The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-21

Under the heading, "An. Englishman's Memoirs" there appeared in the lobby column of The Birmingham Age Herald last Saturday an excerpt from these memoirs in which the writer of them, Mr. Frederic Harrison, undertakes, to draw pen picture of Charles Stewart Parnell. With one single exception that picture is the very reverse of what Par nell really was, and as, it is not alone untrue, but is also unjust to the great Irishman I will venture to draw another picture, based upon years of acauain- tance and many personal, relations with him.
 MT Harrison says that "Parnell was the most elegant and distinguished fig ure among all the public men of his time" That is the single exception Tn which MT. Harrison is right; Parnel was undoubtedly most elegant and distip- guished figure. but whether he was the most so I don't pretend to say. He had the stature the carriage. the air the manner and appearance Of a king, and that added to his great popularity won for him from his enemies the title of 'uncrowned king of Ireland. Had Parnell been an Englishman and given his services to England there was no office in the gift of the British gov ernment that might not have been ms, such was his noble and dignified manner in his intercourse with people, but. the curse of Swift was upon him, he was an Irishman and remained true to his country's cause.
 MT. Harrison proceeds with his pen picture and says that the Irish leader studied little and cared little to improve the Irish people. To him CParnelD it was a matter of personal honor, pride Of revenge to bring England and it's gov ernment to their knees, and to prove what deadly enemy an Irishman or the Plantagenet race could be- All this
 is as wide of the mark as east is from west.
 Parnell was not man. of books he did not read much, and the six-foot bookshelf would have probably held all the books he actually read and even among them would be found a volume of Dickens or Dumas, but his books were men, he was no theorist and never gave moments thought to the study oi abstruse proposition on any subject Plato's Republic and More's Utopia was to him unknown lords but Ireland, hei people, their condition and the causes of their condition were his constant thought, their remedy his constant study To say that Parnell studied little ano cared nothing to improve the Irish peo' pie is to confess an ignorance or the man that seems almost incredible in MT Harrison. Parnell loved his country men and his countrymen knew It. Ills last words, Give my love to the lrisi people," spoken even as the death rat tie came from his throat, are flat and emphatic contradiction of the statement that he studied little and cared nothing to improve their condition. He gave him. self and all he had to improve his coun- trymen, and what he gave is small Tn comparison with what he bore. For their sake he suffered the vilest abuse, the grossest calumnies, the most wftherins ridicules and false misrepresentation. For them he stood target at which every scribbler could shoot his poisoned darts at whose heels every cur could yelp his vituperation; but he loved his people and in their love for him he found con solation for all his afflictions, balm fo | all his wounds. The man who says tha
 Parnel studied little and cared nothing | for the Irish people did not know Par nell.
 | But far wrong as Mr. Harrison is whei ! he attempts to tell what Parnell was not much more so is he when he undertakes | to say what Parnell was. The motives | the mean contemptible, egotistical mo | lives which he ascribes to Parnell Al being the handspring of his actions onl, | serve to confirm the discredit which MT Harrison's pen picture evokes. Never | was there a man to whom personal hon or, pride of revenge, or enmity towards