Ireland and the Home Rule MovementMcDonnell, Michael, Sir
History
Ireland and the Home Rule Movement
McDonnell, Michael, Sir
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland
The Bill proposed that the Council should be elected triennially on the
same franchise as that on which local authorities are at present
elected, and its powers were to be exercised by four Committees--of
Local Government, Finance, Education, and Public Works--the decisions of
which were to come up before the Council as a whole, for alteration or
approval. The Bill proposed to constitute an Irish Treasury with an
Irish fund of £4,000,000, made up of the moneys at present voted to the
departments concerned, together with an additional £650,000. The sums
paid into this fund were to be fixed by the Imperial Parliament every
five years. Finally, the resolutions of the Council, by Clause 3 of the
Bill, were subject to the confirmation of the Lord Lieutenant, who, by
the same clause, was to be empowered to reserve such resolutions for his
own consideration, to remit them for further consideration by the
Council, or, lastly, "if in the opinion of the Lord Lieutenant immediate
action is necessary with respect to the matter to which the resolution
relates, in order to preserve the efficiency of the service, or to
prevent public or private injury, the Lord Lieutenant may make such
order with respect to the matter as in his opinion the necessity of the
case requires, and any order so made shall have the same effect and
operate in the same manner as if it were the resolution of the Irish
Council."
These were the provisions of the measure which the Liberals introduced
to the disappointment of their Unionist opponents, who had foretold that
it would be a Home Rule Bill under some form of alias, intended to dupe
the predominant partner. It is to be noted that in 1885 Mr. Chamberlain
made a proposal which was on the same lines as this, but went further in
one respect--that there was no nominated element on the Board which he
proposed to create, and furthermore, the powers of the departments would
under it have been transferred to a single elective Board, whereas under
the Council Bill the departments were to be suffered to continue, albeit
under control. Lord Randolph Churchill was prepared at the time of Mr.
Chamberlain's proposal to give even more than the latter wished to
concede, but both proposals were forgotten on the announcement by Mr.
Gladstone of his intention to legislate on a comprehensive basis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account