296 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK oh. 



Mr. Reid says, had informed him that he was 

 perfectly ignorant of any wish or statement of 

 Mr. Parnell's of the kind. He quotes Mr. Glad- 

 stone's own statement, as follows : 



2. I am not aware of a single rag or shred of evidence 

 to sustain the statement that Mr. Parnell requires the 

 pecuniary liability of Ireland for Imperial charges to 

 be disposed of by a fixed sum, or that this question is 

 dependent on the perfectly distinct question of retention 

 at Westminster. 



3. Mr. P.'s not bound to open his mind to me . . . 

 yet were I to make an assertion on the matter it would 

 be the direct reverse of this. (No. 2.) 



4. What " Gladstonian " has explained away Home 

 Rule or brought it below this meaning that there should 

 be an Irish parliament for affairs properly and exclusively 

 Irish ? 



Mr. Gladstone writes further : 



This letter is not suited for publication : but the 

 whole statement of it may be used as from me. 



Mr. Reid further says that he is attempting, in 

 the Westminster Review in February, " to clear 

 some of the snow away," and admits that the 

 Liberal road to Ireland through an Irish Parlia- 

 ment and back again to the Union is not as 

 clear as it should be. 



Two more letters pass between them, Mr. Reid 

 sending to Sir John Mr. Gladstone's letter referred 

 to, and expressing the hope that some basis of 

 reconciliation between their views may still be 

 found ; to which Sir John replies : 



High Elms, Farnborough, R.S.O., Kent, 

 17 January 1890. 



Dear Mr. Reid — Many thanks for your very kind 

 letter. 



I had always hoped for, and do not yet despair of, 



