402 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



these important questions, since you ask me to sur- 

 render to you beforehand my judgment upon these 

 matters, I claim that this party in the face of their 

 constituencies should by solemn resolution announce 

 what their judgment is. 



He accordingly offered a resolution declaring 

 no home rule bill acceptable that did not confer 

 the immediate control of the police and full 

 power to deal' with the land question on the 

 Irish home rule authorities, and intimated his 

 willingness to lay down the leadership if Mr. 

 Gladstone would categorically pledge himself to 

 these conditions. A committee of eight was ap- 

 pointed, Mr. Parnell being one, and four were 

 delegated to seek the required assurances from 

 Mr. Gladstone and his lieutenants. Mr. Glad- 

 stone would not recognize them as officially rep- 

 resenting the party, refused to enter into nego- 

 tiations in regard to Mr. Parnell's leadership, 

 and desired to be disassociated from his party 

 colleagues in any promises he might make. The 

 resolution was altered in accordance with his de- 

 sires. As he had made it a condition precedent 

 to any discussion with the deputation that the 

 question of Mr. Parnell's leadership should first 

 be disposed of by the Irish party, the opponents 

 of Mr. Parnell attempted to put a resolution de- 

 posing him ; but Mr. Parnell seized the copy of 

 the resolution while Mr. McCarthy was reading 

 it. Great confusion resulted, which ended in the 

 withdrawal of the majority of 45 members, leav- 

 ing Mr. Parnell and 26 supporters in possession 

 of the meeting. The seceders who followed Mr. 

 McCarthy held & separate caucus elsewhere and 

 elected him chairman. 



The contest was then removed, as the Parnel- 

 lites desired, to the soil of Ireland, where the staff 

 of the National League was faithful to Mr. Par- 

 nell, and he was still the official and the effective 

 head of the party. The "Freeman's Journal," 

 the most influential Nationalist newspaper, ad- 

 hered to Mr. Parnell. He was also the chief 

 owner of " United Ireland," the weekly organ of 

 the League, which opposed him, and when he 

 reached Dublin, with the aid of the sheriff, he 

 forcibly took possession of the premises, destroyed 

 the forms, turned out the editor-in-charge, Mr. 

 W. O'Brien's deputy, and had a new edition pre- 

 pared in his interest. The former managers re- 

 gained possession of the offices after Mr. Parnell 

 had left town, whereupon he returned and ejected 

 them a second time by physical force. The papers 

 that were printed were seized when on the way 

 to the post-office by a party of bold spirits of the 

 kind that has been called " Mr. Parnell's Police," 

 who threw the whole edition into the Liffey. The 

 evicted editors prepared another anti-Parnellite 

 sheet, which was printed under the name of 

 " Suppressed United Ireland," and this the anti- 

 Parnellites attempted to suppress in turn by legal 

 proceedings, on the ground that it was an in- 

 fringement under the trade-mark and copyright 

 laws. Mr. Parnell's position in the constituen- 

 cies was strong always, and it had improved 

 daily. The municipal councils and other pub- 

 lic bodies in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Gal way, 

 and many other places pledged themselves 

 to his support, the most active branches of the 

 National League, of which he remained president, 

 were all on his side ; and popular demonstrations 

 in the principal towns proved that his name was 



still potent. On Dec. 3 the Roman Catholic 

 hierarchy threw the whole weight of their influ- 

 ence in the opposite scale by publishing a decla- 

 ration, signed by 22 bishops, in which they pro- 

 nounced Mr. Parnell " convicted of one of the 

 gravest offenses known to religion and society," to 

 be a man " dishonored and wholly unworthy of 

 Christian confidence," and unfit to be the Irish 

 leader for the additional reason that his continu- 

 ance would rend and disorganize the party and 

 lead to inevitable defeat at the approaching 

 general election, and, as a result, " home rule 

 indefinitely postponed, coercion perpetuated, the 

 hands of the evictor strengthened, and the ten- 

 ants already evicted left without the shadow of 

 a hope of being ever restored to their homes." 



The rupture between Gladstone and Parnell 

 enabled the Government to make an extraordi- 

 nary start in legislative business. Instead of the 

 usual interminable debate on the address, not a 

 single amendment was offered, and it was adopted 

 on the opening day. By Dec. 10, when Parliament 

 took a recess over the holidays till Jan. 22, the 

 whole legislative programme was launched, Mr. 

 Parnell having gone to Dublin to lay his case be- 

 fore his countrymen, Mr. McCarthy assumed the 

 position of Irish leader in the House of Commons 

 for a day or two before the ad jourment,af ter which 

 all the Irish members hurried away to Ireland to 

 rally the people to their several factions. The 

 test of their respective strength was to be the 

 approaching election of a member of Parliament 

 for north Kilkenny. The clerical and anti-Par- 

 nellite candidate was Sir John Pope Henessy, 

 late Governor of Mauritius, who had once been a 

 Tory and for many years the recipient of large 

 salaries under the Government. The facts of his 

 official career were made use of in speeches to the 

 " hillside men " by Mr Parnell, who selected as 

 his candidate Mr. Vincent Scully, a popular and 

 wealthy local landlord who had made large pe- 

 cuniary sacrifices for the National League. 



On Dec. 10 the anti-Parnellite section of the 

 Irish party issued a manifesto to their fellow- 

 countrymen, the longest of all, in which they 

 began *by saying that in the discharge of their 

 sacred trust *as representatives of Ireland, bound 

 by supreme law of political duty to protect her 

 cause, they had found themselves under the sad 

 necessity, no matter at what sacrifice of feeling, 

 of bringing to an end Mr. Parnell's leadership of 

 the party. "We had to make a choice," they 

 said, " between the safety of our nation and the 

 ambition of one man. We decided for the safety 

 of the nation." They said that they had under- 

 taken, if Mr. Parnell voluntarily retired, not to 

 fill his post during the session, but to let him 

 nominate a committee to direct the party and let 

 its future tenure be determined by his personal 

 action and the course of political events. 



Fierce scenes ensued on the arrival of the 

 hostile leaders in Ireland. On Dec. 11, the office 

 of " United Ireland " having been again taken 

 possession of by the regular staff, Mr. Parnell 

 and his friends forced an entrance, and recapt- 

 ured the paper. He then journeyed to Cork, 

 where he was received with unbounded enthusi- 

 asm after having met a hostile reception at Mal- 

 low. On that day appeared a second pathetic 

 manifesto from the leaders in America, ending 

 with the words : 



