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LEFT HOME RULE 42 HOMER are more widely taught, and in many communities in the rural districts classes of adults are taught by special instruct- ors sent out by the Federal and State Departments of Agriculture, by the farmers' lyceums and state granges. In- struction in home economics is now a feature of educational courses in schools and colleges abroad, as well as in this country, as may be judged from the fact that an International Bureau of Home Economics has been established in Fri- bourg, Switzerland, which acts as a clearing house of literature and general information on the subject in general. HOME RULE, in general the control of its own affairs by a separate political State; in British politics, a measure which has been more especially advo- cated in regard to Ireland. The move- ment originated in the formation of the Home Government Association at Dub- lin, in 1870, under the presidency of Mr. Isaac Butt. At the general election of 1874 the party succeeded in sending 60 Home Rule members to Parliament for Irish constituencies. The elections of 1885 and 1886 still further strengthened the party, 86 members following the lead of Mr. Parnell {q. v.). The original scheme has been mate- rially modified since Butt's time and some Irishmen have declared openly for absolute independence, which many be- lieve to be the ultimate aim of the whole party. The conversion of Mr. Glad- stone and many members of the Liberal party to Home Rule principles added immense strength to the movement. In 1893 a Home Rule bill was passed by the Commons, but defeated by the Lords. In 1898, however, an act passed both houses of Parliament, providing for a system of free local self-government in Ireland. The act follows the main lines of the legislation adopted for England and Scotland, accompanied only by such variations as are necessary owing to the special circumstances of Ireland. In April, 1912, Premier Asquith intro- duced a bill providing for a bicameral Parliament, i. e., a Senate of 40 nom- inated by the British Parliament and a House of Commons of 164 responsible to the Irish Executive, Ireland to have 42 representatives in the British House of Commons. An amendment provided for elections to the Irish House of Com- rnons on the basis of electoral representa- tion, the Senate, after an interval of five years, to be so elected. This bill, passed January, 1913, was rejected by the Lords. It was passed a third time May, 1914. The Premier introduced an amendment, providing that the Ulster counties be excluded for six vears, when a referendum should decide the question of their joining the Irish Union. This was a concession to the Carsonites, who threatened armed resistance against allegiance to a Dublin parliament. The Secretary for War Seely told certain British officers that they would not be called on to take arms against Ulster's resistance to Home Rule, and this pledge the British Government repudiated. Colonel Seely, therefore resigned and Asquith took the War portfolio. The Home Rule Act was suspended by the Premier until 12 months after the war. The Irish revolt in 1916 led to an at- tempt by various factions to bring in Home Rule. Lloyd George conducted the negotiations, but failed because the Unionists would not agree that the Irish members should be maintained in un- diminished numbers after Home Rule was set up in Dublin. The Irish Con- vention of 1919, in which all Irish fac- tions but the Sinn Fein participated, failed to reach a complete agreement. HOME, DANIEL DUNGLAS, a Scotch spiritualist; born near Edinburgh, March 20, 1833. He was taken by an aunt to the United States, where in 1850. he had become a famous medium. In 1855 he removed to London and made many converts. He was presented at several courts and to the Pope; and he joined the Roman Catholic Church, but was ultimately expelled for spiritualistic practices. He published two series of * "Incidents of my Life" (1863 and 1872), and "Lights and Shadows of Spiritual- ism" (1877). He died in Auteuil, June 21, 1886. HOMERIDJE, a race of rhapsodists or singers, with regard to whom there are three theories : ( 1 ) That they were the descendants of Homer. (2) That they were poets of an early epoch, but of a regular school, whose works, col- lected and arranged in a complete form, were attributed to Homer. (3) That they were a race of wandering minstrels, who, coming after Homer, imitated him, added to, and interpolated his works. HOMER, a poet of ancient Greece, whose birthplace and date are entirely unknown. Seven cities or more, of ancient Greece, claimed him as a native, and he is generally conjectured to have lived between 1000 B. C. and 700 B. c. He was reputed to have been blind, but the so-called Homeric hymn, from which the legend of him is inferred, is now held to have been of a much later date than the "Iliad" and "Odyssey." These last-named poems were commonly known as Homer's from a very early period. In 1795, however, a German critic, Fried-