The Irish standard., 1891-02-07
MIR. PARNELL'S DEP0 SITI0N.
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was correct: then what snare hs hae
led his whole party intol He knew
year ago that Gladstone would not
bring in any Home Rule scheme which
the Irish people could possibly accept
and he had never told word of this tc
his colleagues; he had, in fact, told
them the very opposite. Suppose his
recollection was MISUNDERSTANDING
the reverse of the truth" to adopt q
phrase of Carlyle's,-what manner OF
leader could he be who could fall into
such hopeless confusion and mlstakef
In any case, where is the English party
which could ever again enter into any
confidential understanding with such
man? Mr., Gladstone says that Mr..
Parnell IS account of the conversation ia
utterly inaccurate, and that Mr.. Parnell
and he parted in the most complete un-
derstanding and agreement as to the
principles of the Home Rule measure,
| Mr.. Gladstone says that MIR. Parnell is
utterly wrong about the police question:,
about the question of representation at
Westminster, about everything con-
corning which he has made statement
in his manifesto. Mr., Morley, for his
part, says just the same thing. 1t is not
| for me to discuss the relative crediblllty
Of the different statements, but it is
evident, at all events, that Mr.. Parnell
could moi have been accurate when he
publicly declared that Ireland could
trust Gladstone on the Home Rule
question, and afterwards when he pub
licly declared that he knew all the time
| that Gladstone was not to be trusted.
! The manifesto, I think | ought to
say, did not come upon me by surprise.
Mr.. Parnell told me he was going to
! publish it, and gave me general idea
Of what it's contents were TO be. / re
monstrated as strongly as l. could
against any such publication, and [
prevailed on Mr., Parnell to delav it's
issue for one day; this was all the delay
| / could obtain. Mr.. Parnell after wards
invited me to the house of colleague
in London to hear the manifesto read.
objected. Of course, to the whole
thing from beginning to end, and told
him and his friends that l. firmly be-
lieved IFS publication would render re-
Cancellation impossible. That is exactly
what ITS publication did. The convic-
tion was brought home to the minds OF
most of US that the man who published
such statement was absolutely unhC
for any position OF leadership. The
English people mad been slowly, but
very steadily, growing into sympathy
and affection for the Irish people.
! Suddenly the MAN who claims to be che
leader of the Irish race breaks into q
shrleking Remuneration of the English
people and the English leaders, and
does his very best TO reklndle all the
fierce and destructive fires Of race
| hatred which we had all believed to be
happily extinguished, And what was
the object of all thls2 Simply to main
|
the Irish Parliamentary partv-in the
seasonal leadership of the party! We
did not propose to expel him from Far
lament and public life. We nave no
power to do any thing Of the kind. LII
| Mr.. Parnell's presence in public life
were so necessary for the salvation OF
Ireland that it was WORTH throwing over
Gladstone and the English people to
secure it, surely such a man must be
powerful enough to command in politics
even though he had ceased to De ses~
siOnal chairman OF the Irish Parlia
mentary party. Mr. Parnell iustifies
his persistence in holding out against
the majority of the Irish party. and. as
/ believe, against the Irish people, on
the ground that he is the only man who
can save Ireland. have myself a gen
eral dlstrust of proclaimed savlouEs
| of society. When a mortal creature is
sent to be a saviour of society Or anything
else. he generally does not know it and
gees arout his great work because he
cannot help it. modestly and uncon'
scious. When Mr.. ParLell did his best,
his very best, work for Ireland, he
never talked about his being the only
man who could save the country, and
probably never had thought OF the
kind in his head. I cannot think Sc
poorly of ireland and Ireland's national
cause as to believe that the hopes and
the life of both are dependent on the
brain pan of one man. do noe at
J tribute to Mr. Parnell any deliberate OF
conscious egotism or self seeking 10 all
this. "A man. saws Victor Hugo
may be wrecked as is ship. Consci
ence is an anchor; but it is terrible as
true that like the anchor conscience
may be dragged away" | think Mr.
Parnell unconsciously allowed his po-
!itical conscience to be dragged away
lie asked again and again what had
caused the crisis--what but Mr.. Glad.
ctoro,o Iattor9 Tho answer WAS n12in-