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Page 30
Such an assembly is clearly unfitted to function as the cerebrum of
Empire. It must be relieved of burdens which in the complexity of modern
politics it is no longer able to bear. How is this to be done? In one
way and in one way only, by leaving local business to local bodies. But
that is Home Rule, or, as the learned, envisaging the idea from another
point of view, sometimes prefer to call it, Devolution. Through the
principle of autonomy, incompletely applied, the British Possessions
have so far evolved. Through the principle of autonomy, completely
applied, and in no other wise, can they evolve into an ordered system
worthy of the Imperial name. This is at first blush a singular
development. Here lie Ireland and England separated by a mountain of
misunderstanding. We Irish Nationalists have for a century been trying
to bore a tunnel through from one side. And suddenly we become aware of
the tapping of picks not our own, and encounter midway the tunnel which
the Party of Imperial Reconstruction have driven through from the other
side. Here are all the materials for a _tableau_. Justice falls on the
neck of expediency. Imperialism recognises in nationality no rebel but a
son of the house. Toryism rubs its eyes, and finds that it is Home Rule.
But, sounded to its depths, this new current of thought appears not only
not eccentric but inevitable. Ample explanation is to be found in the
history of the Irish fight for self-government. On this subject there
has been in Ireland a marked evolution of ideas. O'Connell began by
demanding simple Repeal of the Union and the Restoration of Grattan's
Parliament. But by 1844 he had advanced towards a Federal programme.
"Beside the local Parliament in Ireland having full and perfect local
authority," he writes in that year, "there should be, for questions of
Imperial concern, colonial, military, and naval, and of foreign alliance
and policy, a Congressional or Federal Parliament, in which Ireland
should have a fair share and proportion of representation and power."
The proposed change of programme came in a questionable shape to a
suspicious time. It was not received with universal favour, and, to
avert dissension, it was represented as a mere _ballon d'essai_ and was
abandoned. O'Connell died, and Repeal and Federation alike were
swallowed up in the Great Famine. But time was to renew its urgency. The
essential facts, and the logic of the facts, remained unaltered. When
Isaac Butt came to formulate his scheme at the Home Rule Conference in
1873 he renewed the Federal proposal in terms almost verbally the same.
The Conference resolved:
"That, in claiming these rights and privileges for our country, we
adopt the principle of a Federal arrangement, which would secure to
the Irish Parliament the right of legislating for and regulating
all matters relating to the internal affairs of Ireland, while
_leaving to the Imperial Parliament the power of dealing with all
questions affecting the Imperial and Government, legislation
regarding the colonies and other dependencies of the Crown, the
relations of the Empire with Foreign States, and all matters
appertaining to the defence and stability of the Empire at large;
as well as the power of granting and providing the supplies
necessary for Imperial purposes_."
Parnell, who was a supreme master of the art of doing one thing at a
time, naturally laid the emphasis on Ireland. But when he was asked by
Mr Cecil Rhodes to agree to the retention of Irish representatives at
Westminster in the interests of Imperial Federation, he declared himself
in very definite terms:
"It does not come so much within my province to express a full
opinion upon the larger question of Imperial federation, but I
agree with you that the continued Irish representation at
Westminster immensely facilitates such a step, while the contrary
provision in the Bill of 1886 would have been a bar. Undoubtedly
this is a matter which should be dealt with largely in accordance
with the opinion of the Colonies themselves, and if they should
desire to share in the cost of Imperial matters, as undoubtedly
they now do in the responsibility, and should express a wish for
representation at Westminster, I certainly think it should be
accorded to them, and that public opinion in these islands would
unanimously concur in the necessary constitutional modifications."
That is, if you will, thinking Imperially. Mr Redmond stands where
Parnell stood. He claims for the Irish people "the legislative and
executive control of all purely Irish affairs." But he is altogether
friendly to a later and larger application of the principle of autonomy.
But where, asks the triumphant critic not quite ingenuously, is the line
to be drawn between local and Imperial affairs? Problems far more
perplexed than this have been solved by the wit of man. The line was
drawn by O'Connell and Butt, by Parnell and Gladstone. It can be drawn
to meet the circumstances of to-day by men of goodwill, after discussion
and mutual adjustment. But why not postpone the case of Ireland until a
scheme of Home Rule all round either for the United Kingdom or for the
whole Empire has been worked out? We answer that Ireland comes first on
grounds both of ethics and of expediency. Through all the blackness of
dismal years we have laboured to preserve the twin ideas of nationality
and autonomy, and the labourer is worthy of his hire. But a Home Rule
assembly, functioning in Dublin, may well furnish the germ of a
reorganisation of the Empire. If so, let it be remembered that it was
not Mr Chamberlain but Daniel O'Connell who first in these countries
gave to Imperialism a definite and articulate form. In any event Home
Rule is the only remedy for the present congestion of St Stephen's. It
is the only tonic that can restore to English public life its old vigour
of independence.
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