The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-12


biographr admits, was be such glutton
for work as Healy and O'Connor.
1t is one Of the curious items Of Irish
politics that although Parnell declared
@sxing his American tour in 1880 that he
would never rest until he had destroyed
the last link which keeps Ireland bound
to England" he and Redmond we're as
sailed by the Fenians while on their next
campaign in Ireland. The radicals would
not believe in the efficacy of Parliamen-
tary action, and it took Parnell long
time TO convert them. Incidentally, says
Mr. Wells, Redmond never shared Par
nell's "eurious but deep seated contempt"
for English institutions, ways and mind
Nobody, we suppose, can hate aristocraey
more than a converted aristocrat. Yet
neither Parnell nor Redmond shared the
revolutionary spirit that was behind the
Land League, although they were identi-
fed with the league for purposes of poht
ical unity. Without the Fenians in Amer
lea, who contributed heavily to the cause
on the occasion of Redmond's tour in 1888,
Redmond admitted that the party could
have done nothing.
If Redmond ever believed, with Par
nell, in complete separation of Ireland
and England, he certainly showed no
signs Of such a belief after 1886. The
Home Rule bill of that year (which Glad
stone failed to pass through the Com
mons) was satisfactory to Redmond. Two
years later, under the Balfour regime,
Redmond went to prison for the first and
only time, his offence being intimidating
language directed against landlord. He
was confined for five weeks as an ordinary
criminal.
Redmond stood by Parnell III the crash
Of the 0'Shea scandal in 1889. He be-
lieved, with William O'Brien and Dillon,
that ParnelPs leadership was necessary to
the life of the Home Rule cause
When the English Liberals, headed by
Gladstone, proposed to drive Parnell out,
Redmond was the most eloquent advocate
Of his beclouded chief "When we are
asked" he said, ito sell our leader TO
preserve the English alliance, we are
bound to inquire what we are getting for
the price we are paying" In the end
death decided the quarrel by taking
Parnell, on whose side Redmond re-
manned until the last. He became the
leader of the Parnelite remnant-nine
men. In 1893 Redmond, to the surprise
of the reactionaries, supported the second
Home Rule bill. 1t was not entirely salts
factory to him, but he declared that it was
like toad, "ugly and Nenomous, which
wore yet precious jewel in its head"
The bill was carried in the Commons and
killed by the Lords. Gladstone retired
and Rosebery came in, offering local self
government for Ireland This Redmond
refused to accept.
From that time on Redmond's biog-
raphy is the story of the struggle between
the Home Rulers and the Tory party and
Of the internal fights Of the various Irish
factions. Redmond and Dillon repaired
the breaches in their own works and, in
the Asquith regime, it seemed as if real
Home Rule would arrive. Then came the
Carson rebellion, the war, the Easter ris-
ing, the growing strength of the Sim
Fem and RedmonRs own death. Judged
by his score at the end, Redmond was a
failure; but Mr.. Wells points out that
Redmond's predecessors, O'Connell, Isaac
Butt and Parnell, 'lost before they died,
as John Redmond did, the confidence of
a majority of their people" And he adds:
against the immediate background Of
untoward circumstance stands out the fine
figure of a great Irish gentleman who
PLAYED for high stake CALAMITY and lost
without dishonor
THE LIFE OF JOHN REDMOND. BY
WARRE B. WELLS. George II. Doran Com
pany.