each +other, in the southern provinces, than they have been, I believe, within +living memory; the same remark, too, applies to Presbyterian Ulster, where +the gentry belong, for the most part, to the late Established Church, and +the tenant classes are of the faith of John Knox; the lines of distinction +between these orders of men have deepened; and this alienation, concurring +with another cause, has contributed to the cry for the confiscation of the +Irish land, which is now being very generally raised, and to which I shall +refer afterwards. Another mischief of this legislation, at which I have +already glanced, is the widespread demoralisation it has caused, from the +nature of the case. The litigation in the Courts where 'fair rents' are +being fixed, is often a miserable spectacle of hard and mendacious +swearing productive of the worst effects on the human character. Peasants, +as a rule, do not scruple to pledge their oaths that their rents ought to +be at most a fourth of the rents they had paid for perhaps half a century; +the witnesses they call as valuers usually repeat these statements. The +claims, too, for exemption from rent, on account of improvements, are +often ridiculous, often shameful; I have seen sums paid for manures twenty +years old, gravely put forward as creating a claim for exemption; and the +subject of the deterioration of farms is another fruitful source of +falsehood. It is hardly necessary to comment on the results, as regards +self-respect and the moral sense of men, which must follow proceedings of +this kind, carried on, over whole counties, in thousands of cases; they +are, inevitably, in a very high degree, unfortunate; but, when law +encourages dishonesty, they were to be only expected. + +Such have been the fruits of the new Irish land code, on the side of the +occupation of the Irish land. Legislation, essentially faulty and unwise, +in conflict with economic science and the facts of the case, has taken +from the Irish landlords their chief proprietary rights, and forcibly +transferred these to their tenants; it has not conferred the benefits it +intended on an unfairly favoured class; it has wrought a revolution in the +Irish land system, in contravention to plain justice, and given it an +unnatural and evil aspect; it has caused iniquitous confiscation on a vast +scale and demoralisation profound and widespread, with the far-reaching +inherent mischiefs; and bad administration has made bad laws worse. +Political economy, spite of Mr. Gladstone, has not fled from this world at +his bidding; she looks on, so to speak, at the ruins in Ireland produced +by the violation of her most certain principles; I will add, she affirms +the claim to compensation of the Irish landlord, if the simplest equity is +not to be set at nought. As to the general situation evolved by the +present Irish land code, I may refer to these pregnant words of Mr. Lecky: +'It cannot be denied that this legislation has redressed some hard cases +and benefited a large number of tenants; and as few men look beyond +immediate consequences, or rightly estimate those which are indirect and +remote, this fact is accepted by many as its justification. For my own +part, I believe that it will one day be found that the evils resulting +from this policy have greatly outweighed its benefits, and that they will +fall far more heavily on another class than on the small class which was +directly injured. In a poor country, where increased capital, improved +credit, and secure industry are the greatest needs, it has shaken to the +very basis the idea of the sanctity and obligation of contract; made it +almost impossible to borrow any considerable sum on Irish land; +effectually stopped the influx of English gold; paralysed or prevented +nearly all industrial undertakings stretching into a distant future. It +has reacted powerfully upon trade, and thus contributed to impoverish the +Irish towns, while it has withdrawn the whole rental of Ireland from the +improvement of the soil, as the landlord can have no further inducement or +obligation to spend money on his estate. In combination, also, with the +Home Rule movement, it has driven much capital out of the land.'[143] + +I pass on to the legislation of late years, with respect to the Irish +land, on the side of ownership. I have briefly described what that +legislation is: a Conservative Ministry, impressed with the wrong idea +that Mr. Gladstone had 'created dual ownership,' by the ill-conceived +measure of 1881, resolved to abolish this evil thing if they could, though +it is the natural mould of Irish land tenure; and Parliament has allotted +L40,000,000 to attain this object, through the operation of what is +falsely called 'land purchase.' The mode of proceeding has been explained: +an Irish landlord, who desires to sell his estate to his tenants, can +obtain an advance for this purpose from the State, through the agency of +the Land Commission; the tenants are then made owners of their farms, +without contributing any moneys of their own, and hold at terminable +annuities much lower than even 'fair rents.' The transaction, therefore, +we have seen, is, in no sense, a purchase; it is a gift, in the nature of +a bribe; it is completely different from the policy of John Bright and the +sales of land made to tenants before 1885, in which these men paid part of +the price at least, the only real security for thrift and honesty. Of the +L40,000,000, nearly half, I have said, has been spent; and out of the +486,000 agricultural Irish tenants, some 50,000 have acquired their +holdings, in fee, under these conditions. The law thus applies to a mere +fraction of the class; it is idle to assert that this can do much to +extinguish 'dual ownership' in all Ireland; the sum required would be many +times more than that which alone has been made available; and the +process, at the present rate of 'purchases,' would not be accomplished +within a century. We may, therefore, pass away from this part of the +subject; but let us see how 'land purchase,' effected in this way, bears +on the position of the Irish landed gentry. The immense majority of this +order of men still cling to their native country and their homes; they +hate the idea of parting with the rights they retain in the land, trampled +down and injured as they have been; this is especially the case with the +best and most solvent landlords. But as the terminable annuities payable +on 'land purchase' are not nearly so high as even very low rents, not to +speak of the other conditions of this mode of tenure, it follows that +tenants who have thus been made owners are infinitely better off than +tenants still subject to rent; one class has great advantages, of which +the other is deprived; as a necessary consequence an artificial standard +is set up against rent, which does wrong to the landlord, from the nature +of the case; gives every tenant on his estate a grievance; and not +improbably may expose him to a determined refusal to pay any rent +whatever. + +'Land purchase,' therefore--the name is a mere untruth--has been a failure +as regards 'dual ownership;' and it is establishing against the Irish +landlord a false measure of rent, analogous to a base coinage, a strange +achievement of a Conservative Government. Let us next consider what has +been the working of this economic nostrum, with respect to the class, for +the benefit of which it was first prescribed, and which has reaped the +advantages it gives. The tenants, who have been made owners of their +farms, have, as a rule, discharged their obligations to the State very +well, though I could point to not a few exceptions; and there have been +strikes against the payment of the terminable annuities in some instances. +This may be sufficient for official bureaucrats; it is not sufficient for +those who know Ireland, and can impartially watch the course of events. +It was fondly expected that 'land purchase,' that is, bribing tenants in +Ireland to become owners of their farms, would create a powerful body of +freeholders loyal to the State; but this has already been seen to be a +mere delusion. As Parnell predicted would be the case, these 'purchasers' +are 'patriotic' in the highest degree; they fill the ranks of the United +Irish League, that is, of a conspiracy against our rule in Ireland, and +are numbered among its most efficient agents; human nature being what it +actually is, this is precisely what was to be expected. It was confidently +foretold, again, that these 'purchasers' would form a thriving class of +model farmers; and that their lands would be patterns of admirable and +improved peasant husbandry, but this forecast is being, in a great degree, +falsified. These men, 'rocked and dandled into their possessions,' in the +words of Burke, without a single guarantee for common prudence, and +especially without an effort of their own, have, in hundreds of instances, +turned out sorry failures; and it has been the almost universal practice +of the whole class to cut down every tree that grows on their lands, an +act of ruinous waste in a rain-drenched climate. Besides, as freehold +ownership is not an Irish idea--indeed, is opposed to Irish ideas--these +'purchasers' have, in many cases, following the example of tenants 'at +fair rents,' subdivided, sublet, or mortgaged their holdings; instead of +remaining owners in a true sense, they are becoming middlemen lording it +over rack-rented serfs. The agriculture, too, of hundreds of these farms +is slovenly in the extreme, for bribery does not promote industry; what is +'easy got, easy goes' is a true proverb; and, in addition, a number of +these men were really insolvent when they were made 'purchasers.' That +Ireland will blossom like a rose, under these conditions, is seen even now +to be a chimera; and there is much reason to believe that many of these +'purchasers' have become the prey of the race of local usurers, a +consummation that might have been predicted. 'I shall sell my estate,' a +witty Irishman once remarked, 'but I will keep two loan offices and four +public-houses; and in two generations my "purchasing" tenants will be too +happy to resell their lands to my grandsons.' + +A singular instance of 'land purchase,' and, indeed, of the working of +another part of the land code, has come under my notice of late; I can +answer for the accuracy of what I write; scores of similar cases could be, +probably, found. In 1852, an industrious Scottish tradesman invested the +savings of years of his life in buying a chief rent under the Encumbered +Estates Act; he gave L5000 for a perpetual rent-charge of L192, that is, +not quite 4 per cent. on his capital. The tenant of the lands subject to +the rent was a middleman, with an estate of about L3000 a year; he had +sublet the lands to a tenant in occupation of them, a slovenly, +ill-conditioned, and indolent farmer. The Land Act of 1887 passed; the +wealthy middleman, an excellent 'mark' for the chief rent, who, therefore, +had been obliged to pay the L192 a year, was empowered by the new law to +evade his contract, and practically to get rid of his interest; the owner +of the chief rent, therefore, had only the tenant in occupation to look to +for the discharge of his claim. This person was succeeded by his son, a +good-for-nothing and drunken man, who soon became head over ears in debt; +but he was declared 'a purchaser' by the Land Commission, and, subject to +a terminable annuity, was made owner of the lands. But the advance made +was not more than L2300; the representative of the hardworking Scotchman, +who had bought property, as secure, at the time, as Consols, was a loser +of more than half of his capital; he was simply cheated out of L2700, +through the operation of an iniquitous law; his indignant protests may +well be conceived. The subsequent history of this so-styled 'purchase' is +significant, and not without interest. The worthless owner took possession +of the lands; his first step was to cut down the woodland, until he was +stopped by a creditor to whom he owed a mortgage. Since that time he has +become insolvent in all but name, and cannot pay the annuity due to the +State; the Land Commission has been trying to sell the lands; but the +attempt has, hitherto, been a failure; the lands have been 'boycotted,' +and the market has been closed against a sale. These proceedings do not +require a word of comment; they strikingly illustrate how the agrarian +code of Ireland makes havoc of capital, annuls contracts, and confiscates +property for the behoof of dishonest thriftlessness. Meanwhile the happy +middleman enjoys his L3000 a year; I dare say he licks his lips as he +thinks of the Land Act of 1887, which scattered a just liability to the +winds. + +The most remarkable and the worst effect--with a revolutionary tendency in +no doubtful sense--of this mischievous system has, however, to be still +noticed. About one out of ten of the agricultural tenants of Ireland have +'purchased' their farms in the way described; the fund available for 'land +purchase' cannot include more than one in five; and the process is and +must be slow, owing to the law's delay. Legislation, therefore, with a +singular want of insight, has drawn, and is drawing, an unjust distinction +between 'purchasing' and rent-paying tenants; it is dividing them into a +small favoured class, and a multitude harshly left out in the cold--fat +sheep in one fold, lean goats in another; as the inevitable result, the +rent-paying tenant resents the benefits obtained by 'the purchaser;' and +the immense majority of the farmers of Ireland are made discontented with +their lot, from their point of view not without reason. It is idle to say +to this great body of men that they have already gained advantages from +the State, on which they never reckoned thirty years ago, and that they +have the 'Three F's,' and all that the phrase implies; those who have +secured much are eager to secure more; the unfair distinction arbitrarily +made against them is unintelligible and exasperating, man being what he +is. The policy of 'voluntary purchase,' as it is called, has, accordingly, +from the very nature of the case, provoked and called into being the cry +for the 'compulsory purchase' of the Irish land, now being heard far and +wide in Ireland--that is, for the forcible expropriation of all Irish +landlords, and for placing all their tenants, in their stead, as owners of +their estates. This demand has as yet been rejected by statesmen, and is, +I believe, both hopeless and shameful; but it has, nevertheless, some +logic on its side; it is a corollary from legislation essentially bad; +and, backed as it is by a large force of Irish opinion, it cannot be +ignored or treated with contempt. It is simply extraordinary that many +Irish landlords have been encouraging, and still encourage, 'voluntary +purchase,' on its existing lines, and will not perceive that it leads to +'compulsory purchase;' either from a desire to dispose of parts of their +estates, or from motives not easy to understand, they are promoting a +revolution, which, if accomplished, would assure their ruin, as I shall +conclusively prove afterwards. But the well-informed and most thoughtful +members of their class are not flies lured into a bottle by a bit of +sugar; they are alive to all that is involved in what is called 'land +purchase.' Many years ago, when Parliament was voting funds for 'voluntary +purchase,' on the present system, I indicated what would be the results; I +only claim credit for some share of common sense: 'Law will have been +severing the occupiers of the soil by an arbitrary process into a pampered +caste, marked off from a disfavoured multitude; and, as a necessary +consequence, the mass of tenants, kept in an inferior position, will be +filled with discontent--and from their point of view with perfect +justice--when, as the advances from the State run short, their prospects +of "land purchase" shall wane and diminish. An "ugly rush" will be made +throughout the country to force landlords, as a class, to sell, in order +to get a chance of buying; in Ulster the cry for "compulsory purchase," +already heard, will swell high and fierce.'[144] + +These, therefore, have been the fruits of the system called 'land +purchase' with euphemistic falsehood. 'Compulsory purchase,' a demand +caused by an unwise policy, is a question that must be fairly discussed; +it is nothing to the purpose that it has as yet made little way in +Parliament. This claim would have been regarded as sheer insanity thirty +years ago; it was scouted by John Bright as in the highest degree +mischievous, though John Bright was the first statesman who proposed +making tenants in Ireland owners of their farms, but through a real, not a +sham, mode of purchase. The compulsory purchase of the rented land of +Ireland is a policy that has advocates even in England and Scotland; and +it is lamentable to observe how British opinion seems to take little heed +how a measure of this kind would affect the position of the Irish +landlord, another of the many instances of its habitual disregard of the +plainest rights of property in land in Ireland. A set of doctrinaires, +ignorant of Irish nature and of the Irish land, imagine that 'the creation +of a peasant proprietary,' in all parts of Ireland, as the cant phrase is, +would, in any case, make the Union secure, and would promote tranquillity, +industry, and content. Some politicians still cherish the fond belief, +that thrusting Irish tenants, wholesale, into the place of their +landlords, by an act of violence without a parallel, would make Irish +government and administration more easy; and shut their eyes to the nature +of this policy. English and Scottish capitalists, who have made advances +on Irish estates, see in compulsory purchase the best probable means of +realising securities now in danger; a few great absentee landlords, eager +to part with their possessions in Ireland, at almost any price, are +possibly not opposed to this scheme; and so maybe a few bankrupt Irish +landlords, hoping to get a trifle out of a general shipwreck. The demand, +however, for compulsory purchase has its only real strength in Ireland; +and unquestionably it is widespread and far-reaching. The conspiracy +against British rule in Ireland, which has made the annihilation of Irish +'landlordism' one of its main objects, calls for compulsory purchase, as a +matter of course; it finds no difficulty in banding together the peasantry +of the southern provinces in support of a cry which means for this class +an improvement in their lot, and appeals to deep-rooted sentiments of +human nature. The Irish Catholic priesthood, too, back the movement to a +man, and so do the local Nationalist boards; for obvious reasons, both +these orders of men seek to drive the Irish landed gentry from their +homes, and to replace them by dependents in sympathy with them. The demand +has also extended to Ulster, chiefly on account of the harsh distinction +drawn between 'purchasing' and 'non-purchasing' tenants; it is economic +rather than social or political; but the cry for compulsory purchase is +perhaps loudest in parts of the northern province. Its principal champion, +at present, is an enthusiast, sincere, indeed, if without judgment and +insight; but he is sustained by bodies of farmers formidable in numbers at +least. + +The sharp and, as I think, the unfair distinction drawn by the present law +between tenant 'purchasers' and tenants still subject to the payment of +rent, has created, it cannot be said too often, the demand for the +compulsory purchase of the Irish land, and for this Lord Salisbury's +Government is largely responsible. But because an Irish peasant, on one +side of a fence, cannot obtain the benefits of land tenure, which his +neighbour, on the other side, has obtained, and may even have a right to +complain, it does not follow that compulsory purchase is a possible, or +aught but a disgraceful policy; other interests and considerations must be +taken into account. Let us first see how compulsory purchase would affect +the financial position of the Three Kingdoms. Great as the prosperity of +the Empire is, the strain on its resources is immense; the expenditure of +the State at home is vast, and on the increase; the war in South Africa, +and the settlement of that huge region, will cost unknown millions; the +reform of our military and even of our naval system, necessary to our +safety, will be a weighty burden for years; every Chancellor of the +Exchequer has declared that fiscal economy, as far as possible, is his +first duty. But what does the compulsory purchase of the Irish land +involve, and what, confessedly, are its essential conditions? Mr. +Gladstone, I have said, asserted, long ago, that the value of the +agricultural area of Ireland was L300,000,000; this estimate, I believe, +is too high; but, in the opinion of competent judges, it cannot be deemed +less than L150,000,000. But the forcible expropriation of the Irish landed +gentry on every principle of civilised law, as, indeed, Sir Michael Hicks +Beach has already insisted, would imply giving them a large additional +bonus; this probably would not be less than L50,000,000; the sum, +therefore, required for compulsory purchase, would, it may be assumed, be +not less than L200,000,000. Now, can any one imagine that the general +taxpayer, in the financial situation in which we are, and shall be for +years, will make himself liable for this colossal charge, equal to the +ransom Germany extorted from France, in order to bribe Irish peasants into +the ownership of their farms, and to effect an agrarian revolution, in +which he has no interest? I should like to see the Minister who would go +to the country on such an insane policy, and who would call on the hardly +taxed millions of England, Scotland, and Ireland, to burn huge holes in +their pockets for such an object, for simply robbing Peter to pay Paul, +and that without a pretence of right, or any conceivable good. And what +security would the Irish land afford for the payment of this enormous +impost? The terminable annuities due from the 'purchasing' tenants would, +it has pleasantly been said, be a sufficient guarantee; but men of common +sense are not to be caught by chaff; the idea is a vain and worthless +delusion. The 'No Rent Manifesto' and the 'Plan of Campaign' were +movements of Irish peasants, so to speak, of yesterday; what if another +Parnell were to arise and to issue a ukase that 'a foreign and alien +Government had no right to an unjust tribute;' and how could this be +collected by a Department of an absentee State? + +The general taxpayer, therefore, who, thirteen years ago, grumbled at a +demand of L5,000,000 only, will assuredly not fling L200,000,000, or half +that sum, into the Serbonian bog of the Irish land. It is hardly necessary +to dwell on so small a fact, 'that compulsory purchase would reduce the +income tax of Ireland about one-half, for nine-tenths of the tenant +'purchasers' would be below its level;' but even this cannot be left out +of sight. Conservative statesmen, it should be added, are especially bound +to reject this scheme; in 1886 they denounced, in emphatic language, Mr. +Gladstone's far less dangerous plan of making the State liable for +L50,000,000, to buy out Irish landlords; flagrant inconsistency in +politics should be eschewed. The probably fixed purpose of the general +taxpayer not to mulct himself heavily to fling the Irish soil to a mass of +peasants, is doubtless, and I say it with regret, the best security +against the destruction of the Irish landlords; this despoiled and +maltreated body of men just now fill the place in Irish affairs of the +'Injured Lady' of Swift's satire, gravely told by her lover across the +Channel that 'I had cost him ten times more than I was worth to maintain +me, and that it had been much better for him if I had been damned, or +burnt, or thrown to the bottom of the sea.'[145] Nevertheless, I have +faith in right-minded Englishmen, however prejudiced or ill-informed about +an unpopular class, if plain facts and figures are set before them; let us +see how it would fare with the Irish landlord were he forcibly +expropriated under compulsory purchase. I will take the case of an Irish +country gentleman, who, in the period between 1868 and 1878, had an income +from his estate of L1500 a year, subject to a family charge of L10,000 at +4 per cent., that is, had a net annual income of L1100. Owing to the +depression of agriculture since 1879, his rents would have naturally +fallen about L300 a year; but let us suppose that, through the operation +of the new Irish land code, they have been cut down to 'fair rents' of +L900 a year only. His annual income, therefore, would be L900 less by +L400, that is, he would still have L500 a year he could call his own; how +would it be with him were he forcibly sold out? Admit that his estate +would fetch eighteen years' purchase--the present average rate is +seventeen--that is, would realise L16,200; deducting, say, L200 for law +costs, this would be a net residue of L16,000. But the family charge would +absorb L10,000; the surplus would be L6000 only, producing, let us +calculate, L4 per cent.; this ruined man, therefore, who, little more than +twenty years ago, possessed an income of L1100 a year, would be left L240 +at the very utmost. I have taken care to understate the case; I challenge +attention to my figures; I ask honest Englishmen would not this be sheer +robbery, accomplished, to the disgrace of the State, in its name? + +It has been urged, however--and to those who know the facts, the statement +is cruel and shameful mockery--that the Irish landlord would only lose his +rented lands, and that 'he could live happily on the demesne land, which +he would still retain.' This would be simply impossible in the case of +nineteen-twentieths of the class; they would not have the means to keep +their demesnes up; they would be compelled to part with them at almost any +price; and the few, who would have the means, would, all but certainly, +with their beggared fellows, leave a country in which they had been foully +betrayed. It is notorious, indeed, that Irish Nationalist leaders, knowing +what compulsory purchase means, have marked down the demesnes of the Irish +landed gentry as their prey; associates of American Fenians and of the +Clan na Gael are to revel in the mansions of the Geraldines, the Butlers, +the O'Connors, the O'Neills, as Jacobins revelled in the mansions of the +La Tremouilles and the De Noailles. But man does not live by bread alone; +the material ruin of the Irish landlord would be bad enough; but the moral +consequences of his expropriation must not be left out of sight. Few of +the purchasers under the Encumbered Estates Acts care probably much about +the lands they have bought; the same remark probably applies to most Irish +absentees. But an immense majority of the Irish landed gentry are deeply +attached to their hearths and their homes; they are bound to their lands +by innumerable ties; they have been brought up with the sentiments which +property in land creates; in the pathetic words of an old chronicler, +'They do not wish to pray in foreign churches, or to lie in foreign +graves;' their hope has been to live and die amidst their ancestral +surroundings. The State has, in a special manner, encouraged this belief; +it rooted the Irish landlord in the soil to be its supporter; is it to +expel him from the position it has made for him, without a thought of the +shock to his best feelings this must produce? Would not such an act be +dishonourable, nay, infamous? Let us hear what the deepest of our +political thinkers, Burke, has written upon a somewhat parallel case: +'When men are encouraged to go into a certain mode of life by the +existing laws, and protected in that mode as in a lawful occupation--when +they have accommodated all their ideas, and all their habits to it, ... I +am sure it is unjust in legislature, by an arbitrary act, to offer a +sudden violence to their minds and their feelings; forcibly to degrade +them from their state and condition, and to stigmatise with shame and +infamy that character and those customs, which before had been made the +measure of their happiness and honour. If to this be added an expulsion +from their habitations, and a confiscation of all their goods, I am not +sagacious enough to discover how this despotick sport, made of the +feelings, consciences, prejudices, and properties of men, can be +discriminated from the rankest tyranny.'[146] + +I have referred to an instance, within my knowledge, of the operation of +the new Irish land code, in the case of a middleman, his under-tenant, and +a despoiled owner of a rent. I now refer to an instance, also within my +knowledge, of what compulsory purchase would do in the case of an Irish +landlord. This person is a scion of one of the princely Irish-Milesian +houses; his forefathers were lords of a tract extending from the Boyne to +the Shannon. They belonged to one of the famous 'five bloods of Ireland,' +acknowledged to be half-royal by Henry of Anjou; they intermarried with +the great Norman-Irish _noblesse_; one of their matronage was half-sister +of Surrey's fair Geraldine; the ruins of the abbeys they founded are still +to be seen. Their domains were torn from them in the reign of Mary Tudor; +but they fought stubbornly with their tribe in the great Desmond war; they +retained, though proscribed, the rank of princes, until the close of the +sixteenth century; leaders of the house then carried their swords into +foreign armies, and have given a field marshal to Austria and grandees to +Spain. The direct line of the chiefs, however, remained in Ireland; it +vegetated in obscurity until the Irish rising of 1689-90; one of its +members then appeared in the Parliament of James II. in Dublin, and +perished, at the head of his regiment, it is said, at Aughrim. The +fortunes of his descendants are not without interest; one is believed to +have been a companion-in-arms of Villars at Malplaquet and Denain; two of +his remote offspring, the tradition exists, perished in the ranks of +Napoleon's armies. But the heir of the family bowed under the yoke of the +Irish penal laws, and became a Protestant, at least in name; his near +kindred gave Ireland Anthony Malone, one of the most illustrious Irishmen +of the eighteenth century, and gave England the best commentator on her +most immortal poet. One of his representatives, the person of whom I +write, still possesses a fragment of the immense possessions his fathers +ruled; of more than thirty of their castles he has the wreck of one; a +scroll on the roof of his house bears the touching legend that he has +sprung from the loins of the old Milesian princes. He is not wholly +unknown as an Irish landlord of this day; curiously, too, his rental has +been hardly reduced by the visitations of the Land and the +Sub-Commissions. Is this scion of the best and the most ancient _noblesse_ +of Ireland to be banished in his old age from his home, and to be replaced +in it by ornaments of the Land, the National, and the United Irish +Leagues, for this would be one result of compulsory purchase? + +Let us imagine, however, that, owing to the malign influence which, +Spenser said, attends England in Irish affairs, the Irish landed gentry +were removed from the land, and their former tenants were put in their +place as owners. What would be the consequences, economic, social, +political, of this sudden agrarian revolution in one of the Three +Kingdoms? The distribution of the Irish soil between the classes which +would possess it, would be unfavourable, in the highest degree, to the +establishment of a 'peasant proprietary,' the common name in use on this +subject. Of the 486,000 tenant farmers in Ireland, some 132,000 hold +patches of from less than one to five acres in extent; are these to be +stereotyped as real land owners? More than 90,000 occupy from fifty to +five hundred acres and upwards; these include the great graziers of the +rich tracts of pasturage; do these supply elements of a 'peasant +proprietary' in any rational sense? The only class which even on +plausible, _a priori_ grounds could be made occupying owners of the land +would contain much less than 300,000 families; and probably it occupies +less than two-thirds of the island as a whole. Are all these bodies of men +to be lumped, so to speak, together, and universally to receive the +ownership of the soil; would not compulsory purchase, even on these +conditions, be the sheerest folly? Furthermore, the configuration of +Ireland and her climate make it next to impossible that a 'peasant +proprietary' could generally thrive within her borders; Nature herself +forbids an attempt to carry out, on a large scale, a settlement of the +kind. The central area of the island is a low watershed of wide extent, +from which a succession of streams descends through vast tracts of morass +and bog; in other parts of the country there are large and deep rivers, +curving as they approach the sea, and flowing through mountain spaces; the +lands they traverse are swampy, and require main drainage; a large part of +Ireland is composed of wild hill ranges only fit for the rearing of young +and coarse breeds of cattle; she possesses a fine area of the best +pasturage, confined, however, to a few counties; her true agricultural +area is comparatively small. Her climate, moreover, is wet to a proverb; +torrents of rain from the Atlantic fall on her plains for months; above +all, her inland towns are far from each other, and petty; scarcely one is +peopled by more than 10,000 souls. Any well-informed and right-judging +person who knows the conditions under which a 'peasant proprietary' can +alone flourish, must know that, from the nature of the case, it would be +a failure, in the circumstances in which it would be necessarily placed, +were it forcibly established in every part of Ireland. Ireland has little +in common with Belgium, with Northern Italy, with France; this settlement +of confiscation would go the way of the Englishry of the Middle Ages and +the Cromwellian colonists. + +The most conclusive argument against compulsory purchase has, +nevertheless, to be yet put forward. The state of things 'voluntary +purchase' is evolving would assuredly be aggravated a hundred-fold were +every tenant in Ireland made the owner of his farm by a revolutionary act +on the part of the State. It is significant, in the highest degree, that +from the time of the 'New Departure' to this hour, the conspiracy against +our rule in Ireland has clamoured for the expropriation of the Irish +landed gentry by force, and for the conversion of their tenants into +possessors of these estates; far better informed than British statesmen, +it has rightly calculated that this violent change would increase the +'Nationalist' sympathies of the Irish peasant; and this opinion is being +confirmed, to a great extent, by the results of 'voluntary purchase' being +now developed. The coarse materialist view that bribery will make a class +law-abiding and loyal, is opposed to human nature and fact; bribery will +not efface ideas, feelings, and tendencies, deep-rooted in history and +ancient tradition; above all, if it is a concession to agitation and a +rebellious movement, it will only quicken the animosity to the State and +the greed of the favoured class. Parnell, I have said, had his mind made +up on this subject; he always insisted that the Irish tenant, wherever his +holding had been made his own, would be 'more true to the cause than +ever;' it is curious that the confident prediction of a most able man +appears to have been persistently ignored. For the rest, the mischief +'voluntary purchase' is already doing would be enormously aggravated by +the effects of compulsory purchase. The Irish tenant farmers, made owners +of the land everywhere, would, like the present 'purchasers,' cut down +woodland wholesale; the country would be disafforested over an immense +area; the consequences to agriculture would be as bad as possible. +Arterial and main drainage too would, as a rule, be neglected; but these +would, comparatively, be trifling results; the compulsory purchaser would +deal with the land as their 'voluntary' fellows are now largely dealing, +but, in all probability, more generally, and in much a greater proportion. +Holding as they would nine-tenths of the Irish soil at terminable +annuities much lower than any rent, they would inevitably subdivide, +sublet, and mortgage their farms in tens of thousands of cases; they would +become middlemen, over whole counties, the harsh oppressors of a multitude +ground down by rack-rents; the worst kind of 'landlordism' would be +reproduced in the worst aspect. The tendency of events is even now +confirming what I wrote a long time ago on this subject: 'Freehold +ownership, therefore, would disappear more or less quickly over extensive +tracts, the "yeomen" would become a diminishing quantity, and these would +be replaced by a new class of landlords with tenants at competition rents, +that is, determined by the land hunger of the Celt. The transformation +would inevitably go on, for its causes would operate with intense force; +and before many years probably two-thirds of Ireland would have become a +land of mere peasant landlords placed over a mass of rack-rented +tenants.'[147] The creation of a universal 'peasant proprietary,' by +force, would, in fact, bring the Irish land system back by degrees into +the state in which it was before the Great Famine, when millions of +serfdom squatted on the soil, disorganising agriculture and preventing +social progress. + +These considerations, however, by no means exhaust the case against the +compulsory purchase of the rented land of Ireland. Irish landlords have +been decried, for an evil purpose, during many years; their position is +difficult and open to attack; but if they are an unpopular class, they +have been a civilising influence in Ireland of real value, the most +civilising influence, perhaps, in her three southern provinces. Their +annihilation, despoiled and impoverished as they are, would still withdraw +a large fund from Irish rural labour; and it would be most injurious to +agriculture in many ways, especially as regards main and arterial +drainage, an absolute necessity for the Irish soil, and scarcely possible +except under a system of large estates. Their extinction, too, Englishmen +ought not to forget, would deprive the State of one of its mainstays in +Ireland; the idea to the contrary growing up is a mere delusion; it was +not for nothing that Parnell and Davitt described this order of men as +'the British garrison' and insisted that were it once out of the fortress +the power of England in Ireland would certainly perish. The conversion of +Irish farmers universally into landowners would also have a ruinous effect +on many Irish industries. It would do infinite harm to many branches of +commerce, especially to trades of the higher type; it would be disastrous +to such towns as Dublin and Belfast, already beginning to protest against +it; and, whatever may be said, the prospect of it is dreaded by +agricultural Irish labourers as a class, which has always been ill-treated +by their masters, the farmers, though, owing to the influence of priests +and demagogues, they are unwilling to express the sentiments they really +feel. Compulsory purchase, in fact, is by no means so generally asked for +in Ireland as is supposed; her representation demands it by a great +majority of votes; but this representation, as I have pointed out before, +is not a true index of Irish opinion. Another consideration, too, should +be taken into account in coming to a reasonable conclusion on this +subject. The land system of England and Scotland, from a variety of causes +sufficiently known, is essentially different from that of Ireland; +politically, socially, economically, it has little in common with it. But +were Parliament to declare that the whole tenant class of Ireland were to +be transformed into fee simple owners, subject only to renders, much less +than true rents, and payable for a short space of time, I much doubt if +English and Scottish tenants would acquiesce, and would not agitate for +legislation of a similar kind, especially as British agriculture is still +heavily depressed. Leaseholders of large houses in towns, for long terms +of years, at ground rents, and a whole class of builders, assuredly would +join in such a demand; the contagion of revolution and socialism is always +perilous. English and Scottish landlords have usually played the part of +the Jew to the Samaritan as regards their Irish fellows; but 'proximus +ardet Ucalegon' might be borne in mind.[148] + +The Irish land system, therefore, from every point of view, is simply in a +deplorable state; it is an economic and social chaos, pregnant with +mischiefs and dangers of many kinds. Confiscation has wrought its work on +the Irish landlord; has shaken the structure of Irish society; and has +produced its inevitable results in banishing capital from the land, and in +dealing a weighty blow to Irish credit. The legislation of 1881, and of +subsequent years, has conferred immense advantages on the tenant class in +Ireland; but these have fallen short of what might be supposed; this class +declares itself to be dissatisfied with its lot; it is clamouring for the +wholesale transfer to itself of the rented lands of Ireland, through what +is known as compulsory purchase, that is, corruption and spoliation +combined in an act of the State. And these efforts of legislation, +essentially unwise, in direct conflict with fact and economic science, a +mere makeshift to stave off agitation and trouble, are, in all +probability, by no means the worst. Demoralisation has spread throughout +Irish landed relations, affecting them, unfortunately, in many ways; +divisions of class have been made worse, as well as the old divisions of +race and faith; respect for contracts and obligations has been destroyed; +dishonesty and thriftlessness have been favoured, and industry and honesty +not encouraged; an evil spirit of discontent and desire for change is +abroad; agriculture is plainly on the decline; there is nothing secure or +settled in the land. Vicious as the Irish land system unquestionably was +before Mr. Gladstone first took it in hand, I believe that, having regard +to the general interests of the State, it is still more vicious at the +present time; it has been transformed, but, on the whole, transformed for +the worse. As I wrote before, when commenting on the position of affairs +in Ireland, before the Land Act of 1870, a revolution only could have +removed the deep-rooted ills in all that related to the land; a revolution +alone could remove them now. But in the one instance, as in the other, the +evil caused by a revolution would be infinitely greater than the good; a +new agrarian revolution in Ireland would be a curse to her; it is better, +as Burke has remarked, to try to repair even ruins than to blot out every +trace of the edifice. Still, taking it as we find it, can nothing be done +to amend, in some measure, at least, the existing land system? Much of it, +I admit, must be left untouched; the principle of settling rent, through +the agency of the State, false as it is, must continue to work; the +principle of so-called 'land purchase' must, within reasonable limits, be +still given free scope. But something in the nature of reform is, I think, +possible; the discussion of the subject may be of use; I contribute my +mite to it, if with unfeigned diffidence. + +In order to find out the truth, and thoroughly to clear the ground, a +Commission, I suggest, ought to be appointed, as important as the Devon +Commission of nearly sixty years ago; it should investigate the Irish Land +Question in all its branches. Its President should be a great English +nobleman--the nation would have confidence in the Duke of Bedford, a +princely and most liberal English landlord; but the judicial element +should be strong in it; English and Irish judges should be among its +members; it should include trained agricultural experts: it should have +representatives of Irish landlords and tenants. It should examine the +Irish land system as this existed before 1870; should review the whole +series of Irish Land Acts, from 1870 to the present time, and inquire into +their results and tendencies; should carefully consider the operation of +the tribunals selected to carry out the new Irish land code, especially as +regards the fixing of 'fair rents,' and that not with respect to their +procedure only, an unjust limit imposed on the Fry Commission, but with +respect to the principles that have been adopted and the methods pursued; +it should deal exhaustively with the subject of so-called 'land purchase,' +and see whether it has not directly led to the demand for compulsory +purchase; it should take evidence as to 'peasant proprietary' and its +creation; and it should make a complete and searching report, with a view +to the legislation it might recommend. And if I am not altogether +mistaken, such a Commission would state, in emphatic language, that the +present Irish land code was ill designed, even if it cannot be now much +changed; that its administration has been attended with grave errors; that +cruel wrong has been done to Irish landlords, while Irish tenants have not +obtained what was hoped for; that the economic and social results have +been deplorable; that if 'land purchase' cannot be stopped, it is a bad +expedient on its present lines, and that the cry for compulsory purchase +has been its evident effect; and that extensive, still more universal +peasant ownership, is an impossible and would be a pernicious policy. +Finally, if I am not much mistaken again, such a Commission would report +that a reform of the Irish land system, if very difficult, should be +attempted; and that, in its main scope and operation at least, it should +be carried out on the side of land tenure, that is, in the relations of +landlord and tenant, as has been the opinion of every thinker from Burke +onwards, who has not been swayed by the exigencies of agitation, or of +party politics. + +I proceed briefly to put my scheme forward, assuming that I have made a +reasonably correct forecast. I may say it has been a subject of reflection +during many years, indeed, since the legislation of 1881; Mr. Gladstone, +in his place in the House of Commons, pointedly approved of a tract in +which I set forth my views; and so, curiously enough, did Parnell. It is +impossible, I have said, to transform the existing system of Irish land +tenure; a wide departure from it cannot be made; but improvement is really +feasible within certain limits. My object would be to get rid of palpable +evils, inseparable from the present state of things; to make the positions +of both Irish landlords and tenants in some degree better than they now +are; to place the Irish land system on a somewhat less precarious basis. +In the first place, the law as to the exemption of tenants' improvements +from rent, an excrescence on the Land Act of 1881, and made extravagant by +the Land Act of 1896, should be restricted in its application to some +extent; as it stands, it is a fruitful cause of injustice, of +demoralisation, and of hard swearing, producing endless litigation to very +little purpose; claims in respect of improvements ought to be more +limited, in point of time, than they are; a check should be placed on +obsolete and illusory claims; this would be advantageous, I think, to all +interests involved. Again, it would be impracticable to exclude from the +operation of the present land code lands that have been already brought +within its scope; but a more precise definition should be made of the +lands that are intended to be now excluded--demesnes, town parks, +residential holdings, and large pastoral farms; the decisions of the +Courts, in this province, are very perplexing; a good definition would +make litigation very considerably less. These changes, I am convinced, +would do much appreciable good; but I would go a long way farther in +attempting to make the status of both landlord and tenant in Ireland less +insecure and vexatious than it now is. In the first place, leaving lands +now excluded out, I would make all agricultural and pastoral Irish tenants +entitled to the tenure of the 'Three F's,' removing the prohibition as to +'future tenants,' a distinction that never ought to have been made, and, +as far as possible, securing this mode of tenure to the poorest tenants, +by means to which I shall advert afterwards. In the next place, I would +make an earnest effort to lessen the ruinous litigation and the +instability caused by the statutory leases renewable at short intervals of +time. The tenant should have 'fixity of tenure' in a real sense; the +estate created in his favour against the landlord ought not to be one of +fifteen years only, however indefinitely it may be extended; I would +prefer to see it an estate for ever; but, as in the present state of +agriculture, there would be objections to this, on account of the +uncertainty of the rate of rent, it might be an estate for a limited term. +But the term ought not to be less than thirty years at least, renewable, +of course, like the shorter term of fifteen; this would quiet possession +and get rid of lawsuits for the period of a generation of men. The tenant +should retain his right of 'free sale;' but I would make the conditions +less stringent than they are under the existing law. + +The position of the Irish tenant would thus be greatly improved; the +sphere of the 'Three F's' would be largely extended; he would have 'fixity +of tenure,' for a long time, at least, without the hazard and loss of +litigation every fifteen years; his right of 'free sale' would be less +restricted; and he would have distinct advantages, as respects 'fair +rent,' under the part of my plan I am about to explain. I turn to the +position of the Irish 'landlord'--I still use this expression and that of +'tenant,' though both words are hardly applicable to existing facts; this, +too, in my judgment, would be made much better. The estate that is now +created against him would still be preserved; I wish it were a perpetual +estate, but it would be one for thirty years at least; he would, +therefore, remain assimilated to a rent-charger, as he is at present. But +like his tenant he would be comparatively free from lawsuits; he would be +less harassed by claims in respect of improvements; he would have, in many +particulars, a more stable tenure. He should, of course, retain the +'royalties' still reserved to him--mines, minerals, timber, and such +things; and he should have the title to the statutory conditions he now +has; but as his reversionary rights would be somewhat lessened, he should +be compensated for these by a small money payment. With one great +exception he should have the legal remedies to enforce the rights he now +possesses; and that exception would be of great importance. I have always +thought the law of ejectment for non-payment of rent harsh; it is an +innovation on the ancient Common Law; it sometimes causes forfeitures far +from just; it is not properly applicable to tenancies of long duration. I +would certainly abolish this mode of procedure; I would instead of it give +the landlord a power to sell the tenant's lands, by a procedure analogous +to that of bankruptcy, should default be made in the payment of the rent, +or rather the rent-charge that might be due. The advantage to both +landlord and tenant would be great: the first would have a remedy more +expeditious and just than he has; the second, should the land be sold and +lost to him, would, as a rule, have a surplus over and above his debts; +unlike what is sometimes the case in evictions, he would realise for +himself his whole legitimate interest in the land. This single reform +would do much to make 'fair rent' a less onerous charge than it now is. + +By these means the status of the Irish landlord would be made by many +degrees more secure; the Irish tenant would acquire an interest in the +land much more durable and stable than he has now, in fact, nearly +equivalent to full ownership, subject to a rent-charge; and if his +interest were made a perpetuity, as I hope would be the case at last, he +would be assimilated to an owner subject to a perpetual rent, or to an +English copyholder subject to a similar render. This is the position Burke +proposed he should have, considerably more than a century ago;[149] it is +that which has been advocated by John Stuart Mill, and, I am happy to add, +by Mr. John Morley; it is the only position, compatible with common sense +and justice, which the new Irish land code has left possible, for I put +the quackery of compulsory purchase out of sight, and voluntary purchase +is a bad half-measure. The great subject of fixing rent by the State would +remain; for, unjustifiable as this expedient is, it is impossible, after +what has happened, to dispense with it. Without imputing personal motives +or moral blame to any one, the Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions +ought, I am convinced, to cease to be the agency to fix 'fair rents;' +however unconsciously, in my judgment, they have often proceeded on false +principles, and have done immense, if not wilful wrong; they are decried +by landlords and tenants alike in Ireland. Besides, there is a +constitutional objection to their adjusting rent; the Land Commission is +entrusted with the task of carrying out 'land purchase;' it has a direct +inducement to whittle rents away, in order to facilitate the sale of land; +its interest and its duty are thus placed in conflict. Be this as it may, +my plan for fixing 'fair rents' in Ireland by the State would be +altogether different. In the first place, a definition of 'fair rent' +should be made by statute, and should dominate, so to speak, the subject; +the omission of this criterion has caused grave injustice. This having +been made, I would adjust Irish rents by a method much better, I believe, +than that now in existence. A body of competent and well-paid valuers of +land should be formed--there would be no difficulty about this in +Ireland; these men should visit, when required, estates; and having heard +what landlords and tenants had to say on the spot, should declare what +they consider the 'fair rents' of farms, making a deduction for +improvements as arranged by a reformed law, and taking waste and +deterioration into account. The reports made by the valuers should be +complete and explicit; they would probably satisfy landlords and tenants +in most instances; but dissatisfied persons should have a right to an +appeal, which should be a full rehearing of all the facts in issue; but +the appeal should be at the peril of costs against unsuccessful suitors. +The tribunals to decide the appeals should, I suggest, be composed of two +eminent judges, for each of the four provinces, assisted by trained +agricultural experts; but the authority of the judges should prevail on +all questions. From these Courts a further appeal should run to the Court +of Appeal in Ireland, on all matters of law and fact, and ultimately +should run to the House of Lords; the present restricted appeal to the +Land Commission has been little better than a sorry mockery of right. + +The scheme I propose has obvious defects; it sanctions the vicious +principle of State-settled rents, a thing unknown in lands outside of +Ireland, a defiance of the simplest axioms of economic science. But it +endeavours at least to improve a bad system of tenure dealing with +accomplished facts now beyond recall; I certainly think it would make the +relations of Irish landlords and tenants better than they are, and would +tend to place both classes in the positions which, as affairs now stand, +they will probably, in the long run, occupy. As regards 'alternative +policies,' as they have been called, I have set forth the reasons that the +compulsory purchase of the Irish land would be, I believe, impossible, +and, were it possible, would be a confiscation of the foullest kind, +ruinous to Great Britain and Ireland alike. I have also shown how the +present system of so-styled 'voluntary purchase' is, in my judgment, +essentially immoral, and pregnant with dangers; and I have indicated the +results being already produced. That system, however, must go on; for the +present it cannot be arrested; a Conservative Government still pins its +faith on it, as a Whig Government, half a century ago, pinned its faith on +the Encumbered Estates Act; but a 'peasant proprietary' rooted in +corruption will hardly succeed, and 'voluntary purchase' draws the worst +kind of distinctions in Irish land tenure. The acceleration, indeed, of +this 'remedy' has been deemed advisable; and as long as the sum voted by +Parliament is not expended, the system evidently must continue in force. +Some of its evils, however, would be lessened were the State to reserve to +itself the woodland, which tenant 'purchasers,' as a rule, cut down and +sell; and if tenants proved to be solvent were compelled to advance part +of the money required to transfer their lands to themselves. It is +revolting to my mind to see a wealthy Irish farmer bribed into the +ownership of his farm by an Act of the State, without having paid a +shilling of the price. I commend this spectacle to the hard-pressed +general taxpayer. + +I need hardly say that, under the scheme I propose, existing interests of +tenants should remain intact, and statutory leases should be allowed to +come to an end, before a change should be made by law in the position they +hold. The question of compensating the Irish landlords would remain; a +very few words on this will suffice. I must remind the reader, as I have +already shown, that the Land Act of 1881 was passed on the condition that, +should experience prove that real injury had been done to this order of +men, their right to indemnity would be plain; Mr. Gladstone's language was +unequivocal; the House of Commons approved. Nor can any reasonable doubt +exist that the course of legislation from 1881 to 1896 has confiscated the +property of the class to an immense extent; the simple fact that the +value in Ireland of the fee simple in land has been reduced by a third at +least, and that the value of the tenant right has been increased in about +the same proportion, points to a conclusion evident to impartial minds. I +am satisfied as to what would be the report on this subject of the +Commission I should wish to see appointed; it could not avoid drawing an +inference that cannot be resisted. The question, therefore, will have to +be faced; the good faith of Parliament is virtually at stake; and if a +pledge made in the name of the State is not to be broken, the right of the +Irish landlords to compensation is complete. Independently, too, of +considerations of this kind, it is a recognised principle that should a +policy have caused loss to a class, the State is morally bound to make the +loss up; a violation of this principle is unjust and dangerous alike. I +quote from John Stuart Mill on this very question: 'The principle of +property gives the landowners no right to the land, but only a right to +compensation for whatever portion of their interest in the land it may be +the policy of the State to deprive them of. To that their claim is +indefeasible. It is due to landowners and to owners of any property +whatever, recognised as such by the State, that they should not be +dispossessed of it without receiving its pecuniary value, or an annual +income equal to what they have derived from it. If the land was bought +with the produce of the labour of themselves or their ancestors, +compensation is due to them on that ground; even if otherwise, it is still +due on the ground of prescription. Nor can it ever be necessary for +accomplishing an object by which the community altogether will gain, that +a particular portion of the community should be immolated. When the +property is of a kind to which peculiar affections attach themselves, the +compensation ought to exceed a bare pecuniary equivalent.... The +legislature, which, if it pleased, might convert the whole body of +landlords into fundholders or pensioners, might, _a fortiori_, commute +the average receipts of Irish landowners into a fixed rent-charge, and +raise the tenants into proprietors; supposing always that the full market +value of the land was tendered to the landlords, in case they preferred +that to accepting the conditions proposed.'[150] + +Assuming, then, the case for compensating the Irish landlords to have been +made out, compensation can be afforded without the loss of a shilling to +the State. The _bona fide_ encumbrances on their estates, that is, those +which represent advances in cash, are now at an interest of from 4 to 5 +per cent.; the State could pay off those which were perfectly secure at an +interest of 2-1/4 per cent., and could make the landlords chargeable with +interest at 3 per cent., in order to provide against possible loss. As for +encumbrances that were not perfectly secure, the State should only pay off +what was well charged; but it should do this on the same conditions; and +it should declare hopeless encumbrances extinct. This would be a +considerable and just boon to the Irish landlords; the securities taken +by the State should be in the form of debentures, which would pass from +hand to hand in the market; and many owners of encumbrances would no doubt +accept sums less than their full demands, for these, they well know, are +at present in danger. I would go, however, farther in relieving the Irish +landlords; their estates are subject to a mass of family charges created +under a different order of things; if the State has arbitrarily cut down +the fund set apart for these, by a wholesale reduction of rents, I cannot +understand how it is not the simplest justice to cut the charges down in +some fair proportion. At all events, I make these suggestions for what +they may be worth; if right is to be done to the Irish landed gentry, and +a gross breach of public faith is not to be made, some relief of this kind +should be extended to them. Very possibly this will not be afforded; but I +venture to remind politicians that even an unpopular class cannot be +cruelly wronged and sacrificed, without doing injury to all classes, and +shaking to their foundations the clear rights of property. And I openly +avow that, in my judgment, it would be in the highest degree against the +national interest to annihilate this body of men, as must probably happen, +should things in Ireland be left as they are. What if they are the heirs +of conquest and confiscation in the past? Is that a reason for destroying +them after the lapse of centuries, and when England planted them in the +land to be her mainstay? What if, in instances, comparatively few in the +extreme, they have abused the social trust imposed on them? Was not this +because the opportunity was given by law, and was not the law the work of +successive Parliaments? Is it not a fact that British ministers, so to +speak, of yesterday, declared that they were secure in their proprietary +rights; and that Mr. Gladstone solemnly acquitted them of what had been +laid to their charge? On the other hand, have they not been for ages the +staunchest friends of England in Irish affairs, especially in troubled +and perilous times? Is it for nothing that they have been called the +British garrison by her foes, the strongest obstacle to rebellion and +treason? And is a class, which has, on the whole, been a civilising +influence, for many years, in Ireland, and which has given the State far +more than a due proportion of worthies--warriors, orators, statesmen, +thinkers, men of eminence in all the arts of life--to be sacrificed at the +bidding of a conspiracy bent on subverting British rule in Ireland, or in +deference to false and perilous theories? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE QUESTION OF THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND + + The subject briefly considered--Financial position of Ireland before + 1782, and under Grattan's Parliament--Her taxation and debt small + before 1798--Ireland financially a distinct country--At the Union, + Pitt wished to 'assimilate her in finance' with Great Britain, but + this impossible, and why--Ireland's contribution after the Union--This + was unjust, but it left her financially a distinct country--Ireland + made nearly bankrupt--The compromise of 1816--The Irish Exchequer + closed, and the Irish and British debts consolidated--The object of + the compromise was rather to relieve Ireland from her burdens than to + assimilate her in finance with Great Britain--She still remained for + many years financially distinct from Great Britain, and is so still to + some extent--The conduct of Peel a striking proof of this--Mr. + Gladstone imposes the income tax on Ireland, and her spirit duties are + largely raised--Injustice of this policy--The Committee of + 1863-64--Ireland does not obtain financial justice--The Report of the + Childers Commission made upon a reference by Mr. Gladstone following + Mr. Goschen--The Commission declares that Ireland has been greatly + overtaxed for many years--Evidence on which it has founded this + conclusion--Examination of arguments to the contrary--Another + Commission promised, but the promise not fulfilled--Importance of + settling this question. + + +The financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland have been a +subject, at intervals of time, no doubt, of strong controversy during a +whole century. I shall not harp on the saying of Johnson to an Irish +friend, 'Avoid a Union with England, she will only rob you;' but, in the +opinion of well-informed Irishmen, the fiscal treatment of Ireland, since +1800-01, strikingly illustrates the significant remark of Burke, 'When any +community is subordinately connected with another, the great danger of the +connection is, the extreme pride and self-complacency of the superior, +which, in all matters of controversy, will probably decide in its own +favour.' There is no reason to impeach the good faith of Pitt and +Castlereagh; but the financial arrangements they made for Ireland, when +the Union became law, were denounced by the most distinguished Irishmen of +the day; these imposed on Ireland an overwhelming burden, and, in fact, +reduced her to the very edge of bankruptcy. A compromise was effected in +1816-17; this has been described as a generous boon to Ireland; but it was +at best a slight relief from injustice; and it weakened securities she had +against fiscal exaction, while it involved her in liabilities which, if +remote, were not the less possible. It is a most significant fact that +Peel, who, as Chief Secretary from 1812 to 1818, was familiar with the +economic state of Ireland, refused, though under the strongest +inducements, to apply to Ireland the fiscal charges extended to her by one +of his brilliant successors; the most sagacious financier of the +nineteenth century played, in this matter, a very different part from the +most impulsive and not the least unscrupulous. In 1853, and from thence in +other years, Mr. Gladstone, in order to carry out a policy distinctly +opposed to many Irish interests, subjected Ireland to a sudden and heavy +load of taxation, exactly at the time when, for the plainest reasons, she +ought to have been exempted from it; from that day to this, Irishmen, who +understand the question, are agreed that this was gross, nay, cruel, +injustice. The whole subject of British and Irish financial relations was +sent by Mr. Gladstone to a Commission in 1893, here following the example +of Mr. Goschen; a careful inquiry was held during many months; the Report +of the Commission was startling and important in the extreme. This +tribunal, mainly composed of eminent English experts, announced, and that +almost with one voice, that Ireland was being enormously overtaxed, and +had been for upwards of forty years; and it plainly intimated that a +remedy for this wrong should be found. No real answer has been made to +this remarkable judgment; the attempts at answers that have been made are +nearly all mere trifling; Lord Salisbury's Government evidently believes +that an answer is not possible; it promised to appoint another Commission +to investigate certain parts of the subject; years have passed, and it has +not performed its promise. Meanwhile, even amidst the hurly-burly of Irish +politics, Irishmen of all parties have united in a demand for redress; and +if the demand is not pressed with extreme vehemence, it is sustained by +all that is best in Irish opinion. It is obviously unwise, and it may +become dangerous, to continue to ignore such a claim; in any event the +financial relations of the Three Kingdoms are not the least important of +'Present Irish Questions;' I shall briefly examine it in this chapter. + +It is unnecessary to dwell on the financial relations of Great Britain and +Ireland before 1782 and the Union. England held the position of an +absolutely dominant State before 1782, Ireland that of a conquered and +despised colony; Ireland was under the control of the British Parliament, +and was governed by English officials supreme at the Castle. Ireland was +excluded from the foreign and colonial trade of Great Britain; her +agriculture and manufactures were half destroyed by the selfish jealousy +and greed of her imperious neighbour. She contributed, on the other hand, +nothing to the treasury of the ruling power; she had little or no part in +British wars, or in building up the edifice of the Empire, except through +her soldiers in the British army; she was free from British debt and from +British taxation. In these circumstances, grievous as was the incubus of +Protestant ascendency upon the land, it is remarkable what material +progress she made; her Parliament, though little more than a local vestry, +unquestionably promoted her material welfare; she was very lightly taxed, +and was free from debt for many years. She was still so completely +distinct from Great Britain, that it was not until 1769 that her +Parliament agreed that 15,000 men, of whom 12,000 were to remain in +Ireland, should be enrolled for the defence of the State; before that +time, she was only obliged to maintain a small British force within her +borders. After a partial relaxation of the restraints on her commerce +caused by the stress of the American War, and by the famous volunteer +movement, Ireland obtained legislative independence in 1782; she ceased to +be subject to the British Parliament, and to fill the position of a +degraded colony; she became, in theory at least, an independent State in +many respects. Her Parliament was all but sovereign in name; Ireland was +now united to Great Britain only by the link of the Crown; by an executive +always despatched from Downing Street; and, it must be added, by the +corruption of her Houses of Lords and Commons. She was thus more than ever +a distinct country; in fact, most British statesmen had soon perceived +that the celebrated settlement of 1782 greatly weakened her old connection +with England. She advanced, however, markedly in prosperity for many +years, until the French Revolution arrested this; her debt was little more +than L2,000,000 for a long time, her taxation only about L1,000,000. But +by the close of the eighteenth century these figures had been disastrously +changed; her debt had risen to upwards of L28,000,000, her taxation to +about L2,500,000. This great increase had been partly caused by the costly +expenditure of her transformed Parliament, which had spent considerable +sums on public works, and on economic experiments of different kinds; but +five-sixths of it was probably caused by the enormous charge incurred by +the Rebellion of 1798--one of the most woeful tragedies of Irish +history--and by the suppression of that ill-starred movement.[151] + +The Rebellion led at once to the Union; it precipitated what had perhaps +become a necessity of State. The great measure of Pitt was badly designed, +and was, moreover, tainted by a grave breach of faith; it was only what +was called a 'Protestant Union,' that is, it rested upon false and narrow +foundations; it deceived Catholic Ireland, and did her gross wrong; above +all, it did not effect its main object, and incorporate the lesser with +the more powerful country. It left Ireland, hitherto completely distinct, +still, to a very considerable extent, a distinct State; she retained a +separate Government and Administration, separate Courts of Justice, a +separate Exchequer for many years; this shadow of separation, as Foster, +one of her ablest worthies, foretold, would give a demand for separation +substance.[152] The financial arrangements between Great Britain and +Ireland were practically altogether the work of Pitt. A disciple of Adam +Smith, the minister's wish was to 'assimilate the two countries in +finance;' to place both under the same fiscal system, to make taxation in +both uniform. But in 1800, the National Debt of Great Britain was more +than L446,000,000, and her taxation was about L3 a head; the National +Debt of Ireland, we have seen, was some L28,000,000, and her taxation by +the head not more than 10_s._; this immense inequality made 'assimilation +in finance' impossible. Besides, Pitt, as a matter of course, knew that +Great Britain was a very rich country, and Ireland perhaps the poorest in +Europe; he was too great a financier to accept the false and shallow +theory that, as between two communities wholly unequal in wealth, equal +taxes were really equal burdens, and could be just; he had emphatically +remarked in 1785, when his celebrated 'Commercial Propositions' were +opposed by the selfish monopolies of British commerce, 'If one country +exceeded another in wealth, population, and established commerce in a +proportion of two to one, he was nearly convinced that that country would +be able to bear near ten times the burden that the other would be equal +to.'[153] It had become necessary, therefore, at the time of the Union, to +place the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland on a basis +that had nothing in common with uniformity of taxation, and a common +fiscal system; 'assimilation in finance' was for the present to be +indefinitely postponed. + +The financial settlement made at the Union distinctly embodied these +principles, and was carried by Castlereagh through the Irish Parliament, +by what methods history records with shame. Like Pitt, the Chief Secretary +looked forward to a time when Great Britain and Ireland might be under the +same fiscal system; but at this juncture, this consummation was, he +acknowledged, hopeless. Ireland was, financially, to remain a separate +country; she was to have a separate exchequer and separate taxes; her +National Debt was to be kept distinct from that of Great Britain. She was +to furnish only a contribution to the State; and Castlereagh declared, +over and over again, that this contribution was to be only in proportion +to her means, and that in no event was she to be unduly taxed. 'The great +point to be ascertained is the best criterion that can be found of the +relative means of the two countries, in order to fix the relative +proportions of their contributions.... As to the future, it is expected +that the two countries will move forward together, and unite with regard +to their expenses in the measure of their relative abilities.' By a +comparison made between British and Irish imports and exports, and between +the values of certain commodities, Castlereagh came to the conclusion that +the contributions which Great Britain and Ireland ought to be expected to +make for the general support and administration of the State, should be, +respectively, fifteen- and two-seventeenths, that is, Great Britain was to +pay about 88 per cent., and Ireland about 12 per cent. of the sum total. +This proportion was to be made liable to revision at the end of twenty +years; for this provision, Castlereagh remarked, gave 'Ireland the utmost +possible security that she cannot be taxed beyond the measure of her +comparative ability, and that the ratio of her contributions must ever +correspond with her relative wealth and prosperity;' and then followed +arrangements which undoubtedly had the 'assimilation of Great Britain and +Ireland in finance' remotely in view; but subject to limitations that +would preserve for Ireland her fiscal rights, and would secure her from +taxation beyond her means, and unjust. It was proposed that if, at some +future time, the debts of both countries should be discharged, or if their +debts and their contributions were in the same proportion, Great Britain +and Ireland might be 'assimilated in finance,' and placed under the same +fiscal system; but this was to be on two express conditions, that the +circumstances of the two countries should admit of this change, and that, +in any case, should the change be made, Ireland--as was the case of +Scotland when her Union took place-should have the benefit of such +'exemptions and abatements' of taxation as might be deemed proper, and +the circumstances of the situation might allow. The meaning of the +technical words, 'exemptions and abatements,' interpreted of late years in +a pettifogging sense, was fully recognised at the time, and for a long +subsequent period, indeed, has been recognised to this day by most of our +leading statesmen, namely, that Ireland was not to be taxed unfairly or +beyond her resources, as Castlereagh had repeatedly promised.[154] + +The Opposition in the Irish Parliament had many able lawyers--the names of +Saurin, of Plunket, of Bushe are still known to fame; it is to be +regretted, perhaps, that these powerful minds did not examine with more +jealousy the conditions under which Great Britain and Ireland might be +'assimilated in finance,' distant as the contingency appeared to be; did +not criticise more sharply words that might be wrested from their accepted +sense; and trusted too much to Castlereagh's phrases. But the attention of +the Opposition was rather directed to the Union in its political than in +its financial aspect; it rather denounced the attempt to destroy the +settlement of 1782 than scrutinised the terms of the fiscal system to be +imposed on Ireland, at least, as these were concerned with the future. The +arrangements, nevertheless, by which Ireland was to make the contribution +of the two-seventeenths were fiercely assailed in both the Houses in +College Green; Foster described the calculations of Pitt and Castlereagh +as utterly false, and declared that the charge to be borne by Ireland was +much too large; Grattan echoed this opinion in characteristic language: +'Though I do not think the means of this country are unequal to any +necessary expense, yet I do think they are inadequate to that contributory +expense which the Union stipulates.... The attempt will exhaust the +country, at the same time that it enslaves her. Colour it as you please, +Ireland will pay more than she is able. Considering these the terms of the +Union so far as they relate to revenue, they amount to a continuation of +the double establishment, an increase of the separate establishment, and a +military government, with a prospect of soon succeeding to the full taxes +of England.'[155] The Opposition, too, in the Irish House of Commons +loudly protested: 'Your Majesty's faithful Commons are satisfied that this +calculation is extremely erroneous; and that on a just and fair inquiry +into the comparative means of each country, the Kingdom ought not, and is +not able to contribute anything like that proportion.'[156] And twenty +Irish peers placed this emphatic protest on record; I have space for a few +sentences only: 'Under such circumstances, it appears to us that if this +Kingdom should take upon herself irrevocably the payment of +two-seventeenths of these expenses, she will not have means to perform her +engagements unless by charging her landed property with 12_s._ or 13_s._ +in the pound; it must end in the draining from her her last guinea, in +totally annihilating her trade for want of capital, in rendering the taxes +unproductive, and consequently in finally putting her in a state of +bankruptcy. We think ourselves called upon to protest against a measure so +ruinous to our country, and to place the responsibility of its +consequences upon such persons as have brought it forward and supported +it.'[157] + +The Treaty of Union left Ireland, financially, still a separate country, +paying a fixed contribution for the uses of the State. The great war with +France soon broke out again; England was involved with Napoleon in a +life-and-death struggle; her fiscal resources were strained to the utmost; +her expenditure became prodigious for a series of years. In these +circumstances, the debt of Ireland rose from L28,000,000 to upwards of +L112,000,000; and her taxation from about L2,500,000 to about L4,500,000; +while the debt of Great Britain advanced from some L446,000,000 to some +L737,000,000, and her taxation from some L24,000,000 to L54,000,000; the +taxation of Ireland being by the head about L1 in 1816, that of Great +Britain being about L5, the figures sixteen years before being 10_s._ and +L3. The immense increase in the debt of Ireland, much greater in +proportion than that of Great Britain, was certainly due to a large extent +to the fact--and this was frankly admitted by Grattan--that the poorer +country could not keep pace with the richer in the gigantic charges of the +war; the case, it has justly been remarked, may be compared to a case of +this kind: 'If one man, A, who has been living at the rate of L100 per +annum, arranges to keep house with another man, B, who has for some time +been living at the rate of L700 per annum, and to spend L1 for every L7 +which B spends, then so long as B continues to live at the same rate as +before, the expenses of A will not be increased. But if B begins to live +at the rate of L2100 a year, A will have to spend L300 a year, and if his +means are not sufficient for this, he must become bankrupt.'[158] +Allowing, nevertheless, for all this, it is not the less certain that the +calculations of Pitt and Castlereagh were utterly falsified by the event, +and that the warnings of Foster, Grattan, and other well-informed +Irishmen, besides the protests made in the Irish Parliament, were verified +to the fullest extent; as has been remarked by a distinguished English +expert, 'The calculations of Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh, the ministers +who promoted the Union, and who declared that Ireland would be able to +pay, and ought to pay, two-seventeenths of the joint expenses of the +United Kingdom, turned out to be mistaken, and the opinions of Mr. +Grattan, Mr. Foster, and other Irish members, who denied that she would be +able to contribute so large a proportion, are proved by the event to have +been well founded.'[159] + +This contrast, it is hardly necessary to say, to persons acquainted with +Irish history, is only one of the innumerable proofs of the ignorance of +Ireland too common to British statesmen, and of their too common disregard +of the best Irish opinion. In 1815-16, at the close of the war, Ireland +was financially in a bankrupt condition; she could not pay the interest on +her debt; she could not bear the weight of further taxation; she was +exhausted and sucked dry by fiscal injustice. Her social state, too, had +become very alarming; her population had rapidly increased, and, mainly +depending on the frail potato, was already becoming an incubus on the +land; the collapse of the high war prices had caused a sudden fall in +rents and the wages of labour; there was general distress in several +counties, and Whiteboy and agrarian disorder widely prevailed. The +financial position of Ireland was necessarily taken up by Parliament; a +Committee of the House of Commons was selected to report upon it. By this +time one of the contingencies had taken place for the possible +'assimilation in finance' with Great Britain of the much weaker country; +the contribution of Ireland, compared with her debt, was even in less +proportion than the contribution of Great Britain to her own; she had been +left far behind in the effort to pay her way. In this position of affairs +the Committee made its report, after a long and careful examination of the +case; the House of Commons passed these resolutions in May, 1816: 'That it +is the opinion of this Committee that the values of the respective debts +of Great Britain and Ireland, estimated according to the provisions of the +Acts of Union, have been, at a period subsequent to these Acts, in the +same proportion to each other (within one-hundredth part of the said +value), with the respective contributions of each country respectively, +towards the annual expenditure of the United Kingdom; and that the +respective circumstances of the two countries will henceforth admit of +their contributing indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed upon the same +articles upon each, to the future expenditure of the United Kingdom; +subject only to such particular exemptions and abatements in Ireland and +in Scotland as circumstances may appear from time to time to demand; and +that it is no longer necessary to regulate the contribution of the two +countries according to any specific proportion, or according to the rules +prescribed by the Acts of Union, with respect to such proportions. That it +is the opinion of this Committee, that it is expedient that all expenses +henceforth to be incurred, together with the interest and charges of all +debts hitherto contracted, shall be so defrayed indiscriminately by equal +taxes to be imposed on the same articles in each country; and that from +time to time, as circumstances may require, such taxes should be imposed +and applied accordingly, subject only to such exemptions and abatements in +Ireland and Scotland as circumstances may appear to demand. That it is +the opinion of this Committee that such legislative measures should be +adopted as may be necessary to carry into further effect the purposes of +the said Acts of Union, by consolidating the public revenues of Great +Britain and Ireland into one fund, and applying the same to the general +services of the United Kingdom.'[160] + +These resolutions were partly embodied in an Act which received the Royal +assent in June, 1816. By this law the separate exchequer of Ireland was +shut up; there was to be but one exchequer for the Three Kingdoms; all the +revenues of Great Britain and Ireland were thrown into a general fund to +be applied to the requirements of the State; the separate debt of Ireland +was fused into that of Great Britain, the two making a common National +Debt. By these means Ireland was relieved from an intolerable load of +debt; but those who contend that an immense boon was thus conferred on +her, only illustrate the aphorism of Burke referred to before; the matter +was decided by the opinion of the dominant power. Ireland, no doubt, was +set free from an overwhelming burden; but the burden was one improperly +cast on her by the Union; the relief was only a small redress of +injustice.[161] On the other hand, the arrangements of 1816 abolished the +contribution of the two-seventeenths, and made Ireland less a separate +country, financially, than she had been before; the resolutions of the +House of Commons did not all become law, but they at least declared that +she might become 'assimilated in finance' to Great Britain at a convenient +time, and thus diminished her security against undue taxation; and the +amalgamation of her debt with that of Great Britain made her subject, at +least conceivably, to a gigantic charge, for which she was not in any way +liable. The compromise, however, effected at this time, rather +contemplated the relief of Ireland from existing debt than her ultimate +'assimilation in finance to Great Britain,' and the extension to both +countries of the same fiscal system. For many years after 1816 Ireland +remained, financially, completely distinct from Great Britain, and under a +scheme of taxation altogether different. Nor is the reason difficult to +seek; she was declared entitled, by the resolutions before mentioned, to +the 'exemptions and abatements' secured to her by the Treaty of Union; and +the Parliament of that day respected the treaty, interpreting these terms +in their true sense, that Ireland was not to be taxed beyond her means. +Her fiscal wrongs, besides, from 1800 to 1816, were still fresh in the +minds of statesmen; these did not wish to repeat injustice; above all, she +had many representatives of real weight at Westminster--Grattan was a +tower of strength in himself, and he had very able followers; these men +would certainly have fiercely resented attempts to impair the financial +rights of their country. + +The fiscal systems of Great Britain and Ireland, still altogether +distinct, continued nearly on this footing for a series of years. Great +Britain was gradually relieved from taxation peculiar to herself, +amounting to very considerable sums; Ireland was not relieved in the same +proportion; but this was hardly a real grievance; the taxation of Great +Britain during the war had been enormously higher than that of Ireland. In +1819-20 the charge on Great Britain, which had been about L5 per head, had +been reduced to L3 13_s._; that on Ireland, which had been about L1 a +head, had been reduced to 15_s._ 5_d._ There seems to have been little to +complain of in these figures. Some steps, however, but tentative only, +were made by degrees in 'assimilating the two countries in finance,' +according to the resolutions of 1816; the duties on tea were made equal +for the Three Kingdoms, and the duties on tobacco, as early as 1819; but +it deserves special notice that this policy was angrily opposed by many +Irishmen in the House of Commons, the most conspicuous of these being Sir +John Newport, a real master of Irish finance, who had been Chancellor of +the Irish Exchequer in 1806-07. Still, notwithstanding innovations like +these, the fiscal systems of Great Britain and Ireland remained +substantially distinct for a long period; this was notably made manifest +as late as 1842. At this time the population of England was in an alarming +state; the Chartist agitation was in full swing; British commerce was half +strangled by heavy duties on foreign imports; the corn laws crippled and +burdened industry. Peel was at the head of his great Ministry; he began to +carry into effect the policy of free trade, inaugurated by Pitt, but +unhappily delayed; in order to accomplish this he had to diminish or get +rid of the charges on foreign imports, and generally to substitute direct +for indirect taxation. He was under a strong temptation to 'assimilate +Great Britain and Ireland in finance;' but he had been a friend and +colleague of Castlereagh; he understood the true import of the Treaty of +Union; above all, he knew Ireland well for an Englishman; he had +practically been her ruler for nearly six years. In these circumstances he +imposed the income tax on Great Britain as an equivalent for many indirect +taxes; but he pointedly abstained from extending the tax to Ireland; he +felt that this would be an act of financial wrong; and though he increased +for a short time the duty on Irish spirits, he took off the increase +within a few months. The only 'assimilation in finance' he effected was to +make the stamp duties in Great Britain and Ireland equal, and this was +rather a legal than an economic reform. + +The life of the great minister was prematurely cut short; time brought +with it its changes on its wings. The statesman who had living traditions +of the Union and its finance had passed away; O'Connell had disappeared +from the scene; the representation of Ireland had fallen into a +deplorable state. Meanwhile the free trade policy of Peel had achieved +great results in England and Scotland; free trade had given an immense +impulse to our manufactures and our foreign commerce; the repeal of the +corn laws had wonderfully quickened industry, and had been a magnificent +boon to the mass of the people; the prosperity of Great Britain was +advancing by leaps and bounds. The development of free trade was the +object of nearly all our statesmen; to accomplish this it was essential +still further to lessen or to abolish the duties on foreign imports, and +to let in the raw materials of manufactures free; indirect taxation was +still further to give place to direct. In 1853, and during part of the +subsequent period, our finances were in the hands of a minister whose +impulsive nature was upheld by a most imperious will, and who, whatever +was his policy, seldom stuck at trifles. Apparently without mature +reflection, and, it is to be hoped, with little knowledge of the facts of +the case, Mr. Gladstone, setting the example of Peel at nought, suddenly +subjected Ireland to the income tax, and began to raise the duties on +Irish spirits; by 1860 these duties had been more than trebled; and the +taxation of Ireland had been increased by upwards of two millions +sterling. And what were the circumstances, during a large part of this +period, of the country on which this enormous burden had been laid? +Ireland, no doubt, had begun to revive from the effects of the catastrophe +of 1845-47; but, compared with Great Britain, she was miserably poor; and +the Great Famine had shaken her social structure to its base. Two millions +of her population had fled from their homes into exile; a large part of +the upper and of the middle classes had been involved in ruin; whole +tracts of her lands were derelict wastes; her local taxation was +exceedingly high. The imposition of this load of taxation on a country in +such a condition, unjustifiable in the abstract, and from every point of +view, was, in the existing position of affairs, an act of cruel wrong; no +wonder even one of Mr. Gladstone's colleagues has remarked, measured as is +his language, 'We think that if the House of Commons, in the period 1853 +to 1860, when the great enhancement of taxation took place, had fully +considered the circumstances of Ireland, they would not have felt +themselves justified in increasing the taxation of that country by means +of the income tax and the equalisation of the spirit duties.'[162] At this +time, in a word, the future Solon of Home Rule proved himself to be the +merciless Draco of Irish finance. + +This great increase of taxation, to a considerable extent, 'assimilated +Ireland to Great Britain in finance;' placed the two countries under +nearly the same fiscal system; made the taxes of each not far from equal. +This assimilation, however, was still by no means complete--indeed, is not +complete to the present day; Ireland has still fiscal privileges under the +Treaty of Union; and this should be carefully borne in mind. Mr. +Gladstone, moreover, when he made this increase, acknowledged that Ireland +remained a distinct country, entitled to immunities of her own; when he +made her liable to the income tax, he cancelled a debt of L4,000,000 which +he professed she owed; and if this was an illusory pretence, for her +liability for this reason was more than doubtful, and the income tax she +has since paid has exceeded L23,000,000, still he distinctly admitted the +principle--indeed, it has always been admitted by statesmen worthy of the +name. The enormous new burdens imposed on Ireland, from 1853 to 1860, +provoked widespread and profound discontent; a Parliamentary inquiry was +conceded; a Committee of the House of Commons went into the subject in +1863-64. But the representation of Ireland, I have said, was feeble; her +complaints were stifled by the arts of the treasury; the arguments of her +members were overborne by specious but utterly false sophistry; the +inquiry came to nothing as regards her interests. The question remained in +abeyance for years; the Irish reforms of Mr. Gladstone, from 1869 to 1873, +the troubles caused by the Land and the National Leagues, and the Home +Rule agitation that followed, turned public attention away from the +subject; but it was not forgotten by well-informed Irishmen; two real +economists, Butt and Judge Longfield, insisted that Ireland had here a +grievance; and this was the opinion of several independent gentlemen, +survivors of the illustrious school of Grattan. At last Mr. Goschen, +perhaps moved by remonstrances from Ireland being urged again, appointed a +Committee of the House of Commons to examine into, and to report upon, +'the equity of the financial relations in regard to the resources and the +population of the Three Kingdoms;' Mr. Gladstone, in 1893, recurred to the +subject, which, rather unaccountably, had been let drop. He directed a +Commission of great authority, composed for the most part of expert +Englishmen, and presided over by the late Mr. Childers, a Chancellor of +the Exchequer of Mr. Gladstone, to inquire thoroughly into the whole +question of the financial relations of Great Britain and Ireland, and +fully to set forth the conclusions they should form. The scope of the +investigation was to include the history of the subject since the Union; a +consideration of the financial resources of Great Britain and Ireland +regarded as distinct countries, and the principles to be kept in mind in +forming a correct judgment; and, finally, the charge of Ireland with +respect to the State, and the contribution which Ireland should make to +it.[163] + +This inquiry, set on foot by a British statesman who had made himself +notorious for 'assimilating Great Britain and Ireland in finance,' +proceeded, nevertheless, upon an admission that, financially, the two +countries were still distinct, and that the resources of each--their +'taxable capacity,' in other words, a phrase turned into absurd +ridicule--afforded the true and the only test, as to the equity of Irish +compared to British taxation. The Commissioners were engaged in their +arduous task for months; they explained, with a fulness and clearness +never before so complete, the history of the financial relations between +Great Britain and Ireland. They brought distinctly out the fiscal position +of the two countries before the Union; they set forth at length the +financial arrangements made in 1800-01; they described the compromise +effected in 1816; they dwelt on the fiscal policy of Peel to Ireland, and +placed it in significant contrast with that of Mr. Gladstone; and they +conclusively proved that, from the Union to the present time, Great +Britain and Ireland had been treated financially as separate countries, +despite the 'assimilation' of 1853-60, and that the right of Ireland, +under the Treaty of Union, to the 'exemptions and abatements' secured to +her, these being interpreted as the case requires, still give her +immunities from taxation especially her own, which must be recognised if +she is to obtain justice. Turning, then, to the resources of Great Britain +and Ireland, regarded as apart, as being the true criterion of the +taxation which Ireland ought to bear, the Commissioners reviewed a great +mass of evidence, which, as far as was perhaps possible, made the truth +manifest, and arrived at conclusions which appear to be decisive. +Comparing the death duties of Ireland and of Great Britain, the proportion +is about 1 to 18; comparing the income tax, it is about 1 to 22; taking a +great variety of other tests, receipts of railways, savings banks +deposits, money and postal orders, and letters and telegrams, it varies +from 1 to 24 and 16; and an estimate of the income of the two countries, +an estimate certainly not fair to Ireland, gives a proportion of about 1 +to 18. There are many reasons that these figures exaggerate the true +resources of Ireland, but, assuming them to be approximately correct, the +Commission has reported that Great Britain exceeds Ireland in resources by +20 to 1; in other words, that the 'taxable capacity of Ireland, as +contrasted with that of Great Britain, cannot now be more than as 1 to +20.'[164] Applying this inference to the taxation of the two countries, +the conclusions formed by this tribunal can hardly admit of question. The +revenue and taxation of Ireland compared with that of Great Britain from +1889 to 1894 has been L7,300,000 and L7,800,000 against from L85,000,000 +to L89,000,000, that is, Ireland contributed from 8 to 9 per cent. of the +sum total. But if the resources of Ireland are only one-twentieth of those +of Great Britain, her taxation ought to be one-twentieth only, that is, it +ought not to be from L7,300,000 to L7,800,000; it ought to be less than +L5,000,000; not 8 or 9 per cent., but less than 5 per cent. It follows +from this that Ireland has been overtaxed at the rate of between two and +three millions a year, and that for a very considerable space of +time.[165] + +Enormous against Ireland as is this excess of taxation, it may amount to a +very much larger sum, if the national account be taken on another, +perhaps a sounder, basis. There is the highest authority to show that +taxation ought only to fall, in the instance of any given country, on the +surplus remaining over and above the cost of the necessaries of life; and +as regards the populations of Great Britain and Ireland, this cost may be +assumed to be L12 a head. But if we take the income of Great Britain to be +1400 millions sterling, the cost of the necessaries of life at the above +rate would for Great Britain be a sum of 324 millions; and the surplus +available for taxation would be 1076 millions. On the other hand, if we +turn to Ireland, the poor country, and suppose her income to be 76 +millions sterling, the cost of the necessaries of life for Ireland would +be a sum of 46 millions; and the surplus available for taxation would be +30 millions only. On this hypothesis, the resources of Ireland which might +be fairly taxed--her taxable capacity, in a word--would, compared with the +resources of Great Britain, be, not as 1 to 20, but as 1 to 36 only; and +her taxation ought to be less than L3,000,000, not, as before mentioned, +less than L5,000,000. The Childers Commission, no doubt, with the +exception of one of its members, did not give its sanction to this +conclusion; but it was that formed by Sir Robert Giffen, a master of the +subject on all its bearings, and it cannot, in common fairness, be left +out of sight. Sir Robert Giffen's view is expressed in these words; it +will be observed that his figures do not correspond with those just cited; +but the only point to consider is the principle on which he takes his +stand: 'If you deduct a minimum sum, so much per head from each of the +community, as a sort of minimum sum, though you would not wish to take +anything from a man who had no more than that, then the taxable income +would be the whole income in each country above that sum. That was the +sort of general idea. If you apply that to Ireland, and take a minimum sum +of, say, L12 a head, you would get upon the basis of an Irish income of +L76,000,000 a taxable surplus, I think, now of about L22,000,000, and in +Great Britain your taxable surplus would come to over L900,000,000.'[166] + +Setting, however, these last considerations aside, the Childers Commission +has conclusively shown that Ireland is very largely overtaxed, and has +been so for a long series of years; and the figures that represent this +great overcharge by no means represent the real difference of the burdens +imposed on the two countries. It does not require the authority of Pitt to +tell us that even equal taxation, equally applied, is felt much more +acutely by a poor community than by one that is rich and prosperous; let +us assume, what is by no means the fact, that this equality exists as +between Great Britain and Ireland, still Ireland suffers much more than +Great Britain. As Mill remarked a long time ago, 'It is not the same thing +to take L2 from a man who has L40 a year, as to take L4 from a man who has +L80, or L40 from a man who has L800; the sacrifice imposed on the taxpayer +is greater upon the man from whom you take L2 out of L40 than it is on the +man from whom you take L40 out of L800, although the proportion is the +same.' A few examples, taken from the case of Great Britain and Ireland, +will make the truth of this proposition perfectly clear. The wages of an +agricultural labourer in Great Britain are, say, L40 a year; the wages of +an agricultural labourer in Ireland are, say, L26; the first pays L3 taxes +on his tea and tobacco; the second pays only L2; but the L2 are obviously +much the heavier charge. Or suppose that a British artisan has L100 a +year, and an Irish artisan no more than L80; is not the first more lightly +taxed than the second, if he contributes L5 to the revenue against L4? And +the same thing happens if we ascend the social scale; the L150 income tax +paid by a British landlord of L3000 a year is not felt by him to be such +a charge as the L50 paid by an Irish landlord of L1000 a year; the same +principle would extend to the profits of trade were there small sums in +Ireland and large sums in Great Britain. Make taxes, therefore, as equal +as possible, and make their incidence completely equal, still, in the case +of a poor compared to a wealthy country, the real burden on the taxpayer +will be very different; it was for this reason that the late Mr. Nassau +Senior, an economist of no ordinary parts, pointedly remarked, as regards +British and Irish taxation, 'England is the most lightly taxed and Ireland +the most heavily taxed country in Europe, although both are nominally +liable to equal taxation: I do not believe that Ireland is a poor country +because she is overtaxed, but I think she is overtaxed because she is +poor.'[167] + +Ireland, therefore, on a full review of the argument, has been overtaxed +at least between two and three millions sterling a year for certainly more +than forty years; and this excess, as she is a very poor country, is, in +her case especially severe. The trend of taxation, if the phrase may be +employed, as we follow its course, during a long period, clearly indicates +that she has suffered from grave financial wrong. In 1819-20, we have +seen, the taxation of Great Britain was at the rate of L3 13_s._ a head, +that of Ireland being 15_s._ 5_d._; the proportion was L2 13_s._ 1_d._ and +L1 6_s._ 7_d._ in 1859-60; in 1893 it was L2 4_s._ and L1 8_s._; in other +words, the imposts of the wealthy country were progressively decreased, +while the imposts of the poor country were progressively raised. This +distinction, no doubt, has been partly due to the fact that the population +of Great Britain has been largely augmented, and the population of Ireland +has been enormously reduced in numbers; the charge in Great Britain has +been distributed among ever growing millions, the charge in Ireland has +been concentrated upon ever lessening thousands; but this will not nearly +account for the difference; 'the wealthier country' it has been +caustically said, 'was taxed less and less as it became more wealthy; the +poorer country was burdened more and more as its poverty increased.'[168] +And the overcharge on Ireland is all the more grievous because it owed its +origin to the policy of free trade; and this policy has been a +questionable boon to Ireland, while to Great Britain it has been an +immense benefit. No doubt the cheapening of the price of the necessaries +and of some of the conveniences of life, which has been one of the results +of free trade, has been a great advantage to the Irish labourer, artisan, +and mere cottar peasant; but free trade has been injurious to the real +Irish farmer and the Irish landlord, and to most of the classes connected +with the land; and the land is the main source of the scanty wealth of +Ireland. Free trade, on the other hand, has been a principal cause of the +extraordinary development of the material welfare of England which has +been witnessed during the last fifty years; it has doubled and trebled her +gigantic manufactures and trade, if her agriculture is by no means +flourishing. This striking contrast gives pain to right-minded Irishmen; +they feel, as Grattan predicted would be the case, that their country's +interests have been sacrificed to British commerce; and the following +observations are essentially true and just: 'The change' (from protection +to free trade) 'has not been so advantageous to Ireland, a country in +which there is but little trade or manufacturing industry, as it has been +to England; although, as consumers, the Irish population may have gained +in some cases by the abolition of the duties on foodstuffs, yet, on the +other hand, as producers, chiefly dependent on agriculture, they have lost +in a far greater degree by the cheap prices in the British markets, +produced, in part at least, by the free and untaxed supply of foreign +corn, live stock, dead meat, butter, cheese, eggs, and other articles of +food.... It may even perhaps be said that just as Ireland suffered in the +last century from the protective and exclusive commercial policy of Great +Britain, so she has been at a disadvantage in this century from the +adoption of an almost unqualified free trade policy for the United +Kingdom.'[169] + +Many attempts, I have said, have been made to answer the conclusive Report +of the Childers Commission, to carp at its proceedings, to challenge its +statements, to deny that Ireland has been largely overtaxed; but, with +scarcely an exception, they have been grotesque failures. I need hardly +notice an audacious sally, which has been turned to account in the House +of Commons, and has split the ears of the groundlings in different parts +of England. England, the argument runs, has been too kind to Ireland; +Ireland pays no land tax and sundry other duties; in other respects she is +equally taxed with Great Britain; she has not even a semblance of a real +complaint; and--exactly in the manner of Swift's satire--'let her hold her +tongue, or it may be the worse for her.' Ireland, no doubt, 'assimilated +as she has been in finance,' is free from some charges imposed on England; +she has still 'exemptions and abatements' which, to some extent, preserve +her rights under the Treaty of Union, and show that she is still +financially a distinct country, as has been recognised by every leading +British statesman, from the day of Pitt to the day of Mr. Gladstone. But +the English land tax, properly speaking, is not a tax at all; it is a +rent-charge for centuries payable by the land; at all events, the Irish +Crown and quit rents may be set off against it; and, as to the other taxes +referred to, the cost of collection in Ireland would exceed the returns; +it would be a case of _in Thesauro nihil_, as in Plantagenet times. +Another argument, of which the late Mr. Lowe was the author, is more +plausible, and has done better service; but it is not the less shallow +and false sophistry, when brought to the test. Taxation, it is said, falls +on populations only; it is sheer nonsense to say that it falls on +countries; it is not levied from Great Britain and Ireland; it is levied +from the inhabitants within their borders. But the Englishman, the +Scotsman, and the Irishman are equally taxed; the Irishman, indeed, has a +small advantage; equality of taxation is the rule in this matter; and +obviously equality is the same thing as equity. An English landlord in +Kent, a Scotch landlord in Perthshire, an Irish landlord in Kildare, pay +the same income tax on the same rentals; so does a merchant in London, a +merchant in Edinburgh, a merchant in Belfast, on the same profits; and the +same principle extends to all other classes. A farmer in Surrey, a crofter +in Argyleshire, a shopkeeper in Galway, pay exactly the same tax on a +gallon of rum, a gallon of whiskey, a hogshead of beer; the charge is the +same for each commodity in the three households. This Irish grievance, +therefore, is a mere delusion; it is a sickly phantom that vanishes in the +light of the day. + +That taxation falls on populations and not on areas of land is a truism +really never disputed; the use of the word 'countries,' in this sense, is +a mere popular phrase. This argument keeps out of sight the fact that +equal taxes, however equally imposed, are much heavier in the case of a +poor than of a rich community; but, waiving this objection, it is a sheer +fallacy. If two populations had exactly the same tastes, used the same +commodities in the same proportions, and were in the possession of the +same resources; equality of taxation, if equally applied, would probably +be essentially just. But if two populations have different tastes, if they +differ in the use of even the same commodities, and if their resources are +very different, and especially if equal taxation be not equally applied, +this apparent equality, far from being equity, may become plain, nay, very +grave iniquity. This may be made intelligible, at a glance, by the +consideration of a few instances easily conceived. Impose an equal tax on +coals in England and Ireland: would the charge fall equally on Englishmen +in a land of coal and on Irishmen in a land of peat mosses? Tax Londoners +and Parisians at the same rate on coffee: would the Londoner, who drinks +comparatively little coffee, be as heavily mulcted as the Parisian, who +drinks a great deal? Or suppose that light taxes were laid on articles +that suit Englishmen, and enter into the consumption of the millions of +England, and that heavy taxes were laid on articles that suit Irishmen, +and are consumed by the Irish millions: would not this system favour +Englishmen, and injure Irishmen, though the taxes on all these articles +were the same in both countries? Examples by the hundred might be brought +forward; these suffice to prove that equality of taxation, as between +communities, differing from each other in the conditions and circumstances +of life, and notably if the incidence of this taxation is not the same, +may be made to effect the grossest injustice. And this financial wrong has +been done, to a very great extent, if we compare the taxation of Great +Britain and Ireland. The consumption of tea and tobacco by the head is +nearly the same in both countries; the taxes on these commodities are the +same; admit that this is equitable in a certain sense, though the impost +is relatively more burdensome on the poor community. The consumption of +spirits by the head, also, is much the same for the Three Kingdoms; the +taxation is precisely the same; this, for the sake of argument, I will +call justice. But the consumption of beer by the head in Great Britain is +about double what it is in Ireland; probably ten Englishmen drink beer +compared to one Irishman; whiskey is the ordinary spirituous drink of +Irishmen. Now, the taxes on beer and on whiskey are the same in Great +Britain and Ireland; but the tax on beer, measured by the alcoholic +standard, is about six times lower than the tax on whiskey;[170] beer, +therefore, compared with whiskey is greatly undertaxed; whiskey compared +with beer is greatly overtaxed; the ordinary drink of Englishmen is +treated differently from the ordinary drink of Irishmen, one being +encouraged, the other discouraged; though the taxes on each commodity may +be everywhere the same, the equality of taxation manifestly results in +wrong. The difference amounts to a very large sum; it is one of the causes +that Ireland is overtaxed.[171] + +Equality of taxation may, therefore, be not equity; it may, as I have +said, be sheer iniquity; and this is emphatically the case with respect to +Ireland. This system is productive of gross injustice as regards what may +be deemed the popular Irish drink; but arguments to support it have not +been wanting; they have been complacently gulped down at several public +meetings, it is unnecessary to add within the borders of England. The +'mere Irish,' it is said, have shocking bad tastes; let them take beer +instead of whiskey and they can have no grievance; besides, whiskey is a +nasty and unwholesome thing; it is in mercy to them that it is excessively +taxed. Is it possible that people who utter this stuff do not see that +sumptuary legislation of extreme harshness, nay, persecution of the worst +kind, may be justified on the same class of premises? Suppose that +Napoleon, in the plenitude of his power, had declared that the Parisians +did not know what was good for them, and had heavily taxed their coffee to +make them drink tea, even Austerlitz would not have saved the Empire. +Marie Antoinette actually made an attempt to banish from her Court the +velvets and silks of Lyons, and to make it adopt the cambrics and muslins +of Belgium; she would have been too glad to see the first taxed and the +second duty free, for she thought the French taste for heavy and gorgeous +apparel bad; she only aroused the indignation of Versailles. Or say that +the priests of the Jove of the Capitol had argued in this way: 'Really +these detestable Christians are fools for worshipping a crucified Jew; +they have only to bow down to Caesar to escape the lions; otherwise they +have themselves alone to blame.' Nay, coming nearer home, might not a holy +prelate of the Irish Established Church in the eighteenth century have +reconciled the penal code to his conscience, by whispering to himself that +the deluded Papists had but to give up their vain superstitions, and to +conform to the pure well of faith that had its source in the Castle, and +that then they would be no longer outlaws; but let them take the +consequences if they were blind to their best interests on earth and in +heaven. In fact, any act of despotism on the part of the State might be +vindicated on these very laudable principles; but on this matter of the +taxation of Irish whiskey I shall confine myself to a single remark. +Reverse the cases of England and Ireland with respect to the imposts on +beer and on whiskey; tax beer very heavily and whiskey very lightly; and +what would Englishmen say of an argument that has been thought good enough +for Irishmen; how long would a Government exist that would try to carry +out such a policy? In truth, this reasoning, if it can be so called, is +the worst kind of sophistry: the frank brutality of the Roman proconsul, +who told the population of a subject province that they must endure their +burdens as they would endure the rain and the tempest, is less censurable, +to my mind at least, than this compound of absurd and offensive insolence. + +Another argument, really of no greater value, has had many supporters in +the House of Commons. True it is, it is admitted, that, compared with +Great Britain, Ireland has been hardly treated in finance; but this is +because she is a poor country, and a poor country must suffer from +taxation, fair as it may be, more than a wealthy country. But the same +inequality is seen in England: Dorset and Wiltshire are more heavily +burdened than Yorkshire and Lancashire, yet Dorset and Wiltshire make no +complaints as Ireland does. This argument, however, ignores history, and +sets the Treaty of Union at nought; Dorset and Wiltshire are mere +fractions of England; Ireland has always been financially a distinct +country, entitled to separate financial rights; and this has been +recognised by the ablest British statesmen, notably, of late years, by Mr. +Goschen, and by Mr. Gladstone. This reasoning, in a word, assumes that +Ireland is merely an aggregate of British counties; but this has never +been her true financial position; it is easy to sneer at the phrase +'separate entity' by which she has been called, that is, a land, +financially, apart from Great Britain, but sneers cannot get the better of +facts. These statements of distinguished English experts are +unquestionable in view of the record of history. Lord Farrer has remarked: +'It is abundantly clear that of the two conflicting theories--viz. the one +which regards Great Britain and Ireland as one country for the purpose of +taxation and expenditure, and the other which regards Great Britain and +Ireland as separate partners--the second is the one upon which our +instructions are founded; the one which has the greatest support in +history, and the one upon which all parties in Parliament have recently +acted.'[172] And Mr. Childers completely concurs: 'If apart from the +reference, it is asked why a distinction should be taken between Great +Britain and Ireland any more than between Kent and Yorkshire, the answer +is that Ireland entered into a partnership with Great Britain under a +formal Treaty of Union, which did, to a certain extent, by the recognition +of the claim of Ireland to abatements and exemptions, if circumstances +should require, maintain the position of Ireland as entitled to separate +treatment as a whole, so far as relates to taxation. It must also be +recollected that, as a matter of fact, Ireland has, at all times since the +Union, in various degrees received such separate treatment. Ireland, +therefore, cannot be regarded as merely a group of counties of the United +Kingdom.'[173] + +Two other arguments may be ascribed to the ingenuity, if this is the true +word, of the Treasury; but the first rests on a gross misrepresentation of +fact, the other upon a false theory; both, with a slight reservation, may +be dismissed as hopeless. Ireland, it is said, may possibly be +overtaxed--admit this for the sake of argument--but she has had more than +her fair share of loans from the State; a considerable part of these has +been freely remitted; this has not been the case in England and Scotland; +a large counterclaim, therefore, may be made against her. 'Out of a total +sum of about one hundred and nineteen millions and a half advanced in the +United Kingdom, a little over fifty-two millions, or 43.7 per cent., has +been advanced to Ireland, and of this, so large a proportion as one-fifth, +or over ten millions, had to be remitted, or treated as a free grant, +whilst only one fifty-eighth part of the advances made to Great Britain +were so treated.'[174] So far as these loans have been advances for the +real good of Ireland, for example, for the promotion of reproductive +works-these may fairly be taken into account; but millions have been +misapplied and wasted or spent in the unproductive relief of +distress;[175] these sums probably are greater than the excess made out by +the Treasury. As regards the remission of the L10,000,000, the assertion +relied on is simply deceptive. Not less than L4,000,000 of this sum +represent the fund the extinction of which was the consideration of +putting the income tax on Ireland by Mr. Gladstone; and, as the charge of +that tax has been since more than L23,000,000, it savours of impudence to +call this a remission; it was writing off a doubtful debt to justify a new +and portentous burden. The residue of the L10,000,000 is composed of +advances that have been misspent or spent on purposes really not Irish; +these were not remitted in the proper acceptation of the word. 'The +remaining portion of the ten millions of alleged remissions of loans +consists mainly of remissions of the repayment of expenditure by the Board +of Works, where it was shown that such expenditure had been wasteful, and +of advances to the clergy and laity of the Established Church of Ireland, +which advances Parliament, by legislation, deprived them of the ability of +repaying. Altogether it would appear, from Sir Edward Hamilton's evidence, +that in reality only about one million out of the ten corresponded in +their character to the advances made to Great Britain, and that +consequently the proportion of real remissions of loans to Ireland did not +differ very materially from that of the proportion of the remission in +Great Britain.' + +The second argument appears to be more plausible; but it is mischievous, +in a high degree, and dangerous; except to a slight extent, it is +completely fallacious. Ireland, it is allowed, contributes from L7,300,000 +to L7,800,000 to the exchequer; but of this sum L5,000,000 and upwards are +expended on her; she really hardly pays L2,000,000 to the State; the +L5,000,000 therefore, or nearly all this sum, create a just counterclaim +against her, even admitting she is excessively taxed. This expenditure on +Ireland, it is contended, is for Irish 'local' purposes; it is not +expenditure for 'Imperial' purposes; the account, as between Great Britain +and Ireland, is to be taken as if all this expenditure, or nearly so, were +purely local. But is not the expenditure for keeping up the +Lord-Lieutenant and his Court, is not the expenditure on the government +and administration of Ireland, essentially, and in the main, Imperial, and +not local in a legitimate sense, so long as the United Kingdom exists? Is +it not as Imperial, at least for the most part, as the expenditure on the +British army and navy and on the government and administration of England +and Scotland is Imperial, and not, properly speaking, local? This argument +could be retorted with decisive effect, if urged in the interest of +Ireland against Great Britain. If this kind of expenditure in Ireland is +held to be local, not Imperial, the same rule must apply to England and +Scotland; this expenditure in their case must be local and not Imperial. +Why, then, should Ireland contribute to such charges as public works in +Edinburgh and London, as the maintenance of the great English dockyards +and harbours, as the cost of the army and navy outside Ireland, and of the +government and administration of England and Scotland? Clearly on the +Treasury hypothesis she should not contribute; and if she does, she has an +immense counterclaim, so far as her contributions are applied to these +local objects. But, in truth, this whole argument, when examined, is a +mere sophism. The revenues of the Three Kingdoms are paid into a common +exchequer; they are distributed according to the uses of the State; this +expenditure, as a general rule, must be held to be Imperial, not local, +and cannot give a part of the Three Kingdoms a right to make a claim +against another. The State spends millions on London which it does not +spend on Surrey; it spends millions in Hants which it does not spend in +Berkshire: does this circumstance give Surrey or Berkshire a title to say +we can make a demand on London and Hants? Precisely in the same way, the +expenditure of the State on Ireland, as contra-distinguished from that on +Great Britain, cannot, at least as a general principle, give Great Britain +a right to make a counterclaim on Ireland. + +It is unnecessary to point out how this theory has a tendency to create +local and even national ill-will; to set parts of one country against +other parts, and two countries against each other; it distinctly alienates +Ireland from Great Britain; as I have said, it is full of mischief and +peril. In truth, however, it is a mere device to excuse the overcharge of +Irish taxation; it has never entered the minds of statesmen. Nothing can +be more certain than that every great British financier, from the day of +Pitt to the day of Peel, and to the day of Mr. Gladstone, has regarded the +expenditure of the Three Kingdoms, as this is paid into a common +exchequer, as a general fund to be allocated as the State requires; and +has not regarded it as a fund, under local heads, to be laid out in +separate districts, so as to give any one district a counterclaim against +another. I quote from a report of one of the members of the Childers +Commissions: 'A division of the expenditure of the United Kingdom into +"charge for Irish purposes" and "Imperial expenditure," cannot be made +under the system of finance embodied in the constitution established by +the Legislative Union. All expenditure under that system is "expenditure +of the United Kingdom," or, to express it more briefly, "Imperial +expenditure;" and all Imperial expenditure is defrayed from the common +fund of the Imperial Exchequer. If a part of the Imperial expenditure be +described as a charge "for Irish purposes," this classification does not +affect the fact that it is Imperial expenditure, and charged as such upon +the whole Imperial revenue. To regard this expenditure as non-Imperial, to +deduct it from the particular revenue contributed by Ireland to Imperial +expenditure, to treat the fraction of Irish revenue left as if it were the +whole of the Irish contribution to Imperial expenditure, and to regard +Imperial expenditure itself as not including "the charge for Irish +purposes," would be to do what the Constitution does not sanction: it +would be to deal with the revenue and expenditure of the United Kingdom as +if the revenues of Great Britain and Ireland were raised and administered +by separate authorities, each of which, having first, out of its own +revenue, defrayed its separate charges, then applied the balance to +payment of common expenses, which, in that case, would be properly +classified as Imperial.'[176] And the evidence of Sir Robert Giffen is to +the same effect: 'The opinion which I have formed is that, on the whole, +it is not possible to make the distinction between the different objects +of Imperial expenditure which is made in some of these discussions; that, +in fact, all the expenditure by an Imperial Government is to be considered +expenditure for Imperial purposes, and although part of it may be spent +locally, you cannot in any way call it expenditure for the special benefit +of that locality. It is expenditure for the general objects of the +Imperial Government.'[177] + +The theory of the Treasury is thus essentially false; but accidentally, it +contains, I think, a residuum of truth. When, as between two countries, +one pays a considerable sum, exclusively or mainly from local rates, and +the same charge in the other country is for the most part defrayed from +Imperial taxation by the State, it appears to me that a portion of the sum +so paid by the State may give one country a counterclaim against the other +to some extent. This is the case as between Great Britain and Ireland; the +cost of national education and of the police force is largely discharged +in Great Britain by local rates; in Ireland it amounts to about +L2,700,000, and is mainly defrayed from Imperial taxes; this may create a +counterclaim against Ireland within reasonable limits at least. No doubt +the charge of bringing up the young of the poorer classes and of +maintaining public order by a suitable force, ought largely to be an +Imperial charge; but when in one community it is chiefly borne by local +funds, and in another it is chiefly borne by the common Exchequer of both, +this seems to give the first community a partial claim against the second. +This counterclaim, such as it is, has been reckoned, in addition to a sum +for free grants, at about L500,000 a year by the Childers Commission; but +it did not thoroughly go into the subject; this estimate is believed to be +too low by well-informed persons; the counterclaim has been calculated to +be about L1,000,000 sterling. Lord Salisbury's Government, we have seen, +promised to appoint a second Commission to examine this question at +length, besides some other financial questions suggested by the Report of +the Childers Commission; for some unknown reason it has not redeemed its +pledge; it is very desirable that it should redeem it. Apart from the +mischief of a delay approaching a breach of public faith, the only +inference that can be drawn, if this promise is broken, is that the +Government accepts the view in this matter of the Childers Commission. + +The Childers Commission has conclusively proved that Ireland is much too +highly taxed; whatever counterclaim may be made against this excess, the +overcharge can be little less than two millions a year. The arguments +urged against this conclusion are mere leather and prunella that may be +brushed aside; the Report of the Commission has had the sanction of nearly +all economists of a high order. By all means let another Commission strike +a balance after making every fair allowance; but if it shall be struck, as +it must be in Ireland's favour, the only real question for impartial men +will be how it shall be best discharged. Ireland has practically +acquiesced for years in fiscal injustice; in any view of the case she has +no right to call for a change in our whole system of finance for her +special benefit. Still less has she a right to demand that her customs and +excise duties should be placed at a lower level than those of Great +Britain; this would raise a mischievous barrier between the two countries; +this policy would be, perhaps, impossible; if possible, it would probably +injure Ireland greatly in the long run. The only remaining alternative is +to leave our existing fiscal system intact, but to make an annual grant +from the exchequer for Irish uses, as compensation for excessive taxation; +this has the support of the Childers Commission. 'The third method, and +that which most strongly recommends itself to our judgment, is to give +compensation to Ireland by making an annual allocation of revenue in their +favour, to be employed in promoting the material prosperity and social +welfare of the country.'[178] It is difficult to suppose, should a large +yearly sum be found to be due to Ireland, as affairs now stand, that +Parliament will refuse to pay honourably a just debt; it would be a +shameful act to repudiate an obligation of the kind. Years ago Pitt +declared in his characteristic style that 'Ireland might safely rely on +Great Britain for the discharge of any fair claim on her; the liberality, +the justice, the honour of the people of Great Britain have never been +found deficient.' The time has come to test the value of this pledge; it +has been announced by the highest authority, in which English opinion +largely prevails, that Ireland has been immensely overtaxed for years: +will the 'people of Great Britain' give effect to this judgment, and make +good a claim which hardly admits of a doubt? The demand of Ireland, no +doubt, is not sustained by violent agitation and the shouts of multitudes; +but it is backed by all that is best in Irish opinion; it rests upon the +simplest financial justice. It is dangerous to treat a demand such as this +with contempt, and still more so with weak sophistry; not that Ireland can +make an effective resistance to fiscal wrong, however clearly proved; and +I for one deprecate rhodomontade about 'the Boston tea-ships.' But a claim +may have great moral force, though it be not supported by physical power; +the disregard of this claim would provoke well-informed Irishmen, and +weaken the Union perhaps greatly; and, after all, is it a seemly sight, is +it becoming in the eyes of the world, that the richest country in Europe +should practically impose an iniquitous burden upon the poorest? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE QUESTIONS OF IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION--OTHER +QUESTIONS--CONCLUSION + + Irish county government--The grand jury system in the eighteenth + century--Its merits and defects--The grand jury system in the + nineteenth century, and especially since 1836--The Irish poor law + system--Elected and _ex-officio_ guardians--The local government of + cities and towns in Ireland--Municipal institutions founded in Ireland + by the Norman kings--Why they did not prosper--Boroughs and + municipalities founded by James I. and the Stuarts--Their condition in + the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries--The Municipal Reform Act of + 1840--The Towns Commissioners Acts--Attempts to reform the municipal + system of local government in Ireland--The Local Government of Ireland + Act, 1898--Complete change in Irish local government--The County + Councils--The County Borough Councils--The District, Rural, and the + Urban District Councils--Their functions, rights, and duties--All + these bodies placed on a democratic basis--Attitude of the County + Councils in the southern provinces--Education in Ireland--History of + primary education--The national system of education--The principles on + which it is founded--How it has worked, and what its results have + been--Secondary education in Ireland--Its history--Its present + condition very imperfect--The Intermediate Education Act--University + education in Ireland--Its history--Trinity College--The Queen's + Colleges and the Queen's University founded by Peel--Their comparative + failure--Mr. Gladstone's Bill to reform University education in + Ireland--Its glaring errors and failure--Trinity College thrown open + in 1873--The Royal University founded in 1879--Present state of + University education in Ireland--The true principles of reform--Other + Irish questions--Conclusion. + + +That local government in Ireland should still be a 'Present Irish +Question,' may appear strange to persons only versed in the mere routine +of politics. The subject has been before Parliament for nearly thirty +years; it has engaged the attention of more than one of its Committees; +Butt endeavoured, to no purpose, to legislate on it. In 1892 Lord +Salisbury's Government brought in a measure which aimed at transforming +the whole system of administering local affairs in Ireland; but it had +unquestionable defects and was vehemently opposed; unfortunately, as I +believe, it was permitted to drop. Six years afterwards, that is, in 1898, +the greater part of a parliamentary session was employed in dealing with +the question again; a Bill became law which placed Irish local government, +in all its departments, upon a new basis, and completely changed the +characteristics it had had for centuries. The measure was to be a _ne plus +ultra_; it was extolled by applauding partisans as a magnificent scheme of +popular reform; these have since, over and over again, declared that its +success has been more than manifest. It is too soon to pronounce, with +anything like confidence, on what its ultimate results may be, or even to +say, with certainty, how it will practically work; but enough has already +been made apparent to cause thoughtful and fair-minded Irishmen to regard +the changes it has effected with grave misgivings; to question the +principles on which it rests, or at least the wisdom of applying them to +Ireland as she now is; and to ask whether it must not be amended if the +social structure of Ireland is not to be still more violently disturbed, +than it has been by the experiments that have been made on it. Besides, +the local government and administration of every community, especially if +formed on a popular type, affect its existence in many ways; strongly +indicate what its opinions are, what its qualities, what its evident +tendencies; in a word, largely represent its essential nature. It was not +for nothing that in his survey of the Revolution in France, Burke did not +confine himself to the sovereign assembly at Versailles, but turned his +penetrating glance on the petty assemblies which had been set up in the +new-made departments, for the conduct of their local affairs; these, he +insisted, formed the truest expression of the mind of the people and of +the leaders at its head. For these reasons, therefore, if we would +understand Ireland, her local government is a 'Present Irish Question;' it +is a question, moreover, which, whatever may be said, in all probability +has not been finally settled. + +In order to understand the subject, I must glance at the system of Irish +local government, as this existed until, as it were, yesterday; I turn, in +the first instance, to Irish county government. The beginnings of this +scheme have been traced back to the time of Strafford; but it was not +finally established until the reign of William III., when the subjugation +of Ireland had been made complete. The Irish grand juries always had +criminal jurisdiction in their countries like their English fellows; but +unlike these they were now entrusted with almost absolute control over +Irish county government. This was partly because they were representatives +of the conquering race, by this time the owners of nine-tenths of the +lands of the country; and partly because there was no local organisation +in Ireland, like the English parish, which could give local influence to +the conquered race. The grand juries were always composed of the leading +landed gentry of their respective counties; they were nominated by the +sheriffs, that is, by officials of the Central Government; they were +wholly devoid of a popular element; and as no Catholic could have a share +in their councils, until nearly the end of the eighteenth century, they +embodied, in the fullest sense, the Protestant ascendency of the day, +supreme in every sphere of authority in the State. The grand juries had +almost the exclusive power of administering the local affairs of their +counties, of managing their roads, public buildings, and police; and they +levied the charges for these by a local rate, known as the county cess to +this hour, and imposed almost wholly on the occupiers of the soil, that +is, in five cases out of six on the Catholic peasantry, a striking +instance of taxation without representation to check it. These assemblies +of local magnates met twice a year at the assizes which were held in their +counties. Miss Edgeworth has given us graphic accounts of them: how a seat +on a grand jury was deemed a prize to be sometimes fought for; how the +grand juries entertained the judges in state, and vied with these sages in +their mighty potations; and how, while wretches were hanged and jurymen +dined, the assize towns were scenes of not fastidious revelry. There was +much jobbing, corruption, and waste in the administration of the counties +in those days; much of the 'scratch me, and I will scratch you;' much +'give and take' at the cost of the ratepayers. But there was another and +better side to the picture: the Irish gentry of the time had the faculty +of command; they ruled their districts efficiently with their police; the +public works for which they were responsible were usually good. Arthur +Young has especially noticed that the roads they constructed were almost +always well laid out and kept up. + +Catholics were not admitted on grand juries until the great Relief Act of +1793, the first general relaxation of the execrable penal code. But the +Catholic members of these bodies have always been few; the large majority +of the Irish landlords remains still Protestant. The bureaucracy of the +Castle, after the Union, began to encroach on the domain of the grand +juries; at the same time the growing needs of the country made the +expenditure on local affairs much larger. The grand juries lost much of +their authority by degrees; they were more and more controlled by the +Central Government, which supplanted them in a variety of ways; and they +were ere long compelled to vote sums for public works of different kinds +for the behoof of their counties. This change effectually checked +corruption and jobbing; but as the requirements of the counties +increased, and the 'imperative presentments,' as they were called, were +augmented, the charge of the local rate or county cess became more +onerous--it has advanced enormously in the last sixty years; and this was +still mainly imposed on the Catholic peasantry. The civil or fiscal +administration, which the grand juries possessed until 1898, was finally +arranged by an Act of Parliament passed in 1836,[179] supplemented, from +time to time, by subsequent statutes. These bodies were composed of the +same elements, and nominated by the sheriffs as before; and they had a +general supervision over all the public works, roads, bridges, and +buildings for public purposes, comprised within their different counties, +including within these areas nearly all villages, and the large majority +of the lesser towns. But they were made strictly dependent on the Central +Government; this had the appointment of their chief officers; their +accounts were subjected to a regular audit; and their 'imperative +presentments' were largely extended. They acquired, too, an additional +jurisdiction in some respects, especially as regards inquiries into +criminal injuries and compensating persons who had been sufferers, and as +regards voting an extra police force in disturbed districts; but their old +local police had disappeared, and had been replaced by the great central +constabulary force. A change, too, was effected in the modes through which +local rates were voted in the counties for public purposes. These sums +were 'presented' in the first instance at 'baronial' and 'county at large' +sessions, held by county justices and ratepayers of substance; but these +bodies were subordinate to the grand juries, and to a considerable extent +drawn from the same classes; no popular element was infused in county +government, and the grand juries were, in the last resort, supreme, within +the limits which had been assigned to them. The local expenditure voted +and assessed in this way was subject to examination by a judge of assize, +who 'fiated' it, as a general rule; and ratepayers had a right to +challenge it, by a procedure called 'a traverse,' which, however, was +seldom turned to account. + +The Irish grand juries were thus oligarchic bodies, survivals of the +Protestant ascendency of a bygone age, and with a tendency, in their later +history, to become subordinate boards of the Castle. I pass on to the +Irish poor law system, another considerable department of Irish local +government. As we have seen, unlike what had been the case in England, no +poor law existed in Ireland until 1838; the want of such a measure was one +of the causes of the pressure of a huge mass of indigence on the soil +before the catastrophe of 1845-47. The Irish poor law, with some marked +distinctions, was analogous to the new English poor law, as it has long +been called; it has now been in operation for about sixty years. The +country was divided into a series of unions, which have varied from 130 to +163 in number; at present there are 159 of these; these were the principal +units for carrying the poor law system into effect. The unions were again +subdivided into lesser districts, electoral divisions for the county, +wards for the larger towns; the persons chosen to administer the poor law +were taken from these areas; and the unions and all that pertained to them +were placed under the control of the Central Government, represented by +the Local Government Board of Ireland. The persons returned from the +electoral divisions and the wards were selected by the votes of the +ratepayers, and were known as the elected guardians; a popular element was +thus introduced into the administration of the law, which had never been +introduced into Irish county government. The vote of the ratepayers, +however, was cumulative, not single; the largest ratepayers had the most +votes, a safeguard, it has been assumed, for property; and the elected +guardians, in theory at least, were balanced by an equal number of +_ex-officio_ guardians, composed of magistrates within the unions. The +chief duties of the elected and the _ex-officio_ guardians, collectively +known as Boards of Guardians, were to provide for the wants of the poor, +and to assess and levy poor rates for that purpose; but many other duties +were gradually imposed on them, the principal of these being the care of +the sanitary state of the lesser towns within their districts. There was a +marked difference between the incidence of the poor rate and of the county +rate, or cess, of the grand juries. The county cess, we have seen, was +mainly a charge on the Catholic occupiers of the soil, the poor rate was, +to a very considerable extent, a charge on the owners, for the most part +Protestants; for the landlord was bound to pay the whole poor rate in the +case of the pettiest holdings, and to allow his tenants half the poor rate +in the case of other holdings; by these means the burden of at least half +the poor rate, it is believed, was borne by the Irish landed gentry. It +should be added that the elected guardians have practically had the +administration of the poor law in their hands; the _ex-officio_ guardians, +especially of late years, took little part in it.[180] + +I turn from the administration of local rural affairs in Ireland to that +of its chief cities and its towns. The Irish towns, conquered and settled +by the Danes, had, perhaps, a kind of municipal government; the +Plantagenet kings conferred municipal rights as freely in Ireland as they +did in England. Thus Dublin received a charter from John, modelled on that +of his 'liegemen of Bristol;' Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, and several +other towns were incorporated and given powers of self-government at +different periods of the Middle Ages. But the municipal life and the +municipal spirit which grew up and gained strength in the thriving towns +of England, and secured for them a large measure of local liberty, had +hardly any existence in a land like Ireland, distracted by feudal and +tribal anarchy; the corporate cities and towns of Ireland fell into the +hands of great Anglo-Norman nobles and Celtic chiefs, and seem to have all +but lost their local franchises. During the long agony of the sixteenth +century, when Ireland was devastated by a horrible strife of race and +faith, these privileges were still further effaced; at the death of +Elizabeth the Irish municipal centres, with the exception of the capital, +were mere names and shadows. A great change took place when the subjugated +land passed under the domination of the first Stuarts. English law was now +extended over the whole of Ireland; a colonial caste of settlers was +becoming lords of the soil; the Government was conducted by the men at the +Castle, ruling through a Parliament largely composed of the new settlers. +James I. created forty-six Irish boroughs with a stroke of the pen, and +gave them a representation in the Parliament and municipal rights; but +these, for the most part, were mere villages; they obtained their large +privileges solely in order to support 'the English interest,' as it was +called, in the Irish House of Commons. This system was continued by the +later Stuarts; besides Dublin and the larger towns of Ireland, there were +about a hundred of these petty municipalities and parliamentary boroughs +in the eighteenth century. These places, however, could have no municipal +freedom, and were wholly devoid of municipal feeling; they became nearly +all the mere appanages of the neighbouring leading families; and, with +hardly an exception, they were extreme types of the Protestant ascendency +which prevailed everywhere. Something of the same kind was witnessed in +England, under the aristocratic rule of that age, but there was the +difference between a sorry caricature and a picture; the great cities and +the better towns of England still retained an ample measure of municipal +liberty, and, especially, did not lose the municipal spirit; the exact +contrary was the case in Ireland. + +A large majority of the little Irish boroughs were deprived of their +parliamentary representation at the Union, but they retained their nominal +municipal rights. They still remained under the control of the chief +landed gentry; and they became, as indeed they had always been, centres of +maladministration, corruption, and peculation of all kinds. When, after +the passing of the great Reform Act of 1832, statesmen directed their +minds to the questions of corporate and municipal reform in England, they +naturally turned their minds to Ireland also, where this reform was +notoriously still more imperative. After the publication of a masterly +report in 1834-35, which thoroughly illustrated the whole subject, the +abuses in the Irish corporations were shown to be such--they were enormous +even in the cities and larger towns--that Peel, the leader of the +Opposition, actually gave them up; he proposed to deprive the corporate +towns of all municipal rights and franchises, and to place them under the +authority of Commissioners appointed by the Crown. This plan, however, was +rejected by the Melbourne Government, and was not sanctioned by the House +of Commons; after a long and angry controversy, which continued for years, +a measure became law as late as 1840; and by this, with the exception of +ten, all the corporate towns of Ireland lost their municipal rights, and +were thus left without any power of self-government. With respect even to +the ten still enfranchised towns, their old privileges were greatly +curtailed and were transferred to the Central Government; and their +municipal liberties were restricted and narrowed. They retained, indeed, +many rights of self-government; but the municipal franchise was placed at +a high level; the great body of the townsmen did not possess it; and they +were subject to the supervision of the Local Government Board, that is, of +the Central Government, to a considerable extent at least. True municipal +life, and the municipal sentiment, could not, therefore, become well +developed, in the case of towns under such conditions; they showed but few +symptoms of the wonderful growth of prosperity and power which has been +such a marked feature in the history of the great corporate towns of +England, in what may be called the Victorian age, though, no doubt, the +cases were widely different--poor Ireland could not, in this respect, +compete with wealthy and progressive England. The deficiency of corporate +towns in Ireland was felt ere long to be such, that, in 1854, and +subsequent years, municipal rights were, in some measure, extended to +nearly a hundred of these towns. These places were governed by bodies +called Town Commissioners elected by a kind of popular vote; but the +authority of these bodies has never been large; the municipal franchise +was very high; and these towns were also under the Irish Local Government +Board. + +Municipal institutions, like others of English origin, had thus, from a +variety of causes, when transferred to Ireland, only a stunted, imperfect, +and maimed existence. We may briefly glance at the operation of the system +of rural and urban local government, of which we have endeavoured to +sketch the outlines. Except, perhaps, in the instance of criminal +injuries, and of the compensation to be adjudged by them, where they did +not always give proof of a judicial spirit, the grand juries, for upwards +of two generations, administered county affairs very well; they were +economical, prudent, and jealous of expense, if the public buildings they +sanctioned were, occasionally, too costly; but the system was an +anachronism, and had had its day. In ordinary times the Irish poor law was +reasonably well administered by the Boards of Guardians, as well, +probably, as was the case in England; they were rather parsimonious in +assessing rates, and gave little attention to the sanitary state of their +towns, but, on the whole, there was not much cause to complain of them; +and the Irish people, it must be recollected, have never liked the poor +law. The local administration of the cities and the larger towns of +Ireland was worse--a notable exception was seen in Belfast; but these, as +a rule, gave proof of the restricted system on which their government had +been formed; the results appeared in a high death rate, in bad supplies of +water, in crowds of squalid and deserted dwellings--in a word, in +stagnation and a want of progress, if other and powerful causes concurred. +When the movement conducted by Parnell acquired strength, almost a +revolution passed over the seats of Irish local government, where these, +except in Ulster, possessed a popular element. Parnell called on the +Boards of Guardians, the Corporations, and the Town Commissioners, in +places where the 'people' had any effective voice, to rally round the Land +and the National Leagues; he achieved remarkable success in the three +provinces of the south. This was especially made manifest in the Boards of +Guardians, composed largely of farmers of substance, and in which the +_ex-officio_ guardians had little real power; these bodies set a crusade +against the landed gentry on foot; marked them out for plunder in many +ways; encouraged 'boycotting' and defiance of the law; gave a free rein to +rebellious utterances of many kinds; and denounced Irish 'landlordism' and +British rule in Ireland, as fiercely as they had been denounced at Land +and National League gatherings.[181] The same phenomena appeared in many +of the corporate and inferior towns: the Corporation of Dublin indulged in +anti-British threats and speeches; the Corporation of Limerick refused to +pay a lawful tax; the Corporation of Cork proclaimed itself supreme in a +'rebel' city; the example was generally followed in the lesser towns of +the south; in short, these bodies became centres of sedition, socialism, +and resistance to the law, and widely disseminated their pernicious +teaching. In fact, they made themselves agencies of the Land and the +National Leagues; at the same time, in numerous instances, they set the +authority of the Local Government Board at naught.[182] + +The system of Irish local government was obviously so defective, so +antiquated, so contrary to the spirit of the age, that several attempts, +we have seen, were made, long ago, to reform it. It has now been +completely transformed on the principles applied to England and Scotland; +the occasion of this transformation was somewhat singular. In 1896 +considerable relief was given, in England and Scotland, to the landed +interest by a subvention made by the State, which defrayed half the charge +of the local county rates, the depression of agriculture being so +grievous; the justice of this measure was hardly disputed. But the Report +of the Childers Commission, declaring that Ireland was greatly overtaxed, +and had been for a long series of years, was published about the same +time; the Government, probably because it had made up its mind not to +countenance the report in any way, refused to extend the same relief to +Ireland, although it was as much required--a decision that simply nothing +could warrant. The indignation, however, expressed in Ireland, and the +remonstrances even of the Ministerial Press, angrily as it had challenged +the findings of the report, before long changed the Government's purpose; +it was formally announced, in 1897, that Ireland would obtain the same +boon as Great Britain, and, apparently, as a condition of this, that Irish +local government was to be reformed. The measure of 1898 was the result of +this compromise; the interdependence of two subjects, which have nothing +in common, has made it not easy to interpret; but, as we shall see, its +authors have provided, with skill, against one of the dangers the change +involved, that is, the probability that it might expose the Irish landed +gentry to predatory attacks. Before examining the recent law, I venture to +make a single remark. The question of the alleviation of the charge of +rates, a concession made to Ireland with bad grace, and made to England +and Scotland as a matter of course, has nothing to do with the infinitely +larger question of the excessive taxation imposed on Ireland; relief in +the one case does not imply relief in the other; the two subjects are +altogether distinct. It is essential carefully to keep this in mind, for +attempts are being made to confuse the two questions, and +characteristically to argue that Ireland ought to rest and be thankful, +and not to say a word about her overtaxation, because, forsooth, in common +with England and Scotland, she has received assistance as regards her +local rates. + +The transformation which has been effected in Irish local government has +completely changed the old order of things, and is of an extremely +democratic character. County government has been taken from the grand +juries, and has been extended to bodies known by the name of County +Councils, recently formed in Great Britain. The County Councils proper are +thirty-two in number, corresponding to the number of the Irish counties; +they are popular assemblies in the fullest sense of the word. They are +elected by the ratepayers of their districts, who possess the present +extravagantly low suffrage; the right of election is also bestowed on +women; and the protection of the cumulative vote has been removed; a +cottar has the same voting power as a man of forty thousand a year. Any of +these voters may have a seat in a County Council; the body, therefore, may +be crowded with petty ratepayers; and women also may have seats. Three +members of the grand jury, in each county, are entitled to sit in a County +Council, but for a short time only--a provision intended to reconcile the +old with the new; the County Councils are given a right to 'co-opt' a few +members; and the heads of bodies subordinate to them have the privilege of +taking part in their counsels. The rights and the responsibilities of the +grand juries have, as a rule, been transferred to the County Councils, +except in the instance of criminal injuries, and of determining +compensation for these; this jurisdiction, subject to an appeal to a judge +of assize, has been properly conferred on the County Court judges, for it +is essentially of a judicial nature. The powers of the County Councils +thus extend to the management and the supervision of the roads, bridges, +and buildings for public purposes comprised within their counties, and +also to the regulation of villages and petty towns; but, like the grand +juries, they are subject to the same control of the Central Government; +they must make 'imperative presentments' like the grand juries; and, as in +the instance of the grand juries, subordinate bodies have the initiative +in part of their duties. Their powers, however, have been made larger and +wider than those of the grand juries; they have been given the right to +assess and levy the poor rate in rural districts, the management of the +asylums of the lunatic poor, an authority, in cases of exceptional +distress, subject to the permission of the Local Government Board, to +sanction relief to poor people out-of-doors, and several other powers of +not much importance. It should be added that the County Councils are not +restricted in any way by judge's 'fiats' and by 'traverses' as the grand +juries were; these securities, such as they were, have disappeared; but +their conduct may be controlled to a certain extent by the Superior Courts +of Ireland, as that of most public bodies may be, if only through a +tedious and costly procedure, and they are more or less under the +authority of the Local Government Board. + +Six of the principal cities and towns of Ireland, Dublin, Belfast, Cork, +Limerick, Londonderry, and Waterford, have been made distinct counties, +with the appellation of County Boroughs. The scheme of County Councils has +been applied to these also; the townsmen and townswomen have the same +power of voting, and the same democratic suffrage as the counties proper; +the borough assemblies may have the same kinds of members; but the titles +of mayors, aldermen, and burgesses have been preserved, in recognition, so +to speak, of strictly urban government. These bodies, which, it will be +observed, are popular in the widest sense of the word, have the powers of +grand juries within their respective spheres; but they retain besides +their former administrative powers subject to the control of the Local +Government Board; they have thus been changed from narrow and close +oligarchies into democracies on the very broadest basis. The County +Councils have under them two minor bodies, the Rural District Councils and +the Urban District Councils, the characteristics of which may be briefly +noticed. The sphere of the authority of the Rural District Council +corresponds, for the most part, to the Poor Law Union; these councils are +elected and constituted under the same conditions as the larger councils +already described; they are, therefore, mere democracies in considerable +numbers. The Rural District Councils are given the powers of the Baronial +Presentment Sessions of the Grand Juries, that is, they may initiate +proceedings as their predecessors did; they are made the sole guardians of +the poor within their districts, the _ex-officio_ guardians having been +abolished; their chairmen are members of the County Councils; it may be +added here that rating for the poor has been extended generally over the +union, not as hitherto confined to the electoral division and the ward, a +questionable provision which will certainly increase the expenditure for +the relief of poverty. The sphere of the authority of the Urban District +Councils has been made that of the larger towns of Ireland, being sanitary +areas within themselves; but power has been taken to increase the number +of these towns, and this increase will be probably witnessed. The Urban +District Councils resemble, in their mode of election and their +constitution, the other assemblies, that is, they are democracies to the +fullest extent; but they retain the names of Corporate or Town +Commissioners towns, and of mayors, aldermen, and burgesses where they +possessed these before. The powers of the Urban District Councils are +those of the grand juries within the towns, except as respects the larger +public buildings, which were formerly charged on 'the county at large;' +these councils levy and assess the poor rate within their districts; and +they retain the powers of urban government they formerly possessed. The +Local Government Board has authority, also, over the Rural District and +the Urban District Councils. + +The entire system of Irish local government has thus been placed on an +extremely democratic basis, subject, however, to partial control by the +Central Government. This revolution, for it has been nothing less, was +obviously liable to be attended by the many mischiefs inseparable from a +sudden transfer of enormous powers to local assemblies of the most popular +type, to maladministration, waste, and extravagance, and, as especially +would be the case in Ireland, to violent or insidious attacks on the +landed gentry. The late measure has provided against these evils, if not +completely or adequately, with ingenuity and skill. The relief of Irish +agriculture was its first financial object; to effect this the county cess +and the poor rate have been consolidated into a single charge; and half of +this is to be defrayed by the State and appropriated to the relief of +agricultural lands, towns and lands, within municipal limits, being +excepted. The subvention is not to extend to sums payable in respect of +criminal injuries, nor to sums payable in respect of extra police in +disturbed districts; these charges are properly to be borne by local areas +as before. The relief afforded is an annual sum of about L700,000; it is +divided in tolerably equal shares between the owners and the occupiers of +the soil, that is, between the landlords and tenants of Ireland; it is +characteristic of Radical clamour, that a boon, the justice of which could +not be disputed, was denounced as an 'infamous job' for the behoof of the +Irish landed gentry. A powerful check has been placed on extravagance and +waste, and on attempts to injure property in land, exposed, we have seen, +to undoubted dangers. The relief afforded was calculated on the local +expenditure for 1897, in the words of the law, 'the standard year;' it was +regularly to be one-half of this sum. Should the local expenditure, +therefore, in subsequent years, be in excess of that of the standard year, +the proportionate value of the relief would fall; should it be a lesser +amount, the value would rise. A strong restraint was thus imposed on +attempts recklessly to job and waste local funds, and notably to plunder +Irish landlords; but this restriction only applies to agricultural lands; +it does not extend to property in towns; and it is difficult to say that +it will always prove effective against democratic sentiment, passion, and +greed. The extent of the relief afforded to Irish landlords differs widely +as between landlords of different classes of tenants; landlords of mere +cottars will get very little; landlords of farmers of substance will get +much more; but it is unnecessary here to enlarge on this special +subject.[183] + +This sweeping measure, in my judgment at least, might have been better +framed to carry out its policy. Like much of the legislation of the +Imperial Parliament, it has been fashioned too closely on the English +model; it gives to a poor and backward country, not trained in +self-government, local institutions naturally adapted only to an opulent +and well-ordered country accustomed for centuries to local liberties. +Having regard to the peculiar state of Ireland, it might have made the +powers of local government it conferred larger, but it ought not to have +been as purely democratic as it is; and it ought to have been accompanied +by safeguards it does not possess. I would have been disposed to give the +Irish County Councils a right to take evidence for private Bills on the +spot; this, if transmitted to the Irish Privy Council, and considered by +it, might be made the basis of reports by that body, which could be turned +into Acts of Parliament, by a summary process, thus getting rid of great +and useless expense, and silencing one of the few real arguments in favour +of Home Rule. I would also have allowed the County Councils of different +counties, in matters in which they had a common interest, say, in the +drainage of some of the great Irish rivers, to carry out together public +works of this kind, and to assess and levy rates for the purpose if, on +consideration, this was deemed expedient; at present they have no +authority like this; and such a power would, I think, be for the general +good of Ireland. The County Councils, too, I believe, might be given a +deliberative voice, in cases they have not at present; for example, should +the rate-payers of any county make a demand for sectarian education, +within its area, and declare themselves ready to pay a rate for it, the +County Council should have a right to entertain the project, and to report +on it to the Central Government. And I am convinced that members of the +County Councils ought to have some seats on the Local Government Board, +and on other boards now filled by the Castle bureaucracy; this would +introduce a popular element into these bodies, and, in many ways, would be +of real advantage. On the other hand, in the election and the constitution +of the County and other Councils, democracy has simply been let run riot; +and the resulting evils have already been made manifest. Illiterate +persons ought not to have been qualified to be electors; the single should +not have replaced the cumulative vote, property being thus deprived of its +legitimate weight; above all, as is evident, security should have been +taken that the landed gentry should have a proper representation on the +County Councils. The authority, too, of the Superior Courts over all these +assemblies should have been made more effective and less costly than it is +at present; and that of the Local Government Board should have been better +defined and increased. In all this province the checks possessed by the +Central Government over these local democracies are not, I think, +sufficient. + +It is impossible, I have remarked, to say with certainty what the end of +this social revolution will be; but some of the results are, even now, +apparent. There has, as yet, been little tendency in the local boards to +waste, or to attempts to despoil the landed gentry; the check in this +respect is of great force; but no one, I repeat, can predict what may be +done under the influence of democratic sympathies, especially should the +existing agitation acquire increased strength in Ireland. Some of the +councils have been very fairly managed; a few others have been badly +administered; as a rule, much time has been misspent in irrelevant talk; +there has been a good deal of squabbling with the Local Government Board; +but, on the whole, the local business of the counties and towns has been +conducted as reasonably well as could be expected in the case of a new and +immense experiment. But the consequences of giving raw democracies great +and sudden power have already been made but too manifest, as persons, who +knew Ireland, foresaw would happen. In parts of Ulster representatives of +the landed gentry have been elected to the County Councils; property in +these has still legitimate influence. But in Leinster, Munster, and +Connaught, this order of men has been all but completely shut out from +these boards; the land is not represented at all; this is an absolutely +unnatural position of affairs, pregnant with many ills to the community as +a whole. It is not only that the landed gentry have been deprived of an +influence they ought to possess, in a society in any degree well ordered; +this change has a tendency to make them more and more, what they have +largely been made already, a privileged class without duties, akin to the +old seigneurie of France, a state of things of which Tocqueville has +powerfully described the evils. In the southern provinces, too, the new +democracies, composed of Catholic 'Nationalists,' by large majorities, +have driven loyal, and especially Protestant, men and women from local +offices they had filled with credit, and this too at a considerable charge +on the rates, a clear proof how no restraints can be wholly effective. But +the main feature in the conduct of the County and other Councils is that +in most parts of Ireland they have followed the advice given by Parnell to +their weaker forerunners; they have made themselves agencies of the United +Irish League, as boards before them were agencies of the Land and the +National Leagues, and they have given but too ample proof of disaffection, +disloyalty, and hatred of British rule. In some counties, the councils +seized the court houses, and refused light and fire to the Superior and +the County Court judges. Throughout the South of Ireland most of the +boards vied with each other in wild expressions of sympathy with the +Boers, and of hopes that disaster would befall the British army; many gave +free voice to frankly rebellious language; many denounced Irishmen being +recruited for the British army. Nor did these sinister exhibitions end +here; some of these bodies went out of their way to sneer at their aged +sovereign, when she paid last year her last visit to the Irish shores, to +question her motives, to speak all kinds of evil; a few even refused to +say a word of regret for her death, nay, indulged in language of scarcely +veiled insult. These councils, in a word, in a number of instances, have +shown a marked resemblance to the Assemblies of the Communes of Jacobin +France, indignantly held up to execration by Burke; they have been petty +nests of seditious agitation and clamour. It is at least well that this +manner of men has not succeeded, in the great statesman's language, in +'ascending from parochial tyranny to federal anarchy' and have warned us +what would be the nature of a Home Rule Parliament. + +This scheme of local government must be given a trial; but ultimately it +will have to be reformed, in a Conservative sense, if things in Ireland +are not to be left upside down.[184] I turn to the subject of Irish +education, which has been lately attracting much public attention. +University education is the most prominent part of this question; but, in +order to understand it, we must briefly consider the history of Irish +education in all its branches. The first scheme of primary education in +Ireland, of which we have a record--I pass over the traditions of the +Middle Ages--was due to the policy of Henry VIII.; he procured an Act +from the Irish Parliament, to the effect that elementary schools should be +set up in different Irish parishes; but, true to the ideal of Tudor +statesmen--an ideal, however, which he did not always pursue--he required +that these should be 'English schools,' to teach the Irish poor 'the +English language.' Many years passed before these schools were found +beyond the borders of the Pale; but, as the march of conquest advanced, +they existed in many Irish parishes; there were more than five hundred of +them in 1810, the largest number probably they ever attained. These +schools were originally intended to be open without distinction of creed; +but, under the conditions of Irish history, they necessarily became +confined to the lower Protestant classes; they were under the control of +the clergy of the Established Church, and Catholic children were kept away +from them. Elizabeth founded another class of schools, in part elementary, +in part of a higher type; these were known as the Diocesan Irish Schools; +but there seem never to have been more than sixteen of these; and they, +too, became exclusively Protestant. To these schools should be added 'the +English Erasmus Smith Schools,' as they were called, foundations grafted, +so to speak, on grammar schools established by a wealthy Cromwellian +settler; at one time they were more than one hundred in number; and if not +wholly, they were nearly confined to Protestant children. A series of +Reports of Commissions and other records show that the education afforded +in all these schools was not what it ought to have been; but this was to +be expected in the case of a country where Protestant ascendency was +supreme, where all administration was selfish and corrupt, and where the +schools were the monopoly of a fraction of the people only. As to the +education of the Irish Catholic poor in these centuries, it was +discouraged, and ultimately prohibited by the penal code; the Catholic +child could not learn the rudiments in his own land; but in spite of +this, 'hedge schools,' a significant name, grew up, in hundreds, +throughout the country, in which, to adopt the words of Davis, a man of +genius-- + + 'Still crouching 'neath the sheltering hedge, or stretched on mountain + fern, + The teacher and his pupils met feloniously to learn.' + +As may, however, be supposed the instruction afforded in these schools was +usually bad; throughout the eighteenth century and a part of the +nineteenth, the young of Catholic Ireland were brought up in ignorance. In +1733 an odious experiment was made, and continued for a long period, to +cause education to wean the Catholic child from his faith. An institution, +called the Charter School, was established; the object of its founders was +to make 'the young of the Papists' Protestant, by attracting them to +seminaries where they were kept apart from their parents and priests, +boarded, lodged, and handed over to Protestant tradesmen; millions were +spent in furthering a detestable policy, which literally set up Mammon +against God. The Charter Schools, however, completely failed; they never +had more than fourteen hundred pupils, and they became wretched Dotheboys +Halls where cruel and pampered Squeerses, eating up funds set apart for +education such as it was, starved and ill-treated children victims of +every kind of disease. + +When the partial relaxation of the penal laws allowed the children of the +Irish Catholics to be taught the rudiments, the 'Christian Brothers' began +to found their schools, under the sanction of a Bull of Pius VI.; these +schools, sectarian, like the genius of the Irish people, have, though +receiving no endowment from the State, grown from small beginnings into a +number of excellent Catholic schools. The Quakers in Ireland had +established a few elementary schools before the Union; and so had the +Presbyterians of Ulster. The Charter Schools lingered down to the year +1832; they disappeared when their subsidies ceased; but the 'Incorporated +Irish Society' is in possession of the lands they once held, and it +supports a number of good Protestant schools. Primary education, however, +in Ireland remained very backward; the Protestant schools did not +flourish; the Catholic 'hedge schools' continued until the nineteenth +century had far advanced. Attempts were made to promote Irish primary +education, in different ways, after the Union; a Board of Commissioners of +Education was appointed, and made valuable reports; but these efforts were +of little avail for the benefit at least of the Catholic young; the +schools thus established were all Protestant; and the evangelical +movement, which was then powerful, made them proselytising with scarcely a +single exception, a danger which the example of the Charter Schools had +especially made the Catholic Irish priesthood dread. An institution, +however, called the 'Kildare Place Schools' had, for a time, considerable +success; these schools were thrown open to children of all creeds, and had +the high approval of O'Connell himself; but it was one of the rules that +the Bible should be read in the schools; they became proselytising in no +doubtful sense, and ultimately they were tabooed by the Catholic +priesthood. Primary education in Ireland was in this state, when the +subject was taken up by Mr. Stanley, the Chief Secretary for Ireland of +Lord Grey, and, in after years, the 'Rupert of Debate.' He founded in +1831-34 what has ever since been known as the 'National System of +Education' of an elementary kind in Ireland. The principles on which he +proceeded were in accord with the somewhat shallow Liberalism of the day, +but, it must be added, with the ideas of many enlightened Irishmen. +Primary education was to be endowed by the State, but it was to be divided +into two parts: secular instruction was to be given in the new schools to +children assembled together to learn, and that without distinction of +creed; but religious instruction was to be given to children kept apart, +Protestants and Catholics being completely separate, by the pastors of +their respective communions. By these means it was hoped that a sound +system of primary education would be formed; that proselytising would be +made impossible; and that the youth of the warring races and faiths of +Ireland, under the influence of a common teaching, would be made gradually +to forget the animosities of the past. The National Schools were to be the +Lethe of Irish discords. + +I can barely glance at the chequered history of the institution which was +thus established. The 'National System,' the name long in common use, was +angrily condemned by the clergy of the Established Church of Ireland, and +by a majority, perhaps, of the laity; this opposition was partly due to +the spirit of an ascendency that would not brook equality; but it was +largely to be ascribed to a higher motive. The new system, it was argued, +cut education in two; the separation of what is secular from what is +religious practically postpones what is divine to the human; and this is +especially the case under the arrangements in force, for religious +instruction in the schools may be a mere accident. The Irish Protestant +clergy, and many other Protestants, have never taken to the National +Schools; their sincerity is proved by the fact that a 'Church Education +Society' exists, which, though depending on voluntary subscriptions alone, +supports nearly two hundred exclusively Protestant schools. As for the +Presbyterians of Ireland, the National system of education fell in with +their views; its 'Liberalism' was congenial to them; but though schools of +this type have flourished in Ulster, the Presbyterians have given a great +deal of trouble to the Commissioners charged to carry out the law, and +have shown much animosity to the Catholic Irish. The Irish Catholic +priesthood at first accepted the National system almost with gratitude; it +gave their flocks a rudimentary instruction they were much in need of; it +seemed to provide against the proselytising they feared above all things; +and during some years the heads of their Church in Ireland, for the most +part not of the Ultramontane faith, were not indisposed to welcome a +compromise. By degrees, however, opposition grew up in Catholic Ireland +against the system; and, it must be allowed, not without reason. The +Catholic element on the Commission was much too weak; the purely secular +instruction in the schools was made partly religious, for books of a +Protestant complexion found their way into them; a cry of Protestant +proselytising was raised; and the National system was solemnly condemned +in 1850, at the great Catholic Synod of Thurles, a sentence, however, +which had no effect on the Government. But the real grievances of the +Irish Catholics, in this matter, have nearly all been removed; the +Catholic Commissioners have been made equal in number with the +Presbyterian and Protestant; secular instruction in the schools has again +been made strictly secular; attempts at proselytising have long been +rendered impossible; it should be added--and this is very important--the +Catholic priesthood have become the managers of a large majority of the +schools. The system has certainly struck deep roots in Ireland; there are +now nearly 9000 National Schools, endowed with about L1,300,000 by the +State, and teaching nearly 800,000 pupils; they are supported by model and +training schools, and have a large staff of competent teachers; the +instruction they afford, if not remarkable, is, on the whole, sufficiently +good. It may fairly be said that the National system has been a beneficent +influence of the greatest value; light has shone on a people that once +sate in darkness. The system, however, has become, insensibly, but +greatly, changed; the National Schools have long been, for the most part, +sectarian, that is, composed of Protestant or of Catholic children; the +'mixed' schools, as they are called, are comparatively few. But the main +principle of the system still is in force; the instruction given in the +schools, when the pupils sit together, is strictly secular; and this is +secured by a conscience clause; the Bible cannot be read, in school hours, +even in a Protestant school; no Catholic school can have a Catholic +emblem. The religious instruction given in the schools is hardly what it +ought to be, especially in the case of the Protestant schools; it must be +added that the hope of their founders that they would bridge over the gulf +of discords in Ireland has not been, in the slightest degree, realised. + +The Irish are, naturally, a religious people; their history, a long +conflict of races and faiths, has, necessarily, made them intensely +sectarian. The system of education, of which I have traced the outlines, +was certainly not well designed for them; it would have been severely +condemned by Burke, the deepest of thinkers on the affairs of Ireland. And +though the National system has had a real measure of success, it owes +this, in the main, to the immense subvention it receives from the State; +it has little or no support from voluntary aid; an attempt to impose an +education rate on Ireland would be a failure, would not improbably wreck +the system. Nor is this in harmony with genuine Irish sentiment; one of +the most conclusive proofs is that National education has become, to a +great extent, sectarian; the 'Christian Brothers' and the 'Church +Education Society' schools, sustained by voluntary effort alone, and +overweighted in the race by the endowed schools of the State, show how +strong is Irish sectarian feeling. The clergy, too, of the late +Established Church, and a considerable body of their communion, remain +hostile to the National Schools; and though the Catholic priesthood have +made them, to a great extent, their own, and avail themselves of the +advantages they afford, they are hardly in heartfelt sympathy with them. +Nor can it be denied that the conscientious objections to the National +system have real weight; the system, if not irreligious, is, we may say, +neutral; it does not make religion an essential part of school life. It +would, nevertheless, I believe, be exceedingly unwise to disturb a system +which, on the whole, has for many years had excellent results in Ireland. +The opposition to it is not strong; the children of the humbler classes +freely avail themselves of it, and that with the full consent of their +parents. Nor is the conscientious objection of much force in the case of +schools which are only day schools, and in which the rudiments alone are +taught; this is not the case of education of the higher kind, in which +this objection is perhaps decisive; and it cannot be said that the +National Schools have, in any sense, impaired the religion of the Irish +people.[185] + +I pass from elementary to schools of a secondary kind in Ireland. The +Diocesan Schools of Elizabeth were nearly all secondary schools; but they +were never numerous, and have all but disappeared. The two first Stuarts +made an attempt to establish secondary education in Ireland on a larger +scale. They founded the 'Free Royal Schools,' as they have been called, +now seen at Armagh, Cavan, Dungannon, Portora, and Raphoe; they endowed +them with lands perhaps worth in our day, L6000 a year; they looked +forward to a time when they might rival Eton, Winchester, and the great +public schools of England. Erasmus Smith established three considerable +'grammar schools,' and granted valuable estates for their support; a +tolerably large number of secondary schools was also founded, from time to +time, by benefactors of the dominant race in Ireland: of these Kilkenny +College, a seminary created by the House of Ormond, which reared Swift and +Berkeley, was the most conspicuous. These schools, though often nominally +open to different creeds, became, nevertheless, in the eighteenth century, +under the Protestant ascendency, supreme in the land, restricted to the +young of the Protestant caste; they felt the effects of monopoly, and of +the corruption prevailing in the State; the education they afforded was, +for the most part, bad; their governing bodies and masters were often +grasping and selfish. After the relaxation of the penal code, the Irish +Catholics began to found secondary schools; their exertions were, in a +high degree, praiseworthy; and though these schools received no support +from the State, some of them have done really excellent work. A number, +too, of secondary schools were established in Ulster, for the most part +for Presbyterian uses; some of these are sectarian, some open to all +faiths; some have, others have not, received assistance from the State; in +several the education given has been, on the whole, good. A few secondary +schools--St. Columba is much the best--have also been founded within the +last century, usually for the benefit of the late Established Church of +Ireland. + +The progress made by secondary schools in Ireland, even in the nineteenth +century, has not been rapid. It is not to be named with the immense +development of public schools in England, within the same period, caused, +in some measure, by the genius of Arnold; secondary Irish schools, in +fact, have been largely a failure, like other institutions of British +origin. This is mainly to be attributed to three reasons: the higher upper +classes in Ireland usually send their sons to be educated in the great +English public schools; the Irish secondary schools are seldom well +endowed; above all, the upper middle class in Ireland is small and has +little influence. Two Commissions, appointed in 1854 and in 1878, examined +secondary education in Ireland as it then existed; their reports give a +far from favourable account of the system. The secondary Irish schools +have not been much affected by an Act of Parliament passed in 1885, which +provided for making better schemes for their management; but certainly +they have derived very great benefit from the Intermediate Education Act +of Lord Cairns, which established a system of competition between them, +and secured prizes for successful competitors. In these honourable trials +the Catholic schools have done well; but even now the secondary schools +are decidedly inferior to what they ought to be, and do not exhibit many +signs of improvement. An impartial inquirer thus described them in +1871:[186] 'Upon the whole, secondary instruction, throughout the country, +was as some one--I believe Lord Cairns--said, "bad in quality and +deficient in quantity." The fact seems incredible, but there can be no +doubt of its authenticity, viz. that out of a total population of +5,500,000, there were only 10,814 boys in Ireland learning Latin, Greek, +or modern languages in 1871. Or, to put the matter in another way, while +in England about ten or fifteen in every 1000 were instructed in these +languages, only two in every 1000 were instructed in them in +Ireland.'[187] + +I pass on to University life in Ireland, the question, I have said, most +prominent at this time. Ireland had no Oxford or Cambridge in the Middle +Ages; an attempt to establish a University in Dublin failed; science and +literature could not grow up in a land distracted by feudal and tribal +strife, and in which two Churches were continually at war with each other. +Elizabeth founded Trinity College towards the close of her reign, on the +site of a monastery that had been suppressed; it was the intention of the +queen, and of her two first successors, that this seminary should expand +into a University in the true sense, containing a number of colleges +within its sphere, and probably open to all students whatever their race +or their faith. This happy consummation, however, was made impossible +during the long period of civil war and trouble, which only came to an end +with that of the seventeenth century. Trinity College remained a single +foundation; and, in the era of Protestant ascendency that ensued, when +Catholic Ireland lay under the ban of the penal code, it necessarily +became an exclusively Protestant place of learning, its dignities, its +honours, nay, admission to it, being reserved to members of the +Established Church. It had, however, been amply endowed; and, from an +early period, it possessed many distinguished worthies, the names of +Ussher, of King, of Browne, and of others, being still remembered. Trinity +College, strange to say, was very High Church during the reigns of the two +last Stuarts and of Anne; its leading divines preached the creed of +passive obedience; and it was remarkable for its aversion to Presbyterian +Ireland, as was clearly shown in the diatribes of Swift. The college, +however, became Whiggish and Low Church during the reign of Walpole--its +Provost was appointed by the Crown; and until nearly the close of the +eighteenth century, its professorships, its fellowships, its scholarships, +its degrees, even entrance to its walls, were strictly confined to the +dominant communion of the Anglican Church. But a liberal spirit grew up, +and gained strength within it; this appears in many of the admirable +writings of Berkeley, breathing the ideas that afterwards inspired +Grattan, and in the histories of Leland and Warner, on the whole just to +the vanquished Catholic people; and after the almost National movement +which produced the Revolution of 1782, Trinity College took a remarkable +step, which proved that it was in advance of the politics of that age. In +1793, when the Irish Parliament passed a great measure of Catholic relief, +the college made Catholics eligible for its degrees and its minor prizes; +and, but that its statutes made this impossible, it would, perhaps, have +allowed Catholics to become professors, fellows, and scholars--in short, +to have a share in its dignities and its government. Nothing like this was +done at Oxford and Cambridge until the nineteenth century had run far its +course. + +From this time onwards Trinity College, accessible to Presbyterians some +years before, received Catholics honourably within its precincts. A few +distinguished Catholic Irishmen have obtained the excellent education it +has always afforded; and these have been treated with scrupulous fairness; +no attempt at proselytising has ever been made or thought of. Their +numbers, however, have never been large; and they were necessarily placed +in an inferior position, for they could not become professors, fellows, or +scholars; the college remained an institution essentially Protestant, even +anti-Catholic, in much of its teaching, for example, in the predilection +it long showed for Locke. The college continued to thrive and to make +progress; the reproach cast on it that she was the 'silent sister,' was +rather due to the want of publishing enterprise in the Irish capital, than +to any deficiency in literary power; at all events, it has long ago been +removed; Trinity College has stood for a century in the foremost rank of +places of learning famed for scientific eminence. In 1843-44 an attempt +was made to introduce Catholics on the foundation, as scholars; but this +was prohibited by the statutes; some 'non-foundation' scholarships were +then endowed; and Catholics were enabled to compete for them. This was the +position of the college, when, in 1844-45, after the agitation for Repeal +had shown how disaffected Catholic Ireland still was, Peel turned his mind +to Irish remedial measures, and among these to a reform of high education +in Ireland. His policy was to maintain the Union intact, and all the +institutions closely connected with it, but to create institutions, so to +speak, alongside of these, to which Irish Presbyterians, and Catholics +especially, might freely resort, in complete equality with all Irishmen; +he therefore left Trinity College exactly as it was, but resolved to +establish and endow places of learning, which he hoped would be popular +supplements to it, and would give a University training to students who, +as affairs stood, were not on the same level as the favoured Protestants +in it. He founded the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, of Cork, and of Galway; +these were supplied with an ample staff of professors, endowed, and given +the means to bestow many prizes; and they were affiliated to the Queen's +University, empowered to confer degrees. The principle on which these +institutions were formed was, following the so-called liberalism of the +time, almost exactly the same as that on which the Irish National Schools +had been based. Secular education in them was to be united, religious +education was to be kept apart; their students were to learn the things +that belonged to this world together; but as to what belonged to another +world, this teaching was to be provided by their pastors outside their +colleges, and they were not to have it in common. The colleges, and the +University, therefore, were essentially seats of non-religious knowledge; +religious equality, it was said, could be only thus secured; and residence +in the colleges was not required. + +The principle pervading the Irish National education system was certainly +open to grave objections; these became infinitely stronger, when it was +applied to a system of high education in Ireland. Secular instruction +could be really combined, and given to children together, when limited to +the first rudiments: how could it be combined when it should embrace such +subjects as moral philosophy, metaphysics, modern history, nay, physical +science, and when taught to young men of the University age? Besides, +religious instruction, without a great shock to conscience, could be made +a subordinate consideration in mere day schools: how could it, +consistently with Christian duty, be practically excluded from a +University course, and left to undergraduates to be dealt with as they +might think fit, and that at the most critical time of their life? +Indifference to the Divine, masked in specious 'liberal' phrases, was, in +truth, the cardinal feature of this scheme; it would have been severely +reprobated by Burke; it was repugnant to the ideas of five-sixths of +Irishmen; its tendency was to form minds in superior men, like those of +Hume and Gibbon, in inferior men, to produce infidel, even atheistic, +sentiments. It was denounced as 'godless' in the House of Commons by the +High Church party; it was condemned by O'Connell, from the outset, though +the men of 'Young Ireland' were not adverse; after some hesitation, it was +rejected unequivocally by the Irish Catholic bishops,[188] and finally was +held up to anathema at the Synod of Thurles. That the bishops were sincere +is proved by the fact, that they established the Irish Catholic University +a few years afterwards--the first head of this creation was Newman; and +the foundation has been maintained ever since, though it could not give a +degree, and it received nothing from the State, and its only funds were +the contributions of a poor communion, a noble example of self-sacrifice +and of a true sense of duty. Meanwhile, the Queen's Colleges and +University were kept up and endowed, at the rate of about L30,000 a year; +the College of Belfast has done well, for it falls in with Presbyterian +ideas; but the Colleges of Cork and of Galway, notably the last, have been +sorry, nay, almost useless, failures; and Peel's hope that his project +would secure a good University training to Irish Catholics of the better +class has not been, to any real extent, fulfilled. Trinity College +remained for many years unchanged, that is, it gave an admirable education +to a very few Catholics; but it continued to be a Protestant institution +in its essential nature; its governing body and its hierarchy were all +Protestant; its teaching was Protestant in some of its parts; its higher +honours were a monopoly of the favoured communion. + +The extreme unfairness of this University system, the ascendency secured +to Trinity College, which, admirable institution as it was, was +practically nearly confined to Protestants of the upper class; the +failure, with respect to Catholic Ireland, of the Queen's Colleges and the +Queen's University, and the large and useless expenditure this involved; +above all, the denial to the Catholic University of any share in the +bounty of the State, though its claim to it could be hardly +doubtful,--attracted the attention of several statesmen, from 1850 to +1870; but nothing was done, or even attempted. The subject was taken up by +Mr. Gladstone, with characteristic earnestness, during his first Ministry; +he declared that University education in Ireland was 'a scandal;' indeed, +Irish education of the higher kind was the third branch of the upas tree +which threw its baleful shade over the land. He brought in a measure of +reform in the session of 1873; it was an ambitious and a comprehensive +scheme; but it was much the worst of his Irish reforms of this period; and +it ended in complete and disastrous failure. With the historical instinct +occasionally seen in his legislation, Mr. Gladstone proposed to revive the +idea of Elizabeth and the first Stuarts, and to found a great National +University, which was to have the management and control of the higher +education throughout Ireland. The governing body of this new institution +was to be composed partly of men chosen by the Lord-Lieutenant, and partly +of the heads of the colleges to be connected with it; and it was to have +the sole power of conferring degrees in Ireland. Trinity College was to +hand over to the National University a sum of L12,000 a year, that is, +more than a fourth of its endowments from the State; its professorships, +its fellowships, its scholarships, in a word, all its prizes, were to be +thrown open to all its students whatever their faith; but in most other +respects it was not to be essentially changed, except as to the power of +granting degrees. Trinity College was to be affiliated to the National +University as a dependent college, and so were a number of minor colleges; +but this remarkable distinction was made in homage to the 'liberalism' of +the day: the Queen's Colleges, that of Galway being suppressed as useless, +were to retain the endowments they received from the State, on the ground +that they were free to all comers; but the Catholic University was not to +obtain a shilling, nor yet other colleges of a sectarian type, on the +ground that they were 'close and exclusive,' this being the case of all +the Catholic colleges that could be affiliated to the new foundation. The +Queen's University was to be abolished, for the National University was to +be sole and supreme; and then came provisions, which, strange as they may +appear at first sight, were perhaps inevitable under the conditions on +which the project was formed. Moral philosophy, metaphysics, and modern +history were shut out from the National University course; they might be +taught in the colleges, but were to be no part of University learning. And +the National University, like the Queen's Colleges, was to be +'non-religious;' its system of education was to be secular and united, +that is its students were to be examined together in secular learning, but +in religious matters they were to stand apart; religion, indeed, might be +a subject of college teaching, but it was not to be heard of within the +University walls; in fact, it was probably to be left to the students and +their clergy. + +This complicated measure, not easy thoroughly to understand, was +sustained, for a few days, by the glamour of Mr. Gladstone's rhetoric. But +ere long it arrayed against it an immense preponderance of opinion in +Ireland, and was assailed with fatal effect in the House of Commons. The +Heads of Trinity College took the initiative in declaring against it; in +debates, wise, patriotic, and just alike, they recognised the claims of +Catholic Ireland; but they protested against the wrong being done to the +great and ancient foundation they represented, and especially against the +degradation to which it was subjected by the Bill. Trinity College was to +be deprived for no reason of a large part of its revenue; it was to be +placed under a governing body, in which nominees of the Castle would be +all-powerful--an influence pernicious to its independence and +self-government; above all, the National University was to supplant it, +and was to exclude from its teaching the noblest studies of the intellect +of man. The Platonism which had inspired Berkeley, the records which had +animated the genius of Burke, and had been fostered in the Alma mater of +these great worthies, were to be banished from a foundation which was to +be made the head of University life in Ireland. These sentiments were +fully shared by enlightened Irishmen: that moral and metaphysical science +and modern history should be virtually proscribed in the University about +to be set up, was, as it were, putting out one of the eyes of the +intellect, effacing what was best in the map of knowledge. But the most +decisive condemnation of the scheme was that pronounced by the Irish +Catholic bishops. Like their predecessors of nearly thirty years before, +and the Anglican High Church party of that day, they asserted that the +project was really 'godless;' it was irreligion in the mask of +non-religion; its liberalism was in the highest degree illiberal, for it +offered their flocks a system of education it was known they would reject; +and it was flagrantly, nay, basely, unjust, for while Trinity College, and +the Queen's Colleges, and the Queen's University, were to remain endowed, +the Catholic University and all Catholic colleges were to get nothing from +the State. These arguments made their way into the House of Commons, and +were vindicated in speeches of great ability. Disraeli dwelt especially on +the poverty and the imperfection of a University scheme, in which the +finest branches of knowledge were not to enter; he frankly denounced the +Bill as 'atheistic,' an epithet which Burke assuredly would have fastened +on it. Other speakers, notably Ball, a very brilliant Irishman, enlarged +on the wrong done to Trinity College, and earnestly advocated the Catholic +claims; not only was the minister offering a stone for bread, he was +virtually trying to bribe the Irish Catholic into accepting institutions +he disliked, and in the attempt was deeply offending his conscience. +Notwithstanding the efforts of a powerful Government, the Bill was +rejected by the House of Commons; nearly all the Irish members voted +against it, and so did the best men of the Liberal party. + +The year that witnessed the collapse of Mr. Gladstone's measure, +witnessed, also, a reform of Trinity College conceived in the spirit of +the 'liberalism' of the hour, and hailed as an illustration of what is +called progress. The government, the dignities, and the prizes of the +college were thrown open to all without regard to their creed; this was +welcomed as 'University equality' in the most perfect sense. It is a +mistake to suppose that a corresponding change was ever made at Oxford and +Cambridge; the extension of their privileges to persons whatever their +faith, has, thanks to the exertions of the late Lord Selborne, been +strictly confined to lay offices; the religious character and teaching of +the Universities have been carefully preserved.[189] Though Trinity +College has been made 'non-religious' by this measure, and that to such a +degree that its governing body might conceivably be composed of avowed +atheists, it has, nevertheless, to this day remained a Protestant +institution in all essential respects. Its professors, fellows, and +scholars have, since 1873, been nearly all Protestants; its Catholic +students are not eight in a hundred of the number as a whole; and the +chief practical result of the late reform has been to make the heads of +the Irish Catholic Church more opposed than before to seeing Catholics +enter its precincts. In 1879, Lord Beaconsfield's Ministry made an attempt +to diminish the injustice done to Irish Catholics by the system of +University education still in force in Ireland. The Queen's University was +abolished; a Royal University was established, which was enabled to confer +degrees on, and to give prizes to, the students of the Catholic University +and other colleges; but the Royal University is a mere Examining Board; it +is not a University properly so called. One incident connected with this +institution deserves attention; the success of the students of Catholic +colleges at the Royal University examinations has been so great, that it +ought to silence jeers at the 'superstition' which keeps them back, the +vulgar cant of ignorant prejudice or worse.[190] Meanwhile the iniquities +and anomalies of the Irish University system have continued but very +little changed.[191] Trinity College remains a Protestant institution +well endowed, almost a monopoly of the Protestant upper class in Ireland, +practically little resorted to by Irish Catholics; the Queen's Colleges +are avoided by the Irish Catholics, as being 'irreligious' if called +'non-religious,' though the College of Belfast suits Presbyterian views; +they, too, receive a large bounty from the State; but the Catholic +University, the true seminary for the upper middle Catholic classes, and +now divided into different colleges, is still, as such, left out in the +cold. Its students, no doubt, can obtain Royal University degrees, and +some of its professors have been placed as examiners on that foundation; +but it is the veriest mockery to call this justice when we look at Trinity +College and the Queen's Colleges. 'The words of scripture are reversed,' +in Macaulay's language; 'the rich are filled with good things and the +hungry are sent empty away.' + +I do not envy those who, whatever their reasons, refuse to acknowledge the +wrong done by these arrangements. It will hardly be denied, in the +twentieth century, that Protestant ascendency ought not to exist in any +sphere of Irish affairs, and that in University life, as in all matters, +Irish Catholics ought to have civil equality, and that without a violation +of the rights of conscience. It has been triumphantly maintained that, in +high education, these conditions are actually fulfilled in Ireland; +Trinity College and the Queen's Colleges are accessible to all students, +without regard to their religion or no religion; these have a perfectly +equal right to share in the government and the honours of institutions +thrown completely open. But those who argue in this way either shut their +eyes to facts, or will not perceive that this fine 'liberalism' in Ireland +works sheer injustice. Catholics are but a handful of students in Trinity +College and the Queen's Colleges compared to what their natural proportion +ought to be; Trinity College, if nominally open, is in all essential +respects Protestant; the Queen's Colleges as being 'non-religious,' that +is, in the view of their Church 'irreligious,' are practically avoided by +Irish Catholics; yet the State endows Trinity College and the Queen's +Colleges; it starves the Catholic University and other Catholic colleges, +which are thus unfairly handicapped by their rivals. If this is not +furthering Protestant ascendency in Irish high education, and denying +civil equality to Irish Catholics who, in this matter, will not forego the +rights of conscience, I do not know what else it can be; it seems to me to +be iniquity in no doubtful sense. And are the objections of the Irish +Catholics, in this province, as 'irrational' and 'superstitious' as has +been scoffingly said? Reverse the case of Trinity College: suppose that +England was a Catholic Power, and that she kept up a great Catholic +University in the Irish capital, discountenancing Protestant institutions +in many ways, how many Protestants would enter its walls, how soon would +the cry of Catholic ascendency be raised? Or suppose that Oxford and +Cambridge were made 'non-religious,' as the Queen's Colleges in Ireland +are, would not an immense majority of English parents declare that these +seats of learning were 'godless,' and persistently keep their sons away +from them? The simple truth is that the Catholic objections to Trinity +College and the Queen's Colleges are really those which, in this matter, +have been entertained by the deepest thinkers; to my mind, at least, they +seem perfectly well-founded. As to the statement that these objections are +those of the Irish Catholic bishops alone, and are mere 'superstitious +fancies,' it is enough to reply that, on two occasions, the Irish +Catholic laity have distinctly pronounced on this subject, and have +declared that they agree with the heads of their Church. And as to the +argument that Catholic States do not endow sectarian institutions like the +Catholic University and other Irish Catholic colleges, it will be quite +time enough to examine this when anything like such a state of things can +be found as that which at present exists in Ireland. + +One argument, however, seldom frankly set forth, but hinted at in a +variety of ways, has been a real obstacle to a reform of this vicious +system; it strongly appeals to British national prejudice, of all +aberrations of opinion the most difficult to overcome. 'Popery,' it is +said, is a 'detestable thing;' a 'Protestant' State 'must have nothing to +do with it;' to endow a Catholic University in Ireland, therefore, or any +colleges of the same complexion, would be 'sacrificing to Baal,' or +something as wicked. Catholic Ireland must put up with Trinity College and +the Queen's Colleges, which have been made open to all sorts and +conditions of men; its 'conscientious objections' are mere 'bigotry.' This +reasoning, which condemns as impious the religion of the greatest part of +Christendom, would unfortunately overthrow many arrangements by which +provision has been made in our 'Protestant' State for Catholic +institutions of different kinds; if pushed to its consequences, it would +revive the penal code in Ireland, and lead to the confiscation of Catholic +charities. But though it has still indirectly an effect on some +politicians, it is, in its naked simplicity, only the faith of Mr. Kensit +and of those who walk in his footsteps; it is worthy of the philosophy of +Lord George Gordon, of the meekness of Orangeism, of the bray of Exeter +Hall. For some time a turn in British opinion has happily taken place; +'liberalism,' it has been perceived, in Irish University education has +failed; Mr. Arthur Balfour has made himself conspicuous in advocating the +just claims of Catholic Ireland. Even as I write a Commission is being +appointed to consider the whole subject of University life in Ireland; +there can be no reasonable doubt that it will fully bring to light the +anomalies and the unfairness of the existing system, and will recommend +that the Catholic University, and other Catholic colleges perhaps, shall +be endowed. In truth, things have already come to such a pass that Trinity +College, the one institution of which, it is said, 'all Irishmen are +really proud,' will, owing to the exceptional favour it receives from the +State, be placed in grave danger, and the Queen's Colleges also, if a +Catholic University in Ireland be not established and endowed, in order to +secure to the Irish Catholic civil equality, in high education, through +the assistance of the State.[192] + +On what principles, then, and by what means, is University education in +Ireland to be so reformed as to do equal justice to all Irishmen, to place +Protestants, Presbyterians, and Catholics on the same level, and, +especially, to vindicate the rightful claims of Catholic Ireland? Two +leading projects have at least been sketched out: the first, the grander +and the more ambitious, but, in my judgment, scarcely possible to carry +into effect; the second, more simple, more in harmony with existing facts, +and, I think, safer and much more easy to realise. The first scheme, +following in some respects the measure of Mr. Gladstone of 1873, but +making a marked improvement on it, would aim at establishing and endowing +a National University for all Irishmen, which should have a power to +confer degrees, in common with the Royal University now existing, and +should have an ample professional staff; it should have its examinations +for degrees and for other honours. The governing body of this University +should be composed of the heads of the colleges affiliated to it--the +element of the Castle being excluded, according at least to the best +authorities--and Trinity College should not be deprived of any part of its +revenues, as it was to be under the Bill of 1873. Two of the Queen's +Colleges probably should be suppressed; but the College of Belfast, which +has been successful, should probably be made a Presbyterian college, at +least in the main; the endowments it would receive should be, doubtless, +increased. High Catholic education should be provided for in this way: The +Catholic University should be established and endowed, and placed +reasonably on a level with Trinity College, and perhaps other Catholic +colleges also; but, in consideration of this assistance from the State, a +lay element should be introduced into the Catholic University governing +body; this should not be composed wholly of Catholic clergymen; and the +teaching body should be composed of men, chosen without regard to +religious distinctions, but so constituted that a majority should be +Catholics, and that Catholic education should be predominant. Other +Catholic colleges might be connected with this institution; and Trinity +College, the Catholic University, and the Belfast and all other colleges, +should be subordinate to the National University in this sense; their +students should be obliged to resort to it, or to the Royal University if +they preferred it, in order to pass examinations, and to obtain degrees or +other honours, there being thus two Universities of different types in +Ireland. Education in all the affiliated colleges should be perfectly +free, that is, left to the arrangements made by their governing bodies; +but a certain standard of proficiency should exist, which, however, the +tests of University examinations would probably secure. + +An Irish National University, could it be founded on these lines, would +present many attractive features, would realise, indeed, a noble ideal. It +would preserve Trinity College as a great place of learning, would give +Presbyterian Ireland a college practically its own, and ought to satisfy +the legitimate demands of Catholic Ireland. That its dependent colleges +should compete with each other for its degrees and honours, and be +friendly rivals in the splendid race of learning, would also be an immense +advantage; and the Royal University would, doubtless, suffice for students +too poor to enter the dependent colleges, and yet aspiring to pass +examinations and to obtain degrees. But could a National University of +this type be set up in Ireland with a prospect that it would succeed or +flourish? Its governing body would be formed of the heads of the colleges +connected with it; these would be mainly composed of Catholic and +Protestant divines: could these, in the existing state of Ireland, agree +as to the University course that ought to be adopted? Suppose that +Archbishop Walsh and Dr. Salmon, the venerable provost of Trinity College, +were together members of this supreme board. Would the first approve of +Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding as a subject of examination in +the University schools? Would the second approve of Bellarmine and even of +Bossuet? Dissension, I fear, would be the inevitable result; and in that +case 'the Castle' would certainly try to gain authority over the governing +body, and to place on it nominees of its own, in my judgment, an +exceedingly mischievous thing. Very probably, too, the State, in the long +run, would deprive Trinity College of some of its revenues, on different +pleas that could be plausibly urged; to this there would be the gravest +objections. And how could moral philosophy, metaphysics, and modern +history, nay, even physical science itself, be made parts of University +studies? How could Protestants and Catholics be examined in them in +common? Would it not be necessary to exclude them from University +teaching, as in the case of Mr. Gladstone's ill-starred measure--to close +the University to the best works of the intellect of man, to deprive it of +the most fruitful branches of learning? I fear the idea of a National +University, as affairs now stand in Ireland, is not likely to become a +reality with results that could be deemed hopeful. No doubt the Royal +University does, to some extent, have examinations on these debateable +subjects; but they occupy a very small place in its teaching; and in a +National University this ought not to be the case. + +A National University would not be founded in Ireland under the second +project. Trinity College would remain completely intact; it would retain +its present governing body, its privileges, and its power of conferring +degrees. The Queen's Colleges--that of Galway being probably suppressed, +and its funds transferred to the College of Belfast--and the Royal +University would continue unchanged; the students of the Queen's Colleges +would probably seek degrees from the Royal University as they do at +present. But the Catholic University should be established and endowed, +and placed on the same level as Trinity College, as far as this could be +effected by law; the charge of the endowment would not be great--it would +be perhaps L100,000 for buildings, and perhaps L40,000 a year for other +purposes; but the students, and those of other colleges to be connected +with it, would not be numerous, at least for years; it should, of course, +have the power of conferring honours and degrees. In return for these +advantages, the State should have a right to insist that its governing +body should be in part laymen--the Irish Catholic bishops have already +agreed to this; and the State ought, also, to have a right to require +that the secular education it should afford should be good, a security +which could fully, if indirectly, be obtained. The advantages of this +scheme, it is obvious, are that it would get rid of the difficulties +inseparable from a National University in Ireland; it would preserve +Trinity College exactly as it is, an enormous gain for that great place of +learning; it would interfere as little as possible with things as they +are; and it would do all that Catholic Ireland could reasonably demand. It +is understood that a scheme of this description has the approval of the +authorities of Trinity College, and of their distinguished representative, +Mr. Lecky; their opinions are of the very greatest weight. The only real +objection made to this plan is one made by characteristic prejudice: the +education, in the Catholic University, it is said, would be bad, and its +degrees would be of no value. In the face of the success of Catholic +University students at the Royal University examinations, the first +assertion has been proved to be false; and besides, this is the affair of +the students and their parents alone. As to the inferiority of the +Catholic University degrees, there is no reason to believe that this would +exist; these degrees, moreover, would have to compete with those of the +Royal University and of Trinity College; if they were really inferior, +this would soon be found out, and the Catholic University would have to +increase their value. This is the true security the State and the public +would possess. + +A few 'Present Irish Questions' remain, on which I may offer passing +remarks. Ireland is essentially a poor country; her middle class is +comparatively very weak; her trade and manufactures are small; the greater +part of the community is a Celtic race. It has long been contended by +well-informed Irishmen that many undertakings, which, in Great Britain, +have properly been left to private enterprise, ought, in Ireland, to be +carried out by the State, as for centuries has been the case in France, a +Celtic land, as was largely the case in Ireland under her extinct +Parliament. This observation especially applies to the Irish railway +system. As long ago as 1836, Thomas Drummond, the Under Secretary of +well-known renown, strongly recommended that Irish railways should be laid +out, managed, and controlled by the Government; but this was inconsistent +with English ideas; the Irish railways were abandoned to private +companies. The results have been very far from fortunate; many of the +lines have been badly designed; the Irish railway fares are a great deal +too high; too numerous boards of directors are a heavy charge; railway +communication, in a word, in Ireland is of an inferior kind, and much too +costly in a backward and poor country. Not indeed that the State has not +made large advances to Irish railway companies, some of these on terms +very unjust to ratepayers; but the system is faulty and ill-developed; a +reform in this direction is greatly wanted.[193] As Drummond insisted, the +State, even now, ought to buy up and direct the Irish railways; but this +is only a part of what it ought to do in this province. The material +condition of Ireland is not prosperous; her main river basins require +drainage; her whole arterial drainage is in a bad state, and has suffered +much from the legislation of 1881, and from the policy of so-called 'land +purchase,' for ordinary Irish tenants will not keep it up, and their +landlords cannot now be expected to do so; these works must be undertaken +by the State, or assuredly they will not be undertaken at all. Mr. Arthur +Balfour has done something in this direction by the encouragement of light +railways in remote parts of Ireland, and by the foundation of the +'Congested Districts Board,' an institution that has had excellent +results. But this is only the fringe of the subject; an enormous amount of +work remains to be done; and this, in the circumstances of Ireland, can +only be done by the Government. + +In a book which has attracted some attention--'Ireland, 1798-1898'--I +wrote these words nearly four years ago: 'An Irishman, Wolseley, an +Irishman, Roberts, are the foremost of living British soldiers; but there +are no Irish Guards, and few Irishmen in our artillery; we see here a want +of tact and of sympathy.' Time, in this respect, has suddenly brought its +changes; has again illustrated the genius of the Irishman in war, and, in +some measure, has removed a reproach from England. It is true that the +conspiracy, which still exists in Ireland, did all that it could to +prevent Irishmen from taking part in the contest in South Africa, and that +even a petty Irish contingent appeared in the ranks of the Boers. But Lord +Wolseley had at least a great share in fitting out the largest expedition +which has ever left our shores to fight an enemy at a distance of six +thousand miles--no other power could do anything of the kind; and without +disparaging our other generals, the presence of a superior mind was at +once seen when Lord Roberts was given the supreme command in our army. And +the Irish soldiery who fought in the campaigns of 1899-1900 were true to +the noble traditions of their race; they were in the forefront of many a +bloody conflict; and now that a regiment of Irish Guards has been at last +embodied--a tardy acknowledgment of Irish military worth--England may rest +assured that these men will rival the famous Irish Brigade of another age, +'ever and everywhere true' to the Bourbon lilies, and conspicuous in the +service of France on many a field of renown. I may add a word on another +subject, in which Ireland perhaps has a just claim on England. The +descendants of the chiefs, who, in Scotland, clung to the cause of the +Stuarts, have, for the most part, regained their forfeited lands and +honours; no such reparation has been made to the descendants of Irish +nobles and princes, who supported the Stuarts in the nobler cause of +their country. The representative of the last of the Celtic kings of +Ireland--a man of large possessions and of unquestionable parts--has no +place on the roll of the peerage; the sons of ennobled Cromwellian +troopers and tradesmen have precedence at Court over the sons of the most +illustrious Milesian Houses. This is not a mere trifle as may carelessly +be said; it tends to revive memories that it were better to forget. Can +nothing be done to make a graceful concession, which would touch many an +Irish heart, and would go some way to promote a spirit of loyalty and hope +in Ireland, which it should be a great object of statesmanship to create +and foster? + +If the picture I have drawn of Ireland is correct in outline, there is +much of evil omen in her present condition. The ancient divisions of race +and faith, the most distinctive feature in her social structure, are at +least as deeply marked as they have been for a century; bad legislation +has made them deeper and wider. Catholic Ireland remains disaffected to +British rule, despite efforts of conciliation and concessions that cannot +be justified; no class in the community is completely satisfied; +discontent rankles in the hearts of the landed gentry. The Union, indeed, +has been successfully maintained; the frightful agrarian disorder of +1881-89 no longer exists. But the Union is not permanently assured as long +as the Liberal party and eighty Irish members demand Home Rule, and the +over-representation of Ireland continues; the conspiracy of the Land and +the National Leagues has revived in that of the United Irish League; and +this seeks to compass the ends of its prototypes by obstruction in +Parliament and detestable socialistic tyranny. And the frame of Irish +society has been well-nigh shattered; ruins have been made, nothing solid +has been put in their place. An aristocracy, long waning, has been +practically destroyed, and can no longer be a support of the State; the +bureaucracy of the Castle reigns in its stead; but this is essentially a +weak Government; it can maintain order, but has no hold on the people; the +Irish democracy, to which power has been transferred, regards it with a +dislike and a contempt it does not try to conceal. The country has made +hardly any progress of late years; if some improvement in the state of the +middle classes appears, agriculture, its leading industry, has perceptibly +declined. In by far the most important of Irish social relations, those +connected with the land, a revolution has taken place; a huge if a veiled +confiscation has gone on; the landed gentry have been shamefully wronged; +the occupiers of the soil have been most unduly favoured; yet both classes +declare they have been ill-treated, notably the last. And the Irish land +system has been turned upside down, with consequences disastrous and +far-reaching; the landlord has been cut off from his estate; the tenant +has been encouraged in thriftlessness and waste by law; the land has been +bound in a ruinous mortmain, like that which existed under the penal code, +and subjected to demoralising litigation, breeding a war of class; capital +and fruitful enterprise turn away from it. And, at the same time, in order +to lessen these evils, recourse has been had to remedies that are perhaps +worse; the system of so-called 'land purchase' has been devised; the +result has been to create a class of peasant owners reproducing the nearly +extinct middleman, and, above all, to arouse a cry for the 'compulsory +purchase' of the rented lands of Ireland, an act of wholesale spoliation +unjust and disastrous alike. In the position of affairs we now see in +Ireland, the stability of society has been rudely shaken; the sense of the +security of property has well-nigh disappeared; the sanctity of contracts +has no respect; the pillars on which order and prosperity rest have been +injured; violent revolution has been arrested, indeed, but revolutionary +and socialistic ideas spread far and wide. And will any impartial inquirer +deny that these untoward results may be largely ascribed to the faulty +legislation of late years, and to a system of administration shifty and +feeble? And what judgment is to be passed on the thoughtless optimism too +common in opinion with respect to Ireland? Meanwhile, reforms imperatively +required are not even attempted; they are passed over or postponed to some +more convenient season. The time surely has come to look things in Ireland +straight in the face; to see if statesmanship cannot do something really +effective for her good. This end assuredly will not be attained by +breaking up the Three Kingdoms under the guise of Home Rule, or by +promoting a confiscation the worst Ireland has ever seen; still less will +it be attained by the quackery in legislation and administration too +apparent of late years; nor can trifling and foolish optimism blind the +eyes of intelligent thinkers to facts. Ireland can only expect to make +progress by ruling the community on the just and sound principles to which +long experience has given its sanction; and this consummation can only be +the slow result of time. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +THE IRISH GOVERNMENT BILL, 1886. + +ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES. + +Part I. + + _Legislative Authority._ + + CLAUSE + + 1. Establishment of Irish Legislature. + 2. Powers of Irish Legislature. + 3. Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature. + 4. Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature. + 5. Prerogatives of Her Majesty as to Irish Legislative Body. + 6. Duration of the Irish Legislative Body. + + _Executive Authority._ + + 7. Constitution of the Executive Authority. + 8. Use of Crown Lands by Irish Government. + + _Constitution of Legislative Body._ + + 9. Constitution of Irish Legislative Body. + 10. First order. + 11. Second order. + + _Finance._ + + 12. Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund. + 13. Annual contributions from Ireland to Consolidated Fund of United + Kingdom. + 14. Collection and application of Customs and Excise duties in Ireland. + 15. Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund. + 16. Irish Church Fund. + 17. Public loans. + 18. Additional aid in case of war. + 19. Money bills and votes. + 20. Exchequer Division and revenue actions. + + _Police._ + + 21. Police. + + +PART II. + +_Supplemental Provisions._ + + Powers of Her Majesty. + + 22. Powers over certain lands reserved to Her Majesty. + + Legislative Body. + + 23. Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how overruled. + 24. Cesser of power of Ireland to return members of Parliament. + + Decision of Constitutional Questions. + + 25. Constitutional questions to be submitted to Judicial Committee. + + Lord-Lieutenant. + + 26. Office of Lord-Lieutenant. + + Judges and Civil Servants. + + 27. Judges to be removable only on address. + 28. Provisions as to Judges and other persons having salaries charged on + the Consolidated Fund. + 29. As to persons holding Civil Service appointments. + 30. Provision for existing pensions and superannuation allowances. + + _Transitory Provisions._ + + 31. Transitory provisions in Schedule. + + _Miscellaneous._ + + 32. Post office and savings banks. + 33. Audit. + 34. Application of parliamentary law. + 35. Regulations for carrying Act into effect. + 36. Saving of powers of House of Lords. + 37. Saving of rights of Parliament. + 38. Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc. + 39. Mode of alteration of Act. + 40. Definitions. + 41. Short title of Act. + + +SCHEDULES. + +_A Bill to amend the provision for the future Government of Ireland._ +[A.D. 1886. + +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 the 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 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 naturalisation; + + (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 either 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 _bona 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. + +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 place. + +(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. + +_Finance._ + +[Sidenote: Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund.] + +=12.=--(1) For the purpose of providing for the public service of Ireland, +the Irish Legislature may impose taxes, other than duties of Customs or +Excise as defined by this Act, which duties shall continue to be imposed +and levied by and under the direction of the Imperial Parliament only. + +(2) On and after the appointed day there shall be an Irish Consolidated +Fund separate from the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom. + +(3) All taxes imposed by the Legislature of Ireland and all other public +revenues under the control of the Government of Ireland shall, subject to +any provisions touching the disposal thereof contained in any Act passed +in the present session respecting the sale and purchase of land in +Ireland, be paid into the Irish Consolidated Fund, and be appropriated to +the public service of Ireland according to law. + +[Sidenote: Annual contributions from Ireland to Consolidated Fund of +United Kingdom.] + +=13.=--(1) Subject to the provisions for the reduction or cesser thereof +in this section mentioned, there shall be made on the part of Ireland to +the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom the following annual +contributions in every financial year; that is to say,-- + + (_a_) The sum of _one million four hundred and sixty-six thousand + pounds_ on account of the interest on and management of the Irish + share of the National Debt: + + (_b_) The sum of _one million six hundred and sixty-six thousand + pounds_ on account of the expenditure on the army and navy of the + United Kingdom: + + (_c_) The sum of _one hundred and ten thousand pounds_ on account of + the Imperial civil expenditure of the United Kingdom: + + (_d_) The sum of _one million pounds_ on account of the Royal Irish + Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. + +(2) During the period of _thirty years_ from this section taking effect +the said annual contributions shall not be increased, but may be reduced +or cease as hereinafter mentioned. After the expiration of the said +_thirty years_ the said contributions shall, save as otherwise provided by +this section, continue until altered in manner provided with respect to +the alteration of this Act. + +(3) The Irish share of the National Debt shall be reckoned at _forty-eight +million pounds_ Bank annuities, and there shall be paid in every financial +year on behalf of Ireland to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the +National Debt an annual sum of _three hundred and sixty thousand pounds_, +and the permanent annual charge for the National Debt on the Consolidated +Fund of the United Kingdom shall be reduced by that amount, and the said +annual sum shall be applied by the said Commissioners as a sinking fund +for the redemption of the National Debt, and the Irish share of the +National Debt shall be reduced by the amount of the National Debt so +redeemed, and the said annual contribution on account of the interest on +and management of the Irish share of the National Debt shall from time to +time be reduced by a sum equal to the interest upon the amount of the +National Debt from time to time so redeemed, but that last-mentioned sum +shall be paid annually to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the +National Debt in addition to the above-mentioned annual sinking fund, and +shall be so paid and be applied as if it were part of that sinking fund. + +(4) As soon as an amount of the National Debt equal to the said Irish +share thereof has been redeemed under the provisions of this section, the +said annual contribution on account of the interest on and management of +the Irish share of the National Debt, and the said annual sum for a +sinking fund shall cease. + +(5) If it appears to Her Majesty that the expenditure in respect of the +army and navy of the United Kingdom, or in respect of Imperial Civil +expenditure of the United Kingdom, for any financial year has been less +than _fifteen_ times the amount of the contributions above named on +account of the same matter, a sum equal to _one-fifteenth_ part of the +diminution shall be deducted from the current annual contribution for the +same matter. + +(6) The sum paid from time to time by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's +Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues to the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom on account of the hereditary revenues of the Crown in Ireland +shall be credited to the Irish Government, and go in reduction of the said +annual contribution payable on account of the Imperial Civil expenditure +of the United Kingdom, but shall not be taken into account in calculating +whether such diminution as above mentioned has or has not taken place in +such expenditure. + +(7) If it appears to Her Majesty that the expenditure in respect of the +Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police for any +financial year has been less than the contribution above-named on account +of such constabulary and police, the current contribution shall be +diminished by the amount of such difference. + +(8) This section shall take effect from and after the _thirty-first day of +March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven_. + +[Sidenote: Collection and application of Customs and Excise duties in +Ireland.] + +=14.=--(1) On and after such day as the Treasury may direct all moneys +from time to time collected in Ireland on account of the duties of Customs +or the duties of Excise as defined by this Act shall, under such +regulations as the Treasury from time to time make, be carried to a +separate account (in this Act referred to as the Customs and Excise +account) and applied in the payment of the following sums in priority as +mentioned in this section; that is to say,-- + + First, of such sum as is from time to time directed by the Treasury in + respect of the costs, charges, and expenses of and incident to the + collection and management of the said duties in Ireland not exceeding + four per cent. of the amount collected there; + + Secondly, of the annual contributions required by this Act to be made + to the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom; + + Thirdly, of the annual sums required by this Act to be paid to the + Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt; + + Fourthly, of all sums by this Act declared to be payable out of the + moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account; + + Fifthly, of all sums due to the Consolidated Fund of the United + Kingdom for interest or sinking fund, in respect of any loans made by + the issue of bank annuities or otherwise to the Government of Ireland + under any Act passed in the present session relating to the purchase + and sale of land in Ireland, so far as such sums are not defrayed out + of the moneys received under such Act. + +(2) So much of the moneys carried to a separate account under this section +as the Treasury consider are not, and are not likely to be, required to +meet the above-mentioned payments, shall from time to time be paid over +and applied as part of the public revenues under the control of the Irish +Government. + +[Sidenote: Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.] + +=15.=--(1) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund in +priority as mentioned in this section:-- + + First, such portion of the sums directed by this Act to be paid out of + the moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account in priority to + any payment for the public revenues of Ireland, as those moneys are + insufficient to pay; + + Secondly, all sums due in respect of any debt incurred by the + Government of Ireland, whether for interest, management, or sinking + fund; + + Thirdly, all sums which at the passing of this Act are charged on the + Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom in respect of Irish services + other than the salary of the Lord-Lieutenant; + + Fourthly, the salaries of all judges of the Supreme Court of + Judicature or other Superior Court in Ireland, or of any County or + other like Court, who are appointed after the passing of this Act, and + the pensions of such judges; + + Fifthly, any other sums charged by this Act on the Irish Consolidated + Fund. + +(2) It shall be the duty of the Legislature of Ireland to impose all such +taxes, duties, or imposts as will raise a sufficient revenue to meet all +sums charged for the time being on the Irish Consolidated Fund. + +[Sidenote: Irish Church Fund.] + +=16.=--(1) Until all charges which are payable out of the Church property +in Ireland, and are guaranteed by the Treasury, have been fully paid, the +Irish Land Commission shall continue as heretofore to exist, with such +Commissioners and officers receiving such salaries as the Treasury may +from time to time appoint, and to administer the Church property and apply +the income and other moneys receivable therefrom; and so much of the +salaries of such Commissioners and officers and expenses of the office as +is not paid out of the Church property shall be paid out of moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, and if these moneys are +insufficient, out of the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and if not so paid, +shall be paid out of the moneys provided by Parliament. Provided as +follows:-- + + (_a_) All charges on the Church property for which a guarantee has + been given by the Treasury before the passing of this Act shall, so + far as they are not paid out of such property, be paid out of the + moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, and + if such moneys are insufficient, the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, + without prejudice nevertheless to the guarantee of the Treasury; + + (_b_) All charges on the Church property, for which no guarantee has + been given by the Treasury before the passing of this Act shall be + charged on the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, but shall not be + guaranteed by the Treasury nor charged on the Consolidated Fund of the + United Kingdom. + +(2) Subject to any existing charges on the Church property, such property +shall belong to the Irish Government and any portion of the annual revenue +thereof which the Treasury, on the application of the Irish Government, +certify at the end of any financial year not to be required for meeting +charges, shall be paid over and applied as part of the public revenues +under the control of the Irish Government. + +(3) As soon as all charges on the Church property guaranteed by the +Treasury have been paid, such property may be managed and administered, +and subject to existing charges thereon disposed of, and the income or +proceeds thereof applied, in such manner as the Irish Legislature may from +time to time direct. + +[Sidenote: 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42.] + +[Sidenote: 44 & 45 Vict. c. 71.] + +(4) 'Church property' in this section means all property accruing under +the Irish Church Act, 1869, and transferred to the Irish Land Commission +by the Irish Church Act Amendment Act, 1881. + +[Sidenote: Public loans.] + +=17.=--(1) All sums due for principal or interest to the Public Works Loan +Commissioners or to the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland in +respect of existing loans advanced on any security in Ireland shall on and +after the appointed day be due to the Government of Ireland instead of the +said Commissioners, and such body of persons as the Government of Ireland +may appoint for the purpose shall have all the powers of the said +Commissioners or their secretary for enforcing payment of such sums, and +all securities for such sums given to such Commissioners or their +secretary shall have effect as if the said body were therein substituted +for those Commissioners or their secretary. + +(2) For the repayment of the said loans to the Consolidated Fund of the +United Kingdom, the Irish Government shall pay annually into that Fund by +half-yearly payments _on the first day of January_ and _the first day of +July_, or on such other days as may be agreed on, such instalments of the +principal of the said loans as will discharge all the loans within _thirty +years_ from the appointed day, and shall also pay interest half-yearly on +so much of the said principal as from time to time remains unpaid at the +rate of _three_ per cent. per annum, and such instalments of principal and +interest shall be paid out of the moneys carried to the Customs and Excise +account under this Act, and if those are insufficient, out of the +Consolidated Fund of Ireland. + +[Sidenote: Additional aid in case of war.] + +=18.= If Her Majesty declares that a state of war exists and is pleased to +signify such declaration to the Irish Legislative Body by speech or +message, it shall be lawful for the Irish Legislature to appropriate a +further sum out of the Consolidated Fund of Ireland in aid of the army or +navy, or other measures which Her Majesty may take for the prosecution of +the war and defence of the realm, and to provide and raise money for that +purpose; and all moneys so provided and raised, whether by loan, taxation, +or otherwise, shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom. + +[Sidenote: Money bills and votes.] + +=19.=--(1) It shall not be lawful for the Irish Legislative Body to adopt +or pass any vote, resolution, address, or Bill for the raising or +appropriation for any purpose of any part of the public revenue of +Ireland, or of any tax, duty, or impost, except in pursuance of a +recommendation from Her Majesty signified through the Lord-Lieutenant in +the session in which such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed. + +(2) Notwithstanding that the Irish Legislature is prohibited by this Act +from making laws relating to certain subjects, that Legislature may, with +the assent of Her Majesty in Council first obtained, appropriate any part +of the Irish public revenue, or any tax, duty, or impost imposed by such +Legislature, for the purpose of, or in connection with, such subjects. + +[Sidenote: Exchequer Division and revenue actions.] + +=20.=--(1) On and after the appointed day, the Exchequer Division of the +High Court of Justice shall continue to be a Court of Exchequer for +revenue purposes under this Act, and whenever any vacancy occurs in the +office of any judge of such Exchequer Division, his successor shall be +appointed by Her Majesty on the joint recommendation of the +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. + +(2) The judges of such Exchequer Division appointed after the passing of +this Act shall be removable only by Her Majesty on address from the two +Houses of the Imperial Parliament, and shall receive the same salaries and +pensions as those payable at the passing of this Act to the existing +judges of such division, unless with the assent of Her Majesty in Council +first obtained, the Irish Legislature alters such salaries or pensions, +and such salaries and pensions shall be paid out of the moneys carried to +the Customs and Excise account in pursuance of this Act, and if the same +are insufficient shall be paid out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and if +not so paid shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom. + +(3) An alteration of any rules relating to the procedure in such legal +proceedings as are mentioned in this section shall not be made except with +the approval of the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, and the +sittings of the Exchequer Division and the judges thereof shall be +regulated with the like approval. + +(4) All legal proceedings instituted in Ireland by or against the +Commissioners or any officers of Customs or Excise, or the Treasury, +shall, if so required by any party in such proceedings, be heard and +determined before the judges of such Exchequer Division, or some or one of +them, and any appeal from the decision in any such legal proceeding, if by +a judge, shall lie to the said division, and if by the Exchequer Division, +shall lie to the House of Lords, and not to any other tribunal; and if it +is made to appear to such judges, or any of them, that any decree or +judgment in any such proceeding as aforesaid, has not been duly enforced +by the sheriff or other officer whose duty it is to enforce the same, such +judges or judge shall appoint some officer to enforce such judgment or +decree; and it shall be the duty of such officer to take proper steps to +enforce the same, and for that purpose such officer and all persons +employed by him shall be entitled to the same immunities, powers, and +privileges as are by law conferred on a sheriff and his officers. + +(5) All sums recovered in respect of duties of Customs and Excise, or +under any Act relating thereto, or by an officer of Customs or Excise, +shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid to the Treasury, +and carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act. + +_Police._ + +[Sidenote: 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. + + +PART II. + +_Supplemental Provisions._ + +Powers of Her Majesty. + +[Sidenote: Power over certain lands reserved to Her Majesty.] + +=22.=--On and after the appointed day there shall be reserved to Her +Majesty-- + + (1) The power of erecting forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and + other buildings for military or naval purposes; + + (2) The power of taking waste land, and, on making due compensation, + any other land for the purpose of erecting such forts, magazines, + arsenals, dockyards, or other buildings as aforesaid, and for any + other military or naval purpose, or the defence of the realm. + +Legislative Body. + +[Sidenote: Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how overruled.] + +=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: Cesser 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. + +Decision of Constitutional Questions. + +[Sidenote: Constitutional questions to be submitted to Judicial +Committee.] + +=25.= Questions arising as to the powers conferred on the Legislature of +Ireland under this Act shall be determined as follows:-- + + (_a_) If any such question arises on any Bill passed by the + Legislative Body, the Lord-Lieutenant may refer such question to Her + Majesty in Council; + + (_b_) If, in the course of any action or other legal proceeding, such + question arises on any Act of the Irish Legislature, any party to such + action or other legal proceeding may, subject to the rules in this + section mentioned, appeal from a decision on such question to Her + Majesty in Council; + + (_c_) If any such question arises otherwise than as aforesaid in any + Act of the Irish Legislature, the Lord-Lieutenant or one of Her + Majesty's principal Secretaries of State may refer such question to + Her Majesty in Council; + + (_d_) A question referred or appeal brought under this section to Her + Majesty in Council shall be referred for the consideration of the + Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; + + (_e_) The decision of Her Majesty in Council on any question referred + or appeal brought under this section shall be final, and a Bill which + may be so decided to be, or contain a provision, in excess of the + powers of the Irish Legislature shall not be assented to by the + Lord-Lieutenant; and a provision of any Act which is so decided to be + in excess of the powers of the Irish Legislature shall be void; + + (_f_) There shall be added to the Judicial Committee when sitting for + the purpose of considering questions under this section, such members + of Her Majesty's Privy Council, being or having been Irish judges, as + to Her Majesty may seem meet; + + (_g_) Her Majesty may, by Order in Council from time to time, make + rules as to the cases and mode in which and conditions under which, in + pursuance of this section, questions may be referred and appeals + brought to Her Majesty in Council, and as to the consideration thereof + by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and any rules so made + shall be of the same force as if they were enacted in this Act; + + (_h_) An appeal shall not lie to the House of Lords in respect of any + question in respect of which an appeal can be had to Her Majesty in + Council in pursuance of this section. + +Lord-Lieutenant. + +[Sidenote: Office of Lord-Lieutenant.] + +=26.=--(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any Act +of Parliament, every subject of Her Majesty shall be eligible to hold and +enjoy the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, without reference to his +religious belief. + +(2) The salary of the Lord-Lieutenant shall continue to be charged on the +Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, and the expenses of his household +and establishment shall continue to be defrayed out of moneys to be +provided by Parliament. + +(3) All existing powers vested by Act of Parliament or otherwise in the +Chief Secretary for Ireland may, if no such officer is appointed, be +exercised by the Lord-Lieutenant until other provision is made by Act of +the Irish Legislature. + +(4) The Legislature of Ireland shall not pass any Act relating to the +office or functions of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. + +Judges and Civil Servants. + +[Sidenote: Judges to be removable only on address.] + +=27.= A judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature or other Superior Court +of Ireland, or of any County Court or other Court with a like jurisdiction +in Ireland, appointed after the passing of this Act, shall not be removed +from his office except in pursuance of an address to Her Majesty from both +orders of the Legislative Body voting separately, nor shall his salary be +diminished or right to pension altered during his continuance in office. + +[Sidenote: Provisions as to judges and other persons having salaries +charged on the Consolidated Fund.] + +=28.=--(1) All persons who at the passing of this Act are judges of the +Supreme Court of Judicature or County Court judges, or hold any other +judicial position in Ireland shall, if they are removable at present on +address to Her Majesty of both Houses of Parliament, continue to be +removable only upon such address from both Houses of the Imperial +Parliament, and if removable in any other manner shall continue to be +removable in like manner as heretofore; and such persons, and also all +persons at the passing of this Act in the permanent Civil Service of the +Crown in Ireland whose salaries are charged on the Consolidated Fund of +the United Kingdom, shall continue to hold office and to be entitled to +the same salaries, pensions, and superannuation allowances as heretofore, +and to be liable to perform the same or analogous duties as heretofore; +and the salaries of such persons shall be paid out of the moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, or if these moneys are +insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and if the same are not +so paid shall continue charged on the Consolidated Fund of the United +Kingdom. + +(2) If any of these said persons retires from office with the approbation +of Her Majesty before he has completed the period of service entitling him +to a pension, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, if she thinks fit, to +grant to that person such pension, not exceeding the pension to which he +would have been entitled if he had completed the said period of service, +as to Her Majesty seems meet. + +[Sidenote: As to persons holding Civil Service appointments.] + +=29.=--(1) All persons not above provided for and at the passing of this +Act serving in Ireland in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown shall +continue to hold their offices and receive the same salaries, and to be +entitled to the same gratuities and superannuation allowances as +heretofore, and shall be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore +or duties of similar rank, but any of such persons shall be entitled at +the expiration of _two years_ after the passing of this Act to retire from +office, and at any time if required by the Irish Government shall retire +from office, and on any such retirement shall be entitled to receive such +payment as the Treasury may award to him in accordance with the provisions +contained in the Fourth Schedule to this Act. + +(2) The amount of such payment shall be paid to him out of the moneys +carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, or, if those +moneys are insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and so far as +the same are not so paid shall be paid out of moneys provided by +Parliament. + +[Sidenote: 34 & 35 Vict. c. 36.] + +(3) The Pensions Commutation Act, 1871, shall apply to all persons who, +having retired from office, are entitled to any annual payment under this +section in like manner as if they had retired in consequence of the +abolition of their offices. + +(4) This section shall not apply to persons who are retained in the +service of the Imperial Government. + +[Sidenote: Provision for existing pensions and superannuation allowances.] + +=30.= Where before the passing of this Act any pension or superannuation +allowance has been granted to any person on account of service as a judge +of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Ireland, or of any Court +consolidated into that Court, or as a County Court judge, or in any other +judicial position, or on account of service in the permanent Civil Service +of the Crown in Ireland otherwise than in some office, the holder of which +is, after the passing of this Act, retained in the service of the Imperial +Government, such pension or allowance, whether payable out of the +Consolidated Fund or out of moneys provided by Parliament, shall continue +to be paid to such person, and shall be so paid out of the moneys carried +to the Customs and Excise account under this Act, or, if such moneys are +insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and so far as the same +is not so paid, shall be paid as heretofore out of the Consolidated Fund +of the United Kingdom or moneys provided by Parliament. + +_Transitory Provisions._ + +[Sidenote: Transitory provisions in Schedule.] + +=31.= The provisions contained in the Fifth Schedule to this Act relating +to the mode in which arrangements are to be made for setting in motion the +Irish Legislative Body and Government, and for the transfer to the Irish +Government of the powers and duties to be transferred to them under this +Act, or for otherwise bringing this Act into operation, shall be of the +same effect as if they were enacted in the body of this Act. + +_Miscellaneous._ + +[Sidenote: Post office and savings banks.] + +=32.= Whenever an Act of the Legislature of Ireland has provided for +carrying on the postal and telegraphic service with respect to the +transmission of letters and telegrams in Ireland, and the post office and +other savings banks in Ireland, and for protecting the officers then in +such service, and the existing depositors in such post-office savings +banks, the Treasury shall make arrangements for the transfer of the said +service and banks, in accordance with the said Act, and shall give public +notice of the transfer, and shall pay all depositors in such post-office +savings bank who request payment within _six months_ after the date fixed +for such transfer, and after the expiration of such _six months_ the said +depositors shall cease to have any claim against the Postmaster-General or +the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but shall have the like claim +against the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and the Treasury shall cause to +be transferred in accordance with the said Act the securities representing +the sums due to the said depositors in post-office savings banks, and the +securities held for other savings banks. + +[Sidenote: Audit.] + +=33.= Save as otherwise provided by the Irish Legislature-- + + (_a_) The existing law relating to the Exchequer and the Consolidated + Fund of the United Kingdom shall apply to the Irish Exchequer and + Consolidated Fund, and an officer shall from time to time be appointed + by the Lord-Lieutenant to fill the office of the Comptroller-General + of the receipt and issue of Her Majesty's Exchequer and + Auditor-General of public accounts so far as respects Ireland; and + +[Sidenote: 29 & 30 Vict. c. 39.] + + (_b_) The accounts of the Irish Consolidated Fund shall be audited as + appropriation accounts in manner provided by the Exchequer and Audit + Departments Act, 1866, by or under the direction of the holder of such + office. + +[Sidenote: Application of parliamentary law.] + +=34.=--(1) The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed, and +exercised by the Irish Legislative Body, and the members thereof, shall be +such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Irish Legislature, but +so that the same shall never exceed those at the passing of this Act, +held, enjoyed, and exercised by the House of Commons, and by the members +thereof. + +(2) Subject as in this Act mentioned, all existing laws and customs +relating to the members of the House of Commons and their election, +including the enactments respecting the questioning of elections, corrupt +and illegal practices, and registration of electors, shall, so far as +applicable, extend to elective members of the first order and to members +of the second order of the Irish Legislative Body. Provided that,-- + + (_a_) The law relating to the offices of profit enumerated in Schedule + H to the Representation of the People Act, 1867, shall apply to such + offices of profit in the Government of Ireland not exceeding ten, as + the Legislature of Ireland may from time to time direct; + + (_b_) After the first dissolution of the Legislative Body, the + Legislature of Ireland may, subject to the restrictions in this Act + mentioned, alter the laws and customs in this section mentioned. + +[Sidenote: Regulations for carrying Act into effect.] + +=35.=--(1) The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland may make regulations for the +following purposes:-- + + (_a_) The summoning of the Legislative Body and the election of a + Speaker, and such adaptation to the proceedings of the Legislative + Body of the procedure of the House of Commons as appears to him + expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by that body on + their first meeting; + + (_b_) The adaptation of any laws relating to the election of + representative peers; + + (_c_) The adaptation of any laws and customs relating to the House of + Commons or the members thereof to the elective members of the first + order and to members of the second order of the Legislative Body; and + + (_d_) The mode of signifying their assent or election under this Act + by representative peers or Irish members of the House of Commons as + regards becoming members of the Irish Legislative Body in pursuance of + this Act. + +(2) Any regulations so made shall, in so far as they concern the procedure +of the Legislative Body, be subject to alteration by Standing Orders of +that Body, and so far as they concern other matters, be subject to +alteration by the Legislature of Ireland, but shall, until alteration, +have the same effect as if they were inserted in this Act. + +[Sidenote: Saving of powers of House of Lords.] + +=36.= Save as in this Act provided with respect to matters to be decided +by Her Majesty in Council, nothing in this Act shall affect the appellate +jurisdiction of the House of Lords in respect of actions and suits in +Ireland, or the jurisdiction of the House of Lords to determine the +claims to Irish peerages. + +[Sidenote: Savings of rights of Parliament.] + +=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, whose power and authority in relation thereto, save as +aforesaid, shall in no wise be diminished or restrained by anything herein +contained. + +[Sidenote: Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc.] + +=38.=--(1) Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all existing laws in +force in Ireland, and all existing courts of civil and criminal +jurisdiction, and all existing legal commissions, powers, and authorities, +and all existing officers, judicial, administrative, and ministerial, and +all existing taxes, licence, and other duties, fees, and other receipts in +Ireland shall continue as if this Act had not been passed; subject, +nevertheless, to be repealed, abolished, or altered in manner and to the +extent provided by this Act; provided that, subject to the provisions of +this Act, such taxes, duties, fees, and other receipts, shall, after the +appointed day, form part of the public revenues of Ireland. + +(2) The Commissioners of Inland Revenue and Commissioners of Customs, and +the officers of such Commissioners respectively, shall have the same +powers in relation to any articles subject to any duty of excise or +customs, manufactured, imported, kept for sale, or sold, and any premises +where the same may be, and to any machinery, apparatus, vessels, utensils, +or conveyance used in connection therewith, or the removal thereof, and in +relation to the person manufacturing, importing, keeping for sale, +selling, or having the custody or possession of the same as they would +have had if this Act had not been passed. + +[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. + +[Sidenote: Definitions.] + +=40.= In this Act-- + + The expression 'the appointed day' shall mean such day after the + _thirty-first day of March in the year one thousand eight hundred and + eighty-seven_ as may be determined by order of Her Majesty in Council. + + The expression 'Lord-Lieutenant' includes the lords justices or any + other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time being. + + The expression 'Her Majesty the Queen,' or 'Her Majesty in Council,' + or 'the Queen,' includes the heirs and successors of Her Majesty the + Queen. + + The expression 'Treasury' means the Commissioners of Her Majesty's + Treasury. + + The expression 'Treaty' includes any convention or arrangement. + + The expression 'existing' means existing at the passing of this Act. + + The expression 'existing constituency' means any county or borough, + or division of a county or borough, or a University returning at the + passing of this Act a member or members to serve in Parliament. + + The expression 'duties of excise' does not include a duty received in + respect of any licence whether for the sale of intoxicating liquors or + otherwise. + + The expression 'financial year' means the twelve months ending on the + _thirty-first day of March_. + +[Sidenote: Short title of Act.] + +=41.= This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Irish Government Act, +1886. + + +SCHEDULES. + +FIRST SCHEDULE. + +First order of the Irish Legislative Body. + + ------------------------------------------------- + Electoral Districts.|Number of Members.|Rotation. + --------------------|------------------|--------- + | | + | | + | | + ------------------------------------------------- + +SECOND SCHEDULE. + +Provisions relating to the first order of the Irish Legislative Body. + +THIRD SCHEDULE. + +Boundaries of divisions of the City of Cork for the purpose of returning +members to the second order of the Legislative Body. + +FOURTH SCHEDULE. + +Provisions as to superannuation allowances of persons in the Permanent +Civil Service. + +FIFTH SCHEDULE. + +Transitory provisions. + + + + +THE IRISH GOVERNMENT BILL, 1893. + +ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES. + +PART I. + + _Legislative Authority._ + + CLAUSE + + 1. Establishment of Irish Legislature. + 2. Powers of Irish Legislature. + 3. Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature. + 4. Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature. + + _Executive Authority._ + + 5. Executive power in Ireland. + + _Constitution of Legislature._ + + 6. Composition of Irish Legislative Council. + 7. Composition of Irish Legislative Assembly. + 8. Disagreement between two Houses, how settled. + + _Irish Representation in House of Commons._ + + 9. Representation in Parliament of Irish counties and boroughs. + + _Finance._ + + 10. As to separate Consolidated Fund and taxes. + 11. Hereditary revenues and income tax. + 12. Financial arrangements as between United Kingdom and Ireland. + 13. Treasury Account (Ireland). + 14. Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund. + 15. Irish Church Fund. + 16. Local loans. + 17. Adaptation of Acts as to Local Taxation Accounts and Probate, etc., + duties. + 18. Money bills and votes. + 19. Exchequer judges for revenue actions, election petitions, etc. + + _Post Office, Postal Telegraphs, and Savings Banks._ + + 20. Transfer of post office and postal telegraphs. + 21. Transfer of savings banks. + + _Irish Appeals and Decision of Constitutional Questions._ + + 22. Irish appeals. + 23. Special provision for decision of constitutional questions. + + _Lord-Lieutenant and Crown Lands._ + + 24. Office of Lord-Lieutenant. + 25. Use of Crown lands by Irish Government. + + _Judges and Civil Servants._ + + 26. Tenure of future judges. + 27. As to existing judges and other persons having salaries charged on + the Consolidated Fund. + 28. As to persons holding Civil Service appointments. + 29. As to existing pensions and superannuation allowances. + + _Police._ + + 30. As to police. + + _Miscellaneous._ + + 31. Irish Exchequer Consolidated Fund and Audit. + 32. Law applicable to both Houses of Irish Legislature. + 33. Supplemental provisions as to powers of Irish Legislature. + 34. Limitation on borrowing by local authorities. + + _Transitory Provisions._ + + 35. Temporary restriction on powers of Irish Legislature and Executive. + 36. Transitory provisions. + 37. Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc. + 38. Appointed day. + 39. Definitions. + 40. Short title. + + +SCHEDULES. + +_A Bill to amend the provision for the Government of Ireland._ [A.D. 1893. + +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:-- + + +PART I. + +_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. + +[Sidenote: Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.] + +=3.= The Irish Legislature shall not have power to make powers of laws +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 + + (3) Naval or military forces, or the defence of the realm; or + + (4) Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the relations + between different parts of Her Majesty's dominions, or offences + connected with such treaties or relations; or + + (5) Dignities or titles of honour; or + + (6) Treason, treason-felony, alienage or naturalisation; or + + (7) Trade with any place out of Ireland; or quarantine, or navigation + (except as respects inland waters and local health or harbour + regulations); or + + (8) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea-marks (except so far as they can + consistently with any general Act of Parliament be constructed or + maintained by a local harbour authority); or + + (9) Coinage; legal tender; or the standard of weights and measures; or + + (10) Trade marks, merchandise marks, copyright, or patent rights. + +Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void. + +[Sidenote: Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.] + +=4.= The powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making of +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 prejudicially affecting 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) Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property + without due process of law, or may be denied the equal protection of + the laws, or whereby private property may be taken without just + compensation; or + + (6) Whereby any existing corporation incorporated by Royal Charter or + by any local or general Act of Parliament (not being a corporation + raising for public purposes taxes, rates, cess, dues, or tolls, or + administering funds so raised) 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; or + + (7) Whereby any inhabitant of the United Kingdom may be deprived of + equal rights as respects public sea fisheries. + +Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void. + +_Executive Authority._ + +[Sidenote: Executive power in Ireland.] + +=5.=--(1) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in Her +Majesty the Queen, and the Lord-Lieutenant, 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, prorogue, and dissolve the Irish Legislature. + +(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, as Her Majesty may think fit, or +as may be 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. + +_Constitution of Legislature._ + +[Sidenote: Composition of Irish Legislative Council.] + +=6.=--(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. + +[Sidenote: 48 & 49 Vict. c. 3.] + +(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. + +[Sidenote: Composition of Irish Legislative Assembly.] + +=7.=--(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. + +[Sidenote: Disagreement between two Houses, how settled.] + +=8.= 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._ + +[Sidenote: Representation in Parliament of Irish counties and boroughs.] + +=9.= 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) An Irish representative peer in the House of Lords and a member of + the House of Commons for an Irish constituency shall not be entitled + to deliberate or vote on-- + + (_a_) Any Bill or motion in relation thereto, the operation of + which Bill or motion is confined to Great Britain or some part + thereof; or + + (_b_) Any motion or resolution relating solely to some tax not + raised or to be raised in Ireland; or + + (_c_) Any vote or appropriation of money made exclusively for some + service not mentioned in the Third Schedule to this Act; or + + (_d_) Any motion or resolution exclusively affecting Great + Britain, or some part thereof, or some local authority, or some + person or thing therein; or + + (_e_) Any motion or resolution incidental to any such motion or + resolution, as either is last mentioned, or relates solely to some + tax not raised or to be raised in Ireland, or incidental to any + such vote or appropriation of money as aforesaid. + + (4) Compliance with the provisions of this section shall not be + questioned otherwise than in each House in manner provided by the + House. + + (5) 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. + +_Finance._ + +[Sidenote: As to separate Consolidated Fund and taxes.] + +=10.=--(1) On and after the appointed day there shall be an Irish +Exchequer and Consolidated Fund separate from those of the United Kingdom. + +(2) The duties of Customs and Excise and the duties on postage shall be +imposed by Act of Parliament, but subject to the provisions of this Act +the Irish Legislature may, in order to provide for the public service of +Ireland, impose any other taxes. + +(3) Save as in this Act mentioned, all matters relating to the taxes in +Ireland and the collection and management thereof shall be regulated by +Irish Act, and the same shall be collected and managed by the Irish +Government, and from part of the public revenues of Ireland: Provided +that-- + + (_a_) The duties of Customs shall be regulated, collected, managed, + and paid into the Exchequer of the United Kingdom as heretofore; and + + (_b_) All prohibitions in connection with the duties of Excise, and + so far as regards articles sent out of Ireland, all matters relating + to those duties, shall be regulated by Act of Parliament; and + + (_c_) The excise duties on articles consumed in Great Britain shall be + paid in Great Britain, or to an officer of the Government of the + United Kingdom. + +(4) Save as in this Act mentioned, all the public revenues of Ireland +shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer and form a Consolidated Fund, and +be appropriated to the public service of Ireland by Irish Act. + +(5) If the duties of Excise are increased above the rates in force on the +_first day of March one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three_ the net +proceeds in Ireland of the duties in excess of the said rates shall be +paid from the Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +(6) If the duties of Excise are reduced below the rates in force on the +said day, and the net proceeds of such duties in Ireland are in +consequence less than the net proceeds of the duties before the reduction, +a sum equal to the deficiency shall, unless it is otherwise agreed between +the Treasury and the Irish Government, be paid from the Exchequer of the +United Kingdom to the Irish Exchequer. + +[Sidenote: Hereditary revenues and income tax.] + +=11.=--(1) The hereditary revenues of the Crown in Ireland which are +managed by the Commissioners of Woods shall continue during the life of +Her present Majesty to be managed and collected by those Commissioners, +and the net amount payable by them to the Exchequer on account of those +revenues, after deducting all expenses (but including an allowance for +interest on such proceeds of the sale of those revenues as have not been +re-invested in Ireland), shall be paid into the Treasury Account (Ireland) +hereinafter mentioned, for the benefit of the Irish Exchequer. + +(2) A person shall not be required to pay income tax in Great Britain in +respect of property situate or business carried on in Ireland, and a +person shall not be required to pay income tax in Ireland in respect of +property situate or business carried on in Great Britain. + +(3) For the purpose of giving to Ireland the benefit of the difference +between the income tax collected in Great Britain from British, Colonial, +and foreign securities held by residents in Ireland, and the income tax +collected in Ireland from Irish securities held by residents in Great +Britain, there shall be made to Ireland out of the income tax collected in +Great Britain, an allowance of such amount as may be from time to time +determined by the Treasury, in accordance with a minute of the Treasury, +laid before Parliament before the appointed day, and such allowance shall +be paid into the Treasury Account (Ireland) for the benefit of the Irish +Exchequer. + +(4) Provided that the provisions of this section with respect to income +tax shall not apply to any excess of the rate of income tax in Great +Britain above the rate in Ireland or of the rate of income tax in Ireland +above the rate in Great Britain. + +[Sidenote: Financial arrangements as between United Kingdom and Ireland.] + +=12.=--(1) The duties of Customs contributed by Ireland and, save as +provided by this Act, that portion of any public revenue of the United +Kingdom to which Ireland may claim to be entitled, whether specified in +the Third Schedule to this Act or not, shall be carried to the +Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, as the contribution of Ireland to +Imperial liabilities and expenditure as defined in that Schedule. + +(2) The civil charges of the Government in Ireland shall, subject as in +this Act mentioned, be borne after the appointed day by Ireland. + +(3) After _fifteen_ years from the passing of this Act the arrangements +made by this Act for the contribution of Ireland to Imperial liabilities +and expenditure, and otherwise for the financial relations between the +United Kingdom and Ireland, may be revised in pursuance of an address to +Her Majesty from the House of Commons, or from the Irish Legislative +Assembly. + +[Sidenote: Treasury Account (Ireland)] + +=13.=--(1) There shall be established under the direction of the Treasury +an account (in this Act referred to as the Treasury Account (Ireland)). + +(2) There shall be paid into such account all sums payable from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, or from the latter to +the former Exchequer, and all sums directed to be paid into the account +for the benefit of either of the said Exchequers. + +(3) All sums which are payable from either of the said Exchequers to the +other of them, or being payable out of one of the said Exchequers are +repayable by the other Exchequer, shall in the first instance be payable +out of the said account so far as the money standing on the account is +sufficient; and for the purpose of meeting such sums the Treasury out of +the Customs revenue collected in Ireland, and the Irish Government out of +any of the public revenues in Ireland, may direct money to be paid to the +Treasury Account (Ireland) instead of into the Exchequer. + +(4) Any surplus standing on the account to the credit of either Exchequer, +and not required for meeting payments, shall at convenient times be paid +into that Exchequer, and where any sum so payable in to the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom is required by law to be forthwith paid to the National +Debt Commissioners, that sum may be paid to those Commissioners without +being paid into the Exchequer. + +(5) All sums payable by virtue of this Act out of the Consolidated Fund of +the United Kingdom or of Ireland shall be payable from the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom or of Ireland shall be payable from the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom or Ireland, as the case may be, within the meaning of +this Act, and all sums by this Act made payable from the Exchequer of the +United Kingdom shall, if not otherwise paid, be charged on and paid out of +the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom. + +[Sidenote: Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.] + +=14.=--(1) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund in favour +of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom as a first charge on sums which-- + + (_a_) Are payable to that Exchequer from the Irish Exchequer; or + +[Sidenote: 54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.] + + (_b_) Are required to repay to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom + sums issued to meet the dividends or sinking fund or guaranteed land + stock under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891: or + + (_c_) Otherwise have been or are required to be paid out of the + Exchequer of the United Kingdom in consequence of the non-payment + thereof out of the Exchequer of Ireland or otherwise by the Irish + Government. + +(2) If at any time the Controller and Auditor-General of the United +Kingdom is satisfied that any such charge is due, he shall certify the +amount of it, and the Treasury shall send such certificate to the +Lord-Lieutenant, who shall thereupon by order, without any +counter-signature, direct the payment of the amount from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, and such order shall be +duly obeyed by all persons, and until the amount is wholly paid no other +payment shall be made out of the Irish Exchequer for any purpose whatever. + +(3) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund next after the +foregoing charge-- + +[Sidenote: 54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.] + + (_a_) All sums, for dividends or sinking fund on guaranteed land stock + under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, which the Land + Purchase Account and the Guarantee Fund under that Act are + insufficient to pay; + + (_b_) All sums due in respect of any debt incurred by the Government + of Ireland, whether for interest management, or sinking fund; + + (_c_) An annual sum of _five thousand pounds_ for the expenses of the + household and establishment of the Lord-Lieutenant; + + (_d_) All existing charges on the Consolidated Fund of the United + Kingdom in respect of Irish services other than the salary of the + Lord-Lieutenant; and + + (_e_) The salaries and pensions of all judges of the Supreme Court or + other Superior Court in Ireland or of any County or other like Court, + who are appointed after the passing of this Act, and are not the + Exchequer judges hereafter mentioned. + +(4) Until all charges created by this Act upon the Irish Consolidated Fund +and for the time being due are paid, no money shall be issued from the +Irish Exchequer for any other purpose whatever. + +[Sidenote: Irish Church Fund. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42. 44 & 45 Vict. c. 71.] + +=15.=--(1) All existing charges on the Church property in Ireland--that is +to say, all property accruing under the Irish Church Act, 1869, and +transferred to the Irish Land Commission by the Irish Church Amendment +Act, 1881--shall so far as not paid out of the said property be charged on +the Irish Consolidated Fund, and any of those charges guaranteed by the +Treasury, if and so far as not paid, shall be paid out of the Exchequer of +the United Kingdom. + +(2) Subject to the existing charges thereon, the said Church property +shall belong to the Irish Government, and be managed, administered, and +disposed of as directed by Irish Act. + +[Sidenote: Local loans.] + +=16.=--(1) All sums paid or applicable in or towards the discharge of the +interest or principal of any local loan advanced before the appointed day +on security in Ireland, or otherwise in respect of such loan, which but +for this Act would be paid to the National Debt Commissioners, and carried +to the Local Loans Fund, shall, after the appointed day, be paid, until +otherwise provided by Irish Act, to the Irish Exchequer. + +(2) For the payment of the Local Loans Fund of the principal and interest +of such loans, the Irish Government shall after the appointed day pay by +half-yearly payments an annuity for _forty-nine_ years, at the rate of +_four_ per cent., on the principal of the said loans, exclusive of any +sums written off before the appointed day from the account of assets of +the Local Loans Fund, and such annuity shall be paid from the Irish +Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, and when so paid shall +be forthwith paid to the National Debt Commissioners for the credit of the +Local Loans Fund. + +(3) After the appointed day, money for loans in Ireland shall cease to be +advanced either by the Public Works Loan Commissioners or out of the Local +Loans Fund. + +[Sidenote: Adaptation of Acts as to Local Taxation Accounts and Probate, +etc., duties. See 50 & 51 Vict. c. 41. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 48.] + +=17.=--(1) So much of any Act as directs payment to the Local Taxation +(Ireland) Account of any share of Probate, Excise, or Customs duties +payable to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom shall, together with any +enactment amending the same, be repealed as from the appointed day without +prejudice to the adjustment of balances after that day; the like amounts +shall continue to be paid to the Local Taxation Accounts in England and +Scotland as would have been paid if this Act had not passed, and any +residue of the said share shall be paid into the Exchequer of the United +Kingdom. + +[Sidenote: See 21 & 22 Vict. c. 86, ss. 12-18. 21 & 22 Vict. c. 95, s. 29. +22 & 23 Vict. c. 31, s. 25. 39 & 40 Vict. c. 70, ss. 41-44.] + +(2) The stamp duty chargeable in respect of the personalty of a deceased +person, shall not in the case of administration granted in Great Britain +be chargeable in respect of any personalty situate in Ireland; nor in the +case of administration granted in Ireland be chargeable in respect of any +personalty situate in Great Britain; and any administration granted in +Great Britain shall not, if re-sealed in Ireland, be exempt from stamp +duty on administration granted in Ireland, and any administration granted +in Ireland shall not, when re-sealed in Great Britain, be exempt from +stamp duty on administration granted in Great Britain. + +(3) In this section the expression 'administration' means probate or +letters of administration, and as respects Scotland, confirmation +inclusive of the inventory required under the Acts relating to the said +stamp duty, and the expression 'personalty' means personal or movable +estate and effects. + +[Sidenote: Money bills and votes.] + +=18.=--(1) Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue or for +imposing any tax shall originate in the Legislative Assembly. + +(2) It shall not be lawful for the Legislative Assembly to adopt or pass +any vote, 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 such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed. + +[Sidenote: Exchequer judges for revenue actions, elections petitions, +etc.] + +=19.=--(1) Two of the judges of the Supreme Court in Ireland shall be +Exchequer judges, and shall be appointed under the Great Seal of the +United Kingdom; and their salaries and pensions shall be charged on and +paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom. + +(2) The Exchequer judges shall be removable only by Her Majesty on address +from the two Houses of Parliament, and each such judge shall, save as +otherwise provided by Parliament, receive the same salary and be entitled +to the same pension as is at the time of his appointment fixed for the +puisne judges of the Supreme Court, and during his continuance in office +his salary shall not be diminished, nor his right to pension altered, +without his consent. + +(3) An alteration of any rules relating to such legal proceedings as are +mentioned in this section shall not be made except with the approval of +Her Majesty the Queen in Council; and the sittings of the Exchequer judges +shall be regulated with the like approval. + +(4) All legal proceedings in Ireland, which are instituted at the instance +of or against the Treasury or Commissioners of Customs, or any of their +officers, or relate to the election of members to serve in Parliament, or +touch any matter within the powers of the Irish Legislature, or touch any +matter affected by a law which the Irish Legislature have not power to +repeal or alter, shall, if so required by any party to such proceedings, +be heard and determined before the Exchequer judges or (except where the +case requires to be determined by two judges) before one of them, and in +any such legal proceeding an appeal shall, if any party so requires, lie +from any Court of first instance in Ireland to the Exchequer judges, and +the decision of the Exchequer judges shall be subject to appeal to Her +Majesty the Queen in Council and not to any other tribunal. + +(5) If it is made to appear to an Exchequer judge that any decree or +judgment in any such proceeding as aforesaid has not been duly enforced by +the sheriff or other officer whose duty it is to enforce the same, such +judge shall appoint some officer whose duty it shall be to enforce the +judgment or decree; and for that purpose such officer and all persons +employed by him shall be entitled to the same privileges, immunities, and +powers as are by law conferred on a sheriff and his officers. + +(6) The Exchequer judges, when not engaged in hearing and determining such +legal proceedings as above in this section mentioned, shall perform such +of the duties ordinarily performed by other judges of the Supreme Court in +Ireland as may be assigned by Her Majesty the Queen in Council. + +(7) All sums recovered by the Treasury or the Commissioners of Customs or +any of their officers, or recovered under any Act relating to duties of +Customs, shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid to such +public account as the Treasury or the Commissioners direct. + +_Post Office, Postal Telegraphs, and Savings Banks._ + +[Sidenote: Transfer of post office and postal telegraphs.] + +=20.=--(1) As from the _appointed day_ the postal and telegraph service in +Ireland shall be transferred to the Irish Government, and may be regulated +by Irish Act, except as in this Act mentioned and except as regards +matters relating-- + + (_a_) To such conditions of the transmission or delivery of postal + packets and telegrams as are incidental to the duties on postage; or + + (_b_) To foreign mails or submarine telegraphs or through lines in + connection therewith; or + + (_c_) To any other postal or telegraph business in connection with + places out of the United Kingdom. + +(2) The administration of or incidental to the said excepted matters +shall, save as may be otherwise arranged with the Irish Post Office, +remain with the Postmaster-General. + +(3) As regards the revenue and expenses of the postal and telegraph +service, the Postmaster-General shall retain the revenue collected and +defray the expenses incurred in Great Britain, and the Irish Post Office +shall retain the revenue collected and defray the expenses incurred in +Ireland, subject to the provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Act; +which schedule shall have full effect, but may be varied or added to by +agreement between the Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office. + +(4) The sums payable by the Postmaster-General or Irish Post Office to the +other of them in pursuance of this Act shall, if not paid out of +Post-Office moneys, be paid from the Exchequer of the United Kingdom or of +Ireland, as the case requires, to the other Exchequer. + +[Sidenote: 26 & 27 Vict. c. 112.] + +(5) Sections forty-eight to fifty-two of the Telegraph Act, 1863, and any +enactment amending the same, shall apply to all telegraphic lines of the +Irish Government in like manner as to the telegraphs of a company within +the meaning of that Act. + +[Sidenote: Transfer of savings banks] + +=21.=--(1) As from the _appointed day_ there shall be transferred to the +Irish Government the post-office savings banks in Ireland, and all such +powers and duties of any department or officer in Great Britain as are +connected with post-office savings banks, trustee savings banks, or +friendly societies in Ireland, and the same may be regulated by Irish Act. + +(2) The Treasury shall publish not less than six months previous notice of +the transfer of savings banks. + +(3) If before the date of the transfer any depositor in a post-office +savings bank so requests, his deposit shall, according to his request, +either be paid to him or transferred to a post-office savings bank in +Great Britain, and after the said date the depositors in a post-office +savings bank in Ireland shall cease to have any claim against the +Postmaster-General or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but +shall have the like claim against the Government and Consolidated Fund of +Ireland. + +(4) If before the date of the transfer the trustees of any trustees +savings bank so request, then, according to the request, either all sums +due to them shall be repaid, and the savings bank closed, or those sums +shall be paid to the Irish Government, and after the said date the +trustees shall cease to have any claim against the National Debt +Commissioners or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but shall +have the like claim against the Government and Consolidated Fund of +Ireland. + +(5) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, if a sum due +on account of any annuity or policy of insurance which has before the +above-mentioned notice been granted through a post-office or trustee +savings bank, is not paid by the Irish Government, that sum shall be paid +out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +_Irish Appeals and Decision of Constitutional Questions._ + +[Sidenote: Irish appeals.] + +=22.=--(1) The appeal from Courts in Ireland to the House of Lords shall +cease; and where any person would, but for this Act, have a right to +appeal from any Court in Ireland to the House of Lords, such person shall +have the like right to appeal to Her Majesty the Queen in Council; and +the right so to appeal shall not be affected by any Irish Act; and all +enactments relating to appeals to Her Majesty the Queen in Council, and to +the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, shall apply accordingly. + +[Sidenote: 39 & 40 Vict. c. 59] + +(2) When the Judicial Committee sit for hearing appeals from a Court in +Ireland, there shall be present not less than four Lords of Appeal, within +the meaning of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, and at least one +member who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court in Ireland. + +(3) A rota of privy councillors to sit for hearing appeals from Courts in +Ireland shall be made annually by Her Majesty in Council, and the privy +councillors, or some of them, on that rota shall sit to hear the said +appeals. A casual vacancy in such rota during the year may be filled by +Order in Council. + +(4) Nothing in this Act shall affect the jurisdiction of the House of +Lords to determine the claims to Irish peerages. + +[Sidenote: Special provision for decision of constitutional questions.] + +=23.=--(1) If it appears to the Lord-Lieutenant or a Secretary of State +expedient in the public interest that steps shall be taken for the speedy +determination of the question whether any Irish Act, or any provision +thereof, is beyond the power of the Irish Legislature, he may represent +the same to Her Majesty in Council, and thereupon the said question shall +be forthwith referred to and heard and determined by the Judicial +Committee of the Privy Council, constituted as if hearing an appeal from a +Court in Ireland. + +(2) Upon the hearing of the question such persons as seem to the Judicial +Committee to be interested may be allowed to appear and be heard as +parties to the case, and the decision of the Judicial Committee shall be +given in like manner as if it were the decision of an appeal, the nature +of the report or recommendation to Her Majesty being stated in open Court. + +(3) Nothing in this Act shall prejudice any other power of Her Majesty in +Council to refer any question to the Judicial Committee, or the right of +any person to petition Her Majesty for such reference. + +_Lord-Lieutenant and Crown Lands._ + +[Sidenote: Office of Lord-Lieutenant.] + +=24.=--(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any Act, every +subject of the Queen shall be qualified to hold the office of +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, without reference to his religious belief. + +(2) The term of office of the Lord-Lieutenant shall be _six years_, +without prejudice to the power of Her Majesty the Queen at any time to +revoke the appointment. + +[Sidenote: Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.] + +=25.= Her Majesty the Queen in Council may place under the control of the +Irish Government, for the purposes of that Government, such of the lands +and buildings in Ireland vested in or held in trust for Her Majesty, and +subject to such conditions or restrictions (if any) as may seem expedient. + +_Judges and Civil Servants._ + +[Sidenote: Tenure of future judges.] + +=26.= A judge of the Supreme Court or other Superior Court in Ireland, or +of any County Court or other Court with a like jurisdiction in Ireland, +appointed after the passing of this Act, shall not be removed from his +office except in pursuance of an address from the two Houses of +Legislature of Ireland, nor during his continuance in office shall his +salary be diminished or right to pension altered without his consent. + +[Sidenote: As to existing judges and other persons having salaries charged +on the Consolidated Fund.] + +=27.=--(1) All existing judges of the Supreme Court, County Court judges, +and Land Commissioners in Ireland, and all existing officers serving in +Ireland in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown and receiving salaries +charged on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, shall, if they are +removable at present on address from both Houses of Parliament, continue +to be removable only upon such address, and if removable in any other +manner shall continue to be removable only in the same manner as +heretofore; and shall continue to receive the same salaries, gratuities, +and pensions, and to be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore, +or such duties as Her Majesty may declare to be analogous, and their +salaries and pensions, if and so far as not paid out of the Irish +Consolidated Fund, shall be paid out of the Exchequer of the United +Kingdom: Provided that this section shall be subject to the provisions of +this Act with respect to the Exchequer judges. + +(2) If any of the said judges, commissioners, or officers retires from +office with the Queen's approbation before completion of the period of +service entitling him to a pension, Her Majesty may, if she thinks fit, +grant to him such pension, not exceeding the pension to which he would on +that completion have been entitled, as to Her Majesty seems meet. + +[Sidenote: As to persons holding Civil Service appointments.] + +=28.=--(1) All existing officers in the permanent Civil Service of the +Crown, who are not above provided for, and are at the appointed day +serving in Ireland, shall, after that day, continue to hold their offices +by the same tenure, and to receive the same salaries, gratuities, and +pensions, and to be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore, or +such duties as the Treasury may declare to be analogous; and the said +gratuities and pensions, and until three years after the passing of this +Act, the salaries due to any of the said officers if remaining in his +existing office, shall be paid to the payees by the Treasury out of the +Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +(2) Any such officer may, after _three years_ from the passing of this +Act, retire from office, and shall, at any time during those three years, +if required by the Irish Government, retire from office, and on any such +retirement may be awarded by the Treasury a gratuity or pension in +accordance with the Fifth Schedule to this Act: Provided that-- + + (_a_) Six months' written notice shall, unless it is otherwise agreed, + be given either by the said officer or by the Irish Government, as the + case requires; and + + (_b_) Such number of officers only shall retire at one time, and at + such intervals of time as the Treasury, in communication with the + Irish Government, sanction. + +(3) If any such officer does not so retire, the Treasury may award him, +after the said three years, a pension in accordance with the Fifth +Schedule to this Act, which shall become payable to him on his ultimate +retirement from the service of the Crown. + +(4) The gratuities and pensions awarded in accordance with the Fifth +Schedule to this Act shall be paid by the Treasury to the payees out of +the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +(5) All sums paid out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom in pursuance +of this section shall be repaid to that Exchequer from the Irish +Exchequer. + +(6) This section shall not apply to officers retained in the service of +the Government of the United Kingdom. + +[Sidenote: As to existing pensions and superannuation allowances.] + +=29.= Any existing pension granted on account of service in Ireland as a +judge of the Supreme Court or of any Court consolidated into that Court, +or as a County Court judge, or in any other judicial position, or as an +officer in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown other than in an +office the holder of which is after the appointed day retained in the +service of the Government of the United Kingdom, shall be charged on the +Irish Consolidated Fund, and if and so far as not paid out of that fund, +shall be paid out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +_Police._ + +[Sidenote: As to police.] + +=30.=--(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 Sixth Schedule to +this Act, be gradually reduced and ultimately cease to exist as mentioned +in that Schedule; and after the passing of this Act, no officer or man +shall be appointed to either of these 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. + +(2) The said two forces shall, while they continue, be subject to the +control of the Lord-Lieutenant as representing Her Majesty, and the +members thereof shall continue to receive the same salaries, gratuities, +and pensions, and hold their appointments on the same tenure as +heretofore, and these salaries, gratuities, and pensions, and all the +expenditure incidental to either force, shall be paid out of the Exchequer +of the United Kingdom. + +(3) When any existing member of either force retires under the provisions +of the Sixth Schedule to this Act, the Treasury may award to him a +gratuity or pension in accordance with that Schedule. + +(4) Those gratuities and pensions and all existing pensions payable in +respect of service in either force, shall be paid by the Treasury to the +payees out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. + +(5) Two-thirds of the net amount payable in pursuance of this section out +of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom shall be repaid to that Exchequer +from the Irish Exchequer. + +_Miscellaneous._ + +[Sidenote: Irish Exchequer Consolidated Fund and Audit.] + +31. Save as may be otherwise provided by Irish Act-- + + (_a_) The existing law relating to the Exchequer and Consolidated Fund + of the United Kingdom shall apply with the necessary modifications to + the Exchequer and Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and an officer shall + be appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant to be the Irish Comptroller and + Auditor-General; and + +[Sidenote: 29 & 30 Vict. c. 39] + + (_b_) The accounts of the Irish Consolidated Fund shall be audited as + appropriation accounts in manner provided by the Exchequer and Audit + Departments Act, 1866, by or under the direction of such officer. + +[Sidenote: Law applicable to both Houses of Irish Legislature.] + +=32.=--(1) Subject as in this Act mentioned and particularly to the +Seventh Schedule to this Act (which Schedule shall have full effect), all +existing election laws relating to the House of Commons and the members +thereof shall, so far as applicable, extend to each of the two Houses of +the Irish Legislature and the members thereof, but such election laws so +far as hereby extended may be altered by Irish Act. + +(2) The privileges, rights, and immunities to be held and enjoyed by each +House and the members thereof shall be such as may be defined by Irish +Act, but so that the same shall never exceed those for the time being +held and enjoyed by the House of Commons, and the members thereof. + +[Sidenote: Supplemental provisions as to powers of Irish Legislature.] + +=33.=--(1) The Irish Legislature may repeal or alter any provision of this +Act which is by this Act expressly made alterable by that Legislature, and +also any enactments in force in Ireland, except such as either relate to +matters beyond the powers of the Irish Legislature, or being enacted by +Parliament after the passing of this Act, may be expressly extended to +Ireland. An Irish Act notwithstanding it is in any respect repugnant to +any enactment excepted as aforesaid, shall, though read subject to that +enactment, be, except to the extent of that repugnancy, valid. + +(2) An order, rule, or regulation, made in pursuance of, or having the +force of, an Act of Parliament, shall be deemed to be an enactment within +the meaning of this section. + +(3) Nothing in this Act shall affect Bills relating to the divorce or +marriage of individuals, and any such Bill shall be introduced and proceed +in Parliament in like manner as if this Act had not been passed. + +[Sidenote: Limitation of borrowing by local authorities.] + +=34.= The local authority for any county or borough or other area shall +not borrow money without either-- + + (_a_) A special authority from the Irish Legislature, or + + (_b_) The sanction of the proper department of the Irish Government; + +and shall not, without such special authority, borrow: + + (i.) In the case of municipal borough or town or area less than a + county, any loan which together with the then outstanding debt of the + local authority, will exceed twice the annual rateable value of the + property, in the municipal borough, town, or area; or + + (ii.) In the case of a county or larger area, any loan which together + with the then outstanding debt of the local authority, will exceed + one-tenth of the annual rateable value of the property in the county + or area; or + + (iii.) In any case a loan exceeding one-half of the above limits + without a local inquiry held in the county, borough, or area by a + person appointed for the purpose by the said department. + +_Transitory Provisions._ + +[Sidenote: Temporary restriction on powers of Irish Legislature and +Executive.] + +=35.=--(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, +water-works, 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 Courts in Ireland (other than +one of the Exchequer judges) shall be made in pursuance of a warrant from +Her Majesty countersigned as heretofore. + +[Sidenote: Transitory provisions.] + +=36.=--(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act Her Majesty the Queen in +Council may make or direct such arrangements as seem necessary or proper +for setting in motion the Irish Legislature and Government and for +otherwise bringing this Act into operation. + +(2) The Irish Legislature shall be summoned to meet on the _first Tuesday +in September, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four_, and the first +election of members of the two Houses of the Irish Legislature shall be +held at such time before that day as may be fixed by Her Majesty in +Council. + +(3) Upon the first meeting of the Irish Legislature the members of the +House of Commons then sitting for Irish constituencies, including the +members for Dublin University, shall vacate their seats, and writs shall, +as soon as conveniently may be, be issued by the Lord Chancellor of +Ireland for the purpose of holding an election of members to serve in +Parliament for the constituencies named in the Second Schedule of this +Act. + +(4) The existing Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and the senior of the +existing puisne judges of the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court, or +if they or either of them are or is dead or unable or unwilling to act, +such other of the judges of the Supreme Court as Her Majesty may appoint, +shall be the first Exchequer judges. + +(5) Where it appears to Her Majesty the Queen in Council, before the +expiration of _one year_ after the appointed day, that any existing +enactment respecting matters within the powers of the Irish Legislature +requires adaptation to Ireland, whether-- + + (_a_) By the substitution of the Lord-Lieutenant in Council, or of any + departments or office of the Executive Government in Ireland, for Her + Majesty in Council, a Secretary of State, the Treasury, the + Postmaster-General, the Board of Inland Revenue, or other public + department or offices in Great Britain; or + + (_b_) By the substitution of the Irish Consolidated Fund or moneys + provided by the Irish Legislature for the Consolidated Fund of the + United Kingdom, or moneys provided by Parliament, or + + (_c_) By the substitution or confirmation by, or other act to be done + by or to, the Irish Legislature for confirmation by or other act to be + done by or to Parliament; or + + (_d_) By any other adaptation; Her Majesty, by Order in Council, may + make that adaptation. + +(6) Her Majesty the Queen in Council may provide for the transfer of such +property, rights, and liabilities, and the doing of such other things as +may appear to Her Majesty necessary or proper for carrying into effect +this Act or any Order in Council under this Act. + +(7) An Order in Council under this section may make an adaptation or +provide for a transfer either unconditionally or subject to such +exceptions, conditions, and restrictions as may seem expedient. + +(8) The draft of every Order in Council under this section shall be laid +before both Houses of Parliament for not less than two months before it is +made, and such order when made shall, subject as respects Ireland to the +provisions of an Irish Act, have full effect, but shall not interfere with +the continued application to any place, authority, person, or thing, not +in Ireland, of the enactment to which the Order relates. + +[Sidenote: Continuance of existing laws, courts, offices, etc.] + +=37.=--Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all existing laws, +institutions, authorities, and officers in Ireland, whether judicial, +administrative, or ministerial, and all existing taxes in Ireland shall +continue as if this Act had not passed, but with the modifications +necessary for adapting the same to this Act, and subject to be repealed, +abolished, altered, and adapted in the manner and to the extent authorised +by this Act. + +[Sidenote: Appointed day.] + +=38.=--Subject as in this Act mentioned the appointed day for the purposes +of this Act shall be the day of the first meeting of the Irish +Legislature, or such other day not more than _seven_ months earlier or +later as may be fixed by order of Her Majesty in Council either generally +or with reference to any particular provision of this Act, and different +days may be appointed for different purposes and different provisions of +this Act, whether contained in the same section or in different sections. + +[Sidenote: Definitions.] + +=39.=--In this Act unless the context otherwise requires-- + + The expression 'existing' means existing at the passing of this Act. + + The expression 'constituency' means a parliamentary constituency or a + county or borough returning a member or members to serve in either + House of the Irish Legislature, as the case requires, and the + expression 'parliamentary constituency' means any county, borough, or + university returning a member or members to serve in Parliament. + + The expression 'parliamentary elector' means a person entitled to be + registered as a voter at a parliamentary election. + + The expression 'parliamentary election' means the election of a member + to serve in Parliament. + + The expression 'tax' includes duties and fees, and the expression + 'duties of excise' does not include licence duties. + + The expression 'foreign mails' means all postal packets, whether + letters, parcels, or other packets, posted in the United Kingdom and + sent to a place out of the United Kingdom, or posted in a place out of + the United Kingdom and sent to a place in the United Kingdom, or in + transit through the United Kingdom to a place out of the United + Kingdom. + + The expression 'telegraphic line' has the same meaning as in the + Telegraphs Acts, 1863 to 1892. + + The expression 'duties on postage' includes all rates and sums + chargeable for or in respect of postal packets, money orders, or + telegrams, or otherwise under the Post-office Acts or the Telegraph + Act, 1892. + + The expression 'Irish Act' means a law made by the Irish Legislature. + +[Sidenote: 26 & 27 Vict. c. 112. 41 & 42 Vict. c. 76. 55 & 56 Vict. c. 59. +7 Will. 4, and 1 Vict. c. 36. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 73. 48 & 49 Vict. c. 58.] + + The expression 'election laws' means the laws relating to the election + of members to serve in Parliament, other than those relating to the + qualification of electors, and includes all the laws respecting the + registration of electors, the issue and execution of writs, the + creation of polling districts, the taking of the poll, the questioning + of elections, corrupt and illegal practices, the disqualification of + members, and the vacating of seats. + + The expression 'rateable value' means the annual rateable value under + the Irish Valuation Acts. + + The expression 'salary' includes remuneration, allowances, and + emoluments. + + The expression 'pension' includes superannuation allowance. + +[Sidenote: Short title.] + +=40.=--This Act may be cited as the Irish Government Act, 1893. + + +SCHEDULES. + +FIRST SCHEDULE: LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL--CONSTITUENCIES AND NUMBER OF +COUNCILLORS. + + ------------------------------------------ + Constituencies. | Councillors. + ---------------------------|-------------- + Antrim County | Three + Armagh County | One + Belfast Borough | Two + Carlow County | One + Cavan County | One + Clare County | One + Cork County-- | + East Riding | Three + West Riding | One + Cork Borough | One + Donegal County | One + Down County | Three + Dublin County | Three + " Borough | Two + Fermanagh County | One + Galway County | Two + Kerry County | One + Kildare County | One + Kilkenny County | One + King's County | One + Leitrim and Sligo Counties | One + Limerick County | Two + Londonderry County | One + Longford County | One + Louth County | One + Mayo County | One + Meath County | One + Monaghan County | One + Queen's County | One + Roscommon County | One + Tipperary County | Two + Tyrone County | One + Waterford County | One + Westmeath County | One + Wexford County | One + Wicklow County | One + ---------------------------|-------------- + | Forty-eight + ------------------------------------------ + +The expression 'borough' in this schedule means an existing parliamentary +borough. Counties of cities and towns not named in this Schedule shall be +combined with the county at large in which they are included for +Parliamentary elections, and if not so included, then with the county at +large bearing the same name. + +A borough named in this Schedule shall not for the purposes of this +Schedule form part of any other constituency. + +SECOND SCHEDULE: IRISH MEMBERS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. + + --------------------------------------------------- + | Number of Members + Constituency. | for House + | of Commons. + ------------------------------|-------------------- + Antrim County | Three + Armagh County | Two + Belfast Borough (in divisions |} + as mentioned below) |} Four + Carlow County | One + Cavan County | Two + Clare County | Two + Cork County (in divisions |} + as mentioned below) |} Five + Cork Borough | Two + Donegal County | Three + Down County | Three + Dublin County | Two + " Borough (in divisions |} + as mentioned below) |} Four + Fermanagh County | One + Galway County | Three + " Borough | One + Kerry County | Three + Kildare County | One + Kilkenny County | One + " Borough | One + King's County | One + Leitrim County | Two + Limerick County | Two + " Borough | One + Londonderry County | Two + " Borough | One + Longford County | One + Louth County | One + Mayo County | Three + Meath County | Two + Monaghan County | Two + Newry Borough | One + Queen's County | One + Roscommon County | Two + Sligo County | Two + Tipperary County | Three + Tyrone County | Three + Waterford County | One + " Borough | One + Westmeath County | One + Wexford County | Two + Wicklow County | One + ------------------------------|-------------------- + | Eighty + --------------------------------------------------- + +(1) In this Schedule the expression 'borough' means an existing +parliamentary borough. + +(2) In the parliamentary boroughs of Belfast and Dublin, one member shall +be returned by each of the existing parliamentary divisions of those +boroughs, and the law relating to the divisions of boroughs shall apply +accordingly. + +(3) The county of Cork shall be divided into two divisions, consisting of +the East Riding and the West Riding, and three members shall be elected by +the East Riding, and two members shall be elected by the West Riding; and +the law relating to divisions of counties shall apply to these divisions. + +THIRD SCHEDULE: FINANCE-IMPERIAL LIABILITIES, EXPENDITURE, AND +MISCELLANEOUS REVENUE. + +_Liabilities._ + +For the purposes of this Act, 'Imperial liabilities' consist of:-- + +(1) The funded and unfunded debt of the United Kingdom, inclusive of +terminable annuities paid out of the permanent annual charge for the +National Debt, and inclusive of the cost of the management of the said +funded and unfunded debt, but exclusive of the Local Loans Stock and +Guaranteed Land Stock, and the cost of the management thereof; and + +(2) All other charges on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom for +the repayment of borrowed money, or to fulfil a guarantee. + +_Expenditure._ + +For the purpose of this Act Imperial expenditure consists of expenditure +for the following services:-- + +1. Naval and military expenditure (including Greenwich Hospital). + +2. Civil expenditure, that is to say-- + + (_a_) Civil list and Royal family. + + (_b_) Salaries, pensions, allowances, and incidental expenses of-- + + (i.) Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. + + (ii.) Exchequer judges in Ireland. + + (_c_) Buildings, works, salaries, pensions, printing, stationery, + allowances, and incidental expenses of-- + + (i.) Parliament; + + (ii.) National Debt Commissioners; + + (iii.) Foreign Office and diplomatic and consular service, + including secret service, special services, and telegraph + subsidies; + + (iv.) Colonial Office, including special services and telegraph + subsidies; + + (v.) Privy Council; + + (vi.) Board of Trade, including the Mercantile Marine Fund, Patent + Office, Railway Commission, and Wreck Commission, but excluding + Bankruptcy; + + (vii.) Mint; + + (viii.) Meteorological Society; + + (ix.) Slave trade service. + + (_d_) Foreign mails and telegraphic communication with places outside + the United Kingdom. + +_Revenue._ + +For the purposes of this Act the public revenue to a portion of which +Ireland may claim to be entitled consists of revenue from the following +sources:-- + +1. Suez Canal shares or payments on account thereof. + +2. Loans and advances to foreign countries. + +3. Annual payments by British possessions. + +4. Fees, stamps, and extra receipts received by departments, the expenses +of which are part of the Imperial expenditure. + +5. Small branches of the hereditary revenues of the Crown. + +6. Foreshores. + +FOURTH SCHEDULE: PROVISIONS AS TO POST OFFICE. + +(1) The Postmaster-General shall pay to the Irish Post Office in respect +of any foreign mails sent through Ireland and the Irish Post Office shall +pay to the Postmaster-General in respect of any foreign mails sent through +Great Britain, such sum as may be agreed upon for the carriage of those +mails in Ireland or Great Britain, as the case may be. + +(2) The Irish Post Office shall pay to the Postmaster-General; + + (i.) One-half of the expense of the packet service and submarine + telegraph lines between Great Britain and Ireland after deducting from + that expense of the sum fixed by the Postmaster-General as incurred on + account of foreign mails or telegraphic communication with a place out + of the United Kingdom, as the case may be; and + + (ii.) Five per cent. of the expenses of the conveyance outside the + United Kingdom of foreign mails, and of the transmission of telegrams + to places outside the United Kingdom; and + + (iii.) Such proportion of the receipts for telegrams to places out of + the United Kingdom as is due in respect of the transmission outside + the United Kingdom of such telegrams. + +(3) The Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office respectively shall +pay to the other of them on account of foreign money orders, of +compensation in respect of postal packets, and of any matters not +specifically provided for in this Schedule, such sums as may be agreed +upon. + +(4) Of the existing debt incurred in respect of telegraphs, a sum of five +hundred and fifty thousand pounds, two and three quarters per cent. +Consolidated Stock shall be treated as debt of the Irish Post Office, and +for paying the dividends on and redeeming such stock there shall be paid +half-yearly by the Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom +an annuity of _eighteen_ thousand pounds for _sixty_ years, and such +annuity when paid into the Exchequer shall be forthwith paid to the +National Debt Commissioners and applied for the reduction of the National +Debt. + +(5) The Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office may agree on the +facilities to be afforded by the Irish Post Office in Ireland in relation +to any matters the administration of which by virtue of this Act remains +with the Postmaster-General, and with respect to the use of the Irish +telegraphic lines for through lines in connection with submarine +telegraphs, or with telegraphic communication with any place out of the +United Kingdom. + +FIFTH SCHEDULE: REGULATIONS AS TO GRATUITIES AND PENSIONS FOR CIVIL +SERVANTS. + +SIXTH SCHEDULE: + + PART I.--REGULATIONS AS TO ESTABLISHMENT OF POLICE FORCES AND AS TO + THE ROYAL IRISH CONSTABULARY AND DUBLIN METROPOLITAN POLICE CEASING TO + EXIST. + +(1) Such local police forces shall be established under such local +authorities and for such counties, municipal boroughs, or other larger +areas, as may be provided by Irish Act. + +(2) Whenever the Executive Committee of the Privy Council in Ireland +certify to the Lord-Lieutenant that a police force, adequate for local +purposes, has been established in any area, then, subject to the +provisions of this Act, he shall within six months thereafter direct the +Royal Irish Constabulary to be withdrawn from the performance of regular +police duties in such area, and such order shall be forthwith carried into +effect. + +(3) Upon any such withdrawal the Lord-Lieutenant shall order measures to +be taken for a proportionate reduction of the numbers of the Royal Irish +Constabulary, and such order shall be duly executed. + +(4) Upon the Executive Committee of the Privy Council in Ireland +certifying to the Lord-Lieutenant that adequate local police forces have +been established in every part of Ireland, then subject to the provisions +of this Act, the Lord-Lieutenant shall within six months after such +certificate, order measures to be taken for causing the whole of the Royal +Irish Constabulary to cease to exist as a police force, and such order +shall be duly executed. + +(5) Where the area in which a local police force is established is part of +the Dublin Metropolitan Police District, the foregoing regulations shall +apply to the Dublin Metropolitan Police in like manner as if that force +were the Royal Irish Constabulary. + + +PART II.--REGULATIONS AS TO GRATUITIES AND PENSIONS FOR THE ROYAL IRISH +CONSTABULARY AND DUBLIN METROPOLITAN POLICE. + +SEVENTH SCHEDULE: REGULATIONS AS TO HOUSES OF THE LEGISLATURE AND THE +MEMBERS THEREOF. + +_Legislative Council._ + +(1) There shall be a separate register of electors of councillors of the +Legislative Council which shall be made, until otherwise provided by Irish +Act, in like manner as the Parliamentary register of electors. + +(2) Where, for the election of Councillors, any counties are combined so +as to form one constituency, then until otherwise provided by Irish Act, + + (_a_) The returning officer for the whole constituency shall be that + one of the returning officers for Parliamentary elections for those + counties to whom the writ is addressed, and the writ shall be + addressed to the returning officer for the constituency with the + largest population, according to the census of 1891. + + (_b_) The returning officer shall have the same authority throughout + the whole constituency as a returning officer to a Parliamentary + election for a county has in the county. + + (_c_) The registers of electors of each county shall jointly be the + register of electors for the constituency. + + (_d_) For the purposes of this Schedule 'county' includes a county of + a city or town, and this Schedule, and the law relating to the + qualification of electors, shall apply, as if the county of a city or + town formed part of the county at large with which it is combined, and + the qualification in the county of a city or town shall be the same as + in such county at large. + +(3) Writs shall be issued for the election of councillors at such time not +less than one or more than three months before the day for the periodical +retirement of councillors as the Lord-Lieutenant in Council may fix. + +(4) The day for the periodical retirement of councillors shall, until +otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the last day of August in every fourth +year. + +(5) For the purposes of such retirement, the constituencies shall be +divided into two equal divisions, and the constituencies in each province +shall be divided as nearly as may be equally between those divisions, and +constituencies returning two or more members shall be treated as two or +more constituencies, and placed in both divisions. + +(6) Subject as aforesaid, the particular constituencies which are to be in +each division shall be determined by lot. + +(7) The said division and lot shall be made and conducted before the +appointed day in manner directed by the Lord-Lieutenant in Council. + +(8) The first councillors elected for the constituencies in the first +division shall retire on the first day of retirement which occurs after +the first meeting of the Irish Legislature, and the first councillors for +the constituencies in the second division shall retire on the second day +of retirement after that meeting. + +(9) Any casual vacancy among the councillors shall be filled by a new +election, but the councillor filling the vacancy shall retire at the time +at which the vacating councillor would have retired. + +_Legislative Assembly._ + +(10) The Parliamentary register of electors for the time being shall, +until otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the register of electors of the +Legislative Assembly. + +_Both Houses._ + +(11) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the Lord-Lieutenant in Council +may make regulations for adapting the existing election laws to the +election of members of the two Houses of the Legislature. + +(12) Annual sessions of the Legislature shall be held. + +(13) Any peer, whether of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, +Scotland, or Ireland, shall be qualified to be a member of either House. + +(14) A member of either House may by writing under his hand resign his +seat, and the same shall thereupon be vacant. + +(15) The same person shall not be a member of both Houses. + +(16) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, if the same person is elected +to a seat in each House, he shall, before the eighth day after the next +sitting of either House, by written notice, elect in which House he will +serve, and upon such election his seat in the other House shall be vacant, +and if he does not so elect, his seat in both Houses shall be vacant. + +(17) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, any such notice electing in +which House a person will sit, or any notice of resignation, shall be +given in manner directed by the Standing Orders of the Houses, and if +there is no such direction, shall be given to the Lord-Lieutenant. + +(18) The powers of either House shall not be affected by any vacancy +therein, or any defect in the election or qualification of any member +thereof. + +(19) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the holders of such Irish +offices as may be named by Order of the Queen in Council before the +appointed day, shall be entitled to be elected to and sit in either House, +notwithstanding that they hold offices under the Crown, but on acceptance +of any such office the seat of any such person in either House shall be +vacated unless he has accepted the office in succession to some other of +the said offices. + +_Transitory._ + +(20) The Lord-Lieutenant in Council may, before the appointed day, make +regulations for the following purposes:-- + + (_a_) The making of a register of electors of councillors in time for + the election of the first councillors, and with that object for the + variation of the days relating to registration in the existing + election laws, and for prescribing the duties of officers, and for + making such adaptations of those laws as appear necessary or proper + for duly making a register; + + (_b_) The summoning of the two Houses of the Legislature of Ireland, + the issue of writs and any other things appearing to be necessary or + proper for the election of members of the two Houses; + + (_c_) The election of a chairman (whether called Speaker, President, + or by any other name) of each House, the quorum of each House, the + communications between the two Houses, and such adaptation to the + proceedings of the two Houses of the procedure of Parliament, as + appears expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by those + Houses on their first meeting; + + (_d_) The adaptation to the two Houses and the members thereof of any + laws and customs relating to the House of Commons or the members + thereof; + + (_e_) The deliberation and voting together of the two Houses in cases + provided by this Act. + +(21) The regulations maybe altered by Irish Act, and also in so far as +they concern the procedure of either House alone, by Standing Orders of +that House, but shall, until altered, have effect as if enacted in this +Act. + + + + +NOTE I + +FROM THE 'MEMOIRS OF THE LATE LORD SELBORNE' + +(Part ii. pp. 261-263). + + +... Each new step Gladstone takes is, as it seems to me, more and more on +the side of _moral_ as well as political evil. Much as I disapproved of +his surrender of last year to Parnell, I disapprove very much more of his +present endeavour to prevent the restoration in the present stage of the +Home Rule question, of the reign of law in Ireland, and of the _means_ he +is attempting to use for _that_ purpose. Deliberate and organised +obstruction in the House of Commons, and an attempt to overrule a majority +against him there, of more than one hundred, by violent appeals to popular +passions outside,--those appeals being supported by representing the cause +of anarchy and conspiring against law as the cause of liberty,--by denying +the existence of any case for strengthening the law, in the face of a +complete and manifest paralysis of law by the power of a seditious +organisation, into whose scale he has now thrown his whole influence,--and +by denouncing, in the most violent terms, the principle of measures for +the protection of the loyal, and for securing the due administration of +justice, which are the same (in their general character, for it is not +necessary here to go into questions of detail) with those by means of +which he himself governed Ireland for the last years of his power, and far +more consistent with all real ideas of liberty than the suspension of the +Habeas Corpus Act, which he introduced in 1881. It was quite open to him +(of course) to contend that, by the acceptance of his Home Rule scheme, +the necessity for any such measures might be prevented, and that he +prefers and insists upon that alternative,--so much as _that_ was involved +in his measures of last year; but it is quite a different thing to +denounce the principle of maintaining law and government, and defending +those who respect and obey law from the tyranny of conspirators against +it, and making the ordinary criminal law of the country a reality and not +a mere idle name,--'as coercion,' in the sense of an undue invasion of +liberty. To do this, and to appeal _ad populum_ against it from an +overwhelming majority in Parliament is _Acheronta movere_, with a +vengeance.... For a man who, with his attainments, his experience, his +professions, his fifty years' public service, his political education +under some of the greatest and best men of the time, has three times +filled the highest office in the State, and is now on the verge of the +grave, so to end his career, seems to me more shocking and disheartening +than anything else recorded in our history. It is only the old respect, +and old attachment, which makes one search about for the possible +explanations, in the workings of a very complex and intricate mind. If (as +I trust) the Government and the House of Commons stand firm, all his +efforts in the cause of anarchy will be in vain. The clause as to removing +trials to England may have to be given up; but the _permanence_ of the +Bill (its best feature of all) must remain, if any good is to be done. + +... I will spare you a long yarn about politics this time. The G.O.M. +seems to be determined to pull the whole Irish house down, parliamentary +government and all, unless he can have his own way. But I have no fear +that he _will_ have his way, just at present, whatever harm he may do in +the endeavour. But the struggle is very disagreeable, as well as sharp. + + + + +NOTE II + +REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSION (Vol. iv. pp. 544, 545). + +_Conclusions of the Report of the Judges._ + + +We have now pursued our inquiry over a sufficiently extended period to +enable us to report upon the several charges and allegations which have +been made against the respondents, and we have indicated in the course of +this statement our findings upon these charges and allegations, but it +will be convenient to repeat _seriatim_ the conclusions we have arrived +at upon the issues which have been raised for our consideration. + +I. We find that the respondent members of Parliament collectively were not +members of a conspiracy having for its object to establish the absolute +independence of Ireland, but we find that some of them, together with Mr. +Davitt, established and joined in the Land League organisation with the +intention by its means to bring about the absolute independence of Ireland +as a separate nation. The names of these respondents are set out on a +previous page. + +II. We find that the respondents did enter into a conspiracy by a system +of coercion and intimidation to promote an agrarian agitation against the +payment of agricultural rents, for the purpose of impoverishing and +expelling from the country the Irish landlords who were styled the +'English Garrison.' + +III. We find that the charge that 'when on certain occasions they thought +it politic to denounce, and did denounce, certain crimes in public they +afterwards led their supporters to believe such denunciations were not +sincere' is not established. We entirely acquit Mr. Parnell and the other +respondents of the charge of insincerity in their denunciation of the +Phoenix Park murders, and find that the 'facsimile' letters on which +this charge was chiefly based as against Mr. Parnell is a forgery. + +IV. We find that the respondents did disseminate the _Irish World_ and +other newspapers tending to incite to sedition and the commission of other +crime. + +V. We find that the respondents did not directly incite persons to the +commission of crime other than intimidation, but that they did incite to +intimidation, and that the consequence of that incitement was that crime +and outrage were committed by the persons incited. We find that it has not +been proved that the respondents made payments for the purpose of inciting +persons to commit crime. + +VI. We find as to the allegation that the respondents did nothing to +prevent crime and expressed no _bona fide_ disapproval, that some of the +respondents, and in particular Mr. Davitt, did express _bona fide_ +disapproval of crime and outrage, but that the respondents did not +denounce the system of intimidation which led to crime and outrage, but +persisted in it with knowledge of its effect. + +VII. We find that the respondents did defend persons charged with agrarian +crime, and supported their families, but that it has not been proved that +they subscribed to testimonials for, or were intimately associated with, +notorious criminals, or that they made payments to procure the escape of +criminals from justice. + +VIII. We find, as to the allegation that the respondents made payments to +compensate persons who had been injured in the commission of crime, that +they did make such payments. + +IX. As to the allegation that the respondents invited the assistance and +co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money from known advocates +of crime and the use of dynamite, we find that the respondents did invite +the assistance and co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money +from Patrick Ford, a known advocate of crime and the use of dynamite, but +that it has not been proved that the respondents, or any of them, knew +that the Clan-na-Gael controlled the League or was collecting money for +the Parliamentary Fund. It has been proved that the respondents invited +and obtained the assistance and co-operation of the Physical Force Party +in America, including the Clan-na-Gael, and in order to obtain that +assistance, abstained from repudiating or condemning the action of that +party. + + + + +Index + + + A + + Administration of the affairs of Ireland: its nature and defects, 28, 29. + + Agrarian crime in Ireland, 12, 29, 128, 135, 146. _See_ Whiteboyism + + Agriculture, state of, in Ireland, 3, 7, 204, 205, 206, 234 + + + B + + Balfour, Mr. Arthur: his successful policy when Chief Secretary for + Ireland, 58; + he establishes light railways in Ireland, and the Congested Districts + Board, 35, 36 + + Belfast, improvement in, within the last sixty years, 2 + + Bewley, Mr. Justice, the head of the Second Land Commission: his theory + of occupation right in the Irish land, 219, 220 + + Bureaucracy, the, of the Castle, 28, 29 + + Butt, Isaac: the true author of the conception of Home Rule, 41; + his work on Irish Federalism, 42 + + + C + + Chicago, the Convention at, in 1886: speeches of two of Parnell's + envoys, 57 + + Code, the Irish Penal: its effects on the Irish land, 99, 100. _See_ the + Question of the Irish Land, Chap. III., in several places + + Commissions appointed for considering and administering Irish affairs: + (1) the Devon Commission and its Report--the mistake it made as to + Irish land tenure, 116; + (2) the Childers Commission and its Report on Irish finance, 288-291 + (_see_ chapter on the Present Question of Irish Finance, _passim_); + (3) the Land Commission appointed to carry out the Land Act of 1881 + and its supplements, 166, 190, 191. _See_ Chaps. IV., V., VI., on + the Question of the Irish Land, in many places + + Confiscations of the Irish Land, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96. _See_ Chap. + III., on the Question of the Irish Land, in several places + + Cork has not prospered within the last sixty years, 2 + + Cromwell, Irish policy of, especially as to the land, 93, 94 + + + D + + Davitt, Michael, inaugurates the Irish Land League, 44 + + Derby, the Administration of Lord, brings in Irish Land Bills in 1852, + which do not become law, 123 + + Dublin, improvements in, within sixty years, 2 + + + E + + Emancipation, Catholic: its effects on Irish landed relations, 113, 114 + + Encumbered Estates Act: an iniquitous measure of confiscation, and its + results, 121, 122 + + Exodus, the, of the Irish race after the Famine, 120. _See_ Chap. III., + the Question of the Irish Land, in several places + + + F + + Famine, the Great Irish, of 1845-47, 117, 118, 119; + and _see_ Chap. III., on the Irish land, in several places + + Fenian outbreaks in Ireland, 128, 129; + the consequences, 129; + the influence of Fenianism in Ireland after 1870, 147 + + Finance, the question of Irish: the financial relations between Great + Britain and Ireland a subject of long controversy, 271; + what they were before 1782, 273, + and under Grattan's Parliament, 274; + increase of the debt and the taxation of Ireland by the close of the + eighteenth century, 274, 275; + the financial arrangements made at the Union, the work of Pitt, 275, + 276; + his object was to 'assimilate Great Britain and Ireland in finance,' + but this was impossible, and why, ibid.; + the financial settlement effected at the Union--Ireland to pay a + contribution, but not to be taxed beyond her means, ibid.; + the seventh article of the Treaty of Union and its constitutional + meaning, 277, 278; + the settlement denounced in the Irish Parliament, especially by Foster + and Grattan, 279; + protest of the twenty peers, 279, 280; + the Union left Ireland financially a distinct country, 280; + the settlement made at the Union reduced her to bankruptcy, and how, + 281, 282; + the compromise of 1816, 282, 283; + the real objects of this measure, 283, 284; + though theoretically to 'be assimilated' in finance, Ireland remained + for many years financially a completely distinct country, and the + reasons, 284; + this fully recognised by Peel in 1842, 285; + he refused to extend the income tax to Ireland, and permanently to + increase her spirit duties, ibid.; + Mr. Gladstone in 1853 suddenly disregards this policy, and imposes the + income tax on Ireland, and raises her spirit duties, 286; + gross injustice of this increase of taxation, especially under the + circumstances of Ireland, 286, 289; + Ireland to a considerable extent 'assimilated in finance' to Great + Britain, but not completely, even to the present day, a fact that + should be kept in mind, 287; + the Committee of 1863-64 on Irish finance, ibid.; + it fails to get Ireland justice, 288; + Mr. Goschen appoints a Committee to investigate the subject, ibid.; + this followed by the Childers Commission, appointed by Mr. Gladstone + in 1893, ibid.; + scope of the inquiry, 288, 289; + the work of the Childers Commission, 289; + it reports that Ireland has been overtaxed at the rate of between two + and three millions a year, and that for a very considerable space + of time, 290; + view of Sir R. Giffen that even this estimate falls short of the real + truth, 291, 292; + this overtaxation especially severe in the case of Ireland, a poor + country, 292-295; + the attempts that have been made to answer and refute the Report of + the Childers Commission have been grotesque failures, 295; + examination of these arguments and reply to them--they are either + fallacious, or mischievous and dangerous, 295-305; + question of a counterclaim against Ireland in finance, 306; + financial redress which Ireland has a right to demand, 307; + the question should be settled, 308 + + Foster, Mr., Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, opposes the + financial arrangements of the Union, 272 + + + G + + Galway in decay, 6 + + Gladstone, Mr.: he ridicules Butt's scheme of Home Rule, 44; + fall of his Administration in 1885, 46; + his attitude at the General Election of that year, ibid.; + he becomes a convert to Home Rule and the probable reasons, 47, 48; + the best members of the Liberal Party break away from him, 48; + he introduces his first Home Rule Bill, ibid.; + he dissolves Parliament after the rejection of that measure by the + House of Commons, 56; + he allies himself with the party of disorder in Ireland, 58, 59; + he negotiates with Parnell about Home Rule, 59; + he returns to office in 1892 with a small majority, 61; + he introduces his second Home Rule Bill in 1893, 62; + his Irish policy in 1868, 131; + he disestablishes and disendows the Protestant church in Ireland, + ibid.; + he makes no provision for the Irish Catholic clergy, a capital + mistake, 132; + he introduces the Land Act of 1870 for Ireland, 139, 140; + he declares against the Three F's, and announces that this measure is + to be final, ibid.; + he becomes Minister for the second time in 1880, 154; + he introduces the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, 155; + he surrenders to the Land League and introduces the Land Act of 1881, + 169; + he makes the Kilmainham treaty with Parnell, 170; + the fiscal wrong he does to Ireland in 1853-60, 286; + he appoints the Childers Commission in 1893 to investigate the subject + of Irish finance, 288; + his scheme of Irish University Reform, 343, 344. + And _see_ Chap. VIII., on Other Irish Questions + + Goschen, Mr., refers the question of the financial relations of Great + Britain and Ireland to a Committee, 288 + + Grattan: he denounces the financial settlement made at the Union for + Ireland, 279 + + + H + + Henry VII.: his Irish policy, 89 + + Henry VIII.: his wise policy for Ireland unhappily prevented, 89, 90 + + Home Rule, the question of: Home Rule not dead, 39; + the present attitude of the Liberal and the 'Nationalist' parties + towards Home Rule, 40; + it is a 'Present Irish Question,' 41; + Isaac Butt inaugurated this policy, ibid.; + his plan of Home Rule, 42; + the Irish Home Rule party, 43; + Butt's proposals powerfully attacked in Parliament, notably by Mr. + Gladstone, ibid.; + Butt is gradually supplanted by Parnell, 44; + Michael Davitt and the 'New Departure,' ibid.; + Parnell the head of the Land League, 44, 45; + Mr. Gladstone succumbs to it, 45; + Home Rule condemned by statesmen of all parties in 1880-84, ibid.; + Mr. Gladstone accepts Home Rule, 47; + the first Home Rule Bill of 1886, 48; + its characteristics and the objections to it, 48-50; + what its results would have been, 51-54; + the Bill is rejected in the House of Commons, 55; + attitude of the Fenians in America, 55, 56; + causes that promoted the Home Rule policy in Great Britain, 59, 60; + results of the General Election of 1892, 61; + the Home Rule Bill of 1893, 62; + its characteristics and vices, 62-64; + it is a much more objectionable measure than that of 1886, and why, + 65; + strong opposition to it in the country, 68; + the in-and-out plan given up, 69; + the Bill passes the House of Commons by a small majority through the + expedient of 'closure by compartments' 69; + it is rejected in the House of Lords by an overwhelming majority, 70; + Home Rule is scattered to the winds at the General Election of 1895, + ibid.; + it is not a prominent question at that of 1900, ibid.; + the subject cannot be dismissed, 71; + different forms of Home Rule, 71-73; + separation a better policy than Home Rule, 73; + 'Home Rule all round,' 73, 74; + conclusive objections to this scheme, 74-77; + the Union must be maintained, and Home Rule rejected by the nation, 78; + the rule of the Imperial Parliament has had some bad effects in Irish + affairs, and why, 79, 80; + proposal that the Imperial Parliament should occasionally sit in + Dublin, and the advantages of this, 81; + royalty should sometimes visit Ireland, 82; + necessity, in order to guard against Home Rule, and for other reasons, + to reduce the over-representation of Ireland in the House of + Commons, 82, 83 + + + I + + Ireland in 1901: a revolution has passed over Ireland, 2; + she has made some material progress, 2; + Dublin and Belfast, ibid.; + improvement in the habitations of the community and in Catholic places + of worship, 2, 3; + material progress of the community, 3-5; + the dark side of the picture, 5; + decline of several towns in Ireland, of manufactures, of fishing + industry, and of agriculture, 6, 7; + Ireland a poor country, 7; + excessive emigration, 8; + great increase of local and general taxation, 8; + the progress of Ireland as nothing compared to that of England and + Scotland, 9; + the Irish land system at the beginning of the reign of Victoria, 11; + sketch of it from that to the present time, 11-17 (and _see_ the + Question of the Irish Land, Chap. III., in many places); + Ireland and her three peoples, 18; + Catholic Ireland remains for the most part disaffected, despite the + great reforms effected in its interest, 19-21; + the Catholic democracy of Ireland, 21; + failure of the policy of conciliation, 22; + Presbyterian Ireland--its sentiments and demands, ibid.; + Protestant Ireland--its position in the community, 22, 23; + discontent of the landed gentry, 23; + character of the Irish legislation of the Imperial Parliament, 23-25, + and of its administration of Irish affairs, 28, 29; + the Anglican Church of Ireland, 30; + the Presbyterian Church, ibid.; + the Catholic Church, 31; + the administration of justice in Ireland, 31, 32; + Irish literature and education, 32, 33; + _resume_ of the general condition of Ireland, 33-35; + the Irish policy of Lord Salisbury's Government during the last six + years, 35, 36; + Ireland still 'the vulnerable part near the heart of the Empire,' 37, + 38 + + + L + + Lalor, John Finton, a rebel of 1848: his teaching with respect to the + Irish land, 148 + + Land, the question of the Irish: importance of the subject, 184, 185; + the Celtic tribal land system in Ireland, 86, 87; + the tribes, clans, and septs, 87; + the partial feudalisation of the land system, 87; + collective ownership of which traces still exist, 87; + the Anglo-Norman Conquest of Ireland and the Colony of the Pale, 88; + the land falls into the hands of great families, ibid.; + miserable state of Ireland at the close of the fifteenth century, 89; + Henry VII. and Poynings, ibid.; + sagacious policy of Henry VIII., especially as regards the land, 90; + this, unfortunately, was not carried out, ibid.; + the era of conquest begins, and of the confiscation of the Irish land, + ibid.; + confiscation of the territories of the O'Connors of Offaly, of Shane + O'Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond, 90, 91; + rebellion of Tyrone, 91; + all Ireland made shireland, and the old Celtic land system is effaced + by law, ibid.; + English modes of land tenure imposed on the people, 91, 92; + confiscation of the territories of Tyrone and of O'Donnell, 92; + the Plantation of Ulster, ibid.; + further confiscation in times of peace, ibid.; + Strafford marks out Connaught for confiscation, 92; + beginning of Protestant ascendency in the land, 93; + vast confiscations effected by Cromwell, 93; + his scheme of a general colonisation of Ireland fails, 93-95; + results of the Cromwellian conquest in the land, 95; + policy of Charles II. as regards the land, ibid.; + confiscations after the Boyne and the fall of Limerick, 96; + state of the Irish land system when the period of violent confiscation + ends, 97, 98; + the era of Protestant ascendency and of Catholic subjection in + Ireland, 98, 99; + the Penal Code and its effects on the land, 99, 100; + mournful period in Irish history, 100-102; + gradual improvement in Irish landed relations, 102-104; + evil traces of the past: Whiteboyism, 105; + traditions of the ancient land system survive, 106; + Edmund Burke on Irish land tenures--he indicates a grave economic vice + in the land system, 107; + progress of Ireland after 1782, ibid.; + its effects on the land, 108; + evil results of the Rebellion of 1798, 109; + the Union Speech of Lord Clare on Irish landed relations, 109; + revolution in the land system in the first years of the nineteenth + century, 110; + the important social and economic results, 110, 111; + want of a poor-law, 111; + the concurrent rights of tenants in the land not protected by the law, + ibid.; + period of distress after the Peace of 1815, 112, 113; + evictions and clearances of estates, 113; + agrarian disorder, 113; + Catholic Emancipation, ibid.; + its results as regards Irish landed relations, 114; + Peel and the Irish land, 115; + the Devon Commission and its Report, 115, 116; + its recommendations as to land tenure ill conceived and condemned in + Ireland, 117; + the Famine of 1845-47, and its effects on the Irish land, 118, 119; + the exodus, 120; + the Encumbered Estates Act, and the effects of this scheme of + confiscation, 121, 122; + agrarian agitation of 1852 in Ireland fails, 123; + false ideas of British statesmen as regards the land, 129; + partial prosperity in Ireland for some years, 125; + this largely deceptive, 126; + growth of Fenianism, 128; + the Fenian outbreak, 128, 129; + change of opinion in England as regards Ireland, 129; + Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister, 130; + state of the Irish land system before the Land Act of 1870, 132-138; + the Land Act of 1870 and its provisions, 141-143; + merits and defects of this measure, 144, 145; + state of Irish landed relations after the Act, 146, 147; + origin of the Land League, 151, 152; + distress in Ireland, and the Land League, 152-154; + the Compensation for Disturbance Bill rejected by the House of Lords, + 155; + frightful state of Ireland and of landed relations in 1880-81, 155-161; + the Land Act of 1881, 165; + the provisions of the measure, 165, 166; + the Act is directly opposed to that of 1870, 168; + the no-rent movement, 179; + the National League replaces the Land League, 171, 172; + state of Irish landed relations in 1886 and 1887, 175; + the Land Act of 1887, 175; + the Land Act of 1891, 178, 179; + the land purchase section in the Irish Land Act, 183; + the principle of this system false and dangerous, ibid.; + the Land Purchase Act of 1891, 184; + recent legislation on the Irish land unjust and tending to + confiscation, 186, 187. + The administration of the Irish Land Acts, 188; + of the Act of 1870, 189; + of the Act of 1881, and its supplements, 190; + the first Land Commission--allowances to be made for it, 191; + principles it should have followed and course it should have pursued + in fixing 'fair rents,' 192-197; + the Sub-Commission--nature of these tribunals, 197, 198; + how they ought to have fixed 'fair rents,' 199, 203; + criticism of Mr. Lecky, 203, 204; + examples of injustice, 204, 209; + faulty methods of fixing 'fair rents,' 209, 213; + appeals to the Land Commission rendered almost nugatory, 215, 218; + the second Land Commission: Mr. Justice Bewley and his theory of + occupation right, 219, 221; + instance of a gross mistake, 222; + the Fry Commission--its Report a masked censure on the proceedings of + the Land Commission, 222, 224; + Mr. Justice Meredith head of the present Land Commission, 224; + conduct of the Government as regards the Report of the Fry Commission, + 225; + results of the labours of the Land Commission and the Sub-Commission + in fixing 'fair rents,' 225, 227; + confiscation of the property of landlords, 227; + excuses made for this false, 228, 229; + results of the system of land purchase so far, ibid.; + mischievous and dangerous consequences of all this legislation on the + Irish land; + a retrospect of it on the side of occupation, 230-237; + judgment of Mr. Lecky, 237, 238; + retrospect of it on the side of ownership, especially with regard to + the subject of 'compulsive purchase,' which the system of + 'voluntary purchase' has necessarily made a grave question, + 238-256; + judgment of Mr. Lecky, 256, 257; + the Irish land system in a deplorable state, 257-259; + plan of the author for the reform of this system approved by Mr. + Gladstone and by Parnell, 259-266; + the compensation of the Irish landlords must be accomplished if public + faith is to be kept and common justice done, 266-270 + + Land League, the: Reign of Terror caused by, 14; + its teaching and that of the National League, 20; + ascendency of the Land League in ten or eleven Irish counties, 45; + frightful state of Ireland due to it, 158-162 + + Law, Mr., the Irish Attorney-General of Mr. Gladstone in 1881: his + definition of 'fair rent,' 192 + + Limerick in decay, 6 + + Litton, Mr. E. F., a member of the first Land Commission, 192 + + Local Government, sketch of, in Ireland, 309-329. _See_ Chap. VIII., + Other Irish Questions, in several places + + + M + + Macaulay, Lord: speech on the state of Ireland in 1844, 36 + + Meredith, Mr. Justice, head of the present Land Commission: a capable + lawyer, but bound by the precedents of his forerunners, 229 + + + N + + National League, the: it replaces the Land League, 47, 48; + its leaders set on foot 'The Plan of Campaign,' 57; + it was founded by Parnell, 171; + its character, 172; + agrarian side of the National League movement, 174, 175; + decline of the power of the National League in 1889, 177; + it is at its lowest ebb in 1895, ibid. + + National system of education, 332-336. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Other + Present Irish Questions + + + O + + O'Connell: his evidence on the state of Ireland in 1825, 5; + he wrings Catholic Emancipation from a reluctant Government, 113; + leader of the Repeal movement of 1843-44, 115 + + O'Hagan, Mr. Justice, head of the first Land Commission, 190 + + 'Other Present Irish Questions,' Chap. VIII. + I. Local Government in Ireland, 309; + the grand juries, their composition and functions, 311-314; + the administration of the poor law and the Boards of Guardians, + 314-315; + the administration of cities and towns--its history, 315-318; + character of, in recent times, 318-320; + how the reform of 1898 was brought about, 320, 321; + sketch of the Local Government Act of 1898, 321-326; + and of its working up to the present time, 326-329. + II. Education in Ireland, history of, 330 _seqq._: + primary education, 330-332; + the National system founded by Mr. Stanley--its principles and + history, 332-336. + Secondary education, diocesan schools, 336; + Royal schools, ibid.; + Erasmus Smith schools, 337; + other schools; the system has not been successful, and why, 337, 338. + University education, Trinity College, its history and the character + of the institution, 338-341; + Peel founds the Queen's Colleges and University, 341; + character of these institutions, 392; + the Catholic University, ibid.; + Mr. Gladstone's scheme of Irish University reform, 343, 344; + grave objections to it, 345, 346; + it is rejected by the House of Commons, 346; + Trinity College "opened," ibid.; + the Royal University, 347; + injustice of the present system of University education in Ireland, + 347-351; + two plans of reform suggested, the second to be preferred, 351-360 + + + P + + Palmerston, Lord: he condemns Irish tenant right, 124 + + Parnell: supplants Butt, 44; + leader of the Land League, 44, 45; + he denounces the Conservative party in 1885, 46; + he pretends to accept the Home Rule Bill of 1886, 55; + the special commission and Parnell, 59; + he negotiates with Mr. Gladstone on Home Rule, ibid.; + his fall, 59 + + Peel: his remarks on the Constitution in Ireland, 32; + he appoints the Devon Commission, 115; + his policy during the famine, 117; + he refuses in 1842 to extend the income tax to Ireland, 285; + he founds the Queen's Colleges and the Queen's University in Ireland, + 341 + + Pitt: the author of the financial arrangements made at the Union, 275 + + Primary education in Ireland, 330-336. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Other + Present Irish Questions + + + Q + + Queen's Colleges and Queen's University: founded by Peel, 341. _See_ + Chap. VIII., on Other Present Irish Questions + + + R + + Rebellion of 1798: its effects on the Irish Land, 109 + + + S + + Salisbury, Lord: character of the Irish policy of his ministry, 35, 36 + + Stanley, Mr., founds the system of National Education in Ireland, 332 + + Strafford: his Irish policy, 92 + + + T + + Trinity College, 338-341. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Present Irish Questions + + + U + + Ulster Custom, the, 111, 123, 137, 141 + + Union, The, 78, 79, 109 + + United Irish League, the: fills the place of the Land and the National + Leagues, 26; + speeches and conduct of its leaders, 26, 27 + + + V + + Vernon, Mr. I. E., one of the members of the first Land Commission, 190 + + + W + + Whiteboyism in Ireland, 12, 105, 160, 161 + + + Y + + Young, Arthur: his tour in Ireland, 109, 110 + + + APPENDICES + + I. The Irish Government Bill, 1886, 361-387 + + II. The Irish Government Bill, 1893, 388-424 + + III. Note I. From the 'Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne,' 425, 426 + + IV. Report of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545. Conclusion + of the Report of the Judges, 426-428 + + +THE END + + + + + LONDON: + + PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, + STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] It considerably exceeds 300,000 by the figures of the census of 1901. + +[2] + + 1841 1891 + Houses of the first class 40,080 70,740 + " second class 264,184 466,632 + " third class 533,297 312,589 + " fourth class 491,278 20,617 + +These figures are taken from that most valuable publication, 'Thom's Irish +Directory for 1901,' p. 631. It contains the statistics of Ireland +carefully compiled from official sources. + +[3] There has been a small decrease since 1895. + +[4] Evidence taken before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, +1824-25, vol. i. p. 49. The whole of O'Connell's evidence should be +studied. + +[5] + + 1894 1900 + Funded Debt held in Ireland L22,917,530 L18,303,627 + + Government Funds and other securities: + India Stock, Land Stock, + War Stock, Joint Stock Banks, + Trustee Savings Banks, and Post + Office Savings Banks L67,432,000 L77,494,000 + + 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 718. + + +[6] See the remarkable evidence of Mr. Booth, a high authority, taken by +the Childers Commission, 'Minutes of Evidence,' vol. ii. pp. 212, 213. +This should all be studied. + +[7] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 699. + +[8] Report of Childers Commission, p. 43-- + + 1851-55 1889-93 + Crops L58,537,000 L34,643,000 + Stock L39,348,000 L53,312,000 + + +[9] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 684. + +[10] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 629. + +[11] See the striking observations of Mr. Childers, well worth serious +attention: 'Report of the Childers Commission,' pp. 186, 187. + +[12] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 662. Number of paupers relieved in 1890, +454,178; in 1898, 525,104. Charge in 1890, L856,008; in 1898, L981,333. +These are the latest returns. + +[13] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 674. Assessment of lands, in 1890, under +Schedule A, L12,736,967; in 1899, L11,664,453. Funded property at the same +periods, L803,300 and L615,630. These, too, are the latest returns. + +[14] 'Report of the Childers Commission,' p. 72. I cite also the following +from the Report, p. 43: 'The income-tax figures are, perhaps, the best and +most complete test of the comparative growth of the wealth of the two +countries. Taking the two years, 1854 and 1892, we find that the net +assessment for Great Britain was, in 1854, L245,389,931; and in 1892, +L570,971,740. The net assessment for Ireland was, in 1854, L21,334,448; +and in 1892, L26,851,585. In these thirty-eight years the net assessment +for Great Britain is more than two and a third times as great as it was in +1854, whilst that for Ireland has only increased by one quarter. Put in +percentage form, the figures are still more striking: In 1854 Great +Britain was assessed at 92 per cent. of the whole; Ireland 8 per cent. In +1892 Great Britain was assessed at 95.50 per cent, of the whole; Ireland +4.50 per cent. In other words, Ireland's assessment was to that of Great +Britain as 1 to 11 in 1854, and as 1 to 21 in 1892.' + +[15] See on this subject the true and indignant remarks of Mr. Lecky, +'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 27, 28. + +[16] The tone of disaffected opinion in Ireland can only be thoroughly +understood by a careful study of the conduct and the language of +'Nationalist' leaders. I select a few specimens out of hundreds of +instances. Mr. William O'Brien, the Corypheus of the United Irish League, +spake thus at Letterkenny in January, 1900: 'If ten thousand Frenchmen, or +Russians, or Germans were to land in Bantry Bay, with a supply of arms for +the people, they would walk over the country and drive the English +garrison into the sea.' The same worthy exclaimed at a monster meeting in +Dublin in September, 'English rule in Ireland was so bad that they would +be justified in chasing the English out of Ireland bag and baggage. What +was wanting to them, unfortunately, were the guns and artillery to do it.' +Mr. Michael Davitt, of Land League renown, speaking in the Queen's County +about the same time, said, 'England is unquestionably the greatest empire +of liars (loud cheers and laughter), of hypocrites, and of poltroons, +judged by its achievements in South Africa, that has ever postured before +mankind with a civilising mission.' Because the Corporation of Dublin +voted, by a small majority, an address to Queen Victoria when she paid her +last visit to Ireland, Mr. John Redmond, the chairman of the 'Irish +Parliamentary Party,' said, in January, 1901, 'It rests with the people +themselves to say whether they will redeem the reputation of Dublin from +the stain that has been cast on it.' So Mr. John Dillon, M.P., spoke in +the same sense, a few months ago, 'The voice of the capital will be the +voice of the rest of Ireland (applause), that we will not tolerate in this +old city that new type of politics which thinks it consistent with Irish +nationality to cringe and crouch before a foreign queen.' At least two +County Councils in Ireland, and more than one Local Board, refused to vote +an expression of condolence when the Queen died. It is painful to contrast +these sentiments with the loyalty of O'Connell when the Queen ascended the +throne. + +[17] Since the above lines were written, there has been a serious outbreak +of agrarian crime in Ireland in the form of incendiary fires, which may be +distinctly traced to the operations of the United Irish League. + +[18] Speech in the House of Commons, February 19, 1844. + +[19] The figures were 1,238,342 against 1,316,327: Dicey, 'England's Case +against Home Rule,' p. 35. + +[20] Butt maintained, in his place in Parliament (Hansard, March 20, +1874), that this was the true import of his project. + +[21] Speech on receiving the freedom of Aberdeen, September 26, 1871. + +[22] See Mr. Gladstone's 'History of an Idea,' an apology for his attitude +towards Home Rule at this time, which seems to me to be his condemnation. + +[23] For an admirable analysis of the Bill, see Dicey's 'England's Case +against Home Rule,' pp. 223-273. The text of the Bill will be found in the +Appendix to this volume. + +[24] For a full statement of Mr. Gladstone's 'conditions,' see his speech +in the House of Commons, April 8, 1886. + +[25] 'Reflections on the Revolution in France,' vol. i. p. 384, ed. 1834. + +[26] Report of the Special Commission, vol. iv. p. 542. + +[27] 'The Queen's Enemies in America,' p. 24. + +[28] For a scathing condemnation of Mr. Gladstone's public conduct in +these years, see several great speeches of Lord Hartington and Mr. +Goschen. See also 'The Memoirs of Lord Selborne,' Part II. vol. ii. pp. +261, _et seq._, and note in Appendix to this volume. See, too, Dicey's +'Leap in the Dark,' p. 190. Lord Selborne's sketch of Mr. Gladstone's +character as a statesman, 'Memoirs,' Part II. vol. ii. pp. 339-359, +deserves careful study. Mr. Lecky's admirable account, 'Democracy and +Liberty,' introduction to vol. i., second edition, is well known. + +[29] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545. See the note at the end +of this volume in the Appendix. + +[30] For a very able analysis of and commentary on the Bill of 1893, see +Professor Dicey's 'Leap in the Dark.' For the text of the Bill, see the +Appendix to this volume. + +[31] Dicey's 'Leap in the Dark,' p. 57. + +[32] 'England's Case against Home Rule,' p. 168. + +[33] The German Empire, in which Prussia is the leading State, may seem an +example to the contrary; but the German Empire is hardly a Federation +properly so called; it is a great military monarchy ruling subject +kingdoms. + +[34] I feel obliged to refer to these authorities; not in order to stir up +resentment against England in Ireland, but to point out a most important, +if unfortunate, fact in the relations between the two countries. Swift, in +his 'View of the State of Ireland,' Works, vol. ii. 8vo ed. 1890, says, +'We are in the condition of patients, who have physic sent them by doctors +at a distance, strangers to their constitution and the nature of the +disease.' Burke, 'Correspondence,' vol. iii. p. 438, has remarked, 'I have +never known any of the successive Governments of my time influenced by any +other feeling relative to Ireland than the wish that they should hear of +it and of its concerns as little as possible.' So Grattan, cited by Mr. +Lecky, vol. vii. p. 108, exclaimed, 'It is a matter of melancholy +reflection to consider how little the Cabinet knows of anything relating +to Ireland. Ireland is a subject it considers with a lazy contumely, and +picks up here and there, by accident or design, interested and erroneous +intelligence.' I quote this passage from one of the speeches of Lord +Clare: 'The people of England know less of this country than of any other +nation in Europe;' and this passage from one of the speeches of O'Connell: +'We are governed by foreigners; foreigners make our laws.... As to +Ireland, the Imperial Parliament has the additional disadvantage springing +from want of interest and total ignorance. I do not exaggerate; the +ministers are in total ignorance of this country.' This want of knowledge +of Ireland, too often associated with indifference, has, I repeat, been +distinctly made manifest of late years. + +[35] These figures are taken from the Irish census of 1891. By the census +of 1901, the population of Antrim and Down has increased, and that of +every other county in Ireland, except Dublin, has declined. The +over-representation of Ireland has thus become more than ever an unjust +anomaly. + +[36] For an admirable account of the ancient land system of Celtic +Ireland, see Maine's 'Early History of Institutions.' I may be allowed to +refer to an article on this work, from my pen, in the _Edinburgh Review_ +of July, 1875, and to the first chapter of my 'History of Ireland,' in the +Cambridge 'Historical Series.' + +[37] In the case of this, as of all the chapters, a list of the principal +authorities and sources of information will be found in the preface to +this book. For the conquest and confiscations of the Irish land, from the +Norman Conquest to the end of the reign of William III., see 'The Statute +of Kilkenny,' edited by James Hardiman; 'The Discoverie of Sir John +Davies;' 'The Carew Papers,' edited by J. S. Brewer and William Bullen; +Spenser's 'View of the State of Ireland;' Holingshead's 'Chronicles of +Ireland;' Carte's 'Life of Ormond;' Lord Clanricarde's 'Memoirs;' Sir +William Petty's 'Political Anatomy of Ireland;' 'Macariae Excidium;' and +King's 'State of the Protestants of Ireland.' As regards modern +authorities, numerous, and some very valuable, the reader may be referred +to Froude's 'History of England,' vol. ii. ch. viii.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.; +vol. viii. chs. vii., xi.; vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii.; to Mr. +Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. ch. vi.; +and to the Irish chapters in Mr. Gardiner's 'History of England,' from the +Accession of James I. to the outbreak of the Civil War; to his 'History of +the Great Civil War,' vol. i. chs. vi., xi.; vol. ii. chs. xxvii., +xxxvii., xliv.; and to the Irish chapters of his 'History of the +Commonwealth and Protectorate.' Other modern works on the subject are +Sigerson's 'History of Land Tenure in Ireland;' 'An Historical Account of +the Plantation of Ulster,' by the Rev. George Hill; 'The Cromwellian +Settlement of Ireland,' by John P. Prendergast; and the 'Life of Sir +William Petty,' by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice. See a review by me of this +last work in the _Edinburgh Review_ of July, 1895; and also chs. iii., +iv., and v. of my 'History of Ireland, 1494-1868,' referred to before. +There are innumerable minor authorities; and Hallam's 'Chapter on +Ireland,' vol. iii., may be studied. + +[38] 'Letter to Sir Hercules Langriche:' 'Works,' vol. i. p. 560, ed. +1834. + +[39] For an account of the penal laws of Ireland, see Vincent Scully on +'The Irish Penal Laws;' Howard's 'Popery Laws;' and Burke's 'Tracts on the +Popery Laws,' a short but masterly work. + +[40] For the state of Ireland and of the Irish land at this period, see +the Irish Statute Book from 1700 to about 1750, and especially the +writings of Swift and Berkeley on Irish affairs. Swift, however, is not +just to the Irish landed gentry, many as were their faults. See also the +'Letters' of Archbishop Boulter, the virtual ruler of Ireland during a +series of years, and of Archbishop Synge. Reference, too, may be made to +Molyneux's 'Case of Ireland,' and to Hutchinson's and Caldwell's +'Restraints on the Trade of Ireland.' For modern authorities, consult +Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. ch. vii.; +vol. iv. chs. xvi., xvii. Froude's 'English in Ireland' is very inaccurate +and one-sided for this period; but his fine romance, the 'Two Chiefs of +Dunboy,' contains a brilliant, and, in the main, a true account of the +state of Irish social life in those days. + +[41] By far the best account of the state of Ireland, at this period, is +to be found in the celebrated 'Tour' of Arthur Young, who wrote in +1776-78. See also Mr. Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth +Century,' vol. vi. chs. xxiv., xxv.; vol. vii. ch. xxvii. The 'Irlande, +Sociale, Politique, et Religieuse' of Gustave de Beaumont may also be +consulted; but though a very able work, it is that of a democratic +doctrinaire. For the Whiteboy movements, see the Irish Statute Book, and +Sir George Lewis on 'Irish Disturbances.' + +[42] See Burke's 'Tracts on the Popery Laws,' vol. ii. pp. 445, 446. +Arthur Young, too, often dwells on this subject. + +[43] For an account of this period nothing can be compared to Mr. Lecky's +'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vols. vii., viii. These +contain all the information that can be obtained, collected from every +available source. I may refer to my 'Ireland, 1798-1898,' chs. i., ii. + +[44] There is no complete history of Ireland from the Union to the present +time, though the materials for such a work are abundant. I may refer to my +'Ireland, 1798-1898,' from the second chapter to the end. An excellent and +elaborate description of Ireland from 1800 to 1812 will be found in the +volumes of Edward Wakefield. + +[45] The best account of this period--the forerunner of one even more +calamitous--will be found in the proceedings of a Parliamentary Committee +on the state of Ireland in 1824-25, and in the mass of evidence collected +by it. The evidence of O'Connell is full of interest. + +[46] I perfectly recollect, though quite a boy, this strong and widespread +expression of sentiment. + +[47] Mitchel's 'History of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 213. Mitchel was a rebel, +but an honourable man, superior to the falsehoods disseminated by later +agitators against Irish landlords. + +[48] Every one acquainted with the history of Irish titles, from about +1790 to 1820, knows that this was the case. + +[49] 'Clarendon,' wrote Greville, 'told me he expected the Encumbered +Estates Act would prove the regeneration of Ireland.' + +[50] That great lawyer, Lord St. Leonards, protested. He had been Lord +Chancellor of Ireland. + +[51] For the state of Ireland during the Famine and the years that +followed, see 'The Irish Crisis,' by Sir Charles Trevelyan, reprinted from +the _Edinburgh Review_; and the 'Letters' of Mr. Campbell Foster, the +Commissioner of the _Times_. Valuable information will also be found in +the Greville 'Memoirs,' vols. v., vi. I may refer to my 'Ireland, +1798-1898,' chs. v. and part of vi. + +[52] For an account of these machinations of party, see Greville, +'Memoirs,' vol. vii. p. 33. + +[53] I heard several of these most injudicious and ill-informed +expressions of a false opinion. + +[54] For the state of Ireland from the end of the Famine to 1868, +reference may be made to 'Two Centuries of Irish History,' edited by Mr. +Bryce; to the Greville 'Memoirs,' vols. vii. and viii.; to Greville's +'Policy of England towards Ireland;' to the 'Recollections and Suggestions +of Earl Russell;' to parts of the 'Life of Lord Palmerston;' to 'Journals, +Conversations, and Essays relating to Ireland,' by Nassau Senior; to the +'Young Ireland,' the 'Four Years of Irish History,' and 'The League of the +North and South,' by Sir C. G. Duffy; to the 'New Ireland' of Mr. A. M. +Sullivan; and to the 'Parnell Movement' of Mr. T. P. O'Connor. Valuable +information as to this period will also be found in Mr. Barry O'Brien's +works, 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland' and 'Irish Wrongs and +English Remedies;' and there are many other authorities. This period is +dealt with in my 'Ireland, 1798-1898.' ch. vi. + +[55] From the mass of literature on this subject reference may especially +be made to 'The Irish Land,' by the late Sir George Campbell; Judge +Longfield's essay in 'Systems of Land Tenure;' the 'Irish Land and the +Irish People,' by Butt; and the 'Ireland, Industrial, Political, and +Social,' of the late Mr. J. N. Murphy. As Special Commissioner of the +_Times_, I went into the Irish land question at length on the spot; and it +would be affectation to deny that my letters, since republished, +powerfully contributed to the legislation which ere long followed. See, +for further information, 'The Irish Land Question' of John Stuart Mill; +'Emigration and the Tenure of Irish Land,' by Lord Dufferin; 'The New +Ireland' of the late Mr. A. M. Sullivan; parts of Mr. Barry O'Brien's +'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland'; 'Ireland in 1868,' by the late +Mr. G. Fitzgibbon, a Master of the Court of Chancery in Ireland; and Mr. +Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. ch. ii. + +[56] This fact has been established by conclusive and impartial evidence, +which hardly admits of question. It should be steadily kept in the +reader's mind; for an idea, largely countenanced by iniquitous legislation +badly administered, has prevailed of late years, that rack-renting in +Ireland was common, nay, general. Exactly the contrary has been the case +during the last half century. Butt, in his 'The Irish People and the Irish +Land,' published in 1867, hardly alludes to over-renting; he properly +dwells on the insecurity of Irish land tenure. Master Fitzgibbon, a great +authority on the subject, in his 'Ireland in 1868,' p. 268, pointedly +remarked, '452 estates are under my jurisdiction, in the Court of +Chancery, the rents of which amount to L330,809, paid by 18,287 tenants. I +have been now nearly eight years in office, during which time the rents +have been paid without murmuring or complaint worth noticing.... It is +well known that my ears are open to any just complaint from any tenant.' +The testimony of Judge Longfield, another great authority, is nearly to +the same effect. In 'Systems of Land Tenure,' published in 1870, he wrote +thus (p. 21): 'This complaint of high rents has been made without ceasing +for more than three hundred years. There was never less ground for it than +at the present day, although in some instances the rent demanded is still +too high; but this chiefly occurs where the landlords are middlemen, or +where the property is very small.' These views are fully confirmed by +evidence of a later period, to which I shall refer. I may add that, in +1869, I examined the rentals of many scores of Irish estates, and was +convinced that over-renting was very rare. See my 'Letters on the Land +Question of Ireland,' republished from the _Times_, _passim_. I quote a +single instance, from many to the same purpose (p. 221): 'It may be +asserted, too, without fear of contradiction, that if in some districts +rents are too high, they are not so as a general rule.' I have managed an +Irish estate for upwards of fifty years, and have some claim to be an +agricultural expert. + +[57] For the characteristics of the Ulster tenant right, see Butt's +'Landlord and Tenant Act, 1870,' ch. xv. pp. 296-310. As to the legal +authorities on the subject, reference may be made to the learned treatise +of Messrs. Cherry and Wakley, 'The Irish Land Law and Land Purchase Acts,' +pp. 150-152. A popular account of the Ulster custom will be found in my +'Letters on the Land Question of Ireland,' pp. 242-247, and a more +technical account in a legal treatise from my pen on the Land Act of 1870, +pp. 30-56. The best definition I have seen of the right is one made by the +late P. J. Blake, Q.C., C.C.J. of a northern county, 'Cherry and Wakley,' +p. 150: 'The right or custom in general of yearly tenants, or those +deriving through them, to continue in undisturbed possession so long as +they act properly as tenants and pay their rents. The correlative right of +the landlord periodically to raise the rent, so as to give him a just, +fair, and full participation in the increased value of the land, but not +so as to extinguish the tenant's interest by paying a rack rent. The usage +or custom of the yearly tenants to sell their interest, if they do not +wish to continue in possession, or if they become unable to pay the rent. +The correlative right of the landlord to be consulted, and to exercise a +potential voice in the approval or disapproval of the proposed assignee.' + +[58] I quote a few passages from the speeches of Mr. Gladstone, and +others, on this subject. Mr. Gladstone said, March 11, 1870, 'If you value +rents you may as well, for every available purpose, adopt perpetuity of +tenure at once. It is perpetuity of tenure only in a certain disguise.... +The man who becomes a mere annuitant loses all general interest in the +prosperity of the land.' And again, February 15, 1870: 'Perpetuity of +tenure on the part of the occupier is virtually expropriation of the +landlord.... The mere readjustment of rent can by no means dispose of all +contingencies the future may produce in his favour.' Sir Roundell Palmer, +afterwards Lord Selborne, said, March 10, 1870, 'Fixity of tenure, in +plain English, means taking away the property of one man and giving it to +another.' So Lord Granville, June 14, 1870, said in the House of Lords, +'They might have introduced a Bill--which they were determined not to +do--adopting fixity of tenure, taking away his property from the landlord, +and establishing a valuation rent.' Passages of this kind, at least as +strong, might be multiplied a hundred-fold. + +[59] It is impossible, in a sketch like this, to describe in detail the +agrarian legislation for Ireland, which Parliament has enacted from 1870 +to this time. The work of Butt referred to before is an admirable +commentary on the Bill of 1870, which soon became law. A brief account of +all this legislation will be found in Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' +vol. i. ch. ii. The legal treatises of Messrs. Cherry and Wakley, pp. +149-448, and of Mr. Justice Barton, are elaborate and complete. + +[60] Judge Longfield and Mr. Lecky are much the most distinguished of +these numerous censors. + +[61] By this time I was an Irish County Court Judge; and I had some +experience of reprehensible acts of this kind, extremely few as they were. + +[62] It is very remarkable that the stringent provisions of the Act +against exorbitant rents seem to have been almost unknown to the +peasantry, though exorbitant rents were, no doubt, existing here and +there. + +[63] Report of the Judges of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 478-480. + +[64] By many degrees the best account of the Land League movement will be +found in the 'Report of the Proceedings of the Special Commission of +1888-89,' republished by the _Times_ in four volumes. Reference may also +be made to 'Parnellism and Crime,' a series of essays in the _Times_; to +the 'Truth about the Land League,' by Mr. Arnold Foster; to 'The +Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary Movement,' by Professor Brougham +Leech; and to a pamphlet called 'The Queen's Enemies in America.' A kind +of apology for the conspiracy will be found in 'The Parnell Movement,' by +Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P.; but the Irish 'Nationalists' have judiciously +been reticent on the subject. I may refer to my 'Ireland, 1798-1898,' ch. +viii. + +[65] These infamous speeches, worthy of Marat and Hebert, were continued +for years, and fill a large part of the evidence in the proceedings of the +Special Commission. I select a sample or two taken at random. Mr. M. +Harris said, 'If the tenant farmers of Ireland shoot down landlords as +partridges are shot in September, Mat Harris would never say a word +against them' (vol. ii. p. 38). The same worthy, afterwards an M.P., +exclaimed on another occasion (vol. i. p. 26), 'Mrs. Blake of Keenoyle is +no better than a she-devil.... Mr. Robinson called the people of Connemara +vermin; the people of Connemara ought to treat him as vermin. Leonard of +Tuam I will say nothing about. I will denounce him at his own door.' So, +too, a Mr. Boyton said (vol. iv. p. 277), 'We have seen plenty of them, +landlords and agents, that deserve to be shot at any man's hand. I have +always denounced the commission of outrages by night, but meet him in the +broad daylight, and if you must blow his brains out, blow them out in the +daytime.' Multiply such speeches addressed to an excitable peasantry, and +the results which followed can easily be understood. + +[66] This has been established by conclusive evidence, and should be +carefully borne in mind. Mr. Egan, one of the treasurers of the League, +said, 'On my own behalf, and on behalf of my friends of the League, both +in prison and outside, I can say that we regard the land question only in +the light of a step towards national independence, which is, and shall +continue to be, the goal of all our efforts.' Mr. Healy, M.P., said, 'This +is a movement to win back from England the land of Ireland, which was +robbed from the people by the confiscating armies of Elizabeth and +Cromwell.... But I would remind you that Mr. Parnell ... explained the +basis of the movement when he told the Galway farmers that he would never +have taken off his coat in this movement were it not with Irish +nationality as its object.' Parnell occasionally let out the truth; he +said, 'Let every farmer, while he keeps a firm grip of his holding, +recognise also the great truth that he is serving his country and the +people at large, and helping to break down English misrule in Ireland' +(Report of the Proceedings of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 203, +204). These speeches were, in hundreds, imitated and followed by other +speakers. + +[67] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 486. + +[68] I was at this time judge of the County Kerry; these demands increased +more than twofold at a single Quarter Sessions. + +[69] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. pp. 522-525. + +[70] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. + +[71] Some of the cynical and wicked utterances of Parnell in proclaiming +and expounding the new policy of 'boycotting' must be quoted. These, it is +needless to say, were exaggerated in scores of speeches by orators of the +League. In view almost of the corpse of a land agent who had been foully +murdered, the arch-conspirator coolly remarked (Proceedings of the Special +Commission, vol. iv. p. 257): 'I had wished in referring to a sad +occurrence which took place lately, the shooting or attempted shooting of +a land agent in the neighbourhood (uproar)--I had wished to point out that +recourse to such measures of procedure is entirely unnecessary and +absolutely prejudicial where there is a suitable organisation amongst the +tenants themselves.' The methods to be adopted in 'boycotting'--the word +was so named from a Captain Boycott, who was one of the first +sufferers--were those set forth by Parnell (Report of the Judges, vol. iv. +p. 498): 'Now, what are you to do to a tenant who bids for a farm from +which his neighbour has been evicted? (Various shouts, among which, "Kill +him!" "Shoot him!") Now, I think I heard somebody say "Shoot him" ("Shoot +him!"); but I wish to point out to you a very much better way, a more +Christian and charitable way, which will give the lost sinner an +opportunity of repenting. (Hear, hear.) When a man takes a farm from which +another has been evicted, you must show[A] him on the roadside when you +meet him, you must show him in the streets of the town, you must show him +at the shop counter, you must show him in the fair and in the +market-place, and even in the house of worship, by leaving him severely +alone, by putting him into a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the +rest of his kind as if he was a leper of old. You must show him your +detestation of the crime he has committed, and you may depend upon it, if +the population of a county in Ireland carry out this doctrine, that there +will be no man so full of avarice, so lost to shame, as to dare the public +opinion of all right-thinking men within the county, and to transgress +your unwritten code of laws.' + + [A] In other, possibly more correct, reports, the word is 'shun,' not + 'show.' + +[72] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. + +[73] It is very important to bear this in mind, regard being had to the +circumstances of the time, which have been shamefully misrepresented, and +to subsequent legislation and its administration. I quote a few words from +the Report, p. 3: 'It was unusual in Ireland to exact what in England +would have been considered as a full or fair commercial rent. Such a rent +over many of the larger estates, the owners of which were resident, and +took an interest in the welfare of their tenants, it has never been the +custom to demand. The example has been largely followed, and is, to the +present day, rather the rule than the exception in Ireland.' M. de +Molinari, a very competent foreign observer, wrote to the same effect in +1881: 'Le taux general des rentes est modere; autant que j'ai pu en juger, +il est a qualite egale de terrain de moitie plus bas que celui des terres +des Flandres' ('L'Irlande, le Canada, Jersey,' p. 138). See for further +authorities, Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. p. 179. + +[74] Mr. Gladstone, speeches in the House of Commons, July 22, 1881, and +May 10, 1881. Lord Carlingford, and notably Lord Selborne, said nearly the +same. + +[75] This I know to be the fact on the very best authority. + +[76] A good popular account of the law of 1881 will be found in Mr. +Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 182-197. See for an elaborate +and technical description, 'Cherry and Wakley,' pp. 217-343. + +[77] 'Systems of Land Tenure,' p. 59. + +[78] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. + +[79] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 532: 'We consider that the National +League, like the Ladies' Land League, was substantially the old Land +League under another name.' + +[80] I quote a few words from hundreds of these detestable writings, which +should be studied. Mr. William O'Brien, the editor of one of Parnell's +newspapers, and now the leader of the 'United Irish League,' published +this in _United Ireland_, April 18, 1885: 'It would be still more +gratifying if the Irish millions, scattered over the globe, should wake up +one of these mornings to hear the war chimes joyfully ringing the +declaration that would drive England on to downfall and destruction.' And +again, September 19, 1885: 'We cannot fight England in the open. We can +keep her in hot water. We cannot evict our rulers neck and crop. We can +make their rule more insupportable for them than for us.... It is no fault +of ours if we cannot organise Waterloos to decide our quarrels.' As to +personalities, I quote two passages. December 15, 1883: 'Monstrous and +incredible, surely, six hundred Irish gentlemen could not eat their dinner +without pouring out libations to the adoration of an old lady who is only +known in Ireland by her scarcely decently disguised hatred of this +country, and by the inordinate amount of her salary.' Again, June 13, +1885: 'With all the stubborn force of a cruel, narrow, dogged nature, Lord +Spencer struck murderous blow after blow at the people under his rod. He +stopped at nothing; not at subsidising red-handed murderers, not at +knighting jury-packers, not at sheltering black official villainy with a +coat of darkness, not at police quarterings, blood taxes, the bludgeoning +of peaceful meetings, the clapping of handcuffs and convict jackets on +M.P.'s, mayors, and editors, not at wholesale battues of hangings and +transportations by hook or crook.' + +[81] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. Mr. Gladstone in the House of +Commons, April 8, 1886. + +[82] For an elaborate account of the Act of 1887, see 'Cherry and Wakley,' +pp. 367-420. Reference, too, may be made to Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and +Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 198-200. + +[83] For an account of this legislation, which has not received the +attention it deserves, as it is limited in its scope, see 'Cherry and +Wakley,' pp. 468-472, and 'Barton,' pp. 104-106. + +[84] Upwards of thirty years ago, when the question of compensating Irish +tenants for their improvements was coming fully to the front, a wealthy +middleman, who held a large demesne in perpetuity, at a rather high rent, +and had built a valuable mansion on it, in addition to planting hundreds +of acres of woodland, asked me 'if I thought Parliament would compensate +him, for, in that case, he could make his landlord pay him L30,000.' My +reply was that 'Parliament would not be so insane.' I should be sorry to +make such a reply now, having regard to recent legislation. + +[85] I believe I may claim some credit for having contributed to this +provision. I had had large experience of the injustice of keeping tenants +subject to long-standing arrears; and, as a judge, had taken strong +measures to prevent and defeat the practice. + +[86] For an elaborate account of the Act which was the result of this +Bill, see the work of Mr. Justice Barton, 'The Land Law (Ireland) Act, +1896.' + +[87] 'Letter to a Member of the National Assembly,' vol. i. p. 478. + +[88] A Committee of the House of Lords sate, in 1872, to consider the +administration of the Land Act of 1870. The report and the evidence were, +in the main, in favour of the judges. + +[89] Rushe _v._ Whitney, Roscommon Quarter Sessions, October, 1895. + +[90] Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords, August 1, 1881: 'They are all +three strong Liberals, with strong views of tenant right.... There is no +doubt that all three are appointed with a strong prepossession in favour +of views which are advocated by the representatives of the tenantry in +Ireland, and which are deprecated by the landlords.... It is not the +relegation of landlord and tenant to an impartial tribunal.' + +[91] Mr. Gladstone, July 22, 1881: 'I shall be bitterly disappointed with +the operation of the Act if the property of the landlords of Ireland does +not come to be worth more than twenty years' purchase on the judicial +rent.' Mr. W. E. Forster, same date: 'I think the final result of the +measure will be, within a few years, that the landowners of Ireland, small +and large, will be better off than they are at this moment.' Lord +Carlingford, August 1, 1881: 'My Lords, I maintain that the provisions of +this Bill will cause the landlords no money loss whatever. I believe that +it will inflict upon them no loss of income, except in those cases in +which a certain number of landlords may have imposed upon their tenants +excessive and inequitable rents.' + +[92] Hansard, vol. 260, p. 1399. + +[93] The nature and character of these two classes of evidence has been +thus well described in the Report of the Edward Fry's Commission, p. 18: +'If the matter were perfectly open, it appears to us that two independent +lines of evidence might be pursued by a person inquiring what is the fair +rent to be fixed for a holding. One class of evidence may for shortness be +called the popular evidence; the other the technical. The popular evidence +would comprise the prices obtained by the tenant for a sale of his +interest or _bona fide_ offers which he had received for it, evidence of +the letting value or judicial rents of similar holdings, evidence of the +sums paid for conacre or agistment, evidence of the long and punctual +payment of a real rent, or of the long arrears of a nominal rent, and +evidence of the prosperity or poverty of the persons who had successively +lived off the produce of the holding. The technical evidence would be that +more familiar to professional valuators. They would inspect the land, +ascertain the acreages of the different classes of land on the farm, and +what they would produce or carry; they would consider the quantity and +value of the produce and the cost of production, and the shares of the +surplus remaining after the cost of production divisible between landlord +and tenant respectively. The popular evidence would be affected by all the +motives which make men in Ireland desirous to occupy land; the technical +evidence would assume the desire of making a money profit out of the +occupation of land as the sole motive of such occupation. The eighth +section of the Act of 1881 seems to admit of both lines of evidence with a +single exception. It provided that in fixing the fair rent consideration +should be given not to some but to all the circumstances of the case, the +holding and the district, with the single exception that (sub-sec. 10) the +price paid for the tenancy otherwise than to the landlord or his +predecessors was not of itself, apart from other considerations, to be +taken into account; though, conjoined with other considerations, it still +remains admissible.' + +[94] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 13. + +[95] Ibid., p. 14: 'Some specific charges of misconduct or negligence have +been made against lay Assistant Commissioners and Court valuers; as _e.g._ +visiting the land without due notice to the landlord; visiting the holding +when lying under snow or water, or when suffering from prolonged drought, +and refusing to wait whilst a trench was dug to show the condition of the +alleged drainage. We have investigated many of these cases, and the +explanations given have generally been satisfactory to us.' + +[96] Evidence taken by Mr. Morley's Commission on the Irish Land Acts, p. +236. + +[97] Ibid., p. 397. + +[98] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 131. + +[99] Ibid., p. 208. + +[100] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 41. + +[101] Ibid., p. 682. + +[102] 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 205, 206. + +[103] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 692. As a County Court +judge I have a concurrent jurisdiction, happily seldom exercised, in +fixing 'fair rents.' I had a somewhat similar case before me some +seventeen or eighteen years ago, and I adjourned the hearing for four +years to allow the land to recover. I believe I am the only official who +did anything of the kind until quite recently. + +[104] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 836. + +[105] Evidence taken by the Morley Commission, 1894-95, p. 333. + +[106] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 952. + +[107] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 607. The procedure of the +Sub-Commissions has, since 1896, been somewhat improved with respect to +deterioration and waste, but many years too late. + +[108] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 677. + +[109] Ibid., p. 842. + +[110] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, pp. 478, 476. + +[111] Ibid., p. 476. + +[112] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 129. + +[113] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 339. + +[114] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 25. + +[115] Mr. Vernon, the Lay Commissioner, was, of course, not responsible +for this. + +[116] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 156. + +[117] Ibid., p. 615. + +[118] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 33. + +[119] Ibid., p. 30. + +[120] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 30. + +[121] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 18. I entirely dissent from the +above opinion of the head Commissioner. + +[122] Evidence taken by the Morley Commission, p. 507. + +[123] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 461. + +[124] Ibid., p. 616. + +[125] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 628. + +[126] Ibid., p. 631. + +[127] Ibid., p. 941. + +[128] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 22. + +[129] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 676. + +[130] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 20. + +[131] Ibid., p. 21. + +[132] Ibid., p. 9. + +[133] Ibid., p. 14. + +[134] Report of the Fry Commission, pp. 18, 19. + +[135] Ibid., pp. 12-26. + +[136] Ibid., p. 15. + +[137] Report of the Irish Land Commission to March, 1900, p. 64. + +[138] It is but just to the Land Commission to state that the reductions +of rent made by the County Courts were somewhat higher than those it made. +But this was notoriously because rack-rented tenants, for the sake of +expedition, rushed first to these tribunals. + +[139] Report of the Irish Land Commission, p. 64. + +[140] Report of the Irish Land Commission, p. 3. + +[141] See a remarkable instance in the Evidence taken by the Fry +Commission, p. 683: 'The holding was let in 1771 at 30_s._ the Irish acre, +equal to about L1 per statute acre. The Sub-Commissioners have now cut it +down to less than 12_s._ 6_d._ per acre.' + +[142] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, pp. 496, 609, 670. + +[143] 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 202, 203. + +[144] Letters to the _Manchester Guardian_, written in 1890, and since +republished. This little work was much noticed at the time; attempts to +answer it were made to no purpose. The facts now speak for themselves. + +[145] Swift's 'Works,' vol. ii. p. 82, ed. 1870. + +[146] 'Reflections on the Revolution in France,' vol. i. p. 440. + +[147] The _Manchester Guardian_, 1890. I quote this passage, for I think +its substance was referred to by the late Mr. Rathbone, member for +Liverpool. + +[148] Mr. Lecky, 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. ii. pp. 487-489, rather +favours the policy of creating and extending peasant ownership in Ireland, +and, to a certain extent, approves of the so-called 'Land Purchase' Acts, +but only as a doubtful experiment, to endeavour to escape from a +hopelessly bad land system. The distinguished historian and thinker, in my +opinion, is not sufficiently alive to the iniquity of these measures as +they affect landlords who wish to retain their estates, or, rather, what +remains of them; but he clearly perceives some of the objections to this +vicious legislation. I quote his remarks at some length: 'In Ireland, as +is well known, great efforts are made to create such a proprietary; but +the conditions of Ireland are unlike those of any other part of the +civilised globe. It has been the deliberate policy of the Government to +break down, by almost annual Acts, the obligation of contracts, and the +existing ownership of land has been rendered so insecure, the political +power attached to it has been so effectually destroyed, and the influences +tending to anarchy and confiscation have been made so powerful, that most +good judges have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to force into +existence by strong legislative measures a new social type, which may, +perhaps, possess some elements of stability and conservatism. In order to +effect this object, the national credit has been made use of in such a way +that a tenant is enabled to purchase his farm without making the smallest +sacrifice for that object, the whole sum being advanced by the Government, +and advanced on such terms that the tenant is only obliged to pay for a +limited number of years a sum from 20 to 30 per cent. less than his +present rent. In other words, a man whose rent has been fixed by the Land +Court at L100 a year, can purchase his farm by paying, instead of that +sum, L70 or L80 a year for forty-nine years. The arrangement sounds more +like burlesque than serious legislation; but the belief that political +pressure can obtain still better terms for the tenant, and that further +confiscatory legislation may still more depreciate the value of land to +the owner who has inherited it, or purchased it in the open market, has +taken such deep root in Ireland that the tenants have shown little +alacrity to avail themselves of their new privilege. What may be the +ultimate issue of the attempt to govern a country in complete defiance of +all received economical principles remains to be seen. The future must +show whether a large peasant proprietary can be not only called into +existence, but permanently maintained, under these conditions, and whether +it will prove the loyal and conservative element that English politicians +believe. According to all past experience, peasant proprietors rarely +succeed, except when they possess something more than an average measure +of industrial qualities, and the Irish purchase laws give no preference to +the energetic, the industrious, and the thrifty. On the contrary, it is +very often the farmer who is on the verge of bankruptcy who is most eager +to buy, in order to reduce his annual charge. The tendency of the new +proprietors to mortgage, to sublet, and to subdivide, is already manifest, +and some of the best judges of Irish affairs, who look beyond the present +generation, are very despondent about the future. They believe that a +peasant proprietary, called into existence suddenly and artificially, with +no discrimination in favour of the better class, in a country where +industrial qualities are very low, and where the strongest wish of the +farmer is either to divide his farm among his children, or to burden it +with equal mortgages for their benefit, must eventually lead to economic +ruin, to fatal subdivision, to crushing charges on land. The new policy +must also, they contend, almost wholly withdraw from the country life, +where it is peculiarly needed, the civilising and guiding influence of a +resident gentry. Whether or not these apprehensions are exaggerated time +only can show. Two predictions may, I think, with some confidence be made. +The one is, that the transformation is likely to be most successful if it +is gradually effected. The other is, that a great part of the influence +once possessed by the landlord will, under the new conditions, pass to the +money-lender.' + +[149] I quote these remarks of Burke, a striking instance of his political +wisdom ('Tracts on the Popery Laws,' vol. ii. p. 446): 'It is on this +principle (to get rid of short and unprofitable tenures) that the Romans +established their _emphyteusis_, or fee-farm. For though they extended the +ordinary term of their creation to nine years only, yet they encouraged a +more permanent letting to farm, with the condition of improvement, as well +as of annual payment where the land had lain rough and neglected.' So John +Stuart Mill ('Irish Land Question,' p. 31, ed. 1870): 'The idea of +property does not, however, necessarily imply that there should be no +rent, any more than that there should be no taxes. It merely implies that +the rent should be a fixed charge, not liable to be raised against the +farmer by his own improvements, or by the will of a landlord. A tenant at +a quit rent is, to all intents and purposes, a proprietor; a copyholder is +not less so than a freeholder. What is wanted is permanent possession on +fixed terms.' Mr. Morley said not long ago, in his place in Parliament, +that, as things now stand in Ireland, the landlord must become a +rent-charger and the tenant a copyholder, a true utterance. + +[150] 'Principles of Political Economy,' book ii. chap. ii. p. 6. I may +refer, too, to these pregnant remarks of Bentham ('Theory of Legislation,' +chap, xv.): 'The principle of security requires that reform should be +attended with complete indemnity.... I cannot yet quit the subject, for +the establishment of the principle of security demands that error should +be pursued in all its retreats.... The interest of individuals, it is +said, ought to yield to the public interest; but what does that mean? Is +not one individual as much a part of the public as another? The public +interest which you introduce as a person is only an abstract term; it +represents nothing but the mass of individual interests.... Individual +interests are the only real interests. Take care of the individuals; never +molest them, never suffer any one to molest them, and you will have done +enough for the public.... I shall conclude by a general observation of +great importance. The more the principle of property is respected, the +stronger hold it takes on the popular mind. Slight attacks on this +principle prepare the way for heavier ones. A long time has been necessary +to carry property to the point where we now see it in civilised societies; +but a fatal experience has shown with what facility it may be shaken, and +how easily the savage instinct of plunder gets the better of the laws.' + +[151] For the constitutional position of the British and Irish Parliaments +before the Union, see Hallam's 'Constitutional History,' vol. iii., +chapter on Ireland, and Ball's 'Legislative Irish System,' chaps. v., xv. +See also Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. +chap. vii.; vol. iv. chaps. xvi., xvii. As to the financial position of +the two countries, see the opening pages of each of the Reports of the +Childers Commission. + +[152] Grattan described this vicious state of things in his inimitable +style ('Speeches,' p. 258, ed. published by Duffy): 'The Union is not an +identification of the two nations; it is merely a merger of the parliament +of one nation in that of another.... There is no identification in +anything save in legislature, in which there is complete and absolute +absorption. It follows that the two nations are not identified, though the +Irish legislature be absorbed, and by that act of absorption the feeling +of one of the nations is not identified, but alienated. The petitions on +our table bespeak that alienation.' + +[153] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 20. + +[154] I transcribe this part of the seventh article of the Treaty of +Union; I believe that I have fairly described its purport (Report of +Childers Commission, p. 140): 'That if at any future day the separate debt +of each country respectively shall have been liquidated, or if the values +of their respective debts ... shall be to each other in the same +proportion with the respective contributions of each country +respectively.... And if it shall appear to the Parliament of the United +Kingdom that the respective circumstances of the two countries will +thenceforth admit of their contributing indiscriminately by equal taxes +imposed on the same articles in each, to the future expenditure of the +United Kingdom to declare that all future expense thenceforth to be +incurred, together with the interest and charges of all joint debts +contracted previous to such declaration, shall be so defrayed +indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed on the same articles in each +country, and thenceforth from time to time, as circumstances may require, +to impose and apply such taxes accordingly, subject only to such +particular exemptions or abatements in Ireland, and in that part of Great +Britain called Scotland, as circumstances may appear, from time to time, +to demand.' + +[155] Grattan's speeches, quoted in a memorandum supplied to the Childers +Commission by Sir Edward Hamilton, p. 9. + +[156] 'Minutes of Evidence,' Childers Commission, vol. i. p. 329. + +[157] Memorandum of Sir Edward Hamilton, p. 9. + +[158] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 143. + +[159] Ibid., p. 32. + +[160] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 147, 148. + +[161] Ibid., p. 33. + +[162] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 158. + +[163] I think it necessary to set out verbatim the terms of reference to +the Commission; I have for the sake of clearness changed their order: 'To +inquire into the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland, +and their relative taxable capacity, and to report: I. Upon what +principles of comparison, and by the application of what specific +standards, the relative capacity of Great Britain and Ireland to bear +taxation may be most equitably determined. II. What, so far as can be +ascertained, is the true proportion, under the principles and specific +standards so determined, between the taxable capacity of Great Britain and +Ireland. III. The history of the financial relations between Great Britain +and Ireland, at and after the Legislative Union, the charge for Irish +purposes on the Imperial Exchequer during that period, and the amount of +Irish taxation remaining available for contribution to Imperial +expenditure; also the Imperial expenditure to which it is considered +equitable that Ireland should contribute.' + +[164] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 26. + +[165] Since 1896, when the Childers Commission made its report, the +overtaxation of Ireland has increased. + +[166] Report of Childers Commission: 'Minutes of Evidence,' vol. i. p. 17. + +[167] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 16. + +[168] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 89. + +[169] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 159, 160. + +[170] 'Minutes of Evidence,' Childers Commission, vol. ii. p. 218. + +[171] I quote from the Report of the Childers Commission, p. 68, these +valuable remarks on the subject: 'Neither can there then be any question +that a system of equal rates of taxes on the same subjects is compatible +with the utmost inequality of burdens between two countries contributing +to one exchequer. All that need be done in order to exact an undue +proportion--unlimited in extent--of the means of either of the countries +is to tax the commodities most consumed in that country, and in fixing the +rate of the tax on each commodity, to fix the higher rates on the +particular commodities most generally in use in that country, and the +lower rates on those most consumed in the other. The same kind of effect, +of course, may be produced, and the same discrimination exercised, by +totally exempting some commodities and taxing others, however lightly. In +fact, a system of equal rates of taxes may thus be rendered more easily +unjust and burdensome to the country discriminated against than one of +differential taxes, because in the latter case, the unequal treatment, and +the mode of it being manifest, are more liable to criticism and +limitation; whilst in the former, the true effect of the system is +disguised by the circumstances that each particular head of tax is at the +same rate in both countries.' + +[172] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 39. + +[173] Ibid., p. 166. + +[174] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 11. + +[175] Ibid.: Evidence of Mr. Munough O'Brien, pp. 12, 13: 'The system of +Imperial loans for temporary emergencies and charity tends to increase the +poverty of Ireland, whose future income is mortgaged to pay interest on +expenditure from which there is no return. There is no surer road to ruin +for an individual than borrowing money to live upon, and most of these +Imperial loans are practically made from time to time to enable the Irish +people to live or relieve acute distress and disorder. Loans are almost +annually made to keep the people quiet or to keep them alive. Yet this +expenditure does not prevent the recurrence of famine, distress, and +discontent; it rather tends to cause their recurrence.' + +[176] Report of the Childers Commission: Report of Mr. Sexton and others, +pp. 102, 103. + +[177] Report of the Childers Commission: 'Evidence,' vol. ii. p. 18. + +[178] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 194, 195. + +[179] 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 116. The works of Messrs. Vanston and Foote on +the grand juries of Ireland may be referred to. + +[180] The reader may be referred to Mr. Moore's work on the Irish poor +law. + +[181] See the Report of a Committee of the House of Lords, and especially +of the Evidence, taken in 1884-85, with respect to the administration of +the Irish poor law at the time. + +[182] For a further account of local government in Ireland, a reader may +consult the Report of Mr. W. P. O'Brien on Local Government, 1878, and +reports on the towns of Ireland and their taxation about the same date. An +excellent tract on the subject was published by Mr. William J. Bailey in +1888, called 'Local and Centralised Government in Ireland.' With respect +to the system of municipal government in Ireland as it existed before +1840, nothing is so valuable as the Reports of the Commissioners, very +able men, charged to inquire into the subject in 1834-35. A useful and +well-informed account will also be found in Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty +Years of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. i. book v. + +[183] I have only been able to sketch the outlines of the measure, the +Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, p. 1, 62 Vict. cap. 37. A good +commentary on it has been written by Mr. Brett of the Irish Bar. + +[184] Mr. Lecky, 'Democracy and Liberty,' Cabinet Edition, Introduction, +p. 13, has well described this vaunted reform: 'It was a measure +introduced in fulfilment of distinct pledges, and it contains very skilful +provisions intended to protect existing interests. But, after all is said, +it means a great transfer of power and influence from the loyal to the +disloyal, and it goes in the direction of democracy far beyond anything +that a few years ago would have been accepted by the Conservatives, or by +the moderate Liberals.' + +[185] For a description of elementary education in Ireland up to 1812, see +passages in Wakefield's 'Account of Ireland;' and for a description in +earlier and later times, see Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of +Concessions to Ireland,' book i. chs. i.-xiv.; Mr. Graham Balfour's +'Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland,' pp. 80-128; the Report +of the Commissioners of Irish Education, 1810-21; the important Report of +the Powis Commission, 1870-71; and the Reports of the Commissioners of +National Education in Ireland. Mr. Froude, in his 'English in Ireland,' +vol. i. p. 514; vol. ii. p. 491, has characteristically eulogised the +Charter Schools; but he stands alone; Mr. Lecky, 'History of England in +the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. pp. 200-304, has commented on this +odious system as it deserved. + +[186] Barry O'Brien, 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. ii. p. +322. + +[187] See Wakefield's 'Account of Ireland' for the state of her secondary +schools in 1812; Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' +book x. chs. i., ii., iii.; Graham Balfour's 'The Educational System of +Great Britain and Ireland,' pp. 203-218; and the Reports of the two +Commissions of 1854-57 and of 1878-80, of which the heads were Lord +Kildare and the Earl of Rosse. + +[188] See the resolutions in Duffy's 'Young Ireland,' pp. 713, 714. There +has been much misrepresentation on this subject. + +[189] See 'The Problem of Irish Education,' by Butt, a masterly and +impartial tract. + +[190] See for the figures 'The Irish University Question,' by Archbishop +Walsh, _passim_. + +[191] For further information on the history and the present state of the +University system in Ireland, see 'The History of the University of +Dublin,' by the Rev. J. W. Stubbs, and 'The Constitutional History of the +University of Dublin,' by D. C. Heron; Howley on 'Universities;' 'What is +meant by Freedom of Education,' by the O'Conor Don; 'University +Education,' by an Irish Protestant Celt; and especially 'The Problem of +Irish Education,' by Butt. See also the Irish University Debates in +Hansard for 1873, and the very able debate in Trinity College. The reader, +too, may be referred to Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to +Ireland,' book xi.; to Mr. Graham Balfour's 'Educational Systems of Great +Britain and Ireland,' pp. 273-288; to Mr. Godkin's 'Education in Ireland;' +and to Archbishop Walsh's 'The Irish University Question.' + +[192] Too much is not to be made of 'Nationalist' clamour; but these +remarks of Mr. Dillon, M.P., are significant (_Freeman's Journal_, April +13, 1901): 'I do not believe that these movements will ever succeed ... +until that fortress of English domination and anti-Irish bigotry, Trinity +College, is for ever swept away, or there is placed opposite to it a truly +National University, where the most honoured classes will be the classes +of Irish literature and Irish history.' Archbishop Walsh, a much abler +man, has written in the same sense in his work, 'The Irish University +Question.' The question, he contends, in many passages, must be settled by +levelling up or by levelling down, that is, by raising the Catholic +University to the position of Trinity College, or by disestablishing and +disendowing Trinity College. The evil precedent of the Act disestablishing +the Anglican Church in Ireland, will, it is hoped, be eschewed. + +[193] See on this subject Mr. Lough's 'England's Wealth, Ireland's +Poverty,' pp. 88-94. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. + +The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these +letters have been replaced with transliterations. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Present Irish Questions, by William O'Connor Morris + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESENT IRISH QUESTIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 37853.txt or 37853.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/5/37853/ + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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