Home Rule

Home Rule, by Harold Spender

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Title: Home Rule Second Edition
Author: Harold Spender
Release Date: December 4, 2006 [EBook #20016]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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On and after the appointed day there shall be in Ireland an Irish
Parliament, consisting of his Majesty the King and two Houses, namely,
the Irish Senate and the Irish House of Commons.
Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish Parliament, or anything
contained in this Act, the supreme power and authority of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom shall remain unaffected and
undiminished over all persons, matters, and things within his Majesty's
dominions.
THE HOME RULE BILL (1912). (THE GOVERNING CLAUSE.)

"If we conciliate Ireland, we can do nothing amiss; if we do not we can
do nothing well."
SYDNEY SMITH.
"The cry of disaffection will not, in the end, prevail against the
principle of liberty."
GRATTAN.

HOME RULE
BY HAROLD SPENDER
WITH A PREFACE BY THE RT. HON. SIR EDWARD GREY,
BART., M.P., SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SECOND EDITION With Text of Home Rule Bill (1912)

HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

"There can be no nobler spectacle than that which we think is now
dawning upon us, the spectacle of a nation deliberately set on the
removal of injustice, deliberately determined to break with whatever
remains still existing of an evil tradition, and determined in that way at
once to pay a debt of justice and to consult, by a bold, wise and good
act, its own interests and its own honour."
GLADSTONE (1893).

PREFACE
It must surely be clear to-day to many of those who opposed the Home
Rule Bill of 1893 that there is a problem of which the solution is now
more urgent than ever. We who were Gladstonian Home Rulers
approached the problem originally from the Irish side: those who did
not then approach it from that side refused to admit the existence of any
problem at all. Since that time circumstances have made it necessary to
approach the problem from the British as well as from the Irish side.
The British Parliament has hitherto been regarded as a model to be
imitated; if it continues to attempt the impossible task of transacting in
detail both local and Imperial business, it will end as an example to be
avoided. In the last fifty years the amount of work demanded for
particular portions of the United Kingdom, for the United Kingdom as
a whole, or for the Empire has increased enormously; in all three
categories the work is still increasing and will increase: one Parliament
cannot do it all. This is one new aspect of the Home Rule question.
Mr. Spender states the case with force and sympathy from the Irish
point of view, with which none of us, who were convinced supporters
of Home Rule twenty years ago can ever lose sympathy, and with
which the younger generation should make itself acquainted. He makes
also a very valuable and opportune review of recent changes in the

situation, and considers how Home Rule should be adapted to British
and Imperial needs, and should serve them. The whole book is the
result of his own reflection, observation and research; the conclusions
to which he comes for the settlement of the financial and other details
of Home Rule ought to receive most careful consideration as valuable
contributions to the discussion of the subject. But, of course, they must
not be assumed necessarily to be mine or to be those that will be
adopted in the Government Bill.
But I agree with him entirely that Home Rule is necessary to heal
bitterness in Ireland, and to effect that reconciliation without which
there cannot be real union: that it is necessary to relieve Parliament at
Westminster and to set it free for work that concerns the United
Kingdom as a whole or the Empire: in other words, that there is a
problem to be solved, and that the