GKEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



413 



He suspected the Land League of a connection 

 with agrarian crimes. The Government called 

 upon him to release the imprisoned leaders 

 without requiring a puhlic promise, which he 

 expected, if given, would have the effect of 

 detaching the violent section from the Land 

 League, and of shutting off the contributions 

 from America. Sheridan, whom the Land- 

 Leaguers proposed to employ to pacify the 

 west of Ireland peasants, he knew to be a con- 

 spirator in secret societies. Mr. Forster now 

 reiterated his suspicions of the Land-Leaguers, 

 charging Mr. Parnell with either conniving at 

 outrages, or, when warned and informed by 

 facts, deliberately remaining in ignorance, and 

 taking no pains to ascertain what was going 

 on. He renewed the charge that the faint 

 expressions of disapproval on the part of the 

 Land-League orators operated as an encour- 

 agement to murder and outrage. Mr. Parnell 

 replied in a contemptuous tone, prefacing bis 

 explanation by saying that he did not expect 

 to make any impression on the opinion of the 

 House, or English public opinion, and only de- 

 sired to set himself right before the people of 

 Ireland. He said that, since the passage of 

 the crimes act, he had taken very little part in 

 Irish politics, because such a state of affairs 

 was created by the act that, between the Gov- 

 ernment and the secret societies, it was impos- 

 sible for a constitutional agitation to exist. 



In October, 1882, the "Irish World" de- 

 clared the Land-League fund to be closed, and 

 stated the amount sent to Mr. Egan at $342,- 

 548. This organ of the Irish Nationalists of 

 America henceforth attacked Mr. Parnell and 

 his party for not adopting the views of Michael 

 Davitt and Henry George. It frequently called 

 for an accounting from the treasurer of the 

 League. Charges of misappropriation were 

 echoed by Lady Florence Dixie, who, some time 

 later, March 17th, puzzled the English police 

 by a sensational account of a desperate attempt 

 to assassinate her at her country residence near 

 Windsor. Patrick Egan declared, in a letter 

 to the "Irish World," at the beginning of 

 January, that the total sum expended out of 

 the Land-League funds for election expenses 

 was 2,550. 



When Parliament met Mr. Healy was still in 

 prison, and became the subject of earnest pro- 

 tests from his fellow -partisans. An ancient 

 precedent was brought forward, which excludes 

 refusal to give sureties to keep the peace, as 

 , well as treason and felony, from the privilege 

 of Parliament. On the 4th of June he was re- 

 leased, together with Messrs. Davitt and Quin. 

 Henceforward Mr. Healy took the lead of the 

 aggressive section of the Irish party in Parlia- 

 ment, and in stinging taunts and embarrassing 

 tactics showed himself a master. 



The influence of the Irish party was shown 

 in the elections, and by other signs, to have 

 extended until it was no longer possible to 

 question their claim to be the representatives 

 of the Irish people. In the County Monaghan, 



previously represented by Liberals, Mr. Healy 

 won a memorable victory, coming out at the 

 head of the poll, July 2d. His former constit- 

 uency, Wexford, returned Mr. Redmond by a 

 large majority over the O'Connor Don. Even 

 in Ulster the majority of the tenantry had gone 

 over to Parnell. 



On May22d the " Kerry Sentinel," in the of- 

 fice of which a printer had prepared a handbill 

 adjudged to be seditious, was confiscated under 

 the crimes act, and the editor, Mr. Edward Har- 

 rington, was sentenced to six months' impris- 

 onment. 



The friends of Mr. Parnell raised by sub- 

 scription a fund to be handed over for his own 

 use, as a national testimonial. In May a papal 

 circular was issued, discountenancing the col- 

 lection, an action in which the Pope was de- 

 clared by the Irish party to have been influ- 

 enced by the English Government through Mr. 

 Errington. The admonition had but a slight 

 effect in discouraging subscriptions. When the 

 fund was finally delivered to Mr. Parnell, De- 

 cember llth, it amounted to 38,000. 



The Nationalist orators, in stumping the 

 country after the close of the session, met with 

 manifestations of confidence and enthusiasm 

 more general than were exhibited during the 

 heat of the land-conflict. Mr. Davitt was as 

 popular as his former associates, addressing 

 audiences of twenty thousand in Ballybriggan, 

 Waterford, and Cashel. The Castle authori- 

 ties furnished a fresh subject for invectives 

 by suppressing meetings in County Clare. As 

 the excitement increased, the Executive ap- 

 plied its authority more rigorously, and sup- 

 pressed League meetings throughout Munster, 

 Leinster, and Connaught ; but in Ulster, where 

 the National meetings could not well be sup- 

 pressed without interdicting at the same time 

 the excited " loyal " demonstrations, the hostile 

 factions were left for a long time to their con- 

 tentions without interference. The campaign 

 in Ulster was the signal for counter-demon- 

 strations, and was characterized by the familiar 

 riotous collisions between the Orangemen and 

 the adherents of the National cause. It be- 

 came the systematic practice of the Loyalists 

 to collect mobs and create a riot wherever a 

 Nationalist speaker was announced to make an 

 address, and thus repel the " invasion " of Ul- 

 ster. At Londonderry. November 2d, a meeting 

 at which the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr. Daw- 

 son, was the orator, was the occasion for a se- 

 rious disturbance. The Orangemen were armed, 

 and several shots were fired. The leader of the 

 mob, Lord Rossmore, was struck out of the 

 commission of the peace, but the riot was made 

 the pretext for yielding to the clamor of the. 

 English party and forbidding political meetings 

 in Ulster. The suppression of meetings could 

 not stay the general current of sentiment to- 

 ward home rule. Mr. Healy declared, and his 

 opponents acknowledged, that a general elec- 

 tion would give the Nationalists, without any 

 extension of the franchise, as many as seventy 



