The New Irish Constitution Part 23

If the Land Act of 1870 had been a success instead of a failure it could not have checked the flowing tide. It was in 1871 that Mr. Lecky wrote: "The sentiment of nationality lies at the root of Irish discontent." Ten years earlier Goldwin Smith used the following remarkable language:

"The real root of Irish disaffection is the want of national inst.i.tutions, of a national capital, of any objects of national reverence and attachment, and, consequently, of anything deserving to be called national life. The greatness of England is nothing to the Irish. Her history is nothing, or worse. The success of Irishmen in London consoles the Irish no more than the success of Italian adventurers in foreign countries (which was very remarkable) consoled the Italian people. The drawing off of Irish talent, in fact, turns to an additional grievance in their mind.

Dublin is a modern Tara; a Metropolis from which the glory has departed; and the Vice-Royalty, though it pleases some of the tradesmen, fails altogether to satisfy the people. 'In Ireland we can make no appeal to patriotism; we can have no patriotic sentiments in our school books, no patriotic emblems in our schools, because in Ireland everything patriotic is rebellious.'

These were the words uttered in my hearing, not by a complaining demagogue, but by a desponding statesman."

Between 1861 and 1871 the tide of nationality was rising. Fenianism diverted it in the direction of separation. Isaac b.u.t.t brought it back to the channel of legislative autonomy. The failure of the Land Act of 1870, the refusal of Parliament to amend it, the renewal of Coercion, the political excitement caused by Fenianism and the definite demand for Home Rule, swelled the tide and gave it fresh force. All the Land Acts pa.s.sed between 1881 and 1909 have not changed the current of public feeling. Home Rule has not been killed by kindness.

The cla.s.s which long refused to remove Irish material grievances, now say, that, since some of those grievances have been remedied, the Irish ought to abandon the demand for Home Rule. John Stuart Mill warned the cla.s.s in question many years ago that if the removal of material grievances were delayed, the time might come when the fight would be for an idea, and that then the Irish problem would be more formidable than ever. The fight to-day is for an idea-the idea of nationality-and English Unionist statesmen do not apparently understand it:

"Alas for the self-complacent ignorance of irresponsible rulers, be they monarchs, cla.s.ses, or nations! If there is anything sadder than the calamity itself, it is the unmistakable sincerity and good faith with which numbers of Englishmen confess themselves incapable of comprehending it. They know not that the disaffection which neither has nor needs any other motive than aversion to the rulers, is the climax to a long growth of disaffection arising from causes that might have been removed. What seems to them the causelessness of the Irish repugnance to our rule, is the proof that they have almost let pa.s.s the last opportunity they are ever likely to have of setting it right. They have allowed what once was indignation against particular wrongs, to harden into a pa.s.sionate determination to be no longer ruled on any terms by those to whom they ascribe all their evils."(157)

Englishmen thoroughly appreciate the idea of nationality except when it applies to Ireland.

Mr. Redmond has been recently censured because he said, in effect, that material prosperity is not everything. Yet what did Mr. Disraeli say in his inaugural address to the University of Glasgow in 1873:

"It is not true that physical happiness is the highest happiness; it is not true that physical happiness is a principle on which you can build up a flourishing and enduring commonwealth. A civilised community must rest on a large realised capital of thought and sentiment; there must be a reserved fund of public morality to draw upon in the exigencies of national life. Society has a soul as well as a body, the traditions of a nation are part of its existence. Its valour and its discipline, its religious faith, its venerable laws, its science and erudition, its poetry, its art, its eloquence and its scholarship, are as much portions of its existence as its agriculture, its commerce, and its engineering skill. Nay, I would go further, I would say that without these qualities, material excellence cannot be attained."

That is the true doctrine. The spirit of nationality is the spirit of life. Material progress itself springs from national freedom.

XIII.-The History Of Devolution. BY THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN

Before attempting to sketch the history of devolution in connection with Ireland, two somewhat remarkable facts should be mentioned. A widespread impression appears to exist that devolution as a means for solving the Irish political problem is a modern invention, and that I am, in a large measure, responsible for its introduction. I must in honesty disclaim the honour. There is nothing new either in the expression or in its application to Ireland. The term has been freely used by many statesmen, and, as I think I can demonstrate, the advocacy of a scheme of Devolution for Ireland has not been confined to any one of the two great political parties of the State.

The second remarkable fact in connection with devolution, in its latest expression, is the hostile att.i.tude a.s.sumed towards it by the Nationalist party. That the programme, modest as it was, published by the Irish Reform a.s.sociation in 1904 should have been a.s.sailed by many Unionists was natural enough, but that any Nationalists should have denounced it with equal or greater bitterness is very difficult to account for. The wiser spirits welcomed the movement. The leader of the party-Mr. John Redmond-alluding to us in America, said: "With these men with us Home Rule may come at any moment," and the Convention of the United Irish League of America spoke of our action as "a victory unparalleled in the whole history of moral warfare." But Mr. John Dillon and Mr. Michael Davitt took a very different view and condemned us in no measured terms. Mr. Davitt at Clonmacnoise on September 4th, 1904, said: "If we are foolish enough to be wiled by Lord Dunraven and Mr. George Wyndham, who is possibly behind this wooden-horse stratagem, we will richly merit the contempt of our race and friends everywhere for so abject a surrender of the National Movement,"

and at Enniscorthy, far from agreeing with Mr. Redmond that our a.s.sistance was of the greatest value to the cause of Home Rule, he declared that: "No party or leader can consent to accept the Dunraven subst.i.tute without betraying a national trust." Mr. Dillon at Sligo accused devolution of being a scheme to "break National unity in Ireland and to block the advance of the Nationalist cause."

Unfortunately these sentiments prevailed, and every effort was made to discredit and obstruct the movement. The att.i.tude adopted towards devolution is natural on the part of anyone whose aim is separation; but, failing that, can be accounted for only by the animosity displayed by the inner group of the party to any expression of opinion, unauthorised by their official stamp. Devolution was anathematised simply because it was suggested as a method of political reform by persons who did not necessarily recognise the infallibility of the Party. It is impossible to believe that by any contortion of thought the theory was really looked upon as a cunningly constructed device for countering, or in some way undermining, Home Rule, for whatever opinion might be held about the personal honesty of myself and those a.s.sociated with me, very little examination into the question would have sufficed to dispel that delusion.

Home Rule up to a point necessarily implies devolution. Devolution is up to a point the same thing as Home Rule. The difference lies in this. Home Rule may be held to mean, has been held to mean, and is now by some held to mean, repeal of the union and separation. Devolution means, and can only mean, as applicable to the existing state of things-the delegation by the one existing authority-the Imperial Parliament-of power to a Parliament or body-call it what you will-created to exercise the power delegated to it. The term of necessity implies supremacy and subordinacy.

Devolution may be confined to administration, as for instance in the abortive Irish Councils Bill of 1907; or to legislative functions conferring a status a.n.a.logous to that of Grattan's Parliament, which while enjoying full legislative power exercised practically no executive authority whatever; or it may embrace all the functions of government. The devolution may be large or small, confined or comprehensive. There is no limit save one to the delegating power of the central authority. It can confer whatever legislative and executive functions it pleases, but it cannot divest itself of its power of resumption, and it must remain supreme.

It will be seen therefore that devolution does not connote separation. It is incompatible with repeal, but it is compatible with-it is in fact indistinguishable from, any conception of Home Rule that acknowledges the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. It is applicable to propositions of reform however small or however large. The modest little Councils Bill already alluded to proceeded by devolution. Complete reconstruction of the United Kingdom on federal lines can be accomplished only by devolution, for to commence operations by restoring Wales to the position she occupied in 1284, and Scotland and Ireland to the status they respectively held in 1707 and 1800, and then to invite them to enter a federal union would be an idea worthy of the pen of a Lewis Carroll in a sort of political "Alice in Wonderland." Ireland's political problem can be solved only in one of two ways. She must be granted either absolute independence tempered only by the precarious tie of a common Crown, or legislative and administrative powers delegated by a superior to a subordinate Parliament. By Home Rule separation may be meant. Separation would, in my opinion, be disastrous to Great Britain and fatal to Ireland. Devolution would be beneficial to both, and it is because the term draws a clear distinction between independence and any form of autonomy short of independence, that I prefer to call myself a Devolutionist rather than a Home Ruler.

That devolution to a local authority, or to local authorities, is the proper remedy for evils affecting Great Britain and Ireland, has been, for various reasons, admitted by responsible statesmen during the last fifty years. As long ago as 1865 the late Lord Salisbury, then Lord Robert Cecil, enquiring why "a people with so wonderful a soil, with such enormous resources (as the Irish) lagged so far behind the English in the race?" and examining critically all the usual reasons a.s.signed, came to the conclusion that the cause was not to be found in any of them, but was to be sought for in the system of government. "I am afraid," he said, "that the one thing which has been peculiar to Ireland has been the Government of England." About the same time Lord Beaconsfield went so far as to indicate his desire for a federal arrangement. In a conversation with the American Amba.s.sador in London in the early 'seventies he stated that: "If he had to deal with the situation he would propose to place Ireland in a similar position that New York held in the Federal Government." In 1879 Mr. Gladstone advocated devolution, and devolution on federal lines, for the relief of Parliament.

"I desire," he said, "I may almost say I intensely desire, to see Parliament relieved of some portion of its duties.... We have got an over-weighted Parliament; and if Ireland, or any other portion of the country, is desirous and able so to arrange its affairs that by taking the local part, or some local part, of its transactions off the hands of Parliament, it can liberate and strengthen Parliament for Imperial concerns, I say I will not only accord a reluctant a.s.sent, but I will give a zealous support to any such scheme."

After indicating that the only limit he knew to the extension of local government was the limit imposed by the necessity of maintaining the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament, he went on to say:

"I will consent to give to Ireland no principle, nothing that is not upon equal terms offered to Scotland and to the different parts of the United Kingdom. But I say that the man who shall devise a machinery by which some portion of the excessive and impossible task now laid upon the House of Commons shall be shifted to the more free, and therefore more efficient, hands of secondary and local authorities, will confer a blessing upon his country that will ent.i.tle him to be reckoned among the prominent benefactors of the land."

In 1885 Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Chamberlain all spoke in favour of devolution. The "Radical programme," published with a preface by Mr. Chamberlain, before the General Election of that year, advocated the creation, in addition to County Councils and District Councils, of elected National Councils for Ireland, Scotland, and (if desired by the Welsh) Wales, to take over part of the duties of the central administration, and also to deal with private Bills, but apparently not with other matters of legislation. The appointment of a Secretary for Scotland had not then been decided upon, but the subject was under discussion, and the writer doubtless expected that greater attention to Scotch legislation would be secured by that means. In the course of his argument he said:

"Before dealing, as we presently shall at some length, with the case of Ireland, it seems well to say a few words on another object of the first importance, which can be accomplished only in connection with some such extension of the principles of local government as we are now considering. Recent experience has made it perfectly clear that Parliamentary Government is being exposed to a strain for which it may prove unequal. The overwhelming work thrown upon the Imperial Legislature is too much for its machinery.... The Imperial evil is not less than the domestic.

What, for instance, can be more deplorable than the systematic neglect at Westminster of Colonial and Indian topics of the highest moment? It is obvious that no mere extension of local government upon the ordinary and restricted lines will relieve the Parliamentary congestion which has long since become a national calamity."

The late Duke of Devonshire expressed, for so cautious a man, pretty strong views on the imperfections of "Castle Government" and on the advantages of devolution. Speaking in Belfast on November 5th, 1885, he defended the Irish Government against accusations which he considered unjust, but added:

"At the same time, I am perfectly willing to admit that it is very possible and even probable, that the Irish Government as now const.i.tuted is not the best fitted in all respects to discharge, still less to undertake new and more important duties. I would not shrink from a great and bold reconstruction of Irish government...."

He explained that, in his opinion, considerable power ought to be left in the hands of the executive, but added:

"I would endeavour so to frame those powers as to make them capable of relaxation, perhaps ultimately of relinquishment, in response to any proof we may receive from the Irish people of their fitness for self-government, their fitness for the a.s.sumption of those responsibilities."

Later in the same year, Mr. Gladstone, in his address to the electors of Midlothian, used the word "devolution" as, I believe, for the first time in connection with the Parliamentary problem due to the over-pressure of work. He said:

"It has gratified me to find abundant proof that the country was, and is, fully alive to the vital importance of devolution.... The task of the House of Commons in our time has habitually exceeded what had ever been imposed upon a legislative body in the whole history of the world.... I desire to point out the three cardinal points of the question. First, the congestion of business, now notorious and inveterate, degrades the House of Commons by placing it at the mercy of those among its members who seek for notoriety by obstructing business, instead of pursuing the more honourable road to reputation by useful service, or of those who, with more semblance of warrant, seek to cripple the action of the House of Commons in order to force the acceptance of their own political projects. Secondly, it disappoints, irritates, and injures the country by the suspension of useful legislation. And lastly, and perhaps worst of all, it defeats the fundamental rule of our Parliamentary system-that the majority shall prevail.... This country will not, in the full sense, be a self-governing country until the machinery of the House of Commons is amended, and its procedure reformed."

It is possible that Mr. Gladstone had in his mind reform of procedure of the nature of devolution to bodies within the House of Commons such as Grand Committees; but in view of his former utterances it is probable that he foresaw the necessity for devolution on a larger scale.

Mr. Chamberlain continued, even during the Home Rule controversy, faithful in his advocacy of devolution. In a manifesto to his supporters, issued on July 11th, 1886, he appealed to the moderate opinion in Great Britain for a "delegation not a surrender of power," on the part of the Imperial Parliament. He outlined his political aims in the following succinct statement:

The objects to be kept in view are:

(1) To relieve the Imperial Parliament by devolution of Irish local business, and to set it free for other and more important work.

(2) To secure the free representation of Irish opinion in all matters of purely Irish concern.

(3) To offer to Irishmen a fair field for legitimate local ambition and patriotism, and to bring back the attention of the Irish people, now diverted to a barren conflict in the Imperial Parliament, to the practical consideration of their own wants and necessities.

And, lastly, by removing all unnecessary interference with Irish Government on the part of Great Britain, to diminish the causes of irritation and the opportunity of collision.

Mr. Chamberlain was acutely aware of the intimate connection between political and agrarian reform, and outlined a general constructive policy which was adopted up to a point later on by the Unionist party under the inspiration of Mr. George Wyndham: