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
SalisTHE END
LONDON:
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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 bon 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 30s. the Irish acre, equal to about £1 per statute acre. The Sub-Commissioners have now cut it down to less than 12s. 6d. 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.
