Thoughts for a convention : memorandum on the state of Ireland

OflSTllUT MILL, MA 02167

Dfi 960 . R7g5x 1917

Russell, George William,
1867-1935.

ThouqhtB for a convention

DA
960
.R795x
1917

CHESmiT HILL. MA 02167

THOUGHTS FOR
A CONVENTION

Memorandum on the
State of Ireland By A.E.

MAUNSEL AND COMPANY LTD.
DUBLIN AND LONDON 1917

Price One Penny

SECOND EDITION

Primed by George Roberts, Dublin

MAR 2 1 1986

THOUGHTS FOR A CONVENTION

I. There are moments in history when by the urgency
of circumstance everyone in a country is drawn from
normal pursuits to consider the aflfairs of the nation.
The merchant is turned from his warehouse, the bookman
from his books, the farmer from his fields, because they
realize that the very foundations of the Society, under
whose shelter they were able to carry on their avocation,
are being shaken, and they can no longer be voiceless, or
leave it to deputies, unadvised by them, to arrange national
destinies. We are all accustomed to endure the annoyances
and irritations caused by legislation which is not agreeable
to us, and solace ourselves by remembering that the things
which really matter are not affected. But when the
destiny of a nation, the principles by which life is to be
guided are at stake, all are on a level, are equally affected
and are bound to give expression to their opinions. Ireland
is in one of these moments of history. Circumstances
with which we are all familiar and the fever in which the
world exists have infected it, and it is like molten metal
the skilled political artificer might pour into a desirable
mould. But if it is not handled rightly, if any factor is
ignored, there may be an explosion which would bring on
us a fate as tragic as anything in our past history. Irishmen
can no longer afford to remain aloof from each other, or to
address each other distantly and defiantly from press or
platform, but must strive to understand each other truly,
and to give due weight to each others' opinions, and, if
possible arrive at a compromise, a balancing of their diver-
sities, which may save our country from anarchy and
chaos for generations to come.

3

2. An agreement about Irish Government must be an
agreement, not between two but three Irish parties first
of all, and afterwards with Great Britain. The Premier
of a coalition Cabinet has declared that there is no measure
of self government which Great Britain would not assent
to being set up in Ireland, if Irishmen themselves could
but come to an agreement. Before such a compromise
between Irish parties is possible there must be a clear
understanding of the ideals of these parties, as they are
understood by themselves, and not as they are presented
in party controversy by special pleaders whose object too
often is to pervert or discredit the principles and actions
of opponents, a thing which is easy to do because all
parties, even the noblest, have followers who do them
disservice by ignorant advocacy or excited action. If we
are to unite Ireland we can only do so by recognising
what truly are the principles each party stands for, and will
not forsake, and for which if necessary they will risk life.
True understanding is to see ideals as they are held by
men between themselves and Heaven ; and in this mood
I will try, first of all, to understand the position of
Unionists, Sinn Feiners and Constitutional Nationalists
as they have been explained to me by the best minds
among them, those who have induced others of their
countrymen to accept those ideals. When this is done
we will see if compromise, a balancing of diversities be
not possible in an Irish State where all that is essential
in these varied ideals may be harmonized and retained.

3. I will take first of all the position of Unionists. They
are, many of them, the descendants of settlers who, by
their entrance into Ireland broke up the Gaelic uniformity
and introduced the speech, the thoughts, characteristic of
another race. While they have grown to love their
country as much as any of Gaelic origin, and their peculi-
arities have been modified by centuries of life in Ireland and
by intermarriage, so that they are much more akin to their

4

fellow-countrymen in mind and manner than they are to
any other people, they still retain habits, beliefs and tra-
ditions from which they will not part. They form a class
economically powerful. They have openness and energy
of character, great organizing power and a mastery over
materials, all qualities invaluable in an Irish State. In
North-East Ulster where they are most homogeneous they
conduct the affairs of their cities with great efficiency,
carrying on an international trade not only with Great
Britain but with the rest of the world. They have made
these industries famous. They believe that their prosperity
is in large measure due to their acceptance of the Union,
that it would be lessened if they threw in their lot with
the other Ireland and accepted its ideals, that business
which now goes to their shipyards and factories would
cease if they were absorbed in a self-go\erning Ireland
whose spokesmen had an unfortunate habit of nagging
tlieir neighbours and of conveying the impression that
they are inspire<l by race hatred. They believe that an
Jrish legislature would be controlled by a majority, re-
presentatives mainly of small farmers, men who had no
knowledge of affiairs, or of the peculiar needs of Ulster
industry, or the intricacy of the problems involved in
carrying on an international trade ; that the religious
ideas of the majority would be so favoured in education
and government that the favouritism would amount to
religious oppression. They are also convinced that no
small country in the present state of the world can really
be independent, that such only exist by sufferance of their
mighty neighbours, and must be subservient in trade
policy and military policy to retain even a nominal
freedom ; and that an independent Ireland would by its
position be a focus for the intrigues of powers hostile to
Great Britain, and if it achieved independence Great
Britain in self protection would be forced to conquer it
again. They consider that security for industry and

5

freedom for the individual can best be preserved in Ireland
by the maintenance of the Union, and that the world
spirit is with the great empires.

4. The second political group may be described as the
spiritual inheritors of the more ancient race in Ireland.
They regard the preservation of their nationality as a
sacred charge, themselves as a conquered people owing no
allegiance to the dominant race. They cannot be called
traitors to it because neither they nor their predecessors
have ever admitted the right of another people to govern
them against their will. They are inspired by an ancient
history, a literature stretching beyond the Christian era, a
national culture and distinct national ideals which they
desire to manifest in a civilization which shall not be an
echo or imitation of any other. While they do not
depreciate the worth of English culture or its political
system they are as angry at its being imposed on them as
a young man with a passion for art would be if his guardian
insisted on his adopting another profession and denied him
any chance of manifesting his own genius. Few hatreds
equal those caused by the denial or obstruction of national
aptitudes. Many of those who fought in the last Irish
insurrection were fighters not merely for a political change
but were rather desperate and despairing champions of a
culture which they held was being stifled from infancy in
Irish children in the schools of the nation. They believe
that the national genius cannot manifest itself in a civilization
and is not allowed to manifest itself while the Union
persists. They wish Ireland to be as much itself as Japan,
and as free to make its own choice of political principles,
its culture and social order, and to develop its industries
unfettered by the trade policy of their neighbours. Their
mood is unconquerable, and while often overcome it has
emerged again and again in Irish history, and it has
perhaps more adherents to-day than at any period since
the Act of Union, and this has been helped on by the

6

incarnation of the Gaelic spirit in modern Anglo-Irish
literature, and a host of brilliant poets, dramatists and
prose writers who have won international recognition, and
have increased the dignity of spirit and the self-respect of
the followers of this tradition. They assert that the
Union kills the soul of the people ; that empires do not
permit the intensive cultivation of human life : that they
destroy the richness and variety of existence by the extinc-
tion of peculiar and unique gifts, and the substitution
therefor of a culture which has its value mainly for the
people who created it, but is as alien to our race as the
mood of the scientist is to the artist or poet.

5. The third group occupies a middle position between
those who desire the perfecting of the Union and those
whose claim is for complete independence : and because
they occupy a middle position, and have taken coloring from
the extremes between which they exist they have been ex-
posed to the charge of insincerity, which is unjust so far
as the best minds among them are concerned. They
have aimed at a middle course, not going far enough on
one side or another to secure the confidence of the
extremists. They have sought to maintain the connexion
with the empire, and at the same time to acquire an Irish
control over administration and legislation. They have
been more practical than ideal, and to their credit must
be placed the organizing of the movements which secured
most of the reforms in Ireland since the Union, such as
religious equality, the acts securing to farmers fair rents
and fixity of tenure, the wise and salutary measures making
possible the transfer of land from landlord to tenant,
facilities for education at popular universities, the labourers'
acts and many others. They are a practical party taking
what they could get, and because they could show osten-
sible results they have had a greater following in Ireland
than any other party. This is natural because the average
man in all countries is a realist. But this reliance on

7

material results to secure support moRnt that thejr must
always show results, or the minds of their countrymerv
Tcered to those ultimates and fundamentals which await
settlement here as they do in all civilizations. As in the-
nace with Atalanta the golden apples had to be thrown in
order to win th« race. The intellect of Ireland is now
fixed on fundamentals, and the compromise this middle
party is able to offer does not make provision for the ideals^
of either of the extremists, and indeed meets little favour
anywhere is a country excited by recent events in world
history, where revolutionary changes are expected and a
settlement far more in accord with fundamental principles.
6. It is possible that many of the rank and file of these
parties will not at first agree with the portraits painted of
their opponents, and that is because the special pleaders of
the press, who in Ireland are, as a rule, allowed little free-
dom to state private convictions, have come to regard
themselves as barristers paid to conduct a case, and have
acquired the habit of isolating particular events, the hasty
speech or violent action of individuals in localities, and of
exhibiting these as indicating the whole character of the
party attacked. They misrepresent Irrshmen to each other.
The Ulster advocates of the Union, for example, are accus-
tomed to hear from their advisers that the favourite
employment of Irish farmers in the three southern provinces
is cattle driving, if not worse. They are told that Protest-
ants in these provinces live in fear of their lives, whereps
anybody who has knowledge of the true conditions know
that, so far from being riotous and unbusinesslike, the
farmers in these provinces have developed a network of
rural associations, dairies, bacon factories, agricultural and
poultry societies, etc., doing their business efficicntl)'-,
applying the teachings of science in their factories, compet-
ing in quality of ©utput with the very best of the same class
of society in Ulster and obtaining as good prices in the
same market. As a matter of fact this method of organiza-

8

tioH now largely adopted by Ulster farmers was initiated in
the South. With regard to the charge of intolerance I do
not believe it. Here, as in all other countries, there are
unfortunate souls obsessed by dark powers, whose human
malig-nity takes the form of religious hatreds, but I believe,
and th« thousands of Irish Protestants in the Southern
Counties will affirm it as true, that they have nothing to
complain of in this respect. I am sure that in this matter
■of religious tolerance these provinces can stand favourable
comparison with any country in the world where there are
varieties of religions, even wi'i« Great Britain. I would
plead with my Ulster compatriots n-ot to gaee too long or
too credulously into that distorting mirror held up to them,
nor be tempted to take individual action as representative
of the mass. How would they like to have the depth or
quality of spiritual life in their great city represented by the
scrawlings and revilings about the head of the Catholic
Church to be found occasionally on the blank walls of
Belfast. If the same method of distortion by selection of
facts was carried out there is not a single city or nation
which could not be made to appear baser than Sodom or
Gomorrah and as deserving of their fate.

7. The Ulster character is better appreciated by Southern
Ireland, and there is little reason to vindicate it against any
charges except the slander that Ulster Unionists do not
regard themselves as Irishmen, and that they have no love
for their own country. Their position is that they are
Unionists, not merely because it is for the good of Great
Britain, but because they hold it to be for the good of
Ireland, and it is the Irish argument weighs with them, and
if they were convinced it would be better for Ireland to be
self-governed they would throw in their lot with the rest
of Ireland, which would accept them gladly and greet them
-as a prodigal son who had retwrned, having made, unlike
most prodigal sons, a fortune, and well able to be the wisest
adviser in family affairs. It is necessary to preface what I

9

have to say by way of argument or remonstrance to Irish
parties by words making it clear that I write without preju-
dice against any party, and that I do not in the least
underestimate their good qualities or the weight to be
attached to their opinions and ideals. It is the traditional
Irish way, which we have too often forgotten, to notice the
good in the opponent before battling with what is evil. Sa
Maeve, the ancient Queen of Connacht, looking over the
walls of her city of Cruachan at the Ulster foemen, said of
them, " Noble and regal is their appearance," and her own
followers said, " Noble and regal are those of whom you
speak." When we lost the old Irish culture we lost the
tradition of courtesy to each other which lessens the diffi-
culties of life and makes it possible to conduct controversy
without creating bitter memories.

8. I desire first to argue with Irish Unionists whether it
is accurate to say of them, as it would appear to be from
their spokesmen, that the principle of nationality cannot be
recognized by them or allowed to take root in the common-
wealth of dominions which form the Empire. Must one
culture only exist ? Must all citizens have their minds
poured into the same mould, and varieties of gifts and'
cultural traditions be extinguished ? What would India
with its myriad races say to that .theory ? What would
Canada enclosing in its dominion and cherishing a French
Canadian nation say ? Unionists have by every means in
their power discouraged the study of the national literature
of Ireland though it is one of the most ancient in Europe,
though the scholars of France and Germany have founded
journals for its study, and its beauty is being recognized by
all who have read it. It contains the race memory of
Ireland, its imaginations and thoughts for two thousand
years. Must that be obliterated ? Must national character
be sterilised of all taint of its peculiar beauty ? Must
Ireland have no character of its own but be servilely
imitative of its neighbour in all things and be nothing of

10

itself? It is objected that the study of Irish history, Irish
literature and the national culture generates hostility to the
Empire. Is that a true psychological analysis ? Is it not
true in all human happenings that if people are denied what
is right and natural they will instantly assume an attitude
of hostility to the power which denies ? The hostility is
not inherent in the subject but is evoked by the denial. I
put it to my Unionist compatriots that the ideal is to aim
at a diversity of culture, and the greatest freedom, richness
and variety of thought. The more this richness and varietj
prevail in a nation the less likelihood is there of the tyranny
of one culture over the rest. We should aim in Ireland at
that freedom of the ancient Athenians, who, as Pericles
■said, listened gladly to the opinions of others and did not
turn sour faces on those who disagreed with them. A culture
which is allowed essential freedom to develop will soon
perish if it does not in itself contain the elements of human
worth which make for immortality. The world has to its
sorrow many instances of freak religions which were perse-
cuted and so by natural opposition were perpetuated and
hardened in belief. We should allow the greatest freedom
in respect of cultural developments in Ireland so that the
best may triumph by reason of superior beauty and not
because the police are relied upon to maintain one culture
in a dominant position.

9. I have also an argument to address to the extremists
•whose claim, uttered lately with more openness and
vehemence, is for the complete independence of the whole
of Ireland, who cry out against partition, who will not have
a square mile of Irish soil subject to foreign rule. That
implies they desire the inclusion of Ulster and the inhabi-
tants of Ulster in their Irish State. I tell them frankly
that if they expect Ulster to throw its lot in with a self-
governing Ireland they must remain within the common-
wealth of dominions which constitute the Empire, be
prepared loyally, once Ireland has complete control over its

II

internal affairs, to accept the status ot a dominion and the
responsibilities of that wider union. If they will not accept
that status as the Boers did, they will never draw that
important and powerful Irish party into an Irish State
except by force, and do they think there is any possibility
of that ? It is extremely doubtful whether if the world
stood aloof, and allowed Irishmen to figlit out their own
quarrels among themselves, that the fighters for complete
independence could conquer a community so numerous, sc^
determined, so wealthy, so much more capable of providing
for themselves the plentiful munitions by which alone one
army can hope to conquer another. In South Africa men
who had fiercer traditional hostilities than Irishmen of
different parties here have had, who belonged to different:
races, who had a few years before been engaged in a racial
war, were great enough to rise above these past antagonisms,
to make an agreement and abide faithfully by it. Is the-
same magnanimity not possible in Ireland ? I say to my
countrymen who cry out for the complete separation of
Ireland from the Empire that they will not in this genera-
tion bring with them the most powerful and wealthy, if not
the most numerous, party in their country. Complete
control of Irish affairs is a possibility, and I suggest to the
extremists that the status of a self-governing dominion
inside a federation of dominions is a proposal which, if other
safeguards for minority interests are incorporated, would
attract Unionist attention. But if these men who depend
so much in their economic enterprises upon a friendly
relation with their largest customers are to be allured into a
self-governing Ireland there must be acceptance of the
Empire as an essential condition. The Boers found it not
impossible to accept this status for the sake of a United
South Africa. Are our Irish Boers not prepared to make a
compromise and abide by it loyally for the sake of a united
Ireland ?

10. A remonstrance must also be addressed to the middle

12

party in that it has made no real effort to understand and
conciliate the feelings of Irish Unionists. They have
indeed made promises, no doubt sincerely, but they have
undone the effect of all they said by encouraging of recent
years the growth of sectarian organizations with political
aims and have relied on these as on a party machine. It
may be said that in Ulster a similar organization, sectarian
with political objects, has long existed, and that this justified
a counter organization. Both in my opinion arc unjusti-
fiable and evil, but the backing of such an organization was
specially foolish in the case of the majority, whose main
object ought to be to allure the minority into the same
political fold. The baser elements in society, the intriguers,
the job seekers, and all who would acquire by influence
what they cannot attain by merit, flock into such bodies,
and create a sinister impression as to their objects and
deliberations. If we are to have national concord among
Irishmen religion must be left to the Churches whose duty
it is to promote it, and be dissevered from party politics,
and it should be regarded as contrary to national idealism
to organize men of one religion into secret societies with
political or economic aims. So shall be left to Caesar the
realm which is Caesar's, and it shall not appear part of the
politics of eternity that Michael's sister's son obtains a
particular post beginning at thirty shillings a week, I am
not certain that it should not be an essential condition
of any Irish settlement that all such sectarian organizations
should be disbanded in so far as their objects are political,
and remain solely as friendly societies. It is useless assuring
a minority already suspicious, of the tolerance it may expect
from the majority, if the party machine of the majority is
sectarian and semi-secret, if no one of the religion of the
minority can join it. I believe in spite of the recent growth
of sectarian societies that it has affected but little the gene-
ral tolerant spirit in Ireland, and where evils have appeared
they have speedily resulted in the break up of the organi-

13

zation in the locality. Irishmen individually as a rule
are much nobler in spirit than the political organizations
they belong to.

11. It is necessary to speak with the utmost frankness
and not to slur over any real difficulty in the way of a
settlement. Irish parties must rise above themselves if they
are to bring about an Irish unity. They appear on the
surface unreconcilable, but that, in my opinion, is because
the spokesmen of parties are under the illusion that they
should never indicate in public that they might possibly
abate one jot of the claims of their party. A crowd or
organization is often more extreme than its individual mem-
bers. I have spoken to Unionists and Sinn Feiners and
iind them as reasonable in private as they are unreasonable
in public. I am convinced that an immense relief would
be felt by all Irishmen if a real settlement of the Irish
question could be arrived at, a compromise which would
reconcile them to living under one government, and would
at the same time enable us to live at peace with our neigh-
bours. The suggestions which follow were the result of
discussions between a group of Unionists, Nationalists and
Sinn Feiners, and as they found it possible to agree upon a
compromise it is hoped that the policy which harmonized
their diversities may help to bring about a similar result in
Ireland.

12. I may now turn to consider the Anglo-Irish problem
and to make specific suggestions for its solution and the
character of the government to be established in Ireland. The
factors are triple. There is first the desire many centuries
old of Irish nationalists for self-government and the political
unity of the people : secondly, there is the problem of the
Unionists who require that the self-governing Ireland they
enter shall be friendly to the imperial connection, and that
their religious and economic interests shall be safeguarded
by real and not merely by verbal guarantees : and, thirdly,
there is the position of Great Britain which requires, reason-

14

ably enough, that any self-governing dominion set up
alongside it shall be friendly to the empire. In this matter
Great Britain has priority of claim to consideration, for it
has first proposed a solution, the Home Rule Act which is
on the Statute Book, though later variants of that have
been outlined because of the attitude of Unionists in
North-East Ulster, variants which suggest the partition of
Ireland, the elimination of six counties from the area con-
trolled by the Irish government. This Act, or the variants
of it offered to Ireland, is the British contribution to the
settlement of the Anglo-Irish problem.

13. If it is believed that this scheme, or any diminutive
of it, will settle the Anglo-Irish problem, British states-
men and people who trust them are only preparing for
themselves bitter disappointment. I believe that nothing
less than complete self-government has ever been the
object of Irish Nationalism. However ready certain
sections have been to accept instalments, no Irish political
leader ever had authority to pledge his countrymen to
accept a half measure as a final settlement of the Irish
claim. The Home Rule Act, if put into operation to-
morrow, even if Ulster were cajoled or coerced into
accepting it, would not be regarded by Irish Nationalists
as a final settlement, no matter what may be said at
Westminster. Nowhere in Ireland has it been accepted
as final. Received without enthusiasm at first, every year
which has passed since the Bill was introduced has seen
the system of self-government formulated there subjected
to more acute and hostile criticism : and I believe it would
be perfectly accurate to say that its passing to-morrow
would only be the preliminary for another agitation, made
fiercer by the unrest of the world, where revolutions and
the upsetting of dynasties are in the air, and where the
claims of nationalities no more ancient than the Irish,
like the Poles, the Finns, and the Arabs, to political
freedom are admitted by the spokesmen of the great

15

powers, Great Britain included, or are already conceded.
If any partition of Ireland is contemplated this will in-
tensify the bitterness now existing. I believe it is to the
interest of Great Britain to settle the Anglo-Irish dispute.
It has been countered in many of its policies in America
and the Colonies by the vengeful feelings of Irish exiles.
There may yet come a time when the refusal of the Irish
mouse to gnaw at a net spread about the lion may bring
about the downfall of the empire. It cannot be to the
interest of Great Britain to have on its flank some millions
of people who, whenever Great Britain is engaged in a
war which threatens its existence, feel a thrill running
through them, as prisoners do hearing the guns sounding
closer of an army which comes, as they think, to liberate
them. Nations denied essential freedom ever feel like
that when the power which dominates them is itself in
peril. Who can doubt but for the creation of Dominion
Government in South Africa that the present war would
have found the Boers thirsty for revenge, and the Home
iGovernmcnt incapable of dealing with a distant people
who taxed its resources but a few years previous. I have
no doubt that if Ireland was granted the essential freedom
and wholeness in its political life it desires, its mood also
would be turned. I have no feelings of race hatred, no
exultation in thought of the downfall of any race ; but as
a close observer of the mood of millions in Ireland, I feel
certain that if their claim is not met they will brood and
scheme and wait to strike a blow ; though the dream may
be banded on from them to their children and their children 's
children, yet they will hope, sometime, to give the last
vengeful thrust of enmity at the stricken heart of the
empire.

14. Any measure which is not a settlement, which
leaves Ireland still actively discontented is a waste of effort,
and the sooner English statesmen realize the futility of half
Pleasures the better. A man who claims a debt he

16

believes is due to kim, who is offered half of it in payment,
is not going to be conciliated or be one iota more friendly,
if he knows that the other is able to pay the full amount
and it could be yielded without detriment to the donor.
Ireland will never be content with a system of self-
government which lessens its representation in the Imperial
Parliament, and still retains for that Parliament control
over all-important matters like taxation and trade policy.
Whoever controls these controls the character of an Irish
civilization, and the demand of Ireland is not merely for
administrative powers, but the power to fashion its own
national policy, and to build up a civilization of its own
with an economic character in keeping by self-devised
and self-checked efforts. To misunderstand this is to
suppose there is no such thing as national idealism, and
that a people will accept substitutes for the principle of
nationality, whereas the past history of the world and
present circumstance in Europe is evidence that nothing
is more unconquerable and immortal than national feeWng,
and that it emerges from centuries of alien government,
and is ready at any time to flare out in insurrection. At
no period in Irish history was that sentiment more self-
conscious than it is to-day.

15. Nationalist Ireland requires that the Home Rule
Act should be radically changed to give Ireland unfettered
control over taxation, customs, excise and trade policy.
These powers are at present denied, and if the Act were
in operation, Irish people instead of trying to make the
best of it, would begin at once to use whatever powers
they had as a lever to gain the desired control, and this
would lead to fresh antagonism and a prolonged struggle
between the two countries, and in this last effort Irish
Nationalists would have the support of that wealthy class
now Unionist in the three southern provinces, and also in
Ulster if it were included, for they would then desire as
much as Nationalists that, while they live in a self-

17

governing Ireland, the powers of the Irish Government
should be such as would enable it to build up Irish industries
by an Irish trade policy, and to impose taxation in a way
to suit Irish conditions. As the object of British consent
to Irish self-government is to dispose of Irish antagonism
nothing is to be gained by passing measures which will
not dispose of it. The practically unanimous claim of
Nationalists as exhibited in the press in Ireland is for the
status and powers of economic control possessed by the
self-governing dominions. By this alone will the causes
of friction between the two nations be removed, and a
real solidarity of interest based on a federal union for joint
defence of the freedom and well-being of the federated
communities be possible and I have no doubt it would
take place. I do not believe that hatreds remain for long
among people when the causes which created them are
removed. We have seen in Europe and in the dominions
the continual reversals of feeling which have taken place
when a sore has been removed. Antagonisms are replaced
by alliances. It is mercifully true of human nature that
it prefers to exercise goodwill to hatred when it can, and
the common sense of the best in Ireland would operate
once there was no longer interference in our internal
aflFairs, to allay and keep in order these turbulent elements
which exist in every country, but which only become a
danger to society when real grievances based on the
violation of true principles of government are present.

i6. The Union has failed absolutely to conciliate
Ireland. Every generation there have been rebellions and
shootings and agitations of a vehement and exhausting
character carried continually to the point of lawlessness
before Irish grievances could be redressed. A form of
government which requires a succession of rebellions to
secure reforms afterwards admitted to be reasonable cannot
be a good form of government. These agitations have
inflicted grave material and moral injury on Ireland. The

l8

'instability of the political system has prejudiced natural
economic development. Capital will not be invested in
industries where no one is certain about the future. And
because the will of the people was so passionately set on
political freedom an atmosphere of suspicion gathered
around public movements which in other countries would
have been allowed to carry on their beneficent work
unhindered by any party. Here they were continually
being forced to declare themselves either for or against
self-government. The long attack on the movement for
the organization of Irish agriculture was an instance.
Men are elected on public bodies not because they are
efficient administrators, but because they can be trusted
to pass resolutions favouring one party or another. This
has led to corruption. Every conceivable rascality in
Ireland has hid itself behind the great names of nation or
empire. The least and the most harmless actions of men
engaged in philanthropic or educational work or social
reform are scrutinized and criticized so as to obstruct good
work. If a phrase even suggests the possibility of a
political partiality, or tendency to anything which might
be construed by the most suspicious scrutineer to indicate
a remote desire to use the work done as an argument
either for or against self-government, the man or move-
ment is never allowed to forget it. Public service becomes
intolerable and often impossible under such conditions,
and while the struggle continues this also will continue
to the moral detriment of the people. There are only
two forms of government possible. A people may either
be governed by force or may govern themselves. The
dual government of Ireland by two houses of Parliament,
one in Dublin and one in London, contemplated in the
Home Rule Act would be impossible and irritating.
Whatever may be said for two bodies each with their
spheres of influence clearly defined, there is nothing to
be said for two legislatures with concurrent powers of

19

legislation and taxation, and with members from Ireland
retained at Westminster to provide some kind of demo-
cratic excuse for the exercise of powers of Irish legislation
and taxation by the Parliament at Westminster. The
Irish demand is that Great Britain shall throw upon our
shoulders the full weight of responsibility for the manage-
ment of our own affairs, so that we can only blame
ourselves and our political guides and not Great Britain
if we err in our policies.

17. I have stated what I believe to be sound reasons
for the recognition of the justice of the Irish demand by
Great Britain and I now turn to Ulster, and ask it whether
the unstable condition of things in Ireland does not aflfect
it even more than Great Britain. If it persists in its
present attitude, if it remains out of a self-governing
Ireland, it will not thereby exempt itself from political,
social and economic trouble. Ireland will regard the
six Ulster counties as the French have regarded Alsace-
Lorraine, whose hopes of reconqucst turned Europe into
an armed camp, with the endless supicions, secret treaties,
military and naval developments, the expense of maintaining
huge armies, and finally the inevitable war. So sure as
Ulster remains out, so surely will it become a focus for
nationalist designs. I say nothing of the injury to the
great wholesale business carried on from its capital city
throughout the rest of Ireland where the inevitable and
logical answer of merchants in the rest of Ireland to
requests for orders will be : " You would die rather than
live in the same political house with us. We will die
rather than trade with you." There will be lamentably and
inevitably a fiercer tone between North and South. Every-
thing which happens in one quarter will be distorted in
the other. Each will lie about the other. The materials
will exist more than before for civil commotion, and this
will be aided by the powerful min ority of Nationalists
in the excluded counties working in conjunction with their

20

allies across the border. Nothing was ever gained in life
by hatred ; nothing good ever came of it or could come
of it ; and the first and most important of all the command-
ments of the spirit that there should be brotherhood
between men will be deliberately broken to the ruin of
the spiritual life of Ireland.

1 8. So far from Irish Nationalists wishing to oppress
Ulster, I believe that there is hardly any demand which could
be made, even involving democratic injustice to themselves,,
which would not willingly be granted if their Ulster
compatriots would fling their lot in with the rest of Ireland
and heal the eternal sore. I ask Ulster what is there that
they could not do as efficiently in an Ireland with the
status and economic power of a self-governing dominion
as they do at present. Could they not build their ships
and sell them, manufacture and export their linens ? What
do they mean when they say Ulster industries would be
taxed ? I cannot imagine any Irish taxation which their
wildest dreams imagined so heavy as the taxation which
they will endure as part of the United Kingdom in future.
They will be implicated in all the revolutionary legislation
made inevitable in Great Britain by the recoil on society
of the munition workers and disbanded conscripts. Ireland,
which luckily for itself, has the majority of its population
economically independent as workers on the land, and
which, in the development of agriculture now made
necessary as a result of changes "n naval warfare, will be
able to absorb without much trouble its returning workers,
Ireland will be much quieter, less revolutionary and le?^
expensive to govern. I ask what reason is there to suppose
that taxation in a self-governing Ireland would be greater
than in Great Britain after the war, or in what way
Ulster industries could be singled out, or for what evil pur-
pose by an Irish Parliament ? It would be only too anxious
rather to develop still further the one great industrial
centre in Ireland ; and would, it is my firm conviction,,

21

allow the representatives of Ulster practically to dictate
the industrial policy of Ireland. Has there ever at any
time been the slightest opposition by any Irish Nationalist
to proposals made by Ulster industrialists which would
lend colour to such a suspicion ? Personally, I think
that Ulster without safeguards of any kind might trust its
fellow-countrymen ; the weight, the intelligence, the
vigour of character of Ulster people in any case would
enable them to dominate Ireland economically.

19. But I do not for a moment say that Ulster is not
justified in demanding safeguards. Its leader, speaking at
Westminster during one of the debates on the Home Rule
Bill, said scornfully, "We do not fear oppressive legislation.
We know in fact there would be none. What we do fear
is oppressive administration." That I translate to mean
that Ulster fears that the policy of the spoils to the victors
would be adopted, and that jobbery in Nationalist and
■Catholic interests would be rampant. There are as many
honest Nationalists and Catholics who would object to this
as there are Protestant Unionists, and they would readily
accept as part of any settlement the proposal that all posts
which can rightly be filled by competitive examination
shall only be filled after examination by Irish Civil Service
Commissioners, and that this should include all posts paid
for out of public funds whether directly under the Irish
Government or under County Councils, Urban Councils,
Corporations, or Boards of Guardians. Further, they would
allow the Ulster Counties through their members a veto
on any important administrative position where the area of
the official's operation was largely confined to North-East
Ulster, if such posts were of a character which could not
rightly be filled after examination and must needs be a
government appointment. I have heard the suspicion ex-
pressed that Gaelic might be made a subject compulsory on
all candidates, and that this would prejudice the chances of
Uk^cr candidates desiious of entering the Civil Service.

22

Nationalist opinion would readily agree that, if marks were-
given for Gaelic, an alternative language, such as French or
German, should be allowed the candidate as a matter of
choice and the marks given be of equal value. By such
concession jobbery would be made impossible. The cor-
ruption and bribery now prevalent in local government
would be a thing of the past. Nationalists and Unionists
alike would be assured of honest administration and that
merit and efficiency, not membership of some sectarian or
political association, would lead to public service.

20. If that would not be regarded as adequate protection
Nationalists are ready to consider with friendly minds any
other safeguards proposed either by Ulster or Southern
Unionists, though in my opinion the less there are formal
and legal acknowledgments of differences the better, for it is-
desirable that Protestant and Catholic, Unionist and
Nationalist should meet and redivide along other lines than
those of religion or past party politics, and it is obvious that
the raising of artificial barriers might perpetuate the present
lines of division. A real settlement is impossible without
the inclusion of the whole province in the Irish State, and
apart from the passionate sentiment existing in Nationalist
Ireland for the unity of the whole country there are strong,
economic bonds between Ulster and the three provinces.
Further, the exclusion of all or a large part of Ulster would
make the excluded part too predominantly industrial and
the rest of Ireland too exclusively agricultural, tending to-
prevent that right balance between rural and urban industry
which all nations should aim at and which makes for a
varied intellectual life, social and political wisdom and a
healthy national being. Though for the sake of oblitera-
tion of past differences I would prefer as little building by
legislation of fences isolating one section of the community
from another, still I am certain that if Ulster, as the price
of coming into a self-governing Ireland, demanded some
application of the Swiss Cantonal system to itself which

23

would give k control over local administration it couW
have it ; or, again, it could be conceded the powers of
local control vested in the provincial governments in
Canada, where the provincial assemblies have exclusive
power to legislate for themselves in respect of local
works, municipal institutions, licences, and adminis-
tration of justice in the province. Further, subject
to certain provisions protecting the interests of different
religious bodies, the provincial assemblies have the exclusive
power to make laws upon education. Would not this give
Ulster all the guarantees for civil and religious liberty it
requires ? What arguments of theirs, what fears have they
expressed which would not be met by such control over
local administration ? I would prefer that the mind of
Ulster should argue its points with the whole of Ireland
and press its ideals upon it without reservation of its wisdom
for itself. But doubtless if Ulster accepted this proposal it
would benefit the rest of Ireland by the model it would set
of efficient administration : and it would, I have no doubt,
insert in its Provincial constitution all the safeguards for
minorities there which they would ask should be inserted
in any Irish constitution to protect the interest of their co-
religionists in that part of Ireland where they are in a
minority.

21. I can deal only with fundamentals in this
memorandum because it is upon fundamentals there are
differences of thinking. Once these are settled it would
be comparatively easy to devise the necessary clauses in an
Irish constitution, giving safeguards to England for the
due payment of the advances under the Land Acts, and
the principles upon which an Irish contribution should be
made to the empire for naval and military purposes. It
was suggested by Mr. Lionel Curtis in his " Problems of
the Commonwealth," that assessors might be appointed ky
the dominions to fix the fair taxable capacity of each for
this purpose. It will be observed that while I have

24

claimed for Ireland the status of a dominion, I have re-
ferred soleljr hitherto to the powers of control over trade
policy, customs, excise, taxation and legislation possessed
by the domi»ions, and have not claimed for Ireland the
right to have an army of a navy of its own. I r-ecognize
tbat the proximity of the two islands makes it desirable
to consolidate the naval power under the control of the
Admiralty. The regular army should remain in the same
way under the War Office which would have the power
of recruiting in Ireland. The Irish Parliament would, I
have no doubt, be willing to aaise at its own expense
under an Irish Territorial Council a Territorial Force
similar to that of England but not removable from
Ireland. Military conscription could never be permitted
except by Act of the Irish Parliament. It would be a
denial of the first principle of nationality if the power of
conscripting the citizens of the country lay not in the
hands of the National Parliament but was exercised by
another nation.

22. While a self-governing Ireland would contribute
money to the defence of the federated empire, it would
not be content that that money should be spent on dock-
yards, arsenals, camps, harbours, naval stations, ship-
building and supplies in Great Britain to the almost
complete neglect of Ireland as at present. A large con-
tribution for such purposes spent outside Ireland would
be an economic drain if not balanced by counter expendi-
ture here. This might be effected by the training of a
portion of the navy and army and the Irish regiments of
the regular army in Ireland, and their equipment, clothing,
supplies, munitions and rations being obtained through an
Irish depa«rtment. Naval docky.-irds should he constructed
here and a proportion of ship* built in them. Just as
surely as there must be a balance between the imports and
exports of a country, so must there be a balance between
the revenue raised in a nation and the public expenditure

25

-on that nation. Irish economic depression after the Aet
■of Union was due in large measure to absentee landlordism
and the expenditure of Irish revenue outside Ireland with
-no proportionate return. This must not be expected to
■continue against Irish interests. Ireland, granted the
freedom it desires, would be willing to defend its freedom
and the freedom of other dominions in the commonwealth
of nations it belonged to, but it is not willing to allow
millions to be raised in Ireland and spent outside Ireland.
If three or five millions are raised in Ireland for imperial
purposes and spent in Great Britain it simply means that
the vast employment of labour necessitated takes place
toutside Ireland : whereas if spent here it would mean the
employment of many thousands of men, the support of
•their families, and in the economic chain would follow
the support of those who cater for them in food, clothing,
iiousing, etc. Even with the best will in the world, to
do its share towards its defence of the freedom it had
attained, Ireland could not permit such an economic drain
•on its resources. No country could approve of a policy
which in its application means the emigration of thousands
of its people every year while it continued.

23. I believe even if there were no historical basis for
Irish nationalism that such claims as I have stated would
have become inevitable, because the tendency of humanity
as it develops intellectually and spiritually is to desire more
and more freedom, and to substitute more and more an
internal law for the external law or government, and that
the solidarity of empires or nations will depend not so much
upon the close texture of their political organization or the
uniformity of mind so engendered as upon the freedom
allowed and the delight people feel in that freedom. The
•more educated a man is the more it is hateful to him to be
constrained and the more impossible does it become for
central governments to provide by regulation for the
■infinite variety of desires and cultural developments which

26

spring up everywhere and are in themselves laudable, and'
in no way endanger the state. A recognition of this has
already led to much decentralization in Great Britain itself.
And if the claim for more power in the administration of
local affairs was so strongly felt in a homogeneous country
like Great Britain that, through its county council system,,
people in districts like Kent or Essex have been per-
mitted control over education and the purchase of land,
and the distribution of it to small holders, how much more
passionately must this desire for self-control be felt in
Ireland where people have a different national character
which has survived all the educational experiments to
change them into the likeness of their neighbours. The
battle which is going on in the world has been stated to
be a spiritual conflict between those who desire greater
freedom for the individual and think that the state exists.
to preserve that freedom, and those who believe in the
predominance of the state and the complete subjection of
the individual to it and the moulding of the individual mind
in its image. This has been stated, and if the first view is
a declaration of ideals sincerely held by Great Britain it
would mean the granting to Ireland, a country which has ex-
pressed its wishes by vaster majorities than were ever polled
in any other country for political changes, the satisfaction
of its desires.

24. The acceptance of the proposals here made would
mean sacrifices for the two extremes in Ireland, and neither
party has as yet made any real sacrifice to meet the other,
but have gone on their own way. I urge upon them that
if the suggestions made here were accepted both would
obtain substantially what they desire, the Ulster Unionists
that safety for their interests and provision for Ireland's
unity with the commonwealth of dominions inside the
empire ; the Nationalists that power they desire to
create an Irish civilization by self-devised and self-
checked efforts. The brotherhood of dominions of which

27

they would form one would be inspired as much by the
fresh life and wide democratic outlook of Austrah'a, New
Zealand, South Africa and Canada, as by the hoarier poli-
tical wisdom of Great Britain ; and military, naval, foreign
and colonial policy must in the future be devised by the
representatives of those dominions sitting in council together
with the representatives of Great Britain. Does not that
indicate a different form of imperialism from that they
hold in no friendly memory ? It would not be imperial-
ism in the ancient sense but a federal union of independent
nations to protect national liberties, which might draw
into its union other peoples hitherto unconnected with it,
and so beget a league of nations to make a common inter-
national law prevail. The allegiance would be to common
principles which mankind desire and would not permit
the dominance of any one race. We have not only to be
good Irishmen but good citizens of the world, and one is
as important as the other, for earth is more and more
forcing on its children a recognition of their fundamental
unity, and that all rise and fall and suffer together, and
that none can escape the infection from their common
humanity. If these ideas emerge from the world conflict
and are accepted as world morality it will be some com-
pensation for the anguish of learning the lesson. We in
Ireland like the rest of the world must rise above our-
selves and our differences if we are to manifest the genius
which is in us, and play a noble part in world history.

28

NOTE

I was asked to put into shape for publication ideas and
suggestions for an Irish settlement which had been dis-
cussed among a group whose members represented all
extremes in Irish opinion. The compromise arrived at
was embodied in documents written by members of the
group privately circulated, criticized and again amended.
I make special acknowledgments to Colonel Maurice Moore,
Mr, James G. Douglas, Mr. Edward E. Lysaght, Mr. Joseph
Johnston, F.T.C,D., Mr. Alec Wilson and" Mr. Diarmid
CoiFey. For the tone, method of presentation and general
arguments used, I alone am responsible. And if any are
offended at what I have said, I am to be blamed, not my
fellow-workers.

A.E.

29

ADDENDUM

This pamphlet is a reprint of articles which appeared in
the Irish Times on 26th, 28th and 29th May. The letters
which follow appeared in the same paper on the 31st May.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE IRISH TIMES.

Sir — In an attempt to discover what measure of agree-
ment to-day was possible between the political antagonists
of yesterday, the attention of a few dozen Irish men and
women was drawn to the articles by A.E. which have
appeared in your columns, and the following statement was
signed by those whose names are appended beneath it : —

" We, the undersigned, having read * Thoughts for a
Convention ' by A.E. without endorsing all his state-
ments, express our general agreement with his conclusions
and with the argument by which these are reached."

The signatories include : —

His Grace the Most Rev. Edmund Curtis, M.A., Pro-

Dr. Walsh, Archbishop fessor Oratory, History

of Dublin. and English Literature,

The Lord Monteagle, K.P. Dublin University.

Sir John Griffith, M.A.I., T. B. Rudmose Brown,

M.Inst. C.E. M.A., Professor of Ro-

Sir Nugent Everard. mance Languages, Uni-

Sir Algernon Coote, Bt. versity of Dublin,

Sir J. R. O'Connell, LL.D. Dermod O'Brien, Presi-

Sir Henry Grattan Bellew, dent Royal Hibernian

Bt. Academy.

Lady Gregory. Thomas E. Gordon, M.B.,

Mrs. J. R. Green. F.R.C.S.I.

Douglas Hyde, LL.D., Oliver Gogarty, F.R.C.S.L

D.Litt., Professor Irish Joseph T. Wigham, M.D.

National University. Frank C. Purser, M.D.

Robert J. Rowlette, M.D, John McCann

Edward Martyn. J. Hubbard Clarke, J.P.

George Gavan Duffy. Thomas Butler.

F. J. O'Connor. John Douglas.

John Mackie, F.C.A, E. A. Stopford.

John O'Neill, James MacNeill.

Does not this suggest that agreement might also be
possible in an Irish Convention if, by some miracle. Irish-
men of various parties would step out of their well-fenced
enclosures to take counsel in common ? — Yours, etc.,

James G. Douglas.
Dublin, May 30th, 1917.

T ) THE EDITOR OF THE IRISH TIMES.

Sir — May I express the hope that 'A.E.'s' "Thoughts
for a Convention," the last instalment of which you pub-
lished yesterday, and which I am informed will reappear as
a penny pamphlet this week, will be widely read ? I am
not thinking of his conclusions, ably reasoned as they are,
but of the tone and temper in which he handles the most
explosive material in the whole magazine of Irish contro-
versy. It is refreshing to listen to one who not only has
the courage of his convictions, but can also say honestly
that the convictions are his own and not somebody else's.

'A.E.' strikes a note which may go far to make the
Convention the success the vast majority of Irishmen hardly
dare to hope that it will be. If he speaks only for himself,
" More shame for his generation " will surely be the verdict
of history. — Yours, etc.,

Horace Plunkett.

The Plunkett House, Dublin,
May 30th, 1917.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

THE NATIONAL BEING. Some Thoughts
on an Irish Polity. By A.E. 4s. 6d. net.

" Comaiaods r*^peck as an e^ipressioo oS the aspirations of a
true friend of Ireland, and an indefatigable worker ia the one
field in which a constructive and reconciliog policy has been
carried to a successful issue in that country," — The Spittator.

"This book. . . . will be bailed by future generations as a
landmark in the arid waistes of speculations on Irtsh problems."
— Northern Whig.

" A.E. makes fascinating snggestioiK for an Irish polity." — New
StatKman.

SIR HORACE PLUNKETT and his Place
in the Irish Nation. By Edward E.
Lysaght. 2s. 6d. net.

" Mr. Lysaght is more concerned to discnss Irish policy in a
serious and informed spirit than to ventilate his own indiridual
opinions." — The Thn*s LiUrary Sufypltmtnt.

AN IRISH APOLOGIA. Some Thoughts
on Anglo-Irish relations and the war.
By Warre B. Wells. Cloth 2s. net ;
paper, is. net.

' * The best account published in recent years of what those Irisk
Nationalists generally regarded as extremists think abont them-
selves, what traditions influence them, what the cultural basis of
ther nationalism is, and he tells this without prejadice and with
a sympathetic understanding." — Irish HomnUad.

Food Production in France in Time of War.
By Joseph Johnston, M.A. 6d. net.

"He makes the pcint that in France all the advantages of
decentralisation have been obtained without any of its disadvan-
tages. Ha develops that point at length, with the success of the
food production measmras as the chief illustration."— /f<«A Times.

MAUNSEL AND COMPANY, LTD,
50 LOWER BAGGOT ST., DUBLIN

BOSTON COLLEGE

3 9031 01133501 5

DATE DUE

in Q Ky>

s

AF

ip y icfcx

)

CAYLORD

rniNTCOINUSA.

CKBTNUT HiLL fta 021&7