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'#: •f i^^ii i^s>y j»'i •*' ■,«.(;1 •xV v+sr,: 't- ■'K gladstone-Parnell. AND THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. A roMn.KTK AND THRILMNl". HISTORY OF THE FKARFtri. INTSTICIC AM) OITKKSSION INKI.ICTKD UI'ON TIIK IRISH TKNANTS HY I.ANDI.OK DISM srrr()Rri:i) dy cokrcivf, lf.oislation. it-i.l Asn aimiikn- TIC ACCOUNT OF THK GRF.AT HOMK Rl'M'. MOVKMI.NT — CHAMI'IONKI) 1!V Ol.ADSTONl^ — ROCKINf, 'III K BRIT- ISH EMPIRE AND AGITATING THK WORLD. TOGETHF.R Willi WOGRAPIIIES OF GLADSTONE. I'ARNELL AInD 0T111:RS. I3Y HON. T. P. QX^ONNOIl, INT. P., Auliior, Journalist and McnibCTSi Parlinmcnt for Liverpool. ANr> R. M. MoWADE, F.SQ., Member of Executive Coin, of the Land League in the U. S. INTnonUCTIONT m HON. CHARLES STEWART PARNELL,M.r. h'pcci;illy liitroilun'(i to the fanadiiiu I'lti'lic Ly Rev. Al-x. I'tirns, I'. I).. LL.D,, l'ri!ici,Ml Wivk'Mia l.;;'li.^' t'^lie|:^ llaiiiiitou, fi;i. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. j. S. ROC.iyRTSON cV r.ROS., Ptiiu.isuKKs, TURt NTO, LONDON, IJKUCRVI I.I.K, SI'. Ji>HN, N. K. \i • • i a V le n ? V- Eiitcmi nccording to Act of Congress, in tlio sow ISSG, by IIUBDARD liROTIlllllS, In the Offioe of tlio Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. 0. DA INTRODUCTION. I HAVE pleasure in writing a few lines of preface to Mr. T. P. O'Connor's volume. I know no one who is better fitted to present the case of Ireland, and especially the history of our movement, before the public of America. His vigorous and picturesque pen makes everything he writes lucid, interesting, and effective ; and he has had the advantage of himself taking a promi- nent and honorable part in many of the scenes he so graphically describes. I believe it espe- cially desirable to have our case properly stated to the American public at the present moment. No Irishman can speak too warmly of the ex- traordinary assistance that America has rendered to the cause of Ireland. The financial and moral support which our movement has received from the Great Republic has been recognized by eminent English Statesmen as an entirely new factor in the present movement, and as giving it 3 4 IN'rUODUCTION. a strength and a power of endurance absent from many previous Irish efforts. It is at mo- ments of crisis like the present, when other po- litical parties face the expense and difficulties of a political campaign with hesitation and appre- hension, that one really appreciates the enormous position of vantage in which American generosity has placed the Irish party. Then the unanimity of opinion both among the statesmen and the journalists of America has done much to en- courage men like Mr. Gladstone, who are fight- ing for the Irish cause, and to fill Ireland's enemies with the grave misgiving that the policy con- demned by another great and free nation may not be sound or just. For these reasons we are all especially desirous that American opinion should be made acquainted with the merits and facts of this great controversy, and the following pages are eminently calculated to perform that good work. Charles Stewart Parnell. London, August, 1886. ly -'.?■■*. s a sti Iroin men liticc' a p( hen; pos:' has of joii con ing wit dei be es be th ar w< ■'■ '7.*r.'v ''^y^^' 'if'*^f.,.- .■ ■" '^^•rTs" / ^yiy^ AMERICAN INTRODUCTION. BY A. BURNS, D. D., LL. D., President Wesleyan Female Collage, Hamilton, Ont. THE following pages cover one of the most interesting periods in Irish history. The story related falls mainly within the memory of most of its readers, embracing scarce the last two decades. It is written by a university man of scholarly attainments, a brilliant journalist and author, one who, although comparatively a young man yet, is fairly entitled to say of most of the strug- gles and scenes he di^scrih^^, quoruf]i pars magna fui. The book may be taken as a representative putting of the great struggle now going on, and as such it may fairly claim the attention of all in- terested in the peace and prosperity of Ireland. None need be told that that land is now unhappy and somewhat disaffected. Her harp is on the willows, her sonor.s are threnodies. Yet nO one can become acquainted with her children without 7 8 INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. discovering that naturally they are cheerful, light- hearted and hopeful. Nor can you give to one of them a cup of cold water without v^aking a genuine inborn gratitude. Whether at home or abroad, the race is hopeful, grateful, and essen- tially patriotic. A kind word ^r deed for Ireland will brighten the eye, quicken the pulse, arouse the enthusiasm, and win the affection of her chil- dren the world over. Have her critics furnished an adequate expla- nation of the present unhappy condition of such a people? The passionate outbursts of her out- raged sons receive due prominence. Her agra- rian crimes are published far and wide. Bu'; few e.re candid enough to admit that the crimes of Ire- land are chiefly agrarian, and caused by the wholesale confiscation of her soil, and the strug- gles of the descendants of the real owners to re- gain the lands of their fathers. Goldwin Smith tells us " an alien and absentee proprietary is the immediate source of her troubles." " The owner- ship of land in that country is itself the heritage of confiscation, and of confiscation which has never been forgotten. The struggle is in fact the last stage of a long civil war between the con- quered race and an intrusive proprietary, which was closely identified with the political ascendency of the foreigner, and the religious ascendency of an alien creed." "The distrts where agrarian violence has most prevailed have been singularly INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. free from ordinary crime. The Irish farmer has clung desperately to his homestead, eviction is to him destitution." "The crime (of the Irish) is solely agrarian. In the districts where it has been most rife, even in Tipperary itself, ordinary offences have been very rare," and he continues, '•justice requires that we remember the training which the Irish as a nation have had, and of which the traces are still left upon their character. In 1 798 they were goaded into open rebellion by the wholesale flogging, half-hanging, pitch-capping and picketing which were carried on over a large district by the yeomanry and militiamen, who, as soon as the suffering masses began to heave with disaffection, were launched upon the homes of the peasantry." Irish history is little studied. Few even of my countrymen know anything of the history of our country. A partial excuse may be found in the fact that even in the schools of Ireland the history of the country is not found. Only as it may be considered necessary to explain English history is Ireland ever mentioned, and neither in common school nor in university have the children of Ire- land the faintest opportunity to learn anything of their people, or the causes of the disaffection so generally prevalent. Traditions abound, but they are generally on sectarian lines, and theological bitterness, the worst of all, is usually added to political. Ill 10 INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. The story that follows will be found real his- tory, the history of our own times. Every page will revive the memory of the stirring scenes of the last decade or two, and as a panoramic vision will fix in the mind the cause of events that had well-nigh passed from us forever. This work will be found exceedingly oppor- tune. Mr. Gladstone's bill for Home Rule in Ireland has been defeated at Westminster, and again by the people of England, because, as we verily believe, it was not understood by the Brit- ish people, while it was grossly misrepresented by those whose interests are at war with the enlargement of popular rights. The following pages will show the emptiness and absurdity of the war cries of the late conflict — " The Empire in Danger," " The Union in Dan- ger," " Protestantism in Danger " — all echoes of the Disestablishment Conflict of 1868, the recol- lections of which ought to have taught the pseudo- prophets wisdom and moderation. There never was a measure more grossly caricatured than the late bill for the relief of Ireland. It was all in vain that the leaders of Irish thought had declared both with pen and voice that " the proposed Irish Parliament would bear the same relation to the Parliament at Westminster that the Legislature and Senate of every American State bear to the head authority of the Congress in the capitol at Washington." All that relates to local business it INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. 11 was proposed to delegate to the Irish Assembly ; all questions of imperial policy were still to be left to the imperial government. It was all in vain that the acknowledged Irish leader, Mr, Par- nell, declared in the closing debate that the Irish people were content to have a Parliament wholly subordinate to the imperial Parliament ; that they did not expect a Parliament like Grattan's, which possessed co-ordinate powers. The words of some outraged exile in America or Australia fur- nished a sufficient pretext for the ungenerous but characteristic vote that followeu. In this great struggle I am thoroughly in sym- pathy with my country. With the historian Lecky I believe that " the Home Rule theory is within the limits of the Constitution and supported by means that are perfectly loyal and legitimate." The British Colonies have secured it, and it is not too much to say that the bond of union be- tween the Colonies and the Empire depends on its existence. Canadian opposition to Home Rule would seem to show that the denial of the boon implies also the rejection of the Golden Rule. That permanent peace vAW ever come to Ire- land without it no sane man expects. No foreign power can govern Ireland. The experiment has surely been tried long enough. The unconquer- able spirit possessed so fully by the larger island is no less developed in Ireland. The spirit of 12 INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. the age only strengthens the spirit of indepen- dence, while the millions of her children on this side the Adantic tell her that Home Rule is the only reasonable rule ior freemen. Ireland needs rest. For a long time she has been under terrible provocation, and has suffered as no other country in Europe. She looks around for sympathy, and i'j is not wanting. But what she needs most is equitable, yea, generous treatment at the hands of England. These pages will show that her poverty is largely the result of misgovernment. England needs the tranquillity of Ireland as much as Ireland herself does. Let Ireland be assured that her rights are to be sacredly respected ; ihat her wrongs are to be redressed by England, not grudgingly nor of necessity; that the elevation and comfort of her down-trodden children is to be considered a more pressing subject of legislation than the claims of an independent and irresponsible no- bility. She has given her Burkes, her Welling- tons, her Dufferins and her Tyndalls to enrich the Empire. Let her be told to call her children to the development of her own resources and the improvement of her own polity. Order will then soon come from chaos, and light from her sadly prolonged darkness, and the days of her mourning will soon be ended. Thoroughly satisfied that a generous policy on the part of England, not merely permitting, but INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. 13 encouraging Home Rule, would give to my country peace, prosperity, and enthusiastic loyalty, I take my place with those who plead for a sep- arate Parliament for Ireland, as Illinois, Ohio, and California have separate Parliaments, but still allied to the Imperial Parliament on the principle that binds Illinois, Ohio, and California to the United States of America. Less than that should not be accepted. More has not been asked by any of the leaders sketched in this work. I commend the work to the reader not because I can endorse every sentence that it contains, or approve of all the details of operation therein, for I have not studied carefully every page. But I heartily approve of the object aimed at, and believing that i.he present struggle is the old con- test of monopoly against the common weal, or, as it has been aptly put recently, of " the classes against the masses," I promptly take my place with the latter, and claim for my countrymen a respectful hearing. As in all past struggles for the enlargement of British liberties the terms "loyal" and "disloyal" have been called into active service, so it is to-day, and " Unionists " and " Loyalists " are posing as the legitimate opponents of Home Rule. These pretensions and assumptions have been torn into tatters a thousand times, and are as meaningless when so used as the terms " orthodox " . and "heterodox" among speculative theologians. 14 INTRODl'CTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. And as we scan the ranks of the men who on either side of the Atlantic are the self-constituted representatives of loyalty, and monopolize the term, we instinctively ask Risuni teneatis ? Some, I admit, may honestly see in Home Rule the dis- memberment of the Empire and innumerable other evils. But I am firmly convinced that there are a thousand thousand good hearts and true, who, like myself, see in Home Rule and its con- comitant legislation not merely harmony and prosperity to Ireland, but an immeasurably brighter future and a more permanent stability to the British Empire. A. BiTRNS. A, BURNS, D. D., LL. D. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VAC.B RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE (Siffi) FtontispUce. CHARLES STEWART PARNELL 5 REV. DR. A. BURNS 15 THOMAS POWER O'CONNOR sj MR. ISAAC BUTT — MR. J. G. BIGGAR (ii RT. HON. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 95 F. B. FREEHILI loi LORD SPENCER -MR. IREVELYAN 113 LORD R. CHURCHILL— LORD HARTINGTON izi MICHAEL DAVITT i|;i J. WAITE 1O5 SCENE IN IRELAND-FARMER'S CABIN 17.; MEETING OF LAND LEAGUE COMMITTEE 185 EVICTED-HOMELESS 197 W. REDMOND— J. E. REDMOND 209 THE OBNOXIOUS PROCESS-SERVER 215 EVICTED-DRIVEN FROM THE HOUSE WE BUILT 227 CELEBRATING MASS IN A CABIN 2:51 LIFE IN IRELAND 239 DESTITUTE FISHERMEN 245 SOLICITING AID aci 17 18 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. GRATTAN'S PARMAMF.NT bA, HKNRY GRATTAN ,„ IJRINKINU HIS HONOR'S HEALTH 3,5 DANIEL O'CONNELL 39, (;lai)stone*s speech 4„ JOHN DILLON — G. J. GOSCHEN 461 NO RENT 48s JOHN MORLEY-SIR W. V. HARCOURT 489 LORD SALISBURY -MR. FORSTER 505 T. M. HEALY — JUSTIN McCARTHY 5a; PATRICK EGAN-T. IIRENNAN 533 THOMAS SEXTON — W. H. O'SULLIVAN 5,5 A.M. SULLIVAN -T. D. SULLIVAN 56, CONTENTS. CIIAl'TER I. Charles Stewart Parnell — His character for grip and grit — His talents — His appearance — His early life and education — His ancestry — Admiral Charles Stewart — Parnell's first tour in America — The Mancliester Martyrs — Parnell's entrance into political life — Isaac butt and the earlier movements for Home Rule — Parnell and Buit — Joseph Gillis Biggar — Enormous salaries paid to officials in Ireland — The policy of obstruction — Parnell's first speech in the House of Commons ........ 25 CHAPTER II. The era of obstruction — The British House of Commons — Queen's speech — The vote on supplies — How obstruction helped Ire- land's cause — A happy hunting-ground — Flogging in the army — England's treatment of prisoners — The Mutiny Act — Making John Bull listen — The Transvaal bill — The Irish in England and Scotland — The Famine of 1879 — A crisis in Ireland's history- Mr. Butt's defects as a leader — Michael Davitt — The story of his early years — A Fenian movement — Davitt in prison — A ticket- of-leave — Irish-American organizations — Land League — " The Three F's" 94 CHAPTER IIL The land war — The struggle of seven centuries — Illustrations from Irish history — Coin and livery — The wars under the Tudor dy- nasty — Feudal tenure — The Munster undertakers — The settle- ment of Ulster — The Commission of Inquiry — The perfidy of the Stuarts — Cromwell in Ireland — William III., Sarsfield, Limer- ick, and the Penal Code 184 19 :; 20 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. The destruction of Irish industries — An alien proprietary — English legislation for many years directed against Ireland's prosperity — Interference with Irish trade — The depopulation of the land — Woollen manufactures crushed out — Blow after blow dealt at nascent industries — Lord Dufferin on English jealousy of Ireland — Rack-renting, eviction and legalized robbery — Cruelties of the landlords — Dean Swift's pictures of Ireland in the eighteenth century — Beggary and starvation 235 CHAPTER V. The story of Irish Parliament — Poyning's law — Molyneux's " Case of Ireland Stated " — Wood's Half- Pence — The condition of Catholics — The corruptions of the Anglo-Irish Parliament — The Irish Volunteers — The convention at Dungarvan — Grattan's Declaration of Rights — An independent Irish Parliament — Its happy effect on Irish industries and on business in general — Lord Fitzwilliam recalled — The rebellion of 1798 — Castlereagh — How the Union was brought about 257 CHAPTER VI. After the Union — IreKnd heavily taxed for England's benefit — Shameful injustice — The degradation of the tenantry — Absentee- ism — Wholesale eviction — Coercion acts — Worse and worse — Wrong, poverty and hopeless misery — Catholic Emancipation — O'Connell the Liberator — The attitude of the Orange Tory party — O'Connell in Parliament 318 CHAPTER VII. The great famine of 1845 — Only the culmination of evils — The pota- to-rot — The great struggle in England regarding the Corn-Laws — Protection versus Free Trade — Peel and repeal — Lord John Russell — His criminally stupid Irish policy and its bitter conse- quences — Tenant right tiie only remedy for Ireland's woes — Co- ercion as a cure for famine — The awful disasters of 1845 ^'"^ 1847 — Foolish doctrinaire policy of Russell — The Labor Rate act — The Fever — The Soup Kitchen act — Emigration — Death of O'Connell — Young Ireland — John Mitchel and Smith O'Brien — Great Britain the unchecked mistress of Ireland . . 362 CONTENTS. 21 CHAPTER VIII. Resurrection — The Fenian movement — Gladstone's mental and moral characteristics — The disestablishment of the Irish Church — The Land Bill of 1870, and its fatal defects— The Home Rule movement originally started by Protestants — The Home Rule Association — A complete change of policy — No favors to be asked or accepted from either great English party 431 CHAPTER IX. The old fight again— The crisis of 1879— The election of Mr. Par- nell as chairman of the Irish party— Defects of Mr. Shaw as a political leader — The leaders decide to remain in opposition to both English parties — Mr. Shaw's friends sell themselves for place and pay — The hopeless differences between the Irish party and the English Liberals — Parnell's platform for settling the Irish land problem — English incapacity to deal with Irish ques- tions — The Disturbance Bill — Forster — Irish outrages — Irish members suspended and ordered to leave the House — Land Bill of 1881 — No-Rent cry . ' 45a ' CHAPTER X. In the depths — Merciless war between the Irish people and the au- thorities — Forster and Clifford Lloyd — " Harvey DufT" — Par- nell imprisoned — Parnell triumphant — The Phoenix Park mur- ders — Conservative rule and its benefits — Gladstone's new move- ment for conceding Home Rule — The situation in January, 1886 487 CHAPTER XI. The great Home Rule debate of 1886— Gladstone, the Grand Old Man — His appearance — His qualities of mind and heart — John Morley — Joseph Chamberlain — Mr. Goschen — Hartington — Sal- isbury — Churchill — Justin McCarthy — Thomas Sexton — Arthur O'Connor — Timothy Daniel Sullivan — ^James O'Kelly — His sin- gular and checkered career as soldier, journalist, politician and parliamentarian — John Dillon — Edmund Leamy — E. D. Gray — T, M. Healy— William O'Brien— J. E. Redmond— T. Harring- ton — The Liberal Parliament of 1886 — Gladstone's grand speech — The debate — Hope again deferred 508 2 « r;' 22 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. The appeal to the country — Gladstone's popularity with the masses — His brilliant campaign in Scotland — Splendid receptions at Man- chester, Liverpool, and elsewhere — Anti-Gladstonian efforts of Hartington, Chamberlain, Goschen, Churchill, Trevelyan and Bright— The Primrose League- -The attitude of the agricultural laborer and the farmer — The democracy almost unanimously friendly to Ireland — The result of the midsummer elections of 1886— Ireland not crushed— The revival of hope— Belfast riots —The outlook to-day 6of m I i m HON. T. P. O'CONNOR. M.P. CHAPTER I. CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. GRIP and grit : in these two words are told the secret of Mr. Parnell's marvellous success and marvellous hold over men. When once he has mac^e up his mind to a thing he is inflexible ; immovable by affection or fear or reasoning. He knows what he wants, and he is resolved to have it. Throughout his career he has often had to make bargains ; he has never yet been known to make one in which he gave up a single iota which he could hold. But it takes time before one discovers these qualities. In ordinary circumstances Mr. Parnell is apparently the most easy-going of men. Though he is not emotional or effusive, he is genial and unaffected to a degree ; listens to all comers with an air of real deference, especially if they be good talkers ; and apparently allows himself to follow implicitly the guidance of those who are speaking to him. He is for this reason one of the most agreeable of companions, never raising any difficulties about trifles, ready to subject his will and his conven- ience to that of others ; amiable, unpretending, a (25) } I < !» 26 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. i\ splendid listener, a delightful host. But all the softness and the pliancy disappear when the moment comes for decisive action. After days of apparent wavering, he suddenly becomes granite. His decision is taken, and once taken is irrevocable. He goes right on to the end, whatever it may be. In some respects, indeed, he bears a singular resemblance to General Grant ; he has his council of war, and nobody could be a more patient or more respectful lis- tener, and, ordinarily, nobody more ready to have his thinking done for him by others. But when affairs reach a great climax, it is his own judg- ment upon which he acts, and upon that alone. Mr. Parnell has not a large gift of expression. He hates public speaking, and avoids a crowd with a nervousness that sometimes appears almost feminine. He likes to steal through crowded streets in a long, heavy Ulster and a small smoking-cap that effectually conceal his identity, and when he is in Ireland is only happy when the quietness of Avondale secludes him from all eyes but those of a few intimates. From his want of any love of expressing himself, it often happens that he leaves a poor impression on those who meet him casually. More than one man has thought that he was little better than a simpleton, and their mangled reputations strew the path over which the Juggernaut of Parnell's fortunes and genius has mercilessly passed. He is incapable THE GREAT IRISH brRUGGLK. 27 of giving the secret of his power, or of explaining the reasons of his decisions. He judges wisely, with instinctive wisdom, just as Millais paints ; he is always politically right, because, so to speak, he cannot help it. This want of any great power and any great desire to expose the line of reason- ing by which he has reached his conclusions has often exposed Parnell to misunderstandings and strong differences of opinion even with those who respect and admire him. The invariable result is that, when time has passed, those who have dif- fered from him admit that they were wrong and he right, and once more have a fatalistic belief in his sagacity. Often he does not speak for days to any of his friends, and is seldom even seen by them. He knows the enormous advantage some- times of pulling wires from an invisible point. During this absence his friends occasionally fret and fume and wonder whether he knows every- thing that is going on ; and, when their impatience has reached its climax, Parnell appears, and lo ! a great combination has been successfully laid, and the Irish are within the citadel of some time- honored and apparently immortal wrong. Simi- larly it is with Parnell's nerve. In ordinary times he occasionally appears nervous and tretful and pessimistic; in the hour of crisis he is calm, gay, certain of victory, with the fanaticism of a Mussul- man, unconscious of danger, with a blindness half boyish, half divine. 4 \i 1 28 GLA DSTONE— PARNELL. • I-" ;ii i I Mr. Parnell is not a man of large literary reading, but he is a severe and constant student of scientific subjects, and is especially devoted to mechanics. It is one of his amusements to isolate himself from the enthusiastic crowds that meet him everywhere in Irejand, and, in a room by himself, to find delight in mathematical books. He is a constant reader of enq;ineerino: and other mechanical papers, and he takes the keenest in- terest in machinery. It is characteristic of the modesty and, at the same time, scornfulness of his nature, that all through the many attacks made upon him by gentlemen who wear their hearts upon their sleeves, he has never once made allusion to his own strong love of animals ; but to his friends he often expressed his disgust for the outrages that, during a portion of the agitation in Ireland, were occasionally committed upon them. He did not express these sentiments in public, for the good reason that he regarded the outcry raised by some of the Radicals as part of the gospel of cant for which that section of the Liberal party is especially distinguished. To hear a man like Mr. Forster refusing a word of sympathy, in one breath, for whole housefuls of human beings turned out by a felonious landlord to die by the roadside, and, in the next, demanding the suppression of the liberties of a nation be- cause half-a-dozen of cattle had their tails cut off; to see the same men who howled in delight be- THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 29 cause the apostle of a great humane movement, like Mr. Davitt, had been sent to the horrors of penal servitude, shuddering over the ill-usage of a horse, was quite enough to make even the most humane man regard this professed love of an- imals as but another item in the grand total of their hypocrisy. Mr. Parnell regards the lives of human beings as more sacred than even those of animals, and he is consistent in his hatred of op- pression and cruelty wherever they may be found. His sympathies are with the fights of freedom everywhere, and he often spoke in the strongest terms of his disgust for the butcheries in the Soudan, which the Liberals, who wept over Irish horses, and Irish cows, received with such Olym- pian calm. In 1867 the ideas that had been sown in his mind in childhood first began to mature. His mother was then, as probably throughout her life, a strong Nationalist, and so was at least one of his sisters. Thus Mr. Parnell, in entering upon political life, was reaching the natural sequel of his own descent, of his early training, of the strongest tendencies of his own nature. It is not easy to describe the mental life of a man who is neither expansive nor introspective. It Is one of the strongest and most curious peculiarities of Mr. Parnell, not merely that he rarely, if ever, speaks of himself, but that he rarely, if ever, gives any indication of having studied himself. His mind, if one may use the jargon of the 1, I I i 80 GLADSTONE— PARr:ELL. ji| Germans, is purely objective. There are few men who, after a certain length of acquaintance, do not familiarize you with the state of their hearts or their stomachs or their finances ; with their fears, their hopes, their aims. But no man has ever been a confidant of Mr. Parnell. Any allusion to himself by another, either in the exu- berance of friendship or the design of flattery, is passed by unheeded ; and it is a joke among his intimates that to Mr. Parnell the being Parnell does not exist. It is plain from the facts we have narrated that Parnell's great strengt' is one which lies in his character rather than in his attainments. Yet his wonderful successes won in the face of nu- merous and most bitter opponents testify to mental abilities of a very high order. Mr. Glad- stone has said of him, " No man, as far as I can judge, is more successful than the hon. member in doing that which it is commonly supposed that all speakers do, but which in my opinion few really do — and I do not include myself among those few — namely, in saying what he means to say." Mr. Parnell is moreover very strong in not saying the thing which should not be said. Too many of his countrymen, it may be safely as- serted, are of that hasty and impulsive tem- perament which may betray, by a word prema- turely spoken, some point which should have been held from the enemy, and which might easily THE GRLAT IKISII STKUGlil.L: 31 have been made, at some later time, a stronirhold of defence in the parliamentary contest. Mr. Parnell has few qualities which have hitherto been associated with the idea of a successful Irish leader. He has now become one of the most potent of parliamentary debaters in the House of Commons, through his thorough grasp of his own ideas and through his exact knowledge of the needs of his country. But Mr. Parnell has be- come this in spite of himself. He retains to this day, as we have before stated, an almost invin- cible repugnance to public speaking ; if he can, through any excuse, be silent, he remains silent, and the want of all training before his entrance into polidcal life made him, at first, a speaker more than usually stumbling. His complete suc- cess in overcoming, not indeed his natural ob- jection to public speaking, but the difficulty with which his first speeches were marked, affords one of the many proofs of his wonderful strength and singleness of purpose. It is not a little re- markable that his first successful speech was crit- icised for its vehemence and bitterness of tone, and for the shrillness and excessive effort of the speaker's voice. It seems probable that the embarrassing circumstances of his position while addressing an unsympathizing body of legislators, combined with a sense of his own inexperience, may have produced the appearance of excessive vehemence of manner. > ! m "I V . 32 GLAlJSTONE— PARNELL. :il Nature has stamped on the person of this re- markable man the qualities of liis mind and tem- perament. His face is sinji^ularly handsome, and at a first glance might even appear too delicate to be strong. The nose is long and thin and carved, not moulded ; the mouth is well cut; the cheeks are pallid; the forehead perfectly round, as round and as striking as the forehead of the first Napoleon ; and the eyes are dark and un- fathomable. The passer-by in the streets, taking a casual look at those beautifully chiselled features and at the air of perfect tranquillity, would be inclined to think that Mr. Parnell was a very handsome young man, who probably had graduated at West Point, and would in due time die in r skirmish with the Indians. But a closer look would show the great possibilities beneath this face. The mouth, especially the under lip, speaks of a grip that never loosens ; the eye, when it is fixed, tells oi che inflexible will be- neath ; and the tranquillity of the expression is the tranquillity of the nature that wills and wins. Similarly with his figure. It looks slight almost to fiailty ; but a glance will show that the bones are large, the hips broad, and the walk firm ; in fact, Mr. Parnell tramps the ground rather than walks. The hands are firm, and even the way they grasp a pencil has a significance. This picture of Parnell is very unlike the por- traits which have been formed of him by the 3ser 2ath lip, eye, be- n is ins. ost nes ; in han |way >or- the TIIK CREAT IRISH STRUGGLK. ;w imagination of those who have never met him. When he was first in the storin and stress of the era of obstruction, lie used to hr. i)ortrayed in the truthful pajT^es of English comic journalism with a battered hat, a long upper lip, a shillelah in his hand, a clay pipe in his caubeen. Even to this day portraits after this fashion appear in the lower-class journals that think the caricature of the Irish face the best of all possible jokes. Par- nell is passionately fond of Ireland ; is happier and healthier on its soil than in. any other part of the world, and is almost bigoted in the intensity of his patriotism. But he miglit easily be taken for a native of another country. Residence for the first years of his life in English schools hus given him a strong English accent and an essen- tially English manner ; and from his American mother he has got, in all probability, the healthy pallor, the delicate chiselling, the impassive look, and the resolute eye that are typical of the chil- dren of the great Republic. Such is the man in brief who to-day is perhaps the most potent personality in all the many na- tions and many races of the earth. The Russian Czar rules wider domains and more subjects ; but his sway has to be backed by more than a million armed men, and he passes much of his time shiv- ering before the prospect of a sudden and awful death at the hands of the infuriated among his own people. The German is a more multitudi- 34 GI ADSTONE— PARNELL. 11 { nous race than the Irish and almost as widely scattered ; but Bismarck requires also the protec- tion of a mighty army and of cruel coercion laws, and the German who leaves the Fatherland re- gards with abhorrence the political ideas with which Bismarck is proud to associate his name. Gladstone exercises an almost unparalleled sway over the minds, hearts, imaginations of English- men ; but nearly one-half of his people regard him as the incarnation of all evil ; and shallow- pated lieutenants, great only in self-conceit, dare to beard and defy and flout him. But Parnell has not one solitary soldier at his command ; the jail has opened for him and not for his enemies, and except for a miserable minority he is adored by all the Irish at home, and adored even more fer- vently by the Irish who will never see — in some cases who have never seen — the shores of the Green Isle again. In one way or another, through intermixture with the blood of other peoples, the Irish race can lay claim to some twenty millions of the human race. Out of all these twenty millions the people who do not re- gard Parnell as their leader may be counted by the few hundreds of thousands. In cities sepa- rated from his home or place of nativity by oceans and continents, men meet at his command, and spill their money for the cause he recommends. Meetings called under his auspices gather daily in every one of the vast States of America, in THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 35 Canada, in Cape Colony; and the primeval woods of Australia have echoed to the cheers for his name. But this is but a superficial view of his power, A nation, under his guidance, has shed many of its traditional weaknesses; from being im- pulsive has grown cool and calculating ; from being disunited and discordant has welded itself into iron bands of discipline and solidarity. In a race scattered over every variety of clime and soil and government, and in every stratum of the social scale from the lowest to the highest, there are men of every variety of character and occupation and opinion. In other times the hatred of these men over their differences of method was more bitter than their hatred for the common enemy who loathed alike their ends and their means. Now they all alike sink into equality of agree- ment before the potent name of Parnell, high and low, timid and daring, moderate and extreme. Republics change their Presidents, colonies their governors and ministers ; in England now it is Gladstone and now it is Salisbury that rules; but Parnell remains stable and immovable, the apex of a pyramid that stretches invisible over many lands and seas, as resistless apparently as fate, solid as granite, durable as time. It was many years before the world had any idea of this new and potent force that was coming into its councils and affairs. Charles Stewart Parnell was born in June, 1846. He is descended i !l. ! II i' ! ti i I ii :|! 86 ( } L ADSTON K— PA R N ELL. from a family that had lon^ been associated with the poHtical life of Ireland. The family came originally from Concrleton, in Cheshire; but like so many others of English origin had in time proved its right to the proud boast of being Hibernior Hibernis ipsis. So far back as the beginning of the last century a Parnell sat for an Irish constituency in the Irish Parliament. At the time of the Union a Parnell held high office, and was one of those who gave the most* substantial proof of the reality of his love for the independ- ence of his country. Sir John Parnell at the time was Chancellor of the Exchequer and had held the office for no less than seventeen years. It was one of the vices of the old Irish Parliament even in the days after Grattan had attained com- parative freedom in 1782 that the Ministers were creatures of the Crown and not responsible to and removable by the Parliament of which they were members. There was everything, then, in these years of service as a representative of the Crown to have transformed Sir John Parnell into a time- serving and corrupt courtier. But Sir John Bar- ington, the best known chronicler of the days of the Irish Union, describes Sir John Parnell in his list of contemporary Irishmen as *' Incorruptible;" -^nd •* Incorruptible " he proved ; for he resigned office and resisted the Act of Union to the bitter end. A son of Sir John Parnell — Henry Parnell — was afterwards for many years a prominent I it THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 37 member of the British Parliament, became a Cab- inet Minister, and was ultimately raised to the Peerage as the first Baron Congleton. John Henry Parnell was a grandson of Sir John Parnell. In his younger days he went on a tour through America ; there met Miss Stewart, the daughter of Commodore Stewart ; fell in love with her, and was married in Broadway. It is unnecessary to speak to Americans of the immortal ** Old Iron- sides." Suffice it to say that the bravery, calm- ness, and strength of will which were characteris- tic of the brave commander of the *' Constitution " are inherited by his grandson, the bearer of his name ; for the full name of Mr. Parnell, as is known, is '* Charles Stewart Parnell." There was also something significant in the fact that the man who was destined to prove the most potent foe of British misrule in Ireland should have drawn his blood on the mother's side from a captain who was one of the few men that ever brought humili- ation on the proud mistress of the seas. While Commodore Charles Stewart was in command of that famous friLrate the " Constitu- tion," in the war between England and America in 1 815, he met, fought, beat and captured the two English vessels — the "'Cyane " and the '* Levant " — with the loss of seventy-seven killed and wounded among the British, and only three killed and ten wounded in his own vessel. It is note- worthy that he did not enter upon this engage- u 1. [I 38 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ment until first attacked, for he had received from a British vessel, three days before the en- gagement, a copy of the London Times, contain- ing the heads of the Treaty of Ghent, as signed by the Ministers of the United States and Great Britain, and said to have been ratified by the Prince Regent. After a series of striking adven- tures Stewart reached home with his vessel. His victory excited extreme enthusiasm among the Americans, and every form of public honor was bestowed upon him. In Boston there was a tri- umphant procession ; in New York the City Council presented him with the freedom of the city and a gold snuff-box, and he and his officers were entertained at a dinner ; in Pennsylvania he was voted the thanks of the Commonwealth, and presented with a gold-hilted sword. Congress passed a vote of thanks to him and his officers, and struck a gold medal and presented it to him in honor of the victory. Commodore Stewart was afterwards sent to the Mediterranean, where there was something ap- proaching a mutiny amongst the officers under a different commodore. He soon came to a definite issue with his subordinates. He ordered a court- martial on a marine to be held on board one of his vessels. The officers preferred to discuss the case at their leisure in a hotel in Naples, and there tried and convicted the marine. The Commodore promptly quashed the conviction, and, when the THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 39 -ii court passed a series of resolutions, put all the commanding officers of the squadron under ar- rest. The result was the complete restoration of order and the approval of Commodore Stew- art's conduct by the President. Admiral Stewart lived to a great age, and in time took a very high place in the affections of his countrymen. He used to be known as " old Ironsides," a name better known as the popular appellation of the frigate " Constitution," which he had commanded with such distinction, and the residence which he purchased at Bordentown, N. J., was, in spite of himself, baptized "Ironsides Park." He was once prominently spoken of as a candidate for the Presidency, and, in less than four montl^s, sixty-seven newspapers pronounced in his favor. But the project did not receive his sanc- tion ; he gave it no countenance ; he would not even discuss it; he was "unusually nervous and fidgety " during the agitation of the subject ; and at length its promoters were impelled to give it up. He regained his usual equanimity only when his name ceased to be bandied about by the political press. He was eighty-three years of age when Fort Sumter was fired upon. At once he wrote asking to be put into active service : " I am as young as ever," he declared, "to fight for my country." But of course the offer had to be refused. He survived nine years, and suffered very severely towards the end of his life. 3 ill m ' iiiii if 11 i --4 m 40 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Commodore Stewart was about five feet nine inches high, and of a dignified and engaging presence. His complexion was fair, his hair chestnut, eyes blue, large, penetrating and intelli- genl. The cast of h's courjtenance was Roman, bold, strong, and commanding, and his head finely formed. His control over his passions was truly surprising, and under the most irritating circum- stance his oldest seaman never saw a ray of anger flash from his eye. His kindness, benevolence, and humanity were proverbial, but his sense of justice and the requisitions of duty were as un- bending as fate. In the moment of greatest stress and danger he was as cool and quick in judgment as he was utto'rly ignorant of fear. His mind was acute and powerful, grasping the greatest or smallest subjects with the intuitive mastery of genius. It is said that, in many respects, Mr. Parnell bears a strong resemblance in his characteristics to the grandfather whose name he bears. In physique he is much less English or Irish than American. The delicacy of his features, the pal- lor of complexion, the strong nervous and mus- cular system, concealed under an exterior of fra- gility, are characteristics of the American type of man. Mentally, also, his evenness of temper and coolness of judgment, as well as the singular boldness and independence of his course in Par- liament, suggest an American temperament. 5 f as THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 41 Mr. Parnell has been oblicred. we may say, to conquer his now wc^Il-assiired place in the con- fidence and affection of the Irish people. By birth a member of the landlord caste, a supporter of a religious ^^dy disliked most heartily by the masses of the .ish peasantry, altogether un-Irish in manner and voice, it is a proof of the quickness of insight, and the real generosity of the people, that they so soon were able and willing to assign him his true place as their political leader. It may be said, however, that throughout a large part of Ireland the family name of Mr. Parnell was, to some small extent, a card in his favor. The poet Thomas Parnell, one of the wits of Queen Anne's reign, was always estimated more nearly at his real literary value in Ireland than in England. He was, it is true, an easy-going Protestant parson and a notorious place-hunter ; but his genial wit and fine talents helped him to favor with the reading portions of the Irish people. The young Parnell, chiefly because he was a delicate child, was sent to various schools in England '^uring his boyhood, and finally went to Cambridge University — the university of his father. Here he stayed for a couple of years, and for a considerable time thought of becoming a lawyer. But he changed his purpose, with a regret that sometimes even in these days of supreme political glory finds wistful expression. ! :l I :'^;i ■; Ui :#:, i i ' II. 42 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. For Parnell is one of the men to whom political glory has not brought any particular joy. Though he has, in face of difficulty, extraordinary self- confidence, the basis of his nature is diffident. He used to say often in the lifetime of his sister, Fanny Parnell — a girl of great poetical and literary power — that the women in his family always had the larger share of the brains ; and once, when an article written by Fanny Parnell was attributed to her brother, he expressed surprise that anybody should have thought him capable of having writ- ten so well. Nor is he a man whom the pomp of power blinds or dazzles. I have seen him at a demonstration in his own constituency of Cork, where miles of streets were covered with multi- tudinous masses ready to fall at his feet, and his face was almost as unmoved as if he were the humblest and most unconcerned actor in the whole day's business. I was once telling him of a visit Senator Jones, of Florida, had paid to Bal- briggan — the small town outside Dublin which the Senator had left many years before an humble boy. I was drawing a contrast between the hope- lessness of Mr. Jones's early life and the splen- dor of his position as a Senator of the greatest countr\' in the world. "I wonder," said Mr. Par- nell, " is he any the happier ? " And thus some- times he reflects that perhaps it would have been better for him that he had pursued his law-course, and was unknown outside the musty limits of the Court of Chancery. THE GREVr IRISH STRUGGLE. 43 A.lmost immediately after his years at Cam- bric!st entirely, aloof from the popular movements. With the single exception of the late Mr. George Henry Moore, the representation of Ireland was abandoned by the country gentlemen, who in other times had occasionally rushed out of their own ranks and taken up the side of the people. It is a curious fact, but the man wlio, perhaps, had more influ- ence than almost any other in bringing Mr. Par- nell into the arena of Irish nationality, has himself proved a recreant to the cause. In 1 87 1 was fought the Kerry election. This election marked one of the turning-points in the modern history of Ireland. During the Fenian trials Isaac Butt was the most prominent figure in defending the prisoners. He was a man who had started life with great expectations and supreme talents. Before he was many years in Trinity College, Ireland's oldest university, he was a pro- fessor ; he had been only six years at the bar when he was mad(j a Queen's counsel. He was the son of a Protestant rector of the North of Ire- land, and adhered for some years tc the prejudices in which he had been reared. In his early days THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 49 fvery good thing in Ireland belonged to the Protestants. The Catholics were an outlawed and alien race in their own country. O'Connell, not many years before, had carried Catholic emancipation, but Catholic emancipation was alive only in the letter. The offices — the judgeships, the fellowships in Trinity College, the shrievalties, everything of value or power — were still exclusive- ly in the hands of the Protestants. O'Connell, in 1843, was so thoroughly sick and tired of vain ap- peals to the English Legislature that he resolved to start once again a demand for a native Irish Legislature. He opened the agitation by a de- bate in the Dublin Corporation, and Butt, who was a member of that body, though he was but a young man, was chosen by the Conservatives to oppose O'Connell, and delivered a speech so effective that O'Connell himself complimented his youthful opponent, and foretold the advent of a time when Butt himself would be among the ad- vocates instead of the opponents of an Irish Leg- islature. It was not till a quarter of a century afterward that this prophecy was realized. Butt, immediately after the Fenian trials, began an agitation for amnesty, and in this way gradually went forward to a primary place in the confidence and in the affections of his countrymen. There were still some people who believed in the power and the willingness of the English Parliament to redress all the wrongs of Ireland, and there was 1 1 ' I ,..i ii * ti ;-^i/ 50 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. some justification for this faith in the fact that William Ewart Gladstone was then at the head of the English state, and was passing the Disestab- lishment of the Irish Church, the Land Act of 1870, and the Ballot Act, three measures which mark the renaissance of Irish nationality. But one of these very measures Isaac Butt was able to show was the very strongest proof of the neces- sity for an Irish Legislature. The Land Act of 1870 is an act the defects of which have passed from the region of controversy. Mr. Gladstone himself offered tho strongest proof of its break- down by proposing in 1881 an entirely different Land Act. In fact it would not be impossible to show that in some respects the Land Act of 1870 aggravated instead of mitigated the evils of Irish land tenure. It put no restraint on the raising of rents, and rents were raised more mercilessly than ever ; it impeded, but it did not arrest eviction ; it caused as much emigration from Ireland as ever. Yet all Ireland had unanimously demanded a dif- ferent bill. Mass-meetings all over the country had demonstrated the wish of the people, and ex- •(.•^ictation had been wrought to a high point. The fruit of it all had been the halting and miserable measure of 1870. It was this fact that gave the farmers into the hands of Butt. The population of the towns was always ready to receive and to support any Na- ,tional leader who advocated an Irish Parliament ; |; if; THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 51 indeed there is scarcely a year since the Act of Union in 1800 when the overwhelming majority of the Irish people were not in favor of the resto- ration of an Irish Parliament. At that moment, too, another force was working in favor of a re- newed agitation for Home Rule. The Protestants were bitterly exasperated by the Disestablishment of the Irish Church. Some of the more extreme Oranoremen had made the same threats then as they are making now, and, while professing the strongest loyalty to the Queen, had used lan- guage of vehement disloyalty. For instance, one Orange clergyman had declared that if the Queen should consent to the Disestablishment, the Orangemen would throw her crown into the Boyne. To the Irish Protestants Butt could ap- peal with more force than any other man. He was an Irish Protestant himself, brought up in their religious creed and in their political preju- dices. He made the appeal with success, and it was Irish Protestants that took the largest share in starting the great Irish movement of to-day. The Home Rule movement received definite form for the first time at a meetinof in the Bilton Hotel on May 19, 1870. It was held in the Bilton Hotel in Sackville (now O'Connell) street, and among those who were present and took a promi- nent part were Isaac Butt, a Protestant ; the Rev Joseph Galbraith, a Protestant clergyman and a Fellow of Trinity College ; Mr. Purdon, a Prot- I ! ill^ !h ^i ; 1 i ■ i i -J i* ;: j i ' ^' ■ ■ i • / I li li'i u ■ill i I'if 62 GLADSTONE— P4RNELL. estant, and then Conservative Lord Mayor of Dublin ; Mr. Kinahan, a Protestant, who had been High Sheriff of Dublin ; Major Knox, a Protes- tant, and the proprietor of tlie /ris/i Times, the chief Conservative organ of Dublin, and finally Colonel King- Harman, a Protestant, who has since gone over to the enemy and become one of the bitterest opponents of the movement which he was largely responsible in starting. It was a Protestant, too, that won a victory that was decisive. In 1871 there was a vacancy in the representation of the County of Kerry. At once the new movement resolved to make an appeal to the constituency in the name of the revived de- mand for tiie restoration of an Irish Parliament. The friends of Whiggery, on the other hand, were just as resolved that the old bad system should be defended vigorously. And this elec- tion at Kerry deserves to be gravely dwelt on by those who regard the present movement as a sec- tarian and a distinctly Catholic movement. The Whig candidate was a Catholic — Mr. James Ar- thur Dease, a man of property, of great intellect- ual powers, and of a stainless character ; and Mr. Dease was supported vehemently and passion- ately by Dr. Moriarty, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kerry. The Home Rule candidate on the other hand was a Protestant — Mr. Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett ; and he had but few ad- herents among the Catholic clergy of the diocese ; i ii* in ': ■ THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 63 and the clergy who did support him fell under the displeasure of their bishop. The struggle was fought out with terrible energy and much bitterness ; the end was that the feeling of Na- tionality triumphed over all the influence of the British authorities and of the Catholic bishop, and Blennerhassett, the Protestant Home Rule candi- date, was returned. Blennerhassett belonged to the same class as Mr. Parnell. He was a landlord, a Protestant, and a Home Ruler. Mr. Parnell was a landlord, a Protestant and a Home Ruler. The time had ap- parently come when constitutional agitation had a fair chance ; and when men of property who sym- pathized with the people would be welcomed into the National ranks. A few years after this came the general election of 1874; and Mr. Parneli tliought that his time of self-distrust and hesita- tion had passed ; and that he might put himself forward as a National candidate. But his chance was destroyed by a small technicality of wiiich the government took advantage. It is the cus- tom in Ireland to appoint young men of station and property to the position of high sheriffs of the counties in which they live. The high sheriff cannot stand for the constituency in which he holds office unless he be permitted by the Crown to resign his office. Mr. Parnell applied for this permission and was refused. And thus in all probability he was unable to represent his native ■if 1 \-'i\ •lii 1' ■■I'i m i.i- ! I ••t i ij' n « 1! I I ' f t ^ ;<■;? ' s I rf ■111 f ? 1 ■if ■J;» M P 111 if! 1'^!> 54 GLADSTONE— PAKNELL. county In Parliament. But he had not long to wait. When a member of Parliament accepts office he has to resign his seat in the British Parliament and submit himself once more to the votes of his constituency. A Colonel Taylor, a veteran and rather stupid hack of the Tory party, was promoted by Mr. Disraeli to the position of Chancellor of the Duchy of 1 ancaster — a well- paid sinecure — after many years service as one of the whips of the party. Colonel Taylor was member for County Dublin. Me had to seek re-election on his appointment to the chancellor- ship ; and Mr. Parnell resolved to oppose him. The sequel of this part of tlie story of Mr. Par- nell I had better tell in the words of the late A. M. Sullivan : "Although it was a forlorn hope to fight the seat in the then condition of the Registry, the Home Rule League felt bound to contest it if a suitable candidate could be found. I was summoned one day to a private meeting of the Executive Coun- cil to consider the situation. Professor Galbraith and Mr. Keatinge Clay gave us the news that, if adopted by tne League, and assured of their hearty aid, a young gentleman named Parnell — in fact, a representative of the Parnell family — would fiMit the colonel. Few of us had heard of him before the events of the previous month ; and we were disposed to look coldly on a young Protestant aristocrat, probably only a ' nominal ' ^^^^ THE GRKAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 65 Home Ruler, anxious merely for parliamentary honors. John Martin declared be would trust 'any of the Parnells,' if they said the word. Still there was hesitancy ; and eventually we said, ' Let us see him.' The Council adjourned for the pur- pose, and on reassembling I saw Mr. C. S. Par- nell for the first time. I do not wish to pretend that i possessed any marvellous power of divin- ation, but, when the young neophyte had retired, i not only joined John Martin in espousing his cause, but I undertook to move his. adoption at a public meeting which it was decided to hold in the Rotunda. In truth it had been a dream of my life to get these young Protestants of the landlord class into the ranks of, and to the head of, the Irish National movement. I judged it would be the sure way to bridge over the class antagonisms and to destroy sectarian hatreds ; and never did one of those men reach out a hand to the people that I did not spring to his side. At the public meeting a'.ove referred to, Mr. Parnell made his debut in public life. The resolution which I had moved in his favor having been adopted with ac- clamation, he came forward to address the assem- blage. To our dismay he broke down utterly. He faltered, he paused, went on, got confused, and, pale with intense but subdued nervous anx- iety, caused every one to feel deep sympathy for him. The audience saw it all, and cheered him kindly and heartily ; but many on the platform ■ i i- .1 y. I \ \- % % 1? 1% \\ i! 4 56 GLADSTONE— PARNELL ■1 i i' 1 i: i 1' f/'ii' ,1 ^ j,;.v| if < iii shook their heads, sagely prophesying that if ever he got to Westminster, no matter how long he stayed there, he would either be a ' Silent Mem- ber,' or be known as * Single-speech Parnell.' " Mr. Parnell wps beaten, of course, by a huge majority ; for in these days, though the majority of the people of County Dublin were, as they are now, energetic Nationalists, the franchise suffrage was so restricted that a small minority was able to always win the seat. But Mr. Parnell had borne himself well in the struggle; and though he was held to be absolutely devoid of speaking power, and his high English accent was not re- garded with favor, yet he made many friends and admirers by the pluck with which he fc ght a for- lorn hope. The next year the man who had been chiefly instrumental in bringing him into public life died — honest John Martin. At the time of his death John Martin was member for County Meath. The county, always strongly National, looked naturally with some scrutiny for a man capable of stepping into the place of a veteran and noble patriot. Parnell was selected, but he was not to gfet in without a contest. The Catho- lie aristocracy still stood by the old ways and by the Fngiish Parliament, and a member of the house of the Earl of Fingall, a Catholic peer, was put forward. But the people would not any longer be kept from the growing movement in favor of National self-government, and Parnell was returned at the head of the poll. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 57 Parnell was now at last embarked on the career of an Irish poHtician. He had not been long in the House when he discovered that things were not as they should be, and that the movement, though it appeared powerful to the outside pub- lic, was internally weak and to some extent even rotten. Butt, the leader of the Irish party, was a man of great intellectual powers, and was hon- estly devoted to the success of the cause. He was ready also to work very hard himself, and he drafted all the bills that were brought in on va- rious subjects by his followers. But he was old, had lived an exhausting life, was steeped in debt, and had to divide his time and energies between the calls of his profession as a lawyer and his duties as a leo^islator. Such double calls are especially harassing in the case of a man who is at once an Irish lawyer and an Irish politician. The law courts are in Dublin, the imperial Parliament is in London ; the journey between the two cities, part by sea and part by land, is fatiguing even to a young man, and thus it was quite impossible that Butt could attend to his duties as a lawyer in Dublin and as a politician in London without damage to both. This seriously interfered with his efficiency, and waa partly accountable for the break-down of himself and his party. But he had, besides, personal defects that made him unfit for difficult and stormy times. He was a soft-tempered, easy-going man who was without A . ill li M^ '* . r, ^1 ' i \l: i ! 1 1 .ill !«: oft GLADSTONE -PARNEI-I.. much moral courage, incapable of saying No, and with a thousand amiable weaknesses which leaned to virtue's side as a man, but were far from vir- tuous in the politician. As a speaker he was the most persuasive of men. He discussed with such candor, with such logic, with temper so beautiful, that even his bitterest opponents had to listen to him with respect. But the House of Commons has respect only for men who have votes behind them, and can turn divisions, and Butt was unable to turn divisions. This brings us to the secontl defect in the Home Rule party of Butt. Most of his followers were rotten office-seekers. When in 1874 Butt had an opportunity of getting a party elected he was beset by Uie great weakness of all Irish move- ments — the want of money. The electoral insti- tutions of England were, and to a certain extent still are, such as to make political careers impossi- ble to any but the rich or the fairly rich. The costs of election are large, members of Parliament have no salary, and living in London is dear; and thus as a rule nobody has any chance of entering into political life unless he has a pretty full purse. The result was that when the contest came Butt was in a painful dilemma. The constituencies were all right, and were willing to return an hon- est Nationalist, but there were no honest candi- dates, for there was no prospect but starvation to anybody who entered into political life without I PI ■fa THE GREAT IRISH STRUCK.I.K. 59 considerable means. Butt himself was terribly pressed for money at that very moment. He had to fly from a warrant for debt on the very morn- ing when Mr. Gladstone's manifesto was issued, and John Barry, now one of the members for County Wexford, tells an amusing tale of how he received the then Irish leader in the early morn at Manchester, where Barry lived. It was from England that Mr. Butt had to direct the electoral campaign, and his resources for the whole thing amounted to a few hundred pounds. To Ameri- can readers these facts ought especially to be told, for they serve two objects: First, they show how it is that though the feeling of Ireland has always been strongly National, representatives of these opinions have not found a place in Parlia- ment until a comparatively recent period; and secondly, because they bring out clearly the enor- mous influence which America has exercised in the later phases of Irish policy by her generous sub- scriptions to the combatants for human rights and human liberty in Ireland. The result of all these circumstances was that Butt was compelled to fight constituencies with such men as turned up, and in the majority of cases to be satisfied with the old men under new pledges. Of course, these old representatives were quite as ready to adopt the new princi- ples of Home Rule as they would have adopted any other principles that secured them re-election, t, i ' 1 \ 1 I ^1' .i ;; ' < '■1 i 60 GI..\1,..10NK -PARNELL. t 1 ^ m U f I l.''l I ill n i 1 i ' i ;i 1 ( '' ] .1 i i 1 ' It i |i ami through re-election the opportunity of selling themselves for office. Many of the members of the Home Rule party of 1874 were men, accord- ingly, who had been twenty or thirty years eny;aged in the ignoble work of seeking pay or pensions from the British authorities, and as ready as ev:M' to sell themselves. Of course, such a spirit was entirely destructive of any chance of getting real good from Parliament. The English ministers felt that they were dealing with a set of men whose votes they could buy, and were not going to take any steps for the redress of the grievances of a country that was thus represented. It was no wonder, then, that when Mr. Parnell entered Parliament he at once began to meet with painful disillusions. Mr. Butt's plan of action was to bring forward measures, to have them skilfully and temperately discussed, and then to submit to the vote when it went against him. The Home Rule question was opened every year. Mr. Butt himself introduced the subject in a speech of'great constitutional knowledge, of intense closeness of reasoning, and of a statesmanship the sagacity of which is now proved by the adoption of Butt's views by the leading statesmen of England. Then the leaders of both the English parties got up; each in turn condemned the proposal with equal emphasis; the division was called; Whig and Tory went into the same lobby; the poor Irish party was borne down by hundreds of English rt t/) n o ii'i ft f ill • THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 63 votes, and Home Rule was dead for another year. Parnell's mind is eminently practical. Great speeches, splendid meetings, imposing proces- sions — all these things are as nothing to him unless they bring material results. He was as great an admirer as anybody else of the genius of Isaac Butt, but he could see no good whatever in great speeches and full-dress debates that left the Irish question exactly where it was before. He saw, too, that Isaac Butt was the victim of one great illusion. Butt founded his whole policy on appeals to and faith in the reason of the House of Commons. Parnell saw very clearly that at that period the keeper of the conscience in the House of Commons on the Irish question was the division lobby. "Appeal to the good sense and good feeling of the House of Commons," said Butt; and the House of Commons replied by quietly but effectually telling him that it didn't care a pin about his feelings or his opinions — its resolution was fixed never to grant Home Rule to Ireland. Parnell naturally began to think of an opposite policy. "Attack the House through its own interests and convenience," said he to Butt, "and then you need not beg it — you can force it to listen." When Parnell entered into Parliament there was already another member there whose mind was of an even more realistic order than his own. At the general election of 1874 Joseph Gillis Big- .i ji ; t 1 i 64 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. gar had been returned for the County of Cavan. Biggar is an excellent type of the hard-headed Northerner. He was all his life in the pork trade, and had the reputation of being one of the closest, keenest and most successful business men of Belfast. Biggar is not a man who has read much — he does not even read the newspapers which contain attacks upon himself; but he has an extremely shrewd, penetrating mind, a judg- ment that is often narrow but is nearly always sound, and that once formed is unchangeable by friend or foe. But above all things, Biggar has extraordinary and marvellous courage. This courage exhibits itself in small as well as in big things. He has the courage to refuse an exorbi- tant fare to a cabman or a fee to a waiter; will oppose the best friend as readily as the bitterest enemy if he think him wrong; can speak unpleas- ant truths without the least qualms; and is not so much indifferent as unconscious of what other people say about him. In these respects he was the very opposite of poor Butt, who was childishly sensitive to opinion either of friend or foe. Big- gar had been greatly disgusted with the way things were going in the House of Commons even before Parnell had become his colleague. He has a wonderfully keen eye in seeing through falsehood and pretense, and if he be once con- vinced that a man is dishonest he loathes him for- ever afterwards. i'CJ' THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 65 Joseph Gillis Biggar was born in Belfast, on August I, 1828. He was educated at the Belfast Academy, where he remained from 1832 to 1844. The record of his school-days is far from satisfac- tory. He was very indolent — at least he says so himself — he showed no great love of reading — in this regard the boy, indeed, was father to the man — he was poor at composition, and, of course, ab- jectly hopeless at elocution. The one talent he did exhibit was a talent for figures. It was, per- haps, this want of any particular success in learn- ing, as well as delicacy of health, which made Mr. Biggar's parents conclude that he had better be removed from school and placed at business. He was taken into his father's office, who — as is known — was engaged in the provision trade, and he continued as assistant until 1861, when he be- came head of the firm. This part of his career may be here dismissed with the remark that he retired from trade in 1880, and is now entirely out of business. A great difficulty meets the biographer of Mr. Biggar at the outset. He is not uncommunicative about himself, but he does not understand him- self, and he much underrates himself. Asked by a friend to write his autobiography, his answer was: "I am a very commonplace character." In his early days, when he used to be asked to make a speech, he cheerfully started out on the at- tempt, having made the preliminary statement, " I can't speak a d d bit." V J .■f ' % ill ! ' * Jl , 1 ' I \ |1 11 1 .',1 |i ! 1 1 1 \ ffi m I 1 i !li ill i |; 1 . ' f 1 i ; ■ i i 1 'It? • i'.\ i 1 66 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. To think (writes Mr. Healy, one of Mr. Big- gar's most intimate friends and warmest admir- ers) that the muddy vesture of Belfast did grossly close him in for nearly fifty years without one gleam of the jewel it enshrined. By what strange channels did his stark Presby- terian soul drink in the fertilizing dews of the traditions of Irisii nationality ? In what northern furnace was it inflamed with that consuming liatred of Clan-London, which might glow in the passionate bosom of some down-trodden Catholic Celt ? Was it as chairman of the Belfast Water Company he first attempted to lisp the bold an- them of Erin-go-Bragh ? The Lord only knows ! Other men write their memoirs or have their biographies written for them. But, alas ! when nature planted in the breast of Mr. Biggar the spirit of obstruction, she neglected to provide him with any gift of introspection, so that the most skilful tapping doth but coldly furnish forth his inward yearnings and tendings. Still acting on information I have received, I timidly venture to set down the fact that one hears at times, in tracing his early development, of a certain grandmother. Thereat, of course, a smile arises ; but I desire to place her memory on reverent record, for she entertained the boyhood of the father of obstruction with stories of the Antrim fight — where her brother, subsequently an exiled fugitive, was wounded — and of many 1 m THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 67 another '98 chronicle of the Presbyterian rebels. It is a long cry, no doubt, from pikes to blue- books, but the Irish conflict is not a genteel duel with a courteous enemy, who proffers a choice of weapons ; so in place of the insurgent grand- uncle, who fled the country after the Antrim col- lapse, the Biggar family came in sequence to be represented in the warfare by the blocking boom- erang of the member for Cavan. There are few public men concerning whom the opinions of friends and foes are so divergent. Towards Mr. Bia-aar the feelinor of his friends and intimates is affectionate almost to fanaticism. When there are private and convivial meetings of the Irish party, the effort is always made to limit the toasts to the irreducible minimum, for talking has naturally ceased to be much of an amusement to men who have to do so much of it in the performance of public duties. There is one toast, however, which is never set down and is always proposed : this toast is the " Health of Mr. Bicraar." Then there occurs a scene which is pleasant to look upon. There arises from all the party one long, spontaneous, universal cheer, a cheer straight from every man's heart ; the usually frigid speech of Mr. Parnell grows warm and even tender ; everything shows that, whoever stands highest in the respect, Mr. Biggar holds first place in the affections of his comrades. There is another and not uninteresting phenom- ■i i i 1 m ') 111 Wf. i > 68 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. i 't\: til :i'll 'I.I ti' 111 lui ■ ; ) j 1^ '■ u •iii 4«M enon of these occasions. To the outside world there is no man presents a sterner, a more pro- saic, and liarder front than Mr. Biggar. On such occasions the other side of his character stands revealed. His breast heaves, his face flushes, he dashes his hand with nervous haste to his eyes ; but the tears have already risen and are rushing down his face. Among his intimate friends, then, Mr. Biggar is known as a man overflowing with kindness; of an almost absolute unselfishness, A man once bitterly hated Mr. Biggar until he had a conver- sation with one of Mr. Biggar's sisters, and found that she was unable to speak of all her brother's kindness with an unbroken voice. It is amusing to watch his proceedings in the House of Com- mons. With all his fifty-eight years he is at the beck and call of men who could be almost his grandchildren. Mr. Healy is preparing an on- slaught on the Treasury Bench. "Joe," he cries to Mr. Biggar, " get me Return so-and-so." Mr. Biggar is off to the library. He has scarcely got back when the relentless member for Monaghan requires to add to his armory the division list in which the perfidious Minister has recorded his infamy, and away goes Mr. Biggar to the library again. Then Mr. Sexton, busily engaged in the study of an official report, approaches the member for Cavan with a card and an insinuating smile, and Mr. Biggar sets forth on an expedition to see THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGT.E. 69 some of the importunate visitants by whom mem- bers of Parliament are dogged. As a quarter to six is approaching on a Wednesday evening, and Mr. Parnell thinks it just as well that the work of Government should not go on too fast, he calls on Mr. Biggar, and Mr. Biggar is on his legs, filling in the horrid interval — Heaven knows how ! The desolate stranger, who knows no member of Parliament, and yearns to see the House of Com- mons at work, thinks fondly of Mr. Biggar, and obtains a ticket of admission. He is seen almost every night surrounded by successive bevies of ladies- — young and old, native and foreign — whom he is escorting to the Ladies' Gallery. Nobody asks any favor of Mr. Biggar without getting it. The man who to the outside public appears the most odious type of Irish fractiousness is adored by the policemen, worshipped by the attendants of the House ; and there is good ground for the suspicion that there was a secret treaty of friend- ship between him and the late Serjeant-at-Arms, the genial and popular Captain Gossett, founded on their common desire to bring sittings to the abrupt and inglorious end of a " count out." But this is but one side of his character. His hate is as fierce and unquestioning as his love, and he hates all his political opponents. He has the true Ulster nature ; uncompromising, down- right, self-controlled, narrow. The subtleties by which men of wider minds, more complex natures, i-^ K. 'i \ a iti! 1 i ■ [' ■ i.L J* '.i - * \ 'v. ■ m di-' m ! •6-' 7U CILADSTONE— PARNELL. II I! !t mm / I I less stable purpose and conviction, are apt to pal- liate their changes are entirely incomprehensible to Mr. Biggar, and the self-justifications of moral weakness arouse only his scorn. This side of his character will be b^^st illustrated by the statement that he has st ig dislike and distrust of Mr. Gladstone, h.^A i^ t he loathes Mr. O'Connor Power. His ^ urpo ' too, when once resolved upon, is inflexible, 'lov/ards the close of the ses- sion of 1885 a tramway scheme in the south of Ireland came before the House of Commons after it had passed triumphantly through the House of Lords. In his political economy Mr. Biggar be- longs to the strictest sect of the laisscz /aire school, and to every tramway scheme under Gov- ernment patronage he has been accordingly strongly hostile, believing that they should be left to development by private enterprise. A depu- tation of strong Nationalists came over from the district; they made out a capital case, convinced all the other members of the party present that the tramway was necessary, and a resolution was passed in their favor. But Mr. Biggar remained quite unmoved, persisted in his hostility, got over another and a rival deputation, and finally killed *-he bill. It is this inflexibility of purpose that has made him so great a political force. Finally, he is as fearless as he is single-minded. The worst tempest in the House of Commons, the sternest decree that English law could enforce against an u ■ '1 THE (;REAT IRISH STRUGCiLE. 71 Irish patriot, and equally the disapproval of his own people, are incapable of causing him a mo- ment of trepidation. He has said many terribh^ things in the House of Commons : the instance has got to occur of his having retracted one syl- lable of anything he has ever said. There is a scene in •* P^re Goriot " in which the pangs of the dying and deserted father are depicted with terrible force. He is speaking of his d ghters and of their husbands : of the one he speak: vith the tenderness of a woman's heart; o; i.'t otlier, with the ferocity of an enraged tiger, ^"'.le pas- sage suggests the two sides of Mr. ^iggar's na- ture : in the depth of his love, in thv- herceness of his hate, he is the " P6re Goriot " of Irish politics. Mr. Biggar's first attempt to enter Parliament was made at Londonderry in iS;.";. He had not the least idea of being successful ; but he had at this time mentally formulated the policy which he has since carried out with inflexible purpose — he preferred the triumph of an open enemy to that of a half-hearted friend. The candidates were Mr. Lewis, Mr. (afterwards Chief Baron) Palles, and Mr. BIggar. At that moment Mr. Palles, as Attorney-General, was prosecuting Dr. Duggan and other Catholic bishops for the part they had taken in the famous Galway election of Colonel Nolan — and Mr. BlCTaar made it a first and indis- pensable condition of his withdrawing from the ',f i . M ! 1 I , ■ :l ■i\ i 72 GLADSTONE— PAUNRt.L. ! if I' I ■ r T- !,i contest that these prosecutions should be dropped. Mr. Palles refused; Mr. Bio' ill f . '■ ■ :!ll ■HI I -— iv ( 1 i r ' 1 1 It I I i 1 II: ^■,:l m <''\ : 1 ' \ 74 GLADSTONK— I'AKNKLI.. At the funeral he cau^^ht cold, sickened, and in •a few days died. He was buric'd close to Mitchel's grave. After Mr. Parnell's first ('lection to Parliament, he, in common with his associate, Mr. Biggar, was deeply impressed by considering the impotence that had fallen upon the Irish party. Both were men eager for practical results, and debates, how- ever ornate and eloquent, which resulted in no benefit, appeared to them the sheerest waste of time, and a mockery of their country's hopes and demands. Probably they drifted into the policy of" obstruction," so called, rather than pursued it in accordance with a definite plan originally thought out. There was in the Irish party at this time a man who had formulated the idea from close reflection on the methods of Parliament. This was Mr. Joseph Ronayne, who had been an enthusiastic Young Irelander, and though, amid the disillusions that followed the breakdown of 1848, he had probably bidden farewell forever to armed insurrection as a method for redressing Irish grievances, he still held by an old and stern gospel of Irish nationality, and thought that polit- ical ends were to be gained not by soft words, but by stern and relentless acts. He, if anybody, de- serves the credit of having pointed out, first to Mr. Biggar and then to Mr. Parnell, the methods of action which have since proved so effective in the cause of Ireland. tub: great irish strucglk. 76 When one now looks back upon the task which these; two men set themselves, it will appear one of the boldest, most difficult, and most hopeless that two individuals ever proposed to themselves to work out. They set out, two of them, to do battle ai^ainst 650 ; they had before them enemies who, in the ferocity of a common hate and a common terror, fororot old quarrels and obliterated old party lines ; while among their own party there were false men who hated their honesty and many true men who doubted their sagacity. In this work of theirs they had to meet a perfect hurricane of hate and abuse ; they had to stand face to face with the practical omnipotence of the mightiest of modern empires ; they were accused of seeking to tram- ple on the power of the English House of Com- mons, and six centuries of parliamentary govern- ment looked down upon them in menace and in reproach. In carrying their mighty enterprise, Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar had to undergo labors and sacrifices that only those acquainted with the inside life of Parliament can fully appre- ciate Tliose who undertook to conquer the House of Commons had first to conquer much of the natural man in themselves. The House of Commons is the arena which gives the choicest food to the intellectual vanity of the British sub- ject, and the House of Commons loves r.' d re- spects only those who love and respect II But ■?:: h I .4 76 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. l! i ''■ ri the first principle of the active poHcy was that there should be absolute indifference to the opin- ion of the House of Commons, and so vanity had first to be crushed out. Then the active policy demanded incessant attendance in the House, and incessant attendance in the House amounts almost to a punishment. And the active policy required, in addition to incessant attendance, considerable preparation ; and so the idleness, which is the most potent of all human passions, had to be gripped and strangled with a merciless hand. And finally, there was to be no shrinking from speech or act because it disobliged one man or offended another; and therefore, kindliness of feeling was to be watched and guarded by re- morseless purpose. The three years of fierce conflict, of labor by day and by night, and of iron resistance to menace, or entreaty, or blandish- ment, must have left many a deep mark in mind and in body. " Parnell," remarked one of his fol- lowers in the House of Commons one day, as the Irish leader entered with pallid and worn face, " Parnell has done mighty things, but he had to go through fire and water to do them." Mr. Biggar was heard of before Mr. Parnell had made himself known ; and to estimate his character — and it is a character worth study — one must read carefully, and by the light of the present day, the events of the period at which he first started on his enterprise. In the session of 1^^ THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 77 1875 he was constantly heard of; on April 27 in that session he " espied strangers ; " and, in ac- cordance with the then existing rules of the House of Commons, all the occupants of the different galleries, excepting those of the ladies' gallery, had to retire. The Prince of Wales was among the distinguished visitors to the assembly on this particular evening, a fact which added considera- ble effect to the proceeding of the member for Cavan. At once a sfiorm burst upon him, be- neath whlv'-.h even a very strong man might have bent. Mr. Disraeli, the Prime Minister, got up, amid cheers from all parts of the House, to de- nounce this outrage upon its dignity ; and to mark the complete union of the two parties against the daring oftender, Lord Hartington rose imme- diately afterwards. Nor were these the only quarters from which attack came. Members of his own party joined in the general assault upon the audacious violator of the tone of the House. Mr. Biggar was, above all other things, held to be wanting in the instincts of a gentleman. " I think," said the late Mr. George Bryan, another member of Mr. Butt's party, " that a man should be a gentleman first and a patriot afterwards," a statement which was, of course, received with wild cheers. F'inally, the case was summed up by Mr. Chaplin. " The honorable member for Cavan," said he. '* appears to forget that he is now admitted to the society of gentlemen." This was ''•4 ill ;, ': 1! ii - < ■ i V ' .1 • !■: f 1 . ■ .in .. . i! Mi '■ ■ i': j ! i ,'i ■ ■1 , •■,' A i 78 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. l! i' one of the many allusions, fashionable at the time — among genteel journalists especially — to Mr. Biggar's occupation. It was his heinous of- fence to have made his money in the wholesale pork trade. Caste among business men and their families is regulated, both in England and Ireland, not only by the distinction between wholesale and retail, but by the particular article in which the trader is interested. It was not, therefore, surprising that an assembly which tol- erated the more aristocratic cotton should turn up its indignant nose at the dealer in the humbler pork. Rut much as the House of ComuK^ns was shocked at the nature of Mr. Biggar's pursuits, the horror of the journalist was still more ex- treme and outspoken. '* Heaven knows " (said a writer in the Wo7^ld), ''that I do not scorn a man because his path in life has led him amongst pro- visions. But though I may unaffectedly honor a provision dealer who is a Member of Parliament, it is with quite another feeling that I behold a Member of Parliament who is a provision dealer. Mi. Biggar brings the manner of his store into this illustrious assembly, and his manner, even for a Belfast store, is very bad. When he rises to address the House, which he did at least ten times to-night, a whiff of salt pork seems to float upon the gale, and the air is heavy with the odor of the kippered herring. One unacquainted with the actual condition of affairs might be forgiven if THE (xKEAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 79 he thought there had been a large falkire in the bacon trade, and that the House of Commons was a meeting of creditors, and the right honorable gentlemen sitting on the Treasury Bencli were members of the defaulting firm, whof having con- fessed their inability to pay ninepence in the pound, were suitable and safe subjects for the abuse of an ungenerous creditor." These words are here quoted by way of illus- trating the symptoms of the times through which Mr. Biggar had to live, rather than because of any influence they had upon him. On this self-re- liant, firm, and masculine nature a world of ene- mies could make no impress. He did not even take the trouble to read the attacks upon him. The newspapers of the day were full of sarcasm against Mr. Biggar, the chief points made against him being directed at his alleged " grotesque ap- pearance " and "absurdity." Indeed, the impres- sion made upon such Americans as have derived their information regarding Irish affairs chiefl)- from the London periodicals has been that Mr. Biggar was a man of no sort of intelligence, and of no possible weight in Parliamentary counsels, but that he was simply a hornet who was alwa}'s ready to sting John Bull's leathern sides. That this hornet was a sore annoyance it was very evident. That he was fearless and persistent was equally plain. No man was more ready to assert Biggar's lack of scholastic acquirements •I I I hf ;■ i< i! t 1 : : • ■f|:^ i '■■ ' ■'' ■ I) II ^- 84 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ] .1 in prison ; Mr. Timothy Harrington has been three times in prison ; Mr. Edward Harrington has been in prison ; Dr. O'Doherty was sent to penal servitude in '48 ; Mr. J. F. X. O'Brien was sent to penal servitude in 1867, having first been sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Out of the eighty-six Irish members of the present Irish party no less than twenty-five have been, on one excuse or other, and for longer or siiorter terms, imprisoned by the British authorities. The choice, then, of the Irish politician lay between wealth, dignity, honors, ease, which were offered for traitorous service by the British government, and the poverty and hardship and lowliness, w^ith a fair prospect of the workhouse and the gaol, which were the only rewards of the faithful servant of the Irish people. Isaac Butt himself was a signal and terrible example of what Irish patriot- ism entails. We have already described how hard he had to work in his closing days to meet the strain of professional and political duties. When he was wrestling with the growing disease that ultimately killed iiim, he was beset by duns and bailiffs, and his mind was overshadovt^ed with the dread thoui^ht that he had left his children unprovided for. And to-day, in poverty — perhaps in misery — they are paying the penalty of having been begotten by a great and a true Irishman. Any man of political experience or reading will know how easy it is for a government to rule a !■■ il' \: m :!r 'i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGOI.E. 8:. country if it have the gift of wealth to bestow, or the curse of poverty to entail. In our own days we have seen France rul^d for twenty years by an autocrat through bayonets and offices ; and the offices were just as important an element in the governing as the bayonets. The fears of the timid, the hopes of the corrupt, are the founda- tions of unjust government in all ages. If Amer- icans be sometimes impatient at the duration of British domination and the helplessness of Irish efforts to overthrow it, they must always take into account th2 vast influence which an extremely wealthy country has been able to exercise over an extremely poor country by the gift of richly- dowered office. As soon as Biggar found that the new rice of so-called Nationalists were of exactly the same brood as those who had gone before he made up his mind that these men would do nothing for Ireland, and he took hi? own course. Biggar's mind is essentially combative. He is utterly with- out the Christianity of spirit that suggests the acceptance of a blow on one cheek after being struck on the other, and he was brooding over some means by which he could give these insolent Englishmen blow for blow. But the member for Cavan has not a mind of much initiative, and he was helpless until he had the assistance of Mr. Parnell. A few nights before Parnell took his seat the ^1 i illj ; I, I ■;ii|i iiji ■1 - 1> 1 11 se (lI.AhSTONK— I'ARNEM,. |i .1 p€ ^1 House of Commons was c'n<^a<'ccl in the not un- familiar task of debatinfr a Coercion Bill for Ire- land. A Coercion Bill in these clays was not thought much about; it was not felt as much of a hardship on the English side nor as much of an outrage on the Irish. Such was the poor spirit of the Irish representatives of these days that Sir Michac^l Hicks-Beach, the Conservative Chief Secretary, who was passing the bill through the House of Commons, used frequently to be com- plimented by so-called Irish National Represent- atives for his courtesy ; the least little concession vvcis hailed as an example of whole-souled gen- erosity ; and if an Irish member ventured to put the government to any inconvenience, by asking for the postponement of the discussion or by "obstructing" in any way the progress of busi- ness, he was at once pounced upon by his col- leagues and charged with ungenerous and irra- tional obstinacy. There was among the party at the time a shrewd and witty Corkman named Joseph Ronayne. Ronayne had been one of the party that in 1848 wanted to fight against the intolerable wrongs of Ireland. Time had brought the philosophic mind so far that Ronayne saw some hope in constitutional agitation ; but he was quite as fierce and quite"as masculine a Nationalist as ever. He had a sharp ar d humorous tongue. The compliments that v;ere poured on the Eng- lish Chief Secretary at the moment when he was ill ill. THK (jREA'r iKisii s I iuii;(;M':. 87 depriving Irishmen of the fundamental rii^lits of citizens roused his .ijorij^e, and he comi)ared them to the shake-hands vvhicli the convict gives to the hangman immediately before his execu- tion. Biggar was not the man to pay such compli- ments, to consult die ease of ministers, or to have regard to what used to be called the tone of the House. He resented frankl)- and irreconcilably the coercion of his countr\-; he hated the man who proposed it; he didn't care a farthing what the House of Commons liked or disliked ; his policy was to fight the bill clause by clause, line by line, in season and out of season, with the con- venience of the House and against the conven- ience of the House : and with absolute disregard of protest or plaint, of compliment or threat. It was on the night of April 22, 1875, that he first got the opportunity of putting this policy into effect. Mr. Butt asked Mr. Biggar to speak against time on a Coercion Bill. Mr. Butt had probably little idea at that moment of what he was doing. It was on this eventful night that one of the most singular and most potent political births of our time saw the light. On that night Parliamentary obstruction was born. Mr. Biggar rose at five in the evening. One of the writers of this work happened to be in the Speaker's gallery of the House of Commons on this evening and remembers the speech very well. ' ii i: •'-m% i ' ' I. % I » i II n Hi IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 Hi ill an 12.0 1.8 U 111 1.6 V <^ /i e-. Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^ iP \ C\ iV \ V ■^:% 6^ k ^ '«b <4" HI 1 i ■ ' t 88 GLADSTONE— PARNELI,. The subject was Irish coercion, but Mr. Biggar seemed to be giving his opinion on every subject under heaven. For instance he happened to stumble across something of a rehgious character, and thereupon he gave the House the benefit of his views on the great question of Ritual which divides the two schools of religious thought in the Established Church of England. It is probable that Mr. Biggar could not tell the difference be- tween a High and a Low Churchman ; and that if he could know the difference, he would not re- gard it as of the least importance. But he man- aged to dissertate on the subject for several sen- tences, and so filled up a portion of the time. At last his voice began to fail, and a friend who was watching the game resolved to come to his assistance. According to the rules of the House of Commons forty members is the quorum at a debate. The forty members need not be in the House itself. They ma)" be dining or wining, en- joying a cigar in one of the smoke-rooms or en- gaged in study in a room in the library; but when a count is moved they all hurry in; the Speaker counts ; if there be forty members present, the debate goes on, and the greater number of mem- bers scuttle back to the half-eaten chop or the half-smoked cigar ; while if there be not forty, the House stands adjourned. A count takes about five minutes, three tninutes being allowed to the members to assemble from the different places of THE GRKAT IRISH STRUGGLE. H9 retreat. These five minutes Mr. Biggar utilized in recovering breath. But again his voice began to fail, and the Speaker thought he had him in a trap. He declared that the member for Cavan was out of order; his remarks were inaudible and no longer reached the chair. But Mr. Biggar was equal to the occasion. He moved up closer to the chair, and as the Speaker had not heard his previous observations obligingly offered to repeat them all over again. It was five minutes to 9 o'clock when Mr. Biggar resumed his seat ; he had spoken nearly four hours. This was the beginning of the new era. Hence Mr, Biggar is known by the proud tide of the " Father of Obstruction." It was a few nights after this that Charles Stewart Par- nell took his seat for the first time as a member of the House of Commons. It was characteristic of his whole future that he spoke the very first night of his entrance into the House, and that his first speech was a vigorous protest against a Coercion Act for Ireland ; for the discussion of the question was still proceeding on which Mr. Biggar had made his historic speech. The first speech of Mr. Parnell has never been since republished, and it may well be reproduced now: " Mr. Parnell, in supporting the motion of the hon. member for Cavan, observed that no argu- ments had been advanced against the amendment i"'| I > k i HI •J; .' ' 1 i pli- 90 GLADSTONP:— PARNELL. of his hon. friend. The hon. member for Derry (Mr. R. Smyth), although he agreed with the principle of the bill, said he should vote in favor of the amendment as being a just and proper one. The Chief Secretary for Ireland, as an open foe, had, of course, opposed it, and he also had the noble marquis who was supposed to lead the op- position in that Mouse. What reason had the hon. member for Derry given for approving the principle of the bill ? It was this, that some coer- cion was necessary in his district to prevent Catholics and Protestants flying at each other's throats. But was tiiat any reason why thirty other Irish counties should be placed under Coer- cion Laws ? It had been said that some half-dozen Irish landlords had given it as their opinion that without coercion they could not exercise the rights of property. What did they mean by the rights of property ? He always noticed that when a Coercion Bill was to be passed through the House they heard a great deal about the rights of property, but very little about its duties. Their views as to the rights of property were sometimes a little curious. He had seen Irish landlords sitting in polling-booths as agents for the Conservative candidate, hearing illiterate voters record their votes, and their tenants trem- bling when they came to vote against that candi- date. That was an exercise of the rights of prop- erty of which he did not think Englishmen would V:::i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 91 approve. There had not been threatening letter- writing of late, or shooting, or agrarian crime, and was that, he asked, a time to bring in a Coercion Bill ? Was that a proper time to stop all discus- sion on the measure when Irish members were telling the House what the wishes of their constit- uents with regard to it were ? The hon. member for Derry had told the House that the Irish ten- ant farmers of the North were convinced that some remedial measures were necessary for tlic restoration of tranquillity in that part of their country, and had said that if a promise of a Land Bill was held out, whereby small holders would be secured in their holdings, Ireland, instead of being a source of weakness, would be a source of strength to England. He (Mr. Parnell) did not profess to speak on behalf of the Irish tenant farmers, but he did not believe that Irish tenant farmers, even those living in the Black North, were so locked up in self-interest as to be inclined to give up the interest of their country to serve that of their class. When the proper time came, perhaps it would be found that he was as true a friend to the tenant farmer as even the hon. member for Derry, and he said this, knowing well the importance of securing the tenant in his holding, but knowing also that in the neglect of the principles of self-government lay the root of all Irish trouble. The Chief Secretary for Ireland had found fault with the language which had been ';'!' ti i ' i '.. u 1 : • ' 4 '• \ 1 ■' k i" 1 '.J '■ i : 1 «. 02 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. used by the hon. member for Derry ; but he (Mr. Parnell) did not know who had appointed the right hon. gentleman the censor of the language used in that House by hon. members. He thought the facts of the hon. gentleman were well put, and he only wished he was with them on their (the Home Rule) benches. Perhaps the Chief Secretary detected a sort of terror arising in the hon. member's mind, that the time-honored and ancient Whig hack would no longer be able to carry matters with a high hand in Derry county, and was holding out to him a helping hand in the event of his thinking of changing his side of the House. For his own part, however, he did not think that the hon. member was likely to turn his coat, and he was convinced that he would always be found where he believed that the interests of his county required him. He trusted that the time would arrive when the history of the past would be forgotten, so far as it reminded Encrland that she was not entitled to Ireland's confidence, and when she would give to Irishmen the right which they claimed — the right of self- government. Why should Ireland be treated as a geographical fragment by England, as he had heard an ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer call it some time ago ? Ireland was not a geographical fragment, but a nation. He asked the House to regard Ireland as anxious to defend England when her hour of trial came, and he trusted the day THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 93 might come when England might see that her strength lay in a truly independent, a truly free, and a truly self-supporting Irish nation." The English press was by no means pleased with Mr. Parnell's first speech. He was accused of shoutinor and screaminof after the fashion of the wildest of wild Irishmen. He certainly did speak, as the words will show, with fierce passion, and his voice was loud and shrill. But if Mr. Parnell made any mistake in his style he was soon to correct it. His fierce political passion was the same, but he saw reason for restraining its expres- sion ; and with that perft^ct readiness he has always shown to adopt his means to his end he re- solved to try a different plan. Mr. Biggar pointed out that the way to Irish redress lay through Parliamentary obstruction. Mr. Parnell decided to follow this path, though it was dark and narrow and thorny. The dogged courage of Mr. Biggar had found the necessary supplement in the bold, daring, and inventive brain of the young member for County Meath. The hour had come; anii the man. Tf ^tI HI ^^H ••ii t. -1 ' ■1 ' ' Iti k^K F ") , 1 HJill '•} 1 flUin - I iii^^^^ML r ||Rp '1 ! ; ' ' 'Mm 1 I 1 |M ■ i 3i 'I ..;■' 'm: 11 •< ! i- i ! 1 I ' 1 Ii .4 f 1 ' 1 U ^H' »^3! .- 11 1-' I 11 i \ Hh ifi| CHAPTER II. THE ERA OF OBSTRUCTION. BEFORE tlie policy of Parliamentary ob- struction is properly understood the reader must have some acquaintance with the rules and manners of the British House of Commons. The House of Commons meets for a period generally bepmning the first week of February, and ending he second week of August each year. It mc^ts for five out of the seven days of the week for r.he transaction of business. On every one of those days except Wednesday the hour for assembling is lo minutes to 4 o'clock. The sitting has no definite time of closing, and cases have been known where it has been ex- tended to forty-one hours, or almost two days, continuously. The House cannot adjourn unless on a motion carried by the members present. So rigid is this rule that a story is told how, on one occasion, the Speaker was left alone in his chair; the official wliose duty it was to move the ad- journment having forgotten to attend to do so, and that ofificial had to be sent fon in order that the necessary formality' might be complied with. (94) ii t ,; f i:i : II a ' MR. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M. P. ti 1 I f hi j I fit'* i i'; r*:^ M THE (ikKAT IRISH STRrdCil.K. 97 On Wednesdays the House meets at 12 and closes at 6 o'clock. The business of the House is divided into two categories, viz. : First, what is called government business ; and, secondly, the business of "private" members. Mondays and Thursdays throughout the session are what are called "Government Nights," and on these occasions the business of the executive administration has precedence over all others. Tuesdays and Fridays are private members' nights, and on these occasions the business of the private members has priority over that of ihe government. On the nights devoted to the private members the business usually con- sists of resolutions upon some of the questions of the day which are not yet actually ripe for legis- lation. A member makes, say, a motion calling for the abolition of capital punishment; or for a change in the licensing laws ; or for the cessation of the traffic in opium ; or for the abolition of the House of Lords ; or for the disestablishment of the church ; or for some such kindred purpose. Members sometimes make an attempt to carry their proposals into law, and introduce bills for that object ; but, generally speaking, the efforts of members are confined to abstract motions. Tuesday night belongs entirely to private mem- bers — the government not even making an at- tempt to get any portion of the time for the transaction of its own work. On Friday nights. i HI I ! 'I'll lll'i J I, I, I ,1 , I ,1 if i Is : It!' I Nii^ , I ill •i « f nffiHFffl" ^ ^M 98 GLADSTONE— I'AKN EM.. however, the government soitK^times succeeds in gettinjj throuj;li a few ot ils proposals. "Supply," or "appropriation" as it is calUitl in America, is put clown for that night. It is a principle of the English Constitution that the statement of a grievance shall precede supply. On Friday nights, accordingly, before the government are able to get a penny of money from the House, they have to listen to anything that a private member has to say. Sometimes half a dozen motions on half a dozen different subjects are put upon the paper, and are discussed. A private member even has the right to stand up in his place, and talk about any subject without putting a notice upon the paper. It thus very often hap- pens that the discussion of a grievance proceeds till 1 2 or I o'clock at night ; and when the debate has been extended to this period the government give up the project of getting money ; and there- upon no supply is taken that night. There is another rule which has a most im- portant effect upon the transaction of business in the House of Commons. This is " the half-past 12 o'clock rule," under which no business that is opposed can be taken. The Cabinet proposes, for instance, a bill for the future government of Ireland. At once a member of the Tory party, or of the Liberals who are opposed to it, puts down an " amendment " moving that the bill in question \k read that day six months, which is the official THE GREAT TRISII STRUGGl-K ll way of moving the rejection of the measure. As lonj^ as this amendment appears upon the paper the bill cannot be taken after half-past 12 o'clock at night. An amendment of the kind is what is known in Parliamentary vocabulary as a "block- ing " motion. It often haiJ|)ens that a bill which is very much objected to secMiis to have a chance of coming on about hall-past 11 or 1 2 o'clock. When this occurs a number of members opposed to it immediately begin to talk against time, with the result that half-past i 2 o'clock is reached ; then the bill has to be postponed till another day. Wednesday, to a great extent, is a dies non in Parliament. It is entirely given up to private members, and the subjects discussed are usually something in the nature of a fad or crotchet or an '• ism." A change in the ecclesiastical law and other pious matters used to form the leading sub- jects of discussion, and this earned for Wednes- day the reputation of being the special day for religious bills. At a quarter to 6 on the Wednes- day the debate, if proceeding, has to cease upon any bill which is the subject of discussion. Ac- cordingly, whenever a division is not considered desirable on that day, a speaker will get up about 5 o'clock or later, and talk on until a quarter to 6. The debate has then to be interrupted, and thus a division is avoided. Between a quarter to 6 and 6 business can be done to which no objection is made; and often that short space of time is occu- .ii t i'.i % ! j 'v) vors ( ^ BIPILIOTHECA \ ' ' i 1 \ 1 i 1 1 if U P; 1 .1 »f H I 'f ,''2?r H 100 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. pied most usefully by a member of the government or private member in getting a bill through its final stage. But if any member get up and use the words, I object," the bill cannot be advanced any stage, and is postponed till another day. The first thing to be remembered about the Hoi::,e of Commons is, that it is a machine en- tirely incapable of transacting the amount of work put upon it. The affairs of India, colonial rela- tions, international relations, the domestic affairs of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales — all these subjects have to be dealt with in one single Parliament. Frequently there are questions which involve such pith and moment as a threat- ened war between England and Russia, down to the less significant matter of a complaint about the defective paving of a street in London, or the neglect of a pauper in an Irish workhouse. There is no division between imperial and local government such as there is in the United States. In fact, the imperial Parliament Is in the same position as the Congress at Washington would be if the State Legislatures throughout the whole country were abolished, and their work trans- ferred to the central assembly in the national capltol. The result of the arrangement of the imperial legislature is, that the main work of government Is to attempt a victory in an ever- failing race with time. The history of every administration and, indeed, of every session of Parliament Is the same. F. B. FREEHILL, M.A., President Irish National League, N^ v South Wales. h.'' Ill ii i i j| i m i ; 1 1 1 '. i ;4 JH 1 1 ■: f'! i :|!:||:|ll||] ''■ 1 ': '' ■ ' THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 103 The session opens with the Queen's speech, in which are enumerated a number of questions demanding the immediate attention of Her Majesty's " faithful Commons," and bills are promised upon them. Sometimes the bills men- tioned are a dozen or a dozen and a half; and as a matter of practice the ministry is tolerably for- tunate that succeeds in getting one great meas- ure through Parliament in a single session. Time, then, is the very life of an English ad- ministration, and anybody who is able to consume time is able to so embarrass the administration as to make its work impossible and its existence almost intolerable. On the other hand the rules of the House of Commons supply almost unlim- ited opportunities for occupying time. All the money required for the army and navy, for the civil service, the police, and nearly all the other departments of state have every penny of them to be voted annually. Under the rules of the House debate is allowed not merely on the amount of the items — that is to say, on the narrow question whether they are so much or so little — but on the policy for which the money has been expended or the officials employed. Thus, for instance, a vote for a special commissioner to the Transvaal gives a member the opportunity of discussing the entire policy of the annexation of the Transvaal, and a debate on an item of five thousand dollars for such official may last two or three nights. On !: I \}' i* s 111 > 1^ 104 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. the question of voting fifty thousand dollars to the Irish police the Irish members are at liberty to discuss the whole police administration of the country from the constitution of that body down to its conduct of a hundred evictions or in a thou- sand prosecutions. On an item for the repair of royal palaces, or the fees at the knighthood of a member of the royal family, Mr. Labouchere might branch out into a prolonged dissertation of the comparative merits of royal and republican institutions. In short, " Supply " contains thou- sands of items, and on each item practically a long debate could take place. In order to bring this state of things more clearly before the mind of the American reader appended is a specimen passage from a bulky Volume of Supply which is laid before the House for its consideration every session. In explanation of some items of the following tables it may be said that the Chief Secretary has an Official Residence in the Phoenix Park. The Under Secretary has an Official Residence in the Phoenix Park and one in Dublin Castle. The Office Keepers in Dublin and London have apartments, and one of the 2d Class Messen- gers, who acts as Hall Porter, has apartments in Dublin Castle. The present Office Keeper in Dublin also receives an allowance of 30 /. a year for the cleaning of the Teachers' Pension Office payable out of Class IV., Vol. 15. THE GRKAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 105 4) V ■5 13 O T3 (/I o u ^ gen M §•§ -^1 (4 C/3 2 e Q O ^a u C/5 -^ 5 U M C 9 O C/2 c u c J3 T3 C ct 1/1 3 O H c2 M 0^ O O. U u u to u u J2 O u c s V) Q K I ca u u u 4; m u s 00 I 00 00 00 00 00 s? : -ri o o o - ■>*■ fO o o . "^ 6 'J- so" - o o o U iS u O O < v. < in ■A O <: •s < < bd Oi 5 < S z S w > Q H I I I '< n u c/3 C/3 < O > c/3 oi O H U U Oh C/3 Z ON 00 !/l < b. O o H U 'A 0. V3 t/l b) I Q c/i bi t/i S5 bJ > Q ^5 H h 00 da :S -5 Ph • - b, ^ 1^ ^ >o Z ON 2 =y *" 00 O z o > bf < < y. b) X b) b. B- C C -7) Z 'j5 < (^ u z o o H C/5 b] bj b. : !' I'll il I >! I 1 5 d ts .a;. ■t I mm v.: 106 GL A DSTONE— IM RNELL. I'lIK (ikEAT IRISH STRUCiGLE. 107 U1 M , ^H Wl ei u < < ii E T 3 "< E; :a n M n • N iJ^ n N -o GO «o aS M IM M 11 N «o N « 00 i 5 ^ « rl N " tObry c c.s c C = I r ! I:i iil: . li ii -^ivr: I ' ti fit: \0R GLADSTONE— PA RNELL. Iti ' m i!iM 1 ■j: Ji M U o I Q W Pi O > Pi < u ••—4 u t I o to o N O OOONtoOOOW '^ o o M o tr> •1 p) O r^ m O O O « LT) in m ■-' '^ in iri ^ 00 i;fK, THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 109 .8 e I Q < J 'A 1-^ o > < a:, en b M a u u u b, O «5 >• (US H U OS u M b. U f*» % s?- M u [b o u. o >" OS ■< ^ 00 r-' 3 00 00 O W S o '_/ w i2 e tri • ^ * s? «* l>i c s II ^ lb u O ^ 0>3 3 U G-- rtU T3 C rt O ji 5 O O I Q in cio m — * ir> I - ri ^ . c >-. 5> "^ rt 5SCg S? to c rt H la rt o 2 X < Z (J c S =A E Q. S W rf 5 "• 5 rt •- * « > 5 5Z!H!!; 1 M TT - ■{'!> I ' 110 GLADSTONE— I'AkNELU O > 00 P < u H o o H U M S5 S8 'n? 8 O 'O O S? N irt O in 8 Q 00 (s o 1*5 '«»l 8 o o S? S? On n s t •, O "^ O N ^ On fON * * (4 rt ii fe I- 5 ,, (/I O Z o b M z »4 M 1 E 1 M M M M M VO 18 (^ M M M M vO > < oi Id H X Id ■< H Id Q »^ O z eg cS s? C/1 z 00 00 fl « t3 > 00 rn U u > NO < (A < Id > ><• o z 2 u Id hJ 0. iJ I I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. Ill ■8 a O o Ph CD S5 80 tr>OMQ00vO« 8N O OOOOOOvO — S: li O w^ M U b. b. O >< oi < < c8 o S? -'I s? : IT) 10 a ^ ^ .2 'a • a • (4 M (4 rt •SI 2 "^ 12 >, o r > Q u o •" r 5 .2 3 Q o C o OS h h o CQ 52 O O 0; U M M I/) &§• 11 N >«-> P< O d c o O 2 '• I 8 o NO Si ^ a X .A 3 IS •S z F Q £ u z .0 rt O cS a o is I ,!' I"! ■•! ■:, (.■ J 1} 5^ ,. I a t III 1^ III 1 jlji i life ^ :t u* 111*! :ha r i lii ^ II t |: ^'11 i il ■ tifi m\ 112 GT,AnsTONK-ry\UNi:i.I, fs 1 Q Z < tn U t-4 Oi •< h) < T • 2 00 oo M M M ^ (4 M • • M M N M §8 H HI M t ; « m M :- M a" rs c JO n o t/) J? 50 ^ r ■■■ ■ i ■ •1 ' , i 1 ' - 1 ■!• t '1 '} M'~ Wli'll !■' • • % ( rr- ;;!.! :\\ : ^ ■i m ii i ill II THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 115 The basis of the poHcy of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar wa^, that the Irish party should take ad- vantage of the way in which the rules of the House of Commons thus left the English ministries at the mercy of any resolute body of men. They pointed out to Mr. Butt that his annual debates were not advancing the Irish cause by one step, and that he must adopt entirely different methods if he hoped to succeed in his mission. Mr. Butt, however, was a man of amiability that reached to weakness. He knew that a policy of this kind could not be carried out without coming into fierce collision with the House of Commons, even without evoking a storm of interruption and of passion there, too, and an equally violent storm of passion outside. Kindly himself, he trusted to conciliation, and he had not the nerve to face the frowns and the hootings of men with whom he was in daily intercourse. For a long time Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar pressed their views upon the Irish leader over and over again, but with no satisfactory result ; and they finally came to the conclusion that it was perfectly impossible to hope for anything from Mr. Butt's initiative, and that they must take the work in hand themselves. It was acting upon these ideas that Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar started the movement known as the '* Policy of Obstruction." They began by blocking every bill brought in by the government. This single step alone created a revolutionary f.! r liii:i|, u- ;i :i' il ?1 116 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. change in the situation. Up to this time the gov- ernment had been able to get through some of their bills at whatever hour of the sitting they came on — whether i or 2 or 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. Now, however, their operations could not reach beyond half-past 12 o'clock. This is how the new and the old system worked. Sup- pose half a dozen government bills put down on Monday or Thursday night; under the old system four or five of these bills would have a fair chance of being considered on the same night. Under the new system it rarely happened that more than one of the bills was even discussed. Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar were there to speak at length, sometimes for an hour, other times for two hours, and frequently talking even nonsense. The result was, that a debate, which began at 5 o'clock and was expected to finish at 8 o'clock, would be prolonged by these indefatigable talkers until II or 12 o'clock, and then some one of their friends v/ould start up at midnight, and, by speaking till half-past 1 2 o'clock, prevent the gov- ernment from bringing on bill No. 2. In the House of Commons talk begets talk, and the speeches of the Irish members always resulted in eliciting speeches from the English members. Sometimes the speeches of their opponents took the form of violent attack and personal vitupera- tion, but Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar did not care a pin. In fact they were only too delighted, for THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 117 those attacks not only wasted time in themselves, but produced that feverish temper in the House during which abundant speech became infectious. Whenever, too, there were little interstices of time, which in the easy-going good old days the government were able to fill up with little bills, there was either Mr. Parnell or Mr. Biggar ready to stand up and fill in the chasm, and so prevent the bills from coming on. *• Supply " was their happy hunting-ground. On every item which gave the least promise of fruitful discussion they raised a debate. This was especially the case with Irish supply. On the votes for the constab- ulary, or for the state prosecutions, or for money to the Chief Secretary, they initiated discussions that dragged into the light every dark place in the English administration of Irish affairs. That put the government upon their defence, and sometimes kept the subject of Ireland before the House and the country for weeks in succession. The vote for the police alone has been known to occupy a week in discussion ; and the entire Irish votes have rarely taken less than three or four weeks in stormy times. Nothing will bring more clearly before the mind of the reader the difference between the old and the new time than a single incident that occurred with regard to these Irish estimates. One night Mr. Butt and his followers were dining in the House of Commons. They had intended to raise i'l! IH I t. ; , i^ 't r. IJ '^■'i' fin w l\'M u , ^, ; |-| liM ' Wi • 11 9 * ? '• V ,f ' t i 1 ; .• ■■ i jI'liiiM^i » !-'1,i. •ii|n::i 118 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. some kind of a debate upon the government of Ireland upon the Irish estimates. In the middle of the dinner somebody came, breathless and dis- mayed, to announce that the Irish estimates had all passed through in the course of a few minutes without a word of comment or a whisper of disap- proval. It was fortunate for Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar that at this time also the government, which at the moment belonged to the Conserva- tive party, resolved to bring in a series of measures which were of much length and vast perplexity. Some of these measures, besides, raised questions upon which Mr. Parnell knew some feeling would be raised in England. He had known of the ex- istence for a long time of a party violently opposed to flogging in the army — an odious institution, which survived in England alone, of all civilized countries in the world. Mr. Parnell readily con- cluded from this that if he raised a debate upon flogging in the army he would be followed by a certain number of Englishmen ; that they would talk and divide along with him, and that in this way the progress of any bill in which flogging in the army was mentioned might be indefinitely delayed. Another subject on w'lich he knew there was a great deal of feeling was the treatment of pris- oners. English feeling generally was confined to dissatisfaction at the manner in which untried prisoners were treated under the prison rules ; THE GREAT I'^ISM STRUGGLE. 119 but the Irish Nationalists had a further and even more serious grievance : that was, the treatment of poHtical prisoners. Ahnost alone among the civilized nations of the earth England had up to this time confounded the political and the ordinary prisoners. Men of high character, whose only- offence was to feel for the deep distress and the wrongs and miseries of their country and too eagerly desire to redress them — men of educa- tion, good social position, and refined minds — were compelled by the British government to herd with the murderer and the burglar ar^ 1 the lowest and vilest scum of English society. Ac- cordingly Mr. Parnell was able to organize con- siderable support both amongst the English and Irish members in favor of attacks upon the prison discipline of the country. Finally during the Conservative regime the annexation of the Trans- vaal was accomplished. It is needless now to argue the right or the wrong of that act. The iron hand of time has crushed its advocates. But when the annexation first took place public opinion in England was not ripe, and information did not exist. The only persons who were pre- pared to give the annexation any effective oppo- sition were a small group of Radicals, chief among whom was Mr. Leonard Courtney, now Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. The forcible conquest of any people against their will was naturally repugnant to Irish National- i:ii-fi f r c ' « Hi ■' 1 1 , i ,1 ■ \ III Wi i M i fW^ ' ■ i . , * ■f ■■■■!;■ if '% , ; ' ■ L ■ '■< ^^■ 1 \ i • t. '■.y ■' m 1' i ' t m 11 120 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ists, and thus they were drawn to the side of the Boers from the very first. A junction of their forces with their EngHsh Radical alHes made it possible to embitter and prolong the fight. These preliminary observations will enable the reader to understand the line of tactics now adopted by the Irish obstructives. Every year the House of Commons has to pass what is called the " Mutiny Act." This act establishes the discipline of the British army ; and under the British Constitution the army cannot exist with- out the annual passage of this act. The act was originally passed for the purpose of maintaining the control of Parliament over the standing army. If this act should cease to exist the soldier would again become a private citizen, subject only to the common law, and could no longer be punished for disobeying his officers or even quitting the colors. The Mutiny Act in the present form con- sists of about 193 clauses, and in its old shape it was about the same length. But up to the advent of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar it was regarded as simply a piece of formality that was hurried through in inaudible whispsrs from the Speaker and imaginary ayes and noes of the members of the House. In fact, it probably never at any period occupied more than ten minutes of the many months during which Parliament sits. But Mr. Parnell, casting his eyes through its innumer- able clauses, discovered the section maintaining r c a X c r. X o c X > o D 5; r o C a > q s ^TiH^^^^^^^^^I fi \$M r^ \ m \ 1 i tf l-!l ,1- I 1 ■ 1 • J i. |!ii n ;! I' mmm ! -|:; % , "' /' f ; \ ■ ;. 1 11 I'lfj iV 11 1 •' ' 1 'nu H < ' < ' tf^^ iii m ,!■;!• THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 123 flogging in the army. He at once saw the im- portance of the point ; raised the question again and again ; was attacked furiously by the Conser- vative Ministers, and for a long time was left alone by the members of the English parties, and even by the members of the Irish party too. The Minister for War at this period was a man now known as Lord Cranbrook, but then Mr. Gathorne Hardy. Lord Cranbrook is a man of vacuous mind and boisterous temper. To watch him well there night after night — compelled to argue and reargue with tortured reiteration in reply to Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar — was, to use a colloquial expression, like the sight of a hen on a hot grid- iron. He would try this form, then that form in treating this obstinate and terrible Irish group. He was civil, and they replied with equal civility, but at the same time with equally lengthy speeches. He sulked in silence, and then they moved mo- tions for adjournment of the debate or of the House that compelled him to answer. He was violently angry, and then he exposed himself to merciless torture. Night after night, week after week, month after month, the Mutiny Bill dragged its slow length along, not passing itself and not permitting any other measure to pass. The same thing took place with regard to other measures. The introduction of a Prison's Bill removing the control of prisoners from local authority to the Home Office, or, as it would be ■^ I! I :ii i H ■BK&:' •4l if' IHm ll'ii^ ■ fl' 111 W 124 GLADSTONE— PARNFLL. called in America, to the Department of the In- terior, afforded an opportunity for raising the question of prison discipline. Again night after night, week after week, and month after month passed, and still the Prison's Bill had not got through its innumerable clauses. And, finally, there was the T.ansvaal Bill with its multi- fiarious clauses also, and in its case likewise night afte«- I'jight, week after week, and month after month almost, and still the bill had not become law. A few instances will suffice to give a descrip- tion of how obstruction is worked. Let it first of all be clearly understood that the wilder scenes in the House were not those to which Mr. Par- nell thinks any future historian ought to really devote his chief attention. It was the policy of himself and Mr. Biggar (as he told one of the writers of this work when they were travelling over to Ireland together to organize the great election campaign of 1885) always to avoid stand- up fights with the government. The work of delaying legislation and wasting time was done more effectively in quietness and without any of these great struggles. This remark of Mr. Par- nell's Is quite characteristic of the man's whole nature and policy. The showy fights were not to his taste half as much as the quiet and unseen work, for the quiet and unseen work produced practical results, whereas the showy fights some- I m THE GREAT IRISH STKUGGr.K. V2r) times were not so effective. In one respect this criticism upon his own policy was not altogether correct. These showy fights had the effect of drawing the attention of all mankind to the Irish question, and had a second, and even equally im- portant effect — they "enthused " the Irish race at home and abroad. When Mr. Parnell came to America in 1880 Wendell Phillips best pithily described the effect of Mr. Parnell's action, when he said he had come to see the man who had made John Bull listen. And the second effect is best shown by the extraordinary union of the Irish nation in his support at the present day. W^ith this preface, a few words as to the leading and most exciting scenes will not be unwelcome. On March 26, 1877, there was a long discus- sion on the better treatment of prisoners. This debate came after there had been already weeks of discussion, and the patience of the Tories was exhausted. Up to this time government business used to be done at all kinds of hours; but Mr. Biggar had laid down a great rule that no con- tentious matters should come on except at a con- venient hour. On this night, accordingly, at i o'clock, he moved that progress be reported, which in Parliamentary phraseology means that the further discussion of the bill shall be post- poned. The Irish were thereupon deserted by their English allies, who began to grow ala. med ; I r M t mm -t l1 -i- 126 ( i I . A I )STON E— PARNEI.L. but Mr. Parnell and Mr. Butt moved motion after motion for adjournment in rapid succession, and kept up the fight until 3 o'clock, v/hen the gov- ernment gave way. On July 25th there was another scene of a similar kind — a scene that will be read over and over again by the future histo- rian as revealing the nature of Mr. Parnell. The House was in Committee on that South African Bill which involved the annexation of the Trans- vaal. Amoncif the Radicals who had allied them- selves with Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar was Mr. Edward Jenkins, author of *' Ginx's Baby," a well- known work, and at that time a red-hot Radical as he is now a fire-eating Tory. Mr. Jenkins was accused by one of his own party as having abused the forms of the House. When expressions of a disorderly character are implied it is the custom to move that the words be taken down. Mr. Jenkins made this motion, and the moment he sat down Mr. Parnel- j'lmped to his feet. " I second that motion," he said. " I think the limits of for- bearance have been passed. I say that I think the limits of forbearance have been passed in regard to the language which honorable members opposite have thought proper to address to me and to those who act with me." Sir Stafford Northcote, now Lord Iddesleigh, was then leader of the House, and he moved that the words of Mr. Parnell be taken down as suggesting intimi- dation to the House. Mr. Parnell was called . '(^V. TIIK (IRDAT IRISH STRIUIC.I.K. 12: upon to withdraw his statement, and lie refused to do so ; he rose to explain amid a K'mpest of jeers and shouts, and then he proceeded to show that, as an Irish Nationalist, he felt bound to pro- test against the annexation of the Transvaal against the wish of its inhabitants; and he then went on to say : *' Therefore, as an Irishman, coming from a country which had experienced to the fullest extent the result of Hnglish interfer- ence in its affairs, and the consequence of English cruelty and tyranny, he felt a special satisfaction in preventing and thwarting the intentions of the government in respect to this bill." The moment he uttered these words it was at once thought he had committed himself, and that now there was an opportunity for the House coming down and crushing the intolerable rebel. Sir Stafford Northcote moved " that Mr. Parnell be suspended until Friday next," and Mr. Parnell was called upon to explain. He refused at first to take any notice of the command of the Speaker; and at last, when he did get up, al- though the House was tempestuous around him, he was perfectly calm, and proceeded to analyze the motion of Sir Stafford Northcote purely from the formal, dry, and technical point of view. He declared that the motion was out of order ; but this was overruled, and he proceeded to justify his contention. Then he was called upon to with- draw, as is the duty of every member when his i mfMmmm I ) i\ u 1 i 128 GLADSTONE— PARNELL >• vNiil »dil !;• own conduct is being discussed ; and he went to one of the galleries of the House and looked down on the proceedings. Sir Stafford Northcote now moved that he should be suspended until the following Friday for having been guilty of contempt of the House. But it soon transpired that Sir Stafford Northcote had been too hasty. In the first place it was dis- covered that Mr. Parnell had not declared that he would obstruct the House, which would have been a Parliamentary offence ; but that he would thwart the intentions of the government — which is a very different thing. When this distinction was pointed out the question was at once brought within the domain of English party-warfare. The Liberals remembered how in their days of power their efforts had been paralyzed and their best projects destroyed by the obstruction of the Tories ; for let it be here remarked that ob- struction was not altogether the invention of Mr. Parnell. In the Gladstone ministry of 1868, when he passed some of the greatest measures of his life- time, it was the habit of a number of the rowdy sports of the Tory party to come down every night to the House, dressed in swallow-tails, and sometimes bibulous, and by constant talking against time, and by continuous motions for ad- journment and the like, to thwart the great re- forms of the Prime Minister. These occurrences THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 129 came back to the memory of the Liberals when Mr. Parnell was attacked for obstructing the in- tentions of the government. They resisted the motion of Sir Stafford Northcote accordingly. He was obliged to consent to a postponement. Mr. Parnell was called down from the gallery; escorted by Mr. Biggar he re-entered the House, stood up again, and resumed his speech exacdy where he had been speaking when the tempest began. Finally there was on July 30th and 31st a still wilder scene. The government had re- solved no longer to tolerate the delay of the Transvaal Bill. At this sitting came into opera- tion the system afterwards frequently resorted to, known as the " system of relays." Under this innovation the English parties divided themselves up into fragments, some remaining in the House while others went home to their beds, and each fragment taking its watch in turn. It had been resolved that the bill would be forced througrh the House of Commons on this night; and all neces- sary steps had been taken for the purpose of carrying this resolution into effect. Mr, Parnell and Mr. Biggar knew of these arrangements, but they were determined not to be put down by them. They fcught all through the night; Mr. Courtney and other Radicals remaining by their side. Finally Mr. Courtney went away declaring his equal disgust to the Parnellitesand describing the ministry as meeting rowdyism by rowdy- f .■ M < .'.I c f ^ 3.1 f ■ 130 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ism. Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar with five others went on. At a quarter-past 8 in the morning Mr. Parnell retired for a little while to get some sleep, and came back at a quarter-past 1 2 o'clock mid-day. At 2 o'clock on Wednesday the strug- gle was finally over and the House adjourned at 6 o'clock, having had a sitting of twenty-six hours. Ministers wailed and swore ; their followers shouted and yelled ; the Speaker menaced ; the great big ignorant public outside raved and blas- phemed, but there the evil was : and refused to be cajoled or frightened or conquered. At last it began to be perceived that such a state of things was incompatible with the greatness or the safety of the empire. The imperial Parliament is the heart's core of the empire, and the Irish enemy had got a grip of iron upon that heart's core. Meantime the action of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar in Parliament had been producing entirely opposite results in Ireland. The people of that country had almost despaired of Parliamentary agitation for years, as has been already indicated; their representatives in the imperial assembly had sold their opinions for money and for office, and then had come the hopeless attempts of Mr. Butt, ending in humiliation and failure. Now they saw two single Irish representatives standing up against upward of six hundred Englishmen, and driving them to failure and to impotence. And THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 131 as many people were unable to understand what at first Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar were driving at, they simply imagined they desired to kick up a row, and to annoy the enemy. This was enough for a people so passionate and so down-trodden as the Irish then were. They had been them- selves racked so much that the mere thought of one of theirs licking the omnipotent enemies pro- duced an enthusiasm amounting to intoxication. This enthusiasm afterwards proved the most useful ally Mr. Parnell could obtain. No great political fight since the creation of the common- wealth has ever come to much until it excited the enthusiasm of the people, and in this way, by in- spiring men's hearts and minds, bring them up to the field of the ballot-box. In Ireland this ardor was pardcularly required. The pinch of daily poverty, the hope deferred that makes the heart grow sick, and disappointed faith, turns even honest men to cynics. All these things had been a terrible obstacle in the way of any man who attempted to rouse the people to united action ; but this now disappeared, and Mr. Parnell at last had a united Democracy ready to do anything and to follow him anywhere. But his triumph was yet far from complete. The enemies he found the most potent and most ma- lignant were those among his own countrymen and in the bosom of his own party. Mr. Butt for some time kept silent with regard to the tactics s i, ! :' ir !'li plf.if :ii :•■ V I i .!:•■ illli Mi J^ Ui 111 132 GLADSTONE— PARNElL. of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar; but finally he could restrain himself no longer, and he de- nounced them more than once in the House of Commons. These attacks were cheered to the echo by the members of that assembly ; and Mr. Butt, who had been denounced so long as an im- practicable rebel, was now lauded to the skies as a saofacious statesman. While the Irish leader thus led the assault there were several of the meaner fry of the party only too ready to follow the evil example. Mr. Biggar's manly courage and lofty disregard for the attacks and insults and the "convenience" of the House that was turning upon his country, was characterized as vulgar and insolent. " Irish members," said one so-called Irish Nationalist, ** ought to be gentlemen first, and Irishmen afterwards ; " others apologized to the House in the most servile manner for the delinquencies of their colleague, and finally an attempt was made to throw them out of the party. But when Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar returned to Ireland after their first great obstruction cam- paign of 1877, they were present at a meeting in the Rotunda, which was also attended by Mr. Butt ; and the extraordinary and violent enthu- siasm of their reception proved that, however much Mr. Butt commanded the intellio^ence of Ireland, Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar were masters of the affections of the Irish people. A short time after this another and equally sig- 1 l!' THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 133 nificant incident took place. The Irish in Eng- land and Scotland, as is now known, form a very important factor in the politics of Ireland. They control constituencies in England and Scotland variously estimated from forty to sixty. They have for years been banned together in organi- zations under different names, but for the purpose of helping the Irish people at home to secure their legislative independence. At this period the Irish organization in England was known as the Home Rule Confederation, and of this association Mr. Butt was the President. The Irish Nationalists settled in the English and Scotch towns, by their contact, and sometimes by their collision with their English and Scotch fellow-citizens, profess a national creed more robust and even more forcible than that of the Irish Nationalists at home. The moment Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar appeared on the horizon the Irish in England appreciated accu- rately the merits of the struggle, took up the side of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar industriously, and it was their prompt assistance that enabled both those gentlemen to go on with the fight. It was resolved to mark the preference of the people in England for the policy of Mr. Parnell by electing him to the place hitherto held by Mr. Butt; and at a conference held in 1877 Mr. Parnell was elected President of the Home Rule Confedera- tion in place of the last leader. These things gave warning to the enemies of Mr. Parnell and III ■; h ' , I i ■ .' I 1 ;? ■■■' ij; ■ . ' i!| It I' lii 134 GLADS rONE— PARNELL. t |i i hr I iP'' ' 1 ;:]1|' ' 1 k !^ .^ .f 1 i h r ! 1 i I !c ' ' ■ ;■ ■ ■ 1 IP t 1" 1 ti:i ^1 Br Mr. Biggar that they were not to be attacked with impunity, and that any Irish member who assailed them would have to account with his constituents by and by. But the event which finally consoli- dated their power was the action of the govern- ment itself. And it has been seen that the attempt of Mr. Butt to produce any reform in Irish administration, however small, had met with prompt rejection by the Conservative ministr\'. But when they were brought face to face v/ith the stoppage of all their business through Irish ob- struction, they made an entire change in their policy. For years Ireland had been demanding a system of intermediate education, more in accord- ance with the wishe;; of its people than that which then existed. This demand had met widi scornful rejection ; but in the session of 1878 the Conserva- tive ministry brought in an intermediate Education Bill, which conceded a large portion of the Irish demand. In the year 1879 again the administra- tion brought forward a bill dealing wilh the question of Irish university education, and grant- ing to Ireland a scheme defective, but still one far beycnd anything yet attempted. Mr. Parnell has often used the homely phrase, " The proof of the pudding is in the eating," as distinguishing his policy from that of Mr. Butt. To him the gain of those two measures was of enormous impor- tance. It showed that the policy of obstruction was not a policy of mere anger or annoyance, or lP^'^^4:i^: THE C.REAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 135 to kick up a row ; but that it was a policy with definite and practical ends, and that those prac- tical and definite ends would be attained. It was perfecdy vain for Mr. Butt to any more denounce a po^'cy so practical as likely to lead to a revo- lutic Mr. Butt now virtually retired from the leader- ship of the Home Rule party. His resignation of his position was not accepted, and he was in- duced to retain at least the nominal lead of the party. He accepted on the condition that his attendance should not be regular ; this condition was for the purpose of allowing him to devote his attention to his legal practice. Like O'Connell, he had virtually to abandon his profession when he undertook the duties of parliamentary leader- ship. In this way his already vast load of debt had been increased, and his hours of waking and sleeping were tortured by duns, threats of pro- ceedings, and all the shifts and worries of the im- pecunious. His quarrel with the " obstructives " had now come to interfere with his financial as well as with his political position. A national subscription had been started. In Ireland the response of the people to the needs of their leaders has often been bountifully generous, more often than perhaps in any other country ; but those who depend on the assistance of the public are subject to the chances of fortune that always dog dependents on the popular mood. ;■'! ' vi H ■| I '.•■I ■ • •- ■i •^. 1! .: 1* i ' " '1- ii _ r , 1^ u ; ■ . ,1; ^L': 136 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. There are times and seasons when even the most popular leader will not receive one-tenth of the support which would be given in more favorable circumstances, and the popular leader dependent for his living on the pence of the people leads an existence not unlike the life of the gambler or the speculator. The support of the people had been definitely transferred from Mr. Butt to Mr. Par- nell, and financial support followed the tide of popular favor. The subscription was a miserable failure, and Butt was now without any resource but his profession. But the time had nearly passed when he could do anything in his profession. The weakness of the heart's action, which had pursued him from his early years, was rapidly becoming worse, and in 1878 there were many warnings of the ap- proaching end. In that year he made the re- mark to a friend, speaking of some troublesome symptoms, " Is not this the curfew bell, warning us that the light must be put out and the fire ex- tinguished ? " Still he fought on, attending the law courts daily, and now ahd then joining in a desperate attempt to meet his triurriphant political op- ponents. His last appearance was at a meeting in Moles- worth Hall on February 4, 1879. He was at this time engaged in the cause celebre of Bagot v. Bagot. The appearance of the old man at this THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 137 meeting has left a deep and sad impression on the minds of all those who were present. When he came in the look of death was on his face ; the death of his hopes and his spirits had already come. There were many faces among those around that once had lighted at his look and that now turned away in estrangement. " Won't you speak to me ? " he said in trembling tones to one man who had been his associate in ma ly fights and many stirring scenes. But his old persuasive eloquence was still as fresh as ever, and he de- fended his whole policy with a vigor, plausibility, and closeness of reasoning that were worthy of his best days. The next day he fell sick. The heart had at last refused to do its work ; l.he ijrain could no longer be supplied ; he lingered for nearly a mon'ih with his great intellect obscured, and on May 5, 1879, he died. The Irish people retained a kindly feeling for him to the end, but he had unquestionably out- lived his usefulness ; and his triumph over Mr. Parneil at this period of Irish history would have been a national calamity that might have brought hideous disasters. Sufficient time has elapsed since his death to pronounce a calm estimate of his career. The unwisdom of his policy was largely due undoubtedly to the difficulties of his circumstances. He had a wretched party — with one honest and unselfish man to five self-seekers ! , t n s' Jj I .'* •■,- *! ;; n 138 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. '■!. — but there is reason to believe that he accom- plished more than any other man in the work of layin<; the foundations of the great party of the future; and, we may believe that he, more than any other man, prepared the people for the new struggle for self-government. It was his mis- fortune to come at the unhappy interval of trans- ition from the bad and old and hopeless order of things to a new and a better and brighter epoch. Between the era of 1865 and the era of 1878 Ii ^- land was, so far as constitutional movements were concerned, in a political morass. It was Butt that carried the country over that danger- ous ground. His step was light, and uncertain, and timid; but the ground over which he had to pass was treacherous, perilous, and full of invis- ible and bottomless pools. It was a very mixed party Butt had gathered around him — a party of patriots and of place-hunters, of men, young, earnest, and fresh for struggle, and of men physi- cally exhausted and morally dead, a party of life- long Nationalists and of veteran lacqueys. There was a tragic contrast between such a party and the renewed and sublime and noble hopes of the nation. This fact must always in fairness be recollected when the policy of Butt is criticised. That policy was in many respects perfectly wrong and full of the most serious dangers to Ireland, but it was a policy that was largely forced upon him by the weakness and worthlessness of thq elements around him. THE GREAT IRISH STRUfJfiLE. 139 It was undoubtedly well for Ireland that Butt died at this moment. The country was again approaching one of those crises the outcone of which was to mean either a re-plunge into the slough of despond, such as she had been im- mersed in from 1845 to 1865, o^ ^^^ start of a new era of hope, effort, and prosperity. If Butt had survived, and had retained the leadership, there is little doubt that he would have been in- capable of rising to the height of the argumer.t, and would have counselled shilly-shallying where shilly-shallying meant death, and moderation where extreme courses were required to avert a national disaster, wholesale, violent, and perhaps fatal ; or, if he had not retained the full leader- ship by the destruction of the rising efforts of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar, and if he and they still remained in political life together, and to some extent in political alliance, then there would have been divided counsels ; and the time was one for unity. All the meanness and servility and half-heartedness of the country would have found in Butt a rallying-point, and the crisis was one tliat demanded all the energy and courage and concentrated purpose of the country. Isaac Butt was the son of a Protestant clergy- man of the South of Ireland. He claimed de- scent from Berkeley, and this parti / accounted for the devotion to metaphysical studies which char- acterized him throughout his busy life. His gSr"' flii. !:' t! 140 r.I.ADSTONE— PARNKT.L. 1' •1 ' ill ' \}m i" ■ .^' ■/ ' \-,ii mother was a remarkable woman ; a great story- teller among other things. The place of his birth was near the Gap of Barnesmore, a line of hills which is rarely if ever without shadow — not un- like Butt's own life. It was one of his theories that people born amid mountain scenery are more imaginative than the children of the plains. His own nature was certainly imaginative in the highest degree, with the breadth and height of imaginative men, and also with their doubtings, despondency, and dread of the Unseen. For many years he stood firmly by the prin- ciples of Orange Toryism, and he had the career which then belonged to every young Irish Prot- estant of ability. He went to Trinity College, which at that time presented large prizes, but presented them to those only who had the good luck to belong to the favored faith. Butt's ad- vancement was rapid. He was not many years a student when he was raised to a Professorship of Political Economy. When he went to the Bar his success came with the same ease and rapidity. He was but thirty-one years of age, and had been only six years at the Bar, when he was made a Queen's Counsel. In politics, however, he had made his chief distinction. It will be re- membered that when O'Connell sought to obtain a declaration in favor of Repeal of the Union from the newly emancipated Corporation of Dublin, Butt was selected by his co-religionists, THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 141 young as he was, to meet the Great Liberator, and his speech was as good a one as could be made on the side of the maintenance of the Union. Of great though irregular industry, deeply devoted to study, with a mind of large grasp and a singularly retentive memory, he was intimately acquainted with all the secrets of his profession ; and throughout his life was acknowl- edged to be a fine lawyer alike in his native country and in England. In his early Parlia- mentary days he belonged to the English Protec- tionist party, and was among the ablest spokes- men of the creed in its last and forlorn struggles. His entrance into Parliament aggravated many of his weaknesses. It separated him from his profession in Dublin, and thereby increased his already great pecuniary liabilities. His character in many respects was singularly feeble. Some of his weaknesses leaned to virtue's side, and many of fhe stories told of him suggest a re- semblance to the character of Alexandre Dumas p6re. He borrowed largely and lent largely, and often in the midst of his sorest straits lavished on others the money which he required himself, and which often did not belong to him. Through- out his life he was, as a consequence, pursued by the bloodhound of vast and insurmountable debt. At least once he was for several months in the debtors' prison, and there used to be terrible stories — even in the days when he was an English 142 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ) ■ i:.^ member of Parliament — of unpaid cabmen and appearances at the police courts. Butt was a man of supreme political genius : one of those whose riorht to intellectual eminence is never questioned, but willingly conceded with- out effort on his side, without opposition on the part of others. But tho irregularities of his life shut him out from official employment, and he saw a long series of inferiors reach to position and wealth while he remained poor and neglected. There is a considerable period of his life which is almost total eclipse. There came an Indian summer when he returned to the practice of his profession in Ireland, and once more joined in the fortunate struggles of his countrymen. The character of this remarkable man presents several points of remarkable, though melancholy, interest. His weakness with regard to pecuniary matters has been already touched upon ; he had, besides, all the other foibles, as well as the charms, of an easy-going, good-natured, pliant tempera- ment. Though his faults were grossly exagger- ated — for instance, many intimates declare that they never saw him, even during the acquaintance of years, once under the influence of drink — he had, unquestionably, made many sacrifices on the altars of the gods of indulgence. It may be that with him, as with so many others, the pursuit of pleasure was but an attempt c.t flight from de- spair. He was all his life troubled by an unusually m i".* THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 143 slow circulation of the blood ; and it may be added that the central note of his character was melan- choly. In his early days he was a constant con- tributor to the "Dublin University Magazine," and his tales have a vein of the morbid melan- choly that runs through the youthful letters of Alfred de Musset. Imaginativeness did much to weaken his resolve. Curious stories are told of the superstitions that ran through his nature. Though a Protestant, he used to carry some of the religious symbols — medals, for instance — which Catholics wear, and he would not go into a law court without his medals. There are still more ludicrous stories of his standing appalled or delighted before such accidents as putting on his clothes the wrong way, and other trivialities. Then the demon of debt haunted him all his life. He had a considerable practice when he entered Parliament, and membership of Parliament is entirely incompatible with the retention of his entire practice by an Irish barrister. He was throughout his leadership .divided between a dread dilemma : either he had to neglect Parlia- ment, and then his party was endangered ; or neglect his practice, and then bring ruin on him- self and a family entirely unprovided for, deeply loving and deeply loved. There is no Nemesis so relentless as that which dogs pecuniary reck- lessness ; the spendthrift is also the drudge ; and in his days of old age, weakness, and terrible I'f !:■; ill a i ■ i ■■•"-^•p(»'-«*'~*^H'v( i!i \>A 144 GLADSTONE— MRNELL. ^ V::l ■■.i !.';.'i i [' 'ft political responsibilities, Butt had to fly between London and Dublin, to stop up of nights, alter- nately reading briefs and drafting Acts of Parlia- ment : to make his worn and somewhat unwieldy frame do the double work, which would have tried the nerves and strength of a giant, or the limber joints and freshness of early youth. Butt's frame was worn out when, to outward appearances, he was still vigorous. The hand of incurable disease for years held him tight, and the dark death, of which he had so great a horror, was continually menacing him. On the other hand he had great qualities of leadership. He was unquestionably a head and shoulders above most of his followers, able though so many of them were ; and he was, next to Mr. Gladstone, the greatest Parliamentarian of his day. Then he had the large toleration and the easy temper that make leadership a light burden to followers ; and the burden of leadership has to be light when — as in an Irish party — the leader has no offices or salaries to bestow. And, above all, he had the modesty and the simplicity of real greatness. Every man had his ear, every man his kindly word and smile, and some his strong affection. Thus it was that Butt was to many the most lovable of men ; and more than one political opponent, impelled by principle to regard him as the most serious danger to the Irish cause, struck him hard, but wept as he dealt the blow. t3 ; : ' ■ THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 145 This sketch of the character of Butt will show the points in which he was unsuitable for the work before him. He was the leader of a small party in an assembly to which it was hateful in opinion and feeling and temperament. A party in such circumstances can only make its way by audacious aggressiveness, dogged resistance, relentless pur- pose ; and for such Parliamentary forlorn hopes the least suited of leaders was a man whom a single groan of impatience could hurt and one word of compliment delight. There was one question above all others in which he took an interest, and which he always kept in his own hand. This was the Land ques- tion. Butt's record on the Land question is, in- deed, one of the most honorable chapters in his whole career. Harassed as he was by debt and by the dem^ands of a large professional practice, he found time to write a whole series of pamphlets in defence of the claims of the tenants ; and almost immediately after the passage of the Land Act of 1870 he wrote a large volume on the Act, which is distinguished by legal learning, lucidity of style, and extraordinary subtlety of reasoning. He was, too, one of the first to discover the worthlessness of Mr. Gladstone's first Land Act ; and he never ceased, throughout his career as leader, to agitate for its amendment. There is much reason to be'lev^ that the future historian of Ireland, writing in a time when the 9 m t.i.i ; I * III 1 :'{ R|j,; ■ 1' |l m ■ k 1 III 146 GLADS'^'ONE— PARNELL. heat of our present conflicts shall have abated, will assign to Isaac Butt a far higher place in the long list of Irish patriots than most of his contem- porary workers would be willing to concede him. When we attempt to estimate the character of a man like Mr. Butt, we must take into the ac- count not only his temperament and his times, but also his ancestry, early associations, and per- sonal history. Now Mr. Butt entered public life as a Tory and an Orangeman, and was very early prominent as an antagonist to Daniel O'Connell. The fact that he allowed the arguments of his op- ponents gradually to win him over to a position in many respects more advanced than that of O'Connell himself proves conclusively his fair- mindedness, and his love of justice. Daniel O'Connell never looked at the land question in the light of our later position as Irish patriots. He was first of all a great lawyer ; and he looked (as did all the lawyers of his time) upon property in land, as lecognized by law, as being a thing more sacred and inviolable than almost any sec- ular thing in the world. Butt, however, knew well that upon the proper solution of the land problem must depend the whole question of Ireland's hap- piness or woe. There were in his lifetime those who con- demned Mr. Butt as being too facile and pliable. This view has some apparent justification in his career, yet it is in point of fact an opinion very THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 147 unjust to his memory. Mr. Butt fought the good fight, not because he enjoyed fighting, but be- cause he felt that fighting was an imperative duty. The honor due him becomes far greater when we consider the circumstances of his education, temper and environment. In the midst of the struggle between the active section, as the Obstructives were called, of the Irish party, and the loggards, or trimmers, or traitors, who formed the bulk of that party, Mr. Butt died. Mr. Parnell was still at this time a young man and had only made a short record. The country, which was daily gathering around him, was not yet quite certain of his power to take the onerous position of leader In addition to all this the then Home Rule party consisted mostly of men who disliked him personally and loathed his policy. Under these circumstances it was vain to think of his being appointed the leader; and Mr. William Shaw was elected as a siop-gap leader. The reasons for this election were, that Mr. Shaw was a Protestant, supposed to be very rich, and that he had a moderate mind and an easy and genial temperament. Under the rules of the Irish party the leader is elected for only one year, and the time was bound soon to come when Mr. Shaw would have once more to submit his claims for the position of chief. The selection was perhaps the best that could have been made at the time. Mr. Shaw was not with- ?i, I I ! , M* i"' i ' 148 GLAt)STONE— MRNELL. out many admirable qualities. He, however, was too cautious and timid, and had not imagination or mind large enough tor the sublime and gigantic evils that had now to be grappled with once and for all. The year 1879 marked a crisis in the history of Ireland. Owing to circumstances which will be presently detailed the potato crop has occupied in Irish life a position of extraordinary importance. With- out any exaggeration the potato crop may be described as the thin partition which used to di- vide large masses of the Irish people from whole- sale starvation. The years 1877-78 had both been years in which the crops had largely failed to come up to the expectations of the people. The following table will prove this fact conclu- sively : Value of JHotato Crop. 1876 $60,321,910 1877 26,355,110 1878 35.S97 560 It will therefore be seen that by 1879 there had been two bad seasons; and three bad seasons in Ireland as it then was were sufficient to make all the difference between the chance of weather- ing the storm and going down in awful ship- wreck. But the year 1879 disappointed all the expectations that had been formed of it. The potato crop, instead of rising, went down .o a lower point than it had reached even in the dis- astrous year of 1877. The figures are: THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 149 Value of Potato Crop. 1879 515.705.440 In other words two-thirds of the T)Otato crop had not come to maturity, and in some parts of the country it had entirely disappeared. Thus Ireland stood face to face with famine. The time had come now for making a choice between either of two courses, each of which presented enormous difficulties and terrible dansfers. Either the country had to remain quiet and sub- missive to the decree of British law and of Irish landlords, when the result would probably be a considerable amount of starvation, an enormous number of evictions, and an immense amount of emigration, as well as the break-down of all spirits and of all hopes in the people. The other course was that of passive resistance to the law of eviction, and of strong agitation which would make the landlords pause in their tyranny, and compel the British Parliament to bestow reform. The latter course could not be entered upon without the risk of violent collision with the law and the chances of penal servitude and perhaps death on the gallows ; and above all, without the sickening dread when the hour of trial came that the people might prove unequal to the opportun- ity, and allow themselves to be again driven back by the dark night of hunger and of despair. If Mr. Butt had remained at the head of affairs it is more than probable that the first of these two ::» fii !(' ' rui I • 150 GLADSTONE — PARNELL. >ii / m 'J"-'^ I i !|ii,-'- III courses would have been adopted. It was the only course that recommended itself to timid and constitutional lawyers like him, and to all the other large sections of society in Ireland, that always \,.sh to avoid open collision with the great powers of the British government. But Mr. Parnell is a very different type of man to Mr. Butt. His iron nerve and his daring mind induced him to believe that the bold course was the true course, that eviction should be grappled with, that die landlords and the law should be encountered, and that in this way the tlireatened famine of 1879, in place of being a night of darkness and despair, might make a morning of hope and resurrection to the Li^^h people. His choice of weapons was largely influenced by a very remarkable man who at about this time began to have considerable influence over the course of Irish affairs. This was Michael Davitt, The life of Michael Davitt is in many respects like that of hundreds of thousands of Irishmen. Evic- tion, Exile, Poverty — these .are its main features. Michael Davitt was born at Straid, in the County Mayo, in the year 1846. That year, as will be seen afterwards, was one of Ireland's darkest hours. Famine was in the country; thousands were dying in every hospital, work- house, and jail, and the roads were literally thick with the corpses of the unburied. The landlords were aggravating this terrible state of things by ■< A MICHAEL DAVITT. I III «r ;.l': i 1:4 fi i nimtiti m' Mi '' 1 ■|ii| 1 i |! h:\ '■■\ ■i 'i .-■- 1 |i|( 1 li '11 1 11 i :||| M Ri II li ,'M ffli W i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGCiLE. 153 their merciless eviction of all their helpless ten- antry whose means of living and power of paying their rent had been entirely destroyed by this economic cyclone. The father of Davitt was one of these victims. Davitt's earliest recollection is of an eviction under circumstances of cruelty and heartlessness. He was but four years of age when his father was turned out of his house and farm. It was the curious irony of fate that he afterwards held a Land League meeting at Straide, and that the platform from which he spoke stood on the very spot where he had first seen light. His family emigrated to Lancashire, where to-day there are thousands of other Irish families who sought refuge in English homes from their own country. The fate of the Irish in England has been one of the many tragedies in the sorrowful history of the Irish race. Coming mostly from the country and from rural pursuits, the Irish exiles were thrown into the midst of large manu- facturing industries. For such industries of course they had had no training whatever. The result was that die only work they could obtain was the work which was hardest and worst paid. To- day, if you pass through a Lancashire, Northum- brian, or Scotch district you will find that the stokers in the gas-works, the laborers in the blast furnace and chemical works are nearly all men of Irish birth and descent — people or the sons of people who were driven frpm Ireland by hunger ft ■! ( pFm %i In^, i\\ "Ul mm !i I !t ,| §1' : 'I •'iitr i i hs I ■■■; 154 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. and by eviction. In his early years Davitt led the same life as that of the other Irishmen around him. As soon as he was able to work he had to be sent to the mill in order to eke out the scanty subsistence of his family. While employed in the mill his arm was caue^ht in the machinery and wrenched off. This misfortune, terrible as it was, perhaps influenced his life for the future. He was taken away from the mill, and was able in this way to devote time to the improvement of his mind. He was living at this time at Has- lingden, a town in the Lancashire constituency, which is represented at present by the Marquis of Hartington. He was employed there for some years in a stationer's shop and afterwards as a letter-carrier. In Haslingden there is a large Irish population, and the young Irish boy grew up amid Irish surroundings and Irish influences. However, it was not until one night he attended a meeting addressed by an Irish orator that he really began to have strong political opinions. This orator told him the history of his country, of her wrongs, of her plans, of her hopes. The whole soul of the young man was fired ; his im- pressions were crystallized into convictions, and from that time forward he was an ardent Irish Nationalist. It is a singular circumstance that the man who gave to Davitt this new birth of conviction afterwards proved recreant to the pause; for the orator who first made Davitt m III I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. loo an Irish Nationalist was Mr. John O'Connor Power. In those days there was no place in politics for an honest Irish Nationalist save in the ranks of the revolutionary party. That party found some of its bravest and fiercest recruits among the Irish in England, and Davitt was one of them. The English Branch of the F'enian organization contemplated some of the most desperate enter- prises of the movement. Among many other plots they reserved to make an attack on- Chester Castle, where there used to be a large supply of arms. Davitt, although very young at the time, was one of those who were present at the tryst- ingj)lace. He escaped arrest at this time, and then he became prominent by his energy and talents, and after a while was one of the foremost organizers of the movement. He was mainly concerned in the purchase of arms and their transportation to Ireland to prepare men for the fight, which was then supposed to be ripening fast. One evening he was arrested at a London railway station and was brought before the courts on the charge of levying war against the Queen. The main evidence against him was that of Corydon, an infamous ruffian, who first joined and then sold the organization. From the onset Davitt knew there was no escape. In his "Leaves of a Prison Diary," which contains an account of his life, he describes his feelings af jthjs tgrribJe ItH' ;'' ' II I 'U ii it i;i ft i U ■! li.t. li I ||,', 156 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. "I recollect," he writes, "having occupied the half-hour during which the jury was considering whether to believe the evidence of respectable witnesses or p'-.^pt that of a creature who can be truly designated a salaried perjurer in my case, in reading the inscriptions which covered the walls of the cell — the waiting-room of fate — in Newgate prison, to which I was conducted while my future was being decided in the jury-room overhead. Every available inch of the blackened mortar contained, in few words, the name of the writer, where he belonged to, the crime with which he was charged, the dread certainty of conviction, the palpitating hopes of acquittal, or the language of indifference or despair. What thoughts must have swept through the minds of the thousands who have passed through that cell during the necessarily brief stay within its walls! Loss of home, friends, reputation, honor, name — to those who had such to lose ; and the impend- ing sentence of banishment from the world of pleasure or business for years — perhaps forever — with the doom of penal degradation, toil, and suffering in addition ! "Yet, despite all these feelings that crowd upon the soul in these short, fleeting, terrible moments of criminal life, the vanity — ':; what shall I term it? — of the individual prompts him to occupy most of them in giving a short record of himself, his crime or imputed offence, scratched THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 157 upon these blackened walls, for other succeeding unfortunates to read ! " Most of these inscriptions were in slang, showing that the majority of those who had writ- ten them were of the criminal order, and guilty of some, if not of the particular, offence for which they were doomed to await the announcement of their punishment within that chamber of dread expectancy. Not a few, however, consisted of declarations of innocence, invocations of Divine interposition, appeals to justice, and confidence in the * laws of my country ; ' while others denoted the absence of all thoughts except those of wife, children, or sweetheart. Some who were await- ing that most terrible of all sentences — death — could yet think of tracing the outlines of a scaffold amidst the mass of surrounding inscriptions, with a * Farewell to Life ' scrawled underneath. Giv- ing way to the seeming inspiration of the place, and picturing jurors' faces round that dismal den — dark and frowning, into which the sun's rays never entered, lit only by a noisy jet of gas which seemed to sing the death-song of the liberty of all who entered the walls which it had blackened — I stood upon the form which extended round the place and wrote upon a yet uncovered por- tion of the low sloping roof: *M. D. expects ten years for the crime of being an Irish Nationalist and the victim of an informer's perjury. — July, 1870.' From the ghastly look of the place, the "il . 158 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ;fl,i^riMi penalty I was about to undergo, and my own thoughts at the moment, I might l.ave most ap- propriately added the well-known lines from the * Inferno,* which invite those who enter its portals of despair to abandon hope." The anticipations in this heart's cry proved cor- rect. Davitt was found guilty and was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude. Replying in the month of May last (1886) to Lord Randolph Churchill's incitements to civil war, Mr. Davitt gave a scathing reply, and at the same time a neat summary of his miseries in penal servitude. "The treason for which I was tried and con- victed in 1870 was more justifiable in reason and less culpable to law than the treason which this ex-cabinet minister commits in telling the people of Ulster that they will be entitled to appeal to the arbitrament of force if the imperial Parliament passes a certain law. In 1870, when I was tried in London, the Castle system of government still obtained in Ireland — a system of rule v/hich, by the measure which the Prime Minister of England — (loud cheers) — has introduced for the better government of Ireland, is now proved to be un- just and unconstitutional. Nevertheless, I was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude for sending firearms to Ireland to be used against a system of government in that country which was not objectionable to the minority, but which was looked upon by the mass of the Irish people as a J 1:11 If; ■0. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 159 tyranny. (Applause.) Now, what will be the position of this precious ex-minister of the Crown in 4887 if he be true to his words in sending fire- arms to the North of Ireland? (Applause.) Lord Churchill will be in insurrection against his Dwn Queen and country. (Hear, hear.) He 'vill not be in revolt against a despotic Castle -system, but against the legally-constituted Irish Parliament, and, therefore, this treason which he commits by anticipation will have no earthly justification or extenuation. (Cheers.) Well, I will give the noble lord some friendly advice to- night — (laughter) — based upon a good deal of prison experience. (Renewed laughter.) I will assume that in 1887, when Paddington's lordly representative will become a rebel against impe- rial authority, Mr. Gladstone will be Prime Minis- ter of England. (Cheers.) He was England's Prime Minister in 1870, when I left the Old Bailey to undergo penal servitude. If Lord Randolph Churchill receive the same sentence for a similar offence without any justification for committing it, I will tell him what he will have to undergo. (Hear, hear.) If he is treated in prison as I was under Mr. Gladstone's adminis- tration, he will be chained to a cart with murder- ers and pick-pockets for the first four years of imprisonment, and if he goes through that ordeal without quarrelling with his new chums — (laughter and loud applause) — it may be his good fortune, )!• ,■ '( If i- i ■ M' i ::^'' II ^ Bl: i i; 100 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ^^. 1 J ■ I'S' . as it was mine, to be in six years' time promoted to the position of turning a wringing machine in the Dartmoor convict laundry. (Loud laughter and applause.) Well, after seven years and eight months' imprisonment, I hope he will be released on ticket-of-leave, as I was, and then, perhaps, it may be my duty, rising from the opposite benches of the Irish Parliament — (cheers) — to do for him what he did for me in 1881, when he called upon the then Chief Secretary of Ireland to send me back to penal servitude to undergo fifteen months' additional imprisonment." (Cheers.) Several attempts were made to procure Davitt's release from prison, which attempts failed for years ; but at last, on the morning of December 19, 1877, the governor of Dartmoor jail brought Davitt the information that he was a free man. The release, however, was not unconditional. He was let out on a ticket-of-leave. This at the time might well have appeared nothing more than a hollow formality. But it afterwards proved to be a grim safeguard for Davitt's political orthodoxy in the future. After his release he took to lectur- ing. In the course of time his family had been further scattered, and having first left Ireland for England they had subsequently quitted England for America. They were settled in Manayunk, Pennsylvania. Davitt went over to America to see his mother and sister, and also probably with the view to his career thereafter. When he ar- '■ail. THE GREAT IRi H STRUGGLE. 1<)1 rived in America he had not more than a few acquaintances in the country. The chief of these was Mr. James O'Kelly, then connected with the New York press, now a member of the British House of Commons. At this time there had come an important crisis in the history of Irish-American organizations. A large number of the men who had been en- gaged in revohitionary effort had made up their mind that ihe Hberation of Ireland could not for the moment be advanced by immediate resort to physical force. Several of the men -of the keenest intellig^ence and of thouorhtful and states- manlike minds had come to the conclusion that other devices should be employed. Of these men perhaps the most noteworthy was Mr. John Devoy. It required some courage to preach to men of the revolutionary party any doctrine save the attempt to liberate Ireland by force of arms. Constitutional agitators had been proved in so many cases liars and traitors that constitutional agi- tation was regarded by vast numbers as a delusion and a snare ; and any plan that had even the least approach to constitutional agitation in its character was condemned beforehand. But some of the leading spirits of the revolutionary party were men above the cant of faction or the emptiness of phrases. They saw that the Land question was, after all, the fundamental question with the vast mass of the Irish people ; that that was the ques- ■ ■ ill !! ■'.i:. 162 GLADSTONi^l'ARNELL. ) ■ \li f rii'i i u^ ■ i. Hpi ' r Vl H : : '■' ii ' ! '- ■ ■, , M 1^' ml.. ii tion which touched their hearts, their homes, and their daily lives, and that accordingly, if some movement were started in which the land would play a prominent part, the adhesion of the farmers to the National movement would be easily ob- tained. Revolutionists were accordingly advised to take up the agitation of the Land question as the best means by which they could reach the goal of National revival. This was known at one time as " the new departure." Mr. Davitt was brought into contact with the men of this new school ; his mind was captured by the idea ; and when he returned to Ireland it was with a determination to put this new plan of action into operation. For a year he met with but little success ; the revolutionaries would not accept his plan because it was too constitutional. The con- stitutionalists rejected it as too revolutionary. The period of Davitt's arrival in Ireland was the period of dark distress from the failure of the crop which has been already described. Another event which lent force to Davitt's ideas was the action of the land-owners. They proceeded to deal with their tenantry in exactly the same way as they had done at all previous periods of dis- tress. That is to say, they took advantage of their tenants* distress to drive them out of their holdings. This will be seen more plainly by put- ting side by side the increase of the distress and the number of evictions : V t THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE 103 No. of Evictions Year. Value of Potato Crop. by Families. 1876 160,321,910 1,269 1877 26,355,1 10 1,323 1878 35.897.560 1,749 1879 15,705,440 2,667 From this short table it may be gathered that the number of evictions increased in exact pro- portions to the deepening of the distress. Davitt saw how this state of things could be used for the purpose of advancing his ideas. He after- wards thus describes his mode of action : '* I saw the priests, the farmers, and the local leaders of the Nationalists. I inquired and found that the seasons of 1877 ^^^ iSyS had been poor, and that a famine was expected in 1879. All the farmers and cotters were in debt to the landlords and the shopkeepers. One day in Claremorris, County Mayo — it was in March, 1879 — I was in company with John W. Walsh, of Balla, who was a commercial traveller. He is now in Australia in the interests of the Land League. He knew the circumstances of every shopkeeper in the west of Ireland — their poverty and debt, and the pov- erty of the people. He gave me a good deal of valuable information. I met some farmers from Irishtown, a village outside of Claremor-is, and talked to them about the crops and the rent. Everywhere I heard the same story, and I at last made a proposition that a meeting be called in Irishtown to give expression to the grievances of the tenant farmers, and to demand a reduction of 10 ( 9J :' 3| ^■'k v^ 1G4 GLADSTONE—rARNKLL. ( , ;■ * ;1 wM the rent. We were also to urge the abolition of landlordism. I promised to have the speakers there, and they promised to get the audience. I wrote to Thomas Brennan, of Dublin, John Fer- guson, of Glasgow, and other Irishmen known for their adherence to Ireland's cause, and I drew up t' resolutions. The meeting was held and was ■ ' J "^at success, there being between ten thousand ici ii'v^lve thousand men present. In the pro- cession tiiere were fifteen hundred men on horse- back, marching as a troop of cavalry ; and this feature, inaugurated at Irishtown, has been con- tinued ever since at every meeting of the Land League. The meeting was not fully reported in the Dublin papers, but was, as far as the object went, a success ; for the landlords of the neigh- borhood reduced the rents 25 per cent." From this meeting at Irishtown grew the great Land League movement. However, Davitt had yet to gain the adhesion of the Parliamentary leader. The fierce obstructive fights in the House of Commons happened by a fortunate coincidence to be going on exactly at the same time as the threatened famine and the increasing evictions prepared the mind of Ireland for a new land movement. These struggles had roused the spirit and the hopes of the people, and they were above and beyond all pointing to the possibility of their finding a leader who had the necessary courage, determination, and skill to lead a new ■* t: ^^1 1 Mi^m J. WAITE, Treasurer Victoria Branch, Irish National Leapiie v:i mmmm'finmi'itmmmm .. '"^L ^■t iiii i ^^Hbiii "l'ill ^^H Jl'il r M rai^lv |8< in *■ i'jf l^flll 1 t ; ':|| 'li H^^B 1 1 'IS THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. K7 land movement to victory. Mr. Davitt early appreciated the fact that if he were to make a successful land movement he should secure the leadership of Mr. Parnell for it, as he alone among the Parliamentarians of that day had the necessary magnetism and other (qualities for such an arduous and perilous enterprise. But he did not 6nd in Mr. Parnell immediate assent to his proposals ; for Davitt's schemes, not merely in their means but in their ends, went far beyond any plans that had yet been formulated by any Irish organization or any Irish politician. The Land reformers in Ireland had always demanded as the goal and limit of its efforts what came to be known as the '• Three F's ; " that is to say, Plxity of tenure, Free sale, and Fair rent. The demands for these con- cessions had been urged for more than forty years, and had formed the subject of innumerable bills in the House of Commons, of countless mis- sions, and of many successive agitations ; and in 1879, when Davitt was preparing the new move- ment, the three " F^'s " seemed nevertheless to be as far off realization as ever. Davitt's startling proposal was that in place of urging this moderate demand, which appeared unattainable, they should advance to a far more drastic proposal for the settlement of the land question. This suggestion, curiously enough, had first been made by English statesmen. John Stuart Mill, the great English economist, Mr. Bright, the great English tribune, I ' !J ffi; <■>'> kii ir,8 GLADSTONK— I'AKNr.M,. It I I'ii m i . Hlfri; bmt had both suggested that the real and final remedy for the land struLT'de of Ireland was the establish- ment, througli the state, of that system of peasant proprietors which had brought wealth and inde- pendence out of poverty and servitude in France, Germany, and Austria. Davitt now proposed to drop the proposal for the three F's, and to stop nothing short of the declaration that the occupy- ing tenantry of Ireland should be transformed into proprietors of the soil. Mr. Parnell, although he is bold and audacious in enterprise, is a cool and cautious calculator of means towards ends. Up to this time he had never dreamt of making a step beyond the demand for the three F's ; and he long hesitated before he could accept the pro- posal of Davitt ; but at last he embraced Davitt's programme ; he went to a meeting at Westport, and preached the doctrine of peasant proprietor, and so the most popular figure of Ireland had crossed the Rubicon : the land movement now must go on to great victory or disastrous shame. The meeting at Westport was reported in the Freeman's yoiirnal oi June 8, 1879. The people who were present at the time little knew the im- portance of what they were doing, and the report accordingly has many bits of unconscious humor and unconscious interest. A few extracts from it will give the reader a glimpse into what the mighty Land League movement was at its start. The report begins thus : THE GREAl" IRISH STRUGCil-K. 101) " The agltatio! ior the reduction of rents as the only practical soUition for the new agricultural distress produced a large meeting lo-day at West- pert, which was addressed by Mr. Parnell, M. P., Mr. Louden, B. L., Mr. Malachy O'Sullivan, of Ballinasloe, and other well-known 'I'enant Rii^hters. Two circumstances operated adversely to the com- plete success of the meeting. It poured rain all day yesterday, and heavy showers fell up to lo o'clock this morning, which, of course, deterred many people in the country districts from attend- ing ; but a more serious drawback was the letter of His Grace, the Archbishop, published in yester- day's Freeman, which came upon the committee as a complete surprise. His Grace, who is in Westport, preached at early mass, but made no allusion whatever to the meeting, nor was it re- ferred to at any of the masses. It was after 3 o'clock when the proceedings commenced. A platform was erected in a field near the town, and from this an assemblage of over four thousand people, made up of large bodies of men from Ballinrobe, Castlerea, Teenane and Achille direc- tions, eighty of whom were on horseback, were addressed by the speakers. Green banners, bear- ing such mottoes as ' The Land for the People,* 'Down with Land Robbers,' and * Ireland for the Irish,' were scattered here and there above the people's heads, and the wearing of greer ribbons and rosettes was very gen( ril. The llinrobe H u i , il 'VI ■V Vi % 'i '\ t iti 1^. vif !tl i ! ''¥ ,. i!' % ^'■i^ 170 GL A DSTONE— PARNELL. band contributed the music. Before the meeting began the rain commenced, and continued piti- lessly; but, nothing daunted, the people stood their ground, and cheered lustily for the principal gentlemen present and for the Zulus." The chairman thus alludes to Mr. Parnell : "They had amongst them the great Grattan of the age, Mr. Parnell (cheers), who had travelled all night in order to be present at the meeting, and who intended to travel all .hat mcrht in order to be present at the House of Commons." (Cheers.) Here is how Mr. Davitt is spoken of and this is his speech : " Mr. Michael Davitt, one of the released political prisoners, proposed the first resolution. He said it had been his lot in a chequered career to have had the pleasure of addressing Irishmen everywhere, but never did he feel such pleasure as on the present occasion, when he addressed his countrymen (cheers), and was asked to propose to them, that 'Whereas all political power comes from the people, and that the people of Ireland have never ceased to proclaim their right to autonomy, we hereby reassert the right of our country to self-govern- ment.' (Hear ! hear !) They were asked to de- fine what they meant by self-government for Ire- land. A voice — ' We will have total separation.' Mr. Davitt continued to say that he was so iden- tified with the principle of nationality that it was not necessary for him to define to them what was ?i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 171 meant by self-government. (Cheers.) He would venture to say that there was no Mayo man there who would tell him as a man who had been im- prisoned that he had done anything for which he should apologize before that meeting. (Cries of ' No.') He would not, in the presence of the gentle- men upon that platform, commit them nor the meet- ing by giv'ing his definition of the resolution, and would content himself by leaving those present to draw their inferences from it. They were there to proclaim what was proclaimed in a different way a hundred years ago. (Cheers.) -A race of savages on the continent of Africa (cheers for the Zulus) were now showing their right to that principle, which was as strong in the Irish heart to-day as it was years ago. (Applause.) Various opinions existed as to whether they should demand their full right of Irish independ- ence or ought to accept some different or medium measure. He (Mr. Davitt) as an Irish Nation- alist could not retreat one inch from the position he took up when he represented his right to in- dependence. (Hear ! hear !) He called upon the Irish farmers to unite. He had no confidence in the English members who pretended to have sympathy with Irebnd. They had expressed that sympathy by oppression, and now, because they could not wipe them off the face of the earth, they were compelled to show a little attention to Irish questions. Why did they do this ? Because Mr. i : ■ij ' t f ,i< , \ n I.. .'It ' .' H '1 1 1 I: ;fi^ I 'I r:i i ^> .!( ' t ; ; I M V ■;*'!■ ■i S 172 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Parnell had succeeded in blocking the machinery of the English House of Commons. A voice. — * Bad luck to it.' Mr. Davitt. — They were there to denounce the landlord system, which was like a millstone around the neck of Ireland. They should leave this meeting condemning not an in- dividual case but the system itself. It was im- posed upon them by the English government and the landlords were only filling a territorial gar- rison. When the day came for the settlement of this question the government's duty would be to compensate the Irish landlord. (Hear! hear!) The people should depend upon themselves for the settlement of the Irish Land question, and not upon the Irish Parliamentary party. As regarded that party he believed they could count upon their fingers the honest men. If they resolved that they should organize and combine to defend each other in their interests then they would find the Land question setded within a shorter time than was used in useless legislation. Do not allow anybody, no matter (he now spoke of the clergy with respect) what the cut or color of his cloth may be, to use the present agitation, or to use them in order that their personal grievances may be remedied. At present the question of the day was the Land question. (Cheers.) He had great pleasure in proposing the resolution." And, finally, the speech of Mr. Parnell, who was loudly cheered, was as follows ; " In proposing the ?3 M > u > w O > w M r > O w o > ii' ' 1! ' I ii'l I i \ ill ■| i il M THE GREAT IRISH ST^UG'.LE. i i.j second reading he said he wished to refer to tlie letter of His Grace, the Archbishop of Tuam, which had appeared in the Freeman's younitd. He need not tell them that it would ill become him, or anybody else, to treat anything proceed- ing from a man who had stood, as His Grace had, between the Irish people and the exterminator, with anything but the highest respect. The meeting had been placarded throughout the County Mayo for some six or seven weeks, an- nouncing that he, the speaker, and other public men, would address it. During all these weeks not a single person in Mayo or out of it, no cler- gyman ever intimated to him that the Archbishop was opposed to this meeting. A voice,.- - * It was never him who wrote the letter.' Mr. Parfiell.- - It was only when leaving my home yesterday to come here; that I for the first time became as- quainted, by reading that letter, that Hii Grace was opposed to the meeting. I am ^ite 'John of Tuam ' would not wish me to dishonc- myself by breaking my word t this meeting ard by remaining away from it. (Applause.) "The resolution I have to propose is this*. 'That, whereas, many landlords by successfully asserting in the courts of law their power to arbi- trarily increase their rents, irrespective of the value of the holdings on their estates, have ren- dered worthless the Land Act of 1870 as a means of protection to the Irish tenants, we hereby de- 1 5 ■ \ % '''.'I ■»-~V«««l'.JM»0«ifc!?». ■ 176 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Ii -'i 'M clare that not only political expediency, but justice and the vital interests of Ireland, demand such a readjustment of the land tenure — a read- justment based upon the principle that the occupier of the land shall be the owner thereof — as will prevent further confiscation of the tenants' property by unscrupulous landlords, and will secure to the people of Ireland their natural right to the soil of their country,' " I am one of those who believe the landlord institution is not a natural institution in any coun- try. I believe that the maintenance of the class of landlords in a country is not for the greatest benefit of the greatest number. Ireland has per- haps suffered more than any other country in the world from the maintenance of such a class. England has, perhaps, assimilated itself better than any odier country to the landlord system ; but in almost every other country in the world where the system has been tried it has been given up. In Belgium, in Prussia, in France, and in Russia, the land has been given to the people — to the occupiers of the land. In some cases the landlords have been deprived of their property in die soil by the iron hand of revolution ; in other cases, as in Prussia, the landlords have been pur- chased out. If such an arranc^ement could be made without injuring the landlord, so as to enable the tenant to have his land as his own and to cbltivate it as it ought to be cultivated, it would, THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 177 be for the benefit and the prospt^rity of the coun- try. I look to this as the final settlement of this question ; but in the meanvvliile it is necessary to insure that as long as the tenant pays a fair rent he shall be left to enjoy the fruits of his industry. A fair rent is a rent the tenant can reasonably pay according to the times ; but in bad times a tenant cannot be expected to pay as much as he did in good times, three or four years ago. (Ap- plause.) If such rents are insisted upon, a repe- tition of the scenes of 1847 ^"<^ 1848 will be witnessed. Now what must we do in order to induce the landlords to see the position ? You must show the landlords that you intend to hold a firm grip of your homesteads and land. (Ap- plause.) Yc;: must not allow yourselves to be dispossessed as you were dispossessed in 1847. You must not allow your small holdings to be turned into large ones. I am supposing that the landlords will remain deaf to the voice of reason, but I hope they may not, and that on those prop- erties on which the rents are out of all proportion to the times that a reduction may be made, and that immediately. If not, you must help your- selves, and the public opinion of the world will stand by you and support you in your struggle to defend your homesteads. (Applause.) I should be deceiving yon if I told you there was any use in relying upon the exertions of the Irish members of Parliament on your behalf. I think that if your ' ^ 'i^} n ^ ^ T^i.,'!! 1 1 1 ;;> ■'1 '•1 1 I ' 1:' ,v 1 '' \' ^i'^ 1 r t, ■ „ 4 ; :! i 1 ii '1 < '■ 1 r-l I m , I '■"( 1 1 1 178 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, members were determined and resolute they could help you, but I am afraid they won't. I hope that I may be wrong, and that you may rely upon the constitutional action of your Parliamen- tary representatives in this, the sore time of your need and trial ; but, above all things, remember that God helps him who helps himself, and that by showing such a public spirit as you have shown here to-day, by coming in your thousands in the face of every difficulty, you will do more to show landlords the necessity of dealing justly with you than if you had 150 members in the House of Commons. (Applause.) Perhaps I may be per- mitted for a moment to refer to the great question of self-government for Ireland. You will say, perhaps, that many men have said that this strug- gling for concessions in the House of Commons is a demoralizing thing. Now, I am as confident as I am of my own existence that if you had men of determination, of some sort of courage and energy, representing you, that you could obtain concessions. (Hear ! hear !) We are not likely to got them of such importance and amount as to run the risk of being demoralized by them ; and also there is really no reason why we should permit ourselves to be demoralized by the greatest con- cession of all. If you obtain concessions on right principles, such as the Irish Church Act and the Land Act, you run no risk of demoralizing your- selves. I have always noticed that the breaking $ THE (IRKAT IRiSlI STRUCGl-E. 179 down of barriers between different classes has in- creased their self-respect and increased the spirit of nationality among our people. I am convinced that nothing,' would more effectually promote the cause of self-government for Ireland than the breakincr down of those barriers between the dif- ferent classes. Nothing would be more effectual for that than the obtaining of a good Land Bill — the planting of the people in the soil. If we had the farmers of Ireland the owners of the soil to- morrow we would not be long without getting an Irish Parliament. (Applause.) I don't intend to be demoralized myself by my concessions. While we are getting a concession we may show the government a little consideration for the time being, and give them a quid pro quo; but after that the bargain ceases, and when we have re- turned them a fitting return for what we have got we are quits again, and are free to use su«-h meas- ures as may be necessary according to the times and according to the circumstances. You have a great country to struggle for — a great country before you. It is worth a little exerdon on your part ; it is worth a little time. Do your best and your country will thank you for it, and your chil- dren hereafter." (Applause.) It is recorded of General Grant that he did not himself appreciate the magic potence of the phrases in his despatches which immediately after their publication passed like wildfire through ■'■'■I si '^ wiiKii w "J I II an ' .'i. "^ IHO GLADSTONE— PARNKLL. 'I the country. In the same way Parnell pp-haps did not contemplate the vast circulation which was immediately i;iven to one of the phrases in this historic speech. " Mold " — or as it was after- wards said — "keep a firm grip of your home- steads and land," became the war-cry of the new land movement. Hitherto, when the landlords had sent their process of eviction, the tenant had ofone out with wife and children, thouofh the wife and children might be dying and the tlitch be their only refuge. Here was a new and a strange and a thrilling gospel ; that the farmer should stand by his holding and his house, and refuse to perish at the bidding of his oppressor. The failure of the potato crop, the increase of eviction, the threat of famine — all these three things contributed to give to the words of Parnell a fateful and universal application. The new order was coming; the tenant was no longer to be the patient slave, but was resolved to fight doggedly for his rights. Thus it was that the great Land League move- ment took its start. It was a movement that grew rather than was made. The circumstances of the time made it necessary. All that was wanted was now supplied. There was a leader of the necessary boldness and adroitness to direct and to guide it ; and soon from one end of Ireland to another there were bodies of farmers ready to take up the n^w gospel an J go in for the struggle. TIIK GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 181 Matthew Harris is one of the most interestiiifr and striking figures of the Irisli movements of the last thirty years. During all this period he has devoted himself with self-sacrificing and unremit ting zeal to the attainment of complete redness of his country's grievances. In this respect poli- tics are with him an absorbing passion, almost a religion. In the pursuit of this high and noble end he has risked death, lost liberty, ruined his business prospects. Eager, enthusiastic, vehe- ment, he has at the same time that grim tenacity of purpose by which forlorn hopes are changed into triumphant fruitions. He has fought the battle against landlordism in the dark as well as in the brightest hour with unshaken resolution. Reared in the country, from an early age he saw landlordism in its worst shape and aspect ; his childish recollections are of cruel and heartless evictions. Thus it is that in every movement for the liberation of the farmer or of Ireland durino: the last thirty years he has been a conspicuous figure, as hopeful, energetic, laborious in the hour of despair, apathy, and lassitude, as in times of universal vigor, exultation, and activity. Matthew Harris made war on landlordism, which in the county of Galway had been particu- larly atrocious for many years before the Land League was thought of; and in this way his ac- tions became the germ of a new movement. And now we have come to a point in our nar- .! 'u; ft i' rw"' IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I l^|28 |25 |M 18 1-25 1.4 III 1.6 ■m 6" ► V] '<6 .V ^ o^ '^ ^^ 182 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. rative that makes it necessary to give a short his- torical retrospect. How comes it that the Land question in Ireland has grown to be a question of life and death to the Irish people ? Is the land system in Ireland the same as in America or in other countries ? And how is it that there has grown up between the landlord and the occupier of the Irish soil a feud so bitter, a hatred so deadly? These questions compel a short sketch of the land struggle. A short sketch, indeed ; and yet any sketch, however long, would, in point of fact, be all too brief to convey any adequate idea of the wretched history of Ireland's wrongs. For the struggle in Ireland, from the very outset, has been a land struggle. Every combination against the Saxon invader has been a land league ; almost every new creation in the Irish pee. age has been simply the transfer of some land grabber into the galaxy of the Anglo-Hibernian aristocracy. It is a mis- erable story, sickening in its details ; but there is no alternative. Any view of the situation which leaves out of the account this long catalogue of the crimes of the rich man against the poor man in Ireland must altogether fail of its purpose. The sketch is brief, not for lack of material to make it long; but our purpose in this book is not to repeat in detail the old story of shame and crime and misery. Our narrative is not designed as a chronicle of Ireland's wrongs so much as a THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 18S new gospel of hope, and a prophecy of future peace" and prosperity for that unhappy country. The situation at present is, indeed, full of hope and promise ; but the full end is not yet attained. The goal seems near at hand ; but the need for united action, wise counsels, persistence and pa- tience, was never greater than now. England has been forced to hear Ireland's complaints ; her best statesmen have been found not unwilling to concede the essential part of what Ireland claims ; and even the majority of those who oppose most strongly the plans of settlement which have been offered profess to object to the details of those plans rather than to the essential principles in- volved. There is, then, every reason for the friends of Ireland to be of good cheer. 11 •A I Ml:. I '4^0' W ': ■ "■I'l ! f. \:.i' CHAPTER III. THE LAND WAR. THE history of Ireland for centuries — the his- tory of Ireland to-day — is largely the strug- gle for the possession of the land. Behind the Land question stands the larger and higher ques- tion of National rights ; but the land struggle has always been present to add fierceness to the de- sire for National liberty. The possession of the land forms in most coun- tries the ground and bottom subject of struggle ; but the fierceness of the fight is naturally pro- portioned to the prominence which agriculture holds in the economy of a state. In countries with huge manufacturing industries the struggle for the land has not the same intensity as in coun- tries where farming is the main if not the sole re- source of the people. Again, the keenness of land struggles is proportionate to the other dif- ferences in the combatants by which it may be accompanied. There are states where the strug- gle between the owner and the occupier of the soil is a struggle between men of the same race and the same creed ; and naturally struggles in (184) 'i '! ' 1 \l'^i. 1! '4 t ■ • I t ill 1/ 'ft !'■ ! '! iM I ■' II THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 18- such countries have not the terrible and passion- ate hatred of struggles in countries where the di- vergence of interest is accompanied by difference of faith and blood. And finally, the battle for the land is fiercest of all in a country where the power on the side of the owner is that of another and a foreign nation. In Ireland all the conditions that make the land-owner fierce and relentless coexist. The ownership of the soil was transferred from the Catholic and the Celt to a Protestant and a Saxon ; the occupier of the soil was robbed of his heritage in a land where the cultivation of the soil was the one and only means of making a liveli- hood, and all this was done through the agency of England and in the interests of Englishmen and English policy. The struggle between the native race of Ireland and the intrusive English landlord-class for the possession of the soil of that oppressed country may be said to date from 1169, when Richard Fitzstephen landed near Wexford with the advance party of Strongbow's famous bands. The first invaders were Norman and Welsh rather than English ; and the first enemies they met were Danes rather than Irish. Still from this time dates the attempt (long continued, but for centuries unsuccessful) to substitute feudal laws and the feudal land tenure for the semi-communal land systen? which was that of the native Irish popu- lation. From this seed sprang the baleful upas- i ; ( 188 GLADSTONE—PAP NELL. •h ;: tree of English oppression, which was destined to overshadow th(! whole country for ages. There is little doubt tliat the first cause of the difficulty between the English and natives was largely a misapprehension The Anglo-Normans were ignorant of the Irish land tenures, and of their system of septs and tribes ; and they seem never to have suspected that there was any people in the world which did not hold their land by a tenure like their own. Dermod MacMorrough is said to have given Strongbow his only child Eva in marriage, and with her to have granted certain lands in perpetuity. Now it is most certain, first, that th^ lands which Dermod is said to have grante re never his ; and next that if they had been his, he would have had no right, by Irish law, to convey them out of his sept. The Norman feudal laws, however, would have made Eva sole heiress of her father's power (a thing unknown in old Irish law), as well as the inheritress of all the lands in his kingdom. Quite in the same line of stupidity and ignorance has been the much more recent experience of the British in India, where, for more than a century, they kept confis- cating and granting lands to which they had no right. Until very recent years they seem to have had no conception or suspicion of the fact that they were violating all the immemorial land laws and tradidonal rights of an ancient and intelli- gent people, and making deep wounds which THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 189 the East Indian races will never forget; nor forgive. As early as 121 7 marks of strong mutual hatred between the Irish and Anglo-Irish begin to appear. All through the later feudal reigns there were fre- quent deeds of blood. The English looked upon the Irish as no better than wild beasts ; and the Irish returned their scorn with the bitterest hatred. The "great Talbot," immortalized by Shakes- peare, was in truth an able soldier, though feeble in council; yet towards the Irish people he acted with extreme barbarity. An old Irish chronicle says that he was '* a son of curses for his venom, and a devil for his evil deeds ; and the learned say of him that diere came not from the time of Herod [Pilate], by v/hom Christ was crucified, any one so wicked in evil deeds." It is not necessary to go back to the first in- vasion of Ireland by the English or even to some centuries later in order to find the origin of the present land system. For several centuries after the English had invaded Ireland the English kings had but a small extent of territory ; and their authority was shadowy and shifting. More- over the English invaders in time mingled with the Celtic inhabitants ; adopted their customs, their dress, and their sentiments ; took their wives from among them ; and in time were so thoroughly transformed that they were described in the well- known phrase, Hiberniores Hibernis ipsis. But the English authorities looked on these proceed- H , H I ; ffp f' i - '4 I I V ■■m i 1 *;\ 190 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ings with evil eye ; passed laws inflicting heavy fines upon the Enc^lish settlers who thus inter- mingled with the Irish race. Indeed they went even further; for one of the laws passed in the reign of Henry VI. made it felony on the part of an English merchant to sell his goods to an Irish- man. The relations between the English settled in the counties around Dublin — the region was known as The Pale — and the Irish throughout the rest of Ireland, throughout all those centuries, were those of perpetual and incessant war. The Irish were regarded as enemies whom it was lawful to rob and to slay and desirable to exter- minate. Then, as for many centuries afterwards, it was the policy of English statesmen and soldiers to exterminate the Irish race from the face of Ire- land and substitute therefor a purely English population. The Irish were foreigners in every sense of the word. The whole policy of this period is put with excellent terseness and lucidity by Sir John Davies. Sir John Davies was At- torney-General of the English authorities in the reign of James I., a.id he has left most interesting and valuable accounts of his times. " In all the Parliament Rolls," he writes, •' which are extant, from the fortieth year of Edward III., when the statutes of Kilkenny were enacted, till the reign of King Henry VIII., we find the de- generate and disobedient English called rebels ; but the Irish which were not in the King's peace IS THE GREAT IRISH STRU(i(;LE. lyi are called enemies. Strtute Kilkenny, c. i, lo and II ; 2 Henry IV., c. 24; 10 Henry VI., c. i, 18 ; 18 Henry VI., c. 4, 5 ; Edward IV., c. 6; 10 Henry VII., c. 17. All these statutes speak of English rebels and Irish enemies ; as if the Irish had never been in the condition of subjects, but always out of the protection of the law, and were indeed in worse case than aliens of any foreign realm that was in amity with the crown of Eng- land. For by divers heavy penal laws the English were forbidden to marry, to foster, to make gos- s'ps with the Irish, or to have any trade or com- merce in their markets or fairs ; nay, there was a law made no longer since than the twenty-eighth year of Henry VIII., that the English should not marry with any person of Irish blood, though he had gotten a charter of denization ; unless he had done both homage and fealty to the King in the Chancery, and were also bound by recogni- zance with sureties, to continue a loyal subject. Whereby it is manifest, that such as had the gov- ernment of Ireland under the crown of England did intend to make a perpetual separation and enmity between the English and the Irish, pre- tending, no doubt, that the English should in the end root out the Irish ; which the English not be- ing able to do, caused a perpetual war between the nations, which continued for four hundred and odd years, and would have lasted to the world's end, if in the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign the if lit ' w \ ;•! 1 ■ Jii; t '0 m r'l 192 GI-ADSTONE— PARNELL. ;i I'l' |Mg ift ^I^Hl * 1 C^K5 '^ 1' linr. '"Wi-.! Irish had not been broken and conquered by the sword, and since the beginning of his majesty's reign been protected and governed by the law." It will be remarked that in the extract just given Sir John Davies illustrates his statements with true lawyer-like accuracy by references to the leading cases which corroborate them. In the same series of historical tracts — as they are called — in which he lays the foregoing propositions down, he illustrates the ideas of the times still more clearly by quoting some well-known trials in which there was an Englishman of The Pale on one side and an Irishman on the other, in the one case the Irishman sues the Englishman for trespass ; and the plea of the Englishman is not a denial of the offence but that the Irishman is not an Englishman nor a member of five families whom the English King Henry II. exempted from the laws against the Irish ; and the plea being es- tablished the Irishman is non-suited. In the sec- ond case an Englishman is charged with the mur- der of an Irishman ; and his plea is a confession of guilt as to the murder accompanied by the de- mand that, as the murdered man was an Irishman, the punishment should not be death but the pay- ment of a fine. On the other hand the Irishman that killed an Englishman was always hanged. Indeed there are several statutes that openly preached the assassination of Irishmen found THE GREAT IRISH STRirC,(;rE. io;i within English territory as a duty antl a servia; to tlie state. Thus in the reign of Fulward IV. a statute was passed, intituled — " An Act that it shall be law- full to kill any that is found robbing by day or night, or going or coming to rob or steal, having no faithfull man of good name or fame in their company in Knglish apparrel : " Whereby it was enacted — "That it shall be lawfull to all manner of men that find any theeves robbing by day or by night, or going or coming to rob or steal, in or out, going, or coming, having no faithfull man of good name in their company in English apparrel upon any of the liege people of the King, that it shall be lawfull to take and kill those, and to cut off their heads, without any impeachment of our Sovereign Lord and King, his heirs, officers, or ministers, or of any others." "Thus, in truth," justly comments Daniel O'Connell, " the only fact necessary to be ascer- tained, to entitle an Englishman to cut off the head of another man, was, that such other should be an Irishman. For if the Irishman was not rob- bing, or coming from robbing, who could say but that he might be going to rob ; * in, or out,' as the statute has it. And the Englishman — the cutter-ofif of the head — was made sole judge of where the Irishman was going, and of what he in- tended to do. The followers of Mahomet, with regard to their treatment of their Grecian sub- t v-^ 194 GL A DSTON E— PARN ELL. '!» ' ! ;'■' jpcts, were angels of mercy when compared with the English in Ireland. Care was also taken that no part of the effect of the law should be lost by the mistaken humanity of any Individual English- man; for an additional stimulant was given by the fuilowinof section of the Act : '"And that it shall be lawful by authority of the said Parliament to the said drmgej" of the said head, and his ayders to the same, for to destrain and levy by their own hands, of every man having one plow-land in the barony where the said thief was so taken, two-pence, and of every man hav- ing half a plow-land in the said barony, one- penny, and every other man having one house and goods to the value of fourty shillings, one- penny, and of every other cottier having house and smoak, one half-penny.' " There was one other provision of the English dealings with the Irish people which was as de- structive to prrsperity as those cited were to the safety of Irish life. It has been the constant refrain of those who have demanded land reform for many generations that the Irish tenant gained nothing from industry ; that a premium was placed upon laziness, for, as the tenant made the land more fertile, the landlord came and pocketed the increase by raising the rent. At an early stage in Irish history the Irish tenant had to live under this destructive condition. Agrain let us o^o to the writings of an English official for our description of this grievance. » "I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 195 " The most wicked and mischievous custom of all was that of Coin and Livery, which consisted in taking of man's meat, horse meat, and money, of all the inhabitants of the country, at the will and pleasure of the soldier; who, as the phrase of the Scripture is, did eat up the people as it were bread ; for that he had no other entertain- ment. This extortion was originally Irish ; for they used to lay bonag/U'^ upon their people, and never gave their soldiers any other pay. But when the English had learned it they used it with more insolence, and made it more intolerable ; for this oppression was not temporary, nor limited either to place or time; but because there was everywhere a continual war, either offensive or defensive, and every lord of a county, and every marcher, made war and peace at his pleasure, it became universal and perpetual ; and indeed was the most heavy oppression that ever was used in any Christian or heathen kingdom. — And there- fore, vox oppressorum^ this crying sin did draw down as great, .or greater plagues upon Ireland, than the oppression of the Israelites did draw upon the land of Egypt. For the plagues of Egypt, though they vere grievous, were but of short continuance ; but the plagues of Ireland lasted four hundred years together." The natural consequences followed ; they may * " Bonaght " was the Irish term for billeting of soldiers, with a right to be maintained in food, li !■ ■•; \i if ^:> w HHji^' 1 w ^^Ei ' i 'HivPT' ^^H' ' ! 196 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. as well and cannot be better described than in the words of Davies : " This extortion of Coin and Livery produced two notorious effects: first, it made the land waste ; next, it made the people idle ; for when the husbandman had labored all the year, the soldier in one night consumed the fruits of all his labor, longique peril labor irritus anni. — Had he reason then to manure the land for the next year? Or rather, might he not complain as the shepherd in Virgil : " • Impius hsec tarn culta novalia miles habebit ? Barbaras has segetes ? En quo discordia cives Perduxit miseros ? En quels consevimus agros ? ' "And hereupon of necessity came depopulation, banishment, and extirpation of the better sort of subjects ; and such as remained became idle and lookers-on, expecting the event of those miseries and evil times, so as their extreme extortion and oppression hath been the true cause of the idle- ness of this Irish nation, and that rather the vulgar sort have chosen to be beggars in foreign countries than to manure their fruitful land at home." It will probably occur to the reader that the horrible oppression thus inflicted on the Irish must have been largely the result of their own folly or ferocity. It will be answered that it was a case of constant and incessant war between two forces equally barbarous, relentless, and irrecon- EVICTED— HOMELESS. ^■h ll"-': f ('■!?! 1 -"^ ]l >M THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 199 cllable, and that if the Irish were savagely treated and regarded as foes to be exterminated by the English of The Pale, it was because the English of The Pale were as savagely treated by the Irish and equally regarded as wild beasts to be extir- pated. But against this theory we call in again the evidence of the English monarch's Attorney- General : " But perhaps," writes Sir John Davies, antici- pating this objection, "the Irish in former times did wilfully refuse to be subject to the laws of Eng- land, and would r. ^ be partakers of the benefit thereof, though the Crown of England did desire it ; and therefore they were reputed aliens, out- laws, and enemies. Assuredly the contrary doth appear." And in page loi he expressly declares, — "That for the space of two hundred years at least, after the first arrival of Henry II. in Ireland, the Irish would have gladly embraced the laws of England, and did earnestly desire the benefit and protection thereof; which, being denied them, did of necessity cause a continual bordering war be- tween the English and Irish." And finally he admirably sums up the whole case when he writes : " This, then, I note as a great defect in the civil policy of this kingdom ; in that for the space of three hundred and fifty years at least after the conquest first attempted, the English laws were t (' 200 OLADSrONE— PARNELl .. W: n\\ . ( ■'1 .. hi m not communicated to the Irish, nor the benefit and protection thereof allowed unto them, though they earnestly desired and sought the same : for as long as they were out of the protection of the law, so as every Englishman might oppress, spoil and kill them without control, how was it possible they should be other than outlaws and enemies to the Crown of England? If the king would not admit them to the condition of subjects, how could they learn to acknowledge and obey him as their sovereign ? When they might not con- verse or commerce with any civil man, nor enter into any town or city without peril of their lives, whither should they fly but into the woods and mountains, and there live in a wild and barbarous manner? " Before leaving this part of the subject there is one other point that deserves to be noticed. The continuance of the destructive estrangement al- ready described between the English authorities and the Irish population was not merely against the wishes of the Irish but possibly also against the wishes of English kings and of prudent Eng- lish ministers. It was the great Lords who really stood between the two peoples. Thus the reason why that wise monarch. King Edward III., die* not extend the benefit of English protection and Eng- lish law to the Irish people was, that the great Lords of Ireland, the Wicklows, the Stanleys, and the Rodens of the day, certified to the king, — THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 201 "That the Irish mieht not be naturalized, with- out being of damagre or prejudice to them, the said Lords, or to the Crown." This point is put still more clearly in the history of Ireland written by a Protestant clergyman, named Leland: " The true cause which for a lonor time fatallv opposed the gradual coalition of the Irish and English race, under one form of government, was, that the great English settlers found it more for their immediate interest, that a free course should be left to their oppressions ; that many of those whose lands they coveted should be considered as aliens ; that they should be furnished for their petty w. rs by arbitrary exactions ; and in their rapines and massacres be freed from the terrors of a rigidly impartial and severe tribunal." These extracts sufficiently indicate the rela- tions that existed between the English conquerors and the Irish inhabitants. It was not unnatural under such circumstances that the territories of the English kings did not increase ; at one time they had fallen as low as four counties out of the entire country. The wars of the Roses too so much occupied the attention of the English at home that the Irish were able to drive the English out of town after town, and finally out of county after county until the reign of Henry VIII. The reign of Henry VIII. was marked by several rebellions against the English authority. ^! H ^il 202 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. '•1. IP Ir-f In the course of these rebellions many severe battles were fought ; Irish chiefs were conquerors and conquered ; if they conquered they were ac- cepted, if they were conquered they were brought to London and after a short period in the Tower were hanged as traitors at Tyburn. In this way the seeds were sown of severe and bitter trouble in the reign of Elizabeth. By this time too the design of extending the Protestant religion in Ireland and crushing the Catholic had taken shape; and wars ensued which were embittered by re- ligious passion and by the still more destructive factor of greed for land. It is not our purpose to detail the history of these wars. They have im- portance for the present purpose only in so far as they bear upon the land struggle and explain the state of the land question as it exists to-day. Suffice it then to say that all the great families of Ireland, and in particular the great Anglo-Irish families, rose in succession against the Queen's power. Of all these chiefs the most important was Shane O'Neill. Shane CXNeill is one of the great men of human history. With his cunning he baffled the skilful councillors of Elizabeth ; in bat- tle after batde he conquered the largest and bravest armies the British Queen could send against him, and finally, when he had become master of all Ulster, he ruled it with greater order than had ever been even approached before his time. In the end, after many changes of fortune, his forces were THE GREAT IRISH STRU(i(;LE. 203 routed ; he himself, flying before the triumphant English army, was assassinated, and his kingdom was broken up and scattered. A short time previously rebellions under the Geraldines had been beaten in the southern parts of the country. With the defeat of the O'Neill the conquest of Ireland by Elizabeth was complete, and then Eliza- beth proceeded to carry out the second part of the English policy. This was to transfer the owner- ship, and, so far as possible, the occupation of the soil from the native Irish to English lords and English husbandmen. Thus began the first great era of confiscation and plantation. A preliminary to these steps was deemed necessary. There was a series of expeditions to the different parts of Ireland, which should prepare them still better for the new regime. These expeditions had purposes as fell and were earned out by means as execrable as any re- corded in history. The purpose was not simply to break the. forces or quell the spirit of the native population : the object was to actually clear the island of Irish setders by a war of extermination. Previously and simultaneously was there made another and a disastrous change in the Irish law. " Before the introduction of the feudal English system of tenure," writes T. M. Healy, "the lands of Ireland belonged to the clans of Ireland. The chief, subject to certain privileges appur- tenant to his chieftaincy, held only as trustee for 12 204 GLADSTONK- I'ARNELL. ■ 1 I the tribe, and if b' '^.is misfeasance he became personally dispo; .ed, the rights of his people were in no wise affected. When, however, the councillors of Elizabeth determined to subjugate the entire island, and to substitute British for Brehon law throughout its whole extent, prince and people alike suffered when defeated. Victory for the English resulted in the dispossession and spoliation of the clansmen as wfill as of the chiefs who led them to the battle; English adventurers, by the Queen's patent, obtained lordship and dominion over the conquered territory; and clan ownership gave place to private property in land." And now for the military expeditions which were to complete the work that had been begun by the conquest of O'Neill and the change in the land law. These expeditions, like other events already recorded, we can describe, fortunately, not in the hot language of modern Irish writers, but in the frigid and unadorned characters of the Englishmen who themselves enacted them and immediately after described them. Mr. Froude transcribes from his own report the following letter written in the year 1576, by Malby, £he President of Connaught : "At Christmas," he wrote, "I marched into their territory [Shan Burke's], and finding courteous dealing with them had like to have cut my throat, I thought good to take . another course, and so ', 4 THE CIREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 206 with determination to consume them with fire and sword, sparing neither old nor young, I entered their mountains. I burnt all their corn and houses, and committed to the sword all that could be found, where were slain at that time above sixty of their best men, and among them the best leaders they had. '''his was Shan Burke's country. Then I burnt Ulick Burke's country. In like manner I assaulted a castle where the garrison surrendered. I put them to the misericordia of my soldiers. They were all slain. Thence I went on, sparing none which came in my way, which cruelty did so amaze their followers, that they could not ' 2II where to bestow themselves. Shan Burke made means to me to pardon him, and forbear killing of his people. I would not hearken, but went on my way. The gentlemen of Clanrickard came to me. I found it was but dallying to win time, so I left Ulick as little corn and as few houses standing as I left his brother, and what people was found had as little favor as the other had. It was all done in rain, and frost, and storm, journeys in such weather bringing them the sooner to submission. They are humble enough now, and will yield to any terms we like to offer them." There are descriptions of similar expeditions in Munster. They are also drawn by English hands. It is a report by Sir George Carew, the English General. 206 GLADSTONE -PARNELL. fj "The President having^ received certaine infor- mation that the Mounster fugitives were har- boured in those parts, having before burned all the houses and corne, and taken great preyes in Owny Onubrian and Kilquig, a strong and fast countrey, not farre from Limerick, diverted his forces into East ClanwiKiam and Muskeryquirke, where Pierce Lacy had lately beene succoured ; and harassing the country, killed all mankind that were found therein, for a terrour to those as should give releefe to runagate traitors. Thence wee came into Arleaghe woods where wee did the like, not leaving behind us man or beast, corne or cattle, except such as had been conveyed into castles." — Pacata Hibcmia, 659. And now the following extracts will show how this system was acted upon in Leinster. We quote from Leland, the English historian, already quoted : •* The Leinster rebels, by driving the royalists into their fortified towns, and living long without molestation, had cultivated their lands, and estab- lished an unusual regularity and plenty in their districts. But now they were exposed to the most rueful havoc from the Queen's forces. The soldiers, encouraged by the example of their officers, everywhere cut down the standing corn with their swords, and devised every means to deprive the wretched inhabitants of all the neces- saries of life. Famine was judged the speediest THE GREAT IRISH STRbtiUl.E. 207 and most effectual means of reducing them ; and therefore the Deputy was secretly not displeased with the devastations made even in the well-af- fected nuarters by the improvident fury of the rebels." The reader will observe that famine was used as being an instrument even more effective than the sword for producing the extermination of the native race. It is a painful proof of the brutali- zation which conquest produces, even in gentle and lofty natures, that the poet, Spenser, was found among those who calmly recommended to the Queen famine a'j> an excellent and a most efficacious instrument of state policy. Having explained how famine could be manu- factured, he goes on : "The end will (I assure mee) bee very short, and much sooner than it can be in so greate a trouble, as it seemeth, hoped for : altho' there should none of them fall by the sword, nor be slaine by the soldiour: yet thus being kept from manu ranee, and their catde from running abroad, by this hard restraint ^/icy ivould quietly consume themselves, and devour e one another T And now let us quote from this same author and one more, their descriptions of the state of things which the English policy of murder and famine had produced : " Notwithstanding that the same was a" most rich and plentiful country, full of corne and cattel, ,■1 . ! I ; .if '■ 'A II ' I. I: i. - kk I 208 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. yet, ere one yeare and a half, they were brought to such wretchedness as- that any stony heart would rue the same. Out of every corner of the woods and glynns, they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them ; they looked like anatomies of death ; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves ; they did eate the dead carrions, happy where they could finde them ; yea, and one another soone after ; insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves, and, if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time ; yet, not able to continue there withal ; that in shorte space, there was none almost left, and a most populous plenti- ful comitrey suddanlie left voyde of man and beast" " No spectacle," writes Morrison, an English Protestant historian, *' was more frequent in the ditches of the towns, and especially in wasted countries, than to see multitudes of these poor people, the Irish, dead, with their mouths all col- ored green by eating nettles, docks, and all things they could rend above ground." And now that the native race had thus been destroyed, there comes the result for which the destruction had taken place. Confiscation follows extirpation. " Proclamation," says Godkin in his " Land War," "was made throughout England, inviting 'younger brothers of good families* to undertake % \ i M v. r< lit m •< ,, i ij -* N '•) •■ '■■ [■ ' r f ( . Hi Jl ■I .i . i ' ' "i ■ til - J i '" if r • 1 i:'i ; >H m ,!:'•>. T' ! u:n THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 211 the plantation of Desmond — each planter to ob- tain a certain scope of land, on condition of set- tling thereupon so many families — * none of the native Irish to be admitted.' Under these condi- tions, Sir Christopher Hatton took up 10,000 acres in Waterford ; Sir Walter Raleigh, 1 2,000 acres, pardy in Waterford and partly in Cork ; Sir William Harbart, or Herbert, 1 3,000 acres in Kerry; Sir Edward Denny, 6,000 acres in the same county ; Sir Warren St. Leger, and Sir Thomas Norris, 6,000 acres each in Cork ; Sir William Courtney, 10,000 acres in Limerick; Sir Edward Fitton, 11,500 acres in Tipperary and Waterford; and Edmund Spenser, 3,000 acres in Cork, on the beautiful Blackwater. The other notable undertakers were the Hides, Butchers, Wirths, Berkleys, Trenchards, Thorntons, Bourch- ers, Blllingsleys, etc. Some of these grants, es- pecially Raleigh's, fell in the next reign to Richard Boyle, the so-called 'great Earl of Cork ' — proba- bly the most pious hypocrite to be found in the long roll of the * Munster Undertakers.* " And so ended the first great work of trans- ferrinpf the soil of Ireland. The work continued throughout the three following reigns. The Irish hailed the accession of the son of the Catholic Mary of Scotland with great joy and hopes for a happier era for their faith and coun- try, but they were desdned to be cruelly and quickly undeceived. One of the earliest acts of if 1 . f hit % I %^- n. ■' .4 Ill i ■ u»> ■ ii '5 : . I i ;■' i ' 1 't: i -i;i 212 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. the King was a declaration that liberty of con- science was not to be granted ; but it soon be- came evident that the policy of Anglicising Ire- land begun in the previous reign was to be carried out in the present in a thorough and systematic manner. The King had fixed his eyes on Ulster as a fitting quarter in which to carry out a scheme of plantations, and a scheme for getting rid of the native chiefs was speedily developed. This was found in the discovery of an anonymous letter conveniently discovered at the door of the Coun- cil Chambf.r in Dublin Castle, disclosing a con- spiracy on the part of the Earls of O'Neill and O'Donnell against the authority of the Crown. No evidence was then nor has been since discov- ered, of this alleged conspiracy, but the earls were at once proclaimed traitors and fled the kingdom with their families and a few friends and retainers. Ulster was now ready to Jan es' hand. It was described as a fertile province, well watered, plentifully supplied with all the necessaries for man's subsistence, and yielded abundant products for purposes of commerce. The lands were in- deed occupied by the Irisli natives, v;ho had on the King's accession been assured in their possession of their fields on a tenure which would remain un- affected by the submission or rebellion of their chiefs. But they could be easily dealt with. A proclamation was issued confiscating and h.; / i'J THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 213 vesting in the Crown six counties in Ulster — Tyrone, Derry, Donegal, Armagh, Fermanagh, and Cavan, comprising in all three and three- quarter millions of acres. The scheme of settle- ment was carefully designed to avoid the errors of former plantations. Those in previous reigns had been acknowledged failures, by reason of the enormous size of the grants made to the " under- takers." The ** undertakers," as Sir Walter Ra- leigh and his countrymen were called, found their grants too large to settle and farm p' rsonally. They returned for the most part to England, took no trouble to plant English farmers in the land, suffered the Irish to remain on the land, and drew their rents in peace. In Ulster, however, the tracts were to be of manageable extent ; the natives were to have lo- cations of their own to which they were to be removed ; the new settlers, drawn from England and Scotland, were to be massed and grouped together for mutual protection. The escheated lands were to be divided into lots of from 1,000 to 2,000 acres, at rents of ij^d. to 2^d. per acre, and distributed partly among the new settlers, partly among English servitors, and partly among the well-affected natives. Every "undertaker" bound himself to plant on the soil a certain num- ber of fee-farmers, lease-holders, artisans, and laborers, down to the lowest grade ; all grantees and their tenants were to take the oath of su- I U • i I ' • ! * 'j hi ; I 1 V. ' . ■ 1 l;i "Wfii! '11 n < * ■• iS f ir 214 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. premacy, and none were permitted to employ natives or Catholics in any capacity whatsoever. Of the three and three-quarter millions of acres which were confiscated, about one-fifth was valua- ble or " fat " land, and this was mainly appor- tioned in this manner. Fifty Englishmen and fifty-nine Scotchmen (the needy countrymen of the King) got among them 1 62,500 acres. The most noticeable names among the English plant- ers were Powell, Heron, Ridgway, Willoughbie, Parsons, Audley, Davis, Blennerhasset, Wilson, Cornwall, Mansfield, and Archdale, and among the Scotch Douglas, Abercorn, Boyd, Stewart, Cunningham, Rallston, and the prolific breed of the Hamiltons, who obtained estates by the thousand acres in every one of the six counties, and whose descendants are to be found to-day in every ofifice of profit and emolument in the country. Sixty servitors, or persons who had served the Crown in a civil or mililary capacity, swallowed up 50,000 acres, and among these were some of the prominent organizers of this wholesale plun- der and some of the cruel enemies and oppressors of the Celtic population. Chief amongst these were Sir Toby Caulfield, Sir William Parsons, surveyor-general of the lands, ancestor of the present Lord Rosse, Sir Robert Wingfield, astute legal sycophant. Sir John Davis, Sir Henry Fol- liot, the merciless Sir Arthur Chicester, lord res )r- Ind THE OBNOXIOUS PROCESS-SERVER. pi n] i'l Hjm M :i m r I il » : n ■i J ' 1 ■ \ ' r- ft !•;.! i I'i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 217 deputy and superintendent of the plantation, and captains and lieutenants of lesser fame, Cooke, Atherton, Stewart, Vaughan, Browne, Atkinson, etc. Seventy-seven thousand acres fell to the share of the Protestant bishops, deans and chap- ter, who had already obtained possession of all the Catholic churches and abbeys throughout the island. Trinity College, Dublin, founded in the late reign, obtained 30,000 acres (47,101 acres were reserved for corporate towns), and the 286 so-styled loyal Irish received about 180 acres each, of what, it may be safely asserted, was the most unprofitable portion of the " lean." The Corporation of the City of London, and the twelve City Guilds, the Companies of Skinners, Fishmongers, Haberdashers and the like, took up the whole county of Derry, 209,800 acres in ex- tent, and absentee proprietors on a large scale have drawn rents from that time to the present from lands they have never seen. Meantime, the native peasantry were driven out of their tribal lands, the rich glens of Antrim, the meadow lands of Fermanagh, the fertile plains of Armagh, into the waste-lands, mountain, moor, bog, marsh of these and the adjoining counties. Shielded, favored, and aided by the law, the success of the plantation made itself apparent when in a few years commissioners were sent down to report progress. The English and -.n .MM ■t i 11 -(,, 7 »T ft. it I I 218 GLADSTONE— PARN ELL. Scotch grantees were actually occupying their lands with their wives and families. The village of Derry had become the town of " London- derry," with ramparts twelve feet thick, and bat- tlemented gates. Castles, mansions, farm-houses, sprang up everywhere; millwheels turned, or- chards bloom :.d, villages and towns rose all around. Nevertheless the strict letter of the scheme was not and could not be carried out. Sufficient laborers of British birth could not be obtained, and numbers of the natives had to be employed as " hewers of wood and drawers of water," and also as tenants, who, in order to remain in their beloved homes, were willing to pay double rents to new masters. And many English and Scotch tenants, failing to obtain from the large proprie. tors the long leases guaranteed to them by the terms of the act of setdement, sold their interest in their holdings to the Irish and others, and re- tired in disgust from the country. It was mainly in this manner sprang up the custom of Ulster Tenant-right as a part of the unwritten law of the province, destined to share largely in the causes which operated to contrast the well-being of its land-occupiers with the insecurity and misery of the same class in other parts of Ireland. The effect of the Ulster settlement was to create a lesser Britain in Ireland, composed of men whose very proximity to their plundered ' TMK C.kKAT IRISH STRUflfJI.K. 219 neighbors seemed to arouse their worst passions of hatred and sectarian bitterness. It deprived the native Irish of all title to the lands which their race had held from time immemorial, and reduced them at one sweep from the position of owners of the soil they tilled to that of outlaws or tenants- at-will, only countenanced through sheer neces- sity, and established between Ulster and the other provinces of Ireland a contrast at once pro- found and painful, and a discord of religion, feel- ing and nationality which has often manifested themselves since in civil disorder and disgraceful feuds, and which are only slowly disappearing in our own day. The coffers of James were so well filled with the profits of the Ulster settlement — with the pro- ceeds of the sale of broad acres and brand-new baronetcies — that his eyes turned to the other parts of Ireland for similar spoil. And a system of plunder by legal chicanery was invented. The counties still inhabited by the native Irish were Wicklow, Wexford, and those lying along the left bank of the Shannon, viz., Leitrim, Longford, and the western portion of Westmeath, Kings, and Queens Counties. "A Commission of Inquiry into Defective Titles" was sent down into these districts with directions to collect evidence as to the holdinor of the land therein, and what title the Crown had in any part of the same. It was gravely asserted II ill' I I » 1BI. ; . ' ■. i i i 'i \ i i »■ V i i 1 ' 1 - 1 ' ' ■ 1 ' ' ',■'■'■ ^ 1 ■ i. : > 1 L ■t^ ii '': 220 tiLAUSTONK— PAKNKLL. that, whoroas the An^^lo-Nonnan settlers to whom the Plantagenet Kinj^s ^^raiUecl these lands 300 years back had in lat(T evil days been driven from tlieir grants by the original native owners, and retired to England, the deserted lands had, through the action of various statutes against absentees, reverted to the Crown. To give an appearance of legality to the pro- ceedings of the Commission, juries were empan- elled and forced to give verdicts in favor of the Crown ; witnesses were compelled to supply satisfactory evidence — the means employed for the purpose being of the most revolting descrip- tion. Courts-martial were held before which un- willing witnesses were tried on charges of treason, imprisoned, pilloried, branded with red-hot irons, and even put to death, some being actually roasted on gridirons over charcoal fires. A horde of " discoverers" sprang up whose business it became to pick holes in men's titles to estates, sharing the proceeds with the King. Every legal trick and artifice was unscrupulously resorted to. Tlie old pipe-rolls in Dublin and the patent rolls in the Tower of London were searched to dis- cover flaws in titles, clerical errors, inaccurate wording, every defect in fact which might frighten the present holder of the land into paying a heavy amount for a fresh patent, or, failing his ac- quiescence, would entitle the handing over of his estate to some '• discoverer," willing to lay down THK ClkKAT IKlSIt STRU(l(;i,K, 221 a round sum for it. Wy such means as these over 430,000 acres were confiscated in the coun- ties above mentioned. The old [)ropri(!tors were required to si^n surrenders of their lands, and after setting apart a considerable portion for glebes, etc., and a fourth part for English " under- takers," the remainder was restored to "the more deservin M h it; :! "* ' ■ ■. * ■ , i < * ' ; I': f. ! * I'- i 1 r ilii .. Ml ;1- ;•. 1 'm! ' ■MI . sr^'ir (■. 222 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, The King profited immensely by the various fines and forfeitures, and the customs duties swelled in a single year from ;^50 to ^io,ooo. The plantation policy flooded Ireland with a host of impecunious Englishmen and Scotch- men — aa.nittedly the scum of both nations — debtors, bankrupts, fugitives from justice, land- jobbers and land-speculators, who soon, through ownership of land, secured power, influence and rank. They held aloof from the natives, culti- vated the '* Castle," and were the embryo of the Protestant ascendency and aristocracy of later days. More than half the present Irish peerage sprang from such beginnings, of which two ex- amples will serve as types of the whole. The most remarkable of the new nobility was Richard Boyle. He was the son of a Herefordshire squire, fled from England on account of his perjuries and forgeries, and landed in Dublin with only a few pounds in his pocket. He man- aged to get the office of deputy escheator of the lands of Munster, fraudulently became pos- sessed of a considerable extent of forfeited Irish estates ; and though imprisoned for felony six times in five years cheated justice, ingratiated himself with the various lord-deputies, and finally became first Earl of Cork and a privy-councillor. Of the same kidney was William Parsons, an- cestor of the Earls of Rosse. An English ad- THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 223 venturer, arriving in Ireland with only £^o in his pocket, he married a niece of the Surveyor- General, succeeded to that office, and became a commissioner of the escheated lands in Ulster, obtaining for himself 1,890 acres in Tyrone, and 2,000 acres in Fermanagh alone. Ultimately through means as unscrupulous as those by which he deprived the O'Byrnes of their lands he se- cured over 8,000 acres and amassed an immense fortune. The system of "inquiry into defective titles" in Leinster had proved so remunerative that James determined to extend it to hitherto un- touched parts of the island. The province of Connaught was the only one which had not been planted. The proprietors had in 161 6 made a surrender of their lands to the King to receive new patents, for which they paid fees amounting to /3,ooo. Owing, however, to the neglect of the clerks in Chancery, neither the surrenders nor regrants were enrolled, and the titles were all declared defective and the lands held to be vested in the Crown. A proclamation was issued for a new plantation, but the alarmed proprietors, aware that it was money the King was most in need of, offered him a bribe of ;^ 10,000 (equal to ^100,000 at the present day) to induce him to abandon his design. The death of James put an end to the negotiations, and it was reserved for his son, Charles I., to replenish the royal 13 I I us ' I ; II ! \ > 1, 11 !•;'!; rvi'v lit'. !; ■ ly] ' -i ■ > !■ i I i ■ill I 224 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. coffers at the expense of the Connaught land- owners. His agent in this matter was the no- torious Wentworth, who carried out his policy of "thorough" by dragooning both the Irish ParHament and the Irish Church, forcing the one to vote enormous subsidies, and the other to ac- cept his ideas in matters of reHgion. Under threats of confiscation, various subsidies were ob- tained, but at last after an elaborate hunting up and inquiry into old title-deeds and royal grants, the whole of Connaught was declared to be the property of the Crown ; and Commissioners with Wentworth at their head went into the province to find verdicts for the King. These were ob- tained by the same means as had succeeded in Leinster, extreme resistance being only met with in Galway alone, where juries were fined ;^4,ooo apiece, and lodged in prison until the fines were paid, or their decisions retracted. The landlords at last submitted, paid heavily in fines, gave up a portion of their estates for Church purposes, and were so left in peace. The Irish met this ill-treatment on the part of the perfidious Stuart with a loyalty that may be de- scribed according to taste as generous or imbecile. When the rebellion broke out in England, Charles appealed for help to his subjects in Ireland. They rose in arms, both Catholic and Protestant, and came nearer to victory than they had been for many a long year ; and then, when Charles THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 225 was defeated and beheaded, Vae vidis was the cry. Oliver Cromwell came to Ireland. He suc- ceeded in quelling the revolt in favor of the King after the most wholesale massacres ; and then oc- curred the greatest scheme of confiscation yet de- scribed in the history of the Irish nation. The whole of Ireland, 2o,ooo»ocx) acres, was declared forfeit, and three-fourths of the inhabitants were to be expelled. Exemption was made in favor of some husbandmen, plowmen, laborers, and artificers, who would be necessary to the new planters, and of a few well affected to the Com- monwealth. The Irish soldiers who laid down their arms were forced to enlist for foreicrn ser- vice. The widows, wives and families of the sol- diery to the number of 100,000 souls were trans- ported to the West Indies to be the slaves or mistresses of the planters there. The rest of the Irish people — of Munster, Leinster, Ulster — gentle and simple, land-owners and burgesses, Presby- terians and Catholics, were forced, in the depth of the winter of 1655, to leave their homes, and cross the Shannon to allotments assigned to them in Clare and Connaught, the most barren portions of all Ireland, where they were hemmed in by the sea on the one side and a ring of soldiers on the other, who had orders to shoot down all who attempted to cross the boundary. The evacuated land, 15,582,487 acres in extent, was then dis- tributed, the government first reserving to itself n 'W t;, i 226 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. the cities, church-lands, tithes, and the four coun- ties of Dublin, Kildare, Carlovv and Cork. The cities were afterwards cleared of their inhabitants (who were nearly all of English descent) and sold to English merchants. The other twenty- three counties were then divided between those " adventurers " who had advanced money (amounting to /36o,ooo) to the Parliamentary army and the Parliamentary troops in lieu of arrears of pay due to them amounting to £ir 550,000. County Louth was given wholly to the adventurers, and the counties of Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Cavan, Monaghan, Wicklow, Wexford, Longford, Kilkenny and Kerry wholly to the soldiers. Then Antrim and Limerick and the nine counties lying diagonally between them, viz., Down, Armagh, Meath, West- meath, Kildare, Carlow, Kings, Queens, and Tip- perary were divided amongst both classes of claimants. Afterv/ards portions of Con naught, viz., the county of Sligo and parts of Mayo and Leitrim, were taken from the transplanted Irish to satisfy arrears of pay due to part of the English army who had fought in England during the civil war. Debentures were issued in recognition of each claim, and localities assigned to each regi- ment. These debentures were put up to auction, and large estates were put together by the pur- chase of them. And yet the plantation failed in its main object, n 4 * H i, :> > K'H f I M h !ii'',= i*-^t THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 229 as previous ones had done, through the gradual absorption of the planters among the native Irish notwithstanding strict prohibitions against mutual intercourse. And many esti.tes through purchase or marriage fell again into the hands of old masters. Forty years after the settlement, it is related that numbers of the children of Crom- well's soldiers could not speak a word of English. Thus ended the last great unsettlement of the Irish land. In the reign of William III. there were some large confiscations, but they sunk into insignificance beside the wholesale confiscations in the days of Elizabeth, James and Cromwell. The reign of William III. is mainly remarkable for the passing of what is known as the Penal Code. The horrors of this code are increased by the fact that it was passed in spite of the solemn compact between the English and the Irish. In the civil war between James II. and William III. the Irish with characteristic imbecility had fought on the side of the State. The final issue was before the city of Limerick, which was defended by Sarsfield, an Irish general of genius. After a long siege it was finally agreed that the garrison should surrender with all the honors of war, and that in return they should get con- cessions establishing fully their religious liberty. The first article of the new treaty provided that "the Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in the exercise of religion ■I m I H ( ! ' '• > 1 > " ■ r; i i •i i ^P il l^^l 230 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. !i:U: ,1:;- t »i :«it tl-"^ I as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did enjoy in the reign of Charles II., and their Majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit them to summon a Parliament in this kingdom, will endeavor to procure the Roman Catholics such further security in that particular as may preserve them from any disturbance upon the ac- count of their said religion." The ink of this was scarcely dry when Catholics were ordered at the meeting of the Irish Parliament to take an oath denying the Catholic doctrine of transub- stantiation and pronouncing the sacrifice of the Mass damnable and idolatrous. No Catholic could, of course, take such an oath, and the de- sired result was brought about. The Irish Par- liament consisted exclusively of Protestants. The penal code first took precautions against the education of Catholics. They were forbidden to keep school in Ireland and were prohibited at the same time to send their children to be edu- cated abroad; then they were disarmed, and statutes were passed prohibiting the makers of weapons from receiving Catholic apprentices, and that authorized the authorities to search for arms in the houses of Catholics by night and by day. Catholic priests were commanded to leave the kingdom before May 9th, 1668. The bishops and priests who ventured to enter the country were subjected to imprisonment and banishment for the first offence, and put to death on the second. In M?^ 1i i 'W : . ! -, .• ( I ! i;i ill i ( Tt ( ! , W 4iV ■^ ;t '- * -r •:< t: THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 233 the reign of Anne the code was rendered still more severe. In order further to prevent the chance of education, a Catholic could not en^ploy or act as a private tutor. He could not buy land, and if he did possess land he was obliged to leave it in equal parts among all his r^hildren, so that the papist land might be distributed and have no chance of accumulating. Then there was an atrocious law by which an eldest son, on becoming a Protestant, could obtain possession of the entire land and disinherit the rest of his relatives. A Catholic could not have a lease for more than thirty-one years. All the Civil Service, all the Municipalities, all the Army and the Navy, and the Professions, except that of medicine, were closed to the Catholics. A Catholic could not go more than five miles from his house without a pass- port. He could not keep a horse above the value of ;^5. If the farm of a Catholic yielded one-third more than the yearly rent a Protestant by swearing to that fact could evict him ; and if a Protestant could be proved guilty of holding an estate in trust for a Catholic he could be dis- possessed. The Penal Code invaded domestic life. A son becoming a Protestant could demand one-third of his father's income ; a wife be- coming a Protestant was free from her husband's control and could demand . Jimony. The decrees against priests were rendered also severe ; 3,000 were registered, and others were liable to death, Um ■ ■(; j ■ ■ 1 . '. ■ 1 '■ »>■ li! i 'Ci J SI J .' ■| :. ■ \ h: !, ;'>n I ' ' ,•! 234 GL ADSTC )N E— FA R N ELL. and in order that no further priests might be ordained no bishop was allowed in the country. Under these laws there grew up the hateful race known to Irishmen as Priest-Hunters, who for the sake of fifty pounds' reward in the case of a bishop, twenty in the case of a priest, and ten pounds in that of a school-master, betrayed min- isters of religion and the humble promoteis of education to the authorities. The Catholics refused to conform to these hideous laws. Mass was said on the mountains with scouts watching to see whether the British soldiers were approaching, and many priests fell martyrs to their creed. Finally the Catholics were prevented from voting for members of Parliament or members of cor- porations. The whole code was well summed up by the judge who declared that the law did not suppose the existence of any such person as an Irish Roman Catholic, nor could the people even breathe without the surveillance of the govern- ment. "1 i '!l \ ^■■ CHAPTER IV. THE DESTRUCTION OF IRISH INDUSTRIES. THE final result of it all — the massacre, the confiscation, the Penal Laws — was th^t at the beginning of the eighteenth century the Irish Catholics were owners of just one-seventh of the soil of Ireland. On the other hand, the landlords were placed in a position that developed between them and the tenantry the worst and the fiercest passions. They were foreigners, and they had acquired the lands of the natives by robbery or by massacre. They were Protestants, and the Penal Code, making the Catholic religion a legal offence, gave to the Protestant creed a social as- cendancy. On the one side the landlords re- garded themselves as by race and by creed ele- vated as much above the tenant as ever had South Carolina planter been over negro slaves ; and on the other hand the tenant saw in the landlord a tyrant with the hated additions of foreign blood and a different creed. From this evil state of things grew up the melancholy relations between the Irish landlord and the Irish tenant which have produced in Ireland a more morbid condition of 235 ; '■\ :-i\ IM^U^^^ 236 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. things than exists in any other part of the world and involved the two classes in a persistent, re- lentless, sanguinary war, which is not even yet -closed, the landlords on their side treating the tenants as creatures, not merely of another race and creed, but of another and inferior species. They inflicted upon them sufferings that few men would care to inflict on the lower animals ; and the tenants responded by forming assassination lodges and perpetrating murders cold-blooded, systematic, unrepented. •' Of all the fatal gifts," says Mr. Froude, deal- ing with this part of the case *' which we bestowed on our unhappy possession [Ireland], the greatest was the English system of owning land. Land, properly speaking, cannot be owned by any man — it belongs to all the human race. Laws have to be made to secure the profits of their industry to those who cultivate it ; but the private property of this or that person is that which he is entitled to deal with as he pleases ; this the land never ought to be and never strictly is. In Ireland, as in all primitive civilizations, the soil was divided among the tribes. Each tribe collectively owned its district. Under the feudal system the proprietor was the Crown, as representing the nation ; while subordinate tenures were held with duties attached to them, and were liable en their non-fulfil- ment to forfeiture. In England the burden of defence was on the land. Every gentleman, ac- I. '.*!■ :.'4Fii '!! ! , t 'I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 241 England and Ireland at the present day, we are apt to overlook the fact that they were considered on terms of greater naiural equality in pas^ years, and that any advantage was rather on the side of the now poorer country. England had always been jealous of the least prospect of Irish prosperity ; but it was only in the reign of Charles II. that any direct attempt was made to interfere with her growing industries. Ireland was, as of old, " rich in cattle ; " and at this time had a large cattle-trade with England. Acts were passed in 1660-3 prohibiting all.exports from Ireland to the colonies, also prohibiting the importation into England of Irish cattle, declaring the latter to be "a publick nuisance;" likewise forbidding the importation of Irish sheep, beef, pork, and, later on, of buttei and cheese. Ire- land was also omitted from the " Navigation Act," in consequence of which no goods could thenceforward be carried in Irish-built ships under penalty of forfeiture of ship and cargo. The result of these acts was to destroy the shipping trade of the country at a blow, and to so reduce the value of cattle in Ireland that " horses which used to fetch thirty shillings each were sold for dog's meat at twelve pence each, and beeves that before brought fifty shillings were sold for ten." Unable to make a profit from growing cattle, the Irish turned their pastures into sheepwalks, (1 ' I r t ;'; "i* ^1 t t.'iiir 242 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 'i-' n ' :; J i l^ii'u-';-!' ;i: i: and set to work to improve their woollen manu- factures with such success that the anger and jealousy of English traders were once more ex- cited, and the ruin of this trade also was decided on. An address was presented in 1698 by both English Houses of Parliament to William III., complaining of the injury done to the English woollen trade by the gfowth of that trade in Ire- land, recommending its discouragement, and the encouragement, in lieu thereof, of the linen trade, to which both Houses promised their utmost assistance. To this address His Majesty vouch- safed the following gracious reply : " I shall do all that in me lies to discourage the woollen man- facture in Ireland, and encourage the linen man- ufacture there, and to promote the trade of England." In view of promises of encouragement of the linen trade, the Irish Parliament, moved on by the King's Irish ministers, placed forthwith a pro- hibitive duty on all flannels, serges, and such like woollen stufi's ; but, not content with this, the English Parliament passed an act prohibiting the export of Irish wool or woollen goods to any port in the world, except a few English ports, and for- bidding its shipment from any but five or six ports in Ireland. It might have been expected that the promise to promote Irish linen industry would have been honorably kept. But the promise was distinctly THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 243 violated. The importation of foreign linens into the kingdom was encouraged, and a disabling duty was laid on Irish sail-cloth, in which branch of the linen trade Ireland had prospered so much as to supply sails for the whole British navy. It was, however, not only in these large indus- tries that the infatuated jealousy of England was felt ; such smaller matters as the Irish trade in glass, cotton, beer, and malt being struck at by heavy prohibitive duties. " England," says Froude, writing of these laws, " governed Ireland for her own interests ... as if right and wrong had been blotted out of the statute book of the uni- verse." The general result of these successive blows at nascent Irish industries was most disastrous. The mischief was dealt, not so much on the crushed Celtic race, as on the wealthy citizens of the towns and seaports, English-descended, and the main- stay of English ascendancy. The destruction of the woollen and linen trades fell most severely on the Protestants, and in fifty years as many as 200,000 persons left the country for North America, where they afterwards formed the back- bone of resistance to England in the War of Inde- pendence. We conclude by summarizing this sad relation of facts in the words of Lord Dufferin : " From Queen Elizabeth's reign until within a few years of the Union, the various commercial ' 'i r I ; ■' 1 if. I I; II I It ! fi i 1 I: Ml ' i .1 i I «,. ft ' iii ii i !i 1 ■• 3 1 1-^1 r: 1 f"'] 5 ' fi. J I s ' i V ^ 244 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. confraternities of Great Britain never for a mo- ment relaxed their relentless grip on the trades of Ireland. One by one each of our nascent in- dustries was either strangled in its birth or bound i^ the jealous custody of the rival interest in England, until at last every fountain of wealth was hermetically sealed, and even the traditions of commercial enterprise have perished through desuetude. What has been the consequence of such a system, pursued with relentless pertinacity for over 250 years ? This : that, debarred from every other trade and industry, the entire nation flung itself back on ' ^Ae land' with as fatal an im- pulse as when a river whose current is suddenly impeded rolls back and drovv.iS the valley it once fertilized." * " The entire nation flung itself back on the land," with the result that the tenants were placed at the absolute mercy of the landlords. Deprived of every other form of making a livelihood, the possession of land meant the chance of life ; the want of land, the certainty of death. With such a population craving for land as hope, food, life, the landlord was in a position as supreme as the armed keeper of the stores might be with the famished victims of a shipwreck on a raft in the middle of the ocean : and most cruelly did the landlord use the omnipotence which British laws * " Irish Emigration, and the Tenure of Land in Ireland." H H ?^ a w 2 w 2; 75 o n 2: s > 2! i "m, w ! ■ \ II ' 1 !i .' • 1 !| "^ '!■' 1 i ' iill '» H f iHi i": §H K" '( ' I f ;i ! r i i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 247 had thus placed in his hands. The pictures of Irish life in the eighteenth century are drawn, as those of the preceding centuries, mainly by Eng- lish and Protestant hands ; and they give pictures almost as horrible of the manner in which a nation can be murdered. Rack-renting and eviction and robbery by act of Parliament had been sub- stituted for massacre by the sword, but the re- sults remained the same: the people were de- stroyed. Above all, one great weapon of the days of the gentle and poetic Spenser and of the pious Cromwell still remained. Famine was at once a means and a result. English writers of the eighteenth century teem with denunciations of the rack-renting and the other cruelties inflicted by landlords upon the tenants. Bishop Berkeley describes the landlords as " men of vulturine beaks and bowels of iron." Swift, writing about 1 724, said: " These cruel land- lords are every day unpeopling the kingdom, for- bidding their miserable tenants to till the earth, against common reason and justice, and contrary to the practice and prudence of all other nations, by which numberless families have been forced to leave the kingdom, or stroll about and increase the number of our thieves and beggars. . . . The miserable dress and diet and dwellings of the peo- ple ; the general d*5solation in most parts of the kingdom ; the old seats of the nobility and gentry all in ruins, and no new ones in their stead ; the 14 r- 5 - '^■t U !. 248 G LA USTON li— PA R N ELL. families of farmers, who pay great rents, living in filth and nastiness, upon buttermilk and potatoes, without a shoe or stocking to their feet, or a house so convenient as an English hogsty to receive them — these, indeed, may be comfortable sights to an English spectator, who comes for a short time only to learn the language, and returns back to his own country, whither he finds all our wealth transmitted. . . . Nostra miseria magfia est. There is not one argument used to prove the riches of Ireland which is not a logical demonstration of its poverty. . . . The rise of our rents is squeezed out of the very blood and vitals and clothes and dwell- ings of the tenants, who live worse than English beggars. ... * Ye are idle, ye are idle,' answered Pharaoh to the Israelites, when they complained to His Majesty that they were forced to make bricks without straw." It was the sight of mis- eries such as these that suggested to Swift his most savage and most terrible satire. It is worth while giving an extract from his " Modest Pro- posal for Preventing the Children of the Poor from being a Burden to their Parents." It is a most eloquent picture of Ireland in those days : "The number of souls," he writes, "in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose waves are breeders ; from which number I subtract thirt) thousand couple who are able to maintain their ■'11 I . TIIK GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 249 own children (although I apprehend there cannot be so many under the present distresses of the kingdom). . . . 'I'he question, therefore, is how this number (one hundred and twenty thousand children annually born) shall be reared and pro- vided for? — which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impos- sible by all the methods hitherto proposed. . . . I do therefore offer it to the publick consideration, that, of the one hundred and twenty thousand chil- dren alrea iy computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed. . . . That the remaining one hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to persons of quality and fortune through che kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. . . . I have reckoned, upon a medium, that a clrlld just born will weigh twelve pounds, and, in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, will increase to twenty- eight pounds. I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and, therefore, very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, have the best title to the children." After dilating on the succulent properties of infant flesh for nurses : " I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farm- ers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included ; and I believe no gentleman would re- ■ll •M J I' II ; * i \ •;.? 250 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. K i ! . i 1 I late M ' ■ilir pine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, I have said, will make four dishes of excellent, nutritive meat, when he has only some partir'-'^i friend or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord and grow popular among the tenants ; the mother will have eight shillings neat profit, and be fit for work till she produces an- other child." He then suggests to the "more thrifty (such as the times require) to flay the car- cass, the skin of which, artificially dressed, would make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen ; " " the establishment of shambles, butchers being sure not to be wanting," and the "buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs." Having thus disposed of the infants, he came to the grown-up portion of the '* beggars," and i*t the suggestion of " a very worthy person, a true lover of his country," recommends that "the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding four- teen years, nor under twelve— ^so great a number of both sexes being ready to starve in every county for want of work and service. . . . Neither, indeed, could he deny that if the same use were made of several plump, young girls in tins town [Dublin], who, without one single groat to their fortunes, cannot stir abroad without a chair, and appear at a play-house and assemblies in foreign ■2M ) ;! 1 M > [ 'I .1' 1 1 1 S 11 ! I ! i "'!■§ SOLICITING AID FOR THE STARVING. II t ill ■' .1 r'; 1 k |«| '; li^ll h j IfBf i iJ'iIW ^i 'm .j . .■; '1 Si.'' ■ J!' '■: 1 |.,. w i ?' ' ■■ '■ ': t'l 1 I j Iff ( f 1 ''f^' ] '■■■'■ . i' 'JV . } ■■■• : ■ ' 1,1 ,.", : ! V ''.5 i '( '1 U «i. I ir£i:i''"^ " ^' 1 'iS: THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 253 fineries which they never will pay for, the king- dom would not be the worse." And lastly, as to " these vast number of poor people who are aged, diseased, and maimed," he was " not in the least pained upon that matter, because it was very well known that they were every day dying and rot- ting by cold, famine, and filth, and vermin, as fast as could be reasonably expected." "Such," comments Healy, in his "Word for Ireland," "is the picture of Irish wretchedness when our population wa3 only one million and a half, and before the phrase ' congested districts ' was invented." The result of this state of thincrs was that semi- starvation was chronic throughout Ireland and absolute famine periodic. In i725-'26-'27-'28 there were bad harvests ; and in 1 739 there was severe frost. In every one of these cases there was famine. In 1739 there was a prolonged frost, with the result that in i740-'4i there was one of the most severe famines in Irish history. This was the first occasion on which was observed the phenomenon that, as will be seen afterwards, has played a terrible and important part in Irish life. The frost brought on potato-rot, and the potato- rot brought on universal famine. There are plenty of contemporaneous records of the suffer- ing which this created. "Want and misery in every face, the rich unable to relieve the poor, the roads spread with dead and dying ; mankind of 15! i j 1| 1 1 ' ''1^ ;i..if I I I i' \0 ' \ i • 1 ;' ; f ' < « ; ' ' ' i . 1 . ■■ 1 ' ■" ;■ ( i* 1 '^ -■■ ' ■ ■! > f r ! ; _ . ' B '^' -^ , . '( m ■ r ' i "Ik '} ' -^ ', I 254 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ;1i !:-3 . i.': ^l n. < ,fi n S! r * ■ * 1! the color of the weeds and netdcs on which they feed ; two or three, sometimes more, on a car, going to the grave, for the want of bearers to carry them, and many buried only in the fields and ditches where they perished. Fluxes and malig- nant fevers swept off multitudes of all sorts, so that whole villages were laid waste. If one for every house in the ] co be held in Ireland "until the chief governor and council had certified to the King, under the Great Seal, as well the causes and considerations as the acts they designed to pass, and till the same should be approved by the King and Council." The effect of this act was that when any bill was passed by the Irish Parlii le % it had to be approved by the \ English Privy Co; cil, and the act had to be for- warded to F 'i^l.nd for the purpose of receiving their sanction -r disapproval. Often bills were returned t t',e Privy Council completely di- vested of their original meaning. On being re- turned to the Irish House of Commons no furtht:* alteration in the bill was permitted. The effect of this disastrous act was to deprive the Irish Parliament of any real power ; the au- thority given to the English Parliament was fre- quently and scandalously used, and prevented the application to Ireland of any of that broadening of popular liberties which had become apparent in England. For a considerable period the Eng- lish settlers in Ireland raised some objection to this degradation of their Parliament — for it was their own Parliament — but in later years they fully accepted it. It was made up of men of their creed and race. The Parliament was deemed by them to serve a useful purpose, because it was through the decrees of that body they were able I ' .nu I ■ mM ! ■ • It i 1 t I '\V ^\ li. • 260 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. to finish by chicanery the transfer of the soil that had been begun by the sword. The Irish Parlia- ment was employed to pass acts of attainder and forfeiture by which the estates of the Catholic Irish landlords were handed over to the English Protestant settlers, to confirm the defective titles that had been won on the field or in the law courts, and finally to pass the penal code by which the Catholics were excluded from the ownership of property and all possible share in the govern- ment of their country. But as time went on, the Irish Protestants found that the authority of the English Parliament was intended for use against all men of Irish birth whatever their creed or their original de- scent. The great positions of the country — the judgeships, the bishoprics, the places in the House of Peers and the House of Commons, the com- mands in the army and the navy, and all the high offices of state, were, in most cases, conferred on Englishmen. Englishmen were the "fathers in God ." of dioceses that they never saw ; sate for constituencies which they had never cast eyes upon ; drew the salaries of offices in which they had never done a day's work ; and outside all these great things stood shivering the Irish Prot- estants of English blood, naked and scorned. Meantime, the poverty of the country became daily deeper; the exaction of rent grew more difficult ; the kingdom was infested v/ith bands of •inill THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 261 wandering beggars ; and gentlemen of title, long descent and of ancestral homes sharing in the general ruin, found the refusal of all positions a serious aggravation of their misfortunes. In the days of Dean Swift the government of Ireland was almost entirely in the hands of the Arch- bishop of Armagh, Primate Bou lter. The cor- respondence of this prelate survives, and through it we are enabled to get many valuable glimpses of what the government of Ireland meant in his days. "Boulter," writes Lecky, in "Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland," " was an honest but narrow man, extremely charitable to the poor, and liberal to the extent of warmly advocating the endowment of the Presbyterian clergy; but he was a strenuous supporter of the Penal Code, and the main object of his policy was to prevent the rise of an Irish party. His letters are chiefly on questions of money and patronage, and it is curious to observe how entirely all religious mo- tives appear to have been absent from his mind in his innumerable recommendations for church dignities. Personal claims, and above all the fitness of the candidate to carry out the English policy, seem to have been in these cases the only elements considered. His uniform policy was to divide the Irish Catholics and the Irish Protes- tants, to crush the former by disabling laws, to destroy the independence of the latter by con- ferring the most lucrative and i' fluential posts M M; .;i I m;;: t •'11 ^^ v.l; '. 'ii ■v;-.H .: 'I 2()2 CI.ADSTONK— I'AKNKM.. u[K)n Englishmen, and thus to make all Irish in- terests strictly subservient to. those of England. The continual burden of his letters is the neces- sity of sending over Englishmen to fill important Irish posts. ** Th(; only way to keep things quiet here," he writes, "and make them easy to the Ministry is by filling the great places with natives of England." He complains bitterly that only nine of the twenty-two Irish bishops were Eng- lishmen, and urges the Ministers " gradually to get as many English on the Bench here as can decently be sent hither." On the death of the Chancellor, writing to the Duke of Newcastle, he speaks of " the uneasiness we are under at the report that a native of this place is like to be made Lord Chancellor." " I must request of your Grace," he adds, "that you would use your influence to have none but Englishmen put into the great places here for the future." When a vacancy in the See of Dublin was likely to occur he writes: "I am entirely of opinion that the new archbishop ought to be an English- man either already on the bench here or in Eng- land. As for a native of this country I can hardly doubt that, whatever his behavior has been and his promises may be, when he is once in that sta- tion he will put himself at the head of the Irish interest In the church at least, and he will natur- ally carry with him the college and most of the clergy here." ft"',- < TIIF. (IKKAT IklSlI STRUr.(;LK. 26.*^ Up to this time the protests against the degra- dation of the Irish Farhament had been confined to the native Irish. In a famous assemblag.^, known as the Confederation of Kilkenny, tht; claim of the Irish Parliament to the exclusive power to make laws for Ireland had been asserted ; and it was laid down with even more emphasis in a Parliament called together by James II. during his war with William III. It was not till 1698 that the first Protestant voice was raised in em- phatic protest. The author of this protest was Molyneux — one of the members for Trinity Col- lege ; Molyneux was, of course, a Protestant; no- body but a Protestant at the time had a seat in the Parliament. He was a man of great learning and ability ; of which among many other proofs is the fact that he was the " inorenious friend " to whom Locke dedicated his immortal essay. Moly- neux in his book, " The Case of Ireland Stated," laid down the claim of the Irish Parliament in clear and unmistakable lanofuage. He had been induced to this train of thought by the infamous laws which had destroyed the woollen trade of Ireland, and in destroying that trade had terribly aggravated the miseries of the unhappy nation. The book was written in moderate and decorous language ; but it was too strong for the govern- ment of the day; the English Pa-'iament decreed that it was dangerc s, and tb accordingly it should be burned by the common hangman. ' 1 i i'4 ' r.i! I; >■ r\\ i 1 , 1 V i t i I 1 ! i ,1 1 '■ 1 V ■ 1 } . ( 1 1 1 i ! ■ 1 ' ] i t ■ 1 !-, 1 ■ 1 ; • H W'i^ ti:: ?:,'f ^''fBM \i\-: l-,i. '^ ! i* ■ i'.!''vrrs^ J if! ! ,'f 264 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. But the spirit which Molyneux aroused was immortal, and indeed Hes at the root of the Na- tional movement of to-day. There soon came, too, an event which was destined to aggravate the feelings of resentment which had been created by the restrictions on trade and by the rigid ex- clusion of the Irish gentry from all offices of pay and power. In the year 1710 Hester H. Sherlock brought an action against Maurice Annesley in reference to some property in the county of Kildare. The case was tried before the Irish Court of Ex- chequer, which decided in favor of Maurice An- nesley, the respondent in the case. Hester Sher- lock brought the case on appeal to the Irish House of Peers, and they reversed the judgment of the Court of Exchequer. Annesley then took the case to the English House of Peers, and they reversed the decision of the Irish Peers and con- firmed that of the Irish Court of Exchequer. This was regarded throughout Ireland as a gross infringement of the rights of the Irish Parliament. The Sheriff of Kildare acted upon the general opinion and recognized only the decision of the Irish House of Peers. He declined to obey the decree both of the Irish Court of Exchequer and the English House of Lords, and refused to com- ply with an order for placing Annesley in posses- sion of the property. The Court of Exchequer thereupon inflicted a fine upon the sheriff. The THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 26^ Irish House of Lords removed the fine and passed a resolution declaring that the sheriff had be- haved with integrity and courage. The English Parliamentwas not slow to respond to this open defiance of its authority, and it passed the famous law known as the Vlth of George I. The following extract will show what this law is : " Whereas, . . . the lords of Ireland have of late, against law, assumed to themselves a power and a jurisdiction to examine and amend the judg- ments and decrees of the courts of justice in Ire- land ; therefore, ... it is declared and enacted . . . that the King's Majesty, by and with the ad- vice and consent of the lords spiritual and tempo- ral and Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and stat- utes of sufficient force and validity to bind the people of the kingdom of Ireland. And it is fur- ther enacted and declared that the House of Lords of Ireland have not, nor of right ought to have, any jurisdiction to judge of, affirm, or re- verse, any judgment . . . made in any court in the said kingdom." It was in the height of the exasperation caused by arrogant denial of the rights of the Irish Par- liament that there came into Irish affairs one of the most potent influences by which they were ever guided. Dean Swift had about this time re- turned to Ireland, as he said himself, " like a rat 16 i ^il! it '■.1 *' I ■\ i! m il I f i^> :rJ' 1 ^liiii' 1 :g 4i*'' '■^^^ 266 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. dying in its hole." He saw all around him the fearful sufferings of the people, the gross injus- tice of the landlords, the cruel harvest which the wicked legislation of England was reaping in barren fields, depopulated villages, and crowded and tumultuous beggary. It was then he began to publish that series of pamphlets on the Irish question which can be read with as much profit at this day as when they were first pub- lished. They afford, perhaps, the most graphic and telling picture of a nation's misery ever pro- duced. An accident soon enabled him to bring the growing resentment of Ireland into direct and successful collision with English authorities. Sir Robert Walpole, an English Premier of the time, gave a patent to a man named Wood for the pur- pose of coining ;^8,ooo in half-pence. The im- pression to-day is that the copper was badly wanted ; that Wood's half-pence were as good as those already existing, and that the Minister had no sinister idea of debasinof the coi nacre of the country. " But," as Lecky remarks, " there were other reasons why the project was both dangerous and insulting. Though the measure was one profoundly affecting Irish interests, it was taken by the Ministers without consulting the Lord Lieutenant or Irish Privy Council, or the Parlia- ment, or any one in the country. It was another and a signal proof that Ireland had been reduced to complete subservience to England, and the la- er rilE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 267 patent was granted to a private individual by the influence of the Duchess of Kendal, the mistress of the King, and on the stipulation that she should receive a large share of the profits." Swift published a number of letters upon the new coin, with the result that the country was roused to a state of fury. Both Houses of the Irish Parliament passed addresses against it ; grand juries of Dublin an \ the gentry all over the country condemned It, and finally it had to be withdrawn from circulation. The Indirect effects of this were more important than the mere small point of whether the coin was genuine or base. Swift, in his book, laid down clearly the same doctrine as Molyneux of the sole right of the Irish Parliament to pass measures for Ireland. He was a loyal subject of the King, he declared, not as King of England, but King of Ireland. Ireland was a free nation, which implied In It the power of self-legislation, for such "Government without the consent of the governed Is the very definition of slavery," says Swift ; a maxim, by the way, that applies as much to the case of Ireland to-day as to the case of Ireland In his days. Thus the demands of Ireland were once more put forward In clear terms that resounded all over the country. The second Important re- sult was the union between the much-divided classes and sections of the Irish nation, which this legislation produced for almost the first time. " I ' ' w I*- ' T :' j 1 ." 'H i % n 1 ( .1- ;* !• i i J i 1 1 i ; i ' i i:lii M It ^ i ■ V' ^v' 268 GLADSTON ;.- PA R WELL find," wrote Primate Boulter, " by my own letters and others' enquiry, that the people of every reli- gion, country, and party, here are alike set against Wood's half-pence, and that their agree- ment in this has had a very unhappy influence on the state of this nadon, by bringing on intimacies between Papists and Jacobites and the Whigs." The third and most satisfactory result of all was that it marked the first peaceful triumph of Ire- land over English interference. "There is," says Lecky, "no more momentous epoch in the his- tory of a nation than that in which the voice of the people has first spoken, and spoken with success. It marks the transition from an age of semi-bar- barism to an age of civilization — from the govern- ment of force to the government of opinion. Before this time rebellion was the natural issue of evc^ry patriotic effort in Ireland. Since then rebellfOu h, s been an anachronism and a mistake. The ag;:; of Desmond and of O'Neill had passed. The age of Grattan and of O'Connell had begun." It was these various causes that produced the rise in the Irish Parliament of the historic body of men known as the patriot party. When first these champions of Irish rights started out on their enterprise never did difficulties appear more gigantic, never task more hopeless. By various methods both Houses of Parliament had been reduced to a state of corruption and of subservi- 1 i 1 3 ^ n f.' > ►id > w 1 } i; ' i '^ i! ■ ; 1 1 i ■ f ' ;i f c !; H' \ i! ' ! ' ^ i !1!H THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 271 ency perhaps unequalled in the annals of legisla- tive assemblies. The Catholics had no share whatever in the election of the Parliament, and even the Protes- tant minority was practically excluded from any real control. The plan of the English kings had been, in general, to make no increase whatever in the number of county constituencies; all new members were given to the borou^-hs. In some cases the new boroughs might be described as non-existent; others consisted of but a few houses and inhabitants. The Stuarts had been the most shameless in this manufacture of unin- habited boroughs. James I. summoned a Parlia- ment ill 1 613. There being about one hundred Catholics to one Protestant in Ireland at this time, it was naturally feared that there would be a Catholic majority in the Parliament (this was before the Catholics were excluded), and imme- diate measures were taken to prevent such a ma- jority from being elected. Seventeen new coun- ties and forty boroughs were created by royal charter in places thinly or not at all inhabited, and towns as yet only projected on the estates of the leadinor undertakers were named as boroucjhs. ** Forty boroughs," quoth the King, when remon- strated with ; " suppose I had made four hundred — the more the merrier." There was, after all, a very strong Catholic minority in the lower House, but after an unseemly dispute about the "• iinlH r1 i iH 1 ll fn f i 'P !f 1 i- 'm '% 1 Hi: Ml I 1, 1 1 i \ : ■ 1 ilii \K . 1 *: * , 272 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Speakership the Catholics left the House In a body. James I. passed away, and left his throne and some of his propensities to his son Charles before another Parliament met in Dublin, in 1 634. Straf- ford was Lord Deputy, and in pursuance of his policy of " Thorough," exerted all his energies to satisfy his master's eager requests for money. One of his first acts was to summon a Parliament, In which, by judicious management, the propor- tion of Catholics was reduced from nearly one- half to one-third of the assembly. By further official manipulation the two Houses were soon brought into a condition satisfactory to the Lord Deputy. The House of Lords consisted of about one hundred and seventy-eight temporal and twenty-two spiritual peers. Many of the temporal peers were Scotchmen and Englishmen, having no connection whatsoever with the coun- try, and having never seen it in their lives. The Bishops, nominees of the Ministry, were alto- gether out of sympathy with the people ; half of them were Encrlishmen, to account for whose con- duct Swift could only suggest that the real pre- lates sent over from England had been waylaid, robbed and stripped outside London by highway- men, wdio now masqueraded In their clothes. The lower House consisted of three hundred members, the bulk of whom were nominees of the great Protestant land-owners, members of the II H li .J OF ill •ffl! f ,:,i» THE GREAT IRISH STRUG(;i-E. 27;] upper House ; two hundred being returnable by single individuals, and altogether two-thirds by less chan a hundred persons, who openly made large sums of money by the sale of seats. Place- men and pensioners of the government filled many seats. There was no Ministry responsible to the Parliament; the administration consisted of the English Viceroy and his English Secretary, nominees of the English government, together with a Privy Council, over none of whom had the Houses any control, and whose chief business was the carrying of measures pleasing to their mas- ters across the channel, by means of bribes, of titles and places, and the playing off of the differ- ent factions against each other. The patriot party of later days, headed by men like Flood, Lucas, Daly, and Burgh, made, night after night, persistent attacks along the whole line of monopoly and misgovernment — the law of Poyning, the Penal Code, the absence of an Irish Mutiny Bill, the bloated Pension List, the jurisdiction of the British Parliament. The government, harassed and perplexed, tried their old arts of seduction, but with only trifling success. The weakest of the patriots were bought over, but the remainder closed up their ranks and came on again to the assault. The first victory achieved by them was to obtain, in 1768, the pass- ing of a bill limiting to seven years the duration of Parliament, which hitherto lasted during an en- ■:it( 'i m I ! . 274 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 4 A: i^^ t tire reign, an act which Lecky describes as having laid " the foundation of parliamentary influence and independence in Ireland." To the first House of Commons elected under this act, the patriots were returned in greater force than be- fore, and soon to their ranks was added the power, the genius, the eloquence, and the enthu- siasm of Henry Grattan, who entered Parliament in 1775 for the borough of Charlemont. The next year the revolt in the North Ameri- can colonies broke out, and England, her avail- able troops being employed against the colonists, was obliged to leave Ireland defenceless, though American privateers and French men-of-war were hovering round her coasts. The Irish applied to the English authorities for soldiers to defend Ire- land ; the authorities declared that they had no troops to spare for Ireland. The Irish, under the circumstances, felt justified in taking means for their own defence. Men were enrolled lapidly all over the country; before long no less than 150,000 men were in arms, and thus arose the body known as the Irish Volunteers. Raised originally for the defence of Ireland against the enemies of England, the "Volunteers" naturally turned th-^ir eyes to the evils of their own country. The position of England, too, at that moment, showed rhat the hour had come when Ireland could demand her rights, with a reasonable chance of having them accepted. The ;1 I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. i>76 Volunteers outside Parliament and the patriot party inside Parliament then devoted themselves to demanding an immediate redress of all their grievances. It is characteristic of the whole his- tory of Ireland that this National party displayed the highest spirit of religious toleration. The volunteers were Protestant to a man. The very first thing they did w?.s to proclaim the right of every man in Ireland to the free exercise of his religion and to his due share of political rights altogether apart from his religious persuasion. Towards the close of the year 1781 the officers of the First Ulster Regiment of Volunteers, com- manded by Lord Charlemont, resolved to hold a convention of the Ulster Delegates at Dungan- non, and this convention assembled in the church in that ancient city in 1782. Then " the repre- sentatives," writes Mitchell, "of the regiments of Ulster — one hundred and forty-three corps — marched to the sacred place of meeting, two and two, dressed in various uniforms, and fully armed. Deeply they felt the great responsibilities which had been committed to their prudence and cour- age ; but they were equal to their task, and had not lightly pledged their faith to a trustful coun- try. The aspect of the church, the temple of re- ligion, in which, nevertheless, no grander cere- mony was ever performed, was imposing, or, it might be said, sublime. Never, on that hill where ancient piety had fixed its seat, was a nobler !: ; li i t 'i ■ i ■,% .^^.w IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I i^l^ 12.5 ^ ^ IIIIM 2.0 1.8 // O 1-25 1.4 III 1.6 ^ 6" >■ V <^ /i > > ,v ^ %. ^ V^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)872-4503 1 ^' ' . . 4& } 276 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. offering made to God than this, when two hun- dred of the elected warriors of a people assem- bled in His tabernacle, to lay the deep founda- tions of a nation's liberty." The convention then passed several resolutions, of which the following are the more important. First, it was " resolved unanimously, that a claim of any body of men, other than the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind this kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a grievance." Second, resolved with one dissent- ing voice only, '• that the powers exercised by the Privy Councils of both kingdoms, under, or under color or pretence of, the law of Poyning, are un- constitutional and a grievance." " Resolved unani- mously, that the independence of judges is equally essential to the impartial administration of justice in Ireland as in England, and that the refusal or delay of this right to Ireland makes a distinction where there should be no distinction, may excite jealousy where perfect union should prevail, and is in itself unconstitutional and a grievance." But, perhaps, the two most important resolutions of all were the final closing ones : " Resolved, with two dissenting voices only to this and the following resolution, that we hold the right of private judgment in matters of religion to be equally sacred in others as ourselves." "Re- solved, therefore, that as men and as Irishmen, as Christians and as Protestants, we rejoice in the M THE LATE MR. HENRY GRATTAN, M. P. I «• I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 279 relaxation of the penal laws against our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and that we conceive the measure fraught with the happiest consequences to the union and prosperity of the inhabitants of Ireland." Meantime the patriot party in Parliament acted in co-operation with the armed patriots outside. They saw that the time had come for pressing forward the claims of Ireland. Grattan was now the leader of the patriot party, and he first made an attack upon the law preventing Ireland from carrying on trade with the colonies. After some hesitation the motion was carried, and Ireland's right to free trade with other countries was estab- lished. Immediately after this came a move in favor of a greater and more important reform. Grattan brought in a Bill declaring in almost the same language as the resolutions passed at the Dungannon convention, that the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland were the only persons com- petent to enact the laws of Ireland. A similar measure had been brought forward in the year 1780, but then it had been rejected. But in 1782 things were in a very different position. England had been beaten at Saragossa ; American inde- pendence had been established, and the patriot party had a backing of 100,000 armed men. At last the British government yielded, and the Duke of Portland was sent over as Lord Lieutenant to grant the prayer of Ireland. On the i6th of m:n% j.^' .SO GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ^:' 'H J' Ji ■ii f1 ti ilil 'Mil •f'^ 1;- April, 1782, Grattan brought forward his Decla- ration of Independence. " On that day a large body of the Volunteers were drawn up in front of the Old Parliament House of Ireland. Far as the eye could stretch the morning sun glanced upon their weapons and upon their flags ; and it was through their parted ranks that Grattan passed to move the emanci- pation of his country. Never had a great orator a nobler or a more pleasing task. It was to pro- claim that the strife of six centuries had termi- nated; that the cause for which so much blood had been shed, and so much genius expended in vain, had at last triumphed ; and that a new era had dawned upon Ireland. Doubtless on that day many minds reverted to the long night of op- pression and crime through which Ireland had struggled towards that conception which had been as the pillar of fire on her path. But now at last the promised land seemed reached. The dream of Swift and of Molyneux was realized. The blessings of independence were reconciled with the blessings of connection ; and in an emanci- pated Parliament the patriot saw the guarantee of the future prosperity of his country and the Shekinah of liberty in the land. It was impos- sible, indeed, not to perceive that there was still much to be done — disqualifications to be re- moved, anomalies to be rectified, corruption to be overcome ; but Grattan at least firmly believed :r THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 281 that Ireland possessed the vital force necessary for all this, that the progress of a healthy public opinion would regenerate and reform the Irish Parliament as it regenerated and reformed the Parliament of England ; and that every year the sense of independence would quicken the sym- pathy between the people and their representa- tives. It was, indeed, a noble triumph, and the orator was worthy of the cause. In a few glowing sentences he painted the dreary struggle that had passed, the magnitude of the victory that had been achieved, and the grandeur of the prospects that were unfolding. ' I am now,' he exclaimed, * to address a free people. Ages have passed away, and this is the first moment in which you could be distinguished by that appellation. I have spoken on the subject of your liberty so often that I have nothing to add, and have only to admire by what heaven-directed steps you have proceeded until the whole faculty of the nation is braced up to the act of her own deliverance. I found Ireland on her knees ; I watched over her with paternal solicitude ; I have traced her pro- gress from injuries to arms, and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift, spirit of Molyneux, your genius has prevailed ! Ireland is now a nation ! In that character I hail her ; and, bowing in her august presence, I say, Esto perpetua!'' " In England the change in the position of the Irish Parliament obtained the approval of all en- 1(1 mfV{_ 282 r.LAlJSTONE— PARNELI, !',/ ■! I' V\ lightLMied men. Edmund i3urke wrote to Lord Charlcmont : " I am convinced that no reluctant tie can be a strong one; I believe that a natural, cheerful alliance will be a far more secure link of connection than any principle of subordination borne with grudging and discontent." Fox and Grey, the leaders of the English Whig party, were equally delighted with the change. "I would have the Irish government," said Fox in 1797, " regulated by Irish voters and Irish prejudices, and I am convinced that the more she is under Irish government the more she will be bound to English interests." The indepen^' e of the Irish Parliament was now achieved, l following quickly in its wake, came the attainment of objects which had been striven for long and vainly while that body was under the thumb of an alien administration. Par- liament met yearly, and not at fluctuating inter- vals as before. The independence of the judicial bench was secured by an act providing that their commissions should be valid during good beha- vior, their salaries ascertained and established, and their removal dependent on an address from both Houses. The right of the Commons to originate money bills, as in England, was estab- lished, as was also their right to assign how money voted by them should be expended. But there were some points on which Grattan appealed for further reform. The pension list, as I THE GREAT IRISH STUUCUM-E. 2S3 has been seen, was one of the most potent agen- cies in the hands of the Crown for the corruption of members. The enormity of the grievance is sufficiently shown by the fact that the money spent in pensions in Ireland was not merely rela- tively, but absolutely, greater than was expended for that purpose in England ; that the pension list trebled in the first thirty years of George III. ; and that in 1793 it amounted to no less than ;^i 24,000. As a proof of the number of persons to whom pensions were given, it may be men- tioned that on the Irish Pension List there were the names of the mistresses of George I., of the Queen Dowager of Prussia, sister of George II., and of the Sardinian Ambassador v/ho negotiated the peace of Paris. The efforts of Grattan to reduce this scandalous list were repeated over and over again. He brought forward the subject in 1785 and in 1791, but the government always opposed him, and he was as often defeated. The legislation of the Irish Parliament upon one question, however, proceeded with rapidity and with extraordinary liberality. The reader is already aware that the Irish Parliament at this time consisted exclusively of Irish Protestants and Irish landlords, but that Parliament had scarcely received Its independence when it proceeded to carry out the great principles which had been laid down by the Protestant volunteers* meeting in the Protestant Church of Dungannon. The ii»i I ' ii ji I Wf "' it 4 it,' 284 GLAUSTONK-I'ARNKM.. ■u a '•'*^j toleration, indeed, of the Irish Parhanient began at a date even anterior to its independence. In 1768 a Bill had been passed without a division against the Penal Code, and its rejection was due to the English Parliament. In 1774-78 and 1782, and finally in 1792, other relief Hills were also enacted, and by this time some of the worst griev- ances of the Irish Catholics were removed. But there were other grievances which still remained, and which were of the very i:':most importance. The Irish Catholic had not a right to vote for a member of Parliament or to become a member of Parliament, and he had no place in the higher ranks of the law or the army. Under the influ- ence of a native legislature the feeling against the Catholics was now rapidly passing away ; indeed, it had begun to disappear at even an earlier date. Lecky quotes the following passage from the preface to Molyneux's " Case of Ireland," which proves that as far back as 1770 religious bigotry was already disappearing: " The rigor of Popish bigotry is softening very fast ; the Protestants are losing all bitter remem- brance of those evils which their ancestors suf- fered, and the two sects are insensibly gliding into the same common interests. The Protestants, through apprehensions from the superior numbers of the Catholics, were eager to secure themselves in the powerful protection of an English Minister, and to gain this were ready to comply with his nil THE (IREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 286 most exorbitant demands ; the Catholics were uHke willing to embarrass the Protestants as their natural foes; but awakening from this delusion, they begin to condemn their past follies, reflect with shame on having so long played the game of an artful enemy, and are convinced that with- out unanimity they never can obtain such con- sideration as may entitle them to demand, with any prospect of success, the just and common rights of mankind. Religious bigotry is losing its force everywhere. Commercial and not re- ligious interests are the objects of almost every nation in Europe." But in a moment the Irish Parliament was in full possession of its powers. The car of progress proceeded with unexampled rapidity. In 1 793 a bill was introduced the object of which was to allow the Catholics to vote. This act was per- haps the most noteworthy ever carried by the native legislature, when we consider that it was passed by a Parliament largely composed of placemen and of pensioners. The action of the Irish Parliament on this ques- tion of religious toleration suggests an inquiry which has engaged many minds. It will be seen by-and-by that one of the reasons which Pitt gave for desiring the act of Union was that in this way the cause of Catholic emancipation would be ad- vanced ; and he seriously laid down the proposi- tion that Catholic emancipation was impossible 16 II 286 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. li I under a native Irish Parliament. Somewhat similar arguments are put forward by Unionists of the present day. The real truth is palpable to every candid observer that the Irish Parliament was thoroughly tolerant ; that it would have car- ried religious toleration to its logical length ; and one of the many bad effects tliat the act of Union brought about was the manufacture of religious bigotry where such bigotry did not before exist. Lecky, one of the Unionists of to-day, writing in earlier years, is strongly of this opinion. It has been argued that Catholic emancipation was an impossibility as long as the Irish Parliament lasted ; for in a country where the great majority were Roman Catholics it would be folly to expect the members of the dominant creed to surrender their ascendancy. The arguments against this view are, I believe, overwhelming. The injustice of the disqualification was far more striking before the Union than after it. In the one case the Ro- man Catholics were excluded from the Parliament of a nation of which they were the great majority; in the other they were excluded from the Parlia- ment of an empire in which they were a small minority. At a time when scarcely any public opinion existed in Ireland, when the Roman Catholics were nearly quiescent, and when the leaning of Government was generally illiberal, the Irish Protestants admitted their fellow-subjects to the magistracy, to the jury-box, and to the fran- ■iJ TIIK (JUEAT IRISH STRUGGLK. S;87 chlsf. Ry this last measure they <;fave thiMii an amount of political power which necessarily im- plied complete emancipation. Even if no leader of genius had risen in the Roman Catholic ranks, and if no spirit of enthusiasm had animated their councils, the influence possessed by a body who forned three-fourths of the population, who were rapidly rising in wealth, and who could send their representatives to ParliauK.'nt, would have been sufficient to ensure their triumph. If the Irish Legislature had continued, it would have been found impossible to resist the demand for reform; and every reform, by diminishing the overgrown power of a few Protestant landholders, would hav(; increased that of the Cavholics. The concession accorded in 1793 was, in fact, far greater antl more important than that accorded in 1829, and it placed the Catholics, in a great measure, above the mercy of Protestants. But this was not all. The sympathies of the Protestants were being rapidly enlisted in their behalf. The generation to which Charlemont and Flood belonged had passed away, and all the leading intellects of the country, almost all the Opposition, and several conspicuous members of the Government, were warmly in favor of emancipation. The rancor which at present exists between the members of the two creeds appears then to have been almost unknown, and the real obstacle to emancipation was not the feelings of the people, but the policy li^ ^ k ^'■H m Ml fmt \ ' itj^i 288 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. of the Government. The Bar maybe considered on most subjects a very fair exponent of the edu- cated opinion of the nation ; and Wolfe Tone ob- served, in 1792, that it was almost unanimous in favor of the Catholics ; and it is not without im- portance, as showing the tendencies of the rising generation, that a large body of the students of Dublin University in 1795 presented an address to Grattan, thanking him for his labors in the cause. The Roman Catholics were rapidly gain- ing the public opinion of Ireland, when the Union arrayed against them another public opinion which was deeply prejudiced against their faith, and almost entirely removed from their influence. Compare the twenty years before the Union with the twenty years that followed it, and the change is sufficiently manifest. There can scarcely be a question that if Lord Fitzwilliam had remained in office the Irish Parliament would readily have given emancipation, in the United Parliament for many years it was obstinately rejected, and if O'Connell had never arisen it would probably never have been granted unqualified by the veto. The historian Lecky, above quoted, says : " Few facts in Irish history are more certain than that the Irish Parliament would have carried emanci- pation if Lord Fitzwilliam had remained in power." " But for the Union," said O'Connell, " full and complete emancipation would have been carried before 1803." THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGl 289 It is thus perfectly clear that if the Irish Legis- lature had remained in existence the Catholics would have been soon admitted to its councils. Anybody can clearly see that such a reform would have in all probability prevented all the dread disasters that have afflicted Ireland since the destruction of her Legislature. The Irish Catholics being the majority, would in time have had a commanding voice in the councils of the country. They would thus have been able to bring before Parliament the evils of the land sys- tem and the intolerable grievances of the tenants. They would likewise have been able to join their Protestant fellow-countrymen in resisting any at- tempts at interference with Irish manufactures. In this way it is perfectly clear that there would have been no opportunity for the growth of the terrible evils, the history of which occupies the main part of all annals dealing with the condition of Ireland after the Act of Union. The independent native Legislature proceeded to justify its existence in other respects also. During its existence the country had its first gleam of prosperity. On this point evidence is abounding and incontestable. The testimony comes as emphatically from the men who de- stroyed the Legislature as from those who de- fended it. The increase of Ireland's prosperity under the native Legislature was by a curious reversal of facts and ideas one of the arguments ■; .1 290 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. i'- •;• C^,: Btnl If! ^t/^ by which Pitt justified the extinction of Parlia- ment. "As Ireland," he said, •' was so prosperous under her own Parliament, we can calculate that the amount of that prosperity will be trebled by a British Legislature." Pitt then went on to quote a speech of Mr. Foster, a member of the Irish Legislature in 1785, in these words: "The ex- portation of Irish produce to England amounts to two millions and a half annually, and the exporta- tion of British produce to Ireland amounts to one million." Quoting Foster again, he said, " Britain imports annually ;^2, 500,000 of our products, all, or very nearly all, duty free, and we import almost a million of hers, and raise a revenue on every article of it." Pitt went on to say, *' But how stands the case now (1799) ? The trade at this time is infinitely more advantageous to Ire- land. It will be proved from the documents I hold in my hand, as far as relates to the mere in- terchange of manufactures, that the manufactures exported to Ireland from Great Britain in 1797 very little exceeded one million sterling (the arti- cles of produce amount to nearly the same sum), whilst Great Britain, on the other hand, imported from Ireland to the amount of more than three millions in the manufacture of linen and linen yarn, and between two and three millions in pro- visions and cattle, besi "es corn and other articles of produce." Fitzgibbon, Lord Clare, was Pitt's most unscrupulous and ablest instrument in car- I i t I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 291 rying the Union ; yet in 1 798 Lord Clare said : " There is not a nation on the face of the habita- ble globe which has advanced in cultivation, in agriculture, in manufactures, with the same ra- pidity, in the same period, as Ireland," namely, between 1 782 and 1 798. Lord Grey, then Charles Grey, was one of the opponents of the Union. Speaking in the year 1 799 of the change in the position of Scotland which had been created by the Union, he said : " In truth, for a period of more than forty years after the (Scotch) Union, Scotland exhibited no proofs of increased industry and rising wealth." He went on immediately afterwards to say : " Till after 1 748 there was no 'sensible advance of the commerce of Scotland. Several of her manufactures were not established till sixty years after the Union, and her princip<*l branch of manufacture was not set up, I believe, till 1781 The abolition of the heritable jurisdic- tions was the first great measure that gave an im- pulse to the spirit of improvement in Scotland. Since that time the prosperity of Scotland has been considerable, but certainly not so great as that of Ireland has been within the same period." Lord Plunket was one of the most staunch and eloquent opponents of the Union. To-day his grandson is one of its most eager and fanatical supporters. Speaking in 1 799 he described Ire- land as "a little island with a population of 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 of people, hardy, gallant ,i i^ . 1 nr M 1 in I ■ i; 1 ll i : 't '11 a; j 1 i - I 1 4 1 ■■: \ . . ' '. \ 1 'j ' [!■ 1 ( i 1 ■ i 1 i 1 !■; t I , ; ., ji ■ i ■ * i . i 'jt ' i ' K 1 -i 1 i J ' ■" '■ . '. , J 292 GLADSTONE— PARNEIX. and enthusiastic, possessed of all the meat'is of civilization, agriculture and commerce, well pur- sued and understood ; a constitution fully recog- nized and established ; her revenues, her trade, her manufactures thriving beyond the hope or the example of any other country of her extent — within these few years advancing with a rapidity astonishing even to herself; not complaining of deficiency even in these respects, but enjoying and acknowledging her prosperity. She is called on to surrender them all to the control of whom ? Is it to a great and powerful continent, to whom Nature intended her to be an appendage — to a mighty people, totally exceeding her in all calcu- lation of territory or population ? No, but to an- other happy little island, placed beside her in the bosom of the Atlantic, of little more than double her territory and population, and possessing re- sources not nearly so superior to her wants." When the Union was contemplated the bankers of Dublin met, and on the i8th of December, 1798, passev^ the following resolutions: "Re- solved, that since the renunciation of the power of Great Britain in 1782 to legislate for Ireland, the commerce and prosperity of this country have eminently increased ; resolved, that we attribute these blessings, under Providence, to the wisdom of the Irish Parliament." On the 14th of Janu- ary, 1 799, the Guild of Merchants met and passed the following resolution : " That the commerce of I ' {, !l THfc GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 293 Ireland has increased, and her manufactures im- proved beyond example since die independence of this kingdom was restored by the exertions of our countrymen in 1782." O'Connell, in a speech which he made in 1843, in the corporation of Dublin, was able to quote a parliamentary return which gave most interesting and instructive information as to the relative in- crease in England and Ireland of the consumption of such articles of luxury as tea, tobacco, wine, sugar and coffee : From 1785 to the Union tea increased in Ire- land 84 per cent. ; in England, 45 per cent. From X786 to the Union tobacco increased in Ireland icxd per cent. ; in England, 64 per cent. From 1787 to the Union wine increased in Ire- land 74 per cent. ; in England, 22 per cent. From 1785 to the Union coffee increased in Ireland 57 per cent. ; in England, 53 per cent. From 1784 to the Union sugar increased in Ireland 600 per cent. ; in England, 75 per cent. These figures have a great significance. They clearly prove an advance in the comforts of the people. It will be seen that in all these articles the increase in the consumption of Ireland was proportionately vastly beyond the increase in the consumption of England. To make this favora- ble comparison between England and Ireland more complete, it only is required to append an- other table — a table whjch shows the comparative 'I I U ]'i •II rt^: ','1 »'>M ^ il. ' I) 4 Ml: m 294 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. increase of the two countries in the period that followed the Union. This return shows the pro- portionate increase in the two countries from 1800 to 1827: Tea increased in England 25 per cent.; in Ire- land, 24 per cent. Coffee increased in England 1800 per cent.; in Ireland, 400 per cent. Sugar increased in England 26 per cent. ; in Ireland, 16 per cent. Tobacco increased in England 27 per cent.; decreased in Ireland T,y per cent. Wine increased in England 24 per cent. ; de- creased in Ireland 45 per cent. Mr. Hutton, a member of a firm of carriage builders, which still survives in Dublin, made a. speech in 18 10 in the Dublin Corporation. He had heard the phrase, " The growing prosperity of Ireland," anc' this was his retort : " Some of us remember this country as she was before we re- covered and brought back our constitution in the year 1 782. We are reminded of it by the present period. Then, as now, our merchants were with- out trade, our shopkeepers without customers, our workmen without employment ; then, as now, it became the universal feeling that nothing but the recovery of our rights could save us. Our rights were recovered ; and how soon afterwards, indeed as if by magic, plenty smiled on us, and we soon became prosperous and happy." II THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 295 :.;i In 1800 there were in — Dublin, 90 woollen manufacturers, employing 4,918 hands; 30 wool-combers, employing 230 hands ; 13 carpet-combers, employing 230 hands; 2,500 silk-loom weavers. In Cork, 1,000 braid weavers; 2,000 worsted weavers ; 3,000 hosiers ; 700 wool combers ; 2,000 cotton weavers ; 600 linen check weavers. In Wicklow, 1,000 hand-loom weavers. In Kilkenny, 56 blanket manufacturers. In Balbriggan, 2,500 calico looms at. work. To-day scarcely a trace of these industries re- mains. In 1825 a Select Committee on Dublin Local Taxation ^ave a return to the following effect: Prior to the Union, 98 Peers and a proportionate number of wealthy commoners inhabited the city (Dublin). The number of resident Peers at present does not exceed 12. The effect of the Union has been to withdraw from Dublin many of those who were likely to contribute most effec- tually to its operation and importance. A house which in 1797 paid £6 d^s. od, is now subject to ;^30, whilst the value of property has been re- duced 20 per cent. The number of inhabited houses has diminished from 15,104 to 14,949. The number of insolvent houses was augmented, between 1815 and 1822, from 880 to 4,719. In 1 799 there were only 7 bankrupts in Dublin ; in 1 8 10 there were 152. I 1 •I t ■vtJ I'll ! '. ■|l :.! ! I !t ii* I \\V ' \ \', ' ^ * I' m> §■.'# 296 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. From these statistics it is proved to demon- stration that the Act of Legislative Independence enormously increased the prosperity of Ireland ; and as this narrative proceeds this brief era of prosperity will be made the more brilliant by its contrast with the deadly and deepening decay all over Ireland since the loss of its Legislature. The question will at once occur to the mind of the American reader why it was that an institution that was thus daily proving its fitness for the country ever ceased to exist. The explanation is easily found in the constitution of the Parliament, and partly also in the nature of the settlement made in 1 782. First, as to the constitution of the Parliament; attention has already been called to the character of both Houses of that body. Grattan and the other patriot leaders saw the immense danger there was to the continuance of Ireland's independence if this state of things was allowed to continue. Session after session, time after time, Grattan and others brought in Bills, the object of which was to procure the reform of Parliament, both in its own constitution and in the electorate. In speech after speech the cor- ruptions of the existing system were pointed out; and attention was especially called to the system by which at one stroke both the House of Lords and the House of Commons were corrupted. The House of Lords was corrupted by the admis- sion to its ranks of men who had bought their THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 297 peerages, and the House of Commons was at the same time corrupted by the sale to the govern- ment of the seats which beloncjed to the men who had bought the peerages. " Will any man," says Flood, •* say that the Constitution is perfect when he knows that the honor of the peerage may be obtained by any ruffian who possesses borough interest?" Grattan accuses the Minister of the Crown of havinor " introduced a trade or com- merce, or, rather, brokerage of honors, and thus establishing in the money arising from that sale a fund for corrupting representation." But these remonstrances proved in vain ; and the government, times out of number, refused to make any change of a really practicable character in the composition and constitution of either House of Parliament, and the House of Commons con- tinued to consist for the most part of placemen and pensioners and the creatures of the propri- etors of rotten boroughs, openly and flagrandy ready for sale. The attempts to reform the Parliament by the admission of Catholics thereto met with an equal fate. At one time, however, it seemed as if this question were about to be decided. In 1794 Lord Westmoreland — a Lord Lieutenant who was unfavorable to Catholic claims — was succeeded by Lord Fitzwilliam, who was equally known as a stronor advocate of those claims. Lord Fitzwil- liam was a man of great importance in those days. I ,' i i:'.n 'liX 1' if! i 1 < >f 298 (il.ADSTONK— I'AKNF.LL He was the most prominciu iiKMiibcr of the Whig party. He was a fric I Grattan's, and his views on Catholic: emancipation had been over and over again pronounced. When he landed in 1 794 accordingl) he was received everywhere with enthusiasm. Petitions in favor of Catholic emancipation were* sent in not merely by thr. Catholics but also by the Protestants. And Lord Fitzwilliam himself was able to speak to the King of " the universal approbation with which the emancipation of the Catholics was received on the part of his Protestant subjects." Ireland at the moment became as one man, religious bigotry was forgotten, loyalty was universal. Within the last few weeks the change that Lord Fitzwilliam's viceroyalty made was brought into relief by a significant episode. Lord Aberdeen, a popular London viceroy of the Queen, and bearer of another message of peace, visited Kenmare, in the month of May, i886. He was received by a popular band of music, which played " God save the Queen." It was the first time the National Anthem of England had been played in this town since 1795 ; and then it had been played in honor of a visit from Lord Fitz- william. Lord Fitzwilliam was recalled, and the hopes of Ireland were blasted. Rebellion suc- ceeded to disloyalty. Men who, up to this time, had agitated only for simple reform, now thought that the rotten borough system would never be »' Tin: cki'AT luisii strugc.i.k. 2110 willingly abolished by the English authorities; and in abandoning constitutional methods pre- pared for an appeal to arms. Before coming, however, to this point, there were other charac- t(*ristics of the Irish Parliament, which prepared the way for its extinction. Among other causes which tended to bring ab'^'it the fall of the Irish Leirislature was the character of the Ex- ecutive. The country was governed by a Lord Lieutenant and a Chief Secretary. Bodi these officers were appointed by the English Govern- ment, and could not be dismissed by the Irish Parliament. There was thus the curious spec- tacle of a Parliament w'th an irresponsible Ex- ecutive. Time after time the patriot party at- tempted to have this evil remedied, and their speeches are full of the most scathing invectives against this state of things. " He," said Flood, speaking of the Chief Secretary, " may defy the House — he who can prorogue or even dissolve the Parliament, he, indeed, must be very much afraid of their resentment. No, but he may be afraid of a mob — if a whole offended, injured nation may be called a mob — and then what is his recourse? Why, a packet, and then he is responsible. Where ? In Dover ! " "We have," said Grattan, "no Irish Cabinet. Individuals may deprecate, may dissuade, but they cannot enforce their principles ; there is no embodied authority in Ii eland. Again, your lilt fi ■I ■\ !' ■i: ' i 1 , i 'I! 300 GI.ADSTONE— PARNKLL. m h r Ciov<'rnmcnt constantly fluctuates; your viceroys chanjT^e every day ; men of ilifTerent parties and different principles, faithful to private engage- ments hut not bound to any unilbrni public sys- tem. Again, you have no decided responsibility in lr(*land ; the objects of your inquest might not be easily found ; in short, you have in this country the misfortune of a double administration, a double; importunity — a fluctuating government, and a fugacious responsibility." Some years later Mr. Grattan says, "Are the Ministers of Ireland fonder of the people of this country than the Ministers of the sister country are of Great Britain ? Are they not often aliens in affection as well as birth, disposed to dispute your rights, censure your proceedings, and to boast that you cannot punish them, and that, therefore, they do not fear you ? Are they not proud to humble you and ambitious to corrupt you ? " In 1798 the rebellion which had been smoul- dering throughout the country at last broke forth. Though Catholics took mainly the chief part in the insurrection it was originally started by a body of Protestants in Belfast, who formed a society known as the '* United Irishmen." The testimony is overwhelming that the United Irish- men contemplated at first only constitutional methods of action ; but, as they themselves after- wards stated, their despair of obtaining reform through the continued opposition of the govern- THE GREAT IRISH STRUCUILE. 301 ment to Crattan's proposals drove them into rebellion. The rebellion was crushed by the most terrible cruelty. One of its worst effects was to revive the religious passions between dif- ferent sections of Irishnien by which the benefi- cent policy of the Irish party and the patriot leaders was obliterated. Pitt, and Lord Cas- tlereagh, his agent in Ireland, aggravated the cruelties by giving every form of encouragement to the persons mainly occupied in carrying out his cruelties. "The Protestants," says Lecky, "passed into that condition of terrified ferocity to which ruling races are always liable when they find themselves a small minority in the midst of a fierce re- bellion." 'The minds of the people,' wrote Lord Cornwallis, after the suppression of the revolt, * are now in such a state that nothing but blood will satisfy them.' ' Even at my table, where you will suppose I do all I can to prevent it, the con- versation always turns on hanging, shooting, burning and so forth ; and if a priest has been put to death the greatest joy is expressed by the whole company.' " The native Irish, maddened by these cruelties, replied with cruelties of great if not equal fe- rocity. At last the rebellion of 1798 was put down, and the British authorities now thought the time had come for proposing the Act of Union. On the destruction of the Irish Legislature Pitt 17 • "fi L '» I I' ! ! ^1 ^ t i '' '"Is r • H M;,. 1 .' I' 302 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. had been resolved from an early date. He had sent to Ireland as a means of carrying out this policy Lord Castlereagh, an Irishman by birth, but English in all his sympathies and aims. This remarkable man, who played so sinister a part in Irish and afterwards in English history, had the qualities exactly suitable for carrying out an enterprise of this kind. He had cool courage and an utter absence of either shame or of scruple. While Lord CornwalUs, the Lord Lieu- tenant at the time, spoke, as will be seen, with loathing of the work at which he was employed. Lord Castlereagh pursued it with perfect equa- nimity, and sometimes described it as though he gloried in the shame. Preparations went on for years to make the Parliament ready for the final blow, and the patriots of the time over and over again saw how Lhe work of corruption was pro- ceeding, and the hour of destruction drawing nigh. "We are no longer," writes Dr. Browne, one of the members for Trinity College, "attacked by the stern violence of prerogative, but a new and more dangerous foe has arisen — a corrupt and all-subduing influence which, with a silent but resistless course, has overwhelmed the land and borne down every barrier of liberty and virtue." " Then," says Sir L. Parsons, " those acquisitions in 1782, which the people thought would have brought good government, have brought bad, and n THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 303 why? Because it has been the object of the English Ministers ever since to countervail what was obtained at that period, and substitute a surreptitious and clandestine influence for that open power which the English Legislature was then obliged to relinquish." It was in the year 1 799 that the Union was proposed for the first time. The government put forward every means they could employ for the purpose of carrying it. But it was, nevertheless, opposed by all the in- tellect and all the conscience of Ireland. " It is scarcely an exaggeration to say," observes Lecky, ** that the proposal to make the Union provoked the whole of the unbribed intellect of Ireland to oppose it." The result was that the bill was re- jected by 109 to 104 votes. Castlereagh, however, was a man of persistent purpose, and he now set himself to work to adopt more certain means of carrying out his resolve. He employed a mixture of force and fraud. Mar- tial law was proclaimed all over the country, and wherever there was any attempt to procure an open expression of public feeling, violence was either threatened or employed against it. The people of Dublin. had signified their joy at the rejection of the government measure, and they were attacked without notice by a body of soldiers and some people were shot down. A body of the gentry had gathered together in Kings county for the purpose of declaring their opinions 'f «f ! m i I I I i f n If '?. i 3 II 4 ">■ i I 1 'I 8 if I " If i 1 ^i^ ' w 304 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. upon the proposed legislation ; they had no sooner assembled than a column of troops under Major Rogers were seen to be advancing, armed with four cannon; by which it was made perfectly clear that if the meeting were persevered with the building would have been destroyed. Major Rogers was remonstrated witli ; but his answer was, that but lor one word from the sheriff he might blow tliem all to atoms. And in several odier parts of that county — according to Sir Jonah Barrington, a well-known contemporary chron- icler — people were restrained from expressing their opinions by the dread of grapeshot. Steps were taken against all those encouraging public opinion against the Union, or who did anything to promote the national protest. The Marquis of Downshire sent out a circular urging petitions against the Union ; and he was dismissed from the lord-lieutenancy of his county and his name was erased from the list of privy councillors. In the same way in the House of Commons all men who held office and who refused to vote for the destruction of the country's liberties were dis- missed. Among the persons who thus gave hon- orable testimony to the consistency of their prin- ciples was Sir John Parnell, the ancestor of the present leader of the Irish people, who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer for seventeen years. Petitions at the same time were sent over the whole country to gather signatures in favor of the itu i I l( THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 305 Union ; and so eager was Castlereagh for even the appearance of popular adhesion to his de- mand that felons in jail were offered their pardon on condition of attaching their names. Never- theless, when the signatures came to be counted up, 700,000 protested against the Union ; and only 3,000 were found to demand it. These were but a small portion of the plans adopted to carry the Union on the second at- tempt. Castlereagh, having made up his mind that corruption was the best of all means for gain- ing votes, resorted to this means in the most open manner. The seats in the House of Commons, owing to the system of bribery, had become as valuable as any other article of merchandise, and Castlereagh determined to take the same view of the question as the owners themselves. Accordingly, he announced three plans on the part of the government, which together made as complete a system of corruption as perhaps ever prevailed in the history of any country. In brief, then. Lord Castlereagh boldly an- nounced his intention to turn the scale by bribes to all who would accept them, under the name of compensation for the loss of patronage and interest. He publicly declared, first, that noblemen who re- turned Union members to Parliament should be paid, in cash, ^15,000 for every member so re- turned ; secondly, that every member who had purchased a seat In Parliament should have his 1«' % If- •iii ! r m \ ■ ■'A 1? li 1 1 V\\ I; !;ii :Hi V fjir \\\> 306 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. I' purchase-money repaid to him out of the treasury of Ireland ; thirdly, that all members of Parlia- ment, or others, who were losers by the Union should be fully recompensed for their losses, and that ^1,500,000 should be devoted to this ser- vice. In other words, all who should affection- ately support his measure were, under some pretext or other, to share in this " bank of cor- ruption." Meantime seats had been vacated by men who had obtained good sums fordoing so; and by the time that Parliament met again Lord Castlereagh could feel sure that the mine v/as laid and that it only required the fuse to burst up the Parliamen- tary edifice. Another of his methods was to hold out vacfue promises to the Catholics and their bishops, that when the Irish Parliament was destroyed Irish Catholic claims would obtain a hearino- from the Imperial Parliament; and in this way undoibtedly a few of the Catholic leaders were lulled into security. The Irish Parliament was opened January 15, 1800. Lord Castlereagh thought it good tactics to keep all mention of the Union out of the King's speech. He wanted more clearly to prospect his ground ; and he also wanted the poison of corrup- tion to have a further chance of workino-. When an army is demoralized, small desertions lead to general panic. Accordingly Lord Castlereagh a Ilk .THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 307 put up Viscount Loftus to move the address in reply to the speech from the throne. Lord Loftus was a man of grotesque vacuity of mind, and was now known by an uncompHmentary nickname; but there was wisdom nevertheless in putting him into a prominent place. He was the son of the Marquis of Ely, who had three rotten boroughs, and his speech in favor of the policy of the gov- ernment showed that the Marquis, his father, would receive his bribe of ^'45,000. Such a splendid i:ward for perfidy was sure to hav its good effect on weak and wavering minds. Dr. Browne, one of the members for the University of Dublin, and, we regret to say, an American by birth, served a similar purpose. He had voted against the Union the previous session. He de- clared that he had now become more inclined to the Union from " intermediate circumstances." The intermediate circumstances were that he had been promised the place of Prime Serjeant for his vote. The patriot party insisted on raising the question of the Union on the address, and a very picturesque incident occurred in the course of the debate. Mr. Grattan had retired in disgust and despair from Parliament shortly before the rebel- lion broke out ; he was in bad health, and had sought recovery in change of air and scene. His friends induced him to accept a seat for the borough of Wicklow. The return of the writ was delayed as long as possible ; but by a series of §■'{ I I i f< ; \: ' i t , rr:- fm 'i ill if :■ 308 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Stratagems, including the employment of a num- ber of swift horses, the return reached Dublin at 5 o'clock in the morning. The proper officer was compelled to get out of bed in order to present the document to Parliament. The House at that moment was in warm debate on the amendment denouncingtheproposeddestructionofthe Houses of Parliament. A whisper, writes Mitchell, ran through every party that Mr. G rattan was elected, and would immediately take his seat. The Min- isterialists smiled with incredulous derision, and the Opposition thought the news too good to be true. Mr. Egan was speaking strongly against the measure, when Mr. George Ponsonby and Mr. Arthur Moore (afterwards Judge of the Common Pleas) walked out, and immediately returned lead- ing, or rather helping, Mr. Grattan, in a state of total feebleness and debility. The effect was electric. Mr. Grattan's illness and deep chagrin had reduced a form, never symmetrical, and a visage at all times thin, nearly to the appearance of a spectre. As he feebly tottered into the House every member simultaneously rose from his seat. He moved slowly to the table ; his lan- guid countenance seemed to revive as he took those oaths that restored him to his pre-eminent station ; smiles of inward satisfaction obviously illuminated his features, and reanimation and en- ergy seemed to kindle by the labor of his mind THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 309 The House was silent. Mr. Egan did not resume his speech. Mr. Grattan, almost breathless, at- tempted to rise, but found himself unable at first to stand, and asked permission to address the House from his seat. Never was a finer illustra- tion of the sovereignty of mind over matter. Grattan spoke two hours with all his usual vehe- mence and fire against the Union, and in favor of the amendment of Sir Lawrence Parsons. The Treasury Bench was at first disquieted, then be- came savage ; and it was resolved to bully or to kill Mr. Grattan. But these attempts did not succeed. At lo o'clock in the morning the division was taken, when 96 voted for the amendment of Sir Law- rence Parsons, protesting against the Union ; and 138 against. Thus at the very first fight Castle- reagh had a majority of 42. This greatly encour- aofed the Unionists. But still Castlereag^h thouofht that some time would be necessary before the House could be made quite ready for the accept- ance of his proposal. It was not till the 15th of February thai he brought the proposed measure before the Parlia- ment. Debates, eloquent and fierce, took place on his proposals. Grattan was so grossly in- sulted by one of the officials of Castlereagh that he declared the government had resolved to '• pistol him off," and at once accepted a challenge and fought with Corry, his assailant. All this 11 iiti J ' ■,1i I ) I h I 1^1 i I ( •i ! i ' 1 t 1 > i < I *v t i; !( 1" II V 'i? 310 GLADSTONE— PARNELL time the secret agents of Castlereagh were busy in promising peerages, pensions, and bribes; and military were constandy drawn up around the old House in College Green to terrorize the people against any expression of popular discontent. Nobody has more tersely or eloquently de- scribed the means by which the Union was passed than Mr. Gladstone. Speaking at Liverpool on June 29th, 1886, he said: "Ah, gentlemen, when I opened this quesdon in the House of Commons on the 8th of April I said very little about the Act of Union — for two reasons : first of all, because looking at the facts, whatever that act may have been in its beginning, I do not think that it could safely or wisely be blotted out of the Statute Book, and for another reason, that I did not wish gratuitously to expose to the world the shame of my country. But this I must tell you, if we are compelled to go into it — the position against us, the resolute banding of the great and the rich and the noble, and I know not who, against the true genuine sense of the people, compels us to unveil the truth, and I tell you this, that so far as I can judge, and so far as my knowledge goes, I grieve to say in the pres- ence of distinguished Irishmen that I know of no blacker or fouler transacdon in the history of man than the making of the Union. It is not possible to tell you fully, but in a few words I give you some idea of what I mean. Fraud is bad, and li THE GREAT IRISH STRUGOLE. 311 force — violence as against rights — is bad, but if there is one thing more detestable than another, it is the careful, artful combination of the two. The carrying of the Irish Union was nothing in the world but a combination of force and fraud applied in the basest manner to the attainment of an end which all Ireland — for the exceptions might be counted on your fingers — detested, Protestants even more than Roman Catholics. In the Iris!- Parliament there were 300 seats, and out of these there were 116 placemen and pensioners. The government of Mr. Pitt rewarded with places which did not vacate the seat, as they do in this country if I remember aright, those who voted for them, and took away the pensions of those who were disposed to vote against them. Notwith- standing that state of things, in 1 797, in the month of June, the proposal of union was rejected in the Irish Parliament. The Irish Parliament, in 1795, under Lord Fitzwilliam, had been gallantly and patriotically exercised in amending the condition of the country. The monopolists of the Beres- ford and other families made Mr. Pitt recall Lord F'itzwilliam, and that moment it was that the rev- olutionary action began among the Roman Cath- olics of Ireland ; from that moment tlie word ' sep- aration,' never dreamt uf before, by degrees insinuated itself in their councils ; an uneasy state of things prevailed, undoubted disaffection was produced, and it could not but be produced by • .1 1^ ■;H :-'^ M 1 •! >l ''^! } i I h^' '1 ' r p- 312 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ■it abominable misgovernment. So produced, it was the excuse for all that followed. Inside the walls of Parliament the terror of withdrawing from Par- liament and wholesale bribery in the purchase of nomination boroughs were carried on to such an extent as to turn the scale. Outside Parliament martia' law and the severest restrictions prevented the people from expressing their views and senti- ments on the Union. That the detestable union of fraud and force might be consummated the bribe was held out to the Roman Catholic bishops and clergy, in the ho^ 2 of at any rate slackening their opposition, that if only they would consent to the Union it should be followed by full admis- sion to civil privileges and by endowments, which would at any rate have equalized the monstrous anomaly of the existence of the Irish Church. That was the state of things by which — by the use of all those powers that this great and strong country could bring into exercise through its command over the executive against the weak- ness of Ireland — by that means they got together a sufficient number of people — with 1 16 placemen and pensioners out of 300 persons, with a large number of borough proprietors bought at the cost of a million and a half of money — at last they suc- ceeded in getting a majority of between 42 and 45 to pass the Union. I have heard of more bloody proceedings — the massacre of St. Bartholomew was a more cruel proceeding — but a more base ■'i .- THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 313 proceeding, a more vile proceeding, is not re- corded in my judgment upon the page of history than the process by which the Tory government of that period brought about the union with Ire- land in the teeth and in despite of the protest of every Liberal statesman from one end of the country to the other." When the question came before the English Parliament the Union was opposed by Grey, after- ward Lord Grey, Sheridan, Lord Holland, and all the other great leaders of the Whig party. But Pitt succeeded in carrying all his proposals through. The question finally came before the Irish Parliament in the shape of a bill for the Legislative Union. Again Grattan, Plunkett, Saurin, afterward Attorney-General under the British Crown ; Bushe, afterward a Chief-Justice, and all the other men of genius in the Irish Par- liament, protested against the destruction of the Irish government. Grattan's final speech sounds prophetic at the present hour. "The constitu- tion," he said, " may for a time be lost, but the character of the people cannot be lost. The Min- isters of the Crown may perhaps at length find out that it is not so easy to put down forever an ancient and respectable nation by abilities, how- ever great, or by corruption, however irresistible. Liberty may repair her golden beams, and with redoubled heat animate the country. The cry of loyalty will not long continue against the princi- , ; V '■ ^li .J^ , /.:^ ' . 314 Cil-ADSTONE— PAUNELL .i- • ti pies of liberty. Loyalty is a noble, a judicious, and a capacious principle, but in these countries loyalty distinct from liberty is corruption, not loy- alty. The cry of the connection will not in the end avail against the principles of liberty. Con- nection is a wise and a profound policy, but con- nection without an Irish Parliament is connection without its own principle, without analogy of con- dition, without the pride of honor that should attend it — is innovation, is peril, is subjugation — not connection. . . . Identification is a solid and imperial maxim, necessary for the preservation of freedom, necessary for that of empire ; but with- out union of hearts, with a separate government and without a separate Parliament, identification is extinction, is dishonor, is conquest — not identi- fication. Yet I do not give up my country. I see her in a swoon, but she is not dead. Though in her tomb she lies heirless and motionless, still there is on her lips n spirit of life, and on her cheek a glow of beauty : " ' Thou iiTt not conquered : beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there ' While a plank of the vessel stands together, I will not leave her. Let the courtier present his flimsy sail, and carry the light bark of his faith with every new breath of wind ; I will remain an- chored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her freedom, faithful to her THE GRKAT IRISH STKUCUiLE. .•J16 fall." These were the last worcls of Grattan in the Irish ParliaiiiL'nt. On the 7th of June the Union bill was to be read for the third time. Most of the anti-Union- ists left the House so as not to be present at the destruction of the nation. "The day of extin- guishing the liberties of Ireland had now arrived," writes Sir Jonah Barrington, a contemporary chronicler, "and the sun took his last view of in- dependent Ireland ; he rose no more over a proud and prosperous nation. She was now condemned by the British Minister to renounce her rank amongst the states of Europe ; she was sentenced to cancel her constitution, to disband her Com- mons, and to disfranchise her nobility, to p^'oclaim her incapacity, and register her corruption in the records of the Empire. The Commons House of Parliament on the last evening afforded the most melancholy example of a fine, independent peo- ple, betrayed, divided, sold, and, as a State, anni- hilated. British clerks and officers were smug- gled into her Parliament to vote away the consti- tution of a country to which they were strangers, and in which they had neither interest nor con- nection. They were employed to cancel the royal charter of the Irish nation, guaranteed by the British government, sanctioned by the British Legislature, and unequivocally confirmed by the words, the signature, and the great seal of their monarch. .11 I ' ii .«■■ i.i HI ': m !| t tv 316 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. " The situation of the Speaker on that night was of the most distressing nature. A sincere and ardent enemy of the measure, he headed its op- ponents ; he resisted it with all the power of his mind, the resources of his experience, his influence, and his eloquence. " It was, however, through his voice that it was to be proclaimed and consummated. His only alternative (resignation) would have been un- availing, and could have added nothing to his character. His expressive countenance bespoke the inquietude of his feeling ; solicitude was per- ceptible in every glance, and his embarrassment was obvious in every word he uttered. " The galleries were full ; but the change was lamentable. They were no longer crowded with those who had been accustomed to witness the eloquence and to animate the debates of that de- voted assembly. A monotonous and melancholy murmur ran through the benches ; scarcely a word was exchanged amongst the members. Nobody seemed at ease ; no cheerfulness was ap- parent, and the ordinary business for a short time proceeded in the usual manner. "At length the expected moment arrived. The order of the day — for the third reading of the bill for a * Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland * — was moved by Lord Castlereagh. Unvaried, tame, cold-blooded — the words seemed frozen as they issued from his lips ; and, as if a '^fr-'t"-'^ tei » ib- \3^ o o en w X :t! *;■* :[ fflHS' 1 n Wm] 1 m ' 1 ^H < i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 321 the mean of these quantities it makes io8^. But Castlereagh omitted from his calculations all mention of the Irish rental, an admitted factor in Irish questions in England. If rental had been taken into account, the Irish representation should have been 169^2- In 1821 the question was again r \ised. O'Connell showed that Ireland had seven millions to England's twelve millions of popula- tion ; and that on this barls of population Ireland should have 291 members; and that taking rev- enue and population as joint basis, Ireland should have 176 members. As a matter of fact, she never since the Union had more than 105. The scheme by which Ireland was cheated in the question of debts is well summarized in the following extracts from Mitchell's " History of Ireland : " "In 1 81 6 was passed the act for consolidating the British and Irish Exchequers — it is the 56th George III., cap. 98. It became operative on the 1st January, 181 7. "The meaning of this consolidation was — charging Ireland with the whole debt of England, pre-union and post-union ; and in like manner charging England v/ith the whole Irish debt. " Now, the enormous English national debt, both before and after the Union, was contracted for purposes which Ireland had not only no in- terest in promoting, but a direct and vital interest in contravening and resisting ; that is, it had been '.. ' I '\ .'■ ■ m *ti'r'i • i I M ■ .!"|: Hi f i ii 11 II I T^' (| 322 GLADSTONE- -PARNELL. contracted to crush American and French liberty, and to destroy those very powers which were the natural allies of Ireland. " But this is not all. We have next to see the proportions which the two debts bore to each other. It will be remembered that, by the terms of the so-called * Union,' "I. Ireland was to be protected from any liabil- ity on account of the British national debt con- tracted prior to the Union. *' II. The separate debt of each country being first provided for by a separate charge, Ireland was then to contribute two-seventeenths towards the joint or common expenditure of the United Kingdom for twenty years ; after which her con- tribution was to be made proportionate to her ability, as ascertained at stated periods of revision by certain tests specified in the act. *' III. Ireland was not only promised that she never should have any concern with the then ex- isting British debt, but she was also assured that her taxation should not be raised to the standard of Great Britain until the following conditions should occur: " I . That the two debts should come to bear to each other the proportion of fifteen parts for Great Britain to two parts for Ireland ; and, " 2. That the respective circumstances of the two countries shouiJ admit of uniform taxation. h\ 1 ■ I K THE GREAT IRISH STRUGCiLK. 323 "It must be further borne in mind that, pre- vious to the Union, the national debt of Ireland was a mere trifle. It had been enormously in- creased by charging to Ireland's special account, fin.', the expenses of getting up the rebellion; next, the expenses of suppressing it ; and, lastly, the expenses of bribing Irish noble lords and gentlemen to sell their country at this Union. Thus the Irish debt, which before the Union had been less than three millions sterling, was set down by the Act of Union at nearly twenty-seven millions. "On the 20th of June, 1804 (four years after the Union had passed), Mr. Foster, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, observed, that whereas in 1794 the Irish debt did not exceed two millions and a half, it had in 1803 risen to forty-three mil- lions ; and that during the current year it was increased to nearly fifty-three millions. " During the long and costly war against France, and the second American war, it happened, by some very extraordinary species of book-keeping, that while the English debt was not quite doubled, the Irish debt was more than quadrupled ; as if Ireland had twice the interest which England had in forcing the Bourbons back upon France, and in destroying the commerce of America. "Thus, in 181 6, when the Consolidation Act was passed, the whole funded debt of Ireland was found to be ^130,561,037. By this management ■':- < d !, ,1; . I : !;: 324 GLA I )STONE— PARNELL. i; • ' s' Vi the Irish debt, which in 1801 had been to the British as one to sixteen and a half, was forced up to bear to the British debt the ratio of one to seven and a half. This was the proportion re- quired by the Act of Union as a condition of sub- jecting Ireland to indiscriminate taxation with Great Britain — a condition equally impudent and iniquitous. Ireland was to be loaded with inor- dinate debt ; and then this debt was to be made the pretext for raising her taxation to the high British standard, and thereby rendering her liable to the pre-union debt nf Great Britain ! *' By way of softening down the glaring injustice of such a proposition, Lord Castlereagh said that the two debts might be brought to bear to each other the prescribed proportions, pardy by the increase of the Irish debt, but partly also by the decrease of the British. To which Mr. Foster thus answered, on the 15th of March, 1800: 'The monstrous absurdity you would force down our throats is, that Ireland's increase of poverty, as shown by her increase of debt, and England's in- crease of wealth, as shown by diminution of debt, are to bring them to an equality of condition, so as to be able to bear an equality of taxation.* " But bad as this was, the former and worse alternative was what really befell. The given ratio was reached solely by the increase of the Irish debt, without any decrease of the British. " We take from the excellent pamphlet of Mr. THE GRLAT IRISH STRUCJCJLK. 326 O'Neill Daunt a passage presenting a summary of the financial dealings of England with Ireland: '"The following facts stand unshaken, and should become familiarly known to every man in Ireland : " • I. The British debt in 1801 was ^hout sixteen and a half times as large as the Irish debt. " ' 2. It was promised by the author*^ of the Union, and the promise was embodied in the seventh Article, that as Ireland had no part in contracting that debt, so she should be forever preserved from all concern with the payment of its principal or interest. " ' 3. In order to give effect to this promise, Great Britain was to be separately taxed to the extent of her separate pre-union debt charge. But Great Britain is nol thus separately taxed ; and Ireland is consequently made to contribute to the payment of a purely British liability, from which she was promised perpetual exemption. "'4. Ireland has never received from Great Britain one farthing by way of compensation or equivalent, for being thus subjected to the pre- union British debt. " * 5. By the fifth clause of the seventh Article of the Union, Ireland was guaranteed the benefit of her own surplus taxes. She has never, dur- ing the sixty-four years of Union, received one farthing in virtue of that clause. Her taxes, after defraying her public domestic expenses, have been !■"• w •> '* f ii n i! iS I ■ ,1 (■a 1 1 3 it' I J I 326 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. A t ^ I t I i m \ I it\i uniformly abstracted by England ; and the clause that professes to secure to Ireland the use of them has been rendered a dead letter by the Parliamentary management I have described. " * 6. The amount of Irish taxes annually drawn from this kingdom is a very large item in the gen- eral pecuniary drain. Mr. Dillon, in his able and carefully compiled report to the Dublin Corpora- tion, shows that the Irish taxes expended out of Ireland in the year i860 amounted to £^r 095,453; and that in 1861 they amounted to ;f3.97o,7i5-'" It was not long before the Imperial Parliament began to work evil in several departments of Irish life. It has been mentioned that Catholic emancipation was one of the bribes held out to the Irish for their consent to the Union. It was represented by Lord Castlereagh and others that in the Imperial Parliament the Catholic claims would have a far better chance of being fairly heard and promptly granted than in a local legislature consisting entirely of members of the Protestant creed. The very reverse happened. Time after time the Catholic rights were brought before the Imperial assembly and time after time they were rejected with contumely. Nor was this all. It has been seen how under the native Parliament the different classes of Irishmen were rapidly combining in common devotion to their country, and how all the old bitterness between tup: GRKAT IRISH strikuilk. 327 Catholic and Protestant was beinqr obliterated. One of the very first effects of the Act of Union was to renew all these ancient feuds and to give them a new force and a new bitterness. TIk; Orangemen who had up to the Act of Union been among the sturdiest of Irish patriots from this time became the most embittered enemies of everything Irish. The peers, some of whom had obstinately resisted the destruction of Irish lib- erties, became from this time forward the vilest tools of every act of British tyranny in Ireland. The landlords increased their exactions, and the chasm which always existed between them and the tenantry was widened immeasurably. The Act of Union was, in fact, to Ireland an Act of Divi- sion. It separated all classes of the people, gave them antagonistic interests and aspirations, broke up the whole unity of national life. All this too it did without bringing real advancement to any class. The landlords were taught to believe that their interests in future were bound up with those of England, and, as will be presently seen, the Imperial Parliament passed enactment after enactmen ; for their special benefit and for the special destruction of their tenants. But these gifts were fatal. The Irish peers and gentry who had hitherto been content to find society, amuse- ment and distinction in the capital of their own country were now enticed to England ; for with the destruction of the Irish Parliament Dublin i t I ! /'.' If • !i II i|| T ' 1 ^r 1 1 1 (ill 1 i ■ ;i 1 1 \l »: '!'l fill 32« GLADSTONE— I'ARNELL. sank to the level of a provincial town. The Irish aristocrats were thus brought into a combination with the peers and gentry of a richer country. In this way they were tempted into extravagances. In this way the foundations were laid for the wide- spread disaster and almost universal ruin of the landlord class in the present day. Mr. Gladstone sums up admirably in the Liver- pool speech already quoted the immediate con- sequences of the Union : " How have we atoned," he asked, " since the Union for what we did to bring about the Union? Now, mind, I am making my appeal to the honor of Englishmen. I want to show to Englishmen who have a sense of honor that they have a debt of honor that remains to this hour not fully paid. The Union was followed by these six conse- quences — firstly, broken promises ; secondly, the passing of bad laws ; thirdly, the putting down of liberty ; fourthly, the withholding from Ireland benefits that we took to ourselves ; fifthly, the giving to force and to force only what we ought to have given to honor and justice ; and, sixthly, the removal and postponement of relief to the most crying grievances. (Cheers.) I will give you the proof in no longer space than that in which I have read these words. Broken promises — the promises to the Roman Catholics of eman- cipation and the promise of endowment. Eman- cipation was never given for twenty-nine years. THE GRKAT IRISH STRUtidM-:. 329 It would have been cfivcn if the Irish I^irliament had remained — you would have heen j^iven it in the time of Lord I'itzwilliam. It was never giv(!n for twenty-nine years after the Union, but no endowment. Well, you will say, and I should say, 'for that I cannot be sorry.* (Cheers.) I cannot wish that th(; Roman Catholics should have received endowment. But on the other hand, it was a base thing- to break your promises to them. Passing bad laws — yes, slow as it was to pass good laws, the English Parliament could pass bad laws quick enough. In 1815 it passed a law most oppressive to the Irish tenant. It was the only law relating to the Irish land of any con- sequence that ever received serious attention until the year 1870. Restraint of liberty. What happened after the Union? In 1800 the people met largely in Dublin. Almost all the Roman Catholics of wealth and influence in the country, and a great deal of the Protestant power, too, met in Dublin for the purpose of protesting against the Union. Not the slightest heed was given to their protest. In 1820 there was a county meeting of the shire of Dublin for the purpose of paying compliments to George IV. The people moved a counter-resolution and this counter-resolution complained of the Act of Union. The sheriff refused to hear them, re- fused to put their motion, left the room, and sent In the soldiers to break up a peaceful county il 1! ■|| j i^t' ''1 ■ - i i aad i: il W' ' ' '^li i 1 '! t 1 l-i ' I •V:h 3i f (■ I' :«. I); ' I- 1: Nil ,i ■ -■ ■ j,, -I :i : * *M t 11^: li' /i r I: f 330 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. meeting. (Shame.) Oh, it is shame, indeed. Fourthly, they withheld from Ireland what we took ourselves. We took the franchise. The frc ichise in Ireland remained a very restricted franchise until last year. In England it had been largely extended, as you know, by the Acts of 1867 and 1868. In England you thoroughly re- formed your municipalities, and have true popular bodies, but in Ireland the number of them was Ckit down to twelve, and after a battle of six years, during which Parliament had to spend the chief part of its time upon the work, I think about twelve municipalities were con .tituted in Ireland with highly restricted powers. Inequality was branded upon Ireland at every step. Education was established in this country, denominational education, right and left, according as the people desired it ; but in Ireland denominational educa- tion was condemned, and until within the last few years it was not possible for any Roman Catholic to obtain a deofree in Ireland if he had received his education in a denominational college. ** Such is the system of inequality under which Ireland was governed. We have given only to fear what we ought to have given to justice. I refer to the Duke of Wellington, who, in 1821, himself said with a manly candor, that the fear of civil war and nothing else wab the motive for, I might almost say, for his coercing the House of Lords, certainly for bringing the House of Lords, VI THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 331 to vote a change which it was well known that the large majority of them utterly detested. Well, sixthly, we shamefully postponed the relief of crying grievances — yes, we shamefully postponed it. In 1815 we passed an act to make infinitely less independent the position of the Irish tenant. Not till 1843 did we inquire into his condition. Sir Robert Peel has the honor of having ap- pointed the Devon Commission — that Devon Commission represented that a large number of the population of Ireland were submitting with exemplary and marvellous patience — these peo- ple whom we are told you cannot possibly trust — were submitting with marvellous and unintel- ligible patience to a lot more bitter and deplora- ble than the lot of any people in the civilized world. Sir James Graham in the House of Commons ad- mitted that the description applied to three and a half millions of the people of Ireland, and yet with all that we went on certainly doing a great deal of good, improving the legislation of this country in a wonderful manner, especially by the great struggle of Free Trade, but not till 1870 was the first effort made — seventy years after the Union — to administer in any serious de- gree to the wants of the Irish tenant, the Irish occupier — that means in fact the wants and ne- cessities of the mass of the people of Ireland. (Cheers.) I say that that is a deplorable narra- tive, it is a narrative which cannot be shaken. I i^ H \ I' 1. 1 I i: ' I '7 ; 332 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. have been treading upon ground that our an- tagonists carefully avoid. It is idle to say that we have done some good to Ireland. Yes, we have done some good to Ireland by the Land Act of 1870 and 1881, and by the Disestablishment of the Irish Church we have done some good to Ireland, and by the Enlargement of Maynooth grants Sir Robert Peel did good to Ireland. Yes, and it is the success of these very acts alone that the Paper Unionists can claim as showing that we have done good to Ireland. These very acts are down to the present day denounced by the tory party — the Church Act as sacrilege, the Land Act as confiscation. (Cheers.) I humbly say it is time that we should bethink ourselves of this question of honor and see how the matter stands, and set very seriously about the duty, the sacred duty, the Indispensable and overpowering duty of effacing from history, if efface them we can, these terrible stains which the acts of England have left upon the fame of England, and which constitute the debt of honor to Ireland that it is high time to consider and to pay." We have already spoken of the first charge of Mr. Gladstone against the Union, that of broken promises with reference to Catholic emancipation. The second charge is that of making bad laws, which for the most part were ap- plied to the occupation of land. The new Parlia- T,-»7Tv»i^iflprTf'™r;f ^ ■ THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 333 ment had scarcely been in existence twenty years when already there had been passed a whole new code of laws, the main purpose of which was to enable landlords to get rid of their ten- ants at the very earliest moment possible. In 1816 an act was passed which gave the landlords power they never had before to distrain. Under this act the landlords were able to do things that must be astonishing to Americans with their protection in the homestead laws for a man's household and instruments of labor. ■ Under the statute referred to the landlord had the power to seize growing crops, to keep them till reaped, to save and sell them when reaped, and to charge upon the tenant the accumulation of expenses. Under this act the landlord had the power to ruin the tenant by seizing his growing crop. A_nother statute, however, was necessary to complete the authority of tb'^ land- lord and the helplessness of the tenant. Under an act passed in 1818 the landlord received the power to turn his tenant out of his holding. Act followed act then, in quick succession, for the purpose of making eviction easy. Under one, for instance, if a landlord brought an action against a tenant for ejectment, he had the power to make the tenant give security for costs. The working of this was that he diu not have money saved sufficient to defend a case. The case was adjudicated against him as though he had no de- li+i :if 'Jt n ffff"- If^'L ' ft 5 ;> 334 GLADSTONE— PARNELL fence. In other words in the condition in which the Irish farmers then were, this act gave the landlord a certainty of a verdict in his favor in all cases in which he might care to go to law. Then another act diminished the time which could elapse between the landlord obtaining his verdict and the tenant leaving his fields and house. Thus at every point the landlord was armed cap- a-pie ; the tenant was defenceless. Never in the history of mankind was there a code more com- plete in the interests of one class and against the interests of another. The law was well summed up by an Irish judge. "The entire landlord and tenant code," said Baron Penne- father, "goes to give increased facilities to the landlords." It should be remarked, too, that these laws were not only different from the laws of all other civilized countries in enabling the landlord to throw the tenant and his family on the world starving and penniless, but they were different even from laws passed in the landlords' favor by the landlords of England. " The laws," said Mr. W. Pickens, in his " Economy of Ireland," " in the landlords' favor are already more summary and stronger than they are in England, and he is yet calling for additional assistance." The tenant then, in Ireland, stood in a unique position. Forming as he did more than half the population he was left absolutely at the mercy of the landlord. Ignorant and timid in ii^ F '1 I' fe" ■r'.?Ti«T^*!r*'4 Tf W'^CJ^'"' THE GREAT IRISH STRUGOLE. 335 most cases he had never gone more than a few miles beyond the Hmits of his own farm ; he had never learned any occupation but that of farming. In other countries he could find in a near town a factory which opened wide its: doors to V;«llin shaken the foundations of society itself by rendering the laws of property hateful. . . . We demand that upon the rich soil of Ireland, in the midst of all its luxuriant vegetation, the Irish peasant shall live at least as well as the peasantry of the Prus- sian sands, or of the frozen climate of Russia ; that he shall not be worse off than they aie for lodging, clothing, food or firing ; that he shall enjoy as much rest and as much security for the future as they do. It is only after haying insured to him his share that we shall recognize your right to what remains, and shall trouble you to insure it also." Even the studied self-control and frigidity of English Parliamentary reports drawn up by English landlords glow with indignation when they come to speak of the wrongs of Irish ten- ants. The witnesses before them often draw in a few lines a picture of the whole condition of Ireland. Thus Mr. Nimmo, an eminent engineer, speaking before the House of Commons Com- mittee, gives the following evidence : " I conceive the peasantry of Ireland to be in general in the lowest possible state of existence. Their cabins are in the most miserable condition, and their food potatoes, with water, without even salt. I have frequently met persons who begged of me on their knees to give them some promise of employment, that from t^he credit of that they ;| 342 (iLADSTONE-rAKNELL. might get some means of support. ... It is unquestionable that the (rrrat caii.se of this miser- able condition and the disturbances is the mari- agement of land. There is no means of employ- ment and no certainty that the peasant has of existence for another year, but by getting posses- sion of a portion of land on which he can plant potatoes. The landlord has, in the eyes of the peasant, the right to take from him in a summary way everything he has if he is unable to execute those covenants into which he has been oblicred to enter from the dread of starvation. ... I con- ceive that there is no check to that power (the power possessed by the landlord). It appears to me that, under the cover of law, the landlord may convert that power to any purpose he pleases. The consequence is that when he wishes he can extract from the peasant every shilling beyond bare existence which can be produced by him from the land. The lower order of peasantry can thus never acquire anything like property ; and the landlord at the least reverse of prices has in his power to seize and does seize his cow, bed, potatoes in ground and everything he has, and can dispose of the property at any price." In 1830 Mr. Doherty, the Irish Solicitor-General, said, addressing the House of Commons, " that there was then in Ireland the existence of a condition of things which the lower animals in England would scarcely endure and which, in fact, they did not endure." TIIK GRKAT IRISH STRUC.CI.E. 343 \ The Committee of 1824, before which Mr. Nimmo L^ave the evidence already quoted, said: "The situation of the ejected tenantry, or of those who are obHged to <^ive up their small holdinjj^s in order to promote the consolidation of farms, is necessarily most deplorable. It would be impos- sible for lang uage to convey an idea of the state of distress to which the ejected tenantry have been reduced, or of the disease, misery or even vice which they have pro[)agated where they have settled ; so that not only they who have been ejected have been rendered miserable, but they have carried with them and propa(.^ated that misery. They have inceased the stock of labor, they have rendered the habitations of those who have received them more crowded, they have given occasion to the dissemination of disease, they have been obliged to resort to theft and all manner of vice and iniquity to procure subsist- ence ; but what is perhaps the most painful of all, a vast number of them have perished of want." By-and-by will be seen the terrible Nemesis which came upon the Irish people owing to a flafrrant violation of all law and all sense in these proceedings. This state of affairs, attested to by the statements of travellers and the evidences given before committees, laid the foundation for one of the most wide-spread and horrible famines in human history. Meantime, what had the y !.\l n 344 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. tl Imperial Parliament been doing? Despite all the testimony of travellers, despite all the evi- dence of witnesses, in spite of all the reports of committees, Parlip'^.v^nt refused to do one single thing, to pass one single act for the relief of the Irish tenant. Mr. Brownlow brouoht in a Bill in 1829 for the reclamation of waste lands. It was finally referred to a select committee, and there it ended. The Bill passed through the House of Commons, and the second reading in the House of Lords. It was, as has been said, referred to a select committee. They reported that they could not proceed with it any further at so late a period of the session. Henry Grattan in the following year called upon the Government to bring in a Bill for the improvement of waste lands. Mr. Smith O'Brien in the next year, 1831, introduced a bill for the aged, helpless and infirm. In 1835 a land bill was in vain asked for by Mr. Poulett Scrope. In the same year Mr. Sharman Craw- ford brought in a bill which he reintroduced in the year following, but it never got beyond the intro- ductory stage. Mr. Lynch a little time after pro- posed a bill for the reclamation of waste lands. This bill also fell through. An attempt was made in 1842 to deal with -the question of waste lands by the Irish Arterial Drainage Act. The LVvon Commission applied in 1843 and recommended legislation in most emphatic terms. Lord Stanley brought in a bill in 1845 w- i'^h ^^as read a second THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. .345 time, referred to a select committee and aban- doned. Mr. Crawford reintroduced his bill, but was compelled to abandon it. The Earl of Lincoln introduced a bill in the next session. The bill was destroyed owing to the destruction of the ministry. All this time the Imperial Parliament had been busy with another form of legislation. The Act of Union had been passed in spite of the wishes of the Irish people. It was a government of tyranny and not of Union, and accordingly it pro- voked revolts and had to be maintained by the same methods as are sacred to despotism through- out all the world's history. The landlords, driv- ing out a number of starving and desperate wretches upon the world without the protection of the laws or hope from the legislature, turned them into criminals of the most desperate char- acter. V/holesale eviction led to the formation of secret societies in which the tenant souorht to inspire in the mind of the landlord that fear of wrong-doing and cruelty which under a native legislature would have been imposed by tlie laws themselves. Testimony is perfectly unanimous on this point, namely, that eviction was the great parent of Irish crime. " What," said Judges Fletcher, In his charge to the Grand Jury of the County of Waterford, in July, 1814, "is the wretclied peasant to do? Hunted from the spot where he had first drawn his breath, where he had iiii t! 346 GLADSTONE— PA RN ELL. I im ' ? first seen the light of heaven, incapable of pro- curing any other means of subsistence, can we be surprised that being of unenlightenea and unedu- cated habits he should rush upon the perpetration of crimes followed by the punishment of the rope and the gibbet ? Nothing remains for them thus harassed, thus destitute, but with a strong hand to deter the stranger from intruding upon their farms, and to extort from the weakness of their landlords — from whose gratitude and good feel- ing they have failed to win it — a sort of prefer- ence for the ancient tenantry." Major Warburton, a resident magistrate, in giving evidence before a select committee, said : " The destitution produced by the turning persons out of their land, when they have no other means oi existence, is a very great source of crime, as such a state of things must naturally involve the people in criminal endeavors to procure the means of maintaining their families." He added that '* the causes which produce crime and out- rage at present are the same causes which for many years have produced the same result." With these inevitable outbreaks of frenzy, igno- rance and despair the Imperial Parliament showed itself extraordinarily ready to deal, but always in the same senseless and heartless way. Coercion Act followed Coercion Act. In 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804 and 1805 the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended. It was again suspended from 1807 to H • if; 1:1 ii 348 1834. 1835. 1836. 1838. 1839. 1840. 1841. 1841. 1843. 1848. Acts. 1844. 1845. GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Arms and Gunpowder Act. Public Peace Act. Another Arms Act. Another Arms Act. Unlawful Oaths Act. Another Arms Act. Outrages Act. Another Arms Act. Another Arms Act. Act Consolidating all Previous Coercion Unlawful Oaths Act. Additional Constables Works Act. 1845. Unlawful Oaths Act. 1846. Constabulary Enlargement. 1847. Crime and Outrage Act. 1848. Treason Amendment Act. 1848. Removal of Arms Act. 1848. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1848. Another Oaths Act. 1849. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1850. Crime and Outrage Act. 1 85 1. Unlaw'ful Oaths Act. 1853. Crime and Outrage Act. 1854. Crime and Outrage Act. 1855. Crime and Outrage Act. 1856. Peace Preservation Act. 1 8 1^8. Peace Preservation Act. i860. Peace Preservadon Act. near Public THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 349 1862. Peace Preservation Act. 1862. Unlawful Oaths Act. 1865. Peace Preservation Act 1866. Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act. 1866. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1867. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1868. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1870. Peace Preservation Act. 1 871. P:-otection of Life and Property. 1 871. Peace Preservation Cm. 1873. Peace Preservation Act. 1875. Peace Preservation Act. 1875. Unlawful Oaths Act. 1 88 1 to 1882. Peace Preservation Act (sus- pending Habeas Corpus). r88i to 1886. Arms Act. 1882 to 1885. Crimes Act. 1886 to 1887. Arms Act. Under a system like this it was inevitable that there should be discontent ; and, whenever there seemed even a chance of success, open rebellion. In most of the active insurrections Irish Protes- tants took a leading part. Of the heroic men who sacrificed their lives to rescue their country from the dread evils that the Act of Union was inflicting upon it the best remembered is Robert Emmet. Emmet was a young man of good family and position ; and had inherited from his father what was considered a good fortune in those days. In conjunction with Thomas Addis Emmet, "•y, 1 1. i : i -mn" 'Me f 'i ih f ', 350 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. who Still is remembered as one of New York's greatest lawyers — he and several other Protes- tants attempted a rebellion ; the rebellion failed, and he was hanged in Thomas street, Dublin. The spot is still pointed out ; is the object of reverent attention ; and the memory of Emmet is celebrated every year in almost all the important cities of America. Meantime the condition of die country grew worse from day to day. In 1817 there was an extensive famine ; and h is recorded that the people in several parts of the country were well content to live on boiled nettles. In 1822 there was an even severer and more extensive famine. Sir John Newport, a well-known and prominent member of the Imperial Parliament, attempted over and over aoain to extort some attention from the Legislature to the dreadful state of things in Ireland. He pointed out that in one parish fifteen had already died of hunger; that twenty-eight more were past recovery ; that 1 20 were down in famine fever. He went on to state another fact which throws a lurid light on the state to which the Union had reduced the Irish people ; in one parish he said the priest had given extreme unction — the sacrament which is administered in the Catholic Church to those only who are in almost certain danger of imme- diate death — to every man, woman and child in the place ; every one of them he expected to i i TIIK (IRKAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 351 to die. But the Imperial Parliament, which had •.mdertaken the government of Ireland, had no remedy to offer for this state of things, A com- mittee was appointed ; evidence was taken, some specimens of which have already been quoted ; but the one thing the Legislature had to offer as a remedy for the national disease of hunger was a small grant of money in the shape of alms. The close of the war with Napoleon aggravated all the evils from which the Irish farmer was suffering, by causing a great depredation in the price of agricultural produce ; and also by the removal of the one reason the British authorities had for being ordinarily civil to the Irish nation. And thus the country went down deeper daily in the slough of poverty, despond, despair. Taxes were rising, rents increasing. The drain on the country through absenteeism in each successive year became larger, and entire or partial famine followed each other at shorter intervals and with intensified suffering. The picture is com- pleted by the passage of Coercion laws in the abundance already set forth, so as to stifle the voice of impatient and savage hunger, and by the sanguinary crimes in which tiger passions and tiger appetites avenged or sought to protect themselves. The assizes rarely ended without the hanging of several unhappy peasants. The fate of the Irish peasant came to this ; he begged the right to eat two meals of potatoes 20 k it ■ !'■ 'If I! Vi it: i'H ^:'i i. u H ; ■ i ;i^ .rrj. I 11 II i 11 r./\ W'^ T-'' I 1 ti » '• 'i 1 352 (GLADSTONE— PAkNKl,L and bait in his own land and out of the earnings of his own arms and capital. For potatoes were all that the landlords left to the consumption of the tenants ; occasionally the peasant was refused even this small privilege ; with wife and child was ,7Ut the roadside to die. Then he went to tUi: a:-<^issination lodge ; and risked, and perhaps lost, Ilic to defend the right to two meals of po- tatoes daily, This tale of wrong, poverty and hopeless mis- ery became so loud and plain that in i8io the Repeal of the Union, the fatal act by which the sufferings of the country had been so terribly ag- gravated, was demanded at a great meeting in the city of Dublin, at which Protestants and Catholics joined in equally fervent denunciation of the de- struction of the Irish Parliament. But the demand fell upon deaf ears, and that policy was plainly hopeless. By a number of circumstances not re- quiring elaborate description. Catholic Emancipa- tion was held to be a more practicable reform, and was pushed to the front of all other Irish demands. The leader of this great movement was Daniel O'Connell. O'Connell is one of his- tory's most marvellous products. In physique he had the stamp of strength and greatness. Tall, brawny, muscular, active, he was of daundess courage, ofexhaustless industry, of never-sleeping energy. His oratory, perhaps, has received more unanimous and more lofty eulogy than that of any THE GREAT IKISII STRUGGLE. 353 other leader in history. He was equally potent with a great monster orathering of his own p^'o it* on the Irish hillside and in the House of C -ii- mons, surrounded by foes and compelled to ad- here most closely to dry statement of fact. He had every quality of the orator — an abounding- humor, immense powers of pathos, close reason- ing, masterly preparation and skilful presentation of facts. Laughter and ter s followed each other in rapid succ(ission when >;e ddressed his own people, and when he conli-^ntv.* opponents there was no fallacy which ho -v is not able to pierce and annihilate. In ad lition to all this he had great organizing genit .. Above all things, he was rich in the orator's mightiest weapon ; his voice was like the sound of some strange music ; powerful as an organ — as vp.ried in tone as the violin ; as artfully modulated as the throat of the p7'ima dmina. Armed with the s^lngle. weapon of his tongue alone, he achieved some of the great- est victories of history. For nearly half a century he exercised over a race, mobile, impatient, often desperate, a dictatorship as complete as ever Czar has been able to wield by the aid of multitudinous armies, vast fleets, ubiquitous police. He wrung from the greatest and the most hostile Ministers, and from the even more violently hostile King of England, one of the greatest triumphs of modern politics. He was able to raise the income of a principality from his self-ordained subjects, and he |. . -- f:' "i|V I Jl !i 11 i !i ( I I :i! I V w 'I , I 1 1 ^M' 11 J. i :i 'i; » ;J! :\r^4 GI - AI )STONE— PARNELL. was able finally to soar away from all rivals as an Alpine mountain from the plains below. It is not easy to realize at this time of day wha: Catholic Emancipation meant to Ireland at the time when O'ConncU took up the question. Ai first sight the question might appear unimportant. The demand was for the admission of Catholics to a seat in the Imperial Parliament. But behind this lay the whole system of gigantic wrong in Ireland. The tyranny of the landlords was covered by ramparts of official, municipal and social life that are scarcely paralleled in history. In a nation where of six millions barely a million were Prot- estants, all places on the judicial bench, in the Civil Service, in the Municipal Councils, in the Grand Jury room, in the Army and Navy, were re- served for Protestants. A Catholic could not be the mayor of a town ; he could not be even the member of a scaveno^in^" committee ; he could not be the High Sheriff that selected the jury ; he could not be a member of the jury that was selected ; he could not be the judge that decided the life or death of Catholics. Protestant ascen- dancy followed the Catholic everywhere, even into the army, where he had to fight for the King. Thus in Enniskillen, a Lieutenant Walsh had the coat of a soldier turned because he had gone to mass ; in Newry, a more adroit commander de- creed that the Catholic soldiers should not be allowed out on Sunday until two o'clock — that is 'i • \ ■ BHI THE GREAT IRISH S TRlXKlli:. 3o5 IS to say, until mass was over; Patrick Spcncc, a member of the County Dublin militia, havingr gone to mass, was sentenced to the Black Hole, and having written a letter of r<'nionstrance, was condemned to nine hundred and ninety lashes with the cat-o'-nine-tails — a sentence that had to be commuted in face of a violent outburst of indignation. It was in the North of Ireland, however, that Protestant ascendancy developed itself in its most aggravated form, for there it was decreed by the authorities that killing was no murder on the two conditions that the murderer was an Orangeman and the murdered a Catholic. On the 23d of June, 1808, a party of Catholics who were enjoy- ing a rustic evening near Newr)^ were fired upon by eighteen Orangemen. One was killed, several were wounded. Not one of the murderous party was ever tried, much less convicted. One of the party, a short time afterwards, celebrated the murder and its impunity by firing shots over the house where dwelt the father of the man who had been murdered. In the same year the Rev. Mr. Duane, tlxe parish priest of Mountrath, was mur- dered in the course of one of those Oranjre cele- brations which still yearly throw the Province of Ulster into a frenzy of excitement. In the fol- lowing year a Catholic named Kavanagh was murdered in his own house by the Orangemen, in the presence of his wife and four infant child I'^n ; l! t i\ /» I ., 'i i it 356 r.LADsrONE— I'ARNELL. ! and in July of that same year a priest was fired at and left for dead ; his cliapel was wrecked, and every CathoHc for miles around was insulted. For not one of these crimes was a Protestant brought to justice, and even if ihey had been tried, they would have been secure of acquittal from judges who were Orangemen ; from tiigh Sheriffs who would look after their own interests ; from juries into which the hated and despised Catholic had not a chance of entrance. And thus Orangeism strode in blood over the rest of Ireland. It w^s this dreadful system that O'Connell sought to put down. At every point he was re- sisted by fair means and foul. The judges sought to diminish his income by open disfavor or at- tempted bullying; the Orange Municipal Council of Dublin souorht to assassinate him throuofh the bullet of a crack shot; the lord-lieutenant issued prosecution after prosecution ; the Imperial Par- liament passed coercion law after coercion law afyainst him and his orcranizations. But O'Con- nell beat down every obstacle. His inflexible courage was proof against the judges; and when it came to browbeating, the Catholic serf was able to browbeat his Protestant master ; he met the intending assassin, and It was the Orangeman and not O'Connell that fell ; he lauorhed at all the prosecutions, for his mighty force as a lawyer made him impregnable ; he snapped his fingers \. THE GREAT IRISH STRUflGLE, 367 i ■' at every successive Coercion Act, hoastini^ and making'' grood the boast tiiat he could drive a coach and six throu<»;ii any act of Parliament that had ever been passed. When one association was put down he immediately raised another on its ruins, following- the same tactics with the same membersr.ip and the same ends. Tinally he had roused all Ireland so that the slaves of centuries began to work and hope and raise their Lf^^us from the ground; and by 1828 he had brought the countr\' to such a pitch of excitement and such high wrought resolve, to such iron-clad union, that rt*sistance began to stagger, and the advent of freedom was in the air. It is not uninstructive to mark the attitude of th(; Orangemen when Catholic emancipation was near. The idea of a Catholic having any rights never entered their heads ; if a Catholic were allowed even to vote, then the day of judgment must come, and the whole earth be consumed by fire from an outraged heaven. Plots were daily discovered by which the Papists were planning the massacre of all the Protestants of the country; O'Connell was denounced in terms of perfectly infernal coarseness ; and there were all sorts ot declarations that the blood of the Papists would be shed like water, and that the Orangemen would die rather than consent to this compact with Satan. 'And now," writes Joh Mitchel, mself a ■')! li' i i!!i' S n JJ to w '■« , ■f ■? 358 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Protestant, of the Orangemen of this period, *' arose the most tremendous clamor of alarmed Protestantism that had been heard in the three kingdoms since the days of James II. — the last king who had ever dreamed of placing Catholics and Protestants on something like an approach to equality. Multitudinous petitions — not only from Irish Protestants but from Scottish presby- teries, from English universities, from corpora- tions of British towns, from prvate individuals — came pouring into Parliament, praying that the great and noble Protestant State of England should not be handed over as a prey to the Jesuits, the Inquisitors, and the Propaganda, Never was such a jumble of various topics, sacred and pro- fane, as in those petitions ; vested interests — idolatry of the mass — principles of the Hanoverian succession — the Inquisition — eternal privileges of Protestant tailors or Protestant lightermen — our holy religion — F'rench principles — tithes — and the beast of the Apocalypse — all were urged with vehement eloquence upon the enlightened legis- lators of Britain. "What may seem strange, one has to admit that a greater number of these frightened peti- tioners were truly sincere and conscientious. The amiable Dr. Jebb, Protestant Bishop of Limerick, for example, writes an earnest letter to Sir Robert Peel, on the nth of February, 1829 (so soon as he saw the course matters were taking), and says THE (IRKAl IRISH STRUGGL.E. 359 to him : • Infinitely more difficulties and dangers will attach to concession than to uncompromising resistance. ... In defence of all that is dear to British Protestants, I am cheerfully prepared, it necessary, as many of my order have formerly done, to lay down life itself.' " "When Catholic emancipation," writes Mr. J. J. Clancy, M. P., in his able pamphlet, 'The Orange Bogey,' "came within 'the region of practical politics,' the Orangemen raised the most tremendous clamor that has been heard in the three kingdoms since the days of James II. To allow Catholics into Parliament was pronounced to be a fatal attack on the ' Constitution of 1688,' and on the birthright of every Protestant, and meetings were held in town and country to give expression to the determination of the Orange party ' never to submit' to such a measure, under any circumstance. The meetings of the 'Bruns- wick Clubs,' which were established in Dublin and elsewhere, were availed of for the delivery of the most bloodthirsty threats in case emancipa- tion was carried. Thus, in the Dublin Morni?tg Post of nth December, 1828, there is a report of a meeting of the Dublin Brunswick Club, at which one Judkin Buder closed a fiery speech against any concession to the Catholics with the following choice quatrain: " * Surrender I — no, we never will While Brunswickers have blood to spill ; '.'l ■ -A i'M'i m m t ■ ■>. 1 1 ! t I I -i:< ir^';!;"1 > , h i. :;ifiii 360 GLADSTONE -PARNEI-T.. Our cause is glorious, and for that we'll fight For George's title and for William's right.' '' il.il: These things are recalled not for the purpose of reviving religious bigotry or bitter memories, but to show the world the kind of men who are now resisting Home Rule. Tlie same men would still keep every Catholic in Ireland from the right to vote ; and indeed from the right even to de- fend his life from the rifles of orthodox Protestant warriors. The same men also are uttering- threats which bear a close resemblance to the threats of 1828, and will end in the same submission to the inevitable when Home Rule becomes an accom- plished fact. The final event that precipitated Catholic eman- cipation was the Clare election. In England when a member of Parliament accepts a hioh office he has to vacate his seat, and submit him- self once more to his constituency. Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, the member for County Clare, had been appointed to the presidency of the Board of Trade. He was a popular Irishman, a good land- lord, a staunch friend to Catholic claims, and of personally estimable character. But some daring spirit suggested that the great Agitator himself should stand for the vacancv. It was known that, as a Catholic, he could not take his seat ; but it was assumed that the experiment would bring things to a crisis, and compel the wavering gov- ernment finally to yield. After a contest of un- THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 361 exampled excitement, O'Connell was returned. The world was astounded ; the Orange party in Ireland was driven almost out of its senses, and statesmen at last saw that Catliolic emancipation could no longer be delayed. O'Connell after an interval presented himself at the bar of the House of Commons. He was asked to take the oath which was still in existence. This oath declared that the King of England was head of the Church and that " the sacrifice of the mass was impious and idolatrous." It was an oath which of course no Catholic could take, and O'Connell rejected it. He was refused admission ; and when finally Catholic emancipation was carried, the English ministers took a last and a mean revenge by tacking on a provision which prevented the act from being retrospective, and thereby com- pelled O'Connell to be elected over again. So ended the first oreat struo'Sfle after the Union. Ireland gave herself up to a delirium of joy; O'Connell was idolized; was given the sobriquet of the Liberator, by which he was pop- ularly known for the rest of his life ; and it was supposed that after the long night, the sun of Ireland was at last hip-h in the heavens. In the next chapter it will be seen how bitterly these hopes were disappointed ; how the real roots of Irish maladies were untouched; hew the disease went on getting aggravated until it ended in one of the most awful tragedies in history. ft m f ■ t r ) ■ rttl*± CHAPTER VII. THE GREAT FAMINE. i :'.; H ' >; i^ '■ « THE dreadful famine of 1845 ^^'^^ only the culmination of evils. The distress of the country for many years had been great. It was officially reported in 1824 " that a very consider- able proportion of the population, variously esti- mated at a fourth or a fifth of the whole, is con- sidered to be out of employment; that this, combined with the consequences of an altered system of managing land, produces misery and suffering which no language can possibly describe, and which it is X)^:'. . • ary to witness in order fully to estimate. The ..tuation of the ejected ten- antry, or of those who are obliged to give up their small holdings in order to promote the con- solidation of farms, is most deplorable. It would be impossible for language to convey an idea of the state of distress to which the ejected tenantry have been reduced, or of the disease, misery, or even vice which they have propagated where they have settled ; so that not only they who have been ejected have been rendered miserable, but they have carried with them and propagated 362 . lU '!< '] THE (iREAT IRISH S rRUGGLE. ;^(5H thai misery. They have increased the stock o! labor, they have rendered the habitations of ih<5sr who have received them more crowded, they iiav' given occasion to the dissemination of disease', they have been obHged to resort to theft and all manner of vice and iniquity to procure subsist- ence; but what is perhaps the most painful of all. a vast number of them have perished of want." The Poor Law Inquiry of 1835 reported that 2,235,000 persons were out of work and in dis- tress for thirty weeks in the year. The Devon Commission reported that it " would be impossible to describe adequately the sufferings and priva- tions which the cottiers and laborers and their families in most parts of the country endure," ** their cabins are seldom a protection against t!;e weather," ** a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury," "in many districts their only food is Vne pot-'cO. their only beverage water." "Returi'n^ ii.«jth- ing," Mr. Mill writes of the Irish lanciiords, " to the soil, they consume its whole produce minus the potatoes strictly nee sary to keep ti.t: in- habitants from dying of famine." It was this state of affairs between the landlord and tenant that gave to the potato its fatal importance in the economy of Irish life. All the wheat and oats which were grown on the land must go to the payment of the rent ; and also so much of the potato crop as was not required to keep the tenant and his family fr'>m absolute starvation. ^1 'i :i:i 4. ^y t I ,1 ■. ( 1 ; i i '.I F ! ;■>' ! -I t I ~i 864 (il ADSTONE— IVVRNELL. The potato was well suited for the position of the tenant. It produced a larger amount per acre than any other crop ; it suited the soil and the climate. The potato meant abundant food or starvation, life or wholesale death. It was the thin partition between famine and the Irish people. The plant had its bad qualities as well as its good ; it was hckle, perishable, liable to whole- sale destruction, and more than once already had given proof of its terrible uncertainty. The readi- ness of the potato to fail was the main factor in Irish life, not merely in the epoch with which we are now dealing, but in a period a great deal nearer to our own time. But in 1845 the nelds everywhere waved green and ilowery, and there was the promise of an abundant harvest. There had been whispers of the appearance of disease; but it was in coun- tries that in those days appeared remote — in Belgium or Germany, in Canada or America. In the autumn of 1845 it made its appearance for the first time in the United Kingdom. It was first (detected in the Isle of Wight, and in the first week of September tlie greater number of the potatoes iu the London market were found to be unfit for human food. In Ireland the autumnal weather was suggestive of some calamity. For weeks the air was electrical and disturbed: there was much lightning, unaccompanied by thunder. At last pt=f '■ Si' Pi :^: TllK CiREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 366 traces of the disease began to be discovered. A dark spot — such as would come from a drop of acid — was found in the green leaves ; the disease then spread rapidly, and in time there was noth- ing in many of the potato-fields but withered leaves emitting a putrid stench. The disease soon appeared on the coast of Wexford, and before many weeks were over n^- ports of an alarming character began to come from the interior. TIh^ plague was stealthy and swift, and a crop that was sound one day the next was rotten. As time passed on the disaster spread ; potatoes, healthy when they w^ere dug and pitted, were found utterly decayed when the pit was opened. All kinds of remedies were jjro- posed by scientific men — ventilation, new plans of pitting and of packing, the separation of the sound and unsound parts of the potato. All failed ; the blight, like the locust, was victor over all obstacles. The Dublin Corporadon called a public meet- ing under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, which O'Connell attended. He there drew atten- tion to one of the facts which excited the most attention, and, afterwards, aroused the fiercest aneer. This was, that while wholesale starvation was impending over the nation every port was carrying out its wneat and oats to other lands. Side by side with the fields of blighted potatoes in 1845 were fields of abundant oats. In one ii "I V iilii m II m : ir 1 i '■ ■.. ■ 1 1 ■II '' ■'*: ; : l< ^?;; ■•;■:■!! SIR 1.5 • li ' tl m m\ (iLADSrONK— PARNELL. wc't'k — according to O'Conntiirs speech — no less than i6,oco quarters of oats were exported from Ireland to London. O'Connell joined in the pro- posal that the export of provisions to foreign countries should be immediately prohibited, and that at thc^ same time the Corn Laws should be suspended, and the Irish ports opened to receive provisions. In favor of the proposal of closing the ports, O'Connell was able to adduce the example of Belgium, of Holland, of Russia, and of Turkey under analogous circumstances. Testimony is as unanimous and proof as clear as to the abund- ance of the grain crop as they are to the failure of the potato crop. " Every one,' said Lord John Russell, in 1847, "who travels through Ireland observes the large stacks of corn which are the produce of the late harvest." John Mitchel quotes the case of the captain who saw a vessel laden with Irish corn at the port of Rio Janeiro. The Irish writers complain because this ex- portation was not arrested, and on this they founded charges against the ministers of the period. It is grotesque to charge it as a crime against the English people that they ate the food which was supplied to them from Ireland: they obtained the right to eat the food by having paid for it. But the charge is just that it was the land legislation which the British Parliament had passed that rendered necessary the export of :t : *-■ THE GREAT IRISH STRUG(;i.K. 3()7 these vast provisions amidst all the st'''^ss and horrors of famine. There was scarcely a single head of all th'^se cattle, there was scarcely a sheaf of all this corn, the price of which did not go to pay the landlord over whose exorbitance and caprice the Legislature had again and again refused to place any legislative restraint. The Irish land system necessitated the export of food from a starving nation. The appeals addressed to the Government grew in intensity and urgency as the crisis ad- vanced, and reports began to reach Dublin of very numerous cases of starvation throughout the country. These appeals met with dilatory answers. The Government were noting all that took place ; then they were inquiring ; finally they had appointed a scientific commission to in- vestigate the facts of the case ; and so on. Meantime the destroying angel was advancing with a certain and swift wing. At this moment England was in the very agony of one of her greatest party struggles. The advent of the Irish famine was the last event that broke down Peel's faith in protection. When these warnings of impending disaster and these urgent prayers for relief came from Ire- land, Peel was in the unfortunate position of beincr convinced of the danger, and at the same time impotent as to the remedies. He was at that moment in the midst of his attempts to carry 21 -'» 1 ^■■'L^^i ' . '^ 1 ,J ■i , ! \ '•f ' I \ •i '»■ i , ■■ : ; 1: i ■ i ' i 'I i - I "\ >* '' 1 ■ I" * ' ; M ■ i ^1 ■: ■ ' 1 ' ■ 1 ■ i ■■ ! 1 ■ i > K. ' 1 1 ' : : : ' ' ./ ii '"■ ■-.■ r. it J r i 1 ^' i * ■■ li ( { f ■j i ,"., ,. «*r- ■ ■ :'.'. ■' u mn htii V 'f i'*' *) Vi rii Mid '^ 1. ui II ;:.l I' 'MiH « II-ADSTONE— rARNELI,. over his collLagues to free trade ; and so his hands were tied. He did propose that the ports should be opened by order in Council, but to this proposal he could not get some of his colleagues to agree. Then there came a min- isterial crisis : Peel resigned ; Lord John Russell was unable to form an administration ; and Peel again resumed office. The result of these various occurrences was that the ports were not opened and that Parliament was not summoned ; and thus three months — every single minute of which involved wholesale life or death — were allowed to pass without any effective remedy. Under such circumstances, O'Connell and the leaders of the National party were justified in drawing a contrast between this deadly delay and the promptitude that a native Legislature would have shown. ** If," he exclaimed at the Repeal Association, " they ask me wliat are my propositions for relief of the distress, I answer, first, Tenant-right, I would propose a law giving to every man his own. I would give the land- lord his land, and a fair rent for it ; but I would give the tenant compensation for every shilling he might have laid out on the land in permanent improvements. And what next do I propose? Repeal of the Union." And then he went on • "If we had a Domestic Parliament, would not the ports be thrown open — would not the abun- dant crops with which Heaven has blessed her be THE GREAT IRISH STKUCidI.E. 369 kept for the people of Ireland — and would not the Irish Parliament be more active even than the Belgian ParlianitMit to provide Ibr the [ ople food and employment? " The opening hours of the n(!xt Parliamentary session were sufficient to damp all hopes. On means of affording relief the Queen's Speech was vague ; but on the question of Coercion it spoke in terms of unmistakable plainness. *' 1 have observed," said that document, " with deep regret, the very frequent instances in which the crime of deliberate assassination has been of late committed in Ireland. It will be your duty to consider whether any measures can be devised calculated to give increased protection to life and to bring to justice the perpetrators of so dread- ful a crime." The characteristic contrast be- tween the tender solicitude of the Government for the landlords, and its half-hearted regard for the tenants — at the moment when of the tenants a thousand had died through eviction and hunirer for every one of the landlords who had met death through assassination — roused the bitterest resentment in Ireland. "The only notice," ex- claimed the Nation^ "vouchsafed to this country is a hint that more gaols, more transportation and more gribbets mio^ht be useful to us. Or, possibly, we wrong the Minister; perhaps when her Majesty says that ' protection must be af- forded to life,' she means that the people are not il I ^ 1 '1 1 'H i ! . \ 1 ■ 1 . ^ !! 1 \ ■ i,j!'M I'll !!^ li I ■I ! » n IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) •^ 1.0 I.I l^|28 |2.5 1^ 1^ 1 2.2 :!f us. 12.0 1.8 1.25 III , .4 ,.6 < 6" ► V <^ /} .^ * ,v' HiotDgraphic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 370 GLADSTC )N E— PARNELL. to be allowed to die of hunger during the ensu- ing summer — or that the lives of tenants are to be protected against the extermination of clear- ing landlords — and that so * deliberate assassi- nation ' may become less frequent ; — God knows what she means." The measures for limiting the distress were, first, the importation of corn on a lowered duty ; and, secondly, the advance of two sums of 50,000/., one to the landlords for the drainage of their lands, and the other for public works. The ridiculous disproportion of these sums to the magnitude of the calamity was proved before very long; but to all representations the Govern- ment replied in the haughtiest spirit of official optimism. " Instructions have been given," said Sir James Graham, " on the responsibility of the Government to meet any emergency." Only one good measure was covered by the generous self- complacency of this round assertion. Under a Treasury minute of December 19, 1845, the Min- istry had instructed Messrs. Baring and Co. to purchase 100,000/. worth of Indian corn. This they introduced secretly into Ireland, and its dis- tribution proved most timely. The Irish mem- bers pressed for more definite assurances. But their suggestions and Peel's beneficent intentions were frustrated by the fatal entanglement of Irish sorrows in personal ambitions and partisan war- fare. Peel had put forward the Irish famine as P ■:t 1 k ,1 ! THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 371 the main reason for his change of opinion on the Corn Laws ; and the Irish famine became one of the great debatable topics between the adherents of free trade and of protection. All the organs of the landlords in Ireland united in the state- ment that the reports of distress were unreal and exaggerated. "The potato crop of this year," wrote the Evening Mail (1845), " ^^^ exceeded an average one;" "the corn of all kinds is so far abundant" — which, indeed, was quite true — "the apprehensions of a famine are unfounded, and are merely made the pretence for withholding the payment of rent." Some days after it re- peated, " there was a sufficiency, an abundance of sound potatoes in the country for the wants of the people." "The potato famine in Ireland," exclaimed Lord George Bentinck, " was a gross delusion ; a more gross delusion had never been practised upon any country by any Government." "The cry of famine was a mere pretence for a party object." " Famine in Ireland," said Lord Stanley, " was a vision — a baseless vision." Another obstacle to the proper consideration of measures to meet the distress was the Coercion Bill. It was quite true that there had been atrocious murders in Ireland; but the provoca- tion to outraofe had been terrible. Somethinof like an epidemic of homicidal mania had seized many of the landlords for wholesale clearances at the very moment when the people were con- '!' %■ 372 GLADSTONE— FA RN EL I.. j H'^ • t fronted witii universal hun^rer. Within a few days of the discussion on the Coercion Bill a Mr. and Mrs. Gerard had turned out in one mornintr the entire population of the village of Ballinglass, in the county of GaUvay — 270 persons in number. Neither the old, the young, nor the dying had been spared. The roofs had been taken off their sixty houses ; and when the villagers took refuge under the skeleton walls they were driven thence, and the walls were rooted from their foundations. Then they took shelter in the ditches, where they slept for two nights huddled together before fires — some of them old men eighty years of age, others women with children upon their breasts. They were forced from the ditches as from their hearths. The fires were quenched, and the out- casts were driven away to find a home or a grave. Under the Coercion Bill the Lord Lieutenant could proclaim any district, and could order every person within it " to be and to remain " within his own house from one hour before sunset to one hour before sunrise. No person could with safety visit a public-house, or a tea- or coffee- shop, or the house of a friend. A justice of the peace had the power to search for and drag out all such persons. Any person outside his own house, whether wandering on the highway or in- side another house, was liable to be transported beyond the seas for seven years. " From four or w THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 373 five o'clock in the afternoon, till past eight on the following morning, durii.g the month of Decem- ber, no inhabitant of a proclaimed district in Ireland was to be allowed to set his foot outside the door of his cabin without rendering himself liable to this severe punishment. He might not even venture from home during that time to visit a friend, or to enjoy at any place a few hours of harmless recreation. Nay, he dared not even go to his work in the morning, or return from his work in the evening, so as to gain the advantage of the hours of daylight, without rendering him- self liable to arrest at the will of a police con- stable, and to be kept in confinement, in default of proving what no man could prove — that he was out with innocent intentions." Such a bill, ferocious at any time, was still more ferocious in the circumstances of Ireland at that moment. The man found outside a house between sunset and sunrise was liable to transportation for seven years ; and in this year the roads of all Ireland were crowded with wanderers, houseless, home- hess, starving and dying. The bill enabled the Lord Lieutenant to inflict taxation on the pro- claimed district for additional police, for additional magistrates, for compensation to the relations of murdered or injured persons ; and it was espe- cially enacted that the taxation could be levied by distress, and on the occupiers only. The land- lords, who were the direct authors and instigators i I t^ m 374 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. $ II ■;^. ■ of the despair that led to the crimes, were espe- cially exempted from all taxation. Every tenant was liable ; and so resolute were the Government to inflict the tax, that the merciful exemptions by the Poor Law were abrogated. And this at the moment when a large majority of the inhabitants of Ireland had not one meal of potatoes a day ! Cruel as was such a bill at such a time it would have been passed with a light heart, and by huge majorities from all English parties, if the exigencies of English party warfare had not at this moment produced a curious alliance. The English Whigs were anxious to return to office ; the protectionists raged with the desire to be avenged on Peel for the abandonment of protection ; and the two parties saw in a combination against this bill an opportunity of attaining their different ends. Lord John Russell had voted for the first reading of the bill, and Lord George Bentinck, in response to some overtures to use it against the ministers, had responded with fierce indignation and a vehement defence of the measure. But Lord John Russell had ambition, and Lord George Bentinck had an adviser in Mr. Disraeli ; and each performed a volte-face as prompt as it was shameless. They both condescended, of course, to supply most excellent and strictly decorous reasons for their change of attitude. Lord John Russell announced the discovery — made with the suddenness, and, as will be seen by-and-by, lost THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. ;j7r) again with tht suddenness of a modern miracle — that coercion Ui'i'ravated, instead of curin"[ the evils of Ireland ; and Lord Cieor<^^e Bentinck, de- claring that the Government had displayed insin- cerity in postponing the bill so long, proceeded to prove his own sincerity by taking care that it should be postponed. It was under conditions like this that an Irish Coercion Hill was defeated for the first and last time in the whole history of the Imperial Parliament. — In the opinion of the majority of the Irishmen who survive from that period the change of administration was dearly bought by Ireland, even by the defeat of a Coercion Bill. The steps that had been taken by Peel were certainly grossly insufficient ; but the opinion of posterity is that, as a minister, Lord John Russell was much less competent to deal with the terrible crisis which had now come upon Ireland than Peel would have been. Nothing brings the position of the Irish tenant with more terrible clearness to the mind than the fact that the awful warning of 1845 had to be unheeded. In 1846 the potato was still cherished as the only friend, the single resource of the peasant. He stuck, then, to the plant — not with the tenacity of despair; not with ob- stinacy; but because in his circumstances the potato, and the potato alone, offered him hope. Contemporary testimony is unanimous in de- I ^ *i . f i fi ll. 1 ' ■ Ti ' 1: i 1 ! M I j 37() (W.ADSTONE— I'ARNKM. m- i ■A scribing the peasants as working at that period with a determination to risk all on the one cast that exhibited a whole people in a state of desperation. "Already feeling the pinch of sore distress, if not actual famine, they worked as if for dear life ; they begged and borrowed on any terms the means whereby to crop the land once more. The pawn-offices were choked with the humble finery that had shone at the village dance or christening feast ; the banks and local money- lenders were besieged with appeals for credit. Meals were stinted ; backs were bared." The spring was unpromising enough. Snow, hail and- sleet fell in March lut when the summer came, it made amends . Jl this. The weather in June was of tropical heat ; vegetation sprang up with something of tropical rapidity ; and everybody anticipated a splendid harvest. To- wards the end of June there was a change for the worse. So also in July, there was the alter- nation of tropical heat and thunder-storm, of parching dryness and excessive rain. After this there was a continuous downpour of rain. Still the crop went on splendidly ; and all over the country once again wide fields promised exuber- ant abundance. In the early days of August symptoms of coming disaster were seen. A strange portent was seen simultaneously in several parts of Ire- land. A fog — which some describe as extremely ■MaMi THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 377 while and others as yellow — was seen to rise Irom the ground; the fog was dry, and emitted a disagreeable odor. The fog of that night bore the blight within its accursed bosom. The work of destruction was -as swift as it was uni- versal. In a single night and throughout the whole country the entire crop was destroyed, al- most to the last potato. "On the 27th of last month" (July), writes Father Mathew, "I passed from Cork to Dublin, and this doomed plant bloomed in all the luxuriance of an abundant harvest. Returning on the 3d instant (August), I beheld with sorrow one wide waste of putre- fying vegetation." Some of the people rushed into the towns, others wandered listlessly along the high roads ia_tlie.-vague and vain hope that food would some- how or other come to their hands. They grasped at everything that promised sustenance ; they plucked turnips from the fields; many were glad to live for weeks on a single meal of cab- bage a day. In some cases they feasted on the dead bodies of horses and asses and dogs ; and there is at least one horrible story of a mother eating the limbs of her dead child. The characteristic merriment of the peasantry totally disappeared. People went about, not speaking even to beg, with a " stupid, despair- ing look ; " children looked " like old men and women ; " and even the lower animals seemed to I \i i! 1 1 378 (;i>AUST()NE-I'ARNEIX. h-|i:, feel the surrounding despair. Parents neglected their children, and in a few localities children turned out their aged parents. Hut such cases \v(!re very rare, and in the most remote i^arts of th(; country. There are, on the other hand, numberless stories of parents willingly dying the slow death of starvation to save a small store of food for their children. The workhouse was then, as now, an object of loathing. Within its walls take refuge the vic- tims of vice and the outcasts of the towns. En- trance into the workhouse was regarded not merely as marking social ruin, but moral degra- dation. Fathers and mothers died themselves, and allowed their children to die alonq^ with them within the ir own hovels, rather than seek a refuge within those hated walls. But the time came when hunger and disease swept away these pre- judices, and the people craved admission. Here, again, hope was cheated; the accommodation in the workhouses was far below the requirements of the people. At Westport 3,000 persons sought relief in a single day, when the work- house, though built to accommodate 1,000 per- sons, was already "crowded far beyond its ca- pacity." The streets were crowded with wan- derers sauntering to and fro with hopeless air and hunger-struck look. Driven from the work- houses, they began to die on the roadside, or within their own cabins. Corpses lay strewn by THK (JRKAT IRISfl STRUdr.LE. .•J7J) the side of once-freqiuiiited roads, and at doors in the most crowded streets of the towns. Dur- ing that period, roads in many places became as charnel-houses, and car and coach drivers rarely drove anywhere without seeing dead bodies strewn along the roadside. In the neighbor- hood of Clifden one inspector of roads caused no less than 140 bodies to be buried which he found along the highway. It was a common occurrence to find on opening the front door in early morn- ing, leaning against it, the corpse of some victim who in the night-time had rested in its shelter. Men with horse and cart were employed to go around each day and gather up the dead. The bodies of those who had fallen on the road lay for days unburied. Husbands lay for a week in the same hovels with the bodies of their un- buried wives and children. Often when there was a funeral it bore even ghastlier testimony to the terror of the time. " In this town," writes a correspondent from Skibbereen, " have I wit- nessed to-day men, fathers, carrying perhaps their only child to its last home, its remains enclosed in a few deal boards patched together; I have seen them, on this day, in three or four instances, carrying those coffins under their arms or upon their shoulders, without a single individual in at- tendance upon them ; without mourner or cere- mony — without wailing or lamentation. The people in the street, the laborers congregated K lii ! I 'i 1 ■ ^ ':: i' , ■ 1 , 1 t I. ' . , f I . ■ 5 1 .■ ;'« , . \ d ;{80 (.I.AhSlONK -I'ARNKM.. !• ' m in tlui town, regarded the spectacle without sur- prise ; they looked on with indifference, because it was of hourly occurrence." Meantime, wliat had (government been doing? They had b(;en aggravating nearly all the evils that were causing so rich a harvest of suffering and death. Donations to the amount of ;^i 00,000 had been given from the Treasury under Pe(;l in aid of subscriptions raised by charitable organiza- tions. A more important step was the setting on foot of works for the employment of the destitute. Lord John Russell suddenly closed the works wliich had been set on foot by Peel. At the time there were no less than 97,900 persons employed on the relief works ; and the effect of adding this vast army of unemployed to the population whose condition has just been described can be imag- ined. Russell's policy was announced on August 17, 1846; and, well-intentioned as his scheme doubt- less was, there was scarcely a sentence in it which did not do harm. The Government did not pro- pose to interfere with the regular mode by which Indian corn and other kinds of grain might be brought into Ireland. The Government proposed " to leave that trade as much at liberty as pos- sible." " They would take care not to interfere with the regular operations of merchants for the supply to the country or with the retail trade." Relief works were to be set on foot by the Board ii. ! \ THE CIKKAT IRISH STKUiK il.K im of Works when they had pnrvioiisly been pre- sented at pre.'srntmeiit sessions, l^'or f.liese works the Government were; to advance money at the rate o{ 2)]/2 P^-r cent., repayable in t(.'n years. In the poorer districts tht; Government were to make grants to the extent of ;^5o,ooo. The evil effects of this lej^islation were not long in showing themselves. Tiie d(!clarations with regard to non-intervention with trade were espe- cially disastrous. The price of grain at onc(^ went lip, and while the deficiency of food was thus enormously increased, speculators were driven to frenzy by the prospect of fabulous gains. Wheat that had been exported by starving tenants was afterwards reimported to Ireland; sometimes be- fore it was finally sold it had crossed the Irish Sea four times — delirious speculation offering new bids and rushing in insane eagerness in search of the daily increasing prices. Stories are still told of the ruin that was the Nemesis to some of the greedy speculators in a nation's starvation. More than one who kept his corn obstinately in store while the people around him were dying by the thousand, when he at last opened the doors found, not his longed-for treasure-house, but an accumulation of rotten corn. "A client of mine," writes Fitzgibbon, "in the winter of 1846-47 be- came the owner of corn cargoes of such number and magnitude that if he had accepted the prices pressed upon him in April and May, 1847, ^^^ i mi 388 GLA DS rONE— PARNELL. on the young and the old, the strong and the feeble, the mother and the infant ; whole families lie together on the damp floor devoured by fever, without a human being to wet their burning lips or raise their languid hc^ads ; the husband dies by the side of the wife, and she knows not that he is beyond the reach of earthly suffering ; the same rag covers the festering remains of mortality and the skeleton forms of the living, who are uncon- scious of the horrible contiguity; rats devour the corpse, and there is no energy among the living to scare them from their horrid banquet ; fathers bury their children without a sigh, and cover them in shallow graves round which no weeping mother, no sympadiizing friends are grouped ; one scanty funeral is followed by another and another. Without food or fuel, bed or bedding, whole families are shut up in naked hovels, drop- ping one by one into the arms of death." Before accommodation for patients "approached anything like the necessity of the time, most mournful and piteous scenes were presented in the vicinity of fever hospitals and workhouses in large towns. Day after day numbers of people, wasted by famine and consumed by fever, could be seen lying on the footpaths and roads waiting for the chance of admission ; and when they were fortunate enough to be received their places were soon filled by other victims!" "At the gate leading to the temporary fever THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLF. 389 hospital, erected near Kilmainham, were men, women and children, lying along the pathway and in the gutter, awaiting their turn to be admitted. Some were stretched at full length, with their faces exposed to the full glare of the sun, their mouths opened, and their black and parched tongues and encrusted teeth visible even from a distance. Some women had children at the breast who lay beside them in silence and appa- rent exhaustion — the fountain of their life being dried up ; whilst in the centre of the road stood a cart containing a whole family who had been smitten down together by the terrible typhus, and had been brought there by the charity of a neighbor." Outside the workhouses similar scenes took place. "Those who were not admitted — and they were, of course, the great majority — having no homes to return to, lay down and died." Admission to the fever hospital and to the workhouse was but the postponement or often the acceleration of death. Owing to the unex- pected aem.ands made upon their space, the offi- cials oi these institutionc were utterly unable to adopt measures for diminishing the epidemic. The crowding rendered it impossible to separate even the dead and the dying — there were not beds for a tithe of the applicants ; and thus the epidemic was spread and intensified. " Inside the hospital enclosure" (the fever hospital at n ri \i I :! } i !i \'\ I I 1 1- > ! i\ wmm 390 Kilr GLADSTONE— PARNELL. linham), says a writer, "was a small, open shed, in which were thirty-five human beings heaped indiscriminately on a little straw thrown on the ground. Several had been thus for three days, drenched by rain, etc. Some were uncon- scious, others dying; two died during the night." •• We visited the poorhouse at Glenties " (county of Donegal), says Mr. Tuke, "which is in a dreadful state ; the people were, in fact, half starved, and only half clothed. They had not sufficient food in the house for the day's supply. Some were leaving the house, preferring to die in their own hovels rather than in the poorhouse. Their bedding consisted of dirty straw, in which they were laid in rows on the floor, even as many as six persons being crowded under one rug. The living and the dying were stretched side by side beneath the same miserable covering." The general effect of all this is summed up thus pithily but completely in the report of the Poor Law Commissioners for 1846: "In the present state of things nearly every person admitted is a patient ; separation of the sick, by reason of their number, becomes impossible ; disease spreads, and by rapid transition the workhouse is changed into one large hospital." Workhouses and hospitals were not the only institutions which were filled. The same thing happened to the gaols. The prison came to be regarded as a refuge. Only smaller offences M.d THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 391 were at first committed ; and an epidemic of glass-breaking set in. But as times went on, and the pressure ot distress became greater, graver crimes became prevalent. Thus sheep- stealing grew to be quite a common offence ; and a prisoner's good fortune was supposed to be comp' te if he were sentenced to the once loathed punishment of transportation beyond the seas. The Irishman was made happy by the fate which took him to any land, provided only it was not his own. But the prisons, without a tithe of the accom- modation necessary for the inmates, became nests of disease ; and often the offender who hoped for the luck of transportation beyond the seas found that the sentence of even a week's imprisonment proved a sentence of death. The total deaths between 1841 and 1851 from fever were 222,029. But, allowing for deficient returns, 250,000 — a quarter of a million of people — perished from fever a^ne. The famine and the fever were naturally accom- panied and followed by other maladies which re- sult from insufficiency and unsuitability of food. The potato blight continued with varying viru- lence until 1 85 1, its existence being marked by the prevalence in more or less severe epidemics of dysentery, which carried off 5,492 persons in 1846, 25,757 in 1847; th^ annual totals swelling, until in 1849 the deaths from this disease alone !■• <4 if> n92 GLADSTONE-PARNELL. \ i [ .:?!.'* amounted to 29,446 ; cholera, vvh»':h destroyed 35,989 lives in 1848-49; sm' )x, to which 38,275 persons fell victims in me decennial pe- riod between 1841 and 1851. It should be added that as a direct consequence of the famine many thousands suffered severely from scurvy. It was the terrible mortality of these epidemics, and especially of the fever, that led to the most sinister invention of the hinged coffin. The coffin was made with a movable bottom ; the body was placed in it, the bottom unhinged, the body was thrown into the grave, and then the coffin was sent back to the workhouse to receive an- other body. Sometimes scores of corpses passed in this way through the same coffin. Justin Mc- Carthy, a youth of seventeen, just then started on his professional career as a reporter, many times saw the hinged coffin in actual use. In Skibber- een, which was one of the worst scourged places, the hinged coffin was largely used. The traveller is to-day pointed out, as historic spots of the town, two large pits, in which hundreds of bodies found a coffinless grave. At last the Ministry were compelled in 1847 ^^ change their whole procedure. New legislation was introduced ; all the ideas were abandoned to which the Government had adhered with an ob- stinacy that the deaths of tens of thousands of people could not for months change. The Irish Relief Act was the official title of the new en- THE GREAT IRISH STRUG(;LE, 39.*} actment; it was familiarly known as the Soup Kitchen Act. Relief coimnittees were to be formed ; they wen; to prepare lists of persons who were fit subjects for relief; footl was to be ^ivcn — at reasonable prices to some, gratuitously to the absolutely destitute. Here was a departun; with a vengeance from the solii' ^jrinciples of po- litical economy that had been preached with such unction by the prigs who had undertaken to man- age Irish affairs for the Irish people. But the good intentions of the Government were defeated by blunders. Oin' of the objects was to induce the people to till ihrir own fields so as to avoid the repetitio! in 1848 of the loss of the harvest that had followed the letjislation of 1846; and, accordingly, it was ordered that the relief works should be gradually dropped, and that relief through the soup kitchens should take their place. At the end of March the num- ber of persons employed was to be reduced by twenty per cent,, and by May ist the works were to be entirely discontinued. It was in- tended, too, that by the time the relief works came to an end the soup kitchens would be in existence. The number of people employed on the relief works was gigantic. In the first week of the re- lief works the number of persons employed was but 20,000; but In March, 1847, had reached the enormous number of 734,000. The disar- i I': . 1 1 ! 1 ^ •' 1 I i i i 3 ' LI • a I i ii 394 GLADSTONE— I'AkNELL. Ir '!.' rangcmcnt of a scheme on which so many peo- ple dopcnchxl for food was a project of strange rashness, and it was carried out by the officials in a manner to aggravate all the evil of the original plan. The reduction of twenty per cent, was to take place in the aggregate, and not in each place — of course, regard should be had to the different conditions of each locality: the officials lowered the number of persons em- ployed in every district with perfect uniformity. Then the intention of the Government was that the Soup Kitchen Act should be in full working order when the relief works came to an end. By May jst, when the whole three-quarters of a million of ^yeople were turned away from work, there was not a single relief committee in full working order. The result was that there was a period during which some of the worst suffer- ings of the famine days were repeated. But the scheme proved on the whole effective and beneficial. Deaths from starvation came to an end ; fever grew less intense in the hospitals ; and the fields were fairly tilled. Thus ^ the ^severest verdict on the early incompetence of the Government was passed by the results of their own later legislation. And, indeed, with an appalling candor, the ministers themselves con- fessed to their own tragfic mistake. But all these things came too late, and espe- cially too late to retain the population. Emigra- THK GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 395 tion received a terrible impetus, and the people Hed ill a lr(!nzy of grief and despair from their doomed land. But even in their flight they were pursued by the demons they iiad endeavored to leave behind. The brotherhood of humanity, powerless to frame just laws and to give national rights, asserted itself in disease and death. To England, as the nearest refuge, the Irish exiles first fled. No less than 180,000 are said to have landed in Liverpool between January 1 5th, and May 4th, 1847. ^^ Glasgow, between June 15th, and August 17th, 26,335 arrived from Ireland. At^ last the Government had to interfere to pro- Ject the English people from ;he horrors which the errors and folly of British administration had created in Ireland. Vast masses tried to make their way to Amer- ica. In the year 1845, 74,969 persons emigrated from Ireland; in 1847 the number rose to 215,444. No means were taken to preserve these poor people from the rapacity of ship-owners. The landlords, delighted at getting rid of them, made bargains for their conveyance wholesale and at small prices ; and in those days emigrant-ships were under no sanitary restrictions of any effec- tiveness. Thus the emigrants, already half- starved and fever-stricken, were pushed into berths that rivalled the cabins or the fever-sheds. When Ireland was being scourged with all these plagues her political leaders aggravated I I 396 GLADSTONE— PARN ELL. :fi fB iV ;!'! "it mv \',i ' jh I 3 the fiery ^VlIeel of oppression more securely than ever. On April 3d, 1846, he delivered a length- ened speech to the House of Commons, of which an entirely inaccurate description is given in Lord Beaconsfield's " Life of Lord George Bentinck." However much the voice and other physical attributes of O'Connell may have appeared to have decayed, this speech, in its selection of evi- dence, and in its arrangement of facts, and its presentation of the whole case against the land system of Ireland, may be read even to-day as the completest and most convincing speech of the times on the question. He spoke in the House of Commons for the last time in Feb- ruary, 1847, ^^^ the next day was seriously ill. He went abroad, and was everywhere met by demonstrations of respect and affection. But his heart was broken. A gloom had settled over him which nothing could shake ofl. He died at Genoa, on May 15th, 1847. His last will was that his heart should be sent to Rome, and his body to Ireland. He lies in Glasnevin Cemetery. The removal of his imposing personality from Irish politics aggravated the dissensions between Old and Young Ireland. The evils of the country grew daily worse ; hope from Parliament died in face of a failure so colossal as that of O'Connell ; and some of the Young Irelanders, seized with despair, resolved to try physical force. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 401 The apostle of this new gospel was John Mitchel — one of the strangest and strongest figures of Irish political struggles. He was the son of an Ulster Unitarian clergyman ; and he was one of the early contributors to the Nation, and started a paper on his own account. In this paper insurrection was openly preached; and es- pecially insurrection against the land system. The people were asked not to die themselves, nor let their wives and children die, while their fields were cove red with food which had been pro- duced by the sweat of their brows and by their own hands. It was pointed out that the reason why all this food was sent from a starving to a prosperous nation was that the rent of the land lord might be paid, and that the rent should therefore be attacked. The Ministry, in order to cope with the results of a period of universal hunger and disease, suc- ceeded in having a whole code of coercion laws passed. The Cabinet had changed its political complexion. Lord John Russell had been the leader of the Whigs in the triumphant attack on coercion ; and now transformed from the leader of Opposition to the head of the Government brought in coercion bills himself It has been already told how, when O'Connell was tried and convicted by packed juries and par- tisan judges, the Whig leaders in the House of Commons denounced jury-packing as the vilest 23 ! I I :i \ \ f w \ \ \ I % ill 'I » L t I t m ' ^'^ li if ffrn"^ ' H v. (' I i (Si. :& •I ! l ^,1 III '1 r* ' f< in !i\m i;;» ki < J h^ 408 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Lalor Shell, one of the most eloquent colleagues of O'Conncll in the old struggle, had kept out of all po[)ular movements — some said because the despotic will of the great tribune made life intol- erable to any but slaves — and had in time sunk to the level of a Whig office-holder. In 1846 he stood for Dungarvan, and the Young Irelanders demanded that he should be opposed by a man who was not in favor with the Government. O'Connell stood by his old associate, and Shiel was elected. The struggle which had raged in the days of O'Connell burst out with even greater fury when he was dead. The Young Irelanders proposed that no man should be elected who did not pledge himself to take no office under the Crown. And if such a pledge were ever neces- sary or justifiable it was at that moment. The Irish nation was being murdi. v-d ; and the demand for relief should come, not from beggars seeking the pence of the Treasury, but from men caring only for the cure of the awful suffering of their country. But the Repeal Association refused to accede to any such pledge ; and raised those false side- issues which are the favorite resort of unscrupulous traffickers. A favorite expedient was to whisper doubts of the religious orthodoxy of the Young Irelanders ; and their proposals being first de- scribed as revolutionary, dread warnings were by ,, THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 409 t'l th( an easy transition drawn troni tne sangui acts of the revolutionaries of France. Younir Irelanders were described as having "murdered the Liberator." The disappearance of O'Connell, especially in circumstances of such tragic and pitiful gloom, had produced on the whole Irish people an impression as if the sun or moon had suddenly dropped out of the heavens. In such a condition of tlie popular mind the Young Irelanders were everywhere denounced ; in many places they were set upon by mobs, and were in danger of their lives. The public feeling against them threw great difficulties in the way of the policy which they recommended; and that policy did not receive anything like a fair hearing. Their candidates were everywhere defeated, and in their stead were chosen men who were openly for sale. Thus, instead of seventy independent and honest Irish representatives, there was returned a motley gang of as disreputable and needy adventurers as ever trafficked in the blood and tears of a nation. Of the entire number no less than twenty afterwards accepted places for themselves, and twenty more were continually pestering the Gov- ernment V/ hips for places for their dependents. Then the Repeal party broke up, and Ireland was left without an advocate in Parliament. The ruin and helplessness of the country was now complete. Insurrection had been tried and had 1 \ 410 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, .':'!'• V'fl failed ; constitutional agitation had produced a gang of scoundrels who were ready to sell them- selves to the highest bidder. Ireland, starving, plague-stricken, disarmed, unrepresented, lay at the mercy of the British Government and of the Irish landlords. It wi'l not be uninstructive to see what use the two classes made of their omnipotence over the country which death, hunger and plague, abortive rebellion and political treachery had given over to their hands. To anybody who desires a picture of what Irish landlordism in the days of the famine really meant the perusal of the *' Reports and Returns relating to Evictions in the Kilrush Union " will be of absorbing interest. These extracts tell over and over again the same tale, until the heart grows sick with the repetition of ghastly and almost incredible horrors. For the sickening details we have neither heart nor space. The sum and sub- stance of the story is this: the people had so suffered by famine and fever that they could not pay their rents. A very great number of evictions and clearances took place throughout the country. It was one of the chief dreams of that period that the Celtic race should be replaced by a sturdier and more self-reliant race — the assump- tion being of course that it was Irish vice and incapacity, and not English laws, that caused the hideous breakdown of the English land system GLADSTONE PRESENTING THE HOME RULE BILL, i 886. ' )i '■\\- ! t ; 'I I- ! i i; THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 413 in Ireland. '* They devised a plan," said the Solicitor General, '* which he hoped would induce capitalists from England to take an interest in the sales." And Sir Robert Peel took the trouble of elaborating a scheme for a new plantation of Ireland by the substitution of English and Scotch for Irish landlords. Possibly English or Scotch landlords would have been incapable of the hideous cruelty de- picted by Captain Kennedy and so many other writers of the times ; it required the training of the centuries through which the Irish land had passed to inure their hearts to such revolting crimes. It was apparently the desire of the English statesmen of that period to get rid of as many of the peasantry as possible. After all the ravages of hunger, the decimation through fever, the terrible emigration, it was deemed that the true remedy for Ireland was more emigration! Indeed the u of Ireland for the Irish race and the Irish race for Ireland was a dogma preached with something like the frenzy of a new revelation. A select committee of the House of Lords was especially catholic in its search for a better land for Irishmen than the land which had given them birth. An association consisting of six peers and twelve commoners, styled " The Irish Committee," also devoted itself very earnestly to the question of emigration. In this Irish Committee were two l/i 1^ >^A I-". "i ' i! S m '^ 414 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Englishmen — Mr. Godley and Dr. Whately — the latter the well-known Archbishop of Dublin. Dr. Whately's name is still held in affectionate and respectful remembrance by many people in Eng- land. At thi«: epoch, and, as will be seen, still more in a subsequent epoch of Irish history, his counsels were among the most fatal to the pros- perity of Ireland. This body drew out an elabo- rate scheme under which a million and a half of the Irish people were to be sent to Canada at a cost of 9,000,000/. But all this time the idea never occurred to any of the EnMish leaders that there should be the slightest interference with the power of the land- lords. The power of the landlords had been the main cause of the horrors through which Ireland was passing ; and yet the landlords were to be left that power. The mass of the people were to be exported to Canada or Australia, and the country was to be delivered entirely to their lords and masters. The land of Ireland was to be laid waste of as many of six millions of people as ten thousand landlords chose to condemn to banish- ment. At this point it will be instructive to consider the action not only of the Imperial Parliament but that of the Liberal leaders in particular. Lord John Russell, as had been seen, had got into office on the rejection of an Irish Coercion Bill. He had objected to the Coercion Bill of Sir ■ THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 415 Robert Peel not merely on account of the harsh- ness of its provisions, the weakness of the case in its favor, the sufficiency of the ordinary law ; his chief ground of objection was that Ireland was in crying need of remedial legislation, and that no Coercion Bill ought to be considered by Parl'ament unless it was accompanied, and ac- companied even stage by stage, by remedial pro- posals. His reference to the ills of Ireland were pitched in as high a key as even the most vehe- ment of Irish repealers could have wished. " Such," he asserted, " is the incentive which is given to the poor Irish peasant to break the law, which he considers deprives him of the means, not of being rich, but of the means of obtaining a. subsistence. On this ground, then, if you were right to introduce any measure to repress crime beyond the ordinary powers of the law, it would have been right at the same time to introduce other measures by which the means of sub- sistence might be increased, and by which the land upon which alone the Irish peasant subsists, might be brought more within his reach, and other modes of occupation allowed to him more than he now possesse*?." " I know," he said, " indeed, that the noble lord (the Earl of Lincoln) has introduced within the last two or three days measures upon a very complicated subject — the law of landlord and ten- ant ; but I think those measures should have been I «! a IF I {} V. I i' fan i! J! i their history, and O'Connell died of a broken heart. And here was Lord John Russell, on whom O'Connell had placed his re- liance, to whose good faith O'Connell sacrificed his party and himself and his country, justifying the very worst predictions of the Young Ire- landers, wrecking the hopes and blasting the lives of the Irish nation. The trust was be- trayed, openly, shamelessly, heartlessly. Fur- ther instances v*riil be found in the following ! THE GREAT IRISH STRLGCLE. . \ 421 pages where the Irish people, untauorht by their experiences, again placed their faith in the Whig party, and again found that they relied on a rot- ten reed. The frightful state of things in 1847 naturally produced a considerable amount of disturbance. Many of the tenants were indecent enough to object to being robbed of their own improve- ments ev^i with the sanction of an alien Parlia- ment, and went the lencjth of revoltino ao^ainst their wives and children being massacred whole- sale. In short, the rent was in danger, and in favor of that sacred institution all the resources of British law and British force were promptly despatched. The Legislature had shown no hurry whatever to meet in '46 or '47, when the question at issue was whether hundreds of thou- sands of the Irish tenantry should perish of hunger or of the plague. Now Parliament could not be summoned too soon, and a Coercion Bill could not be carried with too much promptitude. It will not be necessary to recall the quotations which have just been made from the speech of Lord John Russell in opposing the Coercion Bill of 1846. Suffice it to say that while in 1846 he Iiad objected to the Coercion Bill, '' above all " because it was not accompanied w.th measures ^^^oTrelief, of remedy, and conciliation," and that he had gone so far as to pledge himself to the principle that some such proposals ought to ac- r 1 1: i 422 GLADSTONE— FARNELL. I 1 company any measure which tended to " increased ri^or of the law, " Lord John Russell was now himself proposing a measure for greatly "in- creased rigor of the law," not only without ac- companying it with any measure of " relief, of remedy, of conciliation " on his own part, but vehemently opposing any such measure when brought in by any other person. Lord Grey has been quoted for his opinion on the clear- ance system, and here was the clearance system going on worse than ever, and Lord Grey re- maining a member of the Ministry. The police were urged to unusual activity, and large bodies of the military even were pressed into the service of the landlords, seized the pro- duce of the fields, carried them to Dublin for sale — acted in every respect as the collectors of the rent of the landlord, and thus shared the honor of starving the tenants. In 1848 a number of Irishmen, as has been seen, driven to madness by the dreadful suffering they everywhere saw around, and by the neglect or incapacity of Parliament, had sought the des- perate remedy of open revolt. The men who, for wrongs much less grievous, rose in the same year in Hungary or France or Italy, were the idols of the British people, and were aided and encour- aged by British statesmen. But British action towards Ireland was to pass a Treason Felony Act, and to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. ► THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLK. 423 n Parliament came tog^ether. Lord John Russell brought forward his bill. Sir Robert Peel at once "gave his cordial support to the proposed meas- ure." Mr. Disraeli "declared his intention of giving the measure of government his unvarying and unequivocal support." Mr. Mume was " obliged, though reluctantly, to give his consent to the measure of the government." Lord John Russell said that "as the Hous(! had expressed so unequivocally its feeling in favor of the bill, it would doubtless permit its further stages to be proceeded with instanter. He moved the second reading." Of course the House permitted the further stages to be proceeded with instanter, and the bill, having passed through committee, "Lord Russell moved the third reading," which was agreed to, " and the bill was forthwith taken up to the House of Lords." " On the next day but one, Monday, July 26," goes on the "Annual Reg- ister," " the bill was proposed by the Marquis of Lansdowne, who concluded his speech in its favor by moving 'that the public safety requires that the bill should be passed with all possible de- spatch.' " Of course the motion was accepted by their Lordships " that the bill should be passed with all possible despatch ; " and " the bill passed nem. dis. through all its stages." This was the action of liberty-loving Englishmen in 1848. The reader will not forget that in the year up to which I have now brought the story of legisla- M'! IM •I It .: £♦ r 424 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. W- i' .6^ .^J n1' xX 0' tion upon the land question, Ireland was perfectly tranquil. The agitation for repeal, which had reached such mighty and apparently resistless proportions in 1843, ^^^^ vanished amid dissen- sions, hunger, fever, emigration, and a vast multi- tude of corpses. The Imperial PT.rliament was unchecked mist»-ess of the destinies of Ireland. Having described the famine, but two things remain to be discussed. Was the famine inevita- ble? Or vv'as it preventable evil — evil that" was created by bad, and that could have been pre- vented by good, government? Most persons will hold that a civilizei^, highly organized, and extremely wealthy government ought to be able to meet such a crisis so effectu- ally as to prevent the loss of one single life Jjy hunger. In the present generation India was menaced by a famine. Public opinion in England demanded that not one of our Indian fellow-sub- jects should die of hunger; and not one did die. Some Irish writers are accustomed to present the theory that the terrors and horrors of the famine were the result of a deliberate conspiracy to mur- der wholesale an inconvenient, troublesome, and hostile nation. Such a theory may be rejected, and yet leave a heavy load of guilt on the Minis- ters. Statesmen must be judged by the results of their policy. The. poJicy which created the famine was the land legislation of the British Par- liament. The refusal of the British Legislature i t $ 9 A-ffl w I § THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 425 J to interfere with rack-rents ; the refusal to protect ^ the improvements of the tenants ; the facilities and inducements to wholesale eviction — these were the things that produced the famine of 1846. The Act of Union, which made famine possible, and then aggravated it to the unsurpassable max- imum, had also the effect of increasing the exist- ing hatred between the English and the Irish nations. While the famine was giving such tragic testimony in justification of the agitation of the Irish people for repeal, the movement had left in the minds of the English people a strong feeling of antagonism to the Irish. On the other hand, it is easy to understand how the Irish should have been embittered to frenzy when they saw the dominant nation, that claimed and had carried its superior right to govern, so performing its functions of government that roads throughout Ireland were impassable with the gaunt forms of the starving, or the corpses of the starved, and that every ship was freighted with emigrants. To this day the traveller in America will meet Irishmen who were evicted from Ireland in the great clearances of the Famine time, and they speak even to this hour with a bitterness as fresh as if the wrong were but of yesterday. It was these clearances and the sight of wholesale starvation and plague, far more than racial feel- ings, that produced the hatred of English govern- ment which strikes impartial Americans as some- y ' 1 > ii W ifi !!: it t 1: Ijll i r Pi t i' ,( ( M v^V.> AT fy.-i 420 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. thing like frenzy, and that sowed in Irish breasts the feelings that in due time produced eager sub- scribers to the dynamite funds. Yet the English people not only did nothing to deserve such hatred, but rather did much to earn very different sentiment.;. Relief societies were formed almost everywhere. I have myself heard an Englishman say that he remembered the Famine because, being a child at the time, he was forbidden to take any butter with his bread in order that some money might be saved for the starving poor of Ireland. It was, then, not the English people that were to blame for the horrors of the Irish famine, excepting so far as they were responsible for their choice of representatives. It was the British Parliament and Ministers that worked the wholesale slaughter of Irishmen which has pro- duced the murderous hatred of so many of their race for England. It is the government of Ireland by Englishmen and by English opinion that has the double result of ruining Ireland and endan- gering England. Another point that requires discussion is, whether the famine was avoidable. Irish writers maintain that, in spite of the loss of the potato, there was enough of food produced in Ireland during these very famine years to have prevented a single person in the country from dying of star- vation. The landlords took from the tenants all the 1 I ^- /\ \ iVv.' THE GREAT IRISH STRUCJGLE. 427 t ^ i >^N produce, "minus the potatoes, necessary to keep them from famine." When the potatoes failed, the remainder of the produce, instead of being divided between the landlords and the tenants, was sent to either home or foreign mar- kets for the purpose of paying the rents of the landlords. In other words, it was the consump- ^ tion of food by rent instead of by the people that '., produced the famine. It was, as Mitchel calls it, an artificial famine. Meantime a change had come over Ireland. Under the pressure of hunger, ravenous creatures prowled around barn and storehouse, stealing corn, potatoes, cabbage, turnips — anything, in a word, that might be eaten. Later on, the fields had to be watched, gun in hand, or the seed was rooted up and devoured raw. This state of things struck a fatal blow at some of the most beautiful traits of Irish life. It destroyed the sim- ple confidence that bolted no door; it banished forever a custom which throughout the island was of almost universal obligation — the housing for the night, with cheerful welcome, of any poor wayfarer who claimed hospitality. Fear of " the fever," even where no apprehension of robbery was entertained, closed every door, and the cus- w*^ tom once killed off has not revived A thou sand *- ^ kindly usages and neighborly courtesies were ' swept away. The open-handed, open-hearted **" ways of the rural population have been visibly \ m %• % iiii* c. c,. 428 GLADSTONE— I'ARNELL affected by the " Forty-seven ordeal." Their an- cient sports and pastimes everywhere disappeared, and in many parts of Ireland have never returned. The famine swallowed things more precious than money, or even than human lives. Thjg temperance reformation, the political training of a generation, the self-respect, the purity and gen- erosity which distinguished Irish peasants, were sorely wasted. A sight of such piercing woe was never seen as a Munster workhouse, with hun- dreds of a once frank and gallant yeomanry tamed into sullen beasts, wallowing on the floor, unless it were that other spectacle of the women waiting around the same edifice for outdoor relief. Wherever the traveller went in Galway or Mayo, he met troops of wild, idle, lunatic-looking pau- pers wandering over the country. Gray-headed old men, with faces settled into a leer of hardened mendicancy, and women filthier and more fright- ful than harpies, who at the jingle of a coin on the pavement swarmed in myriads from unseen places, struggling, screaming, shrieking for their prey like monstrous and unclean animals. Beg- gar-children, beggar-girls, with faces gray and shrivelled, met you everywhere ; and women with the more touching and tragic aspect of lingering shame and self-respect not yet effaced. Poor, mutilated, and debased scions of a tender, brave, and pious stock, they were martyrs in the battle of centuries for the right to live in tlieir own la.nd, I ! 1 '. THE GREAT IRISH STRUG(iLE. 429 a f It is certain that to-day Ireland is the saddest country in this world of many countries and many tears. With the famine joy died in Ireland ; the day of its resurrection has not yet come. We must hasten forward and pass in rapid re- view the days of the earlier agitation for tenant irights ; tuc Irish victories in the elections of 1852 ; the bbxk treason of William Keogh and John Sadleir; the years of ruin and disgrace which followed ; the cruelties of the dominant land- lordism between 1852 and 1865 ; the general decay of the country. The traveller can pass for miles, and see a country on which not a single human being remains ; the frequent ruin speaks of a vanished population as effectually scattered as the populations of those entombed cities in Italy, the ruins of which to-day with such compell- ing silence tell the tale of tumultuous life reduced to stillness and death. It is one of the saddest and most dreadful stories in all history. It is the spectacle, under the semblance of law, and without any particular noise, and certainly without attracting any par- ticular attention, of an ancient and brave nation being slowly but surely wiped out of existence. Not a section, or a class, or a percentage, but the whole people were being swept away, their land was yearly becoming more desolate, and all the probabilities pointed to the near advent of 1 i ! assssi n ■ IT 4 «;<• 'H't ;« ,il! 430 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. the period when the country would be one great sheep and cattle farm with the vast desert broken only at long intervals by the herd. Meantime the Parliament looked on and did nothing ; the rulers declared that the hellish work was good ; the press of the dominant country hissed out triuniphant hate ; and popular repre- sentation had fallen into the hands of self-seekers, heartless, lying and base. It is in such periods that a desperate spirit is evoked and is necessary. The masses of the people were still sound, and there were among the population chosen spirits who were resolved to show that the struggle, which had been maintained through so many centuries, was not even yet at an end ; that, if the Irish nation were to be murdered, at least her people would try to make one final and desperate stand. •■"I .■ :• •:' • 1. '_•.*! ' u r ' f , ' ui^;|^ CHAPTER VIII. RESURRECTION. THE Fenian movement was largely the crea- tion of Irish-America. Thither had fled at various periods men who, having taken part in revolts against the intolerable tyranny of Eng- land in Ireland, were unable to remain in their own country. The Irish in America were besides impelled to resentment against the unhappy posi- tion of their country by the sight of the prosperity of a free Republic. Thus in many ways the new world in spite of its official neutrality deeply influ- ences the history of the old. James Stephens and John O'Mahony were the two main spirits in organizing this attempt by armed force to destroy British dominion in Ireland. They were able to gather into their ranks many earnest and brave men in some parts of Ireland , they got a strong hold on the military; and in fact they made a movement the proportions of which were a formidable threat against the English power. But the movement had many weaknesses — above all it suflered from the want of war material. It made several attempts at a rising ; but the men 431 ,1- ■ ! ' ^m 432 GLADSTONE— PARNKLL. were without arms and were easily overcome. Successive batches of leaders were tried before packed juries ; and there was the old story in Irish life of perjury, bribed informers, partisan judges ; and then after conviction followed sentences of unjustifiable cruelty. Inde ed, in most cases the cruelty bei^an before the sentences were passed. The Imperial Parliament, which could never find time or will to stand between Ireland and de- struction by eviction and emicrration, turned all its force to the passing of coercion laws. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended without cere- mony. On one occasion the Houses of Parlia- ment sat through all Saturday and even into the Sabbath in order to more speedily pass such a law. Then men were seized all over the coun- try, were cast into prison and were kept there sometimes as long as a year without being brought to trial. While thus confined they were treated exactly as if they had been convicted — in some cases worse ! The result was that several of them went insane, and afterwards more than one ended his own life. When the Fenian prisoners were convicted they were sent among the ordinary prisoners : thieves, burglars, mur- derers — the scum and refuse of English society. The Fenian movement as an armed revolt against the forces of England failed ; but as a trumpet-call to Ireland to rouse herself from her lethargy of death it succeeded. Two events came i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 433 I finally in connection with Fenianism that exer- cised a strong influence on the future of Ireland. The one was the blowing down of the prison in London in which a prominent Fenian prisoner was confined ; and the other was the rescue of Captain Kelly, the successor to Mr. Stephens in the leadership of the movement, and a companion named Deasy from a prison van in Manchester. In the blowing down of Clerkenwell there was unhappily a large loss of innocent life ; in the attack on the prison van at Manchester a ser- geant of police was accidentally killed. Three men were executed for the Manchester rescue — Allan, Larkin, and O'Brien. Their trial took place under circumstances of popular panic and amid a tempest of popular hatred in England. The evidence against them was weak ; it was proved afterwards to be grossly false in some particulars ; while on the other hand there was abundant testimony that the shooting of Sergeant Brett was accidental and unintentional. Several attempts were made to have the sentence on the three Irishmen commuted, but all failed ; and they were executed. The event created terrible ex- citement all through the Irish world, wherever it might be. O'Mara Condon, one of the men tried at the same time and condemned to death, but afterwards sentenced to penal servitude, used the phrase " God Save Ireland " from the dock. Mr. T. D. Sullivan wrote a poem to this refrain in the ii — — '^- ■ JT 111.1 II. ..LumnS 4;m GLADS'i ON E— PA RN LLL. *r N ^ili' ^n Nation newspaper ; it spread like wild-fire, and to- day it may be described as the national anthem of Ireland. It was fortunate for Ireland that at this moment the Liberal party was led by Mr. Gladstone. The features, moral, physical and mental, of this re- markable man are already familiar to every American. He was the man above all others suited for the great occasion which had now arisen. There has scarcely ever been an English- man who exercised so great a control over the hearts and minds of the English people. He has always appealed to their higher and better emo- tions ; and thus he has been able to raise a moral tempest in which they were caught up and carried away. The marvellous combination of different and apparendy contradictory gifts is one of the striking things in his nature. There is no man more intimately acquainted with the technique of a Parliamentary and official life. He has been several times Chancellor of the Exchequer. In that position it has been his business to become master of the details and inner life of many of the trades of the country. He has been able to meet all comers in the debates on the smallest items of the annual budget. But there is another side to this great character. There is no man who understands better the great heart-throbs of humanity, and that can bet- ter employ the chords to which they thrill. He THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 436 is capable of painting large as well as small, and of presenting a great public question to the peo- ple in the limited broad visible lines with which the masses must be approached. He is thus as successful on the platform as on the floor of the House of Commons. In 1867 he took up the question of the Irish Church. The Irish Church did not then seem to be the most serious of Irish grievances. But the Irish Catholics had to pay for the support of the church of the Protestant minority. The dissenters of England themselves suffer under an Established and Endowed Church ; and accordingly Mr. Glad- stone was able to command their enthusiastic support in his crusade against the Irish establish- ment. Bat even English churchmen could see nothing tc defend in a church which was not the church of tl>e majority of the Irish people. The campaign was fought amid a cyclone of popular passion, and in many respects resembled the struggle that has just closed on the Home Rule question. The English masses were appealed to on religious grounds ; the Protestant Church was declared to be in danger ; and even the uncon- verted Hebrew, Mr. Disraeli, declared that Mr. Gladstone was the agent of the Jesuits. Lanca- shire then as now declared itself against the policy of justice to Ireland ; and Mr. Gladstone, who sought a seat in one of its di^-isions, was defeated. The Rev. John Flanagan was one of the most 25 ■!: i i;J n i I 436 GLADSTONK— PAUNKI.L. conspicuous figures on the Oranqe platforms during the anti-disestablishment agitation. At a meeting at Newbliss, County Monaghan, on March 20th, 1868, he made a celebrated speech, in which a phrase occurs that has since become classical. " If they ever dare to lay unholy hands upon the church, 200,000 Orangemen will tell them it shall never be. Protestant loyalty must make it- self understood. People will say, 'Oh, your loyalty is conditional.' I say it is conditional, and it must be explained as such. Will you, Orange- men of Ireland, endorse the doctrine of uncon- ditional loyalty ? (Repeated cries of* No, never.') It appears wonderful that there is one thing upon which we can confidently throw ourselves, and which has been overlooked by nearly all speakers — I mean the Queen's Coronation Oath. She should be reminded that one of her ancestors, who swore to maintain the Protestant religion, forgot his oath, anfl his crown was kicked into the Boyney The Rev. W. H. Ferrar made one of the most spirited of the ** civil war " speeches of the period at a Rathmines meeting on March 6th, 1868. " If the Church Establishment be destroyed in Ireland, there cannot, there shall not, there must not be peace in Ireland. ... If they think the Protestants of Ireland will succumb without a struggle, they know not the men with whom they > f l\f« II THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 437 have to deal. That I say solemnly before God. If they want us to die as martyrs, vve will die as soldiers. . . . Protestants of all denominations would stand shoulder to shoulder, as they did be- hind the walls of Derry. They will stand shoul- der to shoulder, as they did at the passage of the Boyne." Mr. Ferrar has since died, but he did not die either as a soldier or as a martyr. One of the meetings which were to have had the most terrifying effect on -Mr. Gladstone and his " co-conspirators " was that held early in May, 1868, in Portadown, under the presidency of the Duke of Manchester, and the most war- like deliverance at that meeting was the speech of the Rev. Thomas Ellis. From this speech, as reported in the Belfast News-letter, we quote the following passage : "We will fight as men alone can fight, who have the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other. We will fight — nay, if needs be, we will die — die as our fathers died before us, as our sons will die who succeed us. Yes, we will die, if needs be ; and this will be our dying cry — echoed and re-echoed from earth to heaven and from heaven to earth, echoed and re-echoed from one end of Ulster to the other — ' No Popery ! No surrender ! ' " The Rev. Henry Henderson, at a great Orange open air meeting on Tamnamore Hill, County Tyrone, on June 8th, 1869, said: ill m U \\ , i iV, >: ■yy ^■'m'' }!' 438 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, "A newspaper had been abusing the High Sheriff and himself, saying that they were bluster- ing about rebellion. He now said : Yes, they would sacrifice theii lives before they would allow their religious rights to be taken from them. Yes, with the blessing of God, they would do what their fathers did at Derry, Aughrim and at the Boyne. So far as he was concerned, let there be no mistake. He spoke now not rashly, but calmly and deliberately. Mr. Gladstone and his co-conspirators were driving us into civil war." At the same meeting the Rev. Leslie Canter said : " The Oranoemen would not allow Gladstone and his crew to trample on the throne and the Protestant constitution. They would compel the House of Commons to listen to the voice of the men of Ulster, although they had refused to listen to their noble representative, Mr. Vernon. Only the Channel rolled between them ; they, the Protestants of the North, would march to the House of Commons, and compel their enemies to be silent while their representatives were speaking. If Barrett was executed for blowing up a prison, the time might not be far distant when, for attempting to blow up our venerable Protestant constitution, Gladstone and his co-con- spirators might be hanging as hio^h as Haman." We give as a specimen of clerical oratory the c *u*^ .v» THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 439 Ml lines with which the Rev. C. Maginniss wound up a speech at Omagh : " Our bosoms we'll bare to the glaring strife, Our vows are recorded on high ; To prevail in the cause is dearer than life, Or crushed in its ruins to die." These extracts we have taken from Mr. J. J. Clancy's excellent pamphlet, "The Orange Bogey." Mr. Gladstone's party in the Imperial Parlia- ment, however, went on their way without paying the least attention to these threats. The House of Lords made resistance for a while, but finally gave in, and the Church was disestablished. In the course of Mr. Gladstone's great cam- paign against the Irish Church he had gone over the whole area of Irish grievances, and had spoken of Irish wrongs in tones of sympathy that were as novel as they were welcome to the Irish people. It was in the course of these speeches, too, that he first gave in germ the ideas which have since borne fruit as to Home Rule. He said he thought Ireland ought to be dealt with more in accordance with Irish ideas. One of the first movements that were started now was one in favor of the release of the political prisoners who had taken part in the Fenian agitations. The admission by Mr. Gladstone that Ireland was suffering from griev- ous and intolerable wrongs made it cruel, and also illogical, to keep the men in jail who had been driven to the desperate expedient of rebellion in l>i t li' Hll ff-lvH 440 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, order to remedy those wrongs. The Irish i^eople, too, could but admire the courage of the men whose love of Ireland had driven them to face the risk of the gallows and penal servitude. The movement for their release swept over the country like wildfire. Mighty gatherings were held in all the towns, and resolutions were every- where passed calling for an amnesty. It was this movement that brought back into Irish life a man who was destined to play an important part in events now about to come — Isaac Butt. He was chosen as the advocate of the Fenian prisoners, and he defended them all with indubitable energy and brilliant ability, and with all the forensic re- sources of a great advocate. Of course he failed to win the game against the desperate odds of that day. Afterwards he joined in the movement for the release of the prisoners — in fact was al- most its only prominent supporter for a while ; and so was forced into a position that won for him the affections of his country. The farmers were next to be aroused, and once more a movement was started in favor of the principles of tenant rights. Sir John Grey, the editor of Freeman's yournal, was one of the lead- ing public men of his day, and was a man of transcendent ability and tireless energy. He had been one of the main instruments in pro- curing the destruction of the Irish Church, against which he had waged incessant war for more than THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 441 a quarter of a century. He now joined Butt in the agitation for tenant right. The demands of the tenants were for what are known as the three F's — that is to say, " fixity of tenure " or protec- tion against eviction ; " free sale" — that is to say, the right to freely dispose of their lands to who- soever they please ; and " fair rent " — that is, a power to bring the question of their rents before a judicial tribunal. Abundant evidence has been given in preceding chapters of the existence of the necessity for all these reforms. It has been seen how rack-renting by the landlords for cen- turies has brought a mass of the Irish people to a condition barely removed from starvation ; and it has also been seen how eviction raged like a pestilence throughout the country. Free sale was rendered necessary by the curious custom mainly obtaining in the north of Ireland, under which the tenants were actually forbidden to sell their good- will in the land to the highest bidder. The land- lords there were forbidden by the custom of the province to turn a tenant out if he paid his rent ; but, at the same time, they were free to make the tenant's remaining on his holding impossible by frequent and outrageous raising of rents. And they also exercised the right to prevent the ten- ant getting more than a certain fixed sum for the good-will. This was the origin of the demand for free sale. These reforms the tenantry of the country demanded with unanimous voice, and iijiii i ^h'i. 442 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. the hope of obtaining them roused almost a frenzy of excitement throughout the country. Between the pronouncements of Grey and those of Butt on this question there was a certain difference. Grey was a member of the Impe- rial Parliament, and was hopeful that the same success would attend the Land agitation that had already rewarded him in his fight against the Irish Church. He therefore caught the farmers to ex- pect that Mr. Gladstone would be able to pass the House of Commons a Bill giving the tenantry of Ireland "the three F's; " while Mr. Butt, on the other hand, more accurately appreciated the situ- ation. He had declared over and over again that, in his opinion, it was foolish and futile to look to the Imperial Parliament for such a radical settle- ment of the question ; and he taught the farmers to rely on their own organization and their own efforts ; to go on with their movement, irrespective of the Parliament. The character of the Land Bill of 1870 added another proof of the incapacity of the Imperial Parliament to deal with Irish affairs. Mr. Glad- stone had the will to carry a measure of as large a force as the Irish people themselves could desire. He was supported apparently by a party of resistless power, for he had a majority of upwards of a hundred. Nevertheless he had to content himself with bringing in a lame and halt- ing measure — the defects of which were palpable. 1 : THE GREAT IRISH STr.UGGLE. 443 This was mainly because the public opinion of England on the Land question was utterly un- sound. In England the land system is very dis- tinct in many of its features from the land system in Ireland. In Ireland labor and ownership of soil are indissolubly united, and certain peculiar tenant-rights are conceded. The agricultural parts of England consist of large estates split up into extensive farms, cultivated by a race of agricultural laborers that, as a rule, do not own a rood of land. Ireland, on the other hand, con- sists of a vast number of small holdings owned (subject to the landlord's claims) and cultivated by the same person. Up to this period England regarded her own land system as perfect. The depreciation of prices produced by American competition, and other circumstances, have changed this view considerably within the last few years, and a movement has been started for the purpose of linking the ownership and cultiva- tion of the soil in England much on the plan that obtains in Ireland. But in 1870 England was ex- ulting in the possession of the best of land systems, and such proposals as those that were made on the part of the Irish tenantry were regarded as wild and wicked communism. Then the landlord power was able, as it is able still, to impose its will upon the legislation of the Imperial Parlia- ment. In the House of Commons that power is still a potent influence on the Liberal side as well I - ( i! 1 '\hi J , ^ I 1 ! 1 1 444 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. as on the Tory; for the Liberal party has among its foremcst and most influential leaders men with acres as extensive and with ideas of landlord privileges as high as those on the Conservative benches opposite. The House of Lords, besides, is a House entirely consisting of landlords. It is, in fact, an assembly mainly employed in the preservation of landlord rights — or landlord wrongs. On an English question it is possible occasionally to overwhelm the landlord interest in the two Houses in a vast sprmgtide of popular feeling. But English opinion can rarely, if ever, be aroused to the same state of excitement and enthusiasm about Irish questions. Besides on the land question at this period English opinion was in one direction, Irish opinion in another. A result of these various circumstances was that the Land Bill of 1870 was a miserable shift rather than a setdement of the land difficulty in Ireland. Still it gave the sanction of law for the first time to the principle of a joint interest of the tenant with the landlord in the soil. Hitherto that doctrine though cherished by the people had been opposed by the landlords as revolutionary and insensate. But this right was acknowledged by the new enactment in a very half-hearted way. The ten- ant could claim compensation for disturbance; that is to say, if he were turned out of his hold- ing, he could demand a certain amount of money 1 THE GREAT I! iSII STRUGGLE. 445 from the landlord. The first defect of this was that compensation did not begin until after eviction ; that is, until the tenant had been placed in a position in which it was impossible to suffi- ciently compensate him. When the Irish tenant is deprived of his farm he is deprived of the sole means of livelihood that the country affords to him. To evict a tenant from his holding then is to deprive him of all further means of making a livelihood within Irish shores. The only real com- pensation, therefore, that could be given to a ten- ant for eviction would be such a sum as would enable him to live for the remainder of his days. Under the Land Bill of 1870 the scale of com- pensation was placed at an infinitely lower figure than this. In all holdings that did not exceed in value ;£,'io a year, according to the Poor Law valuation, the tenant might claim as a maximum seven years' rent — and in holdings between ;^io and £^0 yearly valuation five years' rent. It need scarcely be said that the maximum was never reached by the tenant. The courts before which the cases were tried, consisting mainly of the friends of the landlord, sometimes of the landlords themselves, took care to give the ten* ant as low a sum as possible. But there was a second fatal defect the mean- ing of which became clearer by-and-by. Com- pensation for disturbance could not be given in cases where the tenant was evicted for non-pay- iii ti mi n 1'^ if' ■,' I n \' 1 1 i «'' 1 '■ 1 tl 1 n 1 1 r f I \ InR « f'f-' I '4 i 446 GLADSTONE— PA RNELL, ment of rent. The Land Act of 1870 did not allow any inquiry as to the amount of the rent. The rent might have been such a rack-rent as no human bei ig could possibly pay — might be a rent that '. h; 'ically kept the tenant in a condition just . vi V , starvation — the normal condition of rack-re.ited ll: ints. The result of it was that if a tenant was behindhand with his rent for a day or for a penny he might be evicted. There was no power to prevent the landlord from evicting, and no power to prevent him from rack-renting. By-and-by there came to Ireland one of those bad harvests by which that country has been visited so often. Failure of one crop removed the thin partition that separated the tenant from starva- tion, and broke him down in his efforts to meet impossible rents, for rental was an exac- tion which could barely be paid at the best of times. Fo/ such a state of things the Land Act of 1870 did not provide. The non-pay- ment of his rent by the tenant left him absolutely at the disposal of the landlord. And one season of distress again left the population of Ireland a race of tenants-at-will whom a few landlords could starve, evict and exile. The Land Act of 1870 had broken down, and in no place more con- spicuously than in the north of Ireland. The landlords, shorn of a portion of their privileges, resolved to make larger use of the relics of their power. They could not evict without compensa- ■ VH THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. l' ■• 7 tlon, but they could raise the rents, and accc i- ingly the raising of rents went on immediately after the passing of the Act at a rate and to an extent never before paralleled. The raising of rents of course meant the increase of evictions, and the increase of evictions meant the increase of emigration. This miserable awakenin^^ f m the dream of hope of 1869 produced a .; /ofcuad impression on the minds of the Irish fa^ii e-s. In a native Par- liament, responsible to native opinion, did they once more see there wa. de only chance of ob- taining a real settlement of their grievances. Another and a very different section of the population had been tending in the very same direction through a very different cause. The destruction of the Irish Church Establishment had produced a feeling of great exasperation among many Irish Protestants, and they began to look with favor on any means which would relieve them from the control of an assembly which, as they thought, had forfeited their confi- dence. The idea of Home Rule is supposed by some to be a modern thing, and the events of 1870 are pointed to as having given it birth. But the idea of getting rid of the Act of Union has existed in the Irish mind from the very hour that the Act of Union was passed. The Irish people never consented to the act, never ac- knowledged the act, never for one year surren- 1 f ■ 1 m 1 ' i? fii i ! ! 448 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. dered the hope that it would one time or other be withdrawn. There is hardly an Irishman to-day whose early recollections are not of the dream of getting rid of this act. The desire for the restor- ation of the Irish Parliament has been constant, persistent, intense — the only difference is that sometimes its manifestations have been silent, and at other times loud. On the 19th of May, 1870, a meeting took place at the Bilton Hotel, Dublin. The meeting was summoned by the following circular* [^Prtva^e and confidential^ Bilton Hotel, May I'jlh, 1870. Dear Sir : You are requested to attend a pre- liminary meeting of some of the leading citizens at the Bilton Hotel, on Thursday evening next, at 8 o'clock, for the purpose of devising the ^est plan (to be laid before Her Majesty) for promoting the future interests and w^elfare of Ireland. N. B. — The meeting will be strictly private. The signatures to this circular are the best guide as to the source whence this new movement came. They are those of James Yokes Mackey, J. P., Graham Lemon, W. H. Kerr, W. Ledger Erson, J. P., Honorary Secretaries. These gentlemen were all Protestants. It will thus be seen that the new movement for the restoration of the Irish Parliament, which is very frequently denounced as an anti-Protestant cm- THE (JKEAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 449 sade, was brought into the world under Protestant auspices. Mr. Butt was the central figure of this gathering. He pointed out with the force and terseness which he had at his command the various evils which an alien legislature had inflicted upon Ireland, described the daily increas- ing hopelessness and miseiy of the country, and finally called upon the assembly to establish a movement for the restoration of Irish prosperity. A Home Rule Association was founded, and thus the new movement was launched on its way. The Association resolved at making an attempt at obtaining seats in Parliament. Mr. Gladstone's success and speeches had the effect of blinding a good many people to the essential unfitness of the Imperial Parliament to deal with Irish affairs, and accordingly some classes of the population, and notably the clergy, in some districts were in- clined to resent any interference with the Glad- stone Liberal candidates as both ungrateful and unwise. A fundamental essential of an Irish party, if it is to be effective in the House of Commons, is that it should be independent alike of both English parties, that it should vote for the Whig or vote for the Tory in exact accordance with the demands of Irish interests, and that it should use its power standing between the Whig and the Tory for the purpose of raising and dethroiiing Ministries according to the demands of the Irish ■'•' ^ I 450 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. cause. But the new Home Rule party consisted of men who would never consent to such a doc- trine or such a policy over and over again. Butt tried to get them to adopt this policy, and over and over again he failed. The Home Rule party voted together on the Irish question, it is true, but obviously that made no difference to the English parties. On all the great divisions between the English parties, the Tories in the Home Rule party voted Tory and the Whigs voted Whig. Another essential of a good Irish party is that it should not work for and should not accept office. As has been already pointed out, it is im- possible to suppose that Ireland could get her rights if her cause were pleaded by men who were asking favors from English Ministers. But before long a number of the Irish Home Rule party were openly for sale. Many of them were Whigs, and accordingly could not get much from the Tory government. But some of them were quite willing to take office even from political opponents. But it was perfectly clear that if such a party were allowed to go on, and if the Liberals came into power, a large majority of them would forget all about Home Rule and would join the Liberal party as servile and obedient followers. The steps have already been described by which the Irish people were saved from this dread and terrible fate. Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar THE GRKAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 461 had fortunately become members of the new body. They were resolved that Ireland's hopes should not once more be destroyed by Tory or Whig slaves. They pressed forward their policy in season and out of season. They roused the country, they purified the party, they once more gave Ireland a chance and a hope. 26 1 i" 'i 1 1 ' 1 ' 1 ■ ' 1 i 1 1 1! j ; if ; ! i •I .' - 1 • f . f'^ '. ifinf • / » M'l iii M\ l! , Lil;';^ CHAPTER IX. OLD FIGHT AGAIN "^ ^ 7"E brought up the story of the Irish move- V V ment in an earUer part of the volume to the year 1879. That year again brought a crisis in the everlasting Land question ; and we found it necessary to go back in order to explain to the American reader how it was that the Land ques- tion in Ireland was different from what it was in America and other countries. We trust that the American reader will now see how the circum- stances of Ireland have made it necessary that the land law should be different in that country from what it is elsewhere. In 1879 Ireland was once more face to face with a crisis. The failure of the potato crop threat- ened to bring about a renewal of the dreadful scenes which had been enacted in 1846 and 1847 and the following years ; and Parnell had thus been compelled to take apparently extreme steps for the purpose of rousing the country to a sense of its dangers. The country had responded to his call; and when in 1880 the Tories at last gave it an opportunity of pronouncing its voice, 452 THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 453 it at once showed that Parnell represented its views ; that his poHcy was its policy ; and that the men it wanted to send into ParHament were men who would follow his methods and adopt his plans. But the country and Parnell — as so often had happened before — were not in a position to give full effect to their wishes. Parnell had to fight the election with limited resources ; there was the same difficulty about candidates as in 1874; and Parnell, besides, had not been able to get home until the elecdons-had already been three weeks in progress. The result of it all was that while the country was perfectly sound and of one mind and one heart, the representatives chosen were of very heterogeneous material. Some of the old Whigs who had degraded and demoralized the party were again in the National ranks, and thus there were two sections at the very start; honest and independent men, who had gone into polidcs purely with a view to serve the cause of Ireland without fear or favor or affec- tion ; and the dishonest and the half-hearted and the office-seeking, mainly concerned with what they could make out of Irish politics for their own miserable selves. The two sections were not long In coming Into collision. The leader of the Irish party is se- lected every year. Indeed he is not called leader officially at all. His real title is chairman of the party ; ana the chairman is chosen like all the U \i ill "i 'M 4 t <•) W Ml 'h "ll! I I • 454 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Other officials of the party at the beginning of every Parliamentary session. Mr. Shaw had been chosen in succession to Mr. Butt ; and when the party met in Dublin it had to decide the ques- tion whether or not Mr. Shaw would be re-elected to the position. Mr. Shaw since this time has fallen upon evil days. Let him then be spoken of kindly and considerately. The defects of Mr. Shaw were those of the head rather than those of the heart. He was sincerely anxious for the welfare of Ireland and for the triumph of the Home Rule cause. A stout, easy-going man, with c,n amiable temper and a not very active mind, he was of opinion that a little soothing talk and amiableness of action would bring round every- body to the reasonable way of thinking ; and that thus the bitter Orange Tory would join in the chorus of approval to the legislation which de- creased his rents and annihilated his power. Mr. Shaw, to put it briefly, believed in the gospel of mush. Such a man was plainly unsuited for the battle on which Ireland was about to enter. The moment was coming when Ireland was either to fall back into landlordism, rack-rent, eviction, starvation, or to go forth to a future of independ- ence, prosperity and tranquil labor. On the side of the landlord was the British Empire. Fleets, armies, judges, juries, jails — all these agencies of government were at the disposal of the landlord caste. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 456 Nevertheless at this vital juncture the easy- going Mr. Shaw was very near being appointed leader. The different men who had been elected were at the time personally unknown to each other. When they entered the Council Chamber of the city of Dublin, where this great gather- ing was taking place, they had had no oppor- tunity whatever of meeting in consultation and of exchanging ideas and preparing a united line of action. Some of them, indeed, who were most favorable to the claims of Mr. Parnell were sup- posed to be hostile. Nor had Mr. Parnell himself taken any trouble to put forward his claims. It is the singular fortune of this extraordinary man to have ob- tained all his power and position without effort on his part, and apparently without gaining any particular pleasure from his success. He had been down in the country on the night before the meeting, and did not reach Dublin until morning. Up to that time, Mr. Parnell had not seen any of even his own friends. But some of them had met on their own hook ; had talked over thp situation ; and had in a general way adopted a line of action. This was to put forward, and if possible to carry, Mr. Parnell as leader. The gentlemen who formed this nucleus for the meet- ing of the following day were : Messrs. John Barry, Comins McCoan, Richard Lalor, James O'Kelly, Mr. Biggar and T. P. O'Connor. Mr. y it * ■ !!■ I. \ 1* m I f J ;i ii i ; \ I w m 456 GLA DSTONE— PARNELL. hit, i. }• ■ •4). 'i! 1 Healy was not then a member of Parliament; but he was Mr. Parneli's Secretary, and he vvas present at the meeting. Some of these gentle- men met Mr. Parnell the next mornincr in the street, as he was on his way to the city hall. He did not receive the proposal that he should be elected very cordially. His own idea was, and remained till an advanced period of the meeting, that Mr. JusUn McCarthy should be elected ; as being a man extreme .enough in opinion for the Parnellites, and moderate enough in counsel for the followers of Mr. Shaw. A debate of some length took place, with the final result that twenty-three voted for Mr. Par- nell, and eighteen for Mr. Shaw. The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr. Edmund Uwy^r Grey, presided over the meeting at its start. When the election was c w:' there was an interval. After this Mr. F;'riiv.il quietly took the chair. Thus simply Mr. Parnell was installed in the great position of Leader of the Irish people. The English papers did not take much notice of the election at the moment ; but it was felt that the Imperial Parliament would be met in a spirit of uncompromising demand that might lead to great events and to stormy times. Be* fore the meeting the Irish members had con- cluded tc discuss the land question ; and at once r, became apparent that there were differences of opinioii that might lead to an ultimate split be- ;. ' THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 45^ tween the two sections. Mr. Shaw could nof oe« beyond the old demand for the "Three Fs, ' and insisted that this should be the battle-cry nf the new party. But some of the followers and friends of Mr. Parnell insisted that the time had past for dealing with the Irish question on these lines, and that a bold move should be at once made towards the proprietorship of the soil by the peasantry of Ireland, as by the peasantry of France and Belgium. When the party came to London, another, though not at first sight a very serious, difference of opinion arose. As the result of the general election, Mr. Gladstone had come back Vv^ith a splendid majority. The fight had taken place on the foreign policy of England — and especially on its policy ill the East and in Asia. Ire!ind ws^v not mentioned often, though Lord Berne isfield, with characteristic unscrupulousness, had at- tempted to get a majority on an anti-l'- sh cry. The Liberals were uncomr ^ed so far as Irela;id was concerned,* but there was a general under- standing that a Ministry which contained such a man as Mr. Gladstone would be inclined to view the demands of Ireland with favor. However, the Parnellites knew diat a Liberal Ministry has dangers as well as advantages. The tribe of Irish office-seekers was already on the watch, and it was quite possible that before very long it would be offering its mercenary service to the I' i 1^: I i|{ i i t it i ) 'M fcl ,1' it! ill 458 GLADSTONE—PARNEl-L. J'i. I] \i i I \:^ m Ministers. In that way the party would be de- moralized; and Ireland once more would be hopeless because betrayed. These and other considerations underlay the question which now came to be discussed between the different sections of the Irish party ; that question was where the Irish members should take their seats. It should be explained to the American reader that in the House of Commons the rule is for the party in power to take its place on the right of the Speaker's chair. When the Liberals are in power they are on the right of the Speaker. When the Tories come in they pass over to the opposite side, and sit on the^ left of the Speaker's chair. The right is the Ministerial, the left the Opposition side of the House. The benches on each side are divided about half down by a passage ; this passage is known in Parliamentary phraseology as the gang- way. Hitherto the Irish members had sat on the benches below the gangway on the opposition side of the House. There could be no objection to !:his course as long as the Liberals were out of pDwtr: then the Irish were naturally a part of thv' gen iral opposition to the Tory Ministers. But the Liberals were now in office ; they were sym pathetic; and the question rose whether the Irish members should, by remaining on the op- position side of the House, make open declara- tion of opposition to them as to the Tories. The ! i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 459 Parnellites gave "Yes" as the answer to this question ; the section led by Mr. Shaw answered " No." An American reader at first sight will perhaps be inclined to smile at the importance attached to this apparently trivial point ; but there were im- portant issues underneath the question of the seats. The Government was friendly to Ireland, and no Minister had kindlier intentions than Mr. Gladstone. But the Ministry and Mr. Gladstone were the creatures of the political forces around them; and in 1880, as in every year since the Union, the wishes of Ireland were on one side and the political forces of England pretty solid on the other. Ir dand wanted a radical, almost a revolutionary change in the Land laws ; she wanted equally a radical if not a revolutionary change in the relations of the two countries ; and to these changes the majority of Mr. Glad- stone's supporters were just as inimical as the bitterest Tory. If Ireland, then, were to pursue Radical ends she must come into collision with Mr. Gladstone and the Liberal Ministry, painful as that might be. If, on the other hand, the in- terests of English parties and not those of Ire- land were to be considered supreme, the Irish would be justified in taking their places among the Liberals. The Parnellites thought — and events proved the justice of their views — that it was impossible to serve the God of Irish f! ( , ii. \ m\ It .11 i;,: . » ^ > . jtti n V-. I I 460 GLADSTONE— rARNELL. rights and the Mammon of English parties. Mr. Parnell and his friends resolved to remain in opposition; Mr. Shaw and his follovvers sat among the Liberals like good Ministerialists. One of the consequences foretold by Mr. Par- nell of this action soon came about. Before long Mr. Shaw found place after place become vacant beside him ; his friends had sold them- selves for place and pay. Another and more important of the prophecies of Parnell was also realized before long. His con- tention was that between the demands of an Irish Nationalist party and the will of an English Lib- eral Ministry there would come ixTeconcileable differences that must lead to hostile collision. The very opening day of the session proved this. It will be remembered that the Land question had reached a very acute stage in Ire- land. The farmers once more were demanding the protection of their lives and property from the destruction brought upon them by plunder- ing landlords, and the country had Just narrowly escaped from the jaws of famine. At the very moment, indeed, when Parliament met there were still 800,000 men and women in the receipt of re- lief from the various funds raised by charitable organizations throughout the world. But, never- theless, all this tragedy had not come to the knowledge of the English authorities ; and the Imperial Parliament were as ignorant of it all as s X r r o O W o o o W 2: 'I ,■1 i ] TIIK GRKAT IRISH STRUGGLK. 463 if it had never existed. The knowledge in Enof- land on the question was confined to a vai^ue im- pression that there was some distress in Ireland, but then that odious and tiresome country was always more or less in distress ; and there was a strong impression that Mr. Parnell had made very violent and wholly unjustifiable speeches. Of course all this simply meant that the farmers were once again putting- forward claims that no British Ministry could possibly consent to ; that wicked agitators were stirring up the people to impossible demands ; that murder was walking abroad through the country; and that if anything were wanted in Ireland it was a new Coercion Bill by which the Irish people could be brought tc a condition of good sense and good temper. Meantime it may be as well to pause here for a moment and hear from the Irish people them- selves what it was that they demanded. In April of 1880 there had taken place a convention in Dublin of the Land Lea^jue, and there the follow- ing platform of Land reform had been laid down : To carry out the permanent reform of land ten- ure we propose the creation of a Department or Commission of Land Administration for Ireland. This Department would be invested with ample powers to deal with all questions relating to land in Ireland, (i) Where the landlord and tenant of any holding had agreed for the sale to the tenant of the said holding, the Department would •I :4 r L IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) *• A ^. 1.0 I.I 1.25 lAO 111112.0 1.4 12.2 1.6 p^ <^ /; ^ ^? 'V' Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ;*\^ fc ^ r f ^ % o^ 464 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. execute the necessary conveyance to the tenant and advance him the whole or part of the pur- chase-money ; and upon such advance being made by the Department such holding would be deemed to be charged with an annuity of ^5 for every ;^ 1 00 of such advance, and so in proportion for any less sum, such annuity to be limited in favor of the Department, and to be declared to be re- payable in the term of thirty-five years. (2) When a tenant tendered to the landlord for the purchase of his holding a sum equal to twenty years of the Poor Law valuation thereof the Department would execute the conveyance of the said holding to the tenant, and would be empowered to advance to the tenant the whole or any part of the purchase-money, the repay- ment of which would be secr.red as set forth in the case of voluntary sales. (3) The Department would be empowered to acquire the ownership of any estate upon tender- ing to the owner thereof a sum equal to twenty years of the Poor Law valuation of such estate, and to let said estate to the tenants at a rent equal to 3j^ per cent, of the purchase-money thereof. (4) The Department or the Court having juris- diction in this matter would be empowered to de- termine the rights and priorities of the several persons entitlv^d to, or having charges upon, or otherwise interested in any holding conveyed as te-ij THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 465 above mentioned, and would distribute the pur- chase-money in accordance with such rights and priorities ; and when any moneys arising from a sale were not immediately distributed the Depart- ment would have a right to invest the said moneys for the benefit of the parties en tided thereto. Pro- vision would be made whereby the Treasury could from time to time advance to the Department such sums of money as would be required for the pur- chases above mentioned. The doctrines laid down in this programme were afterwards in the main adopted by the Im- Derial Parliament, but not until there Lad been a vast amount of fierce struggling and bitter suf- fering. This platform formulated demands for the per- manent settlement of the land problem. Mean- time there was a point which demanded attention and immediate legislation. What was to be done with the people whom the disastrous failure of the crops made incapable of paying the rents ? It was now that the defects of the Land Act of 1870 came out more clearly than ever before. A vast proportion of the Irish tenants were at the mercy of the landlords, and the landlords were merciless. Evictions were going on all over the country. The mass of poverty and hopeless misery was being daily increased, and if the landlords were allowed to go on at the present rate, there was fair chance of a national disaster. To all these 1 ' VI 1 1 :j m ■ I i ! M < 466 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. things the reply of the Government was absolutely nothing;. The Queen's speech contained para- graphs upon all possible subjects, and with regard to almost every nation in the Queen's dominions, but of Ireland not one word. It was discovered that upon the Irish Land question the Queen's speech was a perfect reflex of the state of mind amon:: ^■1 J' I ■ Ml !^ 1 i 478 GLADSTONlv— PARNELL. II ' -v l\ V I 'i: Mr. Gladstone looked surprised, bewildered, and had to confess that the facts were a revelation to him. It was perfectly clear that Mr. Forster had obtained coercion by garbled reports and doc- tored statistics. But it was too laie to go back. By this time, too, the resistance of the Irish mem- bers had provoked a good deal of passion in the House of Commons, and still more outside. The Irish members felt bound to defend the liberties of their country, thus unjustly assailed, step by step, and inch by inch, and English opinion could not understand their action. The result was that the few Radicals who had been inclined to stand by the Irish members in the first instance were compelled to desert them under the pressure of public opinion, and the Irish party were left to fight the battle alone. A number of violent scenes took place. The struggle reached a climax on Monday, January 31st. The question still discussed was leave to introduce the bill. The Irish members demanded an adjournment at the usual hour on Monday night. It was refused, and both sides prepared for an all-night sitting. The struggle went on all through the night, then all through Tuesday, with many wild and pas- sionate scenes. Finally, at nine o'clock on Wed- nesday morning, it was brought to a close. The Speaker, by an exercise of authority never before practised in Parliament, declared that the debate had gone on long enough, and closed it on his i.ai-»«iiiiaMi»o*.-" THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 479 own will. The Irish members vainly protested, and when they found the Speaker determined to go on, they left the House in a body, shouting " Privilege ! Privilege ! " For a while they de- bated whether they should return to the assembly or not, but they finally decided that it was their duty to fight on. A few hours afterwards there came another startling episode in the great strug- gle. Just before the House met on Thursday a rumor was whispered around that Mr. Davitt had been sent back to penal servitude. The Irish members were shocked and angered by this wretched piece of political vengeance on a politi- cal opponent. Mr. Parnell raised the question in the House of Conmions. He was answered curtly, almost insolently. Then he interrupted the Prime Minister, was called to »^ider, refused to obey the ruling of the chair, and was suspended by the Speaker and ordered to leave the House. The same thing happened in the case of Mr. Dil- lon and of many other Irish members, with the final result that the following were suspended: Messrs. Parnell, Finigan, Barry, Biggar, Byrne, Corbet, Daly, Dawson, Gill, Gray, Healy, Lalor, Leamy, Leahy, Justin McCarthy, McCoan, Marum, O'Donoghue, the O'Gorman Mahon, W. H. O'Sullivan, O'Connor Power, Redmond, Sex- ton, Smithwick, A. M. Sullivan, and T. D. Sul- livan. In their absence on the previous Wednesday i\ >i ! ,s M: n ' ! i' i |l ■ i: fir- I : i !!l ",*' 480 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. leave had been granted for the introduction of the Coercion Bill. The measure was still op- posed and the Prime Minister brought in rules which gave the Speaker the power to close the discussion not only on a certain day but at a cer- tain hour. Despite of all this, it was not until nine weeks from the opening of the session that Mr. Forster had passed through the third reading of the two Coercion Bills — the one suspending the Habeas Corpus, the other authorizing the dis- armament of the Irish people. It was in the session thus inauspiciously opened that the Land Bill of 1881 was introduced. The measure was one which would have been accepted with frenzied joy in 1852, and which in 1870 would probably have been accepted as a full and final settlement of the question. It granted *' the three F's," and thus rescued the Irish tenant at last from rack-renting and from capricious an(( arbitrary eviction. But the time had pas.- :^d when the Irish would be satisfied with such a moderate settlement. The doctrine of obtaining the owner- ship of the soil, through the aid of the state, had taken a firm hold of their minds, and a bill which would have been more than they would have ex- pected if they had trusted to Mr. Gladstone and the Imperial Parliament alone was less than they demanded now that they had an organization of their own and an independent Irish party. However, apart from the deficiency of the Land \ THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 481 ind Bill of 1 88 1 as a final settlement of the Land question, it was most defective with regard to a very important point in the immediate future. The landlords having exacted impossible rents had always the tenants in their debt, and instead of acting after the generous and sensible manner of landlords in other countries, they had kept their debts upon their books in order to always retain the tenant in a state of abject depend- ence. Some landlords had actually kept out- standing against the tenants debts dating from 1846 and 1847. The tenant was in most cases half a year in arrear, and the rent that he thus owed left the tenant subject to eviction at any hour that the landlord pleased. It may be said that the Landsdowne estate had a bad eminence in this respect as in many others. It is perfecdy clear that there was no use whatever in giving the tenants fixity of tenure if these detestable arrears still remained. The landlords had noth- ing to do but to bring an action for ejectment, and every tenant who owed a farthing throughout the country could be mercilessly evicted. It turned out that there were nearly 100,000 ten- ants in the country in this position, and thus the Land Bill to them was as the Dead Sea fruits turned to ashes. These facts were brought again and again before the attention of the House of Commons, but Mr. Forster refused to properly consider them, and the result was that the Land 'i! f: ;r !| 482 GLADSTONIC— I'ARNELL. |i ^ '<'' M^H ^Ii 11 Bill passed in spite of the protest of the Irish party. Another and a graver objection was, that the Land Courts to which the question of fixing the rent would be referred were courts held nearly altogether by the nominees of landlords or their friends. Lord Selborne, then Lord Chancellor, declared that the Land Bill would restore and not diminish the value of the landlords' property. Lord Carlingford also announced that the pro- visions of the bill would cause the landlords no money loss whatever. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that the fact dwelt upon by the Irish leaders was that the rent of Ireland was far and away beyond the capacity of the Irish tenants to pay ; that this rental kept them in a state of hopeless poverty, and that, unless therefore there were a revolutionary reduction in the rent-rolls, the tenants had no chance whatever of reaching a condition of prosperity, not even an ordinarily decent living. These various facts presented to Mr. Parnell and his colleagues a very important problem. Would they or would they not dissolve the Land League ? would they or would they not advise tenants to go into the Land Courts? They held two conventions in succession ; at those con- ventions there was a large party that denounced the Land Act, and declared that the only safety for the tenant was to keep out of it altogether. This party had in their minds the idea that the THE GRF.AT IRISH STRUGGLE. 483 tm. md se led time had come for a final and decisive conflict with landlordism, and that if any time were spent in skirmishes or truces the golden opportunity would pass. This party had in their minds the idea that the proper thing to do was to raise the " No Rent " cry ; and in that way to bring the landlords to their knees, and so to compel a transfer of the ownership of the soil on reason- able terms to its tillers and occupiers. Mr. Parnell, however, had very serious doubts of the success that would attend the No Rent movement — doubts that were justified by subsequent experiences. He adopted a more cautious policy, and sug- gested that the tenants should employ a double meti.od. In the first place they should test the Land Courts by sending a number of test cases before them, and if the courts gave just decisions that they should then be encouraged to go on. At the same time the organization was to be main- tained in its full strength ; and to any person who knew the circumstances of Ireland this policy would at once be understood. The Commissioners of Land Courts, with the exception of the three heads of the departments, were officials appointed for certain limited periods. Their proceedings had to be approved, and could be, and frequently were, brought before the Houses of Parliament for discussion and criticism. Accordingly the acts of the sub-commissioners were subject to final review by a tribunal which was almost entirely on 434 GLADSTONE—PARNELL, I ' the side of the landlords. As a matter of fact, the landlords took full advantage of the power of reviewing the action of the Land Commissioners which the Land Act gave. Every commissioner that did anything like justice or any approach to justice to the tenant was made the subject of question after question to the ministers, and when the time came for renewing the terms of office all commissioners were dismissed to a man who had showed sympathy with the tenant. Mr. Parnell therefore properly judged that unless there were an immense pressure on the other side the Land Courts were sure to do injustice as be- tween landlord and tenant. Mr. Parnell, however, was not allowed to pursue his policy. The Govern- ment, afraid that the Land Act would break down, resolved upon a bold stroke. On the morning of Thursday, October 13th, 1881, Mr. Parnell was arrested under the Coercion Act and was placed in prison. Mr. John Dillon, Mr. O'Kelly and Mr. Sexton were apprehended immediately afterward, and Mr. William. O'Brien, the editor of United Ireland, soon followed them. The League was suppressed, a ** No Rent " manifesto was issued in reply, and so there began a fierce struggle between coercion on the part of the Government and resistance on the side of the people. 50 pi tz: H > K' fi. n n o 3 T !z; o w H I !i II i : ■f :l .ill i-i ' V. fil N CHAPTER X. IN THE DEPTHS. THERE now began a fierce and merciless war between the Irish people and the Brit- ish authorities. Coercion was given full swing, and went on its way from excess to excess till there was scarcely a method of despotism not resorted tr, One of Forster's first acts was to employ a number of retired or dismissed military men to be intrusted with the duty of putting down all free expression of opinion. Mr. Clifford Lloyd was the very worst specimen of this gang — a man of violent temper, of ferocity, and of an utter want of scruple. The character of Mr. Lloyd may be estimated from the fact that in spite of his powerful patronage he had afterwards to be withdrawn from Egypt; his manners were too offensive even for the mild Egyptian to endure. This ruffian proceeded to make the most reckless use of the powers surrendered to him. He ar- rested a village almost to the last man ; he insulted women in the grossest manner. If they stood in the street they were accused of obstructing the pathway, or oi; some other frivolous charge were 28 487 if ! «N 4.S8 (iLAlJSTONK-FARNELL. !' liaK^cl before a magistrate and subjected to indig- nities which in civihzed countries are reserved for the abaiuloned. Gainin^r audacity as he went along, Mr. Lloyd had brought before him some of the best women of the country who had em- ployed themselves in bringing succor or in inspir- ing courage in the hapless tenants who were now abandoned to the mercy of their landlords. As far back as Edward III. an act was passed the object of which was to put down the vagrancy which then flourished. The act was loose in its terms so as to be able to catch hold of all tramps and prostitutes whom the authorities wished to incarcerate. It was under this obsolete act that some of the most refined and heroic women of Ireland were sent to solitary confinement for periods often of six months. Children twelve years of age and crying after the manner of chil- dren were placed in the dock on the charge of endangering the peace of the queen. There is in Ireland a popular song known as " Harvey Duff." It is a satire of a rather harmless charac- ter directed against the police. The singing of " Harvey Duff" was raised in these days into high treason, and boys and girls who ventured to hum it as they passed the sacred form of a policeman were first brutally ill-treated — in one case a girl twelve years of age was stabbed — and then brought before the magistrates. In the meantime every newspaper that said a ';') .'. < b i; I' i: THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 491 word against these acts was promptly suppressed, and every man who uttered a protest was sent to prison. Man after man was seized who had no hold on public affection. The gaols were crowded, and finally the numbers of persons im- prisoned without prospect of trial reached the enormous total of a thousand and upwards. Evictions at the same time proceeded apace. If the Irish people were a foreign enemy at the gates, they could not have been assailed with a more lavish expenditure of money and force. Foot soldiers, cavalry, artillery, commissariat vans, blue jackets, vessels of war, to say nothing of 13,000 armed policemen — all these were placed at the disposal of the landlords and assisted in driving out starving tenants to the ditch. But this odious system did not even bear the fruits for which it was intended. Crime, instead of de- creasing, doubled throughout the country and became daily of a fiercer and more terrible char- acter. The Irish people, in fact, were at bay, and resorted to those savage methods of reprisal which among all peoples are the answers of impotent despair to the brutal omnipotence of a despotism. In 1880, before coercion came into operation, there were eight cases of murder in Ireland and twenty-five of firing at the person. In 1881, dur- ing the half of which coercion was in existence, there were seventeen murders and sixty-six cases of firing at the person. In the first six months I •■ i r> (:. J 4-- ■ '\ ifrn 492 GLADSTONE— PAKNELL. ili i 'li ■H! of 1882, when the regime of coercion was at its worst, there were fifteen murders and forty cases of firing at the person. The trials showed clearly that ill serious offences were actually twice as many since the introduction of coercion as they were before. Public opinion in England can stand Russian methods of government for only a certain length of time, and the accounts of these various epi- sodes in government at last began to produce a strong reaction. Indeed, the question was taken up by the Tory party, and a member of that party. Sir John Hay, brought forward a resolution denouncing imprisonment without trial. Mr. W. H. Smith, an ex-Cabinet Minister, put upon the tabic of the House a resolution setting forth a peasant proprietary as the only solution of the Irish Land question. Here, indeed, was Nemesis with a vengeance ! The contention of the Land League and Mr. Parncll throughout was that a peasant proprietary was the only solution of the Land problem. It was mainly for preaching that doctrine that Mr. Parnell and a thousand other men had beer: placed in gaol, and here, now, was one of the leaders of the landlord party coming forward to declare that Mr. Parnell and his colleagues were rieht. Ministers took alarm. None of them were in real sympathy with Mr. Forster's regime; they were doubtful of its wisdom, and could not help being convinced ; at Its y cases clearly vice as s they I-ussian length is epi- roduce n was ber of ^ard a It trial, ^r, put setting )lutIon i, was ion of Lit was lution iching usand here, idlord arnell took pathy Libtful inced THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLl 493 of its want of good result. The consequence was, that Mr. Parnell was released, and that the Government undertook practically to do every- thing that he had demanded before his imprison- ment. It had been declared, as has been seen, by his party, that the Land Act was worthless to the vast proportion of the tenants, owing to the heavy arrears they owed to the landlords. Mr. Gladstone undertook to bring in an Arrears Bill, for the purpose of wiping out their debts and thus bringing them within the compass of his land legislation. Mr. Parnell and his colleagues had complained and clearly shown that the clause of the Land Act with regard to the improvements made by tenants did not sufficiently protect the tenants. Mr. Gladstone undertook to amend the Land Act of 1881 in this regard. Mr. Parnell and the Land League had declared that a peasant proprietary was the only practical and final settlement of the Irish Land question. Mr. Gladstone undertook to establish the principle of a peasant proprietary. Finally, Mr. Parnell pro- tested against coercion as a method of govern- ment. Mr. Gladstone undertook to drop coercion, and began by dismissing Lord Cowper and Mr. Forster. In fact, every single one of Mr. Par- nell's demands was listened to and accepted. He and the British Empire had stood in deadly and merciless conflict, and unarmed and from his gaol he dictated the terms of capitulation to the Prime Minister of England, I ffi 494 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. :^P i' When Mr. Parnell appeared in the House of Commons everybody came forward to greet him. Treacherous friends and open enemies rushed up to shake his hand, and the House of Commons bowed before him. Everybody felt that almost the last stage in the Irish conflict had been reached. A leader who had proved his power over the people to such an extent, and had achieved so complete a victory over such tre- mendous odds, might fairly demand that the government of the country should be put into his hands ; and, in fact, everybody felt that the releas'3 of Mr. Parnell meant the speedy advent of Home Rule. But the evil fortune that has so often blighted the Irish cause on the threshold of victory in- tervened, and in one day the hopes of Ireland were blasted, and the cause of Irish liberty was thrown back for years. Lord Frederick Caven- dish had gone over lo Ireland as the new Chief Secretary, and as the bearer of the new message of peace to the Irish people. He was a man of amiable temper, and of high purpose, and well fitted in every way to be the medium of recon- ciliation. On the very day of his arrival in Dub- lin, he and Mr. Bourke, the Under Secretary, were assassinated in the Phoenix Park. This was on May 6th. It turned out afterwards he was unknown to those who killed him, and that his death was due to the accidental circumstance of m '. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 495 his being alone with Mr. Boiirke. The tragedy created terrible excitement and anger in Eng- land. A cry for vengeance was raised, and the Ministry had to bow before the storm, and, hav- ing dropped coercion, were obliged once more to introduce it. Mr. Parnell was assailed with spe- cial bitterness ; and Mr. Forster was once more elevated to the position and eminence which he had forfeited. In a remarkable passage of his evidence by James Carey, a man who played a prominent part in the conspiracy, and afterwards betrayed his companions, here is an exti'act from his evidence in cross-examination by Mr. Walsh : Q. When you became a member of the Order of Invincibles, w^as it for the object of serving your country that you joined? A. Well, yes. Q. And at that time when you joined with the object of serving your country, in what state was Ireland ? A. In a very bad state. Q. A famine, I think, was just passing over her? A. Yes. Q. The Coercion Bill was in force, and the popular leaders were in prison ? A. Yes. Q. And was it because you despaired of any constitutional means of serving Ireland that you joined the Society of Invincibles ? A. I believe so. However, England was not in a humor to listen, and the Crimes Act was passed in the House of ^r^ ..■1 t i J ' \'; : \.- I' >. ■ ml\ W^. ^ If 1 ''■ ■- t :■ ^^1 f 1 1 ^^H 1 ^ 1 II ! i 1 \ ■ 1 V 496 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Commons after a vain resistance by the Irish members. This act en?bled juries to be packed and other methods to be adopted by which in despotic countries prisoners are cajoled or ter- rorized into giving evidence true or false. A number of men were put upon their trial before juries consisting entirely of landlords exasperated by the loss of power and by the crimes committed. A number of men were in this way convicted and were hanged. A sickening doubt afterwards arose as to whether these men were innocent or guilty, and this was especially the case with re- gard to a man named Myles Joyce. His case was debated over and over again in the House of Commons, and it is still a question of doubt as to whether he was condemned justly. A man named" Bryan Kilmartin was sent to penal servitude on a charge of having shot at a man with intent to murder. The judge declared emphatically that the man was guilty beyond all doubt. Attempt after attempt to have his case investigated failed ; but finally the matter was brought before the House of Commons. It was proved that a man who had gone to America immediately after the crime, and who had on his death-bed confessed to the offence, was the real culprit, and Bryan Kil- martin, proved innocent, had to be released. In Parliament all this time the Irish party op- posed as strenuously as they could the ministry of Mr. Gladstone, They thought that the pro- THE GREAT IRISH STRyCGLE. 497 cecdings in Ireland were entirely unjustifiable. For a long time they voted steadily on all critical occasions against the Ministry, with the result that they more than once endangered its exist- ence. The influence which the Irish party was able to exercise over these divisions is worth con- sidering under present circumstances, when the enemies of Ireland seem to be once more in a majority. The Liberal party at tht start num- bered 351, and then, besides, they had the con- stant support of 23 Home Rulers who had de- serted the Irish party. The Tories', on the other hand, had only 238, and the Home Rulers num- bered about 2)1' The Government thus were 374 against 275 — a majority of 99. Yet on a division on the Cloture resolution the Government major- ity was reduced to 39. On one of the votes this majority was reduced to 28; on another it was but 14, and finally, on June 8, 1885, the majority en- tirely disappeared, and the Government was left in a minority and had to resign. Before this time, however, the Government had passed two meas- ures of the utmost importance to Ireland. They had reduced the franchise, and in this way h?d raised the electorate from a quarter of a million to three-quarters of a million. They at the same time swept away by the Redistribution Bill a num- ber of the small and rotten boroughs. The re- sult of it was that the mass of the Irish people had for the first time an opportunity of making hi ,,l > \ , ,i I' I 498 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. I K i ? :■' their views known, and of returning a really united party to Parliament. The advent of the Conservative Government produced some excellent changes. Shrewd ob- servers say that a weak Conservative adminis- tration is, of all others, the most radical. De- pendent for existence on the mercy of the Liberal Opposition, it brings forward liberal measures, and these measures, instead of being opposed and ob- structed by the Liberal Opposition, are supported and accelerated. Then a Conservative ministry has always the House of Lords at its disposal. Whatever bill a Conservative minister advocates, the House of Lords accepts. On the other hand, a Liberal ministry, desirous of passing any reform, has to have at its back a tide of almost revolu- tionary passion in order to overcome the obsti*' nate resistance of the Tory Opposition. And so it happened in 1885 ^i^h the Tory Government. The Tory party is the party of landlords and of coercion, yet the moment they came into office they dropped all mention of coercion. They even promised an inquiry into some of the cases of alleged miscarriage of justice. They passed a Laborers' Act, which enabled the laborers of Ireland to obtain better house accommodation. And, above all, they passed a large bill for the purpose of transforming the rent-paying occupier into a peasant-proprietor. The general election came in the November of THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 499 1885, and it was the desire of the Irish party to bring into power a weak Conservative government dependent for its existence upon tlie Irish party. They contended that such a government would be willing to give Ireland Home Rule, aad that if only it could make up its mind to do this it could pass the measure without any of the friction or passion which would accompany similar proposals on the part of the Liberals. They received abundant proofs that the Tories were disposed to grant Home Rule. Lord Carnarvon, then Tory Lord-Lieutenant for Ireland, sought and obtained an interview with Mr. Parnell, and the Tory minister and the Irish leader were practically agreed that Home Rule was just and necessary. Lord Randolph Churchill gave abundant indica- tions that his views were the same, and expressed in private his firm conviction of both the justice and the certainty of Home Rule. These private expressions of views were confirmed by the omis- sion in all the public speeches of the Tories of any hostility to the claims of Ireland, with occasion- ally a vague hint that these claims should not be summarily dismissed. The result of all this was that at the polls there was an alliance between the Tories and the Irish voters in England. This alliance secured the Tories a. large number of seats, but not sufficient to give them a chance of carrying on the government. They were in a large minority, but they had in their own ranks :Ji M' '■■ 'i" ■ i I, 1 '.\ 500 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. twenty or twenty-five Orangemen of the nar- rowest type, who would have deserted them the first moment they indicated an intention to deal justly with the claims of Ireland. There was an internal struggle in the Cabinet, with the result expressed by Lord Randolph Churchill with cynic frankness : " I have done my best for you and have failed; and now, of course, I shall do my best against you." Lord Carnarvon, a conscientious man, resigned office. The Tory party resolved to abandon the hopeless task of keeping a govern- ment toge^ ler, and on January 26th announced that they would bring in a bill for land purchase, and a bill for suppressing the National League. They knew, when making this announcement, that they would compel a hostile vote that night against them on an amendment brought forward by Mr. Jesse Collings in favor of what is known as the policy of three acres and a cow. Their anticipations were realized ; they were defeated, and Mr. Gladstone was called upon to form a ministry. In the debate on the amendment of Mr. Jesse Collings little had been said about Ireland, but it was very well known that Ireland was the subject which was really under discussion. An extraordinary impetus had been given to the hopes of Irish patriots by certain events. During the re- cess and the election a paragraph appeared In several newspapers to the effect that Mr. Glad- if. i' ^!i/-^ THE ORKAT IRISH STRUdClLE. 501 Stone had come to the conclusion that the con- cession of the Irish Parhament should be agreed to, and that he was already engai^cd in working out the dtttails of a Home Rule scheme. The report was denied with some a[)pearance of au- thority immediately afterwaixls, but the im- pression remained on the public mind that Mr. Gladstone was ready to deal with the question of Home Rule. Upon some p('0[)l(.' this had a most bewilderinjr effect, but to nobody who had closely watched Mr. Gladstone's career was this announcement so startling aftfT all. As far back as 1868 he had declared that Iniland ought to be governed more by Irish ideas ; and Home Rule is really but the logical development of this statement. Over and over again, too, on sub- sequent occasions, he had declared that he was prepared for an extension of self-government to Ireland. On this point he has been assailed with a good deal of coarse and unjustifiable vituper- ation. But Lord Hartlngton, who, though he has attacked Mr. Gladstone's policy, has always acted towards him with scrupulous fairness, has acknowledged that Mr. Gladstone's mind has evidently been going towards Home Rule for many years, and that his present policy could be fairly inferred from previous utterances. The words, indeed, of a manifesto which he issued to the electors immediately before the general election contain an exact description of the prln- 1l f ' ( < i t I :Ii rm {;I.AI)ST()NK— I'AKNKLL. 1 ciples of th(; I lomc Rule Bill which he sub- .scquLMitly introcluccd. Durin<^ the election he had called upon electors to «^nve him such a larg^e majority as would enable him to be independent of the Parnell party. But really there is no contradiction between the two attitudes. Mr. Gladstone was anxious that Ire- land should get Home Rule ; but at the same time he did not want Ireland to get such a meas- ure of Home Rule as would be dangerous to the interests or the unity of the Empire. The question was to be dealt with in a spirit of fairness to Ireland, certainly ; but as an En- glishman Mr. Gladstone cannot be blamed for insisting that it should be dealt with in a spirit of fairness to England also, and he thought a strong Liberal government was better calculated to treat the subject with equal fairness to England and to Irtiand than a weak Tory government. Mr. Gladstone may have had in his mind the thought that when he proposed Home Rule it would produce a considerable amount of dissent in the Liberal party, and would certainly be op- posed by a considerable number of the members of that body. The larger the party the more obvi- ously he could afford to shed them, and yet be able to carry his bill. It is objected by English opponents that he proposed Home Rule too soon. It is objected by Irish Nationalists that he proposed it too late. IhK (JUr.AT IklSIl STKU(i(;LE. 5oa ( to But a minister is not a missionary nor a propa- gandist ; it is his duty to take up questions as they arise and to deal with them wiien they an; rip(; for scrttlemcnt ; and it was not until 1885 that the Home Rule question was in any degree r(;ady for settlcMiient. The Irish people wtMc always, in their hearts, in favor of Home Rule : but Ministers can only judge of a people's desires by the representatives they choose. It is quite true he cannot, to use a phrase once popular in America, "go behind the returns." But the re- turns in Ireland had certainly not given anything like a trustworthy account of the feelings of the Irish people. There can be litde doubt that for a long time Mr. Gladstone thought that Home Rule was a passing caprice — that a persistence in such good measures as he was willing to give would destroy the desire to be governed by a Parliament in Dublin instead of by a Parliament in Westminster. It is but quite recently indeed that any English statesman has grasped the central fact of Irish polidcs — that the desire for self-government is in- destructible and must therefore finally prevail. It is true that in 1874 Mr. Butt came in with his 60 Home Rulers ; but these Home Rulers were most of them what Mr. Gladstone would call good Liberals, regarding Home Rule as an extreme de- mand, by the leverage of which more moderate concessions could be obtained. I »: I ' I i 1 ! ! o04 GLADSTONE— PARN ELL. '■: h In 1880 a consideralDle section of that party sat upon the same benches as Mr. Gladstone's own followers, and were as docile to the com- mands of the Whip as any Liberal. Gladstone at the same time might point to the fact that the Parnellites were but a small section of the Irish representation ; that at the beginning of the Par- liament of 1880 there were but little above one- third of the full total of 103 Irish members, and that at no time did they exceed more than forty- five, and this was considerably below one-half of the full number of Irish representatives. When, however, they claimed altogether eighty-five out of 103, there could be no doubt that when they demanded to be regarded as the mouthpiece of Irish views, they made the claim good, and thus justified Mr. Gladstone in regarding the de- mand as coming from a united nation. However, the more violent opponents he had made were not prepared to listen to any defence of his con- duct. There came upon him a terrific cyclone of political hatred. All the London journals, with one exception, daily poured upon him a stream of poisonous abuse. He was denounced as a Judas who had sold his country to the dynamiter for a temporary occupation of the Premiership. He found in his own party some of his most bitter assailants. Lord Hartington had broken loose from him, and had previously, when the reports , of his readiness to concede Home Rule were cir- llf ,t party istone's le com- adstone hat the le Irish he Par- re one- ;rs, and 1 forty- half of When, ive out tn they thpiece ^d, and he de- wever, were con- Dne of with tream as a bmiter rship. bitter loose jports , e cir- O r w 3 ?! a p* • Si w ■< H ° ?3 p" ft 3 ■ Hi I 1 1 . ',1 I ! ; i ii ■ • I 'K I ii;> i' ^ THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 507 culated, declared that he would have no part whatever in granting such a boon. Mr. Bright had stood alone for some years, having differed with the Prime Minister on the Egyptian war, and was hostile to Mr. Gladstone's new departure. Mr. Chamberlain was still more hostile. At one time he had been regarded as one of Ireland's most vehement supporters, and as ready to go farther than Mr. Gladstone himself on the path of concession. During the long struggle on co- ercion within the Cabinet in the days of Mr. Forster, Mr. Chamberlain was always spoken of as one of those who had resisted those pro- posals to the very last. It came as a startling revelation to the world that Lord Spencer, after his trying personal experiences in Ireland, had joined Mr. Gladstone in the opinion that Hoine Rule was the only setdernent of the Irish difficulty. Mr. John Morley had been known as an out- spoken friend of Ireland for many years, and during the election campaign had used language which clearly proved his favorable attitude to- wards the principles of Home Rule. Mr. Goschen, another prominent Liberal, on the other hand, proved to be a rampant enemy to the Irish cause. It was amid these difficulties with open foes and dissenting friends that Mr. Gladstone assumed office once more, in January, 1886, and started on the greatest, the most glorious enterprise of his life. 29 fi'TM CHAPTER XI. THE GREAT HOME RULE DEBATE. BEFORE entering on a description of the scenes which took place in the House on the Home Rule Bill in 1886, it will be well to give a rapid sketch of the principal persons en- gaged in the mighty struggle, and first of all let us endeavor to give a portrait of Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Gladstone is marked, physically as well as mentally, for a great leader. He is about five feet nine inches high, but looks taller. His build is muscular, and but a very short time ago he was able to take a hand at felling a tree with young men. There was a time when he was one of the most skilful of horsemen. He is still a great pedestrian, and there scarcely passes a day that he is not to be seen walking. He walks with his head thrown back, and a step firm and rapid. His countenance is singularly beautiful. He has large, dark eyes, that flash brilliantly even in his age. Deep set and with heavy eyelids, they sometimes give the impression of the eyes of a hooded eagle. He has a large, exquisitely-chis- elled nose. The mouth also is finely modelled. 508 THE GREAT IRISH STRJGGLE. 509 The head is unusually large. It was in early youth covered with thick, black hair. The brow is lofty and broad, and very expressive. The complexion is white almost as wax, and gives the face a look of wonderful delicacy. The face is the most expressive in the House of Commons. It reflects every emotion as clearly and rapidly as a summer lake its summer sky. When Mr. Gladstone is a.igry his brow is clouded and his eyes shine. When he is amused his face beams. When he is contemplative his lips curl and his head is tossed. His air is joyous if things go well, and mournful when things go ill ; though when the final trial comes and he stands con- vinced that he must meet absolute and resistless defeat, he looks out with dignified tranquillity. All the passions of the human soul shine forth by his look and gesture. His voice is powerful, and at the same time can be soft, can rise in menace or sink in entreaty. Allusions have been made to the vast and heterogeneous stores of learning which are in this single man's brain. He has extraordinary subtlety of riind, so that he is able to present a case in a thousand different lights. And it is this faculty that has somedmes given him the unpleasant and undeserved repu- tation of sophistry and of duplicity. He speaks as a rule with considerable vehemence and ges- ticulates freely. To speak of him as the first orator of the House of Commons is to give a w I • f^'vm 510 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. i ,, n .; I very inadequate statement of his position. Over and over again In the course of his career he has turned a battle, when he was seemingly just beaten, into a victory ; and nobody is ever able to say how things will go until Mr. Gladstone has first spoken. Lord Beaconsfield up to the time of his death presented to the people a contrast and a counter attraction. The late Tory leader was a poor charlatan at bottom, but he was a bril- liant and a strong-willed man that had passed through a romantic and picturesque career. With the death of Lord Beaconsfield passed away the last man who could venture to be brought into rivalry with Mr. Gladstone, and so he stands alone as the last survival of a race of giants. His effect thus upon people outside of Parliament is almost as great as upon those who are inside its walls. There seems to be some- thing so lofty and pure in his purpose that men follow him with something of fanaticism. The restlessness of his energy produces equally earnest work for his followers, and his own exhaust- less funds of enthusiasm and sunny optimism make other men passionate strugglers for the right. The h?iid of Gladstone has changed the map of Europe, and first really gave birth to the Christian nationalities in the East which are now emerging into freedom and light after ages of dark thraldom jnder the Mussulman. In addition to these things he is credited with immense parli- amentary skill. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE, 511 He began his advocacy of Home Rule with an extraordinary prestige. The difficulties were felt to be gigantic, dangerous pitfalls to be everywhere around ; but men had faith in the star of Glad- stone, and he had faith in it himself also. His nerve never fails. Physically he is one of the very bravest of men, and he has never been known to ohow, under any circumstances, the least sign of physical fear. Whatever might take place in the coming contest, one thing was certain : Mr. Gladstone having once put his hand to the plow would not turn back until he had guided it to its ultimate destination. Mr. John Morley was the most remarkable man of the Ministry, next to Mr. Gladstone, and was regarded as a most important champion of Home Rule. Mr. Morley affords one of the first instances in recent years of great political triumphs won by a literary man. He was in Parliament a little over three years when he was selected for a Cabinet office, a rapidity of promo- tion almost unparalleled. He had, however, already given strong proofs of his fitness for high political office. For years he had occupied a foremost place among English writers on po- litical and philosophical questions. The son of a hard worked professional man, he started out with few advantages, was poor, and has remained poor. He was educated at Oxford, and afterwards spent some time on the continent. His first ap- ' ; ;• i'i- ~fnY> 512 GLADSTONE^PARNELL. pointment of importance was as editor of the Morning Star — a journal of a robust radicalism that taught justice to Ireland at a time when these doctrines were not fashionable ; and he was successor in this position to Mr. Justin McCarthy. After 1867 ^^^' Morley was appointed editor of the Fortnightly Review, a periodical which is known all over the world for its extremely high value as a collection of writings from the eminent men on all the profound problems of the present day. Mr. Morley produced book after book, dealing with the prominent figures of the French Revolution, a period that he had profoundly studied. Of those best known are the biog- raphies of Voltaire and Rousseau. There are scarcely any two biographies in the English language more delightful to read. The style is clear, but full of fervor and of glow. The biog- raphy of Rousseau, especially, is more like a brilliant romance than a description of a man who really lived and moved upon the earth. Anybody can, even in his busiest or darkest hours, sit down and devour page after page of the splendid narrative. The Fortnightly Review containei occasional essays on economical and other subjects from Mr. Morley's pen. He was one of Mr. John Stuart Mill's earliest disciples, and did much to propagate Mill's philosophy. In 1880 the Pall Mall Gazette changed both pro- prietors and policy. From the mouth-piece of nrai i tt i ifi i i i (iiM i i: ' LI. IS editor of the obust radicalism at a time when able ; and he was [ustin McCarthy. )ointed editor of iodical which is s extremely high rom the eminent IS of the present )ok after book, es of the French had profoundly 1 are the biog- eau. There are in the English d. The style is ow. The biog- lis more like a tion of a man pon the earth. est or darkest after page of \tnightly Review conomical and pen. He was liest disciples, (hilosophy. In ed both pro- outh-piece of I; ■V\ I* i:i ';$!! 'l' tu ' ' n 'i'''^ m Ul' 11 tt~ i : I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 617 Jingo Toryism it became an organ of staunch radicalism, and Mr. Morley was its first editor in this new character. As loiig as he held the po- sition the Pall Mall Gazette was the best journal in London. Mr. Morley had been among the first among Englishmen to pierce the heart of the Irish mystery. Years and years ago he had made up his mind that the only possible solution lay in the direction of some acceptance of the de- mand for self-government. He had not expressed this opinion obtrusively, for he is a man of cautious temperament; but he had sown the seed judiciously, and led his readers gradually to the conclusion that Home Rule was just and inevitable. Then he entered the House of Com- mons for Newcastle-on-Tyne — a constituency con- sisting mostly of toilers in great iron-works or in mines. His radicalism exactly suited such a constituency. He was not long in Parliament before he took up a prominent position. He was opposed to the Egyptian expedition, and to the whole Egyptian policy of the late government. He is a man of transparent honesty of purpose, and of a political courage ready to face any emergency, and to attack even his own friends in order to see right triumphant. The definiteness of his opinions on the Irish question naturally suggested him as the best man to carry out the policy which Mr. Glad- stone had now set his mind upon. It was no : ■i \ • !t •\ r ff!''''1^t> 518 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. I W surprise, therefore, to the world that when the Ministry was made up he was chosen for the important post of Chief Secretary. In ParHament Mr. Morley has not yet reached the full height of his abilities. He has all the qualities that make a great debater. His language flows from him smoothly and with perfect clearness. Nobody can ever have the least doubt as to what he means. His diction, too, while it scorns all mere- tricious ornament and seti:s out simple and familiar phraseology, shows all the elevation of a great master of style and a fine scholar. The defects of Mr. Morley are those which arise from want of training and experience. He entered Parliament at a comparatively late period of his life. This gives to his style a certain want of that suppleness required in an assembly where men have to learn all the arts of ready fence. Some- times he suffers from over-careful elaboration of his speeches, and this is considered a grave defect in the House of Commons. That assembly is not particularly patient of scholars or of philosophers, and loathes professors ; and in any assembly men are most effective when they speak with the greatest spontaneity. Parliament is like journalism ; it wants, above all other things, act'^ality — the incident, the opin- ion of the hour. The future of Mr. Morley in English politics can be a great future if only he himself will so elect, His honesty is implicitly THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 519 believed in ; no one denies the brilliancy of his in- tellect or the soundness of his judgment. In man- ner he is modest, never capable ot being provoked into the insolence of success or the dictatorship of position. The one great obstacle, perhaps, to Mr. Morley's reaching the highest of all positions is himself. He is, like many other literary men, characterized by grave and wholly unjust self-dis- trust, and there is a dash of pessimism in his tem- perament, as there is a good dealof pessimism in his creed. He has none of the keen appetite for power, the proud enjoyment of small triumphs, the joy of a masterful temperament in moving men as pawns on the board. Mr. Morley is about the middle height, and very spare. His face is long, with clearly marked fea- tures, lined here and there, but on the whole re- markably young-looking. His eyes are of a gray- ish-blue, and are calm and thoughtful. Mr. Mor- ley has not a trace of asceticism in his character, but his looks are those of a man who cares little for the table, but a good deal for spiritual possi- bilities. The mention of Mr. Morley's name suggests that of Mr. Chamberlain. By many events of the ' last years these two men have been placed in contrast, and, to a certain extent, in rivalry. One of the many motives assigned for the strange vagaries of Mr. Chamberlain is his jealousy of Mr, Morley as a future rival. The feelings be- . .! I '"!> i f !, ff^r.rU' ml \' J 620 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. tween the two men are more bitter perhaps than those between any other two men of the same party. Mr. Morley and Mr. Chamberlain were for years close personal friends. Mr. Chamber- lain was the person who gained most by the alli- ance. In 1874 he was still in Birmingham ob- scurity — a man successful in business, it was true ; an alderman, afterwards the mayor of the town. But provincial reputations travel slowly to Lon- don, and when they reach there are despised. In 1874 Chamberlain stood for Sheffield as an avowed Home Ruler, and professed sentiments much in advance of general opinion at the time upon the question of Ireland. He was not suc- cessful. He wrote an article in the Fortnightly Review, which was a wild attack upon the mani- festo with which Mr. Gladstone had gone to the constituencies. Mr. Chamberlain probably thought the best way to elevate himself was to attack those more prominent than he. The article sug- gested the subject of a leader to the Daily News, in which Mr. Chamberlain was treated by no means tenderly, and in which his opinions were ridiculed as the outpourings of a pretentious upstart. But Mr. Morley stood by his friend. In time Mr. Chamberlain was elected to Parlia- ment, and started by proposing a ridiculous scheme of licensing. Then he brought himself into prominence by attacks upon the Tory Govern- ment of the day, a.id by something like an open THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 521 quarrel with the Marquis of Hartingfton, then the leader of the Liberal- party. This was the period when Mr. Parnell was making his crusade against flogging in the army and navy. Mr. Chamberlain at the time was one of Mr. Parnell's warmest ad- mirers, and he was one of the few Englishmen who regarded the policy of obstruction as justified by the circumstances of Ireland. In the agita- tion against "the cat " he saw a good elec- tioneering cry, and he went in. for it zealously and vehemently. Meantime he put himself at the head of a great election machine — a con- trivance hitherto unknown in English politics. Up to this time candidates had been allowed to come before constituencies without consulting anybody — or, at any rate, after consultation with a few leading men. The system had its faults, but it also had its virtues, for it safeguarded the ab- solute freedom of the electors and of candidates. Mr. Chamberlain and his friends determined to establish a system of associations throughout the country which had the choice of candidates after the manner of an American convention. These associations were then federated together, and their head-quarters were placed at Birmingham. Mr. Chamberlain was the main spring and the controlling force, rnd fn this way he raised him- self to the position of a great political power. Contrary to the expectations of everybody he was raised to the presidency of the Board of •^1 ^1 *-:■ !! 522 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Trade when Mr. Gladstone came to make his Ministry. He did nothing in office to justify his elevation, for he is almost entirely devoid of con- servative statesmanship. He brought in a Bank- ruptcy Bill and passed it, but this was his solitary achievement. Up to the breach with Mr. Gladstone a few months ago he steadily advanced in popular fa- vor. He has all the instincts and all the abilities of the demagogue. He appeals to the greed, to the needs, to the passions of the masses. His gospel to them is a gospel of loaves and fishes. During the struggle between the House of Lords and the House of Commons on the question of the franchise, he openly incited to violence, with the result that a meeting where Sir Stafford Northcote and Lord Randolph Churchill were to attend was broken up by gangs of roughs. To agricultural laborers he has offered the bribe known as " three acres and a cow," and to the artisans of the towns he has spoken in vague language of their right to a larger amount of money without taking any trouble to point out the means by which their condition was to be bettered. He has assailed the landlords as men " who toil not, neither do they spin ; " but he has been very merciful towards capitalists, having himself acquired a fortune of nearly ten millions by manufacture. Apart from his well-known methods of gaining popular applause, he has a THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 523 fine platform style. His manner is hard, and his language is not particularly elevated, and has a crispness that is very like pertness. But his speeches are clear, and sometimes exciting and full of the suppressed passion. In the House of Commons, too, he is a ready and a powerful de- bater. The very defects of his mind and of his character often lend force to his utterances. He is narrow, and shallow, and bitter ; and then he is able to entertain his audience with those merci- less personal hits, those shallow appeals which are nearly always more successful with a popular assembly than statesmanlike observations. Then the fierceness of his temper gives you an idea of a man whom it is dangerous to cross, and this produces a strong impression upon an audience which respects power above everything else. His temper also gives force to his utterances, because his selfishness makes him feel his own view of a case so deeply as to enable him to give it ib c vehement utterance by which men are moved. It would be hard to say, even in this apparently dark hour of his fortunes, that he has not a great future before him ; but the greatness of his posi- tion will be the danger of his country. He is a combination of the worst qualities that were ever possessed by a Minister. He has a violent tem- perj a masterful will, a shallow judgment, a changeful purpose. Believing himself always right, and yet constantly changing his opinions, li f ;. i r 1 • i. . 'i •^* 524 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. he forces men to adopt his particular views or openly quarrels with them. His appearance in- dicates to a large extent his character. He is a man of a very powerful frame, and is able to take liberties with it that show immense physical vigor. He eats and drinks generously, though not too much He smokes all day long, and never takes any exercise. After a heavy dinner he is able to go down to the House of Commons and sit in the sweltering atmosphere for hours without any visible harm. He has a long, thin face, with a large nose slightly turned up. This gives a perky air to the countenance, and the perkiness is largely increased by that single eye- glass which has made the ctony British stare an object of dislike to all mankind. Mr. GoscHEN plays an important part in the events that follow and deserves separate notice. He is German, and we believe Hebrew by de- scent. He certainly has an extremely Hebrew cast of countenance — Hebrew of the low and mean and not of the lofty and handsome type. The first impression of his face is certainly very sinister, and suggests a pettifogging provincial attorney rather than a statesman. His features are some- what vulpine. The eyes are small and appear smaller from the nearsightedness that keeps them nearly always half closed. The lair is gray, the side whiskers are gray, and the complexion is a curious gray also — not pallid, not yellow, and ■J':. THE GREAT IRISH STRUG(iLE. 525 not ruddy, but simply a dull white-lead gray. He usually sits in a crouchin- position with the side of his face turned to the House, the whole air of the man suggesting pettiness and meanness. His voice is a more unpleasant characteristic still. The utterance is thick and guttural and throaty, and his speech is like a croak. His de- livery, besides, is most ungainly. He shifts himself about like a windmill, fiddles with his ring, and the sound of his voice is an affliction. At the same time he is unquestionably a man of great intellectual power, but it is the power of criticism, not of construction. He can make a very damag- ing attack upon a measure or a policy, couched in unpretentious but at the same time vividly striking language. He has none of the shallow- ness or recklessness of Mr. Chamberlain, but he has never been successful in construction, and the counter-policies he has proposed have usually been laughed out of court. He has the reputation of being wealthy, but how that wealth was acquired it were as well perhaps not to inquire too closely. He began life as a member of the great financial firm of Friihling & Goschen, and that firm had the doubtful honor of introducing the Khedives of Egypt to the exchanges of Europe, and thus of beginning that vast system of useless palaces, populous harems, and the importation of ballet girls which were the shame and the scandal of Ismail Pasha's reign, and which had for their counter- ^1 • 520 GLADSTON K— I'A UNELL. part desolated fields, broken homes, and the fellaheen bastinadoed out of their last farthing into roofless and foodless wanderers. For many years Goschen has played a curious part in Eng- lish politics. He calls himself a Liberal, but his mind is essentially of a conservative cast. He has little confidence in men, not much hope for the future, and weighs and balances every reform and generally finds it wanting. It is hard to say how far his conduct is the result of conviction. He is represented as having lost heavily by the atti- tude he has taken, but it is hard to see how. His refusal to accept the reduction of the franchise in the counties as part of the Liberal programme prevented his taking office in 1880, but he obtained an appointment as special ambassador to Constantinople, and thus instead of having to be a mere follower and colleague of Mr. Gladstone he was raised to the rank of a positive personage whose speeches might make or mar ministries. Throughout his whole career he has been a bit- ter enemy of everything Irish. He has loudly supported coercion. He opposed reduction of the franchise in Ireland, and now he has be- come one of the most able of the assailants of Home Rule. It is a curious feature of many men of Hebrew race that they profess a patriot- ism more Jingo than that which satisfies an ordinary Englishman. Mr. Goschen has not a drop of English blood in his veins ; it is not even ^ ,lj •i ' ;; i i i' ^ 1 ', il ^1' 'i i i) i'-' ! I i :i THE GREAT IRISH STRUCiCiLE. 529 certain that he was born In England, and perhaps this is the reason that he has shouted •' Rule Britannia " with his hoarse croaking voice more loudly than anybody else. The Marquis of Hartington is a typical Eng- lishman, more like the Briton of the drama and of the farce than almost any other living man. His whole air is one of phlegm. He sits for hours in the House without ever changing a look. He rarely smiles, he never laughs, and has not often during thirty years of Parliamentary life been betrayed into losing his temper. His mien is haughty and reserved. He is slovenly in dress, awkward in air, slouching in gait. He enters the House of Commons with the curious knock- kneed walk that distinguishes horsey Englishmen and with his hands sunk to the lowest depths of his pockets. His face is handsome and rather distinguished-looking — though a friendly critic described his profile as singularly like that of a horse. His under-lip is heavy and protuberant, and the face is rather too long. He wears a moustache and beard, and has a full head of hair in which, though he is upwards of fifty, and though he is said to have lived in the full sense of the word, there is scarcely a gray thread visible. Lord Hartington was a very considerable period in Parliament before anybody thought there was much in him beyond what is called " horse-sense." self-control and a certain dignity. 30 . 1 -fiM MO (iLADSroNE— rAKNKIJ. :li« When in 1875 Mr. Gladstone retired from the leadership of the Liberal party there was a wail of despair aniongr his followers when the suc- cession was handed over to Lord Hartington, and everybody was of opinion that the only thing to be said in his favor was that he was the son of a duke. For some time after his accession to his new position, Lord Hartington realized the worst anticipations, and the contrast between his lumbering and ungainly style and the bright and epigrammatic agility of Mr. Disraeli opposite was painful and humiliating to the Liberal party. His delivery is certainly most trying. He speaks in a curious falsetto voice, and beginning his sen- tences at a top note he gradually descends to a deep basso, until in the end it is nothing but in- audible gutturals. This rise and fall goes on with a damnable iteration that make= life a wear- iness. There is a story told that somebody came up to Lord Hartington once and asked him whether it was true that he had yawned in the middle of his own speech. •* Well, I suppose I did," answered Lord Hartington. "Wasn't it damned dull ? " As time went on, however, he im- proved immensely, and when the days of his leadership were over he certainly had made a fine record. When people manage to get over the trying part of his delivery, it is discovered that he expresses himself very clearly and some- times with great force. For a good, hard-hitting rilK (iKKAT IRISH STKUGCJLE. h'M "g speech he is the equal of almost any man in the House of Commons. According to somt; critics he is a lazy man, who docs not care about anything, and regards politics, like most things in life, as a hideous and disgusting bore. Ac- cording to others, this apparrnt indifference is but L'. mask for a really keen and eager interest, for a strong feeling upon most debatable questions, and for ar ambition slowly burning but still per- sistent. On the Irish question, unfortunately, he v/as not without personal prei)ossessions. He is said to have been very strongly attached to his brother. Lord Frederick Cavendish, tht; in- nocent and hapless victim of the Phoenix Park assassination. Beside this, he is deeply interested in Ireland owing to the possession of property there. The manner in which this property came into the hands of his family is one of the many disgraceful chapters in the history of Ireland. Sir George Oito Trevelvan is a man generally popular among Liberals for courtesy and agree- ableness of manner, and grace, elegance and ami- ability of speech. By Irishmen he is. not so well liked, as he is supposed to hide a good deal of personal venom underneath his agreeable ex- terior. He is the nephew of Lord Macaulay, and the heir of a crood deal of his talents. He has o the gifts and the deficiencies of a literary man. His speeches are clear and agreeable, but at the same time smell too much of the lamp. He : , i' fft'V^i 532 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ( li I m writes beautifully, and some of his works are among the gems of English literature. He is not a man of much force. His nerves broke down under the strain of the Chief Secretarysliip of Ireland ; his face grew haggard and his beard whitened in a few months. This sad experience seems to have soured his nature, and he has ever since been among the most vindictive enemies of Irish rights. The Marquis of Salisbury is undoubtedly en- titled by commanding talents to the position of Prime Minister. He is, next to Mr. Gladstone, the most interesting figure in the political life of England. In intellectual endowments, in culture, in loftiness of speech and of aim, he stands far be- yond most if not all other competitors for public favor. And yet it may be doubted if in any but a country governed by speakers he would be se- lected for the position of First Minister. He has the besetting vice of parliamentarians: he is the slave, not the master, of words ; and words do not always carry to his mind definite images of facts, and forces, and things. In this respect the Mar- quis of Salisbury is more like Mr. Gladstone than any of Mr. Gladstone's own associates. But the Marquis of Salisbury has a craze for antithesis, and a genius for epigram ; while the man has yet to be born who remembers one epigram out of Mr. Gladstone's oratory. In dealing with foreign nations Mr. Gladstone may say and has said some of C" a n »4 S. 1.1 in 2 y^ n o in r > Q as ? •5 S. & n 1-4 r M > n I >■' H\ . f ' 1 ■ 1 V L_ I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 635 terribly imprudent and injurious things about powers who have had the choice afterwards of doinor Enorland and Mr. Gladstone a good turn or o o o an ill turn; but Mr. Gladstone's amplitude of language and excess of qualifications have pre- vented his denunciations from being readily and portably remembered. The Marquis of Salis- bury, on the other hand, has the unhappy knack of putting his attacks into a compact form that makes them more difficult to forget than to re- member. The difference in the effect of the im- prudent utterances of the two men is the difference between getting a sousing from a tub and being stabbed by a poisoned stiletto. When the career of the Marquis of Salisbury comes to be considered, it will be found that many of his mistakes as a politician are due to his train- ing as a journalist. The training of the journalist is in many respects the best ; in some, it is the worst for the man who takes afterwards an active part in politics. The writer at his desk is essen- tially removed from contact with his fellow-men ; and thus it is that the timid man becomes brave with his pen, the gentle sanguinary, the wavering decided. The journalist, accustomed to write in the privacy of his own closet, gets a habit of thought independent of the feelings of other people ; and it is the power of considering, and regarding, and working through the feelings, and sensibilities, and passions of other men that make ' i' f ■ i )■ it (■ .; Is' H-: 536 GL A I jSTONE— PARNELL. i ,.1 U I up a great part of the equipment of the practical politician. It is still more unfortunate for the Marquis of Salisbury that the journal on which he received his early training should have been the Saturday Revieiv. A man could not be one of the leading writers for such a journal for many years without taking away some distinct traces on his style. The Marquis of Salisbury is often nothing more nor less than the un regenerate Saturday Reviewer, The disregard for the opinions of others ; the im- patient rush to the unpopular rather than the popular view ; the love of antithesis ; the straining after pointed and bitter ways of saying things ; the slavery to form rather than matter — these are the relics of years spent in the weekly grinding out of articles which had the irresponsibility of anonymity ; and which looked at everything from the standpoint of culture, correcting and despis- ing the prejudices and ideals of the crowd. It is an unfortunate thing when the journalist, trans- formed into a politician, can play by epigrams with such chainless forces as armies and ironclads, international rivalries, and the murderous hatreds of race. What makes the fault worse is the probability that the effect of much of what Lord Salisbury says is more surprising to himself than to any- body else. His "commercial illustrations" might go near provoking a bloody conflict between two THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 637 of the greatest powers of this earth ; but the phrases dropped naturally from the lips of a jour- nalist in a weekly newspaper. Those who have Lord Salisbury's acquaintance describe him as courteous and considerate in manner, reasonable, and kindly in judgment. His pen is more bitter than his tongue, and his tongue a good deal more bitter than his mind. Another grave obstacle to the success of the Marquis as a leader of the new and omnipotent democracy is that, in all probability, he has not yet attorned in his heart to the democracy. He belonged for years to the clique of brilliant men who made war on the multituae ; the hauteur of the scholar and of the writer rather than of the aristocrat was at the bottom of his political faith. His hostility to the Household Suffrage is well remembered. In the course of debates he made comparisons between the term of residence re- quired for artisans and the term of imprisonment compulsorily gone through by a person convicted of crime. His refusal for years to be reconciled to Mr. Disraeli was due, it may well be supposed, not to personal dislike alone, but because the Conservative leader had lowered the political life of England by admitting the greater part of its citizens to a share in their own government. Lord Randolph Churchill has made advances more rapidly than almost any politician of his time. There was probably not one member of I !■ m 1 y\ \ t 538 GLADSTONE— PA RNELL. 'ri*l ^-1 the Parliament of Lord Beaconsfield who had the least conception that the member for Woodstock would ever have amounted to anything like an important figure in the House of Commons. In that Parliament of nearly six years he spoke three or four times, and the speeches were not promis- ing of a future. On one occasion he made a speech in defence of a hopelessly rotten corpora- tion ; on another he attacked Mr. Sclater-Booth with a freedom that shocked sober men ; and his third notable performance at this period was a speech made in Dublin, which, in the echoes that reached London, seemed to extenuate the ob- struction of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar at the moment when their heads were demanded by the universal voice of England. His political appear- ances, in short, were regarded as part of an eccen- tric and reckless nature, that found everything else in life more interesting than its serious affairs. At this period this was perhaps a not wholly un- just estimate. His ignorance certainly at the time was appalling. The fall of the Beaconsfield Ministry was his rise. Those who can look back at the aspect of the two parties can alone form a fair estimate of the work Lord Randolph Churchill and his asso- ciates have done for the Conservative party. No- body — who, new to Parliamentary life, had his powers of observation fresh and keen — can forget the mournful contrast between the appearance THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 539 and the demeanor of the victors and the van- quished after the great electoral struggle of 1880. The Liberals overflowed on their benches ; all the names that had been familiar for years as the leaders of the forlorn hopes of Radicalism had found places in the new Parliament. The great leader of the party stood one day at the bar, his mobile face wreathed in smiles, and with the flush of achieved victory, and greater victories to come; and the whole party rioted in the sense of its omnipotence. On the other side there were benches painfully attenuated, and the universal look was one of despair. The leaders of the party were in worse case than the rank and file. The overwhelming defeat at the polls had come upon them with surprise ; to bewilderment succeeded disgust; and it was impossible to get them to turn their faces from the wall and take up their broken weapons. One man suddenly took a fancy to rural pursuits ; the exigencies of his private affairs engrossed the mind of another ; they nearly all kept studiously away from the new Parliament, and shunned the gaze of their triumph- ant enemies. It was in this dark hour that Lord Randolph Churchill and his associates in the Fourth party took up the work of arresting the triumphant chariot of their adversaries. It looked hopeless. The disposition of even their own side was, for a while at least, to let things take their course ; and as the country had determined I I; 1 i- 1 f- k Hi .i;;l I.'' 540 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 1 a that It was best for it to enter on the path that leads to Hades, to let the country have its way. The entrance of Mr. Bradlaugh to Parliament would, in all probability, have been -allowed to pass unchallenged had it not been for the vigilance of Lord Randolph ; through his efforts it was that the member for Northampton was refused ad- mission ; that the subject was gradually trans- formed from the contest between the convictions of a single member to a great ministerial ques- tion. Then the bills of the Ministry were op- posed clause by clause, even line by line ; and it soon came to be seen, that by the dexterous use of the forms of the House — by constant attend- ance, by steady, hard work, three or four men could act as a drag on a party with a hundred majority. I am not expressing approval of the tactics of the Fourth party. In carrying on this work Lord Randolph ran great risks. He was exposed to the charge of obstruction ; was howled at by the ministerial rank and file; denounced by ministerial orators ; laughed at and menaced, and even included in the same category with the fol- lowers of Mr. Parnell. But he took no notice of these attacks, went on his way steadily ; with the result that there came to be confidence where there had been despair ; activity where there had been apathy; brisk and constant attendance on benches that had yawned in horrid emptiness. Nobody took him seriously at this period, not even his own side. In. r •*>,, TlIK GREAT IRISH SrRU(](;i R. 641 It may be doubted if he had at ^cJs time even in the ranks of the Liberal party enemies more scornful than in his own party. The whole forces of the front opposition bench were arrayed against him. The squires thought him grossly insub- ordinate, and it looked as if he were going to be cast out of the ranks. He has changed all this. His ri .• ' ^ popular favor and in par- liamentary influ ncf is been seen growing before the universal vc until now he is perhaps the most popular m, i of his party out of doors, and in its parlian nt".ry arrangements he can dictate his own terms. Justin McCarthy was born in Cork in 1830. When he was a boy the capital of Munster could really lay claim to deserve the traditional reputa- tion of the province for learning. Mr. McCarthy's father was one of the best classical scholars of the day. There was at that time a schoolmaster named Goulding — the name is familiar to many a Corkman still — who was a really fine scholar. Justin McCarthy was one of Goulding's pupils, and when he left school he had the power not com- mon even amonof hard students of beings able to read Greek fluently and to write as well as trans- late Latin with complete ease. Journalism ap- peared to him the readiest form of making a live- lihood, and, like so many other literary men, he began at one of the low rungs of the ladder. He had taught himself shorthand, and his first em- "RB ■a, I i- i . i ■■ Is i , ( i 642 GLADSTONE— PARNKLL. ployment was tliat of a reporter on the Cork Ex- aminer. It may be an interesting fact to note that his hand still retains its cunning, and that he may often be observed taking down on the margin of the Parliamentary Order Paper the exact words of some important Ministerial statement for quota- tion in his leading article. The first important piece of work, it may also here be mentioned, which Mr. McCarthy was sent to do was to report the trials of Smith O'Brien and his colleagues at Clonmel. There are two other important rexnin- isx^ences of Mr. McCarthy's reporting days. He was present at the meeting in Cork at which the late Judge Keogh swore that oath which played so tragic a part in Irish history ; and he was also present, we are informed, at the famous dinner at which the present Lord Fitzgerald, then a rising young lawyer, in the ardor of his patriotism, bearded a lord-lieutenant and scandalized an audience of Cork's choicest Whigs. It was in 1847 i-hat Mr. McCarthy started his professional life. All that was young, enthusiastic, and earnest in Cork shared the political aspirations of that stormy time. There had been in existence for many years a debating society known as the "Scientific and Literary Society," and one of the many forms in which the new spirit roused by Young Ireland showed itself was the starting of the Cork Historical Society, as a rival to the older and tamer association. Among the members of Tin: CUKAT IRISH STKUCIOLK. 643 ,■' 'isini;" this body were many younor men who afterwards rose to Importance. Sir John Pope Hennessy, now Governor of the Mauritius, and Justin Mc- Carthy himself were among its first recruits. The Historical Society became a recruiting ground for Young Ireland ; nearly all its members joined the party of combat, and they founded one of the many clubs tliac were started to prepare for the cominor struoirlc. Justin McCarthy, in his maturity of philosophic calm, can look back to a time when he dreamed of rifles and bayonet charges and death in the midst of fierce fight for the cause of Ireland. To those who know him there is no difference in the man of to-day and the man of '48. He has still the same unflinching courage as then. In this respect, indeed, McCarthy is a singular mixture of apparent incompatibilities. There is no man who enjoys the hour more keenly. He has the capacity of M. Renan for finding the life around him amusing; enjoys society and solitude, work and play, a choice dinner or an all-night sitting. He has eminently "a two o'clock in the morning couracTe" — a readiness to face the worst without notice. With his fifty-five years he is still a man of sanguine temperament ; but in '48 he was only eighteen. He naturally, therefore, belonged to the section which had Mitchel for its apostle, and open and immediate insurrection for its gospel. Mitchel was arrested, and no att ;mpt was made ii.: l! ■! 044 Cil,AI).ST()Ni:--I'AKNi;i,L. to res( ii(.' him ; and thorc wore many among the companions of McCarthy who saw in tliis faihire the death of th(.'ir hopes, tlie entl of their efforts for the Irish cause. Justin McCarthy was not one of those. The remainder of this portion of his life may be described in the words of his son: •'In that very year (1849), when the English Queen was in Dublin listening to the loyal pro- tests of citizens, and while she was being assured the Young Ireland movement meant nothing, and that Ireland was heart and soul devoted to her service, in that year a young man came down from Dublin to Cork. The young man bore a name which is deservedly dear to Irishmen — Joseph Brennan. Those who knew Joe Brennan are not likely to forget his wonderful dark eyes, his brilliant talk, and one of the most National hearts that ever beat for Ireland. He came down to Cork with the deliberate purpose of trying to stir into blaze again the revolutionary fires which seemed to have been extinguished when Meagher and Smith O'Brien and the others were sentenced to transportation. Brennan's plan was simple and not unpractical ; and, of course, his purpose was revolutionary. His idea was that a number of small risings should take place on the very same day, hour, and minute, in different parts of Ireland ; that their suddenness and unanimity might serve to distract authority ; that at least \.^y TIIK (lUKAT IKISII STKUdlW.K. 545 there would be a slrujL^^le ; tliat some brave men would die for Ireland; and that somethinji;^ good for the country must hai)i)en out of that. Let it at least bt; shown to English dominion that there were young men in Ireland ready to die for their country, and then the world might end, or the English rule might grow humane, or any other strangt; and exceedingly unlikely thing might come to pass. It was the dream of a young man; and Joe Brennan and his friends were all young- men. There were a very large number of gen- erous, high-souled, pure-hearted young men, whose one ambition was to give their lives for th(] sake of their country. There were few young men in Cork in 1848 who could not boast the possession of a rifle, or a sabre, or a pike ; these were hidden away in all sorts of unlikely places — buried in back-gardens or put out of sight some- how. They only hoped to make a series of des- perate efforts, to die gallantly, and by their brave deaths to stimulate the national feelint'- of their country, and to convince the oppressor of their earnestness of purpose. There were incessant meetings of the revolutionary leaders and of their followers, organized under the pretence of temper- ance meetings, literary associations, and the like. There were continual drillings, where the great object was to get large bodies of men to obey readily the word > comman'. and to go through military evolutions swiftly and silently. They had 1 ' i- , ■M .1- ■ -' I I ifi'nM '< : \: .i f!i m '■ 546 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. their passwords — their signs and countersigns. When one rising has failed, it is very difficult to rouse popular passions to the fever-heat of another insurrection. Still, with all these difficulties in the way, the young men of the new movement were determined to go on, and made r.^ady for the signal which was to come to them, and which was to be the match which would fire the flames of rebellion in rn^ ny parts of the country at the same moment. Unfortunately the insurrection did not break out simultaneously. There were one or two abortive risings in different parts of the coun- try. The police were prepared. There was a sharp, short exchange of shots, and then the in- surrection ended for a time. The little centres of conspiracy, that had been waiting for the watchword that was to hurl them into action, heard with despair of a disaster at Cappoquin and the failure of their hopes. There was noth- ing further to be done for the moment. Joe Brennan made his way to New Orleans. In that wonderful city on the Mississippi, which is still a marvellous combination of France before the Revolution, of tropical Creole life, and of modern American enterprise, he founded a newspaper, and married — but not the love of his youth. She died unmarried. Blindness came upon him, and he wrote some melancholy, beautiful verses upon the calamity which darkened his life. He died while he was still what may be called a young man." THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 647 With this revolutionary episode ended for the time McCarthy's political history, and from this period, for many years, his story is that of the literary man. It was in the year 1851 that Mr. McCarthy first tried his fortunes in London. The attempt ended in failure, and he had to return to the reporter's place in Cork. There was at that time a Royal Commission for inquiring into the fairs and markets of Ireland, and the secretary having broken down, Justin McCarthy was taken on as the official shorthand writer. His aptitude was such that some member of the Commission urged him to again go to London, and armed him with letters of introduction. This was in 1852. McCarthy again tried his chance, but without success. Before he could continue this fruitless labor he heard of the Northern Times, the first provincial daily of England, which was about to be started in Liverpool, applied for a situation, and was accepted. He was still only a reporter, and even he him- self did not yet very well know whether he was fitted for better things. The presumption always is that the journalist v/ho begins as a reporter should be allowed so to continue. But with persistent energy McCarthy worked on, gave literary lectures, and in the end was allowed the privilege of contributing to the editorial columns. He remained in Liverpool till i860. McCarthy was contended for by several Liverpool journals, 31 H ■11^ ■ } m r t, I' J. i % "\: SI 1'{ 5rhn i." '1; a.' Ui 548 GLADSTONE— PAl^NELL. but he declined all offers, fixed in the resolve to make or mar his fortune in London. The young journalist had at this time a coun- sellor who for many years was the chief arbiter of his destiny in all the crises of his life. Miss Charlotte Allman, a member of the well-known Munster family, had come to reside with her brother in Liverpool. The two young people resolved to marry, in spite of the strong opposi- tion of relatives and in the face of frowning for^ tunes, and in 1855 they were married. The folly of these young people was more truly wise than the sagacity of their elders, for their marriage was to both the best and the most beneficent event in their lives. To those who knew Mrs. McCarthy there is no need to dilate on the resistless charm of her truly beaudful nature. She never wrote a line ; she did not even pretend to any literary power ; but she had the keen intelligence of sympathy ; she had faith in her husband, and she had indomitable courage. It was she that induced Mr. McCarthy to refuse all the Liverpool offers, and that turned his face steadily to the larger hopes of London ; and the joint capital of the young couple when they landed in London was ;^io. McCarthy's first London engagement was as a Parliamentary reporter on the Mornmg Star. He found time to do other work in the intervals of this hard occupation, and tried his hand at an «i. THE GREAT iRTSIt STRUGGLE. 549 t resolve to essay for one of the magazines. He had taught himself French, German, and Italian ; was famil- iar with the three literatures ; and his first attempt at essay-writing had Schiller for its subject. He next tried the Westminster Review, and two articles of his in that periodical attracted the attention of John Stuart Mill. The philosopher was introduced to the young writer, showed a friendly interest in his welfare, and helped to advance his fortunes. In the autumn of i860 he was appointed foreign editor of the Morning Star, and in 1865 he became editor-in-chief. Those who remember the journal and the times when it lived will know what splendid service it did to the cause of Ireland, and its tone of energetic advo- cacy of Irish national claims was largely due to the inspiration of the ardent man who was then at its head. It was while he was in this position that Mr. McCarthy became intimately acquainted with Mr. John Bright. In these days the ex-minister was fond of spending some hours in the office of the Star, in which his sister had some shares ; and many an hour did the editor and the politician spend together. It is one of the unpleasant consequences of the fierce strug- gles of the last few years that those two old friends have ceased even to speak to one another. But in 1868, when Mr. Bright sold out his share in the Morning Star, Mr. McCarthy resigned his position on the staff of that journal. \\. 550 GLADSrONE- PARNELL. He then entered on a new and highly inter- esting experience. He went to America, where an embarrassing choice of offers awaited him. He had, while still editor of the S^ar, published his first novel, "Paul Massey," in 1866 — a story which Mr. McCarthy has since suppressed. This had been followed, in 1867, by the "Waterdale Neighbors " — a charming story. One of Mr. McCarthy's first engagements was to write a series of stories for the " Galaxy," a literary maga- zine in America. America has changed greatly since the Irish lecturer went on his first tour, for at that period the Pacific Railway had but just been completed, and the Indians used still to haunt the railway stations in numbers sufficiently large to be sometimes djingerous. Mr. McCarthy was an extremely successful lecturer, and by meaas of his pen and his tongue found the United State a profitable field of labor. He paid a brief Visit to London in the middle of 1870, returned again in the autumn of that year, and finally in the autumn of 1871 came back to England Meantime his name had been kept steadily before the English reading public. Immediately after his return Mr. McCarthy accepted an engagement on the Daily News as Parliamentary leader writer. For years he was looked up to by most of his editorial colleagues as the man who took the most rapid and the most accurate view of a Parliamentary situation. The work of a THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLK. ot•! k J. i. i: ; >^^^" >-■>■»■ ifc 558 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. he had not been a member of a Catholic Young Men's Association and a Mechanics' Institute when he was a boy. When he was about sixteen he dehvered a lecture on Oliver Goldsmith, and another on John Banim, the novelist. He showed some anticipation of his own future position by promoting the formation of a debating club, and was, of course, one of the most frequent com- batants of this body. He was finally elected president of the club, and he held this position up to the time of his leaving Waterford. The Mechanics* Institute in Waterford, as in other Irish towns, was not confined to the class for whose benefit such bodies were supposed mainly to exist, for among its members were the pro- fessional men and merchants of the city. Here also Sexton's mind naturally turned to the idea of a debating club, and with his co-operation such a club was started. The debating society became in time one of the prominent features in the life of Waterford. Meantime Sexton's ideas had been straying towards work more suitable to his tastes than that of the railway office. And when he was twenty-one he at last determined to make a bid for better fortunes. It speaks well, not merely for Sexton, that even at that early period in his career the departure from his native city should have been regarded as an event of some impor- tance, A public dinner was held in honor of the THE GREAT IRISH STRU'JGLE 559 departing young citizen. Sexton had become the centre of a group of able young men, of whom two, at least, have since achieved a position of importance — Edmund Leamy, and Richard Dow- ling, the well-known novelist. Sexton went to Dublin with all good wishes, and with the strongest encouragement from friends who had faith in his future. His start in the Irish capital was good, for he immediately obtained a per- manent post as a leader-writer in the Nation of- fice, from A. M. Sullivan, at that time the editor. He contributed regularly his leading articles every week to the National journal, and when Mr. D. B. Sullivan went to the Irish Bar he took up the editorship of the Weekly News. He was, for a while, also the editor of Young Ireland. Busy with his pen. Sexton took practically no part in politics, and had done little to justify those promises of oratorical eminence which had been given in the debating societies. However, when the Home Rule League was formed, he had given public proof of the faith that was in him by joining its ranks. In 1879 he was requested by the council of the Land League to attend a county meeting at Dromore West, County Sligo. The people of the county were quick to discern the abil- ities of the unknown young man, and he made, from his very first appearance among them, a profound impression. Indeed, even after he was elected, Sexton was known by Sligo long before i' 560 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. I' .s Ji i vi'i M li he was recognized by Ireland generally. Nobody could help remarking that his voice was pecu- liarly melodious ; but few had any conception of the great things that were in this thin, delicate, rather retiring man. He was simply a writer — a clever fellow enough in his way — able to write a pretty article or a nice little story, but, beyond that, nothing. It might be desirable, perhaps, that he should be run because good candidates were so hard to get ; and because I:is long training in the Nation of- fice was some security that he had the right opinions. Sexton has, however, established a po- sition in the councils of his party and in the esteem of the whole Irish race. One of the first to discern the commanding abilities of Sexton was Mr. Healy, who urgently and constantly pressed the claims of his friend. When at last Sexton was sent to Sligo his difficulvies were not at an end. These petty obstacles, however, did not come from the masses of the people, many of whom had already begun to appreciate the real worth of the man with whom they had to deal ; and the unknown young writer was elected at the head of the poll, above both the Whig and the Tory magnates who had previously sat for the county. Sexton was at last in the arena where his abilities had the opportunity of asserting them-, selves, But even in this position, recognition I^iii. i^ THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 661 came to him slowly. During his first session of Parliament he remained comparatively unnoticed. He was phenomenally constant in attendance ; at almost any hour of the day or night he was to be found in that seat which he had marked for his own, and he was in the habit of putting what was considered a very large number of questions. But nobody yet had any idea that there was any- thing in him above very earnest and very re- spectable mediocrity, nor during the recess which followed did he advance his position to any ap- preciable degree. It was on an evening when Mr. Forster's Coercion Bill was under discussion that Sexton broke upon the House for the first time as a great orator. Mr. Forster did not pro- duce the blue book, in which there were the sta- tistics of increased crime, until weeks after he had committed the Government to coercion, and days after he had introduced his bill into the House. It was in the dissection of the extraordinary details at last produced that Sexton showed his powers. The House was, when he rose, but ill-prepared, indeed, for such a speech, especially from an Irish member ; for of the subject it was already sick. The circumstances of the moment tended to increase the prevalent depression, for it was a dull, dark, dismal evening. The House was, therefore, listless, sombre and but thinly filled when Sexton rose. He spoke for two hours, amid chilling silence, interrupted but occasionally rv'V'? 562 GLADST(WE— PARMELL. by the thin cheers of the small group of Irishmen around him ; and yet when he sat down the whole House instinctively felt that a great orator had appeared among them. Still, there was no particular notice of this splendid effort in the newspapers ; it was reported in byt a few lines. But members talked of it in the lobby and the smoke-room ; and, among members of the House of Commons at least, his reputation was estab- lished. Sexton has always been conspicuous for direct- ness and for good sense. Sagacity is, indeed, the very soul of his oratory. He not only says everything better than anybody else can say it, but he always says the right thing. To think of him merely as the eloquent speaker is to forget the still greater claim to respect he holds as a man of remarkably well-balanced mind, of keen and almost faultless judgment. There are few public men who are less controlled by words than this master of words ; for, in spite of the many speeches he has delivered within the last few years, there cannot be pointed out a single sentence which could give just offence to any sec- tion of patriotic Irishmen,. To say the right thing is much ; to leave unsaid the wrong thing counts, in politics, even for something more. He can marshal facts; he can discuss figures with the driest statistician, and can balance arguments with the most logic-chopping member of the House; ise '4> 1 ,: 1 ! ■■ i f i ^- -^ '. t ^'•-.1 THE GREAT IRISH STRU(H;LE. /)»;o and he can at the same time invest any subject with the glory of splendid language. He is at once orator and debater; his manner fascinates, his matter convinces. Sexton is a keen observer, and his reading of men's motives is helped by a slight dash of cyni- cism. In ordinary affairs blasi and physically lethargic, his political industry is .marvellous. He; enters the House of Commons when the Speaker takes the chair, and never leaves it until the door- keeper's cry is heard. He sits in his place dur- ing all those long hours, grudging the time he spends at a hasty dinner, or the few minutes he gives to the smoking of the dearly-loved cigar. He rarely approaches the discussion of any ques- tion without full knowledge of all the facts, care- fully arranged and abundantly illustrated by letters or other documents. He has great mastery of detail. With every measure that in the least degree concerns Ireland he is acquainted down to the last clause, and thus it is that he enters on all debates with a singularly complete equipment. Finally, his mind is extraordinarily alert. His opponent has scarcely sat down when he is on his feet with counter-arguments to meet even the plausible case that has been made against him. This gift, aided by sang-froid, makes him a most formidable opponent, and even the Speaker has had more than once to succumb before the ready answer and the cool temper of Sexton. s'f tf 566 GLADSTONE—PARNELL. Arthur O'Connor was born in London on October i, 1844. His father was a Kerry man, for many years one of the most eminent physi- cians of London. Arthur was educated at Ushaw ; and in the year 1863 began a clerkship in the War Office. There was but one vacancy, and there were thirty competitors ; O'Connor got the place, obtaining a higher average of marks than any Civil Service competitor for many years. For the space of sixteen years the young Irish- man led the monotonous life of the Civil Servant. He was a model clerk in being always accurate, attentive, hardworking. But outside his office Arthur O'Connor was the most unclerklike of men. He had political opinions of the most unpopular, unprofitable character. Then he not only professed Irish National principles, but he was elected a member of the executive of the Home Rule Confederation. Finally, he began to be seen in the lobby in the House of Commons in earnest and frequent colloquy with Mr. Parnell. O'Connor was by no means anxious to remain in his dingy rooms in Pail Mall. Under a scheme of reorganization, an offer was made to him, as to other clerks, to retire if he chose. He did so choose, and shook the dust of the War Office from off his feet. In 1879 he was elected member of the Chelsea Board of Guardians, and the main purpose which he had in getting this place was that he might THE GREAT IRISH S'lHUGCJLE. 567 look after Catholic interests. For six months not one of tli(; Catholic inmates of the workhouse had been allowed to go out to mass, either on a Sunday or on a holiday ; nor was a Catholic priest permitted to enter the place ; no Catholic prayer-books were given to be read, and the Catholic children were sent to Protestant schools; and, finally, the institution was not stained by having a single '* Romanist " among its officials. On the very first day on which O'Connor took his seat, the most eligible of all the applicants for the humble position of '* scrubber " was rejected on the sole ground that he was a Catholic. The board consisted of twenty members. O'Connor was the single Catholic in the whole number. O'Connor was not aggressive in manner, nor violent in language ; he made no speeches either strong or long, nor did he intrigue, or smile, or coax. He first mastered the whole complicated system of the poor-law code. After a while O'Connor had become such an expert in the law of the workhouse that his fellow-guardians found he could take care of himself, and some of them began to seek his aid as an ally whenever there was any proposal which required strong backing. But he had been elected a member of the Gen- eral Purposes Committee — the most important of all the committees. It had the contracts to give and to examine, dealt with accounts and other matters in the economy of the workhouse. 32 rss f;LAnSTONK-l'ARNELL. I'' I '.If ■■ '♦11,' M- O'Connor devoted days and weeks to the study of all these accounts, with the result that he knew every item intimately. It became impossible for a penny to pass muster for which full and satis- factory explanation was not given — jobbery trembled beneath the pitiless eyes of this cold and calm inquisitor, and rogues fled abashed. All this could not be accomplished without terribly hard work, and every Wednesday O'Connor was in his place on the Committee or at the Board ; and though this work often extended continuously from ten o'clock in the morning till eight at night, with the exception of half-an-hour for lunch, in his place he remained all the time. For even a minute's absence might enable the jobber to rush through his scheme ; and not a farthing would O'Connor allow to pass, if criticism were de- manded. The Board was shocked at this inde- cent scrupulousness, this shocking conscientious- ness, this rude industry. Now the year of the War Office began in January ; that of the Board of Guardians some months subsequently ; the poor-law year, there- fore, overlapped the year of the War Office. Thus O'Connor was able to take the War Office vacation of two years within the single year of the Board ; and his two years' vacation were the Wednesdays which he spent at the Board of Guardians, entirely for the benefit of the poorest and lowliest of luankind. Never was reformer THE (;rkat IRISH STkrf;(;i,K. 569 so completely and so rapidly successful. Me was but one year a member ot the Hoard of Ciuar- dians — the combined forces of biirotry and job- bery took cart^ that he ^.hould not be elected a second time. At the end of that year every Catholic could go to church on Sunday or holiday ; the Catholic priest was admitted to the workhouse to instruct the inmates : in short, of the muldtude of Catholic grievances not one remained unre- dressed. And yet all this had been accomplished without one violent word, with that exterior of perfect courtesy under which lay concealed fierce passion and relendess purpose. He also served for a year as a member of the Chelsea Vestry. He had not here the same great motive for activity as on the Board of Guardians ; but, nevertheless, he made his presence soon and severely felt. O'Connor's part in Parliament has been such as one might have anticipated from his previous career. He devoted himself to the work which was dryest and most uninviting; had acquired in a short time a knowledge so intimate of the rules of the House as to be a terror to the Speaker. All was done with an air of unbroken severity, but of unruffled temper and of inflexible courtesy. O'Connor was the calm, patient, lofty spirit of economy that chided, but pitied, and that spoke in the accents of sorrow rather than of anger, iiut he would go on criticising, however painful W '^ ■ I 570 GL ADSTON E— PA RN ELL. f -i the duty. One item disposed of, another was taken up ; that disposed of, there was yet another item; and so on through the countless figures of the huge volumes that contain the Estimates. But -t was not always criticism or always com- plaint. At some moments it was an explanation which O'Connor prayed for with his inimitable air of sad deference. A small speech was re- quired, of course, to preface the inquiry. The ^^inister having answered, a second speech was necessary in order to have a further word on just a trifling little difficulty that still remained. And thus it went on hour after hour— O'Connor calm, deferential, inquisitive, miraculously omniscient — the Minister restless, apologetic, with the result that, when the night was over, the Treasury had got about one out of 'every fifteen votes it had hoped to carry. Work of this kind, which is con- stantly done by such men as O'Connor and Biggar — and in former days by gallant Lysaght Finigan — is not and can never be reported, is rarely even heard of; but it is in patiently, con- tinuously going through the hideous drudgery of unrecognized toil like this that such men show their self-devotion. With the doubtful exception of Mr. Parnell, Arthur O'Connor has the best House of Commons style of any man in the l)arty. Clear, deliberate, passionless in language, gesture, delivery, he is the very best model of an official speaker. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 571 Not one man in a hundred would ever guess when he heard him addressing the House of Commons that O'Connor had a drop of Irish blood in his veins. The whole air is rigid, serious, icy. He drops his words with calculated slowness, and the subjects he selects for treat- ment are dry and formal and statistical — the sub- jects, in short, which are supposed to attract the plodding mind of the typical Englishman. The physique of O'Connor suggests the idea of a calmness and unemotional self-control which an Irishman is rarely supposed to possess; he is tall, thin, with a sombre air, and a cold, dark-blue eye. But all these outward presentments are but a mask ; in the whole Irish party there is not one whose heart beats with emotion so profound, with a hatred so fierce. Analysis has divided enthu- siasm into two kinds — the enthusiasm that is warm and the enthusiasm that is cold. The en- thusiasm of Arthur O'Connor is of the cold, that is of the perilous, type. Sufficient has been here written of Arthur O'Connor to make intelligible the high respect, and even affection, in which he is held by his friends and colleaoues. The sternness of his faith does not prevent him from being one of the kindliest of companions, one of the most tolerant and even-tempered of councillors. Timothy Daniel Sullivan — the future ballad- writer of the Irish National cause — was born at m ♦ > -I M 572 GI A 1 )S rONP:— PARNELL. Bantry in 1827. The father of the SulHvans was in but moderate circumstances, but education and refinement descend socially deeper in Ireland than in England ; and the parent of T. D. Sulli- van was a man of considerable culture. The mother was likewise a woman of large gifts, and was for many years a teacher. She seems to have had, besides, a very attractive personality. The home of the Sullivans was thoroughly National, and amid the stirring times of 1848, and the hideous disasters of the two preceding years, there were all the circumstances to make the faith of the family robust. The father was carried away, like the majority of the earnest Irishmen of that time, by the gospel which the Young Ireland leaders were preaching, and, as a reward, was dismissed from his employment. T. D. Sullivan, like his brothers, though brought up in a small and remote town, had a good education. The chief and the best school- master of the town was Mr. Healy, the grand- father of the present distinguished patriot of that name. Under his charge T. D. Sullivan was placed, and it was probably from Mr. Healy that Mr. Sullivan learned the most of what he knows. The ties between the two families were afterwards drawn still closer, when T. D. Sul- livan married Miss. Kate Healy, the daughter of his teacher. His younger brother, A. M. Sul- livan, after trying his hand as an artist, ulti- THE GKKAT IRISH SIRUCJGLK. 573 mately became connected with the Dublin Nation. T. D. Sullivan meantime had also allowed his mind to run into dreams of a literary future. In fact he had filled a whole volume with his compositions ; but, with the secrecy which youth loves, he had not confided his transgression to any one. But two or three of the pieces had even appeared in print, and it was not till he came to Dublin and began to write in the Nation that the poetical genius of T. D. Sullivan sought recognition. Into the columns of that journal he began at once to pour the verses which he had hitherto so religiously kept secret, and from the first his songs attracted attention. Many of his poems became popular immediately on their appearance, and spread over that vast world of the Irish race which now extends through so many of the nations of the earth. A well-known story with regard to the " Sonor from the Backwoods " will illustrate the influence of T. D. Sullivan's muse. Most Irish- men know that splendid little poem, with its bold opening, and its splendid refrain : Deep in Canadian woods we've met, From one bright island flown ; Great is the land we tread, but yet Our hearts are with our own. And ere *ve leave this shanty small, While fades the autumn day. We'll toast old Ireland I Dear old Ireland ! Ireland, boys, hurrah ! is||l| % I , 674 GLADSTONK— I'AKNELL. t'i^J i m t: 'if:. This song, published in the Nation in 1857, was carried to America by Captain D. J. Down- ing. It rapidly became popular, both among the Fenians and among the Irish soldiers in the American army. Every man of the Irish Brigade knew it, and it was often sung at the bivouac fire after a hard day's fighting. On the night of the bloody battle of Fredericksburg the Federal army lay watchful on their arms, with spirits damped by the loss of so many gallant comrades. To cheer his brother officers Captain Downing sang his favorite song. The chorus of the first stanza was taken up by his dashing regiment, next by the brigade, then by the entire line of the army for miles along the river; and, when the captain ceased, the same ch'ant came like an echo from the Confederate lines. The song " God save Ireland " became popular with ever, greater rapidity. It was issued at L.n hour when all Ireland was stirred to intense depths of anger and of sorrow, and this profound and immense feeling longed for a voice. When " God save Ireland " was produced the people at once took it up, and so instantaneously that the author himself heard it chorused in a railway carriage on the very day after its publication. It has been his invariable rule in composing these songs to make them "i)allads " in the true sense of the word — songs, that is to say, that expressed popular sentiment in the language of :,|:L H THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 575 everyday life, that had good catching rhymes, and that could be easily sung. An immense fillip was undoubtedly given to the demand for abatements of rent by the song, " Griffith's Valuation ; " and still more successful was the ballad of " Murty Hynes," which was one of the most felicitous compositions that ever came from his pen. T. D. Sullivan was elected, as is known, along with Mr. H. J. Gill, for County Westmeath, at the general election of 1880; and in spite of the ab- sorbing nature of his journalistic duties he has been one of the most active and one of the most attentive members of the party. He has been still more prominent on the platform ; and it is at large Irish popular gatherings that his speech is most effective. He is Irish of the Irish and ex- presses the deep and sipiple gospel of the peo- ple in language that goes home ; and then his keen sense of humor enables him to supply that element of amusement which is always looked forward to with eagerness by the crowd. More advanced in years than many of his colleagues, he has, nevertheless, been as young as the youngest among them in his energy and in his hopefulness. Mr. Sullivan has shrunk fi-om no work v/hich the exigencies of the situation de- manded, and has been ready to take his share of the talking — whether the House considered his intervention seasonable or unseasonable ; whether 1^ r ^li i|jl *! ' 576 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. he spoke to benches that were full or empty, silent or uproarious. Erring, perhaps, as a rule, on the side of over-earnestness, he often lights up his Parliamentary, like his conversational, efforts with bright flashes of wit. " Punctuality," he said once to a colleague who turned up at a meeting with characteristic lateness, " punctuality, in the opinion of the Irish party, is the thief of time." Some of his lighter poems are greater favorites with many people than his more serious efforts, because of this same vein of irrepressible humor. James O'Kelly was born in Dublin, in the year 1845. Among his companions were a num- ber of young men who, in the dark hours, worked and hoped for the elevation of the country ; and he learned in a school in London the scorn that belongs to the child of a conquered race. O'Kelly entered upon political work at an unusually pre- cocious age, and certainly had not reached his legal majority when political aims had become the lode-star of his dreams. These political projects were interrupted in 1863. He had from boyhood longed for the life of a soldier. There was no army in Ireland, he would not serve under the British flag, and he entered the army of France. He had scarcely been enrolled in the Foreign Legion in Paris when he was called upon to enter active service. The Arabs in the province of Oran were in re- bellion, and here O'Kelly had an opportunity of THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 677 learning all the dangers of Algerine warfare. When Maximilian was made Emperor of Mexico French forces were sent by the Emperor Na- poleon to win for his nominee his new dominion, and O'Kelly's regiment was one of those which were detailed for this service. He took part in the siege of Oajaca, and after the fall of that town and the capture of General Porfirio Diaz — since President of Mexico — he advanced north- ward, and was present at the various battles which placed Northern Mexico in the power of the French troops. Then the tide turned in favor of the Mexicans; and at Mier the troops of Maximilian were disastrously beaten. O' Kelly was mide a prisoner in June, 1866. But an at- tempt to escape, unless successful, meant death. His guards proved careless, and in the darkness of the night he eluded their vigilance. For days he had to wander about in hourly peril. At one time he took to the river, hoping to cross to the territories of the United Sta,tes. The induce- ?nent to attempt this mode of escape was his dis- covery of a rude boat made from a hollowed-out tree ; and in this primitive craft he floated with the stream for a day, and finally made his way into Texas. O' Kelly had seen too much of real warfare to have any faith in unarmed crowds, and he was one of those who opposed any attempt at insur- rection. These counsels did not prevail, and in ii! ,./ I if 1.1 f ^1 .11. ^. {'■'■■I )f' : b ■ s ; km '•i? M 1 'ii ?'!?' M:^ 678 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 1865 there came some sporadic risings with their sad sequel of wholesale arrests, imprisonments, and long terms of penal servitude. By-and-by the movement began to be more serious, and in 1867 there seemed some hope. O'Kelly then took his share of the danger and the responsibility, and was one of the chief men of the movement. For years he had to pass through the never-ceasing strain, the strange under-ground life, of the revo- lutionary. O'Kelly passed through it all with that calm courage and that cool-headedness which everybody recognizes, and, through determination, vigilance and prudence, succeeded in coming out unscathed. During the Franco-Prussian war he rejoined the French army, but when Paris sur- rendered he again left the service, and once more went to New York. Up to this time he had not seriously contemplated adopting journal- ism as a profession, and his efforts had been con- fined to occasional correspondence in the National weeklies. He applied for a situation on the JVew York Herald, and his application — like that of most beginners — was received coolly enough; but at last he got his opportunity. Mr. O'Kelly was gradually advanced, until he became one of the editors of the Herald. In 1873 there arose an opportunity which O'Kelly gladly embraced. The rebellion in Cuba was going on, and it was a movement in which the people of the United States took a keen interest. But what was the h THE GREAT IRISH STRl'r.r.I.E. f)70 nature and what the methods of the rebels? These were points upon which no trustworthy information could be obtained. The Spaniards had the ear of the world, and th? story they told was that there was no such thing as a rebellion at all. What now remained was simply a f(;w scores of scattered marauders, itinerant robbers and murderers. Cuban refuorees in the United States circulated reports that the Spanish troops were guilty of horrible cruelties'; that they gave; no quarter to men and foully abused women, and the rebellion, instead of being repressed, was represented as fiercer and more determined than ever. The rebels, few or many, were hidden be- hind the impenetrable forests of the country as completely as if they had ceased to exist. To reach these rebels, survey their forces — in short, attest their existence — was the duty which O'Kelly volunteered to undertake. O'Kelly knew when he set out that his task was difficult enough, but it was not until he ar- rived in Cuba that he realized to the full the meaning of his enterprise. He asked a safe- conduct from the captain-general; but that func- tionary plainly told him that, if he persisted in try- ing to get to the rebels, he would do so at his own risk. Throughout all Cuba there was a perfect reign of terror. Tribunals hastily tried even those suspected of treason, and within a few hours after his arrest the " suspect " was a riddled corpse. /)80 C.I.ADSTONK— PARNELL. d! < it MM : i If^^BH '' i Hi !■! 1 Htt Any person who, r' -^forf, was under the frown of the aiithoritit as avoided as if he had the plague. O' Kelly was invited to dinner in the heartiest manner by a descendant of an Irishman, but when this gentleman heard of O'Kelly's mis- sion, he begged him not to pay the visit, and promptly went to the authorities to explain the unlucky invitation. O'Kelly was among a people a vast number of whom would have considered it a patriotic duty to dispose of his person by some quiet but effective method. "It was not pos- sible," writes O'Kelly in 'The Mambi Land' — the interesting volume in which he afterwards re- counted his adventures — " it was not possible to turn back without dishonor, and though it cost even life itself, I would have to visit the Cuban camp." O'Kelly finally accomplished his purpose in full, but only at extreme risks. He afterwards returned boldly to the Spanish lines, and was im- prisoned, barely escaping with his life. He at last was sent to Spain, and then, through the united efforts of General Sickles, Senor Castelar and Isaac Butt, was set at liberty. His next expedition after the visit to Cuba was to Brazil. He returned with the emperor from that country to the United States, and accom- panied him throughout his North American tour. Before the general election of 1880 O'Kelly returned to Europe, without the least intention of entering Parliament. At that time, though rriK (;kKA'r ikism struck ;i-k. 581 m- illy ion known to (everybody acciuaintcd with tlic inn('r liff of Irish politics, to tiie ironcral public he was unknown, except as thf atlvcMUurous special cor- re^spondont. And it was some surprise when he succeeded in beatinti^ down so forniidabK; an op- ponent as Tlui O'Conor Don. Regarded by the majority of his countrymen as outside politics, and remote from its struggles, its aspirations, and its shaping, O'Kelly had been a force in fashioning the history of his country for. many yc^ars. In Parliament, too. O'Kelly has, while little known to the public, been one of the most j)otent forc(;s in shaping the fortunes and decisions of his party. He has brought to its councils grc.'at hrmntiss of will, world-wide experience, common sense and a devotion to the interests of his country which is absolute. Though he has giv(Mi i)r()of abundant of courage, O' Kelly's advice has always been on the side of well-calculated rather than rash courses; he has, in fact, the true soldier's instinct in favor of the adaptation of ways and rnv^ans to ends, of mathematical severity in estimating the strength of the forces for, and of the forces against, his own side. His whole temperament is revolutionary ; he chafes under the restraints of Parliamentary life, and hates the weary contests of words ; and, on the other hand, he insists on every step being measured, every move calculated. Again, his large experience of life and the ruggedness of his sense give to his thoughts the mould of almost 582 Cl-ADSroNK— I'AKNKLL. J"! cynic realism, and yet he is an idealist, for through- out his whole lile he has held to tiie idea of his country's resurrection with a faith which no danger could terrify, no disaster depress, no labor fatigue. Mk. John Dillon, as often happens, is the very opposite in appearance and manner from what readers of his speeches, especially the hostile readers, would expect. Tall, thin, frail, his physique is that of a man who has periodically to seek (light from death in change of scene and of air. His face is long and narrow; the features singularly delicate and refined. Coal-black hair and large, dark, tranquil eyes, make up a face that immediately arrests attention, and that can never be forgotten. A tranquil voice and a gentle manner would combat the idea that this was one of the protagonists in one of the fiercest struggles of modern times. The speeches of Mr. Dillon are violent in their conclusions only. The propo- sitions which have so often shocked unsympa- thetic hearers are reached by him through calcu- lations of apparent frigidity, and are delivered in an unimpassioned monotone. Mr. John Dillon is the son of the well-known John Blake Dillon, one of the bravest and purest spirits in the Young Ireland movement. His father was one of those who opposed the rising to the last moment as imprudent and hopeless ; but was among the first to risk liberty and life THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 683 Cll- in iing life when it was finally resolved upon. John was horn in Blackrock, County Dublin, in the year 1 85 1. He was mainly instructed in the institu- tions connected with the Catholic University He was intended for the medical profession, and passed through the courses of lectures, and took the degree of Licentiate in the College of Sur- geons. It was not until after the arrival of John Mitchel in Ireland, after his many years of exile, that Dillon first appeared in the. political arena. He then took an active part in the electoral con- test, and helped to get Mitchel returned. The rise of Mr. Parnell and the active policy brought Mr. Dillon more promineidy to the front. At once he became an eager advocate of Mr. Parnell and his policy. Edmund Leamy was born in Waterford, on Christmas Day, 1848. Waterford is one of the towns which, amid the terrible eclipse over the rest of Ireland, shone out with something of a national spirit. An influence that made him a combatant in the national ranks was the early companionship of Thomas Sexton. When the election of 1874 came, he was an apprentice in a solicitor's office. In 1880 Leamy was put for- ward by one section of the constituency, and was returned. There is no man in the party whose real abilities and services bear so little resem- blance to his public reputation. A touch of the Paddy-go-aisy spirit, a curious love for self- 33 084 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. •I effacement, have hidden him from public view; but to his colleagues he is known as having one of the keenest and most original intellects, and one of the most stirring tongues of the Irish party. On the first day of the meeting of the Irish party the chair was occupied by the Lord Mayor of Dublin — the distinguished patriot, E. Dwyer Gray, M. P. Mr. Gray is the son of the late Sir John Gray. He was born in the year 1846. Brought up from his earliest youth in the opin- ions of his father, he attained at an early age a correct judgment of political affairs. The mind of the son is even clearer than that of his father, and refuses steadily to accept any doctrine or course until it has been fully thought out. Gray succeeded his father in the management of the Freeman's Journal, the chief newspaper of Ire- land. Becoming a member of the Dublin Cor- poration, of which his father had been the guid- ing star for many years, he soon attained to the position of its leading figure. At this period he was Lord Mayor, and had under his control vast sums which had been subscribed for the relief of distress. Gray had been returned to the House of Commons shortly after the death of his father, and though not a frequent, was already, as he is still, one of its most influential debaters. There is no man in the Irish party, and few outside it, who can state a case with such pellucid clearness. w\ i THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLK. 585 Pre-eminent among the noble band of patriots who have, for years, been batthn^r for Ireland's rights, and ventilating her fearful wrongs ; noted for his abilities as a scholar, an orator, and a journalist, stands the Hon. Thomas Power O'Connor, M. P. This brilliant journalist and gifted author was born in the year 1848, in the historic old market- town of Athlone, which is situated in the counties of Westmeath and Roscommon, and stands almost in the geographical centre of Ireland. His early studies were at the College of the Immaculate Conception, at Athlone, where, among his many competitors, he was conspicuous for his aptness to learn and ability to teach others that informa- tion which he himself had just acquired at the hands of his reverend instructors. He subse- quendy entered the University of Ireland, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in due course that of Master of Arts also. After his graduation, and having acquired a taste for literary pursuits, he connected himself with one of the most prominent journals of Dublin, and for three years subsequently he remained in that city, and contributed during that period a vast amount of historic and other valuable matter to the literature of the day. Desirous of a wider field in which to display his many talents, he removed to London and accepted a leading posi- t- li |i ii ^ii: ;t I '... .'!' It. m i' I ^S6 GLADSTONE— fARNELL. tion on the staff of one of its most widely known newspapers, the Daily Telegraph. He served afterwards on various other journals, gaining everywhere a well-earned reputation for his versatility, and the force and clearness of his writings. Among the many attractive and useful works of which he was author the first volume which he published was a "Life of Beaconsfield," in j88o. It attracted considerable attention in Great Britain and Ireland, and later on he recast the work, publishing it in an enlarged form under the title of " Lord Beaconsfield. A Biography." It was an able and strongly written book, and attracted universal attention, not less through the clearness of its style and the accuracy of its statements and quotations, than through the terribly caustic and scathing criticisms which he visited upon the public acts of the great Tory leader. It is not to be wondered at that its contents excited the wrath of Beaconsfield's admirers in England and elseA'here. It was in 1880 that our gifted author began his parliamentary career. In that year he success- fully contested the county of Galway, and before its close he had earned his spurs as an intrepid and fearless debater in the many oratorical contests in which he and other noted Irish, Scotch, and English speakers of acknowledged ability, partici- pated. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 587 The promise that he then gave of future useful- ness for Ireland and Ireland's cause has been carried out to the letter. Let us follow his subsequent career. He has, since 1880, been twice chosen to the House of Commons from the " Scodand District" of the great commercial city of Liverpool, and on each occasion by a large and flattering majority. In 1 88 1 he visited the United States, and made a highly successful lecturing tour, the proceeds of which, amounting to a very large sum of money, he unselfishly devoted to the Irish patriotic cause. In 1883 his high executive ability caused his unanimous elevation to the presidency of the Irish National League of Great Britain, in which trying position h's cool, dispassionate judgment carried the League through many dangerous and difficult situations ; dancrerous and difficult so far as its immediate prosperity and the success which at- tended its influence, at home and abroad, were concerned. Always a busy man, he found, or rather made, time enough for himself to edit "The Cabinet of Irish Literature," and to write a large number of tales, essays, and review articles. His later articles included " The Parnell Move- ment," which was published in 1885, '^^^^^ ^^^^ present work, of which he and Mr. Robert M. McWade, a well-known journalist of Philadelphia, are joint authors. 1^ ¥ m I ■^ ■■ 'pMmaax -iminim I VI 'HI?" ' ^M v' ■ m h hi m I m ■:;'•?' . J, ' Ft n 588 GLADSTONE— PAKNELL. Among the leaders in the Old Country, of the great movement for Irish Nationality, he takes, as we have said, a high rank by reason of his great intelligence, untiring industry, and hearty devotion to the cause. During his Parliamentary career his journal- istic labors have not been relaxed, notwithstanding the magnitude and complexion of his other public duties. His voice has never oriven forth an un- certain sound. He possesses that essential char- acteristic of a great orator — he knows when to speak, and when to be silent. When he strikes, his blows go straight home to the mark, and they never lack in force. Among the younger members of his party in Parliament, his unceasing vigilance and strong de- cision of character have obtained for him a po- sition of tacitly recognized premiership. Though his majorities for the English constituency which he has so long represv^nted in the British Imperial Parliament have largely come from the English masses, he is known on this, as on the other side of the ocean, as being, first, last, and always an Irishman of the most intense type. The men who love Ireland best, and stand highest in the love ind affection of her people, have invariably been able to count, without any mental or other reservation, upon the earnest patriotism and the whole-souled fidelity of Thomas Power O'Connor. THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 6«9 Timothy Michael Healy was born in Bantry, County Cork, in the year 1855. He had peculiar opportunities indeed for becomincr familiar with the awful horrors of the famine, for his father, at seventeen years of age, had been appointed Clerk of the Union at Bantry. He has told his son that for the three famine years he never once saw a single smile. It is no wonder that Healy, whose nature is vehement and excitable, should have grown up with a burning hatred of English rule. Young Healy went to school with the Clirt' Han Brothers, at Fermoy; but fortune did not permit him to waste any unnecessary time in what are called the seats of learning; for at thirteen iie had to set out on making a livelihood. Though he has thus had fewer opportunities than almost any other member of the House of Commons of obtaining education — except such as his father, an educated man, may have imparted to him as a child — he is really one of the very best informed men in the place. He is intimately acquainted with not only English but also with French and with German literature, and could give his critics lessons in what constitutes literary merit. Another of the accomplishments which Mr. Healy taught himself was Pitman's shorthand ; and shorthand in his case was the sword with which he had iii life's beginning to open the oyster of the world, At sixteen years of age hq it ^ « I: i i fi t i 4k; I 'i J b 690 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. went to England and obtained a situation as a shorthand clerk in the office of the superin- tendent of the North Eastern Railway, at New- castle. English contemporary chronicles are not only full of his name, but absolutely teem with par- ticulars of his life, especially in its earliest years. Society journals have, on various occasions, espe- cially busied themselves with him, and, according to these veracious organs, Mr. Healy began life in a rag-and-bone shop, and, after much labor, graduated into a ticket-nipper. In various other journals there have been equally lively accounts. Mr. Healy has been described as ignorant and impudent, as foolish and as crafty, as rolling in ill-gotten wealth and as buried in abysmal pov- erty. There is no man of any Parliamentary party, in fact, of which so many portraits have been painted, and who has had to bear so many of these slings and arrows which the outrageous pens of hostile journalism can fling. This man, before whom ministers grow pale, is the delight and the darling of children, whose tastes and pleasures he can minister to with the unteachable instinct of genius. In 1878 he re- moved to London, partly for commercial and partly for journalistic reasons. After migrat- ing to London he was asked to contribute a weekly letter to the Nation on Parliamentary proceedings, which had just begun to get lively. ! lii THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 691 as a From this time forward his face accordingly became familiar in the lobby of the House of Commons. He at once threw all his force on the side of the " active " section of the old Home Rule party, and Mr. Parnell has several times re- marked that it was to Mr. Healy's advocacy of his policy that the active party owed much of its success in those early days. In the opinion of many, his pen is even more effective than his tongue ; mordant, happy illustration, trenchant argument — all these things are still happily at the service of Irish national journalism. Per- haps the most remarkable of all Mr. Healy's qual- ities is his restless industry. From the moment he crosses the floor of the lobby till the House rises, he is literally never a moment at rest — excepting the half hour or so he spends at dinner in the restaurant within the House. He has almost as many correspondents as a minister, and he tries to answer nearly every letter on the day of its receipt. Then he takes an interest in, and knows all about, everything that is going on, great or small, English, or Irish, or Scotch The extentof his knowledge of Parliamentary measures is astonishing; Healy holds himself at the service of everybody. And he is never absent from the House when anything of importance is going for- ward. He is, like the Premier, distinguished from other members by the fact that even in the division lobbies he is to be seen utilizing the precious i 692 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. moments by writing. The characteristics of his oratory are rather peculiar. Often when he stands up first he is tame, disjointed, and in- effective, but he is one of the men who gather strength and fire as they go along ; and before he has resumed his seat he has said some things that have set all the House laughing, and some that have put all the House into a rage. Finally, Healy has the defects of his qualities. The ardor of his temperament and the fierceness of his convictions often tempt him to exaggeration of language and of conduct. Those who play the complicated game of politics for such mighty stakes as a nation's fate and the destinies of millions ought to keep cool heads and steady hands. A quick temper and a sharp tongue cause many pangs to his friends, but keener tortures to Healy himself. William O'Brien was brought up from his earliest years in those principles of which he has become so prominent and so vigorous an ad- vocate. O'Brien's father was one of the most resolute spirits of the Young Ireland party; but afterwards, like so many of the men who survived that time, was by no means friendly to bloodshed or physical force. In time he had to remon- strate with some of his own offspring for their Fenianism, but his mouth was closed whenever his remonstrances became vehement by an allusion to the days of his own youth. William O'Brien THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 593 was born on October 2, 1852, in Mallow, with which town his family on the mother's side has been connected from time immemorial. He received his education at Cloyne Diocesan College. William from his earliest years had the same principles as he professes to-day. Apart from the example of his father, he had in his brother a strong apostle of national rights. This brother was indeed of a type to capti "ite the imagination of such a nature as that of his younger brother. Among the revolutionaries of his district he was the chief figure, and there was no raid for arms too desperate, or no expedition too risky for his spirit. He was arrested, of course, when the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and underwent the misery and tortures which were inflicted on untried prisoners under the best of possible constitutions and freest of pos- sible governments. With this episode in the life of the elder brother the brightness of the life of William O'Brien for many a long day ceased. His family history is strangely and terribly sad. The first noteworthy thing which William O'Brien ever wrote was a sketch of the trial of Captain Mackay. This attracted the attention of the proprietor of the Cork Daily Herald and he was offered an engagement upon that paper. There he remained until towards 1876, when he became a member of the staff of the Freeman's Journal. He did the ordinary work of the re- '\ ' '\ 1 i- I'- ll r ii I r \ \i I ! M \, i 694 GLADSTONE— PARN ELL. ^^\ porter for several years, with occasional dashes into more congenial occupation. Whenever his work had any connection with the condition or prospects of his country he devoted himself to it with a special fervor. When the Coercion Act was passed in 1880, he thought the moment had come for him to offer his services to maintain the fight in face of threats of danger. His health, however, was at the time so weak that his friends feareu that the imprisonment which was almost certain to follow employment by the League would prove fatal to his constitution, and he was dis- suaded from joinirg the ranks of the movement. In June, 1881, when the conflict between Mr. Forster and the Land League was at its fiercest, the idea occurred of establishing a newspaper as an organ of the League and Parncllite party, and he was invited by Mr. Parnell to found United Ireland and to become its editor. Great as was his reputation as a writer of nervous English, he had hitherto been unknown as the author of political articles, and few were prepared for the grasp and force of the editorials he contributed to the new journal. O'Brien is the very embodiment of the militant journalist. Though he has keen literary instincts and a fine soul, his work is important to him mainly because of its political result. Fragile in frame and weak in health, he is yet above all things a combatant, ready and alipost e^ager to meet danger. A long, THE GREAT IRISH STRU(Kil.K. 695 Is IS ^' thin face, deep-set and piercing eyes, llashing out from behind spectacles, sharp features, and quick, feverish walk — the whole appearance of the man speaks of a restless and enthusiastic character. United Ireland was suppressed by Mr. T'orster, but, with the overthrow of Mr. Forster, the paper was again revived. It soon became evident that U^iited Ireland was about to enter upon a struggle fiercer than even that with Mr. Forster. It seemed as if the country would lie paralyzed under the rigime of packed juries and partisan judges. In the stillness which came over the country under such a regime, the voice of United Ireland rang out clear and loud and defiant as ever. The partisanship of the judges was ruthlessly attacked, the shameful packing of juries was exposed, and attention was called to the protestations of innocence that came from so many dying lips. In this period it was held that no such criticism was permissible, and Lord Spencer resolved to crush the fearless and bril- liant journalist. Then began that long and lonely duel between Mr. O'Brien and Earl Spencer which lasted with scarce an interruption for three fierce years. The contest was opened by an action against Mr. O'Brien for ** seditious libel." The meaning of seditious libel is any attack upon the Admin- istration not agreeable to the officials then in power. An action of this character is, of cjurse, . ! Y I I If n I ill (|. I 690 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. no longer possible in England. In the midst of this trial a vacancy aros 1 1 1 t i Hi'^ I' i mi I m I 600 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. Ilr-- which the Irish legislature should have no power to deal, such as the succession, regencies, pre- rogatives, and other matters pertaining to the Crown ; the army and navy ; foreign and colonial relations ; certain already established and char- tered rights ; the establishment or endowment of any particular religion ; the laws of coinage, trade and navigation — these subjects being re- served for imperial legislation. He then pro- posed a plan on which the Irish legislature might be organized ; suggested the powers and prerogatives of the Viceroy and of his Privy Council ; and announced a plan by which the financial relations of Ireland to the rest of the Empire might be established. He next criti- cised as wasteful the present expenditure of public money in Ireland, and discussed the Irish ex- chequer and the future of Irish credit. In dis- cussing the financial part of his scheme for Home Rule Mr. Gladstone made some very suggestive remarks : " I will state only one other striking fact with regard to the Irish expenditure. The House would like to know what an amount has been going on — and which at this moment is going on — of what I must call not only a waste of public money, but a demoralizing waste of public money, demoralizing in its influence upon both countries. The civil charges />er capita at this moment are in Great Britain 8j. id. and in Ireland \ts. They ( THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 601 have increased in Ireland in the last fifteen years by sixty-three per cent., and my belief is that if the present legislative and administrative systems be maintained you must make up your minds to a continued, never-endingr, and never-to-be-limited augmentation. The amount of the Irish contri- bution upon the basis I have described would be as follows : One-fifteenth of the annual debt charge of ^^ 2 2,000,000 would be ^f 1,466,000, one' fifteenth of the army and navy charge, after ex- cluding what we call war votes, and also excluding the charges for volunteers and yeomanry, would be ;^i, 666,000, and the amount of the civil charges, which are properly considered imperial, would entail upon Ireland ;^i£0,ooo, or a total charge properly imperial of ;^3, 242,000. I am now ready to present what I may call an Irish budget, a debtor and creditor account for the Irish exchequer. The customs produce in Ire- land a gross sum of ;^i, 880,000, the excise ;^4,300,ooo, the stamps ;^6oo,ooo, the income- tax ^550,000 and the non-tax revenue, including the post office, ;^ 1,020,000. And, perhaps, here again I ought to mention as an instance of the demoralizing waste which now attends Irish ad- ministration, that which will perhaps surprise the House to know — namely, that while in England and Scotland we levy from the post office and telegraph system a large surplus income ; in Ireland the post office and the telegraphs just ffft^l 60ii C LAI )STUME— PA KNELL. P, pay their expenses, or leave a surplus so small as not to be -worth mentioning. " The total receipts of the Irish Exchequer are thus shown to amount to ;{^8, 350,000, and against that I have to place an imperial contribution ■which I may call permanent, because it will last for a great number of years, of ;^3, 242,000. I put down ;^i, 000,000 for the constabulary, because that would be a first charge, although I hope that it will soon come under very effective reduction. I put down ;^2, 5 10,000 for the other civil charges in Ireland, and there, again, I have not the smallest doubt that that chaige will likewise be very effectually reduced by an Irish Government. Finally, the collection of revenue is ;^834,ooo, making a total charge thus far of ;^7, 586,000. Then we have thought it essential to include in this arrangement, not only for our own sakes, but for the sake of Ireland also, a payment on account of the Sinking Fund against the Irish portion of the National Debt. The Sinking Fund is now paid for the whole National Debt. We have now to allot a certain portion of that debt to Ireland. We think it necessary to maintain that Sinking Fund, and especially for the interest of Ireland. When Ireland gets the management of her own affairs, I venture to prophesy that she will want, for useful purposes, to borrow money. But the difficulty of that operation will be enormously higher or lower according to the condition of her THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGl.i:. 603 ), f- 1 t t public credit. Her public credit is not yet born. It has yet to lie like an infant in the cradle, and it may require a good deal of nursing, but no nurs- ing would be effectual unless it were plain and palpable to the eye of the whole world that Ire- land had provision in actual working order for discharging her old obligations so as to make it safe for her to contract new obligations more nearly allied to her own immediate wants. I therefore put down three-quarters of a million for Sinking Fund. That makes the total charge ^7,946,000, against a total income of ^8, 350,000, or a surplus of ;^404,ooo. But I can state to the House that that ;^404,ooo is a part only of the Fund, which, under the present state of things, it would be the duty of the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer of the three countries to present to you for the discharge of our collective expenditure." The speech wound up with the following pero- ration : " I ask you to show to Europe and to America that we too can face political problems which America twenty years ago faced, and which many countries in Europe have been called upon to face and have not feared to deal with. I ask that in our own case we should practise with firm and fearless hand what we have so often preached — the doctrine which we have so often inculcated upon others — namely, that the concession of local self-government is not the way to sap or impair, but the way to strengthen and consolidate, unity. *i 1 ^ M :U h fn%. !.■, I i 1 1 If M 604 GL A 1 XSTONE— PARNELI V. I ask that we should learn to rely less upon merely written stipulations, and more upon those better stipulations which are written un the heart and mind of man. ! ask that we should apply to Ire- land that happy experience which we have gained in England and in Scotland, where the course of generations has now taught us, not as a dream or a theory but as practice and as life, that the best and surest foundation we can find to build upon is the foundation afforded by the affections, the convictions, and the will of the nation ; and it is thus, by the decree of the Almighty, that we may be enabled to secure at once the social peace, the fame, the power, and the permanence of the Empire." The speech was eminently judicious in its tone. The eagerness of the House to hear its interest- ing details was so great that even faction was silent, and Mr. Gladstone was allowed to proceed calmly to the end. Immediately afterwards, on Friday, the i6th of April, Mr. Gladstone brought in the Land Purchase Bill. It will sufficii for the present to say that the main object of that bill wlts to issue fifty millions worth of stock for the purpose of enabling^ the Irish tenants to become proprietors of the Irish soil. The Land Purchase Bill played no other part in Parliament of itself, never having been brought beyond the stage of its introduction, but it had an indirect influence of a fatal character. The Land Purchase Bill, in ;l^ THE GRP:AT IRISH STRUliGLE. 605 fact, more than anything else killed Home Rule. The Home Rule Bill was immediately attacked from different points, by Lord Hartington, by Mr. Chamberlain, by Mr. Goschen, by Sir George Trevelyan. The attacks were not, however, very d; naging. Mr. Chamberlain and Sir George 1 revelyan met the bill by counter-proposals which were obviously ridiculous. Lord Hartington and Mr. Goschen were more adroit and confined them- selves to strictly destructive criticism. The for- tunes of the bill rose and fell every day. A large number of the Liberal party v»'ere found to be without any settled convictions on the ques- tion. It became evident as time went on that Mr. Gladstone would have to make desperate efforts to carry his bill, and he certainly did make desperate efforts. Grave objection had been taken to the exclusion of Irish members for Westmin- ster. He promised to meet the objection and allow their return to Westminster on certain con- ditions. Finally it had been suggested that the bills had come upon the public mind too rap- idly. He agreed accordingly to drop the Home Rule Bill and to reintroduce it in an autumn sit- ting. The Tories and the Whigs accordingly made a final attack on Mr. Gladstone the following day. Mr. Gladstone defended himself with warmth, and practically repeated the same things he had said in the Foreign Office speech. But the waverers among his followers professed to find a difference ti iif i 'i 60(> GLADSTONE— PARNELL. between the two speeches. Mr. Chamberlain called a meeting of his followers on the following Monday, and a resolution was passed pledging the members present to vote against the second reading, and the fate of the bill was sealed. The division took place on June 7th amid scenes of intense excitement. Mr. Gladstone wound up the debate in a speech which was universally re- garded as one of the finest he had ever delivered. He went over the whole ground, clearly recapit- ulated and destroyed all objections, and wound up with an appeal perhaps the most noble of any throughout all his magnificent series of addresses on this question. But eloquence and reason were lost upon the dull heads and the malignant hearts that had determined to humiliate the lofty genius whose magnanimity rebuked their petty mean- ness. When the division was taken there were for the bill 311, against 341. Then ensued a scene of wild excitement. The Tories cheered themselves hoarse ; the Irish remained for a time silent, and when the Tory cheers died away they rose to their feet and cheered back in defiance. There were tumultuous scenes meantime out- side the House, and some free fighting, but at last the noise died away and the mad scene had come to a close. A few days afterwards the ministers announced that they had resolved to dissolve Par- liament, and the battle was now transferred from the House of Commons to the constituencies. CHAPTER XII. THE APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY. WHEN the appeal to the country begar* the signs were favorable to the Govern- ment. Throughout the whole of the country the Liberal associations founded by Mr. Chamber- lain had met, and with scarcely an exception had pronounced against the mer/ who refused to do Justice to Ireland. Even Mr. Chamberlain him- self had not been spared, and at a crov/ded meeting a resolution had been carried against him with very little dissent. The working classes gave testimony in favor of the Irish cause. No Irishman, indeed, who has gone through this crisis has failed to be deeply impressed with the attitude of the English, Scotch and Welsh de- mocracy. Whatever misgivings or divisions there were among other sections of society, there was scarcely any among the masses of the people. They were not only favorable to the policy of Mr. Gladstone, but they were enthusiastic in its favor. Opponents of the measure could scarcely get a hearing, Mr. Richard Chamberlain, who had followed his brother in attacking the policy 607 1i 608 GLADSTONE— i'ARNELL. f ' r. 'i' of the Government, was unable after a time to hold any meetings whatever in the constituency of West Islington, and had to trust for his return to the efforts of Tories and of Whigs. Mr. Glad- stone began his tour by going to Scotland, where opinion was held to be very shaky, especially as Presbyterian ministers had been abroad through the country making appeals to religious bigotry and inventing dangers for Irish Protestantism. He started from London amidst a scene of :he wildest enthusiasm. Wherever he stopped, even for a few moments, the people rushed in thou- sands to catch a glimpse of his face, and hear the sound of his voice. When, finally, he reached Edinburgh, the demonstration received an ap- propriate climax in one of the most extraordinary manifestations of popular welcome ever ac- corded him. He then made a succession of speeches in Scotland, among the most masterly of his life, which put the case with admirable clearness before the country, and which were everywhere listened to by dense and unanimous audiences, and it certainly looked as if Scotland were absolutely as one man. From Scotland he proceeded to England, and here a series of demonstrations of equal enthusiasm awaited him. He spoke at Manchester, and as he passed through the streets he had a reception which an emperor might envy. In Liverpool, although it has long been the favored home of the worst; Ill il THE GkKAT IRISH STRUtWlLK. G09 form of Toryism, he mot with an overwhelming- display of assent and affection. But all this time the enemies of Mr. Gladstone were at work. Lord Hartinj^ton went from one part of the country to the other, everywhere de- nouncing the policy of the Prime Minister. His speeches were, however, marked by dignity, self- control and perfect freedom from mean or ma- levolent insinuation. Mr. Goschen wo»-ked even harder, and spoke in every part of the country. He also, though he spoke strongly, spoke with becoming decorum, except when dealing with the unfortunate Irish members. But Mr. Chamber- lain threw off the mask completely, and attacked the Prime Minister in language of most vindictive bitterness. He brought all sorts of charges against him, but the climax was reached in Cardiff, where he suggested that Mr. Gladstone had consulted American revolutionaries before formulating his policy. Of course the charge was utterly untrue ; but it produced a startling and tremendous effect. From all parts of the great hall came shouts of " Traitor ! Traitor ! " Nor d?d Mr. Chamberlain fight the batde with honesty on any point. His main charge against the Government was regarding their Land Pur- chase scheme. He did not tell the people any- thing of the two Land Purchase schemes of his own invention. As a matter of fact he had written an article in the Fortnightly Review, in 610 GLADSTONE— I'ARNELL. ■.' which he accepted a proposal of Mr. Giffen's, a scheme for buying out all the landlords imme- diately ; a proposal much vaster in extent than that of Mr. Gladstone. He had subsequently read before the cabinet a scheme of Land Pur- chase, according to which forty millions were to be spent in buying out the poorest classes of tenants. That document was secret and confi- dential, and has never yet been presented to the public. Mr. Gladstone, however, whose authority on finance everybody accepts, has declared in public that, by Mr. Chamberlain's scheme, the British Exchequer would have to sacrifice mil- lions of money, and in private is reported to have said that not the devil himself could have invented a scheme with more objections and more absurdities than that of Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Gladstone asked Mr. Chamberlain to publish his scheme to the world, so that the public might have an opportunity of judging between the two land policies of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Cham- berlain. With characteristic dishonesty, Mr. Chamberlain refused to accept the challenge. By this time he knew well what reception at- tempts at constructive statesmanship from his hands were likely to receive. Mr. Bright finally joined in the combination against the Prime Minister. He also dealt at great length with the question of Land Purchase, but he was almost as uncandid on this noint as TlIK C.RKAT IRISH STRUCCl.K. ()11 Mr. Chamberlain. In the Land Act of 1870 there were clauses which are known as the Britrht clauses. These clauses deal entirely with the question of Laml Purchase. They are the first enactments on the British Statute Hook in favor of allowing the tenants to become the owners of their holdings widi the assistance of the State, and in fact the idea of land purchase first became a part of practical politics through Mr. Bright him- self. He is the legislative father of the whole policy. Previous to 1880 he made several speeches in Ireland and elsewhere, in which he laid down that the real settlement of the land difficulty of Ire- land was a vast and wholesale scheme of land pur- chase. He now attacked Mr. Gladstone for carrying out a policy which he himself had been the strongest to advocate. He also took up stronger ground than almost any other opponent of Mr. Gladstone's policy. To any Parliament of any kind whatever in Dublin he declared himself entirely opposed. When he came to give reasons for this, the only substantive ground he could give was his hatred of the present Irish repre- sentatives, and here he revealed in public what was long known in private, that his rage against the Irish members had clouded his judgment. In recent years they and he have come into pretty frequent collision. He has poured upon their heads torrents of abuse, he has recommended \ 1 1 II I 612 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. them for prosecution to the legal authorities. He has gone out of his way on more than one occa- sion, when everybody's tongue was silent, to rouse again the rancorous echoes of past quarrels. The lofty, serene and broad-minded philanthropist and philosopher has ceased to exist in anybody's mind who has any^-hing like an inside view of English political life, and under this mask is seen a narrow, vain, venomous nature. Throughout his whole life Mr. Bright has never been known to forgive an affront, real or imaginar}\ His vanity is as rabid, as fierce, as sus eptible as that of a fashionable coquette. And the whole tem- per of his mind, in recent years, has been one of carping and sardonic cynicism. The Irish mem- bers were only human, and had replied to his attacks with language of harshness as strong as his own, for in the stress of the struggle passions have been profoundly stirred, and Mr. Bright, with perhaps the exception of Mr. Chamberlain, is the only man who has given the bad example of cher- ishing the memory of these past struggles. Mr. Gladstone and Lord Spencer have been more fiercely assailed, yet all these controversies have been wiped out from their minds as unsubstantial dreams. The carping, malignant, Tory old age of Mr. Bright is one of the dreariest closes to a manhood of largeness, liberalism and sympathy with the human race. But the general public knew nothing of this ';f If I THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 613 itlal age to a ithy this inside view of Mr. Bright. It was his speech de- hvered just before the pollings began that helped more than anything else to defeat the policy of Mr. Gladstone. The English public are rather slow to receive new ideas, and the idea of Ireland having a right to self-government was emphati- cally a new one to them. For generations, aye, for centuries, they had been taught by all their statesmen, by all their litterateurs, by all their journalists, to regard the demand of Ireland for self-government as a proof of the folly or the wickedness of a feather-headed and a criminal nation, and before accepting this new idea they had to sweep away much misrepresentation and prejudice. Then, a knowledge of Irish history is unknown, even among the Irish themselves. On all the tragic story of that country the English mind is a perfect blank. Under circumstances like these, the country had only to trust to au- thorities, and here were the most trusted au- thorities differinof amongr themselves. There were various other causes which con- tributed to defeat Mr. Gladstone. Many people throughout the country were deeply concerned for the safety of the Irish Protestants, ignorant of the central fact of Irish history that National move- ments have, with the single exception of O'Con- nell's, always had Protestants as their leaders, and that the present leader of the Irish party is a Prot- estant, and that in electoral matters many of the 614 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. I-.-: ■^ !»t!^ fiercest struggles have been on the side of a Protestant Nationalist against a Catholic Whig. The " No-Popery " cry has not died out in Eng- land, but it represents a force that is not spent; and it may, under the influence of passion and popular excitement, be once more aroused, es- pecially among some of the less enlightened ministers of religion. The vast majority of the dissenting clergymen, to their infinite credit, re- fused to give any countenance to this abject ap- peal to dead bigotry. But there were others who were inclined to revive the corpse. Mr. Chamberlain joined with Lord Randolph Churchill in the flagitious efforts to drag this hideous and revolting idea of religious bigotry into the struggle. The Tory and the Radical leaders both joined in preaching that the poor Orangemen of Ulster were in danger of their lives and their property from the ferocious Catholics, and, at the very moment when these insidious appeals were being made, the lamb-like Orangemen were plun- dering Catholic houses and destroying Catholic lives with perfect immunity, as it afterwards turned out, for all the cases against them were dismissed by their Orange grand-juries; and Orange spokesmen were declaring that rather than submit to the Imperial Parliament estab- lishing Home Rule they would appeal to the God of Battles. Mr. Spurgeon, who was one of the clergymen who were carried away by the ignoble lit THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 615 ^e of a Whig, in Ene- t spent; on and 5ed, es- htened of the idit, re- act ap- others . Mr. lurchill Js and the •s both len of 1 their at the were plun- :tholic ^vards vvere and ather stab- God f the loble revival of obsolete mediaeval ideas, wrote a letter against the bill of Mr. Gladstone, which was circulated widely throughout the country and which produced considerable effect among the well-to-do dissenters. While the Radicals were thus doing Tory work the Tories themselves were active and energetic. In the last few years there has been established a body known as the Primrose League, which exercises a considerable influence, especially at election times. It has a series of titles and of ceremonies that are a pretentious revival of the paraphernalia of chivalric days. Branches are described as habitations, and ladies who join the association are dubbed Primrose dames. The origin of the association is an entirely unfounded report that Lord Beaconsfield was especially fond of the primrose. That gaudy and gipsy genius never said a word about primroses in the whole course of his speeches and writings, except that on one occasion one of his heroes declares that he would like a salad of primroses. His real tastes lay much more in the direction of peacocks than primroses. The astute gendemen who spread the story knew very well that it was just the kind of thing which would appeal to the maudlin imagination of the classes of society from which conservatism draws its recruits. The Primrose League has succeeded enormously be- cause it has given the bourgeoisie an opportunity 35 •; > J'* :iii li It 616 GL \DSTONE— PARNELL. of rubbing shoulders with the aristocracy. Its method of working is to send round female can- vassers to the voters. These ladies secure im- munity, and venture on steps the boldness of which would appall men. The laws against cor- ruption and intimidation have no terrors for them. In parts of London and other cities they have told the shop-keeper that if he would not vote for the Tory candidate they would withdraw their cus- tom. And they proved as good as their word, and in some cases have actually pointed to shops silent and closed which their effective boycotting had reduced to this bankrupt condition from pre- vious solvency and prosperity. In the country the pressure upon the recently emancipated ag- ricultural laborer was also extremely severe. The landlord went around to the cottaqfes of the poor who were dependent for labor and almost for life upon the squire and asked the shivering wretch for the promise of his vote. Farmers fought on the samv. side with equal energy. The farmer in England is a dull and earthy creature, full of prejudices, meaner and narrower than even the aristocrat above him, is a Tory of Tories, and has a grudge above all others against Mr. Gladstone; for he was the man who, by lowering the fran- chise in the counties, brought the laborer to an equality with his insolent employer, the farmer. The elections took place in June and July, the months when hay-making is at its height, and THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 617 the farmers took very good care when they felt a little uncertain as to the laborers' vote to keep them, for one excuse or another, in the fields hay-making until the time for voting had passed. But the thing above all others which proved effective against the Government was the Land Purchase scheme. Under the bill of Mr. Glad- stone there would not have been the possibility of the loss of a farthing to the British exchequer ; but Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Bright, and a great many others repeated it so often that it was finally believed that the meaning of the bill was that the British taxpayer would have to spend ;^i 50,000,- 000 in paying the Irish landlord. It was a singu- lar Nemesis on the landlords of Ireland that their tyranny and cruelty had become so well known that hatred of them had grown into a passion with the British as with the Irish democracy, and for the working classes of the country to be called upon to have to pay higher taxes in order that these scoundrels might get a heavy price for their stolen goods was a project against which the workingman's stomach revolted ; and in voting against the Gladstonian candidate, or refusing to vote for him, vast numbers of men were impelled by the idea that they were striking a blow against the hated tyrants of the Irish soil. Finally the Tories and the Liberal Unionists had made a treaty which was carried out with astonishing fidelity in every place in which it was .'«*l»*to!k(fc,.^ lU-..^, 618 GLADSTONE— PARNELT.. made. Every Liberal who voted against the bill was promised by the Tories freedom from all Tory opposition. The result of it was that in a vast number of constituencies, nearly one hundred altogether, the Liberal who opposed Mr. Glad- stone had the solid Tory vote, and it will be clear that it required but a small percentage of his own following among the Liberals to be able to win a seat on a contest of such a character. In this way a number of Liberals were returned to Par- liament by Tory votes, and of course, with this vote, were able in most instances to defy attacks made upon their seats by the honest liberalism of the constituencies. Nevertheless, this union of bitter opponents proved ineffective in some rtimarkable cases, and several of the most prom- inent enemies of Ireland were defeated. Mr. Goschen was beaten by an immense majority in Edinburgh ; Sir George Trevelyan was routed in the Border Burghs after holding the seat for eighteen years ; Mr. Albert Grey, with all the influence of Lord Grey, a large landed proprietor, and of the Tories and Whigs, was beaten for the Tyneslde Division, and Lord Hartington had to rely almost wholly on Tory votes in his own con- stituency of Rossendale. In Ireland, meantime, the Parnellites had been winning their way steadily after the usual fashion. It had been declared over and over again both in the debates in Parliament and during the election '' m THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 619 campaign that the Parnellite members represented but a minority of the Irish population, and that their return had been brought about by the intim- idation of the loyal portion of the inhabitants. Nevertheless, in the majority of seats the loyalists in the election of 1886 did not even venture upon a contest, the reason of course being that there was no chance whatever of winning seats, and they were afraid of showing their nakedness to the enemy. There was one important victory and there were two important defeats. Mr. Sex- ton renewed his attack on West Belfast and was returned by a startlingly large majority. On the other hand, Mr. Healy was beaten for South Derry, and Mr. William O'Brien for South Ty- rone. Thus the result of these two defeats was to reverse the verdict of Ulster at the previous election to the extent of giving the Orangemen the majority of one which was hitherto held by the Nationalists. This majority, however, is not yet secure. Mr. Justin McCarthy fought again for Derry City ; the majority against him was declared to be three, but a petition has since been presented making charges of personation and unfair rejection of votes, and as all the officials were unscrupulous Orangemen it is more, than probable that the petition will prove successful. And thus again the Nationalists would be masters of Ulster. Another registration will probably give them two or three more seats, and the 35 620 GLADSTONE— rARNELL. Orange faction will be reduced to its proper di- mensions. When the elections were over it was found that the following had been returned : Con- servatives, 317; Liberal Unionists, 75; Home RuM Liberals, 191; Parnellites, 85; Speaker, i. This does not account for the Orkney and Shet- land Islands, the result of the elections for which were not known until long after the others were disposed of. For those islands, however, a Glad- stonian was returned. It will be well to say a word or two about the number of votes that were given. The figures were as follows: For the Conservatives, 1,106,651 votes; Liberal Unionists, 417,456; Gladstonian Liberals, 1,347,983; Par sllites, 99,669. Total, 2,971,759. Conservatives and Liberal Unionists combined, 1,524,107. Gladstonian Liberals and Parnellites, 1,447,652. It will thus be seen that out of a total of nearly three millions of votes in the three countries there was a majority for Unionists of 76,455. If we turn to Wales we find that the vote was : Gladstonian Liberals, 60,- 083 ; Conservatives, 28,897 5 Liberal Unionists, 10,005. Thus in the principality of Wales there was a Ministerial majority of 11,578 of the entire population. In Scotland the total poll was: Gladstonian Liberals, 1 9 1 ,443 ; Liberal Unionists, 113,222 ; Conservatives, 50,800. And thus there was a majority for Home Rule in the Scotch electorate of 27,421. In England alone was there P IT THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 621 ' a majority against Home Rule. The numbers were in England: Conservatives, 938,487 ; Liberal Unionists, 264,643; total Unionist vote, 1,203,130. Gladstonian Liberals, 1,096,457; Parnellites, 2,9 11. Total Ministerial vote, 1,099,368; Unionist ma- jority, 103,762. At all events, in England, Wales and Scotland alone 1,347,983 people have voted for Home Rule. A year before the Home Rulers in England were perhaps not more than a few thousand. At this election -he Home Rulers were nearly a million and a half. And this is no reason (to say the least) for discouragement. If we look upon the composition of the new House we find equally good reason for satisfaction. The Liberal Unionists are a hopeless party reduced in numbers, incapable of forming an administra- tion, and perhaps incapable of holding together, and Conservatives can only maintain an adminis- tration by the countenance and support of a cer- tain section of the Liberal Unionists, and there- fore by the continuance of the split between the different sections of the Liberal party. It is not at all improbable, that after the heat and ferocity of the election is over, even the Tories themselves may see that it is their in- terest to make an approach to the Irish party, which is more numerous than the Liberal Union- ists and votes as one man, instead of being split up into warring factions. Nobody believes any- how that an alliance between Tories and Liberals, 622 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ■' • 1 however keen their anxiety ma/ be to prolong it, can last for any length of time. There is sure to arise some question of foreign or domestic policy that will produce the natural division anyhow. No section of the Liberal party would consent forever to remain outside the Liberal party under the leadership of Mr. Gladstone, and every day will tend to bring them and him together again. There is only one basis upon which this recon- ciliation of the Liberal party can take place, and that is the acceptance by the dissidents of Mr. Gladstone's policy of Home Rule for Ireland. For these reasons the Irish members and the Irish people look upon the present aspect of affairs with very equal mind, and regard the general election as a check, perhaps, but only an incident in the great campaign. In a few months govern- ments and parties will once more be brought face to face with the Irish problem, and the one prac- tical settlement for it is the acceptance of the Irish demand for an Irish Parliament. Nothing could better sum up the situation than the follow- ing words of the "Rev. Stephen E. Gladstone, Mr. Gladstone's son. " Friends may rest assured, in spite of present reverses, that Mr. Gladstone has no more doubt that Ireland's aspirations for self-government will eventually be conceded to her, than that the sun which is hidden to-day will soon shine out splendidly again ; and for my part, i J i J THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 623 I firmly believe that England, when better in- formed, will yet, 'unless the Conservatives change their minds,' wish to give him and his brave and true colleagues the commission to carry out a great measure of Irish self-government which will be but an act of wisdom, justice, and good- will." A prominent and startling series of events has taken place of late in Belfast and its vicin- ity. There has occurred in that important city a succession of terribly bloody riots between the Protestant and the Catholic portions of the pop- ulace. The overwhelming majority of the re- ports confirm the truth of the statement that the Protestants in almost if not quite every case have been the aggressive party, and it appears that they have surpassed their adversaries in cruelty and bitter zeal. The friends of Ireland have not forgotten the recent speech of Lord Randolph Churchill, in which he appeared to advise his loyalist hearers to take just exactly the course that these misguided bigots have taken. The opinion very generally held by well-in- formed Home Rulers, that Ireland has more reason to expect favors from the Conservative leaders than from a party so divided as is the so- called Liberal party of to-day, finds considerable support from the present aspect of public affairs in Great Britain. Already the air is full of rumors of grand and generous movements to be ! i i^ 624 (iLADSrONK-PARNELL. executed under Conservative auspices. One Conservative project is said to look to the speedy concession of Home Rule to England, to Scot land and to Wales, as well as to Ireland — the united kingdom to be by this process transformed into a Federal Union of autonomous states. This project is at present a crude one ; and the an- swer to the question as to whether Ireland would be willing to become a member of such a federa- tion must depend largely upon the details of the scheme. These details, however, are as yet un- known to the general public, and it is enough to say that even those who may favor this plan have not as yet given to it any definite shape. LIOTHECA a V i B n s^ THE END. i^ pices. One o the speedy L"|1^' LONDON, Feb. 5<— Mra. Charles Stewart Pnrncll. widow of the great Irish NationnlL-^t leader, died thla morning at lier home in BrlKhtcn, after a 1 u^crinK illness. She was 76 years old. ^ Mrs. Parnell, known for many year.-! to the 'Vv-orUl la "Mr^. Kitty O'Shen," was formerly the wife of Captain William Henry O'Shoa, and .was the younitr -Kt daughter of thQ »Rev. Sir John Page Wood. She be- f came involved in an intrigue with Mr. Parnell in 1881 which continued until late in 18S», when Captain O'Shea brought .suit for divorce against hlr, wlft;. Parn^U and Mrs. O'Shcii were ijit'.fried in June, 1891, but the Irish chieftain !ived oniy a short time, dying early in October of the Fame j year. In 1914 Mrs. Parnell pub- lished "The love story and political ! life of C. S. Parnell," the appear- I ance of her book causing a notable j controversy botv^en the former ad- herents' and opponotits of the lead- ing figure in the volume. The Evening Standard, in an- nouncing the death, saya of her career: "One of the most romantic, anti at the same time pathetic, figures of the Gladstone era passed away in the person of Mrs. Parnell. Thirty , years ago the whole world was ring- ihg with the names of Kitty O'Shea afl)i Parnell. They were respondent a^4 co-respondent in a divorce suit brought by the former's husband, C«iptain William Henry O'Shea, roember of Parliament from County] Clare. As a result of the episode Parnell's political career was ruined, but in Kitty O.'Shea he found a de- voted wife."