400 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



could not remain in public life or aspire to high 

 office. Not alone the Tory journals put forward 

 this opinion : the ' Nonconformist conscience " 

 was aroused, and everywhere the organs of the 

 dissenting religious bodies, whose members form 

 the main strength of the Gladstonian Liberal 

 party, demanded the retirement of the Irish 

 leader, while Mr. Gladstone waited for the col- 

 liding currents of public sentiment to produce 

 their effect. Many Gladstonian politicians were 

 opposed to a change in the Irish leadership, and 

 the Irish priesthood, who are not less earnest 

 sticklers for domestic purity than the Noncon- 

 formists, kept silence or pronounced for Parnell, 

 on the assumption that he would yet clear his 

 character. He gave no sign of yielding to the 

 clamor of the English and Scotch Nonconform- 

 ists. On the day when the decision of the court 

 was rendered he issued his usual circular as lead- 

 er of the party. On the eve of the assembling of 

 Parliament, Nov. 25, perceiving the unlikelihood 

 of Mr. Pamell's spontaneously retiring, Mr. Glad- 

 stone, who had convinced himself that antipathy 

 to Mr. Parnell was likely to lead to wholesale de- 

 fection to the Unionists, asked Justin McCarthy 

 to acquaint Mr. Parnell with his conclusion that, 

 " notwithstanding the splendid services rendered 

 by Mr. Paruell to his country, his continuance at 

 the present moment in the leadership would be 

 productive of consequences disastrous in the 

 highest degree to the cause of Ireland," and to 

 expand this conclusion by adding that it " would 

 not only place many hearty and effective friends 

 of the Irish cause in a position of great embar- 

 rassment, but would render my retention of the 

 leadership of the Liberal party, based as it has 

 been mainly upon the prosecution of the Irish 

 cause, almost a nullity." Mr. Morley had a long 

 interview with Mr. Parnell after Mr. McCarthy 

 had delivered the message, and afterward Mr. 

 Gladstone expostulated with him but could not 

 move him from his determination to remain at 

 the head of the party. On the following day the 

 caucus of the Irish members with enthusiasm 

 unanimously re-elected Mr. Parnell chairman of 

 the party, without a dissenting vote, and he de- 

 clared that he would continue to discharge the 

 duties of leadership, thanking them for their 

 fresh proof of confidence, but making no men- 

 tion of Mr. Gladstone's anxious appeal. The 

 Gladstonian Liberals did not conceal their dis- 

 may, and the Conservatives and Liberal Union- 

 ists were elated at an event that they felt confi- 

 dent would disrupt the Home Rule alliance. 

 None of the Nationalists besides Mr. McCarthy 

 knew of Mr. Gladstone's ultimatum until after 

 the caucus, when it was communicated to them, 

 and also to the press. Seized with consternation, 

 they held a second meeting, but could take no 

 action, as their chairman was absent. Many of 

 his followers expected that, in view of the state 

 of British feeling, he would resign after receiv- 

 ing a vote of confidence. When they knew of 

 Mr. Gladstone's intimation that he would retire 

 if Mr. Parnell did not, 38 of the Nationalist 

 members pledged themselves to insist on his lay- 

 ing down the leadership. On the following day 

 two prolonged meetings were held, over which 

 Mr. Parnell presided. Many of the Nationalists 

 and Gladstonian Home Rulers blamed Mr. Mc- 

 Carthy because he did not explain the situation 



to the Irish members before they re-elected Mr. 

 Parnell, notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Glad- 

 stone had asked him to treat his oral communi- 

 cation as confidential if he found that Mr. Par- 

 nell contemplated spontaneous action. In the 

 first meeting, on Nov. 26, Justin McCarthy, Mr. 

 Sexton, and many others, while attesting their 

 appreciation of Mr. Parnell's sacrifices in the 

 Irish cause, urged him to retire, but in the ad- 

 journed meeting a reaction among the minor 

 members of the party manifested itself, and the 

 meeting closed with the expressed hope that, by 

 means of negotiations with the Gladstonian lead- 

 ers, a way out of the difficulty might be found. 

 It was adjourned till an expression of opinion 

 could be 'received from the Irish delegates in the 

 United States. All the Gladstonians who had 

 opposed the expulsion of Mr. Parnell. abandoned 

 that attitude when Mr. Gladstone's letter to Mr. 

 Morley recapitulating the ultimatum conveyed 

 by Mr. McCarthy was published. 



Before the next meeting of the Nationalists, 

 Mr. Parnell renounced the Gladstonian alliance 

 in a defiant manifesto to the Irish people, in 

 which he revealed and denounced as inadequate 

 the proposals of home rule made by Mr. Glad- 

 stone and Mr. Morley at a confidential inter- 

 view at Hawarden in November, 1889, and 

 hinted that Mr. Morley endeavored to influence 

 his action by offering him the post of Chief 

 Secretary for Ireland in the next Liberal minis- 

 try despite his declaration at Cork in 1880 that 

 he would never accept office in a British Cab- 

 inet. The integrity and independence of a sec- 

 tion of the Irish Parliamentary ' party having 

 been apparently sapped " by the wire-pullers of 

 the Liberal party," he said it was necessary for 

 him to take counsel with the Irish people and to 

 remind them and their parliamentary repre- 

 sentatives since Mr. Gladstone, in his letter to 

 Mr. Morley, had sought to influence them in 

 their choice of a leader and claimed the right of 

 veto upon the choice that " Ireland considers 

 the independence of her party as her only safe- 

 guard within the Constitution." The 'threat 

 that, unless Ireland concedes this right of veto 

 to England, her chance of obtaining home rule 

 would be indefinitely postponed, compelled him, 

 without admitting the possibility of such a loss, 

 to inform the Irish how little they would lose by 

 not consenting to throw him to the " English 

 wolves " howling for his destruction. At the 

 Hawarden conference, Mr. Gladstone gave as 

 his opinion and that of his colleagues that to 

 conciliate English public opinion : (1) It would 

 be necessary to reduce the Irish representation 

 in the Imperial Parliament from 103 to 32 : (2) 

 in regard to the land question, it would be with- 

 held from the control of the Irish Legislature, 

 and he would renew his attempt to settle it by 

 imperial legislation on the lines of the land pur- 

 chase bill of 1886, but would not undertake to 

 bring pressure on his party to adopt his views ; 

 (3) the Irish constabulary and the appointment 

 of its officers must remain for an indefinite 

 period under the control of the imperial author- 

 ity, while the funds for its maintenance, pay- 

 ment, and equipment would be compulsori'ly 

 provided out of Irish resources ; (4) the appoint- 

 ment of the judiciary, including judges of the 

 Supreme Court, county court judges, and resi- 



