Charles Stewart Parnell: His Love Story and Political LifeO'Shea, Kitty
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Charles Stewart Parnell: His Love Story and Political Life
O'Shea, Kitty
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 1846-1891
You ask for my views regarding the visit of the Prince of Wales.
In reply, I desire to say that if the usages of the Constitution
existed in Ireland as they do in England there would, to my
judgment, be no inconsistency in those who believe in the limited
monarchy as the best form of government taking a suitable part in
the reception of the Prince. But in view of the fact that the
Constitution has never been administered in Ireland according to
its spirit and precedents, that the power of the Crown as wielded
by Earl Spencer and other Viceroys is despotic and unlimited to
the last degree, and that in the present instance the Royal
personage is to be used by the two English political parties in
Ireland for the purpose of injuring and insulting the Irish
Nationalist Party, and of impeding, if possible, their work, I
fail to see upon what ground it can be claimed from any lover of
constitutional government under a limited monarchy that the
Prince is entitled to a reception from the independent and
patriotic people of Ireland, or to any recognition save from the
garrison of officials and landowners and place-hunters who fatten
upon the poverty and misfortunes of the country. Let me suggest
a parallel. Would it be tolerated in England for a moment if the
Government, for their own party purposes, on the eve of a general
election, were to use the Prince of Wales as an electioneering
agent in any section of the country, and were to send him upon a
Royal progress in order to embarrass their political opponents?
The breach of constitutional privilege becomes still graver when
we consider that it is the march of {237} a nation which is now
sought to be impeded--the fruition of a long struggle and of many
sacrifices which the adventitious aid of this Royal visit is
enlisted to injure. I have, however, every confidence that our
people, having been suitably forewarned, will not allow their
hospitable nature and cordial disposition to carry them into any
attitude which might be taken as one of condonation for the past
or satisfaction with the present state of affairs.
CHARLES S. PARNELL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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