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JOHN REDMOND 
 
 THE MAN AND THE DEMAND 
 
 J BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY IN IRISH POLITICS 
 
 BY 
 
 L. G. REDMOND-HOWARD 
 
 
 WITH 9 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 INCLUDING A PHOTOGRAVURE PLATE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 JOHN LANE COMPANY 
 
 MCMXI 
 
Printed tn Great BrttsLin 
 
 122979 
 
 5. 1^ 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 Introduction ...... v 
 
 I. — Family — Birth — Education (1857-1880) . i 
 II. — First Years in Parliament (1880-1890). 
 
 Public Life — Election — Colonial Tours . 21 
 
 III. — The Parnell Crisis (1890-1893) ... 51 
 
 IV. — The Home Rule Bill (1893) • • • 73 
 
 V. — The Independent (1893-1900) . . . 100 
 
 VI.— The New Leader (1900) .... 128 
 
 VII. — John Redmond and the Conservatives 
 (1900-1905). The South African War — ■ 
 His Loyalty — Devolution . . . .150 
 
 VIII. — Redmond and the Liberals (1905-1910). 
 I. — The Education Bills and the 
 
 Catholic University . . . . 183 
 
 VIII. {cotUinued). — II. — The Devolution Scheme — 
 
 The Land and the Lords (1905-1910) . . 204 
 
 IX. — The Man . 228 
 
 X. — The Man and His Methods .... 261 
 
 XL — 'The Message. The Irish Demand . . 289 
 
 XII. — The Mission ....... 311 
 
 XIIL— The Present Position ..... 331 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 John Redmond 
 
 Photogravure 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Strongbow's Monument 
 
 . Fact 
 
 ng page 2 
 
 Charles Stewart Parnell . 
 
 • " 5? 
 
 » 56 
 
 Elisha 
 
 
 „ 128 
 
 A New "Make-up" . 
 
 
 „ 208 
 
 John Redmond 
 
 ■ 
 
 ,: 228 
 
 Parliament House, Dublin . 
 
 
 ,: 290 
 
 Henry Grattan 
 
 
 „ 298 
 
 The Irony of Circumstance 
 
 
 „ 330 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The present volume is the outcome first of a sincere 
 study of the Irish problem and a wish to emphasize 
 the points of agreement rather than accentuate the 
 differences that separate the English and the Irish. We 
 are rapidly approaching the last phase of Irish politics. 
 And if an apology for the biographical form of the 
 study is asked for, it is because it was thought the 
 best answer to Lord Beaconsfield's demand fifty years 
 ago — " We want a man who will tell us what the 
 Irish problem really is." 
 
 That man to-day is Mr. John Redmond, than whom 
 few could be more typical of that Irish demand which 
 has become almost synonymous with politics. It is in 
 no sense an inspired or an official work, for the simple 
 reason that it was undertaken as a study rather than 
 as a biography, that it is intended more as a per- 
 sonification of the Irish problem than as a personal 
 character sketch. 
 
 It has been written, therefore, independently of Mr. 
 Redmond, but at the suggestion of various friends and 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 with the kind assistance of many valuable helpers who 
 have known the Irish leader. In particular I may 
 mention Mr. Stead, whose monograph I have found 
 very valuable, and Mr. Barry O'Brien, from whose Life 
 of Parnell he has kindly allowed me to quote. 
 
 1 may also mention Father Kane, Mr. Redmond's 
 
 old schoolmaster, Father F , a school companion, 
 
 His Honour Judge Barry, K.C., The Editor of the 
 Clongownian, Mr. Wilfred Meynell, and many others, 
 who have supplied me with personal information, in 
 addition to which I have embodied in the work 
 impressions of my intimate relations with Mr. Redmond, 
 who is my uncle, many years ago. His speeches and 
 his public utterances have, however, been studied purely 
 from a political point of view. Any analysis of the 
 Irish demand I thought would be more authoritative if 
 culled from the common property of the Press. 
 
 Throughout I have endeavoured to keep two objects 
 in view. 
 
 The first was to give an exposition of the man as he 
 appears in the framework of his career, in broad outline 
 and without entering into the personal controversies 
 which must surround every public man, but which 
 gradually fade, like the dust from the sculptor's chisel, 
 leaving the main features clear and sharp. 
 
 In the second place, I have done my best to present 
 
 the Irish problem as it is at root — that is to say, in 
 
 vi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 the problem of self-government. For there have been 
 three grievances, two of which have been, or are on the 
 way to being, solved — the educational or religious 
 problem and the agricultural or industrial problem. 
 The National University solved one ; Wyndham's Land 
 Act of 1903 solved the other. The last, that of Home 
 Rule, remains. 
 
 Home Rule is probably the most misrepresented term 
 in the whole vocabulary of English politics, and the 
 theory that the " Union " has anything to do with the unity 
 of the Empire the worst pun ever perpetrated. Unionism 
 really spells bureaucracy, Home Rule democracy, and 
 it is a strange historical curiosity that never has Home 
 Rule been judged upon its own merits, or an attempt 
 been made to justify the working of it as a system. 
 Whenever it has been presented by an almost unanimous 
 Ireland, it has been met by intellectual panic by an 
 almost unanimous England — at least, till the rise of 
 English democracy and its greatest leader, W. E. Glad- 
 stone. It has been steadily fought as a scare. To the 
 average Englishman the Union is something in the 
 nature of things — a kind of divine law. To the average 
 Tory, Home Rule is not only something foolish, but 
 something wicked and immoral in itself. The notion, 
 however mistaken, is not inexplicable. Home Rule has 
 always been supported by all that patriotism and reli- 
 gion can supply to an economic movement, and perhaps 
 
 vii' 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 it is for this reason that it has entered the EngUsh 
 mind in the guise either of a Popish danger, second 
 only to that betrayed by Titus Gates, or else as a 
 disruption of the Empire and a kind of Sicilian Ves- 
 pers. And the speeches of the great anti-Home 
 Rulers, from Mr. Chamberlain to the late Earl Percy, 
 merely ring the changes on these two ideas like warning 
 signal bells. How the establishment of a vigorous 
 national power in Ireland composed of laymen ex- 
 clusively can be a clerical danger passes my compre- 
 hension. If it is a danger, the danger is to the 
 clericals, not from them ; but personally, I think the 
 spheres of priests and laymen will always be distinct 
 and apart under Home Rule. As to Separation, I will 
 yield to none in my admiration of, and my sympathy 
 with, the Irish genius and the sufferings of Ireland ; 
 but I should quarrel to the last with the man who 
 wished to separate Ireland from England. In every 
 British Colony the Irish emigrants form one of the main 
 props of Empire ; and even were it possible one hundred 
 years ago to establish an independent and hostile Ireland, 
 the colonization which has diffused the Irish all over the 
 world, so that there are more Irish in the British 
 Dominions beyond the Seas than in Ireland herself, 
 has absolutely changed the problem. And as the Norman 
 families of the Pale in Ireland became Hiberniores 
 
 Hibernis ipsis, the day may come when Irishmen in the 
 
 viii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Colonies may become more Imperial than even the Im- 
 perialists. The establishment of a threat world-wide power, 
 self-sufficient in trade, internally fostering its own indus- 
 tries by preferential tariffs against external powers, the 
 facilitating of intercommujiication between the Home 
 Country and the Colonfes, is an idea not without attraction 
 to the Irishman, not only at home, where his whole 
 trade depends on the English market, but in the 
 Colonies, where many of the farmers and town manu- 
 facturers are Irishmen. But as Grattan said, Ireland 
 looks to the Empire as a safeguard of her own 
 individuality, not as its suppression. An Empire built 
 to the detriment of Ireland is not one that can ever 
 permanently appeal to Ireland, for loyalty is at root 
 egotistic. Separation to be made impossible must be 
 made undesirable. 
 
 There is, however, another and perhaps the greatest of 
 all points in the Home Rule question to which I wish 
 to draw attention, and that is what I may call its 
 future social effect. Professor Dicey once offered a prize 
 for a new argument for Home Rule. I do not know 
 whether I have any claim to it, but it has always been 
 my conviction that the argument from the past is far 
 less potent than the prospective argument. In Ireland 
 we are too traditional, too little scientific ; and as the 
 result an historic dissertation on the days of Cromwell, 
 
 who, unlike Queen Anne, is as much alive as Mr. 
 
 ix 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Asquith, has far more weight than an economic argument 
 on possibilities of future development. The English- 
 man is proverbially ignorant of history, which is the 
 very breath of an Irish patriot, and the Irishman who 
 has never had the political leisure to turn to industry 
 cannot discuss impersonally the problem in cold- 
 blooded terms of practical business. Hence the House 
 of Commons — if the two parties, British and Irish, 
 could be personified — would present the picture of two 
 men locked up in a room to settle a question — one 
 ardent, with a heart smarting from the memory of 
 centuries of oppression, impatient to redress an evit 
 which was driving his family from the land, beggars 
 and starving ; and the other sitting comfortably beside 
 a glass of port, with a conscious rectitude begotten 
 of absolute ignorance of everything beyond the day- 
 book and the year's ledger. The one speaks in. terms 
 of emotion : the other in terms of economics : the 
 one is full of past grievances, the other of concrete 
 remedies for the future. And I should myself give 
 up the whole controversy in despair were it not for 
 the conviction that every Nationalist sentiment or 
 extravagance is but at bottom the statement of an 
 economic grievance — a fact which only years of com- 
 parison between the two peoples by contact and 
 residence has brought home to me. The racial character- 
 istics of the two peoples have coloured both the demand 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 and its refusal, but in both cases the antagonism has 
 been due to misunderstandings. Take, for example, the 
 great Land Transfer Act of 1903. Had it been advo- 
 cated purely in terms of Socialist rapacity, race hatred 
 or class jealousy, it would not have even obtained a 
 moment's hearing. At the same time, when once the 
 sentiment which was the motive force of the Land 
 League and the Fenian movement was turned into 
 terms of political economy, it immediately passed with 
 the approval of all parties. Nor is this exceptional. 
 Nearly every year the Statute Book, in grave, legal 
 terms, approves of what was previously advocated at 
 riotous meetings engineered by hired professional 
 politicians. And he would be a bold man who would 
 stand up in the House of Commons to propose the 
 reversal of any of the great measures, such as the 
 withdrawal of Local Government, the re-establishment of 
 the Irish Church, the abolition of the National Univer- 
 sity or the exclusion of Catholics from participation in 
 parliamentary, naval or official occupations. 
 
 This curious situation is due to the fact that the 
 Imperial Parliament by its actions has destroyed the 
 possibility of deliberation, avowed that agitation is 
 the only possible means of obtaining a remedy, and 
 compelled the mind of Ireland continually to brood 
 on its wrongs and regret the loss of its Parliament in 
 
 vain. 
 
 xi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Ireland is thus divided into six or seven different 
 and divergent parties. The Churches are more an- 
 tagonistic to each other than probably in any country 
 in the world. It is doubtful whether the fight in 
 Barcelona between Anti-clericals and Catholics is half 
 so bitter as between Catholics and Orangemen in Belfast. 
 Again, the Irish gentry have almost all — true, there are 
 a few laudable exceptions — abandoned that lead of 
 intellect which they held in the days of Grattan, or even 
 in those of Isaac Butt. It was their dutv to direct, to 
 regulate, to moderate, to colour and elevate the national 
 movement ; instead, they have either emigrated as the 
 French nobles in the days of the French Revolution, or 
 else they have taken up an entirely antagonistic attitude 
 towards the people. Their lo\alty has been, not the 
 altruism of heroes, but the cupboard love of placemen 
 using, or rather abusing, bureaucracy to their own ends, 
 as did the men of the old Irish Parliament who were 
 bribed to pass the Union; though it must not be 
 forgotten that the iniquities of individual landlords 
 have been visited on the class as a whole quite as 
 unjustly. The result of this has been that there is no 
 Irish public opinion, but only a war of classes, creeds 
 and castes, each carrying hostilities on in different planes 
 and never meeting together to adjust their differences 
 or trying to understand each other. There has been 
 
 a continual appeal to the outsider, to America on 
 
 xii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 the one side and to England on the other, to bigoted 
 Protestantism and to no less heated Catholicism, to 
 oppressed tenants and oppressing landlords ; but never 
 till the meeting of the Dunraven Conference was there 
 an attempt to settle the problem between the actual 
 combatants. The appeal to the outside bully of coercion 
 has been met, of course, by a no less violent appeal 
 to the outside bully of Fenianism : with the result 
 that the quarrels have always been carried on by 
 outsiders and Ireland has been wrecked. 
 
 Only some form of parliament or legislative assem- 
 bly can bring all denominations of thought, both political 
 and religious, into the same focus. Only a common 
 meeting ground can secure that unity of national aim to 
 which all interests can come for readjustment. Only in 
 an intellectual contest can the true value of economic 
 ideas be tested. And unless all creeds and classes take 
 their part and exercise their proper influence, the result 
 is bound to be a tyranny, A parliament composed 
 entirely of the representatives of the agricultural vote 
 would be as much a danger as a bureaucracy entirely 
 limited to landlords, just as both might be an equal 
 danger to the commercial interests of Ulster. Only in a 
 parliament or deliberative chamber can the value of 
 education, experience and interest properly affect legis- 
 lation ; without it, there would i.jevitably result the 
 
 unthinking will of the majority, irrespective of any con- 
 
 xiii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 sideration but that of numerical strength. The working 
 
 of the Local Government Act is a sufficient refutation 
 
 of those who would maintain that Irishmen are purely 
 
 political. The granting of Home Rule would in all 
 
 probability kill politics properly so called, and the new 
 
 parliament arouse no more anxiety than the workings 
 
 of the London County Council : but it would have 
 
 united Irish thought and broken down the barrier which 
 
 separates the Castle from the League, the politician 
 
 from the official, the clerical from the anti-clerical, and 
 
 would thereby tend to the abolition of all " outside " 
 
 appeal in domestic controversies, to soften that irritation 
 
 which has done more to keep the two parties and the 
 
 two peoples apart than any persecution or prejudice. 
 
 In the end the saner ideas must prevail, and all fear 
 
 of separation, as well as all hope or desire of it, must 
 
 evaporate. But we must first come back to the position 
 
 taken up by Grattan. Ireland looks to the Empire as 
 
 the great barrier against foreign intervention from the 
 
 Continent, and as the security of her liberties. Therein 
 
 lies Ireland's demand for Imperial unity, and therein, and 
 
 only therein, lies not only the claim but the guarantee 
 
 of Irish loyalty. 
 
 We of the younger generation are tired of the strife, 
 
 but we will not abandon it till its object is conceded. 
 
 We wish to see the rise of a New Unionism, based 
 
 upon Home Rule. We are Unionist Home Rulers, 
 
 xiv 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 because we believe that Home Rule is, we cannot say a 
 Unionist, but at least a uniting measure, and we wish to 
 see the two peoples, whose seed has equally populated, 
 whose brains have equally developed, whose blood has 
 been equally shed in defence of the greatest Empire 
 the world has ever seen, understand each other and unite 
 in its maintenance and in its victorious development. 
 There are dangers far ahead ; but the greatest of 
 dangers is nearer home, in that misgovernment of 
 centuries which has reduced Ireland by half its popu- 
 lation, and produced a hatred of England in Ireland 
 more bitter than that of the foreign nation most 
 hostile to England. It is no threat that is thus 
 uttered ; it is purely the calm perception of future con- 
 tingencies. Never, perhaps, in the whole of English 
 history has the opportunity been more favourable, and 
 the dispositions been more ripe, for the final solution of 
 the great historic grievance between the two peoples, 
 and if this volume can tend to make the understand- 
 ing of the demand of Mr. John Redmond easier, the 
 author will be amply repaid for his labours. 
 
 L. G. Redmond-Howard, 
 
 Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 XV 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FAMILY — BIRTH — EDUCATION 
 1857— 1880 
 
 rrOR those who seek an explanation of the character- 
 istics and sentiments of the Irish people at the 
 present day and wish to study what might be called 
 the evolution of the Nationalist mind, there is nothing 
 that serves their purpose better than an account of the 
 career of Mr. John Redmond. He not only represents, 
 as Leader of the Irish Party, the politics, but his 
 family to a great extent represents the history, of the 
 Irish problem. Just as the career of many an English 
 county family illustrates one phase or another of the 
 history of England, so the story of the Redmonds may 
 be said to present one whole aspect of the history of 
 Ireland. 
 
 To begin with, the Redmonds are not of the old Irish 
 stock ; but like the Fitzgeralds and many others of 
 Anglo-Norman descent, they have become Hibernior 
 Hibernis ipsis. For who are so Irish as the Wexford 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 men ? And Wexford blood flows in John Redmond's 
 veins, and the Wexford spirit is in his heart. The 
 family have always been in one way or another connected 
 with the town of Wexford from the first day the Nor- 
 mans landed on Irish shores, when Wexford was but a 
 small seaport and the townsfolk half Danish. 
 
 The Redmonds are, therefore, one of the oldest, if 
 not the very oldest, of the Anglo-Norman families. 
 John Redmond (who, upon the death of the late General 
 Redmond, became the head of the family and heir to 
 the family estates) is the lineal descendant of one of 
 the Fitzwilliams, known as Raymund le Gros, one of 
 the ablest lieutenants of Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, 
 and descended — according to a tradition in the family 
 — from the same stock as the celebrated Raymunds, 
 Counts of Toulouse, in France, who figure so prominently 
 in Church history, one of them having led a Crusade, 
 the other, during the Albigenses heresy, having had a 
 crusade preached against him. Strongbow, it will be 
 remembered, had been invited to Ireland by Dermot 
 McMurrough, King of Leinster (whose daughter he 
 afterwards married), and it was this incident that pre- 
 pared the way for the English invasion of Ireland in 
 1172. Raymund le Gros was sent over as a kind of 
 advance guard and landed on the first of May, 1170, at 
 Baginbun, a little promontory in the barony of Shel- 
 burne, in Wexford. A deep moat and rampart — portion 
 
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FAMILY— BIRTH— EDUCATION 
 
 of Raymund's defences — are still to be seen marking 
 the place where he and his little army of ten men- 
 at-arms and seventy archers had entrenched them- 
 selves. 
 
 But the conquest of the town was no easy matter. 
 The inhabitants defended themselves stoutly, and the 
 whole incident is the subject of an old ballad, called 
 " The Song of Dermot," which relates that : 
 
 "At the creeke of Banginbunne, 
 Ireland was lost and won." 
 
 The strangers, however small in numbers, were 
 evidently vigorous in the exercise of their power, and 
 soon cowed the inhabitants into surrender. Several of 
 the prisoners, including many of the chief citizens of 
 Wexford, were hurled from the tops of the rugged cliffs 
 into the sea beneath ! The town once taken was kept 
 for the King, and upon the arrival of Henry II. was 
 yielded up to him. He in turn granted it to Strong- 
 bow, and some of the estates passed into the family of 
 the Raymunds as part of the dowry of the Lady 
 Basilea, sister of the Earl of Pembroke, who afterwards 
 became the wife of Raymund le Gros. An old two- 
 handed sword of gigantic size was for a long time pre- 
 served in the Redmond family as a relic and was said 
 to have been the weapon with which Strongbow had 
 actually cut his son in twain for the crime of cowardice, 
 the weapon being handed down as an heirloom in the 
 
 3 I* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 family of the " Redmonds of the Hall." About a 
 century ago, however, the sword was brought to London, 
 since when all trace of it has been lost. 
 
 The history of the family from the death of Ray- 
 mund to the Reformation belongs to county history, 
 but by continual intermarriage they practically became 
 identified with the causes and interests of Ireland. 
 Though loyal, in the political sense of the word, they 
 were not so in the religious sense, and remained true 
 to the faith of their ancestors ; and the ruins of the 
 Monastery at Churchtown, near Hook, in Wexford, was 
 for centuries the burial place of the Redmonds, the 
 name, " Eques Hospitabilis " (given to a Sir John Redmond 
 of the sixteenth century), being probably the recognition of 
 a debt of gratitude to their patron on the part of the 
 little community of Canons Regular. 
 
 Alexander Redmond, the last to be buried there, was 
 the Alexander Redmond who in 1642 resisted Captain 
 Thomas Aston, who was besieging the castle. He was 
 an old man of about seventy at the time, but, together 
 with his sons and retainers, he defended the Hall "so 
 stoutly that many of the English leaped from the rocks 
 and were drowned." x'\nd it remained in their possession 
 till Cromwell arrived, when they capitulated upon honour- 
 able terms. 
 
 This Alexander Redmond died about 1650, and the 
 greater part of his lands were transferred by the Act of 
 
 4 
 
FAMILY— BIRTH—EDUCATION 
 
 Settlement from the Papist owner to the Protestant, 
 Sir Nicholas Loftus, by letters patent of August 30th, 
 1666, and the old castle took the name of Loftus Hall. 
 It was only one of a large number of confiscations, but 
 it is a typical example, and explains the feeling of deep 
 attachment to the Catholic Church which to this day 
 exists in many an Anglo- Irish family, and shows at 
 what a sacrifice the people have kept the faith. 
 
 The event is commemorated in the Redmond arms to 
 this day by three woolsacks which — according to the 
 story — had been placed in the windows of the castle, 
 during the struggle. Another topographical point which 
 occurs in the crest of the family is a blazing beacon, 
 such as must often have been seen round the coast of 
 Wexford before the days of Tuscar Lighthouse. 
 
 From the times of Cromwell to those of " '98," the 
 family suffered still further from the severity of the penal 
 laws, when an Irish Papist could not possess a horse 
 over five pounds in value, and much of the property 
 of Catholics was held by trust in Protestant hands. 
 The main branch, too, became reduced in one generation 
 to three heiresses, among whom the greater part of 
 the property was divided, and passed into the hands 
 of three baronet families, the " Talbots," the "Powers," 
 and the " Seagraves." 
 
 During the rebellion of '"98," Wexford became the 
 centre of the revolt, and the name of Redmond appears 
 
 5 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 several times in the records. One old print (in two 
 blocks) can still be seen in ancient Wexford houses 
 showing " the beautiful and accomplished Miss Red- 
 mond " on horseback leading the rebels. We also hear 
 that a Father Francis Redmond, who had once been 
 the companion of Napoleon's schooldays and shared his 
 room as a student at Bas Poicton, and had even saved 
 him on one occasion from drowning, subsequently 
 suffered death on the scaffold (though apparently a 
 loyalist and a close relative of Lord Mountmorres, 
 whose property he had endeavoured to persuade the 
 rebels to yield up) ; while several ancestors in the 
 maternal branches of the family were hanged in the 
 cause for which Lord Edward Fitzgerald shed his 
 blood. 
 
 From the days when a political career became open 
 to Catholics, the family were always politicians of the 
 type one might call " moderate " Home Rulers, and 
 the first member of Parliament was old John Edward 
 Redmond, to whom a monument was afterwards erected 
 in the town of Wexford, and who was returned in 
 1859 unopposed, the two rival candidates (Mr. Devereux 
 and Sir Frederick Hughes) having retired in his favour. 
 He, again, was a typical example of the Catholic gentry. 
 He was introduced by the mayor in one of those 
 typical old-fashioned speeches which usually took place 
 
 on such occasions, but from which we see that he was 
 
 6 
 
FAMILY— BIRTH— EDUCATION 
 
 above all a representative citizen of a representative 
 family. His father, Walter Redmond, had been the 
 first to deal the fatal blow to the market tithes, which 
 in the case of Wexford were particularly oppressive. 
 Moreover, the family had built a small pier for the 
 vessels in the harbour, had abolished the bridge tolls, 
 and reclaimed much of the low waste land, and were 
 at the time eagerly negotiating for the extension of the 
 railway to open up the West and South as well as to 
 establish the new route now being opened at Rosslare. 
 John Edward Redmond was a Liberal in politics, and 
 an advocate of the removal of all civil and religious 
 disabilities, as well as for a revision of the conditions of 
 the tenants' position, who in those days were not entitled 
 to compensation for improvements. 
 
 A generation later, William Archer Redmond, the 
 son of Patrick Walter Redmond (a deputy lieutenant for 
 the County of Wexford), and father of the Leader of 
 the Irish Party, was returned for the borough of Wex- 
 ford in 1872. 
 
 " I can well remember the elder Redmond," writes 
 Mr. Justin McCarthy. " He was a man of the most 
 courteous bearing, polished manners, a man, in fact, of 
 education and extraordinary capacity, who, when he 
 spoke in debate, spoke well and very much to the point, 
 and he was highly esteemed by all parties in the 
 House." 
 
 ^7 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 He was educated at Stonyhurst College, also at Bonn, 
 and took his degree at Trinity, Dublin. He was an 
 ardent " Home Ruler," and attended the famous Home 
 Rule Conference of 1873, at which he proposed many 
 of the important resolutions. He was also a temperance 
 reformer. He seconded the resolution in favour of the 
 re-enactment and extension of the Sunday Closing Act 
 in Ireland, and was a constant attendant at the meetings 
 in London of the " League of the Cross," a total abstin- 
 ence organization founded by Cardinal Manning. He 
 was a continuous and valuable contributor to the Tablet, 
 which review, when he died in November, 1880, wrote 
 of him : — 
 
 " He was a man of large and cultivated intellect, 
 refined and sensitive nature, and his fearless assertion of 
 principle was ever combined with a heart ever sensible 
 of warm and generous emotions." 
 
 " In reference to the question of legislative indepen- 
 dence," he wrote in his election address in 1872, "which 
 now occupies the attention of the country under the 
 name of Home Rule, I will at once declare my con- 
 viction that Ireland possesses the indefeasible right to 
 be governed by an Irish Parliament. That right has 
 never been forfeited or surrendered, and I hold that 
 the restoration of Home Rule is absolutely essential to 
 the good government of the country, to the development 
 
 of its resources, to the removal of the wasting curse of 
 
 8 
 
FAMILY— BIRTH— EDUCATION 
 
 absenteeism and to the final establishment in peace 
 and liberty of the Irish race upon Irish soil, I am 
 convinced that ample means exist to achieve this 
 result within the limits of the Constitution, and with- 
 out infringing upon our loyalty to the throne, I differ 
 entirely from those who would say that union amongst 
 Irishmen is impossible, and that they do not possess 
 sufficient public virtue to enable them to manage 
 their own affairs." 
 
 Such, then, is the history of the family from which 
 John Edward Redmond sprang. The eldest son of W, 
 A. Redmond, the member for Wexford, who had 
 married a daughter of General Hoey, he was born in 
 1857, and spent most of his early years at Ballytrent 
 House, an old family mansion on the coast of Wex- 
 ford, overlooking the sea and facing Tuscar Light- 
 house. They were a family of four, comprising two 
 daughters, one of whom became a nun of the Order 
 of Marie Reparatrice at Harley House, while the 
 other married an English Australian of New South 
 Wales, Mr. Louis George Howard (the present writer's 
 father), and two sons — John, the eldest, and another, 
 William Hoey Kearney Redmond, who at first served 
 in the Army, and later became the member for East 
 Clare. 
 
 From boyhood to manhood, therefore, John Redmond 
 lived in Wexford, and the history of his own family, as 
 
 9 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 well as the history of the county, furnish the best 
 explanation of his mental attitude towards England 
 and all things English. 
 
 He feels precisely as a member of an English county 
 family feels, a personal pride in his country. Each of 
 the great political movements has a special personal 
 meaning to him. The attitude he takes, therefore, is 
 greatly, as I have said, representative : that is, it is the 
 attitude of those who starved for a principle and suffered 
 for a principle. If he is looked upon as a revolutionist, 
 even as a bigot, the cause is not to be sought in the 
 individual but lies at the root of the System that 
 has caused that revolution and that bigotry. And if 
 this principle were only borne in mind and the 
 Irish grievances were examined instead of being 
 denounced, it would be found that nearly every 
 Nationalist sentiment is at the bottom but the state- 
 ment of an economic truth. 
 
 " For myself," he says (speaking of the influence of 
 
 history upon his character), " the rising of Wexford 
 
 County in '98 is one which from my very earliest youth 
 
 has exercised a powerful fascination upon my mind. 
 
 This is but natural. I had been reared and nurtured in 
 
 the midst of the hills and valleys that witnessed the 
 
 struggles of '98 ; I had been taught to regard every 
 
 scene as a monument of the heroism of our forefathers, 
 
 and to remember that well nigh every sod beneath my 
 
 10 
 
FAMILY— BIRTH— EDUCATION 
 
 feet marked a hero's sepulchre. My boyish ears had 
 Hstened to the tales of '98 from the lips of old men 
 who had themselves witnessed the struggles, and I 
 scarcely know a family who cannot tell of a father or 
 grandfather or some near relative who died fighting at 
 Wexford, at Oulart, or Ross. Every scene most familiar 
 to my early youth was associated with some tale of 
 heroism or suffering, and one of my proudest recollec- 
 tions has ever been, as it is to-day, that in that dark 
 hour of trial, there were not wanting men of my race 
 and name who attested by their lives to their devotion 
 to Ireland!" 
 
 From the very first John Redmond showed signs of 
 exceptional ability. He was very fond of literature, as 
 well as sports and hunting, and became the object of his 
 father's special care and attention, who, as soon as he 
 was suf^ciently prepared, sent him to the Irish Jesuit 
 College of Clongowes, in Kildare. " All I am I owe to 
 the Jesuit fathers," Redmond once declared at a public 
 banquet at the Hotel Cecil. 
 
 At Clongowes he is well remembered by his old mas- 
 ters even to this day. The recollections of one of them 
 I am now allowed to include. His debates used to 
 empty the billiard-rooms then as they often now do the 
 smoking-rooms of the House of Commons ! 
 
 " All through his time in Clongowes," writes the 
 
 aforesaid mentor, " there was no more prominent boy. 
 
 II 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 At the very beginning the high compliment was paid 
 him of getting through two classes in one year. Even 
 then he gave promise of excellence in speaking and 
 writing English. Even in his elocution (and he was the 
 best of all Professor Bell's pupils) his action was well 
 nigh perfect. He impressed one with what he was say- 
 ing — he caught one. And on the stage these peculiar 
 gifts were seen to far greater advantage. In Charles 
 XII., for instance, in The Iron Chest, Macbeth, and 
 Hamlet he always took the leading parts and played 
 and looked these parts to the life. The present Judge 
 Barry was a contemporary of his and made an excellent 
 and effective Macduff to Redmond's Macbeth ! " 
 
 " He had a very kind and easy way about him," 
 writes a schoolfellow. " I never knew of anyone to dis- 
 like him, and as his old school is proud of him, so he 
 has ever been loyal to his Alma Mater. Also, I may 
 add, he had the reputation of being one of the most 
 religious boys in the school ! " 
 
 An interview which I had with his old master, 
 however, will, perhaps, give more insight into his char- 
 acter than any mere abstract analysis. 
 
 "When I went to Clongowes myself as a master," 
 
 said Father Kane — the old mentor in question — " in 
 
 the autumn of 1870, John Redmond was in the fourth 
 
 Form. He had been at Clongowes for some years before I 
 
 had charge of his class. It was a large class and, I 
 
 12 
 
FAMILY— BIRTH— EDUCATION 
 
 may say, a rowdy class. And when I say ' rowdy,' I 
 mean rowdy even for an Irish class. In fact, they had 
 already had twelve respective masters, and so I had to 
 be severe. Indeed, there was continual disorder, and 
 they were somewhat out of hand. But not so John 
 Redmond. He was always a gentleman, and he was 
 extremely courteous to me. 
 
 " For instance, I remember once we had trouble in the 
 class. I forget exactly what the occasion was. Perhaps, 
 no practical grievance, but merely the old spirit. And, 
 after all, boys love a ' lark.' This time, however, it had 
 gone beyond a lark, the boy having openly revolted and 
 been downright insolent. The class looked on to see 
 what would happen, evidently expecting a crisis. There 
 was none, since I reduced the culprit to tears by my 
 subsequent lecture. 
 
 " But my self-restraint had evidently impressed them, 
 and that the young fellow's impudence had evidently 
 lost him the sympathy of his class-mates was evident 
 from the fact that John Redmond came up to me after- 
 wards and said almost reproachfully — ' Why didn't you 
 knock him down, sir ? ' " 
 
 " What sort of a student was he ? " I asked. 
 
 " Well, it is rather hard to say. He had many in- 
 terests. He loved literature, he could recite poems and 
 quote passages of Byron and Shelley, and especially 
 Shakespeare, by heart, but John Gannon, who came to 
 
 13 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Clongowes about this time, was more of a plodder, and 
 eventually 'took him down.' In fact, comparing them, 
 one might describe Jack as being * almost lazy ' — not 
 idle but dreamy, 'literary' and dilettante. Towards the 
 * exams,' however, he would make up for lost time, and 
 by sheer ability account for his apparent lack of indus- 
 try during previous terms. 
 
 " In English he was by far at his best, and his essays 
 were always well ahead of those of the other scholars. 
 It was not mere superficial knowledge (for he always 
 had an extraordinary memory), so much as the elevated 
 and dignified way he had of looking at any given 
 subject which struck me. And when there was a *Con- 
 sultatio,' or public display, I often made him read out 
 his own essays publicly, some of which I still have 
 among my papers." 
 
 " What would you say was the chief point in his 
 character ? " I inquired. 
 
 " I should say his ' maturity.' He had been matured 
 by his home life and his devotion to both his parents 
 and sisters. His father, William Archer Redmond, who 
 was the member for Wexford, used often to come to 
 see his son, and was always full of interest in his 
 doings. And ' Jack ' always seemed to have a 
 grand, old-fashioned respect for his father, and thus 
 he acquired part of his father's refinement and polish, 
 and the close intimacy between them gave him a 
 
 14 
 
FAMILY— BIRTH— EDUCATION 
 
 maturity of mind which at oncej placed him in a 
 different category to that of his companions. 
 
 " About the same time he began to make his mark on 
 the stage and in the debate. As to the stage, he was 
 the greatest actor that was ever seen at Clongowes. It 
 was in the year 1871 that he first played Macbeth. 
 The next year he played Hamlet, which was even a 
 more marked success than his Macbeth of the year 
 before. 
 
 " His other forte — though he was an all-round-man — was 
 essentially the debate. He was awarded the Clongowes 
 debate medal — which, as you know, is given every year 
 to the best speaker — and if ever anyone deserved it and 
 had proved himself worthy of it, it was John Redmond. 
 The Debating Society was much what it is everywhere 
 in colleges all the world over — semi-parliamentary, semi- 
 academic. Daniel O'Connell had been a great admirer 
 of the Clongowes Debating Society, and no doubt the 
 memory of his stirring words had encouraged many 
 young aspirants like Jack. He was wont to come down 
 from Dublin to listen and to take the chair. He would 
 sometimes speak, too, and the records of his words must 
 have been still in existence in the days of Redmond. 
 They all perished, however, in the great fire when 
 the study hall was burnt down and the Minutes Book 
 was destroyed. Father Fegan, who was later higher- 
 line Prefect, was Redmond's chief rival, and both these 
 
 15 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 fiery leaders would wax eloquent anent the respective 
 merits of Cicero or Demosthenes, and rouse their 
 followers to equal pitches of enthusiasm. Later, how- 
 ever, under the guidance of John Redmond, the debates 
 ceased to have that mere academic value, and their 
 energies were turned into more useful directions, and 
 questions of Irish history, as well as topics of current 
 politics, were introduced ; and not a little of Redmond's 
 experience and skill is due to the training which he 
 received in the Clongowes Debating Society, before he 
 sailed forth to measure swords with the mighty orators 
 of the British House of Commons. 
 
 " Besides the ordinary debates there were also the 
 public debates. For example, on Academy Day, when 
 all the guests and parents would come down to Clon- 
 gowes, then John Redmond really shone. In addition 
 to the public debate I would induce him to recite a 
 Latin ode or declaim one of Cicero's speeches. 
 
 " Redmond was also exceedingly good at games, and 
 was greatly loved and respected by his companions, as, 
 indeed, he was by his superiors. A first-rate bowler and 
 a smart batsman, he was, in his last year, elected Vice- 
 Captain of the school. His father, whom I knew very 
 well, used often to come down. Once I met the twain 
 and found Jack sporting some magnificent cigars, a 
 present from his father. Being then in my private and 
 
 not my official capacity, I ventured to suggest that if 
 
 i6 
 
FAMILY— BIRTH— EDUCATION 
 
 he wished to enjoy them to the full he had better 
 smoke them then and there, despite the immediate 
 proximity of the school. He took my advice ; though I 
 firmly believe it was the only advice of mine he ever 
 repented of taking. 
 
 " Another point strikes me, now that I am talking of 
 advice. He was the favourite and pet pupil of Bell, the 
 great elocutionist. Bell was a big, pompous man who 
 wore his hair down on his shoulders, and walked with 
 a martial strut. He was the regular type of the old- 
 fashioned school of a century ago, the rediictio ad 
 absurduvi of Burke, a regular pompous orator, who 
 would no doubt have gone down very well with our 
 grandfathers, but who to-day would be looked upon as 
 a mere bombastic nonentity. Bell was always fond of 
 getting John Redmond under his direction, and probably 
 much of the former's elocution had been rehearsed be- 
 tween them. 
 
 '"Listen to all he's got to say, John,' I often told him, 
 ' and don't do anything he says. You do it better 
 yourself.' And I believe he did. 
 
 " It is hard to say whether any of us ever dreamed 
 that he might acquire the position he now occupies. It 
 was only the other day I read in one of the leading 
 political papers that were he to throw in his lot with 
 Liberal or Conservative, he would most certainly become 
 Prime Minister of England ! But, of course, all that is 
 
 17 a 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 mere speculation, and to me is only significant as a 
 tribute to the character and the abilities of the dearest 
 of my old pupils. 
 
 " I can only say this — that while they are in the hands 
 of John Redmond, the destinies of Ireland are safe, as 
 far as ability of mind and nobility of character are 
 concerned. I have known him from a boy, and I say 
 again, as long as the destinies of Ireland are in his 
 hands they are in the keeping of an honest man." 
 
 It is a pleasant remembrance, and when upon St. 
 Patrick's Day, 1908, Father Kane stood up in the 
 banqueting hall of the Hotel Cecil and gave a few of 
 his recollections, the audience were moved to see the 
 evident pride of the old master, then almost completely 
 blind, when he spoke of his favourite pupil. 
 
 Upon leaving Clongowes John Redmond spent some 
 
 time as a " philosopher," as those students who had 
 
 passed through the curriculum and returned were called. 
 
 These privileged ones had their private rooms and were 
 
 allowed to keep their dogs, and occasionally were 
 
 permitted to shoot. But this did not last long, and he 
 
 went up to Dublin, and, entering Trinity College, took 
 
 rooms in Botany Bay. He did not stay to get his 
 
 degree. Most of his energies seem to have been devoted 
 
 to getting through his *' Bar " exams, and following 
 
 the lectures at the King's Inns, at Dublin. 
 
 The following recollection is from one of his fellow 
 
 18 
 
FAMILY— BIRTH— EDUCATION 
 
 students, and is given in W. T. Stead's character sketch 
 of him : 
 
 " I first made John Redmond's acquaintance," wrote 
 Mr. VV. M. Cook in 1901, "some sixteen or eighteen 
 years ago, when we were law students together at the 
 King's Inns, in Dublin. It will surprise most people, I 
 am sure, to learn that my earliest impressions of him 
 were as a temperance reformer. The Irish National 
 movement has always been closely associated with the 
 drink traffic, and in the atmosphere of an Irish Protes- 
 tant home the two are closely connected in thought. It 
 is impossible to convey to anyone not brought up in 
 that atmosphere how strict is the caste system that 
 prevails in Ireland. There is nothing like it in England ; 
 nothing like it anywhere in the Empire except India. 
 It was the fact that Mr. Redmond was almost a total 
 abstainer that first brought us together. The meeting 
 was in this wise : 
 
 •' It was the custom for the students of King's Inns 
 
 to dine in messes of six. A fixed quantity of wine 
 
 per head was allowed to each table, and thereby 
 
 students, of whom there were a few, always sought 
 
 diligently for totally abstaining acquaintances to join 
 
 their mess. As I did not drink wine, I found myself 
 
 in great demand, and on one occasion the same mess 
 
 captured John Redmond also. As he never took more 
 
 than half a glass of wine at dinner this table regarded 
 
 19 2* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 itself lucky as having six bottles of wine for four 
 persons, and I had the privilege of being introduced 
 to Mr. Redmond." 
 
 The story, though trivial, is characteristic. It shows 
 in part the influence of the father, and it shows also 
 the chief note in Mr. Redmond's character — i.e., an 
 avoidance of extreme measures, of faddists and idealists, 
 and a power of self-control that can say — " thus far 
 and no farther." 
 
 It was some years before he was called to the Bar, nor 
 did he at once take his degree. He proceeded to 
 London, partly to help his father, who suffered 
 from heart disease, and partly to prepare himself for 
 a political career, and for a time he occupied the 
 position of a clerk in the Vote Office in the House 
 of Commons. Later he became a contributor to the 
 Weekly Register, for which he used to write the 
 Parliamentary letter. A story told by Wilfred Meynell 
 (then editor) of Lord Russell of Killowen is amusing. 
 There was not a little of the Tory spirit in some 
 quarters of the Redmond family, and the late Lord 
 Russell knew this. And when, as Attorney-General, he 
 learned of the humble weekly sovereign that used to be 
 John Redmond's modest reward, he exclaimed : " My 
 God ! You don't mean to say the fellow took it ? " 
 " Better men have taken less," was the reply of the 
 veteran journalist ! " and worse have taken more." 
 
 20 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 1880— 1890 
 
 FUBLIC LIFE — ELECTION — COLONIAL TOURS 
 
 TT was probably as a clerk in the Vote Office of the 
 House of Commons that John Redmond obtained 
 his first lessons in parliamentary procedure. It was a 
 position worth about ^300 a year and was chiefly con- 
 cerned with the preparation of documents and the 
 distribution of the agenda papers. It was in the gift of 
 the Speaker, and usually led to the highest positions in 
 the official staff of the House. Here, as son of the 
 member for Wexford as well as in his official capacity, 
 he was brought into close touch with the Irish Party, 
 though not perhaps with Parnell, its leader. 
 
 For when his father died, according to Mr. T. M. 
 Healy, and he was requested by his constituents, with 
 whom he was familiar from boyhood, to stand for the 
 seat, Parnell, to whom he had written to announce his 
 intention of putting up for that constituency, did not for 
 
 the moment appear to remember him. Parnell showed 
 
 21 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 the letter to Mr. Healy, saying, " Who is this chap ? " 
 " Don't you remember young Redmond that hands us out 
 the programmes ! " returned Mr. Healy, " What ! that 
 damned fellow," was the leader's remark on the young 
 man who was later to be his champion. Whatever the 
 rest of the conversation was Mr. Healy does not say ; but 
 as a result Parnell asked the aspiring member to stand 
 aside in favour of his own friend, Mr. Healy, who was 
 then being prosecuted for a speech in his native town 
 supporting some evicted tenants, and his return, it was 
 thought, would be a blow to the Government. 
 
 Mr. Redmond retired, and though had there been 
 a contest he would probably have been returned, he 
 made one of his first speeches shortly after his father's 
 funeral in favour of Mr. Healy. But it must be 
 admitted that his rival returned the compliment when 
 the next vacancy occurred some months later, by suggest- 
 ing to the Irish leader, " Why not return Redmond ? " 
 
 Accordingly — early in 1881 — Mr. John Redmond, law 
 
 student, became candidate for New Ross. Captain 
 
 William Redmond, his brother, then in the Militia, 
 
 according to another unkind story told by Mr. T. M. 
 
 Healy, sent a telegram from the barracks in Wexford to 
 
 the effect, " For God's sake don't disgrace the family 
 
 by joining the Land League and Parnell." But the 
 
 Land League he did join and Parnell too, for whom 
 
 he had already, it appears, shed his blood. 
 
 22 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 The occasion was at Enniscorthy shortly after Parnell 
 had returned from America in 1880. A noisy crowd 
 of some five thousand, led by priests, were against 
 Parnell. They would not allow him to speak ; he was 
 struck on the face with a rotten egg ; one leg of his 
 trousers was rent from top to bottom. Redmond was 
 subsequently walking with Parnell when he was knocked 
 down by the mob and his face cut. " What's the 
 matter ? " said the leader when they rejoined each other 
 at the railway station. John Redmond told him what 
 had happened, " Well, you have shed your blood for 
 me, at all events," was the reply. Probably this was 
 one of the first links that bound the two, for Mr. 
 Redmond's father had been more of a disciple of Butt, 
 the predecessor of Parnell in the leadership of the 
 Irish Party, Parnell being only a rising man when the 
 elder Redmond died. 
 
 "When I entered Parliament," said Mr. Redmond in 
 New York, reviewing the situation some years later, 
 " the British public was in the very midst of one of 
 the most desperate of the Irish crises. An Irish leader 
 had arisen who had taken a new way of obtaining 
 redress for Ireland. Mr. Parnell found that the British 
 Parliament insisted upon turning a deaf ear to Ireland's 
 claim for justice. He resolved to adopt the simple 
 yet masterly device of preventing Parliament doing 
 any work until it consented to listen. In this policy 
 
 23 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 he was successful. He was the first man who, as 
 Wendell Phillips afterwards said of him in Boston, made 
 John Bull listen to the voice of Ireland. 
 
 " The task he had undertaken was a desperate one, 
 and at first all the odds were against him. He was 
 in a small minority in his own party. Isaac Butt, the 
 leader of the Irish Party, a great orator and consti- 
 tutional lawyer, commanded the allegiance of four-fifths 
 of the Home Rule members and had denounced the 
 new policy as * mischievous and insane.' Parnell him- 
 self was young, inexperienced, not gifted with an Irish 
 fluency of speech, but on the contrary weighted with 
 a halting delivery almost painful to listen to. All the 
 men of brilliant Parliamentary talent amongst the Irish 
 members were against him. On his side were only a 
 handful of young, untried and inexperienced members. 
 More than all, perhaps, he had the unwritten laws and 
 traditions of the House of Commons to combat. On 
 the other hand, however, he had to sustain him, the 
 sympathy of the masses of the Irish people, and he 
 speedily found within the four corners of the rules 
 and orders of the House, ample room to obstruct 
 public business and to paralyse the legislative machine. 
 . . . .Nothing was too great or too small a question 
 for discussion. ..." 
 
 All this was witnessed with beating heart by the 
 
 people of Ireland. Hope in Parliamentary action 
 
 24 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 revived, and day by day Mr. Parnell's power grew. 
 Mr. Butt had died, his successor, Mr, Shaw, was 
 poh'tically a cipher, and the General Election of 1880 
 saw Parnell safely installed as the leader of the Irish 
 Nationalist Party, and his policy enthusiastically adopted 
 by the people. 
 
 It was with this new party of new men that John 
 Redmond threw in his lot when he put up for the 
 borough of New Ross. The election was quiet and un- 
 contested ; and Mr. Redmond's speech short and to the 
 point. 
 
 There was a crisis in Irish history, he told his 
 constituents. There was no such thing as constitu- 
 tional government in Ireland, though England posed 
 as the champion of liberty. The Coercion Bill was 
 an open declaration of war upon every man in Ireland. 
 The duty of a nation menaced with such a measure 
 was plain — resistance by every means in their power. 
 To meet this, force was impossible. He, therefore, 
 advised passive, but stern, unflinching moral resistance, 
 and such a work was in his eyes righteous and holy, 
 and he said that, as far as he was concerned, he 
 would, if elected, go to Parliament filled with the 
 desire to give expression to their eternal hatred of 
 foreign rule, and their determination to stand by the 
 present agitation until the land of Ireland was free, and 
 if necessary to suffer as their fathers had suffered before 
 
 25 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 them rather than desist from the holy enterprise in 
 which the manhood of Ireland was engaged. 
 
 As there was no contest, there was little demon- 
 stration, save in the evening, when the local brass 
 bands and fife-and-drum bands paraded the streets. 
 And after Mr. Redmond had addressed his constituents 
 again from the window of Father Furlong's house, the 
 crowd dispersed quietly, and went off to their homes, 
 having given a few cheers, though they had to be 
 reminded to do so. " But," added the local journal, as if 
 to censure the apathy of the inhabitants of New Ross, 
 "a magnificent display of the phenomenon known as 
 the Aurora Borealis was visible that night in the town ! " 
 
 In Wexford, however, the native town of the family, 
 the news of the election of John Edward Redmond, 
 law student, of 40, Charlwood Street, Belgrave Road, 
 London, was received with the wildest exultation. Tar 
 barrels blazed in every direction, and crowds assembled 
 round the monument erected to the new member's 
 father, and sang the " Boys of Wexford " ; while the 
 inevitable brass, fife and temperance bands paraded the 
 streets till the early hours of the morning. 
 
 "I have no hesitation," said the Rev. P. M. Fur- 
 long, C.C., introducing the young Trinity undergraduate, 
 " in saying that in Mr. Redmond we shall have a re- 
 presentative still more in sympathy, if possible, with the 
 
 feelings of his constituents, and the Irish people, than 
 
 26 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 our late representative, and I am sure we will find in 
 him a standard-bearer fully qualified to bear with 
 honour to us and credit to himself the banner of our 
 ancient borough. Though young in political life," he 
 continued, " Mr. Redmond is not inexperienced in 
 political life. He is active, and is gifted with much 
 intellectual power, and a high degree of eloquence. He 
 comes from an ancient Wexford stock whom even the 
 breath of calumny has never ventured to stain, and, 
 above all, he is filled with a generous devotion to the 
 cause of Ireland and to our illustrious leader, Charles 
 Stewart Parnell." 
 
 The estimate of character has proved accurate, for if 
 there is anything which could be said to be synonymous 
 with " Redmondism " it is the whole-hearted patriotism 
 and an almost fierce attachment to the leader which 
 distinguished Mr. Redmond in after years. 
 
 The account of his first experience in the House was 
 rather dramatic and is best told in Mr. Redmond's own 
 words to an American audience. 
 
 " At the moment when the sheriff declared me duly 
 elected, the House of Commons had already been 
 sitting continuously for some twenty-four hours. The 
 brunt of the fight against the Coercion Bill was being 
 borne by some dozen of Mr. Parnell's most active 
 supporters ; and they were looking anxiously for my 
 
 election to send them a recruit. I received a wiit 
 
 27 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 urging me not to lose an hour in crossing to West- 
 minster. I started at once, and travelled all night to 
 London. On my way I received another wire saying the 
 House was still sitting. I reached London about seven 
 o'clock on a dark and cold winter's morning and drove 
 straight from the station to the House of Commons. 
 
 " And it was thus, travel-stained and weary, that 
 I first presented myself as a member of the British 
 Parliament. The House was still sitting, it had been 
 sitting without a break for over forty hours, and 
 I shall never forget the appearance the chamber 
 presented. The floor was littered with paper. A few 
 dishevelled and weary Irishmen were on one side of 
 the House, about a hundred infuriated Englishmen 
 upon the other ; some of them still in evening dress, 
 and wearing what once were white shirts of the night 
 before last. Mr, Parnell was upon his legs, with pale 
 cheeks and drawn face, his hands clenched behind his 
 back, facing without flinching a continuous roar of inter- 
 ruption. It was now about eight o'clock. Half of Mr. 
 Parnell's followers were out of the chamber snatching a 
 few moments' sleep in chairs in the library or smoke- 
 room. Those who remained had each a specified period 
 of time allotted to him to speak, and they were wearily 
 waiting their turn. As they caught sight of me standing 
 at the bar of the House of Commons there was a cheer 
 
 of welcome. I was unable to come to their aid, how- 
 
 28 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 ever, as under the rules of the House I could not take 
 my seat until the commencement of a new sitting. My 
 very presence, however, brought, I think, a sense of 
 encouragement and approaching relief to them, and I 
 stood there at the bar with my travelling coat still 
 upon me, gazing alternately with indignation and ad- 
 miration at the amazing scene presented to my gaze. 
 
 " This, then, was the great Parliament of England ! Of 
 intelligent debate there was none. It was one unbroken 
 scene of turbulence and disorder. The few Irishmen 
 remained quiet, too much amused, perhaps, or too much 
 exhausted to retaliate. It was the English — the members 
 of the first assembly of gentlemen in Europe, as they 
 love to style it — who howled and roared, and almost 
 foamed at the mouth with rage at the calm and pale- 
 featured young man who stood patiently facing them, 
 and endeavouring from time to time to make himself 
 heard. 
 
 " The galleries were filled with strangers every whit 
 
 as excited as the members, and even the Ladies' Gallery 
 
 contained its dozen or so of eager spectators. No one 
 
 knew what was going to happen. There was no power 
 
 under the rules of the House to stop the debate, 
 
 consequently it had resolved itself into a question of 
 
 physical endurance, and it seemed as if the Irishmen 
 
 battling for the liberties of their country were capable 
 
 of resisting until the impotence of the House of 
 
 29 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Commons had covered it with the contempt and ridicule 
 of Europe. 
 
 " At last the end came suddenly and unexpectedly. 
 At eight o'clock Mr. Speaker Brand, from a sense of 
 duty, as he said, and acting on his own responsibility, 
 and in d'lifiance of the rules of the House, ordered the 
 debate to cease. 
 
 " The Irish members endeavoured to protest by speech 
 against this proceeding, and failing in the attempt, they 
 rose in their seats, and left the chamber in a body 
 shouting ' Privilege,' a cry not heard in that place 
 since Charles I. attempted to inv^ade the liberty of 
 Parliament. So ended the first battle over this Coercion 
 Bill, the net result being that England found, in order 
 to suspend the constitution in Ireland, she was obliged 
 to destroy the most cherished tradition and most 
 precious possession of her Parliament : the freedom of 
 speech of its members ! 
 
 " The following day my membership of the House of 
 Commons actually commenced, and I had an experience, 
 I believe, absolutely unique in Parliamentary history. I 
 took my oath and my seat, made my maiden speech, 
 and was suspended and expelled from the House for the 
 rest of the sitting — all in the same evening ! It was not 
 of my choosing ; I had the distinction thrust upon me. 
 It occurred in this way : 
 
 " The excitement of the previous day had been 
 
 30 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 intensified by the news of the arrest of Mr. Davitt in 
 Ireland. Mr. Dillon had endeavoured to extract some 
 explanation from the Government and had been named 
 and suspended, and then Mr. Parnell, on the Prime 
 Minister rising to speak, moved : ' That Mr. Gladstone 
 be not heard.' " 
 
 What occurred afterwards was thus described by an 
 English writer of the time. The Speaker ruled 
 that Mr. Gladstone was' in possession of the House, 
 whereupon Mr. Parnell, rising amidst cheers from the 
 Irish members, moved that Mr. Gladstone " be not 
 heard." The Speaker again calling upon Mr. Gladstone, 
 Mr. Parnell shouted out, " I insist upon my motion 
 being put." The Speaker, having warned Mr. Parnell 
 that his conduct was wilfully obstructive, again called on 
 Mr. Gladstone, who had not proceeded beyond his first 
 sentence when Mr. Parnell, rising excitedly, insisted 
 upon his right to be heard. " I name Mr. Parnell as 
 disregarding the authority of the Chair," said the 
 Speaker. Mr, Gladstone moved his suspension. The 
 House was cleared for a division in the usual manner, 
 but the Irish members remained seated, Mr. R. Power, 
 the Whip, walking round and round as a shepherd's 
 dog guards a flock of sheep. Mr. A. M. Sullivan 
 shouted out : " We contest the legality of the proceed- 
 ing," and the Speaker, after the division, reported the 
 matter to the House. 
 
 31 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 " For this refusal to vote," continues Mr. Redmond, " the 
 Irish members were suspended, myself among the num- 
 ber. Having been suspended, we each in turn refused 
 to leave the chamber, and, addressing the Speaker, pro- 
 tested against the entire proceeding, and intimated that 
 unless superior force was employed, we should resist. 
 That was my maiden speech ! Superior force, in the 
 shape of the Sergeant-at-Arms and his merry men, was 
 then applied, and eventually each one of us was escorted 
 under arrest from our seats, and thus, as I have said, 
 my Parliamentary career opened with the unique experi- 
 ence of taking my seat, making my maiden speech, and 
 being expelled by force from the chamber on the same 
 evening." 
 
 After the excitement of this first experience had died 
 down John Redmond set himself to study his new 
 duties at once, and with just the same ardour and sue 
 cess as he had displayed in his school days and at 
 Trinity. 
 
 He did not at once come forward as a speaker, how- 
 ever, for his first duties were those of Whip. " J. 
 Redmond," writes Mr. Justin McCarthy, "was a man 
 admirably suited for such work. He had an excellent 
 education. He had the polished manners of good society. 
 He belonged to what I may call the 'country gentle- 
 man ' order and could ride to hounds with a horseman- 
 ship which must have won the hearts of the Tory squires 
 
 32 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 from the hunting counties, and above all, he had an ex- 
 cellent capacity and memory for all matters of arrange- 
 ment and detail." And again, " It was a great part of 
 Parnell's policy that there should be a powerful Home 
 Rule organization extending over all parts of Great 
 Britain, founding institutions in all the principal cities 
 and towns and addressing audiences indoor and out on 
 the subject of Ireland's demand for domestic self-govern- 
 ment. John Redmond soon became one of the most 
 effective organizers of the new movement, and one of 
 the most powerful pleaders of the Cause on the public 
 platform." 
 
 His own enthusiasm he communicated to the young 
 men of the English and Scotch cities, and even to his 
 colleagues. In these earlier days the Parnellite party 
 did not number more than a dozen or so of members, 
 and as it was not uncommon for some of them to 
 deliver ten speeches of an evening, the young member 
 was kept pretty busy, the duty of selecting and putting 
 up the men devolving, of course, upon the Whip. 
 But though an arduous post, it gave him a very 
 thorough knowledge not only of the rules of the House, 
 in which he was already well versed, but also of the 
 moods of the House, which it usually takes a man years 
 to discover. And gradually, as the success of the out- 
 side organization began to bear fruit and the disciplined 
 forces of the Irish members inside began to have 
 
 33 3 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 some effect, the young Whip found he had to shep- 
 herd a party of some ninety odd members. But at first 
 he was looked upon rather as a platform than as a 
 Parliamentary orator ; and it was probably for this 
 reason that Parnell singled him out later for the Aus- 
 tralian and American tours. 
 
 Nevertheless he was entrusted with very respon- 
 sible work, especially when Parnell was in prison 
 together with many of the other Irish members, including 
 Mr. William Redmond, who by this time had joined 
 the Nationalist forces. The Kilmainham treaty, by 
 which Mr. Parnell was released, signified, as all admit, 
 a moral victory for the Parnellites. It admitted the 
 failure of Coercion, and Forster, its chief advocate, was 
 dropped out of the Ministry. "The first indication of 
 the coming resolves of the Government," writes T. P. 
 O'Connor, in " The Parnell Movement," " was the reception 
 given by Mr. Gladstone to the new Land Bill brought 
 in by Mr. Redmond on behalf of the Irish party. " 
 He had had every assistance from his chief, for the 
 Bill was drafted inside the very walls of the prison. 
 
 It proposed the remission of the arrears which blocked 
 the way to the benefits conferred by the Land Act, 
 but in such a just, moderate way that Gladstone 
 practically promised to deal with the subject almost 
 immediately. Then on May 6th, 1882, came the 
 Phoenix Park murders — one of those great catastrophes 
 
 34 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 which seem by some irony of fate to come just when 
 a spirit of conciliation among Englishmen has given 
 birth to a new era of hope in Ireland. There was a cry for 
 Coercion, and Ministers felt that unless Coercion was 
 dealt out with a liberal hand they could not hold office 
 for twenty-four hours. 
 
 To John Redmond it was no doubt a great blow, 
 expectant as he must have been of the possibilities 
 for good contained in his Bill ; but still greater must 
 have been the shock when he heard himself being 
 described as approving of the murders. 
 
 " I was at Manchester " (to quote his own account) 
 "on the night of the Phoenix Park murders, and 
 about to address a meeting at the time, when an 
 incomplete account of the affair was thrust into my 
 hand as I was on my way to the building. I learned 
 that Cavendish and Spencer had been killed. I went 
 to the police station to make inquiries, but they 
 would not tell me anything. I made a speech con- 
 demning the murder of Cavendish, and saying that 
 the Government were the real cause of the crime. 
 The Times reported my speech with the comment that 
 I said nothing about Burke. Parnell spoke to me on 
 the subject. I told him I did not know that Burke 
 had been killed when I made the speech. ' Then 
 write to llie Times and say so,' he replied. I wrote 
 to The Times, but they did not publish the letter." 
 
 35 3* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 It appears, from further correspondence that ensued 
 that The Times had not received it. At all events, 
 that was the answer given. 
 
 The next few years were, therefore, times of trial 
 and suffering for Nationalists, not only in England and 
 Ireland, but all over the world, and it became necessary 
 to organize meetings everywhere to defend the party 
 against the charge that they were morally responsible 
 for the murders. From every platform they had been 
 denounced. The Times had published a series of 
 articles on Parnellism and Crime ; and nothing but 
 a vigorous campaign could undo the havoc wrought 
 by the Press in bringing the Nationalist cause into 
 disrepute. It therefore became a question of choice 
 of the speakers most suitable for the work, and chief 
 among these was the young member for New Ross, 
 who was singled out, not only for his already growing 
 reputation as a speaker, but for his singular " modera- 
 tion," to conduct a mission in Australia. Thomas 
 Brennan, one of the most violent leaders of the Land 
 League, and one who had denounced Parnell himself 
 as "past," was refused point blank when he asked 
 to be sent to Australia. The Australian mission is 
 thus described by Michael Davitt : 
 
 " In 1882 the organization had spread into most of 
 the Australian Colonies, and it became necessary to send 
 out some prominent leader whose representative posi- 
 
 36 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 tion would appeal with greater effect to supporters and 
 members of the Press. The late Rev. George W. Pepper, 
 of Ohio, U.S.A., was recommended to Parnell by Ameri- 
 can League leaders for the mission, but a better and a 
 happier choice than that of the Ohio Irish American 
 was made in the person of Mr. John E. Redmond. 
 The member for New Ross had already made his 
 mark in the House of Commons as an eloquent and 
 able debater, and he was in every sense qualified to 
 perform the work required. 
 
 " He was joined later by his brother, Mr. W. H. K. 
 Redmond. They were joined on their arrival by Mr. 
 J. W. Walshe, and forthwith undertook an organizing 
 tour which succeeded beyond anticipations. Mr. Red- 
 mond's arrival coincided cruelly with the examination 
 of the Invincibles who were implicated in the Phcenix 
 Park murders. The evidence of the informer, Carey, 
 hinting a complicity in these crimes of certain prominent 
 Land Leaguers, was cabled to the Australian Press and 
 created such anti- Irish feeling in the newspapers and 
 among the general public that no public halls except 
 those owned by Irish organizations could be obtained 
 for the meetings of the boycotted envoys. So rabid 
 did the feeling become under the daily incitations of 
 a bigoted press, that Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Parkes, 
 one of the most prominent New South Wales politi- 
 cians, actually proposed the expulsion of the Messrs. 
 
 37 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Redmond from the Colonies. Even hotels refused to 
 give them accommodation. 
 
 " Staunch men of his own race stood by Mr. Red- 
 mond in Sydney and in other cities, and his own cour- 
 age, tact, and admirable capacity enabled him to bear 
 down all opposition. His was one of the most difficult 
 of the many missions undertaken on behalf of the 
 movement led by Parnell, and no man ever acquitted 
 himself more creditably and more completely under the 
 fire of a relentless, hostile Press and in the face of a 
 violent public sentiment than the then comparatively 
 young Irishman did in his Australian tour." 
 
 This account coincides with Mr. Redmond's own, 
 given in Mr. Barry O'Brien's life of Parnell. 
 
 " When I arrived at Sydney the Phoenix Park murders 
 were the talk of the Colony," he wrote. " I received 
 a chilling reception. All the respectable people who 
 had promised support kept away. The priests would 
 not help me, except the Jesuits, who were friendly to 
 me as an old Clongowes boy. A leading citizen who 
 had promised to take the chair at my first meeting 
 would not come. Sir Henry Parkes, the Prime Minis- 
 ter, proposed that I should be expelled from the Colony, 
 but the motion was defeated. 
 
 " The Irish working men stood by me, and in fact 
 saved the situation. They kept me going until a tele- 
 gram arrived exculpating the Parliamentary party. 
 
 38 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 Then all the Irish gradually came around and ultimately- 
 flocked to my meetings. I collected ;^i 5,000, and 
 went to America. Fenians did everything for us there. 
 Without them we could have done nothing. I addressed 
 a great meeting at the Opera House, Chicago. Boyle 
 O'Reilly was in the chair. There were 10,000 people 
 present. It was a grand sight. It was grand to see the 
 Irish united as they were then. I was escorted to the 
 meeting by the Governor and the Mayor, and the 
 streets were lined with soldiers, who presented arms as 
 we passed." 
 
 His speeches on these tours, afterwards reprinted in 
 his " Historical and Political Addresses," are certainly 
 good examples of the defence of the Irish cause and very 
 clear expositions of the Irish demands. One particularly, 
 that delivered in Melbourne on the 13th June, 1883, as 
 to whether the Land League was really responsible for 
 crime, deserves notice ; and another at Adelaide on the 
 objects of the Irish National League. In these he 
 examined the charges one by one and refuted them, 
 quoting from Mr. Parnell's manifesto the following 
 words : — 
 
 " We earnestly hope that the attitude and action of 
 the Irish people will show to the world that an assassina- 
 tion such as has startled us almost to the abandonment 
 of hope of our country's future is deeply and religiously 
 abhorrent to their every feeling and instinct ; " and again 
 
 39 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Mr. Parnell's own words: "The knife that killed Lord 
 Frederick Cavendish came near killing with the same 
 blow the Land League. We were at that time in a 
 splendid position. We were in some sort arbitrators of 
 the situation when, four days after our liberation, Lord 
 Frederick Cavendish was assassinated. By that act 
 nearly all the ground we had gained was lost." 
 
 For nearly a year the two brothers stayed in Australia, 
 and it was while in Sydney that they both met their 
 future wives: Mr. John Redmond marrying, in 1883, 
 Johanna Dalton, the daughter of Mr. Michael Dalton, 
 and his brother marrying her cousin, the daughter of 
 Mr. James Dalton, a prominent Sydney man. 
 
 While they were in Australia the danger was to avoid 
 
 being too disloyal : in America the danger was to avoid 
 
 being too loyal ! But in spite of the garbled quotations 
 
 from his American speeches which can be seen scattered 
 
 through Mr. Chamberlain's denunciations of Home Rule, 
 
 and which even now form matter for building up of 
 
 such articles as " The two Mr. J. Redmonds," there is 
 
 a wonderful consistency between the two sets of speeches. 
 
 In both, while appealing to the loyalty of the Colonies 
 
 and the nationalism of the United States, he avoids 
 
 extremes and strikes the golden mean. He is neither 
 
 a Unionist nor a Fenian, but simply a Parnellite ; and 
 
 perhaps he never so clearly expressed that harmony 
 
 which exists between the Federal aim and the National 
 
 40 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 aspirations as he did in these American speeches. In 
 some passages he seemed to gather the whole of Irish 
 history and politics as it were into a nutshell. One in 
 particular is worth quoting at length. 
 
 "The principle embodied in the Irish movement of 
 to-day," he said, " is just the same principle which was 
 the soul of every Irish movement for the last seven 
 hundred years — the principle of rebellion against the rule 
 of strangers : the principle which Owen Roe O'Neill vindi- 
 cated at Benburb : which animated Tone and Fitzgerald, 
 and to which Emmet sacrificed a stainless life. Let no 
 man desecrate that principle by giving it the ignoble 
 name of hatred of England. Race hatred is at best an 
 unreasoning passion. I for one believe in the brother- 
 hood of nations, and bitter as the memory is of past 
 wrongs and present injustice inflicted upon our people 
 by our alien rulers, I assert the principle underlying 
 our movement is not the principle of revenge for the 
 past, but of justice for the future. When a question of 
 that principle arises there can be no such thing as 
 compromise. The Irish leader who would propose to 
 compromise the national claims of Ireland, who would 
 even incline for one second to accept as a settlement 
 of our demand any concession short of the unquestioned 
 recognition of that nationality which has come down to 
 us sanctified by the blood and tears of centuries, would 
 forfeit all claims upon your confidence or support. 
 
 41 
 
JOHN REDMOND ^ 
 
 Such a contingency can never arise ; for the man who 
 would be traitor enough to propose such a course 
 would find himself no longer a leader. No man can 
 barter away the honour of a nation. The one great 
 principle of any settlement of the Irish question must 
 be the recognition of the divine right of Irishmen, and 
 Irishmen alone, to rule Ireland. This is the principle 
 in support of which you are assembled to-day : this is 
 the principle which guides our movement in Ireland. 
 But consistently with that principle we believe it is 
 possible to bring about a settlement honourable to 
 England and Ireland alike, whereby the wrongs and 
 miseries of the past may be forgotten, whereby the 
 chapter of English wrongs and of Irish resistance may 
 be closed, and whereby a future of freedom and of 
 amity between the two nations may be inaugurated. 
 Such a settlement we believe was offered to us by 
 Mr. Gladstone." 
 
 He was not sparing, it is true, in his attacks upon 
 English rule, but neither did he allow himself to be 
 carried away by meaningless vituperation or too signifi- 
 cant vindictiveness. He stood where the Canadians stood 
 in 1839, for the two principles of religious liberty and 
 political independence. " If at the bidding of England 
 Ireland had abandoned her religion," he told his hearers, 
 " and consented to merge her nationality, she could have 
 
 been to-day the sleekest of slaves, fattened by the 
 
 42 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 bounty of our conquerors." The words were perhaps 
 bitter ; but were they too strong, I wonder, bearing in 
 mind the hundreds of thousands of martyrs to Irish 
 freedom, the ages of stupid persecutions, three wholesale 
 confiscations and centuries of penal legislation ? No 
 student of history or patriotism can say so seriously. 
 And no doubt some future historian, looking at the 
 utterances of the Irish leader, and calling to mind the 
 state of society to which they referred, will exclaim, 
 like Hastings recollecting the heaps of gold in the Indian 
 treasure houses, " I stand amazed at their moderation." 
 
 In fact, one is very struck that so young a politician 
 should have been so moderate in such a crisis ; but in 
 almost every exposition of the Home Rule demand 
 there is the same even-mindedness in pleading and 
 the same clearness of conception in defining it. One 
 speech in particular, delivered in Melbourne in July, 
 1883 (the Hon. Francis Longmore being in the chair), 
 is worthy of special mention. 
 
 " What do I mean by Home Rule ? " he said. " I 
 mean by Home Rule the restoration to Ireland of re- 
 presentative government, and I define representative 
 government to mean government in accordance with 
 the constitutionally expressed will of the majority of 
 the people, and carried out by a ministry constitu- 
 tionally responsible to those whom they govern. In 
 other words, I mean that the internal affairs of Ireland 
 
 43 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 shall be regulated by an Irish Parliament — that all 
 Imperial affairs and all that relates to the Colonies, 
 foreign states and common interests of the Empire shall 
 continue to be regulated by the Imperial Parliament as 
 at present constituted. The idea at the bottom of this 
 proposal is the desirability of finding some middle course 
 between separation on the one hand and over-central- 
 ization of government on the other. Those who propose 
 this scheme consider it is undesirable that two countries 
 so closely connected geographically and socially, and 
 having so many commercial and international ties, should 
 be wholly separated, or that any dismemberment of the 
 Empire which Ireland had her share in building up 
 should take place. But they are just as strongly of 
 opinion that it is equally undesirable that one country 
 should control the domestic affairs of another whose 
 wants and aspirations it confessedly does not under- 
 stand, whose various needs it admittedly has not time 
 to attend to, and whose national life such a system 
 of government tends to destroy." 
 
 Almost immediately after his return from his mission, 
 which had brought in some ^^30,000 to the cause, he 
 finished keeping his terms at the King's Inns, in 
 Dublin. He was called to the Irish Bar in the year of 
 the first Home Rule Bill (1886), while a year later, having 
 completed his qualifications for the English Bar, he 
 was called as a member of Gray's Inn. 
 
 44 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 The part he took in Gladstone's first Home Rule 
 Bill was not such a prominent one as that which he 
 took in the second. He attacked, as he always does, 
 the principle rather than the details of the Bill, and 
 showed that the very unity of England and Ireland, 
 which had been the object of the Union, had never 
 been attained. But for the most part he covered the 
 same ground which he was to go over in his speeches 
 on the second Home Rule Bill which were to make his 
 reputation, and it is better to reserve till then any 
 criticism of those forensic abilities which, had they been 
 exercised in the pursuit of his profession, would long 
 ago have placed him upon the judicial bench. 
 
 The failure of a measure of so much promise as the 
 Home Rule Bill of 1886 was attended with the usual 
 and inevitable result of the abandonment of a conciliatory 
 policy, and the people, exasperated by the misgovernment 
 of centuries and the loss of all hope of redress, broke 
 out into open agitation. All this belongs to history, not 
 to biography. The only point of interest is the personal 
 one that Mr. Redmond was singled out as one whose 
 ardour was to be tested by a term of prison life. To 
 the Irish members of those days it was like a soldier 
 coming under fire ; none of them thought themselves 
 worth their salt till they had been through it : and 
 certainly Mr. Redmond looks back with the greatest 
 sense of pride to the event. 
 
 45 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Accordingly, in the courthouse of Ferns various 
 vague charges of intimidation were brought against him 
 and Mr. Edward Walsh, the proprietor of the Wexford 
 People. When they arrived at Ferns they received a 
 great ovation. A crowd with a band was in readiness 
 to escort them, and as soon as Mr, and Mrs. Redmond 
 appeared they were conducted up the main street in 
 triumph. They had not gone far, however, when they 
 were met by a body of police drawn in single file across 
 the road. The batons were drawn and the band was 
 ordered to cease playing. They refused, and only Mr. 
 Redmond's timely interference put a stop to what might 
 have ended in a nasty scuffle ; but he could not suppress 
 the enthusiasm of the crowd, who accompanied him 
 wherever he went. 
 
 The charge brought against him was that of intimi- 
 dation. It was instituted on behalf of a landlord named 
 Captain Walker. It was undefended ; but it was not 
 necessarily, therefore, admitted. The following extract 
 from Redmond's speech in court may serve to illustrate 
 the spirit in which the whole affair was viewed by the 
 prisoner. 
 
 ** I intend," it ran, " to call no witnesses for the de- 
 fence. The facts of the case are practically undisputed. 
 The shorthand writer's report appears to be a fairly 
 accurate one. I made the speech in question and I 
 
 stand by every word of it, and it is for you to say 
 
 46 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 whether or not in that speech I have violated the law. 
 I am accused here of using intimidation towards Captain 
 Walker in my speech at Scarawalsh. I utterly repudiate 
 and deny that accusation, and I maintain that no fair 
 or honest interpretation of my words can support it. 
 During the whole of my public career, extending over 
 ten years of stormy political life, I have ever denounced 
 violence and crime of any kind, and have sought by 
 the action of public opinion alone to stay the hand of 
 oppression and to protect the people in their homes. 
 When speaking at Scarawalsh, I spoke with a grave 
 sense of my responsibility, and I have no desire to-day 
 to shirk or to shrink from the consequences of my 
 words. If among these consequences should be a term 
 of imprisonment for me, I shall bear it with a cheerful 
 mind and the easy conscience of a man who knows that 
 he has honestly fulfilled his duty. But if I am to be 
 imprisoned let everyone clearly understand my offence. 
 Let no one be deceived by the clap-trap of those who 
 assert that my offence is an offence under the ordinary 
 law. That is one of those half-truths which are worse 
 than falsehoods. Intimidation is, of course, an offence 
 under the ordinary law, but I could not be found guilty 
 of it without the approval of a jury of my countrymen, 
 indifferently chosen, and I venture to assert without fear 
 of contradiction that on the evidence of my speech at 
 Scarawalsh no jury in Ireland or in Great Britain could 
 
 47 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 be found to convict me. No, I am not being tried 
 under the ordinary law. I am being tried under an 
 exceptional and oppressive Act of Parliament [the 
 Coercion Act], which outrages the fundamental principles 
 of the constitution and robs me of my primary right as 
 the citizen of a free country — namely, my right of trial 
 by a jury of my countrymen, indifferently chosen. I am 
 being tried before a tribunal of deputies of the Execu- 
 tive Government, who, though they combine the 
 functions of judge and jury, are neither indifferently 
 chosen as jurymen, nor independent of the executive 
 as judges. Condemnation by such a tribunal will have 
 no moral weight or authority behind it, and will be 
 to me, not a reproach, but an honour. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have now finished. I invite you to 
 proceed to deliver judgment. On my part, I can only 
 say that I am quite prepared, if need be, to go to prison 
 proudly in a cause in which far better men than I 
 have in the past sacrificed liberty and life. In my 
 case, the rigours of prison life will be sweetened by 
 the consciousness that what I am being punished for 
 was done in the interest of my constituents and in 
 the spirit and faithful discharge of my duty to them, 
 and, above all, by the consciousness that I will bring 
 with me to my prison cell the confidence of the entire 
 people of this country almost without exception, and the 
 
 good will of the friends of Ireland throughout the world." 
 
 48 
 
FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 He was sentenced to five weeks' imprisonment — 
 without hard labour, but nevertheless as a common 
 criminal ; not with those privileges which are usually 
 extended to political prisoners nowadays. He 
 accepted the sentence with the greatest pride and 
 satisfaction, shook hands with all his friends, and left 
 the court amidst such tremendous applause that only 
 the threat of clearing the court altogether silenced his 
 enthusiastic admirers. It was nevertheless no trivial 
 matter for an educated man of refined tastes and habits 
 to be compelled to don a suit of broad-arrow pattern ; 
 to be deprived of pen, ink and paper and to be forced 
 to sit for days and weeks on a plank bed reading the 
 Bible ! In fact, as he afterwards often jokingly referred 
 to it, the first time he read the Bible was in the copy 
 presented to him by the late Queen Victoria — through 
 the prison authorities. His health began to suffer, and 
 he lost about a stone in weight during his imprisonment. 
 He was also put upon a diet o^ bread and water for a 
 while because he refused to walk round the ring in the 
 exercise yard in company with all the rogues, vagabonds 
 of the town who as soon as he appeared among them 
 greeted him with cheers of welcome like a fellow criminal 
 in distress ; and he was, therefore, removed to Tullamore. 
 
 When Mr. Redmond returned to Westminster after 
 serving his term of imprisonment, one of the first to 
 meet him in the lobby and welcome him back was 
 
 49 4 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Mr. A. J. Balfour, who was Chief Secretary for 
 Ireland at the time. Soon afterwards Mr. Redmond 
 was placed in the most difficult and trying situation 
 of his political career by the result of the O'Shea 
 divorce suit, in which Parnell was co-respondent. 
 It must have been a great blow to the man who 
 had preached Parnellism and loyalty to the chief 
 over three continents to be faced with such a scandal ; 
 but if he was one who must have felt it more keenly 
 than anyone else, he was also one who would have 
 preferred to cut off his right hand than turn traitor 
 when that chief required his fidelity most. 
 
 50 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE TARNELL CRISIS 
 1890 — 1893 
 
 TT was, politically speaking, the second Parnell crisis 
 that made John Redmond. True, Parnell's whole 
 life might be called one long crisis, and the Irish Leader 
 looked on more as an institution than a personality, 
 but at the same time he was the Nationalist movement 
 personified. No sooner had the Phoenix Park tragedy 
 been dissociated from his name (after having done more 
 to wreck his cause than all the Unionist arguments 
 could ever have accomplished) than Home Rule once 
 more came to the front. But the political equilibrium 
 had hardly been thus restored when it was once more 
 disturbed and the whole of the Irish race, at home and 
 abroad, were swept with a storm of dissension. It has 
 been generally supposed that this was due to the 
 divorce suit. It was nothing of the kind : it was due 
 entirely to the action of the Irish Party in Committee 
 Room 15. 
 
 That the result of the divorce proceedings had affected 
 the English mind no one for a moment can doubt, and 
 
 .51 4* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 that the proverbially illogical electorate would in con- 
 sequence withdraw its support from Home Rule, at least 
 temporarily, was equally certain. But In spite of all 
 this the Irish members were at first determined to 
 stick to Parnell, On the day following the . announce- 
 ment of the verdict, a meeting of some forty members 
 was held in Dublin, with John Redmond in the chair, 
 to pass a vote of confidence in the leader ; and this 
 resolution was endorsed by a large public meeting some 
 time later in the Leinster Hall. Ireland was shocked, 
 but not demoralized. It was the Nonconformist 
 agitation led by the Rev. Hugh Price - Hughes, 
 together with Gladstone's letter practically ordering the 
 deposition of the leader, that brought the crisis to a 
 climax ; for the Nationalist advice to Parnell seems to 
 have been contained in the three words " Retire : 
 Marry: Return." 
 
 Speaking some years later in America, Mr. Redmond 
 explained the situation thus: "In November 1890, 
 Ireland was united, her people at home and abroad 
 were united, under the leadership of Mr. Parnell. 
 Suddenly that union, on a particular hour of a particular 
 day, was broken. Who broke it ? It has been said that 
 it was broken by the lamentable proceedings in the 
 Divorce Court in England. I say that statement is 
 notoriously untrue. 
 
 " During two whole weeks after these proceedings in 
 
 52 
 
THE PARNELL CRISIS 
 
 the London Divorce Court, Ireland remained true while 
 the proceedings of that court were discussed in public 
 and private in every Irish circle, and at the end of that 
 fortnight's discussion I assert here, as a matter of his- 
 torical fact, that the whole Irish people at home, so far 
 as they had spoken, had declared with one voice that 
 in their opinion the continuance of Mr. Parnell's leader- 
 ship was necessary for the welfare of Ireland. 
 
 " The meetings in Ireland were attended by as many 
 as forty clerics, conventions were unanimous, and the 
 great Leinster Hall filled to overflowing with half the 
 parliamentary forces. Suddenly, at the word of com- 
 mand from the leader of another political party, Mr. 
 Parnell was attacked by a number of his own followers 
 then and there, and thus was the national unity broken, 
 
 "Whoever else is responsible for breaking that unity, 
 we, at any rate," he continued, speaking on behalf of the 
 Parnellites, " who, when we told our leader and our friend 
 that it was his duty to stand firm, meant what we said 
 and afterwards stood by what we said — we, at any 
 rate, can never in the pages of history be charged with 
 the responsibility of having broken the national unity." 
 
 The question was therefore one of expediency, and 
 considering the movement was the man, it was very 
 doubtful from the first whether the cause would eventually 
 gain by throwing him over. The years of barren sessions 
 that followed the split of the Irish Party are the best 
 
 53 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 answers to such controversies, and the final reunion under 
 the leader of the Parnellites is the best tribute, not 
 to the loyalty of John Redmond, which no one ever 
 doubted, but to his intellectual judgment of the situation. 
 All, however, did not take the same view, and Justin 
 McCarthy was the foremost of those who had tried to 
 dissuade Parnell from issuing the daring manifesto pro- 
 claiming the absolute independence of the Nationalists 
 of all English parties. " It was a cruel stroke of fate," 
 he wrote later in his " Story of an Irishman," " which 
 compelled me to stand forth as the political opponent 
 of Parnell, to whom, as a leader, I had been most 
 sincerely devoted, and with whom I had had many 
 years of intimate and steady friendship. I was also 
 brought into direct hostility with men like John Red- 
 mond and many others who had been colleagues and 
 close friends of mine for a long time, and whose motives 
 in this crisis of political disruption I thoroughly 
 appreciated. I quite understood why these men were 
 upholding Parnell. They believed him to be the best 
 leader of the Irish people, and they could not see the 
 rightfulness of withdrawing from his leadership because 
 he had committed an offence against the laws of 
 private morality." 
 
 The trial of Parnell by his colleagues was worthy of 
 Westminster Hall for dramatic importance. At all 
 events it made a small Committee Room historical. 
 
 54 
 
THE PARNELL [CRISIS 
 
 The scene was tragic in the extreme : the points of 
 issue tremendous. All the past history of Ireland for the 
 last fifty years hung in the balance, and if the hands 
 of the clock of politics can ever be set back, they were 
 set back on that occasion. 
 
 Morley, in his Life of Gladstone, thus describes it : 
 
 •* It was the fashion for the moment in fastidious 
 reactionary quarters, to speak of the actors in this 
 ordeal as a hustling group of yelling rowdies. Seldom 
 have terms so censorious been more misplaced. All de- 
 pends on the point of view. Men on a raft in a boiling sea 
 have something to think of besides deportment and 
 the graces of serenity. As a matter of fact, even hostile 
 judges then and since agreed that no case was ever 
 better opened within the walls of Westminster than in 
 the three speeches made on the first day by Mr, Sexton 
 and Mr. Healy on the one side and Mr. Redmond 
 on the other. In gravity, dignity, acute perception and 
 that good faith which is the soul of real as distinct 
 from spurious debate, the Parliamentary critic recognizes 
 them all of the first order." 
 
 It was then for the first time that Mr. Redmond 
 took his place among the foremost of the men in the 
 party, and his devotion to the leader was second only 
 to his devotion to the cause. 
 
 " I am quite certain," writes Mr, Justin McCarthy, 
 " that Parnell himself did not, until the great crisis came 
 
 55 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 in the Irish Nationalist Party, fully appreciate the politi- 
 cal capacity of John Redmond. Parnell always regarded 
 him as both useful and ornamental — useful in managing 
 the business of the party and ornamental as a brilliant 
 speaker on a public platform. But he did not appear to 
 know, and indeed had no means of knowing, that Red- 
 mond had in himself the qualifications of a party leader 
 and the debating power which could make him an in- 
 fluence in the House of Commons. But when the great 
 crisis came in the affairs of the party, then Redmond 
 was soon able to prove himself made of stronger metal 
 than even his leader had supposed. During all the de- 
 bates in Committee Room 15, John Redmond took the 
 leading part on the side of the minority. He became 
 the foremost champion of Parnell's leadership. The 
 position seemed to him in the nature of things. I well 
 remember the ability and the eloquence which he dis- 
 played in these debates and the telling manner in which 
 he put his arguments and his appeals, and the course he 
 took was all the more to his credit, because Parnell had 
 never singled him out as an object of special favour, and, 
 indeed, in the opinion of many of us, had not done full 
 justice to his services in the House of Commons." 
 
 The question of the leadership was a delicate one ; 
 but it was far less a question of ethics than of practical 
 politics. There was a principle involved which was 
 quite impersonal, and it was this principle for which 
 
 56 
 
I'l-oin a I'lioto'hy .Mnti-ll <(■ Fo.r. 
 
 CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. 
 
 [To face p. 56, 
 
THE PARNELL CRISIS 
 
 Parnell stood, and it was this principle for which 
 Redmond stood also. It was the absence of that 
 principle which weakened almost to death the Irish 
 Party during the split, and it was that principle which 
 actuated the later Parnellites and eventually brought 
 about reunion of the Anti-Parnellites under the leader 
 of that minority. 
 
 That principle is contained in one paragraph of the 
 famous Parnell manifesto, and is significant as the 
 guiding principle in Irish politics of to-day : 
 
 " Sixteen years ago," it ran, " I conceived the idea 
 of an Irish Parliamentary party independent of all 
 English parties. Ten years ago I was elected the leader 
 of an independent Irish Parliamentary party. During 
 these ten years that party has remained independent, 
 and because of its independence it has forced upon 
 the English people the necessity of granting Home 
 Rule to Ireland, I believe that party will obtain Home 
 Rule only provided it remains independent of any 
 English party." 
 
 It was, of course, a matter of speculation how far 
 the election of Parnell, or rather his retention, would 
 endanger Home Rule. He did not himself anticipate it 
 would have any ill effects on the movement ; but what 
 he felt most was the violated independence of the 
 party in submitting to English dictation. John Red- 
 mond took up exactly the same stand, as is shown by 
 
 57 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 his speeches. He admitted that the retention of Parnell 
 as leader might influence the vote of the British elec- 
 torate, but denied that it would alter the eventual 
 result, and, as Morley notes, that the split which would 
 ensue would be far more serious in its effects on public 
 opinion both in England and Ireland. Even going 
 further and admitting Parnell's guilt, it was a question 
 whether the prospects offered were worth the sacrifice. 
 And if it be admitted that the sacrifice was obligatory 
 upon the Irish party, it must likewise have been 
 obligatory upon our ancestors in the case of some of 
 the heroes of the past. Yet who would have thought of 
 deposing Napoleon on the eve of Waterloo, or Nelson 
 on the very day of Trafalgar? 
 
 John Redmond's speech in Committee Room 15 
 struck the keynote of the situation. It was calm, 
 short, and to the point, as the following extract will 
 show : 
 
 "When it becomes a question of selling our leader, 
 to buy an alliance," he began, "it would be well to see 
 what we were getting for the price. First, it seems to 
 me, that in selling our leader in order to preserve the 
 Liberal alliance, we are selling absolutely and irrevocably 
 the independence of the Irish party. This party has 
 been powerful only because it has been independent ; 
 every Irish party that ever existed in this House fell in 
 the same way — if we sacrifice Parnell to preserve this 
 
 58 
 
THE PARNELLj: CRISIS 
 
 alliance the days in our generation of the independence 
 of the Irish party are at an end. Mr. Gladstone would 
 be absolutely unfettered, and he would have the Irish 
 party, so to speak, in the hollow of his hand, and it 
 would be a discredited and powerless tool of the Liberal 
 party. As to your retention being a danger to the 
 Irish cause, and the Home Rule cause, I do not believe 
 that it is a real danger, and these are reasons why I 
 do not believe my friend Mr. Sexton's argument is a 
 sound one when he says, that this matter is urgent 
 because this alliance would be broken up if you were 
 maintained. I will say nothing about my motive in 
 this matter. I disdain to do so. My public record, 
 without any boasting, I should say entitles me to 
 entertain the belief that whatever course I take the 
 more people will believe that I am actuated by the 
 highest motives of patriotism. 
 
 " It is true I have a feeling of personal loyalty to 
 you," he went on, turning to Parnell. " I have said 
 elsewhere, and I say here, that you have been my friend, 
 and I think it is no time in which a man who has been 
 once your friend should turn against you. But I most 
 solemnly say that while you remain my friend, and my 
 personal attachment is the same to you as it always 
 was, I declare most solemnly that in this consideration 
 I am not allowing my personal attachment to you to 
 weigh in the balance. I would sacrifice my liberty I 
 
 59 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 would sacrifice my life, I would sacrifice the liberty and 
 life of the truest and best friend I have in the world, 
 for the sake of the independence of my country. It is 
 not a personal motive that animates me ; it is because 
 I believe that your maintenance is necessary to the success 
 of our cause." 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's action was, therefore, the immediate 
 origin of the crisis. But what made the situation still 
 more acute for the Nationalists, was the fact that no 
 one knew what Gladstone's real intentions were, so that 
 they might be going to sell their leader, as many like 
 Redmond thought, for what might eventually prove a 
 sham Home Rule Bill which would be nothing more 
 than an insult to Nationalist aspirations. 
 
 On December 3rd they tried to obtain an assurance 
 of the intentions of the Liberal party on the subject 
 of Home Rule, which if satisfactory might have induced 
 Parnell to retire, and at a meeting afterwards Healy 
 and Sexton expressed promises of conditional future 
 loyalty. But as Barry O'Brien observes : " The Liberals 
 simply regarded the Anti-Parnellites as a lot of simple- 
 tons to allow themselves to be out-manoeuvred by this 
 clever device, and as the Anti-Parnellites sank lower 
 and lower in the Liberal opinion after this incident of 
 the struggle, the genius of the chief shone brighter than 
 ever, even in the eyes of his foes." 
 
 It was agreed, therefore, that a deputation of the 
 
 60 
 
THE PARNELL CRISIS 
 
 Irish party, consisting of Mr. Leamy, Mr. Sexton, Mr. 
 
 Healy and Mr. Redmond, should seek an interview with 
 
 Mr. Gladstone to ask his intentions, and report the 
 
 result to their colleagues in Room 15. 
 
 " I was one of those who went on that deputation to 
 
 Mr. Gladstone," said Mr. Redmond years later. " I sat 
 
 for a considerable time in his study. Mr. Sexton and 
 
 myself both put before Mr. Gladstone the situation as to 
 
 Ireland with all the force and earnestness at our disposal. 
 
 We told him that if Mr. Parnell's recollection of the 
 
 Hawarden interview was wrong, as he, Mr. Gladstone, said, 
 
 then he, Mr. Gladstone, was bound for the sake of Ireland 
 
 to clear up the difference of recollection by stating what 
 
 really occurred. We pointed out to him that our country 
 
 at that moment was standing on the brink of an abyss, 
 
 and that unless some way out of the difficulty was 
 
 found, we had before us in Ireland a future of disunion, 
 
 of internal discord, and that the Liberal party had 
 
 before them in England a future of danger and difficulty, 
 
 and we exhausted all the words of persuasion, and, I 
 
 might say for myself, of absolute entreaty, in our 
 
 endeavour to get him to say one word, he knowing 
 
 full well that if that word were satisfactory the Irish 
 
 crisis would have ended. But all our efforts failed. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, for what reason I know not, unless it 
 
 be that Mr. Parnell's story of the Hawarden interview 
 
 was true, remained absolutely silent." 
 
 61 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 All they could get out of Gladstone was simply : 
 " The question you have to decide is the leadership of 
 the Irish party. I am not going to have that question 
 mixed up with Home Rule ; one question at a time. 
 I hold the views on Home Rule which I always held, 
 and when the time comes for introducing a new Home 
 Rule Bill you shall know all about it. Meanwhile rest 
 assured that I shall introduce no Home Rule Bill 
 which has not the unanimous approval of the Irish 
 party." 
 
 " It was an interesting game of tactics between the 
 ' Grand Old Man,' " as Barry O'Brien goes on to 
 observe, " and the grand young men, but the former 
 won." The report of the delegates was, in effect, that 
 Mr. Gladstone would not enter into negotiations with 
 the party while Parnell still remained leader. A 
 stormy debate followed, in Room 15, and at last 
 Mr. McCarthy rose, saying it was idle to continue pro- 
 ceedings longer. 
 
 Forty-four followed him out of the room, twenty-six 
 remained. Gladstone had split the party. 
 
 Parnell felt the desertion keenly. "Why did you 
 
 encourage me to come forward and maintain my 
 
 leadership in the face of the world if you were not 
 
 prepared to stand by me?" he asked. At the same time 
 
 he felt the loyalty of his faithful followers with all the 
 
 gratitude which a man in sorrow feels for real devotion. 
 
 62 
 
THE PARNELL CRISIS 
 
 And to none was he more grateful than to John 
 Redmond, who was constantly at his side in the 
 struggle that ensued, and upon whose shoulders his 
 mantle of leadership was destined to fall after his death. 
 
 The Boulogne negotiations were the last attempt to 
 reunite the forces amicably. They lasted for about a 
 month. The name " Seceders," which Mr. Farnell had 
 fastened upon the majority, was not unmerited. Their 
 representatives admitted as much in the terms of 
 capitulation which they offered. These were nothing 
 short of absolute submission. Mr. Justin McCarthy's 
 election as their leader was to be first of all declared 
 invalid, and then both Gladstone and the Irish Roman 
 Catholic bishops were to be prevailed upon to withdraw 
 their public condemnation of Parnell, while Parnell him- 
 self was to be retained in the presidency of the 
 National League. 
 
 William O'Brien had just returned from America, 
 hence Parnell was anxious to have an opportunity of 
 seeing him. An arrangement was come to, and Parnell 
 accompanied by the two Redmonds, J. J. Clanchy, 
 Henry Campbell and Vincent Scully, crossed over to 
 meet him at Boulogne. 
 
 There were many accounts published in the press, 
 Mr. Redmond's, quoted by Mr. Barry O'Brien, being as 
 follows : 
 
 " When we arrived we went to an hotel. O'Brien rushed 
 
 63 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 up gushingly to meet Parnell, who was extremely reserved 
 and cold. He saluted O'Brien just as if he had seen 
 him yesterday and as if there were nothing special 
 going forward. O'Brien plunged into business at 
 once. 
 
 " ' Oh, no, William,' said Parnell, ' I must have 
 something to eat first,' Then he ordered luncheon and 
 we all sat down and ate. When luncheon was over 
 Parnell said : ' Now, William, we will talk.' We then 
 adjourned to another room. Parnell still remained 
 silent, reserved, cold, and did not in any way encourage 
 O'Brien to talk. He looked around at the rest of us 
 as much as to say, ' Well, what the devil do you 
 want ? ' The rest of us soon withdrew, leaving Parnell 
 and O'Brien together. After some time O'Brien re- 
 joined us. He looked utterly flabbergasted, said it was 
 all over, and that Parnell had no intention of doing 
 anything. I asked him if he had made any proposals 
 to Parnell, or if he had any proposals to make. He 
 said that he had proposals, but did not submit them to 
 Parnell, as Parnell seemed so unwilling to talk. He 
 then stated the proposals to me, which were substan- 
 tially, so far as I can now remember, these : — 
 
 " I. The retraction of the bishops' manifesto. 
 
 " 2. Some acknowledgment from Mr. Gladstone that 
 
 the publication of his letter was precipitate 
 
 and inadvisable. 
 
 64 
 
THE PARNELL CRISIS 
 
 K -, 
 
 3. A meeting of the whole party in Dubh'n, with 
 Parnell in the chair, and acknowledgment of 
 the informality of Mr. McCarthy's election as 
 chairman. 
 " 4. Voluntary resignation of Parnell, who should, 
 however, remain President of the National 
 League. 
 " 5. Election of a temporary chairman. 
 "6. Appointment of Dillon as chairman. 
 " I went immediately to Parnell and told him of 
 these proposals. ' Ah, now we have something specific 
 to go upon. Let O'Brien come back.' 
 
 " O'Brien came back and these points were discussed. 
 Parnell said at once that he would not accept the 
 chairmanship of Dillon, but he would with pleasure 
 accept the chairmanship of O'Brien. O'Brien and I 
 then went out and wired to Dillon, saying that Parnell 
 had proposed that O'Brien should be leader of the 
 party. Dillon wired back warning O'Brien to beware 
 of Parnell, and not to trust him. Such, at least, is 
 my recollection of the substance of the telegram. 
 Next day Parnell returned to London, and I went to 
 Paris with O'Brien, where I remained for some eight 
 or ten days. Nothing so far was settled." 
 
 Another interview with Parnell took place, which 
 Mr. Redmond thus described : " I saw him alone first, 
 and we had a short private talk about O'Brien's new 
 
 65 5 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 plan. He said nothing, but looked at me with an 
 amused, and an amusing smile. I could not help 
 feeling what a pair of children O'Brien and I were in 
 the hands of this man. The meaning of the smile 
 was as plain as words. It meant : ' Well, really, you 
 are excellent fellows, right good fellows, but 'pon my 
 
 soul, a d d pair of fools ; sending William O'Brien 
 
 to Hawarden to negotiate with Mr. Gladstone ! 
 Delightful.' Well, he simply smiled William O'Brien's 
 plan out of existence, and stuck to his original pro- 
 posal. Next day he went back to London and I went 
 with him." 
 
 From that moment the whole affair of the leadership 
 and the policy of the party became the centre of a 
 political free fight in Ireland. The champion of Irish 
 rights, Mr. Gladstone became " the grand old spider " ; 
 the Anti-Parnellites — " the miserable gutter-sparrows, and 
 kept slaves of an English political party," and every 
 tavern, drawing-room and presbytery in Ireland emulated 
 the scenes that had taken place in Committee Room 15. 
 
 After the failure of the Boulogne negotiations, Parnell 
 
 determined to fight, and John Redmond determined to 
 
 throw in his lot with his leader. "It was observable, 
 
 however, that among Mr. Parnell's assailants," writes 
 
 The Annual Register for 1901, "the most venomous was 
 
 Mr. T. Healy, whose attacks were rather personal than 
 
 political, and who violated all the canons of good taste 
 
 66 
 
THE PARNELL CRISIS 
 
 by indecorous and ill-natured allusions to Mrs. O'Shea. 
 Another phrase which has never died was Mr. Healy's 
 declaration that he would "drive Parnell into the grave 
 or a lunatic asylum," while at a meeting of the 
 National Federation (May 20th) he said that " if anyone 
 attempted to patch up the present differences by a 
 'compromise on the basis of the continued leadership he 
 would be simply hunted out of the country with a 
 kettle tied to his tail." 
 
 Parnell himself made an able defence. He fully 
 granted the moral right of the bishops to interfere in 
 cases where the question of morality arose, but he 
 maintained that both by acts of commission and 
 omission they had publicly forfeited that right in the 
 sense that they had declared it purely a political issue. 
 A few days after the verdict of the Divorce Court, 
 the Bishop of Meath told Mr. Healy that Farnell's 
 political leadership should be retained, and the Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin wrote, before he had seen Gladstone's 
 letter, saying he urged Farnell's retirement not on 
 grounds of morality, but for purely political reasons. 
 And considering that the origin of the quarrel was due 
 to Church interference, there is some irony in one of 
 Archbishop Walsh's letters to the National Press, in 
 which he says : " I am deeply convinced that the con- 
 tinuance of this ruinous conflict, even for a little longer, 
 
 must be absolutely destructive of every hope of the 
 
 67 5* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 establishment of Home Rule in Ireland, at all events 
 in the present century. To me it is one of the most 
 obvious truths of the present deplorable situation that 
 the fitness of our people for Home Rule, and indeed for 
 Constitutional Government of any kind, is questionable, 
 and that so far the evidence of that fitness is somewhat 
 less clear than it ought to be." 
 
 It was all the more ironical considering that when 
 Mr. Parnell made what in Protestant England was 
 understood as moral amends by marrying Mrs. O'Shea, 
 a general meeting of the bishops at Maynooth still 
 continued the embroglio between morality and politics 
 by recording " the solemn expression of our judgment as 
 pastors of the Irish people, that Mr. Parnell by his 
 public misconduct has utterly disqualified himself to be 
 the political leader .... has supplied new and 
 convincing proof that he is wholly unworthy of the 
 confidence of Catholics, and we therefore feel bound on 
 this occasion to call upon our people to repudiate his 
 leadership ..." 
 
 In the end all principles were thrown to the winds 
 and the contest became one purely between the Church 
 and Parnell. The Freemati's Journal, the leading 
 Nationalist daily newspaper in Ireland, for a long time 
 supported the laymen and came into collision with the 
 Archbishop of Dublin, who branded it as being not un- 
 worthy of the traditions of the Atheistic Freemasonry 
 
 68 
 
THE PARNELL CRISIS 
 
 of the Continent. " The men who dwell with prurient 
 persistency on the Divorce Court," it retorted, " are the 
 very men who scoffed at it or passed it over in the 
 beginning. These men out of their own mouths are 
 bound to regard the issue in question as a purely 
 political issue." But however just this attitude was in 
 theory, in practice it threatened to become ruinous to 
 the newspaper. An excuse for a change of tone was 
 found in the marriage of Mr. Parnell and Mrs. O'Shea ; 
 but it was generally understood that the real cause of 
 the volte-face was that the commercial got the better 
 of the editorial department, for a financial panic set 
 in among the shareholders of the Freeman's Journal, 
 and with one bound that vigorous organ landed in the 
 camp of the seceders. 
 
 One of the last significant acts of Parnell was his 
 going down to Kilkenny, where all the priests were 
 ranged against him, with the intention of expressing a 
 desire once and for all to put an end to the interference 
 of the priest in politics. 
 
 Mr. Barry O'Brien, who tells the incident, protested 
 against this course. 
 
 " You are drawing your sword on the whole Order," 
 he said, "instead of objecting to the action of the indi- 
 vidual priest ; O'Connell could afford to do this, you 
 can't. If the priests have to be fought, they must be 
 
 fought by Catholics, not by Protestants." 
 
 69 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 " Ah, now," replied Parnell, " you have said some- 
 thing which is quite true. A Protestant leader must 
 not do this. But the system must be stopped, and 
 you Catholics must stop it. The priests theftiselves 
 must be got to see it is wrong." 
 
 The words well fitted the occasion ; and they became 
 the watchword of his party. But how far the struggle 
 would have ended eventually in the victory of the lay- 
 man when once his potent personality had survived 
 the first shock of opposition, no one now can tell. Nor 
 can any one say whether a defeat would have meant 
 merely a postponement of the struggle and the awaiting 
 of another leader. Perhaps that strong Nationalism, 
 blended with a supreme respect for religion, which was 
 later to characterize the leadership of Mr. John Red- 
 mond, may, after all, prove the best solution to such a 
 difficulty. 
 
 Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, or rather like 
 that cry of despair which arose at Hastings when 
 Harold was found pierced with an arrow, came the 
 terrible news of Parnell's death at Brighton. At once 
 John Redmond hurried to the spot, and though he 
 arrived before the remains were coffined, he was not 
 one of those very few who actually saw the dead leader. 
 He took charge on behalf of the family and the party 
 of all the preparations for a public funeral, and brought 
 
 the body to Dublin, where it was solemnly interred in 
 
 70 
 
THE PARNELL CRISIS 
 
 Glasnevin Cemetery, close to the grave of O'Connell. 
 A concourse of people from all parts of Ireland such 
 as had never been seen in Dublin since the funeral of 
 the great liberator formed a procession which followed 
 the coffin of I'arnell to the cemetery. All the European 
 Press, from Moscow to Rome, was stirred. In New 
 York all the flags were flown at half-mast. The feeling 
 in Dublin was that he had been " done to death " by 
 the Anti-Parnellites, not a single official member of 
 whom ventured to be present at Glasnevin Cemetery ; 
 while the former utterances of the Archbishop of 
 Dublin, wired to New York, only fanned the flame of 
 hatred. " Archbishop Walsh's utterances," said one 
 public speaker there, " are unpatriotic, unchristianlike 
 and shocking. There can never be union between the 
 two factions until the priests in Ireland are driven from 
 the platform back to their pulpits." 
 
 But the matter of supreme importance was the 
 position to be taken up by those who, like John 
 Redmond, had made the retention of Parnell not so 
 much a personal question as the protestation of political 
 principles. Had the whole quarrel been one of loyalty 
 to a chief, he could have at once joined the followers 
 of Mr. Justin McCarthy. Had it been a question of 
 pure vindictiveness he might have refused to join hands 
 with " the murderers " — to use the phrase which used 
 to be hurled at John Dillon in the Dublin streets. He 
 
 71 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 preferred to adhere to the policy which he believed 
 was at issue, and in this he has carried out to the 
 letter what I may call Parnell's political will. It is to 
 be found in the manifesto issued shortly after the funeral 
 by the followers of the chief. 
 
 " On the threshold of the tomb, the leader whom we 
 mourn, defined our duty in these memorable words : 'If 
 I were dead and gone to-morrow, the men who are 
 fighting English influence in Irish public life would fight 
 on still. They would still be independent Nationalists, 
 they would still believe in the future of Ireland as a 
 nation : and they would still protest that it was not 
 by taking orders from an English member that Ireland's 
 future could be saved, protected or secured.' Fellow- 
 countrymen, let it be the glory of our race at home 
 and abroad to act up to the spirit of this message, 
 God save Ireland," 
 
 72 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE HOME RULE BILL 
 1893 
 
 " A/f^ heart bleeds for the poor fellows," said Glad- 
 stone once after receiving one of the deputations 
 from the perplexed Nationalist party during the pro- 
 ceedings in Room 15. If Gladstone's heart bled during 
 Parnell's life, it must have done so ten times more after 
 his death, which added the bitterness of a great tragedy 
 to the political quarrel. At first there were many who, 
 like Justin McCarthy, thought that the difference 
 having been a personal one, it would die with the 
 person. But it was not a personal matter, it was a 
 principle personified, as soon became evident both from 
 the tone and the action of the Independents, as the 
 little band of Parnellites were now called. 
 
 Their leadership fell almost naturally to the one 
 man who had so championed Parnell's cause, and who, 
 by acting as chief mourner, and undertaking all the 
 public arrangements for the funeral of the dead chief, 
 had already been singled out for that position by public 
 opinion. Mr. Redmond was officially elected, however, 
 
 73 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 a few days later, and from that day till the eventful 
 reunion of the two sections of the Nationalist party 
 ten years later, led what then was thought the losing 
 cause. The most uncompromising hostility at once 
 declared itself between the two sections. The death 
 of Parnell had been too tragic for his followers to 
 step over his grave and shake hands with his 
 " murderers " — as the followers of John Dillon were 
 still called. It was wild rant, perhaps, that dictated 
 the fierce epithets hurled broadcast at everyone, as 
 T. D. Sullivan observes, but it indicated the Parnellite 
 temper, announced the Parnellite decision. In that de- 
 cision there were hardly two more prominent men than 
 the two brothers Redmond ; and Mr. William Redmond's 
 article in United Ireland struck the keynote of the 
 extreme Parnellite sentiment. 
 
 " Hearts are beating," he wrote, " and eyes are glisten- 
 ing with a secret gladness in every part of the world to- 
 day where the blood-red flag of England floats. The 
 greatest friend of Irish liberty, the greatest enemy of 
 British tyranny, the one man hated and feared before 
 all other men by the oppressors of Ireland, is killed by 
 the foulest slander, hunted to death, that the virtue of 
 Ireland might be vindicated to the satisfaction of the 
 Pharisees and hypocrites of holy England. The Non- 
 conformist conscience is now at ease ; the scandalmongers 
 and canters of Great Britain are satisfied. The English 
 
 74 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 eader who struck the first blow may now be content 
 — his great rival is now no more. The Christians who, 
 contrary to the Divine teaching of their Master, merci- 
 lessly persecuted the chief may now rest from their 
 labours : the chief is dead — all is, no doubt, well. The 
 virtue of Ireland having been vindicated, the orders of 
 our English masters having been carried out, the noblest, 
 bravest and truest of Irishmen having been driven 
 broken-hearted to the grave, Ireland will now receive 
 at the gracious hands of England some measure of 
 freedom. 
 
 " Perhaps, indeed, we may be ordered to forget the 
 very name of him to whose matchless labours any liberty 
 we receive will be due. They ordered us to drive him 
 forth ; they may order us to forget him now that he is 
 dead. Liberty is now, we are assured, at hand. Yes, 
 but by the memory of the dead we never, never, never 
 will forget the price our masters exacted for it. Millions 
 alive to-day, and millions and millions yet unborn, will 
 remember that before England removed one finger of 
 her blood-stained hand from Ireland's throat she ordered 
 us to break the heart of our best and truest chief. 
 Charles Stewart Parnell is dead. But his spirit marches 
 on, and to-day over his freshly turned grave we renew 
 our allegiance to the cause of Irish National Inde- 
 pendence. Another item has been added to the account 
 which Ireland has to settle. Some day — it may be soon, 
 
 75 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 it may be late ; it may be in our time, or it may be 
 when we, too, are in our graves — but some day, as surely 
 as the sun sets over our heart-broken land to-night, 
 that account will be settled and Ireland will pay the 
 debt so long due." 
 
 John Redmond — "that cold-blooded young gentleman," 
 as Mr. William O'Brien once called him — was perhaps 
 less emotional, though not less sincere than his brother, 
 for he thought throughout of " Paj-nellism " as a 
 principle of action rather than as devotion to a person- 
 ality. Speaking in Clare a short while later, where 
 he had been introduced as Parnell's successor, he 
 emphatically told his audience that they were wrong in 
 speaking of him in any sense as " the leader of the 
 Parnellites." There had never been and never would 
 be, as far as his voice went, any attempt to fill the 
 place rendered vacant by Parnell's death. He believed 
 the man had yet to be born who would be capable 
 of wearing the mantle of the late chief. Parnell was 
 still their leader and they were determined to fight for 
 his principles ; but they were fighting singly, and as 
 soldiers in the ranks. 
 
 Redmond's first action was to put up for Parnell's 
 
 old constituency, rebel Cork, upon which the whole of 
 
 political interest was for the time centred, and the 
 
 greatest excitement prevailed. But the result proved 
 
 somewhat disheartening. Alderman Flavin, the nominee 
 
 76 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 of the Anti-Parnellites, was returned with a majority of 
 over 1,500 votes. The cry of "clerical interference" was 
 raised and not without some ground, as, according to 
 Mr. Davitt, one influential priest spiritually terrorized 
 the political consciences of the citizens of Cork, and 
 had even gone so far as to declare that promises made 
 to John Redmond were not morally binding. But it 
 was generally thought that the fact that Redmond in 
 a sense represented the spirit of faction had also some- 
 thing to do with his defeat. 
 
 The retirement from parliamentary life was, however, 
 only temporary. He put up for Waterford City a few 
 weeks later, Michael Davitt opposing him. Both parties 
 were heated, and in a miUe Davitt was cut across the 
 temple by one of the " Redmondites " while he was 
 walking in the street. John Redmond, of course, made 
 the amende honorable and denounced the action of 
 his followers, but it raised no little ill-feeling. Davitt 
 declared after the contest, in which he was beaten by 
 500 votes, that he owed his defeat to Terrorism and 
 Toryism, for all the Tories, it appears, had voted for 
 his opponent. 
 
 The Waterford election was looked upon rather as a 
 triumph for the Parnellites, who felt that, though weak 
 before Parnell's death, their party would have to face 
 fearful odds afterwards. For they knew, as John Red- 
 mond had himself said, that it was to a certain extent 
 
 n 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 a forlorn hope they were leading, and they were quite 
 conscious that their action would mean calumny in 
 public life, ostracism from social life, political defeat 
 at the polls, perhaps complete extinction. But for 
 this very reason, he maintained, men who took up a 
 cause with odds like these against them, showed they 
 were men who believed in their cause and were in 
 earnest ; and as men who believed in those principles 
 and who were sincere in the cause they had taken up, 
 he declared no number of defeats would drive them 
 a single inch from the position which they believed 
 was the position of honour, of dignity and of safety to 
 the national cause. 
 
 What that position was Redmond explained a few 
 days later when, at a meeting of the National League 
 in Dublin, he declared the policy of the Parnellites 
 more in detail. He stood out, he said, for absolute 
 independence and denounced what he called the anti- 
 Parnellite spirit of " devolution " — though he did not 
 use the word, Mr. Gladstone would in all probability 
 endeavour to conciliate British opposition by conces- 
 sions to it in order to get the Bill passed. Mr. Davitt 
 had declared he would accept anything, however 
 small. John Redmond thought the right policy was to 
 strengthen Gladstone's resolution and not to allow him 
 to whittle away his Bill till it pleased the Lords. He 
 
 believed the English public looked upon Home Rule as 
 
 78 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 an expedient, but that expedient should be a full not a 
 half measure. There was no question of separation, but 
 only of a parliament of their own, supreme in Irish 
 affairs and subject only to the veto of the Crown. 
 The position was logical, for an unconditional promise 
 to accept anything from Gladstone would not only 
 throw away a golden opportunity, but might lead to 
 the establishment of a system which would prove a 
 disaster to the cause instead of its salvation. 
 
 Upon his return to Parliament the new leader at 
 once declared his policy, repeating Parnell's latest de- 
 clarations on the " minimum " and calling on the Glad- 
 stonians to define their proposals. The speech was 
 spirited, and, in fact, one of the finest in the debate ; 
 but it produced no little friction between him and 
 those who followed the new anti-Parnellite principle of 
 accepting anything a Liberal alliance might bring. His 
 motion was only defeated by 179 votes to 158. 
 
 On the eve of the General Election in June, 1892, 
 the new Parnellite leader went over to New York to 
 give an account of the cause the Irish-Americans had 
 so much at heart and to plead for financial support. 
 It was a delicate mission and not without a certain 
 touch of pathos that the young leader should present 
 himself as " all that was left of them " — of that gallant 
 brigade whom the Irish in the United States had en- 
 couraged with their enthusiasm and their wealth in 
 
 79 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 order to help the chief to fight the battle of Ireland. 
 Accordingly, in a large assembly gathered together in 
 the New York Academy of Music, with Judge Lynn in 
 the chair, Redmond told them the story of the great 
 disaster. He was the right man in the right place : 
 for the Irish-Americans were for the most part 
 Parnellites to a man and they welcomed the champion 
 of the great leader's cause. Mr. Thomas A. Emmet, 
 President of the Irish Confederation, for example, had 
 only voiced the sentiments of most Irish-Americans when, 
 shortly after the chief's death, he had said, " It would 
 be absurd to expect that the mere fact of the death of 
 Mr. Parnell will bring the two factions together ; the 
 Parnellites are more bitter than ever against the men 
 who, had they been content to leave him and his work 
 in peace, instead of worrying him into his grave, might, 
 they think, still have had the benefit of his leadership. 
 I do not know what will be the outcome of all this ; 
 but the Parnellites, at least in America, will never accept 
 the McCarthyites as leaders. Now less than ever." 
 
 In his speech Mr. Redmond referred to two points — 
 the first was an apology for the " Parnellite tactics," the 
 second an apology for the " Parnellite demand." 
 
 In the first portion he was careful to show clearly, as 
 
 we have already seen, that the unity of the party had 
 
 been broken up, not by the O'Shea divorce proceedings, 
 
 but by the members of the party, and those members 
 
 80 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 had not been himself and his colleagues, who, when they 
 told Parnell, their leader and their friend, that it was 
 their duty to stand firm, meant what they said and 
 afterwards stood by what they said. He then proceeded 
 to show how he had tried himself to reunite the party 
 upon the broad platform of amnesty and had been met 
 by the answer which he read to the meeting from 
 Mr. Dillon. " Though I am strongly in favour of 
 amnesty, I cannot be present at your meetings, because 
 I cannot consent to stand upon the same parliamentary 
 platform with the parliamentary supporters of Mr. John 
 Redmond, who, in my deliberate judgment, are the 
 most dangerous enemies of the Irish cause." 
 
 Mr. T. P. O'Connor had suggested another policy of 
 conciliation, which was to distribute the Nationalist seats 
 at the General Election according to the proportion of 
 gains previously made by the rival parties. This 
 would have enabled the Parnellites to avoid any un- 
 seemly faction fights in the constituencies, return to 
 Parliament in a friendly spirit, and accept or reject any 
 proposal of the Liberals. It had been practically 
 accepted by the Anti-Parnellite party, seven out of nine 
 of the Committee having given their assent. But it 
 was abandoned, as Mr. O'Brien observed, entirely owing 
 to the opposition of Mr. Healy, and a rather dramatic 
 touch was given to the meeting addressed by Mr. 
 
 Redmond in New York, by the arrival of a cable from 
 
 8i 6 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Dublin which confirmed the leader's words. It ran : 
 " Dublin, June 15th. Every proposal of ours for peace 
 has been rejected, and the Whigs are now determined 
 to expel from public life every man who stood by 
 Parnell." 
 
 How far persons are responsible for practical dead- 
 locks in political principles : how far Mr. Healy may 
 have been justified in allowing the country to decide: 
 how far the arrangement proposed by Mr. T. P. 
 O'Connor would have avoided one of the most squalid 
 faction fights between priests and people, which took 
 place at the General Election, is difficult to say ; but 
 the facts of the situation remained, and from an argu- 
 mentative point of view the Parnellite position was 
 tolerably well established. It was rather for the man 
 who had deserted Parnell to explain his position or else 
 explain the words which had done more than any- 
 thing to strengthen the chiefs resolve to fight for his 
 leadership. " If the Irish people for whom he has done 
 so much, for whom he has braved so much, suffered 
 so much," said Mr. Healy before the appearance of the 
 Gladstone letter, " if they were so frivolous and light- 
 hearted as to permit themselves at the first sound of 
 this wretched and unfortunate case to be dragged away 
 from the support they have hitherto accorded Mr. 
 Parnell, all I can say is that this Irish nation would 
 
 be my nation no more." 
 
 82 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 The second portion of Mr. Redmond's speech at 
 New York dealt with the ParnelHte demand and is 
 very significant, in that it contains the key to that 
 difference of opinion which was later to distinguish 
 the two Nationalist parties in the House of Commons. 
 " I believe if we accepted a parliament which was 
 bound hand and foot by restrictions, a parliament which 
 would not have the power of ruling our country in 
 purely Irish affairs, free from this meddlesome and 
 ignorant interference of English politicians, that parlia- 
 ment would be a failure. I believe it would be taken 
 from us again, and therefore I say I believe it would be 
 the height of unwisdom for Ireland to accept as a full 
 settlement of her claims anything less than a full, 
 honest and free parliament — though, of course, subject 
 to a constitutional veto." 
 
 Then by way of a final declaration of the future 
 
 tactics of the ParnelHte party, he said, " I have been for 
 
 eleven years in the English Parliament ; when I went in 
 
 there I joined a party of about a score of men. We 
 
 had the open hostility of every English party — Whigs, 
 
 Tories, Radicals, Conservatives, who, differing on every 
 
 point of policy, were always ready to unite against us ; 
 
 but if they were ready to unite against us, we put our 
 
 backs to the wall, and we fought each of them in turn, 
 
 and in the end we drove from power by our votes, first 
 
 the Tory party, then the Liberal party — we did it by 
 
 83 6* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 independence. Our power was not in our numbers — 
 twenty against six hundred. It lay in our absolute 
 disregard of any interests save the interests of Ireland ; 
 it lay in the fact that the English parties never knew 
 upon what side we would vote. We were independents, 
 and our votes always hung in the balance ; and I say 
 that our power as twenty men was greater far than 
 would be the power of eighty-six united Nationalists 
 who were prepared on the purely Irish question of the 
 Irish leadership to obey the orders of an English 
 statesman." 
 
 But far more important than either domestic squab- 
 bles or the American mission was the plea which 
 Mr. Redmond continually put forward, both during 
 Parnell's life and since his death, for an explicit pro- 
 nouncement from Gladstone. An opportunity offered 
 itself in an article he wrote in the October number 
 of the Nineteenth Century. In it he explained how he 
 had been attacked both by his former colleagues and 
 by the Liberals as merely trying to embarrass Glad- 
 stone. It was as if a common soldier wished to see 
 a general's plans, said Davitt. He admitted that the 
 Liberals had a perfect right to withhold the informa- 
 tion, but he maintained that if they did this it 
 would in no way advance the Home Rule question. 
 It had been withheld before the elections, it was 
 
 withheld still. They were to be offered a cut-and-dried 
 
 84 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 scheme to be accepted or rejected, and in such a 
 way the Irish question could never be settled. " For 
 my part," he continued, " I am of opinion that the 
 first essential to Mr. Gladstone's success in drafting a 
 satisfactory scheme of government for Ireland is for him 
 to know the views upon every vital point of all classes 
 and sections of Irishmen, and that no Home Rule 
 scheme can ever have any chance of acceptance by the 
 British people unless it satisfies the demand of Ireland 
 and thereby affords a final settlement of the international 
 question at issue." 
 
 The point was the very centre of the Parnellite 
 position. Had Gladstone given the deputations from 
 Room 15 a satisfactory assurance on this point Parnell 
 would probably have retired, at least for a time, from 
 public life. Both from an English and an Irish stand- 
 point John Redmond's plea was therefore perfectly 
 logical. It was hardly fair to expect the Irish party to 
 accept blindfold a nonworkable scheme ; it was likewise 
 manifestly unjust to expect the English party to rush 
 through a Home Rule Bill. Hence in either case it 
 was unwise to withhold the scheme from Imperial 
 discussion. A more undemocratic position could not be 
 conceived. " We do not ask for a repeal of the 
 Union," Mr. Redmond said ; "we ask for a readjust- 
 ment. In any case, a thorough discussion, not merely 
 in Parliament but in the country, of all the vital points 
 
 85 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 which affect an Irish Home Rule constitution is essential 
 to a final settlement of this great international question. 
 Ireland has nothing to fear from a full and free 
 discussion of her claims. Mr. Gladstone has, I believe, 
 nothing to fear from criticism of his scheme if it has 
 the one merit of being thorough in character. The 
 sooner, therefore, the discussion commences, the better ; 
 and it is with the object of stimulating a desire to 
 come at once to close quarters with this question that 
 I have penned these pages." 
 
 In this view he was not alone, for Lord Salisbury had 
 put the situation in a nutshell when he said, " Ireland 
 has been invited to meet her future fate much on the 
 terms on which a Turkish bridegroom is invited to 
 meet his bride : namely, that he shall not know her 
 features till the day the ceremony is to be performed " 
 — while Lord Londonderry, Viceroy of Ireland in the 
 first Unionist Administration, was rather inclined to 
 think Gladstone's reticence was because he intended 
 to take up a milk-and-water policy, in order not to 
 alarm English sympathizers, and be more sure of their 
 support of the new principle. This was what John 
 Redmond feared, and what made him adhere to the 
 Parnellite policy. 
 
 The able article on the "Readjustment of the Union" 
 was only the prelude to an able speech in the House 
 
 of Commons. From that moment the tone of the Press 
 
 86 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 changed towards the young member : he had made his 
 name. "The personal followers of Parnell," as Mr. 
 Herbert Paul notes in his " Political History of Eng- 
 land," "were almost wiped out by the elections — only 
 nine came back to Westminster, but among them was 
 their leader, one of the most powerful debaters in the 
 House of Commons." 
 
 " Redmond's speech was a revelation," wrote Sir 
 Henry Lucy, speaking of the two reputations which 
 had been established during one of the first nights 
 of the Session, " while Mr. Asquith's was a confirma- 
 tion and final establishment of a position the brilliant 
 capture of which has no parallel in modern parlia- 
 mentary history. It is only this Session Mr. John 
 Redmond has made his mark in the House," he 
 continues. " It was scored when he delivered a 
 brief speech on the Address, the House marvelling to 
 find what long steps he had taken since — in Mr. 
 Parnell's time — he occasionally filled his appointed part 
 in the task of prolonged debates. To-day he strode 
 into the front rank of parliamentary debaters. His 
 manner of delivery is excellent. He has a melodious 
 voice, perfectly under control. His diction is pure, free 
 from the gaudy colours which come natural to some of 
 his countrymen, and yet, as was shown towards the 
 end of his speech, capable of sustained flights of lofty 
 
 eloquence. These are matters of manner, and it is truer 
 
 87 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 in the House of Commons than anywhere that manner 
 makes a man. Mr. Redmond's oratorical style, as the 
 House discovered, is based upon a substratum of solid 
 knowledge, sound common sense and a statesmanlike 
 capacity to review a complicated situation. Circum- 
 stances happening within the past three months have 
 forced upon the leader of the small Parnellite party the 
 necessity of tacking ; those chiefly found amongst his 
 own countrymen, most fully acquainted with the 
 exigencies of the hour, were most fervid in their ad- 
 miration of the skill with which to-night the manoeuvre 
 was carried out." 
 
 When Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1893 was event- 
 ually brought in, it was found that what the Parnellite 
 leader most objected to in the Bill was exactly what 
 he had most dreaded — its want of finality. What its 
 opponents most objected to was also the want of finality. 
 But both meant different things by that " want of 
 finality." Mr. Chamberlain, who from the first fastened 
 upon the phrase, meant one thing : John Redmond 
 meant another ; and the debates became at times a 
 personal duel between them. It was upon the rock of 
 that misunderstanding Home Rule split. 
 
 The Redmondite position was, in constitutional 
 
 language, well defended. It was fought by Mr. 
 
 Chamberlain entirely as a scare. Its workable merits 
 
 and its essential principle were ignored : its " possible 
 
 88 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 possibilities" alone were dwelt on. It was an interesting 
 essay on government, this fight of the two great Im- 
 perialists. It was such a one as the elder Pitt and the 
 Tories must have had, or such as Fox and the younger 
 Pitt, as they debated a century before the great questions 
 of Imperial unity for Ireland and America. 
 
 The turning-point was Mr. Chamberlain's " imperial 
 scare " as Mr. Redmond pointed out, that they were 
 accepting the measure in bad faith and with an ultimate 
 view to separation. " I challenge anyone in this House," 
 Mr. Redmond exclaimed, " to quote a statement of mine 
 or any of those associated with me that so long as 
 we remain partners in the Empire at all, and so long as 
 the Act of Union remains unrepealed, the supremacy of 
 the Imperial Parliament is to be or can be abrogated. ■ 
 We have maintained that the concession of free institu- 
 tions in Ireland means that you have put trust in the 
 Irish people, and that the interference of this Parlia- 
 ment in the working of these institutions would be 
 absolutely inconsistent. Representative institutions exist 
 in other parts of the Empire. How many of them 
 would exist in six months if this House took it into 
 its head to exercise its right as a supreme legislature ? 
 . . . The concession of representative institutions to 
 Ireland means that you have made up your minds to 
 let us manage our own affairs free from the interference 
 
 of the Imperial Parliament. It is true the right 
 
 8g 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 honourable gentleman anticipates that the necessity for 
 interference by this Parliament will cease. That may 
 be — I think it will, for I am one of those who agree 
 with Mr. Parnell's opinion that the Irish people under 
 Home Rule will be shrewd enough to know that any 
 violation of the Constitution, or oppression by that 
 Parliament, will be so many nails driven into the 
 coffin of the Constitution, and I do not therefore think 
 that the occasion for interference will arise. If it does 
 arise, nothing we can say, nothing we can do, nothing 
 that you can put into an Act of Parliament now, so 
 long as the Union remains unrepealed, can deprive you 
 of the right to control the Irish Parliament as you can 
 control the Australian and Canadian Parliaments, and 
 to check the growth of oppression and injustice." 
 
 The second argument by which Home Rule was 
 fought — the clerical scare — was likewise well met, and 
 bears quoting as a statement of fact, rather than as 
 any personal animosity aroused by the Parnellite 
 conflict. 
 
 " You will understand me when I say that I am 
 
 likely to give impartial testimony on that matter," he 
 
 said, referring to the charge of undue priestly influence. 
 
 " It is true that in the political life of Ireland the 
 
 Catholic priesthood wield an enormously preponderating 
 
 power, but they wield it largely because of the character 
 
 of the struggle the people are waging. Still, I am 
 
 go 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 convinced as I am of my own existence that the politi- 
 cal power — the political supremacy, if you like — of the 
 Catholic clergy will not, if it is tried, be used success- 
 fully under a free parliament of the Irish people. Surely 
 the events of the past couple of years in Ireland, 
 instead of giving alarm to the Protestants, should give 
 them some encouragement. 
 
 " The honourable member for Londonderry said in his 
 speech the other night that I ought to be the last man 
 hi the House to say a word upon this subject. I say 
 there is no man in this House who has a better right to 
 speak on it. I and my comrades sit in this House as the 
 result of defeating the unanimous opposition of the priests 
 of Ireland. There is not one of us who was not opposed, 
 as I was, determinedly, consistently and unanimously by 
 the entire priesthood of Ireland. Only a few of us 
 have been returned, but I ask, when in the past history 
 of Ireland — even when the right honourable gentleman, 
 the member for West Birmingham, was thinking of 
 giving over education without restriction to the people 
 of Ireland — when, I ask, was such a spectacle afforded 
 as seventy thousand Catholic votes being recorded against 
 practically the open opposition of the whole body of 
 the priesthood of Ireland ? I say that it is in that spirit 
 of independence to clerical interference in political 
 matters the Protestants will find in the future their 
 best guarantee and safeguard." 
 
 91 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 He argued that from an internal economic standpoint 
 domestic autonomy should be granted : he showed that 
 according to all ethical standards the nation had a 
 moral right to it ; but he laid chief stress upon Home 
 Rule, not only as a national necessity, but as the very 
 strongest bond of Imperial democratic unity. 
 
 Once more Mr. Chamberlain became the special target. 
 
 " The right honourable member for West Birmingham 
 has another argument, that the Bill will lead to separa- 
 tion. He said that the Bill would change Ireland into 
 
 a foreign and hostile country It would be 
 
 well for them to consider, however, whether they could 
 make Ireland more foreign and hostile than it ad- 
 mittedly is at present. But in almost the same breath 
 in which he spoke of this Bill making Ireland a ' foreign ' 
 country, he said it would put her in the position of 
 Canada. Is Canada then a foreign country? The idea 
 is almost preposterous. But why should not Ireland be 
 put in the same position as Canada? 'Because,' 
 replies the right honourable gentleman, ' Canada is 
 friendly to the Empire and Ireland is not.'" His 
 answer to this was simply history — and certainly the 
 objection could not be better fought. 
 
 "In 1839 Canada was with difficulty held by force of 
 arms for the British crown. Canada was in open re- 
 bellion. Canada was at a distance from England — close 
 
 to a great republic which was certainly not unwilling to 
 
 92 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 incorporate the Canadian provinces with its States. 
 The experiment was tried of giving Canada Home Rule. 
 It has not disintegrated the Empire." 
 
 He then continued : 
 
 " The right honourable gentleman says Canada is only 
 held by a ' voluntary tie ' (though the most loyal in 
 its allegiance to the British Crown). But does the 
 right honourable gentleman, who is regarded as a 
 leader of democratic thought in this country, mean to 
 say he prefers a union based upon force, as the present 
 union with Ireland, to a union which rests upon the 
 will of the people? Edmund Burke said — 'A voluntary tie 
 is a more secure link of connection than subordination 
 borne with grudging and discontent.' So say we, and 
 so also, we believe, will say the democracy of England, 
 even though some of its so-called leaders refuse to 
 trust the people of Ireland." 
 
 Two points on the question of the Irish representation 
 at Westminster are worthy of note — the one that would 
 make Ireland a mere colony, and the one that would 
 give Home Rule to Ireland alone. 
 
 " As a Nationalist, I may say I do not regard as 
 entirely palatable the idea that for ever and a day 
 Ireland's voice should be excluded from the councils of 
 an Empire which the genius and valour of her sons 
 have done so much to build up, and of which she is 
 to remain a part." In support of the federal idea he 
 
 93 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 added : " I look forward to the day when the federal 
 idea may be applied to England, Scotland and Wales, 
 as well as Ireland. Then the character of the so- 
 called Imperial Parliament would be changed. It 
 would be then only an Imperial parliament and all the 
 kingdoms having their own national parliaments might 
 be represented in it. But if Ireland alone has a 
 parliament of her own . . . you must allow Irishmen 
 who had sole control of Irish affairs to interfere in, 
 and probably decide, English and Scotch affairs — an 
 obvious injustice." 
 
 The words are not insignificant in the present 
 crisis. Probably the young member never fancied that 
 he was to become the political dictator of England ; 
 but the idea of an Imperial parliament open to the 
 Colonies, which he thus presented, may yet find realiza- 
 tion in an assembly where a member for Dublin will 
 sit between a member from Calcutta and a member 
 from Sydney, in debating the fate of some great world 
 policy of to-morrow. 
 
 Whether Home Rule is a cohesive or disruptive 
 force was rather well brought out in an interruption 
 of Lord Arthur Hill's in the debate. " I would ask, 
 how is Ireland held now ? " exclaimed the speaker 
 rhetorically. "By force, of course," answered Lord 
 Arthur Hill. " I thank the honourable member for 
 the word," replied Redmond. " It is held by force ; but 
 
 94 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 does the present Bill propose to take away that force, 
 which, I presume, means the English army, navy and 
 police ? No ; it still leaves these forces under Imperial 
 control. But in addition to physical force you would 
 have working on the side of connection and against 
 separation the moral force springing from justice con- 
 ceded, which the English government of Ireland has 
 never yet had upon its side." 
 
 In conclusion he compared the mission of Mr. Morley 
 as Chief Secretary to that of Lord Fitzwilliam, before 
 the rebellion of '98 — when, in the words of Henry 
 Grattan, the noble lord was offering to the Empire the 
 affection of millions of hearts : 
 
 " I ask you," was the somewhat dramatic peroration, 
 " is the offering of the affection of millions of hearts 
 which the Prime Minister is to-day making to the 
 Empire to be rejected, as was the offering of Lord 
 Fitzwilliam ? One thing English politicians must make 
 up their minds about, and that is that this question 
 must be settled, and every moment of delay increases 
 the difficulties and dangers of the position. Every 
 speech conceived in a bitter spirit, by either Irishmen 
 or Englishmen, must tend to increase the evils and 
 dangers of the moment. The spirit in which the Prime 
 Minister has addressed himself to the question and the 
 spirit of large-heartedness and justice which he exhibited 
 has called forth a responsive feeling in the breasts of 
 
 95 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 the Irish people right round the world. If that be the 
 spirit in which Englishmen address themselves to the 
 consideration of this question, then I have some hope 
 for the near future of Ireland. But if passion and 
 prejudice, if forgetfulness of the history of Ireland and 
 impatience of her faults are allowed once again to sway 
 the public mind and to influence Parliament, I confess I 
 cannot look forward to the near future without the 
 gravest apprehension. Should calamity follow an unwise 
 and hasty rejection of this Bill, we, at any rate, will not 
 be responsible, for we will allow no act or word of ours 
 to intensify the dangers and difficulties of the situation. 
 We make our appeal to-day to the newly enfranchised 
 democracy of England. Eternal will be its recompense 
 if its first great work after achieving its own enfranchise- 
 ment should be to fill up the gulf of hatred and distrust 
 which for so long a time has divided the two nations, 
 by a just and a wise concession to that national sentiment 
 in Ireland which, however some Englishmen may affect 
 to deride it, has yet dominated Irish character for seven 
 centuries, and must be recognized and respected if Ireland 
 is ever to become, as I fervently pray she may soon 
 become, a peaceful, free and contented nation." 
 
 Such, then, was the programme of the man upon whom 
 Parnell's mantle had fallen. At times it seemed as if 
 the ghost of the dead leader hovered over the assembly, 
 
 as effort after effort to model the Bill failed, and as 
 
 96 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 restriction after restriction reduced it by degrees from 
 its original greatness of conception. Again and again 
 Redmond protested : again and again his colleagues 
 submitted ; but throughout, while he maintained that it 
 was intended to grow like every constitution under 
 English rule, his aims were distorted into a kind of 
 suppressed treason. In spite of the explicit words in 
 the preamble, " without impairing or restricting the 
 supremacy a legislature shall be created," Mr. Chamber- 
 lain maintained the supremacy was merely " the baseless 
 fabric of a vision." " Even if there were no temporary 
 provisions in this Bill, even if it were in the mind and 
 view of the Government a final settlement, what could 
 we say after the significant and remarkable speech that 
 was made the other day by the honourable member for 
 Waterford ? " That speech contained the following per- 
 oration, in which he said that, though he would vote for 
 it, it was only because, like a toad, it bore a precious 
 jewel in its head. 
 
 " We have endeavoured," he said, *' using such 
 opportunities as were open to us, so to mould the Bill 
 that it would satisfy what we considered to be the 
 necessary conditions of a reasonable settlement of the 
 question. I regret now, at the end of this discussion, 
 to think that every single effort of ours in that direction 
 failed. Those portions of the Bill which we regarded 
 as objectionable and dangerous we voted against, but 
 
 97 7 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 our votes were overborne ; those portions which we 
 considered faulty and defective we endeavoured to 
 amend, and again our amendments were rejected by 
 the Government and by the overwhelming majority of 
 the House. The changes which have been made in the 
 Bill are, in my opinion, changes which, on the whole, 
 are for the worse and not for the better. 
 
 "As the Bill now stands, I maintain that no man 
 in his senses can any longer regard it either as a 
 full, a final, or a satisfactory settlement of the Irish 
 Nationalist question. The word ' provisional ' has, so to 
 speak, been stamped ^ in red ink across every page of 
 the Bill. 
 
 " No man can clairr^ that such partial and restricted 
 powers as are conferred by this Bill can by any human 
 ingenuity be invested with any element of finality." 
 
 It was on the misunderstanding, therefore, of a term 
 which, had it been submitted to the electorate, could 
 have been thrashed out till every possible misconcep- 
 tion had been eliminated, that the Home Rule Bill 
 was wrecked. The onslaught had put an axe into the 
 hands of every opponent of the Bill, and by the time 
 it came back, not the word "provisional," but the word 
 " dead " was stamped across it : and another generation 
 had to pass before it could be revived. 
 
 It was in the nature of every constitution to develop, 
 
 Mr. Redmond had explained, and if Ireland showed a 
 
 98 
 
THE HOME RULE BILL 
 
 capacity for self-government it was bound to grow 
 with the consent of England. Even were he to have 
 given the guarantee required, it would not have been 
 worth the paper it was written on, for as long as the 
 Imperial Parliament remained supreme, the Irish Parlia- 
 ment could never pass immutable laws. But if that 
 guarantee was thought to be refused from motives of 
 bad faith, or that they were actuated by designs hostile 
 to the English Government, he for his part disclaimed 
 any such intention. 
 
 99 7* 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE INDEPENDENT 
 1893 — IQOO 
 
 n^HE failure of the Home Rule Bill and the im- 
 possibility of fighting the House of Lords on an 
 Irish issue, made politicians pause awhile. Two things 
 in particular, however, called for attention. The one was 
 the land question, the other that of the political prisoners, 
 in both of which cases the active spirits of the Red- 
 mondites acted as a spur to the policy of those who, as 
 Mr. O'Brien had observed, " did not wish to harass Mr. 
 Gladstone into his grave " — a phrase which was rather 
 incriminating, if used retrospectively. 
 
 The land question was really as important as the 
 Home Rule question, but perfectly distinct ; and speaking 
 in New York the year before, John Redmond had pleaded 
 for an instant settlement of the case of the evicted 
 tenants. " That Irish question," as he told his hearers, 
 "which in one shape or another has been the cause of 
 almost every man and woman in this hall, or their 
 fathers before them, leaving the shores of their country 
 
 — that land question which has driven the Irish race 
 
 100 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 all over the world, and which has meant starvation 
 and ruin and degradation and crime for our people ! " 
 That the matter was urgent can be seen from the 
 words of John Dillon, who, some months later, said : 
 "If the Tories ever get back to power before we 
 get Home Rule, there will be the greatest land 
 agitation that has ever been seen." 
 
 The amnesty question was a plea for the release of 
 the political prisoners. John Redmond was not him- 
 self in favour of their methods : he denounced them 
 as foolish, because not calculated to attain their end, 
 but at the same time he paid them the tribute of 
 respect : 
 
 " He would never," he said, " himself find fault with 
 an Irishman, however extreme his methods, if he had 
 suffered for his devotion to the national cause." In- 
 deed he did not stop to consider whether they were 
 guilty or innocent, considering that Gladstone had him- 
 self admitted that it was due to them that Ireland 
 owed the present attention to her wrongs. Neither a 
 release nor a special inquiry followed ; but he gained 
 his point in establishing the difference between a 
 criminal and a political prisoner. " How is it," he 
 said, " that England has never found any difficulty in 
 deciding what a political offender is when she is 
 dealing with other nations, but in her dealings with 
 
 Ireland she has never been able to make the 
 
 loi 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 admission that there is any such thing as a political 
 prisoner at all?" It was an important point, and he 
 cited examples showing how England prided herself 
 on being the sanctuary of the world, how she had 
 welcomed Garibaldi, and even on such an act as the 
 Orsini outrage The Times had written : " A conspirator 
 against a despotic ruler who himself had seized the 
 throne, and against whom craft and violence, if not 
 justifiable, were at least not to be classed with the 
 guilt of common murder." 
 
 It must also be remembered that Mr. Redmond him- 
 self had been classed as a criminal. " I remember when 
 Mr. Balfour did me the honour of sending me to prison 
 for a speech which he did not approve of, he said I 
 was not a political prisoner, and I was treated in 
 prison exactly the same as a pickpocket or an ordinary 
 criminal." 
 
 The pleading was not without its effect upon public 
 opinion, for when a deputation, including the Lord Mayor 
 of Dublin, called upon Mr. Morley, the Chief Secretary, 
 the latter said, referring to the way the French had 
 amnestied the Communards and the Americans the Se- 
 cessionists : " Are the only people in the world for whom 
 there is to be no amnesty, no act of oblivion, to be 
 Irishmen whose only fault has been that they have used 
 their talents for the benefit of their countrymen, and done 
 the best they could to raise up the miserable, oppressed 
 
 103 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 and down-trodden people of their own country? I 
 assure you, at least one great party is anxious for an 
 amnesty and an act of oblivion on your part and on 
 ours." 
 
 Meanwhile things were progressing in England, and 
 the sudden announcement of Gladstone's resignation still 
 further divided the two Irish parties. The Freeman tried 
 hard to convince its readers that the change in the 
 Liberal party was merely one of persons, not of policy, 
 and that Lord Rosebery was merely Gladstone's 
 nominee. Not so the Parnellite organ, which bitterly 
 complained that this change meant the indefinite hang- 
 ing-up of the Home Rule programme, and the Red- 
 mondites issued the following manifesto : 
 
 " As if in mockery of the hopes that were excited 
 in Ireland, the Prime Minister, whose continuance in 
 office was the pledge of Home Rule, is cast aside, and 
 a member of the House of Lords appointed in his 
 stead. In Lord Rosebery and his present Cabinet we 
 can have no confidence, and we warn our fellow country- 
 men to have none : they will concede just as much to 
 Ireland as she extorts by organization among her 
 people and absolute unfettered independence of English 
 parties in her representatives . , . and we call upon 
 you no longer to tolerate a policy of national sub- 
 serviency to English party interests, but to carry on, 
 
 if necessary, the bitter struggle with both English parties 
 
 103 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 rather than continue to be the scorn of one and the 
 deluded dupe of the other." 
 
 On April 8, John Redmond at a meeting in Dublin 
 declared his policy. " The Irish party was," he said, 
 " face to face with the ruin of the Home Rule cause and 
 was in a position of disunion, squalid and humiliating 
 personal altercations, and petty vanities. So that any 
 measure of national autonomy must be hung up till 
 the English cared to give it." 
 
 The manifesto was strong as a prophecy : it is mild 
 as a retrospect ; for time has confirmed the Parnellite 
 leader's intuition. Two years before, speaking at 
 Dublin on St. Patrick's Day, he had warned the 
 country against a policy of trust with Ireland's leader 
 gone, and not a single man left with his qualities. It 
 was bad enough to have misunderstanding without pro- 
 crastination : now they were to have both, for, as Sir 
 William Harcourt had said : " While the Liberal party 
 were still in favour of Home Rule, neither they nor he 
 believed the people of England would ever grant Mr. 
 Parnell's Fenian Home Rule." The Roseberyites did not 
 even wish to give Gladstone's ; at least until the English 
 electorate had been converted. The Redmondite policy 
 was that the wounds of the country should be healed 
 then and there ; that delay could only mean a slow 
 bleeding to death ; that the remedy had been admitted 
 
 by experts, and that the courageous policy which a 
 
 104 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 physician would adopt in such circumstances would be 
 to save his patient, as he alone knew how, without 
 first careering round the country trying to interest or 
 convince every passer-by. 
 
 All the while parties in Ireland were still squab- 
 bling : some exclaiming against the " Bosses " of the 
 more numerous party : Mr. Healy protesting against 
 " Machined conventions " and declaring that they " could 
 no more have a treaty with the Parnellites than with 
 the Orangemen," while Mr. Davitt was trying to get 
 rid of Mr. Healy, whom he accused of ambition by 
 saying that worse things could happen to the national 
 cause than .ne return of such a political prodigal son 
 to the fold of factionism, meaning, of course, the Red- 
 mondites. 
 
 Above the din of such heartrending vituperation, and 
 as if to remind all of the great days when the chief led 
 his serried ranks to battle, came John Redmond's sum- 
 mons to celebrate the anniversary of Parnell's death. 
 Some thirty thousand, all wearing the ivy leaf, a fitting 
 emblem of the cause, visited the tomb at Glasnevin, but 
 no one tried to estimate the crowds in Dublin. What 
 was chiefly remarkable, however, was the change in the 
 attitude of the clergy, whose anger had abated, and 
 who, it was generally thought, would in the next elec- 
 tion be absolutely neutral as between the two sections 
 of the Nationalists. 
 
 105 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 There were no speeches by the graveside or on the 
 day ; but the scene of this pilgrimage of reparation 
 spoke for itself. The chief was at last avenged, and as 
 John Redmond and the little Parnellite group wended 
 their way through the crowded streets they must have 
 gone back many times in thought to that Committee 
 Room where the first blow had been struck that felled 
 the leader and the cause as with one blow. 
 
 Perhaps the words of his own speech may have been 
 ringing in their minds : " Let no man in the room foolishly 
 believe that if this debate is carried to a close," he had 
 said, " the matter is going to end here. My belief is that 
 in the moment when by an adverse vote of this party 
 you succeed in driving Mr. Parnell from the chair, and 
 attempt to drive him out of public life and trample him 
 underfoot, that very moment the Irish race throughout 
 the world will be rent in twain, and division will be 
 created. 
 
 " I assert my belief that the dethronement of Mr. 
 Parnell will be the signal for the kindling of the 
 fires of dissension in every land where a man of the 
 Irish race has found a home. It is because I look 
 forward with dread and horror to that future, that I 
 have taken my stand so firmly by your side, Mr. 
 Parnell. I believe that the one hope of safety for Ire- 
 land and the Home Rule cause is that you should 
 
 remain at your post or else abdicate your post, having 
 
 io6 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 obtained for Ireland security for the settlement of the 
 question." 
 
 The Dublin correspondent of The IHmes, indeed, seemed 
 to endorse the prophecy. " The demonstration seemed to 
 be marked with a tone of despair," he wrote, describing 
 the proceedings in Dublin; "it was the tribute of bitter 
 sorrow for the loss of the only chief who could have 
 made Home Rule successful and who now lay buried 
 in his tomb. There was no reason to doubt the sin- 
 cerity and significance of the monster pilgrimage, but 
 who can be so sanguine as to suppose that it can have 
 any more practical use in reviving Home Rule than the 
 wailing of the Jews in the restoration of Jerusalem ? " 
 In this he was wrong, for when, next day, the Parnellite 
 leader, while he mourned that Home Rule had abso- 
 lutely disappeared from the list of urgent Imperial politi- 
 cal questions, pointed to the hopeless state of divided 
 Ireland, and said that they had no man as leader fit 
 to combine the various elements of their race, "a 
 voice " in the audience exclaimed " Yourself," and for 
 a moment there was an interruption of prolonged 
 cheers. 
 
 But this was not to be for years, not till the party 
 had lost all power to influence English thought, and 
 till a noble self-sacrifice upon the part of every single 
 member, and mostly upon the part of John Dillon, laid 
 
 open the way for a general return to a united party 
 
 107 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 and policy which more than atoned for the bitter 
 dissensions of the past. 
 
 But the revival of Parnellism was not merely a 
 sentimental renaissance of the national idea which had 
 been sadly impaired by the fight between the church- 
 men and parliamentarians. Parnell had met his death 
 not so much by Brutus' dagger as by a bishop's 
 crozier. Redmond, as his successor, became, as it was 
 said, the " anti-clerical par exxellencer The term is 
 misleading and its elucidation all-important. 
 
 It was thought that at bottom the bishops had 
 been influenced, perhaps unconsciously, by the Unionists 
 in prolonging, if not in starting, the antagonism to 
 Parnell and Parnellite ideas. The idea was not entirely 
 without foundation. As early as October 14th, 1885, 
 Lord Randolph Churchill had proposed to rule 
 Ireland by the bishops, and in a letter to Lord Salis- 
 bury had said, "It is the bishops entirely to whom I 
 look in future to mitigate or postpone the Home Rule 
 onslaught. Let us only be able to occupy a year with 
 the education question. By that time, I am certain, 
 Parnell's party will have become more seriously dis- 
 integrated. Personal jealousies, Government influences, 
 Davitt and Fenian intrigues will be at work on the 
 devoted band of eighty. The bishops, who in their 
 hearts hate Parnell and don't care a scrap for Home 
 
 Rule, having safely acquired control of Irish education, 
 
 108 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 will, according to my calculation, complete the rout. 
 This is my policy, and I know it is good and 
 sound and the only Tory policy." About forty years 
 previous to this, in 1844, Charles Greville had ventured 
 to suggest the same policy, to separate the priests 
 from O'Connell, and thus deprive him of half his 
 power, by getting them under the influence of the 
 Government. 
 
 But, throughout, there had been a steady opposition to 
 this policy both in England and Ireland. " If we want 
 to hold Ireland by force let us do it ourselves : let 
 us not call in the Pope, whom we are always attacking, 
 to help us," had said the Radical member for New- 
 castle, while the opposition to Mr. Errington's secret 
 mission to Rome was furthur evidence of the 
 unpopularity of the attempt. In 1888 a meeting at 
 which some forty Catholic members of Parliament were 
 present had passed the famous resolution that " Irish 
 Catholics can recognize no right in the Holy See to 
 interfere with the Irish people in the management of 
 their own political affairs " — another lay protest which 
 rather resembled in tone that of Sir Wilfred Laurier, 
 when he fought so successfully for the exclusion of the 
 Canadian hierarchy from politics. In Ireland the battle 
 begun over Parnell was continued long after his death, 
 and the whole fury was centred for a time on John 
 
 Redmond and his little band, which in one General 
 
 109 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 election was reduced from 29 to 9 ; and a good 
 specimen of the style of thing a Catholic Parnellite had 
 to face, taken from Bishop Nulty's pastoral, may be 
 given to show the success of the Tory policy. 
 
 " Parnellism saps at the very root and strikes at the 
 very foundation of Catholic faith, " it ran. " Parnellism, 
 like many great rebellious movements which heresy has 
 from time to time raised against the Church, springs 
 from the root of sensualism and sin. No man can 
 remain a Catholic as long as he elects to cling to Par- 
 nellism. The dying Parnellite himself will hardly dare 
 to face the justice of his Maker till he has been pre- 
 pared and anointed by us for the last awful struggle 
 and the terrible judgment that will immediately follow 
 it. I earnestly implore you, then, dearly beloved, to 
 stamp out by your votes at the coming election the great 
 moral, social, religious evil which has brought about so 
 much disunion and bad blood amongst a hitherto united 
 people." Indeed, Parnellites were often excluded from 
 Mass and the sacraments, and it is a wonder, as some- 
 one had said, the whole following of Parnell did not 
 belch forth a Catholicism presented in such a distorted 
 and loathsome form. 
 
 The controversy was a heated one as the Parnellites 
 
 and McCarthyites defined their positions ; but John 
 
 Redmond, the leader, was throughout more unclerical 
 
 than anti-clerical. " Parnell's leadership is a political 
 
 no 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 question, we admit," would say the bishops ; " but in this 
 case we forbid you to have him on moral groundsi." 
 " We fail to see the moral relevance of a political leader- 
 ship," would reply the other party ; " but, in any case, 
 we only have him on the grounds of political necessity." 
 " We, as pastors of the Catholic nation, have a right 
 to direct politics," exclaimed the bishops. "We, as 
 Nationalists, recognize no religious interference in 
 politics," replied the others. In fact, Mr. Parnell was 
 to the Irish Catholic bishops what Mr. Bradlaugh was 
 to the Protestant Anglican members of Parliament. 
 The only difference was, that one had committed a 
 dogmatic and the other a moral crime ; but in both 
 cases John Redmond could only see a confusion of 
 ideas in thus trying to deduce a political incapacity 
 from a moral fault and in not making a distinction 
 which has been made times out of number by the 
 Popes in their dealings with the sovereigns of the 
 world. 
 
 Such denunciations of a political cause purely from 
 the personal delinquency of a leader could only have 
 been tolerated in the Middle Ages, it had been thought. 
 It would have excited much merriment as a joke had the 
 gay courtiers of Louis XIV. awakened one morning to 
 find that the whole Bourbon dynasty had been declared 
 incapable of sitting on the throne of France by the 
 
 Pope, owing to some Versailles scandal. All England 
 
 III 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 would certainly have torn the man to pieces who would 
 have ventured to propose the recall of Nelson on the 
 eve of Trafalgar on the plea that the national honour 
 required it, because a letter of intrigue with Lady 
 Hamilton had been found dropped by him at a Ports- 
 mouth tavern. In Ireland it left men dumb with sur- 
 prise ; but throughout England it was greeted with a 
 shout of Unionist triumph, for it proved that English- 
 men could now rule by the bishops, as Lord Randolph 
 Churchill had always maintained. Mr. Justice O'Brien, 
 in a judgment in an election petition, declared the Church 
 to be then nothing more than a vast political agency ; 
 while the organ of the Redmondites remarked that 
 " they were influenced by the conviction that such 
 action as the bishop and clergy are now judicially 
 declared to have pursued in South Meath constituted an 
 imminent and deadly peril to the cause of Home Rule." 
 This was in the year of Parnell's death ; the next 
 year proved it ; but in the meanwhile the controversy 
 raged on. 
 
 It was in vain that it was pointed out that the 
 Roman Catholic Archbishop had welcomed Mr. Morley, 
 the politician, to Ireland, much as he deplored the 
 infidel. In was in vain Boulanger was pointed out as 
 an example of Catholics making a legitimate political 
 use of a man of dubious private life. It was answered 
 
 that any stick was good enough to beat a ministerial 
 
 112 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 dog with. Even the Weekly Register, which had never 
 cared for Parnell — the heretic whom three of their lord- 
 ships had always thought unfit to be a leader — declared, 
 " We know of no law which forbids men to avail them- 
 selves of the political services of persons of evil conduct 
 or heretical belief," and maintained, "We should as little 
 suspect a Catholic voter of breaking the sixth command- 
 ment because he supports Mr. Parnell as we should 
 attribute to a Catholic voter for Mr. Morley a worship of 
 Mirabeau." Michael Davitt's protest, not concerned with 
 the ethical so much as the political aspect, struck the 
 keynote of the situation when he said : " I contend that 
 the humblest voter in our land has the right, as against 
 the entire hierarchy and priesthood of Ireland, and the 
 whole Church, to the formation of his own political views 
 and the free exercise of the franchise which the law 
 confers upon him." 
 
 But quite apart from these speculations, John Redmond 
 maintained, from quite a different point of view, that this 
 clerical interference was killing Home Rule in English 
 public opinion. In this he spoke as a statesman, for he 
 saw its effect would be disastrous upon the great masses 
 of the English electorate. Nor was he wrong, to judge 
 from a speech made by Lord Salisbury. " Can you 
 imagine," he said {^Weekly Register, Report, 1892), "the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury summoning his parishioners 
 and resolving that there should be a change in the 
 
 113 8 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 leadership of the Conservative party." The suggestion 
 was greeted with laughter, but it was a serious matter, 
 as he went on to observe because it brought home this 
 to the English electorate, that they were being asked to 
 place Ireland under a hybrid secular-ecclesiastical power, 
 and in so placing Ireland, place their Protestant fellow- 
 countrymen, who undoubtedly would receive no considera- 
 tion from this novel and monstrous authority. It was in 
 vain that, when the Parnellite leader returned to Parlia- 
 ment with his followers, elected by 70,000 voters, he tried 
 to reassure the opponents of Home Rule against the 
 Rome Rule scare ; the fact of his own diminished ranks 
 spoke against his contention. 
 
 Throughout, it was the Unionist policy to keep down 
 Parnellism through the priests if possible, while even 
 among Catholics, a large Unionist protest signed by the 
 Duke of Norfolk and most of the leading Catholic 
 peers against Home Rule was based entirely upon the 
 fear that a Home Rule Parliament might limit the 
 clerical power. " We believe," it concluded, " that under 
 these circumstances a section of the Irish people would 
 be brought into conflict with the Church, and we cannot 
 look forward to such a struggle without the gravest 
 apprehension ; and for this, among other reasons, we as 
 British Catholics, are opposed to the policy of Home 
 Rule." It was probably such considerations that dictated 
 
 the thorough policy of the Redmondites by which the 
 
 114 . 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 country should become truly national — viz., that nothing 
 short of an independent parliament could put an end to 
 such an abuse, and that the national idea of unity alone 
 could put a stop to sectarian dissensions. 
 
 In spite of the controversy that raged, weakening the 
 party almost to death, there were not wanting, however, 
 signs of vigour. In fact, the very bitterness of the 
 struggle towards reunion was in itself a testimony to 
 the Parnellite policy and the Anti-Parnellite sincerity. 
 Another sign of health was the formation of the Recess 
 Committee — the beginnings of the agricultural move- 
 ment under Sir Horace Plunket, in which effort he 
 was very sympathetically met by John Redmond until 
 an anti-Home Rule policy was supposed to be dis- 
 covered in it. But year in and year out the fight for 
 unity went on, Mr. McCarthy saying that unless they 
 reunited they must give up Home Rule for a genera- 
 tion, while Dr. Kenny still kept up the original con- 
 troversy that the Irish bishops had accepted the dicta- 
 tion of the English conscience. This was somewhat a 
 propos, as it was Unionist policy to try to secure the 
 political allegiance of the hierarchy by giving them 
 doles of educational concessions. Thus a union with 
 the Unionist Government eventually left them with 
 nothing but promises. Redmond's policy, on the con- 
 trary, was all for an absolute independence of British 
 parties in Parliament and by persistent opposition to 
 
 115 8* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 extort the Catholic University Bill they so much 
 desired. 
 
 In 1896 Mr. Justin McCarthy resigned the Chairman- 
 ship of the Anti-Parnellite section of the Irish Party. It 
 was expected the leadership would fall on Sexton, but, 
 instead, he retired from Parliament to become manager 
 of the Freeman, where he has since acted as the brain 
 of the party. The election of Dillon by 38 against 21 
 showed that the wounds were still open. One important 
 attempt at reunion was made by the convention of the 
 Irish race from all parts of the world, which met in 
 Dublin, but it was for the most part dominated by the 
 Bishop of Raphoe's speech on Financial Relations, while 
 the only resolution which might have led the way to 
 unity, Father Flynn's, proposing to build a golden 
 bridge to admit the Parnellites and Mr. T. M. Healy, 
 who was now also ostracized by the Anti-Parnellites, was 
 scouted as a delay — and delay, said the meeting, spelt 
 damnation. 
 
 Nevertheless, on the third day, a resolution to 
 adopt an active policy and abandon all alliances with 
 English parties was in itself a tribute to the policy of 
 the Redmondites, whose first principle it thus accepted. 
 It was not without cause, therefore, that the ParnelHte 
 leader resented the withdrawal of the olive branch 
 offered to them. As to Mr. Healy's party excommuni- 
 cation, it reminded him of the " Ingoldsby Legends," he 
 
 116 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 said, the "political Jackdaw of Rheims " having with 
 bell, book and candle been subjected to every curse, 
 but his feathers seeming never one whit the worse. 
 
 The next year, 1897, he proposed his own plan — that 
 if disunited as parties, they could at least be one in 
 policy. For this he proposed at the Mansion House, 
 towards the beginning of the year, the foundation of an 
 Association of Independent Nationalists, with the follow- 
 ing aims: (i) National self-government; (2) Full civil 
 and religious liberty ; (3) Independence of all English 
 parties ; (4) Manhood suffrage ; (5) Redress of Irish finan- 
 cial grievances ; (6) Amnesty ; (7) Land law reform and 
 the development of Irish resources. It is true that, even 
 if united, the party would not have been sufficiently 
 numerous to turn the scale in Parliament, but public 
 opinion, at least, would not be so demoralized. But 
 even this was not taken up with avidity, and towards 
 the end of the year we find him expressing the fear 
 that 1898 — the centenary year of the great Irish re- 
 bellion against British rule — would dawn over a weak, 
 divided and demoralized people. 
 
 Two great events, however, characterized these years. 
 The first was the Local Government Act : the second 
 was the report of the Financial Relations Commission. 
 
 The supposed business incapacity of Irishmen had been 
 
 one of the factors in the defeat of the Home Rule Bill 
 
 of 1886, and Lord Salisbury had looked upon Local 
 
 117 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Government as worse than Home Rule. It was tried as 
 an experiment and proved a tremendous success — as John 
 Redmond said years later. " It was not a half measure. 
 It conferred full and complete control on Irishmen — as 
 fully and as completely as was conferred on the Eng- 
 lish people. It worked a social revolution : it com- 
 pletely disestablished the old ascendancy class from its 
 position of power and made the mass of the Irish 
 people masters of all the finance and all the local 
 affairs of Ireland," and in principle was the greatest 
 tribute to the feasibility of that full measure of 
 National self-government which has ever been ad- 
 vocated by John Redmond as the only possible solu- 
 tion of the Irish question. 
 
 The second great event was the report of the Finan- 
 cial Relations Commission, signed by John Redmond, 
 among others, which established beyond dispute the 
 fact that Ireland had been regularly taxed over 
 ;^2,50o,ooo a year beyond her share. This had always 
 been his own contention, and he formed one of the 
 leading men in favour of an All Ireland movement in 
 favour of remedying the grievance. An Irish Financial 
 Reform League was started, but with no great success, 
 for in the discussion of every Budget for ten years in 
 the House of Commons Mr. Redmond has had to repeat 
 the same protest. 
 
 After 1898 the Government, embarrassed by a con- 
 
 118 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 tiniious and persistent Opposition, began to go back to 
 that state of academic sympathy with the Irish demand 
 of the days of Isaac Butt, from which Parnell had raised 
 it. Mr. Balfour had declared a short time before that it 
 filled him with dismay that Parliament should tamely 
 acquiesce in a state of things which practically deprived 
 two-thirds of the population of Ireland of higher edu- 
 cational facilities. It became evident that no initiative 
 would be taken, and as there was no strong party to 
 compel it, this fact became one of the most potent 
 causes which accelerated the movement towards unity in 
 Ireland. 
 
 "The announcement by the Duke of Devonshire," 
 wrote the Guardian shortly after that event, " that no 
 bill dealing with the Irish University question is to be 
 expected from the present Cabinet, will give sincere 
 pleasure to the Opposition. This is a statement which 
 cuts from under the feet of Unionists their strongest 
 argument against Home Rule, and it exhibits the Govern- 
 ment in the unenviable light of yielding to the most 
 illiberal and prejudiced sections of their own supporters. 
 What the Duke of Devonshire has now done, is to 
 make many Unionists feel that the refusal to give Irish 
 Roman Catholics a University, falsifies their main con- 
 tention since 1886. We do Ireland no wrong, they have 
 said, by denying her a Parliament of her own, because 
 
 all that a Parliament of her own could justly do for her, 
 
 119 
 
JOHNjiREDMOND 
 
 can and will be done for her by the Imperial Parliament. 
 If the Duke of Devonshire's reading of Ministerial 
 intentions proves true, Unionists can say this no 
 longer." 
 
 As the grievance was acknowledged and not redressed, 
 it was evident that nothing but the old battering-ram 
 policy would avail, and here came Redmond's chance. 
 Not only had the party to be reunited, but a leader had 
 to be found who could harmonize all the discordant fac- 
 tions. The situation called for a man ; accordingly a 
 man had to be found. An Irish Unity Conference met 
 in Dublin in April, 1899. Again John Redmond proposed 
 a previous interchange of opinion as to the nature of 
 the new unity. By some misunderstandings and delay of 
 letters he could not avail himself of the invitation to 
 the Conference. Accordingly one of the most important 
 elements, namely, the representation of all parties, was 
 wanting in the Conference, and though some papers de- 
 scribed it as having arrived at its decisions with remarkable 
 celerity, the Press on the whole was pessimistic. " It is 
 doubtful whether the proposals for a reunion of the 
 Nationalist faction in Ireland were ever seriously meant," 
 wrote The Times. " At any rate, the conference which 
 was held yesterday resulted in a complete and ignomi- 
 nious fiasco. There is no reason to believe that reunion 
 in any true sense of the word was even conceivable, and 
 
 in any case, the conduct of the negotiations by the majority 
 
 120 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 made it evident that the offer to put aside personal 
 quarrels was a sham." 
 
 The passage is at least a valuable document of testi- 
 mony to the difficulties the Irish members had to face 
 and likewise to the spirit of self-sacrifice and persever- 
 ance which characterized the leaders. There were, how- 
 ever, other forces at work in the direction of consolida- 
 tion, among which may be numbered the proposed re- 
 distribution of Parliamentary seats, which, according to 
 the Unionist scheme, would have reduced the Irish 
 party from 103 to 74. Another factor which The Times 
 had not reckoned with was the deep spirit of patriotism 
 which in all their differences had actuated Irish leaders. 
 This was seen in the noble self-sacrifice by which John 
 Dillon resigned the leadership : for in moving th<e ad- 
 journment of the election of the Chairman in the first 
 week of February, 1899, he said: 
 
 " I move this resolution with a desire to clear the 
 ground as far as may be for the work of reuniting the 
 Irish Nationalist representatives, and in order to bring 
 the party into line with what is undoubtedly the over- 
 whelming sentiment of Ireland — the wish to see the Irish 
 Nationalist representatives in the House of Commons 
 reunited into one party on the lines of the Parnellite 
 party, as it existed from 1885 to 1890. I wish to state, 
 therefore, that I shall not be a candidate nor allow my 
 
 name to be proposed for any office, in this or any other 
 
 121 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Irish party, during the continuance of the present Parlia- 
 ment, and I trust that it will be felt that by adopting 
 this course I am doing all in my power to promote 
 that union of the Nationalist forces upon which Ireland 
 has set her heart." 
 
 The words were in every way worthy of the situation 
 and of the man, but their effect was not instantaneous. 
 The Rev. John FitzPatrick, a priest resident in Nice, 
 seeing an impending deadlock, wrote as a friend of Sir 
 Charles Gavan Duffy that the three leaders of separate 
 wings, Dillon, Redmond and Healy, should employ that 
 veteran Irishman as arbitrator of their differences. 
 John Redmond accepted, but suggested a preliminary 
 conference of the representatives of each party to discuss 
 the basis of union. J. Dillon, who had done all in his 
 power to bring about unity, was somewhat annoyed, ex- 
 pressing the disgust of the people of Ireland at the delay 
 rather vehemently. A suggestion that Redmond should 
 become leader for 1901 and Dillon for 1902, lest either 
 should be allowed to exercise too much influence upon 
 their fellows, survives as a political curiosity. Mr. Blake 
 wrote to William O'Brien to allow the people of Ireland, 
 through the United Irish League, to settle the squabble 
 of the members ; while Michael Davitt, in despair of ulti- 
 mate success, feared that reunion would only mean that 
 the whims of the leaders would prevail instead of the 
 
 wishes of the people. The publication of correspondence 
 
 122 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 in self-defence by Mr. Dillon and Mn Redmond, however, 
 revealed the wisdom of a policy of a previous conference, 
 Mr. Healy saying that he would certainly join in any 
 request to convene his own party, and that John 
 Redmond's suggestion had a practical ring about it. 
 
 Towards the autumn a not insignificant event in John 
 Redmond's favour was a public invitation on the part 
 of the New York Irish authorities to himself and the 
 Lord Mayor of Dublin to visit the American capital, 
 thus selecting, as it were, the chief of the civic and the 
 parliamentary representatives of Nationalist Ireland. 
 
 About the same time the further publication of corre- 
 spondence between John Redmond and Healy seemed for 
 the moment to throw the odium of failure of negotiations 
 upon John Dillon's shoulders and make Mr. Healy 
 appear one of the most ardent for conciliation, and 
 on the whole to prove the absolute necessity of the 
 preliminary conference John Redmond had always 
 suggested. 
 
 " In case your advances are again repulsed," wrote Mr. 
 
 Healy in one letter to Mr. Redmond, " you may at least 
 
 find consolation in the knowledge that the Irish people 
 
 who are now said to have undertaken for themselves the 
 
 task of restoring unity, will then be better able to judge 
 
 of the sincerity of some of their adjutants. For my own 
 
 part, such a rebuff would make me willing, if necessary 
 
 to join with any of the rank and file in a call for a 
 
 123 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 convention of the Irish people to consider the situation 
 and provide for the future." 
 
 Mr. Redmond accepted the suggestion to lay the case 
 once more before the promoters of the conference, 
 though he admitted that all this action on his part 
 might open the door to future misconception. Hence, 
 Messrs. P. J. Power, M.P., Jeremiah Jordan, M.P., 
 and Mr. Thomas Healy, the Conference Secretaries, 
 were requested to bring about the original suggestion 
 of John Redmond, for a preliminary deliberative confer- 
 ence to discuss the terms of union, suggesting as an 
 ostensible reason for this change the fact that Mr. 
 Healy, who had formerly refused, was now willing to 
 take part in the conference. The result was a general 
 agreement to call once more the representatives of the 
 different sections. 
 
 Mr. T. C. Harrington, the chairman of the con- 
 ference, made it his special duty to harmonize in every 
 possible way the conflicting factions, so that it was 
 in no small degree owing to his personal action that 
 a deadlock was avoided and the path to future 
 union smoothed ; while the Freeman, which had been 
 hitherto rather hostile to John Redmond, admitted that 
 it was a pity that the party had not been allowed an 
 earlier opportunity of considering the suggestion of John 
 Redmond and his friends. Still the work was not ac- 
 complished at once, although the conference had done 
 
 124 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 much to pave the way, and the Freeman, not too san- 
 guine about the situation, was incHncd to think that 
 all such conferences tended rather to accentuate than 
 diminish the points of difference. 
 
 Meanwhile, in spite of their numerical insignificance, 
 the Parnellites had still great power. John Redmond 
 and the Lord Mayor of Dublin were untiring in their 
 determination to make the Parnell celebrations a success 
 and to bring back to the hearts of Irishmen the love 
 of their great leader, and make the erection of a public 
 monument not merely a party question, but one of 
 national importance. And although the Lord Mayor was 
 described by his opponents merely as Mr. Redmond's 
 Sancho Panza, the success of the American mission was 
 beyond their most sanguine expectations. Invitations 
 poured in from every side, and the greatest enthusiasm 
 greeted their advent. In New York they received the 
 freedom of the city, and though they accepted few, they 
 received dozens of welcomes from the other cities. 
 When once the delegates returned to Dublin they found 
 the Parnellite revival was in full swing ; while when the 
 Conference took place, the letters which were received 
 from men who formerly had opposed Parnell most 
 bitterly during the last years of his life, like Dillon, 
 McCarthy and Blake, showed that in addition to 
 a return to the policy, there was also a return to the 
 man. Needless to say the success of the American 
 
 125 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 mission, half the proceeds of which were given to the 
 Parnell statue fund, and half to pay off the debt on the 
 Parnell estate, made John Redmond in a sense the man 
 of the hour. 
 
 But there was a still more powerful factor at work, and 
 this was brought out in a speech by John Redmond, at 
 the Mansion House early in 1900, in which he said that 
 in view of the difficulties of England in the South 
 African war, there was no telling what advantages 
 might not arise from Ireland pressing vigorously forward 
 her claims for Home Rule and educational equality, 
 and he thought that the man who under these circum- 
 stances should stand in the way of Ireland speaking 
 with a united voice in Parliament would be nothing short 
 of a criminal. 
 
 The South African war may, therefore, be said to 
 have been one of the most potent influences in favour 
 of the reunion of the party ; for without some great 
 national enthusiasm the sordid faction fight might pos- 
 sibly have continued for years until the whole body of 
 Irish public opinion had been discredited. Hence it was 
 with a feeling of great national emotion that, when at 
 last the reunited party met in Westminster, the follow- 
 ing resolution was passed : 
 
 " That in the name of Ireland we declare at an end 
 
 the divisions which hitherto separated the Irish Nationalist 
 
 representatives, and we hereby form ourselves into one 
 
 126 
 
THE INDEPENDENT 
 
 united party, in accordance with the principles and under 
 the constitution of the Irish Parliamentary party from 
 1885 to 1890." 
 
 The second great resolution was the election of Mr. 
 Redmond to the leadership of the reunited party. And 
 it must have been not without a certain sense of 
 triumph that the leader of the small Parnellite minority 
 took the chair, feeling as he must have done that the 
 principles of Parnell had at last been vindicated by 
 experience, and that his own loyalty to his chief had 
 been at last justified. For the election had decided not 
 only a question of persons, but also one of principles ; 
 and it was the revivification not only of the authority of 
 Parnell, but also of his policy of combat. 
 
 127 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 1900 
 
 THE NEW LEADER 
 
 " TF there is one wish which I wish the Irish cause," 
 Gladstone is reported to have said shortly after Par- 
 nell's death, " it is that the champions may be reunited." 
 It would, therefore, have been with feelings of pleasure 
 that he would have read of the ending of the split, and 
 the election of a successor to Parnell in the person of his 
 champion, John Redmond. 
 
 It was really a political event of the highest import- 
 ance, but the South African War, just then at its most 
 critical stage, had thrown all home politics into the shade. 
 Notwithstanding this, however, it did not fail to arrest 
 the attention of the more serious representatives of the 
 Press. " This is an important and significant event," 
 wrote the Daily News, " which in quieter times would 
 have excited the greatest possible interest. Even as it is, 
 to those who look beyond the situation of the hour and 
 the lifetime of this Parliament, the election of Mr. Red- 
 mond, and all that it means, is food for thought : for 
 
 there are few men in the House who come near to him 
 
 128 
 
liy luiiil i)irinis<i'<ii •</ •■ Vnuittj i'nir," 
 
 ELISHA. 
 
 \_To t'aei' i> 128. 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 in point of dignity and eloquence, and certainly no man 
 who understands better the way in which that peculiar 
 assembly should be addressed." 
 
 The Times could only see in the election of John 
 Redmond the strengthening of the pro-Boer element : 
 " The whole force of the Irish Nationalists," it wrote, 
 " is once more reunited as in the days of Parnell. Mr. 
 Redmond is an able figure and a considerable Parlia- 
 mentary figure, and it may be that if he were to act 
 independently he might put forward a policy upon which 
 it might not be impossible for a British Government to 
 meet him. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Redmond has 
 been chosen to represent the most violent and most 
 irreconcilable firebrands of Irish Nationalism. We have 
 to deal with a declared attitude of hostility on the part 
 of the Irish Nationalists towards the British Empire which 
 cannot be ignored. There is abundant evidence to show 
 all that Irish Nationalists are not only in sympathy with 
 the enemies of the British Empire, but that they are 
 using whatever influence lies in their power to embarrass 
 our Imperial policy." 
 
 However much to be deplored, this open declaration 
 
 of hostility was not without its wholesome lesson, and, as 
 
 the Speaker observed, was a thing that required to be 
 
 understood, for even supposing the war successful, the 
 
 difficulty would only be beginning. " Imagine British 
 
 supremacy vindicated and Dutch nationality suppressed," 
 
 129 9 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 it wrote. " Let Boer aspirations be denounced as treason 
 and let the subjugated provinces be occupied by 10,000 
 British soldiers. With the history of Ireland before him, 
 is there any thoughtful citizen who imagines that the 
 programme we have sketched out will produce loyalty 
 and contentment from the Zambesi to Table Bay ; will 
 twenty years of resolute government do it ? Can Dutch 
 sentiment be killed by kindness ? For those who have 
 eyes to see, the reunion of Ireland has its significance 
 in relation to our South African difficulties no less than 
 to our troubles at home." 
 
 The attitude both of the leader and the party, how- 
 ever, was only what was to be expected when it is 
 remembered that the great mistake of over-centralized 
 governments is precisely that treatment of sub-national- 
 ities of the empire as so many counties of one kingdom, 
 absolutely ignoring the omnipotent factor of politics — 
 nationality. Ireland had never been treated as she 
 really is, a separate nation, yet it is always resented 
 when she refuses to act as she cannot possibly do, like 
 a mere county. The mistake is with her rulers. 
 
 Nationality is a fact to be reckoned with, guided, 
 
 humoured, and developed within proper limits ; to ignore 
 
 it, or attempt to suppress it, is not only going against 
 
 one of the fundamental laws of politics, but one of the 
 
 unalterable laws of Nature. If to-day South Africa is 
 
 loyal, and Ireland still disloyal, it is entirely due to the 
 
 130 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 fact that Ireland's national aspirations are thwarted at 
 every turn, while those of the Dutch have been respected. 
 Plencc the attitude of the party was in the very nature 
 of the situation, and must ever remain the same until that 
 situation has been altered. This fact is the key to the 
 understanding of the man. 
 
 " The action of the Irish party means this," continues 
 the Speaker, " that we are about to be reduced by their 
 concerted action in the present crisis to the same dilemma 
 as vexed England fifteen or twenty years ago. Ireland 
 has proved herself a sub-nationality within the Empire. 
 The French Canadians may or may not be such a com- 
 munity, the Cape Dutch may or may not be, but the 
 Irish most undoubtedly are. With such a policy there 
 are two ways of dealing. You may occupy militarily and 
 govern despotically, or you may grant local self-govern- 
 ment : there is no other way. Every day increases the 
 bitterness of the situation and makes the impossibility 
 of a third course more impossible. There must be no 
 more talk of predominant partners ; it is not a position 
 to be out-flanked by gentlemanly breaches of faith. A 
 Liberal will have soon to ask himself the question once 
 for all : ' Am I in favour of Home Rule or Coercion ? ' 
 and unless he knows his own mind, the party named 
 may a few months hence be once more involved in 
 one more national crisis." (February loth, 1900. 
 Speaker^ 
 
 131 9* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 This, of course, would depend upon the power of 
 cohesion that existed in the party and which rendered 
 the Parnellite policy possible ; but apart from the argu- 
 ments in favour of unity, there were several reasons 
 why John Redmond should have been selected. 
 
 The reunion, coming as it did immediately after 
 that very Radical alliance had been finally cast off 
 to which the strong and formidable dictation of the old 
 Irish party had been sacrificed, it was in every way 
 fitting that John Redmond, who had advocated this step, 
 should succeed to Parnell ; and though Mr. Dillon said 
 he did not like the word " return " to the policy of the 
 party before 1890, he could not help admitting the fact. 
 But what was chiefly felt in Ireland was, not the 
 necessity of the Parnellite theory so much as perman- 
 ence of the Parnellite action. " Everybody knows," wrote 
 the Irish People, "that if that agreement is to be con- 
 tinued and to have any permanence, it can only be by 
 making the organized power of the people more wide- 
 spread and formidable than ever. The country will 
 require some guarantee of the sincerity and the con- 
 tinuance of the new treaty of peace. The only real 
 guarantee available is the presence of an organization of 
 the people, impartial enough to be independent of all 
 the sections, and strong enough to impress them all." 
 An organization of this kind was found in the United 
 
 Irish League, which has continued to increase, and from 
 
 132 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 which the party draws all its effective strength and the 
 nation its unity. Probably, without it, nothing could 
 have ensured his position as leader. It forms the 
 national base of the pyramid of which John Redmond 
 is the apex, and what was a still further guarantee, was 
 that it seemed generally recognized that the right man 
 was in the right place. 
 
 " The suavity of Mr. Harrington and the fluency of 
 Mr. Healy have all their proper place," wrote the Daily 
 Chronicle, " but there is only one man in the party 
 who is capable of recalling, however faintly, the iron 
 hand and iron discipline of Mr. Parnell, and that man 
 is John Redmond." Perhaps, however, it was more his 
 " urbanity " than his other qualities which were necessary 
 to unite the sympathies of men who for years had 
 poured forth all the vials of their wrath upon each 
 other. Indeed, as Frank H. O'Donnell suggests, he 
 seemed the only possible leader. Mr. Justin McCarthy 
 had always been more in love with literature than 
 politics. John Dillon he calls "the special representative 
 of Maynooth." Mr. Healy was too much of an in- 
 dividualist either to form or follow any party. Mr. 
 W. O'Brien's wonderful powers of organization made him 
 for a time leader in all but name, but only for a while. 
 Therefore, quite apart from questions of personality, it 
 seemed fitting that if it were really a return to the 
 Parnellite policy, none could be more worthy of the 
 
 133 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 position than the man who had kept his banner flying, 
 and eventually converted back to his principles those 
 who with such disastrous results had abandoned them. 
 " Mr. Redmond, the chief of the rival faction," writes 
 Mr. F. H. O'Donnell, " had conducted the affairs of his 
 miniature party with marked dignity and courtesy. 
 None of the foul memories of the sweeping-brush era 
 soiled his name. He had touched with perfect good 
 humour even the quarrels of his rival's, as when, borrow- 
 ing an incident from the ' Ingoldsby Legends,' he 
 suggested in connection with Mr. Healy's protean attacks 
 on his beloved comrades that 
 
 " ' Dillon with awe when his tricks he saw, 
 
 Said the devil must be in that little jackdaw.' 
 
 And the gratification of having such an urbane, prudent, 
 and humorous presiding authority in the common chair 
 may have sensibly facilitated the restoration of external 
 unity between the rejoicing fragments." 
 
 In addition to this, John Redmond was already a 
 a persona grata with the House, where since his Home 
 Rule speeches of 1893 he commanded both respect and 
 attention where others might only tire or amuse. Thus 
 the Daily Telegraph, speaking of the new leader, said : 
 " Mr. Redmond totally lacks Mr. Healy's mastery of 
 detail, and that earnestness of Mr. Dillon, which, in spite 
 of its strident tiresomeness, produces a certain effect 
 upon the House. The quality upon which Mr. Parnell's 
 
 134 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 successor depends is a power of sustained dignity and 
 eloquence of statement in which he stands almost alone 
 in the House. He can deliberate without being dull, 
 and be emphatic without being extravagant, which 
 means among all the emotional rhetoric of the Irish 
 benches Mr. John Redmond is the only person who 
 knows how to address the House of Commons with 
 the persuasiveness of Parliamentary decorum." 
 
 He was more than this, however, for he was already 
 recognized as one of the five or six who in twenty 
 years' time would be makers of history at Westminster, 
 as Mr, Stead a few months later pointed out in an 
 admirable character sketch. "Among those coming men, 
 not one," he writes, " had achieved such a commanding 
 position as John Redmond." " He is not only the chief 
 of the Irish National party, he is the leader of the only 
 effective Opposition that exists in the House of Commons 
 at the present day. In that position he occupies a place 
 in the British Constitution only second in importance to 
 that of the Prime Minister. It is true that at the 
 present, national prejudices somewhat obscure the truth 
 from the English and Scotch, but in the House of 
 Commons the members last Session began to realize 
 where their power lies, and repeatedly in the course of 
 the debates Mr. Balfour referred to Mr. Redmond as if 
 he, and not Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, were the real 
 leader of His Majesty's Opposition. Therein Mr. Balfour 
 
 135 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 paid homage to facts. Hence, while nominally only 
 the leader of the Irish National party, Mr. Redmond is 
 really the only leader of the Opposition to the Govern- 
 ment in the country. It is a great position for so young 
 a man." 
 
 A further point which was beginning to be realized 
 was that John Redmond was not merely Irish leader, 
 but was also a great democratic leader. " Mr. Redmond, 
 as the leader of the Irish Parliamentary party, possesses 
 far greater importance than any merely Irish leader 
 has had for many years past," continues Mr. Stead. 
 " Even Mr. Parnell in the height of his power was 
 much less important to the Empire than is Mr. Red- 
 mond, for this reason : Mr. Parnell may be said to 
 have existed solely for Ireland . . . and in the 
 heart of the British democracy there is growing a 
 tendency, democratic and socialistic, which feels instinc- 
 tively that the Irish Nationalists are their only effective 
 allies." This not only made him welcome in the large 
 cities, but also paved the way for a subsequent intimate 
 connection being established between the Irish and the 
 Labour parties. Another quotation shows that the 
 choice was at once seen to be the right one, and what- 
 ever anticipations had been made had proved correct. 
 "Mr. Redmond is the first Irish leader who has given 
 the world any token of the possession of the qualities 
 
 which made Mr. Parnell so famous. Mr. Redmond then 
 
 136 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 being called to supreme command, displayed qualities 
 
 with which he had not hitherto been credited. His 
 
 readiness in debate, his self-control, his keen appreciation 
 
 of the vital points of Parliamentary strategy, made him a 
 
 power in the House of Commons. One of the greatest 
 
 of our Imperial statesmen, who watches the proceedings 
 
 in the parliamentary arena, declared last month that in 
 
 his opinion Mr. Redmond was the ablest parliamentarian 
 
 in the present (1901) House of Commons. Mr. Redmond 
 
 is a politician first, a politician second, and a politician 
 
 third. As an individual entity he is almost unknown to 
 
 any except his intimates. But he has brought keen 
 
 intelligence to the study of the science of politics. He 
 
 has given his mind to it, and spent days and nights in 
 
 acquiring knowledge of all the niceties and rules of 
 
 parliamentary procedure. He is not embarrassed by the 
 
 fear of mutinies in his rear, and he is conscious of being 
 
 armed with the mandate of the Irish race." 
 
 A comparison between Parnell and Redmond naturally 
 suggests itself at this point, though perhaps somewhat 
 too soon, for Redmond is even yet, after ten years of 
 leadership, only where Parnell was before 1886. But the 
 two have not a few qualities in common. Both have 
 commanding personalities. " Parnell is the only person 
 before whom I have seen the House of Commons quail," 
 said Gladstone once. The House has never done that 
 of John Redmond, but there are few who command a 
 
 ^Z1 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 hearing with more respect and authority. Both have a 
 certain regal aloofness born of years of power among 
 their fellows, and if it was true that treating with Parnell 
 was like treating with a foreign potentate, certainly the 
 action of J. Redmond since his return as " Dictator " in 
 1 910 bears no little resemblance to it. 
 
 Again, there is a distinct quality of leadership, 
 which among a group in the lobby, in a smoking- 
 room, at a public meeting, or on the benches of the 
 House, singled both out from the rank and file and 
 compels attention. Whether because of the compara- 
 tive quietness of the present crisis, whether for lack 
 of that personal magnetism which in a sense was 
 Parnell's, whether because of the absence or distance 
 of such tragedies as the famine and the emigration of 
 millions, John Redmond does not evoke that almost 
 hysterical enthusiasm which greeted Parnell wherever he 
 went almost like a sovereign. He is the leader of the 
 Irish race at home and abroad — he will never be the 
 uncrowned King of Ireland like his predecessor, simply 
 because those days are past which rendered such things 
 possible. Even Napoleon himself would hardly be more 
 than a brilliant political leader in times of peace. Where, 
 however, John Redmond gains is probably in that very 
 quality. Redmond is more for times of peace : Parnell 
 for times of war. Redmond could assist in the drawing 
 up of a constitution, suggest valuable additions to render 
 
 138 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 the working more smooth, help in estabh'shing the new 
 order and settle down in peace, once the irritant of the 
 ancient regime had removed all grounds for further 
 friction. Parnell was a species of political battering-ram, 
 in which all the forces of an angry nation were centred ; 
 he could destroy the antiquated forms of Castle govern- 
 ment, but it is doubtful whether his mind would ever 
 have got rid of that hostility which to be rational must 
 be based upon objective grievances. In short, it is 
 doubtful if Parnell could ever have built or have 
 forgiven. 
 
 Redmond in this respect is superior to Parnell. He 
 could become a Prime Minister of Ireland with the same 
 thoroughness with which he was, and by some is still 
 thought to be, the permanent leader of the Opposition ; 
 Parnell could never have taken office, and in this the two 
 bear a striking resemblance to the great Boer generals. 
 De Wet was a man of war. Botha, a man of war and 
 peace. Both were equally patriots ; but the latter was 
 superior in that he possessed the qualities of peace. 
 Redmond, whether at the Bar or in a civil appointment, 
 would always have risen ; Parnell would have remained 
 unknown except in war — indeed his first speeches had 
 stamped him as a nonentity. 
 
 It was with these qualities, therefore, that the new 
 Parnellite leader was enthroned in the Chairmanship of 
 the Irish party as the plenipotentiary of the National 
 
 139 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 cause. Balance of mind, elevation of thought, dignity 
 of bearing, and a gradual sobering of early exuberances 
 were fitting him yearly more and more for the position 
 and distinguishing him from those of his colleagues who 
 are to-day in exactly the same mental state and 
 political position as they were before twenty years of 
 experience. 
 
 It is often said that John Redmond is not such a 
 striking figure as Parnell. The words are misleading. 
 It would be a pity to judge of political capacity by 
 mere picturesqueness of personality. Politics are not 
 picturesque, and a statesman's portrait must always lack 
 the glowing colours of the military uniform and the 
 background of clouds and cannon ; nor do parlia- 
 mentary contests lend themselves to scenic effect. That 
 is, perhaps, one of the reasons why John Redmond as 
 a personality does not strike the casual observer with 
 such vividness as his predecessor. For there was an 
 element of the soldier in that political Bismarck. There 
 was something of the general in that silent and severe 
 leader, as, pale with anger, his arms crossed in front of 
 him, he surveyed the benches of angry members. The 
 Pigott letters, the Treaty of Kilmainham, the O'Shea 
 divorce, all these surround him with a halo of tragedy 
 which would have made a lesser man a hero. 
 
 John Redmond lacks all these. But the story of 
 
 Committee Room 15 and the fidelity of the little band 
 
 140 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 of devoted followers, the sudden and tragic death of the 
 chief and the heroic and persevering fidelity of his 
 champion to the dead leader's honour and his policy, 
 till almost single-handed he had brought about the return 
 of the whole nation to remorse and homage, is not 
 without an element of the romantic to the student of 
 character. And indeed, were the same scenes placed in 
 an historical setting of the Middle Ages, they would 
 form one of the most dramatic and interesting pages in 
 Irish history. 
 
 With very (e\v alterations one can picture some 
 Mediaeval king pleading the rights of an oppressed 
 people : one can see him surrounded by his devoted 
 followers with a whole nation at his back. Suddenly a 
 domestic tragedy shocks the world, and with one accord 
 the love of his subjects forgives. His followers renew 
 their oaths of allegiance as does the whole nation, but 
 this has no sooner been done than this pretext is taken 
 to break his power. The enemy require his deposition. 
 The thunders of the Vatican peal forth. His condemna- 
 tion is nailed on every cathedral door. Then one by 
 one, after having assured their king that his leadership 
 was essential to the triumph of their cause, and besought 
 him to remain steadfast, the great barons and courtiers 
 whom he had helped and loved desert him, and it is 
 left to one of the youngest and least known of his 
 
 followers to take up his defence. A few months of 
 
 141 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 strife and the king is dead, and for years the young 
 champion defends his name and honour, all the while 
 calling the nation back to that policy of combat whence 
 they had been drawn by a mock policy of conciliation. 
 Gradually the thunders of excommunication cease : the 
 nation recognizes only too late, as it goes repentant 
 yearly to his tomb, that with their king they had also 
 killed their cause, and after years of strife the barons 
 meet, the rival leaders resign, and out of homage to 
 the mighty dead, elect his young champion to raise 
 the fallen banner and lead their united hosts once more. 
 Of course, I admit the image is entirely overdrawn. 
 But the Irish have a high sense of the dramatic, and in 
 the event of some other catastrophe dividing Ireland 
 again, the record of a life of fidelity to his leader would 
 probably prove one of the strongest claims which John 
 Redmond would have upon the allegiance of his 
 followers in saving him from a fate from which he, had 
 he been listened to, would have saved Parnell, He had 
 learnt to lead in that best of schools — the school of 
 discipleship. 
 
 Everything, therefore, both internally and externally, 
 from the personality of the leader down to the organiza- 
 tion of the smallest branch of the United Irish League, 
 was ready for the reuniting of the party. A new lease 
 of life had been given to Irish politics, and the Irish 
 
 leader threw himself eagerly into the task of reorganiz- 
 
 142 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 ing the party, arranging for the distribution of parlia- 
 mentary work, and in every way preparing to continue 
 that independent and persistent opposition which would 
 alone draw attention to the long neglected grievances of 
 his country. 
 
 With this purpose he issued the following manifesto, 
 interesting not only because of the personal note of 
 earnestness running through it, but also as a record of 
 work done and to be done : 
 
 " To the People of Ireland : 
 " Fellow-countrymen — 
 
 " After nine years of disunion and weakness in 
 the ranks of the Nationalist representatives of 
 Ireland in Parliament, a United Irish Nationalist 
 Parliamentary Party has once more been formed, on 
 the principles and under the constitution of the Irish 
 Party from 1885 — 1890. This event, as every indi- 
 cation of public feeling and opinion shows, has been 
 heartily welcomed by every section of the National- 
 ist party in Ireland. It is an event which will, if 
 the Irish people so choose, mark a turning-point 
 in the history of the National movement. For the 
 last nine years the progress of that movement in 
 Parliament and Ireland had been arrested, the 
 efficiency of the Irish Nationalist representatives in 
 the House of Commons was seriously impaired, and 
 
 143 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 the organization of the people in Ireland, without 
 which a parliamentary party is of comparatively 
 little value, fell to pieces. It is not necessary to 
 revert now to the causes of the disunion which 
 brought about these lamentable results. The chapter 
 has been closed by the wise and patriotic action 
 of the Irish representatives, and the thoughts of 
 men on all sides of the contest that has been 
 waged are now turned on the future and its 
 possibilities. 
 
 " As disunion has certainly been fraught with 
 evil consequences, so it is equally certain that union 
 may, under certain conditions, be made the means 
 of once more rendering the weapon which the Con- 
 stitution has placed in the hands of Ireland potent 
 for the redress of National grievances and the 
 winning back of our right to National Self-Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " The opportunities which the party system in 
 
 Great Britain by its very nature opens up to an 
 
 Irish party, numerous, united, constant in attendance 
 
 and independent of all British parties, are known to 
 
 us by experience. Ministries have been made and 
 
 unmade by such a party ; benefits have been 
 
 wrested from reluctant and even hostile majorities ; 
 
 policies have been altered to the advantage of 
 
 Ireland by the steady and sustained compulsion 
 
 144 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 of an Irish parliamentary force, known to speak 
 for the nation, acting as a single man, and 
 taking advantage of every occasion of attack and 
 defence. 
 
 " The opportunities for achievements of such 
 a character are likely in tb^ future to be, not less, 
 but more numerous than at any period in the past. 
 The present time is absolutely ripe with possibilities. 
 The gravest crisis in the memory of living man has 
 arisen in the affairs of the Empire, and no one can 
 tell the moment when 80 Irish members, thinking 
 only of the interests of their own country, may be 
 able to extract from the situation its legitimate 
 fruit. The question is, will the people of Ireland 
 enable their representatives to take advantage of 
 these possibilities ? — and the answer to it admits of 
 no delay. 
 
 " The supreme question of National Self-Govern- 
 ment must be restored to its rightful position as the 
 greatest and most urgent of all political issues, but 
 apart from the question of Home Rule, Ireland 
 stands in immediate need of several reforms of the 
 first importance. 
 
 " The land question is still unsolved. It can 
 
 never be solved till the industry of agriculture — the 
 
 main industry of our country — is freed of an 
 
 occupying proprietary by the universal establishment 
 
 145 10 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 of compulsory purchase, from the burden which 
 still weighs it down, and by some great scheme 
 for replacing the land in the poverty-stricken 
 districts of the West in the possession of the 
 people. 
 
 " The industry of agriculture and all the other 
 industries of Ireland are the victims of a system of 
 over-taxation, the most iniquitous in its conception 
 and in its results of any in the civilized world. If 
 the plunder of Ireland which is effected by that 
 system is not stopped, the Irish nation will bleed 
 to death. 
 
 " The old policy by which the majority of the 
 nation was, in the past, condemned by law to ignor- 
 ance unless it forfeited its religious faith is still 
 persisted in as regards that portion of our Catholic 
 people who are anxious to avail themselves of the 
 benefits of University education. Those of our 
 Catholic youth who might naturally be expected to 
 become the leaders of public opinion are still 
 condemned by the spirit of an old-world bigotry 
 to deprive themselves of the advantage of the higher 
 training of the intellect, unless they resort to institu- 
 tions founded and carried on in principles at variance 
 with their religious convictions. These and many 
 other questions press with daily increasing urgency 
 
 for settlement. Much may be done to further their 
 
 146 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 solution, even during the present session of Parlia- 
 ment, if the action of their parliamentary represen- 
 tatives in closing up their ranks and absolutely 
 burying past feuds is backed up by corresponding 
 action on the part of those whom they represent, 
 and if these representatives are now enabled by their 
 constituents to give to the discharge of their duties 
 in the House of Commons that continuous atten- 
 dance and unsleeping vigilance without which a 
 fighting parliamentary party is impossible. 
 
 " Holding these views, and believing that no 
 time should be lost in putting them before you, I 
 now appeal to you to supply, with as little delay as 
 possible, the pecuniary support necessary for the 
 prosecution of a campaign of combat in the House 
 of Commons. The Irish members have done their 
 part by reuniting without any reserve in face of a 
 critical situation. It remains for the people of 
 Ireland to enable them to renew, in face of both 
 the parties in Great Britain, the determined struggle 
 for Irish rights which has been so long and so 
 unhappily interrupted. 
 
 " It is impossible, and it would be unjust, to 
 
 expect that Irish members should not only give 
 
 their time and sacrifice their own private interests 
 
 to the advancement of the public cause, but should 
 
 also bear the whole pecuniary burden entailed by 
 
 147 10* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 prolonged attendance at Westminster. I, therefore, 
 ask you, fellow-countrymen, to subscribe with as 
 much promptness and liberality as you can to the 
 sessional fund of the Irish Parliamentary Party. 
 " I remain, 
 
 " Fellow-countrymen, 
 
 " Your faithful Servant, 
 
 "J. E. Redmond. 
 " lo Feb., 1900." 
 
 Meanwhile the elections had generally endorsed the 
 action of the party and Parnellism had come to life 
 again. 
 
 " In my opinion," wrote Mr. Redmond in October, 
 1900, "the elections showed conclusively that the Par- 
 nellite split is at an end. Wherever contests occurred 
 entirely new causes arose, and everywhere, all over the 
 country, Parnellites and anti-Parnellites were found 
 working together without any trace of the bitterness of 
 the past. In the second place, the elections, in my 
 judgment, have proved beyond the possibility of doubt 
 the universal desire and determination of the people to 
 have a united Irish movement in and out of Parliament 
 based upon Parnell's policy of independence and even 
 of distrust of all English parties — a policy of aloofness 
 and combat. The next thing which, I think, the elec- 
 tions have shown is that the machinery put into the 
 
 148 
 
THE NEW LEADER 
 
 hands of the people for the election of candidates by 
 the directory of the United Irish League has, on the 
 whole, worked well." 
 
 While as to the future of the new party he expressed 
 himself as follows : — • 
 
 " For myself, I believe there is a great future before 
 the new party. The needs for the immediate future 
 are therefore — firstly, a stern maintenance of unity and 
 discipline in our ranks ; secondly, a fearless and aggres- 
 sive policy of combat in and out of Parliament ; and 
 thirdly, a faithful attendance of their duties at West- 
 minster by all the members of the new party. As to 
 what Irish questions will most prominently engage the 
 attention of the new Parliament, I can say nothing. 
 The over-taxation of our country, the claim of the 
 Catholics of Ireland for equal rights with their Pro- 
 testant fellow-countrymen in the matter of higher 
 education, and the urgent need for the settlement of 
 the land question on the lines of compulsory purchase 
 — all these matters must come up for early considera- 
 tion, and the chances of their settlement depends 
 ab.solutely upon the reality of our union and the 
 strength of our organization ; but never let us forget 
 that for us the National question overshadows all 
 others." 
 
 149 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 JOHN REDMOND AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 1900 — 1905 
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR — HIS LOYALTY — 
 DEVOLUTION 
 
 n^HE first period of John Redmond's leadership may 
 
 be said to extend from his election as chairman 
 
 in 1900, to his defeat of the Unionist Government in 
 
 1905. It was chiefly characterized by a return to 
 
 Parnellite methods, a strong opposition, a prolonged 
 
 agitation, and as a result Wyndham's Land Act ; but it 
 
 was also significant for the failure of the Government 
 
 to solve the Irish University question, a return to the 
 
 Ulster spirit by the abandonment of the principles of 
 
 devolution, and an attempt to cut down the Irish 
 
 representation at Westminster. 
 
 As far as John Redmond was concerned, his policy 
 
 seems to have been to extract all the concessions possible, 
 
 but at the same time prepare the way for the reiteration 
 
 of the historical demand for full Home Rule. This was, 
 
 throughout, the root-principle of all his actions, whether 
 
 150 
 
REDMOND AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 it was the exclusion of Mr. Healy from his party as 
 essential to the smooth working of that body, or the 
 refusal of all half measures, like the Councils Bill later. 
 And h is for this reason that, though eventually the 
 Unionists might have satisfied the Irish party on the 
 question of University teaching and land transfer, their 
 steady refusal to advance along the lines of devolution 
 caused the Irish leader to turn them out of office. 
 
 While the Unionist Government was in power the 
 pursuit of this policy was no easy matter : that Govern- 
 ment was hostile in spirit and overwhelmingly strong in 
 point of votes, and the first act of the Irish leader was 
 certainly not one calculated to win much enthusiasm for 
 the Irish cause. It was, as everyone remembers, one of 
 open sympathy for the South African republics — a 
 sentiment which had done more to unite the party than 
 any argument could have done, and likewise a sentiment 
 that did more to strengthen English bigotry ; and the 
 reunion of the country in one party, one policy, one 
 organization and one leader only gave more effective- 
 ness to the expression of it. To have refrained would 
 have been more diplomatic, perhaps : but it would have 
 been less sincere and, therefore, less Irish. Accordingly, 
 at the very beginning of the session John Redmond, 
 voicing the general attitude of the Irish Nationalist Press, 
 proposed an amendment to the Address to the effect 
 that, on the conclusion of the war, peace should be 
 
 151 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 settled upon the basis of the independence of the Trans- 
 vaal and the Orange Free State. It was lost by 358 to 
 66, and as a result has embittered the spirit in which 
 Englishmen take up Irish questions ; but it must always 
 be remembered that there is something very subjective 
 about English patriotism : something very objective 
 about Irish. 
 
 Ask the average Briton why he went to war with the 
 Boers and he would to this day stumble for an answer : 
 ask the average Celt why he sympathized with the Boers 
 and he will be able to hold forth for an hour on the 
 disastrous results of a suppressed nationality. The 
 South African War was, after all, an open question on 
 which English parties were themselves divided ; it 
 might, therefore, become a subject for patriotism : it could 
 hardly become its criterion. And despite the wild bursts 
 of enthusiasm on English defeats in many quarters, every 
 calm critic was struck by the singular moderation of the 
 Irish leader's attitude compared with such displays. " I 
 will plead the cause of the Boers on their own merits," 
 was John Redmond's attitude, and in this sense he was 
 a " pro-Boer " ; but " anti-English " is quite a different 
 standpoint, and he would hardly be the man to rejoice 
 in a defeat purely from vindictiveness and merely to 
 diminish the prestige or security of an Empire Irish 
 blood has built, Irish blood preserves, Irish blood 
 
 peoples. 
 
 152 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 It was all the difference between mere race hatred, or 
 "Anglophobia," which in Ireland is often a substitute for 
 patriotism, and that higher sense of justice which raises 
 its voice in protest against wars of unjustified aggression. 
 No doubt there are Irish fanatics who would like to see 
 the Germans in London. John Redmond would probably 
 be the last man in the party to rejoice at such a dis- 
 aster, for he knows that the prosperity of millions of 
 Irishmen in England and the Colonies would be affected 
 thereby. If to be loyal was to rejoice at the downfall 
 of the two republics, John Redmond was certainly dis- 
 loyal and would probably have said, like Davitt, that he 
 would not purchase Home Rule at the price of Boer 
 independence. If to be disloyal was to wish the down- 
 fall of the Empire and plot its destruction, Mr. Redmond 
 was certainly loyal. But in both cases his patriotism 
 was objective, like that of the Earl of Chatham, Burke 
 and Fox, and were the just demands of any of the 
 Colonies to be withheld to-morrow, he would probably 
 be the loudest in giving voice to his rejoicings over their 
 revolt. 
 
 The first sessions were, therefore, chiefly noted for the 
 continued attacks upon the Government's policy and 
 action with regard to the South African republics, an 
 attitude which was warmly appreciated by the late Presi- 
 dent Kruger. " I know of your efforts on our behalf," 
 said the latter in an interview with the leader's brother, 
 
 153 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 William Redmond. " I look upon the Irish as brothers 
 in oppression. I am well aware of their sympathy and I 
 thank them for being upon the side of justice. I hope 
 they will continue to support us, and feel that in doing 
 so they are supporting the side upon which God will 
 ultimately declare Himself. I could not but be grateful 
 to the Irish people. Tell the Irish members I am deeply 
 grateful for their efforts. I hope they will continue them, 
 as our cause is that of justice and of truth." (Aug. 
 1904.) 
 
 This attitude, however justified in point of fact, was, 
 as far as the English electorate were concerned, the last 
 word on Home Rule for years, and would have been as 
 fatal to a Bill in that direction as the Phcenix Park 
 murders had been to that of 1886. Here again it was 
 a false logic that reasoned on the facts, but as it was 
 made the most of by the Unionist Press it may not 
 be out of place, therefore, to treat it at some length. 
 For quite apart from the action of the Irish leader 
 upon this occasion, there arises the point of his personal 
 principles of loyalty and those of Nationalists in general. 
 Queen Victoria's last visit to Ireland and King 
 Edward's coronation, both of which, coming in close 
 proximity to the South African War, afforded an excellent 
 opportunity for an explicit pronouncement on the subject, 
 ought to prove a wholesome corrective to those who 
 dabble in disloyalty scares. 
 
 154 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 Speaking in the House of Commons upon the 
 announcement of the proposed visit of Queen Victoria 
 to Ireland, he said : 
 
 '' Mr. Speaker, I have to ask the indulgence of the 
 House for a moment in order to enable me to say that 
 the Irish people will receive with gratification the 
 announcement that for the future the shamrock shall be 
 worn by all Irish regiments on Ireland's national 
 festival. The Irish people will welcome this graceful 
 recognition of the valour of their race, whatever the field 
 upon which that valour has latest been exhibited — and 
 our people will, moreover, treat with respect the visit 
 which the venerable sovereign proposes to make their 
 shores, well knowing that on this occasion no attempt 
 will be made to give the visit a party significance, and 
 that their chivalrous hospitality will be taken in no 
 quarter to mean any abatement of their demand for 
 their national rights, which they will continue to press 
 until they are conceded." 
 
 But though the visit was officially pronounced to be 
 for a change of air, many in Ireland thought it more 
 likely to be the tour of the recruiting sergeant than the 
 recruiting invalid. It was really a diplomatic stroke of 
 the most subtle kind ; for if there was an enthusiastic 
 welcome from the nation at large, which would have 
 been quite out of keeping with the political situation, 
 their loyalty would have been taken for contentment ; 
 
 155 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 while if any scene occurred it would be sufficient to kill 
 Home Rule. It was therefore of the greatest importance 
 that the official attitude of Nationalists should be made 
 clear, more especially as in some quarters expressions 
 were indulged in which were wanting in common re- 
 spect to a personage who, quite apart from her 
 magnificent qualities as a sovereign, even as a woman 
 has earned the respect and love of every civilized country 
 in the world. 
 
 The daily papers swarmed with letters of advice from 
 all quarters, but that of the Rev. P Lynch, of Man- 
 chester, seemed to have seized the situation best on the 
 whole, urging the party to meet the spirit of friendliness 
 which had arisen in England with a like spirit, as dis- 
 loyalty was always misinterpreted, or as Sir Horace 
 Plunkett once said, " Hostility to the Crown, if it means 
 anything, means a struggle for separation as soon as 
 Home Rule has given the Irish people the power to arm." 
 " The Irish in England," continued the letter, " wish the 
 Queen to be received in that broad and generous manner 
 hinted at by Mr. Redmond in his statesmanlike speech 
 in the House of Commons." This statesmanlike attitude 
 was eventually the one adopted by the official organ of 
 the Nationalists, 
 
 " Yesterday's reception," wrote the Freeman's Jour?ial 
 the day after the Queen's entry into Dublin, "is indeed 
 
 a reply to those who declare the Irish people to be so 
 
 156 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 deep rooted in resentment at the centuries of oppression 
 to which the country has been subjected, that concih'a- 
 tion is impossible even by a tardy concession of justice 
 and liberty. Ireland is eager even yet to respond to any 
 offer of friendship based on liberty and justice." 
 
 A still more explicit pronouncement is to be found in 
 the resolution proposed by Mr. Harrington in Dublin, 
 explaining that the loyalty shown was not to be 
 interpreted as a withdrawal of the national demand 
 or that the disloyalty had any but a constitutional 
 significance. 
 
 A short time after, the subject was again before the 
 public, when in April, 1902, Mr. Redmond moved the 
 adjournment of the House to consider the state of 
 Ireland, nine counties of which were at the time pro- 
 claimed, thus denying trial by jury to over one million 
 and a half, a splendid preparation, he said ironically, 
 for the Coronation, when they would find Ireland, whose 
 good will was of more value to the Empire than all the 
 Colonies put together, standing aloof and disaffected 
 and only represented at that ceremonial by the batons 
 of the Royal Irish Constabulary. That there was any 
 personal disloyalty intended was out of the question, 
 for, speaking in June, 1902, he referred to the King as, 
 in fact, rather popular personally in Ireland, and that 
 any disloyalty was against the Government of Lord 
 Salisbury and its twenty years of coercion : and a short 
 
 157 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 while before the Coronation every Irish Nationalist 
 received the following letter : 
 
 " House of Commons, 
 
 "July 31st, 1902. 
 " (To the Members of the Irish party) 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 "At the meeting of the Irish party it was de- 
 cided to hold a meeting of the party in the City 
 Hall, Dublin, at 12 o'clock on. Saturday, August 9th, 
 1902, the day of the Coronation. I trust you will 
 make arrangements to be present. 
 
 "Yours very truly, 
 
 " John E. Redmond." 
 
 ■ The meeting accordingly took place on Coronation 
 Day, and John Redmond explained the Nationalist 
 position once more. "In Ireland, Edward VII. was not 
 a constitutional monarch," said John Redmond, as 
 reported in The Times of August nth. "No English 
 sovereign had been a constitutional monarch of Ireland 
 since the Union, and that day the Nationalist repre- 
 sentatives of Ireland renewed that protest, which had 
 never been allowed to die for a hundred years, against 
 the destruction of their constitution and the usurpation 
 of the government of their country by England. That 
 day," he continued — and he ;claimed to speak with 
 authority — " Ireland and the Irish party stood on this 
 
 158 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 question precisely where Mr. Parnell stood in 1886. 
 Ireland had always denied, and still denied, that the 
 Union was binding legally and morally, and they were 
 assembled that day to renew their protest and place it 
 on record." 
 
 He then moved the following resolution, which was 
 seconded by Mr. John Dillon, supported by Mr. William 
 O'Brien and others, and adopted : 
 
 " That inasmuch as the governing classes of England 
 have made the Coronation an occasion for boasting 
 before the world of the unity and solidarity of the 
 Empire, we, the parliamentary representatives of five- 
 sixths of the Irish people, whose native legislation has 
 been by false and fraudulent methods suppressed, more 
 than half of whose population has been carried away by 
 famine and emigration, and who are at this moment 
 stripped of every constitutional right, of trial by jury, 
 freedom of the Press, freedom of public meeting and of 
 combination, by a system of merciless coercion in order 
 to preserve the domination of an alien section of the 
 population, deem it our solemn duty to declare that 
 Ireland separates herself from the rejoicings of her 
 merciless oppressors, and stands apart in rightful dis- 
 content and disaffection." 
 
 But far more serious than charges of disloyalty were 
 those brought forward by certain Conservative organs in 
 order to discredit Home Rulers — charges hardly less 
 
 159 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 serious than those of The Times in its famous letters on 
 Parnellism and Crime. There had ahvays existed a 
 certain amount of personal antagonism between Mr. 
 Chamberlain and Mr. Redmond, and one of the former's 
 biographers, S. H. Freys, does not hesitate to attribute 
 Mr. Chamberlain's change of attitude on the Irish 
 question to Mr. Redmond's American speeches, extracts 
 from which in distorted fragments are scattered 
 throughout Mr. Chamberlain's apologies for Unionism. 
 They are based entirely on the misreading of their 
 spirit and trying to identify " Independence " with 
 " Separation," and though the Irish leader has often ex- 
 plained the distinction, the misrepresentation continued. 
 But when it came to a charge of personal corruption it 
 was high time that the members of the party should 
 vindicate their characters. 
 
 The bitterness of the attack on the party was no 
 doubt increased by their support of the Boers in the 
 South African War, but it was brought to a crisis by 
 the Globe newspaper, which, it was generally understood, 
 merely put Mr. Chamberlain's insinuations into more 
 definite words ; so that though the paper was 
 technically responsible for the libel of calling the Irish 
 members a "kept" party, the inspiration was really 
 Mr. Chamberlain's. 
 
 The words complained of were these — "The same 
 
 spirit and the same motives that have made Tammany a 
 
 1 60 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 synonym for political oblifjuity have made the Nationalist 
 party what it is : many of those connected with it arc 
 the very ruck of the population, whose sole object is a 
 pecuniary one — to make as much money by political 
 jobbery and corruption as they can. And anyone who 
 has had any connection with Irish private Bills or cor- 
 poration contract and franchises across the water can 
 bear ample testimony to this." 
 
 John Redmond at once determined to make this the 
 subject of a question in Parliament, and accordingly on 
 15th August he brought the matter before the Speaker, 
 not so much as an Irish grievance as because he con- 
 sidered it, first, a breach of privilege, and secondly, 
 because it was a matter that affected the fair name of 
 the House of Commons. He did not complain, he said, 
 of the bitterness of Mr. Chamberlain's Blenheim speech — 
 it was the usual thing they expected ; but he did draw 
 a line at a charge of personal corruption. True, the 
 paper had disclaimed any intention to libel Irish members, 
 saying it referred to the American provincial supporters ; 
 but this was obviously in substance a deliberate falsehood, 
 for the concluding paragraph had ended with the 
 
 words : 
 
 " It is therefore no hardship upon Ireland to reduce 
 
 the number of parasites on her national system." 
 
 The House agreed that there was a breach of 
 
 privilege and Mr. G. R. Armstrong, the editor, and 
 
 161 II 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Mr. W. T. Madge, the manager of the Globe, were 
 arrested until the pleasure of the House should be 
 known, and the next day occurred a rather dramatic 
 triumph for the Irish party, when the two were called 
 before the bar of the House to apologize. At first the 
 apology was not accompanied by any withdrawal, and 
 Mr. Madge even tried to hedge behind an " I must, I 
 suppose," but the Speaker saw the significance of the 
 point raised by John Redmond, and said sharply, 
 " There must be no quibbling over words. The 
 gentleman must not trifle with the House. Does he 
 withdraw categorically in the same sense I have stated, 
 or decline ? " Mr. Madge at once withdrew the charges, 
 and after hearing the censure of the House, the two 
 ofifenders were allowed to depart. 
 
 That it was a moment of personal triumph for Mr. 
 Redmond goes without saying ; but the incident is also 
 significant as illustrating the Irish leader's jealous regard 
 both for the House as a body and the honour of those 
 whose cause he had at heart. 
 
 The South African War took up most of the time 
 
 of Parliament during the first sessions after the union 
 
 of the warring sections of the Nationalist party, so 
 
 that there were practically no important measures 
 
 passed for Ireland, but in Ireland the consolidation of 
 
 the union was becoming evident, and the United Irish 
 
 League did for John Redmond in September, 1901, 
 
 162 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 what the Land League had done for Mr. Parnell. 
 John Redmond said " he hoped to sec an agitation 
 so prolonged that it would abolish landlordism root and 
 branch." As to the means by which that end was to be 
 attained, he said he " had sufficient faith in the wisdom 
 of the mass of the members of the United Irish League 
 to feel sure that they would translate the general declara- 
 tion of policy into action, always bearing in mind that 
 the movement, to be successful, should be maintained 
 well within the laws of God and man ; for if they had 
 organization they could do anything." 
 
 A few weeks later he sailed for America to announce 
 the glad tidings of reunion. The Irish envoys were 
 welcomed with almost unprecedented enthusiasm in the 
 United States, and then went on to Canada, where Sir 
 Wilfrid Laurier and some of the most prominent 
 Canadians took part in the reception given to the Irish 
 leader and his colleagues. The incident did not pass 
 without comment, the Globe and St. James's Gazette 
 expressing surprise that those who had so lately shed 
 their blood for the Empire should have welcomed its 
 bitterest enemies, the Irish envoys. But both forgot 
 to remind their readers that the cause with which these 
 Canadians sympathized so publicly was identical with 
 the one for which they had themselves been about to 
 fight the Empire some decades back, when luckily a far- 
 seeing statesman had yielded to their demand. 
 
 163 II* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 The fruit of this mission was seen a couple of years 
 later, when in March, 1903, the Canadian Parliament by 
 a majority of sixty-one passed a resolution in favour of 
 Home Rule, on the motion of the Hon. John Costigan, 
 and for adopting an address to the King on that question. 
 The address had a strange fate in the hands of the great 
 Imperialist, Mr. Chamberlain, who was then Colonial 
 Secretary. The voice of the great Dominion, which had 
 been the loudest in defending the Empire, and had for 
 that reason been held up by Mr. Chamberlain for the 
 edification of the Unionist electorate, was not listened 
 to when it came to sympathize with a cause to which 
 he was personally hostile. The Colonial Secretary merely 
 replied to the Canadians that his Majesty had nothing 
 to add to the answer made in 1882. But though 
 resented, the action could hardly be ignored, and one 
 cannot get behind the fact that the Colony most 
 resembling Ireland in history, and one which has passed 
 through almost the same crisis, should have thus for the 
 fourth time ventured to suggest the remedy (having 
 already done so in 1882, 1886, 1887) which was tried 
 with such success in its own case. 
 
 All this while, though in Parliament little had been done, 
 
 in Ireland things were going apace, preparing for 
 
 another period of activity. Mr. W. O'Brien's wonderful 
 
 organizing powers had devised the United Irish League, 
 
 and at a National Convention the party was still further 
 
 164 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 consolidated. One incident, however — Mr. Healy's exclu- 
 sion from the party — marred the unity, the resolution 
 of expulsion being carried by the Convention in distinct 
 opposition to a vigorous speech by Mr. Harrington and a 
 statement of disapproval from John Redmond. At the 
 same time even amongst Ulster Unionists there was a 
 general tendency towards the adoption of the principle 
 of compulsory purchase of land advocated by the League, 
 though few were willing to adopt Mr. T, W. Russell's 
 plan, costing some 120 millions and establishing an 
 Irish proprietary on the land without loss to State or 
 landlord. 
 
 The next year, 1901, saw the further spread of the 
 United Irish League and the increase of its power, and 
 though Mr. VVyndham at first pooh-poohed the idea of 
 its being a revival of the Plan of Campaign, it had 
 grown sufficiently strong by December to get Mr. Conor 
 O'Kelly, Mr. Hayden, Mr. John O'Donnell and others im- 
 prisoned upon charges of intimidation. The resignation 
 of the Archbishop of Dublin from the membership of 
 the Board of Education, to which John Redmond had 
 called the attention of the House, brought the Catholic 
 University question once more prominently before the 
 public, with the result that a Royal Commission was 
 appointed ; and though there was still much opposition 
 in the Protestant quarters, it was generally felt that 
 
 some advance had been made in favour of the Catholic 
 
 165 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 claims : while, of course, the eternal Home Rule question 
 made up the third of the great problems of Land, 
 Religion, Bureaucracy which continually faced the 
 English legislator. Agitation had once more become 
 the order of the day — the sine qud non of all Irish remedies. 
 That the agitation was a success can be seen 
 from the King's Speech in 1902, which promised an 
 Irish Land Bill. That Home Rule had once more come 
 to life was also evident from Sir Henry Campbell- 
 Bannerman's action in once more taking up on behalf of 
 his party what Mr. Balfour called the damnosa here- 
 ditas of the Liberals. The Liberal leader even taunted 
 the Government with having tried to kill Home Rule by 
 kindness. " The contemplation of the Government," he 
 said, " after all that has been tried and done, floundering, 
 in the old familiar, traditional way, between conciliation 
 and coercion, is calculated to confirm us in the conviction 
 of the wisdom of that policy towards Ireland and Irish 
 government which has been and is the remedy approved 
 by the Liberal party." 
 
 A lengthy amendment to the Address was put for- 
 ward by John Redmond late in January, condemning 
 the dual ownership of land and representing that 
 though the Government admitted the grievance, they 
 would do nothing to remedy it, and justifying the action 
 of the United Irish League, which had now some two 
 
 thousand branches. But one of the most significant 
 
 166 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 speeches was Lord Rosebery's, who declared that he 
 was distinctly opposed to anything like an independent 
 parliament for Ireland, though he admitted that the 
 Castle government must be reformed, and that the Irish 
 question, too large to bi dealt with by any one party, 
 should be settled by the concurrence and patriotism of 
 both, and further maintaining that the open sympathies 
 of the Irish with the Boers had made Home Rule im- 
 possible. " We dare not allow a hostile parliament at 
 the very heart of the Empire. Such a parliament, had 
 it been in existence during that war, might have turned 
 the balance between success and defeat." But, as Sir 
 Henry Campbell-Bannerman retorted, " An independent 
 parliament goes beyond the case and has never been 
 demanded by any man qualified to speak for the Irish 
 people, and has never been expected or contemplated by 
 us." As for himself, he would declare for the old policy, 
 which was the sole remedy for the condition of that 
 country which is the most serious weakness in the whole 
 British Empire, the most grave blot upon its fame. 
 
 In March, 1902, Mr, Wyndham introduced the 
 promised Land Bill, but it was still-born, being withdrawn, 
 after its condemnation by the Nationalist members, in 
 June, and for a short period there seemed an absolute 
 deadlock. The Crimes Act of 1887 was again enforced, 
 and in view of the general discontent in Ireland the 
 
 King's visit was postponed. A concentration of forces 
 
 167 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 on the part of the landlords against the United Irish 
 League set the two parties warring, and Lord De Freyne 
 announced that he would seek injunctions against John 
 Redmond and others for interference with his tenants, 
 the Unionist English Press meanwhile calling loudly for 
 " law and order." 
 
 But in the end it was found, as always happens, that 
 there was real cause for agitation, and that the "land" 
 question had reached such a critical stage that it could 
 be no longer shelved, but must be solved, and solved at 
 once. And it is in no little measure due to the strong 
 yet conciliatory action of the Irish leader that, if not 
 solved in detail, it was solved at least in principle ; and 
 the foundation of a quiet social reyolution was laid 
 which, while it reversed the policy of three confiscations 
 and re-established the people on the soil, removed at 
 one stroke one of the greatest obstacles to Home Rule 
 which had any but a sentimental reality. This was 
 the inauguration of the principle of State-aided com- 
 pulsory purchase. On the whole it was well received. 
 " The reception accorded to the Irish policy of the 
 Government," as the Annual Register pointed out, "was 
 in the main friendly, the prevailing disposition among 
 politicians of all parties being to hold that an oppor- 
 tunity was presented for a settlement of the principal 
 local economic difficulty of Ireland, and that it would 
 
 be wise not to examine in any timid and parsimonious 
 
 i68 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 spirit the financial arrangements by which Ministers con- 
 ceived that so great a national end might be secured." 
 
 The commercial restrictions of the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries had driven the people from industry 
 to agriculture, with the result that to-day three and a 
 half out of the four and a half millions are dependent 
 for their livelihood on agriculture, and there are over 
 half a million holdings, and, as Mr. Balfour once said, 
 the system of land tenure contained almost every fault 
 which it was possible to imagine. An attempt to 
 escape the Poor Law by reducing the number of 
 tenants on an estate caused whole counties to be 
 converted into prairies, and in ten years three hundred 
 thousand families were evicted, a million and a half of 
 the population fled across the Atlantic, and, as Mr. F. J. 
 McDonnell points out, it was only in 1870, after twenty- 
 three Bills in favour of the farmers had been rejected 
 by Parliament in forty years, that the tenant was able 
 to claim compensation for disturbance and a halfway- 
 house established in the doctrine of dual ownership. 
 
 In 1881 the three F's : free sale, fair rent, and fixity 
 
 of tenure, had advanced the problem this far, that it 
 
 " included a fair valuation of rent, the right of a tenant 
 
 to sell his interest at the highest market value, and the 
 
 security from eviction so long as he paid his rent." 
 
 What the Fenians did in getting compensation for 
 
 disturbance the Land League did under Parnell for 
 
 169 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 fixity of tenure and John Redmond's policy, accompanied 
 by the cattle driving, did in enlarging the principle of 
 purchase and thus establishing the people on the soil. 
 
 The encouragement of land purchase had been 
 advocated as early as 1847 t)y Lord John Russell and 
 J. S. Mill ; and John Bright, by securing that tenants of 
 Church lands should have a right of pre-emption, estab- 
 lished, before 1870, some six thousand peasant proprietors 
 on the land. In 1870, by the Land Act of that year, 
 about a thousand more had been enabled to purchase 
 their holdings by the advance of two-thirds the purchase 
 price. In 1881 Parnell got "the advance of three-quarters 
 at terms of five per cent, for thirty-five years ; while the 
 Ashbourne Act of 1885 advanced the whole sum up to 
 a total amount of five millions, the necessary money 
 being found in the Irish Church Surplus Fund. In 1891 
 Mr. Balfour proposed the allocation of thirty-three 
 millions for the same purpose, and some thirty thousand 
 sales took place. Again, in 1S96, the Land Act of 
 that year asserted the principle of compulsory purchase 
 of certain estates in bankruptcy, and by the facilities 
 offered, some eight thousand sales took place in 1898, 
 which, as the South African War diminished the value 
 of Consols, dwindled to six thousand in 1899, five 
 thousand in 1900 and only three thousand in 1901. 
 Hence we may say land purchase had come to a 
 
 standstill. 
 
 170 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 Such was the state of things when Mr. Wyndham 
 introduced the still-born Land Bill of 1902. It was at 
 once declared insufficient by the National Convention of 
 June. Matters came to a deadlock, agitation centring 
 chiefly around Lord De Freyne's estates. Everything 
 pointed to a crisis. The landlords formed themselves 
 into an Irish Land Trust : John Redmond grouped the 
 tenants around the United Irish League. 
 
 At this critical moment came the Land Conference 
 between the representatives of tenants and landlords. 
 At the suggestion of Captain Shawe-Taylor, letters were 
 sent to John Redmond on the one hand, the most 
 prominent landlords on the other. John Redmond 
 warmly accepted the proposal, not so much because it 
 showed a way out of the difficulty, as because it 
 coincided with his first principle, that none but Irishmen 
 can come to a satisfactory understanding on Irish affairs ; 
 and that once they are agreed upon the remedy, the 
 English Parliament could have no reason to reject their 
 proposal or doubt its efficiency. The Duke of Abercorn, 
 on the contrary, met the proposal with a typical answer. 
 " It would be merely to give long discredited politicians 
 a certificate of good sense and of just views, we might 
 almost say of legislative capacity to sit in an Irish 
 parliament in Dublin, were we to accept Captain Shawe- 
 Taylor's invitation to join them." 
 
 The spirit of conciliation, however, prevailed, and in the 
 
 171 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Conference the Irish leader, though himself a landlord, 
 together with Mr. W. O'Brien and Mr. T. W. Russell, 
 represented the tenants ; Lord Dunraven, Lord Mayo, 
 Colonel Hutcheson Poe and Colonel Nugent Everard 
 representing the landlords. 
 
 The Conference issued its report early in 1903 and 
 advocated three great principles : first, that purchase was 
 the only possible solution ; secondly, that in addition to 
 advances being made to the tenant for purchase, the 
 Treasury should grant a bonus to encourage landlords to 
 sell ; thirdly, that the large grazing lands should be 
 divided up and the evicted tenants — the wounded 
 soldiers of the land war — should be given hopes of 
 reinstatement. 
 
 It was this Conference, called the " Treaty of Peace," 
 which changed everything. " England has now, for the 
 first time since the Union, a chance at a ridiculously 
 small cost of bringing the land war to an end," said 
 John Redmond. Later the House accepted his amendment 
 to the King's Speech — " That it is in the highest interests 
 of the State that advantage should be taken of the 
 unexampled opportunity created by the Land Conference 
 agreement for putting an end to agrarian troubles and 
 conflicts between classes in Ireland, by giving the fullest 
 and most generous effect to the Land Conference report 
 on the Irish purchase proposals announced in the speech 
 from the throne." 
 
 172 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 Accordingly on March 25th, 1903, Mr. Wyndham, the 
 Chief Secretary, introduced his Irish Land Bill, in which 
 most of these proposals were embodied. The scene was 
 impressive. The Irish leader said he had never risen 
 with such a feeling of responsibility and gratitude. 
 The Chief Secretary replied that the Irish leader's speech 
 was such as no one in his place had made for many a 
 decade ; while Colonel Saunderson, the leader of the 
 Ulster Unionists, believed it was about the only measure 
 for Ireland on which he had found himself in sub- 
 stantial agreement with the member for Waterford. But 
 throughout it was understood that the fate of the Land 
 Bill would be decided by the National Convention, which 
 had been summoned to meet in Dublin, John Redmond 
 warning the Government against the misrepresentation 
 of that body and pointing out that it was really the 
 most representative and democratic body in the three 
 kingdoms. 
 
 On April i6th the Nationalist Convention met; and 
 though at the same time declaring that self-government 
 was the greatest need of Ireland, accepted the proposed 
 measure subject to certain amendments to be pressed in 
 committee. For the first time these suggestions were 
 listened to. " Amendments/' said the National Directorate 
 of the United Irish League later, "demanded by the 
 National Convention have been conceded in committee 
 to an extent to which no great Government measure in 
 
 173 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 relation to Ireland has ever before been modified in 
 deference to the demands of Irish public opinion " — 
 and as Mr. John Redmond declared, it was "the most 
 substantial victory gained for centuries by the Irish 
 race for the reconquest of the soil of Ireland by the 
 people." 
 
 The effect of the Bill was immediate, but not com- 
 plete. " All that is good in the Act of 1903," said 
 the Irish leader five years later, " came from the ex- 
 pression of Irish public opinion at the Land Conference. 
 All that is bad in the Act, all that is preventing the 
 Act working successfully, was put in the Act in oppo- 
 sition to Irish public opinion, and in defiance of the 
 opinion expressed by the representatives of the Irish 
 people." Still even this cannot blind one to the vastness 
 of the measure by which, as Lord Dunraven puts it, 
 nearly a quarter of a million (228,938) occupying tenants 
 were able to buy their holdings and seventy-seven 
 millions worth of property changed hands " on terms 
 recommended as fair by representatives of tenants and 
 landlords at the Land Conference, accepted as fair by 
 the whole Irish people through their representatives in 
 Parliament, their National Convention, their local bodies, 
 and by every means through which the opinion of a 
 community can be made articulate, and endorsed as fair 
 by all parties in both branches of the Imperial legisla- 
 
 ture." 
 
 174 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 What is chiefly significant, as far as John Redmond 
 is concerned, was the endorsing of his first principle of 
 action, that only in Ireland and by Irishmen can the 
 Irish problem be solved. He himself was full of the 
 spirit of conciliation, and he pointed, not without justice, 
 to the Conference as one of the greatest refutations of 
 the indictment of bigotry and incapacity hurled against 
 Irishmen. At the same time there was no doubt that 
 it was the strength of the League which had given 
 him his power ; and the same power he now used to 
 urge the settlement of the legislative and educational 
 questions. 
 
 The spirit of conciliation inaugurated by the Land 
 Conference and brought to such a successful issue in the 
 Land Act, 1903, might have been the beginning of a 
 new dawn in Irish affairs. For the time the air was 
 filled with schemes and conferences ; the attitude of the 
 Irish leader and the Irish Chief Secretary was de- 
 scribed as continually " throwing kisses to each other 
 across the floor of the House." In January, Lord Dun- 
 raven, the moving spirit of the entente, published a long 
 letter in the Dublin papers on the education question. 
 He mapped out a scheme for a great federal University 
 of Dublin which, besides Trinity College, should consist 
 of Queen's College, Belfast, and a new King's College 
 to be established in the Irish capital. It was, upon the 
 whole, favourably received by such prominent Catholic 
 
 175 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 laymen as Lords Fingall, Kenmare, Chief Baron Palles, 
 The MacDermot, K.C., and others, but the bishops 
 were divided upon the point, and though Protestants, Hke 
 Colonel Saunderson, were loud in their protests against 
 the supposed clerical domination that would ensue, the 
 Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College offered 
 to erect a Catholic chapel for Catholic students. 
 
 The failure of the Government, however, to proceed 
 with the matter was the first warning note of an 
 abandonment of the spirit of conciliation. As early as 
 January 22nd, 1904, Lord Londonderry disclaimed any 
 intention on the part of the Government to introduce 
 such a Bill, and later, when Mr. Clancy brought up the 
 same question, Mr. Wyndham said that, though he was 
 personally in sympathy with the measure of a Roman 
 Catholic University without tests, he refused to pledge 
 the Government. Indeed, it was generally thought to 
 press the question might have split the Cabinet. As 
 John Redmond put it in 1907, the scheme was not a 
 scheme that many of the Catholics would have liked 
 if they had a choice ; but when it was put before 
 them as a practical scheme, they, after consultation, 
 priests, bishops, laity, said — " Very well, we will give 
 up our personal predilections, because we see the sub- 
 stance of equality in the scheme, and we accept it." 
 
 The refusal was a great mistake : for advantage 
 
 might have been taken of the proposals made by 
 
 176 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 the same liberal-minded Irishmen who had already 
 solved the land question, and effected a wholesome 
 rapprochement in public life. But it was not the acts or 
 even the omissions of the Government leaders which 
 told against the Conservatives so much as the spirit 
 which began to actuate them — for the suggestions indi- 
 cated tendencies of mind rather than actual measures. 
 It was the gradual submission to the old spirit of Ulster 
 opposition and the sacrificing of the new conciliatory 
 spirit in Ireland which became every day more clear, 
 and though no one could call John Redmond a "devo- 
 lutionist, " he was undoubtedly in sympathy with a 
 movement which was identical in ultimate aim, or at 
 least in principle, with his own, and which he looked 
 upon as inaugurating a new era of thought among Irish 
 Unionists. 
 
 The University blunder was only the prelude to 
 another and more serious mistake, when the Govern- 
 ment's hands were forced into a policy of hostility to 
 the reform of the bureaucracy advocated by such men 
 as Lord Dunraven and Lord (then Sir Antony) 
 MacDonnell. 
 
 Lord Dunraven's scheme of devolution was the 
 
 establishment of a Financial Council, which had been 
 
 suggested by the Irish Reform Association, into which 
 
 the Land Conference had resolved itself. This Financial 
 
 Council was to have had control of purely Irish 
 
 177 12 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 expenditure subject to a power in the House of Com- 
 mons ; a control over Irish private Bill legislation being 
 handed over to a special assembly of Irish representative 
 peers and members of Parliament. It was supported by- 
 such men as Lord Rossmore, Lord Southwell, Sir A. 
 Coote, Sir A. Weldon, Col. Hutcheson Poe, Mr. L. and 
 Mr. D. Talbot-Crosbie, Captain Shawe-Taylor, and for a 
 period it seemed as if some arrangement could have been 
 made with the Irish party, many of whom welcomed 
 the new movement. In fact, the chief plank in its plat- 
 form was identical with that in the Nationalist platform 
 as far as the reform of the system of civil administra- 
 tion of Ireland was concerned ; and whole passages from 
 Mr. Redmond's speeches could be substituted for whole 
 paragraphs of Lord Dunraven's " Outlook in Ireland," 
 in which he denounces both the extravagance and the 
 irresponsibility of the sixty-seven departments that cost 
 over three millions a year to keep up an army of 
 100,000 officials, who receive in pay just half the amount 
 spent on the government of the country. 
 
 This administrative Home Rule, or Devolution, as it 
 was called, became the main thread in the tangled skein 
 of Irish politics. The appointment as permanent Under 
 Secretary of Sir Antony MacDonnell, an Irishman, a 
 Catholic and a Home Ruler, embittered the struggle, and 
 the Government became the object of the most rabid 
 
 attacks from the ultra-Unionists. Early in 1905 John 
 
 178 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 Redmond continually urged the Ministers not to surrender 
 to prejudices of the minority in Ireland, many still 
 hoping that some understanding might be come to. It 
 was in vain he urged the necessity for a University : it 
 was in vain that he urged the extension of the prin- 
 ciple of compulsory purchase to untenanted lands, or 
 pointed to a sudden stop in the working of the Land 
 Act. 
 
 The whole controversy raged round Sir Antony 
 MacDonnell, Sir Edward Carson thinking it nothing less 
 than a public scandal " that Sir Antony MacDonnell, a 
 permanent civil servant under the Unionist Government, 
 should still be retained in a position such as he occupied 
 after having evolved a scheme which both the Prime 
 Minister and the Chief Secretary had disavowed." Sir 
 Antony, however, was eloquently defended by Lord Lans- 
 downe, who said of the government of Ireland, " Any- 
 body who has studied that question is aware that there is 
 room for considerable improvement in the old-fashioned 
 and complicated organization. In these circumstances, it 
 follows that Sir A. MacDonnell was justified in assuming 
 that he had certain scope of action : and he certainly 
 acted upon that assumption — acted upon it with the know- 
 ledge and approval of the Chief Secretary. It was with 
 the Chief Secretary's approval that Sir A. MacDonnell 
 made himself accessible to persons, of many kinds and 
 
 descriptions, whose ideas were worth collecting upon 
 
 179 12* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 important subjects, and I maintain that in endeavouring 
 to break down the barrier which has too long and too 
 often divided DubHn Castle from the rest of the country, 
 my right honourable colleague has taken a step in the 
 right direction and one for which he deserves the 
 greatest possible praise." 
 
 This granted the point always urged by John Red- 
 mond and justified the attitude which he took up later 
 in an amendment to the Address, when he pointed to the 
 general dissatisfaction in Ireland, among all classes and 
 creeds, with the system of Castle government, especially 
 as no one who was in any way in sympathy with the 
 people was ever allowed to take part long in the ad- 
 ministration of the country ; and they were really ruled 
 by permanent semi-independent boards stuffed full with 
 members of the ascendancy party. For weeks the 
 "letters" that had passed between Sir Antony MacDonnell 
 and the Chief Secretary were discussed, and in the 
 end Mr. Wyndham resigned and in his place was 
 appointed Mr. Walter Long. The spirit of con- 
 
 ciliation had been once more wrecked by the spirit of 
 coercion and the ending of the Government's reign became 
 but a matter of time. An attempt to cut down the Irish 
 representation was a failure, and a few weeks later Mr. 
 Balfour was defeated upon the administration of the 
 Land Purchase Act of 1903. 
 
 The refusal of the Prime Minister, however, to resign 
 
 180 
 
AND THE CONSERVATIVES 
 
 upon a question of such magnitude, raised a constitu- 
 tional point of the first importance, and for a time it 
 became a matter of personal contest between John Red- 
 mond and Mr. Balfour. 
 
 " I say that the continuance in office of the present 
 Government is a violation of the spirit of the constitu- 
 tion," said the Irish leader. " For my part, I believe it 
 is the duty of all who value that constitution to use 
 every effective means they may have to drive the right 
 honourable gentleman from the position he now 
 occupies. In so far as my colleagues are concerned, we 
 will give and take no quarter, and I believe if the same 
 spirit animated the Opposition as a whole, they would 
 soon make short work of that Government of shreds 
 and patches." 
 
 This constitutional point was admitted on all sides, and 
 the parliamentary correspondent of the Daily Chronicle 
 maintained that the reputation of the Irish leader had 
 never been higher than in the vigorous and effective use 
 of an oratory which went to the heart of the situation ; 
 while even the Conservative Press seemed to admit the 
 weakness of Balfour's position by leaving him undefended 
 on the main point and pleading his retention on the 
 ground of the critical situation of foreign affairs. 
 
 But it was more than a mere parliamentary defeat : 
 
 as Mr. Dillon observed at a banquet given in the 
 
 Leader's honour in July, " it was the discrediting of that 
 
 i8i 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Parliamentary leader who for twenty years had been the 
 heart and brain of the Unionist party in their struggle 
 against Home Rule," and a greater testimony had never 
 been offered to the power of the Irish party than the 
 policy of redistribution, by which some dozen Irish 
 members would lose their seats, and which he looked 
 upon as the cry of despair of the English Parliament. 
 John Redmond, however, emphasized chiefly the means 
 by which that victory had been brought about. It was 
 entirely a matter of organization, he maintained. It was 
 because the party had been one, representative and 
 organized, and that it represented the electorate and the 
 directory of the United Irish League. It was due also to 
 the fact that that party was pledge-bound and that all 
 its differences were discussed inside the ranks of the 
 party, so that once a decision had been arrived at, they 
 stuck to it ; for, as he is never tired of warning the 
 country, without unity the national forces are absolutely 
 useless. 
 
 One, therefore, of the three great difficulties was on 
 the road to solution, the land question. There still 
 remained two, the educational or Catholic University 
 question and the Home Rule or bureaucratic question, 
 both of which were left to the Liberal Government to 
 deal with. 
 
 182 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 REDMOND AND THE LIBERALS 
 1905-1910 
 
 I. — THE EDUCATION BILLS AND THE CATHOLIC 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 ■pROM the moment of the defeat of Mr. Balfour to the 
 return of the great English democratic party after 
 an exile of twenty years, John Redmond's policy was 
 to show the electorate of both countries that the reform 
 of bureaucracy was the real Irish grievance and that 
 the Home Rule question was once more the great issue 
 in practical politics. Speaking in April, 1905, he had 
 pointed out how unconstitutional was the government 
 of Ireland (so mischievous, indeed, as to justify separa- 
 tion), but that at the same time he was profoundly con- 
 vinced that a compromise could be arrived at within 
 the constitution — in all essentials on the lines proposed 
 in t886 and 1893. 
 
 This had been, of course, the whole-hearted and 
 generous Liberal programme for which the party had 
 suffered twenty years of exile ; but in that time there 
 had arisen moderate or half Liberals. To these he 
 
 183 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 addressed himself in his speech of November loth at 
 Glasgow, " Some Liberals," he said, " thought the situa- 
 tion could be adequately dealt with by administrative 
 Home Rule, or, as others called it, devolution — a policy 
 which would consist in dismissing some of the Orange- 
 men in Dublin Castle and putting Nationalists in their 
 places, transferring to an Irish tribunal in Dublin the 
 management of Irish private bills and objects of that 
 sort. He wished to say to the statesmen who put 
 forward these views that this would afford absolutely no 
 remedy for the state of grievances admitted. He 
 warned the Liberal party, with all respect, to turn a deaf 
 ear to those who were inclined to tempt them away 
 from the straight path into the devious, crooked and 
 unsafe path of repudiation of ancient pledges and the 
 proposal of ridiculous and unmeaning policies such as 
 these." 
 
 The words appear somewhat strong, perhaps, to us of 
 the new generation : they were mild indeed for one who 
 had been dissatisfied with Gladstone on the question of 
 a final settlement. His position was well defined in one 
 of the Freeman cartoons, in which the reluctant John 
 Bull is asking Pat Redmond how the debt should be 
 paid. " It's an old debt — long overdue, and should there- 
 fore be paid at once, not in instalments," is Redmond's 
 reply. 
 
 Mill's cartoon was not without point, for Mr. Haldane 
 
 184 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 thought the best policy would be the placing of 
 responsibility where power really lay, thus leaving the 
 people of Ireland free to educate themselves in the 
 administration of their own affairs, while Mr. Asquith 
 hesitated, from the conviction forced upon anyone 
 acquainted with politics, that nothing but a distinct, 
 definite and irresistible movement of opinion in England 
 could carry through Parliament such a motion, and he 
 was rather inclined to wait, like Rosebery, till the clouds 
 of prejudice passed by. 
 
 The leaders of Liberal opinion, however, were for the 
 most part true to their history. Lord — then Mr. — Morley, 
 for example, speaking at Forfar on October 20th, 1905, 
 said : — " Last Session the whole Liberal party in the 
 House of Commons voted in favour of Mr. Redmond's 
 amendment, which stated that the present government 
 in Ireland was in opposition to the will of the Irish 
 people, gave them no voice in the management of their 
 affairs, was extravagantly costly, did not enjoy the con- 
 fidence of any section of the population, was productive 
 of universal discontent and unrest, and had been proved 
 to be incapable of satisfactorily promoting the material 
 and intellectual progress of the people. Surely, then, it 
 was incredible that a party which supported an indict- 
 ment so damning should have no policy for dealing 
 with such a state of affairs. I defy the wit of man to 
 give to Ireland, to Irishmen, any effective control or 
 
 185 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 voice in the management of their own affairs, whether 
 in respect to saving money or anything else, unless there 
 is an executive responsible to a body in which the 
 elective element shall » have the decisive voice, whether 
 that body sits on College Green or elsewhere." The 
 following questions were put to Mr. Morley at the 
 meeting, and he returned to them the answers that 
 follow: — "Are you a Home Ruler? I answer: If 
 you mean the creation by Parliament of the local legis- 
 lature under the paramount authority of the Imperial 
 parliament, yes, I am. Is that what you understand to 
 be the spirit of Gladstonian policy ? I say that I can 
 imagine no other intelligible interpretation or application 
 of that spirit." 
 
 There was a Gladstonian ring also in the Prime 
 Minister's (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman) declarations. 
 In fact, he seemed quite as determined as John Red- 
 mond that the Irish problem, which had occupied Parlia- 
 ment year in and year out since the days of Grattan, 
 should be solved — but he doubted whether, reviewing 
 the history of the century, it would ever be solved at 
 Westminster. Even good government, he maintained, 
 was no substitute for self-government, and he made it 
 clear that self-government would be the aim of the 
 Liberal party. He did not quite pledge himself to an 
 immediate introduction of a Home Rule Bill ; but that 
 
 this was the end in view was evident from his election 
 
 i86 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 speeches. " I trust," he stated, " that the opportunity of 
 making a great advance on this question of Irish 
 government will not be long delayed and when that 
 opportunity comes, my firm belief is that a greater 
 measure of agreement than hitherto as to the ultimate 
 solution will be found possible, and that a keener 
 appreciation will be felt of the benefits that will flow to 
 the Imperial communities and British people throughout 
 the world, and that Ireland, from being disaffected, im- 
 poverished and discouraged, will take its place a strong 
 and harmonious and contented portion of the Empire." 
 
 It seemed therefore that John Redmond had at last 
 aroused the attention of the dull but not really un- 
 generous sense of fair play which lies at the bottom of 
 the British conscience — a conscience which in Irish 
 affairs suffers more from ignorance, apathy and certain 
 touches of occasional panic than from any conscious 
 hostility of spirit. Twenty years of resolute government 
 had cost a seventh of the population, the spirit of 
 coercion was dead, the decks were cleared for action, 
 and all pointed to a confirmation of the Irish leader's 
 motion in the previous February. 
 
 The Irish vote, in view of these pledges and senti- 
 ments, was accordingly given to the Liberal candidates 
 and not a little conduced to the overwhelming majority 
 with which they were returned in 1906. 
 
 The first great measure, however, upon the meeting 
 
 187 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 of Parliament which claimed the attention of the Irish 
 leader was not an Irish question, save in the sense that 
 it affected the Catholics of England, who are for the 
 most part made up of Irish emigrants. It is more a 
 matter of ecclesiastical history than of personal bio- 
 graphy, and though it would be too complicated to 
 enter into the many Education Bills which have called 
 forth his criticism, there are certain general principles 
 characterizing his actions throughout without noting 
 which no estimate of the man would be complete. 
 
 In 1902, in 1906, in 1908, his attitude was the same: 
 officially, that of the lay politician ; that of the ardent 
 Catholic personally, for John Redmond believes, like Sir 
 Wilfrid Laurier, in an extension of denominational 
 developments as the best safeguard against an infringe- 
 ment of parental control. He is a Home Ruler even 
 here ; in the sense that he believes the " Home " has 
 the only claim to rule. But at the same time he will 
 not allow the wrecking of broad political aims by 
 sectarian side issues, and over and over again has he 
 protested against the attempt on the part of Tory 
 Catholics to make use of the Irish party as a political 
 catspaw, and stoutly defended a policy of political in- 
 dependence of all religious creeds. 
 
 " I say the National movement is not a Catholic 
 
 movement," he said on one occasion. " It is not in 
 
 conflict with the interests of the Catholic religion ; God 
 
 188 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 forbid ! — tliat is the religion of the overwhelming 
 majority of our people. But the National movement is 
 a movement embracing within its fold men of all re- 
 ligions, and those who seek to turn the Nationalist 
 movement into a Catholic movement would be repudi- 
 ating some of the brightest pages of our national his- 
 tory and forgetting the memory of some of the greatest 
 of our national heroes who professed the newer and 
 the older creed of our country." 
 
 I can conceive of no finer declaration from a politician, 
 nor one more calculated to inspire respect and confi- 
 dence in the event of an Irish parliament, composed of 
 Catholics, being entrusted with power over Protestants. 
 At the same time, as he reminded his hearers at the 
 Coliseum in June, 1908, Catholics have lost nothing 
 in thus trusting to a national instead of a Catholic 
 party. The Catholic schools of England were really the 
 creation of the Nationalist parties of the past, and in 
 that party they would find, he assured them, their best 
 shield and bulwark ; only they must allow that party at 
 least political discretion upon questions of ways and 
 means. How necessary this last phrase is anyone 
 familiar with educational controversies will at once 
 realize, for there were some Catholic organs which did 
 not scruple to assert that they could not distinguish 
 between the spirit of Henry VHI. and that of the Irish 
 
 leader, while one worthy prelate compared him to a 
 
 189 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 second Clemenceau ; and this at a time when almost 
 every action of his was taken with full approbation and 
 knowledge of the English ecclesiastical authorities. The 
 clashes, indeed, that occurred, such as that at Manchester, 
 when the United Irish League and the clergy came into 
 conflict, is another example of the same spirit, the best 
 answer to which is contained in Mr. Dillon's remark, 
 that, once it is allowed that the question is one of 
 policy and of tactics, he was ready to maintain that 
 the trained politicians of the League and of the Irish 
 party are much more likely to be good judges of 
 political tactics than any ecclesiastic in the land. 
 
 John Dillon's Catholicism few would impeach, for none 
 worked harder than the Irish party for that cause, and 
 none in that party harder than Dillon. But as John 
 Redmond and many of the Irish party foresaw, the 
 opportunity had been lost in 1902, when separate treat- 
 ment could easily have been secured by meeting the 
 Nonconformist grievances in a generous spirit. The 
 politicians' hands were forced by the theologians, but 
 their political instincts proved right in the end. Cardinal 
 Vaughan, however, was not unmindful of the Irish 
 labours, and it is a pleasing trait of the Tory prelate 
 to find him trying — in return for the Nationalist help 
 — to start a movement in England to get them a national 
 university. 
 
 That the charge of betraying the schools which was 
 
 190 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 levelled against the party was unfounded needed, however, 
 an official denial in the heated controversy of 1906, and 
 the Irish leader accordingly received the following letter 
 from the Archbishop of Westminster : 
 
 " Dear Mr. Redmond, 
 
 " Now that our long struggle for educational 
 equality is momentarily at an end, it is due to you 
 that I should again thank you and your colleagues 
 for the efforts that you have made to rescue our 
 Schools in England and Wales from the jeopardy in 
 which the proposals of the Government had placed 
 them. Knowing as I do the negotiations which 
 have taken place, I am satisfied that you have done 
 your best to deal with a very delicate and critical 
 situation. 
 
 " With every good wish for Xmas and the 
 coming year, 
 
 " Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 " 1906. Francis, Abp. of Westminster." 
 
 This position of independence was again visible in 
 1908, when again the Irish leader was indefatigable in 
 his efforts on behalf of the Catholic schools, and here 
 not without success, for he obtained almost all the 
 concessions necessary to preserve the religious atmo- 
 sphere. But he was bitterly opposed to the Catholic 
 
 191 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 deputation to the House of Lords for the rejection of 
 the Bill, not so much because he himself was in favour 
 of the Bill in all its details, but because, as he reminded 
 the House, he believed it was contrary to the best policy 
 in the long run, namely, that he preferred to trust the 
 Catholic schools to the broad-minded generosity of 
 English democracy than to establish them with the help 
 of such a reactionary body as the House of Lords, 
 whom it would only strengthen for the great consti- 
 tutional struggle of which he looked upon the rejection 
 of the Education Bill as the first blow. 
 
 It was a long-sighted policy, but this was very 
 characteristic of the Irish leader, and sheds a great 
 light, not only upon his statesmanship, but also upon his 
 mental attitude towards Catholicism. His name will be 
 coupled, and deservedly so, with those of Windthorst and 
 Montalembert, but it will not be in the same way. 
 They were political Catholics ; he is a Catholic politician. 
 With him the statesman prevails over the personal 
 believer ; not that he places religion below politics so 
 much as that he recognizes a sort of religion in true 
 politics such as establish a Roman equality of treatment 
 with a consequent atmosphere of mutual respect, in which 
 every creed will flourish according to the value of its 
 own intrinsic merits. And in this he resembles another 
 great Catholic statesman of the Empire, and a personal 
 
 friend. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Canadian Premier, who 
 
 192 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 has had himself to deal with almost the same problem 
 and solved it in exactly the same way. 
 
 Thus when, in 1905, a bigoted outcry was raised 
 against Sir Wilfrid Laurier for proposing legislation 
 which would allow Catholic denominational schools to 
 be established in two of the western provinces, pretend- 
 ing that this was abandoning Canada to the Roman 
 Catholics, as a matter of fact, he was merely extending 
 a principle in force for some thirty years, and one upon 
 which the whole religious difficulty had been solved to 
 the satisfaction of both parties. But the prejudice raised 
 in England was so great that Mr. George T. Fulford, 
 one of the Dominion Senators, thus wrote to the Daily 
 Chronicle upon the charge of clericalism : 
 
 " Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the first great Canadian 
 Catholic who took exception to the interference of the 
 hierarchy in the Dominion politics. He carried his case 
 to Rome and secured a prominciamento from the late 
 Pope practically debarring the Roman hierarchy from 
 taking part in Canadian politics. The charge made 
 now of being a tool of the hierarchy is not only 
 singularly unjust, but can only be made by one who 
 has some other motive in view than that of presenting a 
 true aspect of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's life and character." 
 
 The action is significant because of the similarity of 
 the two men Redmond and Laurier and the identity 
 of their creeds, both religious and political. Both are in 
 
 ^93 13 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 a sense Home Rulers and Rome Rulers — but they are 
 examples of that virile lay spirit which, if rare, has 
 distinguished even the most religious, and is certainly 
 worth noting by those who seek to make out that a 
 Catholic Minister must be under the thumb of the priest, 
 and that a Nationalist Premier cannot be an Imperialist 
 as well. Like O'Connell, their motto is, We will take our 
 religion from Rome, but not our politics. But it is often 
 forgotten that it is Rome's motto also, as indeed was 
 shown by the interview which Pius X. gave to the Irish 
 leader in 1905, and which was so resented by Tories 
 and so acclaimed by Nationalists. 
 
 John Redmond's own account of the Holy Father's 
 interview was thus described to Mr. Stead : 
 
 '* I was ushered into his presence," he said, " through 
 
 stately corridors and splendid antechambers, escorted by 
 
 Papal guards and chamberlains. But all the pomp and 
 
 glory stopped when we reached the Pope's room. The 
 
 door was flung open and instead of finding the Pope on 
 
 his throne surrounded by ecclesiastics waiting for me to 
 
 kiss his foot, as some people used to say, I found 
 
 standing almost on the threshold a dear old priest all 
 
 alone, the like of whom I have seen in many an Irish 
 
 village, who would not even let me kiss his ring. He 
 
 grasped both my hands and then putting one arm round 
 
 my neck, led me to a chair, where we sat and talked for 
 
 nearly two hours." 
 
 194 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 He was introduced at the Vatican by the Marquis 
 MacSweeny, and accompanied by Mgr. Cameron, from 
 Canada, and with the aid of an interpreter had long 
 conversations on the religious, political and industrial 
 movements of Ireland. " I recognize," the Holy P^athcr is 
 reported as saying, " the Irish party as the defenders of 
 the Catholic religion, because it is the national religion 
 and it is the national party, and the struggles of the 
 party by lawful and peaceful means to win political 
 liberty for Ireland, and to obtain the full civic rights of 
 the Irish people denied them at present, have my deep 
 sympathy and blessing." 
 
 The report of this interview in all the English Press 
 caused not a little controversy, which, of course, took the 
 colour of the channels through which it passed. The 
 Pope was declared a Home Ruler in some quarters. It 
 was in other quarters, of course, denied that any 
 reference to Home Rule had been made or intended, 
 but one correspondent tried to place upon the visit 
 another political significance by saying that the Pontiff 
 had lectured John Redmond on his disloyalty, expressing 
 his highest appreciation of the cordial reception given 
 to King Edward during his visit to Ireland, and specially 
 recommended to the Irish leader and the Irish nation 
 loyalty to their sovereign and respect for the constituted 
 authority. 
 
 The resentment, however, from both parties was equally 
 
 195 13* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 irrelevant, as not only had the Holy Father no intention 
 to exert any political influence on English domestic 
 affairs, but probably no Irishman would admit his right, 
 even if it were attempted. The whole visit was public, 
 but hardly official, and it meant no more in the sphere 
 of politics for John Redmond than for King Edward to be 
 received. It was, however, a graceful recognition of 
 Catholic services of the Irishman ; and the large portrait 
 which the Pontiff presented to Mr. Redmond was 
 endorsed in the Pope's own hand with the following 
 inscription : — 
 
 " To my beloved Son, John Redmond, Leader of the 
 Irish Party in the House of Commons, with a wish that 
 he, together with his equally beloved colleagues, using all 
 legal and peaceful means, may win that liberty which 
 makes for the welfare of the whole country, we impart 
 our Apostolic Benediction with particular affection. 
 
 " From the Vatican. 
 
 " 27 April, 1905, 
 
 " Pius PP." 
 
 One cannot help remarking, however, that this Ponti- 
 fical tribute was fitting to one who had suffered so much 
 from the Catholic hierarchy of his own land during the 
 dark and troublous period of the Split, when to be a Par- 
 nellite seemed almost to cease to be a Catholic. A weaker 
 
 faith would have made a Davitt ; a more bigoted one 
 
 196 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 would have turned him against his leader. The moderate 
 position, which was true to both causes, is one of the 
 great traits of the mental equilibrium of the man, an 
 attitude which he preserved throughout the debates upon 
 the Catholic University Bill. 
 
 The New Irish University, which we will treat here, 
 is perhaps the measure with which John Redmond's 
 name will be most associated in history, as it marks the 
 final triumph of a cause which has been fought for ever 
 since, in the days of Grattan's Parliament, Trinity opened 
 its doors though not its endowments to Catholics — an 
 example which was not followed by Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge for three-quarters of a century. It was a good 
 example of that Fabian perseverance which is character- 
 istic of the creed and of the race, and of John Redmond 
 in particular ; a good lesson, moreover, to those who for 
 years advocated the compromise of rights which, as the 
 Irish leader had throughout maintained, should be 
 granted in full. For it w^as not as if Catholics had been 
 absolutely excluded from the Universities, They could 
 have compromised their position by entering Trinity 
 College, but they wished to maintain they had a full 
 right to a Catholic University, and they refused to go to 
 one whose religious atmosphere was antagonistic and 
 dangerous to them. 
 
 The establishment of three Queen's Colleges, one in 
 
 Cork, another in Galway and another in Belfast, by Sir 
 
 197 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Robert Peel, in 1838, was the first attempt to supply a 
 higher education ; but " godless colleges," as they were 
 called from their undenominational character, were no 
 remedy for a people pining for a University with a 
 Catholic atmosphere. In 1873 Gladstone, the Just, as he 
 ought to be termed, took up the case of a Catholic 
 University and failed. Then Fawcett's Act abolished the 
 tests on Catholics and Presbyterians in Trinity, But 
 Newman's attempt, some fifty years ago, was perhaps 
 the nearest approach to what Catholics desired in the 
 way of Catholic University life and atmosphere (the 
 Royal University in 1882 being merely an examining 
 body), and this has been laudably kept up by the Jesuit 
 Fathers and in spirit will no doubt form the nucleus of 
 Catholic higher thought. But the steps of progress were 
 painfully slow, and generation after generation of yearn- 
 ing minds had been doomed to the limitations of 
 ordinary public-school education. 
 
 In 1868 Lord Mayo, then Chief Secretary, tried to 
 bring forward a scheme. In 1873 Gladstone tried; in 
 1885 a Conservative Government tried; in 1889 Mr. 
 Balfour; in 1892 Lord Randolph Churchill; in 1896 Lord 
 Cadogan. In 1899 Mr. Balfour proposed two new 
 Universities, one with a Catholic and one with a Pres- 
 byterian atmosphere. In 1901 the Robertson Commission 
 proposed to exclude Trinity from inquiry and constitute 
 
 a federal teaching University with four colleges, one new 
 
 198 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 Catholic college to he situated in Dublin. Early in 
 1904, Lord Dunraven proposed the enlargement of the 
 University of Dublin to include Belfast Queen's College 
 and proposing a new Catholic college for Dublin, each 
 beinjy " autonomous and residential " — and before the end 
 of the session it was announced by the Irish party that 
 they were prepared to accept either of the two last 
 schemes and that the ecclesiastical authorities were like- 
 wise satisfied ; but even then the Government still 
 hesitated to move, although the Irish leader was con- 
 tinually urging the importance of the question from the 
 point of view of " the brain value of the nation " ; each year 
 practically meaning a generation of young men losing 
 the advantages of higher education. 
 
 On March 31st, 1908, therefore, the third great measure 
 of the session to remedy a grievance which was certainly 
 second only to Home Rule was introduced by Mr. 
 Birrell, who told the House that he had only accepted 
 the Chief Secretaryship in the hope of being able to 
 solve the problem which Mr. Bryce's retirement had left 
 suspended. 
 
 The scheme proposed to deal with the two Universities 
 
 in the following manner, not in Mr. Bryce's bi-federal 
 
 scheme. Instead of the existing Trinity College and 
 
 Royal University, forming one University with two 
 
 colleges, two new Universities were to be formed — one 
 
 in Dublin, consisting of the Cork and Galway colleges, 
 
 199 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 and a new college in Dublin, and the other in Belfast, 
 thus satisfying the grievances of both Presbyterians and 
 Catholics. The governing authorities were to be elective, 
 no religious tests were to be imposed, and powers of 
 ai^liation were to be conferred so as to include May- 
 nooth. But great as was the enthusiasm with which the 
 Bill was welcomed (leave being given to introduce the 
 Bill by 317 votes to 24), there were some who looked 
 upon it as likely to perpetuate the religious differences 
 of the country by making the Universities into theo- 
 logical pens. 
 
 This was greatly resented by the Irish leader, who 
 pointed out that wherever denominations existed a 
 certain amount of denominationalism must result, for so 
 it was at the Mahomedan University at Khartoum ; and 
 a pleasing touch of generosity was seen in the consent 
 of Roman Catholic bishops to allow their positions to 
 depend upon the election of graduates. But the general 
 spirit was as Mr. Redmond had continually urged upon 
 the House — to trust the Irish people ; and such in the 
 end was done, with the result, as the Irish leader himself 
 put it, that they have at last a great democratic and 
 national University. 
 
 Again, it is pleasing to note the difference between 
 
 Mr. Redmond and others, like F. H. O'Donnell, on the 
 
 point of view of education. Both, it is true, are in 
 
 favour of the National element overshadowing the 
 
 200 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 sectarian, but from different points of view. The one is 
 from the wish to denominationalize, the other from the 
 wish to protect undenominationalism. Mr. O'Donnell is 
 strongly in favour of mixed education. He quotes 
 instances such as where the Duke of Norfolk and five 
 hundred leading Catholics rejected the idea of a Catholic 
 University when Leo XIII. and Cardinal Manning tried 
 to impose on them such a University under Monsignor 
 Capel. They would have none of it ; and the Holy 
 Father decided with them. Of course it was open to 
 Irishmen also to go to the existing Universities, and 
 Trinity could have been " flooded " long ago. But this 
 would have been a compromise, and both from political 
 and religious motives Mr. Redmond was against it in 
 principle, refusing to send his own son where he had 
 been educated himself. 
 
 Mr. O'Donnell's History of the Irish Party pleads a 
 cause, but it is none the less interesting for that. 
 
 "The English Catholics absolutely refused to attend 
 the Pope's Catholic University in England," he writes. 
 " They maintain their right to attend the national Uni- 
 versities of Britain, and they got the new Catholic 
 University abolished and free access to the national 
 Universities guaranteed by Papal and episcopal decree. 
 The Jesuits and the Benedictines at once set about 
 opening Catholic halls of residence at Oxford and 
 
 Cambridge, just as they could do in Queen's College, 
 
 201 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Cork or Galway ; and leading Jesuits openly write 
 that mingling with their fellow-countrymen is most 
 beneficial to the Catholic students of Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge. . . . No Catholic State in the world supports a 
 Catholic University. The mingling of fellow-countrymen 
 of different religions is more necessary in Ireland than 
 anywhere in the world. That is why the ' Union Policy ' 
 is to keep them separated even in the University." 
 
 How far the new National University will meet the 
 wants of the new generation ; how far Trinity, where 
 there are this year a record number of Catholics, will 
 lose ; how far the establishment of two Universities will 
 tend to perpetuate the religious differences and separate 
 the national life of each generation into two theological 
 camps ; how far the gradual advance of liberal thought 
 will gradually secularize both, is a question which 
 only the future can solve. One can only say with 
 Mr. Balfour in 1899 — "It is not for us to consider how 
 far the undoubtedly conscientious objections of the 
 Roman Catholic population to use the means at their 
 disposal are wise or unwise. This is not our business. 
 What we have to do is to consider what we can do 
 consistently with our conscience to meet their wants." 
 The justice of these wants was admitted ; they were 
 unjustly withheld ; they have at last been granted ; 
 that is, from Mr. Redmond's point of view, the end of 
 
 the question, 
 
 202 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 The two attitudes are characteristic of the men. Mr. 
 O'Donnell starts with the intention of repressing the 
 clergy, for he is an open anti-clerical. Mr. Redmond, 
 on the contrary, looks facts in the face and sees that 
 if the clergy will predominate it will be on account 
 of their own individual merits, and simply because 
 there is no body of educated laity fit to take their 
 place ; but even if there were, he would oppose the 
 spirit which disqualified a man for science because of 
 the sacredness of his calling and then scoffs at the 
 sanctity of the calling because it does not contribute 
 to the advance of science. 
 
 John Redmond sees the practical grievance of a 
 Catholic being deprived of University teaching because 
 of the danger to his faith ; he simply wishes to put 
 an end to it. It is not for him to discuss whether 
 the Catholic is right or wrong in his scruple, nor to 
 question the wisdom of a Presbyterian University being 
 established also. But he will not have religious tests 
 imposed to compel belief. He simply takes the de- 
 nominations as they stand, and gives both full liberty 
 upon the broad national basis. For to foster denomina- 
 tionalism is a much more undenominational act than to 
 suppress it. The priest will, therefore, rule more by 
 reason of his individuality than of his office ; more by 
 his learning than his sacred character, as did the Fathers 
 
 in the schools of Alexandria, 
 
 203 
 
CHAPTER Y III.— conttnued 
 
 II. — THE DEVOLUTION SCHEME — THE LAND AND 
 
 THE LORDS 
 1905 — 1910 
 
 A PART from the Education and the University ques- 
 tion, another great matter called for attention in 
 Ireland, namely, the reform of bureaucracy and the 
 substitution of popular government, or Home Rule, and 
 a great advance in that direction was made in the 
 famous Councils Bill. 
 
 It was generally thought that its rejection had cost 
 John Redmond his reputation as a statesman. It will 
 probably be found, in the light of future history, 
 to have made it ; for he is nothing if not an advocate 
 of full measures, and it was essentially a half 
 measure. But it was dangerous ground, and for a 
 short time after their return to power, the Liberals did 
 not touch the question of Ireland. They merely let 
 matters mature, and John Redmond, while declaring 
 emphatically that nothing short of Home Rule would 
 satisfy the Nationalists, made it plain that they would do 
 
 everything in reason to help the solution of the problem. 
 
 204 
 
REDMOND AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 The continuance of the Sir Antony MacDonnell con- 
 troversy still kept the reform of bureaucracy before the 
 public, but it became more and more evident that Devo- 
 lution and Home Rule had never been identical ; Lord 
 Lansdovvne declaring that the Government had never 
 entertained the slightest idea of paving the way for Home 
 Rule, and Mr. Balfour denouncing the preposterous 
 legend which had accused the Unionist party of a crime, 
 as he put it, almost as bad as horse-stealing. 
 
 Accordingly on September 23rd, 1907, John Redmond 
 once more put forward the Irish demand, declaring that he 
 did not believe that any settlement of the Irish question 
 could ever come from a parliament that did not under- 
 stand Irish ideas and generally disregarded Irish public 
 opinion : while as to the scheme of administrative Home 
 Rule, so much in the air, though he himself could only 
 look upon it as a makeshift, when the Ministerial pro- 
 posals had been drafted they would be submitted to a 
 Convention. There were many, such as Mr. W. O'Brien, 
 who disagreed with this attitude of pressure on the part 
 of the leader, as opposed to a more conciliatory tone ; 
 but the memory of the old Parnellite methods was still 
 strong, and perhaps, too, Mr. Redmond was thinking 
 that the period most noted for conciliation, from 1829 to 
 1869, had likewise been the most barren in legislation. 
 In any case, he warned the Government of the danger 
 
 of half measures. 
 
 205 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 The reform of bureaucracy had been a long felt 
 want : it was the fundamental grievance imposed by 
 the Union ; and it was against this system that most of 
 the Nationalist attacks had converged under the name of 
 Home Rule, which had only become a Separatist move- 
 ment when, allied to the religious and agrarian griev- 
 ances, all constitutional means seemed to have failed. 
 Hence all idea of separation was dead, as Mr. Bryce 
 himself declared when Chief Secretary. " Those in Ireland 
 who desire separation," he said, " are an insignificant 
 minority, for the great bulk of the people have the com- 
 mon sense to know they must continue linked with Great 
 Britain. The idea of a serious movement in favour of 
 separation is a mere chimera." The Home Rule move- 
 ment had, therefore, become more a set of business pro- 
 positions to promote economy and efficiency of adminis- 
 tration than any attempt to set up a new nation. It was 
 purely and simply a matter of internal reform — a reform 
 which all have admitted necessary — in a system which 
 none have ever endeavoured to defend. 
 
 What the faults of this most extravagant government 
 in the world are, is best told in the words of Lord 
 Dunraven, than whom few have stated the case at once 
 with more moderation, accuracy or loyalty. There 
 are, according to him, sixty-seven departments constitut- 
 ing the civil administration of Ireland, through which 
 
 every project has to struggle until it emerges in London 
 
 206 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 at the mercy of some Treasury clerk, absolutely out of 
 touch with Irish life, and engaged for the most part in 
 compiling folios on " the wages of charwomen and the 
 price of paint," as he humorously puts it. 
 
 " It is difficult to describe what is commonly called 
 Castle government," he writes. " It is easier to say what 
 it is not, than what it is. It is not a democratic form 
 of government, for the people have nothing to say to it, 
 either through some representative machinery in Dublin 
 or through their representatives at Westminster. It is 
 not despotism, because the Lord Lieutenant has very 
 little power. It is not exactly an oligarchy, though a 
 small but avaricious section of the community appear 
 to think that the country should be run for their benefit 
 alone. It is a sort, and a very bad sort, of bureaucracy — 
 a government by departments in Ireland, uncontrolled 
 by Parliament, uncontrolled by any public body in 
 Ireland, and subject only to a department in London. 
 It is the most expensive system of government in the 
 world. Head for head, the government of Ireland 
 costs more than the government of any civilized com- 
 munity on the whole face of the earth. Under it there 
 is no security whatever against absolute waste and 
 misapplication of money — no security against the indirect 
 extravagance that arises from money not being spent in 
 the best direction or in the wisest way." 
 
 The facts none deny ; nor would anyone pretend to 
 
 207 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 justify the system ; like many others, it has become 
 hereditary, or rather exists merely by the force of its 
 own inherent uselessness and unassailability. But as far 
 as public opinion of all classes is concerned, all admitted 
 the time was ripe for a great measure of reform. The 
 only question that arose with the devolutionists was how 
 far it should extend. The proposals of the Irish Reform 
 Association were mainly three: (i) To relieve the 
 Imperial Parliament of the superabundance of business by 
 delegating to an Irish body legislative functions ; (2) To 
 secure Irish business being transacted by Irish experts ; 
 (3) To employ Irish local talent, knowledge and experience 
 in the financial administration of the country. 
 
 The proposals of the Irish Nationalists were that, not 
 by " mending, but by ending," was the question of 
 bureaucracy to be settled. They wanted a bill to do 
 for Irish administration what the Wyndham Act had 
 done for land — that is, effect a complete change of 
 hands by which the great over-Lord England would be 
 none the worse, since it would be rid of work and 
 responsibility, while Ireland, the tenant, so to speak, 
 would thus be enabled to manage her own affairs with 
 more knowledge and interest. The English Liberals were 
 on the whole most favourable to this plan, and an in- 
 dication of the spirit of conciliation was shown on the 
 appointment of the then Chief Secretary, Mr. Bryce, to 
 
 fulfil the duties of English Ambassador in America, It 
 
 208 
 
From a draicing hy Sir Francis C. Gould, by kind permission of " The We.-<l minster Gazette,- ichere it appeared 
 
 June 2U/(, 19(17. 
 
 A NEW "MAKE-UP." 
 Mr. TOHN REDMOND : " Do I look great and really virile now, Miss Erin ? " 
 
 Miss ERIN : " Shure, Mr. Redmond, and it's trimblin' in their shoes the toyrants will be 
 when they see you. And you'll be talkin' to thim in the ould tongue." 
 
 (At a moeting of the National United Irish League in Dublin, on Thursday, June 20th, 1907, a 
 resolution was passed calling upon the Irish people " to inaugurate, without further delay, a great 
 and really virile movement to win that full national self-government which must be secured before 
 the foundation of Ireland's prosperity in the future can be laid.") 
 
 {To face p. :o8. 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 was rumoured that the Irish leader was himself offered 
 the position thus vacated. At any rate the new Chief 
 Secretary was generally understood to be his nominee. 
 " There are two men whose opinion on the choice would 
 be worth having," wrote Mr. Stead at the beginning of 
 1907, "Mr. Redmond and Sir Antony MacDonnell. The 
 new Chief Secretary, whoever he may be, ought to 
 regard himself as Mr. Redmond's man. Mr, Redmond 
 himself ought to be Chief Secretary, but as he is pre- 
 cluded from taking the post the Cabinet ought to accept 
 Mr. Redmond's nominee and the new Chief Secretary 
 ought to do what Mr. Redmond tells him. For Mr. 
 Redmond, if Home Rule were granted, would be Prime 
 Minister of Ireland." 
 
 The appointment of Mr. Birrell, a great friend of the 
 Irish leader, and one than whom few could imagine a 
 more genial, just and conciliatory spirit to undertake the 
 labours of the reform of Irish government, was the 
 signal for a forward movement, and for months all was 
 expectancy to know what would be the limit and scope 
 of the Liberal party's Irish programme after twenty 
 years of exile, endured mostly for their devotion to the 
 rights of Ireland to political autonomy. 
 
 When at last, on May 17th, 1907, the Chief Secretary in- 
 troduced the long expected measure in the " Irish Councils 
 Bill," the House presented a scene not unlike that 
 
 when Gladstone proposed an end to " the hundred years 
 
 209 14 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 war " of English politics. The measure had been care- 
 fully conceived and moulded by the successive efforts of 
 Sir Antony MacDonnell, Mr. Bryce and Mr. Birrell, but 
 in scope it was very modest, too modest, perhaps, to be 
 worthy of a party which could, at one stroke of generous 
 legislation, turn Botha, an armed rebel, into one of the 
 most loyal of Imperial Premiers. It merely proposed a 
 co-ordination of the chief Castle boards, under a popular 
 council, which would be partly elective and partly 
 nominated, and which was to have certain powers of 
 controlling finance and administration. To those who, 
 like John Redmond — that Irish Fabius, as he has been 
 called — looked upon it as the culmination of the hopes 
 and battles of fifteen years, it must have produced a 
 certain feeling of disappointment. It was worthy of a 
 better fate, it is true ; much progress might have been 
 made in the years since elapsed ; at the same time its 
 history bears a marked resemblance to those many 
 tentative compromises in the way of higher educational 
 facilities and a century of Land Acts, by the constant 
 rejection of which a Catholic University and a peasant 
 proprietary had been won. 
 
 The House of Commons would be in no way affected 
 by it, as the Chief Secretary explained ; but its object 
 was of supreme importance as associating the sentiment 
 of the Irish people with the conduct of purely Irish 
 
 affairs. If the plan were successful, it could be used as 
 
 210 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 an argument for Home Rule ; if not, an argument against 
 
 it. In any case, it would be giving the question a fair 
 
 trial, and, as he went on to point out, it would be 
 
 shocking for anyone to lay down that the Irish were to 
 
 be denied the opportunity of showing themselves fit for 
 
 self-government, on the ground that, should they prove 
 
 their fitness for it, the British people might some day 
 
 grant them Home Rule. 
 
 The House expected an immediate eulogy of the 
 
 concession from the Irish leader. John Redmond was 
 
 perfectly calm : though it could be seen, spoke with 
 
 obvious emotion. He neither praised nor blamed : 
 
 neither accepted nor rejected. But in this attitude he 
 
 was never more himself. He said he had never addressed 
 
 the House under a heavier sense of responsibility — that 
 
 no one in his position could take upon himself the onus 
 
 of refusing any measure, however small, that would 
 
 remove even one Irish grievance ; but, in any case, the 
 
 Bill should have to await the decision of the National 
 
 Convention. Its subsequent rejection on the leader's 
 
 own motion was a tragic end. It was said that he had 
 
 executed a volte-face : and that a little more firmness 
 
 would have made him a statesman. On the contrary, 
 
 the whole incident stamped him as one. In the first 
 
 place, six months before, he had almost foretold his 
 
 action. " When the scheme is produced it will be 
 
 anxiously and carefully examined," he had said. *' It will 
 
 211 14* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 be submitted to the judgment of the Irish people, and 
 no decision will be come to, whether by me or by the 
 Irish party, until the whole question has been submitted 
 to a National Convention. When the hour of that Con- 
 vention comes, any influence which I possess with my 
 fellow countrymen will be used to induce them to 
 reject any proposal, no matter how plausible, which in 
 my judgment may be calculated to injure the prestige 
 of the Irish party, and disrupt the national movement, 
 because my first and my greatest policy, which over- 
 shadows everything else, is to preserve a united National 
 party in Parliament, and a united powerful organization 
 in Ireland, until we achieve the full measure to which 
 we are entitled." 
 
 In the second place, nothing could be a better refuta- 
 tion of personal autocracy than this attitude, which 
 could not by any distortion be looked upon as the 
 pronouncement of a " boss." But not only does it show 
 the representative character of the party and its depen- 
 dence on the voice of the nation, but it also shows the 
 independence of that nation. You cannot square Redmond, 
 simply because Redmond is the mouthpiece, not the 
 ruler, of Ireland. Parnell would have spoken for the 
 nation ; Redmond speaks by the nation. He was not 
 committed to the Bill ; he simply executed a commission ; 
 he had even passed no judgment on it. He had but 
 laid the Bill before the Convention like an ambassador 
 
 212 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 without in any way coming between the delegates and 
 their decision. 
 
 It was not, therefore, that he did not see the great 
 advance which such a scheme would mean to the cause 
 of Irish autonomy, so much as the fact that he considered 
 it a substitutive measure even in the minds of many 
 who hitherto had been whole-hearted Home Rulers. 
 But for the Devolutionists, he contended, a Home Rule 
 Bill would have been proposed instead of the Councils 
 Bill. Nor was it that he was averse to compromise ; 
 for as a practical politician he could not be opposed 
 to considering any scheme on its merits ; but merits 
 it must have, and looking at the Bill in detail, he 
 thought he discovered many things that might lead 
 to antagonism to the party. " By the constitution of 
 this Council it is extremely doubtful to my mind," he 
 said, "whether the real feeling of the overwhelming 
 mass of the Irish people would be truly reflected 
 in a workable majority on the Council, and there 
 would be the greatest possible danger that the Council 
 would constitute a sort of rival bod}' to tlie Irish 
 Nationalist party, which, as I have said, I believe 
 to be the greatest weapon, with an organized country 
 behind it, which Ireland has in her possession." 
 
 This latter view was probably stronger than any other 
 
 for its rejection. A superficial critic would impute it to 
 
 jealousy ; a business man alone could understand the 
 
 213 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 hopeless complication that would arise in having two 
 " representative " bodies claiming to speak for the same 
 firm ; and John Redmond, though in no sense a business 
 man, has all those organizing instincts which in another 
 sphere would have made him one. It was the practised 
 politician and organizer who spoke. He saw in the Bill, 
 not only a wedge placed between the members of Parlia- 
 ment and the nation, but a policy which would only 
 make the unanimity of the Irish demand still more 
 difficult. 
 
 The wisdom of the immediate rejection of the Bill is, 
 of course, open to criticism. The suggestion of Mr. F. H. 
 O'Donnell that its rejection was due to the aversion of the 
 clergy to lay control in matters of education may not be 
 without foundation. That it would have been easy, as Mr. 
 O'Brien pointed out, to propose a showier scheme certain 
 of rejection is also true ; but how far Lord Dunraven 
 was right in maintaining " that if the Bill be lost by 
 its summary rejection by the Convention, Ireland would 
 receive a heavier blow from her own hands than the 
 ingenuity of her enemies could have possibly devised," 
 must be judged by subsequent events. The great fact 
 remains that it was unanimously rejected as insufficient 
 even by some of its warmest admirers. "The Irish 
 people," wrote Mr. O'Brien in the case he made out for 
 Devolution as a first step to Home Rule, "were the 
 
 sovereign judges of life and death of the Bill. It was 
 
 214 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 niggardly enough to be a caricature and an outrage if it 
 were really set up as a full satisfaction of the national 
 demand for self-government. Those who most deplore 
 the action, however, for there was no deliberation, will 
 find elements of grandeur in the unworldliness with which 
 thousands of excellent Irishmen threw all chance of self- 
 government to the winds, under the misunderstanding 
 that they would be otherwise compromising the national 
 demand for complete government of purely domestic 
 affairs by an Irish executive reponsible to an Irish 
 government, such as are scattered by dozens over every 
 part of the Empire." 
 
 For weeks and months Mr. Redmond's attitude was 
 the subject of criticism. In his own party, even, it 
 produced no little dissension and no few secessions, 
 and was the first rift in the lute. This disagreement 
 probably formed the nucleus of the new party of ten 
 which was later to be returned under the leadership of 
 Mr. W. O'Brien. But by the first months of 1908 the 
 points of reunion had been settled and the party plunged 
 into the fray with renewed vigour, on the old Parnellite 
 principle, of forcing, rather than kissing, the hands 
 of the Government. And the further progress of the 
 land question and the settlement of the University 
 question are a testimony to its efficacy. As to the 
 "folly" of the rejection, Mr. Redmond made his apology 
 in Dublin in the September following. He said : 
 
 215 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 "Now, we did our utmost to extend that Bill and make 
 
 it worth acceptance, at any rate as an instalment ; but 
 
 when we came to the point when we found we could 
 
 get them to go no further in the direction we wanted, 
 
 we felt it our duty to allow the Bill to be introduced 
 
 and to let the Irish people see exactly how they stood 
 
 with reference to this Government. Its production and 
 
 its fate will prove, in my opinion, probably a blessing in 
 
 disguise. Certainly the fate of that great measure has 
 
 shown the Government the impossibility of satisfying 
 
 Ireland with anything short of real Home Rule, and it 
 
 has also made this certain, that Home Rule and not 
 
 Devolution will be the Irish policy put before the electors 
 
 at the next General Election. If that Bill had been 
 
 accepted here as an instalment, and if it had passed, as 
 
 it would have passed, the House of Commons, it most 
 
 undoubtedly would have been rejected by the House of 
 
 Lords, and then it — that is, the Irish Councils Bill — 
 
 would have definitely passed into the programme of the 
 
 Liberal party as their Irish policy, whereas now, after 
 
 what has happened, Home Rule, and whole Home Rule, 
 
 must be the policy of the Liberal party before the 
 
 next General Election." 
 
 Certainly as far as the Prime Minister was concerned 
 
 the prognostication was correct. " Sir Henry Campbell- 
 
 Bannerman was by far the most faithful of the old 
 
 Liberals," as T. P. O'Connor remarks in a sketch of 
 
 2l6 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 the career of that statesman, " and the Irish National- 
 ists had an affection for him such as they probably 
 never felt for any other Prime Minister before," but 
 " The rejection of the Councils Bill produced no es- 
 trangement between them and C.-B. Indeed, immedi- 
 ately after the return from the fateful Convention in 
 Dublin, the Irish leaders who had taken part in the 
 Conference with regard to the Bill of the Government 
 were agreeably surprised by the cordiality with which 
 C.-B. received them. There was no trace of bitterness, 
 partly, doubtless, because C.-B. and the Irishmen had 
 been united in pressing in vain on the Cabinet — or on 
 a section of the Cabinet — the amendments in the 
 measure which might have secured its acceptance." In 
 fact, it appears that one of the Prime Minister's last acts 
 in the House of Commons, the support he gave to a 
 motion in favour of Home Rule, was a confirmation of 
 the verdict of the Convention. 
 
 It was at first suggested that the Prime Minister 
 should propose this Home Rule resolution. As the 
 day approached letters passed continually between the 
 Premier and the Irish leader, and it was settled that 
 the latter should propose the resolution, and that the 
 former should wind up the debate with a strong speech 
 in its support. As T. P. O'Connor goes on to say, re- 
 ferring to Sir H. Campell-Bannerman : 
 
 *' This was probably one of the last things he attended 
 
 217 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 to in Parliament. On February 13th he was down at 
 the House for a short while ; the Irish motion was to 
 take place the next week. One of the last men to whom 
 he spoke was Mr. Redmond, making the final arrange- 
 ments which death alone prevented from completion." 
 
 The final triumph, however, of the policy of John 
 Redmond and the National Convention came when on 
 the eve of the election campaign, on December 17th, 
 Mr. Asquith, whose succession to Sir Henry Campbell- 
 Bannerman had been looked upon rather with suspicion 
 by the Nationalists, sounded the death knell of Devolu- 
 tion, as Mr. T. P. O'Connor put it, by an open avowal 
 of the full Gladstonian policy, and the position lost by 
 the rejection of the Home Rule Bill of 1893 was re- 
 gained in 1909. 
 
 The famous Albert Hall pledge was as follows : 
 "Speaking on behalf of the Government, in March 
 of last year, a week before my accession to the office 
 of Prime Minister, I described Ireland as the one un- 
 deniable failure of British statesmanship (cheers). I 
 repeat here to-night what I said then, speaking on 
 behalf of my colleagues, and I believe of my party, 
 that the solution of the problem can be found only in 
 one way (cries of " Home Rule " and loud cheers), by a 
 policy which, while explicitly safeguarding the supremacy 
 and indefeasible authority of the Imperial Parliament, 
 
 will set up in Ireland a system of full self-government 
 
 218 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 (loud cheers) in regard to purely Irish affairs (cheers). 
 There is not, and there cannot be, any question of 
 separation (more cheers) ; there is not, and there cannot 
 be, any question of rival or competing supremacies, but, 
 subject to those conditions, that is the Liberal policy 
 (Cheers)." 
 
 Once more the Liberal party had returned to its 
 traditions ; but if it had, and if it had abandoned the 
 policy of half measures, Roseberyite and Devolutionist, it 
 is due almost entirely to the Parnellite policy of John 
 Redmond. 
 
 All this while, though apparently on the very eve of 
 Home Rule, the party and the policy had been sub- 
 jected to the most bitter criticism in Ireland. The 
 charges, which, if true, would have justified the driving 
 of every member not only from his seat, but from 
 Ireland, as Mr. Dillon maintained, were sufficiently 
 met by his statement : " The policy of Mr. Redmond 
 and the Irish party during the last two years has been 
 abundantly justified by the position Home Rule occupies 
 at the present moment." Nevertheless, Mr. Redmond 
 seemed called upon to give an account of his steward- 
 ship, which he accordingly did to his constituents at 
 Waterford. He reminded them of the programme 
 he had sketched out four years previously. He 
 had spoken of the education question : the party 
 
 had given them a great Irish national democratic 
 
 219 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 University. He had spoken of the land question : the 
 principle of compulsory purchase had been extended to 
 nine counties, and even beyond, wherever congestion 
 existed, while the restoration of the evicted tenants which 
 had also been arranged for, should have taken place 
 in 1903 had they had their way. 
 
 The labouring classes, who had been rather overlooked 
 during the past twenty-five years, owing to the leading 
 position which the farmers' interests had occupied, had 
 been advanced four and a half millions, a sum which 
 was building some fifty thousand decent labourers' cot- 
 tages, to take the place of the old dilapidated hovels, 
 while town tenants were protected for the improvements 
 on their premises in a way unknown in any of the 
 towns of England, Scotland and Wales. True, it was 
 not a perfect Bill, but he maintained it had estab- 
 lished a principle — and that principle the party intended 
 to extend to every township in Ireland ; while they had 
 managed to get a fund of ^180,000, to aid local 
 authorities in Ireland in housing the poor, and thus 
 by the giving of decent, proper comforts to the popr, 
 raise them from that condition of squalor which was the 
 real root of all social and moral degradation that existed 
 in overcrowded tenements. Again, the party had 
 succeeded in getting all the agricultural land exempted 
 from Budget taxes, that all the money raised in 
 
 Ireland on such land as has increased in value by the 
 
 220 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 action of the community siiould go to the local authorities 
 in Ireland and be used in the interests of the working 
 classes. 
 
 All these he ventured to lay before them as the 
 work of four years, and if he were accused of having 
 failed to obtain Home Rule, while he had refused the 
 Councils Bill, it was only, he explained, because if that 
 Bill had not been rejected by the House of Lords, it 
 would, at any rate for their lifetime, have become the 
 high-water mark of Liberal efforts. 
 
 It is hardly fitting for me to enter into the personal 
 
 contest which took place between Mr. Healy and Mr. 
 
 Redmond during the election campaign of 1910: but one 
 
 can hardly pass over the words which fell from the 
 
 leader's lips during the fight. " Public life in this country 
 
 is hard owing to such incidents as these," he said, " and 
 
 it is bitter meed to be subjected to attacks of this kind. 
 
 My power for good has been small ; my abilities are 
 
 limited. God knows there is no one who is more conscious 
 
 of his own shortcomings than I am of mine, but I 
 
 know that my motives have been sound and honest. 
 
 I know I have given my best to the service of the 
 
 people of Ireland. When you are tired of me, when 
 
 my colleagues in the House of Commons are tired of 
 
 me, I am quite ready to-morrow to step down and 
 
 out, and if and when that day comes I will humbly 
 
 and loyally do my best to support those who may take 
 
 221 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 my place. But never so long as I live will I allow 
 myself to be driven out by calumny and abuse." The 
 words were sincere, for if ever there was a man who 
 deserved loyalty, it is the one who learned to rule by 
 having learnt to serve : and if there should ever be a new 
 split there is no doubt that the recollection of those 
 hard days spent in toil for the resurrection of the 
 Parnellite policy will not be forgotten. 
 
 But one cannot help regretting that upon the very 
 eve of the triumph that was awaiting that policy 
 in Westminster there should have arisen a recurrence 
 of that spirit which was worthy of the worst days 
 of the split. It is the greater pity because, as Mr. 
 Redmond once said at a St. Patrick's Day banquet, 
 "the Irish leader is what the loyalty of his followers 
 makes him," and there is probably no one who would 
 more appreciate the value of such services as those 
 of Mr. Healy and Mr. O'Brien in continual attend- 
 ance at Westminster if they would give them in the 
 way in which John Dillon — one of Mr. Redmond's 
 bitterest opponents for ten years — has given his. In 
 fact, a certain Nemesis seems to attend the Irish 
 leaders. O'Connell was supplanted by the Young Ire- 
 landers, Butt was superseded, Parnell hounded to death 
 — and quite apart from the point of view of personal 
 merits, it must always be remembered that it takes often 
 
 a full decade to make a leader who can command the 
 
 222 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 ear and the respect of the House. "The position to 
 which I was elected," Mr. Redmond continued, sketch- 
 ing out the future policy of the party, "was one of 
 great difficulty at any time, but at the time I was put 
 into it the difficulties were enormous and unprecedented. 
 So far as the Parnell split is concerned, I think I 
 have succeeded. I have endeavoured to be patient under 
 unjust and ungenerous criticism, I have endeavoured to 
 extend toleration to every man. . . I did not hesitate 
 to risk my position and my popularity with my country- 
 men and my colleagues in order to avoid the neces- 
 sity of extreme action against men who were mutineers " 
 — then amidst huge applause, the audience rising to 
 their feet and cheering, he announced the limits of 
 patience — " Whether you elect men hostile to the party 
 or whether you do not, you will have in the next Parlia- 
 ment a party which if it is not eighty-six — I care not 
 whether it is seventy-six or sixty-six — will be a party 
 absolutely united, made up of men who are animated 
 by a spirit of comradeship and trust." 
 
 Nor was the criticism of the party confined to the 
 eader or his methods. The very existence of " Parlia- 
 mentarians " is now being undermined by the new Sinn 
 Fein movement — an effort to abandon the methods of 
 Parliamentary tactics on the very eve of victory — of 
 which more later. 
 
 The chief point significant of the Irish leader's attitude 
 
 223 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 at the end of the session of 1909, however, was the 
 Budget and the veto of the House of Lords. Ireland 
 did not Hke the Budget, it is true ; but as a wit re- 
 marked, " Ireland was not going to sell Home Rule for 
 a glass of whisky." The remark at first seems super- 
 ficial, but it is deeper than it appears, for Ireland could 
 never expect to fight the House of Lords on Home 
 Rule alone, and that House was the only obstacle to 
 Home Rule. " The issue is Home Rule for England," 
 as John Redmond remarked at Manchester. Ireland is, 
 therefore, taking part in one of the most important 
 democratic struggles through which the English Con- 
 stitution has had to pass, to say nothing of helping in 
 the suppression of a body who for one hundred years 
 had steadily opposed the progress of the democracy 
 of both countries. 
 
 The Lords had opposed the extension of the 
 franchise, the ballot, and three times they had re- 
 fused Catholic Emancipation till it was forced upon 
 them by the Duke of Wellington as the only 
 alternative to civil war. They had been responsible 
 for every drop of blood shed in the terrible land war 
 by delaying, refusing or distorting every generous 
 measure sent up by the Commons. They, and they 
 alone — not the people of England — were really hostile to 
 Irish self-government, as Mr. Redmond maintained 
 
 and the abolition or the limitation of the veto of the 
 
 224 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 House of Lords meant Home Rule for Ireland. It was 
 
 hardly to be expected that England should fight the 
 
 Lords entirely upon an Irish question— thus shelving all 
 
 British questions for several sessions, but once the 
 
 struggle had begun, there was hardly anything more 
 
 important than that Ireland should take her part. 
 
 " Believe me," he continued, " the moment the veto of 
 
 the Lords is abolished or limited, the Home Rule 
 
 question will undergo an entire change — instead of being 
 
 a matter of great controversy, it will then be a matter 
 
 of simply our sitting down quietly and settling the 
 
 details of the measure, which will give Ireland full 
 
 control of all purely Irish affairs, and at the same time 
 
 will completely safeguard all Imperial interests in this 
 
 country. To talk about Ireland sepayating from the 
 
 Empire is the most utter nonsense. We are not aski)ig 
 
 for separation!^ 
 
 Throughout, it seems as if it is not only the Irishman 
 who speaks, but also the English subject — the " House 
 of Commons man," to use Mr. Balfour's expression. Mr. 
 Redmond looks upon the Lords much in the same way 
 as the Long Parliament looked upon the Royal preroga- 
 tive — a relic of mediaevalism forfeited by its use in a 
 reactionary and purely arbitrary interest. True, he fights 
 for Ireland ; but his stand is for Ireland through 
 democracy ; and the day will come when it will be re- 
 cognized, as Lecky maintained, that no single element 
 
 225 15 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 in the House of Commons has been more fruitful in 
 
 influencing the progress of EngHsh democracy than the 
 
 Irish party. 
 
 John Redmond's message on the Lords is, therefore, 
 
 war — but only as the last struggle necessary to establish 
 
 perpetual peace between the two countries. He is 
 
 fighting a class to defend an Empire, and the great 
 
 speech at Manchester presented an olive branch from 
 
 Ireland to the English electorate, such as probably finds 
 
 no parallel either in spirit or circumstance in all Irish 
 
 history. Speaking of the separation scare, he said, " Now, 
 
 I say to those men who so distrust us — ' V^ery well, 
 
 take with these Home Rule measures any guarantees 
 
 that you like to prevent the possibility of Ireland 
 
 immediately raising an army to invade England, to 
 
 prevent the possibility of Ireland immediately raising 
 
 a fleet of Dreadnoughts to sink the British Navy.' 
 
 Let them take any guarantees they like to prevent 
 
 Ireland entering the field of foreign diplomacy so that 
 
 it will be impossible for her to invite the German 
 
 Emperor to come over and make a naval base of 
 
 Belfast Lough. I say to the English democracy in all 
 
 seriousness, what we want is peace between the two 
 
 countries. VVe have none of those heroic ambitions 
 
 and hare-brained ideas. Our ideas and our ambitions 
 
 are humbler. We simply want the people to turn the 
 
 energies and abilities which are to-day dissipated in 
 
 226 
 
AND THE LIBERALS 
 
 this horrible racial contest between England and Ireland 
 to the prosaic work of advancing the material and moral 
 and educational elevation of our own people at home. 
 We know that it cannot be done by outsiders. The 
 whole history of the Empire shows the same in every 
 part of the world. We simply ask for permission quietly 
 to attend to our own business in our own way (cheers). 
 We say, ' Let there be peace ' (hear, hear). I declare we 
 want an end to this war. We want a treaty of peace 
 like that treaty of peace which was made by England 
 to Botha and De Wet at Vereeniging, and I say with 
 all sincerity to the English people, all we want under 
 the name of Home Rule is as much freedom in purely 
 Irish affairs as they gave the other day in purely 
 Transvaal affairs to the Boers (cheers). That concession 
 to the Transvaal turned the Boers from bitter enemies 
 into fast friends, and, we say, we in Ireland are prepared 
 to welcome and accept, and to work in precisely the 
 same spirit as the Boers, the concession of Home Rule 
 when it comes to us (cheers). That is the supreme 
 issue for Irishmen in Great Britain at this election. 
 You never — nor your fathers before you — never had 
 such a chance as you have now of furthering the 
 cause of Home Rule for Ireland." 
 
 227 15* 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE MAN 
 
 " ]VI^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^ certain that the balance of power in 
 the new Parliament will be in the hands of Mr. 
 John Redmond and his followers, it may be as well for 
 Englishmen to study the remarkable utterances of that 
 not very remarkable man." Such was the opening 
 paragraph of an Evening News leader (Jan. 25, 1910) 
 entitled " The two Mr. Redmonds." To those who 
 know him both politically and socially such phrases 
 only provoke a smile, for no one is a more consistent 
 thinker than John Redmond. To the writer of the 
 article John Redmond typified " Irish blarney " ; in point 
 of fact, there are very few Irishmen who have more of 
 the serious business instincts of the Englishman than 
 Mr. Redmond. In spite of the many garbled quota- 
 tions that are circulated, to anyone who has read his 
 speeches there is far more redundancy in them than con- 
 tradiction. Politically, at least, there is only one John 
 Redmond, but if there are two, the other ego is to be 
 found in that John Redmond intime who is almost as 
 
 hidden and unknown, and in some respects more so 
 
 228 
 
I'linio 1,1,} 
 
 [/.iiiiilon .'<tt'reosa>pii' Cu. 
 
 JOHN REDMOND 
 
 {To face p. 228. 
 
THE MAN 
 
 than was the inner Charles Stewart Parnell. This is the 
 real John Redmond, and in him is to be found the ex- 
 planation of the other. He tells a story of how Parne 
 was once asked what he thought of one of the newly 
 elected members of his party. 
 
 " Oh," replied the chief, " a most charming fellow. I 
 dined with him the other day at his house. He's a 
 first-rate musician, a good host and a splendid dancer." 
 
 " Quite a valuable addition to the party," was a 
 friend's reply. 
 
 Parnell's manner instantly changed from eulogy to 
 cold disdain, and the genial Parnell became the cynical 
 chief, as with a shrug of his shoulders he answered — 
 
 " Oh, politically the fellow's an ass ! " 
 
 I have always thought that the story would be more 
 characteristic of Redmond himself, for no one, I think, 
 understands better than he the exact parliamentary 
 value of a man, and none is more willing to distinguish 
 the genial, social friend from the political opponent. It 
 is related of Gladstone that he returned from the House 
 after the defeat of the Home Rule Bill entirely im- 
 mersed in the occupation of counting the passing omni- 
 buses. John Redmond has the same power of taking 
 his mind off politics. Once he leaves the House, he 
 leaves its quarrels and casts aside its atmosphere like a 
 cloak. You could hardly even tell he was a politician at 
 
 all. When, for instance, Balfour welcomed him back to 
 
 229 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 the House in the lobby after Redmond's term of im- 
 prisonment, the meeting between the two was almost 
 cordial. Mr. Balfour courteously inquired after the 
 other's health. The young member as courteously 
 thanked him for the inquiry, and assured him that not 
 only had " gaol life " left his health unimpaired, but it 
 had not even changed his political opinions, and that he 
 was perfectly prepared to repeat the words — even with 
 the same result. The smile of affability, however, 
 stopped at the Bar of the House. 
 
 This distinction between social and political life is 
 probably the reason why, to the general reader, there is 
 no more private public man, so to speak, than Mr. 
 Redmond. He is an unknown quantity, even to his 
 colleagues, and he loves to find rest in the seclusion 
 of home life. He does not, for example, entertain 
 largely or go about the centre of a large professional 
 and social entourage like the great Liberator, leaving 
 hundreds of stories and bans mots and witticisms in his 
 train. On the contrary, he rarely exerts himself to be 
 brilliant socially, merely for brilliancy's sake. The 
 biographer will have to search almost in vain, as in 
 the case of Parnell, for those personal touches that 
 reveal the actual inner man. He behaves for the most 
 part rather like a foreign ambassador : he does not 
 breathe his secret even " to his own hat," and probably 
 
 he will always remain something of an enigma unless 
 
 230 
 
THE MAN 
 
 he should one day choose to tell his own story in an 
 autobiography. There are not wanting, however, a 
 thousand sidelights upon his character which help one 
 to an estimate of the complete man. 
 
 As with Parncll, so with Redmond, the politician is 
 the man. But whereas Farnell gained, Redmond lost by 
 politics. Farnell would have remained, as his first speech 
 stamped him, a nonentity : Redmond laid aside unused 
 great social and professional qualities to become the 
 politician. It would form an interesting speculation to 
 ask oneself how his undoubted ability would have de- 
 veloped in a less severe school than that of Irish politics. 
 Had he followed the traditions of the maternal branch 
 of the family, he might have become a soldier, like 
 General Hoey, his grandfather. That stern and command- 
 ing presence of his : that silence and seriousness : that 
 power of tactics would no doubt have placed him beside 
 that other great Irishman, the late Sir William Butler ; for 
 the two have often been compared as personalities, both 
 being broad-minded Catholics, ardent patriots and lovers 
 of the Empire. But his father's influence seems to have 
 prevailed, and he became, therefore, cut out for one of 
 the rhetorical or pleading professions. In common with 
 most Irish boys, he thought at one time that he had a 
 religious vocation, and had he followed it he would 
 undoubtedly have become an Irish Jesuit, for he has the 
 
 greatest love of the Jesuit fathers — to whom, as he says, 
 
 231 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 both his father, himself and his son owe everything. 
 
 That earnestness of appeal, that almost blind devotion 
 
 to a leader and a cause, that clearness of judgment 
 
 and ardour of heart, would probably have made its 
 
 mark in any Catholic pulpit, while his courteousness 
 
 of manner and grave tolerance would not have ill suited 
 
 the purple of an Irish Cardinal. 
 
 The second of the great pleading professions was at 
 
 first expected to be his career. It is now many years 
 
 since he withdrew his wig and gown from the library of 
 
 the Four Courts in Dublin ; but the long rows of dusty 
 
 Statutes that adorn his humble library show that he 
 
 intended seriously practising at one time. For many 
 
 years, indeed, he did practise, but for the most part 
 
 politics seem to have absorbed him. He left Trinity 
 
 before he had taken his degree to devote himself to 
 
 parliamentary work, and he left Dublin before he had 
 
 finished his full law course. He had been round the 
 
 world before he was finally called to the English Bar at 
 
 Gray's Inn. During those early years, between 1887 and 
 
 1893, the briefs, it may be mentioned, came in pretty 
 
 regularly, and he appeared as counsel in one notable 
 
 case in which Messrs. Dillon and O'Brien were prosecuted 
 
 by the Government for conspiracy. But the duties of 
 
 championing Parnell which fell upon him, followed by 
 
 the leadership of the Independents, after the chiefs 
 
 death, compelled him to make a choice between the 
 
 232 
 
THE MAN 
 
 pleasant duties of a remunerative career and the — shall 
 I call it thankless ? — task of politics. But if he chose 
 the latter as a life work, it was not because he was a 
 man of affluent means. It was rather because of a 
 fervour for practical patriotism, which in him amounted 
 almost to a religion ; and it is in this that is to be found 
 the key to all his life. He was a patriot before he was a 
 politician : he will always be a politician, because he will 
 always be a patriot. 
 
 Politics and religion with John Redmond are as 
 one, knit strong and welded together. That is to 
 say, he believes that if religion is to mean anything 
 more than a mere useless theological astronomy to 
 mankind it ought to be a motive force for the better- 
 ment of the conditions in which men have to live. 
 There can be no more sacred thing than the love of 
 one's country, and Nationalism is to him the breaking 
 down of those obstacles which stand in the way of the 
 natural development of a race according to its own 
 special needs and genius. As in religion, so in politics. 
 He believes that development must be autonomous, and 
 he as fiercely resents coercion as the freedom-loving 
 modern resents the ancient tortures of the Inquisition. 
 Races do not exist for an empire, but an empire for 
 races. Unity must be synonymous with mutual protec- 
 tion, not with alien possession. And if a reason is sought 
 for that whole-hearted business regularity with which he 
 
 233 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 devotes almost every hour to politics, it will be found, 
 not in a mere love of notoriety — surely the most unre- 
 liable stocks that ever man invested in ! — but in a profound 
 and unshakable conviction that, in serving his country 
 he is fulfilling the highest work a man can perform. As 
 in many an Irish cottage the picture of Robert Emmet 
 forms the companion to that of the Blessed Virgin on 
 the domestic mantelpiece, so in the heart of the Irish 
 leader religion and politics are the twin principles that 
 rule his life. 
 
 In this religious earnestness, moreover, is to be found 
 the genesis of those occasional disloyal sentiments of his, 
 those phrases which so offend pious Tory ears. As a 
 matter of fact, he is no disloyalist, but, at the same time, 
 his loyalty is not of the " Mafeking " order. " Anything 
 but unqualified loyalty," he wrote upon the Queen's 
 visit to Dublin, "would be an insult — anything else 
 would be a lie." And if it is true that on April 13th, 
 1905 — to again quote the same Evening News article 
 — John Redmond said that : " If he believed there was 
 the smallest reasonable chance of success he would have 
 no hesitation in advising his fellow-countrj^men to arm 
 and overthrow the present system by armed revolt," it 
 simply means that he is not one of those who hold 
 that all the liberties in the world are not worth the 
 shedding of a single drop of blood ! Could a man 
 conscious of his country's wrongs say less ? But these 
 
 234 
 
THE MAN 
 
 are sentiments which are generally modified by the next 
 sentence, and are rather a literary way of emphasizing 
 the seriousness of the wrong than an actual incitement to 
 revolt. In fact, they are often the rhetorical manner of 
 expressing the futility of arms ; but — let them stand by 
 themselves — no English patriot could say less were the 
 positions reversed. Such " indiscretions " must not be 
 lightly passed over ; but they must be read objectively. 
 And perhaps no better apology could be cited for them 
 than that which Mr. Gladstone himself made for the so- 
 called general " indiscretions " of Irish politicians : 
 
 " I am aware it may be truly said there was a time 
 when the grievous recollections and traditions of Ireland, 
 the dreadful sufferings and the apparent hopelessness of 
 obtaining from Parliament any consideration for the 
 capital desires of Ireland did sway some men off the 
 precise line of absolute wisdom. And this led some of 
 them to use, from time to time, expressions which I, for 
 one, have never thought it necessary to treat as involv- 
 ing moral delinquency, and for which I have found 
 ample explanation in the conditions and the circum- 
 stances under which they spoke, and which stand in 
 most favourable comparison with the means which had 
 been habitually employed by the overpowering might of 
 England and by the ascendency party in Ireland." 
 " But," he goes on to note, " no more language of 
 disaffection towards this country has been used since 
 
 235 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 the door of Hope was opened." The admission is both 
 just and generous, and though it hardly applies to John 
 Redmond, it certainly exhibits an attitude of mind 
 which is worthy of imitation : for it will be found that 
 there are few expressions of the Irish leader which 
 have not some objective justification and without which 
 the whole-hearted sincerity of the man would be com- 
 pletely lost in the picture. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the ardour of his patriotism is due 
 to the literary development of his character, for as he 
 was a patriot before a politician, so he was a poet 
 before he was a patriot. Perhaps some future bio- 
 grapher may give to the world the contents of those 
 well-filled pencilled notebooks of University days, but 
 politics are hardly a congenial school for the Muses, and 
 the hopes of his old poetry master at Clongowes have, 
 at least in this direction, been quite unrealized, though 
 nothing has been more potent as an inspiration. 
 Redmond is probably one of the only men from whom 
 the House will stand poetry. Unlike Parnell, who only 
 quoted a verse once — from one of Moore's " Melodies," 
 the line, in reference to Ireland, " First flower of the 
 earth and first gem of the sea" — and then used the 
 word "jewel" for "gem"! — he is always quoting lines 
 from Shakespeare, as, for example, in the peroration to 
 his famous Home Rule speech, where he compared the 
 
 Bill to the toad which, " ugly and venomous, wears 
 
 236 
 
THE MAN 
 
 yet a precious jewel in his head. " On one occasion he 
 not only surprised the House by reciting a whole stanza 
 of " Hiawatha," but he was himself surprised that the 
 House stood it : they would have stood it from very 
 few! 
 
 The reason, of course, is that modern oratory is in- 
 variably unemotional, and Professor Bell's old pupil 
 has something of the old school about him, which 
 has earned for him the title of " the last of the 
 parliamentary orators of the line of Burke." But even 
 he has not escaped the cynical influence of the times, 
 and his latter-day speeches read very differently to those 
 with which he was wont so greatly to move his Austra- 
 lian and New York audiences thirty years ago. Yet 
 deep in his mind there still lingers the remembrance of 
 those numberless passages from Shelley and Byron and 
 Wordsworth upon which his soul browsed in the days 
 of his youth. And often when talking to this new 
 generation he notes with regret, not to say bitterness, 
 the gradual abandonment of poetry as a factor in edu- 
 cation — an element far more effective in the building up 
 of character than mathematics, and he would himself 
 probably find it far easier to turn out a very readable 
 volume of English verse than pass the " Little Go," were 
 he called upon to do so. 
 
 He is above all a man of soul : he is a Celt in mind. 
 The English spirit is too cold and commercial for him. 
 
 237 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 and it is probably for this reason that he displays 
 such an uncompromising, whole-hearted hostility to the 
 Anglicizing of Irish thought. He is an enthusiastic 
 Gaelic Leaguer. His own children were taught Irish. 
 He is a keen admirer of Irish art, and a jealous upholder 
 of the distinctiveness of Irish genius. But it is only 
 because he believes there is objective value in the racial 
 differences. 
 
 He has not that extreme anti-English bitterness 
 which characterizes some Irishmen, probably for the 
 same reason in literature as in politics, that, as the 
 Irish sword has built the Empire, so in like manner 
 Irish pens have taken their full share in the erection 
 of that proud empire of thought which is known as 
 English literature. He believes in Irish literature, but 
 he is not of that movement which would seek to 
 disown the tongue of Swift, O'Connell and Burke. 
 He is not one of those who, to use a Hiber- 
 nianism, believe that Ireland's future is behind her. The 
 revival of Irish as a spoken language he is in agreement 
 with, heart and soul. In the " Intermediate " examinations 
 he got it placed upon a level with the classics, but he 
 would be one of the staunchest opponents of any attempt 
 to substitute it for the classics, much less to extinguish 
 root and branch the hated Saxon tongue in Ireland. 
 His mind is progressive, not retrospective, and if he 
 returns to past Irish history it is only that none of the 
 
 238 
 
THE MAN 
 
 gems of Irish genius should be lost in Ireland's con- 
 tribution towards modern art and modern thought in 
 the future. 
 
 If, therefore, he is opposed to the "Anglicizing" 
 influences at work in Dublin and other cities, it is 
 because he recognizes that it is changing the whole 
 character of the Irish race. He sees in the spirit of 
 the " musical comedy " and the " variety stage " symbols 
 of a vulgarity and lack of artistic sense which is swiftly 
 killing the soul of the nation by extinguishing all love 
 of country and history. An Irish family who prefer to 
 sing the latest English pantomime inanities in the 
 drawing-room to the glorious Irish Melodies of Moore, 
 is to him the signal of that insidious advance of 
 decadence against which, as one of the older men, his 
 soul revolts, and this is only one of the reasons he 
 thinks nothing but a native parliament and residential 
 aristocracy can make Dublin and Ireland what it was 
 before the Union, a centre of literary thought and 
 culture. 
 
 Here, too, his hatred of England is objective and not 
 personal. England, he holds, has in many respects 
 inferior manners and ideas. He denounces them. But 
 England has also great leaders and strong men, and 
 these he reverences, even as he reveres the idols of 
 England's past. For example, there are few Irishmen 
 living who possess a greater devotion to Shakespeare 
 
 239 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 than John Redmond. But he has a tremendous pride of 
 race, and he feels that amid all the sneers cast at 
 Ireland, it is the duty of Irishmen to let the merits of 
 their race shine forth in every sphere of English life, 
 and that is why it is with feelings of despair he sees the 
 abandonment of all those native enthusiasms which formed 
 the superiority of so many Irish statesmen, poets and 
 soldiers in the past. 
 
 And no better example could be given of that 
 Irish capacity when placed on the level of a com- 
 mon public life and literature than the enthusiasm 
 with which Oxford acclaimed him at the height 
 of his reputation. For at the modern University they 
 regarded him much in the same way as the dons of the 
 eighteenth century would have looked upon another 
 Irishman, Edmund Burk», the greatest of the orators of 
 their day. 
 
 It was said that many of the academic critics were 
 
 prepared to question his parliamentary reputation. John 
 
 Redmond evidently rose to the occasion, for on that 
 
 auspicious visit to Oxford he by far excelled his usual 
 
 House of Commons manner. Indeed " The Champion of 
 
 Ireland, in good times and in bad," as he was called, 
 
 created a perfect furore even among the most cynical. 
 
 There were storms of applause before he had spoken 
 
 a single word, and when the result of the debate at 
 
 the Union was announced the enthusiasm was such as 
 
 240 
 
THE MAN 
 
 had never been seen before, and Tory Oxford was filled 
 with Home Rule converts ! 
 
 *' It was a memorable debate," wrote the Oxford 
 Magazine, for June, 1907. " Mr. Redmond's speech was 
 thrilling, and the result of the division sensational. We 
 had prophesied that Mr. Redmond would win, but we 
 had thought of a majority nearer 33 than 133: such a 
 majority is the highest compliment that could possibly 
 be paid to Mr. Redmond. It is doubtful if the Union 
 has ever heard or ever will hear again a speech which 
 will have such influence on its hearers." 
 
 A rather good estimate from the pen of Mr. W. M. 
 Crook — who, as we have seen, had already met him in 
 Dublin when they were law students together at the Inns 
 — may be included as coming from another source, and 
 discounting what PuncJi calls " my Uncleism." 
 
 " One of the qualities," he wrote, " which, I think, has 
 
 brought Mr. Redmond to his present position is the fact 
 
 that he is a loyal friend. One day, during the General 
 
 Election of 1886, I went into the Irish headquarters in 
 
 London, then located in Palace Chambers, Westminster 
 
 Bridge Road, to see Mr. J. T Clancy about a meeting I 
 
 was about to address that evening. John Redmond was 
 
 there. ' Look here,' he said to me, ' you are the very 
 
 man I want. George Russell has a meeting this evening 
 
 at Fulham. Very reluctantly I was compelled to fight 
 
 against him last year. I want to do everything I can 
 
 241 16 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 to help him to get in this year. It is quite impossible 
 for me to speak for him to-night. You have only one 
 meeting and I want you to go.' 
 
 " I went. Mr. Russell, whom I did not then know, 
 was unable through indisposition to be present. His 
 place was taken by his father, a noble specimen of the 
 stately, courteous English aristocrat. As I chatted to 
 that splendid old man, the soul of chivalry and honour, 
 I realized why John Redmond was so anxious for the 
 son's success. The Irish leader is a supreme judge of 
 men. 
 
 " John Redmond's capacity for loyalty to his friends 
 is second only to his loyalty to his country. An 
 incident that occurred last session illustrates both char- 
 acteristics. It was a very busy session for the Irish 
 Party ; four days a week the Irish leader was in the 
 House for twelve hours a day, from noon till midnight. 
 Naturally his Wednesday evenings were therefore pre- 
 cious. One of the Irish organizations in the metropolis 
 had asked me to lecture for them, and they asked John 
 Redmond to preside. No other leader of the party in 
 the House of Commons worked so hard : none other 
 would have come. But John Redmond came. 
 
 " The subject was Ireland's contribution to civilization. 
 
 Mr. Redmond, who seemed rather wearied, spoke only a 
 
 few minutes. But in that brief space he revealed his 
 
 passionate admiration for the great dead past of the 
 
 242 
 
THE MAN 
 
 race of which he was the world-wide figure-head, the 
 uncrowned king. 
 
 " There is no mere apology, only burning pride, in 
 what John Redmond had to say of the civilizing 
 movement which covered Western Europe with seats of 
 learning and which has bequeathed to after genera- 
 tions artistic monuments like the matchless Book of 
 Kells. He closed with a few words of hearty appre- 
 ciation for the work the young men are doing in the 
 Party league. For John Redmond always appeals to 
 young men, alike to the cultured youth of Oxford and 
 the more fiery spirits of Mayo or Chicago, 
 
 "When I first met Mr. Redmond" (the fact is worth 
 
 noting, by the way) " I was more or less of a Separatist. 
 
 He made me an Imperialist. I do not use the word to 
 
 designate an admirer of the gorgeous orientalism of 
 
 Benjamin Disraeli, nor yet a follower of the narrowly 
 
 insular policy of an uneducated Birmingham tradesman. 
 
 John Redmond knew the Empire. His wife was an 
 
 Australian, and even when I first met him he had been 
 
 round the world. The great free communities, Canada, 
 
 Australia, New Zealand, and even the United States, 
 
 were to him in large part Irish estates. Irish blood 
 
 and Irish brains had helped them to freedom and to 
 
 prosperity. It was a new point of view to us. I do 
 
 not speak with authority, but I do say with some 
 
 confidence that never, while John Redmond is leader, 
 
 243 16* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 wiH the Irish Party consent to be deprived of their 
 rightful share in the government of their Empire." 
 
 This last remark is worth noting for the peculiarly 
 new aspect in which it places the Irish question both 
 from an English and an Irish point of view. From an 
 English point of view it teaches us that in every part 
 of the Empire another Ireland has arisen, one in heart 
 and sympathy with the Old Country, just as the English 
 Colonists are in touch with England. Emigration has 
 not rid England of a turbulent population, like the 
 voluntary exile of Sarsfield. It has merely trans- 
 planted and spread the discontent into soil hitherto 
 free from it. 
 
 The Irish element in the Colonies is everywhere a 
 factor to be reckoned with — municipal elections in 
 Sydney are fought on the Home Rule question. And 
 those who speak of the loyalty of the Colonies will do 
 well to remember also the independence of those same 
 Colonies, which is not a little fostered and fanned by 
 the hereditary instincts which the children of starving 
 emigrants have brought over from Ireland. A politician 
 would perhaps pass it over in scorn ; not so a states- 
 man, and though many may question the fact of Lord 
 Mountjoy's statement (I think) that America was lost 
 by Irish emigrants, it is perfectly true that the great 
 mass of Anglophobe literature and sentiment in the 
 
 United States to-day is due almost entirely to the Irish 
 
 244 
 
THE MAN 
 
 element, and the possible disloyalty of the Colonies 
 might some day come from a like source. 
 
 At the same time, from the Irish point of view it 
 raises an entirely new set of problems to those raised 
 by what one might term the Little Irelanders, those 
 who narrow the Irish question to the transformation of 
 College Green from a commercial to a legislative centre, 
 and think that the millennium is to arrive the day the 
 flag on Dublin Castle changes its colour to green. The 
 Home Rule question is an Imperial question, and will 
 always remain so. If Grattan spoke truly when he 
 said " The sea denies us union, but the ocean denies us 
 separation," it is a thousand times more true now that 
 Irish names and Irish blood have mingled with every 
 English-speaking race upon the face of the globe and 
 rendered the return of all the emigrants back to Ireland 
 a physical impossibility, just as the return of the Jews 
 to Palestine. Nevertheless, in character, in thought, in 
 politics, in everything, in fact, that constitutes nationality 
 apart from a geographical situation, even the most ex- 
 treme patriot would never dream of attempting what, if 
 logically carried out, would lead not only to a separation 
 of the two mother countries, but to a division of every 
 commercial centre in England and every colony abroad. 
 A moderate, rational policy of Home Rule is the only 
 one upon which it can be hoped to found a world-wide 
 Empire securely, and of that moderate and rational policy 
 
 245 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 there is no better and more sincere representative than 
 John Redmond. He alone of the various sections of 
 Home Rulers seems to put forward a solution at the 
 same time consistent with national aspirations and with 
 unalterable facts. 
 
 A further quotation from Mr. Crook shows another 
 aspect of his character. 
 
 " Strong Nationalist as he is, John Redmond has that 
 touch of cosmopolitanism that is peculiarly Irish and is 
 notably wanting in the average Englishman. A strict 
 puritanical training has prevented me from becoming a 
 frequent visitor to the theatre ; on one of the rare 
 occasions on which I have broken through this rule I 
 went to see the ' Divine Sarah ' play Hamlet in Paris. 
 John Redmond occupied the stall immediately behind 
 mine. A few days later we met in a carriage on the 
 Underground in London and discussed the performance. 
 No one who has heard the Irish leader quote Shake- 
 speare can ever forget it. As he analysed the inter- 
 pretation by the greatest actress of our time of 
 Shakespeare's immortal creation, or criticized the nuances 
 of the original that had been lost in translation, I was 
 compelled to say to myself, ' Why, Hamlet is as real a 
 person for you as is Arthur Balfour.' This land 
 agitator, barrister, politician, statesman, whose eloquence 
 had compelled the mother of Parliaments to an un- 
 willing silence, had captivated the youth of Oxford and 
 
 246 
 
THE MAN 
 
 of Ireland, and on whose words vast crowds in three 
 continents had hung, is a student and interpreter of 
 Shakespeare greater than most of our professors of 
 English Hterature, because he understands men. 
 
 " I have written far more than I intended because it is 
 so hard to convey, what is unintelHgible to many, the 
 reason why John Redmond is where he is. Fifty years 
 hence it will not seem, as it does to-day, the language 
 of friendly exaggeration to write that politically John 
 Redmond is the lineal descendant of his great country- 
 man Edmund Burke. But the passion for freedom and 
 the passion for justice are the guiding stars of both." 
 
 There is yet another estimate of the character of 
 John Redmond as the successor of Parnell which, I 
 think, ought not to be passed over in silence. For, 
 though expressing a view, perhaps, at one time partially 
 correct, it can no longer be accepted as final. I refer 
 to the estimate of Mr. Herbert Paul. 
 
 Speaking of the fall of Parnell, he says : " It was the 
 
 Church of Rome and no individual that really succeeded 
 
 Parnell in Ireland. Rome Rule came, not as the 
 
 accompaniment of Home Rule, but as the alternative to 
 
 Parnellism. The Church of Rome neither forgives nor 
 
 forgets. His (Parnell's) successor, a man of great 
 
 parliamentary capacity, was a Catholic, one of those 
 
 liberal Catholics who had been educated at Trinity 
 
 College. But in Ireland Mr. Redmond's influence was 
 
 247 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 at that time very small. His own Church condemned 
 
 him. Once more, apparently for an indefinite period, 
 
 tlie Irish priest resumed his sway. How far this change 
 
 or reaction was for the better, and how far for the worse, 
 
 it is not the business of a secular historian to decide. 
 
 Of the fact there can be no doubt. Mr. McCarthy and 
 
 Mr. Redmond were symbols of the two powers which, 
 
 since the days of Guelphs and Ghibellines, have divided 
 
 the Catholic world. In England Mr. McCarthy would 
 
 have had no chance, for a mere hint of the revival of 
 
 priestcraft would have buried the divorce in oblivion. 
 
 In Ireland Mr. Redmond was foredoomed to failure. 
 
 So long as he remained at the head of a group calling 
 
 itself Parnellite, the priests could point at him as a 
 
 rebel against the authority of the Church, the principles 
 
 of religion and the sanctity of the home." 
 
 The criticism is not without foundation, but, though it 
 
 is true that during the years of the split this description 
 
 of the attitude of Mr. Redmond might have b^n 
 
 correct, it is the very reverse to-day, for the anti-clerical 
 
 Press speaks of him as the " priest's man " par excellence. 
 
 But it is rather the clergy who have changed. The 
 
 truth is that he is above all things a layman, and that 
 
 he seeks, as a politician, to establish the two orders 
 
 each in its proper sphere of independence. He has 
 
 been accused and acclaimed as a second O'Connell, a 
 
 second Clemenceau ; in truth he is neither, O'Connell 
 
 248 
 
THE MAN 
 
 would have headed an enthusiastic deputation of Irish 
 members at the London Eucharistic Congress ; Clemen- 
 ceau would have written " Paraguay on Shannon." John 
 Redmond did neither, and during the whole controversy 
 which raged round the Education Bills, though assuring 
 the English Catholics of every protection, he is always 
 very careful not to compromise the political ideals of the 
 party which he leads, which are absolutely unsectarian 
 while retaining religion in its sphere of individualism — 
 protected from bigotry and injustice. 
 
 In religion he is himself a strict Roman Catholic, and 
 when in London, every Sunday he is to be seen at Mass 
 at the church in Kensington High Street. Whenever 
 any measure of practical Catholic importance is before 
 Parliament he is always spokesman. If there is a ques- 
 tion of altering the King's Declaration, there are few 
 more keen than he, or if, as in 1903, some Benedictine 
 monks are expelled from France and all their goods 
 confiscated, they may be confident of finding in John 
 Redmond a champion who can defend them, or any 
 other Catholic interests, with a strong hand. But there 
 is nothing of the theologian about him, and when he 
 speaks for Catholics in the House of Commons, it is 
 rather as one urging the great political maxim of fair 
 play against the ultra-Protestant prejudice of some bigot, 
 than as an exponent of dogma or doctrine. The in- 
 tellectual side of Catholicism is to him an absolute blank 
 
 249 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 He is far too peremptory and practical in mind to be able 
 to appreciate those niceties of thought, those shades of 
 meanings, those clashings of dogmas, those contradictions 
 between religion and science, which make Catholicism a 
 philosophy. There is more of the Roman than the 
 Greek about him. For example, quite apart from an 
 aesthetic love of the general contour and appearance 
 of the Church, he would have nothing in common with 
 Wilfrid Ward or Dr. Barry : while the philosophical or 
 psychological side of the great problems on the foun- 
 dations of religious thought, such as Tyrrell treated of, 
 are to him an unknown quantity. Newman he admires 
 for the general principles laid down, say, for example, 
 on University education or political economy, and 
 quotations will be found in his speeches anent that very 
 remarkable man. Manning, too, would also find an 
 ardent admirer in him, because of his broad Irish and 
 human sympathies ; but perhaps the fervid eloquence of 
 Father Tom Burke would be his favourite. He looks 
 upon the Church as a great organism which, from the 
 sacredness of its purpose and the sanctity of its officials, 
 deserves the respect and reverence of the layman, and 
 he leaves all questions of doctrine and discipline to 
 those experts ; and he is typically Irish in condemnation 
 of all breaches of Church discipline. 
 
 In home life and in his tastes generally he is a man 
 
 of frugal habits. He cares not for the ostentation of 
 
 250 
 
THE MAN 
 
 public life, and when once he can retire from the 
 searchlight and the stage of action, he loves, like Parnell, 
 to spend the days in peace and tranquillity, free from 
 the thousand and one annoyances that beset a man in 
 his position. His chief sport is grouse shooting, and he 
 still keeps up the genial house parties at Parnell's old 
 shooting lodge at Aughavanagh — one of the old barracks 
 which were built shortly after '98 as a sort of military 
 cordon round the Wicklow Hills, which afforded them 
 ample security from the rebels. The main block is still 
 in a state of good preservation, the wings are almost in 
 ruins ; but the situation is magnificent and the place 
 literally breathes legends, while the old prison, the loop- 
 holes and small fortifications surmounting the earth- 
 works, and the secret passage which gives a hollow ring 
 all down the centre of the lawn till it emerges among 
 the brambles of a hedge outside the walls, serve to add 
 an air of romance to it and greatly interest the many 
 Americans, Australians, and others who make up the 
 August or winter parties. 
 
 There, surrounded by his family, he spends the 
 summer months, recruiting his health after the long toil 
 of the past session and preparing for the next. The 
 days are generally spent upon the hills, while, in the 
 evening, a quiet hour with his books, or perhaps a 
 genial fireside conversation, will occupy him, with some- 
 times billiards or some other indoor game for the sake 
 
 251 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 of the more youthful members of the party. Or, again, 
 perhaps Mrs. Redmond may prevail upon her husband 
 to recite some of the many passages from his favourite 
 authors. And in this he is inimitable, for Mr, Redmond 
 has been an accomplished reciter since his college days, 
 and is never tired of urging upon the younger generation 
 the importance of effective delivery, as well as the 
 beauty of the old school of Irish poets of the day of 
 Moore or Davis. 
 
 His strenuous London life leaves but scant time for 
 such recreations. But if there is anything of interest on 
 the London stage, any Friday or Saturday may see 
 him with his wife in the stalls of a theatre. Generally 
 the finer mornings are spent riding in the Park, and 
 Mr. Redmond is a well-known figure in the Row. But 
 as soon as the House meets the Irish leader is in his 
 place, if he has not been already a couple of hours at 
 Westminster over some private party business. The 
 week-ends are often spent out of London, while the 
 shorter holidays, such as Easter or Whitsuntide, are 
 sometimes spent abroad, in Germany, Italy, France or 
 Egypt. 
 
 John Redmond has married twice, and he loves his 
 
 home and his family. He has three children. The 
 
 eldest, a daughter, Esther, was married about two years 
 
 ago to a promising young New York doctor, Mr. 
 
 W. Power. His second daughter, Johanna, is ver}^ 
 
 252 
 
THE MAN 
 
 accomplished and possesses a facile pen. A few years 
 ago she produced privately one of her plays in London 
 and no doubt some of her more mature work will see 
 the boards of the new Irish Theatre in Abbey Street, 
 Dublin. Like her father, and like his sister, the late 
 Mrs. Howard, she has a pronounced poetic sense, and 
 her poems are occasionally to be seen in the Irish- 
 American and Australian Press, as also are her clever 
 short stories. 
 
 His only son, William, is now arrived at man's estate. 
 He passed through the Royal University of Ireland 
 and is at the present moment completing his education 
 for the Irish Bar. When my mother died, leaving 
 me an orphan, I was taken into his house as one 
 of his own children, with a kindness and magnanimity 
 which did for me all that a father could have done 
 for the education of his own son. and never in the merest 
 detail, whether in college pocket-money or in the numbers 
 of riding lessons, was the least distinction made between 
 me and my cousin, and I have always retained, after 
 these many years, the pleasant memory of that — " What- 
 ever Willie has, Louis must have too," as one of the 
 most charming personal touches which revealed to me 
 the essential note of justice which lies at the basis of his 
 character. And though it is a strange metamorphosis 
 by which one comes to look upon a man who stood 
 in loco parentis purely from a political and literary stand- 
 
 253 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 point, perhaps it is not without value in a personal 
 estimate like this, which, provided one has been 
 sufficiently mentally weaned to distinguish the parental 
 from the intellectual faculties, must gain at least in 
 completeness of outlook. 
 
 But even in home life, though there was always a cer- 
 tain relaxation, there ever remained that predominant 
 note of almost military sternness. 
 
 Redmond was described the other day by Frank Dil- 
 not as one of the most serious men in the House and 
 one whom he had never heard make a joke. Such a 
 description, of an Irishman without a sense of humour, 
 amounts almost to an accusation ; but it is quite true. 
 Redmond is too sincere and in earnest to be gifted with 
 any very strong sense of humour. His brother, William, 
 is one of the wits of the House, with his never-ending 
 questions and incisive asides. But the picture of John 
 Redmond in one of the smoking-rooms surrounded by 
 a group of laughing Liberals and Conservatives would be 
 hard to conceive. He has none of that hilarious joviality 
 of the proverbial Pat. He cannot with serious and 
 almost tragic tone keep the House in roars, like Mr. 
 Healy ; but his comparison of Lord Rosebery to the 
 Duke of Plaza Toro, and the comparison of Mr. Healy 
 to the excommunicated political Jackdaw of Rheims, is 
 not without a touch of the Celt ! For the most part, 
 however, the humour is unconscious, as when, for 
 
 254 
 
THE MAN 
 
 example, he turned upon an interrupting laugh with the 
 words, " I hear the honourable member smile," or when 
 some rather complicated metaphor gets entangled, as 
 when he once remarked that, " Though the leaf might 
 be torn from the annals it would still bear fruit ! " or, 
 again, when, by the merest lapsus lingua;, in the middle 
 of a panegyric on the heroism of the two Boer republics, 
 in a tone of passionate entreaty for mercy, he suddenly 
 electrified the House by calling them *' Grey-bearded old 
 burglars " — instead of burghers. But he is not imper- 
 vious to wit. 
 
 He enjoys as much as anyone the sayings and bons 
 mots of Father Healy of Bray, or the weekly Punch, 
 but for the most part it is the wit of Dickens or 
 the " Ingoldsby Legends," or Gilbert and Sullivan's 
 operas which he respects. There are few, probably, 
 who enjoy the Rivals or the School for Scmidal more 
 than he — and he will often read the whole play aloud on 
 a winter's evening, surrounded by his family. The wit 
 of Charles Lever, Samuel Lover, the boisterous stage 
 Irishman with "green whiskers and a pig," is to him 
 painful, because nothing has done more than such writers' 
 exhibitions to degrade the Irish character in the eyes of 
 public opinion. But he loves the charming repartee of 
 the Irish peasant and will listen with a kind of pride 
 of race to the brilliant flashes that will illuminate the 
 peasant's narrative as compared with that of the average 
 
 255 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 English farmer. But, on the whole, there is no 
 gainsaying the fact that Mr. Redmond is abnormally- 
 serious. 
 
 As to his resemblance to his brother, I must confess 
 I have never seen two men more absolutely dissimilar. 
 The one is silent, reserved, calculating and consistent ; 
 the other conversational, spontaneous and impulsive in 
 policy. The House, in question time and in witty inter- 
 ruptions and asides, counts the younger brother as one 
 of its characters : the elder brother but seldom speaks, 
 however, and never jokes. 
 
 Hence, when upon Queen Victoria's visit to Dublin 
 the illustrated papers circled round the smoking-rooms of 
 the House, showing Mr. Willie Redmond's hall door 
 painted in the colour and design of a gorgeous Union 
 Jack, and told of the scores of tourists in cars continually 
 driving up to see these phenomenal decorations, the 
 humour of the situation was enjoyed by everyone know- 
 ing the man ; it would have lost half its point had it 
 been played on his brother. There is often more ardour 
 than argument in the younger Redmond's speeches : in 
 those of his brother there is often far more suppressed 
 emotion than visible expression. Again, the style of 
 diction as well as the mode of delivery are more 
 declamatory in the one, more objective and reasoned in 
 the other. At the same time, there is in both the same 
 
 sense of patriotism, the same religious fervour, the same 
 
 256 
 
THE MAN 
 
 hatred of English misrule : the only difference being that 
 in one it is more developed through sentiment, in the 
 other more intellectual ; and the characteristics which 
 distinguished them as boys still stamp them as men, 
 and in this they are not untypical of the two classes of 
 Irishmen. 
 
 What, then, to sum up, can we say distinguishes the 
 man ? Wherein lies his power ? In the first place, the 
 man distinguishes the leader from the former leaders. 
 He is to a great extent similar, to a great extent 
 dissimilar, to the former leaders. His policy is the 
 same, his personality different. He has not the same 
 florid-fierce oratory of the Liberator : he has more of 
 the quiet persuasiveness of Butt. He has all the 
 hatred of English misrule of Grattan, without any of 
 the personal bitterness of Parnell. He controls with 
 power and dexterity the organizations that made Parnell 
 supreme, without having the originality of mind that 
 created him. He is a Catholic Hke O'Connell, but he 
 has all the broad-mindedness of Protestant Grattan. 
 He has all the power of the priests behind him, 
 without being himself their tool : for like Parnell 
 before him, he believes in the limits of clerical power. 
 He has all the polished manners of Isaac Butt without 
 any of his weakness. He may not inspire the same 
 enthusiasm that brought thousands upon thousands to 
 hear the speeches of the Liberator round the Hill of 
 
 257 17 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Tara : but he has probably wider knowledge of the 
 world than any of his predecessors and has received the 
 welcome of the scattered Gaels from many more lands. 
 He uses the agitation necessary to make him a power, 
 without any of the ostentation that would merely make 
 him a danger. 
 
 The secret of his power lies probably in his sense of 
 moderation in thought and self-restraint in action, com- 
 bined with an impenetrable personality which has only 
 to be seen to be respected. In fact, there are probably 
 few Irishmen who have impressed the House more with 
 their absolute sincerity and unquestioned capability — 
 and as a man he is probably more liked than any of 
 his predecessors. There is a certain " Englishness " about 
 him which appeals to the more sober-minded. He uses 
 words in a rational sense and is never carried away by 
 waves of emotion. He is no business man, but he has 
 all those qualities which would have created one : he 
 is no enthusiast, but he has all those passions which, 
 if less regulated, would have made him one : and this 
 is what the House respects. 
 
 A good picture is given by Mr. Frank Dilnot. 
 
 " Banish from your mind, in thinking of Mr. Red- 
 mond, the picture of the carelessly-dressed, merry 
 Irishman, with a strong brogue and a merry quip for 
 any situation. Here is a stern man between fifty and 
 
 sixty years of age, perfectly dressed, carrying himself 
 
 258 
 
THE MAN 
 
 with the dignity of a Gladstone. An Irishman's fun 
 may lurk deep within Mr. Redmond's breast, but it is 
 not observable. From his appearance he might be a 
 well-to-do City man who will stand no nonsense. It 
 is quite obvious that he is not a person with whom 
 the frivolous could jest with impunity : he carries the 
 air of the grand statesman of the past generation." 
 
 His power rests, like Parnell's, in a certain aloofness 
 of disposition and a hauteur of mind. He is open to 
 conviction, but once he has made up his mind it is 
 like the steeling of iron : he does not argue, he insists. 
 He does not submit an academic thesis, he imposes 
 terms. He will not be led astray among the side 
 issues of dispute : he retains the central idea of the 
 proposition. He does not talk often or waste his time 
 over trifling points, so that when he rises to speak the 
 House knows there is something it ought to hear. 
 
 Above all, he knows the House perfectly. He knows 
 its moods and its men. He does not pin his faith to 
 Governments ; but he does believe in the members as 
 a body. This is probably why it has been said that 
 organization and opportunity have been the two things 
 in his mind for a generation. He has played a chess- 
 man's game trying to keep his party together among 
 themselves and with their electorate, and has struck 
 blow after blow at opportune moments. He knows the 
 
 limits of the concessions of Cabinets, and when they 
 
 259 17* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 have been reached no simple gratitude will make him 
 keep them in office. Neither the Local Government 
 Act of Balfour nor the Land Transfer Act of Wynd- 
 ham were accounted unto them for righteousness when 
 the Unionist party had reached their end. He knows the 
 value of a lobby conversation with eighty votes in his 
 pocket, but perhaps the best tribute to his capacities is 
 the position which he holds to-day and the position to 
 which he has raised Home Rule. He is a strong indi- 
 vidualist while at the same time condemning indi- 
 vidualism. He believes one brain should actuate one 
 organism, not because he believes in that modern 
 dogma, the infallibility of majorities, so much as because 
 he believes in their practical efficacy ; and if at the pre- 
 sent time he condemns the attitude of opposition taken 
 up by Messrs. O'Brien and Healy, it is only because 
 their attitude saps the very foundations of that strength 
 and power which a united nation confers upon its 
 leader. 
 
 260 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 ^TTHEN every other form of argument against the 
 
 demands of the Irish leader fail, people usually 
 
 have recourse to a denunciation of his tactics, and so 
 
 his tactics often occupy a more prominent place in public 
 
 criticism than either his objects or their motives. Hence 
 
 no sketch of the man could be complete which did not 
 
 contain at least an outline of the methods with which 
 
 his name is not unjustly identified. The reason for the 
 
 attack is probably that most people look upon Parliament 
 
 as a kind of debating society instead of looking upon it 
 
 as it really is, merely as an arena in which political 
 
 battles are fought by every form of constitutional 
 
 weapons. And John Redmond, as essentially a practical 
 
 politician, understands this better than anyone, for it is one 
 
 of the first lessons that an Irish leader has to learn. 
 
 Logic no more rules the House of Commons than it 
 
 rules the world. Every politician has faced the fact, and 
 
 that is why Irish political history is one monotonous 
 
 reiteration of the watchwords — organization, agitation, 
 
 and obstruction. For of spontaneous redress of Irish 
 
 261 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 grievances no one has ever heard, as Sydney Smith used 
 to say ; hence the Irish attitude is only the necessary 
 result of the English attitude, just as the actions of the 
 French Revolution must be explained in the light of the 
 ancien regime. 
 
 John Redmond, were he to write a treatise on the 
 ideal parliament, would no doubt paint it as a delibera- 
 tive assembly. But finding himself always confronted 
 with a chronic ignorance on Irish affairs only equalled 
 by a chronic indifference to the Irish demands, his only 
 course is to compel legislation. Were this not the case, 
 the Irish party might be a school of experts, sitting in 
 London to answer inquiries ; as the case stands, the Irish 
 leader has to make it into the most effective fighting 
 force constitutionally possible, and in this he has 
 succeeded from the first moment of his leadership ; for 
 in point of discipline, organization and political capacity 
 there is probably no party in the House that can 
 compare with it, and certainly no leader who occupies 
 such an absolute position. How that position was 
 achieved, how it is maintained in its present strength, is 
 the story of John Redmond's methods, which, in point 
 of fact, were the methods of every one of the Irish 
 leaders before him. 
 
 To begin with, an Irish leader has two battles to 
 
 fight : the one with political parties in the House of 
 
 Commons, the other with public opinion outside it. 
 
 262 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 And perhaps none of John Redmond's predecessors have 
 ever accomplished this herculean task in the complete 
 manner in which he has done. Certainly none of them 
 have preached the Irish cause in so many continents, or 
 ever held the position of a dictatorship so absolute over 
 English political parties. 
 
 So far as his own political principles are concerned, he 
 is perfectly explicit and logical. He is a Parnellite 
 through and through, and perhaps his speech at Mary- 
 borough, in October, 1900, gives as good an analysis of 
 his " creed " as any he has ever made. 
 
 " My guiding principle in public life is perfectly 
 
 simple," he said. " I have no faith, and never had, in 
 
 any English political party. I have no faith, and never 
 
 had, in English benevolence towards Ireland. I have 
 
 no faith, and never had, in the possibility of any class 
 
 of our population getting justice in the smallest 
 
 particular for mere reason or argument or persuasion. 
 
 No ! we have never got anything, from the days of 
 
 O'Connell down to to-day, without labour or suffering 
 
 or sacrifice on our part, or without making a movement 
 
 dangerous and menacing towards England. My own 
 
 principle in public life is, therefore, to make every 
 
 department of Government, from the highest to the 
 
 lowest, from the Chief Secretary in his back room in 
 
 Dublin Castle down to the land grabber and the 
 
 bailiff in the country town, hard and dangerous. That 
 
 263 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 has always been my principle in public life. I have 
 
 made no disguise of it. I have said it over and over 
 
 again in the House of Commons. 
 
 " You people of the Queen's County want land 
 
 reform," he continued. " You want reform for tenants in 
 
 towns. You want a Catholic University. You want 
 
 justice for the labourer in town and country. You will 
 
 get none of these things, not the very smallest of them, 
 
 until you make yourself a trouble and a danger to the 
 
 English Government in your country. How to do that 
 
 is largely a matter for yourselves. Someone spoke 
 
 here of crime and outrage. Why, crime and outrage 
 
 don't make you dangerous to England ; on the 
 
 contrary, crime and outrage play directly into the 
 
 hands of your enemies. They constitute a justification 
 
 before the whole world for any repressive measures 
 
 that may be adopted : but so long as you keep your 
 
 hands unstained by anything in the nature of crime 
 
 against the laws of God — I speak not of the law of 
 
 the land, because most of it is bad and ought to be 
 
 broken — but so long as you keep your hands unstained 
 
 by crime against the laws of God, and as long as you 
 
 mak« your movement a power in Ireland and a danger 
 
 every night and every day in the year to the British 
 
 Government, so long will you have some chance of 
 
 obtaining some remedy of some sort, at any rate, for 
 
 your grievances." 
 
 264 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 This speech, taken by itself, might earn John Redmond 
 the title of Agitator : but he is something more, for he 
 is an organizer as well and the captain of a party 
 whose very soul is organization. It is organized in its 
 election, it is organized in its direction, it is organized 
 in its action : and it is this fact that makes John 
 Redmond's position in the House so peculiar. 
 
 The following passage, taken from the pen of Mr. James 
 O'Donovan on the election of an Irish member, may serve 
 to illustrate my meaning (" Daily Mail Year Book ") : 
 
 " The manner in which Nationalist candidates in 
 Ireland are selected differs entirely from the method 
 pursued in England. When an election is announced in 
 Ireland a convention is summoned in the constituency 
 by the National Directory of the United Irish League 
 in Dublin. At this convention clergymen of all denomi- 
 nations in the constituency are entitled to attend as 
 ex-officio delegates ; the elective bodies in whose 
 jurisdiction the constituency lies are empowered to send 
 representatives in fixed proportions, and other branches 
 of the United Irish League, the Land and Labour 
 Association (composed of agricultural labourers), and 
 one or two other Nationalist organizations. Before the 
 name of a candidate can be put to a vote in the Con- 
 vention, he must sign a pledge ' to sit, act, and vote 
 with the Irish Parliamentary party.' The candidate 
 
 who has a clear majority of votes becomes the official 
 
 265 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 candidate of the party, and the party funds bear the 
 entire expenses in case of a contest. 
 
 " Under such a system no ' nursing ' of a constituency 
 is necessary or possible. The candidate's expenses are 
 paid for him, and when elected, he receives, if neces- 
 sary, a modest allowance from the parliamentary fund, 
 said to be £^ a week, with the liability to reduction 
 for absence from the House after having been duly 
 summoned by a Whip. The General Election in 1900 
 did not cost the Nationalist party quite ;^4,ooo." 
 
 Of the organization of direction the United Irish 
 League is also the keystone, and in addition to the 
 selection of individual candidates, it also acts as their 
 guide in a body, the policy of the party being decided 
 in the Conventions, so that from a purely political point 
 of view it may be said to be the most representative 
 in the world, since it is always going to the country. 
 And so effective has it proved as a political weapon, 
 that, in the mouth of the party's opponents, it has 
 become a positive danger to the nation. With how 
 much truth may be seen from the leader's own 
 words, 
 
 " For my part," he said, in April, 1900, shortly after 
 
 his election as chairman, " I desire to see the United 
 
 Irish League spread over the whole of Ireland, many 
 
 enemies though it may have. There are many who 
 
 think it the League of one man. Now let me say 
 
 266 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 that I, for one, would not touch any organization that 
 is to be the property of any one man, and this League, 
 if it spreads through Ireland, as I hope it will, will be 
 the property of no man or set of men : it will be the 
 property of the people." Moreover, for fear of its being 
 thought an official organization in the hands of one man, 
 to the detriment of all individual action, he added : 
 " My first duty to Ireland, in my opinion, is to preserve 
 the union that has been created, and it requires inex- 
 haustible patience upon my part, and a desire to con- 
 ciliate every man who differs from me, and a desire 
 to give way in this direction and in that in order 
 to preserve discipline and unity ; for I believe in con- 
 ciliation, and I believe, as Parnell said in every sense 
 of politics, in the spirit of compromise." 
 
 But this compromise must not extend to absolute 
 chaos of principle, and hence, though personally John 
 Redmond might try to co-operate with others, he stands 
 officially by the organization once it has adopted a 
 policy of its own, and will allow no other organization 
 to clash with it. It was for this reason that when, in 
 1909, several new organizations made their appearance, 
 he wrote to the Press warning the country of the 
 danger of a split and saying that " The Irish party, 
 all of whose members are bound by pledge to act to- 
 gether outside as well as inside the House of Commons, 
 
 and the United Irish League are the only authorized 
 
 267 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 organizations seeking to obtain Home Rule by consti- 
 tutional means." 
 
 Of the organization of action, the constitution of the 
 party itself is the best example, for it is not enough 
 to create a party without being able to use it ; hence 
 John Redmond, when a movement to discredit its 
 utility had arisen in Ireland, found it his duty to lay 
 plainly before the country the essentials of the party 
 system. 
 
 Speaking at Ballybofey, in Donegal, on the 29th of 
 August, 1907, he thus spoke of the National movement 
 and its needs : 
 
 " A parliamentary party representing Ireland in the 
 British Parliament is as necessary — from some points 
 of view is more necessary to-day than at any period 
 since the Union ; and further than that, I say that the 
 conditions upon which such a party can be of value 
 and can achieve victories for Ireland remain to-day 
 absolutely unchanged. 
 
 " First of all, the party must be the mouthpiece of 
 a united, organized and determined people at home. 
 An Irish party in the English Parliament which did 
 not represent any organized and united people in Ire- 
 land would be useless, and, in my judgment, would 
 be worse than useless. How stands the National organi- 
 zation at this moment behind the National party? It 
 
 is ridiculous to blame the party or to be disappointed 
 
 268 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 with its achievements if the country itself had not 
 fulfilled its duty — hence the first need of the country 
 is to realize that their party cannot achieve good work 
 for Ireland unless the people themselves do their duty 
 at home, and I therefore to-day call upon the Irish 
 people in every part of the country to strengthen the 
 Irish organization, so that the Irish party may be able 
 to speak with a certain confidence in the name of the 
 mass of the people at home here in Ireland. 
 
 " The second condition without which no party in 
 Parliament can be of any value is that it must be a 
 united and pledge-bound party. A party of independent 
 items, a party of gentlemen, each one of whom went 
 into the party on conditions of his own, would be an 
 absolutely useless instrument for achieving Irish rights, 
 
 " Further than this, the party, to be useful to Ireland, 
 must be an independent party. It must be independent 
 of all political parties. I have sat now in the House of 
 Commons in opposition to Liberal and Tory Govern- 
 ments for twenty-seven years. I have taken part in 
 driving from office Liberal Governments and Tory 
 Governments in turn, and I say to you that the Irish 
 party is absolutely independent of all political combina- 
 tions in England. We have no alliance with the present 
 Liberal party. We would make no alliance with them 
 except upon one condition, and that would be that they 
 
 would not only determine to introduce a full Home 
 
 269 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Rule Bill for Ireland, but that they would make it the 
 first and paramount item in their programme. 
 
 "Now, with reference further to the party, if it is to 
 be useful it must be composed of honest, capable men. 
 In this matter the party is the result of the action of 
 the Irish people themselves. I have not interfered in 
 the selection of candidates for Ireland. I am not sure 
 that I could not have made a fair claim to have my 
 opinion asked with reference to the candidates, because 
 if you want us to achieve good work, we, at any rate, 
 ought to expect you would give us useful and efficient 
 instruments to carry on the work, and it would not 
 have been an unreasonable thing if I had asked the 
 Irish people to allow me some voice in advice, at any 
 rate, in the selection of candidates. But I did not do 
 so. I have left the conventions for the selection of 
 candidates absolutely free, and if the party, in the 
 opinion of any set of people, is not made up of capable 
 or honest men, the blame, and the fault, and the crime, 
 would be upon the Irish people themselves. 
 
 " Now, with such a party as I have described, united, 
 
 pledge-bound, disciplined, independent of all English 
 
 parties, composed of honest and capable men, and, above 
 
 all, representing a determined, organized and united 
 
 people at home — with such a party it is my profound 
 
 conviction that we can in the future, as we have done 
 
 in the past, win great ameliorative reforms for the 
 
 270 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 people of Ireland ; and further, that we can, in a 
 comparatively short space of time, win for this country 
 the right of full national self-government. Fellow country- 
 men, Ireland has, in my opinion, at this moment such a 
 party and it would be sheer midsummer madness, it 
 would be folly unworthy of a nation of children, if this 
 great weapon which has won so much in the past were 
 now to be laid aside because it has not succeeded in 
 wiiming in a couple of years from the present Govern- 
 ment a full measure of national self-government." 
 
 That the Irish party's strength thus depends upon the 
 balance of power, is of course evident, so evident, in fact, 
 that it has called forth many a protest — one only just 
 recently in the Fortnightly Review, asking Englishmen 
 how long they would stand English politics being made 
 the sport of aliens — while there have been few accusa- 
 tions more often repeated than that a party was pander- 
 ing for the Irish vote. Gladstone was not free from the 
 accusation and John Redmond has frequently been 
 criticized for thus standing aloof from other parties and 
 always awaiting the passing of the crisis that heralds a 
 defeat of one of the rivals to give him the opportunity 
 of extracting concessions from it in its dying struggles. 
 
 From an Irish point of view, the position can stand 
 
 the criticism well. For as long as Ireland remains a 
 
 separate entity, separate not only geographically, but in 
 
 its various interests, so long must the representatives 
 
 271 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 give effect to that independence of requirements by 
 standing aloof from the programmes of other parties. 
 It would be as absurd to tie Ireland down to Free 
 Trade because she wants Home Rule as it would be to 
 expect every Tariff Reformer to be necessarily an 
 opponent of Irish autonomy. The interests that separate 
 English parties are not Irish interests, therefore they 
 cannot be expected to win over Irish sympathies. A 
 Socialist measure might win the support of the Nationalist 
 party, because it favoured a class of Irish tenants ; but 
 another Socialist measure might merit its hostility if by, 
 say, wholesale secularization it endeavoured to subvert 
 the faith of the greater part of the Irish population. 
 It is true the Irish party forms one of the great demo- 
 cratic parties in politics, but it is more conservative 
 than the Conservatives themselves in matters of religion 
 — at least, as far as individual members of it are 
 concerned. 
 
 It is, however, from the English point of view that 
 John Redmond's position is most attacked, and that 
 there is most hostility to his dictatorship. The real 
 fault is not in the person or the position, it is in the 
 system : and as long as party politics continue, so long 
 must it endure. Any minority may obtain the balance 
 of power, and it is no more odious because it is Irish 
 than because it is a minority at all, and any re- 
 sentment of the exercise of it is nothing less than 
 
 272 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 a public repudiation of the fundamental doctrine of 
 parliamentary government." If it is wrong for England 
 to be governed by an Irish element, it is no less unfair 
 for Ireland to be ruled by the English element. One 
 cannot resist Home Rule on the plea that Home Rulers 
 are interfering with our self-government, for we thus 
 admit at once the justice of their contention. 
 
 Mr. Stead, who treated a similar situation some ten 
 years ago, when Mr. Asquith, it may be recalled, declared 
 that he would never take part in an administration that 
 depended for its existence on the Irish vote, then wrote : 
 " The parliamentary system consists in the assembling 
 within a single chamber of the representatives of the 
 duly enfranchised subjects of the King. In the eye of 
 the Constitution, it matters nothing whether a member 
 takes his ticket from Galloway or from Aberdeen, from 
 Cork or from Birmingham. He is an integral part of 
 the Imperial Parliament, and there is no discrimination 
 as to origin in the counting of votes in the division 
 lobby. So long, therefore, as the Union exists, we 
 betray the fundamental principle of that instrument 
 when we attempt to differentiate between the Irish or 
 any other vote. We have compelled the Irish members 
 to meet us in Westminster, and we have comforted our- 
 selves in so doing by declaring before all our Gods 
 that we admit Irish members to all the rights and 
 
 privileges and honours of the position to which we 
 
 273 18 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 have called them. For Mr. Asquith, or any other man, 
 to declare that he will refuse to carry on the Govern- 
 ment of the King unless he has a majority independent 
 of the Irish is in effect to declare that, whatever the law 
 of the House of Commons may be, he will refuse to 
 count the votes of his Irish fellow-members, and thereby 
 set them, so far as he can, outside the pale of the Con- 
 stitution." 
 
 It is not, however, merely a game of divisions in the 
 lobby that John Redmond plays, for the party is not 
 only a voting entity, it is also a thinking and speaking 
 entity. It must be a moving spirit upon public opinion, 
 or else its sphere of work is restricted to those occasions, 
 few and far between, when it can for a moment grasp 
 the balance of power. This is what Mr. Redmond is 
 never tired of impressing on his followers, and which by 
 his English and foreign tours he illustrates in his own 
 person. He is, therefore, more than a member of Parlia- 
 ment, he is " a Parliamentarian " ; that is to say, he speaks 
 of social and economic grievances as one statesman does 
 to another. " Parliamentarianism " is to him the language 
 of all constitutional progress. Not that members of 
 Parliament are a distinct class so much as that they 
 fulfil the functions of the intelligence in the body politic, 
 and that an appeal to them is the surest way of reach- 
 ing the brain of the nation. The House of Commons 
 
 is probably what he respects most in the English Consti- 
 
 274 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 tution, and a passage in one of his American speeches 
 gives a singularly good example of this. There are few 
 sentiments more characteristic of the man. 
 
 " In the main the House of Commons is, I believe, 
 actuated by a sense of manliness and fair play. Of 
 course, I am not speaking of it as a governing body, in 
 that character it has been towards Ireland always ignor- 
 ant and always unfair ; I am treating it simply as an 
 assembly of men, and I say of it, it is a body where 
 sooner or later every man finds his proper level, where 
 mediocrity and insincerity will never permanently succeed, 
 and where ability and honesty of purpose will never 
 permanently fail." It is to him, in fact, all that 
 is most representative of English feeling and English 
 thought. 
 
 And again, " The House of Commons throughout its 
 
 long and chequered history has most of the time been 
 
 a true reflex of the mind of the British nation, 
 
 and its attitude at different periods towards different 
 
 men and towards events has been the attitude which the 
 
 nation at large has eventually assumed. During even 
 
 my short time I have seen it change again and again in 
 
 its way of regarding and feeling towards certain men 
 
 and certain events, and I have seen the British nation 
 
 invariably follow, or at least keep up with, its varying 
 
 phases." 
 
 It is for this reason that John Redmond believes in 
 
 275 18* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Parliamentarianism, apart from passing politics, and it is 
 for this reason that, though politically never more insignifi- 
 cant than during the days of the overwhelming Liberal 
 majorities, he was never in point of fact more powerful. 
 Half his power, in fact, comes from the public opinion 
 he has thus been able to mould, and which he calls the 
 " outside forces " that make for Home Rule. 
 Speaking of this movement in 1907, he said : 
 " Let me for a moment ask you to consider some of 
 what I may call the outside conditions and influences 
 which affect the Irish cause at this moment — influences 
 apart from Ireland. First of all, it is an undoubted fact 
 that the bitter hostility to Home Rule which swayed so 
 many of the people of England twenty years ago is 
 absolutely dead. Within the last few months vigorous 
 and most costly efforts were made by the Unionists of 
 this country to rouse an anti-Irish campaign in Great 
 Britain by speeches, by the circulation of lying literature, 
 and by all the machinery which was well known twenty 
 years ago, by the circulation of bogus stories of bogus 
 outrages and so forth, and this campaign fell absolutely 
 flat and was an absolute failure. I believe, for myself, 
 the great masses of the working people of Great Britain 
 are not in their hearts hostile to Ireland or her fair de- 
 mands. They are in this position : they are struggling 
 for their rights themselves, and their time is occupied 
 
 with their own affairs, and, further than that, they know 
 
 276 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 very little about Ireland, and therefore they are in- 
 different and apathetic : but hostile, really hostile, to the 
 fair demands of Ireland, I do not believe the masses of 
 the working people of Great Britain are at this moment. 
 Many of the old inveterate enemies of Irish freedom — I 
 will not mention names — amongst leading statesmen of 
 England, have disappeared or are disappearing, and 
 speaking of them now individually, I give you my own 
 individual opinion. 
 
 " I say that the overwhelming majority of the present 
 Liberal party in the House of Commons are in favour of 
 a measure of Home Rule for Ireland. Further than 
 that, the party of the future in England, the Labour 
 party, is united as one man with us, and, greatest 
 perhaps of all the outside influences working in favour of 
 Home Rule is the everyday experience of the House of 
 Commons. Every day the sittings of the House of 
 Commons furnish an argument in favour of Home Rule 
 for Ireland. There is a congestion of work there, grow- 
 ing rapidly day by day, which is showing the English 
 people that if they do not lighten the load by sending 
 local affairs home to Ireland, and probably to Scotland 
 and Wales, for management, representative institutions 
 in England will sink beneath the burden. I tell you 
 the everyday experience of the House of Commons 
 constitutes an argument in favour of Home Rule for 
 
 Ireland, and it is being pressed upon the minds of 
 
 277 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Englishmen. ..." Again, speaking of the Colonies, 
 
 he said : " At the back of all that you have the opinion 
 
 of all the self-governing Colonies, from the mouth of 
 
 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and from the mouth of General 
 
 Botha. Every self-governing Colony at this moment 
 
 has openly declared by Parliamentary resolutions and 
 
 by the speeches of their leaders that they are in favour 
 
 of Home Rule for Ireland. I say to you, these are all 
 
 outside conditions and influences, but I say, if you had 
 
 nothing else, and if you left Ireland's own efforts out 
 
 of account altogether, these outside influences make it 
 
 absolutely certain that in the ordinary course of events 
 
 Home Rule for Ireland will come, and the influence of 
 
 Ireland's own action at home will decide whether it 
 
 will come soon or not." 
 
 This feeling on the part of the Colonies is, however, 
 
 in no small measure due to his own exertions and shows 
 
 the real Imperialism of the Home Ruler. He believes 
 
 in the conscience of the Empire because he believes in 
 
 its unity. And he believes in its unity because he 
 
 believes in the unity of the two races who have built 
 
 it up. He is an Irish Imperialist because he feels the 
 
 Empire is Irish. But if an Imperialist, he is at least a 
 
 consistent Imperialist, and one who looks upon that 
 
 bond, if applied in the same spirit, as a safeguard of 
 
 independence rather than a danger, and it is for this 
 
 reason he is anxious to show that Ireland and the 
 
 278 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 Empire are of one mind upon the first principle of all 
 federations, namely, Home Rule. 
 
 And from the thousands of letters and resolutions of 
 sympathy from the Colonies I may select one which 
 may be taken at once as the most important and 
 most characteristic. 
 
 In 1905, the Australian Federal House of Representa- 
 tives adopted a motion of Mr. Higgins for a petition to 
 the King in favour of Home Rule for Ireland, thereby 
 exercising a right which, Mr. Higgins maintained, the 
 Colonial Office had already recognized, and John Red- 
 mond received the following telegram : 
 
 " Melbourne, 
 
 "October 19th, 1905. 
 " Resolution involving petition to King favouring 
 Home Rule carried in both Houses Federal Legis- 
 lature by substantial majority. 
 
 " Nicholas O'Donnell." 
 
 The resolution was identical with one passed by the 
 Canadian Parliament in 1903, and ran as follows : 
 
 " May it please your Majesty, 
 
 " We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, 
 
 the members of the House of Representatives in 
 
 Parliament assembled, desire most earnestly in your 
 
 name and on behalf of the people whom we 
 
 279 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 represent to express our unswerving loyalty and 
 devotion to your Majesty's person and Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 "We have observed with feelings of profound 
 satisfaction the evidence afforded by recent legis- 
 lation and recent debates in the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment of the United Kingdom of a sincere desire to 
 deal justly with Ireland, and in particular we con- 
 gratulate the people of the United Kingdom on the 
 remarkable Act directed towards the settlement of 
 the land question, and on the concession to the 
 people of Ireland of a measure of Local Government 
 for municipal purposes. But the sad history of 
 Ireland since the Act of Union shows that no 
 British Parliament can understand and especially 
 deal with the economic and social conditions of 
 Ireland. Enjoying and appreciating as we do the 
 blessings of Home Rule here, we would humbly 
 express the hope that a just measure of Home 
 Rule may be granted to the people of Ireland. 
 They ask it through their representatives — never 
 has request more clear, consistent, and continuous 
 been made by any nation. As subjects of your 
 Majesty, we are interested in the peace and con- 
 tentment of all parts of the Empire, and we desire 
 to see the long-standing grievance at the very heart 
 
 of the Empire removed. It is our desire for the 
 
 280 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 solidarity and permanence of the Empire, as a 
 power making for peace and civilization, that must 
 be our excuse for submitting to your Majesty this 
 respectful petition." 
 
 This petition was supported by the Federal Premier, 
 Mr. Deakin ; the Labour leader, Mr. Watson ; Mr. Isaacs, 
 Attorney-General ; Sir William Lyne, Minister for Trade, 
 and Mr. Chapman, Postmaster-General. Mr. Deakin, 
 though he spoke as a private member, pointed out 
 that the Colonial Secretary had admitted the right of 
 the Colonies to make such a petition, and gave as an 
 example one on Chinese Labour, saying he looked 
 forward to a time when the Devolution in Ireland 
 would be only a prelude to Devolution in the Empire. 
 John Redmond felt the force of such a support and 
 at once wired back to Dr. Nicholas O'Donnell, of 
 Melbourne. 
 
 " Convey to Higgins and supporters thanks for 
 valuable service to Ireland. Every self-governing 
 Colony in Empire has now declared for Home 
 Rule for Ireland. 
 
 "John Redmond." 
 
 It is not, however, to the conscience of the Empire 
 alone John Redmond appeals, but to that of all English- 
 speaking nations. Hence the much misunderstood 
 
 281 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 American missions, which, since his first in 1886, seem 
 
 to have been made the special ground of attack on 
 
 the part of Unionist organs, who seek to extract 
 
 disloyal sentiments from his speeches there ; and I have 
 
 often seen garbled passages which, I recognized, were 
 
 turned into the strangest contortions to suit party ends. 
 
 The aim is twofold, financial and national, as John 
 
 Redmond himself told Mr. Stead in 1901. 
 
 " I am going to America for the purpose of explaining 
 
 to our people the union now happily effected in 
 
 Ireland in all sections of the Nationalists. I shall set 
 
 forth the prospects of the Irish cause and ask them 
 
 to give substantial support to the United Irish League. 
 
 My attitude to the Irish physical force societies who 
 
 have refused to welcome me to America is clear and 
 
 obvious. I have no quarrel with any man as to the 
 
 freeing of Ireland in the way he thinks the best. And 
 
 something akin to despair of constitutional methods 
 
 is quite natural. I, however, do not despair ; on the 
 
 contrary, I think that what we have already achieved 
 
 justifies every confidence that we shall reach our end 
 
 by the constitutional road." But the point most worth 
 
 noting in these American tours is the attitude of the Irish 
 
 themselves, which displays a loyalty to the land of 
 
 their birth which has probably no parallel in history. 
 
 " Perhaps the greatest glory of our nation," said John 
 
 Redmond on one of these occasions, " is to be found in 
 
 282 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 the fact that our people, driven by misfortune and 
 
 misrule from the land of their forefathers, and coming 
 
 to the land rude, ignorant, and poor, have yet been able 
 
 to bear an honourable part in building up the fortunes 
 
 of America and to give the world undeniable proof that, 
 
 in addition to the qualities of fidelity and honesty, 
 
 Irishmen under a free constitution can be worthy sons 
 
 and good citizens. The Irish people in this great 
 
 republic, no less as American citizens than as Irish 
 
 Nationalists, have arrested the attention and commanded 
 
 the admiration of the world. 
 
 " The Irish soldier, whose sword was consecrated to 
 
 the service of America, dreamed as he went into battle 
 
 of the day when his adopted country might strike a 
 
 blow for Irish liberty. The Irish business man, who 
 
 found in one of your gigantic cities scope for his 
 
 enterprise and for his industry, looked forward to the 
 
 day when from his store help might go across the 
 
 Atlantic to sustain Ireland's champions on the old sod. 
 
 The Irish labourer, whose brawny arms have built 
 
 your railroads and reared your stately palaces, in the 
 
 midst of his labours laid aside his daily or weekly mite 
 
 to help those who were fighting time after time with 
 
 one weapon or another in the old cause against the 
 
 enemies of Ireland. Rich and poor, high and low alike, 
 
 the Irish in America have never forgotten the land 
 
 whence they sprang, and our people at home, in their 
 
 283 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 joys and in their sorrows, in their hopes and in their 
 fears, turn ever for help and encouragement and 
 confidence to this great republic upon whose fortunes 
 and whose future rest to-day the blessing of the 
 Irish race." 
 
 But all these missions and tours are especially 
 designed to give the Irish demand the fullest possible 
 publicity in order to evoke the most complete sympathy 
 which can be given to it by the English-speaking 
 peoples, and the reception of the Irish delegates is 
 always a public event in New York and Boston. Thus 
 the Freeman, reviewing the mission of 1904, said : 
 
 " A really international character was given to the 
 proceedings of the United States officials. As if to 
 emphasize the solidarity of North America in approval 
 of Irish claims, the Governors of all the Northern 
 states followed up the action of the Premier and 
 Cabinet of the Canadian Government by associating 
 themselves with the proceedings. The Governor of the 
 old Quaker State presided at the meeting, and the 
 Governors of twenty-five other States of the Union from 
 New York to Montana and from Texas to Illinois sent 
 acceptance of the role of President of the organizing 
 committee, and all the Catholic prelates of the State 
 of Philadelphia joined in the welcome to the representa- 
 tives of the Irish Party. For a parallel we have to 
 CTo back to those remarkable demonstrations in New 
 
 284 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 York, Boston and Chicago in the autumn of 1890, before 
 dissension had raised its head in the National ranks." 
 
 A passage from Mr. Bernard Shaw, always brilliant 
 on Irish affairs, gives a singular endorsement of the 
 methods of John Redmond as a whole, and is worth 
 quoting : 
 
 " I do not claim it as a natural superiority in the Irish 
 nation that it dislikes and mistrusts fools, and expects 
 its political leaders to be clever and humbug-proof," he 
 writes in the preface to " John Bull's Other Island." " It 
 may be that if our resources included the armed forces 
 and virtually unlimited money which push the political 
 and military figure-heads of England through bungled 
 enterprises to a muddled success, and create an illusion 
 of some miraculous and divine innate English quality 
 that enables a general to become a conqueror with 
 abilities that would not suffice to save a cabman from 
 having his license marked, and a member of Parliament 
 to become Prime Minister with the outlook on life of a 
 sporting country solicitor educated by a private governess, 
 we should lapse into gross intellectual sottishness, and 
 prefer leaders who encouraged our vulgarities by sharing 
 them and flattered us by associating them with pur- 
 chased successes, to our betters. But as it is, we cannot 
 afford that sort of encouragement and flattery in Ireland. 
 The odds against which our leaders have to fight would 
 
 be too heavy for the fourth-rate Englishmen whose 
 
 285 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 leadership consists for the most part in marking time 
 ostentatiously until they are violently shoved, and then 
 stumbling blindly forward (or backward), wherever the 
 shove sends them. We cannot crush England as a 
 Pickford's van might crush a perambulator. We are the 
 perambulator and England the Pickford. We must study 
 her and our real weaknesses and real strength ; we must 
 practise upon her slow conscience and her quick terrors ; 
 we must deal in ideas and political principles, since we 
 cannot deal in bayonets ; we must outwit, outwork, out- 
 stay her ; we must embarrass, bully, even conspire and 
 assassinate, when nothing else will move her, if we are 
 not all to be driven deeper and deeper into the shame 
 and misery of our servitude. Our leaders must be not only 
 determined enough, but clever enough, to do this. 
 
 " We have no illusions as to the existence of any 
 mysterious Irish pluck, Irish honesty, Irish bias on the 
 part of providence, or sterling Irish solidity of character 
 that will enable an Irish blockhead to hold his own 
 against England. Blockheads are of no use to us ; we 
 were compelled to follow a supercilious, unpopular, 
 tongue-tied, aristocratic, Protestant Parnell, although there 
 was no lack among us of fluent imbeciles, with majestic 
 presences and oceans of dignity and sentiment, to promote 
 into his place could they have done his work for us. 
 
 "It is obviously convenient that Mr. Redmond should 
 
 be a better speaker and rhetorician than Parnell ; but if 
 
 286 
 
THE MAN AND HIS METHODS 
 
 he began to use his powers to make himself agreeable 
 instead of making himself reckoned with by the enemy ; 
 if he set to work to manufacture and support English 
 shams and hypocrisies instead of exposing and denounc- 
 ing them ; if he constituted himself the permanent 
 apologist of doing nothing, and, when the people insisted 
 on his doing something, only roused himself to discover 
 how to pretend to do it without really changing anything, 
 he would lose his leadership as certainly as an English 
 politician would, by the same course, attain a permanent 
 place on the front bench. In short, our circumstances 
 place a premium on political ability, whilst the circum- 
 stances of England discount it ; and the quality of the 
 supply naturally follows the demand." 
 
 Hence we see that John Redmond, from the point of 
 view of a parliamentary leader, is right in his methods. 
 An Irish leader cannot adopt any other tactics. Isaac Butt 
 tried ' passive insistence,' was greatly respected, and 
 never listened to. John Redmond is a man who is 
 fighting a political battle against probably every odds 
 that can possibly handicap a leader. His party is one 
 of the smaller ones. Every discontent upon his part 
 is looked upon as a disloyalty. Every attempt to 
 organize a demonstration is looked upon as engineered 
 ruffianism. An appeal for funds for the retaining of 
 members in London is sufficient to get them the name 
 
 of *a kept party.' Once their votes become effective 
 
 287 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 they are * stealing legislation.' If an English party is at 
 one in principle with the Irish demand, it is pandering for 
 the Irish vote. If he is pleading for religious equality, 
 he is spoken of as a priests' puppet trying to establish 
 the reign of clericalism. If his followers support him, 
 they are henchmen ; if they revolt, it is that he no 
 longer represents anyone but himself. But at the same 
 time, whether he is called a leader or a chairman, a 
 boss or a figurehead, the great point remains the same, 
 that the Irish demand is put forward effectively and 
 intelligently and the recording pages of the Statute Book 
 bear witness to the wisdom of the policy. But for that 
 policy, but for that organization, but for that world-wide 
 appeal making the Irish cause popular throughout the 
 Empire and powerful in the House of Commons, John 
 Redmond, brilliant orator and statesman though he is, 
 would still remain a political zero. 
 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE MESSAGE 
 
 THE IRISH DEMAND 
 
 r^VER half a century ago Disraeli said, " I want to see 
 a public man come forward and say what the Irish 
 question really is. One says it is a physical question — 
 another, a spiritual. Now it is the absence of an 
 aristocracy, then it is the absence of railways. It is the 
 Pope one day and potatoes the next." 
 
 If there is anyone who can be said to be that man 
 to-day, it is John Redmond ; and it is the answer to 
 Pitt's question to Grattan, " What does Ireland now 
 want ? " (which has been repeated by every English 
 statesman since 1794) that I have ventured to call the 
 Irish leader's message. A little girl was once asked for 
 the date of the Conquest of Ireland, and replied, " It 
 began in 1169 and is going on still." John Redmond's 
 answer is the same, 
 
 " Each generation of Englishmen," writes John 
 
 Redmond, in a preface to Barry O'Brien's " Hundred 
 
 Years of Irish History," " have comforted themselves 
 
 289 19 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 with the reflection that they were righteous men, though 
 their ancestors governed Ireland infamously. No 
 Englishman justified the government of Ireland in the 
 sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth century, and even 
 the Englishmen of the latter part of the nineteenth 
 century condemn the government of the men of the 
 earlier part. But the truth is, that there is no genera- 
 tion of Englishmen who can plume themselves on their 
 administration of Irish affairs. Ignorance and ineptitude 
 are the characteristics of the English rulers of Ireland 
 of every generation ; yet Englishmen talk of Irish 
 ingratitude and sneer at Irish grievances. * What does 
 Ireland now w^ant ? ' is the stock question of English 
 statesmen of the twentieth century." And he adds, 
 " Were I to draw an indictment against English rule 
 in Ireland, I should confine myself to the nineteenth 
 century." 
 
 In fact, it may be said that the " Irish Problem " 
 hardly existed before the Union — certainly not as far as 
 English politics were concerned. It really started the 
 day the English House of Commons took over the 
 government of Ireland, in the general panic that 
 followed the rebellion of America and the spread of the 
 French Revolution. Before that date Irish domestic 
 questions were thrashed out by Irishmen, on Irish soil 
 and in Irish interests ; since then they have only been 
 attended to by Englishmen upon compulsion and 
 
 290 
 
> 
 
 r 
 > 
 
 s I— } 
 
 CO 
 
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 rr (/I 
 
 !L W 
 s •• 
 
 3 
 Q. 
 
 D 
 C 
 
 CO 
 
 s 
 
 n 
 
 J 
 
 I 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 entirely in the interests of one class of the community 
 — the absentees. Irish discontent was thus forced upon 
 the nation by the English Parliament. This was what 
 Grattan foretold a century ago : this is what John 
 Redmond proves has now taken place. And considering 
 the general ignorance upon Irish affairs, it may not be 
 without advantage to recapitulate some of the history of 
 the Irish demand, in order to view the Irish leader's 
 message in the light of experience. 
 
 For " What Home Rule was " is the best answer to 
 the question, " What will Home Rule be ? " What, then, 
 was the nature of the Parliament of Ireland before the 
 Union ? It can be seen in Mr. Redmond's preface to 
 Mr. Barry O'Brien's "One Hundred Years of Irish 
 History." 
 
 " The first Irish Parliament was held in the reign of 
 
 Edward I., in 1295. The earliest Irish statutes date 
 
 from 1 3 10. From 1295 to 1495, the Irish Parliament 
 
 was free from the control of the English Parliament. 
 
 No law made in England was binding upon Ireland. 
 
 It was in no wise necessary for the English Parliament 
 
 to ratify the Irish statutes. In 1495 the first attempt at 
 
 any innovation was made. Poynings's Law was passed. 
 
 It provided : (1) that all acts hitherto passed in PIngland 
 
 should be binding in Ireland ; (2) that no Parliament 
 
 should hereafter be summoned in Ireland unless the 
 
 Viceroy had obtained the King's licence to hold it ; 
 
 291 I9'*' 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 (3) that the heads of bills to be introduced in the Irish 
 Parliament should be first submitted to the English 
 Privy Council ; (4) that the consent of King and Privy 
 Council should be obtained before such bills were intro- 
 duced. It will be seen, however," Mr. Redmond adds, 
 " that, servile as this Parliament was, it did not surrender 
 its independence : it did not recognize England's right 
 to make laws for Ireland. 
 
 " It recognized the right of the King of England, who 
 was also King of Ireland, to exercise jurisdiction over Irish 
 legislation, and it adopted English acts previously passed. 
 That was all. It still received co-ordinate authority, and 
 this remained the state of things until the reign of 
 George I. Then an act was passed in 1719 which pro- 
 vided that ' the King's Majesty, by and with the advice 
 and consent of the Lords and Commons of Great 
 Britain, had, hath, and of right ought to have, full 
 power and authority to make laws to bind the people 
 and the kingdom of Ireland.' " 
 
 This, then, was the great usurpation, so unjustified in 
 
 theory and so disastrous in fact. It was a complete 
 
 reversal of the policy of self-government, and it was 
 
 this, and this alone, which first aroused the desire for 
 
 political independence in Ireland. At first the right of 
 
 the English Parliament to exercise jurisdiction over 
 
 Irish legislation was chiefly engineered against the 
 
 religion of the country, so that one may say Unionist 
 
 292 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 policy is the last trace of persecution and Liberal policy 
 the beginning of toleration. 
 
 " The beginning of the Irish penal code," as Lecky 
 says, "was a law passed in 1691 by the English Par- 
 liament for excluding all Catholics from the Irish one," 
 but so successful did this become, that it not only ex- 
 cluded every Papist, but it completely denationalized 
 the Parliament : it was not only as if none but High- 
 Churchmen were allowed to sit in the English chamber 
 but as if, in addition, every seat was in the gift of an 
 hereditary Privy Council. 
 
 Thus speaking of the year 1753, Froude says, " A 
 majority in the House of Commons was at this time 
 returned by four great families : the Fitzgeralds of Kil- 
 dare, the Boynes, the Ponsonbys and the Beresfords — 
 the political sovereigns of Ireland. The Government 
 was carried on by their assistance, and they received in 
 return the patronage of the State. The Viceroy under- 
 stood the meaning of the vote. Patriotic orators were 
 silenced by promotion. Opposition to England's initiation 
 of money bills was suspended, till the great families 
 were again hungry, and fresh expectants of promotion 
 were in a position to be troublesome." 
 
 Such is the terrible indictment of the acknowledged 
 apologist of English rule in Ireland. It was, therefore, 
 a national, and not merely a Catholic grievance, for 
 when the echoes of Bunker's Hill reached Ireland, 
 
 293 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 when four thousand Irish troops had been sent to 
 America, and the Mayor of Belfast fruitlessly appealed 
 for English help to defend the country against French 
 invasion (then a scare, as often since), there rose, as 
 Lecky says, " one of those movements of enthusiasm 
 that only occur two or three times in the history of a 
 nation. The cry ' To arms ! ' passed through all the land 
 and was responded to by all parties and creeds. 
 They arose to defend their country from the invasion 
 of the foreign army and from the encroachments of the 
 alien legislature." 
 
 There was nothing hostile to the Empire, it is worth 
 noting, but there was the bitterest hatred against the 
 policy of the Government. In fact, with the very same 
 breath as they were asking for legislative independence 
 they were appealing for a defensive union against foreign 
 invasion and a commercial equality in free exports of 
 wool, a trade in which about half the population were 
 engaged. On April the 19th, 1780, Grattan propounded 
 what may be called The Irish Declaration of Rights, 
 which ran that, first, " The King, with the consent of the 
 Parliament of Ireland, was alone competent to enact laws 
 to bind Ireland ; " and second, that " Great Britain and 
 Ireland were indissolubly united, but only under the tie 
 of a common sovereign." 
 
 The demand, backed by the volunteers and the nation, 
 
 was successful. A couple of years later, in 1782, Lord 
 
 294 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 North, who had lost America and would in all probability 
 have lost Ireland as well, was displaced, and Fox took 
 his place, the Duke of Portland bocoming Lord 
 Lieutenant. Pitt was the Chamberlain, Fox was the 
 Gladstone of his day, for he foresaw that only on Home 
 Rule principles could Ireland be satisfied. Hence, when 
 the Irish Houses had assembled, the following message 
 was read from the English Premier : " I have it in com- 
 mand from His Majesty to inform this House that His 
 Majesty being concerned to find that discontents and 
 jealousies are prevailing upon matters of great weight 
 and importance, His Majesty recommends it to this 
 House to take the same into their most serious con- 
 sideration, in order to effect such a final adjustment as 
 may give mutual satisfaction to His Kingdoms of Eng- 
 land and Ireland." Grattan's speech on the occasion is 
 very significant, and never more so than at present, when 
 another leader is on the eve of a constitutional crisis 
 identical in almost every particular, save, perhaps, that 
 one hundred years of disaster consequent on the reversal 
 of the generous policy that was then contemplated may 
 have taught us some political wisdom. 
 
 " I found Ireland on her knees," he said. " I watched 
 over her with an eternal solicitude. I have traced her 
 progress from injuries to arms and from arms to liberty. 
 Ireland is now a nation." The point is most important 
 as involving the high-water mark of constitutional 
 
 295 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 independence consistent both with the national aspirations 
 of one of Ireland's noblest patriots and one of the most 
 loyal of the old Imperialists. 
 
 The statute ran as follows : 
 
 " Be it enacted that the right claimed by the people 
 of Ireland to be bound only by the laws enacted by His 
 Majesty and the Parliament of that Kingdom and to 
 have all actions at law and in equity which may be 
 instituted in that kingdom decided in His Majesty's 
 Courts, without appeal thence, shall be and is hereby 
 declared and asserted for ever and shall at no time here- 
 after be questioned or questionable." 
 
 This statute is the Magna Charta of Home Rulers : 
 
 the one point to which they always return ; and it is the 
 
 wholesale corruption by which it came to be torn up 
 
 that forms one of the blackest stains in the whole annals 
 
 of English history. No one outside a lunatic asylum 
 
 would ever seek seriously to defend the methods by 
 
 which the Union was passed, and probably few 
 
 would like to base England's right upon such a piece of 
 
 highway robbery (to use the mJldest term that will 
 
 apply). Hence, were the Home Rule question purely a 
 
 matter of history, one could say at once that the flaw 
 
 in England's title is as evident as the sun in the heavens. 
 
 But like a barrister, John Redmond waives the point for 
 
 the moment, and prefers to plead his case on another 
 
 argument — that of the prosperity of Ireland under that 
 
 296 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 system which the Union abolished. Ireland under Grattan's 
 Home Rule Parliament was prosperous, loyal and con- 
 tented ; under Pitt's system it at once became bankrupt, 
 disloyal, discontented. 
 
 Of the period between 1782 and 1800, which saw 
 Ireland's exports increase over one-half and her popula- 
 tion over one-third, Lord Clare said, " No country in the 
 world ever made such great advance in cultivation and 
 commerce, agriculture and manufactures with the same 
 rapidity in the same time." " Her laws were well 
 arranged and administered," said Lord Plunkett, " a con- 
 stitution fully recognized and established, her revenues 
 and manufactures thriving beyond the most sanguine 
 hopes — an example to any other country of her ex- 
 tent." 
 
 But even this prosperity was in spite of things, for 
 the Irish Government was not responsible to the Irish 
 Parliament. Accordingly, corruption still went on. " The 
 country was placed," said Grattan in 1790, "in a sort 
 of interval between the ceasing of a system of oppression 
 and the forming of a system of corruption." Two-thirds 
 of the land was in the hands of grantees of confiscation. 
 Twenty-five landowners held 116 seats, of which one- 
 half belonged to three families ; while the pension list 
 amounted to over a million. As to the sale of peerages, 
 Curran used to say, " It is as notorious as the sale of 
 
 cart-horses in the Castle Yard ; the publicity is the 
 
 297 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 same, the terms not very different, the horses not 
 warranted sound, the other animals warranted rotten." 
 It was this Unionist policy against which Grattan 
 thundered. " Reform ParHament," he used to say, " and 
 let the King identify himself with his people, and try 
 this plan ; for the ultimate consequence of a union will be 
 Separation." 
 
 The " fomented rebellion of '98 " was but the natural 
 result of such a state of things. The Union, the real 
 cause of the rebellion, was euphemistically called its 
 remedy. "The rebellion of 1798, with all the accumulated 
 miseries it entailed, was the direct and predicted conse- 
 quence of Pitt's policy," writes Lecky. "Ireland in 1795 
 was singularly easy to govern had it been governed 
 honestly and by honest men. Pitt sowed in Ireland the 
 seeds of discord and bloodshed, religious animosities and 
 social disorganization, which paralysed the energies of the 
 country and rendered possible the success of his 
 machinations." (Lecky on Grattan, 14th ed., 1871.) 
 
 Thus it is to the few years of practical experience in 
 Home Rule that John Redmond appeals for a justification 
 of his proposals ; it is to a century of the reversal of 
 that policy he points as the condemnation of its 
 continuance. 
 
 The demand of John Redmond to-day is the demand 
 
 of Grattan in 1782, There is no question of separation 
 
 — merely one of internal administration. His plea for 
 
 298 
 
^ii 
 
 I'l-oiii an niijincinij liij /'. ('. I., ui.., aft' r I lir pi,l iii' lili K. K'liiiV. 
 
 HENRY GRATTAN 
 
 Moving the Declaration of Rights in the Irish House of Commons, April 16tli, 1782 
 
 ITo /ace p. 298. 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 reform and settlement of grievances and his protests 
 against extrinsic interference are the same. His name 
 does not stand so much for a measure as for a principle ; 
 he is a Gladstonian and follower of Fox as opposed to 
 a disciple of Pitt and Salisbury ; he is an advocate of 
 autonomy as opposed to autocracy ; he believes in 
 decentralization as opposed to centralization in matters 
 of government ; he knows the full strength of federa- 
 tion, but he also knows the weakness of union ; he is 
 a natural rebel to coercion in any form, religious or 
 national, and there is none who has been more moderate 
 and at the same time more earnest than he in seeking 
 to bring about a spirit of conciliation between the two 
 religions and the two races in Ireland. 
 
 In fact, every Irish leader's speeches to-day read 
 exactly alike — those of Grattan, of O'Connell, Butt and 
 Parnell, as well as those of Redmond, and it seems 
 strange how in the light of history every leader has 
 been branded as a rebel to the Empire simply for 
 protesting against the Castle Government of Ireland. 
 In truth, Home Rule has never been fought except as 
 a scare ; and certainly it is high time that a misunder- 
 standing which has cost the nation four millions of 
 population should be rectified. I have said that the 
 message of every leader is the same. This is true. 
 But if there is any difference at all between the 
 
 messages, it is rathe** the result of the personalities 
 
 299 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 of the leaders and their times which caused them 
 to present them differently : not that their aims 
 differed. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell was a constitutionalist by nature, 
 for in his youth he had been shocked by the excesses 
 of the Revolution in France ; but above all he was a 
 religious leader, and to him not a little of the sectarian 
 bitterness of to-day is due. As for his secular efforts, 
 they were a failure, for in John Redmond's words, " The 
 English people have no conception that between 1829 
 and 1869 no great measure of justice for Ireland was 
 passed." His life, indeed, seemed to prove the futility 
 of dependence on English parties to his impatient 
 generation, and two more rebellions were the result. 
 Again it was the same story as in '98. The " Young 
 Ireland " movement, instead of being looked upon as the 
 result of Unionist policy, was looked upon as its 
 justification. 
 
 Isaac Butt's academic ability all admit. He stated the 
 
 problem in exactly the same terms as O'Connell — 
 
 merely substituting the words Home Rule for Repeal. 
 
 But so helpless was it in point of fact that arms 
 
 again seemed the only resort after the failure of 
 
 argument, with the Fenian movement as the result. 
 
 Then came Parnell's policy of constitutional agitation 
 
 and parliamentary obstruction, which raised the Home 
 
 Rule question once more into the sphere of practical 
 
 300 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 politics. But what was still more important was the 
 rise of a champion in the person of Mr. Gladstone, 
 animated with the spirit of Fox and the older Liberals, 
 who began to see the havoc wrought by not only the 
 crime but the folly of the Union, and from that day to 
 this, in John Redmond's lifetime, there has been a general 
 spread of that spirit of generosity. Again England asks, 
 " What does Ireland now want ? " Again an Irish 
 leader answers, " It is the same as it always has been — 
 our National Parliament." England, it seems, is ready 
 to grant it if she only could be certain of the spirit in 
 which it would be accepted. Hence it may not be 
 useless to recapitulate the arguments of the leaders and 
 see for ourselves in what spirit their demands were put 
 forward. 
 
 First take Grattan's last protest before the Union. 
 
 *' The one great capital and fundamental cause of 
 
 Irish discontent was the interposition of the Parliament 
 
 of Great Britain in the legislative regulation of Ireland, 
 
 the interference of that or any other Parliament save 
 
 only the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland. . . . 
 
 Ireland considers the British Empire as the greatest 
 
 western barrier against invasion from other countries. 
 
 She hears the ocean protesting against separation, but 
 
 she hears the sea likewise protesting against union. 
 
 She follows, therefore, her physical destination, and obeys 
 
 the dispensations of Providence when she protests, like 
 
 301 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 the sea, against the two situations, both equally un- 
 natural — separation and union ; but then she feels her 
 Constitution to be her great stake in the Empire and 
 the Empire the great security of her Constitution. We 
 give our strength to this western barrier, for the 
 security of our liberty ; but if British Ministers should do 
 that very mischief which we apprehend from the 
 foreigner, namely, take away the Constitution, they take 
 away with that our interest in the British dominions, 
 and thus withdraw at once a great pillar of liberty 
 and Empire. That Constitution has been the inheritance 
 of this country for six hundred years. This Constitution 
 the Minister destroys as the condition of our connection, 
 and he destroys one of the pillars of the British Empire, 
 the habitation of Irish loyalty." 
 
 O'Connell's message was just the same, breathing at 
 once a spirit of Imperial loyalty and national indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 " Illustrious Lady," he wrote in his well-known and 
 almost pathetic address to Queen Victoria, " the rebellion 
 of 1798 itself was almost avowedly and beyond a 
 doubt probably fomented to enable the British Govern- 
 ment to extinguish the Irish legislative independence 
 and to bring about the Union. 
 
 " We feel and understand that if the Union was not 
 
 in existence, if Ireland had her own Parliament, the 
 
 popular majority would have long since carried every 
 
 302 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 measure of salutary and useful legislation and reform. 
 Instead of being behindhand with England and Scot- 
 land, we should have taken the lead and achieved for 
 ourselves all and more than we have contributed to 
 achieve for them. If there were no Union, Ireland 
 would be the part of the British dominions in which 
 greater progress would have been made in civil and 
 religious liberty than in any other part of the British 
 dominions. The Union, and the Union alone, stands 
 in the way of our achieving for ourselves every political 
 blessing." 
 
 The message of Butt to the English Parliament was 
 exactly the same ; or, if anything, more moderate, con- 
 sidering that the federal Parliament would be supreme 
 instead of co-ordinate. 
 
 " In claiming these rights and privileges for our coun- 
 try," ran one of the resolutions of the Home Rule Con- 
 ference, " we adopt the principle of a federal arrange- 
 ment, which would secure to the Irish Parliament the 
 right of legislating for and regulating all matters relating 
 to the internal affairs of Ireland, leaving to the Imperial 
 Parliament the power of dealing with all questions 
 affecting the Imperial Crown and Government, legislation 
 regarding the Colonies and other Dependencies of the 
 Crown, in the relations of the Empire with foreign 
 States, and all matters pertaining to the defence and 
 stability of the Empire at large, as well as the power 
 
 303 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 of granting and providing the supplies necessary for 
 Imperial purposes." 
 
 The only questions they thought might offer a danger 
 namely, the land and the Church, were to be excluded 
 specially, but it must never be forgotten that, though 
 occasionally identified they were never identical with 
 Home Rule, and though legislative independence has 
 been an argument in favour of agricultural and educa- 
 tional reform it has nothing to do with them, and hence 
 their settlement cannot diminish its own merits. 
 
 The methods of Parnell were different ; his message 
 was the same. Speaking, for example, of the Home 
 Rule Bill of 1886, he said: 
 
 " We have always known the difference, since the 
 introduction of this Bill, between a co-ordinate and a 
 subordinate Parliament, and we have recognized that 
 the legislature which the Prime Minister proposes to 
 constitute is a subordinate Parliament. Undoubtedly I 
 should have preferred the restitution of Grattan's Parlia- 
 ment ; but I consider that there are practical advantages 
 connected with the proposed statutory body, limited and 
 subordinate to this Imperial Parliament as it undoubtedly 
 will be, which will render it much more useful and 
 advantageous to the Irish people than was Grattan's 
 Parliament." 
 
 And again : 
 
 "I understand the supremacy of the Imperial Parlia- 
 
 304 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 ment to be that they can interfere in the event of the 
 powers which arc conferred by this Bill being abused 
 under certain circumstances. But the Nationalists in 
 accepting this Bill go, as I think, under an honourable 
 understanding not to abuse those powers : and we 
 pledge ourselves in this respect for the Irish people, as 
 far as we can pledge ourselves, not to abuse those 
 powers, and to devote our energies and influences to 
 prevent those powers from being abused. . . . The 
 Imperial Parliament will have at command the force 
 which it reserves to itself, and it will be ready to 
 intervene, but only in the case of grave necessity 
 arising. ... I think that this is by far the best mode 
 in which we can hope to settle this question. We look 
 upon the provisions of this Bill as a final settlement 
 of the question, and I believe that the Irish people 
 have accepted it as such a settlement." 
 
 It may at first be thought these quotations are 
 superfluous in a biography : on the contrary, I think 
 they add weight to the importance of the present 
 leader's message, which would lose half its force were it 
 something peculiar to him or peculiar to his times. For, 
 as he says, " Even though English government were the 
 best in the world, I would still be a Home Ruler." 
 
 There are, in fact, few causes in British politics which 
 have displayed at once such consistency and such perse- 
 verance as the Home Rule demand. It is no new 
 
 305 20 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 demand, for it is one with all Irish history : it is no 
 revolutionary experiment, for Ireland was never so pro- 
 sperous as when its principles were in force. But it is 
 one which needs interpretation in the light of history, 
 and probably it is only that chronic ignorance of Irish 
 affairs and chronic indifference to the Irish demand 
 which prevents John Redmond's message of peace from 
 being accepted with alacrity by Liberals and Unionists 
 alike. 
 
 A few quotations now from John Redmond himself 
 will show how completely were his latest utterances in 
 harmony with those of his predecessors. When, as late 
 as March 30th, 1908, John Redmond introduced his Home 
 Rule motion, declaring that the reform of Irish govern- 
 ment was of vital importance both to England and Ire- 
 land, and that only in legislative and executive autonomy 
 could a final solution be expected, it was suggested that 
 words of restriction should be used showing that 
 autonomy did not mean independence. His answer was 
 very significant, and, as the foregoing quotations must 
 have shown, very just. He resisted, he said, any such 
 addition, because Home Rule had never meant anything 
 else except to its opponents, who drew from this mis- 
 representation their strongest argument against it. 
 
 " We have always recognized the supremacy of the 
 
 Imperial Parliament, and we have always held the view 
 
 that it would be impossible to alienate that supremacy 
 
 306 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 in creating a statutory legislature for Ireland. The Bill 
 of 1886 was based upon the maintenance of the 
 supremacy of this Parliament. The preamble — the very 
 first words of the second Home Rule Bill, of 1893, 
 were these — ' Without impairing or restricting the 
 supremacy of the Imperial Parliament a legislature 
 shall be created.' " 
 
 To the question, " Why does not the Irish party 
 introduce a Home Rule Bill?" John Redmond replies in 
 Mr. Barry O'Brien's "Dublin Castle." 
 
 " If they mean that we should put our demand into a 
 bill and present it to the House of Commons, I do not 
 think there would be any use in that. The House will 
 give no attention to a Home Rule Bill which is not 
 introduced by the Prime Minister of the day and made 
 a Cabinet question. But if they want a concrete case, 
 an illustration of the kind of thing we want, let them 
 look to their self-governing Colonies and Dependencies." 
 
 As to what Irish affairs really are, John Redmond is 
 equally emphatic. 
 
 " There again the position taken up by Parnell (which 
 
 is the position we still hold) was most reasonable. He 
 
 was willing that the Home Rule Bill should either 
 
 specify directly the affairs which should be left to an 
 
 Irish Parliament or, upon the other hand, confer 
 
 complete powers of legislation on the Irish Parliament, 
 
 subject to the exclusion of certain subjects." These 
 
 307 20* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 subjects were, in the Bill of 1886: The Crown, peace or 
 war, the army, navy, militia, volunteers, foreign and 
 colonial relations, dignities, titles of honour, treason, 
 trade. Post Office and coinage ; the Irish Parliament 
 being also forbidden to make any laws respecting the 
 endowment of religion, or in restraint of educational 
 freedom, or relating to the Customs or Excise. The 
 Irish police were eventually to be handed over to the 
 Irish Parliament, but while Ireland's contribution to the 
 Imperial revenue was to be in proportion of one- 
 fifteenth to the whole, she was not to retain any re- 
 presentatives in the Imperial Parliament, all consti- 
 tutional questions relating to the power of the 
 Irish Parliament being submitted to the Judicial Com- 
 mittee of the English Privy Council. The Bill of 1893, 
 however, still retained the Irish members in West- 
 minster. 
 
 Hence, as John Redmond says, " When Englishmen ask 
 us what we want we answer in a sentence : A measure 
 of legislative autonomy similar to that enjoyed by any 
 of your self-governing Colonies or Dependencies. If you 
 want an illustration, look at Canada, look even at the 
 Transvaal. The Transvaal is a new country and yet it 
 enjoys legislative autonomy : Ireland, a more ancient 
 kingdom than England, does not." 
 
 A union with England, permanent and perfect ; a 
 
 legislative independence, absolute and guaranteed ; those 
 
 308 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 are the principles for which all Irish statesmen have 
 fought and which still remain their demand. There never 
 has been nor ever can be any question of separation ; there 
 ever is and ever has been a cry for domestic autonomy. 
 That, in point of fact, is the whole history of Ireland — 
 the first principle of Irish politics. 
 
 Such, then, is John Redmond's message from Ireland, 
 for it is not merely a demand. It is not only the key 
 to a complicated problem, it is also the olive branch 
 between two nations whom misgovernment has rendered 
 hostile. It is a return to the policy most conducive to 
 Imperial unity and at the same time to national indivi- 
 duality. But it is more, for it is the only scheme of 
 Empire which can endure the test of time and trial. It 
 is a mistake to think Home Rule is an Irish question, 
 it is as wide as the Empire ; in fact, it is the very 
 mainstay of Empire, and the Minister who would reverse 
 its policy, like Pitt did in Ireland, would probably lose 
 the loyalty of that Empire if he did not lose it altogether, 
 as Lord North lost America, while the Minister who 
 would listen to the cry in time would probably, as in 
 the case of Canada, turn a " rebel " colony into one of 
 the staunchest and most devoted partners in the English 
 dominions. 
 
 In the words of Bernard Shaw, John Redmond's 
 message to England is this : " Let her look to her 
 Empire, for unless she (England) makes it such a 
 
 309 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 federation for civil strength and defence that all free 
 people will cling to it voluntarily, it will inevitably become 
 a military tyranny to prevent them from abandoning it ; 
 and such a tyranny will drain the English taxpayer of 
 his money more effectually than its worst cruelties can 
 ever drain its victims of their liberty. A political scheme 
 that cannot be carried out, except by soldiers, will not 
 be a permanent one. The soldier is an anachronism of 
 which we must get rid — for only if it were possible to 
 militarize all the humanity out of a man could one hope 
 for some final end being thus attained." 
 
 310 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE MISSION 
 
 1\TR. REDMOND'S demand for Home Rule I have 
 ventured to call his " message " : the practical 
 effects of that remedy I venture to call his " mission." 
 For there are many who will grant the speculative 
 plausibility of the remedy but at the same time remain 
 sceptical as to its actual efficacy. It was chiefly to 
 answer these critics that John Redmond, after the defeat 
 of the Councils Bill, began a series of speeches on the 
 Home Rule question in which almost every aspect of it 
 was touched, and if the message gives him the title of 
 Nationalist or Patriot, the mission may not unfairly be 
 taken to claim for him that title of Statesman which 
 has so often been bestowed upon him already. 
 
 What, then, according to John Redmond are the 
 practical aspects of Home Rule, apart from all question 
 of historic rights or national aspirations ? They may be 
 roughly divided into five — the industrial, the economic, 
 the social, the religious and the Imperial aspects. 
 
 If there is anything that is characteristic of Irish 
 movements it is their antagonism : and this even in 
 
 311 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 spite of the fact that they are really in themselves com- 
 plementary. If there is anything which is characteristic 
 of the present leader, it is the comprehensiveness of his 
 policy. He has many enemies. Mr. Sydney Brooks even 
 wonders " whether he is any longer in touch with the 
 ins and outs of Irish sentiment," and Sir Horace 
 Plunkett deplores the fact that the political leaders do 
 not " as a class take a prominent or even active part in 
 business life," while the Sinn Feiners have declared open 
 war upon the very existence of the party, as utterly 
 useless. How far these accusations are justified in fact 
 may be judged from the following analysis of the leader's 
 speeches. 
 
 To begin with the industrial movement. It began in 
 the days of the split in 1895, ^"d was the outcome of 
 the Recess Committee, which was composed of prominent 
 leaders of public opinion, together with members of 
 Parliament. Sir Horace, then Mr., Plunkett suggested 
 that if its dictates were carried out the Irish people 
 would cease to desire Home Rule. The result was that 
 Mr. Justin McCarthy refused point blank to have any- 
 thing to do with it, while Colonel Saunderson refused to 
 sit on the same committee with John Redmond. On the 
 other hand, as Sir Horace goes on to observe in his 
 " Ireland in the New Century," John Redmond shared 
 the opinion of his few followers, chief among whom was 
 
 Mr. Field, that man cannot live on politics alone. He 
 
 312 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 joined the committee and "acted throughout in a 
 manner which was broad, statesmanlike, conciliatory and 
 as generous as it was courageous." lie was not, as he 
 wrote, as sanguine as the originator of the movement, 
 but at the same time he said, " I am unwilling to take 
 the responsibility of declining to aid in any effort to 
 promote useful legislation for Ireland." And so success- 
 ful was the enterprise that, as Sir Horace observes, when 
 a Nationalist member met a Tory member of the Recess 
 Committee, he laughed at the success with which they 
 had wheedled a measure of Industrial Home Rule out of 
 a Unionist Government. It was only, in fact, when the 
 leaders, most of them anti-Home Rulers, tried to turn it 
 into a substitute for self-government that John Redmond 
 severed his connection with it, thus writing to the editor of 
 the Irish World in New York : 
 
 " The promotion of Irish industries is so praiseworthy an 
 object that some of our people in America have been 
 deceived in this matter. I myself, indeed, at one time 
 entertained the belief in the good intentions of Sir Horace 
 Plunkett and his friends, but recent bouts have entirely un- 
 deceived me : and Sir Horace Plunkett's recent book, full 
 as it is of undisguised contempt for the Irish race, makes it 
 plain to me that the real object of the movement in 
 question is to undermine the National party and divert the 
 minds of our people from Home Rule, which is the only 
 thing which can ever lead to real revival of Irish industry." 
 
 313 
 
JOHN! REDMOND 
 
 It was a thousand pities that the two should have 
 become antagonistic, but when all has been said and 
 done, it will be found that John Redmond's scheme is 
 more comprehensive, since it includes that of Sir Horace ; 
 and one wonders, not why John Redmond is not an 
 industrialist, but why Sir Horace is not a Home Ruler ; 
 in fact, it seems a puzzle to conceive how self-govern- 
 ment could possibly prove fatal to industry. Certainly 
 John Redmond does not think so. For example, speak- 
 ing at Maryborough on 13th of October, 1907, he said: 
 
 " Now, what can we do ourselves ? It is a question of 
 a little thought, and of a little unity of action amongst 
 the people. Here is a circular that we have recently 
 issued from the United Irish League Offices. We have 
 arranged in Dublin in connection with that office an 
 Industrial Bureau, and we hope to work that all through 
 Ireland, so as to induce the people to give a chance to 
 their own industries. Let me read the circular : 
 
 " ' Members of the United Irish League should use 
 Irish manufactured goods. 
 
 " ' Branches are required to exercise their influence in 
 every locality, to secure that in the giving of local con- 
 tracts a decided preference should be given by elected 
 public bodies to goods of Irish manufacture. 
 
 " ' That the local public bodies be requested to insist 
 that the Irish trade mark should be stamped on all 
 goods offered as Irish made. 
 
 314 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 " ' That at every meeting held in furtherance of the 
 National campaign, now being inaugurated, a resolution 
 dealing with the promotion of Irish industries should be 
 given a prominent place on the programme of the 
 meeting, and, as far as practicable, sub-committees of the 
 organization should be appointed to give effect to the 
 resolution. 
 
 " ' That deputations should be appointed in each locality 
 to urge on shopkeepers the necessity of stocking Irish goods. 
 
 " ' That individual members of the organization be 
 requested to give their custom to shopkeepers who stock 
 Irish goods. 
 
 " ' That branches be requested to have displayed in 
 their meeting rooms the names of shopkeepers and 
 merchants who stock Irish manufactured goods in their 
 districts, and that they instruct their secretaries to send 
 to every householder in each district the names of such 
 shopkeepers and merchants as give preference to goods 
 of Irish manufacture. 
 
 " ' The traders in each district in Ireland will be 
 supplied, on application to the Industrial Bureau of the 
 United Irish League at their offices in Dublin, with a 
 full list of Irish manufacturers : and, finally, we invite 
 the public everywhere to enter into communication with 
 this Bureau, and to assist us in inducing the Irish 
 people themselves to give a chance to their own manu- 
 facturers, by giving a preference to Irish goods.' " 
 
 315 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 The circular sounds like one issued by the Sinn 
 Fein party ; but it shows how at root there is little 
 reason for the attacks of that party on the Irish leader. 
 
 " Now, what is the moral of all this I have been 
 saying to you ? " he continues. " The moral is this — 
 that the industrial decay of Ireland is the greatest 
 of all condemnations of English rule in this land ; 
 that Ireland is a country with great natural resources ; 
 that the Irish people have proved by their past 
 history that they have an aptitude and an inherent 
 capacity for industrial pursuits ; that Ireland was once a 
 country almost as prosperous industrially as England 
 herself; but as soon as she became a serious rival in 
 her markets and the markets of the world, those indus- 
 tries were totally suppressed by the English Parliament ; 
 that Ireland, during the eighteen years that she had her 
 own Parliament, revived those industries, and that those 
 industries died away again from the very hour that self- 
 government was taken from our people. Now, what 
 answer has any English statesman of any party to give 
 to that argument for Home Rule ? There is no argu- 
 ment in reply ; and I therefore to-day put forward this 
 one point in the Home Rule case — that the industrial 
 decay of Ireland alone, if there was no other argument, 
 would be conclusive proof of the justice and the neces- 
 sity of our demand." 
 
 The second aspect of Home Rule is the economic 
 
 316 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 aspect. We can only judge it, as John Redmond main- 
 tains, by the ordinary tests applied to all Governments, 
 and by every one of these, he maintains, the Government 
 of Ireland stands condemned. And there is probably no 
 speech of his which displays less sentiment or more 
 science than the one in which he treated the Irish de- 
 mand at the Mansion House, Dublin, on 4th September, 
 1907. It is too long to quote, but was to this effect: 
 
 By the test of population, the Union has been proved 
 a failure, for it has cost half the inhabitants of Ireland. 
 Take the test of religious liberty ; it was only a year ago 
 a University Bill was passed, and the great majority of 
 Catholics are in inferior positions. Take the contentment 
 of the people during the past century ; there have been 
 three rebellions suppressed in blood. Take prosperity ; 
 nearly all the industries are dead and a famine swept hun- 
 dreds of thousands from Ireland. Take industrial de- 
 velopment ; railway freights are higher in Ireland than 
 in any country in the world. Take education ; the level 
 is lower than anywhere in Europe. Take the cost of 
 government per head ; it has doubled, while the popu- 
 lation has halved ; and in addition there is universal dis- 
 satisfaction, little respect for law, which is adminis- 
 tered in such a political spirit as to have practically 
 no hold whatever on the people. 
 
 Such is the picture of which John Redmond draws 
 each detail separately in the course of those famous 
 
 317 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 speeches of 1907 which I may term his great "Apology 
 for Home Rule." Nothing but self-government, he main- 
 tains, can or ever will be the full remedy for that system 
 of Castle boards which make the administration of Ire- 
 land at once the costliest and the least efficient of any 
 in Europe. 
 
 There is more than sentiment in such an indictment. 
 It would be made even by a business man ; and therein 
 does John Redmond differ from those patriots with whom 
 love of country is everything and understanding of it 
 nothing ; who think that Nationalism is not so much a 
 matter of the brain as of the heart ; and it is probably 
 for this reason that he has been given by the Press the 
 double title of statesman and Nationalist. His mission is 
 something more than the vision of an uneducated en- 
 thusiast : it is the practical programme of a man versed 
 in history and economics, and in not only the art of 
 loving his native land, but the science of serving it. 
 
 The third, or social aspect of Home Rule, though per- 
 haps less thought of, is nevertheless one of the most 
 important, for Ireland is to-day divided into some six or 
 more parties. The classes are antagonistic, the creeds are 
 antagonistic, the castes are antagonistic, and all of them 
 grow up in two water-tight compartments. The moneyed 
 classes and the common people have no sympathy ; 
 Belfast and Trinity are looked upon as dangerous to 
 
 Catholics ; the word English or English-educated is a 
 
 318 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 term of reproach among Nationalists, and a mark of dis- 
 tinction in society. All these parties move in different 
 planes of thought and action, for the simple reason that 
 they have not a common meeting-ground as they would 
 have in an Irish House of Commons. In Grattan's day, 
 there was far less antagonism of creed than in 
 O'Conncll's (according to Lecky) ; while the ParHament 
 of 1782 made Dublin a centre of intellectual activity 
 which united all classes in the respect and development 
 of Irish talent and enterprise. Ireland is not yet a 
 nation and cannot be until all these wounds are healed. 
 Until there is a residential aristocracy and the repre- 
 sentatives of the people can meet them upon terms of 
 mutual interest and mutual respect, Ireland can only be 
 a bundle of sects and factions. 
 
 It is this national union which Home Rule would 
 inevitably bring about ; and it is one far more healthy 
 and far more lasting than any of parchment or of steel. 
 
 " No, we Catholic Irishmen," as John Redmond said in 
 1886, "repudiate this accusation of intolerance with 
 scorn and indignation. We do not even understand the 
 word religious bigotry. By the Irish nation we do not 
 mean any class or sect or creed. By Irish independence 
 we mean liberty for every Irishman, whether in his veins 
 runs the blood of the Celt or the Norman, the Crom- 
 wellian or the Williamite, whether he professes the 
 ancient faith of Ireland or the newer creed which has 
 
 319 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 given to our country some of the bravest and purest of 
 her patriots." 
 
 This is what I should like to call the " Unionism " 
 of John Redmond, for only by a return of the Parlia- 
 ment to Dublin can it be expected to bring back that 
 real centre of national life that was there previously. 
 Prior to the Union there was real unity ; since the Union 
 there has been nothing but faction. There is an exodus 
 of native talent ; there is an immigration of exploiters 
 and men indifferent to the genius of the race. There 
 is no national encouragement for Irish art or literature, 
 simply because there is no centre of Irish thought. 
 That is what John Redmond pleads for, and to my 
 mind it is one of the strongest and healthiest of the 
 results Home Rule would have. 
 
 There are, however, two obstacles to this new 
 unionism which have given rise, perhaps, to more mis- 
 understanding than any others, and are the two " bogeys " 
 by which Home Rule is distorted. The one is the 
 " Clerical " scare ; the other the " Separation " scare 
 According to Mr. Herbert Paul, John Redmond is the 
 " anti-clerical par excellence " ; according to " Pat's " 
 Sorrows of Ireland he is the very opposite. " A consti- 
 tution is demanded for Ireland," writes the latter ; " an 
 independent parliament with an executive responsible to 
 it. Up to a certain point this is a constitutional pro- 
 position. But who is to accept the new Constitutioo 
 
 320 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 if granted : Cardinal Logue or his deputy, Mr. Redmond ? 
 Obviously not the people, in any case. And yet, apart 
 from the people, the proposition has no meaning in 
 terms of democracy." 
 
 The question is far too delicate to be made a personal 
 one, but considering that the only reason, according to 
 some politicians, why Home Rule was granted to Botha, 
 while it was refused to Redmond, is that the former was 
 a free man, and the latter a priests' puppet, it becomes 
 imperative to treat the matter ; especially since Redmond, 
 during the Education crisis, was accused by the Clericals 
 of being animated by " the spirit of Henry VIII.," and 
 according to one prelate was "a second Clemenceau." 
 Of course, it is notorious that all public controversy is 
 conducted in terms of hyperbole ; but they are none the 
 less spoken in earnest for all that. 
 
 Taking John Redmond, then, as spokesman of the 
 Parliamentarians, what is likely to be the religious out- 
 come of Home Rule ? But, first, let us hear the two 
 extreme views of which John Redmond appears the 
 mean. Colonel Saunderson may be taken for one ; 
 Bernard Shaw for the other. 
 
 If ever there were a typical embodiment of the Ulster 
 
 spirit, it was Colonel Saunderson, for in Ireland there 
 
 has never been that entente cordiale with Rome known 
 
 as the Oxford Movement, and the Protestantism of 
 
 Ulster is the Protestantism of Tyburn, Hence his speech 
 
 321 21 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 at Portadovvn in 1893 was in every way a character- 
 istic one. I merely quote extracts from it as indicating 
 attitudes of mind rather than as expressions of arguments, 
 for the key to an Irish question is the spirit in which it 
 is treated, and these are not bad examples of the 
 wrong spirit in which it is often approached by some. 
 
 Speaking for Irish Protestants, he said " that he was 
 opposed to the setting up in this country of a new 
 ascendancy more tyrannical and more detestable than 
 any which had gone before, namely, the ascendancy of 
 the Irish Roman Catholic Church ; " but even this was 
 too moderate a denunciation, and a short time later, at 
 Lurgan, he spoke of Home Rule as the great clerical 
 danger. Of course, he admitted that every priest was 
 not an Archbishop Walsh. Some were better, some 
 worse ; some were excellent men ; some bishops had 
 certainly condemned the criminal action of the Land 
 League ; but what did that matter ? If they had Home 
 Rule, who was the priest who would then rule Ireland ? 
 Why, Archbishop Walsh. He was the man who returned 
 over seventy members to the House of Commons; he was 
 the wire-puller, and he even objected to the Coronation 
 Oath being changed as inexpedient in the Protestant 
 interests of the country." 
 
 As to a Catholic University, he could see nothing in 
 
 it but an organized permanent domination of the 
 
 clergy — a singular contrast with the broad-mindedness 
 
 322 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 in which John Redmond was ready to grant the 
 
 Belfast Presbyterian University. " There were priests in 
 
 all denominations, and he disliked them all equally," 
 
 the Colonel once said, in a speech in the House of 
 
 Commons. " If the House wanted to know what 
 
 kind of citizens Roman Catholic education in Ireland 
 
 turned out, it had not far to look. There were about 
 
 eighty specimens below the gangway opposite. He did 
 
 not say bad specimens, for that would be uncivil to 
 
 members opposite ; and he did not say good specimens, 
 
 because he thought that would be insulting to the Irish 
 
 people. They openly avowed they hated the British 
 
 Empire. Whoever struck at Great Britain was their 
 
 friend. Was this assembly going to increase the output 
 
 of this product ? " 
 
 If this be, as it undoubtedly is, a fair example by 
 
 the Protestant spokesman of the religious attitude of 
 
 the minority in Ireland, I may say, comparing it with 
 
 the Catholic spokesman, that Ireland has more to fear 
 
 from Protestant ascendancy than Catholic ; while, if it 
 
 be taken as typical of the Unionist attitude, it would 
 
 certainly justify the wildest dreams of the Fenians. 
 
 But it is merely such stuff as scares are made of. 
 
 There are many who differ from Colonel Saunderson 
 
 not only in spirit but in prophecy, and chief among 
 
 these is Mr. Bernard Shaw, whose wonderful " Preface 
 
 to Politicians" in "John Bull's Other Island," forms 
 
 323 21* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 one of the ablest antidotes to " Popery " which the 
 most bigoted atheist could wish for with his dying 
 breath. 
 
 " Just consider the Home Rule question in the light 
 of that very English characteristic of the Irish people, 
 their political hatred of priests," he writes. ..." Do 
 not be distracted by the shriek of indignant denial from 
 the Catholic papers and from those who have witnessed 
 the charming relations between the Irish peasants and 
 their spiritual fathers. . . . For an Irish Catholic may 
 like his priest as a man and revere him as a confessor 
 and spiritual pastor, whilst being implacably determined 
 to seize the first opportunity of throwing off his yoke. 
 This is political hatred and is the only hatred that 
 civilization allows to be mortal hatred. Realize, then, 
 that the popular party in Ireland is seething with 
 rebellion against the tyranny of the Church. 
 
 " Let us suppose that the establishment," he con- 
 tinues, "of a National Government were to annihilate 
 the oligarchic party, by absorbing the Protestant gar- 
 rison and making it a Protestant National guard. The 
 Roman Catholic laity, now a cipher, would organize 
 itself, and a revolt against Rome and against the 
 priesthood would ensue. The Roman Catholic Church 
 would become the official Irish Church. The Irish 
 Parliament would insist on a voice in the promotion 
 of churchmen : fees and contributions would be regu- 
 
 324 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 lated : blackmail would be resisted : sweating in con- 
 ventual institutions, factories and workshops would be 
 stopped : and the ban would be taken off the Univer- 
 sities. In a word, the Roman Catholic Church, against 
 which Dublin Castle is powerless, would meet the 
 one force on earth that can cope v\'ith it victoriously. 
 That force is democracy : a thing far more catholic 
 than itself. Until that force is let loose against it, the 
 Protestant garrison can do nothing to the priesthood 
 except consolidate it and drive the people to rally 
 round it in defence of their altars against the foreigner 
 and the heretic. When this is let loose, the Catholic 
 laity will make short work of sacerdotal tyranny in 
 Ireland, as it has done in France and Italy. Home 
 Rule will herald the day when the Vatican will go 
 the way of Dublin Castle and the Island of Saints 
 assume the headship of its own Church. It may seem 
 incredible that long after the last Orangeman shall lay 
 down his chalk for ever, the familiar scrawl on every 
 blank wall in the North of Ireland, ' To Hell with the 
 Pope,' may reappear in the South, traced by the hands 
 of Catholics who shall have forgotten the traditional 
 counter legend, ' To hell with King William ' (of glori- 
 ous, pious and immortal memory), but it may happen 
 so." 
 
 Were Mr. Redmond to embody such a proposition in 
 an election manifesto, it would probably sweep the 
 
 325 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Unionist seats and capture the whole Nonconformist 
 vote ; but it would forfeit every Catholic one. But 
 there is something far too sober in John Redmond, a 
 part of his English qualities, one might say (or as 
 Bernard Shaw would say, Irish), to substitute one form 
 of hysteria for another. In fact, if ever there was an 
 embodiment of vigorous lay spirit, which did not run 
 wildly into anti-clericalism, it is the present leader. 
 Like Grattan, he sees that Nationalism is not a 
 religious question, and that there are many temples, 
 but only one forum. But were he as rabidly Catholic 
 as Colonel Saunderson was Protestant, Catholicism might, 
 I grant, once more appear in a guise hardly less terrible 
 than the Spanish Inquisition : while if he took Mr, 
 Bernard Shaw's attitude. Home Rule might be added to 
 the ten persecutions of ancient Rome. 
 
 The Irish party, as he told Pope Pius X., is not 
 a Catholic party like the German Centrum or the 
 followers of the Comte de Mun ; it is purely a national 
 party, and, in all probability, so would the Parliament 
 of Ireland be; and like some colonial pro-consul must 
 have done in the Roman Senate, discussing the Home 
 Rule bills of those days, he pleads for equality of treat- 
 ment for all creeds. He is a Roman, not a Romanist, 
 and he is as much opposed to the disqualifying of a 
 University professor for the shape of his collar as he 
 
 would be to the re-establishing of an Upper House 
 
 326 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 composed entirely of mitred heads. Nor, indeed, are the 
 clergy themselves averse to or unaware of the strengthen- 
 ing of the lay position which would ensue from the 
 granting of Home Rule and University teaching. Thus 
 Dr. O'Dea, Bishop of Clonfert, in his third report on 
 education (p. 296), remarked : " 1 am convinced that if 
 the void in the lay leadership of the country be filled 
 up by higher education of the better classes of the 
 Catholic party, the power of the priests, so far as it is 
 abnormal or unnecessary, will pass away." 
 
 As it was in the day of the Parliament of 1782, when 
 one of the first resolutions of the Protestant leader was 
 one of sympathy for their Catholic fellow-subjects, so in 
 all probability would it be again. Protestantism 
 unallied with English political tyranny would lose half 
 its sting and religion become far more a topic for the 
 pulpit than the tribune. Certainly as far as the leader 
 himself is concerned, it would, as the following extract 
 from an American speech testifies : " If I believed that 
 Home Rule would mean for the Protestants of Ireland, 
 not the oppression at the stake, which is unlikely and 
 impossible, but the abrogation of one whit of their just 
 civil and religious liberties, I would as an Irish 
 Nationalist oppose Home Rule, and would quit my 
 country whose people had not learned the first elements 
 of liberty. We Irish Catholic Nationalists owe too 
 much in our past history to our Protestant fellovv- 
 
 327 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 countrymen ever to be guilty of the baseness of 
 betrayal. We do not forget the history of Ireland. We 
 do not forget that it was Protestants who won the 
 Parliament of 1782 ; that it was Protestants who organ- 
 ized the Society of United Irishmen, both before and 
 after it became a revolutionary organization. We do 
 not forget that it was Protestants who gave the 
 franchise to Catholics in 1793 ; that Protestants led the 
 rebel army in '98 ; that Protestants gallantly but vainly 
 defended Irish liberty in 1800; and we do not forget 
 that every day that has passed since has witnessed the 
 efforts of Protestants to defend and promote civil and 
 religious liberty in the national life of Ireland." 
 
 Lastly we come to the most serious of all the aspects 
 of the Home Rule case — its Imperial aspect. Is it a 
 force in the direction of disruption, or is it the strength- 
 ening of the bonds of federation ? On John Redmond's 
 answer to this question he and his demand probably 
 stand or fall. Is he a Separationist or an Imperialist. 
 Most distinctly an Imperialist, I say, if his speeches and 
 the traditions of Irish leadership are to be relied on. 
 What, then, of tho.se American speeches saying the 
 Irish claim independence ? Simply that those speeches 
 are their own interpreters and that in Home Rule there 
 is full recognition of nationality. Grattan never meant 
 more : Butt never meant less. As to Ireland becoming 
 
 hostile, I can only say that I can .see no reason that 
 
 328 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 she should care to abandon those great Colonies she 
 has helped to people, that great Power which has been 
 built up by the sinews of her own sons, and bring down 
 the historic Empire of which her genius has been one 
 of the shining lights. And as far as I read John 
 Redmond, that is not only his idea, but his very 
 motive for Home Rule. " Here at the heart of the 
 Empire," he wrote in 1903, "lurks its chiefest danger. 
 If it was worth millions by the hundreds and lives by 
 the tens of thousands to add the Transvaal and the 
 Orange Free State to the Empire, what price can pay 
 for a prosperous and contented Ireland." 
 
 So, too, his great example of Home Rule, the position 
 of Canada, breathes the same spirit. There the two 
 peoples were almost at war, and the two creeds dis- 
 trusted each other : yet both were eager for Union 
 yet filled with the spirit of Washington. For years the 
 English Government could only think of Coercion as a 
 means to unity, until when the Canadians were ready 
 to take the Home Rule by arms — they were being 
 refused when they pressed it b}- argument — it was 
 granted them ; and all the scares of terrorists were 
 proved false. They were trusted and they \\-ere true, 
 and to-day the Colony of rebels has become the very 
 model of Imperial allegiance. The parallel to the case 
 of Ireland is absolutely complete even to the moral ; 
 and hardly a month passes without John Redmond 
 
 329 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 repeating some part of that brilliant address to the 
 Young Scots in Edinburgh in which he dealt fully with 
 the history of Canadian Home Rule. 
 
 How, in the face of this and other assurances, the 
 Irish leader's mission can be distorted into a scheme 
 inaugurating the instant disruption of the Empire it 
 seems impossible to explain save by the total absence 
 of political honesty or intellectual sanity. It would be 
 inaugurating a policy that can only be called suicidal, 
 as Mr. Iwan Muller in the Fortnightly observed ; for the 
 establishment of an Irish Republic could only be a 
 punishment, not a boon, since Ireland could be industrially 
 ruined in a month by an alteration of a few pence in 
 the Continental tariffs. No one understands that better 
 than John Redmond. No, every Irish leader has been 
 a Home Ruler and an Imperialist. They have stood 
 out for an offensive and defensive alliance not so much 
 from choice as from necessity ; and nothing but 
 geographical changes can alter that. This <!s why his 
 mission is so statesmanlike, establishing as it does 
 industrial and economic progress upon a national basis, 
 and developing that nationalism without detriment either 
 to creed or to class, under the protection of the great 
 Empire it has done its share, and more, in establishing. 
 With the Home Rule Bill starts a new page in Anglo- 
 Irish history ; and the Home Rule of John Redmond 
 is not a danger but an opportunity. 
 
 330 
 
THE IRONY OF CIRCUMSTANCE. 
 
 Mit. John Rkdmosd ■■ WKI.L. IF I CAN'T RULE IN DUBLIN, I CAN HERE ' '• 
 
 Reproduced f rum '^ I'linc/i," I'i'hriiarii 21111, I'.lld, hii sixeial i>frinisiion a/ t/if jiz-ojiri'loi-n, 
 J/f'j'AVj'. lirtiithnru^ Aijnfu- i{- Coi/tj/auu, 
 
 [Tu /(lie }}. 3.10. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE PRESENT POSITION 
 
 n^HE death of the greatest Home Ruler in England, 
 as King Edward VII. has been called, has for the 
 while suspended the constitutional struggle between the 
 aristocracy and the democracy of England begun in 
 December, 1909, by the rejection of the Budget. For the 
 union of Nationalists, Labour members and the Liberals 
 has long since raised the issue out of the narrow sphere 
 of party politics. As far as John Redmond is con- 
 cerned, it places him in the position of his life. No 
 other Irish leader before him has held such a sway, 
 either in point of strength or personality, because for 
 the moment he has ceased to be the leader of a faction 
 and become the spokesman of a cause as world-wide as 
 the Empire — that of democracy. 
 
 But if, as the Punch cartoon represents, he can rule 
 at Westminster, the rise of a new Irish party under Mr. 
 William O'Brien, one of the most significant events 
 since the days of Parnell, has not a little weakened his 
 power in Ireland just at the time when unity is most 
 required. Ostensibly arising out of a dispute over the 
 
 331 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Budget, it is really a reversal of the old Parnellite 
 methods and the inauguration of an entente move- 
 ment which will seek to bring about Home Rule 
 through the consent and co-operation of all parties. 
 Hence, some mention must be made of the events of 
 the early months of 1910, which for the most part are 
 too recent politics to need chronicling in detail. 
 
 The pledge given by the Premier at the Albert Hall 
 was the keynote of the whole situation, and accordingly 
 the General Election of 19 10 was fought upon the 
 Veto instead of upon Tariff Reform. The result gave 
 to the Liberals only a bare majority that could be 
 counted upon the fingers of one hand, hence they had 
 to depend for their existence upon the support of the 
 Labour and the Nationalist vote. Had the issue been 
 one of purely party politics, the position might have 
 been insecure under the dictatorship of an Irish leader : 
 for example, had it been fought upon the Budget alone. 
 As a matter of fact, the point raised by its rejection — 
 far more important than the measure itself — had raised 
 it into a sphere of national significance. It became the 
 struggle of a representative against an unrepresentative 
 body. In Ireland especially the peers had by their 
 continual delay and rejection of legislation proved them- 
 selves the hereditary foes of the people : in England they 
 had been no less hostile to the onward progress of 
 democracy. For once, therefore, Englishmen and Irish- 
 
 332 
 
THE PRESENT POSITION 
 
 men found themselves allied in defence of the same 
 cause and fighting against the same common enemy. 
 The position in which the Irish leader found himself as 
 arbiter of the destinies of both democracies was one of 
 singular difficulty. On the one hand, the Budget was 
 most unpopular in Ireland, though undoubtedly one of 
 the most favourable of the many unpopular Budgets, 
 On the other hand, if it were rejected by Ireland, the 
 Government, defeated upon the very measure upon 
 which they had appealed to the country, could hardly 
 proceed to demolish the authority of the House of 
 Lords for a verdict which the people had endorsed. 
 At the same time, the whole advantage of the situation, 
 as far not only as Ireland but as England was con- 
 cerned, lay in curtailment of the power of the Lords 
 which the acceptance of the measure by the new House 
 of Commons would entail. If it is true, therefore, that 
 John Redmond's power was never greater, it is true 
 that his task was never more difficult, a difficulty by 
 no means lessened by the action of Mr. O'Brien ; and 
 the more sympathetic of the British Press quite 
 appreciated the situation. 
 
 " He is in possession," wrote the Westminster of Feb. 
 nth, "of what according to the tradition of his party 
 is the prize of prizes in Parliamentary warfare, the 
 power of ejecting a Government by transferring his 
 support to the other side. It looks glittering and 
 
 333 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 formidable, yet it is of all things the most difficult to 
 use for any practical purpose. Twice has it come into 
 the possession of an Irish leader, and twice it has 
 passed out of his hands without having earned sub- 
 stantial advantages to his cause. Now it comes a third 
 time, and the question before him is whether a 
 third time it may not slip out of his hands without 
 being used to any practical purpose." 
 
 It therefore became a question of personal capacity 
 whether there would be any advantage reaped from the 
 situation, and future history will probably ponder on 
 those negotiations and tactics which, according to Sir 
 John Gorst, have proved John Redmond the ablest 
 politician of his times. The duel between Mr. Asquith 
 on the one hand and the Irish leader on the other was 
 full of the greatest interest, the one knowing that his 
 defeat would mean the driving of the Liberal party into 
 the wilderness for years and years, the other knowing 
 equally well that Home Rule fell with Liberalism. The 
 attitude of Mr. William O'Brien, on the contrary, was 
 quite the opposite. He maintained that Home Rule was 
 not worth the Budget, and far from identifying its 
 success with Liberalism, nearly every division found him 
 in the Unionist lobby. He believed that the great duty 
 of the Irish party was to throw out the Budget and 
 trust to the Unionists. " It is rank folly to talk of the 
 prospect of the Veto passing," wrote the Cork Accent of 
 
 334 
 
THE PRESENT POSITION 
 
 Feb. 1 8th, "and it is the supreme interest of this country 
 to oppose the Budget, tooth and nail. As it cannot be 
 passed without the Irish vote, Mr. Redmond will have 
 been guilty of a shameful breach of his pledge if he 
 connives at his country's robbery." 
 
 That John Redmond was well aware of the effect of 
 the Budget in Ireland is seen from his continual 
 negotiations to get concessions for Ireland ; but 
 throughout, his eye was fixed on the greater issue ; and 
 it was for this reason that he continually made his 
 consent to allow the Budget to pass "without the 
 alteration of a single comma " dependent upon some 
 sort of guarantee, if the Prime Minister did not at once 
 proceed with the Veto. The question of precedence 
 thus became one of the utmost importance, for it was 
 only natural that, in the game of give and take which 
 needs must come into every conflict, John Redmond 
 should know what he was getting in exchange for his 
 own concessions on the subject of the Budget. Provided 
 the guarantees were forthcoming, he was quite prepared 
 to come to some agreement, and was convinced it could 
 be made as tolerable, at least, as any Budget for Ireland 
 can be under the Act of Union. " Long before I went 
 to Canossa, to use Mr. O'Brien's phrase," said John 
 Redmond at Tipperary early in April — " long before Mr. 
 O'Brien went with Mr. Healy to his secret interview 
 with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, weeks before 
 
 335 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 that I had satisfied myself from conversations I had 
 had with Mr. Lloyd George that an amicable arrange- 
 ment of all these concessions would be arrived at by 
 the Government." The concessions referred to were 
 those on spirits, licence duties, land taxes, probate, 
 stamp duties and revaluation. 
 
 But the Budget he looked upon as a great weapon 
 in the hands of the Commons, and he was determined 
 not to let it pass till the Lords had accepted the Veto. 
 " It was the greatest constitutional crisis for two 
 hundred years," he maintained, "and it must end either 
 in the abolition of the supremacy of the Lords, or 
 the re-establishment of their power for the rest of 
 the people's lifetime" — and the great weapon in the 
 hands of the Commons was the Budget, and hence he 
 called upon Mr. Asquith either to press the Veto or 
 resign. 
 
 In effect, the Irish leader's demand was this : Mr. 
 Asquith must make a definite statement that if the 
 Lords reject the Veto resolutions he will demand 
 guarantees from the King, and if the King refuses, he 
 will resign office. Also that, until the Lords have 
 passed the Veto resolutions or the King has given 
 guarantees, the Budget shall not be allowed to leave 
 the House of Commons. 
 
 For above all things a dilatory way of treating with 
 the great problem was to be avoided at any cost, and 
 
 336 
 
THE PRESENT POSITION 
 
 there were not wanting those who wished to postpone 
 the conflict altogether. 
 
 The King's Speech, for example, had neither been 
 emphatic, clear, nor even grammatical upon the all- 
 important point of the readjustment of the authority 
 of the two Houses. A suggestion of the internal reform 
 of the Lords had been mooted, but as the Nation 
 rightly observed, the elections had not been fought on 
 the reform of the Lords, but upon the supremacy of 
 the Commons, and for this John Redmond stuck out, 
 asking that the Prime Minister should ask for guarantees 
 from the King in the event of another deadlock. This 
 Mr. Asquith refused on the plea that he wished to 
 keep the Sovereign out of party politics, and that the 
 King could hardly be asked to give any party a 
 blank cheque. The retort was more telling than true 
 and was well met by the Irish leader. He told the 
 Government that they must therefore produce a Bill 
 which, if rejected, could then be submitted to the 
 Sovereign — but that the Government must be prepared to 
 give some assurances before the Budget was passed. 
 
 The tension of the moment was supreme, but early 
 in March the Prime Minister somewhat relieved it by 
 announcing that the Government had adopted the 
 methods for the destruction of the Veto commended 
 by the Irish leader, of first introducing resolutions in 
 the Lords and the Commons, These were to affirm 
 
 337 22 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 the total exclusion of the Lords from finance, the 
 restriction of the Veto within the lifetime of one 
 Parliament, and the substitution of a democratic for a 
 hereditary second Chamber. 
 
 The appeal to the Crown upon such a proposition 
 could no longer be thought unreasonable, much as a 
 certain section of the Conservative Press denounced the 
 passing of the Budget over the heads of the British 
 electorate and the destroying of the Constitution at the 
 dictation of John Redmond. But throughout, the Irish 
 leader spoke as a House of Commons man, and one 
 as deeply versed in the English Constitution as any of 
 his critics. The " guarantee " asked for was at root 
 but the exercise of that same power which had 
 triumphed in the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832. 
 Thus Lord Crewe, speaking of the power of the Prime 
 Minister to create peers, said, " If a deadlock exists 
 between the two Houses, and the country has clearly 
 expressed its will, the Minister of the day is entitled 
 to advise the Sovereign to create a sufficient number of 
 peers to override the opposition of the House, and I 
 should like to say — and it is important to remember 
 the distinction — that if ever such an occasion does 
 arise, it is not a question of the Minister's going to 
 the Sovereign and asking the Sovereign to create a certain 
 number of peers as a favour, but it is the constitu- 
 tional exercise of the power of advice by the Minister 
 
 338 
 
THE PRESENT POSITION 
 
 to the Sovereign. That is an important distinction, and 
 it is important because it implies this, that the Minister 
 has no right to give this advice unless he is prepared 
 to say he would act upon it." 
 
 This power of the Minister might at first sight seem 
 to weaken the power of the Crown ; and at first, indeed, 
 the cry was raised against the Republicanism of John 
 Redmond. As a matter of fact, it would really strengthen 
 it. Thus the Nation pointed out on March 5th : 
 
 " The Liberal party therefore appeals directly to the 
 Crown, and says with respect that it is its duty and 
 right and power to act on the verdict of 19 10, when 
 that verdict has been clearly embodied in proceedings 
 and acts of the House of Commons. What," it con- 
 tinues, " is the Crown in a country like ours ? It lives by 
 and for the people. The future of the monarchy is 
 absolutely bound up with the democracy . . . our 
 crowned republic rests on the fact that even if some 
 classes regard the monarchy as a stand-by for privilege 
 and property, the masses also accept it as a guarantee 
 that their liberties are to hold and that progress to 
 further franchises is not to be barred. If we appeal to 
 the Crown, therefore, we also appeal to the people." 
 
 It was this principle for which John Redmond fought : 
 essentially constitutional, loyal and modern, and, when 
 the last word has been said, the strongest pillar of the 
 Throne ; certainly far stronger than ever the authority of 
 
 339 22* 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 the Lords could make it — the only one if the Throne is 
 to be identified with progress. 
 
 The climax of the whole situation was reached 
 towards the middle of April, when Mr. Asquith, after 
 months of hesitation, capitulated and brought in his 
 resolutions. " We feel compelled to take off our hat 
 to Mr. Redmond," wrote the Pall Mall Gazette. " Red- 
 mond is King," wrote the Daily Mail, and The Times 
 itself admitted, " Redmond is the real master." 
 
 " Undoubtedly the statement is true," as T. P. O'Connor 
 wrote in the Irish World. " From his first speech to 
 his last Mr. Redmond always adhered exactly to the 
 same demand — namely, that the Premier, Mr. Asquith, 
 should ask the King for guarantees, the moment the 
 Commons had adopted and the Lords had rejected the 
 Veto resolutions, to pass these resolutions by the 
 creation of enough peers of Parliament, and, in case 
 the request was refused, that Premier Asquith should 
 follow it up with a request that if another election 
 were demanded he should go to the election with the 
 King's guarantee in his pocket and with the right 
 to announce that fact to the people. This is what 
 Mr. Asquith's announcement has now done. It is almost 
 word for word Mr. Redmond's persistent demand." 
 
 The actual announcement was the scene of the wildest 
 exultation, the members of the Liberal party forget- 
 ting all reserve and cheering, waving hats, papers and 
 
 340 
 
THE PRESENT POSITION 
 
 handkerchiefs and according the Premier an ovation such 
 as was " never given before except once or twice in Mr. 
 Gladstone's most magnificent hours." The Tories, how- 
 ever, were exasperated and shouted back to the Liberals — 
 " Why don't you cheer for Redmond ?" and to the Irish — 
 " Paid by America ! " and it was only with the greatest 
 difficulty that the Irish leader's brother could be held 
 back in a personal onslaught on young Lord Winter- 
 ton — " the most ostentatious insulter of the Liberals 
 and the Irish." As to the leader himself, men rushed from 
 all sides of the House to shake hands with him and con- 
 gratulate him on the success of his persevering tactics. 
 It is doubtful, indeed, if either O'Connell or Parnell 
 ever received such an English tribute, and, as T. P. goes on 
 to observe, his name is now cheered as warmly as 
 Asquith's or Lloyd George's in the great English 
 gatherings of democracy. In spite of Mr. Balfour's 
 taunts, "You would give Home Rule to the Irish as 
 the price for the Veto " — a statement which is singularly 
 unhistoric of the party for whom Home Rule has 
 been the damnosa hereditas, as he has elsewhere said — 
 the general tendency seems to be, in the words of 
 Mr. Winston Churchill, " We want to make a national 
 settlement with Ireland." 
 
 There is no quarrel with the Crown, for the Crown is 
 held of the people, as Mr. Asquith pointed out — a far more 
 secure tenure than that by which either Tudor or Stuart 
 
 341 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 Sovereign held their thrones. It is Crown and Commons 
 against the Lords — in other words, democracy against 
 aristocracy — which is to be the great fight of the new 
 reign, and as there has never been any battle between 
 the two democracies of England and Ireland, the cause 
 of Home Rule must inevitably triumph with the victory 
 of the Commons over the Lords. 
 
 John Redmond stands at the present moment as 
 the embodiment of English and Irish democracy. He 
 stands for popular government, according to the best 
 traditions of English history. That the Veto of the 
 Lords should survive the Veto of the Crown is to him 
 an anomaly passing comprehension. That he is there- 
 fore disloyal it is absurd to suppose, for he is endorsing 
 the English instinct from Magna Charta to the Reform 
 Bill. Even the fact that there has been no official act 
 of condolence or expression of sympathy from the Irish 
 party on the death of King Edward, than whom there 
 has not been a more sympathetic Sovereign towards 
 Ireland since James II., proves nothing, though the 
 Pall Mall Gazette referred to the fact as the "one 
 jarring note." " When it is borne in mind," it wrote, 
 "that Mr. Redmond and his party are at this very 
 moment demanding from Great Britain in the most 
 menacing and arrogant way a great boon, their indiffer- 
 ence to British feeling becomes an insolence which a 
 proud people will deeply resent. Yet Mr. Redmond is 
 
 342 
 
THE PRESENT POSITION 
 
 perfectly consistent. He has never, save in one or two 
 attempts which have been too clumsy to convince any- 
 one, attempted to win Home Rule by persuasion or loyal 
 assurances." 
 
 It is true that a graceful tribute from the Irish leader 
 would have done more than anything to win popular 
 sympathy in England ; at the same time, it would be 
 entirely out of keeping with the traditions of the 
 Nationalist party to recognize in any way officially the 
 Sovereign until the restitution of the Home Parliament, 
 so unconstitutionally taken away, has once more made 
 him constitutional in Ireland. Personally, probably every 
 single member of the party loved and appreciated the 
 efforts of the late King. Over and over again in his 
 speeches has the Irish leader given expression to this 
 sentiment. It is not loyalty withdrawn but postponed ; 
 and if resentment is felt it can hardly have juster founda- 
 tions than the resentment of a nation at the loss of an 
 autonomy that has cost it millions in population. 
 
 It is said that King Edward VII. was himself a Home 
 Ruler and had made it the ambition of his life not to 
 hand on to his successor with the English Crown the 
 burden of Irish discontent which he had inherited from 
 his ancestors. It may be true and it may not, but if 
 purely a fiction, it expresses a general feeling for a 
 rapprocJiement which is entirely reciprocated by the 
 Irish leader. The next reign will probably settle the 
 
 343 
 
JOHN REDMOND 
 
 great grievance. If it does, it will see the return of 
 that loyalty for which the Irish shed their blood in 
 the days of the Stuarts, and the words of the Freeman 
 probably echoed the sentiments of John Redmond 
 when in a leading article it said : 
 
 " He, George V., like King Edward, has travelled over 
 the world. He has been through all the self-governing 
 possessions of the Crown. He has had abundant 
 opportunities of learning the blessings which Home Rule 
 brings to the people and the Colonies. . . . His public 
 career may be said to have been thus far closely 
 identified with the growth and recognition and realization 
 of the Home Rule idea and principle within the Empire. 
 It is not very far-fetched to imagine that he has 
 assimilated the lessons thus inculcated. It will be no 
 new thing to him should he before long be called 
 upon to open our Irish Parliament in person. Such a 
 great act of State will be in perfect harmony with the 
 greatest public duties he has hitherto discharged. And 
 we can promise him, when that joyful occasion brings 
 him to Dublin, the first honestly Irish reception an 
 English monarch has ever had here." 
 
 344 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abercorn, Duke of, 171. 
 
 America, United States of, Red- 
 mond's speeches in, 23, 27, 37, 39, 
 40, 52 ; Redmond in New York, 
 79 ; and Parnell's death, 80 ; 
 Redmond invited to visit, 123, 
 126 ; Redmond sails for, 163 ; 
 Irish in, 282 ; Lord North and, 
 294. 
 
 Amnesty, Gladstone and, 101 ; Red- 
 mond on, 102 ; Morley on, 102. 
 
 Annual Register, The, 66, 168. 
 
 Armstrong, G. R., 161. 
 
 Asquith, Right Hon. H. H. makes 
 his name, 87 ; his Liberalism, 185 ; 
 becomes Premier, 218 ; his ap- 
 proval of Gladstonian policy, 218- 
 9 ; Stead on, 273 ; and the Albert 
 Hall pledge, 332 ; and the veto, 
 336-7, 340. 
 
 Aston, Capt. Thomas, 4. 
 
 Aughavanagh, 251. 
 
 Australia, Redmond's mission to, 36 ; 
 Sir Henry Parkes' attempt to expel 
 Redmond from, 38 ; New South 
 Wales, 37 ; Sydney, 38; Melbourne, 
 39, 43 ; Parliament's address on 
 Home Rule, 217-8, 281. 
 
 B. 
 
 Balfour, Right Hon. A. J., 166, 246, 
 341 ; welcomes Redmond from 
 
 imprisonment, 50 ; and Redmond's 
 imprisonment, 102, 230 ; and Irish 
 education, 119; and Redmond's 
 power, 135; on land tenure, 169, 
 170 ; and the Irish Universities, 
 198, 202, 205 ; and his resignation, 
 1 80- 1 ; and the Local Government 
 Act, 260. 
 Ballytrent House, 9. 
 Barry, Dr., 250. 
 Barry, Judge, 12. 
 Bawne, Archbishop, 191. 
 Bell, Professor, 12, 17, 237. 
 Bernhardt, Sarah, 246. 
 Birrell, Right Hon. Augustine, 199, 
 
 209, 210. 
 Blake, Mr., 122, 125. 
 Botha, General, 227. 
 Boulanger, General, 112. 
 Boulogne, Negotiations at, 63, ei sqq. 
 Bourne, Francis, Archbishop of 
 
 Westminster, 191. 
 Bradlaugh, Charles, III. 
 Brand, Sir Henry, 30. 
 Brennan, Sir Thomas, 36. 
 Bright, John, 170. 
 Brooks, Sydney, 312. 
 Bryce, Right Hon. James, 199, 206, 
 
 208, et sqq. 
 Burke, Edmund, 93, 153, 238, 240, 
 
 247. 
 Burke, Father Tom, 250. 
 Burke, Thomas, 35. 
 Butler, Sir William, 231. 
 
 345 
 
INDEX 
 
 Butt, Isaac, Redmond on, 25 ; his 
 methods, 119; Redmond compared 
 with, 257, 287 ; as a leader, 299, 
 300, 303, 328. 
 
 Byron, Lord, 13, 237. 
 
 Conventions, Irish National, 173 ; on 
 
 Irish Councils Bill, 212. 
 Coote, Sir A., 178. 
 Cork Accent, The, 334. 
 Costigan, Hon. John, 164. 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 4, 5. 
 Crook, W. M., 241, 246. 
 Curran, J. P. 297. 
 
 D- 
 
 Cadogan, George, fifth Earl of, 19S. 
 
 Cameron, Mgr. 195. 
 
 Campbell, Henry, 63. 
 
 Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H., his Daily Chronicle, The, 133, 181, 193. 
 
 leadership of the Opposition, 135- Daily Mail, The, 340. 
 
 6 ; and Home Rule, 166, 186, 216 Daily News, 128. 
 
 etsqq. Daily Tek^-aph, The, 134. 
 
 Canada, its position in 1S39, 42 ; Dalton, James, 40. 
 
 compared with Ireland, 92-3 ; her Dalton, Johannah, see Mrs. John 
 
 Parliament and Home Rule, 163-4, Redmond. 
 
 328-9; Chamberlain and, 164; 
 
 Roman hierarchy in, 193. 
 Capel, Mgr. 201. 
 Carey, James, 37. 
 Carson, Sir Edward, 179. 
 Cavendish, Lord Frederick, 35, 37, 
 
 40. 
 Chamberlain, Right Hon. Joseph 
 
 and Redmond's American speeches. 
 
 Dalton, Michael, 40. 
 
 Davitt, Michael, 84, 108, 153,196; 
 his arrest, 31 ; Australian mission 
 described by, 36 : opposes Red- 
 mond, 77 ; and Healy, 105 : and 
 clerical interference, 113; and 
 reunion, 122. 
 
 Deakin, Hon. Alfred. 281. 
 
 De Freyne, Lord, 168, 171. 
 
 40, 160 ; and Redmond in Home Devonshire, Duke of, 119, 120. 
 Rule debate, 88, 92-3 ; and supre- Devereux, Mr., 6. 
 
 macy, 97 ; and Canadian address on 
 
 Home Rule, 164. 
 Chapman, Hon Austin, M.P., 28r. 
 Charles I., 30. 
 Churchill, Lord Randolph, 108, H2, 
 
 198. 
 Churchill, Winston, 341. 
 Churchtown, Monastery at, 4. 
 Clancy, J. J., 63, 176, 241. 
 Clare Lord, 297. 
 Clemenceau, 248. 
 
 Clongowes College, \\, et sqq., 236. 
 Coercion Bill, The, 25, 27, 35, 48. 
 Committee Room No. Fifteen, 51, 
 
 54, 56, 58. 
 
 De Wet, General, 139, 227. 
 
 Dillon, John, 132 ; and Davitt's 
 arrest, 31, 232; and Boulogne 
 negotiations, 65 ; and Parnell's 
 death, 71, 74 ; opposes Redmond, 
 81, 125, 222 ; and land agitation, 
 10 1 ; election to party leadership, 
 n6 ; resigns leadership, 121 ; and 
 Maynooth, 133 ; his sincerity, 134 ; 
 and the Coronation, 159 ; and 
 Balfour, 181 ; and Catholicism, 
 190 ; on Redmond's policy, 219. 
 
 Dilnot, Frank, 254, 258. 
 
 Disraeli Benj. (Earl of Beaconsfield), 
 243. 289. 
 
 346 
 
INDEX 
 
 Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan, 122. 
 Dunraven, Earl of, 172, 174-S, 178, 
 199, 206 
 
 E. 
 
 Edward VII., King, 154, 157 et 
 s,]q., 166-7, 194-5. 33'. 336-7. 342 
 tt sqq. 
 
 Emmet, Robert, 234. 
 
 Emmet, Thomas A., 80. 
 
 Errington, Mr., 109 
 
 Evening Neivs, The, 228, 234. 
 
 Everard, Col. Nugent, 172. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fegan, Father, 15. 
 
 Fingall, Earl of, 176. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 6, 41. 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Rev. John, 122. 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Lord, 95. 
 
 Flavin, Alderman, 76. 
 
 Forster, Right Hon. W. A., 34. 
 
 Fortnightly Review, The, 27, 330. 
 
 Fox, Right Hon. C. J., 153, 295, 299. 
 
 Freeman's Journal, The, 68-9, 103, 
 
 124-S, 156, 184, 284, 344. 
 Freys, S. H., 160. 
 Froude, J. A., 293. 
 Fulford, George T., 193. 
 Furlong, Father, 26. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gannon John, 13. 
 
 Garibaldi, General, 102. 
 
 George V., 344. 
 
 George, Right Hon. Lloyd, 336, 341. 
 
 Gilbert, Sir William, 255. 
 
 Gladstone, Right Hon. W. E., 42, 
 100, 184, 229, 271 ; in possession 
 of the House 31 ; and Redmond's 
 Land Bill, 34 ; his first Home 
 Rule Bill, 45 ; his letter on Par- 
 nell's leadership, 52 ; Morley's 
 life of, 55 ; Redmond describes his 
 
 deputation to, 59 et sqq. ; his 
 sympathy with Nationalist party, 
 73 ; his second Home Rule Bill, 
 78-9, 84 et sqq., 88 ; and the Irish, 
 loi ; resignation of, 103 ; and the 
 Irish champions, 128 ; and Par- 
 nell's personality, 137 ; and Irish 
 University, 198; and Irish "in- 
 discretions," 235 ; compared to 
 Fox, 29s, 299, 301. 
 
 Globe, The, 160. 
 
 Gorst, Sir John, 334. 
 
 Grattan Henry, 95, 186, 257, 289, 
 294-S. 297 et sqq., 328. 
 
 Gray's Inn, 44. 
 
 Greville Charles, 109. 
 
 Gros, Lady Basilea le, 3. 
 
 Gros, Raymond le, 2, 3. 
 
 Guardian, The, 119. 
 
 H. 
 
 Haldane, Right Hon. Richard, 184. 
 
 Hamilton, Lady, 112. 
 
 Hampden, Viscount, see Sir Henry 
 Brand. 
 
 Harcourt, Sir William, 104. 
 
 Harrington, T. C, 124, 133, 157, 165. 
 
 Hayden, Mr., 165. 
 
 Healy, Father, 255. 
 
 Healy, Thomas, 124, 133-4, 151, 165. 
 
 Healy, T. M., 55, 122, 254; and 
 Redmond's election, 21-2 ; and 
 deputation to Gladstone, 60-1 ; he 
 attacks Parnell, 66-7 ; opposes dis- 
 tribution of seats in election, 8r ; 
 his fidelity to Parnell, 82 ; and 
 party protests, 105; political ostra- 
 cism of, 116; supports Redmond 
 in unity negotiations, 123 ; as a 
 leader, 133 ; Daily Chronicle on, 
 134 ; disagreement with Redmond, 
 221-2 ; Redmond on, 260 ; inter- 
 view with Chancellor of tlie 
 Exchequer, 335. 
 
 347 
 
INDEX 
 
 Henry II., 3. 
 
 Higgins, Mr., 279, 281. 
 
 Hill, Lord Arthur, 94. 
 
 Hoey, General, 9, 231. 
 
 Home Rule Bill (1886), 44-5, 117. 
 
 Home Rule Bill (1893), 77 >?' ^'I'l-^ 
 
 88 et sqq., 1 00 et sqq. 
 Howard, Louis G., 9. 
 Howard, Mrs. L. G., 253. 
 Howard, L. B. Redmond, 253. 
 Hughes, Sir Frederick, 6. 
 Hughes, Rev. Hugh Price, 52. 
 
 I. 
 
 Ireland, History of, i et sqq. ; in- 
 vasion of by English, 2-4 ; re- 
 bellion of, 98 ; uncrowned King 
 of, 138 ; Parliament of, 291. 
 
 Irish Financial Reform League, 118. 
 
 Irish Land Bill, 166-7, i7i> i73- 
 
 Irish National League, 39, 78. 
 
 Irish People, The, 132. 
 
 Irish Unity Conference, 120. 
 
 Irish World, The, 313, 340. 
 
 Isaacs, Hon. Isaac A., 281. 
 
 J. 
 
 James II., 342. 
 
 Jordan, Jeremiah, m.p., 124. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kane, Father, 12 et sqq., 18. 
 Kenmare, Earl of, 176. 
 Kenny, Dr., 1 15. 
 Kilmainham Treaty, 34, 140. 
 Kruger, President, 153. 
 
 Land Bill, The, 34. 
 Land Conference, 174-5, ^77 • 
 Land League, 22, 39, 163, 169. 
 Land Purchase Act, 180. 
 
 Lansdowne, Lord, 179, 205. 
 Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 109, 163, 188, 
 
 192-3, 278. 
 Leamy, E., 61. 
 Lecky, Right Hon. W. E. H., 293-4, 
 
 298. 
 Leo XIII., 201. 
 Lever, Charles, 255. 
 Loftus, Sir Nicholas, 5. 
 Logue, Cardinal, 321. 
 Londonderry, Marquis of, 86, 176. 
 Long, Right Hon. Walter, 180. 
 Longmore, Hon. Francis, 43. 
 Louis XIV. of France, in. 
 Lover, Samuel, 255. 
 Lucy, Sir Henry, 87. 
 Lynch, Rev. P., 156. 
 Lyne, Sir William, 281. 
 Lynn, Judge, 80. 
 
 M. 
 
 Madge, W. T., 162. 
 
 McCarthy, Mr. Justin, 71, 125, 312; 
 on Redmond's father, 7 ; on 
 Redmond as whip, 32-3 ; on 
 Redmond and Parnell, 54 et sqq.', 
 and the Committee Room P'ifteen 
 discussion, 62; elected chairman, 
 65; on reunion, 115; resigns 
 chairmanship, 116; his love of 
 literature, 133 ; and clericalism, 
 248. 
 
 MacDermot, The, K.C., 176. 
 
 MacDonnell, Antony Lord, 177 et 
 sqq., 205, 209, 210. 
 
 McDonnell, F. J., 169. 
 
 MacSweeny, Marquis, 195. 
 
 Manning, Cardinal, 8, 201, 250. 
 
 Mayo, Earl of, 172, 198. 
 
 Meath, Bishop of, 67. 
 
 Meynell, Mr. Wilfred, 20. 
 
 Mill, John Stuart, 170. 
 
 Mirabeau, 113. 
 
 Moore, Thomas, 236, 239, 252. 
 
 548 
 
INDEX 
 
 Morley, John Viscount, 55, 58, 95, 
 
 102, 113, 185-6. 
 Mountjoy, Lord, 244. 
 Mun, Comte de, 326. 
 
 N. 
 
 Napoleon, i, 6, 138. 
 Nation, The, 337, 339. 
 Nelson, Horatio Lord, 112. 
 Newman, Cardinal, 250. 
 Nineteenth Century, The, 84. 
 Norfolk, Duke of, 114, 201. 
 North, Lord, 294, 309. 
 Nulty, Bishop, no. 
 
 o. 
 
 O'Brien, Barry, 62 ; on Redmond's 
 reception in colonies, 38 ; on 
 Anti-Parnellite policy, 60; and 
 Boulogne negotiations, 61 ; and 
 clericalism, 69 ; his " Hundred 
 Years of Irish History," 289, 291 ; 
 his " Dublin Castle," 307. 
 
 O'Brien, Mr. Justice, 112. 
 
 O'Brien, William, m.p., 159, 222, 
 260 ; and Boulogne negotiations, 
 63 et sqq. ; on Redmond, 76; and 
 Healy, 81; and Gladstone, 100 ; 
 and United Irish League, 122, 164 ; 
 his powers of organization, 133 ; 
 and the Land Conference, 171-2; 
 on Council's Bill, 205 ; leads new 
 party, 215, 331 ; prosecuted for 
 conspiracy, 232 ; and Home Rule 
 from Unionists, 334. 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, 69, 222, 238, 263, 
 319, 341 ; and the Clongowes 
 Debating Society, 15 ; clericalism, 
 109, 194 ; Redmond compared 
 with, 248-9, 257 ; opinions of, 300 ; 
 his address to Queen Victoria, 302. 
 
 O'Connor, T. 1'., 34, 81-2, 216 
 et sqq., 340. 
 
 O'Dea, Dr., 327. 
 
 O'Donnell, Frank H., 133-4, 200 
 
 et sqq., 2 1 4, 299. 
 O'Donnell, John, 165. 
 O'Donnell, Nicholas, 279, 281. 
 O'Donovan, James, 265, 
 O'Kelly, Conor, 165. 
 O'Neill, Roy, 41. 
 O'Reilly, Boyle, 39. 
 O'Shea, Mrs., 67 et sqq., 80, 140. 
 Oxford Magazine, The, 241. 
 
 P. 
 
 Palles, Lord Chief, 177. 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette, The, 340, 342. 
 
 Parkes, Sir Henry, 37-8. 
 
 Parnell, Charles Stewart, and 
 Redmonds' nomination, 21-2; 
 Redmond sheds his blood for, 23 ; 
 raises new party, 23 et sqq. ; wires 
 for Redmond, 27-8 ; appoints 
 Redmond whip, 33; and Redmond's 
 oratory, 34 ; and the Kilmainham 
 treaty, 34 ; and the Phoenix Park 
 murders, 35, 39 ; sends Redmond 
 to colonies, 36 ; crisis of, and 
 Redmond, 51 ; Redmond's loyalty 
 to, 52, 56, 59, 66, 127 ; trial of, 
 54-5 ; and independence of party, 
 57 ; sacrifice of, 58 ; and his inter- 
 view with Gladstone, 61 ; and the 
 debate in Room Fifteen, 62, 85; and 
 the negotiations at Boulogne, 63 
 et sqq. ; Healy's attitude toward, 
 66 ; clerical opinion on retention 
 of, 67 ; his marriage to Mrs. 
 O'Shea, 68 ; Freeman s Journal 
 secedes from, 69 ; and clericalism, 
 70 ; his death and burial, 70 
 et sqq.. 108 ; succeeded by 
 Redmond, 73, 76, 96, 127, 132 ; 
 his murderers, 74 ; American 
 sympathy with, 80 ; anniversary of 
 his death, 105 et sqq., 125 ; IVeekly 
 
 349 
 
INDEX 
 
 Parnell, Charles Stewart — con. 
 Register on, 113; return to policy 
 of, 124 et sqq. ; compared to 
 Redmond, 11,6 et sqq. ; 231, 286; 
 his duality of character, 229 ; his 
 shooting lodge taken by Redmond, 
 251 ; his bitterness, 257 ; his aloof- 
 ness, 259 ; his diplomacy, 267 ; 
 G. B. Shaw on the 1886 Home 
 Rule Bill, 304. 
 
 Parnellites, 87 ; their tactics and 
 demands, 80, 83 ; fight the Church, 
 82; Redmond on failure of, 84; and 
 Catholicism, no; in New York, 
 125 ; Redmond on reunion of, 148 ; 
 demands of, 299, 320. 
 
 Paul, Herbert, 87, 247, 320. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 198. 
 
 Pembroke, Earl of (Strongbow), 2, 3. 
 
 Pepper, Rev. George, 37. 
 
 Phoenix Park Murders, The, 35, 37-8, 
 
 51. 154- 
 Philips, Wendel, 24. 
 Pigott, Richard, 140, 
 Pitt, William, 153, 289,295, 298-9. 
 Pius X., 194 et sqq., 326. 
 Plunkett, Right Hon. Sir Horace, 
 
 115, 156, 312 et sqq. 
 Plunkett, Lord, 297. 
 Poe, Col. Hutchinson, 172, 178. 
 Power, M.P., Mr. P. J., 124. 
 Power, Mr. R., 31. 
 Power, Mr. W., 252. 
 Power, Mrs. W., 252. 
 Punch, 184, 255, 331. 
 
 R. 
 
 Reform Association, Irish, 177. 
 Redmond, Alexander, 4. 
 Redmond, Esther, see Mrs. Power. 
 Redmond, Father Frances, 6. 
 Redmond, General, 2. 
 Redmond, Johanna, 252. 
 Redmond, Sir John, 4. 
 
 Redmond, John Edward, his ancestry, 
 I et sqq., 247 ; his birth, 9 ; his 
 county, 10- 1 1 ; his life at Clongowes 
 College, II et sqq. ; studying for 
 the Bar, 18 et sqq. ; asked to repre- 
 sent Wexford, 21 ; joins the Land 
 League, 22 ; becomes candidate for 
 New Ross, 22 ; first links with 
 Parnell, 23 ; elected member for 
 New Ross, 25 et sqq. ; first acquaint- 
 ance with the House of Commons, 
 28 et sqq.; suspension and expulsion, 
 30 et sqq. ; as whip, 32 ; as speaker 
 and organizer, 33-4 ; and the 
 Phoenix Park murders, 35 et sqq. ; 
 his marriage, 40 ; his American 
 speeches, 41-2 ; his Melbourne 
 speech on Home Rule, 43-4 ; called 
 to the Bar, 44 ; charged with 
 intimidation, 46 ; his denial, 47-8 ; 
 his imprisonment, 49-50 ; and the 
 O'Shea affair, 51 et sqq., 80; his 
 devotion to Parnell, 55 et sqq., 66, 
 76; and the deputation to Gladstone, 
 60 et sqq. ; goes to Boulogne with 
 Parnell, 63 ; proceedings at 
 Boulogne, 63 et sqq. ; and Parnell's 
 death, 70 et sqq. ; puts up for Cork, 
 76 ; his defeat, 77 ; elected for 
 Waterford City, 77 ; declares the 
 Parnellite policy, 78-9, 83 ; goes to 
 New York, 79 ; his speech at New 
 York Academy of Music, 80 et sqq.; 
 and Gladstone's policy, 84 et sqq. ; 
 his great speech in the House, 86 
 et sqq. ; Press opinions of, 89, 129, 
 133 et sqq., 163, 334, 340 ; aiid Mr. 
 Chamberlain, 89, 92-3, 160- 1 ; and 
 the Irish priesthood, 90 et sqq. ; 
 defines his Home Rule policy, 94 
 etsqq., 104, 115; and evicted tenants, 
 100 ; and political prisoners, 101-2 ; 
 and Gladstone's resignation, 103 ; 
 and the anniversary of Parnell's 
 
 350 
 
INDEX 
 
 death, 105-6 ; and the Bishops, 108 
 et sqq.; proposes "Association of 
 Independent Nationalists," 117; 
 and the Financial Relations Com- 
 mission, 118 ; and the Irish Unity 
 Conference, 120 et sqq. ; invitation 
 to New York, 123 ; visits America, 
 125, 163 ; and the South African 
 War, 126, 129 et sqq., 150 et sqq. ; 
 leads the reunited party, 127 et sqq.; 
 compared with Parnell, 137 et sqq.; 
 his manifesto, 143 et sqq. ; and 
 Queen Victoria's visit to Ireland 
 155 ; and King Edward's Corona- 
 tion, 157 et sqq. ; and Irish Educa- 
 tion, 165, 176, 179, l?,()et sqq., 20I 
 et sqq. ; and the Land Bill, 166 
 et sqq. ; contest between Balfour 
 and, 181 ; and the Liberals, 183 
 et sqq. ; speech at Glasgow, 184 ; 
 Punch cartoon and, 184 ; Lord 
 Morley and, 185-6; and the National 
 movement, 188-9 ! letter from Arch- 
 bishop of Westminster to, 191 ; 
 interview with Pius X., 194-5; 
 letter from Pius X. to, 196 ; 
 and the New Irish University, 
 197 et sqq. ; on denominational- 
 ism, 200 ; on half measures, 
 205 ; and the Chief Secretaryship, 
 208-9 ■> ^nd the Irish Councils Bill, 
 211 et sqq. ; and his critics, 214-5 ; 
 Campbell-Bannerman's support of, 
 217-8; Asquith supports, 218-9; 
 account of his stewardship, 220, 
 223; contest with Healy, 221 ; and 
 Home Rule for England, 224 ; and 
 House of Lords, 225 ; his wish for 
 peace, 226-7 ! 3-s a man, 228 et sqq. ; 
 his story of Parnell, 229 ; his 
 religion and politics, 233 ; his love 
 of literature, 236 ; as an orator, 
 237, 240 ; his Celtic characteristics, 
 237-8 ; on England, 238 et sqq. 
 
 his loyalty and patriotism, 241-2; 
 and the Irish Colonies, 244 ; 
 his cosmopolitanism, 246 ; his 
 Catholicism, 247 et sqq. ; his quiet 
 tastes, 250 et sqq. ; his family 
 circle, 252-3 ; his sense of humour, 
 254 et sqq. ; compared with former 
 leaders, 257 ; his self-restraint, 259, 
 his knowledge of the House, 259, 
 260 ; and his methods, 261 et sqq, ; 
 his practicality, 261 et sqq. ; his 
 ideal Parliament, 262 ; as an 
 agitator and organizer, 264-5 '■> ^"'^ 
 the United Irish League, 266-7, 
 314 et sqq. ; and the Irish Party, 
 268 et sqq. ; and the English 
 Constitution, 274-5 '■> ^^^ '^he 
 colonies, 278 et sqq. ; G. B. Shaw 
 on, 285 et sqq. ; and the Irish 
 demand, 289 et sqq. ; on Early 
 Irish Parliaments, 291 et sqq. ; his 
 demands for Ireland, 298 et sqq. ; 
 on the necessity for Home Rule, 
 306 et sqq., 328 et sqq. ; his mission, 
 311 et sqq ; repudiates intolerance, 
 319 ; his moderation, 326 ; his 
 present position, 331 et sqq. ; and 
 the Budget, 335-6 ; his democracy, 
 342 ; and King Edward's death, 
 
 342-3- 
 Redmond, Mrs. John, 40, 46, 243. 
 Redmond, Patrick Walter, 7. 
 Redmond, Walter, 7. 
 Redmond, William Archer (John 
 
 Redmond's father), 7 et sqq., 14, 
 
 16, 21. 
 Redmond, Capt. William Hoey 
 
 Kearney (John Redmond's brother), 
 
 9, 22, 34, 37, 40, 63, 254, 256. 
 Redmond, William (John Redmond's 
 
 son), 253. 
 Register, The Weekly, 113, 
 Rosebery, Earl of, 103, 167, 254. 
 Rossmore, Lord, 178. 
 
 351 
 
INDEX 
 
 Ross, New, Redmond elected for, 
 
 22-5. 
 Russell, George, 241-2. 
 Russell of Killowen, Lord, 20. 
 Russell, Lord John, 170. 
 Russell, T. W., 165, 172. 
 
 s. 
 
 Salisbury, Marquis of, 86, 117, 157. 
 Saunderson, Col. 173, 176, 312, 321, 
 
 323- 
 
 Scully, Vincent, 63. 
 
 Sexton, Thomas, 55, 59 et sqq. 
 
 Shakespeare, 236, 239, 246-7. 
 
 Shaw, G. Bernard, his preface to 
 " John Bull's Other Island," 285 ^< 
 sqq. ; on military rule, 309; on Home 
 Rule and clericalism, 323 et sqq. 
 
 Shaw, William, 25. 
 
 Shawe-Taylor, Capt. 17 1, 178. 
 
 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 13, 237. 
 
 South African War, 126 ; 128 et sqq. ; 
 150 et sqq. 
 
 Southwell, Arthur Low, 178. 
 
 Speaker, The, 129, 131. 
 
 Spencer, Earl, 35. 
 
 Stead, W. T., 135, 194, 209, 273, 282. 
 
 Stoneyhurst College, 8. 
 
 Sullivan, Sir Arthur, 255. 
 
 Sullivan, A. M., 31. 
 
 Sullivan, T. D., 74. 
 
 Swift, Jonathan, 238. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tablet, The, 8. 
 Talbot -Crosbie, D., 178. 
 Talbot-Crosbie, S., 178. 
 Times, The, on Redmond and the 
 Phuenix Park murders, 35-6 ; on 
 
 political prisoners, 102 ; on Parnell 
 anniversary, 107 ; on reunion of 
 Irish party, 120 ; on Redmond as 
 new leader, 129 ; on Redmond at 
 the Coronation, 158; and Parnellism 
 and crime, 160; on Redmond's 
 dictatorship, 340. 
 
 Tone, Wolf, 41. 
 
 Treaty of Peace, 172. 
 
 Tyrrell, Father George, 250. 
 
 Trinity College, Dublin, 18, 175-6. 
 
 u. 
 
 United Ireland, 74. 
 
 United Irish League, 122, 142, 149, 
 
 162, 164 et sqq., 173, 190, 265 et 
 
 sqq., 282, 314-5. 
 
 V. 
 
 Victoria, Queen, 49, 154 et sqq., 234, 
 256, 302. 
 
 w. 
 
 Walker, Capt. 46-7. 
 
 Walsh, Dr., Archbishop of Dublin, 
 
 67-8, 71, 165, 322. 
 Walsh, Edward, 46. 
 Walshe, J, W., 37. 
 Ward, Wilfred, 250. 
 Watson, M.P., Mr., 281. 
 
 Weekly Register, The, 20, 112. 
 Weldon, Sir A., 178. 
 Wellington, Duke of, 224. 
 
 Westminster Gazette, The, 333. 
 
 Wexford People, The, 46. 
 Wordsworth, William, 237. 
 Wyndham, Right Hon. George, 150, 
 165, 167, 171, 173, 180, 260. 
 
 Printed at The Chapel River Press, Kingston, Surrey. 
 

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