Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/77

 had advised me from the beginning that the legal estate was all the law required; and when the room was cleared he was still confident in this view. But my friends generally were apprehensive that the committee would be of a different opinion. Some of them urged me to stand again if the decision should be unfavourable. "Folly," I replied somewhat impatiently; "if the decision be unfavourable it is because my qualification is invalid, and there will be an end to my Parliamentary career." Dr. Brady, the League member for Leitrim, had been taught the value of money by early struggles gallantly surmounted, and this is an experience which prosperity seldom completely counteracts. But he had at bottom a generous Irish nature, easily kindled into a flame. "Certainly not," he rejoined, "Consols or dividends constitute an unassailable qualification, and I will transfer £10,000 to your credit to-morrow morning, in the Bank of England, if the necessity arises." The necessity did not arise, for after a few minutes we were called into the committee room to be informed that my qualification was valid. This decision in a case where nothing was coloured or withheld contributed to bring the practice of requiring a property qualification to an end. In the next Parliament it was abolished."

Perhaps it may help to illustrate the wisdom of treating Ireland justly if I cite the effect this decision produced on the friend who represented me, during my absence, in the chair of the Nation.

"Did I not tell you (Cashel Hoey wrote to me) you would make a Parliamentary precedent as well as a Four Courts one? After all a committee of English gentlemen is the noblest and fairest tribunal on earth. As I have read the evidence, by my honour, there is not a man upon that committee who could not, with perfect satisfaction to his conscience and his character, have given it against you. They ignored law to do justice, and did the same with courage.