Gladstone and Ireland: Irish Policy of Parliment from 1850-94

408 Pages·1971·14.775 MB·English

by  George John Shaw-Lefeve Eversley

GLADSTONE AND IRELAND

GLADSTONE
AND IRELAND
THE IRISH POLICY OF PARLIAMENT
FROM 1850-1894
BY
LORD EVERSLEY
AUTHOR OF “PEEL AND O’CONNELL,” “AGRARIAN TENURES,”
AND “COMMONS AND FORESTS”
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A GREENWOOD PRESS, PUBLISHERS
\ WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT
Originally published in 1912
by Methuen & Co., Ltd., London
Reprinted from an original copy in the collections
of the Brooklyn Public Library
First Greenwood Reprinting 1971
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 74-114520
SBN 8371-4795-6
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE
I
N 1887, after the rejection of the first Home Rule Bill,
at the suggestion of Mr. Gladstone, I published, under
the title of Peel and O’Connell, a review of the Irish
policy of Parliament, from the Act of Union, in 1800, to the
death of Sir Robert Peel, in 1850. I did not carry it further,
as most of the chief actors in the period which followed, includ¬
ing Mr. Gladstone, were still alive, and it was not possible to
write with the same freedom as on the earlier period. There is
no longer this difficulty ; with a few exceptions the chief actors
have passed away. I have therefore continued the story for
nearly another half century, till the retirement of Mr. Gladstone
from political life, in 1894, which marked the close of an
epoch, of which he was the principal figure.
As in the earlier work, I have not attempted to write a
full history of Ireland during this period. My object has
been to explain the action of Parliament in respect of Irish
affairs, to show its sequence and to point the conclusions
from it. I have adverted to events in Ireland only so far
as was necessary for this purpose. In the same view I
have referred to my personal visits to Ireland in 1877-8,
1881-2, and 1887-8, and have included some passages from
two journals of them which I published in 1887-8.
I need not add that I have made great use of Lord Morley’s
monumental work The Life of Mr. Gladstone, and of Mr.
Barry O’Brien’s most interesting Life of Parnell. There are
also the works of Sir C. Gavan Duffy, Mr. A. M. Sullivan,
Mr. T. P. O’Connor, Mr. Justin McCarthy, Mr. William
GLADSTONE AND IRELAND
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O’Brien, Mr. Michael Davitt, and Mr. F. H. O’Donnell,
which deal with the same period, largely from an auto¬
biographical point of view. The Lives of Archbishop Tait,
Mr. W. E. Forster, and the Duke of Devonshire also throw much
light on parts of this period. The summaries of debates in
Parliament in the Annual Register are in many cases as
good as can be. After comparing them with the full records
of debates in Hansard, I have made more or less use of
them.
I must also express my grateful thanks to Lady Byles for
the assistance she has most kindly rendered to me.
Abbotsworthy House, Winchester
February 20, 1912