England's Case Against Home RuleDicey, A. V. (Albert Venn)
History
England's Case Against Home Rule
Dicey, A. V. (Albert Venn)
Home rule -- Ireland
a colony endures, arrest Colonial legislation. But the Home Government
cannot for any effective purpose interfere with the administrative
action of a Colonial Executive. Given courts, an army, and a police
controlled by the leaders of the Land League, and it is easy to see how
rents might be abolished and landlords driven into exile without the
passing by the Irish Parliament of a single Act which a Colonial
Secretary could reasonably veto, or which even an English court could
hold void under the provisions of the Colonial Laws Act. It is indeed
probable that wild legislation at Dublin might provoke armed resistance
in Ulster. But a movement which, were Ireland an independent nation,
might ensure just government for all classes of Irishmen would, if
Ireland were a colony, only add a new element of confusion to an already
intolerable state of affairs. Imagine for a moment what would have been
the position of England if Englishmen had been convinced that Riel,
though technically a rebel, was in reality a patriot, resisting the
intolerable oppression of the Dominion Parliament, and you may form some
slight idea of the feeling of shame and disgrace with which Englishmen
would see British soldiers employed to suppress the revolt of Ulster
against a Government which, without English aid, would find it difficult
to resist or punish the insurgents. The most painful and least
creditable feature in the history of the United States is the apathy
with which for thirty years the Northern States tolerated Southern
lawlessness, and even now indirectly support Southern oppression.
2nd.--If Colonial independence would be found in Ireland inconsistent
with the protection of England's interests and with the discharge of
England's duties, it would also fail to produce the one result which
would be an adequate compensation for many probable or certain
evils--namely, the extinction of Irish discontent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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