Chapter XXIX: The Battle of the Union

Mr. Chamberlain’s Doctrine of “Ransom”--The Midlothian
Programme--Lord Randolph Churchill’s Appeal to the Whigs--Bidding
for the Parnellite Vote--Resignation of Lord Carnarvon--The General
Election--“Three Acres and a Cow”--Defeat of Lord Salisbury--The
Liberal Cabinet--Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule Scheme--Ulster threatens
Civil War--Secession of the Liberal “Unionists”--Defeat of Mr.
Gladstone--Lord Salisbury again in Office--Mr. Parnell’s Relief
Bill Rejected--The “Plan of Campaign”--Resignation of Lord Randolph
Churchill--Mr. Goschen becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer--Riots
in the West End of London--The Indian and Colonial Exhibition--The
Imperial Institute--The Queen’s Visit to Liverpool--The Holloway
College for Women--A Busy Season for her Majesty--The International
Exhibition at Edinburgh--The Prince and Princess Komatsu of Japan.

The closing months of 1885 were devoted to preparations for the General Election. Mr. Chamberlain’s speeches developed his doctrine of “ransom” with a vigour of language and directness of purpose that terrified the Whigs. At Bradford he demanded Disestablishment, and thus concentrated the malice of the Church on the whole Liberal Party. Mr. Gladstone issued a moderate manifesto to his constituents, known as the “Midlothian Programme,” in which he attempted to neutralise Mr. Chamberlain’s “unauthorised programme.” The reform of Parliamentary procedure, and Local Government, the reform of the Registration Laws, and of land transfer were the famous “four points” on which he dwelt. As for Mr. Chamberlain’s suggestions for disestablishment, for education, graduated Income Tax, and the abolition of the House of Lords, he put them aside, refusing to peer “into the dim and distant courses of the future.” The Tory leaders professed themselves equally willing to reform Procedure, the Land Laws, and Local Government, and attacked the Whigs for their alliance with the Birmingham School of Radicals. Lord Randolph Churchill, in fact, appealed to the Whigs to coalesce with the Tories in resisting what Lord Hartington called “measures of a Socialistic tendency.” Both parties in the State made high bids for the Irish Vote. Mr. Chamberlain offered to Mr. Parnell a scheme of Home Rule, under which Ireland would be governed by Four Provincial Parliaments--in fact, he furbished up an old idea which the venerable Earl Russell had shed from his mind when it was in the last stage of decay. The Tories, through Lord Carnarvon, offered Mr. Parnell some form of Home Rule under which Ireland was to have a Legislature of her own with the right to levy Protective Duties on imported goods.[233] Though Lord

Salisbury’s Newport address was ambiguous in its references to Home Rule, it rather gave colour to the prevalent belief that if the Tories could win a majority by the Irish vote, they would hold power by giving Ireland Home Rule. At the same time, it is but right to say that Lord Salisbury and his colleagues never appear to have committed the Cabinet to Lord Carnarvon’s bargain with Mr. Parnell. Indeed, they even seem to have told Lord Carnarvon that, personally, they disapproved of his Irish policy. They, however, still retained his services as a Cabinet Minister, though Lord Salisbury had discovered that he was a Home Ruler.

Mr. Parnell issued a manifesto fiercely attacking the Liberal Party, and ordering all Irishmen to give their votes to the Government. The Liberals, on the other hand, appealed to the people for such a majority as would enable Mr. Gladstone to defy Mr. Parnell. The elections began on the 24th of November. They showed that in the boroughs the Liberal Party was shattered, though it had, through Mr. Chamberlain’s doctrine of ransom, won in the counties all along the line.[234] The new House of Commons it was found would contain 333 Liberals, 251 Tories, and 86 Parnellites, not one Liberal having been returned by Ireland. In the circumstances it was hopeless for the Ministry to attempt a settlement of the Irish Question on Lord Carnarvon’s lines.[235] They had, even with the Irish vote, only a majority of four. But then, if they dared to make concessions to Mr. Parnell, this majority of four would inevitably be converted, by the secession of the Ulster Tories, into a minority of eight. The Liberal Leaders, on the other hand, were in an equally difficult predicament. They, too, could not hope to govern the country save by the Irish vote. It was quite possible, moreover, for the Government, by conceding Home Rule, to detach from the Liberals a sufficient number of Radicals to more than counterbalance the Ulster secession. In these circumstances Mr. Gladstone towards the end of the year let it be known indirectly that he was in favour of giving Ireland Home Rule.

Ere Parliament opened on the 12th of January, 1886, the resignation of Lord Carnarvon indicated that Ministers had dissolved the connection between the Tory Party and the Parnellites. The House of Commons elected Mr. Peel as its Speaker, and when Mr. Bradlaugh appeared he took the Oath in the ordinary manner. The Queen’s Speech was read on the 21st of January by her Majesty in person, but its references to Ireland were vague, though they foreshadowed the introduction of a Coercion Bill. In the preliminary skirmishes Mr. Gladstone threw out overtures to the Irish Party which Mr. Parnell and Mr. Sexton hailed with effusive delight. The Government, on the other hand, announced the introduction of a Coercion Bill, which would also suppress the National League. The Liberals and Parnellites now promptly united to support an Amendment moved by Mr. Jesse Collings, which censured the Ministry for refusing to bring in a Labourers’ Allotments Bill, and the Coalition defeated the Government by a vote of 329 to 258. The opposition of Lord Hartington and Mr. Goschen to the Amendment showed that the Whigs at least were afraid of Mr. Gladstone’s return to office, after his vague and ambiguous promises of concessions to the Home Rulers. Lord Salisbury resigned, and when Mr. Gladstone formed his Ministry it was seen that many of his old colleagues, such as Lord Hartington, Mr. Goschen, Mr. Forster, Lord Selborne, Lord Northbrook, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Cowper, and Sir Henry James, had refused to join him. The appointment of Lord Aberdeen as Irish Viceroy was not very significant. But that Mr. John Morley, the most pronounced of all the English advocates of Home Rule, should have been appointed as Chief Secretary for Ireland meant much. Lord Rosebery was made Foreign Secretary, and Mr. Campbell-Bannerman Secretary at War. Both were known to be Home Rulers. Lord Spencer, disgusted at his betrayal by the Tory Party, had also become a convert to Home Rule principles, and was appointed President of the Council. Oddly enough Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Trevelyan, who were both pledged against Home Rule, had joined the Ministry. But they had been induced to do so on the assurance that, in the meantime, the policy of the Cabinet would be merely to examine and inquire into the Home Rule question.

During the spring nothing was done in the matter. The House of Commons refused to press Ministers upon their Irish policy, evidently deeming it reasonable that Mr. Gladstone should have time to work it out. Lord Hartington and the Whigs, however, adopted an attitude of independence which showed that Mr. Gladstone had failed to heal the divisions in the Liberal Party. Hence, when it was announced that Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Trevelyan, on being informed of Mr. Gladstone’s proposals for the reform of the Irish Government, had resigned office, it was evident that the fate of the Ministry was sealed.

On the 8th of April Mr. Gladstone expounded the scheme, which set up in Ireland an Executive Government, responsible to an Irish Legislature, capable of dealing with all matters save the Crown, the Army and Navy, Foreign and Colonial Policy, Trade, Navigation, Currency, Imperial taxation, and the endowment of churches. The Lord-Lieutenant, on the advice of his Ministers, was to have a power of veto. The Irish Legislative Body was to consist of two Orders, voting apart, the first to comprise representative peers and members elected under a £25 property qualification, and the second members chosen by household suffrage. In the event of collision between the two Orders, the measure in dispute was to be held in suspense for three years, or until a dissolution. The Irish contribution to the Imperial Revenue was fixed at £3,242,000. On the 13th of April Mr. Gladstone introduced a Land Bill as a complementary measure to his Home Rule Bill. He proposed to give every Irish landlord the option of selling his land to an authority appointed by the Irish Government, who would sell it to the tenants, the purchase-money being advanced through the Imperial Exchequer by an issue of Consols. These advances the tenant was to repay in instalments spread over forty-nine years, and twenty years’ purchase was taken as the basis of the price. The amount to be advanced at first under the Bill was to be £50,000,000, but in the original draft it was nearly £300,000,000. The repayments were to be secured on the Irish Revenue, and paid to a British Receiver-General in Ireland. The opponents of the whole scheme contended that it gave no effective guarantee for Imperial unity, that it put the loyal minority entirely in the power of the disloyal majority in Ireland, that it multiplied the risks of collision between Ireland and the Imperial Government, that, in point of fact, it was virtually a Bill to repeal the Union. Mr. Gladstone’s chief argument in favour of the scheme was that the English democracy could no longer be trusted to hold Ireland down by repressive legislation, and that Home Rule was the only alternative to Coercion. Moreover, as Coercion bred Irish disloyalty, it weakened the Imperial power of England in the world. Though the Orangemen of Ulster plainly declared that they would plunge into civil war rather than submit to a Home Rule Government in Ireland, Mr. Parnell accepted the Bill in principle as an adequate concession of the Nationalist claims.

The weak points in the scheme were soon detected. One of these was the exclusion of the Irish Members from the House of Commons--the only proposal of Mr. Gladstone’s which had been hailed with applause from both sides of the House when he expounded his Bill. The absence of the Irish Members from the House of Commons was taken as a visible sign, not only that the Parliamentary Union between Ireland and the United Kingdom was dissolved, but that the control and authority of the Imperial Parliament over Ireland was impaired. The Purchase scheme alarmed the taxpayers, who objected to pledge the credit of England in order to buy the Irish landlords out of Ireland. It is now known that, if Mr. Gladstone had made concessions by promising to reconsider the question of retaining the Irish Members at Westminster, and to remodel the Bill accordingly, the Second Reading would have been carried. A meeting of Liberals was indeed held at the Foreign Office to hear what concessions Mr. Gladstone would make. Subsequently, in explaining his speech at this meeting to the House of Commons, his phraseology seemed to the wavering Liberals so illusory that they refused to support him. Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain accordingly organised their followers (about fifty in number) into a separate Parliamentary party, describing themselves as Liberal Unionists, and at their first meeting a letter was read from Mr. Bright casting in his lot with theirs. They bound themselves to vote against the Second Reading of Mr. Gladstone’s Bills.

(_From a Photograph by H. H. H. Cameron, Mortimer Street, W._)]

On the 7th of June the Home Rule Bill was rejected by a majority of 341 against 311. Mr. Gladstone obtained from the Queen permission to dissolve Parliament and appeal to the country. The Ministerial candidates, at the General Election which followed, relied mainly upon the contention that Home Rule was the only alternative to Coercion, and the Tories and Liberal Unionists, on the other hand, pledged themselves to govern Ireland without Coercion, and still retain the Parliamentary Union unbroken. The Liberal Unionists and the Tories formed an alliance for electoral purposes similar to that which Lord Malmesbury, in 1857, had vainly attempted to cement between the Peelites and the Derbyites. The Irish vote failed to balance the votes of the Liberal Unionists, and when the new House of Commons was elected it was found to consist of 316 Tories, 76 Liberal Unionists, 192 Liberal Home Rulers, and 86 Parnellites. Mr. Gladstone resigned, and Lord Salisbury formed a Ministry, having unsuccessfully endeavoured to persuade Lord Hartington and the Liberal Unionist leaders to join a Coalition Cabinet. The services rendered by Lord Randolph Churchill in rousing the fanaticism of Ulster were rewarded with the Chancellorship of the Exchequer and the leadership of the House of Commons. Lord Iddesleigh became Foreign Secretary; Mr. Matthews, Q.C., who had carried one of the seats in Birmingham, became Home Secretary; Sir M. Hicks-Beach was deposed from the leadership of the Commons, and relegated to his old post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. As soon as Lord Salisbury assumed office he found that a fresh agrarian crisis was menacing Ireland. The Irish farmers were demanding a revision even of the fixed judicial rents in terms of the recent fall in prices. There seemed no end to the difficulty, and, in a pessimist mood, Lord Salisbury, at the opening of the Session, declared that he was now in favour of getting rid of the dual-ownership of land in Ireland. In fact, he accepted the principle of a great Land-Purchase scheme, but he also broached the theory that, if judicial rents were cut down, the State should recoup the landlords for their losses.

After the debates on the Address were over Mr. Parnell brought in a Relief Bill, allowing tenants who deposited half their rent in Court to claim from the Court a revision of their rents. The Bill was rejected by the combined vote of the Tories and Liberal Unionists. Mr. Dillon now advised the Irish tenants to refuse to pay more rent than they could afford. His suggestion was that they should combine on each estate, offer the landlord a fair rent, and if this was refused, deposit it in the hands of trustees, and use it to resist eviction. This was known as “The Plan of Campaign” against rack-renters, and it was widely adopted all over Ireland. Sir M. Hicks-Beach and Sir Redvers Buller, who had been sent to organise the police in Kerry, apparently discovered that there was much truth in Mr. Parnell’s contention, that the fall in prices had made judicial rents impossible. The Irish Government, at all events, now put pressure on rack-renting landlords, in order to prevent them from demanding full rents and from evicting if they were not paid. But Ministers declined to legislate for Ireland till the following Session, though they appointed Commissions to amass materials for legislation. Parliament was prorogued on the 25th of September.

During the autumn the schism between the Liberal Unionists and the Liberals widened. At Leeds the Liberals pledged themselves anew to adhere to Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule policy. On the 7th of December Lord Hartington’s followers held a Conference in London, at which further arrangements were made for completing their organisation as a distinct Party pledged to maintain the Union. As the year closed various rumours of dissensions in the Cabinet were promulgated. There had been a good deal of agitation against the wasteful extravagance and inefficiency of the spending departments of the State, and Lord Randolph Churchill was called on by public opinion to redeem the pledges in favour of economy which he gave at Blackpool on the 24th of January, 1884. In attempting to do this he found himself thwarted by his colleagues, and, to the astonishment of his Party, he resigned office. He was succeeded by Mr. Goschen, who entered the Cabinet, with Lord Hartington’s sanction, as a Liberal Unionist, thereby illustrating afresh the closeness of the coalition between the Dissentient Liberals and the Tories.

During the year there was some agitation raised as to the sad condition of the unemployed in London. The Tories had taken advantage of this to revive the Protectionist Movement under pretence of advocating Fair Trade at meetings held in Trafalgar Square. On the 8th of February, however, the Socialists followed suit, and organised a demonstration in favour of their panacea for poverty. The police arrangements were somewhat defective. A crowd of roughs and thieves who hovered round the fringe of the mob evaded the constabulary, rushed along Pall Mall and Piccadilly smashing the windows of the clubs and sacking the principal jewellers’ shops. The agitation proceeded, and a counter demonstration to the Lord Mayor’s Show on the 9th of November was even planned. It was, however, prohibited by the police.

As the celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee was now within measurable distance, already there were great manifestations of popular feeling in favour of Imperial Unity. In this year the Imperial Federation League was founded for the purpose of drawing closer the bonds between the Colonies and the Mother Country. The Indian and Colonial Exhibition at South Kensington was organised by the Prince of Wales on a scale of sumptuous splendour which attracted visitors to London from all parts of the globe. It was opened with great pomp and ceremony by the Queen in person on the 4th of May, in the presence of the more prominent members of the Royal Family, the great dignitaries in Church and State, and the representatives of India and the Colonies. This amazing display of the vast resources of the Empire soon degenerated into an evening lounge. But it brought together a vast number of able men from every quarter of the world interested in the problem of Imperial Federation, and the Prince of Wales dexterously seized the opportunity thus created for him to establish a centre and rallying-point for British Imperialism. He started the movement that ended in the foundation of the Imperial Institute. The Queen visited the Exhibition several times, paying special attention to the Indian Court, and conversing graciously with the Indian workmen.

On the 11th of May her Majesty visited Liverpool to open the International Exhibition in that city. On the 13th she visited the Seamen’s Orphanage, and afterwards sailed down the Mersey, contrasting the scene with that on which she gazed when, in 1851, she made a similar excursion with the Prince Consort. Then the Queen was the guest of Lord Sefton; on this occasion she was the guest of the city of Liverpool, the Municipality having fitted up Newsham House for her accommodation. On the 15th she returned to Windsor, the effect of her visit having been to vastly increase her popularity in the North of England. On the 26th of May the Court proceeded to Balmoral. During the absence of the Court in Scotland the Prince and Princess of Wales stimulated the gaiety of the London Season. It was remarkable for the prevalence of Sunday re-unions, the patronage of which by the Heir Apparent soon made them fashionable even among serious Church-going people. On the 30th of June the Queen opened the Royal Holloway College for Women at Egham, an institution for the higher education of women founded by the vendor of the famous ointment and pills. As women had been among the chief buyers both of the ointment and the pills, there was a touch of irony in Mr. Holloway’s bequest that recalled the legacy left by Swift to found a madhouse for the use of the Irish people. On the 2nd of July her Majesty reviewed 10,000 troops at Aldershot, and on the 5th entertained a large number of the Indian and Colonial visitors at Windsor. She attended the brilliant garden-party given by the Prince and Princess of Wales at Marlborough House on the 10th; and on the 20th, accompanied by the Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg, left Windsor for Osborne, where she was soon absorbed in the business attendant on a change of Ministry. On the 17th of August her Majesty left Osborne for Edinburgh, where, on the 18th, she visited the International Exhibition. On the 20th the Queen went to Balmoral, where she remained till the 4th of November. On the 5th she visited the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch at Dalkeith Palace, and inspected the Hospital for Incurables at Edinburgh, returning to Windsor on the 6th. On the 22nd her Majesty received at Windsor, with much ceremony, their Imperial Highnesses the Prince and Princess Komatsu of Japan, and on the 29th the Court removed to Osborne.