[Gutenberg 15450] • Against Home Rule (1912) / The Case for the Union

Excerpt from England's Case Against Home Rule

Three months have elapsed since the first publication of this book. The period is short, but meanwhile events have occurred which strengthen two at least of the positions maintained in 'England's Case against Home Rule.'

The Gladstonian constitution, I contended, failed to fulfil the conditions which it was meant to satisfy.

That this is so is all but admitted even by Home Rulers. The defence of the Gladstonian constitution has been abandoned, if not by its author, at least by his followers. Few indeed are the eulogies which since the dissolution of Parliament have been pronounced by the advocates of Home Rule on the Government of Ireland Bill. Criticism has not missed its mark; the vital defects of the measure pressed last summer on the acceptance of Parliament have been made patent to all the world.

Throughout my statement of the case against Home Rule the opinion is maintained that the discontent of the Irish people is due far more to agrarian than to political causes.

This opinion is, we now know, shared by the leaders of the National League.