Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

The Freedom of the Press in Ireland, 1784-1841 by Brian InglisReview by: Asa BriggsIrish Historical Studies, Vol. 9, No. 36 (Sep., 1955), pp. 472-473Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications LtdStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30005288 .

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472 Reviews his notebooks reposes not in Dublin but in the university of Cincinnati, of whose staff Dr Clark is a member. But one cannot grudge their proximity to an author who has produced such a scholarly and erudite work as the present. His selection of illustrations too, though limited to six plates, is well-chosen and wholly relevant. The most interesting perhaps is the photostat copy of a page of the Smock Alley prompter manuscript of the tragi-comedy 'Belphegor' written by John Wilson, recorder of Londonderry, about 1677.

G. C. DUGGAN

472 Reviews

THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IN IRELAND, 1784--141I. By Brian Inglis. Pp. 256. London: Faber. 1954. 25s. (Studies in Irish history, ed. T. W. Moody, R. Dudley Edwards, and J. C. Beckett, vol. vi.)

DR INGLIS'S volume makes a very useful addition to studies in Irish history. Employing a wide range of manuscript material in the Public Record Office and the British Museum in addition to Dublin sources, Dr Inglis traces the changing relation of press and administration in Ireland from 1784, when statutory limitations were first enacted to curb the activities of the press, to the five-year truce during the whig adminis- tration of 1835-41. In the intervening years, various expedients were employed by the administration to deprive the press of the protection which the jury system theoretically gave them. Legislation, direct and indirect, and the use of the courts and the exchequer made press freedom difficult. Independent newspapers usually faced the choice of increasing their circulations by taking an opposition line or securing subsidies by supporting the government. Government papers-' Castle prints' as they were known-were bad, just because they were government papers, and in a period like the eighteen-twenties, when the mind of the Castle was divided, they found it difficult to steer a safe course. Neutral newspapers were always uncongenial in Ireland, for, as Dr Inglis remarks, 'the public appetite was for controversy '.

There were many changes of policy between 1784 and 1841, although the number of devices for controlling the press was necessarily limited. The most systematic policy was that pursued by Peel in his attempt to provide 'honest despotic government'. He avoided many dilemmas by recognising that ' it is easier to silence an enemy's battery than to establish an effective one of your own '. Such a policy was impossible to maintain after Peel's departure. It was not until 1835 that the opposite policy was pursued, when as a result of the close alliance between O'Connell and the Melbourne administration, the Castle was able to enjoy a wide measure of support from liberal newspapers without having to pay for it.

Useful though Dr Inglis's study is, it has certain limitations. As a book it bears too many signs of its original thesis-arrangement. It concentrates almost exclusively on formal relationships, and pays little attention to the changing background of Irish social life, to the developing techniques of newspaper production, and to parallel episodes in newspaper history in England. It would have been possible to have broadened horizons a little without sacrificing historical scholarship. Nonetheless,

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Reviews 473 historians can be grateful for a careful and thoughtful contribution to the growing number of books on the history of the press.

ASA BRIGGS

Reviews 473

DEVOLUTION OF GOVERNMENT, THE EXPERIMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND. Edited by Desmond G. Neill. Pp. 99. London: Published for the Royal Institute of Public Administration by Allen & Unwin. 1953. 6s.

IN recent years the Royal Institute of Public Administration has sponsored a growing numiber of valuable studies in government. This book owes its origin to a conference on devolution of government arranged in 1950 by the Northern Ireland group of the institute. It shows both the vitality and the potentialities of the institute's regional groups and also the fruitful results of cooperation between the institute, the Queen's University of Belfast and senior civil servants in Northern Ireland. The four papers read at the conference were revised for publication and Mr Desmond Neill, the editor, has added a final chapter to complete not only a useful contribution to the study of devolution, but, as important, a welcome addition to the meagre literature of Irish political institutions.

The aim of this book is to contribute 'to the study of the problems of devolution' by describing and assessing the experience of Northern Ireland, and each contributor takes an aspect with which he is familiar. Professor Newark's paper on the constitution of Northern Ireland is a lively introduction, calculated to promote discussion and disagreement, which was presumably its original purpose. Mr J. I. Cook, a former second secretary in the ministry of finance, contributes, appropriately enough for a northern treasury official, a solid and detailed account of the financial relations between the exchequers of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. It is perhaps a pity that he did not feel able to comment more freely, since satisfactory financial arrangements are essential to any successful scheme of devolution. The contributions of Mr D. A. E. Harkness on agriculture and Mr L. G. P. Freer on health and local government are in the nature of case studies in two fields in which the effects of devolution have been different from one another. The final paper by Mr Neill surveys some fields such as education and industrial development not covered by the other contributors and draws some general conclusions.

In his conclusions, Mr Neill points out that there has been very little original legislation by the Northern Ireland government and the main effect of devolution has been to permit Northern Ireland to adapt British legislation. He believes that: the most important contribution of this scheme of devolution lies in the adminis- trative sphere and, in particular, in the way in which decisions can be taken more rapidly when complete responsibility in the transferred service lies in the hands of a local administration. On important points of principle there is a local political executive which is prepared to take decisions, whereas in any other scheme the most important questions would have to be referred to the cabinet in London before significant variations of local policy could be allowed, and a central administration has a natural preference for uniformity which tends to regard the peculiarities of the periphery as troublesome.

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