James Bryceâs Home Rule Constitutionalism and Victorian Historiography

Jordan Rudinsky

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Chapter 17 James Bryceâs Home Rule Constitutionalism and Victorian Historiography

In: Empire and Legal Thought

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Jordan Rudinsky

Jordan Rudinsky
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 492â519

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004431249_018

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Abstract

This chapter analyses James Bryceâs constitutional defence of William Gladstoneâs Irish home rule scheme in the context of both Bryceâs scholarly writings and contemporary trends in historiography. Bryce, a lawyer, historian, and minister under Gladstone, was widely considered an intellectual heavyweight of the home rule campaign. His contribution was to attempt to reconcile the home rule scheme with the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, seen as a pillar of the British constitution then even more so than now. His speeches in parliament to this end, I observe, overlap significantly with his academic writings on constitutions and history, in which he categorized Britainâs constitution as âflexibleâ â a concept that became a central touchpoint of the constitutional debate over home rule. I show further that Bryceâs constitutionalism, as expressed both in Parliament and in the lecture hall, relies on certain ideas about history, specifically the importance of Roman history, for which I elaborate the important influence of E.A. Freeman, and the practical relation of the past to the present, on which point Bryce stood in the Victorian mainstream. On this basis, I suggest that the boundaries between law, politics, and historiography are often porous and that therefore constitutional debates are often not fully understood except in light of prevailing ideas of the past and our relation to it.

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Empire and Legal Thought

Ideas and Institutions from Antiquity to Modernity

Series:Â Legal History Library, Volume: 41/16Â andÂ Studies in the History of International Law, Volume: 41/16

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004431249

Publisher:: Brill | Nijhoff

Print Publication Date:: 12 May 2020

Subjects
- History
  - Legal History
- International Law
  - Legal History

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Chapter 17 James Bryceâs Home Rule Constitutionalism and Victorian Historiography

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Empire and Legal Thought

Ideas and Institutions from Antiquity to Modernity

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Chapter 17 James Bryceâs Home Rule Constitutionalism and Victorian Historiography