1912, the Home Rule Bill was introduced into the House of Commons.1 Although objections to the financial provisions of the Bill were pointed out and the advantage Ireland would have over Wales and Scotland, the chief criticism was directed against the injustice to Ulster, and motions were made to exclude the four northeast counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, and Londonderry, which are prevailingly Protestant. In August, it was announced that the men of Ulster would pledge themselves to a solemn covenant for united resistance to Home Rule and for refusal to accept it if it were set up. A series of great demonstrations culminated with the signing of the Covenant at Belfast, 28 September. On 12 July, 1913, there was another demonstration attended by 150,000 Ulstermen and a resolution was adopted to resist Home Rule by force of arms if necessary; the enrollment of the Ulster volunteers began, and, by December, the numbers had reached 100,000. All through July and August Sir Edward Carson went through Ulster making speeches, declaring that, in the event of the Home Rule Bill passing, Ulster would set up a provincial government and refuse to pay taxes to the Parliament at Dublin. In December the Government prohibited the importation of arms; but it was a question whether the proclamation was legal, and certainly it was not effective in preventing gun running. Mr. Winston Churchill suggested a possible scheme of federation, but the Cabinet were under pledge to the Nationalists to carry a Home Rule Bill before considering any form of modification; the only alternatives seemed to be to take a referendum which the Unionists desired, or to run the risk of civil war if the Home Rule Bill were pressed to a final passage.

The Passage of the Home Rule Bill (1914). On 10 February, 1914, Parliament met. Among the chief features of its program

1

1 It provided for a Parliament in Ireland consisting of a Senate of 40 members and a House of Commons of 164 members. Ulster, which was to have 59 members, was to be safeguarded by the provision that the Irish Parliament could not make any law "either directly or indirectly to establish or endow any religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof, or give any preference, privilege or advantage or impose any disability or disadvantage on account of religious belief or religious or ecclesiastical status." Furthermore, the Irish Parliament could not legislate on peace or war, the navy, army, foreign relations, trade outside Ireland, coinage or legal tender. The executive was to remain vested in the Sovereign or his representative, and 42 members from Ireland were to be elected to the British House of Commons.

II

2 The Province of Ulster consists of 9 counties, or 11 including Belfast and Derry City. It returns 17 Home-Rulers and 16 anti-Home-Rulers, and, if the large and wealthy city of Belfast were excluded, the Roman Catholics would be in the majority. They have a strong minority in the four Protestant counties. The problem of exclusion is complicated by the Roman Catholic minority in the four counties and the Protestants scattered through the rest of Ireland.

were: (1) a Bill for Irish Home Rule which had already passed in two successive sessions and been vetoed by the Lords; (2) a Bill for the disestablishment of the Welsh Church which had had the same history; (3) a Plural Voting Bill; and (4) reconstruction of the House of Lords. The Home Rule Bill continued as the center of interest. The Unionist Opposition, realizing that they could not defeat the measure in the House of Commons, determined to force a dissolution, to secure an appeal to the country by a referendum or to intimidate the Liberals by threats of civil war in Ulster. On 2 March appeared a Declaration signed by twenty English subjects headed by Earl Roberts, to the effect that "the claim of the Government to carry the Home Rule Bill into law without submitting it to the judgment of the nation, is contrary to the spirit of our Constutition," and that, if it was so passed, they would hold themselves "justified in taking or supporting any action that may be effective to prevent it being put into operation, and more particularly to prevent the armed forces of the Crown being used to deprive the people of Ulster of their rights as citizens of the United Kingdom." Five days later, Mr. Asquith laid a compromise scheme before Parliament, providing that, before the Bill became operative, the parliamentary electors in each of the nine counties of Ulster might decide by vote whether their county should be excluded from the arrangement for a term of six years. Mr. Bonar Law, leader of the Conservatives, said that if the Government insisted on the excluded counties coming in at the end of six years the Unionists could not accept the plan. He again urged dissolution and submission of the whole question to the electors, though he later intimated that he would agree to leave the question of the term of the exclusion to a future Parliament. Then came a crisis. On 20 March the Government issued an order that was interpreted by several of the army officers as a step toward the coercion of Ulster, and they forthwith resigned. Colonel Seely, the Secretary for War, at once assured them that they had misunderstood the order, which was purely a precautionary measure, and that the Government had no intention. of using the suppression of disorder to crush political opposition to Home Rule, whereupon they withdrew their resignation. The Radical Press at once raised the cry of "army dictation." Colonel Seely, taking the blame on himself, offered his resignation; Mr. Asquith refused to accept it, but repudiated the guarantee, and the Army Council framed an order to the effect that, henceforth, no officer was to ask for or receive any assurances "as to orders which he may be required to fulfill." This led to the resignation of various officers including Sir John (now Viscount) French, the Chief of the General

Staff. Colonel Seely offered his resignation a second time, which the Prime Minister now accepted, assuming the Secretaryship for War himself. Sir Edward Grey threw out a hint that within six years some form of federation might be devised, while John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Nationalists, who had previously insisted that there should be no watering down" of the Home Rule Bill, declared that he was ready to exert himself to placate Ulster and to do all possible to reach an honorable settlement. On 25 May the Home Rule Bill passed the House of Commons by a majority of 77; it was signed by the King, 17 September, but, in consequence of the Great War in which Great Britain had in the meantime been plunged, it never went into operation.

FOR ADDITIONAL READING

R. H. Gretton, A Modern History of the English People, 1880–1910 (2 vols., 1913), rather journalistic and Liberal in sympathy, but clear and vivid. Slater, The Making of Modern England, is helpful. Among the biographies relating to this period are: H. Spender, Herbert Henry Asquith (1915): W. M. Short, The Mind of Arthur James Balfour (1918); Frank Dilnot, Lloyd George, The Man and his Story (1917); St. J. G. Ervine, Sir Edward Carson and the Ulster Movement (1915), and W. B. Wells, The Life of John Redmond (1919). The International Year Book, The Annual Register, The Statesman's Year Book, and Whitaker's Almanack are very useful. See also Dictionary of National Biography, Supplements I and II. For Ireland, see chs. LIV and LX, for foreign affairs ch. LVIII.

CHAPTER LVII

A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN

Greater Britain. - One of the most significant features of the nineteenth century has been the growth of the British Empire, which, in 1911, included an area of 13,153,712 square miles and 434,286,650 inhabitants nearly one quarter of the land surface of the globe and slightly more than a quarter of the world's population. The Imperial dominion comprises territories in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania, territories that may be grouped under two main heads, depending upon their form of government.

1. The Self

governing Colonies Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa which, although nominally under Governor-Generals sent out by the King, are really governed by Ministers responsible to elected assemblies. While the Crown has the power of veto, it is ordinarily exercised only when a Dominion measure is ultra vires, or in conflict with some Imperial law or interest, and Dominion assemblies do, without interference, control their own military forces, impose taxes and duties, and even forbid the immigration of certain classes of British subjects. 2. Crown Colonies. These may be subdivided into three classes. In the first, there is an approximation to responsible government, for they have a legislative assembly, wholly or partly elected, in addition to an executive council appointed by the Crown or the Governor of the colony. The Bahamas, Jamaica, Mauritius, and Malta fall within this group. In the next category, both the legislative and the executive councils are appointed. Ceylon and the Straits Settlements have this form of government. Finally, there are possessions, like Gibraltar and St. Helena, where both the executive and legislative powers are vested in the Governor alone. Outside the categories of Self-governing and Crown colonies are various possessions or quasi-possessions. India is a dependency under a special form of government to be described in another con

1 Aside from the veto, the only control exercised by the Home Government is in foreign policy and certain judicial appeals.

nection. Then there are Protectorates for example, British East Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, and, since 1914, Egypt, which retain their native government under British supervision and control. Finally, there are spheres of influence, where other foreign countries agree not to acquire territory or ascendancy, either by annexation or treaty. The Growth of the Empire. With the exception of Canada and portions of India, the greater part of the present Empire was only acquired or settled during the last century. For a generation and more after the loss of the American possessions and the publication of the Wealth of Nations, the view persisted that the monopoly of the Colonial market and trade should be in the hands of British manufacturers and merchants, though the Colonies were favored in various ways at the expense of other countries - by differential duties and by the exclusive right of supplying the Mother Country with goods not produced by the native British. Aside from the political evil of alienating the subjects beyond the seas, this system was attended with two economic disadvantages: it fostered the growth of industries more naturally adapted to other countries, and raised the cost for the consumer. Some attacked the system; then, after its exclusiveness had been modified by Huskisson in the early twenties, and particularly after the troubles with Jamaica in the succeeding decade,' others came to question the worth of foreign possessions at all. Until well past the middle of the century, leading statesmen of the laissez-faire school were insistent on the desirability of limiting "our Colonial empire," while, on one occasion, in a burst of impatience, even Disraeli

who later did so much to popularize Imperialism - referred to the Colonies as "millstones about our necks." Meantime, however, the development of steam navigation began to alter the situation. Emigration was stimulated, and the value of the Colonies came to be realized as a refuge for redundant population, as an outlet for superfluous capital, as a source of food and raw materials, and as a market for manufactured goods. The real beginning of the movement dates from 1819, when the Government appropriated £50,000 "to send a few hundred laborers to Cape Town." About 5000 ultimately went. Many would have preferred the United States or Canada; but the Government insisted on South Africa, partly because it did not want to send its subjects to a foreign country and partly because South Africa lay on the trade route to the East and because its climate was less rigorous than the Canadian. Later, although it advanced further small sums to emigrants, the Government ceased to dictate. As a result, the majority went to North America; moreover, about the

1 See above pp. 621, 663.