The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886Various
History
The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886
Various
Periodicals
These speeches, full as they were of denunciation of Mr. Parnell, were
still on the lines of the Southport speech. They were not declarations
of the opinion of the British community, warnings to Ireland to take
account of the settled judgment of the nation, of which the sister
island must always form part. They contrasted with the manly utterance
of Mr. Chamberlain on this subject, the same month, at Birmingham. They
were angry appeals to Ireland to quarrel with her chosen leaders. Mr.
James Lowther was denounced for stating, that 'the party headed by Mr.
Parnell commanded the support of the large majority of the people of
Ireland.' Mr. Gladstone added, 'The proposition here made is one on
which we are entirely at issue. I profoundly disbelieve it; I utterly
protest against it. I believe a greater calumny on the Irish nation,...
a more gross and injurious statement could not possibly be made against
the Irish nation.'
In the following year it was found that the recognition of Mr.
Gladstone, as the father of the Irish people was still remote; whilst
Mr. Forster declared, that a stronger Coercion Bill was necessary, if
life was to be protected in Ireland. Then came another plunge after the
coveted ideal. Mr. Forster, who had so generously devoted himself to
his party and his leader in the pursuit of a new Irish policy, was
abandoned to the Irish members, and to Mr. John Morley's crusade against
him in the columns of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' Mr. Parnell was called
out of jail to secure votes to the Government, and order in Ireland, by
the help of Mr. Sheridan and other ex-convicts. The Phoenix Park
murder, following on the Kilmainham Treaty, postponed the full carrying
out of this arrangement. The sort of measure, which Mr. Forster had been
refused a month before, was now passed with provisions of excessive
stringency; and Lord Spencer, who had been sent to Ireland to win that
popularity, which the late Chief Secretary had been unable to obtain,
was chiefly occupied in curbing the violence which that Minister had
denounced, in bringing to justice the criminals whom he had not been
allowed to reach. We recollect that the new Viceroy was exposed to a
storm of unpopularity so violent and outrageous, that the public readily
forgot the discreditable folly of his original enterprise, and honoured
the resolution and dignity with which he discharged the laborious duties
of a thankless office.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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