Augustine Birrell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President of the Board of Education | |
| In office 10 December 1905 – 23 January 1907 | |
| Monarch | Edward VII |
| Prime Minister | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman |
| Preceded by | The Marquess of Londonderry |
| Succeeded by | Reginald McKenna |
| Chief Secretary for Ireland | |
| In office 23 January 1907 – 3 May 1916 | |
| Monarchs | Edward VII George V |
| Prime Minister | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman H. H. Asquith |
| Preceded by | James Bryce |
| Succeeded by | Sir Henry Duke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1850-01-19)19 January 1850 Wavertree, Liverpool, England |
| Died | 20 November 1933(1933-11-20) (aged 83) London, England |
| Party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Mirrielees (d. 1879) Eleanor Tennyson (d. 1915) |
| Alma mater | Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
Augustine BirrellKC (19 January 1850 – 20 November 1933) was a BritishLiberal Party politician, who wasChief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enablingtenant farmers to own their property and for extending university education for Catholics. He was criticised for failing to take action against Irish rebels before theEaster Rising, leading to his subsequent resignation. A barrister by training, he was also an author noted for humorous essays.
Birrell was born inWavertree, Liverpool the son of The Rev. Charles Mitchell Birrell (1811–1880), a ScottishBaptist minister and Harriet Jane Grey (1811–1863) daughter ofRev Henry Grey ofEdinburgh.[1]
He was educated atAmersham Hall school and atTrinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was made an HonoraryFellow in 1879.[2] He joined theSylvan Debating Club in 1872. He started work in a solicitor's office in Liverpool[3] but wascalled to the Bar in 1875, becoming aKC in 1893 and aBencher of theInner Temple in 1903.[4] From 1896 to 1899 he was Professor of Comparative Law atUniversity College, London.[5][6] In 1911 Birrell served asLord Rector of Glasgow University.[4]
His first wife, Margaret Mirrielees, died in 1879, only a year after their marriage, and in 1888 he married Eleanor Tennyson, daughter of the poetFrederick Locker-Lampson and widow of Lionel Tennyson, son of the poetAlfred, Lord Tennyson.[5][7] They had two sons, one of whom,Frankie (1889–1935) was later a journalist and critic and associated with theBloomsbury Group. Birrell found success as a writer with the publication of a volume of essays entitledObiter Dicta in 1884. This was followed by a second series ofObiter Dicta in 1887 andRes Judicatae in 1892. These, despite their titles, were not concerned with law, but he also wrote books oncopyright and ontrusts. Birrell wrote, and spoke, with a characteristic humour which became known asbirrelling.[8]
After unsuccessfully contesting parliamentary seats inLiverpool, Walton in1885 andWidnes in1886, Birrell was elected to parliament forWest Fife at a by-election in 1889, as aLiberal.[9] He retained his seat in the general elections of 1892 and 1895, but in thegeneral election of 1900 he stood inManchester North East and was defeated. In 1903 he editedEight Years of Tory Government, a "handbook for the use of Liberals", which attacked the incumbent Conservative administration's record on issues such as housing and worker's compensation.[10]
In December 1905 Birrell was included in the cabinet ofSir Henry Campbell-Bannerman asPresident of the Board of Education,[5][11] and that month he was sworn of thePrivy Council.[12] He was returned forBristol North at thegeneral election of January 1906, in which the Liberals won a large majority.[5][11] Like Campbell-Bannerman, Birrell belonged to theRadical tradition of the party.[13] Birrell also belonged to a group called the "New Radicals" or "New Liberals", which also includedH. H. Asquith,R. B. Haldane andSir Edward Grey.[14]
Birrell introduced the Education Bill 1906, intended to addressnonconformist grievances arising from theEducation Act 1902. The bill passed the Liberal-dominatedHouse of Commons comfortably, but theHouse of Lords, with a Conservative majority, passed wrecking amendments which undermined its meaning, and the government dropped it. This use of dilatory parliamentary procedures and wrecking amendments over the education bill began a period of political tension between the Commons and Lords which ultimately concluded with the Lords' rejection of the People's Budget of 1909, sparking the Constitutional Crises of 1909–11.[15]
Birrell had been seen as a poor advocate for the bill, although he complained privately that it was mainly Lloyd George's work, and that he himself had had little say over its contents.[16] The defeat of the bill made it impossible for Birrell to continue in his post, and in January 1907 he was appointedChief Secretary for Ireland, to replaceJames Bryce who had been made Ambassador to the United States. While serving in government, Birrell supported a number of progressive measures and proposals such as expanded housing provisions, land reform,[17] substantial increases in education spending at both primary and secondary level,[18] and the provision of school meals.[19]
Like many of his political colleagues and members of the general public, Birrell strongly disapproved of themilitancy and violence of theWomen's Social and Political Union (WSPU; suffragettes). In November 1910, when walking alone from the House of Commons, he was set upon by a group of about twenty suffragettes who had recognised him. While he did not believe there was any serious attempt to injure him, in trying to escape he twisted his knee and "slipped the knee-cap".[20]C. P. Scott wrote in his diary that Birrell feared he might require an operation to remove his kneecap and joked that, if he did, he would remain "a weak-kneed politician" to the end of his life.[21] Birrell was, however, described by the paperVotes for Women as one of a number of "Suffragist members of the Cabinet" who met with a deputation from theNational Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), led byMillicent Fawcett, on 8 August 1913, following a similar meeting by the NUWSS with Prime Minister Asquith on the same day. According toVotes for Women,The Times reported that the ministers asked the deputation what kind of bill the NUWSS was looking for. Other ministers present includedLloyd George,John Simon,Francis Dyke Acland andThomas McKinnon Wood.[22]
Birrell's firstUnder-Secretary and head of Irish Civil Service atDublin Castle administration was SirAntony MacDonnell, who had worked successfully with a previous Chief Secretary,George Wyndham, on theLand Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903. MacDonnell was a well-known advocate for Home Rule. MacDonnell's proposals for what was called "devolution" – the transfer of local powers to Ireland under a central authority – adopted by theIrish Reform Association's - had encountered strong opposition fromUnionists, leading eventually to Wyndham's resignation. This proposal ultimately passed from Sir James Bryce with Birrell inheriting the bill. Birrell modified MacDonnell's proposal and on 7 May 1907 introduced theIrish Council Bill. The bill was initially welcomed byNationalist leadersJohn Redmond andJohn Dillon, and opposed, for different reasons, by unionists and by more radical nationalists who wanted nothing less thanHome Rule for Ireland. At a convention of theUnited Irish League, opposition was so strong that Redmond changed his position; the convention rejected the bill and the government was unable to proceed with it.[23] Birrell suffered further embarrassment when he sought to discontinue the use of theIrish Crimes Act 1887, a coercive measure introduced byArthur Balfour to deal with agrarian crime, only to be faced with an increase in cattle-driving.[24] Another affair, in which Birrell was not directly involved but for which he had to take part of the blame, was the theft of theIrish Crown Jewels fromDublin Castle (where the Chief Secretary had his offices) in July 1907.[25]
Birrell had more success in areas such as Education and the Irish land question. His excellent relations with both Roman Catholic and Protestant church leaders such as the Archbishop of DublinWilliam Walsh ensured the successful passage of the Irish Universities Bill 1908, which established theNational University of Ireland andQueen's University Belfast and dissolved theRoyal University of Ireland. It solved the sectarian problem in higher education by dividing the Protestant and Catholic traditions into their own separate spheres and ensured Catholic, Nationalist scholars had access to university education.[9] Contemporaries also praised his achievement in carrying the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act (1909), which though falling far short in its financial provisions allowed forcompulsory purchase by theLand Commission of large areas of land for the relief of congestion, through a hostile House of Lords.[26]
After the passing, with the support of theIrish Parliamentary Party, of theParliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the Lords to veto bills, Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith introduced theThird Home Rule Bill on 16 April 1912. The Unionists, led in Ireland byEdward Carson and in Britain by Tory leaderBonar Law, formed a private army, theUlster Volunteers, to resist enforcement of the act,[27] and Carson proposed an amendment excludingUlster from the scope of the bill. Birrell was opposed to the exclusion of any part of the country and whenDavid Lloyd George proposed a compromise involving the exclusion of six of the nine counties of Ulster for a period of five to six years Birrell responded by offering his resignation. HistorianRonan Fanning, in a newspaper article, has described him as "the arch hypocrite" because of his public criticisms of such exclusion proposals, but private acceptance of same.[28] The proposal was rejected by both Unionists and Nationalists and Birrell stayed on.[29] In fact, by that stage Lloyd George had effectively replaced Birrell as the Liberal government's negotiator in the Home Rule discussions.[30] The crisis continued through 1913 and into 1914. The bill was introduced for the third time in July 1914, this time along with an amending bill allowing for the exclusion of some of the Ulster counties,[31] but with the outbreak ofWorld War I the bill was passed without further debate, with its implementation suspended until after the war. However, on the collapse of Asquith's Liberal-dominated government in May 1915 and its replacement with a coalition involving Carson, the implementation of Home Rule at any stage became moot.[32]
In the latter part of 1915, Birrell was one of those Liberal ministers (others beingReginald McKenna (Chancellor of the Exchequer),Walter Runciman (President of the Board of Trade) andSir Edward Grey (Foreign Secretary)) who were unhappy at the realignment of Britain's war effort towards conscription, total war and a massive commitment of troops to the Western Front, as advocated by theCIGSArchibald Murray. However, none of these joinedSir John Simon (Home Secretary) in resigning in protest at the conscription of bachelors, due to beenacted in January 1916. However, Birrell wrote to the Prime Minister (29 December) criticizing Murray and arguing that he and Runciman agreed that finance and strategic policy were more important than conscription. Conscription was only applied in Britain, not Ireland.[33]
A further threat to Birrell's administration had arisen with the formation in November 1913 of theIrish Volunteers, ostensibly to safeguard Home rule but in fact, under the influence of theIrish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) aiming to break the union with Britain altogether. Feelings in nationalist Ireland were further aroused by the possibility of conscription. SirMatthew Nathan, Birrell's Under-Secretary since October 1914, told him in September 1915 that theNationalist Party was losing ground in the country and that extreme nationalists, often referred to asSinn Féiners, were gaining support. Nathan took measures such as suppressing newspapers and forcing Irish Volunteer organisers to leave the country. The Irish Party leaders, Redmond and Dillon, cautioned against taking direct action against the 'Sinn Féiners' and the administration kept to that policy.[34] Birrell himself felt that the danger of a bomb outrage was greater than that of an insurrection.[35] His assessment was proved wrong when theEaster Rising began on 24 April 1916.
Birrell had spent Easter in London, where Nathan had telegraphed him with news of the capture and scuttling of the arms ship theAud and the arrest of SirRoger Casement. He had just sent approval for the arrest of the movement's leaders on Easter Monday morning when he was told byViscount French, Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Forces, that the Rising had begun.[36] He maintained contact with Nathan by telegraph and answered questions in Parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday, then travelled by destroyer to Dublin, arriving in the early hours of Thursday morning. From there he wrote to the Prime Minister, giving him his assessment of the situation.[37] In one of his letters he wrote that he 'couldn't go on'. On 1 May, the day after the Rising ended, Asquith accepted his resignation 'with infinite regret'.[38] This regret was also felt by both Nationalist and Unionist politicians in Parliament. While some, such asLaurence Ginnell celebrated his departure, bothJohn Redmond andSir Edward Carson praised the work Birrell completed during his time as chief secretary. Others, such as the Irish civil servant, Sir Henry Robinson, also praised the work Birrell completed and highlighted in his memoirs the number of Acts of Parliament Birrell was responsible for. However, TheRoyal Commission on the 1916 Rebellion (theHardinge commission) was critical of Birrell and Nathan, in particular their failure to take action against the rebels in the weeks and months before the Rising.[39] Birrell acknowledged in his memoirs that he did not stoutly defend himself in front of the commission. However, the commission did understand that Birrell was confined to London due to his cabinet and parliamentary duties between 1914 and 1916.
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While Birrell's first phase as Chief Secretary was a clear success, the period from about 1912 onwards saw something of a decline in Birrell's career which was also mirrored in his domestic life. Birrell's second wife Eleanor had been suffering from an inoperable brain tumour and this eventually caused her to lose her sanity. This affected Birrell deeply, privately and publicly, but he did not tell his political colleagues, who were simply given to understand that she did not care for social life. There were two sons of the marriage, Francis and Anthony.
Birrell was a member of J.M. Barrie's cricket team, theAllahakbarries, along with other notable writers, such asJerome K. Jerome andArthur Conan Doyle. Birrell, however, was not a good cricketer and Barrie was shocked to discover that Birrell did not know which way to hold thebat.
The quality of his public work deteriorated and as one historian has noted the severe personal strain must have been a contributory factor in "...the uncharacteristic combination of excessive zeal and indecision which marked [Birrell's] response to the Dublin industrial agitation of 1913".[40] Only after Eleanor died in 1915 did Birrell begin to regain some of his old energy and effectiveness as a minister.
Birrell did not defend his seat in the1918 general election, nor did he ever return to Ireland. In 1929, he accepted an honorary doctorate from theNational University of Ireland, but storms in the Irish Sea prevented him from making the crossing and he had to receive his degreein absentia.[41] He returned to literature with a further volume of essays and book reviews,More Obiter Dicta (1920) and a book on his father-in-law,Frederick Locker-Lampson.[32] He died in London on 20 November 1933, aged eighty-three. His autobiography,Things Past Redress, was published posthumously.
The main collection of Birrell's papers, those dealing with his period as Chief Secretary, are deposited in theBodleian Library. The Bodleian also contains collections of Birrell's public correspondence with political figures of his day, Asquith, Lewis Harcourt and others. Birrell's correspondence withCampbell-Bannerman andHerbert Gladstone are in theBritish Library. His correspondence withLloyd George is in theParliamentary Archives. Correspondence withHerbert Samuel is inKing's College, Cambridge. Other collections can be found in theNational Library of Ireland,Lambeth Palace,National Library of Scotland andTrinity College Dublin. His family correspondence is deposited in theUniversity of Liverpool.[43]
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922)."Birrell, Augustine".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 30 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 460.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWest Fife 1889–1900 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBristol North 1906–1918 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of the Board of Education 1905–1907 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief Secretary for Ireland 1907–1916 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of the National Liberal Federation 1902–1906 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Rector of the University of Glasgow 1911—1914 | Succeeded by |
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