Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/336

 scribed Parnell as ‘the uncrowned king of Ireland.’ The title was generally adopted by Parnell's supporters. On 3 Jan. the Dublin Corporation, by a majority of 29 to 23 votes, resolved to confer the freedom of the city on Parnell and Mr. Dillon.

In all political circles in London it was admitted that the government was defeated and the cause of disorder was triumphant. Forster, the Irish secretary, although he was actively applying the exceptional legislation at his command, was producing no effect. Mr. Chamberlain, a member of the government, convinced himself that a more conciliatory attitude to Parnell might have a better result, and that an arrangement might be made whereby Parnell should be liberated and induced to aid the government in quieting the country. In April Captain O'Shea, an acquaintance of Parnell and M.P. for Clare since 1880, wrote to Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Chamberlain urging them to induce the government to stop by new legislation evictions for arrears of rent. Evictions, it was argued, were the chief causes of outrage. Mr. Gladstone sent a vague but conciliatory reply, and Mr. Chamberlain wrote in the same spirit, but warned his correspondent that if the liberal party showed greater consideration for Irish sentiment, the Irish leaders must pay equal consideration to English and Scottish opinion. On 10 April Parnell was released from Kilmainham gaol on parole, in order to enable him to attend the funeral of a nephew in Paris. On the journey, at Willesden he met several of his colleagues; but the terms of his parole precluded political discussion. On 26 April, however, with the concurrence of Parnell, Mr. John Redmond, M.P. for Wexford, introduced a bill into the House of Commons with the object of wiping out all arrears of rent in Ireland incurred before the Land Act, and of applying the Irish church fund to the discharge of the residue. Mr. Gladstone, without committing himself to the details of the proposal, welcomed it as an authentic expression of goodwill on the part of the Irish leader to the recent land legislation.

Forster viewed with undisguised concern the conciliatory disposition of his colleagues. But, despite his strenuous opposition, the negotiations went forward. Parnell informed Captain O'Shea that if the government settled the arrears question on the lines he proposed, he and his colleagues had every confidence that ‘the exertions which they would be able to make strenuously and unremittingly would be effective in stopping outrages and intimidation of all kinds.’ In a succeeding paragraph, which was not disclosed at the time, he told the cabinet that the arrangement would ‘enable him to co-operate cordially for the future with the liberal party in forwarding liberal principles.’ To promote the settlement of the west of Ireland, Parnell urged the release of Sheridan and Boyton, organisers of the league in the west, and their employment in the work of pacification. Parnell was aware that these men had made numberless inflammatory speeches, and possessed great influence with the peasantry. That they had organised crime was practically proved at a later date, but that Parnell was acquainted with this part of their work there is no evidence to show.

An accommodation with Parnell was soon come to through Captain O'Shea, and the compact was known as ‘the Kilmainham Treaty.’ Accordingly on 2 May Parnell, with Messrs. Dillon and O'Kelly, was released from Kilmainham. On the same day Mr. Gladstone informed the House of Commons of that fact, and also of the fact that Mr. Forster (with the lord lieutenant, Earl Cowper) had resigned office. Mr. Gladstone added that a new bill to strengthen the administration of justice was contemplated, and, if needed, further legislation against secret societies would be introduced. On other questions of Irish policy he was silent. The vacant offices of lord lieutenant and chief secretary were filled by the appointment of Earl Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish. Forster explained his distrust of Parnell's assurances, and the conservative leaders vehemently denounced the government's action.

On 6 May Mr. Davitt was released from Portland prison. Parnell met him at the prison gates, and travelled with him to London. On the afternoon of the same day Lord Frederick Cavendish [q. v.], the new chief secretary, and the permanent undersecretary, Thomas Henry Burke [q. v.], who had worked with Forster throughout his administration, were murdered in Dublin while walking together across Phœnix Park. The assassins made their escape.

Public feeling in England was very deeply stirred by this startling crime. Parnell at once disavowed all sympathy with its perpetrators, and wrote privately to Mr. Gladstone offering to accept the Chiltern Hundreds. In a manifesto dated next day (7 May) he, with Mr. Dillon and Mr. Davitt, told the people of Ireland that no act in the long struggle of the last fifty years had ‘so stained the name of hospitable Ireland as this cowardly and unprovoked assassination.’ On 8 May Mr. Gladstone moved the adjournment of the house, as a mark of respect to the memory of the murdered men; and