The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-02-07

English Parliament without the help
the great English Parliamentary par
ties. Mr.. Parnell has lately compares
himself to Wellington and Washington
and other great soldiers and cong uerors
Washington and Wellington were YER
great men, but neither Of them coult
have carried his cause to victory with
out the aid of certain numbers of mel
to do the fighting II We Of the Irisl
party had absolutely the whole Irlst
representation, that OF the University O.
Dublin included, in our hands, WI
would still be but a miserable minorit,
in the British Parliament. One NIGH
as vel! tell Washington and Wellington
to 90 in and win without cannon, bayo
nets and powder as to tell an Irish
Parliamentary party TO go ia and wir
Home Rule without the votes Of either
Liberals or Conservatives.
Therefore. when We heard that MIR
Gladstone believed he could do nothing
more for us, and must give UP the fight
we at once called to mind the fact that
it was for us not merely the going back
to tha position of ten years ago, but the
] going TO a very much worse and weaker
position. We felt that We should be
| like poor Hector when lle has allowed
himself to be deprived OF his sword and
| armor, and is confronted with the
| enemS whom under the very best of
conditions he could scarcely hope to
master. Still we did not think OF abs0.
lutely deposing Mr.. Ea1neli. We de-.
sired to confer with HIM upon the
actual facts. We desired TO hear from
him what, under these new conditions,
he deliberately proposed to do. We as
sumed that any patriotic kAan would
have said under the circumstances: 81
will not stand in the way. If my
leadership threatens to be fatal to Che
present chances of Home Rule, will at
once Withdraw from position in which
can only be peril to my country" f"
Therefore we summoned by formal
requisltiOn a meeting OF the party
summoned it after The regular and Or
dinary fashion-ln order that Il resolu-
ton might be- proposed which invited
Mr, Parnell simply to reconsider his
position. We hoped even still that he
would be a help to us, aud not hindr-
ance.
Mr. Parnell soon made it quite clear
that he was determined not to resign.
| need not rofer at any length to the
early struggles in ommittea- rOom No.
is, or to the future negotiations in
which Mr.. ParnelI Induced us to engage
The one great central fact of the new
situation was the Issue of Mr.. ParnelI's
manifesto. When that letter appeared
in print, most of his colleagues felt that
all was oyer. We saw no possibility of
leadership in the man who had written
and published such letter. 1t began
by accusing the majority of his own col
leagues of having been corrupted by the
wlre pullers of the English Liberal
party, Only think of 1.-THE very men
he named some of them in the com
mittee- e-rOOm-WhO had fought the great
battles Of the party with him, and more
often still without him, in the worst
and darkest parts Of the struggle! The
party-I say it deliberately, and speak
as one who knows and must know
could never have been kept together
without the energy, the sloquence, the
inexhaustible patriotic feryor and pa
tience OF these men. Their own great
desire was to let no hint ever reach the
public that they were sometimes dis
satisfied with their leader. Their re-
solve was that in the face OF the enemy
there should be no mutiny seen, no
murmur heard, in the national ranks.
The manifesto began with this attack
ON these men. 1t then went Oil to at
tack Mr.. Gladstone and Mr. John Nor
ley, TO accuse them Of having abandoned
the cause of Ireland. and TO assure the
world that Mr. I'arnell mad learned this
fact at his interview with Mr.. Glad.
stone at Hawarden just year before;
and he had kept this most m momentors
discovery secret from his colleagues
for whole wear. He had allowed us to
go about the country in all directions
glorifylng Gladstone as the hope and
safety of the Irish race. He had done
the same thing himself he had time
after time declared that he had the
most perfect confidence in Mr.. Glad
stone. He had done this as lately as
last June. six months after the Hawar-
den interview. He had called MFR.
Gladstone tour leader''--Which no Irish
member but Mr.. Parnels ever had done,
for much as we admire Mr.. Gladstone,
and profound as is our gratituds to him,
we do not admit that any leader Of an
English party can ever be the leader OF
the Irish people.
Take it what way one might, this
manifesto made it clear to most OF us
that Mr.. Parnell was hencefor ward i'm
possible as leader. Suppose his recOl-