Chapter X: Conclusion

I have thus traced the gradual progress towards autonomy contemplated by the Act. It justifies the conclusion that the Government favours autonomy, but seeks to achieve that end gradually and tentatively. With the path thus marked out, it lies with the nation to pursue steadily and resolvedly the great end of reconciliation with Ireland.

It is impossible to consider Home Rule in its financial aspect, without casting a look backward and comparing the result which would have followed the grant of Home Rule in 1886 with the result which has followed its refusal. In the former case Ireland would have been reconciled long ago. She would have been mistress in her own house, and it would have been her interest as well as her policy so to conduct her administration as to insure the success of her autonomy. She would have had full opportunity for reorganising her establishments on a reasonable scale, substituting for an expensive military police an ordinary police, with a saving, as Mr. Gladstone once pointed out, of £900,000 a year. She would have been able to maintain the reasonable contribution to Imperial expenditure which it is her duty as an integral part of the United Kingdom to provide. It would have been worth the while of Great Britain to make a great sacrifice at the outset to attain this solution of the Irish problem, and long before now the solution would have been complete.

The Conservative Party refused Home Rule. They have held power during sixteen out of the twenty-five years elapsed in the interval, and they have had full opportunity to try their alternative policy. That policy has not indeed been the twenty years of “resolute Government,” a euphemism for coercion, advocated by Lord Salisbury. They have tried a policy of bribes and doles, with the result that the Imperial contribution of over £2,000,000 made in 1885 has been dissipated, and that Irish local expenditure alone shows now a deficit of £1,500,000 and a steadily increasing deficit. In short, a total burthen of between £3,500,000 and £4,000,000 has been inflicted on the British taxpayer. The Leader of the Conservatives has now announced with splendid audacity that if the “partnership” continues, if the Conservatives are allowed still to mis-rule Ireland, and to maintain the baleful spirit of ascendancy, they will endeavour to develop in every possible way the resources of Ireland. That is to say, the policy of bribes and doles is to continue at the expense of the British taxpayer. Let the British taxpayer note that, and let him note also that the Conservative Party will find the ways and means for these bribes and doles not by taxes on the wealthy, but by taxes on the food of the people. Ireland will accept the doles; but she will not be satisfied. She will still clamour at our gates for Home Rule, as she has clamoured since 1886, and she will get Home Rule, but the burthen on the British taxpayer will be then how much greater than now?

Appendix

This Report of the Primrose Committee, the Treasury outline of financial provisions, and the speech of the Postmaster-General on the introduction of the Bill offer some vague estimates, perhaps more properly guesses, of Irish finance, one of which, Old-age Pensions, extends to twenty years. It may be interesting to throw these figures together, not (God forbid) as an estimate, but as illustrating opinion prevalent among the experts engaged in the preparation of the Bill.

Income:
Estimate for the year 1912-1913 10,839,000
_Add_ free gift of £500,000 to be reduced in nine years to 200,000
The Postmaster-General’s Estimate of £200,000 normal yearly increase
of revenue in twenty years 4,000,000
Income in twenty years (round figures) 15,000,000

Expenditure:
Sum transferred to Ireland 1912-1913 5,462,000
Post Office, 1912-1913 1,600,000
Old-age pensions (Treasury Paper) 2,800,000
Land purchase (£761,000 in 1912-1913 increased by £450,000) 1,211,000
Insurance £191,500 in 1912-1913 increased by £300,000 491,500
(Say) 11,564,500-11,600,000

Balance available for Constabulary, collection of Revenue, Imperial contribution and Irish services.

It must be recollected that the Irish Government has to provide for increase of Irish services beyond £5,462,000 by taxation.

VI.—The Judiciary, The Police, And The Maintenance Of Law And Order. BY THOMAS F. MOLONY, K.C., HIS MAJESTY’S SECOND SERJEANT-AT-LAW, CROWN COUNSEL FOR DUBLIN.

(1) _The Judiciary_

The Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland is at present constituted as follows: The Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, two Lords Justices of Appeal, two Judges of the Chancery Division and six Puisne Judges of the King’s Bench Division. On the occurrence of the next vacancy in the office of Lord Chief Baron the office is to be abolished and a Puisne Judge appointed instead. Since the year 1897, six judgeships have been abolished in Ireland, and a large saving thereby effected. The duties formerly discharged by the Probate and Matrimonial Judge, the Admiralty Judge and the two Bankruptcy Judges have been transferred to the King’s Bench Division and the number of the Puisne Judges of the King’s Bench Division has been reduced by two.(107) With every desire for economy it is believed that the Supreme Court Bench cannot be further reduced without interfering with the efficiency of the public service. The Lord Chancellor of Ireland is appointed by having the Great Seal delivered to him by the Crown, and all the other Judges are appointed by His Majesty by Letters Patent. There are also in Ireland five Recorders and sixteen County Court Judges, who are appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant. The County Court Judges in Ireland are also Chairmen of the Quarter Sessions of their respective counties. No Judge of the Supreme Court or of the County Court can be removed from his office except upon the address of both Houses of Parliament. Under the Home Rule Bill the position of existing judges is to remain unchanged, and future judges are to be appointed by the Irish Executive, and can only be removed by a joint address of both Houses of the Irish Parliament which gives them the same independence that the existing Judges now enjoy. Under the Bill of 1893, the Imperial Executive was to have the appointment of Judges for six years after the passing of the Act, but there seems to be no justification for the suspensory period and it has been wisely dropped from the present measure. The Irish Executive will not be “irresponsible and inexperienced” as Mr. J. H. Campbell says in “Against Home Rule—The Case for the Union” (page 54), but will be composed of men who for many years have served in the Imperial Parliament, and are well qualified from their ability and experience to at once take up the reins of Government.

(2) _The Police_

There are two distinct police forces in Ireland. The Dublin Metropolitan force(108) has jurisdiction over the Dublin Metropolitan District, which includes the whole of the City of Dublin and portion of the County. It consists of 2 Commissioners, 7 Superintendents, 25 Inspectors, 187 Sergeants and 1,060 Constables, and costs £154,181 per annum.(109) Portion of the cost is met by a police tax of 8d. in the £ on the rateable value of the district, but a substantial balance—in the present year amounting to £96,466—is borne by the Treasury. The Royal Irish Constabulary(110) has jurisdiction over the rest of Ireland, including Belfast. It consists of 1 Inspector-General, 1 Deputy Inspector-General, 3 Assistant Inspectors-General, 37 County Inspectors, 195 District Inspectors, 235 Head Constables, 2,068 Sergeants and 8,182 Constables. It costs £1,413,069 per annum, the whole of which is borne by the Treasury.(111) There is a fundamental difference between the two forces. The Dublin force has been founded on the model of the London Metropolitan Police, and is essentially a civilian force. It is admirably trained in police duties, and has always discharged its duty to the satisfaction of the citizens. The Royal Irish Constabulary is drilled and trained in the use of the revolver, rifle, and sword in the same manner as are the armed forces of the Crown, and is in every essential a military organization. There is a reserve force always kept at the Depôt in the Phœnix Park which at a moment’s notice is available for service in any part of Ireland. The Bill proposes that the control of the Dublin Metropolitan Police be transferred immediately to the Irish Executive, but that the Royal Irish Constabulary shall remain under Imperial control for six years. An Irish Executive which could not control the police force of its own metropolis would be in a ridiculous position, and no believer in self-government can object to the immediate transfer of the Dublin force to the Irish Executive, and indeed, many think that the same course ought to be adopted with regard to the Royal Irish Constabulary. It has for a long period, been a constant source of complaint that the numbers of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and its consequent cost, are entirely out of proportion to the wants of the country. It was created in a time of agrarian disturbance which has long since passed away, and now that Ireland has been for many years far more free from serious crime than either England or Scotland, it is absurd that in Ireland it should cost 6s. 8d. per head of the population for police, while an equally efficient force can be provided, in England for 3s. 4d. per head, and in Scotland for 2s. 5d. per head. In Ireland there is one policeman for every 365 inhabitants, while in England and Wales there is only one for every 727 inhabitants.(112)

(3) _Law and Order_

The maintenance of law and order is the first duty of a Government, and if it could be proved that the proposed measure of Home Rule for Ireland would lead to crime and disorder, the cause would lose many of its more prominent adherents. To those, however, who are interested in the administration of the law—and particularly the criminal law—it is obvious that Home Rule will have the effect of still further diminishing crime, and will also enable considerable saving to be effected in the sums now spent on law charges and criminal prosecutions. At the present time, and indeed for many years past, Ireland has been practically crimeless. The Judges at the Spring Assizes, 1912, were unanimous in describing all the counties in Ireland, except two, as peaceable and orderly, and free from serious crime. In two counties—Fermanagh and Carlow—there were no cases whatever for trial, and it was only in Galway and Clare that dissatisfaction was expressed with the present state of affairs, and even in those counties the affected districts comprised a very limited area. The following table taken from the report of the General Prisons Board for Ireland for 1910, shows how the Government have been able to close prisons in consequence of the diminution of crime and reduction in the number of prisoners:

“The number of prisons and bridewells,” says the report, “under
the control of the General Prisons Board on the 1st April,
1878—the date when the local prisons and bridewells were
transferred to the Board—and now is as follows:—

1878. 1910.
4 Convict 1 Convict
Prisons. Prison.
38 Local 1 Joint Convict
Prisons. and Local
Prison.
95 Bridewells. 15 Local
Prisons.
6 Bridewells.”

The Unionist Associations of Ireland have recently published a handbook called “The Home Rule ‘Nutshell’ Examined by an Irish Unionist” in which it is stated (p. 69) “The only crime that is complained of in Ireland is the organized crime due to the inspired agitation of the United Irish League. Without that Ireland would be _comparatively crimeless_.” No proof has ever been given that the United Irish League has taken any part in the organization of crime, and beyond all doubt in many instances it has been instrumental in preventing it. It cannot, of course, be denied that in certain parts of the country instances of boycotting and cattle driving occur, but such occurrences will certainly not increase, and are more likely to cease altogether when Ireland is governed by an Irish Executive chosen by the people, and responsible to the people for the good government of the country. The Unionist complaint is, not so much that an Irish Executive will not be able to enforce the law, but that it will be unwilling to do so in certain cases, and will exercise a dispensing power as to whether the decrees of the Courts shall or shall not, in particular cases, be enforced.(113) If it were within the power of the Executive to prevent the police or military from being called upon to protect the civil officers of the law in the discharge of their duties, it would, no doubt, be possible to paralyze the administration of justice, but it is well settled that a sheriff, or anybody charged with the execution of a writ of a competent Court, has the right to require the assistance of constables, and indeed of any of the liege subjects of the Crown, and that the Executive has no power to prevent such assistance being given. This was laid down by the Common Law Judges in England in the well-known case of “_Miller_ v. _Knox_”(114) and still more emphatically by the Lord Chief Baron (Palles) of the Exchequer in Ireland in the case of the Woodford prisoners at the Connaught Winter Assizes of 1886.(115) The Lord Chief Baron said:

“I desire it to be thoroughly understood that the execution of the
decrees of the judiciary in this country does not depend—as it
does not, I believe, in any civilised country—upon the will of the
Executive who, for the moment, may happen to be in office. Into
the execution of our writ we cannot allow any question of party
politics to enter. If the law be wrong, let the law be altered by
the Legislature, and the judges will, at the moment, carry out the
law as altered. They cannot look beyond the law. They cannot, in
the administration of that law, contemplate alterations at a
future time. Their sworn duty is to give to him who asks it that
which he is entitled to by law. It is not competent to them, or to
any other person, to go behind the law and to ask whether, in his
own opinion, or in the opinion of others, the law is just or
unjust. With them the only consideration must be that is the law.
They are bound to pronounce the law. From that pronouncement there
is an appeal to the highest court in the realm. But when judgment
is once given—the judgment of a court of law, acting within the
scope of its jurisdiction—it is not competent to anyone in this
kingdom, I care not how high he may be, to say that a writ
regularly issued on foot of that judgment shall not be executed,
or to prevent those who by law are bound to aid in its execution
from giving that aid and assistance which the Constitution
requires.”

In 1893 the County Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary in County Kerry, by the direction of the Executive, refused the assistance of the Constabulary to the Sheriff of the County, when he desired to execute certain writs of the superior Courts in the night time. The Sheriff thereupon applied to the Queen’s Bench Division for an attachment against the County Inspector, and the Court unanimously made the order.(116) The Lord Chief Justice (Lord O’Brien) in giving judgment said (p. 238):

“I wish to point out that, according to the opinion of all the
judges who were called in to advise the House of Lords in the case
of _Miller_ v. _Knox_,(117) refusal, unjustified by the occasion,
as, in my opinion, the refusal in the present case was, to protect
the sheriff in the execution of his duty, when protection is
sought by him, in the honest exercise of his discretion, to enable
him to discharge his duty in the execution of civil process, is
punishable, by indictment, by criminal information, and, as was
established in _Miller_ v. _Knox_ by the summary process of this
court. The official, be he Under Secretary or Chief Secretary (I
do not, of course, refer to his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant),
who directed Mr. Waters not to comply with the sheriff’s demand
for protection, has rendered himself amenable to the criminal law,
is liable to be tried by indictment, to have a criminal
information exhibited in this court against him, or to be attached
by the summary process of this court.”

There can be no doubt, therefore, that the Irish Executive will be bound to give assistance and protection to sheriffs or other lawful officers executing any legal process of a competent Court, and if such assistance is not given the Courts will be able to assert their supremacy in the various ways pointed out by the Lord Chief Justice.

A great deal of capital has recently been made in the Unionist Press on account of the promulgation of the _Motu Proprio_ “_Quantavis Diligentia_.” It has been asserted that this decree applies to Ireland and will necessarily embarrass catholic officials in the discharge of their public duty. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has, however, fully explained the meaning of the decree, and has shown that it does not apply to any country where there has prevailed against it, as there has long prevailed against it in Ireland, a custom invested with the conditions required by the Canon Law.(118) He further says (p. 36):

“The excommunication of the clause _Cogentes_, is not decreed
against all who oblige lay judges to compel the attendance of
ecclesiastics in their courts. It is decreed against those who do
this in violation of the Canon Law. There must first, then, be a
canonical offence. It is to that offence that the clause
_Cogentes_ attaches the penalty of excommunication. But, there
being no canonical offence in the discharge of their duty by our
Catholic Judges, and Catholic Law Officers of the Crown, our
Catholic Police Magistrates and Catholic Policemen, and our laity
in general—who were so ludicrously paraded before the public a few
weeks ago as the unhappy victims of the _Motu Proprio_—there is in
their case no offence to which an ecclesiastical penalty can be
attached, and so, no ecclesiastical penalty is incurred.”

Nothing is to be feared in Ireland from the _Motu Proprio_ “_Quantavis Diligentia_,” and there is really no necessity for the restrictions contained in Section 3 of the Bill, although no person will object to their insertion as a matter of precaution. The Unionists profess to be alarmed at the prospects of Ireland under Home Rule; but when their fears are analyzed they are seen to be illusory, and when their arguments are considered they are found to amount to a single assertion that a great measure of reform is not to be passed, and the will of the people is not to prevail, because a small minority is irrevocably opposed to any measure which will give to the Irish people power to manage their own affairs.

When Unionists complain of an occasional case of boycotting or cattle-driving—and it is almost all they have to complain of now—they should read Lord Durham’s report on Canada in 1838, and they will see how favourably Ireland, even in its darkest hour, contrasts with the Canada of that day. Lord Durham adopted the courageous policy of trusting the people, and his policy brought peace, prosperity and contentment to that country. Mr. Asquith’s great measure is an embodiment of the same policy, and will be attended with the same results, and indeed the situation could not be better summed up than it was by Mr. John Redmond in the House of Commons three years ago.(119)

“As it happened in Canada, so it will happen in Ireland—when you
throw responsibility on the shoulders of the people, and not till
then. Then respect for law will arise in Ireland; then confidence
in the administration of justice will arise; and when that day
comes, I am perfectly convinced that Ireland will become the most
peaceable and most law-abiding, as she is to-day the most
crimeless, part of your Empire.”

VII.—The Present Position Of The Irish Land Question. BY JONATHAN PIM, K.C.

INTRODUCTORY

The following chapter contains an account of the change which has been wrought by legislation in the position of the Irish tenant farmer and labourer during the last forty years. The change is large—the benefit and improvement equally great. The task is, however, not much more than half completed. The holdings purchased, or agreed to be purchased, by tenants under the Purchase Acts amount to about 378,000. There remain to be purchased about 227,000. The Congested Districts Board have done good work in the congested districts, but what has been done has hardly gone beyond the experimental stage. The experiments have, to a large extent, succeeded, but their very success enlarges the vista of work to be done in the future. The work of the District Councils in providing better dwellings for agricultural labourers is perhaps more nearly completed. Nevertheless, much still remains to be done.

Under the second section of the proposed Bill “to amend the provision for the Government of Ireland,” the “general subject matter of the Acts relating to Land Purchase in Ireland” is reserved. This would seem to include the Land Purchase work of the Congested Districts Board, but it is doubtful if it would include any part of the Labourers’ Acts. Taken in conjunction with the whole scheme of the Bill, and especially with its financial provisions, the wisdom of this reservation is evident. That work which has gone so far and has been so beneficial in its operation should be stopped, or even hampered, in its development, would be an injury which, even the undoubted benefits a Home Government will bring with it would scarcely out-weigh. No doubt Ireland, if thrown altogether on her own resources, could, after a few years’ time, continue the work of land purchase and could finally complete it, but the interregnum would be most mischievous. All those who had not purchased would be dissatisfied, and the Irish Government would be subjected to a pressure which they would find it hard to resist. The danger would be two-fold. On the one hand the Government might attempt to raise money at an excessive rate of interest and would thereby embarrass themselves financially; on the other hand an attempt might be made to force the Government to pass a “Compulsory Purchase Act” and to fix the price of purchase at a much lower figure than could be obtained under a system of free agreement. The Imperial Government itself runs no risk in reserving Land Purchase; on the contrary, it will run less risk under Home Rule than it does now. At the present moment, there is due to the Treasury a sum of about £71,000,000, money advanced for the purchase of land. The amount of the annual instalments payable on this sum is about £2,226,785, and on the 31st of March, 1912, there was due for arrears the sum of £44,156.(120) The purchase annuitants have up to the present discharged their obligations in a most faithful and honest manner. There is not the slightest reason to think that they will act differently in the future, but if, as some political prophets seem to consider possible, they do, in the future, strike against the payment of the instalments they themselves will be the principal sufferers, for under the proposed Bill the Treasury may, out of the sum to be transferred to the Irish Government, before making the transfer, deduct each year the amount then due on account of purchase annuities. This, if it happened to any large extent, would render fresh taxation necessary—a contingency which would certainly not be desired by the Irish Government. The proposed Bill does not contain any specific provision giving power to the Irish administration, in the case of local repudiation, to make the counties in which repudiation had taken place repay to the Irish Treasury such sums as they had been forced to pay to the Imperial Treasury. If such a provision were inserted, it would make the position of the Treasury extremely secure.

When Mr. Gladstone introduced his first Home Rule Bill in 1886, the land war was at its height. The country was, on the one hand, full of intense and unreasoning bitterness and resentment, and, on the other hand, of unreasoning terror of the consequences of the change of administration. There are many persons, to-day convinced believers in the policy of Home Rule, who do not regret that the Bill of 1886 failed to pass. Things were not very much better in 1893, although, owing to the Land Act of 1881, the land war was slowly losing its fierceness. Since then a slow, but no less deep and far-reaching, change has passed over the tenant farmers of Ireland. The bitterness and discontent which rightly possessed them during the whole of the last century have at last given way to more kindly and contented feelings. This is due in a great measure to the large remedial measures passed first by Mr. Gladstone’s Government of 1880 to 1895, and afterwards by the Conservative Administration between 1896 and 1905; but it is perhaps even more due to the feeling which has slowly grown up among the agricultural population that, at last, they are being listened to, and that their wants are being attended to, imperfectly, no doubt, but still with sympathy and with a desire to do what can be done to meet them. Whatever dangers may attend the granting of Home Rule now, they will not be the dangers which terrified and controlled public opinion in 1886 and 1893. Almost all the confusion, trouble, and crime of last century was due to the vicious absurdity of the Irish land code and to the miserable condition of the Irish tenant farmers produced thereby. That is now changed and Ireland has become a quiet and comparatively crimeless country. The danger which many foresee under a Home Government is of a different kind. It is rather that the overwhelming peasant vote may render the administration unduly parsimonious and so unwilling to place any additional burden on the owners of land that a kind of political stagnation may arise therefrom. Ireland cannot, of course, be kept permanently out of the great movements of European thought, but, for the moment, it may be safely alleged that in no part of Europe is property safer.