GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



403 



Finally, our cause once rescued from the present 

 deadly peril, our race may rest assured that nothing 

 which" the tenderness of devoted colleagues can do 

 will be left undone to heal whatever wounds may 

 have been'inflicted in the heat of the strife, and to do 

 justice to Mr. Parnell's genius and work, so that his- 

 tory may drop a tear over the errors ot a passionate 

 hour, and may rememher only the great Irishman and 

 born leader of men, who found the Irish cause so 

 plunged in helplessness and despair, and whose arm 

 lifted that cause to the pinnacle of power and triumph. 



A counter-manifesto from Timothy Harring- 

 ton proclaimed his fidelity to Mr. Parnell. The 

 Irish Democratic Labor Federation Mr. Parnell 

 took away from the control of Mr. Davitt, just as 

 he had formerly ousted the founder of the Land 

 League, and in his speeches he appealed to the 

 youthful and combative elements, to the labor 

 advocates, and to the advanced Nationalists, not- 

 withstanding his recent record of extreme mod- 

 eration. By his speeches in Dublin and Cork he 

 turned his back on the policy of conciliating the 

 good- will that he had followed for ten years, and 

 proclaimed one that could only secure the claims 

 of Ireland by means of a rebellion. Before the 

 Kilkenny election his cause received a serious ' 

 blow when the executive committee of the 

 American Irish Parliamentary Fund Association 

 took a stand against him, protesting that they 

 could not calmly consent " to have all that has 

 been purchased for Ireland at such cost and 

 sacrifice shattered ancf lost in an hour of passion." 

 On Dec. 15 Mr. Dillon issued a manifesto in which 

 he said that Mr. Parnell had plunged Ireland into 

 a conflict for purely personal ends, and had used 

 language and done acts revolting to every free- 

 born man, and that unless he altered his course 

 and ended his methods of procedure he was no 

 fit leader for a nation aspiring to be free. 



The old and trusted leaders of the party, who 

 had borne the brunt of the parliamentary com- 

 bat while he had reaped the honors, and had 

 submitted with admirable discipline to his long 

 absences, arbitrary directions, and arrogant de- 

 meanor, were now ranged in opposition to the 

 discarded leader, who had against him also, with 

 few exceptions, the priests" of Ireland, many of 

 whom were officials and managers of the local 

 branches of the League, as well as the holders 

 and contributors of the funds in the United 

 States, while the petty politicians and the body 

 of the electors began to desert the Parnellite 

 side. Parnell developed a fiercer energy and 

 assumed a more implacable attitude the greater 

 the odds gainst him. Violent faction fights oc- 

 curred in various places. In Tipperary the priests 

 headed an onslaught upon the Parnellites who 

 attempted to break up a meeting. In Kilkenny 

 Mr. Parnell, with his adherents William Red- 

 mond, Edward Harrington, and Mr. Harrison, 

 took the stump for Mr. Scully, while Michael 

 Davitt and Dr. Tanner canvassed for Sir John 

 Pope Henessy. On Dec. 16 the Parnellites, 

 having taken out the horses, dragged Mr. Par- 

 nell's carriage to the edge of the crowd that Mr. 

 Davitt was addressing in the market-place of 

 Ballinakill, and, after Mr. Parnell had spoken, 

 made a rush upon the other meeting. Both 

 sides engaged in a combat with sticks, and Mr. 

 Davitt fought his way up to Mr. Parnell's car, 

 and, with his face battered and streaming with 

 blood, denounced the ruffianly tactics that his 



opponents seemed to countenance. At Castle- 

 comer the anti-Parnellites were the assailants, 

 and in the fray a bag of lime struck Mr. Parnell, 

 causing a painful and dangerous inflammation 

 of the eyes that lasted many days. 



The result of the Kilkenny election was more 

 favorable for the anti-Parnellites than they had 

 hoped, Henessy receiving 2,527 ballots against 

 1,365 cast for Scully. This serious reverse, the 

 effects of which could not be removed by denun- 

 ciation of clerical coercion of electors, impelled 

 Mr. Parnell to enter into negotiations with Mr. 

 O'Brien, who returned from the United States 

 to act as mediator between the warring factions. 

 On Dec. 30 they met at Boulogne, and repeated 

 conferences between the chiefs of the divided 

 party took place there, since neither Mr. O'Brien 

 nor Mr. Dillon could carry on negotiations on 

 British soil, having been condemned to six 

 months' imprisonment. 



The Potato Blight See FAMINES IN IRE- 

 LAND. 



Colonies. The European dependencies of 

 Great Britain, since the cession of Heligoland 

 (see GERMANY), consist only of Gibraltar and 

 Malta. 



Gibraltar, in a space of less than 2 square 

 miles, had a population of 24,089 in 1889, in- 

 clusive Of the garrison of 5,708 men. The na- 

 tive population is mainly descended from Italian 

 settlers from Genoa. It is an important coaling 

 station for British vessels, the tonnage entered 

 and cleared in 1888 having been 11,986,000. A 

 site has been selected for a dock, which is to be 

 built by private enterprise, with assistance from 

 the British Government. 



Malta is an island in the Mediterranean, 58 

 miles south of Sicily, having an area, with the 

 dependent .islands of Gozo and Comino, of 117 

 square miles. The population in 1888 was esti- 

 mated at 162,423, of whom 2,138 were English. 

 The Governor is assisted by an Executive Council 

 and a Council of Government, the latter consist- 

 ing of 6 appointed and 14 elective members. 

 The revenue, two thirds of which are derived 

 from customs and one sixth from land tax and 

 rents, was estimated for 1889 at 228,332 and 

 expenditure at 235,283. The common people 

 speak a dialect of Arabic, the educated and the 

 clergy use the Italian language, and about one 

 seventh of the population have learned English. 

 Sir Lintorn Simmons was sent as a special agent 

 to the Vatican in the summer of 1890 to nego- 

 tiate for an amendment of the marriage laws 

 and for the substitution of English for Italian 

 as the language of instruction in the seminaries 

 and of worship. The canon law has been recog- 

 nized as the law governing marriage in Malta, 

 and according to this numerous mixed marriages 

 and all civil and Protestant marriages that have 

 been contracted are invalid. According to the 

 arrangement with the Pope his authority to 

 make the marriage laws is confirmed, but he has 

 given a dispensation legalizing all marriages that 

 have been contracted under English law. 



In Asia and the neighboring seas, besides In- 

 dia and its dependencies, Great Britain possesses 

 the island of Cyprus (still nominally a part of 

 the Turkish Empire), Aden and Perim, Bahrein 

 Islands, Labuan and North Borneo, the Straits 

 Settlements, Ceylon, and Hong-Kong. 



