아널드, 글래드스턴, 아일랜드 자치 = New Perspectives on British History : Articles ; Arnold, Gladstone and Irish Home Rule

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That Matthew Arnold had a personal hostility toward Gladstone has often been suggested as one of the reasons why Arnold opposed Gladstone`s Home Rule Bill. But their correspondence shows that there was a sort of strained `compromise` prior to the emergence of Home Rule question. Arnold differed from other Unionists in that he appreciated Celtic characteristics as a complement to the defected English culture, which he castigated in Culture and Anarchy. Based on this appreciation of Irish culture, Arnold wrote from the 1870s on many articles and letters regarding the Irish Question. He suggested the establishment of state-supported Catholic University in Ireland and, most importantly, the abolition of `bad` landlordism in order to satisfy Irish peasant`s moral, as well as material, discontent. He also demanded that English middleclass culture be attractive to the Irish people. The turning point in Arnold-Gladstone relationship was Gladstone`s introduction of Irish Home Rule Bill in 1886. Gladstone proposed the establishment of Irish Legislative Body with various exceptions from and restrictions on powers thereof, executive authority which was responsible to the Legislature, and the exclusion of Irish members from Westminster. His Home Rule Bill was based on the recognition of Irish nation`s demand and the necessity to integrate Ireland into the United Kingdom. Arnold found the central point of Gladstone`s scheme to be `a separate national Parliament`. He criticized that Gladstone was naive enough to trust Parnell`s guarantee, that the Bill was to incorporate Ulster into Celtic Ireland and, by allowing nominal self-government, to give rise to new discontent and agitation in Ireland. He denied that the Irish was a `nation`. He also thought that Gladstone`s policy was merely a plunge into unknown condition without any absolute necessity. He cited various examples of other countries, especially that of U. S. A., in order to refute Gladstone`s analogy that Home Rule would strengthen the unity of the United Kingdom. Arnold`s alternative to Home Rule was a `rational and equitable system of local government`. He suggested that three or four (and later, two, in North and South) distinctive local governments be established in Ireland. One specific concern for Arnold in his attack on Gladstone was the Ulster Question. He thought that Ulster represented the `Englishness` in Ireland, which should be kept apart from the rest of Ireland. From the time of Home Rule crisis on, Arnold wanted Gladstone to retire as soon as possible and Salisbury`s government to implement land and local government reforms with the support from the Liberal Unionists. But he was much discouraged by the Conservatives` lukewarm reforms and the government`s hesitation in the suppression of Irish agitations. Like the usual Unionists, Arnold believed that Ulster was a separate entity, advocated local government reform, thought that Home Rule would entail anarchy, and had strong antipathy towards Gladstone. But he did not equate Home Rule with disintegration of the Empire, did not consider that Ireland was a colony, did not believe that private property was sanctified, and did not think that the Irish was inferior. Nevertheless, he regarded Gladstone`s plan as a great threat to the United Kingdom (not the Empire). He wanted to stop Gladstone, and that is why he became a Unionist. However, I believe that both Arnold and Gladstone shared a common goal, which was conservative: unity of the United Kingdom. Pressed by contemporary idee fixe that Home Rule was a sure way to Irish separation and independence and to the disintegration of the United Kingdom, Arnold did not see this affinity. He was a prominent part of the established intellectuals of his age, and his attack on Gladstone was pretty much biased. Of course, he distinguished himself from other intellectuals by trying to tackle with the Irish Question with `disinterestedness` and `free play of mind`, and his ideal was h