A HISTORIC PRONOUNCEMENT

New Zealand Tablet, 12 September 1912, Page 13

A HISTORIC PRONOUNCEMENT

THE PRIME MINISTER ON HOME RULE GREAT NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION IN DUBLIN After the great and memorable reception of Thursday night, August 18, the protracted scene of wild enthusiasm, the blaze of illuminations in the July twilight, and the vast cheering crowd, the Premier had an opportunity on the following morning of looking around one of the prettiest portions of Dublin’s environs— grounds of the Chief Secretary’s Lodge, with its commanding view over the magnificent expanse of the Phoenix Park. It was a beautiful morning, calculated to give the distinguished visitors a pleasant impression of the natural beauties surrounding the Capital, after their experience of the capacity of. Dublin people to produce a vividly-picturesque demonstration in their streets. At 6 o’clock streams of people were steadily setting towards the Theatre Royal, around which crowds were already collecting. Inside the vast building was elaborately decorated. When the doors were opened at a quarter to seven, the crowds poured into all parts of the building, and in less time than it takes to write , the* building was transformed from a vista of empty red-cushioned seats to a packed auditorium, with tier upon tier of faces rising from the floor to the ceiling.. Remarkable Scenes. On the stroke of 8 the Premier, accompanied by Mrs, Asquith, who was carrying a huge bouquet, and followed by Mr. John Redmond, the Master of Elibank, Mr. Joseph Devlin, and Mr. John Dillon appeared on the platform. Instantly all members of the large audience rose to their feet, and a roar of cheering broke out, Mr. and Mrs. Asquith bowing occasionally. MR. REDMOND OPENS THE MEETING. At five minutes past eight o’clock Mr. John Red--mond, M.P., came forward to open the proceedings, and received a most enthusiastic greeting. He said: We all of us, Irish men and women, are' very proud of the extraordinary greeting given to the Prime Minister last night by the masses of the people of the metropolis of Ireland. That demonstration w;>s a spontaneous outpouring of the gratitude of a whole people to a great man who had come to this country to champion a cause that is, to the mass of the Irish people, dearer than their lives. The dimensions, the good order, the absolute sobriety, and the whole-hearted enthusiasm of the enormous assemblage must have impressed—deeply impressed—our guest. For my part, I doubt if any Minister of the British Crown, at any time, or at any place in the Empire, ever received a more magnificent tribute of confidence and gratitude, and may I, without offence, be allowed to say that I doubt very much whether the Prime Minister will meet with the like until the inevitable day when in the near future he comes here in attendance on the Sovereign to assist in the ceremony of reopening the Parliament of a free and reconciled Ireland. Well, great as last night s demonstration was, this meeting in this building . to-night is in some respects equally remarkable. Anyone who is at all acquainted with the metropolis of Ireland recognises that there is here to-night assembled a gathering representative of all classes and all creeds, and all sections in the capital of Ireland. But I would like to say to Mr. Asquith that this meeting is not merely remarkable for that reason. We have here tonight the Lord Mayors and Mayors of every city and town in Ireland, with two exceptions. We* have here the Chairmen of the County of 28 out of the - 32 counties of Ireland. While I esteem it a great honor I to preside over such a gathering, my duty, as I have said, in that office is a very easy one. We desire—we all desire—to honor the Prime Minister by every means in our power. His visit is a guarantee deed, an unnecessary guarantee—to us that the Homo Rule Bill which has been accepted by Ireland

in absolute good faith as a final settlement of the inters national quarrel between the two countries, will hot merely pass through the House of Commons this session, but will pass into law in this Parliament. s ; We believe that, great as are the attainments and achievements of Mr. Asquith in every walk of intellectual and political life, his name will finally go down to posterity chiefly immortalised by the fact that it has been reserved for him to bring to fruition the policy of Gladstone and of Parnell freeing Ireland and uniting the Empire. My Lords, ladies and gentlemen, I have now £ne honor to call upon the Prime Minister to address you:■■ ■ THE PRIME MINISTER’S HISTORIC SPEECH. Mr. Asquith then came forward, and once more the entire audience rose to its feet, and for many minutes there was another record scene of enthusiasm. When this had ceased, he said:— cannot, as I said last night, express in language that could in any way represent my real and heartfelt feeling of gratitude awakened in me, first, by the magnificent—and I believe unparalleled—demonstration of popular enthusiasm yesterday next, by the privilege which you have accorded me of addressing here to-night an assembly which' may truly be regarded as representative of the .' best ideals and aspirations of the Irish people. I have come here, sir, to Dublin with a double purpose. In the first place, to assure the people of Ireland, though, as. Mr. Redmond has been good enough to say, I do not think that any such assurance is necessary, of the resolute, determination of the British Government, the British House of Commons, and the British people to bring your great cause to a speedy and a triumphant issue; and next, though not less important, I have come here, I believe I may say—for unless I honestly believed it in the position I hold, I should not be here—l have come here charged with a ; ’ Mission of Peace and Reconciliation between Ireland and Great Britain. Ladies and gentlemen, the democracies of these two islands have been long and artificially separated. It was, in our opinion, mine certainly, and I believe yours, an unnatural separation —-and not due to real or abiding antagonisms, whether material or moral. But our history in the past lias exhibited a tragic series of misunderstandings and misadventures, and it will be foreign and injurious to m y Purpose to-night to attempt to forecast the precise appraisement of praise or blame which the verdict of history will ultimately award either to, nations or ' to individuals. When one surveys the troublous and tangled annals of the past, there have been moments of missed or misused opportunities, where it seemed as though peace between the two countries might have been attained. One such was the Treaty of Limerick. Another was the birthday of Grattan’s Parliament in 1782, the third was the too brief Viceroyalty of Lord Fitzwilliam in 1795 and once again when Mr. Gladstone espoused the cause of Home Rule. Each of these interludes in an otherwise almost unbroken. history of ; misunderstanding and estrangement, brought' about a momentary gleam of hope in what seemed to be the pitiless exigencies of a malignant horoscope. I have come here to tell you to-night with confidence that the clouds have rolled away, that in the House of Commons you have a majority of the elected representatives of the people of Great Britain, and that with unity, discipline, and patience the end is within sight. Be it remembered the House of Commons has, by a large and significant majority, passed the Second Reading, and after a . protracted debate m Committee has assened to the vital clause of the Bill which my Government has introduced for the better Government of Ireland i am not going to-night to enlarge in any detail upon the specific provisions of that measure, and I will tell you why. The opposition is purely destructive in its objects and anarchic and chaotic in its methods They have voted, as my Parliamentary colleagues here know, ? and 1 2p 11C f disregard for their previous professions, and even for the elementary ■ doctrines of their political creed. They have voted already in the course bf our . discussions in favor of political and privileged eatment for four selected counties. in the proving of Ulster; in favor of a single’ Qhamber as against two

Chambers, and for the deletion from the Bill of the words which affirm and declare the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. Taking their stand on the sacro- ' sanctity ..of the Act of Union and the assumed right of an Ulster, minority to override the ' aspirations of the vast majority of their fellow-countrymen, their avowed object is simply to wreck our Bill. Gentlemen, they will not succeed. The Bill will, I venture to predict, be sent to

The House of Lords Before Christmas,

and whatever may be its immediate fortunes there, the House of Lords—thanks to the legislation of last year no longer possesses the power to override the considered judgment of the elected representatives of the people, i have said I am not going into the details of this Bill, but perhaps you will allow me, in a few sentences, to describe its general purpose and effect. It proceeds on three assumptions. In the first place, it seeks to give effect to the demand of Ireland for full self-government in purely Irish affairs—a demand constitutionally preferred by four-fifths of the Irish people, chosen on a democratic suffrage at successive elections, continued during the lifetime of a whole generation. Secondly, it assumes that in giving effect to the demand the Imperial Parliament, in which Ireland would continue to be represented, must not only reserve to itself matters which are not specifically Irish, but that it must retain over all matters and persons unimpaired supremacy; and lastly, it assumes that whatever provision is now made for the special case of Ireland, the priority of which is. fully admitted by Scotland and by Wales, we shall proceed upon lines which, with the necessary and proper adaptations to local conditions, may be followed in dealing with the special business of other parts of the United Kingdom, that the ultimate object in which we are all equally interested—men, Scotsmen, Irishmen, and Welshmen —is to set free the Imperial Parliament for the transaction of matters legislative. and administrative, which are of Imperial concern. - Now, gentlemen, the question for you, and for me—you first,

As Irishmen and Next as Citizens

of the Empire, and for me, as an Englishman sympathising with Ireland, and also as a citizen of the. Empire— question for you and me is : Does the Bill give effect to these principles ? I am going to submit to you that it does. First, as* regards Ireland, subject to certain reservations, which, are especial in their character and for the most part transient in duration, Irish government gets free and full authority to make and administer the laws of Ireland. In regard to finance, she gets from the Imperial Exchequer the full cost of the Irish services transferred to her new Government, with an added gift which starts at £500,000 a year. She will bear any of the cost in the increase of these services, but she will benefit by any economies in their administration. She can reduce taxes levied in Ireland and, subject to certain necessary limitations, she may add to existing or impose any new forms of taxation. That is the case so far as Ireland is concerned. How as regards the United Kingdom? In. the Imperial House of Commons, as I said, there is to be reduced, but still substantial, Irish representation. The principle of supremacy is maintained, and its practical exercise in the rare cases in which it can even conceivably be needed is provided for by the executive power of the Lord Lieutenant and the unimpaired legislative authority of the Imperial Parliament. Now I want, first of all, if I may say; to you as Irishmen, that I believe the arrangements proposed by this Bill, of which I have given you a general summary and outline, compare advantageously with any plan that can ever be submitted in Parliament. Look, for instance, and it is not a mere matter of history, look at the condition of things which prevailed under Grattan’s Parliament.

Grattan’s Parliament,

as you know, was exclusively Protestant originally, in its original constitution— not only as regards the persons chosen, but as regards the persons themselves, by English legislation passed in the reign of William and Mary, and in the reign of George 11.

First of all, the old Irish Parliament had been limited to Protestants, and the Catholic electorate had been: completely disfranchised. It is quite true that Grattan’s Parliament, to its honor, exclusively Protestant,| passed in 1793 a Relief Bill, which gave the franchise to Catholics, but it was a Protestant Assembly which 1 represented a sect. What have you got now? You will have a Parliament in which religious distinctions and disabilities are entirely unknown, freely elected i upon a basis of a broad democratic sufft age. The Houseof Commons, as at present constituted, choked and congested by local affairs, has not the time to give to matters of general concern. More - and more, year by year, it encroaches, and necessarily encroaches, by ex-v pedients like the closure and the guillotine, and tho allocation of time upon what used to be the unlimited freedom of discussion. These things are necessarily indispensable, so long as your present system continues? Wo want to make Parliament capable of discharging its large central Imperial work on the one hand, and, if you want the different parts of the United Kingdom to be governed as they ought to be governed, in accordance with the views and wishes of those who are in contact and sympathy with the mass of the people concerned, Home Rule is- the only solution. Mr. Asquith then dealt with the arguments against Home Rule, and continuing he said: Speaking as an Englishman, to an Irish audience, there have been, God knows, enough misunderstandings in the past between us, and it is surely important that upon such a point as this, there can be no possibility of misunderstand- ? ing in the future. Now, I have always maintained that Ireland is a nation, not two nations, .but one nation.. They say What do you mean by a nation? I am not going to embarrass myself by any abstractdefinition these things are best argued by way of illustration, and I will take a most extreme, and '-1--, think, a most undeniable case, the case of, the country one of whose representatives I have for 26 years had the honor of being in the House of Commons. I mean Scotland. Will anyone have the hardihood to deny that the Scotch are a nation They are not all; be it remembered, of one race; there are both Celts and Saxons and various other strains of blood among them. They are not all of one religion, and they are not by any means of one way of thinking about the problems of life spiritual, intellectual, or material, and yet no ; one will deny that the Scotch are a nation. Judged! by any test that you can apply, the Irish is as definite - and as separate a nationality as the Scotch. r It has; indeed been more severely tried. We Englishmen did our best in this connection to Anglicise Scotland. We tried to impose on her Archbishop Laud’s Prayerbook.We tried the Act of Union. We tried the Methueni treaty and the suppression of the Highland clans, ; but? Scotch nationality remains intact. But. that is nothing to what we have tried to do in Ireland. " For the beat part of seven centuries in this country, and in pursuance of an' almost continuous policy, England has sought to recruit from among the best population An English Garrison.; , ‘ to preserve English ascendancy, and, not content with that, it has sought to transform the character of a whole population by wholesale expropriation, plantation, and settlement. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it was computed by a skilled observer that not more than one-fourth of the land of Ireland belbnged to the native Irish or their descendants, and yet the tale has, always been the same. I suppose I ought to say outside Dublin Castle the actual garrison .was powerless, and even within those limits it was not always to be depended upon. Well, from the Anglo-Normans downwards each successive group of invading settlers have, in the classic phrase, ‘ become more Irish than the Irish, themselves:’ There are few cases in history—as a student of history in a humble way, I myself know of none—of a nationality at once so distinct so persistent, and so assimilative as the 'lrish? I start then, in dealing with Home. Rule for Ireland, with the proposition that Ireland is a nation, and that the condition of the success of any scheme that statesmans!™ can devise is the recognition, the *

Full and Generous Recognition of Irish Nationality. Gentlemen, is that Nationality - inconsistent with . Imperial unity Is it inconsistent with the management by an Imperial Parliament- of general and Imperial concerns Ask any of your self-governing dominions, and they will answer that question for you. There in Canada and South Africa, to take only two significant instances, there you have separate nations in so far as any of the discriminating tests which define nationality can be applied, separate nations, which, by the grant of the principle of local autonomy, have been able not only to live in contentment £nd peace and co-operation side by side with one another, but from enemies have become friends, supporters, and most devoted and loyal adherents of the Empire. In the case of Ireland, we are moulding by this Bill the same great central principle which we have applied throughout the length and breadth of our self-governing Empire, in order to meet the . special circumstances and local exigencies of the particular easel' Gentlemen, I put to you this question.

The Case of; Ulster.

Now, gentlemen, I must hurry on to deal with the other argument which has been used against our Bill the argument based on the opposition, or supposed opposition of Ulster. Neither I, nor any of my colleagues have ever treated either the facts of the argument founded on the opposition of Ulster otherwise than with consideration and respect. But one must ask in regard to this matter one or two plain questions, and the first question is : ‘What in this connection does “Ulster” mean? It does not mean the province of Ulster, for the province of Ulster, judged by its Parliamentary representation, is divided into something like the proportion of half and half. In most of the Ulster counties, as you well know, where there is a majority one way, there is at least a very strong minority the other. The Unionist Party, as I said a few moments ago, voted only the other days with many searchings. of heart and more baitings and flounderings of logic and apologies for the selection and segregation of four particular counties, as the mainstay and stronghold of the opposition of the minority:

The four counties were to be excluded upon that assumption, and the poor scattered minority throughout the other provinces of Ireland were to be thrown to the wolves. Of course I need not dell you there was no sincerity in this. What is the claim put forward on behalf of Ulster? We. have, as we believe, inserted in this Bill the amplest. and the most adequate safeguards against the possibility —against the possibility of oppression, persecution, civil, political, or religious. We have offered and repeat to offer here, and now in Dublin — in the plainest and the most distinct terms — have offered, and I repeat the offer to-night, that if those safeguards can be shown to be insufficient in any respect, we will consider sympathetically and carefully' any practical suggestion for adding either, to their number or their strength. Great Britain has a majority of chosen representatives in favor of Home Rule. In Ireland there is a majority of four-fifths of the representatives of the people in favor of Home Rule, but because one-half of the representatives of the province of Ulster is opposed to it the thing cannot be carried through Except at the Cost of Civil War. And, gentlemen, there are English statesmen occupying positions of trust and responsibility who are not afraid and who do not hesitate to come to Ulster and to encourage the minority in that province to take that view. So long as we have Constitutional Government and the power of convincing public opinion, and g free democratic suffrage, so long as the people can be convinced, and shown, as in this case of . Home Rule, that they' are amenable to argument, and have a sense of justice, and are not going, however strong their prejudices or their indifference, to withstand the appeal of reason and freedomso long as that is so, I find it very difficult to find any justification whatever for Incitement to Rebellion and Civil War; and certainly no justification could be more flimsy or

trivial than that urged in the case we are now considering. I am not, however, in the least embarrassed when asked, 1 as I constantly - am, . “ What are you going to do in the event of civil war?’ I tell you quite frankly I do not believe in the prospect of civil war. Minorities have their rights. They have not only their rights, but their susceptibilities, which ought to be considered and provided for. But to say that a minority, before any actual wrong has been or can be done to them, are upon a suspicion or apprehension , that, in defiance of the terms of the Act of Parliament and of the supreme authority. of the • Imperial Parliament, that they may peradventure, at some future date, be injuredto. say that a minority is entitled on such grounds as that to thwart and defeat the constitutional demand of a vast majority of their fellow-countrymen and to frustrate a great international settlement in a proposition which, in my opinion, does not, and never will, commend itself either to the conscience or to the . judgment of the British people. The British Empire has been largely made and is maintained by the gifts, the energies; the patience, the endurance of Irishmen. Yet the vast majority of- the Irish people here at home, and scattered over the earth, by nature as loyal and as patriotic a race as the, world has ever bred have been for their lifetime and for more than three generations alienated in political sympathy from the United Kingdom, 'and the still greater Empire of which they form a part. There is nothing in our Bill that is incompatible with devotion to Ireland as a nation and loyalty to the United Kingdom, of which Ireland is an integral and should' be an enfranchised and self-governing part. Let us all unit© the two streams that they may flow together to the common enrichment of Ireland and of the Empire (loud and prolonged cheering, amidst which the right hon. gentleman resumed his seat). . . Speeches were also delivered by Mr. Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland; Lord Ashby St. Ledgers; The Master of Elibank, M.P., chief Whip of the Liberal Party ; Right Hon. Eugene Wason, M.P.; Sir John Simon, Solicitor-General for England; Sir D. Brynmor Jones, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Right Hon. - David Hogg, D.L., Londonderry ; Right Hon. Thomas Shillington, and Mr. John Dillon.