Sketches in the House: The Story of a Memorable Session (1893)O'Connor, T. P. (Thomas Power)
History
Sketches in the House: The Story of a Memorable Session (1893)
O'Connor, T. P. (Thomas Power)
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons; Home rule -- Ireland
Mr. Dunbar Barton made a valiant but vain attempt to stem the tide
against him, but he, like every other Unionist, was weighted down by the
feeling that the Orangemen were doing immense service to the cause of
Home Rule by their brutality. However, the fumes of Unionist oratory
seem to have ascended to the heads of all the excitable young men of the
Tory party. Mr. Dunbar Barton, personally, is one of the gentlest of
men; his manners are kind and good-natured enough to make him a
universal favourite--even with his vehement Nationalist foes; and he
speaks with evident sincerity. But he had so worked himself up that he
babbled blithely of spending a portion of his days in penal
servitude--talked big about a mysterious organization which was being
got ready in Ulster, and declared that the day would come when he would
stand by the side of the Orangemen in the streets of Belfast. He was
listened to for the most part in silence, until he tripped into an
unseemly remark about Mr. Gladstone, when the much-tried Liberals burst
into an angry protest.
[Sidenote: Mr. Arnold Forster.]
Very different was Mr. Arnold Forster. I must be pardoned if, as an
Irishman, I always see something genial and not wholly unlovely even in
the most violent Irish enemy. We all like Johnston of Ballykilbeg--most
of us rather like Colonel Saunderson, and Mr. Dunbar Barton is decidedly
popular. But this Arnold Forster--with his dry, self-complacent,
self-sufficient fanaticism--is intolerable and hateful. He never gets up
without making one angry. There is no man whose genius would entitle him
to half the arrogant self-conceit of this young member. Acrid, venomous,
rasping, he injures his own cause by the very excess of his gall and by
the exuberance of his pretension. He also saw that the riots would do no
good, and he hinted darkly of what he called "ordered resistance,"
whatever that means. But, on the whole, the advocates of the Orangemen
made a very poor show.
[Sidenote: Tory obstruction.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account