(1) There shall be a separate register o_Present Irish Questions

Legislative Council which shall be made, until otherwise provided by Irish

Act, in like manner as the Parliamentary register of electors.

(2) Where, for the election of Councillors, any counties are combined so

as to form one constituency, then until otherwise provided by Irish Act,

(_a_) The returning officer for the whole constituency shall be that

one of the returning officers for Parliamentary elections for those

counties to whom the writ is addressed, and the writ shall be

addressed to the returning officer for the constituency with the

largest population, according to the census of 1891.

(_b_) The returning officer shall have the same authority throughout

the whole constituency as a returning officer to a Parliamentary

election for a county has in the county.

(_c_) The registers of electors of each county shall jointly be the

(_d_) For the purposes of this Schedule 'county' includes a county of

a city or town, and this Schedule, and the law relating to the

qualification of electors, shall apply, as if the county of a city or

town formed part of the county at large with which it is combined, and

the qualification in the county of a city or town shall be the same as

in such county at large.

(3) Writs shall be issued for the election of councillors at such time not

less than one or more than three months before the day for the periodical

retirement of councillors as the Lord-Lieutenant in Council may fix.

(4) The day for the periodical retirement of councillors shall, until

otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the last day of August in every fourth

year.

(5) For the purposes of such retirement, the constituencies shall be

divided into two equal divisions, and the constituencies in each province

shall be divided as nearly as may be equally between those divisions, and

constituencies returning two or more members shall be treated as two or

more constituencies, and placed in both divisions.

(6) Subject as aforesaid, the particular constituencies which are to be in

each division shall be determined by lot.

(7) The said division and lot shall be made and conducted before the

appointed day in manner directed by the Lord-Lieutenant in Council.

(8) The first councillors elected for the constituencies in the first

division shall retire on the first day of retirement which occurs after

the first meeting of the Irish Legislature, and the first councillors for

the constituencies in the second division shall retire on the second day

of retirement after that meeting.

(9) Any casual vacancy among the councillors shall be filled by a new

election, but the councillor filling the vacancy shall retire at the time

at which the vacating councillor would have retired.

_Legislative Assembly._

(10) The Parliamentary register of electors for the time being shall,

until otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the register of electors of the

Legislative Assembly.

_Both Houses._

(11) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the Lord-Lieutenant in Council

may make regulations for adapting the existing election laws to the

election of members of the two Houses of the Legislature.

(12) Annual sessions of the Legislature shall be held.

(13) Any peer, whether of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England,

Scotland, or Ireland, shall be qualified to be a member of either House.

(14) A member of either House may by writing under his hand resign his

seat, and the same shall thereupon be vacant.

(15) The same person shall not be a member of both Houses.

(16) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, if the same person is elected

to a seat in each House, he shall, before the eighth day after the next

sitting of either House, by written notice, elect in which House he will

serve, and upon such election his seat in the other House shall be vacant,

and if he does not so elect, his seat in both Houses shall be vacant.

(17) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, any such notice electing in

which House a person will sit, or any notice of resignation, shall be

given in manner directed by the Standing Orders of the Houses, and if

there is no such direction, shall be given to the Lord-Lieutenant.

(18) The powers of either House shall not be affected by any vacancy

therein, or any defect in the election or qualification of any member

thereof.

(19) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the holders of such Irish

offices as may be named by Order of the Queen in Council before the

appointed day, shall be entitled to be elected to and sit in either House,

notwithstanding that they hold offices under the Crown, but on acceptance

of any such office the seat of any such person in either House shall be

vacated unless he has accepted the office in succession to some other of

the said offices.

_Transitory._

(20) The Lord-Lieutenant in Council may, before the appointed day, make

regulations for the following purposes:--

(_a_) The making of a register of electors of councillors in time for

the election of the first councillors, and with that object for the

variation of the days relating to registration in the existing

election laws, and for prescribing the duties of officers, and for

making such adaptations of those laws as appear necessary or proper

for duly making a register;

(_b_) The summoning of the two Houses of the Legislature of Ireland,

the issue of writs and any other things appearing to be necessary or

proper for the election of members of the two Houses;

(_c_) The election of a chairman (whether called Speaker, President,

or by any other name) of each House, the quorum of each House, the

communications between the two Houses, and such adaptation to the

proceedings of the two Houses of the procedure of Parliament, as

appears expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by those

Houses on their first meeting;

(_d_) The adaptation to the two Houses and the members thereof of any

laws and customs relating to the House of Commons or the members

thereof;

(_e_) The deliberation and voting together of the two Houses in cases

provided by this Act.

(21) The regulations maybe altered by Irish Act, and also in so far as

they concern the procedure of either House alone, by Standing Orders of

that House, but shall, until altered, have effect as if enacted in this

Act.

NOTE I

FROM THE 'MEMOIRS OF THE LATE LORD SELBORNE'

(Part ii. pp. 261-263).

... Each new step Gladstone takes is, as it seems to me, more and more on

the side of _moral_ as well as political evil. Much as I disapproved of

his surrender of last year to Parnell, I disapprove very much more of his

present endeavour to prevent the restoration in the present stage of the

Home Rule question, of the reign of law in Ireland, and of the _means_ he

is attempting to use for _that_ purpose. Deliberate and organised

obstruction in the House of Commons, and an attempt to overrule a majority

against him there, of more than one hundred, by violent appeals to popular

passions outside,--those appeals being supported by representing the cause

of anarchy and conspiring against law as the cause of liberty,--by denying

the existence of any case for strengthening the law, in the face of a

complete and manifest paralysis of law by the power of a seditious

organisation, into whose scale he has now thrown his whole influence,--and

by denouncing, in the most violent terms, the principle of measures for

the protection of the loyal, and for securing the due administration of

justice, which are the same (in their general character, for it is not

necessary here to go into questions of detail) with those by means of

which he himself governed Ireland for the last years of his power, and far

more consistent with all real ideas of liberty than the suspension of the

Habeas Corpus Act, which he introduced in 1881. It was quite open to him

(of course) to contend that, by the acceptance of his Home Rule scheme,

the necessity for any such measures might be prevented, and that he

prefers and insists upon that alternative,--so much as _that_ was involved

in his measures of last year; but it is quite a different thing to

denounce the principle of maintaining law and government, and defending

those who respect and obey law from the tyranny of conspirators against

it, and making the ordinary criminal law of the country a reality and not

a mere idle name,--'as coercion,' in the sense of an undue invasion of

liberty. To do this, and to appeal _ad populum_ against it from an

overwhelming majority in Parliament is _Acheronta movere_, with a

vengeance.... For a man who, with his attainments, his experience, his

professions, his fifty years' public service, his political education

under some of the greatest and best men of the time, has three times

filled the highest office in the State, and is now on the verge of the

grave, so to end his career, seems to me more shocking and disheartening

than anything else recorded in our history. It is only the old respect,

and old attachment, which makes one search about for the possible

explanations, in the workings of a very complex and intricate mind. If (as

I trust) the Government and the House of Commons stand firm, all his

efforts in the cause of anarchy will be in vain. The clause as to removing

trials to England may have to be given up; but the _permanence_ of the

Bill (its best feature of all) must remain, if any good is to be done.

... I will spare you a long yarn about politics this time. The G.O.M.

seems to be determined to pull the whole Irish house down, parliamentary

government and all, unless he can have his own way. But I have no fear

that he _will_ have his way, just at present, whatever harm he may do in

the endeavour. But the struggle is very disagreeable, as well as sharp.

NOTE II

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSION (Vol. iv. pp. 544, 545).

_Conclusions of the Report of the Judges._

We have now pursued our inquiry over a sufficiently extended period to

enable us to report upon the several charges and allegations which have

been made against the respondents, and we have indicated in the course of

this statement our findings upon these charges and allegations, but it

will be convenient to repeat _seriatim_ the conclusions we have arrived

at upon the issues which have been raised for our consideration.

I. We find that the respondent members of Parliament collectively were not

members of a conspiracy having for its object to establish the absolute

independence of Ireland, but we find that some of them, together with Mr.

Davitt, established and joined in the Land League organisation with the

intention by its means to bring about the absolute independence of Ireland

as a separate nation. The names of these respondents are set out on a

previous page.

II. We find that the respondents did enter into a conspiracy by a system

of coercion and intimidation to promote an agrarian agitation against the

payment of agricultural rents, for the purpose of impoverishing and

expelling from the country the Irish landlords who were styled the

'English Garrison.'

III. We find that the charge that 'when on certain occasions they thought

it politic to denounce, and did denounce, certain crimes in public they

afterwards led their supporters to believe such denunciations were not

sincere' is not established. We entirely acquit Mr. Parnell and the other

respondents of the charge of insincerity in their denunciation of the

Phoenix Park murders, and find that the 'facsimile' letters on which

this charge was chiefly based as against Mr. Parnell is a forgery.

IV. We find that the respondents did disseminate the _Irish World_ and

other newspapers tending to incite to sedition and the commission of other

crime.

V. We find that the respondents did not directly incite persons to the

commission of crime other than intimidation, but that they did incite to

intimidation, and that the consequence of that incitement was that crime

and outrage were committed by the persons incited. We find that it has not

been proved that the respondents made payments for the purpose of inciting

persons to commit crime.

VI. We find as to the allegation that the respondents did nothing to

prevent crime and expressed no _bonâ fide_ disapproval, that some of the

respondents, and in particular Mr. Davitt, did express _bonâ fide_

disapproval of crime and outrage, but that the respondents did not

denounce the system of intimidation which led to crime and outrage, but

persisted in it with knowledge of its effect.

VII. We find that the respondents did defend persons charged with agrarian

crime, and supported their families, but that it has not been proved that

they subscribed to testimonials for, or were intimately associated with,

notorious criminals, or that they made payments to procure the escape of

criminals from justice.

VIII. We find, as to the allegation that the respondents made payments to

compensate persons who had been injured in the commission of crime, that

they did make such payments.

IX. As to the allegation that the respondents invited the assistance and

co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money from known advocates

of crime and the use of dynamite, we find that the respondents did invite

the assistance and co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money

from Patrick Ford, a known advocate of crime and the use of dynamite, but

that it has not been proved that the respondents, or any of them, knew

that the Clan-na-Gael controlled the League or was collecting money for

the Parliamentary Fund. It has been proved that the respondents invited

and obtained the assistance and co-operation of the Physical Force Party

in America, including the Clan-na-Gael, and in order to obtain that

assistance, abstained from repudiating or condemning the action of that

party.

Index

Administration of the affairs of Ireland: its nature and defects, 28, 29.

Agrarian crime in Ireland, 12, 29, 128, 135, 146. _See_ Whiteboyism

Agriculture, state of, in Ireland, 3, 7, 204, 205, 206, 234

Balfour, Mr. Arthur: his successful policy when Chief Secretary for

Ireland, 58;

he establishes light railways in Ireland, and the Congested Districts

Board, 35, 36

Belfast, improvement in, within the last sixty years, 2

Bewley, Mr. Justice, the head of the Second Land Commission: his theory

of occupation right in the Irish land, 219, 220

Bureaucracy, the, of the Castle, 28, 29

Butt, Isaac: the true author of the conception of Home Rule, 41;

his work on Irish Federalism, 42

Chicago, the Convention at, in 1886: speeches of two of Parnell's

envoys, 57

Code, the Irish Penal: its effects on the Irish land, 99, 100. _See_ the

Question of the Irish Land, Chap. III., in several places

Commissions appointed for considering and administering Irish affairs:

(1) the Devon Commission and its Report--the mistake it made as to

Irish land tenure, 116;

(2) the Childers Commission and its Report on Irish finance, 288-291

(_see_ chapter on the Present Question of Irish Finance, _passim_);

(3) the Land Commission appointed to carry out the Land Act of 1881

and its supplements, 166, 190, 191. _See_ Chaps. IV., V., VI., on

the Question of the Irish Land, in many places

Confiscations of the Irish Land, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96. _See_ Chap.

III., on the Question of the Irish Land, in several places

Cork has not prospered within the last sixty years, 2

Cromwell, Irish policy of, especially as to the land, 93, 94

Davitt, Michael, inaugurates the Irish Land League, 44

Derby, the Administration of Lord, brings in Irish Land Bills in 1852,

which do not become law, 123

Dublin, improvements in, within sixty years, 2

Emancipation, Catholic: its effects on Irish landed relations, 113, 114

Encumbered Estates Act: an iniquitous measure of confiscation, and its

results, 121, 122

Exodus, the, of the Irish race after the Famine, 120. _See_ Chap. III.,

the Question of the Irish Land, in several places

Famine, the Great Irish, of 1845-47, 117, 118, 119;

and _see_ Chap. III., on the Irish land, in several places

Fenian outbreaks in Ireland, 128, 129;

the consequences, 129;

the influence of Fenianism in Ireland after 1870, 147

Finance, the question of Irish: the financial relations between Great

Britain and Ireland a subject of long controversy, 271;

what they were before 1782, 273,

and under Grattan's Parliament, 274;

increase of the debt and the taxation of Ireland by the close of the

eighteenth century, 274, 275;

the financial arrangements made at the Union, the work of Pitt, 275,

276;

his object was to 'assimilate Great Britain and Ireland in finance,'

but this was impossible, and why, ibid.;

the financial settlement effected at the Union--Ireland to pay a

contribution, but not to be taxed beyond her means, ibid.;

the seventh article of the Treaty of Union and its constitutional

meaning, 277, 278;

the settlement denounced in the Irish Parliament, especially by Foster

and Grattan, 279;

protest of the twenty peers, 279, 280;

the Union left Ireland financially a distinct country, 280;

the settlement made at the Union reduced her to bankruptcy, and how,

281, 282;

the compromise of 1816, 282, 283;

the real objects of this measure, 283, 284;

though theoretically to 'be assimilated' in finance, Ireland remained

for many years financially a completely distinct country, and the

reasons, 284;

this fully recognised by Peel in 1842, 285;

he refused to extend the income tax to Ireland, and permanently to

increase her spirit duties, ibid.;

Mr. Gladstone in 1853 suddenly disregards this policy, and imposes the

income tax on Ireland, and raises her spirit duties, 286;

gross injustice of this increase of taxation, especially under the

circumstances of Ireland, 286, 289;

Ireland to a considerable extent 'assimilated in finance' to Great

Britain, but not completely, even to the present day, a fact that

should be kept in mind, 287;

the Committee of 1863-64 on Irish finance, ibid.;

it fails to get Ireland justice, 288;

Mr. Goschen appoints a Committee to investigate the subject, ibid.;

this followed by the Childers Commission, appointed by Mr. Gladstone

in 1893, ibid.;

scope of the inquiry, 288, 289;

the work of the Childers Commission, 289;

it reports that Ireland has been overtaxed at the rate of between two

and three millions a year, and that for a very considerable space

of time, 290;

view of Sir R. Giffen that even this estimate falls short of the real

truth, 291, 292;

this overtaxation especially severe in the case of Ireland, a poor

country, 292-295;

the attempts that have been made to answer and refute the Report of

the Childers Commission have been grotesque failures, 295;

examination of these arguments and reply to them--they are either

fallacious, or mischievous and dangerous, 295-305;

question of a counterclaim against Ireland in finance, 306;

financial redress which Ireland has a right to demand, 307;

the question should be settled, 308

Foster, Mr., Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, opposes the

financial arrangements of the Union, 272

Galway in decay, 6

Gladstone, Mr.: he ridicules Butt's scheme of Home Rule, 44;

fall of his Administration in 1885, 46;

his attitude at the General Election of that year, ibid.;

he becomes a convert to Home Rule and the probable reasons, 47, 48;

the best members of the Liberal Party break away from him, 48;

he introduces his first Home Rule Bill, ibid.;

he dissolves Parliament after the rejection of that measure by the

House of Commons, 56;

he allies himself with the party of disorder in Ireland, 58, 59;

he negotiates with Parnell about Home Rule, 59;

he returns to office in 1892 with a small majority, 61;

he introduces his second Home Rule Bill in 1893, 62;

his Irish policy in 1868, 131;

he disestablishes and disendows the Protestant church in Ireland,

ibid.;

he makes no provision for the Irish Catholic clergy, a capital

mistake, 132;

he introduces the Land Act of 1870 for Ireland, 139, 140;

he declares against the Three F's, and announces that this measure is

to be final, ibid.;

he becomes Minister for the second time in 1880, 154;

he introduces the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, 155;

he surrenders to the Land League and introduces the Land Act of 1881,

169;

he makes the Kilmainham treaty with Parnell, 170;

the fiscal wrong he does to Ireland in 1853-60, 286;

he appoints the Childers Commission in 1893 to investigate the subject

of Irish finance, 288;

his scheme of Irish University Reform, 343, 344.

And _see_ Chap. VIII., on Other Irish Questions

Goschen, Mr., refers the question of the financial relations of Great

Britain and Ireland to a Committee, 288

Grattan: he denounces the financial settlement made at the Union for

Ireland, 279

Henry VII.: his Irish policy, 89

Henry VIII.: his wise policy for Ireland unhappily prevented, 89, 90

Home Rule, the question of: Home Rule not dead, 39;

the present attitude of the Liberal and the 'Nationalist' parties

towards Home Rule, 40;

it is a 'Present Irish Question,' 41;

Isaac Butt inaugurated this policy, ibid.;

his plan of Home Rule, 42;

the Irish Home Rule party, 43;

Butt's proposals powerfully attacked in Parliament, notably by Mr.

Gladstone, ibid.;

Butt is gradually supplanted by Parnell, 44;

Michael Davitt and the 'New Departure,' ibid.;

Parnell the head of the Land League, 44, 45;

Mr. Gladstone succumbs to it, 45;

Home Rule condemned by statesmen of all parties in 1880-84, ibid.;

Mr. Gladstone accepts Home Rule, 47;

the first Home Rule Bill of 1886, 48;

its characteristics and the objections to it, 48-50;

what its results would have been, 51-54;

the Bill is rejected in the House of Commons, 55;

attitude of the Fenians in America, 55, 56;

causes that promoted the Home Rule policy in Great Britain, 59, 60;

results of the General Election of 1892, 61;

the Home Rule Bill of 1893, 62;

its characteristics and vices, 62-64;

it is a much more objectionable measure than that of 1886, and why,

65;

strong opposition to it in the country, 68;

the in-and-out plan given up, 69;

the Bill passes the House of Commons by a small majority through the

expedient of 'closure by compartments' 69;

it is rejected in the House of Lords by an overwhelming majority, 70;

Home Rule is scattered to the winds at the General Election of 1895,

ibid.;

it is not a prominent question at that of 1900, ibid.;

the subject cannot be dismissed, 71;

different forms of Home Rule, 71-73;

separation a better policy than Home Rule, 73;

'Home Rule all round,' 73, 74;

conclusive objections to this scheme, 74-77;

the Union must be maintained, and Home Rule rejected by the nation, 78;

the rule of the Imperial Parliament has had some bad effects in Irish

affairs, and why, 79, 80;

proposal that the Imperial Parliament should occasionally sit in

Dublin, and the advantages of this, 81;

royalty should sometimes visit Ireland, 82;

necessity, in order to guard against Home Rule, and for other reasons,

to reduce the over-representation of Ireland in the House of

Commons, 82, 83

Ireland in 1901: a revolution has passed over Ireland, 2;

she has made some material progress, 2;

Dublin and Belfast, ibid.;

improvement in the habitations of the community and in Catholic places

of worship, 2, 3;

material progress of the community, 3-5;

the dark side of the picture, 5;

decline of several towns in Ireland, of manufactures, of fishing

industry, and of agriculture, 6, 7;

Ireland a poor country, 7;

excessive emigration, 8;

great increase of local and general taxation, 8;

the progress of Ireland as nothing compared to that of England and

Scotland, 9;

the Irish land system at the beginning of the reign of Victoria, 11;

sketch of it from that to the present time, 11-17 (and _see_ the

Question of the Irish Land, Chap. III., in many places);

Ireland and her three peoples, 18;

Catholic Ireland remains for the most part disaffected, despite the

great reforms effected in its interest, 19-21;

the Catholic democracy of Ireland, 21;

failure of the policy of conciliation, 22;

Presbyterian Ireland--its sentiments and demands, ibid.;

Protestant Ireland--its position in the community, 22, 23;

discontent of the landed gentry, 23;

character of the Irish legislation of the Imperial Parliament, 23-25,

and of its administration of Irish affairs, 28, 29;

the Anglican Church of Ireland, 30;

the Presbyterian Church, ibid.;

the Catholic Church, 31;

the administration of justice in Ireland, 31, 32;

Irish literature and education, 32, 33;

_resumé_ of the general condition of Ireland, 33-35;

the Irish policy of Lord Salisbury's Government during the last six

years, 35, 36;

Ireland still 'the vulnerable part near the heart of the Empire,' 37,

Lalor, John Finton, a rebel of 1848: his teaching with respect to the

Irish land, 148

Land, the question of the Irish: importance of the subject, 184, 185;

the Celtic tribal land system in Ireland, 86, 87;

the tribes, clans, and septs, 87;

the partial feudalisation of the land system, 87;

collective ownership of which traces still exist, 87;

the Anglo-Norman Conquest of Ireland and the Colony of the Pale, 88;

the land falls into the hands of great families, ibid.;

miserable state of Ireland at the close of the fifteenth century, 89;

Henry VII. and Poynings, ibid.;

sagacious policy of Henry VIII., especially as regards the land, 90;

this, unfortunately, was not carried out, ibid.;

the era of conquest begins, and of the confiscation of the Irish land,

ibid.;

confiscation of the territories of the O'Connors of Offaly, of Shane

O'Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond, 90, 91;

rebellion of Tyrone, 91;

all Ireland made shireland, and the old Celtic land system is effaced

by law, ibid.;

English modes of land tenure imposed on the people, 91, 92;

confiscation of the territories of Tyrone and of O'Donnell, 92;

the Plantation of Ulster, ibid.;

further confiscation in times of peace, ibid.;

Strafford marks out Connaught for confiscation, 92;

beginning of Protestant ascendency in the land, 93;

vast confiscations effected by Cromwell, 93;

his scheme of a general colonisation of Ireland fails, 93-95;

results of the Cromwellian conquest in the land, 95;

policy of Charles II. as regards the land, ibid.;

confiscations after the Boyne and the fall of Limerick, 96;

state of the Irish land system when the period of violent confiscation

ends, 97, 98;

the era of Protestant ascendency and of Catholic subjection in

Ireland, 98, 99;

the Penal Code and its effects on the land, 99, 100;

mournful period in Irish history, 100-102;

gradual improvement in Irish landed relations, 102-104;

evil traces of the past: Whiteboyism, 105;

traditions of the ancient land system survive, 106;

Edmund Burke on Irish land tenures--he indicates a grave economic vice

in the land system, 107;

progress of Ireland after 1782, ibid.;

its effects on the land, 108;

evil results of the Rebellion of 1798, 109;

the Union Speech of Lord Clare on Irish landed relations, 109;

revolution in the land system in the first years of the nineteenth

century, 110;

the important social and economic results, 110, 111;

want of a poor-law, 111;

the concurrent rights of tenants in the land not protected by the law,

ibid.;

period of distress after the Peace of 1815, 112, 113;

evictions and clearances of estates, 113;

agrarian disorder, 113;

Catholic Emancipation, ibid.;

its results as regards Irish landed relations, 114;

Peel and the Irish land, 115;

the Devon Commission and its Report, 115, 116;

its recommendations as to land tenure ill conceived and condemned in

Ireland, 117;

the Famine of 1845-47, and its effects on the Irish land, 118, 119;

the exodus, 120;

the Encumbered Estates Act, and the effects of this scheme of

confiscation, 121, 122;

agrarian agitation of 1852 in Ireland fails, 123;

false ideas of British statesmen as regards the land, 129;

partial prosperity in Ireland for some years, 125;

this largely deceptive, 126;

growth of Fenianism, 128;

the Fenian outbreak, 128, 129;

change of opinion in England as regards Ireland, 129;

Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister, 130;

state of the Irish land system before the Land Act of 1870, 132-138;

the Land Act of 1870 and its provisions, 141-143;

merits and defects of this measure, 144, 145;

state of Irish landed relations after the Act, 146, 147;

origin of the Land League, 151, 152;

distress in Ireland, and the Land League, 152-154;

the Compensation for Disturbance Bill rejected by the House of Lords,

155;

frightful state of Ireland and of landed relations in 1880-81, 155-161;

the Land Act of 1881, 165;

the provisions of the measure, 165, 166;

the Act is directly opposed to that of 1870, 168;

the no-rent movement, 179;

the National League replaces the Land League, 171, 172;

state of Irish landed relations in 1886 and 1887, 175;

the Land Act of 1887, 175;

the Land Act of 1891, 178, 179;

the land purchase section in the Irish Land Act, 183;

the principle of this system false and dangerous, ibid.;

the Land Purchase Act of 1891, 184;

recent legislation on the Irish land unjust and tending to

confiscation, 186, 187.

The administration of the Irish Land Acts, 188;

of the Act of 1870, 189;

of the Act of 1881, and its supplements, 190;

the first Land Commission--allowances to be made for it, 191;

principles it should have followed and course it should have pursued

in fixing 'fair rents,' 192-197;

the Sub-Commission--nature of these tribunals, 197, 198;

how they ought to have fixed 'fair rents,' 199, 203;

criticism of Mr. Lecky, 203, 204;

examples of injustice, 204, 209;

faulty methods of fixing 'fair rents,' 209, 213;

appeals to the Land Commission rendered almost nugatory, 215, 218;

the second Land Commission: Mr. Justice Bewley and his theory of

occupation right, 219, 221;

instance of a gross mistake, 222;

the Fry Commission--its Report a masked censure on the proceedings of

the Land Commission, 222, 224;

Mr. Justice Meredith head of the present Land Commission, 224;

conduct of the Government as regards the Report of the Fry Commission,

225;

results of the labours of the Land Commission and the Sub-Commission

in fixing 'fair rents,' 225, 227;

confiscation of the property of landlords, 227;

excuses made for this false, 228, 229;

results of the system of land purchase so far, ibid.;

mischievous and dangerous consequences of all this legislation on the

Irish land;

a retrospect of it on the side of occupation, 230-237;

judgment of Mr. Lecky, 237, 238;

retrospect of it on the side of ownership, especially with regard to

the subject of 'compulsive purchase,' which the system of

'voluntary purchase' has necessarily made a grave question,

238-256;

judgment of Mr. Lecky, 256, 257;

the Irish land system in a deplorable state, 257-259;

plan of the author for the reform of this system approved by Mr.

Gladstone and by Parnell, 259-266;

the compensation of the Irish landlords must be accomplished if public

faith is to be kept and common justice done, 266-270

Land League, the: Reign of Terror caused by, 14;

its teaching and that of the National League, 20;

ascendency of the Land League in ten or eleven Irish counties, 45;

frightful state of Ireland due to it, 158-162

Law, Mr., the Irish Attorney-General of Mr. Gladstone in 1881: his

definition of 'fair rent,' 192

Limerick in decay, 6

Litton, Mr. E. F., a member of the first Land Commission, 192

Local Government, sketch of, in Ireland, 309-329. _See_ Chap. VIII.,

Other Irish Questions, in several places

Macaulay, Lord: speech on the state of Ireland in 1844, 36

Meredith, Mr. Justice, head of the present Land Commission: a capable

lawyer, but bound by the precedents of his forerunners, 229

National League, the: it replaces the Land League, 47, 48;

its leaders set on foot 'The Plan of Campaign,' 57;

it was founded by Parnell, 171;

its character, 172;

agrarian side of the National League movement, 174, 175;

decline of the power of the National League in 1889, 177;

it is at its lowest ebb in 1895, ibid.

National system of education, 332-336. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Other

Present Irish Questions

O'Connell: his evidence on the state of Ireland in 1825, 5;

he wrings Catholic Emancipation from a reluctant Government, 113;

leader of the Repeal movement of 1843-44, 115

O'Hagan, Mr. Justice, head of the first Land Commission, 190

'Other Present Irish Questions,' Chap. VIII.

I. Local Government in Ireland, 309;

the grand juries, their composition and functions, 311-314;

the administration of the poor law and the Boards of Guardians,

314-315;

the administration of cities and towns--its history, 315-318;

character of, in recent times, 318-320;

how the reform of 1898 was brought about, 320, 321;

sketch of the Local Government Act of 1898, 321-326;

and of its working up to the present time, 326-329.

II. Education in Ireland, history of, 330 _seqq._:

primary education, 330-332;

the National system founded by Mr. Stanley--its principles and

history, 332-336.

Secondary education, diocesan schools, 336;

Royal schools, ibid.;

Erasmus Smith schools, 337;

other schools; the system has not been successful, and why, 337, 338.

University education, Trinity College, its history and the character

of the institution, 338-341;

Peel founds the Queen's Colleges and University, 341;

character of these institutions, 392;

the Catholic University, ibid.;

Mr. Gladstone's scheme of Irish University reform, 343, 344;

grave objections to it, 345, 346;

it is rejected by the House of Commons, 346;

Trinity College "opened," ibid.;

the Royal University, 347;

injustice of the present system of University education in Ireland,

347-351;

two plans of reform suggested, the second to be preferred, 351-360

Palmerston, Lord: he condemns Irish tenant right, 124

Parnell: supplants Butt, 44;

leader of the Land League, 44, 45;

he denounces the Conservative party in 1885, 46;

he pretends to accept the Home Rule Bill of 1886, 55;

the special commission and Parnell, 59;

he negotiates with Mr. Gladstone on Home Rule, ibid.;

his fall, 59

Peel: his remarks on the Constitution in Ireland, 32;

he appoints the Devon Commission, 115;

his policy during the famine, 117;

he refuses in 1842 to extend the income tax to Ireland, 285;

he founds the Queen's Colleges and the Queen's University in Ireland,

341

Pitt: the author of the financial arrangements made at the Union, 275

Primary education in Ireland, 330-336. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Other

Present Irish Questions

Queen's Colleges and Queen's University: founded by Peel, 341. _See_

Chap. VIII., on Other Present Irish Questions

Rebellion of 1798: its effects on the Irish Land, 109

Salisbury, Lord: character of the Irish policy of his ministry, 35, 36

Stanley, Mr., founds the system of National Education in Ireland, 332

Strafford: his Irish policy, 92

Trinity College, 338-341. _See_ Chap. VIII., on Present Irish Questions

Ulster Custom, the, 111, 123, 137, 141

Union, The, 78, 79, 109

United Irish League, the: fills the place of the Land and the National

Leagues, 26;

speeches and conduct of its leaders, 26, 27

Vernon, Mr. I. E., one of the members of the first Land Commission, 190

Whiteboyism in Ireland, 12, 105, 160, 161

Young, Arthur: his tour in Ireland, 109, 110

APPENDICES

I. The Irish Government Bill, 1886, 361-387

II. The Irish Government Bill, 1893, 388-424

III. Note I. From the 'Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne,' 425, 426

IV. Report of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545. Conclusion

of the Report of the Judges, 426-428

THE END

LONDON:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,

STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It considerably exceeds 300,000 by the figures of the census of 1901.

[2]

1841 1891

Houses of the first class 40,080 70,740

" second class 264,184 466,632

" third class 533,297 312,589

" fourth class 491,278 20,617

These figures are taken from that most valuable publication, 'Thom's Irish

Directory for 1901,' p. 631. It contains the statistics of Ireland

carefully compiled from official sources.

[3] There has been a small decrease since 1895.

[4] Evidence taken before a Select Committee of the House of Commons,

1824-25, vol. i. p. 49. The whole of O'Connell's evidence should be

studied.

[5]

1894 1900

Funded Debt held in Ireland £22,917,530 £18,303,627

Government Funds and other securities:

India Stock, Land Stock,

War Stock, Joint Stock Banks,

Trustee Savings Banks, and Post

Office Savings Banks £67,432,000 £77,494,000

'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 718.

[6] See the remarkable evidence of Mr. Booth, a high authority, taken by

the Childers Commission, 'Minutes of Evidence,' vol. ii. pp. 212, 213.

This should all be studied.

[7] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 699.

[8] Report of Childers Commission, p. 43--

1851-55 1889-93

Crops £58,537,000 £34,643,000

Stock £39,348,000 £53,312,000

[9] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 684.

[10] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 629.

[11] See the striking observations of Mr. Childers, well worth serious

attention: 'Report of the Childers Commission,' pp. 186, 187.

[12] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 662. Number of paupers relieved in 1890,

454,178; in 1898, 525,104. Charge in 1890, £856,008; in 1898, £981,333.

These are the latest returns.

[13] 'Thom's Directory, 1901,' p. 674. Assessment of lands, in 1890, under

Schedule A, £12,736,967; in 1899, £11,664,453. Funded property at the same

periods, £803,300 and £615,630. These, too, are the latest returns.

[14] 'Report of the Childers Commission,' p. 72. I cite also the following

from the Report, p. 43: 'The income-tax figures are, perhaps, the best and

most complete test of the comparative growth of the wealth of the two

countries. Taking the two years, 1854 and 1892, we find that the net

assessment for Great Britain was, in 1854, £245,389,931; and in 1892,

£570,971,740. The net assessment for Ireland was, in 1854, £21,334,448;

and in 1892, £26,851,585. In these thirty-eight years the net assessment

for Great Britain is more than two and a third times as great as it was in

1854, whilst that for Ireland has only increased by one quarter. Put in

percentage form, the figures are still more striking: In 1854 Great

Britain was assessed at 92 per cent. of the whole; Ireland 8 per cent. In

1892 Great Britain was assessed at 95.50 per cent, of the whole; Ireland

4.50 per cent. In other words, Ireland's assessment was to that of Great

Britain as 1 to 11 in 1854, and as 1 to 21 in 1892.'

[15] See on this subject the true and indignant remarks of Mr. Lecky,

'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 27, 28.

[16] The tone of disaffected opinion in Ireland can only be thoroughly

understood by a careful study of the conduct and the language of

'Nationalist' leaders. I select a few specimens out of hundreds of

instances. Mr. William O'Brien, the Corypheus of the United Irish League,

spake thus at Letterkenny in January, 1900: 'If ten thousand Frenchmen, or

Russians, or Germans were to land in Bantry Bay, with a supply of arms for

the people, they would walk over the country and drive the English

garrison into the sea.' The same worthy exclaimed at a monster meeting in

Dublin in September, 'English rule in Ireland was so bad that they would

be justified in chasing the English out of Ireland bag and baggage. What

was wanting to them, unfortunately, were the guns and artillery to do it.'

Mr. Michael Davitt, of Land League renown, speaking in the Queen's County

about the same time, said, 'England is unquestionably the greatest empire

of liars (loud cheers and laughter), of hypocrites, and of poltroons,

judged by its achievements in South Africa, that has ever postured before

mankind with a civilising mission.' Because the Corporation of Dublin

voted, by a small majority, an address to Queen Victoria when she paid her

last visit to Ireland, Mr. John Redmond, the chairman of the 'Irish

Parliamentary Party,' said, in January, 1901, 'It rests with the people

themselves to say whether they will redeem the reputation of Dublin from

the stain that has been cast on it.' So Mr. John Dillon, M.P., spoke in

the same sense, a few months ago, 'The voice of the capital will be the

voice of the rest of Ireland (applause), that we will not tolerate in this

old city that new type of politics which thinks it consistent with Irish

nationality to cringe and crouch before a foreign queen.' At least two

County Councils in Ireland, and more than one Local Board, refused to vote

an expression of condolence when the Queen died. It is painful to contrast

these sentiments with the loyalty of O'Connell when the Queen ascended the

throne.

[17] Since the above lines were written, there has been a serious outbreak

of agrarian crime in Ireland in the form of incendiary fires, which may be

distinctly traced to the operations of the United Irish League.

[18] Speech in the House of Commons, February 19, 1844.

[19] The figures were 1,238,342 against 1,316,327: Dicey, 'England's Case

against Home Rule,' p. 35.

[20] Butt maintained, in his place in Parliament (Hansard, March 20,

1874), that this was the true import of his project.

[21] Speech on receiving the freedom of Aberdeen, September 26, 1871.

[22] See Mr. Gladstone's 'History of an Idea,' an apology for his attitude

towards Home Rule at this time, which seems to me to be his condemnation.

[23] For an admirable analysis of the Bill, see Dicey's 'England's Case

against Home Rule,' pp. 223-273. The text of the Bill will be found in the

Appendix to this volume.

[24] For a full statement of Mr. Gladstone's 'conditions,' see his speech

in the House of Commons, April 8, 1886.

[25] 'Reflections on the Revolution in France,' vol. i. p. 384, ed. 1834.

[26] Report of the Special Commission, vol. iv. p. 542.

[27] 'The Queen's Enemies in America,' p. 24.

[28] For a scathing condemnation of Mr. Gladstone's public conduct in

these years, see several great speeches of Lord Hartington and Mr.

Goschen. See also 'The Memoirs of Lord Selborne,' Part II. vol. ii. pp.

261, _et seq._, and note in Appendix to this volume. See, too, Dicey's

'Leap in the Dark,' p. 190. Lord Selborne's sketch of Mr. Gladstone's

character as a statesman, 'Memoirs,' Part II. vol. ii. pp. 339-359,

deserves careful study. Mr. Lecky's admirable account, 'Democracy and

Liberty,' introduction to vol. i., second edition, is well known.

[29] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. pp. 544, 545. See the note at the end

of this volume in the Appendix.

[30] For a very able analysis of and commentary on the Bill of 1893, see

Professor Dicey's 'Leap in the Dark.' For the text of the Bill, see the

Appendix to this volume.

[31] Dicey's 'Leap in the Dark,' p. 57.

[32] 'England's Case against Home Rule,' p. 168.

[33] The German Empire, in which Prussia is the leading State, may seem an

example to the contrary; but the German Empire is hardly a Federation

properly so called; it is a great military monarchy ruling subject

kingdoms.

[34] I feel obliged to refer to these authorities; not in order to stir up

resentment against England in Ireland, but to point out a most important,

if unfortunate, fact in the relations between the two countries. Swift, in

his 'View of the State of Ireland,' Works, vol. ii. 8vo ed. 1890, says,

'We are in the condition of patients, who have physic sent them by doctors

at a distance, strangers to their constitution and the nature of the

disease.' Burke, 'Correspondence,' vol. iii. p. 438, has remarked, 'I have

never known any of the successive Governments of my time influenced by any

other feeling relative to Ireland than the wish that they should hear of

it and of its concerns as little as possible.' So Grattan, cited by Mr.

Lecky, vol. vii. p. 108, exclaimed, 'It is a matter of melancholy

reflection to consider how little the Cabinet knows of anything relating

to Ireland. Ireland is a subject it considers with a lazy contumely, and

picks up here and there, by accident or design, interested and erroneous

intelligence.' I quote this passage from one of the speeches of Lord

Clare: 'The people of England know less of this country than of any other

nation in Europe;' and this passage from one of the speeches of O'Connell:

'We are governed by foreigners; foreigners make our laws.... As to

Ireland, the Imperial Parliament has the additional disadvantage springing

from want of interest and total ignorance. I do not exaggerate; the

ministers are in total ignorance of this country.' This want of knowledge

of Ireland, too often associated with indifference, has, I repeat, been

distinctly made manifest of late years.

[35] These figures are taken from the Irish census of 1891. By the census

of 1901, the population of Antrim and Down has increased, and that of

every other county in Ireland, except Dublin, has declined. The

over-representation of Ireland has thus become more than ever an unjust

anomaly.

[36] For an admirable account of the ancient land system of Celtic

Ireland, see Maine's 'Early History of Institutions.' I may be allowed to

refer to an article on this work, from my pen, in the _Edinburgh Review_

of July, 1875, and to the first chapter of my 'History of Ireland,' in the

Cambridge 'Historical Series.'

[37] In the case of this, as of all the chapters, a list of the principal

authorities and sources of information will be found in the preface to

this book. For the conquest and confiscations of the Irish land, from the

Norman Conquest to the end of the reign of William III., see 'The Statute

of Kilkenny,' edited by James Hardiman; 'The Discoverie of Sir John

Davies;' 'The Carew Papers,' edited by J. S. Brewer and William Bullen;

Spenser's 'View of the State of Ireland;' Holingshead's 'Chronicles of

Ireland;' Carte's 'Life of Ormond;' Lord Clanricarde's 'Memoirs;' Sir

William Petty's 'Political Anatomy of Ireland;' 'Macariæ Excidium;' and

King's 'State of the Protestants of Ireland.' As regards modern

authorities, numerous, and some very valuable, the reader may be referred

to Froude's 'History of England,' vol. ii. ch. viii.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.;

vol. viii. chs. vii., xi.; vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii.; to Mr.

Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. ch. vi.;

and to the Irish chapters in Mr. Gardiner's 'History of England,' from the

Accession of James I. to the outbreak of the Civil War; to his 'History of

the Great Civil War,' vol. i. chs. vi., xi.; vol. ii. chs. xxvii.,

xxxvii., xliv.; and to the Irish chapters of his 'History of the

Commonwealth and Protectorate.' Other modern works on the subject are

Sigerson's 'History of Land Tenure in Ireland;' 'An Historical Account of

the Plantation of Ulster,' by the Rev. George Hill; 'The Cromwellian

Settlement of Ireland,' by John P. Prendergast; and the 'Life of Sir

William Petty,' by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice. See a review by me of this

last work in the _Edinburgh Review_ of July, 1895; and also chs. iii.,

iv., and v. of my 'History of Ireland, 1494-1868,' referred to before.

There are innumerable minor authorities; and Hallam's 'Chapter on

Ireland,' vol. iii., may be studied.

[38] 'Letter to Sir Hercules Langriche:' 'Works,' vol. i. p. 560, ed.

1834.

[39] For an account of the penal laws of Ireland, see Vincent Scully on

'The Irish Penal Laws;' Howard's 'Popery Laws;' and Burke's 'Tracts on the

Popery Laws,' a short but masterly work.

[40] For the state of Ireland and of the Irish land at this period, see

the Irish Statute Book from 1700 to about 1750, and especially the

writings of Swift and Berkeley on Irish affairs. Swift, however, is not

just to the Irish landed gentry, many as were their faults. See also the

'Letters' of Archbishop Boulter, the virtual ruler of Ireland during a

series of years, and of Archbishop Synge. Reference, too, may be made to

Molyneux's 'Case of Ireland,' and to Hutchinson's and Caldwell's

'Restraints on the Trade of Ireland.' For modern authorities, consult

Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. ch. vii.;

vol. iv. chs. xvi., xvii. Froude's 'English in Ireland' is very inaccurate

and one-sided for this period; but his fine romance, the 'Two Chiefs of

Dunboy,' contains a brilliant, and, in the main, a true account of the

state of Irish social life in those days.

[41] By far the best account of the state of Ireland, at this period, is

to be found in the celebrated 'Tour' of Arthur Young, who wrote in

1776-78. See also Mr. Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth

Century,' vol. vi. chs. xxiv., xxv.; vol. vii. ch. xxvii. The 'Irlande,

Sociale, Politique, et Religieuse' of Gustave de Beaumont may also be

consulted; but though a very able work, it is that of a democratic

doctrinaire. For the Whiteboy movements, see the Irish Statute Book, and

Sir George Lewis on 'Irish Disturbances.'

[42] See Burke's 'Tracts on the Popery Laws,' vol. ii. pp. 445, 446.

Arthur Young, too, often dwells on this subject.

[43] For an account of this period nothing can be compared to Mr. Lecky's

'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vols. vii., viii. These

contain all the information that can be obtained, collected from every

available source. I may refer to my 'Ireland, 1798-1898,' chs. i., ii.

[44] There is no complete history of Ireland from the Union to the present

time, though the materials for such a work are abundant. I may refer to my

'Ireland, 1798-1898,' from the second chapter to the end. An excellent and

elaborate description of Ireland from 1800 to 1812 will be found in the

volumes of Edward Wakefield.

[45] The best account of this period--the forerunner of one even more

calamitous--will be found in the proceedings of a Parliamentary Committee

on the state of Ireland in 1824-25, and in the mass of evidence collected

by it. The evidence of O'Connell is full of interest.

[46] I perfectly recollect, though quite a boy, this strong and widespread

expression of sentiment.

[47] Mitchel's 'History of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 213. Mitchel was a rebel,

but an honourable man, superior to the falsehoods disseminated by later

agitators against Irish landlords.

[48] Every one acquainted with the history of Irish titles, from about

1790 to 1820, knows that this was the case.

[49] 'Clarendon,' wrote Greville, 'told me he expected the Encumbered

Estates Act would prove the regeneration of Ireland.'

[50] That great lawyer, Lord St. Leonards, protested. He had been Lord

Chancellor of Ireland.

[51] For the state of Ireland during the Famine and the years that

followed, see 'The Irish Crisis,' by Sir Charles Trevelyan, reprinted from

the _Edinburgh Review_; and the 'Letters' of Mr. Campbell Foster, the

Commissioner of the _Times_. Valuable information will also be found in

the Greville 'Memoirs,' vols. v., vi. I may refer to my 'Ireland,

1798-1898,' chs. v. and part of vi.

[52] For an account of these machinations of party, see Greville,

'Memoirs,' vol. vii. p. 33.

[53] I heard several of these most injudicious and ill-informed

expressions of a false opinion.

[54] For the state of Ireland from the end of the Famine to 1868,

reference may be made to 'Two Centuries of Irish History,' edited by Mr.

Bryce; to the Greville 'Memoirs,' vols. vii. and viii.; to Greville's

'Policy of England towards Ireland;' to the 'Recollections and Suggestions

of Earl Russell;' to parts of the 'Life of Lord Palmerston;' to 'Journals,

Conversations, and Essays relating to Ireland,' by Nassau Senior; to the

'Young Ireland,' the 'Four Years of Irish History,' and 'The League of the

North and South,' by Sir C. G. Duffy; to the 'New Ireland' of Mr. A. M.

Sullivan; and to the 'Parnell Movement' of Mr. T. P. O'Connor. Valuable

information as to this period will also be found in Mr. Barry O'Brien's

works, 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland' and 'Irish Wrongs and

English Remedies;' and there are many other authorities. This period is

dealt with in my 'Ireland, 1798-1898.' ch. vi.

[55] From the mass of literature on this subject reference may especially

be made to 'The Irish Land,' by the late Sir George Campbell; Judge

Longfield's essay in 'Systems of Land Tenure;' the 'Irish Land and the

Irish People,' by Butt; and the 'Ireland, Industrial, Political, and

Social,' of the late Mr. J. N. Murphy. As Special Commissioner of the

_Times_, I went into the Irish land question at length on the spot; and it

would be affectation to deny that my letters, since republished,

powerfully contributed to the legislation which ere long followed. See,

for further information, 'The Irish Land Question' of John Stuart Mill;

'Emigration and the Tenure of Irish Land,' by Lord Dufferin; 'The New

Ireland' of the late Mr. A. M. Sullivan; parts of Mr. Barry O'Brien's

'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland'; 'Ireland in 1868,' by the late

Mr. G. Fitzgibbon, a Master of the Court of Chancery in Ireland; and Mr.

Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. ch. ii.

[56] This fact has been established by conclusive and impartial evidence,

which hardly admits of question. It should be steadily kept in the

reader's mind; for an idea, largely countenanced by iniquitous legislation

badly administered, has prevailed of late years, that rack-renting in

Ireland was common, nay, general. Exactly the contrary has been the case

during the last half century. Butt, in his 'The Irish People and the Irish

Land,' published in 1867, hardly alludes to over-renting; he properly

dwells on the insecurity of Irish land tenure. Master Fitzgibbon, a great

authority on the subject, in his 'Ireland in 1868,' p. 268, pointedly

remarked, '452 estates are under my jurisdiction, in the Court of

Chancery, the rents of which amount to £330,809, paid by 18,287 tenants. I

have been now nearly eight years in office, during which time the rents

have been paid without murmuring or complaint worth noticing.... It is

well known that my ears are open to any just complaint from any tenant.'

The testimony of Judge Longfield, another great authority, is nearly to

the same effect. In 'Systems of Land Tenure,' published in 1870, he wrote

thus (p. 21): 'This complaint of high rents has been made without ceasing

for more than three hundred years. There was never less ground for it than

at the present day, although in some instances the rent demanded is still

too high; but this chiefly occurs where the landlords are middlemen, or

where the property is very small.' These views are fully confirmed by

evidence of a later period, to which I shall refer. I may add that, in

1869, I examined the rentals of many scores of Irish estates, and was

convinced that over-renting was very rare. See my 'Letters on the Land

Question of Ireland,' republished from the _Times_, _passim_. I quote a

single instance, from many to the same purpose (p. 221): 'It may be

asserted, too, without fear of contradiction, that if in some districts

rents are too high, they are not so as a general rule.' I have managed an

Irish estate for upwards of fifty years, and have some claim to be an

agricultural expert.

[57] For the characteristics of the Ulster tenant right, see Butt's

'Landlord and Tenant Act, 1870,' ch. xv. pp. 296-310. As to the legal

authorities on the subject, reference may be made to the learned treatise

of Messrs. Cherry and Wakley, 'The Irish Land Law and Land Purchase Acts,'

pp. 150-152. A popular account of the Ulster custom will be found in my

'Letters on the Land Question of Ireland,' pp. 242-247, and a more

technical account in a legal treatise from my pen on the Land Act of 1870,

pp. 30-56. The best definition I have seen of the right is one made by the

late P. J. Blake, Q.C., C.C.J. of a northern county, 'Cherry and Wakley,'

p. 150: 'The right or custom in general of yearly tenants, or those

deriving through them, to continue in undisturbed possession so long as

they act properly as tenants and pay their rents. The correlative right of

the landlord periodically to raise the rent, so as to give him a just,

fair, and full participation in the increased value of the land, but not

so as to extinguish the tenant's interest by paying a rack rent. The usage

or custom of the yearly tenants to sell their interest, if they do not

wish to continue in possession, or if they become unable to pay the rent.

The correlative right of the landlord to be consulted, and to exercise a

potential voice in the approval or disapproval of the proposed assignee.'

[58] I quote a few passages from the speeches of Mr. Gladstone, and

others, on this subject. Mr. Gladstone said, March 11, 1870, 'If you value

rents you may as well, for every available purpose, adopt perpetuity of

tenure at once. It is perpetuity of tenure only in a certain disguise....

The man who becomes a mere annuitant loses all general interest in the

prosperity of the land.' And again, February 15, 1870: 'Perpetuity of

tenure on the part of the occupier is virtually expropriation of the

landlord.... The mere readjustment of rent can by no means dispose of all

contingencies the future may produce in his favour.' Sir Roundell Palmer,

afterwards Lord Selborne, said, March 10, 1870, 'Fixity of tenure, in

plain English, means taking away the property of one man and giving it to

another.' So Lord Granville, June 14, 1870, said in the House of Lords,

'They might have introduced a Bill--which they were determined not to

do--adopting fixity of tenure, taking away his property from the landlord,

and establishing a valuation rent.' Passages of this kind, at least as

strong, might be multiplied a hundred-fold.

[59] It is impossible, in a sketch like this, to describe in detail the

agrarian legislation for Ireland, which Parliament has enacted from 1870

to this time. The work of Butt referred to before is an admirable

commentary on the Bill of 1870, which soon became law. A brief account of

all this legislation will be found in Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,'

vol. i. ch. ii. The legal treatises of Messrs. Cherry and Wakley, pp.

149-448, and of Mr. Justice Barton, are elaborate and complete.

[60] Judge Longfield and Mr. Lecky are much the most distinguished of

these numerous censors.

[61] By this time I was an Irish County Court Judge; and I had some

experience of reprehensible acts of this kind, extremely few as they were.

[62] It is very remarkable that the stringent provisions of the Act

against exorbitant rents seem to have been almost unknown to the

peasantry, though exorbitant rents were, no doubt, existing here and

there.

[63] Report of the Judges of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 478-480.

[64] By many degrees the best account of the Land League movement will be

found in the 'Report of the Proceedings of the Special Commission of

1888-89,' republished by the _Times_ in four volumes. Reference may also

be made to 'Parnellism and Crime,' a series of essays in the _Times_; to

the 'Truth about the Land League,' by Mr. Arnold Foster; to 'The

Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary Movement,' by Professor Brougham

Leech; and to a pamphlet called 'The Queen's Enemies in America.' A kind

of apology for the conspiracy will be found in 'The Parnell Movement,' by

Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P.; but the Irish 'Nationalists' have judiciously

been reticent on the subject. I may refer to my 'Ireland, 1798-1898,' ch.

viii.

[65] These infamous speeches, worthy of Marat and Hébert, were continued

for years, and fill a large part of the evidence in the proceedings of the

Special Commission. I select a sample or two taken at random. Mr. M.

Harris said, 'If the tenant farmers of Ireland shoot down landlords as

partridges are shot in September, Mat Harris would never say a word

against them' (vol. ii. p. 38). The same worthy, afterwards an M.P.,

exclaimed on another occasion (vol. i. p. 26), 'Mrs. Blake of Keenoyle is

no better than a she-devil.... Mr. Robinson called the people of Connemara

vermin; the people of Connemara ought to treat him as vermin. Leonard of

Tuam I will say nothing about. I will denounce him at his own door.' So,

too, a Mr. Boyton said (vol. iv. p. 277), 'We have seen plenty of them,

landlords and agents, that deserve to be shot at any man's hand. I have

always denounced the commission of outrages by night, but meet him in the

broad daylight, and if you must blow his brains out, blow them out in the

daytime.' Multiply such speeches addressed to an excitable peasantry, and

the results which followed can easily be understood.

[66] This has been established by conclusive evidence, and should be

carefully borne in mind. Mr. Egan, one of the treasurers of the League,

said, 'On my own behalf, and on behalf of my friends of the League, both

in prison and outside, I can say that we regard the land question only in

the light of a step towards national independence, which is, and shall

continue to be, the goal of all our efforts.' Mr. Healy, M.P., said, 'This

is a movement to win back from England the land of Ireland, which was

robbed from the people by the confiscating armies of Elizabeth and

Cromwell.... But I would remind you that Mr. Parnell ... explained the

basis of the movement when he told the Galway farmers that he would never

have taken off his coat in this movement were it not with Irish

nationality as its object.' Parnell occasionally let out the truth; he

said, 'Let every farmer, while he keeps a firm grip of his holding,

recognise also the great truth that he is serving his country and the

people at large, and helping to break down English misrule in Ireland'

(Report of the Proceedings of the Special Commission, vol. iv. pp. 203,

204). These speeches were, in hundreds, imitated and followed by other

speakers.

[67] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 486.

[68] I was at this time judge of the County Kerry; these demands increased

more than twofold at a single Quarter Sessions.

[69] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. pp. 522-525.

[70] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522.

[71] Some of the cynical and wicked utterances of Parnell in proclaiming

and expounding the new policy of 'boycotting' must be quoted. These, it is

needless to say, were exaggerated in scores of speeches by orators of the

League. In view almost of the corpse of a land agent who had been foully

murdered, the arch-conspirator coolly remarked (Proceedings of the Special

Commission, vol. iv. p. 257): 'I had wished in referring to a sad

occurrence which took place lately, the shooting or attempted shooting of

a land agent in the neighbourhood (uproar)--I had wished to point out that

recourse to such measures of procedure is entirely unnecessary and

absolutely prejudicial where there is a suitable organisation amongst the

tenants themselves.' The methods to be adopted in 'boycotting'--the word

was so named from a Captain Boycott, who was one of the first

sufferers--were those set forth by Parnell (Report of the Judges, vol. iv.

p. 498): 'Now, what are you to do to a tenant who bids for a farm from

which his neighbour has been evicted? (Various shouts, among which, "Kill

him!" "Shoot him!") Now, I think I heard somebody say "Shoot him" ("Shoot

him!"); but I wish to point out to you a very much better way, a more

Christian and charitable way, which will give the lost sinner an

opportunity of repenting. (Hear, hear.) When a man takes a farm from which

another has been evicted, you must show[A] him on the roadside when you

meet him, you must show him in the streets of the town, you must show him

at the shop counter, you must show him in the fair and in the

market-place, and even in the house of worship, by leaving him severely

alone, by putting him into a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the

rest of his kind as if he was a leper of old. You must show him your

detestation of the crime he has committed, and you may depend upon it, if

the population of a county in Ireland carry out this doctrine, that there

will be no man so full of avarice, so lost to shame, as to dare the public

opinion of all right-thinking men within the county, and to transgress

your unwritten code of laws.'

[A] In other, possibly more correct, reports, the word is 'shun,' not

'show.'

[72] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522.

[73] It is very important to bear this in mind, regard being had to the

circumstances of the time, which have been shamefully misrepresented, and

to subsequent legislation and its administration. I quote a few words from

the Report, p. 3: 'It was unusual in Ireland to exact what in England

would have been considered as a full or fair commercial rent. Such a rent

over many of the larger estates, the owners of which were resident, and

took an interest in the welfare of their tenants, it has never been the

custom to demand. The example has been largely followed, and is, to the

present day, rather the rule than the exception in Ireland.' M. de

Molinari, a very competent foreign observer, wrote to the same effect in

1881: 'Le taux général des rentes est modéré; autant que j'ai pu en juger,

il est à qualité égale de terrain de moitié plus bas que celui des terres

des Flandres' ('L'Irlande, le Canada, Jersey,' p. 138). See for further

authorities, Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. p. 179.

[74] Mr. Gladstone, speeches in the House of Commons, July 22, 1881, and

May 10, 1881. Lord Carlingford, and notably Lord Selborne, said nearly the

same.

[75] This I know to be the fact on the very best authority.

[76] A good popular account of the law of 1881 will be found in Mr.

Lecky's 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 182-197. See for an elaborate

and technical description, 'Cherry and Wakley,' pp. 217-343.

[77] 'Systems of Land Tenure,' p. 59.

[78] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522.

[79] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 532: 'We consider that the National

League, like the Ladies' Land League, was substantially the old Land

League under another name.'

[80] I quote a few words from hundreds of these detestable writings, which

should be studied. Mr. William O'Brien, the editor of one of Parnell's

newspapers, and now the leader of the 'United Irish League,' published

this in _United Ireland_, April 18, 1885: 'It would be still more

gratifying if the Irish millions, scattered over the globe, should wake up

one of these mornings to hear the war chimes joyfully ringing the

declaration that would drive England on to downfall and destruction.' And

again, September 19, 1885: 'We cannot fight England in the open. We can

keep her in hot water. We cannot evict our rulers neck and crop. We can

make their rule more insupportable for them than for us.... It is no fault

of ours if we cannot organise Waterloos to decide our quarrels.' As to

personalities, I quote two passages. December 15, 1883: 'Monstrous and

incredible, surely, six hundred Irish gentlemen could not eat their dinner

without pouring out libations to the adoration of an old lady who is only

known in Ireland by her scarcely decently disguised hatred of this

country, and by the inordinate amount of her salary.' Again, June 13,

1885: 'With all the stubborn force of a cruel, narrow, dogged nature, Lord

Spencer struck murderous blow after blow at the people under his rod. He

stopped at nothing; not at subsidising red-handed murderers, not at

knighting jury-packers, not at sheltering black official villainy with a

coat of darkness, not at police quarterings, blood taxes, the bludgeoning

of peaceful meetings, the clapping of handcuffs and convict jackets on

M.P.'s, mayors, and editors, not at wholesale battues of hangings and

transportations by hook or crook.'

[81] Report of the Judges, vol. iv. p. 522. Mr. Gladstone in the House of

Commons, April 8, 1886.

[82] For an elaborate account of the Act of 1887, see 'Cherry and Wakley,'

pp. 367-420. Reference, too, may be made to Mr. Lecky's 'Democracy and

Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 198-200.

[83] For an account of this legislation, which has not received the

attention it deserves, as it is limited in its scope, see 'Cherry and

Wakley,' pp. 468-472, and 'Barton,' pp. 104-106.

[84] Upwards of thirty years ago, when the question of compensating Irish

tenants for their improvements was coming fully to the front, a wealthy

middleman, who held a large demesne in perpetuity, at a rather high rent,

and had built a valuable mansion on it, in addition to planting hundreds

of acres of woodland, asked me 'if I thought Parliament would compensate

him, for, in that case, he could make his landlord pay him £30,000.' My

reply was that 'Parliament would not be so insane.' I should be sorry to

make such a reply now, having regard to recent legislation.

[85] I believe I may claim some credit for having contributed to this

provision. I had had large experience of the injustice of keeping tenants

subject to long-standing arrears; and, as a judge, had taken strong

measures to prevent and defeat the practice.

[86] For an elaborate account of the Act which was the result of this

Bill, see the work of Mr. Justice Barton, 'The Land Law (Ireland) Act,

1896.'

[87] 'Letter to a Member of the National Assembly,' vol. i. p. 478.

[88] A Committee of the House of Lords sate, in 1872, to consider the

administration of the Land Act of 1870. The report and the evidence were,

in the main, in favour of the judges.

[89] Rushe _v._ Whitney, Roscommon Quarter Sessions, October, 1895.

[90] Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords, August 1, 1881: 'They are all

three strong Liberals, with strong views of tenant right.... There is no

doubt that all three are appointed with a strong prepossession in favour

of views which are advocated by the representatives of the tenantry in

Ireland, and which are deprecated by the landlords.... It is not the

relegation of landlord and tenant to an impartial tribunal.'

[91] Mr. Gladstone, July 22, 1881: 'I shall be bitterly disappointed with

the operation of the Act if the property of the landlords of Ireland does

not come to be worth more than twenty years' purchase on the judicial

rent.' Mr. W. E. Forster, same date: 'I think the final result of the

measure will be, within a few years, that the landowners of Ireland, small

and large, will be better off than they are at this moment.' Lord

Carlingford, August 1, 1881: 'My Lords, I maintain that the provisions of

this Bill will cause the landlords no money loss whatever. I believe that

it will inflict upon them no loss of income, except in those cases in

which a certain number of landlords may have imposed upon their tenants

excessive and inequitable rents.'

[92] Hansard, vol. 260, p. 1399.

[93] The nature and character of these two classes of evidence has been

thus well described in the Report of the Edward Fry's Commission, p. 18:

'If the matter were perfectly open, it appears to us that two independent

lines of evidence might be pursued by a person inquiring what is the fair

rent to be fixed for a holding. One class of evidence may for shortness be

called the popular evidence; the other the technical. The popular evidence

would comprise the prices obtained by the tenant for a sale of his

interest or _bonâ fide_ offers which he had received for it, evidence of

the letting value or judicial rents of similar holdings, evidence of the

sums paid for conacre or agistment, evidence of the long and punctual

payment of a real rent, or of the long arrears of a nominal rent, and

evidence of the prosperity or poverty of the persons who had successively

lived off the produce of the holding. The technical evidence would be that

more familiar to professional valuators. They would inspect the land,

ascertain the acreages of the different classes of land on the farm, and

what they would produce or carry; they would consider the quantity and

value of the produce and the cost of production, and the shares of the

surplus remaining after the cost of production divisible between landlord

and tenant respectively. The popular evidence would be affected by all the

motives which make men in Ireland desirous to occupy land; the technical

evidence would assume the desire of making a money profit out of the

occupation of land as the sole motive of such occupation. The eighth

section of the Act of 1881 seems to admit of both lines of evidence with a

single exception. It provided that in fixing the fair rent consideration

should be given not to some but to all the circumstances of the case, the

holding and the district, with the single exception that (sub-sec. 10) the

price paid for the tenancy otherwise than to the landlord or his

predecessors was not of itself, apart from other considerations, to be

taken into account; though, conjoined with other considerations, it still

remains admissible.'

[94] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 13.

[95] Ibid., p. 14: 'Some specific charges of misconduct or negligence have

been made against lay Assistant Commissioners and Court valuers; as _e.g._

visiting the land without due notice to the landlord; visiting the holding

when lying under snow or water, or when suffering from prolonged drought,

and refusing to wait whilst a trench was dug to show the condition of the

alleged drainage. We have investigated many of these cases, and the

explanations given have generally been satisfactory to us.'

[96] Evidence taken by Mr. Morley's Commission on the Irish Land Acts, p.

236.

[97] Ibid., p. 397.

[98] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 131.

[99] Ibid., p. 208.

[100] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 41.

[101] Ibid., p. 682.

[102] 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 205, 206.

[103] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 692. As a County Court

judge I have a concurrent jurisdiction, happily seldom exercised, in

fixing 'fair rents.' I had a somewhat similar case before me some

seventeen or eighteen years ago, and I adjourned the hearing for four

years to allow the land to recover. I believe I am the only official who

did anything of the kind until quite recently.

[104] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 836.

[105] Evidence taken by the Morley Commission, 1894-95, p. 333.

[106] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 952.

[107] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 607. The procedure of the

Sub-Commissions has, since 1896, been somewhat improved with respect to

deterioration and waste, but many years too late.

[108] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 677.

[109] Ibid., p. 842.

[110] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, pp. 478, 476.

[111] Ibid., p. 476.

[112] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 129.

[113] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 339.

[114] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 25.

[115] Mr. Vernon, the Lay Commissioner, was, of course, not responsible

for this.

[116] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 156.

[117] Ibid., p. 615.

[118] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 33.

[119] Ibid., p. 30.

[120] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission: Mr. Campbell, p. 30.

[121] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 18. I entirely dissent from the

above opinion of the head Commissioner.

[122] Evidence taken by the Morley Commission, p. 507.

[123] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 461.

[124] Ibid., p. 616.

[125] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 628.

[126] Ibid., p. 631.

[127] Ibid., p. 941.

[128] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 22.

[129] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, p. 676.

[130] Report of the Fry Commission, p. 20.

[131] Ibid., p. 21.

[132] Ibid., p. 9.

[133] Ibid., p. 14.

[134] Report of the Fry Commission, pp. 18, 19.

[135] Ibid., pp. 12-26.

[136] Ibid., p. 15.

[137] Report of the Irish Land Commission to March, 1900, p. 64.

[138] It is but just to the Land Commission to state that the reductions

of rent made by the County Courts were somewhat higher than those it made.

But this was notoriously because rack-rented tenants, for the sake of

expedition, rushed first to these tribunals.

[139] Report of the Irish Land Commission, p. 64.

[140] Report of the Irish Land Commission, p. 3.

[141] See a remarkable instance in the Evidence taken by the Fry

Commission, p. 683: 'The holding was let in 1771 at 30_s._ the Irish acre,

equal to about £1 per statute acre. The Sub-Commissioners have now cut it

down to less than 12_s._ 6_d._ per acre.'

[142] Evidence taken by the Fry Commission, pp. 496, 609, 670.

[143] 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. i. pp. 202, 203.

[144] Letters to the _Manchester Guardian_, written in 1890, and since

republished. This little work was much noticed at the time; attempts to

answer it were made to no purpose. The facts now speak for themselves.

[145] Swift's 'Works,' vol. ii. p. 82, ed. 1870.

[146] 'Reflections on the Revolution in France,' vol. i. p. 440.

[147] The _Manchester Guardian_, 1890. I quote this passage, for I think

its substance was referred to by the late Mr. Rathbone, member for

Liverpool.

[148] Mr. Lecky, 'Democracy and Liberty,' vol. ii. pp. 487-489, rather

favours the policy of creating and extending peasant ownership in Ireland,

and, to a certain extent, approves of the so-called 'Land Purchase' Acts,

but only as a doubtful experiment, to endeavour to escape from a

hopelessly bad land system. The distinguished historian and thinker, in my

opinion, is not sufficiently alive to the iniquity of these measures as

they affect landlords who wish to retain their estates, or, rather, what

remains of them; but he clearly perceives some of the objections to this

vicious legislation. I quote his remarks at some length: 'In Ireland, as

is well known, great efforts are made to create such a proprietary; but

the conditions of Ireland are unlike those of any other part of the

civilised globe. It has been the deliberate policy of the Government to

break down, by almost annual Acts, the obligation of contracts, and the

existing ownership of land has been rendered so insecure, the political

power attached to it has been so effectually destroyed, and the influences

tending to anarchy and confiscation have been made so powerful, that most

good judges have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to force into

existence by strong legislative measures a new social type, which may,

perhaps, possess some elements of stability and conservatism. In order to

effect this object, the national credit has been made use of in such a way

that a tenant is enabled to purchase his farm without making the smallest

sacrifice for that object, the whole sum being advanced by the Government,

and advanced on such terms that the tenant is only obliged to pay for a

limited number of years a sum from 20 to 30 per cent. less than his

present rent. In other words, a man whose rent has been fixed by the Land

Court at £100 a year, can purchase his farm by paying, instead of that

sum, £70 or £80 a year for forty-nine years. The arrangement sounds more

like burlesque than serious legislation; but the belief that political

pressure can obtain still better terms for the tenant, and that further

confiscatory legislation may still more depreciate the value of land to

the owner who has inherited it, or purchased it in the open market, has

taken such deep root in Ireland that the tenants have shown little

alacrity to avail themselves of their new privilege. What may be the

ultimate issue of the attempt to govern a country in complete defiance of

all received economical principles remains to be seen. The future must

show whether a large peasant proprietary can be not only called into

existence, but permanently maintained, under these conditions, and whether

it will prove the loyal and conservative element that English politicians

believe. According to all past experience, peasant proprietors rarely

succeed, except when they possess something more than an average measure

of industrial qualities, and the Irish purchase laws give no preference to

the energetic, the industrious, and the thrifty. On the contrary, it is

very often the farmer who is on the verge of bankruptcy who is most eager

to buy, in order to reduce his annual charge. The tendency of the new

proprietors to mortgage, to sublet, and to subdivide, is already manifest,

and some of the best judges of Irish affairs, who look beyond the present

generation, are very despondent about the future. They believe that a

peasant proprietary, called into existence suddenly and artificially, with

no discrimination in favour of the better class, in a country where

industrial qualities are very low, and where the strongest wish of the

farmer is either to divide his farm among his children, or to burden it

with equal mortgages for their benefit, must eventually lead to economic

ruin, to fatal subdivision, to crushing charges on land. The new policy

must also, they contend, almost wholly withdraw from the country life,

where it is peculiarly needed, the civilising and guiding influence of a

resident gentry. Whether or not these apprehensions are exaggerated time

only can show. Two predictions may, I think, with some confidence be made.

The one is, that the transformation is likely to be most successful if it

is gradually effected. The other is, that a great part of the influence

once possessed by the landlord will, under the new conditions, pass to the

money-lender.'

[149] I quote these remarks of Burke, a striking instance of his political

wisdom ('Tracts on the Popery Laws,' vol. ii. p. 446): 'It is on this

principle (to get rid of short and unprofitable tenures) that the Romans

established their _emphyteusis_, or fee-farm. For though they extended the

ordinary term of their creation to nine years only, yet they encouraged a

more permanent letting to farm, with the condition of improvement, as well

as of annual payment where the land had lain rough and neglected.' So John

Stuart Mill ('Irish Land Question,' p. 31, ed. 1870): 'The idea of

property does not, however, necessarily imply that there should be no

rent, any more than that there should be no taxes. It merely implies that

the rent should be a fixed charge, not liable to be raised against the

farmer by his own improvements, or by the will of a landlord. A tenant at

a quit rent is, to all intents and purposes, a proprietor; a copyholder is

not less so than a freeholder. What is wanted is permanent possession on

fixed terms.' Mr. Morley said not long ago, in his place in Parliament,

that, as things now stand in Ireland, the landlord must become a

rent-charger and the tenant a copyholder, a true utterance.

[150] 'Principles of Political Economy,' book ii. chap. ii. p. 6. I may

refer, too, to these pregnant remarks of Bentham ('Theory of Legislation,'

chap, xv.): 'The principle of security requires that reform should be

attended with complete indemnity.... I cannot yet quit the subject, for

the establishment of the principle of security demands that error should

be pursued in all its retreats.... The interest of individuals, it is

said, ought to yield to the public interest; but what does that mean? Is

not one individual as much a part of the public as another? The public

interest which you introduce as a person is only an abstract term; it

represents nothing but the mass of individual interests.... Individual

interests are the only real interests. Take care of the individuals; never

molest them, never suffer any one to molest them, and you will have done

enough for the public.... I shall conclude by a general observation of

great importance. The more the principle of property is respected, the

stronger hold it takes on the popular mind. Slight attacks on this

principle prepare the way for heavier ones. A long time has been necessary

to carry property to the point where we now see it in civilised societies;

but a fatal experience has shown with what facility it may be shaken, and

how easily the savage instinct of plunder gets the better of the laws.'

[151] For the constitutional position of the British and Irish Parliaments

before the Union, see Hallam's 'Constitutional History,' vol. iii.,

chapter on Ireland, and Ball's 'Legislative Irish System,' chaps. v., xv.

See also Lecky's 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii.

chap. vii.; vol. iv. chaps. xvi., xvii. As to the financial position of

the two countries, see the opening pages of each of the Reports of the

Childers Commission.

[152] Grattan described this vicious state of things in his inimitable

style ('Speeches,' p. 258, ed. published by Duffy): 'The Union is not an

identification of the two nations; it is merely a merger of the parliament

of one nation in that of another.... There is no identification in

anything save in legislature, in which there is complete and absolute

absorption. It follows that the two nations are not identified, though the

Irish legislature be absorbed, and by that act of absorption the feeling

of one of the nations is not identified, but alienated. The petitions on

our table bespeak that alienation.'

[153] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 20.

[154] I transcribe this part of the seventh article of the Treaty of

Union; I believe that I have fairly described its purport (Report of

Childers Commission, p. 140): 'That if at any future day the separate debt

of each country respectively shall have been liquidated, or if the values

of their respective debts ... shall be to each other in the same

proportion with the respective contributions of each country

respectively.... And if it shall appear to the Parliament of the United

Kingdom that the respective circumstances of the two countries will

thenceforth admit of their contributing indiscriminately by equal taxes

imposed on the same articles in each, to the future expenditure of the

United Kingdom to declare that all future expense thenceforth to be

incurred, together with the interest and charges of all joint debts

contracted previous to such declaration, shall be so defrayed

indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed on the same articles in each

country, and thenceforth from time to time, as circumstances may require,

to impose and apply such taxes accordingly, subject only to such

particular exemptions or abatements in Ireland, and in that part of Great

Britain called Scotland, as circumstances may appear, from time to time,

to demand.'

[155] Grattan's speeches, quoted in a memorandum supplied to the Childers

Commission by Sir Edward Hamilton, p. 9.

[156] 'Minutes of Evidence,' Childers Commission, vol. i. p. 329.

[157] Memorandum of Sir Edward Hamilton, p. 9.

[158] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 143.

[159] Ibid., p. 32.

[160] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 147, 148.

[161] Ibid., p. 33.

[162] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 158.

[163] I think it necessary to set out verbatim the terms of reference to

the Commission; I have for the sake of clearness changed their order: 'To

inquire into the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland,

and their relative taxable capacity, and to report: I. Upon what

principles of comparison, and by the application of what specific

standards, the relative capacity of Great Britain and Ireland to bear

taxation may be most equitably determined. II. What, so far as can be

ascertained, is the true proportion, under the principles and specific

standards so determined, between the taxable capacity of Great Britain and

Ireland. III. The history of the financial relations between Great Britain

and Ireland, at and after the Legislative Union, the charge for Irish

purposes on the Imperial Exchequer during that period, and the amount of

Irish taxation remaining available for contribution to Imperial

expenditure; also the Imperial expenditure to which it is considered

equitable that Ireland should contribute.'

[164] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 26.

[165] Since 1896, when the Childers Commission made its report, the

overtaxation of Ireland has increased.

[166] Report of Childers Commission: 'Minutes of Evidence,' vol. i. p. 17.

[167] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 16.

[168] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 89.

[169] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 159, 160.

[170] 'Minutes of Evidence,' Childers Commission, vol. ii. p. 218.

[171] I quote from the Report of the Childers Commission, p. 68, these

valuable remarks on the subject: 'Neither can there then be any question

that a system of equal rates of taxes on the same subjects is compatible

with the utmost inequality of burdens between two countries contributing

to one exchequer. All that need be done in order to exact an undue

proportion--unlimited in extent--of the means of either of the countries

is to tax the commodities most consumed in that country, and in fixing the

rate of the tax on each commodity, to fix the higher rates on the

particular commodities most generally in use in that country, and the

lower rates on those most consumed in the other. The same kind of effect,

of course, may be produced, and the same discrimination exercised, by

totally exempting some commodities and taxing others, however lightly. In

fact, a system of equal rates of taxes may thus be rendered more easily

unjust and burdensome to the country discriminated against than one of

differential taxes, because in the latter case, the unequal treatment, and

the mode of it being manifest, are more liable to criticism and

limitation; whilst in the former, the true effect of the system is

disguised by the circumstances that each particular head of tax is at the

same rate in both countries.'

[172] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 39.

[173] Ibid., p. 166.

[174] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 11.

[175] Ibid.: Evidence of Mr. Munough O'Brien, pp. 12, 13: 'The system of

Imperial loans for temporary emergencies and charity tends to increase the

poverty of Ireland, whose future income is mortgaged to pay interest on

expenditure from which there is no return. There is no surer road to ruin

for an individual than borrowing money to live upon, and most of these

Imperial loans are practically made from time to time to enable the Irish

people to live or relieve acute distress and disorder. Loans are almost

annually made to keep the people quiet or to keep them alive. Yet this

expenditure does not prevent the recurrence of famine, distress, and

discontent; it rather tends to cause their recurrence.'

[176] Report of the Childers Commission: Report of Mr. Sexton and others,

pp. 102, 103.

[177] Report of the Childers Commission: 'Evidence,' vol. ii. p. 18.

[178] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 194, 195.

[179] 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 116. The works of Messrs. Vanston and Foote on

the grand juries of Ireland may be referred to.

[180] The reader may be referred to Mr. Moore's work on the Irish poor

law.

[181] See the Report of a Committee of the House of Lords, and especially

of the Evidence, taken in 1884-85, with respect to the administration of

the Irish poor law at the time.

[182] For a further account of local government in Ireland, a reader may

consult the Report of Mr. W. P. O'Brien on Local Government, 1878, and

reports on the towns of Ireland and their taxation about the same date. An

excellent tract on the subject was published by Mr. William J. Bailey in

1888, called 'Local and Centralised Government in Ireland.' With respect

to the system of municipal government in Ireland as it existed before

1840, nothing is so valuable as the Reports of the Commissioners, very

able men, charged to inquire into the subject in 1834-35. A useful and

well-informed account will also be found in Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty

Years of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. i. book v.

[183] I have only been able to sketch the outlines of the measure, the

Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, p. 1, 62 Vict. cap. 37. A good

commentary on it has been written by Mr. Brett of the Irish Bar.

[184] Mr. Lecky, 'Democracy and Liberty,' Cabinet Edition, Introduction,

p. 13, has well described this vaunted reform: 'It was a measure

introduced in fulfilment of distinct pledges, and it contains very skilful

provisions intended to protect existing interests. But, after all is said,

it means a great transfer of power and influence from the loyal to the

disloyal, and it goes in the direction of democracy far beyond anything

that a few years ago would have been accepted by the Conservatives, or by

the moderate Liberals.'

[185] For a description of elementary education in Ireland up to 1812, see

passages in Wakefield's 'Account of Ireland;' and for a description in

earlier and later times, see Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of

Concessions to Ireland,' book i. chs. i.-xiv.; Mr. Graham Balfour's

'Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland,' pp. 80-128; the Report

of the Commissioners of Irish Education, 1810-21; the important Report of

the Powis Commission, 1870-71; and the Reports of the Commissioners of

National Education in Ireland. Mr. Froude, in his 'English in Ireland,'

vol. i. p. 514; vol. ii. p. 491, has characteristically eulogised the

Charter Schools; but he stands alone; Mr. Lecky, 'History of England in

the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii. pp. 200-304, has commented on this

odious system as it deserved.

[186] Barry O'Brien, 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,' vol. ii. p.

322.

[187] See Wakefield's 'Account of Ireland' for the state of her secondary

schools in 1812; Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,'

book x. chs. i., ii., iii.; Graham Balfour's 'The Educational System of

Great Britain and Ireland,' pp. 203-218; and the Reports of the two

Commissions of 1854-57 and of 1878-80, of which the heads were Lord

Kildare and the Earl of Rosse.

[188] See the resolutions in Duffy's 'Young Ireland,' pp. 713, 714. There

has been much misrepresentation on this subject.

[189] See 'The Problem of Irish Education,' by Butt, a masterly and

impartial tract.

[190] See for the figures 'The Irish University Question,' by Archbishop

Walsh, _passim_.

[191] For further information on the history and the present state of the

University system in Ireland, see 'The History of the University of

Dublin,' by the Rev. J. W. Stubbs, and 'The Constitutional History of the

University of Dublin,' by D. C. Heron; Howley on 'Universities;' 'What is

meant by Freedom of Education,' by the O'Conor Don; 'University

Education,' by an Irish Protestant Celt; and especially 'The Problem of

Irish Education,' by Butt. See also the Irish University Debates in

Hansard for 1873, and the very able debate in Trinity College. The reader,

too, may be referred to Mr. Barry O'Brien's 'Fifty Years of Concessions to

Ireland,' book xi.; to Mr. Graham Balfour's 'Educational Systems of Great

Britain and Ireland,' pp. 273-288; to Mr. Godkin's 'Education in Ireland;'

and to Archbishop Walsh's 'The Irish University Question.'

[192] Too much is not to be made of 'Nationalist' clamour; but these

remarks of Mr. Dillon, M.P., are significant (_Freeman's Journal_, April

13, 1901): 'I do not believe that these movements will ever succeed ...

until that fortress of English domination and anti-Irish bigotry, Trinity

College, is for ever swept away, or there is placed opposite to it a truly

National University, where the most honoured classes will be the classes

of Irish literature and Irish history.' Archbishop Walsh, a much abler

man, has written in the same sense in his work, 'The Irish University

Question.' The question, he contends, in many passages, must be settled by

levelling up or by levelling down, that is, by raising the Catholic

University to the position of Trinity College, or by disestablishing and

disendowing Trinity College. The evil precedent of the Act disestablishing

the Anglican Church in Ireland, will, it is hoped, be eschewed.

[193] See on this subject Mr. Lough's 'England's Wealth, Ireland's

Poverty,' pp. 88-94.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.

The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these

letters have been replaced with transliterations.

End of Project Gutenberg's Present Irish Questions, by William O'Connor Morris

(1) There shall be a separate register of electors of councillors of the