Enigma A New Life of Charles Stewart Parnell: Enigma by Bew Paul

Author:Bew, Paul [Bew, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: -
Publisher: Gill & Macmillan
Published: 2011-10-20T16:00:00+00:00

Parnell behaved as if he thought all the elements for a Conservative parliamentary settlement were coming into place. In early August 1885 he drew attention to the reality that Irish landlords now seemed more interested in land purchase schemes than Irish tenants. Later in the month, in his Arklow speech, he expressed his optimism that the land question would be solved and endorsed again the idea of protection for Irish industries. Then, in early October 1885 in Wicklow, he explicitly addressed Chamberlain’s hostility to protection. He refused to give way, though he did say Ireland would need protection for only ‘two or three years’.

Carnarvon was not alone in his wooing of the Irish leaders—a key figure was Howard Vincent, the first director of the CID and Conservative candidate for Sheffield. He had helped to arrange the Parnell–Carnarvon meeting and, months later, he personally met with Tim Harrington at the headquarters of the National League and with William O’Brien at the offices of United Ireland. In O’Brien’s view, ‘The high designs imparted to Parnell by the Viceroy were evolving into a marked preference for the “Kings, Lords and Commons of Ireland” plan of Grattan’s parliament, with certain modern adjustments as contrasted with the proper system of federal subordination proposed by Butt.’19 On 7 October Salisbury delivered a speech on foreign and domestic affairs at Newport, Monmouthshire: the Parnellites interpreted it as an invitation to revive Grattan’s Parliament, while the Conservatives saw it as a pledge that any concessions depended upon the result of a general election.

It soon appeared as if this tactic had achieved excellent results. On the eve of the general election on 21 November 1885, having failed to draw Gladstone into the bidding for Irish support, Parnell took the step of issuing a manifesto advising the Irish voters in Britain to vote against the Liberals.

In a biography of his father, Winston Churchill reported a conversation between Lord Randolph Churchill and Parnell at about this time at the former’s London home: ‘There was no compact or bargain of any kind,’ Churchill said to a friend a year later, ‘but I told Parnell when he sat on that sofa [in Connaught Place] that if the Tories took office, and I was a member of their government, I would not consent to renew the Crimes Act.’ Parnell replied: ‘In that case you will have the Irish vote at the elections.’20 T. P. O’Connor, however, insisted that he and Parnell remained in daily contact during the election, and if they had felt there was any possibility of a Tory landslide, they would have withdrawn Irish support.21

It has often been argued that Parnell committed a major tactical error in this instance. His intervention, it is claimed, deprived the Liberals of just that amount of support which would have enabled them to pass a satisfactory measure of Home Rule. In fact such an assessment of Parnell’s policy is too harsh. Parnell must have assumed that the closer the totals of the two main parties, the greater his own influence.

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