1912] Parnell and Mrs. O'Shea 381 



of Islam, but I fear that like all the rest his courage will ooze out of 

 him under the influence of his native air. 



" Dillon came to lunch, and stayed on talking for two hours. Home 

 Rule he hopes to see carried through both Houses of Parliament in 

 two years' time (it cannot well take less), and there are many accidents 

 that may still further delay it. If the coal strike should go on over 

 Easter it will hang up the Home Rule Bill over the present session, and 

 there are the suffragettes who have threatened to wreck it, or there 

 might be a war or a revolution ; otherwise all would be plain sailing now. 

 There was no difference at all between them and the Government as to 

 the details of the Bill. 



" Then he went back to past events, and gave me a full history of 

 Parnell's connection with Mrs. O'Shea. Parnell, he said, as a young 

 man, was no paragon of virtue, but his loves had not before been with 

 married women, nor had they been serious. He met Mrs. O'Shea first 

 at Thomas's Hotel in Berkeley Square at a party given by the O'Gorman 

 Mahon to some of his political friends. Justin McCarthy, who knew 

 the O'Sheas, had introduced Parnell to her there. She was a sister of 

 Sir Evelyn Wood. She, like her sisters, was attractive, and O'Shea 

 took advantage of it. There is no doubt that he got money from 

 Parnell, and that Parnell kept the establishment at Eltham going. The 

 lady, however, was really in love with Parnell, who was a very good- 

 looking fellow, and she gradually acquired complete dominion over 

 him. I was quite right, Dillon told me, in supposing that she not only 

 made him neglect his parliamentary work, but was a force hostile to his 

 patriotism, especially to that part of it which concerned the land move- 

 ment. She also encouraged him in his pride, and made mischief be- 

 tween him and his colleagues in the House of Commons. Hers was a 

 disastrous influence. It ended in ruining his career, and it was she 

 who prevented him from accepting any compromise about the Chair- 

 manship of the party after the great scandal when he (Dillon) and 

 O'Brien had met Parnell to talk matters over with him at Boulogne. 

 Every day they thought they had persuaded him to agree to a temporary 

 retirement of six months, and every evening Parnell crossed the Chan- 

 nel back to spend the night at Eltham and return in the morning more 

 obstinate than ever. ' I repeatedly promised Parnell,' Dillon said, 

 ' that I would resign the Chairmanship back to him at the end of six 

 months, indeed, I would only act as Vice-Chairman for him during his 

 retirement, and it was he that each time he came back from Mrs. 

 O'Shea refused all compromise.' [Note. — I am informed by Mrs. 

 O'Shea's niece, Mrs. Steele, that I was misinformed as to Parnell's 

 ownership of the house they lived in. Eltham Lodge was an old 

 family residence of the Woods.] 



" i$th March. — George Wyndham came to lunch with me. He com- 



