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“The Hollowest Political Cant”: British Parties, Home Rule, and the Parliament Act, 1909–July 1911

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Shaping Ireland’s Independence

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Abstract

This chapter examines the reemergence of home rule during the 1909–1910 election campaign and how Irish self-government became a practical possibility through the Parliament Act’s reduction of the House of Lords’ powers. A firm British Liberal-Irish nationalist alliance and another home rule bill are sometimes described as inevitable, but Rast argues this was a distrustful partnership based on common opposition to the Lords. British Unionists helped to radicalize the home rule debate and raised the idea of treating Ireland’s majority-Protestant northern province of Ulster separately under home rule. Yet, many wanted to cooperate with Liberals on constitutional questions, including Irish governance. These attempts failed, and Liberal reforms, supported by Irish nationalists, drove British and Irish unionists closer and made them more willing to countenance violence.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    D. G. Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland (London: Routledge, 1995), 277, 282; David Fitzpatrick, The Two Irelands: 1912–1939 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 13; K. T. Hoppen, Governing Hibernia: British Politicians and Ireland, 1800–1921 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 297–299; Roy Jenkins, Asquith (London: Collins, 1978), 276; Michael Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916–1923 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 6–7; G. K. Peatling, British Opinion and Irish Self-Government, 1865–1925: From Unionism to Liberal Commonwealth (Dublin: Irish Academic, 2001), 75–81; David Powell, British Politics, 1910–35: The Crisis of the Party System (London: Routledge, 2004), 22; G. R. Searle, The Liberal Party: Triumph and Disintegration, 1886–1929 (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1992), 30; Robert Self, The Evolution of the British Party System, 1885–1940 (Harlow: Pearson, 2000), 41.

  2. 2.

    Eugenio Biagini, British Democracy and Irish Nationalism, 1876–1906 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 4, 358–359; Patricia Jalland, The Liberals and Ireland: The Ulster Question in British Politics to 1914 (Brighton: Harvester, 1980), 24–25; Roy Jenkins, The British Liberal Tradition from Gladstone to Young Churchill, Asquith, and Lloyd George—Is Blair Their Heir? (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), 27–29; David Powell, The Edwardian Crisis: Britain, 1901–14 (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1996), 141–142.

  3. 3.

    Alan O’Day, Irish Home Rule, 1867–1921 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), 208; Alvin Jackson, Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 106; Paul Bew, Ideology and the Irish Question: Ulster Unionism and Irish Nationalism, 1912–1916 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 20, 61.

  4. 4.

    Alan Sykes, The Rise and Fall of British Liberalism, 1776–1988 (Harlow: Longman, 1997), 162–163, 183–184.

  5. 5.

    Ronan Fanning, Fatal Path: British Government and Irish Revolution, 1910–1922 (London: Faber and Faber, 2013), 11; Jackson, Home Rule, 65; Jalland, Liberals and Ireland, 19; Michael O’Neill, “Challenging the Centre: Home Rule Movements,” in Devolution and British Politics, ed. Michael O’Neill (Harlow: Pearson, 2004), 37–38; David Thackeray, Conservatism for the Democratic Age: Conservative Cultures and the Challenge of Mass Politics in Early Twentieth-Century England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 4, 69.

  6. 6.

    David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 523–530; Ross McKibbin, Parties and People: England, 1914–1951 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 12–13; Powell, British Politics, 93; Paul Thompson, The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society (London: Routledge, 1992), 173–175; Jon Lawrence, Electing Our Masters: The Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 71–83.

  7. 7.

    Alvin Jackson, The Ulster Party: Irish Unionists in the House of Commons, 1884–1911 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 315–318.

  8. 8.

    Daniel Jackson, Popular Opposition to Irish Home Rule in Edwardian Britain (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009), 37–62.

  9. 9.

    Hansard, HC, 2 Dec 1909, “House of Lords (Refusal to Pass Finance Bill),” H. H. Asquith, vol. 13, column 557; G. R. Searle, A New England?: Peace and War, 1886–1918 (Oxford: Clarendon, 2004), 409–410.

  10. 10.

    For an Irish unionist statement that Ireland was overtaxed, see Arthur Samuels, Dublin, TT, 5 Jan 1910.

  11. 11.

    John Redmond, Ashton-under-Lyne and Barrow-in-Furness, TT, 13–14 Oct; TT, 19 Nov; NLI, Ms. 15,207/2, Redmond to Morley, 27 Nov 1909.

  12. 12.

    David Fitzpatrick, “A Curious Middle Place: The Irish in Britain, 1871–1921,” in The Irish in Britain, 1815–1939, ed. Roger Swift and Sheridan Gilley (Savage: Barnes and Noble, 1989), 35–42; Donald MacRaild, The Irish Diaspora in Britain, 1750–1939 (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 127–132; Alan O’Day, “The Political Organization of the Irish in Britain, 1867–90,” in The Irish in Britain, 201–208; A. K. Russell, Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906 (Newton Abbott: David and Charles, 1973), 189–194; Self, Evolution, 49.

  13. 13.

    NLI, Ms. 15,169/2, Augustine Birrell to Redmond, 1 Dec; Asquith, Albert Hall, TT, 11 Dec 1909.

  14. 14.

    Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, My Diaries: Being a Personal Narrative of Events, 2 vols. (New York: Knopf, 1922), II:289, 13 Feb 1910.

  15. 15.

    H. H. Asquith, Fifty Years of British Parliament, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1926), I:169. Several of his biographers accept this characterization. Stephen Bates, H. H. Asquith (London: Haus, 2006), 17–18, 34; Colin Clifford, The Asquiths (London: John Murray, 2002), 10; Jenkins, Asquith, 41, 67; J. A. Spender and Cyril Asquith, Life of Herbert Henry Asquith, Lord Oxford and Asquith, 2 vols. (London: Hutchinson, 1932), I:169–170, 268–269.

  16. 16.

    H. C. G. Matthew, The Liberal Imperialists: The Ideas and Politics of a Post-Gladstonian Élite (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), 132, 291–292. Also Chris Cook, A Short History of the Liberal Party: The Road Back to Power (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 31–37; Martin Pugh, The Making of Modern British Politics, 1867–1939 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1982), 99–102; Searle, Liberal Party, 34–35; Self, Evolution, 48–49.

  17. 17.

    Rufus Isaacs, London, TT, 12 Dec 1905.

  18. 18.

    Redmond, Newry, II, 17 June 1897; IT, 22 May 1907; II, 3, 25 Nov 1910; Dermot Meleady, John Redmond: The National Leader (Sallins: Merrion, 2014), 107; A. C. Hepburn, “The Irish Council Bill and the Fall of Sir Antony MacDonnell, 1906–7,” Irish Historical Studies 17, no. 68 (Sept. 1971): 470–498; Denis Gwynn, The Life of John Redmond (Freeport: Libraries, 1971), 141–150.

  19. 19.

    Kenneth Morgan, Lloyd George (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974), 26–29.

  20. 20.

    John Kendle, Ireland and the Federal Solution: The Debate over the United Kingdom Constitution, 1870–1921 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1989), 65–66; Kenneth Morgan, Revolution to Devolution: Reflections on Welsh Democracy (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2014), 252–254.

  21. 21.

    Lucy Masterman, C. F. G. Masterman: A Biography (London: Nicholson and Watson, 1939), 180, 242.

  22. 22.

    Winston Churchill, Manchester, FJ, 18 June 1904.

  23. 23.

    Winston to Clementine Churchill, 5 June 1911 in Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill: Volume II Companion Part II, 1907–1911 (London: Heinemann, 1969), 1089; Winston to Clementine Churchill, 31 March 1920 in Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Volume IV Companion Part II, July 1919–March 1921 (London: Heinemann, 1977), 1062.

  24. 24.

    TT, 1–2 May 1908. Paul Bew interprets this as a sincere “conversion” to home rule, Paul Bew, Churchill and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 29–43.

  25. 25.

    Masterman, Masterman, 196; Iain McLean, Rational Choice and British Politics: An Analysis of Rhetoric and Manipulation from Peel to Blair (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 170.

  26. 26.

    TT, DN, MG, 11 Dec 1909; Neal Blewett, The Peers, the Parties and the People: The British General Elections of 1910 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972), 124–125.

  27. 27.

    Hansard, HC, 21 Feb 1910, “Debate on the Address,” Arthur Balfour, vol. 14, column 46; Blewett, Peers, 317; Walter Arnstein, “Edwardian Politics: Turbulent Spring or Indian Summer?,” in The Edwardian Age: Conflict and Stability, 1900–1914, ed. Alan O’Day (Hamden: Archon, 1979), 73.

  28. 28.

    Searle, Liberal Party, 2, also 30–35, 51, 55–56, 88; P. F. Clarke, Hope and Glory: Britain, 1900–1990 (London: Allen Lane, 1996), 64; David Dutton, A History of the Liberal Party Since 1900 (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 27–28; McLean, Rational Choice, 168–169; Sykes, Rise and Fall, 183–184.

  29. 29.

    Sunday Independent, 12 Dec; IT, 16 Dec 1909.

  30. 30.

    Redmond, Dublin, UH, 18 Dec; Blunt, My Diaries, II:285, 20 Dec 1909.

  31. 31.

    Morning Leader (London), in FJ, 16 Dec 1909.

  32. 32.

    Redmond, Manchester, IT, 10 Jan 1910.

  33. 33.

    YP, 2 July; TT, BET, IT, 19 Oct 1909.

  34. 34.

    Standard (London), 22 Dec; BNL, 6 Nov; John Sherburn, West Hull, Daily Mail (Hull), 18 Dec; Esher [Historicus], “The House of Lords,” TT, 6 Dec 1909.

  35. 35.

    Edward Carson, Putney, Manchester Courier, 6 Nov; MP, in DED, 26 Nov 1909.

  36. 36.

    DN, 19 Aug, 24 Nov; Winston Churchill, Leicester, TT, 6 Sept; MG, 11, 22, 24 Dec 1909.

  37. 37.

    The Star (London), in DED, 18 Nov; Thomas Barclay, Blackburn, Northern Daily Telegraph, 2 Dec; Wigan Observer, 20 Nov 1909.

  38. 38.

    William Byles, Trafalgar Square, TT, 6 Dec 1909.

  39. 39.

    Emmeline Pankhurst, Manchester, Christabel Pankhurst, London, Votes for Women (London), 8 Oct 1909. For reactions: BWN, 7 Oct; Isabel Hecht, Letter, Common Cause (London), 18 Nov; Letters by Janet Hogarth, F. A. Steel, Marie Stopes in TT, 9 Oct, 13 Oct, 16 Dec 1909, respectively.

  40. 40.

    Hansard, HL, 28 Sept 1909, “Irish Land Bill,” Castletown, vol. 3, column 460; HC, 23 Nov 1909, “Irish Land Bill,” John Dillon, vol. 13, column 65.

  41. 41.

    Bournemouth Daily Echo, 20 Nov; Punch (London), 1 Dec 1909.

  42. 42.

    Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, 17 July 1909.

  43. 43.

    Londonderry, Stockton-on-Tees, see the following, 23 Oct 1909: BET, BNL, II, IN, IT, NW, TT.

  44. 44.

    Tyrone Courier, 16 Dec; Ballymena Observer, Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard, 17 Dec; Longford Journal, 18 Dec. Bedfordshire Advertiser published the editorial without the civil war prediction, 31 Dec 1909.

  45. 45.

    DED, 29 Dec 1909.

  46. 46.

    For Ulster unionist political meetings after Asquith’s speech, see Hugh Barrie, Coleraine, William Moore, Portadown, NW, 16 Dec; J. M. MacCaw, Banbridge, BNL, 21 Dec; James Chambers, Belfast, John Gordon, Magherafelt, NW, 31 Dec 1909.

  47. 47.

    Charles Craig, Dunmurry, BNL, 21 Dec. For Charles Craig as the next Irish unionist leader: John MacCrory, Letter, CE, 23 Dec 1909.

  48. 48.

    BET, BNL, 11 Dec; NW, 16 Dec 1909.

  49. 49.

    Charles Beresford, Carlton Club, Dover Express, 17 Dec; Ashbourne, Northallerton, YP, 22 Dec 1909; H. W. Chatterton, Bristol, Western Daily Press (Bristol), 5 Jan; A. J. Hobson, Crookesmoor, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 4 Jan; A. W. Maconochie, Glasgow, Scotsman (Edinburgh), 6 Jan; George Scott, Drygrange, Scotsman, 12 Jan; J. E. Graham, Galashiels, Southern Reporter (Selkirk), 13 Jan; William Bear, Letter, Sussex Express, 14 Jan; Denbigh, Dunchurch, Leamington Spa Courier, 14 Jan; A. Smith, Gilberdyke, Daily Mail (Hull), 14 Jan; Ernest Aston, Letter, Whitstable Times, 15 Jan; A. A. Baumann, Pathhead, Fifeshire Advertiser, 15 Jan; R. H. Verschoyle, Ross-on-Wye, Hereford Times, 15 Jan; Winterton, West Sussex County Times, 15 Jan; J. Glass, J. Seymour Lloyd, The Courier (Dundee), 18 Jan 1910.

  50. 50.

    L. H. Hayter, Bicknoller, West Somerset Free Press (Williton), 11 Dec; Nottingham Evening Post, 17 Dec; Cawdor, Bradford, Bradford Daily Telegraph, 23 Dec 1909; E. J. Domville, Exeter, Devon and Exeter Gazette, 4 Jan; R. B. Brassey, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire Weekly News (Chipping Norton), 12 Jan 1910.

  51. 51.

    Jarrow Express, Scotsman, 17 Dec; Standard, 29 Dec 1909; Oxford Times, 8 Jan; Manchester Courier, 7 Jan 1910.

  52. 52.

    Standard, 15 Dec; Cawdor, Leeds, Standard, 20 Dec 1909; Edwin Durning-Lawrence, Budock, Royal Cornwall Gazette (Truro), 13 Jan; J. F. Mason, Windsor, Windsor, Eton & Slough Express, 15 Jan 1910.

  53. 53.

    William Templeton, New Byth, Aberdeen Daily Journal, 18 Dec; Ashbourne, Hawes, YP, 20 Dec; Castlereagh, Grantham, YP, 21 Dec; Lancelot Sanderson, Bowness, Mid-Cumberland Herald, 24 Dec; Percy Ashworth, Bolton, Bolton Evening News, 31 Dec 1909; Harry Barnston, Elworth, Crewe Guardian, 8 Jan; A. J. Robarts, Lillingstone Dayrell, Buckingham Advertiser, 8 Jan; Edward Sassoon, Hythe, Folkestone Herald, 8 Jan; G. A. Gibbs, Bishopston, Western Daily Press, 10 Jan; De F. Pennefather, Letter, Hereford Times, 15 Jan; J. E. Reiss, Winsford, Northwich Guardian, 15 Jan; Michael Hicks Beach, Gloucester, Gloucester Journal, 22 Jan; Neil Maclean, Fodderty, North Star (Dingwall), 27 Jan 1910.

  54. 54.

    James Rankin, Leominster, Hereford Times, 25 Dec; T. Edwards, Letter, Western Morning News (Plymouth), 31 Dec 1909; J. B. McMahon, Letter, Weston-Super-Mare Gazette, 8 Jan; William Miller, Letter, Scotsman, 19 Jan; Laurence Rattray, Letter, The Courier (Dundee), 20 Jan; E. G. Ramsbotham, Cross in Hand, Sussex Express, 21 Jan; W. W. Miskimmin, Falkirk, Falkirk Herald, 22 Jan 1910.

  55. 55.

    Bedfordshire Advertiser, 7 Jan; Tennyson, Shanklin, Isle of Wight County Press, 15 Jan 1910.

  56. 56.

    F. T. Cooper, Crieff, Scotsman, 17 Dec; J. H. Bunting, Spalding, Boston Guardian, 18 Dec; Frank James, Walsall, Walsall Advertiser, 25 Dec 1909; Wenlock, Escrick, YP, 10 Jan; C. H. D. Willoughby, Ropsley, Grantham Journal, 15 Jan 1910.

  57. 57.

    Walter Long, Ledbury, Steeple Ashton, TT, 17, 22 Dec 1909, respectively.

  58. 58.

    Charles Fergusson, Cheltenham, Cheltenham Examiner, 16 Dec; T. C. P. Calley, Swindon, Swindon Advertiser, 17 Dec; Arthur Champneys, Letter, Scotsman, 22 Dec; W. S. Royce, Old Leake, Boston Guardian, 25 Dec 1909; Reginald Pole Carew, Liskeard, Western Morning News, 3 Jan; J. C. Davison, Taunton, Taunton Courier, 5 Jan; W. Moore White, Letter, Gloucestershire Echo (Cheltenham), 5 Jan; Maurice Woods, Fishponds, Western Daily Press, 7 Jan; Alexander Henderson, Wantage, Faringdon Advertiser, 8 Jan; Thomas O’Kelly, Chipping Norton, Oxford Times, 8 Jan; Morpeth, Birmingham, Birmingham Gazette, 11 Jan; J. A. C. Hamilton, Letter, Devon and Exeter Gazette, 14 Jan; J. R. Wilson, Bellshill, Bellshill Speaker, 14 Jan; R. S. Horne, Stenhousemuir, Falkirk Herald, 15 Jan; A. E. Crosse, Henton, Somerset and West of England Advertiser, 20 Jan; Edward Lyttelton, Windsor, Windsor, Eton & Slough Express, 22 Jan 1910.

  59. 59.

    Irene Ward, Stoke Bishop, Western Daily Press, 13 Jan; G. W. Ralston, Kelty, The Courier (Dundee), 27 Jan; Arthur Bignold, Ross-Shire Journal (Dingwall), 14 Jan 1910.

  60. 60.

    BL, Add. Ms. 62,405, Long to Stamfordham, 20 June 1914; Walter Long, Memories (London: Hutchinson, 1923), 144–148, 171–172; John Kendle, Walter Long, Ireland, and the Union, 1905–1920 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992), 35–36.

  61. 61.

    Abercorn, James Campbell, Long, Belfast, TT, 5 Jan 1910. Randolph Churchill’s first use of this saying was TT, 8 May 1886.

  62. 62.

    PRONI, D2846/1/1/85, Carson to Lady Londonderry, 12 March 1912; UKNA, PRO/30/67/38, “Interview between Capt. Craig, MP, Lord Midleton, and Lord Desart,” 9 May 1918.

  63. 63.

    Alan Burgoyne, Claud Hamilton, London, Standard, 21 Dec 1909; Randolph Churchill to Gerald FitzGibbon, 16 Feb 1886 in Winston Churchill, Lord Randolph Churchill, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1906), II:59; IN, 6 Jan 1910.

  64. 64.

    MP, reprinted, FJ, BNL, NW, 5 Jan 1910.

  65. 65.

    C. Craig, Dunmurry, BNL, 21 Dec 1909; R. G. Sharman-Crawford, Newtownards, NW, 8 Jan; J. Chambers, Belfast, BNL, 12 Jan; J. Patrick, Dunminning, NW, 14 Jan; J. W. Gibson, Belfast, BNL, 31 Oct; IT, 29 Nov 1910.

  66. 66.

    Pall Mall Gazette, in BNL, NW, 11 Jan 1910.

  67. 67.

    MP, in Weekly Freeman, 15 Jan; II, 11 Jan; Sligo Champion, 22 Jan 1910.

  68. 68.

    James Craig, Saintfield, BNL, 14 Jan; Carson, Belfast, BNL, 18 Jan 1910.

  69. 69.

    Standard, 15 Dec 1909.

  70. 70.

    N. C. Philpott, Letter, II, 31 Jan 1910.

  71. 71.

    South Tyrone [pseud.], Letter, II, 3 Feb 1910.

  72. 72.

    F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885–1918 (London: Macmillan, 1974), 577, 581; Brian Walker, Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922 (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1978), 194.

  73. 73.

    Spectator, 29 Jan; TT, 8 Feb; A. V. Dicey, Letter, TT, 21 Feb; SR, 29 Jan 1910.

  74. 74.

    TT, 19–20 Jan 1910; Cameron Hazlehurst and Christine Woodland, eds., A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J. A. Pease, 1st Lord Gainford, 1908–1910 (London: Historians’ Press, 1994), 149–150, 11 Dec 1909.

  75. 75.

    Joseph West Ridgeway, Letter, TT, 1 Feb; II, 2 Feb; TT, 9 Feb 1910.

  76. 76.

    J. Ellis Barker, “The Parliamentary Position and the Irish Party,” The Nineteenth Century and After (Feb. 1910): 242, 255.

  77. 77.

    Blewett, Peers, 161. Also, Balfour to Austen Chamberlain, 28 Nov 1910 in Politics from Inside: An Epistolary Chronicle, 1906–1914 (London: Cassell, 1936), 303–304.

  78. 78.

    Blunt, My Diaries, II:300, 27 April 1910.

  79. 79.

    J. A. Spender, Life, Journalism and Politics, 2 vols. (New York: Stokes, n.d. [1927]), I:234; Asquith, Fifty Years, II:92.

  80. 80.

    FJ, 11 Feb; NLI, Ms. 15,252/1/B, Redmond, Memorandum, 24 Feb 1910.

  81. 81.

    TT, 12 Feb 1910.

  82. 82.

    J. L. Garvin, “Imperial and Foreign Affairs,” FR (Feb. 1910): 191, 193; SR, 7 May; A. V. Dicey, Letter, TT, 21 Feb; Clarke, Hope and Glory, 63.

  83. 83.

    Churchill to Asquith, 18 Feb 1910 in R. S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill: Volume II Companion Part II, 971.

  84. 84.

    Vaughan Nash, Memorandum, 15 Dec 1909 in Spender and C. Asquith, Life of Herbert Henry Asquith, I:261–262; Cannadine, Decline, 48–50; Asquith, Fifty Years, II:92–95; Powell, Edwardian Crisis, 50–51; NLI, Ms. 15,252/1/B, Redmond, Memorandum, 25 Feb 1910.

  85. 85.

    Austen Chamberlain to Neville Chamberlain, 20 Feb 1910 in Politics from Inside, 200; David Lindsay [Lord Balcarres, Earl Crawford], The Crawford Papers, ed. John Vincent (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), 145, 15 Feb; PRONI, D2846/1/1/44, Carson to Lady Londonderry, 24 Jan 1910.

  86. 86.

    Hansard, HC, 21 Feb 1910, “Debate on the Address,” Asquith, Redmond, vol. 14, columns 52–74.

  87. 87.

    See the following, 22 Feb 1910: DN; Daily Mail (London), reprinted, II; MP, reprinted, FJ.

  88. 88.

    The resolutions are in Spender and C. Asquith, Life of Herbert Henry Asquith, I:277.

  89. 89.

    Masterman, Masterman, 159; Almeric Fitzroy, Memoirs, 2 vols. (London: Hutchinson, n.d. [1925]), I:395, 11 Feb; Churchill to Edward VII, 1 March 1910 in R. S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill: Volume II Companion Part II, 983.

  90. 90.

    TT, 15 April; Esher [Historicus], Letter, TT, 23 Apr; PRONI, D2846/1/1/47, Carson to Lady Londonderry, 17 April 1910.

  91. 91.

    Curzon, Reading, TT, 6 May 1910.

  92. 92.

    NLI, Ms. 15,215/2/A, Redmond to T. P. O’Connor, 8 June; Ms. 15,182/18, Dillon to Redmond, 5 June 1910.

  93. 93.

    NLI, Ms. 15,252/1/B, Redmond, Memorandum, 23 June 1910.

  94. 94.

    Garvin to Balfour, 20 Oct, Chamberlain to Garvin, 21 Oct 1910 in Politics from Inside, 279–283.

  95. 95.

    Lloyd George’s original memo is in Charles Petrie, The Life and Letters of Austen Chamberlain, 2 vols. (London: Cassell, 1939), I:381–388.

  96. 96.

    David Lloyd George, War Memoirs, 6 vols. (London: Odhams, 1938), I:21–22. For a Cabinet member who was not consulted and disapproved when he found out, see Edward David, ed., Inside Asquith’s Cabinet: From the Diaries of Charles Hobhouse (New York: St. Martin’s, 1977), 98–99, 4 Nov 1910.

  97. 97.

    Masterman, Masterman, 170. The August and October 1910 memos are in Robert James Scally, The Origins of the Lloyd George Coalition: The Politics of Social Imperialism, 1900–1918 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 375–386.

  98. 98.

    Politics from Inside includes Chamberlain’s letters to F. E. Smith, 21 Oct; Cawdor, 21 Oct 1910; Lansdowne, 26 Aug 1912, 285, 287, 292, respectively.

  99. 99.

    G. R. Searle, ed., “A. J. Balfour’s Secret Talks Memorandum, 1910,” Historical Research 66, no. 160 (June 1993): 222–229.

  100. 100.

    Petrie, Austen Chamberlain, 261–262; Lloyd George, War Memoirs, I:22; Balcarres, Crawford Papers, 165, 19 Oct 1910.

  101. 101.

    Pease, Liberal Chronicle, 210, 8 Nov 1910.

  102. 102.

    F. S. Oliver’s letters signed “Pacificus,” TT, 22, 24, 28, 31 Oct; IT, 27 Oct 1910.

  103. 103.

    Observer, 16, 23, 30 Oct; Daily Telegraph (London), Standard, reprinted, BNL, 25 Oct; Globe, 26 Oct 1910.

  104. 104.

    TT, 28 Oct; MP, reprinted, IT, 20 Oct; Ian Malcolm, Letter, TT, 28 Oct 1910.

  105. 105.

    Gerald Brunskill, Dublin, BNL, 31 Oct; II, 31 Oct 1910.

  106. 106.

    Quoted in Kendle, Federal Solution, 112; Vernon Bogdanor, Devolution in the United Kingdom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 44–54.

  107. 107.

    Kendle, Federal Solution, 107–108; Alan Ward, The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland, 1782–1992 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1994), 50–51.

  108. 108.

    L. S. Amery, Letter, TT, 1 Nov; Hugh Cecil, Letter, TT, 4 Nov; RT (Nov 1910): 63–70; Kendle, Federal Solution, 106–107, 109, 112.

  109. 109.

    Michael Wheatley, “John Redmond and Federalism in 1910,” Irish Historical Studies 32, no. 127 (May 2001): 363–364.

  110. 110.

    John Redmond, “What Ireland Wants,” McClure’s Magazine (Oct. 1910): 691, 696.

  111. 111.

    WIT, 22 Oct; NLI, Ms. 15,236/16, J. W. T. Mason to Redmond, 17, 18 Oct 1910.

  112. 112.

    T. P. O’Connor, II, 17 Oct; O’Connor, Ottawa, IT, 5 Oct 1910.

  113. 113.

    Gaelic American (New York), 8 Oct 1910.

  114. 114.

    Jackson, Home Rule, 9–10; O’Day, Irish Home Rule, 309; Ward, Irish Constitutional Tradition, 85–87.

  115. 115.

    IN, 20 July; FJ, 3 Dec 1910.

  116. 116.

    Wheatley, “Redmond and Federalism,” 356–360.

  117. 117.

    II, 17 Oct; James Doyle, Letter, II, 27 Oct; John Sweetman, Letter, IT, 24 Oct 1910.

  118. 118.

    Arthur Walsh, Letter, TT, 20 Oct; WIT, 22 Oct; IT, 19 Oct 1910.

  119. 119.

    IT, 22 Oct 1910.

  120. 120.

    Gerald Brunskill, Omagh, BNL, 24 Oct; James Craig, Aughlisnafin, BNL, 28 Oct; William Moore, Dublin, BNL, 31 Oct 1910.

  121. 121.

    Balcarres, Crawford Papers, 166, 7 Nov; Richard Bagwell, Letter, TT, 31 Oct; Abercorn, Letter, IT, 11 Nov 1910.

  122. 122.

    Spectator, 22 Oct; Long, Letter, TT, 29 Oct 1910.

  123. 123.

    Quoted in Kendle, Federal Solution, 121–122.

  124. 124.

    R. Finlay’s Notes of Balfour’s Report of the Constitutional Conference, 18 Dec 1910 in Politics from Inside, 295–296; John Fair, British Interparty Conferences: A Study of the Procedure of Conciliation in British Politics, 1867–1921 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980), 99.

  125. 125.

    The Captains and the Kings Depart: Journals and Letters of Reginald, Viscount Esher, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner, 1938), I:33–34, 19 Nov; Arthur Murray, Master and Brother: Murrays of Elibank (London: Murray, 1945), 68–69; NLI, Ms. 15,215/2, O’Connor to Redmond, 22 Dec 1910.

  126. 126.

    Daily Telegraph, 15 Nov; Daily Mail (London), reprinted, BNL, 1 Dec 1910.

  127. 127.

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  131. 131.

    IT, 8, 16 Dec; TT, 9 Dec 1910.

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  133. 133.

    Stephen Gwynn, Robert Anderson, Letters, TT, 24, 26 Dec; T. W. Russell, Dublin, IT, 8 Nov 1910.

  134. 134.

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  135. 135.

    Hugh Barrie, Londonderry, IT, 24 Jan; William Moore, Derrycorry, MG, 28 Oct 1913.

  136. 136.

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  138. 138.

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  139. 139.

    Henry Page Croft, Bradford, YP, 3 Nov; TT, 22 Dec 1910.

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  141. 141.

    Spectator, 24 Dec 1910.

  142. 142.

    Strachey was as clear in private as in public that he raised exclusion to defeat home rule. PRONI, D1507/A/18/29, Strachey to Carson, 27 July 1916.

  143. 143.

    IN, 2 Jan 1911.

  144. 144.

    One of the Secretaries, Ulster Unionist Council [pseud.], “An Appeal to Ulster,” Spectator, 31 Dec 1910.

  145. 145.

    BNL, NW, 24 Dec 1910.

  146. 146.

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    John Morley, Recollections, 2 vols. (Toronto: Macmillan, 1917), II:354–356.

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    PRONI, D4503/1, UUC Standing Committee Minutes, 5 May 1911.

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    Ronald McNeill, Ulster’s Stand for Union (London: Murray, 1922), 60.

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Rast, M.C. (2019). “The Hollowest Political Cant”: British Parties, Home Rule, and the Parliament Act, 1909–July 1911. In: Shaping Ireland’s Independence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21118-9_2

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