The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-10-07

intended for the SUNDAY EDITION snoulu,
when possible, be in the hands of the editor
not later than Friday at noon.
IreIand's Disaster-Mr. Parnell's
Death.
The death of Charles Stewart Par
nell is doubly tragic from the fact
that it occurred in the crisis of his
career, leaving much indeterminate
that was necessary to the epic COM
p~leteness of his career. Whether a
greater span of years would have
brought him once again to that pin
nacle of craftsmanship which he once
attained. or would have invested him
with the snperb pathos of Miltiades
or Hannibal, it is now useless to
speculate. He died beset with enem-
les, but strong in his own courage
greatness and the dignity of the cause
which he represented.
Mr.. Parnell will undoubtedly hold
high historic rank among statesmen.
Not only his consummate personal
gifts, but his positive accomplish
ments will place him among the fore
most defenders of popular and ma
tional rights. He was the first man
of his time to give definite aims to the
constitutional branch of the Irish
National party. He was the first to
introduce organization, system and
persistent purpose into it. He was
the first to controlits diverse elements
into a homogeneous party. He was
the first to unite in his own per-
son the sympathy and support OF
patriotic Irishmen of all shades of
opinion. He was the first to make
Ireland a positive agency, a living
force, in the British Parliament. He
was the first Irishman to sway the
whole mass OF English politics in the
interest of his w country. He
was the first to compel Eng
lish statesmen, an English par
ty. the English public in general,
to consider the case of Ireland, as a
nation apart and distinct from Great
Britain, and he was the only man
who ever made the legislative ac-
acknowledgement of that separate
national life, a goal for which English
statesmen and an English party con
tended.
In the material advantages Mr..
Parnell secured for Ireland, he a
scarcely be said to equal O'Connell.
His land concessions will hardly bear
historic comparison with the brilliant
achievement of religious emancipa-
ton. But where O'Connell ut
terly failed, Mr.. Parnell made
a success and almost a triumph.
1t would be absurd to attempt to
demonstrate the absolute futility of
O'Connel's Repeal agitation. 1t never
made the slightest impression on the
English people or or British states
manship, and when it collapsed it
left the Irish people in the most
demoralized and dispirited condition
that they have fallen into this cen
tury-a state from which only the
NOcPSidtO dLQ PIOthdSVS0 SAhAo
propagandism aroused them.
But Mr.. Parnell carried the spirit Of
Home Rule far into England itself.
He reused up a great feeling among
English people in behalf of justice to
a long suffering country-a meas
ure of justice which should
take the form of %recogniz-
ing her national Independence,
through the creation of a national
legislature. MI. Parnell enlisted in
this cause the greatest of living Eng
lish statesmen; he won over to it a
large section of the English press, and
a vast multitude of English people
SO many that it is believed that if a
general election should take place to-
day a majority Of the English people
would vote in favor of it.
That all this accomplishment is the
product of Mr.. Parnell's leadership it
is fatuous to question. 1t is scant ff-
teen years since the old Irish
Home Rule party, under Isaac
Butt, was the mere laughing stock
of British politics. Then in its
midst sprang up this young man with
a courage of fire and a temper of steel,
with the wisdom of age and the vigor
OF youth, with unparalleled control,
not only over his followers, but him
self, with unbounded devotion to the
cause he had taken up, and absolute
Indifference to all selfish interests.