The Irish standard., 1904-07-23
Comedies That His Greatness Will Never Be
Denied by Any Nationalist and by
but Few Irishmen.
In Searching and Discriminating Manner
the Blot Upon the Great Leaders
Life is Discussed.

I who questioned his right to lead only
when the leadership headed directly
for disaster" Our author goes on to
| note that Parnell was unlike all the
| Irish leaders who had preceded him in
respect of accomplishments, traits of
| character and personal idiosyncrasies.
''He had neither wit nor hunlor, elo-
quence OF the passion of conviction,
| academical distinction Of any kind,
| scholarship Oh profession" He was
Irish neither in his accent, nor in his
appearance, nor in his mannerisns.
'in fact, he was a paradox in Irish
leadership, and will stand unique,
within his niche in Irish history, as
bearing no resemblance of any kind
to those who had handed down to his
time the fight for Irish nationhood."
What, then, was the secret of Par
nell's immense influence and popular
ity? Mr.. Davitt answers: "He was,
above and before everything else,
splendid fighter. He had attacked
and beaten the enemies of Ireland in
the citadel of their power-the British
parliament. 1t was here where he
loomed great and powerful in Irish
imagination. AS Wendell Phillips put
it on one occasion, Parnell was the
1rishman who had compelled John
Bull to listen to what he, in behalf of
Ireland, had to say in the house of
commons; and the personal force
which had done this, and had flung
the Irish question and representatives
athwart the plans and purposes of
English parties, in a battle for the
Irish people, appealed instinctively to
the admiration of those in whose name
this work was accomplished" In Or
der to help us to comprehend the eff
feet of the well timed impact Of Par
. nells stolid, all-of-a-piece and massive
personality, we are invited further to
observe that he was fortunate in be
ing heir to the ripening fruits of his
predecessors labors-the Daniel o.
. Connells, Fintan Lalors, Gavan Duff
; fys, James Stephenses and Isaac
; Butts, who had sown the seed in less
propitious days and under darker
skies. The popular mind is not historic
in it's judgments, nor inclined to por-
ton out it's awards in equitable meas
urement to just desert. The founder
Of home rule and the little Belfast
pork butcher who planned unparlia-
mentary obstruction were forgotten in
the public memory as Mr. Parnell be-
came prominently identified with
weapons of political warfare he could
use more damagingly against the op-
ponents of the Irish cause than could
those who had forged what his limit
ed organizing capacity or constructive
skill could not have created"
Mr.. Davitt is one of those who. in
Parnell's lifetime. detected that, from
certain points of view, he recalled the
Cromwellian type. He was born an
lronsides. His mind, though it would
not be described as broad or compre-
hensive, had the strength and tenacity
of steel. 1T was slow in grasping all
the bearings of problem, or in seiz-
| ing upon the chances or dangers of a
situation; but once it caught hold, it's
power of concentrated application to
the task before it made it match for
greater intellects within the sphere in
which the issue was to be Joined. He
had will of adamant, nourished more
by measureless pride than by any
dominating conviction Of faith; and as
he was in most respects a political
paradox, so, paradoxically, it was the
strongest trait of his personality that
in the end betrayed his weakness and
caused his fall.'
Our author holds that the most rudi-
mentary human prudence and the most
elementary knowledge of the world
would have guided safely less arro-
CANT and less self-centered man
through the shoals and quicksands
amid which the bark that bore his !
fortunes and the fate of his country !
drove toward the reef Of divorce. It