Against Home Rule

Against Home Rule

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Against Home Rule (1912), by
Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Against Home Rule (1912) The Case for the Union
Author: Various
Editor: S. Rosenbaum
Release Date: March 24, 2005 [EBook #15450]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGAINST
HOME RULE (1912) ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charles Aldarondo and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.

AGAINST HOME RULE
THE CASE FOR THE UNION

BY
ARTHUR J. BALFOUR, M.P.; J. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.;
WALTER LONG, M.P.; GEORGE WYNDHAM, M.P.; LORD
CHARLES BERESFORD, M.P.; J.H. CAMPBELL, K.C., M.P.;
GERALD W. BALFOUR; THOMAS SINCLAIR; MARQUIS OF
LONDONDERRY; EARL PERCY; L.S. AMERY, M.P.; GEORGE
CAVE, K.C., M.P.; GODFREY LOCKER LAMPSON, M.P., &c.
WITH INTRODUCTION BY SIR EDWARD CARSON, K.C., M.P.
AND PREFACE BY A. BONAR LAW, M.P.
EDITED BY S. ROSENBAUM
LONDON FREDERICK WARNE & CO, AND NEW YORK 1912
IRISH ESSAYS COMMITTEE
Chairman. THE RT. HON. SIR EDWARD CARSON, M.P.
Vice-Chairman. GODFREY LOCKER LAMPSON, M.P.
Committee. L.S. AMERY, M.P. GEORGE CAVE, K.C., M.P. THE RT.
HON. J.H. CAMPBELL, K.C., M.P. A.L. HORNER, K.C., M.P. A.D.
STEEL-MAITLAND, M.P. A.W. SAMUELS, K.C. P. CAMBRAY
Secretary & Editor. S. ROSENBAUM, M.SC., F.S.S.

PREFACE
BY THE RIGHT HON. A. BONAR LAW, M.P.
This book, for which I have been asked to write a short preface,
presents the case against Home Rule for Ireland. The articles are
written by men who not only have a complete grasp of the subjects
upon which they write, but who in most cases, from their past

experience and from their personal influence, are well entitled to
outline the Irish policy of the Unionist Party.
Ours is not merely a policy of hostility to Home Rule, but it is, as it has
always been, a constructive policy for the regeneration of Ireland.
We are opposed to Home Rule because, in our belief, it would seriously
weaken our national position; because it would put a stop to the
remarkable increase of prosperity in Ireland which has resulted from
the Land Purchase Act; and because it would inflict intolerable
injustice on the minority in Ireland, who believe that under a
Government controlled by the men who dominate the United Irish
League neither their civil nor their religious liberty would be safe.
To create within the United Kingdom a separate Parliament with an
Executive Government responsible to that Parliament would at the best
mean a danger of friction. But if we were ever engaged in a great war,
and the men who controlled the Irish Government took the view in
regard to that war which was taken by the same men in regard to the
Boer War; if they thought the war unjust, and if, as under the last Home
Rule Bill they would have the right to do, they passed resolutions in the
Irish Parliament in condemnation of the war, and even sent embassies
carrying messages of good-will to our enemy, then this second
Government at the heart of the Empire would be a source of weakness
which might be fatal to us.
The ameliorative measures originated by Mr. Balfour when he was
Chief Secretary, and which culminated in the Wyndham Purchase Act,
have created a new Ireland. Mr. Redmond, speaking a year or two ago,
said that Ireland "was studded with the beautiful and happy homes of
an emancipated peasantry." It is a true picture, but it is a picture of the
result of Unionist policy in Ireland, a policy which Mr. Redmond and
his friends, including the present Government, have done their best to
hamper. The driving power of the agitation for Home Rule has always
been discontent with the land system of Ireland, and just in proportion
as land purchase has extended, the demand for Home Rule has died
down. The Nationalist leaders, realising this, and regarding political
agitation as their first object, have compelled the Government to put

insurmountable obstacles in the way of land purchase--not because it
had not been successful, but because it had been too successful.
The prosperity and the peace of Ireland depend upon the completion of
land purchase, and it can only be completed by the use of British credit,
which in my belief can and ought only to be freely given so long as
Ireland is in complete union with the rest of the United Kingdom. In the
present deplorable position of British credit the financing of land
purchase would be difficult; but it is not unreasonable to hope that the
return to power of a Government