d by Lord
Morley: "We want every one of their eighty votes."

UNIONISM AS "ROME RULE"

Those who fear Home Rule as "Rome Rule" in Ireland had better, indeed,
examine themselves as to whether their action in defeating the Home
Rule Bill of 1893 has not, so far as it goes, led to this very same
effect in England. It must never be forgotten that it was with the help
of the 80 Irish votes, pressed back to Westminster by the Irish Bishops
in sympathy with the Catholic Bishops in England, that the British
Parliament passed those clauses of the 1902 Education Act which are
most offensive to English Nonconformists. Dr. Clifford has coined the
expression "Rome on the rates." It is not, perhaps, a phrase that tells
the whole story. We cannot forget how many of the poorer Catholics in
our great cities are the descendants of the unhappy Irishmen who were
evicted between 1840 and 1880 from the cabins of Ireland. Those poor
exiles have a special call on our purses. But Anglicanism--rich
Anglicanism--has also been placed on the rates. It has been placed
there through a working alliance between the English Church and Rome,
carrying out its aims by means of the votes of the Catholic Irish
members. Those members only acted up to their principles in so voting.
It was Great Britain that compelled them to remain as full voters in
full strength at the British Parliament. As long as they are there the
Irish must be expected to vote for the interests of their own religion
and their own people. But what of the sincerity of the people who,
after using the aid of the Irish to endow the Catholic and Anglican
schools in England, now raise this outcry about "Rome Rule" in Ireland?

It is vital, indeed, to point out that in these matters Home Rule for
Ireland is the only possible road to Home Rule for England also. Under
the 1912 Bill the Irish vote at Westminster is reduced to 42, and will,
if English self-government be also extended, be excluded from education
altogether. Thus the first plain and practical result of Irish Home
Rule would be not so much to give the Roman Catholics more power in
Ireland as to give the Protestants more liberty in England. But who can
doubt that it would also introduce a new element of civil power into
the schools of Ireland?[52]

NATIONALISM AND RELIGION

As to Ireland itself, indeed, there can be no doubt that the great
national wrongs of the Irish people have immensely strengthened the
hold of the Roman Ca