Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
CHARLES STEWART PARNELL (1846-1891)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: PAI-PAS
del.icio.us it!
|
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: |