Letter from Herbert Samuel to Edward Carson, 21 July 1916 Letters 1916-1923 Herbert Samuel

This work was originally published by Maynooth University in Ireland in 2017. In 2026 this data, stored in a relational database was extracted and converted into this TEI/XML document.

 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

This is an open access work licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Letter from Herbert Samuel (1870-1963) to Edward Carson (1854-1935). Carson was a prominent Unionist Politician. Originally a practicing solicitor from Dublin, Carson's opposition to the proposed third Home Rule bill made him the figure head of Unionism throughout the island. He was the centerpiece of the speaking tour that culminated in Ulster Day (28 September 1912), when just under half a million signed Ulster's solemn league and covenant pledging to use ‘all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a home rule parliament in Dublin’. Carson inaugurated the Larne gunrunning in 1914 which armed the UVF, many of whom Carson would encourage to join the British Army throughout the First World War.. Samuel, liberal politician, served as Home Secretary of the British Government 1916. During the Great War he initiated legislation which offered thousands of Russian refugees a choice between conscription into the British Army, or returning to Russia for military service. Samuel resigned as Home Secretary following Asquith's replacement by David Lloyd George.

 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Carson Papers, D1507/A/18/1/27 https://letters1916.ie/item/4362 English Herbert Samuel 1916-07-21 Home Office, Whitehall, S.W., England Edward Carson Male 1963 Politics Politics

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 Personal & Private Home Office, Whitehall, S.W. July 21st 1916 Dear Carson, If any alteration is made in the terms of the clause agreed to by Redmond and yourself regarding the provisional character of the Irish Bill, the result must be our immediate support, and Nationalists throughout Ireland will claim that the failure 2. of the settlement is due to their having been deceived as to the terms to be embodied in the Bill. It is obvious that the task of maintaining peace and order in Ireland will be rendered far more difficult if the work takes place in such circumstances. On the other hand the Cabinet recognises that it is necessary to meet your point that it must be made quite clear to the Ulster counties that they will not automatically be swept into Home Rule Ireland through any failure to make an Order in Council or for any other reason, but that the re-union of Ireland can only be effected by the special and deliberate action of the Imperial Parliament. The only way that I can see to meet this situation is to keep the sub. section relating to the provisional character of the measure untouched, and to add to it a declaratory sub. section that will embody your point in specific terms. I enclose the draft which has drawn to effect this purpose. Whether Redmond will agree I do not know, but before discussing the point with him or laying it before the Cabinet I should be glad to know whether you concur. I hope you will agree that if a surprise is to come, it had better be on a disagreement on an additional declaration such as this because of an alteration in the wording of the agreed terms. The suggestion you made to as to the form of the first clause can be adapted without difficulty. I enclose the re-draft. I am not sending the whole Bill because there is to be a Conference on it this afternoon with & Sir H. Robinson, and further alterations will no doubt be made. With respect to the name for the six counties, I appreciate your objection to the title of "the excluded area." On the other hand to call them "North Ireland" will be taken in the rest of the country as hoisting the flag of a permanent separation and as the definite constitution of a definite new state within the Empire, (which is not, I believe, what you have in view) It must so offend the sentiment of great numbers of people as to intensify in a high degree the opposition to the whole scheme. I would therefore propose to call them in the Bill what we are all now calling them in these discussions "The Six Counties." I sincerely hope that you will not dissent. Yours very truly, Herbert Samuel. P.S. The Cabinet meeting for this mornings has been postponed till tomorrow as LdGeorge & several others had to be away to-day. Herbert Samuel Letter from John Condon to Herbert Samuel, 17 June 1916Letter from Herbert Samuel to John P. Boland, 1 August 1916Letter from ‘One of the Hard Pressed’ to Mr. Samuel, 28 July 1916Letter from Clara Moser to Herbert Samuel, 3 June 1916Letter from Herbert Samuel to Edward Carson, 13 July 1916Letter from Herbert Samuel to Edward Carson, 21 July 1916Letter from J.H. Morgan to Herbert Samuel, 4 August 1916 Edward Carson Letter from David Lloyd George to Edward Carson, 29 May 1916Letter from Sir Dawson Bates to Edward Carson, 2 December 1915Letter from William Robert Young to Edward Carson, 9 July 1916Letter from Alexander McDowell to Edward Carson, 20 July 1916Letter from Hugh de Fellenerg Montgomery to Edward Carson, 31 May 1916Letter from Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery to Edward Carson, 9 June 1916Letter from Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery to Edward Carson, 9 June 1916Letter from Frederick Hugh Crawford to Edward Carson, 8 March 1916Letter from Edward Carson to Thomas McGregor Greer, 12 July 1916Letter from Sir Edward Carson to Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples, 10 December 1915Letter to Edward Carson, 19 November 1915Letter from William R. Young to Edward Carson, 2 November 1915Letter from J.M. Wilson to Edward Carson, 3 November 1915Letter from Turner Oliver Read to Edward Carson, 12 November 1915Letter from William R. Young to Edward Carson, 12 November 1915Letter from Harold Tennant to Edward Carson, 17 November 1915Letter from Henry Mulholland to Pembroke Wicks, circa November 1915Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Edward Carson, 25 November 1915Letter Wilfrid Spender to Edward Carson, 3 December 1915Letter to Edward Carson, 4 December 1915Letter from Robert Thompson to Edward Carson, 18 December 1915Letter from W.T. Bailey to Edward Carson, 22 December 1915Letter from General Nevil Macready to Edward Carson, 1 May 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 2 May 1916Letter from Horace Plunkett to Edward Carson, 4 May 1916Postcard to Edward Carson, 4 May 1916Letter from D.P. Barton to Edward Carson, 5 May 1916Letter from Edward Carson to Herbert Asquith, 9 May 1916Letter from Herbert Asquith to Edward Carson, 10 May 1916Copy of a letter from John Crozier to Edward Carson, 9 May 1916Letter from J.M. Wilson to Edward Carson, 11 May 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 15 May 1916Letter from David Lloyd George to Edward Carson, 3 June 1916Letter from G.L. Moore to Edward Carson, 6 June 1916Letter from sir William Robert Robertson to Edward Carson, 7 June 1916Letter from Nevil Macready to Edward Carson, 8 June 1916Letter from Arthur Warren Samuels to Edward Carson, 14 June 1916Letter from Frederick Stringer Wrench to Edward Carson, 15 June 1916Letter from Somerset Francis Saunderson to Edward Carson, 15 June 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 17 June 1916Letter from Somerset Francis Saunderson to Edward Carson, 17 June 1916Letter from Charles Clements to Edward Carson, 21 June 1916Letter from Ronald McNeill to Edward Carson, 22 June 1916Letter from John Crozier to Edward Carson, 26 June 1916Letter from Charles F. Down to Edward Carson, 28 June 1916Letter from Charles Clements to Edward Carson, 29 June 1916Letter from Archibald Salvidge to Edward Carson, 30 June 1916Letter from Charles Clements to Edward Carson, 1 July 1916Letter from Charles Clements to Edward Carson, 3 July 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 5 July 1916Letter from Horace Plunkett to Edward Carson, 5 July 1916Letter from Charles F Down to Edward Carson, 8 June 1916Letter from Herbert Samuel to Edward Carson, 13 July 1916Letter from William Martin to Edward Carson, 13 July 1916Letter from Travers R. Blackley to Edward Carson, 11 July 1916Letter from Travers R. Blackley to Edward Carson, 13 July 1916Letter from Pembroke Wicks to Edward Carson, 14 July 1916Letter from Somerset Francis Saunderson to Edward Carson, 15 July 1916Letter from Edward Carson to William Martin, 17 July 1916Letter from Herbert Samuel to Edward Carson, 21 July 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 21 July 1916Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 27 July 1916Letter from Alexander McDowell to Edward Carson, 5 October 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916Letter from Sharman D Neill to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916Letter from Rosalind Hamilton to Edward Carson, 10 October 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 14 October 1916Letter from David Lloyd George to Edward Carson, 14 October 1916Letter from J. Beatty to Edward Carson, 16 October 1916Letter from Edward Carson to Richard Dawson Bates, 21 April 1919 Home Office, Whitehall, S.W., England Letter from Herbert Samuel to Edward Carson, 21 July 1916