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IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 
IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 IN THE PAST AND AT PRESENT 
 
 BY 
 EDWARD RAYMOND TURNER 
 
 Professor of European History in the 
 University of Michigan 
 
 K»9^?*^^ftV 
 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 
 1919 
 

 Copyright, 1919, by 
 The Centuhy Co. 
 
 Published, October, 1919 
 
 ot'r ib !b:d 
 
 fa- 9- 
 
 1CLA529853 
 
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 56 
 
 
 TO 
 ELEANOR BOWIE TURNER 
 
 AND 
 
 E. B. T. 
 
 IN MST. MEM. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I have written this book with the desire of helping 
 to bring about better understanding of a question 
 which is very troublesome and perplexing, not only 
 to the Irish and the English, but, less directly, to the 
 people of the United States, a matter which still 
 creates one of the most formidable obstacles to com- 
 pletely good relations between the English-speaking 
 peoples. 
 
 In America Irish matters are usually discussed by 
 extremists; and with all deference to the teaching of 
 writers inspired with the best and most generous pas- 
 sion for their cause, it must be said that no more cor- 
 rect judgment can be made about Ireland from the 
 excessive denunciations of some Sinn Feiners than 
 would come from the notions of British partisans and 
 tories. 
 
 I have tried to write an account which considers 
 all the principal aspects of the subject, and in pre- 
 senting both sides or all sides I have often used the 
 very words of the advocates themselves, though I 
 cannot always vouch for the correctness of their 
 opinions. 
 
 Others may, if they desire, tell just how the Irish 
 question should be settled, but then I do not think 
 they can realize how complicated and difficult that 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 question is. Actually the settlement has been going 
 forward for some time ; more time is required to make 
 it complete; nor can that completion be attained by 
 any simple expedient or at once. I have succeeded 
 in the purpose of my writing if I bring into clearer 
 view what the difficulties are. 
 
 There is little doubt, I think, that most of the peo- 
 ple of Great Britain wish Ireland well and are re- 
 solved to do complete justice, that they are quite 
 willing for Ireland to have Home Rule. Until re- 
 cently most Irishmen would have been satisfied with 
 Home Rule, and I think after a while most of them 
 will again be reconciled to have it. As for com- 
 plete separation, England will not and cannot — as 
 things are in this world — allow it, nor, in my opinion, 
 does Ireland really need it. The logic of geography 
 and of history and of things existent tends now, as 
 for centuries past, to the unification of the British 
 Isles, with such self-determination in the parts as 
 seems desirable, and not towards separateness and dis- 
 integration. 
 
 It may be that I have done my task ill ; but so far 
 as I have failed it is not because of bitterness or 
 malice. I have wished to write without prejudice and 
 do justice to all. I am myself partly of Irish de- 
 scent — south Ireland — and I have also been in Eng- 
 land sufficiently to know the great and admirable 
 qualities of the English people, which are now better 
 known in this country as a result of the war. 
 
 So freely have I used the work of others who 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IX 
 
 studied the subject before me that I must make the 
 most generous acknowledgment in this place. Parts 
 of the writing, however, are based upon my own 
 studies and observations abroad. 
 
 Edward Raymond Turner. 
 Ann Arbor, Michigan. 
 June 1, 1919. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 POWER AND SUBJECTION 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I Ancient Ireland 3 
 
 II Irish Christianity 18 
 
 III The Anglo-Normans in Ireland . . . .32 
 
 IV Conquest and Taking of the Land ... 56 
 
 V The Nadir of Subjection 81 
 
 VI Grattan's Parliament 95 
 
 VII Ireland Under the Union 106 
 
 VIII The Famine and the Fenians 134 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE NEW AGE: ATONEMENT AND REDRESS 
 
 I The Beginning of a New Spirit . . . .159 
 
 II Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland 181 
 
 III Land Legislation 188 
 
 IV The Agricultural Renaissance .... 216 
 
 V The Government of Ireland 226 
 
 VI The Struggle for Home Rule .... 242 
 
 VII The Arguments About Home Rule . . . 266 
 VIII Ulster 293 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART III 
 
 IRISH NATIONALITY AND THE WAR 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I Irish Language and Literature and the 
 
 Irish Revival 315 
 
 II Sinn Fein 349 
 
 III The Easter Rebellion 369 
 
 IV The Home Rule Question During the War . 396 
 V The Question of Conscription .... 418 
 VI America, Great Britain, and the Irish Ques- 
 tion 438 
 
 VII Conclusion 462 
 
 Index 481 
 
PART I 
 POWER AND SUBJECTION 
 
IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ANCIENT IRELAND 
 
 On Lough Neagh's bank, as the fisherman strays, 
 
 When the clear cold eve 's declining, 
 He sees the round towers of other days 
 
 In the wave beneath him shining. 
 Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime, 
 
 Catch a glimpse of the days that are over ; 
 Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time 
 
 For the long-faded glories they cover. 
 
 Moore : "Let Erin Remember the Days of Old," 
 Irish Melodies. 
 
 Teach your Children to be loyal to Mother Eire. 
 
 Sinn Fern Leaflet, 1911. 
 
 THE old and more proper name of the home of 
 the Irish people was Erin, perhaps from a root 
 word signifying fat or fruitful, because of the fer- 
 tility of the pastures of the land. As the Romans 
 called their Hellenic neighbors Greed, Greeks, and 
 affixed to them that name in the usage of posterity, so 
 the designation of this island was for the outside 
 world at least changed during the period of the Scan- 
 dinavian invasions, when the Danes corrupted Erin, 
 
 3 
 
4 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the name of the natives, to Ireland, a name which 
 they made. Far off in a dim and scarce visible past 
 there lived in Erin, as in other places, the old stone 
 men, and after them the new stone men who reared, 
 as they did in France and Britain, their dolmens or 
 burial houses, which stand even now before the travel- 
 ler in gaunt and silent witness of days long forgotten. 
 Later came from the continent of Europe, at a time 
 not known, but which legend assigns to the year 1700 
 B. C, the Goidels or Gaels. Erin was peopled by 
 Goidelic members of the Celtic race, as the neighbor- 
 ing island was settled by the other great branch, the 
 Brythons. 
 
 Of early Celtic Ireland we have slight information, 
 aside from legendary accounts. It lay off on the rim 
 of the world, and was scantily discerned by classical 
 writers, though Ptolemy described it better than Al- 
 bion or Britain. Erin was known to the Phenicians; 
 and Greek writers called it the Sacred Island, Iernis, 
 leme. In the time of Tacitus its harbors were more 
 renowned than those of Britain. It may be that con- 
 siderable commerce was carried on in early times, and 
 that some civilization had developed there by the be- 
 ginning of the Christian era. The old stories of the 
 era before the introduction of Christianity have to 
 do with kings who fought great battles, of Cuchul- 
 lain of Ulster, of Medb, queen of Connaught, of the 
 men of Leinster who must pay great tribute, of Ul- 
 stermen who made voyages to Alban or Scotland,. of 
 Ollamh Fodla who established the meeting of nobles 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND 5 
 
 and learned men at Tara, and of Tuathal, who con- 
 solidated the monarchy, and formed the new province 
 of Meath to be the demesne of the over-kings at Tara. 
 Legend merges into history about the time of the 
 Romans. As afterwards the Germanic barbarians 
 who conquered the western provinces of the Roman 
 Empire never advanced into Erin, so the Romans 
 themselves never came there from Britain, though 
 Tacitus declares that Agricola, his father-in-law, was 
 wont to say that the conquest might be made with 
 one legion, and that it would be well for the Roman 
 power to be established on all sides and "liberty put 
 away out of sight." 1 When Roman power was de- 
 clining in Britain, we hear much of the Scots who 
 came from Erin to Britain again and again for war- 
 fare and plunder, and of Laeghaire in the fifth cen- 
 tury, in whose time the work of Saint Patrick began, 
 There has come down a large amount of old Gaelic 
 literature, annals, historical and genealogical writ- 
 ings, religious and ecclesiastical pieces, romances and 
 tales, and treatises of law, medicine, and science, from 
 which directly or indirectly much can be learned 
 about the early history and life of the people. The 
 oldest of them are in a difficult language, much of 
 which had been partly forgotten, until the middle of 
 the nineteenth century, when a Bavarian, Kaspar 
 Zeuss, published his Grammatica Celtica. Using the 
 Irish glosses, or explanations which Gaelic teachers 
 had written in the margins or between the lines of 
 
 i "Agricola," c. 24-. 
 
6 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Latin texts for the guidance of their students, he re- 
 covered the lost grammatical forms and also the mean- 
 ings of numerous words, and was thus the founder of 
 Celtic philology. The writings are in poetry or in 
 prose, the early poetical compositions often obscure, 
 with some of the most complicated and difficult versi- 
 fication ever invented. It has been held that a prim- 
 itive form of writing was used in Erin in very early 
 times, but these letters, the so-called oghams, which 
 are largely groups of parallel lines, are by most critics 
 traced either to the Roman alphabet or to the Scandi- 
 navian runes, so that reading and writing are believed 
 to have been introduced into the island not before the 
 time when Christianity was brought there. 
 
 The character of early Irish culture has been the 
 subject of much dispute. In later days, when Ire- 
 land was unhappy and debased, when there was little 
 in contemporary life to be proud of, and at other 
 times when hope was put in the future, ardent spirits 
 were wont to look back through a glow of patriotic 
 romance beyond the traditions of the past, and they 
 saw a golden age in a happy island of the west. Re- 
 cently, in the midst of the Irish revival there have 
 been writers, such, for example, as Mrs. Green, who 
 have not hesitated to ascribe to early Irish society 
 an excellence and a fine character which can scarcely 
 have existed anywhere in primitive times. Much of 
 what these writers declare may have been so, though 
 probability is often against it, and their belief is many 
 times founded rather upon generous feeling and pa- 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND 7 
 
 triotic desire than painstaking interpretation of the 
 texts. On the other hand, it must be remembered 
 that until recently few investigators outside of Ire- 
 land have taken interest in Irish antiquities, and Eng- 
 lish writers either had scant respect for Ireland or 
 based their accounts upon testimony of those who 
 wrote of Irishmen as degraded savages or regarded 
 them as inferior and wretched. It has been the ardu- 
 ous task of a new school of historians to study the 
 culture of Ireland in early times and estimate it more 
 truly, as well as to discover how far this culture was 
 handed down in the following ages. In controversies 
 of recent years there has been one party declaring 
 that the excellence of early Irish things and the in- 
 heritance from those times give to Irishmen a char- 
 acter which renders them, perhaps, the wisest, the 
 liveliest, and the best in the British Empire, and that 
 before the Irish people lies a mission to develop their 
 type of civilization and give it to the modern world. 
 
 The Gael is not like other men; the spade and the loom 
 and the sword are not for him. But a destiny more glori- 
 ous than that of Rome, more glorious than that of Britain, 
 awaits him: to become the saviour of idealism in modern 
 intellectual and social life, the regenerator and rejuvenator 
 of the literature of the world, the instructor of the nations, 
 the preacher of the gospel of nature-worship, hero-worship, 
 God-worship — such is the destiny of the Gael. 2 
 
 Somewhere I have seen the statement -of a writer, 
 
 2 Padraic Pearse .before a young men's literary society in 1897: L. G. 
 Redmond-Howard, Six Days of the Irish Republic (Boston, 1916), p. 
 
8 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 that it is the speeches of the Irish members which 
 give savor to the parliamentary debates of the United 
 Kingdom; and in a way this is true. On the other 
 hand, it has been widely said that as the past has been 
 so will the future be; the Irishman who was back- 
 ward once and unable to get for himself good govern- 
 ment, is after all the Irishman of the present, whom 
 it would be unwise to trust with Home Rule. Actu- 
 ally, as in all things, the truth seems to lie somewhere 
 in between these partisan statements. The Gaels of 
 earlier Ireland lived in the midst of conditions which 
 had some beauty and much good inherent in them, 
 and were well suited to the times when they devel- 
 oped, but which were rude and primitive compared 
 with what came later on, and were abandoned gener- 
 ally as peoples rose upward in the scale of culture. 
 
 The old Gaels were organized in tribal communi- 
 ties, where family relationship was the strongest of 
 all ties. Just as writers of the nineteenth century of 
 the Teutonist school often took from Tacitus an ac- 
 count of early Germanic communities consisting of 
 democratic assemblies of freemen, with their families 
 and dependents, so now there are Irish writers who 
 describe the Gaelic tribal system as something excel- 
 lent and democratic, giving freest play to develop- 
 ment of national character. 
 
 The law with them was the law of the people. They never 
 lost their trust in it. Hence they never exalted a central 
 authority, for their law needed no such sanction. While 
 the code was one for the whole race, the administration on 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND 9 
 
 the other hand was divided into the widest possible range 
 of self-governing communities, which were bound together 
 in a willing federation. The forces of union were not ma- 
 terial but spiritual. . . . Such an instinct of national life 
 was neither rude nor contemptible. 3 
 
 But such an interpretation must be based on fancy 
 and desire and modern feeling rather than on careful 
 study of the past; and it is not what the Brehon Laws 
 seem to show. One who did make such a study says : 
 "The social system was aristocratic: in no case have 
 we evidence that there was a community governed by 
 an assembly of representatives without a permanent 
 head." 4 Each group was governed by a chief, who 
 was always a member of the ruling family ; though it 
 should be said that the successor was often elected 
 during the lifetime of the ruler, being called then the 
 tanist, or second in authority. 
 
 Erin was divided among groups of people, large or 
 small. The smaller were ruled by flaiths or chiefs, 
 the larger by ris or kings, while all of them were in 
 some sort under the ard-ri or great king, who had a 
 sovereignty over the lesser kings, they being obliged 
 to attend him in war and pay tribute. That is to 
 say, there was the ard-ri at Tara in Meath ; under him 
 there were the kings of Ulster, Leinster, Minister, 
 Connaught, and Meath ; under them were lesser kings, 
 beneath whom there were chieftains — in each case the 
 lesser being bound to the greater by war-service and 
 
 3 Mrs. J. R. Green, Irish Nationality (London, 1911), pp. 14, 15, 
 * P. W. Joyce, A Short History of Ireland (London, 1904), p. 59. 
 

 10 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 tribute. Allegiance from less to greater was main- 
 tained by taking hostages : "He is not a king," says 
 the Brehon Law, "who has not hostages in fetters." 5 
 Whatever may be thought about the working of such 
 a system, it is evident from the old Gaelic tales and 
 romances that along with what was noble and splen- 
 did there was much tribal warfare and absence of set- 
 tled conditions. The same story from the tribal 
 period of English history, in Anglo-Saxon times, is 
 better known to a great many readers. 
 
 The people were divided into various ranks and 
 classes: kings and nobles, freemen, bondsmen with 
 few rights, and slaves with none. It will be remem- 
 bered that in Anglo-Saxon times there was a flourish- 
 ing slave trade between England and Erin, some- 
 thing that was not brought to an end until after the 
 Norman Conquest. Generally speaking, the lower 
 classes were bound to those above them by payments 
 and service. The service was work of various kinds; 
 the payments were in cattle or provisions or articles 
 made by hand. 
 
 Within the tribal community the members were 
 bound together by common customs, and to greater or 
 less extent by feeling of kinship. Each member bore 
 part of the obligations of the tribe, such as contribu- 
 ting to the support 'of the childless old, and no mem- 
 ber was free to make contracts affecting the tribe. 
 On the other hand, the whole community was respon- 
 sible for each one of its members, and might be liable 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 64. 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND 11 
 
 for his debts or fines. As far back as one may go, 
 there was among these people some private owner- 
 ship of land, but for the most part land belonged, at 
 least in theory, not to individuals but to the tribe. 
 Originally, it would seem, there had been collective 
 ownership, and land had been the common property 
 of the members of the community. Within a tribe 
 some of the land was held by the chieftain, and some 
 as private property, but the bulk of it was tribe land, 
 the arable being divided up among the tribesmen from 
 time to time, and the grazing land and waste held in 
 common. Thus, when a member who held part of 
 the tribe land died, his land did not go to his chil- 
 dren, but was divided up among the male adult mem- 
 bers of the community. This was the custom of 
 gavelkind, once widespread over Europe, and long 
 existent in English Kent. Hence a man could not 
 alienate his land outside the tribe, and there were 
 tribal obligations concerning the management and 
 disposal of it. Within these old restrictions a man 
 might do with his land as he pleased. This communal 
 or tribal land system is one of the important factors 
 in the history of Ireland. In early times such a 
 system had existed in most primitive communities of 
 the so-called Aryan peoples; it was in England 
 among the Anglo-Saxons and traces of it long con- 
 tinued. But it persisted in Ireland far longer than 
 in England; and one of the tragedies of Irish history 
 is the forcible overthrow of the Irish system by the 
 alien system of the English invaders, and the wrongs 
 
12 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 and hardships to the natives who scarce understood 
 what took place. 
 
 The old Irish system is known very largely from 
 the ancient Law of the Brehons, or professional law- 
 yers. Very influential, as time went on they tended 
 to form an hereditary legal class, giving judgment in 
 accordance with the custom of the land. 
 
 Call ye now the Brehons in, 
 And let the plea begin. 6 
 
 They had collections of laws by which they regulated 
 their decisions and taught their scholars. Many of 
 these collections have been preserved ; their content is 
 known now as the Brehon Law. 
 
 Wherever the tribal system flourishes the idea of 
 the state is little developed. Constant warfare and 
 tribal dispute make it difficult to establish the idea of 
 a central authority. Accordingly there are in early 
 times no offences against the state, or crimes, as they 
 would now be called, but only against individuals or 
 groups. Therefore wrongs were not punished or 
 avenged by the state: the injured person or his kins- 
 men sought redress. In Erin, as elsewhere at first, 
 the law of retaliation prevailed, "an eye for an eye 
 and a tooth for a tooth." But in all primitive soci- 
 eties and among all early "Aryan" peoples, as ideas 
 of peace slowly develop, retaliation gradually gives 
 way to compensation. The injured party might take 
 
 e Here and in several other places I quote Sir Samuel Ferguson's 
 The Welshmen of Tirawley. 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND 13 
 
 into his own hands the law, but generally he referred 
 his case to a brehon. The penalty awarded went to 
 the person injured or his kinsmen. For homicide or 
 bodily hurt the fine was known as an eric: 
 
 Then the Brehons to MacWilliam Burke decreed 
 An eric upon Clan Barrett for the deed; 
 And the Lynott's share of the fine, 
 As foster-father, was nine 
 Ploughlands and nine score kine. 
 
 The amount of the penalty varied with the character 
 of the injury and the rank of the person injured, and 
 there were comprehensive tables or codes of what 
 should be paid in a given case. In later days Eng- 
 lish observers in Ireland, like the poet Spenser, fa- 
 miliar as* they were with the English common law, 
 denounced this system of laws of compensation. 
 
 Eudoxws: What is that which you call the Brehon 
 law? . . . 
 
 Irenaeus: It is a rule of right unwritten, but delivered 
 by tradition from one to another, in which oftentimes there 
 appeareth great shew of equity, in determining the right 
 betweene party and party, but in many things repugning 
 quite both to God's law, and man's : As for example in the 
 case of murder, the Brehon, that is their judge, will com- 
 pound betweene the murderer, and the friends of the party 
 murdered, which prosecute the action, that the malefactor 
 shall give unto them, or to the child, or wife of him that is 
 slain a recompence, which they call an Eriach: By which 
 vilde law of theirs, many murders amongst them are made 
 up, and smothered . . . 
 
14 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Eudoxus: This is a most wicked law indeed . . . 7 
 
 The same system was well known, however, not 
 only among peoples of antiquity but among the Ger- 
 manic tribes, and flourishing in England in the An- 
 glo-Saxon period, it lingered on in some faint traces 
 for a long while after. 
 
 The public life of the Gaelic people was carried on 
 in assemblies large and small. There was the Fes 
 or convention held from time to time at Tara, at- 
 tended by the provincial kings and chieftains, the 
 leading people of Erin; and there were the aenachs 
 or fairs held in the districts every year or so, 
 and attended by all classes there. At these fairs, 
 which had their origin, probably, in the celebration 
 of funeral games, and were often held at the ancient 
 cemeteries, the Druids made their sacrifices, and in 
 later times Christian rites were celebrated, meetings 
 were held at which disputes were heard, laws were 
 promulgated or publicly read again, and such simple 
 matters of government and administration as then 
 were carried on were transacted by the proper per- 
 sons. Here also games were celebrated, parents met 
 and arranged the marriages of their sons and daugh- 
 ters, which were here performed, and markets were 
 held for the wares of the country. These fairs flour- 
 ished in olden times, but some of them continued into 
 the Middle Ages. 
 
 The religion of the Gaels before Christianity was 
 
 7 Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland, etc. (159(i), in 
 A Collection of Tracts and Treatises . . . of Ireland (Dublin, 1890), 
 i. 4i21. 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND 15 
 
 spread over the island was a religion in which forces 
 or objects of nature were worshipped. "The religion 
 of the Celestial Fire, or light, predominated; the sun 
 and the moon were the principal objects of wor- 
 ship." 8 In Christian times this usage continued with 
 forms changed, and it is thought that the sacred fire 
 of St. Bridget at Kildare, which burned until Henry 
 III caused it to be extinguished, and which, rekindled, 
 burned until the time of Henry VIII, was an adapta- 
 tion of this very thing. Along with this and beneath 
 it, as elsewhere, were survivals of an earlier stage, the 
 period of animism or polydemonism. Among the old 
 Gaels there was widespread belief in the existence 
 of spirits or demons, animating everything. They 
 could be controlled or dealt with by formulas, incanta- 
 tions, or magic, which were known only to the wiz- 
 ards. By obtaining information from the demons 
 whom they controlled, the wizards became fortune- 
 tellers, as they became astrologers through their study 
 of the elements and the heavens. These wizards were 
 the famous Druids ; and the old Irish religion is some- 
 times called Druidism, like that of Britain and Gaul. 
 In Erin Druids were thought to possess tremendous 
 powers, working spells, chanting incantations, driv- 
 ing men mad, if they would, and foretelling events yet 
 to come. It should be said that in early times the 
 Brehons were members of the Druid class, though 
 afterward they became quite distinct. 
 
 s Arthur Ua Clerigh, History of Ireland to the Coming of Henry II 
 (London), i. 185. 
 
16 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 It would seem also that before the Christian period 
 there had begun to develop what may be discerned 
 better in classical countries and Germanic and Scan- 
 dinavian lands, anthropomorphic conception of the 
 forces or objects of nature; that is, the worship of sun, 
 moon, mountains, winds, streams, as gods, strange 
 beings, monsters, very powerful, it may be, and 
 often strange and uncanny, but so far as they were 
 clearly conceived, after all essentially like men and 
 women or the animals familiar to them. Old re- 
 ligions had much of this: Zeus and Hera, beautiful, 
 splendid, and strong, who ruled gods and men from 
 their palace high on Olympus; Pluto, gloomy in 
 Hades, and Cerberus, his three-headed dog; Thor the 
 god-warrior who hurled his hammer with giant 
 strength against the giants of frost; the Valkyrs who 
 carried valiant men from stricken fields to Valhalla; 
 Grendel the monster whom Beowulf slew, and Gren- 
 del's more terrible mother ; the witches, the fairies, the 
 elves, the giants, the goblins. Everyone knows how 
 much of all this has come down faintly in some way 
 even to the present. Such deities and eery things are 
 mentioned in the old Irish tales. There were the war 
 goddesses who shrieked over the heads of the heroes 
 in battle, putting fury into their hearts. There was 
 Mannanan Mac Lir, who gave name to the Isle of 
 Man; and Brigit the goddess of wisdom. Later on 
 in Christian Ireland there persisted what had come 
 from the early time, a general belief in lesser beings, 
 who lived in rocks and in hills, where they had palaces 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND 17 
 
 rare and splendid: fairies, demons, goblins, and 
 ghosts. A female fairy was a banshee, and there 
 are now living people who believe they have heard the 
 banshee's cry. There was some belief in a place of 
 perpetual youth and everlasting peace. Some 
 thought it deep in the earth; some put it far out in 
 the ocean, calling it O 'Brazil. In the era of the great 
 discoveries, when geography was ill-understood, 
 Brazil was the name given to part of the new world 
 found in the west. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 IRISH CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Irish Ireland, if the ideal be realised, will, please God, in 
 the twentieth century be the Irish Ireland of the sixth, 
 seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries — the Ireland that will 
 not only guard with jealous care the treasure of the Faith- 
 gift within her own four seas, but the Ireland that will send 
 her best-beloved sons abroad, to carry the standard of the 
 Cross to pagan shores, and set up churches of the ancient 
 Faith amid the ruins of modern paganism. 
 
 Rev. Gerald O'Nolan, of Maynooth: Belfast 
 Irish News, December 2, 1912. 
 
 ANEW and splendid period in Irish history- 
 comes after the introduction of Christianity. 
 It had been brought into Erin before the coming of 
 St. Patrick, but with his labors the movement is al- 
 ways associated now. He was born in Scotland or 
 Gaul, it is not certain which. A boy of sixteen, he 
 was taken captive and sold as a slave in Erin. For 
 six years under a hard master he kept sheep in a bleak 
 and lonely place. After a while, when he had learned 
 well the language of the people, he escaped; and pres- 
 ently, brooding much upon what he had seen, resolved 
 to devote his life to their conversion. After much 
 preparation he went forth, possibly with the benedic- 
 tion of the Pope, and in 432 landed on the east coast 
 
 18 
 
IRISH CHRISTIANITY 19 
 
 near Wicklow. He was then about forty-five, of 
 commanding presence, in the full vigor of his man- 
 hood. After some difficulties at the start, he suc- 
 ceeded in his task beyond expectation. In all the his- 
 tory of the faith, it is said, there is no instance of a 
 missionary so successful as St. Patrick. No people 
 received Christianity in so short a space of time as the 
 Irish. Understanding, perhaps, the tribal and fam- 
 ily feeling of the Gaels and their devotion to their 
 chiefs, St. Patrick addressed himself first to the kings 
 and chiefs, knowing that if the great men were con- 
 verted their people would easily follow. In 433 he 
 proceeded to Tara, and on Easter effected the con- 
 version of the ard-ri Laeghaire. In the course of his 
 long mission the greater part of the Irish became 
 Christians, at least nominally, and the land was filled 
 with churches. He died about 465, some say, in the 
 seventy-eighth year of his age. 
 
 During the lifetime of St. Patrick there arose in 
 Erin an extraordinary religious fervor, which con- 
 tinued for a great while thereafter, profoundly affect- 
 ing that country and many others nearby. Holy men 
 and great religious leaders were succeeded by others 
 as holy, and the best spirits took part in the move- 
 ment. Churches and monasteries were founded, 
 often by the gift of chieftains or kings, and protected 
 and fostered by them. Great numbers of persons 
 entered the religious life. Some of them taught the 
 people and performed the religious ministrations of 
 the neighborhood; some adopted a life of contempla- 
 
20 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 tion and prayer, with labor to support themselves, in 
 places lonely and remote. The eastern ideal of soli- 
 tary monastic life, remote from associations with the 
 world, came also to England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 and, as readers of Kingsley may remember, there 
 were numerous establishments of anchorites on the 
 small, rocky isles along the coast. 
 
 At first the organization of the Irish church was 
 tribal, like the other organizations of their life. 
 Bishops and priests had no territorial jurisdiction over 
 dioceses and parishes as they had later on, but were 
 attached to tribes, clans, or religious and monastic 
 communities. The obligations of the laity to the 
 clergy were somewhat like those of people to chiefs: 
 they owed payment of tithes, firstlings, and first fruits. 
 The head of a monastery was abbot and also chief of 
 the community around him. As with other offices 
 in Irish tribal organization, ecclesiastical dignities 
 tended to stay in the same families for generations. 
 
 The religion brought by St. Patrick and his prede- 
 cessors was the Christianity of the western Roman 
 world, but, as is well known, there soon developed a 
 difference important in the history of Ireland and of 
 England. The incorrect western computation of the 
 date of Easter was brought in, shortly before it was 
 abandoned by Rome, and soon the lands with Irish 
 Christianity celebrated Easter at a different time from 
 that used in the Roman church. In England the con- 
 troversy between Roman and Irish Christianity, in- 
 volving as it did the authority of the Pope, was vir- 
 
IRISH CHRISTIANITY 21 
 
 tually decided at the Synod of Whitby in 664. In 
 Ireland the change began earlier, but since some of 
 the religious leaders there clung to that which their 
 predecessors had established, the alteration was more 
 gradual, some parts of the country not yielding until 
 the early part of the eighth century, after which Ro- 
 man usages were generally adopted. 
 
 The old Gaelic Christianity of Erin is glorious be- 
 cause of the splendid development of schools and edu- 
 cation which accompanied it, and even more because 
 of the memorable missionary effort which went forth 
 after Ireland had been brought to the faith. From 
 the middle of the sixth century schools appeared in 
 large numbers, many of them monastic, and they at- 
 tracted great numbers of students. At one time, it 
 is said, there were 3,000 of them with St. Finnen at 
 Clonard; though one mistrusts all numbers in med- 
 ieval accounts. Some believe that these schools were 
 better than anything of the kind to be found in the 
 West at this time, -and that they were in some fashion 
 prototypes of the universities later. Their renown 
 is attested by the crowds of foreigners who came to 
 them, many from England, some from France, and 
 even from Italy and Egypt. The regard in which 
 they were held is evident from the correspondence of 
 Alcuin and also the History of Bede. Theology was 
 studied, and Latin and Greek and even Hebrew were 
 cultivated, while there was instruction in Gaelic gram- 
 mar and literature, history, arithmetic, astronomy, 
 geometry, and music. Besides the monastic schools 
 
22 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 there were secular schools under laymen, where the 
 professions of medicine and law were taught, this 
 teaching often being hereditary in the same families 
 for generations. Erin came to be renowned for her 
 learning and civilization. "The classic tradition, to 
 all appearance dead in Europe, burst out into full 
 bloom in the Isle of the Saints, and the Renaissance 
 began in Ireland seven hundred years before it was 
 known in Italy. During three centuries Ireland was 
 the asylum of the Higher Learning, which took sanc- 
 tuary from the uncultured states of Europe. At one 
 time Armagh, the religious capital of Christian Ire- 
 land, was the metropolis of civilization." 1 It has 
 been said that in the seventh and eighth centuries prob- 
 ably no one in western Europe spoke Greek who was 
 not Irish or taught by an Irishman. 
 
 The Erin which welcomed strangers to her schools 
 and religious establishments also sent forth her sons 
 and disciples to carry religion and civilization to lands 
 round about. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth cen- 
 turies Irishmen were the greatest and most successful 
 missionaries in Europe. Homesick and longing for 
 their own land often, they went forth for the glory of 
 God. "My country," said one of them, "is where I can 
 gather the largest harvest for Christ." 2 St. Columba 
 went to Iona, where a great monastery became the 
 source of missionaiy effort in lands nearby. There 
 was the north country of the other island, known of 
 
 i Clerigh, quoting Darrnesteter, p. 348. 
 % Clerigh, p. 345, 
 
IRISH CHRISTIANITY 23 
 
 old as Alban, partly colonized by Scots or Gaels from 
 Erin. From them later on it came to be known as 
 Scotland: the name Scotia belonged originally to Ire- 
 land, but about the eleventh century the name went 
 to the country now known as Scotland, and the parent 
 country lost it. Thither from Iona went Columba 
 and his monks and converted the Scots and the Picts 
 of the Highlands. His disciples, notably Aidan, con- 
 verted the greater part of the people of England and 
 Wales, England thus owing a large part of her Chris- 
 tianity to Irish monks who labored there before the 
 arrival in the south of St. Augustine from Rome. It 
 was under the tuition of Irish monks at Glastonbury 
 that the career of the great Dunstan was begun. 
 Many missionaries went to the continent, the most 
 eminent being Columbanus, who with twelve com- 
 panions left Ireland and founded the monastery of 
 Luxeuil in Burgundy, whence other foundations 
 branched off, and from which the faith was spread into 
 Switzerland, Italy, France, and afterwards Germany. 
 Before the fervor of the missionaries ended, some of 
 them had gone to Jerusalem, some to Carthage, and 
 some as far north as Iceland. Long afterwards, in 
 many a town of Italy, Germany, and France Irish- 
 men were held as patron saints. The revival of learn- 
 ing in Europe was owing in no small degree to their 
 efforts. 
 
 No church of any land has so noble a record in the aston- 
 ishing work of its teachers, as they wandered over the ruined 
 provinces of the empire among the pagan tribes of the in- 
 
24 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 vaders. In the Highlands they taught the Picts to compose 
 hymns in their own tongue ; in a monastery founded by them 
 in Yorkshire was trained the first English poet in the new 
 England; at St. Gall they drew up a Latin-German dic- 
 tionary for the Germans of the upper Rhine and Switzer- 
 land, and even devised new German words to express the 
 new ideas of Christian civilisation ; near Florence one of 
 their saints taught the natives how to turn the course of a 
 river. 3 
 
 During this period art and culture, which had 
 long been developing in Ireland, came to higher per- 
 fection. From very ancient times the pagan Irish 
 were skilled in metal work, bronze, silver, gold, and 
 enamel. This work was improved in Christian times, 
 reaching its culmination in the tenth and eleventh 
 centuries, after which, like other things Irish, it de- 
 clined with the decadence of Gaelic life. The best 
 sculpture was done in Christian times, and is seen in 
 the Celtic crosses with their rings binding the arms 
 of the crosses together. Many of them are orna- 
 mented with very great skill. Ornamentation and 
 illumination of manuscripts were carried to a won- 
 drous degree of perfection, attaining highest excel- 
 lence in the tenth and eleventh centuries. This was 
 mainly the work of ecclesiastics, and was done mostly 
 in monasteries, as elsewhere. The designs are very 
 delicate and extremely complicated sometimes. The 
 Book of Kelts, which is a manuscript of the four gos- 
 pels, amazes them who behold it. Dating, perhaps, 
 
 s Mrs. Green, pp. 53, 54. 
 
IRISH CHRISTIANITY 25 
 
 from the seventh century, it is one of the best speci- 
 mens of ancient pen-work in existence: "the most as- 
 tonishing book of the Four Gospels which exists in 
 the world." 4 The Irish missionaries took this art 
 with them wherever they went, and exquisite examples 
 of their handiwork are preserved in many libraries 
 abroad. 
 
 The Gaels were celebrated musicians from very 
 early times. Music also was further developed by the 
 church, missionaries and ecclesiastics particularly de- 
 lighting in the harp. There were also the tympan, a 
 stringed instrument, and the bagpipe. The music 
 was undoubtedly simple, but it has been very highly 
 praised, and some of the airs have not often been 
 equalled since. Enjoyment of music is thought to 
 have been very general: young girls were wont to 
 accompany their spinning with songs, there were milk- 
 ing-songs, and the plowman soothed his horse with 
 plaintive plow-whistles. During the best period Irish 
 masters were much sought abroad, and the music of 
 Wales and other countries was developed by Irish 
 teachers. All through the Middle Ages and down 
 into modern times Irish music continued. In course 
 of time many of the airs were perceived to be plaintive 
 and sad and in minor key, the outcome, as in Russia, 
 perhaps, of downfall and long-continued oppression. 
 Many pieces were preserved in memory, and handed 
 down by tradition. Not until long after were collec- 
 tions made. At the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
 
 4 Joyce, quoting J. O. Westwood, p. 105. 
 
26 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 tury Thomas Moore composed his exquisite Irish 
 Melodies to some of the old Irish airs. 
 
 The fine old Celtic culture, stimulated and devel- 
 oped by the influence of Christianity, might well have 
 developed into something still more important to the 
 world; for if Ireland was not a large island, so that 
 the basis of its civilization was necessarily small, yet 
 that civilization might have spread further and fur- 
 ther, as it had begun to do, and affected western Eu- 
 rope far more profoundly. That we never can know. 
 As a matter of fact, Irish civilization and influence 
 were not allowed to develop as they would. "The 
 early history of Ireland is a story of arrested evolu- 
 tion," said one who loved it and studied it well. 5 
 There began now a series of invasions, disturbances, 
 and misfortunes, which have thrust Erin back and 
 kept her down even to the present. 
 
 In early times there was a tribal England as well 
 as a tribal Ireland, and each one in the midst of dis- 
 order and warfare was stricken by barbarian invasion. 
 Each one later recovered. Then to England came 
 her greatest disaster, complete conquest at the hands 
 of the Normans, with long ages of tyranny and misery 
 for the masses of the people. But in the end con- 
 querors merged with conquered, and there being no 
 more conquest by alien masters, after a while Eng- 
 land went her way prosperous and peaceful, on the 
 road to imperial power. When, however, Ireland 
 had recovered from the first invasion, she was struck 
 
 e Clerigh, preface. 
 
IRISH CHRISTIANITY 27 
 
 again and again afterwards by alien enemies, who for 
 centuries did not conquer completely, but were always 
 strong enough to destroy her best chances for hap- 
 piness and national growth. She showed, it is true, 
 amazing power to absorb them, but scarcely was she 
 about to merge within her one set of intruders when 
 the work was ruined by the coming of others. This 
 .is what gives such permanent and enduring interest 
 to the story of ancient Erin and old Irish culture: 
 less than three centuries after St. Patrick, Ireland's 
 golden age — whatever may have been its defects, 
 passed for unutterable time, and has only begun to 
 reappear in the last generation. 
 
 First came the Northmen and Danes. As Ger- 
 manic barbarians overran the western provinces of 
 the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries, 
 so the new countries of the west were scourged from 
 the eighth to the tenth by Scandinavian barbarians 
 from the north. Frankland, Italy, Normandy, Eng- 
 land — the story is well known, with all of its horror 
 and destruction. In 795 Norwegian pirates first ap- 
 jDeared off the Irish coast, and there for two cen- 
 turies Norsemen and Danes came again and again. 
 Sometimes they were badly defeated; but the Gaels, 
 disunited in separate tribes, were ill prepared to repel 
 them. The principal ports were seized and held by 
 the Danes, and Dublin became their great fortress 
 and center of power. The result was not wholly bad, 
 for in course of time the invaders were more famous 
 for commerce than war. From of old there had been 
 
28 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 trade routes from Erin to Gaul and to Spain. For 
 a while they were stopped by terror of the northern 
 pirates, but presently the trading was developed by 
 Northmen, and Ireland became the center of a com- 
 merce more thriving than ever. None the less for a 
 long time material civilization suffered much. Every- 
 where monasteries were plundered and destroyed. 
 There was terrible fighting against the intruders, and 
 also much fighting between the various tribes of the 
 Irish themselves. Indeed, from this time, some see a 
 deterioration of character because of the terrible ex- 
 periences which came to the people. One Danish in- 
 trusion followed another like successive waves of the 
 sea, and it may often have seemed that the Irish would 
 be completely overrun. But as Alfred saved Eng- 
 land from Danish power, so there rose up in Erin a 
 mighty hero and king who crushed the invaders for a 
 while and, maybe, saved the country from conquest. 
 This was the famous Brian Boru. 
 
 In England before the Norman Conquest there 
 went on steadily among the German invaders the 
 process of uniting the many little tribal kingdoms 
 into a smaller number of larger kingdoms and then a 
 long struggle between three large kingdoms to bring 
 all Angle-land under one rule. This process, which 
 fills the confused and wearisome annals of Anglo- 
 Saxon times, was retarded by strong tribal and local 
 feeling, and by absence of any national sentiment, 
 and also by the invasions of the Danes. Nevertheless, 
 it was approaching completion when William the 
 
IRISH CHRISTIANITY 29 
 
 Conqueror entered the island, overthrew the native 
 ruler, and himself finished that unification of the 
 country which the natives themselves might have 
 worked out with more time. Apparently the same 
 process was going on during the ninth and tenth cen- 
 turies in Ireland. There was constant tribal warfare, 
 in which, it may be, as many Gaels lost their lives as 
 fell in fighting with the Danes. But some consolida- 
 tion appeared, for while formerly there had been sev- 
 eral kings under the overlordship of a higher king, 
 at the end of the tenth century there were two king- 
 doms, one in the north and one in the south, and the 
 southern king, Brian Boru, presently reduced his rival 
 to a subordinate position, and thus, as long as he 
 could maintain his power, became king of all Ireland. 
 He had attained, it may be, a position something like 
 that which Egbert of Wessex had once held in Eng- 
 land. Had he been able to establish his dynasty and 
 consolidate his power, perhaps his successors could 
 have done in Erin what Alfred's great followers did 
 in making a united England. This was not to be. 
 After several years of rule, which in later times seemed 
 a happy and prosperous period, the Danes of Dublin 
 with the men of Leinster, assisted by other Danes 
 under a Viking leader, contested his power. In 1014 
 Brian crushed a great army of Danes at the battle 
 of Clontarf, fought in the present limits of Dublin 
 city. He and his son and his grandson fell on the 
 field, but Erin was saved from subjection to the 
 heathen Danes. 
 
30 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Nevertheless, after Clontarf and the death of Brian 
 Ireland fell back into a worse tribal warfare and con- 
 fusion than before. During the next century and a 
 half there was no longer a universally acknowledged 
 over-king. Incessant was the strife and bloodshed. 
 Great battles were fought under brave leaders and 
 good men gave up their lives. In the midst of it 
 all came further invasions of the Danes. 
 
 It is true, the times were not wholly bad. After 
 their victory the Irish did not try to expel the Danes 
 already in Erin. Generally these settlers remained 
 in the coast towns, which they largely controlled, 
 carrying on a great part of the island's commerce, on 
 the whole conducting themselves well, trading with 
 the Gaelic inhabitants, intermarrying with them after 
 a while, and giving some promise, perhaps, for the fu- 
 ture of being absorbed into the people among whom 
 they resided. There was also during this period some 
 continuation of the material and intellectual progress 
 of the centuries following Christianity. Missionaries 
 continued to go abroad, and monasteries were still 
 founded by Irishmen in faraway countries. Some 
 of the foundations in Erin continued to be centers 
 of intellectual life, and skilled workmen there con- 
 tinued to toil at their handicrafts. Much exaggerated 
 by some students, this period has been described as 
 the second great revival of the Irish people. It is 
 difficult to interpret an obscure past, so there may be 
 much truth in such assertions, but detailed accounts 
 of these times do not seem to warrant them; appar- 
 
IRISH CHRISTIANITY 31 
 
 ently they result largely from the enthusiasm of the 
 Irish revival of the last generation, and from the gen- 
 erous emotion characterizing the intellectual aspects 
 of Sinn Fein, rather than proper study of medieval 
 Ireland. Compared with the glories of the time be- 
 fore the Dane, the period seems to have been one of 
 decadence. The development of the Irish people 
 from tribal organization to national unity had not 
 been achieved, and progressing slowly, it was fatally 
 retarded by the disasters of the time of the North- 
 men. Civilization, character, prosperity, had all de- 
 clined, as they did in England, as they would any- 
 where. That there was much improvement over the 
 worst period of the Danish wars is evident, and the 
 revival, such as it was, might have gone forward to 
 far greater happiness and success, had the Gaelic peo- 
 ple with their Danish neighbors remained undisturbed 
 now and been left to the bettering influence of time. 
 But as not enough time was given to the Anglo- 
 Saxons in England, so in Ireland it was much more 
 too short. In 1066 the Normans had conquered Eng- 
 land; in the latter part of the twelfth century they 
 began the acquisition of Ireland. In a certain sense, 
 indeed, this was the completion of the Norman Con- 
 quest. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 
 
 From the seventeenth yeare of King Henry the Second, 
 when the first overture was made for the Conquest of Ire- 
 land . . . untill the nine and thirtith yeare of Queene ELIZ- 
 ABETH, when that Royal army was sent over to suppresse 
 Tirones Rebellion, which made in the end an universall and 
 absolute conquest of all the Irishrie : it is most certaine, that 
 the English forces sent hither, or raised heere from time to 
 time, were ever too weake to subdue and master so many war- 
 like nations (or Septs) of the Irish, as did possesse this Is- 
 land. 
 
 The first attempt to conquer this King dome, was but an 
 adventure of a few private Gentlemen. 
 
 Sir John Davies, A Discoverie of the State of 
 Ireland: with the true Causes why that King- 
 dom was never entirely subdued, etc. (London, 
 1613). 
 
 THE Angevin Empire in England and France 
 reached its height under Henry II (1154-1189) . 
 By marriage and inheritance he was master of a splen- 
 did domain stretching from the border of Scotland 
 down beyond the Channel to southern France. The 
 holding together of these far-stretched dominions 
 taxed all the ability of Henry, and under his suc- 
 cessors the task was seen to be impossible. In the 
 midst of his greater work, perhaps, he had cherished 
 plans for rounding out his possessions by acquiring the 
 
 32 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 33 
 
 great island which lay near to England, which com- 
 manded much of the traffic from his English ports to 
 his cities in France, and from whose harbors went that 
 commerce which the Danes had so well developed. 
 The story has often been told that he resolved to at- 
 tempt the conquest of Ireland, and so sent an emis- 
 sary, John of Salisbury, to Pope Adrian IV, English 
 by birth, to say that conditions in the island were 
 grievous and crying for remedy, and desire permis- 
 sion to take possession of the country so as to bring 
 back the people to good order and religion. There 
 is some doubt as to this. No reliable evidence exists 
 that Henry ever sought a license from the Pope; but 
 it seems clear that John of Salisbury did obtain for 
 the king a concession of Ireland. It has been con- 
 jectured that all of this was a part of the world poli- 
 tics of the time played by popes against emperors. 
 It was the ambition of a great line of pontiffs in the 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries to render the papacy 
 supreme in temporal matters, making themselves in 
 the affairs of this world the head of a feudal hierarchy, 
 in which princes and kings would hold their dominions 
 as feudal dependencies of the Pope. William of Nor- 
 mandy had received from Alexander II a ring and a 
 banner on setting out for the conquest of England. 
 Robert Guiscard had appeared before Nicholas II to 
 hold his conquests in southern Italy as a fief of the 
 Holy See. Later on, as is well known, John of Eng- 
 land surrendered his kingdom to Innocent III and 
 had it confirmed to him as a papal fief. In 1219 the 
 
34 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 king of the Isle of Man surrendered his kingdom to 
 the Pope, and was reinvested with it as a fief, the in- 
 vestiture being made with a ring sent for that pur- 
 pose. It is thought that Adri-an was now strengthen- 
 ing himself by conciliating the English king with a 
 grant of Ireland. John of Salisbury says that the 
 Pope granted Hibernia to Henry II to hold by hered- 
 itary right, the Pope's power to do this being founded 
 upon the Donation of Constantine, by which all is- 
 lands pertain to the Roman Church ; and that he sent 
 the king an emerald ring for investiture. Henry was 
 not at first able to undertake an invasion of Ireland, 
 but after a while events took place which caused a 
 beginning. 
 
 There was a king of Leinster, Dermot or Diarmaid, 
 represented as a man of violence, guilty of many sins, 
 but much like his fellows then. In 1166 he was over- 
 come by his enemies and fled from Ireland under 
 sentence of banishment. He went to Henry, and 
 praying for help, offered to hold Leinster of Henry 
 as lord. It may be that this roused again the inter- 
 est of the king. He now got from Alexander III a 
 confirmation of Pope Adrian'-s donation, .and a docu- 
 ment explaining how the island had been granted to 
 him, this document being the so-called Bull Laudabili- 
 ter, about which controversy often has raged. It 
 should be noticed that it was upon these papal grants 
 that the claim of England was technically based. Ed- 
 mund Burke once asserted that down to the Reforma- 
 tion Englishmen founded their title upon Adrian's 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 35 
 
 grant. An English statute of 1467 declared that "our 
 Holy Father Adrian, Pope of Rome, was possessed 
 of all the sovereignty of Ireland in his demesne as of 
 fee, in right of his Church of Rome," that in order 
 that vice might be subdued, he had alienated it to the 
 king of England for a certain rent, by which grant 
 the subjects of Ireland owed allegiance to the king 
 of England as their sovereign lord. 1 At the time of 
 the Reformation, it was asserted in Ireland that the 
 Donation of Adrian was forfeited by Henry VIII 
 and Edward VI when they renounced the Pope's spir- 
 itual and temporal authority. But in 1555, on the 
 supplication of Philip and Mary, Paul IV conferred 
 upon English sovereigns the title of King of Ireland, 
 without prejudice to the overlordship of the Pope. 
 Somewhat later, when the Irish were about to offer 
 the kingship to Philip of Spain, the Pope declared 
 that he was astonished at this, "since it was easy to 
 remember that the kingdom of Ireland belonged to 
 the dominion of the Church, was held as a fief under 
 it, and could not, therefore, unless by the Pope, be 
 subjected to any new ruler." 2 
 
 In the play of world politics at this time, Rome con- 
 ferred Ireland upon Henry II as a feudal depend- 
 ency. It may well be believed that misinformed as 
 to religious conditions in the island, the popes desired 
 to bring about the spiritual betterment of the people 
 
 i Clerigh, p. 410. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 410, 411. I am much indebted to this author for the light 
 >vhich hi? researches afford in many dark places. 
 
36 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 by doing this. Actually, however, "the Gael, who de- 
 served a better fate, were delivered into the hands of 
 ruthless and rapacious adventurers." And so they 
 were. Ireland had not even the fortune to be con- 
 quered by a great and strong ruler and made a part 
 of well-governed dominions, but was left to be de- 
 spoiled by soldiers of fortune who strove to carve out 
 estates for themselves at whatever violation of the 
 rights of the natives and whatever cost in suffering 
 and despair. Henry gave to Diarmaid letters patent 
 authorizing his subjects to assist in restoring the 
 chieftain. Then Diarmaid proceeded to England and 
 Wales and enlisted in his cause certain adventurers, 
 chief among them Strongbow, a ruined baron, to 
 whom he promised his daughter and succession to 
 Leinster. Preceded by other adventurers, Strong- 
 bow invaded Ireland in 1170 with a force of 3,000 men 
 and easily overcame all resistance. Diarmaid soon 
 had Leinster again, and would have been glad, per- 
 haps, to be rid of his dangerous helpers; but actually 
 they were using him for their own purposes, and after 
 his death, which soon occurred, they proceeded to win 
 for themselves by the sword all they could take. 
 These Welsh-Norman adventurers were, with their 
 thorough efficiency and calculated terrorism, much 
 like the Germans who entered Belgium and Poland 
 five years ago. When they had taken certain cap- 
 tives, one of their leaders declared : "We must either 
 resolutely accomplish what we have undertaken, and 
 
 sClcrigh, p. 412. 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 37 
 
 stifling all emotions of pity utterly subjugate this re- 
 bellious nation, by the strong hand, or indulging in 
 deeds of mercy, as Raymond proposes, sail home- 
 ward." And when he had spoken thus, says the 
 chronicler, the limbs of the captives were broken, and 
 they were cast headlong into the sea. 4 
 
 So great was the invaders' progress that the jeal- 
 ousy of Henry was aroused, for it seemed that a 
 strong jurisdiction was about to be founded near his 
 own. Therefore, setting sail from England with a 
 small but powerful army, he landed in Ireland in 
 1171, and received the submission of all the contest- 
 ants, no one daring to resist him. He remained in 
 Ireland for six months, spending Christmas in Dub- 
 lin, whither the Irish princes were invited to come. 
 They were much pleased at the attention shown them, 
 and throughout his stay Henry treated them so that 
 they believed he would regard their rights and pro- 
 tect them from the greed of his barons. He caused 
 a synod for church discipline to be held at Cashel. 
 Most important of all, he made arrangements for the 
 government of the country, in accordance with the 
 feudal model which he knew so well in England. The 
 land which the Irish people, following their tribal 
 custom, considered to belong to themselves, he re- 
 garded as his own, and divided it among his barons, 
 always supposing that they would be able to con- 
 quer it from the natives and hold it in possession. "It 
 may be said that he gave the whole of Ireland to ten 
 
 4 J bid., pp. 403, 404, 
 
38 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of his nobles." 5 From among his followers he ap- 
 pointed governors of the principal towns which had 
 submitted to him, commanding them to build castles 
 to overawe the inhabitants of town and country 
 around. Then he departed. During his stay all had 
 gone well. He had done much to overthrow the old 
 system, but it was being destroyed before he came. 
 If only he could have remained to keep order and 
 maintain some rude justice, with his admirable talent 
 for organization and administration of government, 
 it might have been well for the mass of the Irish peo- 
 ple; but this could not be. Greater tasks called him 
 in England and in his French lands. Since he left 
 no strong force to represent his authority, the barons 
 and soldiers of fortune now did as they pleased. 
 Those to whom broad lands had been granted so easily 
 strove to possess them. The natives resisted. Soon 
 there was turmoil and bloodshed, plunder, and strife 
 never-ending, with merciless treatment of the natives. 
 When the Normans had conquered England they 
 came in strong force under a great general who was 
 able and stern in discipline and rule. England was 
 soon subdued, and though during a great while there 
 was misery for the Anglo-Saxon people, the worst 
 that befell them was that while a new system was being 
 established, they long remained the lowest class in the 
 land of their fathers. During all those years of de- 
 pression they lived under the best administered gov- 
 ernment in western Europe, and in the end the bene- 
 
 s Joyce, p. 263. 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 39 
 
 fits were thoroughly shared by them. But such for- 
 tune was not mingled with the bad fate of Ireland. 
 Normans were conquering Ireland also; but they 
 never came in a large body standing together under 
 some great leader to do their work swiftly and well. 
 Henry came as a visitor. What he might have done 
 greatly was left to scattered bands of freebooters and 
 seekers of fortune, under petty leaders, greedy and 
 cruel, but rarely winning distinction for military or 
 executive greatness. Nor were there enough of them 
 to do their work quickly, and set up their system, such 
 as it was. They were only able to distract the island 
 for a long while, harry the people, destroy the good- 
 ness of Celtic character and civilization, and make 
 bloodshed, misery, and confusion. 
 
 In equipment, in military science, in guile, the Nor- 
 man invaders were so far superior to the natives that 
 usually a small body could slaughter many of the ill- 
 armed and lightly protected Celts. As a rule also 
 the great Norman fortresses could not be captured 
 by Irish siege or assault. Moreover, the tribal sys- 
 tem, which produced constant local dissension, used up 
 strength which might have opposed the stranger, and 
 rendered united action or common defence well-nigh 
 impossible. Therefore, while the Normans were 
 sometimes defeated, and sometimes reduced to de- 
 spair, they could never 'be overwhelmed or altogether 
 expelled. On the other hand, because here was the 
 feudal system at its worst, lacking strong control from 
 good central government such as existed in England, 
 
40 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the Norman barons and leaders seldom acted in union. 
 Poor communications through the country and the 
 many wild and scantly peopled places hindered the 
 invaders and were of much assistance to the rapid 
 moving Irish in their wars of defence. Finally, the 
 mere number of the invaders was not sufficient to ac- 
 complish the task which they had set out to do. So, 
 at last was what might have been foreseen in the be- 
 ginning: like the Danes, the Normans had entered 
 and could not be driven out, but like the Danes before 
 them they were not able to subdue the island; and so 
 there was again the endless bitterness and strife, the 
 furious fighting, harrying and plundering, the wild 
 life and misery and hardship, that lasted so long in 
 the border country between England and Scotland. 
 A new element had come into the land; but civiliza- 
 tion and prosperity had been put far back. Irishmen 
 think it a misfortune that their country was conquered 
 by England. But it was a far greater misfortune 
 that the conquest once undertaken was not during 
 such a long time made complete. Nothing worse 
 could have happened than that the kings of England 
 took so little interest or could interfere so little, that 
 Ireland was largely left to the pleasure of rapacious 
 lords who sought not to subdue it to good government 
 but to win great fortunes for themselves. 
 
 After Henry's departure various governors ad- 
 ministered in his place; but confusion and disorder 
 increased in the absence of the one person strong 
 enough for the difficulties of the situation. Raids by 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 41 
 
 the colonists were answered with reprisals by the Irish. 
 There were constant quarrels and destructive tur- 
 moil. Prince John, youngest son of the king, some 
 time before made ruler of Ireland, was sent by his 
 father. But the prince was inexperienced and capri- 
 cious. He lost the regard of the colonists at once, and 
 his foolish and insolent followers alienated the Irish 
 chiefs by plucking their beards and mocking their 
 manners and dress. Suddenly the Irish rose, slaying 
 many, and capturing numerous strongholds, so that 
 John's power was ruined, as his influence was already 
 gone. The country settled back into misery and de- 
 pression : the Irish chiefs in constant tribal dissension ; 
 the English nobles ever quarrelling; English and Irish 
 always attacking each other. In 1210, John, now king 
 of England, landed with a powerful army and over- 
 awed all resistance. Something was done for the bet- 
 ter governing of the country. Those parts of Ire- 
 land under English control were divided into twelve 
 shires, after the arrangement in England, and as the 
 English afterward did in Scotland and Wales when 
 they began to conquer those countries. In the Irish 
 counties English law was to be administered in courts 
 of justice erected for that purpose, and sheriffs and 
 other local officers were appointed on the English 
 model. It is important to notice here and in later 
 times that this English law and administrative ma- 
 chinery were for the Anglo-Norman settlers alone, 
 the natives remaining outside it. 
 
 Then followed the long reign of Henry III, at first 
 
42 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 a minor, and always a weakling, during which time 
 there was distress and confusion in England, as al- 
 ways when the central government was not in capable 
 hands, while in Ireland, where as yet strong central 
 government had not been erected, more than ever 
 there was strife, anarchy, bloodshed, and woe. The 
 Irish fought among themselves without ceasing. The 
 English abetted now one party, now another, and 
 again fell upon them all, as it served their interests. 
 The Irish sometimes ceased their tribal disputes and 
 turned upon the English, burning and spoiling their 
 settlements. With such conditions often it was easy 
 for the foreign adventurers to take more and more 
 of the land of the Irish chieftains and people. So 
 it continued all through the thirteenth century. Ed- 
 ward I, so renowned for reforms in England, could 
 give little attention to Ireland. England now was 
 attempting the conquest of Scotland. The Irish in 
 the north of their island saw with much interest the 
 resistance of their kinsmen against Edward I and the 
 victory of Bannockburn in the reign of his son. Al- 
 ready they had appealed to the Pope against the Eng- 
 lish. Now, they asked Robert Bruce, king of Scot- 
 land, to send Edward, his brother, for their king. 
 Edward Bruce came with an excellent army. He 
 was joined by great numbers of the Irish, overran a 
 large part of the north country, and defeated the 
 English in numerous battles. For three years the 
 hapless country was the scene of furious combats 
 and was wasted and ruined by the contestants. There 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 43 
 
 was immense destruction of property and enormous 
 suffering by the people. Finally Bruce was defeated 
 and slain by the English colonists, whom he had al- 
 most driven to despair. But the unhappy country 
 sank still lower into depression. In Ulster and in 
 other places the colonists had almost entirely disap- 
 peared, and Irish clans and their chiefs presumed 
 possession. In Dublin the central government had 
 been shaken to its base, and remained pitifully weak 
 for many a year to come. Accordingly, Irish chiefs 
 and English lords were more independent and tyran- 
 nical than ever. There was incessant local and pri- 
 vate war. Law was almost in abeyance. The 
 wretched inhabitants were robbed and oppressed. 
 There were the conditions which had existed in the 
 England of the "Heptarchy," and in German coun- 
 tries when robbers ruled by the Rhine. 
 
 The representative of the king, the viceroy, was 
 not often able to maintain his authority or keep order'' 
 in the land committed to his charge, neither with re- 
 spect to the natives unsubdued, nor with respect to 
 the Norman nobles. Constantly they fought against 
 the Irish ; as often they carried on strife among them- 
 selves. The power of the viceroy declined, and pres- 
 ently the strength of the invaders. Often the most 
 powerful jurisdictions of the Anglo-Normans were 
 the palatine counties, erected in Ireland, as they had 
 been in England and elsewhere, on the frontier, for 
 defense against the natives, and with the purpose of 
 extending the conquest. In course of time, as the 
 
44 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 English kings neglected Ireland, palatine jurisdic- 
 tions made up more than half of the territory held. 
 Within these territories the rulers had power wellnigh 
 independent, and usually heeded royal authority as 
 much or as little as they pleased. In the course of the 
 thirteenth century, as the Celtic inhabitants began to 
 regain their power, the country of the Anglo-Nor- 
 mans was restricted to various possessions of warriors 
 who had come and conquered estates for themselves 
 and their houses, and particularly to the district 
 around Dublin known as the English Pale. 
 
 During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also 
 the hold of England relaxed, little interest was taken 
 in Ireland, and little attention bestowed. The cen- 
 tral government of Ireland, representing in some 
 measure the authority of England, weaker and 
 weaker as time went on, was engaged in defense 
 rather than extension of conquest. The native Irish, 
 taking advantage of the weakness of the English and 
 their dissensions, recovered some of their lands. But 
 far more important than this was the gradual inter- 
 mingling and fusion of the races, which in the course of 
 this period became almost complete. "Henry II in 
 1171 had led an army for 'the conquest' of Ireland. 
 Three hundred years later, when Henry VII in 1487 
 turned his thoughts to Ireland he found no conquered 
 land." Outside the Pale "was a country of Irish 
 language, dress, and customs. . . . Norman lords had 
 married daughters of Irish chiefs all over the country, 
 and made combinations and treaties with every prov- 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 45 
 
 ince. Their children went to be fostered in kindly 
 houses of the Irish. . . . Many settlers changed 
 their names to an Irish form, and taking up the clan 
 system melted into the Irish population. Irish 
 speech was so universal that a proclamation of Henry 
 VIII in a Dublin parliament had to be translated 
 into Irish by the Earl of Ormond." 6 
 
 There were many natural causes of this, the chief 
 one being that the English settlers were always a 
 minority living in the midst of a far greater number 
 of Celtic inhabitants, who absorbed them in time, 
 much as the Norman-French conquerors of England 
 were absorbed by the Anglo-Saxons. There was also 
 the reason that usually the older generations of 
 English settlers were not favored by the English gov- 
 ernment, and saw themselves passed by in favor of 
 newer arrivals to whom was committed all honor and 
 trust, and who treated them with contempt; the con- 
 sequence being that the older families tended to iden- 
 tify themselves with the Celts among whom they were 
 living, rather than the governing class which repre- 
 sented English authority. Hence the older settlers, 
 once invaders and hated by the natives, became more 
 Irish than the Irish themselves, regarding the authori- 
 ties and the English of the Pale with aversion, and 
 detested by them as "degenerate English" and dis- 
 loyal. Norman shrines were erected to Irish saints. 
 Anglo-Irish noblemen led the Celts in rebellion 
 against English authority, and in course of time, some 
 
 « Mrs. Green, pp. Ill, 112. 
 
46 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of them, like the Geraldines, were more trusted by the 
 natives than most of the Irish chieftains. Irish poets 
 carried their Celtic poems and traditions among the 
 settlers. Anglo-Irishmen and Celts shared together 
 in such revival of feeling and culture as the unhappy 
 times allowed to develop. 
 
 In the midst of the welter of anarchy and tribal 
 dissension there were Irishmen who were renowned 
 as astronomers and physicians. There were still as- 
 semblies of learned men; there was still much copy- 
 ing and recording by scribes. "It was no wonder," 
 says a writer of this present generation, whose en- 
 thusiasm beholds veiy vividly the goodness of times 
 departed, "that in this high fervour of the country 
 the Anglo-Normans, like the Danes and the North- 
 umbrians before them, were won to a civilization so 
 vital and impassioned, so human and gay." 7 
 
 In the fourteenth century the English government 
 became alarmed at the weakness of its authority in 
 Ireland and the independence of the palatine lords, 
 and attempted to strengthen the one and subdue the 
 other. The Pale was steadily dwindling. Edward 
 III sent over his son, afterwards Duke of Clarence, 
 as lord lieutenant. The young prince went forth to 
 save, if possible, the English colony, now reduced to 
 desperate straits. He hated the Irish natives, and 
 also the older settlers from England. His efforts 
 had little success. Three times he came to Ireland. 
 
 7 Mrs. Green, pp. 116, 117. 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 47 
 
 At last in 1367, believing it impossible to conquer 
 the island, he caused to be passed, in an Irish parlia- 
 ment held at Kilkenny, with the purpose of saving the 
 English settlement in the country, the celebrated 
 Statute of Kilkenny, which aimed, in general, to pre- 
 vent the further fusion of the races. The preamble 
 of this law and other laws passed then expound a 
 policy which may have seemed necessary to the unen- 
 lightened statesmen of that time, but which, happily, 
 English-speaking peoples have long since abandoned, 
 and which contemporary students have been more 
 accustomed to find in the doings of Teutonic peoples. 
 The English settlers were becoming mere Irish in their 
 speech and manner of living, had rejected the Eng- 
 lish law, and submitted themselves to the Irish, and 
 had so married and allied themselves with the natives 
 that the English power in the island seemed threat- 
 ened. So now the Statute of Kilkenny forbade, 
 under pain of death, intermarriage, fosterage, and in- 
 timate relations of any kind with the Irish. The 
 English settlers were forbidden to use Irish names, 
 language, customs, or dress, under penalty of for- 
 feiture of property; and the Irish living among the 
 English were forbidden to use the Irish language or 
 submit to the Brehon Law. This statute carried 
 further the fatal policy, which had been adopted by 
 the English government from the beginning, of en- 
 tirely separating the two races, or making unavoid- 
 able intercourse between them painful and unfriendly. 
 
48 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Its benefits were intended largely for the English. 
 In so far as it succeeded, its evil heritage has lasted 
 to the present. 
 
 It is manifest, that such as had the Government of Ireland 
 under the Crowne of England, did intend to make a per- 
 petuall separation and enmity betweene the English and the 
 Irish; pretending (no doubt) that the English should in the 
 end roote out the Irish : which the English not being able to 
 do, did cause a perpetuall Warre betweene the nations : 
 which continued foure hundered and odde yeares, and would 
 have lasted to the Worlds end ; if in the end of Queene Eliza- 
 beths raigne, the Irishy had not beene broken and conquered 
 
 bv the Sword. 8 
 
 t 
 
 The Statute of Kilkenny was passed for the pur- 
 pose of stopping all fusion of the races, and keeping 
 intact a strong English element in Ireland upon which 
 the power of England might be based in holding the 
 island. Its failure was complete. It was not strictly 
 enforced, and probably could not be. English and 
 Irish had been mingling more and more for some 
 generations, trading, intermarrying, fostering. The 
 English settlers themselves frequently petitioned that 
 the law be not enforced; their petitions seem often 
 to have been granted; and the law became a dead 
 letter. But because this policy, pernicious as now we 
 see it, was successful in its immediate purpose when- 
 even it could be enforced, it remained, and attempts 
 were made to support it in later legislation. By 
 divers penal laws the English were forbidden to marry 
 
 s Sir John Davies, A Discoverie of the State of Ireland, etc., in Col- 
 lection of Tracts and Treatises, i. 643. 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 49 
 
 or trade with the Irish, especially in the time of Henry 
 VI and of Henry VIII. Nevertheless, there was a 
 constant tendency for the English settlers to drift 
 toward fusion with the natives. On one occasion 
 King Richard II of England described the inhabi- 
 tants as of three classes: the "Irish enemies," by whom 
 he meant the natives outside the pale of the English 
 law, the Irish rebels, or English settlers and natives 
 who had once obeyed the authority of England, and 
 the English subjects. 
 
 The long reign of Edward III passed with wars 
 abroad in France and then trouble and corruption at 
 home. For England the splendid and specious vic- 
 tories on the fields of France were dearly purchased 
 in weakening hold upon Ireland. Richard, the next 
 sovereign, came over with the greatest army which 
 had ever been brought there, and for a while submis- 
 sion was enforced and order was restored. But im- 
 mediately upon his departure the evils reappeared, 
 and Richard's expedition in the last year of his reign 
 to restore what was falling, ended in disaster, a mis- 
 fortune in no small degree responsible for the loss of 
 his life and his crown. Under the Lancastrian kings 
 of the dynasty which followed, 1399-1461, English 
 power diminished and decayed. The Lancastrian 
 kings had not the best title to the throne, and both 
 Henry IV and Henry VI had many difficulties at 
 home. Henry V undertook a great enterprise of 
 conquest abroad, but again it was in richer and more 
 promising fields, and the victories which were gained 
 
50 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 brought glory in France, but no substantial power, 
 and nothing at all in Ireland. So, during the 
 fifteenth century as in the fourteenth, English mili- 
 tary power was wasted where it could bring no per- 
 manent gain, when a part of it wisely employed might 
 have conquered Ireland completely, and established 
 settled government and order for the lasting benefit 
 of both English and Irish. Once, in 1449, Richard, 
 Duke of York, came from England and ruled with 
 firm and capable hand. He was appointed lord lieu- 
 tenant for ten years with extraordinary powers. He 
 had hopes of becoming king of England later on, 
 and like others in the future, attempted to base his 
 power to some extent upon Irish support. He be- 
 came very popular, but after a short stay returned to 
 England, where he lost his life in the Wars of the 
 Roses. 
 
 So, the conquest of Ireland by England, under- 
 taken, like the conquest of England, by Norman 
 adventurers, but carried out on a less grand scale, 
 usually with scattered forces and dissipated strength, 
 and seldom under the guidance of an able ruler, had 
 in the course of the two centuries elapsed since the 
 days of Strongbow and Henry II failed almost en- 
 tirely except in one thing. Ireland had not been 
 subdued and rendered truly dejoendent upon England 
 or in any real sense made part of a greater empire. 
 Nor had any Anglo-Norman regime of conquerors 
 been set up in Ireland, developing well-ordered power 
 independent of England. What had been done in 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 51 
 
 the beginning had continued with diminishing 
 strength: English settlers had established themselves 
 about Dublin, in Leinster, and along the east coast; 
 Norman barons and soldiers of fortune had built up 
 for themselves petty jurisdictions in which they ruled 
 often with palatine powers. Neither the settlers 
 under the king's viceroy at Dublin, nor the great 
 lords who went their own way had been strong enough 
 to complete the conquest. From time to time great 
 sovereigns came from England with strong forces, 
 received submission and obedience, then departed, and 
 their authority vanished largely when they had gone. 
 And the most wretched thing about it all was that the 
 Irish natives, who might have been best off if left to 
 work out their own civilization which they had begun 
 to develop, but who, lacking that good fortune, would 
 have been happiest in the end if they had been quickly 
 subdued, governed strongly and well, and given 
 security and order, and chance to take part in the 
 rising culture and prosperity of western Europe, that 
 these natives were by the circumstances of the Eng- 
 lish conquest on the one hand debarred from living 
 in peace under their own Gaelic customs and on the 
 other hand were not given and not allowed for the 
 most part to receive such benefits as the Anglo-Nor- 
 man intruders could offer. The stranger could not 
 subdue the native, the native could not drive the in- 
 vader out. One might have predicted that however 
 great would be the suffering resulting from this for 
 the time being- in the end the two peoples would 
 
52 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 settle down together, and mingling and learning to 
 respect each other would have mutual benefit at last. 
 That result did indeed come to a considerable extent, 
 and there was in the midst of all the confusion and 
 misery of the times some revival of prosperity and 
 much promise for the future. But the English gov- 
 ernment at Dublin strove so far as it could to pre- 
 vent this very thing. It was not strong enough to 
 prevent much fusion of the races; it was too weak to 
 establish good order and good government on any 
 model in the island; yet such legislation as it could 
 enforce was intended to keep English and Irish apart, 
 and make of the natives inferiors and outcasts. This, 
 as we see it now, is the tragedy of medieval Ireland, 
 and the most grievous error, perhaps, of English ad- 
 ministration. In the course of time, many of the 
 Irish, hopeless, it may be, of salvation in any other 
 way, themselves desired to have English adminis- 
 tration and law extended to them. "I note as a great 
 defect in the Civill policy of this kingdom," says Sir 
 John Davies, attorney-general in Ireland in the time 
 of James I, "that for the space of 350 yeares at least 
 after the Conquest first attempted, the English lawes 
 were not communicated to the Irish, nor the benefit 
 and protection therof allowed unto them, though they 
 earnestly desired and sought the same." 9 And he 
 says: 
 
 Perhaps the Irishy in former times did wilfully refuse 
 to be subject to the Lawes of England, and would not be 
 9 Collection of Tracts and Treatises, i. 645, 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 53 
 
 partakers of the benefit thereof, though the Crowne of Eng- 
 land did desire it ; and therefore, they were reputed Aliens, 
 Outlawes, and enemies. Assuredly, the contrarie doth ap- 
 peare, aswell by the Charters of Denization purchased by 
 the Irish in all ages, as by a petition preferred by them to 
 the King, Anno 2 Edward Third: desiring that an act 
 might passe in Ireland, whereby all the Irishrie might be 
 inabled to use and injoy the Lawes of England. ... I am 
 well assured, that the Irishry did desire to be admitted to 
 the benefit of the Law not onely in this petition . . . but 
 by all their submissions made to King Richard the Second, 
 and to the Lord Thomas of Lancaster before the warres 
 of the two Houses ; and afterwards . . . when King Henry 
 the Eight began to rcforme this kingdome. 10 
 
 By no means did the Irish generally desire to give 
 up their own and submit to the alien English law. 
 During the fifteenth century their power seemed to 
 increase and that of the English to wane. In spite 
 of all obstacles they were absorbing the English out- 
 side the Pale and even within it. But their own 
 progress had received a fatal setback. Left to them- 
 selves it may be that they would, like other peoples, 
 have evolved a strong central government for an 
 Irish nation in Ireland, out of the lower tribal sys- 
 tem in which they were living. But this, which is one 
 of the most intricate and difficult tasks which ever 
 arises in the life of a people, they were not able to 
 accomplish now. Ireland in the time of the Anglo- 
 Normans and of English domination remained what 
 it had been during the Danish wars and before, a 
 
 10 Ibid., pp. 643, 644. 
 
54 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 country of tribal divisions, in which local warfare and 
 brutality and destruction ever continued. How far 
 this fatal inability to unite in peace and good order 
 was due to inherent political defect in Irish character, 
 as was once so widely believed among Anglo-Saxons, 
 or how far it was the natural consequence of the evil 
 fate which descended upon the Gaels, one cannot know 
 now, and one will decide as sympathy and prejudice 
 direct. 
 
 So the Middle Ages drew to a close. The Irish 
 raided the English settlements, drove the inhabitants 
 farther back, took many of their castles, and in peace 
 absorbed many of the settlers and made of them Irish- 
 men. The Irish chieftains fought among themselves, 
 plundered, slew, and burned, in furtherance of their 
 petty local ambitions. The great lords, descended 
 from adventurers once out of England and Wales, 
 were getting to be local Irish potentates, and con- 
 ducted themselves with the independence and regard 
 for their own interests which characterized the lawless 
 barons of England in the worst days of maintenance 
 and livery. The Pale shrank farther and farther 
 back toward Dublin. The power of England, feeble 
 at home, was almost gone in Ireland. What Eng- 
 land had accomplished in Ireland was mostly an evil 
 thing. She had not really conquered it, but she had 
 been able to retard its own development, keep its 
 people from their heritage, whatever that might have 
 been, and she had sowed evil seeds for the future. As 
 
ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 55 
 
 one peers far back into this old time, he is oppressed 
 with sadness more than with anger, for here was the 
 result of circumstance, ignorance, and incapacity, 
 rather than malevolent intention. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 CONQUEST AND TAKING OF THE LAND 
 
 It seems incredible that a race so utterly destroyed by 
 sword, fire, and famine did not absolutely perish, and that 
 provinces so devastated could have ever recovered. But 
 the race did not perish. In spite of all, the native Irish 
 survived, gathered strength again, and retilled their wasted 
 lands. . . . Annihilation was tried, God only knows with 
 what desperate thoroughness, but it failed. 
 
 Lord Dunraven, The Legacy of Past Years, p. 33. 
 
 In Ireland there was peace. The domination of the 
 colonists was absolute. The native population was tran- 
 quil with the ghastly tranquillity of exhaustion and of 
 despair . . . more than a century passed away without 
 one general insurrection. . . . Nor was this submission the 
 effect of content, but of mere stupefaction and brokenness 
 of heart. The iron had entered into the soul. 
 
 Macaulay, History of England, chapter xvii. 
 
 WHAT we call the medieval period had come 
 to an end as the result of slow operation of 
 many causes. Tribalism lingered on in Ireland and 
 in north Scotland; feudal disorganization was to 
 continue for long years in Italy and the German 
 lands; but generally in western Europe there began a 
 modern period, characterized by profound religious, 
 political, and intellectual changes. In the most pro- 
 gressive parts of Europe large political alterations 
 
 56 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 57 
 
 were taking place. This was a time in Spain, in 
 France, and in England when old local jurisdiction 
 was finally giving place to strong central government; 
 when small divisions of the people were at last being 
 united through a rising spirit of union and national- 
 ism ; when compact nations were getting strong rulers 
 and more capable administration and greater peace, 
 security, and prosperity. These tasks were almost 
 completed at the end of the Middle Ages, and once 
 accomplished there was to come a period when men's 
 minds would turn to enterprises strange and new. 
 In the Renaissance they would explore realms of the 
 intellect long forgotten or not discovered before. In 
 the Reformation they would search profoundly the 
 religion which had so long sustained them. It was 
 the age of discovery: new lands were to be found, 
 and there would be in the strong young nations just 
 formed the ambition to build empires, to subdue other 
 peoples, and include them in new, greater, and 
 stronger jurisdictions. There was freshness of 
 thought, new power of mind, large ambition, and 
 sense of power. Alas, it was also an age of inhu- 
 manity and crudeness. Many a wicked thing was 
 to be done, because men knew no better yet, and be- 
 cause they had not learned to care. Englishmen now 
 with their heritage of humanity from the eighteenth 
 and nineteenth centuries, deplore the things done in 
 Ireland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 But it might have been well for some rash Irishmen in 
 the past few years to remember that the hard and evil 
 
58 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 practices of Englishmen then were never more organ- 
 ized or more widely and deliberately applied than in 
 the scientific barbarism of the Germans in the great 
 war lately ended. Englishmen sinned long ago, and 
 have long since repented and sought to atone. What 
 they did crudely generations ago has been partly ap- 
 plied in Prussian Poland and Alsace-Lorraine since 
 the time of Bismarck, and terribly in all of Europe 
 which the Germans could reach in the years after 
 1914. 
 
 The Tudor and Stuart periods of English and of 
 Irish history are the time when an English nation- 
 state having been built up from London, England 
 strove to acquire possessions overseas, and thus 
 make a greater Britain. From rising ambitions and 
 new consciousness of power, and also because of 
 political necessities, in competition with Spain and 
 with France, England tried to conquer Ireland com- 
 pletely. This was undertaken in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, and in the seventeenth it was completed. After 
 long wars, after immense misery and woe, the pro- 
 cess of conquest was finished. It was made terrible 
 by systematic taking of the land from the natives, 
 for conquest and confiscation went hand in hand. 
 
 In 1485 Henry VII ascended the throne of Eng- 
 land. His position was difficult at first, and he came 
 at the end of a period of confusion and disorder in 
 England, but he was a man of very great ability, 
 and in the end he succeeded very largely in what he 
 undertook, which was the making of a strong state 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 59 
 
 and government and also a united nation. After- 
 wards men thought that his years were the beginning 
 of modern, times in England. When he began his 
 work England's authority in Ireland had disappeared. 
 The Pale was only a small district about Dublin, in 
 which the people lived in terror of the Irish tribes, 
 for the sake of peace paying them blackmail. Else- 
 where the English settlers had come to be as Irish 
 almost as the natives, using Celtic speech, manners, 
 and law. The great men descended from Norman in- 
 vaders were powerful Irish lords; they had their bards 
 and their historians like Gaelic chieftains; often they 
 did not know English; and some of them, like the 
 Geraldines, descendants of men who had come in 
 Strongbow's time, were more trusted and followed 
 by the Celtic inhabitants than sons of old Gaelic 
 houses. 
 
 The English colonists in Ireland had sided with 
 York in the great wars of the fifteenth century, and 
 now twice received opponents of Henry, pretenders 
 to the throne. Therefore, the king resolved to make 
 certain changes in Ireland which would bring the 
 island more completely under his power. In 140', 
 Sir Edward Poynings was sent out as lord deputy. 
 In that year he convened at Drogheda a parliament 
 at which was passed the well-known Poynings Law. 
 It provided that thereafter no parliament might be 
 held in Ireland until the Irish executive and privy 
 council had informed the English king of the legis- 
 lation intended, and until the proposed laws had been 
 
GO IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 approved by the king and his council. Existing 
 English laws affecting the public weal were to have 
 force in Ireland. Most of the Statute of Kilkenny 
 was revived and confirmed. Generally in after times 
 the first of these provisions was known as Poynings 
 Law. By its operation the Irish parliament, which 
 had developed during the Middle Ages with the par- 
 liament of England, which had been independent ex- 
 cept in so far as it was subordinate to the king, and 
 which had on one memorable occasion in 1449 dis- 
 tinctly asserted its independence, was reduced to en- 
 tire dependence upon the king of England and his 
 council. It was indeed only a parliament of the Eng- 
 lish settlers in Ireland, so that the great body of the 
 population, the Celtic natives, cared nothing, perhaps, 
 for its fate, governed as they still were by Brehon 
 and old Irish custom; yet later on, when English law 
 was extended over all the country, it became the in- 
 strument by which England dealt with the Irish peo- 
 ple. 
 
 Henry attempted to govern Ireland through Eng- 
 lish officials, but succeeded no better than others be- 
 fore him. He then turned to a powerful Anglo-Irish 
 leader, Gerald Fitzgerald, "the great Earl of Kil- 
 dare," who had been doing much as he pleased. "All 
 Ireland cannot rule this man!" was the well-known 
 accusation against him. "Then if all Ireland can- 
 not rule him, he shall rule all Ireland," said the king, 
 as he made him the lord lieutenant. He continued a 
 faithful servant to the king, and afterward to Henry 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 61 
 
 VIII, acting with vigor in the tribal wars, and fight- 
 ing against Irish chieftains. His son and his grand- 
 son followed in this high position, while from time to 
 time great officials were sent out from England. 
 
 In general the policy of Henry VIII was one of 
 conciliation, though he dealt with the chieftains and 
 lords, and, as was usual then, recked little of the mass 
 of the people. There was much confusion. There 
 were rebellions and wars which brought unspeakable 
 desolation and misery; and after varying adventures 
 the Geraldine house of Kildare was nearly extermi- 
 nated. As the aristocracy was humbled in England 
 by the strong rising power of the king, so were the 
 great Anglo-Irish houses destroyed or bridled in Ire- 
 land. And the vast changes in England when Henry 
 broke with Rome and took the monastic property, 
 reached into Ireland also. The king attempted after 
 a while to assert his position in Ireland as much as in 
 England. In 1536 and the following year, an Irish 
 parliament declared Henry supreme head of the 
 church, and dissolved all connection with the Pope. 
 Religious houses were suppressed and their property 
 taken as in England. Old laws were revived which 
 prevented the mingling of the English and the Irish. 
 Bribery and cunning completed what the king did 
 not accomplish by force, and the Irish chiefs were 
 incited to work one another's destruction. At last 
 in the midst of misery and confusion, and as a result 
 of the king's continued policy of pressure and per- 
 suasion, the Irish leaders were disposed to submit to 
 
 
62 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 him and make peace. Accordingly, in 1541, a parlia- 
 ment was assembled, which, for the first time, Irish 
 natives attended. Many of the Anglo-Irish members 
 understood no English, so that the speeches were 
 rendered in Gaelic. Here was conferred upon 
 Henry and his successors the title of king of Ireland, 
 formally enhancing his authority, and relieving him of 
 the older title once conferred by the Pope. This 
 statute passed in a parliament said to have been care- 
 fully bribed and packed, was carried without dissent, 
 and was followed by general submission to the king, 
 not the first, yet the first real submission. Every 
 chief of consequence in the country gave his alle- 
 giance. 
 
 This yielding to the king's temporal and ecclesias- 
 tical authority, brought about by his conciliatory at- 
 titude, by his skilful management, and by wide dis- 
 tribution of honors and favors, was not a submission 
 of the Irish people, who took no part in it and knew 
 little or nothing about it. Henry had won the chiefs 
 by giving them the titles to the tribal lands which by 
 Brehon Law were the property of the members of the 
 clan or the tribe. The ownership of the members had, 
 indeed, for a long time been weakening with the 
 gradual weakening of the Celtic law, from the influ- 
 ence of English settlers and from economic changes, 
 so that the position of many of the members had come 
 to be that of the old fudirs or non-free members of the 
 community. Nevertheless memory of the old right 
 lingered deep in the consciousness of the people, even 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 63 
 
 where it was dying in fact, and the memory persisted 
 for a long while after. In Ireland, as in England, 
 the great changes of this period were carried through 
 by the government and the leaders. After a while 
 it was seen that in England the mass of the people 
 wished them, and so they remained. But this was not 
 so in Ireland. The chiefs had in some manner been 
 won to the English king; the people clung to their 
 old religious system and rights of tribe and of land. 
 There was still to be reckoning with them. 
 
 In respect of Ireland the conduct of Henry, marred 
 though it was by evil, had been, if the age is con- 
 sidered, moderate and not very cruel. It was neither 
 enlightened nor considerate of the Celtic people. 
 The general idea was always to prevent the absorption 
 of the English settlers into the Irish people, and also, 
 if possible, to effect the Anglicizing of the Gaelic in- 
 habitants. Steadily the power of the king was en- 
 larged. For the most part his policy succeeded, and 
 at the end of the reign the chiefs seemed contented, 
 the country was at peace, and it appeared that the 
 English power in the island was stronger than ever 
 before. 
 
 But now began a time more dreadful than any be- 
 fore it, a period of religious divergence and larger 
 political ambitions, a period of great rebellions, ter- 
 rible defeats, widespread confiscations of the land, 
 and methodical plantation of aliens in the island; and 
 when at last at the end of the seventeenth century 
 the thing was done, the Irish people were ruined and 
 
64 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 submerged, their religion trampled down, and their 
 Irish culture very largely destroyed. Under Mary 
 and Elizabeth and James I, English power in Ireland 
 was established and consolidated by ruthless war and 
 expulsion and even extermination of the Celtic peo- 
 ple, and the planting of Englishmen and Scotchmen 
 in their place ; and this policy, which seems so horrible 
 now, was often urged forward by the English settlers 
 ever more closely bound to England. 
 
 In England the Reformation began openly in the 
 reign of Edward VI. In 1551 Protestant doctrines 
 and forms were brought into Ireland. The Catholic 
 system was restored under Mary, but overthrown 
 again when Elizabeth came to the throne. In Eng- 
 land the process of transition was difficult enough, 
 but as time went on the majority of the people gave 
 up their attachment to Rome, and this was evident 
 by the time the Armada was defeated. But in Ire- 
 land the change was made by authority and not ac- 
 cepted by the Irish natives. 
 
 So there came into being the last of the great forces 
 which have operated to keep the English and the 
 Irish peoples apart. There had been differences of 
 temperament and of race ; one had developed a strong 
 national government, the other remained with its 
 tribal polity ; the one had developed its Common Law, 
 the other clung to the Brehon customs ; and yet in the 
 course of time there had been so much fusion as to 
 promise well for the future, except that this fusion 
 was absorbing the English into the Irish, whereas the 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 65 
 
 English government desired to draw Irishmen unto 
 itself. Perhaps this might have been done after a 
 while, as much as in Wales or in Scotland, but now 
 came another influence to hold the two apart, rein- 
 forcing the other obstacles until there was a barrier 
 scarce to be crossed. Since the days of Patrick and 
 Columba the Irish people had been of the old Cath- 
 olic faith. It was administered to them by priests 
 who spoke the Gaelic tongue. When the Irish church 
 was regulated under Elizabeth, provision was made 
 that none should be appointed as pastors unless they 
 spoke English. This was strictly in accord with con- 
 temporary ideas of consolidating English power and 
 rendering the people English, but it resulted in this, 
 that Protestantism got no hold on the people, and that 
 the old faith, taught now by the priests proscribed, 
 came to be a thing peculiarly their own, with the 
 Protestant religion in their minds pertaining to the 
 oppressor. Hence the Irish clung to Catholicism 
 with all the passionate fervor of their nature, and in 
 the days of strong religious feeling, persecution, and 
 religious Mars, a great gulf was fixed which remains 
 to the present. The Irish were Roman Catholics; 
 but Protestantism remained the state religion until 
 the disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869. 
 
 A variety of forces worked together now for the 
 destruction of Celtic Ireland. Social, economic, and 
 religious factors aroused discontent in the natives and 
 drove them into rebellion. Steadily also English 
 power was exerted to make Ireland more truly a de- 
 
66 IRELAND AXD ENGLAND 
 
 pendency of England. They are mistaken who be- 
 lieve that this resulted merely from blind greed and 
 lust after conquest. It was in pursuance of sound 
 statecraft that Ireland was sought and held firmly. 
 "The things men fight for" are often the result of 
 natural forces and geographical position rather than 
 human passion. As the rivalries of great states de- 
 veloped at this time and the greater rivalries of em- 
 pires and colonial dominions, it was seen, what had 
 not been so true before, that because of mere geo- 
 graphical position England was not safe with Ire- 
 land uncontrolled or unfriendly. "In the great sea- 
 wars of the past," says Admiral Lord Charles Beres- 
 ford, "Ireland has always been regarded by the enemy 
 as providing the base for a flank attack upon Eng- 
 land." * It was in Ireland that the pretenders began 
 their operations in the time of Henry VII, and assist- 
 ance to the natives was one of the schemes of France 
 in the rivalry between Henry VIII and Francis. 
 With the great development of English and of Span- 
 ish sea power in the time of Elizabeth and Philip II, 
 Ireland became almost as great a problem to English 
 statesmen dealing with the machinations of Spain as 
 England was to the Spanish leaders striving to re- 
 conquer the Netherlands. In each case the naval and 
 geographical situation was of immense importance. 
 Actually Philip did attack England through Ireland, 
 sending troops to the Irish rebels, and some of the 
 
 i "Home Rule and Naval Defence," in Against Home Rule, the Case 
 for the Union (London, 1912), p. 189. 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 67 
 
 best known military exploits of Sir Walter Raleigh 
 were in grim and merciless fighting against the in- 
 vaders. When the Stuart kings attempted to erect 
 a despotism of divine right in England, their great 
 minister turned to Ireland as a source of soldiers and 
 supplies. As naval power further developed and 
 naval strategy was more deliberately worked out, a 
 stroke at England through Ireland became part of 
 the plan of every one of the enemies of England. 
 So it remained throughout the wars with France in 
 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, just as it 
 was in the mind of Bernhardi at the beginning of the 
 twentieth. Admiral Mahan once pointed out how in 
 the crisis of the struggle between England and France 
 in the days of William and Mary, the French fleet 
 struck at the allied fleets in the Channel while a strong 
 French force Mas sent against the English line of 
 communication across Irish waters ; and readers of the 
 narrative of Macaulay will not forget how a French 
 expedition went to the assistance of James and the 
 Irish soldiers in Ireland. So it was in the wars which 
 followed the French Revolution. There were at- 
 tempts to land French troops in Ireland in 1796 and 
 1798. If it be said that Spaniards and Frenchmen 
 were called by Irishmen to help them to be free of 
 intolerable conditions and win their independence, it 
 must be answered that this is certainly true; but it 
 must at the same time be said that for their part 
 France and Spain were using Ireland to damage 
 England, and that to England the secure possession 
 
68 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of Ireland seemed from the nature of things a matter 
 of vital necessity. I shall hereafter endeavor to show 
 that this fundamental element in political and mari- 
 time strategy has not disappeared, but has assumed 
 more importance with the passage of time, and that 
 recently it has constituted the most important of all 
 the reasons why the people of Great Britain, with a 
 view to the interests of their forty millions of people, 
 dare not think of the separation from them of Ireland 
 or of its complete independence. Unfortunately this 
 condition of things will persist so long as there are 
 international rivalries and wars and rumors of wars. 
 Therefore the English statesmen who sought to 
 build up a strong England in the company of a greater 
 Spain and a greater France, made it a definite and 
 fundamental policy to bind Ireland to England 
 securely. For all larger purposes the British Isles 
 are one group whose different peoples would be best 
 off together, supposing there was fair dealing be- 
 tween them, and the experience of ages has made this 
 evident to the inhabitants of Scotland and Wales. 
 In the course of time it would doubtless have been 
 manifest to the Irish people that their best interests 
 lay in union with England in respect of all world 
 affairs, so that a conquest thorough and complete 
 would ultimately have been no disaster, had the con- 
 querors been generous and humane, and shared with 
 their new subjects the rights and privileges which 
 they held dear themselves. This is where memory 
 arises in judgment, and this is why the past has 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 69 
 
 put such a curse on the present : it is not that Ireland 
 should not have been united closely with England, 
 but that there ought not to have been such a terrible 
 fate meted out to the Irish in the process. 
 
 Seldom has such doom fallen upon men and women 
 in modern times as came with the complete conquest 
 of Ireland. The land was taken from its Irish pos- 
 sessors, and the natives driven out, slaughtered, or re- 
 duced to servitude awful and hopeless. It is difficult 
 to understand it all now. Some of the blame must 
 be put upon the cruel spirit of the times; something 
 to the inherent difficulties of the case. There had 
 been age-long fighting and disorder in Ireland, tribal 
 warfare, burning and plundering on both sides. 
 There was mighty danger then; strong was the feel- 
 ing of the age of colonial conquest and religious wars ; 
 fearful and drastic remedies were wont to be applied. 
 
 In 1547, in the reign of Edward VI, after the con- 
 quering of some Irish chiefs, the country of Leix and 
 Offaly was given to certain Englishmen in much the 
 same fashion that territory was later on granted to 
 adventurers in Virginia and Carolina. They pro- 
 ceeded at once to expel the native inhabitants and 
 put English tenants in their place. Whatever may 
 be thought of the consequences of this in a thinly 
 peopled country like Maryland or Massachusetts Bay, 
 and of the ensuing spoliation of the Indians, the con- 
 sequences were very horrible in a populous country 
 like Ireland, where the old possessors naturally re- 
 sisted with desperation, and were hunted like beasts 
 
70 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of prey. All during the reign of Edward fighting 
 went on savagely, and the promoters of the enterprise 
 profited little. In Mary's time the country was made 
 into two counties, property of the crown, to be held 
 strongly, divided into farms and estates, and replanted 
 with English settlers. Such was the beginning of the 
 plantation system in Ireland. A war of extermina- 
 tion was carried on with torture and murder, the un- 
 happy Irish making savage reprisals. Thus by the 
 time of Elizabeth the question of land, the most im- 
 portant of all to the natives, was definitely added to 
 religious difference and religious persecution, and the 
 two increased the old tribal resistance and warfare. 
 
 Ireland was the most troubled part of Elizabeth's 
 dominions, and there some of her great captains, like 
 Essex, Sidney, and Raleigh, rose in service, and did 
 terrible deeds which their admirers wish not to remem- 
 ber. In the south, in Munster and Connaught, the 
 ceaseless feuds of the Butler and Geraldine families 
 culminated about 1565 in the rebellion of the Catholic 
 Earl of Desmond, leader of the Fitzgeralds. Over 
 Munster, Connaught, and at length over Leinster, the 
 fighting spread, engrossing the attention of the lord 
 deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, and other English lead- 
 ers. At last, after years of terrible and weary fight- 
 ing, the struggle ended with the death of the Irish 
 leader and all resistance was crushed. Starvation 
 and systematic destruction completed what the sword 
 had done partly. In 1582 information was given to 
 Elizabeth that 30,000 had been starved to death in 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 71 
 
 Minister as a result of destroying the crops. The 
 poet Spenser wrote of the advantage to be gained by 
 this method: "the end will ... be very short and 
 much sooner than can be in so great a trouble, al- 
 though there should none of them fall by the sword 
 . . . yet thus being kept from manurance, and their 
 cattle from running abroad, by this hard restraint 
 they would quickly consume themselves, and devoure 
 one another." He gives a picture of desolation and 
 despair to stir the heart even now: 
 
 Ere one yeare and a halfe they were brought to such 
 wretchednesse, as that any stony heart would have rued the 
 same. Out of every corner of the woods and glynnes, they 
 came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legges could 
 not beare them ; they looked like anatomies of death, they 
 spake like ghosts crying out of their graves ; they did eate 
 the dead carrions, happy where they could finde them, yea, 
 and one another soone after, insomuch as the very carcasses 
 they spared not to scrape out of their graves ; and, if they 
 found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they 
 flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to con- 
 tinue therewithall ; that in short space there were none al- 
 most left, and a most populous and plentifull countrey sud- 
 dainely left voyde of man and beast. . . . 2 
 
 The details of the struggle have been forgotten, but 
 the memory of horror long remained imprinted in the 
 national traditions. 
 
 In 1586 the estates of Desmond and his adherents, 
 about 1,000,000 acres, were confiscated. Proclama- 
 
 2 A View of the State of Ireland, etc. (1596), in Collection of Tracts 
 and Treatises, i. 525, 526, 
 
 I 
 
72 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 tion in England invited gentlemen to undertake the 
 plantation of this rich territory. The "undertakers" 
 were to settle English families on their holdings as 
 tenants, and no Irish were to be taken. Low rents 
 and other inducements were offered to attract set- 
 tlers. Sir Walter Raleigh took 42,000 acres in Cork 
 and Waterford; Edmund Spenser 12,000 in Cork. 
 But this first plantation in Munster was largely a fail- 
 ure. Not many settlers came from England; the 
 natives were not expropriated, and such as survived 
 the fighting and turmoil which ensued were received 
 as tenants. But the local Irish gentry was destroyed, 
 and English landlords, many of them absentees, ap- 
 peared in their stead. 
 
 Meanwhile in Ulster, in the north, much the same 
 thing had occurred. About 1551 began a rising led 
 by Shane O'Neill. A long struggle ensued, in which 
 tribal dissension and opposition to the English were 
 mingled together. O'Neill desired to free Ulster 
 from English influence and unite the northern tribes 
 under his rule. After many vicissitudes, and griev- 
 ous trouble to the English leaders, at last he was 
 ruined. His attainder was followed by the confisca- 
 tion of more than half of Ulster. At once an at- 
 tempt was made to drive out the natives and plant 
 English settlers in their stead. In 1573 several no- 
 blemen tried to make a fortune in this enterprise. 
 Soon came burning, slaughter, and destruction of 
 crops, massacre, treachery, and ferocious resistance 
 by the natives. 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 73 
 
 Little wonder that Spaniards were invited to bring 
 help to the natives, and that in the great struggle 
 of the time of the Armada emissaries of the Pope 
 and of Spain easily stirred up trouble in the island. 
 In 1595, during the later years of Elizabeth, the earl 
 of Tyrone led a great movement against the English 
 in Ulster. He sought help from Spain, and after 
 many adventures won a considerable triumph. Es- 
 sex, favorite of the queen, was sent with a powerful 
 army, but accomplished nothing, and being compelled, 
 perhaps, to give Tyrone liberal terms, returned, as is 
 well known, to the queen's anger and shortly after 
 death on the scaffold. From the great power which 
 Tyrone attained, slowly his fortunes waned, but his 
 resistance did not come to an end till the very end 
 of Elizabeth's life. Complete collapse of Irish re- 
 sistance came with the flight of the Irish earls in 1607, 
 and this indeed marked the end of the old tribal sys- 
 tem in Ireland. 
 
 Early in the reign of James I large confiscations 
 were made in the north, and the great plantation of 
 Ulster laid out. In 1611, six counties, the lands of 
 Tyrone and Tyrconnel, were given to English and 
 Scottish undertakers, who planted them with colon- 
 ists from England and Scotland, especially the bor- 
 der country. Many of the natives were driven out; 
 many more remained as laborers and tenants. This 
 was the most successful of the plantations, and its 
 results constitute one of the most difficult of the pres- 
 ent day problems of Ireland. By 1620 the provinces 
 
74 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of Ulster, Minister, and Leinster had largely been 
 laid out in plantations. There was even a proposal 
 to extend the system to Connaught. 
 
 With respect to these plantations, it should be 
 remembered that they were not isolated phenomena 
 of this time, for there were plantations in America 
 and the West Indies, and in each case the purpose 
 was the same, the extension of the trade of England, 
 and the settling of some of her people in dominions 
 over the sea. In America, where lands were vacant 
 or held by savages in scanty numbers, the results are 
 the magnificent commonwealths of the western world. 
 But in Ireland, where the intention was also to con- 
 quer the country completely by extending England 
 into Ireland, the operation was incredibly heartless 
 and cruel. There was no thought of the rights of the 
 Irish people. The Romans had once done such 
 things, and there are events not very different in the 
 history of ancient and medieval times. In Ireland 
 plantation succeeded for the most part only enough 
 to cause misery to the natives. Its immediate results 
 were massacre, suffering, and ruin, desperate resist- 
 ance, and vengeful memories that sometimes seem not 
 destined to die. Englishmen nowadays, as many of 
 them for a long while past, repent this, and sorrow 
 that such things once were done. 
 
 The beginning of the Stuart period was marked by 
 some very important changes. In 1604 and the years 
 following English law was introduced into northern 
 Ireland, then extended over the country. Sheriffs 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 75 
 
 and judges were appointed, and the Celtic inhabitants 
 for the first time put under the protection of the gov- 
 ernment. This had been sought long before by some 
 of the natives, and it would have been well for them 
 if they had been able to get it. Now it came when 
 the land was being taken away from them, and, indeed, 
 its sudden application to the tenure of land worked 
 hardship to many of the members of the septs, whose 
 rights were destroyed in favor of those who possessed 
 the land when the decree went into effect. Further- 
 more, in the following years, under the new law, all 
 sorts of chicanery and oppression were used to despoil 
 the natives of still more of their landed possessions. 
 In 1605 tanistry and gavelkind were abolished, and 
 inheritance made subject to the English law. 
 
 This was a period of great changes and revolution 
 in England, in the course of which the fortunes of 
 Ireland were profoundly affected for the worse. Im- 
 mense alteration of circumstances had brought about 
 a conflict between parliamentary power and royal 
 prerogative under divine right. Once the king's 
 power had been almost supreme in the state; it was 
 yet supreme in outlying dominions, the colonies and 
 the scattered islands, so far as he could enforce it; 
 but in England the greatness of parliament was rising 
 as rival and superior. 
 
 The struggle began under James I, and grew more 
 bitter in the time of his son. Then a great minister 
 of the crown, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, 
 attempted to make Ireland completely subservient to 
 
76 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the king, and there build up forces which could im- 
 pose the royal will upon England and Scotland. He 
 did his work in Ireland in the midst of the confusion 
 which followed the taking of the land. In 1633 he 
 came as lord deputy, and during six years applied his 
 policy of "thorough" or carrying things through, with 
 immense ability and force. He gave strong rule and 
 good order and some increase of prosperity compared 
 with what he found, at the same time that he developed 
 a well disciplined army for the use of the king. In 
 all that he did he brooked no resistance. He was 
 just preparing to confiscate lands in Connaught and 
 plant English colonists there, when troubles in Eng- 
 land called him back. There he had to face the Com- 
 mons of the Long Parliament. They brought him 
 to his death for high treason, in planning to overawe 
 England with Irish soldiers. 
 
 Almost at the moment when the contest began be- 
 tween Charles I and this parliament, there was a great 
 rising of the Irish in Ulster. It was the result of 
 general misery among the Irish, the system of planta- 
 tion, the taking of lands through legal devices, and the 
 proposed spoliation of Connaught. The movement 
 spread over the island until all but Dublin was lost. 
 Excesses were committed by the vengeful peasants 
 in massacre and destruction, and the fearful rumors 
 which reached England, purposely much exaggerated 
 in passing, aroused cries for vengeance and more con- 
 fiscation. An army must be sent over, but for some 
 years nothing was done, for neither king nor parlia- 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 77 
 
 ment would trust the other with control of the forces, 
 and presently came civil war and revolution and death 
 of the king. In 1649 a republic was established, 
 largely founded upon the military genius of Crom- 
 well, and in that year revenge and conquest were un- 
 dertaken. In Ireland Cromwell worked with as ter- 
 rible effect as in England. He was a mighty man, 
 a sword of God, stern in religious fervor, fanatic in 
 the cause he deemed just. His rejDutation in the two 
 islands is very different. In England after a great 
 while he was seen as the defender of parliamentary 
 and constitutional liberties, the great champion of 
 the free governments of the English-speaking world. 
 In Ireland he is hated to this day, and partly that 
 hatred is deserved, for there he bore himself some- 
 what in the manner that we abhorred so much in mod- 
 ern Prussian commanders. Drogheda he took by 
 storm, and put the garrison to the sword in cold blood. 
 It srhould be said that garrisons then, refusing to sur- 
 render, as the men of Drogheda did, were slaughtered 
 when they had been overcome; nevertheless now this 
 act seems a stain on the great man's career. Then 
 he conquered all the eastern part of the island, after 
 which, leaving his lieutenants to complete the work, 
 he went away to greater exploits in north England 
 and Scotland. 
 
 By 1652 the work was done in Ireland, and done 
 so terribly that a third of the inhabitants had per- 
 ished, by the sword, by pestilence, and by famine. 
 What followed was arranged by parliament, though 
 
78 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 because it was approved by the general and made pos- 
 sible by his victories, it is known as the "Cromwellian 
 Settlement." Henry VIII had attempted to extend 
 English control in Ireland by conciliation or coercion 
 of the chiefs; Elizabeth and the Stuarts had substi- 
 tuted force and colonization; their system now was 
 extended and made yet more thorough. Large parts 
 of Ulster, Leinster, and Minister had already been 
 taken from the natives for the plantations established ; 
 parliament now confiscated practically all of the is- 
 land excepting Connaught and County Clare, the 
 most worthless portions. Into them the Irish own- 
 ers were pressed, whether they were native Celts or 
 earlier colonists from Britain. The laborers and arti- 
 sans were not included in the deportation. The lands 
 thus taken in the three provinces were given to Eng- 
 lish soldiers and supporters in the Irish war. It was 
 not only conquest but nearly entire confiscation. 
 
 So the process of spoliation was practically com- 
 plete. From the time of Henry II, when the taking 
 of the land had been begun by adventurers abetted by 
 the crown, to the time of Charles II, when the work of 
 the Cromwellian Settlement was sealed, nearly all of 
 Ireland had changed hands several times through for- 
 feiture and confiscation. In England and in other 
 countries also during the Middle Ages, as the result 
 of rebellion and revolution, the lands often changed 
 hands; but then they passed from one lord to an- 
 other, usually of the same race, religion, and speech. 
 In Ireland the land had been almost entirely taken 
 
CONQUEST OF THE LAND 79 
 
 away from the native proprietors, or from the tribes, 
 in so far as common holding still persisted, and given 
 to alien proprietors, while the mass of the people had 
 been exterminated, or driven away, or else left upon 
 the lands of their ancestors in lowly and servile de- 
 pendence. This must always be remembered in con- 
 nection with the later lawlessness of the Irish and the 
 bitterness of the land wars which have sometimes dis- 
 quieted the island. Deeply rooted in the native mind 
 were the feeling that the rightful owners had once 
 been supplanted by alien masters, and the instinct, 
 based upon old tribal law, that an occupier ought not 
 to be evicted. 
 
 With the Restoration and Charles II much of 
 Cromwell's work was undone in England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland, but Charles was unable to restore all the 
 property which his supporters had lost in England, 
 and in Ireland he obtained for them almost nothing. 
 In the next generation the struggle between parlia- 
 ment and crown for supremacy was continued until 
 the Revolution of 1688. Before the crisis of the 
 struggle James II sought to win the Irish to his sup- 
 port, and was aided in this by yearning on the part of 
 proprietors dispossessed to recover the lands taken 
 from them. When James fled from England, and 
 Ireland supported him against his enemies, an Irish 
 parliament assembled in 1689, which made sweeping 
 changes, and taking, as it must have seemed to the 
 members, righteous vengeance upon the oppressors, 
 restored all the property which had been forfeited 
 
80 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 in consequence of the rebellion of 1641. But the bat- 
 tle of the Boyne and the loss of Limerick ruined the 
 hopes of James and the Irish, and all this was un- 
 done. Again the victory of the English was marked 
 by confiscation. The work of the Irish parliament 
 was of course undone, and in addition, more than a 
 million acres belonging to over a thousand proprietors 
 was forfeited. About a fourth of this was restored, 
 but the remainder was distributed anew, largely to 
 the foreign supporters of William of Orange. 
 
 So, the period in English history which is the time 
 of the Glorious Revolution, is the time when Irish 
 hopes came to an end for ages. The Irish had sur- 
 vived the wars of extermination of Elizabeth and 
 Cromwell, but they remained now an enfeebled race. 
 Of those who were left, some tilled the soil of their 
 fathers little better than serfs, others had taken refuge 
 in the wild and forbidding parts of the west. Four- 
 fifths of the land had been confiscated ; and two-thirds 
 of all the good land was actually in possession of alien 
 owners. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 
 
 That the British Protestants and Church have three- 
 fourths of all the lands ; five-sixths of all the housing ; nine- 
 tenths of all the housing in walled towns and places of 
 strength, two-thirds of the foreign trade. That 6 of 8 of 
 all the Irish live in a brutish, nasty condition, as in cabins, 
 with neither chimney, door, stairs, nor window ; feed chiefly 
 upon milk and potatoes, whereby their spirits are not dis- 
 posed for war. 
 
 Sir William Petty, The Political Anatomy of Ire- 
 land (1672), chapter V, section 1. 
 
 So sleeps the pride of former days, 
 
 So glory's thrill is o'er 
 And hearts, that once beat high for praise, 
 
 Now feel that pulse no more. 
 
 Thus Freedom now so seldom wakes, 
 
 The only throb she gives, 
 Is when some heart indignant breaks, 
 
 To show that still she lives. 
 
 Moore : "The Harp That Once Through Tara's 
 
 H«alls," Irish Melodies. 
 
 THE story to be related in this chapter has often 
 been told, and it will often be retold in the fu- 
 ture: an old tale of selfish rule and pride of dominion, 
 and of misery deep and unending. The condition of 
 the Irish people in the eighteenth century was prob- 
 
 81 
 
82 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ably the most wretched in Europe: or if there was, 
 indeed, as lowly degradation in parts of the central 
 and eastern lands, yet certainly in Ireland it was very 
 far worse than the condition of the inhabitants of 
 countries nearby, Scotland, England, the Nether- 
 lands, Spain, and France of the old regime. And be- 
 cause bad as it was, it was not so intolerable and crush- 
 ing but that the victims survived and continued a 
 heart-breaking struggle, they have been able in the 
 course of time to take terrible vengeance; for they 
 have handed down to their children a bitterness and 
 condemnation which has been spread all over the 
 world. 
 
 Ireland, like other countries at this time, was pre- 
 dominantly agricultural and pastoral. From the 
 Irish most of the land had been taken. There were 
 still many native proprietors in the barren Connaught 
 hills, who in the midst of their lonely moors dreamed 
 of the days when their fathers had lived on the better 
 lands of the east. Those lands were now mostly held 
 by proprietors or settlers introduced from Britain 
 when the plantations were made or the wars had been 
 finished. Among them were sturdy small holders, 
 but there had long been a tendency here as across the 
 Channel towards consolidation into great estates, and 
 now much of Ireland was in the hands of country 
 gentlemen and large owners. They were Protestant 
 for the most part, and generally alien in race. Upon 
 their estates lived most of the Irish peasantry. Over 
 them the landlords had, because of conditions to be 
 
THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 83 
 
 explained, not, perhaps, the power of a Prussian 
 junker or a Hungarian noble, but powers none the 
 less of dangerous greatness. Chesterfield, lord lieu- 
 tenant about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
 declared that the poor people of Ireland were worse 
 used than negroes. "The landlord of an Irish estate 
 inhabited by Roman Catholics," wrote Arthur Young 
 later on, "is a sort of despot, who yields obedience in 
 whatever concerns the poor to no law but that of his 
 will. A landlord in Ireland can scarcely invent an 
 order which a servant, labourer, or cotter dares to 
 refuse to execute." If any one complained he would 
 be horsewhipped, and no justice of the peace would 
 dare issue a summons in his behalf. 1 He does speak 
 of the kindly relations which existed between many 
 proprietors and their tenants, just as many favorable 
 instances have been cited in the slave-holding South 
 before the Civil War; but there were several condi- 
 tions which conspired to make the situation very bad. 
 English policy and conditions in Ireland made the 
 great men a race of superiors dealing with inferiors 
 far beneath them. The Anglo-Irish gentry were im- 
 provident and fond of display, and, emulating more 
 and more their wealthier rivals in England, had to get 
 from their tenants as much revenue as they possibly 
 could. Worst of all was the evil of absenteeism. 
 From much earlier times alien lords of Irish estates 
 had gone to England to live on their rents. The evil 
 was noticed in the fourteenth century, laws were 
 
 i Quoted in The ABC Home Rule Handbook (London, 1912), p. 126. 
 
84 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 passed to compel residence on pain of forfeiture, and 
 once Henry VIII made a seizure of lands held in 
 this way. In 1729 a writer estimated that £627,000 
 a year was remitted on account of landlords who lived 
 abroad, and in the long list which he gave he thought 
 many names were wanting. The absentees were not 
 afraid of their tenants, for they lived far away from 
 them ; and they had little desire for their welfare, be- 
 cause they were almost ignorant of their existence. 
 They had with them neither community of interest nor 
 sjnmpathy of race. 
 
 The condition of the peasantry was miserable. 
 Almost their only means of getting a living was work- 
 ing on the land, and this could be done only on small 
 holdings obtained from some landlord usually for 
 high rent. As population increased and competition 
 was keener for land, the dues became higher and rents 
 became rackrents. There was no incentive to indus- 
 try and better working, for if the tenant improved 
 the land, something that the landlord himself was 
 seldom willing to do, the improvements belonged to 
 the landlord, who usually then raised the rent because 
 of the value increased by the improvement ; and if the 
 tenant removed he got nothing for what he had done. 
 Thus these people lived on, lowly and miserable, 
 never far from starvation. In 1729 and 1741 there 
 were famines widespread and appalling. 
 
 Nor were other aspects of their life better than 
 this economic depression. Irishmen were oppressed 
 with what now seems intolerable civil and religious 
 
THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 85 
 
 discrimination, but which was unfortunately charac- 
 teristic of that age in England and almost all Europe. 
 When in 1691 the Irish army had surrendered to 
 William's lieutenants, it was stipulated that Roman 
 Catholics should enjoy such exercise of their religion 
 as was consistent with the law, or as they had en- 
 joyed in the time of Charles II. After the surrender 
 faith was broken, and the English parliament took 
 measures as repressive as those undertaken by Cath- 
 olic authorities in Bohemia and in Poland in the days 
 of the Counter-reformation. It was provided that 
 no person should sit in the Irish parliament nor hold 
 any office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, nor practice 
 law or medicine, until he had taken the oaths of al- 
 legiance and supremacy, and declared against tran- 
 substantiation, thus debarring Catholics from politi- 
 cal and professional life. Papists must not possess 
 arms, nor horses above the value of five pounds, and 
 it was lawful any time to seize the horse of a papist 
 upon paying him money to that value. Penalties 
 were ordained for Roman Catholics who undertook 
 to teach school publicly or in private houses, except- 
 ing the children of the family. A Catholic who went 
 beyond sea, or sent any one else, to be trained in pop- 
 ery lost all civil rights. It was not long before Ro- 
 man Catholic prelates and regular clergy were ban- 
 ished from Ireland, and while secular priests were 
 allowed to remain, none were to be admitted from 
 abroad, the intention being that presently the Cath- 
 olic clergy should die out, since there were left no 
 
86 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 bishops for new ordination. Thus it was proposed to 
 take from the great mass of the Irish people their spir- 
 itual directors, and destroy Irish and Catholic educa- 
 tion. It is true that these and other unhappy laws 
 were not rigidly enforced, and ignorant but devoted 
 priests continued to live among the peasants, helping 
 them to carry on something of the old tradition until 
 happier days ; but the wretched people were compelled 
 to pay tithes for the support of the ministers of the 
 established Protestant church, with whom they would 
 have naught to do, and give up the Irish church 
 buildings for a handful of Protestant worshippers, 
 while they followed their own priests out into the open 
 fields. There were many other discriminations. 
 Catholic parents must provide for Protestant chil- 
 dren ; no land once held by a Protestant could ever be 
 possessed by a papist ; among Catholic children an es- 
 tate should be equally divided, but if the eldest son 
 became a Protestant within a year, he was the heir at 
 law. Catholics were not only debarred from office; 
 they were not permitted to vote in elections. Had 
 these laws been enforced to the uttermost, it may be, 
 as some think, that Irish Catholicism and national 
 spirit would have been destroyed. But actually the 
 persecution in Ireland was far less than that which 
 destroyed Protestantism in Bohemia and Spain. Ap- 
 parently the minority in power, to whom many of 
 these regulations were owing, did not so much wish 
 the majority to conform to their religion as to keep 
 them in hopeless subjection. "One of the great cen- 
 
THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 87 
 
 tral facts of Irish history is that the colonists never 
 wished the Catholics to become Protestants," says a 
 learned authority. Nevertheless, he adds, for a hun- 
 dred years, "the great majority of the inhabitants had 
 no legal existence, and, like the helots and slaves in 
 ancient and modern states, did not count as part of 
 the commonwealth. The colonists had all the land, 
 all the places of honour and emolument, and prac- 
 tically unrestricted liberty to do with their helots 
 whatever they pleased." 2 
 
 So, having no part in the government of the land 
 where they lived, debarred from office, tried in the 
 courts of aliens by a law not the law of their fathers, 
 despised, treated with contumely, having no redress, 
 without chance to make a living except by lowly 
 drudgery on confiscated lands, the best Irishmen 
 fled from this island of sorrow. In the seventeenth 
 century they had gone to Spain for help, but after 
 the subjugation by William they went into the serv- 
 ice of France, and it is estimated, doubtless with ex- 
 aggeration, that in the period 1691 to 1745, 450,000 
 soldiers died in the service of that country. Great 
 numbers of them also went to the new promised lands 
 of America, some as slaves and indentured servants, 
 others to seek fortune in the west, thus beginning 
 that Celtic emigration to America which, more than 
 a century later, was to increase so greatly as to be 
 one of the dominant factors in the history of the 
 
 2W. K. Sullivan, in Two Centuries of Irish History, 1691-1870 (Lon- 
 don, 1907), pp. 28, 29, 36. 
 
88 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 United States. For a great while Ireland's best went 
 abroad: in the eighteenth century to France; in the 
 nineteenth they went to America. 
 
 Very different was the position of the colonists. 
 Under the power of England, the English and Scot- 
 tish immigrants lorded it over the natives, a part of 
 them, who were members of the established church, 
 holding the offices, electing the parliament at Dublin, 
 and subsisting upon the revenues of the land, pro- 
 duced largely by the native peasants. But the vicious 
 system which protected the colonists also took ven- 
 geance upon them. At one end of the scale the Prot- 
 estant minority in Ireland tyrannized over the Celtic 
 majority, but at the other the English aristocracy 
 and commercial classes held the Irish colonists in the 
 hollow of their hands, and between these extremes the 
 Episcopalians in Ireland, one-third of the Protestants 
 there and one-eleventh of the whole population, had 
 a monopoly of offices and privileges and were able to 
 discriminate against the far more numerous body 
 of Protestant dissenters. Presbyterians and others 
 were gradually cleared from magistracies and office, 
 and under the Act of Uniformity were always liable 
 to prosecution. It will be seen that as the colonists 
 lived by the suppression of the native Irish, so they, 
 the minority of the population of the island, were held 
 down and often despised by a small part of their own 
 number, who were members of the established church, 
 for whom most of the offices and rewards of state were 
 reserved, while even this smaller minority, at the very 
 
THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 89 
 
 top though it was in Ireland, founded its power alto- 
 gether upon support from England, and therefore 
 had to submit without complaint to whatever Eng- 
 land might choose to impose. 
 
 The government of Ireland was carried on by a 
 lord lieutenant or, in his absence, by lords justices, in 
 the name of the king, but actually during all the period 
 1691-1782 under the auspices of the parliament at 
 London. The lord lieutenant was one of the small 
 group of powerful officials who made up the English 
 cabinet during this period, and who were taking away 
 the king's power. In Ireland he was supported by 
 the armed forces of England, and he, and the other 
 officials of Dublin Castle sent over from England, 
 were seldom controlled by any force in Ireland, but 
 always by the English ministry and the parliament of 
 England. Often the lord lieutenant spent most of 
 his time in England, coming to Ireland only when 
 parliament was held there, leaving things meanwhile 
 to the lords justices, and especially to one of them 
 who managed things in the English interests by deal- 
 ing with the "undertakers" or great magnates, who 
 controlled or owned the greater part of Irish parlia- 
 mentary representation. The chief business of this 
 manager was to see that money was appropriated by 
 the Irish Houses, to prevent any tendency towards in- 
 dependence from England, to forbid anything preju- 
 dicial to English interests or trade, and prevent the 
 further growth of the Roman Catholic religion. The 
 most successful of them was Archbishop Boulter, who 
 
90 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 was practically the ruler of Ireland from 1724 to 
 1742. His principal maxim was that the most im- 
 portant offices were to be filled with English ap- 
 pointees. Generally speaking, the idea was that 
 England should control the Protestants and the Prot- 
 estants the Catholics in the island. 
 
 The parliament was a shadow. It represented only 
 the Protestant minority, and even then it had little 
 power. Poynings' Act had long ago subordinated it 
 completely to the English privy council, and in 1719 
 the British parliament asserted its own power to make 
 statutes binding on the Irish people. While Ireland 
 was thus under the control of an English parliament 
 acting over a subordinate Irish parliament, English 
 ministers did what they pleased. Pensioners, mis- 
 tresses of Hanoverian kings, politicians who must be 
 rewarded, and others, were quartered on the scanty 
 Irish revenues until the pensions amounted to =£89,- 
 000. When one thinks of the wretchedness of most 
 of the people from whom after all the revenues were 
 drawn, there comes to mind once more recollection 
 of that French lady of the eighteenth century who had 
 a pension upon the fund for the purchase of the galley- 
 slaves' bread. The parliament at Dublin could do 
 little but persecute the natives and dissenters, and sel- 
 dom was able to protect any class in Ireland from 
 British domination. In 1698 William Molyneux, a 
 member, published his famous pamphlet, in which he 
 affirmed the legislative independence of the Irish par- 
 liament, saying that taxation without consent was 
 
THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 91 
 
 little better than robbery, and declaring that the free 
 people of England ought to view it with abhorrence. 3 
 Nothing was accomplished by his writing. And the 
 character of this Irish parliament was contemptible. 
 There was abominable corruption and shameless job- 
 bery and pilfering of public funds. It was indeed an 
 age when corruption was so common in British parlia- 
 mentary life that statesmen found themselves unable 
 to do without it. But the testimony of Swift and 
 Arthur Young and some others seems to show that 
 the Irish assembly was as dishonest and base as lack- 
 ing in power and dignity, so that afterwards there 
 were not wanting some who regarded the Act of 
 Union as a blessing, because it relieved them of this 
 sham parliament at Dublin. 
 
 In the eighteenth century ideas of liberty and 
 equality were not well developed. In the middle of 
 the seventeenth century they had been grandly con- 
 ceived and stated by some of the English revolution- 
 aries, but they were not destined to spread until they 
 had been better worked out in America and finely 
 formulated by the enlightened intellect of France. 
 So during all this period of the rule of Ireland by 
 the British parliament, that body which had so nobly 
 asserted its own liberties maintained in accord with 
 the temper of the time a tyranny in the neighboring 
 island. Not only were Celtic Catholics kept inferior 
 to Protestant colonists, but Englishmen in Ireland 
 
 3 The Case of Ireland's being Bound by Acts of Parliament of England 
 Stated (1698). 
 
92 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 were kept inferior to their countrymen in England. 
 This was shown particularly in the economic dis- 
 crimination which completely crushed the industry 
 and commerce of Ireland. From the time of Eliza- 
 beth the commercial bodies of England waged re- 
 lentless war on the business and trade of Ireland. In 
 the sixteenth century Irish beeves were sold in the 
 English market, but this was declared a nuisance and 
 forbidden by law. Then salted provisions were sent 
 over ; this was likewise stopped, and prohibitive duties 
 kept leather and hides out of England. When later 
 the sheep industry flourished in Ireland, the importing 
 of Irish wool into England was hindered. It must 
 be remembered that at this time usually such things 
 were done by one country with respect to another, 
 but it was especially hard in the case of Ireland, which 
 was in these years being forcibly drawn closer to 
 England. In the seventeenth century the Irish tried 
 to manufacture the wool which they raised, many Eng- 
 lish, Scottish, and foreign manufacturers came over 
 to work it, and a thriving industry was established; 
 but in 1699 the export from Ireland of manufactured 
 woolens was entirely forbidden. One result was that 
 some 20,000 Scotch-Irishmen left Ulster for Amer- 
 ica, and at the time of the Revolutionary War Eng- 
 land had no bitterer foes than their descendants. 
 The weaving of silk also had scarce been begun before 
 it was ruined. Only the linen industry, established 
 in Ulster with its favorable climate and carried on by 
 
THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 93 
 
 Huguenot refugees, was permitted, and even this be- 
 got jealous dislike. 
 
 With industry deliberately crushed out, commerce 
 fared little better. Ireland has numerous harbors 
 opening to the west, which had once favored com- 
 merce with Gaul and Spain, and which in the seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth centuries seemed to give great 
 advantage for trade with America. About 1680 
 Irishmen competed successfully with Englishmen in 
 European ports and the French West Indies; but as 
 the result of a long series of English Navigation Acts 
 this was brought to an end, until there was left to 
 Ireland nothing but opportunity for some trade with 
 England and restricted trade with the English col- 
 onies. "The conveniency of ports and harbours which 
 nature bestowed so liberally upon this kingdom is of 
 no more use to us than to a man shut up in a dungeon," 
 said Swift. 4 
 
 These things were done in a time very different 
 from ours. In the eighteenth century there was a 
 great deal of bigotry, cruelty, selfishness, and despotic 
 rule unenlightened or dull, and it must be said that 
 at this time many of the people all over Europe lived 
 in lowly condition and often misery too great for 
 expression. There was in England and Scotland in 
 those days much privilege of class, with much eco- 
 nomic oppression, and the lower classes of the people 
 there had not yet come to the days when they could 
 
 4 Quoted in The ABC Home Rule Handbook, p. 223. 
 
94 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 make themselves heard. They too had wrongs for 
 redress, and they had to wait for the nineteenth and 
 twentieth centuries to get that redress. And on the 
 other hand it must be remembered that the picture 
 was not all and universally dark. There were some 
 just landlords, there were some happy peasants, there 
 was some prosperity and joypf living, and all through 
 this period there was some progress which can still 
 be discerned. Nevertheless, when all allowance is 
 made, the condition of the Irish people was inferior, 
 miserable, and debased; Ireland was being treated by 
 England as a conquered province, an inferior colony, 
 a subordinate domain; and Ireland in the eighteenth 
 century was administered by England with much of 
 the brutal and obstinate tyranny that our free peo- 
 ples feared from a Prussia triumphant. It is true, 
 all colonies then were held subject to the will of the 
 controlling country, and their inhabitants debarred 
 from many privileges and rights which they longed 
 much to have; and Ireland, if not a colony, was con- 
 sidered an outlying dominion. In course of time 
 Spain lost her colonies in South America partly be- 
 cause of this, and England also some of the best of 
 hers. It was the particular misfortune of Ireland 
 that she was in such peculiar position that the worst 
 wrongs of old colonial administration fell upon her, 
 while she was so near at hand that she never could 
 break away. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 grattan's parliament 
 
 The subject, as a subject, is as free in Ireland as he is in 
 England. As a member of the Empire, an Irishman has 
 every privilege of a natural-born Englishman, in every oc- 
 cupation, and in every branch of commerce. 
 
 Edmund Burke to the Rev. Dr. Hussey, May 18, 1795. 
 
 ABOUT 1780 there came in the history of Great 
 Britain one of those epochs when it seems that 
 the doom of a people and empire approaches, when 
 fortune wanes and friends stay aloof, when enemies 
 grow bold, and those who once crouched are defiant 
 and bitter. Woe to a nation if then there be wrongs 
 not yet righted, or things to be done left undone. 
 Such a time found Ireland at the end of a long period 
 of abject and servile depression, longing for deliv- 
 erance, rejoicing at any calamity to the oppressor, 
 resolved to extract from that calamity the uttermost 
 to its profit. In 1914 a greater danger appeared, a 
 more terrible doom was threatened, and then, Eng- 
 land who had righted most of the wrong, and largely 
 atoned, found that part of the Irish people still re- 
 joiced in the evil day, wishing well to the German, 
 and forgetting benefits new thought only of ancient 
 wrongs or a future made in their dreams. 
 
 In 1781 England, militant and triumphant a short 
 
 95 
 
96 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 while before, was at bay, with Europe hostile or fight- 
 ing against her, and at the point of losing the best 
 of her colonial dominions. Against a world in arms 
 Englishmen and Scotchmen were fighting a hopeless 
 fight. The Americans, who had rebelled against the 
 old colonial system, had not been subdued, Saratoga 
 and Yorktown had been lost, and supported now by 
 France and by Spain, the colonists were not to be 
 conquered. Sweet was the revenge of France and 
 Spain, so hardly defeated a few years before. Eng- 
 lishmen and their enemies might well think that the 
 glories of Britain had set, that the future stretched 
 darkly before them. 
 
 "England's necessity is Ireland's opportunity," 
 has often been uttered by Irishmen. So it was now. 
 After the Irish army had surrendered at Limerick 
 and gone into the service of France, for almost a hun- 
 dred years Ireland was prostrate, and however great 
 the wrongs and indignities given her, there had never 
 been chance of successful resistance. Now at last 
 opportunity had come. The troops which had over- 
 awed Ireland were withdrawn for distant service. 
 Englishmen were struggling against odds in America, 
 in India, in the West Indies, fighting against Hol- 
 land and France and Spain. Sometimes they lost 
 command of the sea. They could no longer be de- 
 fiant or lordly. Bodies of Irish Protestant troops 
 were organized to defend Ireland from danger, and 
 loyal though they were against England's foes, they 
 commanded respect. For the first time in genera- 
 
GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 97 
 
 tions Great Britain must yield to Ireland's desires. 
 In such a time there are always additional factors. 
 The resistance of the American colonists awakened 
 something in the Irish heart. Taxes were increased 
 at the very time when the colonial market was closed, 
 and general discontent arose in the island. Most im- 
 portant of all, there now came to strength what had 
 been growing slow and in silence for a generation or 
 more, a feeling of Irish nationality — an ancient thing 
 which had often striven to dominate the country in 
 days of old, but always had been thwarted by tribal 
 disorganization or the undoing by the invader or op- 
 pressor. During the eighteenth century England had 
 ruled easily by basing her power upon force and the 
 religious division in the country, much as Austria 
 dealt with the Jugo-Slavs in our time; but now there 
 was ever more the feeling that Protestants in Ireland 
 never could get what they needed with the Catholic 
 majority enslaved. The most conspicuous leader in 
 this development of a united Irish nationality was 
 Henry Grattan, who entered the Irish House of Com- 
 mons in 1775. He moved men by his fervid patriot- 
 ism and evident honesty of purpose, and by a splendid 
 eloquence which Lecky thinks was the finest heard 
 among English-speaking peoples since the time of the 
 elder Pitt. Grattan desired to end the feuds between 
 the colonists and the natives and make them a united 
 Irish nation. Both England and the colonists strove 
 now to win the native Irish, but they threw in their 
 lot with their colonial fellow countrymen, and a united 
 
98 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 nation seemed made. Irishmen were happier in 1782 
 than in 1914, when north Ireland would have civil war 
 rather than Home Rule with the rest of the island. 
 So, England began to heed the protests of the Irish 
 political leaders. Some of the restrictions on trade 
 were soon removed; Irish Protestant dissenters were 
 freed from taking the sacramental test as a condition 
 of holding office, something which had often been 
 evaded in England and Ireland, but which did debar 
 people of scrupulous conscience, and continued to de- 
 bar them in England for a half century longer; and 
 after a while concessions were made to the Catholics. 
 In 1779 there were about 40,000 volunteers in 
 arms, commanded by the Irish aristocracy. There 
 were bold words and great demonstrations. In 1780 
 Grattan moved that the king and the Irish parlia- 
 ment were the only power competent to make laws 
 for Ireland. By the beginning of 1782 the war had 
 been finally lost in America, Lord North's ministry 
 fell, and in May of that year the new ministry re- 
 moved the restrictions once put on the Irish parlia- 
 ment. Early in 1783 a law was passed which declared 
 that forever thereafter the Irish people should be 
 bound only by laws passed by the king and the parlia- 
 ment of Ireland. "Ireland is a nation," cried Grat- 
 tan. "Esto perpetua." * This is the great event to 
 which Irishmen of later generations fondly looked 
 back. Until recently it was something like this ar- 
 rangement that most of them wanted restored. 
 
 i Sullivan, p. 91. 
 
GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 99 
 
 At first England's action seemed to have produced 
 all the good effects which advocates recently predicted 
 for Home Rule. A great wave of emotion swept old 
 hostility away. Grattan himself said that next to the 
 liberty of the country he desired above all things "not 
 to accustom the Irish mind to an alien or suspicious 
 habit with regard to Great Britain." 2 The first thing 
 which the independent Irish parliament did was to 
 vote 20,000 sailors for the British navy. On the other 
 hand, some of the best Englishmen wished Ireland 
 now to be regulated by Irish notions in Irish interests, 
 feeling that the more this was so the more would she 
 really be bound to Great Britain. 
 
 Some excellent work was accomplished. Most of 
 the penal code against Roman Catholics was swept 
 away, and they were admitted to the franchise, though 
 not allowed to have seats in the parliament. Freedom 
 of trade had been secured, and Irish commerce began 
 to flourish, industry to revive, and the fisheries to at- 
 tain great prosperity. In the days of woe soon to 
 come men looked upon this era as a fortunate age ; but 
 it has been said that the prosperity which arose was 
 after all fictitious and not shared by the mass of the 
 people, since it was due mostly to temporary condi- 
 tions, redounding to the benefit of a few. During all 
 this period of legislative independence England was 
 at war or preparing for war; she needed great sup- 
 plies for her armies and fleets, which were easily 
 
 2 W. E. H. Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (London, 
 1903), i. 104. 
 
100 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 produced in Ireland, predominantly agricultural, and 
 obtained in Irish ports. Hence there was a war pros- 
 perity and great war profits, like those which recently 
 enriched certain classes in Norway and the United 
 States. However this be, and there is difference of 
 opinion, there can be little doubt that Ireland in the 
 period 1782-1800 was better off than before, and for 
 some time thereafter, if not because she was gov- 
 erned by a parliament of her own, at least because she 
 was no longer under the civil and commercial restric- 
 tions which characterized the worst years of English 
 rule. 
 
 Still there was much which Ireland had not yet ob- 
 tained, and it was very difficult to succeed with the 
 evils existing. In Great Britain then the ministry, 
 or executive, was not responsible to the people, but 
 it was largely dependent upon parliament, little as 
 that parliament represented the people. For Ireland 
 there was no executive responsible to the Irish par- 
 liament, for the lord lieutenant and his chief secre- 
 tary were appointed, as is the case yet, by the British 
 government, so that no cabinet fell when an Irish 
 majority was wanting, and really important executive 
 measures depended upon the British cabinet working 
 in secret at a distance. Furthermore, the Irish parlia- 
 ment continued to be the corrupt and unrepresenta- 
 tive body which long it had been. In Great Britain 
 parliament, based largely upon small corporations, 
 and pocket and rotten boroughs, and controlled so 
 easily by a few wealthy and powerful magnates, was 
 
GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 101 
 
 greatly in need of reform; and it should be noted 
 that much as English reformers were striving to 
 bring about betterment, practically nothing was se- 
 cured in Great Britain until 1832, and no funda- 
 mental change until more than thirty years later. 
 Ireland at this time had likewise the old, corrupt sys- 
 tem which existed all through the British Isles. Out 
 of 300 members in the Irish House of Commons 216 
 sat for boroughs or manors, most of which were easily 
 controlled by wealthy magnates or persons connected 
 with the government in Dublin Castle; so that the 
 Castle could as a rule control the proceedings of the 
 House. This control was exercised by the important 
 English officials and their Irish connections; and as 
 officials are in effect usually controlled by an inner 
 group of powerful members, so the Castle was domi- 
 nated by a very small body known as the Junto, of 
 whom Fitzgibbon, lord chancellor, afterwards Earl of 
 Clare, was now the most influential. Thus Ireland 
 was easily ruled through its parliament by the English 
 government and managed by the powerful members 
 of the Junto. 
 
 Forn erly this parliament had represented in some 
 manner only the Protestant minority, having no con- 
 nection whatever with three-fourths of the people. 
 In 1793 Catholics were permitted to vote for mem- 
 bers, but they might not represent their fellows by 
 sitting in the House. Catholics, who had assisted, 
 so far as they were allowed, in obtaining the conces- 
 sions just granted by England, now began agitation 
 
102 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 to be admitted to the government. Some English of- 
 ficials favored their cause, and some Protestant cor- 
 porations in Ireland supported their petition. The 
 viceroy favored their complete emancipation, but 
 nothing was done. It would seem that most of the 
 Protestants strongly opposed admitting Roman Cath- 
 olics to sit in parliament, since Catholics, the great 
 majority of the nation, if enfranchised, might soon 
 give control of the government to members of their 
 own faith. This is one of the reasons why Ulster 
 Protestants feared Home Rule in 1914; and it will 
 be recalled that objection about numbers was made to 
 admitting women to the parliamentary franchise in 
 Great Britain. Furthermore, there was nothing more 
 dreaded by some of those in power than liberal treat- 
 ment of Catholics, by which they might become thor- 
 oughly contented and work loyally with the Protes 
 tants, so that the Irish people might present a solid 
 front to the Irish oligarchy and the British govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Troublous times had come after 1789. The French 
 Revolution began with grand and generous reforms 
 and wild and radical proposals. Its effects were felt 
 in western and central Europe, where mighty changes 
 soon took place, in far-off America, where youthful 
 enthusiasm rose, and in Great Britain and Ireland, 
 where the lowly and discontented began to believe 
 in some vague way that the time of deliverance was 
 come. What distrust and alarm these stirrings caused 
 
GRATTANS PARLIAMENT 103 
 
 in the minds of the just but conservative everywhere, 
 we can understand better now, after the rule of the 
 Bolsheviki in Russia. In Ireland there was still dis- 
 content enough. Grattan's period had given some 
 industrial and commercial prosperity, and a sense of 
 freedom and hope for the future, but the condition of 
 the mass of the people had not been greatly changed. 
 Still they groaned under rackrents, and under greedy 
 middlemen and landlords. For them violence might 
 bring something better. At first the theories and 
 principles of the French radicals affected not the Ro- 
 man Catholics but the Presbyterians of Ulster, who 
 liked a republic better than monarchy; but presently 
 most Catholics were attracted also by hope of relief 
 from economic oppression and old discrimination. In 
 1791 Wolf Tone, a Dublin barrister, founded the 
 Society of United Irishmen, in which he brought to- 
 gether Protestants and Catholics to get reform by 
 remaking the Irish parliament and getting greater 
 freedom from English control. The result was a split 
 in the Catholic ranks, between the educated upper 
 classes, who would get their relief from England, and 
 the more ignorant and radical majority, who would 
 force it themselves. 
 
 In 1795, Lord Fitzwilliam, a liberal Whig, was sent 
 to Ireland as lord lieutenant. He at once took de- 
 cided steps toward reform, and encouraged Grattan 
 to introduce a bill to admit Roman Catholics to par- 
 liament. But the Junto soon secured his recall; and 
 
104 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the disappointment and bitterness resulting, and the 
 baseness and harsh brutality of some of the reaction- 
 ary officials, led straight to rebellion. 
 
 The Irish population, unhappily divided in so many 
 ways, now divided again on distinctly religious lines. 
 The Catholics, embittered and goaded into violence, 
 saw the northern Protestants desert them and found 
 the Orange Society. The United Irishmen, forced 
 to disband, reappeared with intentions treasonable to 
 the British government, and sought for the aid of 
 France. Two French expeditions went forth, but 
 accomplished nothing, largely because of British com- 
 mand of the sea. In 1797, martial law was pro- 
 claimed, and the treatment of Catholics was so bar- 
 barous that one may say that they seemed to be goaded 
 into violent uprising. The general rebellion, which 
 broke out in 1798, was generally a failure from the 
 first; and after savage violence and more savage re- 
 prisals, it was soon completely stamped out. There 
 was a reactionary reign of terror in Ireland, as in 
 Paris after the Revolution of 1848. Horrible deeds 
 of killing and torture followed. These were the days 
 when caps filled with burning pitch were put down 
 upon the heads of unhappy wretches. "The horror 
 of death lay over Ireland ; cruelty and terror raised to 
 a frenzy." 3 
 
 Such was the far-famed period of Irish legislative 
 independence. So much that was good seemed ac- 
 complished that afterwards these years were cherished 
 
 3 Mrs. Green, p. 219. 
 
GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 105 
 
 by the Irish as a golden age. Yet this time was one 
 of much trouble, and at last of entire disaster. The 
 failure was owing partly to evil conditions not yet 
 done away with, partly to the difficulty of getting all 
 classes of Irishmen to work for their country to- 
 gether, and partly because the dangerous interna- 
 tional situation caused Englishmen to see with dis- 
 may any weakening of the ties between Ireland and 
 Britain, particularly the increasing tendency of Irish 
 extremists to bring about complete separation. Na- 
 poleon had conquered half Europe; the conquest of 
 the British Isles was one of his principal designs for 
 the future. Already the French had twice gone to 
 Ireland, and an invasion of England was soon to be 
 expected. In this crisis, English statesmen, confront- 
 ing division and hostility in Ireland at the same time 
 that they were occupied with danger from abroad, re- 
 solved to bind Ireland to England more closely than 
 ever before; so closely that if possible there might in 
 the future be actual union of all the parts of the Brit- 
 ish Isles. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 
 
 I hope I feel as becomes a true Irishman for the dignity and 
 independence of my country, and therefore I would elevate 
 her to her proper station in the rank of civilised nations. I 
 wish to advance her from the degraded post of a mercenary 
 province to the proud station of an integral and governing 
 member of the greatest empire in the world. 
 
 Speech of John, Earl of Clare, in the House of 
 Lords of Ireland, February 10, 1800. 
 
 That Union, so called, as lucus a non lucendo, a union 
 from never uniting, which in its first operation gave a death- 
 blow to the independence of Ireland, and in its last may be 
 the cause of her eternal separation from this country. If it 
 must be called a Union, it is the union of the shark with his 
 prey ; the spoiler swallows up his victim, and they become one 
 and inseparable. Thus has Great Britain swallowed up the 
 Parliament, the Constitution, the independence of Ireland. 
 Lord Byron in the House of Lords of the United 
 Kingdom, April 21, 1812. 
 
 THE union of Great Britain and Ireland followed 
 the suppression of the rebellion of 1798. It is 
 one of the most important events in the history of the 
 Irish people, and the one which has, perhaps, been 
 more denounced and obscured by their patriotic 
 writers than anything else. So much has been writ- 
 ten about it in controversial passion, that now it often 
 
 106 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 107 
 
 seems hopeless to try to arrive at a fair understand- 
 ing. 
 
 The history of the principal divisions of the British 
 Isles is in large part the record of a gradual assem- 
 bling about England in closer union; and generally, 
 it may be said, this has been advantageous to all the 
 parts. Wales was incorporated into England dur- 
 ing the Middle Ages, and formally the work was com- 
 pleted in the time of Henry VIII. The conquest 
 of Scotland was attempted by Edward I, who con- 
 quered Wales, but the Scots developed a stronger 
 sense of nationality, before their kinsmen in Ireland, 
 and so were able to maintain an independence upon 
 which Scotchmen nowadays look back with pride, but 
 which actually rendered the Scots and the people of 
 northern England far less happy and fortunate than 
 would probably have been the case if an honor- 
 able union had been established. Certainly some 
 hundred years of barbarous border warfare would 
 have been avoided, and all the country from Durham 
 to Aberdeen blessed with an order and prosperity 
 which came very late. In 1603 a union of Scotland 
 with England was partly accomplished, when the two 
 kingdoms were brought together under James I. 
 They were to have the same king, but separate coun- 
 cils, parliaments, and governmental organizations. 
 A closer union was often desired by the progressive 
 people in both countries, but national pride and local 
 prejudice made this impossible for another hundred 
 years. In 1707, after a bitter struggle, in the course 
 
108 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of which many patriotic Scots and Englishmen felt 
 that the interests of their lands were being ruined and 
 betrayed, England and Scotland were joined by an 
 act of union in the Kingdom of Great Britain, and 
 after a generation had passed in which the irrecon- 
 cilable opponents disappeared, most persons saw that 
 England and Scotland now conferred upon each 
 other great benefits and great prosperity and happi- 
 ness. If there was some inequality, the benefits were 
 possessed by Scotland. 
 
 To bring about a closer union with Ireland was 
 more difficult and less desired by England. Crom- 
 well did assemble representatives from Ireland in his 
 parliaments, as he brought them also from Scotland, 
 but with his death this union came to an end. When 
 Scotland and England were at last being united, 
 there were not wanting Irishmen who wished that the 
 same might be done in respect of their country, and 
 the Irish Houses of Parliament sent petitions to Lon- 
 don for it in 1703 and 1707. Had England granted 
 it as this time, doubtless Ireland with equal laws and 
 trading privileges would have gone towards a happier 
 future. During the eighteenth century eminent 
 writers like Sir William Petty and Adam Smith ad- 
 verted to the advantages of such union. 
 
 When the rebellion of 1798 was ended, the younger 
 Pitt, who headed the British government then, was 
 confronted with problems much greater than those 
 concerning Ireland alone. One of the things to be 
 noticed by the student of Irish history is the narrow 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 109 
 
 views of a great many of its writers. Recently ad- 
 vocates of the immediate granting of Home Rule to 
 Ireland, or those who speak so loudly in behalf of 
 complete independence for Ireland, have seemed to 
 take into consideration nothing but the affairs of Ire- 
 land alone, and seemed to care little for the effects 
 upon England and the rest of the world. To them it 
 has been more important that Ireland immediately get 
 what they thought she should have than that the war 
 against Germany be won or any of the delicate and 
 complicated things which concern the position and re- 
 lations of other peoples be taken in mind. So the 
 Nationalist and Sinn Fein writers who tell the story 
 of the union of Ireland with England, expatiate with 
 horror upon the fraud and corruption and violence 
 which brought it about, without intelligent study of 
 the conditions which prevailed then, and tell the story 
 solely with reference to Ireland, recking little, it 
 would seem, that then also England was locked in 
 struggle with one of the mightiest of her foes, fight- 
 ing one of the most difficult struggles which ever she 
 waged. Irishmen, justly discontented, were inviting 
 Frenchmen to invade their island, as in 1914 some 
 others sought assistance from Germans. Then as 
 now a hostile Ireland giving base for the enemy's 
 flank attack might have been fatal. As in the days of 
 Elizabeth, so in the administration of Pitt, it was a 
 vital interest of England to make sure of Ireland. 
 
 There were other considerations. Under Grat- 
 tan's Parliament the aspirations of many Irishmen 
 
110 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 had been very fine, and they had struggled manfully 
 against fatal and evil conditions of the circumstances 
 in which they were placed. It is true also that re- 
 actionaries both in England and in Ireland had tried 
 to make them fail. The fact was, however, that Ire- 
 land under her own parliament had not achieved 
 union of the peoples or solution of the problems that 
 vexed them. Had there been no international 
 dangers, and if the best men of Ireland had had a 
 longer time and a fairer chance, perhaps all of these 
 difficulties would have been removed in the end. But 
 while the ardent and discontented now may describe 
 merely the iniquity of wrongs in the past, statesmen 
 at the time had to deal with things as they were. 
 Pitt viewed the great danger of an Ireland discon- 
 tented and not closely held while England was fight- 
 ing for her life; he saw the necessity of redressing 
 grievances which could not be removed under the cir- 
 cumstances existing; he saw the necessity of admit- 
 ting the Roman Catholics to a share in the govern- 
 ment, and the reluctance of the Protestant minority 
 to yield up control. He thought, and other good 
 men in Ireland as well as in England thought, that 
 these difficulties might best be removed by merging 
 Ireland into a greater union with Great Britain, as 
 Scotland had formerly been joined with England. 
 This he undertook to accomplish. 
 
 It is true that much of the opinion in Ireland was 
 strongly against such a union. There was a great 
 deal of well-deserved hatred of England; there was 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 111 
 
 strong and increasing consciousness of Irish nation- 
 ality, as once there had been in Scotland; and the 
 spirit of the French Revolution with its rights of 
 man and aspirations of peoples had some effect. 
 Furthermore, the existing Irish government, which 
 had done very little for Ireland, had much to lose by 
 the change. Hence the Union was carried in Ire- 
 land largely by intimidation and coercive persuasion ; 
 and in the Irish parliament by bribery wholesale and 
 open. But it is scarcely true to say, as is often said 
 now, that the members of the Irish parliament were 
 bribed by Pitt to sell their countrymen's trust. For 
 no really representative assembly sold what had been 
 entrusted to it by the people. At that time both in 
 England and Ireland those who controlled parliamen- 
 tary boroughs thought that they owned, and were 
 thought to possess, a property to be bought and sold. 
 The principle of compensating owners of boroughs 
 was recognized in England in 1785 when Pitt pro- 
 posed to reform the parliamentary system there. In 
 Ireland this was done now, and such compensation, 
 together with titles, presents, cajolery, and threats, 
 procured for the British authorities a majority in the 
 Irish parliament for the Union. It may be that this 
 was, as Lecky thought, against the wishes of five- 
 sixths of the people of Ireland. But most popular 
 writers treat of the matter in terms of legislative con- 
 ditions at present. It should be remembered, as 
 Lecky also said, that without bribery, pressure, and 
 persuasion not only the Union could not have been 
 
112 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 carried, but no real reform of the Irish parliament, 
 which the best Irishmen then earnestly wished for. 
 
 Irishmen may properly regret the taking away 
 of their legislative independence, and one may justly 
 sympathize with their indignation and regret; but it 
 is fair to explain that what was done away with by 
 force and corruption was a corrupt and ineffective 
 thing; and that if it was done with consideration of 
 England's welfare foremost in mind, there were ex- 
 cellent reasons for believing that it would produce 
 benefits and reforms much needed in Ireland; and 
 that far from being an act of brutal tyranny by Great 
 Britain, it was considered by some wise men in Ire- 
 land as well as in England to be best under the cir- 
 cumstances for the interests of all the inhabitants of 
 Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 By the terms of the Act of Union of 1800 the par- 
 liaments of Great Britain and Ireland were united, 
 32 Irish peers sitting in the House of Lords at West- 
 minster and 100 Irish members coming to the House 
 of Commons. The United Church of England and 
 Ireland was to be a fundamental part of the new 
 system. The name of the new state was to be the 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 Some one commented upon the fact that a common 
 legislature had been formed, but no common name 
 had been found, as was easily done for Eng- 
 land and Scotland; and Irish writers have seen in 
 this the symbol of the unreal arrangement accom- 
 plished. Englishmen fondly believed that by this 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 113 
 
 scheme they had settled the most vexatious problem 
 which perplexed them ; but in the next hundred years 
 there was to be much more violent opposition, with 
 constant efforts at last to annul this Union. 
 
 With Ireland subdued and held by armed forces 
 conditions were such that there could not be the bitter 
 and open resistance to the new government which 
 Scottish malcontents so long preserved. Some may 
 recall that in 1713 a motion was made in the British 
 parliament to dissolve the union between England 
 and Scotland; and the Highlands were not won over 
 entirely until after the measures following the sup- 
 pression of the Rebellion of 1745. But the circum- 
 stances and terms of the union of England and Scot- 
 land were such that only the operation of time was 
 necessary to reconcile the vast majority in both coun- 
 tries, and great economic advantages counterbalanced 
 the sacrifice of Scottish nationality. Unhappily in 
 Ireland a great many of the reforms which were 
 needed, and some of the most important things prom- 
 ised, were neither attended to nor fulfilled for a long 
 time afterward, while circumstances were such that 
 there was rather a decline than an increase of pros- 
 perity. English statesmen were either stupid or un- 
 fortunate, and the passage of years bringing reforms 
 slow and by grudging gift after bitterness and ex- 
 treme resistance, did not cause England and Ireland 
 to come closer together, but made Ireland desire to 
 break the tie upon her, and always look back with 
 vain regret to the years of legislative independence. 
 
114 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 The population of Ireland at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century was about 4,500,000. Catholics 
 made up, apparently, nearly four-fifths of this num- 
 ber. The enfranchising act of 1793 had admitted 
 Roman Catholics to vote and allowed them to hold 
 lesser offices, but they might not be elected to parlia- 
 ment nor hold the higher civil and judicial positions. 
 At the time when the Union was being forced through 
 some of the Roman Catholics were won over by as- 
 surances that when the change was made they would 
 obtain state payment for their priests, commutation 
 of tithes, and, above all, complete political emancipa- 
 tion. Pitt made no formal promise to this effect, 
 but seems to have sincerely desired to carry these 
 things. It happened, however, that George III was 
 obstinately and unyieldingly an enemy to concessions 
 to Catholics, and went so far as to declare that he 
 would reckon any man his personal enemy who pro- 
 posed a measure for Catholic relief. In the midst of 
 conflicting circumstances, Pitt yielded for what 
 seemed to him the best. This was in 1801. For the 
 next decade the giant struggle with Napoleon ab- 
 sorbed the attention of Englishmen, and after Water- 
 loo came a period of reaction, during which the hopes 
 of progressives in England as well as Ireland were 
 crushed to the earth. So, nothing was done for Irish 
 Catholics for a quarter of a century, and nothing was 
 done to win Ireland to closer fellowship and associa- 
 tion. 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 115 
 
 Other conditions remained very bad. Worst of all 
 was the question of land. Most Englishmen, to do 
 them justice, little knew how different was the ar- 
 rangement in Ireland from theirs, or how bad it was. 
 In England the landlord was a partner, as it were, in 
 the agricultural enterprise, investing his capital and 
 making improvements, and he was close to the tenant 
 through social and customary ties. In Ireland he was 
 like the owners of land in London: simply a receiver 
 of rent. Irish landlords were not all bad, but the 
 system was exceedingly bad. Many of them were 
 absentees, and in any case the larger part of the land 
 was usually let on long lease to middlemen, who par- 
 celled it out in small holdings to peasants at extrava- 
 gant rent for a year at a time. Furthermore the 
 value of land was rising. The long wars caused the 
 price of corn to rise and with it the price of land. 
 Hence, as leases fell in, rents were largely raised, 
 the lease being sometimes exposed to public 
 auction, after which the cottiers had to apply to the 
 lessee for a tenement which was let at extortionate 
 rent. It may be added that many of these peasants 
 were obliged moreover to work for the landlord by 
 the terms of their contracts, so that actually their con- 
 dition was not very different from that of the medi- 
 eval serf. Nor was this all, for they were further 
 hampered by vexatious tolls in market and town. 
 And finally there were the tithes to be paid to the 
 ministers of the Established Church of Ireland. 
 
116 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 "Tithe, when uncommuted, is the worst of taxes, be- 
 cause it is a tax on industry as well as on capital." x 
 It was a share of that which the peasant produced, 
 and the harder he worked the more he had to pay. 
 The great majority of the population, whether 
 Catholic or Presbyterian, had to pay this grievous tax 
 to support a religion which they detested and which 
 did nothing for them. 
 
 They who insist that the period of Grattan's Par- 
 liament was one of exceptional prosperity are largely 
 correct, for England had already relaxed the com- 
 mercial restrictions put upon Ireland; but Home 
 Rule advocates and recent Nationalist writers are 
 less so when they assert that this prosperity was de- 
 stroyed by the making of the Union. Something of 
 Ireland's decline may have been due to it, though it 
 would be difficult to give definite proof. Cer- 
 tainly the decline was not seen for some time, and 
 there is good reason for believing that when it did 
 come it was due to the operation of far-reaching 
 causes which would have been effective whether Ire- 
 land had a separate parliament or not. Comparing 
 the decade just after the Union with the one just be- 
 fore it, there is seen to have been an increase of more 
 than fifty per cent in imports and more than twenty- 
 three per cent in exports. In the next half century 
 the population grew as rapidly as anywhere in 
 Europe, from four and a half millions to more than 
 eight, nearly doubling itself. Yet it must be remem- 
 
 i J. H. Bridges, in Two Centuries of Irish History, p. 215. 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 117 
 
 bered that while rapidly increasing population in 
 America and Germany has denoted increase in power 
 and wealth, it has had very different significance in 
 southern Italy and Russia. One school of writers 
 holds that this doubling of the Irish population in the 
 first half of the nineteenth century denotes prosperity 
 and progress, another that it signifies extreme im- 
 providence and very low standard of living. 
 
 The prosperity of Ireland was actually on the wane, 
 from causes that could not, perhaps, be clearly seen 
 at the time, but which can be discerned now. Irish 
 industry began to flourish again about the time of the 
 independent parliament because English restrictions 
 were removed; but after all it was the old indus- 
 trial system which flourished once more, and pres- 
 ently that system was everywhere forced to yield to 
 a new one which marked the industrial revolution 
 already well started in England. Better means of 
 communication, and great mechanical inventions like 
 the steam engine and spinning- jenny changed the in- 
 dustry of the world. Manufacturing became central- 
 ized in certain places; in other places it gradually 
 disappeared. This was so with many a district in 
 England and Scotland, once well known for things 
 made, but which now decayed as the woolen manu- 
 facture was gathered to Yorkshire, cotton to Lanca- 
 shire, and linens to north Ireland about Belfast. 
 Here was a world movement, and it is difficult to be- 
 lieve that the form of Irish government could have 
 much to do with it. At the end of the eighteenth 
 
 
118 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 century, also, Irish agriculture nourished exceed- 
 ingly, as it did for some time after the Union was 
 accomplished; but this was due to the need for food 
 in England during the war, when access to European 
 markets was often cut off. After the end of the war 
 English agriculture suffered as did Irish agriculture 
 in competition with corn from abroad. It may be 
 said that the removal of the seat of government from 
 Dublin to Westminster did indeed cause a decline in 
 the prosperity of the Irish capital city. As in the 
 case of Edinburgh, where there had been much gaiety, 
 fine building, and luxury, there was now the quietness 
 of disuse and decay. 
 
 During this period Irish finances developed in a 
 manner unsatisfactory to Irishmen. By the terms of 
 the Act of Union, England and Ireland were each 
 of them to contribute a fixed proportion of the joint 
 public expenditures: Britain was to furnish fifteen 
 parts and Ireland two parts of the total revenue, 
 probably more than Ireland could properly pay. It 
 was further provided that if in the future the public 
 debts of the two countries should stand in the same 
 proportions, then parliament might impose the same 
 rate of taxation in each country and amalgamate the 
 British and the Irish exchequers. At first the Irish 
 debt was not large, but it was soon evident that 
 two-seventeenths of the revenue was more than the 
 island could furnish, and the annual deficits had to 
 be made good by loans which caused the Irish debt 
 rapidly to increase. In 1800 it had been about one-; 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 119 
 
 sixteenth of the British debt, but in 1816 it was be- 
 tween one-sixth and one-seventh. Next year the con- 
 solidation of the exchequers was effected. The gen- 
 eral result of this and of the conditions which pro- 
 duced it was that Ireland was burdened with heavier 
 taxes, at a time when other circumstances made the 
 people less able to pay them. One of the complaints 
 constantly made in recent Irish propagandist litera- 
 ture is that a poor Ireland has throughout the nine- 
 teenth century been drained of money to pay taxes 
 to a wealthier Britain. There is much to be said 
 on both sides of this difficult question, and appar- 
 ently the condition has not existed for some time, 
 but Ireland does seem in this to have suffered dis- 
 advantages from which a government of her own 
 would at least have attempted to save her. 
 
 In the midst of these changing conditions, with 
 Ireland silent, subdued and ever drifting toward 
 lower depression and economic suffering, other forces 
 of discontent were unloosed. At first they were 
 scarcely noticed. The rebellion of Robert Emmet 
 in 1803 was the pathetic act of a young republican 
 visionary, inspired with the hope of rekindling Irish 
 nationality. For his immediate failure he paid with 
 his life, and like Padraic Pearse, another one great of 
 soul and of kindred spirit a hundred years later, he 
 died an enthusiast and pure-minded martyr. But 
 against the worst oppressions lawlessness has evt r 
 broken out in Ireland. When the condition of the 
 Irish people has been most hopeless, secret local 
 
120 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 organizations have always risen up to redress in their 
 rude, savage way the wrongs which could not other- 
 wise be opposed. In the seventeenth century there 
 were the Whiteboys and the Oak and Steel Boys, 
 about whom ghastly things are related. In the early 
 nineteenth century new ones arose with different 
 names. Some deeds committed were atrocious, and 
 savage retribution was taken. But it should be said 
 that they who declare Irishmen to be naturally with- 
 out sense of obedience to law, should remember that 
 terrible wrongs, whether in Italy or Russia or the 
 southern United States under reconstruction, or in 
 Ireland, have always produced secret organizations, 
 with violence, intimidation, and disorder, and that 
 often these things have in desperate need been the 
 last recourse of a people. During this time Ireland 
 was held down by armed forces, and ruled under acts 
 of coercion. Yet the violence and disorder continued, 
 particularly against unfair landlords and collectors 
 of tithes, until they gradually became, what they had 
 often been before, a source of grave disquietude to 
 the British government, and also until they became 
 for the first time, perhaps, disquieting to the people of 
 England. 
 
 The greatest movement in Ireland at this time 
 was the struggle of Roman Catholics for deliverance. 
 With Daniel O'Connell's name this movement is for- 
 ever associated. He was a Catholic barrister, an 
 ardent Irish patriot, eloquent and gay, with great art 
 in winning his countrymen to follow him, and with 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 121 
 
 marvellous talents for organization. He took up the 
 cause of his fellow Catholics when Pitt had abandoned 
 it, and when Fox had accomplished nothing; and he 
 began his task when almost everyone else had given 
 it up in despair. For a long while the people of 
 England, who generally in those days knew little of 
 Ireland, or of any other land, scarcely heard of him; 
 but he was more and more important as a worker in 
 the Catholic cause. 
 
 That cause had made little progress. Some of the 
 Irish members in parliament, like Grattan, did what 
 they could, and Irish Catholics petitioned for relief; 
 but though the matter was several times considered, 
 greater things claimed the attention of British states- 
 men, and there was an invincible prejudice in states- 
 men and people. A Catholic Association had been 
 founded in Ireland in 1806 for the purpose of secur- 
 ing relief. It was based largely upon the support of 
 prosperous Catholics of the middle class, and it peti- 
 tioned parliament for relief. It was connected with 
 local bodies of Catholics by devices which narrowly 
 escaped violating the law. In 1810 a Catholic Com- 
 mittee was established, and when this was denounced 
 by the government it was replaced by a Catholic 
 Board. This was also soon suppressed. It was in 
 these bodies that O'Connell first rose to influential 
 position. In 1823 the Catholic Association was re- 
 vived, largely through the exertions of O'Connell, 
 who gave it now an entirely different character, and 
 through his genius for organization speedily made it 
 
122 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 a very formidable weapon. He based it upon the 
 great mass of the Catholic population, the lower 
 classes, and his agents in accomplishing this work 
 were the Irish priests. 
 
 The priests in Ireland have long had a peculiar 
 position. At the time of the Reformation, as Lecky 
 once said, when every northern nation abandoned the 
 old faith, Irishmen retained it, partly, at least, out of 
 antipathy to their oppressors; and in the struggle 
 which followed it was often the symbol and expres- 
 sion of their national spirit, and gave them the 
 strongest political feeling which they had. In the 
 long period of the abasement of the Irish, their priests 
 had been the leaders, their only friends, their only 
 guides. And they had suffered much. The penal 
 laws had fallen on them with full weight. Often 
 they had been hunted through the wild places of the 
 country; they had been sheltered and hidden by the 
 peasantry whom they sustained. The tie between 
 priests and people, then, became wonderous strong, 
 "something to which no parallel can be found in other 
 countries, Protestant or Catholic, for many cen- 
 turies." 2 Better times now had come. The priest 
 was not hunted and persecuted as once he had been, 
 but he was still the principal friend of the peasantry, 
 with such wonderful influence as often to be their 
 master. 
 
 Therefore, when O'Connell planned to reach the 
 Irish people, he did it through their leaders and guides, 
 
 2 Bridges, p. 240. 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 123 
 
 and it was the sign of his genius for leadership in Ire- 
 land that they followed him obediently, and made it 
 possible for him to perfect through them an organi- 
 zation all through the country. The dues in the Asso- 
 ciation were made as low as a penny a week, which was 
 to be collected in each parish through the priest. It 
 was no long time before the Association was receiv- 
 ing a regular income of more than a thousand pounds 
 sterling a week, amply sufficient for its support and 
 the carrying on of all the propaganda which it under- 
 took. Great mass meetings were held at which 
 O'Connell displayed unrivalled magnetic power. He 
 discountenanced violence : no political change, he said, 
 was worth a drop of human blood ; and he controlled 
 his followers through the priests in amazing fashion. 
 Soon it was seen that a real new power had arisen 
 in the state, an imperium in imperio, which consti- 
 tuted virtually an informal parliament to take cogni- 
 zance of all things which affected the Catholic Irish. 
 In 1825 this and all similar organizations were sup- 
 pressed, but the resourceful leader at once revived it 
 under another form, and displayed great ingenuity 
 in keeping just within the bounds of the law. 
 
 The Catholic question now became an acute issue 
 in England as well as in Ireland. The majority of 
 the English people, Protestant and conservative in 
 temper, were opposed to enfranchisement of Catholics 
 and letting them share in the government of the state, 
 while Tories and reactionaries about court and in the 
 House of Lords were able to destroy one bill which 
 
124 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 passed through the Commons. In Ireland such pas- 
 sions were aroused that there was widespread fear 
 of civil war, and the fanaticism of Catholics and 
 Orangemen was so fanned to a flame that it seemed 
 such a conflict might be really a religious war. The 
 matter soon came to issue in such way as to show 
 the British government that something had to be done : 
 in the general election of 1826 there was a great re- 
 volt of the Catholic voters from the leadership of 
 their landlords, that is to say, against the government 
 which supported the landlords. In Ireland, as in 
 England, because of an old statute, in the country 
 districts or counties the right of voting for mem- 
 bers of parliament was vested in the forty-shilling 
 freeholders, possessors of freeholds with annual 
 value of that amount. In England and in Ireland 
 the independent freeholders were few, but in Ireland 
 especially they might be created without grant of 
 property, and many such freeholders had been made 
 from time to time by the landlords on their estates 
 as a means for their political control of the district. 
 It is difficult for one not acquainted with the gradual 
 growth of the franchise to realize some of the ideas 
 which once prevailed widely, but which have passed 
 away now, leaving small trace of themselves in those 
 now existing. At present, dependence of a voter 
 upon some patron or master is regarded as excep- 
 tional or abhorrent ; but it was the usual thing in rural 
 districts long ago, and it still continued as a time- 
 honored custom in England and Ireland at the begin- 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 125 
 
 ning of the nineteenth century. "It was received as 
 an almost unquestioned axiom of agricultural ethics 
 that the tenant must follow in all political matters the 
 lead of his landlord." 3 The relation between tenant 
 and landlord in this respect was something like that 
 of the follower to the chief. Now in Ireland for the 
 most part the forty-shilling freeholders were the most 
 ignorant and impoverished Catholic farmers. It was 
 one of the unfortunate results of the enfranchisement 
 act of 1793 that they had been allowed to vote while 
 the enlightened Catholic gentry were debarred from 
 sitting in parliament. Hitherto these new voters 
 had been altogether subservient to their landlords' 
 wishes, expressing no political convictions of their 
 own; but now O'Connell ruled the clergy, and as al- 
 ways the clergy ruled the people. They so wrought 
 upon their parishioners that a sudden overturn fol- 
 lowed. Sermons were preached that the salvation of 
 the voters was at stake; and eloquent leaders stirred 
 them to a frenzy. Violence and intimidation were 
 employed against the Association's opponents. 
 Protestants were forced to vote with the organization 
 by threats of assassination and burning of their homes. 
 The result of it all was that the Association gained a 
 great triumph. And the result also was that some 
 English leaders, particularly the Duke of Wellington, 
 saw that if civil war was to be averted, the govern- 
 ment must yield. The matter was further settled 
 by the Clare election in 1828, in which the landlords 
 
 s Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, ii. 75. 
 
126 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 and their tenants fought a great political combat, 
 where again the new movement was victorious. 
 O'Connell, though not qualified to sit in parliament, 
 was elected in preference to a popular candidate. 
 
 Wellington's influence was now thrown entirely 
 into the scale for enfranchisement: thus only, he 
 thought, could civil war be prevented. Then the 
 king and the peers were forced to yield, and in 1829 
 the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed. The 
 denial of transubstantiation and the old oaths so of- 
 fensive to Roman Catholics were done away with, and 
 Catholics upon taking an oath of allegiance might be 
 admitted to both Houses of Parliament and to most 
 civil, judicial, and political offices; that is, the law 
 conceded to Catholics in the United Kingdom full 
 political and civil rights, with certain exceptions, 
 chief among which were the offices of sovereign, lord 
 chancellor, and lord lieutenant of Ireland. On the 
 other hand the forty-shilling freeholders in Ireland 
 were disfranchised, and the number of the electorate 
 diminished by raising the qualification for voting to 
 ten pounds; so that afterwards it was said that the 
 government took away with one hand much of what 
 it had given with the other. Thus culminated a long 
 struggle, which gave to Catholics, not only in Ire- 
 land, but also in England, where a milder struggle 
 had long been carried on, the rights of complete citi- 
 zenship of which they had been deprived as a conse- 
 quence of the Reformation. They were enfran- 
 chised before the Parliament of the United Kingdom 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 127 
 
 was changed in 1832, this being the last and one of 
 the greatest reforms made under the old parliamen- 
 tary system. 
 
 Unfortunately in Ireland this concession came as a 
 result of events which left evil memory behind them. 
 Protest and appeal carried on through a long time 
 availed little, but at last a great measure of relief 
 had been secured through force, intimidation, and 
 coercion. It was a pity that the British government, 
 if it intended to yield at all, had not done so before 
 violence and threats were raised up against it; and 
 that once it was confronted by wholesale intimida- 
 tion it was found necessary to yield ; for the lesson was 
 not to be lost in Ireland, and many a time in after 
 days it was said that Britain never gave what she was 
 not forced to yield, and that when she had been co- 
 erced, no thanks were due. Just before the great war 
 the militant suffragettes were saying much the same 
 thing in England, and Sinn Feiners have said it more 
 than once since their rebellion. 
 
 In the years which followed* the great Irish leader 
 and the Irish members in the House of Commons 
 supported the Whigs and the Liberals ; and it should 
 be observed that from the first the Irish members, 
 when not engrossed in some bitter struggle for Irish 
 rights, have been consistent and staunch supporters 
 of liberalism and democracy in the government of the 
 United Kingdom. O'Connell was of great assistance 
 to Earl Grey during the contest over parliamentary 
 reform from 1830 to 1832. 
 
128 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 The Whigs of the early Victorian period were in- 
 clined to a conciliatory Irish policy. But during this 
 time the condition of Ireland was much disturbed, 
 as the people, more conscious of their power under 
 the new system and with the new methods, became 
 more aggressive. There was a terrible tithe war, in 
 which the peasants committed numerous crimes, while 
 the landlords carried on a policy of clearance, of driv- 
 ing away the tenants, and consolidating small hold- 
 ings into large estates. Such a movement in Eng- 
 land had caused great misery there during the six- 
 teenth, seventeenth, and even the eighteenth century. 
 In Ireland it had gone on in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, as agricultural lands were given 
 over to grazing; and various causes contributed to 
 continue it now. So great was the misery, and so 
 great was the lawlessness which resulted from the 
 evictions, that Ireland was controlled only through 
 coercion acts and a rule of force. 
 
 O'Connell did not consider that his work of agita- 
 tion had come to an "end with the Catholic Emanci- 
 pation Act. When, in the moment of his triumph, 
 a friend had jokingly asked whether his occupation 
 were not gone, he had replied: "Isn't there a Re- 
 peal of the Union?" 4 He now began to think of this 
 as the only remedy for the evils of Ireland, as others 
 had from the beginning; but the reformed parliament 
 undertook remedial legislation for Ireland, and tem- 
 porarily he dropped his plan and supported the 
 
 4Lecky, ii. 98. 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 129 
 
 ministry. In 1838, in addition to a poor law not 
 pleasing to the Irish, a law was passed for the com- 
 mutation of tithes. The amount was reduced by one 
 quarter, and tithes converted into a land tax, thus 
 taking the payment from the Catholic peasants and 
 transferring it to the Protestant landlords, who might 
 then try to recover it in increased rents. In 1840, 
 after a struggle with determined opposition in the 
 House of Lords, a reform was made in the govern- 
 ment of Irish towns or municipal corporations. The 
 government of these places had in older times got into 
 the hands of Protestant officials who constituted self- 
 elected bodies. Such offices had been opened to 
 Catholics by the law of 1793, but in the forty years 
 since, not a single Catholic had sat in the corporation 
 of Dublin, mostly a Catholic city. In England also 
 and elsewhere in earlier times municipal government 
 had been largely in the hands of small numbers of 
 electors or controlled by oligarchic bodies of officials 
 constituting close corporations, and in England 
 municipalities had only been modernized and put into 
 the hands of the rate-payers a few years before by the 
 Municipal Reform Act of 1835. Now in Ireland the 
 right of electing officials in the towns was conferred 
 upon persons paying a rental of ten pounds. 
 
 Some of those who administered the government 
 of Ireland were liberal-minded, favoring concession 
 and reform, seeing clearly the social and economic 
 difficulties of the Irish people; but they had to con- 
 front the vested interests of the landlords, many of 
 
130 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 them not resident in the island. In 1837 O'Connell 
 declared that he was willing to try to obtain justice 
 for Ireland without repeal, but if there was not to 
 be repeal of the Union, justice must be given by 
 England. Amelioration was difficult and tardy, how- 
 ever, and perhaps the Irish leader was fond of agita- 
 tion for its own sake. During all this period the 
 great clearances were going on. The fall in the price 
 of corn had made agriculture less profitable both to 
 peasant and landlord, and now whenever opportunity 
 offered, peasants were being put from the land, as 
 was the landlord's right by the law, and the peasants 
 were turned adrift to compete with other peas- 
 ants for the smaller amount of land that remained 
 for them, thus raising rents and depressing their own 
 condition. For it was the tragedy of these people, 
 even after they got some reform, that they were 
 crowded upon land scarce sufficient to support them, 
 and crushed under rents too great to be paid. Now 
 they were being put from the land on which they had 
 struggled so terribly for existence, that the landlord 
 might turn his acres to pasture or undertake with 
 modern methods farming on a large scale upon con- 
 solidated holdings. So, there was discontent and dis- 
 like of everything English, and vaguely in the minds 
 of the peasants their economic grievance against the 
 landlord and because of the fall in prices was merged 
 into political discontent with the Union, as in some 
 way responsible for all of the ills they endured. 
 
 About 1841 O'Connell began another great agita- 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 131 
 
 tion, for the repeal of the Union. With unerring in- 
 sight he saw that this was the one question upon which 
 he could unite the mass of the people, and again he 
 took care to get the fullest support of the priests. 
 Some of his best friends in the former movement fell 
 away from him, and he was opposed by the upper 
 classes of the Catholics as well as the upper and middle 
 classes of Protestants. Essentially the movement 
 was ecclesiastical, under the priests, democratic, and 
 mostly Roman Catholic. In 1843 the movement 
 really began. Enormous meetings of the people were 
 held, in which O'Connell and the priests gave evidence 
 of extraordinary power of control over their follow- 
 ers, keeping them orderly and sober. About the hill 
 of Tara, renowned in Irish tradition and legend, 
 where the old Irish over-kings had once held their 
 state, he assembled, it is said, nearly a quarter of a 
 million adherents. He aroused the minds of those 
 who could hear him to heroic enthusiasm, portraying 
 the glories of Ireland to be, while far away stretched 
 a sea of people beyond his voice but within the spell 
 of his presence. This was the time when an Irish 
 temperance movement under the guidance of Father 
 Matthew had swept over Ireland, strengthening char- 
 acter and making for order and self-control; and it 
 had no little to do with the quiet behavior of the peo- 
 ple. But so impressive was the result of O'Connell's 
 effort that the government was alarmed. There had 
 been nothing illegal and no disorder or outrage, but 
 here was a new and uncanny power, and it was not 
 
132 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 doubted that if he gave the word or if some rash 
 priest incited the people, there might easily be a re- 
 bellion more formidable than the last. Therefore 
 military forces were strengthened, and the govern- 
 ment intervened decisively. In 1843 another great 
 meeting to be held at Clontarf was forbidden. 
 O'Connell yielded at once, but he was soon arrested 
 and tried for conspiracy. Condemned by a packed 
 jury, appeal was made to the House of Lords. In 
 days past O'Connell had savagely attacked the peers, 
 but they acted now with the fairness which English 
 tribunals are accustomed to use, and reversed the sen- 
 tence of conviction. 
 
 This was the crisis of his career. He had always 
 declared against violence and force, and on this prin- 
 ciple he acted when at last the great moment came. 
 Accordingly there had been no bloodshed in Ireland. 
 But some believed that the day for such moderation 
 was gone. There rose up, at first round O'Connell, 
 a group of young men, who wished to restore Irish 
 nationality as well as redress wrongs in Ireland. 
 These were the days when Italians were struggling 
 to break the Austrian yoke, and "Young Italy" had 
 been instituted by Mazzini. Charles Gavan Duffy, 
 Thomas Davis, and John Mitchel, grandfather of the 
 late mayor of New York, founded now the Society 
 of Young Ireland. They were something like Sinn 
 Fein, which arose long after they were gone. As 
 O'Connell drew back, they would have pressed for- 
 ward, looking upon him as a man of resounding words 
 
IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 133 
 
 and paltry deeds. For the present nothing came of 
 it all. The British government tried some measure 
 of conciliation, which resulted in little more than as- 
 sistance to the Roman Catholic college at Maynooth. 
 Before matters went farther there came a disaster 
 so great that Ireland was overwhelmed in terrible and 
 universal woe. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 
 
 C'est un grave "moment" de l'histoire de l'Irlande que 
 la Grande Famine . . . cette Irlande legere et gaie, hospi- 
 taliere et genereuse, la main tendue et le coeur ouvert, 
 cette Irlande-la est morte. Toute joie s'en est allee ; plus 
 de jeux au grand air, plus de danses aux carrefours ; l'ame 
 se fait egoi'ste et pessimiste, la haine de l'Angleterre et du 
 landlord s'ancre plus que jamais dans les poitrines. 
 
 Louis Paul-Dubois, L'Irlande Contcmporaine et 
 la Question Irlandaise (Paris, 1907), p. 67. 
 
 DURING the nineteenth century the population 
 of Ireland was growing rapidly, from more 
 than four millions and a half in 1800 to over eight 
 millions in 1840. The great bulk of this population 
 was engaged in agriculture, there being in Ireland 
 little industrial life. This agriculture was rude, and 
 carried on with small wisdom and care, as might have 
 been expected from the evil conditions under which 
 the work was done. On their scanty patches the cul- 
 tivators worked, and at the end of the season the best 
 that they had produced was given to pay the hard 
 rents which were exacted from them; and while their 
 wheat and poultry and cattle went to the landlord and 
 were by him sent abroad for sale in foreign markets, 
 the peasants supported themselves largely upon po- 
 
 134 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 135 
 
 tatoes, which made up the great staple crop of the 
 island. More and more was the increasing popula- 
 tion thrown back upon the soil, and more and more 
 was the soil divided and subdivided among the greater 
 number of those who had to get a subsistence out of 
 it. Many a time the peasant had between his family 
 and starvation only a few potatoes ; always there was 
 danger of disaster. For two centuries a great many 
 of the Irish people had had in the best of times only 
 the rudest and coarsest fare, and very often too little 
 food to nourish them properly. There had been ter- 
 rible famines in the eighteenth century ; they were no 
 less frequent in the nineteenth, occurring in 1822, 
 1831, 1835, 1836, and 1837. And as increasing re- 
 liance was put upon the potato, there were not want- 
 ing signs that the soil was becoming impoverished, and 
 that a far greater calamity might be near. 
 
 In 1845 the potato blight spread over England and 
 Ireland, and in Ireland the crop was a failure. Im- 
 mediately it was seen that a great famine was at hand 
 unless the British government took speedy and effec- 
 tive measures to bring food into the island for relief. 
 But this was the era of the Corn Laws, which had first 
 been passed in 1815 by a parliament of English land- 
 lords, for the purpose of excluding wheat from abroad 
 unless it sold at very high prices at home ; and now it 
 was difficult to bring in supplies of food which the 
 impoverished Irish could buy. Under the leadership 
 of Peel there was indeed a great revolution in British 
 economic policy, marked by the repeal of the Corn 
 
136 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Laws in the summer of 1846, but meanwhile condi- 
 tions in Ireland were far more grave. In 1846 the 
 potato crop totally failed. The British authorities, 
 relieved of tariffs now, were yet hampered by belief 
 in the prevailing economic theory of laissez-faire, and 
 inclined to leave things to work themselves out; and 
 when they found it necessary to do something never- 
 theless, they were hampered by inexperience in deal- 
 ing with such matters, so that what they did was after- 
 wards seen to be partial and unwise. The govern- 
 ment bought up large quantities of Indian corn to sell 
 in Ireland at low price, and established relief works 
 for the purpose of giving employment. But the food 
 that was brought in came too late to save the multi- 
 tudes who were starving, and the public works under- 
 taken were largely temporary or useless. All over 
 Ireland, especially in the outlying districts, the hap- 
 less peasants sank down in hopeless despair, lingered 
 on in pangs of hunger, and at last died — in their 
 cabins, on the roads as they dragged themselves out 
 in search of relief, on the hills, in deserted places, 
 everywhere, until England, and Europe, and the 
 world were appalled and stricken with horror. Some 
 of the things which took place were so terrible that 
 men had not the heart to relate them. It was impossi- 
 ble to bury all the dead ; and yet, so numerous were the 
 burials, that Jhe same coffin with hinged bottom was 
 used again and again. In 1847 the crop was an en- 
 tire failure again. Altogether there was famine in 
 the land from 1846 to 1849. 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 137 
 
 Some of the people rushed into the towns, others wan- 
 dered listlessly along the high roads in the vague and vain 
 hope that food would somehow or other come to their hands. 
 They grasped at everything that promised sustenance; they 
 plucked turnips from the fields ; many were glad to live for 
 weeks on a single meal of cabbage a day. In some cases 
 they feasted on the dead bodies of horses and asses and dogs ; 
 and there is at least one horrible story of a mother eating 
 the limbs of her dead child. In many places dead bodies 
 were discovered with grass in their mouths and in their 
 stomachs and bowels. In Mayo, a man who had been ob- 
 served searching for food on the seashore, was found dead on 
 the roadside, after vainly attempting to prolong his 
 wretched life by means of the half-masticated turf and grass 
 which remained unswallowed in his mouth. Nettle-tops, 
 wild mustard, and watercress were sought after with des- 
 perate eagerness. The assuaging of hunger with seaweed 
 too often meant the acceleration of death, but seaweed was 
 greedily devoured, so also were diseased cattle ; and there 
 were inquests in many places on people who had died from 
 eating diseased potatoes. 1 
 
 Pestilence, the wan sister of hunger, appeared to 
 complete the destruction. In 1846-7 a virulent 
 plague, the "road-fever," fell upon the land. People 
 died as they crawled out for assistance; or were 
 abandoned by their friends who fled from the pest. 
 
 There had fallen upon Ireland a calamity which 
 was owing to numerous causes, for some of which 
 contemporary England was certainly not to blame. 
 Population had increased so fast that in a purely agri- 
 
 i The ABC Home Rule Handbook, p. 64. 
 
138 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 cultural country it could scarce be supported any 
 longer. But the disaster was largely due to the ig- 
 norance and lowly condition into which most of the 
 people had been forced by circumstances over which 
 they had no control, and especially to the fact that 
 Ireland was still owned by the landlords, many of 
 whom lived outside the island and took no pains to 
 have care for the peasants who toiled on their lands. 
 And it seemed a grievous thing that the exportation 
 of corn from Ireland was not forbidden, for the blight 
 had not affected the other crops of the island, and 
 grain that went out to pay rents was to a considerable 
 extent exported to England at the very time that Sir 
 Robert Peel was partly assuaging the famine by im- 
 porting Indian meal from places far off. The public 
 works undertaken to give employment to the starv- 
 ing were done largely with money considered as a 
 loan to Ireland, to be repaid later on. Hills were 
 cut down, and then filled up; canals were dug in 
 which water would not stay; and roads were built in 
 useless places. In after days it was said that the 
 famine itself could not indeed have been averted, as 
 things then were, with the failure of the staple crop 
 of food, but if there had been Home Rule with an 
 Irish parliament, cognizant of Irish needs and sym- 
 pathetic with them, much could have been done to pre- 
 vent the dreadful things which ensued; and that if 
 there had been such a famine in England, the meas- 
 ures taken would have been very different also. Much 
 of this may be true. Certainly nothing that happened 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 139 
 
 in the nineteenth century did so much to arouse the 
 world to the belief that something was wrong with 
 Irish conditions. 
 
 Not that the suffering was viewed with indifference. 
 There was genuine compassion in England when the 
 calamity was really comprehended ; and it is a mistake 
 to think that in Ireland landlords continued to reap 
 profits from starving tenants with cool indifference. 
 Actually many of them, who had been wont to reap 
 profit from the land, now went down into ruin along 
 with the peasants. Middlemen and landlords gave 
 what they could until often they were reduced to des- 
 titution themselves. "By the end of 1849 it was said 
 the Irish tenants looked as if they had just come out 
 of their graves, and the landlords as if they were 
 going into theirs." 2 It is true that at this very time, 
 what with tenants leaving their farms in despair, and 
 the whole system of things seeming to crumble to 
 ruin, clearance went on, and consolidation of small 
 pieces of land into larger holdings. Yet this is the 
 time when the middlemen disappeared, and many of 
 the proprietors never recovered from the effects of 
 their charity and the crushing burden of poor relief 
 imposed by the state. 
 
 Some things there are so complicated and extended 
 that it is difficult to be certain, and no proofs can 
 be given with respect to assertions about them; but it 
 would seem that the famine and pestilence of these 
 
 2 Lord Fitzmauricc and J. R. Thursfield, in Two Centuries of Irish 
 History, p. 413. 
 
140 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 fatal years changed the character of the Irish people. 
 From the savage and brutal tyranny of the Mongols 
 it appears that Russian character took an abiding mel- 
 ancholy and sadness, which the person of nowadays 
 thinks he detects in the wailing minor chords of their 
 music, and the strange, drear things which the mas- 
 ters of their literature have written. For some years 
 after the terrible disasters and humiliations of the 
 Franco-Prussian War there was persistent pessimism 
 in the soul of France. So it was now with Erin. 
 The Irish peasant, long noted, even in the midst of 
 his wretchedness and dirt, as open-hearted and open- 
 handed, gay, hospitable, careless and joyous, this 
 Irishman was not seen so often now. There was uni- 
 versal pessimism, hatred, and despair, and although 
 times were to change before very long, by no means 
 is all of it gone in Ireland at present. 
 
 A million and a half persons, it is thought, were 
 stricken with the fever; a half million, it may be a 
 million, perished from the hunger and sickness. But 
 this was not all. From the stricken land Irishmen 
 began to flee in a mighty exodus which drained the 
 island of its people. In 1841 the population had been 
 8,175,124; ten years later it was 6,552,385. In the 
 decade 1851-1860 it is said that a million and a half 
 Irishmen emigrated, fleeing from the old home to a 
 new and greater Ireland, going most of them to the 
 United States of America. These were the days of 
 the "coffin ships," and of great prosperity for some 
 of the shipping companies. Facilities were inade- 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 141 
 
 quate for the vast host of fugitives who crossed the 
 Atlantic. In the days when negro slaves were 
 brought from Africa to Liverpool or Jamaica, the 
 anti-slavery societies used to exhibit a broadside show- 
 ing a slaver, like a great floating coffin, with the bodies 
 of slaves packed between decks as close as they could 
 be put, there to stay in heat and thirst, in sickness 
 and foul air, for all the long weeks while the passage 
 was made. With the worst of the Irish emigrant 
 ships now it was not very much better. Once Sir 
 Robert Peel quoted the account of a man who had 
 made the passage and had seen hundreds of people, 
 men, women and children, huddled together indis- 
 criminately, without light, with insufficient air, wal- 
 lowing in filth, sick in body and heart, scarcely able 
 to move, some raving in madness, some in the throes 
 of death, dying without consolation, buried in the deep 
 as the ship passed on. And those who survived and 
 found in America the opportunities denied them in 
 Ireland, who toiled to send back money to the aged 
 and stricken not able to come, who presently rose up 
 to power and prosperity in their new homes, most of 
 them carried through their lives a hatred, often igno- 
 rant and unreasoning, but unquenchable and fierce, 
 not able to see atonement or excuse, not able to for- 
 get or forgive, until, after generations had passed, 
 in their descendants it might slowly burn itself away. 
 By the end of 1847 cheap food was being brought 
 into Ireland and a good potato crop had been gath- 
 ered. By next spring the famine was largely past. 
 
142 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 That spring O'Connell died in a distant land, worn 
 out by his efforts, and crushed, perhaps, by the awful 
 calamities which had come to his country. Men be- 
 gan to think of the future. But Ireland did not re- 
 cover. Again a great economic change was at work 
 to her disadvantage. At the beginning of the famine 
 the Corn Laws had been repealed in England. For 
 some time there had been agitation, led by Cobden and 
 Bright, to abolish these laws which enhanced the price 
 of food, and raised the cost of living to artisans and 
 mechanics. Originally the laws had been made to 
 protect agriculture in the United Kingdom, and had 
 operated to the advantage of Ireland as well as of 
 England, and, indeed, as time went on, more to the 
 advantage of Ireland, since she continued an agricul- 
 tural country, deriving her income from food sup- 
 plies raised and exported, while England became 
 more and more an industrial region. In England 
 now manufactures expanded with cheaper food for 
 the artisans, and great prosperity resulted; but in 
 Ireland, where farming and grazing continued to be 
 the principal occupations, agriculture declined in 
 competition with the greater grain lands abroad. 
 The Irish export trade in cereals was largely de- 
 stroyed, and wheat growing decayed at the same time 
 that such small manufactures as lingered on in Ire- 
 land were extinguished in competition with the 
 greater ones across the Channel in Britain. Popula- 
 tion was declining and continued to decline, for every 
 class saw ruin staring in the face. The laborers who 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 143 
 
 had fled from the famine found far greater chances in 
 America, and sent back intelligence of what they had 
 found. At first the emigrants fled from the famine 
 and fever and desolation of their land, but as years 
 went by and conditions were better, they went over 
 the ocean nevertheless, answering the call of them 
 who had gone before. "Emigration," said a recent 
 writer, "is now the result of attraction from America 
 rather than of repulsion from Ireland." 
 
 Population is by no means the only index to a 
 country's well-being, and Irish population increased 
 most greatly in the early part of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury when economic conditions were about as bad as 
 they ever had been. Yet the result of all the things 
 that have been detailed is that while in the course 
 of the period 1801-1901 the population of England 
 and Wales increased from less than nine millions to 
 four times that number, the Irish population after 
 rising from four and a half millions to eight, steadily 
 declined again to four, so that now most of the Irish 
 people are no longer in Erin but in the lands over 
 sea, particularly in the United States, where they have 
 found refuge and new hope. And it is Ireland's best 
 who have gone, the strongest, most capable and ener- 
 getic, leaving behind them in a poor and declining 
 country a disproportionately great burden of the 
 blind and the feeble-minded, the weak, the halt, the 
 diseased. 
 
 The misfortune of Ireland was furthered by a re- 
 
 3 J. R. Fisher, in Against Home Rule, pp. 68, 69. 
 
144 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 arrangement of finance, which took place soon after. 
 There was a great increase in Irish taxation in the 
 decade 1850-1860, resulting from the Gladstone bud- 
 gets, the increase being due especially to the equaliza- 
 tion of the spirit duties in England and Ireland, and 
 extending the income tax to Ireland. Such burden 
 had hitherto been escaped owing to the fact that 
 by the terms of the Act of Union, the Irish were en- 
 titled to special exemptions because of their back- 
 ward economic condition. It was not to be expected 
 that Irishmen would be permanently exempted from 
 the burdens imposed upon the British tax-payers, 
 perhaps, but now when Gladstone was striving to ex- 
 tricate the finances of the United Kingdom from the 
 confusion and unsatisfactory position in which his 
 predecessors had left them, he abruptly raised the tax- 
 ation of Ireland, it is said, from 14s. 9d. per head to 
 26s. 7d. It is true, the equalization of spirit duties 
 and extension of the income tax to Ireland were ac- 
 companied by the remission of a debt of more than 
 four million sterling owed by Ireland to the British 
 treasury. None the less Englishmen themselves have 
 not failed to observe that the increase created a new 
 crushing burden at a time when Great Britain was 
 going forward in wondrous prosperity but Ireland 
 was only beginning to emerge from the valley of the 
 shadow through which she had passed. Irish writers 
 have seen in it an intolerable burden laid upon their 
 country despite the pledge once given that Ireland's 
 ability to pay should always be considered. Since 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 145 
 
 that time over-taxation has been the subject of fre- 
 quent complaint. In 1896 a Financial Commission 
 of the government reported that because of the 
 equalization of taxes the result had been very un- 
 equal: that Ireland was paying one-eleventh of the 
 revenues of the United Kingdom, though her tax- 
 able capacity was not more than one-twentieth; that 
 from her taxable surplus Great Britain paid less than 
 two shillings in the pound, Ireland five times that 
 much. This report has been much enlarged upon by 
 recent Nationalist writers, and their striking conclu- 
 sions have been spread broadcast for purposes of de- 
 nunciation and propaganda. But there have always 
 been justifiable differences of opinion about the Re- 
 port, and strong dissenting opinions have been main- 
 tained about the matter. On the other side it is as- 
 serted nowadays that actually most of the taxation 
 paid by Irishmen is upon their tobacco and liquor, 
 and that far from being overtaxed, Irishmen in Ire- 
 land are taxed less than the inhabitants of Great 
 Britain, and less than Irishmen in any other country 
 in the world. 
 
 The period of famine and emigration closed, as 
 might be expected, with rebellion and ugly resist- 
 ance. Some things were being done for Ireland, but 
 they did not go to the root of the economic evil, and 
 the continuance of depression and old abuses left 
 persistent hate and dislike. Many people then as now 
 believed that all of the unhappiness of Ireland came 
 from the Union, that any connection with England 
 
146 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 was disastrous, and they believed that deliverance and 
 a glorious future would come after repeal of the 
 Union or severance from England by force. One 
 might have had doubt then as now, but what most 
 Irishmen felt was that things were wrong, and so 
 they were ready for rebellion. In 1848 revolution 
 was sweeping across Europe, completing the work 
 which Frenchmen began before Napoleon's time. All 
 through the west and middle parts of the Continent 
 the movement was felt, and everywhere vested inter- 
 est and old repression went down. In Austria, Met- 
 ternich, leader of reaction, was driven from power. 
 In Germany the liberal patriots, who would have made 
 a united Germany with liberal constitutional govern- 
 ment, rose up only to give way to the growth of the 
 Prussian spirit, which we know better now. Italians 
 attempted to win a step nearer to unity and freedom. 
 In France a middle-class monarchy was overthrown 
 for the establishment of an unstable republic. In 
 England, beyond the circle of European affairs, and 
 almost outside the spirit of revolution, conservative, 
 redressing wrongs slowly, not waiting for violent 
 overturn, there were the vast demonstrations of the 
 Chartists and demands for reform. In Ireland the 
 effects of the general unrest were felt in the cul- 
 mination of the work of Young Ireland. Its ad- 
 herents had looked to France for assistance and sym- 
 pathy; now following the lead of the French liberals 
 they prepared for revolt. What they attempted 
 failed at the start, and the leaders were imprisoned 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 147 
 
 and transported. Then danger of rebellion came to 
 an end; but the misery and unrest continued. 
 
 In the years which followed, when the magnitude 
 of the disasters that had come upon Ireland were 
 better understood — the decrease of population, the 
 continuing emigration, the decline in hope, the ap- 
 parent torpor which enveloped the people — it began 
 to seem that again some Englishmen thought that 
 Ireland might be peopled with English Protestants 
 in the place of the Catholic Celts. Certainly some 
 believed that the ills of Ireland might be traced to 
 over-population, and that this source of trouble being 
 now amended, things would improve. Very little was 
 done, then, to make conditions better for the Irish 
 jieople. There was still, what there long had been, 
 a government hated or endured by most of the in- 
 habitants, resting upon force, and ruling in the in- 
 terests of Protestants and landlords, who were a 
 minority, yet all-powerful in the administration of the 
 law, the regulation of the land system, and in oppos- 
 ing reforms for the mass of the people. 
 
 He who ascribes this to the brutality or wickedness 
 of Englishmen would be much mistaken. The great- 
 est faults were indifference and lack of knowledge. 
 It must be remembered also that throughout the ear- 
 lier half of the nineteenth century while English men 
 and women were immensely better off than their fel- 
 lows in Ireland, yet many of them also suffered from 
 grievous inequality and -hard oppression. A great 
 many of them had long since been crowded off the 
 
 
148 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 land and driven to the towns. For some time, under 
 the old factory system, many of them were often com- 
 pelled to work for long hours at scanty wages, in the 
 midst of brutal, debasing, and harmful conditions. 
 And the getting of reforms to better their position 
 was a very long and difficult process. There was an 
 established church in England as there was in Ire- 
 land; and if the great majority of the people in Ire- 
 land regarded it as a baneful oppression, a large 
 minority of Englishmen thought of it as an alien bur- 
 den also. In Ireland the government was directed 
 by aristocracy and landlords; after all in England 
 it was in the hands of the aristocracy and industrial 
 magnates; in both countries government was con- 
 trolled by the upper classes, with the middle classes 
 just beginning to share. Often the upper classes 
 sincerely desired to rule well, and to a considerable 
 extent they did so. But distance, indifference, ig- 
 norance, preoccupation often resulted grievously for 
 those over whom they were placed, whether it was 
 the agricultural tenants in Ireland or the factory 
 workers in the Midlands and north Britain. What 
 was destined to bring about a revolution had not yet 
 taken place: the admission of the great mass of the 
 people to the franchise, and their gradual controlling 
 the government and changing it for their betterment 
 and protection. In 1850 the electors of Great Britain 
 were only twenty-eight per cent of the adult male 
 population; in Ireland they were but two per cent, 
 until a statute of that year brought it almost up to 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 149 
 
 ten. Later on, in 1867 and in 1884, the franchise 
 was extended to most men in the United Kingdom, 
 and it will be seen hereafter that as the British elec- 
 torate became wider and more democratic, real and 
 sweeping reforms were made, one after the other, in 
 the interests of the Irish people. And I shall at- 
 tempt to show hereafter that the relations of England 
 and Ireland became fundamentally different when hu- 
 manitarianism was more prevalent and when liberal, 
 democratic government was gradually established in 
 the United Kingdom in the later years of the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 But in Ireland not much was done for a while. 
 In 1848 the Encumbered Estates Act was passed to 
 enable impoverished landlords to sell their property 
 to new proprietors able and willing to work and im- 
 prove them. Usually the Irish landlord was hope- 
 lessly involved in debt, so that he could not develop or 
 improve even if he would, and the property was so 
 entangled and mortgaged that it was nearly impossi- 
 ble for him to sell. Now property was indeed brought 
 on the market, but the result was not very good, for 
 new purchasers bought for their profit, and as often 
 as they could they raised the rents further still. It 
 had been hoped that lands would be acquired by Eng- 
 lish and Scottish capitalists, but not many buyers 
 outside of Ireland came forward. A new race of 
 landlords came into being, and the condition of the 
 tenant was far from improving. 
 
 About 1850 Tenant Protection Societies sprang up 
 
150 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 all over Ireland. A conference was held to devise 
 some central organization for the local societies, and 
 in this movement Presbyterians from Ulster worked 
 loyally with Roman Catholics, condemning the Union 
 with England, and striving to forward the rights of 
 the tenant and peasant. Such occurrence might seem 
 to furnish good augury for the later co-operation of 
 Ulster with Celtic Ireland; but such result was not 
 obtained in the end. 
 
 There was by no means general harmony between 
 Protestants and Catholics at this time, for not only 
 did Episcopalians stand generally with the landlords 
 in the Tenant Right movement, but there had long 
 been a struggle between the Catholics led by their 
 priests and certain Protestant missionary organiza- 
 tions bent upon converting the Catholic peasants. 
 The forces and passions aroused, which extended 
 through much of the earlier part of the nineteenth 
 century, tended to widen the religious division which 
 so long had sundered the people of Ireland, and in 
 the end made it impossible for the Catholics and the 
 Protestants to share in the same system of national 
 schools and the same national colleges for higher edu- 
 cation. Influential prelates declared against such na- 
 tional schools, fearing that they might be used for 
 spreading the Protestant religion, and so set out to 
 procure denominational education under their own 
 instructors, in accordance with the usual policy of the 
 Catholic church. 
 
 The continuing misery led to persistent unrest. In 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 151 
 
 Dublin Phoenix Clubs were founded by the bolder 
 youth, who still hoped to achieve Irish independence. 
 Out of these organizations developed the Irish Re- 
 publican Brotherhood, under the leadership of James 
 Stephens and O'Donovan Rossa. Meanwhile began 
 that assistance from over the seas, which has troubled 
 Great Britain so much in the past fifty years. In 
 America in 1858 was established the Fenian Brother- 
 hood or Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by O'Ma- 
 hony, an Irish revolutionist. "In the presence of Al- 
 mighty God," ran the membership oath of this secret 
 association, "I solemnly swear allegiance to the Irish 
 Republic, now virtually established, and to take up 
 arms when called on to defend its independence and 
 integrity." 4 The Fenians took their name from the 
 ancient warriors of Ireland, and now set out to pro- 
 cure by terror and force what the peaceful agitators 
 had failed to obtain. All this movement was revolu- 
 tionary and not constructive. It was designed to se- 
 cure the independence of Ireland at any cost, rather 
 than to better agrarian conditions. It was opposed 
 by moderates and constitutionalists; it got no great 
 hold upon the peasants as O'Connell's movement had, 
 and it did not secure the support of the priests. In 
 Ireland it was based upon the efforts of a few fiery 
 enthusiasts who gradually won supporters, assisted 
 by numerous Irishmen in America, who had just con- 
 tributed to the winning of the War between the States, 
 and who had gained both military experience and 
 
 4 G. P. Macdonell, in Two Centuries of Irish History, p. 464. 
 
152 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 confidence in feats of arms. There was then much 
 ill-feeling between England and the United States, 
 to which they contributed, and upon which they re- 
 lied. They had arms and training, and from Amer- 
 ica they sent assistance in money. Man} 7 of them 
 crossed the Atlantic to stir up disaffection in Ireland 
 and spread secret terror in England. 
 
 Fenianism, once so detested and feared in Eng- 
 land, was like similar things in countries where grave 
 discontent exists without hope of amends. It con- 
 tinued to be the work mainly of Irish-Americans, but 
 in Ireland and England its methods resembled those 
 of the terrorists of Russia, and of those who, it may be, 
 were patriots in Russia and Ukrainia under German 
 domination. They worked in secret, and they strove 
 by violence and terror to procure the measures of bet- 
 terment which better means, they thought, could not 
 obtain. In 1865 there was a plan to establish an 
 Irish Republic. Suddenly the authorities seized on 
 the leaders, but sentences of penal servitude did less 
 to destroy the movement than win sympathy and ad- 
 ditional recruits. The Habeas Corpus Act was sus- 
 pended, as often before, and many arrests were made. 
 But there was great uncertaintly and anxiety, for 
 everywhere the government was confronted by dis- 
 affection and threats, until it knew not where the next 
 stroke would fall. Arms were sent from America; 
 and attempt was made to seize Chester Castle, which 
 failed because an informer betrayed it. In 1867 a 
 general rising was planned, but again the government 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 153 
 
 had timely information, and a pitiable failure was 
 followed by sentencing the leaders to penal servitude 
 for life or for long terms of years. From rebellion 
 the movement went on in sudden violence and secret 
 intimidation. An attempt was made to release Fen- 
 ian prisoners confined in Clerkenwell prison in Lon- 
 don: part of the prison wall was blown up, and more 
 than a hundred persons killed and injured, while the 
 injury done to unoffending men and women nearby 
 was such as to cause that kind of indignation in Eng- 
 land which "Blackhand" outrages aroused in Amer- 
 ica a generation later. About the same time two Fen- 
 ian prisoners were rescued from the prison van, or 
 "Black Maria," in Manchester. In the course of this 
 enterprise the sergeant guarding the van had his 
 brains blown out. For this three Irishmen received 
 sentence of death: even now they are known as the 
 "Manchester Martyrs" in Ireland. 
 
 It is never easy to judge such a movement, and 
 decision will depend upon the standpoint assumed be- 
 fore the judgment is made. In England, quiet, pros- 
 perous, and law-abiding, the deeds of the Fenians 
 were regarded with horror as the acts of cowardly 
 traitors and brutal assassins. The Irish-Americans, 
 among the best of whom Fenianism was widely dif- 
 fused, contributed to the support of the cause, and in 
 their hatred of England far away looked on with 
 righteous zeal and passionate fervor : they were strik- 
 ing, they thought, in the only way possible, at the op- 
 pressor who had wronged their fathers and despoiled 
 
154 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 their home. In Ireland the movement had no active 
 support from most of the people, but they seem to 
 have looked on with little disapproval, and whenever 
 the Fenians suffered in their wild enterprise, consid- 
 ered them martyrs and held them in grateful heart. 
 Viewing the matter from a distance, we see it now 
 something like the career of the abolitionists of Gar- 
 rison in America before the Civil War, and some- 
 thing like the deeds of the militant suffragette women 
 in England before the great war of the world. Ab- 
 olitionists, Fenians, suffragettes, all of them, did much 
 that was ugly and uncouth, much that seemed base 
 and unfair ; they were not considerate and not always 
 just, and certainly all of them did hurt to the cause 
 which they loved, turned people away from reform, 
 and hardened the hearts of opponents. And yet, this 
 is but part of the story: all of them, in a way, sacri- 
 ficed themselves for a cause. Their deeds were un- 
 lovely ; those for whom they were working must often 
 have despised them; but they did inspire fear, they 
 did make men think, they did get attention which 
 milder methods and more constitutional ways could 
 not secure. And when the uglier, harder part of the 
 task was done, they would not reap the results, but 
 then the more peaceful and patient would gather the 
 benefits of things which were wild and ugly, but 
 which had done an indispensable part of the work. 
 The Fenians failed at the time, but they won the 
 attention of the British people at last, and they got 
 it as the British government was about to become 
 
THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 155 
 
 more democratic, liberal, and sympathetic. What 
 the Fenians did we condemn in itself, and it had to be 
 sternly repressed; but it arose out of evil conditions, 
 and something of what they did brought those condi- 
 tions to an end. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE NEW AGE: ATONEMENT AND 
 REDRESS 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 
 
 The genius of the British Empire is an emanation from 
 the mouth of the Evil One. 
 
 Patrick Ford, The Criminal History of the Brit- 
 ish Empire (New York, 1881), p. 1. 
 This Commonwealth to which we belong is no "Empire of 
 Hell": it is, to all whose eyes are not obscured by pas- 
 sion, a living home of divine freedom, in which the ends of 
 the earth are knit together not for profit, and not for power, 
 but in the name and the hope of self-government. 
 
 Ernest Barker, Ireland in the Last Fifty Years 
 (Oxford, 1917), pp. 104, 105. 
 
 THE history of England in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury is concerned with the growth and consoli- 
 dation of the British Empire, and, what is perhaps 
 more important, with the increasing liberalism of the 
 government and the gradual getting control of the 
 government by the mass of the people, who have in 
 the course of years slowly altered much of the char- 
 acter of British institutions, and transformed the gov- 
 ernment of Great Britain from an aristocratic oli- 
 garchy, with power in the hands of the great, into a 
 wise and conservative democracy supporting repre- 
 sentatives elected by the people. During this time 
 the old British Empire was changed into a common- 
 wealth of nations, mostly held together by mutual 
 
 159 
 
160 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ties of interest and good will. This process was not 
 altogether complete at the beginning of the recent 
 war, Ireland being one of the exceptions ; but a great 
 and wondrous part of the mighty task was performed, 
 and performed in such manner that by the beginning 
 of the twentieth century one of the things which held 
 most promise for the future well-being of the world 
 was the continuation of the practical, liberal, and 
 humane work of the British people and the security 
 of their commonwealth scattered in every part of the 
 earth. 
 
 Among the noisome things which have appeared in 
 the recent terrible years nothing has more grieved 
 those who first chanced upon it than bitter condemna- 
 tion of England and the harsh slandering of her his- 
 tory in the past. Hereafter I shall have to notice 
 the silly and immoderate sayings of vehement Irish 
 recalcitrants with respect to Germany and England 
 at the beginning of the war, which, in so far as they 
 were not inspired by German propaganda, were 
 largely the result of inheritance from an evil time 
 gone by, still remaining so deep and so bitter as not 
 to permit men to see the changes come to pass. In 
 the future these sayings may often bring repentance 
 and shame. But many of the wild and unjust state- 
 ments made by Irishmen and Irish-Americans in the 
 first years of the war, when they did not come from 
 memories of the great famine and old miseries of 
 eviction and flight, were actually based upon the 
 teachings of extreme nationalist German historians 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 161 
 
 and pamphleteers, who magnified the excellence of 
 Germany and distorted the evil of her opponents, and 
 who, seeing in England the greatest rival of Ger- 
 many, dealt with her most hardly of all. 
 
 England had been cold, greedy, calculating, and 
 cruel in the past, said Treitschke, the most forceful of 
 these writers; her government a selfish oligarchy op- 
 pressing the body of the people, her parliament a 
 sham, an assembly merely for the upper classes; 
 greedy, grasping, imperialist, taking from others that 
 which they held, getting and gaining not through ex- 
 cellence or superiority but through the accident of 
 mere geographical position, luck, and chance; always 
 profiting by the quarrels of others to take their pos- 
 sessions away; oppressive to those whom she ruled, 
 debasing in influence upon other peoples; an obstacle, 
 a burden to the rest of the world. And after these 
 sayings had been echoed and increased by a swarm of 
 pettier followers, there came at the very beginning of 
 the war a writer who in better days had achieved some 
 renown for his studies in contemporary diplomatic 
 history, but who now went through that terrible trans- 
 formation which affected so many Germans in 1914, 
 and casting away calmness and critical acumen, wrote 
 only with mind distorted by passion and distended with 
 the heat of unreason. England, said Count zu Re- 
 ventlow, had been a robber nation from the beginning 
 of the period of her greatness, and her wicked deeds 
 had been more distasteful through canting and hypo- 
 critical assumption of righteous demeanor. Because 
 
162 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of position and circumstances this inferior but fortu- 
 nate nation was able to destroy the prosperity of her 
 rivals. To accomplish this always she had sided with 
 one against the other. So she removed from her way 
 Spain, then Holland, then France. Napoleon strove 
 against this incubus pressing on Europe, but after 
 the greatest of her contests she conquered. And she 
 deliberately prolonged wars when she could, that both 
 enemies and friends might be the more weakened, and 
 she be more able to draw out her profit. In the lat- 
 ter years she had wanted peace and quiet while she 
 kept the spoil. And the present war came, he went 
 on to say, because a free and splendid Germany would 
 resist this hateful dominion. Now England would 
 strangle her as she had others before: England the 
 vampire. This book, said the translator, who wrote 
 with a passionate wildness for Ireland's cause, "can- 
 not be too strongly recommended to all those who de- 
 sire to obtain an insight into the hidden recesses of 
 European political histoiy. . . . Founded on piracy, 
 the British Empire has been built up at the expense 
 of humanity. . . . Germany, in fighting for her own 
 existence, is fighting also for the liberation of the 
 world." 1 Such statements might be lightly dismissed 
 were it not that in less extreme form they have been 
 widely diffused and repeated by persons of slender 
 judgment and slight understanding. 
 
 Few things are so lightly attempted and so hardly 
 
 i Count Ernst zu Reventlow, The Vampire of the Continent (trans- 
 lated with a preface by G. Chatterton-Hill, 2d ed., New York, 1917), 
 pp. v, vii, x. 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 163 
 
 accomplished as surveying the history of a nation, 
 comparing it with the histories of other peoples, and 
 judging about relative merits. Without a knowledge 
 of innumerable details and great masses of informa- 
 tion, such judgment is impossible; and even having 
 them in mind the difficulty of looking over all the data 
 together is nearly as formidable; while in any event 
 the critic is certain to give to his estimate something 
 of preconceived bias or prejudice long since acquired. 
 But I believe it is now the deliberate judgment of 
 most of our people, and to this conclusion they came 
 instinctively and quietly when these last great years 
 forced them to think of it all — that with the exception 
 of France, perhaps, there is no people in medieval 
 and modern times which has developed so finely as 
 the English or contributed richer gifts to mankind. 
 Certainly there have been many faults, and many 
 stupid and brutal things of which Englishmen now 
 are ashamed; but judging things in relation to the 
 time when they occurred — which is usually not done 
 in propaganda or abuse — and considering them in 
 comparison with contemporary things in other lands, 
 England has right to be proud of her past. 
 
 In the Middle Ages the history of England is not 
 greatly different from that of other lands nearby, ex- 
 cept that circumstances of position made it possible 
 for England, sooner than any other nation in wes- 
 tern Europe, to erect a capable central government 
 strong enough to keep order and able to get for the 
 upper classes a large measure of prosperity and com- 
 
164 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 fort. Hardly anywhere in these times were the 
 lower classes so much as considered, as long as they 
 obeyed their masters and bore the burdens put on 
 them. During these early times there arose in Eng- 
 land a respect for the law, and a habit of thinking 
 that all men in the state were subject to the law, so 
 that even then there were some safeguards for all 
 classes which scarcely existed elsewhere in Europe. 
 
 In the age of discovery and colonization English- 
 men took a belated, but at last a very successful, part, 
 much in the manner of the others. Through the pe- 
 riod of the Reformation they passed without religious 
 war, which ruined Germany and tore apart France, 
 and with not much of the drastic and terrible perse- 
 cution which stamped out heresy in Italy, Portugal, 
 and Spain. There was persecution, and there were 
 religious discriminations which seem now intolerable, 
 but in former times so there were in almost all places. 
 In Poland and Austria and Spain the Protestants 
 disappeared; in England the Catholics lived under 
 some oppression and bad discrimination, but survived 
 easily to get full rights and be a vigorous minority 
 when better times came; and even in Ireland, where 
 the penal laws against Catholics were more terrible, 
 Catholics continued to be the great majority of the 
 people. "This was not a persecution," says Lecky, 
 "like that which extirpated, by the death of fire, Prot- 
 testantism and Judaism from Spain, nor was it en- 
 forced in the same stringent severity with which all 
 Protestant worship was forbidden and suppressed in 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 165 
 
 other Catholic countries of Europe and America." 2 
 England did not crush out the religion of the Irish. 
 What made it so intolerable was that in Ireland it was 
 discrimination by a minority of the population against 
 the majority in the country. 
 
 In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Ire- 
 land, England, and Scotland were all of them lands 
 of privilege for the few and the great, with little 
 power and opportunity for most of the people. The 
 poor and the humble did not easily rise in life; not 
 many could vote; the government was a monarchy 
 where the crown had lost its power, partly, to an aris- 
 tocracy and a parliament which consisted of the great 
 prelates and lords, and their appointees in the House 
 of Commons; there was privilege for the great, and 
 subjection and depression for the many. Laws were 
 made by the upper classes, and made in behalf of their 
 vested interests. Nor was it possible for common 
 men and women to improve their position, for they 
 had no direct influence over the government and no 
 part in it, and they were not permitted to organize in 
 associations or unions, which nowadays help them so 
 much. Education was largely monopolized by the 
 aristocrats and the well-to-do. 
 
 Not to speak of Irishmen, then, most Englishmen 
 and Scotchmen in the period 1600-1800 had a posi- 
 tion which would arouse the strongest indignation 
 and disgust in their descendants at present. They 
 lived in a time when kindliness and humanity were 
 
 2 Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, i. 15. 
 
166 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 much less widely diffused than at present, and when 
 notions of democracy and the rights of man were 
 little known or rigorously repressed. The world was 
 filled with prejudice, with established religions, with 
 divine right and privilege of class. The government 
 was by noblemen and landlords; property, political 
 privilege, opportunity were monopolized by a few. 
 For the many there were obedience, submission, re- 
 spect; simple and sturdy living at best, long hours, 
 hard labor, low wages, meager living as a rule. Con- 
 ditions in Great Britain were much better than in Ire- 
 land; but it was not so long since the last of serf- 
 dom had disappeared in England, and some of the 
 people of Scotland were held virtually as slaves into 
 the eighteenth century. If there were absentee land- 
 lords for Ireland, there were resident landlords in Brit- 
 ain, who might have more concern for their tenants, 
 but who lived upon the tenants and took much of 
 what they got from the soil. If there were evictions 
 and enclosures in Ireland, there was a long and dreary 
 record of enclosure in England. If Catholics and 
 Presbyterians were held inferior to Episcopalians in 
 Ireland, so they were also in England. 
 
 It is true that after a while great changes took place 
 which were to modify profoundly for the better the 
 position of the ordinary man. Chief among them 
 were the effects of the industrial revolution. But 
 these very things operated at first mostly to depress 
 the condition of the common man further still. Cap- 
 ialists, getting the new and costly machines of the 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 167 
 
 epoch into their exclusive possession, were able to con- 
 trol in a manner undreamed of before the toilers who 
 worked for them. Horrible indeed were the details 
 afterwards described by reformers and parliamentary 
 Commissions: children of tender years working from 
 dawn until dark, women naked and covered with sweat 
 dragging cars through the chambers of coal mines, 
 men toiling with fetters to keep them at their place; 
 people working for a pittance in the midst of hunger, 
 ignorance, filth, and despair, with body and soul 
 stunted and destroyed. And if one pauses now and 
 asks how such things could be, the answer is that for- 
 merly when systems changed and conditions were 
 new, men and women were taken advantage of more 
 than now, for there were everywhere more ignorance, 
 brutality, coldness of heart, less humanitarianism, 
 sympathy, and regard for the happiness of other peo- 
 ple than is now the case in the better parts of the 
 world. A great deal of the evil and oppression done 
 by England in Ireland during those times will never 
 be properly understood now, unless the misdeeds are 
 considered in relation to the time when they were 
 done. 
 
 But if the evil in Ireland resulted partly from con- 
 ditions in England then, and if Englishmen had 
 far worse lot than their sons have now, one has only 
 to turn to other places then to see how much she was 
 in advance, and how much better was the position of 
 Englishmen than that of neighboring peoples. In the 
 Netherlands, in parts of Switzerland, and in the 
 
168 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 American colonies there were exceptional conditions. 
 In France the people were better off than those of 
 any other large state on the Continent, but how great 
 were the inequalities, how large the abuses, and how 
 little the protection of the law, are known from the 
 cahiers of 1789; and these old conditions brought 
 France to the violence of a great revolution. There 
 the government was autocratic and absolute, with the 
 will of the prince the fountain of law; there noble- 
 men and prelates were much farther above the middle 
 classes than in England; and the condition of the 
 mass of the people very much worse. Absolutism in 
 government, complete intolerance in the religious sys- 
 tem, crushing burdens upon the peasantry, rigid class 
 distinction, abasement of the lower classes, these 
 things were far worse than in Britain. In the Ger- 
 manic countries, so backward as compared with Eng- 
 land and France, the princes made themselves abso- 
 lute, copying in dull and brutal way the greatness 
 and magnificence of France. Everywhere there was 
 a torpor of ignorance and economic depression. The 
 people, very largely still serfs, were voiceless in poli- 
 tics, and helpless in the ordering of affairs. The lord, 
 whether prince or knight, was supreme ; the state offi- 
 cials were his domestic servants. The money wrung 
 from the ignorant and impoverished peasants was 
 wasted in ostentatious extravagance or employed in 
 creating military establishments. Culture was de- 
 clining, liberties were forgotten, and the condition of 
 the people was so low that their complaints and pro- 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 169 
 
 tests scarce reach us. To the east and the south in 
 Europe the picture is drearier still. During all this 
 time the leaders of the world were England and 
 France, with the commonwealths of America rising 
 up in the fullness of crude, youthful vigor at the end 
 of the eighteenth century. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to examine the statements 
 of them who declare that the history of the British 
 Empire is a record of unscrupulous greed and selfish 
 commercial expansion, that its greatness has come 
 from profiting by the calamities of others, that its suc- 
 cess is through luck and hazard, not because of merit 
 and desert; that other nations gave themselves to 
 tasks for the permanent benefit of the human race, 
 while Englishmen seldom rose above sordid pursuit 
 of industrial benefit and commercial gain. 
 
 That England is foremost in commerce is due 
 partly to her insular positi6n at the end of Europe, 
 right by some of the greatest trade-routes of the 
 world. That she obtained industrial pre-eminence 
 was owing to the inventiveness of her artisans, and to 
 skilful utilization of her resources of iron and coal, 
 which other nations did not have or did not develop. 
 That the British Empire is largely an aggregation 
 more the result of chance than design is certainly true; 
 but so was the Spanish and so was the Roman. The 
 French colonial empire of the eighteenth century, so 
 brilliantly conceived and so finely extended, has long 
 since fallen to pieces ; the modern German world-em- 
 pire, planned out, it would seem, in all its details, 
 
170 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 has caused unutterable suffering and horror, and has 
 also just fallen to pieces; but the wide, loose empire 
 of the British has not perished like the French of the 
 old regime, or gone like the Spanish slowly in torpor 
 and decay, because its possessors have remained vig- 
 orous and sound, and have also been the ablest, and 
 the most liberal colonial administrators that the world 
 ever has seen. It is their proud distinction to have 
 carried freedom and self-government in all direc- 
 tions; and, with the striking exception of Ireland, 
 where the circumstances were peculiar and where 
 Englishmen were more stupid and unfortunate than 
 usual, to have brought better government wherever 
 they came. The proof of this was seen in the glor- 
 ious assistance of the dominions, voluntary and splen- 
 did, when the whirlwind of the German war came. 
 
 No doubt great advantage accrued from the misfor- 
 tune of others, though it was not because England 
 set peoples to quarrel that thus she might steal their 
 goods, but mostly because, owing to fortunate posi- 
 tion, she was safe from invasion, and often able to 
 stay out of wars. To the United States similar cir- 
 cumstances of position have in the past hundred years 
 been of greater benefit still. And the history of di- 
 plomacy in the period in which England is most con- 
 demned shows that she tried to maintain the balance 
 of power, which at one time or another Germany, 
 France, or Spain tried to destroy, but which generally 
 they also desired to preserve. 
 
 Very false it is to say that English efforts have 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 171 
 
 been sordid and barren of good to others. It was the 
 favorite device of a certain school of writers to pro- 
 claim that while Germany gave all of herself to re- 
 ligious reform and the creation of philosophy and 
 music, England, dull and greedy, sought only for 
 lands and for wealth. The German Reformation was 
 indeed one of the greatest of things, but the system of 
 Luther was almost as narrow and rigid as the older 
 system from which it diverged, and religious freedom 
 developed in most places gradually as time brought 
 enlightenment and liberalism, progress being at least 
 as great in France as in Germany, and the most fruit- 
 ful results arising in the Netherlands, in Geneva, in 
 British lands, and wherever non-conformists have 
 dwelt. The religious wars which followed the Re- 
 formation in Germany brought long-time ruin, from 
 which England escaped almost entirely through com- 
 parative moderation and patience of rulers and peo- 
 ple. Germany has given to the world its best music, 
 and, perhaps, its greatest philosophy in modern times, 
 just as France and Italy contributed the finest sculp- 
 ture and painting since the Greeks, and all of them 
 have made to literature rich and generous gift. It is 
 true that England's attainment in music has been 
 very slight, and her share in philosophy and art of 
 minor importance. This is not because Englishmen 
 have developed merely the mercantile instinct, or have 
 been relaxed in prosperity or indulgence. Their 
 genius has been in other things. Theirs is the great- 
 est of all modern literatures, and in modern times they 
 
172 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 have taught other nations the art of governing them- 
 selves and governing well. 
 
 In the seventeenth century, when political organiza- 
 tion everywhere tended to despotic centralization of 
 power, Englishmen developed and defended their free 
 institutions of parliamentary privilege, and equality 
 before the law, and preserved them in the Puritan 
 Civil Wars, among the noblest and best civil wars 
 which have ever been fought. At this same time a 
 small group of men, the Independents of Cromwell's 
 army, in advance of their age, proclaimed ideas of lib- 
 erty and civil and religious equality, which, taken up 
 afterwards by greater Frenchmen, became the com- 
 mon heritage of progressive mankind. During the 
 eighteenth century enlightened thinkers of Europe, 
 like Montesquieu and Voltaire, looked to England for 
 example, and some of the best of her ideas, trans- 
 muted by the still more liberal and humane spirit of 
 France, were spread over western and central Europe 
 after 1789. There were great faults in English in- 
 stitutions then, as compared with better things now, 
 but as compared with the peoples nearby and with 
 almost all other peoples then, Englishmen were 
 sturdy, prosperous, and free. There was vigorous 
 self-government in local affairs, even though it also 
 was in the hands of the upper class ; central authority, 
 with glaring defects, was yet limited and constitu- 
 tional; all Englishmen had habeas corpus and other 
 guarantees of personal liberty; there was no power 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 173 
 
 in the state above the common law; there was no law 
 to permit the use of torture, and very seldom was tor- 
 ture employed; — at a time when almost everywhere 
 governments were absolute and inefficient, when local 
 liberty had perished, when personal liberty was not 
 safe against noble or king and men were lost in the 
 Bastille at Paris on secret warrant suddenly issued, 
 when torture was sanctioned and not unusual, and 
 when the mass of the people were bowed down so low 
 that they scarcely had thought how to rise. It should 
 always be remembered that once the outlook for lib- 
 erty, self-government, and individualism in Europe 
 was dark, and that these priceless things have come 
 down to us largely because they were defended and 
 kept by Cromwell and his fellows, in the era when 
 Spain was sinking into mental and moral decay, when 
 Germany was paralyzed by religious strife selfish 
 and horrible, when in France all energy was being 
 given to aggrandize the king, and when civil and 
 religious liberty were gone. We share now the in- 
 heritance from that period — we Americans have had 
 part in developing it. 
 
 The great and fine things which Englishmen have 
 done in government and politics have been copied and 
 imitated all over the world, as nations becoming more 
 progressive have amended their government systems. 
 But freedom and right of determining their own af- 
 fairs have been freely given by England to the peo- 
 ples who had gone out from her and are beginning to 
 
174 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 be given to those who have been brought within her 
 control. This statement is very true, despite the ex- 
 ceptions which start up at once. 
 
 Ireland is the principal exception; but in the past 
 the evil treatment of Ireland has resulted from pe- 
 culiar circumstances and also from methods and cus- 
 toms once very prevalent in ages worse than our own ; 
 and more recently it has resulted from some stupidity 
 and some blunders, something of the continuing Tory 
 spirit from the past, and also, very largely, as I hope 
 to show, from a combination of exceedingly perplex- 
 ing circumstances, which England has found it very 
 difficult to solve with fair treatment to all the inter- 
 ests concerned, but which she would like to solve 
 justly, if she knew how. 
 
 Many Americans will think that British treatment 
 of their forefathers, in the days when the American 
 colonies were part of the British domain, constitutes 
 another striking exception; but no serious student of 
 history believes that at present. In the conflict of 
 ideas which led up to the Revolutionary War there 
 were grievances on both sides; the patriots refused to 
 submit to some things which seemed essentially wrong 
 to them, and the descendants of these men and most 
 people in Great Britain nowadays rejoice that the 
 sons of freedom resisted as they did; but it must be 
 said that the British did nothing illegal, and that their 
 tyranny, such as it was, was the lightest ever exer- 
 cised in any colonial administration up to that time. 
 There were restrictions which seemed onerous to the 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 175 
 
 colonists, as similar restrictions seemed onerous to 
 Irishmen at that very time, but it must be remembered 
 that such things characterized the prevailing Mercan- 
 tile System everywhere in those days, and that they 
 were exercised much more stringently by France and 
 by Spain, and by other colonizing nations. Against 
 this should be put the fact that the best rights and 
 liberties which had been won in England were 
 brought to America by the Englishmen who emi- 
 grated, and that generally the government in Lon- 
 don made no consistent effort to repress them. The 
 development of liberty and self-government is a diffi- 
 cult process, and that process had been accompanied 
 by many disputes and uncertainties in England itself; 
 it was not surprising that sharper disputes should 
 have arisen in solving the untried problem of exer- 
 cising them in colonial dominions three thousand miles 
 from the central government at a time when the slow 
 and difficult communications of the old regime still 
 prevailed. After all, the principal difficulty, as we 
 see it now, was not English tyranny or American 
 wrongs, but geographical separation. The liberality 
 and careless indulgence of the British government had 
 raised up a sturdy breed of men along the Atlantic 
 coast, who had new interests of their own and who 
 were ill-disposed to brook even small infringements 
 upon what they considered the rights of freemen. 
 And yet — this has often been forgotten, when the 
 worst has been said, it should be remembered that in 
 the Revolutionary period a great minority, from a 
 
176 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 third to a half of all the population of the colonies, 
 many of them the best, most intelligent, and most 
 prosperous inhabitants, refused to sanction separa- 
 tion from England whom they loved very well. Lib- 
 eral people all over the world now rejoice that the 
 Revolutionary War made America independent and 
 able to give her peculiar contribution to the progress 
 of the world; but the historical student, considering 
 things as they actually were, must declare that as the 
 French Revolution began in France, where people 
 were better treated than almost anywhere else in Eu- 
 rope, so the revolt from colonial dominion began not 
 in the French or Spanish colonies, but among the 
 Americans who were the best treated colonists in the 
 world. 
 
 The lesson of the loss of the American colonies 
 was not immediately taken to heart in Great Britain, 
 but as England developed toward greater liberalism 
 and some democracy in the early part of the nine- 
 teenth century, that lesson was pondered and applied. 
 How well it was learned one knows from the treat- 
 ment of Canada in 1840, when discontented rebels 
 were transformed into satisfied citizens governing 
 themselves. And this wise and liberal treatment, re- 
 sulting so largely from the work of Lord Durham, 
 was, in the years that passed, extended to the com- 
 munities of New Zealand and Australia, and, more 
 memorably still, to the South African Union also. 
 Thus were established all over the world colonies 
 or dominions peopled with men and women of the 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 177 
 
 English-speaking race, stalwart and independent, 
 with the free institutions of the mother land, and en- 
 tirely in control of their government. 
 
 There remain India and Egypt and a host of others 
 in the far-flung empire, which do not have self-govern- 
 ment and not all of the rights of Englishmen at home ; 
 but the problems in each case are difficult— except for 
 the ignorant and inexperienced, who solve them to 
 their satisfaction at once. In these countries, doubt- 
 less, there remains much yet to be done, and much that 
 the intelligent and educated of the upper classes in 
 these countries are right in desiring to have done; but 
 when all aspects of the situation are taken into ac- 
 count, it would seem that with the exception of our 
 Philippine Islands, there are no dependencies which 
 are now administered so justly and with so much care 
 of the well-being of the inhabitants as the depend- 
 encies like India and Egj^pt which are under the Brit- 
 ish flag. A considerable amount of self-government 
 has just been recommended for India, and the process 
 will probably be completed as soon as it is possible to 
 do so. 
 
 These things which we admire so much and praise 
 so highly result from the character of the British peo- 
 ple, often unattractive to strangers, and apparently 
 unsympathetic in some ways, but essentially just and 
 humane and filled with sense of fairness and fair play. 
 They result also from the excellent institutions which 
 Englishmen's ancestors worked out so slowly. The 
 greatest faults in British administration and rule of 
 
178 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 other peoples were committed in the older time, when 
 the spirit of things was less wise and humane and 
 more in the interests of the few. During the nine- 
 teenth century there was constant liberalization and 
 extension of share in the government in Great Brit- 
 ain itself, and constantly more and more liberal treat- 
 ment of most of the people in the other dominions. 
 This came not only from the amelioration of char- 
 acter which was progressing in the most civilized coun- 
 tries during this time, but from the extension of de- 
 mocracy based on widening of the franchise, and the 
 more liberal and generous feeling which seems to ac- 
 company such extension. 
 
 The reform law of 1832 is very memorable in the 
 history of English development, for it was the first 
 great overthrow of the old aristocratic and narrow 
 system; but actually it did not greatly extend the 
 electorate. The franchise which had been before pos- 
 sessed by one-forty-eighth of the people and con- 
 trolled by the upper class, was now extended to the 
 prosperous middle class, and the electorate raised 
 from 500,000 to 1,000,000. In the period which fol- 
 lowed a great and silent revolution was effected after 
 the English fashion without bloodshed or sudden over- 
 turning. All sorts of great reforms were made in 
 the interests of classes neglected and oppressed. But 
 a great deal remained to be done. The government 
 of England was by no means a democracy, and the 
 spirit, if more liberal, was not yet democratic. The 
 great change really comes after the middle of the 
 
BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 179 
 
 nineteenth century. In 1867 was passed the second 
 of the electoral reform laws, as a result of which part 
 of the lower class, the artisans of the towns, were given 
 the vote; 1,000,000 new voters were added, so that the 
 franchise was now possessed by 2,500,000 or one- 
 twelfth of the people. The work was further ex- 
 tended in 1884, when the franchise was largely given 
 to the agricultural workers and the laborers in the 
 mines; 2,000,000 were added, and 5,000,000 had the 
 franchise, or one out of every seven. How the fran- 
 chise was extended still further in 1918 to 2,000,000 
 more men and 6,000,000 women, making the electo- 
 rate 16,000,000, or one for each three of the entire 
 population, is an occurrence so recent that its effects 
 cannot yet be measured; but the results of the re- 
 forms of 1867 and 1884, and of the great measures 
 which were thereafter passed in consequence of the 
 new forces which had entered into English gover- 
 nance can be clearly discerned in their larger aspects 
 now. Down to 1832 the spirit of England had been 
 largely aristocratic and exclusive, though strongly in- 
 fluenced by great mercantile and commercial inter- 
 ests; from that year to 1867 the aristocratic spirit was 
 affected to a considerable extent by the power of the 
 middle class, the men of business, the English bour- 
 geoisie; since 1867 and 1884 gradually the spirit of 
 both these forces, though they have persisted, as they 
 do everywhere else with considerable power, has been 
 slowly withdrawing into the background before the 
 rising spirit of democracy, until at last the English 
 
180 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 people and the English government constitute one of 
 the greatest and best democracies in the world. 
 
 In this last, this democratic phase of their history, 
 the English people have become more liberal and sym- 
 pathetic, less exclusive and less imperialistic, they 
 have reached out hands to the other great democracies 
 of the world, they have wished to make conditions bet- 
 ter in all places, and they have desired to do justice 
 to all men. They have not always succeeded, even 
 as well as they intended, and they have not always 
 understood what were the tasks to be dealt with. 
 But is that not the case with all the best peoples? 
 They all have their problems — time and experience 
 and wisdom and patience are needed for solution. In 
 most laudable manner the British people have suc- 
 ceeded in the great tasks which they undertook both 
 at home and abroad; and they have set themselves 
 resolutely to the greater fulfilment of these tasks in 
 the future. Perhaps their most conspicuous failure 
 has been with respect to Ireland. It is the purpose of 
 this part of my writing to show some of the efforts 
 which have been made, explain some of the very great 
 difficulties encountered, and show why on the whole a 
 dolorous failure continues. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH OF IRELAND 
 
 The Irish Church had been established for the express pur- 
 pose of prosecuting the English cause. It embodied and 
 symbolized the alien domination. ... In the language of 
 John Bright . . . every clergyman "is necessarily in his 
 district a symbol of the supremacy of the few and of the 
 subjection of the many." In its presence every Catholic 
 Irishman felt himself a member of a conquered race. . . . 
 W. L. Blease, A Short History of English Lib- 
 eralism (New York, 1913), p. 249. 
 
 THE three great grievances which Irishmen had 
 remaining in the second half of the nineteenth 
 century were the existence of the Established Church 
 of Ireland, the land situation, and the system of gov- 
 ernment, which caused them to be managed, they 
 thought, through the government of another country 
 and denied them the right of managing their affairs 
 themselves. The first of these matters was soon set- 
 tled, the settlement belonging rather to the older pe- 
 riod of the history of Ireland. The second was dealt 
 with in unsatisfactory and partial manner at first, 
 but later so well that by 1914 the Irish land question 
 might be regarded as virtually settled, and settled in 
 such- happy way that a prosperous and contented Ire- 
 land was being created. Changing the. Irish govern- 
 
 181 
 
182 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ment was the subject of memorable struggles for two 
 generations, until at last the matter seemed about to 
 be settled also, despite the most bitter opposition and 
 dissension, but the outbreak of the war involved de- 
 lay, and following events brought so much confusion 
 that for the present the outcome can only be hoped 
 for and conjectured. 
 
 A beginning had been made with the land question 
 when the religious question was taken up, but the 
 matter of the church was vigorously dealt with and 
 settled long before the others had been more than 
 touched, so that it claims here first place in discus- 
 sion. 
 
 The religious establishment in Ireland was one of 
 the general results of the Reformation. Where Ca- 
 tholicism remained triumphant in Europe Catholicism 
 continued to be the state religion; where some one of 
 the Protestant forms came to be preponderant, it was 
 usually established by the state. Thus in England 
 during the sixteenth century the acts of uniformity 
 established the Episcopal or Anglican form of re- 
 ligion as the faith of the English people, subordinate 
 to the government, protected by it, prescribed to all 
 the people, and supported by revenues assigned to 
 it as property of the church. In England this re- 
 ligion came to be professed by the great majority of 
 the people, though there were always considerable 
 bodies of Catholic and Protestant dissenters who re- 
 mained outside the established church and had im- 
 posed on them disabilities and disqualifications, The 
 
DISESTABLISHMENT OF CHURCH 183 
 
 Episcopal church was also established by the English 
 conquerors as the Church of Ireland, similarly pro- 
 tected by the government and supported by property 
 allotted to it, a great part of its revenue being as in 
 England in the form of tithes collected from the peo- 
 ple. But the Episcopalian church never won to it- 
 self more than a small minority of the Irish, so that 
 in Ireland a few possessed privilege and power in 
 church as well as in state affairs. In 1861 the popu- 
 lation of the country was something less than six 
 millions; the members of the Established Church not 
 quite seven hundred thousand, less than one-eighth 
 of the total number. There were numerous Angli- 
 cans about Dublin or near the east coast, but in many 
 Catholic districts there were Anglican benefices with 
 .only a handful of church members, and there were a 
 few which had only one member apiece. Yet the net 
 revenue of the church was more than six hundred 
 thousand pounds sterling. That is to say, the church 
 of the small minority of the inhabitants of Ireland, 
 and they the most prosperous ones, received a huge 
 annual subsidy, while the rest of the people provided 
 for their religion as best they could. It is true, the 
 situation was not so bad as it once had been, when 
 Catholics and dissenters had not only to support their 
 own religions but make direct payment to support the 
 Anglican system which they hated. Nevertheless the 
 established and endowed Church of Ireland afforded 
 the most striking grievance in the island at this time 
 in the minds of a great many people. Actually by 
 
184 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 this time it had come to be an endowed party rather 
 than an endowed religion. Its ministers took part in 
 politics: they had opposed Catholic emancipation; 
 they opposed tenant right; they were ever with the 
 reactionary elements of the state. 
 
 The passing of conservative statesmen, and the new 
 spirit which made possible the reform law of 1867, 
 foreboded a change. It was evident, since 1865, that 
 Gladstone was preparing to support disestablishment. 
 Accordingly a great controversy began in which 
 pamphlets were published as numerous as those of 
 the Home Rule struggles. The controversy was 
 bitter; the defence was earnest. The advocates and 
 beneficiaries came forward with all the zeal which is 
 ever displayed by the hide-bound and conservative, 
 and especially by earnest men who see their vested in- 
 terests threatened. It could no longer be maintained 
 that the Established Church was obtaining converts, 
 and so, from the Protestant point of view, bringing the 
 blessings of a true religion to the island; but it was 
 contended that the Church now existed of right, and 
 that disestablishment and disendowment would be 
 confiscation and theft ; that the cause of Protestantism 
 was at stake; that with the fate of the Church of Ire- 
 land that of the Church of England was involved; 
 that while Episcopalianism was in Ireland the church 
 of a minority, it was all the more necessary to main- 
 tain it on the footing which it possessed, and that while 
 its members were in the minority with respect to 
 Ireland, yet British and Irish were all citizens of the 
 
DISESTABLISHMENT OF CHURCH 185 
 
 United Kingdom, in which the majority of the in- 
 habitants were members of the Anglican Church. 
 The Church should be maintained, its advocates said, 
 because its doctrines were true, while those of the 
 Catholic church were false. Its cause was identified 
 with the British constitution and the rights of prop- 
 erty. The destruction of the Church of Ireland 
 would be the destroying of an essential and funda- 
 mental part of the Act of Union. These arguments 
 have been largely forgotten now, but they continue to 
 be interesting because many of them are similiar, in 
 character at least, to some which were repeatedly 
 urged during the Home Rule controversies of recent 
 years. Religious passion was played upon and 
 aroused, and one speaker declared that if unholy 
 hands were laid upon the church, 200,000 Orangemen 
 would stand forth to defend it. Some, more practi- 
 cal and moderate, favored the endowment of other 
 religions in Ireland. One statesman believed that 
 there should be grants by the government to Catholics 
 and to Presbyterians, and that the revenues of the 
 Episcopalians should be reduced to about one-eighth 
 of what they were. But the Irish Catholics would 
 have nothing to do with such a scheme ; and it was seen 
 that matters had gone too far for any compromise to 
 be accepted. 
 
 In 1869, after a general election, Gladstone intro- 
 duced a bill for the disestablishment and disendow- 
 ment of the Church of Ireland. It passed the Com- 
 mons easily, but the Lords strove to defeat its pur- 
 
186 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 pose by amendments, until at last it was rumored 
 that new peers might be created, as was done in 1712 
 to get approval for the Treaty of Utrecht, and as was 
 threatened in 1832 to secure the passage of the elec- 
 toral reform bill, and as was often threatened later 
 on before the passage of the Parliament Act of 1911. 
 But the peers yielded, as they have usually done when 
 their own privileges were directly threatened, and the 
 bill was enacted into a law with very little change. 
 
 It provided that after the beginning of 1871 the 
 Church of Ireland should no longer be a legal insti- 
 tution. The endowments of the Church should be 
 taken away, though the church buildings were to be 
 reserved for the use of a voluntary Episcopal organi- 
 zation in Ireland not connected with the state. At 
 the same time the Regium Donum, or gift first given 
 to the Presbyterians of Ireland by William of Orange, 
 and since that time continued, as well as the grant 
 annually given to the Catholic college at Maynooth, 
 were to be given no longer. Thus in Ireland the 
 state and the church were to be separated. At the 
 same time private endowments since 1660 were to re- 
 main uritouched. The tithe rent charge of about 
 £9,000,000, once collected from the peasants and now 
 from the landlords, was to be bought in by the land- 
 lords. The total property of the Church was esti- 
 mated at about £16,000,000. With half of this the 
 Episcopal clergy were to be provided for : they might 
 draw their salaries for life, or receive a lump sum at 
 once. From the remainder, sums were given to the 
 
DISESTABLISHMENT OF CHURCH 187 
 
 Presbyterians and the Catholics, though most of it 
 was to be devoted to charities and worthy works, and 
 that has been well done. 
 
 Some of the Episcopal clergy denounced this law 
 as very offensive to Almighty God, and as the 
 greatest national sin ever committed. But after the 
 thing was accomplished, and the passion of contro- 
 versy spent, the results of its operation were seen to 
 be good. It was afterwards said that the measure 
 had been drawn up with extraordinary foresight and 
 skill. And in process of time the members of the 
 church disestablished reconciled themselves to the new 
 conditions, and admitted that the change had done 
 them no lasting harm. In 1911 the Bishop of 
 Limerick, addressing the annual synod, at Tralee, 
 said: "When Disestablishment came 40 years ago 
 many thought it would be disastrous to the Church. 
 Who thinks so now?" 1 
 
 i The ABC Home Rule Handbook, p. 33. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LAND LEGISLATION 
 
 Over one-half of Ireland, the tillers of the soil, are abso- 
 lute owners. ... In a few short years the whole of the 
 land of Ireland will be free once and for ever of landlordism. 
 ... A few short years and the land question in Ireland, 
 that fruitful source of poverty, starvation, miser}', blood- 
 shed and crime, will have absolutely passed away. And 
 with the passing away of that system will have passed away 
 the chief cause which kept the Irish people not only poverty- 
 stricken, but enslaved. 
 
 John Redmond: speech at Detroit, October 26, 1910. 
 
 ONLY the beginning of reform had been made; 
 and however great the concession about the 
 church may have seemed to Englishmen, however 
 grievous the surrender may have appeared to aristo- 
 crats and Episcopalians in Ireland, to most Irishmen 
 it seemed that very little had been done, after inex- 
 cusable delay, and that much more must be under- 
 taken at once. 
 
 During the years which followed, the history of 
 Ireland has to do largely with two things: reform in 
 agrarian conditions, and reform in the Irish govern- 
 ment, with a long series of land laws, and repeated 
 efforts for Home Rule. The more fundamental of 
 these things, the reform of economic conditions, which 
 
 188 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 189 
 
 in Ireland meant primarily betterment of all things 
 relating to the use of the land, was fought for by 
 Irishmen in Ireland, taken up by Liberals in England, 
 and soon taken up also by their opponents, the Con- 
 servatives, and in course of time successfully dealt 
 with. The result constitutes the most important con- 
 structive achievement in the recent history of Ireland. 
 In the past forty years the land of Ireland, once held 
 by the Irish in tribal law, and taken away from the 
 people and their chiefs to be held by foreign invaders, 
 then let to them by alien or absentee landlords for ex- 
 orbitant rent, with gradual depression of the mass of 
 the peasants into harder and more meager living and 
 deeper and deeper distress, with standard of living 
 so lowered that birthrate rose and families increased 
 in size, as they always do where men and women have 
 little or nothing to live for, until the population came 
 to be too great for the agriculture on which it de- 
 pended, and until famine and emigration came to take 
 away millions from the unkind land of their birth — 
 this land, object of passionate desire and ancient 
 yearning on the part of the Irish people, became the 
 subject of laws made by the British parliament, laws 
 which protected the tenant, got for him fairer rents, 
 and then provided money to be loaned to the Irish 
 people on easy terms to buy lands which the landlords 
 might be willing to sell, or might be compelled to sell, 
 until now at last most of the land of Ireland is again 
 in the hands of peasant proprietors, the bulk of the 
 Irish people. 
 
190 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 This legislation, which has already made a new 
 Ireland, and in time to come may perhaps make Ire- 
 land one of the most evenly happy and well-to-do 
 communities in the world, has been done quietly in the 
 main, and has attracted little attention from people 
 outside. Certainly it has not been generally appre- 
 ciated in the United States, where far more is known 
 about the struggle for Home Rule, the Sinn Fein 
 rebellion, and extreme Irish nationalism, than about a 
 body of constructive land legislation, the most notable 
 of its kind ever accomplished. One may assert that 
 it has only given back to Irishmen what was taken 
 from their fathers, and indeed helped them to pay for 
 what was wrongfully taken away from them once; 
 that the English were compelled to do it, and did it 
 with bad grace; and it may at once be admitted that 
 there is truth in all these contentions. But allowing 
 for things as they are in this world, which contains 
 much of evil, it would be more correct to say that 
 British legislation about the land of Ireland is some 
 of the wisest and kindest ever accomplished; that it 
 will probably bring about a body of sturdy and inde- 
 pendent small proprieters such as there is in France, 
 and such as there certainly is not yet in England, and 
 not even in the United States; and that with respect 
 to Great Britain, if it was done sometimes by Tories 
 with desire to still Irish discontent, in the same man- 
 ner that great social reforms were given to the Ger- 
 man people by Bismarck, yet it was also done because 
 liberal England and Scotland sincerely desired to 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 191 
 
 right wrongs once committed in Ireland, and make 
 the Irish people now happy and contented. 
 
 Ireland at the present time is predominantly agri- 
 cultural and grazing. Industries were once estab- 
 lished, and still flourish in some parts of Ulster, but 
 the former repressive policy of England, and, more 
 important, conditions of nature, have brought it about 
 that most Irishmen are engaged in cattle-breeding, 
 dairy-farming, and the raising of crops. There is 
 small profit in recalling a book containing much that 
 is contemptible and silly, in which it is asserted that 
 Ireland possesses great resources for industrial de- 
 velopment ; but some may have chanced to notice with 
 interest its frontispiece in which Germany, repre- 
 sented as a kindly and heroic warrior-woman, points 
 out to Ireland, enraptured maiden, the sun of a new 
 era rising over a splendid and mighty industrial ac- 
 tivity. 1 It may be that through the utilization of 
 water-power Ireland can some time build up an in- 
 dustrialism like that which has risen in Switzerland, 
 and is even now rising in Italy and Norway, espe- 
 cially if a great body of skilled Irish artisans is ever 
 assembled in the various parts of the island. It is 
 certain, however, that in great part Ireland's eco- 
 nomic misfortunes, whether industrial or agricultural, 
 are due to natural causes. There is much peat for 
 fuel, but that is far inferior to coal. Vehement 
 writers who love Ireland, admired Germany, and hate 
 
 i J. K. McGuire, What Could Germany Do for Ireland? (New York, 
 1916). 
 
192 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 England, declare that the island has great store of 
 coal, but England hides this from the world, and dis- 
 courages mining, in Ireland. I am as unable to com- 
 ment on the alleged existence of Captain Kidd's 
 treasure in places along our coast as to decide this 
 matter; but it should be said that the official reports, 
 ordinarily taken as credible, show that Ireland has as 
 little coal as has most of France, and that what ex- 
 ists is of low grade, in the southeastern part, while the 
 deposits of iron, which might be worked with the 
 coal, are in the extreme northeast. And so with re- 
 spect to agriculture. The island is encircled by 
 mountains and hills, low enough to permit the ocean 
 winds to bring copious rains from the Atlantic, but 
 sufficiently high to cause the abundant rainfall to 
 drain down to the central parts rather than flow away 
 to the sea; so that with the two hundred or more 
 rainy days every year not a little of Ireland is marsh 
 and bog, and great stretches of the land not suited 
 for tillage. The soil of Ireland contains about 
 20,000,000 acres. One-fourth of this is waste of 
 mountain and bog. An eighth is meadow land. 
 Half of it, 10,000,000 acres, is permanent pasture. 
 The area under tillage is less than an eighth of the 
 whole, about 2,250,000 acres. "Ireland is thus 
 marked out pre-eminently as a pastoral country." 2 
 Yet, in spite of natural difficulties, it is certain that 
 this condition is partly the result of old custom and 
 traditional practice. At times pasturing has been 
 
 2 Barker, p. 41. 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 193 
 
 easier and cheaper, and so it has been pursued. 
 With modern conditions much of the grazing land 
 would do better under the plough. It is' with the re- 
 claiming of this land, and getting it into the posses- 
 sion of the peasant farmers that the future happiness 
 of Ireland is very largely involved. 
 
 The tendency to devote land to pasture and graz- 
 ing rather than agriculture, which was so marked in 
 England for some centuries, existed also in Ireland 
 as well as the tendency to unite small into larger 
 holdings. When Sir William Petty wrote, about 
 1672, there were 11,000,000 acres of pasture and only 
 800,000 acres of arable land. With the great increase 
 of population more land was cultivated, the peasants 
 often reclaiming it from bog and waste, until shortly 
 after the great famine the arable land was about 
 4,500,000 acres. A great deal of this w r as in small 
 holdings, wretchedly cultivated, and barely yielding 
 a subsistence to those who lived upon it. But new 
 methods were being successfully applied both in Eng- 
 land and Ireland, and grazing and pasturing were, as 
 ever, alluring to the . enterprising man with some 
 capital, so that there went on throughout the nine- 
 teenth century great clearances of the peasants from 
 the land which they worked upon, and also a con- 
 solidation of very small holdings into somewhat 
 larger ones, a process which increased rapidly after 
 the famine, when peasants fled from the stricken 
 country, when old landlords yielded to new, or as 
 proprietors strove to : rehabilitate their fortunes. In 
 
194 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 1841 Ireland was still largely a country of small 
 holdings, but ten years later the number of them had 
 diminished to a fourth, while the number of large ones 
 had nearly quadrupled. 
 
 Not only was the land taken from the peasants, 
 but even where they were allowed to remain their 
 condition was a miserable one. Often it was the 
 peasant, not the landlord, who had brought the land 
 into cultivation; often it was he and his family who 
 had reclaimed it. Yet the land was the landlord's; 
 all that he did was to let it to the tenant. The land- 
 lord made no improvements, as a rule, and if im- 
 provements were made by the tenant, they belonged 
 to the landlord, who was not bound to give any com- 
 pensation, and often gave none. "Tenants' improve- 
 ments are landlords' perquisites," it was said. 
 Therefore not many improvements were made, and the 
 peasants working on with difficulty and no great in- 
 terest, were seldom able to increase the yield of their 
 holdings, and often in their ignorance allowed the soil 
 to wear out, which did much to increase the danger 
 from famine, and contributed not a little to the great 
 catastrophe which came. The principal ambition of 
 the tenant was to pay his rent and get a living for his 
 family, after which he deliberately avoided improve- 
 ment or appearance thereof, since experience showed 
 him that betterment of any kind was apt to bring 
 higher rent. And observers recorded that many ten- 
 ants considered it wisest to go clad in rags and live in 
 filthy hovels, .lest they seem able to make higher pay- 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 195 
 
 nients. On one occasion a farmer was asked why he 
 wore such shabby and tattered clothes. "Sure," he 
 replied, "the last new coat cost me 2s. 6d. an acre more 
 rent." 3 One easily imagines the economic deteriora- 
 tion and abasement of character which attended such 
 circumstances as these. Legally the landlord had 
 nearly complete power over the soil, the tenant no 
 security of possession. Such slight measures as the 
 law had taken for his protection were easily evaded. 
 
 But conditions were actually no.t quite so bad as 
 writers sometimes represent them. Custom did some- 
 thing to mitigate the hardness of the law. In Ulster, 
 and less definitely in the rest of Ireland, there pre- 
 vailed a tenant-right which provided that so long as 
 the tenant paid his rent and held to the conditions of 
 his lease, he must have undisturbed possession; and 
 that when he gave up possession he might sell his in- 
 terest in the holding. Where this custom had most 
 prevailed, it had come to give the tenant a consider- 
 able security, and tenants bought and sold their in- 
 terests as a form of property. It was absolutely un- 
 protected by law, but so firmly was it founded upon 
 custom that in Ulster tenant-right was estimated to 
 have a selling value of £20,000,000. While this cus- 
 tom worked in some waj r s to the disadvantage of the 
 tenant, yet generally it was so far superior to the con- 
 dition recognized by law, that where it prevailed usu- 
 ally estates were improved, and tenants, and some- 
 times landlords, prospered more greatly. 
 * ?G. P. Miacdotiell, in Two Centuries of Irish History, pp. 486, 487. 
 
196 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 But especially after the famine this right was dis- 
 regarded increasingly over most of the island. Land- 
 lords now tried to improve their estates without con- 
 sideration of tenants, and after the Encumbered 
 Estates Act of 1849 estates were bought in by new 
 landlords and consolidated with others, and the ten- 
 ants pressed out or encouraged to leave. Under the 
 new order now, tenant-right custom was never per- 
 mitted by some. So it was that in the sad, gaunt 
 years after the famine, when clearance and eviction 
 followed hunger and despair, tenants who had once 
 relied upon old custom to protect them felt insecure 
 and suspicious ; and what had been done in some places 
 under the land system at its worst, came to be more 
 characteristic of the peasant's lot in all places : he was 
 at the mercy of his landlord; he might be evicted at 
 any time; his improvements went to the landlord; 
 if he was cast out he got no compensation for them. 
 And so the agrarian situation, very bad before, be- 
 came worse and worse. Industry and enterprise 
 withered; poverty prevailed; those who could, went 
 forth from the country. 
 
 This situation was the root of most of the Irish 
 troubles, and it was the bettering of these conditions 
 which produced the new Ireland of the twentieth cen- 
 tury. Englishmen, long ignorant or indifferent or 
 bowed under burdens of their own, at last were forced 
 to behold, and then became eager to help. There had 
 been agitation for. repeal of the Union, and then the 
 Fenian movement.. Finally, when Irishmen showed 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 197 
 
 hatred for England and sympathy for the enemy, as 
 they did during the Indian mutiny and the Crimean 
 War, it meant more to Englishmen than it had to their 
 ancestors of the time of Napoleon or the age of Louis 
 XIV. 
 
 Evil agrarian conditions produced agrarian out- 
 rage and crime with which the law was nearly power- 
 less to deal, and which amazed Englishmen living in 
 the quiet of their own happier land. In 1804 Charles 
 James Fox had written that the necessity of Ireland's 
 being so repeatedly administered by martial law was 
 ground enough for pondering and reconsidering the 
 situation there. English travellers, who examined 
 the matter, reported that this lawlessness and crime 
 was the natural outcome of the conditions in which the 
 Irish peasants were living: they reclaimed land from 
 bog and marsh; they paid rent to some landlord for 
 it ; often they were willing to pay rent ; but they were 
 not willing to be dispossessed from holdings which, 
 saving the rent, they regarded as their own. As 
 evictions and clearance went on, midnight outrage and 
 murder increased. Crimes and coercion acts were 
 passed ; it was seldom that Ireland was not ruled out- 
 side of ordinary laws; yet peace was not maintained. 
 Many a one was arrested; but where an agrarian 
 murder had been committed, it was almost impossible 
 to secure conviction from a jury. In England and in 
 Scotland at this time only a fourth of the persons 
 committed to trial were acquitted, but in Ireland more 
 than half were let go. In 1860, it is true, a land act 
 
108 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 was passed, but such changes as it made were soon 
 found of little assistance to tenants, since it tried to 
 help them without taking from the landlord any of his 
 rights. Evictions went on as before, and a series of 
 adverse seasons brought such famine and misery that 
 crime broke out with renewed violence, and emigra- 
 tion rapidly increased. It was in the years that fol- 
 lowed that Fenianism rose to its worst. 
 
 This was the situation which confronted Gladstone 
 and the Liberal ministry, and which confronted also 
 the changing conscience of England. As soon as the 
 disestablishment of the Irish Church had been effected, 
 the agrarian question was considered. At last the 
 attention of both parties had been drawn to the evil 
 state of things in Ireland, and now there was little 
 difficulty in carrying through parliament the Land 
 Act of 1870. Gladstone's law legalized the tenant- 
 right custom, or established it where it did not already 
 exist, so far as to permit tenants to sell their unex- 
 hausted improvements and to provide damages for 
 arbitrary disturbance of their possession. Certain 
 clauses were added by which loans were to be ad- 
 vanced to tenants who wished to buy their holdings 
 from the landlords. 
 
 But the Irish land question was so entangled with 
 evils, which this legislation only slightly touched, that 
 much more was needed before real improvement could 
 be made. Rents, based often upon competition of 
 tenants with each other, were too high, and this law 
 did nothing to lower them. It was soon found that 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 199 
 
 the landlord's power of eviction had in no wise been 
 destroyed. The tenant could realize his rights only 
 on eviction or when he was leaving the land, and the 
 Irish peasant was unwilling to go from his home so 
 long as it was tolerable to live there. Moreover, all 
 sorts of ways were found for evasion. Actually the 
 landlord's rights were scarcely diminished, and so the 
 tenant's interests were not much more protected than 
 before. Finally, while the tenants were found eager 
 to acquire their farms, the government aid extended 
 in the law helped very little. The three great princi- 
 ples laid down in the Tenant-Right Convention of 
 1850, the three F's, as they came to be called, fair 
 rents, fixity of tenure, and free sale, could not be 
 achieved without more substantial assistance from the 
 state, and more direct interference on the part of the 
 state with the rights of the landlord. The law of 1870 
 was so far a failure that conditions were but slightly 
 improved, and discontent and disorder remained much 
 as before. Tenants had protection only if their rents 
 were not in arrears; compensation for eviction was so 
 low that landlords often deemed it well to evict and 
 then raise the rent; and in so far as the tenant was 
 protected in his tenure there was nothing done to pro- 
 tect him from a raising of the rent. 
 
 Rents continued to rise after the act, but for some 
 years Ireland was comparatively prosperous, since 
 agricultural prices also were rising. Accordingly 
 farmers preferred to pay higher rents when demanded, 
 rather than be evicted and get inadequate compensa- 
 
200 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 tion. But after a while prosperity ceased, and an- 
 other famine almost came upon the land. Discontent 
 was now greater than ever. About 1879 some of the 
 Fenians joined with the great new Irish leader, Par- 
 nell, and under the leadership of Michael Davitt 
 founded the Land League, to get reform, and par- 
 ticularly reform of agrarian conditions, and change 
 conditions so that the peasants might not be starved 
 in another great famine. Agitation and violence in- 
 creased; and the members of the League undertook 
 to control the land situation in Ireland by means of 
 boycott against any new tenants who took at an in- 
 creased rent holdings from which previously tenants 
 had been evicted. Parnell declared that if any one 
 took a farm from which another had been driven out, 
 he should be treated as a leper of old. The Irish 
 situation became now exceedingly disturbing. New 
 coercion acts were passed. Associations of Irishmen 
 began to declare that they would pay no rent at all 
 which they did not consider a fair one; and a cam- 
 paign of outrage, terror, and intimidation followed 
 with the usual consequences in Ireland. Yet it is 
 very probable that those who resisted did much to 
 further the change which now took place; and there 
 are some who look upon the establishment of the 
 Land League at this time as the turning-point in the 
 modern history of Ireland. 
 
 In 1881 a land act was passed of immense import- 
 ance: the Magna Carta of Irish tenants. Gladstone 
 attempted to remedy what was wanting in the law of 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 201 
 
 1870, and provide the three F's which were so much 
 desired. The tenant was to have fixity of tenure 
 under the protection of the state, and he was to pay 
 a fair rent fixed by the land court for fifteen years. 
 Moreover, if the tenant wished to buy his holding, 
 the state would loan him most of the purchase money. 
 It was not easy to understand how revolutionary 
 such legislation was in a British parliament, substi- 
 tuting, as it did, for the old English ideas of compe- 
 tition and contract, the ideas of protection and status. 
 But it would be instructive for those reformers who 
 so easily terminate great evils in the schemes which 
 they lightly draw up, to notice how far this act came 
 from settling all the evils of the complicated ques- 
 tion it was to redress. Rents were much reduced, 
 but the market was falling, and it was difficult for the 
 courts to decide what a fair rent should be. Like 
 those justices who assessed prices and wages in medi- 
 eval times, often they were unable to please any one. 
 Landlords complained that their rents were cut down 
 unjustifiably, and with no compensation to them, 
 while tenants asserted that the courts favored the 
 owners of property. "The State had undertaken to 
 solve, by judicial determination, a problem which com- 
 petition might roughly solve, but human ingenuity 
 hardly could." 4 
 
 Meanwhile prices continued to fall, and hard times 
 together with greater prospect of success for agita- 
 tion brought more disorder and further activity of the 
 
 * Barker, p. 55. 
 
202 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Land League. In 1881 the League was suppressed, 
 but in the following year Parnell founded the Irish 
 National League for the purpose of advancing Home 
 Rule and also to get further reform in the land laws. 
 A few months before, the notorious and ill-advised 
 Phoenix Park murders took place; new and severer 
 coercion acts were passed; and the measures of con- 
 ciliation cherished by Gladstone and the Liberals 
 abruptly came to an end. In the years following there 
 were dynamite outrages plotted in America and perpe- 
 trated in London, which further alienated the British 
 people. Nevertheless all classes in England were 
 forced to think more constantly and more seriously 
 about the Irish problem, and along with much exas- 
 peration at Parnell and the Fenians there was ever 
 more earnest desire to find a remedy and do justice. 
 
 Accordingly the work for the betterment of Ireland 
 was taken up also by the Conservatives, and it should 
 be said that in later times, when they strenuously op- 
 posed Home Rule, they often pointed out, with jus- 
 tice, the great work which they had accomplished. 
 Some of them have declared that while they have re- 
 fused to accept vain, idealistic plans for the assist- 
 ance of Ireland, and have consistently opposed Home 
 Rule and anything tending to weaken the Empire by 
 dissolving the connection with Ireland, they have done 
 most of what has been accomplished for bettering 
 Irish conditions, through reducing the power of the 
 landlord and helping peasants to purchase the soil. 
 
 In 1887, when the Conservatives returned to office, 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 203 
 
 after Gladstone had failed in his first attempt to carry 
 Home Rule, Lord Salisbury continued the land legis- 
 lation which the Liberals had begun. Evil condi- 
 tions and the increasing boldness and better organi- 
 zation of Irishmen made agrarian conditions worse 
 than ever. Evictions were increasing; agricultural 
 prices were falling. It became difficult to pay any 
 rent. In 1886 the potato crop failed. In December 
 of that year began a movement known as the "Plan 
 of Campaign." It was agreed that tenants should 
 offer their landlords a fair rent, and if the landlords 
 refused to accept it, then the rent should be paid 
 into the treasury of the National League, which would 
 give such tenants support. In the land war which 
 followed this plan was greatly abused, as might be 
 expected, being employed by dishonest people as well 
 as by those with just grievance, and against good 
 landlords as well as bad ones. There was a great deal 
 of boycotting also. Some landlords could collect no 
 rents and others were forced to grant reductions, and 
 the condition of the country was gravely disturbed. 
 In 1887 a Crimes Act was passed giving the author- 
 ities large powers to prosecute and arrest. In most 
 of Ireland the National League was suppressed, but 
 there were conflicts between people and police, and 
 much defiance of the law. Yet it must be said that 
 the cause of the peasants was more and more brought 
 to the attention of authorities and people in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Lord Salisbury, conservative and aristocratic, 
 
204 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 strong and prejudiced, was little disposed to yield to 
 Irish disorder, for this was exactly what Conserva- 
 tives had taunted Gladstone with doing. But in ac- 
 cord with the j)revailing spirit of the time he did do it, 
 and hearkened to the demand made by the National 
 League that rents should be further reduced. The 
 judicial rents accorded by the law of 1881 had been 
 fixed for a period of fifteen years, but a new law now 
 compelled Irish landlords to accept a further reduc- 
 tion. Judicial rents were extended to leaseholders 
 as well as to yearly tenants. In 1891 and in 1896 the 
 system was further extended and finally consolidated. 
 By 1900 half of all the soil of Ireland was subject to 
 judicial rents, and a general reduction had been made 
 in rents of forty per cent. That is to say, by the 
 end of the nineteenth century the British government, 
 which had once taken the land from the people and 
 given it over to tyrannous landlords, now took the 
 tenants under its protection. This was something 
 that as yet it had not begun to do for the correspond- 
 ing classes in England. 
 
 It was a very difficult task which the state had 
 undertaken for the Irish people. It had established 
 and was trying to maintain a double interest, a two- 
 fold proprietorship, of landlord and tenant, over the 
 soil. It was not easy to do this so as to safeguard 
 the interests of both and meet their desires. Gener- 
 ally speaking the system worked well, for evictions 
 and agrarian crimes were reduced. But the changes 
 were made in an era of falling prices, and whenever 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 205 
 
 rents were altered they were made lower. It has 
 been observed that in periods of industrial prosperity 
 sharing of profits is exceedingly popular with em- 
 ployees, though it has always been doubtful whether 
 they would voluntarily accept part of the losses if 
 times became hard. And so with the Irish agricul- 
 tural situation: "if a period should ever come in which 
 judicial rents, instead of being steadily lowered, had 
 to be increased to meet a rise of prices, the peace might 
 become a storm." 5 
 
 Far more important was the system of land pur- 
 chase, taken up somewhat after the beginning of regu- 
 lation of agrarian relations, but carried steadily for- 
 ward all through these later years. The first device 
 made the Irish peasants happier tenants, the second 
 made them owners of the soil. Purchase of Irish 
 land by the tenants with the assistance of the govern- 
 ment was advocated by John Bright in 1866. Under 
 his influence a small beginning was made in the Act 
 for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869, 
 when tenants of church lands were given the refusal 
 of their holdings, and allowed three-fourths of the 
 purchase price on mortgage at four per cent interest. 
 The government advanced a considerable sum of 
 money to assist them, and most of these tenants 
 bought their holdings. The same principle was used 
 in the Land Act of 1870 and in that of 1881, but 
 conditions remained such that not many tenants 
 bought, and the government was not called on to give 
 
 5 Barker, p. 57. 
 
206 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 much assistance. Yet the idea was soon taken into 
 the greater favor of both parties. The Liberals pro- 
 posed a larger measure, which failed, and Gladstone 
 intended, if he were able to carry Home Rule, to 
 bring in also a comprehensive measure for land pur- 
 chase at the same time. Then the Conservatives took 
 up the plan. During Lord Salisbury's first adminis- 
 tration in 1885, the Ashbourne Act became law. The 
 government put aside £5,000,000 to lend to tenants 
 of small holdings, where the landlords were willing 
 to sell to them; and whereas previously the govern- 
 ment would lend three-fourths of the purchase, now 
 all of it would be advanced. A supplementary act 
 was passed during the second Salisbury administra- 
 tion, in 1888, appropriating a like sum additional. 
 In a few years the £10,000,000 was spent, and 25,000 
 peasants bought their holdings. 
 
 The plan became very popular, getting momentum 
 as it went, for instead of paying rent- as tenants, the 
 new proprietors paid back the loan to the government 
 in forty-nine annual installments, the interest being at 
 four per cent. Conditions were such that the prices 
 paid in purchase were low, with the result that if one 
 purchased he paid less by the year than if he con- 
 tinued to rent. In 1891 and 1896 the Conservatives 
 caused to be passed acts for the appropriation of much 
 larger sums of money; more than £13,000,000 was ad- 
 vanced by the state, and 46,000 tenants purchased 
 their holdings. 
 
 Thus far all had gone well, even though of late 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 207 
 
 the progress had been slower. But the scheme had 
 so far been successful because landlords had been wil- 
 ling to sell. Now, just at the time wheri, Irish ten- 
 ants were beginning generally to buy holdings for 
 themselves, it was found that landlords no longer con- 
 sidered it profitable to sell, since they were paid by 
 the government in securities whose value began to 
 fall because of conditions prevailing about the time 
 of the South African War, securities which presently 
 went much below par. Altogether some 70,000 ten- 
 ants out of the total number, perhaps, of more than 
 half a million, had now become tenants of the state, 
 and were on the road to possessing their land in free- 
 hold. The scheme had become very popular and 
 money was eagerly applied for, but now it was diffi- 
 cult to find properties on the market. Accordingly a 
 demand arose that the state should make them sell 
 out. In 1898 William O'Brien and others founded 
 the United Irish League, really a successor to the old 
 National League, and began to attack the proprietors 
 of the large grazing farms, and demand that they be 
 expropriated by the government, and their property 
 divided and sold to small purchasers, so as to relieve 
 the poverty and congestion which produced so much 
 misery in the island. The agitation thus begun soon 
 extended into demand for compulsory expropriation 
 of all landlords. The movement was supported by 
 Protestants and Catholics, the tenants in Ulster mak- 
 ing common cause with tenants in the rest of Ireland. 
 There might have been here a bitter struggle, but 
 
208 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 old conservatism and holding to vested interests were 
 beginning to give way before fear and a new view of 
 the situation, and the more moderate and far-sighted 
 landlords sought to effect an understanding with the 
 more conservative of the leaders of the tenants. In 
 1902 a meeting was held at which an agreement was 
 made, known as the "Dunraven Treaty." A unani- 
 mous report declared that completion of purchase of 
 the land by the tenants was the only solution of the 
 Irish land question, and then suggested a scheme to 
 make the thing equally advantageous to landlord and 
 tenant. 
 
 The program was carried out in the Wyndham 
 Act of 1903. By this law £100,000,000 was to be 
 raised through the issuing of British securities. The 
 money was to be advanced to tenants for the pur- 
 chase of their holdings. To make landlords willing to 
 sell it was provided that they should be paid in cash, 
 and receive an additional twelve per cent of the price 
 as a bonus. To encourage tenants the rate of in- 
 terest on money loaned to them was reduced from 
 four to three and a quarter per cent, though the period 
 of repayment, which had been lowered to forty-two 
 years, was now extended to sixty-eight and a half. 
 Various provisions of the law made easy the sale which 
 had previously been complicated with instructions. 
 
 The law was very popular at once, and the Estates 
 Commissioners, who were appointed to administer it, 
 were speedily confronted with many more requests 
 than they were able to deal with. They were limited 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 209 
 
 to advancing £5,000,000 annually; and year by year 
 this was all given out. By 1912 120,000 tenants had 
 received assistance, and about the same number in 
 addition were awaiting their turn. So it seemed that 
 the land question was at last on the way of being 
 definitely settled. The problem was being solved, 
 but meanwhile many difficulties remained. It was 
 found that the total sum appropriated fell short of 
 what would be required. Where £100,000,000 was 
 proposed, it was soon thought that £160,000,000 
 would be needed. When the Wyndham Act was 
 passed, it had been supposed that the Irish Land 
 Stock, which was to be issued for getting money to 
 lend to the tenants, would not fall much below par, 
 but in accord with general tendencies all over the 
 world this stock declined, until at the beginning of 
 1912 it stood at 78. To get £100 in cash, consider- 
 ably more than that had to be issued in stock, and at 
 the same time, because of the same tendencies, prices 
 generally were rising. The government had gener- 
 ously, but perhaps unwisely, lowered the rate of in- 
 terest which the tenant had to pay. Therefore in 
 1909 the Birrell Act was passed, by which, among 
 other things, the landlord was to be paid in three per 
 cent stock at its market value, while the tenant's rate 
 was to be raised to three and a half per cent. 
 
 While the government was grappling with these 
 difficulties, created by its own generosity, difficulties 
 which came to be so great that they threatened the 
 financial breakdown of the scheme, there were not 
 
210 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 wanting those who from the other side declared that 
 the landlords were receiving high prices, that in poor 
 years tenants might find it difficult to make their 
 payments to the state, and that while the British gov- 
 ernment was for the present providing the money 
 with which the land was purchased, yet since all of it 
 had in the end to be paid back by Ireland, it was not 
 fair for it to be repaid with reference to British loans 
 which could only be put upon the market at a serious 
 discount. Some of these particular criticisms, it is 
 true, were met in 1909. 
 
 In spite of these objections the great work went 
 forward steadily, though not quite so quickly as at 
 first. The problems of dealing with evicted tenants 
 and with the inhabitants of congested districts were 
 not dealt with as speedily as some expected, and there 
 was a revival of some agrarian disorder in 1907, to 
 compel graziers not to rent their lands on short term, 
 but have them divided among small farmers ; but for 
 the most part a great change had come over the island. 
 The greatest and most universal of the grievances of 
 the Irish people had been the taking away of their 
 land. For a great while they had suffered, and, 
 whenever they could, broken out in wild disorder and 
 transgression. During the nineteenth century agra- 
 rian outrage had been so common and life so unsafe 
 that Ireland was usually under some sort of coercion 
 or crimes act, of a character and severity that would 
 not have been necessary in Scotland or in England in 
 time of war; and even so, destruction and midnight 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 211 
 
 murder had continued. Now, economic contentment 
 was beginning to prevail, and along with it came an 
 order and a quiet seldom seen in Ireland before. The 
 work was not yet finished, and would not be for some 
 years, but already the end was in sight. At the 
 present time one-half of all Irish soil, and two-thirds 
 of all that can be used, previously subject to land- 
 lords, is in the hands of men who are actually tenants 
 of the state, but who know that they are steadily 
 progressing towards independent proprietorship, and 
 that their children will be owners after them. 
 
 There is still the problem of the congested districts, 
 the rural slums, where families live in abject poverty 
 upon soil unproductive and sterile, mostly in Con- 
 naught, in the west of Ireland; but that also is in the 
 way of being solved. There are still also some land- 
 lords who have not cared to sell. In 1913 a bill was 
 introduced by a Liberal government which proposed 
 to do what the act of 1903 was designed to avoid, 
 compel landlords to sell; but this measure was 
 dropped. Generally speaking, Ireland is passing into 
 the hands of its people, more than any other country, 
 with the exception of Servia rude and small, perhaps 
 of Russia ruined and chaotic, and France since the 
 French Revolution. 
 
 The government has also given assistance to Irish 
 rural laborers, who did not benefit very much from 
 the earlier land legislation. The Poor Law Unions 
 were given the power to erect cottages and let them to 
 laborers at a rent under cost. In 1906 a law was 
 
212 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 passed especially in their interests. Money was to be 
 loaned to the District Councils for the erection of 
 cottages, and the government would give the laborers 
 help to buy their grounds. The result was that at 
 the outbreak of the war many a laborer had obtained 
 a cottage with three rooms, a piggery, a garden of 
 an acre or a half an acre, for which he paid a very 
 small rent. By 1913 more than £4,000,000 had been 
 spent for this purpose. It was often pointed out that 
 as yet nothing like this was being done for English- 
 men, and that it would be well if the like could be done. 
 These are the fundamental things in recent Irish 
 history. Probably their significance is not often 
 realized outside of Ireland and England. In 
 America, the uninformed, when they think of Irish 
 matters, consider them either with respect to the days 
 of the famine and the great evictions, or else with 
 reference to the repeated failure of the movement to 
 obtain independence or Home Rule. They think of 
 an old England, which they only dimly understand, 
 and not at all, perhaps, in respect of things as they 
 formerly were, and conceive of a heartless, tyrannous, 
 and obstinate nation oppressing the Irish people and 
 denying their rights. They do not realize that partly 
 because of the vigor and pertinacity of Irishmen, 
 partly because of the character of Englishmen in 
 recent times and the leniency, after all, recently of 
 their rule in Ireland, there has been brought about one 
 of the most significant revolutions of modern times. 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 213 
 
 Irishmen protested and rioted and defied the law until 
 they attracted attention at the very time that English- 
 men were becoming democratic and humanitarian. 
 When the case had been made clear to them, the essen- 
 tial justness and fairness that are in the English char- 
 acter brought about something that could never have 
 taken place in Prussian Poland, and, indeed, some- 
 thing that the most humane and enlightened countries 
 have seldom attempted. A great national wrong once 
 committed was undone by the state. England gave to 
 Irishmen financial assistance to bring about for them- 
 selves that which the French were able to get only 
 after a mighty upheaval, which the English people 
 have not yet got for themselves, and which the agri- 
 cultural proletariat of many another country sees only 
 in utter revolution or some dim dream of the future. 
 It is nothing more than assistance that was given, some 
 will say, and it was no more than justice merely. But 
 as things have been in this world such assistance and 
 such justice are not very often bestowed. 
 
 It is not necessary to recall the manner in which 
 German writers and propagandists have expounded 
 the sad state of Ireland under English dominion, and 
 the grievous tyranny which continues. "There exists 
 no future for Ireland but increasing tuberculosis and 
 death from starvation for her people, or an absolute 
 and speedy separation from England," says the intro- 
 duction to a book which declares Germany the greatest 
 of contemporary nations, that the Allies plotted her 
 
214 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 destruction, and that the wickedness of Belgium 
 brought retribution richly deserved. 6 But this was 
 not the opinion of competent German scholars, in the 
 days before the war when some of them thought clearly 
 and spoke the truth as they saw it. "Irish tenants 
 have had conditions assured to them more favourable 
 than any other tenantry in the world enjoy," wrote 
 Dr. Bonn, when the operation of land laws and land 
 purchase laws was not yet complete. 7 And the best 
 and most constructive among Irish leaders and men 
 of affairs have urged and adopted and furthered these 
 things as much as they could. 
 
 It would be a grievous mistake to suppose that this 
 legislation has remedied all Irish ills and made Arcadia 
 or earthly paradise in the island. The blight of the 
 past still lies heavy upon the country. The taking 
 of the land once and the suffering which resulted drove 
 from Ireland the best of her people; they cannot be 
 brought back now; and of those who remained the 
 character and physique was diminished. There con- 
 tinues to be grinding poverty and the hopeless apathy 
 that comes with it. Under best conditions these things 
 will not disappear at once. There are also many 
 agricultural holdings, in the possession of Irish pro- 
 prietors, it is true, but so small that only a meager 
 living is in any way to be obtained from them. 
 Moreover, Ireland is not by nature very richly 
 endowed, and cannot, perhaps, ever be greatly rich. 
 
 e What Could Germany Do for Ireland, p. 21. 
 7 Barker, p. 66. 
 
LAND LEGISLATION 215 
 
 The land legislation, then, has not made all Irishmen 
 prosperous and contented; but in it a beginning has 
 been made, with great promise for the future, and 
 much progress has already been accomplished towards 
 a solution of the worst parts of the Irish problem. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 
 
 There is, then, a strange and wonderful renascence in 
 Ireland, a quickening of old bones with new life, a great, 
 outspreading development which will culminate one day in an 
 Ireland which is as prosperous and developed as is Denmark 
 now. 
 
 St. John G. Ervine, Sir Edward Carson and the 
 Ulster Movement (New York, 1916), p. 40. 
 
 IRISH agitation long continued gained, under the 
 new order in England, a series of land laws and 
 acts for assisting the tenants to purchase the land. 
 As a result the Irish people were becoming the owners 
 of their soil; and in a far freer way than was so in 
 the old days of Irish romance and legend. On this 
 foundation the Irish people themselves, wisely led by 
 some excellent men, now went forward to build up a 
 new Irish social and economic life, with a success which 
 constitutes a remarkable achievement in modern Irish 
 life, and is second in importance only to the getting 
 of the land into the hands of the people. The achieve- 
 ment followed very largely from the efforts of the 
 Irish Agricultural Organization Society, particularly 
 the work of Sir Horace Plunkett. 
 
 Sir Horace Plunkett had learned by experience 
 something about farming in the west of the United 
 
 216 
 
AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 217 
 
 States. He wished to make better agriculture in Ire- 
 land. He saw that as the years went by honest efforts 
 were being made by Irishmen and by the British gov- 
 ernment to improve agrarian conditions in Ireland, 
 but he perceived that the efforts for betterment had to 
 do almost entirely with the land as it was, with rent, 
 eviction, compensation for improvements, and so on. 
 This was very desirable, but the next great step for- 
 ward must be in increasing production, getting the 
 ground to yield more for those who worked it, and 
 this he proposed to accomplish through co-opera- 
 tive management in production and in distribution. 
 About 1889 he began to work for this in Ireland. 
 
 One of his admirers has said that he could scarcely 
 have seemed less fitted to influence great numbers of 
 people, ignorant for the most part, and separated by 
 dissensions of politics and creed: he was shy, hesitant 
 in manner, and with none of the gifts of speech and 
 personality usual in popular politics either in Ireland, 
 or England, or the United States. When he began 
 his work, what little was known about him in Ireland 
 seemed against him, for he was a Conservative and 
 moderate Unionist in politics, and a Protestant in 
 faith. Setting out to persuade small tenants and 
 peasant proprietors to work together and learn to do 
 better agricultural work, it was thought that he could 
 never get Protestants and Catholics, Orangemen and 
 Nationalists to act together, that priests and Episco- 
 palian ministers would be against him, that the land- 
 lords would oppose him, that the people themselves 
 
218 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 would have none of him. But he was aflame with 
 enthusiasm. Day and night, fine weather and foul, 
 he went from one little village to another, arguing and 
 explaining before dull and suspicious farmers, and 
 gradually making them friends. The first great suc- 
 cess came when he won the priests, as O'Connell had 
 gained them once, for they still had their marvellous 
 power with the people. And he enlisted the services 
 of capable lieutenants, particularly George W. Rus- 
 sell, idealist and thinker, one of the ablest and wisest 
 writers in contemporary Ireland. The politicians did 
 oppose him, and strongly, after a while, but he had 
 little concern with politics himself, seeking to unite 
 men of all parties under an ideal of regeneration for 
 Ireland. Not long ago he declared that he had not 
 been on a political platform for fifteen years. 
 
 The British parliament had made a revolution in 
 tenures in Ireland; Sir Horace Plunkett desired 
 improvement in methods of using the land. In 1894 
 he formed the Irish Agricultural Organization 
 Society, generally known as the I. A. O. S. This was 
 to be the basis and central organization of all sorts of 
 co-operative societies, serving as a center for encour- 
 agement and assistance. Soon it founded or assisted 
 co-operative creameries, where the farmers sent their 
 milk and good butter was made, co-operative banks, 
 where they could borrow money at low rates of 
 interest, and societies which collected and distributed 
 eggs or encouraged the growing of flax. And these 
 societies, particularly the I. A. O. S., attempted to 
 
AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 219 
 
 foster home industries, gave instruction in better agri- 
 cultural methods, and every sort of helpful infor- 
 mation and assistance. In all this Catholics and 
 Protestants were got to work harmoniously together, 
 and it seemed to make no great difference whether a 
 man was a Unionist or favored Home Rule. By 1910 
 there were some 900 co-operative societies, with a 
 membership of 100,000, dealing in goods valued at 
 £2,500,000. Production was increased and farmers 
 were started on the way to a greater prosperity. 
 
 It is true that in agricultural development only a 
 beginning has been made, but it was the beginning 
 which was most important. There is still much to be 
 taught and much to be learned: there must be more 
 agriculture, it is said, and less pasturing, and there 
 must be a better system of pasture. Ireland now pro- 
 duces much cattle and butter; she will be more pros- 
 perous when she can produce butter in winter, as 
 Denmark does, and fatten the cattle which she pro- 
 duces to export. But these things will perhaps come 
 in time, through the further work of the I. A. O. S. 
 and of the Department of Agriculture, which has 
 grown out of its work. 
 
 This work has not only had excellent economic 
 results; from it have come social and political conse- 
 quences which may have far-reaching effects in the 
 future. It has been well said that before the era of 
 Irish land legislation the estate was the unit of social 
 organization, and that this, of course, began to dis- 
 appear when the land was sold in small holdings to the 
 
220 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 tenants. A new organization was needed for the 
 people, and it was furnished by the co-operative 
 movement. The spirit of tribal community had once 
 been the dominant factor in Irish life ; this spirit sur- 
 vived so far in the character of the people that now 
 local co-operative societies easily became the new units 
 of social life. The local society was managed by a 
 committee elected by its members. And just as once 
 upon a time most Englishmen received in the manage- 
 ment of the humble affairs of their parishes long and 
 valuable training for greater future work in self- 
 government, so Irishmen of the present time were 
 coming to manage all rural business and many of the 
 concerns of their lives in their own co-operative 
 societies. And, observers say, along with this practice 
 in doing things and gradually managing them, a new 
 spirit develops: each member takes greater interest 
 in the affairs of the community and of his fellows. 
 George Russell predicted from this development a 
 future society containing free associations of pro- 
 ducers and workers, constituting small, free societies 
 within the state. This would be something like the 
 guild socialism which has arisen of late years in Eng- 
 land. Irishmen and Englishmen who have studied 
 these movements profess to see in them hope for a 
 happier mankind in the future. 
 
 There have been more important political effects. 
 As the work of the I. A. O. S. went forward, Sir 
 Horace Plunkett considered means of obtaining aid 
 from the state. He organized a committee which 
 
AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 221 
 
 embraced representatives of all who were interested, 
 without distinction of creed or party. In 1899 the 
 government established the Department of Agricul- 
 ture and Technical Instruction, for the purpose, 
 among other tilings, of encouraging agriculture and 
 scientific and technical education. While other Irish 
 boards and councils are represented in parliament col- 
 lectively by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, this 
 department is represented directly by its chief officer, 
 a vice-president. But if it is directly connected with 
 parliament, it is also directly connected with the Irish 
 people, through representative advisory bodies: the 
 Council of Agriculture, two-thirds of whose members 
 are appointed by the Irish county councils, which are 
 themselves directly responsible to the people, and the 
 Board of Agriculture and Board of Technical Instruc- 
 tion, which are directly or indirectly connected with 
 local government organs. The members of the 
 Council discuss matters of public interest in connec- 
 tion with the working of the Department, and to some 
 extent are able to control it, thus bringing the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture definitely into association with 
 Irish public opinion. This system of democratic con- 
 trol both in the local co-operative assemblies and 
 indirectly over the Department is of very great 
 importance in the political training of the Irish people. 
 In the local committees men get training in adminis- 
 trative work, and out of them come the leaders of the 
 committees. There are some who say that the Irish 
 are not to be trusted with Home Rule inasmuch as 
 
222 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 they are notoriously lacking in political ability and 
 training; that where they have been given some share 
 in self-government there is graft and political ineffi- 
 ciency, and, whatever the form may be, a relapse into 
 personal and tribal government with modern methods 
 of corruption. But since 1898 the Irish have been 
 learning self-government in the local political units, 
 as the French have really been learning it in the last 
 generation; and meanwhile they have been learning 
 it even better in their local co-operative organizations. 
 It has been wisely said that when Home Rule does 
 come into effect, it may be found that the best prepa- 
 ration for it was the co-operative movement in agri- 
 cultural life. 
 
 Generally the work of Sir Horace Plunkett has not 
 found favor with Irish political leaders. John Red- 
 mond gave assistance at first, but in 1904 he said that 
 the real object of the movement was to undermine the 
 Nationalist Party, and divert the minds of the people 
 from Home Rule, which alone could lead to a real 
 revival of Irish industries. From the point of view 
 of the politicians Home Rule or some other political 
 device was naturally the all-important thing upon 
 which the future prosperity of Ireland must be based ; 
 and they found it not easy to encourage a movement 
 which succeeded in bringing prosperity and causing 
 agriculture to flourish without any Home Rule or 
 separation. And the older politicians had reason to 
 fear, for this movement and another were silently 
 
AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 223 
 
 changing political thought in the island, bringing 
 about a new alignment, and relegating the leaders to 
 an older order, though as yet they did not perceive it. 
 A new generation was growing up, which would later 
 be attracted to Sinn Fein, but which for the present 
 was thinking new thoughts which had arisen from the 
 co-operative movement. "They have done with old 
 angers and ancient rages," says a recent writer, "and 
 the bitter wrangling of semi-dotards, nor have they 
 any interest in internecine quarrels, the differences 
 between Catholic and Protestant, Orangeman and 
 Ancient Hibernian. They are bored by 'the sorrows 
 of Ireland'; they do not desire ever again to hear of 
 the horrors of the Great Famine or of any famine. . . . 
 They are tired to death of rhetoricians such as Mr. 
 John Redmond; they are sick of oratory and Irish- 
 Americans and Curse-the-Pope-put-your-fut-in-his- 
 bellv-Orangemen ; and above all they are tired of 
 Ireland in the part of Lazarus whining for crumbs 
 from England's table." 1 A new party of Young 
 Irishmen had arisen. 
 
 Another reason for this opposition was that the 
 leaders of the principal political party represented 
 interests which were fundamentally different from 
 those fostered by the co-operative movement. That 
 movement was designed not only to enable the farmers 
 to work together so as to produce more, but also to 
 furnish them with assistance and supplies, and enable 
 
 i Ervine, pp. 41, 42. 
 
224 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 them to market and distribute what they produced. 
 In so far as this succeeded, it would tend toward the 
 elimination of the middleman. Now one of the 
 important factors in recent Irish economic life has 
 been the work of the gombeen-men. They sold to 
 farmers the needed implements and supplies, at prices 
 which they were generally able to fix, loaned them 
 money on credit, often on condition that the farmers 
 sell them their produce, and purchased the produce at 
 prices arranged by themselves. The gombeen-men 
 were the capitalists and chief persons of their dis- 
 tricts, and were important in political life. They were 
 strongly represented in the local branches of the 
 United Irish League, the modern successor of the old 
 National League, and chief supporter of the 
 Nationalist and Home Rule cause, and hence had 
 much influence on the policy of the Nationalist Party. 
 Accordingly, this party represented a trading even 
 more than an agrarian interest. Furthermore, the 
 gombeen-men came to be represented strongly in the 
 Council of Agriculture, and were thus able to influence 
 the Department of Agriculture. The result was seen 
 when in 1910 the Department condemned the credit 
 banks of the I. A. O. S. as insolvent, and in the year 
 following refused it a grant of money. 
 
 What the future may hold is uncertain, but such has 
 been the development of co-operative organizations in 
 England, in America, and even in Russia, that much 
 more is expected of them. It is certain that in Ireland 
 the I. A. O. S. has been the foremost factor in develop- 
 
AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 225 
 
 ing a better feeling of self-reliance and a greater 
 economic prosperity; and there are not a few who 
 think that Sir Horace Plunkett has deserved better of 
 his countrymen than any other of this generation. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 
 
 My poor opinion is, that the closest connexion between 
 Great Britain and Ireland is essential to the well-being, I 
 had almost said, to the very being, of the two kingdoms. For 
 that purpose I humbly conceive, that the whole of the 
 superiour, and what I should call imperial, politicks ought to 
 have its residence here ; and that Ireland, locally, civilly, and 
 commercially independent, ought politically to look up to 
 Great Britain in all matters of peace or of war ; in all those 
 points to be guided by her : and, in a word, with her to live 
 and to die. At bottom, Ireland has no other choice, I mean 
 no other rational choice. 
 
 Edmund Burke, Letter on the Affairs of Ireland, 
 Written in the Year 1797. 
 
 ANEW generation was growing up in Ireland in 
 the midst of better conditions. The peasants 
 were acquiring their land, and in their own co-opera- 
 tive societies learning how to make themselves better 
 farmers, and they were getting new habits of sturdy 
 self-reliance. Except when it seemed that the trans- 
 fer of the soil was not going forward sufficiently fast, 
 the old crime and disorder had almost entirely abated. 
 Ireland was becoming more prosperous and quiet; and 
 the future stretched onward better and better as men 
 could see into it farther. There was increasing con- 
 tentment, and it was often maintained that were it not 
 
 226 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 227 
 
 for politicians and Irish-Americans there would be no 
 discontent in the island. And yet there was discon- 
 tent. It was not enough that most men could now 
 make a living, and that some were getting prosperity. 
 Much had been won, but still much was desired. As 
 old wants were satisfied others revived and new ones 
 arose. A great many people believed that if some 
 economic independence had been got, complete indus- 
 trial and economic prosperity never could come with- 
 out a radical change in the system of Irish govern- 
 ment ; and that they never could be free until they had 
 complete self-government of their own. 
 
 The government of Ireland is an interesting and 
 peculiar thing, not so excellent as often believed in 
 England, and not the tyranny that some other people 
 have thought it to be. Substantially it has not been 
 changed since the Act of Union, for though the Home 
 Rule Law is at last upon the statute books, this 
 law has not been brought into effect ; yet the operation 
 of time has wrought change in the character and spirit 
 of the government. 
 
 The Act of Union did not bring about complete 
 unification of the governments of the two islands. 
 The parliaments were merged into one, but actually 
 two executives remained. The opponents of Home 
 Rule are against whatever would to a considerable 
 extent separate Ireland from England, but largely, 
 with respect to the executive, separate government 
 exists at present, though it is a government in com- 
 plete subordination to that of Great Britain. On 
 
228 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the other hand it is more important to remember that 
 in respect of the legislative, Ireland has a share in the 
 government of the United Kingdom just like that of 
 the other parts: government rests upon parliament, 
 which consists substantially of members elected by the 
 people, and to this representative body, the House of 
 Commons, Ireland not only sends delegates, but 
 whereas her population entitles her to sixty-five, she 
 has been allowed to keep one hundred and three, to 
 whom two more have recently been added; upon the 
 majority in this House of Commons rests the ministry, 
 which controls the administrative and executive work 
 of the United Kingdom, and this majority may be 
 made up of Irish members as well as members from 
 Scotland or Wales or parts of England. In England 
 it is often argued that this is quite fair, since here 
 Ireland has what other parts of the United Kingdom 
 possess; and, indeed, there could be no proper cause 
 for complaint if the arrangement were approved by 
 the Irish people ; but most of them do not approve of 
 it, and most of them feel that however fair the arrange- 
 ment may seem, actually their interests are largely 
 different from those of the people of Great Britain, 
 and are often misunderstood or insufficiently consid- 
 ered, and that since their representation is so much a 
 minority in respect of the total number of members of 
 the United Kingdom, the presence of their members 
 in the parliament of this Kingdom may avail them 
 very little. 
 
 Those who dislike the present system go farther. 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 229 
 
 The people of Great Britain really do have self- 
 government, and it is marvellously well contrived. 
 Administration and executive work are carried on by 
 permanent officials, who are subject to the direction 
 of certain heads of the departments in which these 
 officials are grouped, the more important of these 
 heads making up the cabinet. They sit in parliament, 
 are responsible to it, and are dependent for continu- 
 ance in power upon the support of a majority of the 
 Commons. If they do not keep the approval of a 
 majority of the representatives of the people, they 
 bring about a general election, and abide then by the 
 decision of the voters. This is one of the most admir- 
 able systems of democratic, representative self-govern- 
 ment which has ever been devised, and it has been 
 copied more than any other system where civilized 
 peoples have remodelled their governments in recent 
 times — until the Russian revolution. But to many 
 Irishmen it does not seem that their affairs are 
 administered so. 
 
 In England the executive is the cabinet under the 
 prime minister; in Ireland it is nominally the lord 
 lieutenant, actually the Chief Secretary for Ireland. 
 The lord lieutenant is the representative of the king- 
 in Ireland. Once, when the British monarch was the 
 principal power in the state, as he was two centuries 
 ago, the lord lieutenant was the principal officer in 
 Ireland; but as in process of time the power of the 
 king in England has been taken by parliament, to be 
 administered by the cabinet dependent upon a 
 
230 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 majority in the Commons, until the king now has little 
 real power, and finds his most important functions in 
 being head of the social system and symbol of a past 
 much revered, so the lord lieutenant in Dublin has 
 come to be but a great social figure, a symbol of the 
 government, possessing the shadow, not the substance, 
 of power. In Great Britain the sovereign, if he is a 
 person of strong character and dominating person- 
 ality, can influence the government, and so in like 
 case can the lord lieutenant in Ireland; but usually 
 that is all. There have been various proposals to 
 abolish the office of the viceroy as useless, and this 
 may be done. As in Britain at any particular time 
 the real ruler is the prime minister, so in Ireland actual 
 power is in the hands of the Chief Secretary for Ire- 
 land. The lord lieutenant, a figure-head, resides in 
 the capital of Ireland; the Secretary, the real center 
 of power, spends some time in Ireland, but usually 
 nine months of the year in England. As the prime 
 minister with a majority in the Commons is, within 
 the bounds of law, the supreme ruler of the United 
 Kingdom, so the Irish Secretary, an important 
 minister, closely associated with the cabinet, is sup- 
 ported by the same parliamentary majority, shares 
 the authority of the ministry, and is supreme in the 
 government of Ireland. If the Irish people were as 
 truly united with the other peoples of the Kingdom 
 as the Scotch are with the English, the peculiar powers 
 of the Irish Secretary would probably long since have 
 disappeared. At Westminster he guides the manage- 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 231 
 
 ment of Irish affairs; in Dublin he governs through 
 the Boards, which carry on the administrative work 
 of the island. They are centered about Dublin Castle, 
 and because of arbitrary tyranny in the past and Irish 
 disapproval in the present and the fact that these 
 officials do not represent the sentiments of the 
 majority of the people, "Castle Rule" and "the 
 Castle" are words of opprobrium and dislike. "Tell 
 me dhis," says Matthew in one of Shaw's plays, "have 
 yanny Coercion Acs in England? Have you Dublin 
 Castle to suppress every newspaper dhat takes the 
 part o your own counthry?" * Hostile critics declare 
 that the Castle is the stronghold of what remains of 
 the ancient regime in the island. 
 
 Many are the objections made to this system. 
 Here is an executive not directly, and usually not at 
 all, dependent upon an Irish majority for his power. 
 The executive work is carried out under him through 
 the various Boards. Opponents declare that there are 
 sixty-seven of them, and that an official principally 
 interested in British politics and resident in Ireland 
 only three or more months of the year cannot possibly 
 familiarize himself with their work, and thus really 
 grasp the administration of Irish business. But it 
 has been pointed out that so large a number can only 
 be alleged by counting what are really subdivisions 
 and subordinate parts, and that the Secretary has but 
 seven important Irish departments to deal with, and 
 that he has parliamentary responsibility for only five 
 
 1 John Bull's Other Island, act iii. 
 
232 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 or six. In carrying out his work the Secretary has 
 behind him the army and navy of Britain, and also 
 armed forces subject to his direction in Ireland itself. 
 It is he who appoints the police. Numerous coercion 
 acts have given him wide and extraordinary powers to 
 arrest on suspicion and imprison. He appoints the 
 judges of the county courts and of the higher courts; 
 and magistrates make reports about their districts to 
 him. 
 
 The laws which affect Ireland are passed not in an 
 Irish legislature but in the parliament of the United 
 Kingdom. The Irish object that such a body is not 
 representative of them, that it has scant time properly 
 to consider issues affecting them, and even when it 
 considers them cannot know them very well. Here, 
 they say, is a government not really based upon their 
 wishes or their votes, and carried out by an executive 
 who may be just and may be efficient, though they 
 think he is neither, but who in any event is not depen- 
 dent upon their approval, and not subject to their 
 censure or dismissal. They say, moreover, that there 
 is an excessive number of well-paid officials, who vir- 
 tually constitute an alien governing class which rules 
 with lofty superiority and contempt and that the gov- 
 ernment thus imposed upon them is burdensome and 
 expensive. They declare that Ireland has no real 
 self-government. It may be observed that a former 
 Under-Secretary for Ireland asserted that he had 
 gone to Ireland with an open mind, and, he thought, 
 free from bias, but that he quickly realized "that the 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 233 
 
 system was deficient and cumbersome, and that the 
 gulf which yawned between the people and the Gov- 
 ernment could only be bridged by associating the peo- 
 ple with the government of their own affairs." 2 
 
 That the majority of the Irish people are opposed 
 to this arrangement there can be little doubt, and that 
 it involves a great many things which would not be 
 tolerated in England or Scotland is certainly true. 
 But he who thinks that here is an abominable rule 
 maintained by the English people for the oppression 
 of the Irish is mistaken, as is he who believes that Eng- 
 lishmen after struggling so long to obtain political 
 freedom for themselves wish to deny it to their breth- 
 ren in Ireland. Actually England attempts now to 
 give Ireland that kind of government which she has 
 herself, and while there are striking and odious differ- 
 ences, these differences have arisen through special 
 circumstances existing in Ireland, with which it has 
 been difficult to deal. There have been coercion acts 
 and special powers in the hands of the Irish Secretary 
 because of the agrarian crime and rural disorder, at 
 times very prevalent, and which, however they may be 
 explained or excused in view of the miserable condi- 
 tions from which they arose, had nevertheless to be 
 dealt with. It is true, the Irish Secretary is not 
 dependent upon the wishes of the Irish people, and 
 not necessarily responsive to them, but, then, no more 
 necessarily is the prime minister dependent upon the 
 people of Scotland, nor can the people of Wales con- 
 
 2 Sir West Ridgeway, quoted in The ABC Home Rule Handbook, 
 p. 80. 
 
234 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 trol him as they might wish, nor can great parts of the 
 English people ; nay, there have been prime ministers 
 and cabinets who have carried out measures displeas- 
 ing to the majority of the English people, these 
 cabinets being based upon a majority of the House 
 of Commons chosen from all of the British Isles, made 
 up of representatives elected by voters in Scotland, 
 Ireland, and Wales, and a minority of the electors in 
 England. It is unfortunate that these things must 
 be, but they are the defects of the majority principle 
 in the representative system, and no real remedy has 
 yet been found to avoid them. As things are the 
 minority must acquiesce, biding its time until it can 
 be in the majority. It is true that the Irish members 
 are decidedly a minority in the entire House of Com- 
 mons, and thus the House of Commons could always 
 do things whether the Irish members approved of 
 them or not. But what it is important to understand 
 is that the Irish members stand in the parliament of 
 the United Kingdom on the same footing as the mem- 
 bers from Wales and Scotland and from the various 
 parts of England, the principal difference being that 
 in the House of Commons they have a great many 
 more members than their diminished population 
 entitles them to have — they are over-represented, not 
 under-represented; and that if laws often are passed 
 of which they disapprove, so do they sometimes assist 
 in passing measures to which the majority of the 
 English or the Scottish peoples may be opposed, but 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 235 
 
 to which nevertheless these peoples submit loyally, and 
 without desiring to change the whole system. 
 
 After all, these things seem right or wrong accord- 
 ing to the point of view, or with respect to the circum- 
 stances of the case, and not as the result of any verbal 
 statement or reasoned exposition. They suit the 
 English people and work well with them, and so with 
 the Scottish and the Welsh for the most part. Once 
 they did not suit a great many of the Scots, but in 
 course of time their objections have vanished. With 
 respect to Ireland there is not much inherently unjust 
 or unsuitable about the arrangement, and if the Irish 
 people had in the past been united in spirit and 
 interests with the British people most probably they 
 would have no objection now. But here is one of 
 the great failures of Britain: she has not won the 
 Irish ; and now they are averse from the system which 
 she has and wishes to share with them, and often she 
 is not able to make it work with them except by 
 coercion and force. 
 
 It is but fair to say also that while the best opinion 
 in Great Britain now favors the granting of Home 
 Rule to Ireland if the greater number of the Irish 
 people desire it, yet, except for the strong national 
 feeling which has been aroused, it would not neces- 
 sarily be in defiance of justice, and not undoubtedly 
 against the best interests of all, if the present connec- 
 tion were continued. These matters we cannot surely 
 decide; similar tilings when decided one way or the 
 
23G IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 other in the past have later on been thought settled 
 for the best. We believe it was well that we were 
 able to separate from England; the Canadians now 
 are certain it was best that they failed to do so. We 
 have had such problems ourselves. Once upon a time 
 it would have been quite in accord with the law if 
 parts of our country had withdrawn themselves from 
 the Union, though there are few people in the United 
 States now who do not rejoice that such schemes in 
 New England and elsewhere came to naught. The 
 middle part of the history of the United States is 
 largely engrossed with the gradual drawing apart in 
 spirit and interests of the North and the South. At 
 last Americans fought one of the greatest of wars to 
 settle this matter. It is well to remember that few 
 of the arguments advanced to support the justice of 
 the contentions of those who desire Home Rule were 
 not put forward by Southern statesmen, to support 
 their right to set up a government of their own; and 
 some of the ablest of the old school of Southern his- 
 torians have with much justice taken the ground that 
 the Southern people were fighting a war of liberation 
 against the North, just as the American colonists had 
 once tried to liberate themselves in the Revolutionary 
 War against England. The followers of Washington 
 succeeded, and their descendants are certain that they 
 were right ; Davis and Lee and the others failed ; their 
 opponents believed that war had sealed a bad cause; 
 they themselves felt that right had failed; just as the 
 beaten loyalists of the American Revolution were sure 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 237 
 
 that injustice and error had triumphed. But now at 
 last most people North and South are glad that the 
 Union was preserved. It is, I believe, the same with 
 Ireland. If Home Rule is not given, and the present 
 system is maintained for the most part, with its objec- 
 tionable features withdrawn, as circumstances permit 
 this to be done, if the economic prosperity of Ireland 
 continues to develop, and if nationalism and Sinn 
 Fein can be directed along such lines as nationality 
 has taken in Scotland and Wales, it is most probable 
 that a new generation of Irishmen later on will no 
 longer desire Home Rule, and not feel that a wrong 
 was done, when such a government was not granted to 
 their fathers, no more than the Scots or the Welsh. 
 If Home Rule is given, as it probably will be, to all 
 of Ireland or to part, there will anyhow after a while 
 be closer drawing together of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land, brought about by better recognition of their 
 common interests. 
 
 Accordingly, with respect to the interests of all 
 concerned in the British Isles, the chief argument 
 for the justice of Home Rule is not that Ireland is 
 administered by a governmental system which is 
 intrinsically bad, for obviously that is not so, how- 
 ever much may be needed certain changes in detail; 
 nor is such argument, perhaps, that most of the Irish 
 people desire it at present, since however just secession 
 or some form of local control may seem to those who 
 desire it, partial or entire separation may be unjust 
 to those from whom the separation is planned, and 
 
238 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 then must not be permitted to take place. Not infre- 
 quently a community wishes to go by itself. Not only 
 did South Carolina threaten secession and at last put 
 it into effect, but, it may be recalled, at one time dur- 
 ing the Civil War New York City desired to secede 
 and establish a separate commonwealth. Rather the 
 justification for Home Rule is that in the future it 
 may be better in the interests of all of the British Isles 
 if the vast mass of business which concerns them, and 
 which now crushes the parliament and the ministry of 
 the Empire under an intolerable load, can be devolved 
 upon subordinate local governments for the different 
 parts, Scotland, Wales, even different portions of 
 England, as well as on Ireland or parts thereof. 
 
 But since the Irish recently have not felt that their 
 interests are close enough to those of the rest of the 
 United Kingdom to make the system of government 
 which does so well for Great Britain well suited for 
 them, they have been able from their side to erect a 
 powerful argument. They say that actually the Irish 
 executive is not responsible to Irish opinion, except 
 that part of it which is contained in the Department of 
 Agriculture. All the other departments, through 
 which Irish government is administered, are not amen- 
 able to the Irish people, in any certain or direct man- 
 ner. Unless there can be responsibility of all of them 
 to a representative Irish body, there can be no real 
 democratic government in Ireland; and under the 
 present system there is always coercion, whether active 
 and overt or merely indirect and silent. 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 239 
 
 So, it will be seen that here is the old story, often a 
 tragic one, of real difference of opinion and apparent 
 irreconcilability of interest, where at their best both 
 parties mean to do right, and from their own points of 
 view are each of them right. In such a conflict the 
 issue can be decided either by force, and then the 
 operation of time, or by mutual forbearance and 
 justice, by conciliation and wisdom. Home Rule or 
 something equivalent is probably coming to Ireland 
 soon enough now, not because as a matter of political 
 science it is essentially wrong for Ireland not to have 
 it, nor as a matter of politics because Ireland can com- 
 pel the granting of it, but because it is of the nature 
 of the great British democracy to desire to assist and 
 propagate free government resting on the wishes of 
 the governed. It will be seen later on that so far as 
 Home Rule is concerned, the principal obstacles no 
 longer arise from Great Britain. But I shall like- 
 wise have to show that at present the dominant feel- 
 ing in Ireland is nationalism not politics, and that 
 the great issue at the time of my writing is not Home 
 Rule but complete independence. 
 
 It should be said in conclusion that full control has 
 been given to the Irish people of their local affairs, as 
 full as in England. This was given recently, but only 
 a little later than to the people of England themselves. 
 It is well known that in England in early times an 
 admirable system of local government was developed, 
 wherein the counties or the parishes controlled to a 
 great extent the administration of their own affairs, 
 
240 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 and did not soon become, as in France, subject to con- 
 stant direction and control by the central government. 
 Much the same system was developed in Ireland. 
 But while there was local government, this govern- 
 ment was not for the most part democratic govern- 
 ment except sometimes in the parishes with respect to 
 very petty affairs. Local power in England was in 
 the hands of the squirearchy or country gentlemen, 
 and was exercised through the justices of the peace. 
 Slowly in the nineteenth century their powers were 
 taken from them, and in 1888 the system was brought 
 to an end, when an act was passed establishing elective 
 county councils for the administration of local affairs. 
 Similarly, in Ireland the local gentry and landlords 
 had control of local government, which they exercised 
 through the grand juries, which were nominated by 
 the sheriffs from the local gentry. This was ended 
 by the Irish Local Government Act of 1898, which 
 took from the landlords their political powers, at the 
 very time that land purchase was depriving them of 
 their social and economic importance. The Irish 
 grand juries now lost their administrative functions, 
 government of the counties being given to elective 
 councils. There was much protest against the making 
 of this reform in Ireland, and much fear was expressed 
 that the powers conferred would be grossly abused, 
 and that the political inexperience of the people would 
 entail certain failure. Actually the results have been 
 excellent. There have been mistakes, and it is not 
 hard to discover defects; but on the whole local 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 241 
 
 administration has been cheap and efficient. Advo- 
 cates of Home Rule point to this eagerly as vindica- 
 tion of their contentions that the Irish people will rule 
 themselves wisely under their own prime minister and 
 parliament. Like the English women suffragists of 
 the last decade they maintain that if they have demon- 
 strated their fitness in local government, they have 
 given earnest of their fitness to manage national 
 affairs. And if it is remembered that the numerous 
 co-operative societies of the I. A. O. S. manage then- 
 affairs through committees elected by the members, 
 "we shall see that in the last decade of the nineteenth 
 century Ireland acquired a system of local self-govern- 
 ment which in variety of range and breadth of function 
 goes even beyond the system which exists in Eng- 
 land." 3 Irish self-government, whatever its extent in 
 the future, is being placed on a solid foundation. 
 
 3 Barker, p. 95. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 
 
 From the first moment the Irish people was granted an 
 articulate political voice it pronounced by a majority of four 
 to one of its representatives in favour of Home Rule. That 
 verdict was repeated substantially in the same proportions 
 in 1886 and in 1892, and when Mr. Gladstone spoke in 1893 
 he had in support of the proposition that "Ireland demands 
 Home Rule" the evidence of three successive General Elec- 
 tions. 
 
 Since then nearly twenty years have passed, and from the 
 date of the extension of the Franchise in 1884 we have had 
 eight General Elections. The fortunes of parties in this 
 House have during that time ebbed and flowed ; Governments 
 have come and gone ; great personalities have filled the scene, 
 and passed away. We have had as a nation peace and war, 
 adversity and prosperity, shifting issues, changing policies ; 
 but throughout the welter and confusion, amid all the vary- 
 ing phases and fields of our electoral and Parliamentary 
 campaigns, one thing has remained constant, subject neither 
 to eclipse nor wane, the insistence and persistence of the Irish 
 demand. 
 
 Mr. Asquith in the House of Commons, April 11, 1912. 
 
 IN after days it seemed to Irishmen that the misery 
 and subjection of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries were brought to an end when an independ- 
 ent parliament was established for a while after 1782. 
 Some looked back upon Grattan's period as a golden 
 
 242 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 243 
 
 age; others, who understood that in these years there 
 was many a failure, believed none the less that if only 
 an Irish parliament had endured longer, if only the 
 Irish people had been given full chance to work out 
 their destiny, in time all of the difficulties would have 
 been overcome, and Ireland made prosperous and well. 
 After the Act of Union there were always many who 
 did not love it, and when in course of time it was seen 
 that though some grievances were removed others 
 remained, there were many who desired separation 
 partial or complete. When O'Connell had gained 
 Catholic emancipation, he began a movement for 
 repeal of the Union, but this effort collapsed just 
 before the great famine took all the heart out of Ire- 
 land. It was carried forward again by the Young 
 Ireland Party and afterwards by the Fenians, who 
 desired independence or complete separation, and who 
 tried to accomplish their aims by rebellion and assassi- 
 nation and terror. Stern and determined opposition 
 from England caused their agitation to die out after 
 a while. Gradually it was succeeded by something 
 milder and less extreme, destined for a long time to 
 be much more important. 
 
 There had all along been moderate spirits like Arch- 
 bishop McHale, who opposed rebellion and believed 
 separation from Great Britain impracticable, and who 
 therefore discountenanced movements like that of 
 Young Ireland, but who wanted some sort of autono- 
 mous government erected. Such ideas attained more 
 prominence when in 1870 there was founded in Dublin 
 
2U IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 a Home Government Association of Ireland, in which 
 Liberals and Conservatives, Protestants and Catholics 
 united to support the getting of Irish self-government. 
 They desired an Irish parliament which should control 
 Irish internal affairs, with Ireland continuing to be 
 represented in the parliament at Westminster. In 
 1873 the new 'association was reconstituted as the 
 Home Rule League. In the general election next 
 year Irish constituencies returned to parliament some 
 sixty members to advocate its policy of Home Rule. 
 Their leader was Isaac Butt, who had entered parlia- 
 ment in 1871. His program was explained in a 
 pamphlet entitled Irish Federalism , which he had pub- 
 lished the year before. He declared that it was not 
 possible to repeal the Act of Union, and that this was 
 neither necessary nor desirable. But England might 
 safely grant a subordinate parliament, which was all 
 that Ireland needed for the full development of her 
 national life. In a federal union, he said, she would 
 be better off than with a parliament completely inde- 
 pendent, since she might still share in imperial con- 
 cerns through her representation in the parliament at 
 London. He said, what has come to be believed by 
 many Liberal statesmen of the present generation, 
 that the resulting division of labor would be to the ad- 
 vantage of all, since the House of Commons, as things 
 were, was much overworked, while Irish and Scottish 
 affairs were neglected nevertheless. The pamphlets 
 of the Home Rule League won the majority of Irish- 
 men who considered the matter, but in England little 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 245 
 
 attention was gained. Butt was genial in temper, not 
 favoring violence or force, an able thinker, and a fine, 
 scholarly man, but without the dominating character 
 and the arts of leadership which guide political forces. 
 He formulated the Home Rule program, but he got 
 no attention in parliament; and it was left to others to 
 take up his ideas and make a great issue from them. 
 After a while there was division in the Home Rule 
 ranks, and the minority followed a new leader with 
 character strikingly different. 
 
 Charles Stewart Parnell is the dominant figure in 
 Irish history in the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, as O'Connell was in the earlier. He was of 
 English descent, an aristocrat by temperament and 
 birth. So far as he adhered to religious creed he was 
 a Protestant. Some have compared him with Dean 
 Swift, who turned upon England from personal 
 hatred and because of anger at oppression. From his 
 mother he had taken an intense hatred of Englishmen, 
 which events in Ireland raised to a quenchless fire. 
 He was cold, undemonstrative, almost repellent, but 
 with strange and unexplainable power over those 
 whom he led, and he had an unyielding strength and 
 tenacity of purpose. "P. extraordinarily close, 
 tenacious, and sharp," says one who saw him. He 
 "went on repeating his points in his impenetrable 
 way." * Parnell took up the Home Rule movement 
 and changed its methods entirely. 
 
 His plan was parliamentary obstruction in the 
 
 i Morley, Life of Gladstone, iii, 305, 306. 
 
246 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 House of Commons. He would follow all parlia- 
 mentary rules, but within those rules he would harass 
 and obstruct as much as he could. The great electoral 
 reforms had not yet greatly changed the character of 
 the Commons. It was still to a great extent the 
 stronghold of precedent and procedure, conservative 
 and aristocratic in opinion. In this body Parnell 
 attempted to get consideration for Ireland. His plan 
 was to work in government time, help anyone to waste 
 government time, block all business, and hurt and 
 embitter his opponents. He and his followers spoke 
 on any subject -at any time as 1 long«as they could, and 
 relieved each other to be sure that the work should not 
 cease. He had little ability for speaking at first, and 
 his delivery sounded much like a series of hissings, but 
 by application and sheer strength of will he succeeded 
 in becoming, if not a great orator, a powerful speaker. 
 Gladstone declared that he was able to do what few 
 speakers accomplish, say what he meant. His longer 
 speeches left the " impression from a grey and sunless 
 day in which everything shows clear but also hard and 
 cold." - Hitherto in the Houses Irish affairs had been 
 ignored politely; but now Parnell, if he could not get 
 attention for them, would pay attention, and much 
 unwelcome attention, to British affairs, harassing and 
 delaying and striving to prevent anything being 
 accomplished. He was soon joined by one after 
 another of the Home Rule members. 
 
 - Quoted by Shane Leslie, The Irish Issue in Jts dmericaji Aspect 
 (New York, 1917), p. 58, 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 247 
 
 In 1877 he was elected president of the Home Rule 
 Federation of Great Britain. Like O'Connell, he 
 declared himself opposed to the use of force, but 
 gradually he allied himself with such of the Fenians 
 as would support parliamentary agitation. He gave 
 attention to the land question, as was necessary for 
 any Irish leader at that time. In 1880 he was made 
 president of the Land League, founded the year 
 before, and became actually head of the Irish party 
 and leader of the agrarian revolt which was directed 
 against evictions and rackrents, and intended to obtain 
 ownership of the soil for those who occupied and paid 
 rent. 
 
 Account has elsewhere been given of the land war, 
 the boycott, the disturbances, and the coercion meas- 
 ures which followed. The Land Act of 1881 gave 
 little satisfaction in Ireland. Parnell and some of his 
 followers were put in Kilmainham prison, for attempt- 
 ing to bring about through intimidation the failure 
 of its operation. In the next year an arrangement 
 was made between Gladstone and himself, known as 
 the Kilmainham Treaty, by which Parnell agreed to 
 stay the agitation in Ireland in return for certain con- 
 cessions. Scarcely had he been released when two of 
 the important English officials in Ireland were mur- 
 dered in broad daylight in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by 
 some of the irreconcilable Fenians. Parnell repudi- 
 ated the deed, offering to resign his leadership of the 
 Home Rule party, but Gladstone refused to blame 
 him; one of the severest of all the coercion acts was 
 
248 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 passed, however, and England made no more conces- 
 sions for a while. Ireland was ruled now with an iron 
 hand. The extreme Fenians strove to create terror in 
 England, to set London afire some windy night, to 
 blow up with dynamite the Houses of Parliament and 
 the Tower of London. Parnell severed all connec- 
 tion with them. 
 
 Meanwhile his popularity and power increased in 
 Ireland, and he was all the time more hated and feared 
 in the Commons. He held together the members of 
 his party as they had never been held before. His 
 power was increased as a result of the Electoral 
 Reform Law of 1884, by which the franchise was 
 extended to householders and lodgers in Ireland as 
 well as in England, for the electorate was largely 
 increased, and the new voters supported the policy of 
 Parnell. In the general election of 1885 out of a total 
 Irish representation of one hundred and three, eighty- 
 five members were elected on strict pledge to follow his 
 lead. 
 
 During this time Gladstone, leader of the Liberal 
 Party in England, had gradually been won over to the 
 view that greater concessions must be made to the 
 Irish. He had already begun land legislation, and 
 he favored land purchase, though this was taken up by 
 the Conservatives and carried still further. He 
 thought it necessary to satisfy more completely the 
 desires of the Irish, if the peace and good order of 
 Ireland were ever to be secured. In the election of 
 1885, in which Parnell 1 secured such a notable triumph, 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 249 
 
 and in which the great majority of the Irish made it 
 clear that they wanted Home Rule and approved their 
 leader's methods in trying to get it, Gladstone took 
 care, as was his wont, not to commit himself very 
 definitely, though he declared that whatever was done 
 for Ireland, the unity of the Empire must be pre- 
 served. In this election the Liberals triumphed, and 
 soon after it was announced that Gladstone was pre- 
 pared to support a measure for Home Rule. When 
 he formed his third ministry now, some of his associ- 
 ates dropped away from him, resolved to oppose such 
 a step. This was the time when Lord Randolph 
 Churchill fomented and led opposition in Ulster, with 
 results so profoundly important later on. It was at 
 this time also that the term "Unionist" took its place 
 in political usage. 
 
 In April, 1886, an Irish Government Bill was 
 brought in. It provided for the establishment of an 
 Irish parliament, which might impose taxes and legis- 
 late for Ireland, though certain powers were with- 
 held from it, especially the levying of customs and 
 excise. The lord lieutenant was to be appointed by 
 the crown as before. Ireland was to contribute one- 
 fifteenth of the Imperial expenses. The unity of the 
 Empire was to be maintained, with the Parliament of 
 the United Kingdom legislating upon matters of 
 general concern. In this parliament Ireland was no 
 longer to have representation, a feature of the 
 bill widely criticised, concerning which Gladstone 
 admitted that much might be said contrary. In draw- 
 
250 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ing up this measure Parnell was constantly consulted, 
 and though not content with all the provisions, pro- 
 claimed himself satisfied in the main. 
 
 A memorable contest followed. The Conserva- 
 tives, assisted now by prominent Liberals who had left 
 the party on the Home Rule issue, and were opposing 
 it as Liberal Unionists, stirred the country to its 
 depth. All of Tory prejudice and conservative prin- 
 ciple, all the dislike of Irishmen as inferior and law- 
 less people, all the bitterness engendered by the vio- 
 lence and ugliness of Parnell's parliamentary tactics, 
 and all the memories of Irish crime, the memories of 
 Phoenix Park and the murdered officials, and the fear 
 that Home Rule would mean abandoning loyal 
 Protestant Ulster to a hostile Catholic Ireland, were 
 aroused and rallied by Lord Salisbury, Joseph 
 Chamberlain, Lord Hartington, and even the aged 
 John Bright. Against these forces were marshalled 
 the growing liberalism of England and something of 
 the great democratic feeling that was beginning to 
 arise from the widened electorate, together with a 
 belief that the only alternative to Home Rule and 
 satisfying the Irish was perpetual coerci'on, which 
 might succeed easily enough, but which was repug- 
 nant to the better feelings of the new England. 
 
 This was the triumphant period of Parnell's life. 
 At last had an Irishman persuaded and compelled the 
 British political leader to take up Ireland's cause, and 
 there seemed some chance that the wishes of Ireland 
 might now be fulfilled. But it was not to be. In a 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 251 
 
 crowded and breathless House Gladstone made a 
 memorable speech; but on second reading the Home 
 Rule bill was defeated, a strong body of Liberals 
 voting with the Opposition. Parliament was dis- 
 solved, and Gladstone appealed to the country. The 
 general election was marked by intense bitterness in 
 Great Britain, and by violence and loss of life in Ire- 
 land. The result was the definitive defeat of Glad- 
 stone's first attempt to give Ireland Home Rule. The 
 Conservatives triumphed, and Lord Salisbury began 
 his second administration. 
 
 Home Rule had been defeated, but from 1886 on it 
 was destined to be one of the largest issues in the 
 politics of Great Britain. In Ireland violence and 
 agrarian disorder continued, and in 1887, after a long 
 series of acts to suspend the habeas corpus and to deal 
 with outrages and crime, a perpetual coercion act 
 was introduced, which is still in force. It was now 
 that the London Times published its celebrated articles 
 "Parnellism and Crime," in which the Irish leader was 
 charged with violence and intimidation, and produced 
 letters, said to be in Parnell's handwriting, which 
 seemed to connect him with the murders in Phoenix 
 Park. In the investigation which followed, these let- 
 ters were proved to be forgeries, and in the triumph of 
 the moment, the Irish chieftain reached the height of 
 his career. But a year later, in 1890, he was named 
 as co-respondent in a divorce suit brought by a Cap- 
 tain O'Shea. And now, as the Liberal Party in 
 England had been split in the struggle about the 
 
252 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 government of Ireland, so was the Irish Nationalist 
 Party, which followed Parnell with such devotion, 
 broken to pieces. A minority stayed with him, but 
 the priests fell away and with them went most of the 
 Irish members. In England puritan and non-con- 
 formist feeling ran strongly, and presently Gladstone 
 left him to his fate. He now became an extremist, 
 and advocated separation from England. In 1891 he 
 died, crushed with disaster and burden. For a while 
 the Nationalist Party was divided and impotent: the 
 majority had chosen Justin McCarthy as leader; those 
 faithful to Parnell followed John Redmond. In 
 course of time the division was closed, and Redmond 
 became the successor of Parnell as leader of the united 
 Nationalist Party. 
 
 During the Salisbury ministry Ireland was gov- 
 erned firmly, while the Conservatives applied what was 
 now their favorite device in Irish matters, the improve- 
 ment of the condition of the peasant through assisting 
 him to purchase the land. In the general election 
 which came at the end of this administration, the 
 Liberals under Gladstone proposed a number of 
 reforms, but made Home Rule again the great issue. 
 The Conservatives opposed it, advocating the exten- 
 sion of land purchase and the putting of local govern- 
 ment to some extent in the hands of the Irish people. 
 In England the Conservatives triumphed, but in the 
 United Kingdom Gladstone obtained a majority of 
 members, something veiy significant for the future. 
 Since he favored Home Rule he could have the sup- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 253 
 
 port of the eighty-one Irish Nationalists, and so he 
 would have a majority of forty in the Commons. In 
 the course of years later on, sometimes the Liberals 
 had a majority of their own, sometimes they had it 
 only with the Irish Nationalist votes. The alliance 
 was to be most important. With Irish votes the 
 Liberals were to carry some very momentous meas- 
 ures, and even to change the constitution of the King- 
 dom itself; in return they were to pass for the 
 Nationalists a statute of Home Rule. 
 
 But such was not now the result. In 1893 Glad- 
 stone introduced the second Home Rule Bill. Again 
 there was to be an Irish legislature to impose taxes and 
 make laws for Ireland, with certain reservations as to 
 religion and customs-duties and various matters. For 
 the minority, especially in Ulster, there were more 
 elaborate safeguards than before. But substantially 
 Irish legislation and administration were to be con- 
 trolled by the Irish people. The question of Irish 
 representation at Westminster was a difficult one, 
 as it had been, and afterwards was. If Irish mem- 
 bers were excluded and revenue exacted by London, 
 then there was taxation without representation. If 
 they were admitted, then Irish members would be al- 
 lowed to take part in British affairs, while the people 
 of Britain would be excluded from the like in Ire- 
 land. There was a third device, and this was what 
 Gladstone proposed, that Irish representatives — 
 eighty was the number suggested — should be admitted 
 to the parliament at Westminster, but allowed to vote 
 
254 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 only on Irish matters and matters of general concern, 
 though this provision was changed in the contest en- 
 suing. Again there was the greatest bitterness in 
 England, while Redmond avowed that the bill as it 
 was would not satisfy the aspirations of Ireland. It 
 passed the Commons, some of the members voting for 
 it assured that it would be denied by the Lords. And 
 so it was, for on the second reading the Lords re- 
 jected it, 419 to 41. Actually this crushing defeat 
 brought the matter to an end for twenty years. Glad- 
 stone, who had been the great champion of Home 
 Rule in England, like John Stuart Mill with the 
 cause of woman's suffrage, but with far greater po- 
 litical power, was now passing from public life. 
 When the issue again assumed prominence new states- 
 men had come forward. 
 
 In the long interval which followed, Ireland was 
 more peaceful and quiet than for a long time. Politi- 
 cal activity waned. The purchase of land by the gov- 
 ernment for the Irish people, and the splendid work 
 of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society largely, 
 occupied men's minds; and steady economic better- 
 ment absorbed the attention of most of the people. 
 It began to seem that Lord Salisbury was right when 
 he declared that strict government consistently ap- 
 plied for twenty years would make an Ireland fit to 
 receive the gifts which England might deem well to 
 confer. For a while there had been stern rule, and 
 then wise and sympathetic government, and all the 
 time greater and greater assistance to Irishmen to 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 255 
 
 get their own farms and make a decent and comfort- 
 able living. With Ireland quiet and absorbed in so- 
 cial and economic changes, and with great issues de- 
 veloping in the world outside, attention was taken 
 from Home Rule, and the question seemed to grow 
 less important. But it lived on in the hearts of Irish- 
 men in America, who would not be reconciled with 
 England, and it continued to be the principal aim of 
 the Irish Nationalist Party, however hopeless their 
 efforts might seem. As the years went on John 
 Redmond was more conservative, and more willing 
 to consider the problem from the point of view of 
 Great Britain as well as of Ireland. And so time 
 passed. The Victorian era came to an end, and the 
 twentieth century began with awful and mighty prob- 
 lems slowly emerging from the future. 
 
 Shortly after Gladstone's retirement the Conserva- 
 tives had come into power, and they held it for a 
 decade; but in 1905 a Liberal cabinet was formed, 
 and in the elections of the year following they secured 
 an overwhelming majority. A period of legislative 
 reform and revolution began then. All sorts of lib- 
 eral and radical measures were proposed and under- 
 taken. But the House of Lords still remained a 
 stronghold of conservative opposition, and much of 
 the Liberal program was there defeated. In 1909 
 Mr. Asquith became prime minister, and Mr. Lloyd 
 George chancellor of the exchequer. They desired to 
 bring about certain social and industrial legislation, 
 in accordance with the best liberal and progressive 
 
256 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 thought of the time, which would require consider- 
 able money. This revenue they proposed to obtain 
 in part from new taxes upon the possessions of the 
 wealthy, which the conservative owners of wealth re- 
 garded as unlawful and as striking at the security of 
 property. Accordingly when the measure had passed 
 the Commons, it was rejected by the Lords. There 
 followed a memorable struggle over the veto power 
 of the upper House. Now at last was the oppor- 
 tunity of the Irish Nationalist Party; for Liberal 
 strength was diminished, and the Liberal leaders had 
 need of all the allies they could obtain. With the 
 support of the Irish members they could be certain, 
 perhaps, of controlling the Commons. For this sup- 
 port, as is the way of politics, they must pay and 
 were willing to pay. Moreover, Home Rule for Ire- 
 land had long been one of their principles ; it now be- 
 came again one of their projects of reform. If the 
 Irish members would support them in the great trial 
 to come, after the victory Ireland's cause would be 
 taken up. Redmond and his followers were more will- 
 ing to do this, since it was evident that if they assisted 
 in taking from the House of Lords the veto which 
 had once defeated Home Rule, and which would most 
 probably be employed again for that purpose, they 
 would have the better chance of getting Home Rule 
 when their Liberal allies undertook to support it. So 
 Home Rule became an issue again. 
 
 The Liberals, supported by Labor and the Irish 
 Nationalists, maintained their majority after the elec- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 257 
 
 tions of 1910 and 1911, and were presently able to 
 force through both Houses the well-known Parlia- 
 ment Bill of 1911, by the terms of which a measure 
 passed by the Commons after a while becomes a law 
 despite any veto of the Lords. Thus was one of the 
 important constitutional changes in the history of 
 England brought to pass. The way was now open 
 for further alterations, and Home Rule was taken 
 up a third time. 
 
 The struggle which followed will be remembered 
 by most people who had interest in it. There was 
 again powerful opposition in England. But this 
 time it was evident that the measure could be carried. 
 The Irish members had supported the Asquith minis- 
 try in the bitter conflict of the two years preceding, 
 and now the Liberals would pay their debt. The 
 coalition had an undoubted majority in the Commons. 
 The opposition of the Lords would not avail as it had 
 in Gladstone's time, for according to the Parliament 
 Act, if any measure were passed in three successive 
 sessions by the Commons and in the course of two 
 years, then it would become a law despite the veto of 
 the Peers. Never had Home Rule seemed so cer- 
 tain. 
 
 It was because of the very immanency of Nation- 
 alist and Liberal success that another factor now be- 
 came far more important than ever it had been before. 
 The Protestants of north Ireland in Ulster had taken 
 an important part in the first Home Rule struggle. 
 Now all their fears were awakened as they had not 
 
258 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 been before, and their opposition was roused to tre- 
 mendous proportions, and then taken up by the 
 Unionists in Great Britain. In Ulster passion was 
 kindled into a flame. Great demonstrations were 
 made. The leader was Sir Edward Carson, who has 
 been denounced as a crafty politician, as insincere, and 
 as serving his own interests in the dissensions of his 
 country, but who was undeniably a man of great force 
 and strength of character, and who speedily caught 
 the imagination of the stern Protestants of the north. 
 In 1912 the third Home Rule Bill was introduced 
 into the House of Commons. As in the preceding 
 Bills there was to be an Irish parliament, consisting 
 of two Houses, which should control the legislation 
 and administration of affairs which were purely Irish. 
 It resembled the second Home Rule Bill in its later 
 stages, in that Ireland was to be represented in the 
 Imperial parliament, the representation now being 
 fixed at forty-two members. It was specially stated 
 that notwithstanding the establishment of an Irish 
 parliament, the supreme power and authority of the 
 parliament of the United Kingdom should remain un- 
 diminished over all matters and persons in Ireland. 
 The assembly in Dublin might make laws for the 
 peace, order, and good government of Ireland, but 
 certain things were reserved exclusively for the Im- 
 perial parliament, such as the crown, war, peace, the 
 army, the navy, and important financial matters, such 
 as land purchase, old age pensions, and customs, while 
 the Irish parliament was expressly forbidden to make 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 259 
 
 any law for endowing a particular religion, or giving 
 preference because of religious training or belief. 
 Executive power would remain in the hands of the 
 sovereign or his lord lieutenant. The lord lieutenant, 
 representing the king, was to be advised by an "Exec- 
 utive Committee" as, in theory, the king was by the 
 cabinet, this Committee to be composed of the heads 
 of the Irish departments, formed in the manner of 
 the British cabinet, and dependent upon support of a 
 majority in the Irish House of Commons. The fi- 
 nancial arrangement was difficult to make, as usual, 
 but it provided that expenses were to be borne partly 
 by the Irish and partly by the Imperial exchequer. 
 Mr. Redmond declared in the Commons, on behalf of 
 the Irish Party and its supporters, "that we accept 
 this Bill in absolute good faith as a settlement of the 
 interminable quarrel between the two countries." 3 
 It was easily carried through the Commons, passing 
 second and third readings by huge majorities, but 
 when taken up to the Lords in January, 1913, a second 
 reading was refused by a majority very much greater. 
 Brought to bay, nevertheless, the Unionists of Ul- 
 ster declared that as loyal subjects of the Empire, and 
 faithful adherents to the Act of Union, they relied 
 upon the Union for protection against their enemies, 
 who had usually been cold and often hostile to the 
 British government, and to whom now the Home Rule 
 Bill proposed to hand them over. Was it the inten- 
 tion of the majority of the people of England and 
 
 3 Quoted in The ABC Home Rule Handbook, p. 106. 
 
260 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Scotland thus to cast them aside? Had the British 
 people given to the present ministry any mandate for 
 such a thing? It was not possible to believe that this 
 was so, but if it were, one could not believe that the 
 electorate understood what was about to be done. 
 Certainly there was not justice in casting them out. 
 Ireland was best off in its present union with Great 
 Britain, but if Celtic Ireland did not believe that was 
 so, and desired the severing of the tie, such was not 
 the case with them. The rest of Ireland might go, 
 but not they. If the Home Rule Bill became law, 
 they would refuse to accept it. Whatever else was 
 done, they were going to maintain their connection 
 with their fellows in race and religion across the Irish 
 Sea. 
 
 The Protestants of Ulster were not making mere 
 threats. A strong Unionist organization had been 
 built up. In August, 1912, great numbers of people 
 pledged themselves in a Covenant, like their ances- 
 tors had done once in a dark crisis of their nation and 
 faith, to resist Home Rule and refuse to accept it: 
 
 We, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal 
 subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George V, humbly 
 relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and 
 trial confidently trusted, 
 
 Do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant throughout 
 this our time of threatened calamity to stand by one an- 
 other in defending for ourselves and our children our cher- 
 ished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, 
 and in using all means which may be^found necessary to'de- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 261 
 
 feat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parlia- 
 ment in Ireland. 
 
 Great meetings were held in the midst of stern re- 
 ligious fervor; and by the end of the year 100,000 
 Ulster Volunteers had enrolled themselves in a mili- 
 tary body, and were drilling and practicing with arms, 
 and ready to resist the enemy, as once the men of Lon- 
 donderry and Enniskillen had resisted King James. 
 Memories of the age of Cromwell and of William 
 were recalled. Often Kipling's words were repeated : 
 
 The dark eleventh hour 
 
 Draws on and sees us sold 
 To every evil power 
 
 We fought against of old. 
 
 North Ireland was stirred as it had not been for a 
 hundred years. All through July and August Sir 
 Edward Carson had gone through Ulster declaring 
 that if Home Rule were granted, then Ulster would 
 set up a government of its own, and refuse to pay the 
 taxes of the parliament in Dublin. To the Nation- 
 alists all this seemed blind bigotry, mistaken fanati- 
 cism and opposition, and to the Liberals it seemed 
 partly the result of shrewd manipulation by their po- 
 litical opponents of old prejudice and hatred, done 
 so as to hinder Home Rule when all other devices had 
 failed; but whatever was thought about it, there was 
 little doubt concerning the determination of the ma- 
 jority in Ulster. 
 
262 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 In England the Opposition called for a referen- 
 dum, a general election on the issue of Home Rule, 
 and declared that otherwise civil war was inevitable. 
 In the 1913 session the Home Rule Bill again passed 
 the Commons and was again rejected by the Lords. 
 If it passed the Commons in the next session it would 
 become a law. Not only was Ulster under arms and 
 drilling now, but armed forces were being gathered by 
 the Nationalists also. The government forbade the 
 importation of arms, but little was accomplished 
 thereby. In England there was much sympathy for 
 Ulster, and a great many people felt that the Home 
 Rule question was complicated with another difficult 
 problem which had not been sufficiently thought of be- 
 fore. Mr. Winston Churchill suggested, what Joseph 
 Chamberlain had suggested in 1886, that the Irish 
 question might be solved by some scheme of federa- 
 tion, the dividing of Ireland, so as to leave Ulster to 
 itself, and the dividing of the remainder of the British 
 Isles into such parts as seemed proper. The cabinet, 
 however, was pledged to the Nationalists to carry the 
 Home Rule Bill, and the idea of federalism was for 
 the future rather than the present. But because of 
 much pressure and exhortation to reconsider, Mr. As- 
 quith in March, 1914, proposed to parliament a scheme 
 whereby the Unionist counties of Ulster might, if they 
 desired, be excluded from the operation of Home Rule 
 for the space of six years after the passing of the bill. 
 Redmond now, with the wisdom of a statesman de- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 263 
 
 clared earnestly that the Irish Nationalists would do 
 all they could to satisfy Ulster. In May the bill 
 passed the Commons for the third time, and now after 
 a brief interval it would be law. At last, except for 
 Ulster, the Nationalist triumph was complete. 
 
 But actually the situation became more threaten- 
 ing every moment. It was evident that Ulster would 
 oppose the law with armed resistance, and it was also 
 very evident that strong sentiment in England would 
 be against using the armed forces of the Empire to 
 coerce the men of Ulster into submission. "Help me 
 keep the flag!" was the legend under a picture of Ul- 
 ster sore beset with foes; and a gentler appeal con- 
 tained the plaintive words of one who long ago had 
 said: "Intreat me not to leave thee." Nationalist 
 Ireland, flushed with the victory at last come to its 
 cause, was ill-disposed to brook failure through Ulster 
 at this moment. The Nationalists were by no means 
 willing that Home Rule be given to them with the 
 exclusion of Ulster, and while it was doubtful whether 
 they could unaided coerce the inhabitants of the north, 
 it was not certain that they would not try, since they 
 readily asserted that there could not be successful 
 Home Rule if one of the most prosperous parts of the 
 island were allowed to remain outside of it. Accord- 
 ingly, as spring went on into summer, there seemed the 
 dread prospect of civil war in the island. Statesmen 
 knew, perhaps, then, what all know now, that affairs 
 in Europe were such that the British Empire had need 
 
264 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of complete loyalty and union to pass safely through 
 the troubles which might arise; and it is certain that 
 after the assassination of the Archduke at Sarajevo 
 the German government counted not a little upon the 
 weakness of Great Britain because of the ominous sit- 
 uation in Ireland. But all attempts at an under- 
 standing were in vain. Ulster would make no com- 
 promise; 200,000 people had taken the Covenant; 
 Nationalist forces were drilling throughout the island 
 to pit themselves against the 30,000 Ulster Volun- 
 teers well equipped with arms who went grimly on 
 with their preparations. 
 
 A last effort was made for a settlement. The 
 leaders of both parties were summoned to meet in con- 
 ference at the king's residence, Buckingham Palace, 
 in the hope that some agreement might be reached. 
 It was in a solemn time that this meeting was called. 
 The cloud risen on the horizon of Europe, for a while 
 less than a man's hand, now loomed vast and terrific. 
 Must there be an Irish civil war at such a moment? 
 It was all-important in this dread hour that every 
 quarrel should cease. Yet the conference failed alto- 
 gether: the two sides could reach no agreement and 
 would not make any concession. Then the mighty 
 cataclysm, which had so often before been foretold to 
 Europe, and so often avoided, until the small and un- 
 seeing believed that never it would come, suddenly 
 descended like a whirlwind. And then at last the peo- 
 ple of the United Kingdom, as is their wont, hushed 
 all domestic dissensions, and turned to the enemy 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 265 
 
 united. At the beginning of August the Home Rule 
 question and that other which had been so perplexing, 
 the feminist suffragette movement, were dropped out 
 of sight for a while, and hid by the struggle of nations. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 
 
 The British Empire has been built up on Home Rule. You 
 are now asked to complete the edifice and to give to Ireland 
 the blessing of Self-Government which has made the whole 
 Empire contented, prosperous and loyal. 
 
 Home Rule Vs Answered (Liberal Publication 
 Department, 1913), p. 62. 
 
 Are we now, after seven centuries of battling against Eng- 
 land, to become loyal and submissive to her rule . . . be- 
 cause we have been thrown a crust from the Imperial table? 
 . . . Ireland is no colony of yesterday like Canada or Aus- 
 tralia, but an ancient nation, and no crippled measure of 
 Home Rule will satisfy its national aspirations. 
 
 Tipperary Star, May 25, 1912. 
 
 IN this chapter I purpose to sum up the arguments 
 used in the Home Rule struggle, which in one 
 form or another have appeared many different times, 
 though here they are stated as given by one side or the 
 other in the years just prior to the war. In expound- 
 ing them it is necessary to deal with many matters 
 highly controversial, with statements exaggerated, 
 spoken in bitterness and passion, many of them greatly 
 offensive to one side or the other, often seeming cruel 
 and untrue. In this chapter I hold no brief. The 
 
 266 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 267 
 
 arguments may be found by anyone who cares to 
 search in the newspapers and parliamentary debates, 
 and especially in the vast number of fugitive pam- 
 phlets and leaflets published so profusely in the Brit- 
 ish Isles during the controversy just before the war. 
 I neither defend nor vouch for the truth. It is my 
 purpose to expound the things which were said, which 
 the contestants desired men to believe. Many of the 
 sayings are true, and the reader himself may judge; 
 but often they are very doubtful, and are merely what 
 men would have liked to maintain. Such controver- 
 sial literature is familiar to students. Similar books 
 and pamphlets and leaflets appeared in profusion in 
 England during the tariff controversy and especially 
 in the struggle for the franchise for women ; and if this 
 be more an English than an American custom, yet we 
 have often seen the like in American political cam- 
 paigns. 
 
 Those who favored Home Rule wished men and 
 women to know the sins committed by England in 
 centuries past, and hearken to appeals for amendment. 
 They told again and again of old misery and wrong, 
 of the long years passed without reform, of what 
 Irishmen had striven for, and what Englishmen in the 
 latest age had done in atonement. Declaring what 
 was still to be done, they appealed to all that was 
 wisest, most generous, and most humane in their age. 
 They asked for Home Rule because they believed it 
 was just, and best for Ireland and England and the 
 world. 
 
268 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 They said that Home Rule for Ireland was now op- 
 posed by the Tories, who had always hindered con- 
 structive measures in England, from the reform of the 
 electoral laws to the endeavors of Mr. Lloyd George. 
 Particularly was this true of the Lords: how often 
 had they not rejected or cut down reforms both for 
 Britain and Ireland! Here was the same old stupid 
 game so often played by aristocracy and rigid con- 
 servatives. Actually the great British democracy 
 ought to favor the Irish Nationalist movement : often 
 the Nationalists had helped to put through the British 
 parliament legislation desired by the British people: 
 aristocracy had no part in their work. The Irish had 
 been pioneers in democratic representation, in paying 
 their members in the House of Commons, in land re- 
 form, in the housing of working classes. To assist 
 Home Rule was to make alliance with one of the 
 greatest democratic forces in the British Isles. 
 
 It was true that much had been done of late, and 
 done by the Conservative Party, to better the condition 
 of the Irish and give them a better government, but 
 much more remained. Their government was such as 
 a free people never would have. It was not really 
 the British system of a cabinet responsible to repre- 
 sentatives of the people. Irishmen had no legislature 
 of their own. Their executive was not responsible to 
 them; but he controlled the armed forces, arfd ap- 
 pointed the judges and officers of the police. The 
 laws for Ireland were made far away, in an assembly 
 in which they had part, to be sure, but which they 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 2G9 
 
 could not control. Often this government was well 
 administered, but it was not self-government, not a 
 government by the people. Usually this system was 
 not only irritating to the Irish, but also extravagant 
 and deficient. There was much overlapping and 
 waste, and there was also discrimination against the 
 Celtic Irish in making appointments to government 
 positions. The cost of administration Was more than 
 twice as much for each inhabitant in Ireland as for 
 people in England and Wales. 
 
 It was a consequence of the present system that 
 often Ireland could get no hearing for that which she 
 needed. In the House of Commons her members 
 made up less than a sixth of the total number. Not 
 only could measures desired by most of the Irish fail 
 because opposed by English, Scottish, or Welsh mem- 
 bers, who could yet force upon Ireland measures re- 
 pugnant, but it was very difficult for the Imperial par- 
 liament, so great was the pressure of business, to at- 
 tend to Irish matters at all. There were many things, 
 entirely non-controversial and in themselves not ob- 
 jectionable, of much local importance in Ireland, 
 about which nothing could be done until the parlia- 
 ment at Westminster acted, and such legislation was 
 frequently difficult to obtain and exceedingly expen- 
 sive. Men said that a bill for the amalgamation of 
 three Irish railways remained before parliament three 
 sessions, and cost nearly £100,000. With an Irish 
 parliament at Dublin, the thing might have been set- 
 tled for a very small part of that cost. Under Home 
 
270 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Rule such a parliament could give proper attention to 
 many matters now neglected, like Irish education, 
 housing, poor-law administration, railways, harbors, 
 and canals. An Irish parliament would reflect the 
 ideas and the wishes of the Irish people, having better 
 knowledge of their peculiar problems, and sufficient 
 time to deal with them rightly. And above all, for the 
 first time in a century Ireland would have a govern- 
 ment satisfactory to the great majority of her people. 
 
 These arguments and others made by advocates of 
 Home Rule were given, of course, to win votes and 
 support, but often they were told simply and fairly, 
 by men who believed they were true. The Unionists 
 also were strong in their faith, some with passionate 
 sincerity and devotion, though frequently it seemed 
 that they, like some anti-suffrage workers in England, 
 were particularly bent upon making what they said 
 appear plausible and attractive. 
 
 They meant no injustice. It is well to recognize 
 that in Great Britain by 1912 there were probably 
 few, only such as were steeped in the strait old Tory- 
 ism of the past, who wished Ireland to be held down 
 or oppressed. With most people there was disposi- 
 tion to confess wrongs and errors in the past, ascrib- 
 ing them to an age fully gone, and desire now that 
 fullest amends should be made, that Irishmen should 
 be assisted to build up the prosperity of their country, 
 and be as free as any of the inhabitants of the British 
 Isles, and to hope that in time the old bitter memories 
 might go, and Ireland become a willing member and 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 271 
 
 a loyal partner in the empire in which she was in- 
 eluded. But as for Home Rule, and the things neces- 
 sarily involved or likely to follow, these Unionists 
 said that there were certain factors in Ireland, refer- 
 ring especially to Ulster, and also certain great facts 
 of geography and international relations which states- 
 men must consider and could not neglect. 
 
 On this particular occasion they disliked the way 
 the measure was brought forward and also some of the 
 principles it contained. The crisis had come, they 
 said, largely because of selfish considerations of party. 
 The Liberals had attained such power because the 
 people of Great Britain wanted certain social reforms. 
 The tide had run very far, until finally came the act 
 taking power from the House of Lords, leaving Mr. 
 Asquith nearly supreme. But there had been a re- 
 action, and his majority in Great Britain had dwin- 
 dled, until only the support of Irish members made his 
 position secure. His ministry now rested upon a 
 coalition, of which the lesser, but indispensable, part 
 was the Nationalist members of Ireland, so that actu- 
 ally their leader, Mr. Redmond, was the ultimate dic- 
 tator in the British Isles. Really the situation was 
 one which British voters could see only with appre- 
 hension: the Nationalist Party was financed by sup- 
 porters in America and led by a group of Irish politi- 
 cians who dominated Redmond; in turn he was the 
 master of Mr. Asquith; the latter, whatever his real 
 wishes, was compelled to support Home Rule. 
 
 This Home Rule Bill had not been properly debated 
 
272 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 or considered; it was being forced through the Com- 
 mons. Unionists declared that there was "no man- 
 date for Home Rule." It was not certain that most 
 of the British people were willing to grant it. A 
 great many of the Liberal candidates had never dis- 
 cussed the issue before election ; Mr. Asquith had not 
 promised to bring it forward until the outcome of the 
 election had shown him to be in Mr. Redmond's power. 
 Now the Liberal government was trying to get the 
 bill through without seeking the judgment of the 
 people. There ought to be a general election on this 
 question. In 1913, when Mr. Asquith was speaking 
 about a bill to give votes to women, he said that par- 
 liament ought to hesitate to take a step so unprece- 
 dented without "a full and assured conviction that it 
 has behind it in taking that step the deliberate and 
 considered sanction of the community"; * and he had 
 said that such considerations applied to any constitu- 
 tional change. Where was any deliberate and con- 
 sidered sanction for Home Rule? 
 
 Many grave objections were made to parts of the 
 law proposed, particularly with respect to parliamen- 
 tary representation, delegated powers, the post, the 
 judiciary, the constabulary, things about which in all 
 constitutional change there can be much question. It 
 was said especially that considerations of finance made 
 the present scheme objectionable or doomed it to 
 failure. Some writers declared that if Home Rule 
 were established, Britain must contribute to Ireland 
 
 i Speech in the House of Commons, May 6, 1913. 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 273 
 
 every year £6,500,000, and most critics agreed that 
 the annual contribution for expenditures strictly Irish 
 would certainly be £2,000,000. But with great in- 
 sistence it was answered that Home Rule would not 
 be expensive. It would cost the British workingman 
 to be sure, as was so often proclaimed, but it would 
 be "something between a farthing a month and a 
 farthing a year." For three years the British ex- 
 chequer would contribute to Ireland £500,000, after 
 which the sum would be gradually diminished. They 
 said it should be remembered, however, that during 
 the nineteenth century the Imperial exchequer had 
 received in taxes from Ireland £300,000,000 which 
 were not spent in the island : but these figures repeat- 
 edly given were as often disputed by the other side, 
 and the best authorities were disposed to regard the 
 calculation as exceedingly doubtful. As it was now, 
 the maintenance of the Irish police and excessive ad- 
 ministrative expense made it necessary for Britain 
 to give increasing amounts of money to Ireland every 
 year. Under Home Rule there would be greater fru- 
 gality, and the deficit might diminish and disappear, 
 so that Ireland would actually be able to contribute 
 to the cost of Imperial administration. Unionist ad- 
 vocates scoffed at this, saying that with Home Rule 
 there was every reason to expect a riot of graft and 
 expenses. 
 
 Unionists argued that the Irish were not suffering 
 now from the evils which had once oppressed them. 
 Already Ireland governed herself. She had now 
 
274 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 
 precisely the same power to manage her own affairs 
 that England, Scotland, and Wales enjoyed. Irish 
 urban and rural district councils, county councils, and 
 boards of guardians were elected by the people ; Irish 
 elementary and technical education, fisheries, agricul- 
 ture, congested districts, and old age pensions were 
 administered by Irish committees. As to economic 
 betterment, restoration of well-being for the mass of 
 the people had been largely accomplished already 
 through the aid of the British government, which had 
 appropriated huge sums of money for the purchase 
 of land by the Irish peasants, to whom money was 
 loaned for long periods at low rate of interest. A 
 leaflet declared that now the Irish farmer could bor- 
 row money from the state on easy terms, and buy his 
 farm paying off the price in installments lower than 
 his rent had been; where he continued to rent, the 
 amount was fixed by the state and could not be raised 
 by the landlord; that the tenant now could not be 
 turned out of his farm so long as the rent was regu- 
 larly paid ; that the state gave him help to improve his 
 crops and the breed of his stock ; that he could obtain a 
 holding large enough for his family; that the state 
 gave assistance with stock and new buildings, and even 
 a cottage at very low rent. It was not the Irish, said 
 this writer, who needed further assistance; let the 
 same kind of help be given to the English people. 
 And it was further said that the British government 
 had already expended for land purchase £78,000,000, 
 and would probably have to expend £100,000,000 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 275 
 
 more. Under Home Rule was it certain that a par- 
 liament elected by debtor peasants could be depended 
 on to pay back the money advanced? 
 
 Grave objections were alleged with respect to the 
 interests of the Irish people themselves. It was 
 doubtful whether they needed more self-government, 
 and very doubtful whether most of them really desired 
 it. There was no question that the majority of large 
 traders and merchants, the business and professional 
 classes, the manufacturers and bankers opposed it. 
 Home Rule, largely supported by money from the 
 United States, was most desired by the politicians; 
 they were the ones who insistently urged it, since they 
 hoped to rule Ireland after the measure was passed. 
 One writer asserted that except for agitators there 
 would be no unrest and no demand for Home Rule. 
 From the condition of some places now governed by 
 Irishmen it was doubtful whether the mass of the 
 people were able properly to manage their public 
 affairs. The civil government of Dublin was a 
 mockery, even to its own people. If it was true that 
 the Irish people were thus incapable, then Irish ad- 
 ministration, when no longer kept in control from 
 England, would be taken over by the politicians who 
 ruled the Ancient Order of Hibernians and other or- 
 ganizations like it. 
 
 To all this the answer was that most of the Irish 
 people had shown that they did earnestly desire Home 
 Rule. Out of 101 constituencies in which members 
 were elected by popular franchise, 80 had invariably 
 
276 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 sent Home Rule representatives to the House of Com- 
 mons, while Unionists had been regularly elected in 
 10. Ever since 1885, when a wide electorate first 
 used the franchise in Ireland, four-fifths of the repre- 
 sentation had been pledged to Home Rule, and there 
 were not many constituencies in which there had been 
 any wavering since that time. In 1913 a colored 
 poster was circulated: "Does Ireland want Home 
 Rule?" It was a map showing that all of Connaught 
 and all of Munster returned members pledged to the 
 demand, that in Leinster the only ones opposed to it 
 represented the University of Dublin, and that even 
 for Ulster, Nationalist members represented half of 
 the province. Altogether Ireland returned only 18 
 Unionist members. 
 
 As to Irish incapacity for self-government, with 
 the danger of them falling under the domination of 
 political leaders who would use them as they pleased, 
 so that things would be worse than before, it was well 
 to recall that Ireland's last opportunity to govern 
 herself, in part at least, through her own representa- 
 tives, was the period of Grattan's parliament: not a 
 few historians had borne witness to the prosperity and 
 progress of that time. But there was a more recent 
 illustration that was better. In 1885 Lord Salisbury 
 declared that to give the Irish control of their local 
 government would be more dangerous than giving 
 Home Rule. But he himself was at the head of a 
 ministry which did grant it in the Irish County Coun- 
 cils Act of 1898. It was generally agreed that local 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 277 
 
 government had been well administered in Ireland 
 since that time. But in any event there was no just 
 reason for thinking that Irishmen were politically 
 deficient. 
 
 It was constantly urged as an objection that under 
 the politicians and the leaders of the Irish organiza- 
 tions conditions would be worse than under a govern- 
 ment supervised by British authority. The power 
 behind the Nationalist Party was the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians or "Molly Maguires," who controlled 
 the parts of the United Irish League, who were feared 
 and detested by Protestants and Unionists, and also 
 by many respectable Catholics in Ireland. Cardinal 
 Logue once called them "a cruel tyranny, and an 
 organized system of blackguardism"; while an Irish 
 newspaper declared that they were steeped in out- 
 rage and crime, and would, if they had power, "make 
 this country a hell." 2 One of the Unionist leaflets as- 
 serted that Home Rule really meant the rule of the 
 Ancient Order. 
 
 The methods employed to extend and uphold the 
 greatness of these bodies would be the using of un- 
 seen power, coercion by boycott, intimidation, and 
 destruction of property. Everyone lamented the old 
 oppression and misrule in the island, but it was neces- 
 sary to admit that they had left an evil heritage of 
 disorder and crime. Doubtless it was true that crime 
 was diminishing, but still there were numerous in- 
 
 2 Leaflet: The Ancient Order of Hibernians (Ulster Unionist Coun- 
 cil) ; Cork Free Press, September 13, 1910, 
 
278 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 stances of boycotting, of farms ravaged, of cattle 
 injured, of machinery and crops destroyed. In the 
 Unionist campaign wide circulation was given to The 
 Boycotting of Richard Kingston — which the Liberals 
 explained in satisfactory manner — and to the story 
 of the prolonged defiance of law in the case of 
 "Walsh's Fort." Tales were told of brutal murder, 
 of cruel revenge, of moonlighting, hayburning, arson. 
 It was said also that Irish conditions were such, and 
 such was the character of magistrates in Ireland, that 
 either criminals were not prosecuted, or the trials re- 
 sulted in acquittal on the intervention of the secret 
 societies. Could it be thought that improvement 
 would come with Home Rule? When the police and 
 part of the judiciary controlled now from London 
 were delivered to the Irish themselves, more probably 
 the result would be that politicians could the better 
 control their followers and crush those who tried to 
 oppose them. 
 
 Even if it were right to give Irish Nationalists over 
 to rule of this sort, ought the loyalists to be abandoned 
 to such fate? If the Unionists would be worse off 
 under Home Rule, then the change would be detri- 
 mental to one-third of the entire population of the 
 island, men and women who claimed as their birth- 
 right the privileges of free British citizens. Shame 
 on England, if they were deserted! Most of them, 
 concentrated in northeastern Ulster, might then look 
 for grievous economic discrimination; but in all parts 
 of Ireland the minority might expect gradually to see 
 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 279 
 
 the schools sectarian and their children deprived of 
 facilities for education, the courts failing to do them 
 justice, the police not giving protection, and them- 
 selves for the most part excluded from public office. 
 
 Above all there was a thing to be feared by Prot- 
 estant Unionists, and that was the probability that 
 under Home Rule the overwhelming majority of 
 Catholic voters would gradually but surely put much 
 of the government in the hands of the church. The 
 present power of the priests was well known ; but they 
 were eagerly awaiting wider opportunity to come. In 
 191*2, it was said, the Reverend Gerald O'Nolan de- 
 clared : 
 
 We shall have a free hand in the future. Let us use it 
 well. This is a Catholic country, and if we do not govern 
 it on Catholic lines, according to Catholic ideals, and to safe- 
 guard Catholic interests, it will be all the worse for the coun- 
 try and all the worse for us. Here it is that religion and 
 nationality meet, and may, and should, go hand-in-hand. 3 
 
 The priests now controlled the devout and warm- 
 hearted Irish people, easily stirred to passionate 
 hatred of the Protestant faith. Intolerance and out- 
 rage were common. Writers asserted that the opera- 
 tion of the decree Ne Terrier e denied the validity of 
 marriage not performed by Catholic clergy, thus plac- 
 ing it as regards Catholics beyond the regulation of 
 the civil authorities and entirely in the hands of the 
 church ; and that the decree Motu Proprio tended with 
 
 s Belfast Irish News, December 2, 1912. 
 
280 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 respect to Catholics to put ecclesiastics where they 
 had been in the Middle Ages, beyond the jurisdiction 
 of lay tribunals. Now if such were the case at pres- 
 ent, how much greater would be the power of the 
 Church when the government of Ireland was entirely 
 controlled by Roman Catholics! That was why the 
 Irish Protestants so earnestly entreated that they be 
 not abandoned by England. 
 
 To all this the Liberals made answer. There was 
 no religious danger. Some advocates of Home Rule 
 did indeed believe that for an interval Catholic ma- 
 jorities influenced by the priests would be oppressive, 
 but that matters would right themselves after a while. 
 Others, however, were certain that Irish Catholics 
 would not oppress Protestants if they could. They 
 said that John Wesley had long ago noted the kindli- 
 ness of peasants and priests. They quoted the his- 
 torian Lecky : 
 
 Amongst the Catholics, at any rate, religious intolerance 
 has never been a prevailing vice ; and those who have studied 
 closely the history and character of the Irish people can 
 hardly fail to be struck with the deep respect for sincere re- 
 ligion, in every form, which they have commonly evinced. 4 
 
 There were at the present time eminent Protestants 
 who declared they had always been treated fairly by 
 Catholic neighbors, and that they did not fear a gov- 
 ernment controlled by such men. It was well known 
 that Catholic Irishmen had often followed Protestant 
 
 4 Quoted by Jeremiah MacVeagh, Home Rule or Rome Rule (Lon- 
 don, 1912), p. 12. 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 281 
 
 leaders — everyone knew of Sir Horace Plunkett and 
 Parnell. Much evidence was given to show that in 
 Catholic districts Protestants were often elected to 
 serve on the local governing bodies. Much more was 
 given to show that intolerance and discrimination 
 were mostly from Protestants: wherever Protestants 
 were in minority they got more than their share of 
 public appointments, but where Unionists were in 
 greater number they did all they could to exclude 
 Roman Catholics from influence and power. Gov- 
 erning bodies in some Catholic districts employed 
 about as many Protestants as Catholics; but in the 
 Protestant corporation of Belfast less than one-fiftieth 
 of the salaries went to Catholics, and no Romanist 
 had ever been the lord mayor. The Home Rule 
 Council declared that there was no religious intoler- 
 ance in Ireland outside the Tory part of Ulster ; and 
 one writer asked whether in view of all the facts that 
 were given Catholics could not be trusted to deal 
 fairly, indeed generously, with Protestants in Ireland. 
 As to the priests, where self-government existed, 
 their power was ever checked by public opinion. So 
 it was in France, in Austria, in Italy, in Belgium, and 
 even in Portugal and Spain. Catholics had the ma- 
 jority in Bavaria and Baden, but they did not perse- 
 cute any longer. Wherever there was a free parlia- 
 ment religious persecution could not thrive, said one 
 of the leaflets. Unionists proclaimed that Home 
 Rule would mean Rome Rule, but it was very doubtful 
 whether with self-government politics could be con- 
 
282 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 trolled in the interests of the church, or direction would 
 come from Rome. Not often had the Pope inter- 
 fered in Irish politics except at England's request, 
 and Irish Catholics had not always obeyed him in po- 
 litical matters. Cardinal Gonsalvi's acceptance once 
 of the English government's scheme for the appoint- 
 ment of Irish bishops was defeated by the Catholic 
 laity headed by Daniel O'Connell, who said: "I 
 would as soon receive my politics from Constantinople 
 as from Rome." 5 And it was not forgotten that in 
 1883 subscriptions for the testimonial to Parnell were 
 collected in defiance of a papal rescript, which Na- 
 tionalists then denounced as an unwarrantable inter- 
 ference with their political rights. They had said 
 that their religion was independent of England and 
 their politics independent of Rome. 
 
 But disregarding all these things, religious oppres- 
 sion of the minority would be impossible. The Home 
 Rule Bill dealt with this matter directly: 
 
 In the exercise of their power to make laws under this act, 
 the Irish Parliament shall not make a law so as either directly 
 or indirectly to establish or endow any religion, or prohibit 
 the free exercise thereof, or give a preference, privilege, or 
 advantage, or impose any disability or disadvantage, on ac- 
 count of religious belief or religious or ecclesiastical status, 
 or make any religious belief or religious ceremony a condi- 
 tion of the validity of any marriage. 
 
 Thus there could be no religious intolerance on the, 
 
 5 Quoted in Home Rule ?'s Answered, p. 52. 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 283 
 
 part of an Irish government; it would never have 
 power to set up a state religion, or discriminate against 
 the adherents of other faiths. As for the papal de- 
 crees so much talked about, they would have no force 
 whatever so far as the law of the land was con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Unionists went much farther. They said that 
 whatever the needs of Ireland were, and however suc- 
 cessful Home Rule might be, even if the minority 
 were not oppressed by its operation, yet there were 
 reasons why it would probably be inconsistent with 
 the interests of the people of Great Britain, perhaps 
 greatly dangerous and detrimental. Home Rule 
 meant the beginning of a disruption of a union which 
 had been built up through many centuries, by a long 
 succession of statesmen, to satisfy fundamental needs. 
 It was proposed to give Home Rule now, but what 
 Irishmen really wanted was complete separation, 
 whenever that could be achieved. Irishmen were not 
 loyal. The story once told by Sir Henry Lucy was 
 widely retold, how in 1902 the Irish members had 
 rejoiced in the House of Commons, with merry laugh- 
 ter and ghoul-like ecstasy, when there was news of 
 Methuen's defeat in the Boer War. There was many 
 a colored cartoon of Redmond dancing with glee at the 
 news. The British army had been referred to as the 
 most degraded and immoral force in Europe. It was 
 said that the disloyalty appeared particularly in the 
 attitude of some Irishmen toward the Germans. In 
 1909 the Kilkenny People said: "Should they land 
 
284 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 in Ireland, they will be received with willing hearts 
 and strong hands." 6 
 
 These disquieting things would not come to an end 
 when Ireland got Home Rule, since it was complete 
 independence and entire separation which she wanted. 
 Words were recalled from the inscription upon the 
 monument to Parnell unveiled in Dublin in 1911: 
 "We have never attempted to fix the Ne plus ultra 
 to the progress of Ireland's nationhood and we never 
 shall." 7 It was widely repeated that in some of his 
 American speeches Mr. Redmond seemed to look for- 
 ward to the goal of national independence. It was 
 not very clearly seen, perhaps, but Unionists did dis- 
 cern something of a feeling that was growing, the 
 desire for national individuality like that of Germany 
 or France. An Irish newspaper had declared that 
 it had nothing but loathing and contempt for the men 
 who spoke so idly about "this Home Rule Bill uniting 
 us in bonds of love and loyalty to the British Em- 
 pire." Unionists said there was some truth in what 
 John Bright had written long before, that if the Irish 
 had their way they would join themselves to the 
 United States. 
 
 These forebodings might be of things which would 
 not come to pass, but here was a matter of such vast 
 and primary importance that Britain could never take 
 any chance of their fulfillment. The geographical 
 
 6 Kilkenny People, December 4, 1909. 
 
 7 Leaflet: "Sinn Fein" and the Home Rule Bill (The Unionist Asso- 
 ciations of Ireland). 
 
 s Tipperary Star, May 25, 1912. 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 285 
 
 position of Ireland was such that in any great con- 
 test, if Ireland were hostile or in the enemy's hands, 
 nay, if Ireland were not part of the British scheme 
 of defence, then Britain, it might be, was doomed. 
 The National Union of Conservative and Constitu- 
 tional Associations declared that Home Rule involved 
 the erection of a hostile state only sixty miles from 
 England, which would be a perpetual source of alarm 
 in the event of continental complications, and at the 
 worst it might set up an enemy in the rear of Great 
 Britain. This would involve the weakening of British 
 defensive power, and necessarily entail an increase in 
 the British army and the maintaining of a powerful 
 fleet to watch the Irish coast. It was also said that 
 in a military and naval sense the two countries were 
 one area of operations and supply, and in the present 
 situation of European affairs, the dissolution of the 
 Union might bring about strategic consequences and 
 disasters not to be estimated. It was all very well 
 for the Liberals to say, as they did so insistently, that 
 in other years it had been the practice of the British 
 Empire to grant self-government to the great colonies, 
 such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa, that 
 there had always been good results from this, and if 
 the same were done for Ireland, like happy conse- 
 quences would follow. The answer was that in this 
 case the colonial analogy was misleading, for there 
 was an essential difference between the position of 
 Ireland and, with unimportant exceptions, that of any 
 of the twenty-eight communities which had received 
 
286 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Home Rule. Almost all of these places were far 
 away; Ireland was close at hand. As yet the great 
 distance had made it impossible for the colonies to be 
 represented in the Imperial parliament, but Ireland 
 had representatives there, and more than her popula- 
 tion gave warrant for. Some of the colonies had vast 
 future before them ; they might rival the United King- 
 dom itself; even the Liberals would admit that Ireland 
 had little future apart from Great Britain. Irish 
 finance was inseparably bound up with that of Great 
 Britain ; of the self-governing dominions that was not 
 true. Moreover, in the dominions there were no im- 
 portant minorities which insisted upon remaining 
 under the British parliament ; in Ireland always there 
 was Ulster. These distant dominions were practically 
 independent; their loyalty was unquestioned, but if 
 €ver they were hostile it was not in their power to 
 threaten the existence of Britain. But Ireland allied 
 with some foe could stop the food of Great Britain 
 and give that enemy a base of operations against the 
 vital part of the commonwealth. 
 
 Doubtless there were many who spoke with strong 
 feeling in behalf of interests of their own. These last 
 contentions, however, with respect to the position of 
 Ireland, and the incalculable dangers which might 
 come from Home Rule if complete independence fol- 
 lowed after it, with a conflict of British and Irish re- 
 lations in the midst of European affairs, these argu- 
 ments were advanced by some of the wisest and most 
 thoughtful men in the Kingdom, who, regardless of 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 287 
 
 political affiliations, were looked upon with deepest 
 respect by most of the people of Great Britain. 
 When one considers the European situation in these 
 years, it is evident that such reasoning must have 
 caused hesitation to many an Englishman sincerely 
 actuated by the most generous feeling not only to do 
 justice to Ireland but also to give to Ireland whatever 
 her people desired. 
 
 Advocates of Home Rule answered that there was 
 no danger of the separation so much feared. The 
 vast majority of Irishmen had no wish whatever for 
 complete independence. It was not wise to give too 
 much attention to the sayings of embittered emigrants 
 in America, or the heated outbursts of extremists in 
 Ireland. Undoubtedly there were at present some 
 who spoke thus, but time and the operation of self- 
 government would change their feelings. Was it 
 just that the sentiments of the Irish people should 
 always be judged in England by the hasty and wrath- 
 ful words of a few, whose minds were altogether in 
 the past or else in a far distant future ? Was Ireland 
 never to be considered in respect of the words of her 
 responsible leaders and the great body of people who 
 followed them? Ireland desired no severance from 
 the Empire. She knew that she was too small to 
 stand alone in the modern world. It was certain that 
 her economic prosperity was altogether dependent 
 upon intimate business relations with Great Britain. 
 For ages England had always been the principal 
 market for Irish goods. Six-sevenths of Ireland's 
 
288 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 trade and most of her business was with Britain. In 
 1910 her total exports amounted to £66,000,000; her 
 direct trade with foreign nations was little more than 
 £1,500,000. Furthermore, the Old Age Pension Act 
 had bound Ireland to England by financial ties which 
 Irishmen would not wish to break. But again let it 
 be said that Irishmen did not want separation. It 
 was all very well to quote some of Mr. Redmond's 
 earlier speeches; his ideas had changed in the course 
 of time, and over and over again he had declared that 
 separation was impossible. "We deny that we are 
 separatists and we say we are willing ... to accept 
 a subordinate Parliament created by statute of this 
 Imperial Legislature as a final settlement of Ireland's 
 claims." 9 
 
 But supposing that there was the desire for inde- 
 pendence alleged. The proposed Home Rule legis- 
 lation provided ample security against it. In gen- 
 eral matters the government at London would retain 
 its powers Undiminished. The Bill declared: 
 
 Notwithstanding the Establishment of the Irish Parliament 
 or anything contained in this Act, the supreme power and 
 authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall re- 
 main unaffected and undiminished over all persons, matters, 
 and things within his Majesty's dominions. 
 
 The Imperial parliament would make all laws con- 
 cerning the crown, the succession, regency, foreign 
 affairs, treaties, war and peace, the navy, the army, 
 
 9 Speech in the House of Commons, April 11, 1912. 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 289 
 
 and any armed forces. If the Irish parliament at- 
 tempted to deal with such matters, its statutes would 
 be void. It was because the parliament of West- 
 minster and not the Irish body was to be supreme in 
 affairs affecting all the Kingdom that Ireland was to 
 continue with representation in the Imperial body. 
 
 Irishmen were not disloyal. It might be that some 
 were not to be trusted, but was that surprising? 
 Irishmen had rejoiced in British disasters, as when 
 the defeats in South Africa were announced, but, said 
 a Liberal leaflet, "the men who cheered the defeat can 
 be made proud of their connection with Great Britain 
 and the Empire by a gift ... of Home Rule." 10 
 And what of the loyal services of Irish soldiers? what 
 of the courage long ago at Fuentes d'Onoro, many a 
 time afterwards in India, and even in the Transvaal? 
 heroism which Queen Victoria had gratefully ac- 
 knowledged? "Don't forget how many of us Irish 
 soldiers died in South Africa for the Empire," was 
 the legend on a cartoon in colors. 11 
 
 Finally, said the Liberals, even if there were some 
 danger, there were certainly advantages also. In the 
 first place, matters of local concern would have to be 
 settled outside the Imperial parliament, so as to find 
 adequate time for imperial policy and affairs of gen- 
 eral importance. But there were things far greater 
 than that. "Home Rule the Secret of Empire," they 
 said. The British Empire was not a collection of de- 
 
 10 Leaflet: One Moment Please (Liberal Publication Department). 
 
 11 Leaflet: Have You Forgotten? (Liberal Publication Department). 
 
290 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 pendencies under the rule of a central power, but, to a 
 great extent, a mighty commonwealth of free states 
 banded together for mutual protection and defence. 
 The glory of its citizens was that they had succeeded 
 in reconciling colonial empire with local autonomy. 
 There were now twenty-eight governments with Home 
 Rule parliaments, including the Channel Islands and 
 the Isle of Man, and in all of them self-government 
 had proved the greatest success. "We gave Home 
 Rule to the Boers: why not give Home Rule in purely 
 Irish affairs to Irishmen?" 12 Whenever white men 
 were governed against their wishes, they were apt to 
 be disloyal; true allegiance came with freedom. In 
 any event, with Ireland the alternative to Home Rule 
 was coercion. Moreover, self-government for Ire- 
 land would strengthen the bonds of the Empire; for 
 the principle was cordially approved by the colonies. 
 At one of the Imperial Conferences all of the prime 
 ministers of the commonwealths represented there 
 favored it. On five occasions the Canadian parlia- 
 ment had passed resolutions endorsing the Irish de- 
 mand. In 1905 the Australian House of Representa- 
 tives sent a petition to that effect to the king. Home 
 Rule for Ireland would probably draw the colonial 
 commonwealths closer in Imperial federation. 
 
 And Home Rule for Ireland was the condition of a 
 scheme even grander. There were some statesmen 
 who dreamed of a future when all the English-speak- 
 ing peoples would be drawn closer together, and so 
 
 12 Leaflet: How South Africa Became Loyal (Home Rule Council). 
 
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 291 
 
 have greater security and power, for their common 
 civilization and ideals, not only the British Isles and 
 the overseas dominions, but also the United States of 
 America. Such mighty work must be done in slow 
 stages. First, perhaps, an arbitration treaty, after- 
 wards some sort of an understanding, in the end, it 
 might be, an alliance. There were many reasons why 
 this should be brought to pass, but there was also one 
 fatal obstacle. Irishmen had gone forth to the 
 colonies, and above all to the United States, taking 
 with them unquenchable hatred, and resolved to 
 thwart whatever England desired. In 1910 a writer 
 declared : 
 
 It is only one acute sign of the fact known to every one 
 who makes a candid study of American conditions that there 
 is no possibility not only of an alliance but of a close rap- 
 prochement, or even of a permanent treaty of arbitration 
 between the British Empire and the American Republic 
 while the Irish question remains on its present footing. To 
 place it on a different footing has become one of the chief 
 needs of our foreign policy. 13 
 
 In 1913 Earl Grey said in the House of Lords that 
 he felt the imperative necessity of settling the Irish 
 question in a manner satisfactory to the overseas 
 democracies, both the colonies and the United States. 
 Mr. Roosevelt had already declared that the pre- 
 liminary condition of closer relations was the recon- 
 
 13 J. L. Garvin, in Fortnightly Review, November, 1910, quoted in Is 
 It Safe to Give Ireland Home Rule? (Liberal Publication Department), 
 p. 13. 
 
292 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 cilement to England of Irish sentiment in America. 
 How much, then, was there to gain! Home Rule 
 would settle the Irish question, hitherto a perpetual 
 trouble to Great Britain, and in the larger affairs of 
 the future it might bring to England warm friends 
 from among those who now stood aloof or merely in 
 proper relations. 
 
 Had these arguments on one side or the other been 
 all that were given, it may be that after a while, in the 
 manner of Britishers, the Unionists, outvoted in the 
 House of Commons, would have acquiesced in the will 
 of the majority, and ceased opposition. But there 
 was another factor which these arguments touched 
 only in part, which would admit of no compromise, 
 and against which all arguments seemed vain. In 
 the midst of the controversy, the people of Ulster who 
 followed the Covenant, stood aloof, stern and disdain- 
 ful. While others talked, they prepared resolutely to 
 fight. Most probably, as things now were, the Irish 
 question could be settled so far as it was to be settled 
 between England and Ireland. The insuperable dif- 
 ficulty was a division between two parts of Ireland 
 itself. Certainly the Irish question in these last 
 years can in no wise be understood without examina- 
 tion of the fears and pretensions of Ulster. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ULSTER 
 
 There are not in His Majesty's dominions a more loyal 
 set of men than those who constitute the great community 
 for which we are fighting . . . we may be coerced into sub- 
 mission, but if we are we will be governed as a conquered 
 community and nothing else. 
 
 Speech of Sir Edward Carson at Belfast, 
 September M, 1913. 
 
 THE problem of Ulster became acute when Glad- 
 stone brought before parliament his first Home 
 Rule Bill, but the roots of the matter were much more 
 remote in the past. Some writers have seen in the 
 most ancient legend and literature of Ireland dim 
 evidence that in earliest time there was difference be- 
 tween the people of Ulster and the other inhabitants 
 of the island, a difference marked even in an age of 
 tribal disunion. But more truly the division, which in 
 1914 seemed to make hopeless all efforts at agreement, 
 went back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
 and was part of the story of the taking of the country 
 by British invaders. I have already briefly told the 
 story of the conquest, how unfortunately for a long 
 while it was partial and incomplete, so that down to 
 the time of the Reformation not much more than the 
 coast country was in possession of the English; and 
 
 293 
 
294 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 how in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the 
 island was altogether subdued and taken by the for- 
 eigner; how in this last fatal period part of the work 
 was accomplished by the device of establishing plan- 
 tations, the clearing of the inhabitants from some dis- 
 tricts and giving the lands thus obtained to immigrants 
 from over the Channel. In the days of James I the 
 confiscated lands of Tyrone and Tyrconnel were used 
 to found the plantation of Ulster, to which were 
 brought English and Scottish settlers from the border 
 district of Britain, men and women hardy, tenacious, 
 daring, and strong, independent in character, dour in 
 religious temperament, with the sternness of the Prot- 
 estantism of the north. From the lands upon which 
 these newcomers were planted the natives were largely 
 removed, though many were allowed to remain to 
 work for the new proprietors. 
 
 After the Reformation and after the complete con- 
 quest there were in the island two separate entities, 
 almost two separate nationalities. One was largely 
 Celtic, Catholic, politically backward, and economi- 
 cally depressed, ignorant, poor, exploited by aliens, 
 with hopeless outlook and fierce hatred for the de- 
 spoiler. The other wa's Anglo-Saxon and Protestant, 
 Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and dissenter, large pro- 
 prietors or substantial artisans and farmers, under 
 British authority ruling, or allied with the ruling class, 
 always proud, sometimes prosperous and successful. 
 
 The invaders who dwelt in Ireland, even in this later 
 time, long lived like a garrison. There were vicissi- 
 
ULSTER 295 
 
 tudes and dreadful struggles before their supremacy- 
 was confirmed. There were the days of the Irish up- 
 rising in the time of Charles I, and the other days 
 when Cromwell came with stern and exalted soldiery 
 to slaughter garrisons that resisted, and hunt the 
 enemy through endless flight in fens and bog, after 
 which there was security for the alien. There was the 
 time when James II, outcast, came over from France 
 to lead his Irish subjects, up in arms for him and 
 themselves. Then their enemies were persecuted, de- 
 prived of their property and driven over the sea for 
 refuge. Almost were the colonists submerged in the 
 deluge, but stern bodies of men held out in Ennis- 
 killen, and finally in Londonderry far in the north 
 through a siege heroic and very memorable in the 
 annals of the island. And there were those other 
 times, so hopeless for the natives, when James had 
 fled from the Boyne, and Limerick had surrendered, 
 and the Irish cause was finally lost, when spirited 
 Irishmen went to serve abroad, and Ireland was left 
 prostrate to the invader. Those days were long past, 
 but memory of the fears and strife in which men had 
 faced each other, had left a lasting heritage of fear 
 and ill will between the two parts of the population of 
 Ireland. All through the eighteenth century the 
 Protestant minority 7 , living to a considerable extent in 
 Ulster, retained its supremacy, and even preserved 
 some industrial and commercial prosperity, though 
 this was largely destroyed even for Ulster by the mer- 
 cantile policy of Great Britain. All through this time 
 
296 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the native Irish, the large majority of the people, re- 
 mained like serfs beneath their landlords, in extremest 
 depression, but clinging with ever more passionate 
 devotion to their Roman Catholic faith. The change 
 in the spirit of rule and the conduct of affairs in the 
 nineteenth century made better the condition of both 
 parties. After the removal of economic restrictions 
 Ulster went forward in manufactures and commerce, 
 in the building of ships and especially the weaving of 
 linen. Meanwhile the Celtic inhabitants obtained re- 
 ligious and political equality, and at last assistance 
 from the state for getting again the land once lost by 
 their fathers. But in the long course of these things, 
 in the dominance of one and the abasement of the 
 other, often in times of common suffering, and now 
 in the better time of the present, the difference be- 
 tween the two bodies of people in Ireland remained 
 very striking. There were occasions when Protest- 
 ants and Catholics had acted together; there were 
 many times when the inhabitants of the north had been 
 foremost in desiring greater freedom for Ireland 
 from England. Yet essentially they continued apart. 
 After the industrial revolution developed around Bel- 
 fast in the early part of the nineteenth century, part 
 of Ulster was drawn ever to closer union with Britain. 
 And when in the latter part of the nineteenth century 
 comparative freedom, better living, and the rising 
 spirit of nationality made so many Irishmen desire 
 some undoing of the Act of Union, and the giving 
 them a government of their own, it could clearly be 
 
ULSTER 297 
 
 seen that there were in the narrow compass of the 
 island two groups in respect of religion, industrial 
 organization, and political outlook, which some states- 
 men thought were not essentially different, but which 
 many more saw to be far more sundered than were 
 the populations to the north and the south of the 
 Potomac before 1861, and in spirit sometimes virtually 
 as diverse as the inhabitants of Germany and France. 
 So, while on the one hand it was most proper for the 
 Celtic majority to cherish earnest desire for as com- 
 plete establishment of their nationality as world af- 
 fairs would permit, on the other hand, and from the 
 other point of view, men believed almost everything 
 that nationalism and prudence could urge made the 
 Protestant industrial communities in Ulster cling to 
 the Union which bound them to their brethren in 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Considerations of religion came first. Such feeling 
 may have died out in most places, but in Ireland much 
 of the religious intolerance and distrust of the seven- 
 teenth century lingered as fiercely as in the days when 
 the Reverend George Walker led the citizens of Lon- 
 donderry on through their memorable defence. 
 Nothing could convince a great many that Home Rule 
 did not mean "Rome Rule," as they said. According 
 to a leaflet of the Ulster Unionist Council, their fears 
 were of what a Romanist once had declared : 
 
 "When you are masters," he said to the Liberals and Prot- 
 estants, "we claim perfect liberty for ourselves, as your prin- 
 
298 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ciples require it ; when we are the masters we refuse it to you, 
 as it is contrary to our principles." * 
 
 "The history of a thousand years," said another, "has 
 taught us that when the Roman Church can control a 
 government, it employs the government to repress 
 or to crush heretics, and Protestants are the worst of 
 heretics." 2 Ulstermen declared repeatedly that if 
 the present protection were withdrawn, the Catholic 
 church would find means to make its will prevail in 
 spite of any law, that in the end under Home Rule 
 they would have neither justice nor safety. A con- 
 vention held at Belfast in 1912 issued the statement: 
 
 Presbyterians are convinced that the power of the Church 
 of Rome over her members would be used through an Irish 
 Parliament and Executive for the furtherance of the Roman 
 Catholic faith, and to the detriment of the Evangelical 
 Churches. 3 
 
 Outsiders might deride these statements as coming 
 from the intolerance of bigots, but they seemed reason- 
 able to many in Ulster. It was said that priests had 
 nearly complete control over the lives of their people, 
 that they worked upon ignorance and religious belief 
 so as to secure through the testaments of the fearful 
 and the superstitious a constantly increasing propor- 
 tion of the property of Ireland, that they lived with 
 
 i Veuillot quoted by Lecky and reprinted in leaflet: Home Rule and 
 Rome Rule. 
 
 2 Letter of Dr. Horton in London Times, February 10, 1912. 
 
 s Home Rule : Statement Prepared and Issued in Pursuance of a 
 Resolution of the Presbyterian Convention, Held at Belfast, on 1st Feb- 
 ruary, 1912 (Belfast, 1912), p. 7. 
 
ULSTER 299 
 
 the power, prosperity, and well-being of the Catholic 
 ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages, that having their 
 parishioners completely under their domination they 
 took extraordinary measures to maintain their juris- 
 diction, that they tried to keep the faithful from hav- 
 ing any part in the activities of Protestants, that they 
 would not let them share in charities or have working- 
 men's clubs or associations with Protestants, or, most 
 important of all, common schools. "I began to see 
 that there was something besides bigotry," said one 
 who went there to study the matter. 4 Some asserted 
 that the Irish people were the most thoroughly Cath- 
 olic in the world. It was said that Irish Catholic 
 ecclesiastical organization was particularly powerful. 
 The Irish population had been declining, but the 
 number of priests had increased, until the host of 
 churchmen was out of all proportion to the number of 
 the people, far beyond anything similar in countries 
 like Austria or Belgium. Ireland was "Paraguay on 
 the Shannon." Was it to be doubted that in politics 
 these churchmen would work for the greater glory of 
 their church ? It was said that priests told their flocks 
 at election time that voters who supported Unionist 
 candidates would be responsible for it at the Day of 
 Judgment. 
 
 Partisans of Ulster proclaimed that a Roman 
 Catholic government would deliver education entirely 
 to the church, making it a monopoly of Jesuits and 
 
 «H, H. Fyfe, Ulster To-Day: The Whole Truth (reprinted from the 
 Daily Mail), p. 24. 
 
300 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 various teaching orders of Rome. In 1912 the Irish 
 Methodists issued a statement based on Michael Mc- 
 Carthy's assertion, that with some negligible excep- 
 tions there was not a secondary Roman Catholic 
 school kept by laymen in the British Isles, that all 
 of them were owned by priests, monks, and nuns, and 
 conducted on Jesuit principles. It was said that the 
 Catholic hierarchy ever denounced as godless the 
 teachings of others, and forbade Catholic children to 
 be taught along with those of the other faith. Even 
 now Irish education was slowly tending towards 
 Catholic methods and ideals; under Home Rule all 
 would be controlled by the Vatican, Irish primary 
 education would be sectarianized, and provision for 
 Protestant minorities in Nationalist districts would be 
 stopped throughout Ireland. Also the supremacy of 
 the church in politics would bring it about that public 
 institutions like hospitals and work -houses, supported 
 by the state or by public contribution, would come 
 under control of the church. 
 
 A great deal was made of the Ne Temere decree of 
 1907. There was account widely given of a scandal: 
 a Roman Catholic married to a Presbyterian girl in 
 her church and with every legal formality, who lived 
 with her happily until after the first child was born, 
 but who before the birth of the second, influenced by 
 the priest, began to doubt the validity of a marriage 
 not performed in the Catholic church, who afterwards 
 removed and hid the children, and when she refused 
 to change her religion, abandoned her altogether. 
 
ULSTER 301 
 
 She did not, ran the tale, see her husband or children 
 again. When such things are done, it was asked, in 
 broad daylight under the rule of the Imperial parlia- 
 ment, what might Irish Protestants expect under a 
 Dublin parliament controlled by the Catholic Church? 
 A very striking pamphlet was written to terrify 
 Protestants by example of what happened in another 
 place where political control had been gained by the 
 Catholics. Once, it was said, Canada had been a 
 Crown colony, ruled from Downing Street; later on 
 each part or province had received its own legislature 
 and home rule. One of them was Quebec, thereto- 
 fore joined with Ontario. There had been a Protest- 
 ant minority in Quebec opposed to a separation from 
 Ontario, which would leave them at the mercy of a 
 Catholic majority and priesthood. Their position, 
 then, was exactly like that of the Protestants in north 
 Ireland now resisting a similar measure. In Quebec 
 the Catholic leaders had had no desire, so they said, 
 to interfere with the rights of the Protestants, and 
 had willingly consented to embody in the new consti- 
 tution guarantees to protect them. The separation 
 had been effected, forty-five years ago. Let Prot- 
 estants of Ulster know what had followed. Roman 
 Catholics had first got complete control of the legis- 
 lature, then of the courts and the schools. Money 
 voted by the state for education was spent as the 
 bishops ordered. No bill affecting education could be 
 passed without the sanction of the Archbishop of 
 Quebec. The schools consequently were used to 
 
302 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 train children in the doctrines and ritual of the papacy, 
 so that hundreds of Protestant farmers, isolated 
 among the Catholics, kept their children from schools 
 which they were compelled to support with their taxes. 
 Convents and monasteries, subsidized by the state, 
 multiplied in prosperity. The priesthood became 
 more and more powerful and greedy. The arch- 
 bishop in his palace was the real ruler of Quebec. 
 One-seventh of the public revenues went for the use 
 of the church. Once there had been 17,000 Protest- 
 ants in the city of Quebec; now there were only 4,000. 
 As fast as possible they were leaving the country. 
 Many had gone to the United States. The author did 
 not say, what may not have seemed relevant to his 
 exposition, that in the same time that so many Prot- 
 estants had come to the United States from the Cath- 
 olic province, a far greater number of Catholics had 
 also come, drawn largely by economic conditions ; but 
 he did declare that the people of Ulster could not so 
 easily get away from the dominion of the threatened 
 Dublin parliament. 5 
 
 It was difficult even for those in the midst of the 
 controversy to know how far these fears were ground- 
 less or exaggerated, and only simulated for political 
 purposes. There were a great many noble and liberal 
 statements from Catholics, and also from Irish Prot- 
 
 s Ulster and Home Rule: A Canadian Parallel, by Mr. Robert Sel- 
 lar, Quebec, Author of "The Tragedy of Quebec" (Belfast, 1912). 
 This pamphlet was based upon letters which first appeared in the Bel- 
 fast Witness. It was reprinted in various forms and received the widest 
 possible circulation. 
 
ULSTER 303 
 
 estants, even in Ulster, who declared that they had no 
 apprehension. There were many stories about hu- 
 mane and friendly priests. There were also those 
 who said that Irish Catholics were broad-minded and 
 fair, and that bigotry and intolerance were mostly on 
 the other side. Many figures were adduced to prove 
 that the actual discrimination was not by Catholics 
 against Presbyterians and Methodists, but by Episco- 
 palians against all the others. It was said that these 
 fears had long been raised and religious differences 
 heightened for a selfish purpose: 
 
 As long as embittered relations could be prolonged between 
 the various denominations, the landlords were able to collect 
 their rents without difficulty ; and successive Governments 
 foolishly believed that religious differences made it easier to 
 govern the country. When, however, Self-Government is 
 brought into being, the members of all religious denomina- 
 tions will have something very different to occupy their 
 minds and energies than doctrinal differences. 6 
 
 It was also said that Ulster capitalists and politicians 
 had awakened this religious strife so that in the midst 
 of hatred and passion their employees would think 
 less about the starvation wages which were paid to 
 them. 
 
 The advocates of Home Rule did not scruple to say 
 that the fears of Ulster resulted largely from ancient 
 prejudice and bigoted ideas inherited from olden 
 times. If only the northerners would, they could 
 
 6 Leaflet: Why Some Irish Protestants Oppose Home Rule (Home 
 Rule Council). 
 
304 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 
 easily see that the Home Rule Bill provided ample 
 safety for the religion of minorities. But they did 
 not answer so successfully the contention of the 
 Covenanters that it was not so much direct and specific 
 injury which they feared — such things the law could 
 properly prevent — but the indirect results of skilful 
 manipulation of laws, the doing of those things which 
 lie beyond the law and depend upon the sentiment of 
 the majority of the people. More successful was the 
 inquiry whether it was right that the destiny of the 
 island should be decided by a minority, that Irishmen 
 should not have Home Rule because half of the popu- 
 lation of one of the provinces opposed it. In LTlster 
 nearly half of the people were Catholics, and some of 
 the Protestants favored Home Rule. Of Ulster's 
 representatives in the House of Commons nearly as 
 many supported Home Rule as desired a continuance 
 of the Union. 
 
 In the second place there were economic considera- 
 tions which, if less fiercely urged, were, perhaps, even 
 more important. Protestant Ulster was the commer- 
 cial and industrial portion of the island, the rest of 
 Ireland agricultural almost entirely. Industrial 
 Ulster was greatly and increasingly prosperous. The 
 population of Ireland had declined from eight mil- 
 lions to four, but the inhabitants of Belfast had con- 
 stantly increased in numbers. The city had now 
 some of the most flourishing industries in the world. 
 In 1912 the Belfast News Letter published an indus- 
 trial map to show that Ulster, with 35 per cent of Ire- 
 
ULSTER 305 
 
 land's population, paid nearly three times as much 
 customs duties as the rest of Ireland, had three-fifths 
 of all Irish export trade, and owned three times as 
 much shipping as all the other parts; that Belfast 
 alone paid one-half of all Irish taxation, that it had a 
 smaller number of paupers than any other place in 
 the United Kingdom ; and that the Ulster towns were 
 thriving industrial centers, their artisans numerous, 
 sturdy, and well cared for. 
 
 The economic life of Ulster, then, was unlike that 
 of the other provinces. Its interests and its needs 
 were different. Under Home Rule there would be a 
 parliament at Dublin making laws for the island and 
 assessing the taxes. This parliament would be elected 
 by the Irish people. The majority would naturally 
 pass such laws as they deemed best, and levy the taxes 
 in accord with their own interests. Ulster had only 
 a third of the population, but already she paid two- 
 thirds of the taxes. Would not the majority, repre- 
 senting an agricultural constituency poorer than its 
 northern neighbors, heap taxes upon the industries of 
 the north? Certainly they would be able to do it, with 
 a usual majority of more than two to one; and they 
 would be apt to do it, since not only would they have 
 at heart the interests of their agricultural constitu- 
 ency, but most of them would be entirely without any 
 experience with the requirements of an industrial com- 
 munity. Not one in fifty of them, perhaps, would 
 ever have managed a factory or employed as many as 
 fifty hands. Such statements marshalled in little 
 
306 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 pamphlets sold at a penny were circulated everywhere. 
 "Ulster is convinced that under Home Rule her in- 
 dustries would be ruined." 7 
 
 There was much answering of these assertions. 
 The Home Rule Council, which worked so actively 
 to spread doctrines favorable to its cause, declared 
 that after all the prosperity of Ulster depended pri- 
 marily on its connections with the rest of the island, 
 and that this prosperity was being jeopardized by 
 those who spoke in such fashion. 
 
 Lastly, the people of Ulster, in common with 
 Unionists elsewhere in Ireland and in Britain, dreaded 
 certain political consequences which they asserted 
 would follow self-government in Ireland. Home 
 Rule, they said, meant Irish government by the An- 
 cient Order of Hibernians and the United Irish 
 League, with methods as corrupt and malignant as 
 those long known in American cities where Irish poli- 
 ticians held sway. Something of it, unfortunately, 
 was already known in Ireland. Now the protection 
 of British authority gave security to those who dis- 
 liked such politicians, but if this were once withdrawn 
 the power of the higher leaders might be further ex- 
 tended in Ulster and elsewhere through economic 
 pressure, destruction of property, and secret terror. 
 There would doubtless be discrimination in legislature, 
 in courts, and generally in public life, against Prot- 
 
 i Ulster's Protest: Her Industrial, Political, Imperial Reasons for 
 Refusing to Submit to Home Rule (Union Defence League, 1914). 
 
ULSTER 307 
 
 estants of Ulster, so far as they attracted the avarice 
 or stood in the way of the dominant group. 
 
 Therefore, Ulster Unionists, and the English poli- 
 ticians who abetted them, opposed Home Rule; and 
 if it was to be given, contrary, as they thought, to all 
 dictates of wisdom, then they insisted on the total or 
 partial exclusion of Ulster from the effects of its 
 operation. But exclusion was also beset with in- 
 numerable difficulties. Nationalists were unalterably 
 opposed to having Home Rule only for an Ireland 
 from which an indispensable part was left out. This, 
 they said, would doom the whole thing to failure. 
 Ireland and the Irish nation must not be divided. 
 Moreover, the situation was not so simple as if it had 
 merely involved the relations of one province with the 
 rest of the island. There was not an Ulster entirely 
 Protestant and industrial, containing one-third of the 
 population, opposed to the other three provinces pre- 
 dominantly agricultural and Roman Catholic. Ulster 
 itself was divided. Only certain districts contained 
 now a decided majority of Unionists and Protestants, 
 and men constituting an industrial society. In some 
 of the counties most of the population was Nationalist 
 and Roman Catholic. According to the census of 
 1911 there were about 700,000 Catholics and nearly 
 900,000 Protestants of various denominations in Ul- 
 ster. Around Londonderry and Belfast were the dis- 
 tricts strongly opposed to Home Rule. Indeed there 
 was good reason to believe that in five out of the nine 
 
308 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 counties advocates of Home Rule were more numer- 
 ous. Sometimes a majority of Ulster's representa- 
 tives in London were in favor of Home Rule ; though 
 the Union Defence League explained that because of 
 inequalities in representation a smaller number of 
 Unionists represented a larger number of voters and 
 people. 
 
 To obviate some of the difficulties there were those 
 who suggested as a solution the excluding from the 
 provisions of Home Rule only those counties of Ulster 
 in which the greater number of the inhabitants were 
 opposed to it. But the difficulty was that in every 
 county excepting Antrim and Down the populations 
 were so mingled together that there would probably 
 be a desperate struggle between the two parties for 
 the possession of debatable areas. A few months 
 before the beginning of the European crisis Mr. As- 
 quith proposed as a compromise that the Unionist 
 counties of Ulster might, if they wished, be excluded 
 from the provisions of the Home Rule law for six 
 years; but Ulster Unionists wanted permanent not 
 temporary exclusion, and the Unionist political lead- 
 ers would not accept the scheme. On the other hand 
 the Nationalist leaders were not willing that even a 
 part of Ulster should be left out of a self-governing 
 Ireland. They feared that the exclusion of even a 
 small part of Ireland from the new government would 
 entail the failure of Home Rule, since that part was 
 so wealthy and important. The best of the Nation- 
 alists, while they were willing to admit of no com- 
 
ULSTER 309 
 
 promise about leaving out Ulster, declared not only 
 that Ulster had no just cause for fear, but asserted 
 that they would do all that could be done to reassure 
 her, if that could be honorably accomplished. They 
 not only gave their word as to this, and so spoke for 
 their constituents, but expressed the desire that Home 
 Rule be accompanied by amplest safeguards for the 
 people of the north. Mr. Redmond stated this best. 
 He said he did not wish self-government to come as a 
 bitter defeat for an honest and intelligent section of 
 his countrymen: "I want to influence their intelli- 
 gence, I want to dissipate their suspicions, I want to 
 soften their hearts." 
 
 Such was the Ulster question; such were the argu- 
 ments employed in its discussion. I have gone into 
 them at more length than some may think they de- 
 serve, in order to show that the Home Rule problem 
 was not so simple as often it has seemed to laymen on 
 this side of the ocean. Americans have no intimate 
 knowledge of such difficulties now. Once our fathers 
 knew them in the days of slavery, state rights, and 
 secession; and, farther back, our ancestors before the 
 Union was formed. But the men and women of this 
 generation in America are scarcely able to conceive 
 them; and looking to England, knowing how long 
 self-government has prevailed in English constitu- 
 tional practice, and how in recent times it has been so 
 generously extended to colonies and dominions, they 
 think it an~aixumaly for Home Rule to be so ardently 
 desired in Ireland, yet so bitterly contested and down 
 
310 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 to the present withheld. Often, knowing little of 
 England exactly, they have believed this to result 
 from blind perverseness and characteristic stubborn- 
 ness, perpetuating an olden tragedy into modern 
 times. In the Irish question there has been much 
 wrong, and mistakes have not been wanting, on both 
 sides, in recent times. But an examination of the 
 fugitive and controversial literature and the debates 
 in parliament and before the people makes it evident 
 that there was much to be said on both sides. We in 
 this country have been more apt to sympathize with 
 the Irish, and perhaps that is as it should be; but 
 certainly there were a great many people who hon- 
 estly believed that Home Rule was not only unneces- 
 sary for the interests of Ireland, and perhaps even 
 detrimental to the true interests of the Irish people, 
 but that certainly, whatever might be the results to 
 that country, without doubt self-government, so far as 
 it tended toward separation and the erecting of an 
 independent or hostile government, would be fatal to 
 the fundamental interests of England and the British 
 Empire. And yet it must always be remembered that 
 just before the war the English Liberals working with 
 the Irish Nationalists had at last agreed to give Ire- 
 land Home Rule, notwithstanding the difficulties in- 
 volved. Still, however, there remained the fact that 
 an important part of Ireland was entirely unrecon- 
 ciled to the scheme, and willing to take up arms to 
 maintain its connection with Great Britain. What 
 would have come of this, or what will come in the fu- 
 
ULSTER 311 
 
 ture, remains as yet uncertain ; for with the beginning 
 of the great war in Europe the Irish question was kept 
 for a while in abeyance ; and when it reappeared as an 
 issue, new baffling problems came with it. 
 
PART III 
 IRISH NATIONALITY AND THE WAR 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AND THE 
 IRISH REVIVAL 
 
 This heritage to the race of Kings : 
 
 Their children and their children's seed 
 
 Have wrought their prophecies in deed 
 Of terrible and splendid things. 
 
 The hands that fought, the hearts that broke 
 
 In old immortal tragedies, 
 These have not failed beneath the skies, 
 
 Their children's heads refuse the yoke. 
 
 Joseph Mar}' Plunkett: "Our Heritage." 
 
 You cannot make a nation of half-and-halfs, you can only 
 have a province where people are half Irish and half Eng- 
 lish. Make them wholly Irish — in speech, in thought, in 
 mental direction, and then you will make a nation that will 
 have a worthy civilization. 
 
 Padraic Colum, "Sinn Fein and Irish Ireland," 
 in The Irish Rebellion of 1916, p. 38. 
 
 IF the latter part of the nineteenth century was a 
 new age in the relations between Ireland and 
 England, with some excellent measures tending to 
 make Ireland content and draw the two peoples 
 eloser together in real union, the latest generation 
 has nevertheless been an era in which gradually arose 
 something else that despite best intentions, perhaps, 
 
 315 
 
316 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 on both sides, has tended at last to divide them so that 
 they never seemed farther apart. That which cre- 
 ated so great a barrier and such untold possibilities 
 for the future, is the revival of Irish nationality, the 
 revival of something old and fine, but long submerged 
 and often forgot by most men, something splendid 
 and good, which the world much desires to have again, 
 but withal, at this moment, so fierce, so blind, and un- 
 reasoning, as to seem big with mischief and woe. 
 From many things did this Irish revival begin: the 
 spirit of a strange and wondrous time, the stirring 
 of a world-upheaval, justifiable discontent and im- 
 patience, and laudable desire for self-expression; but 
 it came also from a return in spirit to the old Irish 
 past, and the wish to make live again all that was 
 great and good in that past; and this was brought 
 about largely through revival of the use of the Irish 
 speech and study of the literature of old Ireland. 
 
 Gaelic, the language of the Irish, has not usually 
 been known to those who speak English, except as the 
 Irish themselves took up English. The Danish, 
 Norman, English invaders, who settled in Ireland 
 permanently, often gave up the language which they 
 brought, as they were absorbed into the native popu- 
 lation; but to those who came merely to rule for a 
 while, and to most of the people who lived in the 
 greater island, Gaelic ever seemed an uncouth 
 tongue, which would disappear in the goodness of 
 more civilized times. There were exceptions, to be 
 sure. Queen Elizabeth had some interest, and oc- 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 317 
 
 casionally there were others ; but generally the inhabi- 
 tants of Britain were as little informed of the Irish 
 language and cared as little about it, as they did about 
 the strange tongues which travellers told of in farther 
 Asia or along the African coast. In course of time 
 a little was popularly known about the Celtic lan- 
 guages in Brittany, in Wales, in the Isle of Man, in 
 the Scottish Highlands, and in Ireland, through such 
 writings as the publications of Macpherson and some 
 of the novels of Scott; but for the most part out- 
 side of Celtic countries the languages were only 
 known to a few scholars. It was not, indeed, for a 
 long while that scholars understood the character and 
 relations of this group. The Vergleichende Gram- 
 matik of the great German philologist Bopp, which 
 first appeared in 1833, did not admit Celtic into the 
 Indo-European group, though the work of the Eng- 
 lishman Pritchard a little before this time and that 
 of the Swiss philologist Pictet somewhat later caused 
 him to recognize it as a relation of the Germanic, the 
 Graeco-Italic, and the Sanscrit; and later still the 
 Bavarian scholar Zeuss demonstrated the relation- 
 ship conclusively in his Grammatica Celtica, pub- 
 lished in 1853. 
 
 Meanwhile the Celtic speech was gradually being 
 abandoned by most of the inhabitants of Ireland. In 
 the seventeenth century it was the language of a sub- 
 ject race held as inferiors and debarred from any of 
 the honors and emoluments of state. Those who 
 spoke it were often regarded as barbarians and 
 
318 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 usually treated as serfs. The Irish Celts were sub- 
 jected to all sorts of persecution and disability, from 
 which they could escape most easily by abandoning 
 all that was Celtic. In Ireland in the eighteenth 
 century there could be little opportunity for anyone 
 who used the Gaelic tongue and professed the Cath- 
 olic faith. The old Irish schools disappeared. Irish 
 learning and literature were frowned on by the gov- 
 ernment and scantily supported by the impoverished 
 natives. More and more did Irishmen learn the Eng- 
 lish language, to which they gave a delightful and 
 peculiar pronunciation of their own, and forget the 
 speech of their fathers. Celtic remained the only 
 language of a great number of people in Ireland, 
 and continued to be used and understood by many 
 more, but after two centuries this was so rather 
 among the lowest, the poorest, and most ignorant of 
 the people, and in the wilder and more remote parts 
 of the islands. As early as 1738 it was said that only 
 one out of twenty people did not know the English 
 language. Yet Irish survived the persecution and 
 depression of the eighteenth century, and continued to 
 be used and understood by a large part of the popula- 
 tion, until the great famine, when it received, what 
 seemed then, its death-blow. The hunger and the 
 fever found most of their victims in the districts 
 where Gaelic was the only speech or where it was used 
 along with the English, and it was from these same 
 districts also that the great emigrations went forth in 
 the following years. In 1835 a traveller believed that 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 319 
 
 four millions out of seven in Ireland still kept Irish 
 as their mother tongue ; but the next census after the 
 famine gave only 1,20-1,684 as the number of those 
 who used English and Gaelic and 319,602 as speaking 
 Gaelic alone. By 1901 the official figures were 620, 
 189 for those who used both languages and 20,953 
 for those who only spoke Gaelic. 
 
 Accordingly, it seemed that what Cromwell and 
 the planters had once attempted, the removal of 
 things Irish from Ireland, was on the way to being 
 achieved in other fashion. Wherever Irishmen were 
 they were giving up the old speech and taking the 
 English instead. Critics declared that Gaelic in Ire- 
 land was dying of internal decay, and others believed 
 that with the adoption generally by Irishmen of the 
 English speech, there would in time be a desirable ap- 
 proximation of character and ideals in the two islands, 
 so that with the proceeding economic betterment in 
 the end there would be general acquiescence in the 
 Union in the midst of contentment and peace. So it 
 seemed that after a while the Celtic of Ireland would 
 be one of the dead languages, as the Celtic of Strath- 
 clyde had become long ago, and the Celtic of Corn- 
 wall not long before ; not like the Greek, to be studied 
 and read for ages by innumerable students because 
 of supreme beauty and the treasure of its content, nor 
 like the Latin because of its enduring influence upon 
 men, but a language bright with old treasures and 
 dear once, with a savor and sweetness of its own, 
 nevertheless gone now like other things before it, dead 
 
320 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 and buried in libraries and old books, dimly and 
 faintly remembered by some who chanced to think of 
 it, but actually known only to philologists and erudite 
 men. 
 
 Such consummation seemed lamentable to those 
 who thought of the glory and beauty of old Irish 
 things and cherished whatever was left of them. 
 Particularly was it dreaded by them who wished Irish 
 character to be strengthened and preserved. The 
 most potent and general means of expressing and re- 
 taining national character is language spoken and 
 written. If a people develops the ability of literary 
 expression at all, in its literature, perhaps, is to be 
 found that which best reveals what is most distinctive 
 in its character and makes its character individual 
 and peculiar; and through the body of its literature 
 and traditions it will most affect its later generations. 
 The greatest thing of the nineteenth century, said 
 Bismarck, was that English was the language of most 
 of North America; and doubtless because this was so 
 did the people of the United States for the most part 
 instinctively turn to England and the Allies in the 
 earlier months of the war. Character and spirit of a 
 people, expressing themselves in the language of the 
 people, express something that cannot be given in 
 another language, and only in part through transla- 
 tion. Accordingly, if the inhabitants of Ireland 
 gave up entirely the old Celtic speech and adopted 
 the English, they might use it not as the inhabitants 
 of England did, but with differences of character and 
 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 321 
 
 expression all their own, as was so with the Scots or 
 the people of the United States, but their speech and 
 their literature would not give out what the Gaelic 
 words had used to do, the people would more and 
 more be cut off from communion with the old Irish 
 past, and after a while the character and ideals of this 
 Anglian Ireland would be much unlike what a Celtic 
 Ireland would have given to its children. 
 
 Formerly, I think, when English-speaking people 
 thought of the literature of Ireland, they were most 
 apt to have in mind that which had been written in 
 English. Among the settlers and conquerors, in- 
 deed, and those who used their language, were some 
 whose writings have brought glory to Ireland and 
 who have taken high place in the company of Eng- 
 lish letters. It was in Ireland in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury that some of the finest writing of Swift was done, 
 that ultimate master of the strong and terrible among 
 all the prose writers of English. Steele, who sur- 
 passed Addison, his colleague, was born in Dublin, 
 but wrote his essays and comedies in England. 
 Berkeley, so important in the annals of philosophic 
 composition, was bishop of Cloyne. From Ireland 
 came Oliver Goldsmith; and even yet we contrast 
 Irish and English character as we follow his conver- 
 sations with Dr. Johnson in Boswell. Both Sheridan 
 and Moore were born in Dublin, as was Edmund 
 Burke, whose stately volumes of magnificent prose 
 contain more political wisdom than the work of any 
 other who has written in our language. 
 
322 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 The glories of the eighteenth century faded in the 
 nineteenth. In Anglo-Irish literature there was no 
 novelist to be in the company of Scott, or Thackeray, 
 or Dickens, until at the end of the century came 
 George Moore, whose Mummer's Wife and Esther 
 Waters remain the masterpieces of realistic fiction in 
 English. After the Irish Melodies of Moore poetry 
 declined, and Ireland brought forth no Byron or 
 Browning or Tennyson or Swinburne. Nor was 
 there during this time much in Irish prose to be named 
 beside the splendid array across the sea, though some 
 remember the Jail Journal of Mitchel, and the his- 
 torical writings of Lecky continue to be read almost 
 as much as Macaulay's. One genius there was in the 
 drama: Oscar Wilde, who more than Poe has been 
 under a moral stigma which obscures from the un- 
 discerning the sparkle of a dialogue only equalled by 
 the best comic writing of France and not seen in Eng- 
 land after the time of the drama of the Restoration. 
 
 But there is an older literature in Ireland, which 
 once rose to splendor and glory, had its long day of 
 triumph, failed and withered with the hopes of its 
 people, then for many a year lay neglected, and 
 cherished only by refugees, or peasants in Connaught. 
 The Celtic literature of Ireland had in the latter part 
 of the nineteenth century so far perished that only a 
 little of it was kept by a few who held to the Gaelic 
 language, and it was studied only by philologists and 
 scholars. 
 
 Much no doubt has perished, but there is still a 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 323 
 
 great mass of Irish literature written in Celtic. Not 
 to speak of the ogham writing on wood and on stone, 
 which has much antiquarian but small literary value, 
 there are from the old Irish period of the language, 
 700-1100, a few prose writings and poems, of the 
 eighth or ninth centuries or earlier, mostly of as little 
 literary excellence as the writing done among the 
 Anglo-Saxons at the same time. More important 
 are the numerous glosses or marginal notes and ex- 
 planations scattered about in religious writings. 
 Few of the earliest manuscripts remain in Ireland. 
 It would appear that the scholars who wrote or pre- 
 served them took them away in the days of the Danish 
 invasions, and nowadays they are to be found more 
 often, in libraries of continental Europe. 
 
 Most of the Celtic literature of Ireland comes 
 from the so-called middle period of the language, 
 1100-1550. The earlier originals of most of the 
 pieces are lost, and the copies, as we now have them, 
 are preserved in codices or collections whose quaint 
 names are very celebrated in literary annals. The 
 Book of the Dun Cow, part of it done about the be- 
 ginning of the twelfth century, contains one version 
 of the epic, Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Iliad of Ireland. 
 The Book of Ballymote, the most extensive of the.se 
 collections, contains much historical matter, compiled 
 about the beginning of the fifteenth century; and the 
 Speckled Book, largely religious, was done somewhat 
 later. Among many others of this period are the 
 Book of Leinster, the Book of Lismore, the Book of 
 
324 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Armagh. It has been estimated that the contents of 
 some of the more important manuscripts of this period 
 would fill over 18,000 printed quarto pages. It is 
 obvious from the manner in which these manuscripts 
 were written or compiled, that in this middle Irish 
 period there is much writing that has come with little 
 change from the old Irish period preceding. 
 
 Of greatest interest are the medieval romances, 
 stories almost purely Irish, since little of them is to 
 be found in any form in the literature of other Celtic 
 countries. The more ancient group of them, Ire- 
 land's principal contribution to the literature of the 
 world, arose in Ulster, and dealing with that part of 
 the island, are known as the Ulster Cycle. They pur- 
 port to relate to the time of the first century of the 
 Christian era. Containing much that appears fab- 
 ulous and imaginary, they are of slight value for an 
 account of early events, but they seem to present a 
 very true picture of the early conditions which were 
 known or remembered at the time when they were 
 composed, and it is from them as well as from the 
 Brehon Laws that early Irish society is known to us. 
 
 The great epic of the Ulster Cycle is the Tain Bo 
 Cuailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley. In early Irish 
 society, as with other peoples, the principal wealth 
 was in cattle, and the stories of the period have to do 
 largely with tains, or cattle-drives, between Ulster 
 and the parts of Erin nearby. This is the story of 
 Fergus, once king of Ulster, now an. exile -in Con- 
 naught, of Conchobar, now Ulster's king, of Ailill 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 325 
 
 and Medb, king and queen of Connaught, and above 
 all of Cuchulain, heroic champion of Ulster. Queen 
 Medb possessed a wondrous bull, and coveted an- 
 other in Ulster. So she assembled her host. Ulster 
 was defended by the hero Cuchulain, with whose his- 
 tory and mighty exploits the epic is chiefly concerned, 
 until it closes with the rout of the army of Medb and 
 the combat and death of the bulls. 
 
 It is an old world of barbaric splendor that is re- 
 vealed in this and other tales of the Ulster Cycle. 
 The great warriors go to battle in chariots. Often 
 they bear themselves in right knightly way and do 
 acts of chivalrous kindness; but they go forth with 
 savage war-dogs, and when they triumph they bear 
 off the heads of conquered foemen slung at their 
 belts or round the necks of their horses or to be kept 
 in a hall of the palace. Often the women are the 
 counsellors and equals of the men. Far inferior in 
 literary workmanship to the Iliad, the things in these 
 tales often remind one of the world of Homer. 
 
 However the Iliad in the form we now have it may 
 have been composed, it is generally believed to mark 
 the end of a long course of development of Greek 
 epic writing, the earlier memorials of this develop- 
 ment having perished. But the Tain and other 
 stories of the group represent the earlier and inter- 
 mediate stages of epic composition, not the last and 
 most perfect, which in Ireland were never achieved. 
 These old romances are mainly in prose, with some 
 poems interspersed. They are often characterized 
 
326 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 by great dramatic force, by brilliancy, and keen hu- 
 mor; but excellent though they be, they are also 
 marred by striking defects : they indulge in grotesque 
 exaggeration, abound in minute description and 
 wearisome repetition, they lack proportion, and are 
 sometimes of intolerable length. 
 
 There are many Tains in this cycle, and numerous 
 other tales of war and adventure. The story which 
 is now known better even than the story of Ciichulain 
 is that one of the so-called Three Sorrows of Story- 
 telling, the Aided Chloinne Uisnig, Death of the Sons 
 of Usnech, better known in modern versions as the 
 story of Deirdre. This is the tale of how King Conor 
 of Ulster brought up as his future wife the beautiful 
 child Deirdre, fated, said the portents, to cause deso- 
 lation and woe. Long secluded, she chanced once to 
 see Naisi, son of Usnech, loved him and went with 
 him to Alban or Scotland. Afterward returning 
 they were betrayed to their death. This tale became 
 one of the great love-stories of the world. Later 
 versions said the lovers could not be separated in 
 death, that laid apart in the burial-ground their 
 bodies were found side by side each morning, and that 
 when stakes were thrust through the bodies in sepa- 
 rate graves, trees grew from them which embraced 
 at last over the Cathedral of Armagh. In the nine- 
 teenth century this story was put into English by Sir 
 Samuel Ferguson and others, and later it furnished 
 the theme for plays by Yeats and by Synge in the 
 Irish Literary Revival. 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 327 
 
 For southern Ireland, there is the Fenian or Os- 
 sianic Cycle, a group of romances, some in prose, 
 some ballads, in verse, about the deeds of Fion and 
 Oisin and others. The stories which they relate do 
 not occur frequently in the older manuscripts which 
 contain the epics of the Ulster Cycle, and the period 
 to which they relate is a later one in which the north 
 country has lost its conspicuous importance. Some 
 of the stories, indeed, are very old, with origin lost in 
 obscurity; but while the tales of the northern cycle 
 have to do with the deeds of kings and heroes of the 
 upper classes, the Fenian Cycle is concerned largely 
 with an ancient military caste of professional war- 
 riors, the fianna, and also with the people; and one of 
 the theories about their origin is that they arose 
 among the subject race which had once been con- 
 quered by the Celts. The earliest manuscripts of any 
 length dealing with this group of tales date from the 
 fifteenth century. The stories are about the exploits 
 of the fianna, typified in the doings of Fion and Oisin, 
 and have to do with war, especially the chase, and tell 
 many a tale of fairies and phantoms and strange 
 things of olden days. It is not improbable that an 
 organized force of professional or mercenary soldiers 
 may have existed in these times, though generally, it is 
 well known, the military organization was by tribes 
 and clans ; but whether the heroes named ever actually 
 existed is lost altogether in the obscurity of a time 
 passed away. 
 
 In style the longer prose romances in this cycle are 
 
328 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 far inferior to those of the Ulster group, though the 
 ballads are excellent. In the prose narratives, how- 
 ever, are found many charming lyric poems, hunting- 
 songs, and lullabies. The stories of the Ossianic 
 Cycle were for a while best known to the English- 
 speaking world not through acquaintance with the 
 Celtic romances of Ireland or even translations of 
 them, but through the celebrated compositions or 
 forgeries of James Macpherson, a Scotchman, who 
 published in 1762 and 1763 the Ossianic Poems, 
 Fingal and Temora, which were not, as he said, Gaelic 
 epics rendered by him into English, but compositions 
 of his own with all the polish of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, based upon Highland ballads closely related to 
 those long current in Erin. But far different was 
 it with Irishmen. The exploits of Fion and Diar- 
 muid were many a time told and retold. For a great 
 while the tradition endured that in an ancient fortress 
 in Donegal a thousand men sat, hand upon sword, 
 resting in magic sleep; that often they stirred them- 
 selves — "Is the time yet come?" — that when the deep 
 answer echoed: "The time is not yet," they sank back 
 again into slumber profound ; but one day would come 
 forth for the freedom of their country. 
 
 In the oldest and also in the later compositions 
 there are pieces which relate to the ancient mythology 
 of the island, and throw much light on the early re- 
 ligion of the Irish Celts. From very old times on 
 there are many poems about the beauty and charm of 
 nature. 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 329 
 
 Generally of less literary value, but of greater im- 
 portance, perhaps, for creating and sustaining Irish 
 nationality, are the numerous genealogies, annals, and 
 histories, of which many early ones have been lost, but 
 of which a great many have been preserved in some 
 form and come down. In medieval England, where 
 learning was altogether in the hands of churchmen 
 and monks, most of the chronicles and contemporary 
 accounts are in Latin, not early English, the Anglo- 
 Saxon Chronicle being a notable exception. In Ire- 
 land, where learning and writing were not monopo- 
 lized by ecclesiastics, but were for a long while very 
 largely held by professional and hereditary learned 
 castes, the fili and afterwards the bards, such writing 
 was usually in Gaelic, and the remains of this writing 
 now constitute a magnificent memorial of the old 
 language of Ireland. 
 
 No people ever more desired to remember their 
 past, and it has justly been said -that Ireland has 
 been a country of annalists. To traditional fili of 
 early times are ascribed a number of poems, some of 
 them in existing form undoubtedly of later date, 
 which tell the story of far off events in Ireland. In 
 the tenth century Eochaid O'Flainn wrote a poem 
 giving a chronological account of kings of Ulster. 
 About the same time MacLiac told in his verse of the 
 greatness of Brian Boru, to whom he was chief secre- 
 tary and poet. His lament on the fall of Kincora, 
 the palace of his master, was long remembered, and it 
 was recalled, perhaps, afterwards by Moore, and by 
 
330 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Lady Gregory not long ago. In the eleventh cen- 
 tury Flann Mainistreach compiled synchronisms of 
 the kings and historical poems. And in the centuries 
 following, the chief members of the bardic families 
 continued to write eulogies and poems about their 
 chieftains and tribes. 
 
 Very important for the student are the annals, 
 compiled often by contemporaries, by the professional 
 annalists and genealogists of the tribes. There still 
 exist from the eleventh century fragments of the 
 Annals of Tigernach, done by an ecclesiastic who 
 wrote of Irish affairs in his native language and of 
 foreign matters in Latin. From the thirteenth cen- 
 tury or earlier come the Annals of Innisf alien, also 
 in the two languages. The Annals of Loch Ce deal 
 with Irish history from the eleventh to the seventeenth 
 century. Among others are the Annals of Ulster, 
 thus named because largely they deal with the north, 
 the Annals of Connacht, and the Annals of Clonmac- 
 noise remaining now only in English translation. 
 Such narratives invariably give an account of the his- 
 tory of years l'ong before the time when they were 
 actually written, so that it is only the later portions 
 that have a contemporary value, though it should be 
 noted that the contemporary work does in many 
 places extend back beyond the time of the compilation 
 in the form now existing. Greatest of all the works 
 of the chroniclers is that which is known as the Annals 
 of the Four Masters, compiled in the modern period 
 of Irish literature and writing in the first half of the 
 
 I 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 331 
 
 seventeenth century, by Michael O'Clery, two more 
 of the family O'Clery, and another. The English 
 conquest was being completed now with the deg- 
 radation of Irishmen and the ruin of their old civil- 
 ization. The manuscripts which had been so num- 
 erous in earlier times were being lost or dispersed or 
 carried to foreign lands. It was the ambition of 
 O'Clery and his comrades to do what others had tried 
 to do before his time, collect together as many of the 
 old accounts and as much of the old information as 
 possible, before they should be irretrievably lost. 
 And well it is for the scholar now that the work was 
 done, for almost all of the materials used by the Four 
 Masters have disappeared since their day. Their 
 compilation, which was made in the years 1632-1636, 
 gives an account of Irish history from the coming of 
 a granddaughter of Noah to 1616. The Masters 
 have arranged in chronological order the materials 
 which they were able to collect, whereas out of similar 
 sources Keating wrote a historical narrative of his 
 own. 
 
 There are many historical writings. The Cog ad 
 Gaedel re Gallaib, Wars of the Gael and the Gall, 
 tells the story of the Norse invasions and gives an ac- 
 count of the battle of Clontarf. A portion of it is 
 ascribed to MacLiac, and the part about the battle is 
 apparently by one who lived then. The greatest of 
 all the Irish historians, one who came in the modern 
 period, was Seathrun Ceitinn (1570 - c. 1646) , better 
 known as Geoffrey Keating, and one of the best 
 
332 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 known names in all Irish literature. Living in the 
 era of the plantations, sometimes hiding from the 
 English authorities, he planned to write a history of 
 Ireland, and afterwards travelled up and down col- 
 lecting materials for his work. He was generally 
 welcomed and trusted, and was allowed to use an 
 enormous number of manuscripts and books. His 
 history, the Forus Feasa ar Eirinn, was written 1629- 
 1634. With some defects, largely because of lack of 
 critical spirit, it remains nevertheless a source of first 
 importance, since the author had access to many 
 pieces of information now lost except as they are pre- 
 served in his writing. Keating, as the work is cited 
 nowadays, was never published until recently, but in 
 numerous manscript copies it long circulated through 
 Ireland and remains the monument and classic model 
 of Irish prose. 
 
 Mention must also be made of another body of 
 writing, which though possessing little direct literary 
 value, is not only of the greatest importance to 
 scholars learned in old Irish things but represents a 
 great deal of the character and spirit of times past. 
 The ancient tribal customary law of the Gaelic in- 
 habitants, known as the Brehon Laws, was at first 
 transmitted from teacher to pupil in verse to be mem- 
 orized, but after a while was codified in writing, in 
 the time of St. Patrick, according to legend, though 
 little of the text as we have it now goes back farther 
 than the eighth century. The collection of the An- 
 cient Laws of Ireland, Senchus Mor, was published 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 333 
 
 in the nineteenth century, and these records of Celtic 
 custom have greatly assisted students of Irish history 
 and many who deal with primitive and comparative 
 law, like Sir Henry Maine and Frederick Seebohm. 
 The conquest and confiscations of the seventeenth 
 century brought such depression and despair as to 
 make almost impossible any further great develop- 
 ment of the native Irish literature and writing. The 
 best men went abroad, and those who stayed in Ire- 
 land were bowed too low to have much heart or 
 strength for such things. English was now the of- 
 ficial language, the speech of the colonists, who were 
 the upper classes, and of all who supported the gov- 
 ernment or knelt down before it. The old Irish 
 schools and places of learning had nearly disappeared, 
 and children of the natives sought, when they could, 
 an education abroad, in Rome or in Paris. By these 
 exiles some writing was done, particularly the trans- 
 lating from Irish into Latin of books of devotion. In 
 Ireland itself nothing of magnitude or importance 
 was done in Gaelic after the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century. The old literary treasures of the 
 Irish were despised or little known by the conquerors, 
 and, indeed, were in danger of disappearing alto- 
 gether. One of the finest and most pathetic things 
 in Irish history is the devotion with which Irishmen, 
 often in the midst of incredible and disheartening toil, 
 made it a labor of love to copy over the manuscripts 
 of the past, and preserve them for a future which 
 might never come. Often, as I have said above, the 
 
334 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 old histories and writings did perish, but many of 
 them have been preserved, and more were for a great 
 while kept alive in the memories of the peasants and 
 handed down from one generation to another. 
 
 Even when fortune was so low, however, there was 
 a great deal of writing of poems. The conditions of 
 the time caused the decline and destruction of the pro- 
 fessional literary classes, who had before been the 
 creators of Irish literature. There occurred one last 
 great outburst of bardic composition early in the 
 seventeenth century. Then, in the midst of the mis- 
 fortunes of their country the bards turned to the 
 common people, and wrote more simply, more nat- 
 urally, and more freely, abandoning the extremely 
 complicated meters and the great obscurity which had 
 formerly characterized Irish poetical writing when 
 patronized by the upper classes. During the 
 eighteenth century Irish verse expresses the sorrow 
 and longing of the people, and small pieces were 
 composed without number. Even this gradually 
 dwindled and shrunk away, and at last in the nine- 
 teenth century, about the time of the famine, with the 
 destruction or departure of so many of the Celtic in- 
 habitants, the almost complete loss of hope, and the 
 abandoning of the Celtic language, Irish literature 
 seemed to come to an end. If the old treasures were 
 to be remembered, so it seemed, they must be rendered 
 into English, and this was done sometimes by scholars 
 and poets — by Sir Samuel Ferguson, perhaps, best 
 of all. 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 335 
 
 But about the middle of the nineteenth century, 
 after O'Connell had got Catholic emancipation but 
 failed to get repeal of the Union, when the great 
 famine had ruined the Celtic people, and the outlook 
 seemed hopeless, Young Ireland, led by men like 
 Gavan Duffy and Davis, who refused to despair of 
 their country, made strong and deliberate efforts to 
 arouse the spirit of Irish nationality, and attempted 
 to do this largely through recalling the Irish literature 
 of the past. The Nation, their strong and vigorous 
 paper, had as a motto, "To create and foster public 
 opinion in Ireland — to make it racy of the soil." 
 Duffy himself collected a volume of Anglo-Irish and 
 Celtic ballads, and Young Ireland soon began to pub- 
 lish in the Nation original poems. The beautiful 
 Irish Melodies of Moore were the lament for some- 
 thing gone and lost, but these writings were filled 
 with strong and passionate hope for the future. This 
 was, indeed, the beginning of a revival of Irish nation- 
 ality, something that O'Connell had neither at- 
 tempted nor, perhaps, been able to accomplish. The 
 work halted after a while, and was almost lost to sight, 
 and certainly little recked of outside Ireland during 
 the Home Rule period of Parnell and John Red- 
 mond. 
 
 But again it appeared. About the end of the nine- 
 teenth century began an Irish literary revival, which 
 was partly a manifestation of English literature and 
 partly a rebirth of Irish spirit and feeling. What 
 was written in the English language has been one of 
 
336 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the most vital and distinctive parts of literary activity 
 in English during the last generation, but it merges 
 directly into another movement which has been the 
 revival of the Irish past and of Irish national as- 
 pirations. 
 
 Mr. George Bernard Shaw is only slightly of this 
 movement, though one of the most brilliant figures 
 during the course of its period, and notwithstanding 
 that in some of his work he criticises England's ad- 
 ministration in Ireland. Like Oscar Wilde, he is one 
 of the great figures in modern English dramatic 
 writing, in which he excels through remarkable bril- 
 liancy and power of his dialogue. The same is true, 
 though less so, of George Moore. He did deliber- 
 ately ally himself with the literary movement going 
 on about Dublin and even wrote plays for the Irish 
 Literary Theater; but his aptitude and his power 
 have been in another field, and it is as master of real- 
 ism in English fiction that he is best known. 
 
 The "Celtic Revival" in its literary aspect actually 
 began with the work of a group of new poets and 
 was continued and carried forward by a new school 
 of dramatic writers. The poetry, which some critics 
 have mistakenly declared was first inspired by study 
 of the French decadents, was for a while merely 
 imitative and not very deep. But presently Mr. W. 
 B. Yeats, among others, began using with great skill 
 and effect the stories and spirit of old Irish legend 
 and folk-lore. In 1889 he published his "Wander- 
 ings of Oisin," which has been regarded as the be- 
 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 337 
 
 ginning of this Irish renaissance. There was not in 
 the work of these writers much that was directly con- 
 nected with the revival of Irish nationality, for they 
 created a realm of poetry far remote from politics 
 and the clash of peoples ; their spirit was one of aloof- 
 ness from the world in which they lived, their stories 
 and their characters were vague, shadowy, and dis- 
 tant, and were of general types rather than Irish; 
 yet they revived some of the dreaminess and mystery 
 of old Celtic romance, and their stories were some- 
 times of Medb, Conchobar, and Deirdre. 
 
 More important and later, there grew up about 
 Dublin a school of drama, which revived the old Irish 
 spirit and embodied some of what had survived into 
 the present, since its work was based partly upon an- 
 cient Irish legends and partly upon observation of the 
 peasants in west Ireland, where Celtic character and 
 speech had survived more than anywhere else. Its 
 leaders were working here in new fields, and were 
 able to give a reality and spontaneity to their work 
 which speedily made it great and important; though 
 critics believe that it has now passed the time of its 
 real originality and vigor, and becoming already arti- 
 ficial has entered upon its decline. However that be, 
 the Irish theater was one of the most striking and 
 vigorous literary movements of the beginning of the 
 twentieth century; it had great importance in Ire- 
 land, and everywhere aroused interest and attention. 
 
 Some distinguished writers contributed to this 
 work. Lady Gregory wrote several plays herself, 
 
338 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 "Kincora" about Brian's time and "The Gaol Gate" 
 of the present among others, and through her interest 
 and activity became almost the patroness of the 
 movement. Moreover, she brought back in marvel- 
 lous fashion the wonders of old Gaelic romance by 
 translations into English, such as "Cuchulain of 
 Muirthemne" and "Gods and Fighting Men." Mr. 
 Yeats did some of his best work in the dramatic 
 writing of this time: "The Countess Cathleen," 
 "The Land of Heart's Desire," "Deirdre," and, 
 above all, "Cathleen ni Houlihan," which has seemed 
 to typify Ireland subject to the conqueror. Mr. 
 George W. Russell ("A. E.") is less famous for his 
 plays than for a splendid body of .writing in prose 
 and in verse ; with Mr. Yeats and Mr. Douglas Hyde 
 he has led the Irish revival through most of its 
 course. Above all of them was J. M. Synge, one of 
 the greatest of modern dramatists who have written 
 in English. The earlier part of his life was spent 
 abroad, where he studied the literatures of the con- 
 tinent, particularly of France, but his last ten years 
 were on the Arran Islands, or the lonely west coast 
 of Ireland among the Irish peasantry, in the hush 
 and desolation of Connaught. He, like Yeats, stood 
 apart from the currents of thought about him. His 
 interest was in art, not politics; the characters and 
 the passions of his plays are less Irish than of all 
 humankind; yet, while he is using the English lan- 
 guage, he is also writing of Ireland and things Irish, 
 however aloof his writings may seem from Sinn Fein. 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 339 
 
 Most readers now know his "Riders to the Sea," "The 
 Playboy of the Western World," "The Well of the 
 Saints," and, best of them all, "Deirdre of the Sor- 
 rows." Many of the plays of this school were pro- 
 duced at the Abbey Theater in Dublin, which be- 
 came the center of the dramatic movement. 
 
 The work of these writers, especially the poems 
 and the plays, has been taken up by ardent Irish 
 nationalists, to whom it represents Ireland revived 
 and the greatness of Ireland's soul. And yet it 
 should be said that it goes much less far than many 
 others desired, often took what seemed feeble interest 
 in the great problems of Ireland's present, and some- 
 times, as in "The Playboy of the Western World," 
 seemed to belittle Irish character rather than exalt it. 
 Not so much, then, did the work of these writers lead 
 to the extreme nationalism and ambition of Sinn Fein 
 as what developed from the efforts of the Gaelic 
 League. 
 
 For a great many years the Irish language had 
 seemed approaching complete extinction, with obliv- 
 ion of old Irish character and ideals not far away. 
 But some desired greatly that this should not be, since 
 if Ireland was to keep individuality and Irish charac- 
 ter its people must retain their Irish speech, it was 
 said. In 1876 there had been founded a Society for 
 the Preservation of the Irish Language. From it 
 later came the Gaelic Union, upon which in 1893, Mr. 
 Douglas Hyde, poet, student of Irish and of the old 
 folk-lore, together with some of his friends, estab- 
 
340 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 lished the Gaelic League. It was instituted for the 
 purpose of reviving the Irish language, and with it the 
 old culture, customs, and amusements. I shall have 
 to speak elsewhere of the political development which 
 succeeded and almost obscured this movement; of 
 how in the years following groups of ardent men and 
 women, giving much thought to the glories that had 
 been, dreamed also of a new and strong Ireland in 
 the future, an Ireland very different from that which 
 Englishmen with best intention were trying to con- 
 struct, for if their way could be had, they would purge 
 the island of all traces of British influence and of all 
 connection with the Empire, and make an Ireland 
 purely Irish. It was not with such thoughts but 
 rather with the Irish language and literature that the 
 movement at first was concerned. The brilliant 
 literary and artistic revival in Dublin did not satisfy 
 the adherents of the Gaelic League, since that was an 
 Anglo-Irish movement, while they would revive, if 
 it were possible, in a modern age, Irish speech and 
 Irish letters, the old Irish system of thought and way 
 of looking at things, revive them, take what was best 
 in them, and adapt them to the time of the present. 
 They conceived that small as Ireland was she had 
 within her something of priceless worth handed down 
 from olden times, which might instruct and regenerate 
 the world. 
 
 Accordingly, under the stimulus of the League the 
 study of Irish was taken up with enthusiasm by many 
 persons in private; and the zeal with which men and 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 341 
 
 women, often after long working hours, have given 
 their remaining time to learn the old tongue is one of 
 the interesting things about contemporary Ireland. 
 Efforts had before been made to have Irish taught in 
 the schools ; they were now continued with better suc- 
 cess. Down to 1900 with few exceptions English was 
 the language of instruction, but it was not long be- 
 fore Erse was taught in many of the schools of the 
 island. As the language became more widely known, 
 there was more reading of the Irish literature which 
 had come down, and while for the most part, doubt- 
 less, the students had little more than a smattering of 
 the strange tongue, there were some in whom the old 
 writings aroused the finest and best exaltation, who 
 not only read with ardor and devotion, but began a 
 revival of Irish literature, expressing themselves and 
 their age in the Irish tongue. 
 
 There was a quiet idealist, Padraic Pearse, who 
 studied unceasingly the old language, and presently 
 founded St. Enda's School, in which he proposed to 
 carry on the education of Irish youths "as though the 
 centuries of English occupation and culture had never 
 been, and Irish Ireland were a reality." * Irish dress, 
 customs, and language were part of the life of this 
 school. Indeed, he appeared as one of the modern 
 reformers of education, when he put into effect the 
 ancient custom of fosterage, thus adapting in his 
 pedagogy something of the tribal spirit of his land. 
 
 1 Shane Leslie, The Irish Issue in Its American Aspect, p. 82, 
 
342 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 It was not long before boys came to the institution 
 from all over the country, and masters and pupils be- 
 came active in the Gaelic revival and the impulse of 
 Sinn Fein. While study of the Irish past was awak- 
 ening new spirit and leading to incalculable results, 
 the founders of the movement continued to forward 
 the study of Irish, the reading of Celtic litera- 
 ture, speaking in Erse, and the writing and act- 
 ing of plays. The attention of outsiders was at- 
 tracted. Instead of Patrick or Edmund or John 
 Irishmen now called themselves Padraic or Eamonn 
 or Sean. Travellers began to notice that the street 
 names in Dublin were not only in English but the 
 stranger signs of Irish as well — the Latin letters, to 
 be sure, but in curious form perhaps derived from 
 half-uncial script. 
 
 All of this was accompanied by a literary revival 
 far more truly Irish to those who made it than that 
 which was done in the English language. Even 
 though the "Celtic" or Anglo-Irish literary revival 
 was in the English language, much of its work was 
 Irish in spirit and based on the traditions of the coun- 
 try's past; but this was not enough for disciples of 
 the Gaelic League. They desired a revival in which 
 the writing should be in Irish, and while they often 
 used English to express the spirit within them, they 
 attempted to create a contemporary Gaelic literature 
 also. Padraic Pearse, in the days before his tragic 
 greatness, wrote much in Celtic; Dr. Hyde collected 
 the old folk-stories and published compositions of his 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 343 
 
 own; and there have been many poems and some 
 plays. A great deal of this writing has been done, 
 but except for its political bearing, it has attracted 
 little attention outside of the island. 
 
 What will come in the future is uncertain. The 
 Celtic Revival and, much more, the Gaelic League 
 supplied the bases upon which Sinn Fein was able 
 to do its work of arousing an Irish nationality so un- 
 compromising and intense that at last most of the 
 people seemed determined to dissolve all connection 
 with England. The reformers believed that the in- 
 habitants of Ireland must become Gaelic in habits of 
 thought and speech, and that English should be 
 dropped or used merely for intercourse with out- 
 siders. Certainly the champions of this school have 
 pushed forward their work with vigor and some suc- 
 cess. And yet, with respect to the language, they 
 are probably striving for what cannot be done. Most 
 probably their efforts will fail substantially in the end 
 because of two great difficulties, which are the lack of 
 uniform standard in the Irish language itself, and 
 after all the superior attraction of English. 
 
 It is not that Gaelic is a poor and rigid tongue, 
 representing only a primitive stage in the develop- 
 ment of speech, and not capable of such change as 
 would bring it into use for a new and different civil- 
 ization, far more complex and extended than that of 
 its earlier time. Actually the Celtic of Ireland is 
 very rich in vocabulary, containing in excess of 80,000 
 words, many more than some other tongues once 
 
344 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 great and still used in the present, and the structure 
 and genius of the language is such that it offers ex- 
 traordinary facilities for forming new words, like 
 German nowadays or Greek long ago. The gram- 
 matical structure is simple, and in character the 
 language is rich and expressive. The spelling and 
 pronunciation, however, are much worse and much 
 more difficult even than the English. But the great 
 difficulty is that there is no one standard of Irish at 
 present, which may be adopted by those who desire 
 to restore the language to general use. 
 
 It is well known that in earlier times in most coun- 
 tries of airy extent each locality developed its dialect 
 or language, and that uniformity of speech over any 
 large area usually followed long after political con- 
 solidation or the erecting of strong central rule. 
 There are still well recognized parts of the German 
 language, and the Italian of Venetia is considerably 
 different from that of Sicily and Naples. In Spain 
 the Catalan remains distinct from Castilian, and 
 Provencal and Breton linger on in France. In 
 France and in England, indeed, most of the dialects 
 or languages of the different parts have long since 
 largely disappeared in the presence of one national 
 language, which has come to be the speech of all edu- 
 cated people and is used for publications and books; 
 and the constant teaching in schools and the daily 
 reading of newspapers make the general acceptance 
 of the standard language easy and a matter of course. 
 But for a long time this was the case neither in Eng- 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 345 
 
 land nor France nor anywhere else, and the standard 
 language which is now used in the schools and the 
 press has been established through the operation of 
 very definite causes. In Germany the publication of 
 Luther's translation of the Bible in the midst of the 
 Reformation had most to do with fixing High Ger- 
 man as the speech of most who spoke German; and 
 nothing contributed more to beget uniformity in Eng- 
 land than the publishing of translations of the Bible, 
 especially King James's translation at the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century, since for a long while it 
 was read and re-read in numberless households until 
 it was of the very fiber of the minds and thought of 
 a great many people. In France the same result was 
 gradually brought about through the exceeding im- 
 portance and brilliancy of Paris the capital, and the 
 literature and edicts which thence went forth. Such 
 causes were not operative in Ireland. There was no 
 united nation, with a splendid capital and strong gov- 
 ernment to influence and direct its national life. Nor 
 was there ever any one book in Irish of general and 
 supreme importance to mold the language of all the 
 people. The New Testament was translated into 
 Irish in 1603 directly from the Greek, before the ap- 
 pearance of King James's version in England. But 
 the English government had no desire, apparently, to 
 see the publication of a book which might create the 
 very spirit of nationality which it desired to destroy; 
 and the Irish themselves wanted nothing to do with 
 the Reformation or religion of their oppressors, and 
 
346 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 clung to Catholicism, which, while it may not have 
 forbidden the use of the Bible generally by the people, 
 has usually not encouraged it. The prose of Keating 
 in the seventeenth century did become a standard, 
 but such writing could not, in the nature of things, 
 have such profound and wide-spread influence as the 
 Bible. Accordingly, no one form of Irish superseded 
 the others, and at present there are three well-recog- 
 nized dialects in the island. Irishmen can under- 
 stand all of them, but there are differences. And so, 
 when attempt is made to revive the Gaelic speech, the 
 advocates of the scheme have to choose one from out 
 of the three, where no one has undoubted title to be 
 taken. 
 
 I think, however, that the greatest of all the diffi- 
 culties is the mere presence and position of English. 
 Britain is close at hand with ten times the number of 
 inhabitants, and the language of these people is now 
 the language of most of the people of Ireland. With 
 the people of Britain a great part of the business of 
 Ireland is done, and will continue to be done. Even 
 if Gaelic had come down to all the inhabitants of Ire- 
 land without break through a long and unbroken suc- 
 cession of Irish-speaking ancestors, a great many 
 Irishmen nowadays would find it advantageous or 
 necessary to know English. Moreover, the attractive 
 and assimilative power of English is very great: 
 Welsh continues to flourish vigorously right beside it, 
 but only one-seventh of the people of Wales do not 
 
IRISH LANGUAGE 347 
 
 understand English, and more than half of them do 
 not use the Welsh tongue; in the Highlands of Scot- 
 land few of the people now do not understand Eng- 
 lish; and in the Isle of Man none at all. As to Ire- 
 land, the English language has steadily encroached 
 upon the Gaelic, though the British government 
 makes no deliberate effort to bring this about. In 
 Posen the utmost efforts of the German authorities 
 could not drive out Polish, but in Ireland, where the 
 government has supported instruction in Gaelic in 
 the schools, the old language has with difficulty held 
 its own. The average person cannot very conven- 
 iently learn two languages, and while sentiment and 
 nationalist feeling will cause many a Welshman or 
 inhabitant of north Scotland to cling to the Celtic 
 speech of his fathers, while he learns the English 
 which it is necessary for him to use, it will probably 
 be much less easy to get Irishmen who use English 
 to learn a strange and difficult tongue because of na- 
 tional sentiment and feeling. Hostility to England 
 and the enthusiasm of recent years have caused great 
 numbers of people to begin the study of Celtic, but 
 it is said that very few of them have arrived at any 
 proficiency in the study. 
 
 Ireland has often failed to fulfill predictions made 
 about her, and the elements of the problem are in- 
 calculable; but granted that the attempted revival of 
 Gaelic there has met with considerable success, and 
 that the spirit of the Gaelic Revival has wrought im- 
 
348 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 mense changes and may bring about alterations still 
 more profound, it is none the less my opinion that 
 English will continue for a long time to be used by 
 most of the inhabitants of the country. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 SINN FEIN 
 
 Sinn Fein is definitely the policy of all small nationalities 
 . . . Sooner or later they will come to terms with Ulster. 
 Already they have destroyed the power of the Irish party, 
 and in the future they promise to check if not annul the 
 political power of the priest. . . . Sinn Fein is a fever, 
 against which there is no appeal. 
 
 Shane Leslie, The Irish Issue in Its American 
 
 Aspect, pp. 73, 80. 
 
 WHEN in the terrible days at the end of July, 
 1914, England, unprepared for war and not 
 desiring it, drifted toward the great gulf, when the 
 world seemed dark, and the wings of the angel of 
 death could almost be heard, all factions of English- 
 men hushed their political disputes, and stood with 
 face towards the foe. Even with respect to the Irish 
 question, bitterness seemed for the moment forgot; 
 Nationalists and Covenanters of Ulster, who had 
 lacked but little of beginning civil war to decide the 
 question of Home Rule, now offered themselves to 
 Britain for service abroad. The old suspicion, the 
 violent passion, the strange, fratricidal wrath, were 
 put aside for a moment in the rush of patriotism and 
 generous emotion. The Home Rule Bill soon be- 
 came a law ; but in behalf of Ulster, since it was real- 
 
 349 
 
350 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ized that circumstances outside the bounds of the Irish 
 question had ended the discussion for a time, the 
 Home Rule Act was suspended for the period of the 
 duration of the war. The Unionists were not satis- 
 fled but they acquiesced, while Mr. Redmond, with 
 warm and generous loyalty, which afterwards brought 
 him reproach, but which will be remembered to his 
 honor for a great while hereafter, pledged the serv- 
 ices of Irishmen for the Empire in the struggle just 
 begun. 
 
 For a while Irish matters were still. All through 
 the British Isles men and women were breathless be- 
 fore the mighty and horrible events unfolding with 
 such awful swiftness. The hour of the Empire had 
 come : she had entered on the greatest of all her wars. 
 Like an avalanche the German armies rushed through 
 Belgium, over France, straight upon Paris, and 
 though almost by a miracle they were turned aside 
 in the memorable weeks of September, people knew 
 there was confronting them a struggle such as never 
 before. Britain was unready, and it was a question 
 whether she could be ready in time. Every resource 
 went to preparing for a contest in which almost every- 
 thing but the navy had to be built up from the be- 
 ginning. Soldiers and sailors must volunteer in in- 
 credible numbers; the industrial organization must be 
 used to make England a gigantic arsenal for her al- 
 lies; there was an infinitude of things to be done im- 
 mediately, with greatest difficulty. So it was that 
 domestic issues, like woman's suffrage, social read- 
 
SINN FEIN 351 
 
 justment, and the Irish question, were not only put 
 aside for the time, but by most people nearly forgot- 
 ten. It was evident that reform had to be postponed 
 while the English-speaking peoples fought for their 
 existence. 
 
 Accordingly, of the Irish question little was heard 
 for more than a year after the beginning of the war. 
 The fine attitude of the leaders of the Irish Nation- 
 alist Party was known, it was believed that Irishmen 
 from the south and from the north were volunteering, 
 and so far as could be judged the heart of Ireland 
 appeared to be with the Allies. But we know now 
 that many things lay hidden. Over Ireland the veil 
 of the censor was thrown. It seemed that this was 
 as it must be, from the universal treachery and in- 
 trigue of the Germans. Yet, after a while it was 
 rumored more and more in the United States that 
 Irish conditions were disquieting, that Irishmen were 
 taking small part in the war, and that England was 
 forced to be on unceasing guard. But the rush of 
 events followed so swiftly that little thought was given 
 to the matter, until suddenly came what at first 
 seemed the inexplicable news, that revolt had broken 
 out in Dublin, that rebels had sought help from the 
 Germans, and set up an Irish republic. Then once 
 more the Irish question came back into the center of 
 interest, and as the thing was more studied, it was 
 seen that these startling new events had arisen be- 
 cause in recent years there had been growing up, 
 for the most part unknown to people everywhere else, 
 
352 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 a new Ireland with aspirations and ideals very dif- 
 ferent from those of the dominant Nationalist Party. 
 A new, strong, independent thing had arisen, silently 
 spreading its influence and power, partly despised 
 and partly ignored, but soon to be the most important 
 element in Irish life. This was Sinn Fein. 
 
 Sinn Fein means "ourselves" or "ourselves alone." 
 Its purpose was Ireland for the Irish, in spirit, in 
 politics, in every aspect of life. Now that we look 
 back upon it with better understanding it is seen to 
 be merely one of the instances of national awakening 
 which characterized the last century or more. In 
 France this spirit had saved the French Revolution 
 and carried it over half Europe against a world in 
 arms; there had been much of it, sometimes uncouth 
 and unpleasing, as the American people stretched 
 over a continent with eyes on the destiny before them; 
 far in the East it created the new Japan ; it made Rus- 
 sians believe in a grand destiny to come; silently it 
 fashioned the Germany which threatened and horri- 
 fied the world ; it urged forward the Servians to seem- 
 ing destruction. It had worked not only amidst great 
 nations; it had invigorated small ones, and inspired 
 provinces and subject peoples to hope for a day of 
 their own. Long ago it had helped to free Belgium 
 from Holland, and more recently Norway from 
 Sweden. It has inspired the Poles, it has inspired 
 the Czechs with hopes that have just been fulfilled. 
 In the modern Irish period it has gradually been more 
 potent, though often lost for a while. It had reap- 
 
SINN FEIN 353 
 
 peared distinctly with the Young Ireland movement 
 after 1840; now it was resurrected once more by the 
 Irish revival and Sinn Fein. Everywhere the devel- 
 opment of nationalism has been characterized by com- 
 mon features: the consciousness of individuality, 
 strong desire on the part of the people to be them- 
 selves and develop themselves in their own way, to 
 have their own character, their own customs, their 
 own language, their own literature, their own laws; 
 and usually it has been accompanied by strong belief 
 in superiority over other peoples and by belief that a 
 wonderful and glorious future lay ahead. Sinn Fein 
 was the renaissance of Irish nationalism which began 
 in the early years of the twentieth century, which at 
 its worst was fantastic and impractical, at its best vig- 
 orous, lofty, and pure. 
 
 Sinn Fein differed very greatly from the Irish Na- 
 tionalist movement which aimed at Home Rule. The 
 Nationalists under John Redmond were like the asso- 
 ciates of Isaac Butt: they would compromise, and ac- 
 cept of the existing situation that which it seemed 
 wise to take. Ireland was a part of the British Em- 
 pire ; so they would let it remain. It was closely con- 
 nected with Great Britain; they believed that was as 
 it must be. Irish character and custom were often 
 different from the British, but they recognized the 
 essential fact that most people in Ireland spoke the 
 language used over the Channel, and they felt them- 
 selves really to be members of one community in the 
 British Isles. What they wanted was local autonomy, 
 
354 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 a responsible Irish government, a government depend- 
 ent upon Irish consent, and in purely Irish matters 
 acting first in the best interests of Ireland. They 
 thought that there was nothing unreasonable in this 
 demand, but something which the English would wish 
 to concede when once they understood the situation. 
 With so much, they declared, they would be content. 
 They intended that a self-governing Ireland should 
 be a loyal partner of England, and a part of the Brit- 
 ish Empire. 
 
 Very different were the ideas of the followers of 
 Sinn Fein. They desired Ireland to be altogether 
 free, and if their way could be had, they would purge 
 the island of all traces of British influence and end all 
 connection with the Empire. Ireland should not only 
 be free, but purely Irish. They would revive the old 
 glories, which across departed centuries they looked 
 back on so fondly, in reconstructing the old character 
 and civilization of Erin. Sinn Fein was at first 
 merely an aspect of the Irish revival, but soon it be- 
 came the great new force in the politics of the island. 
 
 Much of the work undertaken by its adherents was 
 excellent, especially the cultivation of Gaelic litera- 
 ture and speech, tending as it did to revive the best 
 of the past and strengthen Irish character in the pres- 
 ent. But after a while it attracted unfavorable at- 
 tention as the more ardent and extreme carried their 
 activities into the political field, and began to work 
 more openly for the establishment of an independent 
 Ireland. So far as such things can be said to start at 
 
SINN FEIN 355 
 
 any particular time, the definite beginning may be put 
 at about 1905. Two years before this a small group 
 of extremists had founded the Irish National Coun- 
 cil at Dublin. It was a center of disloyalty to Eng- 
 land, and bitterly opposed the hospitable reception 
 of King Edward VII, who visited Ireland at that 
 time. Its influence as a separate organization soon 
 declined, and it was merged in the Sinn Fein move- 
 ment, but in Sinn Fein it was presently one of the 
 guiding forces. Sinn Fein was soon connected also 
 with the Irish Republican Brotherhood, another so- 
 ciety disloyal to the British government. Some of 
 the partisans of Sinn Fein advocated adoption of the 
 methods of passive resistance which had once helped 
 the Hungarians to obtain their desires. They would 
 withdraw from the parliamentary activities of the Na- 
 tionalists, who were making such slow progress in 
 getting Home Rule as to disappoint the more ardent 
 and impatient, take no part in British politics, have 
 nothing to do with the British government, boycott 
 British goods, and, if possible, establish an informal 
 Irish assembly supported by public opinion, and 
 withdraw litigation from established Irish courts to 
 have the cases settled informally by Irishmen them- 
 selves. For the most part if the movement attracted 
 attention in Great Britain, it was regarded as only 
 one of the many fantastic things which arise in the 
 politics of a great domain. But soon the leaders, 
 who had generally been political idealists so far as 
 they were concerned with politics, planning to regain 
 
356 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the independence of Ireland through passive resist- 
 ance or by other means not clearly conceived, adopted 
 active and troublesome policies or ceased to guide the 
 course of Sinn Fein, and more and more the move- 
 ment was directed by violent extremists. They be- 
 gan to act vigorously in discouraging enlistments in 
 the British army, and fomenting what seemed to the 
 authorities disloyalty and sedition. Meanwhile con- 
 nections had been established with another revolu- 
 tionary society, the Clan-na-Gael, in America. 
 
 By 1907 adherents of Sinn Fein spoke of the possi- 
 bility of Irish independence through rebellion, of the 
 imminence of war between Germany and England, 
 and the necessity of being ready if this desirable con- 
 flict came to pass. By this time Sinn Fein, formerly 
 looked upon as something indefinite, a movement or 
 a spirit actuating men, was regarded by the authori- 
 ties, so far as they had correct information concern- 
 ing it, as a dangerous revolutionary society. Steadily 
 the scope of its work was extended. It had arisen 
 in Dublin, but in 1907 and 1908 it established nearly 
 a hundred branches in various parts of the country. 
 It now began to try for control of some of the political 
 machinery of the island, but as yet it failed com- 
 pletely in contest with the Nationalist Party. In 
 1908 Sinn Fein leaders declared that by natural and 
 constitutional right Ireland was a sovereign state. 
 In the next year there was a vigorous anti-recruiting 
 campaign, and Irishmen who joined the army, navy, 
 or Royal Irish Constabulary were stigmatized as 
 
SINN FEIN 357 
 
 traitors to their people. Year by year Sinn Feiners 
 went further. They attempted to mar the reception 
 of George V in Ireland, as their predecessors had 
 acted during the visit of his father. In 1910 the an- 
 nual congress in Dublin declared in favor of with- 
 drawing Irish representatives from the parliament of 
 the United Kingdom, improving the organization of 
 Sinn Feiners throughout the country, and forming 
 vigilance committees to urge on the anti-recruiting 
 campaign. Violent and extreme speeches were made, 
 and a great many leaflets and posters distributed to 
 deter all enlistment. 
 
 As the great struggle began for Home Rule, they 
 stood coldly aloof from the work being done by the 
 Nationalist Party, and would have nothing to do with 
 such partial fulfilment of their aspirations as a grant 
 merely of self-government in Irish affairs. They 
 wanted such entire independence that not a vestige of 
 British rule would be left in Ireland. But in spite 
 of all this activity they did not as yet attract much 
 attention from the government, used as it was to deal- 
 ing with disaffection in Ireland but imbued now with 
 generous and conciliatory feeling. There could be 
 no doubt that a new and troublesome organization was 
 carrying on a virulent campaign, annoying and often 
 thoroughly disloyal, but it was thought to be the work 
 of a few ardent spirits more troublesome than im- 
 portant, who had little influence with most of the 
 Irish people. Certainly the voters continued to elect 
 Nationalist representatives pledged to work for Home 
 
358 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Rule; when Sinn Feiners spoke they seemed not to 
 reach many people; when they contested parliamen- 
 tary districts they could not win a single election. It 
 was true that many respectable people were joining 
 the movement, but it was the non-political aspects of 
 the cause which seemed to attract them most, those 
 teachings which advocated social and industrial im- 
 provement, and also the fresh and vigorous intellec- 
 tual parts of it. In accordance with the prevailing 
 British policy of tolerance, and the belief that the dis- 
 contented and visionary should be allowed free ex- 
 pression so long as they did no actual harm, the Sinn 
 Fein movement was rather neglected than disturbed 
 by officials. Its leaders were thought to be either 
 idealists and visionaries or noisy extremists, and most 
 of its followers harmless. It seemed to have little in- 
 fluence and as yet no actual power. 
 
 But the leaders of Sinn Fein glowed with the ardor 
 of a cause which seemed sacred to them. They left 
 nothing undone for its advancement and the winning 
 of converts. Always the dominant idea was that of 
 the originators of the thing, that there should be an 
 Irish Ireland with as little of English spirit and influ- 
 ence as possible. While most Irishmen looked for- 
 ward more and more confidently to the getting of 
 Home Rule, the adherents of Sinn Fein awaited it in 
 sullen disgust, and perhaps would have been better 
 pleased had the Home Rule scheme failed completely ; 
 for to them it could be nothing more than a half -meas- 
 ure at best, and actually a dangerous thing, inasmuch 
 
SINN FEIN 359 
 
 as Irishmen might be beguiled into contentment with 
 connection with England and forget the bright ideal 
 of Sinn Fein, which was independence entire and com- 
 plete. Likewise the operation of the laws for the 
 purchase of land gave them little satisfaction and in- 
 spired no gratitude at all. They were unwilling that 
 Irishmen should not rely entirely on themselves, and 
 thought it an evil thing for them to take assistance 
 from the British government, which anyhow, they 
 said, was only selling back in a grudging way that 
 which once had been stolen. Constantly Sinn Feiners 
 drew themselves farther and farther away from all 
 British activity and influence. Constantly their de- 
 fiance became uglier, more bitter, and more open. 
 They said and published insulting and treasonable 
 things which never would they have dared to utter 
 in the Germany, to which they were beginning to look 
 for assistance, things which only a strong govern- 
 ment could afford to overlook, and only a very liberal 
 one would be willing to tolerate. Afterwards, in- 
 deed, there were some who thought that the leniency 
 f not the supineness of the British government had not 
 a little to do in bringing about the catastrophe which 
 followed. Had it been stronger and more vigorous 
 in repression, men said, its enemies would not have 
 presumed to go to the lengths they did. 
 
 Some idea of the character of Sinn Fein and its 
 work at this time can be gained from a study of one 
 of its most prominent and vigorous leaders, who had 
 been Constance Gore-Booth, and was now the 
 
360 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Countess de Markievicz. Her antecedents were much 
 like those of Parnell. She was the daughter of one 
 of the greatest land-owners in the west of Ireland, 
 English by birth, Protestant in religion. She was 
 connected with many aristocratic English families. 
 Strong, vigorous, and filled to overflowing with en- 
 ergy, she studied art in Paris, married a Polish 
 Count, gradually allied herself with new movements 
 and democratic tendencies, and returning to Dublin 
 made her house one of the principal centers of Sinn 
 Fein and the extreme Irish movement. Dublin was 
 at this time a place of extraordinary intellectual ac- 
 tivity, and of this her residence became one of the 
 principal seats. "It is hard now to think of that 
 hospitable house in Leinster Road with all the life 
 gone out of it," wrote one who had known her there. 
 "Every one coming to Dublin who was interested in 
 plays, painting, the Gaelic language, suffrage, labor, 
 or Irish Nationalism, visited there. The Countess 
 Markievicz kept 'open house' not only for her friends, 
 but for her friends' friends." * The place was full of 
 books, it was often the scene of amateur dramatic 
 performances, it was sometimes the hiding place of 
 those whose activities had attracted the attention of 
 the law, and from it the hungry laborers were fed 
 during the strike of the Transport Workers. 
 
 In 1909 Countess Markievicz did what she regarded 
 as her most important work. In England, under the 
 
 i Margaret Skinnider, Doing My Bit for Ireland (New York, 1917), 
 p. 10, 
 
SINN FEIN 361 
 
 increasing menace of German power, the Boy Scout 
 movement had begun and attained large proportions. 
 The English leaders wished to establish a similar or- 
 ganization in Ireland. Padraic Pearse was asked to 
 assist, but declined since he did not wish to do anything 
 which might help to make closer the ties between 
 the two peoples. Then Countess Markievicz con- 
 ceived the idea of forming an Irish national boys' or- 
 ganization. She had little encouragement from her 
 associates at first, for they thought the training and 
 arming of boys twelve or thirteen years old a useless 
 labor, but her reply was: "In ten years these boys 
 will be men." 2 In all respects did this organization 
 partake of the spirit of Sinn Fein and the Irish re- 
 vival: the training was modelled upon that of the 
 ancient Irish system; the boys learned the methods 
 of the old Irish champions ; and they had the name of 
 the ancient heroic Irish military brotherhood, Fianna. 
 Under the tuition of the Countess and her friends 
 these boys imbibed the fiercest and most extreme feel- 
 ing of intense nationality. Their oath of loyalty 
 early attracted the attention of foes of Home Rule, 
 who believed that Irishmen would not be faithful to 
 the Empire, if opportunity came to break the tie al- 
 together: "I promise to work for the Independence 
 of Ireland, never to join England's armed forces, and 
 to obey my superior officers," was their declaration. 3 
 
 2 The Irish Rebellion of 1916 and Its Martyrs: Erin's Tragic Easter, 
 edited by Maurice Joy (New York, 1916), p. 348. 
 
 3 Quoted in leaflet: Irish Loyalty (?) under Home Ride (Ulster 
 Unionist Council). 
 
362 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 These youths, however noble their ideas may have 
 been, acted and were encouraged to act with all the 
 insolence and uncompromising hostility which eager, 
 prejudiced youth is wont to display. "We went out," 
 wrote one who shared their spirit and was proud of it, 
 "joined the other Fianna, and walked about the 
 streets whistling rebel tunes. Whenever we passed 
 a British soldier we made him take to the gutter, tell- 
 ing him the streets of Dublin were no place 'for the 
 likes of him.' " 4 They attacked recruiting-booths, 
 and merrily sang the song which Madam had com- 
 posed, and which ended : 
 
 From a Gael with a gun the Briton will run ! 
 And we'll dance at the wake of the Empire, boys ! 5 
 
 In all this there was the strange mixture of mean 
 pettiness and exalted idealism in which fanatic ardor 
 rejoices when it is consecrated singly to some cause. 
 As the suffragettes would poison dogs and disfigure 
 works of art, and yet willingly have given their lives 
 for the sake of some betterment for womankind and 
 the human race, so Sinn Fein and the Fianna boys 
 mingled petty and noble things in one fierce opposi- 
 tion to that which they believed must .go down: they 
 would sing insulting songs and pick quarrels with 
 soldiers, but sacrifice themselves joyfully, as they did 
 somewhat later, for what they thought was the best 
 interest of their country. Often has this been before, 
 
 4Skinnider, pp. 22, 23. 
 b Skinnider, p. 24. 
 
SINN FEIN 363 
 
 and often will be again, no doubt, whenever fanatic 
 reformers see little and see narrowly, but see with 
 terrible intensity and depth. 
 
 Some of it all must have seemed very heartless ; and 
 Englishmen, doubtless, when they knew about it, 
 could scarce have understood what it meant. In 
 those last ominous years when Britain lay more and 
 more under the nearing shadow of conflict with Ger- 
 many, and many a man and woman faced the future 
 with strange and pathetic uncertainty, that war play, 
 An Englishman s Home, was brought over from Eng- 
 land into Ireland. The play is crude, but terrible and 
 poignant enough for those who realize its meaning. 
 The Countess Markievicz took the Fianna boys to see 
 it on the opening night. They had pit and gallery, 
 while British officers and their wives filled most of the 
 rest of the theater. After a while came that part of 
 the play where the German invaders appear on tlie 
 stage. Then the Fianna, in their distinctive cos- 
 tume, rose and sang in German "The Watch on the 
 Rhine." When an English officer and others stood 
 up and sang "God Save the King," they were pelted 
 with eggs and vegetables, so that the performance was 
 stopped. Thus ended the Dublin run of the piece, 
 writes Margaret Skinnider, who relates the incident 
 with approval, and who could still in 1916 think it a 
 very fine thing. After the war began the Fianna 
 boys went about Dublin breaking up recruiting meet- 
 ings, routing the speakers, and upsetting the plat- 
 forms : she declares that while this sounds like rowdy- 
 
364 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ism — and some will agree that it does — "it is only by 
 such tests of courage and strength that the youth of a 
 dominated race can acquire the self-confidence needed 
 later for the real struggle." 6 They were encouraged 
 to fight with the English Boy Scouts and bring home 
 hats and poles as trophies; and for a while the police 
 were disturbed to see Fianna boys shooting in prac- 
 tice at targets made like English soldiers. 
 
 Meanwhile a stronger weapon was being prepared: 
 in the early part of 1913 the National Council of Sinn 
 Fein proclaimed it to be the duty of every member to 
 know well the use of arms. The Ulster Volunteers 
 were already drilling in the north to resist Home Rule 
 if it came; towards the end of the year the National 
 Volunteers were formed in the middle and southern 
 parts of the island to support it. At once the ex- 
 tremists, Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Broth- 
 erhood, took an active part in organizing this move- 
 ment, with a view, it was believed, to getting control 
 of it and using it as a weapon to carry out their plans, 
 Sir Roger Casement being one of the foremost leaders 
 in doing this. Progress of the National Volunteer 
 movement was not great at the start, for most Irish- 
 men were following the constitutional methods of 
 Redmond and his associates ; but when it was believed, 
 as it was early in 1914, that such an organization fur- 
 nished the only means of successfully opposing the 
 Ulster Volunteers, it grew very rapidly, and the Na- 
 tionalist parliamentary party, which at first had 
 
 « Skinnider, p. 23. 
 
SINN FEIN 365 
 
 viewed it askance, now gave it recognition, and sought 
 also to obtain the control. By the end of July, when 
 England was on the verge of war, it had 160,000 mem- 
 bers, and was rapidly getting on a sound military 
 basis. On the eve of war Mr. Redmond declared that 
 Ireland would be defended from invasion by her sons, 
 and that armed Catholics of the south would be glad 
 to join hands for that purpose with the armed Prot- 
 estants of the north. Redmond's loyalty to England 
 and his efforts soon after to encourage enlistments in 
 the forces of the Empire angered the extremists who 
 had no intention of helping England, and who de- 
 clared that the Volunteers had been brought into ex- 
 istence to fight for Ireland alone. They themselves 
 were doing all they could to interfere with recruiting 
 for Great Britain. Hence it was not long before 
 there was a split in the organization. The Sinn Fein- 
 ers fell off, and organized their adherents as the Irish 
 Volunteers, while the main body from which they had 
 seceded was known as the Irish National Volunteers. 
 In the months which followed, the larger force 
 dwindled away, the extremists joining Sinn Fein, its 
 most loyal members enlisting to serve in the war. The 
 Sinn Fein leaders redoubled their exertions. Some 
 of them, misled by their narrow patriotism or played 
 upon by German agents, began to believe that the 
 hoped-for day was at hand. They had preached for 
 some years that the Empire would fall before Ger- 
 many, and that then Ireland's glory would revive. So 
 now Sir Roger Casement and others eagerly organ- 
 
366 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ized and drilled the Irish Volunteers, increasing their 
 efficiency and, as Irishmen became more discontented, 
 steadily adding to their numbers. 
 
 Such was Sinn Fein. There was something about 
 it that was lovable and noble, beautiful and strong. 
 Wherever there is intensity and sincerity, there is ever 
 some nobility and strength; but the spirit which sup- 
 ports them is closely allied with intolerance and big- 
 oted hardness. Already Sinn Fein had brought some 
 benefit to Ireland : it was teaching the new generation 
 to love the best of whatever was good in the past, and 
 it was making strong and self-reliant the men and 
 women of the country. The intensity and reality of 
 what it contained had attracted, as is always the case, 
 some of the strongest and brightest minds of its time. 
 There was excellent writing, much revival of old Irish 
 manners and speech, some reform in education, and a 
 strong and invigorating spiritual stimulus. And yet, 
 there was not much that was really constructive about 
 it, nor was there much of the practical good sense 
 which takes things as they are and does the best that 
 is to be done with them. The bulk of the Irish people 
 still followed the constitutional party which was striv- 
 ing for Home Rule, willing to make compromise with 
 Britain, and willing to live in accord with her, as 
 seemed prescribed now in the mere fate of things. 
 Sinn Feiners looked little at the present, but much 
 at the past long departed, which they strove to revive 
 in the excellence and beauty which scholars and 
 dreamers thought it had had, and much at an ideal 
 
SINN FEIN 367 
 
 future which was fondly believed to be not far away. 
 Otherwise most of their energy was given to oppos- 
 ing and despising everything British. Ireland must 
 be altogether Irish; Britain was exceedingly hateful. 
 If Ireland could be free, nothing else mattered. 
 
 What judgment shall be given upon them? Cer- 
 tainly they were not wicked or depraved; but were 
 they not sometimes childlike and foolish, seeing only 
 a little of the things in this world, and seeing that little 
 with such terrible ardor that brain and heart were on 
 fire? So, as England stood beside Belgium and 
 France, as she stood forth to defend all of her heri- 
 tage and all that that heritage means to the world, 
 she was seen by Sinn Fein only as a greedy robber 
 waiting again for the spoil. And as the Germans 
 went through Belgium and Poland with starvation and 
 fire, with torment and rape, as spies filled the earth, 
 as treaties were torn up, as ships were sunk with their 
 crews, as the world was in agony, and civilization and 
 humanity seemed to many to be tottering to their fall, 
 Germany appeared to these Irishmen like some 
 knightly champion who might strike down their tyrant 
 and get them their freedom. They hated England 
 so much as to like every one of her foes, and would 
 gladly take such help as any of her f oemen could give. 
 How little did they understand the awful stake, and 
 the mighty issue for the world! What was Irish in- 
 dependence that it should be preferred to the freedom 
 of all peoples? How could Sinn Fein have under- 
 stood Germany? Never, except for selfish and tern- 
 
368 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 porary reason, would she have tolerated them or any 
 of their ways ; they had only to look at Lorraine and 
 Schleswig and Prussian Poland. And little did they 
 know modern England. Englishmen understood 
 them not much as yet, but when a year later their up- 
 rising and defeat had got them attention, an English- 
 man could say of them in right good will: "There is 
 room for Sinn Fein in the Commonwealth, room 
 enough and to spare." 7 
 
 i Barker, Ireland in the Last Fifty Years, p. 108. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE EASTER REBELLION 
 
 In the event of England finding herself engaged in a serious 
 war, the regular garrison in this country would be reduced 
 to about 6,000 fighting men. . . . Ireland can be freed by 
 force of arms, that is the fact which ever must be borne in 
 mind. . . . 
 
 Irish Freedom, September, 1912, quoted in leaflet: 
 Plain Facts about Home Rule. 
 In the name of God and of the dead generations from 
 which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland 
 through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes 
 for her freedom. 
 
 Poblacht Na H Eireann: Proclamation 
 of the Irish Republic. 
 
 AS the winter of 1915-1916 waned into spring, 
 people of the Allied countries, who had lived 
 through a terrible time, entered on gray and dreary 
 days with little hope except in the future. The enor- 
 mous power of Germany on land, her thorough prep- 
 aration, her sudden and treacherous stroke, her ruth- 
 less determination to win at all cost of humanity or 
 honor, had given undeniable advantage, which many 
 persons believed could not be overcome. It was a ter- 
 rible thing to have to believe that so much wickedness 
 and cruelty could triumph: to many it seemed that 
 such a triumph would set the seal upon evil and dis- 
 
 369 
 
370 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 honor, so that there could be no more trust in right- 
 eousness, no faith in nations or men. For Germany 
 the tide had run strong: her armies had been stayed in 
 the first rush on Paris, but they were not far off, and 
 the Allies could not drive them out of their lines; in 
 the east the attack at the Dardanelles had ended in 
 failure splendid but complete; meanwhile the power 
 of Russia had been, as we know now, almost entirely 
 broken; Servia had been crushed, Middle Europe 
 achieved; on the sea England's power was being 
 sapped by submarine destruction; the weight of war 
 and its sacrifices were crushing England and France. 
 Germany had won, if things remained as they were; 
 and there was good reason for believing that she could 
 not be torn from her conquests. In this heart-break- 
 ing time, when only courage and necessity held back 
 despair, suddenly came news that Ireland had risen 
 behind England's back, that during Easter week Dub- 
 lin and other places were in the throes of a fierce in- 
 surrection to establish an Irish Republic. 
 
 "A declaration of war by any foreign power against 
 the British nation is a signal for faction and rebellion 
 in Ireland," said the Earl of Clare in 1800 in a speech 
 on the proposed Act of Union. "The received 
 maxim is, not to forego the opportunity of foreign 
 war to press forward Irish claims." Ireland, he said, 
 in time of danger was like a millstone hung about the 
 neck of Great Britain. 1 Certainly this had been true 
 
 i The Speech of the Right Honourable John, Earl of Ckire Lord 
 
 rX 9 ui Tl e !l 0r ° f Ireland > in the House of Lords of Ireland, etc. 
 (Dublin, 1800), republished by the Union Defence League, p 19 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 371 
 
 in the sadder days of the past, but one had hoped 
 that the better relations and the wiser conduct of Eng- 
 land in the generation preceding the war would at 
 last have made Irishmen different. There can be no 
 doubt that most of the Irish people favored the cause 
 of the Entente, were loyal to the British Empire, and 
 could be trusted as things were. A writer considered 
 that the population might be reckoned as one-sixth 
 ultra-British and anti-Irish, one-sixth extreme Irish 
 and anti-British, and the other two-thirds ready for 
 friendship with Great Britain. However this be, 
 there was certainly not more than a small minority 
 at the beginning of 1916 who desired any disturb- 
 ance or who were ready to embarrass Great Britain. 
 Home Rule had not gone into effect, and Irish en- 
 listments were scanty, but while there was some dis- 
 pleasure, most of the people seemed to realize that 
 here was an awful crisis, that smaller matters must be 
 postponed while greater ones were disposed of. 
 
 This was not so with the extremists, the Irish Re- 
 publican Brotherhood, the syndicalist labor organiza- 
 tion, and above all with Sinn Fein. To them the im- 
 mediate realization of their own particular aims was 
 of more importance than anything else, and they 
 would bring it about at whatever cost to anything 
 else; or perhaps it would be truer to say that they 
 considered other things scarcely at all. Certainly few 
 Irishmen at this time sympathized with Germany ; yet 
 it is undoubtedly true, if we may judge by their words, 
 that the adherents of Sinn Fein, in their intense in- 
 
372 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 dignation and passionate impatience, had hoped for 
 defeat of England by Germany, and would welcome 
 German assistance for themselves. 
 
 In 1909 a radical newspaper, working against re- 
 cruiting, said: "If you prevent 500 men from enlist- 
 ing you do nearly as good work as if you shot 500 men 
 on the field of battle, and also you are making the 
 path smoother for the approaching conquest of Eng- 
 land by Germany." 2 Four years later a poster was 
 widely placarded in Ireland: 
 
 The English live in terror of Germany. War between 
 England and Germany is at hand. England's cowardly and 
 degenerate population won't make soldiers : not so the Ger- 
 mans. They are trained and ready. What will England 
 do? She'll get Irish Fools to join her Army and Navy, send 
 them to fight and die for her Empire. Irish traitors have 
 ever been the backbone of her Army and Navy. . . . Stand 
 aside and have your revenge. Without Ireland's help Eng- 
 land will go down before Germany as she would have gone 
 down before the Boers had not the Irish fought her battle 
 in South Africa. 3 
 
 It was recalled in England now that Bernhardi, 
 whose notorious book had just attracted so much at- 
 tention, said that it was interesting to know that if 
 ever war came with England, Germany would have 
 allies in Ireland, who would constitute a grave anx- 
 iety for England, and perhaps tie fast a portion of 
 her troops. 4 After the beginning of the war, accord- 
 
 2 Kilkenny People, December 4, 1D09. 
 
 s Leaflet: Britons Beware! (Union Defence League). 
 
 i London Times, September 19, 1913, 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 373 
 
 ing to a Sinn Fein writer, an anti-recruiting song of 
 the Countess Markievicz was sung everywhere: 
 
 For the Germans are going to win, me boys, 
 And Ireland will have to butt in, me boys. . . . 5 
 
 And when the rising had been put down, Irishmen 
 in the internment camp at Fron-goch in Wales used 
 to sing a song in which every verse ended with the 
 line: "Sinn Feiners, Pro-Germans, alive, alive O!" 6 
 
 In March, 1916, the London Times called attention 
 to the growth of the Sinn Fein movement in Ireland, 
 and the disaffection which seemed to increase. The 
 government, it said, was taking no measures to en- 
 sure safety. Afterwards, when too late, the govern- 
 ment of Ireland was sharply criticized for doing noth- 
 ing, though repeated warnings had been given. The 
 principal cause of the rebellion, said the Report of the 
 Royal Commission which investigated it, was that 
 lawlessness had been allowed to grow up unchecked, 
 and that for some years past Ireland had been admin- 
 istered on the principle that it was more expedient to 
 leave law in abeyance, if collision with any faction of 
 the Irish people could thereby be avoided. This was 
 the policy of conciliation which the government had 
 been steadily employing. It is difficult to judge. 
 Perhaps it was mistaken weakness, for it did not win 
 and could not frighten the most radical. Perhaps it 
 was wisdom, for it seems to have done well with most 
 
 s Skinnider, p. 224, 
 P Ibid., p. 250, 
 
374 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 of the Irish people. But it should always he remem- 
 bered that competent observers thought that one cause 
 of England's failure in Ireland in 1916 was this too 
 great gentleness and unwillingness to offend any- 
 body. It should be remembered particularly because 
 there have been so many statements to the effect that 
 England made a mistake characteristic of harsh and 
 dull-witted people, when she punished the leaders of 
 the insurrection by imprisonment and death. She 
 might better have afforded, say these critics, to have 
 let them go free. Perhaps that is true also: it is very 
 difficult to know; but at all events she was despised 
 and condemned by Sinn Feiners when to others she 
 seemed lenient and weak. All the time Sinn Fein 
 leaders redoubled their activities, drilled their follow- 
 ers, filling their speeches and papers with seditious 
 utterances and disloyal boasts. But the British peo- 
 ple were facing Germany, absorbed in the giant strug- 
 gle. They stood with back to Ireland, and gave little 
 heed, it would seem, to things in the other island. 
 
 On the night of April 20 a German auxiliary 
 cruiser, disguised as a merchant ship, accompanied by 
 a submarine, attempted to land arms and ammunition 
 in Ireland. The ship was sunk, and Sir Roger Case- 
 ment, who had been brought over from Germany, was 
 made prisoner. Once he had been distinguished in 
 the British consular service, afterwards he was an ac- 
 tive organizer of the Irish Volunteers, and more re- 
 cently he had been in Germany trying to get assist- 
 ance and persuade Irish prisoners to enlist in the 
 
 ; 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 375 
 
 German service. Probably a rising had been ar- 
 ranged to come shortly after this attempted landing, 
 because four days later, on the Monday following 
 Easter, a rebellion began in Dublin and spread to 
 various parts of the island. 
 
 People awoke in Dublin that morning and learned 
 with amazement that an insurrection had begun in 
 their midst. The Sinn Feiners had seized the city. 
 Probably substantial German assistance was hoped 
 for by some of the more ignorant and enthusiastic, 
 for on the next day wild rumors went about, that 
 German submarines were swarming in the sea, that 
 the Germans had landed in three places, fifteen thou- 
 sand in one body, that German warships had de- 
 feated the British navy, and that transports were 
 rushing towards Ireland. Local arrangements had 
 been very carefully planned, though the leaders seem 
 to have had no just conception of the larger elements 
 of such a task, unless it be thought that they delib- 
 erately embarked upon a military enterprise which 
 they knew to be hopeless. They seized the beautiful 
 little park, St. Stephen's Green, in the center of the 
 city, a position untenable, and made an attempt upon 
 Dublin Castle which failed; but they succeeded in 
 occupying the Post Office, where they severed com- 
 munication by telegraph and telephone, many of the 
 houses in the streets nearby, and some strong build- 
 ings in other parts of the city. They were well sup- 
 plied with firearms and ammunition, and easily re- 
 pulsed the first efforts to dislodge them. 
 
 
376 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Shortly after noon on Easter Monday an Irish 
 Republic was proclaimed. Padraic Pearse. school- 
 master, a leader of Sinn Fein, visionary and idealist, 
 but strong in belief in his cause, was chosen president 
 and commander-in-chief. His character remains an 
 enigma except to those most closely associated with 
 him; some have wondered how such a man could have 
 been chosen to lead a rebellion, others have seen in 
 him the most fitting one to preside. Fate had touched 
 him and called him forth, with but a few days more 
 in the world. In those days he went forward with fine 
 nobility and high exaltation, as one who scarcely walks 
 among mortal men. The proclamation is fantastic 
 or splendid, according as one's sympathies go. In 
 the name of God, Ireland summoned her children to 
 the flag. Her manhood, trained in the Irish Republi- 
 can Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers, and the Irish 
 Citizen Army, supported by exiles in America and by 
 gallant allies in Europe, had waited resolutely for 
 the moment, and now struck in full confidence of vic- 
 tory. "We declare the right of the people of Ireland 
 to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered con- 
 trol of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasi- 
 ble. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign 
 people and government has not extinguished the right, 
 nor can it be extinguished except by the destruction 
 of the Irish people. ,, In every generation that peo- 
 ple had asserted their right to national freedom and 
 sovereignty. Now they asserted it again, and pro- 
 claimed the Irish Republic as a sovereign and inde- 
 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 377 
 
 pendent state. This new Republic claimed the al- 
 legiance of every man and woman in Ireland. It 
 guaranteed civil and religious equality. The national 
 government to be set up later on was to be "repre- 
 sentative of the whole people of Ireland and elected 
 by the suffrages of all her men and women." The 
 blessing of Most High God was invoked. Some say 
 that this document was read by Pearse, others that 
 it was read by Joseph Plunkett. The reading was at 
 the base of Nelson's Pillar, to a crowd of women and 
 children and rabble who gave it scant attention and 
 knew little, perhaps, of its meaning. It was pro- 
 claimed with deep emotion, but they turned from it 
 at once to plunder the shops nearby, — one more in- 
 stance of the sordid tragedy very often mingled with 
 the sublimer things of this life. 
 
 Next day the Republicans were easily driven from 
 St. Stephen's Green, not to be held because they had 
 failed to get possession of the Shelbourne Hotel 
 nearby, from the roof of which their position was 
 commanded by machine-gun fire. Nevertheless, they 
 were strongly established in the Post Office, the City 
 Hall, the Law Courts, and other places, and although 
 troops were now arriving from north Ireland and over 
 the Channel from England, the rebels could not be 
 immediately dislodged. Meanwhile small risings in 
 several other places in Ireland collapsed almost at 
 once. Everywhere the mass of the people regarded 
 the affair with indifference, or strongly condemned it 
 as a mad and rash enterprise hopeless from the first, 
 
378 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 which could only bring disaster to Ireland. Evi- 
 dently Germany could not give help, if she would, and 
 it was afterwards believed that she had small inten- 
 tion of trying to do it, and was merely using Ireland 
 as a tool. German warships did dash out to bom- 
 bard some of the English coast towns, but this brought 
 no assistance to the Irish Republic. 
 
 It is evident now that the insurrection could not 
 succeed, but in the uncertainty and dangers of the 
 moment anything seemed possible; and the British 
 people, hitherto indifferent, were profoundly moved 
 and alarmed. Stern measures were taken. April 27 
 martial law was proclaimed all over Ireland, and an 
 English commander was dispatched from London 
 with powers superseding all others. The Irish lead- 
 ers in the House of Commons were greatly dis- 
 tressed. Mr. Redmond believed that the overwhelm- 
 ing majority of the Irish people regarded the whole 
 thing with detestation and horror, and expressed hope 
 that the event would not be turned into a political 
 weapon against any political party. He was right in 
 seeing that the rebellion coming at such a time per- 
 illed the arduous work of the Nationalists, and might 
 set back Ireland's cause as the murders in Phoenix 
 Park once had done. Sir Edward Carson said he 
 would gladly join with the Nationalists to the fullest 
 extent in suppressing the rebels. 
 
 Meanwhile the fighting went on. The fortunes of 
 the Republic steadily waned as the government, re- 
 covering from the surprise of the moment, brought 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 379 
 
 all of its power into action. There was severe fight- 
 ing in the streets, with much firing from the roofs of 
 houses, the insurgents going from one house to an- 
 other over the roofs, using this means of communica- 
 tion with greatest effect. Gradually their outlying 
 positions were carried, not without losses on both 
 sides. The rebels bore themselves in right soldierly 
 fashion, and fought and worked with good discipline 
 and effect, making the best use of such slender re- 
 sources as they had. There was considerable pillag- 
 ing, but it was by the baser elements of the popula- 
 tion, in no way connected with the uprising, but quick 
 to seize their chance in the confusion of the moment. 
 
 Friends of the insurgents estimate that by Tuesday 
 the government was able to dispose of 20,000 troops, 
 while the rebels had but 1,100 men in Dublin, where 
 alone they were able to hold out for more than a mo- 
 ment. During the first day, hidden in houses and 
 strong points of vantage, they had kept the enemy at 
 bay. But on Tuesday the authorities brought artil- 
 lery into action, and at once the odds became hope- 
 less. The military has been much blamed for the 
 bombardment which they began. Had they waited 
 a little while, the insurgents, surrounded as they were 
 in their general headquarters at the Dublin Post Of- 
 fice and some buildings nearby, might have been 
 forced to surrender merely by cutting off the munici- 
 pal water supply. It has been thought also that the 
 clergy might have intervened and stayed the horrors 
 that ensued. Certainly, as we see it now, it would 
 
380 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 have been well to wait and allow the rebellion to col- 
 lapse in ridicule and contempt; but the general sit- 
 uation being what it was at the time, it probably 
 seemed to the British commander that any delay would 
 be dangerous. A book which stanchly advocated the 
 cause of the rebellion says: "The artillery wrought 
 havoc upon havoc, but it is difficult to see how else 
 the insurgents were to be suppressed." 7 
 
 So began a systematic bombardment with military 
 and naval guns of the quarter held by the rebels, in 
 the course of which whole rows of houses were burned 
 or levelled with the ground. That fine thoroughfare 
 which visitors know as Sackville Street and which 
 Nationalists have called after O'Connell, became a 
 heap of ruins. Gradually the snipers were overcome, 
 and the cordon of troops drawn ever tighter about the 
 insurgents, until presently their principal refuge, the 
 Post Office, came under fire of the artillery and was 
 largely destroyed. In the last days of April the re- 
 volt was broken. Many of the rebels surrendered, 
 after holding out until ammunition was exhausted. 
 There were terrible scenes in the center of the city; 
 there was the roar of cannon, there was the rattle 
 of machine-guns. Fire added its horror. The Ho- 
 tel Metropole and many buildings down Abbey Street 
 were burned. Twenty great business establishments 
 and many smaller places took fire, and at last the 
 Post Office. All the while from the windows and 
 the roofs and from such barricades as remained the 
 
 i The Irish Rebellion of 1916, pp. 102, 103. 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 381 
 
 rebels shot at their foes. On the afternoon of April 
 29, with ammunition gone, with his followers sur- 
 rounded and hopelessly outnumbered, Padraic Pearse 
 surrendered unconditionally, and bade the Republi- 
 can forces lay down their arms. The other leaders 
 then yielded also, and by Saturday afternoon all was 
 over, except that for a day or so longer an occasional 
 sniper continued to fire from some position which he 
 had taken. 
 
 Terrible was the ruin and havoc. Sackville Street, 
 the finest in the city, had been ruined. There had 
 been many fires, and the damage was estimated at 
 more than £2,000,000. Most of the ruin had fallen 
 upon people in no wise connected with the uprising, 
 and entirely innocent of the doings of Sinn Fein. "In 
 places the city looked like Antwerp during the siege, 
 or London upon the arrival of the Belgian refugees." 8 
 "The finest part of our city," said one, "has been 
 blown to smithereens, and burned into ashes. Sol- 
 diers amongst us who have served abroad say that the 
 ruin of this quarter is more complete than anything 
 they have seen at Ypres, than anything they have 
 seen anywhere in France or Flanders." 9 For a while 
 the sentiment in Dublin and in Ireland was bitter 
 against those whose rebellion had brought this about. 
 
 A few days later Mr. Birrell, Chief Secretary for 
 Ireland, made his statement in the House of Com- 
 
 s Redmond-Howard, p. 123. 
 
 9 James Stephens, The Insurrection in Dublin (New York, 1916), 
 p. 96. 
 
382 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 mons. He confessed that he had falsely estimated 
 the Sinn Fein movement in so far that he had not 
 thought possible an uprising like that which had come. 
 He said that his error, with all its great and terrible 
 consequences, had not arisen from lack of anxiety and 
 care. He had subordinated everything to keeping 
 unbroken the front of Ireland in this war. He had 
 failed, and he gave now his resignation, which, of 
 course, was accepted. Mr. Redmond, who confessed 
 that he also had not appreciated the dangers from 
 Sinn Fein, declared that Mr. Birrell had conferred 
 many benefits upon Ireland; and Sir Edward Carson 
 asserted that the tragedy had arisen from the Secre- 
 tary's great desire to preserve national unity. Such 
 were the difficulties of Irish administration. The 
 Chief Secretary, a humane and noble man, had meant 
 well and done well, and yet failed completely, and it 
 seemed now that his failure had come principally from 
 leniency and weakness. 
 
 The government, which may before have been idle 
 and supine, now proceeded to severest measures, and 
 a rigorous inquisition was begun for the apprehen- 
 sion of all of the rebels. On May 3rd, three of the 
 principal leaders and signatories of the proclamation 
 of independence, Pearse, his old associate Mac- 
 Donagh, and another, were shot after trial by court 
 martial. Pearse, gentle and knightly during the 
 struggle, met his end bravely. To his mother in the 
 last hours of his life, he wrote a beautiful letter. 
 "This is the death I should have asked for if God had 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 383 
 
 given me the choice of all deaths — to die a soldier's 
 death for Ireland and for freedom. We have done 
 right." 10 Then began what adherents of Sinn Fein 
 have described as a reign of terror. "Ah," says the 
 writer who boasted of the audacity of the Fianna boys 
 and the daring exploits of Madame, "how the stories 
 of Belgian atrocities . . . paled beside this one fort- 
 night in Dublin! . . . Stories of atrocities poured into 
 our ears when the Germans invaded Belgium. Now 
 we had to hear them from our own people, and now 
 we had to believe them. They were stories as cruel 
 as any heard since the days of the Island Magee mas- 
 sacre." 11 She tells little to support this assertion; 
 and she might have pondered for a moment on what 
 would probably have been done by the Germans to 
 avenge such a rising, by reflecting upon the events of 
 Dinant and Louvain. To many others the proceed- 
 ings of the government have seemed merely stern and 
 just retribution. For a while courts martial sat al- 
 most every day. Thirteen of the leaders were shot, 
 and some forty-five sentenced to prison. The Count- 
 ess Markievicz was sentenced to death, but this was 
 commuted to penal servitude for life. Of the police, 
 the constabulary, and the soldiers employed in sup- 
 pressing the rebellion 124 were killed, and the total 
 casualties were more than 500. Early in May Mr. 
 Dillon, the well-known Irish leader, declared that 
 there were secret shootings and imprisonments in the 
 
 io The Irish RebeUion»of 1916, pp. 279, 280. 
 ii Skinnider, pp. 166, 167, 174, 175. 
 
384 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 barracks in Ireland, and that Dublin was maddened 
 by the rumors. He said that these things were being 
 concealed from Mr. Asquith, and that the soldiers of 
 the British government were washing out in a sea of 
 blood the life-work of the Nationalist leaders. Mr. 
 Asquith replied that thirteen had been put to death, 
 and that two were to follow; that was all. 
 
 There was one incident which could certainly not 
 be defended, and which, when it came to be widely 
 known, created a very bad impression not only in 
 Ireland, but in England, and the United States. 
 April 26, Mr. Sheehy Skeffington, aiDublin journalist, 
 had been shot, as it afterwards appeared, without the 
 knowledge of any military tribunal. Skeffington 
 was one of those strong but gentle idealists, of child- 
 like simplicity and unfailing enthusiasm for all that 
 he believed to be right, sometimes annoying, some- 
 times very lovable, inspired with zeal to help the 
 weak and oppressed, pacifist, advocate of women's 
 rights, very radical, intensely Irish, an active and able 
 man. When the war broke out he wrote against Irish- 
 men helping England in her war, and asked what 
 England's triumph could bring save the strengthen- 
 ing of the power which exploited Ireland; and he was 
 very active in speaking against recruiting. None the 
 less he had nothing to do with the rebellion, for he 
 abhorred all warfare; and it was known that he had 
 taken some part in efforts to stop looting during the 
 confusion of the struggle. Walking through the 
 streets of the city unarmed, he was seized at the order 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 385 
 
 of a Captain Bowen-Colthurst and taken to the bar- 
 racks. That night he was shot. Whether this was 
 done to him as a hostage, and in reprisal for firing 
 upon soldiers, or whether the captain was insane at 
 the time, as the court martial which tried him decided, 
 is not very clear. Unfortunately every country has 
 some junkers, and it has been said that often England 
 contrives to export them to Ireland — it may have been 
 so in this case. At all events, the widow of the mur- 
 dered man, coming to the United States at a critical 
 time, and telling her pathetic story wherever she could, 
 did not a little to embitter the minds of people against 
 British conduct in Ireland. 
 
 Actually not many of the leaders were punished 
 severely, and practically none of their followers; for 
 after detention and imprisonment, they were dis- 
 charged, when an amnesty was proclaimed in the fol- 
 lowing year. But now one of those things happened, 
 which illustrates the complexities of Irish character 
 and exhibits very well the difficulties which beset Irish 
 administration as things are at present. Before the 
 rebellion the government had been very lenient, far 
 too lenient, perhaps. Under the direction of the Chief 
 Secretary little notice had been taken of the activities 
 of extremists, and Sinn Feiners had been allowed to 
 go about openly uttering sedition and drilling armed 
 bodies of men. It is true, this same thing had been 
 permitted in Ulster, and Irishmen often declared that 
 there was the beginning of the trouble; but many 
 Englishmen saw some difference between two armed 
 
386 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 bodies, one of which prepared to resist separation 
 from Great Britain, the other to make that separation 
 complete. At all events, Sinn Fein had been allowed 
 to go much its own way, the authorities, as they con- 
 fessed, dreading lest coercion be the signal for serious 
 trouble. In the terrible hour, when the Empire was 
 engaged in a death grapple with its enemy, Sinn 
 Feiners had set up a Republic and sought to sever 
 the vital bonds of the Empire. They were quickly 
 suppressed, it is true, but not before many soldiers 
 and civilians had been wounded or killed, a great 
 deal of property had been plundered by the rabble 
 of the gutter, and the fairest part of the city entirely 
 ruined. Now the danger was over, but it had seemed 
 a horrible one, with awful possibilities stretching out 
 from it. In the midst of normal conditions, and with 
 no new oppression and tyranny to justify them, after 
 some years of benefit and conciliation on the part of 
 the authorities, and at a time when Home Rule seemed 
 at last to have been gained, the Sinn Feiners struck, 
 and the events of the week had left death and suffer- 
 ing and desolation. Britain had trusted, and found 
 herself deceived. In the uttermost crisis she was 
 struck from behind. The waters around Ireland are 
 of fundamental importance to her safety, and the 
 enemy had been invited to enter them. What should 
 she do ? These men had staked all and lost ; they had 
 taken their chance; justly their lives were forfeit. 
 Should the law be meted out to them? Or should 
 England do what English-speaking peoples had done 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 387 
 
 not seldom before in the midst of perplexity and trou- 
 ble, pardon those who had risen in rebellion? Should 
 she be stern, and terrify the lawless, or win by for- 
 bearance and mildness? Well might her leaders 
 think after Easter Week that forbearance was vain. 
 So, Britain was stern at first, and some Irishmen 
 were put to death. In this she did no wrong; but it 
 may be that she was not wise. I am not certain, and 
 I see not how others can be, that if Britain had freely 
 pardoned Pearse and all his fellows, they would have 
 shown any gratitude, or that she would have gained 
 aught thereby. But this much is certain, that the 
 greatest success of Sinn Fein came from the death of 
 its leaders. Their cause had failed in such manner 
 that it was bound to be discredited for a while. It 
 is even possible that it might have died out in con- 
 tempt, though it is doubtful whether that would have 
 happened. But now they who had been violent ex- 
 tremists with a small following became martyrs, as it 
 seemed, for the Irish people; Ireland gave her heart 
 to them and their cause; and it was not very long 
 before Sinn Fein was the dominant force in the poli- 
 tics of the island. 
 
 As the warm and passionate heart of the Irish 
 turned in wonder and love to the men who died for the 
 Easter insurrection, several things became clear. 
 They might have been foolish and mistaken, they were 
 often violent and extreme, their policy might be nar- 
 row and their ends harmful, but there was nothing 
 mean nor selfish about some of these men. Their 
 
388 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ideals had been high and pure; they were altogether 
 above considerations of their own welfare; perhaps 
 they saw that the enterprise was hopeless, and gave 
 themselves in sacrifice for Ireland. None of the 
 rebels had plundered or stolen, none of them had 
 sought any personal profit. Like the best of the suf- 
 fragettes, they had simply a great cause at heart. 
 They loved Ireland, and devoted themselves gladly. 
 Martyrs, then, and heroes they became. To many 
 Irish men and women they were the latest successors 
 of O'Neill, Wolf Tone, Emmet, Mitchel, and a long 
 line of sufferers for Ireland's sake. 
 
 And what was the cause for which they had so 
 highly dared all? The revival of the fine, strong, 
 beautiful, and noble Ireland which they saw in their 
 visions, and had striven so hard to reconstruct in their 
 lives; with no accepting of gifts at the hand of the 
 British government, and no taking of any half -meas- 
 ure of Irish nationality. In the name of God and 
 the dead generations of old they had called the chil- 
 dren of Ireland to arise. "We declare the right of 
 the people of Ireland ... to the unfettered control 
 of Irish destinies." An Irish nation, an Ireland all 
 for the Irish people, a new Ireland in which the Irish 
 might be all themselves, strong, glorious, fine, and 
 free, like the bright chieftains of ancient songs, that 
 was the dream of the noblest of the Sinn Fein leaders. 
 English domination made that impossible, and they 
 had tried to strike off English control when they 
 could. Home Rule, they thought, would have been 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 389 
 
 a weak compromise, leaving the best of their scheme 
 unaccomplished; so they would have none of it, and 
 had opposed it with words that seemed violent and 
 brutal. Narrow they were, they could not see the 
 other and greater things of this world; and foolish 
 most people outside of Ireland will think them. But 
 in some sense they had given their lives for a people 
 quick to pity, and warm to worship those who have 
 suffered for them. And so Sinn Fein in the death of 
 its leaders accomplished that which it might never have 
 done if the leaders had continued to live. "People will 
 say hard things of us now," wrote Pearse, "but later 
 on they will praise us." 12 And that was very true. 
 
 Your dream had left me numb and cold 
 
 But yet my spirit rose in pride, 
 Refashioning in burnished gold 
 
 The images of those who died, 
 Or were shut in the penal cell — 
 
 Here 's to you Pearse, your dream, not mine, 
 But yet the thought — for this you fell — 
 
 Turns all life's water into wine. 
 
 I listened to much talk from you, \ 
 
 Thomas MacDonagh, and it seemed 
 The words were idle, but they grew 
 
 To nobleness, by death redeemed. 
 Life cannot utter things more great 
 
 Than life can meet with sacrifice, 
 High words were equalled by just fate, 
 
 You paid the price, you paid the price. 13 
 
 12 The Irish Rebellion of 1916, p. 280. 
 
 1 3 George Russell, "Salutation": ibid., p. 3. 
 
390 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 The causes of this rebellion have been right wisely 
 summed up by those who have studied the thing. The 
 Royal Commission appointed to inquire reported that 
 the main cause was the lawlessness which had been al- 
 lowed to grow up unchecked, and the weakness of the 
 government in desiring at all costs to avoid any trou- 
 ble. Sheehy Skeffington, in a letter written just be- 
 fore the catastrophe, declared that the Irish Volun- 
 teers, and the armed workingmen in the Irish Citizen 
 Army were well organized and conscious of their 
 strength, and determined not to allow their arms to 
 be taken away from them or brook any interference 
 with their organizations. He said also, what others 
 have said, that there was going on in the government 
 circles of Ireland a bitter struggle between those forces 
 led by Mr. Birrell, who wanted peace, and the mili- 
 tarists, who were determined to suppress the armed 
 bodies and seize their leaders. A few days before the 
 revolt a Sinn Feiner said: "There is a most tre- 
 mendous battle going on at the present moment at the 
 Castle, we understand, between General Friend and 
 Augustine Birrell — in other words, between the mili- 
 tary and the civil authorities — and everything depends 
 upon that issue." 14 As conditions were in Ireland 
 attempted coercion could easily lead to an outburst. 
 Now on April 19 the extremists got knowledge of a 
 document, which the government afterwards declared 
 to be a forgery, purporting to direct the arrest of the 
 leaders of the Irish Volunteers and the Sinn Fein 
 
 14 Redmond-Howard, p. 99. 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 391 
 
 Council and other bodies, so the leaders felt that all of 
 their plans were about to be ruined. Accordingly, 
 they finished their preparations, and the rebellion be- 
 gan. In the minds of many this was the most 
 immediate cause: the probable intention of the au- 
 thorities to disarm Sinn Fein and the affiliated organ- 
 izations, something which they could not endure when 
 they thought of the government's indulgence with re- 
 spect to the followers of John Redmond and of Sir 
 Edward Carson. 
 
 A greater but more remote cause was the growth of 
 a new spirit in Ireland. Politicians and people still 
 looked at the old order without realizing that a new 
 one was silently displacing it. Ireland seemed di- 
 vided between the Nationalists and the Unionists, and 
 strong forces they were; but something else was tak- 
 ing possession of Irish hearts. Redmond and his as- 
 sociates had long led the most prominent party, and 
 had perfected their organization so that it ran very 
 smoothly. Jobs were got and positions secured 
 through the influence of those who controlled the An- 
 cient Order of Hibernians and the working of the Na- 
 tionalist Party. In the conduct of this organization 
 there was doubtless much that seemed objectionable: 
 much that is inevitable and even seems necessary in 
 political management, except where there is a very 
 high level of interest and intelligence among the mem- 
 bers of the electorate, but which the purer and more 
 ardent as well as the extremer and more violent will 
 regard with impatience. With all this Sinn Fein 
 
392 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 would have and was allowed to have little to do. 
 Moreover, it breathed deeply in a fresh and new po- 
 litical atmosphere. It regarded the Nationalist pol- 
 icy as weak and as a foolish compromise : how with Mr. 
 Redmond's Home Rule was there to be an Ireland 
 free as they dreamed about and altogether for the 
 Irish people? And just in proportion as their teach- 
 ings prevailed, so was the Nationalist influence being 
 undermined. Unseen some of its foundations were 
 crumbling away. How far this had gone was not yet 
 known, and the British government relied thoroughly 
 upon the prospect of Home Rule and the power of 
 the Nationalist Party to control the Irish situation. 
 Both Britain and the Nationalists were surprised and 
 mistaken. 
 
 Another cause of the outbreak was the develop- 
 ment in Dublin of a radical labor movement, which 
 had grown largely because of the terrible condition in 
 which the poorer workingmen lived, crowded, a great 
 many of them, in single rooms in wretched and filthy 
 tenements, working for starvation wages, with hope- 
 less outlook, and, unlike the rural laborers in the con- 
 gested districts, not helped by the government and 
 their cause not espoused by any of the great political 
 parties. They had therefore developed a party of 
 their own, led by Jim Larkin, and, after the disastrous 
 strike in Dublin in 1913, a syndicalist Labor move- 
 ment, with the object of obtaining the common own- 
 ership of Ireland by all the Irish. While the spirit 
 of Sinn Fein was stirring up the minds of men to 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 393 
 
 seek drastic changes, the Irish syndicalists, burning 
 with a sense of their wrongs and filled with the most 
 radical ideas as to how betterment must be obtained, 
 formed the Irish Citizen Army, one of those organiza- 
 tions whose arming and drilling had been an omen of 
 the trouble to come. During the Easter Rebellion 
 they were commanded by James Connolly, who also 
 acted as commander-in-chief of the forces of the ill- 
 fated Republic. As Sinn Fein had drawn away from 
 the Nationalist Party because it was believed that the 
 Nationalists had compromised with England and were 
 about to accept a half measure, so the Irish labor or- 
 ganization despised John Redmond and his associates 
 as men who were allied with the capitalist classes ex- 
 ploiting them. Thus the Irish rebellion rested pri- 
 marily upon the support of political and economic ex- 
 tremists. 
 
 There were yet other causes. Undoubtedly there 
 was fierce opposition to enlisting in the British army, 
 and it began to seem that Irishmen might be com- 
 pelled to serve through conscription. This opposition 
 was based not merely on dislike of Britain and aver- 
 sion from doing anything to assist her, and on the be- 
 lief that Irishmen should spend their lives only for 
 Ireland, but also to some extent upon a hatred of 
 militarism, since some of these men, while brave and 
 willing to fight if they must, had none the less strong 
 pacifist leanings. Furthermore the rebellion was a 
 protest against the system of government from the 
 Castle, so long endured and so greatly despised. Sinn 
 
394 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Fein believed that now the more malign influences in 
 the Castle were getting an ascendancy about to be 
 used for the further crushing of Irish liberties under 
 plea of the necessities of the situation. German gold 
 had something to do with the rising, but not much, it 
 is generally believed. Sinn Fein was above accept- 
 ing bribes, and such payments as were made seem to 
 have been made to encourage the discontented to do 
 what they longed to do when they could. German 
 persuasion and propaganda doubtless had some part, 
 particularly among the Irish in America, who in turn 
 influenced their brethren in Ireland; but however 
 vicious the utterances of some Irish-American writers, 
 and however active the Clan-na-Gael seemed to be, 
 German influence cannot be taken as one of the major 
 causes of the rebellion : the purposes of Sinn Fein were 
 in no wise connected with Germany, except in so far 
 as some German help might be got to achieve them; 
 and they would have used any power for that purpose. 
 As for Germany, it need not be said that she had no 
 real sympathy with the aspirations of Ireland or Sinn 
 Fein, for such aspirations she had always ruthlessly 
 crushed. But Irish independence leaning upon Ger- 
 many would effectually make England subservient to 
 greater Germany, and so she used these Irishmen for 
 the purpose of embarrassing England. Actually Sir 
 Roger Casement, who after his capture was hanged 
 as a traitor in England, was sent to certain destruction 
 by the Germans with whom he intrigued. 
 
 Last of all, one of the causes of the revolt was the 
 
THE EASTER REBELLION 395 
 
 desire of Sinn Fein to bring the subject of Irish inde- 
 pendence to the attention of the world. They had in 
 mind, perhaps, something like what inspired Cavour 
 long before to send Italian soldiers with England and 
 France to the Crimea, in order that these powers 
 might later help him to get the claims of Italy before 
 a European Congress. The whole world was in the 
 throes of great changes soon to be wrought. Na- 
 tionalities were to be recognized, the rights of small 
 nations upheld. Pearse and MacDonagh believed 
 that Ireland was gravely wronged in not having com- 
 plete independence. "Their sense of thwarted na- 
 tionality was so intense that they could not see Europe. 
 And Europe, it seemed, had forgotten that Ireland 
 was a nation." 15 They were high idealists, and from 
 their point of view it was vitally important that Irish- 
 men should not seem content and accept Home Rule, 
 but express their displeasure so that it could not be 
 ignored, and then get their case before some great 
 tribunal to be settled. The mighty issues, the awful 
 moment, the uncertain future, might make men forget, 
 even in Ireland, the Irish question that was so dear to 
 Sinn Fein. "It seemed that the mighty wings of 
 the empire rushing to war were extinguishing the 
 Irish lamp." 10 So they rose in rebellion to hold up 
 before men the ideals of Gaelic Ireland, no matter 
 what perished in the meantime. 
 
 is Leslie, The Irish Issue, pp. 89, 90. 
 wlbid., p. 90. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE HOME RULE QUESTION DURING THE WAR 
 
 We stand at the door of the Empire and we ask admission ; 
 we pledge you our fealty as a nation, and our loyalty as men. 
 We seek to blot out even the memory of ancient wrongs and 
 ancient miseries, and ancient causes of heart-burning and 
 discontent. We ask to-day to be allowed to cross the 
 threshold into an Empire — our, remember, by right of 
 service, as much as yours — where the genius of our people, 
 the valour of our soldiers, and the fidelity of our race might, 
 possibly, prove to be one of your greatest assets in the 
 vicissitudes and the dangers of an unknown future. 
 
 Speech of John Redmond, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
 
 November 14, 1913. 
 
 WHEN the war broke out the Home Rule con- 
 troversy had reached its most critical stage. 
 In accordance with the Parliament Act of 1911, the 
 Home Rule Bill would automatically become law at 
 the end of the session, but while most of Gaelic Ireland 
 was looking forward to the operation of the new 
 statute with eager anticipation, many of the men of 
 Ulster were armed to resist it, and threatened to op- 
 pose it with force. The Liberals had introduced an 
 Amending Bill which provided for the temporary ex- 
 clusion of the Ulster counties desiring it ; but what the 
 Ulster Volunteers wanted was permanent exclusion, 
 
 396 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 397 
 
 and the Amending Bill was transformed by the House 
 of Lords so as to provide for the permanent exclusion 
 of all Ulster. The Commons would certainly have 
 rejected this, since the Nationalists would have naught 
 to do with it. The king had called a conference at 
 Buckingham Palace, but the representatives had de- 
 parted with nothing accomplished. Well might Ger- 
 many believe that Britain, if she desired to enter the 
 war, would be paralyzed by civil commotion in Ire- 
 land. Sir Horace Plunkett, in politics a moderate 
 Unionist, but above all things a thoughtful Irish 
 patriot, at this moment published a memorial, The 
 Better Way: An Appeal to Ulster not to Desert Ire- 
 land, in which he implored Unionists to give Home 
 Rule a chance. Let them withdraw afterwards if 
 they would, but enter the new system now. Then 
 came the crash of the war. 
 
 At once the political parties declared a truce. 
 Further considering of Irish legislation was postponed 
 to such time as the government and the leaders of the 
 Opposition might determine. But by September Mr. 
 Asquith was resolved to take up Irish matters again. 
 He announced that at the end of the session the Home 
 Rule Bill would be law, and that in the session fol- 
 lowing an Amending Bill would be passed before 
 Home Rule went into effect. The Opposition de- 
 clared this a breach of faith, and said that Ulster was 
 being betrayed. Liberals and Nationalists insisting 
 that Ulster was not to be coerced, asserted that Home 
 Rule was necessary if the ardor of Irishmen for the 
 
398 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 war was not to be dampened, and an unfavorable im- 
 pression created abroad. Irishmen, they said, would 
 enlist for service if Home Rule were given. Union- 
 ists were firm in maintaining that Home Rule and the 
 Amending Bill should come in together. September 
 19, the Government of Ireland Bill received the as- 
 sent of the king. It was not to go into effect so long 
 as the war continued. A week later Mr. Asquith ad- 
 dressed a great meeting in Dublin. He spoke of what 
 was imperilled by the war, and asked that Irishmen 
 take the part which they should. Mr. Redmond, who 
 had already spoken so gallantly in London, said: 
 "You have kept faith with Ireland; Ireland will keep 
 faith with you." 1 
 
 Redmond had already issued a manifesto calling 
 upon the people to form an Irish Brigade for service 
 at the front. But difficulties began now. The 
 strength of Sinn Fein was not known yet, but Sinn 
 Feiners redoubled the efforts they had been making 
 to prevent recruiting, and enlistments were far short 
 of what was expected. In May, 1915, the course of 
 the war made the formation of a coalition cabinet ad- 
 visable, and a new cabinet consisting of twenty-two 
 members was formed, the largest in modern times. 
 Liberals and Unionists were brought together in it, 
 as well as others, and a place was offered to Mr. Red- 
 mond ; but he declined, thinking it inadvisable to enter. 
 Notwithstanding that the government would have 
 been glad to have him, and that he remained outside 
 
 i Annual Register, 1914, P- 216. 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 399 
 
 through his own decision, Nationalists saw with ap- 
 prehension that while he was not a minister, the leader 
 of their bitterest enemies, Sir Edward Carson, came 
 into the cabinet as attorney-general. Afterwards this 
 created a very unfavorable impression. During the 
 year Irish affairs attracted little attention in parlia- 
 ment or in England, since men were absorbed in the 
 mightier events of the war; and there was a disposi- 
 tion on the part of the government to let Irish affairs 
 take their own course, with a view to avoiding trouble 
 in this most troublesome time. In November, Mr. 
 Redmond in the Commons declared that the Irish race 
 throughout the world was with the Allies in the war, 
 and wanted no premature peace, but he complained 
 that the military authorities did not properly recog- 
 nize the achievements of the Irish troops. 
 
 After the Irish rebellion there was great and just 
 indignation in England, and little sympathy with 
 such Sinn Fein doctrines as were understood. 
 Unionists particularly cried out for stern measures 
 and strong rule, and many were disposed to agree with 
 them. May 11, however, Mr. Asquith announced 
 that he was going to Ireland to consult with the mili- 
 tary and civil authorities there, so that some arrange- 
 ment might be made for governing Ireland which 
 would commend itself to all Irishmen and to the 
 British people as well. A fortnight later he declared 
 in the Commons that he had returned with two domi- 
 nant impressions : that the existing machinery of gov- 
 ernment there had broken down, and that in Ireland 
 
400 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 there was a universal feeling that here was a new 
 opportunity for settlement and agreement. The 
 Home Rule Act was on the statute books, but nobody 
 wished to see one group of Irishmen coerced by an- 
 other. Why could there not be agreement among the 
 various parties in the island? The British govern- 
 ment was very anxious to secure such result. Mr. 
 Lloyd George had just undertaken to devote himself 
 to a settlement of the Irish question, and was now in 
 communication with the various Irish interests. In 
 the general satisfaction with which this announce- 
 ment was received both Redmond and Carson ex- 
 pressed their approval. 
 
 Meanwhile the Royal Commission made its scath- 
 ing report upon the weakness of administration in 
 Ireland, and Sir Roger Casement was hanged in Pen- 
 tonville Jail; but while the Irish tragedy was coming 
 to its conclusion, Mr. Lloyd George's efforts began to 
 produce their effect. At a meeting of the Nationalist 
 Party in Dublin, June 10, it was stated that he pro- 
 posed to bring Home Rule into immediate operation, 
 and to introduce an amending bill for the period of 
 the war and a short while beyond, that during this 
 time the Irish members were to remain at Westminster 
 in their present number, and six Ulster counties were 
 to be left under the Imperial government as at pres- 
 ent. The Ulster Unionist Council at once declared 
 that it abhorred, as ever, the policy of Home Rule, but 
 in this urgency would defer to Imperial necessity ; and 
 Sir Edward Carson was given authority to assist the 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 401 
 
 negotiations under Mr. Lloyd George on the basis of 
 an exclusion of the six counties, Antrim, Armagh, 
 Deny, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone, and of the 
 cities of Newry, Londonderry, and Belfast. In Bel- 
 fast the Nationalists agreed to the proposals, and it 
 almost seemed that the insoluble Irish problem was 
 about to be settled for the time. Difficulties arose at 
 once, however. Many people in Great Britain be- 
 lieved that Ireland should be dealt with very vigor- 
 ously. Some of the Irish Unionists protested that 
 such giving of Home Rule was really rewarding Ire- 
 land for a rebellion which had only just been sup- 
 pressed. Unionists in England criticised the pro- 
 posals of Mr. Lloyd George: they had supposed 
 Home Rule would be given after the war, but he 
 seemed ready to establish it at once. It would be 
 perilous to undertake this at such a time with Ireland 
 so disturbed. The Ulster Unionists were as deter- 
 mined as ever not to give up their connection with 
 Britain. 
 
 After further consultation, July 10, Mr. Asquith 
 announced the proposals: to bring Home Rule into 
 operation with the exclusion of the counties and the 
 cities already named; he then told Sir Edward Car- 
 son that these districts were definitely struck out of the 
 Act, and would not be included without a new bill; 
 the Irish House of Commons during the continuance 
 of the act to be made would consist of the members 
 who served in the Imperial parliament, and the execu- 
 tive was not to interfere in any way with the prosecu- 
 
402 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 tion of the war by the British government. These 
 proposals differed from those which had first come 
 from Mr. Lloyd George, and, of course, from the 
 Home Rule Act passed but in abeyance, and Red- 
 mond declared that they brought the negotiations to 
 an end so far as the Nationalists were concerned. He 
 and his followers were angered, moreover, at the de- 
 termination expressed by some of the English leaders 
 to deal firmly with Ireland ; while Unionists welcomed 
 what they said was the intention of the government to 
 repress all treason and sedition. Shortly after Mr. 
 Asquith told Mr. Redmond that Britain would not 
 consent to allow Irish members in the parliament in 
 their present numbers after the next election. The 
 Irish leader declared that the course of the govern- 
 ment was such as to make the Irish people suspect its 
 good faith, and that it would inflame resentment in 
 Ireland. Next Mr. Dillon asserted that military rule 
 now prevailing in Ireland was doing more to spread 
 disaffection than all the efforts of Sinn Fein. Mr. 
 Redmond appealed to Englishmen not to let their in- 
 dignation at the outbreak of 2,000 men in Dublin lead 
 to the injustice of forgetting the part of the 150,000 
 Irishmen fighting in the service of the Empire. By 
 this time the negotiations had failed. Essentially, as 
 before, the failure was due to the difficulty of recon- 
 ciling the wishes of Ulster with those of the rest of 
 Ireland. 
 
 Meanwhile graver trouble had come with respect to 
 conscription, which was continually being discussed 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 403 
 
 as the need for men became greater. Conditions got 
 worse rather than better. In February, 1917, a num- 
 ber of Irishmen were arrested and deported under 
 the Defence of the Realm Act, which caused protest 
 in the House of Commons. March 7, Mr. T. P. 
 O'Connor moved a resolution that Ireland receive the 
 free institutions promised for such a long time: there 
 were as before the alternatives of settlement or coer- 
 cion. It was also said that the Australian Senate had 
 just voted by large majority a resolution favoring 
 Irish Home Rule. Major Redmond, brother of the 
 Nationalist leader, appealed to the House of Com- 
 mons to forget the past and start afresh. He be- 
 sought Sir Edward Carson to meet the Nationalists, 
 who would go any length to get the confidence of 
 Ulster. But a statement was then made for the 
 Unionists of the north that they would not go under 
 a Home Rule parliament. 
 
 In the latter part of 1916 there had been a change 
 in the government of the United Kingdom. The de- 
 struction of Rumania and increasing danger had 
 brought the fall of Mr. Asquith's coalition cabinet, 
 and the government was now being carried on pri- 
 marily by a war cabinet of five, with Mr. Lloyd 
 George at the head. In the debate of March 7 he 
 stated that centuries of British rule had caused Irish- 
 men to hate Britain, but that a portion of the popula- 
 tion of Ireland was just as hostile to Irish rule. 
 These were the fundamental facts of the situation. 
 The people of Britain were ready to confer self -gov- 
 
404 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 ernment upon the Irish, but were not prepared to 
 force the population of Ulster to submit to it against 
 their will. Both he and Mr. Asquith would welcome 
 any solution which did not involve coercion of part 
 of the Irish people. Apparently John Redmond had 
 now come to the end of his patience. He had wished 
 to be loyal to the best interests of the Empire, he had 
 tried to assist the government in the war, and he 
 had been patient. For more than two years he had 
 waited: Ireland did not yet have Home Rule. Now, 
 therefore, saying that the government was playing 
 into the hands of the Irish revolutionary party, and 
 that he would not enter into more negotiations, he 
 declared that further debate would be useless, and 
 rising called upon his associates to withdraw from the 
 chamber of the Commons. He left the House fol- 
 lowed by sixty of the Irish members. Next day they 
 held a meeting at which they asserted that Mr. Lloyd 
 George had changed his attitude with respect to 
 Ulster, that his new principle would forever den}' self- 
 government to Ireland, making it thus contingent 
 upon the consent of a hostile minority, and called upon 
 Irishmen all over the world to bring pressure to bear 
 upon Britain that Ireland might receive those right 
 things for which the war was being carried on in 
 Europe. 
 
 All the best Englishmen sincerely regretted the 
 condition in which things now were; but as Mr. Bonar 
 Law said, the principal difficulty in the way of Home 
 Rule was not convincing the people of Great Britain 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 405 
 
 but some of the people of Ireland. It was certain 
 that a change of government was needed there, and 
 Britain was willing to give self-government at once; 
 but a settlement was needed in Ireland, and both par- 
 ties there would have to make sacrifices to attain it. 
 
 In May the prime minister proposed to Mr. Red- 
 mond and Sir Edward Carson that a bill should be 
 introduced for the immediate application of Home 
 Rule to Ireland, excluding for five years the counties 
 of northeastern Ulster. He suggested also the 
 formation of a Council of Ireland, so that unity of 
 Irish legislation might be attained, this council to be 
 composed of representatives from the excluded area 
 as well as the rest of Ireland. The future inclusion 
 of the area left out was to be subject to the consent of 
 a majority of its voters. At the end of the letter in 
 which these suggestions were made he proposed that 
 if such arrangement was not acceptable, a convention 
 of Irishmen of all parties should be assembled, so 
 that they might try to arrange for themselves a scheme 
 of self-government of their own. The Nationalist 
 leader decided promptly that the first proposal would 
 find no approval in most of Ireland, but that the Na- 
 tionalists could agree to a convention. In parliament 
 now Mr. Lloyd George said that the time had come 
 for the Irish people to try their own hands. If a con- 
 vention could only agree, the British government 
 would put their arrangement into effect. The con- 
 vention must represent all parties in the island. This 
 speech was well received by the political leaders ; and 
 
106 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 shortly after it was known that the Unionists and the 
 Nationalists would both support such an effort. The 
 government hoped that Sinn Fein would likewise take 
 part. 
 
 June 11, Mr. Lloyd George announced the plan 
 of the Convention. There were to be 101 members, 
 representing the counties and the county boroughs, the 
 different religious organizations, commerce and labor, 
 and including five members for the Nationalists, the 
 Ulster Unionists, and the southern Unionists, five for 
 the Sinn Fein, if they would come, and two for the 
 O'Brienites and for the Irish peers, and including 
 finally fifteen leading Irishmen from all sections, to 
 be nominated by the government itself. 
 
 Irish opinion was not enthusiastic about the Con- 
 vention. Failure was expected, and not much atten- 
 tion really given. At first, however, things went bet- 
 ter than many had anticipated. The government 
 made some excellent appointments among the fifteen 
 members which it chose, Sir Horace Plunkett, Mr. 
 George Russell, Mr. Mahaffy, and others. Sir 
 Horace Plunkett was at once elected chairman, and 
 no better choice could have been made. But already 
 there had been discouraging events. The British gov- 
 ernment had released all the Sinn Fein prisoners con- 
 fined for the Easter Rebellion, desiring that the Con- 
 vention might begin its work in the midst of good 
 feeling. Now the Irish people, who were giving scant 
 heed to the plan of the Convention, welcomed the 
 Sinn Fein leaders with frantic delight. They re- 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 407 
 
 turned nothing mollified at the action of the authori- 
 ties, but rather with the feeling that the justice of 
 the cause for which they had suffered was established: 
 the government was doing them no act of grace in giv- 
 ing them freedom. As for Ireland, they would ac- 
 cept nothing less than the complete independence 
 which they had striven to procure ; so they would have 
 nothing to do with the Convention. Their return was 
 marked at once by violence and riots. It was evident 
 that for the moment they had captured the sentiments 
 of many of the Irish people, for when their leader, 
 Prof, de Valera, stood as candidate for East Clare, he 
 was returned by an enormous majority. 
 
 During the summer of 1917 the Convention held 
 secret sessions. Apparently some progress was made ; 
 but far more emotion was aroused when a Sinn Feiner, 
 who had been released at the time of the general am- 
 nesty, and then re-arrested for attempting to incite 
 disaffection, starved himself to death in prison, be- 
 cause he was not accorded the treatment of a political 
 prisoner. At his funeral in Dublin there was an im- 
 mense and impressive demonstration; and it was an 
 ominous sign that in the mighty procession which went 
 to his grave, there were more than a hundred priests. 
 
 In October, Mr. Redmond deplored the conduct of 
 the authorities in Ireland at the very time when the 
 Convention was striving to accomplish something; 
 but the reply was that the young men of Ireland, un- 
 conscripted for service in the great war, were being 
 enrolled apparently for another rebellion. The prime 
 
 
408 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 minister said that there had been attempts to land 
 arms in Ireland; now disloyal organizations were be- 
 ing suppressed. He added that if the Convention 
 could reach a substantial agreement, the government 
 would put their plan into operation without any 
 delay. 
 
 The wisest and most moderate Irishmen had during 
 this time tried to arouse interest and support for the 
 Convention's work. Never did Mr. Russell write 
 more finely. A Protestant and an Ulsterman, but 
 above all a great-hearted Irishman, he addressed him- 
 self to the best people in the United Kingdom, in a 
 pamphlet which revived the finest traditions of the 
 eighteenth century, when the masters of political argu- 
 ment used the pamphlet as an instrument in political 
 debate. "There are moments," he said, "in history 
 when by the urgency of circumstances every one in a 
 country is drawn from normal pursuits to consider the 
 affairs of the nation." 2 He was addressing himself 
 to Unionists, Sinn Feiners, Nationalists, and the 
 electorate of Britain. Well would it be if they could 
 understand each other, and meet in a spirit of compro- 
 mise and moderation, for Ireland's sake. Solemn 
 was the warning addressed to England. At no time 
 in Irish history was the spirit of nationality more in- 
 tense than now. It would be well to grant Irishmen 
 the freedom and wholeness in political life which they 
 
 2 Thoughts for a Convention. Published originally in The Irish Times, 
 
 then reprinted as a pamphlet, it has been published in this country 
 
 along with some other pieces in The Irish Homo-Rule Convention (New 
 York, 1917). 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 400 
 
 so much desired. "If their claim is not met they will 
 brood and scheme and wait to strike a blow; though the 
 dream may be handed on from them to their children 
 and their children's children, yet they will hope, some- 
 time, to give the last vengeful thrust of enmity at the 
 stricken heart of the empire." Ireland, he said, if 
 her representation was to be diminished in the Im- 
 perial parliament, wanted control of trade policy and 
 taxation, since these things dominated the life of a 
 people, and she desired to build up her own civilization 
 with an economic policy in keeping. Therefore, the 
 Home Rule Act should be radically changed so as to 
 give Ireland unfettered control over taxation, cus- 
 toms, excise, and trade; there should be the status and 
 powers of economic control possessed by the self-gov- 
 erning dominions. He called on Nationalists to be 
 very liberal, and give every safeguard to Ulster which 
 the men of the north might require. Let religion be 
 left to the churches and altogether dissevered from 
 politics. He bade Unionists recognize with sympathy 
 the fine Irish culture, and wish to see it developed 
 along with their own in Ireland. To the extremists 
 he declared that their demand for complete independ- 
 ence would make it impossible that Ulster should ever 
 throw in her lot with a self-governing Ireland; if 
 they desired to have her, they must be content with an 
 Ireland possessing complete control over internal af- 
 fairs, but remaining within the commonwealth of do- 
 minions of the Empire. The men of South Africa 
 had wisely done this. "Is the same magnanimity not 
 
410 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 possible in Ireland?" To procure the well-being of 
 Ireland the extreme parties must abate their demands. 
 Some of these ideas have a greater importance than 
 appears at first glance. It is evident that any writ- 
 ing intended to bring about moderateness and procure 
 conciliation and agreement in such circumstances must 
 advise the Covenanters to abandon their unyielding 
 exclusiveness and Sinn Fein to give up its impractical 
 demand for complete separation; but the pamphlet 
 embodies an idea which at this very time was being 
 more and more taken up by the Nationalists, the 
 great moderate party, hitherto predominant in IrislT^ 
 politics, an idea which constitutes a distinct step in 
 the history of Home Rule. Up to this time Home 
 Rule had generally been understood to mean Irish 
 autonomy within the United Kingdom, since control 
 of customs was to be not in Ireland but in the parlia- 
 ment at London. In this form it had been accepted 
 by Parnell and repeatedly accepted and approved by 
 John Redmond. Now George Russell put forward 
 what others were thinking of and what was presently 
 insisted on by the predominant interests in the Con- 
 vention, a demand for control of the customs, thus 
 giving Ireland essentially the status of one of the self- 
 governing colonies or dominions. This would bring 
 about what might be designated properly as "colonial" 
 Home Rule. That is to say, while advocates of Home 
 Rule were far less radical than Sinn Fein, they were 
 going farther and asking for greater powers than 
 before. 
 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 411 
 
 At length, in April, 1918, the Irish Convention, 
 after fifty sessions, held its last meeting in Trinity 
 College, Dublin. The report presented by its chair- 
 man was adopted, and the Convention finally ad- 
 journed. The conduct of the members had been 
 amiable and conciliatory. The report, which had been 
 agreed to only with the utmost difficulty and after a 
 great deal of discussion, had indeed been adopted, but 
 it had not been accepted by a decisive majority. It 
 is true, there had not apparenly been more insuperable 
 obstacles to overcome than had been met by those who 
 once drafted a constitution and got it adopted by the 
 American states. Just as then there had been the 
 fundamental differences between the south and the 
 north, between state sovereignty and a sovereignty 
 above the states, between the large states and the 
 small ones, so in the Convention there had been the 
 opposition between Nationalists and Unionists, while 
 outside there was the difference between them who 
 would have local autonomy or colonial status and them 
 who wanted nothing less than complete independence. 
 In the end Ulster Unionists remained irreconcilable, 
 just as the men of Rhode Island once had been, and 
 the men of New York had threatened to be; but the 
 report was accepted by the majority of the National- 
 ists, all of the southern Unionists, and most of the 
 Labor representatives. So, again the principal dif- 
 ference remained what it had been before, between 
 Ulster and the rest of Ireland. Yet Sir Horace 
 Plunkett thought that the report laid a foundation of 
 
412 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Irish agreement unprecedented in history, and it did 
 seem that greater adjustments had been made in the 
 Convention and a larger spirit of concession shown 
 than ever before. The wise and moderate men of 
 Ireland might well remember that even after the 
 American constitution was drawn up, insurmountable 
 difficulties had seemed to remain; that only some of 
 the less important states adopted it willingly and at 
 once ; that in Pennsylvania it was carried by chicanery 
 and strong methods, followed by riots and the appear- 
 ance of state militia and cannon ; that it was taken up 
 by Virginia only after long and bitter opposition ; with 
 much difficulty in Massachusetts; and that in New 
 York the prospect seemed hopeless, with a strong 
 majority against it, until after riots and bitterest con- 
 test it was secured by Alexander Hamilton's magnifi- 
 cent reasoning and persistence. When it was remem- 
 bered that the constitution could scarcely have suc- 
 ceeded, had not the great states, so doubtful or so op- 
 posed to it, acceded, that for many a year afterward 
 some of them were cold or disobedient, but that in the 
 end, nevertheless, they all worked loyally to make it 
 a splendid success, Mr. Russell and Sir Horace 
 Plunkett might properly feel that their task was not 
 greater or more hopeless. 
 
 The scheme proposed by the Convention was that 
 Ireland should be a self-governing member of the 
 Empire. The supreme authority of the Imperial par- 
 liament was to remain undiminished, the Irish parlia- 
 ment to be erected not being allowed to legislate on 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 413 
 
 peace, war, the army, navy, treaties, foreign relations, 
 and some other things. The executive power in Ire- 
 land was to be nominally, as before, in the king, which 
 meant, of course, the ministry of the Empire, to be 
 exercised through a lord lieutenant on the advice of an 
 Irish executive committee, this latter provision giving 
 Irishmen actually, through their representatives, con- 
 trol of their government, just as the people of Eng- 
 land had control through their House of Commons 
 and cabinet. In the parliament at Westminster Ire- 
 land was to have forty-two representatives, who 
 should have the right to deliberate and vote on all 
 matters. The new Irish parliament was to consist of 
 a Senate, made up of archbishops, representative 
 peers, and other important personages, and a House 
 of Commons, containing 160 representative members 
 and 40 additional ones, 20 of the extra members to 
 be chosen by Ulster constituencies and 20 appointed 
 by the lord lieutenant to represent the southern Union- 
 ists, this for the additional safeguarding of the rights 
 of Unionists in Ireland: forty per cent of the total 
 membership of the House was to be guaranteed them. 
 This concession was made by Nationalists something 
 in the way that long before two senators were allowed 
 to little Rhode Island at the same time that Virginia 
 and Massachusetts each were given two in spite of 
 their far greater numbers and wealth. One important 
 matter, that of customs and excise, the Convention 
 had not been able to agree about, and determination 
 was to be left untiFafter the end of the war; though a 
 
4>U IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 supplementary statement by some of the members in- 
 sisted that Ireland should be given control of them. 
 Substantially, the Convention proposed Home Rule 
 for Ireland in all Irish matters, with Ireland continu- 
 ing to be a member of the British Empire, and with 
 adequate and generous provisions for the protection 
 of the Unionist minority. There had been much com- 
 promise, and it seemed that something had been ac- 
 complished. For a moment the opinion abroad was 
 very favorable, and there was hope among the widely 
 scattered friends of Ireland that the Irish question was 
 about to be fairly settled. Apparently the British 
 government welcomed the solution no less ; and a com- 
 mittee of the cabinet council was at once appointed to 
 draft a bill for Irish self-government. 
 
 It soon developed, however, that little had really 
 been determined. Not only was the opposition of 
 Ulster still so strong that the old difficulty remained 
 in the government's way, but all of the Convention's 
 good work was soon obscured by the storm which con- 
 scription now raised. In April, after strong opposi- 
 tion and passionate resistance, the British government 
 announced that compulsory service would be extended 
 to Ireland. The work of the Convention was forgot- 
 ten there almost at once, and all classes united with 
 that passionate feeling often characteristic of Irish 
 movements to fight against military service imposed 
 by the United Kingdom. The Irish question had be- 
 come very intricate. All over the island resistance 
 to conscription was prepared; all parties were united 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 415 
 
 in opposition, Nationalist as well as Sinn Fein; and 
 collections were taken up in the parishes to support a 
 campaign of obstruction. Home Rule had not yet 
 been given; Ireland was neither loyal nor contented, 
 though the enemy was almost at the gates. Every 
 day the war was more dreadful, but the aloofness of 
 Ireland was more steadfast, heartless, and cool. Dur- 
 ing these days most of the Irish members were either 
 not present in the House of Commons, or when they 
 spoke it was with bitterness and chilling resentment. 
 Ireland was seething with discontent, and not willing, 
 except for the Ulster Unionists, any longer to assist 
 in the war. What Prussian authorities would have 
 done in such circumstances everybody but the Irish 
 seemed to know very well; but Sinn Fein was believed 
 to be in treasonable correspondence with Germany as 
 it had been two years before. 
 
 Conscription was the law but it was not yet en- 
 forced, and was destined, indeed, not to be brought 
 into effect ; but neither was any Home Rule obtained. 
 In June, 1918, Lord Curzon announced that efforts 
 would be made to recruit Irishmen by voluntary en- 
 listment, and that meanwhile compulsory service 
 would not be exacted. At the same time he said that 
 in view of the present circumstances, and in considera- 
 tion of recent revelations about Sinn Fein, the govern- 
 ment did not deem the present an opportune occasion 
 for the setting up of Home Rule. Thus was the mat- 
 ter put aside for a period not yet determined. 
 
 And now the last state of things was worse than the 
 
416 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 first. At the beginning of the war most Irishmen 
 seemed to acquiesce in the Nationalist leadership, and 
 the Nationalists seemed to be loyal supporters of the 
 supreme authority in London. Had self-government 
 been established in Ireland all might have been well — 
 we cannot be sure; but very great difficulties in a 
 grievous time had caused the doing of this to be post- 
 poned. The majority of Irishmen had not been will- 
 ing to subordinate even temporarily their own particu- 
 lar questions to the greater ones which concerned all 
 the world, and, impatient at any delay, the mass of 
 them gradually drifted away from their leaders to the 
 radicals, and in the end, when the Nationalist lead- 
 ers tried to keep their following, they had to be al- 
 most as resolute in their opposition as Sinn Fein, with 
 which at times they seemed in accord. Even then 
 Sinn Fein grew and thrived with new strength. It 
 is true, as Irishmen in Ireland grew cold toward the 
 war and drew away from Great Britain, Irishmen 
 beyond the seas, with wider view seeing more clearly, 
 and gradually coming to the fullest support of the 
 Allies in their struggle for the freedom of the world, 
 at length were impatient at the aloofness of their 
 people in the home land. As they threw themselves 
 heart and soul into the war, and at the same time the 
 foolish dealing of Sinn Fein with Germany was more 
 apparent, some of the leaders in Ireland were alarmed. 
 The Nationalists repudiated connection with Sinn 
 Fein, and presently decided to go back to the House 
 of Commons. Mr. Dillon, their leader, issued an ap- 
 
THE HOME RULE QUESTION 417 
 
 peal to Irish- Americans not to believe that Ireland 
 was pro-German, and not to be prejudiced against 
 them for what they were doing: But meanwhile Na- 
 tionalist voters were rapidly going to Sinn Fein. 
 
 A system of Home Rule would almost certainly 
 have been established in Ireland if the war had not 
 broken out, and even in the midst of the struggle it 
 might perhaps have been tried except for the Sinn 
 Fein conspiracies, and the disorder attendant. But 
 it should be noted that the most potent factor in caus- 
 ing Home Rule to be withheld was irreconcilable dif- 
 ference between Irishmen themselves, especially be- 
 tween a part of Ulster and the rest of Ireland. 
 Unionist Ulster had steadily supported both con- 
 scription and volunteering and was thought to have 
 taken a creditable share in the war, at the same time 
 that Sir Edward Carson carried on the fight against 
 ever subjecting Ulster to Home Rule; and while at 
 the beginning of the war the British government had 
 been on the point of putting Home Rule into effect 
 despite the utmost opposition of Ulster, and seemed 
 ready to use the British army in subduing the Cove- 
 nanters and forcing them to obey a Dublin parliament, 
 it was certain by the end of the struggle that most of 
 the British people were not willing to employ armed 
 coercion, and that undoubtedly no British army would 
 ever be used for such purpose in the future. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 
 
 Join the Army : Sell your soul, your country, and your 
 God for the Saxon shilling. Join England's hireling mur- 
 derers that pitchcapped and hanged your forefathers in '98, 
 and that would do the same with you to-morrow. Your re- 
 ward will be a life of immorality, and a dog's death in the 
 gaol or by the roadside. . . . God Save Ireland and to hell 
 with England. 
 
 Poster issued in the west of Ireland, 1909. 
 
 ... die for England. Why should they? What have 
 they or their forbears ever got from England that they 
 should die for her? . . . This war may be just or unjust, 
 but any fair-minded man will admit that it is England's war, 
 not Ireland's. 
 
 Letter of the Bishop of Limerick, November 10, 1915. 
 
 THE Irish question, so difficult and involved, be- 
 cause of old, half-forgotten conflicts, and present 
 opposition and difference, from sense of danger, from 
 rising nationalism, from desire for autonomy, because 
 of stern adherence to the Union, was made more diffi- 
 cult in the years of the European War by a factor 
 which developed from the war itself, by something 
 which enhanced resentment, increased hostility, and 
 at last brought Britain and Ireland to such critical 
 pass as existed in the Ulster crisis some years before ; 
 
 418 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 419 
 
 something which seems, indeed, settled now, with the 
 end of the war, but is certain to leave in Ireland and 
 particularly in England embers of hatred and con- 
 tempt which will smolder and glow fiercely dull for 
 many a day hereafter — the struggle for conscription 
 in Ireland. 
 
 As the great war continued the British Empire 
 made ever mightier efforts to overcome lack of pre- 
 paredness at the start. The conflict was being carried 
 on upon a scale hitherto undreamed of: constantly 
 more soldiers were needed. France gave all of her 
 manhood that could fight, and so did Germany ; Rus- 
 sia used her men prodigally, but could not equip other 
 millions who were waiting; all the time it was neces- 
 sary for the United Kingdom to do more. When 
 England entered the war, it was her expectation that 
 she would hold the sea, with some other assistance if 
 needed, while Russia and France did the principal 
 fighting on land ; but it was soon evident that this was 
 not enough, since Germany, because of superior prep- 
 aration and resources, was alone ready to conquer on 
 land, and in the first year, while some of her foes 
 were preparing to resist her, took possession of parts 
 of Europe which made her resources definitely su- 
 perior to those of Russia and France, and her posi- 
 tion well-nigh impregnable. If the German com- 
 bination was to be overcome, therefore, the United 
 Kingdom must expend resources to the utmost, and 
 a great army must be raised in the British Isles, upon 
 a scale never dreamed of there before. How well this 
 
420 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 was done in Britain, and how well it was done after- 
 wards in the sister commonwealth of the United 
 States, all the world knows now; but Britain especially 
 passed through difficulties very characteristic of Eng- 
 lish-speaking peoples. 
 
 It is in the essence of their character and in conso- 
 nance with their customs and old tradition, that while 
 they can be excellent warriors, they do not like war, 
 and are unwilling to prepare for it, as a rule, until the 
 imminence of war compels them; and that when they 
 must raise an army, they have deemed it a privilege 
 of freemen to fight by their own consent, and are very 
 unwilling that any law give authority to compel men 
 to fight as a duty. Not many ideas were better estab- 
 lished than this in the minds of the British people; it 
 had been developed because of their insular position 
 and age-long dependence upon a navy, and had been 
 fortified by experience in a long series of wars of the 
 old kind, where Englishmen had fought as volunteers. 
 It is well known how strong was this idea in the minds 
 of Americans up to a few years ago, when they wisely 
 and suddenly abandoned it under the threatening im- 
 minence of enormous danger and also because of the 
 experience of England, though the old idea continued 
 to be a prepossession of some few whose intellect, 
 finished in times very different, could not grasp the 
 problems of the present. 
 
 Great Britain began the war with voluntary service ; 
 and never was that system more justified. Hundreds 
 of thousands, and presently millions, of men, who 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 421 
 
 would have wished nothing more than to be left at 
 peace, enrolled in the service of the Empire, at a time, 
 when often there were no weapons for them to use in 
 training, and little equipment when they got into the 
 field. Immense armies were raised in this way, 
 armies which in almost any other war would have been 
 sufficient. But presently it was seen that still there 
 were not enough men ; and then it seemed necessary to 
 prepare for a change of system. The best, the 
 strongest, the most patriotic had volunteered, those 
 with most spirit of responsibility and sense of public 
 duty ; but when more were needed, it was found, as al- 
 ways, that there were many not enough alive to the 
 danger and not possessed with sufficient feeling of 
 obligation to offer themselves for service. 
 
 For some time Englishmen continued to struggle 
 with the volunteer system, using all sorts of indirect 
 pressure and compulsion. In the end, however, this 
 did not avail, and dire necessity seemed to compel re- 
 sort to an arrangement which would oblige those to 
 serve who were not willing to do it of their own accord. 
 Mr. Asquith was bitterly opposed to conscription, but 
 gradually he yielded. The Labor Party was averse 
 from it, as were many people, but about the end of 
 1915, after the matter had been the subject of serious 
 and increasing discussion, it was evident that such a 
 measure would not be steadfastly opposed when the 
 need was imperative. At length in January, 1916, a 
 bill was passed to call upon single men and childless 
 widowers from 18 to 40; and in the following May the 
 
422 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 government, on the advice of the military authorities, 
 introduced another, providing for the compulsory en- 
 listment of all males in Great Britain between the 
 ages of 18 and 41 ; in neither case was the law to take 
 effect in Ireland. 
 
 Mr. Redmond and the Nationalists opposed the first 
 bill for a while on the ground that necessity for it had 
 not been established. When they withdrew their op- 
 position to what was avowedly a purely British meas- 
 ure, Sir Edward Carson urged them to ask for the 
 inclusion of Ireland ; she was not doing nearly as well 
 as England, he said, in the war. In May, Sir Edward 
 asserted that the real reason why Ireland was ex- 
 cluded from the provisions of the pending bill was Mr. 
 Redmond's advice to the government; that this was 
 a disgrace to Ireland; and that the authorities ought 
 to suppress anti-recruiting campaigns in that country. 
 Mr. Redmond, replying, declared that it would not 
 only be wrong and unwise to attempt to enforce Irish 
 conscription, but that such an attempt would be an 
 insane thing as matters then were. He said it would 
 have been well had the Irish possessed Home Rule in 
 the two years past, for then things would have been 
 very different; he had done his best for recruiting in 
 Ireland, and his country had done well in the war. 
 An amendment was moved to include Ireland in the 
 scope of the bill, but the amendment was withdrawn 
 without a division. 
 
 Now came the Irish rebellion to embitter relations; 
 and it was more and more often repeated now that 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 423 
 
 Ireland had given in proportion to her population far 
 fewer volunteers than England or Scotland, and that 
 of the Irish volunteers a disproportionate number had 
 been furnished by Ulster. All the time the war was 
 more terrible, the need for men greater, and the ex- 
 tension of conscription more discussed. The follow- 
 ers of Sinn Fein had long maintained that no proper 
 Irishman could ever have to do with the armed forces 
 of Britain. Now the Nationalists were unyielding 
 against compulsory service. In October Mr. Red- 
 mond said that the imposing of conscription would be 
 the most fatal thing that could happen to Ireland, and 
 that he did not believe the British government would 
 challenge a conflict about it. He declared again that 
 proposals about conscription would not be listened to. 
 On the other hand he asked that Home Rule be put 
 into effect, that martial law be withdrawn, that prison- 
 ers not yet tried for the rebellion be released. Let 
 the government trust the Irish people. Mr. Devlin 
 derided ministers who talked of fighting for the rights 
 of small nations and yet kept down their own little 
 nation with martial law. What must Irishmen in the 
 trenches think of the system that prevailed in their 
 island? The Nationalists could give the government 
 no more co-operation as things were, but a great deal 
 if Ireland received Home Rule. About this very 
 time the Irish Unionist members recorded their opin- 
 ion that the Military Service Act ought to be extended 
 to Ireland. Mr. Asquith said that the situation was 
 so bad that only by agreement could it be amended; 
 
424 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 everyone in Great Britain would welcome and assist 
 such agreement. Mr. Lloyd George appealed to men 
 of all parties to aid in improving conditions. The 
 number of recruits from Ireland was small, and Irish 
 help was essential. During all this time the govern- 
 ment was vigorously searching for new men to add to 
 its armies, but as yet it hesitated to force conscription 
 on Ireland. 
 
 Irish affairs now went from bad to worse. In 1917 
 the idea of an Irish convention, to have Irishmen 
 try to settle the difficulties themselves, was proposed 
 by Mr. Lloyd George, and the idea was accepted in 
 Ireland. But while the Convention was sitting, and 
 while Irishmen were pondering the advice of their 
 wisest citizens, the storm of the war loomed more im- 
 minent over the islands in ever more terrific propor- 
 tions. Vaster and vaster grew the conflict, and 
 greater were the efforts which the Allies must make 
 if they were not to go down in defeat. Men from 
 Great Britain had volunteered by the million, and 
 then others had been obliged to serve, and the age 
 limits of those so compelled had been changed to in- 
 clude still more. During this period Irishmen had 
 not come forward in very great numbers; only about 
 170,000 had volunteered altogether. At first under 
 the leadership of Redmond there had been a generous 
 outburst of feeling and considerable recruiting in 
 Ireland, but this had not continued, and the numbers 
 obtained there bore no proportion to those from Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and Wales, or those which the over- 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 425 
 
 seas dominions put forward. Americans, who have 
 not been through a similar experience in this genera- 
 tion, can only faintly imagine the deep scorn and the 
 silent wrath, nay, the bursting sense of injustice that 
 now arose in the hearts of the people of Britain. 
 True, there were here, as always, two sides to the ques- 
 tion. Irishmen declared that they would not volun- 
 teer till they had Home Rule, and later they said they 
 would not submit to compulsory service unless such a 
 provision were imposed by an Irish parliament. But 
 it must be said that adherents of Sinn Fein, and others, 
 did not hesitate to affirm that Irishmen ought not to 
 fight and would not fight in a war without interest to 
 them. In Britain people who believed that the com- 
 mon heritage of civilized mankind was at stake, and 
 that the Allies were giving everything in a sacred 
 cause, not merely their own but that of all others who 
 shared the democratic, humanitarian culture of the 
 western world, of Ireland as much as of any — they 
 had to see Irishmen for the most part standing aside, 
 refusing to volunteer, defying conscription, discour- 
 aging enlistments, heaping odium upon those who 
 came forward to serve, and all the while making heart- 
 less complaints and bitter sneers, and accusations that 
 England treated Irishmen with tyranny like unto that 
 of the Germans. And this was taking place now at 
 a time when the cause of the Allies was dark under the 
 shadow of disaster sufficient to crush the best and most 
 dauntless. 
 
 Russia withdrew from the war. Unable to carry 
 
426 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 on a great modern struggle, lacking as she did the 
 basic and essential industries, able only to give men 
 in prodigal waste, she fought well, almost as long as 
 she could, beset as she was with traitors, ruined by 
 German propaganda and spies, without proper arms, 
 munitions, or transportation. At last she succumbed, 
 after unheard-of losses and suffering, endured in such 
 manner that hereafter the story of it all will be as 
 glorious as it is terrible and tragic. She was not able 
 any longer to carry on an offensive war ; her railways 
 were worn out, her fortresses lost, most of her trained 
 officers captured or dead, most of her material of war 
 ruined or in the enemy's hands. Now when the mili- 
 tary organization was nearly impotent, and the suf- 
 ferings of the people not to be endured, there came 
 into the unhappy country through German connivance 
 exponents of new and radical ideas. I know little of 
 the Bolsheviki; but most people thought they were 
 fools advocating impossible ideas and impractical 
 changes at the most impossible time, or else traitors 
 in behalf of the Germans ; though certain writers who 
 dwelt aloof in a world of words and their own tenuous 
 ideas proclaimed that here were prophets of a won- 
 drous and splendid order to come in a golden future. 
 Documents since published have convinced most per- 
 sons that they were probably in German pay, and 
 certainly lost in admiration of extremest socialist doc- 
 trines. They completed the ruin of Russia for the 
 time. The Muscovite army, if imbued with the spirit 
 which has often before brought forlorn hopes through 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 427 
 
 dark days to ultimate triumph, might perhaps have 
 stood by the Allies longer facing Germany in defen- 
 sive warfare; though it may be that even this was not 
 possible. At all events, under the influence of radi- 
 cals and propagandists, the Russian army melted 
 away, and, after a little, resistance to the Teutonic 
 powers came to an end, with the destruction of Russia 
 sealed in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. 
 
 Up to this time the power of the contestants had 
 seemed about evenly balanced, with time and the 
 greater resources apparently on the side of the Allies, 
 though actually, so great were the resources which 
 Germany had seized, time was working against them. 
 Now with Russia out of the struggle, Germany be- 
 came immediately, it would seem, stronger, and with- 
 drawing most of her forces from the east front, pre- 
 pared for a gigantic offensive finally to shatter her op- 
 ponents. All the time that troops were moved across 
 Europe, and the mighty stroke prepared, submarines 
 were preying on the life of Great Britain, and threat- 
 ening the basis of the power of the Entente. There 
 was only one bright spot in all this dark prospect : the 
 United States had come in at last, with her great re- 
 sources and mighty industrial power. But America 
 came late, and whether she had come in time or not 
 only the future would reveal. It had taken England 
 herself two years to get ready ; it might take America 
 as long. 
 
 So, during the winter of 1917 and the following 
 spring, there was terrible uncertainty and there were 
 
428 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 crushing burdens for the Allies. Italy was struck and 
 nearly destroyed. The submarine menace, less fright- 
 ful than at first, continued unrelenting and cruel. 
 The supreme effort of Ger.many was coming. Mean- 
 while upon Britain, as the very heart of the alliance, 
 fell enormous tasks, the making of munitions and 
 more munitions, for herself and her friends, the build- 
 ing of ships with feverish haste to stay the drain of 
 her life blood, the keeping of her armed forces on land 
 and on sea, and enlarging them as much as she could. 
 Very desperate was the need for men. 
 
 The English-speaking peoples, almost all of them, 
 responded in glorious fashion. In the British Em- 
 pire, including the dominions, were raised 7,500,000 
 men. America, with wisdom bought from the experi- 
 ence of others, adopted compulsory and universal serv- 
 ice at the start, and began training her millions also. 
 Only in Ireland and in the Canadian province of Que- 
 bec was there unwillingness to take proper part. 
 From Quebec with its French inhabitants scarcely 
 any soldiers had come to serve in the war, and soon 
 compulsory service was adopted in Canada partly for 
 the purpose of making these people do what others had 
 themselves freely done. In Ireland after 170,000 
 men had been raised, Ulster contributing more than 
 her proportionate share of them, enlistments were 
 about at an end, and Ireland standing aside looked 
 on at the conflict. Therefore it was that in Britain 
 sterner demand arose that the compulsory service of 
 Great Britain should be extended to Ireland as well. 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 429 
 
 Unionist Ulster continued to be not unwilling that 
 conscription should be imposed. Early in February 
 Sir Edward Carson said in a speech in Belfast that one 
 of the greatest mistakes of the government had 
 been in not applying to Ireland the treatment given 
 to the rest of the United Kingdom. But Celtic Ire- 
 land was as bitterly opposed as before, and threatened 
 resistance if ever the authorities carried conscription 
 into effect. This feeling was led and fostered by Sinn 
 Feiners ; it had grown as their power and influence in- 
 creased, and was now very potent all over the island ; 
 but it was shared by Nationalists also. 
 
 In March, 1918, the Germans suddenly began a 
 terrible offensive. All of their power and all of their 
 strength were at last brought to bear in the west for 
 one supreme effort. Now they would make a tri- 
 umphant peace. With a blow that seemed like un- 
 loosing the forces of hell they struck out from St. 
 Quentin at the Allied line where British forces had 
 just taken position, and driving through heroic re- 
 sistance beat their opponents as British armies are 
 seldom defeated, raced on almost as far as Amiens, 
 and nearly opened the road straight to Paris. North, 
 about Arras and Vimy, the British stood like a rock; 
 but the lines oft deemed impregnable had been broken 
 at a blow, and other blows were impending. The sav- 
 age fighting died in a lull, but in less than three weeks 
 came another stroke, and after fearful fighting the 
 British were pressed back until Ypres was almost lost, 
 and little was wanting to open the road to the Chan- 
 
430 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 nel. Again the enemy was halted, but he had got the 
 initiative completely. Darker days still were coming. 
 It was the very crisis of the struggle. If the war 
 was not to be won by the Germans before the Ameri- 
 cans arrived, then the Allies must put into the contest 
 every man they could muster. 
 
 April 9, the prime minister presented to the Com- 
 mons proposals for bringing forth all the man power 
 of the nation. From the great industries and trades 
 men were to be called; the age-limit was to be raised 
 to 50, in certain cases to 55; and the military service 
 acts were to be extended to Ireland also. He said 
 that the Convention had just reported, and that the 
 ministry would shortly submit to the Commons a 
 measure to establish self-government there. In a 
 crowded House these announcements were received 
 for the most part with approval, for few there were 
 who did not realize the awful gravity of the moment. 
 But most of the debate which followed was engrossed 
 by the Irish members, who would hear of no conscrip- 
 tion made thus for Ireland. Mr. Redmond, who 
 doubtless would have led the opposition, was not 
 there. His fine presence and wise and noble states- 
 manship were not to be any more. The hand of death 
 had been laid upon him and his brother. To Major 
 Redmond death had come on a battlefield in Flan- 
 ders; about the same time the Nationalist leader had 
 died, crushed and embittered, died of a broken heart, 
 at the wreck, so it seemed, of all he had striven for so 
 long and so well. The Nationalists, somewhat in con- 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 431 
 
 fusion, sat now under the leadership of Mr. Dillon. 
 He declared that Mr. Lloyd George would get no re- 
 cruits from Ireland. Mr. Devlin, alluding to the 
 Convention, said that it would be impossible to im- 
 pose compulsory service upon Ireland without the 
 assent and co-operation of an Irish parliament. Ac- 
 cording to Mr. O'Brien the proposal was a declaration 
 of war against Ireland. That same day a meeting of 
 Roman Catholic clergy in Dublin passed a resolution 
 against conscription, and said that it would be the 
 worst of blunders to attempt to enforce it. 
 
 The Military Service Bill was passed rapidly 
 through all its stages, and obtained huge majorities on 
 second and third reading. Men were now to be called 
 from 18 to 55; the bill might be extended to Ireland 
 by the king through an order in council. On second 
 reading Mr. Dillon attacked the measure bitterly, and 
 challenged the government to try Irish sentiment by a 
 plebiscite. Mr. Asquith said that the government 
 had twice considered such a measure when he was 
 prime minister, and each time rejected it. Self-gov- 
 ernment ought first to be given. Mr. Bonar Law 
 replying said that there was absolute necessity for 
 applying conscription to Ireland, and that the feeling 
 in Great Britain was very strong that it should be 
 done. Two days later, on third reading, there was 
 again a spirited debate. Mr. Henderson, leader of 
 the Labor Party, asked the government whether, if 
 they were unable to forego Irish military service com- 
 pelled by law, they would not announce that the 
 
432 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 measure was to be put into effect only after Home 
 Rule had been granted. Mr. Asquith supported this 
 appeal. Mr. Devlin declared that the House of Com- 
 mons was about to impose a blood-tax on Ireland, and 
 demanded that Irishmen should be given the status of 
 the men of Canada and Australia. If the govern- 
 ment would bring into existence an Irish parliament, 
 the heart of Ireland would be touched; he himself 
 would be the first to serve in any capacity. Mr. 
 Bonar Law concluded the debate. The Empire was 
 passing through a deadly peril. Necessity compelled 
 conscription in Ireland. The government would try 
 to give Home Rule at once now. The members then 
 approved the principle of Irish conscription by 281 
 votes to 165. Irish Nationalists made a great part 
 of the minority. On the other hand, Ulster Unionists 
 desired such a provision, protesting that Ireland 
 should take a just share in supporting the Empire in 
 the war. But they were still bitterly opposed to 
 Home Rule. Sir Edward Carson had already de- 
 clared that the government was confusing the con- 
 scription and the Home Rule measures. Now, when 
 the Bill was in committee, he said that the ministry 
 was offering the Nationalists Home Rule in return 
 for conscription. Ulster, which did not want Home 
 Rule, had been supporting conscription all along. 
 
 The report of the Irish Convention and the debates 
 in parliament were obscured by the rush of mightier 
 events. It seemed for a moment that Ypres was lost. 
 The British commander told his men that they fought 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 433 
 
 with their backs to the wall, and his words re-echoing 
 across the ocean, in America it was said that civiliza- 
 tion was at bay. Here was no time for parliamentary 
 obstruction or constitutional debate. Every man was 
 needed, if men were to save their dearest possessions. 
 Irish-Americans were serving loyally in the new 
 armies of the United States, and while there was some 
 opposition to Irish conscription in a few American 
 journals and on the part of many Irish- Americans, 
 most of the press and some Irish-Americans talked 
 now of the duty of Ireland and of the part which they 
 hoped Ireland would play. In America and else- 
 where, it is true, there was much feeling that the 
 British government should settle the Irish matter so 
 far as giving Ireland Home Rule was concerned, and 
 it was believed that the government was pledged to 
 do this, and ought to do it as soon as might be. But 
 stronger and stronger also was the feeling, especially 
 in the United States, that the question was a compli- 
 cated one, in respect of which the difficulties of the 
 British government had not always been properly con- 
 sidered, and that certainly in such a time Ireland had 
 her duties as well as her rights, that she had obligations 
 no less than Great Britain, and that it was an unhappy 
 spectacle in this dreadful moment to see Ireland tak- 
 ing little part in the war, and resisting the conscription 
 which was necessarily being applied in other countries 
 opposed to Germany and in the other parts of the 
 British Isles. 
 
 Ireland was unyielding, however. Nationalist 
 
434 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 members of the House of Commons resolved to remain 
 in Ireland to resist the enforcement of conscription, 
 declaring that such enforcement without the consent 
 of Ireland would be brutal tyranny and oppression. 
 Addressing a great throng in Belfast, Mr. Devlin ad- 
 vised that the act just passed be in no way recognized, 
 and that no man should register his name. The op- 
 position which had been begun by Sinn Fein, and 
 then been taken up and carried further by the Na- 
 tionalist Party, was made more effective and carried 
 further still by the Roman Catholic clergy. Every- 
 where high ecclesiastics and parish priests united in 
 advising their parishioners to resist. At Tipperary 
 10,000 people pledged themselves, and the priest who 
 administered the pledge advised them to keep it unto 
 death. At Queenstown there were many who stood 
 with heads uncovered to repeat the oath after the 
 Bishop of Cloyne. It was no long time before the 
 clergy had done against conscription what they had 
 once done against Parnell, and what they had pre- 
 viously accomplished for O'Connell. For good or for 
 evil, resistance to conscription had been made the 
 strongest feeling in Ireland; and this feeling, as so 
 often before, was being guided and fostered by the 
 priests, whose influence often was decisive. It was 
 very different in Quebec, where after a bitter opposi- 
 tion had been made, a law for compulsory service was 
 passed, and the Roman Catholic clergy assisted re- 
 cruiting and helped to restore good relations between 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 435 
 
 the people of Quebec and the other inhabitants of the 
 Dominion. 
 
 Meanwhile England, rightly from her point of view, 
 prepared to enforce the new law. It is true that she 
 proposed to give Home Rule at the same time, but 
 this was not very easy to do. The Convention had 
 presented an excellent report, but unfortunately, 
 while a majority had acceded, the report was nothing 
 more than an expression of opinion, not binding upon 
 Irishmen, and it had not been accepted by the Ulster 
 Unionists, who continued as before the principal ob- 
 stacle in the way. Accordingly, the government was 
 faced by nearly the same difficulties as in 1914. Un- 
 der the circumstances it did not feel that it could en- 
 act the recommendations of the Convention into a 
 Home Rule law, even though it greatly desired to 
 settle the Irish question by giving Home Rule. 
 Ulster would not leave the United Kingdom, and 
 Great Britain was now unwilling to coerce her. So 
 there seemed nothing to do but attempt to find some 
 settlement which would be more acceptable to all 
 Irishmen, and this was very difficult, in the midst of 
 the greater things happening not very far off in 
 France. 
 
 Discontent and disorder increased. Again the 
 lead seems to have been taken by Sinn Feiners, many 
 of whom had come back to Ireland at the time of the 
 amnesty preceding the Convention. They were still 
 as they had been. The work of the Convention, with 
 
\ 
 
 436 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 which they would have nothing to do, had appeased 
 them not at all. Now conscription made them go 
 farther along their old way. It is asserted that they 
 took up again the work they had done in the early 
 part of 1916. In May the lord lieutenant issued a 
 proclamation declaring that there was a pro-German 
 conspiracy, and this was quickly followed by the raid- 
 ing of Sinn Fein headquarters and the arrest of the 
 leaders, some of whom had had part in the Easter Re- 
 bellion. Presently the British government published 
 from the documents taken evidence purporting to 
 show that Sinn Fein had entered into correspondence 
 with Germany for the furtherance of its measures. 
 
 About the same time that the Sinn Fein treason was 
 announced by the authorities, the Germans made an- 
 other gigantic assault, and breaking through the 
 French lines at Chemin des Dames, rushed forward 
 until they came to the Marne once more. Rheims 
 seemed on the point of falling, the whole line might 
 collapse, another thrust like it and the Germans would 
 probably win Paris. At this time it could not be 
 known that fortune was about to turn, swift and de- 
 cisive, that in less than two months there would be a 
 million Americans in France to assist, to encourage, 
 to inspire, and that the British and the French, stand- 
 ing firm against the next German assaults, would be- 
 gin a glorious offensive and, with assistance from 
 the new American armies, change the whole course 
 of the war. As yet this was hid in the future. The 
 Allies were at the nadir of the war, and their hearts 
 
QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 437 
 
 might well break with discouragement and despair. 
 But there was little sympathy from Ireland, and the 
 heartless words of Irish members in the Commons at 
 this time will not be forgotten for a great while to 
 come. 
 
 Conscription in Ireland had almost led to bloodshed 
 and strife, but the issue was avoided now largely be- 
 cause the government was not willing to press it to 
 conclusion. Compulsory service was not enforced, 
 while the Irish were invited to make up their quota by 
 enlistment. Some Irishmen warmly assisted, but lit- 
 tle was thus accomplished. And while recruits came 
 forward slow, and in scanty numbers, the great war 
 suddenly ended, and the whole matter was changed 
 from a present dangerous dispute to one of those 
 things, so frequent with Ireland and England, thrust 
 back to the past, but still potent through memory to 
 keep the two peoples apart. For notwithstanding 
 the improvement of late, Ireland, because of Sinn 
 Fein and conscription, was farther from England than 
 ever in the last generation ; and in place of the gener- 
 ous sentiment so strong shortly before in the hearts 
 of the British people there burned now feelings of 
 contempt and despite and sense of injustice and 
 wrong. What the event will be depends greatly on 
 how long these feelings endure. Many things in these 
 years must be forgotten. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 AMERICA, GREAT BRITAIN, AND THE IRISH QUESTION 
 
 In the interests of the Empire I feel very strongly that it 
 is imperative that the Irish question should be settled on 
 lines which will satisfy the sentiment of the oversea democ- 
 racies, both in our self-governing Colonies and in the United 
 States. . . . What a happiness it would be for Ireland, what 
 a happiness it would be for England, what a happiness it 
 would be for the whole of the English-speaking race, if this 
 great and happy reconciliation could be effected . . . such 
 a result . . . would bring great relief and an increase of 
 new strength to the State, and . . . once accomplished would 
 bring, not only to the United Kingdom, but to the whole 
 English-speaking people, advantages and blessings the value 
 of which it would be difficult to compute. 
 
 Speech of Earl Grey in the House of Lords, 
 
 January 27, 1913. 
 
 I 
 
 N the course of this writing I have assumed that 
 something is certainly wrong in the Irish situa- 
 tion, that this wrong should be righted as soon as may 
 be, that liberal England desires very much to find a 
 satisfactory and proper solution, that the British peo- 
 ple wish to do all they can to assist such solution, but 
 that there are enormous difficulties in the way, not 
 transient and superficial but fundamental and intrin- 
 sic. I believe that a correct appreciation of the gen- 
 eral bearing of the question and its difficulties has not 
 
 438 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 439 
 
 generally existed in this country, partly through lack 
 of information, partly because of American attitude 
 towards England, and partly from the feeling of 
 Irish- Americans. 
 
 The relations between Great Britain and the United 
 States have long been better than the feeling of the 
 British and American peoples for each other. Since 
 the so-called War of 1812 there has been no actual con- 
 flict, and disputes have all been settled peaceably, with 
 constantly better spirit of compromise and good-will. 
 Certainly at the end of the nineteenth century Britain 
 and the United States trusted each other, and re- 
 garded war with each other as unthinkable. So good 
 had relations become that statesmen on both sides of 
 the Atlantic began to look forward to the day when 
 there would be some sort of an alliance or union. 
 
 Actually, however, there remained a good deal of 
 coldness and disapproval. Each one could see clearly 
 the faults of the other, and was disposed to judge with 
 the harshness which members of the same family some- 
 times use. It is difficult to know, but after being in 
 England for a while I was convinced, notwithstanding 
 some lamentable and offensive exceptions to the con- 
 trary, that Englishmen had developed towards us a 
 juster, more charitable, and kindlier feeling than we 
 had for them. Certain it is that while Americans 
 realized from the first the splendid merits of the 
 French in this war, they had at the start no great en- 
 thusiasm about England and her equally magnificent 
 achievements, and that while happily with many this is 
 
440 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 no longer so, yet the change was slow and for some 
 time not marked by any warm or generous expression. 
 This is partly because we know the French much less 
 well, so that when we admire, we admire more ex- 
 travagantly; but it is also because of other things 
 which go back for a great many years. 
 
 Americans separated from England violently in 
 the Revolutionary War, and this struggle and the 
 other one later left in England a feeling that there had 
 been base ingratitude, that a thankless child had aban- 
 doned its parent and friend as soon as it could, and 
 in the United States strong conviction that Americans 
 had thrown off the shackles which a tyrant had striven 
 to impose. Old ties of love and devotion being sun- 
 dered, they were presently half obliterated and for- 
 gotten. Inevitably bitterness and recrimination 
 arose. The people of Great Britain, properly from 
 their point of view, looked upon Americans, whom 
 they did not know very well, as rude and uncultured, 
 as rough and uncouth, as pioneers and beginners, un- 
 developed and provincial; and there was certainly a 
 great deal of truth in all this. But from their own 
 point of view Americans, while resenting the criticisms 
 of British travellers and writers with all the quick 
 sensitiveness of newcomers in the presence of those 
 well-established, yet looked upon Englishmen as slug- 
 gish people who unlike themselves endured govern- 
 ment by aristocracy and king. Once the separation 
 was complete there was much divergence between the 
 two branches of the race; for Americans advanced 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 441 
 
 somewhat faster along the road to democracy than the 
 people of Britain, and often between the American 
 government and the aristocratic authorities of Eng- 
 land there was little sympathy and small understand- 
 ing. But in the latter part of the nineteenth century, 
 the people of the British Isles developed one of the 
 best democracies in the world, and this, along with 
 changed position in international affairs, made Eng- 
 land constantly more sympathetic toward America 
 and ever more desirous of her friendship. 
 
 What stood in the way now was the force of tradi- 
 tion and evil memories of things long since done or 
 for a great while misunderstood. Old belief that the 
 United States had won freedom from a hateful Eng- 
 lish tyrant, that Englishmen had not the free govern- 
 ment which Americans had won for themselves, that 
 England was not really friendly to the United States, 
 but ever on the alert to better her own selfish interests, 
 these ideas were widely held by many of the less well- 
 informed in America, whose only knowledge came 
 from inferior text-books filled with archaic mistakes, 
 and whose prejudices were fostered by commoner 
 politicians playing on that ignorant patriotism so 
 often helpful to scoundrels. 
 
 To all this must be added the fact that undoubtedly 
 a great deal of vicious propaganda was done before 
 the war, rather through dupes than with bribes, pos- 
 sible from poor acquaintance and misapprehension. 
 Americans and British, much alike, are somewhat un- 
 like, and the differences were used here to strengthen 
 
442 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 a belief that Englishmen were insular, opinionated, 
 obstinate, slow, and obtuse, lacking in taste, smug, 
 hypocritical, offensive. Not long ago a book was pub- 
 lished to maintain that the Encyclopcedia Britannica 
 was spreading many of these worse qualities among 
 us and hiding from us better things elsewhere. It is 
 certain that Englishmen have faults, sometimes not 
 pleasant; but if Americans are ignorant of their own 
 it is from lack of sophistication often characteristic of 
 young peoples. Far more important it is that Amer- 
 icans and British, different though they are in many 
 ways, and faulty as they both are in some ways, are 
 yet very like to each other, are more closely related 
 than any other great peoples in the world, and are, 
 along with the French, who can never be quite so close 
 or intelligible to either of them, the foremost expo- 
 nents of democracy, humane civilization, international 
 honesty, and fair play in the world. There can be no 
 better task for the enlightened people of the United 
 States and of the British Empire than to try to under- 
 stand each other better, to appreciate fundamental 
 common good qualities, and act together hereafter. 
 It has been wisely said that herein, most probably, lies 
 the best hope for a real league of nations in the future. 
 There has been one particular obstacle to the better 
 relations of America and England the magnitude of 
 which it is difficult to know, and that is the hostility 
 toward Britain of the Irish men and women who set- 
 tled in our midst, and whose descendants now make 
 up one of the principal stocks in the United States. 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 443 
 
 Almost all of them went from Ireland in the midst of 
 discrimination and oppression or at a time of economic 
 hardship and terrible disaster. The Scotch-Irish, 
 who had so much to do with the resistance of the 
 colonies in the Revolutionary period, went out of Ire- 
 land because of the old industrial and commercial re- 
 strictions which England imposed in the Mercantile 
 era. Many of them brought unyielding hostility to- 
 wards England; and Molyneux's old pamphlet may 
 have been remembered by those who would pay no 
 taxes without representation. Irishmen eagerly abet- 
 ted the revolt against England, and some of them took 
 a prominent part in the struggle. "Charles Thomp- 
 son of Strabane was secretary of the Continental 
 Congress. Eight Irishmen, passionate organisers of 
 the revolt, signed the Declaration of Independence. 
 After the war an Irishman prepared the Declaration 
 for publication from Jefferson's rough draft: an 
 Irishman's son first publicly read it ; an Irishman first 
 printed and published it." 1 Through the long years 
 when hostility towards England was slowly diminish- 
 ing, it was often strengthened again by Irishmen, 
 and it was enormously increased when about the mid- 
 dle of the century famine and disease and the clear- 
 ances drove such ffreat numbers of Irishmen out of 
 the old country mostly to the United States. They 
 left their home in the deepest misery, and thev on me 
 to their new one with the utmost bitterness. There 
 they worked well, prosoered, and gathered to them- 
 
 i Mrs. Green, Irish Nationality, p. 181. 
 
444 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 selves consequence and power. They took a very im- 
 portant part in the Civil War, fighting for the North, 
 and in the years after they were not only one of the 
 largest elements in the population of America, but 
 acquired a political power even more significant than 
 their numbers. In the fast developing and often ill- 
 managed cities they often got political direction 
 largely to themselves, bringing the spirit if not the 
 form of tribal and clan government, the personal re- 
 lationship of henchman to boss, rather than effective 
 municipal management. And their political power 
 was seen in Congress itself, where their influence was 
 always potent, and where sometimes they had, what 
 their brethren abroad got in London, the balance of 
 power. Numberless Irishmen had become successful 
 business men, lawyers, and men of affairs, and the 
 finer qualities of the Celtic race, vivacity, brilliancy, 
 warmness of heart, endeared them to their fellows in 
 the commonwealth. Therefore they were able to ex- 
 ert much influence and even control in politics and 
 foreign policy, and this influence was on occasion 
 nearly always exerted against Great Britain, and is 
 now thought by many to have been one of the princi- 
 pal factors in keeping England and America apart. 
 Such estimate is always difficult, and perhaps their 
 part has been exaggerated, but certain it is that British 
 statesmen working for closer relations have often 
 found their efforts mysteriously thwarted, and Amer- 
 ican statesmen themselves have confessed that they 
 were hindered by Irish-Americans. 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 445 
 
 Irish- American affection for Ireland is a beautiful 
 thing, and the dislike of England in the past is at 
 least understandable; but hatred of Britain ought to 
 have softened with time and lessened as Ireland was 
 properly treated. This has not been so because 
 Irishmen in America, when they thought they were 
 decrying evils of the present very often inveighed 
 against wrongs in the past. They lived far away 
 from England and Ireland, and really knew as little 
 about Irish matters and British matters as Americans 
 generally knew about foreign affairs. They were, in- 
 deed, constantly informed and re-informed, but their 
 teachers were usually extremists who had left the 
 British Isles to preach violence and hatred in 
 America, and certain Irish-American newspapers 
 which were founded originally on hatred, and con- 
 tinued to thrive by stimulating hatred and keeping 
 bitterness alive. It will be a hopeful sign both of the 
 informedness and the proper spirit of our Celtic fel- 
 low-citizens when many of these journals, if continu- 
 ing in the same spirit, find that they have too few 
 readers to justify further appearance. Irishmen in 
 this country owe it to themselves, to Ireland, and to 
 the United States, to study the Irish question not in 
 the bitter and narrow way it has been so repeatedly 
 taught here, but with . proper consideration of the 
 numerous factors involved and the manifold diffi- 
 culties in the way, so that they may assist with coun- 
 sel and wisdom in solving it, for the good of Ireland, 
 the British Empire, and all of the English-speaking 
 
446 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 peoples. Their assistance is vitally important and 
 earnestly desired. Certainly the Irish matter will 
 never be properly adjusted through blind denuncia- 
 tion and ignorant hardness of heart. 
 
 In so far as Irish-Americans possessed great power 
 in the United States their attitude was of funda- 
 mental importance in the early part of the war. So 
 enormous was German military power, and so huge 
 the strength long prepared, that only a succession of 
 interventions, that might not have transpired, kept 
 Germany from triumph. Had Belgium not resisted, 
 France might have been crushed at once. France 
 must have succumbed, and after her Russia, had the 
 British Empire not entered the war. After a bitter 
 struggle it was probable that the resources controlled 
 by the Central powers would give them the victory in 
 the end, if the mighty weight of the United States 
 were not brought in against them. It is evident now 
 that Germany had long laid her plans to keep out the 
 United States, and some of her efforts had to do with 
 making the American people hostile to Great Britain, 
 especially through prejudice felt by Irish- Americans. 
 We have passed through the years of doubt and inde- 
 cision in which at last these machinations came to 
 naught, with most of our people turning from her 
 crimes with horror, and in the end willing to follow 
 their great leader as far as honor and necessity led 
 them. During these years the sentiment of Irish- 
 Americans was, on the whole, very fine. Some irre- 
 concilable people seem to have lent themselves to 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 447 
 
 German intrigue, if they did not take Germany's 
 gold; some of the radicals urged Irish independence 
 as they would support a compromise peace or a 
 Bolshevik Russia; and some of the American Sinn 
 Feiners apparently abetted German plotting to make 
 rebellion and disorder in Ireland. But as far as one 
 may judge, most Irishmen here sympathized warmly 
 with the Allies, shrank from the outrages of Ger- 
 many, and if they did not admire and respect Great 
 Britain, yet scarcely attempted to keep America from 
 helping her and the Allied cause, and once America 
 was in the war gave eager and loyal service. Well 
 would it have been had Irishmen in Ireland taken so 
 fine a part as their brethren in the United States. 
 When the fate of the British Empire was, perhaps, 
 trembling in the balance, along with the fate of all the 
 free nations of the world, Irish-Americans might have 
 done much to keep America from assisting France and 
 England. In so far as they did not do this their con- 
 duct has helped to save democracy and freedom, and 
 they have allowed the United States and the British 
 Empire to come into closer relations than ever before. 
 England and the United States will remain in 
 closer communion if Americans and British under- 
 stand better the difficulties and problems on both sides 
 of the Atlantic. There has been no greater obstacle 
 than the Irish question. I believe that a better com- 
 prehension of it would cause most Americans to view 
 it somewhat differently than heretofore, with sym- 
 pathy for the perplexities of England as well as for 
 
448 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the aspirations of Ireland; and it is not impossible 
 that Irish-Americans viewing the matter more wisely 
 might cause Irishmen at home to see it more broadly 
 and more truly also. 
 
 There is no doubt that Ireland once suffered griev- 
 ous wrongs. But most Irishmen have been inclined 
 to speak solely of these wrongs, and Irish-Americans 
 have heard little of anything else. Englishmen now- 
 adays admit them, they have professed repentance, 
 and tried to make atonement for the past. Neverthe- 
 less it is evident that these evils in former times arose 
 not merely because of exceeding hardness and bru- 
 tality on the part of Englishmen, but because of dif- 
 ferent conditions and worse usages formerly. In the 
 course of the nineteenth century England became 
 liberal and democratic, and one after another the evils 
 were removed from Ireland and remedies applied. 
 Certainly some things remain to be amended; but 
 where in the world do they not? Ireland is not Ar- 
 cadia — much of the land is naturally poor ; grievances 
 still remain, but all improvement needs time for com- 
 pletion. The British people, before the war absorbed 
 their attention, were doing their best to improve con- 
 ditions in all respects in all of the British Isles; and 
 I am convinced that the prevailing sentiment was to 
 do for Ireland whatever was helpful and right as soon 
 as it could be done. In the past Ireland was unfor- 
 tunate, and she was treated very badly. It is more 
 important in this present time to know that she is not 
 treated badly or unjustly, that while things remain to 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 449 
 
 be amended, very much has been done, that she has 
 no fundamental grievance arising from England, un- 
 less it be held that it is wrong not to allow her to es- 
 tablish a nation completely independent and separate, 
 and that what her people need most of all is industry, 
 and good order, and time, for achieving the realiza- 
 tion of all their best interests. 
 
 Sinn Fein and its idea of the complete independ- 
 ence of Ireland I have tried to discuss sympathetically, 
 from the point of view of Sinn Fein. But from all 
 other points of view than its own I believe some of its 
 plan to be wrong and unwise. All of the influence of 
 geography, of history for the past four hundred years, 
 and of dominant modern conditions, make of the Brit- 
 ish Isles one group and one unit. Tearing them apart 
 would be in direct opposition to these forces. As 
 things have hitherto been in this world the separation 
 of Ireland from Great Britain would most probably 
 come only with the destruction of the British Empire, 
 or else be symptomatic of near dissolution. Maybe 
 a new era is at hand in which there will be no more 
 wars or fear of war, no future international rivalries 
 and danger, and if that come to pass then Ireland will 
 no longer necessarily be so grave a consideration to 
 Great Britain; but as yet we can only desire and 
 strive to bring about, not make our decisions from 
 premises hoped for but still to be established. Geo- 
 graphically Ireland lies right across the most impor- 
 tant sea-routes of Great Britain; strategically it can 
 always be a threat during time of war, and it has 
 
450 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 always been an inviting base for an enemy's flank at- 
 tack. That is the fundamental reason why England 
 has striven so hard to possess it ; that is the reason why 
 she must and she will control it. No people placed 
 in Great Britain, unless sunk in cowardice and sloth, 
 would not fight to the death rather than see a hostile 
 Ireland independent and separate, or not view with 
 dismay even one lukewarm and neutral. And that 
 is exactly why a Germany, who cared nothing for the 
 rights of other peoples and seized their lands wher- 
 ever she could, was so anxious that Ireland should get 
 independence. With such an Ireland in any way hos- 
 tile to England never again could England make con- 
 test with Germany. Well did the dupes of Germany 
 and the haters of Britain understand this. "Eng- 
 land, enclosed between a hostile Ireland and a hostile 
 European power, such as Germany, would be in a 
 position of grave peril as regards her food supplies," 
 said one who wished Germany well. "Indisputably 
 Ireland is the gateway of Europe, but she is also the 
 keystone of British power and dominion on the high 
 seas of the world. When Ireland passes out of Eng- 
 lish possession the sun will have set forever on the 
 British Empire." 2 Other things being equal, it has 
 to be considered that the proper interests of the forty 
 millions of Great Britain outweigh those of the four 
 millions of Ireland; and if a sacrifice has to be made 
 it is better that the aspirations of a few be denied than 
 the safety of ten times as many. 
 
 aMcGuire, What Could Germany Do for Ireland? pp. 126, 127, 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 451 
 
 Very true, if Irishmen were oppressed and trampled 
 upon as were the people of Bosnia or Posen, if their 
 language were proscribed, if opportunities were with- 
 held, if they were denied any share in the govern- 
 ment, if they were constantly treated as inferiors with 
 contumely and contempt, then it might be very well 
 for the lovers of Ireland to declare that the evil be- 
 havior of the people of Great Britain forfeited the 
 claims which Great Britain could properly make. 
 But Ireland is not now maltreated: Irishmen have 
 before the law exactly the same status and privileges 
 which other people have in the British Isles; they con- 
 trol their own local affairs ; they have such religion as 
 they please unmolested; the British government puts 
 no obstacle in the way of their learning and speak- 
 ing the old Gaelic tongue if they desire it; and they 
 have, so far as the government is concerned, the same 
 economic opportunities as have other people in the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 In short, Great Britain cannot with respect to her 
 own proper interests permit Ireland to effect separa- 
 tion and be independent, unless international rela- 
 tions become very different, since her safety and na- 
 tional existence are closely connected with Ireland 
 whenever there is war; and Ireland is not so treated 
 that Britain can be held to forego these considerations. 
 Moreover, geographical and economic ties work to 
 draw England and Ireland together. If Ireland and 
 Great Britain were not in a United Kingdom, it 
 would certainly be the first task of the wisest men 
 
452 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 in both countries to bring about some union between 
 them. They ought then most certainly to be trying 
 to effect a federation even as now the extremists wish 
 to bring about separation. Those who admire the 
 British Empire as one of the best and most beneficent 
 organizations in the world, and who believe that de- 
 mocracy and freedom will be strengthened in the fu- 
 ture through a strong British Empire and the great 
 English-speaking commonwealths in other parts of 
 the world acting together, will not wish to see Ire- 
 land achieve an independence which Great Britain 
 cannot allow. 
 
 Local autonomy, self-government, or Home Rule, 
 whatever we call it, is another matter. If Home Rule 
 is sought merely as a stepping-stone to separation, 
 Englishmen must and should oppose it; but if Irish- 
 men who are willing to remain loyally in the Empire 
 yet desire to -have control of Irish affairs in their 
 hands, the best opinion of the world is that they 
 should have it, and I believe it is the intention of Eng- 
 lishmen also that they shall have it. The present sys- 
 tem is neither so bad nor so unfair as represented 
 by partisan writers; but in accordance with the best 
 of our traditions Irishmen should control their own 
 affairs in their own way if they wish to do so. If it is 
 true that Ireland is essentially a colony, then she 
 should have as soon as possible the status of a self- 
 governing dominion. The principal obstacle now re- 
 maining is not reluctance of the British people but 
 differences, hitherto insuperable, between Ulster and 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 453 
 
 the rest of the island. Surely in better times a solu- 
 tion of this difficulty will be found. If all else fail, it 
 may be that the question can be settled ultimately by 
 an expedient approved long ago by Chamberlain, sup- 
 ported more recently by Lord Grey and, so it is said, 
 by Sir Edward Carson, and of late considered by Mr. 
 Lloyd George, not Irish Home Rule but federalism 
 or local control of affairs, not only in Ireland but 
 rather in Scotland, in Wales, in parts of England, in 
 Ulster, and in the other part of Ireland. As things 
 are at present it is no more unreasonable for Great 
 Britain to hold Ireland than it would be for Ireland 
 to hold an unwilling Ulster. We had such a prob- 
 lem once in the United States : during the Civil War 
 West Virginia was made a separate state. It might 
 be a splendid thing for Irishmen if all Ireland could 
 unite under its own Home Rule; but if this cannot 
 be brought about, there might not be unconquerable 
 objection to having the two parts of Ireland mem- 
 bers among a larger number of federal divisions of 
 the United Kingdom. Federalization would be very 
 advantageous to the government of the British Em- 
 pire, for the parliament at Westminster is now over- 
 whelmed by the mass of business, much of it Imperial, 
 but a great deal unimportant and local. The legis- 
 lators cannot attend to it all properly. Often they 
 give only scant attention to matters concerning Wales, 
 Scotland, Ireland, or the Midlands, but are obliged 
 to give so much that they have insufficient time for 
 what affects all the Empire. Federalism and the dev- 
 
454 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 olution of local business to local governing bodies, m 
 other words, Home Rule for various parts of the 
 United Kingdom, would leave the great parliament 
 free to give all of itself to the governing of all. To 
 this the great objection is that Ireland outside of 
 Unionist Ulster is not willing to have Ireland divided. 
 In some form, however, I predict with confidence that 
 Home Rule will certainly be given. 
 
 Some people believe the accusations of bad faith 
 made by Sinn Feiners and Nationalist partisans, say- 
 ing that it is evident Great Britain has no intention 
 of giving Home Rule, since after so many promises 
 and so many years it has not yet come, that Ireland 
 has been merely cajoled and deceived, and that Eng- 
 land took all she could from John Redmond and 
 afterwards cast him away. There are no proofs 
 whatever for such assertions, and they can only be 
 made by telling one side of the matter and ignoring a 
 great many factors. So far had Home Rule action 
 gone at the beginning of the war that the party in 
 power was about to pass the law, as it did shortly 
 after, and appeared determined to force it through, 
 even though many Englishmen and a considerable 
 section of Irishmen themselves were strongly opposed 
 to it. It seemed that Ireland was to get Home Rule 
 even though it entailed civil war. 
 
 At this moment came the great war. England was 
 unready and in the greatest danger ; Germany had pre- 
 pared unceasingly, and the preparations included 
 every secret device and every expedient of bad faith 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 455 
 
 in the countries she was going to fight. In Belgium 
 and France artillery platforms had been secretly laid 
 for sudden military use; the whole world was filled 
 with spies, propagandists, and agents of destruction; 
 everywhere treachery and organized villainy had been 
 industriously engaged in corrupting, undermining, 
 and preparing destruction. These things are better 
 known now than they could be then; but as soon as 
 the war began it was evident that wherever there was 
 chance of stirring up disaffection and creating dis- 
 turbance among discontented or recalcitrant people, 
 German agents had been untiringly active. If Ger- 
 many could bring it about, there would be troubles for 
 France in Morocco, for the United States with 
 Mexico and Japan, for Italy in Tripoli, and for the 
 British Empire in India, Egypt, and Ireland. Now 
 conditions in Ireland at the beginning of 1914 were 
 such that Germany might have great hope based upon 
 them. There might be civil war between Ulster and 
 the Nationalists, if Home Rule were put into effect. 
 Germany certainly counted on this. On the other 
 hand there were some who cared nothing for Home 
 Rule but who wanted to dissolve all connection with 
 Great Britain, and who would welcome the assistance 
 of any power to bring it about. Actually within two 
 years Sinn Fein did begin a rebellion at one of the 
 darkest moments of the struggle, and was willing to 
 accept help from Germany to make the rebellion a 
 success. Moreover, as the naval warfare developed 
 and submarines preyed upon British commerce, they 
 
456 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 began to operate about the coast of Ireland, and they 
 would have got the greatest conceivable subvention 
 in their work had the shores of Ireland been opened 
 to their use. The great trade-routes from Glasgow, 
 Liverpool, and London went past the north and 
 south ends of Ireland, from which submarines could 
 easily cut them. All down the west coast of the is- 
 land, from beyond Lough Swilly to Queenstown, 
 there were deep bays and indentations, ideal lurking 
 places for submarines, where they might, if the in- 
 habitants ashore wished, very well receive supplies 
 and assistance. All this being so, and there being 
 some people in Ireland not loyal to Great Britain and 
 others who were hostile and declared they would wel- 
 come the Germans, it would have been a very rash 
 thing for Britain to relax the strictest control over the 
 country so long as the dangers of war time continued. 
 There was little doubt that in 1914 most Irishmen 
 were loyal, some of them enthusiastically so. Most of 
 them could certainly be trusted. But with some of 
 them disloyal, and with German intrigue what it was, 
 with the stake so great and the danger so terrible, 
 no chance ought to have been taken. And further- 
 more, even if Ulster and Nationalist Ireland had been 
 able to agree on Home Rule, and even if both of 
 them had had the best of intentions, giving such a 
 thing during the continuance of the war would have 
 brought in one of those dangerous periods of transi- 
 tion in which disloyalty and treachery ever find their 
 best chance. It is said that German submarines did 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 457 
 
 get some assistance on the Irish coast, as it was. In 
 the confusion, however slight, of the setting up of a 
 new system of government, and the loosening of old 
 control, the disaffected elements might have been able 
 to go much further, and bring about what would have 
 been fatal to Great Britain and the Allies. Herein, 
 I believe, is the principal cause of the reluctance to 
 give Home Rule after the beginning of the war. 
 
 It is very true, as some have argued, that once the 
 Boers had been disaffected, and their loyalty had been 
 got by wisely and generously giving them that which 
 they wanted, by virtually yielding them control over 
 South Africa, by giving them and the rest of the 
 population Home Rule. It is true, the result was 
 excellent. In a few years they became loyal and 
 devoted members of the Empire, and when the great 
 war broke out proved their loyalty by standing beside 
 Great Britain and themselves waging war in her be- 
 half. Surely the experiment worked well; but until 
 the event, it was not certain that this happy result 
 would ensue. Usually, we like to think, fine and gen- 
 erous treatment begets gratitude and good faith; but 
 it is not always so. It could not be absolutely cer- 
 tain that if a great conflict broke out the Boers would 
 not stand by in cool indifference or even take the in- 
 dependence which they had failed to keep in the 
 South African War. As a matter of fact, some of 
 the Boer irreconcilables did unfurl the standard of 
 revolt, as the Germans had hoped. It is important 
 to remember, however, that with South Africa Britain 
 
458 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 was taking a chance which could in no way bring to 
 her complete and irreparable disaster. But if such 
 a chance were taken with respect to Ireland the result 
 might be good, and perhaps it would have been, but 
 not certainly; if it had been bad, the disaster could 
 easily have brought the destruction of the British 
 Empire with it. 
 
 All these things must, I think, in fairness be taken 
 into account when people say that England has led 
 Ireland on in the years since 1914, giving her nothing 
 of what had been promised, breaking pledges and de- 
 ceiving her. And yet, even after it was certain that 
 Sinn Feiners worked against Britain and spoke for 
 Germany, after the Easter Rebellion, after German 
 submarines had got petrol and supplies on the coast, 
 England did declare her willingness that Home Rule 
 should be given at once, none the less, if only Irish- 
 men themselves could agree about it. At her sug- 
 gestion a Convention of Irishmen was held, and Brit- 
 ain proclaimed that she would be very glad if the 
 Irish matter could be settled altogether by representa- 
 tives of Ireland. After much difficulty a majority 
 of the members agreed upon a report, but from this 
 agreement Protestant Ulster dissented as violently 
 as she had before about the Home Rule bills. Sub- 
 stantially, therefore, the difficulty remained as before 
 the Convention assembled. Whatever reluctance 
 many Englishmen feel to change the existing Union 
 and give Ireland Home Rule, the principal reason 
 why Home Rule is not given now is that part of Ire- 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 459 
 
 land, and a very substantial and important part, res- 
 olutely refuses to have it. It is to be hoped that 
 through federalism or through the willingness of Na- 
 tionalists and Ulstermen to agree Irishmen will get 
 that kind of a government most suitable for them and 
 most desired by them ; and most of the British people 
 are willing that this shall take place. But the time 
 of a death-grapple with the German Empire was not 
 a propitious moment to bring such a settlement about. 
 Finally, with respect to conscription in Ireland, it 
 is not easy to make correct judgment. Many Irish- 
 men felt strongly that compulsory service ought to be 
 ordained only by themselves under their own autono- 
 mous government, and that therefore conscription 
 should come after Home Rule. It is easy to sym- 
 pathize with this position, but there is much to be said 
 on the other side. The conscription measure was cer- 
 tainly legal. The Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland is governed by a parliament in which Ireland 
 has generous representation. In this parliament con- 
 scription was approved by a majority of the members 
 attending. If it be objected, as many Irishmen did, 
 that the essence of the matter was that the people of 
 Ireland did not consider the government of the Union 
 a proper one, that they had long wanted it changed, 
 and hence were not justly obliged to obey it in this 
 matter, that Home Rule should have been given to 
 them before they were asked to be subject to com- 
 pulsory service, one may observe that it is not neces- 
 sarily justice to insist at a time of peril upon a change 
 
460 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 in the existing form of government as the price of 
 compliance with something desired by the majority 
 under the existing system. Irishmen may say, if they 
 like, that "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportun- 
 ity," but this has not within it sufficient nobility to 
 win great sympathy in a time like that through which 
 the English-speaking world has just passed, nor has 
 it the fineness and fairness which English conduct to- 
 wards Ireland in the past generation deserved, nor 
 what the crisis of the period required. 
 
 It might have been well if the people of Ireland 
 had remembered the case of the suffragettes of Great 
 Britain. For many years previous to the war a large 
 number of women in Britain wanted the franchise, 
 and for some years just before it a smaller number 
 of them believed that withholding this privilege was a 
 burning injustice, which they might properly protest 
 by any violence and resistance. In their disobedience 
 and denunciation they seemed to go farther than the 
 extremest Irishmen; but at the beginning of the war 
 they saw the two issues in their proper proportion, and 
 immediately laid aside their quarrel, to be resumed, 
 if necessary, they said, when the struggle was over. 
 Suffrage has since been given to many of the women 
 of England. We constantly hear talk about what 
 England ought to do in order to win the affection of 
 the Irish. I cannot but think that generous conduct 
 on the part of the Irish might better have won things 
 from the English than the heartless words and sour 
 
THE IRISH QUESTION 461 
 
 opposition which came in the dark days of the labor 
 of the world. 
 
 As to the justice of compelling Irishmen to fight in 
 the war, one arrives at different conclusions according 
 to the premises he begins with. Many people in this 
 country were strongly opposed to conscription, but 
 we adopted it from the extreme necessity of the time. 
 There were some so hostile to it that they condemned 
 it wherever it was proposed. Many Irishmen, par- 
 ticularly outside of Ulster, held that the war was no 
 concern of theirs, and, like the French-Canadians, 
 maintained that since they did not wish to fight they 
 could not justly be compelled thereto by an outside 
 and higher authority. In Quebec there was the bit- 
 terest opposition, but after conscription was enacted it 
 was obeyed and worked well. In Ireland, however, 
 when the general opposition was marshalled by the 
 priests, the British government yielded rather than 
 force through the working of the law, though many 
 thought it might easily have been put into effect had 
 the authorities chosen to act sternly. As usual in the 
 recent relations of Britain and Ireland, sternness was 
 put aside by the government in an effort to effect a 
 conciliation. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Clearly there is no ground of settlement with Sinn Fein. 
 Its policy is too extreme. . . . 
 
 The [London] Nation, January 11, 1919. 
 
 We are less children of this clime 
 Than of some nation yet unborn. . . . 
 
 George W. Russell. 
 
 IN the autumn of 1918, while destiny and fortune 
 were leaving the Germans at last, Irish affairs 
 went steadily on to their worst. In October, Mr. Dil- 
 lon said there was no longer any alliance between 
 the Irish Party and the Liberals in Britain, that the 
 Nationalists were as free now as before the union ef- 
 fected by Parnell, but that they were ready to join 
 with any English party standing for true liberalism 
 and Irish freedom. In the early part of the next 
 month, when the collapse of the enemy was assured, 
 he moved a resolution in the Commons that the Brit- 
 ish government take no part in the approaching 
 Peace Conference until the Irish question had been 
 settled in accord with the self-determination pro- 
 claimed by President Wilson. Mr. O'Connor said 
 it would be a real test of Britain's sincerity, if after 
 helping to liberate the Czechs and the Jugo- Slavs, 
 she gave liberty to Ireland; and Mr. Asquith urged 
 
 462 
 
CONCLUSION 463 
 
 that, late as it was, such action be taken that when 
 Britain went to the Conference Ireland might not be 
 a standing reproach. Mr. Bonar Law replied that 
 this was a domestic issue, with which the Conference 
 could have no right to deal, but that Britain was ready 
 to act generously and justly, if only a solution could 
 be found. A few days later the war came to an end, 
 and on the 25th the parliament which had lasted all 
 through the struggle was dissolved. 
 
 In the election campaign which now followed, the 
 Irish question was directly an issue. Mr. Asquith 
 asserted the importance of putting Irish self-govern- 
 ment into operation. The Labor Party issued a 
 manifesto in which it declared among other things 
 that Ireland and India ought to have freedom, and 
 that it would apply the war-aims of the Allies, giving 
 to all its subject peoples self-determination within 
 the Empire. Mr. Lloyd George said that Home 
 Rule was essential for Ireland. It was a pity that 
 Irishmen had chosen to stand aside in the world war, 
 but the whole matter must be approached calmly now. 
 There must be no coercion of Ulster, however, but 
 probably some separate arrangement. In the elec- 
 tion manifesto signed by himself and Mr. Bonar Law 
 it was said that there could be no political peace for 
 the United Kingdom while the Irish question re- 
 mained unsettled, and that it was one of the first ob- 
 ligations of British statesmanship to try to arrange it 
 on the basis of self-government; but that two things 
 might be regarded as settled : there was to be no com- 
 
464 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 plete separation from Great Britain, nor any forcible 
 subjection of the six counties of Ulster. Meanwhile 
 Sir Edward Carson again declared that Ulstermen 
 would accept no Home Rule, and said it was now 
 understood that the Coalition government would not 
 coerce them. He and others urged that Ulster be 
 more closely bound to Great Britain, and be subject 
 to exactly the same laws. To this the southern 
 Unionists were strongly opposed, insisting that there 
 be the same arrangement for all of the island. 
 
 The election in December was memorable for the 
 sweeping victory of the Coalition in Britain, headed 
 by Mr. Lloyd George, and supported by many Lib- 
 erals, by most of the Conservatives, and the Irish 
 Unionists. Altogether the Coalition got 478 seats 
 out of the total of 707; and in the great rout of po- 
 litical parties which brought this about, leaders like 
 Mr. Asquith and Mr. Henderson, all who had failed 
 to support the war to the utmost, and all who now 
 savored of compromise, pacificism, or social extreme, 
 were swept aside. The Labor Party, which con- 
 tested 370 seats, won 63, while the Liberals saved 
 from the wreckage of their fortunes but 28. Small 
 as the Opposition could be, it was rendered smaller 
 still by the fact that Sinn Fein, which had announced 
 its policy of not going to the British parliament, had 
 just swept over Ireland with a triumph equally de- 
 cisive. 
 
 As the Liberal Party was destroyed in England 
 for the time, so was the Nationalist in Ireland. 
 
CONCLUSION 465 
 
 There had been a lively, even bitter, campaign, with 
 disorder at election meetings and violent speeches. 
 A son of Michael Davitt openly declared that to vote 
 for Captain Redmond would be choosing centuries 
 more of industrial and national slavery. Every- 
 where the contest was pushed by Sinn Fein, and they 
 tried for 100 out of the 105 seats in the country. 
 And the tide ran strongly with them. The Catholic 
 Archbishop of Dublin, voting for the first time in 
 his life, voted for one of their candidates. When the 
 results were announced, it was seen that Ulster 
 Unionist strength was unimpaired, and Sir Edward's 
 followers had been returned by enormous majorities, 
 but that the Nationalist Party had now ceased to 
 exist, and outside the six Ulster counties and Dublin 
 University scarcely an opponent of the aggressive 
 new party had been elected. The Unionists had 25 
 members, the Nationalists 7, and Sinn Fein 73. 
 South of the Boyne and west of the Shannon Sinn 
 Fein had swept all before it, and its triumph had 
 gone to the very gates of the Ulster stronghold. The 
 work of the Home Rule party had been discredited 
 and cast aside with disdain, and the Irish problem 
 was again fundamentally as before the days of Butt 
 
 and Parnell. 
 
 The success of this radical Irish party had been as 
 rapid as complete. Less than three years before its 
 political strength was negligible; now it had dis- 
 placed the Nationalists, and assumed responsibility 
 for guiding Ireland through the strange new times 
 
466 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 brought to pass. That responsibility was a heavy 
 one. Many of the Sinn Fein members just elected 
 were almost unknown outside of their constituencies. 
 They had promised that they would try to get the 
 Irish question solved, to bring Ireland before the 
 Peace Conference, and make her an independent re- 
 public. It would be far more difficult to effect these 
 things than it had been to denounce the Nationalist 
 leaders for failing to bring them about. 
 
 Whether, if such things were really brought for- 
 ward, the authorities would force the crisis by some 
 drastic action, or allow the inherent weakness of Sinn 
 Fein to develop, was not known, but it was soon evi- 
 dent that the government would do much to avoid a 
 collision. The Sinn Fein adherents styled themselves 
 the Irish Republican Party. In January, many of 
 the members just elected assembled in the Mansion 
 House in Dublin, the lord mayor being an ardent 
 advocate of Sinn Fein, and there solemnly calling the 
 roll, even the name of Sir Edward Carson, they acted 
 as a constituent assembly and proceeded to proclaim 
 an Irish Republic, reading their declaration in Irish, 
 in English, and in French. They demanded that 
 Ireland be confronted with England at the Congress 
 of the Nations, that the people of the world judging 
 between right and wrong might guarantee to Ireland 
 permanent support for the maintenance of her na- 
 tional independence. For the present the Dail 
 Eirann or Irish parliament was to consist of deputies 
 elected by the Irish people from the existing par- 
 
CONCLUSION 467 
 
 liamentary constituencies. There was to be a min- 
 istry and a president for executive business. During 
 this month President Wilson was as popular in Ire- 
 land, where his help for independence was expected, 
 as he was while in Italy at this very time, when it 
 was hoped he would support pretensions to Fiume. 
 He was invited to come to Ireland, and it was said 
 the Lord Mayor of Dublin wished to go to France to 
 confer on him the freedom of the city. Appeal was 
 made to American soldiers in Ireland: "Many of you 
 are kinsmen of ours. Did you win this war in order 
 to rivet Ireland's chains?" 
 
 All compromise was cast away now. For the 
 present it was to no purpose that General Gough, 
 Captain Gwynn and others founded a new party to 
 get Irish self-government within the Empire, or that 
 the chief secretary announced a liberal reconstruction 
 policy for the island; most of the Irish people had 
 been led to expect immediate independence and would 
 have nothing less. In February, Prof. De Valera, 
 who had defeated Mr. Dillon in the Nationalist cita- 
 del of East Mayo, and who while in an English prison 
 had been elected president of the republic, escaped 
 from confinement, and after hiding a while presently 
 appeared among his followers in triumph. Sinn 
 Fein sent a representative to Paris to see President 
 Wilson. He could get no interview, but he ad- 
 dressed letters to the delegates asking that Ireland be 
 admitted to the Conference and also to the League 
 of Nations. 
 
468 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Actually, however, nothing had been accomplished 
 but the setting up of a government which was unable 
 to begin the work of governing Ireland, and which 
 was not recognized by any other government in the 
 world. To the Sinn Fein leaders the people of Ire- 
 land had given the task of bringing about what they 
 had encouraged the people to hope for; but no more 
 had yet been attained than overthrowing the Nation- 
 alists previously in power and arousing illimitable 
 hopes. So, the popular enthusiasm which supported 
 Sinn Fein might have greatly diminished as time 
 went on, with the leaders doing no more than make 
 threats and complaints. But that enthusiasm was 
 sustained and increased by encouragement received 
 now from the United States. 
 
 In February there was held in Philadelphia a Con- 
 vention of the Irish Race in America, attended by 
 many prominent men, which passed a resolution de- 
 claring, as had the Irishmen who proclaimed the re- 
 public in Dublin, that a state of war existed between 
 Ireland and England, which the Peace Conference 
 could not ignore, and proposing that the Conference 
 apply to Ireland the principle of self-determination. 
 They agreed to raise a large sum of money to assist in 
 getting Irish independence, and shortly after a cam- 
 paign was begun in the press to get attention and win 
 sympathy for the cause. Representatives were sent 
 by the Philadelphia Convention to Ireland, where 
 they were received with wild ovation, since they, like 
 the Sinn Fein leaders just before, seemed to promise 
 
 
CONCLUSION 469 
 
 that the Peace Conference would take up Ireland's 
 case, and that Irish independence would follow soon 
 after. Their activities were regarded by many of 
 the British people with considerable coolness and 
 suspicion. It was believed that no other government 
 than the British would have permitted such delegates 
 to act as these Americans did ; and it was thought that 
 such tolerance had been a grievous mistake, since 
 competent observers were now declaring that the Irish 
 people were so wrought upon and so greatly inflamed 
 that only by a miracle would it be possible to avert a 
 rebellion worse than the one three years before. 
 
 I hoped to accomplish some good by explaining 
 the parts of a problem. My task has at no time been 
 easy. I have meant to be just where often the way 
 was not clear. It would have been less difficult to 
 write for one side or the other, but already there are 
 many such books. In America usually they tell 
 nothing but Ireland's case, and it has been mentioned 
 to me that my labor would be vain unless this work 
 was thoroughly pro-Irish. I am unwilling to be- 
 lieve it, but in any event I am content if my account 
 be but fair and true. I can only say I had rather the 
 book were not written than that anything in it should 
 even remotely injure the cause of one Irish peasant 
 or a single laborer in Dublin ; but I have been equally 
 unwilling that England's difficulties and the good in 
 her work and intention should fail to be stated in my 
 pages. 
 
470 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 As my work is done, I speak of the future, asking 
 critics to judge my prophecies more leniently than the 
 narrative of the history preceding. 
 
 Sinn Fein will fail. It would never have been so 
 prominent but for the upheaval of the years of the 
 war. But its work is not wholly in vain. Because 
 of its very extremeness the moderate parties will be 
 more able to compromise and settle the problem. 
 
 The war being ended, the liberalism of England 
 and the greater spirit of liberalism everywhere will 
 shortly bring to Ireland the "freedom" and the "self- 
 determination" for which she is asking, in some sort 
 of satisfactory self-government within the Empire — 
 just as soon as Irishmen agree among themselves. 
 
 The difference between Ulster and the rest of Ire- 
 land will abate, and they will esteem each other better 
 in the future. 
 
 After self-government has been established, Ire- 
 land will draw closer to Britain in real fellowship and 
 communion, and the British Empire and all of us 
 will be better when this comes to pass. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 I have attempted to make not so much an ex- 
 haustive bibliography of the subject, which I think 
 unnecessary in an account for general reading, as a 
 list of books known to me or helpful in the writing of 
 this work. 
 
 HISTORIES OF IRELAND 
 
 Green, Alice Stopford (Mrs. J. R. Green), Irish Nation- 
 ality, London, 1911. One of the little volumes of the 
 Home University Library series. It is written with 
 vigor and much charm, but represents the ardor of re- 
 cent Irish nationalism rather than critical handling of 
 materials. 
 
 Joyce, Patrick Weston, A Concise Histonj of Ireland from 
 the Earliest Times to 1908, 20th ed., Dublin, 1914. 
 A very useful little work. The earlier portion, to 
 1608, is an abridgment of the author's larger book. 
 
 Joyce, P. W., A Short History of Ireland from the Earliest 
 Times to 1608, 3d ed., London, 1904. The careful 
 work of an authority, and one of the best general his- 
 tories of Ireland. 
 
 Morris, William O'Connor, Ireland, 1494.-1905, Cambridge, 
 1909. One of the volumes of the Cambridge Historical 
 Series. Revised by Robert Dunlop, who added notes 
 and the last chapter, on the period 1868-1905. 
 
 Some of the best contemporary accounts, like the bonks 
 of Edmund Spenser, Sir John Davies, Sir William Petty, 
 and Bishop Berkeley, have been brought together in 
 
 471 
 
472 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 A Collection of Tracts and Treatises Illustrative of the Nat- 
 ural History, Antiquities and the Political and Social 
 State of Ireland, etc., 2 vols., Dublin, 1860. 
 
 A great deal about the history of Ireland is scattered 
 through the records of the British parliament, and it need 
 not be said that there is usually much information to be got 
 from the general histories of England, especially in any of 
 the editions of 
 
 Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, A History of England in 
 the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols. The seventh and 
 eighth volumes are altogether concerned with Ireland. 
 
 ABOUT PARTICULAR PERIODS OR SUBJECTS 
 IN IRISH HISTORY 
 
 Bagwell, Richard, Ireland under the Tudors, etc., 3 vols., 
 London, 1885. 
 
 Bagwell, R., Ireland under the Stuarts and during the In- 
 terregnum, etc., 2 vols., London, 1909. 
 
 Barker, Ernest, Ireland in the Last Fifty Years (1866- 
 1916), Oxford, 1917. An excellent little summary 
 which I have found very helpful. 
 
 Clerigh, Arthur Ua, The History of Ireland to the Coming 
 of Henry II., London, 1908. A work of much research 
 upon difficult problems of the period. 
 
 Davis, Thomas, The Patriot Parliament of 1689, etc., Lon- 
 don, 1893. Edited with notes and introduction by Sir 
 C. G. Duffy. This is one of the volumes of the New 
 Irish Library. It expresses an Irish point of view 
 which Mrs. Green's work has made better known to 
 English readers. 
 
 Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan, Young Ireland: a Fragment of 
 Irish History, 181^0-1850, London, 1880. 
 
 Dunlop, Robert, Ireland under the Commonwealth, 9, vols., 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 473 
 
 Manchester, 1913. A selection of documents relating 
 to the government of Ireland 1651—1659. 
 
 Dunraven, The Earl of, The Outlook in Ireland: the Case 
 for Devolution and Conciliation, Dublin, 1907. 
 
 Froude, James Anthony, The English in Ireland in the 
 Eighteenth Century, 3 vols., London, 1874. It was 
 assailed by Lecky, who cited numerous errors. 
 
 Grattan, Henry, Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Rt. 
 Hon. Henry Grattan, 5 vols., London, 1839— 1846. 
 This work was done by the son of the Irish leader. 
 
 Green, Alice S., The Making of Ireland and Its Undoing, 
 1200-1600, London, 1909. A series of chapters on 
 the social and economic life of the Irish people. 
 
 Green, Alice S., The Old Irish World, Dublin, 1912. 
 
 Joyce, P. W., A Social History of Ancient Ireland, 2 vols., 
 2d ed., Dublin, 1913. This excellent work, which is 
 amply illustrated, contains studies about the govern- 
 ment, the military system, the law, religion, learning, 
 art, customs, and industries of the Irish people in olden 
 times. 
 
 Lecky, W. E. H., Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, 2 
 vols. I have used the edition New York, 1903. 
 
 Mitchel, John, Jail Journal, etc., Dublin, 1913. This 
 classic denunciation of England, first published in 1854, 
 was written by a leader of the Young Ireland move- 
 ment, condemned to penal servitude, and, after his es- 
 cape, long a refugee in the United States. 
 
 Mitchel, J., The Life and Times of Aodh O'Neill, Prince of 
 Ulster, etc., New York, 1868. A volume of the New 
 Irish Library. 
 
 Murray, Alice Effie, A History of the Commercial and 
 Financial Relations between England and Ireland, 
 from the Period of the Restoration, London, 1903. An 
 admirable monograph. 
 
 Murray, Rev. Robert H., Revolutionary Ireland and Its 
 
474 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Settlement, London, 1911. A scholarly and exhaustive 
 work, with an introduction by the late Professor Ma- 
 haffy. 
 
 O'Brien, Richard Barry, The Life of Charles Stewart Par- 
 nell, 2 vols., New York, 1898. 
 
 [O'Brien, R. B., editor], Two Centuries of Irish History, 
 1691-1870, 2d ed., London, 1907. In this work an in- 
 troduction by Lord Bryce precedes a series of studies 
 by specialists in Irish history. I have relied much upon 
 their writing. 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, Correspondence of, 2 vols., New York, 
 1888. Edited with notices of his life and times by W. 
 J. Fitzpatrick. 
 
 [O'Connell, John, editor], The Life and Speeches of Daniel 
 O'Connell, M. P., 2 vols., Dublin, 1846. Edited by the 
 son of the great "Liberator." 
 
 O'Curry, Eugene, On the Manners and Customs of the An- 
 cient Irish, a Series of Lectures, 3 vols., London, 1873. 
 Edited with notes, appendices, etc., by W. K. Sullivan. 
 The author was Professor of Irish History and Archae- 
 ology in the Catholic University of Ireland. 
 
 O'Donnell, F. Hugh, A History of the Irish Parliamentary 
 Party, 2 vols., London, 1910. A critical treatment by 
 one who was an advocate of Home Rule. 
 
 Orpen, Goddard Henry, Ireland under the Normans, 1169— 
 1216, 2 vols., Oxford, 1911. An example of the best re- 
 cent work. 
 
 Parnell, John Howard, Charles Stewart Parnell, a Memoir, 
 New York, 1914. A biography of the Home Rule 
 leader by his brother. 
 
 Prendergast, John P., The Cromwellian Settlement of Ire- 
 land, 2d ed., London, 1870. 
 
 Redmond, John, Home Ride, Speeches of, etc., London, 1910. 
 Edited with an introduction by R. H. O'Brien. 
 
 Redmond-Howard, Louis G., John Redmond . . . a Bio- 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 475 
 
 graphical Study in Irish Politics, New York, 1911. 
 By the nephew of the Irish leader. 
 Taylor, J. F., Owen Roe O'Neill London, 1904. One of 
 the volumes of the New Irish Library. 
 
 In the works of two of the great classical Anglo-Irish 
 authors especially are to be found writings of much interest 
 about Ireland. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, Works, 12 vols., London, 1815: 
 in volume vi: 
 
 A Letter to a Peer of Ireland, on the Penal Laws 
 
 against Irish Catholicks, etc., 1782. 
 A Letter to Sir H. Langrishe, Bart. M.P., on the Sub- 
 ject of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland, and the 
 Propriety of Admitting Them to the Elective Fran- 
 chise, etc., 1792. 
 in volume ix : 
 
 Several letters on Irish subjects and Tracts Relative to 
 the Laws against Popery in Ireland, also several 
 letters on that subject. 
 Swift, Jonathan, Works, edited by Temple Scott, 12 vols., 
 London, 1901 : 
 in volume vi : 
 
 The Dr a pier's Letters. 
 in volume vii : 
 
 Historical and Political Tracts relating to Ireland, 
 
 containing among many others, 
 The Present Miserable State of Ireland. 
 A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor 
 People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or the 
 Country, etc. 
 
 There are several works of travellers or investigators, do- 
 ing in a more extensive and modern way what Davies and 
 Petty did long ago. 
 
476 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 Hackett, Francis, Ireland: a Study in Nationalism, New 
 York, 1918. A most interesting account of contem- 
 porary and recent conditions by a moderate Sinn 
 Feiner, who was born in Ireland, but does most of his 
 work in the United States. 
 
 Ireland of To-Day, Reprinted, with Some Additions, from 
 the [London] Times, London, 1913. 
 
 Paul-Dubois, Louis, Ulrlande Contemporaine et la Question 
 Irlandaise, Paris, 1907. The best work of its kind 
 about Ireland. 
 
 Perraud, Adolphe, Etudes sur Ulrlande Contemporaime, 2 
 vols., Paris, 1862. Another excellent description by a 
 foreign observer, about the middle of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 Young, Arthur, A Tour in Ireland, London, 1780. One of 
 the well-known accounts by this famous traveller and 
 observer, 1776-1779. 
 
 HOME RULE 
 
 In studying the recent Irish issues, and especially Home 
 Rule, I have collected abroad a large number of small pam- 
 phlets, leaflets, and papers, which readers generally cannot 
 obtain now, and which it would therefore be useless to list 
 here. Of longer works : 
 
 [Buxton, Charles Roden, editor], The ABC Home Rule 
 Handbook, London, 1912. Published by the Home 
 Rule Council, it contains matter in support of Home 
 Rule which is very interesting and informing. 
 Cambray, Philip G., Irish Affairs and the Home Rule Ques- 
 tion, etc., 2d ed., London, 1911. From the British and 
 Unionist point of view. Introduction by the Marquis 
 of Londonderry. 
 Hobson, S. G., Irish Home Rule, 1912. Strongly advocates 
 
 Home Rule. 
 Kerr-Smiley, P., The Peril of Home Rule, London, 1911. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 477 
 
 By a Unionist member of parliament for Ulster; with 
 
 an introduction by Sir Edward Carson. 
 [Rosenbaum, S., editor], Against Home Rule: the Case for 
 
 the Union, London, 1912. A series of excellent papers 
 
 by leading Unionist statesmen, with an introduction by 
 
 Sir Edward Carson and a preface by Mr. A. Bonar 
 
 Law. 
 Samuels, Arthur Warren, Home Rule Finance, Dublin, 1912. 
 
 By an opponent. Foreword by Sir Edward Carson. 
 
 For the recent Irish Convention : 
 The Irish Home-Rule Convention: "Thoughts for a Conven- 
 tion," by George W. Russell; "A Defence of the Con- 
 vention," by the Rt. Hon, Sir Horace Plunkett; "An 
 American Opinion," by John Quinn, New York, 1917. 
 
 ULSTER UNIONISM 
 
 Leech, H. Brougham, 18^8 and 1912, the Continuity of the 
 Irish Revolutionary Movement, 2d ed., London, 1912. 
 A Unionist exposition of the tendency towards sep- 
 aration. 
 
 Ervine, St. John G., Sir Edward Carson and the Ulster 
 Movement, New York, 1916. A hostile and critical 
 estimate of the Unionist leader by a brilliant contem- 
 porary Irish writer. 
 
 Hamilton, Ernest W., The Soul of Ulster, New York, 1917. 
 A Unionist exposition. 
 
 SINN FEIN 
 
 O'Hegarty, P. S., Sinn Fein: an Illumination, Dublin, 1918. 
 By an ai'dent advocate. 
 
 Skinnider, Margaret, Doing My Bit for Ireland, New York, 
 1917. Largely a narrative of the Easter Rebellion, 
 but admirably revealing the spirit of Sinn Fein. 
 
478 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 THE REBELLION OF 1916 
 
 Boyle, John F., The Irish Rebellion of 1916: a Brief History 
 of the Revolt and Its Suppression, London, 1916. An 
 attempt at an impartial account. 
 
 [Joy, Maurice, editor], The Irish Rebellion of 1916 and Its 
 Martyrs: Erms Tragic Easter, New York, 1916. 
 Contains chapters written by some of the best known 
 adherents of Sinn Fein ; fairly restrained, and affords 
 a great deal of information about Gaelic nationalism as 
 well as the rebellion. 
 
 Norway, Mrs. Hamilton, The Sinn Fein Rebellion As I Saw 
 It, London, 1916. By the wife of the Secretary for the 
 Post Office in Ireland. 
 
 Redmond-Howard, L. G., Six Days of the Irish Republic, 
 Boston, 1916. A critical account from the Nationalist 
 point of view. 
 
 Stephens, James, The Insurrection in Dublin, New York, 
 1916. A record by one who desired the welfare of Ire- 
 land, but also friendly relations between Ireland and 
 England. 
 
 IRELAND AND GERMANY^ 
 
 These two titles I cite merely as interesting examples of 
 
 writing which had some circulation in America during the 
 
 war. 
 
 McGuire, James K., The King, the Kaiser, and Irish Free- 
 dom, New Y r ork, 1915. 
 
 McGuire, J. K., What Could Germany Do for Ireland? New 
 York, 1916. With an introduction by Dr. Thomas 
 Addis Emmet. 
 
 THE IRISH QUESTION AND THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Leslie, Shane, The Irish Issue in Its American Aspect, New 
 York, 1917. A brilliant discussion by a moderate Sinn 
 Feiner. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 479 
 
 THE LITERATURE OF IRELAND 
 
 Hull, Eleanor, A Text Book of Irish Literature, 2 parts, 2d 
 ed., Dublin, 1910. This work, which treats of the 
 Celtic literature of Ireland from the earliest times to 
 the beginning of the nineteenth century, has the guise 
 of an elementary treatise, but it is the work of a com- 
 petent authority, the secretary of the Irish Texts So- 
 ciety, and is the best general account in English. 
 
 Much critical work in the study of the Celtic literature 
 of Ireland has been done by English and, especially, by Ger- 
 man scholars. But it is mostly special and monographic, 
 and has no place in a list of this kind. The work of Dr. 
 Hyde is more important for its purpose and effect than its 
 scholarly value. The best large general treatise continues 
 to be 
 
 de Jubainville, Henri D'Arbois, Cours de Litterature Cri- 
 tique, 12 vols., Paris, 1883-1902. 
 
 For the cursory reader there is interesting information in 
 such volumes as 
 Boyd, Ernest A., Appreciations and Depreciations, Dublin, 
 
 1917. Essays on George Bernard Shaw, George W. 
 Russell, and others. 
 
 Boyd, E. A., The Contemporary Drama of Ireland, Dublin, 
 
 1918. An excellent account. 
 
 Eglinton, John [William K. Magee], Anglo-Irish Essays, 
 Dublin, 1917. Several papers on subjects in Irish 
 literature. 
 
 Graves, Alfred Perceval, Irish Literary and Musical Studies, 
 London, 1913. Containing among other interesting 
 papers an essay on Sir Samuel Fer<juson. 
 
 Weygandt, Cornelius, Irish Plays and Playwrights, London, 
 1913. A very useful account of the Irish theater and 
 
480 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
 
 the principal dramatic writers of the Irish Literary 
 Revival. 
 
 Among the masterpieces of Irish literature which have 
 
 been translated or in some fashion rendered into English 
 
 may be mentioned 
 
 The Ancient Irish Epic Tale, Tain Bo Cualnge, "The 
 Cualnge Cattle-Raid" now for the first time done en- 
 tire into English out of the Irish of the Book of 
 Leinster and Allied Manuscripts by Joseph Dunn, Lon- 
 don, 1914. 
 
 Ferguson, Sir Samuel, Lays of the Red Branch, London, 
 1897. Poetical renderings from the Ulster Cycle. 
 
 Gregory, Lady [Augusta], Cuchulain of Muirthemne: the 
 Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster Ar- 
 ranged and But into English by, London, 1902. Pre- 
 face by W. B. Yeats. 
 
 Hull, Eleanor, Cuchulain the Hound of Ulster, London, 
 1909. 
 
 Irish Texts Society Publications, London, 1899-. Texts 
 republished with translation facing on opposite page. 
 Containing among others the History of Keating. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbey Street, 380 
 
 Abbey Theater, 339 
 
 Absenteeism, of landlords, 83, 84 
 
 Act of Uniformity, operates 
 against dissenters in Ireland, 88 
 
 Act of Union, England and Scot- 
 land (1707), 107; good results 
 of, 108; motion to annul, 113 
 
 Act of Union, Great Britain and 
 Ireland (1800), character of 
 writing about, 106; terms of, 112 
 
 Addison, Joseph, 331 
 
 Adrian IV, Pope, 33, 34 
 
 Aenachs, or Fairs, 14 
 
 Agrarian Conditions, in Ireland, in 
 the eighteenth century, 82, 83; 
 at beginning of nineteenth cen- 
 tury, 11£ 
 
 Agrarian Crimes, 197; diminution 
 of, 204 
 
 Agrarian Disorders, partial revival 
 of, 210; after the defeat of 
 Home Rule (1886), 251 
 
 Agrarian Outrages, predicted, 277, 
 278 
 
 Agriculture, Irish, decline of after 
 Napoleonic wars, 118; condition 
 of before the Great Famine, 134; 
 injured by repeal of the Corn 
 Laws, 142; development of, 193; 
 co-operation in, 218-222; gov- 
 ernment supervision of, 221 
 
 Aidan, 23 
 
 Aided Chloinne Uisnig, 326 
 
 Ailill, 324 
 
 Alban, or Scotland, colonized by 
 Gaels from Ireland, 23 
 
 Alcuin, 21 
 
 Alexander II, Pope, 33 
 
 Alexander III, Pope, 34 
 
 Alsace-Lorraine, 58 
 
 Amending Bill, to the Home Rule 
 Bill, 396, 397 
 
 Americans, attitude of, toward the 
 French during the Great War, 
 439, 440; toward the English, 
 439, 440; causes of misunder- 
 standing between and the Brit- 
 ish, 439 ff. ; understanding be- 
 tween desirable, 442 
 
 Amiens, 429 
 
 Anchorites, 20 
 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, 275, 
 277, 306 
 
 Angevin Empire, 32 
 
 Anglo-Normans, Sir John Davies 
 on the conquest of Ireland by, 
 32; decline of their power in 
 Ireland, 44; fail to conquer Ire- 
 land completely, 50; results of 
 their efforts in Ireland, 51 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 328, 329 
 
 Animism, 15 
 
 Annals, 329-331 
 
 Annals of Clonmacnoise, 330 
 
 Annals of Connacht, 330 
 
 Annals of the Four Masters, 330, 
 331 
 
 Annals of Innisf alien, 330 
 
 Annals of Loch Ce, 330 
 
 Annals of Tigernach, 330 
 
 Annals of Ulster, 330 
 
 Anthropomorphism, 16 
 
 Antwerp, 381 
 
 Ard-ri, or Over-king, 9 
 
 Armagh, 22; cathedral of, 326 
 
 Arras, 429 
 
 Art, in pagan Ireland, 24; in 
 early Christian Ireland, 24 
 
 Ashbourne Act, 206 
 
 Asquith, Herbert Henry, on the 
 continued demand for Home 
 
 481 
 
482 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Rule, 242; becomes prime minis- 
 ter, 255; proposes temporary 
 exclusion of the Unionist coun- 
 ties of Ulster from Home Rule, 
 262, 308; on constitutional 
 changes, 272; on punishment of 
 the Irish rebels, 384; causes the 
 Home Rule Bill to be passed, 
 398; in Dublin, 398; on the situ- 
 ation in Ireland, 399, 400, 423; 
 proposes to bring Home Rule 
 into effect, 401 ; fall of the coali- 
 tion cabinet of, 403; opposed to 
 conscription, 421 ; on conscrip- 
 tion in Ireland, 431 ; on action 
 as to Ireland, 462; in the elec- 
 tion of 1918, 463, 464 
 
 Assemblies, Public, in old Ireland, 
 14 
 
 Australia, 176; support for Irish 
 Home Rule in, 290 
 
 Austria, power of priests in, 281 
 
 Baden, 281 
 
 Bannockburn, 42 
 
 Banshee, 17 
 
 Bards, 329 
 
 Barker, Ernest, on the British 
 Empire, 159; on Sinn Fein, 368 
 
 Bastille, 173 
 
 Bavaria, 281 
 
 Bede, History of, 21 
 
 Belfast, employment of Catholics 
 in, 281 
 
 Belfast News Letter, on the indus- 
 tries of Ireland, 304, 305 
 
 Belgium, diminished power of 
 priests in, 281 
 
 Beresford, Admiral Lord Charles, 
 on the geographical position of 
 Ireland, 66 
 
 Berkeley, George, 321 
 
 Bernhardi, Friedrich von, opinion 
 concerning Ireland, 67; on Ire- 
 land, 372 
 
 Bible, Luther's translation of, 345; 
 
 King James translation of, 345; 
 in Ireland, 345, 346 
 
 Birrell, Augustine, Chief Secretary 
 for Ireland, on the Irish Rebel- 
 lion, 381, 382; position of before 
 the Rebellion, 390 
 
 Birrell Act, 209 
 
 Bismarck, Otto Eduard Leopold, 
 Prince von, social reforms made 
 by, 190; on the English lan- 
 guage in North America, 320 
 
 Blackmail, 59 
 
 Blease, W. L., on the Church of 
 Ireland, 181 
 
 Boers, self-government granted to, 
 290; treatment of by Great 
 Britain, 457; in the Great War, 
 457, 458 
 
 Boer War, Irish rejoice at British 
 defeats in, 283, 289; services of 
 Irish soldiers in, 289 
 
 Bolsheviki, 426 
 
 Bombardment of Part of Dublin 
 in the Irish Rebellion, 379, 380 
 
 Bonn, Dr., on the effecls of land 
 legislation in Ireland, 214 
 
 Book of Armagh, 323, 324 
 
 Book of Ballymote, 323 
 
 Book of the Dun Cow, 323 
 
 Book of Kelts, 24 
 
 Book of Leinster, 323 
 
 Book of Lismore, 323 
 
 Bopp, Franz, 317 
 
 Border country, between England 
 and Scotland, warfare in, 107 
 
 Boru, Brian, saves Ireland from 
 the Danes, 28, 29; consolidates 
 Ireland, 29; death of, 29; great- 
 ness of celebrated, 329 
 
 Bosnia, 451 
 
 Boulter, Archbishop Hugh, admin- 
 isters Ireland, 89, 90; policy of, 
 90 
 
 Bowen-Colthurst, Captain, 385 
 
 Boycott, intimidation by predicted, 
 277 
 
 Boyne, Battle of, 80, 295 
 
INDEX 
 
 483 
 
 Brehons, or Hereditary Lawyers, 
 12 
 
 Brehon Law, on hostages, 10; con- 
 tent of, 1;?; value of, 33-2, 333 
 
 Brest-Litovsk, 427 
 
 Breton, 344 
 
 Bridgit, goddess of wisdom, 16 
 
 Bright, John, urges repeal of Corn 
 Laws, 142; opposes Home Rule, 
 250; on Irish desire for separa- 
 tion from Great Britain, 284 
 
 British, defeat of, 429; why unwill- 
 ing to allow separation of Ire- 
 land from Great Britain, 449, 
 450 
 
 British Army, calumnies about, 
 283 
 
 British Empire, character and de- 
 velopment of, 159 ff. ; slanderous 
 propaganda against, 160; Irish 
 writers on, 160; German writers 
 on, 160, 161; opinion of Treit- 
 schke concerning, 161; of zu 
 Reventlow concerning, 161, 162; 
 causes of growth and success of, 
 169, 170; in recent times Home 
 Rule the foundation of, 266; ef- 
 fort of in the Great War, 419, 
 420, 428 
 
 British Government, lenient policy 
 of with respect to Sinn Fein, 
 373, 374 
 
 British Isles, history of the union 
 of, 107 ff. 
 
 Bruce, Edward, invades Ireland, 
 42; death of, 43 
 
 Bruce, Robert, 42 
 
 Buckingham Palace, conference at, 
 264, 397 
 
 Burke, Edmund, on England's title 
 to Ireland, 34; on the condition 
 of the subject in Ireland, 95; on 
 the connection of Ireland with 
 Great Britain, 226; place of in 
 Anglo-Irish literature, 321 
 
 Butt, Isaac, first leader of the 
 Home Rule movement, 244; 
 
 views of, 244; character of, 245; 
 results of the work of, 245 
 Byron, George Noel Gordon, Lord, 
 on the evil of the Union, 106 
 
 Cahiers of 1789, 168 
 
 Canada, treatment of after rebel- 
 lion, 176; support for Irish 
 Home Rule in, 290 
 
 Canadians, failure of to separate 
 from England, 236 
 
 Carson, Sir Edward, character of, 
 258; declaration of, 261; on the 
 determination of the Ulster 
 Unionists, 293; on the Irish Re- 
 bellion, 378, 382; enters the Cab- 
 inet, 399; on conscription in 
 Ireland, 422, 429, 432; said to 
 approve of federalism, 453; in 
 the election of 1918, 464, 465 
 
 Casement, Sir Roger, 364, 365; 
 captured by the British, 374; 
 execution of, 394, 400 
 
 Cashel, Synod of, 37 
 
 Castilian, 344 
 
 Castle Rule, unrepresentative char- 
 acter of, 231 ; a cause of the 
 Irish Rebellion, 393 
 
 Catalan, 344 
 
 "Cathleen ni Houlihan," 338 
 
 Catholic Association, founded, 121; 
 revived by O'Connell, 121 ; or- 
 ganization of, 123; suppressed, 
 123 
 
 Catholic Committee, 121 
 
 Catholic Emancipation, partly ac- 
 complished in 1793, 99, 101; 
 completion of desired, 114; fa- 
 vored by Pitt, 114; opposed by 
 George III, 114; struggle for, 
 120 ff. ; favored by the Duke of 
 Wellington, 125, 126; granted, 
 126 
 
 Catholic Emancipation Act, terms 
 of, 126; how granted, 127 
 
 Catholic Prelates, banished from 
 Ireland, 85 
 
484 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Catholics, Roman, in England, con- 
 dition of, 164 
 
 Catholics, Roman, in Ireland, dis- 
 crimination against, 85-87; de- 
 sire complete emancipation, 101 ; 
 objections to granting it to, 101; 
 attempts to convert to Protes- 
 tantism, 150; power of under 
 Home Rule dreaded, 279, 280; 
 opinions of Liberals about, 280; 
 feared by Protestants in Ireland, 
 298, 302, 303; alleged intolerance 
 of, 299; control of education by, 
 300; causes of fear of in Ireland 
 and in Ulster, 303, 304 
 
 Cattle, Irish, excluded from the 
 English market, 92 
 
 Cavour, Camillo Beuso, Count di, 
 395 
 
 Celestial Fire, worship of, 15 
 
 Celtic Crosses, 24 
 
 Celtic Languages, 317 
 
 Celtic Literary Remains of Ire- 
 land, 5 
 
 Celtic People, Goidelic branch of 
 in Ireland, 4; Brythonic branch 
 of in Britain, 4 
 
 "Celtic Revival," 335 ff. 
 
 Chamberlain, Joseph, opposes 
 Home Rule, 250; suggests fed- 
 eralism, 262, 453 
 
 Channel Islands, 290 
 
 Character of the Irish People, ap- 
 parently changed by the Great 
 Famine, 140 
 
 Chariots, 325 
 
 Charles I, Ireland in the time of, 
 295 
 
 Charles II, unable to restore prop- 
 erty to his Irish supporters, 79 
 
 Chemin des Dames, 436 
 
 Chester Castle, 152 
 
 Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stan- 
 hope, Earl of, on the condition 
 of Irish peasants, 83 
 
 Chief Secretary for Ireland, power 
 and functions of, 229-232 
 
 Christianity, introduced into Ire- 
 land, 18; work of St. Patrick in, 
 18, 19 ; differs somewhat from 
 Roman Christianity, 20 
 
 Church, Irish, tribal organization 
 of, 20 
 
 Church of Ireland, disestablish- 
 ment of, 181 ff. ; origin of estab- 
 lishment of, 182; position of, 183 
 
 Churchill, Lord Randolph, 249 
 
 Churchill, Winston, 262 
 
 Civil War, in Ireland, prospect of, 
 264; probably expected by Ger- 
 many, 265 
 
 Civil War, American, Irish-Ameri- 
 cans in, 444 
 
 Clan-na-Gael, 356 
 
 Clare, Earl of, see Fitzgibbon, 
 John 
 
 Clarence, Lionel, Duke of, lord 
 lieutenant of Ireland, 46; causes 
 Statute of Kilkenny to be passed, 
 47 
 
 Classes of People in old Ireland, 
 10 
 
 Clearances, 128, 130 
 
 Clergy, Irish, oppose conscription, 
 431, 434 
 
 Clergy, Regular, banished from 
 Ireland, 85 
 
 Clerkenwell Prison, 153 
 
 Clontarf, battle of, 29; meeting 
 proposed to be held at, 132 ; ac- 
 count of battle of, 331 
 
 Cloyne, Bishop of, 434 
 
 Coalition, triumph of in the elec- 
 tion of 1918, 464 
 
 Cobden, Richard, 142 
 
 Coercion Acts, 197 
 
 Coffin-ships, 140 
 
 Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib, 331 
 
 Colonial Self-government, and Ire- 
 land, 285, 286, 290 
 
 "Colonial" Home Rule, 410 
 
 Colonists, English and Scottish, in 
 Ireland, high position of, 88; 
 kept subordinate by England, 
 
INDEX 
 
 485 
 
 89; before the sixteenth century 
 generally adopt the Gaelic 
 tongue, 316 
 
 Colum, Padraic, on Irish national- 
 ity, 315 
 
 Commerce, early Irish, 4; later 
 Irish, ruin of, 93 
 
 Compensation, for Injuries, in 
 tribal Ireland, 13; Edmund 
 Spencer on, 13; in England, 14 
 
 Conchobar, 334 
 
 Congested Districts, 211 
 
 Connaught, proposal to extend 
 plantation system to, 74, 76; 
 poverty in, 211; in the Tain Bo 
 Cuailnge, 324, 325 
 
 Connolly, James, 393 
 
 Conor, 326 
 
 Conquest of Ireland, completed, 
 69 ff. 
 
 Conscription, announcement of for 
 Ireland, 414; attitude of Eng- 
 lish-speaking peoples towards, 
 420; necessity for in Great Brit- 
 ain, 421; bill for passed, 421; in 
 Ireland, demanded by British 
 people, 428; extension of to Ire- 
 land proposed, 430; measure 
 passed, 431 ; resistance to in Ire- 
 land, 434; Great Britain pre- 
 pares to enforce, 435; not en- 
 forced in Ireland, 437, 461 ; 
 results of the affair of, 437; 
 reflections on, 459-461 
 
 Conservatives, take up Irish Ques- 
 tion after the Liberals, 202 ff. 
 
 Conspiracy, Sinn Fein, alleged, 
 436 
 
 Convention, Irish, proposed by Mr. 
 Lloyd George, 405; plan of, 406; 
 how received, 406; first sessions 
 of, 407; difficulties confronting, 
 411, 412; proposals of, 412-414; 
 results of, 414, 435 
 
 Convention of the Irish Race in 
 America, 468 
 
 Co-operation, in Ireland, 218-222 
 
 Corn, fall in the price of, 130 
 
 Corn Laws, 135; repeal of, 135, 
 136; effects of the repeal of in 
 England and in Ireland, 142 
 
 Cornwall, 319 
 
 Corruption, Parliamentary, in the 
 eighteenth century, 91 
 
 Council of Agriculture, 221 
 
 "Countess Cathleen, The," 338 
 
 Covenant, pledged in Ulster, 260, 
 264 
 
 Covenanters, at the beginning of 
 the War, 349 
 
 Crime in Ireland, 197 
 
 Crimea, 395 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, in England and 
 in Ireland, 77; at Drogheda, 77; 
 subdues eastern part of Ireland, 
 77; in Ireland, 295 
 
 Cromwellian Settlement, 78 
 
 Cuchulain, 325, 326 
 
 "Cuchulain of Muirthemne," 338 
 
 Culture, of Old Ireland, arrested 
 and ruined, 26; revival of in 
 Danish period, 30; decadence of, 
 31 
 
 Curzon of Kedleston, George Na- 
 thaniel, Earl, Lord, 415 
 
 Customs, 410, 413 
 
 Czechs, 462 
 
 Dail Eirann, 466 
 
 Danes, ravage western Europe, 27; 
 invade Ireland, 27; in Dublin, 
 27; settle down among the Irish, 
 30; adopt the Gaelic tongue, 316 
 
 Dardanelles, 370 
 
 Davies, Sir John, on the Anglo- 
 Norman conquest of Ireland, 32; 
 on efforts to prevent fusion of 
 the races in Ireland, 48; on Eng- 
 lish law not being extended to 
 the Irish, 52, 53 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, 236 
 
 Davis, Thomas, 132 
 
 Davitt, Michael, 200 
 
486 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Debt, Irish, after the Union, 118; 
 increases, 118, 119 
 
 Decadents, French, 336 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 443 
 
 Defence of the Realm Act, 403 
 
 Deirdre, 326 
 
 "Deirdre," by Yeats, 338 
 
 "Deirdre of the Sorrows," 339 
 
 Democracy, Rise of in Great Brit- 
 ain, 179, 180 
 
 Demons, 15 
 
 Denmark, 219 
 
 Department of Agriculture, 219, 
 221 
 
 Dermot, King of Leinster, 34; 
 flees to Henry II, 34; assisted 
 by Norman-Welsh adventurers 
 returns to Ireland, 36; death of, 
 36 
 
 Desmond, Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl 
 of, leader of the Fitzgeralds, 70; 
 estates of confiscated, 71 
 
 Devlin, Joseph, on martial law in 
 Ireland, 423; on conscription in 
 Ireland, 431, 432; suggests that 
 the conscription law be not rec- 
 ognized, 434 
 
 Devolution, 454 
 
 Dialects, of the Irish Language, 
 346 
 
 Dillon, John, on punishment of the 
 Irish rebels, 383, 384; on mili- 
 tary rule in Ireland, 402; be- 
 comes leader of the Nationalists, 
 416; on conscription in Ireland, 
 431; on the position of the Na- 
 tionalist Party, 462; defeated by 
 Professor De Valera, 467 
 
 Dinant, 383 
 
 Discrimination, religious, against 
 the Irish Catholics, 85; civil, 86, 
 87; economic, against Irish in-i 
 dustry, 92; against Irish com- 
 merce, 93; alleged, against Ro- 
 man Catholics concerning ap- 
 pointments to offices, 281 
 
 Disestablishment of the Church of 
 
 Ireland, 181 ff.; controversy 
 about, 184, 185; bill for, 185; 
 act for passed, 186; terms of act 
 for, 186, 187; effects of, 187 
 Disloyalty, assertions about, 289 
 Dissenters, Irish, freed from sacra- 
 mental test, 98 
 District Councils, 212 
 Donation of Constantine, 34 
 Donegal, a legend of, 328 
 Drama, of the Irish Literary Re- 
 vival, 337 ff. 
 Drogheda, parliament at, 59; mas- 
 sacre at, 77 
 Druids, in Ireland, 15 
 Dublin, Archbishop of, 465 
 Dublin, Danish stronghold at, 27; 
 battle of Clontarf near, 29; seat 
 of English government in Ire- 
 land, 43; decay of, 118; civil 
 government of, 275; street-names 
 in, 342; insurrection in, 375 ff. ; 
 condition of workingmen in, 392; 
 syndicalism in, 392 
 Dublin, University of, 465 
 Dublin Castle, seat of government 
 power, 89; unsuccessful attempt 
 on, 375 
 Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan, 132 
 Dunraven, Windham Thomas 
 Wyndham-Quin, Earl of, on the 
 destruction of Ireland, 56 
 Dunraven Treaty, 208 
 Dunstan, 23 
 
 Durham, John George Lambton, 
 Earl of, 176 
 
 Earls, Irish, flight of, 73 
 
 Easter Rebellion, see Rebellion of 
 1916 
 
 Education, Irish, control of by re- 
 ligious orders, 299, 300 
 
 Edward I, neglects Ireland, 42; 
 conquers Wales, 107; attempts 
 the conquest of Scotland, 107 
 
 Edward III, Ireland in the time of, 
 
INDEX 
 
 487 
 
 46; England and Ireland in the 
 reign of, 49 ' 
 
 Edward VI, Ireland in the reign 
 of, 69 
 
 Edward VII, visit of to Dublin, 
 355 
 
 Egbert of Wessex, 29 
 
 Egypt, 177 
 
 Election, General, of 1918, in 
 Great Britain, 463, 464; in Ire- 
 land, 464, 465 
 
 Elizabeth, Irish church regulated 
 by, 65; Ireland in the reign of, 
 70-73; interest of in the Gaelic 
 language, 316 
 
 Emigrants, Irish, hatred of for 
 England, 141 
 
 Emigration, from Ireland, in the 
 seventeentb century to Spain, 
 87; in the eighteenth century to 
 France, 87; to America, 87; 
 after the Great Famine, 140; 
 horrors attendant on, 141; recent 
 causes of, 143 
 
 Emmet, Robert, 119 
 
 Encumbered Estates Act, 149 
 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, 442 
 
 Enfranchising Act of 1793, allows 
 Catholics to vote, 101, 114 
 
 England, gets claim to Ireland, 32- 
 35; hold of upon Ireland weak- 
 ens, 44; power of in Ireland 
 wanes in the fifteenth century, 
 53, 54; desires complete control 
 of Ireland, 68; conditions in in 
 earlier part of the nineteenth 
 century, 147, 148; contribution 
 of to civilization, 163 ff., 171 ff.; 
 development of, 163 ff. ; condi- 
 tions in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, 165; gov- 
 ernment of in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, 165; condi- 
 tion of people in, 166, 167; causes 
 of the commercial and industrial 
 greatness of, 169; failure of in 
 Ireland, 170, 174 
 
 English Law, in Ireland, only for 
 English colonists, 41; not ex- 
 tended to the Irish, 52; Sir John 
 Da vies on, 52, 53; extended over 
 Ireland, 74; effect of upon the 
 natives, 75 
 
 "An Englishman's Home," 363 
 
 Englishmen, attitude of towards 
 Americans, 439 
 
 Enniskillen, 261, 295 
 
 Episcopalians, in Ireland, hold the 
 power, 88 
 
 Eric, or Fine, 13 
 
 Erin, origin of the name, 3 
 
 Ervine, St. John G., on the agri- 
 cultural renaissance in Ireland, 
 216; on the new split in Irland, 
 223 
 
 Estates Commissioners, 208 
 
 Esther Waters, 322 
 
 Eulogies, 330 
 
 Evictions, 198 
 
 Exchequer, Irish, consolidated with 
 the British, 119 
 
 Excise, 413 
 
 Exclusion, of Part of Ulster, pro- 
 posed, 262, 308; opposed by Na- 
 tionalists, 263, 308; difficulties 
 connected with, 307, 308; of 
 Unionist Counties, 400 
 
 Expropriation, of Landlords, de- 
 manded, 207 
 
 F's, The Three, 199 
 
 Fairies, belief in, 17 
 
 Famine, The Great, causes of, 137, 
 138; feeling in England about, 
 139; landlords ruined by, 139 
 
 Famines, in Ireland, in the eight- 
 eenth century, 84; in the nine- 
 teenth century, 135, 136 ff. 
 
 Federalism, suggested by Joseph 
 Chamberlain, 262; by Winston 
 Churchill, 262; advantages of, 
 452, 453 
 
 Federation, see Federalism 
 
 Fenians, beginning of the organi- 
 
488 
 
 INDEX 
 
 zation of, 151 ; outrages by, 202, 
 247, 248 
 
 Fenian Cycle of Prose Romances, 
 327, 328 
 
 Fenianism, character of, 152; com- 
 ments on, 153, 154; effects of, 
 154, 155 
 
 Fergus, 324 
 
 Ferguson, Sir Samuel, poem of 
 cited, 12, 13; on the story of 
 Deirdre, 326; renders Irish 
 pieces into English, 334 
 
 Fes, or Convention, at Tara, 14 
 
 Fianna, 327 
 
 Fianna Boys, organized, 30 1 ; oath 
 of loyalty of, 361 ; activities of, 
 362 
 
 Fill, Members of the Professional 
 Literary Caste, 329 
 
 Finances, Irish, after the Union, 
 118; re-arranged by Gladstone, 
 144 
 
 Financial Commission of 1896, re- 
 port of, 145; comments upon, 
 145 
 
 Fion, 327, 328 
 
 Fitzgerald, Gerald, Earl of Kil- 
 dare, 60, 61 
 
 Fitzgeralds, 70 
 
 Fitzgibbon, John, Earl of Clare, 
 101; on the advantages of the 
 Union, 106; on Ireland's desire 
 to rebel, 370 
 
 Fitzwilliam, William Wentworth, 
 second Earl Fitzwilliam, favors 
 admitting Roman Catholics to 
 the Irish parliament, 103; re- 
 called from Ireland, 103 
 
 Fiume, 467 
 
 Flaith, or Irish Chieftain, 9 
 
 Folk-lore, Irish, use of by modern 
 writers, 336, 337 
 
 Ford, Patrick, on the British Em- 
 pire, 159 
 
 Forus Feasa ar Eirinn, 332 
 
 Fox, Charles James, on the dis- 
 turbed condition of Ireland, 197 
 
 France, emigration of Irishmen to, 
 87; conditions in in the seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth centuries, 
 168; contribution of to civiliza- 
 tion, 171; diminished power of 
 priests in, 281 
 
 Franchise, in Ireland, restricted to 
 Protestants, 86; Catholics ad- 
 mitted to, 99; parliamentary, 
 considered as property in Eng- 
 land and in Ireland, 111; older 
 ideas about, 124; much restricted 
 in England and in Ireland, 148, 
 149; extended, 149, 178, 179 
 
 Franco-Prussian War, 140 
 
 Freeholders, in England and in 
 Ireland, 121, 125 
 
 French, invade Ireland, 67; at- 
 tempt invasions of Ireland, 104 
 
 French Revolution, effects of in 
 Ireland, 102 
 
 Fudirs, or Unfree Irish, 62 
 
 Fuentes d'Onoro 
 
 Fusion, of Danes with the Irish, 
 30; of Anglo-Normans with the 
 Irish, 44-46; causes of, 45; con- 
 tinuance of tendency towards, 
 49; of races, prevented by the 
 Statute of Kilkenny and other 
 laws, 47, 48; opposed by the 
 English government, 52; in the 
 time of Henry VII, 59 
 
 Gaelic Language, 316, 317; grad- 
 ually abandoned by the Irish, 
 317-319; apparently dying out, 
 319; nearing extinction, 339; ef- 
 forts to preserve and revive, 
 339, 340; teaching of in schools, 
 341; difficulties in the way of 
 wider adoption of, 343-347; 
 character of, 343, 344; uniform- 
 ity in not yet attained, 346 
 
 Gaelic League, founding of, 340; 
 study of Irish stimulated by, 
 341 ; makes possible the work of 
 Sinn Fein, 343 
 
INDEX 
 
 489 
 
 Gaelic Literature, old Irish period 
 of, 323; middle period of, 3-23- 
 330; modern period of, 330-334; 
 decline of, 333, 334; revival of 
 under the impulse of the Gaelic 
 League, 342; character of, 343 
 
 Gaelic Union, 339 
 
 Gaels, tribal organization of, 8; 
 religion of before Christianity, 
 14 ff. 
 
 "The Gaol Gate," 338 
 
 Garvin, J. L., on the desirableness 
 of settling the Irish question, 
 201 
 
 Gavelkind, 11; abolished in Ire- 
 land, 75 
 
 Gentry, Catholic, debarred from 
 political offices in Ireland, 125 
 
 Geographical Position of Ireland, 
 449, 450 
 
 George III, prevents Catholic 
 emancipation, 114 
 
 George V, visit of to Ireland, 357 
 
 Geraldines, highly regarded by the 
 Irish, 45 
 
 Geraldines, of Kildare, nearly ex- 
 terminated, 61 
 
 German Writers, on Ireland, 213 
 
 Germans, Ireland not reached by 
 invasions of, 5; contributions of 
 to civilization, 171; assistance of 
 hoped for by some Irishmen, 
 283; little assistance from in the 
 Irish Rebellion, 378; small part 
 of in causing the Rebellion, 394; 
 believe civil war in Ireland im- 
 minent, 397 
 
 Germany, conditions in in the sev- 
 enteenth and eighteenth centu- 
 ries, 168; great success of in the 
 Great War, 370; prepares for a 
 great stroke to decide the war, 
 427; begins a terrible offensive, 
 429; progress and success of the 
 offensive of, 436; dangerous 
 propaganda from, 455 
 
 Gladstone, William Ewart, rear- 
 
 ranges Irish taxation, 144; ef- 
 fects disestablishment of the 
 Church of Ireland, 184; comes to 
 favor Home Rule, 248; intro- 
 duces bill for, 249; introduces 
 second Home Rule bill, 253; 
 passes from public life, 254 
 
 Glastonbury, 23 
 
 Glosses, 323 
 
 Goblins, belief in, 17 
 
 "Gods and Fighting Men," 338 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 321 
 
 Gombeen-men, 224 
 
 Gonsalvi, Cardinal, 282 
 
 Government of Ireland, in the 
 tribal period, 8, 9; after Henry 
 II, 40; in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, 89-91; in the period of 
 Grattan's Parliament, 100; in re- 
 cent times, 227 ff. ; alleged evil 
 character of, 268-270 
 
 Graft, under Home Rule, prophe- 
 sied, 273 
 
 Grand Juries, Irish local govern- 
 ment formerly controlled by, 
 240 
 
 Grattan, Henry, career of, 97; 
 proclaims the independence of 
 the Irish parliament, 98; desires 
 friendship with Great Britain, 
 99; works for Catholic- emanci- 
 pation, 121 
 
 Grattan's Parliament (1782-1800), 
 98 ff. 
 
 Great Britain, dangerous position 
 of in 1780, 95; character of the 
 people of, 177, 178; extension of 
 the franchise in, 178-180; growth 
 of democracy in, 179, 180; cab- 
 inet government in, 229; at the 
 beginning of the Great War, 349, 
 350; prepares to enforce con- 
 scription in Ireland, 435; rela- 
 tions of with the United States, 
 439 ff. 
 
 Greek Language, study of in Ire- 
 and, 22; continued study of, 319 
 
490 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Greek Writers, Ireland called 
 Iernis or Ierne by, 4 
 
 Green, Alice Stopford, Mrs. J. R., 
 an exponent of Irish nationalist 
 writing, 6; on early Irish society, 
 8; on the work of the Irish mis- 
 sionaries, 23 
 
 Gregory, Lady, 330; place of in 
 the Irish Literary Revival, 337, 
 338 
 
 Grey, Charles, Earl, assisted by 
 O'Connell, 127 
 
 Grey, Edward, Earl, on the neces- 
 sity of settling the Irish ques- 
 tion, 291, 438; approves of fed- 
 eralism, 453 
 
 Guild Socialism, 220 
 
 Habeas Corpus, 172 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 412 
 
 Harp, 25 
 
 Hartingdon, Spencer Compton 
 Cavendish, Marquis of, later 
 Duke of Devonshire, opposes 
 Home Rule, 250 
 
 Hayburning, 278 
 
 Henderson, Arthur, on conscrip- 
 tion in Ireland, 431 ; in the elec- 
 tion of 1918, 464 
 
 Henry II, empire of, 32; said to 
 have sent emissary to Pope about 
 Ireland, 33; Ireland granted to, 
 33; receives Dermot, 34; gives 
 Dermot letters patent, 36; goes 
 to Ireland, 37; regulates affairs 
 in Ireland, 37; leaves Ireland 
 for greater tasks, 38 
 
 Henry III, Ireland during the 
 reign of, 42 
 
 Henry IV, Ireland in the time of, 
 49 * 
 
 Henry V, Ireland in the time of, 
 49 
 
 Henry VI, Ireland in the time of, 
 49 
 
 Henry VII, work of in England, 
 
 58; Ireland at the beginning of 
 the reign of, 59 
 
 Henry VIII, policy of in Ireland, 
 61 ; declared supreme head of the 
 church in Ireland, 61; declared 
 king of Ireland, 62; general sub- 
 mission to, 62; wins the Irish 
 chiefs, 62; character of the work 
 of in Ireland, 63; seizes lands of 
 absentee landlords in Ireland, 
 84; Wales incorporated with 
 England in the reign of, 107 
 
 Heptarchy, 43 
 
 Hides, Irish, excluded from the 
 English market, 92 
 
 Highlands, Scottish, finally recon- 
 ciled to the Union with Eng- 
 land, 113 
 
 Home Government Association of 
 Ireland, 244 
 
 Home Rule, Irish, general com- 
 ments upon, 235-237, 239; chief 
 argument for, 237; efforts to ob- 
 tain, 242 ff.; Mr. Asquith on 
 continued demand for, 242; be- 
 ginning of movement to obtain, 
 243, 244; work of Butt and Par- 
 nell for, 244-246; halted by 
 Fenian outrages, 248; party, 
 split in, 252; further progress of 
 movement for, 252; supported 
 by Gladstone, 248, 249; first bill 
 for, 249; struggle over, 250; de- 
 feated, 251; further progress of 
 movement for, 252; second bill 
 for, 253; defeat of, 254; Liberals 
 engage to support, 256; begin- 
 ning of the third attempt to 
 grant, 257; third bill for, 258, 
 259; rejected by the Lords, 259; 
 passed again by the Commons 
 and again rejected by the Lords, 
 262; a third time passed by the 
 Commons, 263; the foundation of 
 the British Empire, 266; not sat- 
 isfactory to the new Irish na- 
 tionalism, 266; arguments about, 
 
INDEX 
 
 491 
 
 266 ff.; character of arguments 
 about, 267; method of passing, 
 criticised, 271, 272; alleged cost 
 of, 272, 273; alleged not to be 
 really desired by Irishmen, 275; 
 American support of, 275; gen- 
 eral demand for, 275, 276; "the 
 Secret of Empire," 289, 290; 
 necessary for better understand- 
 ing between different English- 
 speaking peoples, 290, 291; Great 
 Britain willing to grant, 310; 
 proposals about unsatisfactory 
 to Nationalists, 401, 402; 
 dropped by the British govern- 
 ment, 415; reflections on, 452; 
 why not given just before the 
 War, 454; why not given during 
 the War, 455, 456; Ulster the 
 principal obstacle to granting, 
 458, 459 
 Home Rule Act (1914), suspended 
 for the duration of the War, 
 350 
 Home Rule Bill (1886), first, 
 
 terms of, 249; defeated, 251 
 Home Rule Bill (1893), second, 
 terms of, 253, 254; defeat of, 
 254 
 Home Rule Bill (1912), third, in- 
 troduction of, 258; passage of, 
 259-263, 349; on religious dis- 
 crimination, 282; securities in 
 against separation, 288, 289; be- 
 comes law, 397 
 Home Rule Federation of Great 
 
 Britain, 247 
 Home Rule League, 244 
 Home Rule Question, at the begin- 
 ning of the War, 396 
 Homer, 325 
 Hostages, 10 
 Huguenots, in Ulster, 93 
 Hungarians, passive resistance of, 
 
 355 
 Hunting-songs, Irish, 328 
 Hyde, Douglas, 338; founds the 
 
 Gaelic League, 339, 340; as a 
 writer in Gaelic, 342 
 
 Iliad, 325 
 
 Imperial Conferences, 290 
 Income Tax, 144 
 
 Independents, work of, in Eng- 
 land, 172 
 India, position of in the British 
 Empire, 177; services of Irish 
 soldiers in, 289 
 Indian Corn, for relief during the 
 
 Great Famine, 136 
 Industrial Revolution, effects of in 
 England and in Scotland, 166, 
 167; draws Ulster closer to 
 Great Britain, 296 
 Industry, Irish, ruin of, 92, 93; de- 
 clines as a result of the Indus- 
 trial Revolution, 117 
 Innocent III, Pope, 33 
 Ireland, origin of the name, 4; 
 ancient, conditions in, 8; ancient 
 civilization of, 3-17; Christianity 
 in, 18-26; invaded by the Danes, 
 26^31; partial conquest of by 
 the Normans from England, 32 
 ff. ; under the English Kings, 32- 
 55; complete conquest of by 
 England, 56 ff.; wretched condi- 
 tion of the people of in the eight- 
 eenth century, 81, 82; govern- 
 ment of in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, 89; conditions in in the 
 eighteenth century, 94; under 
 Grattan's Parliament, 95-105; 
 prosperity of during the period 
 of Grattan's Parliament, 99; al- 
 leged fictitious character of, 99, 
 100; under the Union, 106 ff.; 
 population of in 1800, 114; 
 causes of decline of prosperity 
 in after 1800, 117; conditions in 
 at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century, 115; population 
 of increases in the early part of 
 the nineteenth century, 134; 
 
492 
 
 INDEX 
 
 ravaged by the Great Famine, 
 135 ff.; conditions in in the 
 early part of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, 148; resources of, 191; 
 character of the land of, 192; 
 government of, 2-21; objections 
 to the government of, 227, 22%, 
 231, 232; comments upon the 
 government of, 233, 234? ; Gaelic 
 language dying out in, 317-319, 
 339; efforts to revive use of 
 Gaelic in, 339, 340, 341; Eng- 
 lish language in, 346, 34T; at 
 the outbreak of the War, 349, 
 351; in the first years of the 
 War, 371-374; situation in in 
 1918, 416 
 
 Irish, alleged incapacity of for 
 self-government, 276; in Amer- 
 ica, influenced by German prop- 
 aganda, 394 
 
 Irish Agricultural Organization 
 Society, founded, 218; develop- 
 ment of, 219; results from, 219- 
 222; opposed by the gombeen- 
 men, 224: 
 
 Irish- Americans, in the Great War, 
 433, 446, 447; influence the 
 United States against England, 
 442-444; in the development of 
 the United States, 443, 444; po- 
 litical power of, 444; hatred of 
 for England, 445 
 
 Irish- American Newspapers, 445 
 
 Irish Brigade, proposal to form, 
 398 
 
 Irish Characters (Letters), 342 
 
 Irish Citizen Army, 376, 390, 393 
 
 Irish County Councils Act (1898), 
 240, 276 
 
 Irish Government Bill (Home Rule 
 Bill), of 1886, terms of, 249; 
 struggle over, 250; defeat of, 
 251 
 
 Irish Land Stock, 209 
 
 Irish Literary Revival, 335 ff. 
 
 Irish Literary Theater, 336 
 
 Irish Members, in the parliament 
 of the United Kingdom, 8, 112; 
 support liberal measures, 127; 
 rejoice at British defeats, 283, 
 289 
 
 Irish National Council, 355 
 
 Irish National League, 202, 203; 
 suppressed in most of Ireland, 
 203 
 
 Irish Nationality, attempted awak- 
 ening of by Young Ireland, 334, 
 353; by the Gaelic League, 339- 
 341; by Sinn Fein, 340, 352 ff., 
 388, 389, 395 
 
 Irish Question, necessity of proper 
 understanding of, 447 ; England's 
 attitude towards, 448; reflections 
 on, 448 
 
 Irish Republic, proclaimed in 1916, 
 376, 377; in 1919, 466 
 
 Irish Republican Brotherhood, 151, 
 355, 364, 376 
 
 Irish Republican Party, 466 
 
 Irish Revival, writers of praise 
 Ireland, 6 
 
 Irish Soldiers, in the service of 
 France, 87; of the British Em- 
 pire, 289 
 
 Irish Volunteers, 365, 376, 390 
 
 Irishmen, former English opinion 
 of, 7; hostile to England, 196, 
 197; part of in the Great War, 
 424 
 
 Island Magee Massacre, 383 
 
 Isle of Man, origin of the name of, 
 16; fief of the Pope, 33; self- 
 government in, 290 
 
 Italy, contribution of to civiliza- 
 tion, 171 ; diminished power of 
 the priests in, 281 
 
 Jail Journal, 322 
 
 James I, Ireland in the reign of, 
 
 73 
 James II, seeks help from the 
 
 Irish, 79; ruin of the cause of in 
 
INDEX 
 
 493 
 
 Ireland, 80; Ireland in the time 
 of, 295 
 
 Jesuits, 299, 300 
 
 John, when Prince, fails in Ire- 
 land, 41 ; when King, comes with 
 powerful army, 41 
 
 John of Salisbury, 33 
 
 Johnson, Samuel, 321 
 
 Judicial Rents, 201; reduced and 
 extended, 204 
 
 Jugo-Slavs, 462 
 
 Junto, 101 
 
 Keating, Geoffrey, 331, 332; prose 
 of becomes a standard in Ire- 
 land, 346 
 
 Kilkenny, parliament at, 47 
 
 Kilkenny, Statute of, 47; Sir John 
 Davies on, 48; purpose and re- 
 sults of, 48, 49; largely revived 
 in Poyning's Law, 60 
 
 Kilmainham Prison, 247 
 
 Kilmainham Treaty, 247 
 
 Kincora, 329 
 
 "Kincora," by Lady Gregory, 338 
 
 King James Translation of the 
 Bible, 345 
 
 Kingston, Richard, 278 
 
 Kipling, Rudyard, on Ulster, 261 
 
 Labor Movement, in Dublin, 392 
 
 Labor Party, opposed to conscrip- 
 tion, 421; in the election of 1918, 
 463, 464 
 
 Labor Representatives, in the Irish 
 Convention, 411 
 
 Laeghaire, 5, 19 
 
 Laissez-faire, 136 
 
 Lancastrian Dynasty, Ireland dur- 
 ing the period of, 49, 50 
 
 Land, in Ireland, tribal ownership 
 of, 11; granted by Henry VIII 
 to the chiefs, 62; taken from the 
 natives by the English, 78, 79; 
 further confiscation of, 80; after 
 1689 mostly in the possession of 
 aliens, 80; held mostly by Eng- 
 
 lish proprietors, 82; general re- 
 sults of legislation about, 188, 
 189; legislation about little 
 known in the United States, 190; 
 character of, 192 
 Land Act of 1870, 198; effects of, 
 
 199 
 Land Act of 1881, importance of, 
 
 200; terms of, 201 
 Land Laws, Unionist comments 
 
 upon, 274 
 Land League, founded, 200; im- 
 portance of, 200; suppressed, 202 
 Land Legislation, continued by 
 Lord Salisbury, 203; general re- 
 sults of, 210, 211, 212-215 
 "The Land of Heart's Desire," 338 
 Land Purchase, 205 ff. 
 Land Question, at the beginning of 
 
 the nineteenth century, 115 
 Landlords, power of in Ireland, 
 83; character of, 83; political in- 
 fluence of in Ireland, 124; power 
 of largely destroyed, 125, 126; 
 oppose reform, 129; ruined by 
 the Great Famine, 139; new 
 class of follows passing of the 
 Encumbered Estates Act, 149; 
 power and position of, 194; ex- 
 propriation of demanded, 207 
 Language, in Ireland, 316 ff.; rela 
 tion of to national character, 
 320, 321; uniformity of, how 
 attained, 344, 345; uniformity of 
 not accomplished in Ireland, 346 
 I.arkin, James, 392 
 Latin Language, continued study 
 
 of, 319 
 Laudabililer, so-called Bull, 34 
 Law, Andrew Bonar, on the Irish 
 situation, 404, 405; on conscrip- 
 tion in Ireland, 431, 432; on the 
 Irish Question and the Peace 
 Conference, 463; in the election 
 of 1918, 463 
 Laws Affecting Ireland, how made, 
 232 
 
494 
 
 INDEX 
 
 League of Nations, 467 
 
 Leather, Irish, excluded from the 
 
 English market, 92 
 Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, 
 on Irish opposition to the Act of 
 Union, 111; on religious persecu- 
 tion in Europe, 164; on the spirit 
 of tolerance of Irish Catholics, 
 280; as a writer, 322 
 Lee, Robert Edward, 236 
 Leix and Offaly, plantation in, 69 
 Leslie, Shane, on Sinn Fein, 349 
 Liberal Party, supports Home 
 Rule, 248, 249; split by the 
 struggle, 249, 250; alliance of 
 with the Nationalists, 253, 256; 
 engages to support Home Rule, 
 256, 257; more dependent on 
 Irish support, 271 
 Liberty, development of ideas of, 
 
 91 
 Limerick, captured by the Eng- 
 lish, 80, 295 
 Limerick, Bishop of, 418 
 Linens, weaving of in Ulster, 92 
 Literature, Anglo-Irish, 321, 322 
 Literature, Celtic, or Gaelic, of 
 Ireland, 322 ff.; great mass of, 
 323; old Irish period of, 323; 
 middle Irish period of, 323-330; 
 modern period of, 330-334; re- 
 vival of under the impulse of 
 the Gaelic League, 342; char- 
 acter of, 343 
 Lloyd George, David, 255; under- 
 takes to effect a settlement in 
 Ireland, 400; becomes prime 
 minister, 403; on the Irish situa- 
 tion, 403, 404; proposes scheme 
 for settling the Irish Question, 
 405; on the Convention, 408; 
 makes appeal, 424; proposals of 
 for increasing the army, 430; in 
 the election of 1918, 463, 464 
 Local Government, training of the 
 Irish for, 221, 222; in England, 
 239; in Ireland, 240; reform of, 
 
 240; results from, 240, 241; con- 
 trolled by the Irish, 274 
 
 Logue, Cardinal Michael, Arch- 
 bishop of Armagh, on Irish or- 
 ganizations, 277 
 
 Londonderry, 261, 295, 297 
 
 Lords Justices of Ireland, 89 
 
 Lord Lieutenant, of Ireland, posi- 
 tion of, 89; present position of, 
 229, 230 
 
 Lords, House of, reverses O'Con- 
 nell's sentence, 132; rejects sec- 
 ond Home Rule Bill, 254; op- 
 poses reforms, 255; struggle 
 over the veto power of, 256; re- 
 jects third Home Rule Bill, 259; 
 rejects it again, 262 
 
 Lorraine, 368 
 
 Lough Swilly, 456 
 
 Louvain, 383 
 
 Lucy, Sir Henry, 283 
 
 Lullabies, Irish, 328 
 
 Luther, Martin, translation of the 
 Bible by, 345 
 
 Luxeuil, 23 
 
 Lyric Poems, Irish, 328 
 
 McCarthy, Justin, 252 
 
 McCarthy, Michael, 300 
 
 Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 
 Lord, on the subjection of Ire- 
 land, 56 
 
 MacDonagh, Thomas, 382 
 
 McGuire, J. K., on Ireland and the 
 British Empire, 450 
 
 McHale, Archbishop, 243 
 
 MacLiac, 329, 331 
 
 MacLir, Mannanan, 16 
 
 Macpherson, James, 317, 328 
 
 Magistrates, Irish, alleged charac- 
 ter of, 278 
 
 Mahaffy, John P., 406 
 
 Mahan, Alfred Thayer, Admiral, 
 on the strategic position of Ire- 
 land, 67 
 
 Maine, Sir Henry James Sumner, 
 333 
 
INDEX 
 
 495 
 
 Mainistreach, Flann, 330 
 
 Manchester Martyrs, 153 
 
 Manufactures, Irish, crushed by 
 England, 93 
 
 Manuscripts, Old Irish, marvel- 
 lously illuminated, 34 
 
 Markets, in old Ireland, 14 
 
 de Markiewicz, Constance Gore- 
 Booth, Countess, career of, 360 
 ff.; organizes the Fianna Boys, 
 361 ; at the performance of "An 
 Englishman's Home," 363 
 
 Marne, 436 
 
 Mary, Ireland in the reign of, 70 
 
 Massachusetts, 413, 413 
 
 Matthew, Father, leads the temper- 
 ance movement in Ireland, 131 
 
 Maynooth, Roman Catholic college 
 at, 133; grant to discontinued, 
 186 
 
 Mazzini, Giuseppe, 133 
 
 Meath, 5 
 
 Medb, 335 
 
 Mercantile System, 175 
 
 Mercenaries, in old Ireland, 337 
 
 Metal Work, in old Ireland, 34 
 
 Methuen, Paul Sanford, General, 
 defeat of, 383 
 
 Metropole, Hotel, 380 
 
 Middle Ages, Ireland at the close 
 of, 54; end of in Europe, 56, 
 57 
 
 Middle Europe, 370 
 
 Middle Irish Period of Ireland's 
 Literature, 333-330 
 
 Middlemen, ruined by the Great 
 Famine, 139 
 
 Military Service Bill, 431 
 
 Milking-songs, Irish, 25 
 
 Mill, John Stuart, 354 
 
 Missionaries, Irish, 22 ff., 30 
 
 Mitchel, John, 133, 333 
 
 Modern Period of Irish Literature, 
 330-334 
 
 "Molly Maguires," 277 
 
 Molyneux, William, affirms the leg- 
 islative independence of the Irish 
 
 parliament, 90; possible influ- 
 ence of, 443 
 
 Monasteries, in old Ireland, 19, 24 
 
 Mongols, 140 
 
 Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, 
 Baron de la Brede et de, 172 
 
 Moonlighting, 278 
 
 Moore, George, 333, 336 
 
 Moore, Thomas, 26, 321, 329, 335 
 
 Motu Proprio Decree, 379 
 
 Municipal Corporations, reform of 
 in Ireland, 139; in England, 139 
 
 The Mummer's Wife, 332 
 
 Music, in old Ireland, 25; col- 
 lected, 26 
 
 Naisi, 336 
 
 Naples, Italian dialect in, 344 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, danger from 
 influences English attitude to- 
 wards Ireland, 105 
 
 The Nation, organ of Young Ire- 
 land, 335 
 
 The Nation [London], on Sinn 
 Fein, 463 
 
 National Council of Sinn Fein, 
 364 
 
 National Union of Conservative 
 and Constitutional Associations, 
 285 
 
 National Volunteers, 364, 365 
 
 Nationalism, Irish, enhanced by 
 the work of Gaelic League, 341 ; 
 by the work of individuals like 
 Padraic Pearse, 341; shown in 
 names, 342 
 
 Nationalist Party, developed by 
 Butt and Parnell, 244 ff.; schism 
 in, 252; reunited under Red- 
 mond, 252 
 
 Nationalist Writers, on the Union 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 109 
 
 Nationalists, support British Lib- 
 erals, 356; assist in passing the 
 Parliament Bill of 1911, 357; 
 prepare armed forces to resist 
 
496 
 
 INDEX 
 
 the Ulster Volunteers, 262; not 
 willing that Ulster be left out of 
 the operation of Home Rule, 
 263; alleged democratic charac- 
 ter of, 268; at the beginning of 
 the Great War, 349; aims of un- 
 like those of Sinn Fein, 353; 
 representatives of withdraw 
 from the House of Commons, 
 404; agree to the scheme for an 
 Irish Convention, 405; agree to 
 the report of the Convention, 
 411; at the beginning of the 
 War, 416; repudiate connection 
 with Sinn Fein, 416; oppose con- 
 scription in Ireland, 423, 429; 
 under the leadership of Mr. Dil- 
 lon, 430, 431 ; oppose the con- 
 scription bill, 432; representa- 
 tives of resolve to remain in Ire- 
 land, 434; position of at the end 
 of the War, 462; great defeat of 
 in the election of 1918, 464, 465; 
 displaced by Sinn Fein, 465 
 
 Nationality, spirit of in the nine- 
 teenth century, 352; in Ireland, 
 353 
 
 Nationality, Irish, not given a 
 chance to evolve out of the 
 tribal stage, 27, 53, 54; develop- 
 ing, 97; remark of Grattan 
 about, 98 
 
 Navigation Acts, English, ruin 
 Irish commerce, 93 
 
 Ne Temere Decree, 279, 300 
 
 Nelson's Pillar, 377 
 
 Neolithic People, in Ireland, 4 
 
 New York, 411, 412 
 
 New Testament, translated into 
 Irish, 345 
 
 New Zealand, 176 
 
 Normans, conquest of England by, 
 31; good results of conquest by, 
 38; in Ireland, adopt the Gaelic 
 tongue, 316 
 
 Norman-Welsh Adventurers, begin 
 the conquest of Ireland, 36; 
 
 cruel behavior of, 37; fail to 
 conquer Ireland, 39, 40 
 Northmen, 27, 28 
 
 O'Brazil, 17 
 
 O'Brien, William, helps to found 
 the United Irish League, 207; on 
 conscription in Ireland, 431 
 
 O'Clery, Michael, 331 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, character of, 
 120, 121; early efforts of, 121; 
 revives the Catholic Association, 
 121; power of, 123; assists Earl 
 Grey, 127; begins agitation for 
 the repeal of the Union, 128- 
 131 ; condemned for conspiracy, 
 132; sentence of reversed, 132; 
 draws back from extreme meas- 
 ures, 132; death of, 142; on in- 
 terference by the Pope in Irish 
 affairs, 282; does not attempt to 
 revive Irish nationalism, 335 
 
 O'Connor, T. P., resolution moved 
 by, 403; speech of, 462 
 
 O'Flainn, Eochaid, 329 
 
 O'Mahony, 151 
 
 O'Neill, Shane, 72 
 
 O'Nolan, Rev. Gerald, on the des- 
 tiny of Ireland, 18; on the work 
 of the Catholics in Ireland, 279 
 
 O'Shea, Captain, 251 
 
 Oak and Steel Boys, 120 
 
 Officials, in Ireland, said to be too 
 numerous, 232 
 
 Ogham Writing, origin of, 6; char- 
 acter of compositions in, 323 
 
 Oisin, 327 
 
 Old Age Pension Act, 288 
 
 Old Irish Period of Ireland's Lit- 
 erature, 323 
 
 Orange Society, founded, 104 
 
 Ormond, Earl of, translates proc- 
 lamation into Irish, 45 
 
 Ossianic Cycle of Prose Romances, 
 327, 328 
 
 Ossianic Poems, 328 
 
INDEX 
 
 497 
 
 Palaeolithic People, in Ireland, 4 
 
 Palatine Counties, in Ireland, 43; 
 large extent of, 44 
 
 Pale, Part of Ireland under Eng- 
 lish Authority, 44; becomes 
 smaller, 46, 54; in the time of 
 Henry VII, 59 
 
 Papists^ in Ireland, discrimination 
 against, 85-87 
 
 Paraguay, 299 
 
 Parliament Act of 1911, 186, 257 
 
 Parliament, English, arranges the 
 Cromwellian Settlement, 77, 78; 
 discriminates against the Irish 
 Catholics, 85, 86 
 
 Parliament, British, maintains tyr- 
 anny in Ireland, 91; economic 
 discriminations by against Irish 
 industry, 92; against Irish com- 
 merce, 93; composition of, 100 
 
 Parliament, Irish, origin of, 60; 
 asserts independence, 60; made 
 subordinate by Poyning's Law, 
 60; declares Henry VIII King 
 of Ireland, 62; of 1689, 79; work 
 of undone, 80; position of in the 
 eighteenth century, 90; corrup- 
 tion in, 91 ; freed from control 
 of the British privy council, 98; 
 composition of, 101; period of 
 the independence of, 104; advan- 
 tages of, 269, 270; proposed com- 
 position of, 413 
 Parnell, Charles Stewart, support- 
 ed by some of the Fenians, 200; 
 declaration by, 200; founds the 
 Irish National League, 202; 
 character of, 245; obstructive 
 tactics of in parliament, 246; be- 
 comes leader of the Home Rule 
 movement, 246 ; head of the Land 
 League, 247; in Kilmainham 
 Prison, 247; makes agreement 
 with Gladstone, 247; all-power- 
 ful among the Irish, 248; during 
 the struggle over the first Home 
 Rule Bill, 250; attacked by the 
 
 London Times, 251; sued by 
 Captain O'Shea, 251; downfall 
 of, 252; testimonial to, 282; in- 
 scription on the monument to, 
 284 
 Paul IV, Pope, gives English 
 sovereigns the title of King of 
 Ireland, 35 
 Paul-Dubois, Louis, on the effects 
 
 of the Great Famine, 134 
 Peace Conference, 462, 463 
 Pearse, Padraic, on the destiny of 
 the Gael, 7; compared with Em- 
 met, 119; work of in enhancing 
 Irish nationalism, 341; as a 
 writer in Gaelic, 342; president 
 of the Irish Republic, 376; re- 
 fuses to assist in establishing 
 the Boy Scouts in Ireland, 361; 
 surrender of, 381 ; death of, 382, 
 383; on the Irish rebels, 389 
 
 Peasants, Irish, miserable condi- 
 tion of in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, 84 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, procures repeal 
 of the Corn Laws, 135; on the 
 "coffin-ships," 141 
 
 Penal Code, against Roman Catho- 
 lics, 85-87; largely swept away, 
 99; completely done away with, 
 126 
 
 Pennsylvania, 412 
 
 Pensions, on Irish revenues, 90 
 
 Persecution, Religious, in Ireland, 
 86; character of, 86, 87 
 
 Pestilence, after the Great Famine, 
 137 
 
 Petty, Sir William, on the condi- 
 tion of the Irish, 81; advocates 
 union of Ireland with England, 
 108; account of Ireland by, 
 193 
 
 Phenecians, Ireland known to, 4 
 
 Philadelphia, Irish-American Con- 
 vention in, 468 
 
 Philip II, aids the Irish rebels, 66 
 
 Philippine Islands, 177 
 
498 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Phoenix Clubs, 151 
 
 Phoenix Park Murders, 202, 247; 
 Parnell accused of complicity in, 
 251 
 
 Pictet, Adolphe, 317 
 
 Pitch-caps, 104 
 
 Pitt, William, problem confronting 
 in 1798, 108; views of about 
 Ireland, 110; wishes Roman 
 Catholics to be allowed to share 
 in the government of Ireland, 
 110; believes a union with Great 
 Britain good for Ireland, 110; 
 favors complete emancipation of 
 Roman Catholics, 114; yields to 
 George III, 114 
 
 "Plan of Campaign," 203 
 
 Plantations, begun in Ireland, 69; 
 in America, 69, 74; resistance of 
 the Irish to, 70; in Munster a 
 failure, 72; formed in Ulster, 
 73; much of Ulster, Munster, 
 and Leinster laid out in, 73, 74; 
 proposed for Connaught, 74; 
 success of in Ireland, 74 
 
 Plantation of Ulster, founded, 73, 
 294 
 
 "The Playboy of the Western 
 World," 339 
 
 Plow-whistles, 25 
 
 Plunkett, Sir Horace, studies agri- 
 culture, 216, 217; advocates co- 
 operation in Ireland, 217; diffi- 
 culties confronting, 218; success 
 of, 218; founds the I. A. O. S., 
 218; opposed by the politicians, 
 222; estimate of the work of, 
 225; on Ulster and Ireland, 397; 
 chairman of the Irish Conven- 
 tion, 406; on the work of the 
 Convention, 411, 412 
 
 Plunkett, Joseph, 377 
 
 Poland, Prussian, 58, 368 
 
 Politics, Irish, recent changes in 
 the spirit of, 223 
 
 Poor Law of 1838, 129 
 Poor Law Unions, 211 
 
 Popes, ambition of, 33; grant Ire- 
 land as a feudal dependency, 35; 
 interference of in Irish politics, 
 282 
 
 Population, of Ireland, increase of, 
 134; declines after the Greal 
 Famine, 140, 143 
 
 Portugal, 281 
 
 Posen, 451 
 
 Post Office, 375, 377; destruction 
 of, 380 
 
 Potato, principal food of the Irish 
 peasants, 135; crop fails, 135, 
 203 
 
 Poynings, Sir Edward, lord dep- 
 uty of Ireland, 59; causes Poyn- 
 ing's Law to be passed, 59 
 
 Poyning's Law, 59, 60 
 
 Presbyterians, in Ireland, not al- 
 lowed to hold office, 88; of Uls- 
 ter, radicalism among, 103; fear 
 the Roman Catholics, 298 
 
 Priests, Irish, under English dom- 
 ination, 122; great influence of 
 at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century, 122; assist 
 O'Connell, 123, 125; assist in the 
 movement for repeal, 131 ; power 
 of, 279; oppose conscription, 431, 
 434, 461 
 
 Pritchard, James,* 317 
 
 Private Ownership, in tribal Ire- 
 land, 11 
 
 Privy Council, English, controls 
 the Irish parliament, 90 
 
 Prosperity, during the period of 
 Grattan's Parliament, 99, 100; 
 causes of the decline of after the 
 Union, 117 
 
 Protestants, in Ireland, the upper 
 class, 82; organize troops to de- 
 fend Ireland, 96 
 
 Provencal, 344 
 
 Provisions, salted, not allowed to 
 be sent from Ireland to the Eng- 
 lish market, 92 
 
 Ptolemy, Ireland described by, 4 
 
INDEX 
 
 499 
 
 Puritans, in the English Civil 
 Wars, 172 
 
 Quebec, Catholics and Protestants 
 in, 301, 302; conscription in, 
 428, 434, 461 
 
 Queenstown, 434, 456 
 
 Rackrents, 84 
 
 Rawleigh, Sir Walter, fights 
 against Spanish invaders of Ire- 
 land, 67; gets estate in Ireland, 
 72 
 
 Raymond, a Norman Adventurer, 
 37 
 
 Rebellion of 1641, 76; effect of in 
 England, 76 
 
 Rebellion of 1798, 104 
 
 Rebellion of 1803, 119 
 
 Rebellion of 1916, 375 ff.; meas- 
 ures to suppress, 378; suppres- 
 sion of, 378-381; destruction 
 caused by, 381 ; feeling aroused 
 by, 381 ; stern measures of the 
 government following, 382, 383; 
 causes of, 390 ff. 
 
 Recruiting, opposed by Sinn Fein, 
 356, 372; opposed by the Fianna 
 Boys, 362 
 
 Redmond, John, on the changing 
 ownership of . land in Ireland, 
 188; refuses after a while to sup- 
 port Sir Horace Plunkett, 2-22; 
 becomes leader of the Home 
 Rule party, 252; becomes more 
 conservative, 255; on the third 
 Home Rule Bill, 259; wishes to 
 satisfy Ulster, 262, 263; alleged 
 dictatorship of, 271 ; cartoon 
 about, 283; speeches of in Amer- 
 ica, 284; on separation from 
 Great Britain, 288; wishes to 
 persuade Unionists of Ulster, 
 309; generous loyalty of at the 
 outbreak of the Great War, 350; 
 on the defence of Ireland, 365; 
 on the Irish Rebellion, 378, 382; 
 
 represents an older political or- 
 der, 391, 392; on Ireland's de- 
 sire for Home Rule, 396; on 
 Irish loyalty, 398; wishes to form 
 an Irish brigade, 398; declines a 
 place in the cabinet, 398; on Ire- 
 land and the War, 399; declines 
 to continue negotiations about 
 Home Rule, 402; appeals to 
 England, 402; withdraws from 
 the House of Commons, 404; re- 
 jects Mr. Lloyd George's scheme 
 for settling the Irish difficulty, 
 405; on the situation in Ireland, 
 407; on conscription in Ireland, 
 422, 423; death of, 430 
 
 Redmond, Captain William, 465 
 
 Redmond, Major W. H. K., appeal 
 made by, 403; death of, 430 
 
 Referendum, asked for on Home 
 Rule, 262 
 
 Reform Law, Electoral, of 1832, 
 178; of 1867, 179; of 1884, 179; 
 of 1918, 179; of 1884, increases 
 the power of Parnell, 248 
 
 Reformation, in Europe, 57; in 
 England, 64; in Ireland, 64; ef- 
 fects great barrier between peo- 
 ples in Ireland, 64, 65; causes 
 for failure of in Ireland, 65; 
 German, 171 
 
 Regium Donum, 186 
 
 Relief Works, 136 
 
 Religion, in old Ireland, 14 ff. 
 
 Renaissance, in early Christian Ire- 
 land, 22; in western Europe, 57 
 
 Rents, in Ireland, rise of, 115, 
 199; reduced, 201 
 
 Repeal of the Union, urged by 
 O'Connell, 131 
 
 Republic, Irish, planned (1865), 
 152; attempted establishment of 
 (1916), 376, 377; (1919), 466 
 
 Restoration, of Charles II, effect 
 of in Ireland, 79 
 
 Retaliation, Law of, in old Ireland, 
 12 
 
500 
 
 INDEX 
 
 zu Reventlow, Count Ernst, opin- 
 ions of about England and the 
 British Empire, 161, 162 
 
 Revolution, American, Ireland dur- 
 ing, 9(i; causes of, 174-176; later 
 effects of, 176 
 
 Revolution of 1688, effects of in 
 Ireland, 80 
 
 Revolution of 1848, 104, 146 
 
 Rhode Island, 411, 413 
 
 Ri, or King, in old Ireland, 9 
 
 Richard II, on the classes of peo- 
 ple in Ireland, 49 
 
 Richard, Duke of York, in Ire- 
 land, 50 
 
 "Riders to the Sea," 339 
 
 Road-fever, 137 
 
 Robert Guiscard, 33 
 
 Roman Catholics, in Ireland, many 
 disabilities upon removed, 99; 
 admitted to the franchise, 99; 
 not allowed to sit in parliament, 
 101; barbarously treated, 104; 
 the great majority of the Irish 
 people in 1800, 114; political 
 emancipation promised to but 
 not given to, 114; emancipation 
 of, 126 
 
 Romances, Irish, Medieval, 324 
 ff.; Ulster Cycle of, 324; Fenian 
 or Ossianic Cycle of, 327, 328 
 
 Rome Rule, 281, 297 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, on the neces- 
 sity of settling the Irish Ques- 
 tion, 291 
 
 Rossa, O'Donovan, 151 
 
 Royal Commission, on the Irish 
 Rebellion, report of, 373 
 
 Royal Irish Constabulary, 356 
 
 Rumania, 403 
 
 Rural Laborers, 211 
 
 Russell, George W. ("A. E."), as- 
 sists Sir Horace Plunkett, 218; 
 on future social organization, 
 220; place of in the Irish Liter- 
 ary Revival, 338; on the leaders 
 of the Irish Rebellion, 389; mem- 
 
 ber of the Irish Convention, 406; 
 pamphlet by, 408, 409; on "colo- 
 nial" Home Rule, 410 
 Russia, terrorism in, 152; defeat 
 of in the Great War, 370; causes 
 of withdrawal of from the War, 
 426, 427 
 
 Sackville Street, Dublin, 380, 381 
 
 St. Bridget, sacred fire of, 15 
 
 St. Columba, goes to Iona, 22; 
 converts the Scots and the Picts, 
 23 
 
 St. Columbanus, spreads Christian- 
 ity in Burgundy, 23 
 
 St. Finnen, 21 
 
 St. Enda's School, 341 
 
 St. Patrick, early life of, 18; con- 
 verts the Irish to Christianity, 
 19 
 
 St. Quentin, 429 
 
 St. Stephen's Green, 375, 377 
 
 Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot 
 Gascoyne Cecil, Marquis of, land 
 legislation continued by, 203, 
 204; opposes Home Rule, 250; 
 on strong government in Ireland, 
 254; on the incapacity of the 
 Irish for self-government, 276 
 
 Sarajevo, 264 
 
 Schleswig, 368 
 
 Schools, in early Christian Ire- 
 land, 21 ; attended by many for- 
 eigners, 21; in present-day Ire- 
 land, Gaelic taught in, 341 
 
 Scotch-Irishmen, settle in Ulster, 
 73; many go to America, 92 
 
 Scotland, origin of the name of, 
 23; development of nationality 
 in, 107; partial union of with 
 England (1603), 107; complete 
 union of with (1707), 107, 108 
 
 Scots, from Erin, plunder Britain, 
 5 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 317, 322 
 
 Secret Societies, 119, 120 
 
 Seebohm, Frederick, 333 
 
INDEX 
 
 501 
 
 Self-determination, 462 
 
 Self-government, said not really to 
 exist in Ireland, 232, 238; solid 
 foundation for future, 241 
 
 Senchus Mor, 332, 333 
 
 Separation, of Ireland from Great 
 Britain, tendency towards, 105; 
 dangers of, 284, 285; reflections 
 upon, 449 
 
 Servia, 211, 370 
 
 Shannon, 465 
 
 Shaw, George Bernard, on Castle 
 rule, 231 ; place of in Anglo- 
 Irish literature, 336 
 
 Shelbourne Hotel, 377 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 321 
 
 Shires, part of Ireland divided 
 into, 41 
 
 Sidney, Sir Henry, in Ireland, 70 
 
 Sicily, Italian dialect in, 344 
 
 Silk Weaving, in Ireland, ruin of, 
 92 
 
 Sinn Fein, a description of, 349 ; 
 meaning of, 352; an aspect of 
 excessive nationalism, 352; aims 
 of different from those of the 
 Nationalists, 353; purpose of, 
 354, 388; beginning of, 355; de- 
 velopment and growth of, 255 
 ff.; enlistments in the British 
 army discouraged by, 356; advo- 
 cates the independence of Ire- 
 land, 356; does not desire Home 
 Rule, 357, 358; unable to carry 
 elections, 357; little attention 
 paid to by the British authori- 
 ties, 358; characteristic activities 
 of, 359 ff. ; raises an armed 
 force, 364, 365; effects of, 366; 
 estimate of, 366-368; attitude to- 
 wards Germany, 367, 372, 373; 
 benefits from a revulsion of feel- 
 ing after the suppression of the 
 Irish Rebellion, 385-388; char- 
 acter of its leaders, 387, 388; 
 attempts to revive Irish nation- 
 ality, 340, 352 ff., 388, 389, 395; 
 
 prisoners released welcomed in 
 Ireland, 406; continues its work, 
 407; revelations about, 415; re- 
 newed activity of, 435, 436; al- 
 leged conspiracy of, 436; reflec- 
 tions upon, 449; in the election 
 of 1918, 465; great triumph of, 
 465; task before, 466; republic 
 proclaimed by, 466, 468; tries to 
 get assistance from President 
 Wilson, 467; appeals to Ameri- 
 can soldiers in Ireland, 467; asks 
 that the Irish Republic be ad- 
 mitted to the League of Na- 
 tions, 467 
 
 Sinn Fein Writers, on the Union 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 109 
 
 Skeffington, Sheehy, 384; execution 
 of, 385; on the Irish Volunteers, 
 390 
 
 Skinnider, Margaret, on the activi- 
 ties of Sinn Fein, 363; on the 
 action of the British government 
 after the Irish Rebellion, 383 
 
 Slave-trade, behveen England and 
 Ireland, 10 
 
 Smith, Adam, advocates a union 
 between Ireland and England, 
 108 
 
 Social System, in early Ireland, 9 
 
 Society for the Preservation of 
 the Irish Language, 339 
 
 South African Union, 176 
 
 South African War, 207 
 
 Spain, power of the priests in, 281 
 
 Spaniards, invited into Ireland, 73 
 
 Spenser, Edmund, on the Irish cus- 
 tom of compensation * for in- 
 juries, 13; on starving the Irish, 
 71; gets an estate in Ireland, 72 
 
 Spinning-songs, 25 
 
 Spirit Duties, 144 
 
 Squirearchy, 240 
 
 Starvation, as a weapon in con- 
 quering Ireland, 70 
 
 Steele, Richard, 321 
 
502 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Stephens, James, 151 
 
 Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, 
 Earl of, 75, 76 
 
 Strategic Position of Ireland, with 
 respect to England, 66, 67; con- 
 siderations about, 284, 285 
 
 Strathclyde, 319 
 
 Stuart Kings, turn to Ireland for 
 soldiers, 67 
 
 Stuart Period, of English history, 
 58; contest between parliament 
 and king during, 75 
 
 Submarines, 455, 456; along the 
 Irish coast, 457, 458 
 
 Suffragettes, 460 
 
 Swift, Jonathan, on the Irish par- 
 liament, 91; on the Irish har- 
 bors, 93; place of in Anglo-Irish 
 literature, 321 
 
 Syndicalism, 392 
 
 Synge, John Millington, on the 
 story of Deirdre, 326; as a dra- 
 matist, 338, 339 
 
 Tacitus, Ireland in the time of, 4; 
 on the opinion of Agricola 
 about, 5 
 
 Tain Bo Cuailnge, 323; account of, 
 324; content and form of, 325 
 
 Tains, 324-326 
 
 Tanist, Elected Ruler in Old Ire- 
 land, 9 
 
 Tanistry, abolished, 75 
 
 Tara, Seat of the Over-king, 9; 
 convention at, 14; O'Connell's 
 great meeting at, 131 
 
 Taxation, in Ireland, increases 
 after the Union, 119; comments 
 on, 119; increased by Gladstone, 
 144; comments on alleged exces- 
 siveness of, 144, 145, 273 
 
 Temperance Movement, in Ireland, 
 131 
 
 Tenant Protection Societies, 149 
 
 Tenant-Right, 195 
 
 Tenant-Right Convention, 199 
 
 Tenants, political dependence of 
 upon landlords, 125; revolt of, 
 125, 126; stricken by great pes- 
 tilence and famine in Ireland, 
 135-137; position of in Ireland 
 in the first half of the nineteenth 
 century, 194, 195; sad condition 
 of, 196; assisted by land legisla- 
 tion, 198 ff. 
 
 Text-books, 441 
 
 Thompson, Charles, 443 
 
 "The Three Sorrows of Story-tell, 
 ing," 326 
 
 The Times [London], calls atten- 
 tion to the growth of Sinn Fein, 
 373 
 
 Tipperary, 434 
 
 Tithe War, 128 
 
 Tithes, burdensome character of, 
 116; commutation of, 129 
 
 Tone, Wolf, 103 
 
 Tories, obstruct measures of re- 
 form, 268; diminishing number 
 of, 270 
 
 Tralee, Bishop of, on the dises- 
 tablishment of the Irish Church, 
 187 
 
 Treitschke, Heinrich von, on Eng- 
 land and the British Empire, 
 161 
 
 Tribal Law, 12 
 
 Tribal Obligations, in old Ireland, 
 9, 10 
 
 Tribal Organization, in ancient 
 Ireland, 8, 9 
 
 Tribal Ownership of Land, in old 
 Ireland, 11; in other places, 11; 
 overthrow of, 11 
 
 Tribal Period, of English history, 
 26, 28; of Irish history, 29 
 
 Tribal Spirit, persistence of in Ire- 
 land, 220 
 
 Tribal Warfare, in Ireland, 30 
 
 Tudor Period, of English History, 
 58 
 
 Tympan, 25 
 
 Tyrconnel, Earl of, lands of made 
 
INDEX 
 
 503 
 
 part of the plantation of Uls- 
 ter, 73 
 Tyrone, Earl of, leads rebellion in 
 Ulster, 73; lands of made part 
 of the plantation of Ulster, 73 
 
 Ukrainia, 152 
 
 Ulster, devastation of, 43; rebel- 
 lion of O'Neill in, 72; largely 
 confiscated, 72; rebellion of Ty- 
 rone in, 73; plantation of laid 
 Out (1611), 73, 294; rising of 
 the Irish in, 76; woolen industry 
 of ruined, 92; many Scotch- 
 Irishmen leave, 92; linen indus- 
 try in, 92; Huguenot refugees 
 in, 92; radicalism among Pres- 
 byterians of, 103; Presbtyerians 
 of work with Catholics in sup- 
 porting Tenant Protection Soci- 
 eties, 150; tenant-right in, 195; 
 Unionists of make powerful op- 
 position to Home Rule, 257, 258; 
 desire to maintain the Union, 
 259, 260; Covenant pledged in, 
 260; Volunteers enrolled in, 261; 
 Unionists of resolve to resist 
 Home Rule, 261 ; sympathy in 
 England for Unionists of, 262; 
 temporary exclusion of part of 
 proposed, 262; appeals of, 263; 
 Unionists of unwilling to com- 
 promise, 264; wrong to desert 
 Unionists in, 278; expected dis- 
 crimination against, 279; Union- 
 ists in principal obstacle to the 
 granting of Home Rule, 292, 
 310; general account of, 293 ff.; 
 position of Protestants in, 295, 
 296; sometimes opposed to Eng- 
 land, 296; draws closer to Great 
 Britain, 296, 297; religious fears 
 in, 298, 299, 303, 304; industrial 
 and economic considerations in, 
 304, 305; taxation of, 305; fear 
 of Home Rule government in, 
 
 306, 307; population of and re- 
 ligious divisions in, 307, 308; ex- 
 clusion of Unionist counties of 
 from Home Rule, 400; continues 
 to be the principal obstacle to a 
 settlement of the Irish Question, 
 414; soldiers from in the Great 
 War, 423, 428; attitude in to- 
 wards conscription, 429 
 
 Ulster Question, general comments 
 on, 309-311 
 
 Ulster Unionist Council, opposes 
 Home Rule, 400 
 
 Ulster Volunteers, 261, 264 
 
 Undertakers, settle English fami- 
 lies in Ireland, 72; control par- 
 liamentary representation, 89 
 
 Union, of Ireland with Great Brit- 
 ain, repeal of sought, 131, 132; 
 repeal of desired, 145; Act of, 
 regarded as a blessing, 91; de- 
 sired by English statesmen, 105; 
 desired by some Irishmen, 108; 
 petitions for from Ireland, 108; 
 Irishmen opposed to, 110, 111; 
 made possible by bribery, 111; 
 not satisfactory to Irishmen, 
 113; disruption of by Home Rule 
 predicted, 283 
 
 Union Defence League, 308 
 
 Unionist, origin of the term, 249 
 
 Unionists, of Ulster oppose Home 
 Rule, 400, 401 ; constituencies 
 controlled by, 276; unwilling to 
 compromise in the Convention, 
 411; proposed protection for, 
 413; support conscription, 432; 
 in the election of 1918, 464 
 
 Unionists, Southern, represented 
 in the Irish Convention, 406; 
 agree to the report of the Con- 
 vention, 411; proposed protec- 
 tion for, 413; in the election con- 
 test of 1918, 464 
 
 United Church of England and 
 Ireland, established, 112; dises- 
 tablished, 186, 187 
 
504 
 
 INDEX 
 
 United Irish League, founded, 207; 
 fear of, 277, 306 
 
 United Irishmen, Society of 
 (1791), 103; seeks aid from 
 France, 104 
 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, established, 112 
 
 United States, of America, emigra- 
 tion of Irishmen to, 87, 140; 
 Irishmen in support the Fenians, 
 151; advantages from the geo- 
 graphical position of, 170; 
 separation and secession in, 236; 
 enters the Great War, 427; 
 opinion in concerning Ireland, 
 Great Britain, and the War, 433; 
 relations of with Great Britain, 
 439 ff. 
 
 Usnech, 326 
 
 Utrecht, Treaty of, 186 
 
 de Valera, Professor Eamonn, 
 407; proclaimed president of the 
 Irish Republic, 467 
 
 Venetia, 344 
 
 Veuillot, Louis, on religious tolera- 
 tion, 297, 298 
 
 Viceroy, English, in Ireland, has 
 little power during the Anglo- 
 Norman period, 43 
 
 Victoria, 289 
 
 Vimy, 429 
 
 Virginia, 412, 413 
 
 Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet, 
 172 
 
 Voluntary Service, in Great Brit- 
 ain, 420, 421; in Ireland, 428 
 
 Wales, conquered by Edward I, 
 107; incorporated with England 
 under Henry VIII, 107 
 
 Walker, Rev. George, 297 
 
 "Walsh's Fort," 278 
 
 "The Wanderings of Oisin," 336 
 
 War-dogs, 325 
 
 Washington, George, 236 
 
 "The Well of the Saints," 339 
 
 Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 
 Duke of, favors Catholic eman- 
 cipation, 125, 126 
 
 Wesley, John, on the kindliness of 
 Irish Catholics, 280 
 
 Whigs, attitude of towards Ire- 
 land, 128 
 
 Whitby, Synod of, 21 
 
 Whiteboys, 120 
 
 Wilde, Oscar, 322, 336 
 
 William of Normandy, 33 
 
 William, Prince of Orange and 
 King of England, supporters of 
 get lands in Ireland, 80; gift of 
 to Irish Presbyterians, 186 
 
 Wilson, Woodrow, 462; how re- 
 garded in Ireland, 467 
 
 Woman's Suffrage, 460 
 
 Women, in England, training of 
 for a part in the government, 
 241; in ancient Ireland, position 
 of, 325 
 
 Wool, Irish, debarred from Eng- 
 land, 92 
 
 Woolens, Irish, export of forbid- 
 den by the English parliament, 
 92 
 
 Writing, introduction of into Ire- 
 land, 6 
 
 Wyndham Act, 208 
 
 Yeats, William Butler, on the 
 story of Deidre, 326; poetical 
 work of, 336; as a dramatist, 338 
 
 York, House of, supported by 
 English colonists in Ireland, 59 
 
 Young, Arthur, on the power of 
 the landlords in Ireland, 83; on 
 the Irish parliament, 91 
 
 Young Ireland, Society of, found- 
 ed, 132; influenced by the Revo- 
 lution of 1848, 146; revival of 
 Irish nationality attempted by, 
 335 
 
 Young Italy, 132 
 
 Ypres, 381, 429, 432 
 
 Zeuss, Kaspar, 6, 317 
 
 WT6-1949 
 

 
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