New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-05-19
An Irish Patriot
Copyright. 1912 by George w. smsIlevi
London. May l.

London. MAY |.
stratch of imaginative kindness
D. 1usfin Mccarthy be described as
can man. or. in himself, important 10
,,,,ee or to posterity. Nevertheless.
DE certain part in great events the
"0 ting of which may be made a little
h'' u we consider them with ref
''' 20 him: or him with reference TO
',om It is moment when retrospect
.,,ot kind, even brief one may have
Inc For the third time the ques-
h of Irish Home Rule is coming be-
parliament. though not, If this Gov
TENT can prevent 1t. before the peo-
II is an enterprise doomed, as l
'..nL 70 failure, but whether it fail or
aso,bor it succeed it carries the mind
80, 70 1856 and'to 1898. Mr.. Mccarthy,
.,o,gb never a protagonist in either of
.hose great contests, was in and of
~, During the second he was the
.or,iral leader of the Irish Home Rulers.
70 sav the least. it is interesting to see
how a man who had in him nothing of
,,o Inst of battle bore himself in the
dust and heat of a stricken field.
An amiable figure in public and private
rfe ajke-Can much more than this be
truly said of Mr.. Justin Mccarthy? He
dies after eighty-one toilsome years of
life He was for six years leader of the
Irish Nationalist in the House of Com
roons. men who had taken an oath Of
lovsty which they went there to break.
dis leadership, Of course, was titular
only Perhaps his strongest act was,
lone before that, at a time when the party
besitated whether TO choose Mr.. Parnell
or Mr.. Shaw 10 reign over them, TO urge
and carry the election of Mr.. Parnell.
That was an act of real sagacity, for
Mr.. PaYnell proved to he the greatest
rartv leader Of his time: one of the
greatest Of any time. Mr.. Mccarthy al
lowed himself to be named Nice-Chair-
man Of the party; a complete sinecure
50 long as Parnall was Chairman.
As. at one time. l knew Mccarthy
prettv well. l rather wanted TO ask him
how he found il possible to cOnsort with
party Of violence. which In his soul he
abhorred. if abhorred be not too strong
word for any feeling which ever stirred
that gentle soul. But by tacit consent
We avoided Irish politics and Irish
friu1e. He knew what I thought and
knew what he would say. With moon
lighters and dynamiters he could have
no real sympathy. At best he may have
regarded them as inevitable.
But YOU must consider Mccarthy
throughout his whole political life as the
creature Of circumstances. He was
forced into positions for which he had
no natural fitness. He became the in
strument of a policy which was never
his You cannot imagine this truthful,
kindly man with a rife in his hand
shooting at a landlord from behind
hedge You cannot imagine him drop
ping a can of dynamite down the area
Of the Junior Carlton Club in Piccadilly.
II was never he who took part in plan
ming the assassination Of Mr.. Forster,
which never came off, or the murders
in Phoenix Park. which did. He would
have been 2 mt successor to Mr.. Butt
had the Irish party wanted a successor
10 Mr.. Butt, which they did not. They
wanted. and got, leader who would
turn his back on the legitimate Parlia-
nentarv methods Of Mr.. Butt. and
turn the House of Commons into cock
pit. In the work of Obstruction Nc
Carthy, no doubt, had a hand, distaste-
full as it must have been to him. He
was directly under Mr.. Parnel's orders
and had to do as he was told. Mr.. Par
nell issued orders to his colleagues as
master issues orders TO his servants: and
was obeyed as servants obey their mas
ter.
But when Mr. Parnell. after the Shea
scandal. was Overthrown, Mr.. Mccarthy
was one OF those who turned against him
in Committee Room XIV. 1 have always
thought il 10 the credit of Mr.. Red
mond that he did not. ! like a man 10
be loyal. But Mccarthy, with only
political excuse, turned against ParneI
as Mr.. Roosevelt has turned against M.
Taft, with no excuse at all. In each
case. disloyal act. This is no moment
10 go into reasons; still less to impule
motives. | never had doubt that Nc
Carthy forsook Parncll because he be-
lieved that not otherwise than by the
sacrifc of Parnell could the alliance with
Mr. Gladstone be maintained and the
Cause Of Home Rule carried on. Mr..
Gladstone. as was his wont, alleged
moral reasons for his desertion Of Par
nell. But. in a political crisis. con-
fusion sometimes arose in Mr.. Glad
stones mind between the words political
and moral. No doubt Mr.. Gladstone
loathed adultery. But he loathed also
those crimes Of violence by which the
agrarian agitation in Ireland had been
made formidable. For those crimes
Parnel was morally responsible, and by
them he profted and on them his au-
,horlty depended. yet never for that rea-
son did Mr.. Gladstone abandon his irish
partner. 1t was not till the Ehgilsn
Nonconformists made IT plain that they
would withdraw their support from MI.
Gladstone unless he threw over Parnell
that he made up his mind. 1t took him
ten days to decide and when he de-
cided he pronounced the doom of Home
Rule; once and for all. 1t seems never
tC have occurred to him how unlikely II
was that he should succeed single hand
fd in in (which with
Mr. Parnelrs help he had failed. AS IL
the great division Of the Liberal party
In 1856, when Mr.. Bright and Lord Hart