"shall i say stipulation, king?"
"no, queenie, he prefers 'suggestions desirable to be
entertained!'"—extract from an old diary.
parnell, in accordance with his "parole," returned to kilmainham at the end of the term of leave and immediately formulated the conditions of the arrangement it was proposed to make with the government. the draft of this historic document was as follows:—
"kilmainham, april 25th, 1882.
"we think in the first place that no time should be lost in endeavouring to obtain a satisfactory settlement of the arrears question, and that the solution proposed in the bill standing for second reading to-morrow—wednesday—would provide a satisfactory solution, though the church fund would have to be supplemented by a grant from imperial resources of probably a million or so.
"next as regards the permanent amendment of the land act, we consider that the rent-fixing clauses should be amended to as great an extent as is possible, having in view the necessity of passing an amending bill through the house of lords; that leaseholders who have taken leases either before or since the act of 1870 should be permitted to apply to have a fair rent fixed, and that the purchase clauses should be amended as suggested by the bill, the second reading of which will be moved by mr. redmond to-morrow.
{158}
"if the government were to announce their intention of proposing a satisfactory settlement of the arrears difficulty as indicated above, we on our part would make it known that the no rent manifesto was withdrawn, and we should advise the tenants to settle with their landlords; we should also then be in a better position than we ever occupied before to make our exertions effective in putting a stop to the outrages which are unhappily of late so prevalent.
"if the result of the arrears settlement and the further ameliorative measures suggested above were the material diminution of outrages before the end of the session, and the prospect of the return of the country after a time to something like a normal condition, we should hope that the government would allow the coercion act to lapse, and govern the country by the same laws as in england."
willie wrote to gladstone on april 13th, and two days after gladstone replied promising to communicate with forster. the rest of the letter was taken up with compliments to willie, and some carefully-worded phrases which really meant that gladstone was prepared to go to very great lengths indeed to quiet ireland and to keep her quiet.
willie sent to chamberlain a copy of his letter to gladstone. chamberlain was impressed and guarded. he welcomed negotiations, but pointed out that if the government were going to smile on the irish party the irish party must smile on the government. with some amount of exaggerated fervour he mooted the possibility of an anti-irish movement comparable with the anti-semitic movement abroad. that, he pointed out, would be bad for everybody, and accordingly he welcomed the {159} olive branch. in the sequel, of course, chamberlain took a very active part in pressing for the release of parnell. while on "parole," and after his return from paris, parnell entered into communication with mr. justin mccarthy with regard to the proposed "treaty," and the following letter was written from eltham:—
saturday, april 22, 1882.
my dear mccarthy,—i have arrived in england, and will call to see you to-morrow afternoon some time. i cannot at present give you the exact hour, but would it be too much to ask you to remain at home after three o'clock? i trust you will have some news of result of cabinet to-day.—yours very truly, c. s. p.
this letter was followed up by one from kilmainham.
(confidential.)
kilmainham,
april 25, 1882.
my dear mccarthy,—i send you a letter embodying our conversation, and which, if you think it desirable, you might take the earliest opportunity of showing to chamberlain.
do not let it out of your hands, but if he wishes you might give him a copy of the body of it.—yours very truly,
charles s. parnell.
(enclosure.)
the enclosure was identical with the draft treaty—apart from a few verbal alterations of which the chief was the substitution of "an amendment bill" for an "amending bill" in the second paragraph.
* * * * * *
tuesday, april 25, 1882.
my own queenie,—i enclose you a letter. what do you think i had best say to it?[1]
{160}
i told my friend in jermyn street what steps to take, so that the matter referred to in enclosed will probably go on all right without, or with, the further participation of the writer. i thought of writing him that i had received his note too late to reply for wednesday, but that in any case my letter from paris ought to be sufficient indication of confidence.
i missed nine train on sunday and came on by twelve, sleeping at crewe and getting on board mail boat before mail train arrived. everything went off very nicely and quietly, and i have not caught any cold this time. o. k. had aired my bed very carefully, etc., and they were all very glad to see me again, with the exception of the authorities.
i have been thinking all day of how desolate and lonely my queenie must be in her great sorrow. i wish so much that i might have stayed to comfort her, but i have indeed every hope and confidence that our separation will not now last very long. it is too terrible to think that on this the saddest day[2] of all others—and, let us hope, the saddest that we both shall ever see again—my wifie should have nobody with her.
good-bye, my own darling, your loving king.
mr. parnell wrote as follows to captain o'shea:—
kilmainham,
april 28.
i was very sorry that you had left albert mansions before i reached london from eltham, as i had wished to tell you that after our conversation i had made up my mind that it would be proper for me to put mr. mccarthy in possession of the views which i had previously communicated to you. i desire to impress upon you the absolute necessity of a settlement of the arrears question which will leave no recurring sore connected with it behind, and which will enable us to show the smaller tenantry that they have been treated with justice and some generosity.
the proposal you have described to me as suggested in some quarters, of making a loan, over however many years the payment might be spread, should be absolutely rejected, {161} for reasons which i have already fully explained to you. if the arrears question be settled upon the lines indicated by us, i have every confidence—a confidence shared by my colleagues—that the exertions which we should be able to make strenuously and unremittingly would be effective in stopping outrages and intimidation of all kinds.
as regards permanent legislation of an ameliorative character, i may say that the views which you always shared with me as to the admission of leaseholders to the fair rent clauses of the act are more confirmed than ever. so long as the flower of the irish peasantry are kept outside the act there cannot be any permanent settlement of the land question, which we all so much desire.
i should also strongly hope that some compromise might be arrived at this season with regard to the amendment of the tenure clauses. it is unnecessary for me to dwell upon the enormous advantages to be derived from the full extension of the purchase clauses, which now seem practically to have been adopted by all parties.
the accomplishment of the programme i have sketched would, in my judgment, be regarded by the country as a practical settlement of the land question, and would, i feel sure, enable us to co-operate cordially for the future with the liberal party in forwarding liberal principles; so that the government, at the end of the session, would, from the state of the country, feel themselves thoroughly justified in dispensing with further coercive measures.—yours very truly,
c. s. parnell.
saturday, april 30, 1882.
my own queenie,—he[3] came over to see me, so i thought it best to give him a letter, as he would have been dreadfully mortified if he had had nothing to show.
everything is going very well, and i hope will continue straight.
received two letters from my own lovie yesterday. do, my own, keep up as much as you can.
your own king.
{162}
i had reason to know, from various sources of information kept open by me on parnell's behalf during his imprisonment, that the government would liberate him with considerable relief if given any surety of conciliatory policy on his part. parnell at liberty was a disturbing force, and the culminating embarrassment of english government in ireland, but parnell in prison had become merely a concentrated embarrassment in that there was now no governmental possibility of dealing with the reactionary spirit he had let loose in ireland—a spirit that was at least better controllable as a weapon in parnell's hand than as the scattered and absolutely irresponsible fulminations, unreasoning and motiveless, of lawless desperadoes.
with parnell as her chief the ireland he had roused might indeed be a scourge of whips to the british government, but without him this ireland was undoubtedly a scourge of scorpions.
so parnell came out of kilmainham on the treaty arranged at eltham, and as willie was to be the official bearer of the olive branch to the government, he went over to see parnell on his return to kilmainham and to get from him a letter for his own satisfaction, as he said parnell was "so shifty" he could not be trusted to carry out any agreement that was not in writing, and the letter was to set forth the various modifications of his policy of obstruction that he would undertake to observe on his (immediate) liberation and assurance of future concessions to ireland. this letter had in substance been written at eltham, but parnell had stipulated for a few days to consider the matter further and would not give willie his final decision then. on the other side he had to consider that any treaty with the government would place him in {163} a very awkward position with the land league and would certainly affect the financial aid to the irish cause so generously contributed by america. it was also certain, he knew, that the government would be obliged, in either case, to liberate him with the other irish political prisoners at no distant period, and this without his placing himself under any obligation at all to the government. this would please the extreme party of his followers far better, even though it would keep open the way to further outrage and crime in ireland.
i had never before ventured to influence parnell in any way politically; but now i greatly dreaded for him this latter policy of the extremists and the perpetual strain of watchfulness and control it engendered—with the coercion laws such a policy must, in the long run, inevitably produce, unless, indeed, england was prepared to yield to force; an unthinkable proposition.
so now i threw the whole strength of my influence on the side of the treaty of conciliation and urged upon him the greater good for ireland likely to accrue in the making by him of immediate peace. i was very anxious that he should "reign" by constitutional means, and had every hope of establishing such amicable communications between him and the government as would lead to that end. but he had this great force now to reckon with—the force of centuries of cruelty, wrong, and oppression that had bred an irresponsibility and callous disregard of suffering, nay, rather a vindictive madness and lust of destruction in ireland. in his seeking for a weapon to use for the betterment of england's government of ireland parnell had discovered this underlying force of hate, and, using the influence of his personality, he strove to direct it into the service of the ireland that he loved. but he afterwards {164} stood appalled at the intensity of the passion of hate that he had loosed, and no one but he—and i with him—knew the awful strength of that force of destruction that was only held in subservience by the sheer dominance of his will. he replied to my pleadings: "yes, i hold them now with my back to the wall, but if i turn to the government i turn my back to them—and then——?"
but my great fear for him won his decision for peace, and he wrote and signed the "letter" that willie wanted to take to the government.
the prime minister had been prepared for its coming, and made known that such a treaty of peace would be acceptable. willie took this letter to forster, who knew of no understanding with the prime minister, and was absolutely against any such negotiations. he scoffed at the letter, at its terms, and at willie for bringing it, but the latter pointed out that the matter was one for the prime minister's consideration alone, and mr. forster was bound to submit it to him without delay. he of course did so, but with confidence as to its rejection and, on its immediate acceptance and the liberation of parnell, resigned his office as chief secretary for ireland.
lord cowper resigned with him. this was on the 2nd of may. on the 26th of april discussion on mr. redmond's land bill was started in the house of commons. this bill, which had been drafted by parnell in kilmainham, proposed to amend the land act of 1881 in four main particulars: (1) arrears of excessive rent; (2) admission of leaseholders to the benefit of the land court; (3) amendment of tenure clauses; (4) extension of purchase clauses by the advance from the state of the whole of the purchase money. mr. gladstone applauded the irish party and opposed the bill. he practically {165} admitted that recent decisions of the irish judges were nullifying the effect of the tenure clauses, but he did not want yet to reopen the question. he recognized, however, the necessity of dealing with "arrears."
when, on may 2nd, he announced to the house the resignation of lord cowper and mr. forster and the decision of the cabinet to release the three irish m.p.'s who had been in kilmainham since october, he definitely promised an arrears bill, and stated that there was no present intention to renew the coercion act. so, with this public promise of mr. gladstone, and with the tacit understanding that parnell would "slow down the agitation" parnell came out of gaol. "it is an act," averred mr. gladstone, "done without any negotiation, promise, or engagement whatever."
two days later forster denounced the action of the cabinet. he believed that the unconditioned release of the irish leaders would tend to the encouragement of crime. as he went on to justify the arrests parnell entered the house and took his seat. the irish cheered wildly. then forster continued: "the real reason why these gentlemen were arrested ... was because they were trying to carry out their will—'their unwritten law' ... by working the ruin and the injury of the queen's subjects by intimidation of one kind or another. if mr. parnell had not been placed in kilmainham he would very quickly have become in reality what he was called by many of his friends—the king of ireland." he did not say parnell and his friends had directly incited, what they had done was far more dangerous. they had established a system of intimidation.... they should have been released after a public promise had been given, or when ireland was quiet, or fresh powers had been granted {166} to the government. "a surrender is bad, a compromise or arrangement is worse.... if all england cannot govern the member for cork then let us acknowledge he is the greatest power in ireland to-day."
mr. gladstone, in reply, said he had no right to humiliate parnell by demanding a penitential confession of guilt, and once more he disclaimed that the release was the result of a bargain. parnell, following him, asserted—what was the truth—that no mention of his release was made by him in any written or oral communication with his friends.
the same night, may 4th, was announced the appointment of lord spencer as lord-lieutenant and lord frederick cavendish as chief secretary. the post had first been offered to sir charles dilke, but he had refused the offer. it is stated that in certain quarters the name of mr. chamberlain had been mentioned, and that he had signified his willingness to accept the offer if it were made. apparently it was not made. we cannot avoid speculating what would have happened had he gone to ireland. he had taken a leading part in the release of parnell; would that have saved him—since the phoenix park murderers did not intend to kill lord frederick? and if mr. chamberlain had been killed in may, 1882, what other course might british politics have taken? would tariff reform ever have been a tory election cry? would there have been no boer war? would the tories not have enjoyed that long term of office which for years kept the question of home rule in abeyance? it were foolish to say yes or no to any of these questions, but at least we may say that the fact mr. chamberlain was not asked to become irish secretary in 1882 is one of the most momentous in british politics.
{167}
while in kilmainham parnell had found it absolutely impossible to control in any way the incitements to crime and the wild expenditure of the ladies' land league. his sister, anna parnell, was at the head of this marvellous organization which she spread in well-ordered ramifications throughout the country. her generalship was magnificent and complete, and there appeared to be no detail of this revolutionary army with which she was not completely familiar and completely determined to control. parnell wrote to her again and again from prison, pointing out the crass folly of the criminality for which the ladies' league, now, solely existed. he even urged the governmental representations made to him for the suppression of this league of anarchy, and the hopeless financial position it was creating—the estimated weekly expenditure of these ladies running into thousands of pounds; money contributed chiefly by america for the fighting policy of the irish party—but to no purpose.
the fanatic spirit in these ladies was extreme; in anna parnell it was abnormal, and parnell saw no way of saving her, or the country, from her folly but by fulfilling his threat of vetoing the payment of another penny to the ladies' land league. this he then did, and thus automatically broke up this wild army of mercenaries. anna parnell never forgave her brother for this act, and to the last day of his life refused to hold any communication with him again. parnell had much family affection, and many times made overtures of peace to his sister, of whom he was really fond, and for whose strength of mind and will he had much respect. on two occasions he met her accidentally and tried to speak to her, but she resolutely turned from him and refused any reply to the letters he wrote her.
