Gladstone Proposes Home Rule

The Irish leaders were not dismayed by the suppression of the Land League. Within a year another association, called the "National League," took its place, with Mr. Parnell at its head. The objects of the new league were announced to be, to make the tillers of the soil its owners, and to secure an Irish Parliament for the making of Irish laws. It was not long before the National League had become as large and as formidable as the Land League had been. Branches of it were formed in every part of Ireland, and in the United States. The support of the Irish agitation by Irishmen in America, indeed, had now become a very important feature of its progress. Funds poured in from across the Atlantic, and the movement was to a large degree sustained by American money. Mr. Parnell found himself at the head of a small but resolute group of young, eloquent, fearless Irish members in the House of Commons. The "Nationalists," as they were called, resorted to obstruction of the business of the House, whenever they thought it useful to the Irish cause to do so. They kept up an active agitation in Ireland; and so indefatigable had the Irish party grown in pursuit of its ends, that branches of the league were formed and flourished in many English cities and towns.

The time had now come, in the judgment of Mr. Gladstone, the prime minister, to extend the right of suffrage to large numbers of the subjects of the queen, who had hitherto been excluded from it. Household suffrage was already enjoyed by the dwellers in the towns and villages of England, Scotland, and Wales. Mr. Gladstone now proposed that household suffrage should be extended to those who lived in the counties, that is, in the rural districts; and also that it should be given to the people of Ireland, both in the towns and in the country. He introduced a reform bill with this purpose in view into the House of Commons (1884). The bill was strenuously opposed by the Tories, and was once rejected by the House of Lords. But it was re-introduced in the autumn, and then became a law. Its main provision was that every subject of the queen in Great Britain and Ireland, who was twenty-one years of age, and who lived in a dwelling owned or rented by himself, should have the right to vote for members of Parliament.

Immediately after the passage of this great and beneficent measure, a bill to "redistribute" the seats of the House of Commons also became a law. This bill made the electoral districts more equal in population, and thus formed a House of Commons more completely representative of the will of the people. In the summer after these reforms had been carried, the Gladstone ministry was defeated on a financial question, by a combination of the Tories and Irish Nationalists; and the Marquis of Salisbury, with a Tory ministry, came into power (June, 1885). Parliament was accordingly dissolved; and a general election for a new House of Commons, held under the new extension of the suffrage, took place in the autumn. Nearly two millions of voters had been added to the electoral lists in the three kingdoms. The greatly increased number of voters in Ireland made it certain that Mr. Parnell's party would be much stronger in the new Parliament than ever be-fore. The result of the election was, that neither of the two great English parties secured a majority in the House. The Liberals elected 333 members; the Tories, 251; and the Home-Rule followers of Mr. Parnell, 86. Thus Mr. Parnell and his followers held the balance of power between the Liberals and Tories; since, by uniting with either, they would make a majority of the House.

Upon their accession to office, the marquis of Salisbury and his colleagues had refused to renew the severe coercion act of their predecessors, and had declared their intention to try to keep order in Ireland by the ordinary law. But very soon after the meeting of the newly elected Parliament (January, 1886), the ministry declared that they should revive coercion. Upon this, the Nationalists united with the Liberals, and defeated the ministry on a resolution relating to the English land question. The marquis of Salisbury thereupon resigned office, and for the third time Mr. Gladstone became prime minister. No sooner had the Liberals, under their great and venerable chief, returned to power, than it became known that, at last, Mr. Gladstone was ready to yield to the demand of the Irish Nationalists for an Irish Parliament. Several of Mr. Gladstone's colleagues in the ministry—chief among whom was Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, the leader of the radical section of. the Liberals—resigned office, because they could not support the prime minister in his new Irish policy. Already several eminent Liberals—Lord Hartington, Lord Selborne, the Duke of Argyll, and Mr. Goschen—had refused to join the ministry, foreseeing that, if they did so, they would probably be called upon to support Home Rule.

GLADSTONE EXPLAINING HIS SCHEME FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND

Mr. Gladstone promptly filled up the vacant posts in his ministry, and on an ever memorable night (April, 1886) brought a bill into the House of Commons, which, if passed into law, would establish a Parliament in Dublin, with power to legislate on Irish affairs. He proposed that the Irish Parliament should consist of two "orders," but of only one house or chamber. One of the orders was to consist, at first, of the Irish peers, and afterwards of members elected by a restricted suffrage. The other order was to be composed of members chosen, as now, by household suffrage. The first order was to have the right to suspend an act passed by the House, for the period of three years. Other safeguards were added, to protect the Protestant minority in Ireland. To the Parliament so formed, Mr. Gladstone proposed that all powers should be given which would not conflict with the preservation and unity of the British empire. It would have control of the police, of education, and of Irish finances. The British Parliament, however, would still levy and collect customs and excise in Ireland; and Ireland would pay a tribute to Great Britain of 4,000,000 a year, as her share in sup-porting the empire.

With his Home-Rule bill, Mr. Gladstone proposed a measure to purchase, with funds from the British treasury, the estates of the Irish landlords, and to parcel out and sell the land thus acquired to the tenants and farmers. This measure, however, did not compel the landlords to sell their estates; it only enabled them to do so if they wished. The object of the bill was that which the Nationalists had long demanded,—the ownership of the Irish land by those who cultivate it. The debates on the Home Rule bill were prolonged through the spring, and were earnest, eloquent, and exciting. Never did the British House of Commons witness more thrilling scenes and episodes. Never did the sturdy old leader of the Liberals rise to loftier heights of fervent eloquence and heart-stirring appeal. He pleaded that Ireland had hitherto been ruled by force, and that the time had come to win her by justice and by love. He exhausted every resource of argument, persuasion, and historical illustration, and employed every weapon of forensic warfare, to carry his bill. The parliamentary conflict raged for weeks, as probably it had never raged before.

The vote on the Home-Rule bill resulted in its defeat by a majority of thirty. The Nationalists under Mr. Parnell, who had accepted Mr. Gladstone's measure with gratitude and delight, and who had freely declared that it would satisfy the aspirations of Ireland, unanimously supported the prime minister by speech and vote. But nearly a hundred Liberals joined the Tories in their inveterate hostility to the bill, and thereby caused its overthrow. Mr. Gladstone would not accept the vote of the House of Commons as final. He had adopted the policy of Home Rule, and was determined to stand resolutely and loyally by it. Although Parliament was less than a year old, he promptly dissolved it, and appealed to the people on the issue of Home Rule for Ireland. An election ensued which was notable for its brevity and its excitement (July, 1886). The Liberals who had deserted Mr. Gladstone in the struggle over Home Rule, and had joined his antagonists, made an alliance with the Tories throughout the electoral districts.

The result of the election was that a majority opposed to Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy was chosen to the new House of Commons. The Tories won 317 seats; the anti-Gladstone Liberals, 78; the Gladstone Liberals, 190; and the Irish Nationalists, 85. No one of these parties, therefore, could command an absolute majority of the House, which was composed of 670 members. But the Tories, combined with their allies, the anti-Gladstone Liberals, had a majority of one hundred and twenty over their Home-Rule opponents; since the whole force in favor of Home Rule, including the Gladstone Liberals and the Nationalists, numbered only 275 votes. As soon as the result of the election was fully known, Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues resigned office; and for the second time, the Marquis of Salisbury, at the head of a Tory cabinet, came into power. The new Parliament was promptly called together (Aug. 5, 1886), and entered upon its career attended by the watchful interest of the world. Ireland was still the uppermost, almost the exclusive, political topic before the people of the United Kingdom; and all men looked forward earnestly to see what new phase that great and pressing question would assume.

At this engrossing and critical point in Irish history, this narrative must be brought to a close. After an almost continuous struggle for liberty extending through more than seven hundred years, during which Ireland has never consented to rest contented under the rule of the Englishman, the Irish people seem at last to have reached a position in which the right of self-government cannot be much longer refused to them. The masterly conduct of the Irish agitation by Charles Stewart Parnell and his patriotic lieutenants; the patient attitude of the mass of the Irish people during the conflict for Home Rule; their instant appreciation of and gratitude to the great English statesman, who not only championed, but absorbed himself in devotion to their cause,—have raised that cause to a dignity and an importance which foreshadow its not distant triumph. Whether the task of according full justice to Ireland shall be finally entrusted to Mr. Gladstone or not, his name must always be held in the highest reverence, honor, and affection by the Irish people, as one who has spent, in their behalf, the later period of a life fruitful and illustrious, beyond that of any English statesman of the present century.

THE END