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“The Parnell of Wales has become the Chamberlain of England” Lloyd George and the Irish Question*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

David W. Savage
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Abstract

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Type
Symposium: Ireland and British Politics, 1914-31
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , November 1972 , pp. 86 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1972

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Footnotes

*

The quotation is from A. G. Gardiner, Prophets, Priests, and Kings (London, 1909), p. 136.

An earlier form of this paper was delivered at the New England Regional meeting of the Conference on British Studies at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, Saturday April 24, 1971.

References

1. Gwynn, Denis, The History of Partition (Dublin, 1950), pp. 84, 8Google Scholar. Gwynn lists the eight proposals in an Appendix, p. 257.

2. George, William, My Brother and I (London, 1958), pp. 128–29, 260Google Scholar; Davies, W. Watkin, Lloyd George (London, 1939), p. 79Google Scholar.

3. Jones, Thomas, Lloyd George (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), p. 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. Stansky, Peter, Ambitions and Strategies: The Struggle for the Leadership of the Liberal Party in the 1890's (Oxford, 1964), p. 159Google Scholar.

5. Speech delivered in support of a resolution favoring Welsh and Scottish self-government at a conference of the South Wales Liberal Federation, February 4, 1890. Quoted in du Parcq, Herbert, Life of David Lloyd George (London, 1912) I, 86–89Google Scholar.

6. Morgan, Kenneth, Wales in British Politics, 1868-1922 (Cardiff, 1963), p. 90Google Scholar; Thomson, Malcolm, David Lloyd George: The Official Biography (London, 1948), I, 117–18Google Scholar.

7. For the political history of Welsh Nationalism see Morgan, Wales in British Politics. Cf. Hanham, H. J., Scottish Nationalism (Cambridge, Mass., 1969)Google Scholar.

8. The Times, January 19, 1895; Stansky, , Ambitions and Strategies, pp. 158–63Google Scholar.

9. Fraser, Peter, Joseph Chamberlain: Radicalism and Empire, 1868-1914 (New York, 1966), pp. 60–65Google Scholar; Garvin, J. L., The Life of Joseph Chamberlain (London, 1933), II, 7-9, 75, 145, 232Google Scholar.

10. 4 Hansard 32; 537 (29 March, 1895).

11. Morgan, , Wales in British Politics, pp. 162–63Google Scholar.

12. The Saturday Review, March 28, 1896; Du Parcq, , Life of David Lloyd George, I, 151–53Google Scholar.

13. Garvin, , The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, II, 253Google Scholar.

14. See, for instance, Lyons, F. S. L., “The Irish Unionist Party and the Devolution Crisis of 1904-5,” Irish Historical Studies, VI (March, 1948), 1–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ward, Alan J., “Frewen's Anglo-American Campaign for Federalism, 1910-21,” Irish Historical Studies, XV (March, 1967), 256–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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16. 4 Hansard 53: 974–80 (17 February, 1898)Google Scholar.

17. 4 Hansard 61: 811 (13 July, 1898)Google Scholar.

18. See, for instance, Masterman, Lucy, “Recollections of David Lloyd George, Part II,” History Today, IX (April, 1959), 274–76Google Scholar.

19. Rowland, Peter, The Last Liberal Governments: The Promised Land, 1905-1910 (New York, 1968), pp. 55, 130–33Google Scholar; Gwynn, Denis, The Life of John Redmond (London, 1932), pp. 112–18Google Scholar.

20. The Times, January 17, 1906.

21. Ibid., February 9, 1907.

22. Morgan, , Wales in British Politics, pp. 255–59Google Scholar.

23. The Times, January 20, 1910.

24. Churchill at this time even fancied himself as Irish Chief Secretary and architect of Irish national freedom. See, Churchill, Randolph S., Winston S. Churchill, II, Young Statesman, 1901-1914 (Boston, 1967), 438Google Scholar.

25. Jenkins, Roy, Asquith (London, 1964), p. 210Google Scholar.

26. Masterman, Lucy, C. P. G. Masterman: A Biography (London, 1939), p. 159Google Scholar; Rowland, , The Last Liberal Governments, pp. 289–90Google Scholar; Lyons, F.S.L., John Dillon: A Biography (Chicago, 1968) pp. 312–13Google Scholar.

27. The Times, April 15, 16, 18, 1910. See also the Unionist leadership's view in Chamberlain, Austen, Politics from Inside: An Epistolary Chronicle, 1906-1914 (London, 1936), pp. 210–17Google Scholar.

28. Gwynn, , John Redmond, pp. 177–84Google Scholar.

29. The complete memorandum is to be found in SirPetrie, Charles, The Life and Letters of the Right Hon. Sir Austen Chamberlain (London, 1939), I, 381–88Google Scholar.

30. The basic work is Semmel, Bernard, Imperialism and Social Reform (Cambridge, Mass., 1960)Google Scholar. Alfred M. Gollin has added historical detail to this perspective in his biographies of J. L. Garvin and Lord Milner. The doctoral dissertation by Scally, Robert, “The Sources of the National Coalition of 1916,” (Princeton University, 1967)Google Scholar draws the connection between the 1910 coalition plan and the Lloyd George government of 1916.

31. Jenkins, , Asquith, p. 217Google Scholar.

32. Petrie, , The Life and Letters of Austen Chamberlain, I, 259–61Google Scholar.

33. Masterman, , C. F. G. Masterman, p. 170Google Scholar.

34. Rowland, , The Last Liberal Governments, pp. 312–13Google Scholar.

35. The literature on competing groups and policies within the Unionist Party in this period is growing but is not yet synthesized. See especially, Cornford, James, “The Transformation of Conservatism in the Late Nineteenth Century,” Victorian Studies, VII (September, 1963), 35–66Google Scholar; Buckland, P. J., “The Southern Irish Unionists, the Irish Question, and British Politics, 1906-1914,” Irish Historical Studies, XV (March, 1967), 228–255CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Blewett, Neal, “Free Fooders, Balfourites, Whole Hoggers. Factionalism within the Unionist Party, 1906-10,” The Historical Journal, XI, 1 (1968), 95–124CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36. The fullest accounts of these negotiations, primarily from the Unionist side, are Gollin, Alfred, ‘The Observer’ and J. L. Garvin (Oxford, 1960), pp. 168–234Google Scholar and Kendle, J. E., “The Round Table Movement and ‘Home Rule All Round,’” The Historical Journal, XI, 2 (1968), 332–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37. A check of the Parliamentary Debates indicates that, apart from four short speeches on the financial clauses of the bill, Lloyd George only made one partisan speech during the Home Rule debates.

38. A conversation of September 7, 1913 recorded by Braithwaite, J. W., in Scally, “The Sources of the National Coalition of 1916,” p. 187Google Scholar. He repeated the same sentiment in a letter to Smith, F. E., The Second Earl of Birkenhead, P. E.: The Life of F. E. Smith, First Earl of Birkenhead (London, 1965), p. 227Google Scholar.

39. Gollin, , ‘The Observer’ and J. L. Garvin, pp. 416–17Google Scholar. Winston Churchill was also at this time talking frequently with his Unionist friends of his “fusionist aspirations” and working for “the federal and conciliation movements.” See Churchill, , Winston S. Churchill, Companion Vol. II, Part 3, 1406-07, 1416Google Scholar.

40. Colvin, Ian, The Life of Lord Carson (New York, 1957), III, 167–68Google Scholar.

41. LordRiddell, , Lord Riddell's War Diary, 1914-1918 (London, 1933), pp. 179, 186-87, 189Google Scholar.

42. For a more thorough analysis of the Lloyd George scheme, see Savage, David W., “The Attempted Home Rule Settlement of 1916,” Eire-Ireland, II (Autumn, 1967), 143–45Google Scholar; and Lyons, , John Dillon, pp. 383–403Google Scholar.

43. Morgan, Kenneth O., “Lloyd George's Premiership: A Study in ‘Prime Ministerial Government,’” The Historical Journal, XIII, 1 (1970), 130–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44. On Lloyd George's fear of a Nationalist-Asquith alliance, see David, Edward, “The Liberal Party Divided, 1916-1918,” The Historical Journal, XIII, 3 (1970), 509–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the complications caused by the Irish diaspora, see Ward, Alan J., Ireland and Anglo-American Relations, 1899-1921 (Toronto, 1969)Google Scholar. The government was supplied after May 1916 with a monthly report on conditions in Ireland compiled from police reports by the Chief Secretary, H. E. Duke.

45. Wilson, Trevor (ed.) The Political Diaries of C. P. Scott, 1911-1928 (Ithaca, 1970), pp. 337–38Google Scholar.

46. MacDowell, R. B., The Irish Convention, 1917-18 (London, 1970), p. 159Google Scholar.

47. PRO, War Cabinet 385, April 6, 1918, Cabinet Office Papers, Cab. 23/6.

48. This was the opinion of the G. O. C., Irish Command, the Inspector General of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Chief Secretary (PRO, War Cabinet 375, March 27, 1918, Cab. 23/5). It was further reinforced on the following day by the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and by Sir Edward Carson (PRO, War Cabinet 376, March 28, 1918, Cab. 23/5). See Alan J. Ward, “Lloyd George and the 1918 Conscription Crisis,” unpublished paper delivered at the American Historical Association Convention, Boston, 1970. Ward attributes Lloyd George's mistaken policy more to poor information than to political expediency.

49. PRO, War Cabinet 383, April 5, 1918, Cab. 23/6.

50. Beaverbrook Library, Milner to Lloyd George, March 28, 1918, enclosing Oliver to Milner, March 27, 1918, Lloyd George Papers, F/38/3/21; Amery to Lloyd George, April 17, 1918, Lloyd George Papers, F/21/1/18.

51. Beaverbrook Library, Guest to Lloyd George, April 5, 1918, Lloyd George Papers, F/21/2/16.

52. See, The Times, April 16, 1918; Amery, L. S., My Political Life (London, 1953), II, 152–53Google Scholar. Tie Times printed three special articles by F. S. Oliver on federalism and the Irish question, May 3, 4, 6, 1918. It had done the same in 1910 with Oliver's treatise on federalism, October 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, November 2.

53. Beaverbrook Library, Lloyd George to A. Chamberlain, April 13, 1918. Lloyd George Papers, F/7/2/9.

54. BM, Long to Balfour, April 14, 1918. Balfour Papers, Add. MSS, 49777, fols. 197-98; PRO, War Cabinet Memorandum G. T. 4486, May 9, 1918, Cab. 24/50.

55. History of The Times, IV, Pt. I, 357–58Google Scholar; Wrench, John Evelyn, Geoffrey Dawson and Our Times (London, 1955), p. 166Google Scholar.

56. Report of the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Labour Party (Nottingham, London, 1918), pp. 70–71Google Scholar.

57. University of Birmingham, Selborne to A. Chamberlain, March 21, 1918, Austen Chamberlain Papers, AC 18/8.

58. This was Christopher Addison's suspicion. Addison, Christopher, Four and a Half Years (London, 1934), II, 514Google Scholar.

59. New Statesman, May 18, 1918.

60. Beaverbrook Library, Guest to Lloyd George, May 3, 1918, Lloyd George Papers, F/21/2/20.

61. Beaverbrook Library, Amery to Lloyd George, April 29, 1918, Lloyd George Papers, F/2/1/22.

62. This is the theme of LordBeaverbrook, , The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George (New York, 1963)Google Scholar and Wilson, Trevor, Downfall of the Liberal Party, 1914-1935 (Ithaca, 1966)Google Scholar.

63. See LordRiddell, , Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After, 1918-1923 (New York, 1934), pp. 152–53Google Scholar; Jones, Thomas, Whitehall Diary, ed. Middlemas, Keith (London, 1969), I, 118Google Scholar; Wilson, , Diaries of C. P. Scott, p. 382Google Scholar.

64. Cowling, Maurice, The Impact of Labour, 1920-1924: The Beginnings of Modern British Politics (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 91–122Google Scholar; Morgan, , “Lloyd George's Premiership,” Historical Journal, XIII, 151Google Scholar; The Times, March 16, 1920; Wilson, , Downfall of the Liberal Party, pp. 193–98Google Scholar.

65. Macardle, Dorothy, The Irish Republic (Dublin, 1951), p. 456Google Scholar.

66. The most balanced assessment is still Pakenham, Frank, Peace by Ordeal (London, 1935), pp. 71–79Google Scholar. Studies based on recently opened archival material are Bryce, D. G., “How to Settle the Irish Question; Lloyd George and Ireland, 1916-21,” in Taylor, A. J. P. (ed.), Lloyd George: Twelve Essays (New York, 1971), pp. 137–64Google Scholar; and Cowling, , The Impact of Labour, pp. 122–28Google Scholar.

67. Ibid., pp. 131-44.

68. Hurst, Michael, Joseph Chamberlain and Liberal Reunion: The Round Table Conference of 1887 (London, 1967), p. 111Google Scholar.