Home Rule.
tended that the Church really was the national Church of Wales was that the Welsh people thought otherwise; at election after election, almost unanimously so far as political representation showed, they demanded the change as an act of justice. On the first reading of the bill (April 25), which was carried by means of the closure by 331 to 253, Mr. Lloyd George em- phasized this point in a somewhat rhetorical plea for the right of his own nationality to have the religion it chose and not to be nationally misrepresented by a Church wfcich, however well it worked, was English and not Welsh. On May 13 the second reading opened with a slashing criticism from Mr. F. E. Smith, but on the i6th it was carried by the closure by 348 to 267, and the bill was then hung up till the late autumn. Its introduc- tion satisfied the Welsh party, but otherwise it excited no real parliamentary enthusiasm. In recent years disestablishment had ceased to interest any large section of Liberal politicians; and the bill, while alienating many Liberal churchmen and rallying to defence of the Church numbers of voters who are normally indifferent to political issues, was not of a nature to help Liberal or Labour electioneering outside Wales itself.
In making an Irish Home Rule bill their chief measure in 1912 the Government were more fortunate in one respect than Mr. Gladstone had been in 1886 and 1893, when the whole Irish question was still associated in Great Britain with the preju- dice and hostility aroused by the agrarian war, with all its incidents of cattle-maiming and boycotting, the " plan of campaign," the Phoenix Park murders and dynamiting out- rages, the downfall of Parnell and the split in the Nationalist ranks (see IRELAND). A new generation had grown up, to whom all this was ancient history, with no special applica- tion to the existing conditions. Ireland for years had been peaceful and growing in prosperity; the Union- ist Government had given her both local government and the Land Purchase Act; and the idea of Home Rule (as apart from the forgotten Home Rule bills) was now familiar simply as one of the standing issues of party politics. Lord Rosebery's de- fection had not prevented Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman from inscribing it again in 1905 on the banner of the Liberal party; and though the Liberals then came into power, in- dependently of the Nationalist vote, under a pledge not to introduce a Home Rule bill during the 1905-10 Parliament, Mr. Asquith had been quite explicit in saying, when the elec- tions of Jan. 1910 were taken, that if he got a majority this self-denying ordinance would be at an end. It was true that at the elections of Dec. 1910 neither Mr. Asquith nor his colleagues in the Cabinet made Home Rule a direct issue either in their election addresses or in their speeches. On the contrary, when the Unionists warned the electorate that in voting for the Parliament bill they were voting also for Home Rule, they were constantly told that this was only a " bogey." But the fact remained that Home Rule was an integral part of the Liberal programme, and within the Govern- ment forces returned as supporters of the Parliament bill the Irish Nationalists held the balance of power. Mr. Redmond, for his part, had been perfectly frank about the conditions of his support; on Sept. 27, 1910, for example (to give only one instance out of many), at a moment when it was still uncertain to what lengths the Liberal Cabinet would go in framing a Home Rule bill, he was reported as saying in a speech at Buffalo, U.S., " I believe the leaders of the Liberals are sincerely friendly to Home Rule, but, sincere or not, we have the power and will make them toe the line." The real strength of his position for making a good bargain over the terms of the bill was based, however, on the willingness of the Liberal and Labour parties to concede, in all essentials, the Nationalist demand, repre- senting as it did not only a solid vote from three-quarters of Ireland but also an important body of Irish opinion in America and the British colonies. Apart altogether from the older arguments for Home Rule, the Liberals justified their policy by the success attending their grant of self-government to the Transvaal, and by the congestion of business in the Imperial Parliament, which in any case made it desirable to move in the
direction of devolution. An Irish Parliament and executive of the colonial type for purely Irish affairs, subordinate to the Imperial Parliament, would not only satisfy the Irish claim, but might be the beginning of a federal scheme for the whole of the United Kingdom. Arguing on these lines, and Mr. Red- mond carefully put the Irish case no higher in his speeches before British audiences it was much easier in 1910 and 1911 for supporters of the Government than it was in 1886 and 1893 to scout Unionist objections to the principle of Home Rule; they could even appeal to Unionist arguments in favour of an Im- perial federal constitution. English Liberal Noncomformists were not now so much agitated about Home Rule meaning Rome Rule; and public opinion in Great Britain generally had become rather apathetic about Ireland altogether, being to a large extent out of touch with its problems. It was only in Ulster that passionate resistance was as yet reawakened.
Mr. Asquith introduced the Government of Ireland bill in the House of Commons on April n 1912. He laid particular stress on its being intended to be the first step towards par- liamentary devolution and a system of federalized parliaments within the British Isles, and on its maintaining the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament at Westminster over the new Irish Parliament equally with any that might later be set up in other divisions of the kingdom. The essence of the bill was that in Ireland an Irish Parliament and Irish executive should be re- sponsible for exclusively Irish affairs. Instead of saying pre- cisely what these affairs' were, the bill specified what were the Imperial affairs which the Irish ^/*%^' fe Government could not deal with, including cer- tain Irish matters (Clause 2) " reserved " to the Imperial Government. There would be two Houses an elected House of Representatives of 164 members (of whom, on the exist- ing basis, 39 would probably be Unionists); and a nominated Senate of 40 members, on which Mr. Redmond's view was that there would thus be the opportunity to secure the inclusion of Irish public men of eminence, without reference to their party colour. In case of a conflict between the two Houses they would sit and vote together. For Imperial pur- poses Ireland would still be represented at Westminster, but only by 42 members, subject to a special provision (Clause 26) for increasing this number in case the question of altering the financial relations should arise at some future time and purely for that purpose. The acts of the Irish Parliament would be subject to veto or postponement by the Imperial executive or Parliament, disputes as to their validity being adjudicated on first by the Irish Court of Appeal and secondly by the Privy Council. It might not enact privilege or disability, endow- ment or deprivation, for any form of religion, or make any religious belief or ceremony necessary to the validity of mar- riage. Irish taxes would be settled by the Irish Parliament but would continue to be collected (together with such Imperial taxes as remained) by the Imperial Government, and an annual sum corresponding to the cost of Irish services at the time of the passing of the Act would be " transferred " to the Irish Exchequer under the administration of a Joint Exchequer Com- mittee, together with a grant, beginning at 500,000, to be reduced as circumstances permitted; practically this meant an annual subsidy of 2,000,000 from the Imperial Exchequer. The " transferred sum " would provide a security on which the Irish Government could raise loans. The financing of Old Age Pensions, National Insurance, the Post Office Savings Bank, and the Royal Irish Constabulary, was reserved tem- porarily to the Imperial Exchequer, but the Irish Post Office (with the patronage attaching to it) was made a separate service under Irish administration. The powers given to the Irish Parliament to deal with Customs and Excise as well as other taxation contemplated the setting-up of Irish custom-houses independently of Great Britain, and (within certain limits) the possibility of varying duties as between goods imported into Ireland or into Great Britain; and as the collection was to be made by the Imperial Government, and allowance for the Irish levy to be made to the Irish by the Imperial Exchequer,
