Page:Last Will and Testament of Cecil Rhodes.djvu/134

120 tion is tyranny,” undertook to accept a Home Rule Bill based upon the opposite principle of the retention of Irish members. Mr. Rhodes wished the numbers of the Irish to be reduced from their present figure of 103 to 34, at any rate unless he was guaranteed the full control of the Irish police and judiciary. At that time he was willing that the question of the reduction of the Irish representation at Westminster to the figure corresponding to the extent of their contribution to Imperial taxation should be debated as an open question. He also agreed that he would not make any opposition to a clause permitting any self-governing colony to send representatives to the House of Commons on the basis of the amount of their annual contribution to the Imperial exchequer.

Mr. Parnell himself said he was prepared to accept this cheerfully, but when pressed by Mr. Rhodes to move an amendment he demurred on the ground that some of his party might object. The deal having thus been arranged in personal interview, from which both parties emerged with a profound respect for each other, Mr. Rhodes proceeded to embody the substance of their bargain in the following letter to Mr. Parnell:—

Westminster Palace Hotel, London, S.W. June 19th, 1888.

Dear Sir,—On my way to the Cape last autumn I had the opportunity of frequent conversations with Mr. Swift MacNeill upon the subject of Home Rule for Ireland. I then told