The Second Home Rule Bill

The general election of July 1892 delivered a crippling blow to those who remained faithful to the memory of their former leader, Parnell. Only nine Parnellites, led by John Redmond, were elected while 71 anti-Parnellites, now led by Justin MacCarthy, were returned. Nevertheless, the Liberals had been able to form a government and the new Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, drafted a fresh Home Rule Bill to give Ireland a parliament of its own.

No Bill in the 19th century occupied so much parliamentary time. Fighting the provisions clause by clause, Unionists – as the Conservatives and Liberal dissidents opposed to Home Rule now called themselves – spoke 938 times for a total of almost 153 hours over 82 days. The Liberals and Nationalists, that is, Parnellites and anti-Parnellites, made 459 speeches, lasting over 57 hours in all. In the protracted debates the Parnellites and anti-Parnellites were unable to prevent their bitter quarrel breaking out in public.

MacCarthy wrote: 'It is all a conflict of jealousies and hates and the national cause is forgotten…I feel terribly depressed.'

On 28 March 1893 representatives of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce met Gladstone in a vain attempt to get him to change his mind.

Next day Adam Duffin, the Liberal Unionist MP, wrote to his wife:
'Dearest – As I expected we did not get much change out of Gladstone yesterday…the old man was jumping with impatience…
Love & kisses to the chicks. We shall defeat this conspiracy…George Clark says the old man is mad & we ought to publish the fact & give no other answer! I say he is bad. He has the look of a bird of prey and the smile of a hyena…'

Arthur Balfour, the former Conservative Chief Secretary, came to Belfast and on 4 April he stood for four hours on a great platform in front of the Linen Hall to watch a march-past of 100,000 loyalists.

Thomas McKnight remembered: 'Such a display the city had never before seen…there was one vast sea of heads…as the various bodies, most of them with bands and banners, filed past. A copy of the Home Rule Bill was burnt publicly and stamped upon amid great cheering.'

All this effort notwithstanding, the House of Commons passed the Bill by a majority of 66 votes on 2 September 1893. The House of Lords was packed when it gave its verdict six days later. It was said that only two Unionist peers were absent without valid excuse – one shooting lions in Somaliland, the other killing rats in Reigate.

The Lords threw out the Bill by 419 votes to 41. A constitutional crisis should have followed this rejection of the will of the elected representatives of the people. But the Liberals had not the stomach to renew the fight. The nationalists in turn were too demoralised by their bitter internal quarrels to conduct an effective campaign outside Westminster.

As Michael Davitt, the anti-Parnellite MP put it: 'I feel almost ashamed to go before an educated English audience while we are showing ourselves so unworthy of Home Rule.'

Exhausted and dispirited, Gladstone retired in 1894, replaced by Lord Rosebery. He made it clear that he would not bring forward a new Home Rule Bill.

Archbishop Croke of Cashel wrote that 'the hope of attaining a legislature for our country within measurable time is no longer entertained by reasoning men.'

In 1895 the Unionists returned to office. The new Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, had no doubt that that his government should leave 'Home Rule sleeping the sleep of the unjust.'

Salisbury had once told supporters that the Celtic Irish were unsuited to self-government and that '[democracy] works admirably when it is confined to people who are of Teutonic race…You would not confide free representative institutions to the Hottentots, for example.'

The Conservatives were to be in power without a break for the next 10 years. Lord Salisbury had stated firmly that what Ireland needed was 20 years of resolute government. His nephew, Gerald Balfour, who served as Irish Chief Secretary, was determined to provide that. In particular, firm coercive measures suppressed any manifestation of disorder in the countryside.

At the same time Balfour was keen to show that Westminster could govern Ireland well, making a devolved parliament in Dublin unnecessary. Some came to describe this Conservative policy as ‘killing Home Rule with kindness’. Actually, since the nationalists were in disarray, there did not seem to be much Home Rule to kill, and so the kindness could be rationed to no more than what the British electorate considered just.

As the 19th century drew to a close, Ireland was remarkably peaceful and calm. One reason for this, undoubtedly, was that so many young Irishmen and women siphoned off discontent from the countryside simply by leaving the island altogether.