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PARNELL, CHARLES STEWART (1846-1891)
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See also:PARNELL, See also: Thus by See also:birth and ancestry, and especially by the See also:influence of his See also:mother, who inherited a hatred of See also:England from her father,. Charles Stewart Parnell was, as it were, dedicated to the Irish See also:national cause. He was of English extraction, a landowner, and a See also:Protestant. Educated at private See also:schools in England and at Magdalen See also:College, See also:Cambridge, his temperament and demeanour were singularly un-Irish on the See also:surface—reserved, See also:cold, repellent and unemotional. He appears to have been rather turbulent as a school-boy, contentious, insubordinate, and not over-scrupulous. He was fond of See also:cricket and devoted to See also:mathematics, but had little See also:taste for other studies or other See also:games. He was subject to See also:somnambulism, and liable to severe fits of depression—facts which, taken in connexion with the existence of See also:mental affliction among his ancestors, with his love of solitude and See also:mystery, and his invincible superstitions about omens, See also:numbers and the like, may perhaps suggest that his own mental See also:equilibrium was not always See also:stable. He was as little at See also:home in an English school or an English university as he was afterwards in the See also:House of See also:Commons. " These English," he said to his See also:brother at school, " despise us because we are Irish; but we must stand up to them. That's the way to treat an Englishman—stand up to him." Parnell was not an active politician in his early years. He found salvation as a Nationalist and even as a potential See also:rebel over the See also:execution of the " See also:Manchester Martyrs " in 1867, but it was not until some years afterwards that he resolved to enter parliament. In the meanwhile he paid a lengthened visit to the United States. At the See also:general See also:election of 1874 he desired to stand for the See also:county of Wicklow, of which he was high See also:sheriff at the See also:time. The See also:lord-See also:lieutenant declined to relieve him of his disqualifying office, and his brother John stood in his See also:place, but was unsuccessful at the See also:poll. Shortly afterwards a bye-election occurred in See also:Dublin, owing to See also:Colonel See also: In the course of the negotiations in 1882, which resulted in what was known as the Kilmainham Treaty, he wrote to See also:Captain O'Shea: " If the arrears question be settled upon the lines indicated by us, I have every confidence that the exertions we should be able to make strenuously and unremittingly would be effective in stopping outrages and intimidation of all kinds." This is at least an See also:admission that he had, or could place, his hand on the stop-See also:valve, even if it be not open to the See also:gloss placed on it by Captain O'Shea in a conversation repeated in the House of Commons by Mr See also:Forster, " that the See also:conspiracy which has been used to get up boycotting and outrage will now be used to put them down." In 1877 Parnell entered on an organized course of obstruction. He and Mr See also:Joseph Gillis See also:Biggar, one of his henchmen, were gradually joined by a small See also:band of the more advanced Home Rulers, and occasionally assisted up to a certain point by one or two English members. Butt was practically deposed and worried into his See also:grave. William See also:Shaw, a "transient and embarrassed phantom," was elected in his place, but Parnell became the real leader of a Nationalist party. The See also:original Home See also:Rule party was split in See also:twain, and after the general election of 188o the more moderate See also:section of it ceased to exist. Obstruction in Parnell's hands was no See also:mere weapon of delay and exasperation; it was a calculated policy, the initial See also:stage of a See also:campaign designed to show the malcontents in Ireland and their kinsmen in other lands that Butt's strictly constitutional methods were quite helpless, but that the See also:parliamentary armoury still contained weapons which he could so handle as to convince the Irish See also:people and even the Fenian and other physical force See also:societies that the way to Irish legislative See also:independence See also:lay through the House of Commons. The See also:Fenians were hard to convince, but in the autumn of 1877 Parnell persuaded the Home Rule See also:Confederation of See also:Great See also:Britain (an association founded by Butt, but largely supported by Fenians) to depose Butt from its See also:presidency and to elect himself in his place. He defined his attitude quite clearly in a speech delivered in New See also:York early in 188o: " A true revolutionary See also:movement in Ireland should, in my See also:opinion, partake both of a constitutional and illegal See also:character. It should be both an open and a See also:secret organization, using the constitution for its own purposes, but also taking See also:advantage of its secret See also:combination." Parnell's opportunity came with the general election of 188o, which displaced the Conservative government of Lord See also:Beaconsfield and restored Mr Gladstone to See also:power with a See also:majority strong enough at the outset to overpower the Opposition, even should the latter be reinforced by the whole of Parnell's contingent. See also:Distress was acute in Ireland, and See also:famine was imminent. Ministers had taken See also:measures to relieve the situation before the See also:dissolution was announced, but Lord Beaconsfield had warned the country that there was a danger ahead in. Ireland " in its ultimate results scarcely less disastrous than pestilence and famine. . . . A portion of its See also:population is attempting to sever the constitutional tie which unites it to Great Britain in that See also:bond which has favoured the power and prosperity of both. It is to be hoped that all men of See also:light and leading will resist this destructive See also:doctrine." The Liberal party and its leaders retorted that they were as strongly opposed to Home Rule as their opponents, but Lord Beaconsfield's manifesto undoubtedly had the effect of alienating the Irish See also:vote in the English constituencies from the Tory party and throwing it on the side of the Liberal candidates. This was Parnell's deliberate policy. He would have no alliance with either English party. He would support each in turn with a See also:sole regard to the See also:balance of nolitical power in parliament and a fixed determination to hold it in his own hands if he could. From the time that he became its leader the Home Rule party sat together in the House of Commons and always on the Opposition side. In the government formed by Mr Gladstone in 188o Lord See also:Cowper became See also:viceroy and Mr W. E. Forster See also:chief secretary for Ireland. The outlook was gloomy enough, but the Gladstone government do not seem to have anticipated, as See also:Peel anticipated in 1841, that Ireland would be their difficulty. Yet the See also:Land See also:League had been formed by See also:Michael See also:Davitt and others in the autumn of 1879 for the purpose of agrarian agitation, and Parnell after some hesitation had given it his See also:sanction. He visited the United States at the See also:close of 1879. It was then and there that the " new departure "—the alliance of the open and the secret organizations—was confirmed and consolidated. Parnell obtained the countenance and support of the See also:Clan-na-Gael, a revolutionary organization of the See also:American-Irish, and the Land League began to absorb all the more violent See also:spirits in Ireland, though the Fenian brotherhood still held officially aloof from it. As soon as the general election was announced Parnell returned to Ireland in See also:order to See also:direct the campaign in See also:person. Though he had supported the Liberals at the election, he soon found himself in conflict with a government which could neither tolerate disturbance nor countenance a Nationalist agitation, and he entered on the struggle with forces organized, with See also:money in his See also:chest, and with a definite but still undeveloped See also:plan of See also:action. The prevailing distress increased and outrages began to multiply. A fresh See also:Relief See also:Bill was introduced by the government, and in order to stave off a measure to prevent evictions introduced by the Irish party, Mr Forster consented to add a clause to the Relief Bill for giving See also:compensation in certain circumstances to tenants evicted for non-See also:payment of See also:rent. This clause was afterwards embodied in a See also:separate measure known as the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, which after a stormy career in the House of Commons was summarily rejected by the House of Lords. The whole Irish question was once more opened up in its more dangerous and more exasperating See also:form. It became clear that the land question—supposed to have been settled by Mr Gladstone's See also:Act of 1870—would have to be reconsidered in all its See also:bearings, and a See also:commission was appointed for the purpose. In Ireland things went from See also:bad to worse. Evictions increased and outrages were multiplied. Intimidations and boycotting were rampant. As the See also:winter wore on, Mr Forster persuaded his colleagues that exceptional measures were needed. An abortive See also:prosecution of Parnell and some of his leading colleagues had by this time intensified the situation. Parliament was summoned early, and a See also:Coercion Bill for one See also:year, practically suspending the Habeas Corpus Act and allowing the See also:arrest of suspects at the discretion of the government, was introduced, to be followed shortly by an Arms Bill. Parnell regarded the measure as a See also:declaration of See also:war, and met it in that spirit. Its discussion was doggedly obstructed at every stage, and on one occasion the debate was only brought to a close, after lasting for See also:forty-one See also:hours, by the See also:Speaker's claiming to interpret the general sense of the house and resolving to put the question without further discussion. The rules of See also:procedure were then amended afresh in a very drastic sense, and as soon as the bill was passed Mr Gladstone introduced a new Land Bill, which occupied the greater part of the session. Parnell accepted it with many reserves. He could not ignore its concessions, and was not disposed to undervalue them, but he had to make it clear to the revolutionary party, whose support was indispensable, that he regarded it only as a payment on See also:account, even from the agrarian point of view, and no payment at all from the national point of view. Accordingly the Land League at his instigation determined to " test " the act by advising tenants in general to refrain from taking their cases into See also:court until certain cases selected by the Land League had been decided. The government treated this policy, which was certainly not designed to make the act work freely and beneficially, as a deliberate See also:attempt to intercept its benefits and to keep the Irish people in subjection to the Land League; and on this and other grounds—notably the attitude of the League and its leaders towards See also:crime and outrage—Parnell was arrested under the Coercion Act and lodged in Kilmainham See also:gaol (See also:October 17, 1881). Parnell in See also:prison at once became more powerful for evil than he had ever been, either for See also:good or for evil, outside. He may have known that the policy of Mr Forster was little favoured by several of his colleagues, and he probably calculated that the detention of large numbers of suspects without cause assigned and without trial would sooner or later create opposition in England. Mr Forster had assured his colleagues and the House of Commons that the power of arbitrary arrest would enable the See also:police to lay their hands on the chief agents of disturbance, and it was Parnell's policy to show that so See also:long as the grievances of the Irish tenants remained unredressed no number of arrests could either check the See also:tide of outrage or restore the country to tranquillity. Several of his leading colleagues followed him into captivity at Kilmainham, and the Land League was dissolved, its treasurer, See also:Patrick See also:Egan, escaping to See also:Paris and carrying with him its books and accounts. Before it was formally suppressed the League had issued a manifesto, signed by Parnell and several of his See also:fellow-prisoners, calling upon the tenants to pay no rents until the government had restored the constitutional rights of the people. Discouraged by the priests, the No-Rent manifesto had little effect, but it embittered the struggle and exasperated the See also:temper of the people on both sides of the Irish Channel. Lord Cowper and Mr Forster were compelled to ask for a renewal of the Coercion Act with enlarged See also:powers. But there were members of the See also:cabinet who had only accepted it with reluctance, and were now convinced not only that it had failed, but that it could never succeed. A modus vivendi was desired on both sides. Negotiations were set on See also:foot through the agency of Captain O'Shea—at that time and for long afterwards a See also:firm political and See also:personal friend of Parnell, but ultimately his accuser in the See also:divorce court—and after a somewhat intricate course they resulted in what was known as the Kilmainham Treaty. As a consequence of this informal agreement, Parnell and two of his See also:friends were to be released at once, the understanding being, as Mr Gladstone stated in a See also:letter to Lord Cowper, "that Parnell and his friends are ready to abandon ` No Rent ' formally, and to declare against outrage energetically, intimidation included, if and when the government announce a satisfactory plan for dealing with arrears." Parnell's own version of the under-See also:standing has been quoted above. It also included a See also:hope that the government would allow the Coercion Act to See also:lapse and govern the country by the same See also:laws as in England. Parnell and his friends were released, and Lord Cowper and Mr Forster at once resigned. The See also:Phoenix See also:Park murders (May 6, 1882) followed (see IRE-LAND: See also:History). Parnell was prostrated by this See also:catastrophe. In a public manifesto to the Irish people he declared that " no act has ever been perpetrated in our country, during the exciting struggle for social and political rights of the past fifty years, that has so stained the name of hospitable Ireland as this cowardly and unprovoked assassination of a friendly stranger." Privately to his own friends and to Mr Gladstone he expressed his See also:desire to withdraw from public See also:life. There were those who believed ,that nevertheless he was privy to the Invincible conspiracy. There is some prima facie See also:foundation for this belief in the indifference he had always displayed towards crime and outrage when crime and outrage could be made to serve his purpose; in his equivocal relation to the more violent and unscrupulous forms of Irish See also:sedition, and in the fact that Byrne, an See also:official of the Land League, was in See also:collusion with the Invincibles, that the knives with which the See also:murder was done had been concealed at the offices of the Land League in See also:London, and had been conveyed to Dublin by Byrne's wife. But the See also:maxim is fecit cui prodest disallows these suspicions. Parnell gained nothing by the murders, and seemed for a time to have lost everything. A new Crimes Bill was introduced and made operative for a See also:period of three years. A regime of renewed coercion was maintained by Lord See also:Spencer and Mr (afterwards Sir See also:George) Trevelyan, who had succeeded Lord See also:Frederick See also:Cavendish in the office of chief secretary; Ireland was tortured for three years by the necessary severity of its administration, and England was exasperated by a See also:succession of See also:dynamite outrages organized chiefly in America, which Parnell was powerless to prevent. The Phoenix Park murders did more than any other incident of his time and career to frustrate Parnell's policy and render Home Rule impossible. For more than two years after the Phoenix Park murders Parnell's influence in parliament, and even in Ireland, was only intermittently and not very energetically exerted. His See also:health was indifferent, his absences from the House of Commons were frequent and mysterious, and he had already formed those relations with Mrs O'Shea which were ultimately to bring him to the divorce court. The Phoenix Park murderers were arrested and brought to See also:justice early in 1883. Mr Forster seized the opportunity to deliver a scathing See also:indictment of Parnell in the House of Commons. In an almost contemptuous reply Parnell repudiated the charges in general terms, disavowed all sympathy with dynamite outrages, their authors and abettors—the only occasion on which he ever did so—declined to plead in detail before an English tribunal, and declared that he sought only the approbation of the Irish people. This last was shortly after-wards manifested in the form of a subscription known as the " Parnell Tnbute," which quickly reached the amount of £37,000, and was presented to Parnell, partly for the See also:liquidation of debts he was known to have contracted, but mainly in recognition of his public services. The Irish National League, a successor to the suppressed Land League, was founded in the autumn of 1882 at a See also:meeting over which Parnell presided, but he looked on it at first with little favour, and its action was largely paralysed by the operation of the Crimes Act and the vigorous administration of Lord Spencer. The Crimes Act, passed in 1882, was to expire in 1885, but the government of Mr Gladstone was in no position to renew it as it stood. In May See also:notice was given for its partial renewal, subject to changes more of form than of substance. The second See also:reading was fixed for the loth of June. On the 8th of June Parnell, with See also:thirty-nine of his followers, voted with the Opposition against the See also:budget, and defeated the government by a majority of 264 votes to 252. Mr Gladstone forthwith resigned. Lord See also:Salisbury undertook to form a government, and Lord See also:Carnarvon became viceroy. The session was rapidly brought to an end with a view to the dissolution rendered necessary by the See also:Franchise Act passed in 1884—a measure which was certain to increase the number of Parnell's adherents in parliament. It seems probable that Parnell had convinced himself before he resolved to join forces with the Opposition that a Conservative government would not renew the Crimes Act. At any See also:rate, no attempt to renew it was made by the new government. Moreover, Lord Carnarvon, the new viceroy, was known to Parnell and to some others among the Irish leaders to be not unfavourable to some form of Home Rule if due regard were paid to imperial unity and See also:security. He sought and obtained a personal interview with Parnell, explicitly declared that he was speaking for himself alone, heard Parnell's views, expounded his own, and forth-with reported what had taken place to the See also:Prime See also:Minister. In the result the new cabinet refused to move in the direction apparently desired by Lord Carnarvon.
Parnell opened the electoral campaign with a speech in Dublin, in which he pronounced unequivocally in favour of self-government for Ireland, and expressed his confident hope " that it may not be necessary for us in the new parliament to devote our See also:attention to subsidiary measures, and that it may be possible for us to have a See also:programme and a platform with only one See also:plank, and that one plank National Independence." This was startling to English ears. The See also:press denounced Parnell; Lord Hartington (afterwards the See also:duke of See also:Devonshire) protested against so fatal and mischievous a programme; Mr See also: Subsequently Parnell invited him in a public speech to declare his policy and to See also:sketch the constitution he would give to Ireland subject to the limitations he had insisted on. To this Mr Gladstone replied, " through the same confidential channel," that he could not consider the Irish demand before it had been constitutionally formulated, and that, not being in an official position, he could not usurp the functions of a government. The reply to this was the issue of a manifesto to the Irish See also:electors of Great Britain violently denouncing the Liberal party and directing all Irish Nationalists to give their votes to the Tories. In these circumstances the general election was fought, and resulted in the return of 335 Liberals, four of whom were classed as " independent," 249 Conservatives and 86 followers of Parnell. Mr Gladstone had now ascertained the strength of the Irish demand, but was See also:left absolutely dependent on the votes of those who represented it. Through Mr See also:Arthur See also:Balfour he made informal overtures to Lord Salisbury proffering his own support in See also:case the Prime Minister should be disposed to consider the Irish demand in a " just and liberal spirit "; but he received no encouragement. Towards the close of the year it became known through various channels that he himself was considering the See also:matter and had advanced as far as accepting the principle of an Irish parliament in Dublin for the transaction of Irish affairs. Before the end of See also:January Lord Salisbury's government was defeated on the Address, the Opposition including the full strength of the Irish party. Mr Gladstone once more became prime minister, with Mr John See also:Morley (an old Home Ruler) as chief secretary, and Mr Chamberlain provisionally included in the cabinet. Lord Hartington, Mr See also:Bright and some other Liberal chiefs, however, declined to join him. Mr Gladstone's return to power at the See also:head of an administration conditionally committed to Home Rule marks the culminating point of Parnell's influence on English politics and English parties. And after the defeat of the Home Rule See also:ministry in 1886, Parnell was naturally associated closely with the Liberal Opposition. At the same time he withdrew himself largely from active interposition in current parliamentary affairs, and relaxed his See also:control over the action and policy of his followers in Ireland. He entered occasionally into London society—where in certain quarters he was now a welcome See also:guest—but in general he lived apart, often concealing his whereabouts and giving no address but the House of Commons, answering no letters, and seldom fulfilling engagements. He seems to have thought that Home Rule being now in the keeping of an English party, it was time to show that he had in him the qualities of a statesman as well as those of a revolutionary and a rebel. His influence on the remedial legislation proposed by the Unionist government for Ireland was considerable, and he seldom missed an opportunity of making it See also:felt. It more than once happened to him to find measures, which had been contemptuously rejected when he had proposed them, ultimately adopted by the government; and it may be that the See also:comparative tranquillity which Ireland enjoyed at the close of the 19th century was due quite as much to legislation inspired and recommended by himself as to the .disintegration of his following which ensued upon his See also:appearance in the divorce court and long survived his See also:death. No sooner was Lord Salisbury's new government installed in office in 1886, than Parnell introduced a comprehensive Tenants' Relief Bill. The government would have none of it, though in the following session they adopted and carried many of its leading provisions. Its rejection was followed by renewed agitation in Ireland, in which Parnell took no part. He was See also:ill—" dangerously ill," he said himself at the time—and some of his more hot-headed followers devised the famous " Plan of Campaign," on which he was never consulted and which never had his approval. Ireland was once more thrown into a turmoil of agitation, turbulence and crime, and the Unionist government, which had hoped to be able to govern the country by means of the See also:ordinary See also:law, was compelled to resort to severe repressive measures and fresh coercive legislation. Mr Balfour became chief secretary, and early in the session of 1887 the new measure was introduced and carried. Parnell took no very prominent part in resisting it. In the course of the spring The Times had begun See also:publishing a See also:series of articles entitled " Parnellism and Crime," on lines following Mr Forster's indictment of Parnell in 1883, though with much greater detail of circumstance and See also:accusation. Some of the charges were undoubtedly well founded, some were exaggerated, some were merely the colourable See also:fictions of political prepossession, pronounced to be not proven by the See also:special commission which ultimately inquired into them. One of the articles, which appeared on the 18th of See also:April, was accompanied by the facsimile of a letter purporting to be signed but not written by Parnell, in which he apologized for his attitude on the Phoenix Park murders, and specially excused the murder of Mr See also:Burke. On the same evening, in the House of Commons, Parnell declared the letter to be a See also:forgery, and denied that he had ever written any letter to that effect. He was not believed, and the second reading of the Crimes Act followed. Later in the session the attention of the house was again called to the subject, and it was invited by Sir Charles See also:Lewis, an See also:Ulster member and a See also:bitter antagonist of the Nationalists, to declare the charges of The Times a See also:breach of See also:privilege. The government met this proposal by an offer to pay the expenses of a See also:libel action against The Times to be brought on behalf of the Irish members incriminated. This offer was refused. Mr Gladstone then proposed that a select See also:committee should inquire into the charges, including the letter attributed to Parnell, and to this Parnell assented. But the government rejected the proposal. For the See also:rest, Parnell continued to maintain for the most part an attitude of moderation, reserve and See also:retreat, though he more than once came forward to protest against the harshness of the Irish administration and to plead for further remedial legislation. In See also:July 1888 he announced that Mr See also:Cecil See also:Rhodes had sent him a sum of 1o,000 in support of the Home Rule movement, subject to the See also:condition that the Irish See also:representation should be retained in the House of Commons in any future measure dealing with the question. About the same time the question of " Parnellism and Crime " again became acute. Mr F. H. O'Donnell, an ex-M.P. and former member of the Irish party, brought an action against The Times for libel. His case was a weak one, and a See also:verdict was obtained by the defendants. But in the course of the proceedings the See also:attorney-general, counsel for The Times, affirmed the readiness of his clients to establish all the charges advanced, including the genuineness of the letter which Parnell had declared to be a forgery. Parnell once more invited the House of Commons to refer this particular issue—that of the letter—to a select committee. This was again refused; but after some hesitation the government resolved to appoint by act of parliament a special commission, composed of three See also:judges of the High Court, to inquire into all the charges advanced by The Times. This led to what was in substance, though not perhaps in judicial form, the most remarkable See also:state trial of the 19th century. The commission began to sit in September 1888, and issued its See also:report in See also:February 189o. It heard See also:evidence of immense See also:volume and variety, and the speech of Sir Charles See also:Russell in See also:defence was afterwards published in a bulky volume. Parnell gave evidence at great length, with much composure and some cynicism. On the whole he produced a not unfavourable impression, though some of his statements might seem to justify Mr Gladstone's opinion that he was not a See also:man of exact veracity. The report of the commission was a very voluminous document, and was very variously interpreted by different parties to the controversy. Their conclusions may be left to speak for themselves: " I. We find that the See also:respondent members of parliament collectively were not members of a conspiracy having for its See also:object to establish the See also:absolute independence of Ireland, but we find that some of them, together with Mr Davitt, established and joined in the Land League organization with the intention, by its means, to bring about the absolute independence of Ireland as a separate nation. II., We find that the respondents did enter into a conspiracy,by a See also:system of coercion and intimidation, to promote an agrarian agitation against the payment of agricultural rents, for the purpose of impoverishing and expelling from the country the Irish landlords, who were styled ' the English See also:garrison.' " III. We find that the See also:charge that ' when on certain occasions they thought it politic to denounce, and did denounce, certain crimes in public, they afterwards led their supporters to believe such denunciations were not sincere,' is not established. We entirely acquit Mr Parnell and the other respondents of the charge of insincerity in their denunciation of the Phoenix Park murders, and find that the ' facsimile ' letter, on which this charge was chiefly based as against Mr Parnell, is a forgery. " IV. We find that the respondents did disseminate the Irish See also:World and other See also:newspapers tending to incite to sedition and the commission of other crime. " V. We find that the respondents did not directly incite persons to the commission of crime other than intimidation, but that they did incite to intimidation, and that the consequence of that incitement was that crime and outrage were committed by the persons incited. We find that it has not been proved that the respondents made payments for the purpose of inciting persons to commit crime. " VI. We find, as to the allegation that the respondents did nothing to prevent crime, and expressed no See also:bona fide disapproval, that some of the respondents, and in particular Mr Davitt, did See also:express bona fide disapproval of crime and outrage, but that the respondents did not denounce the system of intimidation that led to crime and outrage, but persisted in it with knowledge of its effect. " VII. We find that the respondents did defend persons charged with agrarian crime, and supported their families; but that it has not been proved that they subscribed to testimonials for, or were intimately associated with, notorious criminals, or that they made payments to procure the See also:escape of criminals from justice. " VIII. We find, as to the allegation that the respondents made payments to compensate persons who had been injured in the commission of crime, that they did make such payments. " IX. As to the allegation that the respondents invited the assistance and co-operation of, and accepted subscriptions of money from, known See also:advocates of crime and the use of dynamite, we find that the respondents did invite the assistance and co-operation of, and accepted subscriptions of money from, Patrick See also:Ford, a known See also:advocate of crime and the use of dynamite; but that it has not been proved that the respondents, or any of them, knew that the Clan-na-Gael controlled the League, or was See also:collecting money for the Parliamentary Fund. It has been proved that the respondents invited and obtained the assistance and co-operation of the Physical Force Party in America, including the Clan-na-Gael, and in order to obtain that assistance abstained from repudiating or condemning the action of that party." The specific charges brought against Parnell personally were thus dealt with by the commissioners: " (a) That at the time of the Kilmainham negotiations Mr Parnell knew that See also:Sheridan and Boyton had been organizing outrage, and therefore. wished to use them to put down outrage. " We find that this charge has not been proved. (b) That Mr Parnell was intimate with the leading Invincibles; that he probably learned from them what they were about when he was released on See also:parole in April 1882; and that he recognized the Phoenix Park murders as their handiwork. " We find that there is no foundation for this charge. We have already stated that the Invincibles were not a See also:branch of the Land League. (c) That Mr Parnell on 23rd January 1883, by an opportune remittance, enabled F. Byrne to escape from justice to See also:France. " We find that Mr Parnell did not make any remittance to enable F. Byrne to escape from justice." The case of the facsimile letter alleged to have been written by Parnell See also:broke down altogether. It was proved to be a forgery. It had been See also:purchased with other documents from one See also:Richard Pigott, a needy and disreputable Irish journalist, who afterwards tried to See also:blackmail See also:Archbishop See also:Walsh by offering, in a letter which was produced in court, to confess its forgery. Mercilessly See also:cross-examined by Sir Charles Russell on this letter to the See also:arch-See also:bishop, Pigott broke down utterly. Before the commission sat again he fled to See also:Madrid, and there blew his brains out. Ile had confessed the forgery to Mr Labouchere in the presence of Mr G. A. See also:Sala, but did not stay to be cross-examined on his See also:confession. The attorney-general withdrew the letter on behalf of The Times, and the commission pronounced it to be a forgery. Shortly after the letter had been withdrawn, Parnell filed an action against The Times for libel, claiming See also:damages to the amount of £roo,000. The action was compromised without going into court by a payment of £5000. Practically, the damaging effect of some of the findings of the commission was neutralized by Parnell's triumphant vindication in the matter of the facsimile letter and of the darker charges levelled at him. Parties remained of the same opinion as before: the Unionists still holding that Parnell was steeped to the lips in See also:treason, if not in crime; while the Home Rulers made abundance of See also:capital out of his personal vindication, and sought to excuse the incriminating findings of the commission by the historic antecedents of the Nationalist cause and party. The failure to produce the books and papers of the Land League was overlooked, and little importance was attached by partisans to the fact that in spite of this See also:default (leaving unexplained the manner in which over £roo,000 had been expended), the commissioners " found that the respondents did make payments to compensate persons who had been injured in the commission of crime." Parnell and his colleagues were accepted as See also:allies worthy of the confidence of an English party; they were made much of in Gladstonian Liberal society; and towards the close of 1889, before the commission had reported, but some months after the forged letter had been withdrawn, Parnell visited Hawarden to confer with Mr Gladstone on the measure of Home Rule to be introduced by the latter should he again be restored to power. What occurred at this See also:conference was after-wards disclosed by Parnell, but Mr Gladstone vehemently denied the accuracy of his statements on the subject. But Parnell's fall was at hand. In See also:December 1889 Captain O'Shea filed a See also:petition for divorce on the ground of his wife's See also:adultery with Parnell. Parnell's intimacy with Mrs O'Shea had begun in 1881, though at what date it became a guilty one is not in evidence. Captain O'Shea had in that year challenged him to a See also:duel, but was pacified by the explanations of Mrs O'Shea. It is known that Captain O'Shea had been Parnell's confidential See also:agent in the negotiation of the Kilmainham Treaty, and in 1885 Parnell had strained his personal authority to the utmost to secure Captain O'Shea's return for See also:Galway, and had quelled a formidable revolt among some of his most influential followers in doing so. It is not known why Captain O'Shea, who, if not See also:blind to a matter of notoriety, must have been complaisant in 1885, became vindictive in 1889. No defence being offered, a See also:decree of divorce was pronounced, and in June 1891 Parnell and Mrs O'Shea were married. At first the Irish party determined to stand by Parnell. The decree was pronounced on the 17th of See also:November 1890. On the loth a great meeting of his political friends and supporters was held in Dublin, and a See also:resolution that in all political matters Parnell possessed the confidence of the Irish nation was carried by See also:acclamation. But the Irish party reckoned without its English allies. The " See also:Nonconformist See also:conscience," which had swallowed the report of the commission, was shocked by the decree of the divorce court. At a meeting of the National Liberal Federation held at See also:Sheffield on the 21st of November, Mr John Morley was privately but firmly given to understand that the Nonconformists would insist on Parnell's resignation. Parliament was to meet on the 25th. Mr Gladstone tried to convey to Parnell privately his conviction that unless Parnell retired the cause of Home Rule was lost. But the See also:message never reached Parnell. Mr Gladstone then requested Mr John Morley to see Parnell; but he could not be found. Finally, on the 24th, Mr Gladstone wrote to Mr Morley the famous and fatal letter, in which he declared his conviction " that, notwithstanding the splendid services rendered by Mr Parnell to his country, his continuance at the See also:present moment in the leadership would be disastrous in the highest degree to the cause of Ireland," and that " the continuance I speak of would not only place many hearty and effective friends of the Irish cause in a position of great embarrassment, but would render my retention of the leadership of the Liberal party, based as it has been mainly upon the presentation of the Irish cause, almost a nullity." This letter was not published until after the Irish parliamentary party had met in the House of Commons and re-elected Parnell as its chairmanwithout a dissentient See also:voice. But its publication was a See also:thunder-clap. A few days later Parnell was requested by a majority of the party to convene a fresh meeting. It took place in Committee See also:Room No. 15, which became historic by the occasion, and after several days of angry recrimination and passionate discussion, during which Parnell, who occupied the See also:chair, scorn-fully refused to put to the vote a resolution for his own deposition, 45 members retired to another room and there declared his leadership at an end. The See also:remainder, 26 in number, stood by him. The party was thus divided into Parnellites and See also:anti-Parnellites, and the See also:schism was not healed until several years after Parnell's death. This was practically the end of Parnell's political career in England. The See also:scene of operations was transferred to Ireland, and there Parnell fought incessantly a bitter and a losing fight, which ended only with his death. He declared that Ireland could never achieve her emancipation by force, and that if she was to achieve it by constitutional methods, it could only be through the agency of a united Nationalist party rigidly eschewing alliance with any English party. This was the policy he proclaimed in a manifesto issued before the opening of the sittings in Committee Room No. 15, and with this policy, when deserted by the bulk of his former followers, he appealed to the Fenians in Ireland—" the hillside men," as Mr Davitt, who had abandoned him early in the crisis, contemptuously called them. The Fenians rallied to his side, giving him their votes and their support, but they were no match for the Church, which had declared against him. An attempt at reconciliation was made in the spring, at what was known as " the See also:Boulogne negotiations," where Mr William O'Brien endeavoured to arrange an understanding; but it came to nothing in the end. Probably Parnell was never very anxious for its success. He seems to have regarded the situation as fatally compromised by the extent to which his former followers were committed to an English alliance, and he probably saw that the only way to recover his lost position was to build up a new independent party. He knew well enough that this would take time—five years was the shortest period he allowed himself—but before many months were passed he was dead. The life he led, the agonies he endured, the labours he undertook from the beginning of 1891, travelling weekly to Ireland and intoxicating himself with the See also:atmosphere of passionate nationalism in which he moved, would have broken down a much stronger man. He who had been the most impassive of men became restless, See also:nervous, almost distracted at times, unwilling to be alone, See also:strange in his ways and demean-our. He visited Ireland for the last time in September, and the last public meeting he attended was on the 27th of that See also:month. The next See also:day he sent for his friend Dr Kenny, who found him suffering from acute See also:rheumatism and general debility. He left Ireland on the 3oth, promising to return on the following Saturday See also:week. He did return on that day, but it was in his See also:coffin. He took to his See also:bed shortly after his return to his home at See also:Brighton, and on the 6th of October he died. His remains were conveyed to Dublin, and on See also:Sunday, the rlth of October, they were laid to rest in the presence of a vast assemblage of the Irish people in Glasnevin See also:Cemetery, not far from the grave of O'Connell. The See also:principal materials for a See also:biography of Parnell and the history of the Parnellite movement are to be found in See also:Hansard's Parliamentary Debates (1875–1891); in the See also:Annual See also:Register for the same period; in the Report of the Special Commission issued in 189o; in The Life of Charles Stewart Parnell, by R. See also:Barry O'Brien; in The' Parnellite Movement, by T. P. O'See also:Connor, M.P.; and in a copious biography of Parnell contributed by an See also:anonymous but well-informed writer to the See also:Diet. of Nat. Biog., vol. xliii. (J. R. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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