WITH INTRODUCTION BY
SIR EDWARD CARSON, K.C., M.P.
AND PREFACE BY
A. BONAR LAW, M.P.
EDITED BY
S. ROSENBAUM
LONDON
FREDERICK WARNE & CO,
AND NEW YORK
1912
Chairman
.
THE RT. HON. SIR EDWARD CARSON, M.P.
Vice-Chairman
.
GODFREY LOCKER LAMPSON, M.P.
Committee
.
L.S. AMERY, M.P.
GEORGE CAVE, K.C., M.P.
THE RT. HON. J.H. CAMPBELL, K.C., M.P.
A.L. HORNER, K.C., M.P.
A.D. STEEL-MAITLAND, M.P.
A.W. SAMUELS, K.C.
P. CAMBRAY
Secretary & Editor
.
S. ROSENBAUM, M.SC., F.S.S.
This book, for which I have been asked to write a short preface,presents the case against Home Rule for Ireland. The articles arewritten by men who not only have a complete grasp of the subjects uponwhich they write, but who in most cases, from their past experience andfrom their personal influence, are well entitled to outline the Irishpolicy of the Unionist Party.
Ours is not merely a policy of hostility to Home Rule, but it is, as ithas always been, a constructive policy for the regeneration of Ireland.
We are opposed to Home Rule because, in our belief, it would seriouslyweaken our national position; because it would put a stop to theremarkable increase of prosperity in Ireland which has resulted from theLand Purchase Act; and because it would inflict intolerable injustice onthe minority in Ireland, who believe that under a Government controlledby the men who dominate the United Irish League neither their civil northeir religious liberty would be safe.
To create within the United Kingdom a separate Parliament with anExecutive Government responsible to that Parliament would at the bestmean a danger of friction. But if we were ever engaged in a great war,and the men who controlled the Irish Government took the view in regardto that war which was taken by the same men in regard to the Boer War;if they thought the war unjust, and if, as under the last Home RuleBill they would have the right to do, they passed resolutions in theIrish Parliament in condemnation of the war, and even sent embassiescarrying messages of good-will to our enemy, then this second Governmentat the heart of the Empire would be a source of weakness which might befatal to us.
The ameliorative measures originated by Mr. Balfour when he was ChiefSecretary, and which culminated in the Wyndham Purchase Act, havecreated a new Ireland. Mr. Redmond, speaking a year or two ago, saidthat Ireland "was studded with the beautiful and happy homes of anemancipated peasantry." It is a true picture, but it is a picture of theresult of Unionist policy in Ireland, a policy which Mr. Redmond and hisfriends, including the present Government, have done their best tohamper. The driving power of the agitation for Home Rule has always beendiscontent with the land system of Ireland, and just in proportion asland p