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XLVIII: Lord Kimberley and the foundation of Liberal Irish policy: annotations to George Sigerson’s Modern Ireland: its vital questions, secret societies, and government (1868)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

John Powell  and
Pádraic Kennedy
John Powell
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Pádraic Kennedy
Affiliation:
Center for the History of Freedom, Washington University
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Extract

Late in 1868 the Dublin doctor, author and nationalist George Sigerson (c. 1836–1925) published, under the title Modern Ireland, a collection of widely quoted articles he had written for the Daily Chronicle during the previous year. Among the bewildering flood of Irish commentary on British rule, his was notable for its clear exposition and its moderate tone. From the perspective of the Liberal Party, on the verge of being returned to office, Sigerson’s observations were valuable in representing the views of a moderate, middle-class Irish element which might co-operate in implementing a liberal policy acceptable to all parties in both England and Ireland. His credentials as a nationalist were impeccable, yet he had not been seduced by the Fenian inclination towards violence. The book prompted modest praise from critics and enjoyed a reasonable success in the book trade, going through several printings and two editions.

One man who read the first edition was John Wodehouse, first earl of Kimberley (1826–1902), the immediate past viceroy of Ireland, who annotated profusely as he read. His notes are unusual in that they are extensive (52 of 393 pages were annotated), spread throughout the text, and generally lengthy (averaging twenty words per annotated page). A few involve the kinds of ethnically disparaging remarks to which he was prone. However, the majority deal with substantive issues with which Kimberley as viceroy had had to deal (Fenianism and land improvement) or would be dealing later that year as part of Gladstone’s first government (disestablishment and land reform).

Type
Select documents
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 121 , May 1998 , pp. 91 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1998

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References

1 An Ulsterman’ [Sigerson, George], Modern Ireland: its vital questions, secret societies, and government (London, 1868)Google Scholar was probably published in late October or early November, though the exact date is unclear. Material from the Cork Herald, 19 Sept. 1868, is cited in app. III; Gladstone began reading Sigerson’s book on 17 November.

2 On Sigerson’s role as a nationalist see O’Connor, T.P., Memoirs of an old parliamentarian (2 vols, London, 1929), ii, 134-5Google Scholar; Mitchel, John, Jail journal (Dublin, 1913 ed.), p. 406 Google Scholar. On the liberal cast of his mind see his Political prisoners at home and abroad (London, 1890), and the celebratory letter from James Bryce, printed as an introduction, pp v-vii.

3 Kimberley’s copy of Modern Ireland, now in Professor John Powell’s possession, may have come by way of Gladstone, who was reading it when he learned of Disraeli’s proposed retirement, and who may have wished for some indication of his future lord privy seal’s views on the issues raised by Sigerson, (see The Gladstone diaries, with cabinet minutes and prime-ministerial correspondence, ed. Matthew, H.C.G. (14 vols, Oxford 1968-94), vi, 637, 639, 645)Google Scholar. Modern Ireland is no longer among the Gladstone books at St Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden, and internal evidence suggests that Kimberley read it some time between October and December 1868 (Modern Ireland, pp 141 (text), 435 (annotation)).

4 On Kimberley’s career see Powell, John, Liberal by principle: the politics of John Wodehouse, first earl of Kimberley, 1826–1902 (London, 1996)Google Scholar, Introduction.

5 This is in part explained by a general neglect of Ireland in the 1850s and 1860s (see Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland, 1600–1972 (London, 1988), p. 372 Google Scholar).

6 Escott, T.H.S., Pillars of the Empire (London, 1879), pp 171-6Google Scholar; de Grey to Wodehouse, 30 Sept. 1864 (Bodl., Kimberley papers, MS eng. c. 4475, ff 40–41). John Thadeus Delane suggested that there was ‘happily now and then a good man not placed so entirely to his liking as to shirk an untried burden’ (The Times, 12 Aug. 1864).

7 For a discussion of the Irish executive see McDowell, R.B. The Irish administration (London, 1964), pp 52–77 Google Scholar; for further evidence see ‘A Native’, Recollections of Dublin Castle and Dublin society (London, 1902), pp 60–61; Olien, D.D., Morpeth (Washington, 1983), pp 406-12, esp. p. 411Google Scholar.

8 ’A Native’, Recollections of Dublin Castle, p. 53. Kimberley’s description of the Dublin opera — ‘One would have supposed the audience to have been savages just caught’ — also suggests his contempt for the cultural and social events Ireland had to offer ( The journal of John Wodehouse, first earl of Kimberley, for 1862–1902, ed. Hawkins, Angus and Powell, John (Camden Soc., 5th ser., vol. 9, London, 1997), p. 155 (14 Mar. 1865)Google Scholar).

9 Wodehouse to de Grey. 7 Dec. 1864 (cited in Powell, Liberal by principle, pp 99–101); Kimberley journal, 10 Dec. 1865 (Bodl., Kimberley papers, MS eng. e. 2791); Wodehouse to Russell, 12 Dec. 1865 (P.R.O., Russell papers, 30/22/15H, ff 62–3).

10 Anderson, Robert, Sidelights on the home rule movement (London, 1906), pp 54-5Google Scholar.

11 For example, Kimberley and Sir Robert Peel squabbled over the top Irish constabulary positions, which eventually went to Kimberley’s candidates (Bodl., Kimberley papers, MSS eng. c. 4018, 4021, 4022).

12 See, for example, Lord Rosebery’s introduction to extracts from the unpublished ‘Kimberley memoir’ (National Library of Scotland, Rosebery papers, MS 10186, p. 252); Daunt, W.J. O’Neill, History of eighty-five years, 1880–1885 (2 vols, London, 1886), ii, 170 Google Scholar; Russell to Wodehouse, 14 May 1866 (Bodl., Kimberley papers, MS eng. c. 4475, f. 66).

13 Earl of Kimberley, Journal of events during the Gladstone ministry, ed. Drus, Ethel (Camden Miscellany, xxi (1958)), pp 1–15 Google Scholar; Steele, E.D., Irish land and British politics: tenant-right and nationality, 1865–1870 (Cambridge, 1974), pp 82–92, 162–6Google Scholar; The political correspondence of Mr Gladstone and Lord Granville, 1868–76, ed. Ramm, Agatha (2 vols, Oxford, 1952), i, 92-3Google Scholar; The political correspondence of Mr Gladstone and Lord Granville, 1876–86, ed. Ramm, Agatha (2 vols, Oxford, 1962), i, 314 Google Scholar; Gladstone diaries, ed. Matthew, xi, 520, 522, 672; Kimberley journal, pp 365–6 (17 Apr. 1886).

14 Spencer to Kimberley, 30 July 1892 (Bodl, Kimberley papers, MS eng. c. 4474, ff 46–7).

15 By 1886 he had collected several thousand articles which were bound in at least thirteen volumes (ibid., MSS eng. d. 2440–51, 2465; MS eng. c. 4123). Included in toto in the first of these volumes is the The Irish question (Dublin, 1860), a nationalistic work by the political moderate J. P. Leonard. What may have attracted Kimberley’s attention was Leonard’s lament that England, though proclaiming progress and happiness in Ireland, would not allow the formation there of rifle brigades which had been organised to reduce the need for large standing armies. See Kimberley’s speech to the meeting of the North Walsham Rifle Corps, The Times, 10 Sept. 1861 (Bodl., Kimberley papers, MS eng. d. 2492, f. 21); O’Leary, John, Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism (2 vols, London, 1896), i, 63-6Google Scholar.

16 Kimberley, Notes on books (Norfolk Record Office, Kimberley papers, 15/K2/6, p. 143); Smith, Goldwin, Irish history and Irish character (Oxford, 1861), pp 1–4, 194, 197Google Scholar; idem, Reminiscences, ed. Arnold Haultain (New York, 1911), pp. 235–6, 304–5.

17 For a sampling of Kimberley’s profuse criticism of the Irish character across fifty years see Historical notes on James II, c. Mar. 1849 (Norfolk Record Office, Kimberley papers, 15/K2/9); Wodehouse to Thomas Larcom, 14 June 1866 (N.L.I., Larcom papers, MS 7591); Kimberley, annotations on Modern Ireland, below, pp 101–4, 108, 110, 112.

18 Kimberley, Commonplace book (Norfolk Record Office, Kimberley papers, 15/K2/7, p. 27); Kimberley, annotation on Modern Ireland, below, p. 103.

19 Kimberley journal, 31 Oct. 1869 (Bodl., Kimberley papers, MS eng. e. 2792).

20 Kimberley was speaking as much to himself as to Conservative Lords in the debate on Irish church disestablishment when he urged action on ‘principles of justice’, dismissing ‘old feelings and prejudices’ (Hansard 3, cxcii, 2122 (20 June 1868)).

21 See Bunbury, C.J.F., Journal of a residence at the Cape of Good Hope (London, 1848), pp 23-5, 135Google Scholar; Kimberley, Notes on books (Norfolk Record Office, Kimberley papers, 15/K2/6, p. 45); Kimberley, annotations on Modern Ireland, below, pp 102, 108.

22 Cf. entries in Kimberley, Journal of events, p. 9; Kimberley journal, p. 242 (31 Oct. 1869). Kimberley’s mental struggle is encapsulated in two contending passages from his journal (ibid., p. 185):

24 March 1866 … No people but the Irish could be such egregious fools as to be led by such phantoms. On the whole I think there is no people on the face of the earth more unworthy of respect. They have always been despised by the Englishman and as a nation they have always deserved his contempt. ‘Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel’ should be their motto.

1 April 1866. Easter Sunday. My remarks about Irishmen on the other side of the page are unfair and unjust. They are excusable only on account of the bilious condition of my mind and body when I wrote them. I recant. They are an unfortunate people: that is too true, but it is mean to cast upon them imputations for faults which we have aggravated by evil treatment. I don’t absolutely despair …

23 Kimberley many times alluded to this enduring hostility: Kimberley journal, p. 168 (6 July 1865); Wodehouse to Clarendon, 26 Feb. 1865 (Bodl., Kimberley papers, MS eng. c. 4020); Wodehouse to Grey, 10 May 1865 (ibid., MS eng. c. 4025); Wodehouse to Grey, 18 Sept. 1865 (ibid., MS eng. c. 4032); see also Kimberley, annotations on Modern Ireland, pp 51, 304.

24 Wodehouse to George Grey, 8 Dec. 1864 (B.L., Ripon papers, Add. MS 43522, ff 16–23); Wodehouse to Gladstone, 12 Feb. 1866 (B.L., Gladstone papers, Add. MS 44224, ff 31–2).

25 Unless otherwise noted, parenthetical notations from this point refer to Kimberley’s annotations on Sigerson’s Modern Ireland, reproduced below.

26 On the social allure of the Fenians’ lack of ‘heads’ see Comerford, R.V., The Fenians in context (Dublin, 1982), pp 109-11Google Scholar; idem, ‘Patriotism as pastime’ in I.H.S., xxii, no. 87 (Mar. 1981), pp 239–50; Griffin, Brian, ‘Social aspects of Fenianism in Connacht and Leinster, 1858–1870’ in Éire-Ireland, xxi, no. 2 (1986), pp 16–39 Google Scholar.

27 Comerford, R.V., ‘Gladstone’s first Irish enterprise, 1864–70’ in Vaughan, W.E. (ed.), A new history of Ireland, v: Ireland under the union, 1:1801-70 (Oxford, 1989), pp 434-5Google Scholar.

28 On the difficulty in evaluating press claims about the number of Fenian adherents see ibid., pp 435–6; cf. Foster’s estimate in Modern Ireland, 1600–1972, p. 394.

29 See, for example, Kimberley to Hugh Rose, 17 June 1866 (Bodl., Kimberley papers, MS eng. c. 4048, ff 134–5).

30 Correspondence between Cavaliere Brigodiero Tassinari and Wodehouse, Mar.–Apr. 1860 (ibid., MS eng. c. 4006, ff 137–40).