Writers on eighteenth-century Ireland frequently refer to a levy called quarterage, and explain it as a special tax which the corporations exacted from catholic merchants, traders and craftsmen during the period of the penal laws.

George Unwin, in his Gilds and companies of London, speaks of quarterage as a sort of medieval insurance. When the quarterly subscription was 3d. the societies offered 14d. a week to ‘sick or unfortunate members’. The money derived from quarterage was used also in other ways. Provision was sometimes made by guilds for schools. Cesses were levied on them from time to time for the defence of their cities, provision of fire engines, etc., and much money was spent in maintaining a guild-hall, paying salaries of officials and on entertainment.

Each of the general elections that took place between 1885 and 1910 was significant in the history of the party, but that of 1895 had an interest peculiar to itself, setting it apart from the others in the series. It was not an election which brought about any major change in the relative strength of the various parties; it was not even notable for the number of seats to be contested. Nor was it fought upon any major issue of policy, since it was obvious to all but the most optimistic that home rule was not—and for a long time was not likely to be—a matter of practical politics; even the question of whether or not to continue the liberal alliance—a question hotly debated ever since Lord Rosebery's unpromising reference to home rule in March 1894—seemed largely academic in view of the probability of a unionist victory in Great Britain. For the Irish party—or, to speak more precisely, for the anti-Parnellites—the importance of the election of 1895 lay in quite a different direction; it lay in the fact that as a result of this campaign the methods whereby in the past the party had controlled the conduct of the elections over a large part of Ireland were deeply and permanently discredited, and the party itself confronted with a very serious crisis. It is the purpose of this paper to trace the development of that crisis, but before proceeding to consider it in detail, it will be necessary to describe very briefly the way in which this control over the elections was exercised.