“April Foolery — The Irish Scare” from “Fun” (1893)

April Foolery — The Irish Scare

John Gordon Thomson (1841-1911)

Fun 57-58 (5 April 1893): 141

Text beneath the title: Mr. Bull. — “Now then, out of the way, you boys. You won’t make an April fool of me!”

Source: Hathi Digital Library Trust web version of a copy in the University of Minnesota library. A bearded figure shouts “Total ruin of the Hemprei”

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The figure waving the newspaper and exclaiming, “Civil War Frightful impending Slaughter” is Joseph Chamberlain, Gladstone’s lieutenant in the House of Commons. According to the Encylopædia Britannica, his views were radical in many areas but not Home Rule for Ireland. His pioneering efforts as Mayor of Birmingham

in educational reform, slum clearance, improved housing, and municipalization of public utilities vaulted him into national prominence . . . . Chamberlain, along with his fellow radical Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, led the left wing of the Liberal Party, and in 1885 they stumped the country in support of their “unauthorized programme,” calling for a graduated income tax, free education, improved housing for the poor, local government reform, and “three acres and a cow” for agricultural labourers.

During the 1880s, when Irish demands for land reform and an autonomous parliament (Home Rule) increasingly bedeviled British politics and caused a deep rift in the Liberal Party, Chamberlain favoured Irish reform, especially at the local level, and stood with Gladstone in opposition to the use of repressive force in quashing Irish agitation. Chamberlain’s instincts, however, were already on the side of imperial unity, and he could not go along with Gladstone in 1885, when the latter committed the party to Home Rule for Ireland. In 1886, when the Home Rule issue came to a vote in Commons, Chamberlain joined with other dissident Liberals (Liberal Unionists) to defeat the government.

Last modified 5 February 2016