The period between 1880 and 1885 was an exciting one. Obstruction in Parliament be came a fine art ; there was continuous political and agrarian agitation in Ireland accompanied by and outrages, these being fol lowed by repressive measures, under which the Irish leader himself suffered imprisonment. In the general election of 1885, the votes of the Irish electors in Great Britain were mainly cast for Conservative candidates, some of whose leaders had indulged in flirtations with the Home Rulers. This election, taken on a widely extended franchise, resulted in a further ac cession to the strength of the Home Rule or Nationalist party, 85 out of a total Irish repre sentation of 103 being returned, and this party further held the balance of power in the House of Commons. In January 1886 the Nationalists aided the Liberals in overthrowing the Salisbury government, and Mr. Gladstone, after a year in opposition, again resumed the reins. At the general election of 1885 he had appealed for a majority that would make him independent of the Irish vote. That majority had not been accorded him, but he determined to accept the verdict of the Irish people as constitutionally expressed at the polls, announced his conversion to the principle of Home Rule, and immedi ately thereafter introduced his first Home Rule Bill. In moving the second reading of the measure, he made one of the most powerful and moving speeches in his career. But he had already lost the support of the (Whig" element in his cabinet and in the country, as well as that of Bright and Chamberlain; the second reading was lost by 30 votes, and in the ensu in g general election he went down to defeat. The election, however, showed a majority for Home Rule in Ireland, Scotland and Wales; England, the ((predominant returned a great majority against it. The appearance of Parnell in 1890-91 as co-respondent in the O'Shea divorce suit was followed by a request from Gladstone — urged thereto by the English Non-Conformists— for his withdrawal from the leadership, by his deposition at the hands of the majonty and the formation of a small party of his personal followers, and by his death in October 1891, which however did nothing to heal the divisions within the party. Under these strokes it appeared for a time as if the cause, that united the warring factions were to suffer eclipse. However, in 1892, Gladstone was again returned to power, with a majority of 40 votes. He again brought in a Home Rule measure, which was carried through all its stages in the House of Commons, but rejected summarily by the House of Lords. Shortly thereafter Gladstone retired from political life, and his immediate successor, Lord Rosebery, was not in sympathy with the Irish demands, and accepted the failure of the Home Rulers to convert England, the °predominant as conclusive evidence of defeat. The reunion of the Nationalists under John E. Redmond in 1900 was followed by new activity. The accession of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman to power as Prime Minister in December 1905 (follow ing on the long Unionist regime, 1895-1905) was regarded as of happy augury for the suc cess of Home Rule, and on his death in April 1908, he was succeeded in the premiership by Mr. Asquith. The hotly-contested elections of 1910 resulted in drawn battles as between Liberals and Unionists, and gave the balance of power to the Nationalists and Laborists. Mr. Asquith introduced a Home Rule bill on 11 April 1912 providing for a bicameral Parlia ment, a Senate of 40 members nominated in the first instance by the British government, and a House of Commons of 164 members, responsible to an Irish executive. Peace and war, treaties, navy and army, trade and navi gation, coast defense, coinage, stamps, weights and measures, copyright, religion and free masonry are subjects reserved for the Imperial Parliament. Ireland was to have 42 representa tives in the British House of Commons. (A subsequent amendment provided for election to the Irish House of Commons on a basis of pro portional representation, and the Senate after an interval of five years was to be elected by this method). This bill passed the House of
Commons on 16 Jan. 1913, and was rejected by the House of Lords on 30 January. The bill was reintroduced in the summer session, passing its third reading in the House of Com mons on 17 July. The government refused the Unionist demand that the bill should be the occasion of a reference to the country, and a third time was passed by the House of Cotn mons on 25 May 1914. An amending bill had been introduced by the Premier providing that those counties of Ulster which should by referendum so determine, be excluded from the act for a period of six years. This was a concession made to the demands and threats of the Unionists of Ulster, who, under the leadership of Sir Edward Carson (q.v.), de clared themselves unalterably opposed to being forced into allegiance to a Dublin Parliament, and had pledged themselves to armed resistance. Further difficulties were introduced by an un dertaking given by the War Secretary to cer tain army officers that they would not be re quired to take up arms against Ulster in revolt against Home Rule, which was followed by the repudiation of the pledge by the gov ernment and the resignation of Colonel Seely, the War Secretary, and by the assumption of the War Secretaryship by Mr. Asquith. Mean time negotiations to effect a settlement by con sent had proved abortive. So matters stood at the declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914. Mr. Asquith announced his in tention to introduce a suspensory bill postpon ing the inauguration of Home Rule in Ireland for a twelvemonth or until the conclusion of the war. This measure received the royal assent on 17 September, and the Home Rule Act under the provisions of the Parliament Act, passed in 1911 with the object of curtailing the powers of rejection tip till that time possessed by the House of Lords — automatically became law without further reference to that branch of the legislature.
Following on the serious revolt in Ireland in Easter Week of 1916, an effort was made by the government to bring in Home Rule by con sent of the various factions, and Mr. Lloyd George was the minister deputed to undertake these difficult and delicate negotiations. Success seemed to attend his efforts, for a basis of agreement was reached. The 78 members then sitting in the Imperial Parliament for the 26 Home Rule counties were to form the Dublin Parliament, and the 25 members from the six excluded Ulster counties were to remain at Westminster. Among those who thus accepted seats in the new Parliament were Sir Edward Carson and Mr. J. H. M. Campbell, the attorney-general for Ireland. This temporary settlement was to continue for one year after the war, when the whole question was to be con sidered at a Great Imperial Conference of all the dominions. On two points, however, the agreement failed to command the assent of the Unionist party. The first point dealt with the means by which the exclusion of the six Ulster counties was to continue or be brought to an end, the Unionist contention being that only by their full consent could they be brought in. Under the agreement the Irish members were to remain in undiminished numbers at Westminster until a permanent settlement had been carried through and embodied in an act of Parliament. The Unionists found it quite im possible to vote for a proposal which would maintain the Irish members in undiminished numbers after a general election and after a Home Rule government had been set up in Ireland. On these points the proposed settle ment broke down, and for their failure to ratify it the government was strongly assailed by Mr. Redmond and the other Irish leaders. The former rule of government from Dublin Castle — abolished after the revolt — was again set up, Mr. Henry Edward Duke, a Unionist member of Parliament, being appointed chief secretary on 31 July, and Lord Wimborne ap pointed to his former office of Lord Lieu tenant on 6 August. See also SINN FEIN