HOME RULE 



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HOME RULE 



principles. Even Gladstone, however, was not 

 powerful enough to secure the passage of a 

 Home Rule bill in 1886, and in 1893, when he 

 tried a second time, he was again defeated. 

 Under the Conservative ministries of Lord 

 Salisbury and Arthur J. Balfour considerable 

 progress was made in improving economic con- 

 ditions in Ireland and in granting some degree 

 of local self-government, with the result that 

 the Home Rule agitation almost disappeared, 

 and it was not until after the Boer War that 

 the movement gained new strength. 



Under the leadership of John Dillon and 

 John Redmond, the Irish Nationalists, how- 

 ever, remained a powerful minority in Parlia- 



HOW IRELAND DIVIDES ON HOME RULE 

 The white section of the map shows where the 

 Home-Rulers live, and the shaded section shows 

 the Ulster counties against Home Rule. The 

 Irish World claims that 17 of Ulster's 33 repre- 

 sentatives in the House of Commons are for 

 Home Rule. Five of her nine counties favor it by 

 a large majority. The shaded section has a 

 Unionist majority, but also a strong Home Rule 

 minority, represented in 1917 by five members in 

 the House of Commons. 



ment. The general elections -of 1910 again 

 gave them the balance of power, and their 

 support was frankly given to the Liberal min- 

 istry because the latter agreed to introduce a 

 bill for Home Rule. Accordingly, in 1912 and 

 1913 Premier Asquith introduced such a bill; 

 both times it passed the House of Commons, 

 but was defeated in the House of Lords. By 

 the Parliament Act of 1911, however, any bill 

 which has been passed in three successive ses- 



sions of the House of Commons becomes a 

 law without the assent of the House of Lords. 

 The Home Rule bill was introduced for the 

 third time on March 5, 1914, and was passed on 

 May 25. 



The progress of the bill through Parliament 

 was marked by great bitterness in that body, 

 by .demonstrations of approval in Dublin, and 

 by equally enthusiastic demonstrations of 

 opposition in Ulster. The Ulstermen, led by 

 Sir Edward Carson (which see), formed a vol- 

 unteer militia, and prepared for armed rebel- 

 lion against any attempts to enforce the law. 

 So bitter and determined were the Ulstermen 

 that some compromise became necessary, and 

 in June, 1914, the ministry introduced an 

 amending bill, which provided that each county 

 in Ulster might vote on the question whether 

 or not it should be excluded for a period of 

 six years from the operation of the law. Be- 

 fore this amendment could be passed, Great 

 Britain was drawn into the War of the Nations, 

 and Parliament passed a bill postponing the 

 inauguration of Home Rule until the end of 

 the war. In May, 1916, England's most active 

 enemies among the Irish in Dublin fomented 

 a revolution, said to have been encouraged by 

 Germany, and attempted the establishment of 

 a republic. In four days over 200 people were 

 killed, but the heads of the insurrection were 

 caught and shot as traitors and the trouble 

 gradually subsided. Again, in March, 1917, 

 hostility to the government developed; the 

 Irish Nationalists attacked the policy of Pre- 

 mier Lloyd George, hoping to force a general 

 election which might further their cause. The 

 Premier desired that the various parts of Ire- 

 land should exercise their choice as to Home 

 Rule, but this was repugnant to the Nation- 

 alists. 



Municipal Home Rule. In American politics 

 the phrase home rule is associated with the 

 movement to secure complete self-government 

 by cities, without interference by the state. 

 Until recently it was the theory and practice 

 in the United States that the city was created 

 by authority of the state. A city almost 

 invariably had to go to the state legislature 

 for every change in its method of government 

 and frequently even to increase or reduce the 

 salaries of city officials. This was a condition 

 which existed without good reason, for a city 

 and a rural district have almost no problems 

 in common. The men who are familiar with 

 the former's needs should not be compelled to 

 ask favors of the latter. 



