CHAPTER VII.
HOME RULE IN HISTORY
What is the fact of Irish history vital to our present cause? Surely it
is this, that up to the year 1800--the year of the Act of
Union--Ireland had possessed for practically five centuries a Home Rule
Government in some shape or form. In other words, self-government had
been the rule and not the exception throughout the centuries preceding
1800. This is a complete and sufficient answer to those who argue that
the supporters of Irish Home Rule are making a proposal of a completely
novel and revolutionary kind, without precedent in the history of the
Western world.
As a matter of plain fact, it was the framers of the Act of Union who
were the revolutionaries, and it is the supporters of Home Rule who are
returning to the ancient paths. The Home Rulers have five centuries
behind them, as against the one century behind the Unionists. From the
days of Simon de Montfort[56] the Irish Parliament developed side by
side with the English, growing with the growth of English rule in
Ireland, and varying with its limitations. Its powers, indeed, were
placed under a grave and serious limitation by Poynings' Law, passed
in the reign of Henry VII.
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