Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/341

 second reading of the first bill, which began on 10 May, Parnell said that he believed the Irish people would accept the measure as a final settlement; he abandoned his claim to protect Irish industries; ‘Protestant Ulster’ was a fiction. Lord Hartington, Mr. Chamberlain, John Bright, and ninety other members of the liberal party, known thenceforth as liberal unionists, declined to be moved by these assurances. Breaking away from Mr. Gladstone, and combining with the tories, they defeated on 7 June the second reading of the bill by 341 to 311 votes. Mr. Gladstone immediately appealed to the country.

During the general election Parnell occasionally spoke in England, and did all he could to conciliate English opinion. But the general election ended in a triumph for the tories and liberal unionists. The final returns showed that Parnell's party consisted of 84, the liberal unionists numbered 74, the conservatives 317, and the Gladstonian liberals 191. Lord Salisbury, who in his speeches in the country had recalled attention to Parnell's earlier demand for separation and denounced home rule as utterly impracticable, became prime minister at the end of July.

Thereupon Parnell made a complete change of front in his treatment of English parties. Until 1885 his policy had been a policy of ‘retaliation,’ and he had been at war with tories and liberals alike. He now formed an alliance with the liberal party for all parliamentary purposes, and, under the influence of that alliance, sought rather ‘to win than to force his way’ by the ordinary rules of parliamentary warfare. The hostility which he had bestowed in equal measure on both parties he now reserved, in a comparatively mild form, for the tory government alone. When exasperated in 1891 by the efforts of the liberal party and of the majority of his own party to disown him on the plea of dishonouring revelations made respecting his private life, he declared that ‘the close alliance with the liberals was a mistake,’ and that it became a close alliance in spite of himself. His followers, he complained, associated thenceforth with the English members on even terms, and were practically fused with the English liberals. A fighting policy, which should lead their opponents to offer them terms to be accepted or rejected after the manner of belligerents, alone, he said, gave the Irish party any real power. But, whatever value may be set on Parnell's later views, he was personally responsible for the union of his supporters with one of the great English parties. That an inevitable effect of the new policy was to slacken the bonds of the rigid authority which he had exerted over his own parliamentary supporters may be true, but Parnell by his personal acts mainly contributed to the result. His health was bad. He attended parliament irregularly; between 1885 and 1890 he hardly spoke at all at public meetings in Ireland. Living in mysterious retirement at Brighton, Eltham, or Brockley, where he was known under an assumed name, he held rare and intermittent communication with his supporters.

Parnell, whenever he took his place in parliament, confined himself to reiterating his opinions respecting land reform and coercion. When the new tory government first met parliament, he introduced, on 10 Sept., an Irish Tenants' Relief Bill, by which, among other purposes, leaseholders were to be admitted to the benefits of the Land Act of 1881. The bill was negatived on a second reading on 27 Sept. by 297 votes to 202. Three days later Parnell addressed a strong appeal to Mr. Fitzgerald, the president of the national league in America, begging for pecuniary assistance. He represented that the tory government had declared war on the Irish farmers. Meanwhile Mr. Dillon advocated among the discontented peasantry a ‘plan of campaign’ which aimed at withholding rent from unpopular landlords unless they would accept substantial reductions. The ‘plan’ was worked with much vigour, but Parnell was in no way responsible for its adoption, and he publicly stated in London at the close of the year that he knew nothing about it, and suspended judgment respecting it. Agrarian disturbances in Ireland were renewed in the winter, and in the queen's speech of 27 Jan. 1887 a revision of the Irish criminal law was promised. On 7 Feb. Parnell moved an amendment to the address, warning the ministers that the existing crisis in Irish agrarian affairs could only be met by such a reform of Irish government as would secure the confidence of the Irish people. Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the Irish secretary, resigned in March, and his place was filled by Mr. A. J. Balfour, in whom Parnell and his allies met a very strong administrator. The Crimes Bill was introduced on 28 March by Mr. Balfour, and on 1 April Parnell moved as an amendment that the house resolve itself into a committee to consider the state of Ireland, but by the application of the closure the bill was read a first time on the same day. The liberal party joined with Parnell and his followers in obstructing the passage of the measure through its later stages. On 10 June William Henry Smith [q. v.], the leader of the house, proposed that the committee on