Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/335

 Parnell's position at the head of his heterogeneous army was rendered extremely critical by his partial acceptance of the Land Act. The revolutionary wing of his followers disliked the measure. They feared that it would satisfy the peasantry and draw them outside the revolutionary lines. Parnell, although he was resolved that the peasantry should not be deprived of such benefits as the act conferred, could not afford to offend the revolutionists. Accordingly he came to an understanding with them. With their assent, he determined to test the value of the act by sending, with the aid of the land league, some test cases into the newly established land court. The proposal satisfied the peasantry, who believed that the land court would be beneficial to them, and it satisfied the revolutionists, who believed that the worthlessness of the act would be summarily exposed.

At this juncture Parnell felt the necessity of strengthening the position of the land league, through whose agency the agitation in Ireland was kept alive. Since 1880 the league had distributed among the peasantry copies of a New York newspaper, called ‘The Irish World,’ which was edited by Patrick Ford, a fanatical nationalist. Ford openly recommended murder as an instrument of agitation. In 1881 Parnell deemed it expedient to supply the league with a journal that should be immediately under his control. In July of that year he accordingly formed ‘The Irish National Newspaper and Publishing Company.’ He and Mr. Patrick Egan, the treasurer of the league, were the chief shareholders, but the invested money was supplied by the league, and Parnell held the shares as trustee of that association. The company purchased the ‘Shamrock,’ the ‘Flag of Ireland,’ and the ‘Irishman,’ three weekly papers of small circulation, all of which were organs of extreme opinions. The ‘Shamrock’ was discontinued; the ‘Irishman’ proceeded on its old lines till its death in August 1885. The ‘Flag of Ireland’ was converted into ‘United Ireland,’ the first number of which appeared on 13 Aug. 1881. Mr. William O'Brien, an ardent nationalist, became editor of both the ‘Irishman’ and ‘United Ireland.’ The latter was thenceforth the accredited organ of the land league, and, while by its inflammatory language it sustained the agitation and encouraged sedition, it made no endeavour to condemn outrage. Though Parnell as chief proprietor was responsible for the tone of the paper, he rarely read it.

His immediate object was to maintain the supremacy of the league at all hazards. Soon after the Land Bill had been introduced Mr. Dillon had made a speech (1 May) urging the peasantry to depend solely on the land league in their struggle with their landlords, and not, he implied, on any remedial legislation supplied by the British parliament; he had been in consequence kept in gaol from 2 May till 7 Aug. On 15 Sept. Parnell held, at Dublin, a great land-league convention, and he repeated, with greater emphasis, Mr. Dillon's advice. The cry was taken up by agents of the land league, and the number and barbarity of outrages, in which mutilation of cattle played a large part, made another upward bound. On 7 Oct. Mr. Gladstone, speaking at Leeds, charged Parnell with deliberately seeking to defeat the objects of the Land Act, and, pointing to the ravages of crime in Ireland, warned Parnell that the resources of civilisation were not yet exhausted by the government. Parnell retorted at Wexford that Mr. Gladstone's attack was ‘unscrupulous and dishonest.’ On 12 Oct. Mr. Gladstone announced at the Guildhall, London, the intention of the government to put Parnell in prison. On the same day he was arrested at Morrison's Hotel, Dublin. The warrant authorising the arrest, and signed by Forster, charged Parnell with inciting persons to intimidate others from paying just rents, and with intimidating tenants from taking due advantage of the new Land Act. He was imprisoned in Kilmainham gaol. A day or two later Messrs. Dillon, Sexton, O'Kelly, Brennan, and other officers of the land league shared Parnell's fate. Mr. Patrick Egan, the treasurer, had escaped it by removing, with the account-books of the league, to Paris in February, and other leaders of the organisation now left the country. On 18 Oct. Parnell and his fellow prisoners and the chief officers of the league issued, in accordance with a suggestion sent to Mr. Egan by Patrick Ford from America, a manifesto calling on the tenants to pay no rent until their leaders were released. The government retaliated (18 Oct.) by declaring the land league an illegal association, and vigorous steps were taken to suppress its branches throughout Ireland.

During the imprisonment of Parnell and his friends the storm of outrage grew fiercer, and Parnell's personal popularity in Ireland reached its zenith. A subsidiary organisation of the land league, known as the ‘Ladies' Land League,’ had been founded by Mr. Davitt in February 1881, was still unsuppressed, and now carried on the work of the dissolved land league. At a meeting of the ladies' land league at Dublin on 2 Jan. 1882, the president, Miss Anna Parnell, Parnell's sister, spoke with vehemence against the government, and another speaker de-