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Federalism, devolution and partition: Sir Edward Carson and the search for a compromise on the Third Home Rule Bill, 1913–14

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Jeremy Smith
Jeremy Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Wales, Lampeter
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Extract

Four days after the dramatic launch of the anti-home rule campaign at Craigavon on 23 September 1911, where Sir Edward Carson was ‘delivered to his people’, Fred Oliver, a keen Unionist, passionate federalist and peddler of various constructive political initiatives, wrote to Geoffrey Robinson, editor of The Times. In the course of a long and pessimistic letter he expressed deep distress at the violent tone adopted by Carson at Craigavon, admitting that ‘he was glad to see the Irish Times has been “pole-axing” Carson and co’ and imploring Robinson to criticise similarly ‘all this Ulster shouting and drum-beating and treasonable Tom Foolery’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 140 , November 2007 , pp. 496 - 518
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2007

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References

1 Oliver to Robinson, 27 Sept. 1911 (National Library of Scotland (henceforth N.L.S.), Oliver papers, MS 24845).

2 Oliver to Steel-Maitland, 15 Oct. 1912 (National Archives of Scotland (henceforth N.A.S.), Steel-Maitland papers, GD 193/154/5/51).

3 The present political situation, March 1914 (London, 1914)Google Scholar (copy in N.L.S., Oliver papers, MS 24851).

4 Kendle, John, Ireland and the federal solution: the debate over the United Kingdom constitution, 1870–1921 (Montreal, 1989)Google Scholar.

5 Idem, Walter Long, Ireland and the union (Montreal, 1992), p. 76.

6 Ibid.

7 Jalland, Patricia, ‘United Kingdom devolution, 1910–1914: political panacea or tactical diversion’ in E.H.R., xciv (1979), pp 182-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Bogdanor, Vernon, Devolution in the United Kingdom (Oxford, 1999), p. 47Google Scholar. In his excellent study, British opinion and Irish self-government, 1865–1925: from unionism to Liberal Commonwealth (Dublin, 2001), ch. 8Google Scholar, Gary Peatling also omits Carson from the unfolding federal debate within unionist circles during the pre-war period.

9 Hyde, H. M., Carson (London, 1953)Google Scholar; Stewart, A. T. Q., Edward Carson (Dublin, 1981)Google Scholar; Boyce, D. G., ‘Sir Edward Carson and Irish unionism’ in Brady, Ciaran (ed.), Worsted in the game: losers in Irish history (Dublin, 1989)Google Scholar.

10 Jackson, Alvin, Sir Edward Carson (Dublin, 1991) p. 34Google Scholar.

11 Idem, Home rule: an Irish history, 1800–2000 (London, 2003, p. 217.

12 Andrew Gailey, ‘King Carson: an essay on the invention of leadership’ in I.H.S., xxx, no. 117 (May 1996), p. 78.

13 Lewis, Geoffrey, Carson: the man who divided Ireland (London, 2005)Google Scholar.

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15 Boyce, D. G., Englishmen and Irish troubles: British public opinion and the making of Irish policy, 1918–1921 (London, 1972), p. 105Google Scholar.

16 Idem, ‘Carson & Irish unionism’, p. 152.

17 Jackson, Carson, p. 32.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

21 Jackson, Home rule, p. 144.

22 Ibid.; Stewart, Carson, p. 86. See also Carson to Bonar Law, 20 Sept. 1913 (House of Lords Record Office (henceforth H.L.R.O.), Bonar Law papers, 30/32/15).

23 Jackson, Carson, p. 38.

24 Gailey, ‘King Carson’, p. 79.

25 Ibid.

26 Paul Bew’s important study of this period reveals the existence and potential of such a dialogue taking shape: Ideology and the Irish question, 1910–1916 (Oxford, 1994)Google Scholar.

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28 The Times, 10 Nov. 1910.

29 Dunraven to Bonar Law, 8 Sept. 1912 (H.L.R.O., Bonar Law papers, 27/2/10).

30 Hansard 5 (Commons), xxxvi, 1433–4 (11 Apr. 1912).

31 Carson to Lady Londonderry, 27 Oct. 1910 (Durham Record Office, Londonderry papers, D.2846/1/1/55).

32 Sandars to Short, 31 Oct. 1910 (B.L., Arthur Balfour papers, Add. MS 49767, ff 19–20).

33 Dunraven to Carson, 17 Dec. 1912 (P.R.O.N.I., Carson papers, D/1507/A/3/19).

34 Oliver to Steel-Maitland, 15 Oct. 1912 (N.A.S., GD 193/154/5/51).

35 Milner to Oliver, 13 Oct. 1911 (N.L.S., Oliver papers, Ace. 7726, 85/6/14).

36 The Times, 11 Sept. 1913.

37 Jackson, Carson, pp 36^41.

38 Bew writes: ‘Any slight hint of public willingness to compromise on Carson’s part was seized on by critics as a sign of weakness’ (Ideology & the Irish question, p. 95).

39 Thompson to Carson, 15 June 1913 (P.R.O.N.I., D/1507/A/4/4).

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid.

42 The Times, 13 Sept. 1913.

43 Frewen to Carson, 13 Sept. 1913 (Durham University Library, Earl Grey papers, MS 223/3).

44 Wheatley, Michael, ‘John Redmond and federalism’ in I.H.S., xxxii, no. 127 (May 2001), pp 343-64Google Scholar.

45 The Times, 15 Sept. 1913.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid.

48 Grey to Oliver, 26 Sept. 1913 (N.L.S., Oliver papers, MS 24848, ff 137–42).

49 Lansdowne to Bonar Law, 30 Sept. 1913 (H.L.R.O., Bonar Law papers, 30/2/37).

50 Carson to Bonar Law, 20 Sept. 1913 (ibid., 30/32/15).

51 Bew, Ideology & the Irish question, pp 96–7.

52 Bonar Law to Carson, 18 Sept. 1913 (H.L.R.O., Bonar Law papers, 33/5/67).

53 Carson to Bonar Law, 20 Sept. 1913 (ibid., 30/32/15) (emphasis added).

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Bew, Ideology & the Irish question, p. 95.

57 Ibid., pp 94–6.

58 Carson to Grey, 26 Sept. 1913 (N.L.S., MS 24848, f. 143).

59 Grey to Oliver, 3 Oct. 1913 (ibid., Oliver papers, MS 24849, ff 4–5).

60 Carson to Selborne, 27 Sept. 1913 (Bodl., Selborne papers, MS 77, f. 57).

61 H.L.R.O., Bonar Law papers, 30/2/37, includes a copy of Lansdowne to Stamfordham, 29 Sept. 1913, in which Carson’s letter to the Daily Express is printed.

62 Ibid.

63 Ibid.

64 Smith, Jeremy, The Tories and Ireland, 1910–1914: Conservative Party politics and the home rule crisis (Dublin, 2000)Google Scholar, ch. 5.

65 The Times, 9 Oct. 1913.

66 Chamberlain, Austen, Politics from the inside: an epistolary chronicle, 1906–1914 (London, 1936), p. 569Google Scholar.

67 Ibid., p. 570.

68 Lansdowne to Bonar Law, 17 Oct. 1913 (H.L.R.O., Bonar Law papers, 30/3/56).

69 Carson to Oliver, 3 Dec. 1913 (N.L.S., Oliver papers, MS 24850, ff 9–10) (emphasis added).

70 Oliver to Chamberlain, 4 Dec. 1913 (Birmingham University Library, Austen Chamberlain papers, AC 60/118).

71 Chamberlain, Politics from the inside, pp 587–8.

72 Carson to Selborne, 27 Sept. 1913 (Bodl., Selborne papers, MS 77, f. 57).

73 For example, J. B. Lonsdale, honorary secretary to the Ulster Unionist Council, spoke in Armagh of it being ‘absurd and illogical to begin to consolidate the Empire by splitting up the U.K.’ (Morning Post, 29 Oct. 1913).

74 Plunkett to Oliver, 9 Feb. 1914 (N.L.S., Oliver papers, MS 24851, ff 18–19).

75 Carson to Bonar Law, 20 Sept. 1913 (H.L.R.O., Bonar Law papers, 30/32/15).

76 Garvin to Oliver, 19 Jan. 1914 (N.L.S., MS 24850, f. 138) (emphasis added).

77 The Times, 12 Feb. 1914.

78 Ibid.

79 Ibid.

80 Westminster Gazette, 12 Feb. 1914.

81 Stamfordham to Oliver, 13 Feb. 1914 (N.L.S., MS 24851, ff 32–5).

82 Chamberlain to Oliver, 18 Feb. 1914 (ibid., f. 44).

83 Chamberlain to Oliver, 23 Feb. 1914 (ibid., ff 56–9).

84 Chamberlain, Politics from the inside, p. 615.

85 The Times, 30 Apr. 1914. See also Hyde, Carson, pp 365–6.

86 Dicey, A. V., Introduction to the study of the law of the constitution (8th ed., London, 1915), p. lxxxixGoogle Scholar.

87 Jalland, Patricia, The Liberals and Ireland: the Ulster question in British politics to 1914 (Brighton, 1980)Google Scholar.

88 E. C. Thompson to Carson, 15 June, 12 Dec. 1913 (P.R.O.N.I., D/1507/A/4/4, 21); Archibald Dobbs to Carson, 8 Nov. 1913 (ibid., D/1507/A/4/13). Moreton Frewen hinted at the same thing (Frewen to Carson, 13 Sept. 1913 (Durham University Library, Earl Grey papers, MS 223/3)).

89 Carson’s papers (P.R.O.N.I., D/1507) contain a copy of Churchill’s Dundee speech (in Dundee Advertiser, 13 Sept. 1912) in which he advocated a federal solution for the United Kingdom.

90 Carson to Grey, 26 Sept. 1913 (N.L.S., MS 24848, f. 143).

91 The Times, 20 Jan. 1914.

92 Stewart, Carson, p. 76.

93 Boyce, Carson, p. 147.

94 Ibid., pp 147–52.

95 Quoted in [Edward Marjoribanks and] Colvin, Ian, The life of Lord Carson (3 vols, London, 1936), iii, 325–7Google Scholar; Kendle, Ireland & the federal solution, p. 191.

96 Kendle, Ireland & the federal solution, p. 216.

97 Colvin, Carson, iii, 413.

98 Jackson argues that once ensconced in the Lords his main preoccupation became ‘the beleaguered loyalists of the south and west’ (Carson, p. 62).

99 Chamberlain, Politics from the inside, pp 589–94.

100 The Times, 30 Apr. 1914.

101 Lansdowne to Bonar Law, 29 Sept. 1913 (H.L.R.O., Bonar Law papers, 30/2/27).

102 Bogdanor, Devolution, pp 3–4: Dicey, Introduction, pp lxxiii-xci.

103 Ward, A. J., The Irish constitutional tradition: responsible government in modern Ireland, 1782–1992 (Dublin, 1994), pp 87-9Google Scholar.

104 The Times, 23 Sept. 1913.

105 Butt, Isaac, Irish federalism: its meaning, its object and its hopes (Dublin, 1870), p. 11Google Scholar.

106 Ibid., p. 5.

107 Ibid., pp 15–16.

108 Ibid., p. 47. See also Thornley, David, Isaac Butt and home rule (London, 1964), pp 100-03Google Scholar; Ward, Ir. constitutional tradition, pp 54–7.

109 Butt, Ir. federalism, p. 17.

110 Ibid., p. 58.

111 Wheatley, ‘Redmond & federalism’, p. 354.

112 Bew, Ideology & the Irish question.

116 Earl Grey, ‘Memorandum — Private and confidential’, n.d. (Durham University Library, Earl Grey papers, MS 226/6).

117 Colley, Linda, Britons: forging the nation, 1707–1837 (London, 1992)Google Scholar.

118 Loughlin, James, Ulster unionism and British national identity since 1885 (London, 1995), p. 63Google Scholar.

119 Dicey, Introduction, p. lxxix.

120 Jackson, Ulster party, pp 1–21. Jackson argues (ibid., Introduction) for a sense of Ulster nationalism emerging at this time, an argument supported in Walker, Graham, A history of the Ulster Unionist Party: protest, pragmatism and pessimism (Manchester, 2004), pp 5–17Google Scholar.

121 Walker, Graham, Intimate strangers: political and cultural interaction between Scotland and Ulster in modern times (Edinburgh, 1995), p. 29Google Scholar.

122 Cockran to Frewen, May 1913 (Durham University Library, Earl Grey papers, MS 201/7).

123 Jackson, Home rule, pp 162–4.

124 Carson to Selborne, 27 Sept. 1913 (Bodl., Selborne papers, MS 77, f. 57).

125 This article is based on a paper delivered at a conference on ‘Ireland and the Victorians’, held at the University of Chester in July 2004.1 would like to thank Dr D. G. Boyce for his helpful comments and advice on an earlier version.