The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1919-01-04


cerity and bad faith even of the Lib
eral leaders in dealing with the Irish
question.
| Their reason for proposing exclu-
| sion as compromise was that it
would be Undemocratic to "coerce
| uister.' In the passage of the Bill
| through the Commons they had advo-
Gated County option" And admitting
! the right of section of the country
to vote itself out of the nation, it was
| the only arrangement that could be
defended oniany democratic principle.
In Ireland the boundaries according to
Provinces are merely imaginary lines.
It is the county, and not the prov
ince, that is, and has always been,
the political unit for all purposes of
government and administration.
1t was so in the days OF the gov
eminent by Grand Jures;" and it
is even more so now under the 10
cal Government Act" when the 'coun-
ty council elected by the people has
taken the place of the corrupt Grand
jury that was nominated by the Lord
! Lieutenant, its members being selected
invariably from the Ascendancy. It
was the county, and is the county and
not the province, that is taken as the
| unit for parliamentary representation.
| Before the extension of the Franchise
in 1885, each county voted as a unit
| for the members of parliament who
were to represent it.
Since the act of 1885 each member
has his own separate constituency;
but it is the county that is still di-
| vided into two or three parliamentary
divisions-in some few cases there
are more than three-and there is no
overlapping of the county boundaries.
And, finally, each county has it's own
needs and peculiarities which it
would be tedious to explain here-and
which makes this arrangement reason
| able and convenient.
Yet Asquith, in defending the ex-
clusion of these two counties in 1916,
declared that Gin such matter as this
there must always be give and take,
and I consider the exclusion of six
counties a reasonable give and take"
He did not want to coerce anybody.
1t was "unthinkable." But surely you
can never get, in any country, abso-
| lutely unanimous agreement in poll
tics. Modern democracy recognizes this
everywhere, and decides that the mi
nority must give in, and that that is
coerce the majority in Tyrone and
| Fermanagh. And he had declared
from his place as Prime Minister in
1912, that the exclusion of even four
counties was a scheme sto deprive
the Irish people of their national as
pirations.'
So, too, Lloyd George, in 1917,
speaking as Prime Minister on T. P.
O'Connor's motion to have the Home
Rule Act applied Immediately, declared
! that he was willing to concede Home
Rule to that part of ireland which
desired it," and at the same time in
sisted on the exclusion of these two
; counties, where there is clear ma
jority for Home Rule.
8. In two other counties-Derry and
Arnagh-the Professionals constitute
about IS per cent of the whole popu-
lation, said counties thus being Union
list in almost exactly the same degree
as Tyrone and Fermanagh are Ma
tionalist. Derry City, which is tie
largest urban community in Ulster out
side Belfast, has majority of Cath
olics, although it has always Union
list Common Council and Mayor (the
mayor being elected as in all Irish
and British cities, not by the people,
but by the Common CounciD This
injustice is due to the fact that the
Unionist Government (19OO-19O6) in
dividing the city into wards in the
Local Government Act" so jerry
wandered it that a Unionist majority
i'm the Council can always be secured.
In regard to those two counties I
would wish the reader to note-what
will be of Importance in discussing
the possibility of winning Ulster,
that (a) the majority of Protestants
over Catholics is only about 10 per
cent of the whole population; (b>
that there is a small number of sin
cere and militant Protestant Homes
Rulers, and that in consequence, (c)
a turn over of less than per cent
of the electorate would convert them
into Home Rule counties; (d) and
that if this had been accomplished in
even one Of them, the backbone OF
"Ulsterism' would have been severe