Home Rule Part 13

Such are the proposals of the 1912 Home Rule Bill. They appear to present an ingenious compromise between the complete delegation of customs and excise and the complete centralisation. There are very serious objections to the complete separation of these duties. One is that separation of customs has been accepted everywhere as vitally inconsistent with the Federal idea. No State of the American Union has separate customs. Even Bavaria, a State of the German Empire which possesses, as we have seen, a separate army, post office, and national railways, has no separate customs. Such a plan could, therefore, hardly fit in with Federalism, as at present realised in any part of the world. The second objection would be the very grave offence given to the free trade sentiment of Great Britain, and the very grave injury to trade between Britain and Ireland, if we were to hand over to Ireland the right of placing taxes on English goods. Under such circ.u.mstances it would certainly be impossible to persuade the British public to grant a bonus to Ireland in order to give her the power of taxing British goods. That would clearly be too great a strain upon the Christian sentiment even of John Bull.

Parnell, it is well known, felt a strong temptation to make a demand for separate customs. But he always put it aside as impolitic, probably on this very ground; and the rise of the Tariff Reform movement since his death has certainly not weakened those considerations, because it has led to a corresponding rise of free trade feeling among a large part of the British public on this side of the Channel.

It is quite clear that the Government's compromise on customs and excise, ingenious as it is, will be subject to very close and shrewd criticism. But the first duty of Home Rulers, both in Great Britain and Ireland, is to avoid the carefully-baited trap of a quarrel on points of detail. That is the obvious game of the enemies of Home Rule. The proper policy of every true Home Ruler is to preserve through all the vicissitudes of those financial discussions a sane and steady perspective, well knowing that, after all, finance is not really the true heart of this problem.

THE MIGHTY HOPE

We must not reduce a great human problem to a squabble over pocket-money. We must in this, too, as in the religious and political sides of the question, have faith in the result of freedom. We must believe, as we have every right to believe, that liberty will bring to Ireland a new power over her resources, and a new skill in using them--that her magnificent harbours will no longer be silent, or her rivers empty; that her factories will hum once more with a new life and industry; that the gra.s.s will cease to grow in her streets and on her wharves, and that the rich and strong will cease to fly from her sh.o.r.es. All this must be taken into account in any reasonable calculation of the future. It is just as foolish to err from lack of faith as it is to blunder from excess of credulity.

For here, indeed, we have an excellent precedent to give us hope. It was the common evidence of all experts at the time that Ireland grew greatly richer under the twenty years of Grattan's Parliament. The future Irish Parliament will, just as it will be more representative, so supply Ireland with a machine even more efficient than Grattan's Parliament. If so, we have every reason to suppose that within twenty years we shall have a richer Ireland, with a far greater taxable capacity. For can we doubt that the alchemy of liberty will here, too, even in this sordid realm of finance, repeat its ancient power?

FOOTNOTES:

[72] For these proposals see Appendix D.

[73] For instance, in the absence of Irish Customs the estimates of true Irish revenue can only be approximate. On the expenditure side, too, there are grave matters of consideration. For instance, should the vote for Irish Constabulary be regarded as a local or Imperial charge?

Or Irish judges, or even Irish poverty? It was the definite opinion of the Financial Relations Commission that until Home Rule was set up there could be no possible way of distinguis.h.i.+ng between local and Imperial expenditure in Ireland.

[74] There are 4,397 civil servants in Ireland with incomes over 160 a year, as against 944 for Scotland. (Inland Revenue Report, 1909-1910.)

[75] The members of this Commission were:--The Rt. Hon. Hugh Childers, Lord Farrer, Lord Welby, the Rt. Hon. O'Conor Don, Sir Robt. Hamilton, Sir Thomas Sutherland, K.C.M.G., Sir David Barbour, K.C.S.I., the Hon.

Ed. Blake, M.P., Bertram W. Currie, Esq., W.A. Hunter, Esq., M.P., C.E.

Martin, Esq., J.E. Redmond, Esq., M.P., Thomas s.e.xton, Esq., M.P., and added in June, 1894, Henry F. Slattery, Esq., and G.W. Wolff, Esq., M.P.

[76] C. 8262, price 1s. 10d.

[77] Lord MacDonnell has estimated the total over-payment of Ireland in the nineteenth century as exceeding 300,000,000.

[78] Out of a total tax-revenue of 24,000,000 from 1906-9 Ireland paid no less than 18,000,000 in Customs and Excise. (Inland Revenue Report.)

[79] See the Government Outline of Financial Provisions, Appendix A.

HOME RULE

APPENDICES

A. THE HOME RULE BILL OF 1912.

B. THE SHRINKAGE OF IRELAND.

C. THE ACT OF UNION.

D. THE HOME RULE BILLS OF 1886 AND 1893.

E. THE IRISH BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

F. THE REDUCTION IN IRISH PAUPERISM.

G. THE LAND LAW (IRELAND) ACT, 1881.

H. THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOARD.

J. IRISH Ca.n.a.lS AND RAILWAYS.

K. HOME RULE PARLIAMENTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

APPENDIX A

THE HOME RULE BILL OF 1912.

A BILL TO

[Sidenote: A.D. 1912.]

AMEND the PROVISION for the Government of Ireland. BE it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament a.s.sembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:--

_Legislative Authority._

[Sidenote: Establishment of Irish Parliament.]

1.--(1) On and after the appointed day there shall be in Ireland an Irish Parliament consisting of His Majesty the King and two Houses, namely, the Irish Senate and the Irish House of Commons.

(2) Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish Parliament or anything contained in this Act, the supreme power and authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall remain unaffected and undiminished over all persons, matters, and things within His Majesty's dominions.

[Sidenote: Legislative powers of Irish Parliament.]

2. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Irish Parliament shall have power to make laws for the peace, order, and government of Ireland with the following limitations, namely, that they shall not have power to make laws except in respect of matters exclusively relating to Ireland or some part thereof, and (without prejudice to that general limitation) that they shall not have power to make laws in respect of the following matters in particular, or any of them, namely--

(1) The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency; or the Lord Lieutenant except as respects the exercise of his executive power in relation to Irish services as defined for the purposes of this Act; or

(2) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state of war; or the regulation of the conduct of any portion of His Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities between Foreign States with which His Majesty is at peace, in relation to those hostilities; or

(3) The navy, the army, the territorial force, or any other naval or military force, or the defence of the realm, or any other naval or military matter; or

(4) Treaties, or any relations, with Foreign States, or relations with other parts of His Majesty's dominions, or offences connected with any such treaties or relations, or procedure connected with the extradition of criminals under any treaty, or the return of fugitive offenders from or to any part of His Majesty's dominions; or