Against Home Rule (1912) The Case for the Union   By: Various

THE CASE FOR THE UNION

BY

ARTHUR J. BALFOUR, M.P.; J. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.; WALTER LONG, M.P.; GEORGE WYNDHAM, M.P.; LORD CHARLES BERESFORD, M.P.; J.H. CAMPBELL, K.C., M.P.; GERALD W. BALFOUR; THOMAS SINCLAIR; MARQUIS OF LONDONDERRY; EARL PERCY; L.S. AMERY, M.P.; GEORGE CAVE, K.C., M.P.; GODFREY LOCKER LAMPSON, M.P., &c.

WITH INTRODUCTION BY SIR EDWARD CARSON, K.C., M.P.

AND PREFACE BY A. BONAR LAW, M.P.

EDITED BY S. ROSENBAUM

LONDON FREDERICK WARNE & CO, AND NEW YORK 1912

IRISH ESSAYS COMMITTEE

Chairman. THE RT. HON. SIR EDWARD CARSON, M.P.

Vice Chairman. GODFREY LOCKER LAMPSON, M.P.

Committee. L.S. AMERY, M.P. GEORGE CAVE, K.C., M.P. THE RT. HON. J.H. CAMPBELL, K.C., M.P. A.L. HORNER, K.C., M.P. A.D. STEEL MAITLAND, M.P. A.W. SAMUELS, K.C. P. CAMBRAY

Secretary & Editor. S. ROSENBAUM, M.SC., F.S.S.

PREFACE

BY THE RIGHT HON. A. BONAR LAW, M.P.

This book, for which I have been asked to write a short preface, presents the case against Home Rule for Ireland. The articles are written by men who not only have a complete grasp of the subjects upon which they write, but who in most cases, from their past experience and from their personal influence, are well entitled to outline the Irish policy of the Unionist Party.

Ours is not merely a policy of hostility to Home Rule, but it is, as it has always been, a constructive policy for the regeneration of Ireland.

We are opposed to Home Rule because, in our belief, it would seriously weaken our national position; because it would put a stop to the remarkable increase of prosperity in Ireland which has resulted from the Land Purchase Act; and because it would inflict intolerable injustice on the minority in Ireland, who believe that under a Government controlled by the men who dominate the United Irish League neither their civil nor their religious liberty would be safe.

To create within the United Kingdom a separate Parliament with an Executive Government responsible to that Parliament would at the best mean a danger of friction. But if we were ever engaged in a great war, and the men who controlled the Irish Government took the view in regard to that war which was taken by the same men in regard to the Boer War; if they thought the war unjust, and if, as under the last Home Rule Bill they would have the right to do, they passed resolutions in the Irish Parliament in condemnation of the war, and even sent embassies carrying messages of good will to our enemy, then this second Government at the heart of the Empire would be a source of weakness which might be fatal to us.

The ameliorative measures originated by Mr. Balfour when he was Chief Secretary, and which culminated in the Wyndham Purchase Act, have created a new Ireland. Mr. Redmond, speaking a year or two ago, said that Ireland "was studded with the beautiful and happy homes of an emancipated peasantry." It is a true picture, but it is a picture of the result of Unionist policy in Ireland, a policy which Mr. Redmond and his friends, including the present Government, have done their best to hamper. The driving power of the agitation for Home Rule has always been discontent with the land system of Ireland, and just in proportion as land purchase has extended, the demand for Home Rule has died down. The Nationalist leaders, realising this, and regarding political agitation as their first object, have compelled the Government to put insurmountable obstacles in the way of land purchase not because it had not been successful, but because it had been too successful.