A fairer controversalist, or an abler supporter of the "paper Union,"
than Mr. Dicey there is not; nevertheless no man has fired more
effective shots into Mr. Pitt's unfortunate arrangement of 1800.
How well has the "failure" of that arrangement been described in these
pithy sentences--"Eighty-six years have elapsed since the conclusion of
the Treaty of Union between England and Ireland. The two countries do
not yet form an united nation. The Irish people are, if not more
wretched (for the whole European world has made progress, and Ireland
with it), yet more conscious of wretchedness, and Irish disaffection to
England is, if not deeper, more widespread than in 1800. An Act meant by
its authors to be a source of the prosperity and concord which, though
slowly, followed upon the Union with Scotland, has not made Ireland
rich, has not put an end to Irish lawlessness, has not terminated the
feud between Protestants and Catholics, has not raised the position of
Irish tenants, has not taken away the causes of Irish discontent, and
has, therefore, not removed Irish disloyalty. This is the indictment
which can fairly be brought against the Act of Union."[53]
What follows reflects honour on Mr. Dicey as an honest opponent who does
not shrink from facts; but what a wholesale condemnation of the policy
of the Imperial Parliament!
"On one point alone (it may be urged) all men, of whatever party or of
whatever nation, who have seriously studied the annals of Ireland are
agreed--the history is a record of incessant failure on the part of the
Government, and of incessant misery on the part of the people. On this
matter, if on no other, De Beaumont, Froude, and Lecky are at one. As to
the guilt of the failure or the cause of the misery, men may and do
differ; that England, whether from her own fault or the fault of the
Irish people, or from perversity of circumstances, has failed in Ireland
of achieving the elementary results of good government is as certain as
any fact of history or of experience. Every scheme has been tried in
turn, and no scheme has succeeded or has even, it may be suggested,
produced its natural effects. Oppression of the Catholics has increased
the adherents and strengthened the hold of Catholicism. Protestant
supremacy, while it lasted, did not lead even to Protestant contentment,
and the one successful act of resistance to the English dominion was
effected by a Protestant Parliament supported by an army of volunteers,
led by a body of Protestant officers. The independence gained by a
Protestant Parliament led, after eighteen years, to a rebellion so
reckless and savage that it caused, if it did not justify, the
destruction of the Parliament and the carrying of the Union. The Act of
Union did not lead to national unity, and a measure which appeared on
the face of it (though the appearance, it must be admitted, was
delusive) to be a copy of the law which bound England and Scotland into
a common country inspired by common patriotism, produced conspiracy and
agitation, and at last placed England and Ireland further apart,
morally, than they stood at the beginning of the century. The Treaty of
Union, it was supposed, missed its mark because it was not combined with
Catholic Emancipation. The Catholics were emancipated, but emancipation,
instead of producing loyalty, brought forth the cry for repeal. The
Repeal movement ended in failure, but its death gave birth to the
attempted rebellion in 1848. Suppressed rebellion begot Fenianism, to be
followed in its turn by the agitation for Home Rule. The movement
relies, it is said, and there is truth in the assertion, on
constitutional methods for obtaining redress. But constitutional
measures are supplemented by boycotting, by obstruction, by the use of
dynamite. A century of reform has given us Mr. Parnell instead of
Grattan, and it is more than possible that Mr. Parnell may be succeeded
by leaders in whose eyes Mr. Davitt's policy may appear to be tainted
with moderation. No doubt, in each case the failure of good measures
admits, like every calamity in public or private life, of explanation,
and after the event it is easy to see why, for example, the Poor Law,
when extended to Ireland, did not produce even the good effects such as
they are which in England are to be set against its numerous evils; or
why an emigration of unparalleled proportions has diminished population
without much diminishing poverty; why the disestablishment of the
Anglican Church has increased rather than diminished the hostility to
England of the Catholic priesthood; or why two Land Acts have not
contented Irish farmers. It is easy enough, in short, and this without
having any recourse to theory of race, and without attributing to
Ireland either more or less of original sin than falls to the lot of
humanity, to see how it is that imperfect statesmanship--and all
statesmanship, it should be remembered, is imperfect--has failed in
obtaining good results at all commensurate with its generally good
intentions. Failure, however, is none the less failure because its
causes admit of analysis. It is no defence to bankruptcy that an
insolvent can, when brought before the Court, lucidly explain the errors
which resulted in disastrous speculations. The failure of English
statesmanship, explain it as you will, has produced the one last and
greatest evil which misgovernment can cause. It has created hostility to
the law in the minds of the people. The law cannot work in Ireland
because the classes whose opinion in other countries supports the
actions of the courts, are in Ireland, even when not law-breakers, in
full sympathy with law-breakers."[54]
No Home Ruler has described the evils of English misrule in Ireland with
such vigour as this.
"Bad administration, religious persecution, above all, a thoroughly
vicious land tenure, accompanied by such sweeping confiscations as to
make it, at any rate, a plausible assertion that all land in Ireland has
during the course of Irish history been confiscated at least thrice
over, are admittedly some of the causes, if they do not constitute the
whole cause, of the one immediate difficulty which perplexes the policy
of England. This is nothing else than the admitted disaffection to the
law of the land prevailing among large numbers of Irish people. The
existence of this disaffection, whatever be the inference to be drawn
from it, is undeniable. A series of so-called Coercion Acts, passed both
before and since the Act of Union, give undeniable evidence, if evidence
were wanted, of the ceaseless and, as it would appear, almost
irrepressible resistance in Ireland offered by the people to the
enforcement of the law. I have not the remotest inclination to underrate
the lasting and formidable character of this opposition between opinion
and law, nor can any jurist who wishes to deal seriously with a serious
and infinitely painful topic, question for a moment that the ultimate
strength of law lies in the sympathy, or at the lowest the acquiescence,
of the mass of the population. Judges, constables, and troops become
almost powerless when the conscience of the people permanently opposes
the execution of the law. Severity produces either no effect or bad
effects; executed criminals are regarded as heroes or martyrs; and
jurymen and witnesses meet with the execration and often with the fate
of criminals. On such a point it is best to take the opinion of a
foreigner unaffected by prejudices or passions from which no Englishman
or Irishman has a right to suppose himself free.
"'Quand vous en êtes arroês à ce point, croyez bien que dans cette voie
de regueurs tous vos efforts pour rétabler l'ordre et la paix seront
inutiles. En vain, pour réprimer des crimes atroces, vous appellerez à
votre aide toutes les sévérités du code de Dracon; en vain vous ferez
des lois cruelles pour arrêter le cours de révoltantes cruautés;
vainement vous frapperez de mort le moindre délit se rattachant à ces
grands crimes; vainement, dans l'effroi de votre impuissance, vous
suspendrez le cours des lois ordinaries proclamerez des comtés entiers
en état de suspicion légale, voilerez le principe de la liberté
individuelle, créerez des cours martiales, des commissions
extraordinaires, et pour produire de salutaires impressions de terreur,
multiplierez à l'excès les exécutions capitales.'"[55]