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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.
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