Mr. Bonar Law declared regretfully that the Government had taken advantage of the patriotism of the Unionists to betray them. As to the Welsh Bill there was no breach of faith, though the time-limit was inadequate, and it would have been better to await the report of the Select Committee (p. [136]), but it was wrong to shock the consciences of its opponents at such a time. But the Government held that the Home Rule Bill and the Amending Bill hung together, and they were breaking solemn pledges in dealing with the former alone. On the morning of August 4 he and Sir Edward Carson had suggested to the Prime Minister that an acrimonious debate should be avoided, and the Prime Minister had promised that until the discussion of the Amending Bill was resumed, no controversial legislation should be taken—on which the Ulster Unionists drew up a resolution agreeing to the adjournment of that Bill—and also that by the postponement of controversial legislation no party to the controversy should be placed in a worse position. The Prime Minister had also told the House that the Home Rule Bill would not be presented for the King's assent till the Amending Bill had been disposed of in the Commons. He had said that circumstances made it inconvenient to fulfil this pledge, but was his new pledge stronger? Amid protests from the Ministerialists, some of whom, headed by the First Lord of the Admiralty, ostentatiously left the House, Mr. Bonar Law likened it to the German promise which the Prime Minister had contemptuously dismissed as valueless (p. [179]). He stated that in the negotiations of some ten days earlier the Prime Minister offered the Unionists two alternatives: (1) his present course, which they refused to consider; (2) another suggestion which they accepted. [What this was did not transpire, but the Prime Minister, intervening, made clear that it was put forward only as a basis for criticism and further suggestion by the Opposition.] The Unionists, Mr. Bonar Law continued, had been prepared to agree to a Bill extending the operation of the Parliament Act to the succeeding session, and to the postponement of a general election till after Home Rule was settled. Mr. Redmond's speech (p. [172]) was a promise of conditional loyalty; but he blamed him less than the Government. Ulster and the Unionists, in spite of all, would help the Government to preserve the country till the war was over; but they would withdraw from a debate which, under present circumstances, was indecent.
Mr. John Redmond (N.) said he would not waste time by replying to Mr. Bonar Law's speech. But the settlement was not a party triumph, but a severe disadvantage for the Nationalists, owing to the delay of the Home Rule Bill. But the moratorium was necessary, and he hoped it would lead to a very different Amending Bill. The two things he cared for most were, (1) that autonomy for Ireland should extend to the whole country, (2) that no county should be coerced into Home Rule. These things were then incompatible, but when Nationalists and Irishmen had fought side by side on the Continent and drilled together for home defence, he believed a real Amending Bill would be offered to the Government by agreement. Meanwhile the Nationalists must cultivate a spirit of conciliation. His speech (Aug. 3; p. 173) was not an offer of conditional loyalty, but an appeal to the Ulster Volunteers to allow the Nationalist Volunteers to fight by their side in defence of their country, and to the Government and the War Office to enable the Nationalists to do their duty. He regretted that it had found no response. Ireland had furnished proportionately a larger quota to the Army than Great Britain. In 1885 the numbers per thousand of the male population were Irish born 76, British born 42; in 1893 75 to 47, in 1903 69 to 44, in 1913 42 to 32. That was the record when Irish sentiment was completely out of touch with British; what would it be now, when Irish sentiment was wholly with Great Britain in the war? The little groups of Irishmen who were opposing enlistment were the bitterest enemies of the Nationalists. Ireland felt now that the British democracy had kept faith with her; she was specially moved by the fact that the war was undertaken in defence of small nations and oppressed peoples. Like South Africa, Ireland had been transformed from "the broken arm of England" into one of the strongest bulwarks of the Empire.
After other speeches, the Bill was brought in amid cheers.
In the House of Lords, meanwhile, the second reading of the Home Rule Bill was moved, but ultimately adjourned by 93 votes to 29. Violent attacks were made on the Government by Viscount Midleton and the Marquess of Londonderry, and its course was defended by the Lord Chancellor and the Marquess of Crewe. The latter said that any expectation on the Continent of civil war in Ireland had been encouraged quite as much by the threats from Ulster as by any action of the Government. What was important was that the Home Rule Bill and the Amending Bill should come into operation at the same time. The Marquess of Lansdowne said that the Unionist complaint was that the Government were enabling the Nationalists to obtain without a struggle what would otherwise have cost them a very serious struggle. They desired adjournment, partly because prolonged and minute discussion of Irish questions would just then be futile or mischievous, partly because they had no security that there would be an Amending Bill.
A similar motion adjourning the Welsh Church Bill was also carried by 89 to 27. The Archbishop of Canterbury said that there was no need for haste, save on purely political lines. The Bill now would be devastating to the Church. The Government were taking advantage of the war to do them an intolerable wrong. Other Peers also spoke. Lord Lansdowne's Legislation (Suspension during War) Bill was then passed through all its stages.
Sir Edward Carson issued an indignant manifesto to the Ulster loyalists, attacking the Government for taking advantage of the war to pass the Home Rule Bill, but reminding them that their motto, now as always, was "Our Country First," and that they must go on with their preparations to assist it to victory. But they would never have Home Rule—never!
Next day, however, the Commons, on the motion of the Home Secretary, disagreed with the Lords' amendments to the Suspensory Bill. He described that relating to the Welsh Church as "essentially absurd"; and the Lords gave way.
But interest that day centred in Earl Kitchener's second statement on the military situation. After paying an emphatic tribute to Sir John French's "consummate skill and calm courage," to the ability of his generals, and to the bravery and endurance of the officers and men, he said that the tide had turned, and there were good reasons for confidence. There were in the field rather more than six divisions of British troops and two cavalry divisions, which were being maintained at full strength; further Regular divisions and additional cavalry were being organised from units withdrawn from oversea garrisons and replaced where necessary by Territorials who had patriotically volunteered for service abroad. Troops were coming from India and the Dominions, and the response at home to the call for recruits had afforded a remarkable demonstration of the energy and patriotism of the young men. The difficulties in accommodating the recruits had been overcome; the War Office had had to deal with an ordinary year's supply of troops in a day. This "splendid material" was to be organised into four new armies, of which the first two were collected at training centres, the third was being formed at new camping grounds, the fourth formed by adding to the establishment of the reserve battalions, from which the units would be detached and organised like the other three. The Special Reserve and extra Special Reserve Units would be maintained as feeders to the Expeditionary Force. He referred also to the various local battalions being raised outside these Armies, to the progress of the Territorial Force and its volunteering for foreign service, and to the division of marines and bluejackets then being organised by the First Lord of the Admiralty. He spoke also of the means of providing officers, but said the chief difficulty was in material rather than personnel, but it was being overcome. By the spring the new armies would be well trained and formidable opponents to the enemy. He added details, also given by the Prime Minister in the Commons, of the increased allowances to wives of soldiers (wife 12s. 6d. with additions of 2s. 6d. for each child up to three and 2s. for the fourth. Provision was also foreshadowed for dependants of unmarried soldiers and naval men, and other matters.) The Marquess of Lansdowne said a few words expressing the "profound admiration and gratitude" of the House for the feat of arms of the Expeditionary Force, and its full concurrence in Earl Kitchener's praise of Sir John French.
Parliament was prorogued next day (Sept. 19) by Commission, after wholly unprecedented proceedings. The House of Lords was nearly empty; the Commons' and other galleries were crowded. The Royal Assent was given by Commission to a number of Bills, and then, in a new formula, to the Government of Ireland and Established Church (Wales) Act, "duly passed under the provisions of the Parliament Act, 1911." Loud cheers followed from the galleries, and no attempt was made to suppress them. Then the Lord Chancellor read the King's Speech as follows:—