Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Peril of Home Rule (Author: Peter Kerr-Smiley)
Chapter 3
The Union
Pitt's political insight showed him that the only way to safeguard the interests of the Empire and promote the interests of Ireland was to unite Great Britain and Ireland under one Parliament. The Irish Parliament had become too corrupt to last; and from its past history there was no hope that it would establish justice, order, and fair play in the land, and so permit the development of industries and prosperity. The Union was necessary for the safety of Great Britain, which at that time was engaged in a struggle for existence. As Lord Rosebery has put it:
‘We formed the main object of an enemy who had conquered half Europe. Twice had that enemy invaded Ireland, and it was certain that an invasion of England was only a question of time. In so appalling a crisis a new arrangement had by the admission of all parties to be formed for Ireland. Grattan himself had tacitly given up his own Parliament, for he had withdrawn from it and encouraged the discussion of Irish affairs in the British Legislature. What wonder, then, if from the natural tendency to draw closer and closer yet in
p.22
the presence of an overpowering danger men's minds should have turned with rare unanimity to the idea of a Union. . . . What would happen if in war, as on the Regency question, the British Parliament should take one side and the Irish Parliament the other?’
The authors of the Union desired that all ascendancy should be put down at the time the Irish Parliament was dissolved, and it was really owing to the action of men who are much belauded as patriots by the Nationalists of to-day that the reforms were delayed for some years. It is well, however, to emphasise at this stage that there is now no ascendancy in Ireland except the ascendancy of secret societies manipulated in the interests of the Nationalist party.
It is a part of the stock-in-trade of Home of Rule agitators that the Irish Parliament was filched from them by means of corruption. No one will deny that bribes were given to secure a majority for the Union in the Irish Parliament. The leaders of that Parliament lived very largely by corruption, and nothing was more natural than that they should resist any attempt to abolish their office and with it their opportunity of living by corruption. A Cromwell might have dealt differently with the Irish Parliament. Accompanied by a troop of soldiers, he would probably have entered the Parliament House in College Green, and without any ceremony reminded the
p.23
members of the evils they had brought upon Ireland, the peril they had caused to England, and ordered them out of the place. Whatever may have been the opinion of a section of that Parliament, there is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of the Irish people were enthusiastically in favour of the Union. The Roman Catholics, whose views were voiced by their bishops, gave to the Union an almost undivided support. A large proportion of the United Irishmen who had taken part in the rebellion of 1798 welcomed the Union because they saw in it an instrument for the removal of their grievances. Whatever, therefore, may be said of the means employed for securing the Union — and they were such as were commonly employed by all political parties in those days — it is an undisputed fact that the compact had the approval of the vast majority of Irishmen. Mr. Redmond and his followers never tire of telling us that the Union has been a failure and that every difficulty which Ireland has experienced since 1801 has been caused by the Government of the Imperial Parliament. When the statement is examined in the light of history it is found to be baseless. The frequent rebellions and the systematic corruption which marked the course of the Irish Parliament had brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy. As has been shown, the National Debt rose at an alarming rate, and the country was not only unsettled, but desperately
p.24
poor. The good effects of the Union were felt from the very first. Ireland's credit rose, industries sprang up, and in less than forty years the population almost doubled itself. All these changes were the direct result of settled Government, and they effectively dispose of the unfounded, but oft-repeated, charge that Ireland suffered because of the destruction of her Parliament. Mr. John Redmond asks: ‘What greater test of good Government is to be found than the test of population?’ If he is prepared to accept his own test, then Ireland must have had good Government during the first forty years of the Union. But Mr. Redmond is careful to slip over this period and to base his argument against the Union on causes which have no more to do with the form of Government in Ireland than with the sun-spots. The Imperial Government no doubt made mistakes in the early years of the Union just as it made mistakes in England and Scotland. Owing to political and religious rancour, reforms which Pitt and Castlereagh had intended to carry out were delayed for some years. The delay to Catholic Emancipation served as a pretext in O'Connell's day for the agitation in favour of the repeal of the Union. It was easy for a man of the ability and eloquence of O'Connell to rouse his co-religionists to action, especially when matters affecting their faith were involved. The vigorous agitation which he started resulted in the concession of Catholic Emancipation
p.25
in 1829. Elated by the success of the movement, he sought to have the Union dissolved, but English statesmen of that day had too much experience of an Irish Parliament to tolerate its resuscitation. Wellington, who knew Ireland well, had no doubt that the repeal of the Union would lead to a religious war. Sir Robert Peel, who had served as Chief Secretary for Ireland, declared in 1834 that the repeal of the Union must lead to the dismemberment of the Empire and render Great Britain a fourth-rate power in Europe. In O'Connell's day there was no difference of opinion between the two great political parties as to the evils that would proceed from the dissolution of the Union, and they unitedly resisted the demands for repeal. O'Connell himself during the course of the agitation declared that, provided the Imperial Parliament did justice to Ireland, he was prepared to abandon repeal; his only reason for being a repealer was, what he termed, the injustice of the Government to Ireland. He went even further and said that he would rather see justice done to his countrymen by the Imperial Parliament than by a local legislature.
Mr. Redmond takes a different attitude, for he says he would rather see Ireland badly governed by an Irish Parliament than well governed by the Imperial Parliament. ‘The true ground to take,’ said O'Connell, ‘is Ireland on an equality with Great Britain or no Union.’ Ireland is certainly
p.26
on an equality with Great Britain to-day. She has a much larger representation in the House of Commons than she is entitled to by population. If there is a legitimate grievance now regarding the government of the three kingdoms, Ireland has not got it. The legislation of recent years has been marked by generosity towards Ireland, and every possible effort has been made to atone for the omissions of earlier years. Ireland as the poorest partner in the Union is being well treated by Great Britain, and there is no justification whatever for the attacks which the Nationalists have made on British Government in Ireland. Indeed, at times when the Nationalists are charged with being neglectful of the interests of their country, they point to the great concessions which have been gained, and though the majority of the concessions have been secured in spite of the opposition of the Nationalists, they amount to a very considerable number.
There is not a scintilla of proof put forward on behalf of Mr. John Redmond's statement that the Union dealt a deathblow to Irish prosperity. On the contrary, the first forty years of the Union witnessed unparalleled development in Ireland. A few figures will suffice to dispose of Mr. Redmond's ‘deathblow to Irish industry’ argument. At the time of the Union the tonnage of Irish ships was 112,333; in 1845, 631,981; and in 1909, 8,300,576. The statistics giving the value of Irish imports
p.27
and exports at different periods show the progress Ireland has made:
| Periods | Value of Imports | Value of Exports |
|---|
| 1790 | £3,535,588 | |
| 1790 | £3,535,588 | £4,125,383 |
| 1826 | 7,491,890 | 8,454,918 |
| 1836 | 15,337,097 | 17,394,813 |
| 1904 | 54,209,477 | 50,244,958 |
| 1905 | 55,759,452 | 51,972,708 |
| 1906 | 57,441,152 | 56,616,749 |
| 1907 | 61,579,426 | 59,815,188 |
| 1908 | 59,006,877 | 58,010,891 |
| 1909 | 63,947,155 | 61,728,692 |
Since 1904 the total import and export trade of Ireland increased from £104,454,435 to £125,675,847 in 1909.
In view of these figures it requires more than ordinary courage on the part of Mr. John Redmond to write that the tide of prosperity turned at the time of the Union and that ‘it has been on the ebb ever since.’ There are other figures as well as those of imports and exports which point to the steady progress Ireland has made and is making. Going no farther back than 1852, we find that the deposits in the Irish Joint Stock Banks amounted to £10,773,000; in 1885 they had increased to £29,370,000; and in 1911 to £56,011,000.
In 1893, when Mr. Gladstone's last Home Rule Bill was introduced, the deposits and
p.28
cash balances in the Irish banks amounted to £34,637,000, so that the increase in the interval amounts to over twenty millions sterling. These figures must surely be taken as evidence of the increasing wealth of the country.
In 1851 there was £1,347,617 in the Trustee Savings Banks. Post Office Savings Banks were not established until 1861. In 1884 the combined deposits in the Trustee and Post Office Savings Banks amounted to £4,343,783. When we come down to the present time we find that marvellous progress has been made.
If we turn to the Post Office Savings Banks we find that the amount deposited in them has increased from £4,155,000 in 1893 to £12,253,000 in 1911. Between 1893 and 1911 the deposits in Trustee Savings Banks have grown from £1,876,000 to £2,857,000. The combined balances in the Post Office and the Trustee Savings Banks amounted in 1911 to £15,110,000.
When all these sums are added together they make a substantial total for a country which is represented by the Nationalists to have been bled white by the Imperial Parliament.
The reduction of Ireland's population, which did not begin until nearly half a century after the Union, was chiefly owing to economic causes. Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., a prominent Nationalist, speaking at Draperstown on June 29th, 1911, said:
p.29
‘One of the chief causes of the emigration of so many of our young men and women is probably the monotony, the lack of variety or of interest in country life. It is all work and no play, one dreary round from morn till night, without anything novel, either to interest or to amuse. You cannot blame young people for flying from a life like that. The call of patriotism is all very well, but the instinct of human nature is stronger even than patriotism, and if you want these people to remain at home you must make
home life more attractive for them.’
The failure of the potato crop and the subsequent famine were not due to the action of the Imperial Parliament. Agriculture being practically the only industry, and the land having been subdivided so that the holdings were barely able to support the occupiers in good years, the failure of the principal crop drove thousands of Irishmen to America. This misfortune took place at an interesting period in the history of the United States. The introduction of the steam engine had led to wonderful developments. The United States then, like Canada to-day, was calling for men to open up its vast tracts of virgin soil. Naturally, good wages were paid, and the news of the prosperity of the New World spread through every parish in Ireland. The man who in Ireland had scarcely been able to eke a living out of his patch of land was able to get remunerative work in America, and so he went there and encouraged
p.30
his friends to join him, and the stream of emigration went steadily on. An Irish Parliament could not have stopped it unless by preventing ships from calling at Irish ports. In the agricultural districts in England and Scotland the decline of the population has of late been as severe as in Ireland. Those countries, however, by means of their great urban industries, have been able to keep a larger proportion of their people at home. In an agricultural country like Ireland it was natural, in view of the better wages to be earned in industrial employment elsewhere, that emigration should be large. The changes from which Ireland has suffered have been almost general in agricultural countries, and it is unfair, therefore, to attribute it to the Union. Ireland's progress in wealth during the last thirty years has been remarkable, and there can be little doubt that it would have been greater still had it not been for the action of Nationalist agitators, who are reckless of the effects of their agitation upon the agencies at work for the promotion of the material welfare of the country.
When Nationalists talk of the number of Coercion Acts that have been passed, they conveniently ignore the causes which have brought them into operation. As Mr. Gladstone said, ‘crime dogged the steps of the Land League; murder was its weapon, the murder that was not to be denounced.’ The agitators coerced helpless
p.31
peasants and terrorised jurors, so that they were afraid to administer justice, but the moment the authorities adopted methods for the vindication of the law and the protection of peaceful citizens, a great howl went up about coercion. No law-abiding man had ever a grievance against any Coercion Act passed since the Union. Lawbreakers no doubt resent any act which restricts their violent methods. When successive Governments adopted effective means for breaking up criminal societies, they were charged with coercion. It ought not to be forgotten that the powers contained in the so-called Coercion Acts to which Nationalists take exception form part of the common law of Scotland. Peaceable law-abiding Scotsmen do not suffer in consequence, and neither do those Irishmen who are prepared to extend the same measure of liberty to others that they demand for themselves.
A common objection on the part of Nationalists to the Union is that the Government of Ireland is costly. The Government is certainly expensive, and this is due to two causes. The first is that the Government does more for Ireland than it does for any other country. In the last twenty-five years a vast volume of remedial legislation has been passed, and naturally every new department established to help the people adds to the cost of Government. If the Board of Education, the Board of Works, the Department of Agriculture,
p.32
the Congested Districts Board, and the Land Commission were abolished, it would be possible to save large sums, but no one dares to suggest that the work of these institutions should cease.
The second cause of high expenditure is the police force. It is necessarily large because of the lawless habits which the Nationalist agitators promote among their supporters. It cannot be said that this force exists for the maintenance of the Union, for, strange to say, it is largely required to prevent warring Nationalist factions from annihilating each other. There is an easier way of reducing the expenditure on the administration of the criminal law than by destroying the Union, and that is by obeying the law. Once Nationalists become as law-abiding as Englishmen and Scotsmen, the cost of the police force will be reduced automatically.
No matter what honest test may be applied, the Union will be found to have been a success, and the surest way of helping Ireland is to maintain the rule of the Imperial Parliament, under which fair play and justice are dealt out to every Irishman.
p.33