Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)Hurlbert, William Henry
History
Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)
Hurlbert, William Henry
Ireland -- Description and travel; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901
"His next step was a startling one. We have absolute reason to
know, when the last Coercion Act was in full swing, this
pure-souled and disinterested patriot begged for, received, and
accepted a very petty Crown Prosecutorship under a Coercion
Government. As was wittily said at the time, he sold his
principles, not for a mess of pottage, but for the stick that
stirred the mess. Strong pressure was brought to bear on him, and
he was induced for his own sake, after many protests and with much
reluctance, to publicly refuse the office he had already privately
accepted. Mr. Taylor professes to model himself on Robert Emmet and
Thomas Davis; it is hard to realise Thomas Davis or Robert Emmet as
a Coercion Crown Prosecutor in the pay of Dublin Castle. Since then
there has been no more persistent caviller at the Irish policy and
the Irish Party in company where he believed such cavilling paid.
When Home Rule was proposed by Mr. Gladstone, he had a thousand
foolish sneers for the measure and its author. When the Bill was
defeated, he elected Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Goschen, and Mr. T.W.
Russell as the gods of his idolatry. Such a nature needs a patron,
and Mr. Webb, Q.C., the Tory County Court Judge who doubled the
sentence on Father M'Fadden, was the patron to be selected. It is
shrewdly suspected that he supplied most of the misguiding
information for Dr. Webb's coercion pamphlet, and it is probable
that Dr. Webb gives him a lift with his weekly letter to the
_Manchester Guardian._
(_UNITED IRELAND_, JUNE 23.)
MR. JOHN F. TAYLOR.
_To the Editor of "United Ireland."_
Sir,--You would not, I am sure, allow intentional misstatements to
appear in your columns, and I ask you to allow me space to correct
three erroneous observations made about myself in your current
issue--
1. The first statement is to the effect that I owe everything I
have, or that I am, to the Irish National Party. I owe absolutely
nothing to the Irish Party, except an attempt to boycott me on my
circuit, which, fortunately for me, has failed.
2. The second is to the effect that I made "frantic efforts" (these
are the words, I think) to enter Parliament, and besieged Mr.
Dillon's house during the time when candidates were being chosen. I
saw Mr. Dillon exactly twice, both occasions at Mr. Davitt's
request. Mr. Davitt urged me to allow my name to go forward as a
candidate, and it was at his wish and solicitation that I saw Mr.
Dillon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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