Editing Joseph Chamberlain (section)

====Ireland====
As President of the Board of Trade, Chamberlain took a special interest in Ireland. Chamberlain strongly opposed the [[Irish Home Rule movement]] on the belief that home rule would lead to the eventual break-up of the empire; he declared, "I cannot admit that five millions of Irishmen have any greater right to govern themselves without regard to the rest of the United Kingdom than the five million inhabitants of [[London|the metropolis]]". In an effort to quiet agitation in Ireland through appeasement, Chamberlain supported calls for a [[Irish Land League|Land Bill]] and opposed [[Chief Secretary for Ireland|Chief Secretary]] [[William Edward Forster]]'s tactics of lethal force and mass imprisonment. In April 1881, Gladstone's government introduced the Irish Land Act, but [[Charles Stewart Parnell]] encouraged tenants to withhold rents. As a result, Parnell and other leaders were imprisoned in [[Kilmainham Gaol]] on 13 October 1881.

Chamberlain supported the imprisonment and used it to bargain the informal [[Kilmainham Treaty]] in 1882. Under the informal agreement, the government released Parnell in return for his co-operation in implementing the Land Act. Forster resigned, but his successor, [[Lord Frederick Cavendish]], was [[Phoenix Park Murders|murdered]] by members of the [[Irish National Invincibles]] on 6 May 1882, leaving the treaty almost useless. Many, including Parnell, believed that Chamberlain would be offered the Chief Secretaryship, but Gladstone appointed Sir [[Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet|George Otto Trevelyan]] instead. Nevertheless, Chamberlain maintained an interest in Irish affairs and proposed to the Cabinet an Irish [[Central Board]] that would have legislative powers for land, education and communications, which was rejected by the Whigs in Cabinet on 9 May 1885.