OBITUAKIKS, FOUKION. 



681 



in 1'iililiii is beliovo<l t" have IMI n a hiding 

 place tin- su-pects. The \olllig iniiii tinishcd his 

 education h\ traveliiii: iii tin- United Males with 

 lii.- elder Li-other John. In 1^71 In- returned to 

 .\\ondide, w In iv In- endeavored t" infuse Aim ricaii 

 enterprise into I ho management f hi.-, estate, .-inking 

 shaft* in search of luiiu-nils, iiiul ostabli.-hin>.' a 

 saw mill and a brush factory. He joined tin- militia 

 ol' his county, becoming an olli.'i-r in the Wieklow 

 Kitles. Mis miiiil was gradually rising \<i an appre- 

 ciation of the j'olitioal Struggle in Ireland, and the 

 victors i'l' Mr. Bletiiicrhassett. ulso a Protestant land- 

 luril. a.- the representative of homo rule, Lfavc the 

 dccidiiii.' toiioh to his amliitioii to enter on a j>olitiral 

 In Kehruary. 1^7-J. lie made known his desire 

 t" stand for Parliament, lint his ottice of high sheriff 

 uf Counts \Viek low, whioh he then held, disi{imli- 

 lied him. A few months later the membership for 

 l>ul(lin becoming vacant through resignation, Mr. 

 I'arnell secured the nomination. lie hroke down 

 utterly in his first speech; his voice and nuinnor, so 

 thoroughly Kii^lish, alienat>-d the Irish voters, and 

 he was overwhelmingly defeated. Next year John 

 Mitchel returned from exile in America to contest 

 Tippcrars, and Mr. I'uniell wrote a strmiir and patri- 

 otic letter in support of his claims. Within a few- 

 weeks Mitchel and his hrother-iii-law John Martin, 

 who represented County ..Meatli, died, leaving two 

 vacancies. 1-aac Butt, leader of the Irish party in 

 Parliament, invited Mr. I'arnell to contest the seat for 

 Meatli, and lie was elected April 19,1875. He con- 

 lined himself during his tirst year in Parliament to 

 close observation of the methods of the House and 

 the tactics of the Irish party. This had existed over 

 since the days of O'Connell, but lacked unity of pur- 

 pose or action, many of its members being willing to 

 barter their votes tor Government favor. Mr. Butt 

 was very conservative in his policy, and looked with 

 horror upon the methods pursued 'by Joseph Biff gar, 

 who delighted to irritate his English opponents by 

 speaking against time, moving adjournments, and 

 other dilatory tactics. Mr. Parnell' was the first to 

 perceive the enormous power that a minority could 

 wield without transgressing any of the rules of the 

 House, and became a close follower and confidant of 

 Mr. Biggar. Together they inaugurated, in 1876. a 

 policv of obstruction that drow the attention of the 

 world to the Irish question. To extirpate landlordism 

 was the far-off dream of the early Irish patriots. 

 The Land act of 1870 had failed to recognize the 

 Ulster tenant right. The Irish party took up the fight, 

 and Mr. Butt demanded fair rent, rixity of tenure, and 

 free sale a programme that came to bo known as 

 the w Three is." Home rule was regarded as a sub- 

 sequent step. Mr. Parnell and Mr. Blgmr determined 

 to wrest laws from the English Parliament by pro- 

 longed conflicts. Jxo subject was too irrelevant for 

 them to debate at length. In February, 1877, Mr. 

 Parnell introduced the Irish Church act amendment 

 bill, the object of which was to enable the tenants of 

 tin- disestablished Irish Church to become proprietors 

 of the lands for which they were paying rent to a 

 commission. The bill was defeated, and a policy of 

 retaliation was immediately entered upon. The first 

 test occurred on the u bill for the improvement of 

 prison discipline," traiisforrinir Irish county prisons 

 from the hands of the county officials to those of the 

 Government. Messrs. I'arnell and UL'irar prolonged 

 the contest until finally the Government iravo up the 

 bill in disgust, and the House adjourned without 

 passing the measure. The mutiny bill was next 

 Drought forward, and Mr. Parnoll vigorously attacked 

 the clauses permitting Hogging in the armv, with the 

 result that the bill was materially modified in the 

 interests of humanity. The irreatest battle of the 

 session was fouirht over the South African bill, the 

 object of which was to annex the Transvaal without 

 so much as asking leave of the sturdy Boers who had 

 opened up the new county. Mr. I'arnell declared that, 

 coming from a country which had experienced Knir- 

 lish cruelty to the fullest, he took special satisfaction 



in endeavoring to thwart the int. -titioiin of tl,, 

 enimelit. For thi* hiiii/ua^i- he ai- " num. 

 removed, I. ui an he had dearly not triinngri-imtttj my 

 parliamentary rule the motion ;.,i - .-j . ,, ...,, iu> 

 abandoned, the ( ,o\c rnim lit annouueiiiif that n< - 

 rules would be brought forward to deal stiti. 

 Mruotion." The introduction of thei-e nil<-n wu 

 fought by every parliami-nlars device. Mr. Butt ex 

 praised his indiiriuition that certain momlM-n. of tl,, 

 party should opi>osc matters in w hose defeat Ireland 



was Hot directly concerned, but his ilitluolioo ouiekly 



waned before the ineivoMiig impularity of M' ; 



Hell. The latter was elected President" of the Home 



Kulo Confederation in is7*.in place .,f Mr. Butt, who, 

 however, remained the nominal head of the party in 

 Parliament i.ntil his death, Mas ."., IS^i. Mr 

 was then chosen to lead tile J.'artV. A content be- 

 tween the moderate section and the PuniclliteM took 

 iilaco at Knnis, where a candidate nominated b\ Mr. 

 'arnell was triumphantls elected < v.-r tin- DOmiOM 

 of Mr. Shaw. At this session of I'aiiimiii-nt. through 

 the etlorts <.(' Mr. Parnell, tlogirini; in the army was 

 finally abolislied. Now the agrarian character of the 

 Irish ((iiestion began to develop. The harvest of ls;7 

 was bad; that 01 1878 was worse; in Is7;i starvation 

 faced the Irish people. Michael Davitt, who hud 

 been released from a convict prison on a ticket of 

 leave, founded the Land League in County Mayo, 

 April _'*, ls7;i. Mr. Parnell joined it in the following 

 June, and in a fervid speech gave the famous advice, 

 "Keep a firm grip on your homesteads.'' He was 

 elected President of the Land League Oct. 21, 1879. 

 At the close of the session Mr. Parnell made a tour 

 through Ireland, being received everywhere with the 

 trreatcst enthusiasm, and then aequiriiii: the sobriquet 

 of '* Uncrowned King of Ireland." Wishing to obtain 

 pecuniary assistance for the agitation, and also to use 

 American public opinion as a lever in influencing the 

 minds of the Knglish masses, Mr. Parnell and Mr. 

 Dillon sailed for the I'nitod States in December. \^~:>. 

 traveled through the country as far west a* St. Louis, 

 and returned ov way of Detroit anil Canada. The 

 United States Congress gave him permission to ad- 

 dress them ill the ball of the House of IJcprcsciita- 

 tives, a privilege previously accorded to only three 

 persons Lafayette, Bishop Kngland, and l\ossuth. 

 Parliament was suddenly adiourned, and Mr. Parnell 

 returned immediately to conduct a vigorous campaign 

 throughput Ireland. He was elected by throe con- 

 stituencies Moath, Mayo, and Cork city and chose 

 the last. At the meeting of the newly elected mem- 

 bers he was selected to succeed Mr. Shaw as leader of 

 the party. The conservatives in England had fought 

 the campaign largely on the Irish question and had 

 been defeated bv Mr. Gladstone, who immediately 

 brought in a bill that granted to Irish tenants the 

 right to compensation for improvements thcv had made 

 on the land they occupied. The bill, whioh would 

 have stopped evictions, failed in the House of Lords. 

 Then the landlords adopted a policy of wholesale 

 evictions, which aggravated matters. During the 

 reoc-s Mr. Parnell visited Ireland, and in a famous 

 speech, when some one of his hearers suggested the 

 shdoting of ju-rsons who might take farms from whioh 

 a former tenant had been evicted,. said that he wished 

 to point out a much more Christian wa\ : "Shun him 

 on the roadside, in the streets, in the shop, in the 

 market-place; by leavinir him al<>iic. by isolating 

 him from the res't of his country, as if he were the 

 leper of old, you must show him your detestation of 

 the crime he has committed." Three days later 

 beiraii the famous siege of Lough Mask, when- ('apt. 



Boycott, who had issued ejectment pr-K-cs- . - 

 subjected to the treatment advised. Not a h:. 1 . 

 would remain in his service, not a shop-koojK-r would 

 sell him anvthin-r. not a laundress would wash for 

 him. Finally ."HI laborer*, obtained from Ulster under 

 an escort of 7.000 armed soldiers, succeeded in gather- 

 ing his crops. Thus Mr. I'arnell added a now and 

 terrible weapon to the forces of obstruction and a new 

 word to the language, " boycotting." (But the orig- 



