Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/703

 Great Britain and her Empire 539 the money in installments to the government. It would seem as if the land question were gradually being adjusted. 971. Abolition of the Irish Parliament (isoi). In addition to their demand for fair treatment in the matter of religion and land, the Irish leaders have unceasingly clamored for Home Rule. This question has divided the English Parliament for years. Until 1 80 1 Ireland had maintained a separate parliament. The Act of Union of 1801, abolishing the Irish parliament, provided that Ireland should be represented by a hundred members in the House of Commons and by twenty-eight peers in the House of Lords. The Irish patriots resented this arrangement and commenced agitating for the restoration of their own parliament, for the English and Scotch had an overwhelming majority in the British Parliament. But nothing happened for many years. 972. The Home-Rule Question. At last Gladstone was won over and tried in 1886, and again in 1893, to secure Home Rule for Ireland, but failed. But after prolonged agitation on the part of the Irish members in Parliament a Home Rule bill was passed in 1914. But the opposition of the Protestants in Ulster, who feared that Home Rule would mean the predominance of the Irish Catholics, was so violent that the bill was never put into effect. The World War caused the matter to be deferred. Later Lloyd George called an Irish constitutional assembly to try to decide the matter, but nothing came of that. Then there were serious disorders in Ireland, and a republican party made its appearance the Sinn Fein (pronounced shin jane) who pro- posed to fight for the absolute independence of their country. The efforts of the English government to maintain order and repress rebellion led to many horrors and no signs of settlement. IV. THE BRITISH EMPIRE : INDIA 973. British India at the Opening of the Nineteenth Century. No other country has ever succeeded as England has in building up a vast empire scattered all over the globe. This is perhaps the most remarkable achievement of her government.