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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
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’.
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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).
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25 Ibid.
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35 Milner to Oliver, 13 Oct. 1911 (N.L.S., Oliver papers, Ace. 7726, 85/6/14).
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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.
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50 Carson to Bonar Law, 20 Sept. 1913 (ibid., 30/32/15).
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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).
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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99 Chamberlain, Politics from the inside, pp 589–94.
100 The Times, 30 Apr. 1914.
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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.
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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).
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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.