BEKKEIEY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
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p. J. p. TYNAN—" NUMBER ONE." 
 
THE IRISH 
 NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 AND THEIR TIMES 
 
 BY 
 
 PATRICK J. P. TYNAN 
 
 ["NUMBER ONE"] 
 
 ENGLISH EDITION 
 WITH APPENDICES AND INDEX 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 CHATHAM AND CO. 
 
 5 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 1894 
 
lOAN STACK 
 

 PART I 
 
 OBSTRUCTION TACTICS: THE CRUSADE 
 OF SHAME 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE WAR OF REPRISALS : THE PHCENIX 
 PARK MURDERS 
 
 PART III 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: IRELAND AT 
 THE CLOSE OF 1893 
 
 23*7 
 
As "The Irish National Invincibles 
 AND THEIR TiMES " is passing through the 
 press the following Editorial announcement 
 appears in "The Irish Republic "—the 
 organ of the advanced section of the Irish 
 Revolutionary Party in the United States — 
 of 28th April, 1894 : — 
 
 ' * Within a few weeks a book will be issued 
 from the press that will create a sensation on two 
 continents. . . . The author is no less a personage 
 than the redoubtable P. J. P. Tynan, the cele- 
 brated * No. I * in connection with the blow struck 
 by Irish patriots on May 6, 1882, in the Phoenix 
 Park, Dublin. Mr. Tynan had charge of the 
 active work of the Invincibles in the Irish 
 metropolis, and so far was the ' No. i ' wanted 
 after Carey's betrayal : but he was not ' No. i,' 
 the supreme director of the conspiracy. . . . Then 
 follows an account of the more recent movements 
 .... the author's own experiences, and his escape, 
 although a price of ^/^i 0,000, or $50,000, was 
 offered for his capture. The Phoenix Park chap- 
 ters will be especially interesting because of the 
 writer's knowledge of the inside moves in connec- 
 tion with the affair. The book will be altogether 
 a marvellous revelation." 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE 
 TO THE ENGLISH EDITION 
 
 " The Irish National Invincibles and their Times " is pub- 
 lished in the United Kingdom under somewhat remarkable circum 
 stances. The work was originally prepared some six years ago 
 for circulation as a secret document amongst the Revolutionary 
 Organisation in America. Since that time, however, matters have 
 undergone a complete change, and now the work is being issued 
 in the United States as a public volume copyrighted by the author 
 in his own name. By an arrangement with the American agents, the 
 present publishers have been enabled to purchase the full rights for 
 this country, and to copyright simultaneously with the American 
 Edition. 
 
 The original book, according to its title-page, aims at being a 
 history of " Three Decades of Struggle against the Foreign Con- 
 spiracy in Dublin Castle — the Parliamentary Provincialists' Agitation 
 to reform Foreign Rule from Isaac Butt's Movement in 1870 to 
 Gladstone's Bill in 1886; the Irish Nationalists' Preparations to 
 take the Field against the Invader's Forces in 1865, 1866, and 
 1867; Guerilla Warfare of the Irish Nation in 1882, 1883, and 
 1884 ; with an Addendum — Ireland at the close of 1893.'* 
 
 The present is a curtailed edition of this work. In its American 
 shape the volume extends to something like half-a-million of words, 
 and deals in rather diffuse fashion with almost every possible aspect 
 of the Irish Question. Some of the references, notably those deal- 
 ing with the defence of crime, are of a pronouncedly blasphemous 
 
vi PUBLISHERS' NOTE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION 
 
 type ; and others, in very large degree, partake of a tautological 
 character. While it has been thought desirable to allow some of the 
 least objectionable of these references to remain, in order to convey 
 a proper idea of the author's method of treatment, an undoubtedly 
 large amount of matter has had, as a matter of course, to be omitted. 
 In every case where anything has been left out, however, the fact 
 has been indicated by omission marks. In addition to all this, that 
 portion of the work dealing with the Episodes of the Fenian Move- 
 ment, 1865-67, has been lifted out bodily, and will be published as 
 a separate volume. The portion thus lifted out includes the chapter 
 on the English Reform Bill of 1867, to which special reference is 
 made by the author in his introduction, and which supplies details 
 of an intensely interesting character. 
 
 The book takes its title from certain chapters, and naturally the 
 main interest will centre in this portion of the work. When re- 
 gard is had to the personality of the writer, and the manner in which 
 he deals with this part of his subject, the immense importance of 
 his contribution to history can be properly appreciated; for "The 
 Irish National Invincibles and their Times " is undoubtedly an 
 important contribution to contemporary history. The why and the 
 wherefore of its publication is fully set forth in the author's intro- 
 duction to the American edition, which is given hereafter without 
 any alteration or interference whatever. This introduction sets out 
 the character and intention of the work quite boldly and clearly, and 
 leaves no room for controversy on points that, under other circum- 
 stances, would immediately provoke discussion. What the author 
 has written is, as he argues, not the tainted testimony of an " in- 
 former," as the phrase is understood in Irish politics ; but rather the 
 impassioned and at times eloquent pleading of an advocate of 
 force — of force of all kinds, and under all circumstances, as the only 
 suitable factor in a phase of international rivalry ; the pleading of a 
 man who, in the wild recklessness of his enthusiasm, scruples not to 
 lay bare the mysteries of murder, so that he may the more strongly 
 urge his point, careless of the fact that in so doing he almost risks 
 his own neck. Beyond all question, his work must assume in- 
 creased interest and intensity from this remarkable fact. 
 
 Of course the question will immediately arise, " Who and what 
 is this strange man ? " The reply to the query can be best supplied 
 by bringing in here a portion of a chapter contributed to the 
 American edition by Patrick Kinsella, an Irish friend and companion 
 of the author's, who very narrowly escaped arrest in consequence of 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION vii 
 
 his association with the latter in Dublin in 1882. Says Mr. Kinsella 
 in the chapter in question : — 
 
 Here I will digress to say something about this then much spoken of 
 mysterious "Number One." Since my arrival in the United States I 
 have heard of many men who, for some unaccountable vanity or folly, posed 
 as this gentleman. I have often asked myself, would they be equally anxious 
 to take the same risks in Dublin ? *' Number One" was the commanding 
 officer of the military Invincibles in Dublin city, I advisedly use the word 
 military to distinguish them from the civic statesmen of the same organisation 
 — an organisation spread all over Ireland, as the British Government knew 
 well, and not confined to the metropolitan city as some supposed. This 
 movement sprang into existence immediately after the suppression of the 
 Land League. It must have had at its head a number of gentlemen with 
 great political influence, and having command of large sums of money, or 
 else it could not have developed so rapidly. These gentlemen were the 
 sponsors of the new organisation, who created and dictated its policy. What- 
 ever praise or condemnation mankind may feel disposed to pass upon this 
 policy is entirely in the first instance due to these statesmen, who authorised 
 every action of the military Invincibles, men obeyed these statesmen as all 
 soldiers obey their Government. It was obviously not the interest of the 
 Castle officials to permit the knowledge to be circulated abroad that the 
 Invincible movement was so widespread ; they wished the newspapers to 
 believe that it was almost altogether confined to Dublin and consisted of a 
 few men, the greater number of whom they had arrested. It was this know- 
 ledge and exaggerated suspicions of its power in the country which alarmed 
 them, and caused them to display such panic. 
 
 The Dublin Invincibles knew that their organisation was established 
 all over Ireland, but they had no official contact with any one outside the 
 city. Whether those other districts had similar officers to "Number One " 
 in command is not known, as the principal occurrences and trials took place 
 in Dublin. The members of this Invincible Government have never been 
 publicly known, nor is it likely that their personality will ever be revealed. 
 They proved themselves very cowardly when their men got into danger, and 
 were very stupid in allowing so many to be wantonly sacrificed. We are not 
 likely to learn any more about this mysterious Executive that was behind 
 "Number One," and which was very far behind him indeed. Possibly 
 these gentlemen are living quietly under the British flag, confident that their 
 identity can never be discovered, deceiving others in their denials of com- 
 plicity or sympathy with the Invincibles, as they deceived the brave fellows 
 they slandered and betrayed by their neglect. 
 
 There must have been a panic in the ranks of this mysterious Executive, 
 similar to what took place in Dublin Castle, during the trials. In point of 
 courage they were foemen worthy of each other's steel ; and if it were not 
 for the brave and noble fellows that went down between them, it would have 
 mattered little to any one. 
 
 Since that time those men, or their friends, have at intervals considered it 
 wisdom to assail, in the most wanton manner, the policy they were the authors 
 of. Their slander on the dead and their abuse of the living, have been most 
 cowardly. As they knew full well, they could not be answered back, secure in 
 the knowledge that their identity has never been hinted at, which they consider 
 — and probably it is— a great victory. To assail principles, which with them 
 should be sacred, was their reward for this immunity. Not one of them have 
 had the chivalry to publicly rebuke their friends for this vituperation. If 
 these men had changed their policy at a certain period they should have so 
 communicated with their executive officer, ** Number One." He gave them 
 ample time to do so. They have deceived and betrayed their own followers 
 by their weakness, and allowed their opponents to gain an easy victory. 
 
viii PUBLISHERS' NOTE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION 
 
 Their change of front, probably born of passion, was followed by vacillatory 
 and cowardly conduct. What they considered prudence and judgment was 
 most ill timed. 
 
 In their anxiety to preserve their own personal and family ties from what 
 they — accepting the public cant — admitted by their conduct was a blemish, 
 they, in so stamping their own conduct, did not consider other men's relations, 
 or prospects in life. If they really held these opinions they are to be despised, 
 for they were not only cowards, but traitors to their own consciences all 
 through. They not only lacked the courage but the dignity and truth of the 
 military branch of their organisation. The men in Dublin, in acting up to 
 their honest convictions, believed that all were animated with the same honour- 
 able motives. 
 
 I am but an humble man and do not pretend to comprehend the ideas of the 
 great. I hear a good deal said about policy and expediency. I thoroughly 
 and heartily despise cowards who think it diplomacy to publicly lie ; in my 
 humble judgment, this policy of hypocrisy is most dastardly and unmanly. 
 
 Whenever I hear of a " truly great Irishman " (according to the bombastic 
 hero-worship of the time) denounce and slander the Invincibles and their 
 plan of campaign, I am tempted to put the question to myself, " Was this man 
 one of the mysterious Invincible Government ? " Probably he was. " Me- 
 thinks the lady protests too much," It is announced at this time 1887 that there 
 is to be a London trial over this, as a certain ex-member of the British Parlia- 
 ment feels insulted at the London Times' remarks. This individual, evidently 
 anxious to drag himself into public notice, seeks a quarrel with this brutal 
 London journal. If this trial comes off there will be oaths taken, and men 
 will unblushingly assert before mankind not only what is not true, but the 
 opposite of their cherished convictions — men who would do anything possible, 
 short of personal risk, to destroy Balfour, and who would secretly abet any 
 movement for that purpose ; and who would then turn round and slander their 
 colleagues in the undertaking, and tell them in private conversation that they 
 believe in every possible destruction against England, but in public denying 
 it, and, if necessary, denouncing it. 
 
 It is my sad misfortune to have personally known something of this warfare 
 against the British enemy, and also some of these Invincible statesmen. I 
 have personal transactions with possibly the ablest and most prominent of the 
 leaders of legal agitation. 
 
 But to dismiss the subject of these smiling poltroons whose existence must 
 for ever remain a living lie, I return to what I was about to say of " Number 
 One." 
 
 When Carey turned Crown witness — which he did, I have been creditably 
 informed, some days before he was placed publicly on the witness table — 
 and when the officials had taken down the full extent of his information, it 
 was more limited than they had thought when they decided on accepting him 
 as an approver. One piece of what they considered valuable testimony, the 
 Castle people looked upon as most important. This was his description of 
 the officer at the head of the Invincibles in Dublin. This man Carey said he 
 knew very well, both by appearance and having had personal relations with him. 
 He stated that this officer controlled the whole organisation in Dublin city. 
 But who this mysterious chief was Carey could not tell. He described him 
 as a gentlemanly person, whom he felt certain was, or had been, a military 
 man. 
 
 Carey was under the impression he was an Irishman, serving in the 
 armies of some European power. He impressed this so persistently on the 
 British official mind, that the whole force of the Government machinery 
 used in such secret service was put into action, examining the records of the 
 foreign Irish serving in the Continental armies. The few Invincibles in 
 Dublin with whom he had personal relations knew him by no other name 
 than "Number One." Various and strange speculations started in Dublin 
 Castle about this mysterious personage, and who he might prove to be. All 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION ix 
 
 sorts of guesses were made ; several people whose personal appearances 
 were very different were suspected. As soon as Carey's evidence came before 
 the public, the newspapers increased the number of individuals who in their 
 estimation might have been the owner of this peculiar noni de guerre, some 
 mythical and some in the flesh. Every profession and country contributed 
 its quota. Among the European public men spoken of, was General Maca- 
 daras of the French Army. This Irishman, who earned distinction in the 
 armies of his adopted nation, was by common consent supposed to be the 
 much sought for Invincible officer. It eventually became such a mystery 
 that the general public began to pronounce "Number One" a myth, and 
 the creation of Carey's brain. The Castle people, who were at first in as 
 great a state of mystification as the press and public, had discovered a 
 solution of the mystery ; but they preserved this secret. All this time the 
 British journals were filled with absurd speculations and wild conjectures. 
 
 On the Sunday immediately following the public appearance of Carey as 
 an informer, the police in London entered the house of one of Mr. Parnell's 
 friends, Mr. Byrne, who was then secretary of the National League in 
 England. They discovered in an album in this gentleman's house, a photo- 
 graph which so nearly fitted Carey's description of the mysterious Invincible 
 that they immediately secured it. But for the finding of this photograph 
 "Number One " would have remained, like the Invincible Executive, the 
 greatest mystery of the nineteenth century. When this photograph was 
 shown to Carey the next day in Dublin, he at once recognised it as the picture 
 of the gentleman whom he described m his evidence. The authorities soon 
 learned who was the original of the photograph, and when they did so, they 
 were more puzzled still, and began to doubt the correctness of Carey's 
 identification. They were informed that this gentleman was a most loyal 
 man, the very opposite to the person they had pictured. He was a member 
 of Company I, Queen's Westminstei-s, one of the select London Volunteer 
 Regiments. This regiment was commanded by the Duke of Westminster 
 and considered a very special London corps. When the new Law Courts m 
 the Strand, London, were officially opened by the Queen in royal state, the 
 Queen's Westminsters were paid what was considered a distinguished honour 
 by being permitted to take official part in the ceremonies of the day, and 
 with the household troops formed part of her Majesty's guard of honour. 
 This pageant took place early in December, 1882, seven months after the 
 affair in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, and one month before the Dublin arrests. 
 The only other Volunteer Regiment permitted to turn out on the occasion — 
 so hedged in is the divinity of a British sovereign — was the Inns of Court, 
 but as this regiment is exclusively composed of lawyers it had a special privi- 
 lege. Early on the morning of this gala day, nearly five hundred of the 
 Queen's Westminsters, in fiill uniform, mustered at their armoury near Buck- 
 ingham Palace Gate. Colonel Busby, the commanding officer, read the 
 regiment a letter received from the Horse Guards, limiting their guard of 
 honour to one hundred selected men. The regiment was mustered in column, 
 the Colonel and Sergeant-Major Fowler walking along the line, picking out 
 the Sovereign's guard. One of the men chosen by the Colonel for this post 
 of honour, was the original of the photograph found in Mr. Bryne's house. x\s 
 a member of the Queen's Westminsters that day marching with the regimental 
 guard and band, saluting and being saluted by her Majesty's household troops, 
 the Life and Horse Guards, was to be found the original of this portrait. As 
 the "Queen's" marched through St. James's Park, the recently returned 
 heroes of Tel-el-Keber saluted them. These gigantic warriors, mounted 
 on magnificent horses, were that morning arrayed in their gorgeous and 
 showy uniforms which they left behind them when going soldiering in Egypt. 
 
 There are few things more romantic in history : the Queen's guards saluting 
 the captain of a body of Irish guerilla soldiers engaged in a species of 
 terrible warfare, against what these Irishmen believed were their country's 
 bitter enemies. 
 
: PUBLISHERS' NOTE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION 
 
 The Dublin Castle people also learned that he was with his regiment 
 at the Easter Monday review, and shared in the sham battle of Portsmouth, 
 and that he also attended the annual muster of the *' Queen's" in Hyde Park. 
 
 They learned he was in Scotland at the time of their inquiries, but visiting 
 at various hotels in that country. The detectives found those who knew him 
 incredulous when communicated with ; he was conservative and non-political 
 in the society of his friends, who were business men and others of social 
 standing. The colonel and officers of the regiment received the news from 
 Ireland as too absurd. They would not believe it. In Company I, where he 
 was best known, they were inclined to look upon it as a practical joke. 
 Major Starke, the captain of Company I, pooh-poohed it as a sensational 
 canard. 
 
 But what was still more astounding to the British Government was his 
 intimate and friendly association with several of the officials in the Irish 
 Office, London ; and also that he was a frequent visitor to these Government 
 offices at Queen Anne's Gate. The officials who travelled with Mr. Forster 
 and the other Irish Secretaries, were personal friends of his. He was, they 
 learned, actually in the Government buildings, London, when Irish despatches 
 were received. He was known to have entered that office on the I2th of July, 
 and, as the Government officials thought, to celebrate the day he wore an 
 
 orange lily in his coat, in company with Mr. , the manager, and several 
 
 other gentlemen. The subject turned upon the humour of some noble peer. 
 
 Mr. expressed his regret that he had not had the pleasure of his company 
 
 that morning in the House of Lords, when the royal sanction was given to 
 the Irish Crimes Act. 
 
 These gentlemen thought their visitor was as enthusiastically British as 
 they were themselves ; to suspect the loyalty of their friend never for a 
 moment entered their heads. Those who boast of diplomacy must feel 
 satisfied it was carried out to its perfection in this instance. 
 
 The Castle people easily located him in Jury's Hotel, Dublin, where he 
 had been staying for some time previous to the 6th of May, and they learned 
 that he left Dublin on the Thursday evening after the exciting event of the 
 previous Saturday. But then, as a commercial traveller, he had been accus- 
 tomed to spend his time in hotels for years, as his business required it. The 
 Castle people felt certain they had a clue to his whereabouts, and that they 
 would soon succeed in capturing him. Mr. Murphy, the Crown counsel, now 
 a judge, said, on the final examination of the prisoners before the magistrates, 
 that he would for certain have "Number One" to present to him in the 
 dock by the following Saturday. 
 
 One feature of his political career which made the British officials doubly 
 anxious for this mysterious man's capture, was his association with the Irish 
 Parliamentary party. In the course of their investigations they learned that he 
 was a constant visitor to the Land League headquarters in Palace Chambers, 
 Westminster, and took a prominent part in all the meetings and discussions 
 which took place during the eventful winter of 1881. That he was considered 
 by them of sufficient importance to be selected as one of the public speakers 
 at the great demonstration held in Hyde Park, London, to protest against the 
 arrest of Charles Stewart Parnell, by orders of the British Premier, Mr. Glad- 
 stone, they considered remarkable ; and that he actually took part in this 
 demonstration and made a speech from the same carriage in Hyde Park as 
 William Redmond, one of the Parliamentary leaders who was his companion 
 in the vehicle, forcibly convinced the British officials and Government of the 
 close identity which existed between this hostile Irish officer supposed to be 
 the leader in the Phoenix Park tragedy and the apostles, leaders, and lights 
 of what is termed *' legal and constitutional agitation." 
 
 The notorious " Number One " was and is known in private life 
 as Patrick Joseph Percy Tynan — the author of this book, whose name 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION xi 
 
 appears on the title-page. The part he played and the vile work he 
 directed in connection with the Invincible Organisation, was un- 
 folded to some small extent at the Phoenix Park Murder Trials in 
 Dublin in 1 883, when the miserable instruments of the Murder Alliance 
 were tried and found guilty of their share in the doings of which the 
 author now tells. But up to the present the veil of mystery has 
 hung darkly and deeply over a multitude of things connected there- 
 with. Now for the first time the curtain is raised, and the narrative of 
 horror and of " murder most foul " is told in detail by the pen of one 
 of the leading actors in the vile proceedings. Under the thin disguise 
 of the letter " K," Patrick Joseph Percy Tynan pictures himself and 
 the strange part he played in one of the strangest products of modern 
 political struggle. The man lives, for the time being, in the pages 
 he has written. His thoughts, his feelings, his sentiments, his 
 instincts, all start out vivid with life and actuality from page after 
 page of these strange memoirs, where in the peculiar frenzy of his 
 mood, he passes from secret to secret of this strange time, rending 
 the veil of mystery as he goes. 
 
 The book suggests many problems of historical and political im- 
 portance, but these are matters for the general public rather than the 
 publisher. All that need be added here is the statement that the 
 work is published quite independent of any sympathy with the views 
 advocated by the writer, and simply and solely as an important and 
 startling contribution to contemporary literature. 
 
 A set of appendices is attached to this edition in order to enable 
 English readers to fully understand the different allusions in the text. 
 A complete index is also supplied at the end. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 This work was Avritten in the winter of 1887-88. It was 
 commenced soon after the denunciation of the INVINCIBLES 
 by the late Mr. Charles Stewart Parnell. The Irish Leader, 
 in reply to taunts levelled at him by the British members at 
 Westminster, used the enemy's vile epithets to asperse the 
 memory of the dead INVINCIBLES, and to assail the characters 
 of those who, through being placed in the forefront of the 
 struggle, were made public property of by the enemy's 
 myrmidons, and their names wafted on the wings of the press 
 through the civilised world. This denunciation of the 
 INVINCIBLES by the Irish Parliamentary chief was re-echoed 
 by many of the rank and file of his followers, inside and 
 outside the enemy's Parliament. The " New York Herald " 
 printed it under the heading " Parnell Burns his Boats." 
 This denunciation was indeed the " parting of the ways " ; 
 the last slender thread was snapped asunder which held Irish 
 Nationalists to the hope that the Parliamentary chief would 
 yet realise the promises of early years. 
 
 To denounce and expose the hypocrisy of sailing under 
 false colours to betray the trusting Irish, this book was 
 undertaken. It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest. In 
 assailing the policy and action of the INVINCIBLES, these 
 false Parliamentarians were heaping mountains of infamy on 
 
 1 As explained in the preceding **Note," this introduction, taken from the 
 American edition, is given here without any alteration or interference whatever. 
 It has not been thought desirable to edit it in any way. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 their own memories. If the actions of the Invincibles were 
 what they were stated, then the fouler and deeper the 
 damnation of those who created the movement, to desert and 
 slander their comrades in the hour of danger. 
 
 The original intention of the writer was to confine himself 
 to the Parliamentary Provincial agitation and its secret 
 offspring, the revival of the suppressed Land League, which 
 was revived under the name of the Invincibles by the 
 authority of the leaders of the Parliamentary movement. 
 
 Irish friends in the United States urged the writer to 
 extend the scope of his work to some of the salient features 
 of the Party of Action in the Sixties. 
 
 In sending into the world a book of this nature, the writer 
 is well aware he runs counter to the preconceived opinions of 
 many people; and expects to meet the usual opposition 
 which prejudiced convictions will always array against the 
 daring spirit who ventures to combat settled forms of thought. 
 It was so with Galileo and the spherical shape of our earth ; 
 it was so with Columbus and his belief in a Western World. 
 If it has been so with these immortal leaders in the world 
 of thought, how much more with the Irish Nationalist, who 
 would try to draw his country's cause from the mass of 
 misconception and falsehood that is struggling to smother 
 it! 
 
 Among the many cherished convictions — convictions, the 
 offspring of slavish historians — the writer would tear aside 
 the Mokanna-like veil that enshrouds the Provincialists' ideal, 
 the College Green Parliament. 
 
 This political shamble, then in the plenitude of • its inde- 
 pendence as a law-making power, used its authority for the 
 destruction of the Irish Patriots of 1798. This legislature of 
 brutal yeomen, assassinated and tortured our brave country- 
 men — patriots who, following the heroic precedents of 
 Lexington and Bunker's Hill, fought at Oulart, Vinegar Hill, 
 and Arklow to create in Ireland an Independent Republic. 
 If this miscalled Irish Parliament had a right to even a 
 thousandth part of the virtues claimed for it by its Irish 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 Provincial friends and worshippers, how came it that a 
 gigantic national organisation, " The United Irishmen," arose 
 in opposition ? At the time this national movement was 
 created, this Legislature held all the fabled glories and inde- 
 pendence which that West British subject, Henry Grattan, 
 with all Gladstonian eloquence, told us was conferred upon it 
 esto perpetua. 
 
 Lord Edward, Wolfe Tone, Thomas Addis Emmet, and 
 their gallant associates must have been traitors, if this 
 Yeomen's Parliament had the smallest right to the name 
 *' Irish." 
 
 In writing this book the author has endeavoured to assail 
 principles which he believed to be pernicious, or action which 
 produced disaster, but never to attack individuals, only in so 
 far as their own personalities were bound up in the great 
 questions discussed. In the late division among Irish 
 Parliamentarians, — which has been the cause of a split 
 between the Provincialists, — personalities of a vile nature have 
 been drawn into the quarrel, and still it is now at the close 
 of 1893. Irishmen will never gain the respect of mankind 
 while their political warfare is so conducted. History tells 
 us that the private lives of men have had little bearing on 
 the great events in which they were prominent figures. The 
 assailants of Charles Stewart Parnell's private life should 
 have remembered the words of the great Master, " He who 
 is without sin among you let him cast the first stone/* 
 While we deplore and strongly condemn the weakness of 
 both James Stephens and Charles Stewart Parnell in not 
 forcing the issue with the British enemy, we must not forget 
 their great exertions and services, which placed Ireland in a 
 position to strike. The defection of both men when the 
 crisis came, proved that Ireland's leaders lacked the nerve 
 to follow up their work by the only possible solution — 
 action. 
 
 When arrangements had been made by the then Parnellite 
 Irish Government to take Charles Stewart Parnell out of 
 Kilmainham prison, Parnell had not the courage to face the 
 
3nri INTRODUCTION 
 
 emergency, and so refused to leave. Every preparation had 
 been made, as in the rescue of James Stephens, with the 
 additional precaution of having a vessel ready to take him 
 at once from beneath the enemy's flag. The Figurehead of 
 the Irish Ship of State would risk no dangers : he preferred 
 to remain in prison ; he recognised the enemy's right to 
 imprison him. How he soon after surrendered to the foe, 
 and made the Kilmainham treaty, is a matter of well-known 
 history. Had he accepted the plan of rescue, the so-called 
 constitutional agitation would have openly assumed the 
 manlier attitude of Wolfe Tone and George Washington, 
 and that hero-worship, which has been the bane of the Irish 
 people, might then have been their salvation. 
 
 In styling Mr. Parnell the Figurehead of the nation, we do 
 so advisedly, for such he was at that period. Certain men, 
 in whom he had every confidence, and to whom he sur- 
 rendered the direction of affairs, were the actual leaders of 
 the Irish Government at this stirring epoch. The "uncrowned 
 king" reigned, but did not govern. His own evidence 
 before the enemy's London law court on the Times trial, 
 confirms the writer's statement. 
 
 In the early portion of his Irish agitation, full justice is 
 done to the career of Charles Parnell. The policy of infamy 
 commenced by the Phoenix Park proclamation, denouncing 
 the action of their own government and giving moral support 
 to the enemy, cannot be too strongly condemned. 
 
 If the policy of the secretly revived Land League called 
 the Invincible organisation, was, as they now state, open 
 to condemnation, how dare they betray men by enrolling 
 them in this movement t How dare they stain the country, 
 with what they to-day call crime } In either position their 
 conduct was execrable. They begin the fight only to 
 cowardly join with the enemy in its denunciation. 
 
 There are two men whom we must except from the rest 
 of these Provincialists. One has passed away, Mr. Joseph 
 Gillis Biggar, who never, by any of his utterances of which 
 the writer has any knowledge, voiced this infamous con- 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 demnation ; the other, the Hon. Patrick Egan, late Minister 
 of the United States to Chili. But it is to be deplored that 
 these gentlemen had not enough influence, to at least make 
 their colleagues remain silent. 
 
 The use of the word Parnellite in this book includes all 
 the Parliamentarians of that period. In relating this history, 
 the writer has endeavoured to place before Irishmen, as 
 forcibly as possible, the great issues they have to mould. 
 
 The chapter on the English Reform Bill of 1867, has 
 never, we believe, been given before to the world. The 
 writer's one great object in publishing it is to help to 
 accomplish what has been the leading study of his life, the 
 complete and absolute Independence of Ireland.^ 
 
 ^ This is the Chapter referred to in Publishers' Note. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 OBSTRUCTION TACTICS; THE CRUSADE OF 
 SHAME 
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 "Nationalist" and " Provincialist " — Explanatory References —From O'Connell 
 to Parnell Pages i— 14 
 
 II 
 
 THE DAWN OF HOME RULE— THE CLERKENVVELL EXPLOSION SCARE— FORMA- 
 TION OF THE BUTT PARTY 
 
 Ireland from the Formation of the Federalist Home Government Association 
 to the Public Appearance of Charles Stewart Parnell — Waiting for the 
 Long Looked for Time — Absence of National Teaching — Remarkable 
 Speeches of Mr. Gladstone — Mr. Gladstone's Coercion in Ireland — Great 
 Home Rule Conference in Dublin, November, 1873 — Federalist Programme 
 Formulated by the Conference Pages 15 — 38 
 
 III 
 
 THE EBB AND FLOW OF ENGLISH POLITICS— THE NEW IRISH PARTY 
 
 English Opinion near the Close of the Gladstone Administration, 1 868-1 874 — 
 Mr. Disraeli on the Gladstone Ministry — A Government of Plundering and 
 Blundering — General Election, 1874 — Irish Elections — Return of Sixty-one 
 Home Rulers — Defeat of Mr. C. Fortescue in Louth — Ireland accused of 
 Ingratitude to Mr. Gladstone — Comments of the London Times — Crushing 
 Defeat of the Liberals — A Large Tory Majority — Mr. Gladstone Resigns 
 Office — Mr. Disraeli Forms an Administration — Mr. Gladstone's New Peers 
 — Refusal to see an Amnesty Deputation — Meeting of Home Rulers in 
 Dublin — Mr. Butt's Great Speech — Formation of Home Rule Parliamentary 
 Party — Signing the Roll of Honour — Meeting of the New Parliament — The 
 Queen's Speech — Mr. Butt's Amendment — Mr. Gladstone on Mr. Butt's 
 Home Rule — Amendment Defeated — Effect of Gladstone's Coercion — Great 
 Home Rule Debate — Irish Attorney- General's Crushing Reply for the Govern- 
 ment — Dr. Ball's Emphatic Refusal— Defeated by an Immense Majority 
 
 Pages 39—47 
 b 2 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 IV 
 
 DEATHS OF JOHN MITCHELL AND JOHN MARTIN— ELECTION OF MR. PARNELL 
 
 FOR MEATH 
 
 John Mitchell's Return to Ireland — Ireland still at the Agitation Delusion — The 
 Men of '48 — Beneath the Shadow of Mourne Mountains — Home Once More 
 — ^John Mitchell — Scene in the Churchyard — John Martin's Death — Ireland's 
 Grief — Tribute in the Dublin Irishman — Mr. Parnell Nominated for Meath 
 — Mr. Parnell's Election Address — His Return for Meath — Coercion for 
 Ireland — Introduced by the Tories — Vain Change of Ministers — England's 
 Twin Blessings for Ireland — Hunger and Hardship — Mr. Gladstone Resigns 
 the Leadership of his Party — Mr. Gladstone's Pamphlet on Vaticanism — Its 
 Reception in Ireland — Dublin Freeman attacks Mr. Gladstone — Marquis of 
 Hartington elected Leader — Mr. Parnell's First Appearance as Member for 
 Meath — His Reception in the House — Debate on the Coercion Bill — Mr. 
 Biggar commences Obstruction — Scene during Mr. Biggar's Long Speech — 
 The Pile of Blue Books — Mr. Parnell's Maiden Speech in the House — He 
 denounces Coercion — The Irish Farmers — The Farm Labourers — The Royal 
 Irish Constabulary — Ireland's Great Need of Manufactures — Mr. Biggar 
 Notices Strangers in the House — A Scene — The Speaker — Prince of Wales 
 Compelled to Retire Pages 48—59 
 
 OBSTRUCTION IN PARLIAMENT— SYMPATHY IN IRELAND 
 
 Obstruction Scenes in the British Parliament, 1877 — Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar 
 —Prisons Bill, March, 1877— Mutiny Bill— Mr. Parnell and Mr. Butt- 
 South Africa Bill — Great Obstruction Scene — House sitting Twenty-six 
 Hours — Scenes during Night and Early Morning — Enthusiastic Approval of 
 the Irish People — Reception of Mr. Parnell in Kilmallock — Banquet to Mr. 
 Parnell — Letter from Mr. Biggar — Triumphal Progress of Mr. Parnell to Navan 
 — Address of the Town Commissioners — Mr. Parnell's Speech on Obstruc- 
 tion — Liberation of Messrs. Davitt, O'Brien, and Colour-Sergeant McCarthy 
 — Reception at Kingstown — Public Demonstration in Dublin — Causes which 
 led up to Davitt's Arrest — Death of Sergeant McCarthy — Britain's Penal 
 Dungeons Pages 60 — 72 
 
 VI 
 
 *' PARNELLISM " VERSUS " BUTTISM " — RELEASE OF FENIAN PRISONERS 
 
 Home Rule Conference in Dublin— Mr. Dillon's Resolutions— M. Butt's Rejoinder 
 — *' Dealing a Death Blow to Ireland "—Mr. Dillon Implored to Withdraw his 
 Resolution— Mr. Parnell's Amendment— Mr. Butt's Resignation— Meeting of 
 Committee— Mr. Butt's Address— The Dublin Irishman on the Failure of 
 Agitation— The i^/^^<7//r^/^«^—" Sinking of the Federal Ship "—Home 
 Rule Parties— Mr. Mitchell Henry and the Parnellites— Mr. Butt on Ob- 
 struction—Mr. Butt's Letter to Dr. Ward, M. P. —Ireland a Nation versus a 
 Province— Manifesto of Policy from Obstructionists— Mr. Butt's Criticisms— 
 The Two Policies— Release of Messrs. Ahearne and Clancy— Story of Mr. 
 Clancy's Arrest— Last of the Fenian Prisoners— Public Meeting in London- 
 Mr. James Clancy's able Address on Prison Sufferings— Close of the Year 
 1878 Pf'i^' 73-83 
 
CONTENTS xxi 
 
 VII 
 
 DEATH OF MR, BUTT— BIRTH OF THE LAND LEAGUE 
 
 Illness of Isaac Butt — His Last Moments — Death of Mr. Butt— Meeting of the 
 Home Rule Party — Election of Mr. Shaw as Chairman — Land Meetings — 
 Mr. Pamell and Mr. Shaw — Fenian Convention in Wilkesbarre, Pa. — The 
 Tory Chief Secretary — Land Meeting in Tipj erary — *' Pay no Rent without 
 Reduction " — Attacked by English Press — Land Organisation in Ireland — ■ 
 Mr. Parnell's Exertions — Irish Land Distress — Speeches of Michael Davitt 
 and P. J. Sheridan of Tubbercurry — Fiery Speeches of James Boyce Killen 
 — Mr. Biggar's Advice to Farmers — London Vanity Fair on the Situa- 
 tion Fages 84—94 
 
 VIII 
 
 THE SHADOW OF APPROACHING FAMINE— MR. PAR NELL IN AMERICA— 
 "SHAMING BRITAIN" 
 
 Balla Proclamation — Protests of Home Rule Executive against the Arrests — 
 Imposing Display in Balla — Military Discipline — Balla Demonstration — 
 Proclamation — Bonfires for Davitt's Release — Arrest of Thomas Brennan — 
 Constitutional Agitation — British Opinion on the Approach of Famine — 
 The Work of Agitators— Starch Manufactory — Ireland a Mendicant — 
 Departure of Mr. Pamell, Mr. John Dillon, and Mr. T. M. Healy lor 
 America — Preparations to receive Mr. Pamell — Reception on Board the 
 Steamer — Demonstration in Madison Square Garden — Mr. Parnell's Great 
 Speech — The American Nation the Arbiter in the Struggle — The Land 
 System — " Shaming England" — Ireland's Great Weapon — American Public 
 Opinion — Reply to Mr. Kavanagh of Borris — Free Land — Speech of Mr. 
 Dillon — Mr. Kavanagh's Letter to the Ne2v York Herald — Solid Interest in 
 the Soil — Only Remedy Immigration — Effect of Emigration — Peasant Pro- 
 prietors under Foreign Rule — Purchase of the Land — Interest and Repay- 
 ment — Belgium under Self- Government — Protected Industries — Glasgow 
 Contract Fages 95—123 
 
 IX 
 
 THE "NEW DEPARTURE "—MR. PARNELL'S AMERICAN TOUR 
 
 Position of Irish Parties in the United States — "Opportunism" — Negotiations 
 with Pamell— Irish-American Views— The Men in the Gap — Real Opinions 
 Withheld— False Teachings of To-day — "Compound Vengeance" — Mr. 
 Pamell on Fenianism — "Five Dollars for Bread and Fifteen Dollars for 
 Lead" — Progress of the Crusade— Dublin Mansion House Fund — Spread of 
 the Famine— Mr. Biggar's Motion — Duke of Marlborough's Letter — Lord- 
 Lieutenant's Levee — Pamell in Albany, N.Y. — New Yoi-k Herald Famine 
 Fund — Dublin Freeman and Mr. Parnell — Irish Bishops defend the Mansion 
 House Committee — Mr. Parnell's Speech to House of Representatives in 
 Session — Appeal to the Country — Lord Beaconsfield's Letter to the Duke 
 of Marlborough — Mr. Shaw the Home Rule Leader's Reply — Manifesto of 
 the Irish Confederation of Great Britain — Mr. Parnell summoned Home — 
 Farewell Address — Forming Branch of League in New York — Mr. Parnell 
 escorted to the Steamer by the 69th Regiment — The Farewell. 
 
 Fages 124— -158 
 
xxK CONTENTS 
 
 X 
 
 THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1880— PARNELLISM verSUS CLERICALISM 
 
 Royal Reception of Mr. Parnell at Queenstown — Reception in Cork — No Belief 
 in Parliamentary Sviccess — Banquet at Victoria Hotel, Cork — Mr. Parnell's 
 Speech — Mr. Biggar's Speech — "Ireland needs another Hartmann " — Mr. 
 Parnell nominated for Cork, Mayo, and Meath — Bishop Delany's Manifesto 
 denouncing Parnell — Triumphant Return of Parnell for Cork — Parnellites 
 elected in Numerous Constituencies — Dublin Election — Bishops and Priests 
 against Mr. Parnell in Cork — Exciting Election Scenes — Mr. Parnell presented 
 with Freedom of Cork City — Address to his Constituents — Elected for 
 Cork, Meath, and Mayo — Unprecedented Honour — Kettle defeated by small 
 Majority — Mr. Parnell's Letter to Chicago Daily News — The most powerful 
 Ministry cannot withstand them — Cry of "No More Coercion Now" — 
 Rout of the Tories — The Liberal Party restored to Power — Mr. Parnell 
 elected Leader of the Parliamentary Party — Ireland to be governed by Irish 
 Ideas — Approaching Great Victory for the Crusade of Shame. 
 
 Pages 159—176 
 
 XI 
 
 THE "GRAND OLD MAN" IN POWER— OUTRAGE MANUFACTURE 
 
 The Dismembered Empire — Change of Government — Ireland under Gladstone — 
 The Queen's Speech — No Land Bill — O'Connor Power's Amendment — Its 
 Defeat — No Change towards Ireland — The Disturbance Bill — Its Withdrawal 
 — Government Measure — Bill sent up to the Lords — Great Gathering of Peers 
 — The House of Lords — As a Final Court of Appeal— Earl of Beacons- 
 field's Speech against the Government Bill — Defeat of the Government in 
 the Lords — Consternation in the Country — British Opposition appeased — 
 The Lords and Home Rule — Removal of the House of Peers — Only Possible 
 by Revolution — Government will not reintroduce the Bill — Firmness for 
 Ireland — Irish Press on the Defeat — Mr. Parnell's Great Party — Rele- 
 gated to the Region of Impotency — Disturbances among the Irish Farmers — 
 Outrage Manufacture — Absurd Canards in the British Press— British Hatred 
 of America— First Year of the Gladstone Administration . . Pages 177 — 188 
 
 XII 
 
 obstruction's WATERLOO— ROUT OF THE IRISH PARTY 
 
 Trophy of Victory ; a New Word — Captain Boycott — Mr. Gladstone's Yachting 
 Tour — The Soggarth aroon — Prosecution of Mr. Parnell and the Leaguers 
 — Great Trial in the Four Courts — Jury Disagree — Irish Barrister — Patriot 
 and Prosecutor — Opening of Parliament, 1881 — Coercion for Ireland — The 
 Grand Old Man's Bill opposed by the Irish Members — Great Battle of 
 Obstruction — Irish hold the Fort of Talk — Achilles' Veterans— The Second 
 Day's Fight — The Second Night of Obstruction — Obstruction's Waterloo 
 — The Speaker's Coup (TEtat — Violation of British Law by the Speaker — 
 Obstruction goes to Pieces — Frantic Liberal Cheers at the Arrest of Davitt — 
 Scene in the House — Suspension of Irish Members — Mr. Gladstone intro- 
 duces Closure— Mr. Parnell's Public Decision — No Wolfe Tone yet — 
 Advice to the Farmers — Appeal to Victor Hugo — Mr. Patrick Egan 
 denounces the Home Rulers — Protesting against Davitt's Arrest — Ireland 
 prostrated— Change ,,...,.,,,., , Pages 189—211 
 
CONTENTS xxiii 
 
 XIII 
 
 THE SCENE IN THE GUILDHALL — ARREST OF MR. PARNELL 
 
 Mr. Parnell in Paris — Henri Rochefort — Victor Hugo — Sir Wm. Vernon 
 Ilarcourt's Sneer — Gladstone's Lund Bill — Excitement in Ireland — Glad- 
 stone's Reception at Leeds — Mr. Gladstone Denounces Parnell — O'Connell's 
 Five Characteristics — Ireland's Downward Course of Decay — Leeds Manu- 
 facturers — Parnell's Advice to Buy Foreign Goods — Cries of " Shame ! " — 
 Mr. Parnell in Wexford — He answers Gladstone — "Means used in '98" — 
 *' We will be Boers ! " — "Gladstone the Greatest Coercionist and Unrivalled 
 Slanderer " — Gladstone in the London Guildhall— His Speech — Melodramatic 
 Scene — Entry of Telegraph Messenger — Gladstone announces Parnell's 
 Arrest — Uproarious Applause — "Not Words Alone" — "Resources of 
 Civilization " — " Should be Carried into Acts " — Scene in the Streets round 
 the Mansion House and Royal Exchange — Immense Crowds— English Work- 
 ing-men Cheer for the Arrest of Mr. Parnell — Great Joy in London — Arrest of 
 Mr. O'Kelly, M.P.— Mr. Sexton, M.P.— Mr. Quinn— Gladstone's Lettres de 
 cachets — Numerous Arrests — The Crusaders of Shame — Their Hundred-ton 
 Gun — " No Rent " Manifesto — Signed by the Leaders in Prison — Rage and 
 Indignation of the Irish People Pages 2x7. — 22S 
 
 XIV 
 
 GLADSTONISM AND CRIME— THE TRAIL OF BLOOD 
 
 Excitement in Ireland — The t^and League Suppressed — Meeting in Palace 
 Chambers, London — No Rent Banner Sustained — English Democracy Meet- 
 ing at Trafalgar Square — Broken up by Gladstonites — Great Irish Demonstra- 
 tion — Forming on Thames Embankment — Immense Length of the Procession 
 — England Already Invaded — Irish Speeches in Hyde Park — Miss Fanny 
 Parnell's Ballad — United Ireland! s Editorials — "The Time has Come, the 
 Very Hour has Struck " — Cartoon ; Gladstone and Britannia — "Judas Glad- 
 stone" — United Ireland* Si Last Words — " Were they the Braggart Froth of 
 Craven Cowards? "—" Shouts of Victory "—Mr. Wm. O'Brien's Arrest- 
 Massacre of Helpless Women at Belmullet — Sad Scene — Newcastle Chronicle 
 Denounces Gladstone — Seizure of United Ireland^W^'miQx of 1881-82 — Mr. 
 Parnell's Parole — The Kilmainham Treaty — Gladstone's New Policy — 
 Determined on Crimes Bill — Inner History — Captain O'Shea — Negotiations 
 —Mr. Parnell's Letter of Surrender — "To Forward Liberal Principles" — 
 Release of Parnell — Victory — Great Rejoicings — The Streets of Ballina 
 Drenched in the Blood of Irish Children Pages 22^ — 251 
 
 XV 
 
 THE 6th of may IN THE PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN 
 
 Earl Spencer's State Entry as Viceroy — The New Chief Secretary, Lord Frederick 
 Cavendish — The Cavendish Family — Dublin Castle — Lord Spencer's Recep- 
 tion by the Lord Mayor of Dublin — Scene at Westland Row — Soft Glove on 
 Mailed Hand — Arrival at Dublin Castle — Reception en route — Takes the 
 Oath as Viceroy — Holiday- Seekers in Phoenix Park — The Polo Match in 
 the Park — No Change in the Position of the Guards — Invincibles — The 
 Beauty of the Scene — Tragic Rumours — A Dreadful Statement — "Impossi- 
 ble, it cannot be true " — Promenade Concert in the Exhibition Palace — 
 The Affrighted Figure — Gaiety Theatre, Dublin — Trinity College Students 
 — Strange Rumours — Opera hurried through — "Alas! it was too true" 
 •^Oh, Horror, Horror ! Good Citizens — Historic Tragedy — Confusion — 
 
xxiv CONTENTS 
 
 Mounted Orderlies — Troops under arms all night — The Police — Mr. 
 Parnell's Grand and Glorious "Victory" Ruined — The Bandsmen and 
 Police — Midnight Newsboys — The Luxury of Conquest — The cry Audace 
 is a Fiat Lux Pages 252 — 262 
 
 XVI 
 
 AFTER THE MURDERS — FOREIGN OPINION 
 
 Sunday in Dublin — Groups of Men discuss the Events — Scenes in the Phoenix 
 Park — The People remove the Soil as a Memento — Various Opinions of the 
 Citizens — The Police and the Taverns — Temporary Arrests — Britain's 
 Secret Police— Sailors of the Royal Navy dragging the Liffey — British 
 Government Proclamation — Reward, _;^io,ooo — Proclamation of some of the 
 League Leaders — United Ireland's Condemnation — Haphazard An-ests — 
 The London Merchant and the Police Sergeant — Rising in the City ex- 
 pected — European Politicians and Statesmen — Opinions of the European 
 Press — Victor Hugo's Rappel — The Mot d'Ordre — Organ of Prince Bismarck, 
 Berlin National Zeitiing — Henri Rochefort's Intransigeant — Austrian Jour- 
 nals — Vienna Presse — The Citizen — Citoyen, Paris — Russian Semi-official 
 Journal, Golos^ St. Petersburg — Bataille^ France — Marseillaise^ France — 
 The Dublin Irishman — London Times Pages 263 — 286 
 
 XVII 
 
 BATTUES OF HANGINGS— BLOODY ASSIZE 
 
 The Irish Crimes Bill — Star Chamber Clauses — Arrests under the Suspect Act — 
 James Carey arrested as a Suspect — Scene in Grafton Street — Seizure of a 
 Rifle and Knives — Carey's Plorror at the Name Informer — The Murder 
 Assize — Judge Lawson — Letter from William O'Brien — Dublin Freeman on 
 Packed Jurors — Callanan, the Perjurer — ^Judge Lawson and Mr. Gray — Mr. 
 O'Brien expelled the Court — Judge Lawson sentences the High Sheriff — 
 Three Months in Prison, ;!^5oo Fine — Sent to Richmond Bridewell — Mr. 
 Barrett, Catholic Foreman of Hynes' Jury — Results of the Bloody Assize — 
 Mr. O'Brien's Leader in United Ireland — '* Accusing Spirits " — Mr. O'Brien's 
 Arrest— Sent for Trial— Before the Assize Pages 287—299 
 
 XVIII 
 
 ARREST OF INVINCIBLES — THE STAR-CHAMBER INQUIRY 
 
 Arrest of Dublin Invincibles — The Royal Marines — First Gleam of Light — 
 Attack on Justice Lawson — Arrest of Patrick Delany — Attack on Juror 
 Field — Another Proclamation issued — The Star Chamber Inquisition — Ex- 
 amination of W^itnesses— Messrs. Mallon and Curran— First Examination in 
 Court — Robert Farrell yields — Second Examination — No Informers yet — 
 Third Examination — Arrest of Fitzharris and Caffrey — Fourih Examination 
 — Superintendent Mallon's Ingenuity — Mallon and Fitzharris — Kavanagh's 
 Confidence shaken — Mallon in Kavanagh's Cell — Kavanagh falls — Mallon's 
 Triumph — Fifth Examination — Kavanagh as Crown Witness — Surprise of the 
 Prisoners — Mrs. Carey calls on Mallon— Carey's Torture— Carey yields — 
 Mallon's Victory— Sixth Examination— Carey still in the Dock — A Short 
 Demand — Saturday, February 15 — Seventh Examination — British Trump 
 Card— James Carey as an Informer — Consternation and Indignation in the 
 ]3ock-^Public Excitement — General Execration of Carey — Debate in the 
 House of Commons — Mr. Forster's Attack on Mr. Parnell. 
 
 Pa^es 300—317 
 
CONTENTS xxv 
 
 XIX 
 
 TRIAL OF CAPTURED INVINCIBLES— -EXECUTION OF BRADY AND OTHERS 
 
 Green Street Court House, Dublin — The "Black Caravan " escorted by a Troop 
 of Dragoons — The captured Invincibles arrive — ^Joseph Brady in the Dock 
 — He is utterly alone — Deserted by his Friends — Base Treason and 
 Cowardice of Leaders — They had not fled to any Foreign Land, but their 
 cowardly and craven spirits had fled — The Enemy appoints him Counsel 
 — Scene in the Court House — The Jury arrive with the Verdict — Joseph 
 Brady sentenced to Death — Sketch of Joseph Brady — Trial of Daniel Curley 
 — Sentenced to Death — Sketch of Daniel Curley — Michael Fagan's Trial — 
 "He was an Irish Nationalist and would die one" — Thomas Caffrey 
 sentenced to Death — Timothy Kelly sentenced to Death — ^Joseph Mullet 
 refuses to be represented by Counsel — Sentenced to Penal Servitude for 
 Life — Evidence of Respectability — ^Judge O'Brien exclaims: **The terrible 
 thing connected with this dreadful conspiracy is that they are all honour- 
 able and respectable men who are indicted " — Whit Monday, 1883 — 
 Joseph Brady Dies — Friday, May 18 — Death of Daniel Curley — Other 
 Nationalists Die on the Scaffold Pages 318 — 326 
 
 XX 
 
 dynamite war in ENGLAND — SHOOTING OF JAMES CAREY — TRIAL AND 
 EXECUTION OF o'DONNELL 
 
 Seizure of Dynamite Factory in Birmingham — Panic in England — Business upset 
 — Arrest of the Home Secretary by his own Police — Trade paralysed — 
 England suffering Coercion — ^James Carey a British White Elephant — New 
 Zealand Report — The Cape — British Charges against Carey — His Descrip- 
 tion by one who knew him — "Think of his sufterings and his ruin" — 
 O'Donnell leaves in the Kinfauns Castle — Carey joins at Dartmouth — 
 Scene at the City Hotel, Cape Town — Carey changes for Natal — O'Don- 
 nell follows in the same Steamer — On Board the Melrose — O'Donnell 
 shoots Carey — O'Donnell pursues Carey — Carey Dies — Scene by an Eye- 
 witness — O'Donnell's Examination — To be sent back to England — Carey's 
 Funeral — English Consternation at the News — "Victory for the Invincibles" 
 — News in America — O'Donnell Defence Fund — General Pryor leaves for 
 London — O'Donnell's Trial, Conviction, and Sentence — Deputation waits on 
 the President — ^Joseph Poole sentenced to Death in Dublin — Parnell Banquet 
 — Mr. Parnell presented with Thirty-six Thousand Pounds — Cable of Joy. 
 
 Pages 327—344 
 XXI 
 
 PARNELLITES as OPPORTUNISTS— "home RULE " AS A POLITICAL FACTOR 
 
 The Dublin Scandals — "Pleasant Particulars" — "Official Compounders of 
 Felony" — Mr. Parnell's Speech on Coercion — Exposure of Gladstone's Crimes 
 Act — The Dublin Freeman denounces Gladstone — The Budget — Defeat of 
 Gladstone's Government — The Irish Thirty-five — Great Rejoicings in Ireland 
 — Rejoicings among Irish- Americans — "The Red Earl's Run" — "So much 
 for Buckingham " — "Burying the Proof of his Victims' Innocence in their 
 Graves" — T. D. Sullivan, M.P., denounces Gladstone and Spencer — The 
 Tory Government — The Provincialists Hail the Tories with Joy — T. P. 
 O'Connor's Views — United Iceland on the Tories — Lord Carnarvon and Mr. 
 Parnell — Tory promise of Home Rule — Mr. Parnell's Delusion — United 
 /r^/awfl? on Gladstone — " Baiting the Trap" — Mr. Davitt and Mr. O'Brien 
 Differ — Mr. O'Brien on the * * Nobler Version " — Davitt's Indignation — Mr. 
 Davitt and Mr. Finnerty — "Fraternisation of Peoples" — Mr. Davitt visits 
 Rome — Tour to the Holy Land Pages 345 — 363 
 
xxvi CONTENTS 
 
 XXII 
 
 THE ELECTIONS OF 1886— THE PARNELLITE POSITION 
 
 Irish Victories — County Conventions — Mr. Parnell's Speech in Mayo, November 
 5, 1885 — Solemn Promises of Mr. Parnell — Home Rule certain before Two 
 Years — Home Rule Manifesto — Gladstone and the Liberals denounced — 
 Parnell's great Liverpool Speech — Bitter Denunciations of Gladstone — Mr. 
 Parnell will only accept the fullest and completest Control — Result of 
 General Election, 1885— Return of Eighty-six Home Rulers — Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Victory in England — Eighty-three Majority in Defiance of the Irish 
 Votes — Mr. Parnell in Power — No Government can stand without his help 
 — Parnellites could never have a more favourable position — The Tory 
 Government announce Coercion — Defeat of the Tories on an English Ques- 
 tion — The Grand Old Man once more in Power — Mr. Gladstone's Review of 
 the Situation — Leeds Alercury on Gladstone's possible Ilome Rule Bill — No 
 Interference with British Manufactures — Another Irish Famine — Secessions 
 from the Liberal Cabinet Pages 364 — 376 
 
 XXIII 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE BILL OF 1886— CRITICISM OF THE MEASURE 
 
 April 8, 1886 — Scenes inside the House of Commons — Mr. Gladstone's Home 
 Rule — A responsible Irish Ministry promised — Sir Geo. Trevelyan's Oppo- 
 sition — Mr. Parnell's Speech — The first Order — Mr. Parnell's Cable to 
 America — Bill Satisfactory — Irish Enthusiasm — Public Meeting thanks Mr. 
 Gladstone — Great Irish demonstrations in support of the Measure — Opinions 
 of the Press on the Bill — April 16, 1886, first appearance of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Home Rule Bill — Crippled Legislature — Shorn of all law-making powers — 
 Mere measure of local Bye-Laws — Mr. Gladstone's public Lie — Irish Govern- 
 ment a Despotism — No Irish responsible Ministers — Autocratic Castle 
 Government — Free from the control of all Parliaments — Irish Parliament 
 with no power to make Laws for Trade, Manufactures, or the Land— Britain 
 holds the Public Purse — Concentration of foreign Rule — Irish Revenue — 
 Power of the Lord-Lieutenant to pass Coercion without Parliament — 
 Powerlessness of the Parnellites if the Bill passed — Debate on the Second 
 Reading — Mr. Goschen's Speech — Mr. Parnell indorses the Bill — Rejection 
 of the Bill — Mr. Gladstone's new Coercion Bill — Irish Evictions under 
 Mr. Gladstone's Rule — Total for Mr. Gladstone's short Term 10,248 — 
 Election of 1886 — British Working Men vote against Home Rule— Great 
 Majority for Anti-Home Rulers — Engli-sh Boroughs — Hostilities for horny- 
 handed Sons of Labour Pages 377 — 399 
 
 XXIV 
 
 THE IRISH LAND QUESTION — A PLEA FOR ACTIVE MEASURES 
 
 Irish Agitators try to cheer their Countiymen — ^Justin McCarthy — No Coercion — 
 Liberal Banquet to Mr. Parnell — Mr. Parnell's Speech — " Out of gratitude to 
 the Liberals Irishmen cease to commit crime " — Evictions — Bodyke — Arrest 
 of Women and Boys — Coolgreany Victims — Effect of *' Rational Resistance" 
 — Irish Peasants attacked with Emergency Hatchets — Their Weapons Lime- 
 water and "Stirabout" — Disgraceful and Cowardly Teachings — Reductions 
 of Rent misleading — Greater Reduction in Price of Produce — Eviction 
 Statistics : Before the Land League Era ; Since its Creation — Ireland's 
 pressing Need — Industries — Britain as a Great Power — Her small Army — 
 Her Braggadocio — The Saturday Review on Britain's Weakness — Irish 
 Members not to go to Parliament— ^<?w;"«^/ de Si. Petersbours^s Article on 
 Russia and Ireland — Mitchelstown — liatred to English Rule — Propagandism 
 of Nationality and Active Work — Conclusion .,,,.,. Pages 400 — 416 
 
CONTENTS xxvii 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE WAR OF REPRISALS: THE PHCENIX PARK 
 MURDERS 
 
 THE GENESIS OF THE INVINCIBLE MOVEMENT — THE PERSONNEL OF THE 
 
 EXECUTIVE 
 
 British Interest to destroy every Germ of Irish Hostility — Entrapping the Pro- 
 vincialists to condemn the Invincible Organisation — The Invincible Move- 
 ment — "History relates but does not inform against " — "We shall give no 
 names, but we shall paint reality" — "What vire relate we can say that 
 we saw " — The Enemy striking madly and wildly — Arrest of Mr. Pamell and 
 the Leaders— Formation of the Irish National Invincibles by the Irish 
 Government of National Defence — Invincibles created, enrolled, and in- 
 vested with Authority by the Irish Nation — Thousands of Men organised — 
 Spread of the Movement over the Entire Country — Created and Organised 
 by the Government of the Irish National League — Its Authority, the Legal 
 Power covenanted to the Parliamentary Movement, by the Irish People — 
 The Invincibles and the League practically One and the same Organisation 
 — "It is seldom wrong to speak the truth plainly" — Licentious Action of 
 Messrs. Gladstone and Forster — Arbitrary and Wanton Arrests — The Mask 
 of Peace torn off — Bayonets, Buckshot, and Dungeons hold sway — " Sup- 
 pression " of the Chiefs of the Enemy's Murder Bureau decided on. 
 
 I'ages 417—441 
 
 II 
 
 THE organisation OF THE INVINCIBLES — THE ATTEMPTS TO ASSASSINATE 
 
 MR. FORSTER 
 
 Meeting of the Government of National Defence in a French Town — Programme 
 of Action decided on — Guerilla Warfare ordered — The Invincible 
 Organisation confined to Ireland — Its Spread over Ulster, Munster, Leinster, 
 and Connaught — Mr. Forster guarded by Armed Men in London — The 
 Enemy on the Alert — Full of Vague Suspicions — Mr. Forster and the Invinci- 
 ble Meeting in the House of Commons Passage-way — Alarm of Mr. Forster 
 —An Officer to take command of the Invincibles in Dublin appointed by 
 the Directory — The Local Dublin Council — Mr. Forster's Diive to Dublin 
 Castle— Scene along the Quays — Carriage followed by the INVINCIBLE 
 Vehicle — The Omitted Signal — Failure of the Attack— Mr. Forster hurriedly 
 Leaves for London — His Return to Dublin — Scene at Westland Row — 
 Mr. Forster's Drive to Dublin Castle — Mr. Forster's Carriage stopped— 
 Escorted by Three Ladies — Swoop of the Invincibles stopped by 
 Authority — The Kilmainham Treaty — Astonishment and Surprise of the 
 Invincibles — Mr. Forster leaving Dublin — Muster of Invincibles along 
 Great Brunswick Street — The Secretary does not Come — Charge of Invin- 
 cibles into the Railway Station— Forster not in the Train — The Midnight 
 Guard ,.,,.., , . . . Pages 442 — 466 
 
xxviii CONTENTS 
 
 III 
 
 THE ORDERS FROM HEADQUARTERS— THE PIICENIX PARK MURDERS 
 
 Invincible Officer's Despatch to his Government — Peremptory Reply : " Go on 
 with the Work " — Order to concentrate in the Phoenix Park — Night of the 
 5th of May in Dublin — Anxiety of the Invincible Commander— The 
 Morning of the 6th of May — The Gathering in the Park — Expecting to 
 be hemmed inside a Circle of Death — Invincibles Ready for a Fight if 
 Necessary — The British Chiefs of the Murder Bureau Meet — The Invinci- 
 bles come up — The Gleam of the Uplifted Steel — Panic of the British 
 Guards — They Quickly Scatter and Disappear — Fright of a British Cavalry 
 Officer — The Invincibles out -general the Foe — Conference of May 7 — In- 
 dignation of the Dublin Invincibles at the Parnellite Proclamation — Treason 
 to the Men in the Gap — Despatch from the Invincible Executive — "Sup- 
 pression "of a Local Tyrant at Castle Taylor, Ardrahan — The Invincible 
 Government order a Truce — Weakness and Irresolution — Organising Fresh 
 Bands of Invincibles in Dublin — Arrests by the Enemy — A Lady Messenger 
 sent to Dublin Pages 467—491 
 
 IV 
 
 plotting lord spencer's MURDER— the ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATIONS OF 
 JUDGE LAWSON AND MESSRS. BARRETT AND FIELD 
 
 British Hangings Horrify the Invincible Government — Their Hands are forced 
 by the Enemy — Order for Hostilities to be resumed— James Carey removed 
 from Active Service in the Invincible Ranks — Carey loyal but indiscreet — 
 Fresh Arms for the Invincibles— Invincible Captain carrying Arms to 
 Dublin Travels with a British Colonel — Dublin filled with Royal Marines — 
 The Invincible Commander's Plan to attack the "Red Earl " and his Guard 
 of Cavalry — Shells urgently required — Constabulary Guard Judge Lawson's 
 Country House — The two Invincibles Reconnoitre — Lawson's Constabulary 
 Guard invite them to dine — The Invincibles receive all the Information 
 necessary unasked — Judge Lawson's City Guard — Invincibles concentrate 
 at Stephen's Green, Dublin — Waiting for Judge Lawson — Expected Fight 
 with his Armed Guard — Delany's Blunder — His Capture by Lawson's 
 Guard — The waiting Invincibles retire — Panic among the Enemy — 
 " Vigilance" Committee of the I. R. B. Shooting Affray in Abbey Street 
 — Invincibles not engaged — Planned Attack on Two of the Leading 
 Jurors of the Murdered Francis Hynes — Attack on Juror Field — Westland 
 Row patrolled by Invincibles— The expected Juror out of the City — 
 Panic among the British Supporters in Dubli 1 — Fresh Rewards offered by 
 Dublin Castle— Invincibles' Necessity for Powerful Explosives. 
 
 Pages 492 — 509 
 
 THE invincible EXECUTIVE THROWS UP THE SPONGE — FLIGHT OF 
 "NUMBER one" 
 
 Arrests for Examination in Dublin — All suspected Nationalists arraigned— Secret 
 Star Chamber Investigation in Dublin Castle — Carey and Kavanagh refuse to 
 give any Information — The Dublin Invincible Commander's Demand for 
 Shells — The Star Chamber Fails— The Appearance of certain suspected Men 
 — Policy of endeavouring to strike Terror decided on by the Enemy — 
 Dublin filled with Marines and Spies — The Enemy striking in the Dark 
 — The Dublin Commander's Visit to one of the leading Members 
 of the Executive— Demand for shells made urgent— Messenger from 
 
CONTENTS xxix 
 
 Dublin to Headquarters— The Invincible Officers specially request 
 their Leader on the Scene — His last Journey to Dublin— Conference — Pre- 
 parations for the Attack on Spencer and the Cavalry Guard — The Last 
 Meeting — The Last Farewell— Midnight Swoop of the Enemy — The British 
 strike haphazard — The Enemy's Swoop enrages Dublin Invincibles — New 
 Bands await Orders to strike Spencer and his Guards — The Dublin Com- 
 mander's Journey to meet Executive — Procrastination — Nervous Caution if 
 not Fright — The Statesman's Message — Promises of Support — Base Sur- 
 render of the Invincible Executive — The Dublin Men cowardly 
 abandoned — Parliamentary Tactics Triumphant — All Dreams of Hostility 
 pass away from the Parliamentary Invincibles Pages 510 — 532 
 
 PART III 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: IRELAND AT THE 
 CLOSE OF 1893 
 
 Deaths since the Book was first written — Mr. Parnell, Mr. Forster, and others — 
 The Position in Ireland — Liberals and Tories alike Faithless — The Imprisoned 
 Invincibles — Deserted by the Provincialists — The Bill of 1893 — As Worth- 
 less as in 1886 — The Lords and the Bill — Backed by English Opinion — The 
 English Majority against Home Rule likely to triumph — Mr. Gladstone's 
 Efforts to Deceive— Mr. Blake, M.P., at the World's Fair— The Exodus 
 from Ireland — Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Morley repeating the Gladstone- Spencer 
 Policy of 1883— Conclusion Pages 533— 545 
 
 APPENDICES /'^« 547— 573 
 
 INDEX „ 575-591 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 P. J. P. Tynan—" Number One " Frontispiece 
 
 Charles S. Parnell To face 138 
 
 Joseph Brady „ 166 
 
 Captain James Murphy „ 210 
 
 Daniel Curley „ 288 
 
 Patrick O'Donnell „ 342 
 
 Hamilton Williams, M.D „ 444 
 
 Patrick Kinsella „ 508 
 
THE 
 
 IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 ADDENDUM 
 
 As the English edition is passing through the press, the follow- 
 ing additions are being made to the American text : — 
 
 "The proclamation of the I. R. B. (see p. 272), we have since 
 learned, was not issued by the official executive of the I. R. B., 
 but by some of the officers who were in sympathy with the 
 Invincible action in Dublin." 
 
 " Since this (see p. 440) was written one of these gentlemen has 
 had the courage of his convictions. In the city of Troy, New 
 York, during the American political campaign of 1888, an Irish- 
 man and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, addressing a 
 political meeting, openly avowed his sympathy with the Irish In- 
 vincible movement. He there publicly declared that not only 
 had he been a member of that organisation, but that he was the 
 purchaser of the irregular weapons of warfare used by the In- 
 viNCiBLES in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. Owing to the prevarica- 
 tion and timidity, if not moral cowardice, on the part of the 
 leaders of the movement, this public announcement of his created 
 a profound impression on his hearers." 
 
 religious llCCUUin vva.3 ^^v.xiiixccx-v^ ».vx ^^^ -J" r 
 
 by persecution, it was only to find that, with that hght, came 
 rays of poison, destructive to their faith as patriots. Re- 
 flecting and thinking mankind, would learn with a thrill of 
 horror, the slavish purposes for which this emancipation has 
 
 B 
 
THE 
 
 IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 AND THEIR TIMES 
 
 PART I 
 
 OBSTRUCTION TACTICS. THE CRUSADE OF 
 
 SHAME 
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 The history of Ireland is one of the most melancholy 
 volumes perused by the student or the patriot. It is the 
 history of a great race, whose very virtues have been used 
 to ensnare and to enslave them. Through their piety, and 
 their devotion to the faith of their fathers, they have suffered 
 the most fearful persecution. On the plea of their religious 
 belief, their property has been taken from them, and their 
 children, by cruel laws — or rather illegal edicts, enforced at 
 the sword's point — reared up in ignorance, to which has been 
 added that frightful curse and dreadful blight on human 
 progress — poverty! When, by slow degrees the religious 
 persecution ceased, and hour by hour the dawn of apparent 
 religious freedom was permitted to shed its rays unimpeded 
 by persecution, it was only to find that, with that light, came 
 rays of poison, destructive to their faith as patriots. Re- 
 flecting and thinking mankind, would learn with a thrill of 
 horror, the slavish purposes for which this emancipation has 
 
 B 
 
2 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 been used. The reward for a schoolmaster's head was re- 
 moved, and by degrees the light of education was permitted 
 to spread, but only for one object — to destroy all national 
 germs, which home surroundings, love of country, or racial 
 instinct, had implanted in the mind of the child. But finding 
 that this deep love of country, and strong hatred of persecu- 
 tion, were too great, that the waves of national life beat too 
 fiercely, that they overleaped all artificial barriers which the 
 invader tried to create to stem their progress ; then, with 
 the devilish ingenuity which centuries of cruel cunning had 
 made perfect, he caused the Irish people themselves to make 
 channels, dig canals, and create wayside streams, which would 
 receive the waters of national life, and so destroy the onward 
 sweep of the great Celtic river to the ocean of independence. 
 
 The history of national events became so distorted, the 
 truth and falsehood were so entangled in the annals written 
 for the people, that nationality, that pure and holy faith of 
 peoples, implanted by the great Creator in the families of 
 nations, became corrupted by an illegitimate representative ; 
 a spurious sentiment which tried to assume the robes of 
 Freedom. The enemy either assailed or entered into semi- 
 alliance with this recreant Provincialism, miscalled Nation- 
 ality, as it best suited his purposes — purposes which are 
 either the complete subjugation of the Irish people, their 
 cordial and complete union as a race with their British would- 
 be conqueror — an impossibility, — or else their extirpation as a 
 people from the island of their birth. This work of extirpa- 
 tion is going on at the present time, for Ireland's unconquer- 
 able sons have never acknowledged the dominion or rule of 
 these usurpers, since the first band of banditti from the island 
 of Britain polluted the sacred soil of Ireland by their presence, 
 down to the present hour. 
 
 To make this Provincialism more deceptive in its mission 
 of destroying national aspirations, it was necessary to clothe 
 it with some semblance of patriotism. To do this more 
 effectively history had not only to be distorted, but made to 
 lie. Truth was ejected from the national temple, and false- 
 
THE IRISH PARLIAMENT 3 
 
 hood set up and worshipped as part of Ireland's political 
 creed. The Irish people, and mankind generally, were told 
 that there had been an Irish Parliament, and all the brightest 
 and most fascinating of pictures were skilfully and elaborately 
 put before the world as the ideal Ireland during the short and 
 miscalled glorious regime of this legislature. This lie, as black 
 as was ever put in circulation by the enemy of mankind, 
 upon whose shoulders human nature shuffles off its mortal 
 frailties, has been written about by men of letters, spoken of 
 by great statesmen, is accepted as a fact by all the enlightened 
 peoples of the earth ; and yet it is a cruel and malicious 
 falsehood — a falsehood by which the enemy of Ireland is not 
 only trying to corrupt her people, in wasting their energies for 
 the imaginary restoration of a similar legislature, but also to 
 foully slander them before the nations by the statement that 
 Ireland had a Parliament which her representatives in- 
 famously sold away for gold and titles. This giant falsehood 
 — this stupendous fraud on history — like another, and one 
 equally gigantic, of the present day, passed current as truth ; 
 and so myriads of writers criticise this lie, approve of this lie, 
 and never go to the root to try and find the foundation of false- 
 hood upon which they erect such wondrous fabrics to mislead 
 and confuse mankind. This assembly, which sat in Dublin, 
 was in no sense Irish, and had the same claim to the title, 
 " Irish Parliament," as would have had a legislative chamber 
 of African cannibals, who, after settling in Ireland's metropolis 
 by force, assumed to themselves the power to make laws, and 
 to enact some measure as to how, or in what manner they 
 would cook the natives to make them more palatable eating. 
 
 The foreign colonists who came to Ireland, and who were 
 rewarded by their government with grants of land (the fruits 
 of robbery, taken by force from the native Irish), settled on 
 the lands apportioned to them ; the Ulster plantation so called. 
 These colonists soon became divided into two classes. When 
 this turbid British stream was first emptied into Ireland's 
 great rivers during the reign of James I. of South Britain, and 
 VI. of North Britain, it was in a great measure kept together 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 in the North of Ireland. Succeeding settlers, during the 
 reign of Charles, and the numbers who received Irish lands 
 under the bloody regime of the Lord Protector, were scattered 
 over the country. In a few years those who were made land- 
 owners founded an aristocratic or British class. These, some 
 of them originally Dissenters, all became Episcopalians. 
 Others, especially the Ulster plantation, were composed of 
 artisans, men engaged in trade, sturdy Puritans. These 
 Dissenters did not conform to the Establishment ; many of 
 them in time became Irish in sentiment. They had no love 
 for England, and became imbued with detestation of the 
 oppression of the Irish. Several of these intermarried with 
 the natives, and in a generation or two there was nothing 
 foreign about them but their names. These colonists, who 
 mingled in the waters of the great rivers, who were emptied 
 into, and lost in the stream of Irish national life, were the 
 men who formed the patriotic section of the Volunteers ; 
 and afterwards were the founders of the United Irishmen. 
 The larger number of the settlers were not in sympathy with 
 these liberty-loving men. . . . 
 
 The settlers who blended with the stream, and lost their 
 foreign origin in the crystal waters of Irish nationality, were 
 the class which gave Ireland so many devoted patriots, and 
 which gave birth to such tv/in giants as Theobald Wolfe Tone 
 and John Mitchell : one the great restorer of the creed, and 
 the other the great apostle of " Ireland a Nation," the cardinal 
 doctrine of national faith. With the descendant of another 
 settler of later years — Thomas Davis — they form the Trinity 
 of great patriots, who shall stand before posterity as the Titans 
 and leaders of the most noble and pure-minded of men in 
 the pages of history. Wolfe Tone, the founder of the United 
 Irishmen, was the first apostle of the doctrine of a United 
 Nation. This great patriot restored the national faith to 
 its original purity ; Thomas Davis and John Mitchell kept 
 the light burning to this generation. At present there appears 
 no hand to seize the flambeau of liberty and hold it aloft to 
 purer air than that in which it now flickers ! the foul and 
 
DANIEL O'CONNELL 5 
 
 corrupting atmosphere of the present Provincialism, which 
 seems as if it would extinguish it for ever. . . . 
 
 After the death of Emmet, there came upon the scene a 
 great Irishman, a giant in intellect and physique, and one of 
 the most brilliant and gifted orators the Irish nation has pro- 
 duced. He had the rich vein of humour, and the melting 
 pathos of the Celt, filled with a riant and illimitable imagin- 
 ation. He could address his people in the rich mellow 
 language of his race, in a voice so thrilling and musical in its 
 cadences, even when he spoke the stranger's tongue, that the 
 pathos of each tone of soul-inspiring fervour lingered on the 
 ear for hours. This man of almost immortal powers, could at 
 will move thousands of his countrymen to tears, and the next 
 instant excite them to joyous and merry laughter. He could 
 master and control the Irish heart, as the great master Mozart 
 inspired the organ. This great Irishman ran up and down 
 the scale of their passions ; every semitone, every stop, be- 
 neath the magic of his touch, yielded its native music ; from 
 the soft sweetness of the flute, to the ringing tones of the 
 clarion, down to the deepest diapason, he produced the full 
 orchestration of their souls. He thrilled them with enthusiasm, 
 inspiring the ecstatic applause that burst from the entranced 
 masses, at the end of one of his marvellous perorations. 
 
 And yet this man, with almost godlike genius and gifts, 
 inherited to the full, the slavish curse of generations. His 
 soul was steeped in slavery. Slavery circulated in his veins. 
 Slavery haunted his noblest aspirations. He not only bowed 
 down before the British Gessler's cap ; he abased himself 
 before that foreign symbol. He ate dirt, and beslavered him- 
 self with ashes, in the presence of the invader's insignia. His 
 most exalted ambition for his nation, was that she should be 
 enslaved with chains of gold ; or, as he termed it, be fastened 
 to the robber's rule by " the golden link of the Crown." The 
 flag of Britain, which in Ireland is a pirate's banner, he 
 recognised as his country's standard. The illegal measures 
 passed by an alien assembly, he recognised as law ; and told 
 
6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 his unhappy enslaved countrymen that he could, at his 
 pleasure, drive a coach and six through any Act of the 
 British Parliament. He even hugged this delusion to his 
 heart after Blakeney's cannon on Clontarf had given him 
 the lie. 
 
 This great and prominent Irishman, in the possession of 
 such wondrous powers, misused all these Heaven-sent gifts. 
 He left his footprints on the sands of an enslaved nation's 
 shore, to further aid her destroyer by the slavish doctrines he 
 preached, and which he has left behind as a heritage of woe 
 to his people. He was the father of the modern school of 
 political thought in Ireland ; the creator of that abnormal 
 movement in the history of nations which Nationalists call 
 Provincialism, and Provincialists, " constitutional agitation." 
 
 What is the meaning of the terms "Nationalists" and 
 "Provincialists," applied to Irishmen endeavouring to serve 
 their country according to their best light ^ Wherein lies 
 the distinction ? 
 
 The Nationalists are the men who believe that the only 
 possible solution of the struggle with the British usurper is 
 the absolute and complete independence of Ireland. They 
 do not ignore the lessons of history, by believing there is 
 any stepping-stone, or mid-position, between subjection and 
 liberty. As followers of Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet, 
 as descendants of the men of 1798, they hope to place their 
 country among the nations of the earth. They were 
 nationalists who surrounded Miltiades at Marathon, when he 
 gained his glorious victory over the hordes of Darius, the 
 Persian monarch. They were nationalists, those heroic three 
 hundred Spartans, who under the immortal Leonidas held 
 Thermopylae for Hellas, when the hosts of Xerxes crossed 
 the ridge of Anopaia, and died to preserve the imperishable 
 glory of freedom for Greece. He was a nationalist, the 
 Spartan Denekos, who hearing from a Trachian, just before 
 the battle, that when the Persians shot their arrows the sun 
 was darkened, answered back merrily: "Our friend from 
 
TYPES OF NATIONALISTS 7 
 
 Trachios brings good news ; we Spartans love to fight in 
 the shade." They were nationalists, upon whose tomb was 
 inscribed : 
 
 Tell the Spartans, at their bidding, 
 Stranger, here in death we lie. 
 
 They were nationalists, who surrounded Scipio Africanus 
 when the Carthaginians crossed the Alps under the command 
 of Hannibal, and invaded the sacred soil of Rome. They 
 were nationalists, who retired to the temple of iEsculapius 
 determined to die, sooner than surrender to the Roman at 
 the destruction of Carthage. They were nationalists, who 
 fought at Sempach for the independence of Switzerland, to 
 free their native land from Austrian tyranny, and who pierced 
 their foemen's ranks, when that immortal nationalist, Arnold 
 von Winkelried, opened a path for them over his dead body. 
 William Tell proved his devotion to his country, and was 
 a true nationalist, when he refused to do homage to the 
 tyrant invader's insignia. They were nationalists, who drove 
 back the Danish invaders, under Brian Boru, at Clontarf. 
 They were nationalists, who opposed the invaders of their 
 country, when, under the Saxon King Harold, they defeated 
 the Norwegian Hardrada, and who afterwards fought and 
 died at Hastings, vainly battling to preserve the sacred soil 
 of their country, from Norman-French invasion. They were 
 nationalists, who fought for the liberty of Greece against the 
 Turk ; the sacred band of Hetarists, who died at Dragachan, 
 and the half-armed peasants who attacked and conquered 
 at Tripolizza, many of them having no weapons but 
 bludgeons or attaghans. He was a brave nationalist, the 
 valiant Greek, Marcus Bozzaro, who, with three hundred 
 Suliots, attacked the Turkish tyrant at Carpenisa, and 
 addressing his men said : " If you lose sight of me in the 
 combat, come and seek me in the Pasha's tent." They were 
 nationalists, who followed the Hungarian banner under 
 Kossuth and Klapka. They were nationalists, who charged 
 at Arklow, with Father Murphy and Miles Byrne, and who 
 drove back the mercenaries of the British invader, and the 
 
8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 murderous Yeomen of the settlers' Parliament in College 
 Green. They were nationalists, who kept alive the sacred 
 fire of patriotism, through seven long centuries of horror, in 
 Ireland. And they were pure-souled nationalists, who died 
 upon the robber invader's gibbet, while to-day there are Irish 
 nationalists serving in the enemy's penal dungeons. They 
 were nationalists, who raised the standard of revolution and 
 independence, in revolt against tyranny at Corinth and 
 Bunker's Hill, and who conquered at Yorktown. They were 
 nationalists, who fought the British invader before New 
 Orleans. And he was a staunch nationalist. General Andrew 
 Jackson, who, when asked what he would do if defeated by 
 the British, replied : " I would have retreated to the city, 
 fired it, and fought the enemy amid its devouring flames." 
 The American historian, speaking of this patriotic nationalist, 
 General Andrew Jackson, gives a sad resume of British 
 tyranny, beginning in Ireland and continued in America 
 during the Revolutionary War : " But as he contemplates the 
 devastation that had swept his home, and left him alone in 
 the world, he remembered the hand that had wrought it all. 
 His father had been driven from the land of his nativity by 
 English oppression ; one brother had died on the battlefield 
 nobly repelling English invasion ; another had sunk under 
 English cruelty and barbarity ; and, last of all, the mother 
 he loved more than life, had fallen a victim to English 
 inhumanity, and been buried in an unknown, unhonoured 
 grave ; and no wonder there became planted in his heart 
 an inextinguishable hatred of the English nation. It had 
 run up a long and bloody score, which, with the accumulated 
 interest of years, that orphan boy was yet to wipe out with 
 one terrible blow, which should cover the British Isle with 
 mourning." 
 
 The Irish nationalists, like General Jackson, owe the 
 British invader a long and bloody score, which they feel 
 it is their duty to pay off when and how they can. To 
 destroy these invading assassins of their country is not only 
 a duty ; it has become a religion. This payment of the 
 
THE PROVINCIALISTS ^ 
 
 bloody score of centuries, these assassins of Irishwomen and 
 helpless children call "crime;" and try to slander and 
 dishonour the brave nationalists before mankind. But the 
 nationalists feel it is their sacred duty to annihilate the 
 invader, when, and how they can ; to use whatever weapons 
 of destruction, God and science can give them to repel these 
 lawless usurpers. The Irish should exclaim with General 
 Jackson, that, if defeated, they will retreat upon their towns 
 and cities, and fire them, fighting the bloodstained invader 
 amid their devouring flames, and shouting back to the foe 
 the cry of Palafox and the brave Spanish nationalists at 
 Saragossa, " No surrender ! war to the knife." Such are 
 the principles that animate the breasts of every patriotic 
 Nationalist, and such are the heroisms, and self-sacrifice, 
 attached to the word nationalist in the pages of history. 
 
 Who are the Provincialists .-* We vainly search the pages 
 of history to find the record of any similar movement to free 
 a nation from bondage. There exists no such record ; it has 
 been left to unhappy Ireland to evolve out of her generations 
 of slavery, this abnormal and impossible means, of saving a 
 people from destruction. For the first time in the history of 
 mankind, it is taught in the public rostrum, that nations can 
 be freed by instalments, and the masses are purposely con- 
 fused, by confounding the evolution which agitation within a 
 self-governed state may bring to develop public liberty, and 
 the slavery and decay that must of necessity follow foreign 
 invasion ; more especially when the invaded country is 
 governed from the nation that defiles its freedom, and stains 
 its shores with blood. Had William and his Norman-French 
 horde governed the English from Normandy, and eventually 
 made England an appanage of the French Crown, draining 
 the wealth and life-blood of the nation, for the benefit of 
 France — if to suppose such a possibility, were not to insult 
 glorious, liberty-loving France — would Englishmen think 
 such a state of degradation could be removed by agitation 
 and slavish loyalty preached in the Parisian chambers ; that 
 
lo THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the occasional cry, " England a Nation," raised by one of their 
 English delegates, receiving applause from his confreres, was 
 serving the people in England, while all the time these 
 ebullitions of mock patriotism went on, their country was 
 bleeding beneath the heels of the foreign oppressor ? Slavery 
 would have greatly changed the English race if this could 
 be ; it is more likely they would have surrendered their 
 nationality, and passed out of existence as a distinct people, 
 and become Frenchmen. 
 
 Who has been the parent of this blighting and mocking 
 degradation, that has so enslaved the minds of Irishmen ? 
 Provincialism has been the creation of the great wizard of the 
 tongue, the witching orator with such slavish fancy in his 
 imagination — Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 What are the principles of Provincialism ? The first article 
 of the new creed is, that it is expedient to compound a felony ; 
 to make terms with the brutal destroyers of Ireland, her 
 foreign usurpers ; to sink the nation into the degraded 
 condition of a province of the enemy ; to accept her flag and 
 her so-called Imperial sway ; to lower for ever the banner of 
 green, or else to degrade it to the position of a Provincial 
 ensign ; or as it has been placed to-day, by Provincialists, the 
 emblem of an enslaved metropolis, floating in mock freedom 
 from the City Hall, Dublin, guarded by the armed red-coated 
 soldiery of the invader ; for without the permission of the 
 chiefs of this soldiery, this degradation would not even be 
 permitted. The Provincialists hope, by compromise, to re- 
 ceive back some of their stolen property, and hence are 
 willing to share in the crime. Even if this could by any 
 possibility, be accomplished, it would be infamous ; it would 
 be a base and treacherous surrender, after seven centuries of 
 unceasing struggle ; the expenditure of so much blood and 
 treasure ; the sacrifice of millions of lives. The warm red life- 
 stream of the Irish flowed in such volumes that it could fill 
 St. George's Channel with its gory current. Who can bridge 
 this bloody chasm across, by promising obedience to the 
 invader } The conscience of the nation would revolt at such 
 
THE ARGUMENT OF PROVINCIALISM ii 
 
 treason, the sacrifice of generations of heroes ; who fought and 
 died that Erin might become a free and independent nation, 
 would be fruitless. The widowed and the orphaned, the 
 myriads whose homes were made desolate by the innumerable 
 crimes of the invader, would shudder with horror at so 
 sacrilegious an alliance. The dead, were it possible, would 
 stalk abroad to point the finger of loathing at those men who 
 would dare sell their birthright, who could attempt to traffic 
 in the honour of their ancestors, or try to obliterate from 
 the glorious page of history the 'immortal and desperate 
 struggles of a heroic, valiant, and ancient race, who, although 
 their country has been invaded by succeeding hordes of 
 British robbers, and overwhelmed beneath the weight of 
 centuries of oppression, is not yet subjugated. 
 
 What the enemy by every species of brutality could not 
 do, treason or cowardice can never succeed in. Ireland 
 will never become a willing province of the British Empire. 
 But this policy of base surrender is impossible ; the enemy's 
 interests are directly opposed to granting the smallest real 
 concession, and these men are playing with treason, toward 
 their nation, without one gleam of hope that they can be 
 possibly successful ; they are hedged in, and surrounded, 
 by hypocrisy, fraud, and lies ; the atmosphere they breathe 
 is destructive to Irish national life — it is impregnated with 
 the poison of British treachery, British deceit, and British 
 avarice. 
 
 These Provincialists have taught the Irish people, and 
 endeavoured to make them believe, that they are powerless 
 and helpless before the might of Britain. The power of the 
 enemy, and the weakness of the Irish nation have been 
 exaggerated, to sustain this debasing doctrine of accepting 
 slavery as inevitable, only to be removed by the generosity 
 of the conqueror. In trying to make the Irish people firm 
 believers in this degrading creed, they used arguments which, 
 in part, might have been used by Nationalists. They de- 
 nounced British rule, and yet they struggled to make Ireland 
 
12 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 continue a part of the British Empire. They ignored 
 Britain's idea of her own interests, and spoke of the 
 generosity of one or other of the British parties, while they 
 denounced the British nation. What an unheard of in- 
 congruity in solving an international issue ! 
 
 " There is a theory for everything which proclaims itself 
 common sense ; mediation offered between the true and the 
 false ; explanation, admonition, a somewhat haughty ex- 
 tenuation which, because it is a mixture of blame and excuse, 
 thinks itself wisdom, and is often only pedantry. An entire 
 political school, called the compromise school, has sprung 
 from this. Between cold water and warm water, this is the 
 party of tepid water. This school, with its pretended depth, 
 wholly superficial, which dissects effects without going back 
 to the causes, from the height of a half-science chides and 
 condemns the approach or appearance of revolution." 
 
 The Irish people, fascinated by the eloquence of their great 
 leader, Daniel O'Connell, followed him in thousands, always 
 believing he would give the word for action, even when he 
 loudly protested and used that extraordinary statement 
 denying the truth of sacred and of profane history : " That 
 the liberty of a nation was not worth the shedding of a single 
 drop of human blood." But at first, among his followers, and 
 afterwards, as a distinct party, came a body of younger and 
 bolder spirits, who, with no wavering or hesitation, told their 
 countrymen the truth. These patriots were termed the 
 " Young Ireland Party " ; foremost among them and foremost 
 among all Irish patriots, since the days of Wolfe Tone, were 
 Davis and Mitchell. To these Nationalists of this Young 
 Ireland school, the present generation of Irishmen are 
 indebted for many of the brave men, who tried to aid their 
 suffering land, during the past quarter of a century. Their 
 writings thrilled the Irish heart and illumined the Irish brain ; 
 this generation, alas ! leaves none to succeed them. The 
 Provincialist movement, which was thought to be dead with 
 the break up of the Tenant Right Party in 1852, was re- 
 suscitated by the Irish Episcopalians at Dublin in 1870, some 
 
THE "HOME RULE" IDEA 13 
 
 with truly honourable motives, others smarting under the 
 then recent disestablishment of their Church. A great Irish 
 orator and lawyer, Isaac Butt, became its leader. Irish 
 Nationalists, although they did not join its ranks, hoped it 
 would help to make all Ireland more anti-British. It 
 languished for a while, and fell to pieces, from the necessity 
 forced upon such movements, to adopt a tone hostile to true 
 Irish national aspirations. Before it passed away there came 
 into political life, Charles Stewart Parnell, who has since 
 occupied the foremost position in the Irish Provincial struggle. 
 
 The third Provincial movement, sought to restore to Ireland 
 not her lost and stolen independence, but a something which 
 was given, by the creators of the second movement, the 
 vague name of " Home Rule." The very title reveals the 
 tactics of the slave, who dare not come out boldly, and advo- 
 cate what he means, legislative and ministerial independence. 
 The leader of the third Provincial Irish movement was aided 
 at the outset, by one of Ireland's perennial scourges, a famine 
 — that is, the failure of one particular crop, for although there 
 was a reduction in the general produce, there was more than 
 enough left to feed the people, but for the destructive, illegal 
 edicts of the invader, who governed and plundered the Irish 
 nation by the red hand of fcrc^. It will be the task of this 
 history to trace this Provincial movement from its inception 
 to the present hour (September, 1887). 
 
 It tried to combat with the invader by words, but behind 
 these the Irish people expect to see something more practical 
 than arguments. The Nationalists admired the leader of the 
 Provincial movement, for his energy and the whole-souled 
 manner he threw himself into the breach, to try and aid his 
 starving fellow-countrymen. Although he ambitioned to do 
 this by altering the illegal edicts made by a foreign Parlia- 
 ment, there was that about him which led many men to 
 believe that the new leader, when he saw the folly of his 
 course, would adopt the National programme. Whether they 
 were correct in their surmises, and that a brief dream of 
 
14 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 heroic and determined nationality came and passed away» 
 posterity alone will be able to determine. 
 
 The Nationalists joined his movement in bodies, aided him 
 in every possible way ; and made the Provincial movement the 
 most perfect organization of its kind ever seen before. The 
 enemy grew alarmed, and not knowing what to think, forced 
 the issue by a brutal and bitter persecution. The enemy at 
 this period was called Liberal, and most liberal was he in his 
 despotism, hanging, stabbing Irishwomen to death and brutally 
 slaughtering even Irish children. Men and women were 
 arrested and imprisoned without even the semblance of an 
 accusation, or even the mockery of a so-called trial. It was 
 open, red-handed tyranny, and murder. 
 
 There was but one way to meet this liberal tyrant, one path 
 alone left a nation possessing a single spark of true manhood. 
 On this subject this history will speak. It was the future 
 entering on the scene ; a future as yet unknown. 
 
 The Liberal leader, Gladstone, carried on his bitter persecu- 
 tion ; this was boldly met by manly words from the Provincial 
 leader, Parnell. The whole Irish race was moved to its inmost 
 depths. Gladstone arrested Parnell ; the crisis was forced by 
 the Briton. A short dream of manly opposition, left un- 
 supported and afterwards denounced, was Ireland's physical 
 answer. A compromise, which was a surrender, was the 
 sequel to the wanton and arbitrary arrest of the Irish Pro- 
 vincial leader. The cowardly surrender, called the Kilmain- 
 ham Treaty, was the beginning of the end. The commence- 
 ment of that descent into the darkness of a criminal alliance, 
 which continued Liberal persecution, saved Ireland for nearly 
 four years ; but the turning point of the struggle was over, 
 the decadence had set in, the surrender was as abject as it 
 was degrading. . . . 
 
II 
 
 THE DAWN OF HOME RULE— THE CLERKENWELL EXPLO- 
 SION SCARE — FORMATION OF THE BUTT PARTY. 
 
 On January 24, 1874, William Ewart Gladstone, Prime 
 Minister of Great Britain, dissolved Parliament, and appealed 
 to his country to indorse his administration. 
 
 His Government was defeated in the election which ensued, 
 and the incoming Premier, Mr. Disraeli, included among his 
 appointments to office. Colonel Taylor, one of the British 
 members of Parliament for the County Dublin. The suc- 
 ceeding bye-election, which Colonel Taylor's acceptance of 
 office necessitated, brought to the public gaze a young Irish- 
 man, who has written his name in strangely varied characters 
 on the page of his country's history. 
 
 This young man, who opposed the re-election of Colonel 
 Taylor, for the Metropolitan Irish county, stood as a candidate 
 of the Federalist " Home Rule " movement under the leader- 
 ship of Mr. Isaac Butt, and was ushered into political life with 
 great promise by the Provincialists, who were then active in 
 Ireland. It had been circulated in both Nationalist and 
 Provincialist circles that he was a sincere and devoted Irish- 
 man, prepared to make any sacrifice for the advancement and 
 progress of his native land. 
 
 The Provincialists were appealed to by the memory of 
 his granduncle, who sat in the Settlers' Parliament House, 
 College Green, and the Nationalists were reminded of his 
 maternal grandfather. Commodore Stewart of the American 
 
i6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Navy, the gallant Irish-American officer, who so daringly 
 attacked the British war vessels with his single ship. It 
 was a long and protracted fight (a tale which the Irish 
 loved to hear) ; the superiority of the British armament 
 was more than counterbalanced by Commodore Stewart's 
 splendid seamanship, and the heroic valour of the American 
 sailors, Stewart manoeuvred his frigate with such rapidity 
 that he outsailed the enemy, pouring broadside after broad- 
 side into the hulls and riggings of the British ships, raking 
 them fore and aft until their lee scuppers ran with blood, 
 till amid the cheers of the American seamen, the boasted 
 Mistress of the Seas had to lower her flag, to the glorious 
 Stars and Stripes of the Young Republic. 
 
 When Commodore Stewart was entertaining with genuine 
 American hospitality the British captains, his prisoners, the 
 senior of these officers accused his comrade of unskilled sea- 
 manship, which was, as he said, the cause of their misfortunes. 
 In heaping reproaches on his junior, the British captain in- 
 sisted that if his orders had been obeyed, the American ship 
 would have been their prize, and that Commodore Stewart 
 would have altered positions with them, and have been their 
 prisoner. The fiery American officer arose, and said : " Gentle- 
 men, put your crews on board, and by we will fight 
 
 the battle over again." 
 
 This description of this celebrated naval engagement, fought 
 during the war of 1 8 12- 14, between Britain and the United 
 States, which reflected such honour and renown upon Mr. 
 Parnell's grandfather, was circulated among the Nationalists. 
 And many stories of Mr. Parnell's National leanings, created 
 an enthusiasm which no ordinary recruit to the ranks of the 
 Provincial ists, could evoke. They expected that in a little 
 time, when Charles Stewart Parnell had studied the Irish 
 difficulty with her invader, he would be found in the forefront 
 of the National ranks, and like Wolfe Tone, of glorious and 
 immortal memory, doing battle against the oppressors of his 
 enslaved country. Such were the hopes at that time centred 
 in the grandson of heroic old Ironsides. Whether he crossed 
 
THE COUNTY DUBLIN ELECTION 17 
 
 the Rubicon that divided the agitator from the patriot, and 
 feeling that the weight of the armour was not equalled by the 
 strength of his manhood, retreated back to the " Erin go 
 brawlers " ranks — whether this is so or not, this generation is 
 not likely to be enlightened. He himself repudiated it, with 
 scorn and loathing, as if he thought that to be ranked 
 among the immortals, who died for their country, was a 
 disgrace. Nationalists think that his association with the 
 vile enemies of his motherland is the act of a British politi- 
 cian, and patriots regard as degrading this alliance with men 
 whose hands are red with the blood of murdered Irishwomen 
 and children, wantonly slain in perpetuation of a foreign 
 system of infamy. 
 
 The County Dublin had been, for years, misrepresented by 
 Tories of the old school in the enemy's Parliament in 
 London. The then sitting members. Colonel Taylor, and the 
 Hon. Mr. Hamilton, looked upon the Parliamentary seats of 
 Dublin County as heirlooms in their respective families. Mr. 
 Hamilton had lately succeeded his father, who sat in the 
 London Parliament as member for the Irish Metropolitan 
 county till within a short period of his death. 
 
 The announcement that Mr. Parnell was to contest the 
 County Dublin, in opposition to Colonel Taylor, who looked 
 upon his unopposed return as a matter of course, caused some 
 indignation in Tory circles ; more especially as this neophyte 
 for Parliamentary honours advocated the new school of 
 politics called " Home Rule." He was considered to be a 
 Conservative by right, and these people looked upon his con- 
 duct as most reprehensible. At this time, he was High 
 Sheriff of the County Wicklow, an elected member of the 
 Protestant Church Synods, and being also a landlord, the 
 Tories were horrified at his alliance with the Federalist Pro- 
 vincial party. 
 
 Much anxiety was evinced in Irish circles to see and hear 
 the new candidate, and on the night of his first public appear- 
 ance a crowded hall greeted him. Mr. Isaac Butt introduced 
 
 C 
 
i8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 him to the audience, with one of those brilliant flashes of 
 eloquence of which he was master. As Mr. Parnell came 
 forward, there was seen a young man, with dark brown eyes, 
 who gazed intently at the crowded house before him, as if 
 his soul was in the glance that scanned that sea of faces — 
 grave and pensive, with light brown full beard, and tall slender 
 figure which appeared slightly stooped. The audience broke 
 forth into an enthusiastic greeting — it was the homage of the 
 warm-hearted Celt, tendered to the descendant of a man, 
 whose record as a brave sailor, fighting the enemies of his 
 country, is on the pages of history. 
 
 Mr. Parnell acknowledged this splendid reception, with icy 
 manner, but with dignity. He appeared extremely nervous, 
 and delivered his exordium in low tones, and with some hesita- 
 tion, but as his speech progressed and the subject grew upon 
 him he became more at ease. Without displaying any promise 
 of oratorical powers, he spoke as a man of deep thought — 
 one with a profound conviction that there could be no social 
 or material prosperity in Ireland, without self-government. 
 
 After the close of the public meeting, Mr. Isaac Butt 
 introduced to him several well-known Irishmen who were 
 present, and whenever Mr. Butt indulged in any facetious 
 pleasantries, as was his wont when with friends, giving 
 extraordinary characters in the Irish cause to some men whom 
 he presented to Mr. Parnell, a quiet smile was seen for an 
 instant on the young man's face, which disappeared quickly. 
 His eyes evinced no corresponding sympathy ; they 
 looked coldly, and inquiringly around. In conversation he 
 showed thorough knowledge of the political situation, as that 
 of a man who had given deep study to Parliamentary warfare, 
 and party politics. His strong dislike to the English Liberals, 
 as dangerous and hypocritical in their dealings with Ireland, 
 was most marked. He believed that any entangling alliance 
 with them meant the decadence, and speedy dissolution, of 
 any Irish party, who would so betray their trust, as to coquette 
 with these men. As to the Tories, their open and undisguised 
 hostility, was of such a nature that it precluded all possible 
 
FENIAN ABSTENTION FROM VOTING 19 
 
 thought of any alliance with them, consequently they were 
 not so much to be feared. In Irish affairs, they were always 
 the weaker government of the two. The Liberal party, when 
 in opposition, hampered the coercive tendencies of the Tories, 
 but when in power became unscrupulous and tyrannic 
 despots in their government of Ireland. He used no super- 
 fluous words, but left the impression on his hearers, that he 
 thought out each sentence as he delivered it. . . . 
 
 Mr. Parnell was defeated ; the franchise, at that time so 
 limited, was in the possession of the Tories and Whigs, who 
 voted solidly against the Federal programme. A small 
 number of the Nationalists supported Mr. Parnell, with the 
 hope that in a short time he would himself give his services 
 to the National cause. But the great majority — who regarded 
 it as an admission of the foreigner's right in usurping the 
 government of their country, for any man to mock them by 
 his presence in the enemy's legislature, where he was power- 
 less to serve his country, and only humiliated the nation by 
 the studied contempt, or insults, with which the enemy's 
 deputies treated him, if he had the semblance of even pro- 
 vincialism — refused to vote, as they had always done. Had the 
 Irish nation been advanced enough in its political education, 
 to elect men to stay at home, these Nationalists would then 
 both vote, and work, at each election. This National principle, 
 not to vote, is still a part of the political creed of numbers of 
 Nationalists. There are men in Ireland, who proudly boast 
 that they never sullied their National faith, by voting for any 
 deputy going to London, to whine and beg of Ireland's 
 enemies, for the restoration of her stolen nationality. During 
 the remarkable election of 1885, the Provincialists foolishly 
 believed in English deceit and hypocrisy,— at that time the 
 Tory had played the hypocrite, — and expected to get self- 
 government. In all the counties, where the enemy's deputies 
 had no possible chance of election, men were glad to be able 
 to preserve intact their steadfast custom, of refusing to go to 
 the polls, and yet not injure Mr. Parnell's over-sanguine 
 
 C 2 
 
20 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 hqpes. In Tipperary County alone more than one-third of 
 the voters, absented themselves, from the ballot-box. 
 
 Mr. Butt was pleased with the manly attitude of Mr. 
 Parnell, and promised that at the first vacancy in any con- 
 stituency, with what they called National tendencies, Mr. 
 Parnell should receive the united support of the party. 
 
 What was the condition of Ireland when Mr. Parnell came 
 on the scene ^ The decay and decline of her population, 
 somewhat arrested during the revolutionary period 1865, 
 1866, and 1867, had set in with steady persistence — a decline 
 in population which should teach the leaders that the hour to 
 strike the foe is passing away from them fast, if they mean 
 to try to arrest this steady emigration, that must soon 
 exhaust the vitality of the nation. 
 
 The Nationalists, although somewhat disorganised at the 
 inability and incompetency of their leaders to put them 
 in the field — with which this history will deal later — were 
 reorganised, but the absence of a healthy National literature, 
 and the spread of Provincialist teaching, was doing serious 
 mischief. In addition to this, the best intellects of Ireland 
 had ceased to work in the National ranks ; both at home and 
 in America, they found themselves so often called to defend 
 their own honour against the calumnies of brainless men, 
 that they retired from the contest in despair. That curse of 
 faction, which is a part of every enslaved race, was giving aid 
 to the enemy, and men who would have shed lustre on 
 the movement were deterred from joining by the incompetent 
 men, although sincere patriots, who conducted the movement 
 in some districts. But the masses of the people, ever honest 
 and faithful to Ireland, enrolled themselves in the ranks of 
 the Nationalists. These simple-minded men felt satisfied 
 that this was their duty to their country, yet without leaders 
 of ability or breadth of mind sufficient to grasp the situation, 
 they could do nothing. The revolutionary movement became 
 an opportunist organisation, waiting for Heaven to perform 
 somp miracle by which they hoped to take the field, while 
 
THE CHURCH QUESTION 21 
 
 the nation was being depleted by thousands every year — 
 more than the enemy could kill, or put hors de combat^ in a 
 war for independence ! 
 
 There was no healthy natural teaching, no books written, 
 no lectures delivered — except by Provincialists — on Ireland's 
 wrongs, which the men in Ireland are a daily witness to — no 
 spreading broadcast that true national faith among the 
 masses, who needed light and education, no teaching of the 
 great question, so hidden or darkened by the enemy, and so 
 distorted by the Provincialists. While all these were lacking, 
 the natural instincts of the people, and the remarkable 
 patriotism of even the uneducated, left Ireland much room for 
 hope, if Providence had only supplied her with brave and 
 intelligent leaders. 
 
 The British enemy had learned to fear — the next step to 
 respect — them. Hitherto it had been a question of indifference, 
 or contempt. Soon, it became that healthier feeling of hate. 
 The Manchester rescue, and the Clerkenwell explosion, had 
 irritated and annoyed the English people. So long as this 
 war was confined to Ireland, they did not care, but when the 
 tragic incidents of the struggle became enacted at their own 
 door, even in the mighty metropolis of London itself, John 
 Bull became seriously alarmed. 
 
 An unreasoning panic, a universal national fright, upset 
 the usual equanimity of the stolid Englishman. Every 
 conceivable atrocity was attributed to the Fenians. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's attention was drawn to the condition of 
 Ireland, by the desperate action of the Fenian Nationalists, 
 and needing a cry to go to the country on, he appealed to the 
 English people, to disestablish the Episcopalian Church in 
 Ireland. It drew large revenues from the Crown, and from 
 glebe lands in Ireland set apart for its maintenance, and in 
 many districts in the south of Ireland, the worshippers, who 
 attended the churches, consisted of scarce a dozen souls. It 
 was the Church of an insignificant portion of the people, so 
 far as numbers were concerned, but its communicants were 
 all the wealthy landlords and the aristocratic pro-British 
 
22 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 portion of the population. It might be thought that men 
 of such high station and great wealth, could well afford to 
 sustain their Church without state aid, particularly as the poor 
 persecuted peasant supported his Church, which flourished 
 in wealth and magnificence. Some of the most beautiful 
 Gothic churches erected over the island, with handsome 
 and expensive altars, imported from Munich and other 
 foreign homes of ecclesiastical art, are all built and supported 
 on the voluntary system. For a nation steeped in poverty 
 and every decade seeking alms before the world, this is the 
 most extraordinary feature of the Irish character ; their piety 
 and devotion to their faith is unexampled in the history of 
 peoples. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, when he set out on his crusade against the 
 Established Church, aroused powerful and influential interest, 
 and all the Irish rebels of wealth and station, every 
 aristocratic Irish traitor who was disloyal to his country, and 
 loyal to her enemy and invader, was up in arms, and hostile 
 to Mr. Gladstone's attack, as they termed it, on their Church. 
 The question assumed gigantic proportions in England, 
 and a vast number of the people, knowing or caring very 
 little about Irish grievances, and being strong partisans, took 
 Mr. Gladstone's statements for granted facts, and considered 
 they were about to do Ireland great service and confer upon 
 her a substantial benefit, by removing what they were told, 
 was an incubus on the nation, and one that retarded Irish 
 happiness very seriously. Whether Mr. Gladstone believed 
 the extraordinary statements he made at this time, it is 
 impossible to say. It is self-evident that these statements 
 are the stock in trade of English politicians and statesmen, 
 made before the world as sublime sentiments of suitable 
 periods, whenever the policy of a particular party needed 
 them. The Irish trouble has drawn from English Ministers 
 a fair sprinkling of hollow sentiments, and a good deal of 
 rant, possibly believed in for the time by the speaker, as a 
 first class actor in simulating a character loses himself in 
 the impersonation, so that the applause given to the British 
 
THE NATIONAL CLAIM 23 
 
 statesmen, more especially to that remarkable man, William 
 Ewart Gladstone, has the same ground for its approval. 
 The Minister of England speaking of Ireland's woes and the 
 artist before the footlights are both admirably simulating a 
 character ; and the nearest to nature they delineate the 
 original, the more perfect is each in his art. 
 
 The role of the British Minister is to pose as the friend, 
 the lover, and the giver of good things to Ireland ; but to speak 
 of any of these British measures, as conveying any real or 
 substantial benefits, is to state what every Irishman who cares 
 to study the subject knows to be wrong. Ireland has not 
 been benefited in the smallest manner by any of these many 
 acts of the British Parliament. There was nothinor compli- 
 cated in the Irish trouble, no real mystery or scientific study, 
 to give that admirable actor, William Ewart Gladstone, such 
 splendid opportunities to talk for hours, twisting and inter- 
 twining a knot which he started out with the view of 
 unravelling, until his bewildered auditors — not in any manner 
 understanding the question, but in a vague way impressed 
 with the fact that Ireland complained of something, and 
 admiring the patience and benevolence of their great and 
 learned countryman — cried out, " By all means satisfy these 
 troublesome Irish ; disestablish the Episcopalian Church, and 
 let them cease brawling." There is no complication what- 
 ever in Ireland's demand — that is, the national demand, not 
 that of time-serving, selfish politicians. What the nation 
 needs is as plain as noonday, as clear as the running brooks 
 glistening in God's sunshine. It is this — the island of 
 Ireland to be left in the complete and actual possession of 
 her people, the British invaders to pack up and leave it bag 
 and baggage, to take their officials, their army, their navy, 
 and all the impedimenta of their execrable rule, and go home 
 to their island of Britain, leaving the two islands as separate 
 and distinct, politically, as they left the hands of the Great 
 Creator. They are two separate nations, composed of two 
 peoples, as distinct, as foreign to each other in habits, in tastes, 
 in genius, and ability as any two distinct races on the globe. 
 
24 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 All the statesmen that ever sat at a council board, all the 
 philosophers of antiquity or the leading lights of science in 
 our day, even the most pious, most holy, and most learned 
 fathers of all the creeds, could not, if all united in one 
 congress, satisfactorily settle this difference between these 
 two islands, in the west of Europe, in any other manner. 
 
 How did the Irish people look upon this great Church 
 disestablishment, which agitated the neighbouring island ? 
 The politicians, who had selfish interests to gratify, made 
 much of it, ranted as loud as any tragedian in a country 
 booth of the great blessings it was to confer on Ireland. . . 
 The Irish peasant, who saw that his enemy and persecutor 
 was irritated and annoyed, felt glad, and, listening to the 
 ranting speeches of the politicians who posed as patriots, 
 tried to believe it was a benefit to the country. The 
 Nationalists looked upon it with supreme indifference ; they 
 knew it had no more effect upon Ireland's prosperity, than it 
 had over the eclipse of the sun. The Irish Church was no 
 grievance to the people whatever ; it was simply the badge 
 of serfdom, or rather one of its badges, and so long as the 
 nation groaned beneath the weight of foreign oppression, 
 the emblems they bore upon their banner of tyranny, made 
 no material difference to the unemployed, poverty-stricken 
 people of Ireland. 
 
 This great agitation took place in the autumn of 1868. 
 The Irish Church, then so much spoken of, had been an 
 intolerable and serious grievance. When the produce of the 
 soil was seized, and sold for the payment of tithes, then the 
 farmer felt the monstrous injustice of supporting a Church 
 to which he did not belong ; but this direct levying of the 
 tithes, had been removed more than thirty years previously. 
 This Church was practically disestablished, so far as the Irish 
 people's interests were directly influenced in 1837. Since 
 that period, no Irish peasant paid one penny in support of 
 the Episcopalian Church. 
 
 This was brought about by the use of the only weapons. 
 
THE TITHE AGITATION 25 
 
 which Britain, like every other conquering power, will listen 
 to, namely, force, or the fear of force. Provincialists in 
 Ireland, who to-day are preaching passive resistance, or 
 peaceful plans of campaign, are deaf to the lessons of history^ 
 Some few of them, no doubt, are sincere, but how shallow 
 must their reasoning powers be when this is admitted ! 
 The Irish peasants had a great Provincialist at their head at 
 this time, a man of superior ability, Daniel O'Connell ; but 
 not all the passive resistance, or plans of campaign that could 
 be devised by the most ingenious, could stay the tithe de- 
 mand. Like to-day, with the land tax, called rent, it was 
 Pay or be sold out. Goaded by the small tyranny of the 
 proctors, the people rushed to arms, and their weapons were 
 principally scythes. The armed forces of the enemy, and the 
 people, came into collision ; much bloodshed followed ; and the 
 decisive battle of Carrickshox, which was a victory for the 
 people, settled the question at once and for ever. The 
 British Ministry were alarmed, as they always are when 
 Irishmen resort to force. They naturally feared the tithe 
 war might develop into a national war, which it possibly 
 might have done, but for the teachings and policy of those 
 most useful agents of Britain, the Provincialists. It is not 
 conveyed by this statement, that these people meant in any 
 way to be England's allies, unless a few time-serving leaders, 
 but their monstrous slavish teaching, was of more value in 
 keeping the people from asserting themselves, than all the 
 forces of the enemy, as is witnessed in Ireland to this day. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone made a series of eloquent and powerful 
 speeches, as this geat Minister can, on any imaginable 
 subject. He was determined to be restored to power, and to 
 once more enjoy the honours and advantages of office, and 
 the Irish Church was an admirable and useful party cry for 
 the great Liberal. In all his speeches during the general 
 election of 1868 he appealed to the most potent power in 
 changing English opinion, namely, the fear of force. The 
 dread of an Irish national war, which might easily spread to 
 England, causes more terror and panic to the British heart 
 
26 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 than a million Irish orators, or all the passive resistance, or 
 voting power the Provincialists can bring to bear to solve 
 their impossible demand, a self-governed Ireland under the 
 enemy's flag. 
 
 In the course of a long speech in Wigan, October 4, 1868, 
 Mr. Gladstone said, alluding to Ireland and her past demand: 
 " Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington, foregoing their 
 deep and cherished convictions, frankly told the country they 
 accepted Catholic emancipation not as a good, but a lesser of 
 the two evils, and that if the people of this country were not 
 prepared to accept it they must be prepared for the risk." 
 
 " The Duke of Wellington said : * You must take the policy 
 recommended, or else as honest and courageous men you 
 must be prepared to face the consequences.' " 
 
 Those who are inclined to listen to the shallow teachings 
 of the Provincialists should read these remarkable utterances 
 of two of Britain's foremost statesmen in the past, quoted by 
 the most prominent of her Ministers to-day. To impress the 
 British people with the necessity of disestablishing the Irish 
 Church, Mr. Gladstone used the remarkable utterance that the 
 explosion in Clerkenwell blew up that institution, and to 
 further impress them with the seriousness and necessity for 
 its disestablishment, he quoted the speeches delivered by two 
 Tory Ministers, during the struggle for Catholic emancipation. 
 
 And yet Irishmen call Daniel O'Connell the liberator ! 
 His power of oratory, the witching magic, the beauty of his 
 voice that could entrance an Irish audience, had no influence 
 whatever in the councils of the foreigner. He did not weigh 
 a feather weight in the scale of their prejudices. The Irish 
 people might re-elect him for Clare until doomsday before 
 such an absurd means of influencing an enemy's councils 
 would be seriously discussed by British Ministers. The enemy 
 was in possession of most important information, that the 
 Irish Nationalists were quietly preparing to take the field, 
 against the British invader. In the face of this serious danger 
 with which they were threatened, O'Connell was not thought 
 of, nor his speeches, which they considered as so much 
 
CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION 27 
 
 Billingsgate abuse ; he was no more to them than a fly would 
 be, alighting on the hand of a leader of a forlorn hope, who 
 was about to mount a scaling ladder to enter the enemy's 
 works charged with death, an insignificant thing to be 
 brushed aside. These British Ministers remembered Oulart 
 Hill, Enniscorthy, and Arklow, those sanguinary battles 
 where British troops and British mercenaries were strewn 
 by Irish valour in heaps of slain upon these bloody fields, 
 and they dreaded a renewal of those days. But what in- 
 creased their alarm, was the news they heard of the disaffec- 
 tion among the Irish Catholic soldiers. It was this terror 
 which caused a panic in British councils, and compelled 
 England's blighted king to sign the charter of Catholic 
 emancipation. 
 
 What a monstrous delusion, attributing this law to 
 O'Connell's influence! He had as much to do with the 
 councils of the British nation, and held there not even 
 the same influence, as the story teller in an Eastern court does 
 in shaping the firmans of the Sultan. 
 
 It is to the memories of the gallant men of '98 that Ireland 
 should give the title " Liberator," if there was any liberation 
 in the law. It is not to the argument of the Provincialist, but 
 to the fear of the pike of the National insurgent, that Ireland 
 remains indebted for this freedom of worship, granted by his 
 much extolled Bill. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone continued his appeals to the fears of the 
 British. In another speech at this time he said : " In Ireland 
 we have a population, a large portion of whom look either 
 with aversion or sullen neutrality on the operation of the law. 
 So long as that continues to be the case, and so long as 
 tranquillity in Ireland is maintained only by the presence of 
 overwhelming armed force, and the suspension of personal 
 liberty — and when you have placed the guarantees of liberty 
 in abeyance, you have arrived at a point only one step from 
 civil war, or you have arrived at a state of things in which 
 you find yourself engaged in a combat with a foreign foe, 
 powerful enough to effect a landing on the shores of Ireland. 
 
28 THE IRISH NATION^AL INVINCIBLES 
 
 . . We have thought it our duty to look in the face this 
 dark fact of Irish discontent. Lord Lytton said, ' We talk of 
 Irish bulls, but the words Irish Church are the greatest bulls 
 in the language. It is called the Irish Church because it is a 
 Church not for the Irish.' " 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, in his exertions to win over the English 
 electorate to his views on the Irish question, told some very 
 plain truths. He delivered the following very remarkable 
 address, on October 15, 1868, at Liverpool: "They (the 
 Tories) persist in refusing to take any true and adequate 
 measure of the great evil by which Ireland is afflicted — I 
 mean the estrangement of the minds of the people, from that 
 law, from public authority, from this country — ay, and even 
 to a great extent from the very throne under the shadow of 
 which we are happy to live. Lord Mayo told us that a very 
 large portion of the population of Ireland was either in 
 positive sympathy with Fenianism, or else ready to seize the 
 very first opportunity of armed resistance to the law. Mr. 
 Maguire tells us he meets an Irish Southerner who has been 
 crippled in the war, fighting for the southern cause, but that 
 man holds up the other arm and says, * This is the only arm 
 I've left, and, so help me God, I'd give it and every drop of my 
 heart's blood if I could strike one blow for Ireland.' Go to 
 Canada and look for a few minutes at the state of the Irish- 
 men in Canada. In what does Canada differ from the United 
 Kingdom .-* Canada has a free Parliament and so have we, 
 but Canada has not installed and enthroned in exclusive 
 privilege the Church of the minority." .... 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was successful in his appeal to the British 
 people — the Irish Church was disestablished. The fears 
 which he conjured up, by introducing the spectre of Fenianism, 
 helped him to thousands of wavering votes. But that which 
 more especially broke down British prejudice was the know- 
 ledge that the passing of this Bill could not interfere with 
 English interests, and that Britain could still enjoy her Irish 
 trade monopoly, while Irish industries continue paralysed. 
 
THE ORANGE LODGES 29 
 
 The Disestablishment of the Church had one effect in 
 Ireland, of which Mr. Gladstone never dreamt. Many of the 
 better class Protestants, who saw their country going to decay, 
 used the irritation of their co-religionists against Gladstone 
 for the common good ; for there can be no possible reason 
 that their motherland should not be as dear to them as to 
 their Catholic brethren. 
 
 The dissatisfaction even found an entrance to the Orange 
 Lodges. The Nationalists now began to awaken to the 
 knowledge, that a great fermentation was taking place in the 
 minds of men, hitherto opposed to even the discussion of 
 Provincialism. The experience of the Nationalists, and the 
 history of the country, taught them that with the addition of 
 these sturdy Irishmen to the ranks of patriots, great hope in 
 the near success of the cause might be reasonably entertained. 
 The Nationalists had struggled to remove that deadly blight 
 — religious bigotry. It had been the most ardent work which 
 patriots since the days of Wolfe Tone set before them, and 
 now there came the hope, so exquisitely expressed in the 
 lines of the poet : 
 
 ** Come — pledge again thy heart and hand, 
 
 One grasp that ne'er shall sever ; 
 Our watchword be — Our native land; 
 
 Our motto — Love for ever. 
 And let the Orange lily be 
 
 Thy badge, my patriot brother ; 
 The everlasting green for me, 
 
 And we for one another. 
 
 ** Behold how gallant green the stem 
 
 On which the flower is blowing ; 
 And in one heavenly breeze and beam 
 
 Both flower and stem are growing. 
 The same good soil sustaining both ; 
 
 Make both united flourish. 
 It cannot give the orange growth 
 
 And cease the green to nourish. 
 
 ' ' United in our country's cause, 
 
 Our party colours blended ; 
 Till lasting peace from native laws 
 
 On both shall have descended. 
 Till then the orange lily be 
 
 Thy badge, my patriot brother ; 
 The everlasting green for me. 
 
 And we for one another." 
 
30 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Isaac Butt, a great lawyer who had been engaged during 
 the so-called trials of the I. R. B. Nationalists, and a Con- 
 servative of the old school, joined in the new movement then 
 spreading among the Protestant citizens of Dublin. 
 
 During the Fenian trial he was associated with the prisoners. 
 His contact with these men, many of them men of cultured 
 minds, all of them men of intelligence, sincerely and truly 
 patriotic, with their spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to their 
 native land, had made an impression on his mind, and changed 
 the once opponent to national aspirations, into a believer in 
 Home Rule. When the Amnesty Association started, he 
 became its presiding officer. 
 
 The state of the country, the continued decline in trade, 
 and the unceasing emigration, attracted the attention of men 
 hitherto considered British Conservatives. The State Church 
 was removed, but Irish ills remained. The dissatisfied mem- 
 bers of the disestablished Church held a private meeting in 
 the Bilton Hotel, Dublin, on the evening of May 19, 1870, and 
 there was created the germ of the " Home Rule" movement. A 
 second meeting was held in the Imperial Hotel, where a com- 
 mittee was appointed, to consider and report what the nature 
 and objects of the new organisation should be, and to prepare 
 a draft report for the next meeting. A third private meeting 
 was called for June 2, 1 870, to which the committee reported. 
 They recommended that a native legislature should be the 
 object of the new organisation, the Irish Parliament to have 
 the power under a Federal arrangement to manage all matters 
 relating to the internal affairs of the country, and the control 
 of Irish resources and revenues, subject to the obligation of 
 contributing a fair proportion to Imperial expenditure ; the 
 Imperial Parliament retaining the power of dealing with all 
 questions affecting the Imperial Crown and Government, and 
 the defence and stability of the Empire. It was further as- 
 serted that the public mind was turning strongly on a Home 
 Parliament, as the only means of arresting the decaying con- 
 dition of the country, and infusing some life into the Irish 
 social system. 
 
THE HOME GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION 31 
 
 On August 12, 1870, the Home Government Association 
 came before the world, with an address from the provisional 
 committee. Thus was born into political life the second great 
 Provincialist movement, with the title which has since become 
 so familiar — " Home Rule." It will be noticed that all these 
 movements which have for their object, not the removal of 
 Ireland's curse — foreign supremacy — but merely its reform, 
 always start out with the demand for certain powers of an 
 extensive nature, for the Irish Parliament, so nearly approach- 
 ing the authority of a national congress in a free republic, that 
 the Irish masses are easily captivated. They are told that 
 the procuring of this Parliament is within the scope of a 
 peaceful agitation, whose only weapons shall be the playing 
 off of British parties one against the other, and the influence 
 of reason on the British people. The demand is simply for 
 the legislative control of the internal affairs of the nation, 
 including Irish resources and revenues. An independent 
 congress, in a free nation, could not possibly have greater 
 legislative authority ; the Imperial affairs which these gentle- 
 men would leave to what they are pleased to call the 
 Imperial Parliament, an Irish Republic would have no inter- 
 ference with whatever. 
 
 Does it seriously enter into the belief of any thinking man, 
 that Britain will ever peacefully surrender such power and 
 control over Ireland's internal affairs as were solemnly set 
 forth by this assemblage of respectable Protestant gentlemen, 
 containing at that time some prominent Orangemen ? It is 
 just that she should, they will say ; if truth and justice have 
 any influence on the issue, most certainly she should restore 
 to Ireland her stolen independence. To agitate peacefully 
 to get back a Parliament with these necessary powers, is the 
 same as to agitate for separation, politically. One will be 
 granted by the invader as soon as the other. Let there be 
 plain speaking here ; there is no possible chance for this 
 great issue to be peacefully settled. It must be decided by 
 force, or else there is the certainty of national death. It is 
 a remarkable fact, that all these Provincial movements that 
 
32 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 have agitated unhappy Ireland, always started out with these 
 demands for full and perfect control over the resources of 
 the country, and yet their supporters would accept some 
 miserable measure, a fraud, and not worth the paper on 
 which it was written. This idea nevertheless gave some of 
 the less scrupulous agitators a something to show the people, 
 and an opportunity to prove, by the wildest assertions, that 
 this delusion was a piece of coming liberty. From the top 
 of the ladder, they went down rung by rung until they 
 mingled with the enemy's legislators, as some of themselves, 
 becoming British partisans, with no remains of the grand 
 and much-praised programme with which they won the 
 Irish heart. 
 
 Their great argument to the British people, and even to 
 the Irish, is, that it is Britain's interest to settle this Irish 
 trouble, and in her own interests it would be right for her to 
 grant "Home Rule" to Ireland. It might just as well be 
 said to the burglar, who has broken into a house and is laden 
 with booty, that it is his interest to surrender his plunder, for 
 if ever his victim, whom he has gagged, gets loose, he will 
 most certainly be punished. While the victim remains 
 gagged, the burglar will be of a different opinion. Britain 
 has Ireland gagged ; and because of the passive resistance 
 with which she quietly submits to the gagging, counselled by 
 the Provincialists, the victim is not likely to be loosened. To 
 give to Ireland what she demands, would be a material injury 
 to British trade interests, apart from considerations affecting 
 the National tendencies of the Irish people, which are hostile 
 to Britain. 
 
 The Home Government Association, when a vacancy offered 
 in the representation of Dublin City, put forward a Pro- 
 vincialist, but one who professed very advanced views on the 
 condition of Ireland. The first candidate of the new organis- 
 ation was Captain Lawrence King-Harman, at present (1887) 
 known as Colonel King-Harman, Tory, Assistant Secretary 
 for Ireland, a rabid Coercionist. 
 
 The King-Harman of that day was a man whom the people 
 
COLONEL KING-HARMAN 33 
 
 believed was sincere, and honest in his advocacy of Home 
 Rule for Ireland. The Irish followers of Mr. Gladstone, 
 agitators of the old school, who believed that the Parliament 
 of Britain was the proper place to plead for their country's 
 welfare, loved to be called by one of the British party names, 
 and were known, like their English comrades, as Liberals. 
 
 The Provincialists who now misrepresent Ireland, have 
 taken their position in British parties. The only difference 
 existing is, that the Gladstonians have adopted the name of 
 " Home Rulers," which is a distinction in title, without a 
 difference in policy. For they are as much in favour of giving 
 to Ireland " Home Rule," as specified in the platform of that 
 party, — that is, full or any control over Irish revenues and 
 resources, — as they were when they were real Liberals. The 
 only liberality dealt to Ireland, beside mock legislation, was 
 a liberal and generous supply of coercion. 
 
 King-Harman was supported by a strange admixture of 
 parties. The dissatisfied Orangemen — but, with most of these, 
 it was more pique than patriotism — gave him warm support. 
 The Evening Mail of Dublin, the Orange organ, preached 
 " Home Rule " doctrines. Dr. Maunsell, its proprietor, was a 
 member of the " Home Rule " party, and a staunch supporter 
 of the " Home Rule " candidate. Along with the Irish 
 Provincialists, a small section of the Nationalists helped 
 King-Harman. Among his ablest supporters, and one who 
 worked for his election, was the late unfortunate James 
 Carey. 
 
 Sir Dominic Corrigan was the Liberal or Gladstone 
 candidate ; he considered the Irish very ungrateful to put 
 up a rival candidate to one of Mr. Gladstone's supporters, 
 — a man who had promised so much to Ireland, and who 
 had conferred the great boon of disestablishment of the Irish 
 Church. 
 
 What wretched cant and falsehood are these fulsome praises 
 of the Chief of the enemy's Liberal party ! They are to be 
 heard multiplied to-day, as full of adulation and untruth as 
 they were then. Sir Dominic Corrigan was elected by a 
 
 D 
 
34 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 small majority, which was described, in England, as Ireland's 
 endorsement of Mr. Gladstone's policy ! 
 
 The first public meeting of the new " Home Rule " Asso- 
 ciation, was held in the Rotunda, Dublin, on the evening of 
 September I, 1870. Alderman Mackay was in the chair; 
 on the platform were Mr. Brown, M.P., Mayo ; Mr. Shaw, 
 M.P., Bandon ; A. M. Sullivan, Dublin Nation ; Dr. Maunsell, 
 Evening Mail ; Rev. Mr. McQuade, Roman Catholic parish 
 priest, Co. Clare. There were present Protestant and Catholic 
 clergymen, Orange and Catholic editors, all animated with 
 one thought — the necessity for self-government in Ireland, to 
 preserve a dying nation, and to create material prosperity in 
 a country, drained of its wealth by the people of a neigh- 
 bouring island. But ignoring the lessons of history, they looked 
 upon any but peaceful methods to recover this stolen Home 
 Rule as both unchristian and illegal, forgetting that by the use 
 of the word legal, they recognised their enemy's right to rule 
 them. They never thought of the great importance of their 
 peaceful request to England ; that justice to Ireland, i.e.^ full 
 and complete self-government, which demand they were about 
 to formulate, meant a gigantic loss to British manufactures 
 and commerce, and English interests. 
 
 In a word, Britain was to create a native government and 
 Parliament to develop and build up a rival commercial power, 
 which although like Canada, would be under her flag and part 
 of her empire, would still be an injury to her trade and 
 manufactures, as a competitor in European markets. British 
 statesmen were to do this, peacefully and legally, by appealing 
 to their sense of justice. Heaven help us out of this delusion ; 
 what a strange species of insanity infects, what is termed, the 
 Conservative Irish mind ! 
 
 Mr. Lawrence Waldron, a former M.P. for Tipperary, 
 moved a resolution at this meeting, declaring that every day's 
 experience more forcibly impressed the conviction that the 
 Imperial Parliament {ix.^ British) was unequal to the task of 
 adequately legislating in detail for the varied wants and 
 local requirements of the three kingdoms, and that the in- 
 
IRISH INDUSTRIES 35 
 
 terests of Ireland were especially misunderstood, disregarded, 
 or sacrificed in that assembly. This resolution was seconded 
 by Mr. W. Shaw, M.P. Professor Galbraith, of Trinity 
 College, moved a resolution, to the effect that it was absolutely 
 essential to the well-being of the country that the present 
 legislative system be terminated, and the management of Irish 
 affairs committed to an Irish Parliament sitting in the national 
 capital, where Irish business could best be transacted, and 
 composed of Irish representatives, who could best understand 
 the requirements of their country. Dr. Grattan, nephew of 
 Henry Grattan, and other speakers, followed in the same strain. 
 The last resolution was one which thrilled the hearts of every 
 Irish patriot present, for by this resolution the meeting 
 solemnly pledged itself, every man to each other and to their 
 country, to enter earnestly into this National movement, bury- 
 ing for country's sake, all bygone feuds and bitter memories. 
 
 These resolutions express clearly and plainly, the Irish 
 demand. The Irish Nationalists thoroughly indorse them, 
 but they know, and the Provincialists, if they seriously reflect, 
 must admit, that they are impossible of accomplishment by 
 peaceful means ; the word self-government, in Ireland, goes to 
 the very root of English and Irish interests, which are un- 
 questionably antagonistic. 
 
 At whose expense would Irish industries be developed ? 
 At the loss of all Irish trade to English merchants and manu- 
 facturers ; and in the words of Professor Galbraith, these are 
 essential to the well being of Ireland. The last resolution, 
 union of creeds and classes for the national welfare, has 
 always been the cardinal doctrine of the Irish Nationalists. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, true to his hypocritical position, that of an 
 English Minister posing as the friend of Ireland, introduced 
 a severe coercion measure for that country — the usual out- 
 come of British promises, and more especially those of Ireland's 
 most deceitful friend, William Ewart Gladstone. The pages 
 of history reveal no greater turpitude than this statesman's 
 generous promises, so quickly followed by cruel and despotic 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 deeds. This serpent wooing is leading numbers of our people 
 to political destruction to-day. Even in his last so-called 
 Home Rule Bill, the measure when printed, gave the lie to his 
 speech in the House one week before. He never came to 
 power without passing a coercion measure for Ireland, even 
 during his last short term of office. . . . 
 
 In November, 1873, the great "Home Rule" Conference 
 was held in the Rotunda, Dublin. On the i8th, 19th, and 
 20th of that month, this conference was called together by 
 the " Home Rule " leaders to provoke discussion of the 
 National demand, and to lay a solid foundation on which to 
 build up the Irish federalist movement. 
 
 Among those who attended were the following members ot 
 Parliament: — Messrs. Bryan, Butt, Blennerhasset, Brady, 
 Brown, Callan, D'Arcy, Dease, Delahunty, McCarthy and 
 Downing, Hon. C. Munster, A. Redmond, Ronayne, Shaw, 
 Smith, Stackpoole, Syman, N. D. Murphy, Sir John Gray, 
 John Martin, &c. The Mr. Redmond, M.P., who attended 
 this conference, who was a finished speaker, and made an 
 eloquent speech there, was the father of Mr. Parnell's two 
 followers of to-day, Messrs. John and William Redmond, so 
 well known to Irishmen all over the world. 
 
 Mr. Shaw, M.P., Bandon, was elected to the chair. Captain 
 King-Harman read the requisition, which was signed by 
 twenty-four thousand persons. The following resolutions 
 were passed by this great Provincial conference : — 
 
 " 1st. That as the basis of proceedings of these conferences, 
 we declare our conviction that it is essentially necessary to 
 the peace and prosperity of Ireland, that the right of legis- 
 lation on all Irish affairs should be restored to our country. 
 
 " 2nd. That solemnly we assert the inalienable right of the 
 Irish people to self-government. We declare that the time 
 in our opinion has come, when a combined and energetic 
 effort should be made to obtain the restoration of that right. 
 
 " 3rd. That in accordance with the ancient and constitu- 
 tional rights of the Irish nation, we claim the privilege of 
 managing our own affairs by a Parliament assembled in 
 
THE FEDERAL DEMAND 37 
 
 Ireland, and composed of Sovereign, Lords, and Commons of 
 Ireland. 
 
 "4th. That in claiming these rights and privileges for our 
 country, we adopt the principle of a Federal arrangement 
 which would secure to the Irish Parliament the right of legis- 
 lating for, and regulating all matters relating to, the internal 
 affairs of Ireland, while leaving to the Imperial ParHament 
 the power of dealing with all questions affecting the Imperial 
 Crown, and government legislation regarding the colonies and 
 other dependencies of the Crown, the relations of the Empire 
 with foreign states, and all matters operating on the defence 
 and stability of the empire at large, as well as the power of 
 granting and providing the supplies necessary for Imperial 
 purposes. That such an arrangement does not involve any 
 change in the existing Constitution of the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment, or any interference with the prerogatives of the Crown, 
 or disturbance of the principles of the Constitution. That 
 to secure the Irish people the advantages of Constitutional 
 Government, it is essential that there should be in Ireland 
 an Administration for Irish affairs, controlled according to 
 constitutional principles, by the Irish Parliament, and con- 
 ducted by Ministers, constitutionally responsible to the Irish 
 Parliament. That, in the opinion of this conference, a Federal 
 arrangement based upon these principles, would consolidate 
 the strength, and maintain the integrity of the Imperial Crown ; 
 that while we believe that in an Irish Parliament the rights 
 and liberties of all classes of our countrymen would find their 
 best and surest protection, we are willing there should be in- 
 corporated in the Federal Constitution articles supplying the 
 amplest guarantees that no change should be made by that 
 Parliament in the present settlement of property in Ireland 
 and that no legislation should be adopted to establish any 
 religious ascendency in Ireland, or to subject any person to 
 disabilities on account of his religious opinions." 
 
 The conference concluded its labours on November 20, 
 1873, but although some of the best of the Irish people 
 tried to serve their country by formulating an excellent and 
 
38 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 practical platform with the Provincialist theory of asking the 
 enemy to give Ireland self-legislation, their actions were 
 wilfully misstated and purposely falsified by the British people, 
 whose vital interests would be affected if they quietly yielded 
 to Ireland's peaceful demands. A number of men who were 
 trained and brought up in the British school of Liberal 
 politics, espoused the meaningless cry, " Home Rule ", for the 
 purpose of securing their seats at the approaching general 
 election. The English members who use that cry to-day are 
 just as sincere as were those men fifteen years ago. The Flag 
 of Ireland of November 22, 1873, commenting on these 
 people, said : *' Many gentlemen will now come forward on 
 the popular platform ; they will discover by a sudden inspira- 
 tion that the only hope for Ireland is ' Home Rule.^ " 
 
Ill 
 
 THE EBB AND FLOW OF ENGLISH POLITICS— THE NEW 
 IRISH PARTY. 
 
 The Parliament of 1868, elected on Mr. Gladstone's 
 hypocritical cry " Justice to Ireland," was drawing to a close. 
 The English by-elections had recently all gone against 
 Mr. Gladstone"; the English people were growing weary of 
 his rule, and wished a change. That portion of the Irish 
 people who hailed his advent to power, were dissatisfied and 
 disappointed. The Land and Church Bills, ushered in with 
 such Mat^ were proved utterly worthless, as all these so-called 
 English concessions always must be. The Provincialists, 
 who had raised the hopes of a portion of the Irish people, 
 telling them of the great things for Ireland the return to 
 power of the " Grand Old Man " would bring, were compelled 
 to repudiate their former speeches, or else seek refuge in 
 silence. They had deceived the people, then, as they are 
 deceiving them to-day ; clouding their intelligence with mis- 
 leading statements, and slandering and misquoting any 
 Irishmen who would attempt to point out to his countrymen 
 the real position of affairs. But the stern logic of facts was 
 against them at the close of 1873. Ireland had experienced 
 the fruits of Gladstone's coercive rule, and the nation could 
 not be hoodwinked. The near approach of the general 
 election compelled Gladstone's Irish followers to drop away 
 from him, and appear at least to embrace Home Rule. This 
 was the condition of Irish party politics when Charles Stewart 
 
40 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Parnell appeared upon the scene, soon to become an im- 
 portant leader in England's easily solved problem, Irish 
 Provincialist agitation. 
 
 A keen observer of English public opinion near the close 
 of Mr. Gladstone's Administration, 1868 to 1873, could easily 
 see that this great statesman had " lost touch " of public 
 sentiment. A visitor to the London clubs, where politics 
 are daily and nightly discussed, could notice great despond- 
 ency among the Liberals, and an expressed feeling of 
 approaching triumph in the Conservative camp. 
 
 In Liberal circles a certain amount of weariness, of ennui^ 
 had taken possession of the most ardent supporters of the 
 " Grand Old Man." The giant energy with which he started 
 out to demolish those castles, which he considered barred the 
 road to a thorough union in sentiment, as well as interest, 
 between the English and Irish peoples, seemed vanished into 
 cloudland. When he had succeeded in applying his theories 
 to Ireland, he found the application had not the desired 
 result. He found, to his astonishment, that he had not 
 touched the seat of the evil, which had estranged these hostile 
 races for centuries. One, the British, in the flush of what 
 they considered, and still consider, conquest, had tried to 
 mould and shape the destinies of the Irish people, to what 
 they termed their useful position in the British Empire, 
 The other, the Irish, never admitted that they were a con- 
 quered race, never gave up the struggle ; the war, which 
 commenced on the landing of Strongbow, continues to this 
 hour. Mr. Gladstone found his Irish Church Bill, and his 
 Land Bill, had settled nothing. Ireland was in no way 
 benefited by either measure, but remained still dissatisfied and 
 hostile. The Irish people had heard so often of these false 
 phantoms, called stepping stones to liberty ! When, however, 
 they gazed upon the stream which these were supposed to 
 bridge, it proved too deep and rapid ; these airy British 
 ootholds were carried away by the fierce torrent of nation- 
 ality, and the broad river flowed on in its uninterrupted 
 course, leaving a wide and yawning gulf that can only 
 
MR. GLADSTONE'S ADDRESS 41 
 
 be crossed by one means — means which are as old as 
 the days of Joshua and the Israelites, and even then had been 
 practised by preceding generations. 
 
 English public sentiment was estranged from Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Administration for many causes, but more especially 
 because they had not satisfied the Irish people, after all the 
 so-called sacrifices made for them by the English voters. 
 This extraordinary delusion under which the British people 
 labour, is partly the fault of a large section of the Irish, who are 
 led away by the illusory picture painted by their Provincialist 
 agitators, some honest and some selfish, who are seeking for 
 an impossibility — good laws from the alien Parliament in 
 London, i.e.^ good poison to strengthen the Irish people. . . . 
 
 Several by-elections having gone against him, Mr. Gladstone 
 dissolved Parliament on January 24, 1874. The Liberal Pre- 
 mier used every exertion to get from the English people, 
 a renewal of power. His leading argument was based upon 
 the financial management of the affairs of the empire ; and, if 
 given a renewal of confidence by the vote of the country, he 
 promised the abolition of the income tax, a huge bid for 
 popular support. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli, the leader of the Opposition, had styled the 
 Liberal Administration a government of "blundering and 
 plundering," which epigrammatic expression was re-echoed 
 on every busting. He also accused Mr. Gladstone of gross 
 mismanagement of England*s foreign policy — always a weak 
 spot in Liberal Administrations. In addition, he accused 
 him of serious neglect of British interests on the West Coast 
 of Africa, which resulted in the Ashantee War — a war then 
 in progress, and which brought to public notice the services 
 of the commander of the expedition, Sir Garnet Wolseley, 
 afterwards styled England's " great and only " general. . . . 
 
 Mr. Gladstone issued one of his usual lengthy addresses 
 to the electors of Greenwich, and entered into an elaborate 
 defence of his administration. In one part of this address 
 he said : " It may be stated with truth, that next to the great 
 
42 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Irish question of Church and Land, now happily disposed 
 of, the election of 1868 turned in no small degree upon 
 expenditure." . . . 
 
 In the general election of the spring of 1874, which ensued, 
 Mr. Butt and the " Home Rule " party were most energetic in 
 trying to get their representatives elected for the various 
 Irish constituencies, so mockingly said to be " represented " 
 in the enemy's Parliament. The same teaching as is 
 heard to this day, was preached all over Ireland. Let them 
 but give Mr. Butt a large majority of the Irish representation, 
 and he would overwhelmingly convince the British by his 
 arguments, that Ireland demanded and needed self-govern- 
 ment. No Ministry could withstand the strain that the 
 "Home Rule" party could put upon them, and "Home Rule" 
 must be the result. And then the Irish members about to be 
 elected would be the last Ireland would need to send with 
 such a demand, to London. They would next be electing 
 members to legislate for themselves in College Green ! 
 
 The Irish people, and their teachers, completely ignore the 
 lessons of history ; that never since the creation, has an en- 
 slaved nation, argued the conqueror to surrender his spoils 
 peacefully. 
 
 Filled with the delusive teachings instilled into them, a 
 great majority of the Irish electorate returned Provincialists 
 to sit in the London Parliament, and to further the energies 
 of that brilliant and able lawyer, Mr. Isaac Butt. The 
 Provincialists can never accuse the Irish people for their 
 many failures, for they always contributed by energetic 
 labour to the delusive elections of these men. The return 
 of so many followers of Mr. Butt gave the Gladstonites, Irish 
 and British, a good opportunity to call Ireland a nation of 
 ingrates, after receiving what they termed these priceless 
 boons the Church and Land Bills, and so spoken of by many 
 of the Provincialists before coming into law. They had a 
 Land Bill which the English farmers did not enjoy, and yet 
 ungrateful Ireland was now opposing the Liberal candidates 
 by " Home Rulers." They defeated Mr. Gladstone's Irish 
 
DEFEAT OF MR. GLADSTONE 43 
 
 Chief Secretary, the kindly disposed Mr. Chichester 
 Fortescue, the most lenient (so-called) administrator of a 
 Coercion Act that Ireland had known for a long time ; but 
 then, as a British Minister, he was compelled to administer 
 coercion. He was an exact counterpart of Mr. Gladstone's 
 last Chief Secretary, who introduced and passed the Coercion 
 Act termed " Peace Preservation Act," which coercion he 
 would be compelled to administer had he remained in office. 
 Mr. Fortescue, like the much-praised Mr. Morley, would give 
 Ireland the same amount of self-government, which means 
 subjection to British authority. Praising any of the British 
 Ministers is like saying good of poison; their business in Ireland 
 as rulers, means foreign despotism of a greater or less degree ; 
 if self-government on their lips, were anything but mocking, 
 gibing phrases, their presence in Ireland, in any capacity, 
 would be unnecessary. His (Mr. Morley's) speeches at the 
 time we write, have the same meaning as Mr. Chamberlain's, 
 a few years back. The London Times of February 16, 1874 
 writing on the then Irish elections, observed : " Rejection of 
 Mr. Chichester Fortescue at Louth is a painful illustration of 
 Irish ingratitude. No Administration has done so much to 
 remedy the evil effects of past misrule, and to attach the 
 inhabitants of Ireland to Parliamentary government ; and no 
 Administration has been so-ill requited for its pains and 
 sacrifices. ..." 
 
 The Gladstone Government received a crushing defeat at 
 the polls. The Tory majority was 54, counting the " Home 
 Rulers " as Liberals. The Irish elected under the banner of 
 self-government numbered 61 members, which would place the 
 Liberals in a minority of 176, if they should find occasion to 
 vote with the Tory. 
 
 Among the prominent men elected by the Irish people at 
 the election was the father of obstruction, Joseph Biggar, 
 and of the sixty-one " Home Rulers " then elected Mr. Biggar, 
 Sir Joseph N. McKenna, and Captain Nolan are all that 
 are remaining to-day (1887) among the followers of Mr. 
 Parnell. 
 
44 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Mr. Gladstone resigned office on 17th February, 1874. Mr. 
 Disraeli was sent for by the Queen, to form a new Adminis- 
 tration. The Irish Liberal electors of Greenwich had sup- 
 ported Mr. Gladstone in the recent election, on the ex- 
 pressed understanding that the remaining Irish political 
 prisoners would be liberated. Previous to his resignation 
 they sent him a letter asking for their release ; he replied 
 through one of his secretaries, stating that the result of the 
 election, debarred him from discussing the question. An 
 English Minister, even though an election foreshadows his 
 defeat, can, if he chooses, meet Parliament, and test his 
 Government by a vote of the House. He retains all the 
 prerogatives of his high office, until he places his resignation in 
 the hands of his sovereign. Mr. Gladstone, after this election, 
 used his power as Minister by making several appointments 
 before his resignation. He elevated some of his followers to 
 the peerage, notably two Irish representatives, Mr. Monsell as 
 Lord Emly, and Mr. Fortescue, the rejected of Louth, as Lord 
 Carlingford. Mr. Palles, one of his Irish law officers, he 
 elevated to the vacant judgeship, as Chief Baron of the Exche- 
 quer. He could reward his followers, but when his signature to 
 a document releasing the Irish political prisoners was required 
 of him, he pleaded as excuse the result of the elections. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was never yet known to do a gracious action 
 towards Ireland ; he never introduced what was meant to be 
 a good measure for that country, unless it was accompanied 
 by some drawback in the shape of coercion. Those of the 
 Fenian prisoners whom he liberated in the early days of 
 his power, he hampered with such conditions as took 
 away from the act anything of clemency that could be at- 
 tributed to him. He exiled them to a foreign country, and 
 would not permit them to visit father, mother, sister, brother, 
 wife, sweetheart, or child ; or revisit, even for a short time, the 
 beloved land for which they suffered. After years spent in 
 England's convict prisons, their only glance of Ireland was 
 from the deck of the steamer that visited Queenstown en route 
 to America. . . . 
 
MR. BUTT'S PROPHECY 45 
 
 A meeting of the newly-elected Irish members was called, 
 by circular, to meet on Tuesday, March 3, 1874, to devise in 
 what manner the Irish demands were to be placed before 
 Parliament. 
 
 The Dublin Freeman anticipated that the meeting of the 
 Irish members would " result in the formation of a Par- 
 liamentary party that would be strong enough to assert the 
 claims of Ireland to self-government with success." . . . 
 
 A public meeting was held in the Rotunda on March 3, 
 1874. The report reads like the self-same delusive folly 
 of one of our recent meetings. Mr. Butt spoke just as 
 Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Davitt, or Mr. Parnell would to-day, 
 always talking of some victory which presaged the final 
 success. Mr. Butt of course declared that the advent of 
 Irish independence — independence which would not separate 
 Ireland from England, but strengthen and unite the two 
 countries — was as certain as the rising of the morrow's sun. 
 Once they convinced the people of England that they 
 were not veiled rebels, and that all they asked was freedom, 
 and that they were determined to be free and live as 
 friends to England, the whole English nation would be with 
 them, except the corrupt aristocrats, who had some advantage 
 to gain ; there would be no defaulters in their Parliamentary 
 ranks on the day of Ireland's freedom, and, without meaning 
 to lower sacred things, he repeated the words of the Prophet 
 to another enslaved nation : ** Awake ! awake ! O daughter of 
 Zion ! Lift thyself from the dust ; put on thy glorious apparel, 
 cast off the bonds of captivity from thy neck and be free, for 
 the day of thy deliverance is at hand, the day of thy redemp- 
 tion is nigh." He said to the captive daughter of Erin, 
 " Arise ! awake ! Put on thy glorious apparel ! Lift thyself 
 from the dust ! Arise, cast off the chains of slavery from thy 
 neck, for oh ! captive daughter of Erin, long enslaved and 
 oppressed, seven centuries of thy slavery gone, and surely, 
 oh, surely indeed, the day of thy deliverance is at hand — the 
 day of thy redemption draweth nigh ; arise, and rejoice in your 
 liberty!" 
 
46 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 When Irish Nationalists read these beautiful orations, and 
 reflect what a strangely credulous race they are addressed to, 
 they must sometimes despair of their people's redemption. 
 Mr. Butt had as much right to promise Ireland the near 
 approach of her redemption, as the agitators of to-day, who 
 are leading the people astray, preaching to them that their 
 English enemy is to aid them to recover their stolen freedom. 
 Mr. Butt spoke of the corrupt aristocrats, as the present 
 Parliamentarians do, as an obstacle to Irish self-government. 
 The facts are that the predominating interests that need 
 Ireland's subjection, are the traders, the manufacturers, and 
 "shopocracy" of Britain. It is their votes and those of the 
 British mechanic ,which have returned the Tory regime, in 
 power at this date [September, 1887]. 
 
 At the close of the Great Buttite meeting a roll of honour 
 was produced, to be signed by the members — something 
 similar to the Parnell pledge. John Martin was the first to 
 affix his signature to that document. . . . 
 
 The new Parliament met. Mr. Disraeli had completed his 
 Cabinet, and the usual so-called Queen's Speech was read. 
 Mr. Butt moved an amendment to the address, asking the 
 House to appoint a committee to inquire into the existing 
 relations between Great Britain and Ireland. He made an 
 able and eloquent appeal, representing to Englishmen the 
 oft-repeated tale of Irish grievances. In the course of an in- 
 teresting debate on Mr. Butt's Irish " Home Rule " proposal, 
 Mr. Gladstone observed : " He says he brings a perfectly in- 
 telligible plan by which affairs exclusively Irish are to be 
 discussed in an Irish Parliament, and affairs exclusively 
 English are to be discussed in this Parliament ; and the 
 members representing Ireland are to come here for that 
 purpose. ... I want to know in what portion of his plan 
 are we guaranteed against the danger that our friends from 
 Ireland, who shall be vested with exclusive power over the 
 consideration of Irish affairs in Dublin, may come here to 
 meddle with affairs exclusively English and Scotch." 
 
THE "HOME RULE" RESOLUTION 47 
 
 These remarks of Mr. Gladstone will be read with interest, 
 in the face of a somewhat similar proposition of his own. 
 How inconsistent both English statesmen and Irish agitators 
 are in this international issue ! Of course Mr. Butt's motion 
 was defeated ; but the repeated rejections of " Home Rule " 
 measures make no difference to Irish " legal and constitu- 
 tional " agitators ; they call such refusals victories, and our 
 deluded countrymen believe them. . . . 
 
 The new Irish party was now fully organised, with its own 
 leader, whips, and other officers, but for all that it affected 
 the fortunes of Ireland it might have been as much merged 
 into the Liberal party as its successor, with its eighty-six 
 Parnellites, is at this date. 
 
 Mr. Butt brought forward his "Home Rule" motion on June 
 30, 1874. The British Ministry set up their Irish Attorney- 
 General to give it a most emphatic refusal. Mr. Ball, the 
 British mouthpiece, gave England's reply, which was as effec- 
 tive as the reply of the English masses at the last election 
 (1886). " He said that a clear, distinct, and emphatic decision 
 on the question now submitted to their consideration was 
 imperatively demanded. . . . That decision should be the 
 answer of the Government, which, for the time, represented 
 the feelings and opinions of the people of this country. For 
 that reason, he should give a decided and emphatic negative 
 to all the propositions that had been offered by the honourable 
 member who had just spoken. (Hear, hear.) . . If there 
 existed a powerful nation in immediate contiguity to a weaker 
 one, there was no safety for the weaker nation but incorpora- 
 tion, and no perfect safety for the stronger nation either, 
 because the power of each to injure the other, as long as they 
 were separate, rendered the result incapable of being pre- 
 dicted. But by incorporation, they elevated the weaker nation, 
 without in the least degree taking away from the power of 
 the stronger one. . ." The debate continued for two evenings ; 
 the House divided, and Mr. Butt's motion was defeated by a 
 majority of 397. 
 
IV 
 
 DEATHS OF JOHN MITCHELL AND JOHN MARTIN — 
 ELECTION OF MR. PARNELL FOR MEATH. 
 
 The year 1875 brought to Ireland the sorrowful tidings 
 of the death of two of the most faithful of her sons — John 
 Mitchell and John Martin. 
 
 John Mitchell, the stern and uncompromising foe to British 
 rule in his native land, after years of wandering in foreign 
 countries, came home to the green island that gave him birth 
 to die there ; but to see once again, before the final adieu, the 
 hills and valleys of his boyhood ; to revisit the quiet town of 
 Newry, the home of his early manhood, and to gaze once 
 more with passionate adoration on glorious Rostrevor and 
 the magnificent bay of Carlingford, which sweeps in majestic 
 beauty from the coast of Louth to that of Down, dotted here 
 and there with villas, havens of quiet rest. Towering above, 
 like giant sentinals guarding the approaches to the bay, 
 stands that magnificent range of hills the Mourne Mountains. 
 How often in his distant wanderings had he seen them in his 
 dreams ; how happy once more to feed his eyes upon their 
 beauty, and feel all that worship which is centred in the exile's 
 heart ! There can be no exile more painful than the know- 
 ledge that never more can you see your beloved mother- 
 land, never more unless the foreigner is for ever banished as 
 a ruler. 
 
 John Mitchell was the great prominent leader of the '48 
 movement; his character stands out in bold relief^ and towers 
 
DEATH OF JOHN MITCHELL 49 
 
 in giant strength above his associates. He was of the true 
 metal out of which revolutionary leaders are created. Had 
 his advice been taken, Ireland would have appealed to arms 
 in '48. His departure for Australia, without the slightest 
 attempt at rescue on the part of the National leaders, was an 
 instance of cowardice and vacillation, which proved that they 
 were mere tyros in revolutionary knowledge. The attempt 
 might have been suppressed by the superiority in weapons 
 and skill of the enemy ; but it would have produced grand 
 results, even in defeat. . . . 
 
 John Mitchell, unchanged and uncompromising to the last, 
 saw, on his return to his native land, his country still struggling 
 in her death throes — a decimated people flying from a 
 poverty-stricken, decaying nation — blessed with all the 
 beauties and loveliness God has ever given any land ; cursed 
 in all the cruelties that man could bring to aid in her 
 destruction. The signs of her continued decay were plainly 
 visible to the dying patriot's eyes. On March 24, 1875, in 
 his brother-in-law's house, Dromalane, near Newry, John 
 Mitchell breathed his last. There then passed away from us 
 one of Ireland's most devoted sons, and one of England's 
 most hostile foes. He was the soul and spirit of the '48 era, 
 the man who lent tone and dignity to a sad page in his 
 country's history. 
 
 There was one mourner at his grave whom death was soon 
 to claim as his own — the dead leader's brother-in-law, John 
 Martin ; honest, incorruptible John Martin, Mitchell's fellow- 
 patriot and felon. The English Minister, Mr. Gladstone, 
 could use no sophistry to change this steadfast Irishman ; he 
 fully comprehended what was meant by the bitter lesson of 
 hypocritical English Liberal promises when in opposition, to 
 be cancelled by cruelties, or hollow acts of so-called concession, 
 when in power. He remembered Lord John Russell's 
 wonderful speech in defence of Ireland, and the scathing 
 manner in which he had denounced the brutal Tory Govern- 
 ment who coerced her ; but he also recollected that when the 
 same Liberal Minister had been scarcely more than restored 
 
 £ 
 
50 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 to office, when Englishman-like, regardless of his promises, he 
 brought in and passed the Treason-Felony Act, under which 
 many Irishmen, John Martin himself and his dead friend 
 included, were quickly transported as felons. 
 
 No British blandishments or treacherous promises from 
 any Minister, could make John Martin deviate a hairsbreadth, 
 from the course he had marked out for himself, in the service 
 of his country. 
 
 This broken-hearted friend of the dead Mitchell, felt he 
 could not long survive him. He became ill during the funeral 
 service, and was led away feeble and staggering. He took 
 to bed in the house in Dromalane, near Newry, where John 
 Mitchell had recently died ; and soon, very soon, the gentle 
 spirit of John Martin went back to his Creator, and Ireland 
 mourned another pure and patriotic son. 
 
 The death of John Martin caused a vacancy in the 
 representation of Meath, and Mr. Butt fulfilled his promise 
 by causing Mr. Parnell's name to be put in nomination. 
 Meath being a Provincialist constituency, this was almost 
 equivalent to an election. At the meeting of the electors 
 Mr. Parnell was proposed by the Rev. Mr. Tormy, C.C., and 
 seconded by Mr. Kirk, M.P. Mr. Parnell issued a short 
 address, in which he advocated "fixity of tenure and fair 
 rents, without which the country could not be prosperous." 
 He was accepted as the National candidate. Mr. Hinds, a 
 Home Ruler, was not satisfied and determined to go to the 
 polls. Three names were before the electors of Meath : — 
 
 Mr. Parnell (People's Candidate). Proposed by Rev. U. 
 Behan, C.C, and Mr. Ennis, M.P. 
 
 Mr. Hinds ("Home Ruler"). Proposed by Mr. Gerald 
 Hubert and Mr. Patrick Ennis. 
 
 Mr. Napier (Conservative). Proposed by Mr. Thomas 
 Gerrard and Mr. John Leonard. 
 
 Mr. Parnell was received with great enthusiasm ; his 
 election struggle against the Tory, Colonel Taylor, and the 
 reputation of his great name, made him popular. Several 
 
MR. PARNELL ELECTED FOR MEATH 51 
 
 bands came down from Dublin, to make gay, and rejoice over 
 the nomination of Mr. Butt's candidate. Mr. Butt was then 
 in the zenith of his popularity. The devotion of the Irish 
 to great orators is proverbial. Mr. Parnell, in his election 
 address, was compelled to be a pensioner on his dead 
 ancestors. The following was part of the usual election 
 manifesto of principles : " My ancestor. Sir John Parnell, 
 was the advocate, in the old Irish Parliament, of the removal 
 of the disabilities which affected his Catholic fellow-country- 
 men, and in the evil days of corruption which destroyed 
 the independence of Ireland, he lost a great office and 
 refused a peerage to oppose the fatal measure of Union." 
 
 In addressing the Meath electors, Mr. Parnell spoke of the 
 land laws, and of the necessity of improving the condition 
 of the farmer, foreshadowing the giant land movement which 
 soon after followed, but which, unlike the mountain in labour, 
 has not even produced a mouse of advantage to the farming 
 community. It is strange how we never hear from the lips 
 of agitators, anything concerning the loss of Ireland's trade 
 and manufactures, unless in a sentimental and incidental way. 
 But no moral suasionist, so far, has attempted to start an 
 organisation to restore them, though they are of vastly 
 greater importance to Ireland than the land grievance. Of 
 course it would be quixotic to attempt by such a means to 
 build up Irish manufactures in the face of British power, but 
 not more so than to think that the land question could be 
 so solved. Mr. Parnell was triumphantly returned for Meath, 
 and from that time commenced the career of a new Parlia- 
 mentary leader, whose era was as eventful as either the 
 O'Connell or Butt epochs. 
 
 The Tory Government had scarce enjoyed twelve months 
 of power when they introduced a consolidated Coercion Bill 
 for Ireland, including in its provisions all the scattered drastic 
 remedies of Mr. Gladstone's previous measures. . . . 
 
 Mr. Gladstone felt very keenly, the crushing defeat inflicted 
 on his Administration, by the general election of 1874. He 
 
52 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 was greatly irritated with the action of his hitherto obedient 
 servants, the Irish members — a position they have now, 
 November, 1887, resumed — which placed his government in a 
 minority on the Irish University Bill. 
 
 One of the first books which he produced during his re- 
 tirement, was his famous pamphlet entitled Vaticanism^ in 
 which he attacked the Roman Catholic dogma of Papal infal- 
 libility. It was, to say the least, a very curious and strange 
 proceeding on the part of an ex-Liberal Premier, to make so 
 wanton and uncalled-for attack on the religion of the great 
 majority of the Irish people, and to write so insultingly upon 
 a subject of which he must have known they were so ex- 
 tremely sensitive, and one which they would feel compelled 
 to resent. He acted with lack of judgment for a great states- 
 man, and displayed a bitter and vindictive mood, when he re- 
 linquished the leadership of his party, doing this at a time when 
 that party most needed his services, in almost the very hour of 
 their defeat at the polls. He behaved, indeed, as if animated by 
 petty spite towards the English people — a feeling which finds 
 no room in the breasts of the truly great. He thought that 
 they were ungrateful to him for his great services, and that they 
 had inflicted upon him undeserved humiliation, by the immense 
 majorities they cast against his Administration. With the 
 extension of the franchise, which he believed he was the 
 indirect author of, and the pure ballot system of voting he had 
 given them, he could not believe it possible that there could 
 be recorded against him such a sweeping verdict. It was the 
 huge vote that went to his opponents which increased and 
 intensified his bitterness. 
 
 He was in this angry mood, and looking around for some- 
 thing to strike, when he selected the Irish as the most fitting 
 object on which to vent his ill-feeling, and the result was 
 this book, Vaticanism. He knew it would madden and 
 irritate the Irish Catholics, and more particularly that section 
 which had always helped the Liberal party in Parliament 
 and at the polls. The Dublin Freeman^ which might almost 
 have been considered his organ, and which usually sang his 
 
MR. PARNELL'S DEBUT S3 
 
 praises in every mood and tense, retorted in an able article. 
 It wondered what madness possessed him to write such a 
 pamphlet, attacking the faith of his Irish supporters — he, a 
 possible British Prime Minister, in the near future. But a very 
 little time, however, passed away before the Freeman and its 
 constituents forgot this pamphlet, so that Mr. Gladstone 
 was right in his estimation of these men, and thoroughly 
 appreciated their innate toadyism, no matter how he spurned 
 or kicked them. The idol has been restored to its accus- 
 tomed throne, and offerings of flowers and incense are pre- 
 sented at its altar. The cry of the agitators has changed to 
 " All hail ! Grandest of Grand Old Men." 
 
 The Liberal statesmen held a meeting to select one of 
 their number to succeed Mr. Gladstone, as leader of the 
 party ; then, as since, he towered in intellect and ability 
 above his colleagues ; they knew it was impossible to replace 
 him by a kindred genius. The two leading candidates, over 
 whom the Liberals were divided, were the Marquis of 
 Hartington and Mr. W. E. Forster. After consideration they 
 decided on the former; and accordingly Lord Hartington was 
 elected leader of the party, to conduct the business of her 
 Majesty's Opposition in the House of Commons. 
 
 The great debate on the second reading of the Tory 
 Coercion Act for Ireland, was set down for Thursday, April 
 22, 1875. It was on that evening Mr. Parnell took the oath 
 and his seat as member for Meath. As the successor of John 
 Martin advanced to the Speaker's chair, he was received with 
 loud and continued applause by the Irish members. Few 
 there that night could dream, to what peculiar prominence in 
 Irish politics, that quiet young man would be elevated. His 
 icy cold manner, so different from the usual impulsive Irish- 
 man, was noticed as it has been by many since, not to Mr. 
 Parnell's advantage in the making of personal friends. No 
 one could anticipate the important position he would even- 
 tually assume, as the public leader of the Irish Provincialists. 
 It was a curious coincidence of the time, that British coercion 
 
54 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 for his country, was being debated in that foreign assembly 
 when the young member for Meath crossed its portal. At 
 that time he was full of hope and ambition for the future, 
 determined to pursue with energy and intelligence, a certain 
 path, which he had mapped out for himself. How often must 
 he have since, in the solitude of his own chamber, when words 
 to conceal the thoughts are useless — how often there has he 
 had to admit to himself, that, to arrive at the looked-for goal, 
 rocks that bar the way must be blown up, and trees and brush- 
 wood cut down to clear the path ! Words cannot accomplish 
 this ; it is impossible ; there must be blows, or else certain 
 failure. Another event of that night was Mr. Biggar's first 
 speech as an Obstructionist. The English members could not 
 understand Mr. Biggar's tactics, for, with one notable ex- 
 ception, when Mr. Gladstone exhausted the rules of Parliament 
 with the avowed purpose of blocking a measure which he 
 disapproved of, obstruction was a thing unknown in the 
 British Commons. As a rule it was a very exclusive assem- 
 blage of Britons, and one of the most often pronounced 
 assertions made by the wealthy British, when speaking of that 
 Legislature, was to the effect that it was the first assembly 
 of gentlemen in the world. They were soon to be rudely 
 awakened from this happy dream ; the newly-elected Irish 
 members, or rather it should be said some few of their num- 
 ber, were determined that if they could not shape the Irish 
 legislation, they would give the Briton as much trouble and 
 annoyance in making these obnoxious laws as possible. Mr. 
 Biggar, before making his first great effort in Parliament, 
 provided himself with a number of blue books, out of which 
 he read extracts so that he could prolong his speech; the 
 British members looked aghast, as hours rolled on and the 
 honourable member gave no sign of coming to a close. 
 When his voice grew tired, he rested by speaking in a some- 
 what low tone. The Speaker, noticing this, said he must call 
 on the honourable member to address the chair ; his voice 
 was inaudible. 
 
 Mr. Biggar, who had by this time been addressing the 
 
MR. PARNELL'S MAIDEN SPEECH 55 
 
 House for three hours, said it was not easy to make his voice 
 heard for so long a time, but he would place himself in a more 
 advantageous position. Taking up a glass of water, therefore, 
 and a bundle of papers and the blue books, he, with some 
 laughter from the Irish members, took his place on one of the 
 front Opposition benches above the gangway; a seat only 
 occupied by ex-cabinet Ministers or leaders of the Opposition. 
 After speaking for another hour, he said he did not wish to 
 detain the House at greater length, but he hoped he had 
 succeeded in proving to the satisfaction of every man of un- 
 prejudiced mind, that the proposition of the Government was 
 perfectly unreasonable, and that the Government had made 
 out no case for this bill. He concluded a speech of four 
 hours' duration by moving, at nine o'clock : 
 
 " That in the opinion of this House, it is inexpedient to pro- 
 ceed with the consideration of a bill re-enacting and modifying 
 detached portions of several statutes, until it is put into such 
 form as to show clearly and distinctly the provisions which 
 are to form part of the continued and revised code." 
 
 Mr. McKenna, " Home Ruler," seconded the amendment 
 offered by Mr. Biggar. 
 
 This was the first speech that Mr. Parnell, as sitting member 
 of the British Commons, heard in that chamber ; it was the 
 occasion of his d4but^ in the midst of an interesting scene, 
 which led up to such a sad and tragic sequel. . . . 
 
 Mr. Parnell observed that no arguments had been advanced 
 against the amendment of his honourable friend, the member 
 for Cavan. The honourable member for Derry, although he 
 argued with the principle of the bill, said he should vote in 
 favour of the amendment, as being a just and proper one. 
 The Chief Secretary for Ireland had, of course, opposed it, 
 and so also had the noble Marquis, who was supposed to lead 
 the Opposition in that House. What reason had the honour- 
 able member for Derry given, for approving the principle of 
 the bill } It was that some coercion was necessary in his 
 district, to prevent Catholics and Protestants from flying at 
 
56 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 each other's throats. But was that any reason why thirty other 
 Irish counties, should be placed under coercion laws ? It had 
 been said that some half-dozen Irish landlords had given it 
 as their opinion, that, without coercion they could not exercise 
 the rights of property. He had seen Irish landlords sitting in 
 polling-booths, as agents for the Conservative candidate, and 
 their tenants trembling, when they came to vote against that 
 candidate. That was an exercise of the rights of property of 
 which he did not think Englishmen would approve. There 
 had not been threatening letter writing of late, or shooting, or 
 agrarian crime ; and was that, he asked, a time to bring in a 
 Coercion Bill .? Was this a proper time to stop all discussion 
 on this measure, when Irish members were telling the House 
 what the wishes of their constituents with regard to it, were } 
 The honourable member for Derry County had told the 
 House, that the Irish tenant farmers of the north were con- 
 vinced that some remedial measures were necessary for the 
 restoration of tranquillity in that part of the country. 
 
 He did not profess to speak on behalf of the Irish tenant 
 farmers, not even those living in the black north. They were 
 so locked up in their own self-interest, as to be inclined to give 
 up the interest of their country, to serve that of their class. 
 When the proper time came, perhaps, it would be found that 
 he was a truer friend to the tenant farmer than even the 
 honourable member for Derry County. The Chief Secretary 
 for Ireland had found fault with the language which had been 
 used by the honourable member for Derry County, but he 
 did not know who had appointed the honourable gentleman, 
 the censor of the language used in that House by honourable 
 members. But perhaps the right honourable gentleman 
 thought that the time-honoured and ancient Whig-hack would 
 no longer be able to carry matters with a high hand in Derry 
 County, and was holding out to him a helping hand in the 
 event of his thinking of changing his side of the House. For 
 his own part, however, he did not think that the honourable 
 member was likely to turn his coat, and he was convinced 
 that he would always be found, where he believed that the 
 
THE IRISH FARMER $7 
 
 interest of his country required him. He trusted that the time 
 would arrive when the history of the past would be forgotten, 
 and all would look forward to a future, in which Irishmen 
 would possess equal rights of self-government with the people 
 of England and Scotland, and in which England could rely 
 with confidence, on a truly independent, a truly free, and a truly 
 self-supporting nation. 
 
 Mr. Parnell, in the course of his speech in alluding to the 
 Irish tenant farmer as selfish, and ready to sacrifice country for 
 class, said that which every Irish Nationalist must, with great 
 pain and reluctance, endorse. The farmers of Ireland who 
 come under the denomination respectable, or well-to-do, are 
 the most unpatriotic portion of the Irish community. They 
 have never taken any part, as a class, in Irish politics, unless 
 their landed interests were at stake. Those who rent small 
 holdings, find that their life is one perpetual struggle for 
 existence ; they have little time to give their country. 
 From both classes have sprung very good Nationalists — some 
 of the finest men Ireland has produced, — but these are a very 
 small percentage of the farming community. The farmer's 
 sons have invariably been good and loyal Irish patriots, before 
 they, in turn, took to farming for themselves. 
 
 Talk of an English garrison of landlords ! Why they would 
 be multiplied one hundred fold, if these men's grievances 
 could possibly be settled by an alien Parliament. Ireland 
 would then have an additional garrison, to hold the country 
 for the foreigner. 
 
 As to the farm labourers, they, poor fellows, have always 
 been ready to do any good they were able to, in the Irish cause ; 
 self-sacrificing and most reliable as a rule, and faithful to 
 death. But, unfortunately, owing to their defective education, 
 they are not always intelligent in the course they pursue, 
 and are more easily swayed by the addresses of demagogues 
 than their town brothers. 
 
 If a British Parliament could solve this land problem — 
 which is impossible — this latter class would share but little of 
 the benefits the farmer would receive. It is only in the legis- 
 
58 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 lature of an independent nation, that this important Irish 
 question affecting the land of Ireland can be settled, in any- 
 way which would be of substantial benefit to the whole 
 community. 
 
 The grievances of the tillers of Irish soil, and their struggles 
 to eke out what at best is but a miserable existence, have been 
 written of by many able pens within the past few years. But 
 no pen can fully depict the horrors and cruelties the Irish 
 peasantry are undergoing, through the tyranny of rapacious 
 landlords, backed up, aided, and supported by the infamies 
 of the invader's rule. Whether under the regime of the 
 brutal Tory, Salisbury, or the no less cruel but hypocritical 
 Gladstone, evictions continue with heartrending agonies. 
 
 And yet, but a portion of the population of Ireland is engaged 
 in agriculture. Ireland is without any industries, national life, 
 or manufactures — all around is ruin and decay. What, then, 
 must be the suffering of the unhappy townspeople ? Visit 
 any city or town, and you can see the ruins of mills that once 
 flourished, and gave employment to the people. You see the 
 water-power which nature has so plentifully bestowed upon 
 this favoured island of heaven, running to waste ; and you 
 witness numbers of idle men standing around, leaning 
 against ruined walls, eating their souls away in decay, like 
 their surroundings. What silent miseries this must entail : 
 not so public as the agony of evictions, but with the same 
 destructive results. Few know of the struggles with poverty 
 and sickness, brought on by lack of nourishment. How many 
 a famine death takes place unknown, or nearly so, to the com- 
 munity, registered under the head of some disease — disease 
 originating in hunger! Absence of manufactures is the 
 greatest evil of foreign occupation ; the land question is but 
 secondary to this frightful evil. 
 
 An incident occurred in the House of Commons that 
 startled Englishmen, and told them that a new class of Irish- 
 men was now in the enemy's Parliament. On the evening 
 of Tuesday, April 27, 1875, Mr. Biggar rose in his place, and 
 called the Speaker's attention to the presence of strangers. 
 
STRANGERS IN THE HOUSE 59 
 
 It was one of the old privileges of the British Parliament, 
 to exclude all but members at their sittings. This privilege 
 could be exercised by any individual member unquestioned. 
 Of course the custom had not only fallen into disuse, but was 
 almost completely forgotten. The necessity for the presence 
 of newspaper reporters, and the absurdity of exercising the 
 privilege, unless under grave circumstances, coupled with the 
 conservative habits of the British nation, left the laws of 
 Parliament unchanged. When Mr. Biggar called the 
 Speaker's attention to the presence of strangers, the House 
 was astonished at this strange proceeding. The Speaker 
 said : " Do I understand the honourable member for Cavan 
 to take notice that strangers are now present ? " Mr. Biggar : 
 " I do." The Speaker (murmurs and cries of " Oh ! ") : « That 
 being so, I am compelled to give notice that strangers must 
 withdraw." The Speaker's and Members' galleries, which were 
 crowded, were then, at five minutes to five o'clock, soon 
 cleared. The reporters were, of course, also compelled to 
 leave. . . . 
 
 Mr. Disraeli was quite indignant with Mr. Biggar for his 
 conduct. He considered the honourable member for Cavan's 
 action unpardonable, and lowering to the dignity of the first 
 assembly of gentlemen in the world. Several Irish members 
 condemned Mr. Biggar's course. Old members, who had 
 accepted the " Home Rule " cry to preserve their seats, or to 
 procure new ones, were most emphatic in their condemnation. 
 A motion was put and carried, that in future members should 
 give notice if they proposed to call the Speaker's attention 
 to strangers, which would have to be put to the vote of the 
 House. 
 
 What made Mr. Biggar's action more deeply hurtful to the 
 aristocratic British tendencies of both sides of the chamber, 
 was the presence of the Prince of Wales, who was compelled 
 to withdraw with the others. . . . 
 
OBSTRUCTION IN PARLIAMENT — SYMPATHY IN IRELAND. 
 
 When Charles Stewart Parnell first appeared upon the 
 political horizon, there was an intense hostility among the 
 masses of the people against the doctrines of Provincialism, 
 or, as it is often termed, Parliamentary agitation. What 
 then, were the reasons which afterwards induced so many to 
 look with favour on the new aspirant for public leadership ? 
 It was the introduction of the new weapon, obstruction ; and 
 Mr. Parnell's energetic tactics in the enemy's legislative 
 chambers. This, coupled with a bold and manly outspoken 
 determination to win self-government for Ireland in any case, 
 or by any means, should peaceful measures fail, won for Mr. 
 Parnell the devotion of so many Nationalists. Had Mr. 
 Parnell then attempted the driest policy of doing nothing 
 which he preaches and practices at this date (1887), or had he 
 attempted to form an alliance with any of the wings of the 
 enemy's political parties, his sun of leadership would have 
 never arisen. The energy at that time displayed by the young 
 leader, the novelty and unknown power of his new weapon, 
 by the use of which so much was promised to the Irish people; 
 as well as the open and avowed hostility of the professional 
 Home Rule Provincialists, under the leadership of Mr. Isaac 
 Butt, attracted the attention of the masses to the member for 
 Meath. Since that time Mr. Parnell has stolen Mr. Butt's 
 "Home Rule " thunder, only to find it as powerful as the whirr 
 from a popgun. 
 
THE FEELING IN IRELAND 6i 
 
 When the young member from Meath and his small band 
 of colleagues, led by Mr. Biggar, interfered with the orderly 
 and solemn course of British legislation, hampering and trying 
 to render useless the Parliamentary machine, he awoke a 
 feeling of joy and delight in the Irish breast which Parlia- 
 mentary tactics never before evoked. It was a species of 
 physical force introduced into the British Commons, an 
 upsetting of all the traditions and customs of that chamber, 
 hallowed to British reverence. 
 
 This new weapon could not be termed by any stretch of 
 imagination, " moral suasion." It was an attack on an ancient 
 English institution which rendered inoperative, the law-making 
 power, and crippled legislation. It won over to the banner of 
 Mr. Parnell, Irish believers in physical force ; it strengthened 
 and made more confident. Irishmen who clung to milder 
 methods. The more indignant the British became, the more 
 gratified and satisfied were the Irish people. 
 
 The masses of all peoples are not difficult to sway, when 
 leaders can show them a course by which their needs and 
 desires can be procured ; it is then only natural that the path 
 which entails the less sacrifice and suffering, if it can be 
 fruitful with the necessary results, will be eagerly embraced. 
 
 Provincialism, miscalled Nationalism, took a forward step 
 in the Irish mind ; it was impossible for any but close ob- 
 servers and men with time to study the subject, to see that 
 Buttism and Parnellism could only have one and the same 
 result. How could the masses see this, when men who posed 
 as leaders in the ranks of the Nationalists, could not discern 
 that this new departure was Provincialism simply wearing a 
 veil ? 
 
 Parliamentary politics — through the action of the young 
 member for Meath and a few enthusiastic and determined 
 men, who had outstripped their fellow representatives in 
 trying to compel Britain to listen to Ireland's story and to 
 hearken to her needs by the bold course of " obstruction " 
 — had been invested with a fresh glamour for the Irish people ; 
 they eagerly listened and accepted the statement made to 
 
62 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 them that Britain must either grant" Home Rule" to Ireland, 
 or have the whole course of her legislation blocked. 
 
 Ireland — so the people were told — had at last discovered a 
 weapon, by the aid of which they could wring from Britain 
 a native Parliament, and an independent Ministry. 
 
 Mr. Butt, the Provincialist leader, was indignant and annoyed 
 at the course adopted by Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar. He was a 
 true believer in the efficacy of persuasion and conciliation, and 
 as loyal to the British Crown as his great predecessor Daniel 
 O'Connell, or as Mr. Parnell is to-day (1887). He knew 
 the course pursued by the members for Meath and Cavan 
 would anger his British friends, and, as he expressed it, undo 
 all his labour in trying to conciliate British prejudices against 
 concessions, so termed, to Ireland. Mr. Butt did not then 
 realise that the tide of popularity had turned, and was flowing 
 steadily in the direction of his youthful competitor and 
 eventual successor in the chameleon-like position of Provincial 
 leader. 
 
 Notwithstanding Mr. Butt's great ability as an orator and 
 as a Parliamentarian, he could not show to the Irish people 
 that which they believed Mr. Parnell had already accomplished 
 — the discomfiture of their foes by the member for Meath's 
 perseverance in " obstruction." 
 
 How many times has Ireland since been told by its new 
 idol and his followers — men who are matchless in Parlia- 
 mentary abilities — that their enemies would soon be routed, 
 and that success would soon reward their labours } But> 
 alas ! the end is not yet ; neither is the goal in sight. 
 
 But to return. The slight Parliamentary skirmishes of the 
 previous session tending toward " obstruction," were followed 
 up during this year, 1877, by the first real battles of the new 
 movement. Mr. Butt introduced his Land Bill in March, 
 which was again defeated by a large majority, Britain's usual 
 answer to conciliation. 
 
 During the debate on the Prisons Bill in March, 1877, Mr. 
 Parnell tried to expose the tortures and cruelties, practised on 
 Irish political prisoners, in English penal prisons. He called 
 
THE ANNUAL "HOME RULE" DEBATE ^ 63 
 
 attention to the treatment of Reddin, who lost the use of his 
 limbs through the brutal punishment he received, even the 
 prison doctor aiding in the cruel persecution. During the 
 course of his statement he was interrupted several times by 
 the British members, on some occasions very rudely, and in 
 an unparliamentary manner. 
 
 The Irish members who supported Mr. Parnell opposed 
 every motion to progress, and the House was kept sitting 
 until near morning. Mr. Butt hoped the honourable member 
 for Meath would not persist in his opposition to progress. 
 Mr. Parnell said, in deference to the honourable member for 
 Limerick, he would withdraw his opposition ; and the tired 
 House passed this measure and closed the sitting. 
 
 Again the Mutiny Bill was in committee on April 12. Mr. 
 Parnell and the small band who followed him, were persistent 
 in their attempts to improve and alter, some of the clauses of 
 the bill. Division after division took place, but Mr. Parnell 
 and his determined followers kept the House on the defensive. 
 The apostles and soldiers of " the new departure " were deter- 
 mined to test the power of their new weapon. 
 
 Mr. Butt was very much annoyed at this persistent opposi- 
 tion. He thought that the honourable members ought to have 
 waited till he came to a clause which he wished to amend. 
 He regretted that the time of the House should have been 
 wasted on this miserable and wretched discussion, and con- 
 demned the course taken by the honourable member, as one of 
 obstruction. He had no control over the honourable member, 
 but he had a duty to discharge to the Irish nation, and in 
 discharge of that duty he wished to say that he entirely dis- 
 approved of the honourable member's conduct. 
 
 On April 24, 1877, the annual " Home Rule" debate took 
 place, with the usual Irish speeches in favour of the measure, 
 and a few British speeches in opposition. The only incident 
 worthy of note in this debate, was Mr. Gladstone's indignant 
 denial of having written a note in support of a Liberal 
 candidate, who promised to vote in favour of the Irish demand. 
 The motion for inquiry into the causes which necessitated 
 
64 ' THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Ireland's demand for a separate Legislature and Ministry, 
 was rejected by an overwhelming majority. 
 
 The South Africa Bill, to sanction the confederation of 
 the British possessions on the dark continent, came before 
 the House on July 25. The Transvaal Republic had been 
 invaded and violently seized by the British, for which act Mr. 
 Gladstone denounced the Tory Administration. He con^ 
 demned their arrogant usurpation of the Boers' Government. 
 These speeches of the great Liberal found an echo in every 
 liberty-loving heart. 
 
 Mr. Parnell opposed the Confederation Bill then before the 
 House, principally on account of the Boers' right as freemen. 
 He was violently attacked by his British opponents. The 
 member for Meath, in the course of his remarks, said : " I 
 express my opinion that intimidation has been used by the 
 'English press. I express my deliberate opinion that deliber- 
 ate intimidation has been resorted to by the press of this 
 country, in order to coerce me and prevent me from discharg- 
 ing my duty. As long as I have a seat in this House I shall 
 not allow myself to be prevented from speaking what I think 
 it necessary to speak, or from taking such steps as I think it 
 necessary to take." 
 
 The first great battle of obstruction took place a few 
 days later when the South Africa Bill was in committee ; 
 the sitting of the House of Commons lasted for the unpre- 
 cedented time of twenty-six and a half hours, beginning on 
 Tuesday, July 31, at 4.15 P.M., and continuing, without a 
 break, until Wednesday evening at 6.10 P.M. Hour after 
 hour the British members were compelled to march 
 through the division lobby, on repeated motions to ad- 
 journ. The Government was determined to overcome the 
 Irish opposition by mere force of numbers. The weary hours 
 of the night stole away ; each succeeding peal of the great clock 
 of St. Stephen's was answered by the tread of feet through 
 the lobby, as division succeeded division with the selfsame 
 result, only to find the unflagging Irish, few in numbers 
 
THE ALL-NIGHT SITTING 65 
 
 but determined as at the start. The gray light of morning 
 stole into the Commons Chamber, to witness a scene never 
 before known in British Parliamentary annals. 
 
 The few members who assisted Mr. Parnell in his untiring 
 opposition to the Tory Government, were compelled to divide 
 themselves into relief parties, so that some would be enabled 
 to get rest, while others sustained the struggle. Mr. Biggar, 
 with his quiet, keen sarcasm and dry humour, tried to inspirit 
 his friends and abash his foes ; he gave Mr. Parnell valuable 
 assistance, as did Mr. O'Connor Power, once a Nationalist, 
 now, alas ! lost to the cause he at one time so faithfully 
 served. The Irish contingent dwindled down to three votes 
 in the early morning, and on one occasion to two votes, 
 excluding their tellers ; but they refused to succumb and kept 
 on the struggle as stubborn as ever. The sun rose higher 
 and higher in the heavens, but no change came in the aspect 
 of affairs in Parliament; the unyielding Irish would die on 
 the floor of the House before they would surrender. 
 
 For the first time since the so-called union, the British 
 Government began to realise that a new order of men 
 represented Irish interests in that House. With Mr. Parnell 
 and Mr. Biggar came a new programme, and activity and 
 determination were soon to permeate the Irish ranks ; but 
 only to further prove and emphasise National teaching in all 
 ages, that no amount of energy or activity can possibly solve, 
 or even help in the smallest manner, the Irish issue in the 
 enemy's Parliament. Ireland must either die or fight, as 
 all nations were compelled to do, for liberty and indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 Mr. Butt, who was a sincere Provincialist and as West 
 British as Mr. Parnell and his followers are to-day — such is 
 the end of all Irish Parliamentary careers — was horrified, as 
 were his friends, Mr. Mitchell Henry, Mr. Shaw, and the other 
 so-called Home Rule members, when they entered the House 
 that morning, and witnessed the scene therein presented. 
 The House was still sitting, or it would be more appropriate 
 to say marching, as when they left it late the night before. 
 
 F 
 
66 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The Buttites were as indignant with the Parnellites, as these 
 latter worthy gentlemen are to-day with the London Times, 
 for accusing them of association with the Invincibles. Mr. 
 Butt was very indignant, and felt disgraced and humiliated 
 at the ungentlemanly behaviour of the Parnellites ; but he 
 knew he was powerless to suppress, what he considered the 
 outrageous conduct of the members for Meath and Cavan 
 and their friends. The Buttites felt too alarmed to admit 
 to themselves what they feared — that the Irish nation was 
 ready to sustain Mr. Parnell, in his obstructive opposition 
 to British legislation. They knew, alas ! too well for their 
 own political happiness, that Mr. Parnell could give no 
 opposition to the British too extreme, which would not meet 
 the full sanction and approval of the Irish people. 
 
 The Government was compelled to succumb, baffled and 
 discomfited, notwithstanding their immense majority; for the 
 Tories never dreamt of laying their hands on the sacred 
 privileges of Parliament. It was left to the hypocritical and 
 canting British party, who style themselves Liberals, to 
 suppress debate and bring in a closure bill at St. Stephen's. 
 The wearied chamber rose after an arduous and prolonged 
 sitting. 
 
 Great was the joy of the Irish people when the news reached 
 them. It was the first Parliamentary struggle that had given 
 them any confidence. They began to hope, inspirited by the 
 delusive teaching of the time, that they had found means by 
 which they could compel the British to surrender to them 
 the management of their own island home. It seemed to 
 them that they had something more tangible within their 
 grasp, than a vote on " Home Rule." They were taught that 
 they held the power to destroy the privileges of the British 
 Commons so long as Britain refused to yield to their just 
 demands ; and that as the Tories succumbed in the House, 
 so would the enemy crumble before these new obstructive 
 tactics. 
 
 They believed a new leader had sprung into life to lead his 
 
HONOURING MR. PARNELL 67 
 
 suffering countrymen away from British bondage. Mr. Butt's 
 eloquent oratory was not listened to in the enemy's Par- 
 liament, or was heard only to be out-voted ; here was a new 
 policy with a vigorous young leader, and Ireland was ready 
 to enroll herself under his banner. 
 
 Carried away by the wave of enthusiasm which followed 
 this Parliamentary struggle, the Home Rule Confederation of 
 Great Britain, at their Liverpool conference, as an endorse- 
 ment of his policy, elected Mr. Parnell as their president, to 
 replace Mr. Isaac Butt. 
 
 Kilmallock, County Limerick, through her member, Mr. 
 W. H. O'Sullivan, tendered Mr. Parnell a public reception 
 and banquet, as an acknowledgment of his Parliamentary 
 victory. The weather had been very broken for some time, 
 and a great deal of rain had fallen, but this Monday, 
 September 17, 1877, dawned in mellow loveliness — a sweet 
 Irish autumn day. The sun shone out in beauty and bril- 
 liancy on the green fields and softened vales of Limerick. 
 Erin had wiped away her tears and wore her sunniest smile 
 of welcome to greet her young champion. Numerous bands 
 made the air resound with Irish music, arches covered the 
 roadway, and banners were displayed in profusion ; and every- 
 thing that was possible was done to give Mr. Parnell a hearty 
 Irish welcome. Patriotic mottoes were inscribed on flags and 
 banners ; the usual Irish " Cead Mille Failthe " was visible, 
 accompanied by " Welcome to our good Members," " Ireland 
 demands * Home Rule,* " " Free the Captives." The enthusiastic 
 and impulsive people believed in the efficacy of " obstruction " 
 to win them victory. 
 
 Mr.Parnell's arrival at Kilmallock was the occasion of a most 
 enthusiastic reception. Speeches were delivered by several of 
 those who came to do him welcome, including Mr. O'Sullivan, 
 the resident M.P. Mr Parnell delivered the following in- 
 teresting address. The opening part in italics is appropriate 
 to that gallant gentleman's position at this date (1887) : 
 
 " Irishmen in their own country had always been the first 
 to show they were Irishmen, but in the House of Commons 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 they never could be Irishmen. I appreciate the sacrifice you 
 have made in coming to welcome myself and others, and I 
 appreciate the spirit which dictated the sacrifice. 
 
 " Standing as we are in the midst of monuments that mark 
 the ancient struggle between Ireland and the Normans, we 
 are inaugurating a fresh struggle between England and 
 Ireland, which we will fight out like men. It is our duty not 
 to conciliate, not to beg, not to crave from England. It is our 
 duty to demand, and if we cannot get what we ask by 
 demanding it, our duty is to show that England must 
 give it. (Cheers.) In whatever field we struggle, whatever 
 weapons we employ, let us show we are Irishmen. (Cheers.) 
 I have been accused of being a disunionist and a dis- 
 ruptionist. I am neither. I have no personal aims in this 
 matter, but I do say to the people of Ireland, that their cause 
 has been degraded by their representatives in the House of 
 Commons. I wish to bring about a change, and to ask you 
 to see that so long as we are to have a Parliamentary policy 
 of any kind, it should be a national policy. There is no 
 disunion on this question. The people of Ireland are of 
 one mind upon it ; or if they are not so to-day, they will 
 soon be of one mind." 
 
 That portion of this truly remarkable address which is 
 italicised should be remembered to-day. Every word of Mr. 
 Parnell's speech in Kilmallock, delivered ten years ago, would 
 bear repetition, and teach a wholesome lesson to the people 
 as to the mockery of Provincialist teaching. 
 
 In the evening there was a banquet tendered to the " pat- 
 riotic member for Meath." Letters of apology were read from 
 Mr. Butt and other gentlemen who regretted being absent 
 Mr. Biggar, M.P. for Cavan, wrote : 
 
 " I regret very much it is out of my power to be at Kil- 
 mallock on this day week. I see by the papers that Mr. Butt 
 and Mr. Redmond, have been trying to lead the people of 
 Ireland astray, by incorrect assumptions, and attempts to hide 
 the leading question. Do the people of Ireland wish their 
 representatives to be industrious or indolent t Do they wish 
 
THE DEFENCE OF OBSTRUCTION 69 
 
 them to make their primary object what will be for the good 
 of Ireland, or what will please the English members of Par- 
 liament ? I think whenever the issue is raised there can be 
 no doubt of what the verdict of the Irish people will be, in 
 spite of the mutterings of a few insincere Whigs." 
 
 At this banquet, the toast of the British Queen was omitted, 
 and the first toast was, " Ireland a self-governed nation." 
 
 Mr. Parnell was welcomed all over Ireland, and in Britain ; 
 in Irish gatherings, they were eager and delighted to see and 
 hear the apostle and leader of obstruction. 
 
 But *' Royal " Meath did not forget her young member, and 
 Mr. Parnell's appearance there was a triumphal progress. 
 Bands and banners came to meet him, as he stepped off the 
 the train at Navan. The Town Commissioners of Navan 
 presented him with an address of welcome, which was read by 
 their chairman. They observed with satisfaction that neither 
 the fierce hostility of an intolerant alien assembly, nor the 
 vile abuse of an unscrupulous press, nor the chilling abstention 
 of his own Parliamentary colleagues, could drive him from 
 that course of action which his patriotism suggested as best 
 calculated to serve the interests of his country. The chair- 
 man complimented him for his honesty and patriotism, his 
 earnestness and ability, his indomitable perseverance as a 
 faithful representative, and finally as " a great Irishman." 
 
 Mr. Parnell said he thought the opposition to British rule 
 which was best and most felt, was that which brought about 
 results, and that opposition was best which was determined and 
 never flinching. The independent opposition of Gavan Duffy 
 and Lucas had failed, because the British Government used 
 means which it well knew how to use against it ; and it was 
 thwarted by treachery. The Government of the present day 
 thought it would thwart this opposition by similar means, 
 but it reckoned without its hosts. If the Irish people thought 
 it was best to be craven and cowardly, he would submit to 
 their judgment. If they chose to do nothing but kneel 
 before England, let them kneel ; but when they found, as 
 
70 THE IRISH NATIONAL iNVINClBLES 
 
 they should know well enough by this time, that they would 
 not get anything out of England by cringing and kneeling 
 and supplicating, they would adopt the policy of action, which 
 had been shown in some slight degree to be a successful 
 policy. 
 
 Mr. Ennis, M.P., in the course of a long speech, said the 
 truth was, that when Irishmen went to Westminster they 
 seemed to forget that they were Irishmen. 
 
 The grateful Irish people lost no opportunity to testify 
 their esteem and approval of Mr. Parnell's political course. 
 Then commenced a series of public receptions to Ireland's 
 favourite son, that has since been continued by the people of 
 both continents. 
 
 A new champion in favour of " Home Rule " for Ireland 
 appeared at this time — that erratic, but brilliant and able 
 Englishman, Lord Randolph Churchill. The Irish papers 
 quoted his speeches and writings with approval. The English 
 press said the only logical conclusion that Lord Churchill 
 should come to, was to join the " Home Rule " League. Alas ! 
 for Ireland, she will foolishly listen to these meaningless, 
 mocking, speeches of affected sympathy, offered by British 
 statesmen for their own personal or party purposes. Ireland 
 is for them a shuttlecock, which both Liberals and Tories use, 
 to toss about between them. Ireland was visited this year by 
 one of the greatest masters in the use of kindly speech and 
 fierce condemnation of Ireland's persecutors, when out of 
 office, William Ewart Gladstone 
 
 The early part of this year [1878] saw three of the Fenian 
 prisoners liberated on tickets of leave : Colour-Sergeant 
 McCarthy, Mr. O'Brien, and Mr. Michael Davitt. On their 
 arrival by mail boat at Kingstown they received an enthusi- 
 astic Irish welcome; crowds climbed on top of the railroad 
 carriages, struggling to shake hands with the liberated men. 
 Among those who went down from Dublin by special train, 
 to greet them, were Major O'Gorman, M.P., and Mr. John 
 Ferguson, the famous Glasgow publisher, and a staunch Irish 
 
THE RELEASE OF MR. DAVITT 71 
 
 Provincialist. Westland Row, Dublin, and the environs of the 
 railroad terminus, were crowded w^ith people to give the 
 released men a cordial greeting. The Dublin bands turned 
 out, and they were escorted by a crowded procession to their 
 hotel. 
 
 Mr. Davitt, the most prominent of these men living, was 
 arrested through the curious fact that an Irishman whose ten- 
 dency was secretiveness, carried it to an extreme. Mr. Davitt 
 had been "Arms Agent" for the Irish revolutionists in the north 
 of England, and supplied arms to any of the Irish " circles " 
 that required to purchase them. As these duties were partly 
 commercial, Mr. Davitt took into partnership an Englishman, a 
 Mr. Wilson. The I. R. B. " centre " at Portlaw, County Water- 
 ford, ordered some rifles for his men, and they were shipped 
 to Waterford, to be kept at the goods depot until sent for. 
 This " centre " was an exceptionally silent man ; he took no one 
 into his confidence as to the route by which the arms would 
 come. He fell ill of fever and died, and his secret was buried 
 with him. The baggage master at the depot, who was an ex- 
 constabulary man, noticed this box so long uncalled for, 
 lying in the store, had it opened, and when its contents were 
 revealed, communicated with the British authorities. On the 
 the rifles were the names or private marks, of the Birmingham 
 makers. The British detectives were set on the track by the clue 
 these captured arms gave them, and the result was the arrest 
 of Mr. Davitt and Mr. Wilson. Mr. Davitt tried in the noblest 
 manner to save the Englishman from punishment, by volunteer- 
 ing to take upon himself the two sentences ; but Mr. Davitt 
 might have known that this could not be. The Englishman, 
 to many men's view of the matter, deserved a very heavy 
 sentence for his unpatriotic conduct. Although he might 
 have been told nothing of Mr. Davitt's surroundings, still he 
 must have suspected, no matter how carefully Mr. Davitt 
 tried to mislead him, that these arms were intended for Irish 
 revolutionists to use, when expedient, against Britons, his 
 countrymen. And for the sake of the money in the business, 
 he was satisfied to be silent, and assist. Most people believe 
 
72 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 in every man standing by his own nation, and condemn this 
 man Wilson. What in Mr. Davitt was a noble duty, was an 
 act of treachery to his country on the part of the mercenary 
 Briton, who ought to have got the severest penalty. But 
 Mr. Wilson only copied the treasonable actions of Birming- 
 ham gunsmiths, who arm Africans and Asiatics, to fight their 
 fellow-countrymen. Since his sentence Mr. Davitt has had 
 a " noble vision." At this hour he would supply his country- 
 men with a cargo of dictionaries, to teach them to collect 
 a choice number of expletives, to convince the Saxon. Words 
 are Mr. Davitt's modern weapon of war. 
 
 One of the three men released was an exceptionally noble 
 fellow, whose assistance to Ireland, had she taken the field in 
 1865, would have been most valuable — Colour-Sergeant 
 McCarthy. This brave Irishman did not live long to enjoy 
 his freedom. A few days after his arrival in Dublin he died 
 suddenly of heart disease, brought on by prison cruelties. 
 His wife, who was on the way to Dublin, heard of his death 
 on her arrival in the city. All that British prisons had given 
 up to her, was her husband's corpse. 
 
 What comparison can there be between the short terms of 
 imprisonment which our friends of the League can receive, 
 placed beside these men's sufferings, endured for many years 
 in England's savage penal dens ? 
 
 Do Irishmen remember that there are to-day numbers of 
 their countrymen — or has their sympathy all gone to the 
 Leaguers i* — suffering the same mental and physical tortures 
 v.'hich " done to death " Colour-Sergeant McCarthy } 
 
\ 
 
 VI. 
 
 " PARNELLISM " VERSUS " BUTTISM " — RELEASE OF FENIAN 
 
 PRISONERS. 
 
 The year of grace, 1878, opened with a great shock to the 
 Tory Premier's policy. Russian troops, in spite of all 
 English military prophets to the contrary, crossed the 
 Balkan range ; and were in victorious march towards the 
 ancient capital of the Empire of the East. Lord Beacons- 
 field called Parliament together one month earlier than 
 usual. The British Premier, having made his sovereign an 
 Empress, had retired to the quiet precincts of the Upper 
 Chamber with an English earldom. He summoned the 
 Legislature to vote his Ministry six million pounds sterling, 
 to pay for the expenses of mobilising the army reserve and 
 
 calling out the militia The Parnellite Parliamentary 
 
 Party took no active interest in this European question. 
 They only hoped that Britain would go to war, so as to 
 enable Ireland to avail herself of any difficulties England 
 
 might get involved in 
 
 A ''Home Rule" conference was held in Dublin. Many 
 looked forward to seeing a serious division in the " Home 
 Rule " ranks over the question of obstruction. 
 
 Mr. John Dillon proposed the following resolution : — 
 
 " Whereas, it is desirable to seize all suitable opportunity 
 
 of demonstrating, both to the English people, and foreign 
 
 nations, that the Irish nation so long as it is deprived of its 
 
 national right to self-government, can have no community of 
 
74 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 interest with England in her dealings with foreign powers, 
 this conference is of opinion that, should the question of in- 
 tervention arise, the Irish party ought, through its leader, to 
 repudiate all sympathy with England on this question, and 
 that the party ought to emphasise this declaration by leaving 
 the House in a body before the division." 
 
 He said the adoption of such a course would, no doubt, 
 create a great feeling of anger in the House of Commons, 
 but it would do more to convince his hearers of the deep 
 wish of the Irish people than even a repetition of the scenes of 
 1867 ; and far more than any debates in the House of Com- 
 mons, where Mr. Butt by his eloquence won nothing for the 
 Irish people but the honeyed words of wily Ministers, who, 
 calculating on his amiability of temperament, used him as 
 their tool. 
 
 Mr. Butt retorted that if they passed this resolution, all they 
 had done in the way of conciliation was at an end. It would 
 be the death knell of the " Home Rule" party. A more deadly 
 blow at the heart of Ireland could not be struck. (Cries of 
 " No ! ") Gentlemen might say " No." He thought he knew 
 something of what would be the effect on public opinion. 
 They had not watched with him over the cradle of this 
 " Home Rule " movement ; they had not watched over the 
 efforts to build up a party such as they never had in Ireland 
 before. He confessed he was tired and disgusted with men 
 who had no experience, putting forward their opinions there 
 with an air of authority. It was a recision of the very first 
 principles of the " Home Rule League ; " he believed the 
 resolution was illegal. Was there ever such an abandonment 
 of the great cause of the Irish people ? . . . He implored 
 Mr. Dillon to withdraw the resolution, if only as a sacrifice to 
 that unity which characterised their proceedings. 
 
 Mr. Parnell moved as an amendment : " That, if any de- 
 finite issue be raised on the Eastern question, which was 
 an Imperial question, it would be the duty of the Irish 
 Parliamentary party to consult together and to carry out 
 as a party, a united line of policy and of action." Mr. 
 
THE RESIGNATION OF MR. BUTT 75 
 
 Dillon seconded Mr. Parnell's amendment, which was 
 carried. 
 
 Mr. Butt, in his appeal to Mr. Dillon to withdraw his 
 resolution, said of it that " a more deadly blow could not be 
 struck at the heart of Ireland." .... 
 
 The whirligig of British party politics, into t he vortex of 
 which Provincialists are certain to be dragged, has strange 
 contrasts. The time was to come when, according to Mr. 
 Dillon's supposed changed patriotic views, another deadly 
 blow had been struck at Ireland's heart, and Ireland put 
 back at least another quarter of a century ; the language 
 Mr. Butt used to Mr. Dillon and Mr. Parnell, they in turn, 
 as they became timid and vacillating by British Parlia- 
 mentary association, used to other men. But, unlike Mr. 
 Butt, the Parnellites were only playing a part when they 
 denounced those who remained faithful to the standard of 
 genuine self-government, which Mr. Dillon at this later time 
 deserted. 
 
 On April 15, 1878, Mr. Butt communicated to the 
 committee of the Irish Parliamentary party his intention of 
 resigning his position as leader, assigning as his reasons ill- 
 health, and his inability to attend to professional and Parlia- 
 mentary duties at the same time. The committee communi- 
 cated with Mr. Butt, and asked him to reconsider the matter, 
 and then to inform them of his final decision. 
 
 Mr. Butt, in response to a telegram, arrived in London to 
 attend a meeting to consider the question of his proffered 
 resignation of leadership. 
 
 In the address he delivered to the committee, Mr. Butt 
 awoke a sad responsive thrill in the Irish heart. How many 
 splendid men of ability have eaten away their souls in trying 
 to accomplish self-government for Ireland, by the impossible 
 course of British Parliamentary politics ? Mr. Butt, in 
 addressing the committee, said : 
 
 " I had hoped to associate my name with benefits to my 
 native land. My colleagues will readily believe that I do not 
 
76 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 lightly give up that prized position and sever myself from 
 those cherished hopes." 
 
 The Dublin Irishman^ April 13, 1878, speaking of Mr. 
 Butt's proposed resignation, said : 
 
 "The resignation of Mr. Butt shows that the *Home Rule' 
 organisation is on its last legs, and with its final collapse will 
 disappear for ever the hopeless sham of constitutional 
 agitation." 
 
 Unfortunately for Ireland, this prophecy has not been 
 fulfilled. So long as Ireland has slavish dreamers, who in 
 blind folly mislead the masses, and mercenary men who see 
 the means to reap a golden harvest, so long will Ireland 
 have agitators. When her people throw off their credulity 
 and think for themselves, and are prepared to make 
 sacrifices for freedom ; if there are a sufficient number left 
 at home, native government may hope to be on the true road 
 for success. 
 
 The Flag of Ireland, speaking of the federal collapse, 
 observed : 
 
 " The working classes heard all these fine platform speeches. 
 They saw what it all meant : an agitation, for the mere 
 purpose of lifting a few score of ambitious persons, into the 
 English House of Commons. . . . The federal bark is 
 foundering. Luckily it does not bear Ireland's fortunes, or 
 the nation would lament the impending shipwreck of her 
 hopes. Perhaps the Irish race will not regret that the 
 * Home Rule ' skiff is about to heel over, for when she goes 
 down she will drag with her, and bury, constitutional action 
 into the deep." 
 
 Some pressure was brought to bear upon Mr. Butt, so he 
 resumed the leadership of the dying federal movement on 
 May 29, 1878. 
 
 The feeling between the two sections of the " Home Rule " 
 party was daily becoming of an unpleasant nature, and 
 nothing but the fixed determination of the Parnellites to 
 avoid collision, kept the party together. The Buttites were 
 very much in the majority, and except when questions of 
 
THE CRITICISM OF OBSTRUCTION 77 
 
 principle were involved, Mr. Parnell and his party tried to 
 keep from giving offence to those gentlemen, who were sup- 
 posed to possess milder dispositions, and more equable tem- 
 peraments, than their energetic and fiery rivals. 
 
 Experience has taught Irishmen the sad lesson that the so- 
 called moderates are very much more immoderate in the 
 expression of their views than the Nationalists, and that they 
 have often to bear with vituperation and calumny from 
 the Provincialists, sooner than by replying, to give joy to the 
 common enemy. 
 
 The Whig " Home Rulers " were very bitter at the course 
 which Mr. Parnell and his few followers pursued in Parlia- 
 ment, but they felt compelled to admit, from the results of 
 recent bye-elections, that the country's verdict was in favour of 
 what was termed, at that time, an active Parliamentary policy. 
 Mr. Mitchell Henry, a Whig Home Ruler, in a letter to 
 the Dublin Freema?iy made the following attack on the 
 obstructionists : — 
 
 " Their policy is to bring Parliamentary action into con- 
 tempt, and substitute for it violence and crime. . . . 
 
 " I venture to say there can be no safety for the party 
 collectively, or for each of us individually, unless a further 
 repudiation is made by Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar, than any 
 to which their names have been put." 
 
 There can be no stronger proof of the corrupting influences 
 of Parliamentary life than that supplied to-day when these 
 men, whom Mr. Mitchell Henry accused of trying to create a 
 policy of violence and crime, are slandering their national 
 brothers, who have not changed as they did in their devotion 
 to Ireland, and their willingness to make every sacrifice in her 
 behalf. 
 
 On November 26, 1878, Mr. Butt sent a letter to an 
 elector of Limerick in which he discussed the then much 
 debated question of obstruction. He said : 
 
 •' The obstructive policy may prevent the passage of a great 
 many good measures, but it can never obtain the passing of 
 one. I am satisfied there never was a time when by prudence 
 
78 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 and moderation more good might be accomplished for the 
 country, and a heavy responsibiHty will fall on any one who 
 mars, by indiscretion or violence, the obtaining of that 
 good." 
 
 This letter was one of Mr. Butt's public protests against 
 obstruction. He points to Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar, for 
 he considered they marred by indiscretion and violence, 
 Ireland's chance of Home Rule. " Prudence and modera- 
 tion,'* said Mr. Butt. How little do these words apply to a 
 dying, struggling nationality, sinking deeper in those shift- 
 ing sands of destruction, which her foreign foe designs 
 should swallow her up ! Better for Ireland to throw, what in 
 a different case might be the motto of wisdom, to the winds ; 
 but in hers would be the motto of " folly and inanition." 
 Let her answer with McMahon on the Malakoff, "/'j^ suis ; 
 fy resteV when asked to retreat by the most ** prudent 
 and moderate " of leade rs ; or with Grant in the Wilderness 
 exclaim, " We will fight it out on this line, if it takes us all 
 the summer ! " It is a noticeable fact in Irish history, that 
 when leaders of the Irish people become what they miscall 
 " prudent and moderate," they grow in proportion more 
 loyal to the British enemy, and proportionately more disloyal 
 to their own nation's interests. Mr. Butt, in a letter to Dr. 
 Ward, M.P., one of the "Home Rule" party, written on 
 November 29, 1878, deprecates any intervention of Irish 
 business tending to interfere with British and Imperial in- 
 terests in any manner : — 
 
 " Parliament is convened for the purpose of deliberating on 
 matters of vital importance to the United Kingdom. We 
 should act very unwisely if, without the most imperious neces- 
 sity, we interrupted or embarrassed these deliberations by the 
 discussion of questions which we can bring forward with far 
 better chance of success, at a future stage of the proceedings 
 of the session. Such a course would fairly expose us to the 
 suspicion of pressing the claims of Ireland, not for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining a recognition of them from Parliament, but 
 either with the object of serving the interests of party, or of 
 
DEFENCE OF THE NEW METHOD 79 
 
 creating confusion in the councils of the nation, at a time 
 when to do so is to help the cause of its enemies." .... 
 
 Mr. Butt, in his third letter to the electors of Limerick quoted 
 a manifesto of what was termed the advanced section of 
 " Home Rulers," which appeared in the Nation of November 2. 
 This manifesto was written with reference to a meeting in the 
 north of Ireland, at which a resolution was passed, calling 
 on Irish members to retire from Parliament, on the ground 
 of the hopelessness of any effort to obtain justice. Against this 
 resolution the writer of the letter protests, and argues against 
 it by showing the use to which the Parliamentary representa- 
 tion of Ireland may be put : — 
 
 " Their very presence in Parliament will keep Ireland's 
 claims before England and the world, and for the enforcement 
 of those claims they can put upon the British Government a 
 degree of pressure, which will at last become intolerable and 
 irresistible beyond doubt or question. The Irish people are 
 beginning to have a clear conception of this fact. They are 
 beginning to see, that for them the British Parliament is the 
 vital point, and at the same time the exposed point, of Eng- 
 land's political system. They know that they can hurt Eng- 
 land there, and nowhere else. England's forts and barracks are 
 constructed to repel hostile attacks, and without formidable 
 means it is impossible to effect their overthrow. 
 
 "The British Parliament, the most important of English 
 institutions, the very citadel of her power, is not constructed 
 on the same principles. It is open to our operations. We 
 have the right of entrance there, and we can disrupt it from 
 within. It is built on the assumption that every man who 
 gets inside will be a friend, a guardian of England's interests, 
 a helper of her designs, an abettor of her policy. There is 
 where Ireland has the grip of her, if Ireland knows how to 
 take it and use it. There is where the pressure can be put 
 on ; the hurt can be given and the peril created and main- 
 tained, until England consents to undo the injustice of the 
 legislative union." .... 
 
So THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The two Parliamentary policies were explained and 
 simplified in this letter of Mr. Butt. The Irish leader's (Mr. 
 Butt's) policy was the policy of the present hour — to conciliate 
 the British people. The then policy of the new departure 
 (Mr. Parnell's) was to use the forms of the House of 
 Commons to obstruct the business of British legislation, and 
 so exasperate the English people, that they would eventually 
 rid themselves of the Irish members, by giving to them a native 
 Parliament. Mr. Butt's criticism of this course was in a 
 measure correct ; it could not, nor can any Parliamentary 
 course, gain for Ireland what she needs — self-government. 
 To think that it would be possible to do England any serious 
 injury in Parliament, as in the letter quoted by Mr. Butt, 
 could only exist in the imagination of the writer. Material 
 injury of any kind, can only be done by some species of 
 physical force. 
 
 The action of Mr. Parnell drew upon him the attention of 
 the Irish-Americans. Mr. Davitt, who came to America on 
 National business, made a very able address in Brooklyn near 
 the close of this year [1878]. Some of the Irish- Americans, 
 carried away with this new weapon to hurt England, and not 
 thoroughly understanding the position of things on the other 
 side, advocated the sending of Fenian members into Parlia- 
 ment ; it is presumed the gentlemen meant Irish Nationalists, 
 who believed in physical force, but were waiting for the time 
 to come— that time which never comes to men or nations ; 
 they must make it for themselves. Sending men of this 
 kind into Parliament would merely mean their loss to the 
 National cause. A little while there, and they would turn 
 out West Britons like the rest. An Irish-American combated 
 this idea by stating that " no physical force formations, as 
 such, have any business dabbling in agitation ; the very 
 reason for their being consists in the inflexible resolution 
 which they should hold, not to meddle with it." 
 
 At the end of the year 1878 the last of the Irish Revolu- 
 
MR. JAMES CLANCY. ^1 
 
 tionary prisoners were released. These gentlemen were 
 Messrs. Ahearne and James Clancy. The last-named prisoner 
 was one of the most gallant and determined of the Irish 
 soldiers in the enemy's service. Mr. James Clancy was, like 
 Mr. O'Reilly of Boston, a private soldier in the British army ; 
 he belonged to that scientific corps, the Royal Engineers, and 
 was enrolled in the National Organisation, called at that time 
 Fenians. Mr. Clancy, anxious to take the field, left the 
 enemy's service at Chatham, where the Engineers were 
 quartered, at the end of the year 1865 — that memorable 
 year when Irish patriots expected that they would be in the 
 field, striking at the foe of their country and race. He 
 was one of the leading Irish Revolutionists in London, and, 
 was coming from the residence of one of the then Revolu- 
 tionary chiefs, when he was followed by Sergeant Choun, 
 of the Engineers, who "shadowed" him, suspecting he was the 
 missing Engineer he was in search of, but not quite certain. 
 On this particular Saturday evening. Sergeant Choun ac- 
 companied by Constable Chamberlain, accosted Mr. Clancy 
 at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. Irish Revolutionary 
 soldiers, when armed, were under orders not to surrender 
 to the enemy; to shoot and if possible escape, but in 
 no case to surrender without making a fight, as it was 
 very properly considered cowardly for an armed man to give 
 himself up to the foe without a struggle ; else, why carry 
 arms at all } In this they were cautioned against follow- 
 ing the example of Mr. Stephens and his companions, when 
 arrested at Fairfield House, Dublin. Mr. James Clancy, like 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whom Major Sirr attempted to 
 seize, resisted to the death. When Sergeant Choun attempted 
 to seize him, he tripped up the Britisher by placing a stick 
 between his legs, and, giving him a parting kick, ran off 
 swiftly to effect his escape. But Choun, helped by Cham- 
 berlain, was soon on his feet, and they promptly pursued the 
 flying Clancy. After running some distance in the direction 
 of Bedford Square, the Irish soldier found his pursuers gain- 
 ing on him. Turning round and facing the British officers, 
 
 G 
 
§2 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 he discharged a shot from his revolver at Sergeant Choun, 
 the bullet whistling unpleasantly close to the ear of the 
 sergeant. For a moment the Engineer and his comrade 
 hesitated, and Mr. Clancy resumed the race with fresh vigour ; 
 but, recovering themselves, the Englishmen again took up the 
 chase. After running some further distance, the gallant 
 Irish soldier turned round and discharged a second shot at 
 his pursuer Chamberlain, who was nearing him fast. Cham- 
 berlain staggered back in fright, but quickly recovering him- 
 self took up the pursuit, at the same time calling on those in 
 the street to help them by stopping the flying Irishman. An 
 English passer-by responded, and seized Clancy, who would 
 have got away but for Chamberlain coming up. By their 
 united exertions they tripped up Clancy, and he fell to the 
 ground, still grasping his revolver firmly. The Irishman's 
 blood was up, and the dauntless fellow would die before he 
 would surrender. While he was struggling on the ground with 
 his captors, he pulled the trigger of his revolver, aiming at 
 Chamberlain's breast, who would most certainly have been 
 slain, had it not been for a pin in the pistol (joining the parts 
 of the instrument) which projected and stopped the bullet. 
 The bullet stuck between the chamber and the barrel, and 
 was held there, though the powder had exploded. Had the 
 ball passed the barrel, Chamberlain would inevitably have 
 been shot ; as it was his face was blackened by powder, and 
 his hair and beard singed by the fire. As Chamberlain 
 afterward expressed it, Clancy would be the last Irish 
 Fenian he would try to capture ; they were the most dare- 
 devil fellows in creation. 
 
 A crowd now gathered, and Choun coming up, the gallant 
 Irishman was overpowered by numbers ; not content with 
 bringing him off a prisoner, the cowardly brutes beat him 
 on the head, face, and body, when he lay helpless at their 
 mercy. What a contrast was this gallant and determined 
 resistance to that of some of the would-be heroes of that 
 period, who either were taken in arms, or whined " Guilty " 
 when in the dock ! 
 
IRISHMEN AND THE NEW YORK PRESS 83 
 
 Mr. Clancy was brought before a British magistrate with 
 his head bandaged ; the enemy made no charge against 
 him for being an Irish Revolutionist ; they wished it to be 
 considered non-political, so that the world would not under- 
 stand the reason for Mr. Clancy's desperate resistance, and 
 why such a scene in connection with the Irish war had been 
 enacted in their great metropolis. Mr. Clancy was charged 
 with an attempt to shoot the officers, and for being a deserter 
 from the Royal Engineers. He was sentenced to penal ser- 
 vitude for life. After serving eleven years of torture in the 
 enemy's dungeons, Mr. Clancy was released at the close of 
 1878, the enemy at last admitting he was a political prisoner. 
 To Mr. O'Connor Power's credit, be it said — although he is 
 now lost to Ireland — he never deserted any of his former 
 comrades, the Fenian prisoners, and while a Provincialist he 
 used his Parliamentary position and influence to further their 
 release. 
 
 What a number of ex-Irish Fenian prisoners there have 
 been on the New York press ! The fact contradicts the lying 
 statements of the enemy, that the Fenians were recruited from 
 the ignorant and uneducated. Mr. James Clancy is to-day 
 one of the brilliant writers on the New York Herald. Shortly 
 after his release a public meeting was held in London, to 
 hear the lately imprisoned patriot deliver a lecture on the 
 tortures of British prison life. The hall was filled with all the 
 London advanced Nationalists. Mr. Parnell was to have 
 presided, but he could not get there. Mr. G. F. Goulding, a 
 prominent Irish Nationalist, took the chair. Mr. Clancy de- 
 livered a very interesting lecture, which was listened to with 
 rapt attention. He evoked great sympathy as he detailed 
 with much pathos and great ability, the terrible sufferings he 
 himself and his comrades had undergone in England's penal 
 dungeons. 
 
 The year 1878 closed, to usher in the eventful year of land 
 agitation, when the Provincialists, aided by Irish-American 
 money, built up a gigantic organisation to fight the Irish 
 landlords. 
 
 G 2 
 
VII 
 
 DEATH OF MR. BUTT — BIRTH OF THE LAND LEAGUE. 
 
 The year 1 879 closed the " Home Rule " League era in 
 Ireland, or nearly so, and ushered in that great social 
 organisation, the " Land League." Already there were 
 mutterings around that boded no good to that haughty and 
 insolent class, the landlords, and as if to hasten their 
 destruction, came the famine harvest of 1879. The price of 
 Irish produce, owing to the competition with the United 
 States, then rapidly increasing her exports to Britain, had 
 seriously diminished in value. The facilities which were 
 created by science to place American dead meat in the 
 market, alarmed the graziers and those engaged in the cattle 
 trade. It needed no deficient harvest to make the farmers 
 suffer; the fall in prices was sufficient to give them grave 
 cause for uneasiness. They who have read anything of 
 Ireland must be familiar with the sad tales of eviction, handed 
 down from generation to generation — that one continued 
 trail of blood, which marks England's career, her laws, and 
 management of the soil of Ireland. . . . 
 
 Mr. Butt found the toils of his professional labours in 
 addition to his Parliamentary duties heavy to bear. In 
 February, 1879, he caught cold returning from a professional 
 visit. He got better, and again relapsed. He was removed 
 to Roebuck, near Dublin, for change of air. Great anxiety 
 was evinced by the Irish people, for they knew that another 
 great Irishman, who had served them according to his light 
 
THE DEATH OF ISAAC BUTT 85 
 
 loyally and faithfully, and whose health was undermined in 
 vainly struggling for them in the London Parliament, was in 
 danger of death. They also remembered his gallant defence 
 of the Irish patriot prisoners, in which he exerted himself 
 almost to a superhuman effort in their service, and his 
 marvellous defence of Robert Kelly, who shot that double- 
 dyed traitor and spy, Constable Talbot, the wretch who 
 desecrated God's altar in the service of his no less infamous 
 employers, the British Government, and who died in horrible 
 agonies, blaspheming his Creator. Mr. Butt's defence of 
 Robert Kelly was no less a triumph of forensic skill and 
 mastery of the law on his part, than was the ability displayed 
 by his witness. Dr. O'Leary, who sat as " Home Rule " member 
 for Drogheda up to his death. Dr. O'Leary's scientific skill 
 as an anatomist, proved to the jury's satisfaction that Talbot 
 came by his death through unskilful treatment in the 
 hospital in probing for the bullet, and not through the effect 
 of Kelly's shot. No one had the smallest spark of pity for 
 Talbot, not even those who used this murderous instrument 
 to deceive and betray his Irish victims. Mr. Butt's days 
 were coming to a close. The voice that often rang in the 
 British senate, pleading for his country and exposing and 
 denouncing her persecutor, was soon to be hushed in death. 
 A little while, and the last spark flickered and went out, and 
 the loving soul of Isaac Butt passed away into that unknown 
 country beyond the grave. 
 
 He died on May 5, 1879, and his nation truly sorrowed at 
 her loss, none more full of grief than they, who did not believe 
 his measures could be successful, but who knew his great heart 
 and his honesty of purpose ; and who, in the spirit of sincere 
 regret, placed their wreath among the others on the dead 
 patriot's bier. 
 
 On May 22 a meeting of the " Home Rule " leaders was 
 called for the purpose of electing a chairman of the party to 
 succeed the late Mr. Butt. The following resolutions were 
 put and carried : — 
 
86 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 " That a chairman of the * Home Rule ' party be ap- 
 pointed, and that said chairman shall be official chairman of all 
 meetings of the party, and of its committees ; that he shall 
 have authority to speak as the mouthpiece of the party in 
 the House of Commons on any subject to which the party 
 has come to a resolution, and that he be authorised to 
 summon meetings of the Parliamentary committee, and on 
 any emergency of the party. 
 
 " That Mr. Shaw be requested to act as chairman during 
 the session." 
 
 Commencing in January, 1879, Mr. Parnell started on a 
 tour through England for the purpose of reorganising the 
 Irish element. The member for Meath was most untiring in 
 his exertions. He got through more work in the Provincial 
 cause, and with his own immediate following of advanced 
 Home Rulers, as they were termed, than did the whole 
 remaining balance of the party. On August 9 Mr. Parnell 
 was re-elected President of the Home Rule Confederation of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 The Convention Act, passed by the Yeoman's Parliament 
 in Dublin, to prohibit the volunteers from sending delegates, 
 or Irishmen to assemble as a representative body, was 
 repealed this year. The advanqed Home Rulers were 
 anxious for the party to avail themselves of the repeal of 
 this act, to call a " Home Rule " convention in Dublin. 
 
 A meeting was held, and arrangements made to issue 
 summonses to have delegates elected and duly instructed to 
 attend this convention. The result of this meeting was 
 published in the newspapers. Two weeks after, the chairman 
 of the party, Mr. Shaw, wrote a letter disapproving of this 
 course. Mr. Parnell was very much incensed at the receipt 
 of this letter, and in his reply to Mr. Shaw said : 
 
 " He [Mr. Shaw] remained silent all these sixteen days, 
 though he had notice that a course was to be proposed, which, 
 he now tries to persuade us, is fraught with the most awful 
 results. Why did he not propose his course while there was 
 still time to consider it ? If he considere4 a convention of 
 
MR. PARNELL versus MR. SHAW 87 
 
 limited capability of such vital moment, why did he not say 
 so ? The Convention Act has now been repealed for many 
 months, and the course to be adopted in consequence has been 
 the subject of repeated notices at the council of the League, 
 and of much discussion in the press and in conversation, but 
 Mr. Shaw, the sessional chairman of the Irish Parliamentary 
 party, takes no action." 
 
 On September 18 Mr. Shaw wrote to the secretary of the 
 Home Rule League, declining to be placed on the committee 
 to arrange for a National convention. 
 
 A special meeting was called in consequence of this con- 
 vention. It was moved by Mr. Parnell, M.P., and seconded 
 by T. D. Sullivan, Esq. : 
 
 " That the council, entertaining the highest respect for the 
 opinion of Mr. Shaw, have attentively considered his letter, 
 but feel themselves unable to take any fitting action in the 
 matter of the convention, all control over it having passed 
 out of their hands since the meeting of the League on the 
 1 2th of September, of which due notice was given in the 
 public press on the 25th of August." 
 
 The English journals at this time announced what they 
 called a Fenian convention, held in August at Wilkesbarre, 
 Pa., U.S.A. Several comments were made, uncomplimen- 
 tary to the gathering, but one particular fact they were all 
 unanimous about, — that there had been a serious quarrel 
 among the leaders which could not be settled peacefully, 
 and that the convention broke up in utter confusion, which 
 meant the abandonment of every attempt to revive the 
 defunct organisation. How absurdly ridiculous are British 
 organs when they attempt to inform their readers of Irish 
 movements ! 
 
 The great land question now forced itself to the front ; 
 the harvest was a failure, the crops in some portions of the 
 country not equalling half the average produce. This, taken 
 together with the great fall in prices, made the outlook a 
 very serious one for the Irish tenant farmer. For numerous 
 
88 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 families who farmed small patches of land, which even at the 
 best of times was a struggle for existence, it meant starvation. 
 Ireland was threatened with a fearful famine, unless her alien 
 rulers stepped in and saved the people from the impending 
 terrible fate that was suspended over them. But the English 
 Ministry was deaf to the voice of Ireland. The Chief Secre- 
 tary in Dublin Castle, who represented the Tories who 
 then usurped Irish government, was the Honourable James 
 Lowther, an English sporting man, and one well known on 
 the turf, where he was familiarly spoken of as "Jimmy" 
 Lowther. This scion of English nobility had the most utter 
 contempt for Ireland, and everything Irish. He made not 
 the slightest attempt to conceal this feeling, and, both in 
 Parliament and in Dublin Castle, never disguised his detesta- 
 tion of the inferior race of beings whose destinies had fallen 
 beneath his sway. 
 
 Whenever deputations waited on him, even of the West 
 British portion of the community, he received them with such 
 supercilious patronage and sneering insults that Jimmy 
 Lowther became very unpopular in Ireland, an honour, to 
 do this gay sportsman justice, he seemed to court. He put 
 aside as exaggerated stories, the news brought him of an 
 impending famine. Even the Duke of Marlborough, the Lord- 
 Lieutenant, who was personally a very amiable man, looked 
 upon such statements at this time as highly coloured, and 
 considered it most improbable that they would be realised. 
 
 Mr. Parnell was fully alive to the situation, and with 
 trumpet tongue gave voice to the fearful doom he foresaw 
 awaited the people, if prompt measures were not taken. Land 
 meetings were held all over the country. Town and country 
 people, and dwellers in the large cities, became now fully 
 alive to the desperate condition of affairs. Mr. Parnell was 
 ubiquitous. He attended meetings, and gave addresses in 
 every imaginable distant place. The amount of work he 
 got through at this time was enough to tax the energies of 
 half a dozen men. 
 
 A great land meeting was held in Tipperary town on 
 
STARTING THE LAND AGITATION 89 
 
 Sunday, September 2 1. The meeting was held on the Fair 
 Green, where a platform was erected for the speakers. The 
 country people thronged into the town from all parts of the 
 neighbourhood. They were anxious to see and hear Mr. 
 Parnell, who was to be present ; also the patriotic Archbishop 
 of Cashel, the Most Reverend Dr. Croke. Banners were dis- 
 played in all directions, and bands of music enlivened the 
 occasion, which was quite a holiday for the people. Among 
 the several mottoes displayed were the following: "Tipperary," 
 " Ireland for the Irish," " In the name of God and the 
 Democrats of Ireland, we Demand the Surrender of Castle 
 Rack-rents." This last was a huge banner, which was 
 prominently displayed. The Rev. Mr. Farrell, P.P., presided. 
 Archbishop Croke said their crops had failed, their commerce 
 v;as languishing, their money resources were exhausted ; 
 creditors were importunate, and landlords for the most part 
 unrelenting. Indications were not wanting, to show that the 
 winter was likely to be rendered memorable by a dearth of 
 food and fuel throughout the country. 
 
 Mr. Parnell's appearance evoked long, loud, and continued 
 cheers. He said : 
 
 ** Bearing in mind the four disastrous seasons which have 
 crowded together on the Irish farmer, it was incumbent on 
 them to stand together and ask for a reasonable reduction of 
 rent. (Applause.) And if such reasonable reduction of rent 
 were not granted, it was their duty to pay no rent at all. 
 (Applause. A voice : " That's coming to it.") If they were 
 determined, they had the game in their own hands. Let them 
 band together and strengthen those that were weak, and let 
 them organise themselves, and refuse to take farms from 
 which tenants had been evicted. (Applause.) Providence 
 was on their side, and even the elements that day were fight- 
 ing for them." (Loud applause.) 
 
 This advice of Mr. Parnell to pay no rent unless a reason- 
 able reduction was given, was widely commented on by the 
 British press, and by the landlord organs in Ireland. They 
 said that " communism of the most frightful kind had invaded 
 
90 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the country ; " and these newspaper articles usually finished 
 up with an appeal to the British Government, to take prompt 
 and firm measures to nip in the bud this socialistic movement 
 — a movement which had for its object the destruction of all 
 private property. 
 
 On September 20 a great land meeting was held at Tuam. 
 The mottoes displayed were : " Land for the People," " United 
 we stand, divided we fall," " Behold the Dawn of Freedom," 
 " God save Ireland," *' Down with the Tyrants." Mr. James 
 O'Connor presided. Mr. P. J. Costello moved a resolution: 
 " That in view of the widespread and alarming distress which 
 threatened the people with a recurrence of the horrors of 
 1847, the tenant farmers should be allowed such a reduction 
 of rent as their desperate condition imperatively demanded, 
 in order to save them from impending ruin." He deprecated 
 the use of any language which would be taken hold of by 
 their enemies, and repudiated the imputation of desiring 
 to confiscate the property of the landlords or to promote re- 
 volutionary doctrines. 
 
 Mr. Michael Davitt seconded this resolution. . . . 
 
 Land meetings were now taking place north, south, east, 
 and west. Landlordism and England were denounced in every 
 possible manner, the most convincing arguments used to 
 show the Irish masses where the evil lay, and the crowded 
 audiences told that these evils must go. But none of the 
 speakers told their hearers that any other weapon was necessary, 
 but denunciation ; exposing the evils could, of course, remove 
 them, and the speakers were applauded, and the crowd 
 shouted, " Pay no rent !".... 
 
 Each day that passed toward the close of that eventful 
 year proved the correctness of Mr. Parnell's statements, that 
 the country would suffer another of these British-made 
 periodic famines, which swept whole families away, and filled 
 the coffinless paupers' graves of 1847. But if organisation 
 could save the people, it was being carried out. Thanks to the 
 untiring energy of the good men around Mr. Parnell, Ireland 
 
THE APPEAL TO THE WORLD'S CHARITY 91 
 
 was growing fully alive to the importance of the emergency ; 
 and Ireland was preparing to avert the threatened blow if she 
 could. Her people were in possession of the important 
 fact that something should be done quickly ; the foundation 
 of the Land League had been laid, and Ireland was about 
 to witness the formation of a gigantic agitation, extending over 
 the world wherever Irishmen dwelt, to peacefully fix the tiller 
 on the soil. . . . 
 
 Mr. Parnell breathed new energy into the movement ; he 
 galvanised into active life the lethargic and sluggish members 
 of the community ; he attended and addressed every im- 
 portant meeting possible, and impressed upon his hearers the 
 necessities of the hour. He was ably assisted by numbers of 
 talented Irishmen — many of these young men enthusiasts who 
 really did, but cannot possibly now, believe in this crusade of 
 shame. Young men started out to collect funds all over the 
 American Continent, and in Australia. Many of those who 
 joined the movement were poor men, and were compelled to 
 make a livelihood by the agitation ; and later on, when they 
 saw its folly, were still forced to cling to it as a means 
 of promotion in worldly esteem, and social and financial 
 position. They could not possibly quarrel with the goose 
 which laid for them such golden eggs. 
 
 The English papers began to speak of the Irish land 
 agitation. Whole columns of Irish news were transferred 
 to the English press ; even the London Times fully reported 
 the various speeches delivered. The English people had 
 ample opportunity to educate themselves on Irish grievances, 
 if they cared to do so. No Irishman could attempt to urge, 
 as a plea for English opposition, lack of knowledge of the 
 Irish grievance. In addition to the broadcast advocacy of 
 Irish demands, the Irish element in England was thoroughly 
 organised, through the exertions of Mr. Parnell and his 
 friends, and the " Home Rule " Confederation of Great 
 Britain seconded the exertions of their brothers in Ireland, 
 in informing the English masses of the exact position of affairs 
 in Ireland, 
 
92 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The memorable land meeting at Gurteen, County Sligo, 
 was held on November 3, 1879. From this meeting came 
 the first arrests, for the use of what the enemy called 
 " seditious language." 
 
 Numerous contingents came in from the surrounding 
 country — Boyle, Ballymote, Tubbercurry, Carrick-on-Shannon, 
 Kilkee, and Ballaghaderin. They were accompanied by 
 bands and carried banners. Among the mottoes displayed 
 were, " Irish Lands in Irish Hands," " Remember '47," " God 
 Save Ireland," " Faith and Fatherland," " The Land for the 
 Tillers," " Down with the Land Robbers ! " 
 
 The Rev. Canon James McDermot, P.P., proposed the first 
 resolution, which was seconded by Mr. John O'Connor of 
 Dublin. The Rev. Dennis O'Hara moved a resolution in 
 favour of peasant proprietary. Mr. Davitt spoke, and was 
 followed by Mr. P. J. Sheridan of Tubbercurry, who publicly 
 burnt a local paper, which described the attendance on the 
 platform at the Tubbercurry meeting as characterised by 
 fustian and vulgarity. 
 
 Mr. J. B. Killen, barrister, said since the time when the 
 cursed feudal laws were introduced by Norman savages, the 
 land of Ireland had been three times confiscated, but always 
 in favour of the aristocracy. They wanted a fourth confisca- 
 tion, or rather restitution now in favour of the people. He 
 left them to say whether that was to be done by the pen, the 
 pencil, or the sword. The time for namby-pamby speaking 
 had passed ; they had been beggars long enough, and now 
 they must be men, and, acting like men, the day would be 
 won. . . • 
 
 A leading London society paper, Vanity FaiVy of October 
 II, 1879, thus commented on the Irish anti-rent agitation : 
 
 " It is worse than useless to blind ourselves to the fact that 
 serious difficulties are likely to arise in Ireland. We read of 
 threats used to hitherto popular landlands — landlords in con- 
 nection with whom it is absurd to talk of rack-renting or 
 injustice; of violent language at meetings by priests, of whole- 
 
''VANITY FAIR" ON THE SITUATION 93 
 
 sale refusal to pay rents at all ; and of arrangements for a 
 more thorough agitation through the winter. The most caustic 
 or the most convincing leaders in the London press will do 
 nothing to avert the state of anarchy which is fast approach- 
 ing. When will it be time for * something to be done ' ? 
 When how many landlords and agents have been shot ? How 
 far are Mr. Parnell and his followers to go .-* If a man goes 
 into the street and creates a disturbance, he is held responsible 
 for the disturbance. Mr. Parnell is preaching doctrines that can 
 only end in bloodshed. Will he not be held responsible for 
 the bloodshed } It is useless for him to say that by standing 
 together, and his other phrases, he means resistance by legal 
 means. To advise a man to stay in another man's house, 
 refusing either to pay rent or to go, is to advise him deliber- 
 ately to break the law. It may be right that the land of 
 Ireland should be taken from the present landlords, and given 
 to the present tenants. But until it is so taken the tenants 
 must wait for possession." 
 
 In this article the hard-headed, practical English enemy, 
 calmly discussed the situation from his standpoint, and indeed 
 from the common-sense standpoint. He naturally thought 
 that the Irish people were preparing to fight. The natural 
 sequence of the doctrines preached ought as necessarily to end 
 in bloodshed, as the doctrines which the French and German 
 people differ about, as to Alsace and Lorraine, must end in 
 bloodshed some day. But mercurial as our French brethren 
 are, or are said to be, they never yet promulgated the absurd 
 idea of getting back Alsace and Lorraine without fighting for 
 it. They would consider as lunatics, and justly so, any set of 
 men who would dictate to Alsatians and Lorrainers how they 
 were to break German laws (admitting them to be as unjust 
 as those in Ireland), and who would tell these people that 
 they must be victorious for their German brothers would 
 sympathise with them ; while at the same time they would 
 say to their French countrymen, and in doing so tell the 
 world, that the German army is all-powerful and the French 
 all-powerless, and that it would be rashness and destruction 
 
94 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVlNClBLES 
 
 to attempt to cross arms with Germany ; and yet they were 
 to get Alsace and Lorraine without fighting! This is the 
 very doctrine that Irishmen have been, and are to-day, 
 preaching to their fellow-countrymen; announcing from the 
 hilltops Ireland's weakness and her utter inability to fight, 
 yet if they could have the least chance, what mince-meat these 
 valiant heroes would make of the Saxon ! The doctrines that 
 are to-day preached to a brave but uneducated people (in a 
 political sense uneducated, as are the masses of many nations) 
 are enough to sap the manhood of the race. It is teaching 
 the young men to look to their foe, the bitter, hostile enemy 
 of seven hundred years, for that gift of freedom which Britain 
 robbed from their fathers. The English writer in Vanity Fair 
 says, " It may be right to take from the landlords the land and 
 give it to the tenant, but the tenant must wait for possession 
 until it is so taken." But not so say the agitators, who, with 
 possibly good motives, advise the Irish tenant farmers what 
 to do, as if they were the actual possessors of the soil, with- 
 out striking one single blow or firing a single shot. They 
 forget England's flag still floats over the land, emblematic of 
 the conquest she has not yet completed. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE SHADOW OF APPROACHING FAMINE — MR. PARNELL 
 IN AMERICA — " SHAMING BRITAIN." 
 
 The agitation was now in full active work. The great meet- 
 ings of O'Connell were nearly equalled by the giant meetings 
 of Parnell ; and Ireland, after the loss of over three millions of 
 people since the great Tribune's time, pluckily faced the 
 British, determined to argue the old point with them. But the 
 British get tired of discussing the issue, and having force ready 
 at hand, tried if imprisonment could solve the question 
 from their view of the needs of the case. The British opened the 
 ball, and as the papers in the English interest said, the long- 
 expected blow was struck at seditious agitation. At six 
 o'clock on the morning of November 19, 1879, they arrested 
 Mr. Michael Davitt and Mr. James Bryce Killen on a charge 
 of having used seditious language at the anti-rent meeting in 
 Gurteen, County Sligo, on Sunday, November 2. At the same 
 hour Mr. James Daly, proprietor of the Mayo Telegraph, was 
 arrested in Castlerea. Messrs. Davitt and Killen were con- 
 veyed by the nine o'clock train to Sligo ; Mr. Daly was also 
 brought there, and having been charged before the magistrate, 
 the three were remanded for further examination, and com- 
 mitted to prison. 
 
 The following placard posted throughout the County Mayo 
 was torn down by the police : — 
 
 " Fellow-Countrymen,— The hour of trial is come. Your 
 leaders are arrested. Davitt and Daly are in prison. You 
 
96 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 know your duty. Will you do it? Yes, you will. Balla is 
 the place of meeting and Saturday is the day. Come in your 
 thousands, and show the Government and the world that 
 your rights you'll maintain. To the rescue in the mighti- 
 ness of your numbers. Land and Liberty ! * God save the 
 people.' Balla, Balla ! Saturday next, Saturday next ! " 
 
 What arrant nonsense is contained in this placard ! Irishmen 
 are summoned to go to Balla on Saturday in their thousands, to 
 show the British that their rights they will maintain ; but by 
 so doing, they show the British the very opposite — that their 
 rights they will not maintain, except to shout and cheer. 
 
 James Grant, the Scottish writer, in one of his works gives 
 a reason why the Bristish soldier is clad in scarlet ; he tells his 
 readers that a charge of British infantry, with the sun shining 
 on the bright-coloured dress, glistening on their accoutrements, 
 and sparkling on their bayonets' hedge of steel, so frightens 
 their enemy that he gets panic-stricken at their mere appear- 
 ance and flies in disorder, terrified at the martial sight. 
 
 It must be some such idea that animated the writer of the 
 Balla placard. He held his countrymen in such high esteem 
 that he considered that the mere gathering of them at a 
 public meeting in their thousands, would release Davitt, Daly, 
 and Killen. As announced in the placard, they were to come 
 " To the rescue in the mightiness of their numbers." 
 
 The " Home Rule" Executive in their rooms at London 
 Bridge, also came to the rescue in the same daring manner. 
 Resolutions were passed condemning the British Ministry, 
 which must have seriously inconvenienced these English 
 statesmen. 
 
 On Saturday, November 22, 1879, the great Balla 
 demonstration took place ; on the same day the Nationalists 
 turned out to celebrate the anniversary of the men who were 
 hanged at Manchester for the rescue of Colonel Kelly and 
 Captain Dacey. These were all trained and well-drilled 
 men who were foolishly ordered out to display their strength 
 
AN ENGLISH TRIBUTE 97 
 
 to the enemy ; splendid material, but lacking brains to guide 
 them in the proper course. 
 
 At two o'clock the procession formed in the Claremorris 
 Road. The English writer who described the scene, was 
 evidently impressed with the marching and discipline of the 
 Nationalists. "The contingents fell into their places with 
 the regularity and order of a disciplined force, and defiled 
 through the town in semi-military array ; each contingent 
 marched four deep under its own officers, in the style of men 
 accustomed to step together, and obeyed their orders with a 
 promptitude and precision, which would have reflected credit 
 on regiments of militia. They were all under the command 
 of an imposing-looking person, well mounted and distinguished 
 by a red band round his hat. In the several files, thick 
 blackthorn sticks were carried over the shoulders like guns, 
 and the strictest silence was observed in the ranks. Behind 
 the field officer in command, as he may be called, was a bugler 
 who sounded the orders to 'halt,' 'fall in,' and 'fall out,' with 
 the facility of a trained hand. In front of the procession was 
 borne on two poles a large black banner with a white fringe, 
 with inscriptions in white letters — on one side * God rest our 
 Martyred Three ' and on the other * In Memoriam — Allen, 
 Larkin, and O'Brien,' with a cross underneath. In the 
 centre of the procession, a green flag was carried, having in 
 gilt letters on one side, 
 
 ** * On in your masses— dense, resolute, strong, 
 To war against treason, oppression and wrong,* 
 
 and on the other side, 
 
 ** * God save Ireland.' 
 
 " Green scarves were worn by the processionists, and about 
 fifty men carried little bannerets of bright colours, which 
 fluttered in the air with picturesque effect. Then from two 
 hundred to three hundred men, mounted on fine horses, 
 brought up the rear of the procession. These horsemen kept 
 the same military order as did the footmen." 
 
 The leading Provincialists were assembled on the platform, 
 
 H 
 
98 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 including Mr. Parnell. There were also a few Nationalists in 
 the group. Several resolutions were put to the meeting 
 and carried. Mr. Thomas Brennan, now an enforced exile 
 in the United States, in seconding the first resolution 
 delivered an able address. . . » 
 
 Mr. Parnell, who was, warmly greeted, said it was too. true 
 that in these days the most talented men were marked out 
 for imprisonment, and he very much feared that the result 
 of the lead he had takeii in this movement would be that 
 he also would be sent to share the fate of Messrs. Davitt, 
 Daly, and Killen., Lord Beaconsfield had shown them how 
 he could appj^eciat^ the strength of this movement Too well 
 the aristocracy of England and Ireland also recognised it, and 
 the movement which began in the plains of Irishtown, Mayo, 
 had set the handwriting on the wall, for the downfall of the 
 most infamous land tenure that the world had ever seen. 
 
 The Charles Stewart Parnell of that Balla meeting was a 
 pure and sincere Irishman, a man who was fast forming his 
 mind upon the solution of the Irish nation's troubles, and 
 their removal, by association with the Nationalists, whom he 
 to-day slanderously denounces. True, at that time he clung to 
 Provincialism, but he had promised Irishmen that if it failed, 
 he would be with them in anything. Believing in his promise, 
 the party of action helped him ; and the huge League was the 
 result of their labours. In America they formed branches 
 outside of their revolutionary work, to collect money to build 
 up the movement which m^de Mr. Parnell and his followers 
 so numerous before the world at this date. These men did 
 not believe in agitation, and their speeches on public plat- 
 forms did not convey their real sentiments ; but by what they 
 considered diplomatic tactics, they hoped to ripen the Irish 
 question by the agitation, and behind it to strike at the foe. 
 Mr. Parnell, they believed, would be with them when the hour 
 came ; for while he thought that what Ireland required could 
 be got peacefully, yet if it was proved different, his remarks 
 and associations would, lead his most intimate friends to be- 
 lieve that he would asaume the rUe of the leaders of '98, 
 
"IN THE WOMB OF TIME" 99 
 
 Fitzgerald, Emmet, and Tone. Each party deceived the other, 
 and both parties deceived the people, but not intentionally, 
 for neither stopped to examine what this false teaching was 
 sure to lead to. The moderate movement crossed the 
 Rubicon — possibly driven there by passion and not judgment 
 — and when it did so, its leaders becamxe more extreme in 
 their acts than the party of action had hitherto been. But 
 victory had no sooner fallen to their flag, than they grew 
 alarmed. They were not equal to the emergency ; they pre- 
 cipitately retreated, threw down their arms, and left the brave 
 men alone in the gap, to face all the dangers. They even 
 deceived these men, for they kept their camp fires burning, as 
 if they still occupied the same advanced ground. Not content 
 at this foul desertion in a crisis, they started a propaganda of 
 slander, and denounced the men and their actions, whom 
 they so basely betrayed. Some men condoned this as a 
 proper and necessary feature to deceive the enemy. What 
 fatuous reasoning ! These men have befouled their own con- 
 duct. They would, no doubt, swear a thousand times that 
 they had no association with what their movement was the 
 actual founder of ; and this hateful perjury and prevarication 
 is called by these men — diplomacy ! 
 
 Mr. Parnell liad not that day experienced imprisonment, 
 however, and as Mr. Hyndman, the great English democrat, 
 once said in the writer's hearing, " No man. can tell what 
 effect the salutary lesson might not have upon him." The 
 eminent English republicaa leader could scarcely repress the 
 sneer of contempt he felt for Mr. Parnell's change of front, 
 and his Kilmainham treaty surrender. But that day at Balla 
 Mr. Parnell defied arrest. He was then sincere and faithful. 
 Mr. Thomas Brennan, the man he praised, was a staunch 
 patriot, who was afterwards compelled, when Carey turned 
 informer, to fly to this free country [America]. Mr. Parnell's 
 alliance with the ex-coercer, the enemy's Minister, Mr. Glad- 
 stone ; and his denunciation of the national feeling held by 
 Mr. Brennan and so many brave Irishmen, was then in the 
 womb of time. .... 
 
 H 2 
 
loo THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The magisterial investigation into the charges made 
 against Messrs. Davitt, Daly, and Killen commenced on Mon- 
 day, November 24, at Sligo. They were met by Mr. Parnell, 
 M.P., and Mr. Dillon, and other gentlemen, and appeared 
 none the worse for their confinement. Mr. Daly was first 
 put on his trial ; he was defended by Mr. John J. Loudon. 
 He was committed for trial at the ensuing assizes, the 
 magistrate agreeing to take bail, two sureties in ;^25o each, 
 and the prisoner in ^500. Bail was procured, and Mr. Daly 
 was released. Mr. Davitt, who refused professional assist- 
 ance, defended himself; he was put on his trial the next day, 
 and the stenographer, or shorthand writer, Mr. William C. 
 Johnson, of the staff of the Dublin Daily Express^ gave 
 evidence of the Gurteen speech. Mr. Davitt was released on 
 bail similar to that given by Mr. Daly. 
 
 After Mr. Davitt was released, a large tar-barrel was set on 
 fire opposite the house of Dr. Cox, where he was dining 
 A crowd assembled before the house, and called for speeches. 
 They were addressed by Messrs. Davitt, Parnell, Dillon, and 
 Loudon. Mr. Parnell said the Government had overshot the 
 mark in releasing Davitt on a ticket-of-leave as an ordinary 
 felon, instead of a political convict. Mr. Dillon said the 
 Government made no greater mistake than arresting Mr. 
 Davitt. Mr. Loudon said that he regarded the action of 
 the Government as a sublime joke in a serio-comic drama, 
 which would only bring shame and disgrace upon them. 
 
 Mr. Parnell, it may be presumed, meant that the Govern- 
 ment's mistake in not releasing Davitt as a political prisoner, 
 prevented them from re-arresting him on the former political 
 charge, hence the necessity of a fresh prosecution. Mr. 
 Parnell, like a good many of the agitators, clung to the 
 belief that the British respect the forms of their own laws, in 
 dealing with Irishmen. This may be said to a certain extent 
 of the Tories, but never of the Radicals, Ireland's most bitter 
 foes with honeyed tongues. Mr. Parnell lived to see the 
 violation of this form, when the Liberal, Mr. Gladstone, 
 revoked Mr. Davitt's ticket-of-leave, and had him re-arrested 
 
THE ARREST OF MR. THOMAS BRENNAN loi 
 
 and sent to Dartmoor convict prison. Mr. Dillon said the 
 Government made no greater mistake than these arrests. 
 From Ireland's standpoint — yes ! The German Government 
 made no greater mistake than capturing the French army 
 at Sedan ; that is, from a French point of view. Irishmen 
 read these statements almost daily, and are told of the dire 
 consequences which must overtake the enemy's Government, 
 if they proclaim a certain meeting or make certain arrests ; 
 but the strangest part of these strange assertions consists in 
 the wild statement that the injuries are to come from the 
 English people, — the people who elected this Government 
 to carry out the programme, of which these men complain. 
 
 Yet men of Mr. Dillon's calibre will tell their countrymen 
 such puerilities in sober seriousness. Then take this burning 
 of a tar-barrel, because a countryman is sent for trial for 
 making a speech. What strange victims ! Mr. Loudon's 
 title of serio-comic suits the whole situation. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Brennan also fell a victim to Lord Beacons 
 field's Administration. The Tory chief ordered his arrest for 
 the Balla speech. He was made prisoner on December 5 in 
 his own house at Russell Street, Dublin, at eight o'clock in 
 the morning ; taken in a cab to Broadstone Railway terminus, 
 and thence by the nine o'clock train to Castlebar. He was 
 brought before the magistrate at Castlebar, who remanded 
 him on bail. . . . 
 
 The British in Ireland, and in their own country, tried to 
 make it appear that the distress and threatened famine, were 
 the creation of Mr. Parnell for political effect. Their organs 
 preached up the " selfish agitators " who were disturbing the 
 island, and denounced in no measured language, the dema- 
 gogues, who were disturbing the peace of the country, and 
 preventing the flow of English capital into Ireland. 
 
 This cry about frightening away capital, has been often and 
 often repeated, whenever the suffering Irish make any protest, 
 and fancy by such means to lighten their intolerable burdens. 
 Ireland needs no capital from England ; if Britain would only 
 take her hands out of Ireland's pocket, the Irish would have 
 
102 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 ample capital to begin housekeeping for themselves. It is 
 not agitation which frightens away the investing of capital, 
 but the monopoly England enjoys, through her specially 
 manufactured laws. 
 
 Some few years ago, under the influence of the cry Native 
 Manufactures, then prevalent, two young Irishmen started a 
 starch factory. People were anxious to purchase home-made 
 goods, and they found the Irish starch equal to the best 
 English made, so they soon established a good local trade. 
 The British manufacturers became alarmed, they saw their 
 monopoly melting away, and soon formed a pool ; being 
 wealthy, they could afford to lose money to break their native 
 competitors. They undersold the young Irishmen, also got 
 their wares passed off as Irish, and with long credit and 
 other inducements got back their trade. The consequence 
 was that the young men failed, and lost their money and 
 time, in a hopeless struggle against their powerful foreign 
 rivals. 
 
 Native rule would have stopped these British goods at the 
 Irish Custom House, given to Irish manufactures a free field 
 in their own land, and so built up their industries which 
 sentimental cries for native goods never can do. They may 
 make a small spasmodic effort, out of which nothing perma- 
 nent can possibly come. . , , 
 
 The mid-winter was now on, with all its bitter sufferings 
 to the poverty-stricken peasants. Men's hearts bled in agony 
 and suppressed rage, when they thought how powerless they 
 were to aid their suffering fellow-men, and elevate them from 
 a pauper's position. Mr. Parnell prepared to depart for 
 America on his mission of patriotic duty to his native land. 
 
 A great crowd came to see him ofT at Queenstown, from 
 whence he sailed, accompanied by Mr. Dillon and Mr. Healy, 
 on DeceSJiber 20, 1879. An immense throng waited the 
 arrival of the train at Queenstown which conveyed Ireland's 
 envoys to the great republic of peoples. When Mr. Parnell, 
 M.P., Mr. W. H. O'Sullivan, M.P., and others, stepped out of 
 
MR. PARNELL LEAVES FOR AMERICA 103 
 
 the train, there was much cheering from the crowd. They 
 immediately went to the covered portion of the platform, 
 where speeches were delivered, thanking Mr. Parnell for his 
 exertions in the interest of the tenant farmers, and wishing 
 him a good voyage. In reply, he said he hoped one of the 
 results of his visit would be to show that the hearts of the 
 American people would beat warmly towards Ireland. They 
 had every day telegrams of the great movement that was 
 progressing in all the vast cities of America. The people 
 there were already organising themselves for the purpose of 
 giving Ireland practical assistance. 
 
 Mr. Parnell went on board the steamer Scythia, accom- 
 panied by Mr. John Dillon and Mr. T. Healy, his secretary. 
 Mr. Parnell stated that he expected to return by the ist of 
 March next, but that if Mr. Davitt and Mr. Killen were put 
 on trial in the meantime, he would return home immediately. 
 As the Irish representatives steamed out of the magnificent 
 Cove of Cork, hundreds of voices wished them a God-speed 
 on their noble mission. 
 
 While the good ship Scythia was steaming over the 
 mighty waters that divide the New and Old Worlds, carrying 
 Charles Stewart Parnell and John Dillon on their mission 
 of mercy, the exiled children of the Gael in the United 
 States were preparing to give them a due and fitting 
 reception. 
 
 On the departure of the Scythia from the Cove of Cork, 
 this message flashed over the cable to the honorary secretaries 
 of the Parnell Reception Committee in New York — 
 
 ** Dr. Philip Donlin and Thomas B. Bannerman : 
 
 *' QUEENSTOWN, December 21, 1879. 
 
 " Parnell and Dillon have just sailed. The Land League 
 has commended them to receive assistance for the relief of 
 the distress, which the League will distribute. The distress 
 is very pressing. 
 
 (Signed) "LAND LEAGUE, DuBLIN." 
 
I04 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Names which were then unknown outside the circle of 
 their immediate friends, and which have in the past few years 
 become household words, were not appended to this despatch. 
 It contained no name, but was simply signed Land League, 
 which in concrete contained the endorsement of many men — 
 men who have since fruitlessly struggled in the great crusade 
 just then inaugurated. 
 
 A public meeting was called to assemble at Newark, N.J., 
 on December 29, 1879, to collect funds for the relief of 
 Irish distress. 
 
 The New York Relief Committee met on December 29 
 at Room 24, Cooper Union. Judge Elkin presided ; Dr. 
 Donlin and Mr. Bannerman acted as secretaries. The chair- 
 man of the Reception Committee, Mr. Charles O'Rourke, 
 reported that the receipts amounted to $415. It was there 
 and then decided by the committee, to have headquarters at 
 Room 118, Astor House. Collector Merritt promised the 
 committee who waited on him, to allow the use of a revenue 
 cutter for the committee, who would go out to meet the in- 
 coming steamer. 
 
 A little later, another portion of the Reception Committee 
 met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, General Martin T. McMahon 
 in the chair. A large collection was made ; several sub- 
 scriptions of 1 100 were handed in. The delegates who ar- 
 rived from Chicago were Mr. Stone, Mr. John F. Finnerty, 
 and Mr. J. J. Fitzgibbons. Dr. William Carroll associated 
 himself with several prominent gentlemen, in order to organise 
 a reception committee in Philadelphia. All the vast cities of 
 the great American continent were aroused to activity in the 
 cause of Ireland, not alone to feed the starving poor in that 
 country, but to aid in any feasible movement made known to 
 them, for the permanent removal of the cause which had so 
 dire and distressing an effect. 
 
 The Scythia, with C. S. Parnell, John Dillon, and Timothy 
 Healy on board, dropped anchor at Quarantine at two o'clock 
 on the morning of January 2, 1880. The Reception Committee 
 
MR. PARNELL INTERVIEWED IN AMERICA 105 
 
 left the landing pier at seven o'clock, and steamed down the 
 harbour to welcome the new arrivals from the old land. 
 
 In the meantime the ubiquitous New York reporter had 
 got on board the steamer, and procured an interview with 
 Mr. Parnell. 
 
 " I am," said Mr. Parnell, " a delegate from the National 
 League. I do not come to America as a private gentleman, 
 or as a member of Parliament." 
 
 " Do you think that the change you propose can be brought 
 about, without violence ? '' 
 
 " It should be so, and it is to this end we are striving. 
 There is force enough in moral power, when it is brought to 
 the support of a just cause. We propose, only, that the tiller 
 of the soil shall be its owner. Then, and then only, will he 
 have a permanent interest in it, and then he becomes a good 
 citizen. We are in no way Communists, as you know the 
 word here, or as we know it from the French models." 
 
 " How do you propose to work your reform } " 
 
 " One way is when estates come forward for sale, to buy 
 them in the Landed Estates Court." 
 
 While Mr. Parnell was taking his breakfast, and talking to 
 the newspaper men, a rousing cheer from over two hundred 
 lusty throats came into the cabin where he was seated ; and 
 the ringing notes rang over the waters — Irish America's 
 reception to the envoys of the suffering sons of the Green 
 Isle. The revenue cutter with the Reception Committee on 
 board, came alongside the Scythia : the deputation climbed up 
 the dangling rope ladder, and clambered on to the main deck. 
 As Mr. Parnell, a moment later, emerged from the saloon, he 
 was received with another ringing cheer of welcome. With 
 some of the committee he was acquainted, having been 
 introduced to them when in America with Mr. O'Connor 
 Power in 1876. Hasty introductions were given and 
 received. Without further delay they adjourned to the 
 saloon, and stood in a group around Mr. Parnell and Mr. 
 Dillon, under the skylight. Mr. John E. Devlin, chairman of 
 
io6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the Reception Committee, read a very complimentary address, 
 promising on the part of the citizens of New York, hearty 
 co-operation in the envoys* mission. The Chicago deputation 
 presented an address, and invitation to their beautiful city, 
 promising on behalf of their citizens, earnest support for the 
 cause Mr. Parnell and Mr. Dillon advocated. After suitable 
 replies were spoken by the Irish envoys, thanking the several 
 deputations for their cordial and kindly reception, the whole 
 party drove to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where apartments 
 were taken for the Irish guests. 
 
 While Mr. Parnell and his friends were resting themselves, 
 the Reception Committee held a meeting in Mr. Parnell's parlour, 
 and decided to have a sub-committee of six in attendance at all 
 hours, to wait on Mr. Parnell. This committee was to wait 
 on him during his stay in New York. Every delegation was 
 to be received by this committee, who were to present them to 
 their visitors. The committee was composed of the following 
 men : — Messrs. Bannerman, O'Donoghue, John Devoy, John 
 Breslin, Michael Kerwin, and P. McGuire. 
 
 There was a great stir in Irish circles in New York, 
 consequent on the visit of Messrs. Parnell and Dillon ; 
 that excitement which Irishmen love so much, they had then 
 to the full. A great demonstration and public meeting was 
 organised for Sunday, January 4, 1880, in the Madison 
 Square Garden. 
 
 The place was literally packed with people. When the 
 Irish delegates made their appearance on the platform, it was 
 the signal for an outburst of applause that was repeated for 
 some time. Gilmore's band supplied the music, and all the 
 arrangements were perfect. On the platform were a crowd 
 of prominent Irishmen and Americans. Among the latter 
 were William E. Robinson, Thurlow Weed, Judge Gilder- 
 sleeve, Judge Acker, and others. Judge Gildersleeve was 
 elected chairman of the meeting. In his opening address 
 he said, alluding to his position as chairman, " It is an 
 honour which I highly appreciate. The right to heal upon 
 
MR. PARNELL'S NEW YORK SPEECH 107 
 
 the Sabbath day, was established two thousand years ago ; 
 and on this first Sabbath of the new year, we come together to 
 learn how best we can help to heal the sufferings of im- 
 poverished Ireland. The audience will soon have the 
 pleasure of listening to a gentleman who is an honour alike 
 to America and Ireland, the grandson of one of America's 
 most distinguished naval officers." With these few words of 
 introduction Judge Gildersleeve took his seat. On Mn 
 Parnell coming forward, the audience renewed the applause 
 which greeted his advent on the platform. Mr. Parnell 
 said : 
 
 " Judge Gildersleeve : Ladies and gentlemen, — I have to 
 thank you, in the first place, for the kind cordiality of your 
 reception ; and I have to apologise in advance for my imper- 
 fections, and to regret that the great cause which I stand here 
 to-night to plead before the people of New York, has not been 
 entrusted to far better and abler hands. (Cries of * No ! no ! ') 
 But, ladies and gentlemen, I fear not for this cause. (Hear 
 hear, and applause.) Imperfect and inadequate as must be the 
 way in which I shall place it before you, I feel confident that 
 from its greatness and its justice, it needs no great effort on 
 my part to set it before you in such a way as to have the 
 heartiest sympathy of this great and free nation. (Applause.) 
 The American people occupy to-day a proud position in 
 respect to this question — a position which I, as one who 
 boasts of some American blood — (applause) — feel justly proud. 
 And I am glad when I think I may have had some moral 
 share in directing the attention of this country to our cause. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 " The cause of the present distress, is the unequal and arti- 
 ficial system of land tenure which prevails in Ireland. The 
 effect of that cause is of course the distress, and while we 
 take care to do the best we can — and the best we can will be 
 but little to relieve distress — we must also take care that we 
 take advantage of the unexampled opportunity which is now 
 presented to us, for the purpose of sweeping away this bad 
 system. In '47, and subsequent years when the great Irish 
 
io8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 famine took place, America came forward, first among the 
 nations with unexampled liberality. But did that liberality 
 prevent the famine ? Did it prevent millions from dying of 
 starvation, or the pestilence which followed ? (Cries of No ! 
 no ! ') Did it prevent the banishment of many more millions ? 
 Did it prevent the scenes in Ireland in these years — the scenes 
 on board the emigrant ships ? No ! No charity that can 
 be given by America, will avail to prevent Irish distress. 
 That must be the duty of the British Government, and we 
 must see that we shame that Government into a sense of its 
 obligation. (Great applause.) 
 
 " Where, where is the process of charity to end ? Are we 
 to be compelled continually, every ten or twelve years, to 
 appear as mendicants before the world ? (Cries of * No ! no !') 
 Then I say to the people of this country: * If you wish to 
 rescue us from that position, help us in destroying the 
 system which brings it on.' (Applause.) 
 
 "America subscribed, and subscribed liberally, in those 
 years. The people of Ireland living in this country, have 
 been subscribers ever since. (A voice : ' It all goes to the 
 landlords.') My friend in the crowd has anticipated me, by 
 telling you that it goes to the landlords. Yes, your 
 hard-earned savings that you have sent with such true 
 devotion to your fellow-countrymen over there, have gone 
 in payment of excessive rents, and bolstering up this terrible 
 system. 
 
 " I have said just now that we must shame the British 
 Government into a sense of its obligations to Ireland in this 
 matter. (* Hear, hear ! ') But I regret they have shown 
 their usual want of recognition of those obligations, up to the 
 present. What was the Irish Chief Secretary's reply to those 
 who waited upon him, to establish fuel depots through the 
 wastes of Ireland } — for I must explain to those who are not 
 acquainted with Irish matters, that almost all Ireland is 
 depending for its fuel upon the turf that is cut in the bogs. 
 This fuel, owing to the excessive rains during the whole 
 summer, is in a state of mud. It is entirely unfit to burn, 
 
THE SCHEME OF LAND SETTLEMENT 109 
 
 and in addition to the pressure of hunger, we have the added 
 pressure of cold. Well, Mr. Lowther — (hisses) — when he was 
 asked to establish fuel depots,— and I only mention this as an 
 example of the way in which our rulers over there treat this 
 grave question, — said : * Oh, they have fuel enough to burn 
 bonfires in honouring Mr. Davitt' (Applause.) Because a 
 few dried or half-dried furze bushes were lighted on the Irish 
 hills in honour of the release of Davitt, this paltry excuse 
 is put forward, gravely put forward, by the responsible 
 Minister of the Crown. . . . 
 
 " The attention of the whole civilised world is centred 
 upon Ireland, and very shortly the merits of our question 
 will be known in all parts. We have saved the lives of the 
 landlords, and we have saved the lives of the people. 
 (Applause.) Now I do not wish, in fact it would be impos- 
 sible for me, in the presence of this immense multitude, to go 
 into many details. I can only speak very generally in 
 reference to many branches of this great question, but if 
 asked. What do you propose } I may state generally that we 
 propose to make the occupiers of the soil its owners. (Great 
 applause.) We wish, we wish to do this with as little injury 
 to what may be considered to be vested interests, as possible. 
 No physical violence, no unconstitutional action is contem- 
 plated, but in my judgment what " (A terrible tumult 
 
 here arose in the audience, and the speaker could not be 
 heard. It was evident the last words spoken, were not in 
 harmony with the views of those addressed.) 
 
 " As I have repeatedly said, American public opinion is one 
 of our greatest weapons, and the landlords themselves, by 
 invoking that public opinion, have shown the very high value 
 that they place upon it. I feel that this is a very great com- 
 pliment to you, that the proud British aristocracy should 
 humble itself, and appear as suppliants before this great 
 democracy. (Cries, applause, and loud whistling.) And 
 they have put forward a gentleman, Mr. Kavanagh — (hisses) 
 — a man of signal ability, to plead their cause. And I will 
 do him the justice to say that he has been the very best 
 
no THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 advocate that the circumstance admitted. (A voice — ' Where 
 are his legs ? ' Laughter.) 
 
 " Well, never mind his legs or his arms, he has got a very- 
 good head. And this gentleman has advanced a variety of 
 objections to our plans. He has told us that the system of 
 ownership will entail subdivision and subletting, and he has 
 pointed to the old history before the famine (when subdivision 
 and subletting did undoubtedly exist to a very great and evil 
 extent), as a proof of the justice of his assertion. But the 
 circumstance, the condition of affairs that we seek to establi sh, 
 is very different from that which obtained before the famine. 
 Before the famine, the system of renting land was enforced, 
 and that system of renting necessitated subdivision and sub- 
 letting. But we contemplate to replace that system by one 
 of rule. We desire to make land free,, so that everybody who 
 has money to buy it, may buy as much as he needs of it. 
 Under the system of renting, it is impossible to sell.. The 
 difficulties of proving a title are so great under the present 
 laws, that in the case of small holdings the cost of proving 
 the title exceeds, very frequently, the purchase value of the 
 holding itself. Then, as now, the laws of entail and settle- 
 ment were in full force. We desire to abolish the laws of 
 entail and settlement, — (applause) — which prevent the natural 
 crumbling away of properties that wise nature has ordained, 
 in order to prevent the property of the world from passing 
 into a few hands. (Applause.) Local registration of land, 
 such as you have in. this country, should also follow, so as to 
 make it as easy to sell a bit of land as it is to sell a, haystack, 
 or a bale of cotton, (Applause.) 
 
 " Subdivision is also produced by the system of letting, but 
 I contend that no injurious subdivision would take pJiace if 
 we had a free system of sale of land existing in Ireland. I 
 believe that under such a system the size of the farms would 
 be regulated by natural causes ; that a man would not care 
 to buy a farm which was too small for profitable cultivation. 
 And in that way the size of Irish farms would, by natural 
 causes, gradually become suited to the markets, the method 
 
MR. PARNELL AND MR. KAVANAGH iii 
 
 of cultivation, and the crops grown. Then we are also told, 
 by Mr. Kavanagh, of the example of a proprietor who leased 
 his farms in perpetuity to fifty tenants, with the result that 
 they passed into the hands of middlemen. The same reason 
 that I have just explained, induced that action also. If you 
 sell an estate in Ireland, and sell the farms of the tenants, if 
 you leave the laws of entail and settlement as they now are, 
 if you render it impossible for a man to sell a small bit of 
 land, save at a cost which exceeds the purchase price of it, 
 then, in the course of a generation or two, you would un- 
 doubtedly have those farms back in the hands of middlemen 
 or of landlords. We, on tha contrary, desire to arrange the 
 condition, so that they shall be suited to the great change 
 that we contemplate. And we can point to the example of 
 other countries — of France and of Belgium, where land is 
 limited, as it is in Ireland — as the best, the very best, example 
 of the truth of our reasoning, and of the explanations we lay 
 before you. Well, those gentlemen have proceeded to make 
 certain statements, or rather misstatements, of a rather bare- 
 faced character. (Hisses.) Now it is a common saying in 
 legal circles over in Ireland ' If you have a bad c se abuse 
 the plaintiffs attorney.' And so, I suppose, Mr. Kavanagh 
 thinks the best thing he can do, is to abuse us, since he knows 
 that his case is hopeless. We do not intend to follow his 
 had example in that respect We intend to treat him with 
 the utmost courtesy and consideration ; and we hope, if possi- 
 ble, to induce him to come before you again, in order to give 
 us opportunities of replying to him again. He tells us we 
 propose to apply money, raised in America, to buying out the 
 landlords. He need not be uneasy, for not one cent of your 
 money will ever go into his pockets. (Applause.) And then he 
 goes on to say that none of it will go to the relief of distress, 
 and that we propose to organise an armed rebellion with it. 
 (Cheers.) Well, I have no doubt that many of my fellow- 
 countrymen in this country would like to organise an armed 
 rebellion — (great cheering, the audience burst into shouts, and 
 cries of ' Yes 1 yes ! ') — ^but I must regret to disappoint them 
 
112 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 also, because I must, in truth and honesty, tell you, that how- 
 ever unpopular such a statement may be, that not one cent 
 of the money contributed and handed to us, will go towards 
 organising an armed rebellion in Ireland. 
 
 " I do not wish to abuse Mr. Kavanagh, and I am bound 
 to admit that during the high prices of the last few years his 
 estate was let at a fair value ; although I regret to say that he, 
 like some other Irish landlords, has refused to grant any 
 reasonable reduction of rent which has become necessary, 
 owing to the extraordinary fall in prices and American com- 
 petition. But the fact that Mr. Kavanagh's land was rented 
 at a fair value during the last few years, will not excuse the 
 many rack-renting Irish landlords, who have taken the last 
 pound of Irish flesh, and the last drop of blood. We know 
 too well that the majority of Irish land is high-rented, and 
 that a very large proportion is rack-rented ; and until Mr, 
 Kavanagh proves by statistics, that this is not the case, he 
 cannot expect to be believed in supporting the negative on 
 such evidence. ... 
 
 " I can only in conclusion express my conviction, that the 
 time has come when victory is about to crown the exertions 
 of the Irish people, in their great struggle for land. (Applause.) 
 The handwriting has appeared upon the wall, and though vain 
 attempts may be made from time to time to misdirect public 
 opinion, to bolster up an expiring system, I confidently look 
 forward to the time when the. tiller of the soil in Ireland may, 
 as in other free countries, reap the benefit of his exertions — 
 (applause) — and hand that result down to his children ; and 
 when instead of proscribed labour, instead of offering every 
 inducement to the tiller of the land to allow it to remain idle 
 and barren, the great exertion which our people have shown 
 themselves always ready to make, when they are working for 
 themselves and not as slaves, may be spent upon Irish land ; 
 and then I believe that one great step towards the freedom of 
 Ireland will have been made — (applause) — that we shall have 
 put a nail into the coffin of the system of English misrule in 
 Ireland. (Applause.) Remove one great impediment of the 
 
THE AGITATOR'S IDEAL 113 
 
 union of all classes and all religions there — (great cheers) — and 
 then we shall have the wish of every Irish patriot in all ages 
 realised, that the orange and the green may be united — (deaf- 
 ening cheers, continued for several minutes) — the Protestant 
 and the Catholic enabled to work together for the good of 
 their country — (applause) — and no cause may exist to prevent 
 any class of our countrymen, from doing their duty by the 
 land that has given them birth." (Enthusiastic cheering.) 
 
 As Mr. Parnell concluded his able address an Irish harp, 
 the work of two young Dublin ladies, the Misses Bogan and 
 Wyeth, was presented to him on the platform. The waving 
 of hats, handkerchiefs, and the loud and continued cheering 
 displayed the enthusiasm of the vast audience. 
 
 -Judge Gildersleeve then introduced Mr. John Dillon. The 
 son of the 48 patriot received an ovation from the multitude, 
 as he stepped to the front of the platform. . . . 
 
 At the close of Mr. Dillon's speech, the resolutions endors- 
 ing the Land League programme were read. After reading 
 them the meeting separated, crowds remained outside to 
 cheer the Irish envoys ; and the new programme of freeing 
 Ireland from foreign rule, by first " shaming England '" into 
 creating an occupying proprietary on the land, received a 
 gigantic impetus in the United States, by the masterly and 
 intelligent statements of Mr. Parnell and his companion, Mr. 
 John Dillon. 
 
 The following is the landlord's letter alluded to by Mr. 
 Parnell in the course of his able address : — 
 
 "BoRRis House, Borris, Carlow. 
 " To the Editor of the ' New York Herald' : 
 
 " Allow me to thank you for the opportunity you afford, of 
 endeavouring to place the landlords' side of the case, in true 
 unwashed colours before the American public. 
 
 " The question, always an important one, is more than ever 
 before the public now, on account of the action of Mr. Parnell 
 and the associates of the political agitator, who is influenced 
 by no consideration or principle, save his own advancement. 
 
 I 
 
114 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 '' It is no doubt a tempting course to go to the poor and 
 uneducated, and working on their poverty by promises of 
 riches, and on their ignorance by gross and studied misrepre- 
 sentation, endeavour to obtain their confidence and support 
 for political ends, and then when their purposes are secured, 
 leave, as they invariably have done, their unfortunate dupes 
 to the consequences of their own folly. 
 
 " This, in my opinion, has been the main and guiding 
 influence actuating those who have made themselves so con- 
 spicuous in the present agitation. It is m fact the corrobora- 
 tion of the old axiom, that history repeats itself, and Ireland 
 is again suffering from what she has often suffered before, by 
 being made the battlefield of political strife, not this time 
 directly by the contention for power of the two great political 
 parties in the State, but by a small lot of adventurers who 
 counting on the probability of a political crisis in which the 
 members of those two great parties likely to be returned to 
 the House of Commons at the next general election may be 
 nearly even, foresee the prospect and the chance of grasping 
 the balance of power, and thus earning for themselves that 
 notoriety which otherwise it might not be easy for them to 
 obtain. . . . 
 
 " So far as we can judge from Mr. Parnell's speeches and the 
 utterances of those who act with him, his proposed object in 
 appealing to the American public for aid in money, is to find 
 means to establish a peasant proprietary in this country, by 
 sweeping the present owners from the soil. Some in more 
 moderate moments have hinted that the landlords should 
 receive some compensation, but advise the tenants in the 
 meantime to pay no rent, or only so much as they think they 
 can safely spare, after meeting their other requirements, in 
 order to make the landlords accept their terms. A proposal 
 such as this, I think, requires no comment. Citizens of a 
 republic, or any man who lives under free institutions, will see 
 at once the drift of such a policy, and appreciate how far any 
 social condition can be preserved, when the principles of meum 
 and tuum are to be regarded as false as stairs of sand. 
 
MR. KAVANAGH'S LETTER 115 
 
 " But supposing for argument's sake, that the terms of this 
 transfer of property were arranged ; we come to the question 
 of the policy of the establishment of a tenant proprietary. 
 It was a proposal with which at first I must confess I was 
 strangely taken, in the belief that by increasing the numbers 
 of those who had a real, solid, inseparable stake in the well- 
 being of the country, we would be adding to the natural 
 supporters of law and order, and strengthening the true 
 foundation on which the stability of a country must 
 rest. 
 
 " But while I cling to the hope and belief that some steps 
 in that direction may yet be safely taken, I cannot ignore the 
 force of the objections which are raised against it. The main 
 one is the danger in the future of subdivisions and sublettings, 
 and I fear not only the possibility, but the probability that 
 after a few generations we should have the country in the 
 same condition as it was before the famine. The tendency 
 among the farmers to sublet is strong, and in the case of old 
 leases where this is not guarded against, we have examples 
 remaining even now of what the effects are, — families 
 struggling to live on farms of from ten to two acres of poor 
 land, that are quite inadequate to support them, and ground 
 down by middlemen — a class which I am thankful now are 
 almost extinct — who are the worst types of landlord, and 
 whose acts of tyranny and oppression are gladly seized on 
 by the agitators for their own purposes and quoted as 
 examples of the working of the whole system. This is an 
 evil against which I can see no safeguard, if the proposal to 
 establish a peasant proprietary is carried. But supposing, for 
 argument's sake, this could be prevented, you have a more 
 insidious danger, and that is subdivision. Supposing, for 
 example, a tenant proprietor with a holding in fee of fifty 
 acres and a family of five children — a very small one as Irish 
 families generally run — for whom he had been unable or 
 careless to make provision, what would be his course at his 
 death.? He would divide it among them and settle them 
 down in allotments in fee, of ten acres each, and, of course, 
 
 I 2 
 
il6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 there would be nothing to prevent these five proprietors 
 doing the same thing in their turn. By degrees, it is most 
 probable that the majority of these small proprietors would 
 become paupers, and their lots by process of either sale or 
 mortgage pass from their possession into the hands of the 
 district money-lender or of some wealthy or more prudent 
 proprietor ; and then by the natural course of events, in no 
 very long space of time, the large proprietors would reappear, 
 possibly with more objectionable affinities than those who 
 exist now. I have heard of a case in point which occurred 
 some time ago, where a landed proprietor, with more 
 benevolence than wisdom, influenced by the same opinion 
 as I have held, as to the general advantage of converting the 
 occupiers into the owners of the soil, gave leases at a nominal 
 rent for 999 years to some fifty tenants on his property, 
 leasing the whole of one portion of his property in that way. 
 What result have we ? If I am rightly informed there are 
 now only two of the original lessees upon the lands, the other 
 forty-eight holdings having passed, by the processes to which 
 I have alluded, into the hands of middlemen. As I have 
 already said, I was not long ago strongly in favour of the 
 peasant proprietary proposal ; but I must confess the facts 
 which have since been brought under my notice, have tended 
 to shake my confidence in it, and to make me doubt even 
 if the sweeping away of the landlords, which Mr. Parnell so 
 kindly contemplates, were satisfactorily arranged, whether 
 the movement would result in so much good to the people 
 and to the country as he asserts would be the case. . . . 
 
 "I have not any figures by me by which I could give 
 reliable information as to what the average size of English 
 farms may be, but I believe I am not far wrong in my 
 statement that they run up to over 1,000 acres, and there 
 are very few under 200 acres. Now what have we in 
 Ireland ? We have a gross number, 584,882 holdings at or 
 above 500 acres ; there are only 1,529 holdings between 500 
 and 200 acres (the latter I take as about the English 
 minimum), leaving 595,156 holdings under 200 acres; of 
 
MR. PARNELL'S MISTAKEN POLICY 117 
 
 those, 498,239 are at and under 50 acres, and 287,546 are 
 under 15 acres. . . . 
 
 " For my part I would gladly increase the size of every 
 small holding upon my property, but the land is not to be 
 got. 
 
 " And then, the only remedy that I can see for them ever, 
 is emigration to other countries, many of which I could name, 
 your own among the number, where land in abundance is to 
 be had for very little, and where there is ample room and 
 opportunity to thrive and grow rich. And in this direction, 
 if the American people are inclined to help us, it would in 
 my opinion be the truest charity ; it would be providing for 
 those who are able and willing to emigrate a fairer prospect 
 of prosperity than they could ever find at home, and it would 
 afford the opportunity and facilities of enlarging the holdings 
 of those who remained behind, thereby in the most practical 
 and material manner improving their condition. 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "Arthur Kavanagh." 
 
 The doom this landlord passes on the Irish race, is 
 banishment from the beloved home, and when the dying 
 parents close their eyes in death, the loving glances that 
 should soothe their last lingering hours from the fond faces of 
 their children, would be banished to the land of the stranger, 
 through the necessities of British supremacy in the isle of 
 their birth. What a destiny for a nation ! That Britain's 
 flag should flutter in the same breeze that wafts over that 
 green island of Western Europe, and that continued plunder 
 and rapine should go on undisturbed ! This cruelty and 
 torture to loving hearts must be perpetual. 
 
 Mr. Parnell puts the cart before the horse — to use one of his 
 own phrases — when he advocates peasant proprietary before 
 Irish nationality. When Mr. Parnell told us he would not 
 have taken off his coat to work at the land question, but for 
 the fact that that road led to Irish self-government, he started 
 out from false premises. If he and his followers had devoted 
 
Il8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 all their energies, in every way, to struggle for Irish independ- 
 ence, he would be serving the farmers ; for a system of oc- 
 cupying proprietary, that will intelligently and successfully 
 solve the land troubles of Ireland, can only come after the 
 establishing of native government. There are no stepping- 
 stones to self-government but the destruction of illegal British 
 power in Ireland. 
 
 It is now [1887] eight years since Mr. Parnell delivered the 
 famous New York speech, which was to convulse the land- 
 lords. He told us that that was the time to settle the Irish land 
 question ; yet the settlement of that Irish evil is removed 
 to the Greek Kalends, so far as talk can be a solution of it. 
 .... The doctrines, exposing English misrule, have been 
 sown broadcast, and have produced a plentiful harvest of 
 shame to hurtle against English opinion. What have been 
 the results ? Five years of brutal and bloody coercion under 
 the premiership of Mr. Gladstone, followed by a short inter- 
 regnum of Tory rule ; and next by an almost equally short 
 term of the Liberals, or what has been called, as if in 
 mockery, a " Home Rule " Government. During all these 
 years the evictions multiplied fivefold, and even during Mr. 
 Gladstone's last Government, with " Home Rule " Morley as 
 Irish Chief Secretary, the evictions never ceased. Eleven 
 thousand people were evicted during this " Home Rule " 
 Government of Mr. Gladstone's — his six months of horrors 
 in Ireland, aided by armed forces of the Crown. On an 
 appeal to the English people on the principle of " Home 
 Rule," they voted. against it by an overwhelming majority, 
 and brought another Coercion Ministry to power, although 
 three-fourths of the Irish members were elected to demand 
 " Home Rule." Their eighty-six votes were powerless, thus 
 showing the mockery of Irish representation in an alien 
 chamber. They tell the Irish people the fallacious 
 story, that the English people are with th^m in their 
 demands ! The fallacy is plainly demonstrated by accom- 
 plished facts. This is what the " crusade of shame " can 
 show as results, so far. 
 
THE CRUSADE OF SHAME 119 
 
 It would be well for mankind if public opinion and justice 
 always went hand in hand. It would be a millennium of 
 happiness, if wrong-doing would cease by the express con- 
 demnation of just men. If so, nations might disband their 
 armies, and dismantle their fleets. The " crusade of shame " 
 would take the place of that crusade of murder and arson, called 
 war. The United States need have no dynamite guns to 
 destroy hundreds of human lives at one shot ; neither need 
 they build ships to carry the destructive weapons of Captain 
 Zalinski, nor have any necessity to commission officers as 
 dynamiters, to go forth on their career of destruction. Nay 
 more. We need not police our cities if we logically carry out 
 this doctrine ; we need but to preach a crusade of shame to 
 the thieves, burglars, and other criminals, instead of resorting 
 to the much-condemned doctrine of violence ; to do away 
 with force and let shame do the needful work on the criminals. 
 For that great criminal, England, who robbed a nation not 
 only of her freedom but of her national wealth, and drove to 
 death millions of her people — for this murder and robbery 
 she is only to be shamed — shamed into discontinuing it. 
 Any attempt, even the faintest resistance on the part of 
 the plundered, would be a crime, — would be violence and 
 outrage, and, according to the apostles of the doctrine of 
 shame, would destroy the country and put it back a century, 
 whatever that phrase means .... 
 
 Mr. Parnell told his hearers in his Madison Square speech, 
 that he proposed to make the occupiers of the soil its owners. 
 This, he says, is to be accomplished by peaceful means, and 
 with as little injury to vested interests as possible ; by which 
 he must mean to buy from the landlords. Let it be supposed 
 this were possible, so as to examine into the proposed panacea 
 for the poor victimised farmer, who, between agitators and 
 landlords, is compelled to suffer. 
 
 The rent-roll of Ireland is about ;^20,ooo,ooo yearly. At 
 twenty years' purchase, the amount needed to buy the land 
 would be the enormous sum of ;£"400,ooo,ooo sterling. The 
 
I20 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 interest on this huge sum at three per cent, would amount 
 to twelve million pounds annually. This interest should 
 be paid the first year, and its proportionate reduction 
 every year. In addition to this sum there would be the 
 yearly repayment of the borrowed principal, which, in lieu 
 of rent, should be paid for more than one generation to 
 the new landlord, the British Government. So that the 
 Irish farmer would still continue to pay a large yearly 
 sum to the absentee landlord, the London executive; and 
 should he not meet his engagement with that impassive 
 and relentless creditor, through failure of his crops, cattle 
 plague, or the many causes that make farming unpro- 
 ductive, he would be instantly evicted, his farm sold by public 
 auction, or by whatever machinery would be in the Bill, to 
 meet this contingency. His only resource then, would be 
 emigration, or the workhouse. 
 
 But how would this repayment of the purchase loan, and its 
 attendant interest, affect the small holdings, where three- 
 fourths of the Irish agricultural community are crowded into 
 a small space — these small occupiers who could not live de- 
 cently and comfortably, even if their small farms were given 
 to them free } It would be the height of absurdity to say that 
 such a measure, even if it could be accomplished, would bring 
 any great boon to these toiling, suffering poor ; and in a very 
 little time, both themselves and the country, would learn that 
 this measure brought to them no material change, from their 
 normal condition of poverty. Now, this is supposing that 
 the British Government could be induced to guarantee such 
 an enormous sum, even on such good security as the soil of 
 Ireland. They would naturally fear that their security might 
 slip from their grasp, and to think that the most liberal of 
 British taxpayers would consent, is only another of the 
 delusions that follow such a course of reasoning as, unfortu- 
 nately, come with moral suasion when it is applied to a whole 
 nation, and when, as Mr. Parnell here states, American public 
 opinion would be its greatest weapon. Mr. Parnell's weak 
 point in this celebrated New York speech, is where he tries to 
 
THE FREE LAND DELUSION I2i 
 
 contend with Mr. Kavanagh's arguments, with respect to sub- 
 division and subletting. 
 
 Take, for instance, the free land which Mr. Parnell speaks 
 of, and which would, as he tells us, stop this subdivision. 
 Many would be inclined to think, and common sense and 
 human instincts bear them out, that this very fact of free land 
 — if it could be accomplished — would hasten subdivision. 
 Mr. Parnell states that no injurious subdivision would take 
 place, if they had a free system for the sale of land. But Mr. 
 Parnell gives no reason why they would not ; it is a mere 
 assertion. He states that the size of the farm would be 
 regulated by natural causes — but these very causes would not 
 only tend to, but compel, subdivision or subletting. The 
 Irish leader further states that no one would care to buy a 
 small farm ; that may be, but this subdivision would not 
 come from buying or selling, but rather from the fact that 
 through the wish of keeping his family home, the farmer would 
 subdivide, as already pointed out. The blot and infamy of 
 alien rule, is the destruction of our industries, which brings 
 about the over-crowding on the land. Mr. Kavanagh is 
 correct when he states Ireland needs larger farms, to develop 
 the agricultural interests by scientific farming, which in the 
 present condition of the country would be an impossibility. 
 Mr. Kavanagh's remedy is emigration, and Mr. Parnell's 
 migration, from the congested districts to the more fertile 
 land. But neither of these remedies are meant to affect the 
 large portion of the people not engaged in agriculture ; these 
 always seem to be lost sight of; yet neither of these changes, 
 even if effected, could eventually stop emigration. Both Mr. 
 Kavanagh's large farmers, and Mr. Parnell's migrates, would 
 be compelled to subdivide their farms as their families in- 
 creased, and the land would go back to its present condition. 
 The remedy is as plain as noonday, but can only be put in 
 practice under native government. Establish, as already 
 written in a previous chapter, manufacturing industries all 
 over the island, first creating a native market by shutting out 
 all foreign goods, as soon as Irishmen can make them at 
 
122 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 home. These factories would give employment to the surplus 
 farm labourers, and the mechanics and idlers of the towns, 
 making the country what God and nature intended it should 
 be, one of the richest islands, in proportion to its size, in the 
 universe. Independence would do for Ireland what it did for 
 Belgium — develop her manufactures, artistic and mechanical, 
 so that Ireland in a few years would be able, like Belgium, to 
 go abroad in search of markets. 
 
 Some years ago the writer was in Glasgow, when a 
 Belgian firm successfully competed for the iron girders, which 
 span the large dome at St. Enoch's railway terminus in that 
 city. This was like sending coals into Newcastle, for 
 Glasgow is almost the centre of the North British iron trade, 
 tons of it being used weekly in shipbuilding on the Clyde. 
 A British manufacturer in course of conversation on the 
 subject, said that the Belgian firm procured this contract, not 
 by the protective tariflf alone, which originally built up Belgian 
 manufactures, but by the premium offered by the Belgian 
 Government to successful competitors in foreign markets. 
 So wonderful has been the growth of manufactures in Belgium, 
 that it seems quite phenomenal. This British merchant said 
 that ten years previous to that period Belgian cutlery 
 was very inferior to Sheffield goods, and was very much 
 despised by British cutlers. But the Belgians, by bringing 
 over the most skilled workmen to their country to teach their 
 people, had produced such a condition of things, that 
 their cutlery at that time coming into England was well 
 able to compete with the best Sheffield make, and their 
 superior skill has been growing ever since. When Belgium 
 became independent, and the wise King Leopold was chosen 
 head of a parliamentary governed State, he influenced his 
 Government in the course they have since pursued. The 
 Belgium of to-day is spreading out into Africa, colonising 
 and seeking markets for her surplus manufactures. Belgium's 
 area is 11,373 square miles, and through her numerous 
 industries she supports a rapidly increasing population of 
 
THE CURSE OF FOREIGN RULE 123 
 
 5,853,278 ; while Ireland/with an area of 32,531 squares miles 
 of the richest land on the globe, has to-day a semi-pauper 
 population of 4,500,000 ; and yet the cry is for more emigra- 
 tion to increase prosperity. Foreign rule, and not landlordism, 
 is what forces them into poverty, and overshadows and 
 darkens their position as a people. The blessed light of 
 freedom and prosperity will never dawn upon them, until they 
 apply the sharp-cutting axe " Force " to its roots. Agitate 
 how they may, they will still continue to wither 'neath its 
 blighting influence. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE " NEW DEPARTURE " — MR. PARNELL'S AMERICAN TOUR 
 
 The position of Irish parties in the United States, when Mr. 
 Parnell arrived in America to preach his crusade of shaming 
 Britain, was almost altogether in his favour. 
 
 After failure to completely countermand the order for 
 insurrection in 1867, and the subsequent fiasco, the home 
 organisation become completely demoralised. The dis- 
 integrating influence of Stephen's refusal to fight in 1865, left 
 the country in no condition to meet the enemy in the field 
 in 1867. The spirit of faction, which was unfortunately 
 rampant in the United States, had secured a foothold at 
 home. The men, knowing there had been gross misman- 
 agement, and that the affairs of the organisation were in 
 confusion, too often unjustly attached blame to the wrong 
 people. There was for a time a complete smash, and the 
 bonds of discipline were broken and destroyed. 
 
 The National organisation in Ireland and America, how- 
 ever, survived the disasters of 1867. Changes which were 
 deemed necessary were made in both, but the policy of the 
 leaders was the continued old cry, " Prepare ! prepare ! " 
 After years of weary waiting, it was the self-same echo ; there 
 was no apparent choice but to wait. Hundreds of the best 
 men in Ireland stood aside, disgusted at the inactive policy. 
 They could do nothing to aid a movement whose watchword 
 w^as to wait for an imaginary time to come, which time was 
 to come of itself, not to be hastened or brought about, as in 
 the case of other nations similarly circumstanced. 
 
THE POLICY OF "OPPORTUNISM" 125 
 
 The organisation in America was controlled by honest and 
 patriotic men, but looking at the vastness of the under- 
 taking, they were utterly incapable. They had not the ability 
 to meet the exigencies of the situation. With the exception 
 of the Catalpa rescue, no action was attempted. They were 
 not men of sufficient resource to strike out a new path, 
 unless in theory. They were in no way lacking in bravery, or 
 devotion to Ireland ; for the salvation of their country, they 
 would have freely sacrificed their lives. But they were 
 wedded to old ideas and held antiquated notions, which were 
 becoming fossilised by the rapid march of science. 
 
 The revolutionary movement at home, as elsewhere, became 
 an "Opportunist" organisation — the opportunity was sup- 
 posed to come to them unsought. When Mr. Parnell began 
 his obstructive tactics in the enemy's Parliament, and was 
 attacked by Mr. Butt and his followers for so doing, he drew 
 to himself and his new active policy, the attention of a 
 number of Nationalists, but more especially the Nationalist 
 leaders in the United States, who gradually came round to the 
 conclusion, that an alliance in support of Mr. Parnell's new 
 Parliamentary policy, would be a wise course in the interests 
 of Ireland. 
 
 A change from the policy of "opportunism," which 
 necessitated waiting, to that of becoming active agitators, 
 had a charm for many in this free land [America] ; and by 
 degrees fresh recruits joined Mr. Parnell's ranks. Several of 
 these held to the belief that the young tribune, when he 
 discovered Parliamentary agitation useless, would, like Wolfe 
 Tone, take a more practical stand. His speeches on the 
 Irish question, had a manly ring ; and the great majority of 
 the people believed, that he inherited the determination and 
 valour of the American seaman, who beat the British on the 
 sea. But a few years in that lazar house for Irishmen, the 
 enemy's Parliament, destroyed all these hopes, and he is, 
 alas! to-day [1887] a pure West Briton, and his party the 
 mere tail of a British faction. 
 
 Provincialists keep on continually preaching the cowardly 
 
126 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 doctrine, that Ireland is a disarmed nation. This may be so 
 in a measure, but not as much so as these timid people think, 
 who, by their waste of the public funds in talk, are depriving 
 the nation of receiving additional weapons of destruction. 
 To point out continually to the people, their incapacity to 
 take the field, instead of endeavouring to remedy the evil, is 
 both unpatriotic and cowardly. 
 
 The Irish- American leaders at this time were honest and 
 sincere patriots, but their training and mental calibre did not 
 qualify them to lead a revolution. All the men of superior 
 ability had long since ceased active work in Ireland's interests. 
 The then leaders decided on opening negotiations with Mr. 
 Parnell, and making to him certain propositions which, if 
 accepted, would result in his having the support of the 
 American organisation; and also, if possible, that of the sister 
 movement at home. 
 
 The opposition offered by Mr. Butt to Mr. Dillon's motion 
 at the Dublin conference, naturally led these American 
 leaders to think that Mr. Parnell and his friends were men of 
 advanced patriotic opinions. Their propositions were sent 
 shortly after the conference in 1878, and it is easy to see the 
 judgment and ability of the men conducting them, when it is 
 found that this delicate negotiation was printed in the public 
 press, before the Nationalists in Ireland, or Mr. Parnell him- 
 self, had time to decide on its acceptance. The New York 
 Herald contained this communiqu^^ supplied by one of the 
 ablest of the Irish-American leaders of that year : 
 
 " The following is a copy of the despatch cabled to Dublin 
 yesterday and signed by men who will be accepted as repre- 
 sentatives of the advanced Irish National party in the United 
 States. It is addressed to Mr. Parnell and his political 
 friends, but before reaching them it will be submitted to a 
 number of representative Nationalists in Dublin, for their 
 approval. 
 
 " ' The Nationalists here will support you on the following 
 conditions : — 
 
THE "NEW DEPARTURE'' PROPOSAL 127 
 
 " * First. Abandonment of the federal demand, and sub- 
 stitution of a general declaration in favour of self-govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " ' Second. Vigorous agitation of the land question on the 
 basis of peasant proprietary, while accepting concessions tend- 
 ing to abolish arbitrary evictions. 
 
 " ' Third. Exclusion of all sectarian issues from the plat- 
 form. 
 
 " * Fourth. Irish members to vote together on all imperial 
 and home questions, adopting an aggressive policy, and 
 energetically resisting coercive legislation. 
 
 " ' Fifth. Advocacy of all struggling nationalities in the 
 British Empire and elsewhere.' 
 
 " An answer to the above despatch is expected in a day or 
 two, when the Nationalists will decide wh t form their action 
 will take." 
 
 This extraordinary document shows on the face of it, to 
 every thinking man who has had time and opportunity to 
 study the Irish question, the utter lack of statesmanship 
 of the man or men who penned it ; and the intellectual 
 capacity of the Irishmen, who were conducting the affairs 
 of the Nationalists at that time in the United States. 
 
 The propositions from the Irish-American Nationalists 
 were to be placed before the council in Dublin ; and after 
 they had thought out and discussed the merits of the New 
 York policy, it was to be submitted to Mr. Parnell. The 
 framers of this treaty v/ith the Provincialists did not give either 
 Mr. Parnell or the Dublin Nationalists any time to digest the 
 newly-proffered alliance, but rushed, precipitately into print 
 and gave the whole transaction to the world, almost as soon 
 as the message left New York for Dublin. 
 
 Is it any wonder that Ireland continues an enslaved nation 
 when men, who are ignorant of the first principles of states- 
 manship, either climb or crawl to a position of leadership in 
 the National cause ! Ireland's curse has been, that for years 
 in both Provincial and National movements, she has been too 
 
128 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 often represented by intriguers and conspirators ; but it is not 
 conspiracy against the foe that is practised. These vain, 
 weak, and incompetent people conspire to destroy the reputa- 
 tion and standing of men of some ability, and undoubted 
 sterling honesty towards their country, whom they consider 
 rivals. These acts of intrigue disgust honest men, and drive 
 them outside of the National ranks, while the great mass of 
 the people, with singleness of purpose, having no object in 
 view but to redeem their nation from destruction and decay, 
 cannot understand why these men are not working in the 
 ranks of their country's patriots. Oh, that the Infinite would 
 raise up for Ireland a man with ability and determination allied 
 to social and financial position — the last is absolutely necessary 
 — to cleanse out Ireland's Augean stable, of the charlatans and 
 incompetents who are preying on the vitals of a godlike and 
 noble cause ! 
 
 Numbers of Nationalists, both in Ireland and- Britain, 
 repudiated the new policy, and but for the magnified opinion 
 held in Ireland of the ability of the men who promulgated 
 it, the repudiation would have been unanimous. 
 
 The " New Departure," as this negotiation was called by 
 its originators, built up Mr. Parnell's movement, for without 
 the help of the Nationalists it could never have been a success, 
 as regards finance or organisation. The American leaders did 
 not fully comprehend the nature of the alliance they had made ; 
 international politics formed no portion of their studies ; 
 thoroughly honest, no doubt, in their devotion to Ireland, but 
 as thoroughly incompetent for the positions they occupied, 
 they had stultified themselves, and the principles they were 
 supposed to represent. With the promise of future greatness 
 as an Irishman, which Mr. Parnell then displayed, an alliance 
 with him on certain defined National principles, might have 
 been very proper. He appeared at that period, and many 
 years after, to have that latent fire in him which gave Ireland 
 a Wolfe Tone, a Lord Edward, an Emmet, a Davis, and a 
 Mitchell, and many Nationalists thought that he would emerge 
 
THE NEW PROGRAMME 129 
 
 from the ranks of the Provinciallsts, and, like Thomas Davis 
 in 1843, tell Irishmen that a treatise on artillery was the 
 proper literature for patriots to study. But the absurd series 
 of propositions contained not one National resolution. Mr. 
 Butt, or Mr. Mitchell Henry, might have drafted them. No 
 one would think that a National brain could conceive, or a 
 Nationalist pen indite such silly trash, and term it a new 
 departure. The first resolution was, no doubt, considered the 
 piece de resistance by the gentleman who penned it. There was 
 nothing in this federal demand, that was in any way different 
 from advocating self-government in the enemy's Parliament. 
 The principles laid down by the Dublin federal " Home Rule " 
 conference of 1873, were as full and broad for the internal 
 government of Ireland, as anything Mr. Parnell or the most 
 advanced — if that term can be used of Provincialists — of the 
 " obstructionists " could possibly formulate. 
 
 A Nationalist leader, if he knew the first principles of his 
 creed, should know that it is not the Provincialist's platform 
 for the self-government of Ireland that Nationalists object to ; 
 both Mr. Butt's and Mr. Parnell's parties laid these down, so 
 broad and well defined, that they approached very near an 
 independent government, very closely approaching the power 
 of an Irish republic ; but it is the delusion and corruption, 
 which Provincialist teaching creates among the people, when 
 they are taught that this Will-o'-the-wisp, an independent 
 Parliament and Ministry, can be wrung from the invader by 
 any kind of Parliamentary efforts, or any possible peaceful 
 methods, against which Nationalists have always protested. 
 They know that the enemy's interests are seriously bound up 
 in his possession of the plunder of the Irish nation ; and the 
 suppression of all possibility of raising up a commercial and 
 manufacturing rival so close to his shores, compels him to 
 strain the power, of what he calls the whole empire, sooner 
 than give Ireland independent control of her destinies, as the 
 Federalists demanded in 1873, and the Parnellites since. This 
 power of the whole empire is, on examination, confined to the 
 occupying forces in Ireland, and a small army corps, which 
 
 K 
 
130 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 would drain Britain. If Ireland really became earnest as a 
 nation in the struggle for freedom, and could not defeat these, 
 she would not be worthy of independence. It is a sad fact that 
 the greatest power which keeps Ireland in slavery, and greater 
 than the force of the whole British army, is the Provincial 
 movements ; no matter how patriotic in intention the masses 
 may be, they are helping the enemy in his war of extermina- 
 tion which never ceases. As for the leaders, they probably 
 start out with pure intentions, but with a crude and imperfect 
 knowledge of the issue ; and they end by becoming politicians 
 in the enemy's ranks, corrupt and time-serving, trying to 
 continue their Provincialist swindle as long as they can find 
 dupes to make it pay. 
 
 The leading spirit in America, who was conducting what he 
 called the " New Departure," sought every possible publicity 
 to emphasise his opinions, before those with whom he was in 
 negotiation had any time or opportunity to come to any 
 (Jecision. It was rather a novel way to conduct the affairs 
 of a nation ; and it is no wonder that Ireland is so sunk in 
 poverty and degradation, when it is only from the ranks of 
 weak, incompetent men she can find leaders to champion her 
 cause. Not content with giving publicity to the despatch 
 sent vid the Nationalists to Mr. Parnell, this gentleman sought 
 by a series of interviews with leading Irishmen to influence 
 the decision of the men in Dublin, all of which he published. 
 Pie commenced by interviewing himself. He stated : — 
 
 " If we are ever to be properly understood by the world, 
 and especially that portion of it which is inimical to England, 
 we must secure the public voice of the country by electing 
 men to Parliament, and to the local municipal bodies, who 
 will not misrepresent us. . . . 
 
 "There is no use sending men to the British Parliament to 
 beg, but we can send them there to protest before the world, 
 against England's right to govern Ireland ; and when all is 
 ripe, we can command our representatives to withdraw from 
 the British Parliament, and to meet in Ireland.'* 
 
THE "DEVOY" INTERVIEWS 13* 
 
 This is pure Provincialist teaching ; the very fact of 
 sending delegates to the British Parliament is an admission 
 of Britain's right to govern Ireland. The Irish people should 
 no more send representatives to London, than they should 
 to Paris, or Berlin. The true way that Nationalists should 
 protest, is by some sort of action, and by keeping their 
 delegates at home. As to "commanding" their repre- 
 sentatives to withdraw, this gentleman reckoned without 
 his host. The entrance to Parliament has been to Irish 
 Provincialists like Aladdin's visit to the magic cave ; there 
 opens up to their vision such beautiful fruit that they are 
 lost in the contemplation of these personal treasures, and 
 forget their mission ; or, remember it at intervals to learn its 
 complete folly. Arguing in a den of wolves for a flock of 
 sheep would not be more ridiculous. If quadrupeds were 
 gifted with speech, and possessed the same instincts, the sheep 
 would reveal better judgment than Irish Provincialists, and 
 their former aiders and abettors, weak and incompetent 
 National leaders. 
 
 The interview continued thus : " Have you seen the 
 resolutions cabled to Mr. Parnell?" — "Certainly. The con- 
 ditions therein named, are the only ones on which the 
 advanced Nationalists here will support Mr. Parnell and 
 his friends." 
 
 Mr. John J. Breslin was interviewed, and said : 
 
 " I am entirely in favour of the proposition forwarded to 
 Mr. Parnell by cable, and think it is necessary to prevent 
 Ireland from being misrepresented before the world. . . . 
 At the same time I think the Irish Nationalists here should 
 not relax their preparations for active work for one moment, 
 for by aggressive and active work alone, can we ultimately 
 succeed." 
 
 A prominent military man, whose connection with the 
 Fenian movement in the past was very close, but who had 
 special reasons for withholding his name, said : 
 
 " I am strongly in favour of the proposed alliance with 
 Mr. Parnell, and his party, if they will accept the very 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 reasonable conditions we sent them by cable yesterday. At 
 the same time, I am in favour of vigorous military prepara- 
 tions, so that we can avail ourselves of any opportunity 
 that may turn up." 
 
 Mr. O'Donovan Rossa said : 
 
 " We shall be dead before long, and I want to see some- 
 thing done that will hurt England before we go. ... I want 
 to make her feel that Irish vengeance is something to be 
 feared." 
 
 When the " New Departure " became an accomplished fact, 
 and when Mr. Parnell accepted its terms and adopted its 
 platform, these men removed the hope of fighting the foe 
 to a more remote distance, and for the future, guerilla 
 warfare, or any kind of force, was compelled to wait on the 
 exigencies of the agitation. This may not have been 
 originally intended, but it was the only possible ending to 
 such an alliance ; and events that have transpired since prove 
 this fact. Had the organisation been engaged in active 
 revolutionary work in Ireland, and especially in Britain, as it 
 should have been, this alliance would have been impossible. 
 It was no fault of the men at nome that this was not the 
 case. The self-elected officials, who had been accustomed to 
 power and any personal advantages which might arise there- 
 from, had grown rusty and enervated ; they abused the ears 
 of the Irish-Americans on one side and their own people on 
 the other, and nothing but actual work could break the spell 
 they wove round the home movement. 
 
 This alliance turned revolutionary circles, organised for 
 fight, into League clubs ; and but for the cohesion which a 
 secret movement gives in concentrating power, they might 
 have dissolved into public branches of the League ; any 
 revolutionary work dreamed of was too sporadic to have any 
 permanent results. . . . 
 
 The advocate of the " New Departure " wrote : 
 
 " When the Irish Republican Brotherhood was started, the 
 prevailing feeling among the people was distrust of Parlia- 
 
JOHN DEVOY'S VIEWS 133 
 
 mentary agitation of all kinds. The collapse of the Tenant 
 Right Movement, and the treachery of Keogh, Sadler, and 
 their infamous confreres^ had given a shock to the people, 
 from which it took them years to recover. They were in a 
 state of political torpor. I may be told that Fenianism took 
 them out of this lethargy, and infused a soul into Ireland. 
 It did nothing of the sort. It found the National feeling 
 reviving ; it was, in fact, one of the effects of that revival, 
 and it turned the reawakening spirit into a certain channel. 
 Whether this was fortunate or not, I will not discuss just now, 
 but I have too keen a recollection of the period, and know a 
 little too much about the spirit of the young men of that time, 
 to be led away by the claptrap which passes current, among a 
 certain number of enthusiastic young men, for historical fact, 
 having the simple object of bolstering up the reputation of 
 one of those heaven-sent leaders with whom we are some- 
 times blessed. Among the Nationalists of that day the 
 doctrines of John Mitchell prevailed. 
 
 " They had drunk deeply during the years of inaction of 
 the literature of young Ireland, and the boldest and most out- 
 spoken of that school was a decided success. 
 
 " He continued to address them, after his escape from 
 prison, through certain National papers in Ireland, long after 
 the other '48 leaders had laid down their pens, and ceased to 
 work. The young men were ripe for the hand of the 
 organiser, and their future course depended on the impulse 
 then given. Besides there were many reasons why, at that 
 period, Parliamentary agitation should be discussed, but I 
 may be permitted to express my conviction that the dis- 
 couragement was carried very much too far, and great 
 mischief done in consequence. 
 
 " The fact, however, is undeniable that the policy of 
 complete abstention was a * Fenian ' policy only, and that 
 it was never, previous to the starting of Fenianism, the 
 settled policy of the National party, though naturally the 
 attempt of men seeking separation, was principally to 
 physical force." 
 
134 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The men of '48 left a literature that was truly national, 
 and which helped to guide the young Irishman in the true 
 national path. 
 
 Those two great and immortal Irishmen, Thomas Davis 
 and John Mitchell, stand forth as guiding lights in the one 
 true path to freedom. Mitchell, in scathing and scorching 
 language, denounced Parliamentary agitation. There are no 
 Mitchells in literature at the present time, to denounce these 
 Provincial doctrines, which are doing their best to emasculate 
 Ireland's patriotic young men. Irish orators, many of them 
 Nationalists, address their people from public platforms, and 
 denounce what they cherish in their souls ; they attempt to 
 make their friends believe that the masses can divine their 
 meaning, and that when they say black the people understand 
 they mean white. They call this diplomacy. All this time 
 they are educating the people to believe in the chimera of 
 Parliamentary agitation. 
 
 Stephens, as an organiser and preacher, was honest to 
 Ireland ; he always cautioned the people against that deadly 
 poison. Parliamentary agitation. Opportunist and impotent 
 as he unfortunately proved, he preached no false doctrine. 
 The National advocate of Parliamentary agitation, in his 
 letter to the Freeman, denied that Fenianism was the cause of 
 lifting Ireland out of her torpid condition. True, it was not 
 the sole cause. Irishmen are naturally patriotic. They 
 imbibe hatred of the English invaders with their mother's 
 milk. Traditions and stories of '98 were spoken of at the 
 fireside, and then the teachings of Doheny, Davis, and 
 Mitchell were inculcating intelligent and patriotic doctrines 
 into the young men. When the organiser came among them, 
 he shaped these national aspirations into national work. He 
 showed them a course by which they might accomplish the 
 fulfilment of Davis's and Mitchell's doctrine. They eagerly 
 grasped it, and every fresh recruit brought into the National 
 ranks was an additional preacher to spread the light of true 
 patriotism, and to show up the old folly of arguing England 
 out of the country. . . . There has come no John Mitchell 
 
"COMPOUND VENGEANCE" 135 
 
 or Thomas Davis to fill people's souls with the magic fire of 
 patriotism. The memories of the present movement leave 
 no such ennobling sentiments behind ; its battlefields are 
 public meetings, its arsenals are stocked full of protests and 
 resolutions, its victories are either the defeat of an English 
 party or the holding of a midnight meeting to spite the 
 English enemy, and its oriflamme the public burning of a 
 proclamation, issued by the foe. Nay, more, it claims as 
 victories the arrests of prominent agitators, and teaches 
 that every man imprisoned is more dangerous in his cell than 
 when free. To carry this doctrine out to its logical con- 
 clusion, if England arrests every Irishman possible, and packs 
 her gaols with them, it will be a crowning victory to the cause. 
 The agitators' organ, United Ireland^ tells us that if its 
 proprietor is injured by the three months' sentence lately 
 passed on him (1887), the Tories may expect "compound 
 vengeance," and as they denounce physical force and all its 
 works and pomps, it must be supposed that this species of 
 *' compound vengeance" must mean increased vituperation 
 and abuse. All this time the organ of these Provincialists, 
 never alludes to the fact that numbers of patriotic Irish 
 Nationalists are in British dungeons, under life sentences. 
 The only " compound vengeance " in their case is abuse of 
 their friends, and every attempt to stain their honour that 
 can be practised. These are some of the fruits of these 
 impulsive Nationalists' " New Departure." 
 
 The writer already quoted, whose sentiments, before his 
 eyes were hoodwinked by the new departure, were different, 
 in a previous letter to the Dublin Irishmafi^ stated : 
 
 ** There should be no further toleration for men with two 
 sets of contradictory principles, that are each paraded as 
 honest convictions, according as the occasion may demand — 
 men who are loyal Federalists to-day, and rampantly disloyal 
 Nationalists to-morrow." [It is supposed the writer means 
 loyal Nationalists. The words " disloyal " and " rebel " are 
 used by Irish patriots in the same sense as their enemy uses 
 
136 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 them, which is a slander on the Irish cause.] " A man can- 
 not be a Whig and a Tory at one and the same time, nor 
 can he be a repealer, or a Nationalist, and honestly sign the 
 Federal pledge. He is either telling the truth, when he signs 
 that pledge, or stating a deliberate falsehood ; and any man 
 who claims that he can publicly express his belief that a 
 Federal union with England would satisfactorily settle the 
 National question, and at the same time he is working for 
 Irish independence, should be spurned by Home Rulers and 
 Nationalists alike. There can be nothing gained by Irishmen, 
 deceiving and cheating one another, and the Nationalist who 
 simulates a belief in Federalism [i.e., Home Rule] because 
 certain men tell him it is ' policy ' to do so, is pursuing a 
 very disastrous policy indeed, and one that must inevitably 
 end in disgrace and humiliation. He is helping to spread the 
 delusion that the Irish people have accepted Federalism [i e.y 
 'Home Rule'], and do not want independence. He is pro- 
 claiming this to the millions of the Irish race in America, and 
 to those foreign Powers whose interests conflict with those 
 of England, and he need not wonder if his duplicity and 
 double-dealing produce a feeling of contempt in quarters 
 where good-will is not an unmeaning word. . . . 
 
 " If there is one thing more than another about which 
 Irish Nationalists should be of one mind, and act without 
 hesitation or delay, it is the attitude they should assume 
 towards parties claiming to work for the amelioration of 
 Ireland, and to speak in the name of the Irish people. . . . 
 To have any chance of success at all the party must be a 
 homogeneous one, led by the best intellects available for 
 leadership, and acting in all matters affecting the welfare of 
 the nation. Above all, the leaders must be earnest. There 
 must be no question about their principles or opinions. They 
 cannot be Federalists [i.e., * Home Rulers '] to-day, and advo- 
 cates of independence to-morrow. . . . 
 
 " It is an undeniable fact that the foolish and ridiculous 
 policy of obstruction was decided on, not by a meeting of the 
 * Home Rule ' members of Parliament, but by a meeting of 
 
MR. PARNELL'S FATAL ADMISSION 137 
 
 professed Nationalists in England. These men who scoff at 
 the played-out policy, of saying what you mean and standing 
 honestly by your principles, are to be the new saviours of the 
 country, and to regenerate it with thirty clubs of the 
 * Home Rule * Confederation of Great Britain, having an 
 average of twenty or thirty members each, not two per cent, 
 of whom are honest Federalists [t.e.y Home Rulers]. This is 
 the new statecraft that is to ' unite ' the Irish people, and lead 
 them with their eyes blindfolded to freedom. Why the very 
 existence of this * Home Rule ' Confederation is a fraud and a 
 hypocrisy, though there are many well-meaning dupes of 
 worthless tricksters in its ranks. 
 
 " Something must be done, and done quickly, to raise the 
 National party to the level of the work before it, to show that 
 the word * policy ' has a higher and deeper meaning than the 
 adoption of petty devices to conceal one's real intention. . . . 
 
 " If the National party be composed of men who are only 
 capable of such miserable subterfuge, they are fit for nothing, 
 and deserving of the contempt and reprobation of all earnest 
 men." 
 
 This letter, published in the Irishman, contradicts most 
 emphatically the views of the same writer in the Dublin 
 Freeman, after, and in defence of, the " New Departure." Some 
 of the sentences speak truly of the condition to which the "New 
 Departure " reduced the revolutionary leaders. The gentle- 
 man's own words are as scathing a rebuke as can be given to 
 this disastrous policy. The " New Departure " was an accom- 
 plished fact when Mr. Parnell came to America in i88a 
 On his way across the Atlantic he was interviewed as to his 
 opinions of the Irish National movement, and its policy 
 toward the Provincialists. 
 
 Mr. Parnell said : "As far as. I have been able to gather, 
 the Fenian organisation and its leaders are opposed, though 
 not hostile, to our movement, the reason being that it is con- 
 stitutional. A true revolutionary movement in Ireland should, 
 in my opinion, partake of both a constitutional and an illegal 
 
138 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 character. It should be an open and a secret organisation 
 using the constitution for its own purposes, but also taking 
 advantage of its secret combination. But the leaders of the 
 Fenian movement do not believe in constitutional action, 
 because it has always been used in the past for the selfish 
 purposes of the leaders. There was a strong objection, by the 
 Fenians, to our Parliamentary action, for the same reasons ; 
 and indeed if we look at the acts of the Irish Parliamentary 
 leaders since the union, there is ample justification for the 
 views of the physical force party." 
 
 How history repeats itself ! Mr. Parnell was then, an un- 
 conscious prophet, of what the future would bring forth, even 
 in his own case. There is indeed ample justification to 
 condemn Irish Parliamentary leaders and their policy. 
 
 Mr. Parnell and Mr. Dillon left New York on a tour of the 
 United States. They visited every important city and town 
 possible, during their stay. Mr. Parnell repeated his great 
 speech as delivered in Madison Square Garden ; he impressed 
 upon crowded audiences, all over the United States, the fact 
 that he would, *' shame England " into the solution of the 
 Irish troubles ; that his powerful weapon, American public 
 opinion, would complete his success ; and that the landlords 
 should go. He repeated, everywhere he went, the important 
 statement that that was the last time he would require to go 
 round on a begging tour for Ireland, as he was certain that 
 the cause which created these periodical appeals would be 
 removed by his policy, and Ireland would then cease to be a 
 mendicant among the nations. 
 
 Mr. Parnell's sincerity, truth and patriotism were stamped 
 upon every word he uttered, and the means he intended to 
 use were so impressed by him upon his hearers, that he 
 carried conviction to thousands of sympathisers ; none but 
 the most prejudiced could for a moment doubt that he him- 
 self believed in the success of the new crusade. 
 
 At Troy, N.Y., when Mr. Parnell had completed his 
 address, a gentleman in the audience walked up to the plat- 
 
CHARLES S. PARNELL. 
 
 From a photograph taken in Washington, D.C., and presented by Mr. Parnell 
 to Captain J. Murphy^ leader of the Rescue Party that caused the Clerkenwell 
 Explosion, 
 
FIVE FOR BREAD : FIFTEEN FOR LEAD 139 
 
 form and handed the Irish leader twenty dollars, at the same 
 time saying, " Mr. Parnell, here are five dollars for bread and 
 fifteen dollars for lead." Mr. Parnell took the money with a 
 smile. He, no doubt, thought there would be no need for lead, 
 that the new crusade of shame would accomplish his purpose 
 thoroughly. 
 
 The old Irish patriot who presented this subscription was 
 Mr. Michael Kennedy, of Troy, N.Y., a man who had been 
 engaged for many years in Irish national politics, and who 
 was thoroughly convinced of Mr. Parnell's truth and 
 earnestness, as he was also fully aware of the impossibility 
 of Mr. Parnell's course. He believed that the energetic 
 young Irishman, on finding he could not succeed by words, 
 would eventually resort to some kind of force, as expressed by 
 Mr. Kennedy when he gave his money for " lead." 
 
 The great spread of poverty was so rapid that another 
 famine fund was started in the Mansion House, Dublin, by 
 the new Lord iMayor, Edmund Dwyer Gray ; and he was 
 assisted in his endeavours, by the moderate section of the 
 " Home Rule " Parliamentary party. They sent out a strong 
 appeal for relief Ireland had thus three charitable organisa- 
 tions making the beggar's request for alms : the Duchess of 
 Marlborough's Fund, Lord Mayor Gray's P'und, and the Fund 
 started by Mr. Parnell. 
 
 Lord Mayor Gray cabled this appeal for help to the Mayor 
 of New York : 
 
 **'DV]iL.lN, January 10, 18S0. 
 
 " Hon. Edward Cooper, Mayor of New York. 
 " Distress increasing, aid urgently required. 
 
 *' Lord Mayor of Dublin, 
 
 « Irish Relief Committee." 
 Mayor Cooper replied as follows : 
 
 " I greatly deplore the increase of distress in Ireland, and 
 will cause your despatch to be communicated to the Relief 
 Committee here, and to the public press. 
 
 " jEdward Cooper, Mayor." 
 
I40 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Another appeal was sent to the Lord Mayor of London, 
 and the unfortunate pauper nation was compelled to ask for 
 alms of that very country which robbed her of her wealth, and 
 destroyed her trade and manufactures. 
 
 A public meeting of the "Home Rule" members of 
 Parliament was held at the Mansion House, Dublin, on 
 January 17, 1880, the Lord Mayor in the chair. Mr. William 
 Shaw, the chairman of the Parliamentary party, and the 
 official Irish Provincial leader, proposed a resolution, which 
 was passed, calling on the Government to institute productive 
 relief works. Mr. Shaw said the Government wilfully shut 
 its eyes to the distress in Ireland. Mr. Mitchell Henry 
 said if their demands were not complied with, they must 
 force compliance by constitutional action, or otherwise. 
 The O'Donoghue said that in the future he would act and 
 work with the " Home Rulers." Mr. Mitchell Henry said 
 that the Irish members should not permit the attention of 
 Parliament to be directed to foreign policy, until the affairs 
 of Ireland had been put in a proper condition. 
 
 The Lord Mayor refused to receive a resolution expressing 
 sympathy with the peasantry in the West of Ireland in the 
 struggle to retain their holdings, on the ground that the 
 struggle had assumed the aspect of physical force. During 
 an exciting debate, Mr. Biggar declared Mr. Shaw was not a 
 leader of the Irish people and " pronounced " in favour of 
 Mr. Parnell. 
 
 It was very apparent for some time previous, that there was 
 a struggle going on inside the " Home Rule " Parliamentary 
 party, as to the question of leadership and policy. What 
 was called the advanced party of Parliamentarians espoused 
 the more active policy, which policy was not presented to 
 them, nor by them to the people, as simple agitation alone. 
 The great charm this policy had for the Irish masses, was 
 its active principle of obstruction. They were taught that 
 by using the forms of the House of Commons, they could 
 stop British legislation, and thus make Irish members so 
 
"PHYSICAL FORCE" ARGUMENTS 141 
 
 great an impediment to English law-making, that the British 
 would be compelled to surrender " Home Rule," to preserve 
 their legislative assembly from this novel invasion. This 
 policy could not be called agitation ; it was in reality physical 
 force, and this species of physical force first made Mr. 
 Parnell the chosen champion and hero of the Irish people. 
 In the Parliamentary ranks at that time this policy had few 
 followers, but in the country it had an overwhelming majority. 
 Mr. William Shaw, the Parliamentary leader, felt compelled 
 to take some action in the face of the great distress, to try 
 and preserve some popularity on the near approach of the 
 general election. The Lord Mayor, since so ardent a 
 follower of Mr. Parnell's, was exceedingly nervous at anything 
 which appeared to bear the slightest approval of that greatest 
 of crimes in the eyes of such Irishmen, then as now — physical 
 resistance to tyranny ; and yet Mr. Gray took part in the 
 "obstruction" divisions in the House. Mr. Mitchell Henry, 
 who was a strong opponent of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar, 
 and who was then, and is still, an opponent of Irish indepen- 
 dence, in his speech here, uses expressions which can have no 
 meaning but physical force. He speaks of forcing the 
 Government to take a certain course, either by constitutional 
 agitation or otherwise. What is this otherwise to which Mr. 
 Henry alludes ? The Irish people cannot deduce any other 
 meaning from this remark but that this moral suasionist 
 meant a resort to violence. Some sort of violence should be 
 used, to " force," as Mr. Henry put it, the British Ministers to 
 do anything they were not inclined to do. 
 
 The Lord Mayor listened to Mr. Mitchell Henry's remarks 
 without any rebuke, and yet refused to accept Mr. Biggar's 
 resolution which indirectly indorsed the same policy. The 
 meeting overruled the presiding officer, and Mr. Biggar 
 succeeded in receiving an endorsement. 
 
 The Lord Mayor's banquet was about to take place, and 
 Lord Mayor Gray, who dispensed the hospitalities of the 
 Mansion House that year, did it in princely style. He was 
 ably supported by his amiable and accomplished wife. The 
 
142 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Lady Mayoress's receptions and entertainments, were of the 
 most recJierM and elaborate kind. Her gracious manner as 
 hostess of the civic mansion, and her exquisite toilettes, were 
 the admiration of the dite of the metropolis. Mrs. Gray 
 was also popular with the people, who remembered her 
 mother's and sisters' many acts of benevolence and charity. 
 The Duke of Marlborough and all the exquisites of the 
 Viceregal Court, were expected to honour the Mansion House 
 banquet by their presence. For the people who had hitherto 
 flocked to the civic dinners, were especially loyal to the 
 British Queen's representative, and could not possibly hope 
 for a higher ambition than to bask beneath the sunshine of 
 his ducal smile. 
 
 But great was the consternation among these amiable 
 flunkeys, when the Duke of Marlborough, in reply to the 
 Lord Mayor's invitation, sent the following answer : — 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " I observe that in your official capacity as Lord Mayor 
 you presided at a public meeting in the City Hall, at which 
 resolutions were passed in relation to the West of Ireland, to 
 schemes of enforcement ; and to the measures which Her 
 Majesty's Government have taken for the relief of the dis- 
 tress existing in parts of the country. I regret that the 
 character of the resolutions will prevent me from having the 
 honour of dining at the Mansion House on the 3rd of next 
 month, as it would not be in my power, either to ignore them 
 when they have received official sanction, or to make observa- 
 tion upon them while accepting your Lordship's hospitality. 
 I have the honour to remain, 
 
 *' Your obedient servant, 
 " Marlborough. 
 
 "Viceregal Lodge, Dublin, January 27, 1880." 
 
 Lord Mayor Gray and his friends were compelled to eat 
 their dinner without the presence of Britain's Lord Deputy. 
 Some indignation was expressed in pro-British Radical 
 sections. These West British Radicals wished to turn the 
 
MR. PARNELL'S CRITICISM 143 
 
 feeling, occasioned by this letter, to the service of their party, 
 then, as now, telling the Irish what great things they might 
 expect, if they got rid of the brutal Tories and had the 
 good Liberal party restored to power ; just as it is dinned 
 into Irish ears at this date (1887) by the same kindly Liberals, 
 when they cry " Codlin's your friend, not Short." 
 
 But Lord Mayor Gray pocketed the insult which Spencer- 
 Churchill bestowed on his invitation. In spite of this 
 strongly worded disapproval of civic official sanction, the 
 Lord Mayor in his state coach, attended by his livery 
 servants in powdered hair and wigs and in gorgeous 
 costumes, — be himself wearing the state robes of office and 
 with the collar of S. S., and attended by a goodly number 
 of aldermen and town councillors and other flunkeys in their 
 civic gowns, — went to his Grace of Marlborough's levee. Here, 
 he and his friends made humble obeisance for being permitted 
 to dwell beneath the shadow of Viceroyalty, and to enjoy the 
 numerous blessings and happiness thereunto appertaining; and 
 indicated by their presence their grateful thanks for the extra- 
 ordinary generosity shown Ireland by their beloved Queen, 
 who, out of her immense wealth, sent such a munificent 
 sum to relieve the starving Irish, as five hundred golden 
 pounds. Some of these men are public leaders in the 
 "crusade of shame" still so vigorously carried on. 
 
 The Mansion House Fund did not please Mr. Parnell. He 
 knew the men who composed it, and had great doubts as to 
 their sincerity. Mr. Parnell sent the following letter to the 
 New York Herald^ which in trenchant language explains 
 itself: — 
 
 "Rochester, ISi.Y.y January 2^, 1880. 
 " To the Editor of the Herald, 
 
 "As you have thought proper to suppress the most 
 important portion of my remarks at Buffalo in reference to 
 the Dublin Mansion House Relief Committee, I am com- 
 pelled to supply the omission by asking you to publish this 
 note. 
 
144 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 "You first attempt to foist upon the people of the United 
 States, the Relief Committee started by the Duchess of 
 Marlborough ; but the common sense and self-respect of 
 America revolting from your project, you now endeavour to 
 mend your hand by lavishly parading and advertising the 
 claims of the Dublin Mansion House Committee, an associa- 
 tion of a kindred character, mainly composed of Government 
 office-holders. Whig and Tory landlords and Castle flunkeys, 
 destitute of all sympathy with our struggling people and 
 hostile to their aspirations. 
 
 "We shall be told that the presence of the Catholic 
 hierarchy on this committee is a guarantee, but the fact still 
 remains that it is mainly composed of the landlord interest, 
 and much of it of a most virulent character. 
 
 " The control of the committee also, and the disposition of 
 its funds, must necessarily rest with the Dublin portion of it, 
 since its sessions are held in that city. Hence the influence 
 of the Irish bishops, whose names have been attached to 
 mislead Catholic public opinion in this country, and who, 
 as they chiefly reside in portions of Ireland remote from 
 Dublin, will be unable to control the landlord and Castle 
 management. 
 
 "The Lord Mayor of Dublin, moreover, the chairman of 
 this committee, has already shown his bias by refusing at the 
 meeting of Irish members, to accept a resolution of sympathy 
 with the distressed peasantry in the West. I do not wish to 
 examine the motive of this refusal, but it is a significant 
 fact that the passage of this resolution, in spite of the 
 opposition of the Lord Mayor, led to the refusal of the 
 Duke of Marlborough to accept the former's invitation to 
 dinner. 
 
 " In view, however, of your persistent attempts to mislead 
 the American people on this question, it now becomes my 
 duty to state plainly for the information of the charitable, 
 that this money, if sent to the Dublin Mansion House 
 Committee, will be indirectly used for political purposes, in 
 bolstering up an expiring and tyrannical land system ; and 
 
IRISH-AMERICAN BELIEF 145 
 
 that all aid from it will be refused to those of the starving 
 peasantry who have actively participated in the present 
 agrarian movement. If you wish to maintain the character 
 for impartiality which you have assumed in dealing with our 
 question, you will print this note in as prominent a position, 
 and with as large type as that which you have devoted to 
 your notice of the Mansion House Committee, taken under 
 your patronage. 
 
 "Charles S. Parnell." 
 
 The two Irish Provincial delegates, in spite of the opposi- 
 tion of the real and genuine agitators located in this country, 
 and urged on by their friends on the other side, enjoyed 
 immense popularity with the Irish and American masses, 
 who attended their lectures in the different towns and cities 
 where they visited. Say what Mr, Parnell would, — and his 
 statements on this point were explicit, and by no means 
 misleading — his Irish audience would believe that Mr. Parnell 
 always had an arriere-pensee to fall back upon, in the event 
 of talk not succeeding. This was only natural. They saw 
 men surrounding him in the committees, in whom they had 
 every confidence, and justly so ; whose lives were devoted 
 to serving Ireland and making her a nation ; and they also 
 knew that the men at home, his Parliamentary colleagues, 
 were simply Whigs or Liberals in the " Home Rule " garb. 
 Some of these very men were on this same Mansion House 
 Committee, which was hostile to Mr. Parnell and his 
 aspirations. These people could not dream it possible 
 that, in the whirligig of a Parliamentary policy to free a 
 nation, some of these men, then his opponents, would become 
 that young tribune's devoted followers ; and that the v^ry 
 principle of fighting the Liberal party, then dominating 
 Irish Parliamentary political thought, would in course of 
 time be reversed, and that the great machine, an Independent 
 Irish party in the British Commons, would be handed over 
 to the Liberals, and the aim and ambition of its members be 
 to sing the praises of an English statesman. 
 
 L 
 
146 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 When Mr. Parnell was nearing the State capital, Albany, 
 N.Y., the legislature of the State wished to do him honour, 
 and to indicate through his person their indorsement and 
 approval of the cause of which he was so able an exponent, 
 and so noble and worthy a representative. 
 
 The following resolution was introduced into the Assembly 
 and Senate, and carried unanimously : — 
 
 " Whereas, Charles S. Parnell, M.P., is now on a visit to 
 the city of Albany, and whereas we recognise the efforts of 
 this honourable gentleman for the relief of starvation in 
 Ireland ; therefore 
 
 Resolvedy That Charles S. Parnell, M.P., during his visit to 
 the city of Albany, be given the privilege of the floor of the 
 Assembly." 
 
 On Mr. Parnell's appearance in the Assembly on January 
 28, 1880, Speaker Husted brought the gavel down with a 
 sharp stroke, and out of compliment to their Irish visitor the 
 chamber took a recess. 
 
 General Husted, getting 'on the floor, warmly welcomed 
 Mr. Parnell, and introduced him to the members. 
 
 In the meantime the famine continued raging in Ireland ; 
 there was plenty of food, but the poor people had no means to 
 procure it. There were three deaths from hunger at this date, 
 January 29, near Parsonstown. No record is correctly kept of 
 the number of deaths from this cause, which take place every 
 year in Ireland, as hunger is the parent of so many diseases 
 under which these deaths are registered. It is Britain's death 
 roll of victims in the Emerald Isle. On February 2 the two 
 Irish Provincialists issued the following manifesto. The fight 
 between them and the Parliamentary men and others of Lord 
 Mayor Gray's committee, was being fought out very fiercely 
 on both sides. To Mr. Parnell and Mr. Dillon must be ac- 
 corded high praise for great determination and perseverance, 
 for after all Mr. Parnell represented a very insignificant 
 portion of the Parliamentary party at that time. But as time 
 has since proved, this was a mere bid for political power: 
 
MR. PARNELL AND THE QUEEN 147 
 
 *' To the People of America^ 
 
 " A committee has been formed in Dublin, since we landed 
 in this country, and has appealed to the people of America 
 under the name of the Dublin Mansion House Committee, for 
 funds to relieve the Irish famine. This committee is chiefly 
 composed of landlords and Government placemen, avowedly 
 hostile to the people and their aspirations, and is therefore 
 peculiarly unsuited as a channel through which to send relief 
 to the starving peasantry of Ireland. We felt it our duty on 
 the first publication of the names comprising this body, to 
 warn the people of America that it would refuse assistance to 
 those who are at present resisting eviction. . . . 
 
 " This fact convinces us of the necessity for renewed 
 exertion on our part, to baffle the projects so shamelessly 
 put forward by the allies and agents of the Mansion House 
 Committee in this country. 
 
 *' Charles S. Parnell. 
 "John Dillon. 
 
 ''February i, 1880." 
 
 Mr. Parnell was attacked in the press of England, and 
 by the Irish Provincial and West British journals. Lord 
 Randolph Churchill attempted to contradict a statement he 
 made about the Queen's famine subscription in 1847, to 
 which Mr. Parnell replied as follows : — 
 
 " To the Editor of the ' Herald; 
 
 "In reference to Lord Randolph Churchill's contradiction 
 of my statements, that the Queen gave nothing to relieve the 
 famine in 1847, I find I might have gone still further and 
 have said, with perfect accuracy, that not only did she give 
 nothing, but that she actually intercepted ;^6,ooo of the donation 
 which the Sultan of Turkey desired to contribute to the famine 
 fund. In 1847 the Sultan had offered a donation of ;^io,ooo, 
 but the English Ambassador at Constantinople was directed 
 by the Queen to inform him that her contribution was to be 
 limited to ;^2,ooo, and that the Sultan should not, in good 
 taste, give any more than her Majesty ; hence the net result 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 to the famine fund by the Queen's action was a loss of ;^6,ooo. 
 All this is perfectly understood by students of Irish history, 
 and would have been known to Lord R. Churchill were our 
 history not proscribed in English schools. 
 
 " The following passage in D'Arcy Magee's history of the 
 Irish settlers in North America throws additional light upon 
 the subject : * The Czar, the Sultan, and the Pope sent their 
 rubies and their pearls. The Pasha of Egypt, the Shah of 
 Persia, the Emperor of China, the Rajahs of India, combined 
 to do for Ireland what her so-styled rulers refused to do — to 
 keep her young and old people living in the land. America 
 did more than all the rest of the world. 
 
 "Charles S. Parnell. 
 
 ''February r, 1880." 
 
 The Irish-American Nationalists gave Mr. Parnell in- 
 valuable support ; they supported his movement with the 
 object of using the agitation to strengthen their hands, so that 
 behind the mask of a public movement they could more 
 effectually strike the common enemy. Many Nationalists, 
 especially those in Ireland, believed this whole idea was 
 wrong, both in conception and practice ; they considered that 
 the " New Departure " was a grave and serious departure from 
 Irish National politics, because of the utter impossibility of 
 the Nationalists ever being able to bring the Provincialists up 
 to their standard, and the danger of opening the flood-gates 
 and filling physical force circles with a stream of weak, 
 sentimental, and theoretical views, which sad experience has 
 taught Irishmen, have had a ruinous tendency to emasculate 
 their race. 
 
 Mr. Parnell in his trenchant attacks on his natural sup- 
 porters, the agitators, raised up for himself a number of 
 enemies. There were at this time three famine funds in 
 the field, that of the Duchess of Marlborough, the Dublin 
 Mansion House Committee, and Mr. Parnell's Fund. A 
 fourth was soon started, under the auspices of Mr. James 
 Gordon Bennett, who subscribed the munificent sum of 
 
MR. PARNELL IN WASHINGTON 149 
 
 $100,000. The Bennett Fund leaped into active life, and with 
 the great circulation of the New York Herald succeeded 
 in enlisting a number of subscriptions, some for very large 
 sums. 
 
 The Dublin Freemariy the property of Lord Mayor Gray, 
 then ably assisted by Mr. William O'Brien, resented Mr. 
 ParneH's attack on the Mansion House Committee in its 
 issue of February 5, 1880. It published an endorsement of 
 their Committee, signed by three Archbishops and nineteen 
 Bishops, also by the Most Reverend Mr. Trench, Protestant 
 Archbishop. This roll accused Mr. Parnell of making reck- 
 less and unwarrantable assertions ; but he gained by this 
 attack the support of many Nationalists. The Irish- American 
 Society were the men who really placed him in power ; he 
 has kicked away the ladder by which he climbed to his 
 present position. Time will tell if he was wise. 
 
 In the meantime Mr. Parnell had received the greatest 
 honour ever paid to an Irishman : the House of Represen- 
 tatives at Washington, then in session, had gracefully and 
 courteously extended to him the privilege of the floor, to 
 address that august body. 
 
 On January 19 Congress placed this resolution upon its 
 archives, and on February 2, 1880, Speaker Randall called 
 the House to order at eight o'clock. The Speaker directed 
 that the resolution of the 19th of January be read, and he 
 stated that in conformity with that resolution, he had now the 
 honour and pleasure of introducing Charles Stewart Parnell 
 of Ireland, who came among them to speak of the distress 
 of his country. 
 
 Mr. Parnell, who was seated at the clerk's desk, looked with 
 icy composure upon the sea of faces that were there to bid 
 him welcome on behalf of America — the noblest and freest 
 nation in the world, the land that has so hospitably received 
 the suffering patriots of Europe. When the applause had 
 subsided, Mr. Parnell returned thanks for the honour con- 
 ferred on him in being permitted to address such an 
 
I50 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 assemblage on the state of affairs in his unhappy country. 
 American public opinion would be of the greatest importance 
 in enabling them to obtain a settlement of the Irish question. 
 He spoke of land in Ireland as being the most pressing 
 question of that country, and he quoted the testimony of the 
 historian Froude against the principle of private property in 
 land. He also quoted the New York Nation approvingly, 
 against the idea of emigration as a remedy. He proposed to 
 imitate the example of Prussia and other Continental countries, 
 where the feudal tenure had been tried and abandoned. He 
 proposed to give the opportunity to every occupying farmer 
 in Ireland to become the owner of his own farm. He 
 referred to Mr. John Bright's proposition for a company to 
 advai^ce money for the purchase of Irish farms, and criticised 
 Mr. Bright for fearing to ask the English Parliament to 
 sanction the principle. In conclusion, he said that if Ireland 
 was by the force of public opinion alone, and by the respect 
 with which all peoples looked upon any sentiment prevailing 
 in America for her, to obtain without the shedding of one 
 drop of blood, without drawing the sword, without one 
 threatening message, the solution of that great question — 
 he was proud and happy in the belief that, in the way he had 
 mentioned, and in no other way, America* would be an im- 
 portant factor in the solution of the Irish land question. As 
 Mr. Parnell concluded his address, he was applauded by an 
 audience of men who could thoroughly appreciate the salient 
 points of his discourse. The House adjourned, and the 
 ceremonies of the personal introduction of members and 
 others to Mr. Parnell, was performed by the Speaker in the 
 area in front of the reporters' desk. 
 
 Many who favoured the " New Departure," and who had 
 been trying to impress upon Irishmen the immense difference 
 between the agitation of Mr. Parnell, and that of his great 
 predecessor, Mr. O'Connell, will find in this speech, addressed 
 to the Congress of the descendants of the men of Lexington, 
 the self-same no-drop-of-blood doctrine, as distinctly preached 
 by Mr. Parnell as it had been in the days of the golden- 
 
O'CONNELLISM AND PARNELLISM 151 
 
 tongued tribune. Mr. Parnell, carried away it is presumed 
 by the justice of Ireland's cause, concluded in a very 
 summary manner that its solution should be of as easy 
 attainment ; and when he informed his American hearers 
 that he proposed a certain course to be adopted to settle the 
 farmers in their holdings, he appears to have completely lost 
 sight of the-essential fact, that he had no power to carry out 
 his benevolent and kindly intention. He alluded to the 
 Prussian . Ministers, and their establishment of peasant 
 proprietary in that part of Germany, but these statesmen 
 caused laws to be made for their own country. Mr. Parnell 
 would have to appeal to a foreign assembly and foreign 
 Ministers, whose interests run counter to Ireland's. Think of a 
 great statesman, or an intelligent patriot, telling his hearers 
 that the public opinion of a great nation would be able to do 
 the work of Washington and Lafayette ! People can scarcely 
 realise the seriousness of the speaker, and yet his audience 
 was most distinguished. 
 
 Mr. Parnell plainly stated that he was opposed to the 
 principle of private property in land, but he has been trying 
 to establish peasant or occupying proprietary, which is 
 undoubtedly private property in land. Irishmen could not 
 advocate National ownership of land until such time as 
 Ireland has an independent national government. There 
 have been very strange law doctrines preached by men who 
 have so completely lost sight of the great national creed of 
 self-government, that they have gone into the land question 
 without thinking that it was not all the Irish trouble. 
 
 There was this great difference between Mr. Parnell's 
 Provincial agitation and that of Mr. O'Connell's — that while 
 the former preached the self-same doctrines of arguing the 
 usurper out of Ireland, and publicly condemning the necessity 
 of any resort to force, in private he expressed different views 
 and only asked of the Nationalists to give his peace policy 
 a fair trial and he would be with them in the impossible 
 event (as he then believed) of his failure. It was the begin- 
 ning of that hideous and hypocritical policy of Irishmen 
 
152 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 publicly denouncing, what the speaker and his friends were 
 actually engaged in privately. This infamous and degrading 
 course was termed paying " Britain back in her own coin," 
 stealing a leaf of deception from the enemy's state volumes. 
 
 The Dublin Freeman was very wroth with Mr. Parnell and 
 Mr. Dillon. In its issue of February 26, 1880, it spoke of 
 these gentlemen thus : 
 
 " We are compelled in the cause of truth and charity, in 
 defence of the Hierarchy, of the benevolent laity of Ireland, 
 of every religion, in self-defence, in the interest of sanity and 
 honour, all the world over, to notice the extraordinary 
 emanation addressed to the editors of the United States, in 
 which Mr Parnell and his friends run amuck through all the 
 Irish charitable committees except his own." 
 
 It characterised Mr. Parnell's attack made on the Duchess 
 of Marlborough's Committee as a shameless one, and his 
 attack on the Mansion House Committee as an outrage on 
 all decency, and a shameless libel upon an assembly of 
 gentlemen, reckoning among them the most trusted and 
 respected of the laity as well as Bishops. 
 
 The Freeman asked what Mr. Parnell and Mr. Dillon had 
 done that they should dictate. The Mansion House was 
 entrusted with ;^8o,ooo, the Duchess of Marlborough with 
 ;^30,ooo, while the Parnell Fund had secured only ;^ 12,000, 
 though every nerve had been strained. 
 
 The minds of politicians in Britain were directed to the 
 approaching general election ; every one expected that Parlia- 
 ment would be dissolved at the close of the session, and that 
 in the autumn the election of a new Parliament would take 
 place. One of the many scenes which display British con- 
 tempt for Irish suffering, happened during the expiring hours 
 of this Parliament. Mr. Frank Hugh O'Donnell, with tears 
 in his eyes, called attention to the prevailing poverty and 
 hunger in Ireland ; but he spoke to empty benches, for the 
 British legislator preferred the smoke-room, or the dinner- 
 
THE BEACONSFIELD MANIFESTO 153 
 
 table, to listening to the old story of Irish distress ; for him 
 it was a thrice-told tale and a nuisance ; there was no possi- 
 bility of " shaming " the stolid Anglo-Saxon on a question of 
 which he was weary. 
 
 To the surprise and astonishment of the British public, the 
 session of Parliament was suddenly interrupted by the an- 
 nouncement, made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir 
 Stafford Northcote, that Her Majesty's Government had 
 decided on appealing to the loyal British burgesses to elect 
 another Commons chamber. This information surprised 
 both countries ; and it was the subject of conversation in 
 every club, hotel, warehouse, factory, and public conveyance. 
 A dissolution in the autumn was expected, but this hasty 
 interruption of Parliamentary work and cessation of the 
 business of the country until after the throes of a general 
 election, set the British people wondering. What caused 
 this sudden resolution of the Premier's ? This was the 
 question on every tongue. 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield was not long in issuing his election 
 manifesto, which he did in the form of a letter to the Irish 
 Lord-Lieutenant : — 
 
 •'No. 10 Downing Street, AfarcA 8, 1880. 
 
 " My Lord Duke, 
 
 " The measures respecting the state of Ireland which Her 
 Majesty's Government have so anxiously considered with 
 your Excellency, and in which they were much aided by 
 your advice and authority, are now about to be submitted for 
 royal assent ; and it is at length in the power of Ministers to 
 advise the Queen to recur to the sense of her people. The 
 arts of agitators, which represented that England instead of 
 being a generous and sympathising friend was indifferent to 
 the dangers and sufferings of Ireland, have been defeated by 
 measures at once liberal and prudent which Parliament 
 almost unanimously sanctioned. During the six years of the 
 present Administration, the improvement of Ireland and the 
 content of our fellow-countrymen of that island have much 
 
154 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 occupied the care of the Ministry; and they may remember 
 with satisfaction, that in this period they have solved one of 
 the most difficult problems connected with its government and 
 people, by establishing a system of public education open 
 to all classes and creeds. Nevertheless a danger, in its ulti- 
 mate results scarcely less disastrous than pestilence or famine 
 which now engages your Excellency's anxious attention, 
 distracts that country. A portion of the population is 
 attempting to sever the constitutional tie which unites it to 
 Great Britain in that bond which has favoured the power 
 and prosperity of both. It is to be hoped that all men of 
 light and learning will resist this destructive doctrine. 
 
 " The strength of the nation depends on the unity of feel- 
 ing which should pervade the United Kingdom, and its wide- 
 spread dependencies. The first duty of an English Minister 
 should be to consolidate the co-operation which renders ir- 
 resistible a community educated as our own in an equal love 
 of liberty and law. 
 
 " And yet there are some who challenge the expediency of 
 the imperial character of the realm. Having attempted and 
 failed to enfeeble our colonies by their policy of decomposi- 
 tion, they may perhaps now recognise in the disintegration of 
 the United Kingdom a mode which will not only accomplish 
 but precipitate their purpose. The immediate dissolution of 
 Parliament will afford an opportunity to the nation to decide 
 upon a course which will materially influence its future 
 fortunes, and shape its destiny. Rarely in this country has 
 there been an occasion more critical. The power of England, 
 and the peace of Europe will largely depend on the verdict of 
 the country. Her Majesty's present Ministers have hitherto 
 been enabled to secure that peace so necessary to the welfare 
 of all civilised countries, and so peculiarly the interest of our 
 own, but this ineffable blessing cannot be obtained by the 
 passive principle of non-interference. Peace rests on the 
 presence, not to say the ascendency of England, in the 
 councils of Europe. Even at this moment, the doubt sup- 
 posed to be inseparable from a popular election, if it does 
 
MR. SHAW'S REPLY 155 
 
 not diminish, certainly arrests her influence, and is a main 
 reason for not delaying an appeal to the national voice. 
 Whatever may be its consequences to Her Majesty's present 
 advisers, may it return to Westminster a Parliament not 
 unworthy of the power of England, and resolved to maintain it! 
 " I have the honour to be, my Lord Duke, 
 
 " Your faithful servant, 
 " Beaconsfield." 
 
 The London Daily News, the leading organ of the Liberal 
 party, commenting on this manifesto, said : 
 
 " Lord Beaconsfield is the master of pompous words, and 
 they have stood him in such good stead that he hopes to 
 win an election by this means." 
 
 Mr. William Shaw, Home Rule leader, issued a reply to the 
 Tory chieftain. He said : 
 
 ** The Prime Minister has not thought it beneath his 
 position to issue an electioneering manifesto, placing false 
 issues before the electors of the empire, and tending to excite 
 the worst passions of the ignorant. 
 
 "There has been no Ministry within my memory by which 
 less has been done for the improvement and content of the 
 people of Ireland. The distress now so general, deepening in 
 some places into famine, was at an early period brought before 
 the attention of Her Majesty's Government; and if the measures 
 then earnestly recommended had been promptly and generously 
 adopted, the widespread suffering would have been to a great 
 extent prevented and the people would not have been 
 pauperised. I charge the government with gross and culpable 
 ignorance and neglect. They have not taken timely measures 
 to meet the emergency. Tht Prime Minister, not for the first 
 time, misrepresents the general opinion of the people of 
 Ireland as expressed by a majority of her representatives in 
 favour of self-government in domestic affairs, as if it meant 
 the dismemberment of the empire. No one knows better 
 than the Prime Minister that that is not a true statement of 
 the case. 
 
156 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 "We mean by * Home Rule/ not that the connection should 
 be destroyed, but that the relationship may be placed on 
 a healthy, natural, honest basis ; and we seek this object by 
 strictly loyal and constitutional means. The Prime Minister 
 knows this, but he thinks it a good cry for the English 
 electors, and he sends his party forth to the constitutional 
 struggle with a lie in their right hand. There is another 
 Irish question on which the Government has been more 
 reactionary than on others. I mean the land question. I 
 call on the Irish people, north and south, to answer the 
 insulting missive of the Prime Minister, by returning an 
 overwhelming majority at the coming election, pledged to 
 the settlement of the great vital national question ; pledged 
 to give ample facilities for the creation of a peasant pro- 
 prietary, wherever possible, to restore, define and legalise 
 tenant right in Ulster, and extend it to the whole of 
 Ireland. We must sink all minor differences, put aside all 
 personal feelings, and lend every energy to effect this great 
 object." 
 
 The news of the dissolution of Parliament was a great 
 surprise to Mr. Parnell. It disconcerted all his arrangements. 
 Mr. Biggar, M.P., Mr. Lysaght Finnigan, M.P., and his im- 
 mediate Parliamentary supporters, cabled for his speedy 
 return. 
 
 The " Home Rule " Confederation of Great Britain, con- 
 trolled by Mr. Parnell's supporters, issued the following 
 election manifesto : — 
 
 "Lord Beaconsfield has issued, in the guise of a letter 
 to the Viceroy of Ireland, a declaration of war upon your 
 country and your friends. The Ministry is seeking to obtain 
 a renewed term of office, by sowing dissensions and hatred 
 between Englishmen and Irishmen, and Lord Beaconsfield's 
 vicious manifesto directly appeals to the worst passions and 
 prejudices, for the purpose of stirring up Englishmen against 
 Irish Nationalists. The Ministry neither knows nor cares how 
 
FOUNDING THE AMERICAN LAND LEAGUE 157 
 
 to relieve our distressed fellow-countrymen. Lord Beacons- 
 field's foreign policy has been an inglorious and disastrous 
 failure. Vote against him as you would vote against the 
 enemy of your country. 
 
 "Frank Hugh O'Donnell, Dungarvan. 
 
 "James Lysaght Finnigan, Ennis. 
 
 " Alexander M. Sullivan, Louth. 
 
 "John O'Connor Power, Mayo. 
 
 "Justin McCarthy, Longford." 
 
 Mr. Parnell cancelled all his engagements and hurried back 
 to New York, to take steamer for Ireland. 
 
 He held a conference at the Fifth Avenue Hotel previous 
 to his departure ; sixty gentlemen were invited to meet him, 
 when the foundation of the Irish National Land League of 
 America was laid. Mr. M. D. Gallagher, of New York city, 
 was chosen president of the first branch of the League, which 
 as Branch " One " so ably and financially aided the National 
 League movement. Mr. Gallagher, who is a strong and 
 determined Nationalist, and who at that time was a thorough 
 believer in the efficacy of " legal agitation," wrote a pamphlet 
 in furtherance of the League principles, which had an 
 appendix written by a Boston gentleman — an American, a 
 relative or connection of Mr. Parnell's — which if published to- 
 day (1887) would obtain Mr. Parnell's condemnation for the 
 outspoken and radical views of the writer. Delegates from 
 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, New Haven, 
 and Jersey City attended. Dr. Kearney, of New York, was 
 elected chairman of the meeting, and T. F. Lynch, of Brooklyn, 
 secretary. At the close of their labours, Mr. Parnell ex- 
 pressed his entire satisfaction, and promised to return to 
 America as soon as possible. He urged his countrymen not 
 to let the work in which they were engaged slacken in the 
 meantime, and bade them remember that the cause of charity 
 still appealed to them. The famine-causing land system, he 
 said, remained uncrushed, and therefore there remained good 
 work for Irishmen. No one helped more energetically in 
 
158 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 this " good work," than did the neglected president for Branch 
 " One," Mr. M. D. Gallagher. He formed over fifty branches 
 by his own exertions, and addressed League meetings in 
 every direction. 
 
 The time was now drawing near for Mr. Parnell's departure. 
 A committee of longshore men presented him with a patriotic 
 and complimentary address, and the substantial testimony of 
 ;^200 for the relief fund. A committee of County Wicklow 
 men presented him with a testimonial and gold badge ; and 
 the reception committee presented him with a complimentary 
 address. Mr. Parnell, in his reply, thanked them for the 
 magnificent hospitality accorded to himself, and the sym- 
 pathy extended to suffering Ireland. 
 
 Mr. Parnell was escorted to the wharf by the committee, 
 and immense crowds of enthusiastic supporters ; a heavy 
 snowstorm in no manner chilled the ardour of their deter- 
 mination to do every possible honour to the then earnest 
 young Irishman. The 69th Regiment, with Colonel Cava- 
 naugh at their head, acted as guard of honour. As the Baltic 
 passed the pier out into the river the band of the 69th 
 played, hats waved, and the immense crowd cheered the 
 parting guest, while Mr. Parnell bowed his acknowledgments 
 until his pale face passed out of sight. 
 
 Speed the parting ship ; there are stirring scenes before the 
 Irish voyager ! 
 
X 
 
 THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1880. — PARNELLISM versus 
 CLERICALISM. 
 
 As Mr. Parnell voyaged home in the good ship Baltic^ 
 preparations were being made by the people in Ireland to 
 give him a truly royal reception, the accustomed phrase 
 " royal " being used to denote the magnificent ovation that 
 awaited him at Queenstown, Cork, and indeed throughout 
 Ireland. No British sovereign, or princeling, could ever hope 
 to receive from the people such a demonstration of welcome 
 as that which awaited the arrival of Charles Stewart Parnell 
 on his return from America. 
 
 The Irish Nationalists clung to him ; the more the West 
 British element attacked him, the more they were determined 
 to give him a united support, to show the world how earnestly, 
 and almost unanimously, Ireland yearned for self-government. 
 Not alone a portion of the people held these views, as stated 
 by Lord Beaconsfield to the Duke of Marlborough in his 
 letter, but they were (and are still) the doctrines of the great 
 masses, the heart, the soul, the brains of the nation. The only 
 difference Irishmen have on this subject of native rule is the 
 means by which they can procure it. 
 
 Men of the physical force school (and they are more than 
 nine-tenths of the real earnest workers in Ireland) have no 
 choice as regards the path by which the desired goal can be 
 gained. Britain has given Ireland her answer, in no hesitat- 
 ing manner ; she has repeatedly and defiantly told her she 
 
i6o THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 will not concede to Ireland her peaceful demands, and unless 
 the Irish act as curs undeserving of freedom they must 
 appeal to the only alternative left to nations, or be wiped out 
 and spat upon as a race. If such an ineffable blessing as the 
 attainment of self-government could be pursued peacefully, 
 men would not incur the horrors of British dungeons and the 
 doom of the scaffold to try to obtain their nation's liber- 
 ation from slavery. Irishmen would not expose themselves 
 to the contumely of some of their own untaught and mis- 
 guided countrymen, the Provincialists, who are so steeped in 
 generations of serfdom as not to appreciate the nobility of 
 the sacrifice. 
 
 There are possibly some Irishmen so maddened by the 
 wrongs and crimes of centuries, inflicted on their country by 
 the foreign invader, that they thirst for revenge ; but the 
 number of these is few. The great majority of the people 
 are not seeking revenge to satisfy any appetite of hatred. 
 Those who know the Irish Nationalists well, can speak most 
 emphatically that no such feeling animates their countrymen. 
 There was no such feeling in the breast of Warren at Bunker's 
 Hill, or Washington at Trenton, although both were seeking 
 to kill and destroy their country's enemies. Irishmen are 
 fully satisfied that, for them, it is an absolute necessity to 
 carry out the most destructive campaign possible against 
 England, and if possible in England itself, no matter at what 
 sacrifice of life to themselves as a people, (for such losses 
 must be infinitesimal, compared to what they are compelled 
 to suffer every year under the continued drains of starvation 
 and emigration). They believe in pursuing this course because 
 no nation, similarly situated, could appeal to any remedy but 
 force. There is no court of last resort between nations, but 
 war. It may be deplorable that humanity cannot avoid the 
 evil. Ireland has never had peace ; whether Irishmen try 
 peaceful Provincialism and appeal to her enemy or not, the 
 results are the same. The unrelenting foe goes on unceasing 
 in his war of extermination. The destruction of Ireland's 
 national existence he feels is, for him, a matter of vital 
 
MR. PARNELL BACK IN IRELAND l6l 
 
 importance. Ireland has no alternative but either to be 
 blotted out from among the nations, or to strike back fiercely 
 and try to destroy her invader. 
 
 Atthis period in Ireland's history, i88o,the "New Departure" 
 had ripened and begun to bear fruit, rosy-looking and luscious 
 to the gaze but ashes, as has been proved, to the taste. The 
 Provincialist " campaign of shame," created by O'Connell and 
 argued by that great orator to hopeless failure, again attempted 
 by the Tenant League for a few years and taken up by Isaac 
 Butt and the Federalists, was at this period revivified, with 
 the imaginary aid of Parliamentary obstruction. If ever such 
 a programme could be successful it ought to have been at 
 this time, when a people in unity of thought all over the globe 
 made the heavens ring again with their clamour for freedom, 
 only to hear their voices come back upon them with the 
 enemy's shout of refusal and coercion. 
 
 The Irish people were trying to heal a sore, while the 
 foreign body that caused it was festering and pressing on the 
 wound. There can be no cure for Ireland's gashes but the 
 complete removal of the shackles, whose rasping, biting 
 pressure excoriates her fiesh. 
 
 As the White Star liner entered the magnificent harbour 
 of the Cove of Cork, a tug steamer came alongside. As soon 
 as the Baltic came to her moorings, a deputation of Irish 
 Provincialists went on board to welcome back the man chosen 
 as their public leader. This Land League deputation con- 
 sisted of W. H. O'Sullivan, M.P., J. G. Biggar, M.P., Lysaght 
 Finnigan, M.P., and a number of other gentlemen ; deputations 
 from the " Home Rule " League, from the Cork Farmers' Club, 
 and from the students of the Queen's College, Cork ; while 
 the organisation still styled the Butt Election Committee of 
 Limerick also sent members to greet Mr. Parnell. Addresses 
 were presented by those deputations welcoming Mr. Parnell 
 back to Ireland, and congratulating him upon the success of 
 his mission in America. The address of the Land League 
 concluded by expressing a hope that Mr. Parnell had sped 
 
 M 
 
162 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 across the waters like another Perseus to save the Andromeda 
 of nations, from the political monster now threatening her 
 with national destruction. Mr. W. O'Sullivan in addressing 
 Mr. Parnell on the part of the " Home Rule " League, said that 
 many constituencies in Ireland were waiting Mr. Parnell's return 
 to know whether he approved of the selection which they had 
 made of candidates. Mr. Parnell in returning thanks said that 
 in America he had already had overwhelming proofs of the 
 utter failure of the pro-British Press of Ireland and England, 
 to deprive him of his character with his countrymen in 
 America. He might give them some idea of the magnitude 
 of these endeavours, when he said that a constant manufacture 
 of lies had been cabled across to Ireland, while on their side of 
 the Atlantic a similar manufacture was going on and the lies 
 cabled to America. He wished to express his disappoint- 
 ment that at least one journal which assumed to itself the 
 character of representative of the National and Liberal feeling 
 in Dublin,^ and another in the south of Ireland,^ had lent 
 themselves to this base attempt on the part of the English 
 newspaper press. 
 
 The scene at Queenstown Junction was one not likely to 
 be forgotten by any one present. The Youghal men and others 
 had assembled there, and while the huge procession of trades 
 was forming with banners and music, Mr. Parnell had to 
 make another address. 
 
 If Irishmen would only work as well as they demonstrate, 
 which latter they do so often with premature expressions of 
 joy, they might then indeed eventually meet to celebrate the 
 glorious triumph of their freedom from foreign rule. 
 
 On Mr. Parnell's arrival in Cork there was a monster 
 demonstration of tradesmen and societies ; the streets rang 
 with cheers, and the music of the many bands playing " See 
 the Conquering Hero Comes " mingled with the national Irish 
 strains that floated on the air. The entire way from Patrick's 
 Bridge up to the end of Patrick Street was packed with one 
 dense mass of people. The youth and beauty of this lovely 
 
 1 The Freeman' s Journal. ' Cork Examiner, 
 
HONOURING MR. PARNELL IN CORK 163 
 
 city by the Lee went out to welcome their hero's return ; 
 handkerchiefs fluttered in fair hands from the windows of 
 Cork's great thoroughfare. A stranger visiting the city 
 would think it was the return of some victor crowned with 
 the laurels of success, and not a young patriot starting out 
 on a mission of trying to " shame " his country's foe into 
 surrender, so immense was this great rejoicing displayed by 
 the people. What a strange and incomprehensible race are 
 the Irish ! Well may the English call them imaginative. 
 
 At the Cork Terminus Mr. Parnell was presented with an 
 address from the Nationalists of Cork, in which they stated 
 that they felt that words were inadequate to express their 
 sense of the obligation they felt towards him for his efforts 
 among the great nation on the other side of the Atlantic, on 
 behalf of the down-trodden people of Ireland. They could 
 not withhold their admiration from a man who in any sphere 
 used his efforts to better the condition of his country, but 
 they felt bound to add that it was perfectly useless to 
 attempt to obtain concessions from England through Parlia- 
 mentary representation. 
 
 The same statement was repeated to Mr. Parnell in the 
 writer's presence in the Victoria Hotel reading-room, Cork, 
 during the Kettle election. Does he really believe still (1887) 
 in this delusion of shaming England ? 
 
 Mr. Biggar, M.P., said that the only possible leader of the 
 Irish people and the Irish party was Mr. Parnell, and they 
 should make him dictator at this general election. 
 
 That was a busy day in the southern capital ; Robert 
 Wilson, the patriotic proprietor of the Victoria Hotel, was in 
 his element, making preparations for the grand banquet which 
 was to take place in his hotel that evening, in honour of 
 Mr. Parnell. He rushed around greeting friends with his 
 kindly smile of welcome, and giving orders to the bustling 
 attendants. 
 
 At the banquet in the evening, Mr. Parnell was entertained 
 by the enthusiastic, warm-hearted, and hospitable Munster 
 men. Mr. D. Riordan, President of the Cork Farmers' Club, 
 
 M 2 
 
i64 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 was in the chair ; Mr. Parnell sat at his right hand ; near him 
 sat Mr. J. G. Biggar, M.P., Mr. Patrick Egan, the late 
 President of the Irish National League of America, then 
 one of the guiding spirits of the Irish Land League, 
 Mr. G. Lysaght Finnigan, M.P., Mr. W. H. O'Sullivan, M.P., 
 Mr. T. M. Healy, Mr. James Redpath, of America, Mr. 
 Michael Davitt, and Mr. Kenny, who with others occupied 
 seats at the head table. 
 
 The chairman, in proposing the health of Mr. Parnell, said 
 that " but for his conduct " half of their country would be 
 dying of starvation. Mr. Parnell, M.P., who was received with 
 enthusiastic applause and prolonged cheers, gave a glowing 
 account of his experience in America. At Philadelphia, he 
 said, Mr. Dillon and himself addressed a meeting of which 
 one-half had to go away from the doors ; and there were no 
 deadheads, no orators, and no music. They visited sixty- 
 two cities during the two months they were in America and 
 the net result was ;£"40,ooo, of which ;£"2 5,000 was already in 
 the hands of the National Land League. He had no doubt 
 if he could have remained for another month he could have 
 sent over ;^ 100,000. At Washington he said an honour had 
 been conferred upon him which was unprecedented, namely 
 that of addressing the House of Representatives in session. 
 He wished to refer to some matters which he could 
 perhaps speak about more fully and properly than others 
 could. 
 
 During his visit to America he was informed upon the 
 highest ecclesiastical authority, that the Government of 
 England had attempted to influence the Pope and the 
 American bishops against their movement. He was informed 
 of this on such authority that he could not doubt it for a 
 moment, but he could not of course mention names, either in 
 public now or in private hereafter. With regard to their 
 future Parliamentary policy, what did they want their repre- 
 sentatives to do in Parliament ? Did they want them to sit 
 and admire each other ? It was a matter of fact that the 
 only party that had achieved anything during the last 
 
MR. BIGGAR AND AN IRISH '^HARTMANN" 165 
 
 seven wasted years of Parliament, was the active party of 
 Irish members. 
 
 Some confusion arose when Mr. Parnell spoke of the 
 course the Dublin Freeman had taken in attacking him ; there 
 were a few dissidents to this opinion of his, and when it is 
 recollected that such firm supporters and followers of Mr. 
 Parnell as Mr. Dwyer Gray and Mr. William O'Brien were 
 then engaged writing on that journal, it is not to be wondered 
 at that some of their sympathisers were present. 
 
 With regard to the land question, he believed that not 
 many years would elapse before they would see this one last 
 remaining prop of English misgovernment in Ireland, broken 
 to pieces. Mr. Parnell avoided all reference to the policy of 
 his party in Parliament, and to the changed circumstances 
 with which they would again take part in the proceedings of 
 the House. 
 
 Mr. Biggar, M.P., in reply to the toast " The Irish Parlia- 
 mentary Party," in the course of an able and incisive address 
 said they had seen what Hartmann had done in Russia, and if 
 the constitutional course they were pursuing at present failed 
 in its objects, he thought Ireland might be able to produce 
 another Hartmann, and probably with better results. 
 
 Joseph Brady, you were living in the pride of youth, 
 health, and happiness in your native city of Dublin, the 
 capital of your enslaved country, when this prophecy fore- 
 shadowing your public appearance in Ireland's war against 
 her assassin destroyers was uttered at a banquet hall in the 
 city of Cork. The sterling Irishman, although a Provincialist 
 leader, who spoke these ominous words, uttered the honest 
 sentiments of his heart. You were then enrolled in the 
 National ranks, believing that the edge of a sharp steel 
 blade alone could cut the thongs that bound your native land 
 in slavery. When these Provincialists found the time had 
 come to fulfil this prophecy (for which action all true men 
 honour them), you volunteered with thousands of other good 
 men and true to offer your young life, and the unwritten 
 romance of your Sarah Curran, upon the altar of your 
 
i66 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 country's freedom. When in the toils of the enemy, these 
 Provincialists basely and cowardly deserted you and your 
 gallant comrades ; left you all alone, helpless, and in want to 
 die, "while their treasury was filled with the gold so lavishly 
 bestowed upon them by your exiled brothers, the Irish- 
 American Nationalists. Nay, more, they foully tried, in 
 alliance with the London TimeSy to slander your memory, 
 and to fasten upon your immortal name the stain of murder 
 — they, from out whose ranks came their one heroic effort, the 
 order to enroll the patriots of which you and your dead 
 comrades were among the first in nobility of character and 
 sterling manly worth. And to-day (1887) they are trying 
 to prove before mankind that they never were your asso- 
 ciates ; and with criminal intent to stain their nation with 
 crime, they are hailing their repudiation as a victory over the 
 ever-living Truth. 
 
 Justice may come slowly, but ^twill come as certain as that 
 truth and virtue exist. When posterity will erect an 
 apotheosis to Joseph Brady and his martyred comrades, the 
 memory of these Provincialists (for which they themselves 
 prepared a foul stain while living) will meet with the 
 execration of honourable and virtuous mankind. 
 
 This speech of Mr. Biggar's was received with loud and 
 prolonged applause. The Nationalists applauded because 
 by their utterances they felt certain that these advanced 
 Provincialists would come over en masse to their standard, 
 and give the nation's cause the benefit of their public 
 prestige ; and that Charles Stewart Parnell, with the fiery 
 blood of Ironsides leaping through his veins, would be found, 
 like another Lord Edward or Owen Roe, in the vanguard 
 of the struggle, leading on his countrymen in their war for 
 independence. The Provincialists applauded, because they 
 believed that by high-sounding threats, the enemy would sur- 
 render without any necessity for following up strong language 
 by daring deeds. 
 
 But not one at that banquet table, from Mr. Parnell down to 
 the humblest, ever for an instant thought it needful to offer the 
 
JOSEPH BRADY. 
 
 Executed Whit Monday, May 14, 1883. 
 
MR. PARNELL AND THE FENIANS 167 
 
 smallest rebuke to the manly Mr. Biggar, who upon that 
 occasion had the courage of his convictions. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the Russian Nihilists, by friends 
 or foes, their cause is distinctly different from Ireland's. They 
 wish to change a native despotic government to a native 
 constitutional one, but this Russian despotism does nothing to 
 stop the natural development of their own country — quite the 
 contrary. 
 
 Irishmen, on the other hand, wish to get rid of a foreign 
 Government whose interests are opposed to theirs, and which 
 is strangling their existence as a people, and draining their 
 resources from their natural channels, breeding poverty and 
 corruption over the land ; hence they wish to establish native 
 rule. Despotism has not implanted in the Russian breast that 
 cowardly slavery, which the cunningly contrived system of alien 
 rule has done with many Irishmen. Russian Nihilists do not 
 slander and abuse their imprisoned comrades, or try to stain 
 the memories of their dead ones, and call this cowardice 
 '* diplomacy"; it has been left to Irish Provincialists to practise 
 this degrading and cowardly offence. Mr. Biggar, to his credit 
 be it recorded, never joined in this campaign of slander, 
 instituted by his friends for false motives of diplomacy, 
 against men whose silence they have counted upon to permit 
 their country and the party of action to be degraded by rene- 
 gades and cowards. Mr. Biggar gave them no aid ; he has 
 never been put on record for slandering the memory of 
 those whose lips are sealed in the grave. 
 
 Mr. Parnell at that time courted the assistance of the party 
 of action. The principal supporters of the Young Tribune 
 came from their ranks, and at that time he was undoubtedly 
 sincere and thought he was prepared to take any steps to 
 emancipate his suffering nation. Mr. Biggar, who was his 
 chief supporter in the House, was the father of the obstructive 
 tactics which brought Mr. Parnell to such prominence and popu- 
 larity, which ordinary Parliamentary agitation would never have 
 done. Mr. Parnell heard this determined patriot boldly tell 
 the leading Irish Nationalists present on that occasion that if 
 
i68 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Britain would not peacefully surrender to Ireland her stolen 
 right of self-government, Ireland might produce another 
 Hartmann. The hour came, and Ireland produced many thou- 
 sand Nationalists of that calibre, men who dared everything 
 in their country's cause. And when a small section of them 
 was captured and died at the hands of the enemy's executioner, 
 this young man, the associate, friend, and leader of the Irish 
 advanced Nationalists, foully reviled their memory in the 
 presence of his country's enemies. Alas, what a frightful 
 change does Parliamentary life make in men who were once 
 Irish patriots ! 
 
 The election of 1880 received renewed national energy in 
 Ireland by the presence of Mr. Parnell. He must have spent 
 the greater portion of his nights in railway carriages, for he 
 hurried about in all directions through the country to see that 
 the proper men were nominated for the various constituencies, 
 north, south, east, and west. The fiery and determined spirit 
 which this apparently icy young gentleman spread over the 
 island became contagious, and his lieutenants were in no way 
 behind in seconding his energies. 
 
 One of the men whom Mr. Parnell was determined to oust 
 from the false position as Home Rule member, was Mr. 
 Patrick Keyes O'Clery, one of the members for the County 
 Wexford. Mr. O'Clery had been for some time in the Papal 
 army, but never under fire. He received the title of 
 Chevalier from the late Pope Pius IX.,^and was socially a 
 pleasant, entertaining gentleman. He was fond of associating 
 with the London literati. He was a member, or, at least, a 
 very frequent visitor, in that hallowed haunt of the artistic 
 world, the Garrick Club, London. He was also a Home Rule 
 Whig, and Mr. Parnell very properly thought that such a 
 county as Wexford ought to be represented by a more 
 patriotic Irishman. The Chevalier O'Clery had, however, a 
 strong following in the town of Enniscorthy and the 
 neighbourhood. His great champion was a fiery little 
 clergyman who was truly patriotic, but who, through spending 
 
THE WEXFORD ELECTION 169 
 
 most of his time in a small country parish, did not really know 
 the political character of the gallant Chevalier; his title had a 
 great influence with the good priest, who was indignant with 
 Mr. Parnell for what he termed intrusion into county politics. 
 Mr. Parnell's candidate in opposition to the gallant Chevalier 
 was Mr. John Barry, a well-known Irish Nationalist, and one 
 who had hitherto believed in more stern measures than talk. 
 
 A public meeting was held in Enniscorthy in support of the 
 rival candidates ; Wexford men were expected to listen calmly 
 to the difference of views expressed by each. Mr. Parnell 
 attended this meeting. The fiery little clergyman came into 
 town with some two hundred of his parishioners. This 
 meeting was held on Sunday, March 28. Passion cast 
 prudence to the winds, and a disgraceful scene ensued — 
 the first time that Mr. Parnell met any opposition or 
 insult at the hands of his countrymen. Those who 
 •participated in this unseemly row were sorry soon after it 
 occurred. But the feeling in Enniscorthy was very bitter 
 during the election. Mr. Michael Davitt came a few days 
 after to try and make peace, but was unsuccessful ; he found 
 Parnellites and anti-Parnellites beneath the shadow of 
 Vinegar Hill. 
 
 The British press and the Irish organs opposed to Mr. 
 Parnell, tried to make what capital they could out of the 
 transaction ; and, strange to say, the Freemaii^s Journal of 
 Dublin entered into the wordy fray. Mr. Parnell contradicted 
 some report of the occurrence published in the columns of 
 that paper, and in its issue of April 3 it replied as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Parnell having, four days after the event, contradicted 
 our report of the Enniscorthy affair, we feel called upon 
 in self-vindication to make the following statement : — One of 
 us saw Mr. Parnell collared by a gentleman and forced 
 violently back. Another of us saw him struck in the face 
 with something which left its mark, and which Mr. Parnell, 
 who had the best opportunity of knowing, declared to one of 
 us about an hour later to be an ^^'g^ 
 
 The towns of Wexford and New Ross, and indeed almost 
 
I70 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the whole of the county, were very indignant at the assault 
 made on Mr. Parnell ; and the indiscreet action of his 
 supporters did not improve the chances of the gallant 
 Chevalier. 
 
 Cork city at this time was represented by one Tory and 
 one Whig. The Tory was Mr. Wm. Goulding, a patent manure 
 merchant, who slipped in through a division in the Liberal 
 electorate resulting in the putting up of two candidates, which 
 divided their supporters. The Whig was Mr. Nicholas Dan 
 Murphy, one of the respectable and wealthy Irish Catholic 
 Liberals, that Catholic emancipation blessed Ireland with. 
 Nicholas Dan was a tower of strength in Cork city and county, 
 and related to all the so-called best, because wealthiest, families 
 in the neighbourhood. As regards Nicholas Dan, so far as 
 personal virtues were concerned, no one had any complaint. 
 But British rule in Ireland was almost a part of his prayers, 
 and he considered he had a right divine to represent his native 
 city in London. When Mr. Parnell, a stranger to the social 
 and influential families of Cork, announced himself as a 
 candidate a few days before the nomination, much to the 
 surprise and consternation of the great Whig families, Bishop 
 Delany, of Cork, a good old Whig, was horrified ; and 
 immediately that powerful body of men, the priests, were 
 enlisted by their bishop to teach the intruder a lesson for his 
 arrogance and presumption in daring to oppose the good and 
 great Nicholas Dan. 
 
 There were, of course, some few exceptions among the 
 priests who helped Mr. Parnell, but these gentlemen were 
 soon after relegated to poor county parishes for their action 
 in the election. 
 
 Bishop Delany issued a declaration of principles, and in 
 no measured tones denounced Mr. Parnell. The following 
 is a portion of the bishop's address : — 
 
 " The curse and bane of the country is that spirit of dis- 
 union among our people, which has enabled our enemies to 
 humiliate the whole nation. On a late occasion, when 
 Irishmen of all creeds, all positions, and all shades of opinion 
 
MR. PARNELL AND THE BISHOP 171 
 
 were associated for a work of charity, an apple of discord 
 was flung into their midst, and the noble generosity of the 
 American people was in imminent danger of being checked. 
 
 " The person who made these misstatements, a self-elected 
 dictator, is going about * stumping the country,' as the phrase 
 is, and directing various towns, counties, and boroughs whom 
 they are to have to represent them. He comes here to dic- 
 tate to the people of Cork, but he has met with well-merited 
 reproof in many places already, and I am greatly mistaken 
 in the people of Cork if he does not suffer here the defeat 
 which such presumption deserves." 
 
 But the good bishop was greatly mistaken, as the result 
 proved. The candidacy of Mr. Parnell for Cork was a sur- 
 prise even to himself, and when a few of the electors of 
 advanced Provincialist principles determined that his name 
 was the best they could fight Nicholas Dan with, they never 
 dreamed of success. But Mr. Parnell did not fail them. He 
 was then full of health and vigour, and believed his course 
 would be successful ; and his National supporters believed 
 that when the hour of failure came to his course, he would 
 adopt theirs and carry it out with the same energy and self- 
 sacrifice with which he devoted himself to Parliamentary 
 agitation. All the men we met in Ireland during that election 
 who were patriotic, believed that in Charles Stewart Parnell 
 Ireland had found another Theobald Wolfe Tone, and 
 that the grandson of the man who captured two British 
 ships in battle, would emerge from the embryo stage of 
 moral suasion, into the patriot and soldier leader of his 
 people, the Washington and Tell of Ireland. It was this 
 belief that inspired the enthusiasm of his countrymen, and 
 which never weakened because they had no occasion to 
 doubt, until he was a prisoner in the hands of his foe. 
 
 The night of the polling for Cork city, Mr. Parnell ad- 
 dressed a crowded audience from the hotel window. He said : 
 
 "The battle is now over. I know the people of Cork 
 have done all they could. I came here in a crisis to put 
 out the Liberals, and if I have done that I am satisfied." 
 
I7a THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Mr. Parnell did not think he would be elected. His idea 
 was that the Liberal, Nicholas Dan, would fall so far short 
 of the requisite number of votes by his candidature, that Mr. 
 Goulding, the Tory, would be elected. The tactics employed 
 by the Parnellites amounted to this : to defeat by all means 
 that canting, hypocritical party, the Liberals. Mr. John 
 Daly, all Cork men conceded, would head the poll, a 
 representative Cork Provincialist, a city merchant, and a most 
 popular man. 
 
 How strange to-day [1887] to see Mr. Parnell in alliance 
 with these same Liberals, so truly and deservedly despised by 
 " the men in the gap " ! 
 
 The result of the Cork election was, to the surprise of all 
 the people, the return of Mr. Parnell, who was next on the 
 poll to John Daly. The Dublin city election was also 
 a surprise. A Home Ruler, or a man who posed as such, 
 was elected, and the famous " Dublin Six " was broken by 
 the rejection of their candidate. The writer remembers 
 visiting Enniscorthy the morning the news came of Mr. 
 ParneU's election for Cork, and also the news of the Dublin 
 success. The gallant Chevalier O'Clery was standing outside 
 the hotel. The morning papers had not come up from the 
 train, and he eagerly asked, " What news from Cork } " 
 " Parnell is elected," was the ready reply. He dropped his 
 eyeglass and said mournfully, " Then I fear my chances here 
 are very poor," The Chevalier was right. Mr. Parnell's 
 candidates won all along the line ; the popular and national 
 enthusiasm was all in his favour, and Ireland gave him 
 every chance to be successful in his crusade of shame. 
 
 Mr. Parnell, commenting on the Cork city election, 
 said : " As comparing Whig with Tory, I have no hesitation 
 in saying that it would be a greater calamity for Cork and 
 Ireland to put in a Whig than a Tory. (Cheers.) That is 
 my deliberate conviction. (Cheers.) I would rather see 
 neither." 
 
 Mr. Parnell declared war on the Whig section of the "Home 
 Rulers " and their leader, Mr. Shaw, and so he caused the 
 
MR. PARNELL AND MR. SHAW 173 
 
 nomination of Mr. Andrew Kettle, a County Dublin farmer, 
 and then a prominent member of the Land League, in opposi- 
 tion to Colonel Colthurst in the County Cork. Colonel 
 Colthurst was one of Mr. Shaw's followers, but it was 
 generally believed in Cork at that time, that the real 
 opposition was to Mr. Shaw himself. 
 
 The bishops in the large County of Cork and the Roman 
 Catholic clergy were in direct opposition to Mr. Kettle ; but 
 in spite of their resistance, had Mr. Kettle been a Cork man, 
 he would have been successful. Unfortunately these local 
 jealousies are not altogether swept away yet. . . . 
 
 The returns of the County Cork election showed that Mr. 
 Kettle was defeated by a small number of votes in so large 
 a constituency. The numbers were : Shaw 5,354, Colthurst 
 3,584, Kettle 3,430. 
 
 Mr. Parnell had received the unprecedented honour of 
 being elected for three constituencies, Cork, Mayo, and Meath. 
 A similar occurrence had never happened in Ireland before, 
 neither had such a compliment been ever paid in Britain. 
 There was some delay before he decided, and he wisely 
 selected Cork as the constituency he would represent. He 
 had no difficulty in getting two of his followers elected in 
 the constituencies he resigned. 
 
 Mr. Parnell, so far as Ireland was concerned, was thoroughly 
 master of the situation. He had routed all opposition, and 
 was duly endorsed as Irish Parliamentary leader ; still the 
 moderate section who succeeded in getting elected by swallow- 
 ing the most extreme (so called) Parliamentary pledges, had 
 a preference for Mr. Shaw as leader. 
 
 Mr. Parnell, in a letter to the Chicago Daily News, gave 
 his views of the situation as follows : 
 
 " I am exceedingly pleased with the results of the elections. 
 Our party has gained nine seats from the Whigs and 
 Tories, while a marked improvement has been effected in its 
 personnel. The timid and insincere have been replaced by 
 determined and zealous workers. We have carried Leinster. 
 
174 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Munster, and Connaught, except one county. It is incorrect 
 to suppose that the Liberals are rendered independent of the 
 Irish members. Their majority disappears should we join 
 the Conservatives. Moreover, our party will scarcely cross 
 to the Ministerial side of the House of Commons, even 
 though that side be occupied by Liberals instead of Con- 
 servatives. Our presence in the Opposition will be under- 
 stood as a constant reminder of the slender nature of the 
 tenure by which the Ministers hold their power. We 
 expect that a good land bill will be introduced and passed 
 immediately. . . . 
 
 " Should the Liberals refuse to accede to our just demands, 
 they can be very promptly reduced to order by a determined 
 stand on the part of our members. The present Irish party 
 is an immense advance in every respect upon the previous 
 representations, and sufficient men have been returned of a 
 class that know what they want and are determined to have 
 it, to render it practically impossible that the most powerful 
 Ministry can withstand them." 
 
 As showing the resolution of the people to abolish land- 
 lordism, the election of James O'Kelly, who defeated the 
 O'Conor Don in Roscommon after sitting twenty years, 
 was considered the most remarkable demonstration of the 
 elections. . . . 
 
 Mr. William Shaw, who still occupied the position of leader 
 of the Parliamentary party, sent round a circular convening 
 a meeting of the party for April 27. Mr. Parnell sent a 
 letter in reply to Mr. Shaw declining to attend, giving as his 
 reasons that at the date proposed they would be ignorant 
 of the composition of the new Ministry and its programme 
 relating to Ireland. The Freeman's Journal, after Mr. Parnell 
 and other members declined to attend the proposed con- 
 ference, thought that under the circumstances, the propo- 
 sition bad better be abandoned. " Mr. Shaw will have done 
 his duty and responsibility for failure will fall on other 
 shoulders." 
 
 The General Election of 1 880 was as disastrous to the 
 
MR. PARNELL ELECTED LEADER 175 
 
 Tories as that of 1874 had been to their opponents, so Lord 
 Beaconsfield was compelled to surrender the keys of office. 
 The Queen sent for the Marquis of Hartington to form a 
 new Ministry, as he was the official leader of the Liberal 
 party. But the country, i.e.y Britain, had evidently called 
 for Mr. W. E. Gladstone, and so the Marquis recommended 
 her Majesty to send for him. She did so, and in a short time 
 a Liberal Ministry was formed ; and that class of the Irish 
 people who take interest in such changes, were delighted at 
 the composition of the new Government. First, there was 
 the grandest of Grand Old Men at its head ; next, there were 
 two of Ireland's most devoted friends, members of the new 
 Cabinet — the great Tribune of the people, John Bright, and 
 the great Birmingham democrat, the Radical of Radicals, 
 Joseph Chamberlain ; and, as if to complete their happiness 
 and delight, and to consummate the glory of Ireland's great 
 future, instead of the sneering bitter enemy to Ireland that 
 had been Tory Chief Secretary — that sarcastically callous 
 foe, " Jimmy " Lowther — a great statesman was coming, a 
 man who had travelled Ireland in '48 to relieve her suffisr- 
 ing children, the benevolent and kindly William E. Forster, 
 one of England's foremost Liberals. Irishmen well remember 
 the hosannas offered up by the popular newspapers at this 
 great appointment. The sunshine of Liberality was about to 
 shed the luminous rays of freedom in suffering Erin, according 
 to several of the so-called National journals in Ireland. 
 
 The long-delayed "Home Rule" conference of the Irish 
 party was held in Dublin, and Mr. Parnell was elected chair- 
 man of the party. Mr. E. Dwyer Gray proposed Mr. Wm. 
 Shaw for chairman. The O'Gorman Mahon proposed the 
 election of Mr. Parnell. By a vote of 23 to 18 Mr. Parnell 
 was appointed. Mr. Richard Power proposed that the " Home 
 Rulers " should hold aloof from all English political parties, 
 and sit on the Opposition benches. It was decided to post- 
 pone a decision until the following Thursday in London. 
 
 Mr. Parnell was now elected to the supreme control of the 
 
176 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Parliamentary party, as he had hitherto been leader in the 
 country. He had overcome his domestic enemies by the 
 magic of success. The Irish newspapers and the great 
 American organ, hitherto so hostile, had begun to change ; 
 and in a short time all were sailing in the general current of 
 praise and support, which Irishmen all the world over had 
 offered to the young and energetic Charles Stewart Parnell. 
 
 William Ewart Gladstone, the giant statesman of Britain, 
 who made so many professions of Liberal principles through- 
 out the country during the election, was now England's 
 Premier. He spoke especially kindly of Ireland, and said 
 that the land question should be settled, and " Ireland should 
 be governed according to Irish ideas." The writer remembers 
 a friend calling his attention to some friendly remarks on 
 Ireland made by Mr. Gladstone and all the good things he 
 promised to do for her, as the silver stream of oratory flowed 
 from his tongue, addressing a crowded multitude of sympa- 
 thisers in Prince's Street, Edinburgh. Those who were 
 sceptical that these promises would be realised, were called 
 cynics and unbelievers by their Irish countrymen who were 
 steeped to the lips in Provincialism ; men who could not 
 understand a man professing patriotism, yet refusing to gush 
 forth in enthusiasm at the bright prospects before his country. 
 
 The Grand Old Man was now in power to make good 
 these promises; that harbinger of hope for Ireland, who 
 was to crown her with many worldly blessings, Mr. Wm. 
 E. Forster, was now Chief Secretary ; and with the generous 
 Liberal Cabinet, according to these influential Provincial 
 organs, the Dublin Nation and Freeman^ Ireland had much 
 to hope for. Their enemies, the Tories, were routed and out 
 of power (Ireland is looking for another such victory at this 
 time of writing — 1887 — to repeat the lesson of 1880 ; further 
 and more violent coercion) ; and, last of all, Mr. Parnell 
 informed us of the great power of the Irish party, and how 
 they could command and control Ministers. Verily the 
 crusade of shame had nearly been successful. If it could be 
 crowned with victory, this was the hour. 
 
XI 
 
 THE "GRAND OLD MAN" IN POWER— OUTRAGE 
 MANUFACTURE. 
 
 The great Liberal party had now the destinies of Britain 
 and her Crown colonies in its power, but not that of the 
 empire ; for no British Ministry governs the empire in its 
 entirety. 
 
 It made not the slightest difference to the Government of 
 the Canadian Dominion which way a British general election 
 was decided, or whether Mr. Gladstone or Lord Beaconsfield 
 came to power. The tie between Canada and the mother 
 country is purely a theoretical one ; it no more affected 
 British North America than would a change of government 
 in France or Germany, for any diplomatic arrangements 
 which the Imperial tie enforced would be equally carried out 
 by one or other of the great British parties. Whatever 
 Canada wished in these negotiations Britain would be com- 
 pelled to yield, her authority in the business being a mere 
 diplomatic fiction. 
 
 The same can be said of the Australian Governments — 
 New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia 
 — and the African Governments of the Cape of Good Hope 
 and Natal. When British Ministers speak of their great 
 empire, they include a large portion which has gone from 
 beneath their control. 
 
 It is not so in Ireland ; there, though she is a distinct and 
 different nation, the English Premier holds despotic sway, 
 
 N 
 
t7S THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 although Ireland is said to have a share of the British Con- 
 stitution. Hence the great rejoicings which the Irish people 
 who believe in a peaceful solution of their ills, gave forth, 
 when they learned that the good Mr. Gladstone had defeated 
 is Tory opponent and their persecutor ; and the Liberal 
 Premier had assumed the reins of power. The joy evinced 
 by Irishmen of a certain numerous and highly respectable 
 and wealthy class, when the " Grand Old Man " became 
 England's Prime Minister in the early summer of 1880, was 
 great and enthusiastic ; it caused as much delight to these 
 Provincialists, as his restoration to power would again evoke 
 in this year of grace 1887, with the self-same results. 
 
 After the usual preliminaries, necessary on a change of 
 Government, and the election of a new Parliament, swearing 
 in of members and re-election of Ministers, the new House 
 of Commons met to transact business on Thursday, May 20, 
 1880. The Queen's speech, after its reading in the House 
 of Peers, is again read in the Commons. Ministers usually 
 and indeed invariably foreshadow in this speech what 
 measures they propose introducing during the session. The 
 Irish members were both grieved and disappointed that the 
 allusions to Ireland were of a vague and illusory nature ; no 
 definite measure was mentioned in the Queen's speech for 
 their country. Ireland, as the world knew, had gone through 
 a fearful winter of destitution ; numbers of people had died 
 of hunger ; and that this death roll of starvation had not 
 amounted to thousands was entirely due to the benevolence 
 of other countries, and more especially to the warm-hearted, 
 generous people of America. Australia came next in her 
 charitable contributions. That something was wrong in the 
 government of Ireland, the most sceptical and bitter of her 
 foes were compelled to admit. A Liberal Ministry with a 
 large majority had been newly elected to power, overflowing 
 with promises to Ireland, composed of the most democratic 
 statesmen in England and under the leadership of the 
 greatest statesman of the age, whose name was then and is 
 still (such is the credulity of mankind) synonymous with all 
 
MR. O'CONNOR POWER'S BILL 1-^9 
 
 the virtues and benevolence that fill the human heart. And 
 yet this great Minister, and his no less great Liberal Cabinet, 
 completely ignored suffering Ireland, almost at his door, 
 vainly trying to hide her wounds and misery. 
 
 The Irish party determined to challenge the new Ministry 
 for their neglect, so Mr. O'Connor Power brought in a motion 
 as an amendment to the Commons' Address in reply to her 
 Majesty's gracious speech. He moved as an amendment 
 to the Address "That the present occupiers of the land in 
 Ireland deserved immediate attention, in order that their 
 legitimate claims may be satisfied." 
 
 This motion was debated in the House in the usual temper 
 and tone used by Britons when discussing that nauseous 
 subject, Irish troubles. The "Grand Old Man" and the 
 Liberal Cabinet were overflowing with the milk of human 
 kindness towards the Irish members and their country. They 
 washed their hands with invisible soap in expressing their 
 good wishes, and what they were to do for Ireland and give 
 to her when convenient, but not just at that time ; for the 
 present they were inexorable. Mr. O'Connor Power's motion 
 was put to the vote ; the result of the division was forty- 
 seven Irish votes for, and three hundred British votes against, 
 and thus the amendment was defeated. 
 
 This was a facsimile of one of Mr. Butt's divisions during 
 the previous Government. Where was Mr. Parnell's deter- 
 mination to make the Ministry succumb : that Ministry which 
 could not " withstand " the Irish party — the words used by 
 the Irish leader in his letter to the Chicago Daily News. 
 
 The Irish party held a meeting and decided on bringing in 
 several measures ; the most important, because the most 
 urgent of these, was a Bill that would put a temporary stop 
 to evictions, particularly for the coming winter. This measure 
 was intrusted to Mr. O'Connor Power. 
 
 The Bill introduced by that gentleman was an amendment 
 of Mr. Gladstone's Land Act of 1870, making ejectment for 
 non-payment of rent an act of disturbance on the part of the 
 
 N 2 
 
iSo THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 landlord, whereby the evicted tenant could claim compensa- 
 tion. With the view of stopping capricious evictions, the 
 Land Act of 1870 compelled the landlord to pay a money 
 compensation, which was considered only just to the tenant, 
 he having an interest in the improvement of the farm. It 
 has been said that the landlords, by increasing the rent, 
 evaded this clause, thereby forcing up the tenants' payments 
 to an impossible sum, in consequence of which the landlords 
 could step in and evict for non-payment. 
 
 Mr. Parnell moved as an amendment to the Government 
 Relief Bill to suspend for two years all proceedings for eject- 
 ments, in all holdings at and under twenty pounds yearly. 
 This amendment, if accepted, would include the great 
 majority of the Irish farming community. But neither Mr. 
 O'Connor Power's Bill nor Mr. Parnell's amendment would 
 be accepted by the great Liberal Leader, who, it had been pro- 
 mised, should be compelled to succumb to the Irish party. 
 
 Mr. Forster introduced a Bill in lieu of Mr. O'Connor 
 Power's measure, a mild copy of the Leaguers' Bill, which 
 affected a portion of sixteen counties out of the thirty- 
 two ; this Bill, known as " The Compensation for Disturb- 
 ance Bill," passed the Commons and was sent up to the 
 Lords. 
 
 The House of Lords, and all the Conservative party, held 
 that this measure was a gross violation of the rights of 
 property ; they considered the landlord owned his land just 
 as he owns his horse, or his hat, or coat. This doctrine is 
 monstrous ; private property in land can only be subject to 
 the exigencies of the people of the country ; that a man can 
 own land as he does any of his chattels or his garments 
 would be an outrage on humanity. But the self-satisfied 
 peers of Britain did not hold such views. Every absent 
 peer was summoned back to London, to give the recently 
 elected Liberal House of Commons a crushing defeat. They 
 came from fishing in Norway, from hunting and shooting in 
 India, from the Orient and the Occident, from yachting 
 
THE COMPENSATION BILL IN THE LORDS i8i 
 
 cours, and all the various pleasures which these wealthy men 
 indulge their fancy in. All hurried back to vote on the 
 second reading of Mr. Gladstone's Compensation for 
 Disturbance Bill. 
 
 The House of Lords has in its ranks some few brilliant 
 and able men, but they are nearly all new blood sent into 
 that House for political or military services. The legal 
 additions to that House, which in all cases come up from the 
 Commons, have been represented by very able and profound 
 scholars and lawyers. But the great majority of the peers 
 know more about horse flesh, yachting, billiards, and various 
 other pleasures than they know of legislation. The abuses 
 permitted to remain open to these sporting, idle peers, seem 
 a strange satire on the civilisation of this latter part of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 Before this august House of Lords, as a co-ordinate branch 
 of the British legislature, came Mr. Gladstone's Irish Bill. 
 The peers assembled in great force to vote on the second 
 reading. Never previously, within the present century, did 
 any measure from the lower House bring together such a 
 gathering as assembled at St. Stephen's, Westminster, on the 
 evening of Tuesday, August 3, 1880. 
 
 The few other good speakers who belonged to that 
 coroneted assembly had delivered their views on this Bill, 
 when the Earl of Beaconsfield, K.G., rose to address the 
 House. The ex-Premier was one of the most charming 
 speakers it has ever been our good fortune to hear. When 
 he was transferred from the House of Commons to that of 
 the peers, every member, no matter what were his political 
 views, regretted the loss of Mr. Disraeli, who had so often 
 charmed a dull debate with the flashes of his peculiar humour, 
 and the brilliancy of his natural genius. He made a powerful 
 and telling speech in defence of the opinions of his order, 
 and in condemnation of what he considered the dangerous 
 principles involved in the Bill. In concluding he said : 
 
 " There is at the present day a great tendency to believe 
 that it is impossible to resist the progress of a new idea. ... 
 
l82 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The despotism of public opinion is in everybody's mouth. 
 But I should like to know, when we are called upon to bow 
 to this public opinion, who will define public opinion ? Any 
 human conclusion that is arrived at with adequate knowledge, 
 and with sufficient thought, is entitled to respect. . . . But 
 what we call public opinion is generally public sentiment. 
 We who live in this busy age, and in this busy country, know 
 very well how few there are who can obtain even the know- 
 ledge necessary for the comprehension of great political 
 subjects, and how much fewer there are who, having obtained 
 the knowledge, can supply the thought which would mature 
 it into opinion. No, my lords, it is public sentiment, not 
 public opinion; and frequently it is public passion (hear 
 hear). My lords, you are now called upon to legislate, in a 
 heedless spirit, by false representation of what is called the 
 public mind. This Bill is only the first in a series, the results 
 of which will be to change the character of this country, and 
 of the Constitution of this country (hear). The argument 
 that you cannot stop upon this ground, urged by my noble 
 and learned friend, has never been answered. If you intend 
 to stop upon it, you were not justified in making this pro- 
 position. The proposition is one I think most dangerous to 
 the country, and I trust your lordships will this night reject 
 it. If you do that, you will do a deed for which your country 
 will be grateful, and of which your posterity will be proud." 
 
 The House soon after divided on the second reading of 
 the Bill with these results: Contents 51, Non-Contents 282. 
 Majority against the second reading of the Bill, 231. 
 
 This was a most unprecedented event in British history. 
 A new Government, freshly elected and with such a large 
 majority as that which the Liberals held, defeated in the 
 Lords on the first important Government measure sent up to 
 that House ! But what made this vote more significant and 
 of much greater importance, was the extraordinarily large 
 attendance of peers, and the immense majority by which the 
 Government Bill was defeated. What swelled the numbers 
 
THE LORDS AND THE "HOME RULE" IDEA 183 
 
 of that majority was the defection of the Liberal peers, who 
 voted in the Opposition. Sixty-three of these so-called 
 Liberal noblemen followed Lord Beaconsfield into the divi- 
 sion lobby, a greater number than those who voted with their 
 party. This measure, which was of no moment to the 
 British people, now assumed importance. The Government 
 they had so recently elected to power, was defeated in one of 
 its measures by the reactionary Upper Chamber. 
 
 Has it ever occurred to the Irish Provincialists, who are so 
 sanguine about getting " Home Rule " by what they call 
 " peaceful and Constitutional means," that even if such a 
 measure could by magic pass the British Commons, it could 
 never by any possible means get past this old and antiquated 
 House of Peers ? 
 
 The Minister who would try to get a Bill containing any- 
 thing approaching Irish self-government through the House 
 of Lords, unless so mutilated that it could confer no sub- 
 stantial advantages on Ireland, might as well try to pass a 
 camel through the eye of a needle. The House of Peers 
 should be first destroyed as a co-ordinate branch of the 
 legislature, before a genuine measure of Irish self-government 
 could become law in Britain. This removal of the peers 
 from power could only be accomplished by physical revolu- 
 tion. While the Upper Chamber retains its power it will 
 never permit such a measure of concession to Ireland to pass 
 its portals. It is not only very unlikely, but in the nature of 
 common events impossible, that the peers will ever undergo 
 the ordeal of such a test, unless Irish national troops are in 
 the field battling against their country's invader, or a foreign 
 war of magnitude sufficient to threaten invasion occurs. In 
 such a crisis it is very probable Ireland would reject all 
 attempts at compromise, as the blessed sun of independence 
 would be dawning on the horizon. 
 
 There was a good deal of indignation expressed by the 
 British Radicals, but as it was an Irish question on which 
 the peers defeated the Government the animus soon died 
 out. 
 
S84 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 People who have resided in Britain have often heard 
 Englishmen denounce the House of Lords in debates ; but 
 there is no constitutional way of removing this House, or of 
 curtailing its privileges, unless the Upper Chamber itself 
 sanctions those measures. It is very probable that some 
 reforms will be introduced into that august assembl)^, owing 
 to several recent scandals, but these reforms will not reduce 
 by any means its power as an institution in the British 
 kingdom. It will still remain a powerfully armed bastion, to 
 bar the v/ay to Irish national demands. There is no way, 
 short of English revolution — which is not likely to occur — ■ 
 by which the Upper House can be removed from the 
 curriculum of the British law-making powers and set aside 
 for an elective chamber. 
 
 The Irish press and public were of course indignant and 
 alarmed at the action of the Lords. The Dublin Freeman^s 
 Journal said : 
 
 "The interest in the debate is swallowed up in the vote, 
 which we regard as one of the most momentous events of 
 our time, because for the first time in our recent annals the 
 House of Lords has set at defiance a solemn vote of the 
 House of Commons on a Ministerial measure of the first 
 magnitude. Any courage that was in this conduct was 
 dimmed by the base and utter selfishness which dictated it. 
 We regard the vote not only as a great blunder, but an un- 
 mitigated calamity. It will deepen the intense feeling that 
 from the Parliament of England no relief is to be expected. 
 It will embitter the relations between landlord and tenant in 
 Ireland, already sufficiently acute in their hostility. It will 
 deepen the misery, the confusion, and the despair of the un- 
 happy West ; and in a word it would be difficult to find an act 
 of a legislative body more wicked and more insane. For the 
 Irish people and for the Queen's Government there are most 
 serious questions raised by the vote of this morning. Both 
 the nation and the Ministry have received a slap in the face 
 from a landlord combination, prostituting to its own ends its 
 
THE IMPOTENCY OF PARLIAMENTARIANISM 185 
 
 Parliamentary powers. The Irish nation must promptly 
 determine what its attitude will be ; so also must her 
 Majesty's Ministers ; and it is a sad calamity for liberty and 
 for Ireland that at such a crisis Achilles tosses in the bed ot 
 pain, and there is no man who can bend his bow.'* 
 
 The Dublin Freeman had Achilles {i.e. Mr. Gladstone) soon 
 after restored to health ; and for Ireland, and for the liberty 
 of that country, Achilles bent his bow with no uncertain aim. 
 As to the Irish nation promptly determining its course, the 
 great majority of the Irish nation had mapped out that 
 course, which was to do nothing but protest and vow the 
 usual vows of vengeance, which have no meaning but that 
 frothy nationality which Ireland's enemies despise. As to 
 the British Ministry, it quickly made up its mind, and that 
 was to take the rebuff administered to it by the Lords. 
 After all it was only a mere Irish question of no interest to 
 Britain, and only of importance to a race of people who are 
 shouting for their liberty, and who would condemn as wicked 
 and denounce as criminal any Irishman who would suggest 
 practical measures. They humbly appeal to the British law- 
 making power, and what right have they to complain if their 
 petitions are hurled in their faces ? 
 
 The Government was questioned by Mr. Parnell as to 
 what course it intended to pursue in this emergency. Mr. 
 Forster, speaking on behalf of himself and colleagues, said : 
 " I deeply regret the rejection of the Compensation Bill. I 
 do not think we can bring in another Bill on that subject this 
 session. The Government will protect the laws and the 
 courts in the execution of the laws. I hope a plentiful 
 harvest will alleviate the suffering of the farmers. The 
 members of all parties of both Houses should use their 
 influence in maintaining, and assisting the Government to 
 maintain, order in Ireland." 
 
 Where now was Mr. Parnell's great party } Where was 
 the increase of numbers and quality of his following ? Where 
 such follies must ever be, relegated to the hopeless regions of 
 impotency. The old Irish Whigs, whom Mr. Parnell was so 
 
l86 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 elated at defeating, might as well have been sitting in that 
 House for any service Mr. Parnell's Extremists could do for 
 Ireland. And understand, this was the Government and the 
 Parliament of the " grandest of Grand Old Men." 
 
 Excitement sprang up in the country, where the un- 
 fortunate Irish farmer and labourer had struggled through a 
 winter of famine with the aid of public alms, their hopes 
 raised by this " successful " Irish election and the promises of 
 their great leader Mr. Parnell. With the eloquent speeches 
 of their patriotic members still ringing in their ears, every 
 cheer that they gave in response was in their fancy a removal 
 of the shadow that darkened their lives — landlordism. There 
 was the great Parnell now powerless before the British 
 Parliament, and another winter of hunger to face. What 
 wonder if many of the people grew desperate, and in their 
 desperation turned their physical force on some unfortunate 
 tenant farmer or country shopkeeper who violated their code 
 of laws } They knew no better. Their leaders counselled 
 peace, but it was hard to practise ; and some unfortunate 
 wretch who, yielding to temptation, took a vacant farm or 
 did some one of the many things against their combinations, 
 suffered ; and so sprang up those outrages, which the British 
 press magnified a thousand fold. Nationalists pity and deplore 
 this state of things in their unhappy country, but whatever 
 outrages actually did take place, were the direct results of 
 British rule and its inherent infamy. Irish Nationalists yield 
 to no " moral suasionist " in deploring this factional use 
 of physical force in these wanton attacks which men made on 
 each other. They wish their countrymen to strike the foe, 
 and never cease striking, were there even the impossible 
 number of one thousand being hanged weekly ; which is their 
 loss by the present regime of remaining peaceful and idle. It 
 is a sacred war, more holy even than the Crusades. But these 
 country outrages are not striking the foe ; they cannot affect 
 British power, and only tend to make the Irish name further 
 degraded. Strange results of the doctrine of shame — men 
 who would not strike down the head and front of this foreign 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR IN IRELAND 187 
 
 infamy miscalled government, yet raised their hands against 
 each other ! These poor people saw in these selfish acts of 
 the men they attacked, the highest treason to their cause, and 
 in their sufferings and agony did not know what they did. 
 
 The English papers at this time commenced the manu- 
 facture of all sorts of sensation stories, which would have 
 been ridiculous if they had not partaken of the tragic. 
 Every day some fresh canard was published, something more 
 ridiculously absurd than its fellow. Reported risings in the 
 West of Ireland woke up the citizens of London one morn- 
 ing, to be followed by the next day's report of the capture of 
 a Fenian schooner in Limerick filled with arms ; next came 
 the great sensation story — capture of a ship filled with arms 
 by the Cork Fenians and removal of them to a secure hiding- 
 place. " Great bloodshed expected in Ireland soon ! " Such 
 was the continued strain of the London and English pro- 
 vincial press. Timid people who had business in Ireland 
 were afraid to venture into a country in such a state of 
 savagery. The writer remembers, on his return from Ireland 
 at the close of 1880, being asked very curious questions as to 
 the condition of Ireland. A humorist who wished to draw 
 upon his imagination, would find English people credulous 
 enough to believe the most absurd Munchausen stories that 
 could be invented. 
 
 According to the papers, sinister-looking men, persons 
 having an American air and bearing, were to be seen in every 
 town in Ireland. And the public was also informed that 
 America was supplying arms and money to Fenians and 
 Communists to perpetrate sanguinary deeds in Ireland. 
 Americans will not readily understand the animus existing 
 against them among the British masses ; not against the 
 Irish-American, but all Americans. They dislike the 
 American flag, American institutions, and American people. 
 Official courtesies and some few kindly British exceptions 
 may mislead the American people. 
 
 The outrage manufacturers had done the work intended ; 
 
i88 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the public mind in Britain grew alarmed, and the public 
 press was filled daily with columns of Irish outrages. The 
 majority of cases were pure fiction, without the slightest 
 foundation in fact. The English working man was incensed, 
 and in a most bitter mood against everything Irish ; as for the 
 Radicals, who appeared friendly before the elections, their 
 difference in tone now became marked. The leading speakers, 
 several of them old Chartists, were unrelenting in their de- 
 nunciation of Irishmen. They were men who had been in 
 the ranks of English democracy all their lives ; they spoke 
 of the inferiority of the Irishman as a wage-earner. These 
 observations, repeated in the writer's presence hundreds of 
 times by men of different mechanical trades, revealed the 
 prejudice and hatred that were deeply rooted in their natures. 
 And when men talk glibly of the English democracy sympa- 
 thising with 'Ireland, they either speak upon a subject they 
 know nothing about, or else they wilfully deceive in order to 
 create a false hope. Permanent friendship between these 
 hostile peoples can only be accomplished when they live 
 under separate and distinct Governments, as the Italians and 
 Austrians of to-day. 
 
 Thus closed the first year of the "Grand Old Man's — 
 the chosen leader of the Irish people" — Administration. Alas, 
 for the credulity of the warm-hearted Irish 1 
 
XII 
 
 obstruction's WATERLOO — ROUT OF THE IRISH TARTY. 
 
 One of the results won by the Irish agitation was the crea- 
 tion of a new word, which the crusade of shame gave to the 
 English, French, German, and Russian languages ; this new 
 word was " Boycott." Before the foundation of the League 
 this weapon of social ostracism was called by various names, 
 but none nearly so expressive. It was however left to the 
 Irish League to make this kind of offensive and defensive 
 warfare more general ; and an international verb was the 
 outcome. This addition to the vocabulary was one unde- 
 niable victory of the agrarian struggle. 
 
 Captain Boycott was an English gentleman, who took to 
 farming as men take to different pursuits in life. He pur- 
 chased some land at Lough Mask, near Ballinrobe, in the 
 West of Ireland, and began his career as farmer and small 
 landlord some thirty years before Mr. Parnell made his first 
 appearance on the stormy sea of Irish politics. Being a 
 thrifty, industrious man, he believed in buying in the cheapest 
 market, and selling his wares to the best advantage ; and as 
 he increased in worldly wealth, he gained for himself the 
 unpopular reputation of being very penurious, or, as the Irish 
 peasants would say, a very " near " man. He became agent 
 for one or two estates, so that his every-day life brought him 
 in constant contact with the agricultural community of his 
 locality ; and feeling forced, from a pure business stand- 
 point, to eject some poor tenants who could not meet his 
 
190 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 so-called legal demands for rent, owing to the fact that th(5 
 land they tilled was not able during the bad seasons to 
 produce anything like the sum so taxed upon them, the 
 Englishman became very naturally unpopular. Captain 
 Boycott's title to his land was the amount he paid for it, 
 but in equity he had no more legal title than the man who 
 purchases goods from a receiver of stolen property ; no doubt 
 the captain did not so look upon the transaction, hence his 
 indignation when applied to by the tenants for a reduction 
 of rent. Upon this steady matter-of-fact-pounds-shillings- 
 and-pence gentleman, the local Land League commenced its 
 first attempt to put in force its weapon of social ostracism. 
 No one would sell him anything, he could get no one to 
 work for him, and in short he was as completely isolated 
 from the people he lived amongst, as Robinson Crusoe on 
 his desert isle was, from the inhabitants of that part of the 
 world he had left. 
 
 The landlords, finding themselves face to face with this 
 new and peculiar weapon of the League, formed an antago- 
 nistic organisation, which they entitled the " Emergency '* 
 movement. To procure recruits for this, they had to go 
 to the lowest social scale of the people, not in respect to 
 caste but conduct. The respectable well-to-do, or fairly 
 well-to-do Orangemen, might fight their battle in the excite- 
 ment of a scrimmage, possibly not understanding or caring 
 for the merits of the question in dispute ; but for work on 
 his farm and menial labour, the captain was compelled to 
 hire a number of " ne'er-do-weels " — outcasts of society from 
 every grade. To procure food he was compelled to victual 
 his house like a besieged garrison, and fearing his outcasts 
 might be frightened away from their work by the fiery young 
 Irish labourers, who looked upon Captain Boycott and his 
 surroundings as their most bitter foe, he was compelled to 
 apply to the British authorities for protection. A company 
 of soldiers was therefore sent to do garrison duty at Lough 
 Mask, the home of the gallant captain. The military, unused 
 to duties of this kind, and not drawn from the elite of the 
 
THE STORY OF CAPTAIN BOYCOTT Igt 
 
 British people, looked upon their quarters with the captain 
 as a free-and-easy sort of existence ; they were not too par- 
 ticular as to what they consumed in the way of edibles and 
 drinkables, so that the captain found his last state of exist- 
 ence considerably worse than his first, and he might well 
 exclaim, " Save me from my friends I " He was indeed 
 boycotted : hence the word. 
 
 The worthy J.P. wrote to Mr. Gladstone, demanding 
 £6,000 from the Premier, which he had lost upon his farm. 
 The English Prime Minister could not see this in the same 
 light as Mr. Boycott, so he politely declined, but offered him 
 additional protection if necessary, which was in the eyes of 
 the captain an additional burden. He made a virtue of 
 necessity and sold out what he could dispose of, and came to 
 the United States where he did not get the sympathy he 
 thought he deserved. He returned to Ireland, made friends 
 with the people, and is now an agent on an English estate. 
 The captain is at last happy. His name has become part of 
 the language. 
 
 The Government who could not, according to Mr. Parnell's 
 letter to Chicago, "withstand " his legions, began to set about 
 doing something to show their British friends they were 
 alive to the situation. Mr. Gladstone had recovered from 
 his illness, and during his convalescence went on a yachting 
 tour. On his trip he visited Ireland, landing at Kingstown, 
 near Dublin, where the British visitor was met with marks of 
 respect and esteem, by the few well-to-do promenaders who 
 happened to be on the pier when he landed from his friend's 
 yacht. A Roman Catholic clergyman was in the small group 
 which greeted Mr. Gladstone. This gentleman, full of that 
 gush and effervescence which belong to some men of all 
 nationalities, rushed forward and seized the visitor's hand, 
 and going down on his knees before the ** Grand Old Man," 
 raised Mr. Gladstone's hand to his lips, and with tears of joy 
 streaming from his eyes, prayed fervently that blessings 
 would be showered upon the " Saviour of Ireland." The 
 " Saviour of Ireland " was deeply moved and no doubt 
 
192 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 grateful to the Soggarth aroon, who, in his exuberance, 
 probably thought that the Irish nation should be joyful at 
 the illustrious visitor's presence, and express that delight by 
 singing. 
 
 Some unappreciative Irish journalist wrote verses of a 
 humorous nature describing the scene, and published them 
 in one of the National magazines, satirising the Soggarth 
 aroon. Notwithstanding Mr. Gladstone waxed stronger daily. 
 Some attributed his rapid recovery to his Irish visit and the 
 Soggartk's blessing. 
 
 The first use Mr. Gladstone made of his recovered strength 
 was to order prosecutions against Mr. Parnell and his 
 confreres, for disturbing and making muddy the stream 
 out of which the landlord-Wolf wished to drink. "Achilles" 
 could now bend his bow, so he tried a few shafts at the Irish 
 League leaders. 
 
 At length the great day of trial arrived, and Dublin city 
 beheld a procession of patriots walking down the quays and 
 approaching the Four Courts buildings, where Britain dis- 
 pensed her laws for the benefit of her Irish serfs. The 
 cheering of the crowds that followed these good gentlemen 
 was very enthusiastic, and as they neared the temple of 
 justice, the populace thronged around them with expressions 
 of goodwill. When they arrived in the great hall of the 
 Four Courts, they suffered a little delay before they were per- 
 mitted to enter, for the conservator of Her Majesty's peace 
 in Ireland had issued orders that no one should be permitted 
 to enter the court without a special pass. 
 
 The traversers who had offended against the Crown and 
 dignity of Britain were Charles Stewart Parnell, M.P., 
 Thomas Sexton, M.P., Thomas Brennan, Secretary of the 
 Land League, John Dillon, M.P., Joseph Gillis Biggar, M.P., 
 Michael O'Sullivan, Assistant Secretary of the League, 
 Michael Boyton, Patrick Joseph Gordon, Matthew Harris, 
 John W. Nally, John W. Walsh, and P. J. Sheridan. 
 
 These gentlemen were arraigned before the Court of Queen's 
 
THE MODERN IRISH LAWYER 193 
 
 Bench. The judges who entered to try the charges made 
 against them by the Crown were Lord Chief Justice May, Mr. 
 Justice Fitzgerald, and Mr. Justice Barry. It was stated 
 in the public press, that in a recent judgment on some pre- 
 liminaries of this case, Chief Justice May had assumed a 
 partisan attitude — which is only very natural to the whole 
 bench of Anglo-Irish judges— and it was further urged that 
 the Lord Chief Justice was not a fit and proper person tc 
 preside at this political trial. As Mr. Gladstone wished to 
 go through all the forms of the oracle, the Lord Chief Justice 
 received an official hint to retire ; and after delivering a 
 lengthened address on himself in relation to this trial, his 
 own impartiality, and the great virtues of the British Consti- 
 tution, he, with a self-satisfied air, bowed to his brother 
 judges and withdrew 
 
 There was a gigantic array of counsel engaged on the 
 case, both for the prosecution and the defence. Representing 
 the Crown there were the Attorney-General, the Solicitor- 
 General, Mr. Serjeant Heron, Q.C., Mr. John Naish, Q.C. (Law 
 Adviser), Mr. David Ross, Q.C, Mr. James Murphy, Q.C, Mr. 
 A. M. Porter, Q.C, and Mr. Constantine Molloy (all instructed 
 by Mr. William Lane Joynt, Crown and Treasury Solicitor). 
 For the defendants, Mr. Francis MacDonough, Q.C, Mr. 
 Samuel Walker, Q.C, Mr. W. McLaughlin, Q.C, and Mr. 
 Peter O'Brien, Q.C, appeared. A goodly array of barristers 
 was also engaged for the defence. Of these were Mr. John 
 Curran, Mr. F. Nolan, Mr. Richard Adams, Mr. L. P. Dillon, 
 and Mr. A. M. Sullivan, M.P. (instructed by Messrs. V. B. 
 Dillon and Co.). 
 
 The career of an Irish barrister who is also a patriot, is 
 one of the institutions which a beneficent foreign rule has 
 given to the island. Sometimes the young gentleman starts 
 out in life as a littirateur. If at all possessed of the divine 
 fire, he writes national poetry. By and by some of the many 
 " Crusades of Shame," which the unhappy people, in their 
 unconscious folly, support to try and rid themselves of that 
 Old Man of the Sea, alien rule, occur. They give the young 
 
 O 
 
194 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 aspirant a magnificent opportunity to air his eloquence on 
 behalf of his unhappy land. Among the " Crusaders " are 
 found many able and well-educated young men, who have 
 neither means nor friends to enable them to realise the full 
 value of their deserts. To become a "Crusader" and join 
 the Provincial ranks, is a magnificent opportunity. There 
 they can denounce the British Government within the Con- 
 stitution " to the top of their bent " ; and the masses of their 
 countrymen are delighted, and cheer them again and again. Go 
 into a wayside inn or other resort, where the hard-working sons 
 of toil gather together after one of these meetings, and you 
 hear some really good criticisms on the speeches and the 
 speaker ; for unlike the English agricultural labourer, who is 
 a true descendent of Gurth the swineherd, the Irish farm 
 hands are full of natural wit and humour. But the honest 
 peasant, keen as he thinks himself, is not so qualified to criti- 
 cise the speaker as he is the speeches. The young aspirant 
 to political honours, if not already called to the bar, utilises 
 the " Crusade of Shame " to elevate himself to that social 
 rank. The agitation goes on, and the Government makes 
 some arrests. Fortunate man, if he is successful enough to 
 be arrested, and gets one or two months in prison for some 
 political offence arising out of the " Crusade of Shame." He 
 is then a martyr and patriot ; by and by he is employed 
 to defend political prisoners, and he has the opportunity 
 to make a great speech on behalf of his client, for which 
 he is well fee'd by his friends the Provincialists. If he con- 
 tinues in the ranks of agitation, he has the opportunity of 
 helping to create some of the offences — for Britain is easily 
 offended — which he will be employed, as an advocate, to 
 defend. As a rule men of this class are very hostile and 
 bitterly denounce the Nationalists, who would advocate what 
 they would term illegal measures — Nationalists who try to 
 teach the people how shallow is these men's patriotism who 
 accept British law as legal ; that law which brave men such as 
 Tone and Emmet died warring against and never recognised. 
 But if the young agitator looks for office, his speeches. 
 
THE TRIAL OF THE LAND LEAGUERS 195 
 
 defending his friends, mark him as a man of ability, and 
 attract the attention of the British Crown lawyers. Soon there 
 comes a change of Ministry and he gets an appointment 
 under the new Administration ; and soon after we find him 
 prosecuting his former friends. In a little while he is pro- 
 moted to Law Adviser, Solicitor and Attorney-General, and 
 soon after to the Bench. Or else, if he is a man of mediocre 
 talent, he gets a chairmanship of Quarter Sessions, and is thus 
 comfortably settled for life, to moralise now and then on his 
 early follies. 
 
 Among the group of legal gentlemen who defended Mr^ 
 Parnell and his colleagues, were men who ambitioned the 
 latter distinctions. Two of these gentlemen became pro- 
 minent since as faithful British henchmen. Mr. Peter O'Brien, 
 Q.C.y more silky than his silk gown, has figured lately in 
 several prosecutions. Some cartoons in United Ireland con- 
 ferred upon him one of their characteristic names ; he was 
 given the alliterative title of " Pether the Packer," alluding to 
 his weakness for packing juries. Of course he did this ; that 
 was his duty as a loyal law officer of the British Crown. The 
 other gentleman, Mr. John Curran, was made presiding 
 officer of the Dublin Castle " Star Chamber," and will be 
 spoken of further on. 
 
 The trial of the Land Leaguers was conducted as im- 
 partially as possible. The jury were drawn from the ballot 
 box honestly. Eight Catholics, three Protestants, and one 
 Quaker composed the jury. The Liberal Government con- 
 cluded they could not get a conviction before an honestly 
 drawn jury, but they wished to go through the form of trial 
 for the benefit of their English friends, to prove what has 
 been often urged, that an Irish jury is invariably in sympathy 
 with crime. The valiant ** Achilles " had concealed upon his 
 person the dagger, coercion ; and he thought he needed this 
 excuse to enable him, with a show of justice, to pluck it from 
 its sheath. 
 
 The trial commenced on Tuesday morning, December 29, 
 1880, and concluded on January 25, 1881, 
 
 O 2 
 
196 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The Attorney-General in making his closing speech for the 
 Crown recited a verse of one of Miss Fanny Parnell's poems, 
 published a few weeks previously in the Dublin Nation^ ad- 
 dressed to the farmers of Ireland : 
 
 " Rise up and plant your feet as men where now you crawl as slaves, 
 And make the harvest field your camps, or make of them your graves. 
 The birds of prey are hovering round, the vultures wheel and swoop ; 
 They come, the coroneted ghouls, with drum beat and with troop ; 
 They come to fatten on your flesh, your children and your wives, 
 Ye die but once, hold fast your lands, and if ye can your livea." 
 
 The result of the trial was perfectly satisfactory to the 
 " Grand Old Man " ; the jury disagreed, ten being for ac- 
 quittal and two for conviction. So that according to British 
 theory, there were ten sympathisers with crime on that highly 
 respectable jury of Dublin citizens. ... 
 
 The Irish members under Mr. Parnell's leadership mustered 
 in all their strength, to open what proved to be a final cam- 
 paign of "obstruction." Ireland had never been served 
 more ably or with greater skill and determination from a 
 Provincial standpoint than she was at this period, by those 
 then faithful men who followed Mr. Parnell's leadership, 
 — men of multifarious abilities, thorough Parliamentarians, 
 masters of the rules of debate, and all the intricacies of the 
 House and its laws. 
 
 With the debate on the Queen's speech the Irish members 
 began a determined opposition. They exhausted all the 
 forms of the House, and for a time placed an effectual bar to 
 legislation. The usual course with important Government 
 measures is to permit the introduction of a Bill without any 
 debate. Even on the first reading opposition is very seldom 
 resorted to ; the stage where the great struggle takes place 
 between Ministers and the Opposition, is on the second 
 reading. But the old tactics of wordy warfare did not suit 
 the Irish party ; full of determination and courage, sanguine 
 of success as they had already announced, they commenced 
 their obstructive tactics to kill Mr. Gladstone's Coercion Bill. 
 Monday, February 2, arrived before the Ministry found an 
 
THE IRISH BATTLE WITH '* COERCION " 197 
 
 opportunity to bring in a motion asking leave to introduce 
 their coercion measure, which they named "Protection to 
 Persons and Property (Ireland) Bill." The announcement 
 made by Mr. Forster, whom Mr. Gladstone selected to take 
 charge of the measure, was received with uncompromising 
 hostility by the Irish members. They began a determined 
 onslaught at the very mention of coercion. 
 
 This famous sitting commenced at 4 P M. on Monday of 
 that eventful week in Irish Parliamentary agitation. The 
 British were now familiar with the Irish obstructive policy ; 
 the Government gave its followers instructions to take no 
 part in the debate, thereby hoping to tire out the Parnellites. 
 According to the then Parliamentary rules, each member 
 could make two motions — one for the adjourning of the 
 debate, and the other for the adjournment of the House. 
 There was no limit to the time occupied in addressing the 
 House, and each member could speak on each separate 
 motion. By observing these rules the Irish party hoped to 
 weary out the Government, and delay coercion. What a strange 
 delusion, to think that such tactics could be successful ! 
 
 The dinner hour came and the thinned House listened to 
 the monotonous sound of one of the Parnellite speakers talk- 
 ing against time, determined to stand upon his feet as long as 
 human endurance could sustain the task. Mr. Biggar was 
 ever on the watch with eagle eye to have the House counted 
 out, but the Ministers had always at hand, either in the 
 smoking-room or library, a number of adherents more than 
 sufficient to make a House ; at the announcement that the 
 House was being counted, the Liberal members, with mut- 
 tered execrations against the Irish, came trooping into the 
 chamber, to leave again when the counting was over. Mid- 
 night came, and with it a fresh crowd of Liberals from the 
 theatres or from dinner parties or receptions, exquisites 
 in evening dress, Parliamentary Dundrearys, vowing mental 
 vengeance against the " doosed Irish cads " who were so un- 
 gentlemanly as to interfere with the solemn procedure of 
 the House. 
 
198 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The morning came — still on went the monotonous, un- 
 ceasing flow of words. Words ! words ! words ! Gatling 
 guns of talk, rolls of musketry, sweeping volleys of verbiage, 
 one hundred ton guns vomiting forth shells charged with the 
 most powerful adjectives ! The day grew brighter, the noon 
 time came, and the battle of the verbal musketry could still 
 be heard in St. Stephen's. Shells exploded charged with 
 the most determined expressions of opinion. The Irish 
 mitrailleuse swept down the " Grand Old Man's " army. But 
 a fresh corps of " Achilles' " veterans took the field to meet 
 the dreadful onslaught of talk ! talk ! talk ! which the Irish 
 tirailleurs opened upon their flank and rear. Anon the 
 Parnellite artillery, refreshed and supplied with the most 
 powerful ammunition which Webster, Worcester, Johnson, 
 and Walker could furnish, sent forth shrapnel shells of de- 
 nunciation, huge bombs of argument. Their cannoning was 
 followed by brilliant bayonet charges of opinion ; and as in- 
 terruptedly now and then the trumpet charge of the division 
 bell rang out, the Irish cavalry was again and again forced 
 back by the giant squadrons of " Achilles." Each time the 
 Irish Hector and his valiant friends were compelled to with- 
 draw within their trenches, but only to open afresh their 
 batteries from behind another ^paulement near one of the 
 salient angles of the great fortress Coercion. The gallant 
 A. M. Sullivan shakes his fist in the face of the " Grand Old 
 Man " as he pours an unceasing volley of grenades, charged 
 with the choicest explosives that Walker could supply, into 
 the tent of " Achilles." The dashing Tim Healy is now to 
 the front, and right well he supplies his guns with chilled 
 steel shot, of the most approved Johnsonian phrases. And 
 so passes that long and memorable day. The day gave 
 way to another night of strange and peculiar combat. 
 The gas was lit ; the Speaker was compelled to retire and 
 leave a deputy in the chair. Human endurance was put to 
 the greatest strain. Midnight arrived, but still the Parnellites 
 kept up the fight right gallantly. Their arsenals were over- 
 hauled for fresh weapons of attack. The steady stream of 
 
A PARLIAMENTARY COUP D'ETAT 199 
 
 Irish talk flowed on unceasingly. Wednesday morning 
 dawned, and the jaded Irish were still on their feet. If 
 victories could be won by talk, what gallant heroes the Irish 
 phalanx made ! In all the daring and heroic events and in- 
 cidents recorded in ancient and modern history, no greater 
 feat of talking for a nation's freedom had ever been attempted ; 
 nothing approaching it is on record in the annals of the 
 human family. 
 
 The " Grand Old Man " enters the House. There is a 
 sternness in the glance of " Achilles," as if he meant to crush 
 his foes beneath his iron heel. But the Irish are in no way 
 influenced by the presence of the Prime Minister ; their 
 leader looks with icy gaze, in which is blended hostility and 
 determination, so peculiar to Mr. Parnell before he fell be- 
 neath the glamour of Gladstone's cunning. This morning 
 he is Irish of the Irish in his unrelenting opposition to the 
 English Premier's coercion, a feeling which influenced his 
 countrymen to believe there were latent fires within. 
 
 Fight well, gallant Irish Hector, for this fight is your 
 Waterloo ; already the Prussians are on your flanks and the 
 last great battle of obstruction is near its close. Soon your 
 foes shall be victors in the strife, upon the very ground you 
 yourself selected and told your countrymen would bring 
 success. Already "Achilles" looks as if the news of the 
 approaching Prussians had been conveyed to him. 
 
 Mr. Biggar is on his feet The gallant Ulsterman shakes 
 his mane as if thirsting for another and prolonged use of 
 Walker's ammunition. But hush ! The Speaker rises, and in 
 slow and solemn tones stops the debate ! 
 
 This is a Parliamentary coup d'etat — as violent an assault 
 on Parliamentary liberties, as when Louis Napoleon assaulted 
 French opinion by sweeping the Parisian boulevards with his 
 artillery, to establish the Second Empire. 
 
 Never in British constitutional history has there been such 
 a gross violation of the liberties of Parliament. In the time 
 of Charles I. and Cromwell's assault on Parliament, it was an 
 
200 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 outside despotic invasion of the House. But this violation 
 of Parliamentary freedom comes from the Speaker of the 
 House ; its guardian and protector becomes its destroyer. 
 At the very fountain head and seat of honour sat foul 
 corruption, to destroy the purity of its liberties. By the 
 arbitrary ruling of one man, the Commons of England illegally 
 stopped debating a motion before that House 1 
 
 While the Speaker, Mr. Brand, is on his feet, the Britons 
 look triumphant and level glances of victory and hatred at 
 the Irish contingent. 
 
 This historic and memorable scene, the death of Irish 
 "constitutional" agitation, was worthy of the brush of a 
 David, a Maclise, a Mulready, a Bougereau, or a Meissonier. 
 Mr. Parnell and thirty-five Irish members arose from their 
 seats, and holding their right hands aloft, protested against 
 this wanton Parliamentary outrage. The thirty-six voices 
 shouted, " Privilege ! privilege ! " but there was no " privilege " 
 for these mere Irish in that foreign legislative chamber, the 
 portals of which, as Irish patriots, they never should have 
 crossed. The enraged Britons shouted back in venomous 
 tones a cry once heard in an Eastern city: "Away with 
 them ! away with them ! " So closed this historic sitting of 
 the British Commons, which lasted for forty-one and a-half 
 hours, from four o'clock Monday afternoon until 9.30 A.M. 
 Wednesday morning, February 4, 1881. 
 
 " Achilles " had, indeed, bent his bow. Verily, we thank 
 thee, Mr. Freeman^ s Journal, for the words. The Irish were 
 completely routed ; it was the last stand of the " obstruct- 
 ives " ; the weapon they depended upon, when the hour of 
 trial came, broke to pieces in their grasp. Truly did Isaac 
 Butt say that war in Parliament should be quickly changed 
 to its natural place, the field ; or else surrender. Mr. Parnell 
 and his brilliant following, who had so often told their 
 countrymen in America and Ireland (and had made many 
 believe it true) what great things for Ireland they would do 
 in Parliament, and that no British Minister could legally 
 withstand them, now finds the Speaker of the House breaks 
 
THE ARREST OF MR. DAVITT 201 
 
 the law of Parliament, violates the sanctity, dignity, and 
 privilege of the House of Commons. The angiy Briton, 
 driven to bay by the Irish tactics, breaks his own law and 
 hurls the pieces in the Irishman's face. 
 
 What next, gallant Hector ? What do you propose now, 
 Charles Stewart Parnell } There are millions of your race 
 thirsting for the news ; they await the presence of another 
 Lord Edward to lead them in the final struggle to redeem 
 their motherland. The absurd folly of using talk as weapons 
 against the foe, has now been forced with convincing proof 
 upon you. You are now in full possession of the knowledge 
 that another and different plan of campaign is necessary. We 
 await the development that must produce the change. We 
 wait with patience, grandson of old Ironsides. But there will 
 not, cannot be a long delay for you to make up your mind. 
 
 The Liberal Government was now in a fighting mood ; 
 that veneer of liberality towards Ireland was swept away. 
 " Coercion that country must have," said the " grandest of 
 Grand Old Men " ; and coercion she received. The House met 
 again that noon, and the course of legislation now flowed as 
 freely as if there were no Irish members elected to oppose it. 
 The following Thursday evening the Irish made another 
 rally ; it was the last muster of a routed army. 
 
 That day, February 5, 188 1, as Mr. Michael Davitt was 
 crossing Carlisle Bridge in company with Mr. Thomas 
 Brennan and Mr. Matthew Harris he was arrested, his ticket- 
 of-leave was revoked, and he had once again to don the 
 convict's striped uniform, which he first put on because he 
 wished to supply his countrymen with more powerful weapons 
 than those he had been recently advocating the use of. 
 
 The scene in the House that night was a slight replica of 
 the early week. Mr. Parnell arose in his seat, and with the 
 tone and manner of the fiery Celt, unlike his usual calmness, 
 said, " I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home 
 Department whether Mr. Michael Davitt was arrested at one 
 o'clock to-day." (Cheers.) 
 
202 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Sir William Vernon Harcourt, the man, whom deluded 
 Irishmen hail to-day as a " Home Ruler," arose to reply, 
 '• Yes, sir." 
 
 We cannot picture except in a faint manner the scene that 
 followed when the Home Secretary uttered these words. 
 The whole House broke into loud and uproarious cheering ; 
 the Liberal members seemed to grow frantic with delight at 
 the news that an Irishman, a " Home Ruler," had been arbit- 
 rarily arrested and sent to prison. These worthy English 
 "Home Rulers" of to-day must have indeed changed. 
 
 The Home Secretary continued : " After consultation with 
 my colleagues the Law Officers of the Crown and the Secretary 
 to the Lord-Lieutenant, I have come to the decision that the 
 conduct of Michael Davitt has been incompatible with the 
 ticket-of-leave by which a convict, enjoying the conditional 
 favour of the Crown, is permitted to be at large." (Cheers 
 from the English members ; cries of ** Shame ! " from the 
 Irish party.) 
 
 Mr. Parnell, rising, then said : " I beg to ask the Home 
 Secretary which are the conditions which Michael Davitt has 
 violated." With an expression of contempt upon his face 
 for the beaten Irish leader, Sir William Vernon Harcourt 
 made no reply. Vainly the Irish cried, " Answer ! answer ! " 
 And yet Irishmen are told in all seriousness to-day that this 
 bitter enemy, Harcourt, is a convert to Irish " Home Rule" ! 
 
 Mr. Gladstone rose to move the closure. Yes ! this gagging 
 of the British Commons was first introduced by the Liberal 
 leader, and passed into law by a Liberal Parliament. Mr. 
 Parnell, interrupting, said : " I beg to insist as a member of 
 this House upon my right to move that the right honour- 
 able gentleman [the Prime Minister] be no longer heard." 
 A scene here arose in the House. Mr. Parnell was very 
 excited ; he was determined to insist, but he was powerless 
 to enforce. 
 
 The English Premier again rose ; with a look of passion 
 on his face as he gazed on the Irish leader, he named Mr. 
 Parnell, and by a vote of 405 against 7 the Irish leader was 
 
WHOLESALE EXPULSION OF IRISH MEMBERS 203 
 
 expelled from the sitting. Mr. Parnell declined to withdraw, 
 but British physical force came in here. The Sergeant-at- 
 Arms, accompanied by three assistants, put his hand upon 
 Mr. Parnell's arm ; the Irish leader seemed to shrink from 
 the touch, and, rising, bowed to the Speaker and withdrew, 
 Mr. Dillon had been already expelled for a similar cause. 
 Then Mr. Finnigan arose and moved that Mr. Gladstone be 
 no longer heard. The same scene, the usual division, and he 
 was also sent out of the chamber. The Government tellers 
 then informed the Speaker that the Irish members remained 
 in their places and refused to vote. They were then all 
 named, and one after the other expelled. The following are 
 the names of those Irishmen whom the Parliament of the 
 " Grand Old Man " expelled from the sitting of the House : 
 Messrs. Dillon, Parnell, Finnigan, Barry, Biggar, Byrne, 
 Corbet, Daly, Dawson, Gill, E. D. Gray, Healy, Lalor, Leamy, 
 Leahy, McCarthy, McCoan, Marum, Metge, Nelson, Arthur 
 O'Connor, T. P. O'Connor, O'Donoghue, O'Gorman Mahon, 
 O'Sullivan, O'Connor Power, Redmond, Sexton, Smithwick, 
 A. M. Sullivan, T. D. Sullivan, Molloy, O'Kelly, O'Donnell, 
 R. O. Power, O'Shaughnessy. As the O'Gorman Mahon 
 was leaving, the old veteran drew himself up and said it was 
 the biggest insult he had ever received in his life. The old 
 gentleman remembered O'Connell's election for Clare in 1828, 
 and took part in that contest. In those duelling days men 
 were slow to insult the gallant major, who was known to be 
 an unerring shot. 
 
 So ended the great struggle of obstruction. Public passion 
 was strong that week in London. The writer remembers 
 visiting a Radical club that night with some English friends. 
 What joy of a very demonstrative character did those 
 working-men display, when they heard that the Irish members 
 were expelled from Parliament ! How they gloated over the 
 discomfiture and defeat of those " insolent Irish," who dared 
 to oppose the great Gladstone! Race hatred came out in 
 every speech. An Irishman who was present arose, to speak ; 
 the Britons howled and veiled ; he held his position before 
 
204 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the chairman, but it was vain to expect a hearing. The 
 whole torrent of the working-ofian's wrath was levelled against 
 everybody and everything Irish. 
 
 The Irish people who had any genuine National feeling, 
 felt keenly the insult which the Government of Mr. Gladstone 
 had cast upon them ; and they also felt that so long as this 
 crusade of shame distracted their people, so long would they 
 remain powerless to resent the repeated injuries and infamies 
 of their British foe. 
 
 At length a letter came from Mr. Parnell addressed to the 
 League Council in Dublin. It was evidently the product oi 
 the matured consideration of the Irish leader on the recent 
 crisis, and the defeat of his Parliamentary obstruction tactics. 
 If the words written, and the advice then given, were the real 
 sentiments animating the breast of Charles Stewart Parnell, 
 then Mr. Parnell had hopelessly failed as an Irish leader ; and 
 the Irish people should have looked out for a man of greater 
 determination, and one prepared to make more serious sacri- 
 fices for his nation's freedom. But the best and truest of the 
 people did not so believe these public utterances ; they still 
 clung to the belief indulged in with regard to O'Connell in 
 his early Repeal days — that when the time would suit and 
 events ripen, the pathway of talk would lead to the field of 
 blows. Of what nature these should be was a question for 
 the judgment of thinking minds, and the resources and 
 circumstances which occasion might bring forth. The letter 
 which Mr. Parnell sent from Paris on February i6, twelve 
 days after the Irish members were expelled from the House, 
 stated : — 
 
 'The Government of England has adopted the rule of 
 coercion and intimidation against our people at home, and 
 their representatives in Parliament, and having practically 
 attempted to drive both one and the other outside the limits 
 of the constitution by the use of unconstitutional and illegal 
 means in Parliament and the country, two courses appeared 
 
THE LANGUAGE OF DIPLOMACY 205 
 
 open to us : The first, that the Irish members should retire in 
 a body from the House of Commons and announce to their 
 constituents that the constitutional weapon of Parliamentary 
 representation had been snatched from their hands, and that 
 nothing remained but sullen acquiescence or an appeal to 
 force in opposition to that force which had been used against 
 us. The second and only other alternative appeared to be 
 that we should steadfastly labour on, deepening the lines and 
 widening the area of our agitation, appealing to the masses 
 of the population of England and Scotland, . . . appealing, 
 I say, against the territorialism and shopocracy which dominate 
 Parliament, to the working man and agricultural labourers of 
 Britain. . . . 
 
 " I have dismissed the first of these courses from considera- 
 tion, but the second alternative presents to me many elements 
 of hope and ultimate success. . . . 
 
 " The honour of Ireland is in the keeping of her 600,000 
 tenant farmers, and I ask them to preserve the union and 
 organisation which have already gained such great results. 
 If they do this, and persist in their refusal to pay unjust 
 rents, and in their refusal to take farms from which others 
 have been unjustly evicted, a brilliant victory and the peace 
 and prosperity of our country will be their near and certain 
 reward. 
 
 " I am, gentlemen, yours faithfully, 
 
 " Charles Stewart Par n ell/' 
 
 When the Nationalists read this letter, they looked upon 
 it at the time as a diplomatic document, written for the 
 express purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of the enemy. 
 They did not think that any such manifesto from an Irish 
 leader with the reputation and ability of Mr. Parnell was 
 right, even for diplomatic purposes ; it had too injurious an 
 effect upon the only men which all leaders could rely upon in 
 any crisis of their country's history, where talk would end 
 and work begin. But the sad fact is forcing itself upon them 
 day by day, that with the exception of a momentary burst 
 
2o6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 of passion, which occurred at a later period, Mr. Parnell was 
 after all but Mr. O'Connell redivivus, without that great 
 orator's silver tongue. 
 
 Let Irishmen look calmly upon the opinion given by a 
 leader of a nation to the people. It is not for a moment 
 meant that Mr. Parnell should have issued publicly, in the 
 then state of Ireland, any such manifesto as an open appeal 
 to arms, but he could have adopted one portion of his first 
 course, publicly, by calling on his followers to continue out 
 of Parliament as they were already expelled from there ; 
 and told the Irish people all the world over that Ireland had 
 no constitution within which she could agitate her rights, 
 that moral suasion had again proved a hopeless and useless 
 means of redress, and that there were but two courses open to 
 the Irish race : absolute and sullen submission, and to 
 patiently bide the time of their extinction as a race at home, 
 or else ! 
 
 But when Mr. Parnell told the Irish farmers that they 
 alone have the honour of the nation in their guardianship, and 
 that that nation's honour consists in what they (the Irish 
 farmers) consider a just rent, he degrades and insults the 
 national honour ; he places hucksters and money-lenders 
 inside the temple of liberty, and permits them to wipe their 
 feet in the flag of the nation. This, even for a diplomatic 
 document, was too much ; but when he calmly tells the 
 farmers, and through them the whole Irish race, that their 
 organisation had " already gained such great results," in the 
 face of the utter and complete defeat which had overtaken 
 the party both in Parliament and in the country, and on the 
 eve of still greater defeats, it seems to almost insult the 
 intelligence of the whole people. 
 
 Mr. Parnell's next move was an appeal to the great revo- 
 lutionist and poet, Victor Hugo. Nationalists regretted the 
 persistence with which Mr. Parnell clung to the idea of 
 public opinion as a weapon to fight England with. Speaking 
 of the famine and landlordism, he said in his letter to the 
 illustrious Frenchman : 
 
MR. PARNELL'S APPEAL TO FRENCH OPINION 207 
 
 " We are struggling against the system which produced 
 these horrors. It is to put an end to it once for all that we 
 appeal to the consciences of all honest men without distinction 
 of creed, party, or nationality ; it is to that end that we ask 
 them to aid us in representing to England the odious 
 character of her conduct towards us — in recommending her, 
 in short, to do justice to our people. As you, honoured sir, 
 have so well roused the sympathies of the human race for 
 les miserables^ we feel that our appeal will go straight to 
 your heart, and we are sure that you will raise your voice in 
 favour of a brave but unfortunate nation." 
 
 Mr. Parnell informed the great French poet that they were 
 struggling against the source of Irish evils. This was not so. 
 The Provincialists were carrying on a crusade of exposing 
 the horrors of the system — Ireland's poverty, starvation, cold 
 and hunger — to the world. This was done to enlist public 
 sympathy and condemnation of landlordism, the producer in 
 part of these evils. But that which made such evils possible, 
 the British connection, was, according to their programme, 
 to continue in part. They endeavoured to remove the evil 
 effects of the system, while the source, British rule, was to 
 remain. 
 
 As well ask a man to get healthy who daily consumes 
 large quantities of arsenic. Foreign rule in Ireland and the 
 horrors of poverty, are convertible terms, meaning one and 
 the same thing. Were it possible to remove landlordism, 
 some other ism equally as destructive to the country would 
 continue ; and would, so long as the slightest vestige of alien 
 rule remains. 
 
 A meeting of the League Council was held in Dublin. 
 There were several speeches made denouncing Mr. Gladstone 
 and protesting against the arrest of Mr. Davitt. Mr. Thomas 
 Brennan and Mr. P. J. Sheridan delivered very able addresses. 
 Mr. Patrick Egan made a stirring and able attack on the 
 renegade Irish members who went over to Mr. Gladstone, 
 and deserted their colleagues. Mr. Patrick Egan, if he were 
 
 %. 
 
2o8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 to repeat his speech to-day, would have to denounce the 
 whole Irish party ; for they have all gone over to Mr. Gladstone. 
 Possibly Mr. Egan would not admit this, but it is neverthe- 
 less a fact. Mr. Egan at this meeting said : 
 
 "While Mr. Parnell and his noble followers [Mr. Dillon 
 and Mr. E. D. Gray, and some forty other members] could 
 not be spoken of in terms of praise too flattering for the 
 splendid struggle they had made against the brute force of 
 the English majority in the House of Commons, no language 
 could be too strong to condemn the renegade members who 
 deserted in face of the enemy. (Cheers.) The leading 
 renegade was Mr. Shaw, the member for Cork County. With 
 him were such men as Colonel Colthurst — (groans) — Count 
 Moore of Clonmel — (groans) — the Messrs. Blennerhassett, 
 Patrick Martin, Sir Patrick O'Brien, and the renegade member 
 for Dublin, Maurice Brooks — (groans) — who at the meeting 
 in the City Hall deliberately pledged himself to act with 
 the Irish people, but when he got to the House of Com- 
 mons deserted them and went over to the Government. 
 (Groans, and cries of " Shame ! ") There was also Mr. 
 Meldon, the whitewashed Whig member for Kildare ; the 
 miserable creature who represented, or rather misrepresented, 
 Longford, Mr. Errington ; Mr. Collins of Clonmel, Mr. 
 Mitchell Henry, the member for Galway-*-(groans) — whom 
 they might leave in the hands of his constituents. Major 
 O'Beirne, Mr. Lewis O'Connor, Mr. Levey, and Mr. Fay of 
 Cavan. Mr. Fay got in on the last election under false 
 pretences, and under the wing of Mr. Biggar. Although he 
 could do nothing now but sneer at the Irish party, he patted 
 them on the back and advised the adoption of obstruction ; 
 but when there was work to do he deserted. There was yet 
 one other of whom he spoke with regret — a man who once 
 did yeoman service for Ireland — Mr. P. J. Smyth. The fact 
 that he represented an Irish constituency was one of the 
 great evidences of Irish toleration. (Hear.) But for that 
 toleration, Mr. Smyth's eccentricities would have relegated 
 him to obscurity long ago. However, the people did not 
 
PROTESTING AGAINST DAVITT'S ARREST 209 
 
 forget his services side by side with John Mitchell, John 
 Martin, and others. (Hear.) These men passed in 
 London as the representatives of the Irish people. They 
 were now branded with the letters ' B.C.,' and would at the 
 next election receive the reward of all bad characters." 
 (Hear, hear, and applause.) 
 
 The Irish people had no reason to complain of any paucity 
 of manifestoes. The men controlling the League never 
 permitted an occasion to elapse without producing its 
 attendant official document, which was generally the ex- 
 posing of some evil and its consequent condemnation ; but 
 at this time protests were on the increase, as they have been 
 lately. The documents of this meeting contained a protest 
 against the arrest of Michael Davitt. It contained these 
 sentences : . . . . 
 
 " Yesterday a man well known to us and to many of you 
 during these recent events, as a counsellor of tolerance, 
 restraint, and prudence, has been seized without warning and 
 flung back into the horrors of penal servitude. 
 
 " Fellow-countrymen, we adjure you in the midst of these 
 trials and provocations, to maintain the noble attitude that has 
 already assured your ultimate victory. Reject every tempta- 
 tion to conflict, disorder, or crime. Be not terrorised by a 
 brief reign of despotism. If you are true to yourselves your 
 triumph is certain." 
 
 That " noble attitude " the countrymen were to continue in, 
 was the policy of doing nothing. Truly Christian forbearance 
 this ; and the Irish nation having received one slap on the 
 cheek from the " Grand Old Man," was to turn the other and 
 so remain "true to itself" waiting for another blow, which 
 soon came. 
 
 Mr. Parnell, speaking on the arrest of Mr. Davitt, said : 
 "The late Government of course could have withdrawn his 
 ticket-of-leave instead of prosecuting him ; but the Tories are 
 not so shabby as the so-called Liberals, and they straight- 
 forwardly brought him before the ordinary tribunals and 
 
 P 
 
2IO THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 charged him with sedition." Nationalists agree with Mr. 
 Parnell's utterances here. Of the two parties that are trying 
 almost equally to crush outthelrish race in proportion to their 
 term of power, the meanest, basest, most hypocritical and 
 cruel, are the " so-called Liberals ; " for they try to sneak into 
 Irish favour when in opposition, to procure by their hollow 
 promises the Irish vote to help them back to the spoils of 
 office and of power ; and when there " they can smile and smile, 
 and murder while they smile/' 
 
 Events were now crowding thick and fast upon Ireland in 
 her struggle with the usurper that ruled the nation. All 
 difference of policy was lost sight of in the face of the common 
 foe ; and energetic men, both Nationalists and Provincialists, 
 felt that some war of reprisals, some active measures, should 
 be taken to meet the coming storm. The sullen mutterings 
 of approaching danger were visible on the political horizon; 
 black and murky clouds were lowering over the land. It was 
 the great crisis that tried men's souls. The Parnellite 
 organisation at this time was the legal depository of Ireland's 
 authority. Not only had the people in Ireland given it full 
 and absolute control, but this power was sanctioned by the 
 public endorsement of the Irish race all the world over. 
 Whatever steps this Irish government should take to meet 
 this emergency, either secret or open, could not be afterwards 
 legally repudiated by the race that clothed it with supreme 
 authority. 
 
 What was the condition of this Irish government, or 
 Parnellite organisation, at this time } The weak members, who 
 ought to have been with their comrades during this great strain, 
 not only fled from Ireland, but from Britain. These men's 
 timidity and fear of arrest by the enemy, were despicable. Some 
 few of the leaders were absent on what might appear plausible 
 and just reasons ; but no duty of any nature should keep a 
 patriotic man away from his post during such a stormy period 
 in his country's history. These absent and weak leaders are as 
 fully responsible for the policy adopted, as if had they sat with 
 their colleagues at the council board. It is vain for them to 
 
CAPTAIN JAMES MURPHY, 28th MASS. VOLS. 
 
 Leader of the Clerkenivell Rescue Party, which resulted in the famous 
 Clerkenwell Explosion. 
 
THE DAWN OF « INVINCIBLE "-ISM 211 
 
 say that they did not, and do not, approve of the course forced 
 upon the Irish people ; and gladly embraced by the more 
 daring and manlier portion of the men at home. As well 
 might absent Ministers from a Cabinet Council repudiate the 
 policy adopted, and which they were not there to oppose, 
 after the nation's soldiers had attacked the foe. 
 
 What this new power was which was about to appear upon 
 the scene, created and clothed with legal authority by the 
 Parnellite Irish government, this history will deal with later. 
 Whatever its nature, the public voice continued to protest 
 against the foreigner's brutal despotism in Ireland, and was 
 apparently content with these denunciations. 
 
 P Z 
 
XIII 
 
 THE SCENE IN THE GUILDHALL— ARREST OF MR. PARNELL. 
 
 Mr. Parnell went to Paris after he was turned out of the 
 British Commons by his present chief, Mr. Gladstone. Mr. 
 James O'Kelly, M.P., accompanied him. They visited all 
 the great leaders of French thought ; they had an interview 
 with M. Henri Rochefort, a great sympathiser with suffering 
 nationalities. Mr. Parnell did not ask material support from 
 any of these illustrious Frenchmen. His theory was that 
 their sympathy, and nothing more, would be a weapon in his 
 hands. Several of these men, more especially the revolu- 
 tionary element, were puzzled at what Mr. Parnell meant. 
 Like his own countrymen, they gave him credit for profound 
 diplomacy, and imagined that he was meditating a deep-laid 
 and skilful attack upon his country's foe ; they never 
 dreamed for an instant, that he really believed that an 
 invaded and enslaved nation could be freed by the ex- 
 pression of sympathy, offered her by any man or men, no 
 matter how great. 
 
 M. Henri Rochefort, speaking of meeting the Irish leader, 
 observed : " I was greatly moved in shaking hands with Mr. 
 Parnell, as I was some months since when I embraced 
 Garibaldi. The idol of the Irish people is a very fair young 
 man, of whom Caesar might have said as of Cassius, * He is 
 very thin for a senator.' His eye of steel is severe. His 
 face almost ascetic, is calm like that of men whose minds are 
 made up." 
 
MR. GLADSTONE AT LEEDS 213 
 
 On separating he said to M. Rochefort, " Adieu ! I dare 
 not say au revoiry for probably I and Mr. O'Kelly will be in 
 prison before the month is over." 
 
 He had an interview with Marshal McMahon and Victor 
 Hugo ; the latter entertained him and his friends at dinner. 
 Speaking of the Irish question, Victor Hugo said, " True ideas 
 are the sovereigns of the world ; brute force cannot persevere 
 against them." . . . 
 
 Mr. Gladstone passed his Coercion Bill, and every leading 
 merchant, professional man, or trader who held Irish National 
 views was " reasonably suspected," and locked up in prison 
 without trial or charge. 
 
 Sir Wm. Vernon Harcourt, Home Secretary, whom the 
 Provincialists now term a " Home Ruler," thus sneeringly 
 alluded to Mr. Parnell's French visit : 
 
 '* Bon Jean was a gallant gentleman, 
 In battles much delighting ; 
 He fled full soon 
 On the 1st of June, 
 But bade the rest keep fighting." 
 
 The excitement m Ireland grew more intense. The Irish 
 leaders publicly advised mass meetings, and resolutions, as a 
 cure for British despotism. What they were quietly preparing, 
 and the momentous events which followed, will be told in its 
 proper place. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was invited by the democracy of Leeds to 
 visit their city, and to address them on the various public 
 questions agitating their country. The Premier's reception 
 was the grandest ever paid that eminent statesman. The 
 populace turned out in their thousands to do him honour, 
 and joyful acclamations rent the air. Leeds was en fete and 
 was never tired of cheering the " Grand Old Man." He ad- 
 dressed a meeting in the Chamber of Commerce on questions 
 of trade, and spoke in the Town Hall to a crowded mass 
 meeting; but reserved for the banquet tendered to him by 
 the citizens on Friday evening, October 7, 1881, the delivery 
 
214 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 of his great speech on the Irish question. The following is a 
 part of this interesting and historic address : — 
 
 " A handful of men in Parliament, whom I will not call a 
 party, for they are not entitled to be called a party, are the 
 gentlemen who make themselves effectually responsible for 
 the new gospel of Irish patriotism ; and even upon them I 
 know not — so hard it is to understand — how far it may be 
 with them a matter of compulsion, and how far a matter of 
 will. I will not attempt to identify them. I will frankly 
 take the case of Mr. Parnell as exhibiting what I mean when 
 I say the state of things in Ireland is coming to a question 
 between law on the one hand and sheer lawlessness on the 
 other. (Hear, hear.) I will go very briefly — and the im- 
 portance of the subject I am sure will justify me if I have 
 detained you longer than I ought. (No, no.) . . . 
 
 " O'Connell professed his unconditional loyalty to the 
 Crown of England. Mr. Parnell says of the Crown, If 
 England is to be the link between the two countries, it must 
 be the only link ; but whether it is to be the link at all — I am 
 not quoting his words — is a matter on which he has not, I 
 believe, given any opinion whatsoever. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 " O'Connell desired friendly relations with the people of 
 this country — cordial, hearty friendship. What does Mr. 
 Parnell desire ? He says the Irish people must make manu- 
 factures of their own, in order that they may buy nothing 
 from England. (Laughter.) I do not believe him to be a 
 profound political economist. (Hear, hear.) But it may 
 have occurred to him that it may be rather difficult if the Irish 
 people are to produce for themselves in a short time, by the 
 labour of their own hands, everything that they now 
 desire from England. He is prepared for that alternative, 
 and he says : ' If you cannot make the manufactured articles 
 yourselves you must buy them from foreign countries, but 
 whatever you do you must not buy them from England.' 
 (Loud cries of ' Shame.') I say, gentlemen, I think you will 
 begin to perceive that in the strong language I have used to 
 describe the position of affairs in Ireland I am not wholly 
 
MR. GLADSTONE ON MR. PARNELL 215 
 
 without justification — (cheers) — and when I proceed to say 
 that whereas friendship with England was the motto of 
 O'Connell, hostility to England and to Scotland is the motto 
 and avowed principle of Mr. Parnell. . . . 
 
 " Now the Land Act has passed into law, and now that 
 Mr. Parnell is afraid lest the people of England, by their 
 long-continued efforts should win the hearts of the whole of 
 the Irish nation, he has a new and enlarged gospel of plunder 
 to proclaim. He says that whereas the rental of Ireland is 
 seventeen millions pounds of money, the landlord is entitled 
 to nothing but the original value of the land before the spade 
 was put into it ; and that the rental he may justly claim is not 
 seventeen millions, but possibly about three millions of money. 
 I ask you as honest men, not as politicians, not as Liberals, 
 not in any other capacity— I ask you whether it is possible to 
 describe proceedings of this kind, in any words more just, 
 than the promulgation of the doctrine of sheer plunder ? . . . 
 
 " Mr. Parnell is very copious in his reference to America. 
 He has said America is the only friend of Ireland, but in all 
 his references to America he has never found time to utter 
 one word of disapproval or of misgiving, about what is known 
 as the assassination literature of that country. . . . 
 
 " There are, it is sad to say, a knot of Irishmen who are not 
 ashamed to point out in the press which they maintain, how 
 the ships of her Majesty's navy ought to be blown into the 
 air to destroy the power of England by secret treachery. 
 (Shame.) . . . 
 
 "You may have heard of an explosion of dynamite in 
 Salford not very long ago. There was the death of one 
 person in consequence of the explosion. The death of 
 another was expected, but I believe was averted ; and Mr. 
 Parnell, the gentleman to whom I refer, said that that 
 occurrence in Salford appeared to him to bear the character 
 of a practical joke. (Shame.) "... 
 
 Mr. Gladstone expatiated on what a great boon to Ireland 
 his Land Bill was. Possibly he really believed this. But if 
 
2l6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 three-fourths of the Irish tenants were made a gift of their 
 holdings, they could not even then enjoy the abundance Mr. 
 Gladstone spoke of / 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone alluded to Irishmen not buying 
 English manufactures, his Leeds audience of mill-owners and 
 merchants cried out unanimously " Shame ! " The beadle 
 who stood transfixed with astonishment when Oliver Twist 
 had the temerity to ask for more, was not near so much 
 astounded as were these British merchants at the presumption 
 of the Irish people daring to think of buying goods else- 
 where. There is where the shoe pinches. They do not 
 care much about either tenants or landlords, but touch their 
 trade and you hurt the Britons to the quick ; and you cannot 
 touch this — which is also Ireland's greatest interest — without 
 Irishmen having the power to govern themselves. 
 
 The foul lie and slander against Irishmen, that they kill 
 women and children, is freely circulated by the great assassin- 
 ation organ, the London TimeSy a paper that keeps continu- 
 ally howling for murder, whether it is Zulus, Basutos, Boers, 
 Arabs, Egyptians, or Irish that are to be killed. Its thirst 
 for human gore is insatiable. There never has been, in all 
 the guerilla warfare or physical struggles forced upon the 
 Irish, one single English child or woman injured. On the 
 contrary, a tyrannic despot, whose brutal conduct made the 
 world wonder that the Irish spared his life — this man of 
 blood was within two seconds of certain death but for the 
 fact that the lady members of his family were in the carriage 
 with him. The hands of those who were about to smite, 
 were stayed by a man whom he or his brutal master would 
 not spare if in their power, regardless of that Irishman's 
 family. This tyrant knew the chivalry of Irish revolutionists, 
 and so saved his life by surrounding himself at all pos- 
 sible times with his lady protectors. They did what his 
 armed guardians could not have succeeded in doing; 
 they saved his life, justly forfeited to the nation he in- 
 vaded ; and whose people he was slaying with buckshot 
 and bayonet. 
 
MR. PARNELL ON MR. GLADSTONE 217 
 
 This is one of the many unwritten pages in Irish his- 
 tory. ... _ 
 
 There can be no clearer illustration of the differences and 
 antagonisms which exist between these two peoples, the 
 British and the Irish, than the reception accorded to Mr. 
 Gladstone in Leeds, and that of Mr. Parnell in Wexford. 
 Notwithstanding the oppression of British rule, the Irish can 
 always prove themselves equal to any other people in getting 
 up a public demonstration. Mr. Parnell's reception by the 
 gallant Wexford men was as enthusiastic and demonstrative 
 as that given Mr. Gladstone by his countrymen in Leeds. If 
 possible they out-did themselves upon this occasion, for Mr. 
 Parnell was doubly endeared to them because of the onslaught 
 made upon him by the English Premier. 
 
 There were frieze-coated soldiers there that day, who, if 
 armed and properly led, would have given as good an account 
 of British troops as did the gallant and now independent 
 Boers. The occasion was a momentous one, for every listener 
 knew that Mr. Parnell would reply to Mr. Gladstone. Well 
 and ably did the Irish leader respond. He rose to the height 
 of the occasion, and completely overwhelmed the English 
 Minister in his masterly answer. But vain are words — 
 they are useless — yet Irish leaders will still persist, in the face 
 of their utter inability, to fight England by talk. Mr. Parnell 
 said : 
 
 " People of the city and county of Wexford, — I am proud to 
 see that your county has not forgotten her traditions, but that 
 you are prepared to-day, as you always were, to return a fitting 
 answer to threats and intimidation — ay, and if it should become 
 necessary, to those means which were used in '98 — (loud 
 cheers) — by an unscrupulous Government — means which failed 
 then, and which, please God, will fail again. (Cheers.) You 
 in this county have arrived at the commencement of the 
 second year of the existence of this great Land League move- 
 ment. You have gained something by your exertions during 
 the last twelve months, but I am here to-day to tell you that 
 
2i8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 you have gained but a fraction of that to which you are justly 
 entitled — (cheers) — and the Irishman who thinks that he can 
 throw away his arms just as Grattan disbanded the Volunteers, 
 will find to his sorrow and destruction when too late, that he 
 has placed himself in the power of a perfidious, cruel, and 
 unrelenting English enemy. (Cheers.) You have had an 
 opportunity recently of studying the utterances of a very 
 great man and a very great orator, the person who till 
 recently desired to impress upon the world, a great 
 opinion of his philanthropy and hatred of oppression ; but 
 who stands the greatest coercionist, the greatest and 
 most unrivalled slanderer of the Irish nation that ever under- 
 took that task. (Cheers.) I refer to William Ewart Glad- 
 stone — (groans)— and his unscrupulous and dishonest speech of 
 the day before yesterday. Not content with maligning you, 
 he maligns John Dillon. (Cheers for Dillon.) He endeavours 
 to misrepresent the Young Ireland party of 1848. No mis- 
 representation is too patent, too low, or too mean for him to 
 stoop to ; and it is a good sign that this masquerading knight- 
 errant, this pretended champion of the liberties of every 
 other nation except those of the Irish nation, should be 
 obliged to throw off the mask to-day, and to stand 
 revealed as the man who, by his own utterances, is prepared 
 to carry fire and sword into your homesteads, unless you 
 humble and abase yourselves before him, and then before the 
 landlords of this country. (Cheers.) . . . 
 
 " In his opinion no man in Ireland is good until he is dead, 
 and unable to do anything more for his country. (Cheers.) 
 In the opinion of this English statesman, no man is good in 
 Ireland until he is buried and is unable to strike a blow for 
 Ireland ; and perhaps the day may come when I may get a 
 good word from Englishmen as being a moderate man when 
 I am dead and buried. (Laughter and cheers.) . . . 
 
 " I don't wish to anticipate the speech that Mr. Dillon will 
 make in reply to Mr. Gladstone, . . . but I merely wish to 
 point out in passing, that while William Ewart Gladstone 
 admits Mr. Dillon to-day to be one of the most single- 
 
THE FAMOUS WEXFORD SPEECH 219 
 
 minded men, devotedly attached to his country, and to be of 
 perfect unswerving integrity, but twelve months ago he put up 
 his mouthpiece in the House of Commons to declare that John 
 Dillon was a man weak and cowardly. And when Mr. Glad- 
 stone, a little lower down, accuses us of preaching the doctrine 
 of public plunder and of proclaiming a new doctrine of plunder, 
 and, further down, of promulgating a gospel of sheer plunder 
 — (A voice : * That is his own doctrine ! ') — I would be obliged 
 to my friend in the crowd if he would leave me to make the 
 speech and not be anticipating me — (laughter) — when people 
 talk of public plunder they should first ask themselves, and 
 recall to mind, who were the first public plunderers in Ireland. 
 (A voice: * The English.' Cheers.) The land of Ireland 
 has been confiscated three times over, by the men whose 
 descendants Mr. Gladstone is supporting in the fruits of their 
 plunder, by his bayonets and his buckshot. (Groans.) . . . 
 
 ** The * doctrine of public plunder ' is only a question of 
 degree. Who was it that first sanctioned the doctrine of 
 public plunder } will be asked by some persons. 
 
 " I am proceeding upon the lines of an amendment in the 
 Land Act of 1881, which was introduced by Mr. Healy 
 — (cheers) — framed by Mr. Gladstone's Attorney-General 
 for Ireland, and sanctioned by Mr. Gladstone and his 
 whole Cabinet, the House of Commons and the House of 
 Lords. . . . 
 
 ** I say that his doctrine of public plunder is a question of 
 degree. As William Ewart Gladstone has shown himself 
 capable of eating his words, and able to recede from prin- 
 ciples and declarations which he had laid down, why, with 
 just as much fervour as that with which he made the speech 
 the other evening, he will before long, if he lives long enough, 
 introduce a Bill into the House of Commons to extend this 
 very principle of public plunder which he has sanctioned by 
 his Act of 1881. .. . 
 
 " So that if we are to go into the question, the utmost that 
 Mr. Gladstone and the Liberal party will be able to make 
 out of it will be to find that there are some persons very much 
 
220 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 more entitled to call him a little robber, than he is to call 
 me a big one. . . . 
 
 " Then, again, Mr. Gladstone says that I am afraid now the 
 Land Act has been passed, lest the people of England, by 
 their long-sustained efforts, should win the hearts of the 
 whole Irish nation. Long-sustained efforts in what ^ Was it 
 in evicting two thousand tenants since the 1st of January last ^ 
 (Cheers.) Was it in putting two hundred honourable and 
 brave men into Kilmainham, and the other gaols of the 
 country.** Was it in issuing a police circular of a more 
 infamous character than any which has been ever devised 
 by any foreign despot .'' Was it in sending hundreds of 
 rounds of ball cartridges to his Bashi-Bazouks throughout the 
 country ? Was it in sharpening the bayonets of the latest 
 issue to the Royal Irish Constabulary > And if it was not, if 
 all these sustamed efforts which Mr. Gladstone has taken up 
 nobly and well from his predecessor in the title of mis- 
 governing Ireland, I should like to know what were the 
 efforts of which William Ewart Gladstone talks, when he 
 speaks of these sustained efforts which he is making for 
 the people of Ireland. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Gladstone in those few short words admits that the 
 English Government has failed in Ireland. He admits the 
 contention that Grattan and the Volunteers of '82 fought for ; 
 he admits the contention that the men of '98— (cheers) — lost 
 their lives for ; he admits the contention that O'Connell argued 
 for ; he admits the contention that the men of '48 staked 
 their all for ; he admits the contention that the men of '65 — 
 (cheers) — after a long period of depression and of apparent 
 death of all national life in Ireland, cheerfully faced the 
 dungeon and the horrors of penal servitude for ; and he 
 admits the contention that to-day you in your overpowering 
 multitude have re-established, and, please God, will bring to 
 a successful issue — namely, that England's mission in Ireland 
 has been a failure and that Irishmen have established their 
 right to govern Ireland by laws made by themselves 
 for themselves on Irish soil — (cheers) ; and he winds up 
 
"THE WHISTLE OF A SCHOOLBOY" 221 
 
 with the threat — this man who has no moral force behind 
 him — he winds up with a threat, ' No fears of force and no 
 fear of ruin through force shall so far as we are concerned 
 and as it is in our power/ I say it is not his power to trample 
 on the aspirations and the rights of the Irish people, with 
 no moral force behind him. These are very brave words 
 that he uses, but it strikes me that they have a ring about 
 them like the whistle of a schoolboy on his way through a 
 churchyard at night, to keep up his courage. (Cheers.) He 
 would have you to believe that he is not afraid of you, 
 because he has disarmed you, because he has attempted to 
 disorganise you, because he knows that the Irish nation is 
 to-day disarmed, so far as physical weapons go ; but he 
 does not hold this kind of language with the Boers. (Great 
 excitement ; loud and prolonged cheers for the Boers ; cries 
 heard in all directions offering the hearer's services as Irish 
 soldiers, and repeated cries of, * We will be Boers ! ') . . 
 
 " He said something of this kind at the commencement of 
 the session with regard to the Boers. He said he was going 
 to put them down, but as soon as he discovered that they 
 were able to shoot straighter than his soldiers, he allowed 
 these few men to put himself and his Government down. . . 
 And I trust the result of this great movement will be ... we 
 shall see that the brave words of the English Prime Minister 
 will be scattered as chaff, before the united and advancing 
 determination of the Irish people to regain for themselves 
 their lost legislative independence." 
 
 This powerful, able, analytical reply to the " Grand Old 
 Man's " Leeds speech was one of Mr. Parnell's best efforts ; 
 there is not one single expression used which could be deemed 
 too strong in unmasking this hypocritical statesman, this 
 false Liberal. But at present Nationalists retain the same 
 views as Mr. Parnell held of Mr. Gladstone in Wexford. Mr. 
 Parnell spoke truly when he said that Irish patriots must be 
 dead, buried, and useless, before they would be praised by 
 Englishmen ; and, it may be added, either physically dead or 
 
222 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 nationally and politically dead. What a Nemesis some 
 speeches are ! And this one stands out as the last manly 
 public utterance of one that so many Irishmen centred such 
 hopes on. 
 
 The men of Wexford wished to do as the Boers did, or as 
 their brave grandsires did in '98 ; but Mr. Parnell spent more 
 money arguing, as he expresses it in O'Connell's case, the 
 English out of Ireland — vainly, as a matter of course — than 
 would have put a rifle in the hands of every man in his 
 auditory. . . . 
 
 Mr. Gladstone could not refute Mr. Parnell's speech at 
 Wexford, nor Mr. Dillon's chastening rebuke at the League 
 rooms in Dublin ; but this man of peace could arrest and im- 
 prison these once gallant gentlemen. 
 
 But before doing so Mr. Gladstone made arrangements to 
 celebrate the event in a manner befitting its importance ; and 
 to further impress upon his countrymen the solemnity of the 
 occasion, and the Heaven-sent Minister who then guarded 
 Britain's greatness against the wily Irish foe, the Premier 
 prepared his historic tableau with all due care ; no detail to 
 create effect was omitted. The central figure of this tableau, 
 as arranged, was to be Britain's Prime Minister, the benign Mr. 
 Gladstone, receiving the homage of his political opponents, 
 the London Tory merchants, for the suppression of Irish 
 leaders, who were then hostile to British rule in their 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was invited to a reception in the Guildhall, 
 London, on Thursday, October 13, 1881. There, before the 
 Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and City Council, and in the presence 
 of the leading merchants of that wealthy metropolis, he 
 delivered an address on the national politics of the hour. 
 After the preliminary opening remarks, which with this 
 verbose gentleman were most profuse, he said : 
 
 " You may remember that on certain subjects I did in the 
 great town of Leeds speak upon what I held to be purely 
 national and imperial interests — interests which are committed 
 to my charge, interests actually deposited in our hands — by 
 
A DRAMATIC EPISODE 223 
 
 those words, worthy or unworthy of the task. I now beg 
 that you will look upon me simply as a representative of the 
 executive powers and of the authority of the law, and that 
 you will therefore for a moment meet me upon a ground com- 
 mon to us all. (Cheers.) I am glad to see you are prepared 
 for a reference to that question. It is a question which ought 
 to enter, and must enter, into the thoughts of every intelligent 
 native of the country. It has come too near to us to be put 
 back. (Renewed cheers.) Pressed by the enormous activity 
 of civic and social, and political and personal life, it is very 
 difficult for us to give due appreciation to all public questions, 
 however grave ; but at times they will assume prominence 
 and assert themselves with a force which cannot be mistaken, 
 and that is the case with the Irish question at this moment. 
 (Hear, hear.) The issue that is there raised is no issue of 
 political party. (Cheers.) I have said, and say it again, after 
 I had the opportunity of communication with my colleagues, 
 and after having assured myself with that communication 
 that I did not in the slightest degree misrepresent their 
 opinions ; that the Government recognises that it is charged 
 in Ireland with the most arduous and solemn duties, and that 
 these duties to the best of its ability it is determined to per- 
 form. (Cheers.) It is no unnatural criticism upon those 
 words which expressed the hope that they would not be words 
 alone. Our decision, my Lord Mayor, our determination, has 
 been that to the best of our power they should be carried into 
 acts." 
 
 At this part of Mr. Gladstone's speech, a movement was 
 perceptible in the crowd of gentlemen who surrounded him — 
 this was the thrilling scene in the tableau, — and very soon 
 a telegraph messenger boy was seen emerging from the throng 
 near the Prime Minister; he handed the Premier a telegram, 
 which he quickly opened, scanning over its contents. The 
 information contained in that telegram must have been in 
 Mr. Gladstone's possession long before he visited the Guild- 
 hall, for he himself gave the order which resulted in the 
 information he was about to convey to his audience. The 
 
224 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 messenger boy was plainly a melodramatic trick, to add 
 additional lustre to Britain's victory over Irish disaffection by 
 the imprisonment of her leaders. Resuming his speech, the 
 Premier turned towards his audience, and in solemn tone and 
 aspect said : 
 
 *' And even within these few minutes I have been informed 
 that, towards the vindication of law, of order, and the right 
 of property, of the freedom of the land, of the first elements 
 of political life and the resources of civilisation, the first step 
 has been taken in the arrest of the man " — 
 
 The revered city fathers here grew frantic with joy, the 
 whole audience burst into loud and prolonged cheers, waving 
 of hats and handkerchiefs — it was such a famous British 
 victory ! 
 
 — " In the arrest of the man, who unhappily, from motives 
 which I do not challenge, which I cannot examine, and 
 with which I have nothing to do, has made himself 
 beyond all others prominent in the attempt to destroy 
 the law — (cheers) — and to substitute what would end in 
 leaving nothing more nor less than anarchical oppres- 
 sions, exercised upon the people of Ireland. (Loud cheers.) 
 My Lord Mayor, it is not with the people of Ireland 
 that we are at issue. (Hear, hear.) Our firm belief is that 
 the people of Ireland — and especially the mass of the 
 tenantry of that country, constituting, as you are aware, of 
 themselves considerably more than a moiety of that entire 
 people — are earnestly desired to make full trial of the equit- 
 able Bill which with great labour, effort, and resolution 
 Parliament has introduced into the law of the land. (Cheers.) " 
 
 The Premier concluded his momentous speech amid deafen- 
 ing cheers and plaudits from his English hearers. 
 
 It happened that on that very afternoon the writer was 
 passing through that always busy thoroughfare in front of the 
 Royal Exchange, London. The place was densely packed 
 with people ; they were crowded on the steps of the Mansion 
 House; the Royal Exchange was black with heads; the 
 
THE ARREST OF MR. PARNELL 225 
 
 people overflowed into Threadneedle Street, King William 
 Street, and Queen Victoria Street ; and down the Poultry 
 and Cheapside, on towards the Guildhall and past King Street, 
 was one solid wedge of persons, cheering with the most un- 
 bounded enthusiasm. About this time Mr. Gladstone had 
 come to that dramatic episode in his historic speech when he 
 informed the London merchants of the Irish leader's arrest. 
 Then the cheers from the Guildhall were taken up by the 
 immense throngs outside, and re-echoed and reverberated 
 with uproarious joy from a thousand throats in that enormous 
 multitude. Standing for a moment with a friend in a dazed 
 condition, for we knew something of great import had moved 
 the English crowd to such unwonted bursts of joy, we asked 
 a bystander, after the extravagant expressions of delight had 
 died away sufficiently to enable us to be heard, what caused 
 this unusual throng and demonstrative happiness. The 
 answer came that their idol, Mr. Gladstone, was in the 
 Guildhall; and that their enemy, Parncll, was in Kilmainham. 
 This reply came from an English working man ; the cheering 
 crowd was mainly composed of English working men. This 
 is an answer to the " educators of the English people." 
 
 There are moments in life that cannot be forgotten ; they 
 come to all men. This deliberate insult to our country in the 
 arrest of her chief citizen stung us to the quick ; the tumul- 
 tuous feelings of hate and rage had to be suppressed ; we 
 felt it was a time not for "words alone," as the English 
 Minister stated, but that to the best of our people's power, if 
 our race was not the veriest slaves that crawl worm- 
 like on the ground, their words " should be carried into 
 acts" — again quoting Mr. Gladstone. Making our way 
 through the surging crowd towards St. Paul's Churchyard, we 
 heard the newsboys cry, " Harrest of Parnell ! Harrest of 
 Parnell ! ** It seemed as if the papers had been purposely 
 kept back until the curtain dropped after the tableau in the 
 Guildhall. The papers informed their readers that Superin- 
 tendent Mallon and five policemen had arrested Mr. Parnell 
 early that morning in Morrison's Hotel. Dublin ; and conveyed 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 him at nine o'clock to Kilmainham gaol. So that the Irish 
 leader was housed in prison, seven hours before the British 
 leader announced it in his spectacular drama before the city- 
 fathers. The Prime Minister was indeed carrying his 
 words into acts. Mr. Sexton, M.P. ; Mr. Quinn, assistant 
 secretary of the Land League, who succeed Mr. Brennan, 
 the secretary, already incarcerated ; Mr. O'Kelly, M.P., and 
 several leading merchants received the " grand old Liberal's " 
 lettres de cachets. Of these were Mr. Downing, manager of 
 Mr. Cassidy's distillery, Monasterevan, and Mr. Henry Egan, 
 J.P., Tullamore, the leading merchant of that town ; and a 
 goodly company of others. 
 
 The Land League Council in Dublin held a meeting, at 
 which they denounced the Government as usual, and pro- 
 tested against the arrest of the Irish leader and his brother 
 members. Mr. John Dillon was appointed to take Mr. 
 Parnell's place. But the amiable and benevolent Mr. Glad- 
 stone very curiously did not heed the protests and resolutions, 
 as he did the Boers' bullets. Ignoring this Dublin meeting, 
 he arrested Mr. Dillon, M.P., next day — a very incompre- 
 hensible proceeding when it considered that that powerful 
 weapon " public opinion " was completely in favour of the 
 League. Even that much-prized gift — an arsenal in itself— 
 American sympathy, was altogether in favour of Mr. Parnell ; 
 and yet this erratic but benevolent " Grand Old Man " did 
 not appear to heed French, American, or German public 
 opinion, but went on taking such personal care of the Irish 
 Leaguers, that he locked them up under his servants* 
 guardianship. 
 
 Now came the supreme public effort of the crusaders. 
 The great hundred-ton gun of moral suasion and passive 
 resistance came forth to annihilate the British enemy and 
 his satellites, the landlords. This was the famous " No 
 Rent Manifesto." It appeared shortly after the arrest of 
 Mr. Dillon. United Ireland^ the organ of the Land League, 
 edited by Mr. O'Brien, commented on the arrest of Mr. 
 Parnell in its editorial of October 15, 1881, as follows : 
 
THE POLICY OF "MORAL SUASION" 227 
 
 ** His spirit is abroad in a million Irish hearts ; his work is 
 done ; his lesson is taught. It has sunk into our souls ; it 
 has lifted up our hearts above the terrors of the dungeons, 
 above their dastard power, above their dastard bribes. Mr. 
 Gladstone's argument at Leeds was shattered to pieces by 
 Parnell's argument at Wexford. The old hypocrite has 
 mended his argument by the help of his police ; and he has 
 answered his opponent by garrotting him. It is not our 
 province to point out the means by which the farmers of 
 Ireland can now answer Gladstone. Nobody can doubt what 
 they are. Without stepping one inch outside the law the 
 Irish farmers have ample revenge ready to their hands. 
 Never was there such a chance of covering our nation with 
 glory.'* 
 
 The Turkish Mohammedans were never more devoted to 
 the doctrines of their faith, never more fanatical in their 
 devotion to the holy Kaaba, never more firm and true 
 believers in the Koran, than Mr. O'Brien of United Ireland 
 is in the doctrine of " moral suasion." He is sincerely and 
 purely an affectionate son of Ireland, and is a gentleman of 
 many and varied accomplishments, a cultured writer and 
 speaker, and a man who would undoubtedly ornament any 
 position his country would confer upon him. But one thing 
 Mr. O'Brien and his views could never do ; they could never 
 free a nation. He may waste his soul away in vain and 
 frantic struggles, protestations, and resolutions in every 
 tongue or dialect spoken on the earth — he may resolve and 
 protest a thousand-fold, but he can never lift the iron hand 
 of foreign rule from the island of his birth, the beloved land 
 Irishmen are all trying to serve. Examine this leading 
 article in Mr. O'Brien's paper ; every patriotic Irishman will 
 agree in the statement that Mr. Parnell had shattered Mr. 
 Gladstone's arguments. So has every Irish Nationalist who 
 attempted " moral suasion " since this century commenced, 
 shattered the arguments of his English opponents. But this 
 kind of shattering is not only useless ; it is utter folly and 
 senility for a people to keep on in such a course. The writer 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 in United Ireland speaks of the " terrors of their dungeons." 
 Now Nationalists do not for a moment undervalue the 
 sufferings of several months in gaol, and the agony of the 
 plank bed ; but dungeons are the punishment of revolution- 
 ists, not of agitators. There is no possibility that " moral 
 suasion " will ever bring a man to the scaffold or penal 
 servitude. So that, after all, the physical force men have to 
 take the chances, and to suffer, if captured, every indignity 
 which English warders can inflict upon them, as Irishmen 
 have suffered in all our recollections, and are suffering at this 
 very moment in England's penal prisons. . . . 
 
XIV. 
 
 GLADSTONISM AND CRIME — THE TRAIL OF BLOOD. 
 
 The No Rent Manifesto caused a sensation for a few 
 days. Here are some portions of the text : 
 
 ''^Fellow Countrymen^ 
 
 " The time has come to test whether the great organisation 
 built up during years of patient labour and sacrifice, and 
 consecrated by the allegiance of the whole Irish race the 
 world over, is to disappear at the summons of a brutal 
 tyranny. . . . 
 
 "Mr. Gladstone has by a series of furious and wanton 
 acts of despotism driven the Irish tenant farmers to choose 
 between their own organisation and the mercy of his 
 lawyers. . . . 
 
 "You have to choose between all-powerful unity and 
 unpopular disorganisation ; between the land for the land- 
 lords, and the land for the people. We cannot doubt your 
 choice. Every tenant farmer in Ireland is to-day the 
 standard-bearer of the flag unfurled at Irishtown, and can 
 bear it to glorious victory. Stand together in the face of the 
 brutal and cowardly enemies of your race. Pay NO RENTS 
 
 UNDER any pretext. STAND PASSIVELY, FIRMLY, FEAR- 
 LESSLY BY, while the armies of England may be engaged in 
 their hopeless struggle against a spirit which this weapon 
 cannot touch. . . , 
 
230 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 " If you are evicted you shall not suffer. The landlord 
 who evicts will be a ruined pauper, and the Government who 
 supports him with its bayonets, will learn in a single winter 
 how powerless its armed force is against the will of a united 
 and determined and self-reliant nation. 
 
 " Charles Stewart Parnell, Kilmainham Jail. 
 " Andrew Kettle, Kilmainham Jail. 
 " Michael Davitt, Home Secretary, Portland Prison. 
 "John Dillon, Head Organiser, Kilmainham Jail. 
 " Thomas Sexton, Head Organiser, Kilmainham Jail. 
 " Patrick Egan, Treasurer, Paris." 
 
 When this manifesto was issued, the thinking Nationalists 
 came to the conclusion that the leaders meant fight of some 
 sort to enforce its provisions, and that the document was 
 couched in what they termed diplomatic and expedient 
 language. The reading of what was not said in the pro- 
 clamation, reconciled its tenor to practical men. Outside of 
 a lunatic asylum any more absurd and inane matter was 
 never penned ; that is, reading it as the outside world did. 
 Think of men who rank as leaders, telling a whole nation 
 that a Government and its armed forces are powerless before 
 the will of a people ! And yet some leaders in Irish affairs 
 complained when this manifesto was withdrawn. Nationalists 
 are often inclined to think of some of our people as overgrown 
 babies. Think of France disbanding its army and telling 
 Germany she is powerless before the will of the French 
 people, and that the German army counts for nothing in the 
 struggle! Alsace and Lorraine must go back to France, 
 because the French will it. It seems ridiculous discussing 
 these absurd teachings, and yet they are being preached to 
 the Irish people all over the world ; and leading Irish- 
 Americans, men of judgment, education, and ability in every 
 path of life, give utterance to these silly doctrines. . . . 
 
 The No Rent Manifesto could no more be carried out 
 without force, than Irishmen could move their island to the 
 other side of the Atlantic, if they willed it. The National 
 
THE ABSURDITY OF THE NO RENT MANIFESTO 231 
 
 party, who still gave Mr. Parnell support, was taught that 
 this manifesto meant something more practical than the 
 farmer buttoning up his pockets, and refusing to pay any 
 rent. There will be men found even to this day, who will 
 contend that this refusal to pay rent could be carried out. 
 It seems an outrageous attack on common sense to talk this 
 way. The enemy would have nothing more to do than to 
 arrest these farmers, sequestrate for their own use every 
 penny they had in the bank, seize all their stock, and by force 
 take every penny they had in their pockets. Men will 
 possibly talk of law. Law in Ireland — bosh ! Whatever 
 Britain wishes to do, she does. In Ireland law is, and has 
 always been, the bayonet. The enemy only surrounds himself 
 with forms of law, the better to lure the people to their 
 destruction. The whole agitation, from its inception to its 
 close, could only be the dream of an illusionist. It is based 
 on the monstrous folly that Ireland's rights will be respected 
 by her plunderer. 
 
 Behind all these noisy movements, with their meetings, 
 speeches, resolutions, and public teachings that the enemy's 
 bayonets did not count, there existed, as there does to this 
 day, the determined and patriotic manhood of Ireland, 
 looking vainly for a leader to order their advance on the 
 enemy's lines to strike a blow for their country's independ- 
 ence. Thousands of stalwart Irishmen were ready to make 
 any sacrifices on the altar of their country. The Irish 
 Government of Parnellites saw that some action was abso- 
 lutely necessary ; they knew that the No RENT Manifesto 
 should be supported by some war of reprisals on the foe. 
 But they considered, rightly or wrongly, that it was necessary 
 to continue to keep up a public appearance of " moral 
 suasion " so as to deceive the enemy. They forgot that in 
 deceiving the foe they also deceived their own countrymen, 
 who could not read the oracle aright, and more especially 
 their great financial supporters, the Irish-American public, 
 who knew absolutely nothing of the initiation of this war of 
 reprisals on the cruel British enemy. 
 
232 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 It is sad to think that the necessity of preserving secrecy 
 in order to more effectually deceive the foe, should have been 
 so effectively used since to aid the British in maligning, 
 blackening, and misrepresenting the brave men who re- 
 sponded to the Parnellite Government's call for volunteers, 
 and some of whom gave up their lives in the service of their 
 country. 
 
 This book will narrate these stirring events as they 
 develop themselves ; and later on the curtain will be drawn 
 aside, and the full history of this red page in Irish history 
 given to the world. 
 
 The excitement was now at its height — it cannot be digni- 
 fied with the name of struggle, for the blows were given only 
 by one side. The No Rent Manifesto caused more joy 
 in the Irish ranks than it caused consternation to the enemy. 
 Secure in the possession of undisturbed force, the British could 
 despise all attempts to reason with them. The English 
 masses looked upon the manifesto as an incentive to public 
 robbery. The Government of Mr. Gladstone responded by 
 suppressing the Land League. Recently, when the Tories, 
 Ireland's other foes, were about to pass a similar, but 
 not so drastic a measure,- the hypocritical Liberals were quite 
 shocked. The Irish members held up the Liberals' speeches 
 to their countrymen with approval and hope, ignoring 
 their never-ending brutal treatment of Ireland when in 
 power. Mr. Gladstone's Lord-Lieutenant issued a pro- 
 clamation completely suppressing the Land League. There 
 was not even the Tory attempt to consult Parliament. 
 This edict was issued on the 20th day of October, 1881, and 
 immediately took effect. A portion of this proclamation 
 reads thus : 
 
 " Now we hereby warn all persons that the said association, 
 styling itself the Irish Land League or by whatsoever other 
 name it may be called or known, is an unlawful and criminal 
 association, . . . and we do hereby call on all loyal and well- 
 affected subjects of the Crown to aid us in upholding and 
 
THE LAND LEAGUE SUPPRESSED 233 
 
 maintaining the authority of the law and the supremacy of the 
 Queen in this her realm of Ireland. 
 
 "Dated at Dublin Castle the 20th day of October, 1881, by 
 his Excellency's commands. 
 
 «W. E. FORSTER." 
 
 The despotic suppression of the League, coupled with the 
 arbitrary imprisonments on the faintest suspicion of sympathy 
 with the Irish cause, caused a great deal of panic among the 
 frothy element of the agitators. These weak and nerveless 
 men quickly disappeared from the scene of their previous 
 blatant speeches. Some very prominent agitators were what 
 people call, with a species of iclat, " on the run," and they did 
 run with a vengeance. They even feared to make a stand in 
 Britain, although the Coercion Act was powerless there. 
 Their action can only be characterised as fright and flight, 
 but not fight. 
 
 But to the credit of those Irishmen who were highest in 
 authority, and who had helped to make the League so influ- 
 ential with the Irish masses, particularly with the non- 
 agricultural classes — the artisans and mechanics of the towns, 
 the intelligent and truly patriotic element of Irish nationhood, 
 — be it recorded that they were busily engaged in creating 
 a fresh power to combat with the foe. Although they 
 publicly sanctioned the most hateful and degrading of slavish 
 doctrines and mock legal and constitutional measures, they 
 had determined on a patriotic and more manly course. 
 Their continued attempts at " passive resistance " did not 
 deceive the lynx-eyed foe ; but it all but convinced their weak 
 and timid colleagues, who would collapse at the very thought 
 of hostility to the brutal destroyers of their native land. 
 This element, so numerous in all provincial movements, is 
 generally led by demagogues of considerable literary and 
 oratorical ability, men who have great influence over the 
 uneducated masses ; and in moments of profound peace, when 
 Ireland is silently fading away under the deadly influence ot 
 the invader's poison, they can be heard addressing the multi- 
 
234 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 tude in the most exciting harangues, symbolical of the terrible 
 destruction they would in person hurl upon the enemy, if 
 some far-away and imagined time or other circumstance of 
 great moment had but occasion for the display of their 
 martial valour. 
 
 But the " brains " of the League movement, those who united 
 knowledge with patriotism, were exercising their intelligence 
 as to the best manner to meet the emergency forced upon 
 them. This had been under consideration for some time, 
 but the crisis was now in its most acute stage ; they felt the 
 hour had come for Ireland to strike. Fortunately for the 
 Irish cause, these men were invested with both power and 
 authority — authority delegated to them not alone by Irish- 
 men in Ireland, but the whole Irish race the world over ; 
 hence their actions were invested with legal power, and every 
 order issued by these patriots was lawful and should be 
 obeyed by all loyal and law-abiding citizens of Ireland. 
 The British Executive in Dublin Castle was and is an 
 illegal murder conspiracy, and is only cheerfully obeyed in 
 Ireland by the invader's myrmidons, or else rebels and 
 traitors to their native land. Obedience is wrung from the 
 loyalist Irish patriot, as the brigands enforce their authority 
 on their captors. 
 
 It is to be for ever deplored by loyal Irishmen that the 
 manly and patriotic stand taken by the authorised leaders 
 of the Irish race did not continue and grow in intensity, 
 instead of slowly weakening until it faded out of sight ; and 
 that rampart treason supplied, and still supplies, the place 
 of former heroic orders and whole-souled and determined 
 resolutions. 
 
 This destruction of the patriotic government of national 
 defence commenced from within their own ranks ; they had 
 not the courage to openly espouse the cause they were 
 secretly creating, not even the courage to preserve the 
 dignity of silence; but, under the delusive idea that they 
 were deceiving the enemy, they condemned the results of 
 their own secret orders, thus aiding the foe's diplomacy 
 
THE POLICY OF A WAR OF REPRISALS 235 
 
 without in any way convincing him of their freedom from 
 association with the patriots, which he publicly pretended to 
 believe, as he does to this day, to serve his fixed purpose — 
 Ireland's depopulation. If they could not have publicly 
 espoused the manly action of " legitimate self-defence " and 
 continued in the enemy's country to direct the movements 
 necessary to put in practice this resistance, they could, through 
 secret diplomatic agencies, have addressed the Government 
 and statesmen of every nation ; and by public placards set 
 before mankind, the justness and necessity of Ireland's resist- 
 ance to bloodshed and tyranny enforced upon her by a foreign 
 people who had invaded their country. These could have 
 borne the collective signature of the " Government of National 
 Defence." Let the enemy try and find out who were the 
 brave men who composed this Government. They were for 
 some time on the trail, but having satisfied themselves when 
 all danger to their rule had passed away and when some of 
 these men became valuable aids in their mission of removing 
 the Celts from Ireland, they preserve their secret ; not even 
 permitting their coercion organ, the Tijues, to know the 
 truth, although they are using this vile journal for the 
 purpose of further degrading the men whom Ireland once 
 honoured. 
 
 With the wealth and power this Irish Government of 
 National Defence then wielded all this could be easily accom- 
 plished, and negotiations on behalf of Ireland entered into 
 with European lovers of liberty, and possibly an alliance with 
 some powerful Government whose interest and sympathies 
 were antagonistic to the common enemy; but, in addition to 
 the false diplomacy of moral cowardice, they permitted the 
 weak and drivelling politicians, who were frightened at the 
 enemy's vigour to resume sway in their councils, and so 
 destroyed what was full of promise for their suffering and 
 brutally tortured motherland. 
 
 The National Land League of Great Britain announced as 
 an answer to Mr. Parnell's arrest, a public demonstration to 
 
236 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 beheld in Hyde Park, London, on Sunday, October 31, 1881, 
 to denounce the despotism and high-handed tyranny of the 
 arrest of the Irish leader and his colleagues by William 
 Ewart Gladstone's orders, or, as he was then called in Irish 
 circles, " Judas Gladstone " ; and also for that Minister's 
 summary suppression of the League. 
 
 Owing to the absence of the patriotic Irish members, who 
 were, let us hope, engaged in more important work than 
 public meetings, speakers were difficult to find, a panic per- 
 vading the ranks of the moral suasionists. The Land League 
 Executive issued invitations to Irishmen, not members of the 
 Land League, to speak in Hyde Park at the forthcoming 
 demonstration. These Irish Nationalists were requested to 
 attend a conference to be held in the Parliamentary chambers, 
 Westminster, on the Friday evening previous to the great 
 demonstration. The writer, with others, received an invitation 
 to attend this conference. The room was crowded with a 
 gathering of the leading Irishmen of London ; Provincialists 
 and Nationalists alike were assembled. This was the room 
 which the Irish Parliamentary members usually occupied when 
 in consultation; but this evening they were all absent. Around 
 a large table in the centre of the room, the members of the 
 Executive were seated. Their secretary, Mr. Frank Byrne, 
 rose to read a letter. This patriotic gentleman, since much 
 spoken of, had been in the service of the old Home Rule 
 Confederation as secretary in Mr. Butt's days ; and continued 
 in office much esteemed by all who came in contact with him. 
 Mr. Byrne had served with credit and ability in an Irish 
 company attached to one of the French regiments, in the army 
 under Bourbaki during the Franco-German War ; and was 
 interned with his corps in Switzerland. He was a faithful 
 and valuable secretary of the League ; and from his long 
 association with the Irishmen in England knew the proper 
 men to further the agitation. He had been an earnest and 
 honest worker in the organised ranks of " moral suasion," and 
 had to undertake a great portion of the labours necessary in 
 organising public meetings. The League lost a valuable 
 
DISCUSSING THE NO RENT MANIFESTO 237 
 
 officer when deprived of his services. When Mr. Frank Hugh 
 O'Donnell accused him of betraying his political trust, 
 Mr. O'Donnell talked of what he knew nothing about and 
 made a false and cowardly charge. There has been betrayal, 
 but it has not come from Mr. Byrne. 
 
 The letter which the secretary read at the meeting was an 
 advice to reconsider the indorsement of the No RENT 
 Manifesto ; the writer, who was Mr. Joseph Gillis Biggar, 
 feared the Government might suppress the Land League of 
 Great Britain, an organisation separate from its defunct sister 
 in Ireland. The Nationalists present were surprised to hear 
 such advice from Mr. Biggar, but supposed some timorous 
 members of the party influenced him, they having caught the 
 prevailing mania of fear or " expediency," which has covered 
 so many sins of cowardice. The Executive was about to 
 adopt the advice given in the letter when one of the 
 members rose and protested. He said it would stamp the 
 Land League of Great Britain as composed of cowards. 
 Whatever opinion men might hold as to the wisdom of the 
 No Rent Manifesto, it was their united duty to endorse it 
 now that it had been proclaimed by their imprisoned leaders. 
 It was their duty to show Mr. Gladstone and his Government, 
 that Irishmen could not be crushed by fears, or threats of 
 imprisonment. He concluded by proposing that No RENT 
 should be publicly endorsed and inscribed on their banners at 
 the Hyde Park demonstration of Sunday. When was there 
 ever a gathering of Irishmen where manly counsels did not 
 always prevail, if some bold-spirited speaker put them 
 intelligently ? The meeting which a moment before was 
 about to adopt the platform of denying and ignoring the 
 No Rent doctrine of retaliation, now became most en- 
 thusiastic ; the principle of No Rent was carried by 
 acclamation. 
 
 After the meeting was over, some portions of it broke 
 up into small social knots, and one could learn from the 
 manner and the remarks of some of the gentlemen in the 
 company, that they were somewhat alarmed at the resolu- 
 
238 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 tion come to ; they thought it very possible that it was 
 a rash act in the then temper of Mr. Gladstone and the 
 British people. But there were other people whose temper 
 was just as unyielding and determined as Mr. Gladstone's ; 
 and had they the power, the subsequent events would have 
 been very different. 
 
 Some Irish Nationalists at this time formed the acquaint- 
 ance of many of the leading English republicans, a small 
 body of liberty-loving intelligent men. They tried to ignore, 
 however, the national difference of the two peoples ; and dis- 
 regarded the fact, that extreme as they were on all social 
 issues, on the question of Ireland having a separate national 
 existence they were as intolerant as the most bigoted Tory, 
 whose rule and doctrine they were organised to overthrow. 
 Their hearers could not repress a smile at the way they 
 were supplying the very argument in their own persons, which 
 they were trying to combat. On this subject their ideas of 
 union were that Irishmen should become Englishmen. In 
 their ranks were many amiable and liberty-loving ladies. 
 Miss Helen Taylor and Miss Jessie Craigen were prominent 
 among these. 
 
 This English organisation tried to get up a special meet- 
 ing of sympathy with the Irish, and in condemnation of the 
 Premier's policy. The meeting was held at Trafalgar Square 
 on the Saturday afternoon previous to the Irish Hyde Park 
 meeting. Mr. Gladstone's followers, the English working 
 men, attended and broke up the meeting by physical force, 
 dispersing the few English sympathisers with Ireland who 
 attended to offer resolutions condemning the Liberal leader's 
 despotic conduct. An Irish Nationalist speaking to Miss 
 Craigen a few days after the meeting, tried to point out the 
 impossible course she and others in their goodness of heart 
 had undertaken. Those men, who broke up that meeting 
 through bigoted intolerance and blind devotion to Mr. Glad- 
 stone, are to-day hailed as Ireland's coming deliverers. Save 
 us from national lunacy ! 
 
 Next day, Sunday, the great Irish demonstration was held 
 
'*N0 RENT" IN HYDE PARK 239 
 
 in London. The different sections of the procession began 
 to form at Charing Cross, Northumberland Avenue, and on 
 the Thames Embankment. Each section had banners with 
 various appropriate mottoes ; conspicuous among these was 
 the banner of No Rent. One procession, composed of over 
 one thousand stalwart working-men, informed the public by 
 its banner that they were the " English democracy of the East 
 End " ; at its head rode a fine, stalwart, handsome man, with 
 coal-black hair and moustache ; he wore a red cap of liberty 
 a la Franqais. This English horseman was born in Cork, 
 and judging from the profiles of the men composing the East 
 End contingent, there was nothing English about them but 
 their banner. Fresh bands of such Englishmen arrived, and 
 the procession began to swell into immense proportions. 
 All around could be heard the genuine cockney accents ; the 
 h was either absent, or in wrong company ; but in spite of 
 their tongue, they were as patriotic and warm-hearted Irish 
 Celts as you could find in Connemara. Had the hills of 
 Down or Dublin greeted their infant eyes, instead of London 
 smoke and fog, they could not have been more ardent in 
 their sympathies, more earnest in their intentions, or more 
 self-sacrificing in their devotion to the sacred cause of Ireland. 
 Grand old race of the green island of our birth, how 
 magnificent you are in your love for the land of your 
 sires wherever you may be born ! For no matter how many 
 generations in an alien clime, you are Irish of the Irish 
 still — Titans in the strength of your sentiment, midgets in 
 the weakness of your practical work, which is led astray 
 and turned off into many channels through the cowardice, 
 the vanity, and the self-seeking of your leaders. If Heaven 
 would but send you a man who would be as great in con- 
 centrating your physical blows upon your enemy, as 
 O'Connell was great in oratory and argument, you would 
 stand before the world, second to no other race in the family 
 of nations. 
 
 There were seven vehicles, from which the speakers were 
 to address different portions of this vast multitude. Each 
 
240 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 vehicle, or platform, was numbered conspicuously on the out- 
 side. Men with corresponding numbers on tall staffs, to be 
 used as marking posts, were sent on in advance. They took 
 up their positions at regular intervals of a straight line in 
 Hyde Park. Each carriage drew up opposite its correspond- 
 ingly numbered staff. Mr. Frank Byrne was ubiquitous ; he 
 had a lot of details to look after, and he performed his work, 
 as usual, well and satisfactorily. 
 
 Mr. Frank Hugh O'Donnell was the only member oi 
 Parliament present, and whatever has been the course of this 
 gentleman's unpatriotic and pro-British actions of recent 
 years, he must be done the justice of stating that at this 
 period he was unremitting in his exertions in the Provincialist 
 programme of arguing with England. The Irishmen ot 
 London were there in their tens of thousands. We have 
 seen a great many Irish processions, from O'Connell's days 
 in early childhood down to recent years. This Hyde Park 
 demonstration was fully equal to any of them. What forcibly 
 struck the speakers as they looked back from the carriages 
 where they were seated at the giant procession as it passed 
 Marlborough House, was that there in Britain's capital was a 
 huge foreign element, men who would of course unite with 
 Britons on all social questions ; but on the Irish National 
 question they were totally distinct as a people. It was when 
 looking back at the immense procession, that it began to 
 dawn upon us what power these men, if properly organ- 
 ised and led, could be to Ireland. Britain was already 
 invaded by a determined enemy if this power was properly 
 wielded by a man of brains. En route to Hyde Park there 
 could be recognised Mr. Phillip Callan, M.P., standing on the 
 steps of the Reform Club, a mere spectator ; he apparently 
 had not the moral courage to take an active part in the huge 
 gathering. 
 
 In the carriage where the writer was seated were three 
 speakers, one of them since a member of Parliament, who made 
 a very able address, and another an English working man 
 (and the promoters of the meeting wished it to be considered 
 
THE USELESSNESS OF DEMONSTRATING 241 
 
 English), a member of several trade and social organisations, 
 who had been a Chartist and marched under Feargus 
 O'Connor ; and yet our Chartist Englishman was born in the 
 county of Kerry ! 
 
 The English masses who lined the carriageway on either 
 side, listened to the speeches ; but for aught these speeches 
 affected them, these good Londoners might as well have been 
 citizens of that Eastern city in the Arabian tales whose 
 inhabitants were turned into stone. The cheering and the 
 applause came from the Irish processionists. They protested 
 in their thousands, and no doubt surprised and possibly 
 astonished, the good Londoners by their enormous numbers. 
 After resolutions were passed and strong speeches were 
 delivered, the meeting dispersed and quietly went home ; and 
 notwithstanding the magnificent and gigantic procession, 
 when Irishmen awoke the next morning Mr. Parnell and his 
 brother members and the rest were still in prison. . . . 
 
 United Ireland oi Ocioh^t 22, 1881, published the following 
 stirring editorial : — 
 
 " For two years the people of this country have been 
 assembling in thousands, solemnly declaring before Heaven 
 that never would they cease their efforts, night or day, until 
 the curse of landlordism was swept from this fair island. 
 Were those vows to God and man but the braggart froth of 
 craven cowards } Or were they the resolute promises of men 
 who inherit the valour and chivalry of an ancient race, whose 
 souls neither fire nor sword, neither the gibbet nor the 
 dungeon, could subdue to slavery. . . . 
 
 " The time has come — the very hour has struck — that 
 demands the sacrifice, be it fraught with sorrow or with 
 suffering, which brave men in all ages have willingly made 
 for the divine right to live as freeman in the land the Lord 
 has given them. * Let knaves and traitors stand aside.' 
 With or without them, and despite their cowards' counsels or 
 treacherous backsliding, landlordism must be stamped out; 
 
 R 
 
242 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 its very roots must be dug out of the earth and cast like 
 rotten faggots into the fire." 
 
 The cartoon issued with this number displayed Britannia, 
 a hideous figure, in the foreground ; Gladstone, with a 
 demoniac scowl of vengeance on his face, on her right ; 
 and underneath the motto, taken from the Premier's speech 
 in the Guildhall, London, " Resources of civilisation." 
 
 Since Manuel Cervantes wrote that powerful and admirable 
 satire upon the knight-errantry of his age, nothing more 
 extraordinary has ever been penned by a sane gentleman, 
 writing for intelligent people. Were the Irish people even 
 besieging the enemy's fortifications and attacking them with 
 clods of grass, and had their leader spoken of these missiles and 
 their effect upon the ramparts of the foe as if shells from 
 Krupp's guns were bursting over the besieged fortress, it 
 would appear the essence of absurdity. But when such 
 extravagant language is applied to an attack of not even sods 
 of grass, but to the hurling of epithets against an armed 
 enemy, we know not which to be more astonished at — the 
 marvellous strain of thought on the part of the writer, or the 
 credulity of the people whom he was addressing in the 
 editorial columns of the leading Irish Provincial organ. 
 What can be thought of a people who can select men of this 
 class for leaders } If it were not known that the quiet, 
 determined manhood of Ireland had nothing to do with this 
 fustian and gasconade. Nationalists would despair of their 
 people. 
 
 What time had come ? What hour had struck ? 
 
 To depict Gladstone in hideous cartoons and hurl double- 
 distilled adjectives at the foe — was this the hour that had 
 struck ? When was it that men's souls were tried by fire and 
 sword in the case of agitation ? When the time actually 
 came that men did dare the " gibbet and dungeon " for 
 Ireland and hurtled something stronger than words at foreign 
 rule, the newspaper containing this fiery editorial could find 
 no words too strong to condemn them ; it went far beyond 
 
"UNITED IRELAND'S'* HYSTERICS ^43 
 
 the London Times in its language. If Ireland is to be freed 
 by " braggart froth," this journal has supplied a plentiful 
 supply of ammunition. 
 
 The epithet " Judas Gladstone " was then used in the same 
 way as " Bloody Balfour " is to-day ; the agitators are 
 brilliant in the application of choice names. The brave 
 Boers never used such language ; they did not despise the 
 strength of their foe ; but neither did they exaggerate his 
 power, and cowardly condemn their own ; calmly and un- 
 flinchingly they faced the danger, putting their trust in 
 Him who helps all brave peoples, who manfully try to help 
 themselves. 
 
 U^iited Ireland of the following week thus described the 
 then situation : — - 
 
 " Our last word is to the Irish race across the ocean. Our 
 gaze turns from ferocious England, and turns towards the west. 
 In the hands of Irish America lies our fate; upon the 
 amount of assistance at hand for those who may have to 
 endure eviction, depends disaster or triumph. Now, as never 
 before, apathy among our transatlantic brethren means 
 defeat, or death. Now, or never, one glorious effort on their 
 part means certain victory. Our backs are turned to Britain, 
 our faces towards the west. When our voice is heard again, it 
 will be in the shout of victory." 
 
 The generous-hearted Irish-Americans poured out their 
 money without stint. Mr. Patrick Ford, ever foremost in 
 Ireland's cause, collected through the columns of the Irish 
 World $400,000, besides the remittances sent by other 
 channels. But there came no victory, only continued 
 coercion. 
 
 Mr. Wm. O'Brien was arrested shortly after the appear- 
 ance of this article. A blank was left in the editorial page 
 on which was printed : '* Silence more eloquent than tongues 
 of fire." Had this editorial silence continued and other 
 work taken its place, results must have been different ; but 
 the curtain was rung down by weak-nerved, vacillating 
 leaders on manly action, 
 
 R 3 
 
244 THE iRISIi NATIONAL INVlNClBLES 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's agents were now using force in all directions. 
 His murderous hirelings were supplied with a new bayonet, 
 keenly sharpened to kill off the Irish. One of the most 
 brutal massacres that can be recorded occurred at this period, 
 the savage and cowardly shooting and stabbing by Mr. 
 Gladstone's hired assassins of helpless women and young 
 girls. This Belmullet massacre will leave a stain on this 
 Liberal Premier's escutcheon that the ocean cannot wash 
 out. On October 27, 1881, there was a gathering of people 
 at Grawhill, near Belmullet. The crowd was composed of 
 women, young girls, and boys. The constabulary received 
 orders to strike terror into the people ; these orders came 
 from Dublin Castle. They were told not to hesitate to slay. 
 These brutal and licentious orders received the sanction of 
 the hypocritical Liberal chief, then Premier of Britain, and 
 with whom the Irish Provincial renegade members have 
 formed an alliance — an open alliance with criminals, men 
 guilty of the murder of their people. No rebuke ever fell 
 from the Premier's lips, to any one directly connected with 
 this crime. English apologists, if such exist, must admit 
 Mr. Gladstone had a criminal and guilty knowledge of these 
 murders. After they took place the assassins were not in 
 any way punished ; on the contrary, they were rewarded. 
 The officer in charge of the enemy's armed men that morning 
 determined to disperse the people that were gathering, and to 
 scatter them in a summary manner. He ordered the British 
 hirelings to fire a volley of buckshot into the crowd of women 
 and children, and then to charge them with the bayonet. 
 He wished to try the new pattern sword bayonet recently 
 supplied to them. Numbers of people were wounded by the 
 volley fired by the British assassins, and, screaming for mercy, 
 they fled in all directions, closely pursued by these butchers 
 in the foreigner's pay, who used their sharp knives stabbing 
 and gashing the flying people. Numbers of women and girls 
 were wounded severely, and they fled to their homes covered 
 with blood, seeking concealment ; for discovery of their 
 gaping wounds would lead to imprisonment under the 
 
GLADSTONIAN PECKSNIFFISM 245 
 
 criminal and assassin rule of William Ewart Gladstone. 
 And along the road they pursued, could be seen the gory 
 stains of the inhuman and merciless Liberal Government of 
 Britain ; for a red trail — a trail of blood — marked the road 
 over which the stabbed women fled to try and hide their 
 gaping wounds. But two among the group could not fly ; 
 two women, one an aged mother, and the other a fair young 
 girl just blooming into womanhood, fell in the gory trail of 
 foreign massacre. Mrs. Mary Deane, a widowed mother, 
 was shot dead by the volley of buckshot that inflicted wounds 
 on many other women, and also children ; and a young 
 maiden, Ellen McDonagh, was brutally stabbed to death by 
 Gladstone's butchers' knives. And Irishmen to-day are in- 
 dignant at being accused of association with murderers, and 
 yet are standing unblushingly before the world the associates 
 and friends of the foul assassins of these helpless women. 
 There comes a shudder of horror over Irish Nationalists when 
 they think that the men they once believed patriotic, could 
 stain their hands with the blood of Ellen McDonagh and 
 Mary Deane, by clasping them in those of their slayers. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Cowen, one of the few honest English Liberals 
 who never believed in the sanctimonious Mr. Gladstone's 
 Liberalism, thus commented on the Belmullet murders in his 
 paper, the Newcastle Chronicle. 
 
 " If Lord Beaconsfield had been in office instead of Mr. 
 Gladstone, the Liberals would have viewed such proceedings 
 as they are now taking, through very different spectacles from 
 those now in use among them. The hurrying off* to prison 
 of sick and suffering men, such as Sexton, Dillon, and 
 O'Brien, on mere suspicion, would have evoked emphatic 
 expressions of disapproval, and no end of effusive eloquence 
 against the Tory despotism. Or if Ireland had been Bulgaria, 
 Montenegro, or Greece, the language used, and the feelings 
 expressed, would have nothing in common with what is now 
 in vogue. Nothing can surpass the withering sarcasm which 
 Continental politicians of every class cast upon this new 
 phase of * nationality interest,' as they call it, developed in 
 
246 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 her Majesty's Government. The men that have so often 
 stood before Europe as the friends of every slave shivering 
 in his chains, are now themselves putting in force as remorse- 
 less a despotism as is operating in Moscow." 
 
 The winter of 1881-82 was one of continued tyranny; 
 every attempt at public expression of opinion was suppressed 
 by Mr. Gladstone's orders. The United Ireland newspaper 
 was suppressed ; every copy printed was seized, and the 
 bookkeeper arrested. Detective Chief Mallon and his corps 
 of Bashi-Bazouks held high carnival. The United Ireland 
 was however printed elsewhere, and numbers of copies of the 
 suppressed newspaper were circulated in Ireland. The Dublin 
 newsboys always had some copies secreted on their persons, 
 which they sold to those they thought they could trust. The 
 little fellows, with Irish instinct, hated British rule, and felt 
 delighted at helping to outwit the English, which they did 
 not alone in Dublin, but all over the country. . . . 
 
 Mr. Parnell was permitted to leave Kilmainham on parole, 
 an unprecedented event with prisoners. The insinuating 
 and crafty Premier had another plan in his prolific brain 
 with which to crush the Irish ; this parole was act the first. 
 A relative of Mr. Parnell's died in Paris, and like the tempter 
 who displayed gold before the eyes of his intended victim 
 to lure him to his destruction, so did Mr. Gladstone hold 
 before the eyes of the imprisoned Irishman the tempting 
 allurement of freedom. Mr. Parnell need break no promise 
 that would be considered derogatory to his honour ; on the 
 contrary, the whole concession was to seemingly come from 
 the Premier. If Mr. Parnell would only — ah, that terrible 
 small word, if, — promise to support Liberal rule in Ireland ! 
 Mr. Glaastone knew how easily Mr. Parnell could make this 
 appear a victory for the agitators, and that in the joy of what 
 they (the Irish) would be taught was a victory, they would not 
 see the underlying purpose of destruction, which the English 
 Minister had in view. The death of Mr. Parnell's nephew 
 supplied the necessary pretext to commence the programme 
 by inducing Mr. Parnell to walk into this skilfully laid trap. 
 
THE KILMAINHAM TREATY 247 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's humanity was supposed to be the motive 
 for this unusual permission to Mr. Parnell to get a holiday 
 from Kilmainham. . . . 
 
 One thing which Mr. Gladstone did not calculate on, was 
 the display of temper made by his agent in Ireland, Mr. 
 Forster. This man, strong to bitterness in carrying out Mr. 
 Gladstone's instructions, held an intensified feeling of hatred 
 towards the Irish people, and particularly towards their Parlia- 
 mentary representatives. He refused to agree to Mr. Glad- 
 stone's change ; he had not the depth of character and 
 duplicity of his more able and wily leader. He could play 
 the wolf, but not the fox. Mr. Forster's resignation followed. 
 But for this Mr. Parnell's letter, apparently to Captain O'Shea 
 but in reality to Gladstone, would have never seen the light of 
 day. Mr. Forster read this letter en route from Kilmainham. 
 When Mr. Parnell some time afterwards read it to the House 
 Mr. Forster noticed an omission, and a very important one. 
 Captain O'Shea, who had handed Mr. Parnell a copy of it to 
 read, had doctored it ; at whose instructions and by whose 
 advice it is easy to guess. The omitted words were : " And 
 would, I feel sure, enable us to operate cordially for the future 
 with the Liberal party in forwarding Liberal principles " — an 
 engagement which when read in the House drew down cheers 
 from the men who cheered Davitt's arrest, and every atrocious 
 act which Mr. Gladstone and his Government perpetrated. 
 It was Mr. Forster who noticed the omission and supplied the 
 correct copy to Mr. Parnell, who was, be it remembered, 
 reading his own letter from the gaol. But this alliance did 
 not take place ; this promise could not be kept in the face of 
 subsequent events. Mr. Gladstone could not accept it, nor 
 could Mr. Parnell give it. Mr. Parnell was saved for a time 
 against himself, though the men who saved him never looked 
 upon the question in any such narrow spirit.^ 
 
 1 Since this chapter was written, twelve months ago, Irish events have 
 hurried the Provincial cause to rapid decay. The Tory Commission is now 
 sitting (December, 1888). The evidence of Captain O'Shea, Gladstone's and 
 Parnell's confederate in negotiating the Kilmainham Treaty, conveys to Irishmen 
 the horrifying news that Mr. Parnell wjis meditating surrender to the enemy as 
 
248 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 But what was the effect upon Irishmen all the world over ? 
 Why this. They believed that it was a victory — that, in the 
 language of more recent date, " they had won all along the 
 line." There are to-day thousands of honest, well-meaning 
 Irishmen who still firmly believe that the result of the Kil- 
 mainham Treaty, were it not for another " ruinous" event, would 
 have been a great victory for the Parliamentary party. The 
 writer remembers once hearing a Russian gentleman in Paris 
 state that he thought the Irish people, were a people difficult 
 to " educate " ; that they believed more in noisy outside 
 display of their patriotism, than the subtle silent workings 
 which are necessary to procure grand results. This so-called 
 victory left the Irish people in the self-same condition they 
 were in before. If the release of men confined in gaol unjustly, 
 is to be called a victory, they should celebrate one every month. 
 But the whole race, or, rather, it should be said, the noisy 
 section of it, were out with bands, and banners, and bonfires, 
 to celebrate their victory. The portion of the press in Ireland 
 which was " tinctured " with a little nationality, gave double- 
 leaded headings to celebrate Mr. Parnell's release. The Irish- 
 American journals which got their information from the 
 leaders at home, proclaimed it a victory. And the joy of the 
 Irish people was unbounded at such glorious success. Ireland 
 has had many of them since ; in fact, there are one or two 
 victories weekly. The arrest of an Irish Provincialist is a 
 victory ; and his release is a great victory. For a gentleman 
 not to wear prison clothes — which he styles a degradation — 
 and to persist in so'^refusing, is a victory. When his clothes 
 are stolen by the prison officials, and another suit, spite of all 
 the viligance of the enemy's officials, is smuggled in to him, 
 it is a victory — a very great victory indeed. And the honest, 
 patriotic tailor who made these clothes, and the faithful 
 
 early as June, i88i ; and this without the knowledge of his colleagues. His 
 overtures were, however, rejected by the British Cabinet. Mr. Gladstone's wish 
 that all papers in connection with Parnell's treasonable surrender in Kilmainham 
 should be destroyed — which was obeyed by the go-between O'Shea — illustrates 
 the treacherous baseness which association with British Ministers breeds in 
 Irishmen, who enter the enemy's Parliament with patriotic ideas. 
 
THE IRISH IDEA OF "VICTORY" 249 
 
 Irishman who ventured to risk a few months' imprisonment 
 to bring in these clothes, considered it a victory ; and they all 
 chuckled and laughed secretly, at how they had outwitted 
 Balfour and his gaolers. And no doubt if it could be pru- 
 dently done, the gentleman who brought inside these clothes, 
 and so risked the penalty of the British law for the possible 
 term of three months, would receive a public reception and be 
 presented with a banquet, and his name enrolled in the annals 
 of fame, to show posterity what great Irishmen, and what 
 daring Irishmen, lived in the latter part of the nineteenth 
 century. Alexander of Macedon, Hannibal, Scipio, Julius 
 Caesar, Turenne, the Prince of Conde, Washington, Nelson, 
 Napoleon, Wellington, Von Moltke, and not forgetting the 
 " great and only," — all their victories by flood and field com- 
 bined together, would not amount to the numerous victories 
 which these Irish crusaders have won in their glorious mission 
 of shaming England. 
 
 Mr. Forster on the day of his departure, which no one 
 in Dublin knew would be his last as Chief Secretary, left 
 for Kingstown and dined in one of the yacht clubs ; he 
 afterwards went on board the mail steamer, his family 
 leaving Dublin by the mail train in the usual manner. Lord 
 Cowper, who also resigned the Lord-Lieutenancy, went out 
 in state. There were great rejoicings in the Provincialist 
 ranks at the release of Mr. Parnell, and several bands turned 
 out to celebrate what was regarded as the great victory ; 
 for the Irish people did not know that in making the 
 Kilmainham treaty Mr. Parnell had made a most cowardly 
 and disgraceful surrender to the enemy, and promised him 
 his alliance, and that of the Irish Provincial party— an alliance 
 he could not publicly carry out, owing to the current of events. 
 Strange to say, the police had orders not to permit these 
 Irish rejoicings ; they kicked in drums, and beat the bands- 
 men with their own instruments ; they revelled in the 
 unbridled licence of wanton brutality ; for although Mr. 
 Forster had resigned, a new chief was in office who evidently 
 was about to repeat his predecessor's bloodstained r^gime^ 
 
2SO THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 inasmuch as the same peaceful and pious Liberal Premier 
 ruled the land. 
 
 Ireland had yet another cup of horrors to drink. A cup 
 filled with blood of young children was held to her quivering 
 and agonised lips, by the assassin regime of foreign Liberal 
 rule. In Ballina, County Mayo, a number of young boys, 
 mere children, the eldest of them not much beyond the age 
 of twelve years, went out in childish delight to parade with 
 an extemporised band of tin whistles and drums, in celebra- 
 tion of the great "victory" of Mr. Parnell's release. The 
 brutal hirelings of Gladstone in their lust of blood, carrying 
 out Dublin Castle orders, fired a volley of buckshot into the 
 band of children, and the crowd of boys and girls that followed 
 the band listening to the music in innocent enjoyment. The 
 tunes the poor children played were national airs which gave 
 pleasure to their simple, poverty-stricken auditory, many of 
 them barefooted and hungry, — one of the blessings of British 
 rule. The merry laughter of happy childhood, however, was 
 in an instant changed to screams of agony and pain ; and with 
 cries of fright and horror the children ran from the " Grand 
 Old Man's " murderers and quickly fled to seek the refuge of 
 their humble homes. But the brutal British-paid assassins 
 gave chase, and ruthlessly stabbed, cut, and gashed all they 
 overtook, till their knives were dripping with the blood of 
 these Irish children. One little fellow, Patrick Melody, aged 
 twelve years, reached his doorstep besmeared with his own 
 blood ; and in the presence of his horror-stricken father, the 
 murdered child dropped down dead. 
 
 Oh, infamy of infamies ! the presence of the accursed and 
 demoniac rule of the Briton in Ireland ! This bloody massacre 
 of the children of Ballina took place on Friday, May 5, 1882. 
 Who was chief of Britain's murder bureau in Dublin Castle 
 when these horrid crimes were perpetrated } Not Forster : 
 he was gone. The man responsible for this cowardly and 
 brutal assassination was the incoming chief. Lord Frederick 
 Cavendish. A thrill of horror ran through the ranks of the 
 Nationalists. A new-coming British chief heralded his ap- 
 
THE NEW CHIEF SECRETARY 251 
 
 proach with the massacre of children ; gouts of blood were 
 on his crimson-stained feet as he implanted them next morning 
 on the sacred soil of Ireland. The Ballina slaughter was 
 known in Dublin that memorable Friday night. Irishmen 
 felt that this continued cup of horrors had become too 
 agonising to bear any longer with impunity. 
 
XV 
 
 THE SIXTH OF MAY IN THE PHCENIX PARK. 
 
 The morning of Saturday, May 6, 1882, awoke the 
 citizens of Dublin to witness the completion of their " great 
 victory." Earl Cowper and his Secretary, the much-hated 
 William E. Forster, had departed ; the news of the resignation 
 of the latter, and his retirement from the Cabinet, had evoked 
 joyful acclamations throughout Ireland. The Irish rejoiced 
 at what they considered the discomfiture and political 
 destruction of their arch-enemy Forster, little heeding — for 
 unfortunately they do not give these grave questions enough 
 of thought — that the same Government of their enemy 
 remained in power ; that alien rule, with its iron and bloody 
 hand ready to scourge them, still continued with all its vicious 
 authority, prepared whenever it thought necessary to assert 
 itself by cruel deeds ; that the master-mind of Mr. Gladstone, 
 under whose directions and authority the numerous horrors 
 of the past winter took place, remained still the controlling 
 influence ; that the man of Leeds and of the Guildhall, 
 London, was still ready with his " resources of civilisation " 
 and his determination to make his " words resolve themselves 
 into acts ; '* that not one single armed soldier or policeman 
 was removed from the yet unconquered island of Ireland. 
 
 The Ballina massacre of helpless boys had occurred the 
 previous day. This was after Forster's retirement. It could 
 not be called even a cessation of the saturnalia of blood, with 
 which Mr. Gladstone's rule drenched this fair island. As 
 
TH£ ARRIVAL OF THE "RED EARL" ^53 
 
 firm and determined as cruel and unscrupulous a man was 
 sent by Gladstone to replace Forster. The Irish people were 
 soon to learn that the " Red Earl " would intensify and 
 redouble the horrors of the preceding regime by the hangings 
 of innocent men ; that while in Mr. Gladstone's first agent's 
 time, "suspicion " haunted the land and hundreds were cast into 
 prison at the mere dictum of an ignorant policeman, under 
 Mr. Gladstone's second agent perjury would run rampant 
 over the country, and packed and drunken juries mock justice 
 by deciding on the issue of life or death. They were also to 
 learn that manufactured perjurers would be created to swear 
 away innocent lives, learning whatever lessons Spencer's 
 agents instilled into them — infamous and degrading wretches 
 termed by the enemy " informers," although they never had 
 any connection with the events they were instructed to swear 
 to. The Irish people — or that portion of them represented 
 by the boisterous element — did not know and could not have 
 foreseen these things, else they would not have resorted to 
 joyful acclamations when silence and work would have more 
 suited the situation. 
 
 It was no time for the hallelujahs of victory, but the sober 
 interval for preparation to guard against the new attack, 
 which the enemy was concentrating to deliver. He had not 
 drawn off his forces, but simply changed front for a fresh and 
 more vigorous assault. 
 
 A slight haze hung over the Dublin mountains on this 
 morning of a memorable day in Irish history. Bew Heder (Hill 
 of Howth) loomed grimly from behind the mist, standing 
 there the silent sentinel of Dublin's magnificent bay. As the 
 morning advanced the curtain of mist raised, and the sun 
 shone out in all the brilliancy and beauty of an Irish spring 
 morning. 
 
 All was bustle and preparation in official quarters; the 
 throne-room in Dublin Castle had on its best costume to 
 welcome its new occupant, the coming Viceroy of that 
 Imperial throne upon which the sun never sets. In 
 the different barracks in Dublin, preparations were being 
 
254 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 made for the ceremonies of the day. Briton's red-coated 
 defenders were burnishing up their arms and accoutrements. 
 Bit and snaffle were brightened in the cavalry barracks by 
 the foreign soldiery occupying the city. Those quartered in 
 Ireland's capital were to make a brilliant display that day to 
 honour the incoming vice-king, and to overawe the natives of 
 the invaded island by the martial valour of their appearance, 
 the bravery and dash of their clanking accoutrements and 
 champing steeds. A guard of honour of infantry, accompanied 
 by a band, was sent out to Kingstown. The war-ship in that 
 splendid harbour was covered with bunting in honour of the 
 event, and her tars, in holiday uniform, were waiting the 
 signal to man the yards and to hail the incoming vice-king 
 with a royal cheer. The guard ship's guns were all ready to 
 fire the viceregal salute, that boom of British artillery which 
 heralds to as yet unconquered Ireland the news that another 
 master has come to try to rule her, sent from that island 
 against which she has kept up in every generation — ay, in 
 every decade of years — the unceasing struggle for native inde- 
 pendence. The citizens of Dublin arose that day to witness 
 one of these gorgeous pageants which British rule, making 
 its advent in Oriental pomp, gives so frequently to the gaze 
 of Ireland's metropolitan city. 
 
 John Poyntz, Earl Spencer, Mr. Gladstone's newly-ap- 
 pointed Lieutenant in Ireland, had arrived, and with him 
 came Mr. Forster's successor, to continue and carry out the 
 English enemy's despotic rule in that unyielding nation. 
 The Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of 
 India, had graciously consented to send Earl Spencer as her 
 Majesty's Lord Deputy to reign over, and represent his 
 most puissant sovereign in that portion of her Majesty's 
 realm called Ireland ; to lighten up the darkness of the lives 
 of its people by the brilliancy of his presence, and to cheer 
 them with the graciousness of the favours thus extended. 
 Such is the cant of the Irish flunkeys. 
 
 The portfolio of office which had fallen from Forster's 
 
LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISH 255 
 
 indignant hand was bestowed upon Lord Frederick Cavendish, 
 Lord Hartington's brother. The new ruler of Ireland, Lord 
 Frederick Cavendish, came with special instructions from the 
 master-mind of hypocrisy and tyranny, the unscrupulous and 
 sanctimonious English Premier. He came [to take charge of 
 the bureau from which Ireland is plundered, reviled, and 
 assassinated — for the vice-king reigns, but does not govern. 
 The new Lord Deputy, however who came to Ireland at this 
 time, soon after assumed the reins of power by virtue of his 
 position as a Cabinet Minister. 
 
 The new Chief Secretary — who had that morning invaded 
 the island with all the emblems of force, surrounded by the 
 naked steel of Britain's soldiery emblematical of the wounds 
 and death this usurping Government was inflicting on the 
 natives of the country — true to the instincts implanted in all 
 of those men who came to Ireland on the same bloody mis- 
 sion of destruction, sought private conference as soon as 
 he could with the Permanent Under-Secretary Burke, 
 whose hands were imbrued with Irish blood ; as every one 
 of his predecessors, without one single exception, have also 
 been. 
 
 In due time the Viceroy arrived by special train at Westland 
 Row. There he was met by the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and 
 town councillors, and presented with one of those fulsome 
 addresses which degrade Irishmen. When my Lord Spencer, 
 in all the dignity of his immense auburn beard, made his 
 appearance in the street and mounted his horse, the news 
 was flashed to the park, from which place the roar of artillery 
 gave a welcoming salute, the clash of the " present arms " and 
 the military words of command were heard as the band struck 
 up ; and with all the ^clat and pomp of military display the 
 viceregal procession started. The flashing of the steel as the 
 sunbeams leaped from bayonet, sword, helmet and accoutre- 
 ment, the various and many coloured uniforms of the staff, 
 the waving plumes and clashing cymbals, all made up a 
 gorgeous pageant sufficient to make glad the hearts of 
 Victoria's loyal and faithful Irish serfs. 
 
256 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 As Lord Spencer's brilliant procession proceeded on its 
 route, the Castle tradesmen and the West British parasites 
 who live on their country's ruin tried to raise a cheer. While 
 it was passing Trinity College, the rising generation of 
 sub-inspectors, judges, and stipendiary magistrates shouted 
 with all the strength of their lungs. At length the new 
 rulers reached the Castle, and the Lords Justices administered 
 the oath. Earl Spencer was hailed with acclamations as 
 the British vice-king, and stood commissioned by foreign 
 usurping authority to dispense what they term law and 
 justice, and also whatever imprisonings and hangings he 
 deemed necessary to keep the unruly Irish obedient to 
 British sway. Thus commenced a memorable and historic 
 vice-reign with every joy that could animate the British 
 heart. 
 
 The day wore on, and holiday-seekers went in all directions 
 for pleasure. Few cities have such beautiful and varied 
 surroundings for enjoyment as the capital of Ireland. 
 
 In the Phoenix Park the young grass was fresh and springy, 
 here and there speckled over with pink-eyed white-rimmed 
 daisies, and dotted at occasional intervals with golden-yellow 
 buttercups. The hawthorn trees were beginning to bud with 
 promise of the wealth and beauty of those lovely and fragrant 
 blossoms, which we miss so much from our American home. 
 Numbers of people were walking about, enjoying the balmy 
 air and luxuriating on the springy turf. A polo match had 
 attracted a number of holiday-seekers, who watched 
 with interest the various changes of the game. All was 
 quiet. Peace and joy ruled there but for the myrmidons of a 
 foreign power. Soldiery and police were to be seen here and 
 there in groups, the armed enforcers of alien rule. Custom 
 has in a measure blunted the susceptibilities of the average 
 Dublin citizens, and they try not to let their pleasures be 
 marred by these agents of despotism. There was no apparent 
 change in the disposition of the usual guards, who lounged 
 about carelessly but always ready, like the tiger, to spring 
 upon their prey. . . 
 
RUMOURS OF THE TRAGEDY 257 
 
 The sun had scarce descended behind the western horizon, 
 when a strange rumour arose among the citizens. Weird 
 and wildly tragic was this awful story. Men shook their 
 heads with incredulity. It could not be true. But slowly, 
 very slowly and gradually, the ripplings of the truth came 
 nearer and nearer to the whole community, gathering confirm- 
 ation by the varied repetition of the same sanguinary tale. 
 Eager tongues astonished the many wondrous ears that 
 listened tothedreadful statement : "England's two Secretaries 
 have been done to death in Phoenix Park ! Impossible ! 
 It could not be true ! What desperate men could perpetrate 
 so daring a deed ? What, in the clear light of a May 
 evening, within a short distance of the Royal Irish Constab- 
 ulary barracks filled with armed men, in the public park of 
 a city garrisoned by eight thousand English troops, and filled 
 to overflowing with police and detectives whose special duty 
 was to watch for political malefactors against the peace ot 
 England .? No ! no! it cannot be possible !" was ejaculated 
 by many a doubting tongue. . . . 
 
 In the exhibition palace, Dublin, all is gaiety. There is 
 held this evening within that glass building, a grand musical 
 promenade and a series of concerts. All the beauty and 
 brilliancy, which the burgesses and their wives and charming 
 daughters can add to the dazzling throng, are present. The 
 beautiful melodies which float about the building are inter- 
 mingled with the sweeter strains of Irish music, and rippling 
 among these sounds come the merry laughter of the light- 
 hearted promenaders, and the ringing, musical laughter of 
 young girlhood, which is thrilling in its magic sweetness to the 
 ear. All sounds are blended in one harmonious whole. The 
 perfume of rare exotics, and the fragrant wild freshness of 
 the spring flowers, make redolent the atmosphere. At the 
 refreshment counter, the clinking of glasses is heard and the 
 merry badinage of young men, who are exchanging repartee 
 and compliment with the pretty barmaid who has served 
 them. Fresh strains of music burst forth. 'Tis a march, and 
 
 S 
 
258 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 two or three military bands playing the ** Turkish Patrol " 
 go by. The last sound of their cymbals is scarce over when 
 there rushes from the entrance down the main aisle of the 
 building, along the line of beautiful statuary, a young man — 
 perhaps a quiet-looking young man at ordinary times, but 
 at present he appears to labour under a strong excitement. 
 His face is pale, his lips compressed, his eyes look strangely 
 wild. He whispers something into his friends' ears as he 
 passes along. They look astonished and incredulous, but 
 grow serious. More people crowd round him. The gaiety 
 is hushed, the hall is quickly emptied, the annexes of the 
 building give forth the revellers to the outer air, and a quiet 
 solemnity takes the place of the recent jocund fun. One 
 citizen addressing another says in a hoarse whisper, certainly 
 not in tones of sorrow, " England's two chief rulers in the 
 country are slain in the park." The other starts back and 
 exclaims, " No ! no ! it cannot be true ! " 
 
 The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, is filled with a happy crowd. 
 Dublin citizens love music ; Carl Rosa's unrivalled opera 
 troupe is in the city, and this evening they sing our country- 
 man Wallace's melodious opera, Maritana. The Trinity 
 College students in the gallery are unusually noisy between 
 the acts ; they have become a nuisance to the rest of the 
 house ; their conduct savours more of the rowdy than that of 
 the gentleman — and yet from the ranks of these rowdies will 
 come some of Ireland's magistrates and police officers, to dis- 
 pense and manipulate alien rule in the country. A strange 
 rumour and whispering is heard among the audience ; the 
 curtain scarcely falls upon one act, when it is rung up again 
 for the next. Several noticeable cuts are made in the music ; 
 it seems the intention of the conductor to rush the opera 
 through as quickly as possible. Some of the audience at- 
 tribute this to the conduct of the students, but when they get 
 out into the open air there is whispering, with anxious, solemn 
 looks, and the tragic news is conveyed from one to the other, 
 " England's Secretaries have been killed in the park " ; while 
 
A STRANGE COINCIDENCE 259 
 
 there comes back the same response, *' It is not true ! it 
 cannot be true ! " 
 
 It was true, perfectly true. There in the sight and presence 
 of Britain's newly-arrived Viceroy, the two Secretaries were 
 slain. Was there no chivalrous Irish patriot to stand between 
 them and the death stroke ? No ! not one ; none of those who 
 loudly express regret and condemnation to-day. Strange 
 coincidence ! strange fatality ! Near the very spot where his 
 brother Hartington stood looking on as the police bludgeoned 
 the Dublin citizens, lay the dead body of Britain's Secretary 
 as if in bloody protest against British rule. 
 
 Oh, horror ! horror ! good citizens of Dublin. What can 
 mean this fearful tale of blood } Good Christian Irish people, 
 tell us } You have been for a long time supping off horrors 
 and cruelties, till the sanguinary cup seemed overflowing. 
 You have seen your leading merchants and business men go 
 to gaol without any form of trial or accusation, even young 
 ladies sent in a despotic manner to prison cells. Your people 
 have been shot down and bayoneted as it pleased your alien 
 rulers ; but then — they were mere Irish that were slain. Nine 
 women were shot down and stabbed near Belmullet by 
 Gladstone's Royal Irish, but this was in furtherance of British 
 law ; and be ye obedient to those in high places, oh, patient 
 Christian countrymen ! Old Mrs. Deane was shot in the 
 throat and slain. Ellen McDonagh, a simple peasant girl, 
 was stabbed to death. And yesterday, but yesterday, seven 
 little boys in Ballina were shot and stabbed by Britain's 
 Bashi-Bazouks ; one, a tender child of twelve years, expired at 
 his father's feet. Why should Irish peasants have feelings of 
 agony an d suffering } Why should they wail their dead ? 
 Such luxuries belong to the British who control the destinies 
 of Ireland. How dare any wicked and abominable men 
 violate their edicts ? The majesty and dignity of British law 
 must not be questioned. Irishmen should draw a mystic 
 circle to hedge round the persons of those who represent that 
 almost sacred law, Britain's code of blood in Ireland. 
 
 There have been no Irish patriots from the day of the Ballina 
 
 S 2 
 
26o THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 and BelmuUet murders to the present hour, to publicly state 
 that if they were present they would stand between Mary 
 Deane and her buckshot assassins, between Ellen McDonagh 
 and the butchers who stabbed her to death, between Patrick 
 Melody and his murderous assailants who wantonly robbed 
 him of his young life. No ! not one ! . . . . 
 
 What a day for British rule in Ireland ! The morning saw 
 the invaders brimful of hope and joy for the coming day, 
 preparing for a grand pageant : caparisoned housings on the 
 mettled steeds that were to bear such precious freight, the 
 glitter of gold lace and steel, flaunting feathers and all the 
 trappings and pomp of state. 
 
 Night's shadow had scarce fallen when hark! the alarm 
 and the panic. The grim spectre death has come among 
 them. There are mounted orderlies riding in hot haste, 
 carrying messages to the regimental commanders in the 
 different barracks of the now fully excited city. These orders 
 are to the British colonels to have their men under arms all 
 night. They know not what to expect. There is an unseen 
 foe in their midst that bodes no good to British rule in 
 Ireland. They begin again to realise that they are quartered 
 in a hostile city, among as yet an unconquered people. 
 *' When the truth cannot be clearly made out, what is false is 
 increased through fear." The very absence of knowledge 
 magnified British terrors. All was confusion in their councils. 
 What matters now the arrest of men who only protest, and 
 peacefully ask for home-made laws } The " suspect " and 
 "village tyrant" of yesterday, becomes the very guardian, 
 almost the saviour, of Castle rule to-day. What have their 
 resistance been > Mere words that pale into insignificance in 
 the presence of this mysterious, dreadful, and daring attack. 
 
 Restore the harmless Land League so wantonly suppressed. 
 Can it be that from its grave came this spectral visitor to 
 carry out this fearful determined deed .? As one walks 
 through the streets of the city, one cannot help marking the 
 pallid faces of the police who execute British misdeeds upon 
 the mere Irish. Note how nervously and carefully they tread 
 
THE ADVOCATES OF FORCE 261 
 
 their way, as if some mystic foe was about to spring upon 
 them from some unseen hiding-place. This morn, this very 
 morn, these men stopped some boys who were rejoicing over 
 the victory of Mr. Parnell's release, parading as bandsmen 
 and playing national music. These employees of the invader 
 in the unbridled licence and wantonness of power, clubbed the 
 bandsmen and smashed their instruments. To-night, how 
 changed and timid are their uncertain movements! What 
 unusual midnight cry is that ? It is the newsboy shouting the 
 exciting news ; his papers are quickly bought up by eager 
 purchasers. For the first time in the recollection of the 
 Dublin press, Saturday midnight papers are issued. 
 
 Let this daring act be placed in its proper place in history, 
 at least by Irishmen ; for what the enemy has called " crime " 
 read in golden letters, " patriotism " and " virtue.'* God bless 
 and strengthen the arm of every brave patriot who will 
 destroy the fomenters of infamy in his native land ! It was 
 an act of daring ; by such acts are prostrate nations ennobled. 
 
 All sublime conquests are more or less the reward of daring. 
 It was not enough that Parnell should foresee it, when on 
 Monday, September 17, 1877, ^^ said in Killmallock that 
 " it is our duty not to conciliate, not to beg, not to crave from 
 England. In whatever field we struggle, whatever weapons 
 we employ, let us show we are patriotic Irishmen " : nor that 
 O'Brien should preach it when he penned the fiery words ; 
 " To the brave descendants of an ancient race, whose souls 
 neither fire nor sword, neither the gibbet nor the dungeon, 
 could subdue to slavery. The time has come — the very hour 
 has struck — that demands the sacrifice, be it fraught with 
 sorrow or with suffering " : nor that Biggar should prepare 
 for it, when, in Parnell's presence at the Cork banquet, he 
 publicly stated that if the constitutional course they were 
 pursuing in Parliament failed in its objects, he thought 
 Ireland might be able to produce another Hartman, and 
 probably with better results. All honour to these men's 
 noble sentiments ! It was not enough that Parnell should 
 foresee it, that O'Brien should preach it, and that Biggar 
 
262 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 should prepare for it. The INVINCIBLES had to do it. As a 
 great revolutionary writer expresses it: "The cry * Audace^ 
 is difiat lux f" 
 
 The onward march of the human race requires that the 
 heights around it should be ablaze with noble and enduring 
 lessons of courage. Deeds of daring dazzle history, and 
 form one of the guiding lights of man. The dawn dares 
 when it rises. To strive, to brave all risks, to persist, to 
 persevere, to be faithful to yourself, to grapple hand to hand 
 with destiny, to surprise defeat with the little terror it 
 inspires, at one time to confront unrighteous power, at 
 another to defy intoxicated triumph ; to hold fast, to hold 
 hard — such is the example which the nations need, and 
 the light that electrifies them. The same puissant lightning 
 darts from the torch of Prometheus and the steel blade of 
 Joseph Brady. 
 
XVI 
 
 AFTER THE MURDERS — FOREIGN OPINION. 
 
 The morning of Sunday, May 7, dawned on a feverish, 
 anxious city. The cry of the newsvendors giving the latest 
 news of the previous night's tragedy, could be heard in every 
 thoroughfare. For the first time since men communicated 
 their ideas to each other by the medium of the printing press, 
 Dublin city published Sunday newspapers, and each edition 
 was bought up as fast as it came from the publishing room. 
 Every rumour and canard was eagerly discussed, and the in- 
 formation circulated by the British authorities, no matter how 
 absurd, found its way into the city journals. Groups of men 
 could be seen outside the different churches, discussing the 
 gravity of the situation. Various opinions were expressed 
 and debated by these good citizens. Among the small Sun- 
 day gatherings of the people, groups of men who had just 
 come from divine service in their churches could be heard to 
 express themselves approvingly of the tragic deed of the 
 night before. Though in some cases they spoke guardedly, 
 yet the smile of joy that lighted up their faces and flashed 
 from their eyes, revealed the depth of their feelings. There 
 are peculiar mannerisms by which Irishmen convey their real 
 sentiments to each other, even though their tongues speak 
 differently. This gift is not possessed by any other people. 
 It is born of the long ages of slavery which has so eaten 
 into their souls that even the best and bravest and most daring 
 of the race unconscious to themselves, are its possessors. . . . 
 
264 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The Dublin carmen brought numerous visitors to the 
 Phoenix Park that Sunday. A kind of mysterious fascination 
 drew the people there ; crowds assembled over the brilliant 
 greensward, and groups discussed the question of the hour in 
 all directions. The early comers, in their love for mementoes, 
 had removed portions of the earth where the slain British 
 Secretaries were found ; and by midday a perceptible hollow 
 was guarded by the police to stop the visitors from relic- 
 hunting. Not far from this place a small group of serious, 
 earnest men, apparently mechanics of the most intelligent 
 class, were listening to a speaker who was giving his views 
 upon the situation. He was interrupted by an elderly man, 
 who exclaimed, " If it had been old Buckshot Forster I could 
 easier understand it The whole affair is a puzzle to me ; 
 this man Cavendish had no time to do any harm. And if 
 what we have heard the last few days is true, Gladstone 
 was going to remove all coercion and give us back our Par- 
 liament in a few months. All our members are rejoicing 
 over the great victory, and this is a strange way to cele- 
 brate it in Dublin. I tell you it will bring ruin upon the 
 country." 
 
 The first speaker replied : " Let us look at it from the 
 standpoint of the men engaged in this daring deed ; that 
 is, if they were Nationalists, and not Orangemen, as some 
 people say. From their view they would not agree with 
 you. Had they killed Forster the world would have said 
 it was the act of personal and political revenge ; the lesson 
 read to England would be, ' Send us kindly disposed Chief 
 Secretaries, and we will cordially receive them ; it is not your 
 rule we quarrel with, but Forster's tyranny.' The slaying of 
 the British Secretary Cavendish was not an act of personal 
 revenge. He had never been identified with any action 
 that could create this feeling. In his person the office of 
 Britain's chief officer was struck down. It was British rule 
 in any manner which these men protested against. As to 
 the Under-Secretary, Burke, he was a tyrant, but, after all, a 
 mere tool in the hands of his chief He could have been 
 
DISCUSSING THE TRAGEDY IN DUBLIN 265 
 
 easily killed at any time ; a man who went about the city so 
 much, and who moved in gay circles, must have given many 
 opportunities to his foes. I do not believe either man was 
 slain accidentally. This matter must have been as well 
 planned as it was successfully carried out. It was a brave 
 and daring action in the presence of so many guards ; the 
 slightest hitch would have surrounded the actors with 
 numerous foes. The suddenness of the attack, and the un- 
 usual weapons, must have paralysed their British guardians, 
 and the men were gone when they came to their reason. 
 The papers are trying to make it appear that these men 
 were not guarded ; that is British policy to say so now ; but 
 any one who knows anything of the park yesterday evening 
 must be aware that there were armed police and detectives 
 scattered round. It is not convenient for them to acknow- 
 ledge this, and no doubt with the many distorted 
 statements that will hereafter be told of this tragedy, this 
 story will be published and believed. Had one shot been 
 fired, how quickly these scattered guardians of British rule 
 would have clustered round, and in almost a twinkling the 
 constabulary would be on the scene with shotted rifles and 
 fixed bayonets ; and these men would have been surrounded, 
 captured, or shot down. These probabilities must have been 
 in the mind of their leader ; these men must have gone there 
 prepared to take all chances, death, or capture — which would 
 mean death, — or else a daring and, for them, fortunate escape. 
 What puzzles me is the complete mystery which shrouds the 
 whole affair ; all seems imaginary speculation, and there 
 appears to be no official information of any kind." The 
 speakers continued their debate. Everywhere the subject 
 was discussed ; avoid it how one might it was continually 
 introduced ; it was an event which perplexed and caused 
 great excitement in the public mind. 
 
 The guardians of British rule in Ireland, i.e.^ the police, 
 were given orders on that Sunday to guard the exterior of 
 taverns, and every place of public resort. Any visitors to 
 the Dublin taverns were placed under temporary arrest and 
 
266 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 their persons searched, the police carefully reading every 
 scrap of printed or written matter found, seizing anything 
 which their imaginations could distort into suspicious docu- 
 ments, and taking the names and addresses of the men 
 arrested. To carry this out effectually was a very difficult 
 task, where these employees of the alien power had reason 
 to suspect nine-tenths of the inhabitants of a city with over 
 two hundred thousand inhabitants. 
 
 On Monday morning those not engaged in any employ- 
 ment — and these are numerous in every Irish city and town — 
 could see the steam launch belonging to the British warship 
 stationed at Kingstown harbour sailing up the Liffey, having on 
 board the most approved grappling irons. The detectives in 
 the employ of the enemy, were trying to recover a little of 
 their lost prestige. They wished the public to believe that 
 they were in possession of information of great moment, and 
 to further the ends of what they called "justice" they 
 were keeping it from the press. They allowed it to be pub- 
 lished that they knew the men engaged in the tragedy, and 
 that they held important clues to their whereabouts. These 
 men they described as four fierce-looking persons in the garb 
 of sailors, of American appearance. They also stated that 
 these desperadoes, when leaving the park, killed the driver 
 and the horse ; and in order to conceal and leave no traces 
 of their crime they threw car, horse, and driver, into the 
 Liffey. It was to recover these that the seamen of the Royal 
 Navy came from Kingstown in their launch ; to grapple and 
 bring to light this necessary evidence. Although the British 
 tars worked very diligently for several days, however, they 
 were not rewarded by success in their search. Neither 
 vehicle, horse, nor man, could be found. But the enemy in- 
 sisted he was well informed, and permitted portraits of the 
 men they were in search of, to be published in the London 
 illustrated press. 
 
 Of course it was enough for these men to be enemies 
 of British rule in Ireland, to satisfy the English public that 
 they must be hideous-looking individuals. The portraits 
 
THE "RED EARUS" PROCLAMATION 267 
 
 published were of the lowest type of English civilisation, but 
 were believed to be authentic by the British masses. 
 
 Early on Monday morning, Dublin city was placarded with 
 two British proclamations : one bearing the signature of the 
 " Red Earl," chief of Britain's banditti in Ireland, the other 
 signed by Charles Stewart Parnell, lately the beloved and 
 respected Irish Provincial leader, but who on this occasion 
 played the part of chief of Ireland's cowards, the offerer of 
 consolation and assistance to Ireland's brutal and unrelenting 
 foes. Earl Spencer's proclamation bore the royal arms of the 
 neighbouring island at the top, which was sufficient to show 
 even Irish patriots who could not read (if there are any of these 
 in Dublin) that this document was both illegal and criminal. 
 The proclamation of the Irish leaders could not bear the arms 
 of Ireland without armed force to protect it. But this pro- 
 clamation of theirs was an act of treason against Ireland, for 
 it expressed sympathy towards Ireland's invader and enemy, 
 and condemned the secret armed soldiers of Ireland who 
 struck down the new chief of these invading foes.^ 
 
 The proclamation of the Dublin Castle officials com- 
 menced with the usual " Whereas," and set forth that certain 
 persons not having the fear of God and British displeasure 
 before them, " did maliciously slay and murder in the Phoenix 
 Park, Dublin, on Saturday evening. May 6, 1882, Frederick 
 Cavendish, known as Lord Frederick Cavendish, her Majesty's 
 Chief Secretary of State for that portion of the United King- 
 dom called Ireland, and also Thomas H. Burke, her Majesty's 
 Under-Secretary of State for the same portion of the United 
 Kingdom " : " This is to inform all good people that the sum 
 of ten thousand pounds sterling will be paid to any one who 
 will give such information as will lead to the arrest and convic- 
 tion of the perpetrator or perpetrators of this murder, and also 
 the further reward of five thousand pounds is hereby offered 
 
 ^ Captain O'Shea's description of this Parnell proclamation in his evidence 
 before the London Commission displays the treason of the Provincial leaders. 
 This proclamation was brought to Mr. Chamberlain's house by Parnell before it was 
 issued, and no doubt shown to the enemy's Cabinet Minister. 
 
268 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 to any one who will give private information, and a free 
 pardon is guaranteed to any such informant other than the 
 actual perpetrators of the crime. Done at Dublin Castle, 
 May 8, 1882, in the forty-fifth year of the reign of her 
 Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria. (Signed) SPENCER." 
 
 It was the first proclamation of this inauspicious and blood- 
 stained vice-reign. 
 
 The West British proclamation was written by a man in 
 frenzy and panic, a politician, not a patriot, who compelled 
 the frightened Mr. Parnell to affix his signature to the docu- 
 ment, without giving him scarce time to read what was about 
 to go before the world. We have been credibly informed 
 of this unfortunate and disastrous occurrence, the first 
 downward step that has removed these men so far from the 
 Irish patriot ranks, by a reliable authority. It was posted 
 alongside Spencer's proclamation, and attracted greater 
 attention from the Irish people than even the Castle docu- 
 ment. It fell like a thunderbolt among the patriotic men of 
 Dublin city. It read as follows : — 
 
 " To the People of Ireland^ 
 
 " On the eve of what seemed a bright future for our country, 
 that evil destiny which has apparently pursued us for centuries 
 has struck at our hopes another blow which cannot be ex- 
 aggerated in its disastrous consequences. In this hour of 
 sorrowful gloom we venture to give expression to our pro- 
 foundest sympathy with the people of Ireland in the calamity 
 which has befallen our cause through this horrible deed, and 
 with those who determined at the last hour, that a policy of 
 conciliation should supplant that of terrorism and national 
 distrust. We earnestly hope that the attitude and action of 
 the Irish people will show to the world, that an assassination 
 such as has startled us almost to the abandonment of hope of 
 our country's future, is deeply and religiously abhorrent to 
 their every feeling and instinct. We appeal to you, to show 
 by every manner of expression, that amid the universal feel- 
 ing of horror which the assassination has excited, no people 
 
THE PARNELLITE PROCLAMATION 269 
 
 feel so deeply a detestation of its atrocity, or so deep a sym- 
 pathy with those whose hearts must be seared by it, as the 
 nation upon whose prosperity and reviving hopes it may 
 entail consequences, more ruinous than those that have fallen 
 to the lot of unhappy Ireland during the present generation. 
 We feel that no act that has been ever perpetrated in our 
 country during the exciting struggles of the last fifty years, 
 has so stained Ireland as this cowardly and unprovoked as- 
 sassination of a friendly stranger, and that until the murderers 
 of Cavendish and Burke are brought to justice, that stain will 
 sully our country's name. 
 
 " Charles S. Parnell. 
 
 " John Dillon. 
 
 " Michael Davitt." 
 
 Anything more infamous never was done by trusted men 
 against their nation, since Arnold went over to the British 
 and tried to surrender West Point to America's enemy. 
 Neither O'Connell nor Mr. Butt ever at any time showed 
 anything more than an invisible sword, but these men were 
 associated with revolutionists. The party of action built up 
 their movement, believing they were sincere and pure patriots. 
 When Mr. Parnell told O'Donovan Rossa in Philadelphia 
 that he purposed calling on him before he left that city, he 
 was then a staunch patriot ; and although sincere in advocat- 
 ing quiet and peaceful measures, he did so because he believed 
 that they had not been properly tested, and that he could 
 succeed in " shaming England " into surrendering Ireland to 
 its people. But he never condemned the men who thought 
 differently ; on the contrary, he sought their aid and assist- 
 ance. They had every reason to believe that Parnell would 
 prove himself a worthy descendant of the gallant race he 
 sprang from, and that when he found that words were useless 
 he would resort to blows. When Mr. Kennedy in Troy gave 
 him a donation for bread for his starving countrymen, and 
 also handed him five times the amount for lead, Mr. Parnell 
 could not mistake the belief so openly expressed by many of 
 
270 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 his supporters. When Mr. Biggar told him and the crowd in 
 Cork, that Ireland might need another Hartman, was there no 
 significance in the words ? This proclamation is an indelible 
 stain upon men that Ireland loved and trusted ; they should 
 have held their peace and let Britain do her worst. She is 
 doing that to-day (1887), and did it also under the sleek 
 Gladstone and his despot underling, Spencer. 
 
 The Irishmen in Dublin city, when they turned from read- 
 ing the Castle proclamation, rubbed their eyes and looked 
 again at its companion document ; they could scarce believe 
 the evidence of their senses. They read it over carefully, 
 noting every sentence. Some shook their head in dis- 
 approval and silently walked away, not exchanging words 
 with each other. 
 
 The enemy's police and officials were pleased with the 
 message of condolence to Britain and her seared hearts. The 
 seared hearts of Mary Deane's family, of Ellen McDonagh's 
 parents, of Patrick Melody's sorrowing mother, the invader's 
 brutalities, his murders in Belmullet and Ballina, did not call 
 for any notice from these recreant Irishmen. But the slaying 
 of anew tyrant sent to carry on these infamies was called the 
 " assassination of a friendly stranger." Spirits of our patriot 
 dead ! It is enough to make you turn in your graves to hear 
 men, the beloved of Irish Nationalists, term an invading foe 
 a friendly stranger. 
 
 It was a study in Irish human nature to watch the features 
 of the various readers — the knitted brow and gathering scowl 
 of wrath, the pale face and startled, astonished look of some. 
 The feeling manifested was not only approval and sympathy 
 with the tragedy, but also that innate detestation in the Irish 
 heart, of men calling themselves patriotic, who go out of their 
 way to condemn any act done against the infamous tyranny 
 of English rule. Groups of men were gathered together dis- 
 cussing Parnell's proclamation in suburban Dublin ; they 
 seemed very outspoken in their condemnation. One old 
 Irishman said : " Musha, the devil's cure to them ! So they 
 thank Gladstone for sending them to prison by doing the 
 
THE TALK OF THE STREETS 271 
 
 Government's dirty work. Och, but imprisonment takes the 
 pluck out of the best of them." Some speakers endorsed the 
 Irish Parliamentary leaders' address, and most heartily ap- 
 proved of every word. Others criticised and condemned it 
 as uncalled for, " John Dillon," said one intelligent-looking 
 speaker, " publicly stated in the House of Commons, he would 
 shoot any landlord who attempted to dispossess him of his 
 farm, and believed before God he would be justified ; and here, 
 in what I must call craven cowardice, he condemns the killing 
 of an arch-evictor, the delegate of that robbing Government 
 which is trying to evict our whole nation, and which protects 
 and aids the landlords." " Hush, Felix ! " said one of his 
 comrades. " I tell you," replied the other, " I have no 
 patience with these men and their English proclamation. It 
 should be torn down and walked upon, to show Irishmen's 
 contempt for these renegades. They call this Englishman, 
 Cavendish, a friendly stranger. He was an invader, who 
 came here to carry out the usurping foreign Government's 
 mission of murder and plunder. What other reason had he 
 to leave his English home ? He was as much an invader and 
 robber as the Dane who was killed at Clontarf. If every one 
 of these foreign delegates were killed when they put foot upon 
 our shore, we would protest against their insolent assumption 
 of coming here at all to assume in any manner the rdle of 
 governing us — protest in a more manly way than by this 
 perpetual talk, which I am hearing since my boyhood and 
 which I am heartily disgusted with ! " " Well, Felix," said 
 one of his hearers, " I must admit there is strong force in your 
 reasoning." " I tell you," said the other, " I would not give 
 the snap of my fingers for the death of Burke, England's 
 paid instrument. But God strengthen the arm of the man 
 who struck down Cavendish, England's Minister, who came 
 to plunder and murder our people ; for take British rule in 
 its mildest form and it is nothing but highway robbery, and 
 destruction to our hearths and homes." Walking away, he 
 said in solemn tones to his sad-looking and thoughtful 
 friends : " The proper course for Irishmen is to destroy all 
 
272 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 these blood-stained invaders. They are all — mild or tyranni- 
 cal, serpent or wolf — invading robbers, who would not visit 
 our country but to assassinate and depopulate the nation." 
 
 But the capital of the Irish nation was determined that it 
 should not stultify the faith of generations of patriots, by 
 submitting in silence to these two infamous placards. The 
 Executive of the I. R. B. issued a national proclamation, in 
 condemnation of the cowardly utterances of the Parliamenta- 
 rians as follows : 
 
 ** * God save Ireland.' 
 
 Dublin, May 8, 1882. 
 * To the Irish People and all Lovers of Liberty^ and particu- 
 larly our Brothers of the I. R. B. and Kindred Organisa- 
 tions. 
 
 " As there seems to be a grave misunderstanding as to the 
 aim and scope of the late executions at Dublin, we the Exe- 
 cutive of the 1. R. B. hereby request all the aforesaid to 
 withhold their opinion of this matter for the present, and to 
 refrain from the expression of sympathy at public meetings, 
 which tend to humiliate Ireland and to give aid and comfort 
 to England. 
 
 " As to the monster Burke, he has preyed upon the lives 
 and liberties of his countrymen for many years, and has 
 deserved death a thousand times at our hands ; and as to 
 Lord Frederick Cavendish, the lineal descendant of the in- 
 famous Lord Broghill, who hanged the gallant and patriotic 
 MacEagan, Bishop of Ross, at Carrigadrohid, because he 
 would not betray his country — his very name stinks in the 
 nostrils of the Irish people by the iniquities of his brother. 
 Lord Hartington, and the wholesale evictions of his father, 
 the Duke of Devonshire, thereby driving thousands of the 
 rightful owners of the soil to the poorhouse, exile, and 
 death. 
 
 " This organisation has tolerated the vagaries of Mr. Parnell 
 and his late treason-mongers until he has filled the bastiles 
 
THE i. R. B. MANIFESTO ON THE MURDERS 273 
 
 in our country with the victims of a useless Parliamentary 
 agitation, which left 20,000 persons homeless last year, and 
 drove millions of the flower of our people to exile. This 
 ceases to be harmless when a truce is made by which he 
 himself and his friends are allowed to go free, and eighty of 
 Ireland's bravest sons are left to languish in prison to be 
 exiled or assassinated, and these the men who by the 
 so-called ' outrages,' opened the prison doors to Mr. Parnell 
 and his friends. 
 
 "If England really wished to deal fairly by Ireland, why 
 did she not issue a general amnesty, by which the prison doors 
 would be opened and thousands of our exiled brethren who 
 now pine in foreign lands could return in safety and honour ? 
 Instead of this Mr. Gladstone sent emissaries to the venerated 
 head of the Catholic Church, who by lies and false represen- 
 tations, have deprived thousands of our poor, persecuted 
 people of the comforts of religion, by turning our altars into 
 political platforms. Let us ask the people of Ireland, Are 
 there no classes of the people to be considered except the 
 farmers, and of what avail will it be to Ireland if a selfish 
 class is firmly rooted in the soil and becomes thoroughly 
 loyal to England .-* 
 
 " We ask our friends in America to ponder on our des- 
 perate circumstances, to think of a brave and honourable 
 people driven to despair by witnessing the white bosoms of 
 our women torn open by the bayonets of English mercenaries, 
 and our children of tender age shot down in the highways, 
 while our wails of anguish are stifled in our blood. 
 
 " We are convinced that no true prosperity can exist in Ire- 
 land so long as England possesses her custom-houses, these 
 allowing her manufactures to pass into Ireland duty free, there- 
 by leaving our Irish mechanics unemployed, and the enormous 
 war tribute exacted by England taking away the produce 
 of the land, thereby forcing the Irish people to starve. 
 
 "Now, furthermore, we call upon all our brothers in 
 America, particularly the advanced Nationalists, to aid, by 
 every means within their power, the men who have carried 
 
 T 
 
iU tHE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 out this execution, and we hereby further declare that they 
 deserve well of their country. 
 
 " By order of the 
 
 " Executive of the I. R. B." 
 
 As the week slowly passed and no news with any truthful 
 appearance presented itself, men wondered more and more. 
 Those who mingled with Irish Nationalists could see a quiet 
 smile of joy now and then flit over their features when the me- 
 morable event was discussed. After the first burst of indignation 
 at the Parnellite proclamation had swept away like a hurri- 
 cane, men began to smile and look knowingly at each other, 
 and shake their heads and give a quiet laugh when the denun- 
 ciation of the Parliamentary triumvirate was mentioned. 
 
 It would be useless to tell these men that this proclamation 
 of the Parnellites was published in all seriousness, and with no 
 reserve of diplomacy whatever. Already the lessons of 
 deception had entered into the Irish masses, leaving them 
 completely at the mercy of ambitious politicians whom they 
 mistook for patriots. They felt (or a large number of them 
 did) that the stronger the denunciations, the more heartily was 
 this deed endorsed by the leaders of the public movement. 
 These men's personal associations and past speeches could 
 have for these people no other meaning. 
 
 These, and many other speculations and surmises, troubled 
 the public mind of Ireland. False and misleading informa- 
 tion, then and since, was permitted to percolate through 
 the National ranks. This historic and immortal event has 
 suffered at the hands of weak friends and unrelenting foes ; 
 it has been covered over by the vile excrement of renegades, 
 as well as enemies. It has been befogged by the vanities of 
 weak and inane minds, who sought to be known as the 
 comrades — when they were merely the companions and asso- 
 ciates — of Titans ; they who were among them, but not of 
 them. It has suffered and been assailed by the malignancy 
 of the foe, but much more grievously by the slander of traitors 
 and the folly of weaklings, the latter, froglike, seeking self- 
 
"UNITED IRELAND'S" CONDEMNATION 275 
 
 glorification, while the traitor was digging a grave for his own 
 self-degradation. They have slandered, with foul abuse, their 
 nation and the cause for which heroes have suffered. Great 
 historic event ! Brave men will salute thee. You will remain 
 a landmark for all time, to tell the tyrant that Ireland was 
 not disarmed, that his edicts were powerless ; to speak to him 
 in words of fire, that the brave nation had manhood to strike 
 and courage to dare — courage that can only be supplied by 
 the supernatural conviction of the God-given justice of its 
 cause — for the patriot needs a higher order of daring than 
 even the soldier of the forlorn hope, surrounded by his com- 
 rades in all the pomp and panoply of glorious war. Let 
 slaves and cowards whine as they may, they cannot obliterate 
 the glorious 6th of May from the pages of Irish history. 
 
 The Irish leaders of the public movement evidently issued 
 their proclamation when suffering under nervous shock ; it bears 
 on its face its own contradiction. Not content with madly 
 rushing to the enemy's rescue at a momentous crisis when the 
 Briton's rule in Ireland was quivering under the effect of the 
 mysterious lightning stroke so fiercely dealt at his presence 
 in the country, they permitted their oflficial journal, United 
 Ireland^ reinstated in Dublin by the enemy's permission, to 
 aid the invader by its vain attempts to cast the stain of crime 
 upon the unknown patriots. They allowed, or possibly in- 
 structed, the editor of that journal, Mr. O'Brien, a man with 
 the volatility of a windmill and the fanaticism of an illusionist 
 in his faith in the use of words to free nations, to publish an 
 editorial upon this historic incident worthy of Britain's murder 
 organ, the London Times, attacking his own countrymen who 
 tried to hold the breach when the foe had imprisoned the 
 orators. This paper may possibly be found in a few years in 
 alliance with the man it to-day calls *' Bloody Balfour," as it is 
 now singing the praises of the " Red Earl," Spencer, whom it 
 charged — and truthfully — with having bloodstained hands, red 
 with the life-current of his murdered victims. Not one of the 
 Orange rebel organs, the Daily Express or Mail, or even the 
 London Times, could approach it in the use of ferocious 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 abuse and misleading statement levelled at the Irish party 
 of action at this time, accompanied by an extraordinary and 
 misleading cartoon, 
 
 A somewhat similar cartoon appeared one year later in 
 England's comic journal, Punch. It was shortly after Carey's 
 information became public. This cartoon in Punch was in 
 Tenniel's best style. It represented Britannia and Erin, two 
 female figures, clad in classic drapery. Erin was of course in 
 grief, and was shown leaning for comfort and consolation 
 on her beloved sister Britannia, whose protecting arm was 
 thrown about her companion's form. Britannia looked fiercely 
 and wrathfully before her. She was holding by a string a bull- 
 dog, which was sniffing the ground, and underneath were the 
 words : '* On the scent." Events proved that the bulldog got 
 on a false trail. If he had been a keen brute what a dainty 
 dish there would have been to serve before the king. Or 
 perhaps, as it now appears more probable, it did not suit the 
 vile purpose of the bulldog's master to develop matters too 
 much. He was content with his knowledge, and was deter- 
 mined to use it for his own purpose, the complete subjugation 
 of the Irish nation, aided knowingly or unknowingly by the 
 men it loved and trusted. 
 
 Vain folly of tyrants ! Nations cannot be so easily destroyed. 
 As a great writer expresses it : " The protest of the right 
 against the fact persists for ever. The robbery of a people 
 never becomes prescriptive. These lofty swindles have no 
 future. You cannot pick the mark out of a nation, as you 
 can out of a handkerchief." 
 
 The arrests made haphazard by the police at this time told 
 every one that the British officials had altogether lost their 
 heads. English visitors in Dublin were much frightened, and all 
 sorts of absurd stories were put in circulation. On the night 
 of the " suppression," a London merchant came into his hotel 
 in College Green at a late hour. He was in a complete state 
 of nervous prostration. His death-like face, protruding eye- 
 balls, and chattering teeth, denoted a condition of abject fear. 
 
DUBLIN IN A STATE OF TERROR 277 
 
 He was a poor representative of the fire-eating John Bull. 
 He had scarcely strength to ring up the waiter, and when the 
 attendant came he tried to articulate, " brandy." After apply- 
 ing himself to the stimulant, he summoned courage to tell 
 the few gentlemen in the room what caused his fright. 
 
 When the rumour which came to the hotel reached him, he 
 went up to the Castle to make inquiries, and the exaggerated 
 stories he heard frightened him. He turned out of his way 
 down the quays, and was roaming there the victim of an 
 excited imagination. He was too nervous to ask any 
 stranger to direct him as to the proper road home. At last 
 he met a sergeant of police, who told him he was walking 
 away from his hotel. The sergeant, producing a lantern (an 
 unusual article with Dublin policemen), drew the slide and 
 threw the light into several doorways as they passed, looking 
 for mysterious lurkers. The policeman, much frightened, 
 told the English gentleman, whose name and address he 
 placed in his notebook, that the authorities feared trouble that 
 night ; and that the Government thought it very probable 
 there would be a '' rising in the city." They were not at all 
 satisfied at the deep silence with which the news of the Park 
 tragedy was received. When he had escorted the English- 
 man to the corner of Parliament and Dame Streets, he left 
 him, pointing out the route back to the hotel. He particu- 
 larly cautioned him against walking on the footway, and told 
 him to keep by the tramway lines in the centre of the street, 
 and he would then be safe. What this Englishman had to 
 fear during so short a walk in the usually peaceful city 
 of Dublin, he knew not. The danger was in his own imagin- 
 ation. The wretched demoralisation which takes possession 
 of British employees, police, and detectives when they think 
 that the Irish are preparing to strike back, shows that the old 
 maxim, " He is thrice armed, whose cause is just," acts upon 
 the nerves of Ireland's persecutors. 
 
 The English merchant whose fear the police sergeant helped 
 to intensify on that famous Saturday night, left Dublin a few 
 days after, making a business visit to Newcastle-on-Tyne en 
 
278 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 route to London. He and two friends were arrested in New- 
 castle ; the police having learned that they had come from 
 Dublin, these sagacious officials concluded they must have 
 been participants in the recent tragedy. After the incon- 
 venience of temporary arrest they were of course released. 
 This, and numbers of other cases of a similar nature occurring 
 in both countries will illustrate the sound sense and good 
 judgment of British guardians of the peace, and especially 
 the secret service police of the kingdom, when political 
 prisoners are sought after. The intelligence of these men is 
 always at fault in revolutionary cases unless they are supplied 
 with information. Of course if they once get a clue, they 
 will follow it up to all possible success ; but any quiet man, 
 with resolution and no bluster, can easily beat them in any, 
 even the most dangerous, undertaking. Nationalists have 
 sometimes wondered, reading of the many arrests made at 
 this time, if any of the real parties thought of the lines of 
 Livy, " By flying, men often meet their fate." 
 
 The following week Dublin began to settle down into a 
 calmer feeling ; the newspapers were announcing import- 
 ant arrests in every edition, and of course the detective 
 department had it impressed upon the newspaper reporters 
 that it was in possession of grave and important in- 
 formation ; and that it held a clue, which, in the interests of 
 justice, it could not allow to be published. 
 
 The action of the Dublin patriots rang with a clarion 
 sound over Europe. It was discussed in Cabinets and 
 Courts, and in every gathering of diplomats. Ireland was 
 forcing herself into the European question. . . . The bared 
 steel of the Phoenix Park gleamed in the face of Europe, 
 and the nations and the peoples knew that Ireland was in 
 earnest, and that she would never cease to toil and to face 
 death, until the sunburst gleaming on her green banner flying 
 proudly over Irish soil, witnessed the consummation of her 
 hopes and the fulfilment of her destiny. 
 
 The peoples of Europe, who were confounded at the 
 
EXTRACTS FROM THE EUROPEAN PRESS 279 
 
 peculiar and contradictory tactics of the agitators, seeing an 
 economic question put forth as if it were a national demand, 
 became alive to the importance of the position ; and when 
 the winter's horrors, like the Bulgarian atrocities only dis- 
 guised in more hellish cunning, had passed over Ireland and 
 that unhappy land seemed prostrate beneath the British 
 marauders, suddenly, as if a perpetual and darkened eclipse 
 had burst into sunlight, there shone forth upon the path of 
 liberty, the upheaving of an indignant nation ; in the 
 broad light of day Britain, personified in the new Minister of 
 her banditti rule, fell prostrate beneath the arm of outraged 
 Ireland on the grassy sward of the Phoenix Park. Irishmen ! 
 read what the European press has to say of your country. 
 The Citizen^ writing of this great event, said : " This is 
 evidently a war of extermination — that is, of Ireland's 
 extremists against monarchical England. For them a country, 
 where in broad daylight four resolute men stab officials of 
 high position, does vastly more for the designs of revolution 
 than does Russia, where the Nihilists hide underground, dig 
 mines, and resort to timid means instead of striking straight 
 and openly at the heart. . . . We hope the English Govern- 
 ment will resume a policy of repression. The dagger having 
 once commenced its work, the struggle will go on mercilessly 
 and end in the triumph of Ireland aided by the co-operation 
 of revolutionists." 
 
 Through the cowardice of those to whom Ireland intrusted 
 her destiny, and who are trying to sell her over to her ex- 
 tyrant, William E. Gladstone, she has ceased to strike ; but. 
 nevertheless, the war, as spoken of by this European writer 
 who so nobly sympathised with her sufferings, has not ceased. 
 It goes on without mercy. Ireland sitting helplessly bewails 
 her fate, as she is taught to keep on wailing, while the foe 
 unmercifully strikes her hourly. 
 
 The Russian organ, the Golos of St. Petersburg, wrote thus 
 upon the Irish situation : 
 
 "We think that the tragical death of Lord Frederick 
 Cavendish and Mr. Burke proves that Mr. Gladstone w^s 
 
28o THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 profoundly mistaken in supposing that Mr. Parnell and his 
 friends were the real leaders of the Irish movement, and that 
 peace could be obtained by mere agrarian reform. The 
 movement is political, and not entirely agrarian, and there is 
 a secret party behind the Land League which aims at nothing 
 short of overthrowing English authority." 
 
 This journal, the organ of Britain's rival in the struggle for 
 Eastern empire, could not understand that an agrarian 
 reform could be called a national issue, as if reform, either 
 agrarian or of any kind, were possible under foreign tyranny. 
 The affair in the park at Dublin showed Russian journalists 
 and statesmen that Ireland had determined and brave men 
 ready to make sacrifices for her freedom, and that she would 
 be a useful ally in any coming complications. 
 
 The Rappel of Paris, the organ of the great French 
 poet, the illustrious and immortal Victor Hugo, and also 
 numbering among its contributors Louis Blanc and M. 
 Vacquerie, all then living, made these remarks upon the 6th 
 of May : 
 
 "Such an event, happening just when Mr. Gladstone has 
 liberated the Land League leaders, shows how implacable 
 is Ireland's hatred for England. It is not so much a political 
 and social insurrection, as a war of independence, that seems 
 foreshadowed." 
 
 The Irishmen who were the actors in this immortal drama, 
 held the independence of their country absolute and free from 
 all British control and influence as Ireland's only hope and 
 redemption ; and those who live hold fast this precious and 
 undying faith in their country's regeneration by manly 
 deeds. 
 
 M. Henri Rochefort, whom Mr. Parnell had visited to gain 
 the aid of his powerful voice for Ireland, writing in the 
 hitransigeanty said : 
 
 " The cannon is the ultima ratio of kings and the dagger is 
 the ultima ratio of subjects. . . . Ireland immediately saw 
 that she was trifled with, and she replied to this irony with 
 the dagger. This style of reply, perhaps useless in Russia, 
 
FURTHER EUROPEAN OPINION 281 
 
 where the officials, however ferocious, are generally brave, 
 has already produced considerable results in England, where 
 the cowardice of the shop-keepers who govern her is 
 inveterate." 
 
 M. Rochefort concluded a very ably written article by 
 citing the case of the Austrian Gessler and William Tell, as 
 a proof that tyrannicide answers ; and by regretting that 
 Orsini did not kill Napoleon III., which would have saved 
 France from the calamities of 1870. 
 
 The Austrian newspapers were astonished at this unpre- 
 cedented Irish action. The Vienna Presse thus alluded to 
 the subject: "We wonder how the men could escape from 
 such a frequented place as the Phoenix Park. We do not 
 doubt it is a political murder, but who can have been the 
 perpetrators .-* " 
 
 The Mot d'Ordrey in its comments on the Phoenix Park 
 tragedy, said 
 
 " We hope that the Irish will show they are worthy of 
 liberty by not allowing themselves to be lured by a few 
 paltry concessions. We exhort them to continue the 
 struggle, without truce or mercy, to reconquer their inde- 
 pendence. We have not to trouble ourselves with the means 
 by which this transformation will be effected. The change 
 of policy of the English Ministers leads us to hope that 
 violence will not be essential to the triumph of justice, but 
 even if some excesses are to be feared and deemed necessary, 
 we should not indulge in hypocritical lamentations on the 
 fate of privileged victims of this defence of property based on 
 confiscation and fraud." 
 
 Brave Frenchmen ! The men who would try to reconquer 
 Ireland's independence see their unhappy country in the 
 grasp of politicians, who have given to the nation a narcotic ; 
 but soon, very soon, they expect that the effects of the drug 
 will have passed away, and that awakened Ireland will 
 stretch out her limbs and shake off Gladstonism and this 
 Provincial agitation which is a mockery and a sham, and once 
 
282 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 more embrace the doctrine of Tone, and Emmet, and her 
 glorious patriots. 
 
 The National Zeitung of Berlin, a journal which has from 
 time to time published many a political communique from 
 Europe's great statesman, the Iron Chancellor, Prince Bis- 
 marck, wrote upon the new Irish attack upon her foe : 
 
 " There is no doubt here we have a political murder . . . 
 It is possible that the deed of horror expresses the disappoint- 
 ment of the Irish conspirators, at the nomination of Lord 
 Frederick Cavendish. But it is equally credible that it is 
 traceable to the men who will hear nothing of the com- 
 promises effected between Gladstone and Parnell, who are 
 averse to any diminution of the hostility existing between 
 Ireland and England, and who desire to carry on the move- 
 ment till their country is sundered from Great Britain." 
 
 The Bataille, a French journal, writing on the subject, 
 said : 
 
 *' By executing Cavendish and Burke the unhappy slaves 
 of English land law publicly declare that pseudo-liberal 
 measures cannot satisfy them ; that the time is past for 
 political jugglery, for that trifling which always conceals some 
 snare ; that they have a goal in view, with a firm resolution 
 of reaching it — namely, Irish independence." 
 
 How clearly these foreign journals understood the real 
 meaning of the 6th of May in Dublin ; and yet Irishmen all 
 over the United States permitted themselves to believe that 
 the release of Mr. Parnell and the resignation of Mr. Forster, 
 made up an Irish victory. When Irishmen study more care- 
 fully the intrigue and duplicity of English Ministers towards 
 Ireland, they will be slow 'to believe in victory until it is 
 actually obtained. When the Irish flag, the standard of an 
 independent nation, flutters in the breeze over the ruins of 
 Dublin Castle, then, and not till then, will victory be assured. 
 To accomplish this let Irishmen take a lesson from their 
 enemy Mr. Gladstone, and let their words take the shape of 
 acts. 
 
 The Marseillaise commented upon the Irish situation : 
 
EXTRACTS FROM THE FRENCH PRESS 283 
 
 " Thus it is no longer at simple landed proprietors that 
 the musket balls of Ireland are aimed. They strike down 
 the Queen's delegates, in broad daylight. We pity the 
 victims, but the immense pity we feel for the horrible situa- 
 tion of the Irish people, forbids us to show too much sym- 
 pathy. Ireland, since the first day of the conquest, has been 
 in a state of legitimate self-defence. If, at the cost of a 
 series of outrages, she succeeds in casting off the terrible 
 yoke which the sister island imposes on her, what friend of 
 humanity would think of blaming her for it ? " 
 
 Irishmen will do well if they reflect upon the situation of their 
 country, and look on the position of their nation as seen by 
 European eyes. Strange to say, the Irish National journals 
 in free America had not anything like the intelligent criticism 
 these European journals published of the 6th of May in 
 Dublin. 
 
 The Citizen criticised the manifesto of the Land League 
 leaders. The English journals were exceedingly displeased 
 with the tone of the comments printed in this paper. In 
 its columns it substituted " execution " or " suppression " for 
 what they termed " murder." It said : 
 
 " This manifesto explains itself. There are two organisa- 
 tions in Ireland, one public, the other secret. The former 
 pretends to keep within the limits of legality, and for form's 
 sake is obliged to protest against the terrorist measures. The 
 above manifesto has at bottom no real significance." 
 
 The Citoyen of Paris said : 
 
 "The Gladstone Cabinet resolved to change its tactics, 
 force proving powerless to checkmate force. The Ministry 
 were determined to try trickery. Then they liberated the 
 suspects, received the Irish members with mellifluous com- 
 pliments, and lastly sent to Ireland a man of reconciliation — 
 Lord Frederick Cavendish. This statesman and his lieutenant, 
 one hour after having taken command of the island, have 
 been summarily executed by the agents of the Land League. 
 ... If the Government removed coercion it was not out of 
 humanity, but from impotence. It is right that the Irish 
 
284 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 should take advantage of the situation. . . . The triumph of 
 independent Ireland is certain. Thanks to a secret organisa- 
 tion composed of tried men and considerable capital furnished 
 by international combinations, the Land League will one day 
 or other win. . . . 
 
 "The means must be adapted to the circumstances. Since 
 in Ireland and Russia there is no liberty, Irishmen are forced 
 to employ what weapons are left to them." 
 
 The Dublin Irishman^ the property of the Parnellites, 
 spoke very differently from their official organ, United Ireland; 
 and gave more strength to the belief of the Dublin men — that 
 the Parnell and Dillon proclamation was a ruse to deceive 
 the enemy. No Irish journal in the American continent 
 spoke with a more patriotic ring, than did this newspaper 
 published beneath the shadow of Dublin Castle. The Dublin 
 Irishman said : 
 
 " Without excusing crime of any character, or for any 
 purpose, we hold that aggression is always followed by re- 
 taliation, and that repression is invariably the cause of out- 
 rage. It is not in Ireland alone that hostility on one side 
 begets enmity on the other. Human nature is the same 
 everywhere. No nation suffers injury without making an 
 effort in its own defence. The English people ought to re- 
 member that we did not begin the bloody strife which has 
 lasted for seven hundred years. Let them remember it was 
 they who first declared war upon the people of this country. 
 With armed bands they invaded the island, slaughtered the 
 inhabitants, seized their lands, and took possession of their 
 worldly goods. Year after year for centuries, the English 
 forces perpetrated many outrages in the catalogue of crime. 
 As the Irish race could not submit to murder, robbery, and 
 conquest, it fought and struggled against the stream of invasion 
 which continued until recent days. Thus the war has been 
 brought down to our own time, not of our own will but 
 because the rapacity of the invaders was never satisfied." 
 
 These opinions of the European press and the article of the 
 
THE "TIMES" ON THE TRAGEDY 285 
 
 Irish journal, speak eloquently in support of the patriots' 
 action in the Phoenix Park. The Parnellite proclamation 
 called the tragedy cowardly. We question if ever any of the 
 three men whose names were affixed to that lamentable 
 document, will ever dare near as much for Ireland. Three 
 or six months' imprisonment for howling at the British is the 
 pinnacle of their martyrdom. The London Times, Ireland's 
 bitter enemy, was compelled to admit that this slaying of the 
 Secretaries was a daring action. This admission was wrung 
 from it. Ought not Irishman who attempt to belittle the 
 heroic acts of their more self-sacrificing countrymen to hide 
 their heads with shame ? 
 
 The Times, speaking of the tragedy in its issue one week 
 after the event, in a howl of rage said : 
 
 "The crime itself was not only brutal, but defiant and inso- 
 lent. No one who has not actually examined the surroundings 
 of the scene can be adequately impressed with this fact. 
 All Dublin and many others examined the locality, and they 
 see plainly what it all means — that the secret societies have 
 challenged the whole power of the Executive, the Lord- 
 Lieutenant, the constabulary, and the military, in the very 
 heart and centre of their stronghold, and that they have in- 
 flicted a blow which will be all-powerful for evil in the 
 immediate future, if the authorities are baffled." 
 
 That was so. The INVINCIBLES sought their foe in the 
 heart and centre of his stronghold. They went there pre- 
 pared to give Irishmen, and the enemy, a lesson that will long 
 be remembered. And as long as daring deeds and heroic 
 actions to redeem suffering nations are cherished by mankind, 
 so long will these patriotic Irishmen receive a niche in the 
 temple of fame. There, surrounded by the military, the 
 constabulary, and within sight of the Lord Deputy, in broad 
 daylight, they " suppressed " British rule in the person of the 
 chief invader. Not in this generation, perhaps, will the 
 sacrifice be appreciated by their countrymen for whom some 
 died and others suffered ; but when the green island assumes 
 her rightful place among the European nations, and the 
 
286 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 banner of independent Ireland shall be flung to the breeze, 
 free men will remember that, amid the hideous night of 
 oppression that William E. Gladstone gave to Ireland, there 
 flashed a steel blade, like a star, a guiding light of liberty, 
 amid the black inky gloom of tyranny, and Irishmen will 
 place the 6th of May in their calendar of great and 
 memorable anniversaries. 
 
XVII. 
 
 spencer's "battues of hangings" — THE BLOODY 
 ASSIZE — ACCUSING SPIRITS. 
 
 As soon as the excitement into which British Ministerial 
 circles were thrown by the 6th of May tragedy had subsided, 
 and the Land League leaders had resumed their normal 
 condition after the terrible fright which permeated their 
 ranks caused by the incident in Dublin, the machinery of 
 British Parliamentary rule began its accustomed work. As 
 the machine ran in the usual groove, it met at this time with 
 no unusual friction. The now weak and puny resistance of 
 the Irish changelings was not perceptible. What a contrast 
 to the bold, determined, and outspoken opposition of one 
 year ago, that is, so far as Parliamentary opposition in an 
 alien assembly can be so characterised ! Mr. Gladstone, pale, 
 weary, and irritable, was suffering under a twofold trouble : 
 the death of his friend and colleague. Lord Frederick 
 Cavendish, who was a relative of his wife, and the wound 
 inflicted on his vanity by the upsetting of his deep-laid 
 scheme for the pacification of Ireland. Yet the lesson which 
 the Irish Secretary's death taught him stung him to the soul ; 
 he scarce gave a moment's reflection to the many lives which 
 were sacrificed by the policy he enforced in Ireland and in 
 the Transvaal, although many who lost their lives in that 
 bloody struggle were his own countrymen. He had thrown 
 off the mask of amiability, and was fully determined to 
 strain every engine of persecution to the uttermost, to make 
 
288 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 stubborn Ireland subservient to his ,will. His new Crimes 
 Bill, which he originally intended to introduce under the plea 
 of having to combat with Irish secret societies — as admitted 
 by Mr. Chamberlain one of his Cabinet, at a subsequent date — 
 was made more stringent by the addition of a new clause, a 
 renewal of the Star Chamber Inquisition of a few centuries 
 back. This clause was restored to a British Act of Parlia- 
 ment, by the enlightened and liberty-loving Premier who had 
 denounced before the world the despotism of Neapolitan 
 prison life, "and who wrote so appealingly to the humane 
 peoples of the world of the imprisonment of Silvio Pellico. 
 He was now again forging fresh fetters for unhappy Ireland. 
 This inquisition clause compelled men who were arrested and 
 charged with no offence to testify to their own opinions and 
 actions and those of their friends, before Mr. Gladstone's 
 " Grand Inquisitor," Mr. J. A. Curran, in Dublin Castle. . . . 
 Mr. Gladstone introduced his Irish Crimes Bill into the 
 British Commons, and after passing that chamber it went in 
 due course to the House of Lords, and on the famous anni- 
 versary of a battle in Ireland between two foreign kings, 
 July 12, 1882, the British sovereign's consent was given to 
 the measure, and it became law. 
 
 On Wednesday, July 5, 1882, there were arrested in 
 Dublin city some four or five men under the " suspect " 
 provisions of the expiring " Protection of Life and Property 
 Act," soon to be succeeded by its sanguinary relative, 
 entitled the " Prevention of Crimes Act." Amongst 
 these prisoners of the English enemy were Daniel Curley, 
 Edward McCaffrey, and Peter Doyle, names which became 
 familiar a little later. The cause of their arrest was suspicion 
 of being identified with the killing of John Kenny who was 
 executed for treason, — giving information to the British 
 enemy, — which had resulted in the seizure of some arms 
 belonging to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The British 
 suspected these men of being energetic in the I. R. B. ranks, 
 and without a tittle of evidence to connect them with the 
 
DANIEL CURLEY. 
 Executed May i8, 1883. 
 
THE ARREST OF JAMES CAREY 289 
 
 execution of Kenny, the enemy arrested them on vague 
 suspicion. 
 
 James Carey, since much spoken of, was imprisoned for the 
 same cause. Previous to his arrest under the " Suspect " Act, 
 and a day or two after Kenny was shot, Carey, in talking to 
 an Irish NationaHst of this occurrence, said, in reply to some 
 remarks made to him : " It would be a terrible thing to be shot 
 as a traitor and to be really innocent ; it is not so much 
 the loss of life as the stain and degradation on your memory, 
 and then, think of the infamous name which would be 
 attached to your children and their posterity. It is too 
 horrible to think of" Carey was really sincere in these 
 expressions ; he had the Irishman's horror and dread of the 
 name of " informer." He would have shuddered with disgust 
 and repulsiveness himself, if he could have been shown at that 
 time, the picture of his future degradation. There was not 
 money enough in the British Treasury to have purchased 
 Carey's betrayal of any secret of importance, and yet he 
 carried within him that speck of rotten cowardice which, 
 plaguelike, spread itself over the whole frame, destroying the 
 goodly proportions that were there before. 
 
 These men's arrest at this time, had no connection in any 
 manner with the crime with which they were subsequently 
 charged, though rumour, in her career of falsehood and exag- 
 geration, has since spread such reports abroad. 
 
 A few days after Carey's imprisonment, one of his tenants, 
 named John Fitzsimon, who noticed him making secret visits 
 to a loft in the tenement house where this man lived, hearing 
 of his arrest, was curious enough to pay a visit to the loft 
 and see what was secreted there. He found two surgical 
 knives, and a very expensive and valuable rifle. Tempted 
 by the large reward, and suspecting they were in some way 
 connected with revolutionary business, of which he probably 
 knew nothing and was one of the utterly indifferent, he 
 visited the police and made his bargain for their surrender. 
 The Government considered it had got a prize, but this prize 
 was not very long in its possession before its capture was 
 
 U 
 
290 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 known to the Irish Nationalists ; the secret filtered through 
 the supposed silent portals of Scotland Yard. The authori- 
 ties did not publish the account of the seizure until some 
 time after Carey's release, which occurred, owing to the 
 expiration of the " suspect " Act, late in September. . . . 
 
 The new engine of torture, which was invented by the 
 diabolical side of the Premier's statesmanship, called the 
 " Crimes Bill," was now about to be put into practice ; and 
 the most astounding and infamous of crimes were to be 
 enacted in the light of day, sanctioned by the pirate rule of 
 Britain. Murder was about to be perpetrated by the invader's 
 myrmidons, under the outward forms and ceremonies of law. 
 It was not alone that these courts were illegal, having no 
 authority for their existence in Ireland save the mandate 
 of a foreign Government ; but according to the enemy's own 
 supposed authority they were an outrage, and a lie on anything 
 that men could call justice, so glaring and brutal was the 
 system of manufacturing what was termed evidence, and the 
 packing of hostile Irish traitors as jurymen — men who were 
 prepared to bring in any verdict that the enemy's lawyers 
 required. Men also sat on the bench who represented that 
 foreign law, and who went there with the deliberate purpose 
 of hanging and imprisoning any men arraigned before them, 
 utterly indifferent as to whether these men were associated 
 with the so-called offences or crimes charged against Jthem. 
 The enemy's object was to strike terror into the community, 
 and make his rule so feared, if not respected, that the Irish 
 serfs would not dare to dream of any opposition to his sway 
 but would bow and cringe inwardly, as they did outwardly 
 through their weak-nerved Provincial leaders. . . . 
 
 The first Special Commission under the Crimes Act 
 opened in Green Street, Dublin, early in August, 1882. 
 
 The Dublin Freeman s Journal, in its issue of August 1 1, 
 commented on these trials in its editorial column : "Yester- 
 day at the Commission Court the first jury trial under 
 the Crimes Act took place. John O'Connor and three others, 
 
THE CRIMES ACT AT WORK 291 
 
 all natives of Kerry, were placed in the dock charged with 
 having, on the 17th of March at Fahey in the county of Kerry, 
 attacked the house of Mrs. Murphy, the widow of an officer in 
 the army. Under the ordinary law the men would have been 
 tried in Kerry, where the alleged offence took place ; but avail- 
 ing himself of the provisions of the Crimes Act, the Attorney- 
 General moved the case to Dublin, and under the same 
 measure, a special jury was impanelled from a joint county 
 and city panel. The Crown exercised their right to challenge 
 on a wholesale scale, and no less than nineteen persons,-«ome 
 of them most respectable citizens, were ordered to ' stand 
 aside.' The facts of the case will be found reported else- 
 where. All the prisoners were convicted, but the jury 
 accompanied the finding with a strong recommendation 
 for mercy ; and sentence was deferred." 
 
 The Dublin Freeman of the 12th of August, further 
 alluding to these trials, observed : " We are unwilling to 
 credit the rumour that the court have resolved that 
 juries exclusively, or almost exclusively Protestant, shall 
 determine in some cases the liberty, in others the lives, 
 of the prisoners on trial at Green Street. Yet colour is 
 lent to the report by the fact, that yesterday in the 
 capital case, just as on the previous day in the Whiteboy 
 case, Catholic gentlemen of admitted respectability and 
 position were ordered to ' stand aside,' when they took 
 the book to be sworn. To the gentlemen in question 
 no stereotyped trade objection can be alleged, and the 
 inference therefore is that they were shoved aside from their 
 duties as jurors, simply because they are Catholics. If this 
 is true, an odious and, it was hoped, obsolete practice has 
 been revived, and the course if taken, as unnecessary as it is 
 injudicious, must naturally cause indignation and resentment 
 in Catholic circles. The notion that such men as Edward 
 Lenehan of Castle Street, William Dennehy of John Street 
 and others whom we could mention, could not be trusted to 
 find a true verdict according to evidence in county cases 
 brought to Dublin for trial, which is the simple and only 
 
 U 2 
 
292 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 inference, is offensive in the extreme. The representatives of 
 the Crown could not venture to publicly make such a declara- 
 tion. Yet the names of the gentlemen specified, appear in 
 the public list of the rejected. The matter is one that calls 
 for inquiry and explanation. For the present, we will only 
 express our regret that the representatives of the Crown should 
 deem it necessary and expedient to boycott Catholic special 
 jurors of the city and county of Dublin. That this has been 
 done, we fear there is no doubt, and we apprehend that no 
 other interpretation of the action of the Crown can be given 
 than that Catholic gentlemen are subjected to the shocking 
 imputation, that they are not unprepared to violate the 
 solemn obligations of their oath in cases which are supposed 
 to arise out of political agitation in the country. Would 
 the managers of the Crown prosecutions in Green Street 
 dare openly to make such an accusation ? " 
 
 It is difficult to characterise this article ; it was evidently 
 written by a narrow-minded bigot, a serf and slave to foreign 
 rule in Ireland. Is it an Irish Catholic gentleman's duty, any 
 more than an Irish Protestant gentleman's, to perform 
 England's office in upholding her monstrous system in 
 Ireland ? These gentlemen who were so told to " stand 
 aside" were honoured by the request. They were loyal 
 Irishmen, and not rebels and traitors to Ireland, whom the 
 enemy could count on returning what verdict suited the 
 almighty majesty of the usurping foreigner, and his courts in 
 the country. They were not told to " stand aside " because 
 they were Catholics, but because the enemy believed them 
 honest Irishmen, who would not stain their souls in his 
 degrading service. It has been proved to the satisfaction of 
 Irishmen, even of those who hold narrow and bigoted views, 
 that England's hirelings hugged to their heart any Catholic 
 as well as Protestant who would do her work of infamy in the 
 island of the Gaels. 
 
 The Nationalists of Ireland had been struggling for years 
 to remove the monstrous British lie that Irish nationality meant 
 nothing but subserviency to one particular form of Christian 
 
THE JURY IN THE HYNES CASE 293 
 
 worship ; and that it also meant persecution, if successful, 
 to all non-Catholics. In the history of falsehoods which 
 have been circulated and believed in by deluded mankind, 
 there has been no more atrocious and wicked lie than this 
 British mendacity, except its counterpart which is equally 
 mischievous — Mr. Gladstone's " Home Rule," which will be 
 spoken of further on. The great heart of Ireland is throbbing 
 with love and devotion to all her children ; she knows no 
 difference between them, be they but honest, leal, and true. 
 Irish Nationalists, sincere, pious, and faithful Catholics as 
 many of them are, would rise up in indignation and repu- 
 diation if any such unheard of doctrine as the British enemy 
 preaches, were attempted to be put in practice, at the faintest 
 hint of prejudice against their non-Catholic fellow-countrymen. 
 They revere and respect the memory of their great Irish 
 Protestant patriots, whom England done to death for loyalty 
 to their native land. No ! Protestant fellow-countrymen, your 
 Catholic brothers say to you : — 
 
 "We have no curse for you and yours, 
 
 But friendship's ready grasp, 
 And faith to stand by you and yours 
 
 Unto our latest gasp — 
 To stand by you against all foes, 
 
 Howe'er or whence they come, 
 With traitor arts, or bribes, or blows, 
 
 From England, France, or Rome. 
 
 ** We do not hate, we never cursed, 
 
 Nor spoke a foeman's word 
 Against a man in Ireland nursed, 
 
 Howe'er we thought he erred ; 
 So start not, Irish-bom man 
 
 If you're to Ireland true ; 
 We heed not race, nor creed, nor clan, 
 
 We've hearts and hands for you." 
 
 The following letter, published in the Dublin Freeman, 
 explains itself: — 
 
 " The Jury in the Hynes Murder Case. 
 
 ** Imperial Hotel, Dublin, August 13, 1882. 
 " Dear Sir, — I think the public ought to be made aware 
 of the following facts : The jury in the murder case of The 
 
294 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Queen v. Hynes were last night * locked up/ as it is termed 
 for the night at the Imperial Hotel, where I also was staying. 
 I was awakened from sleep shortly after midnight by the 
 sounds of a drunken chorus, succeeded after a time by scuf- 
 fling, rushing, coarse laughter, and horse-play. Along the 
 corridor on which my bedroom opens, a number of men, it 
 seemed to me, were falling about the passage in a maudlin 
 state of drunkenness, playing ribald jokes. I listened with 
 patience for a considerable time, when the door of my bed- 
 room was burst open, and a man, whom I can identify (for he 
 carried a candle unsteadily in his hand), staggered in, plainly 
 under the influence of drink, hiccupping, * Halloa, old fellow, 
 all alone } ' My answer was of a character that induced him 
 to bolt out of the room, in as disordered a manner as he had 
 entered. Having rung the bell, I ascertained that these dis- 
 orderly persons were jurors in the case of The Queen v, 
 Hynes, and that the servants of the hotel had been endeavour- 
 ing in vain to bring them to a sense of their misconduct. I 
 thought it right to convey to them a warning that the public 
 would hear of those proceedings. The disturbance then 
 ceased. It is fair to add that not more than three or four 
 men appeared to be engaged in the roaring, and in the tipsy 
 horse-play that followed. I leave the public to judge the 
 loathsomeness of such a scene upon the night when these 
 men held the issues of life and death for a young man in 
 the flower of youth, when they had already heard evidence 
 which, if unrebutted, they must have known would send him 
 to a felon's grave. These facts I am ready to support on 
 oath. 
 
 " William O'Brien." 
 
 This description, so graphically given, shows the class of 
 men who performed the mockery of trial over Irishmen 
 whose political views were inimical to the stranger's rule, and 
 who were arrested to glut the vengeance of the gentle and 
 peace-loving Mr. Gladstone, who was the high priest of the 
 oracle "justice to Ireland." 
 
A GLADSTONIAN LEGACY 295 
 
 Many Irishmen will remember the case of the killing of 
 Head Constable Whelehan in a contest with some peasant 
 labourers who, called themselves " Moonlighters," and of the 
 evidence of a suborned perjurer named Callanan. Some men 
 with conveniently short memories held up their hands in 
 horror at the infamies of the brutal Tories — and brutal they 
 are and have been. Some English Liberals denounced the 
 Tory Government for the hiring of this degraded wretch. 
 This self-convicted thief Callanan was first engaged under 
 the Government of the sanctimonious Mr. Gladstone, and 
 during this scarlet regime very probably performed some 
 secret infamies for his paymasters, they not requiring him on 
 the witness table. He was one of the infamous legacies 
 which the Tories took over from Mr. Gladstone when, amid 
 Irish rejoicing, it came to be their turn to take the reins of 
 office. 
 
 The " Red Earl " and his entourage in the government of 
 Ireland, were indignant at Mr. Gray, editor of the Freeman, 
 for publishing such an exposi of their hanging machinery, 
 and notwithstanding the two blessings — as Mr. Dawson 
 would term them — conferred upon Mr. Gray, namely, the 
 office of High Sheriff of the city of Dublin, and membership 
 of the " Imperial " Legislature, he was brought before the 
 commission presided over by that Solomon and Daniel com- 
 prised in one man, Judge Lawson, whose memory to Irishmen 
 is as "pure" as his judgments were "just."^ He was ar- 
 raigned before his lordship, we cannot say for judgment — 
 for that decision was no doubt settled at the privy council of 
 Castle conspirators of which this tyrannical judge was a 
 member — but for sentence. 
 
 The following scene took place in court : — 
 
 Mr. Gray. — . . . Was it not my duty as a public journalist, 
 being informed they had been drinking in the public billiard- 
 room, and } 
 
 Judge Lawson (interrupting angrily ).~I think you had 
 
 ■^ See Appendix A, p. 547. 
 
296 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 better not make any statement of the kind, for it will not at 
 all assist your case. 
 
 Mr. Gray. — I will not follow up those statements 
 further. 
 
 Judge Lawson.— I believe them to be totally devoid of 
 truth. It was a most respectable jury, and the foreman said 
 all were perfectly sober, and I believe him. 
 
 Mr. Gray. — My lord 
 
 The Judge. — Mr. Gray, you had better not repeat these 
 statements at all. If an action for libel were brought against 
 the man who wrote this article, then you might be justified 
 in trying to justify your action, but in the present instance 
 you are not. The charge is that you committed a contempt 
 of court by writing these statements. 
 
 Mr. Barrett, of Kingstown (the foreman of the jury). 
 The jury courts the fullest inquiry into their conduct. 
 
 Mr. William O'Brien. — As writer of the letter I 
 wish 
 
 His Lordship. — Sit down, sir. 
 
 Mr. Gray tried to justify his position, but he might as well 
 have tried to get back the snow which fell in his childhood. 
 His sentence was decreed in the Castle. 
 
 Mr. William O'Brien. — Do justice to Mr. Gray. 
 
 His Lordship. — Remove that man ; he has no right to 
 be there at all. 
 
 Mr. O'Brien. — My Lord 
 
 His Lordship. — llemove him at once from the court. 
 
 A police constable then touched Mr. O'Brien on the 
 shoulder, and he arose and left the court. 
 
 Judge Lawson then proceeded to pass sentence on Mr. 
 Gray. After a long preamble, he said : 
 
 " I therefore feel bound, in the exercise of the undoubted 
 discretion which is vested in me, both to imprison and fine. 
 Accordingly the sentence of the court is that (it appearing 
 that these articles committed contempt of court) you Edmund 
 Dwyer Gray be imprisoned for the term of three calendar 
 months, and pay a fine to her Majesty the Queen of ;^5oo ; 
 
COMMITTAL OF MR. GRAY 297 
 
 and after the termination of that three months to give 
 securities (yourself in ;£'5,ooo and two securities in ;^2,5oo 
 each) to be of good behaviour and to keep the peace for the 
 term of six months ; or in default to be imprisoned for a 
 further term of three months. Let Mr. Gray be now taken 
 into custody." 
 
 The officials of the court were puzzled what to do ; there 
 was no precedent for thus arbitrarily arresting a High Sheriff; 
 but the instructions of the amiable Judge Lawson were from a 
 higher source, and from a man equally as amiable and just, 
 the sanctimonious Mr. Gladstone. The order was repeated 
 in still more peremptory tones. Thus Mr. E. D. Gray, 
 High Sheriff and Imperial Legislator — which honours 
 O'Connell had opened up to him — had to go to prison ; 
 for that great Irishman whom Mr. Gray and his friends 
 were doing honour to, a few days previously, by unveiling his 
 statue, had neglected to place a barrier, by some oversight, 
 between Irishmen and arbitrary arrest ; so that Mr. O'Con- 
 nell's " Imperial " Legislators have often since, and recently, 
 aired these honours as inmates of a gaol. 
 
 Mr. Gray, a loyal subject of the House of Hanover, who 
 always scolded those wicked physical force men and tried to 
 lecture them into a fitting state of respect and reverence for 
 the authority of that good and great Hanoverian lady who 
 wears the crown of the Guelphs, — Mr. Gray was sent off to 
 Richmond Bridewell, escorted by a troop of Hussars, and 
 there he was taught that wholesome moral lesson : " Cease to 
 to do evil, learn to do well." 
 
 Mr. Gray's paper, the Freeman^ complained that Catholic 
 jurors were told to stand aside. That they were so told is 
 unquestioned, but, as stated, it was not because of their 
 religion, but because of their National tendencies or supposed 
 National tendencies in the eyes of these gangrened em- 
 ployees of the " Grand Old Man." The foreman of Francis 
 Hynes's jury, Mr. James Barrett, J. P., who so heroically 
 defended his brother jurors, was a Catholic of the Catholics. 
 He was the devoted servant, and faithful friend, of his 
 
298 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Eminence Cardinal McCabe, the then Archbishop of DubHn. 
 No man could look with more horror than he did upon 
 Orangemen ; he hated them as a faithful henchman of Mr. 
 Gladstone, and as a West British Liberal ; he looked upon 
 them with horror as a zealous son of the Church. . . } 
 
 This assize over which Judge Lawson, presided, produced 
 a generous supply of perjury on the part of the witnesses, an 
 equal abundance of prejudice and cringeing servility on the 
 part of the jury, and of bitter unrelenting partisanship on the 
 part of the judge, who was also one of the Executive Council 
 who ordered these arrests, the subjects of which he was to go 
 through the mockery of trying. This assize turned out 
 enough victims for the scaffold and dungeon for one short, 
 maiden effort of the Crimes machine, which must have made 
 glad the heart of the benevolent Mr, Gladstone, from whom 
 all blessings flow to Ireland. . . . 
 
 Mr. William O'Brien, in his paper, went so far as to state 
 that Lord Spencer hanged these men, full well knowing at 
 the time that they were innocent ; but that he wanted 
 victims. In this very strong statement, he was endorsed by 
 his Parliamentary colleagues ; and there is no reason, as 
 already stated, to doubt the truth of this most damning 
 indictment. 
 
 This "Bloody Assize" was the opening of gentle John 
 Poyntz's mild sway, which was only different from Forster's 
 by its quadrupled cruelty. Where Mr. Forster arrested as a 
 " suspect," my Lord Spencer arrested with the full determina- 
 tion, right or wrong, if not to punish the actual perpetrators 
 of these alleged local crimes, at least to hang or imprison 
 somebody, no matter whom, if he was a hostile Irishman. 
 And behind these Irish tragic scenes sat England's gentle 
 Premier, Mr. Gladstone, guiding and controlling his Irish 
 lambs. The good shepherd sat playing the same soft dulcet 
 strains to which the lamblike Mr. Forster danced. He 
 had now attuned his pipes to a sylvan measure, which the 
 
 ^ See Appendix A, p. 547. 
 
"THE BLOODY ASSIZE" 299 
 
 ** Red Earl " ambled to with grace and ease ; and the judges 
 juries, and perjurers trod the goodly measure in excellent 
 time, in such perfection that the court-house dock became a 
 very shambles, while Mr. Marwood (the common hangman) 
 also ambled with such vigour, that the gentle English shep- 
 herd's victims were bowed into eternitv- 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ARREST OF INVINCIBLES— THE "STAR CHAMBER" INQUIRY. 
 
 On the night of Friday, January 13, 1883, and the morning 
 of Saturday, January 14, the British forces, or that portion of 
 them comprised under the name of detectives, policemen, and 
 marines, made a swoop on several houses in Dublin city ; and 
 in the small hours of the Saturday morning made prisoners 
 of fifteen new victims. Many of these men were arrested in 
 bed. It was evident that the British officials expected 
 resistance, for they went armed and in sufficient numbers to 
 overcome all opposition. The Irishmen arrested, were not 
 expecting these midnight visitors, and whatever arms they 
 were possessed of were safely put away. The police pro- 
 cured no weapons, neither did they seize any documents ; 
 probably there were none of these latter to seize. 
 
 The British love of bringing in their naval forces at every 
 imaginable contingency, has been mentioned. At this period 
 of the British invasion of Ireland they were compelled to 
 reinforce their occupying army in Dublin city, by sending a 
 large contingent of marines to do police duty or what the 
 invaders so termed in Ireland, where the seeking for and arrest- 
 ing of Irish Nationalists who are opposed to alien rule form 
 the greater portion of these so-called police duties. For in 
 spite of the great power of the invading army and police, 
 Irishmen will continue to plot and to endeavour, if not to 
 drive away, to at least make the enemy feel he occupies a 
 hostile country. 
 
THE MIDNIGHT ARRESTS 301 
 
 The writer remembers arriving in Dublin about this period, 
 and when entering a cab to drive to the hotel he noticed a 
 stalwart stranger take his seat beside the driver. On arriving 
 at the hotel he asked the cabman who his fellow-occupant on 
 the box-seat was ; and he replied in the humorous tones of 
 a Dublin carman : '' He is guarding you. He is one of the 
 marines that the English, God bless them ! sent over to take 
 care of us." The cabman shrugged his shoulders, and went 
 off with a broad grin upon his expressive face. The writer 
 entered the hotel, deeply grateful for the care taken by her 
 Britannic Majesty's Royal Navy. 
 
 The men arrested in this midnight raid were : James Carey, 
 Thomas Martin, Joseph Hanlon, Peter Doyle, Joseph Brady, 
 Timothy Kelly, Robert Farrell, John Dwyer, Henry Rowles, 
 Edward McCaffray, Daniel Delany, Joseph Mullet, James 
 Mullet, Peter Carey, William Moroney, and Daniel Curley. 
 On the morning of January 13, 1883, they were arraigned 
 before the sitting magistrate, and without the slightest evidence 
 being offered, or any charge preferred against them, they 
 were remanded for one week and committed to prison 
 without bail. 
 
 These arrests came about in this way. As already stated, 
 when James Carey was arrested as a ** suspect" six months 
 previous, John Fitzsimons, his lodger, discovered arms in 
 the loft of the tenement house. The old man at first did 
 not acquaint the British officials with the news, but secreted 
 them in another part of the attic. He took no further action. 
 Some days after this Mrs. Carey, accompanied by a man, as 
 afterwards stated in evidence, entered the loft. Fitzsimons, 
 on the alert, watched them, and nervous that his prize might 
 escape, cupidity overcame his fears. He rushed to the police 
 office and returned with the officials, who found the arms 
 where Fitzsimons pointed out, Mrs. Carey and her escort 
 having left the premises after an apparently fruitless search, 
 if that was their mission. 
 
 When the enemy discovered the peculiar class of arms 
 
302 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 seized, he felt satisfied he had got the first clue to the 6th of 
 May " suppressions " and was convinced he had the actual 
 weapons used. 
 
 It might reasonably be expected that a wealthy Govern- 
 ment could command agents of sufficient ability and judg- 
 ment to keep secret what it considered an important clue in 
 the discovery of the revolutionary organisation that had 
 inaugurated a new species of warfare against them. But 
 this was not so. This seizure had been scarcely affected, 
 when, from the supposed sealed doors of Scotland Yard, it 
 reached the ears of the Irish National Government. The 
 British officials boasted in circles which they considered con- 
 fidential, of their fortunate capture. They said that they had 
 discovered in the person of a respectable Dublin mechanic, 
 the leader of these terrible conspirators. It will be remem- 
 bered by those who read the opening of these so-called trials 
 that the British believed, or for some purpose wished the 
 public to believe, that Carey was a leader among the 
 INVINCIBLES. The action of the British agents in Irish 
 political affairs has been one series of stupid blunders. They 
 were now, they considered, in possession of a valuable clue ; 
 pnd having, as before mentioned, crowed about their victory, 
 they set about trying to follow up the traces so opportunely 
 placed in their hands. Having no specific indictment to 
 bring against Carey, they felt compelled to release him in 
 September, at the expiration of the " Suspect '* Act ; it was, 
 however, a convenient excuse to let him out, and to watch his 
 movements. This they did, but no clue — not the faintest — 
 was derived from this careful espionage. Time passed ; they 
 began to despair of unravelling any further portion of this 
 mystery, when another chapter of accidents dropped some- 
 thing into their arms unexpectedly; then these astute and 
 wise British agents, called, as if in sarcasm, " secret police," 
 got a more important clue still. 
 
 It has been mentioned that Mr. Justice Lawson arbitrarily 
 sent a British-connection-loving yet withal a leading 
 Provincialist to prison, Mr. E. D. Gray, the High Sheriff of 
 
THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF JUDGE LAWSON 303 
 
 Dublin city. Judge Lawson's whole career was passed in 
 the British service, and like a good many of his colleagues he 
 confounded gentlemen such as Mr. Gray — who like the 
 hero in Marryat's story, wished to argue the point with the 
 English — with those men who believed in the potency of 
 using the " point " to get rid of foreign usurpation. Con- 
 sequently Judge Lawson was bitterly disliked in all National 
 and Provincial circles, probably more so in the latter, as the 
 " Constitutionalists " concentrate all their energies in strong 
 feeling. 
 
 After Mr. Gray's sentence, this feeling of dislike to Judge 
 Lawson was intensified, and detestation of the judge was the 
 prevailing sentiment in all circles in Dublin. 
 
 One Saturday night the citizens were surprised to hear 
 that, in spite of his guard, a man had attempted to shoot the 
 judge in Nassau Street, near the Kildare Street Club House ; 
 but that he was overpowered and captured. The account 
 stated that the man was noticed by Lawson's guard — which 
 consisted of three armed marines and four armed constables 
 — to act in a strange manner ; twice crossing the street he 
 was seen to approach the judge ; the last time he was stopped 
 in the act of drawing a revolver and was captured. The 
 name of this man was Patrick Delaney. 
 
 Judge Lawson left his home carefully guarded and walked 
 down Merrion Square, then up Leinster Street and on towards 
 the Kildare Street Club ; he was proceeding en route to 
 his destination at Henrietta Street, to attend a dinner given 
 by one of the so-called legal societies. Patrick Delany was 
 evidently following the judge for some purpose, and was 
 suddenly seized with the impulse of shooting him. It is not 
 believed that that was his original mission, and if, as reported, 
 he was a member of any revolutionary movement, he must 
 have violated his instructions,^ 
 
 The Latin races have a large amount of mercurial and 
 excitable characteristics, very noble in some cases, but when 
 this feeling controls the judgment it frequently leads to 
 * See Appendix K, p. 570, 
 
304 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 disaster. Delany was influenced by nervous excitement ; he 
 literally got intoxicated with recklessness ; he was no more 
 master of his own actions than a man under the influence of 
 alcohol. He ran up to the marines guarding the judge, and 
 clutching one of them by the arm, loudly whispered, " It's all 
 right." He then crossed to the College railings on the 
 opposite side and as quickly re-crossed, repeating this move- 
 ment twice ; then suddenly appearing in the presence of the 
 judge, he was overpowered by the guards and brought off, a 
 struggling captive, on an outside car to gaol. 
 
 It would be difficult to tell whether Delany or the judge's 
 guards were the most stupid ; it was evident that Judge 
 Lawson's life was very little guarded by his five armed 
 protectors, and Delany, if he was sane, could easily have shot 
 him at that time. Why they did not arrest this excitable 
 madman on his first approaching them is incomprehensible, 
 considering the special duty they were on. Delany's arrest 
 was the pin-hole by which the British hoped to brighten 
 their vision. No statement could be got from their new- 
 made prisoner ; but they knew they had him in their power, 
 and were prepared to apply moral torture, in order to wring 
 some information from him. 
 
 He was defended by lawyers who are a part of the 
 machinery of foreign rule in Ireland — a monstrous inconsist- 
 ency, which had been practised by Irish revolutionary 
 Nationalists for many generations. James Stephens was 
 the only Irish leader who did not stultify himself by making 
 defence in a British dock. The Irish people are not properly 
 educated on this important principle ; they think they are 
 deserted by their friends if not defended by lawyers. The 
 British, as a matter of course, will either hang or imprison 
 any enemy to their rule they can capture ; and these mock 
 trials have no bearing on the result. Irish patriots have no 
 right to complain ; it is a death struggle which means either 
 death to the invaders, or the invaded. 
 
 Irish patriots know they face death or imprisonment, in 
 every move they make ; but it is their duty, in spite of these, 
 
THE ATTEMPT TO MURDER MR. FIELD 305 
 
 to strike the foe, when, and how they can ; they must face 
 the issue boldly ; men must die sometimes, and a nation 
 which cannot command the sacrifice of her sons will always 
 remain subject to foreign power. Ireland has plenty of 
 brave daring men to take every chance and face any danger 
 to serve her, but their leaders are unfortunately weaklings 
 and too fond of agitation ; their cowardice and hesitation are 
 strangling their unhappy country. 
 
 Patrick Delany was found guilty, and sentenced to ten 
 years' penal servitude. Then commenced Delany's ordeal. 
 The British secret police all this time were busily gleaning 
 what information they could as to Delany's associates, and 
 the men who employed the lawyers who defended him. 
 They carefully traced the antecedents of these men and 
 their friends. In the midst of their espionage and care, 
 guarding all their hirelings by an unusual display of armed 
 force, Dublin was startled by an attack made on one of the 
 twelve men whom William O'Brien exposed for their infamous 
 conduct ; one of the brutal jurors of the murdered Francis 
 Hynes. This man had a miraculous escape. With all their 
 precautions and care, and armed as they considered them- 
 selves in every possible way against the Irish enemy, here 
 was another and nearly a fatal swoop made by their 
 mysterious foes, and the men, whoever they were, that 
 attacked the British juror, disappeared, leaving no traces of 
 their whereabouts.^ 
 
 Another proclamation was hurriedly issued ; the Dublin 
 Castle rulers were alarmed. Spencer, who was carefully 
 guarded by half a troop of cavalry, looked anxious and 
 careworn as he rode through the streets of the hostile city. 
 Did Spencer's guards preserve his life while he was enforcing 
 his Crimes Bill, and enjoying his " battues of hangings," from 
 the accidental and impulsive attack of some outraged native 
 of the island ? Possibly yes. But not from any Irish 
 organised assault. There were men in Dublin who would 
 
 ^ See Appendix L , p. 571. 
 
 X 
 
3o6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 have attacked him in open day, and even in defiance of his 
 uniformed banditti have slain the tyrant. True, the greater 
 portion of these patriots would have fallen in the assault. 
 There are times in the history of nations when such sacrifices 
 are not only a duty but become imperative. Such was the 
 condition of Ireland at that time. 
 
 The Castle proclamation, in addition to the original 
 rewards of ;^ 10,000 and ;^5,ooo, supplemented these by a 
 reward of ;£" 1,000 for the slightest useful hearsay evidence. 
 But all in vain, for Irish Revolutionists are foremost in the 
 history of mankind in their faith and loyalty to each other. 
 In every revolutionary epoch in Europe or in any country, 
 there were more erring and traitorous slaves to be found, 
 than can be traced in Ireland's history. The contrary false 
 statement has been so circulated abroad by the infamous, 
 slanderous and treacherous foe, that even some Irishmen 
 believe this abominable lie. British gold has manufactured 
 perjurers, and for Britain's own vile ends these men were 
 dubbed informers, or traitors ; but from the ranks of the 
 patriots they have succeeded in but very few instances. And 
 in modern times, all these of any notice have been executed 
 in spite of British protection. 
 
 Not one man, not even the poorest or humblest within the 
 ranks of the Invincibles, ever for a moment felt dazzled by 
 these enormous bribes ; other Irish movements have had one 
 or two foul traitors in their ranks, but inside this heroic 
 organisation not one, not a single individual, would betray to 
 the foe any important secret for the wealth of the British 
 treasury. 
 
 These rewards brought a plentiful crop of perjurers ; the 
 police, especially the higher and more venal officials, tempted 
 by the gold, aided in procuring these. This outside infor- 
 mation, the Castle people knew, was fabricated by those who 
 volunteered these statements. They turned these people 
 over to George Bolton, their infamous Crown Solicitor, a useful 
 instrument to manufacture any evidence necessary to murder 
 an Irishman by the mockery of a trial. 
 
THE "STAR CHAMBER" INQUIRY 307 
 
 They had Delany in their power, and were determined to 
 squeeze the very soul out of him by every species of mental 
 torture, until they got him to admit that he knew certain 
 men, whom they suspected of being members of the hostile 
 organisation ; but beyond this, Delany would not go at that 
 time. 
 
 Remembering the capture of arms in James Carey's house, 
 learning who his friends were, and coupling these facts with 
 Delany's admissions in prison, they commenced a number of 
 haphazard arrests. These men were brought before John 
 Curran,the presiding genius of this secret "Star Chamber," and, 
 subject to his legal scalping knife, they were examined by 
 this suave Mephistopheles, the cruel counterpart without 
 the ability, of Goethe's creation. Strange to say, this man 
 had been engaged to defend Mr. Parnell, Mr. Egan, and other 
 traversers in a previous trial. What a satire on the employ- 
 ment of lawyers in a political trial where the enemy controls 
 both attack and defence ! 
 
 Among the principal "Star Chamber" arrests were James 
 Carey, James Mullet, Daniel Curley, and Joseph Brady. 
 Bolton's staff of perjurers were at hand to identify these men ; 
 the Castle people were determined to convict some of them 
 in any event. They were examined, and every ingenuity 
 used to extract information, but all to no purpose. 
 
 The British felt compelled to make this plunge, for the 
 Dublin and other anti-Irish jurors in their interests were 
 getting panic-stricken after the attack on Juror Field. They 
 were asking for protection in open court ; the Government 
 felt they must make a coup cT^tat^ or their mock constitutional 
 machinery would be useless ; already the INVINCIBLES, or some 
 body of men, had put it sadly out of gear. 
 
 One fact they had made up their minds about — this 
 mysterious conspiracy was purely of native growth. Their 
 hackneyed cry of foreign elements, and transatlantic origin, 
 was of no use here. The men suspected had never been out 
 of Ireland. 
 
 These suspects were brought before England's inquisitor, 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 John Curran, to undergo the crucial ordeal of having their 
 intellects put in competition with this trained master of 
 fence in words, this able and subtle lawyer. Around them 
 were displayed some of the forces of the enemy, ready to 
 obey the slighest nod from their suave chief Mallon, who, cat- 
 like, watched every movement, now and again purring as he 
 looked in the eyes of the black-browed inquisitor on the 
 bench. ... 
 
 Any man in possession of the key to the revolutionary 
 situation, could readily understand from the questions put by 
 Curran, that the British were completely at sea. Dickens's 
 gentleman who got the head of Charles the First into every- 
 thing had a counterpart in that black whiskered, sallow-faced 
 inquisitor, for a priest, or one who passed as a priest, got into 
 every other question put by him. The young lady in 
 Thackeray's novel who played " Such a getting upstairs," 
 never performed that classic piece with a greater number of 
 variations than did Mr. Curran in his attempts to try and get 
 upstairs into the intellects of the prisoners before his seat of 
 torture ; but that wise and well-informed pincers of alien rule 
 in Ireland put questions easily answered. The priestly gentle- 
 man he was alluding to, the head of Charles the First in his 
 queries, had no more to do with the event about which he 
 was trying to elucidate information, than Thackeray's tune 
 and its performer. Inquisitor Curran was mixing up different 
 and distinct undertakings, and with his pestle was pounding 
 in the mortar the different ingredients to make an excellent 
 " olla podrida ; " but instead of unravelling the threads of what 
 he termed " a terrible conspiracy," he was confusing himself, 
 and puzzling those he questioned as to what he was really 
 driving at. Oh, wise grand juries who bring in British verdicts 
 so complacently, what Solons are you ! One thing he suc- 
 ceeded in doing with the men before him who were deter- 
 mined to admit nothing: they actually went so far as to deny 
 knowing one another. This might be called superfluous 
 caution and bad judgment, but the subtlety and deep schem- 
 
THE MIDNIGHT ARRESTS IN DUBLIN 309 
 
 Ing of the Inquisitor must be recognised, as well as the oiliness 
 of his feline friend Mallon, who kept purring his sweet song 
 of friendship and advice into their ears " to tell all," accom- 
 panied by the basso threats of the inquisitor, " Answer this 
 question, or I'll have you on the table" varied with, 
 "Answer, or I'll commit you," — for Joseph Brady was 
 detained in prison two nights ; but from none of the men 
 could any threats wring the smallest useful information. 
 James Carey, and Kavanagh the carman were firm through 
 this trying ordeal and in their lack of knowledge ; and the 
 Inquisitor dismissed them. Thus ended the Castle torture 
 scenes. Act i. 
 
 These three officials of the enemy, Messrs. Bolton, Curran, 
 and Mallon, had now completed their arrangements, and, as 
 mentioned in the opening of this chapter, at midnight on 
 January 13, 1883 they made these fifteen arrests, unaware of 
 what the ramifications of the INVINCIBLE movement were. 
 They considered that hour the best to select to arrest men 
 whom they knew, if in any way identified with the Phoenix 
 Park tragedy, could not easily be captured if on the alert. 
 
 From the number of men afterwards released and not 
 brought to trial, the enemy evidently made these arrests on 
 very vague suspicion ; they succeeded, however, after a short 
 time in procuring a witness from the prisoners, though ap- 
 parently a man who could scarcely be said to belong to the 
 National ranks. He was, however, useful to them in a 
 measure by his public appearance on the witness stand, in 
 corroborating the lies about informers which they were pouring 
 into the ears of the imprisoned men. The name of this 
 witness was Robert Farrell. 
 
 Farrell's first appearance on the witness stand was on the 
 second day's trial, Saturday, January 2, 1883; nothing of 
 importance was elicited ; another remand was asked for, and 
 of course granted. Farrell's evidence gave the clue to the 
 press, that the British were on the right track. At first the 
 newspapers were sceptical of any results coming from the 
 
310 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 trials. But Ireland's foreign rulers had little real information ; 
 so far the thumb-screw and rack of mental agony had 
 weakened no man ; their work was still undone. 
 
 They now commenced a system of moving the prisoners 
 about in special squads, and, with subtle cunning, tried to im- 
 press on the minds of one batch, what information they had 
 procured from the others. Mallon purred away among them 
 with his claws carefully concealed, suppressing his rage with 
 great care ; but the softer he purred, the more was he on the 
 alert to capture a witness from among the men. 
 
 The third day's examination, Saturday, January 27, 1883, 
 came, and still no informers. Were ever torturers more to be 
 pitied ? During these two weeks the prisoners had been suffer- 
 ing a thousand deaths in the artificial terrors and agonies with 
 which intellect, when devilishly applied, can harass those in 
 man's power. At this third examination the enemy demanded 
 from their satrap on the bench a longer remand ; the men 
 felt they were standing the ordeal well, and wished their fate 
 decided ; the innuendoes and slanders on their character, were 
 told to them by their visiting relatives. 
 
 In the meantime the detectives were on the lookout for 
 every man they suspected, and succeeded in capturing two 
 additional prisoners, Thomas Cafifrey and John Fitzharris, 
 the latter known by the sobriquet of " Skin the Goat." It 
 has often been a puzzle, reading of these events, that these 
 two men last arrested were not assisted in leaving the country ; 
 they had ample time to have crossed the Atlantic from the 
 time of the first arrests ; it was deplorable neglect, to say the 
 least of it, somewhere. 
 
 The fourth day's preliminary trial came, Monday, February 
 5, and no fresh evidence ; another remand was asked for and 
 granted. The arrest of Fitzharris enabled Mallon to put a 
 ruse into practice to try and procure another witness. He 
 knew that there was a personal difference between the car- 
 drivers, Kavanagh and Fitzharris, a matter of long-standing 
 dispute. One morning they were both brought from their 
 
SUPERINTENDENT MALLON'S RUSE 311 
 
 cells, and taken to the prison courtyard. Kavanagh's outside 
 car was there, and Mallon told him to get upon the box and 
 drive around the yard, to see if Alice Carroll would recognise 
 his sect on the box. This girl had sworn that she followed 
 the car on the night of the attack on Juror Field — a piece of 
 concocted and wilful perjury. Her story was false from first 
 to last. During the time Kavanagh was driving round, 
 Mallon engaged Fitzharris in conversation. Mallon purposely 
 assumed an air of great mystery and earnestness while talk- 
 ing and listening to Fitzharris's replies, the subject they were 
 discussing having no reference to politics. The superintend- 
 ent's unusually solemn manner was noticed by Kavanagh, and 
 he feared Fitzharris was giving information ; a scowl of 
 wrath was visible on his face ; Mallon thought the poison 
 was working. He ordered Kavanagh down, and told Fitz- 
 harris to take his seat upon the car and drive round. With 
 a look of triumph on his face, Mallon commenced making 
 notes of the imaginary information, furtively watching the 
 effect on Kavanagh, to whom he did not speak. After a few 
 turns he called Fitzharris to him, and seizing him con- 
 fidentially by the collar, he whispered some pleasantries in 
 low tones. Fitzharris suspecting this display of friendship 
 was to induce him to give information, secretly enjoyed the 
 discomfiture of Mallon. But Mallon entertained no such 
 idea ; he knew torture would not wring any knowledge from 
 Fitzharris. He used Fitzharris as a trap to weaken Kavanagh, 
 and to induce him to become a Crown witness. He dismissed 
 both men, and 'after the lapse of about an hour he entered 
 Kavanagh's cell, and commenced a friendly conversation with 
 him, telling him that all the men had volunteered to become 
 approvers for the Crown to save their lives, and that " Skin 
 the goat" had made a clean breast of it that morning. 
 Kavanagh had been told a portion of this story before, but 
 always received it with sullen silence. He was enraged with 
 Fitzharris, and having witnessed the cleverly arranged 
 manoeuvre of Mallon that morning, believed that he was 
 telling the truth. He replied in angy tones that he would get 
 
312 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 even with Fitzharris, and volunteered to give evidence. At 
 first Mallon appeared to hesitate ; he had so much evidence 
 already (the usual stereotyped British lie), but afterwards he 
 accepted. Kavanagh was brought before the master spirit 
 that guided the perjurers, George Bolton, and the INVINCIBLE 
 cardriver forgetting in his temper the horror, infamy, treason, 
 and certain fate of the dreaded " informer," had his informa- 
 tion taken down and arranged by Bolton for Saturday's 
 trial. 
 
 On Saturday, February lO, the fifth preliminary examina- 
 tion took place. The British were confident they had a 
 trump card in the cardriver, and were certain that the fortress 
 of concealed information was tottering under their blows. 
 When Myles Kavanagh was called to the witness table, there 
 was great astonishment visible in the faces of the men in the 
 dock ; more especially was this noticeable in the nervous 
 action of James Carey, who had hitherto displayed an air of 
 aggressive bravado, kid-gloved, and smoking cigars to and 
 from the court-house to the prison. But when Kavanagh's 
 evidence was analysed, it did not appear to throw very much 
 additional light on the situation. He was not aware, accord- 
 ing to his statements, for what purpose he was used by the 
 orders of those who controlled his movements ; he was an 
 Irish Revolutionist who obeyed his orders unquestioned. 
 His drive from the park on that 6th of May evening was the 
 sensational piece de resistance of his evidence. The Crown 
 asked for a short remand until Thursday, February 15. 
 
 After the evidence of Kavanagh, the British felt the 
 necessity of getting either Carey, Curley, or James Mullet, as 
 witnesses. They considered these men could give them 
 some clue to the intricate labyrinth which perplexed them. 
 Having these men completely in their power, they spread 
 broadcast on the wings of calumny the statement that all 
 three were only too eager to purchase safety by laying bare 
 the secrets of their heart to the British officials. This scandal 
 was so cleverly concocted that the families of all these men 
 
CAREY BECOMES AN INFORMER 313 
 
 believed the story true of the others. A writer observed, 
 alluding to some one who professed to despise this hideous 
 monster, " Calumny, sir ! You do not know what you disdain. 
 I have seen the worthiest of men all but ruined by it. Be- 
 lieve me, there is no wickedness however ignoble, no horror, 
 no story, however absurd, that you may not make the idlers 
 of a great city believe, if you set yourself to it. And we 
 have people here so clever at the work. . . ." 
 
 This calumny has eaten away the characters of most 
 reputable men in the National ranks ere now ; how much 
 more easy could it work its vile ends to steal away the good 
 name and honour of these imprisoned men ! Those who 
 knew him would as soon believe that Robert Emmet offered 
 to turn informer, as Daniel Curley. He was one of God's 
 noblest creations, and had always been a true, honest, and 
 fearless Nationalist. Mr. James Mullet was of an impulsive 
 nature, a man who often acted without thought, and might 
 possibly under such impetuous feelings commit acts of 
 indiscretion, but treason never ; he was a true and manly 
 Irish Nationalist and the very soul of honour. It was a foul 
 lie, to try and blacken this brave Irishman's name with this 
 false and unsupported charge. It is possible that Carey, who 
 was weakening, believed this story of the other two men ; but 
 they did not think so of him. What some people in Dublin 
 feared came true ; Carey's wife was the first to move. She 
 went to Mallon, as she expressed it, to save her husband, 
 and being in possession of the information known to him, 
 satisfied Mallon that he would have a trump card in placing 
 Carey on the witness table. Kavanagh's appearance as a 
 witness helped to corroborate Mallon's statement that he 
 was keeping back other important testimony, and urged on 
 by the appeals of his wife, Carey finally succumbed. At 
 first he was indignant at his wife's statements, for along with 
 his lifetime's detestation of an informer he dreaded the doom 
 that would always remain suspended over him as chief traitor 
 to his comrades ; but the belief implanted in his weak mind, 
 that it was a race between Curley and himself decided the issue 
 
314 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 — for this foul lie was purred out with proper emphasis by the 
 feline Mallon. So Carey fell, and the machinery of British 
 rule in Ireland dreamed they had found a saviour. 
 
 The man was now sold over to his wretched destiny. He, 
 who the previous day had before him a patriot's death, was 
 now steeped in the slime of poisonous treachery, and his 
 name stained for all generations, not only of Irishmen, but 
 all patriotic liberty-loving mankind. By one fell stroke he 
 had precipitated himself from virtue to infamy. The British 
 enemy tried to get information he did not possess, and some 
 of which was not true but merely the offspring of their own 
 suspicions. Every kind of gossip which ever came to Carey's 
 ears, they tried to distort into evidence. Mr. Frank Byrne, 
 the Land League secretary, Carey never saw in his life. 
 These two men had never met, and yet this gentleman was 
 included in his list of suspected persons. It may be said of 
 Carey in the lines of Seneca, " Courage leads to heaven, fear 
 to death." He was dead to every feeling which hitherto 
 animated him; every shred of news he could give to the 
 Treasury solicitor, Mr. Bolton (whose own infamous career 
 was exposed later on), he did, and Bolton put them together. 
 His Phoenix Park story was a miserable picture ; Carey was 
 ordered away before a blow was struck. He was a coward 
 and so fell, and with the aid of his more contemptible 
 confrere, George Bolton, the two worthies tried to save British 
 rule in Ireland. 
 
 Of the officers or Executive of the Invincible movement, 
 neither Carey nor any other Crown witness could offer the 
 faintest conjecture. And when the Privy Council read the 
 information of their leading witness, Dublin Castle was very 
 much dissatisfied at Carey's limited knowledge. Speculation 
 of the wildest and most reckless kind took the place of 
 absolute information ; no man whom they suspected of 
 hostility to their rule, was safe from attack and possible 
 arrest as an INVINCIBLE. 
 
 The one advantage of Carey's evidence was the seeming 
 truthfulness with which they could now invest the coming 
 
CAREY'S LAST DAY IN THE DOCK 315 
 
 trials, by putting so important a witness as a man they called 
 a leader, on the witness table. Yet, after all, in a conquered 
 country this did not so much matter ; their perjurers could 
 easily satisfy the partisan and prejudiced juries, selected from 
 their own ranks, to bring in suitable verdicts. 
 
 But they hoped — and strained every energy — to spread 
 demoralisation through the Irish revolutionary ranks, and 
 among the masses of the Nationalists ; they particularly 
 wished the people to believe they were possessed of 
 information of the most secret and important nature as to 
 Irish projects ; and they impressed, through the press 
 and other channels, upon the Irish masses, the fact that Carey 
 was the head of the Dublin organisation, and that he 
 organised the movement to betray it. Several of the Pro- 
 vincialists played into their hands by ringing the changes 
 on this absurd statement. There may have been a little 
 panic in the ranks of the Provincialists who had changed 
 front by embracing doctrines more extreme than those 
 hitherto adopted by the party of action — there were a few of 
 those revolutionary neophytes, but the men who are to be 
 counted on, when active work against England is made 
 possible, looked upon these bogus terrors with indifference. 
 " Constant exposure to dangers will breed a contempt for 
 them," so that the feline Mallon and others of his species, 
 will have more purring to do before they succeed in planting 
 such feelings in Nationalist Irish circles as they would wish 
 to see there. 
 
 The morning of Thursday, February 15, 1883, the sixth 
 day of the preliminary examination before the police 
 magistrates, saw no change in the previous hearings. Carey, 
 who had committed treason the day before, stood for the last 
 time in the dock beside the men whom he had already be- 
 trayed. Near by him was his young friend Joseph Brady, 
 who greeted him with the usual friendship. Carey's youngest 
 child, a few months old, had Joseph Brady for sponsor, for 
 James Carey had always professed great personal friendship 
 
3i6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 for Brady — the godfather of his young babe, against whom 
 Carey was as merciless as against Daniel Curley, whom he 
 believed had premeditated the same treachery as he himself 
 had already practised. Truly saith Caesar, " In extreme 
 danger, fear feels no pity." How degraded had Carey 
 become through that wretched vice of cowardice ! And yet 
 his defection was not the cause of his companions' death, as 
 some of the people think. Their deaths were certain, even if 
 Carey or Kavanagh had not mounted the witness table or 
 given to the enemy the slightest information. 
 
 British suspicions, as already stated, and the evidence of 
 their trained perjurers, would have enabled them to go 
 through the form of trial successfully ; it would only have 
 necessitated a little more hard swearing on the part of their 
 witnesses, which made little difference to those well-paid 
 satellites of British law in Ireland. But Carey's defection 
 gave the British Government the opportunity of posing as the 
 great moral reformer, and the more indignant the Irish people 
 grew, the more lavish in their condemnation of Carey's infamy, 
 the more they were playing the British game of showing to 
 the world how horrified the good citizens of Dublin were at 
 these wicked opponents of British rule in Ireland. 
 
 And Mr. Torquemada Curran stroked his beard in his in- 
 quisitorial chair in the Castle, and began to dream of a judge- 
 ship in the near future. And the detective chief Mallon 
 licked his lips with satisfaction, and purred his song of 
 pleasure at the result of his labours ; promotion and gold 
 were hanging suspended before his pleased vision, soon to be 
 all his own. And Treasury solicitor Bolton, who was pre- 
 paring the legal machinery, the forms by which Britain sends 
 her Irish enemies to the scaffold and the dungeon, also 
 saw before him a rich harvest of gold to spend with his 
 associates. The presiding genie of Downing Street, Mr. 
 Gladstone, was pleased at his agents' work, and money was 
 supplied unstintingly from the British Treasury. 
 
 On Saturday, February i8, 1883, in the Court-house, Kil- 
 mainham, the British Government in Ireland launched its great 
 
MR. FORSTER ATTACKS MR. PARNELL 317 
 
 thunderbolt — James Carey, as a public informer ; and in order 
 to impress upon the world the importance of their new wit- 
 ness they were particular in giving his social status as Town 
 Councillor to the press. Dublin city was astounded, all 
 Ireland was horrified, and British journals rang the changes 
 on Irish treachery and duplicity ; and the good Irish news- 
 papers which are always inveighing against English mis- 
 government, read their countrymen a moral lesson on the evils 
 of secret societies and of the great benefits of peaceful and 
 legal agitation. . . . 
 
 In the British Commons about the time of these Invincible 
 arrests, a debate took place, which gave Mr. Gladstone's 
 former Irish taskmaster, Mr. Forster, an opportunity to make 
 a violent attack upon Mr. Parnell ; and to accuse that peace- 
 loving Irish leader of being the principal cause of crime and 
 outrage in Ireland. Mr. Forster's attack was a very violent 
 one, and he marshalled all the facts which his position as 
 Chief Secretary enabled him to furnish. These acts in the 
 agricultural districts which Mr. Forster spoke of were the 
 outcome of British misrule and plunder, and were more 
 naturally the outcome of moral agitation than physical 
 resistance to alien rule. In the footsteps of a peaceable 
 agitation, these retaliations for injuries always take place ; 
 they are in no sense any opposition to the cause which 
 fosters these injuries, and are in fact more an injury than a 
 service to that cause ; for although the people are advised to 
 peacefully follow a certain course and they will be sure to 
 win, they cannot resist the temptation of enforcing this 
 programme by physical attack upon those of their neighbours 
 who resist its mandates by taking evicted farms, and other 
 acts of mercenary selfishness, which draw down retaliation ; 
 and so the national hatred of tyranny is wasted, warring 
 upon each other for the benefit of the common enemy, which 
 is not the landlord nor the policeman, but the diabolical 
 master of both these scourges — foreign rule. 
 
XIX 
 
 TRIAL OF THE CAPTURED INVINCIBLES — EXECUTION OF 
 BRADY AND OTHERS. 
 
 On Monday, April 9, 1883, the curtain arose in Green 
 Street court-house, Dublin, upon the mock ceremonial entitled 
 the trial of the INVINCIBLES. . . . 
 
 Escorted by a- troop of dragoons, and preceded by mounted 
 police, comes the black caravan from Kilmainham Gaol. The 
 clatter of the accoutrements and the glitter of drawn sabres, 
 suggest the escort of a prince or potentate rather than the 
 careful guarding of five INVINCIBLES. The doors of the van are 
 unlocked, and out step, in the midst of these armed British, 
 Joseph Brady, Daniel Curley, Thomas Caffrey, Timothy 
 Kelly, and John Fitzharris with the appearance and mien of 
 spectators. They do not look like principals in the bloody 
 drama that court-house is about to witness. Not one of 
 these men but know they face certain death, and yet they 
 are the only light-hearted men there. A few days before, 
 walking in the prison ring during recreation hour, Timothy 
 Kelly, with the merry raillery of the noble boy's light heart, 
 said jokingly to Joseph Brady that they had good necks for 
 the rope ; and they laughed and passed along that Irish 
 badinage which might better suit a scene of festivity than 
 the confines of a prison. Not all the artificial terrors of 
 British vengeance could rob them of their gay Irish hearts. 
 .... The grand jury find true bills against Joseph Brady, 
 and his trial is fixed for Wednesday ; by and by the grand 
 jury return true bills against the other four. 
 
THE TRIAL OF JOSEPH BRADY 319 
 
 Wednesday morning comes, and Joseph Brady takes his 
 stand within the dock. He is now alone, more utterly alone 
 than even the absence of his comrades and former com- 
 panions could make him feel. He is there without a friend 
 or one kindly look of sympathy. The cheers of the outside 
 crowd have died away, and the mock ceremonial, the certain 
 sequel of which he knows so well, has commenced. Mr. 
 McCune, his solicitor, has not deserted him, but otherwise he 
 is utterly neglected. His enemy, the British, has to appoint 
 counsel to defend him, a defence which he knows can be of 
 no avail, but which his teachers taught him is one of the 
 necessary ceremonies to be observed on such occasions ; and 
 the absence of all friends and means to employ counsel 
 brings home to his manly spirit the bitter, humiliating feeling 
 that he is utterly neglected. That the basest treason and 
 cowardice rest somewhere, he feels and knows, but cannot 
 and does not know at whose door they lie. The counsel for 
 the British makes his statement of the case.^ Mr. Porter's 
 opening words he does not heed, but he listens when he 
 hears his enemy's lawyer speak thus : 
 
 " This case should teach one lesson — that there could be 
 no honour among members of such a society. The men who 
 had instigated it and warmed it into life, the men who had 
 supplied it with funds which encouraged it to carry on its 
 designs, had fled to foreign lands. If there was any proof of 
 how conspirators deserted those who were leagued with them, 
 it was furnished by the fact that the Crown had, even in 
 this case, been compelled to provide the means for defending 
 Brady from this terrible charge." 
 
 Mr. Porter was wrong : the men had not fled to any foreign 
 land. A few, very few, were compelled — not to glut British 
 vengeance by their deaths — to come to America. But the 
 men at the head of the movement had not fled ; there was no 
 need for them to do so. Still their cowardly and craven 
 spirits had fled, and selfishness had taken their place. Had 
 they manhood and the practical knowledge they should have 
 
 ^ See Appendix G., p. 559. 
 
320 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 possessed, they could have given joy to Joseph Brady by the 
 only defence practical for Irishmen. There were plenty of 
 brave men in Dublin only too eager to carry out some plan 
 of attack upon the foe. Even while Mr. Porter was speaking 
 they could have made Dublin ring with the INVINCIBLES 
 answer — that they had not fled, but were still determined to 
 do or die. Alas, for Ireland, her leaders were cravens. . . . 
 
 On Friday, April 13, 1883, Joseph Brady's so-called trial 
 ended. An English writer who was present thus described 
 the scene : " There was a rustle and movement in the court 
 as the jury rose from their seats and retired to consider their 
 verdict. . . . From the door at the back of the gallery, the 
 foreman of the jury was seen descending, followed by his 
 colleagues, to take his place in the accustomed seat. Without 
 a moment's delay the judge was summoned, and the prisoner 
 was brought up from below. He may have known from the 
 fact of the jury having returned, that he was a doomed man ; 
 yet he braced himself up boldly to meet the sentence, and 
 stood there, with head erect, facing the court as if he at least 
 could never say die. 
 
 "Very slowly the jury passed into their box, looking every 
 one of them, pale, and burdened with the weight of the awful 
 responsibility resting upon them. As their names were being 
 called over, Joe Brady took several long breaths and threw 
 his head up and his chest out ; but that he, too, felt the 
 moment an awful crisis, was apparent from his restless 
 shifting of position and the constant twitching of his face. 
 Then came the solemn words, ' Are you agreed upon your 
 verdict? Do you find the prisoner Joseph Brady guilty or 
 not guilty ? ' In a scarcely audible voice the foreman said, 
 * Guilty,' and the clerk of the Crown repeated it once more to 
 make sure Joe Brady was not overcome by the verdict. The 
 emotion he felt, he managed to conceal, as far as was possible 
 for any man to do. He fell back upon that tremendous 
 reserve of strength of will, resolution of purpose, and stubborn 
 pride and hatred which evidently belong to him. . • 
 
JOSEPH BRADY CONDEMNED TO DEATH 321 
 
 " The judge directed the clerk to ask the formal question 
 of the prisoner, whether he had any reason to allege why 
 sentence of death should not be passed upon him. 
 
 " Joe Brady's reply was characteristic of the man. * I am 
 not guilty ! ' he half hissed, half shouted out, with a strong 
 Irish accent, and with a voice husky with passion. * I am not 
 guilty of the charge ! ' he shouted again, and savagely de- 
 nounced what he called paid informers 'who had sworn 
 falsely against him.' Then he ceased. 
 
 " The judge, leaning forward in his chair, proceeded to say 
 that the verdict was a necessary and just one. Once again 
 the dauntless occupant of the dock shouted out that he was 
 not guilty ; but the judge rejoined in solemn tones that he felt 
 it his duty to state that he perfectly concurred in the justice 
 of the verdict. He formally, amid profound silence, passed 
 the last dread sentence. 
 
 "As the warder summoned him to withdraw, he turned to 
 his counsel, and said in a voice of cheerfulness : * I thank you, 
 Dr. Webb ; I thank you, Mr. Adams.' " 
 
 Joseph Brady was sentenced to be hanged on Monday, 
 May 14, 1883. . . . 
 
 The Blackrock station-master, who had the manhood to 
 acknowledge personal friendship and intimacy with Joseph 
 Brady, at a time when to do so required strong moral courage, 
 thus describes his young friend, and a morning's ramble they 
 had together : " I remember a day spent in Joseph Brady's 
 company. The boy liked my society, and I enjoyed his. No 
 two youths ever started forth together for the enjoyment of a 
 holiday, half so light-hearted, jocose, and happy as did we that 
 morning. Joseph Brady, as usual when on holiday rambles, 
 was neatly dressed in a well-fitting black frock coat and 
 gloves ; and altogether he was * a very pretty fellow.' The 
 day was beautifully fine, and as we were being carried along 
 by the base of Killiney hill, which overhangs the bay, I 
 permitted my fancy to take wing along the brown hillside, to 
 nestle among the Swiss cottages and brushwood which cover 
 it; and his fancy joining mine, both seemed to leave the 
 
 y 
 
322 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 shore, the hills, and gambolled as butterflies in sunbeams. 
 On reaching Bray we walked down the esplanade, and on to 
 Bray Head. I felt in Brady's society that the youthful side 
 of my dual nature developed itself, and * I dreamed I was a 
 boy again/ Nay, I was a boy again, and as boys do not 
 bother about politics we enjoyed that pleasant Wicklow 
 ramble together, which comes back upon my memory with 
 sadness and pleasure : sadness that one so young and having 
 such noble traits of character, which grew upon me in his 
 society, should be so sacrificed ; pleasure that I can recall 
 past happy hours. Joseph Brady was about twenty-two or 
 twenty-three years old ; he stood about five feet ten inches 
 in height, with dark-brown hair and incipient moustache. 
 His step was light, buoyant, and firm, his small and perfectly 
 formed feet appearing to grasp the ground with the tenacity 
 of the human hand. His mien was erect and graceful, giving 
 him the appearance of a greater height than he possessed, 
 while it neutralised, or seemed to lessen, his massive propor- 
 tions — proportions in such perfect harmony that the youth 
 stood before you as splendid a specimen of humanity, as was 
 ever seen in the flesh, or represented in sculpture. He carried 
 his head well but not stiffly thrown back, displaying a throat 
 which for softness and the delicate beauty of nature's colouring, 
 rivalled that of many women. His well-shaped mouth was 
 furnished with a perfect set of white teeth, which glistened 
 when he smiled that quiet smile which denotes and begets 
 confidence ; and his brown eyes were soft, expressive, and 
 unfathomable." 
 
 On Monday, April i6, Daniel Curley was placed in the 
 dock. The jury, as in the Brady trial, were called upon fines 
 of one hundred pounds each, but many men preferred paying 
 this large sum, rather than occupy the jury box during these 
 political trials. Of course these men were drawn from a 
 special class, every one of them British or pro-British, and 
 consequently were people who could afford to pay high fines. 
 The Sc^me machinery which was employed in the previous trial, 
 
THE TRIAL OF DANIEL CURLEY 323 
 
 was again set in motion, with the same fatal result. Mr. Curley 
 was, as a matter of routine, found guilty. 
 
 Daniel Curley was a respectable master carpenter, who 
 executed small contracts in Dublin City and suburbs. It was 
 in the carrying out of one of these he got acquainted with 
 Mr. Kinsella, the Blackrock station-master, who was very 
 courteous in his disposition, and obliging to mechanics in 
 leaving their tools in the station. Mr. Curley was a skilled 
 mechanic and a very intelligent man with a strong will-power. 
 As an Irish Nationalist he had given all the years of his yet 
 young life to his country. He was a sincere and practical 
 patriot. Mr. Kinsella thus describes him : 
 
 " Daniel Curley was a man about thirty-two years, slightly 
 built, but well formed, dark curly hair, full beard and mous- 
 tache ; of a retiring and quiet disposition. His face bore a 
 thoughtful cast, which, however, became animated and pleas- 
 ing when in friendly company, and its really handsome ex- 
 pression, on such occasions became more enhanced than other- 
 wise, by its being slightly pitted with pockmarks." 
 
 He was sentenced to be hanged on Friday, May 18, 1883. 
 He addressed some remarks to the court before receiving his 
 sentence, and in conclusion said he loved his country, and was 
 ready to suffer for her. As he left the dock he called out : 
 "God save Ireland!" 
 
 On Thursday, April 19, Timothy Kelly, a young man not 
 yet twenty-one years old, was put on his trial ; but the jury 
 disagreed. He was again put on trial the following Monday, 
 with the same result. This annoyed the British lawyers. 
 Michael Fagan was put upon his trial Wednesday, April 25. 
 He was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged on Monday, 
 May 28. In the few words which he addressed the court, he 
 said he was a Fenian — in other words, an Irish revolutionist 
 — and he would die one. Thomas Caffrey was induced to 
 plead guilty, and was also sentenced to death. Patrick 
 Delany, who had, owing to his strange conduct, been first 
 arrested^ and who since Carey's treason had been giving the 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 British what information he knew, came into the dock and 
 made a statement which was evidently prepared for him by 
 the Crown soh'citor, Mr. Bolton. The judge went through the 
 form of sentencing Delany to be hanged ; but the " Red Earl " 
 reprievred him as a reward for his services. 
 
 Fitzharris, the cabman, was placed upon his trial for the 
 capital offence, but acquitted. He was subsequently found 
 guilty of conspiracy. Fitzharris — or, as he was sometimes 
 called, " Skin the Goat " — was a humble, faithful, and loyal 
 Irishman, a man who tried to practically serve Ireland, and 
 one who was indeed a genuine worker in her cause. 
 
 The youth Timothy Kelly was then put on trial for the third 
 time. This trial satisfied the British lust for Irish blood. 
 The brave young boy was found guilty, and sentenced to be 
 hanged on June 9. He acted in the same manly, determined 
 manner which characterised his friend, Joseph Brady. 
 
 Lawrence Hanlon was sentenced to penal servitude for life. 
 He said, on leaving the dock, in a fearless manner, " I will not 
 be the last," meaning that as long as the British flag flew over 
 Ireland, there would continue conspiracies, killings, and hang- 
 ings. Joseph Mullet, a very superior young man, above the 
 average in education of his class, and a very bright and 
 patriotic Irishman, came next. Mr. Mullet was no relation 
 of Mr. James Mullet, though some of the papers at the time 
 said they were brothers. His patriotism and superior in- 
 telligence told him that it was mockery to call these cere- 
 monials trials. He refused to acknowledge the British 
 jurisdiction in Ireland, was found guilty, and sentenced to 
 penal servitude for life. He told the court that there were 
 men who would remember, and avenge him. Let us hope for 
 Ireland's sake that Mr. Joseph Mullet was not wrong in his 
 opinion of his countrymen. 
 
 During the trial of Timothy Kelly, evidence for the defence 
 was offered, including testimony as to character. Mr. 
 O'Brien, the West British judge, interrupted the witness by 
 exclaiming petulantly : " Respectable ! Highly respectable ! 
 Of course he is respectable. The terrible thing connected 
 
THE "INVINCIBLE" EXECUTIONS 325 
 
 with this dreadful conspiracy is, that they are all honourable 
 and respectable men who are indicted." This was an ad- 
 mission wrung from the instrument of British law, as to the 
 character of the men who were arraigned before him as IN- 
 VINCIBLES, and ought to be a sufficient answer to the reptile 
 press of Britain which assailed these men with every imaginary 
 
 vile epithet 
 
 On the day before his death, Joseph Brady's mother visited 
 her brave son, to bid him a last farewell. The lying slanders 
 circulated by the usurper's detectives and hirelings, against 
 the character of these imprisoned Irishmen, had horrified this 
 Spartan Irish mother. The supposed eagerness of these men 
 to supply the enemy with information that would lead to 
 future captures, and aid him in breaking up the INVINCIBLE 
 organisation, then supposed to be preparing for action in 
 Dublin, caused her patriot soul to recoil with indignation at 
 the vile slander. When final leave-taking came, and she was 
 taking her last look upon her heroic offspring, struggling with 
 her grief, she cried out to him : " Joe, if you know anything 
 don't tell it ; bring your secret to the grave." Joseph Brady 
 was worthy such a mother ; Mrs. Brady deserved such a noble 
 son. 
 
 On Whit Monday, May 14, 1883, Ireland was in mourning. 
 Dublin City and suburbs, wont to be so gay on this public 
 
 holiday, wore a saddened, sombre look Joseph 
 
 Brady, calm and self-possessed, walked inside the prison to 
 the scaffold, reciting the prayers of a Christian man who hopes 
 soon to meet his Maker. In a few minutes the bolt was 
 drawn, and another life had gone to roll up the record of 
 Gladstone's infamous rule in Ireland. The black flag was 
 raised aloft, and as the crowds of Irish people outside saw 
 that emblem of death, they fell upon their knees, and with a 
 half-suppressed wail of anguish, prayed for a departing soul. 
 . . . . The succeeding Friday witnessed another scene 
 of agony ; the crowds outside in prayer, saw two aged men 
 standing near the prison, who strained their eyes towards the 
 
326 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 fatal flagstaff; they were the father and father-in-law of the 
 dying Nationalist. With a thrill of horror they saw the death 
 signal. Another son of Ireland had fallen beneath the British 
 glut of vengeance. " God be with you, Daniel Curley ! " was 
 the cry outside the prison walls, by the weeping, praying 
 crowd, principally composed of women, which we re-echo 
 from a sad heart. 
 
 Michael Fagan met his death as became his manly, spotless 
 life. Young Kelly asked to be allowed to spend his last hours 
 in the cell from which his friend, Joseph Brady, had departed 
 to the scaffold ; and from that, for him, hallowed dungeon, the 
 brave and noble boy walked to his death. They all died for 
 Ireland. Had not the polluted foot of the invader desecrated 
 and made havoc of their country, their lives would have been 
 as peaceful as citizens of free nations, who dwell beneath the 
 shelter of their own national banners 
 
XX 
 
 DYNAMITE WAR IN ENGLAND — SHOOTING OF JAMES 
 CAREY — TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF O'DONNELL. 
 
 Shortly before the Invincible trials in Dublin, all Britain 
 was terrified by an explosion in Whitehall, Westminster, sup- 
 posed to be caused by dynamite. They were still more 
 intensely horrified and alarmed at discovering a nitroglycerine 
 factory in Birmingham. It has been stated that the small 
 explosion at Whitehall awoke the British to the knowledge of 
 their dangerous position, exposed to these acts of war in their 
 capital by their indefatigable and unrelenting Irish foe, which 
 put all their sentinels instantly on the alert. It has been 
 further stated that this explosion was irregular and warned 
 the enemy. A pistol shot saved him from the eighty-ton 
 guns about to be trained upon his fortress ; the garrison was 
 aroused from its dream of security by this ill-timed signal, 
 and so saved London from what promised to be a frightful 
 catastrophe. Intense was the horror and detestation, and 
 universal was the panic in England ; severe condemnation 
 was expressed both publicly and privately. Many good 
 peaceful, well-meaning men, never caring and utterly and 
 criminally heedless of the fearful infamies and cruelties that 
 their Government (their own creation) carried ruthlessly and 
 recklessly into other lands, more especially into Ireland, used 
 an abusive term to describe their Irish foes. They styled 
 them " dynamite fiends." There is an oft-used proverb that 
 curses, like young chickens, come home to roost. This vitu- 
 
32S THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 perative slander used by this robber nation to characterise 
 Irishmen, truly and faithfully describes themselves. What 
 scene in modern history could equal the brutal slaughter of 
 the Basuto women and children in the African Koppil ? These 
 British dynamite fiends have been most ferocious and satanic 
 in their career of blood, and in their callous indifference to 
 human suffering. 
 
 The dynamite war in England created a panic while it lasted; 
 no Englishman was safe from arrest, the most peaceful-looking 
 man if he happened to carry a black bag was immediately 
 pounced upon by the keen-scented British police; and the 
 consequence was that lawyers, barristers, and their clerks were 
 put to the inconvenience of some hours' arrest, and the neces- 
 sity to give positive proof of their identity. Commercial men 
 were subject to the same annoyance. Hotels were emptied of 
 pleasure-seeking strangers, who feared to remain in a city 
 that was practically in a state of siege, fearing that possibly 
 the buildings they sojourned in might be blown up over their 
 heads. Underground railway travel became risky, and the 
 mysterious dread of unseen danger unhinged society. Busi- 
 ness was becoming ruined, and had the dynamite war con- 
 tinued in any steady manner, had the British dynamite fiend 
 been attacked continually at home with his own weapon, 
 England would have been suffering under a worse coercion 
 law than she gave to Ireland. The latter had no manufactures, 
 or industries of importance, to destroy — they were already 
 wiped out of existence ; but Britain was differently placed, 
 hence the greater commercial damage caused by this new, 
 mysterious, and overshadowing war of destruction. It was 
 Ireland's coercion given back to her tyrant and invader — 
 England. 
 
 Possibly the " dynamiters " did not realise this. People, 
 who have not time or opportunity to study these questions 
 will speak of the actual destruction — which did not amount 
 to much — the moral panic, which was widespread, and the 
 upheaval and paralysis of business as a very disastrous 
 effect for so trifling a cause. Sir William Vernon Harcourt 
 
THE BRITISH DYNAMITE SCARE 329 
 
 was arrested at Dover on his landing from France. The 
 police smiled with incredulity at this huge " dynamiter," 
 announcing himself as the British Home Secretary. A tem- 
 porary delay occurred, before even the mighty Sir William 
 was released by his own police force. The annoyance to 
 British liberty was so great that members complained in the 
 House of Commons. In reply to one of these questions Sir 
 William V. Harcourt, in pleading the necessities of the times, 
 stated the incident of his arrest as a palliative to other 
 gentlemen who suffered similar inconveniences. Had a 
 foreign fleet been anchored off Gravesend, and were its 
 gunboats steaming up the Thames, this nation of shop- 
 keepers could not possibly have been more frightened. 
 Their pocket felt it, too, in the loss of trade. Pleasure seekers 
 had fled from the terror-stricken metropolis. 
 
 Britain whined, and abused, and painted the horrible 
 "dynamiter" in glaring cartoons. A man with this euphonic 
 designation was depicted as a person of repulsive appearance, 
 with a gorilla-shaped mouth. He was supposed to have a 
 thirst for bloodshed, and his natural proclivities were the 
 killing of women and children. The daily press spoke of this 
 latter iniquity, but the same journals that recorded the death 
 by dynamite of the many thousands of Basuto women and 
 children, have not up to the present been able to substantiate 
 the case of a single death during the dynamite scare in 
 Britain. Britain's cowardly screams for pity when she is 
 struck by her foes, no matter what persecutions she has com- 
 pelled them to endure, is most degrading to a nation that 
 boasts of her bravery. After the Park tragedy she went 
 howling over the world, and when she tortured the wretched 
 Carey into becoming an informer, she struck wildly in all 
 directions. She begged PVance to surrender two Irishmen 
 to her, Mr. Frank Byrne and Mr. John Walsh.^ Their com- 
 plicity she took for granted, and although these gentlemen 
 proved their whereabouts on the 6th of May, and that they 
 had not been in Ireland for months before or since the 
 
 1 See Appendix M, p. 571. 
 
330 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 tragedy, she tried to force the French Government to sur- 
 render them to her tender mercies. She knew they were 
 enemies to her rule in their country, and that sufficed. At 
 the time of this dynamite war she came to this country 
 (America) with all sorts of preposterous requests, asking of 
 this great nation, to whom she has always been, and is to this 
 day, bitterly hostile, to help her against her foes, the Irish. The 
 press here considered they were well acquainted with these 
 men termed " Dynamiters." An article in the Neiv York 
 Herald voiced the feelings held by a great number of the 
 American people, then and now. This journal observed, 
 speaking of the dynamiters : " We publish their utterances, 
 and invite England to see what stuff these patriots are made 
 of But England refuses to see. She keeps up a wretched 
 pother about men whose names are a jest for comic para- 
 graphists here. Statesmen gravely recount in Parliament the 
 terrible doings of fellows whose antics are an unfailing 
 amusement to the American population, and this makes 
 such men think themselves of great importance." 
 
 The New York Herald wd,s no doubt wondering at England's 
 stupidity at taking aux serieux^ the actions and words of the 
 men whose utterances appear from time to time in the Herald^ 
 and other papers. English statesmen, though they have a 
 blundering police to serve them, are not so blind as to think 
 the gentlemen whom the Herald alludes to, are of serious 
 injury to her. English statesmen know that these men, albeit 
 their strong language, have no more to do with the dynamite 
 war against England than they have to do with an eclipse of 
 the moon. Many of these men are no doubt sincere in their 
 hatred and wishes to hurt England, but they have neither the 
 means, nor the ability, to fulfil their desires. Many Irishmen 
 are inclined to think that the men who have carried on this war, 
 are to be found in the ranks of men who have been publicly 
 denouncing it at the same time. These latter fancy that by 
 doing this they are taking a leaf from England's book, and 
 practising the same hypocrisy towards her which she has been 
 doing for generations towards Ireland. Had this dynamite 
 
THE SAFETY OF JAMES CAREY 331 
 
 war continued, and these men by their actions, given the He 
 to their words, no Irish patriot would have so much to blame 
 them for ; but the very hypocrisy they were practising, under- 
 mined the public conscience, destroyed the work they were 
 engaged in, and as all false teaching must end by doing, 
 wrought disaster and confusion to the cause. If this war was 
 wicked and unjust, it should have never been put in practice ; 
 but believing, as they and we believed, it was both honourable 
 and just, the dire necessities of the time pleaded trumpet 
 tongued for its continuance. It was ruinous and degrading, 
 either by criminal silence, or by blending in with some men 
 who were earnest in their condemnation, to have aided in 
 poisoning the Irish mind and decidedly antagonised many 
 noble-hearted Americans. They permitted to be placed upon 
 the shoulders of a few men the responsibility of a sacred 
 cause — men who, no matter how sincere they might be in their 
 expressed hostility to England, had no association whatever 
 with this dynamite war. The American press was misled, the 
 Irish people were misled, but the English enemy was in no way 
 led astray. Many of these men whom the Neiv York Herald 
 assailed were quite willing to accept the title, while the real 
 men who are the educated and dignified representatives of a 
 noble race, whose advocacy of a principle would have had an 
 immense moral effect and elevated this subject to the proper 
 position it should assume in the unhappy and strangled con- 
 dition Ireland finds herself in, are trying to carry on the strife 
 against her assassin. . . . 
 
 The police, detectives, and the machinery of alien rule, had 
 a white elephant on their hands in the person of James Carey. 
 His protection was necessary for British prestige. The 
 English, no matter what their feelings toward Carey might 
 be, knew that the duty of safely guarding him was impera- 
 tive. All this time they were having circulated, every kind 
 of imaginary slanders, to try and disgrace revolutionary 
 movements. They struck at the irrepressible Irish patriot 
 through James Carey. It was noised through the press that 
 
332 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Carey committed several murders and other crimes, which, 
 owing to the hatred he inspired in the Irish masses, they were 
 only too ready to believe, and on his person was concentrated 
 the vengeful feelings of the Irish people instead of being hurt- 
 led on the enemy. The deaths of his friends and comrades 
 were left upon his head, and not where they rightly belonged 
 — on that of the merciless invader. James Carey had been 
 through life a thoroughly honourable man and a practical Irish 
 Nationalist ; and until he weakened in prison never did a pre- 
 vious dishonourable act. Had he been mated to a patriotic com- 
 panion, his name to-day would not be stained by the cowardly 
 treachery he fell into. Not a single spark of vengence 
 animated the breasts of the revolutionary court-martial that 
 sentenced him to death. A soldier who deserts to the enemy 
 in time of war, is always shot in the presence of his comrades 
 if captured, no matter how valiant or honourable his previous 
 career. It is absolutely necessary to enforce discipline, and 
 in Ireland's case it was most important to show Irishmen 
 that no precaution on the part of the enemy could guard so 
 notorious a traitor from swift and certain punishment. 
 
 One who knew James Carey well, and who suffered the 
 loss of all he had in life at his hands, thus describes him : 
 " When first I knew James Carey he was an earnest and an 
 honest man — honest in his earnestness for the cause he had 
 espoused. He was in fairly good circumstances, and with his 
 business knowledge, comparative youth, and energy, might 
 have accumulated wealth, had he not become an * Invincible.' 
 The slanderous tale of his having joined the patriots with the 
 intention of betraying them, is only that of men who have 
 ever used such carit to excuse their cowardice in refusing to 
 join anything practical. In the triumph of right, no matter 
 by whatever means achieved, none would have triumphed 
 more than Carey ; none hated England and her West British 
 dogs with a hatred more intense than his. In the name of 
 the great God Who knows all hearts, let us think only of his 
 sufferings and his ruin, let us extend to his memory only 
 silence and charity, leaving with meekness his sins to his 
 
TRACKING CAREY TO HIS DOOM 333 
 
 Saviour. His age was about thirty-seven. He was of 
 medium height, well but not heavily built, lithe and active, 
 with a liberal supply of faded brown hair, full beard and 
 moustache, the latter covering his side-mouth as do the down- 
 hanging lips of an English mastiff." 
 
 The Government of England decided on shipping Carey off 
 to Africa ; he was not consulted, nor indeed did he know what 
 land they considered best for his safe keeping. The secret 
 of his destination was learned, but a report also came from 
 well-informed sources that matters had been changed, and 
 that New Zealand was to be his home. Men who belonged 
 to Dublin would be useless for his " execution." A man, still 
 living, volunteered to go to New Zealand, and was sent on 
 the first part of his journey. When information came that 
 Capetown was Carey's destination, Patrick O'Donnell, an 
 Irishman not in any way connected with Irish politics in 
 London, took passage in the Kinfaiins Castle. The tracking 
 of Mrs. Carey and her family was easy, but among the many 
 reports spread by the detectives with a purpose, was one that 
 Carey would not leave England with his family. The other 
 reports were dismissed by men who were accustomed to sift 
 such news, but this information was considered probable ; 
 and the course thought best to be taken, was to com- 
 municate with a certain resident then in South Africa, and to 
 trace Mrs. Carey to her final destination. 
 
 Carey, as is known, joined the Kinfauns Castle at Dart- 
 mouth. What transpired on the voyage out, makes it apparent 
 that although Carey and O'Donnell were good friends, Carey 
 was ever on the alert, for a fearful danger haunted him. He 
 was never alone with any one man. On arriving at Capetown, 
 Carey, accompanied by two fellow-passengers, one called 
 Williams and the other, who went by the sobriquet of 
 " Scotty," went ashore. They entered the City Hotel, 
 Waterkant Street, for refreshments, when Carey commenced 
 talking about Irish politics. He said the English were a 
 people too base to live. If he had his way he would 
 extern^iijate every one of them. " Ireland for the Irish, that's 
 
334 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 my motto." This nettled the Scotchman. So Scotty retorted, 
 " What would you do with it ? Why you would eat one another 
 up." " Do you mean to say we are cannibals .? " shouted 
 Carey in a violent passion ; and his hand was on the throat of 
 Scotty, who would have been choked but for Williams who 
 interfered. What Carey's object was in ventilating such 
 opinions it is difficult to say ; perhaps he wanted to get on 
 friendly terms with any Irishmen who would be in the 
 colony ; but what is more probable they were his real feelings, 
 which he could not repress. 
 
 He and his family changed at Capetown to the Melrose^ a 
 vessel leaving for Natal and Durban. Patrick O'Donnell 
 changed with him. O'Donnell paid the difference to go to 
 Natal, Carey's destination. On Sunday, July 29, 1883, at 
 about four o'clock in the afternoon, Carey and O'Donnell 
 were together, this time alone. O'Donnell swiftly drew his 
 revolver and shot Carey in the throat. When shot a fearful, 
 expression crossed his face, and gurgling out " Oh, Maggie, 
 I'm shot ! " he ran towards his wife's cabin, followed by 
 O'Donnell, who shot him twice in the back. An eye-witness 
 thus describes the scene : " I saw the last and fatal shot fired 
 at Carey. I was just thinking of having a lie down when the 
 first shot was fired. In common with others I rushed to 
 the spot, just in time to see, to my intense astonishment, my 
 friend O'Donnell following up, firing a last shot into the neck 
 of my respectable and intelligent friend, Mr. Power. I saw 
 the latter (Carey) stagger and fall, while at about the same 
 moment O'Donnell was vigorously seized by several pair of 
 hands, my own included, and made secure. For a moment 
 I could not understand what had taken place ; but I shall 
 never forget the wild look of horror and surprise which 
 appeared on the face of the dying man, as his wife and others 
 bore him up." 
 
 Carey was carried and placed upon a table in the cabin, 
 where he expired. . . . 
 
 Patrick O'Donnell was cheered on landing a prisoner in 
 
BRINGING ODONNELL TO ENGLAND 335 
 
 Africa after the execution of Carey. The marvellous Irish 
 race, which covers the globe with its patriotic love for the 
 land of its sires, was to be found on the dark continent, 
 with the same revengeful feelings against British rule in 
 Ireland. When will a master mind arise to weave into one 
 united bond this glorious national sentiment, not to parley 
 with England but to strike her everywhere and anyhow, 
 until she surrenders back to the children of the Gael, their 
 plundered birthright independence ? Patrick O'Donnell was 
 brought before a magistrate in Capetown, but the British 
 feared he would not be convicted in the colony. As a rule 
 the colonial English are more liberal in their ideas than those 
 who dwell in their native land ; and the Irish and Dutch 
 elements, which might affect the jury, were in full sympathy 
 with Patrick O'Donnell. England was determined that 
 O'Donnell should die, and the gentle Gladstone ordered his 
 removal to London, where he knew he would have no trouble 
 in hanging him with all the ceremonial of a trial beforehand. 
 Patrick O'Donnell was sent to England under a strong 
 guard. Every precaution was taken to prevent the faintest 
 chance at escape. He was guarded by a British colonial 
 company of soldiers while at Capetown ; and was well guarded 
 on board H.M.S. Athenian^ in which vessel he was sent back 
 a prisoner. Mr. Gladstone's Foreign Secretary, Lord Gran- 
 ville, communicated with the Portuguese Government, and 
 at Madeira, a place of call en route to England, soldiers 
 lined the beach, so that none of the dreaded INVINCIBLES could 
 communicate with the ship. The native boatmen were 
 ordered not to go within hailing distance of the steamer. 
 Mrs. Carey and her family returned by the Garth Castle. The 
 same precautions were taken in her case ; the shore at Funchal 
 was patrolled by the Portuguese soldiery in a similar manner. 
 The British thought that the Irish, like themselves, made war 
 on women. The Athenian^ with Patrick O'Donnell on board, 
 arrived in Plymouth Sound on September 17, 1883, and, care- 
 fully guarded, he was brought to London and imprisoned in 
 Millbank Convict Prison. He was brought up at Bow Street 
 
336 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Police Court on Tuesday, September 19, and remanded for a 
 week. The most extraordinary precautions were taken to 
 keep him in safe custody ; but the Irish crowds flocked round 
 the court to cheer his going in and coming out, crowds 
 which the agitators always speak of as English working men 
 when they want to score an imaginary victory. Mrs. Carey 
 and her family arrived safely in the Garth Castle on 
 September 24. 
 
 Patrick O'Donnell was not left undefended like Joseph 
 Brady and his comrades. Everything that money could do 
 in the way of procuring able and skilful counsel for the 
 defence, was done. This was principally due to Mr. Patrick 
 Ford of the Irish Worlds an Irish- American gentlemen who 
 has done many noble and generous acts for Ireland, and in 
 her behalf. He opened an O'Donnell Defence Fund in the 
 columns of his paper. Mr. Finnerty, of Chicago, started a 
 similar fund simultaneously. The money poured in unstint- 
 ingly ; the generous, warm-hearted Irish- Americans, to whom 
 Ireland is indebted for many and countless favours, gave to 
 this Defence Fund unsparingly. 
 
 Mr. Ford, who has never been in the revolutionary ranks, 
 has yet done for Irish revolutionists many kindly and generous 
 acts. The British enemy, both in Parliament and in their 
 journals, insist that Mr. Ford is a " dynamiter.'* Nationalists 
 are often forced to smile at the stupid blunders Englishmen 
 make when they discuss Irish affairs in any manner. Mr. 
 Ford kindly came to the aid of the families of the dead 
 " INVINCIBLES " by collecting and distributing money to them, 
 so very much needed and so opportune at the time. Most 
 Irishmen fully endorse the principle upon which Mr. Ford 
 acted with respect to the men who pleaded guilty ; an Irish 
 Nationalist who acts in this manner, stultifies his principles 
 and, by implication, casts odium on his comrades, giving 
 England a moral victory. This should be specially con- 
 demned as treason. But at the same time the strain that 
 these men must have endured should be remembered, 
 and the terrible mental torture they all had to suffer. 
 
GENERAL PRYOR IN LONDON 337 
 
 Knowing full well that their leaders on the outside had 
 weakened and deserted them in a dastardly manner, under 
 the circumstances all pity the weakness which yielded to the 
 temptation of a shorter term of imprisonment. It is to be 
 regretted that their families, who had no share in this 
 weakness, were not looked to. Mrs. Edward McCaffrey was 
 a most patriotic and deserving Irishwoman. It is sincerely 
 hoped that the Dublin Nationalists have long since seen to 
 their wants and necessities. General Roger A. Pryor, a 
 leading American lawyer, and a firm and devoted friend to 
 the cause of Irish independence, was engaged by Mr. Patrick 
 Ford and sent over to see what could be done for Patrick 
 O'Donnell. The Irish patriot knew that he was remembered 
 by the Irish race the world over. General Pryor's hands were 
 tied by his London colleagues. They were lawyers to the 
 tips of their fingers, and could only look at this trial from a 
 purely legal standpoint. Sir Charles Russell, Q.C., since Mr. 
 Gladstone's Attorney- General, and Mr. A. M. Sullivan, a life- 
 long Provincialist, both able and gifted lawyers, feared the 
 prejudice of General Pryor's pleading for an Irishman before 
 a jury of Englishmen, whom they were trying for what was 
 simply an act of war against Britain ; for her prestige was 
 struck down when Carey fell on board the Melrose. 
 
 The principal reason for General Pryor's presence was this. 
 Had he been permitted to act as Irish Nationalists had 
 wished, namely, to demand, as an act of courtesy, permission 
 to defend an American citizen, the Gladstone Administration 
 would have been compelled to have, by a refusal, placed on 
 record a very discourteous precedent, and given a snub to the 
 American bar. Or, if given permission to speak, General 
 Pryor would have intelligently and sympathetically voiced 
 the real feelings of Patrick O'Donnell's friends, and placed 
 on record Irish-American opinion of the whole proceeding. 
 As to prejudicing the jury, that was already accomplished, 
 both by Mr. Ford's advocacy and General Pryor's presence. 
 But after all is said, why take part in these mummeries called 
 trials? They really play into the enemy's hands by the very 
 
 Z 
 
338 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 fact of recognising them as such by a defence. Patrick O'Don- 
 nell took his Hfe in his hand. He executed, on Carey's person 
 the punishment due to treason, and, being unable to get a trial 
 in Africa, he expected, as a matter of course, England would 
 hang him. It is Irishmen's business not to waste their money 
 on trials, but to carry on the war against the foe with 
 redoubled vigour. 
 
 The line of defence adopted by the lawyers was simply a 
 diplomatic surrender to British interests, and was a weakening 
 of the great prestige attached to O'Donnell's successful act ; 
 for this prestige enraged the British intensely. The O'Don- 
 nell lawyers tried to prove that Carey was killed by 
 O'Donnell in a struggle, Carey having attempted the Hfe of 
 O'Donnell. If the defence was really true, then O'Donnell did 
 nothing more than any man would do, namely, protect his 
 own life ; and there would be neither honour nor heroism 
 about the matter, and England could not be blamed for being 
 unable to guard Carey's life when he himself threw it away in 
 a quarrel. The absurdity of this defence was too apparent 
 to any intelligent man, for O'Donnell was not content with 
 disabling his so-called opponent by firing one shot,' but, with 
 the unflinching resolution of the revolutionist determined to 
 punish treason, poured into the traitor's body two succeeding 
 shots, which he did when in pursuit of the flying informer. 
 
 On Friday, November 30, 1883, at ten o'clock in the fore- 
 noon, the trial of Patrick O'Donnell commenced at the Old 
 Bailey, London. Judge George Denman presided, and the 
 Crown was represented by the Attorney-General, Sir Henry 
 James, and Messrs. Poland and Wright. In addition to the 
 two able lawyers already mentioned, the prisoner had present 
 on his behalf Mr. Mclnernery from Dublin, and General Roger 
 A. Pryor from New York. Mr. Guy was the solicitor for the 
 defence. Patrick O'Donnell, well guarded, was brought into 
 court. He stood erect and boldly defiant, in all his natural 
 dignity and his splendid physique, for the Donegal peasant 
 was a man six feet in stature. The trial closed on Saturday 
 
PATRICK O'DONNELL FOUND GUILTY 339 
 
 evening. The jury, who appeared to give the case great 
 attention, came back to court three times to get fresh 
 instructions from the judge. It is claimed that the last time 
 the jury returned the judge's remarks were partisan and 
 hostile to the prisoner, and decidedly unbecoming the so- 
 called purity of the ermine; but Irishmen have reason to 
 know that this robe, as far as Irish political trials are con- 
 cerned, is of very inky blackness indeed. Most of the 
 leading judges and lawyers of the American bar, in published 
 interviews, condemned in strong language this Judge Denman's 
 concluding words as very unjust and unfair, and highly 
 unbecoming in a judge. But Irish Nationalists cannot see 
 anything different in these political trials, from what is in 
 perfect keeping with the peculiar war waging between the 
 invaded Irish and their invaders, the British. When the jury 
 retired for the last time, General Pryor said to O'Donnell, " I 
 fear they will find you guilty this time ; " to which O'Donnell 
 
 responded, " I don't care a ;" and when the jury reached 
 
 their verdict, he was the most unconcerned man in the court. 
 The brave soldier knew from the first his fate, and braced 
 himself to endure it as became a Christian and an Irish patriot. 
 General Pryor, afterwards discussing this trial, said that he 
 considered O'Donnell even a greater hero than Emmet, for 
 one had all the advantages which a classic education and a 
 cultivated mind can bring to ennoble man in the hour of 
 suffering, but O'Donnell was an untutored, unlettered Irish 
 peasant, yet he bore himself with the unassuming dignity 
 which he displayed throughout the trial, investing in his per- 
 son an additional lustre on the holiest cause which men in all 
 ages have ever offered up their lives for freedom for their 
 native land. O'Donnell was determined to tell the judge in 
 open court that he was an Irish Nationalist, and was ready 
 to die for his principles. He felt he was deprived unjustly, of 
 the right of speaking which the formula gives to a dying man. 
 The British do not like these declarations of principles from 
 the dock. They know the propaganda of Irish National doc- 
 trines from such a rostrum has a very potent effect with the 
 
 z 2 
 
340 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 unconquerable Irish race. O'Donnell, enraged at being 
 deliberately and cunningly deprived of the right of speech, 
 shouted as he left the dock : " Three cheers for Old Ireland ! 
 Good-bye, United States ! To hell with the British and the 
 British Crown ! " 
 
 He was sentenced to be hanged on Monday, December lo, 
 1883. 
 
 Great exertions were made by Irish-Americans to try and 
 get Patrick O'Donnell reprieved. On December 8 a 
 deputation waited on the President, consisting of the follow- 
 ing members of Congress : Messrs. Cox and Robinson (New 
 York), Morrison Springer and Finnerty (Illinois), Levevre 
 and Foran (Ohio), Murphy (Iowa), Mabury (Michigan), Lamb 
 (Indiana), MacAdoo (New Jersey), Collins (Massachusetts), 
 and O'Neil and Burns (Missouri), to induce the executive to 
 interfere. President Arthur cabled to the American 
 Minister, Mr. Lowell. About this time Mr. Hewitt, a member 
 of Congress for New York, introduced and passed a motion 
 in favour of the executive taking action in the O'Donnell case, 
 he being an American citizen. It has been said by good 
 authority that Mr. Hewitt afterwards waited on the British 
 Minister in Washington, Mr. West, informing that 
 gentleman that there was no serious meaning in the 
 resolution. England evidently thought so, for her Government 
 declined to interfere. 
 
 The Chicago Citisen thus commented on the O'Donnell case : 
 " The result of the O'Donnell trial will be to make party 
 violence henceforth reign supreme in Irish politics. The 
 conviction of O'Donnell has ended for ever in the Irish mind, 
 all hope of even ordinary justice from Englishmen. We will 
 never again raise a cent to defend any Irishmen before a 
 British court, and never assist or advocate contributions, 
 unless for the purpose of striking terror into England. . . . 
 O'Donnell will doubtless hang, but the Irish race will not fail 
 to avenge him. England shows no mercy ; let Ireland no 
 longer show any." Mr. Finnerty has always taken a manly 
 stand in Irish National politics. He is one of the few public 
 
EXECUTION OF PATRICK O'DONNELL 341 
 
 men in America who had always had the courage of his 
 convictions. The whole of this proceeding, this deputation 
 and attempt to save O'Donnell's life, while it was very noble 
 as an act of mercy, fully reveals how imperfectly educated in 
 Irish matters, are the great mass of the Irish people in America. 
 Is it reasonable to expect that England would permit the 
 man who so lowered her prestige in Ireland and before the 
 world, to escape the scaffold ^ Some people see nothing in 
 this bloody struggle on England's side, to complain of. If 
 Irishmen are so silly as to think they can make war on 
 England with impunity, — and O'Donnell's act was a deliberate 
 act of war, — they are not of the material freemen spring from. 
 Mr. Finnerty's paper tells us that O'Donnell's conviction has 
 ended for ever in the Irish mind, all hope of even ordinary 
 justice from Englishmen. A Nationalist would hope it has ; 
 it is nearly time that these farces called trials of revolutionists, 
 were not participated in by Irishmen. If a lawyer of 
 eminence is engaged to defend them, is this man not one of 
 the enemy's men playing a part .'* He is trying to save his 
 client at the expense of the cause which his client has been 
 identified with, possibly to use afterwards any information 
 he procures, to aid his country, Britain, against the colleagues 
 of his former client. The gentlemen who defended O'Donnell, 
 were compelled to play into the British Government's hands, 
 in trying to save his life, and many Irishmen were doing 
 the very same. After Carey's death it was of the utmost 
 importance for the British Government to impress, especially 
 upon the Irish race, the fact that O'Donnell was not an 
 emissary of any Irish revolutionary movement ; and there is 
 no doubt that they have succeeded with a great many. All 
 O'Donnell's friends were aiding them in trying to 
 recover this lost prestige. Numbers of Irishmen in America 
 were unconsciously helping England's diplomacy in the course 
 they were pursuing. Which is the greater consideration : the 
 life of the Irish nation, or the life of a man .? 
 
 Patrick O'Donnell was attended by Father Fleming in his 
 spiritual exercises. He was most cheerful and resigned to 
 
342 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 his doom. He said to the good priest, the day before his 
 death : " I am quite ready to meet my fate. I have done my 
 duty." On Monday morning, December lo, he met his death. 
 There was a crowd in the street looking for the black flag, the 
 signal of death, but there were few Irish there. A London 
 street was no place for them. They were praying for a dying 
 brother, and their dying nation. Opposite to the place of 
 execution, was his brother, Daniel O'Donnell, who gazed with 
 tear-blinded eyes on the flagstaff that was to tell him his 
 noble brother was no more. A few minutes, and the dread 
 signal was visible. The Donegal Irishman was utterly alone 
 in the foreign capital, the metropolis of the people who have 
 been killing his race for generations. His grief-stricken heart 
 tried to find consolation in his dead brother's sentiments, 
 " He had done his duty ; " and the grief-stricken man added, he 
 died nobly. 
 
 The next day Joseph Poole was hanged in Dublin for 
 another political offence. Truly the '* Grand Old Man " was 
 keeping up his " battues of hangings," as William O'Brien 
 termed them. 
 
 Among the gentlemen who held high carnival this week of 
 death, can be read the names of Lord Mayor Dawson, who 
 presided, Messrs. Davitt, Sullivan, Sexton, O'Brien, Biggar, 
 Gray, O'Connor, and Healy, and several other Irish Pro- 
 vincialists, and of course the guest of the evening, Mr. 
 Charles S. Parnell. Lord Mayor Dawson made one of his 
 usual graceful and telling speeches, and presented Mr. 
 Parnell with a cheque for the trifling sum of thirty-eight 
 thousand pounds sterling, a slight token of regard from 
 the grateful Irish people for all the benefits he had conferred 
 upon them. Mr. Parnell, stimulated by the gratitude of his 
 countrymen, made a most energetic speech. He told his 
 hearers that Ireland was held in bondage by 30,000 soldiers 
 and 15,000 police, which as yet were the slight obstacles to 
 perfect freedom. He was succeeded by that great orator 
 and self-sacrificing man upon whom the mantle of Lord 
 
PATRICK O'DONNELL. 
 
 Executed December, 1883. 
 
"FUSTIAN AND SENSATIONAL CLAPTRAPS" 343 
 
 Edward and Wolfe Tone has fallen, Ireland's beloved Mr. 
 Michael Davitt, who responded to the toast " Ireland a 
 Nation," and painted in glowing language and beautiful 
 imagery, the splendid and magnificent career of Ireland a 
 nation. The trifling obstacle of the 30,000 soldiers and 
 15,000 police did not count ; they were no sort of opposition 
 in his path to freedom. Other speeches and songs followed, 
 and the wine cup encircled the Rotundo Hall. The revelry 
 was at its height. They felt indeed that " Ireland was great, 
 glorious, and free, first flower of the earth and first gem of 
 the sea ; " and there is no doubt, if these lines are repeated 
 often enough, as a Buddhist does his prayers, they will serve as 
 an invaluable and unfailing recipe to free nations with. The 
 old-fashioned, wicked way of making war is exploded, and 
 these aesthetic changelings have indeed a respectable and 
 sovereign remedy. Their beauty had expanded with the 
 good things before them, and so they called in the world 
 to rejoice with them. The following cable message was sent 
 by the Lord Mayor of Dublin to the president of the 
 National League at Chicago: 
 
 "Twelve hundred Nationalists (sic) in meeting here in 
 honour of Parnell, greet America and send thanks for her 
 sympathy. Dawson." 
 
 And the brainy and brilliant Irish-American to whom the 
 message was sent, replied as follows : 
 
 " Irish America salutes Ireland, re-echoes her cheers for 
 Parnell, and will never cease struggling with her for liberty, 
 until it is achieved. ALEXANDER SULLIVAN." 
 
 What a lot of fustian and sensational claptrap, the whole 
 thing reads to any practical man ! The Lord Mayor 
 thanks his Irish-American friend for this American 
 sympathy. They deserve sympathy, and need it, to hold a 
 banquet near the hall of death, to cheer while two Irish 
 Nationalists were sleeping in the enemy's prison, each in a 
 condemned cell. It was thought at the time that Irish 
 
344 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 America was striving to get Patrick O'Donnell reprieved. 
 Some wicked men who said they represented Irish America, 
 waited on the President with that object. These Irish 
 Americans were re-echoing no cheers for Parnell, but were 
 in deep sympathy with O'Donnell ; and the struggles for 
 liberty mentioned in Mr. Sullivan's cablegram have been 
 certainly carried out by sending well-filled purses to these 
 changelings, which has been repeated again and again with 
 overflowing generosity. And the changelings are having 
 Ireland freed by banquets and cheers, and repeating these 
 successful formulas about the Emerald Gem. 
 
XXI. 
 
 PARNELLITES AS "OPPORTUNISTS" — "HOME RULE" AS A 
 POLITICAL FACTOR. 
 
 In the early spring of 1884 United Irelajid exposed an 
 unspeakable scandal which permeated the British employes 
 of Dublin Castle. The persons implicated in these unnatural 
 orgies, were the principal officials engaged in getting up the 
 Crown cases against the Irishmen who had been recently 
 hanged and sent to penal dungeons. . . . 
 
 Those who now (1887) peruse United Ireland cdxs. see in every 
 number, the way it writes up the English alliance of Gladstone, 
 Spencer, and Co., and will be able to refresh their memory by 
 the windmill politics which Mr. O'Brien teaches Irishmen who 
 read this organ. Writing on these Dublin scandals United 
 Irelandh2id the following editorials. March i, 1884, under 
 the heading of "Pleasant Particulars": "We have just had 
 the satisfaction of furnishing Lord Spencer's esteemed detec- 
 tive director, James Ellis French, with the particulars 
 demanded by that official, as ordered by his allies of the 
 Court of Queen's Bench. ... A copy is also at the disposal 
 of Lord Spencer, whenever he chooses to call for it at this 
 office ; and in the interest of public decency it would perhaps 
 be as well if his Excellency would no longer feign ignorance 
 of the class of ruffians retained by him, on the plunder of the 
 tax-payers. In our opinion the inhabitants of Sodom were 
 respectable members of society compared with some of the 
 scoundrels employed by her Most Gracious Majesty to govern 
 
346 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Ireland from Dublin Castle. Let Lord Spencer turn to the 
 affidavits and say whether the public, who regard the Castle 
 as a den of tyranny, will not henceforth be justified in deem- 
 ing it a sink of iniquity as well. Why, if he be not in league 
 with French, does his Excellency not compel the wretch to 
 press forward his prosecution against us ? Whose fault is 
 this ? . . . Surely, however, the Lord- Lieutenant will not 
 tolerate that the case of French v. O'Brien should sink out of 
 sight, as a dropped order. We now challenge him with all 
 and sundry other of French's bottle-holders, to pick up their 
 man and send him to us if they dare." In the issue of May 
 24, 1884, under the heading of "Official Compounders of 
 Felony," it stated : " Mr. Trevelyan has now confessed that 
 Colonel Bruce and himself, and doubtless Earl Spencer, in- 
 quired as to French's abominations and had ample prima 
 facie evidence that the charges against him were true, but 
 determined to observe a benevolent neutrality towards the 
 gentleman because (at their instigation) he had brought an 
 action for libel against this journal. Was there ever an 
 admission that so completely identified the Irish Government, 
 as accessories after the fact, to a nameless crime ? " 
 
 The editorials from United Ireland ought to be convincing 
 proof that there is no genuine and steadfast nationality in 
 agitators, who are swayed by every breath of wind that stirs 
 up British politics. Think of the man who penned these 
 articles, associating, and in alliance with. Lord Spencer and 
 Mr. Trevelyan, against whom he brought this infamous and 
 horrible charge. Think of men who call themselves Nation- 
 alists, sitting down to dinner with Lord Spencer, against 
 whom they brought such horrid accusations. It is simply 
 monstrous. The credulity of Irish people in believing that 
 any set of men can be sincere Irish patriots who practise such 
 inconsistencies, is, to say the least, astounding. Mr. Parnell 
 exposes Mr. Gladstone's coercion and then creates him his 
 chief ; and he is hailed as Ireland's deliverer. 
 
 In the debate on Gladstone's Coercion Bill Mr. Parnell 
 speaking in the British Parliament, said : " Public opinion in 
 
MR. PARNELL ON THE CRIMES ACT 347 
 
 this country, generally seemed to forget that it was an act 
 of the most drastic severity that had ever been passed 
 against Ireland. (* No, no,' and * Hear, hear ! ') The right 
 honourable gentleman the Chief Secretary [Mr. Trevelyan] 
 said * No, no ! ', but if they compared the provisions of the 
 Crimes Act with the provisions of other Coercion Acts, they 
 would find the former were more sweeping and numerous 
 than those of any Crimes Act that had been passed. They 
 had powers under the Crimes Act to establish a special com- 
 mission of judges for trial without jury for certain offences, 
 powers for trial by special juries selected from the country 
 and city panels, with unlimited right of the Crown to order 
 jurymen to stand aside, and giving unlimited right of chal- 
 lenge — a power which has resulted in the selection of juries 
 for the trial of the gravest offences, from the very class who 
 were smarting in pocket, in prestige, and in reputation from 
 the result of the Land League agitation, and from the result 
 of the legislation of the Government ; and who were unable to 
 approach the consideration of those grave political and 
 agrarian cases which were brought before them with that 
 judicial form of mind which it was imperatively necessary for 
 jurors to have. . . . They had provisions in the Crimes Act 
 for the appointment of tribunals of summary jurisdiction, 
 and mtimidation was defined in such a way as to render it 
 impossible for a speaker to address any meeting without 
 breaking the law, unless he had a lawyer by his side to tell 
 him what to say. (Hear.) . . Power was given to the police to 
 arrest persons after sunset, which, as he should show, had been 
 very extensively used. . . . Power was also given to arrest 
 strangers, to seize newspapers, and to make searches by day or 
 night. . . . There was power given to the justices to summon 
 witnesses, and to examine them privately, and to commit 
 them to prison without trial for an indefinite term. . . . 
 The jury to try Francis Hynes were almost exclusively 
 composed of persons drawn from the class of the Castle 
 tradesmen, or persons dependent upon the aristocracy for 
 their livelihood, or persons on terms of friendly intimacy 
 
348 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 and companionship with Lord Spencer and the Castle 
 officials." 
 
 What an expos^ of the Grand Old Man's rule in Ireland ! 
 This was the change which Irishmen hailed when Forster 
 resigned ; and which, Heaven help the race, they hailed and 
 cheered as a victory. This description of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Crimes Act is accurate, and ought to show up the hypocrisy of 
 this amiable Englishman, when, for personal ambition and 
 party purposes, he chose to denounce a less drastic — but yet 
 infamous — Crimes Act introduced by his English political 
 opponents, the Tories. What a shuttlecock Ireland permits 
 herself to be made by these brace of tyrants, the Liberals and 
 Tories of Britain ! For any removal of these tyrannies Mr. 
 Parnell was exposing, he might as well have been addressing 
 the waves on the seashore. He would find the angry inflow- 
 ing tide of oppression, as unchanging in its order, as Canute 
 found the sea when he wished to teach his country a lesson. 
 Mr. Parnell was addressing a foreign legislature and appeal- 
 ing to the public opinion of a foreign and hostile people, 
 whose interests and opinions were, and are, antagonistic to 
 the well-being of the Irish race. . . . 
 
 Mr. Gladstone in a public utterance tried to excuse himself 
 for the state of Ireland ; and as a matter of course attached 
 all blame to his predecessors, the Tories. He was too busy 
 about the Bulgarians to think of the Irish. This practically 
 was his own confession. He^ good, angelic man, the great 
 patriarch W. E. Gladstone, whose venerable locks wave round 
 features that look so benevolent now in Irish eyes — he of 
 course was not to blame ; it was those wicked, cruel Tories. 
 The Dublin FreeinaUy Mr. Gladstone's great Irish admirer, 
 commenting upon this speech of the English Minister's, felt 
 compelled to condemn and reprove its dear friend "Achilles," 
 and thus criticised him : " Mr. Gladstone's description of 
 Lord Salisbury's interpretation of former Liberal declara- 
 tions is strictly and literally applicable to the Premier's own 
 recapitulation of recent Irish history. That recapitulation 
 is a pure and perfect work of the fertile imagination of 
 
THE "FREEMAN" ON MR. GLADSTONE 349 
 
 the Premier's. So inaccurate and so absolutely untrue a state- 
 ment of facts, which should be fresh in the memory of every 
 man pretending to a smattering of political knowledge, we 
 never yet knew made by a responsible statesman, speaking on 
 a great political occasion. It is simply amazing that, in order 
 to catch a passing cheer, Mr. Gladstone could have brought 
 himself to make such recklessly inaccurate assertions, which 
 he ought to have known would not have been allowed to pass 
 unchallenged for one single day. It was a humiliating con- 
 fession for the Premier gratuitously to make, at the time he 
 was assailing the position of Lord Beaconsfield and seeking 
 to supplant him, he, the statesman of all others who was 
 supposed to have made the Irish question his own, and 
 so engrossed with the Bulgarian atrocities, so anxious to 
 secure the eviction bag and baggage from Europe of the 
 unspeakable Turk, that he did not know — we quote his own 
 words — the severity of the crisis that was already swelling upon 
 the horizon in Ireland, and that shortly after rushed upon us 
 like a flood. Mr. Gladstone is no more accurate in his forecast 
 of the future that in his retrospect of the immediate past. His 
 prophecies with regard to the National party need not seriously 
 disquiet him." 
 
 As the Irish people are now hoping (1887) with an anxious 
 hope, for the return of the *' Grand Old Man " to power, so at 
 this time, midsummer, 1885, they were eagerly praying for 
 the downfall of him whom they then termed "Judas Gladstone." 
 Such has been the effect of legal and moral agitation upon 
 the people that they appear to eagerly welcome a new tyrant 
 so as to rid themselves of the despot in office. And yet there 
 is no real, but an imaginary change, which takes place in 
 Ireland. The self-same destructive rule of the foreigner flows 
 on, as unchanging as the rivers rush to the sea. The much- 
 prayed for opportunity came to the Irish Parliamentary party. 
 Certain conditions in Mr. Gladstone's Budget were disapproved 
 of by a large section of his own countrymen, and on Monday 
 June 8, 1885, the Liberal Government was defeated. The 
 
3SO THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 vote for the second reading of the Budget Bill was 252 against 
 264, leaving the Ministry in the minority by twelve votes. The 
 thirty-five Irish Parliamentary votes were recorded against 
 Mr. Gladstone's Administration. Great was the joy in the 
 Irish Parliamentary ranks, joy which not only spread over 
 Ireland but wherever Irishmen dwelt. Here in America 
 their countrymen were as enthusiastic as they were at home. 
 Had British rule in Ireland been blotted out of existence, 
 there could scarcely have been more joy expressed, than there 
 was at the downfall of the Minister who to-day is their 
 idol and their chief. Strange effect of false political teaching 
 on a truly national and patriotic race. 
 
 The Irish provincial journals at home and here in America, 
 were brimful of enthusiasm and delight at what all called a 
 great Irish victory. Here was positive proof of the potency 
 of Parliamentary warfare, where a most powerful British 
 Ministry was struck down by the Irish vote. Had the Irish 
 members voted with Mr. Gladstone, he would have had a 
 majority of fifty-eight, or had they refrained from voting 
 altogether the Ministry would have had a majority of twenty- 
 three votes, more than sufficient to keep them in power. And 
 this was a clear demonstration of what a great factor in serving 
 the Irish national cause and compelling Ministers to listen to 
 Ireland's demands, the Irish Parliamentary party was, under 
 the leadership of Mr. Parnell. Thus reasoned the agitators ; 
 and on the strength of this great victory for Ireland they 
 began to draw easy pictures of Ireland's future, all to be won 
 by legal and moral agitation. They never stopped to think 
 that had the 62 followers of Mr. Gladstone who absented 
 themselves, and the eight who voted against his Budget scheme, 
 voted with their party, " the Grand Old Man " would have had 
 a majority of 6S, in spite of their 35 votes recorded against 
 him. These 70 dissatisfied British Liberals did not count. 
 It was all the great victory of the Irish 35. Neither did they, in 
 their exultation, take into consideration the 229 British Tories 
 who voted with them . No, the whole honours rested on their 
 Parliamentary shoulders. It was no lessening in any way to 
 
"UNITED IRELAND" AND THE "RED EARL" 351 
 
 their great victory, that there had been a new Franchise 
 Bill enacted, and that Lord Salisbury and Mr. Gladstone had 
 settled a compromise scheme of Parliamentary redistribution 
 soon to be passed into law, which necessitated a dissolution 
 of Parliament in the autumn, to be followed by a general 
 election. This fact made not the slightest difference, and they 
 exclaimed, like the Iron Duke, when years after the battle he 
 revisited the field of Waterloo, " It was a famous victory ; " 
 and as Mr. Gladstone could not have been defeated at the 
 time without their voting against him or absenting themselves 
 from the division, we will, after mentioning these slight draw- 
 backs, most ungrudgingly accord to them the laurels of 
 victory. And after joining in the universal shout of joy, we 
 will ask in a natural manner : Gentlemen, where are the fruits 
 of your triumph ? They are not visible, neither can they be 
 imagined. These Parliamentary contests have been ever 
 barren of results to Ireland, and this particular Irish victory 
 was no exception to the general rule. 
 
 The joy in Ireland was fanned into a blaze of enthusiasm by 
 the Provincial press. United Ireland published one of its 
 famous cartoons in brilliant colours. It depicted Lord 
 Spencer running swiftly away, pursued by the shades of his 
 victims, who, clothed in graveyard cerements, pointed before 
 them with outstretched arms and bony fingers. There was 
 a villainous scowl on the Lord Deputy's face ; and the fiery 
 red of his hair and whiskers added to the ferocity of the 
 countenance depicted by the artist. Around his neck was 
 coiled a hangman's rope, and in his hand he carried a satchel 
 on which was labelled " Crimes Act." Underneath was the 
 legend " The Red Earl's Run." 
 
 The editorial which accompanied this celebrated picture 
 was in no manner less emphatic in its condemnation of the 
 Liberal regime of blood in Ireland, and had the characteristic 
 title : " So much for Buckingham." 
 
 The editorial observed : ** Earl Spencer has gone the way 
 of Mr. Forster and Mr. Trevelyan. He came in and went 
 out with the Crimes Act. He staked his all upon cowing 
 
352 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Irish spirit, and strangling Irish organisation with that 
 bloody instrument. He stopped at nothing, not at secret 
 torture, not at subsidising red-handed murderers, not at 
 knighting jury packers, not at police quarterings, blood 
 taxes, the bludgeoning of peaceful meetings, the clapping 
 handcuffs and convict jackets on members of Parliament 
 mayors, and editors, not at wholesale battues of hangings 
 and transportations by hook or crook, nor at burying the 
 proofs of his victims' innocence in their graves." 
 
 No language used by revolutionists to characterise the 
 regime of Gladstone's second agent in Ireland can be found 
 stronger than this used in Mr. William O'Brien's paper, the 
 leading organ of the Irish agitators, and which is a truthful 
 r(fsum^ of that atrocious time. And to-day Irishmen are 
 told to look for the salvation of their country from the men 
 who pursued " wholesale battues of hangings." What short 
 memories these agitators have ! 
 
 The writer in United Ireland^ the mouthpiece of the Irish 
 party, speaks the plain truth when he states — " Earl Spencer 
 came in and went out with the Crimes Act." But how can 
 the agitators reconcile this statement with the opening lines 
 of a certain proclamation posted in Dublin, two days after 
 the " Red Earl " landed in Ireland, signed by the leaders 
 of the Irish Parliamentary party, which began thus : " On 
 the eve of what seemed a bright future for our country " } 
 Was the coming of this English Lord Deputy " the bright 
 future" which these men killed } Was this Earl Spencer the 
 promise and fulfilment of " bright hopes," which they taught 
 the whole Irish race to shout for, as a great victory } Read 
 again the terrible charge, these men's official organ brings 
 against Lord Spencer. He stopped "not at burying the 
 proofs of his victims' innocence in theii graves." And this man, 
 Earl Spencer, was the apostle of the great Irish victory 
 gained by the departure of Forster, a man whom they 
 themselves charged with greater crimes than even the man 
 called " Buckshot Forster " committed. Since this powerful 
 article was written, accompanied by its cartoon called the 
 
MR. WM. O'BRIEN AS A BOOTBLACK 353 
 
 " Red Earl's Run," the sentiments of which were also 
 endorsed by the other Irish journals, two of the most 
 honoured of these Irish members dined with Lord Spencer. 
 Did they feel, as they touched his hand, that it was 
 stained with the blood of his innocent victims .? Did 
 they shudder when they sat at the table with the man, 
 whom their ofiicial organ called, by implication, such a 
 terrible name } ^ 
 
 On Tuesday, June 16, 1885, the Dublin National League 
 held its usual meeting nine days after the defeat of Mr. 
 Gladstone. Mr. T. D. Sullivan of the Dublin Nation (the 
 author of many stirring and spirited ballads) was in the chair. 
 The defeat of the brutal Liberal Minister was a subject of 
 great congratulations among the leading National agitators ; 
 it was hailed as a victory for Ireland, just as the next advent 
 to power of this very same brutal coercionist will be regarded 
 as another omen of victory. What monstrous delusions and 
 deceits are practised upon the credulous Irish masses to keep 
 them from uniting upon the only course left a bleeding 
 nation. Mr. Sullivan, in the course of his remarks used the 
 following words, speaking of the Foreign Ministers sent to 
 
 ^ Since this history was written, the marcl'. cf events has shown that the Pro- 
 vincialist leaders have fallen away from their early hostility to British rule. Mr. 
 Wm. O'Brien, who speaks in such scathing language of Mr. Gladstone's Irish 
 Lord-Lieutenant, Earl Spencer, in the above editorial, thus addressed himself to a 
 Birmingham audience, in 1888. " My memory does remind and does rebuke me 
 for having said harsh things, much more harsh and cruel things than were ever 
 said of Mr. Bright, of another great Englishman — Earl Spencer. (Loud cheers.) 
 And Earl Spencer has taken the noblest vengeance that ever fell to the lot of 
 man. (Cheers.) For my part I have never cringed to mortal man — (cheers). . . . 
 but I tell you candidly from what I have seen of Earl Spencer, from what I have 
 known of Earl Spencer's career since he quitted Ireland, I would black the boots 
 of such a man — (cheers) — and I would think it no dishonour (cheers)." 
 
 Compare this language not only with the article " So much for Buckingham," 
 but with any of the various editorials during the Castle scandals, where Earl 
 Spencer is accused of screening the most infamous of social criminals, and what 
 can thinking minds conclude, when they also know that this man, Mr, Wm. 
 O'Brien, is not only a prominent leader of the Provincialists, but an idol of a 
 certain class of Irishmen, who are carried away by public passion and not by 
 public judgment, when they make heroes out of such very trashy clay ? 
 
 Mr. O'Brien has not informed mankind what remarkable virtues Earl Spencer 
 displayed in consequence of which the secret torturer and suborner of red-handed 
 murderers — as Mr. O'Brien styled him in 1885 — should be deserving of such 
 lavish praise, that Mr. O'Brien in 1888 would consider it an honour to be this 
 once secret torturer's shoeblack. Ireland ! Ireland ! to what depths of degrada* 
 tion are these weathercock Provincialists seeking to drag you down ! 
 
 A A 
 
354 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 govern Ireland : " They came here one after another for the 
 purpose of suppressing the spirit of the Irish people, and 
 destroying the nationalit)^ of the country, and they had to go 
 away beaten and defeated men while Irishmen lived and 
 flourished. On no occasion had the people better reason to 
 rejoice than they had to-day, for two reasons. One was that 
 hardly ever had a more bitter and determined enemy of this 
 country came to it, and left it, than was about to leave it in 
 the person of Earl Spencer ; and hardly ever did an Irish 
 meeting assemble on an occasion of this sort with brighter 
 prospects before it, as far as the rights and liberties of 
 the Irish people were concerned, than was before them 
 to-day." 
 
 See how this agitator hugs the delusion to his soul that 
 the enemy's Viceroy was leaving the country beaten, when he 
 knew that another would succeed him. What is it to Irish- 
 men, whether their chains are called Liberal or Tory ? They 
 gall the same, and clang just as loud in the ears of slaves. 
 Foreign rule is a hideous crime towards Ireland, no matter 
 which wing of the assassins orders the slaughter. Spencer 
 was not leaving Ireland beaten ; he had left behind a rosary 
 of corpses for this pious agitator to pray around — as his 
 brother agitator, Mr. O'Brien, put it, " burying the proofs of 
 his victims' innocence in their graves." Note how he tells his 
 credulous hearers that Ireland's prospects were never brighter. 
 What are the prospects this would-be patriot speaks of as 
 bringing hope or brightness to Irishmen's rights and liberties .? 
 The coming of Lord Carnarvon and Hart Dyke, two Tories, 
 to replace Lord Spencer and Trevelyan. What an in- 
 sulting prophecy. What a falsehood, whether believed in 
 by its utterer or not, to tell the Irish people that the 
 coming of Carnarvon, the Englishman who deluded Mr. 
 Parnell with the hypocritical promise of Home Rule, was an 
 occasion for rejoicing ! And when Irishmen remember that 
 this same Mr. T. D. Sullivan, who denounced Spencer as the 
 most bitter and determined enemy of Ireland, actually took 
 his blood-stained hand and sat down to dinner with him, 
 
LORD SALISBURY SUCCEEDS TO POWER 355 
 
 Irishmen should stand aghast with horror. Heaven, where 
 are thy thunderbolts to hurl upon these men : renegades to 
 nationality and honour, who would try and drag their 
 suffering motherland into the abyss of degradation and 
 infamy ; who take the criminal's hands, shutting their 
 eyes upon the crime ; who eat with an assassin, as they them- 
 selves accused this Englishman of being ? And yet they 
 would slander the memories of the purest patriots that 
 ever died beneath God's glorious sunlight for the redemption 
 of their nation from foreign slavery. 
 
 The effect of the vote on the Budget was the resignation of 
 the Liberal Premier, and the formation of a Tory Ministry 
 under the leadership of Lord Salisbury. Thus, after five 
 years of the most tyrannical system of government known 
 in Ireland during the present century, the Liberal, Mr. Glad- 
 stone, fell from power. Is it because of the greatness of his 
 cruelties during these five years of horrible persecution that 
 the Irish agitators to-day style him the " Grand Old Man " } 
 To most people's idea, there is something iniquitous in the 
 grandeur ot a Minister whose task-master in Ireland buries 
 his victims out of sight to destroy the proofs of their innocence. 
 The Tories were scarcely more than in office, when fresh hope 
 sprang up anew in the hearts of the Provincialists. The papers 
 began to inform the Irish public that there was every proba- 
 bility and possibility that the Tories would give Ireland "Home 
 Rule." That accomplished Londoner (as he recently styled 
 himself) and British Parliamentarian, Mr. T. P. O'Connor, in 
 an article published in a leading American review, demon- 
 strated to his own satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of his 
 readers, excellent reasons why " Home Rule " should and 
 must come from a Conservative Government ; and the most 
 powerful argument — and the most convincing to those who 
 believe in legal agitation — he employed was the statement 
 that a Tory Government alone could expect to carry 
 such a measure successfully through the House of Lords. 
 Other articles appeared on this subject. United Ireland^ 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 writing on the situation immediately after the resumption of 
 power by the Tories, in its issue of June 19, 1885, said : *' Cir- 
 cumstances plus the Irish party, however, make it practically 
 impossible to carry a Coercion Bill, even if they introduced it ; 
 and the result probably should be an estrangement between 
 them and the Orange faction here, of which the Irish party 
 should not be slow to take advantage. Once the English 
 Conservatives throw over the landlord party, the Irish question 
 is settled. The Radicals will give the rack-renters no assist- 
 ance, and after the dissolution they would simply be a little 
 knot of half a score of malcontents, unworthy even to be called 
 a rump. In the Upper House alone they would constitute 
 any difficulty, and even there it would be easy to reduce them 
 to impotence. If, therefore, either now or after the general 
 election, Conservatism cuts off its Orange tail, the prospect of 
 an amicable arrangement between the two countries would be 
 infinitely improved. 
 
 " The English landlords have hitherto been led by a sup- 
 posed community of interest to stand by their Irish brethren. 
 But we live in the days of the democracy, and the centre of 
 power has been stripped even from the whilom aristocratic 
 party ; from the drawing-room to the workshop they must suit 
 their policy to the necessities of the hour. 
 
 " On religious and educational grounds, the views of the 
 majority of the Irish people approach much nearer to the 
 English Church party than they do to the Radicals, and as 
 all outrages would come to an end once the landlords evacu- 
 ated, there is no reason in principle why as large or larger 
 measure of self-government should not be granted by the 
 Tories as by the Whigs. Its passage would be immediately 
 facilitated, if brought in by the Conservatives. 
 
 "A Liberal Opposition could not obstruct it as their 
 opponents could. The Lords, of course, in which Lord 
 Salisbury has a large majority, would follow his lead. On 
 the whole, it seems to us possible that, if the Tories are now 
 wise, they may, in spite of the extended franchise, capture 
 almost a sufficiency of English and Scotch electors at the 
 
** UNITED IRELAND" ON THE SITUATION 357 
 
 dissolution by a generous Irish policy, and that with the help 
 of this country a majority might be secured. 
 
 "It is probable, however, that sometime must elapse before 
 the views of Lord Randolph Churchill, influential as he now 
 will be, can permeate his colleagues on the Irish question, 
 while of course the landlord party will work heaven and 
 earth against him. The bait is tempting, but will English 
 Conservatives be hooked by it .? The alternative put before 
 them is intended to frighten them into the acceptance of the 
 offer, it is said. The road is clear before them, and it remains 
 to be seen whether they will be so foolish as to diverge from 
 it, in order to be slaughtered at leisure in an ambuscade by 
 the combined Irish and Radical forces." 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, shortly before his defeat, had intended to 
 renew the worst features of the expiring Crimes Bill ; this was 
 well known and afterwards publicly stated by several ex- 
 Ministers. The Tories, in the face of an approaching dissolu- 
 tion and general election, could not dream of doing anything 
 so rash as to introduce such a measure while the possibilities 
 of six years of power were trembling in the balance. So 
 they were compelled, in spite of their real inclinations, to forego 
 that pleasure until after the election ; hence Mr. Gladstone's 
 Bill was allowed to expire. Any one who will carefully read 
 over this article of United Ireland^ cannot but smile at the 
 political prescience of the writer in the face of recent occur- 
 rences. They will remember that this article was penned by 
 a man thoroughly familiar with Parliamentary warfare, who 
 knew all its intricacies, and was well posted in the tactics and 
 relative strength of British parties. Whatever writers may 
 accuse the Irish party of, they must one and all admit that 
 in Parliamentary knowledge they are accomplished and able 
 men. But it is this very familiarity with British parties on 
 party questions, which blinds them to the real situation. They 
 are so much accustomed to see all issues solved by a com- 
 bination in Parliament, that they are convinced they can 
 solve this " Home Rule " question in a similar manner. They 
 cannot see — such is the influence of their surroundings — that 
 
358 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 this international issue is not soluble at the ballot-box, that 
 the interests of the two nations are directly antagonistic, and 
 no combination of Parliamentary parties can reconcile such 
 gigantic interests, in which the life of one nation and the 
 supremacy of another is involved on the western coast of 
 Europe. As well might Spain decree by a vote in her Cortes 
 that Gibraltar must be restored to her, as Ireland dream that 
 her deputies could ever effect such a change peacefully, or 
 that the votes of her members would compel any combination 
 of British parties to give Ireland over to her own people, to 
 make laws and to govern her as the colonies of this scattered 
 empire govern themselves. In the whole of this article in 
 United Ireland there is not a single mention of trade, 
 manufactures, or commerce. The old cry of the land, and 
 that worn-out bugbear the landlord, seemed to be the only 
 change which self-government was to bring to Ireland, even if 
 obtained. 
 
 There is one extraordinary passage in this article which 
 clearly illustrates the confusion of mind these able men seem 
 to have on this "Home Rule" question ; for whenever they 
 approach this subject one would think that the British Parlia- 
 ment not only changed their Irish souls, but robbed them of 
 their intellects. What do the writers in United Ireland mean 
 by "as large or larger measure of self-government" to be 
 given Ireland by these rival enemies the Tories and Whigs } 
 Self-government means exactly what it states. There can be 
 neither larger, nor smaller, used to qualify it. A people must 
 either govern themselves, or not govern. There can be no 
 lesser or greater in the question. Do the Provincialists mean 
 that a portion of " Home Rule " can be given to Ireland, and 
 yet be live self-government } Would they be satisfied, like 
 one of the claimant mothers before Solomon, to take half the 
 child, thereby destroying its life by the severance of the 
 executioner's sword 1 It is feared that they have some such 
 wicked dream. Why do they not see — or are they blinded — 
 that the mutilated corpse would have no animation } There 
 has been a growing fear among Irish Nationalists that some 
 
THE PARNELL-CARNARVON INTERVIEW 359 
 
 of these men contemplate this foul treason to their country ; 
 else what is the meaning of getting freedom by instalments ? 
 The British Minister who conjures up in his fancy, the idea 
 that the Irish question would be even temporarily settled 
 by such a bleeding fragment, makes a great mistake. The 
 changelings, with their apparent power and prestige would 
 be powerless, despite all their promises. The great heart of 
 the Irish race beats true to the core to their motherland, and 
 although many have been deluded into trying Parliamentary 
 agitation, they certainly mean no less a crown of nationhood 
 for their country than do their physical force brothers. The 
 belief entertained by the United Ireland writer as to Lord 
 Randolph Churchill being in favour of " Home Rule " is an- 
 other proof, if needed, of what flimsy foundations they try 
 to build the Temple of Truth upon. This article was soon 
 after answered by an interview being brought about between 
 Mr. Parnell and Lord Carnarvon, the Tory Lord-Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, at the latter's suggestion and wish. The Tories 
 wished to get the Parnellite support by giving vague and 
 empty promises In return. So the British Earl commenced a 
 conversation on " Home Rule " with Mr. Parnell, without 
 exactly compromising his colleagues — with whose sanction 
 and approval, no doubt, the interview was permitted — and 
 asked Mr. Parnell the leading question to a British states- 
 man — If Ireland got " Home Rule," would she, like Canada, 
 protect her manufacturers against England } Mr. Parnell 
 supposed she would, and Lord Carnarvon replied that 
 he thought there would be some trouble over this. 
 However the interview passed off very pleasantly. Mr. 
 Parnell, although he could not place his hand upon any 
 definite or tangible promise, yet came away fully satisfied that 
 the Tories would give Ireland " Home Rule." In fact it was 
 almost a Cabinet question already, and this delusion so filled 
 the soul of Mr. Parnell that it pervaded every speech he 
 delivered during the general election. The Liberals were of 
 course made aware of this interview, and commenced making 
 overtures to their late foes, the Parnellites. It was a case of 
 
35o THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Codlin and Short between Ireland's rival tyrants, with no 
 sincerity in the promises of either. United Ireland had an 
 article on the Gladstone overtures entitled " Baiting the 
 Trap." It stated : " Never could we have believed the 
 Gladstone Government could have stooped to the acts which 
 they are now attempting, in order to curry favour once more 
 with the Irish people." 
 
 What strange political jugglery has taken place since. 
 How different the Irish newspaper speaks to-day of the 
 Liberal statesman, who remains the same in heart, and must 
 remain so as a British Minister. 
 
 Mr. Davitt, at this period, had a tiff with United Ireland, 
 He had written a smart and petulant letter to that paper, in 
 reply to some comments of theirs on his letter to a Sheffield 
 Radical club declining an offer made by them, to represent an 
 English borough in Parliament. In his refusal to accept the 
 nomination, he stated that he did not think that all the best 
 men in politics should be sent to Parliament. The natural 
 inference to any intelligent reader would be that Mr. Davitt 
 considered himself included in the ranks of the best men in 
 politics, which displayed a proper appreciation of hmiself. No 
 doubt in ability as a speaker, and earnestness in agitation, 
 Mr. Davitt was right in placing himself on the pedestal 
 labelled " Best " ; but not wishing to be discourteous to the 
 Englishmen of Sheffield, he sent a letter to United Ireland 
 stating that his real reason for declining the nomination for 
 a seat in Parliament was his decided objection to take the 
 oath of allegiance to the British Crown. United Ireland got 
 nasty over this letter from Mr. Davitt, its editor and pro- 
 prietors being duly sworn members of Parliament. And it 
 may be remarked, en passant^\hdX this oath-taking is a matter 
 for each gentleman's own conscience. Mr. Davitt being one 
 of "our pure patriots," as the term is used, was perfectly 
 justified in satisfying himself as to how far the taking of this 
 oath might stain his original purity. In the course of 
 United Ireland's remarks on Mr. Davitt's letter, it went on 
 
MR. DAVIXrS NOBLER VISION 361 
 
 to say "that since Mr. Davitt's declaration in a letter 
 published in May, 1882, that *a noble vision' had dawned 
 upon his views, many persons supposed that he had waived 
 his objections to take the oath." The writer in United 
 Ireland appeared to have the inclination to hum over the 
 couplet from Patience: 
 
 ** Oh, what a very, very pure young man 
 This pure young man must be." 
 
 Mr. Davitt was indignant with the writer in United Ireland 
 recalling his letter of the "nobler vision," and retorted by 
 saying that his noble visions did not contemplate oaths of 
 loyalty to Ireland's enemy, but from his point of view more 
 effective methods of bringing down the enemy's twin strong- 
 holds — landlordism and Castle rule. The letter concluded 
 thus : "Had you not in your ill-tempered and unfair article 
 of last week broached this subject, I should not trouble you 
 with any letter upon it, but when you deliberately and 
 maliciously try to place me in a false position before the 
 country, and not for the first time, you shall not be permitted 
 to do it again with impunity." 
 
 Irish Nationalists are very much afraid that their pure and 
 noble countryman displays a slight flavour of losing his 
 temper with his friend Mr. William O'Brien. What the 
 dreadful punishment he alludes to, when he states that his 
 friend will not again be permitted to misrepresent him with 
 impunity may be, they cannot imagine ; possibly the same 
 destructive weapons with which he means to attack the twin 
 strongholds. Irishmen have a vivid recollection of reading 
 a certain speech delivered since, by this pure and noble com- 
 patriot at Chicago, in which he very plainly pointed out that 
 the most "effective method of bringing down the twin 
 strongholds " was by talk ; and disclaiming all the naughty, 
 wicked things which Mr. Finnerty spoke of So that there 
 was really no difference between his views and Mr. O'Brien's, 
 and it is supposed that they have made friends long ago. 
 The " nobler vision " alluded to by Mr. O'Brien was a letter 
 
362 TH£ IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 written by Mr. Davitt on his release in May, 1882. Here is an 
 extract : " If in the hot blood of early manhood, smarting 
 under the cruelties and indignities perpetrated in Ireland, 
 I saw appeal to force the only way of succouring her, upon 
 my graver thoughts, in the bitter solitude of a felon's cell, 
 a nobler vision appeared, a dream of the enfranchisement and 
 fraternisation of the peoples, and of the conquering of hate 
 by justice." None but a truly pure and noble spirit could 
 breathe these lofty sentiments. What a wholesome moral 
 lesson it should have taught those incorrigibles who carried 
 the National sentiments they first learned in the hot blood 
 of their youth and early manhood into their maturer years, 
 even until their heads were tinged with the winters rime! 
 If they could but see what the dream of the " fraternisation 
 of the peoples " has done for the dreamer, how prosperity and 
 success have crowned his nobler visions ! As he rose up the 
 golden hill of fortune step by step, how he must have pitied 
 the deluded comrades of his early years, who lingered in the 
 vale of sorrow below, and to whom no graver or nobler 
 thoughts came in their solitude ! Then, as his intellect was 
 developed more and more by the clear bracing atmosphere 
 of the loftier regions he had reached, fortune redoubled her 
 smiles and the "fraternisation of the peoples" grew with 
 more sublimity, and still loftier and nobler sentiments 
 animated his being. 'Twas then that he conceived the idea 
 of a visit to the Holy Land. What a splendid field for the 
 philanthropic sentiment of " fraternisation " had he here 
 before him, the glorious achievement of uniting the human 
 family in one brotherhood of peoples ! In his wanderings 
 before visiting Jerusalem he could make a happy blend of 
 the democracies of France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Spain, 
 Egypt, and any lands he chose to visit to fulfil his " nobler 
 vision," including all the various tribes around the early 
 home of Christianity. For as this noble vision is based on 
 ignoring the national differences and the conflicting interests 
 of the Irish and British working classes, would it not be well 
 to spread this *' fraternisation " all over ? On his way to 
 
^'THE FRATERNISATION OF PEOPLE" 363 
 
 Bethlehem Mr. Davitt visited Rome, with the pious and 
 dutiful object of paying his respects to the Holy Father ; 
 but, strange to say, the Pope declined the interview. Mr. 
 Davitt's modesty must have kept from his Holiness the 
 knowledge that he of the " nobler visions," one of the " best 
 men" in Irish politics, was craving an interview. As yet 
 the world has heard nothing further of the success of this 
 Eastern journey. Irishmen may feel certain that Mr. Davitt 
 daily waxes stronger in love and ** fraternisation " ; perhaps 
 the time will soon come when hate will be conquered by 
 justice and by love, and when those twin strongholds spoken 
 of by Mr. Davitt — " landlordism and Castle rule " — will melt 
 away beneath the fervour of his "nobler visions," and the 
 love born of " the fraternisation of peoples." 
 
XXII 
 
 THE ELECTIONS OF 1 886 — THE PARNELLITE POSITION. 
 
 The Parliament which had been elected with such hope for 
 Ireland in the spring of 1880, was dissolved. The promise 
 of great things, for which the Provincialist organs greeted the 
 Premiership of Mr. Gladstone and the Chief Secretaryship of 
 Mr. Forster, had failed. The same journals which hailed Mr. 
 Forster's advent with good omen, sent a howl of execration on 
 his departing footsteps ; his coming and his departure were 
 both Irish victories, and Mr. Gladstone's defeat was another 
 Irish victory. It will be remembered how hopefully Mr. 
 Parnell wrote of the general election of 1880 in his letter to 
 the Chicago Daily News, He stated : " It is incorrect to sup- 
 pose that Liberals are rendered independent of the Irish 
 members . . . should the Liberals refuse to accede to our 
 demands they can be very promptly reduced to order . . . The 
 Irish party know what they want, and are determined to have 
 it rendered impossible that the most powerful Ministry can 
 withstand them." 
 
 The Tower of Babel was nothing near to the height to which 
 these men have built up a tower of delusion, to mock the Irish 
 race with. When the sitting was peremptorily closed, and 
 when the thirty-five members were ignominiously expelled 
 the House, where was the power to reduce the Ministry to 
 prompt obedience .'* When Gladstone reached the Coercion 
 Act, why did they not make it practically impossible for him 
 to do so ? 
 
\ 
 
 THE NEW FRANCHISE IN IRELAND 365 
 
 Will Irishmen ever learn the lesson that this agitation 
 should have long since taught them : that they might as well 
 attack the strong fortress of Metz with bonbons, as to dream 
 of the folly of shaming England, or talking her into giving 
 them over the management of their own affairs ? 
 
 Although hailed with delight as the benefactor which 
 allowed coercion to disappear, the Irish, in acknowledging the 
 Tory Government, were a little more moderate in their expres- 
 sions of joy, and acted with more commendable prudence 
 than they did a little later on. County conventions were 
 held to appoint candidates for Parliament. In nearly every 
 case Mr. Parnell dictated the nomination. There can be no 
 fault found with this. If Parliamentary tactics had anything 
 in them, Mr. Parnell was most likely to know the men he 
 wanted. This history does not purpose going into any 
 detailed statement of this election. It was remarkable 
 in one respect only: that since the Legislative Union 
 with Britain it was the first time that Ireland had a 
 franchise, whereby she could publicly place on record her 
 detestation of foreign rule. The world — that is that portion of 
 European and American civilisation which takes any passing 
 interest in these things — knows well the actual state of Irish 
 feeling. What meant the insurrections of 1798 and 1803 J 
 and the '48, '65 and '6^ movements ? Had they not some part 
 in educating the public mind as to Ireland's real sentiments ? 
 This general election merely endorsed what every one knew : 
 that the overwhelming majority of Irishmen claim the right 
 to govern Ireland, the right to make their own laws in Ireland, 
 by Irishmen for Irishmen. The statesmen of Europe, men 
 who move large armies and who have made a study of inter- 
 national questions, such men as Bismarck, Giers, Kalnoky, 
 Schouvaloff, Ignatieff, and scores of others, know the real issue 
 between Ireland and Britain. They are keen watchers of 
 every incident on the European chessboard. When such small 
 places as Greece, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, or Bulgaria 
 come within the sphere of their operations, how much more 
 important is Ireland, which is larger than any three of these 
 
6 
 
 366 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 united. If Irishmen would cease their mock " Constitutional " 
 programme, material help might come to them in the clash of 
 European nationalities ; but they must show the nations they 
 mean to help themselves by deeds and sacrifices, not by talk 
 and bombast. 
 
 This general election, claimed as a victory, was quite in 
 keeping with this oft-repeated childish cry ; it was simply the 
 expression of national will for self-government. These eighty- 
 five representatives were to be either the recipients of the 
 national demand, or else of national humiliation. The elections 
 of these delegates were termed " victory." Indeed that of each 
 particular one was regarded as an occasion for national 
 delight. 
 
 During this election the Irish Parliamentary party were as 
 bitter against Mr. Gladstone and the Liberals, as to-day they 
 are their much obliged and faithful servants. Mr. Parnell, 
 speaking in Mayo, November 3, 1885, said: "Speaking for 
 myself, and I believe for the people of Ireland and all my 
 colleagues, I have to declare we will never accept anything 
 but the full and complete right to arrange our own affairs, 
 and to make our land a nation ; and to secure for Ireland, free 
 from outside control, the right to direct her own course among 
 the peoples of the earth." 
 
 These words are the true doctrines of Irish nationality, but 
 they can only be accomplished in spite of the enemy, never 
 with his voluntary consent. The speaker, true to his irreso- 
 lute character, directly contradicted this speech by his sub- 
 sequent conduct in Parliament. Mr. Parnell very properly 
 opposed Mr. Callan in Louth. This election was an exciting 
 one, owing to the Callan faction offering great opposition. It 
 was during this election that Mr. Parnell, November, 1885, 
 made his famous public promise. His words were : " Men of 
 Ireland, so sure as the sun shines in the heavens to-morrow 
 morning, so certain shall Ireland have Home Rule before two 
 years." 
 
 It is long past two years since these memorable words were 
 spoken, and Ireland is to-day in bondage, her deputies insulted 
 
THE PARNELLITE ELECTION MANIFESTO 367 
 
 and dragged off to prison, and the certain " Home Rule " as 
 far off as when O'Connell promised it over forty years ago ; 
 and it will for ever be a myth until Irishmen are determined 
 to attack the foe who withholds it. 
 
 The new redistribution of seats enabled the Home Rulers 
 to successfully contest one of the Liverpool Parliamentary 
 divisions. Mr. T. P. O'Connor, an admirable strategist and 
 a firm believer in Parliamentary warfare, a thorough West 
 Briton but an honest Provincialist who believes Ireland's 
 destiny is to be perpetually wound up in the British 
 Empire and British interests, was selected as the proper man 
 to stand in the " Home Rule " cause. It is the fault of the 
 people who call such anti-Irishmen patriots. Mr. O'Connor, 
 however, is a humorous, able speaker and a most accom- 
 plished writer. 
 
 The following manifesto was issued by the Parliamentary 
 party : — " The Liberal party are making an appeal to the 
 confidence of the electors at the general election of 1885, as 
 at the general election of 1880, on false pretences. In 1880 
 the Liberal party promised peace, and it afterwards made 
 unjust war. 
 
 • • • • • • • 
 
 " To Ireland, more than any other country, it bound itself 
 by most solemn pledges, and these it most flagrantly violated. 
 It denounced coercion and it practised a system of coercion 
 more brutal than that of any previous Administration, Liberal 
 or Tory. Under this system juries were packed with a shame- 
 lessness unprecedented even in Liberal Administrations, and 
 innocent men were hanged or sent to the living death of penal 
 servitude ; twelve hundred men were imprisoned without trial ; 
 ladies were convicted under an obsolete Act directed against 
 the degraded of their sex, and for a period, every utterance 
 of the popular press, and of the popular meeting, was as 
 completely suppressed as if Ireland was Poland, and the 
 Administration of England a Russian autocracy. The 
 representatives of Liberalism in Ireland were men like Mr. 
 Forster and Lord Spencer, who have left more hateful 
 
368 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 memories in Ireland than any statesmen of the century. 
 The last declaration of Mr. Gladstone was that he in- 
 tended to renew the very worst clauses of the Coercion Act 
 of 1882." 
 
 The Irish Home Rule party then spoke truth, but they are 
 speaking the very reverse to-day. The statesman whom they 
 denounced for his intention to renew the very worst clauses 
 of the Coercion Act, they hailed a few months after as their 
 deliverer. They made this Englishman their leader, which 
 position he still occupies. They spoke of Gladstone's Ad- 
 ministration in Ireland as an autocracy, but every British 
 Government is and has been the same. The present Tory 
 Government is practising acts of despotism ; and if the 
 Liberals under Mr. Gladstone were returned, they would, of 
 course, continue the same despotism. Dividing British rule 
 into parties is Ireland's unfortunate weakness ; no such thing 
 exists. Foreign rule is foreign rule under Gladstone, Salis- 
 bury, or any other Briton. Mr. Parnell, addressing the 
 Liverpool electors at this time, also made a violent but yet 
 just attack upon Gladstone's Irish Government. The mon- 
 strous inconsistency of praising the same Gladstone to-day, is 
 humiliating to Irishmen. What aggravates the situation is 
 the degrading manner he has led so many of the Irish race to 
 follow in his footsteps. 
 
 The result of the general election of 1885 was : Liberals 
 333, Tories 250, Irish S6, Independent i. 
 
 This showed a Liberal majority of 83, not counting the 
 Irish votes ; and this Liberal majority was gained in spite of 
 the direct opposition of the Irish vote, although this vote went 
 as the Parnellites directed. What silly statements Irish leaders 
 make in trying to convince their countrymen that the vote 
 in England is an important factor in deciding elections. The 
 vote must necessarily be small, numerically, and no matter 
 how well organised — and it is believed that its organisation 
 was, humanly speaking, as perfect as it could be during this 
 election — it can only turn the scale when British parties are 
 
THE POSITION OF PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES 369 
 
 fairly equal. The Irish in Britain are some of the best of 
 their race, brave, resolute, and determined ; but useless, like 
 the men at home, at present. This agitation has them in the 
 torpid sleep of desuetude. A " brainy " leader would find these 
 men invaluable, but not for voting. 
 
 The position of parties was most favourable for Mr. Parnell. 
 The leaders of legal agitation never before dreamed of such a 
 position — eighty-six votes of a solid united party, every man 
 pledged to vote with the majority ! What ecstasies of joy 
 would Mr. Butt have felt, if he had had such a determined 
 and united following } What great things would he not do ? 
 Surely, if ever agitation can be successful, it is now ! Mr 
 Parnell cannot be boasting. It is only a question of the 
 measure of Home Rule, he tells his countrymen ; the rest is 
 all but an accomplished fact. The Tories and the Irish, 
 united, left Mr. Gladstone in a minority of three. This 
 enormous Liberal vote came from Britain ; not one Liberal 
 was elected in Ireland ; so that the much spoken of English 
 working-man, according to these returns, voted for Mr. 
 Gladstone even when the Irish democrats opposed him, for 
 this campaign of 1885 was fought out to the bitter end in 
 direct hostility to the Liberals. Every engine the Irish party 
 could use, was used against Mr. Gladstone and his following, 
 and yet he received this large majority ; but when Mr. 
 Gladstone appealed to the British working man on another 
 issue, one year later, there was an opposite result. 
 
 The Tories would be in the minority, if the Parnellites 
 changed sides, by 109 votes. So that the Irish Parliament- 
 ary party could not possibly hope for a more favourable 
 position, — it would indeed be impossible, — than that which 
 they now enjoyed. If this story, told the Irish people by 
 the three great leaders of the doctrine of arguing England 
 out of Ireland, O'Connell, Butt, and Parnell, had ever a 
 shadow of power to show, this was surely the time. Mr 
 Parnell is in the saddle, neither British parties can hold 
 power without his vote ; he is on the summit of the fortress, 
 and can not only sweep the foe in front, but take them by 
 
 B B 
 
370 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 flank and reverse fire. If this victory is possible, surely 
 it can be gained now. Alas, for generations of folly and 
 untold wealth spent in its pursuit ! It was utterly and com- 
 pletely impossible ; such a means to free a nation never came 
 into the brains of any practical, sensible people. Men who 
 take to this course, simply want public life, ambition and 
 promotion, honours and wealth. They are members of the 
 British Parliament, and by virtue of that office, servants of the 
 British sovereign ; to style such men Irish Nationalists, as 
 were Ireland's patriots of '98 and other men since, who have 
 dared the dungeon and the halter for their native land, is to 
 trail the noble title of patriot in the gutter of British party 
 politics. Willingly or unwillingly they must become the 
 allies of one or other of the enemy's political parties, and die 
 either disappointed men, or else respectable, quiet-going West 
 Britons. 
 
 The new Parliament assembled at Westminster. Mr. Par- 
 nell and his eighty-five followers took their seats in the 
 confidence of strength and near approach to power. In their 
 sanguine mood victory was in sight, it was within their grasp ; 
 they had but to snatch it and the field was won. Mr. T. P. 
 O'Connor, speaking at a reception at that time, said in glow- 
 ing language : " After seven long centuries of struggle with 
 various success, how proud it is for us to know we live in the 
 time when victory has been achieved, and that we are alive 
 to witness the day when Ireland takes her place among the 
 nations of the earth ! " " Gone for ever was coercion," said Mr. 
 Parnell, " and gone for ever the time when the Briton was our 
 master." 
 
 If Ireland ever sees the time these gentlemen spoke of, it 
 will be when the red flag of Britain goes down before the 
 blows of a battling nation ; when Ireland defeats Britain in 
 the field, then, and not till then, will Ireland receive self- 
 government. Cowardly teachings and more cowardly ex- 
 amples — for braggadocio and blustering over three or six 
 months in gaol, is not the bravery that freeth nations — 
 
THE TORIES AND THE PARNELLITES 371 
 
 relegates this time to the Greek Kalends ; independence for 
 Ireland is postponed to the same indefinite period. 
 
 The Tory Government, whom Mr.Parnell had been inaUiance 
 with against the Radicals, and who held before his eager gaze 
 the tempting bait of " Home Rule," met the new Parliament, 
 which opened on Friday, January 21, 1886. They had 
 scarcely more than permitted the new Legislature to assemble 
 when their Irish policy was announced ; and through their 
 mouthpiece. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, they informed the 
 House of Commons that they proposed to bring in an Irish 
 Coercion Bill, and a Bill to suppress the Irish National 
 League. Great was the rage and indignation of the Par- 
 nellites. What a descent from the mountain top of hope 
 from which they gazed on " Home Rule ! " What were they to 
 say to their countrymen, whom they had inflated with the 
 same confidence which animated them ? To be insulted and 
 flouted by a minority Ministry to which they had given every 
 possible aid and comfort during the recent general election — 
 a Ministry that had held out such delusive promises now so 
 rudely dispelled, the rosy dream which they and their people 
 so foolishly indulged in. It was really to much to endure. 
 And yet this treachery on the part of the Tories failed to teach 
 them the old lesson — that British parties are the same in their 
 government of Ireland. 
 
 A few nights after, the Tories were defeated on an English 
 measure and compelled to resign. Once again Mr. Gladstone 
 resumed the reins of power, and all was expectation as to 
 what course the old Liberal leader would take. If he refused the 
 Irish '' Home Rule," then indeed would they be driven to 
 despair. That Mr. Gladstone foresaw the possibilities of intro- 
 ducing some measure with the title of " Home Rule " attached, 
 is evident from his previous careful utterances. Mr. Justin 
 McCarthy informed the public that Mr. Gladstone had been 
 a convert to '* Home Rule " for eight years. If Mr. McCarthy 
 meant self-government for Ireland, that conversion is yet to 
 take place. In 1881, in the London Guildhall, when Mr. 
 Gladstone announced the arrest of Mr. Parnell in the melo- 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 dramatic manner already recorded, it will be remembered he 
 used these words : " It is not even on any point connected with 
 what is popularly known as ' Home Rule, ' and which may 
 be understood in any one of a hundred senses, some of them 
 perfectly acceptable and even desirable, and others of them 
 mischievous and revolutionary." These words, spoken by the 
 English Premier at a time when he was imprisoning the Irish 
 leader, the advocate of " Home Rule," plainly tells us what 
 was running through the mind of this aged statesman. Mr. 
 Gladstone's definition of Home Rule was evidently " one 
 of the hundred senses most desirable " to Englishmen, but 
 most undesirable to Ireland. Genuine self-government for 
 Ireland would be, in the Grand Old Man's imagination, both 
 " mischievous and revolutionary." The Leeds Mercury, which 
 seemed to understand the aged Liberal in December, 1885 
 before the Tories were defeated, thus spoke on this subject : 
 "Mr. Gladstone's plan is for a Parliament in Ireland to deal 
 with purely local affairs. The proposal is subject to very large 
 limitations. . . . Duties of a protective nature shall not be 
 imposed on British goods in Ireland." 
 
 The very key to the situation is foreshadowed here. 
 Ireland's great interest is manufactures. England's great 
 interest is that Ireland should continue to be deprived of these 
 rival industries. So long as Ireland can be made a " dump- 
 ing " ground for English wares, manufactures in Ireland are 
 an impossibility. Ireland needs a Legislature to make her 
 own laws, and to legislate for every internal interest. Irish 
 industries for her people, towers giantlike above the rest of her 
 requirements. This Leeds paper, speaking of a possible forth- 
 coming Bill, declares it to be shorn of the one great need for 
 Ireland — the means of giving employment to her people. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's return to power was almost simultaneous 
 with the breaking out of a famine in certain parts of the West 
 of Ireland. England's slow poison, starvation in Ireland, now 
 and then becomes a serious epidemic, which is an incon- 
 venience to Britain as she prefers the Irish to die in the 
 usual, regular course. Another famine fund was started in 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARIANS' DILEMMA 373 
 
 America the previous year. Mr. Parnell had assured the 
 world that this was to be the last begging box that should be 
 sent round to feed the hungry Irish. Mr. Patrick Ford 
 generously started a famine fund in the Irish Woi'ldy which 
 Mr. Davitt undertook to distribute. . . . 
 
 Mr. Gladstone had to encounter, in his promise to give 
 Ireland "Home Rule," English prejudice and English 
 hostility. English interests he could easily appease, for he 
 was determined to make no concealment whatever that he 
 would not allow the Irish people to create manufactures, or 
 build up industries. He knew the Irish people were so much 
 engaged in agriculture that they were ignorant of their 
 greatest weakness — lack of employment for the people, — as 
 they were also ignorant of their great physical strength as 
 against Britain. But British prejudice against any seeming 
 Irish autonomy he knew was a powerful factor against him ; 
 and he also had to be careful not to offend the Parnellites, 
 who held the greater portion of the Irish people in the hollow 
 of their hand. He did not at that time know how far he 
 could venture with these men, and had to feel his way care- 
 fully ; for one false step, he thought, would precipitate them 
 into the arms of the revolutionists. In this Mr. Gladstone 
 found very soon he was wrong. These men, particularly the 
 leading spirits, had so convinced themselves, and afterwards 
 the great masses of their countrymen, that " Home Rule " 
 was near, that the action of the Tories shook Mr. Parnell and 
 his lieutenants from the pinnacle of hope almost to the depths 
 of despair. They saw before them, if Mr. Gladstone did not 
 come to their rescue, a speedy dethronement from all the 
 honours, emoluments, and advantages they enjoyed as leaders 
 of the Irish people, and which entailed very little risk in 
 return ; or else the choice of continuing their leadership as 
 physical force revolutionists. 
 
 If Mr. Gladstone refused to entertain " Home Rule," as the 
 Tories did, the Opposition would of course support them. 
 The Irish people would not submit to carry on the " splendid 
 
374 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 nonsense " of agitation further. Irish America would use its 
 money for the purchase of rifles and other weapons of de- 
 struction ; and great as was Mr. Parnell's power, he knew he 
 could not hold it if the cup of hope, which he so recently 
 held to Ireland's lips, was dashed to the ground by the course 
 of events. Mr. Parnell and the greater portion of his party 
 who controlled the league, knew they had neither the courage 
 nor self-sacrifice necessary to lead a revolutionary movement. 
 They had practical proof that they were deficient in the 
 stamina of real patriots, such as Wolfe Tone, George Washing- 
 ton, Robert Emmet, or Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and that they 
 only possessed sufficient courage to die for Ireland in a song, 
 or in a speech, before cheering and admiring auditors. They 
 remembered vividly the feelings they experienced when the 
 Park tragedy sprung upon them, when, without a moment's 
 reflection, animated with the most cowardly terror, they 
 issued a proclamation reckless of whom or what they were 
 assailing ; in their abject fright they were not masters of 
 themselves. Consequently, if Mr. Gladstone did not come to 
 their aid, they had no alternative but to step down and out 
 from their pedestal of wealth and power ; or else join their 
 countrymen in preparing to fight Britain. This meant facing 
 real " dungeons, toils, and chains," and not the martyrdom of 
 three or six months' imprisonment, to come out freemen with 
 honours easily earned. 
 
 This was the position of the two leaders, Mr. Gladstone and 
 Mr. Parnell ; both were anxious to keep down strife, and both 
 feared the efiect of a refusal of " Home Rule " on the minds of 
 men who were prepared to make any and every sacrifice for 
 Ireland ; both knew that the great masses of the Irish people, 
 at home and abroad, were sound on the question, no matter 
 how misled they might have been by interested and weak 
 leaders. Mr. Parnell knew very well that his following in the 
 House was not the stuff" from which to manufacture revolu- 
 tionary soldiers. They were mere Parliamentarians ; weak, 
 both physically and morally, on this issue. There were 
 among them, it is true, many who had been good men, but 
 
MR. GLADSTONE'S DIFFICULT TASK 375 
 
 they were corrupted by their surroundings. The great majority 
 had no such patriotic courage as animated the men who 
 fought at Lexington, Bunker's Hill, Vinegar Hill, and Noxlow. 
 It is one thing to quote these men's heroic deeds, but another 
 thing to put these deeds into practice. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone had then before him a difficult task: to 
 preserve Ireland to Britain, by inducing Irishmen to continue 
 their agitation and not turn their thoughts to what might 
 prove too powerful and. dangerous for Britain to crush — 
 Irish revolution ; for be it remembered that Britain could not 
 accomplish by her arms anything approaching the dreadful 
 destruction of peace. The lesson taught by the Boers had 
 given him serious disquiet, and the complications which he 
 feared would arise among strong European Powers, added to 
 the wealth and power of the exiled Irish, convinced this able 
 and far-seeing statesman that some measure with the name 
 of " Home Rule," was necessary to accomplish his purpose. 
 Had he known how far he could have ventured with the 
 Parnellites he would have had less trouble ; but this he was 
 unaware of; each party was afraid of the other. Mr. Gladstone 
 had not the faintest idea of giving Irishmen any control of 
 their own affairs ; what he tried to do was to create a shadowy 
 Parliament and Government altogether under British control. 
 But to do this, and please the Parnellites, he knew it should 
 have some outward semblance of reality, no matter how 
 hollow it was inside ; nevertheless, in investing his measure 
 with this outward semblance he invoked hostile British 
 prejudice even in his own Cabinet, although he was giving 
 Ireland less than Chamberlain proposed as to material 
 advantages in local affairs, which in neither case could have 
 affected Irish national wealth. Mr. Gladstone's Bill bore 
 all the trappings of mock sovereignty. He knew the senti- 
 mental side of the Irish character, and that the name of 
 anything called a Parliament, sitting in College Green, would 
 fill them with joy and enthusiasm — although it bore the same 
 relations to a real Legislature as a stage fight does to a real 
 battle — and that the results of victory, when all was over, 
 
376 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 would be the same for Ireland. He saw that the Irish were 
 delighted when their Dublin Municipal Council changed the 
 city flag to the national colours, degrading the immortal 
 green of the nation to the mere emblem of a municipality. 
 Britain always hopes to see the Irish banner the flag of a 
 corporate town, but never the standard of a free and inde- 
 pendent nation. The changing of Sackville Street to 
 O'Connell Street, and the conferring of the freedom of the city, 
 the capital of an enslaved nation — these toys and gewgaws 
 pleased a certain section of the Irish people ; why not give 
 them another toy ? So he would open the murderous 
 Yeoman's Parliament House in College Green, and let them 
 have mock " Home Rule ! " 
 
 But in trying to conciliate Ireland by giving her a toy 
 dressed up as self-government, he offended the prejudices 
 and susceptibilities of the sentimental side of John Bull. He 
 could not convince several members of his Cabinet that this 
 yielding to Irish aspirationists did not in principle seem a 
 violation of the supposed Union between these hostile nations, 
 even although he gave away no material advantage, and 
 surrendered no control whatever. Several secessions from his 
 Cabinet delighted the Irish, for why should English Radicals 
 of such prominence as Hartington, Trevelyan, Bright, Cham- 
 berlain, and Sir Henry James, leave the Cabinet if great 
 concessions were not meant .? If Irishmen, however, reflected 
 more on the situation, they would soon see that the Radicals 
 are more hostile to " Home Rule " than even the Tories, 
 for they are nervous of the question of trade and manu- 
 factures. Eventually it was announced that the long-expected 
 " Home Rule " Bill would be introduced on April 8, 1888. 
 
XXIII 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE BILL OF 1886--CRITICISM OF THE 
 MEASURE — A FOREIGN RULE BILL. 
 
 On Thursday evening, April 8, 1886, all the elite of the 
 clubs and drawing-rooms of Belgravia and Mayfair, the 
 diplomatic and representative world of fashion in London, all 
 who could procure seats or standing room, were crowded into 
 the Commons chamber of England to hear Mr. Gladstone's 
 speech asking leave to introduce a Bill termed ** Home Rule " 
 for Ireland ; and which measure the great commoner was to 
 explain to the country. Royalty was represented by the 
 Prince of Wales and his son. Prince Albert Victor, two 
 probable occupants of the British throne. Irish hearts and 
 hopes were centred round the chamber in Westminster. . . . 
 
 As Mr. Gladstone rose the House was hushed in silence; 
 every ear in that densely-packed chamber was strained to 
 catch each tone of his musical voice, and to drink in every 
 word that fell from the lips of that aged statesman, truly 
 styled by Mr. John Dillon the " master of misconception " ; a 
 title stamped upon his name with ineffaceable letters by the 
 marvellous manner he introduced a measure which more 
 firmly riveted the foreigners' chains upon Irish limbs, and 
 which he, with the audacity and effrontery of custom, called 
 " Home Rule " 
 
 Mr. Gladstone spoke for over four hours, and during that 
 time he skilfully wove a net so intricate that it has apparently 
 
378 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 enmeshed the intellects of the greater number of the human 
 race, who have since discussed this so-called " Home Rule " 
 from many standpoints, but not that we are aware of, from 
 the actual position, that position which will for ever remain 
 in discussing this Bill — the non-existence of the smallest 
 particle of " Home Rule " in Mr. Gladstone's Bill so-called, and 
 the existence of a strong measure of coercion, veiled under 
 the clause which created the Irish Executive. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone entranced, stupefied, and set his hearers 
 wondering by his marvellous power of language, his wizard- 
 like jugglery of phrases, his creation of some hypothetical 
 castle, only to demolish it in the sweeping tornado of his 
 sentences. Now he proved to Englishmen what a grand 
 benefit his Bill would bring to them ; and then turning to the 
 Parnellites, he showed them what a great future their country 
 would enjoy under the beneficent blessings his Bill would 
 bring to them. He had even the astounding audacity to tell 
 Irishmen it would confer upon them greater and more 
 glorious results than if the war for independence in '98, of 
 immortal memory, had been crowned with success, and not, 
 as it was, smothered in blood by his brutal countrymen, the 
 foreign settler yeomen, and their no less brutal hirelings, the 
 Hessians. This man's stupendous ability appeared to 
 paralyse them. First this great magician marched through 
 his subject, then trotted, galloped, and finally charged. In 
 the grand niilh of his sentences, his hearers were lost in 
 astonishment. They knew his meaning must have been 
 superbly magnificent, but 'twas so hidden in the brilliant 
 cloud of verbiage, which cantered, galloped, and charged 
 unceasingly by, that this rested only in their fancy. It was 
 the master mind of misconception drugging his Irish hearers. 
 
 Numbers thronged to St. Stephen's to be charmed by the 
 stately music of those marshalled sentences, and to admire the 
 way in which, like a cloud of skirmishers, they either con- 
 cealed or scattered facts. The eye and the ear were dazed at 
 the musical rhythm of their delivery. It was the genius of 
 the master of language, the successor of a long line of great 
 
HOODWINKING THE IRISH 379 
 
 orators. To see and hear this aged statesman, crowds of 
 representative men and beautiful women, titled personages, 
 soldiers of fame and men of letters, thronged to Westminster. 
 The importance of the subject was lost sight of, in the 
 eminence of the expounder. But for Ireland the importance 
 of the subject was her life or death. Pauline Deschapelles did 
 not linger with more devotion on the honeyed words of the 
 Prince of Como describing his palace amid eternal summer, 
 than did Erin hang upon the words of that aged Briton. 
 But the palace of the prince was not more a creation of Claude 
 Melnotte's poetic imagination, than was " Home Rule " for 
 Erin a v^ision of ideality which that wondrous wizard, William 
 Ewart Gladstone, conjured up to try and appease Irish 
 discontent without in any way satisfying it by a single 
 substantial concession. 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone left general principles and began to 
 state the provisions of the Bill in detail, there must have been 
 great anxiety among his hearers. To the astonishment of 
 those Irishmen present — Parnellite Members of Parliament 
 and visitors, who expected that after the impassioned ex- 
 ordium just delivered the forthcoming Bill would contain 
 some great and genuine material concessions which would 
 benefit their country — Mr. Gladstone distinctly told them 
 that the promised Irish Parliament would have no power 
 whatever over Irish tariffs or Irish trade. In the language of 
 this master of misconception, the absence of the keystone 
 from his promised arch called " Home Rule " was thus ex- 
 plained : " There are exceptions of what I may call practical 
 necessity for ordinary purposes. The first of these is the law 
 of trade and navigation. I assume that as to trade and 
 navigation at large, it would be a great calamity to Ireland to 
 be separated from Great Britain." 
 
 How this giant intellect must have despised the puny minds 
 he was addressing both before and around him, especially the 
 men whom Ireland had delegated to demand self-government, 
 when, after an opening address of almost unexampled advocacy 
 
38o THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 of Ireland's cause by a British statesman, after sentences 
 filled with such brilliant promise, he could continue the same 
 speech by boldly advocating the unbroken robbery of Ireland 
 by the uninterrupted deprivation of her commercial indepen- 
 dence ! What concealed irony must have been in Mr. Glad- 
 stone's mind, when he, in such keen and satirical language, 
 unblushingly told the Parnellites that "Home Rule" in its vital 
 point would be, if granted to Ireland, a great calamity ! It 
 will be remembered that a short time previous they had 
 heard him announce that the success of the Irish war of 
 independence could not convey to that country greater 
 blessings than he was about to offer her ; and now they 
 listened to his deliberate declaration that the corner-stone of 
 Irish prosperity — the control of her trade and her tariff — 
 would continue to remain under the control, and at the 
 disposal, of a foreign nation. 
 
 But although Mr. Gladstone, by this " exception of 
 practical necessity," left his Bill worthless so far as Irish 
 prosperity could be promoted by its provisions, was there not 
 enough "Home Rule" left to strengthen the hands of the Irish 
 people at home ; some modicum of power by which the 
 complete demand would be by-and-by wrung from the 
 British ; some plausible pretext for fresh constitutional agita- 
 tion, or additional power to renew the struggle in another 
 place ? It is this delusive cry of gaining freedom by instal- 
 ments, which the Provincialists use to the Nationalists to 
 induce them to join their ranks. 
 
 The orator continued, using very momentous language: 
 " My next duty is to state what are the powers of the proposed 
 legislative body. The capital article of that legislative body 
 will be that it should have the control of the executive 
 government of Ireland, as well as of legislative business. 
 The problem of responsible government has been solved for 
 us in our colonies. (Cheers.) It works very well there, and in 
 perhaps a dozen cases, in different quarters of the globe, it 
 works to our perfect satisfaction. As I have already said, 
 Jhe administrative power by a responsible government would 
 
A RESPONSIBLE IRISH MINISTRY 381 
 
 pass under our proposals with the legislative power. Then, 
 sir, the legislative body would be subject to the provisions of 
 the Act in the first place as to its own composition." . . , . 
 
 There is no equivocation here ; it conveys to every one who 
 understands the English language a plain statement that the 
 Bill would create a responsible Irish Ministry. There was 
 naturally great joy in the Irish heart ; here was a most 
 important "stepping-stone" to self-government conceded, for 
 who could or would be so ungracious as to doubt the sincerity 
 of this eminent convert to Irish " Home Rule " ? 
 
 When Mr. Parnell arose to take part in this important 
 debate, there must have been great anxiety in the Ministerial 
 ranks. Had the wizard tongue of the Grand Old Man per- 
 suaded the Irish representatives that their best policy was to 
 accept the Bill, even shorn as it was of any material 
 benefits } 
 
 They had not long to wait. Mr. Parnell's usual cold 
 delivery was this evening changed to effusive compliments, 
 warmly and lavishly bestowed on the British Premier. The 
 cool, careful statesman, who was wont to carefully weigh 
 every promised measure coming from a British Minister, 
 seemed only too eager to grasp at the seeming points of ad- 
 vantage, and to hug this promised measure with delight. He 
 and his followers were straining for some solid and substantial 
 success to show the Irish people, after the many years of 
 agitation supported by generous remittances from the 
 American Irish. This visionary promised measure must not 
 only be accepted, but magnified in importance before man- 
 kind, especially in America, where their great financial sup- 
 port came from, and from whence they hoped an impetus 
 would be given to unloose the generous American purse to 
 replenish the Provincialist treasury. 
 
 Mr. Parnell paid his chief, the British Premier, every 
 possible compliment. He said : " He has drafted this Bill, 
 he has explained it to the House, in a speech of extraordinary 
 eloquence. To Ireland I suppose — to none of the sons of 
 
382 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Ireland — at any time has there ever been given the genius 
 and talent of the right honourable gentleman, certainly nothing 
 approaching it in these days. But there are undoubted 
 great faults and blots in the measure. . . . He has seen his 
 officers leaving his side one by one and drawing their swords, 
 as the right honourable member for the Border Burghs [Mr. 
 Trevelyan] did to-night, against him. And he has, I suppose, 
 to shape his measure to meet the tremendous opposition 
 which has been involved. But there are several points which 
 it will be our duty, when the measure reaches the committee 
 stage, to oppose very strongly, and to press for other serious 
 modification and amendment. 
 
 " There is another point to which I wish to allude — namely, 
 with regard to vote by order. As explained by the right 
 honourable gentleman, the first order, selected by a fancy 
 franchise, is given the right of hanging up any Bill for three 
 years. I understand the words of the right honourable 
 gentleman to be these — 'Three years or until there is a 
 dissolution, whichever is the longer.' I think that that 
 would indicate three years as the minimum of time during 
 which they could hang up a Bill ; and, if a dissolution did not 
 take place before three years, the Bill would be hung up for 
 a still longer period. I should be glad if I were mistaken on 
 this point ; it is possible that I may be ; but in any case, 
 whatever the period might be, it would be absolutely in the 
 power of the first order, in which, from the nature of the case, 
 the popular party in Ireland could not obtain many repre- 
 sentatives, to hang up any measure they pleased, and so to 
 bring the proceedings of the Legislature to a deadlock." 
 
 Mr. Parnell criticised the organisation of the so-called 
 Irish Parliament, which was a stupendous insult and will 
 be written about later. How eagerly the Irish Parliamentary 
 leader apologised for the deficiencies of the promised measure 
 on the plea that Mr. Gladstone had encountered tremendous 
 opposition in framing the Bill. But the principal and vital 
 deficiency in the measure, which Mr. Gladstone so deliberately 
 showed the House when he, in effect, said the proposed Legis- 
 
MR. PARNELL'S RIDICULOUS POSITION 383 
 
 lature would have no authority whatever — no power conceded 
 to it to develop and create Irish manufactures, this capital 
 and supreme right of which the British would still deprive 
 the Irish people — was completely ignored by Mr. Parnell. 
 The man who publicly stated so many times during the 
 then recent general election that "We would never accept 
 anything but the full and complete right to arrange our own 
 affairs, and to make our land a nation, and to secure for 
 Ireland, free from outside control, the right to direct her own 
 course among the peoples of the earth," was now willing to 
 accept a measure which could not bring to Ireland the 
 smallest prosperity. Under its provisions no possible in- 
 crease could come to the national wealth ; that much was 
 definitely settled. Whether it would bring increase to 
 national power depended upon the fulfilment of the Premier's 
 plighted words, publicly expressed before the world from the 
 rostrum of the British Commons. Mr. Parnell spoke of 
 altering the measure in committee. If great principles could 
 be inserted at the committee stage, then any coercion 
 measure could be accepted on the second reading, on the 
 plea that the Irish would so change it in committee that it 
 would emerge a measure creating Ireland an independent 
 nation. But Mr. Parnell was not talking to the members of 
 that House when he spoke of changes in the measure in 
 committee ; he was speaking to the great outside world 
 that does not understand the details of such questions, and 
 more especially the great Irish American public who are 
 completely ignorant of the routine of British law-making. 
 
 The one bright spot in this measure was the creation of 
 an Irish Ministry. This would give Ireland the opportunity 
 to create a public Irish Government, an emblem of authority 
 around which the nation could rally in demanding the vital 
 deficiencies absent from the present Bill. The Parnellites 
 cabled to America and Australia the joyful news that the 
 Bill was a perfectly satisfactory measure, and, lacking a few 
 unimportant details could be accepted as a satisfactory 
 settlement of the Irish question. Public sentiment and 
 
3^4 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 public passion pervaded the Irish masses the world over. 
 Alas ! there was no public opinion based on reasoning 
 judgment. Every city and state rose up to honour the 
 Grand Old Man ; congratulations which exhausted all the 
 adjectives in the English language, were cabled to Messrs. 
 Gladstone and Parnell, complimenting the British statesman 
 and the Irish Parliamentary leader upon the wondrous good 
 things they were about to give to sorrowing Ireland. Sub- 
 scriptions flowed with unstinted generosity from these warm- 
 hearted donors ; Americans and other races vied with 
 Irishmen both in the liberality of their gifts, and the 
 enthusiasm of their praise. 
 
 In Ireland the same encomiums were heaped upon the 
 Bill ; the Irish race all over the world was impregnated with 
 great joy. The Parnellites had been successful beyond their 
 expectations. No one for a moment stopped to criticise the 
 source of the universal delight ; the Irish leader's description 
 was accepted, without the smallest reservation, as a great 
 truth — the British Prime Minister had introduced a genuine 
 " Home Rule " Bill, which was certain, eventually, to become 
 law. 
 
 To the names of Gladstone and Parnell, was added the 
 name of the illustrious and immortal Robert Emmet ; some 
 few thinking Irishmen shuddered at the blasphemy, but the 
 mercurial Celt was, for the time, drunk with the excitement 
 of the news told to him by the Parnellites, as the tale of 
 a glorious success. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, the master juggler of words, had intro- 
 duced his Bill which he called " Home Rule " for Ireland. It 
 would be impossible for any Irish Nationalist of experience, 
 who knew the character of the English statesman, to attempt 
 to pass any just criticism on the measure until the actual Bill 
 itself was in their hands. That the legislative body had 
 grave defects, both as to composition and powers, were very 
 apparent; but whether these were such as to destroy its 
 usefulness altogether or only to impair them, was also a 
 
THE VALUE OF MR. GLADSTONE'S PROMISES 385 
 
 question to be decided when Irishmen had the Bill before 
 them. One thing was placed beyond yea or nay, so far as 
 Mr. Gladstone's words could place it. It was stated publicly 
 in the House of Commons, it went from the portals of that 
 chamber to the world from the lips of William Ewart 
 Gladstone, England's Prime Minister, that Ireland was 
 to receive a responsible Ministry ; an Irish Constitutional 
 Government such as Britain enjoys, such as the Dominion 
 of Canada or the self-governing colonies enjoy. 
 
 Good men would reprove any scoffer or doubter who 
 would have the courage to say that this great British 
 Minister could make so public a statement, and afterwards 
 permit it to be proved a falsehood. 
 
 The same is said to this date, should any doubters 
 question Mr. Gladstone's sincerity in the many public 
 promises he is so lavishly making to Ireland. These rebukes 
 come from good men who have had neither opportunity nor 
 leisure, even if they had the capacity, to study the actual 
 issues between Britain and Ireland, and the strong and 
 binding interests which must for ever forbid any British 
 statesman giving to Ireland what her Parliamentary repre- 
 sentatives demand. As well ask a British Minister to 
 establish an Irish Republic. 
 
 All over the United States, public meetings were called to 
 endorse the Bill and congratulate the great Liberal English 
 Minister. It is one of Ireland's losses that her exiled sons, 
 who are so devoted to her, do not understand the intricacies, 
 shifting diplomacy, and backsliding of British Ministers 
 in their dealings with Irish politics. Honest and straight- 
 forward themselves, they gauge other men by their own 
 generous, truthful natures ; and how could they be expected 
 to doubt so plain a statement from the lips of a man so 
 eminent as Mr. Gladstone.^ .... 
 
 One of the remarkable facts attached to the public 
 enthusiasm over Mr. Gladstone's Bill for Irish Home Rule 
 was this, that during all those public meetings and cordial 
 thanks and congratulations they were applauding a myth, 
 
 C C 
 
386 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 for there was actually no Bill whatever in existence. Led 
 astray by the Parnellite endorsement, these public meetings 
 were held almost spontaneously, and the premature approval 
 and hearty endorsement of resolutions were all too previous, 
 as the measure approved of might and possibly might not, 
 when presented, be the same Bill which Mr. Gladstone 
 described in the British Commons some days before. 
 
 On April i6, after receiving thousands of kindly thanks 
 and grateful expressions from over-enthusiastic Irishmen and 
 Irish Americans, the Liberal Premier gave the Bill to the 
 world. There was not the smallest criticism attempted ; the 
 current of praise had become a torrent, and the man or men 
 who would have stopped to point out grave defects would 
 have been swept along in the tornado, as a venturesome 
 sculler who had the temerity to approach too near the 
 Niagara cataract would be dashed into fragments by the rush 
 of the giant waters. The increasing and unstinted praise it 
 received from its numerous admirers was deafening ; the roar 
 of the mighty waterfall could not more effectively efface the 
 tones of the human voice, than did public sentiment in 
 Ireland and the United States drown the smallest attempt 
 at criticism. . . . 
 
 Few among the most ardent supporters of the Bill cared to 
 read it over ; its provisions were almost altogether unknown, 
 as if they were immaterial. Strange to say, not only the Par- 
 liamentary Parnellites but other public men took for granted 
 that it was a " Home Rule " Bill, without in any way study- 
 ing the details of this most important measure for the future 
 of their country. Tory hostility was the red rag that blinded 
 their judgment, by provoking their passions. The stupidity 
 of the British Tories is proverbial. For once Ireland has 
 reason to feel thankful for the insane bigotry of this stupid 
 party. 
 
 Editors of public journals in the United States wrote leading 
 articles praising Mr. Gladstone's " Home Rule " Bill. As for the 
 Parnellite organ. United Ireland^ to say it was in spasmodic 
 ecstasies of delight, is to faintly describe the heroics of this 
 
THE TEXT OF THE BILL 387 
 
 remarkable Irish journal. All the Provincialist newspapers 
 over the country were unstinted in their praise ; and if we 
 lived in the days when heathen mythology was religion, Mr. 
 Gladstone would have been deified and enthroned in 
 Olympus, like the Roman Emperors of old, among the 
 nation's gods. 
 
 One eminent American newspaper, friendly disposed towards 
 Irish aspirations as it understood them, and indeed as Irish- 
 men publicly permit them to be taught, commented on the 
 Bill from time to time with approval. In one of its editorials 
 it stated that the forthcoming Irish Administration would 
 have the selfsame power and authority in Ireland, as British 
 Ministries enjoy in Great Britain. Imaginary Cabinets 
 were printed in British and Irish papers, in all of which Mr. 
 Parnell and his ablest lieutenants were appointed to power in 
 the promised Irish Ministry. 
 
 Leaving all these brilliant pictures, and turning to the 
 official document offered to British law-makers by the Cabinet 
 of Mr. Gladstone, as taken verbatim from the Bill, we read 
 the provisions for the creation of this Irish Executive, as 
 follows : — 
 
 "VII. (i) The Executive Government of Ireland shall con- 
 tinue vested in Her Majesty, and shall be carried on by the 
 Lord-Lieutenant on behalf of Her Majesty with the aid of 
 such officers and such councils as to Her Majesty may, from 
 time to time, seem fit. 
 
 " (2) Subject to any instructions which may from time to 
 time be given to Her Majesty, the Lord-Lieutenant shall give 
 or withhold the assent of Her Majesty to Bills passed by the 
 Irish legislative body, and shall exercise the prerogatives of 
 Her Majesty. 
 
 "VIII. Her Majesty may by Order in Council from time 
 to time, place under the control of the Irish Government for 
 the purposes of the government, any such land and buildings in 
 Ireland as may be vested in or held in trust for Her Majesty." 
 
 This is the only part of the Bill which defines the powers of 
 
 C C 2 
 
388 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the Executive, or Irish Government, on this important ques- 
 tion. The rest of the Bill ;is necessarily silent. This should 
 corroborate Mr. Gladstone's speech describing this measure 
 as the capital article creating an Irish responsible Ministry. 
 
 What is the meaning of this } It only means that Mr. 
 Gladstone's " Home Rule " Bill was a Coercion Bill. It means 
 that the promised Irish Ministry resolved itself into an irre- 
 sponsible despot, controlled alone by the elastic authority (so 
 far as Irish interests were concerned) of the British Sovereign's 
 Privy Council This autocrat could, in as many minutes as it 
 would take him to affix his signature, suspend the Habeas 
 Corpus Act or proclaim martial law as he judged it necessary 
 for the preservation of British power in Ireland, free from all 
 Parliamentary control whatever ; for although he could pro- 
 rogue the Irish Parliament at will, that body had no power — 
 not the least — over his actions. And this man, Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant and Irish Government all in one, was Mr. Gladstone's 
 idea of " Home Rule," to quote his own words, perfectly 
 acceptable and even desirable. 
 
 Some writer has stated that it is better to be good than 
 great. In the face of Mr. Gladstone's extraordinary and un- 
 merited popularity, it does not seem so. The public promise 
 of a responsible Ministry was not fulfilled within the four 
 corners of this Bill. There was nothing surprising in the leader 
 of the Holland deputation telling Mr. John Dillon that Mr. 
 Gladstone's conduct to the Boers was the blackest treachery 
 known to history. Mr. Gladstone repeated himself to the 
 Irish ; for no less a term can faintly characterise the foul 
 turpitude of this soft-spoken Minister. 
 
 The legislative powers given to the Irish Parliament were an 
 insult to the Irish race. The whole measure could only be 
 described, as it is in the title of this chapter, " A Foreign Rule 
 Bill," a measure to more firmly rivet British shackles on Irish 
 limbs, accepted by men who apparently were so fascinated and 
 stupefied by the voice of this treacherous charmer that they 
 were to freely present themselves to receive the foreigners' 
 gyves. 
 
THE DOUBLE CHAMBER SYSTEM 389 
 
 The Dublin Parliament would not only be deprived of all 
 control over trade and navigation, but also over that much- 
 spoken-of grievance, Irish land ; and also the public purse. It 
 was given the power of levying taxes, but in the same clause 
 the British or Imperial taxes levied in Ireland were removed 
 from its legislative power. It had not the power to disburse 
 or control one penny. So many were the exceptions of 
 practical necessity, in the words of the master of skilful mis- 
 representation who created the Bill, that it might be asked 
 what laws could this mock Parliament pass. 
 
 But the stupendous and crowning insult of all was the 
 organisation of the legislature, wherein the pro-British or 
 Landlord and Orange rabid foes of Ireland would sit in the 
 same chamber as the followers of Mr. Parnell. These hostile 
 classes were termed in the Bill the First Order ; these gentle- 
 men held a three-years veto power over every action of the 
 legislature. Think of this power given to such men as Major 
 Saunderson, Rev. Mr. Kane, Mr. Johnston of Ballykilbeg, and 
 political firebrands of that school ! It is difficult to believe 
 that it was not intended to make Irish Assemblies ridiculous 
 before the world. A bear garden would be a haven of peace 
 compared to the scenes that would occur in that powerless 
 legislature. All the government patronage would lie in the 
 hands of the irresponsible autocrat, sarcastically termed the 
 " Irish Government." Every office that drew any emoluments 
 from the public treasury was in his gift. He was the lord 
 and master of Ireland's destinies. The legislature could not 
 appoint a speaker without the consent of the First Order. 
 
 To further illustrate their helplessness, it may be pointed 
 out that if the landlords chose to repeat the horrors of 
 Glenbeigh and Bodyke, this mock Parliament was not only 
 powerless to introduce any measure of an agrarian nature, but 
 could not even pass a vote of sympathy ; and that it was 
 liable to be vetoed by the First Order for three years. In 
 this respect they had not even the power possessed at present 
 by the Dublin Corporation. 
 
 Thomas Davis, the great Irish patriot and founder in great 
 
390 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 part of the Young Ireland movement, seems to have hacl 
 the gift of prophecy. In 1843, in one of his admirable Irish 
 essays, he seemed to foreshadow such a proposition coming 
 to Ireland, called self-government. The dead patriot, writing 
 on this subject, said : " A mockery of Irish independence is 
 not what we want. The bauble of a powerless Parliament 
 does not lure us. We are not children. The office of sup- 
 pl3nng England with recruits, artisans, and corn, under the 
 benign interposition of an Irish grand jury, shall not be our 
 destiny. By our deep conviction, by the power of mind over 
 the people, we say no ! We are true to our colour, * the green,' 
 and true to our watch-word, ' Ireland for the Irish.' We want 
 to win Ireland and keep it. If we win it, we will not lose it ; 
 nor give it away to a bribing, a bullying, or a flattering 
 Minister." 
 
 But what position will the Parnellites occupy in Irish 
 estimation, when the noise of the present excitement has died 
 away and mankind can calmly see the situation .? There 
 are men who have the audacity to style themselves Irish 
 Nationalists, who speak of Emmet and Davis as if they held 
 these dead patriots' godlike sentiments on independent 
 Ireland. Some of these Irish followers of ex-Coercer Glad- 
 stone go to the grave to insult the memories of Ireland's 
 sanctified martyrs when they tell us that if Emmet or Davis 
 were living they would be found their associates. To even 
 repeat it, appears an outrage on the glorious and pure-souled 
 dead. 
 
 If there were no other reasons for Irishmen to condemn 
 these false agitations, which corrupt and destroy well-meaning 
 men and turn them into renegades and traitors, the conduct 
 of the Irish followers of this Whig Minister should be suffi- 
 cient condemnation of all .such pernicious movements. They 
 not only accepted this insulting Bill, which would more 
 closely fasten British chains around Irish manhood, but they 
 actually had the bold effi-ontery to say that it would be a 
 final settlement of the seven-centuries struggle for Irish 
 freedom. One of Mr. Parnell's close friends said, during the 
 
MR. PARNELL'S "LAST LINK" SPEECH 391 
 
 debate : " If the Irish people might be allowed to speak for 
 themselves through their representatives, he might say they 
 were quite satisfied with the Bill, and regarded it as a final 
 settlement of the question." 
 
 What foul, black, and unnatural treason ! For the first 
 time since the Norman invasion Britain could claim a legal 
 right to Ireland, sanctioned by the votes of her delegates 
 freely elected, if this infamous " Foreign Rule Bill " had 
 become law. A final settlement of the question it would 
 have indeed been, for Ireland would have required no other 
 measure of law from her invader. 
 
 Even as it is, the poison which this " legal agitation " has 
 impregnated into the nation has made her sick unto death. 
 Justin McCarthy on May 2, 1886, one month before the 
 second reading of the Bill, said : " My forecast, then, is this — 
 Mr. Gladstone's measure will not pass this session, will not 
 pass any session, in its present shape. But all the same, Mr. 
 Gladstone has already carried * Home Rule.' No Parliament 
 will ever again attempt to carry on the imperial business 
 until it has settled the ' Home Rule ' question." 
 
 Irish Parliamentarians are not too difficult to please ; 
 unfortunately for Ireland their prophecies do not always 
 come true. In the course of this debate Mr. Parnell, who 
 seemed eager to accept this fraudulent measure, was twitted 
 about a passage in a Cincinnati speech ; the exact words 
 were found and cabled over next day. These were the 
 sentiments then expressed : " Not one of us will be satisfied 
 until we have destroyed the last link which keeps Ireland 
 bound to England." Mr. Goschen, an ex-Liberal, but who 
 has gone over altogether to the Tories, delivered a speech 
 previous to the division on the Bill, in which he said : " It 
 has been shown that the British Parliament is not inclined to 
 consider Mr. Parnell its dictator. (Loud cheers.) During 
 the recess I heard one, now a Minister of the Crown, say he 
 was certain that Mr. Parnell would be dictator in the coming 
 session. I think that Mr. Parnell's followers will now 
 acknowledge that there are limits whereat they see many 
 
392 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 who are prepared to grant some legislative autonomy to 
 Ireland, would draw the line. The House will remember the 
 first reading of this Bill, and will recall the Right Honourable 
 Chief Secretary for Ireland's repeated allusions to certain 
 dark subterranean forces. We do not hear so much thereof 
 now. They have withdrawn to a great extent, though not 
 entirely from the light. The curtain has been dropped over 
 those terrible times and tragedies which have scarcely faded 
 from our memories. The alarmed Home Secretary of the 
 Premier's last Government is now able to reappear as 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer with great jocularity and light- 
 heartedness, to make merry over what he calls the melo- 
 dramatic turns. I wonder whether this began on the day 
 when he first pinned on his arm, over the Ministerial uniform, 
 the Home Rule badge of the Parnellites to wear. (Loud 
 Opposition cheers.) We know that a truce has been pro- 
 claimed and that a part of the dark subterranean forces have 
 been told off to terrify British public opinion. They are 
 simply holding their hands, though. The devil is still work- 
 ing in some parts of Ireland." (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Parnell followed Mr. Goschen, and his speech reads 
 with strange interest after studying Mr. Gladstone's Bill, 
 " We have had this measure accepted by all leaders in every 
 section of national feeling in Ireland, also outside of Ireland, 
 in America, and in every country where Irish people are 
 found. (Cheers.) We have not heard a single voice raised 
 against the Bill by an Irishman. (Cheers, and cries of 
 * Oh ! ') Certainly not by any Irishman of national opinion. 
 Even the terrible Irish Worlds a newspaper which has 
 not been on my side for the last five or six years, says that 
 the Irish race at home and abroad has signified its willingness 
 to accept the terms of peace offered by Mr. Gladstone. 
 (Cheers.) I say that as far as the Irish people can accept 
 this Bill, they have accepted it without any reserve, as a 
 measure which may be considered the final settlement of this 
 great question." 
 
 The raore one plunges into the maze that these Pro- 
 
THE JEKYLL-AND-HYDE PARNELL 393 
 
 vincialists would lead Ireland through, the more fresh and 
 startling surprises beset our path. Here is a man of 
 education and ability who cannot possibly have any love 
 for England. He had succeeded up to then in deceiving 
 the Irish people ; he actually mesmerised them. Whatever 
 devilish power this British Parliament gives to Irishmen 
 it not only destroys themselves, soul and intellect, by its 
 wizard influence, but it makes them the terrible medium of 
 casting a soporific influence over their race. This young 
 man started out in the morning of public life with high hopes 
 thrown around him ; he had energy and ability, and what 
 appeared an unconquerable determination never to yield or 
 surrender to Britain, unless on his own terms — absolute self- 
 government for Ireland. And now he threw away his gage 
 of war, and surrendered all his public vows, for a foreign Bill 
 which could only bring coercion and chains to Ireland. He 
 besought the Britons in that chamber to vote the second 
 reading, in the most abject and whining terms, on the strength 
 of his promise that this Bill would be accepted by the Irish 
 people as a final settlement of the outstanding quarrel of 
 seven centuries. Think of his own words uttered a short 
 time previous ; think of these sentences in his Liverpool 
 speech, where he distinctly stated, " I believe a halting and 
 inefficient measure would be fatal to the interests of both 
 England and Ireland," while a little before this sentence he 
 informed us that " nothing in the world would induce him to 
 accept on behalf of the Irish people anything but the fullest 
 and completest control over our own affairs." And with 
 ■ these words almost hot upon his lips he publicly makes this 
 statement in Parliament, on the second reading of a measure 
 falsely labelled " Home Rule," a measure which he had not the 
 courage to criticise. 
 
 Irishmen will note that from the day Mr. Gladstone pro- 
 duced his Bill until the present hour, not one of these 
 so-called public leaders dared come before the world to 
 point out a single blessing or benefit its provisions would 
 confer upon Ireland. They have been challenged to defend 
 
394 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 their conduct, which must be characterised as treason to 
 the cause of Ireland, in not denouncing and exposing 
 this insulting measure of the British Premier's. Whatever 
 differences of opinion there may exist in the minds of the 
 moderate Irish Provincialists as to the proper methods 
 by which self-government can be procured, upon this Bill 
 there can be no differences ; and within living recollection of 
 Irish dealings with Britain, or any authorities that can be 
 read, no one can cite an instance of anything with so 
 misleading a title. Within the four corners of this Bill there 
 is not one concession, or surrender of control, to the Irish 
 people. On the contrary, as pointed out, it conserves and 
 concentrates foreign control in the person of a single despot. 
 What motives induced the stupid and bigoted Tories and 
 their allies the " Unionists " to reject this measure, we know 
 not. But the people have not fallen so low in intelligence 
 that the stupid blunders of a stupid party form a sufficient 
 guide to point the path which they should take on their road 
 to freedom. The Bill was rejected by 30 votes in a rather 
 full House, 311 voting for the measure and 340 against: 
 94 Radicals, filled with short-sighted prejudice, changed 
 sides, deserting their leader and voting with the Tories — 
 anything to strike down the Irish. It appears that both 
 sides fought this battle out, filled with narrow-minded bigotry 
 of each other, and that the merits of the Bill or the details of 
 the Bill, guided neither party. For Ireland's honour it was a 
 fortunate escape. . . . 
 
 On May 20 the " Peace Preservation (Ireland) Act " was 
 read a second time ; it was the renewal of the Arms Bill, 
 which deprived the Irish people (or was supposed to do so as 
 far as British law could be enforced) of having or knowing 
 the use of arms. This Government, which posed before the 
 world as a " Home Rule" Administration, and which received 
 the full Irish vote, all the Parnellites joining its ranks, intro- 
 duced and passed into law a coercion measure with which 
 they would not dare insult Britain. And yet this Ministry 
 
THE "HOME RULE" ELECTION OF 1886 395 
 
 and their Parnellite allies, had the audacity to tell Irishmen 
 they were going to give them the government of their country. 
 This Bill permitted the police in Ireland under British rule, to 
 enter the home of any Irishman they chose, at any hour, to 
 search for arms. During the short term of six months in 
 which this " Home Rule " Ministry governed Ireland, Mr. 
 John Morley aided the landlords with the forces of the Crown 
 to tear down the humble homes and dismantle the roof-trees 
 of 10,848 people, who were evicted during the period that 
 Lord Aberdeen was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. So corrupt 
 had been the teaching of the people that the Dublin trades 
 turned out on the occasion of the departure of this evictor 
 of near 11,000 people, and Irish Americans received him at 
 dinner and receptions when he came to this country (America). 
 Parliament was dissolved shortly after the passing of the Irish 
 Coercion Bill, and the " Home Rule " issue was put to the 
 English people. 
 
 In Ireland, of course, the elections were about the same, but 
 in England a fair and honest test was applied to the truth 
 or falsehood of the statements so persistently made by 
 Irish leaders of the sympathy of the English working classes 
 with Irish aspirations, — a most silly and injurious doctrine 
 to spread among Irishmen . As well tell the Alsatian working- 
 man that the German artisan is in favour of his being re- 
 stored to France. Even this would be more probable, for 
 there are no such clashing interests as exist between the 
 British and Irish working-man. Mr. Gladstone termed the 
 election as an issue between the classes and the masses : 
 there could be no such issue between two nations. Had 
 Ireland a manufacturing class they would be hostile to the 
 British manufacturing class ; but she has not. And so the Irish 
 factory worker, in so far as his labour took away the demand 
 for British wares in Ireland and lessened the employment of 
 the British factory operative would stand in the same position 
 towards the English artisan as the Belgian and French artisan 
 does to-day. There are men who dream of a noble ideal 
 called the millennium ; but the Great Creator has made man- 
 
396 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 kind different in race, language, and ideas, and until the 
 doctrine of nationalities is swept away, this universal cry of 
 the masses and classes will be always Utopian when applied 
 to the peoples of different nations. If applied in Britain 
 under a British Government, or if applied in Ireland under an 
 Irish Republic, there would be some meaning, although there 
 might be questionable judgment, in the cry. The nobles of 
 different nationalities, the aristocrats of Europe, have no such 
 common interests. They meet in the social circle with the 
 pleasure of cultivated, travelled intellects. Still they rush 
 to war on each other for the common bond of nationality 
 which unites themselves and the wage-earners of their 
 nation. Side by side, shoulder to shoulder, up to the 
 cannon's mouth they march together, aristocrat and demo- 
 crat, for the honour of their flag and the glory of their father- 
 land. 
 
 The English election of 1886 ought to be an instructive 
 lesson to Irishmen who are carried away with this idea of 
 English working men's sympathy. That there are many 
 sincere, ardent believers in honest Irish " Home Rule " among 
 Englishmen is not to be questioned, but they do not amount 
 to any appreciable number which would affect the issue, and 
 never possibly can. Irishmen who have had ample oppor- 
 tunities of studying this question in radical clubs, where their 
 nationality was not dreamt of, understand this fully. The 
 electors who voted apparently in favour of Irish " Home 
 Rule " really voted for their idol Gladstone, whom nothing 
 could shake in their estimation. It was simply blind, un- 
 reasoning devotion, such as animates the masses of most 
 peoples. If Mr. Gladstone veered round and denounced 
 " Home Rule" under the influence of some other motive, they 
 would vote for him all the same. Look at the election 
 returns of the previous year, when Mr. Gladstone and the 
 Irish were directly hostile, and yet Britain rolled up the 
 immense majority of 83 in his favour, in spite of all the 
 powers of the highly and perfectly organised Irish vote. The 
 results of the general election of 1886 were as follows: 
 
THE ENGLISH WORKING MAN'S VOTE 397 
 
 Conservatives, 316; Unionists, TJ \ Liberals, 191 ; Parnellites, 
 
 86. 
 
 These figures show a falling off of sixty-five votes in the 
 united polling of the Liberal party from the previous election ; 
 and their union with the Irish lost them these English 
 working men's votes, which they received when directly 
 opposed to the Irish working man. But then the Unionists 
 were, and are, more bitterly hostile to Irish "Home Rule" 
 than even the Tories ; so that their votes count in here as the 
 record of the same sentiment, which makes a total of 142 
 working men's constituencies (that is, as Liberal constituencies 
 are counted by the Irish Provincialist agitators) who changed 
 on the Irish " Home Rule " question, for no other issue 
 disturbed the British mind : nearly one-half of Mr. Gladstone's 
 following deserted him. And these Irish Provincialists crow 
 about the English democracy, because, forsooth, 191 con- 
 stituencies remained faithful to their idol the " Grand Old 
 Man." The mischief these men are doing in Ireland is 
 incalculable, when they preach to the people who have no 
 other sources of information, this misleading theory of the 
 EngHsh democracy. A writer, during this election, spoke of 
 the working man's vote thus : " The working men of Finsbury, 
 St. Pancras, Tower Hill, Southwark, Preston, Clapham, 
 Fulham, Dudley, Mile End, and Chester, all working men's 
 constituencies, voted against Irish * Home Rule.' The last- 
 named place, Chester, is the more remarkable because at the 
 last general election their votes were 3,000 for Gladstone, and 
 only 6^ against. Dudley is one of the instructive incidents 
 of the election, a town of Worcestershire with a population 
 of 100,000. Mr. H. S. Sheridan has been its member for 
 thirty years, less some months. Last November, as a Liberal, 
 he polled over 6,000 votes, and was elected by a majority 
 exceeding 1,000. This week he stood as a Gladstonian " Home 
 Ruler " ; his vote was cut down to 4,500, and his Conservative 
 opponent of last year, Mr. Brooke Robinson, beat him by 
 1,930 majority. And yet Dudley is not inhabited by dukes 
 or earls, nor even by rich and idle commoners living on their 
 
398 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 money. It is a community of artisans, working in iron. They 
 make nails, chains, cables, grates, and there are glass factories 
 as well. Not much chance for classes here, one would think, 
 and yet a Liberal majority of 1,156 has been converted into a 
 Conservative majority of 1,930. Will Mr. Gladstone explain .? 
 
 " Or will he explain West Ham ? This not too euphonious 
 name covers the metropolitan constituencies West Ham 
 North and West Ham South, and they may be called a 
 felicitious example of the political nomenclature adopted in 
 the Redistribution Bill. West Ham is well described as a 
 huge colony of working-men, in which the classes are repre- 
 sented by little more than the clergymen who labour among 
 them. Last November the borough was altogether Liberal — 
 sent two Liberals into the House of Commons by good 
 majorities. It now turns round and sends two Conservatives. 
 Mr. Cook, who won it as a Liberal by 719, is beaten as a 
 " Home Ruler" by y2j. Mr. Leicester, who won it as a Liberal 
 by 1,000, loses it as a " Home Ruler" by 306, and Mr. Leicester 
 is himself one of those horny-handed sons of toil, in which 
 name he and Mr. Joseph Arch jointly appealed to other 
 horny-handed sons of toil — the phrase is theirs, not mine — to 
 vote down Lord Salisbury." 
 
 Another writer speaks thus of this general election : " The 
 contest in England, in which we see the Radical vote has 
 been transferred to its enemy the Tory, is not reassuring ; and 
 it will not be easily forgotten that for the first time since 
 the passing of the Reform Act of '32, Birmingham, the pulse 
 of the caucus and the Mecca of Radicalism, has returned a 
 Tory rather than support Gladstone's moderate measure of 
 justice to Ireland. Your British Radicalism, that section of 
 it which we always thought the truest and best, and which 
 has Mr. Chamberlain as its god and master, is as hollow a 
 mockery as anything that exists between Land's End and 
 John o' Groat's. 
 
 " I am here tempted to quote ad rem from a private letter 
 which I received last night from a prominent member of the 
 Irish party who has been stumping England for the Minis- 
 
THE ENGLISH ELECTION DIFFICULTY 399 
 
 terialists. * From what I have seen it is evident we shall lose 
 this time. I have been told that many of the Liberals who 
 declare themselves against Gladstone, now say they will 
 support a Unionist on the ground that the " Home Rule " 
 question has been sprung too suddenly on the country. Still 
 those who oppose the old man for this reason now express 
 their belief that " Home Rule " is inevitable and declare they 
 will support Gladstone next time. Wonderful are the ways 
 of the Saxon ! .? ' " 
 
XXIV 
 
 THE IRISH LAND QUESTION— A PLEA FOR ACTIVE MEASURES. 
 
 The result of the General Election was the return of the 
 Tories to power ; this time a distinct mandate was given 
 by the British working man : *' Hold Ireland by force ! 
 Coerce her as you will. We, the democracy of Britain, 
 endorse your proceedings by our votes ! " 
 
 The people of England are undoubtedly responsible for 
 Irish misgovernment, and Ireland's war is with the people 
 of England. They created this Coercion Government 
 and its predecessors. By their votes they repeat the words 
 used eighteen centuries ago. Speaking to the Irish they 
 exclaim, "Their blood be upon our heads and upon our 
 children." It is for Irishmen to reflect upon the nature of 
 this sanguinary determination of these foreign usurpers in 
 Ireland. 
 
 The murder at Youghal, the murders at Michelstown 
 and all the recent horrors, were the result directly of this 
 election in England. It is the English masses who created 
 Irish tyrants ; with them rest the guilt and responsibility. 
 They were asked to let Ireland go in peace. But by their 
 votes they fiercely answered, " No ! Coerce these Irish !" 
 
 The Provincialists, many of them interested in the con- 
 tinuance of their public movement, feared their countrymen 
 would become disheartened, and might begin to think for 
 themselves and question the wisdom of this legal and moral 
 agitation. They were busy trying to cheer the drooping 
 
BRITISH HOSANNAS TO MR. PARNELL 401 
 
 spirits of the faint-hearted, and particularly impressed upon 
 them that there would be no coercion. Not that this 
 bugbear amounts to anything ; Ireland's normal condition is 
 the infamous coercion of foreign rule. Mr. Justin McCarthy, 
 speaking on this theme at that time, said : " People in their 
 drawing-rooms talk of coercion, but people in Cabinet 
 councils know better than to talk or think of anything of the 
 kind. A great majority of the Liberal secessionists are 
 pledged as deeply against coercion as the Gladstonians, or, 
 for the matter of that, as the Nationalists themselves. . . . 
 
 The Tories finished the short session of 1886 without 
 asking for any additional powers of coercion for Ireland. 
 These so-called laws are a part of that vile hypocrisy which 
 Ireland's destroyers practise. They have absolute power 
 with or without these measures, and hirelings drunk with 
 blood, to carry out the most infamous atrocity on the people, 
 and courts which mock justice with the brutalities they 
 practise under the name of what they term law. In the 
 session of 1887 they passed a permanent Coercion law with 
 provisions enough in the Bill to enmesh in its villainous 
 seines the Irishman who would breathe a hostile breath 
 against the rule of the British banditti. And this is the fruit 
 of this mountain of folly and delusion, which has led the 
 people astray from the path of freedom trodden by othei 
 enslaved nations — this crime of trying to compromise with 
 felons, which commenced with O'Connell and now lives in 
 decrepitude under Parnell. Its laurels are a permanent act 
 of coercion, for these respecters of the robber's law to bow 
 down to, or else to shriek and howl against. 
 
 The British Liberals gave a banquet in honour of the Irish 
 party's having merged into their ranks ; they received with 
 honours, the man who desecrated the name of Charles 
 Stewart Parnell. The English drank the health of their 
 sovereign, joined in the toast by their Irish guest. Did 
 Charles Stewart Parnell see gouts of blood in the wine, when 
 he raised to his lips the glass in honour of that throne which 
 
 D D 
 
402 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 rests on the skulls of its murdered victims, as written by his 
 noble-hearted dead sister in her exquisite poem on the 
 BelmuUet massacre ? Did her bones rattle in the cerements 
 of the grave, when the man who bore her brother's name sat 
 down to partake of the hospitality of Ellen McDonagh's 
 assassins ? 
 
 The British, always eager to welcome Irish renegades to 
 their ranks, drank with honours and profuse compliments, the 
 health of their new adherent. Did there glimmer on the 
 walls of that banquet hall, words spoken in loyal and patriotic 
 Wexford where Ireland's '98 war for independence had 
 birth : " Englishmen may speak a kind word of me when 
 I am dead " ? The man who represented the speaker of these 
 words in Wexford, arose to respond to his new allies' toast. 
 And quite in keeping with his associates and his change of 
 front, he grossly insulted his countrymen in his speech. During 
 the course of his remarks he used these words, pregnant of 
 slander : " The diminution of crime showed the gratitude of 
 the Irish towards the Liberals." In the name of an outraged, 
 deceived, and betrayed nation, for what did Ireland's sons 
 owe gratitude to these Liberals .? Was it for making the 
 land ring with the shrieks of the wounded and the dying ? 
 Was it for massacre and persecution } Was it for manufac- 
 turing the most demoniac perjury ever created by demons ? 
 Was it for murdering Irishmen by the gibbet ? All these 
 crimes Mr. Parnell accused them of. Was it for Morley's 
 eleven thousand victims of eviction ? Was it for these 
 Liberals' Coercion Act disarming his people, that this man 
 spoke of Irish gratitude ; or did he mean the contemptuous 
 and audacious insult hurled in the face of Ireland when Mr 
 Gladstone gave to the world a Bill to more firmly chain 
 Ireland in British manacles, called out of derision " Home 
 Rule" ? He, who bore an honoured name, told these British 
 persecutors of Ireland that Irishmen were criminals, and 
 that they stopped their crimes out of gratitude to them. 
 
 The evictions of 1886 continued through the winter. The 
 
THE LATTER DAY PROVINCIALISTS 403 
 
 British fiends revelled in the luxury of wanton cruelties. 
 To the evictions in Glenbeigh were superadded the horrors of 
 burning cabins. The unhappy people saw the fire lap around 
 the blazing roof-trees of their humble homes, and the glare 
 of the conflagration light up the valley, reflected from the 
 steel points of the bayonets raised aloft in the arms of 
 Britain's butchers, ready to drink in the life gore of fresh 
 victims at the slightest show of opposition. Where, then, 
 was Ireland's manhood clothed in the justice of her cause, 
 and the God-given sacred duty of self-defence, to smite the 
 fountain of infamy that caused these crimes } Not to strike 
 the mere hirelings alone, but the brain that conceived and 
 permitted this devilry — to slay him as the pure-souled 
 patriots struck down Britain's robber chieftain in the Phoenix 
 Park. Alas! for Irish freedom and Irish manhood, those 
 who would dare all for their suffering motherland were 
 compelled to remain inert, while the waves of folly and false 
 teaching were passing over their agonised land. 
 
 True, there were Provincialists at these evictions who 
 presented flowers and consoling words to the unhappy 
 victims — flowers and kind words to a dying people ! — but no 
 words called on them to suppress, to destroy these assassins, 
 and drive them as other reptiles were driven from the island. 
 They bade them be of cheer, for soon their hopes would be 
 realised and smiling peace would dawn upon this war-stricken 
 nation. Who were they that were supposed to bring this 
 blessed peace ? They were the men whose hands were 
 dripping with the blood of the Belmullet and Ballina 
 massacres, the butchers of women and helpless children, the 
 suborners of perjury, the kidnappers of delicate women, the 
 men who buried their victims out of sight so that they would 
 not rise up in bloody witness against them ; the merciless, 
 hypocritical, and brutal Liberal assassins of England. Oh ! 
 land of mountain, stream, and valley, clothed with the 
 verdure and beauty of God's glorious garments, how often 
 have your pure rills been stained with the blood of your 
 children, your grassy slopes and towering mountain sides 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 bathed in the heart current of your dying sons. And here, 
 in the clear light of day, under the canopy of heaven, with 
 the glorious sun smiling down upon this stricken yet beautiful 
 island, men harangue the people in the very face of the 
 evictor, and deceive their bleeding countrymen with the false 
 promise that another nest of foreign assassins will bring 
 consolation to the bosom of an afflicted nation. 
 
 The horrors of Glenbeigh were succeeded by the cruelties 
 and agonies of Bodyke. Under the teachings and guidance 
 of these agitators the people were instructed to barricade 
 their cabins and build fences and dig intrenchments, to offer 
 what they called "rational resistance" to the enemy's 
 evictors. What were the weapons these poor people were 
 advised to use against the armed foe } They attempted 
 opposition by flinging cans of "boiling water mixed with 
 lime, oatmeal, and other deleterious substances," as charged 
 against some prisoners captured by the enemy. Who were 
 these prisoners ? Thirty women and little girls, eleven old 
 men and boys. God help our people! Has this delusive 
 agitation reduced them to the humiliation of women and girls 
 trying to fight the armed minions of Britain } 
 
 Take this scene from the Coolgreany evictions, one of the 
 many scenes where the invader carried war and extermination 
 among an unarmed (and by the agitators, a disarmed) people: 
 
 "The garrison consisted of five men — Pat Grennell, the 
 owner, Thomas and Joe Grennell his brothers, and John 
 O'Neil, a blacksmith who suffered eviction himself on a 
 previous occasion, Thomas Boulger, and Peter Gibson. 
 
 " The Emergency men descended one by one through the 
 aperture in the roof. They had axes in their hands, and the 
 cry arose from the startled people, * They have hatchets ! 
 they have hatchets ! ' A moment of suspense followed, and a 
 few police, with difficulty, climbed on the roof. Before they 
 were able to enter the house, one of the garrison, Peter Gibson, 
 was thrust forth bleeding from the face. Tom Boulger, after 
 a fierce struggle with these desperadoes into whose hands he 
 had fallen, was also ejected through the narrow hole. He 
 
THE POLICY OF "RATIONAL RESISTANCE" 405 
 
 was besmeared with blood, the result of the struggle which 
 took place in the darkness inside where the Emergency men 
 must have seriously beaten the occupants. Thomas Grennell 
 was thrust out next. He also bore the marks of the brutal 
 violence of his assailants. The blood poured from a wound 
 in the head. His face was deadly pale, and on being lifted 
 down from the roof he fainted in the arms of the policeman. 
 The unfortunate man was dragged in this condition through 
 the bushes of the fallen trees." 
 
 This disgraceful scene is called offering "rational resistance" 
 to eviction. The Provincialist leader who proposed this 
 absurd and wicked course lacked sound judgment ; he was 
 in search of the sensational and not the practical. Why did 
 he not take his place inside one of these cabins, and fight 
 with those men whom he advised to face, unarmed, the dangers 
 of an encounter with the enemy's wretched Emergency tools, 
 who were well armed ? Had these Irishmen, about to be 
 evicted, been properly and intelligently instructed ? If they 
 were to offer serious resistance, they should have armed 
 themselves with rifles and revolvers, and actually defended 
 their cabins against attack ; or else they should have given up 
 peaceful possession. No sane man can call the opposition 
 offered, anything but contemptible. It is degrading and 
 disgracing the country to see the easy manner these people, 
 who are supposed to be prepared for a struggle, are evicted. 
 He who advised these proceedings was making Ireland a 
 pitiful exhibition before Europe. 
 
 What has been the results of this crusade of shame, this 
 legal and peaceful means of procuring self-government for 
 Ireland } The whole Irish race was at first carried away by 
 the enthusiasm evoked by fiery and eloquent speeches, 
 and physical opposition in the British Parliament. Irish 
 Nationalists of every shade of thought have helped this 
 movement to the best of their ability. Many who years 
 since felt the fallacy of the agitation, saw its weakness which 
 was visible to every European student of international 
 
4o6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 politics. Yet they remained silent, hoping against hope that 
 Parnell's vision would not remain clouded by a false theory. 
 When the British insulted the Irish members by turning them 
 out of the chamber, it was accepting the depth of degradation, 
 both personal and national, to return to that House. Were 
 they equal to the crisis which they helped to create, and forced 
 on them by the British, they would never again have crossed the 
 threshold of that assembly, but have told their countrymen 
 that all attempts to appeal to British justice were hopeless ; 
 that Irishmen had but one course before them, either to take 
 other action, or disappear from the island. This was expected 
 to be the reply Parnell would have sent from France, instead 
 of advising perseverance in a folly, excusable in a young man 
 with no political training, but not in Mr. Parnell at that time, 
 who must have seen there was no peaceful solution of the 
 deadlock of conflicting interests, and should have had the 
 courage of his convictions. Like Patrick Henry and the 
 signers of the Declaration of Independence, they should have 
 told their countrymen they were prepared to make every 
 sacrifice for Irish self-government. 
 
 But when the die was cast, and Ireland precipitated into 
 the struggle, treason grew rampant in the ranks of her 
 statesmen ; and the gallant men in the gap were left unaided. 
 When the brains and intelligence of Ireland's manhood 
 should have been at the service of the glorious struggle 
 these men inaugurated, it was a case of desertion and 
 cowardly neglect, the blackest perfidy known in history. 
 Secure in the belief that their treason to Ireland would 
 never see the light of day, these leaders were not content with 
 this cowardly desertion, but they themselves and their friends 
 joined the enemy in a campaign of foul, black slander. This 
 atrocious lie stalks abroad at this time of writing. 
 
 Since the Provincialists started the Land League, Ireland 
 has lost 550,000 in population. Had Britain slaughtered 
 1,000 of these in fight or in any kind of physical resistance to 
 her rule, or even 100, would not these Provincialists com- 
 
THE FAILURE OF PROVINCIALISM 407 
 
 plain of the ruin the Nationalists were bringing on the 
 country ? 
 
 All the while English rule was rapidly clearing the people 
 away ; the whole movement, from the foundation of the Land 
 League to the present hour, has not improved even the condition 
 of the farming class. There may be, of course, a few exceptions 
 here and there, but the great masses of the agrarian com- 
 munity have been great sufferers. The reduction of rents in 
 Ireland is most misleading. Some time ago the Marquis of 
 Ely visited his property in the county Wexford and accepted 
 fifty per cent, reduction off his rents. This reads like a great 
 boon to his tenants, but when one comes to examine the 
 cases, it is discovered that, even with the fifty per cent, reduc- 
 tion, the farmer is at a loss. The farm produce has fallen fifty 
 per cent, in value, consequently the farmer, after paying his 
 landlord the rent reduced by one-half, finds the balance he has 
 left also reduced by one-half. What, then, must be the con- 
 dition of the farming community where the landlords will only 
 reduce the rents by fifteen, or twenty-five per cent. ? There, 
 people must be in a state of hopeless pauperism. But this rent 
 reduction is not due to any influence which the League, as an 
 organisation, has been able to bring to bear upon the landlords 
 as a class. It is the great fall in prices which has made these 
 rents impossible of collection ; the landlords see this and are 
 compelled to accept the inevitable. Nothing can more clearly 
 demonstrate, than this fact, the hollow and mocking claims 
 which the League leaders have made from time to time 
 when telling the world of the various means by which 
 they hoped to keep the people fixed in the soil,^ while 
 all the time they have been powerless and could not 
 succeed. Words are poor arguments against the evictors' 
 bayonet, but hot water and lime are the sublimity of ridi- 
 cule — ridicule which they are heaping upon the Irish cause by 
 
 ^ In England, where there was no agitation on this agrarian question, the rents 
 of farms were voluntarily reduced by the landlords. Greater reductions were 
 given than all this noisy and misleading movement, led by Irish Provincialists, 
 backed up by hundreds of thousands of dollars sent by their exiled kindred, could 
 claim to have accomplished. 
 
4o8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 their sensational attempts at "rational resistance," while all this 
 silly clap-trap of victories and the near approach of *' Home 
 Rule" is being taught the Irish people. The destroyer of the 
 Irish race at home — and that destruction means their efface- 
 ment as a distinct people from the face of the earth — has 
 gone on unceasingly in his peaceful havoc, causing more 
 material loss to Ireland in the bone and sinew of a nation's 
 wealth — her people — than could the most sanguinary wai 
 that mankind has been ever cursed with. The following are 
 statistics of evictions for nine years previous to the Land 
 League, and eight years and six months since its creation. 
 The reduction in agricultural values in a great measure caused 
 this increased exodus, but the League, powerless to save, 
 helped to swell the number of evictions by its petty irritation 
 of the landlord tyrants. 
 
 Evictions. Evictions. 
 
 For nine years before the Land League. Since the iMnd League's creation. 
 
 1869 1,741 1878 4,679 
 
 1870 2,616 1879 6,239 
 
 1871 2,357 1880 10,457 
 
 1872 2,476 1881 17,341 
 
 1873 3,078 1882 26,836 
 
 1874 2,571 1883 17,855 
 
 1875 3,323 1884 27,025 
 
 1876 2,550 1885 15,428 
 
 1877 2,177 1st half year 1S86 10,848 
 
 22,889 129,708 
 
 We could only procure statistics for the first half year of 
 1886. This was during the mild " Home Rule " government 
 of Mr. Gladstone, Lord Aberdeen, and Mr. John Morley. A 
 very pretty showing for these saviours of the people. It will 
 be noticed that during 1882, when the League was four 
 years established and one year after Mr. Gladstone's Land 
 Bill which was to root the people in the soil, the evictions 
 amounted to the enormous number of near 27,000, or 4,000 
 more than the total evictions for the nine years previous to the 
 creation of this powerful organisation — powerful in the 
 splendid nonsense of large meetings and strong language — 
 the National Land League. The sincerity and earnestness 
 of the men who founded the League we do not Question, but 
 
THE TRUE CAUSE OF IRISH MISERY 409 
 
 they either lacked ability, or fell off in sincerity, when in 1887, 
 after proving the utter fallacy of solving this question by 
 further meetings and speeches, they advised the Irish people 
 to continue this nonsense further and to broaden and deepen 
 the agitation, whatever that meant. It is apparent to any 
 student of the Irish question who understands British interests, 
 that the public leaders of the Irish people did not understand, 
 or appear to understand, that the evils under which the farmer 
 struggled were not confined to pernicious land laws. The 
 absence of industries crowded the people on the land, and no 
 change in these land laws alone, could remedy this grievance. 
 Think of a whole people agitating for the removal of the 
 landlords, when the fact remains that over 300,000 tenant 
 farmers in Ireland could not obtain a decent livelihood if they 
 were presented, without one penny repayment, with the fee 
 simple of their small farms. 
 
 Had they, as in self-governed Britain, various industries to 
 give them employment, by which means they could earn food, 
 clothing, and comfortable homes for their families, the land 
 evils would affect the owners more than the tillers, as in 
 England, where numbers of farms are left in the hands of the 
 landlords, the farmer finding other pursuits more profitable 
 than land cultivation 1 . . . 
 
 Let Irishmen remember how Mr. Gladstone kept his promises 
 pledged before the world ; his present promises are as publicly 
 made. He came to power in 1880, and, in the language of 
 Mr. Parnell, imprisoned 1,200 men without trial ; even ladies 
 were imprisoned. To further quote Mr. Parnell, he hanged 
 innocent men on perjured testimony, although his agent in 
 Ireland was made acquainted with this fact. Other men were 
 sent to penal dungeons, and are still suffering on the same 
 perjured testimony. These are the words of Mr. Parnell 
 speaking of a man who deceived Ireland before, who also 
 foully deceived the Boers. As Mr. Dillon expressed it, all the 
 time he was detaining the Holland deputation with false 
 promises in London, he was hurrying out veteran regiments 
 
4IO THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 from India to put down the Boers with bloodshed. As the 
 Hollander said to Mr. Dillon, whose words Mr. Dillon quoted 
 in Dublin : " It was the blackest treachery ever practised." 
 Mr. O'Brien said that when the five years of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Government expired, he buried his innocent victims out of 
 sight. Either Mr. Dillon, Mr. O'Brien, and Mr. Parnell spoke 
 falsely then, or they are betraying their country to-day (1887). 
 Let the agitators who blindly worship these men, men once 
 patriotic, elect at which period these leaders were false to 
 Irish self-government. In which time was Mr. Parnell mis- 
 leading his countrymen — when, in addressing the Liverpool 
 electors in November, 1885, he told the Irishmen of Liverpool, 
 and through the press the Irish race everywhere, that he fully 
 endorsed the " Home Rule " manifesto denouncing Mr. Glad- 
 stone, and that if he (Mr. Gladstone) was returned to power 
 he would try and cheat them out of as much " Home Rule " 
 as he could ; or when he spoke so fulsomely in the House of 
 Commons of the same Mr. Gladstone who had introduced a 
 " Home Rule " Bill that was one gigantic cheat, and which Mr. 
 Parnell there styled " a final settlement of the Irish question " ? 
 Whichever decision Irishmen come to, must be derogatory to 
 the consistency and patriotism of the Irish leader. No man 
 can reconcile these contradictory speeches, the one delivered 
 in the Liverpool Exchange and the other spoken in the British 
 Commons. The full text of the Bill is printed in this book,^ 
 and it challenges intelligent contradiction when it terms 
 that Bill, in the words used by Mr. Parnell in Liverpool, a 
 cheat. 
 
 After the Tories came to power, elected, as stated, by the 
 English democracy, the agitators started what they called a 
 war against the landlords, entitled " The Plan of Campaign." 
 The latest statistics that can be procured of the evictions in 
 Ireland are for the quarter ending June, 1887. The " Plan " 
 was the subject of much unctuous praise by the organs of the 
 agitators, whose weekly issues were accompanied by cartoons 
 depicting the defeat of the landlords and the triumph of the 
 * This refers to the American edition. 
 
THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN ;" SUBLIME BOSH" 411 
 
 Irish peasant, always pictured as having a comfortable, happy, 
 and well-to-do appearance. Pat, according to these cartoons, 
 was always victorious, and in most of these works of art he 
 was helped by a sturdy English artisan. This " Plan," which 
 cannot be honestly characterised as anything but " sublime 
 bosh," was commenced in winter of 1886-87. To read the 
 victories of this " Plan of Campaign " in the Dublin Freeman^ 
 Nation^ and United Ireland^ it would be reasonable to expect 
 that at least the farming community were recovering from 
 their troubles, and were becoming, in a measure, prosperous. 
 What do the statistics tell } That the evictions for April 
 May, and June, 1887, while these journals were claiming 
 victories, were : 
 
 Ulster 2,194 
 
 Leinster 1,246 
 
 Connaught 2,240 
 
 Munster 3»3ii 
 
 8,991 
 
 Nine thousand people in three months of the " Plan." As 
 the newspapers were recording victories, the roof-trees of the 
 cabins were going down before the enemy's crowbar brigade, 
 three thousand people being evicted each month ; while Ireland's 
 Provincialists for whom the people are shouting themselves 
 hoarse, having made an alliance with one wing of the enemy's 
 army, told Ireland that if she patiently bore the blows the 
 other wing is dealing her, when these ex-coercionists came 
 to power all would be well. Was there ever in the history of 
 the world a nation so basely deceived 1 These evictions are 
 rather a rough reply to these gentlemen's claim of victory. 
 During these three months there were evicted nearly 100 
 more people than for the three years previous to the 
 League. During the years 1875, 1876, and 1877 the number 
 evicted was 8,050, compared with three months — not years — 
 of the Plan 8,991 ; 940 in excess. What can any reasonable 
 man call this so-called powerful agitation but the most 
 monstrous delusion that ever was sent to destroy a people } 
 Ireland's only hope under the ringing blows now (1887) dealt 
 
412 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 her by the Tory wing of the British foe is instant action ; and if 
 she does not soon arouse from the torpid condition she is in, 
 and her actual ignorance of the great loss of population that 
 is draining away her life blood, she will be in a condition 
 powerless to resist the assaults of the Liberal wing of her 
 enemies (who, serpent-like, are now deceiving her by false 
 promises) when they come to power. There is ruin and deso- 
 lation over the land ; the reductions in the rent do not meet 
 the necessities of the case, else why these evictions ? Whole 
 districts of the country are being depopulated by the Emer- 
 gency men of the destroyer, while all the time the citizens of 
 Dublin are called to cheer and shout for victories. . . . 
 
 Mr. Gladstone in a speech delivered in the early part 
 of this year (1887) contends that though Ireland formerly 
 gained concessions from England through fear (what an 
 admission !), any attempt of Ireland to repeat her former 
 tactics would be like warring against Heaven now. England's 
 strength as compared to Ireland is as ten to one. He would 
 rather rely, he said, upon England's innate sense of justice. 
 
 England's innate sense of justice ! When did she ever 
 display it to any nation she considered weaker ? She has been 
 the bully and braggart of Europe since Waterloo. But for 
 her allies in the Crimea she would have been destroyed ; the 
 last fight in that peninsula was a British defeat, the attack 
 on the Redan. She blustered before Europe and urged little 
 Denmark into the unequal struggle with Austria and Prussia, 
 only to desert her at the eleventh hour. She played the 
 coward at that time in the face of Europe. This was in the 
 days of her great Minister, Lord Palmerston. She bullied 
 Russia in 1887, and tried to win victories by bluster; and 
 surrendered everything she claimed to Count Schovaloff, 
 when that Russian statesman came to London to demand 
 the real purport of the Salisbury circular after the peace of 
 San Stefano. The secret treaty she made with Russia, and 
 a copy of which was purloined and published in T/ie Globe of 
 London, did not abash her Ministers ; they went to Berlin, 
 
ENGLISH METHODS OF FIGHTING 413 
 
 and at the conference of the European plenipotentiaries went 
 through the farce of opposing clauses in the treaty already 
 signed away to Russia ; and then returned to England with 
 the cant phrase, " Peace with honour." 
 
 This is the powerful nation that Mr. Gladstone threatens 
 Ireland with, in his comparison of her strength to Ireland's. 
 If Irishmen were true to themselves, and prepared for other 
 emergencies than talk, Mr. Gladstone need not boast ; the 
 Boers were only eighty thousand people, and they beat him 
 in three pitched battles. Insurgent Ireland, if armed, would 
 be no mean foe for this bragging Briton. The odds in 
 numbers would not be on the side of the British, while every 
 Irishman, or nearly all in such a crisis, would take the field. 
 Britain could only depend on her regular forces. Civilian 
 John Bull would permit the army and militia to do the 
 fighting in Ireland ; he would attend to his business of money 
 getting. Ireland had proof of this before when England was 
 pushed hard for men in the Crimean and Indian Mutiny 
 days. She could only get raw boys to volunteer, tempted by 
 the increased bounties. John Bull is more fond of fighting 
 battles over a tavern fire than in the field. He pays an army 
 to do his fighting, and he thinks that is enough. But 
 Nationalists do not at this moment advocate such a cam- 
 paign ; war can be made in many ways. If Ireland is ever 
 to be freed, this course can alone save her. Britain will never 
 consent to give Ireland "Home Rule" peacefully. There 
 is not the smallest trace of hope that such will ever come, 
 upon the political horizon. On the contrary, there are vital 
 reasons why England will never consent until she is beaten 
 to her knees. Debating and dividing in Parliament will not 
 do this. 
 
 The Saturday Review, in an interesting article speaking of 
 the country's weakness in the event of war owing to the 
 necessity of England receiving her food supplies from abroad, 
 observed : " With one considerable fleet engaged in bom- 
 barding an enemy's ports, and another busy in protecting our 
 coasts against even the possibility of invasion, and a third 
 
414 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 cruising in Indian or Colonial waters, how many ships could 
 be spared for the yet more essential work of convoying grain 
 ships from America ? It may be answered that this, as being 
 the most essential function which the fleet would have to 
 discharge, would be, so to say, a first charge on our naval 
 resources. Then which of the other three are to be neglected ? 
 Are we to forego what might conceivably be the only means 
 open to us of crippling our adversary, or to leave our own 
 coast undefended ? Or, if neither of these duties are neglected, 
 which of the Colonies is it that is to be left a prey to the 
 sudden descent of some daring commander ? What is needed, 
 if the supply of the country is to be really secure in time of 
 war, is our navy strong enough to spare all the ships that are 
 wanted for the protection of the grain ships, without unduly 
 weakening any one of the three other fleets that will have 
 each its work marked out for it. Can this, or anything like it, 
 be said of the English navy. No ! " 
 
 This article speaks very forcibly of one of England's very 
 weak points in the event of war, but there is another, and 
 that is her gigantic commerce. Her argosies are in every sea, 
 laden with the world's wealth ; these, in immense numbers 
 must fall a prey to any enterprising European nation at war 
 with her, who could command the services of daring and 
 skilful commanders. Irish recruits could be had, in plenty, 
 to reinforce England's enemy in manning privateers, in 
 return for other assistance to enable the nation to shake off 
 British rule. The united navies of Europe could not protect 
 Britain's immense mercantile marine, scattered as it is in 
 every sea, in all parts of the globe. So that England's great- 
 ness as a commercial nation would be her weakness in the 
 event of that dreadful scourge, war. The war insurances on 
 her merchandise upon the ocean would be enormous ; this 
 source alone would cripple and bankrupt her merchants. 
 But how would Ireland find herself in the event of war, if 
 she continues in her present course of petitioning England 
 and playing that huge farce called " legal agitation " ? British 
 Ministers would bribe, flatter, and promise, always on the 
 
A PLEA FOR ACTIVE MEASURES 415 
 
 brink of performing, but finding ready excuses in the exigen- 
 cies of the situation, explanations which would be accepted 
 by the men who could plead an excuse for Mr. Gladstone's 
 insulting " Home Rule " Bill. 
 
 The war would be over, and peace made ; Ireland would 
 find the empty promises turned to frowns when danger 
 had passed away. To open negotiations with England's 
 enemy by the representatives of an open political movement 
 seeking reforms, and admitting they were subjects of the 
 British Crown and members of the British Parliament, would 
 be the height of absurdity, if attempted by men who so 
 repeatedly discountenance insurrectionary propaganda ; they 
 would be sure to meet with a rebuff. Not even the unac- 
 credited agents of Britain's enemy would attempt the pre- 
 liminaries of an alliance with such moral and physical 
 cowards. In one word, Ireland must sweep away every vestige 
 of British Parliamentary agitation before the roots of 
 nationality can thrive in her soil. She must away with this 
 weak, puling cry called " Home Rule," which her foe will 
 never peacefully grant her, and go in boldly for national 
 independence and the destruction and suppression of her 
 robber assassins, should they continue to imbrue their hands 
 in the people's blood. 
 
 Ireland needs propaganda and national public agitation, 
 that is, agitation to educate the public mind to strike the foe, 
 and teach her people that they must pass through the fire 
 of sacrifice before the virgin gold independence, purified by 
 the furnace of suffering, can be their happy lot. They are 
 enduring more agonies to-day than could be inflicted by either 
 a guerilla war against the invader, or an open insurrection in 
 the field, and a tenfold greater drain upon the national life. 
 The delegation which Ireland now sends to the enemy's 
 Parliament should be called home, and national committees 
 formed, one public and another secret. The constituencies 
 have now the power to see that the nation is not misrepre- 
 sented in the alien assembly, by not being represented there 
 at all Irishmen have no business in that assembly of their 
 
4i6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 nation's assassins ; by their very presence there, they, in a 
 measure recognise the infamous robber rule they suffer under. 
 They should keep the Parliamentary phalanx together, but 
 let them be men whose aim is the establishment of an inde- 
 pendent nation. Should any of the present group still retain 
 their original fealty to their motherland, they should continue, 
 as elected delegates, to stay in Ireland. This refusal of 
 Ireland to be represented in the British Commons would 
 give the nation a locus standi at once in the European 
 national complications. To make this effective, let every 
 member be pledged or oath-bound to remain at home, 
 and not go to the foreigner's assembly. If any man violates 
 this oath, or pledge, let him meet a traitor's fate. There 
 would be no waste of Ireland's resources in agitation, no need 
 to pay members — they could remain at home at their pursuits. 
 If the foe declared the seats of the members who refused to sit 
 as vacant, re-elect them. If they declared them ineligible 
 for re-election, then elect others, working men or mechanics — 
 any honest patriot would do. Ireland needs no more men 
 who require to study the intricacies, filth, and political de- 
 bauchery of British Parliamentary life. With the present 
 franchise — while it exists — Ireland can retain hold of the 
 representation, only for the purpose of not being misrepre- 
 sented in spite of any British edict. No more false 
 Nationalists could enter the British chamber ; any member 
 who went there would be stamped before the world as a 
 reactionary, or representative of the rebel Orangemen or land- 
 lord traitors. He dare not speak in the name of Ireland ; 
 his words would carry no weight before armed Europe, the 
 only public opinion Irishmen should solicit. More than their 
 good wishes should be asked, and in every way possible 
 material aid should be looked for at all seasons and at every 
 possible emergency, to help the patriots at home to throw off 
 the foreigner's galling chains. 
 
 Spread the light secretly and publicly among the people, 
 not the question of the farmers* rent, but the full and perfect 
 freedom of the nation 
 
PART II 
 
 THE WAR OF REPRISALS. THE PHCENIX 
 PARK MURDERS 
 
 THE GENESIS OF THE INVINCIBLE MOVEMENT— THE 
 PERSONNEL OF THE EXECUTIVE. 
 
 The hour has come when the history of the Irish 
 National Invincible organisation must be written. The 
 slanders and false issues spread broadcast by the foreign 
 usurpers in Ireland, and their " murder organ," the London 
 TimeSy must be answered. The venomous attacks on Irish 
 Nationalists by the organ of the Dublin Castle Assassination 
 Conspiracy, have been not only acquiesced in by the Provin- 
 cialist leaders, but some of these men have unhappily aided the 
 Times by joining that hostile journal in its vile attempt to 
 fasten crime upon the INVINCIBLES, and through them upon 
 the Irish nation. These attacks can only be characterised as 
 cowardly, for the Provincialists knew well that they could not 
 be answered while one shred of hope was left them in the 
 pursuit of their " Home Rule " policy, or what they have 
 impressed upon the Irish masses as such. But at last there 
 comes a glimmer of light, when the Truth can proclaim 
 itself, and dispel by its pure rays the murky clouds that have 
 darkened Irish intellects. 
 
 Several of the Provincialists have been honoured by an 
 
 E E 
 
4i8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 accusation — or charge, as it is termed — brought against them 
 by the Dublin Castle Conspirators* organ. They have been 
 accused by this London newspaper of association with the 
 heroic bands of Irish patriots, which covered the green island 
 in the years 1881-82-83. 
 
 Mankind has been grossly deceived from the date of the 
 incident in the Phoenix Park, as to the nature of the Irish 
 National movement, which caused the " turning down " of 
 the chiefs of the enemy's Assassination Bureau on that 
 memorable May evening to the present time. First by the 
 panic which caused some of the Provincialist leaders to issue 
 a misleading proclamation, which was apparently put forth 
 by these weak-nerved men in fear of personal attack, and 
 since by the action of the Provincialists, in reply to the 
 London Times. Not satisfied with denying their alliance 
 with the patriots, they wantonly assailed the characters of 
 these men. These Parnellites denied that they were asso- 
 ciated with criminals and assassins, as they foully called the 
 INVINCIBLES, thereby staining their country's name with 
 crime. Not only was this a further recognition of the 
 invaders' right to rule them, but they were words of foul 
 treason against their suffering motherland. 
 
 At the time they uttered these words they were, and are 
 to this hour (December, 1887), in criminal alliance with 
 British assassins — men whom the Parnellites themselves so 
 characterised ; men whose hands are red with the blood of 
 the women stabbed and shot in BelmuUet, and of the children 
 brutally massacred in Ballina ; men who sent innocent vic- 
 tims to the scaffold by the deliberate perjury of bribed and 
 manufactured testimony ; men whose reign of blood and 
 despotism in Ireland was denounced in no measured language 
 by these Provincialists, who are now in alliance with those 
 they then so justly condemned. From William O'Brien's 
 leading article " The Bloody Assize," ^ to his famous cartoon 
 and article " The Departure of the Red Earl," nothing could 
 be more scathing, more bitter, and denunciatory than hi§ 
 I See Appendix A, p. 547, 
 
THE TASK OF THE WRITER 419 
 
 description of this conspirator against Ireland's freedom who 
 is now his friend ; nothing could be more sweeping than the 
 epithets hurled upon these Gladstonian Ministers by the 
 " legal agitators " — men whom they now ask the Irish race to 
 sing hallelujahs in honour of, praising these self-same 
 Liberal Ministers whom they then accused of " burying their 
 victims out of sight." Such is the slavish and debasing 
 state to which " legal agitation " has reduced these agitators 
 At this date, they wear their chains with pride, and are trying 
 to make their countrymen become, like themselves, willing 
 slaves of the invader. 
 
 These public slanders on the Irish name must be 
 answered. As no other appears willing to mount the 
 breach, the present writer, an humble actor in these scenes, 
 will attempt this thorny task. It is not alone a sacred duty 
 to do so now — it is more, it is an imperative one ! 
 
 The events which we are about to relate belong to that 
 dramatic and living reality which the historian would neglect 
 for lack of material, or else write the false and slanderous 
 statements purposely circulated by the British enemy, who 
 has the ear of the world. But in them are to be found the 
 life, the palpitation, the quivering of Irish patriotism and 
 self-sacrifice. Small incidents in the history of Ireland, some 
 will say : but these are the foliage of great events, the fore- 
 runner of successful revolution. The epoch known as the 
 Invincible period abounds in many such small incidents. 
 The so-called judicial investigations of the enemy — these 
 illegal and mock trials in Dublin — did not reveal anything 
 but superficial and misleading knowledge. For a time, even 
 the enemy's Government did not get to the bottom of the 
 movement. Perhaps they have not yet got to the bottom of 
 everything. But they know sufficient, both Tory and Radical 
 Ministers — Salisbury, Gladstone, Balfour, and Spencer — to 
 serve the interests of their own country and to prompt them 
 to try and sap the source of Irish patriotism by pretended 
 ignorance and misleading tactics the further to deceive th^ 
 
 E E ? 
 
420 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 too credulous Irish people. Each of these hostile parties 
 plays before mankind, its allotted part in the great drama. 
 On one side, we find an affected condemnation of Mr. Parnell 
 and his colleagues, and on the other, a simulated horror and 
 indignation at the Tunes' charges. But both parties are 
 equally determined to uproot, and if possible to destroy all 
 active hostility against their rule in Ireland, by stamping with 
 shame, disgrace, and, if possible contempt, all exertions on 
 the part of Irish patriots — men who would bring force of any 
 kind, even irregular weapons of war, to harass and in some 
 measure destroy the enemy, whose brutal career of exter- 
 mination is so rapidly decimating their country. 
 
 Both these British parties are playing a skilful and well- 
 thought-out movement, by entrapping the Irish Provincialists 
 to most effectively aid their purpose, and so enlist the 
 sympathy of warm-hearted, impulsive, and unthinking Irish- 
 men to unconsciously abet their rule by condemning the 
 action of the only Irish enemies they fear — those men who, 
 by small endeavours to destroy their country's foe, are trying 
 to guide and spur the Irish nation on the path to revolution. 
 By making this issue appear before the world as a case of 
 slander by that venomous London paper, the Times^ against 
 the once universally loved Charles Stewart Parnell, the enemy 
 hopes to reap the benefit of these so-called charges, by bring- 
 ing the Irish mind round to the condition which will result in 
 the unanimous condemnation of the INVINCIBLES as criminals 
 — a position already publicly assumed by the Provincialist 
 movement. 
 
 Revelations of prominent Irishmen being actually impli- 
 cated in the creation of this hostile organisation, the invaders 
 fear, would give such movements tone and prestige in the eyes 
 of some Irishmen, and of mankind generally, which would 
 be most injurious to British interests. These interests im- 
 peratively demand that all such knowledge should be sup- 
 pressed. It would interfere with their purpose, it might 
 seriously mar their great necessity — the eradication of every 
 germ of national life in the Irish heart— and turn the sturdy 
 
THE SECRET OF OFFICIAL SILENCE 4^1 
 
 sentiment of nationality into a puny and meek Provincialism. 
 It is for these British foes of Ireland, Tory and Radical alike, 
 a vital necessity to crush out the seeds of active hostility to 
 their power in the island, which, after their long reign of 
 terror, might again develop and blaze up into a war for 
 national independence. 
 
 They know their weakness as a military power, the paucity 
 of their army, the great strain their various conquests make 
 upon their military effectiveness, and if Ireland is not kept 
 quiet by the deadly Provincial opiate — which they hope will 
 lull her until the population becomes less than two millions — 
 she might give them serious trouble and bring on for them a 
 dreaded war, which would reveal the rottenness of their 
 power and might presage the downfall of their ill-gotten 
 empire. From emeiites might spring insurrection, and once 
 the torch had set ablaze the inflammable materials which 
 generations of horrible persecution have made ready for the 
 hands of the daring revolutionary leader, who could say — 
 who could positively assert — where the conflagration would 
 stop ? while there is, in addition, the possibility that some 
 among the many enemies of Britain in Europe, urged on by 
 interested motives, might come to the aid of the battling 
 Irish, as France, liberty-loving France, helped the American 
 revolutionists. 
 
 All these possible eventualities British statesmen foresee, 
 and so they cunningly contrive to bring about such a state 
 of things that the Irish people will assist their diplomacy ; 
 the horror and condemnation of the Times is part of this 
 deep-laid scheme. In their chivalry in coming to the rescue 
 of Mr. Parnell, the Irish Provincialists are unconsciously 
 preaching a strange doctrine to their fellow countrymen. In 
 effect they say, that it is a crime to slay a British invader, 
 but it is highly honourable to be allied to the murderers of 
 Ellen McDonagh, Patrick Melody, Mary Deane, Francis 
 Hynes, Myles Joyce, and the numerous victims of British 
 crime during Mr. Gladstone's rule of blood and tyranny, 
 1880 to 1885 
 
4^2 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Few of these Irish Provincialists but would stand back 
 aghast, if they saw the conclusions mankind and history must 
 draw from their misled action. We shall therefore bring to 
 light, among the known and published circumstances, some 
 things which have never been publicly known ; acts, or, 
 rather, premeditated deeds, which were, alas, for Ireland, 
 
 destroyed in the womb Most of the actors in these 
 
 scenes have disappeared ; many have merged into the silent 
 stream of national life that flows on quietly under the 
 invaders' rule. Some others in Ireland to-day listen with 
 bitterness and cynicism to the mountain of falsehood the 
 enemy has built up, helped by certain Provincialists, men 
 who seem to have betrayed their country to the foe. Others, 
 again, are enduring the horrors of dungeons, toils, and chains, 
 where not one ray of light can penetrate. It is perhaps as 
 well it is so ; if these noble-hearted, though humble men, 
 could learn how their honour has been assailed, their motives 
 aspersed, the dignity of their country dragged into the mire 
 with such foul treachery the deepest and blackest turpitude 
 known in history, their load of torture would be doubled by 
 this agony of falsehood. Could they hear this heaven-sent 
 Minister, Mr. Gladstone, denounce the Tories for herding 
 political prisoners with ordinary criminals, what would they 
 think of his wretched hypocrisy, they themselves being living 
 proofs of his own similar action ? Or perhaps the Liberal 
 leader means that political prisoners are those only who talk 
 for their nation's freedom, not the men who would dare to 
 strike, or to preach such doctrines. 
 
 Some few of these men have gone into exile, and not the 
 less bitter has been their lot ; calumny and ingratitude have 
 been their persecutors. Others, and these the most fortunate, 
 met a patriot's death on the scaffold. But the immortal 
 spirit of liberty still lives on, whether in the heart of the exile, 
 or the prisoner in the dungeon, or the ex-lNVlNClBLE waiting 
 in his native land. 
 
 And so these actors have disappeared. From the morrow, 
 they were silent ; but what we shall relate we can say that 
 
MR. GLADSTONE'S PROMISES TO IRELAND 423 
 
 we saw. We shall give no names, for history relates and 
 does not inform against ; but we shall paint reality. From 
 the nature of the subject of which we are writing, we shall 
 show an episode, one side, and that certainly the least known, 
 of the eventful 6th of May, 1882, in the Phoenix Park, Dublin ; 
 but we shall do it in such a way that the reader may catch a 
 glimpse, under the gloomy veil which we are about to lift, of 
 the real countenance of that historic tragedy. 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone violated all his promises made to 
 Ireland — promises just as fulsome in their hope and sweet- 
 ness as he is making to-day — when he outraged the liberty, 
 supposed to exist, of the British Commons, in order to 
 suppress Irish debate, and on the following evening turned 
 the Irish members out of the House, he sounded the death- 
 knell of continued " legal agitation " or alliance with those 
 who advocated it, so far as the Irish Nationalists in Britain 
 and in Ireland could at that time influence this feeling. He 
 did more ; he sent a quiver of rage and a thirst for retaliation 
 into the Provincialists' ranks — a feeling that for the time was 
 more extreme, and led to more extreme results, than any 
 ever entertained by the Nationalists up to that period. They 
 were angered and outraged at Mr. Gladstones renewed 
 violation of his promises — promises which they had kept up 
 to this before the eyes of their countrymen, the Nationalists, 
 whenever any of them hinted at physical force. 
 
 Froude, in condemning Mr. Gladstone for these promises, 
 said : " Mr. Gladstone began with an acknowledgment for 
 which he has been violently blamed, that the Clerkenwell 
 explosion had enabled him to deal with the Irish problem. 
 It is seldom wrong to speak the truth plainly 
 
 " Ireland, he told us, was to be governed henceforth by 
 Irish ideas. Irish ideas in the only form in which they could 
 force themselves upon the legislature were the ideas of those 
 who most hated England, who defied the law as it stood, 
 and enforced their own rival laws with knife and bullet." 
 
 Exactly, Mr. Froude. Your last remarks as here quoted 
 
424 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLE^ 
 
 indicate the feelings with which every patriotic Irish 
 Nationalist looks upon the issue between these two islands. 
 The legislature you speak of, has neither legal right nor 
 authority to make any laws for Ireland, no more than it has 
 for France. Ireland never surrendered her independence, and 
 never at any time gave your British Parliament the right to 
 legislate for her ; consequently, it is a piece of gratuitous 
 presumption, impertinence, and usurpation, for this London 
 legislature of your countrymen to make laws, and expect them 
 to be binding on Ireland. They are illegal edicts, which are 
 obeyed at the point of the bayonet. You defy justice and 
 legality, and enforce laws with knife, bullet, buckshot, 
 perjured witnesses, mock trials, juries selected from rebels 
 and traitors to Ireland who are packed to record a sentence 
 already decreed in Dublin Castle, and you murder your victim 
 by the assistance of a rebel to Ireland who wears a wig and 
 is called a judge, but who is a traitor to his nation and a 
 hireling who has sold himself to a foreign Government for 
 gold ; honour and distinction to him are the badge of treason 
 which he wears before mankind. Ireland has never been 
 legally under British rule, has never been legally a part of the 
 British Empire, and the pirate flag of so-called conquest flies 
 there because of the force which her robber invaders use. 
 Consequently the natives of the island have every God-given 
 right ever enjoyed by a people to use both knife and bullet, 
 and every implement that a brave people can use, to kill, 
 maim, and destroy those barbarous invaders who have been 
 carrying on for centuries a cruel war of extermination in 
 Ireland, which war goes on, unceasing, to this day. 
 
 Mr. Froude, it is seldom wrong as you have said, to speak 
 the truth plainly, and this is the answer Ireland would give 
 you, if the moral cowardice or false policy of the leaders had 
 not closed the lips of the people, in addition to the serfdom 
 of British chains. These — these are the real sentiments of the 
 great mass of the Irish race. But Mr. Gladstone does not 
 believe with Mr. Froude in speaking the truth plainly. He 
 believes in deceptive promises, which deceive the Irish people 
 
THE APPROACH OF THE CRISIS 425 
 
 lor a time, but are certain to bring a reaction when they 
 remain unfulfilled, as they did at this period of Ireland's 
 history. 
 
 The passing of Mr. Gladstone's Coercion Act was the signal 
 to fill the prisons with every Irishman that this benevolent 
 statesman's minions in Ireland chose to suspect of loyalty to 
 their country. Merchants and men of probity and position 
 were crammed into gaol — there was no mockery even of a trial, 
 no offence charged ; no accusation or accusers. The invader 
 was on the warpath, and his despotic edicts were obeyed. 
 Among the earliest arrests was that of the gentle, but at this 
 period uncompromising, John Dillon. 
 
 The rebel press in Dublin, the Daily Express^ the Irish 
 Times^ and the Evening Mail, was delighted. These organs of 
 Irish treason which were politically allied to the British 
 Tories, and which invariably found fault with Mr. Gladstone, 
 now applauded his firmness. He was the hero of the hour — 
 the Grand Old Man, who had crushed out what they termed 
 sedition. Ireland appeared, bound hand and foot, ready for 
 the slaughter. The loyal Irish of all shades of opinion. 
 Nationalist and Provincialist alike, saw that a crisis was 
 approaching. Gladstone's dastardly arrest of Mr. Dillon and 
 Mr. Davitt enraged the most timid Provincialist. The blows 
 that were struck by the enemy in quick succession, made all 
 feel that Ireland should answer back in some practical 
 manner. 
 
 The Provincialists said that to allow this state of things 
 to continue would be to disgrace the Irish character for 
 manliness, and to destroy the best interests of the country ; 
 that if a war for independence was not for the moment 
 feasible, at least a war of retaliation should be at once entered 
 upon. 
 
 At this time all eyes were turned on Mr. Parnell. The 
 hour had come ! Had Ireland found the man ? Did the 
 warrior blood of gallant old Ironsides course through the 
 veins of his grandson t Had Ireland found in him her Wolfe 
 
426 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Tone or her Washington ? Or did the blood of the de- 
 scendant of a member of the Yeoman's Parliament pre- 
 dominate in the Parnell of our day ? Had he the instinct 
 of those settlers who talked mock nationality after their 
 cold-blooded massacre of the '98 patriots ? Which charac- 
 teristic held sway in this then foremost Irishman ? Would 
 Charles Stewart Parnell show in this crisis of his country's 
 fate, the unflinching resolution, heroism, and desperate daring 
 of his brave grandsire, Commodore Stewart ? 
 
 Mr. Parnell's visit to Paris, after his insulting expulsion 
 from the British Commons, was watched with expectancy. 
 At this time vague rumours began to circulate through Irish 
 National circles of an approaching struggle with the foe. The 
 Provincialists were bitterly hostile to Mr. Gladstone and his 
 Government, and if vituperative language was a key to their 
 intentions and to what they were prepared to do against their 
 cruel and tyrannical enemy, these men were fast becoming far 
 more extreme than the Nationalists whose cardinal doctrine 
 had always been physical force. 
 
 Mr. Parnell's visit to these two great and patriotic French- 
 men, the illustrious and revered Victor Hugo, and the liberty- 
 loving and pronounced revolutionist, Henri Rochefort, con- 
 vinced the Nationalists in Ireland that something serious was 
 meditated. All parties knew that there was no alternative left 
 Mr. Parnell ; he must either fight or accept willing slavery, 
 and so basely surrender. There was no Irishman who for a 
 moment dreamt that surrender was once thought of by 
 Charles Stewart Parnell, so universally was he beloved and 
 respected by the Irish patriots at this period. 
 
 That he had determined on fight of some kind the Irish 
 people were satisfied, but of what nature the new war of 
 retaliation should be, or in what manner it would develop 
 itself, they knew not. They were willing to leave these things 
 in the hands of the men whose duty it was to meet this 
 emergency, forced on the Irish nation by the enemy. They 
 were confident in the wisdom of Mr. Parnell and his associates, 
 believing in their courage and in their indomitable deter- 
 
THE INNER CIRCLE OF THE LEAGUE 427 
 
 mination to face the foe unflinchingly. Ireland was ready 
 to support them to victory, or death. 
 
 Mr. Parnell's letter to the Land League Council in Dublin 
 did not in the slightest manner undeceive the masses of the 
 people ; they looked upon this despatch as a ruse de guerre; 
 they were satisfied it meant to convey to the people the 
 opposite information and belief to what it appeared to 
 express, for all knew they had a wily foe to deal with. The 
 emphatic tone of the letter staggered some few men, but 
 even these could not believe but that the grandson of old 
 Ironsides would be equal to the occasion. The cowardly sur- 
 render expressed in the letter they attributed to the new school 
 of diplomacy, then unfortunately taught the Irish people. 
 
 That Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues knew that they 
 were arousing hostility into an active shape against them in 
 Ireland, there can be no question. Their action was taken 
 with the full knowledge of this fact in view. In the summer 
 of that coercion year (1881), the British Ministers sent round 
 a circular to the Constabulary officers in Ireland, asking each 
 to forward his written opinion as to whether the people in 
 his district were organised and prepared to take the field. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's denunciation of Mr. Parnell at Leeds, and 
 his appeal there to all British parties to unite in combined 
 hostility to Ireland and the League, was a finishing stroke 
 to peaceful counsels. This bitter attack, coming from the 
 benevolent Mr. Gladstone, removed the last remnant of hope 
 from the breasts of the wavering Irish Provincialists. What 
 had been in embryo for some time, the determination to 
 eventually take active steps against the hostility of the 
 enemy's unmitigated tyranny, was at once adopted, and the 
 organisation of the Irish Invincibles sprang into being. 
 This new organisation was the inner circle of the peaceful 
 Land League which the invader was striking at with merciless 
 blows. This new and defensive power, to their eternal 
 honour, was the creation of the Parnellite Irish Government. 
 So unceasing now was the tyranny of the enemy, and so deaf 
 
428 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 to all appeals of reason, that every man saw it was useless to 
 attempt to solve the issues between the islands of Britain 
 and Ireland peacefully. The invader would hear of nothing 
 but absolute and degrading surrender, so brutal and licentious 
 was the action of Mr. Gladstone and his despotic lieutenant 
 Forster. The wanton arrests, the arbitrary and despotic con- 
 duct of the British officials, was too much even for the most 
 peaceful ; human endurance had broken down, the Provin- 
 cialists were now fully determined to far outstep the previous 
 action of the Nationalists and make Britain feel that Ireland 
 was yet to be conquered. 
 
 It must be distinctly understood that the creation of this 
 new and important Irish organisation, or rather the trans- 
 ferring of the braver and more determined members of the 
 Land League into the NATIONAL INVINCIBLES, was not the 
 work of subordinates in the Parnellite ranks. It was the 
 action of those who governed the movement, men the very 
 highest intellectually and authoritatively, and to whom were 
 delegated the legitimate control and responsibility of meeting 
 every exigency forced on them by the exasperated enemy. 
 In a word, the INVINCIBLES sprang into existence by order 
 of the Parnellite Government of Ireland elected by the Irish 
 nation.^ It will be recollected that, as has been written in an 
 
 ^ In the face of the events which have occupied public attention since this 
 book was written, and the acted lie which the Parnellites in the concrete pre- 
 sented to the enemy's tribunal — a tribunal appointed by a foreign Government, 
 without legal authority, to inquire into the manner a neighbouring nation chose 
 to make war — these Parnellites, who collectively admitted they were loyal slaves 
 to British i-ule in their country, indignantly repudiated all association with the 
 ' * suppression " in the Phoenix Park, or knowledge of the military Parnellites who 
 carried out that historic incident. In the face of this repudiation and the state- 
 ment written above, and probable contradiction from men who think their con- 
 nection cannot be proven, and others who possibly had none, we state most 
 emphatically that facts, as stated in this volume, are known to the writer 
 personally, and can be substantiated by plenty of living witnesses, which will bring 
 this association lamentably close to the core of highest and supreme responsibility, 
 and to the very seat and centre of actual power and authority. 
 
 There are good men who may possibly blame this exposi of the truth, where 
 they cannot shame it. In the words of Washington, speaking of the criticism he 
 expected on the then newly-created Constitution — a diversity of opinions and incli- 
 nations on the subject had been expected by him — said he, ' ' The various passions 
 and motives by which men are influenced are concomitants of fallibility, and 
 ingrafted into our nature. " 
 
 This book shall not be published until events are ripe for its appearance, even 
 to the most infatuated believer in arguing the enemy out of our country. 
 
PARNELLITE OFFICIALS " INVINCIBLE" ORGANIZERS 429 
 
 earlier chapter, many of the Parnellites — members of the 
 British Parliament and others of the party — sought safety 
 from the chance of arrest by leaving Ireland, but this possibly 
 proper and prudent course ought not to have so terrorised them 
 that their voices should be silent in the National councils at 
 this crisis. To their shame, be it recorded, that they com- 
 pletely absented themselves from all direction of affairs. 
 Five of these men were of secondary rank in the party, but 
 then they were men of sufficient prominence to set a good 
 example by their presence, and to help on whatever policy 
 was decided on. Some one or two leading men were altogether 
 absent from the scene, and too far away to take any part in the 
 conduct of affairs. But the crisis was far too keen for these 
 men to have remained away, if they were as patriotic as their 
 countrymen thought. But every one of these men who were 
 absent from the post of duty equally share the responsibility 
 of the events which ensued, and are morally and legally 
 bound to the action of their government in beginning a war 
 of reprisals against the British foe in Ireland, and the 
 creation of the IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES. 
 
 Well and ably was the Parnellite Government assisted by 
 the men whom it sent to spread the new organisation. All of 
 these brave men were prominent Parnellite officials. In every 
 province of Ireland the INVINCIBLE movement was spread by 
 these patriotic Irishmen, who travelled under great difficulties, 
 exposed to arbitrary arrest by the enemy's minions who were 
 at this period watchful and alert. His hirelings and spies 
 were scattered broadcast over the land. But no dangers 
 could intimidate these brave Parnellite organisers. They 
 enrolled the manhood of the League in the new movement. 
 Irish blood was up, and the people were ready to obey the 
 Parnellite Government in any undertaking. They felt 
 satisfied that their leaders would adopt no policy but that 
 which was honourable and necessary to meet the vicissitudes 
 and necessities of the hour. It was decided by the Par- 
 nellite Government — which was also with two exceptions 
 the Executive of the Invincibles— that there was no 
 
430 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 alternative but to meet the assassin rule of Britain by force. 
 The enemy had trampled on his own Constitution, and torn 
 into shreds the last strip of mock legality under which 
 Ireland was supposed to be governed. A species of guerilla 
 warfare was determined on (it was the Future making its 
 appearance on the scene) to meet the relentless attacks of 
 the invader. Britain*s position in Ireland, they held, was 
 that of the burglar who had broken into the Nation's home, 
 to rob and waylay the residents. Assassination and misery 
 followed in his train. The chiefs of Ireland's ravagers, the 
 men from whose bureaux sped the orders of bloodshed and 
 destruction so ruthlessly carried out by their armed hirelings, 
 were termed by the enemy the "Chief Secretary" and 
 " Under-Secretary of State." It was resolved by the earliest 
 council held by the Executive of the Invincibles, that 
 these ferocious offices should be kept vacant by the continued 
 " suppression " of their holders. This order was not levelled 
 at any particular or special occupant of these bloodstained 
 posts of the foe, but against all and every succeeding foreign 
 invader who came to occupy these " suppressed " bureaux ; 
 and it was decided that as soon as a new-comer planted his 
 foot on Irish soil, invested by the illegal and alien administra- 
 tion with the authority of either of these offices to perpetuate 
 Britain's rule of spoliation, he should be at once "suppressed" 
 in mercy to the Irish nation ; and further that every satrap 
 of Britain, carrying on and conducting her war of extermina- 
 tion in any part of the island, should be summarily "removed" 
 from the scene of devastation. For " Britain in Ireland is as 
 a beast exceeding terrible; his feet and claws are of iron, and 
 the rest he stamps upon with his feet." 
 
 The Irishmen who promulgated these orders had the legal 
 right to issue them. This authority was conferred upon 
 them by the Irish nation. Ireland was at this time in the 
 throes of agony, suffering under the regime of two of the 
 worst enemies that ever controlled these bureaux of slaughter 
 — W. E. Forster and Thomas Burke. These men wielded 
 
THE POLICY OF THE "INVINCIBLE" EXECUTIVE 431 
 
 the despotic authority granted them by the enemy's Par- 
 liament, and most brutally and recklessly did they use it. 
 It was ordered by the Irish Administration that these murder 
 bureaux should be, as soon as possible, made vacant ; that this 
 foreign murder conspiracy against the Irish nation's life 
 should be deprived of its chiefs. So long as the office of the 
 enemy's Governor-General or Lord-Lieutenant remained a 
 mere representative position, the occupier of it would remain 
 unnoticed, but the moment he assumed executive duties and 
 assisted in the murder of the Irish people, this office should 
 be also made vacant. 
 
 This law was adopted irrespective of the individuals who 
 assumed these offices of the enemy. Once the scarlet robe 
 of Ireland's assassin was assumed by any man, he became 
 Ireland's destroyer, and was compelled by the nature of his 
 office to enforce the brutal policy of the invader, and all 
 the horrors that followed in its train. The Irish nation did 
 not war with individuals, but was determined to suppress 
 these death-dealing systems established by their unscrupulous 
 foe. 
 
 Rightly or wrongly the National Irish Government did not 
 think the time ripe for an open appeal to arms. But it was 
 hoped that these guerilla attacks might eventually lead up to a 
 war for independence. It must have been seen by the IN- 
 VINCIBLE Administration that in the suppressing of any of 
 the enemy's chiefs a combat of some sort would probably 
 ensue ; but they knew that from the blood of brave men, 
 dying for their country, fresh champions would spring twenty- 
 fold to take the place of the slain. These combats it was 
 expected would arise owing to the watchfulness and 
 vigilance of the foe, who guarded every possible place with 
 armed men. 
 
 It may be said by men who live in free and happy self- 
 governed nations, enjoying peace and blessings under their 
 country's flag, that this policy of the INVINCIBLE Government 
 was very terrible. Nothing, however, that Ireland could possibly 
 do, could be equal to the atrocities perpetrated on her by her 
 
432 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 foreign foe. By rapine and bloodshed he fastened himself 
 on the soil of Ireland, and by bloodshed and oppression he 
 maintains it. It is revolting to every manly sense of justice 
 that the Invincible movement has not always been estab- 
 lished in Ireland by her down-trodden people. Ireland must 
 go through a bloody agony before she can throw off the 
 monster that has fastened on her vitals. 
 
 To write anything further in extenuation or explanation 
 of this truly needful policy would appear as if apologising or 
 palliating what was both sacred, just, and truly lawful ; for 
 Ireland never surrendered to any foreign nation the right to 
 make her laws. Irishmen in seeking to conciliate prejudiced 
 and hostile views, apologise and explain too much ; this pen 
 shall try and not repeat it. 
 
 Although the I. R. B. organisation remained intact, going 
 on with its fancied preparations to take the field against 
 Britain, several of its leading spirits in Dublin joined the 
 new movement. Among those who joined the ranks of the 
 INVINCIBLES were some of the officers in the I. R. B. ; but 
 as an organisation it remained a distinct movement. 
 
 Mistaking the new policy, as the I. R. B. did, and believing 
 that it was merely an attack on landlords or other acts which 
 took place during the land struggle, the I. R. B. Executive 
 was officially opposed to it. And yet the moral cowards who 
 belonged to the Parnellites have since tried to fasten upon 
 the I. R. B. movement what they in their craven spirits 
 meant to be odium — all the heroism, self-sacrifice, and valour 
 of the military INVINCIBLES. Their own patriotism in 
 creating the INVINCIBLES they shrank from, when action 
 was once taken and the first step in the sanguinary drama 
 completed. But for the Parnellites there would have been 
 no INVINCIBLES ; all the glory of that short-lived struggle 
 rests on the brave men who took the field, all the disgrace 
 and the degradation on the statesmen who deserted and 
 slandered them. 
 
 The Dublin INVINCIBLES were almost altogether composed 
 
THE FIRST ORGANISER AT WORK 433 
 
 of I. R. B. men, either from members already enrolled, or 
 ex-members equally brave, patriotic, and self-sacrificing. In 
 country districts the INVINCIBLES were principally composed 
 of Provincialists, members of the suppressed Land League. 
 The daring spirits of all parties embraced most eagerly the 
 active policy forced upon them by the enemy, which 
 promised for their country, the only possible solution at 
 this acute crisis. 
 
 When the brave organisers who were officially sent out 
 by the Irish Executive to build up this new movement had 
 returned to headquarters, the organisation still progressed, 
 the enrolled men in Ireland spreading it among their patriotic 
 brethren. 
 
 Of these devoted Irishmen, the advanced guard of the new 
 movement, this history has nothing further to record. The 
 man who organised Dublin was a veteran Nationalist, who, if 
 circumstances permitted, would have remained to fight with 
 the men enrolled there.^ He did stay in Dublin for a while 
 seeking results, but these were more difficult of accomplish- 
 ment than those not engaged would think. He was removed 
 from Dublin by orders, and thenceforth took no active part 
 in the organisation ; and so does not appear in this history. 
 Among the brave organisers of the INVINCIBLES in the 
 country districts was a true and tried Irish Nationalist, 
 although a prominent Parnellite ^ ; to this man great credit 
 must be given for his splendid endeavours to build up the 
 movement in the provinces. He did this under the very eyes 
 of the enemy, while Forster's tyranny was felt in every 
 village and cabin in Ireland. It was through no fault of his 
 that the country INVINCIBLES did not make a redder record, 
 and by so doing further paralyse the foe. He was recalled 
 from Ireland at a very early stage of the movement. Some 
 of his colleagues accused him of indiscretions ; those were 
 probably only greater deeds of daring than they would do. 
 Human nature is not perfect, and Irish patriots should look 
 with kindly eyes on each other, and more hostile glances at 
 
 ^ See Appendix C, p. 548. * See Appendix D, p. 550. 
 
 F F 
 
434 fHE iRIStt NATIONAL INVtNCtBLfiS 
 
 the common enemy. One thing can be written of this brave 
 country organiser, that if his judgment was not always per- 
 fect, his patriotism had not a single flaw ; he believed in but 
 one course, one pathway to freedom — he believed that like 
 all struggling nationalities, Ireland's duty was to smite her 
 foe whea and how she could. 
 
 This brave Irishman had no connection whatever with the 
 Phoenix Park incident — although it has been so mentioned — 
 excepting so far as he, like all of the Invincibles, was a party 
 to the policy of which it was the active exponent. From the 
 enemy's standpoint of course such men are held responsible, 
 and on that question Irish Nationalists take no issue ; but if 
 the invader wants to know whom to indict for that blow 
 struck at his official destroyers, he must indict the Irish 
 nation. The enemy may squirm and wriggle how he may 
 over this fact, which he knows but dare not admit ; the Irish 
 nation is responsible for the glory, or the crime, whichever 
 they now mean to call it. But the true pulse of the nation 
 rejects the infamy of the latter term. The facts about that 
 memorable event will be given in this history. This brave 
 country organiser was abroad when the news of the Park 
 event came on him with joyful surprise, through the public 
 press. 
 
 The Invincibles might be likened to the foriorn hope of a 
 storming party, where every man ran constant danger of 
 instant death ; they could only be recruited from the best 
 and bravest of the Irish race. They were not numerically 
 great as compared with the I. R. B., but what they lacked in 
 numbers they made up in efficiency. The material of which 
 the organisation was composed, the morale and discipline 
 that pervaded its ranks, were invaluable to Ireland, if properly 
 handled and sustained by a firm and courageous executive. 
 It was indeed an army of lions. It were well for the Green 
 Isle if those who governed it displayed more leonine courage. 
 
 This organisation did not exist outside of Ireland. The 
 Administration, for some motives of policy never known to 
 
A PURELY LOCAL ORGANISATION 43$ 
 
 the INVINCIBLES, did not permit its spread to the United 
 States. Hence Irish-Americans were completely taken by- 
 surprise when the 6th of May incident was cabled over the 
 Atlantic, which want of knowledge produced a peculiar atti- 
 tude on the part of some Irishmen in this country [America]. 
 
 One of Britain's stock arguments and charges made against 
 Irish Nationalists for the past two generations, has been that 
 all physical force movements directed against her rule in 
 Ireland have been of foreign origin, as the natives so love her 
 rule they would never dream of revolting against it but that 
 these foreigners compel them. This absurd statement the 
 invader never applied to the Invincibles — a physical force 
 movement, the policy of which, if put into practice, was not 
 the mildest form of assailing the unscrupulous foe ; and the 
 revival of which they fear. This movement was composed of 
 native-born Irishmen in Ireland, and they know that its 
 principles to-day are espoused by the great mass of the 
 devoted sons of that nation. 
 
 From this want of knowledge of the new organisation in 
 other countries, a rumour was industriously spread abroad 
 that this movement was hostile to the leaders of the sup- 
 pressed Land League and the principles of Mr. Parnell. 
 Possibly the idea, which Mr. Parnell expressed on board the 
 Scythia when interviewed on his voyage to the United States, 
 namely, that Ireland needed two organisations, one secret 
 and the other public,^ was in the minds of the INVINCIBLE 
 Administration when it permitted this false statement to be 
 circulated. All thinking Irishmen will agree with Mr. 
 Parnell as to the necessity of two such organisations ; but 
 they should be both national and true to Ireland. It should 
 not be considered the duty of the public movement to de- 
 nounce the active work of the secret one, especially if both 
 movements had one and the same executive. To call this 
 policy of falsehood and duplicity good statesmanship tending 
 to deceive the enemy, is too infamous a plea for any honour- 
 able man to admit. 
 
 * See Appendix B, p. 548. 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The criticisms and condemnation of this Invincible 
 movement by people who know nothing of its origin or the 
 circumstances which created it, show what a fearful influence, 
 tending to the destruction of all healthy Irish national life, is 
 controlled by the pernicious teaching of British literature. 
 Irishmen who agree in this condemnation seldom think of 
 the dark stain on Irish morals placed there by the public 
 teaching of the Provincialists, " that the end justifies the 
 means " ; that it is right to compound a felony by trying to 
 come to terms with the invader. 
 
 British rule in Ireland in any shape or form is a felony, and 
 as such is one of the most infamous and heinous of moral 
 crimes. A band of burglars have burst into Ireland's mansion 
 and gorged themselves with plunder of every kind, and when 
 they fear that their booty is endangered, they never for an 
 instant hesitate to add assassination to their numerous crimes. 
 
 From O'Connell's time to this day, the Provincialists have 
 been associating with foreign criminals, doing evil that good 
 may result. Perhaps they would explain their conduct as 
 Louis Napoleon did the shooting down the French people on 
 the Parisian boulevards : ^^ Je suis sorti de la Ugalite pour 
 rentrer dans le droits Irish Provincialists try to convince 
 themselves that it is expedient to attempt to compromise 
 with the foreign banditti, and by recognising their right to 
 carry on centuries of pillage and murder, receive back for 
 Ireland some share of the captured booty. But vain and 
 useless have been all their endeavours, even though they 
 publicly stain themselves with the crime of compounding 
 felony. The felon will not restore the smallest moiety of 
 his plunder. He still continues and will continue, unless 
 destroyed by force, to debauch and destroy his victims. 
 
 All attempts at this period to bring about a peaceful 
 solution (which was rank folly to try) were stopped by Mr. 
 Gladstone, who forced the Provincialists into more desperate 
 and daring channels. 
 
 With the determination of taking instant action against 
 
"INVINCIBLES" DISTINCT FROM "MOONLIGHTERS" 437 
 
 the British, the INVINCIBLE movement was created ; but it is 
 one thing to decree a certain policy, and another and totally 
 different thing to put that policy into practical shape, and 
 demonstrate, by accomplished deeds, the wisdom of the 
 council chamber. Had open insurrection been decided on, 
 it might have been easier commenced than what might seem 
 a simpler programme. 
 
 At this time in Ireland there were several small country 
 organisations that sprang into existence in each locality, by 
 the pressure of the times and the atrocities of some tyrant of 
 the neighbourhood. The small bodies of persecuted men have 
 borne various appellations — " Whiteboys," "Moonlighters," 
 and such names. These bodies are the irregular soldiers of 
 the Irish nation. They are the guerillas that sometimes 
 portend the presence of an army in preparation. They are 
 Ireland's Francs-tireurs. They disappear and arise as the 
 enemy applies the screw of torture, or as it suits his policy 
 for the moment to ease the agony. While they are repre- 
 sentative of the hostility of the Irish nation to the foreign 
 invader, they have no representative mandate for their 
 existence but Irish sympathy in their success as opposed 
 to the enemy ; and very often this hatred of theirs is led 
 into wrong channels through ignorance, and vengeance has 
 often been wreaked on their own unhappy countrymen, who, 
 by poverty and the degradation of slavery, violate these 
 men's local combinations. This condition of things is the 
 direct creation of the bloodstained invader. 
 
 With these movements, British Ministers, British interests, 
 and British public opinion, have tried to class the INVINCIBLES. 
 Their published account of the movement as to-day given to 
 the world, and which they wish should go into the domain of 
 history, is that of a small, irregular band of desperate men in 
 Dublin city, under the control and guidance of the un- 
 fortunate James Carey, a man who was only for a short time 
 a sub-officer of the organisation.^ 
 
 * This prevailing opinion of the small number of men enrolled in the ranks of 
 the INVINCIBLES is further endorsed by Sir Charles Russell, M.P., in his speech 
 
438 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 These irregular country movements had no affiliation 
 whatever with the INVINCIBLE organisation, nor were they in 
 any manner subject to the control of any central authority 
 save their own local leaders. 
 
 The Invincible organisation was militant Ireland, the 
 nation prepared to smite the foe. It held a higher mandate 
 for its existence than any recent Irish movement at its birth. 
 It was created by lawful and organised authority; its 
 principles and its laws were those given to it by its Parnellite 
 creators, who were the legal government of the Irish nation. 
 As long as the cry " Vox populi, vox Dei" is believed in by 
 mankind, the Invincible organisation must remain on record 
 as the answer of the Irish nation to the suppression of the 
 Land League. 
 
 There were, no doubt, many men in the Parnellite ranks in 
 1 88 1 who would have opposed, if consulted, the formation of 
 any such organisation ; but they were not among the active 
 and patriotic section. Even in the fulfilment of their own 
 programme, however, if they had any during this epoch of 
 blood and agony, they effaced themselves by their abject 
 cowardice and fright, from all participation or assistance in 
 the direction of Irish affairs. These men, who were puny 
 weaklings in the crisis, became blatant and vituperative when 
 all danger was past. Some few of the " brainier " and more 
 patriotic of the Parnellite leaders and members of the 
 government, received severe private criticism from some of 
 these men who, from their well-known patriotism and devotion 
 to Ireland, were suspected by these timid and nerveless 
 Provincialists as the authors of this war of reprisals. There 
 is no doubt that this section of the Parnellites are sincere 
 believers in Ireland's destiny to be a province of the British 
 Empire ; these people talk of British murders in Ireland as 
 a necessity forced upon the invaders by Irish resistance, and 
 appear to think that any blow struck by their own oppressed 
 
 before the London Commission, when he computes that organisation as a body of 
 thirty men. This speech of the great British Radical corroborates the writer's 
 opinions as to the anxiety of both wings of the enemy to represent this hostile 
 naovoipent not onW as criminal but contemptibly, 
 
''PARNELLISM" AND " INVINCIBLEISM"— ONE 439 
 
 country is a crime, and possibly, in this narrow and 
 unpatriotic spirit, they may be sincere in their denunciation 
 of the Invincibles in DubHn, as they are sincere slaves and 
 British flunkeys. 
 
 But this does not remove from their shoulders one iota 
 of the responsibility attending the creation of this active 
 movement; if they had authority at headquarters, they should 
 have been there to give the Provincialist organisation their 
 services. But in the face of facts around them, of circum- 
 stances that could not have been hidden from the most stupid 
 — if they had not absolute information, they must have had 
 more than a shrewd suspicion that the Irish INVINCIBLES and 
 their own movement was the Land League, in a more active 
 form. If this is not so, these men must have less than the 
 ordinary perception of natural intelligence. 
 
 This history cannot be too emphatic in stating that the 
 Parnellism of that epoch and the Invincibles were one and 
 the same in actual fact ; the policy of this active movement, its 
 authority, its armament (such as it was), sprang from the 
 organised ranks of " legal agitation." 
 
 As regards these men who now so wantonly denounce the 
 Invincibles (thereby aiding the enemy in crushing out all 
 manly resistance to his rule), some of them, if not members, 
 most certainly must have known or suspected the source from 
 which the organisation sprang. If its policy, as these moral 
 cowards state, was damnable, then the men who created it 
 (but, unlike the brave workers, stood afar from contact or risk) 
 must be classified by the same title. If the foul and 
 villainous name of assassins is applicable to the manly and 
 patriotic Irish soldiers who " suppressed " the enemy's secre- 
 taries, the chiefs of the Castle conspirators whose official 
 hands were freshly red with the blood of the children massacred 
 in Ballina the very day before — if this black name of degrada- 
 tion is applicable to these self-sacrificing Irishmen who slew 
 the enemy's chieftains, how much more could it be used, and 
 with thundering emphasis, to those among the very highest of 
 
440 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the Provincialists, from out of whose ranks the INVINCIBLE 
 organisation sprang into being ? 
 
 The actions and principles of the INVINCIBLES were either 
 right or wrong ; there can be no medium term. If wrong, the 
 organisation should never have been created, and the name 
 of Ireland stained with crime. Its creators by their own 
 showing, then, are criminals. If right, it should be manfully 
 upheld in the face of day, and no man should blush to own 
 affiliation ; on the contrary, he should be proud to say, and 
 proud to leave it as an honoured inheritance to his children, 
 " I was an Invincible!" 
 
 But these weak-nerved Provincialists are heaping slime 
 upon their own names by these vile slanders. Circumstances 
 and expediency — using these coward apologies — might compel 
 silence ; but no personal danger or political exigencies can 
 explain away these denunciations, or the black and damning 
 stain they would fasten on the name of Ireland. The present 
 writer upholds the action of those then patriotic Provincialists, 
 who, when the hour struck, bravely stepped from the ranks of 
 that delusive folly of ** legal agitation " and called into being 
 a movement to destroy the foe, to wipe out of existence some 
 of the vampires fattening on the heart of their bleeding and 
 prostrate country. Posterity will honour the action of these 
 men, and in after-ages the names of those who are now 
 slandered will ,be enrolled on the list of Ireland's pure and 
 devoted patriots. Ninetenths of the Irish race to-day, at home 
 and abroad, endorse the lesson taught Britain by the 
 " suppression " of her secretaries ; and if Ireland strikes 
 another blow, the public opinion of mankind will go with the 
 weak but gallant nation whose vitality is immortal. 
 
 So horrified and maddened were all Irishmen, and especially 
 several of the Provincialist leaders, at the brutal conduct of 
 Gladstone's Chief Secretary in Ireland — his callous outrage of 
 every Irish feeling — that a short time before the creation of the 
 Invincible organisation one of the leaders of the Pro- 
 vincialists, Y , then and now a Parnellite member of the 
 
 enemy's Parliament, volunteered to sacrifice his life by going 
 
A McCARTHYITE "INVINCIBLE" 441 
 
 to Ireland and publicly "suppressing" Forster; he was overruled 
 by those of his colleagues to whom he made the proposition ; 
 from this came the policy afterwards adopted by the new 
 movement. This then brave and gallant gentleman, who 
 volunteered to undertake this mission, remains to this day 
 one of the leaders of the Provincialist organisation.^ 
 
 * Since this book was written the Provincialists have split into two factions. 
 One section continues to follow the leadership of Mr. Pamell, and the other and 
 larger part of the Parliamentary party have chosen Mr. McCarthy for their leader. 
 With the acted falsehood which haunts these movements trying to reform foreign 
 rule in Ireland, the last mentioned faction call themselves Nationalists. 
 They do not mean British Nationalists, as their avowed policy shows them 
 to be. But to further deceive the patriotic, impulsive, and unthinking masses 
 of the Irish people, these men, openly and really organised to perpetuate 
 foreign rule in Ireland and to continue the flag of the invader in the island as 
 the emblem of that foreign rule — these men have the audacity to come before 
 the world with unblushing falsehood, calling themselves Irish Nationalists. The 
 party spoken of in this book as Parnellite means the whole united Provin- 
 cial movement as it was at the epoch written about. The Invincible written 
 about here as a member of the enemy's Parliament, is now a prominent member 
 of the McCarthyite faction, and still writes M. P. after his name. 
 
II 
 
 THE ORGANISATION OF THE INVINCIBLES — THE ATTEMPTS 
 TO ASSASSINATE MR. FORSTER. 
 
 In writing of the few scenes of action taken by the In- 
 VINCIBLES in Dublin, it will be impossible to do so without 
 appearing to give undue importance to one or two central 
 figures. The present writer would rather not have this task, 
 but owing to the slanders and stigmas sought to be fastened 
 on a great principle and a heroic policy, he feels it is a 
 sacred trust and an imperative duty to his mangled mother- 
 land that the true record of a short incident — but a most 
 determined and desperate one — during Britain's war of 
 extermination, should be truthfully and plainly recorded, 
 so that Irishmen who may feel the necessity of some similar 
 movement to try and grapple with the hideous monster who 
 is strangling their beloved country, should not have their 
 minds poisoned by the enemy's lying and distorted state- 
 ments, and the villainous conclusions which his press, led off 
 by the London murder organ, would instil into their patriotic 
 minds. 
 
 The Invincible Administration held a final council of war 
 in a small foreign town, and commissioned three men to take 
 charge of the conduct of affairs. These high officials were to 
 consult with other members of the Executive from time to 
 time, as circumstances and convenience would permit, one of 
 the trio having ready access to these gentlemen as his 
 
THE "INVINCIBLE" EXECUTIVE 443 
 
 Provincial duties brought them together. Two of the 
 gentlemen appointed to conduct active operations were not 
 Provincialists ; they were the only men not agitators in the 
 Administration. The rest of the Executive were High 
 Officials of the Parnellite Irish Government. 
 
 One of these non-agitators was a man who had a reputation 
 for desperate valour, but he soon disappeared from the scene. 
 He went on a mission to Ireland with the object of visiting 
 the various INVINCIBLE bands over the four provinces of that 
 nation, but did not proceed further on his journey than 
 Dublin. There he saw the sub-officers in charge of the 
 Dublin organisation, after which he returned to the city 
 which shall be designated here as headquarters. His 
 subsequent duties were of a consultative nature. This 
 gentleman will be designated as J . 
 
 The other non-Provincialist was a brave and gallant 
 gentleman. He was a man of superior attainments. This 
 valiant soldier's services were unfortunately lost to the 
 movement by illness at a very early stage in its career. 
 
 The third member of the trio in charge at headquarters 
 might be called the mouthpiece of the Executive. He was 
 subsequently their medium of communication in great 
 measure with the man who afterwards took charge of active 
 work in Dublin, but who at this period was not a member of 
 the organisation.^ This third member of the trio was in the 
 confidence of all the leaders and of the Administration. He 
 occupied a very responsible position, and will frequently 
 appear in the course of this history. For intelligent following 
 of events he will be named Q .^ 
 
 Q was a gentleman who in earlier years had been a 
 
 member of the National ranks, but when he espoused Provin- 
 cialism (so far as official connection went) his colleagues 
 deposed him. This was an error if they meant by this that 
 his sentiments had changed. He remained in heart an 
 ardent Nationalist, and an unflinching advocate of stern 
 measures against Ireland's enemy. The important affairs 
 * See Appendix F, p. 556. * See Appendix E, p. 552. 
 
444 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 placed unreservedly in his hands by the Executive of the 
 
 INVINCIBLES, proved their confidence in Q as a man 
 
 deserving of much trust. Had he been a dishonourable man 
 he had the power of doing serious harm, which would have 
 led to disastrous consequences. But although fully deserv- 
 ing the confidence reposed in him, loyal and patriotic to 
 Ireland, he was totally unsuited for so responsible a position. 
 Under the direct supervision of the able men composing the 
 Executive he would have been invaluable, but left at times 
 with uncontrolled authority, he had not the natural resources 
 to be equal to the demand made upon his intelligence and 
 judgment. He was a persevering organiser, for, although he 
 did not leave the town where headquarters were situated, he 
 enrolled in the ranks of the INVINCIBLES a number of good 
 men. Of these, one of his earliest recruits was a patriotic 
 Irish gentleman of polished and courtly manners and 
 decidedly handsome exterior, who will be named R . 
 
 Q and J , acting under instructions from the 
 
 Executive, consulted together and decided on getting R 
 
 to purchase certain articles to send to Dublin. This mission 
 
 was executed faithfully, but were it not that R knew 
 
 that the exigencies of the time compelled his country to use 
 these as irregular weapons of v/ar, there was nothing unusual 
 in these purchases as they were such as professional gentle- 
 men require to get from time to time. True, the number 
 was more, than a single purchaser would at any one time buy, 
 
 which R explained by saying he was going to the 
 
 colonies. This incident, we have been informed, has been 
 given to the world by the gentleman himself. With the 
 exception of looking after the Provincialist organ on one 
 
 occasion R did no other duties for the organisation. 
 
 And this fact shows the want of judgment at Invincible 
 
 headquarters, for R was a man of considerable ability 
 
 and would have been able to have given the cause very 
 valuable services. The Parnellite newspaper, United Ireland^ 
 had been seized by the enemy's police in Dublin ; the in- 
 
HAMILTON WILLIAMS, M.D. 
 
SENDING THE KNIVES TO DUBLIN 445 
 
 vader was determined, so far as he had the power, to suppress 
 every public expression of Irish opinion. The official 
 Provincial journal was printed and published surreptitiously, 
 
 and on the occasion when R went to look after the 
 
 arrival of a large parcel of one issue, the enemy, on the 
 qui vivCy had made a swoop and captured the newspapers, 
 which made his journey abortive. 
 
 R remained at headquarters for a few weeks after 
 
 making the aforesaid purchases, during which time he 
 enrolled two men in the Invincible ranks. He was then 
 sent to a foreign resort. He spent several months in this 
 European retreat, living quietly at an hotel. During his stay 
 
 at this foreign hotel, Q complained very bitterly of 
 
 R 's indiscretion in corresponding with him and others, 
 
 but it is to be supposed that this was not R 's fault : 
 
 he was neglected in his retreat and compelled to write these 
 letters. Some time after the Park incident a high official of 
 the Executive sent the gentleman who organised part of 
 
 Ireland, already mentioned, with certain orders to R , 
 
 who immediately left for the New World. 
 
 Why R was not in the first instance sent out of 
 
 Europe, instead of being kept for months idle in a European 
 resort, or why he was sent away at all for the mere making 
 of these purchases and not retained for some valuable active 
 work, is one of the unexplained peculiar acts of the states- 
 men belonging to the Invincible Administration. 
 
 Another melodramatic act was the extraordinary manner 
 
 in which R 's purchases were sent to Dublin. With the 
 
 exception of two articles retained by Q those weapons 
 
 were speedily forwarded to that city. 
 
 The peculiarity of the sending of these weapons to Dublin, 
 caused a great deal of uneasiness, dissatisfaction, and want 
 of confidence among certain leading INVINCIBLES in that 
 city. A lady was chosen as messenger. There was no 
 necessity whatever for this ; the parcel could be easily 
 brought into that city by the proper person to carry such 
 
446 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 articles — a man. There was nothing very extraordinary or 
 unusual in a man carrying out so simple a transaction. It, 
 however, reflects the highest credit for bravery, devotion, and 
 patriotism on the lady, but it also shows poor judgment on 
 the part of whoever suggested such a messenger. 
 
 Unless the enemy was in possession of specific information, 
 travellers entering Ireland were not searched. And if in 
 possession of any knowledge, the lady would suffer in the 
 hands of the enemy the same vengeance as a man. The only 
 guarantee of safely bringing into Dublin any article which 
 the Castle conspirators had prohibited, would be the secrecy 
 of the transaction not the sex of the messenger. If the 
 invaders' myrmidons were in possession of any information, 
 this devoted Irishwoman would have suffered at their hands 
 the same outrages as they would have dealt to one of the 
 opposite sex. Think, then, of the fearful risk this brave lady 
 ran, and the terrible consequences to which she was exposed. 
 
 It was cruel and unmanly to send a lady with such 
 articles, and it was poor judgment on the part of some of the 
 leaders. Ladies are very often invaluable emissaries in 
 revolutionary times ; but carrying weapons, unless under 
 special cases of exceptional urgency — which did not arise 
 here — is not part of those duties. One might as well ask 
 ladies to use the weapons. 
 
 This matter has been given to the world before, in part, as 
 a something which added lustre to this phase of Ireland's 
 struggle against the foreigners' murder conspiracy. It proved 
 the devotion to country of a brave Irishwoman, and at the 
 same time displayed paucity of brains in those who ordered 
 it. As this book is written for Irish Nationalists to read, it 
 is important as a lesson to show where the great deficiency 
 has always been in Ireland's struggle — the absence through 
 moral cowardice of the '* brainy " men at the council chamber. 
 It is very far from the writer's wish to criticise, or to be 
 severe on those who endeavoured to serve their land at this 
 crisis. Ireland owes these patriotic men a deep debt of 
 gratitude. Q and J were giving their best services 
 
"K » BECOMES AN "INVINCIBLE" 447 
 
 in the cause : it is a pity that that curse to Irish struggles 
 called Prudence — which is often more personal than National 
 —kept other and far abler men from supervising and con- 
 trolling affairs in person. The members of the Parnellite 
 Irish National Government should have seen that the 
 momentous issue, which by their order Ireland was committed 
 to, should be carried out with the greatest wisdom that 
 matured judgments could bring to the nation's service 
 
 J , who was a man of great dash and bravery, far more 
 
 suited for the field than the council, was, it is said, an im- 
 portant factor in influencing the Parnellite Administration to 
 change their policy to one of action against the foe, and it is 
 very probable that the title given the new movement was 
 of his creation. But although this may be true, the 
 Parnellite member of the British Parliament, as already 
 mentioned, had made his offer of personal sacrifice to 
 suppress the then much hated chief of the Dublin Castle 
 
 Murder Bureau, before J 's arrival on the scene. J 
 
 had one or two friends among the leading Parnellites, and his 
 offer of service was no doubt the last straw that turned the 
 wavering balance. 
 
 Soon after the delivery of the parcel sent by the lady, J 
 
 visited Dublin, and had one or two interviews with the local 
 council in that city. His intrepidity or valour had no 
 opportunity to be placed on record. There was some ex- 
 pressed dissatisfaction at this among his Parnellite colleagues 
 on his return, but the present writer thinks, unjustly. What- 
 ever may be said of this gallant gentleman's judgment, his 
 valour or daring is unquestioned. 
 
 About this time a man, who will be called K , was 
 
 enrolled in the Invincible organisation.^ He had a short 
 
 time previous become acquainted with Q and R , 
 
 and sharing the same Irish sentiments in this crisis, a bond 
 of sympathy and companionship ripened very rapidly. 
 
 At one of these meetings Q and R approached 
 
 * See Appendix F, p. 556. 
 
448 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 K , and asked him to join the new movement, giving him 
 
 a shadowy outline of its nature. They both knew K was 
 
 a firm believer in Irish National Independence, and from his 
 expressed sentiments during their short acquaintance and 
 from his antecedents, they considered he would make an 
 
 available recruit. K , from his early association with the 
 
 I. R. B. and his mixing among Nationalists and Provincialists, 
 felt satisfied that the party of action had some new movement 
 in preparation which would speedily develop itself, but was 
 completely astounded and surprised to learn the source from 
 which this new attack was to spring on the enemy. To be 
 approached by a prominent and trusted Parnellite official to 
 join an active movement of the most extreme kind, in the 
 very chamber where Parliamentary members sat to consult 
 and arrange " Legal and Constitutional Agitation " staggered 
 
 and astonished K . He felt at the moment as if a veil 
 
 had fallen from his eyes, and that the policy of shaming the 
 invader out of Ireland was only a huge sham ; that physical 
 resistance to tyranny was the under-current of this gigantic 
 movement. A strange whirl of emotions and thoughts was 
 flying through his brain, undreamt of by his friends present- 
 When he collected his thoughts he asked his querists if the 
 gallant soldier (already spoken of as one of the trio appointed 
 by the Irish Government to conduct affairs, and whom we 
 
 will call F ) had any knowledge of the new National 
 
 organisation. He was told that F was already enrolled 
 
 in its ranks. K told his friends that he would give the 
 
 subject his most serious consideration, and appointed the 
 following day to meet them with his answer, in the same 
 Parnellite chamber where this interview took place. 
 
 After parting with his companions, K began to specu- 
 late on the unlooked-for, undreamt-of news which he had 
 just heard. Could it be possible, he asked himself, that the 
 Parnellite movement, which he and his brother Nationalists 
 looked on as political folly, had been all the time a secret 
 National movement } If so, this accounted for the extra- 
 ordinary conduct of the Irish-American National leaders in 
 
TAKING COUNSEL WITH THE LEADERS 449 
 
 supporting Mr. Parnell, which was an unexplained puzzle to 
 "the men in the gap." On a little reflection he dismissed this 
 idea, and concluded that the acute crisis had forced the 
 Parnellite Government to take action in spite of themselves ; 
 but still he naturally wondered at the very extreme policy 
 
 adopted. Again, he thought : Could it be that Q , 
 
 although a Parnellite official, was acting without the know- 
 ledge of the Parliamentary Administration } But on reflec- 
 tion he felt satisfied this was impossible ; the intercourse 
 
 K had had at this time with the Parnellites convinced 
 
 him that those in legal control and power must have given 
 
 their sanction and authority, or Q would never dare to 
 
 broach so bold a policy in the sanctum of their chambers. 
 With these conflicting thoughts rushing through his mind, 
 K sought his old National friend F . 
 
 F and K had been friends for twenty years. 
 
 They had been associated in revolutionary projects and some 
 events which promised serious results, during the '65 and '67 
 
 epochs. F , as already mentioned, was a man of ripened 
 
 experience and judgment, and K had every confidence 
 
 in his patriotism and good sense, and sought him for infor- 
 mation and advice as to joining the new National movement. 
 
 He told F of the interview in the Parnellite chambers, 
 
 and of the conflicting and extraordinary emotions which it 
 
 called up. F , who, as he then learned, was a member of 
 
 the new Invincible Administration, gave K a full and 
 
 detailed history of the National undertaking, which was the 
 creation of those who held the Irish reins of office with the 
 full sanction and voice of the Irish race. Everything told 
 K at that interview was in the fulness of time corrobor- 
 ated by the course of events, the history of which is given in 
 
 these pages. F impressed upon his friend the necessity 
 
 of locking in his own breast at that period, the full and 
 exhaustive statement of Irish affairs placed before him, and 
 
 especially to leave Q under the impression that he knew 
 
 no more than any ordinary recruit to the National ranks. 
 
 K • attended next day to keep his appointment at the 
 
 G G 
 
450 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Parnellite chambers, where R , who was deputed by 
 
 Q , initiated and enrolled him a soldier of Ireland's 
 
 INVINCIBLES. There, in the Parnellite Parliamentary cham- 
 ber, the temple of " legal agitation," K received and 
 
 accepted (not for the first time) the obligation of an Irish 
 revolutionary soldier. 
 
 When his initiation had concluded, R left the chamber, 
 
 and Q entering, told the newly-enrolled disciple that he 
 
 wished him to initiate a new member, mentioning X , a 
 
 gentleman with whom K had a slight acquaintance. 
 
 After the revelation given him by F nothing now aston- 
 ished him, or otherwise he would have indeed wondered at 
 
 the new recruit. X was a gentleman of social standing, 
 
 good means and highly honourable reputation, a prominent 
 Parnellite, and to the outer world a firm believer in " moral 
 suasion." In the same Parliamentary chamber where he 
 
 himself was initiated K repeated the ceremony to the 
 
 new recruit. This newly-enrolled Invincible was a gentleman 
 of superior social position, a man of education, and un- 
 doubtedly a sincere and faithful Irishman.^ 
 
 A short time after these initiations R left for the 
 
 Continent, as already stated, and so dropped out of the IN- 
 VINCIBLE movement through no wish of his own, as he also 
 does out of this history. In consequence the arrest of one of 
 the INVINCIBLES in Dublin by the enemy's chief, Forster, 
 (who caused the haphazard arrest under the vague charge of a 
 " suspect,") K was sent to Dublin. This Irishman, im- 
 prisoned by the Castle conspirators, was a brave, impulsive, 
 and dashing Nationalist ; he had been associated with 
 patriotic movements all his life. His scorn of the enemy's 
 myrmidons was openly expressed, and there were few people 
 who knew him that were not aware of his sentiments.^ 
 
 K 's duty in Dublin during this visit was the filling of 
 
 ^ At this time of writing, X , like many an cx-Invincible, is a Parnellite 
 
 member of the British Parliament, and it may also be written that he is at this 
 date (1891) a McCarthyite member of the British Parliament. 
 
 * See Appendix G, p. 559. 
 
*'K " RECEIVES THE DUBLIN COMMAND 451 
 
 the office on the local council left vacant by the recent arrest, 
 which he did by the promotion of one of the noblest patriots 
 to whom suffering Ireland has ever given birth — a loyal 
 young hero who sealed his devotion to his mother-land by 
 the sacrifice of his young life. On K 's return to head- 
 quarters he made an official report of affairs in Dublin, and 
 had a series of interviews with his friend on the Directory. 
 In discussing the aspect of the cause, the Directory decided 
 that some man should be sent to take supreme control of the 
 organisation in Dublin, and hold the responsible direction of 
 whatever operations the patriots should take against the 
 invaders. Although a number of volunteers could be easily 
 procured to take this post of honour and danger, the diffi- 
 culty was to get a man whose business habits and surround- 
 ings would leave him free to move, without drawing on him 
 suspicion from some of the hydra-headed claws of the 
 monster that ravaged Ireland. 
 
 At a meeting of the Directory F said that he knew an 
 
 Invincible, a revolutionary comrade of former days, who, 
 he was sure, would serve his country at this crisis ; and whose 
 business was of that nature that would permit him to move 
 freely through Ireland without a shadow of suspicion from 
 the foe. But there were important reasons why he felt disin- 
 clined to mention this subject to his friend, or ask him to 
 accept so dangerous a position. The Directory overruled 
 
 F 's hesitation, and the proposition was put to K . 
 
 He accepted the responsibility on condition of receiving full 
 control of operations, in no way hampered by either council 
 or Directory, and that the Administration would promise to 
 give him loyal and staunch support in all undertakings. 
 
 Q conveyed to him officially, and F privately, that all 
 
 his demands would receive due attention and prompt support 
 from the Invincible Executive. 
 
 A few weeks after K 's appointment to take command 
 
 of the Dublin INVINCIBLES, F was seized with a dan- 
 gerous illness, and on his convalescence he went abroad to a 
 foreign watering-place to recruit his health ; and at this critical 
 
 GG 2 
 
452 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 time Ireland was deprived of the services of this gallant 
 gentleman and valiant soldier. 
 
 All this time the enemy's war of extermination went on ; 
 every day the prisons received some fresh victims. The 
 hideous devil-fish that polluted Ireland by his presence, was 
 putting forth every one of his monster tentacles to suppress 
 and crush out the smallest spark of national life. The 
 massacre of the Irish women in Belmullet was followed up 
 by the incarceration of Irish ladies ; and every day brought 
 with it some new outrage to irritate and madden the already 
 enraged Irish heart. A spark would have set Ireland in a 
 blaze of revolution, but the leaders suppressed these smould- 
 ering fires, believing it would be insanity to attempt open 
 warfare. Yet the enemy was depopulating the country 
 quicker and with vaster destruction — himself escaping all the 
 time unscathed — than if he were using cannon and musketry 
 on the ranks of revolution. The British foe was thoroughly 
 on the alert ; no precaution was omitted ; he was not to be 
 taken by surprise. Forster was carefully guarded by armed 
 men ; this was done as quietly as possible, so as not to alarm 
 the public mind. The enemy had a vague suspicion some 
 attack was meditated by th? Irish ; but of the nature of this, 
 or what was the strength of the National movement in 
 Ireland, all was speculation.^ Some British alarmists exagger- 
 ated this in the eyes of the enemy's Government. This class 
 was principally composed of Irish rebels and traitors, 
 Orangemen, landlords ; and that slavish crowd, who are as 
 ferocious as they are cowardly, like the pillars of the Settlers' 
 Parliament in College Green, the sanguinary and brutal 
 yeomen of '98. Others laughed to scorn the idea that the 
 Irish worm would turn ; they believed slavery was so inocu- 
 lated into the Irish soul that there might be '' legal " protest- 
 ations and a few country outrages on each other ; but an 
 attack on any sanctified British official, or a " rising " as some 
 hinted at, would be to confer on Irishmen a character for 
 
 * See Appendix H, p. 560. 
 
THREATENING MR. FORSTER BY LETTERS 453 
 
 daring in their own cause that these men considered prepos- 
 terous. They ought, but for British stupidity, to be strength- 
 ened in these opinions by the number of threatening letters 
 sent Mr. Forster, the offspring of puny minds filled with folly 
 and ignorance ; men who commit these absurdities have no 
 intention of following up their threats. A trumpery package 
 containing some kind of explosive was included in the 
 mail of this hated British despot. The action of those 
 blundering people seriously alarmed the object of these 
 fierce menaces, and the enemy was armed cap-a-pie to meet 
 all assaults.^ 
 
 The care taken of Forster even when in his own country 
 was very little relaxed. An incident that corroborated this^ 
 
 occurred to K a short time before he assumed command 
 
 in Dublin. On one night he was a visitor to the gallery of 
 the British Commons, a place he occasionally went to when 
 he had leisure and opportunity. .Upon this occasion he was 
 anxious to meet one of the members of Parliament then in 
 the House, and leaving at a late hour, when the debate was 
 growing tedious, he walked up and down before the building 
 from Westminster Hall to the members' entrance. Standing 
 gazing at that magnificent poem in stone, the old and historic 
 hall, he was accosted by an elderly gentleman, who, he was 
 afterwards told by the policeman on duty, was the London 
 Times reporter in the House of Commons. This gentleman 
 was apparently a great admirer of ancient and mediaeval 
 architecture. He spoke with an air and tone of a cognoscenti 
 as he compared the differences between the modern buildings 
 of the Houses of Parliament and the ancient Hall of West- 
 minster ; he rambled on in a pleasing style about York 
 Minster and other ancient English cathedrals, a subject 
 which he evidently studied with much interest. 
 
 As soon as this gentleman had exhausted the subject to 
 
 his own satisfaction, he entered the House. Then K 
 
 walked down to the members' entrance nearer the river ; he 
 had proceeded a few paces up that narrow passage when he 
 
 ^ See Appendix H, p. 560. 
 
454 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 came face to face with W. E. Forster. As soon as the British 
 Secretary saw the stranger advancing towards him (what 
 
 must have been a usual event, or else why would K be 
 
 permitted to enter), his whole manner denoted fright and 
 nervous excitement ; his face grew instantly pale as if he 
 was about to swoon ; he hurriedly and in a twitching manner 
 placed the despatch box he was carrying before him to shield 
 his person. Conscience makes cowards of us all ! All this 
 
 nervous excitement was observed by K , who, as he 
 
 passed by, rapidly turned upon his heel and followed Forster, 
 impelled by motives of curiosity to see how the adventure 
 
 would end. It flashed like lightning through K 's brain 
 
 how easily this tyrant could at that very moment be shot. 
 
 But K had no such mission ; his business to the House 
 
 that evening was of a totally different nature ; he had no 
 weapon on his person, even if he felt inclined to lay low 
 the merciless despot who was trying to destroy his country 
 and who has a no less brutal successor to-day (1887) in 
 Ireland. 
 
 As Forster emerged from the passage into the open air, 
 
 he was followed at a little distance by K , who overheard 
 
 the Chief Secretary speak a few hurried harsh words to the 
 policeman on duty ; although he did not catch the words 
 
 K felt certain that their import was in some way relative 
 
 to himself In an instant Forster was surrounded by several 
 men in civilian clothes who seemed to spring out of all 
 
 sorts of corners ; these men K took to be Forster's 
 
 London guard, but this night they did not display unusual 
 
 vigilance. K related this adventure to some prominent 
 
 Provincialists. It was convincing proof that whatever 
 doubts were in the mind of the enemy's Government, their 
 Irish Chief Secretary was alarmed for his own personal 
 safety. 
 
 As soon as K had arranged some private business 
 
 matters, his ostensible reasons for visiting Dublin, he assumed 
 command of the Invincibles in that city. He this time 
 had to bring with him an official document, his commission 
 
«K " AND THE DUBLIN COUNCIL 455 
 
 from his Government, which, when read to the local council, 
 was speedily destroyed.^ 
 
 The INVINCIBLES with whom K at first came into 
 
 immediate association were the Dublin Council. This 
 council was composed of four men, each of whom controlled 
 a number of sub-officers, and these again had under their 
 immediate command the rank and file of the organisation in 
 the Irish metropolis.^ 
 
 The new office created in Dublin by the Executive removed 
 from this council all executive duties, so far as the decisions 
 in the direction of active work which had hitherto been 
 under their control. This responsibility was now deposited 
 with the new officer, who had sole charge of the direction 
 and guidance of all plans, the carrying out of which was 
 left to his own judgment. But as all details of any attack 
 upon the enemy should be entrusted to the patriotic men 
 who composed this council, and who had to transmit all 
 orders to their sub-officers, which again had to be conveyed 
 to the Invincible soldiers, the principal advantage in this 
 
 ^ All correspondence which was necessary during the Invincible epoch was 
 destroyed as soon as read. The greatest care was of course taken to have the 
 smallest possible written orders or instructions issued ; most of these passed 
 between the officer in command and his Government. The hedging round with 
 every secrecy possible, even of those engaged in this active movement from each 
 other, was considered an important matter of discipline. And yet, when the 
 London Times sprung the Pigott letters upon the world, a panic existed in the 
 Parnellite ranks, and a terrible fear, born of the nerveless, craven natures of many 
 of those men, took possession of them. They imagined that some real informa- 
 tion was behind the Pigott letters, and, like all such crouching dispositions, 
 began to suspect some of the men who had risked their lives for Ireland in trying 
 to carry out the former Parnellite policy of being at this time in collusion with the 
 enemy's murder organ. In their fright they knew not whom to suspect, but they 
 fastened their foul, unmanly suspicions upon one or two of the living whom they 
 had by implication more vilely wronged. 
 
 In the moment of panic and agony Mr. Patrick Egan, an honoured Irish 
 patriot, came to their aid, and by his help they unearthed the Times source of 
 information ; then they felt relieved and could put a bold front before the world 
 with lighter hearts. Not one Invincible, not even the humblest, would for all 
 the gold in the Bank of England stand beside the brutal assassin journal that was 
 trying to defame their bleeding country, although they looked with equal loathing 
 and scorn on the cruel policy of falsehood and slander pursued by the once- 
 respected Parnellites. The writer has this knowledge of the state of the 
 Parnellite mind, from the mouth of the highest and most trusted of the party. 
 * See Appendix J, p. 563. 
 
456 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 change was the unity in all plans of assault now centred in a 
 single authority, and also the knowledge that the INVINCIBLE 
 Government was directly represented by the presence oi 
 their new officer, which gave additional strength and esprit de 
 corps to the Dublin organisation. This feeling animated the 
 whole movement, irrespective of the merits of the man sent 
 to take charge, for they felt confident that the Executive was 
 working with them by its representative, and that all respon- 
 sibility for further failures, should these be repeated, would 
 rest upon other shoulders. 
 
 The officers that composed this council will be designated as 
 
 L , M , O , and the fourth was the unfortunate 
 
 James Carey.^ The late chairman of this council was N , 
 
 the " suspect " arrested by the enemy. The first duty of this 
 council was to organise themselves, and although their new 
 captain superseded the former duties of the chairman, it was 
 necessary to appoint a successor to the INVINCIBLE whom 
 the foe had in his toils. 
 
 Of the four men composing this council, M- was a man 
 
 of more force of character, and more proficient in revolu- 
 tionary knowledge than his colleagues. He was a respect- 
 able mechanic, and used to the control of men. He was 
 also an officer in the I. R. B., and a staunch and active Irish 
 Nationalist from his earliest years. Although a man of but 
 moderate education, he was possessed of sound judgment and 
 knew not the name of fear. He has since died on the 
 scaffold for Ireland. 
 
 L. was a very young man, one of those godlike 
 
 specimens of manhood created by a wise Providence, and 
 endowed with supernatural gifts, to aid in the salvation of a 
 down-trodden people. He was destined to be the advanced 
 apostle who was to bear the beacon light, to point to the 
 narrow path of travel by which his bleeding mother-land 
 would emerge, newly born, in the sunlight of freedom. 
 
 K , on a previous visit, had appointed him to succeed the 
 
 imprisoned N upon the council. He died a martyr's 
 
 * See Appendix J, p. 563. 
 
PLANNING THE ATTACK ON MR. FORSTER 457 
 
 death ; posterity and an independent Ireland will revere his 
 memory. 
 
 O was an earnest, sincere, and patriotic Irishman, an 
 
 enthusiast, but one who never flinched when the order for 
 duty came. He was a thorough Celt in the buoyancy of his 
 disposition, but more subject to outside influence and the 
 power of a stronger intellect than either L or M . 
 
 K was perfectly satisfied that the brave comrades 
 
 whom he found in that council would be always ready to do 
 or dare anything that mortal men could do, for their manacled 
 nation. He told them to select from among themselves the 
 officer whom they wished to preside over them, more 
 especially as this was now a subordinate office. The result 
 
 by ballot was two votes for M and two votes for O . 
 
 K was compelled to exercise his authority, and appoint 
 
 a chairman. He placed O in the vacant office. His 
 
 personal predilection was in favour of M ; but as there 
 
 was a local feeling apparent in one member against this 
 man, and as the appointment was almost immaterial, he 
 
 chose O to remove the faintest feeling that might mar 
 
 harmony among the men with whom he would have to work 
 
 out serious duties for Ireland. O was an ex-I. R. B. man, 
 
 and a personal friend of Q ; the only man on the Dublin 
 
 Council who had ever met that brave Parnellite official. 
 
 In discussing the best and most suitable place to attack 
 the chief of the enemy's murder bureau, opinions were 
 divergent. After hearing the suggestions offered by the men 
 
 who were familiar with every part of the city, K decided 
 
 he would drive over the ground and reconnoitre, before coming 
 to a decision. He did so, and selected a part of the Dublin 
 quays near the Park where the street narrowed, the houses in 
 that section being built nearer the river. It was observed 
 that when the enemy's chief drove abroad (at this time his 
 movements became very irregular) that an additional force of 
 police, spies, and detectives were placed along his route of 
 travel ; all these, the Irish learned, were on the alert, armed 
 and prepared for resistance. It was necessary that the 
 
4S8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 patriot force should be equal to that of the enemy. Armed 
 INVINCIBLES in sufficient number were to be posted to guard 
 all resistance from the foe. These men were to be in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of the premeditated attack. 
 
 The " suppression " of this chief of the foreign murder 
 bureau could be more easily carried out by the deliberate 
 and almost certain death of the man or men engaged ; but 
 this was positively forbidden by the Parnellite Government, 
 who, in their morbid belief in secrecy, hoped that the men 
 engaged would successfully get away by acting together, or, 
 if not, that they should share all the same dangers equally, 
 which will explain the careful planning necessary to accom- 
 plish results, under the peculiar circumstances of the time, 
 with a numerous armed and watchful foe ever on the alert. 
 
 The movements of the enemy were very uncertain, and 
 information of his intended goings and comings was always 
 unreliable. Incorrect reports were spread abroad for pur- 
 poses of deception. But one morning the INVINCIBLES had 
 news, which was considered reliable, that the enemy would 
 leave the Chief Secretary's Lodge about eleven o'clock, and, 
 driving down the quays, visit the Castle for the transaction of 
 some of his infamous duties. 
 
 The number of INVINCIBLES considered necessary, were 
 concentrated in the neighbourhood of the scene where the 
 attack was expected to take place, and a few men were posted 
 within sight of each other to give the signal of the appearance 
 of Forster, and to pass the news to their comrades. A 
 vehicle was ordered to drive after the enemy's carriage, by 
 which arrangement the Invincible on duty near the Secre- 
 tary's Lodge would be made certain, by personal observation, 
 that the chief of the British murder gang occupied a seat in 
 the carriage. The man appointed to see that the enemy's 
 chief left the Lodge, was the unfortunate James Carey. 
 Carey's instructions were to ride down the quay, sitting 
 alongside the driver, in the wake of Forster's carriage, giving 
 the signal to the first Invincible sentry, whose duty it was 
 to take up the signal and pass it along the line. Carey, 
 
CAREY SHOWS THE WHITE FEATHER 459 
 
 driving on the box seat, was instructed to see that these 
 orders were obeyed. 
 
 At a meeting of the four INVINCIBLE officers, held the 
 night previous to the meditated attack, Carey begged of 
 
 K , who presided, to remove him from the dangerous 
 
 position he would occupy on the box seat of the vehicle 
 following the enemy's carriage. He pleaded his large family 
 as a reason for making this — for an INVINCIBLE — extra- 
 ordinary request. L and M exchanged glances. 
 
 Carey suffered in their estimation, and K felt satisfied 
 
 that he was a man of very weak nerves. There was no 
 alternative but to grant his request, for to place a man with 
 such physical infirmities in the position intended might en- 
 danger the success of the undertaking. The driver of the 
 vehicle (who was an INVINCIBLE), with a comrade, was to 
 give the first sentinal the signal, as soon as Carey saw Forster 
 leave in his carriage. This order was to be conveyed to these 
 men promptly. 
 
 On the morning of this expected attack K left his 
 
 abode to make some business calls. These visits were in the 
 neighbourhood of the Park. The driver he usually employed 
 
 was a man, so far as K knew, in no way identified with 
 
 Irish national affairs. He was a jovial fellow with a good 
 honest face. He had a fast horse, of which he was proud. 
 
 K felt satisfied that not one carman in a hundred in 
 
 Dublin city but would have proved loyal to him if any 
 necessity arose. At this time the sentiment in favour of 
 Irish manufactures was at its zenith, and a new factory to 
 manufacture woollen goods about to be started, had its offices 
 on the Liffey side of Park Gate Street a little above Kings- 
 bridge. K made a business visit to this office, timing 
 
 himself so that his call would be completed and that he 
 would find himself disengaged to arrive on the scene in the 
 wake of the vehicle that followed the British chiefs carriage ; 
 but he was detained by the manager's conversation a minute 
 or two longer than he wished. How important minutes are 
 often in the solution of great events ! When K mounted 
 
46o THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 on the outside car and told the driver to proceed quickly 
 down the quay, he could see before him Forster's carriage 
 speeding rapidly, followed at some distance by the INVINCIBLE 
 
 vehicle. K 's carriage drove at a rapid pace in the effort 
 
 to overtake the swiftly moving carriage. Every second 
 
 K was expecting to hear the sound of firing and the 
 
 beginning of the attack ; but to his astonishment the carriage 
 passed the place appointed, and nothing unusual occurred. 
 The sentry, whose duty it was to signal the main body that 
 the approaching carriage was the enemy's, was leaning 
 against the quay wall, expecting to see Carey on the vehicle 
 coming down the road and to receive from him the signal. 
 He took no notice of the signalman on the opposite side of 
 the road, who incorrectly thought that the signal was taken 
 up. There was a number of idlers near, and the sentries 
 could not tell but that they were INVINCIBLES. These 
 lookers-on leaned over the quay walls, unconscious of the 
 possibility of danger. The signalman who failed was in- 
 correctly instructed ; he should have been made to repeat the 
 order back again, to make certain it was intelligible. He 
 was rebuked by his officer for the error, which was only his 
 in part. 
 
 When K 's car came up he hurriedly took in the situa- 
 tion. Two policemen and a sergeant were talking together 
 at the corner of the bridge close by, and possibly among the 
 many loiterers grouped about were some of the enemy's 
 armed guards ; but had the signal been properly taken up 
 Forster would have been *' suppressed " ; he who destroyed 
 the people by bayonet, dungeon, and buckshot, would have 
 perished by the bullet. 
 
 That night Forster left for Kingstown, sleeping on board 
 the mail steamer (for the old tyrant was in a perpetual and 
 restless condition of fright), and left for London next 
 morning. 
 
 The Invincible officers were much annoyed at the mis- 
 adventures of the day, and the temporary departure of the 
 
CAREY DEPRIVED OF OFFICE 461 
 
 enemy's chief from Dublin, who got off again unscathed. 
 
 K gave the Dublin Council certain instructions, and at 
 
 parting, he left the city for a time. The orders he gave the 
 Invincible officers were relative to a morning attack on 
 their enemy, when he arrived to re-commence his mission of 
 blood. A short time after Forster made a hurried visit to 
 
 Dublin. K , who had received positive information of 
 
 his approaching departure that night, sent a telegram to the 
 Dublin officer ; but although the men were in the neighbour- 
 hood of Westland Row at an early morning hour to await 
 the arrival of the train, by another chapter of accidents the 
 enemy escaped. 
 
 During K^ 's stay in Dublin he enrolled in the In- 
 vincible ranks two revolutionary friends. These men were 
 both invaluable additions to the national ranks. One of 
 them, from the nature of his business and surroundings, could 
 at a crisis render loyal service to Ireland ; the other, as an 
 active worker, could be useful in communicating with the 
 
 Invincible officers in case of emergency. On K 's 
 
 return to Dublin he removed Carey from any consultative 
 position on the council ; his action in connection with the 
 recent mishap, and the desertion of two of his men who left 
 
 Ireland in fright over the recent failure, decided K in 
 
 taking this step. Although this was done for the perfection 
 of discipline, Carey's loyalty to Ireland was unquestioned. 
 There was no man who had any right for a moment to sus- 
 pect this after his record, and this was true at that time and 
 long after. Carey remained a worker ; all knowledge of the 
 details of future movements was kept from him thenceforth. 
 
 L , M , and K discussed these when together. 
 
 Carey obeyed his instructions faithfully, care being taken 
 that nothing of a nature requiring desperate courage was 
 
 entrusted to him. K felt compelled to remove Q 's 
 
 friend O , who had been up to this chairman of the 
 
 council, and M was placed in his position. There was 
 
 nothing to be said of O 's courage or devotion to Ireland ; 
 
462 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 he was and is a sincere patriot ; but a foolish indiscretion, 
 which in a less serious movement might be considered trifling, 
 
 necessitated the appointing of another officer. O and 
 
 Carey remained nominal members of the council, but all con- 
 sultative duties were transacted when they were not present. 
 
 One of the new members, P , was at this juncture placed 
 
 upon the council. K felt satisfied that with such in- 
 telligent assistance as L , M , and P could bring 
 
 to the cause, this Dublin visit would carry out the policy of 
 the organisation. 
 
 The same information was received by the patriots that 
 the enemy's chief would leave for the Castle on his mission 
 of blood, as on the morning of the omitted signals. This time 
 arrangements were made which in all human probability 
 
 would be successful. K- was told by his officers that the 
 
 INVINCIBLES were enraged at the number of failures, and 
 would be sure to give a good account of themselves that 
 morning. He arranged this time to be on the scene before 
 the beginning of hostilities. He left his abode that morning 
 expecting a sanguinary fight on the quay. A merchant who 
 has his office and store not far from the scene of the expected 
 encounter, K knew very well. They had become ac- 
 quainted in Cork. He paid this merchant an ostensible 
 business visit, intending to remain until the approaching 
 enemy was in sight. Surveying the scene, he saw the usual 
 idlers and police on the bridge, and others scattered in the 
 neighbourhood ; he concluded there would be a sharp fight 
 before the incident closed. Enslaved peoples require to be 
 educated as the advanced guard to freedom ; street fights are 
 the forerunners of revolution. The suppression of the brutal 
 tyrant Forster, and the teaching of the Irish people a lesson 
 by his death, seemed on the brink of completion. 
 
 As K walked up to where the men were posted, the 
 
 Invincible vehicle, which had made a detour from the Park, 
 came rattling along the quay, this time, as ordered, in front 
 of the enemy's carriage. The British invader's equipage 
 came thundering after in dashing style. As it drew nearer, 
 
MR. FORSTER AGAIN ESCAPES 463 
 
 K caught a glimpse of female garments ; there were 
 
 ladies in the carriage with Forster. A short time previous to 
 this a band of Irish guerillas in the country had attacked a 
 brutal landlord. The village tyrant escaped, and his sister- 
 in-law, Mrs. Smythe, who was by his side, was accidentally 
 shot dead. No one deplored this lady's death more than the 
 Irishmen engaged. The British press took up the howl of 
 rage and slander, and with its million-fold sources of poison- 
 ing the ears of mankind, spread broadcast the cry that the 
 Irish savages were murdering the ladies of Ireland. How 
 few of those who read this piece of British news — which 
 was cabled over the world — ever heard of the bloodstained 
 scoundrels who pursued the women of Belmullet, stabbing 
 and shooting them as the poor creatures fled before Forster's 
 armed brutes who deliberately tried to murder them. Mrs. 
 Smythe was killed by accident, but Forster's savages stabbed 
 with positive and plain orders to carry out the intentions of 
 their chief, by a premeditated massacre inflicting on these 
 Irishwomen wounds and death. 
 
 It flashed upon K 's mind that the scene where Mrs. 
 
 Smythe lost her life might be expected here ; not a second 
 was to be lost. The Invincible vehicle suddenly stopped, 
 barring the passage of the enemy's carriage ; the coachman 
 hurriedly reined in his horses, and the enemy was brought to 
 
 a standstill. Close by stood L- , one of the bravest and 
 
 most heroic of the INVINCIBLES. An order from K , 
 
 and the young officer promptly stepped from the pathway. 
 Another instant of time, and as sure as the sun was in the 
 heavens, the life of Ireland's tyrant would have been blotted 
 out ; for a number of desperate men, brave sons of an out- 
 raged nation, were about to swoop down upon him and wipe 
 out a small portion of the debt of massacre and persecution. 
 Their hands were stayed by authority; they knew that their 
 young leader was controlled by some outside orders, the 
 mystery of which strengthened the bonds of discipline. 
 
 An ejaculation and expletive of annoyance came from the 
 enemy's coachman, who little dreamt how near he was to a 
 
464 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 scene of bloodshed. The INVINCIBLE vehicle at a signal 
 drove off, and the Secretary's carriage drove on its route ; 
 the whole incident was so rapid that before any of the 
 enemy's armed guardians came on the scene, the entire affair 
 
 was over. This event confirmed K in the belief that 
 
 any attack made by the INVINCIBLES, would be finished 
 before the sluggish foe would arouse to the nature of their 
 danger. 
 
 No similar opportunity came again to the INVINCIBLES. 
 The Kilmainham treaty followed quickly, and somewhat 
 puzzled the Nationalists as to its real meaning, as Mr. 
 Parnell was held in high esteem at this epoch. During the 
 rapid march of events, however, the enemy was watched as 
 usual. At length news reached the INVINCIBLES that he 
 was leaving for London. There was no suspicion whatever 
 of his resignation. Arrangements were made for the last 
 time, and Brunswick Street, Dublin, was lined with armed 
 INVINCIBLES. Early on this day Forster and his son were 
 seen to enter a bank by one of the Irish scouts. This scout 
 unfortunately left to inform the INVINCIBLE officer in charge 
 of the whereabouts of the oft-sought enemy. But in his 
 doing this Forster got off unnoticed. Forster stole away 
 from Dublin Castle early in the afternoon ; from what was 
 learned of his movements afterward, stole away is the term 
 applicable. He was, no doubt, seriously alarmed, while 
 trying to preserve an appearance of outward calm. He 
 knew what no one in Dublin then did — that that was his 
 last day of holding his dangerous and cruel office.^ 
 
 He was well aware that he had so outraged the Irish 
 nation under the orders of his chief, Mr. Gladstone, that no 
 man, woman, or child in Ireland but would have received 
 with joy the news of his death. He drove to Kingstown 
 instead of going by train, and dined in one of the yacht 
 clubs. The Royal Irish Yacht Club, it is believed, enter- 
 tained the British tyrant before his departure. 
 * See Appendix H, p. 560, 
 
THE "INVINCIBLES" AGAIN DISAPPOINTED 465 
 
 The INVINCIBLES, unaware of his having left Dublin, were 
 filled with enraged and bitter feelings at their many failures ; 
 they were now anxious to give him a parting shot. As 
 
 K , accompanied by a friend, approached Westland Row, 
 
 he saw the men concentrating near St. Mark's Church at the 
 
 end of Brunswick Street. On the way to the station K 
 
 met the officer in command, who was superintending details. 
 He stopped to talk with him a moment ; the brave fellow 
 told him that everything was right, that they would stop the 
 enemy's carriage, as ordered, near the corner of Brunswick 
 Street and St. Mark's Church. 
 
 In a few minutes after the enemy's carriage, preceded 
 by one of the INVINCIBLES driving rapidly, came along. 
 Forster's family, the officer in charge was told, were in the 
 carriage, but not himself. This message of disappointment 
 was followed by instant orders to concentrate at Westland 
 Row ; the order was promptly obeyed. At the railroad 
 terminus discipline for a moment was broken ; several of the 
 INVINCIBLES, in the excitement of Forster's escaping again, 
 rushed up on the railroad platform and ran along the 
 carriages looking for their foe. Had the British tyrant been 
 there he would have been shot, even if the man who did 
 it was to be instantly killed. After the London mail train 
 
 left, K had a consultation with M ; a few men, as 
 
 sentinels, were ordered to be left in the neighbourhood, and 
 after supper the rest were to take up their post at nine 
 o'clock. The fact of Forster's family having left, convinced 
 the INVINCIBLES that he would depart early in the morning, 
 and, as his habit had been for some time back, leave for 
 Kingstown by a late train, and sleep on board the mail 
 steamer. 
 
 It was a miserable wet night and the men sought shelter 
 in one or two places, posting sentinels outside who were 
 
 relieved in turn. K had heard a rumour that Forster 
 
 had left and was anxiously looking out to see some of the 
 Invincible officers, to learn if there could be truth in the 
 report. At the corner of College Place in Brunswick Street 
 
 H H 
 
466 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 he met the officer he was seeking, and told him of the 
 current rumour. The brave fellow would not believe it true, 
 but he could not be spared from his post to seek for any 
 verification. One of the INVINCIBLES' vehicles, the driver 
 of which was a staunch and manly though humble patriot, 
 and James Carey, were stationed at the Castle gate to watch 
 the departure of Forster, who, the INVINCIBLES were certain 
 from information they received, was engaged on business 
 
 inside before his departure. K walked up Dame Street 
 
 to the Castle, and saw Carey standing outside a tavern door 
 a little above the Express office, nearly opposite the Castle, 
 and near him the car-driver. Carey was smoking a cigar, and 
 
 when he saw K he " enthused " a little. He said that from 
 
 what he was told Forster was inside the Castle and would 
 soon leave, and that the rumour of his departure was 
 purposely circulated by the enemy. But the time came 
 when the British Secretary must depart, as the last train for 
 Kingstown was 11.45 P.M. The INVINCIBLES, after their 
 long hours on duty, were compelled to leave for their homes, 
 all their perseverance and self-sacrifice of no avail — so far not 
 a blow struck ! 
 
Ill 
 
 THE ORDERS FROM HEADQUARTERS—THE PHCENIX PARK 
 
 MURDERS 
 
 The Invincible Administration in their original orders 
 
 conveyed instructions to K that the two chiefs of the 
 
 invaders, who directed in Ireland the oppression and slaughter 
 of her people, should be " suppressed." The Under-Secretary 
 up to this time was not attacked, as the office of his chief was 
 to be first vacated by the " suppression " of the despot who 
 
 lately held that post. When K was invested by the 
 
 Administration with the command of the Dublin Invincibles, 
 he had legal authority from the Executive to carry out this 
 policy in full. The time had now come when he should issue 
 such orders, and leave to the INVINCIBLE Government the 
 responsibility of confirming or countermanding all action. 
 But though he made up his mind as to the orders he would give 
 the men, he was determined that no action would be taken 
 until he heard from the INVINCIBLE Government. He was 
 satisfied to believe that wisdom controlled their councils, and 
 no matter what were his own personal predilections that 
 these men, having every advantage and knowledge of the 
 position, would do what was best for Ireland under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 On that Wednesday evening K saw M , the officer 
 
 who was chief of the Dublin Council, and gave him orders to 
 have the men ready by Friday to " suppress " the Under- 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Secretary. It required all K 's authority to compel this 
 
 man to relinquish the idea of following Forster to England. 
 The Dublin men were enraged at the old tyrant escaping after 
 all their toil, and many of them were prepared to give their lives 
 
 for his. K pointed out to this Dublin officer that Ireland 
 
 did not war with individuals ; that Forster was politically dead, 
 so far as their country was concerned, and to do him any harm 
 now would be criminal ; that for the present they would 
 occupy their attention by vacating the office of the enemy's 
 Under-Secretary, and that as soon as a successor to Forster 
 was appointed by the British Executive, they should try and 
 make this office also vacant by the " suppression " of the new 
 invader the very day he landed on his bloodstained mission. 
 The creed of the INVINCIBLES was *' War to the knife." 
 
 K ordered that the weapon immortalised by Palafox 
 
 should be used instead of revolvers. 
 
 The enemy assassinated the Irish people by bayonets as 
 well as gunshot wounds. As Mr. Parnell expressed it in his 
 famous Wexford speech, Mr. Gladstone had supplied his 
 Bashi-Bazouks with sharpened weapons of the newest pattern 
 to use on the people. The officer who was in command of 
 the military Parnellites felt that Ireland's answer should be 
 the grim reply — cold steel. He then sent a despatch to the 
 Invincible Directory, asking them to send instructions at 
 once. Did the public change of front alter their course .? 
 What was he to do } Was he to return, or continue their present 
 policy .? While telling them he had given certain orders, but 
 that before executing these he awaited their answer back, he 
 conveyed no information whatever as to his plans ; these did 
 not belong to their province. In him was vested the authority 
 to intelligently carry these out, which with his brave and 
 heroic comrades he tried to do. What he wished to learn 
 from the Parnellite statesmen of the movement was, if there 
 were any truth in the statements published in the newspapers 
 as to a surrender; or was Ireland's policy to continue un- 
 changing, and her answer to the invader still to remain 
 that of tiie Spanish nationalist — "War to the knife." 
 
WAITING "INVINCIBLE" EXECUTIVE'S ORDERS 469 
 
 Whatever orders they should send him he was prepared to 
 obey, doing his duty as a soldier by either attacking or 
 retiring at their discretion. Such, in substance, was the 
 contents of this important despatch, sent under cover to an 
 official of the Parnellites, by whom it would be given to 
 
 Q and delivered to the proper authorities. The Parnell- 
 
 ite who received this despatch from Dublin remains to this 
 day in the ranks of "legal agitation." 
 
 K naturally expected that whatever decision the Irish 
 
 authorities came to as to the future policy of the nation, 
 would be unanimous ; he never dreamed for an instant that 
 he would hear subsequent cowardly denunciation. Although 
 he well knew there were a great number of weak men, mere 
 politicians, in the Parnellite ranks, he concluded that these 
 men purposely or nervously stood aside and permitted the 
 bolder and more manly spirits to control affairs. The panic 
 which seized these politicians when the enemy began to 
 strike might be over, but this display of fright proved that 
 they were incapable of taking the helm during any crisis. It 
 was only natural to think that these men would leave the 
 ranks of the Parnellites if they suspected an active policy was 
 adopted by those controlling " legal agitation." But having 
 already voluntarily vacated their posts of duty, through 
 personal dread of consequences, it was scarcely to be ex- 
 pected that the return of these poltroons, when the enemy 
 appeared to grow more complacent, would influence the 
 Invincible Executive ; especially as these runaways had 
 only an indirect affiliation with the patriot organisations. 
 
 The next morning brought the astounding news of Forster*s 
 resignation, of an apparent change of front made by the 
 enemy. This, coupled with the release of Mr. Parnell and the 
 other prisoners, was a skilful diplomatic move on the part of 
 the British Minister, Mr. Gladstone ; for while he did not 
 surrender one iota of his authority, he influenced many of the 
 credulous Irish Provincialists to believe there was some im- 
 provement for the better in the enemy's cruel rule. These 
 
470 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 people so eagerly catch at any imaginary straw of consolation 
 in the drowning state of the Irish nation ! 
 
 The position K found himself placed in by the 
 
 apparent compromise with the enemy was one of great 
 responsibility. He was surprised that the Parnellite Ad- 
 ministration had made no attempt to communicate with him, 
 and if their Irish policy had altered, that they had sent him 
 no despatch to that effect. Could it be possible that this 
 apparent surrender was but a ruse to deceive the enemy? At 
 this time he was in complete ignorance of the inner history of 
 the Kilmainham treaty. He felt compelled to communicate 
 with the Executive at once, and learn the actual state of 
 affairs from themselves, for if at this crisis he returned to 
 headquarters, the morale of the men would be seriously 
 affected. The long period spent in trying to come upon the 
 trail of the enemy's ex-chief in Ireland, with no results, had 
 exasperated them ; these unsuccessful attempts to suppress 
 this murderous tyrant had imbued them with feelings of 
 personal bitterness. With many of them the hatred against 
 the man had grown stronger than that against the death- 
 dealing official of the detested invader. K , knowing the 
 
 men he had to control — their desperate unyielding front to 
 the foe, and how they would laugh to scorn, and rightly too, 
 the idea that their unrelenting enemy, Gladstone, meant any 
 serious surrender to Ireland by this new move — properly 
 concluded that orders to prepare for instant action should be 
 given the men. If the Invincible Directory were a party to 
 this apparent disgraceful surrender, then upon their shoulders 
 should rest the responsibility of any disruption in the ranks 
 of the Dublin INVINCIBLES, and any irregular course that 
 might ensue. He had no business whatever with any of the 
 intricate details of statesmanship. His was the plain duty of 
 the soldier, to try and destroy the murderous foe. 
 
 Friday morning brought to K the anxiously looked 
 
 for despatch from the Executive. The active policy was still 
 to continue, nothing was in any way changed. The Directory 
 was astonished at the inaction of the men in Dublin (if these 
 
THE "INVINCIBLE" EXECUTIVE ORDERS ACTION 471 
 
 good statesmen had had a little practical knowledge of this 
 
 inaction !). K was instructed to remain upon the ground 
 
 and on no account to leave Dublin, as they would understand 
 his presence there meant action. 
 
 P was present as K received and read this de- 
 spatch. It was news that pleased them both, as a change of 
 policy was feared. They concluded that there was a skilful 
 game of political deception being played by the statesmen of 
 
 the British and Irish nations. But now that K 's authority 
 
 was confirmed and a load of grave responsibility removed 
 from his mind, he went cheerfully to carry out the attack 
 already sketched out with M , who waited K *s pres- 
 ence to sanction action. K concluded that the forth- 
 coming action would strengthen the hands of the Parnellite 
 Administration, and not allow Ireland to lapse into a weak 
 and delusive policy such as the runaway Provincialists, if 
 they got the upper hand, would again restore. 
 
 It will be remembered that one of the charges made against 
 the actors in the Phoenix Park incident was, that that event 
 was the irresponsible act of a small body of men without 
 authority ; and it was also stated that the Extremists — as the 
 Irish Nationalists are called by some — ^were enraged at the 
 peaceful Irish *' victory " won by " legal agitation." This was 
 a deliberate lie, purposely put in circulation by timorous and 
 frightened men who knew differently. The facts are recorded 
 here. It will be seen that this falsehood had no foundation 
 
 whatever. K , the responsible officer in charge, received 
 
 the sanction and orders of the then Irish Parnellite Adminis- 
 tration before striking a blow. This Executive, as already 
 stated, was composed of responsible men of judgment and 
 authority. If all of these were not present to give their sanc- 
 tion in person to the despatch sent K in Dublin, they 
 
 were represented by whoever they deputed this authority to ; 
 they cannot, even if so inclined, shift the responsibility on 
 to the brave Dublin soldiers, who, like the military of any 
 nation, were carrying on the war declared by their states- 
 men. . . • 
 
472 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Even if K did not communicate with his Government, 
 
 but after the departure and resignation of Forster proceeded 
 therewith to carry out his full original instructions, they were 
 the responsible authority under which he and the Dublin 
 patriots were acting. They knew he was on the ground, in 
 furtherance of the National policy. If this policy had changed 
 (which it had not then), a despatch from these Parnellite 
 statesmen would have made the 6th of May an impossibility. 
 To their undying honour they sent, at this crisis, the patriotic 
 despatch mentioned to their commanding officer in Dublin. 
 Hence let it be emphatically expressed here — that the honour 
 of this tragic event rests on the statesmanship of the Parnellite 
 movement, no matter how many of these men of the weak 
 and timid section now attempt to slander and vilify the brave 
 Irish soldiers who obeyed official orders, and who have written 
 in Irish history a page that brightens this black epoch of 
 British savagery. 
 
 When K arrived at the Phoenix Park he met the 
 
 Invincible officer in charge of the entrance gate ; the men 
 were reconnoitring with a view of learning something of the 
 
 Under-Secretary's movements. K told him that unless 
 
 the undertaking could come off at once, it was better to post- 
 pone it until the following day ; that a new chief of the in- 
 vaders' " murder conspiracy " was coming, whom it would be 
 their duty to "suppress." He then left instructions with 
 M to attend with his colleague at an assigned rendez- 
 vous, where they would decide on the plan of campaign for 
 
 the following day. In the meantime K entered the Park, 
 
 saw the other officers, and instructed them to dismiss their 
 men. 
 
 That evening L and M met K at the ap- 
 pointed rendezvous ; the arrangements deemed necessary for 
 the following day's attack were discussed, and all emergencies 
 which might arise, should they be successful in coming on the 
 enemy, were provided for, in so far as they could provide for 
 these possible countermoves. The INVINCIBLES were eager 
 to wipe out their past misadventures, and were in a perfect 
 
CALCULATING THE CHANCES OF SUCCESS 473 
 
 state of discipline. Both the officers assured K that he 
 
 could rely on every man facing the enemy unflinchingly, if 
 necessary; that they might be shot down in the Phoenix 
 Park, but that they would neither fly nor surrender. If forced 
 by a superior attack of the enemy, it was decided to make 
 it a life or death struggle. 
 
 Early that day, while the INVINCIBLE officer and K 
 
 were engaged in conversation at the Park gate, a troop of 
 
 Hussars of the enemy passed by. K observed these 
 
 mounted troops, and said to the officer that these soldiers 
 might possibly be on the scene in the event of an open fight 
 in the Park, as they were quartered not far off. The brave 
 Irish patriot replied, " If we had hand-grenades, we could 
 easily scatter these uniformed boys ; however, even armed as 
 we are, we will give a good account of these British cavalry if 
 such encounter should arise." 
 
 The coming of the new chief of the enemy's murder bureau 
 gave rise to a possible hope that he could be found after his 
 arrival, without interfering with the other plans. Full final 
 
 details were being concluded when P arrived on the scene. 
 
 He brought some news of the enemy's movements which he 
 was able to procure from a special channel ; he also came with 
 dreadful news, which he learned from the same source — 
 news which quickened the blood in the veins of his hearers. It 
 was the account of the horrible massacre that took place in 
 Ballina that day. The brutal enemy had imbrued his hands 
 in the blood of Irish children — several little Irish boys had been 
 mortally wounded ; the British myrmidons fired a volley of 
 buckshot into the ranks of the children, and then mercilessly 
 stabbed all they could overtake, one little fellow having dropped 
 
 dead in his father's presence. As P told of this atrocious 
 
 crime — this saturnalia of blood — L , the young INVIN- 
 CIBLE, pressed his hands and knit his brows, looking his 
 
 officer earnestly in the face. K , as if this silent glance 
 
 was a question, answered back, "This new invader heralds his 
 arrival in our country by the bloodshed of our children. He 
 inaugurates his assumption of office by a bloody massacre, and 
 
474 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 promises to be as brutal a monster as his predecessor. He is 
 as responsible for this savage deed of blood as if he directly 
 ordered the assassinations, and with God's help, Ireland will 
 make him accountable for this deed of slaughter ; our country- 
 demands that we make no further errors or delays, but strike ! 
 This new-comer has willingly volunteered to accept the post 
 of Ireland's chief murderer, from the chief of a Government 
 that has no legal existence in this nation. We must, as be- 
 comes our manhood, and as soldiers of Ireland, see that this 
 hideous deed of blood is answered back by the destruction of 
 the responsible tyrant whose official hands are already stained 
 with our children's gore. This is our duty before he is many 
 days in our land, if by any chance we fail to-morrow." 
 
 The Invincible chief was hopeful of the morrow; but so 
 many morrows had brought disappointment ; what if the 
 
 coming day brought them death ? They parted ; M was 
 
 to meet K at a certain rendezvous the following day at 
 
 an early hour in the afternoon. The Dublin men were gay 
 
 and cheerful, but K was moody and sad when parting 
 
 upon this memorable night. 
 
 The morning of May 6 dawned with softness and beauty. It 
 was a day quite suitable for a pageant, for Nature wore her 
 holiday robes. Irish traitors rejoiced at the arrival of a new 
 foreign tyrant, and some of these rebels tried to raise a faint 
 cheer when the murderer of the Ballina boys, the new chief of 
 the assassination machine who perpetrated the massacre, 
 passed by in his carriage. But although the populace gener- 
 ally had not heard of this fresh crime of the invader, indignant 
 faces greeted the occupant of the carriage whenever he was 
 
 pointed out. Shortly after the procession passed by, K 
 
 received some vital information from the enemy's ranks. He 
 sought a messenger, and the only available one for the pur- 
 pose was James Carey. It will be remembered that Carey's 
 timidity before danger and his impulsive manner, lacking 
 steadiness of purpose, made him utterly unsuited to hold any 
 position of authority ; hence his removal from any knowledge 
 
CAREY MISSES SOME INFORMATION 475 
 
 of details, or being in any way consulted. The brave Irish- 
 man M , then in charge of the local council, always mis- 
 trusted Carey's suitability for any post of either danger or 
 importance ; he had known him for many years. He did not 
 for some time convey this doubt to K , but when circum- 
 stances made this fact apparent, the INVINCIBLE captain 
 
 approved of K 's orders that Carey in future should not 
 
 be made acquainted with any movements save as regards his 
 own share of action. But no one had any reason to question 
 
 Carey's loyalty; hence K sought him as a messenger 
 
 whom he, of course, could trust implicitly. 
 
 Calling at Carey's house, K discovered that all the 
 
 family were from home. On his return towards Westland 
 
 Row he met Mrs. Carey, who knew K was a friend of her 
 
 husband. She had some children with her, and stopped 
 
 K , asking him if he wanted Mr. Carey. He told her he 
 
 called to see him on business, but it would wait. The fact of 
 
 K not finding Carey for his messenger that morning 
 
 deprived that unfortunate man of some information about the 
 
 Park " suppression," which he died without knowing. K 
 
 saw the Dublin chief officer in person a short time after, and 
 conveyed to him the morning's message, and more important 
 news he had received later which, owing to the source from 
 which it came, cannot be given here ; but its results were seen. 
 
 As K held no personal communication with the men, all 
 
 his orders and instructions passed through the mouths of their 
 own local officers. 
 
 The enemy all this time had never relaxed his vigilance ; 
 the cry of " wolf," so often called out, may have had its result 
 in wearing off anxiety, and in so far this vigilance was mere 
 routine ; but among the lookers-on at the polo match that day 
 in the Park were scattered some of the enemy's armed myr- 
 midons in plain clothes, ready to kill, and, what was more 
 dangerous, to sound the alarm. 
 
 The new chief of the British murder society had scarcely 
 more than arrived in Dublin Castle to attend the mummeries 
 attached to the installation of a new usurping Governor- 
 
476 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 General of Ireland appointed to represent his sovereign, when 
 he was made aware that he should be guarded as his prede- 
 cessor was. The person who conveyed this information to 
 him was the permanent official, the Under-Secretary of the 
 Bureau of Assassination. This official was stained with 
 many crimes committed against Ireland ; he was a rebel and 
 renegade in the employ of her foe, and yet his black offences 
 were venal compared to that of this new-comer, his chief 
 For this man held rank in his own island of Britain, and had 
 enough of wealth and honours gained in the service of his 
 own nation to satisfy reasonable ambition — a luxurious home 
 and all the advantages which caste and fortune could shower 
 on him. And yet he accepted a position as chief of a gang 
 of invaders who were destroying the people of a neighbour- 
 ing nation, perpetrating atrocities as brutal in their results on 
 the Irish people as the savage Turks in Bulgaria. . . . 
 
 The enemy, although in a vague manner expecting some 
 kind of physical opposition for which he was armed at all 
 possible points, never thought for a moment that the Irish 
 would or could conceive so daring a thought as to attack the 
 invaders' chieftains in broad daylight, and in so public a part 
 of Dublin as the Phoenix Park. But the foe did not know 
 the heroism and determination of the " sacred band " of 
 Irishmen, those noble-souled patriots who came to their 
 country's rescue as she lay prostrate and bleeding under the 
 many stabs dealt by these ferocious foreign banditti, who 
 were then, and are still, preying on her vitals. 
 
 The Invincible chiefs never for a moment lost sight of 
 the probability, amounting almost to a certainty, of an alarm 
 being given which would arouse the enemy's garrison, and 
 change the whole complexion of the attack. But this in all 
 human probability could not occur before the chiefs of the 
 British murder gang were destroyed ; and in thus accomplish- 
 ing their purpose the victory would rest with the Irish. They 
 knew that the closing of the Park gates would more than 
 probably follow any noisy commotion, which would be also 
 the signal for the Constabulary barracks, which were near by, 
 
THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN IN THE PARK 477 
 
 to pour forth reinforcements of armed men. They came 
 prepared to face this probable circle of death hemming them 
 in, if fate so willed it. In that ring of death those devoted 
 Irishmen stood ready for all possible emergencies. These 
 men were as truly Ireland's "sacred band/' as worthy the 
 title as the heroic Greek patriots facing their brutal tyrants, 
 the Turks, at Drachagon. Amongst these Irish patriots was 
 one weak man, but that day he was loyal to his native land. 
 It must be said in favour of this unfortunate individual that 
 he tried to combat with his constitutional infirmity ; but it 
 was plain to all who saw his movements — engaging in con- 
 versation with every passing acquaintance — that he had a 
 hard struggle with himself. As soon as his mission was over, 
 he was sent away ; this was before the commencement of the 
 attack. 
 
 In the event of the enemy despatching mounted men to 
 pursue the four members of the band detailed to " suppress " 
 the chiefs of the foe, two or three horsemen were the most they 
 could instantaneously muster. Men were appointed by the 
 Invincible officers to speedily unhorse these mounted mes- 
 sengers, as the safe departure of the four men on the car 
 which awaited them, and their successful escape, was con- 
 sidered to be a most important sequel to the " suppression " 
 of the Secretaries. 
 
 Every precaution that human ingenuity could devise was 
 taken so that there should be no blunder. That these chiefs 
 of the enemy's murder bureau should be slain was of para- 
 mount importance, even if the " sacred band " perished and 
 every member should be left bleeding in the greensward, 
 or roadway, near that Phcenix monument. This could not 
 be accomplished, their leader knew well, without numbers of 
 the foe biting the dust ; but the INVINCIBLES were prepared 
 to sell their lives dearly. 
 
 Had the foe succeeded in sounding the alarm and the 
 enemy appeared in force, which he undoubtedly would have 
 done in response, possibly the INVINCIBLES would have deve- 
 loped a more deadly skirmish line than the invaders' forces 
 
478 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 would have expected to meet. Had an alarm been sounded 
 that May evening, the Phoenix Park would have been the 
 arena of a bloody encounter. There is no doubt that it 
 would have been a scene of courage and heroism in a stand- 
 up fight not witnessed in Ireland since '98 ; for the " sacred 
 band " would have fought to the death while one cartridge 
 remained in an Irish soldier's pouch. What quiet valour and 
 manly courage, undreamed of even by the possessors, do 
 stirring events and tragic incidents in the life of nations 
 develop and reveal in their patriot sons ! 
 
 That the necessity of a combat would not be forced upon 
 them was the anxious care of those guiding Ireland's soldiers ; 
 for the great victory of a swift and mysterious blow was a 
 hundred-fold more important to the Irish nation than what 
 the angry exchange of shots could possibly bring, no matter 
 with what intrepidity sustained by Ireland's devoted soldiers. 
 
 The " sacred band " went into the Park that afternoon with 
 the impression — which was more strongly shared by the 
 leaders — that they could not possibly hope to expect such 
 swift and rapid success to reward their efforts as actually came 
 to pass ; they went there expecting that the " suppression " 
 of the Secretaries would almost certainly bring on a combat 
 to the death. 
 
 The newly-arrived chief of the British Assassination 
 Bureau in Ireland met his confederate, the Under-Secretary^ 
 in the Phcenix Park by appointment, and not by accident as 
 supposed. The subject of their open-air conference was 
 Forster's dangerous position, which the new invader received 
 with incredulity. The Under-Secretary spoke of the neces- 
 sity of increasing the vigilance and the number of the official 
 guards. Some of these guards, careless and not expecting 
 any attack, were to be seen idly loitering about. The two 
 confederates were discussing this subject of Forster's danger 
 when the Invincibles came up. 
 
 There are giant epochs in the history of nations, when the 
 events of a short period of time stand out in bold relief. 
 
"DONE TO DEATH" IN THE PHCENIX PARK 479 
 
 carved by the hands of Titans on the imperishable records 
 of a nation's sufferings. One of these supreme moments had 
 come to Ireland ! Held aloft by the strong arm of a pure- 
 souled and stainless patriot was the steel of the avenger. 
 From his eyes flashed the lightnings of heaven ! There 
 stood, typified in the person of one living mortal, the swoop- 
 ing vengeance of centuries of wrong. He looked, as he 
 stood there, as if one of the giant sons of the embrace of 
 angels once more walked the earth — the Herculean form of 
 the noble youth ready to strike the inhuman foe. For in 
 that foe was concentrated the long chain of persecution and 
 atrocious cruelties of the most fiendish nature — fraud, perfidy 
 and assassination. 
 
 As the glorious orb, the idol of early nature, sank towards 
 the bosom of the west, there shot forth fiery rays across the 
 horizon as if the sun in sympathy had dipped into a bath of 
 blood and fire ; one of his spears of gold leaped forth with a 
 weird bright gleam of saffron that glistened and flashed for a 
 second around the uplifted blade, ere it swiftly sheathed itself 
 in the invader of the land, the emissary of slaughter. 
 
 The hearts of those present stand still for a moment, as if 
 their pulsations had ceased, and fingers are mechanically 
 pressed upon the concealed weapons each man bears upon 
 his person. Every ear is straining for the shout of rage from 
 the scattered foe, or a signal gun sure to be re-echoed by the 
 rattle of small arms. But it passes away ; no alarms are 
 sounded. The Secretaries are stretched upon the ground. 
 Ireland has struck her assailant and invader back again. In 
 the persons of their chieftains, the foe is slain. The four 
 INVINCIBLES mount the car, and they are driving off when 
 the Irish Paladin, who struck the first blow, leaves the side of 
 his more youthful yet gallant comrade and steps again upon 
 the ground. As if in protest against remaining concealed, 
 his revolver has sprung upon the sod. The young man coolly 
 stoops down, picks up his weapon, and, resuming his place 
 on the car, the vehicle quickly disappears. . . . 
 
 The rapid incident had closed successfully, and there 
 
48o THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 was no alarm from the foe. The Irish soldiers were unex- 
 pectedly aided by the cowardice and panic of the enemy. 
 Among those who completely lost their head was a British 
 cavalry officer. . . . 
 
 When the incident was over, every order was faithfully 
 obeyed as at first. The "sacred band" might be said to 
 have melted into the ground, so instantaneously did they 
 disappear. 
 
 There was neither accident, error, nor mistake by the Irish 
 in the Park that day. The action throughout the whole 
 movement was cool, deliberate, and effective. The INVIN- 
 CIBLES on the ground were in a perfect state of discipline, 
 and under complete control. While the unhappy Carey was 
 waiting to carry out his duty, the satisfactory recognition of 
 the enemy's Under-Secretary, the chief was carefully looked 
 after as an event of greater importance. The " suppression " 
 of the new chief of the British murder bureau was of the 
 highest necessity and significance at this crisis. It was a 
 thousand times greater in its results and its magnitude to 
 Ireland than that of " suppressing " the Under-Secretary alone, 
 although the Irish people had a great personal hatred to the 
 latter and had not time to become possessed of that feeling 
 towards the new invader. To those who look upon the great 
 political significance of these events, it was the " sup- 
 pression " of the chief that was the victory of this incident, 
 and which gave to the whole affair such grave importance in 
 the eyes of European statesmen. . . . 
 
 The panic of the enemy in Dublin has been alluded to in 
 another part of this history ; they feared armed insurrection 
 over the island, they knew not what to expect after the 
 death of the Secretaries, until Messrs. Parnell, Dillon, and 
 Davitt came to their rescue by issuing a proclamation 
 which saved diplomacy, and reconciled them by the hope 
 that Ireland did not really want her freedom from their 
 rule. . . . 
 
 The great anxiety of the robbers' rule in Ireland 
 compelled Mr. Gladstone to exude all his oily benevolence 
 
THE "DIPLOMACY" OF THE PERIOD 481 
 
 on some of the leading Parnellites ; he learned that he 
 had made a mistake ; that he had arrested the wrong men ; 
 that indiscriminate coercion was bad policy for Britain. 
 But while he tried to wear a smile of amiability to the 
 Provincialists he was forging fresh chains for their 
 country. . . . 
 
 The news from Dublin on Sunday morning, May 7, 
 astounded the world. It was at once understood by 
 European statesmen ; it conveyed to them the immortal 
 truth that Irish nationality still lived though clouded by 
 agitation for a time. It brought Ireland to the foreground 
 as a possible factor in any war with Britain. Immediately 
 prior to this event, Ireland appeared before the liberty-loving 
 peoples as a country that had lost its nationality, and was 
 only agitated for bread ; a discontented province whining 
 over its sores, and begging for more alms and impossible 
 benefits to come from British land legislation, including a 
 local provincial parliament under the tyrant shadow of the 
 British Crown. . . . 
 
 To the public teachers and leaders of Irish thought, it may 
 be said that this heroic event came to its own, and its own 
 received it not. Leading Irishmen over the world secretly 
 rejoiced, applauding heartily in private circles, and speaking 
 with joyful delight over what they called " glorious news from 
 Ireland." At the same time many commenced denouncing 
 what they treasured in their souls. Led away by a false 
 diplomacy, they so puzzled the Irish masses that they knew 
 not what to think. If these liberty-loving European journals 
 were but translated and given to the Irish people to read, 
 what a world of good to Irish freedom would ensue ! But 
 hearing nothing expressed publicly save condemnation, they 
 were at first confused. By and by an inkling of the 
 real meaning of these denunciations was revealed to 
 them, and many of the people were persuaded that 
 it was the proper way to serve Ireland — by denouncing 
 the actions of her patriots, condemning truth, and upholding 
 falsehood. 
 
 I I 
 
482 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 This unreal and insincere condemnation created in the 
 native American mind, and in the mind of all free peoples, a 
 false opinion — that Irish patriots did not approve of the 
 Phcenix Park " suppression," when the very contrary was the 
 case. Not only did it receive approval in the highest and 
 most cultured circles of Irish-American patriots,but an endorse- 
 ment and a hearty sanction that was unmistakable. But the 
 false policy of public denunciation called diplomacy, was 
 continued by men who applauded in their own circles. 
 Britain's work of slander was helped by these mistaken men. 
 A cloud of black prejudice was created — born of that 
 hypocritical and cowardly proclamation — some of which is 
 falling back crushingly on the Parnellites, who first, in a 
 moment of panic and drivelling fright, started the calumny 
 against the brave military Parnellites who carried out im- 
 plicitly their statements, instruction, and policy. 
 
 When the news reached the Invincible Executive, they 
 were astounded and surprised at the speedy result. They did 
 not expect such perfect success coming so close on previous 
 
 failures. They knew nothing of K 's plans, or the manner 
 
 by which the Dublin men were to carry out their orders. 
 
 K had been absent from headquarters for some time, 
 
 and he was the channel through which news from Dublin 
 
 reached them. Q was in bed when a friend startled him 
 
 with the news. He was overjoyed to hear of the results in 
 
 Dublin. The night before J was complaining to him of 
 
 the inaction in that city. J and O met on Monday 
 
 night, when each had read the reports of the public press. 
 
 It was related by prominent Parnellites of J , that he 
 
 wished to get the names of the four men on the car so that 
 he could present each with a gold medal. If this story is true, 
 this valiant gentleman evidently had a strange element of 
 fancy in his composition. Think of four men wearing in 
 Dublin city gold medals for an act of war against the foe, 
 under the nose of his officials and the tyranny that lived 
 
 under his flag ! J left on a visit to one or two of the 
 
 leading Parnellites, his colleagues on the Directory. For 
 
SILENCE ORDERED IN THE ''INVINCIBLE" RANKS 483 
 
 some mysterious reason he then disappeared, and the 
 Invincible movement knew him no more, as he left for 
 distant lands and so leaves this history. The only two 
 members of the Invincible Executive not Provincialists, had 
 ceased to be members, one by voluntary and unexplained 
 departure, the other by an unfortunate illness. 
 
 The Directory made no attempt to communicate with 
 
 K , as he expected they would, on receipt of the news 
 
 through the public press. He was compelled on Tuesday to 
 open communications with the Parnellites. The day after 
 
 the '* suppression " [Sunday], K and the captain and 
 
 lieutenant of the " sacred band " met. They were mutually 
 gratified to see each other ; an electric shock of pleasure 
 
 tingled through the veins of K as he grasped the hand 
 
 of his heroic lieutenant and the brave captain of the " sacred 
 band." It was decided at this council that all conversation 
 in connection with the incident had closed, and should be 
 forbidden among the men ; that all mention of the names of 
 the four men who drove off, by those who knew them, would 
 be considered treason to the cause if spoken by any 
 Invincible. The two members of the council who had 
 ceased to be summoned for consultation, but who were other- 
 wise very properly considered as valuable and patriotic men, 
 were ordered to attend a conference that Sunday afternoon. 
 It was decided and ordered that they should receive no more 
 information of the previous night's thrilling episode than that 
 which they already possessed. This conference was to con- 
 vey general orders to the " sacred band," to be transmitted 
 by the council through their sub-officers to the Invincible 
 soldiers, impressing upon them the necessity for the most 
 rigid silence on recent events, and directing each man to 
 quietly resume his normal peaceful duties for the present. 
 
 K , after this council, visited Carey, who was delighted to 
 
 greet him, and was in ecstasies over the previous evening's 
 
 success. K instructed him to attend at a certain house 
 
 that afternoon, there to meet his three comrades and confer 
 upon future arrangements. Carey was unaware of K 's 
 
 112 
 
484 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 conference with the officers of the " sacred band." It was 
 simply unnecessary information. 
 
 The council was held that afternoon, and the necessary 
 orders promulgated. The Dublin Invincjbles were sur- 
 prised and amazed when on Monday morning the walls of 
 the Irish metropolis were placarded with the Parnellite 
 proclamation, giving their moral support and basely tendering 
 their allegiance, to the enemy. The men were incensed and 
 indignant to see these proclamations posted up alongside 
 that of Spencer's offering 10,000/. for their capture.^ 
 
 When K saw this infamous and treasonable proclama- 
 tion, following so quickly after the despatch sent him from 
 the agent of the Parnellite Government, authorising action, 
 and received as already related the previous Friday, he was 
 astounded. Was this hypocrisy, or was it the outcome of 
 dissensions among the statesmen guiding the Irish nation ^ 
 He was inclined to think it was the former, spurred on by 
 nervous fear of personal consequences. No matter what the 
 motives were that prompted this action, he felt that in the 
 face of sympathising Europe it was bad policy, and would 
 tend to make Irish nationality contemptible in the eyes of 
 the manlier races who were watching the struggle with 
 anxiety for Irish success. 
 
 The TimeSy which unceasingly slanders Irish patriots, 
 and, vulture-like, screams for Irish blood, justifies resistance 
 to oppressive rule in the case of the Italians. It writes : 
 " The destiny of a nation ought to be determined, not by the 
 opinions of other nations, but by the opinion of the nation 
 itself. ... to decide whether they are well governed or not, 
 or rather whether the degree of extortion, corruption, and 
 cruelty to which they are subject is sufficient to justify 
 armed resistance ; not for those who, being exempt from its 
 oppression, feel a sentimental or theological interest in its 
 continuance." 
 
 This is a description of Ireland under the hated rule of the 
 British, and fully indorses from the mouth of the enemy 
 1 See Appendix K, p. 570. 
 
«K " ARRIVES AT HEADQUARTERS 485 
 
 the position of the INVINCIBLES. It is the Times' justifica- 
 tion for the 6th of May, which was the offspring of extor- 
 tion, corruption, and cruelty practised by each successive 
 Chief Secretary, and which is a part of the system— an 
 integral portion of alien dominion in Ireland. 
 
 On Thursday K heard from the INVINCIBLE Adminis- 
 tration. Something serious he feared might possibly happen 
 
 through a careless mistake of their agent, which K did 
 
 his best to remedy. He had reasons to think it likely, that 
 through this error, the suspicions of the enemy might be 
 aroused against himself In the event of such an emergency 
 he thought it best not to see the INVINCIBLE officers again 
 previous to his departure from Ireland, as he could not be 
 certain his movements were not now watched. He did not 
 wish to cause any unnecessary, or what might be unfounded 
 alarm, by communicating the reason for these suspicions. 
 He decided in communicating with them through his friend 
 P , sending his confirmation of previous instructions. 
 
 He left Dublin on Thursday night after a prolonged stay 
 in that city, during which he had very serious duties and 
 important events to carry out. Shortly after his arriving in 
 the city where headquarters were located, he promptly 
 
 despatched a confidential messenger to Q , informing 
 
 that gentleman of his return, and telling his friend to come 
 
 and see him as soon as he would think it prudent. K 
 
 knew that this message would be conveyed to the Directory, 
 telling them of his safe arrival in town. 
 
 On Saturday morning Q called, and when he saw 
 
 K his whole face denoted admiration and enthusiasm. 
 
 Holding out both hands, he exclaimed, "My God, I envy 
 
 you ! " In return K was truly glad to meet his friend 
 
 once again. Q had a number of things to relate, and 
 
 several interesting matters about prominent INVINCIBLES 
 
 and prominent Provincialists. Some of these things K 
 
 had been made acquainted with by his old friend F ; ot 
 
 this Q was unaware. Q also informed his friend 
 
486 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 that he had a very satisfactory and cordial message from 
 
 G , a leading and very influential member of the 
 
 Invincible Government. 
 
 K then informed his visitor of the serious mistake 
 
 made in communicating with him, and of the prompt 
 necessity of at once sending a message to the officer in 
 
 command at Dublin. K immediately communicated 
 
 with his friend P , giving that officer certain duties to 
 
 carry out, which he had told him of before leaving. Q 
 
 was so overjoyed at the Dublin success that he was unusually 
 
 enthusiastic. He said that K should be placed on the 
 
 Directory ; but this was a question for superior authority.^ 
 
 The two friends left together to pay some visits. K was 
 
 rather reluctant to go, but at length consented. The first 
 place they visited was the Parnellite chamber of "legal 
 agitation." 
 
 In a few days news was brought K which he heard 
 
 with regret. It was a Government order that for the present 
 all action against the British enemy should cease. The 
 Administration had decided to give the invaders of Ireland 
 a breathing spell, to declare a truce until the new officials 
 
 of the invader became especially hostile. K received 
 
 these orders in silence. He was thunderstruck at their gross 
 stupidity ; it was in direct violation of the Invincible con- 
 stitution, as he understood it. Ireland's war of defence, as 
 an answer to her enemy's brutal war of extermination, should 
 never cease once it had been inaugurated until the foe drew 
 off his bloodhounds. The same arrogant enemy oppressed 
 their bleeding nation, and would continue to try and more 
 securely manacle her and crush her dawning spirit of resist- 
 
 ^ The brave energetic, and truly patriotic Irishman and prominent Parnellite 
 
 official, written of here as Q , has received the scantiest courtesy, coupled with 
 
 the vilest insinuations from the prominent Parnellites who took part in the recent 
 farce called the ** Times Special Tribunal," or some such title. His faithfulness 
 to these men, and his devotion even at the risk of his life, to carry out their pro- 
 gramme, has met with the foulest and most base ingratitude. A small circum- 
 stance, brought to light by a certain very prominent man during his evidence, 
 showed the smallness, the littleness of soul possessed by this creature. To what 
 loathsomeness can constitutional agitation, followed up by contact and intimacy 
 with ex-British coercers and criminals, pollute the minds and distort the intellects 
 of these men. 
 
THE COUNTRY « INVINCIBLES " AT WORK 487 
 ance. There was nothing further said about placing K 
 
 on the Directory. Probably with the new spirit displayed by 
 the Administration, they thought he might advocate a more 
 sanguinary policy than, in their then frame of mind, they were 
 inclined to sanction. 
 
 From this time forth, gradually and almost unconsciously 
 (a type of dying Ireland), the Executive seemed to melt 
 
 away. It was plain to K that weak influences from both 
 
 the outside and inside were sapping up the energy of the 
 noble patriots, who conceived and carried out the god-like 
 idea of inaugurating, and persisting in carrying on, a 
 desperate hand-to-hand struggle with the butchers of the 
 Irish nation. 
 
 During this period K from time to time met many 
 
 prominent Provincialists, but nothing of import came from 
 these casual interviews. 
 
 The Invincible organisation in Ulster, Munster, and Con- 
 naught was more directly under the supervision of G , 
 
 one of the ablest members of the INVINCIBLE Government. 
 But as they made no record of any moment, it was feared 
 something was wrong. Clifford Lloyd still revelled in un- 
 controlled tyranny, but there might be many reasons why 
 this foreign persecutor escaped unscathed. 
 
 At length there came news that a local tyrant and one of 
 the enemy's cavalry soldiers who was one of this "village 
 tyrant's" guard, were shot at a place called Castle Taylor, 
 Ardrahan, near Gort, Co. Galway. This " suppression " took 
 place on Thursday, June 8. The man slain was Walter M. 
 Bourke ; he had been in the enemy's service in another 
 country where British tyranny rides roughshod over the 
 natives. India is an excellent school to turn out village 
 despots, a country ruled by a single autocrat sent out from 
 Britain. Mr. Bourke, after spending some years in Calcutta, 
 returned to Ireland and commenced a system of slave-driving 
 and evicting, which brought upon him the bitter feelings of 
 the country round. Not content with his local tyrannies, he 
 
488 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 insulted the Irish nation and challenged the people to 
 resistance. He evidently despised the people, and had a 
 contempt for their courage. He went abroad displaying 
 arms on his person, and carried a double-barrelled gun. 
 This walking arsenal entered Claremorris church to attend 
 mass with this ponderous weapon in his arms. On his 
 entering the people rose and left the building. But Bourke 
 reckoned without his host. Acting under orders, the IN- 
 VINCIBLES determined that they would attack him and his 
 military escort. On this Thursday morning, while accom- 
 panied by one of the military troopers belonging to his 
 guard, Corporal Albert Wallace of the British Royal 
 Dragoons, he and his escort were shot down by the IN- 
 VINCIBLES. The whole neighbourhood felt that a deadly 
 foe to human liberty had been "suppressed." The 
 enemy's Castle Administration issued a proclamation and 
 offered a ;^i,ooo reward, but British gold, as usual, was 
 powerless to purchase a traitor from the INVINCIBLE 
 ranks. Owing to the number of irregular organisations that 
 British tyranny in Ireland creates, it was not known at head- 
 quarters, when first the news was published, if this was the 
 work of the National organisation. But a despatch from 
 
 G informed the INVINCIBLES at headquarters that the 
 
 men in the west were awake and active. All were greatly 
 pleased that the country INVINCIBLES were displaying 
 energy. 
 
 It was late in June when K had business of a private 
 
 nature in Dublin. He was very uneasy at his long absence 
 from that city, and anxious to meet his brave comrades. 
 He knew that they must have many strange conjectures as 
 to the reason of his long silence. Owing to the error made 
 in communicating with him on May ii, he could not with 
 prudence see any of the officers until he felt sure the enemy 
 was not on the alert. P carried his farewell messages. 
 
 On his arrival in Dublin he saw both the first and second 
 officers of the Invincibles ; they met like friends of twenty 
 
ORGANISING NEW BANDS OF « INVINCIBLES » 489 
 
 years' acquaintance. How close does mutual danger and 
 the common cause of country knit the bonds of friend- 
 ship ! 
 
 The captain of the " sacred band '' told K that he was 
 
 wondering at his long silence, thinking that he had gone 
 abroad. He felt certain that his not communicating with 
 
 them, was part of the Executive policy. M had been 
 
 anxious to get some news of K y so he applied to P , 
 
 b'utP had no news, and requested his inquirer not to be 
 
 uneasy. He told K of calling and visiting a prominent 
 
 Provincialist whom he had known as an I. R. B. man, and 
 from the drift of the conversation and the information he 
 
 gave him of the men, it was plain to K that the bonds 
 
 of discipline needed a little tightening. The cause of all 
 this was the grave error committed by the Executive in 
 declaring this extraordinary truce, and also leaving the men 
 unvisited. 
 
 K felt the possible need, in case of an emergency, of 
 
 having in Dublin another independent organisation of IN- 
 VINCIBLES to aid the ** sacred band," should occasion require 
 it. Dublin at that time was an excellent field for recruiting. 
 The Phoenix Park " suppression " inspirited many men ; 
 
 among these were several of K 's old-time revolutionary 
 
 friends of Fenian days, men who had stood aside from Irish 
 business for years. They were eager to join a practical 
 movement that meant active service against the enemy, and 
 in a feasible manner to serve their suffering country. These 
 
 new recruits enrolled by K were all Nationalists, and 
 
 most valuable men for work of an active and dangerous 
 character. He gave two of these authority to enroll recruits 
 among their revolutionary friends, thus forming the nucleus 
 of two additional bands which he purposed keeping distinct 
 from the men who had been already engaged. The " sacred 
 band " were now veterans, true and tried men. 
 
 The leaders of the new bands in process of formation were 
 men in a superior walk of life to the average revolutionary 
 recruit, combining education and intelligence of a high order 
 
490 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 with daring and patriotism, which would make these newly 
 enrolled men invaluable soldiers to the Irish cause. 
 
 During this visit K met the officers of the " sacred 
 
 band " together. Nothing of importance took place. 
 
 Towards the end of the following month, July, a number of 
 Irishmen were arrested by the enemy as *' suspects." This 
 was supposed to be in consequence of the execution of an 
 I. R. B. traitor named Kenny. Among the men arrested were 
 some INVINCIBLES. 
 
 The Administration seemed at this time very nervous that 
 the enemy might discover some traces of the Phoenix Park 
 
 affair ; they were alarmed at some of the arrests. Q 
 
 called on K in a very anxious manner. He had been 
 
 speaking to some of the Executive the day before, and they 
 
 decided that a lady messenger should visit Dublin ; K 
 
 was positively forbidden to go himself. A lady volunteered, 
 
 and carried out her mission successfully ; and, as K 
 
 conjectured, there was no cause for the Executive's fright. 
 
 In the early days of August Q visited Dublin, partly 
 
 on a pleasure trip, and also to be present at the unveiling of 
 the O'Connell monument. He got the necessary instructions 
 
 from K , and paid a friendly visit to some of the Dublin 
 
 INVINCIBLES. Unfortunately he was known as a Parnellite 
 official, and the visit gave rise to unnecessary talk. It even 
 reached the prison where some of the men were confined. 
 
 Q , who was a sterling patriot, had no purpose but a 
 
 friendly one, but several of the Executive did not approve of 
 it. A kind of ghostly terror seemed to haunt these men 
 over every trifle. 
 
 After Q 's return from Dublin, he paid an important 
 
 visit to two prominent Parnellites, members of the INVIN- 
 CIBLE Directory. They were very pleased to see him, and 
 he gave them all the details he was acquainted with in 
 
 relation to the 6th of May. Q was presented by these 
 
 gentlemen with some handsome presents, as a testimonial of 
 approval for the success of the Park incident ; among these 
 was a beautiful photographic album, which played an im- 
 
GIFTS FOR THE LADY EMISSARIES 491 
 
 portant part later in giving the enemy information as to the 
 personality of a prominent INVINCIBLE. He was also 
 presented with gifts for the noble and courageous lady who 
 carried the weapons to Dublin, including some pretty trinkets 
 for the recent lady emissary. 
 
IV 
 
 PLOTTING LORD SPENCER'S MURDER — THE ATTEMPTED 
 ASSASSINATIONS OF JUDGE LAWSON AND MESSRS. 
 BARRETT AND FIELD. 
 
 The enemy's Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland at this time, as a 
 Cabinet Minister, was performing those duties usually trans- 
 acted in the Chief Secretary's office. The then Chief Secretary, 
 Trevelyan, was only partially in charge of his bureau. Spencer, 
 in a great measure, controlled the Castle murder conspiracy. 
 The assassination of Irishmen by the mock legal machine 
 became worse daily. The brutal murder of Francis Hynes 
 appalled the community ; the public perjury of infamous 
 wretches who swore to order for British gold was so flagrant 
 that even the most moderate Provincialist felt outraged. 
 
 This naked despotism aroused the INVINCIBLE Govern- 
 ment to a sense of its duty, and to the throwing off, for a time, 
 the lethargy which affected them since the 6th of May. They 
 
 ordered the recommencement of hostilities. K , when 
 
 about to resume his command in Dublin, was grievously dis- 
 appointed at the orders given to him. The duties were not 
 of the importance that the crisis demanded. It was evident 
 
 that timidity still ruled in their councils. However, K 
 
 was glad, for the success of the cause, that hostilities were 
 about to reopen, and that the Government of legitimate self- 
 defence was about to answer the " Castle murder conspiracy " 
 by striking at one of the conspirators. He hoped that by 
 
THE "INVINCIBLES" AGAIN AT WORK 493 
 
 action the stronger men in the INVINCIBLE Executive would 
 find their hands strengthened, and so be able to force the 
 issue to a further advanced step. The Parnellites, through 
 their Dublin organ, were abusing Spencer in every possible 
 key. Yet the INVINCIBLE commander could get no authority 
 from the INVINCIBLE Parnellite Executive, to strike at the 
 head of this tyranny. The suppressing of one of the minor 
 tyrants was work unworthy of the cause, but obedience is the 
 first duty of a soldier. 
 
 The murder of Francis Hynes was followed by other 
 judicial crimes. The Kilmainham treaty brought to Ire- 
 land only those unhappy results after the great claim of 
 victory. . . . 
 
 At the close of September K left for Dublin to resume 
 
 command of the INVINCIBLES, and with orders from the 
 Invincible Government to commence certain active opera- 
 tions. 
 
 His first visit to that city was to P , who informed the 
 
 young lieutenant of the " sacred band," now its leader, that 
 
 K was in town. They met next day ; the pleasure was 
 
 mutual. They had a long conference together, and on the 
 following evening K arranged to meet the temporarily- 
 appointed council at the new rendezvous. Although K 's 
 
 appearance was known to these three men, it was their first 
 personal meeting. That night he formed the acquaintance of 
 as noble a specimen of young Irish patriotism as lived in the 
 ** sacred band." This brave young man carried himself with 
 dignity in the enemy's dock, and to-day for his patriotic 
 service to his country, he toils in the dungeons of her merciless 
 invader. 
 
 The instructions given K by the Directory, were by no 
 
 means matters of the first importance. The young lieutenant 
 received his orders to make preliminary arrangements to see 
 about having them promptly obeyed. The British having 
 their new coercion machine in energetic operation, the old 
 "Suspect" Act expired at the end of September, and all 
 those Irishmen who had not passed through the mockery of 
 
494 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 a trial, but were merely " Suspects," were set free. Among 
 those released were imprisoned INVINCIBLES. Those who 
 
 had been members of the council, K arranged to see 
 
 separately, and in different localities ; for although K was 
 
 free from the smallest shade of suspicion on the part of the 
 enemy, the fact of his being seen in the company of any of 
 these men, who were likely to be under espionage, might 
 hamper his future movements. The first of these he saw was 
 
 M . This noble fellow had many things to say of the 
 
 events that had transpired since their last meeting. He 
 spoke of a serious indiscretion which was committed by one 
 of the rank and file, and commented on Carey's conduct, in 
 creating a stupid scene when arrested in Grafton Street, all 
 
 of which gave K food for reflection and much annoyance 
 
 of mind. 
 
 The next day K met James Carey. This man, who was 
 
 always glad to meet him, was as enthusiastic as usual. Carey 
 then told him of the missing arms that must have been seized 
 
 by the enemy. This was not news to K ; both Q and 
 
 he had heard of it through the enemy's indiscreet boasting, of 
 having discovered in the person of a Dublin mechanic, the 
 leader of the Park affair, which position the foe wished to 
 
 assign to Carey all through. K then told Carey that 
 
 while his obligations to the INVINCIBLES would continue as 
 long as that organisation was in existence, for the present he 
 would relieve him from all duty. This was necessary, not 
 only for his own safety but for what was of paramount 
 importance, the cause of the country, and the welfare of the 
 patriotic movement in which they were carrying on war 
 
 against the foe. At any time he wished to see K for 
 
 any purpose, he could do so by communicating with the 
 lieutenant of the " sacred band." Carey promised obedience^ 
 but looked very sad and unhappy when he heard this order. 
 
 He bade K good-bye, and went off in the direction 
 
 ordered. They never exchanged a word from that day. 
 
 K met Carey in Dublin on two occasions some time 
 
 afterwards, but discipline at all times kept any of the men 
 
THE "INVINCIBLE" M.P's IN COUNCIL 495 
 from speaking to him at these chance rencontres. K 
 
 although feeling it necessary from a sense of duty to suspend 
 Carey, had not the faintest suspicion of his loyalty, and very 
 justly so, for Carey was as faithful to Ireland up to his arrest, 
 and long after, as the most patriotic of her sons. There was 
 a public reward of ;^ 1 0,000 offered by the foe, which had 
 not the slightest influence on any of these true-hearted 
 Irishmen. 
 
 K left Dublin to acquaint the Directory with the 
 
 serious indiscretion committed by one of the men, as told him 
 by the captain. This was variously commented on at head- 
 quarters. Y , the member of the Directory who previous 
 
 to the foundation of the INVINCIBLES volunteered to shoot 
 Forster, appeared to look upon this as a matter of course. It 
 is the cardinal doctrine of the teachings which produce Pro- 
 vincialists that in all revolutionary bodies traitors are to be 
 
 found, and Y , although a sound Irishman and a member 
 
 of the Invincible Directory, was, and is to this day 
 (1887), a prominent Parnellite member of the enemy's 
 Parliament. 
 
 The matter was referred to G and H ; these gentle- 
 men were the most influential and powerful of the men 
 belonging to the Invincible Government. Had every mem- 
 ber of that Administration their pure patriotism, their 
 determination and courage, the tragic and melancholy fiasco 
 which closed the movement would not have occurred. But 
 they were hampered and weighted by wavering colleagues, 
 and also by powerful outside influences which destroyed 
 their native resolution ; for it must be remembered they were 
 also prominent and influential Provincialists, one of them a 
 prominent and leading member of the enemy's Parliament, 
 which must have sometimes clashed with their duty to the 
 INVINCIBLES. In giving the true history of this patriotic 
 Irish organisation and refuting its slanderers — for the honour 
 of the movement is wedded to that of the nation whose 
 authorities created it ; they are inseparable — the present 
 
496 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 writer wishes to speak of these patriots with the deepest and 
 most profound respect. 
 
 In a few days a message came from G and H 
 
 stating that if on legal investigation the offence charged 
 against the Invincible was proved, he should be executed ; 
 there was no possible alternative. This order was given to 
 K personally by a gentleman he had never met previ- 
 ously. He had often heard of him as an able and prominent 
 Parnellite, and a patriotic Irishman. It was their first and 
 last meeting as Invincibles. 
 
 Q , whom K always saw and reported to when re- 
 turning from Dublin, approved the order. On these matters 
 this patriotic Irishman was right. 
 
 K returned to Dublin with a sad feeling ; to smite the 
 
 foe was to him a sacred religion, but this mission of examin- 
 ing into treason was most painful. He summoned a council 
 on his arrival in Ireland's metropolis, and entered into an in- 
 vestigation of the charges against the Invincible soldier. 
 It was discovered on examination that a mistake had been 
 
 made ; the man was completely exonerated, to K 's relief, 
 
 and the gratification of all concerned. It must be written 
 here, that in the ranks of the Invincibles there was not one 
 man to betray it to the enemy. No British gold could cor- 
 rupt one of these incorruptible and faithful men. Through 
 the weakness of their Parnellite Executive, came the weakness 
 of some of those arrested. Had the Invincible Government 
 consisted of strong men, and all as daring as the " sacred 
 band," modern Irish history would have been altered. 
 
 The Dublin officer, N , who originally presided at the 
 
 council and who was in prison for some time, was one of the 
 recently released men. With the exception of having had 
 one interview with him before his assuming command of the 
 
 Dublin Invincibles, K had no personal knowledge of 
 
 this man. His daring and bravery had always been the 
 theme of the captain of the " sacred band," who was a fast 
 
 friend of his. The young lieutenant of the band told K 
 
 that this man, N , was much hurt at being left aside com- 
 
CONFERENCE WITH THE LOCAL LEADERS 497 
 
 pletely. It was evident that N did not understand the 
 
 reason for this, and as he was a good and patriotic man who 
 
 should not be allowed to feel he was neglected, K told 
 
 the lieutenant that he would meet him, appointing the time 
 and place. N and K met as arranged. 
 
 N had a number of complaints and suggestions for 
 
 K 's ear ; he dwelt with bitterness and sarcasm (using as 
 
 much of the latter as he could master) on the sending of a 
 lady to Dublin with weapons to the men, and appeared to 
 fear that some dangerous gossip would arise from the use of 
 
 female messengers. K assured him him that if every 
 
 man in the ranks was as secretive and patriotic as the lady 
 who had carried the arms to the Invincibles, they would be 
 
 as silent as the sphinx ; he further gratified N by telling 
 
 him that as long as the Invincible Government continued 
 
 him (K ) in command of the revolutionary soldiers 'in 
 
 Dublin, any weapons required to carry on the struggle 
 against the invader should be brought into Dublin by him- 
 self. N was anxious for active work, which K 
 
 promised him soon but said for the present he would have to 
 
 remain in the ranks. K also made an appointment to 
 
 meet the released Invincible O , who was a warm-hearted, 
 
 impulsive, but patriotic Irishman. 
 
 O was at all times ready to sacrifice his life in the cause 
 
 of his mother-land. K met him with great pleasure ; he 
 
 told him that for the present the necessities of the situation 
 would compel him to stand aside, that for some time he could 
 take no part with the INVINCIBLES, as the enemy had him a 
 marked man. He knew how to communicate with him, 
 
 K , when he needed to do so. After a little time, when 
 
 the foe was baffled, he would be placed on active service 
 again. The latter hope cheered this brave fellow who felt 
 stricken at the order and looked grieved. He obeyed cheer- 
 fully, and kindly asked K to come and see him. K 
 
 pointed out the impossibility of any social intercourse between 
 men engaged in such desperate enterprises as theirs. They 
 parted and have never met each other since. 
 
 K K 
 
498 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Prior to this time P had received instructions to assist 
 
 the young lieutenant of the INVINCIBLES in getting a thorough 
 knowledge of the tyrant whose " suppression " was ordered by 
 
 the Directory. P was invaluable in this kind of work ; 
 
 his coolness and means of getting information were of great 
 assistance. 
 
 The officers of the " sacred band " heard from several 
 sources that the prominent officials of the enemy, who were 
 at that time openly and ostentatiously guarded by a number 
 of armed men, also wore bullet-proof shirts as an additional 
 precaution against their unseen foe. This revolutionary war 
 had now assumed a semi-open appearance of defence, as well 
 as of assault, on the part of the British army. They knew 
 their Irish foe was looking for a chink in their armour to 
 pierce it. And like a blinded giant they did not know where 
 
 to strike. L told K that they might need a more 
 
 powerful weapon than those which they were armed with, and 
 
 wished K to procure a few for any special attack on 
 
 those of the enemy who wore shirts of mail. K left 
 
 Dublin at once to procure these. When he reached head- 
 quarters he communicated as usual with Q , and told him 
 
 what was required in Dublin. As it was not considered 
 
 prudent for K to make these purchases personally, Q 
 
 sent for a gentlemen, one of the official staff of the Parnellites 
 engaged in their legal agitation, but who was also an 
 Invincible, to buy the needed weapons. This man was 
 one who would have been a splendid soldier for active work 
 a man of superior intelligence, and having the courage of his 
 race ; but unfortunately he was too well known to the enemy, 
 who, as a proof of their disapprobation, some time 'before 
 imprisoned him. He procured twelve of the most powerful 
 revolvers of large calibre that could be purchased. 
 
 The Irish soldiers in Dublin had an ample supply of 
 ammunition to suit the weapons, so that there was no neces- 
 sity to procure cartridges. Q retained two of these 
 
 weapons ; the remaining ten K brought in his valise to 
 
 Dublin travelling there, strange to say, with a genial, 
 
ARMING THE DUBLIN "INVINCIBLES" 499 
 
 gentlemanly man en route, who was a colonel in the enemy's 
 army posted in the west of Ireland. This good gentleman 
 would have been very much surprised if he learned that an 
 officer of the Irish foe was the compagnon du voyage he was so 
 
 affable to. K entered Dublin perfectly safe with the 
 
 arms, although the enemy was especially watchful at this 
 period and had imported a number of Royal Marines to do 
 police duty in that city. This was corroboration, if such was 
 needed, of the unnecessary sending of a lady in the first in- 
 stance with weapons. These revolvers were taken out of 
 
 K 's valise and packed in a good sized hand-bag, and 
 
 given by him to P to deliver at the new place of meeting 
 
 of the local council. K attended the following evening, 
 
 showing the INVINCIBLE officers a slight peculiarity in the 
 mechanism. 
 
 P , who was superintending several matters in connec- 
 tion with the coming " suppression," made a report to K 
 
 of all the details. A strong mutual friendship and respect 
 
 had sprung up between P and the two officers L and 
 
 M . One morning P and K paid a visit to the 
 
 Dublin Exhibition, as it was about to be closed. K had 
 
 no social intercourse with the Dublin INVINCIBLES, P , 
 
 who was a personal friend, excepted. They had no knowledge 
 whatever as to who he was, nor did they seek to learn it. 
 This morning when these two men reached the top of Sack- 
 ville, now O'Connell Street, near the Rotunda, they met the 
 British Lord-Lieutenant followed by his escort, a half-troop 
 of the enemy's cavalry. He had evidently come from the 
 Viceregal Lodge, and was riding down Rutland Square to 
 Sackville Street, en route to the Castle. The " Red Earl " 
 was in front of the main body of his escort, with two troopers 
 a little in advance of him and an officer riding at each side. 
 At this time the despotism of this man of blood had horrified 
 all Ireland. The open employment of hired ruffians, who, by 
 perjured evidence and the packing of twelve rebels as jury- 
 men, gave an apparent legal pretext for hanging men in no 
 way implicated in what they were accused of, had startled 
 
 K K 2 
 
Soo THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the community. " The Bloody Assize," ^ as so historically 
 named by United Ireland^ had come and gone. Mr. Wm. 
 O'Brien was afterwards by Lord Spencer's orders, prosecuted 
 for writing this scathing article denouncing his infamous rule. 
 
 Nothing could be stronger proof to K 's mind of the 
 
 weakness and vacillation of the INVINCIBLE Directory than 
 the fact that, up to that moment, he had received no orders to 
 assail this tyrant, who was more deliberate in his path of 
 blood, as expressed in United Ireland^ than Forster. He 
 made but few raids on the Irish members, yet some of them 
 
 had tasted the sweetness of this invader's plank-bed. K 
 
 felt satisfied that G , H , and others were indirectly 
 
 overruled by powerful influences working against them, and 
 that timid men had carried their wretched policy of indecision 
 into the government of the Invincibles. Many of those 
 waverers at that time would secretly rejoice at the tyrant's 
 death, but allowed "■ I dare not " wait upon " I will." 
 
 As Spencer and his escort rode by, it flashed upon K 's 
 
 mind that coming down from Phibsborough, before approach- 
 ing the Rotunda, would be an admirable position of attack. 
 The route chosen by the enemy's chieftain was fed by 
 numerous arteries of side streets where the men could con- 
 centrate without any unusual notice. Any assault, for the 
 present, in the Phoenix Park was an utter impossibility. 
 
 A concentration of a strong force of men, ready at a given 
 signal to assail the foe from both sides of his route, would at 
 first paralyse the British troopers by the unexpected and 
 sudden assault. As Spencer was to be made the principal 
 feature of the fight, it was reasonable to suppose the enemy's 
 chieftain would be slain in the first attack. The fight with 
 the troopers would of course follow, but there the advantage 
 ought to be with the " sacred band " and their Invincible 
 supports. A body of daring, desperate men, armed with 
 revolvers against the troopers' sabres — which by instinct and 
 surprise they must have used — and Ireland's defenders would 
 have the advantage in the struggle. These soldiers of the 
 * See Appendix A, p. 547. 
 
PLOTTING THE '* SUPPRESSION " OF LORD SPENCER 501 
 
 enemy were principally boys, who if their officers were put 
 hors de combat, would probably make a stampede. That such 
 an attack meant death to the greater part of the "sacred 
 
 band " K knew well ; but what a glorious death ! Most 
 
 of these men knew that they could scarcely expect to survive 
 
 the dangers through which their duty exposed them. K 
 
 never left for Dublin without being compelled to feel that 
 there were serious chances he would never return. 
 
 K felt a fierce longing for this attack on the passing 
 
 tyrant as the cavalcade passed by. What if even all the 
 brave fellows and himself were killed } " The blood of men 
 fighting for freedom is never shed in vain — the earth will 
 not cover it ; from the ground it cries aloud, and the 
 avenger knoweth his day and his hour. It is through this 
 bloody travail, and by virtue of this baptism of fire, and 
 only so, that nations ever spring forth, great, generous and 
 free." 
 
 When the *' Red Earl " and his troopers had passed by, K 
 
 communicated his thoughts to P , who espoused his plan 
 
 warmly. He said he could see no insurmountable obstacle in 
 " suppressing " the foreign despot by a bold attack which would 
 paralyse his escort ; as was witnessed when Miss Anna Parnell 
 caught his bridal reins one morning in Westmoreland Street, 
 and stopped him to plead mercy for the houseless, which his 
 country's accursed rule had sent on the wayside. Let the 
 Invincibles but bravely assault, and with loaded arms blot 
 out the tyrant's life, come what might to them once success 
 was achieved. 
 
 That evening K saw the captain and lieutenant of 
 
 the " sacred band,'* and told them of his resolve to attack 
 Spencer and his escort. These officers received the news 
 with fierce joy ; the face of the brave young lieutenant 
 glowed with delight, and his eyes sparkled. This tyrant 
 and his red-coated escort were foes that they felt were 
 worthy of their steel. 
 
 The captain thought that they could not make the opening 
 of their attack so effisctive and paralysing by firearms alone 
 
5o2 TKtE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 hand-grenades or Orsini bombs, he considered, would create 
 such havoc and disaster in the enemy's ranks that it would be 
 half the victory. A sudden attack by armed men to follow 
 the explosion, and, quick as lightning, the invaders' force 
 
 would be slain or dispersed. K saw the full force of 
 
 the picture drawn, the panic and confusion that would per- 
 meate the ranks of the invader as one or two outside cars 
 drove rapidly by, like war chariots, sweeping along death 
 and destruction to the foe. Seated on the side next the 
 enemy could be placed INVINCIBLE soldiers who, at the 
 moment of contact, would fling into the centre of Spencer's 
 British guard these deadly missiles. 
 
 K knew there was one serious drawback with shells 
 
 in the hands of untrained men, and that was the danger of 
 premature explosion. The INVINCIBLES had been asking for 
 
 these bombs since K first took command in Dublin, and 
 
 although he made their request known at headquarters, 
 backed up by his own urgent wish that they be sent to 
 Dublin for emergencies, the Executive, either through neglect 
 or disapproval, took no notice of these many demands. But 
 now that an event of the first importance to Ireland, the 
 striking down red-handed of the foreign tyrant who was 
 aiming at the Irish nation's life, seemed to hinge for its success 
 
 on the procuring of shells, K determined he would strain 
 
 every energy to supply the " sacred band " with these destruc- 
 tive missiles. 
 
 A short time previous to this rencontre with the " Red Earl's " 
 
 cavalcade, Q came to Dublin to attend the funeral of a 
 
 relative. He communicated with K . Nothing of import- 
 ance occurred ; it was a mere friendly visit, but K availed 
 
 himself of the opportunity of making Q and P ac- 
 quainted, as the former so wished. 
 
 p and the young lieutenant of the INVINCIBLES dis- 
 
 covered that Judge Lawson, the Castle conspirator whose 
 " suppression " was ordered by the INVINCIBLE Executive, was 
 not only well guarded in the city, but also had a large force 
 
 W 
 
PLANNING THE ATTACK ON JUDGE LAWSON 503 
 
 of constabulary concentrated near his country residence, 
 acting as a military guard every night. These men patrolled 
 the grounds and guarded every possible avenue of attack. 
 It is one of the romantic sides of this INVINCIBLE war that 
 all this information the young lieutenant of the " sacred band " 
 succeeded in getting from the sergeant in charge of Lawson's 
 
 guard, through the help of P , when in company with 
 
 P who personally knew the sergeants, and as if by 
 
 accident, he visited the police barracks where himself and 
 his friend were received most hospitably and were invited 
 to stop for dinner. It was during this meal that, for pur- 
 poses of gossip, this news was given to P and the 
 
 Invincible officer. After dinner they were brought round 
 the grounds and shown the position, and the vigilance 
 necessary to protect Lawson. The constabulary officers, of 
 course, never dreamed that their visitors were INVINCIBLES, 
 and had not the faintest suspicion they were giving unasked 
 
 the very information P and the officer of the " sacred 
 
 band " went there to get. Lawson's life would not be worth 
 the force necessary to attack him at his country residence, 
 
 and so K decided that the city was the proper place to 
 
 make the assault. 
 
 News came that Lawson was to dine on a certain Saturday 
 night at a so-called legal dinner in Henrietta Street. It was 
 decided that he and his armed escort of seven men should be 
 attacked at St. Stephen's Green. 
 
 During the interval which had elapsed since K 's visit 
 
 in June, the work of organising other INVINCIBLES went on 
 in Dublin. One of these bands had grown into a respectable 
 size, almost as numerous as the " sacred band," having its 
 sub-officers and their men under distinct control. 
 
 The other of these new INVINCIBLE organisations was not 
 so numerous, but it contained men very eager for active work 
 who had urged their officer to offisr their services to help any 
 premeditated attack upon the foe. When the night for 
 attacking Lawson came, K — — told the officer of this small 
 band of INVINCIBLES to select four of his best men and come 
 
S04 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 with them to the rendezvous, well armed and ready to obey 
 orders which they would receive on the ground. The captain 
 and lieutenant of the " sacred band " were made aware of the 
 presence of this new force, which pleased them very much. 
 Their existence was to be kept a secret. 
 
 One of the sentinels was posted to signal the departure of 
 Lawson from his residence, which signal he was to pass to 
 another, each alternate sentry keeping the judge and his 
 armed escort in sight. The first sentinel was seized with a 
 species of lunacy and took it upon himself to shoot the Castle 
 conspirator ; he did more, for he disarranged the previous 
 plans by sending away two INVINCIBLE sentries whom he 
 met en route, and who were under the impression that the 
 excited sentinel had received fresh orders. So stupid and 
 blundering was the man, that he appeared, from the inform- 
 ation afterwards received, to have worked himself into a state 
 of strong excitement, and he was attempting to shoot Lawson 
 when he was overpowered and captured by the Castle tyrant's 
 guard. His action that night in all human probability saved 
 Lawson's life. This man had no intention, not the faintest, 
 to play the INVINCIBLES false, but he was filled with the vain 
 feeling that he could slay Lawson single-handed and thought 
 the opportunity too favourable to be lost. This he could have 
 done if he was a cool-headed man, but he would have been 
 captured red-handed, which was, if possible, to be avoided 
 according to INVINCIBLE laws, and necessitated the risk of 
 nine lives instead of the certainty of losing one. Another 
 stupid error he made was that of taking the enemy's guard to 
 be Invincible soldiers, for these men were then too numerous 
 to be known to each other and they were, as already men- 
 tioned, under the command of sub-officers, each as a separate 
 unit in the organisation. This last blunder caused him to fall 
 an easy prey into the hands of the enemy. ^ 
 
 Meanwhile the main body of the INVINCIBLES were pat- 
 rolling the place decided on for the attack ; as time passed 
 and no news came, they grew anxious. A scout was de- 
 
 1 See Appendix L, p. 571. 
 
THE DUBLIN '^INVINCIBLES" AND THE POLICE 505 
 
 spatched, who reported on his return that the sentinels had 
 left, and that some man had entered the Kildare Street Club 
 to try and shoot Lawson and had been captured. This was 
 the first incorrect report, which, with several others were 
 purposely spread abroad by the enemy. The men were dis- 
 missed ; something was wrong but what it was, was then 
 unknown. The officers received orders to investigate the 
 
 cause of this mishap. K was to see L the following 
 
 evening with his report. As soon as they learned who the 
 enemy had arrested, that night two of the INVINCIBLE officers 
 drove up to the house of a relative of the captured man ; from 
 this house they speedily removed what Invincible arms it 
 contained. They had not gone many minutes when the 
 enemy's forces made a descent, but they discovered nothing 
 and had to leave unrewarded for their exertions. 
 
 The next morning, Sunday, K , who was anxious to 
 
 learn who was the man captured, left at an early hour for the 
 house where the enemy made his raid. All knowledge of this 
 raid was unknown to the INVINCIBLE commander and could 
 
 not be conveyed to him, for, with the exception of P , 
 
 none of the officers of the " sacred band " knew where to 
 communicate with him. 
 
 The Invincible officer whom he came to see was from 
 
 home, but K was told he would return soon. He thought 
 
 it best to wait. Hours passed by in painful suspense. K 
 
 was about to leave, when a young INVINCIBLE soldier came 
 
 with a letter to the absent officer. K tore it open ; it was 
 
 a note from L asking the officer to meet him at a certain 
 
 place within an hour. K immediately left for this ren- 
 dezvous where he heard all the details of the catastrophe. 
 The officers were very much concerned when they heard at 
 what house K had been during the forenoon, as they in- 
 formed him the enemy had posted spies and marines to watch 
 the house. This arrest proved of vast importance to the 
 enemy later on. 
 
 This blunder and disobedience of the Invincible sentry, 
 
5o6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 to which he himself fell a victim, decided K — — that for the 
 present they would not repeat any attacks on Lawson ; to 
 succeed after this blunder would be to lose more men than 
 
 K wished to risk on this subordinate action. He gave 
 
 the next order from the Directory : To strike at two of the 
 rebel jurors of the murdered Francis Hynes. This new 
 
 order pleased N , for the brave fellow who was utterly 
 
 reckless of his life, was anxious to attack these hated 
 jurors. As the matter was of small importance in the 
 opinion of K he wished to have it finished before be- 
 ginning the grand assault on Spencer, which he knew would 
 ring over the world as a bold act of Irishmen against 
 their foe. 
 
 K decided that no more attempts should be made on 
 
 Saturday, and so Monday was selected for the attack. He 
 ordered cold steel to be used, but as all the weapons similar 
 to those used before had been destroyed by order of the 
 Administration (the cowardly temerity of the Executive was 
 hampering the brave soldiers in Dublin by the stupidity of 
 these would-be brilliant statesmen), they were compelled to use 
 inferior weapons, which they tried to adapt for the occasion. 
 
 K wished he had the two handsomely cased weapons that 
 
 were in Q 's armoury at headquarters. 
 
 On the Saturday evening before the assault of these 
 murderous jurors, K was startled by the news of a shoot- 
 ing affray in Abbey Street, Dublin. He could not understand 
 it ; surely the bonds of discipHne had not suddenly broken 
 loose and the men taken action on their own account. He 
 
 sent for P , and learned the particulars of this fray. A 
 
 certain circle of the I. R. B., without any instructions from the 
 central authority, formed itself into a Vigilance Committee. 
 Their purpose was to commence against the enemy, a war 
 similar to what some organisation, unknown to them, had 
 been trying to carry out. 
 
 They had scarcely more than organised, when through some 
 fatuity — either through lack of judgment or the vile effects 
 of the enemy's teaching — these brave but unthinking men 
 
THE DUBLIN DETECTIVES AND THE "VIGILANTS" 507 
 
 began to look into their own ranks for a traitor. They had 
 no efficient leader, and the bonds of discipline hung upon 
 them very lightly. They decided on suspecting one of their 
 number of treason, and their first warlike attempt was to go 
 out and search for him, in order to shoot him. As their actions 
 were very open and very remarkable, they were followed 
 from the rendezvous where they met to the corner of Abbey 
 and Sackville Streets, by some armed detectives of the enemy. 
 These hirelings of the invader are, as a rule, braggarts and 
 cowards in the face of danger. The " Vigilance " men, seeing 
 they were followed, impulsively drew their revolvers and 
 opened fire on the foe, which was responded to at long 
 range by the detectives. This exchange of shots was 
 quickly followed by a hand-to-hand encounter between a 
 detective and a ** Vigilant." The detective (Constable Cox) 
 while struggling with the " Vigilant," was shot dead by a 
 fellow constable, who aimed at the Irishman but shot his 
 comrade by accident. This mishap on the enemy's part, 
 occurred through the nervous timidity of their man who, 
 like many of his comrades was afraid to cross the street. 
 Meanwhile another struggle was taking place between an- 
 other detective and a " Vigilant." The enemy's instrument, 
 seeing that the man he grappled with was armed, piteously 
 begged of him not to shoot. The " Vigilant," when he got 
 into this fight which he should have avoided, might have 
 pulled the trigger on his foe and got away. He was tender- 
 hearted and so acceded to the other's appeal. Instead of 
 shooting, he tried by physical strength to shake off his 
 enemy. A sergeant of Rifles, passing by at this moment 
 and seeing the two men grappling, drew his sword and went 
 to the aid of the detective, who was loudly calling for help 
 and proclaiming himself an officer of the law. When Ser- 
 geant Danvers of the Rifles led the way, the other detectives 
 on the opposite side gathered courage and crossed over, and 
 the " Vigilant " was captured. Then followed a peculiar in- 
 cident. As the prisoner was being brought away in a cab, 
 the comrade whom he and his friend went out to shoot for 
 
5o8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 fancied treason, and who of course knew nothing of this, came 
 upon the scene and made an attempt to rescue the prisoner 
 from his captors ; he failed in the attempt, and he too was 
 made a captive by the foe. The Invincible organisation- 
 had nothing to do with this affray. But when it is considered 
 that all these men were respectable mechanics, most of them 
 men with families who led good lives and looked with horror 
 on crime and criminals, it is a sad reflection on the terrible 
 evil of foreign rule in Ireland. . . . 
 
 Tuesday morning gave the rebel sheets in the invader's 
 interest occasion to howl. On Monday night the Invincibles 
 made their pre-arranged attack. One of the rebel jurymen 
 escaped by the accident of his sudden departure on business 
 from Dublin. The other, who took part in Francis Hynes' 
 murder, was successfully struck down and saved his life partly 
 by feigning death, but more especially by the fact that the 
 weapon was not suited for the work. It had been arranged, 
 for moral effect, to strike down both jurymen simultaneously. 
 The enemy was alarmed ; another panic took place this time ; 
 it extended to the bench and the rebel caste from which this 
 class of jurymen was selected. Bullet-proof shirts were greatly 
 in demand and Spencer's escort was for a time doubled. 
 
 K , having completed all that could be done in connection 
 
 with the minor assaults ordered by the Directory, prepared 
 to return to headquarters and endeavour to procure the 
 now important shells.^ 
 
 A short time before the jurymen's attack, K had reason 
 
 to deplore the scarcity of explosive ammunition in the IN- 
 VINCIBLE arsenal. This arose partly from neglect, and partly 
 from the timidity of the Directory in not having Dublin well 
 stocked with various kinds of war munitions at the founding 
 of the organisation. There was plenty of money in the 
 treasury to supply all the materials of war needed, and there 
 were plenty of brave men to bring them into Dublin. As 
 soon as action was taken by the Invincibles in Ireland's 
 capital, there was greater difficulty in bringing these in and 
 ^ See Appendix M, p. 571 
 
PATRICK KINSELLA. 
 
 Late Railroad Station Master at Blach-ock, County Dublin, C.-^c, ^-c., o 
 
WAITING ORDERS FROM THE EXECUTIVE 509 
 
 also greater difficulty in procuring them, but not of an in- 
 surmountable nature. 
 
 One of these chances came to K , which, like fortune's 
 
 tide, if taken at the flood, would have commanded great suc- 
 cess. Through the absence of proper war materials, however, 
 
 K was unable to avail himself of this lucky stroke of 
 
 fortune which fell to his lot. Had he but had the necessary 
 munitions, he would have been able to strike a blow at the 
 British invasion of his country that would have horrified the 
 foe, and startled mankind. But like many another, Ireland 
 was not able to reap the benefit of this unexpected and great 
 opportunity. 
 
 On leaving Dublin, P was left in general superintend- 
 ence of affairs with orders to communicate with K if 
 
 there was any necessity. The captain of the " sacred band," 
 in control of his own men, was told to take no action until 
 
 K *s return. K wished to learn what the Directory 
 
 intended to do. At this time the enemy commenced to re- 
 double his vigilance. Dublin was Hterally filled with marines, 
 spies, and detectives, and all the paraphernalia of his robber 
 rule. Ireland's assassins were seriously frightened. It was 
 not so much by the nature of the assaults as their rapid delivery 
 and the disappearance of their foe — a foe that was stupid 
 enough not to be purchased for even ten thousand golden 
 sovereigns. What was John Bull to do ? 
 
 But the position of force and power can easily find a remedy. 
 Spencer was determined to have another ** Bloody Assize," 
 and to offer up some Dublin men to the manes of the dead 
 secretaries. It made little matter to the enemy whether these 
 were the actual men engaged or not. He had his tribunal of 
 slaughter ready and could, with the aid of hired perjurers, 
 commence the work of death 
 
V 
 
 THE INVINCIBLE EXECUTIVE THROWS UP THE SPONGE- 
 FLIGHT OF "NUMBER ONE." 
 
 K opened his mind freely to F . This time it was 
 
 his turn to deposit important confidence in the breast of his 
 friend. He spoke of the proposed attack on Spencer, which 
 was contemplated subject to the sanction of the INVINCIBLE 
 
 Government. F approved cordially in the necessity of 
 
 striking down the enemy during his sanguinary career in 
 Ireland riding rough shod over the people. With respect to 
 the shells, he said : *' I think I could, without much difficulty, 
 procure them for you as soon as you or I receive the 
 necessary authority. Owing to illness and other causes, my 
 association with the movement appears to be cut off. You 
 are carrying on this business in a * subaltern * manner, and 
 
 although Q is the official agent of the Executive he is so 
 
 harassed by Parnellite agitation duties he cannot devote the 
 time required ; besides, as you say, he has been asked for 
 these shells and cannot procure them. This brave and noble 
 fellow is hampered and surrounded with many cares, and is 
 at present scarcely a free agent. There are internal struggles, 
 I suspect, going on in certain governing circles, which do 
 not bode good to Ireland. Until you are prepared for action, 
 and have procured authority from the Government, keep this 
 
 special attack a secret even from our friends. G and 
 
 H are the two men of greatest power both in the 
 
DISQUIETING REPORTS FROM DUBLIN 511 
 
 Parnellite ranks, and in our inner circle the INVINCIBLES. 
 
 You know H very well ; I am aware of this. G and 
 
 you know one another. First see these men and procure the 
 shells, or authority to get them yourself. Once you are ready, 
 lay before them your plan of action and receive authority for 
 
 your proposed attack. Q , who is affectionately attached 
 
 to you, and is very anxious about the dangers you are exposed 
 to, will be saved any additional care in a matter he is at 
 present powerless to help. You can use your own judgment 
 in giving him information of your intentions." 
 
 K thanked F for his proffer of assistance, told 
 
 him he would see the gentlemen spoken of, and if he found 
 he was not properly supported he would at once resign his 
 position after communicating with his men. 
 
 The year was drawing to a close, and K was much 
 
 grieved at the reports from Dublin. One morning he was 
 
 surprised to hear that P had come to town. He came 
 
 with a special message from the Invincible officers ; they 
 had reason to fear that the wife of the imprisoned INVINCIBLE 
 was giving information (which she should never have known) 
 to the enemy. This was an awkward dilemma, and one that 
 
 could not be faced in the ordinary way. P was sent 
 
 back with word to the officers that the matter would receive 
 prompt attention, but for them to make certain if possible 
 
 that this report was true. Q , who was very ill at this 
 
 time, left his bed to see P , and all agreed that certain 
 
 measures proposed by P would temporarily meet the 
 
 exigency. 
 
 P returned to Dublin with his instructions. K 
 
 felt it was time to act. The Executive appeared to have 
 abrogated their duties, and to have left the whole strain of the 
 
 crisis on Q , who, being ill, could do nothing. K left 
 
 on a journey to try and find F , and consult with him in 
 
 this emergency. 
 
 But F had left the town suffering under a relapse of 
 
 his illness. Thinking over the grrave condition of affairs 
 
512 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 during his long railway journey, K evolved out of his 
 
 thoughts what he concluded would be the only satisfactory 
 thing to do, i.e.^ to send this woman and all the relatives out 
 of the country, making a liberal provision for them whan 
 leaving. He reached headquarters and saw his sick friend, 
 
 who agreed with K as to the departure of these people. 
 
 The next day a despatch came from P urging K 's 
 
 return to Dublin, telling him his presence on the scene was 
 absolutely necessary to give the men confidence. It was very 
 evident from this message that matters were not satisfactory 
 in that city. The question was, what did the enemy know } 
 
 Q feared that his friend might be seized by the foe, who 
 
 possibly was preparing to make a swoop. Q suggested 
 
 that K should visit Ireland by another route, and going 
 
 as far as Dundalk communicate there with P . This 
 
 advice was rejected by K ; if the enemy had any idea of 
 
 a swoop, Dublin was the place which demanded his presence, 
 there his duty lay ; he decided on leaving for that city. He 
 
 sent a message to P to have the two Invincible officers 
 
 and N ready to meet him at a certain place on- his 
 
 arrival. The day of his departure he heard of F 's return 
 
 to headquarters ; he immediately called on him. F 
 
 looked upon the position as a very grave one. He said : 
 " The enemy will paralyse your attack by a rapid series of 
 arrests. I fear you are too late for any fighting, but your 
 duty now is at the front with your men." And in parting he 
 
 looked K earnestly in the face as he said, " Good-bye, 
 
 you are sure never to return ; this will be your last departure ; 
 you have no other alternative but to go. Good-bye, old fellow ; 
 
 we will not meet again." K had a similar farewell 
 
 greeting from Q ; there was a sad look in his eyes as he 
 
 bade his friend a silent adieu. K 's friend did not give 
 
 him much cheer, but he tried to look upon the affair in 
 the best light ; he had grown accustomed to these dangerous 
 journeys. 
 
 Soon after his arrival he saw the three INVINCIBLE officers ; 
 their gloomy idea of the state of things had passed away, they felt 
 
AN *♦ INVINCIBLE" M.P. PROMISES THE SHELLS 513 
 
 cheerful, and were satisfied the enemy was on the wrong trail. 
 These men were perfectly satisfied to take their chances of 
 almost certain death while making an assault upon their 
 country's enemy, but being captured and imprisoned, and 
 going through the ordeal of one of his mock trials, was a 
 species of congealed horror they wished if possible to avoid. 
 
 K decided in any case to send away the family on which 
 
 suspicion had lingered. He entrusted this mission to the 
 young lieutenant, as their consent was necessary before any- 
 thing could be done in that direction. It was possible there 
 was something in the air, and that the enemy was only biding 
 his time to strike. The organisation, through the wavering 
 policy of their Government, had done nothing since the Phoenix 
 Park incident that would aid the advance of a spirited policy 
 amongst the Irish people. The attack on Spencer must come 
 off at once, even without shells, as every day's delay played 
 
 into the hands of the enemy. Better, as F expressed it, 
 
 that the brave fellows should be shot in a fight than to rot in 
 the dungeons of the enemy with all its attendant leprous evils. 
 
 K determined to lose no time, but at once to see this 
 
 most prominent member of the Invincible Government, 
 and make a last earnest effort to get what the men set such 
 
 value by. K saw this eminent Irish statesman. They 
 
 had a long and protracted interview, but the INVINCIBLE 
 officer left fully satisfied he could be supplied with the 
 required shells. 
 
 He returned to Dublin determined to bring matters to an 
 issue with the enemy, for he feared the capture of his brave 
 comrades, the leaders of the " sacred band." He called to see 
 the captain of one of the new band of Invincibles, now 
 grown strong in numbers. He asked that officer if he could 
 with confidence promise the active service of himself and his 
 command, for daring and dangerous work in an emergency. 
 He said that while there was no absolute need for alarm, 
 it was always possible for the enemy to make a raid and capture 
 some of the men who had been actively engaged against him ; 
 in this event officers of value might be imprisoned, and com- 
 
 L L 
 
SU THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 munications so destroyed that the enemy, by a raii of this kind, 
 would gain a victory in delaying any attack about to be made 
 upon him. This Invincible captain replied : " I have every 
 confidence in you because we know one another ; come to me 
 with an order, and I will guarantee to have the men ready at 
 twenty-four hours' notice. As to the risks, we did not join 
 this movement without calculating these, but I would prefer 
 that myself and all my comrades were killed doing something 
 worthy of Irishmen, like the Park affair, than to be miserably 
 captured in a weak attempt. As to treason, I don't fear it ; 
 there is not much of that, thank God, among us. If any of 
 the brave fellows who performed that noble deed are taken by 
 the cursed British enemy, we will revenge them, or share theit 
 fate ; let us have but proper orders and intelligent advice." 
 
 This, in substance, was K 's conversation with this 
 
 patriotic Irishman. The miserable fiasco that followed, the 
 weakness — if not worse — displayed by the Invincible 
 Directory so utterly disgusted him, that the prestige gained 
 by the Park incident was completely swept away. He has 
 probably to-day joined that vast body of Irishmen who un- 
 fortunately grow despairing over repeated failures. K 
 
 could give this man no information whatever as to the nature 
 of the work he wished performed. For it was necessary to 
 keep the proposed attack on Spencer absolutely secret. If 
 the "sacred band " had the shells there need be no delay, but 
 they could go on with the work at once ; they might fail in 
 
 defeating the foe, but K concluded that the " suppression " 
 
 of the enemy's chief would surely succeed, and that — that 
 
 would be victory. A meeting was arranged by P , who 
 
 was so completely free from suspicion by the enemy that his 
 services were invaluable at this period. 
 
 The brave captain and lieutenant of the " sacred band " met 
 
 K by the agency of P , who was present on what was 
 
 a memorable night. The captain of the INVINCIBLES and 
 
 K had a long conference together. The officer expressed 
 
 his confidence that all fear of a swoop by the enemy was over 
 
THE DUBLIN " INVINCIBLES " IN COUNCIL 515 
 
 and he imparted to K some of his own hopeful feeh'ng. 
 
 His companion, who stood with P some distance off, as 
 
 this was an open-air conference, had received the consent of 
 the family he was commissioned to send away, and the cap- 
 tain was glad that they were leaving the country. He had 
 also the gratifying news that he had procured from the south 
 of Ireland a package of explosives that would be of value to 
 
 them in future work. K told him he was hopeful of 
 
 getting the shells within a week. He would leave Dublin 
 the following night and return with these missiles, but if they 
 could not be got, they must try and make the best fight they 
 were able to with the weapons they had. It was a disgrace 
 to Ireland, and more especially the Invincibles, to permit 
 this tyrant to go on with his persecution and destruction; 
 his suppression was an imperative necessity, in order to show 
 the world that the true spirit which struck down tyranny last 
 May, still lived on. The captain was prepared to go to work 
 at once, but preferred waiting to try and get the shells ; in the 
 meantime he wanted to do something else with the new explo- 
 sives he had now in his possession. K told him while what 
 
 he suggested was good work, all minor matters must wait 
 until after the supreme effort. That is, if any of them sur- 
 vived to attack once more. Though K said this with a 
 
 smile, he fully realised the bloody issue of the attack ; but he 
 felt it was worth a thousand deaths to strike down this " Red 
 Earl " at the head of his redcoats. It would ring out the death- 
 knell of British rule, and spur the manhood of Ireland to 
 action against the remorseless invaders. 
 
 The young lieutenant, the brave youth who struck down the 
 chief of the British murder society, now came forward. He 
 had on a shaggy overcoat, and looked the picture of godlike 
 manhood. There was a quiet and earnest smile in his eyes as 
 
 he approached K , who grasped his brawny manly hand 
 
 with truo> affection, for he felt that he was talking to a noble 
 patriot who would shed his last drop of blood for Ireland. He 
 
 told K other details of his mission as to sending away the 
 
 family, and then broached other subjects. He was eager for 
 
 L L 2 
 
5l6 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the attack on Spencer, and hoped that K— — would succeed 
 in getting them the shells ; but in any event he advised the 
 attack. There were plenty of men, he said, to destroy the 
 British tyrant and his guard; he had been out several times 
 reconnoitring the " Red Earl's" route and ride to the Castle, and 
 he felt satisfied that the attack would be a grand success. 
 
 The time came to say good-bye. K was to leave Dublin 
 
 the following night, and return, with or without the shells, to 
 direct the assault upon the foe. That night there was no 
 reason for any feeling but satisfaction that the enemy was 
 baffled (which he was so far as the possession of actual 
 
 knowledge went), as K had every reason to think ; still he 
 
 could not shake off a sadness which came over him. P 
 
 accompanied K , as they parted from the two INVINCIBLES. 
 
 It was a last farewell ; they were destined never to meet 
 again. These noble-hearted patriots were captured by the 
 enemy the following night, and since then they died for Ire- 
 land on the scaffold. . . . 
 
 When K left his brave comrades that January evening, 
 
 he did not, nor indeed did the men, anticipate the rapid action 
 of the enemy. They knew dangers surrounded them at all 
 times, the air was thick with rumours and forebodings, but 
 their familiarity with these gave them no special cause for 
 anxiety. On the contrary, this night they were satisfied that 
 
 what they feared had passed away. K had shared with 
 
 them many dangers and many anxieties ; they had many 
 meetings and partings, and the bonds of friendship were knit 
 closer than comrades in less serious undertakings. As he walked 
 away from them that night, the INVINCIBLE leader recalled the 
 parting on the eve of the 6th of May. That evening they 
 were gay and he was sad : none of them knew what the mor- 
 row would bring ; all were prepared and ready for any emer- 
 gency which the sacred duty to their motherland demanded. 
 The men expected that wounds and a red grave possibly 
 awaited many, but they were cheerful even unto death. As 
 K parted with them they were in a pleasant mood, he was 
 
THE DUBLIN POLICE MAKE A SWOOP 517 
 
 in a grave one ; he thought of certain lines he had learned in 
 boyhood, and how applicable they were to the situation : 
 
 " Comrades ! Well have you chosen to die. For in my 
 mind the grave is better than o'er-burthened life ! Better the 
 quick release of glorious wounds than the eternal taunts of 
 galling tongues. Better in manhood's muscle and high blood, 
 to leap the gulf, than totter to the edge in poverty, dull pain, 
 and base decay. A last farewell ! When next we meet, we'll 
 have no time to tell how parting clouds a soldier's counten- 
 ance. Few as we are, we'll rouse them with a peal that shall 
 shake Britain ! " 
 
 The peal not only reverberated over Britain, but its echoes 
 could be heard over Europe. But fate so ordained that 
 neither wounds nor death fell to the Irish soldiers' lot that 
 evening — their success was greater than the most sanguine 
 could have hoped for. Some since met a patriot's death ; 
 they who died for the salvation of their country and their 
 countrymen, have had their memories foully slandered. How 
 often have some of the living writhed beneath the cruel damn- 
 ing slander from such a source, and felt it would be better — "the 
 qiiick release of glorious wounds, than the eternal taunts of 
 galling venomous tongues." Those who to-day suffer in 
 Britain's dungeons, subject to every degradation for life, are 
 forgotten by the people for whom they suffer. 
 
 The night that K was leaving Dublin, while he was 
 
 yet on the waters, several of his comrades were captured by 
 the enemy ; of this he knew nothing. 
 
 K saw Q next day and informed him of his visit 
 
 to the Irish statesman, telling him that he was compelled to 
 try and get the shells the men so frequently asked for. 
 
 The news of the arrests filled them both with astonishment. 
 
 Q appeared to treat this as one of the enemy's many 
 
 blunders. But K felt in his heart that the foe had stolen a 
 
 march upon him. He had no alternative but to await results ; 
 news from the statesman about the shells was of vital im- 
 portance. The time passed in feverish anxiety to those who 
 were interested in the new phase the struggle had assumed. 
 
5l8 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 Q frequently saw K , and with friendly words tried 
 
 to make him feel hopeful. 
 
 A week elapsed, and the second examination came off, 
 which showed the determination of the enemy for revenge. 
 
 K wondered what the INVINCIBLE Executive was doing ; 
 
 was G working for Ireland preparing a blow of retalia- 
 tion ? Another week, and a message came from the Executive 
 
 ordering K to communicate with them through Q as 
 
 heretofore. K felt outraged at the pusillanimity that 
 
 dictated it, but said nothing. He silently acquiesced, as 
 
 Q told him that some active work would at once be taken 
 
 up. He said that G would see that all things were looked 
 
 after, and that there was no reason for anxiety. 
 
 Next day Q came, with great anxiety and friendship 
 
 in his face, to say that the Executive requested K to leave 
 
 for America. A prominent Parnellite, near to the highest in 
 that organisation, had learned that the enemy was on the 
 
 lookout for K , and urged his instant departure. This 
 
 looked very possible, but not probable, and as it was learned a 
 long time after, this gentleman was needlessly alarmed ; but ot 
 course his intentions were very friendly. This gentleman, 
 
 Z , is another of the Parnellite members of Parliament at 
 
 this date, 1887.1 
 
 K had waited, outwardly in a patient mood, expecting 
 
 to hear from the Executive daily ; discipline kept him most 
 obedient to the powers which he had recognised as his 
 Government. But its continued timidity and perpetual cry of 
 prudence at a crisis when so many of his brave comrades 
 were in the enemy's prisons, fretted his soul, and the request 
 to leave was the last drop of water in his cup of pain. He 
 
 could not in any way reproach Q , who was a brave and 
 
 manly fellow, but it was different with those men behind him, 
 
 ^ A division has now taken place in the Irish Parliamentary party. The name 
 Parnellite, which was formerly used to designate all the followers in and outside 
 the enemy's Parliament, has not the same significance. Messrs. J. McCarthy, 
 O'Brien, Dillon, Healy and Co., were all then recognized as Parnellites. The 
 
 gentleman who is spoken of here as Z , is still a Parnellite member of the 
 
 London Parliament, remaining under the banner of Mr. Parnell (1891). 
 
A SECRET COUNCIL IN A DISTANT TOWN 519 
 
 who held themselves so prominent before the Irish race and 
 the whole civilised world. 
 
 He told Q that he would not leave for America ; he did 
 
 not believe there was any need ; that to desert his gallant 
 friends at this crisis would be the blackest and foulest treason, 
 and with a burst of indignation he demanded an interview with 
 
 G at once. He said to Q if he was in the enemy's 
 
 power, he knew his gallant friends would risk their lives again 
 and again before they would desert him ; it would be the 
 
 basest cowardice to leave them in this hour of agony. Q 
 
 was deeply impressed with K 's state of mind, and told 
 
 him he would convey to G , the demand for an interview 
 
 made by K . 
 
 G complied with this request, and arranged that they 
 
 were to meet in a certain city, some few hundred miles' journey 
 
 from where they were then located. G had to journey a 
 
 similar distance. They were to meet in this town, and hold a 
 conference to decide on what action they should take to 
 meet the enemy's raid most effectively in this emergency. 
 
 K thought out the position as best he could. He saw 
 
 clearly the enemy meant, to kill off a certain number of 
 the men they had captured, with or without truthful informa- 
 tion, or, as they termed it, evidence. The INVINCIBLE soldiers 
 could not rescue their comrades. To do this meant a general 
 insurrection, and the capture of Dublin from the invader. But 
 they could go on with the war, and so serve Ireland, and 
 avenge the brave patriots incarcerated. They could also see 
 that the families of the imprisoned men were placed beyond 
 reach of want, and that the prisoners held by the enemy were 
 informed that they were not deserted, but at the same time 
 could not be rescued ; and that everything that was possible in 
 the exigencies of the hour should be done, regardless of what 
 sacrifice of lives might be necessary to strike down the foe. 
 
 K decided to communicate to G the names and 
 
 addresses of the two Invincible captains in Dublin, and to 
 place before this member of the Government, his plans to meet 
 the crisis. At this time K had a very high opinion of 
 
520 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 the unswerving determination and unflinching courage of this 
 illustrious statesman. A certain message which he would give 
 him, would be the open sesame to these Dublin men's con- 
 fidence, and the public reputation and well-known patriotism 
 of this prominent Irishman would suffice to confirm it. These 
 Invincible captains, armed with legal authority to act in 
 their country's interest, would at once summon their bands to 
 
 action. If G could procure the shells for the assault it 
 
 would be of great importance, but if not procured promptly 
 
 they must attack with their present arms. P could 
 
 muster a large number of the " sacred band," for a number of 
 sub-officers were unknown to the foe, and these men would enter 
 a blazing volcano to strike down the enemy, so incensed were 
 they at his brutal, bloody rule. That this attack on Spencer 
 would bring on a revolution in Ireland, or a rising in the 
 capital (a spontaneous insurrection such as that of '98, not an 
 
 organised one), K knew to be impossible. It would 
 
 however be certain to result in the death of the red-handed 
 tyrant, and would be Ireland's reply to the " Bloody Assize " 
 charges made against Spencer by the leading Parnellite news- 
 paper 
 
 A train of fierce and bitter thoughts were K 's com- 
 panions during the memorable railroad journey spoken of. 
 He built high hopes on the coming interview. If this Irish 
 statesman had the ability and courage which his friends 
 considered, this was the crisis, the supreme moment, to try 
 his soul ; the ordeal placed before them by the enemy. 
 
 G he knew could appoint a man of superior intelligence 
 
 to succeed him (K ) in command at Dublin. He had 
 
 the power to place a brave officer to take charge, whose first 
 duty would be to strike the foe, now in the hour of his 
 apparent triumph. This would indeed be an INVINCIBLE 
 victory of some value. 
 
 By orders, Q was not to travel with K but was to 
 
 meet him at the end of the journey, in the town in which 
 they were to go into council together, as to the best plan to 
 
FEAR AT THE FOUNTAIN HEAD 521 
 
 be adopted in the present crisis. When K reached his 
 
 destination he called, as directed, at the house of a prominent 
 
 Parnellite in that town. K had known of him by 
 
 reputation as a staunch and patriotic Irishman. He learned 
 there that the gentleman he looked for had been some short 
 time previous at this house, but had left ; his return in a 
 
 short time was expected. Q was also in town, but 
 
 would return soon. K left his card to inform his friend 
 
 that he had arrived. K made several calls but got no 
 
 news of the absent men ; he walked that town, weary, and in 
 company with his own sad thoughts. Evening came and 
 
 with it Q , who invited K to walk out with him. 
 
 And as they walked through the streets of the town Q 
 
 told his friend that G had returned, as the enemy's spies 
 
 were watching him so closely that he did not consider it 
 
 prudent to see K . Q then went on to tell him that 
 
 G had positive information that the enemy was on the 
 
 lookout for his (K 's) capture, and that he must leave 
 
 at once for France or some other foreign country, as his 
 presence under the British flag was dangerous. A tornado 
 
 of indignation swept over K 's soul, and in his anguish 
 
 of spirit he cursed the infernal prudence of these damned 
 Provincialists, these puny dabblers at revolution, and in his 
 rage would have wished a wind of perdition to have swept 
 them away. This day's work was indeed the Invincibles' 
 Waterloo ! This hellish prudence — was it by this that the 
 chiefs of the enemy's murder society were smitten to the earth 
 in the Phoenix Park ? Oh, spirit of the illustrious dead ! See 
 what milksops and cowards your descendants are, even 
 among the most prominent leaders, the men who occupy the 
 highest places ! He groaned and gnashed his teeth when he 
 
 realised his own impotence. If G 's story was true as to 
 
 the extent of the enemy's information, it would be madness 
 for him to go to Dublin ; and yet he felt this madness must 
 be. How could he like a coward desert his brave friends ? 
 
 Q was walking by his side during the wild rage that 
 
 swept over K 's mind. He knew by the expression of 
 
522 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 his face, and his muttered expletives, that he felt a storm 
 of indignation at having come this long journey, to be so 
 grossly outraged with this coward plea of spies of the enemy. 
 
 Q asked him what he proposed to do. " I will leave at 
 
 once for Dublin," said K with bitterness, " and endeavour . 
 
 to repair this evil at no matter what consequences." " This 
 
 would be a foolhardy mission," replied Q ; " you will not 
 
 only be mad in attempting to go there, but you will give the 
 enemy a cheap triumph by your capture and certain death. 
 You will also violate instructions and disobey orders." 
 
 K felt the full force of Q 's words, and he was in 
 
 complete ignorance of what the enemy actually knew. Then 
 his capture would not only be considered an important one 
 by the foe, but would deprive him of doing anything in the 
 crisis ; and his capture might be the medium of tracing up 
 
 unknown men. He listened more calmly to Q , who 
 
 continued : " G will go himself to Dublin and will 
 
 personally superintend all the important duties necessary in 
 
 that city. He will at once see P , you can put them in 
 
 communication, -and rely upon it everything that can be 
 done under the circumstances, he will do." 
 
 This news of G taking an active part in the In- 
 vincible work reconciled K in a measure, but he could 
 
 not put aside the sore disappointment he felt. K 
 
 decided that in communicating with P he would make 
 
 that brave and intelligent officer understand, through their 
 secret code, that active work alone must be their only hope. 
 The employment of pettifogging lawyers, and mock legal 
 defence of the imprisoned men, was wretched and drivelling 
 nonsense. One blow from a blade of cold steel was worth 
 all the arguments the whole Bar could use ; but on this 
 question Irishmen, owing to their false teaching, are led astray 
 by taking part in these so-called legal mummeries, admitting 
 London law and recognising its existence in their country. 
 But not so P . 
 
 K could see plainly that there was no hope for the 
 
 imprisoned men by any possible attempt at rescue, for this 
 
"K » PEREMPTORILY ORDERED ABROAD 523 
 
 to be successful, would mean the complete destruction of the 
 enemy's power in that city. But the cause for which they 
 were about to suffer could be kept alive, if a fight could be 
 brought on by attacking Spencer and his armed escort ; and 
 even if the streets of Dublin were drenched in blood, they 
 would make the enemy feel the avenging strokes of the 
 INVINCIBLES. There would be hope for Ireland in this, and 
 the brave Irish soldiers would be cheered to the grave by the 
 ringing blows of their friends. 
 
 K 's whole hope of success was now centred in G . 
 
 He felt satisfied that if he went earnestly to work no better 
 man could be selected to control the issue in this grave 
 
 emergency. Q sent over to P the cased steel 
 
 weapons he had, and the messenger who brought these put 
 
 G and P in communication ; G having arrived 
 
 in Dublin had assumed control. 
 
 Peremptory orders were now sent to K to leave for 
 
 the European Continent. The Directory said that it was all- 
 important he should not remain within reach of the enemy. 
 
 K obeyed his orders ; he began to feel more satisfied ; 
 
 he thought that everything which wisdom and courage could 
 
 do to face the emergency two such men as G and P 
 
 would do for Ireland. He left P a channel through 
 
 which he could communicate with him ; some letters were 
 
 sent, but as K had left, they were destroyed ; others of 
 
 these reached him in the New World. 
 
 The Invincible Government had permitted themselves to 
 be almost effaced from the control of the movement, and a 
 senseless and stupid panic pervaded their ranks. One self- 
 sacrificing, noble fellow, by great personal exertion, acting 
 under the instructions of the highest authority, endeavoured 
 to try and get every suspected person and his surroundings 
 out of the enemy's clutch. In so far as this can be called a 
 victory, the highest authority and his close personal friend 
 
 found that their labours were crowned with success. K 
 
 had some valuable weapons deposited in a leathern hand-bag, 
 
524 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 and when he left headquarters this satchel was taken by a 
 lady and deposited for safe keeping with a Provincialist 
 friend. But prudence, that wonderful gift which attached 
 itself so closely to these Heaven-sent leaders, came to the 
 rescue ; and what the lady saved from possible capture was 
 thrown into the river of that town by the gentleman who was 
 deputed by one in high authority to get the suspected people 
 away.^ It must be written with regret of this man, that for some 
 unaccountable reason, his services were not used earlier. The 
 present writer would place him in the foreground of Ireland's 
 earnest and patriotic sons ; but the poison of Provincialism 
 and hero-worship has sapped his being, and a man who had 
 the zeal and bravery of a Lord Edward, is content to be allied 
 to a group of men who are whining for some of the crumbs 
 for Ireland that fall from her destroyer's legislative table. 
 
 P had had two interviews with G , who probably 
 
 never dreamed of fight, and might possibly look on it as mad- 
 ness ; for he, it appears, was also possessed of this Heaven- 
 sent prudence. It must be said of this Irishman that he was 
 the most able of the Parnellite group, but he was weighted 
 down by former colleagues, now turned to partial foes. The 
 poison of Provincialism had destroyed them. Their dream 
 of active opposition had passed away; it was to many but 
 a temporary fever, but it was a fever that brought death and 
 chains to those who were earnest and espoused the national 
 cause from the loftiest of motives. But the victory gained 
 on the 6th of May was worth all these deaths to Ireland ; the 
 lesson it has taught will sink deep into the young minds of 
 growing Irishmen when the real facts are placed before them. 
 
 G , not meeting K on that memorable journey as 
 
 arranged, knew nothing of what K wished him to do, 
 
 and cannot be held responsible for the failure only so far as 
 he was really answerable in not meeting K as prear- 
 ranged. G displayed bravery and single-minded courage 
 
 alone among his colleagues in going to Dublin at that 
 
 1 This gentleman is also at this date (1891) another of the Parnellite members 
 of Parliament. 
 
THE EXECUTIVE THROWS EVERYBODY OVER 525 
 
 moment of emergency. Looking at this from a Provincialist 
 standpoint, it might be called reckless and desperate daring 
 P , who knew of the proposed attack on Spencer, hesi- 
 tated to mention the matter to G until he had grown 
 
 more intimate with him. He knew nothing whatever of 
 
 K 's visit about the shells, and was not at that time 
 
 acquainted with what knowledge G possessed on the 
 
 matter ; and from the superior position of the gentleman in 
 Ireland's service he felt satisfied that the order for work of 
 that nature should come from him. 
 
 The business which was transacted between G and 
 
 P was solely in the interest of the imprisoned men 
 
 When P called to see G the third morning as 
 
 arranged, he was told he was out of town for a few days. 
 
 The fact was G was ordered away from Dublin by his 
 
 colleagues. But as this was urgent, why did not another 
 gentleman take his place, if not to fight the enemy (for 
 prudence might step in here), at least to look after the brave 
 fellows who were incarcerated by the foe in furtherance of 
 the national policy once so heroically put forth by these then 
 
 patriotic Irishmen ? Where was that Irish Cid Y , the 
 
 gentleman who at the inception of the movement so bravely 
 volunteered to slay Forster — where was he at this juncture } 
 History fails to record any action of his. There may be cir- 
 cumstances in his case that could easily explain this away, 
 but nothing can explain away the absolute and complete 
 neglect of these Irishmen, entombed in the prison of the foe 
 for the manly and heroic protest delivered in the Phoenix 
 Park, against the invaders who were making their country a 
 huge charnel house. 
 
 When G was ordered away, no successor was sent ; the 
 
 crouching consciences of this fading Invincible Government 
 
 were satisfied to leave the men to die neglected. P was 
 
 left utterly and completely alone, his communications were cut 
 off. The Invincible Directory threw up the sponge, and 
 the brave imprisoned manhood were left to feel they were 
 deserted. O God, what base ingratitude! what infamous 
 
526 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 cowardice ! What can a nation expect from the manhood of 
 such statesmen ? Many among them may plead sound and valid 
 reasons why they could not help their imprisoned men in theii 
 agony, speaking as Provincialists imbued with that prominent 
 virtue called prudence. But even as Provincialists, even as 
 men outside of Nationalist circles, was there no manhood in 
 these men, no common bond of country that would prompt 
 them from their well-filled treasury to send an open subscrip- 
 tion, if not a secret one, to show Ireland that national in- 
 gratitude had not gone so far as to desert these imprisoned 
 men's families, after all the promises made to the helpless ? 
 To what baseness has this foul and criminal doctrine of 
 association with these British felons and assassins of Ireland, 
 brought these once patriotic Irishmen ! The intimate asso- 
 ciation with the murderers of the Irish people has reduced 
 these men so low, — to such a pitiable condition of leprosy, — 
 that the poorest beggar might pity them ! 
 
 Carey's treason left K one of two courses, either to 
 
 leave for the United States or stay and give the enemy the 
 opportunity of capturing him. This, after all the noise they 
 made about his association with the INVINCIBLES, they would 
 have trumpeted as a victory. And there is no doubt that 
 they would have given him the post of honour on the scaffold. 
 They tried to capture several of the INVINCIBLE statesmen ; 
 the hideous monster that is preying on Ireland gnashed his 
 teeth with rage, that his lust of blood could not be satisfied. 
 Both Republics, that of France and the United States, refused 
 to admit that the " suppression " of the Secretaries was " cri- 
 minal;" and the British tyrant was reluctantly compelled to fore- 
 go the object of his desires — to get those patriotic Irishmen in 
 his bloodstained clutches. The treason of Carey by which 
 the enemy hoped to reap such a rich harvest of blood, was 
 barren in its results ; not one Irishman in addition to those 
 already in custody was arrested, although the British blood- 
 hounds were on the scent. The men already entombed in 
 the invader's dungeons, were certain to die, even if this unfor- 
 
ASSISTANCE WITHHELD ALL ROUND 527 
 
 tunate man had not stained his soul with the crime of rebel- 
 lion and treachery to his native land. 
 
 The Provincialists were silent, and although they felt that 
 public opinion was with the imprisoned patriots, yet none 
 of them had the moral courage to express a single word 
 of sympathy, or in any manner to espouse the cause of 
 men whom they in their secret souls felt a strong affection 
 for 
 
 P tried to raise a public subscription to help the 
 
 families of the imprisoned men, and so enable these crouching 
 cowards to come to the front with at least some of their 
 wealth, which they could send secretly. He got a subscrip- 
 tion from a friend, and sent it to one of the Provincial organs. 
 This paper relegated the notice to an obscure corner of one of 
 its columns, and in small type, as if nervous to display the 
 smallest sympathy, even the most remote, to the heroic men 
 who were about to die for Ireland, while a number of crawling 
 cowards, whose souls were so sunken as not only to neglect 
 their colleagues, but to refuse them even secret help, bore the 
 name of patriots emblazoned before the world, and were 
 receiving at that very time large sums collected from the 
 hard-working Irish-American toilers, who through mistaken 
 generosity were continuing to supply these unhappy fallen 
 Provincialists with well-filled purses. 
 
 P 's attempt to raise a public subscription failed. The 
 
 Provincialists, by their actions, were assisting the enemy in 
 trying to poison the mind of the citizens against the prisoners 
 and their principles. The Irish Nationalists scattered over 
 the island believed that the public subscription was an abuse, 
 and that the men were well looked after. They could not 
 believe such desertion possible. The scene of mourning in 
 Dublin that memorable Whit-Monday, 1883, and the crowds 
 outside Kilmainham, convinced the Provincial leaders that 
 the pulsation of the nation's heart beat in unison with her 
 heroic defenders. The Provincialists did not upbraid or 
 reproach at that time ; they at least preserved the dignity of 
 silence. Men who despaired of Ireland under their public 
 
528 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 teaching, hoped against hope that they would retrace their 
 steps and advocate action. 
 
 On K 's arrival in America he learned the complete 
 
 disaster of the cause in Dublin. The hope which was im- 
 planted in his breast that G , aided by P , would 
 
 bring the other Invincible bands upon the scene, and make 
 Ireland reverberate with their blows, to show mankind that 
 the arrests of the patriots were answered by their comrades 
 in a grand attack on Spencer and his guard, which would end 
 in that tyrant's death, proved vain. All, alas ! was fright, 
 desertion, and disgrace. How he tried to remedy this and 
 blot out of life the ensanguined foe who had imbrued his 
 hands in the blood of his comrades even at the almost certain 
 sacrifice of his own ; how he was strangled by the damned 
 system of red tape and jealousy that is choking, if it has not 
 choked, Irish movements ; how he vainly tried — all this forms 
 no part of this history. The masters of Rant hold the fort, 
 and are to-day the martyrs of the tongue, worshipped by, and 
 leading astray, the Irish people to their certain destruction. 
 From their higher ranks came leaders who led brave men to 
 the dungeon and the scaffold, and basely deserted them there. 
 
 But Ireland is awakening from her stupor ; already there are 
 signs of life upon the horizon. She will soon begin to realise 
 how noble and faithful unto death were her pure-souled IN- 
 VINCIBLE soldiers, who sacrificed all that she might be free of 
 her tyrants. 
 
 Brave sons of a once gallant race ! Daniel Curley, with 
 the cool-headedness that reveals strength, with the deter- 
 mination of a Palafox, when Forster resigned his post as 
 chief British assassin in Ireland, how you felt enraged that 
 he escaped the punishment due his great crimes ! How nobly 
 you volunteered to follow him to his lair and give up your 
 life to strike the tyrant down, but yielded to authority when 
 told that Forster was politically dead as a foe ; that Ireland 
 might hear his waspish tongue but never more wear his 
 galling chains j that another chief of the murder bureau would 
 
THE AUTHOR'S TRIBUTE TO HIS COMRADES 529 
 
 invade our sacred soil, and Ireland would again be in her 
 legitimate position of self-defence ! The hour to strike was 
 near ! 
 
 Joseph Brady, with the heroism and daring of a Leonidas, 
 filled with Spartan courage and self-sacrifice, your simple, 
 manly character has left its writing in indelible characters 
 upon the page of your country's history ! 
 
 Timothy Kelly, young and enthusiastic, who smiled at 
 grave words but performed daring acts, filled with ardour and 
 daring ; a boy in years, a veteran in courage ! 
 
 Michael Fagan, indefatigable, faithful, and unswerving to 
 death in the nation's glorious cause ! 
 
 Turning from these patriots who sanctified the scaffold, and 
 piercing into the gloom of the enemy's dungeon, there toils on 
 in torture the aged FitzHarris, humble, humorous, with the 
 natural wit of a brilliant race, but heroic ! A Titan in the 
 strength of his resolution, steadfast and practical in his 
 loyalty to his land. 
 
 And you, oh Joseph Mullet, who braved with manly forti- 
 tude the criminal's minion whom they termed a judge, when, 
 in the invader's court you boldly, from the dock, enunciated 
 your love of motherland, and hurled defiance in the assassin's 
 face. 
 
 In that dungeon's gloom there are others, suffering sons of 
 the Green Isle, that may survive the torture. To be praised 
 by this pen would very probably inflict upon them the further 
 torture of exile. 
 
 They were Paladins all ! Exhausted in strength but never 
 in heart. Other men and other times may do them justice, 
 but that these unborn freemen may read the truth, one of 
 the living — himself an exile — pens these lines. . . . 
 
 In the early part of this year (1887) the organ of the 
 British murder society — the London Times — published a 
 series of articles which, in the language of this expounder of 
 assassination literature, were termed " Parnellism and Crime." 
 The special object of these articles was to prove that Mr. 
 Parnell and the Irish Parliamentary party — or a great number 
 
S30 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 of them — were identified with the INVINCIBLE organisation. 
 The enemy's organ wished the world to believe that Mr. 
 Parnell and his following were practical Irish patriots who 
 were hostile to death against foreign rule in their native land. 
 This accusation of being animated with the self-same devotion 
 to Ireland as filled the patriotic souls of Tone, Fitzgerald, and 
 Emmet, Mr. Parnell and his followers indignantly denied. 
 They wished the Irish people to understand that they are 
 loyal West British subjects of the British throne, who are 
 trying to reform certain abuses in the western part of the 
 kingdom ; and that to call them Irish Nationalists or in 
 sympathy with such criminals, is an outrage on their good 
 name. 
 
 It has been so far a wordy duel of charge and counter- 
 charge, with the use of very extravagant and brutal lan- 
 guage towards Irish patriots, in the British murder society's 
 organ. This language we take from this journal and apply 
 it where it properly belongs. In describing the invaders of 
 Ireland in this history, it is in many instances done in their 
 own expressions. 
 
 What most seriously concerns Irishmen in this Times 
 warfare, and more especially men who are prepared to make 
 sacrifices for the purpose of liberating their nation from the 
 foreigner's chains, is this continued moral support given to the 
 enemy, the strong public political alliance tendered to 
 Ireland's foe by men who were not supposed at one time to 
 be actuated by any such feeling. Every speaker on the 
 supposed Irish side in the enemy's House repelled, with 
 seeming horror, the bare suspicion of being even associated 
 with those of their countrymen who proved practical 
 Nationalists, by " suppressing " the British assassins that in- 
 vaded Ireland. They gave every moral comfort they could to 
 the enemy by using stronger language than he or his murder 
 organ could use, in slandering and outraging the memory of 
 the noble patriots who died on the scaffold for their enslaved 
 nation, and denouncing the Irishmen now suffering in the 
 enemy's dungeons. What treason and infamy ! From every 
 
THE BITTERNESS OF DESERTION 5J1 
 
 side of that chamber where laws are made to rivet more firmly 
 the shackles which bind the limbs of Ireland, was heard the 
 voice of foul abuse and calumny, levelled against the daring 
 Irish soldiers who, by deeds, would set the captives free. But 
 no British voice equalled the contumely and infamy sought 
 to be hurled against the honour and manhood of Irish 
 patriotism, in those efforts made by the Irish party in that 
 House to repel the charges that they were leagued with these 
 Irish patriots. The deep and damning disgrace of this ex- 
 hibition was that many of these Irishmen did not, could not, 
 believe the foul slander they were uttering. 
 
 Mr. Sexton is the silver-tongued orator of a nation of 
 orators, and worshipped by Irishmen in proportion to the 
 beauty and elegance of his diction ; but while good speaking 
 is pleasing to the ear and charming to the senses, it has no 
 more influence to free nations without deeds than the 
 entrancing singing of Giuglini or Mario could have freed 
 Italy, without the action of her brave sons and the weapons 
 they so valorously wielded. But these very deeds this silver- 
 tongued orator was condemning, in no stinted manner, in the 
 legislative halls of his country's assassins. In one of these 
 debates which took place upon these Times' articles, called 
 " Parnellism and Crime," every Irish speaker in that chamber 
 tried to outdo his predecessor in condemnation of the Irish 
 INVINCIBLES. Mr. Sexton said : " Does any one need to go 
 beyond the title of the article — * Parnellism and Crime ' t 
 The article asserts there is an association between a body of 
 members of this House, and breakers of the criminal law of 
 the country. The very title constitutes a breach of 
 privilege." 
 
 Very fitly, and in proper terms, did Mr. Sexton describe 
 himself and those men his colleagues who were once Irish 
 patriots — or posed as such before their people — when he called 
 them " a body of members of this House." They were more 
 British than the British, in insulting the dead and imprisoned 
 Irish Nationalists in that chamber. . . . 
 
 But when the Irish leader arose in that House, that House 
 
 M M 2 
 
532 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 from which with howls of execration himself and his 
 followers were hurled forth a few years before ; that House 
 which hailed with cheers the arrest of his friends and enacted 
 penal laws again and again to further bind and lash his 
 country ; that House which gave power to the British Minister 
 to use what tyrannies he liked in prostrate Ireland, and by 
 whose sanction he, the leader, and his most daring followers 
 were wantonly thrown into prison — for when the British 
 cheered Gladstone's announcement of his arrest with joy, 
 Irish hearts thrilled with indignation and Irish arms felt the 
 hour had come to strike — when he, Charles Stewart Parnell, 
 arose to take part in this hideous debate, and when the 
 burning, blistering, slanderous words came hissing from his 
 lips in the Senate of his country's foe — when he, standing in 
 the presence of Ireland's enemies, stigmatised the men who 
 died for Ireland as assassins, then an agonised thrill of horror 
 went pulsing through to the nation's frame as she stood 
 bleeding beneath the blows dealt her by her moral assassins 
 in that chamber ; and Ireland, seeing the uplifted steel of 
 Charles Stewart Parnell, covered her face with her robe, and 
 falling prostrate at the base of Liberty's statue, cried out 
 with the dying Caesar, " Et tu. Brute!' 
 
 The enemy's vituperation and misrepresentations of the 
 INVINCIBLES is only natural, and what Irishmen should 
 expect from such an unscrupulous and brutal foe. But this 
 policy of public dishonesty and suppression of their real 
 sentiments, this lack of moral courage taught the Irish people 
 is degrading them before mankind. The great masses obey 
 because educated men in whom they have confidence teach 
 them it is good policy and most perfect diplomacy to publicly 
 lie, and to denounce the most cherished aspirations of their 
 inmost soul. How often unthinkingly and from custom not 
 weighing the value of their words are Irishmen heard to 
 exclaim in the language of the enemy " Rebel Cork " or 
 *' Rebel Wexford " and the " Murders in the Phoenix Park." 
 As Mirabeau has said, '' words are things." . . . 
 
PART III 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER: IRELAND AT 
 THE CLOSE OF 1893 
 
 The years are passing, and since this work was written many 
 men who figure in its pages have passed away, friend and foe : 
 Charles Stewart Parnell and Wm. E. Forster, Joseph Gillis 
 Biggar and Colonel King-Harman, and many others who 
 have been prominent on the stage of Irish history. 
 
 But " How is little Ireland, and how does she stand ? " The 
 answer can be summarised by saying, " A foreign flag still 
 floats over Dublin Castle, and the red-coated soldiery of the 
 invader are still in occupation of the island. The Tory 
 Ministers have vanished, and their Whig opponents are now 
 in power. The fierce and wolfish Tory, who could crush out 
 every spark of nationality in coercion, has been succeeded by 
 the slimy Whig serpent, who breathes over the land the noxious 
 vapours that stupefy and confuse ; and the people, drugged 
 with his effective poison, appear not to know where to direct 
 their movements, or to whom to look for guidance. 
 
 What have been the effects of this much-talked-of coercion 
 on the Irish nation } Have the Tories added in any manner 
 to the normal destruction of foreign rule ? Again, what 
 have been the blessings of all these so-called concessions, 
 these Land Bills which were fought against so bitterly by 
 the House of Lords } What benefit to Ireland is the 
 disestablishment of the Irish Episcopalian Church, which 
 aroused for a time the cry, '* Away with the House of Lords 1 ** 
 
534 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 followed by Orange threats of insurrection in Ireland ? The 
 answer to both these questions is the continued condition of 
 unending decay in the Irish nation, which proves — proves 
 with the stern logic of actual facts — that neither coercion nor 
 concession can alter the condition of a nation under the rule 
 of the foreigner. While one vestige of alien rule remains 
 in Ireland, this decadence and degradation must continue. 
 The country is now under the sway of that political Chadband, 
 Wm. Ewart Gladstone, who with unctuous piety, as he turneth 
 up his eyes with fervour, saith to the Irish, " For what Home 
 Rule you do receive, be unto me thankful." And while this 
 man, whose hypocrisy is so great that he even deceives him- 
 self, talks of liberty for Ireland, he retains in his prisons the 
 co7ifreres of the Provincialists, who are now his allies in 
 trying to eradicate every vestige of nationality from the Irish 
 people. 
 
 Joseph Mullet is at this date, December, 1893, in a dungeon 
 of the enemy. He and his comrades, at a single word from 
 this Briton, W. E. Gladstone, could be restored to the outer 
 world ; but his mouthpiece, Mr. Asquith, tells the Irish race 
 that he (Mullet) and his imprisoned colleagues will not be 
 released. The same denial applies to all the Irish political 
 prisoners. Dr. Gallaher, John Daly, and their friends. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone rants about his love for Ireland, and to prove 
 it, has taken into the British Whig camp the former Land 
 League leaders whose movement created the secret Land 
 League — the INVINCIBLES. The Irish Provincialists, having 
 deserted and slandered their comrades who took action by 
 order of the Land League Executive, are rewarded by a close 
 alliance with this prince of hypocrites, the British Premier. 
 But for their former friends, the INVINCIBLES, he has con- 
 tinued dungeons, toils, and chains. Charles Stewart Parnell 
 and John Dillon truly described him as " the most unrivalled 
 of coercers," and the " master of misrepresentation." 
 
 Take this Liberal chieftain's " Irish Government Bill " of 
 i 893, popularly called a "Home Rule*' Bill. This measure 
 
THE "HOME RULE" BILL OF 1893 535 
 
 is an English bull, for it is called " Home Rule " because it 
 does not contain one particle of Home Rule within its four 
 corners. By the proposed Assembly, legislation for Irish 
 trade, navigation, and commerce is absolutely forbidden. The 
 effect of this prohibition would be to deprive Ireland of the 
 corner-stone of a nation's prosperity. In addition to this im- 
 portant prohibition, the right to control Irish finance and Irish 
 land was to be withheld from the Irish legislature, with a 
 promise undoubtedly as false as all British promises to Ireland 
 — that it would be restored to the Dublin Assembly in some 
 years to come. Had this wretched measure, falsely called 
 " Home Rule," passed into British law, it would be found to 
 have no more power to arrest Irish decadence than the many 
 previous bills which passed through the House of Lords after 
 weeks of angry and violent contention. 
 
 Foreign rule cannot be reformed by a local Assembly in 
 Dublin ; the overpowering influence of foreign interests — in- 
 terests antagonistic to Irish prosperity — forbid it. There has 
 never been a solution to the infamous outrage of foreign 
 usurpation of a nation's right to rule, but that of absolute and 
 complete independence. 
 
 Some writers, who know a little of this Irish question, tell 
 us that Ireland could not stand alone ; that she would be 
 conquered by some other nation if freed from British rule. 
 How, then, does Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland remain 
 independent .•* Ireland is as large as these three nations 
 combined. Because of the rival jealousies of the great 
 powers, they will say. It is these very jealousies and rival 
 interests called the " balance of power in Europe " which 
 permit Britain herself to remain in the possession of so much 
 colonial territory. Her physical power compared to theirs 
 is simply contemptible. In a very short time an Irish Republic 
 could turn out an army superior to the boasted nation's. 
 
 The Whig premier is an eloquent juggler in the use of 
 words ; he has invested his " Home Rule " Bill with a false 
 sentiment ; by the glamour which his words have cast around 
 it so successfully, he has succeeded in deceiving both friends 
 and foes. 
 
536 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 The stupid and intolerant Tory and his instrument, the 
 fanatic and bigoted Orangeman, both of whom have aided the 
 " master of misrepresentation," helped him unwittingly in his 
 endeavour to hoodwink the Irish people into accepting a 
 powerless Assembly m Dublin, in return for their stolen inde- 
 pendence. He tried to induce the Irish to freely accept her 
 enemy's flag, and thereby strengthen the British empire. It 
 has been said, and will be repeated, " Why this hostility of 
 the Tories, Unionists, so-called, and Orangemen, if this Bill 
 be worthless ? " Will Irishmen remember that the self-same 
 hostility has been displayed by these stupid partisans to every 
 measure that appeared in any manner an apparent concession 
 to Ireland, or Irish sentiment ? Not one of these measures — 
 notwithstanding the great opposition of Tories, Lords, and 
 Orangemen, and heralded with all the drums and trumpets of 
 the Provincialists as great victories — have been of the smallest, 
 the most infinitesimal, benefit to Ireland. Poverty, eviction, 
 and emigration have not been in any manner arrested ; the 
 unceasing decadence goes steadily on. 
 
 How far Mr. Gladstone deceives himself, it is impossible 
 to know ; it is questionable if this aged statesman knows 
 himself. He speaks of this deceptive and shadowy bill as if 
 it contained all the glorious freedom won at Yorktown. 
 When placed even beside the Colonial legislatures of Canada 
 or Australia, it is a mockery. In Leeds Town Hall, in 1881, 
 Mr. Gladstone spoke in glowing terms of his Land Bill and 
 all the blessings it was to confer upon Ireland ; possibly he 
 believed this himself. To maintain his position he quoted 
 the extravagant eulogies of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy given 
 in an earlier chapter. The succeeding year, when Ireland 
 had fifteen months' experience of the blessings of this Land 
 Bill, over twenty-two thousand people were evicted, more 
 than the total for ten years preceding the League ; and yet 
 this bill, according to Mr. Gladstone and his Irish admirers, 
 was to confer unheard-of blessings upon the Irish farming 
 community. Other so-called land concessions have followed 
 this ; but evictions continue, and funds are needed to-day to 
 feed the houseless victims of these land laws. 
 
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN UNDER "HOME RULE" 537 
 
 If this " Home Rule " Bill should ever become a part of the 
 Briton's legislature for Ireland, there is nothing in the womb 
 of time more certain but that it would, like every preceding 
 British measure, become entirely inoperative. This it must 
 become of necessity ; emigration, poverty, and decay would 
 only be hastened by the disappointment arising from its 
 powerlessness. The Chambers would gabble while the nation 
 was dying. The Briton would sneer at Irishmen's in- 
 capacity for self-government, while all the actual power still 
 remained in the hands of the foreigner. Possibly the offices 
 of British rule in Ireland, now held by Orange sympathisers, 
 might be, and probably would be, transferred to the Pro- 
 vincialists ; Britain has always rewarded recreants. But 
 Ireland would find that these new officials would continue 
 as steadfastly British as are the present holders. The Pro- 
 vincialists would of course hail their acceptance of these 
 officers as the advent to power of Irish authority, and they 
 would, like their chief, the " great master of misrepresenta- 
 tion," try and deceive the people into the belief that Ireland 
 had her own government. The public mind would become 
 more and more distracted, and Britain's mission, the removal 
 of the Irish Celt from Ireland, would go on amid the clanging 
 of angry tongues and noisy and fruitless discussion. The 
 nations would begin to believe that the British slanders were 
 true, and that Ireland could not govern. Having got what 
 they accepted as " Home Rule," they would be in continued 
 poverty and ruin. Irishmen must remember that no British 
 law, neither coercion nor so-called concession, can alter the 
 inevitable decay of the Irish nation while it remains an 
 appendage of a foreign crown. Slightly altering the Orange 
 threat in 1870 after the church disestablishment, the cardinal 
 doctrine of Irish nationality and Ireland's only hope for 
 prosperity and happiness, is to kick the foreign sovereign's 
 crown into the Irish Sea. Any struggle for impossible 
 reform is vain and criminal, — criminal because it is helping 
 the enemy to firmer fasten the chains of foreign conquest 
 upon the nation, keeping the people stupefied and pursuing 
 
538 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 a phantom, while the enemy proceeds with his quiet destruc- 
 tion of the Irish race. 
 
 The cry which now agitates the Provincialists is the 
 destruction of the House of Lords. The great " master of 
 misrepresentation " has touched upon this in his recent 
 address in Edinburgh (September, 1893). But he is, as usual, 
 careful in his manner of alluding to this question. He wishes 
 to infuse some hope into the Irish people that this obstacle 
 can be removed. All this rant is utter folly. The House of 
 Lords is as firmly set in the British Constitution as the 
 Crown itself. Nothing short of revolution can remove these 
 twin pillars of Britain's present regime. 
 
 The Gladstonian press, Irish, British, and American, tell 
 us that the Lords, by throwing out the " Home Rule " Bill, 
 opposed the will of the people. Nonsense ! The Lords, on 
 the contrary, affirmed the will and vote of the people — the 
 English people, whose opinions and wishes the Peers alone 
 recognise. It is by the aid of Irish Provincialists' votes that 
 Mr. Gladstone came to power. The British verdict is opposed 
 to his " Home Rule " Bill, and there is little doubt that 
 at the next general election he will be overwhelmingly de- 
 feated on this so-called " Home Rule " issue. Newspapers and 
 speakers, comparing the present attitude of the House of 
 Lords to that of the reform period in 1832, compare two 
 subjects totally dissimilar. The Reform Bill of 1832 was an 
 English question ; the question which confronts the Peers in 
 1893 is an Irish issue purely, and which they call " dismember- 
 ment of the empire," as the Austrians termed the Italian claim 
 to Lombardy and Venice, or the Turks the Greek demand 
 for autonomy and independence. Irish-Americans and 
 Americans who study this subject have no means of know- 
 ing the immense vote of English working men that has been 
 recorded against "Home Rule" in the elections of 1886 and 
 1892. It is all folly and humbug to call this a question 
 between classes and masses. The English people, who 
 belong to both of these great divisions, are divided upon this 
 question. A minority support Mr. Gladstone through party 
 
THE PRESENT ATTITUDE OF GLADSTONIANISM 539 
 
 fealty, not for any love they bear Ireland, or the Irish. And 
 the great majority are arrayed against this measure, absurd 
 as it may be to call it a " Home Rule " Bill. Backed up by 
 the House of Lords, it looks very likely as if the English 
 majority will have their way. Mr. Gladstone will retire the 
 bill to a shelf, and try and placate the Irish Whigs with 
 honeyed promises of its resurrection. 
 
 Before closing this chapter the writer would wish to draw 
 attention to the present attitude of the British Whig enemy 
 now in power. A gigantic movement is on foot to denation- 
 alise the Irish people, and to draw into the vortex every organ 
 of Irish opinion favourable to the Mephistophelian doctrines 
 of this would-be British saviour of Ireland. It has unfortun- 
 ately been in some measure successful, and the editors of 
 many Irish-American papers have adopted this wily Briton's 
 apparent views, which are to remove all landmarks between 
 the Irish and British people. The real endeavour is to 
 strengthen the tottering British empire, by turning the 
 hostile Irish people into its supporters ; and most particularly 
 the Irish-American section, which the wily Briton has good 
 reason to dread. This is endeavoured to be accomplished by 
 the illusory promises of these hypocritical Whig leaders ; not 
 one material blessing, not even the smallest prosperity, can 
 they give to Ireland. They are full well aware that no laws 
 they can pass will alter the condition of this British depen- 
 dency, Ireland, so long as it remains beneath the blighting 
 and destructive power of the British Crown. To Irish 
 independence they are equally as hostile as their Tory 
 brothers. This gigantic endeavour to make Irishmen Britons, 
 by at first making them kindly disposed to the Gladstonians, 
 is made manifest in the career of Lord Aberdeen and his 
 amiable countess. This lady's patronage of Irish industries, 
 and other kindly actions, is but part of a huge network set to 
 catch the trusting and impulsive Irish Celt. 
 
 The crowning of this edifice has been intrusted to Mr. 
 Blake, an Irish-Canadian, now member of the enemy's 
 
540 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 London Parliament. The sanctimonious " master of misrepre- 
 sentation " entrusted this Whig statesman with a letter to be 
 read on Irish day at the Chicago World's Fair. This letter 
 was dated September 2, 1893, and must have been sent to 
 Mr. Blake nearly one month previous. Its object was to try 
 and instil into the Irish-American mind the love this British 
 Premier holds for them, at the self-same time keeping some of 
 their brothers in British prisons. We quote a passage from 
 this letter. " You are about to address Americans, who in 
 all ranks and in all parts of their magnificent country 
 have shown an active and almost universal sympathy with 
 Ireland ; and especially Irish-Americans, through whose 
 energies and inexhaustible affection for Ireland has been 
 effected the most remarkable oceanic migration ever known 
 in the history of the world." How genuine to the unsophisti- 
 cated, and even the cultured American, or Irish-American 
 are these expressions of kindly interest ! how marvellously 
 must this man deceive himself if this whole letter was not 
 written for a purpose ! Who but this remarkable Briton 
 could term the gigantic drain of Ireland's health, the bone and 
 sinew of her people, as the offspring of the energies and 
 inexhaustible affection of the Irish-Americans, when the 
 direct cause is the brutal foreign laws — laws now administered 
 by this sanctimonious Briton, who endeavours to deceive 
 mankind. It is the curse of foreign rule in Ireland which has 
 left no employment for the people, so that they must either 
 die or emigrate. Had this aged Briton ever in his long life 
 witnessed the departure of these people from their homes, he 
 might have witnessed a scene unparalleled in any country — 
 the sobs and shrieks of aged parents, the parting between 
 mother and child, sister and brother, the dying wail of the 
 expatriated Gael — a parting in many cases as heartrending as 
 a scene by an open grave ; the last fond look on the 
 beloved home and country, so loved by the Irish Celt that it 
 tears his heartstrings asunder, to be compelled to part 
 from the early associations of childhood. Note the words 
 applied by the great " master of misrepresentation " to the 
 
THE QUESTION OF DISARMAMENT 541 
 
 dreadful exodus of the Irish race from Ireland — "oceanic 
 migration." As well might the Turkish chieftains have 
 termed the Bulgarian massacres, the " heavenly migration " of 
 the Bulgarian people. But the Briton has become more 
 successful than the Turk. The Oriental could not slaughter 
 in such hordes as the Occidental destroys and exiles by his 
 cursed laws and cruelties. 
 
 The passing into law of this measure, which Mr. Gladstone 
 and his followers so cunningly tell us would give the Irish 
 people full control over their domestic affairs, would find a 
 people wholly disarmed so far as British law can be enforced 
 to effect it ; and also under a perpetual Tory coercion law, 
 which remains still unrepealed upon the British statute book, 
 and which this promised Dublin legislature would be power- 
 less to either repeal or alter. British soldiers and police 
 would still remain authorised to enter any house in Ireland, 
 on the plea of searching for concealed arms. Ireland, under 
 what is insultingly termed "Home Rule," would continue 
 manacled by the laws of a foreign people. The Dublin 
 Chambers would have no power whatever over this question 
 of disarmament, as it is one of the many so-called Imperial 
 questions which the " master of misrepresentation " withheld 
 from their legislative power. The last disarming act, it will 
 be remembered, was passed by this wily Whig chieftain when 
 he last posed as a " Home Rule "^Minister in 1886. 
 
 There is no badge of conquest more insulting, there is none 
 that voices in stronger language the usurpation of a foreign 
 nation, than this disarming of a people. This insulting and 
 degrading badge of servility would remain fastened upon the 
 Irish nation, while that country was supposed to have had 
 self-government conferred upon her by the voluntary action 
 of her invader and destroyer, the British mockery called 
 " Home Rule " ; further, not all the eloquence of " misrepre- 
 sentation," nor all the panegyrics of this marvellous British 
 Minister on Ireland, can alter facts. No amount of glamour 
 can make falsehood truth. 
 
 The Irish people cordially endorsed the words of Mr. Blake 
 
542 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 at the Chicago Fair when he had finished reading the British 
 Premier's letter : " God speed the day when the Irish will 
 govern Ireland." When that time comes, as come it will if 
 the Irish people are true to themselves, neither Mr. Gladstone 
 nor any other British Premier will have any more authority in 
 Ireland than they have to-day in France or Germany. But 
 to realise this, the Irish people must take prompt and instant 
 action. There is one great phase of this Irish question which 
 agitators, orators, and writers appear either to purposely, avoid 
 or to completely overlook. That is the terrific exodus of the 
 Irish people from their native land. This goes on un- 
 ceasingly, no matter what party is in power in the enemy's 
 country, or what policies or agitations occupy either the Irish 
 or British mind. This enormous drain on the population 
 should awaken Irish intellects from the stupor or fanaticism 
 which induces them to pursue this ever-disappearing phantom 
 called " Home Rule." This fearful destruction of a people — 
 for they are practically destroyed in so far as their own 
 country is concerned — calls loudly for attention. The de- 
 lusion of the Celts returning with a vengeance, is only another 
 dream of the agitators. A small percentage of the present 
 generation would likely do so, in the event of a foreign war, 
 or an American war which would enlist all of the race in 
 America as Americans, if not as Irishmen. But no self- 
 respecting people will cling to this delusion. From Ireland 
 the great blow to the enemy must come, helped of course by 
 a respectable contingent of Irishmen in other lands. But 
 that contingent is not strengthened but weakened by 
 emigration. Hold fast to your country if possible. Every 
 Irishman who can stay at home, and does not, is a deserter 
 from his nation. We know how difficult, and in some cases 
 impossible, this is to accomplish ; which is proof, beyond yea 
 or nay, that these so-called Gladstonian concessions have 
 conceded nothing. The Irish Celt would never fly from his 
 country if he could possibly stay there. The returns of the 
 Irish Registrar- General for the quarter ending June 30, 1893, 
 gives the following figures : — 
 
GLADSTONIAN RULE IN 1883 AND 1893 543 
 
 Irish births for three months ending June 30, 1893 28,301 
 
 Irish deaths for three months ending June 30, 1893 20,306 
 
 Gain in the population by births and deaths 7j995 
 
 In the same period the loss by emigration was 23,879 
 
 Total loss to the nation for three months ending June 30, 1893 . 15*884 
 
 This exodus is for the last three months ending June 30, 
 1893, o^ the benign rule of Gladstone the " Home Ruler." The 
 appalling figures stand forth in letters of living fire to draw 
 the attention of the people, and more especially Irishmen, to 
 the infamous destruction of their race in Ireland by the rule 
 of the foreigner. It is a sad and terrible corroboration of the 
 arguments used by the writer throughout this work 
 
 The self-same infamies Gladstone and the " Red Earl " 
 practised in 1882-83 are repeated in 1893 by Gladstone and 
 Morley. Where — where is the proof of any change in foreign 
 rule in Ireland .? It is an insult to our intelligence to say that 
 this damnable crime, the rule of the Briton in Ireland, could 
 be reformed. No matter what party or minister is in power, it 
 is alike tyrannically cruel and destructive. Bribes, threats, and 
 every species of terror and infamy practised on the people ; 
 men are kept in prison for days, without the shadow of a charge 
 preferred against them ; their employers are afraid to restore 
 them to their positions for fear that they too would become 
 suspected of disloyalty to the foreigner; even women are 
 arrested ; every species of hellish coercion is used ; large sums 
 are offered to bribe and cajole the people to become perjurers ! 
 Is it any wonder that sometimes weak men fall under the 
 dreadful mental tortures applied by that foreign murder con- 
 spiracy that usurps the government of Ireland in Dublin 
 Castle ? The system which creates these tools of iniquity in 
 Ireland demands fawning, lying, and sycophantic instruments 
 to deceive and entrap fresh victims to do the infamous service 
 of their masters, the foreign conspirators in Dublin. And all 
 this infamy is practised under the British Administration of 
 Ireland's canting friend, Wm. E. Gladstone. If there are any 
 two names among British Ministers that will stand out more 
 
544 THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES 
 
 prominently for Irish posterity to condemn and speak of with 
 honest loathing, these names will be Gladstone and Morley ; 
 for both men have by deceptive promises induced numbers of 
 the Irish people to believe in the sincerity of their friendship, 
 and by their actions, as here described, proved more cruel 
 than their open and undisguised enemies, the Tories. 
 
 The years between the writing of this book and this closing 
 chapter have seen a great change come over the Irish- American 
 people on the Irish question. The false and illusory dream 
 created by the Provincialists, — that a compromise between the 
 Briton and the Irish could be arranged under the banner of 
 " Home Rule " — has almost entirely passed. Some few men 
 of wealth who would be Whigs in the old country, and some 
 few others who have interested motives, try to keep alive the 
 flicker of this bastard nationality with the meaningless name, 
 " Home Rule." The work of a few zealous men in Irish 
 circles has borne fruit ; the folly of agitation to solve this 
 usurpation of the invader in Ireland is fully realised among 
 the patriotic exiles and their children. To more effectively 
 preach this true love of the old land, an organ of propaganda 
 has commenced its career with the uncompromising name of 
 The Irish Republic ; this newspaper is under the management 
 of a wealthy business man in New York city, Mr. William 
 Lyman, who is well known in Ireland and wherever Irish 
 Nationalists dwell, as the treasurer of the " Irish National 
 League," under its new regime in the United States. The 
 editor of The Irish Republic \s> Charles O'Connor McLaughlin, 
 a graduate of the college of St. Jarleths, Tuam. Previous to 
 his arrival in the States he was on the Dublin Freeman^ and 
 had great opportunities for studying the Irish Parliamentary 
 policy in the country, where, as a newspaper man he was sent 
 to write up evictions, meetings, and other phases of Irish life 
 during the agitation. More recently he was one of the staff 
 of T. P. O'Connor's London newspaper. He has had an inti- 
 mate acquaintance with the members of the Irish Parliamen- 
 tary party, and fully realises the folly of their programme. 
 
THE HOPE OF THE FUTURE 545 
 
 Under his able guidance The Irish Republic will preach the 
 true and only propaganda for subject peoples. 
 
 If this book does the smallest good, or contributes in any 
 manner to stem the disastrous tide which leads to emigration, 
 by arousing Irishmen to a sense of their duty to work and 
 preach for the only possible solution to Irish destruction, an 
 independent nation, the writer will feel that he has not worked 
 in vain. 
 
 If Irishmen will cease to sit at the feet of any British 
 Minister, and stand up erect in their united and properly 
 directed strength, and in face of the decaying and rotting 
 physical power of the enemy, the close of this century — near 
 as is that period — will see Ireland added to the nations of the 
 earth, a sovereign member of the world's family of nations. 
 And the close of the nineteenth century will witness the 
 uprising of the ancient Celtic race when the epitaph of that 
 young hero-martyr, Robert Emmet, will have been written by 
 an intelligent and valiant people. 
 
 N N 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 THE BLOODY ASSIZE. 
 
 "The truculence with which it is attempted to confound hatred of foul play 
 with connivance at crime, shall not deter us in the least from saying that the last 
 of the murder trials at Green Street was the grossest parody of justice of them all. 
 We can see nothing to distinguish the trial of Michael Walsh from the trials of 
 Francis Hynes and Patrick Walsh, except its greater atrocity. The jury was as 
 shamefully concocted, its partisanship was as indecent, and the evidence was 
 evidence upon which any English jury would not hang a dog. We won't pause 
 over the circumstances and surmises which were patched together for a conviction. 
 The jury sufficiently exposed the character of the evidence when, in dooming the 
 boy to death, they expressly found that he did not do what he was charged with 
 doing — that is murder Constable Kavanagh. The weight of evidence in this or 
 that case, however, is a secondary matter. What gives the trials at Green Street 
 their evil fame is the invention, or rather the rehabilitation, of an instrument of 
 trial so infamous and illegal that the people of England would fly out in rebellion 
 if, mutatis mutandis, it were put in operation against themselves. Fancy, in 
 some great political convulsion against what they used to call Popery, a batch of 
 English Protestant prisoners kidnapped up to London far from their homes and 
 friends ; fancy juries of Papists, and nobody but Papists, illicitly raked together 
 to try them for their lives ; fancy them badgered by a bigoted Popish judge, and 
 torn away by rough jailors as they proclaimed their innocence ; fancy their 
 Protestant mothers swooning away under the scaffold ; fancy every Protestant 
 citizen rejected from the panel as if he had the plague, and every Protestant 
 journalist loaded with chains if he uttered a protest while the journals of the 
 Popish minority shrieked with exultation over the shedding of Protestant blood ! 
 What such a tyranny might have been in James the Second's moment of evilest 
 inspirations, the Bloody Assize just concluded has been ; substituting mere Irish 
 Catholic prisoners and jurors as the victims, and a gang of Orange partisans (as 
 bitter haters of the agrarian movement as Lord George Gordon was of Popery) 
 for the executioners. Lord Denman and his brother law lords were greatly 
 scandalised because there had been tampering with the jury-panel in O'Connell's 
 case in order to disinfect the jury of Catholics. To our mind excluding of 
 Catholics from the panel was a less indecent method of procedure than excluding 
 them from the box. Mr. Gray was locked into prison for suggesting that 
 Catholics were ordered to stand by as Catholics and mere Irish ; but who that 
 has not the terrors of a jail before his mind can pretend to believe otherwise 
 when, in a city where the Catholic population is to the Protestant as 195,000 to 
 40,000, not one Catholic juror is suffered to be sworn upon any one of the four 
 
 N N 2 
 
548 APPENDIX B 
 
 juries to whom the lives of Catholic Irishmen were committed in Green Street ? 
 John Mitchell withered up his judges with scorn because they packed a jury 
 against him ; but that they were packed against him was the worst to be said of 
 them. What a fiery furnace of wrath would have been his * Jail Journal ' if his 
 jury had been charged with an obscene riot the night before he was convicted, 
 and the charge was hushed up?— had mixed in a public billiard room, and been 
 patted on the back for it by a man in ermine compared with whom Mitchell's 
 * ancient purple Brunswicker' was a judge and a gentleman? — had publicly 
 proclaimed their prejudice against two hotels, simply because they were kept by 
 Catholic Irishmen? — had been, one of them, secretary to an association pledged 
 to vengeance upon the prisoner ? — had another of them, in open court, flaunted 
 his fraternal relations with the chief officer of that association ? The truth about 
 Green Street was blurted out by the Daily Telegraph on Monday : * ' We must, to 
 convict murderers, secure by hook or crook, by law or challenge, metropolitan, 
 Protestant, and loyal juries." The disgusting farce of disinterestedness is given 
 over. To convict murderers, we must run reeking over the lives of men who may 
 not be murderers. Juries to convict is the main point ; evidence to convict upon 
 is a secondary detail. Once the word is passed to 'convict murderers,' a metro- 
 politan, Protestant, and loyal jury, under the eye of Mr. Norris Goddard, may be 
 trusted to know a murderer when they see him, without splitting hairs about 
 particulars. If this were termed martial law, or lynch law, in one of its most 
 devilish humours, it would still be infamous, but it would be above board. What is 
 even more aggravating than a patent murder-machine as a system of Government is 
 the Pharisaism which shelters the achievements of Mr. Goddard's pals under the 
 venerable name of trial by jury, and decries as a foe to public justice whoever 
 cries out on the imposture." — United Ireland^ October 7, 1882. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 MR. PARNELL AND THE TWO ORGANISATIONS. 
 
 ** As far as I have been able to gather, the Fenian organisation and its leaders 
 are opposed, though not hostile, to our movement, the reason being that it is 
 constitutional. A true revolutionary movement in Ireland should, in my opinion, 
 partake of both a constitutional and an illegal character. It should be both an 
 open and a secret organisation, using the constitution for its own purposes, but 
 also taking advantage of its secret combination. But the leaders of the Fenian 
 movement do not believe in constitutional action, because it has always been used 
 in the past for the selfish purposes of its leaders. There was a strong objection 
 by the Fenians to our parliamentary action for the same reasons, and indeed, if we 
 look at the action of the Irish Parliamentary leaders since the Union, there is 
 ample justification for the views of the physical force party." Mr. Parnell 
 Interviewed. — New York Herald, January 2, 1880. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 MR. JOHN WALSH. 
 
 As A Land League Organiser. 
 
 ** It is stated that the John Walsh, whom Carey spoke of as the man from the 
 North of England, has been arrested in Havre. It is believed that this is the John 
 Walsh of Middlesborough, and whether this be so or not will soon be known, as 
 he can easily be identified. He is about six feet high, is very powerfully built, and 
 has a military appearance, and a thick dark moustache. His hair is short and 
 black, with streaks of gray. He has a stern countenance, but is a quiet-speaking 
 
APPENDIX C 549 
 
 man of about forty-eight years of age, and usually wears a dark pilot jacket. For 
 many years he worked regularly in the ironworks at Middlesborough, but latterly 
 he has been almost exclusively occupied in Land League matters. When Michael 
 Davitt visited Middlesborough in the beginning of January last, John Walsh 
 addressed the meeting. Since that time he has been very little seen in Middles- 
 borough, and it was reported that he had gone to Cincinnati to some Criends 
 there." — Times, March 3, 1883. 
 
 The Appointment with Byrne. 
 
 *• A correspondent slates that on the i6th of February last a man who went by 
 the name of Walsh came to Rochdale and took lodgings at an inn. He repre- 
 sented himself as a commercial traveller, and brought with him a large leather 
 case and a carpet bag. He went out very little, but certain persons visited 
 him. He remained there until the 19th, when he went away, leaving his 
 property behind him, and nothing more has been seen of him. The police only 
 became acquainted with his place of abode after he had disappeared, and as 
 nobody came to claim the property, Detective-Inspector Marshall took posses- 
 sion of it last Wednesday, and subsequently Mr. Wilkinson, the chief constable, 
 opened the bags and examined their contents. The movements of the stranger 
 after his sudden departure from Rochdale were subsequently traced, and Mr. 
 Wilkinson and the detective-inspector were summoned to Dublin Castle. They 
 arrived in Dublin early on Friday morning, and it is a significant fact that, though 
 the utmost secrecy had been observed, their visit and its object were evidently 
 known in certain unofficial quarters, and the arrest of Walsh was spoken of. 
 The contents of the bags taken possession of by the police appear to be of 
 especial value. One document contains a list of the Fenian armouries in different 
 towns of the North of England, with the number of arms, and quantity of ammu- 
 nition at each. The list is in cipher, but there is a key with it. There is also 
 some correspondence with a person named Byrne, including an undated note . 
 requesting an interview at ten o'clock at night at a milestone outside a certain 
 town. In addition there are two photographs, one of which appears to be a 
 portrait of Walsh himself, while the other is believed to be a photograph of some 
 prominent conspirator. There are some people who suppose that the documents 
 are not genuine, and that a plot has been laid to mislead the detectives. The 
 police are confident, however, that the man who visited Rochdale, and who was 
 traced to and arrested at Havre, is none other than * History-making Walsh,' 
 and that the documents are of the greatest importance." — Times, March 5, 1883. 
 
 Not "Number One." 
 
 " The Gaulois to-day states that the papers seized by the police in England dis- 
 prove the identity of either Mr. Byrne or Mr. Walsh with * No. i,' and that they 
 will therefore both be shortly released." — Daily Telegraph, March 6, 1883. 
 
 The Alibi as regards the 6th of May. 
 
 "Documents relative to the Walsh case have been received here and are now 
 in the hands of the Public Prosecutor. They bear the signatures of six different 
 persons, one of whom is an hotel-keeper at Durham, at whose house the prisoner 
 was staying on May 6th, the date of the Phoenix Park murders." — Paris 
 Correspondent oi Daily Telegraph, March 14, 1883. 
 
 Released by the French Government. 
 
 "Mr. John Walsh was released at five o'clock yesterday evening. He was 
 met at the prison gate by Mr. Casey and Mr. White, and accompanied by them 
 to his hotel." — Daily Telegraph, March 21, 1883. 
 
 ♦' Only two men known to have been concerned in the Phoenix Park tragedy 
 escaped the vengeance of British law. One of them, John Walsh, an ex- 
 Laiid League organiser, died of paralysis, destitute and apparently friendless, in 
 
550 APPENDIX D 
 
 Bellevue Hospital, 
 Rhode Island hos 
 February 19, 1894! 
 
 Bellevue Hospital, in this city. The death of the other, Frank Byrne, in a 
 Rhode Island hospital, is now chronicled." — Rochester Herald, New York, 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 MR. P. J. SHERIDAN. 
 As A Prominent Fenian. 
 
 " Shortly after his marriage Mr. Sheridan removed to England, where he took 
 an active and prominent part in the Fenian movement, and participated in the 
 famous Chester attack. He joined three different branches of the English 
 Volunteer service so that he might acquire a knowledge of military affairs, and 
 while connected with that force he managed to swear hundreds of his comrades 
 into the Fenian organisation 
 
 " Shortly afterwards Mr. Sheridan returned to Ireland, and went into the 
 business of hotel-keeper and general merchant at Tubbercurry, county Sligo. 
 At the same time he kept up his connection with the movement, taking a leading 
 part in the councils and sharing in all the risks required of men engaged in 
 a patriotic struggle." 
 
 As A Land League Organiser. 
 
 " When the Land League sprang into existence he affiliated with it, and was 
 elected a member of the first executive council. His activity in the League, 
 and his great influence with the Irish people, made Mr. Sheridan a marked 
 man in the eyes of the English Government, owing to which he was indicted as 
 one of the fourteen traversers tried with Parnell in Dublin in 1880, and was 
 afterwards arrested under the Coercion Act and confined in Kilmainham Gaol for 
 over six months. As soon as he was released he resumed work, going about to 
 prepare his countrymen. Several warrants for his arrest were issued, but he 
 managed to baffle England's minions " 
 
 The Flight to Paris. 
 
 *' He was suddenly summoned to Dublin to attend a meeting of the League 
 Executive. He reached that city only to find that Mr. Parnell had been 
 arrested. The organisation was then virtually without a head, but Mr. 
 Sheridan had the Land League books, documents, and accounts conveyed 
 secretly to Paris, from which place he and Patrick Egan issued orders to the 
 people of Ireland. He was one of the committee which drew up the No-Rent 
 Manifesto, which proved a potent weapon in the war against England and 
 landlordism." 
 
 Disguised as a Priest. 
 
 "He found it necessary to return to Ireland for a double purpose — first to 
 visit his wife and family, who were almost hounded to death by the English 
 detectives ; secondly, to assist the Ladies' Land League in their work. It was 
 on that occasion that Mr. Sheridan found it necessary to assume the disguise of 
 a priest, and travelled all over Ireland for months as ' Father Murphy.' " — From 
 The Dynafnite Monthly, New York, May, 1884. 
 
 The Application for his Extradition. 
 
 **The British Goverament has telegraphed to its representative in America to 
 demand the extradition of P. J. Sheridan, who has been so prominently wanted 
 in connection with the Dublin conspiracy. The necessary communications duly 
 authenticated were forwarded by mail yesterday to New York, and will be laid 
 before the American judicial authorities in due course. The extradition of 
 Sheridan is demanded under the Extradition Clause of the Ashburnham Treaty, 
 
APPENDIX D 551 
 
 which provides that Great Britain and the United States shall deliver up to 
 each other all persons charged with the crime of murder or assault to commit 
 murder, * provided that this shall only be done upon such evidence of criminality as 
 according to the laws of the place where the fugitive or person charged shall be 
 found would justify his apprehension and commitment for trial if the crime or 
 offence had there been committed ; and the respective judges of the respective 
 Governments shall have power, jurisdiction, and authority, upon complaint made 
 upon oath, to issue a warrant for the apprehension of the fugitive or person so 
 charged, that he may be brought before such judges or other magistrates respect- 
 ively, to the end that the evidence of criminality may be heard and considered, 
 and if upon such hearing the evidence of criminality be heard and considered 
 proved, it shall be the duty of the examining judge or magistrate to certify the 
 same to the proper executive authority that a warrant may issue for the surrender 
 of such fugitive.' His extradition would be based upon the presumption of 
 British law that an accessory to murder is equally guilty with the principal. In 
 an Act to regulate the practice in extradition cases, it is provided that the 
 examination of the prisoner should take place in open court and ' on land. ' It 
 also provides that the papers, warrants, &c. , to be received as evidence in such hearing 
 of the case, if legally authenticated, shall entitle them to be received for similar pur- 
 poses by the foreign tribunal. The certificate of the principal diplomatic 
 officers of the United States resident in such foreign country shall be proof that 
 any such deposition, warrant, &c., is authentic." — Irish Times, February 28, 
 1883. 
 
 American Sympathy. 
 
 ** Mr. Frelinghuysen, Secretary of State, is reported to have declared, with refer- 
 ence to the demand for the extradition of Mr. P. J. Sheridan, that he would give 
 the subject his earnest attention, but would make no move not required by law or 
 treaty obligations. In the House of Representatives Mr. Robinson, member 
 for New York, has announced his intention of introducing a bill declaring that the 
 people of the United States will not tolerate the surrender of Mr. Sheridan 
 without full proof of his guilt and a guarantee for an impartial jury trial." — Daily 
 Telegraph, March 2, 1883. 
 
 Merely Formal Steps. 
 
 ** A New York paper publishes a report of an interview between one of its 
 representatives and Mr. West, the British Minister to the United States. Ac- 
 cording to this report Mr. West stated that his application for a warrant for the 
 arrest of Mr. Sheridan, and the granting of it by the State Department, were 
 merely formal steps customary in such cases. Real action would begin when the 
 depositions, which he expected to receive within a week, reached him. He 
 could scarcely think that the British Government were relying on Carey's evidence 
 alone in asking for Mr. Sheridan's extradition, and he believed that there had 
 been accumulated other evidence which had not been made public, and that the 
 depositions would show a much stronger case." — Daily Telegraph, March 6, 1883. 
 
 The Proceedings Abandoned. 
 ** A despatch from Washington, published by the Neu) York Herald, says it is 
 understood that further proceedings against Mr. P. J. Sheridan have been 
 abandoned, as no case can be made out against him." — Daily Telegraph, 
 March 10, 1883. 
 
 His Rumoured Death. 
 
 The following telegram from a Press correspondent appears in the American 
 papers: — "Chicago, August 8.— P. J. Sheridan, the 'Invincible,' who was 
 charged by the British Government with complicity in the Phoenix Park murders, 
 and whom it tried to extradite from France and then from this country, was crushed 
 between a vehicle and a gate in his ranch, eight miles south of Monte Vista, 
 Colorado, and is probably fatally hurt." — The Times, August 26, 1892. 
 
552 APPENDIX E 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 . MR. AND MRS. FRANK BYRNE. 
 The Arrest of Mrs. Byrne. 
 
 "Mrs. Byrne, who has been implicated by the evidence of Carey in the conspiracy 
 of the * Invincibles,' was arrested in London on Sunday night, and was sent 
 over last night to Dublin. Acting under the orders of the Director of 
 Criminal Investigations, Chief- Inspector Shore, of Scotland Yard Detective Force, 
 went on Sunday to No. 4 Gothic Villas, Avondale Road, near the Peckham 
 Rye railway station, to arrest the wife of the alleged conspirator, Frank Byrne. 
 She will be charged with conveying the knives and arms used by the assassins 
 in Dublin. The police found in the house two women, both of whom answered 
 the description given of Mrs. Frank Byrne. The police solved the difficulty 
 presented to them of distinguishing between the two by taking both women to the 
 head station of the A Division in King Street, where there is always a large force 
 of police in reserve. The two women were placed side by side at one end of a 
 room, and the inspector soon found which was the one needful to retain in 
 custody, for on saying 'Please step here, Mrs. Byrne,' one hastened forward. 
 The other, said to be Miss Byrne, sister of Frank Byrne, was discharged. The 
 visit of the police was evidently unexpected. The place was searched, but of 
 course the police will not tell the nature of any discoveries they have made. Mrs. 
 Byrne was yesterday examined at the Home Office. Information was conveyed 
 to Dublin of the arrest, and Inspector Donoghue, of the Irish Detective Police 
 Force, received the prisoner last night at King Street, and accompanied by 
 Inspector Leach, they left London by the mail train for Dublin. The prisoner is 
 about twenty-nine or thirty years of age, and is keenly intelligent." — Times, 
 February 20, 1883. 
 
 Carey Refuses to Identify. 
 
 " Mrs. Frank Byrne, the woman who was supposed to have brought the arms to 
 Carey, was brought over from London this morning in custody and confronted 
 with Carey, who failed, however, to identify her. It will be remembered that 
 his evidence was that he did not know her name, but heard it was Mrs. Byrne. 
 It is now believed that it was her sister who came, and measures have been 
 taken to have her brought face to face with him. Mrs. Byrne has been 
 released from custody." — Times, February 21, 1883. 
 
 "With respect to Mrs. Byrne, it should be remembered that Carey distinctly 
 stated in his evidence that he did not know the name of the woman who brought 
 the arms to him, but was afterwards told it was Mrs. Byrne. Some blame has 
 been thoughtlessly cast upon the police because they arrested Mrs. Byrne, who 
 turns out not to be the woman they want ; but they could not possibly know that 
 until confronted with Carey, and it was their duty to act upon his evidence. 
 There is not the slightest reason to suppose that he meant to deceive them, but 
 he was misinformed as to the name." — Times, February 26, 1883. 
 
 Frank Byrne Arrested in Paris. 
 
 "The Press Association is informed, on reliable authoiity, that Mr. Frank Byrne, 
 Secretary of the Land Confederation of Great Britain, was arrested in Paris to-day 
 by the French police, who were accompanied by an English detective." — Irish 
 Times, February 28, 1883. 
 
 "On being questioned by the Public Prosecutor, Mr. Byrne repeated the reply 
 that he had already given to the Prefect of Police. He admitted that his name 
 was Byrne, but stated that he was secretary to the English Land and Labour 
 League, and not of the Irish Land League. Mr. Byrne added that he was not 
 guilty of assassination, and declined subsequently to answer any further c^t.%- 
 Uow^."—- Daily Telegraphy March i* 1S83. 
 
APPENDIX E 553 
 
 An Alibi as regards the 6th of May, 1882. 
 
 " It is said that at the request of Mr Frank Byrne his friends in London yesterday 
 took steps to secure a large number of affidavits of members of Parliament and others 
 testifying that they saw and conversed in London with him on May 6 last, the 
 day on which Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke were assassinated in 
 Dublin. The papers, or a portion of them, are to be forwarded to Paris to-day, 
 in order to combat the allegation that Mr. Byrne was in Dublin on that date, and 
 was a party to the assassination." — Daily Telegraph, March 3, 1883. 
 
 " Mr. Porter, the Attorney-General for Ireland, forwarded the papers jus- 
 tifying the demand for Mr. Byrne's extradition to the Procurator-General of the 
 Republic yesterday. Two days will be necessary for an examination of these 
 documents, and the decision of the French authorities will therefore probably 
 not be given before Friday next." — Daily Telegraphy March 8, 1883. 
 
 The Charge as regards Mr. Field 
 
 **To the great indignation of the Radical party, Byrne has not yet been set at 
 liberty. In addition to the formalities that have still to be gone through, such as 
 translating the affidavits and submitting them to the Government, there exists 
 another obstacle to Byrne's release. This is in fact a second charge against the 
 prisoner, who is said to have been informed that an accusation against him in 
 connection with the Lawson and Field affairs has been brought by a brother of 
 Carey, who maintains that on August 23 Byrne was present at a meeting of the 
 * Invincibles ' at Delany's house, and that there he offered money for the 
 murder of * English officials in Ireland.' In answer to this charge Byrne denied 
 all knowledge of both Carey, the new informer, and Delany, admitting only 
 that he was in Dublin on August 23, having gone there merely to visit the exhibi- 
 tion." — Daily Telegraph, March 9, 1883. 
 
 Released by the French Government. 
 
 ** Mr. Frank Byrne was set at liberty last night, the French Government con- 
 sidering that no case had been made out justifying his extradition." — Irish Times, 
 March lo, 1883. 
 
 His "Invincible" Sentiments and Death. 
 
 ** Frank B5T^e, one of the Invincibles connected with the Phoenix Park murders, 
 died yesterday in the Providence Hospital, Rhode Island, of heart disease. He 
 leaves a widow and two children, Byrne, as will be in the remembrance of most 
 people, was at one time secretary to the late Mr. Pamell. He is the man of 
 whom the informer Carey swore that he was secretary to the * Constitutional 
 organisation ' in Great Britain, and a Fenian. His wife was believed to be the 
 woman who brought to Dublin the knives with which the Phoenix Park murders were 
 committed on May 6, 1882. These knives, it was stated, had been lying for 
 some time previously in the London offices of the Irish National League of Great 
 Britain. Mr. Parnell disclaimed all knowledge of Mr. Byrne's connection with 
 the Invincibles. Byrne was arrested in Paris on February 27, 1883 ; but released 
 on March 9, and on April 4 he arrived with his wife at New York, where P. J. 
 Sheridan received them. Mrs. Byrne had been arrested early in February in con- 
 sequence of Carey's disclosures, on the charge of transmitting arms, but after a 
 brief inquiry she was set at liberty when the other prisoners arrested for the Park 
 murders were committed for trial. After the arrival of the Byrnes, Egan, Walsh, 
 and others in the States, Byrne took an active part in the propaganda of 
 Fenianism. 
 
 ** At a meeting in New York on the 2nd of July, 1883, he justified the Phoenix 
 Park murders, and paid ' homage and honour ' to the murderers. Byrne said 
 on that occasion : — * I am not fastidious as to the methods by which the cause of 
 liberty may be advanced. I do not say you should alone use dynamite, or the 
 
554 APPENDIX E 
 
 knife, or the rifle, or parliamentary agitation, but I hold no Irishman true who 
 will not use all and each method as the opportunity presents itself.* In May, 
 1885, at a meeting in New York, to celebrate the Dublin murders, a well-filled 
 purse was presented to Mrs. Frank Byrne as * the brave little woman whose 
 memorable courage in connection with the victory in the Phoenix Park three 
 years ago is known to us all.' Byrne returned thanks for the gift. — SL James's 
 Gazette, February 17, 1894. 
 
 His Life in America. 
 
 *' Byrne had served in the French army during the Franco-Prussian War, and 
 had received several medals for meritorious conduct. It was to this fact he 
 always claimed that he owed his release. After his release he sailed at once for 
 New York. He remained in that city for less than two years, subsequently going 
 West for several months and later coming to this city. 
 
 * ' He obtained employment as shipping clerk in Hanley's brewery, and re- 
 mained there about two years. 
 
 " For the past two years he has made a living selling cigars. 
 
 " Six months ago he was attacked with rheumatism, which practically incapaci- 
 tated him from work. He lived on Knight Street with his wife and two young 
 children. His wife was striken with paralysis some time ago, and there being no 
 income the family were reduced to straitened circumstances. The local branch 
 of Hibernians, with which he had become affiliated, assisted the family and he 
 was by them transferred to the hospital a week ago last Saturday. 
 
 " Those who knew Byrne say that he was a very fine looking man. He was 5 
 feet 7 inches in height, and weighed about 175 pounds. Pie was well educated, 
 and a man to command attention in the society in which he moved. 
 
 "He had but few intimate friends here, but to those he freely talked of his 
 past life, his career in the French army and his services under Parnell. His 
 arrest in connection with the murders was occasionally a topic of conversation. 
 
 * ' He was admittedly a revolutionist, opposed to Parnell's methods, and he was 
 undoubtedly a leader among the men with whom he affiliated. Just what 
 his official position among the revolutionists at that time was'there is nobody here 
 who apparently knows, or if aware of the fact is willing to tell. 
 
 * ' Byrne's wife was as ardent a patriot as himself, and she partook fully of his 
 ideas. Her sympathy, it is said, was not of the passive kind, but she was also 
 an active member of the secret Irish societies. It was the knowledge of her 
 activity that led the English Government to apprehend her as well as her husband. 
 If she were able she could no doubt tell a thrilling tale, but she is to-day, as she 
 has been for several months, a helpless paralytic, and is believed to be deprived 
 of speech. 
 
 " The family is very highly spoken of by those who came in contact with 
 its members since their residence in this city. They all gave evidences of a 
 refinement that was superior to their station, and the children are spoken of as 
 remarkably well-mannered, their actions reflecting a careful home training. 
 
 "Those who met Byrne in the ordinary course of business and who were 
 unaware of his past history, were very much impressed by him. Though quiet 
 and gentlemanly, he displayed a knowledge of events that evidenced a wide 
 experience. 
 
 "Though affiliating with the Hibernians and probably other Irish societies 
 here, Byrne never paraded his past efforts in the cause of Irish liberty, and the 
 majority of those with whom he came in contact knew practically nothing of his 
 past career. It is not believed that his reticence was necessitated through 
 caution, but is believed to have been characteristic of the man. It is related 
 that a short time ago an amount of money was collected for presentation to him, 
 by persons who thought he was in need, but the money was subsequently returned 
 to the subscribers, Byrne refusing to receive it. 
 
 "Byrne had perceptibly aged within the last few months, and his hair was 
 whitening. He suffered so much from rheumatism that he was frequently 
 
APPENDIX E 555 
 
 compelled to use a cane, but he attended to his business until compelled to 
 give up. 
 
 " He was a warm friend of O'Donovan Rossa, who visited him here on several 
 occasions." — Providence Journal, February 17, 1894. 
 
 " Frank Byrne was shown to be, if not the actual organiser of the Phoenix 
 Park tragedy, at least one of its guiding spirits. According to the evidence of 
 James Carey, the informer, it was Mrs. Byrne who carried over to Dublin the 
 surgical knives with which Burke and Cavendish were stabbed to death. Other 
 testimony established the fact that for days before the crime these murderous 
 weapons were kept in a drawer in the headquarters of the Irish Parliamentary 
 party in Westminster Chambers, under the very shadow of the towers of the Houses 
 of Parliament, and almost within reach of the hands of their future victim, Lord 
 Frederick Cavendish, when he occupied his seat in the legislative chamber. 
 
 Five men were hanged in Dublin for participation in the assassination, but 
 Byrne escaped to France. A demand for his extradition was made, and the 
 French Government seemed inclined to accede to it, but Henri Rochefort and 
 other members of the Extreme Left made such a vigorous protest that in the end 
 extradition was refused. Probably another reason for the refusal was that Byrne 
 had served with distinction under the tricolour during the Franco- German War. 
 He v/as an officer in La Compagnie Irlandaise, which fought under General 
 Bourbaki in the Army of the East, and was wounded at the battle of 
 Montebeliard. 
 
 ' ' After the refusal of the French Government to deliver him to the English 
 authorities, Byrne came to this country and attached himself to the staff of an 
 Irish- American paper published in this city. An attempt was made to have him 
 extradited from the United States, but it was soon abandoned. He made a few 
 speeches for Blaine and Logan during the campaign of 1884, but made little or 
 no impression, and he had since lived in retirement." — Rochester Herald, New 
 York, February 19, 1894. 
 
 Buried with Honours. 
 
 '• The funeral of Frank Byine, the noted Irish Nationalist, who died at the Rhode 
 Island Hospital, Friday, took place from his late residence on Knight Street at 
 two o'clock yesterday afternoon. Thousands of people watched the passage of 
 the funeral train. At Cathedral Square the number increased until fully 5,000 
 people were congregated. 
 
 *' Yet in all the vast crowd there were scarcely half a dozen people who knew the 
 late Irish patriot intimately, and still less a number who were aware of his deeds 
 previous to his death last Friday. Of the men in line, representatives of the 
 Irish national societies, few knew him and many never saw him. He had lived 
 in Providence for four years, and during that time had identified himself with the 
 local branches of Hibernians, being a member of Division 12 at the time of his 
 death. He never made a boast of his actions in defence of Irish liberty. 
 
 ** The funeral was largely attended by representatives of the Hibernians and 
 Irish Nationalists. Conspicuous among them was J. O'Donovan Rossa, perhaps 
 the one man who could tell most about the career of Frank Byrne. 
 
 " Fully 200 men were in line. Immediately following the hearse were the two 
 children of the deceased, a daughter of seventeen and a son of fourteen years of 
 age. They were accompanied by Joseph Mullen, the intimate friend of the late 
 Mr. Byrne. The widow did not attend the body to the grave, owing to her con- 
 firmed illness, due to nervous prostration. 
 
 *' J. O'Donovan Rossa brought from New York a set of resolutions passed at a 
 meeting of the Irish Nationalists held Saturday. The resolutions were : — 
 
 ' ' Whereas, We have learned with the deepest regret of the death of Frank 
 Byrne : it is 
 
 ** 'Resolved, That in his death we recognise that the cause of Irish liberty has 
 sustained a severe loss, as our deceased brother was ever faithful to the principles 
 
V 
 
 SS6 APPENDIX F 
 
 of Irish freedom, and ever ready to risk life and liberty for the advancement of 
 those principles ; be it also 
 
 ** * Resolved, That we give formal expression to our heartfelt sorrow at his un- 
 timely death ; that we extend to his family our condolence in their deep affliction, 
 and that J. O'Donovan Rossa be deputed to attend the funeral services as our 
 representative, and for us to convey to Mrs. Byrne and her family our sympathy 
 in this her trial of sorrow, which we share. (Signed) 
 
 *'*J. O'Donovan Rossa, Presiding. 
 
 '"Thomas Brennan, Secretary.' 
 
 " Probably few people know that Mrs. Byrne is a descendant of one of the old 
 Scottish families. She was born in Huddington Road, Dublin, September 29, 
 1854, and was the second daughter of Arthur Moneypenny and Frances Kelly, 
 being a direct descendant of Lord Moneypenny, of Scotland."— Providence 
 Journal, February 19, 1894. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 P. J. P. TYNAN— *« NUMBER ONE." 
 
 His Position in the Organisation. 
 *'The police know very well who ' No. i ' is, but he is not within their grasp. 
 He was in Dublin not long ago, but managed to get away before Carey gave 
 information about him. He is an Irishman and lived in Kingstown for some 
 time, where his wife had a lodging-house. He afterwards removed to London, 
 which appears to have been his headquarters. It is a mistake, however, to 
 suppose that because of his title he is a person of commanding authority in the 
 conspiracy. He was not the leader or head of the * Invincibles ' but an organiser 
 having higher rank than other agents, but still subordinate to a superior executive." 
 — Times, March 4, 1883. 
 
 Establishing his Identity. 
 
 ** A Rochdale correspondent telegraphs that the portrait of *No. i,' which is in 
 the possession of Mr. Mallon is not the photograph found in the carpet bag left 
 at Rochdale by John Walsh. It was reported that the photo was that of 
 *No. I,' but it turns out that it is the portrait of another prominent conspirator 
 whose name is kept secret. The portrait of P T n was obtained else- 
 where." — Irish Times, March 27, 1883. 
 
 His Association with the Volunteers. 
 
 "Although P. J. Tynan, the notorious 'No. i' of the Dublin Invincible 
 Society, has made good his escape to America, detectives in London continue 
 their inquiries in respect to the man and his associates. Many of the members 
 of the 13th Middlesex Volunteers, of which Tynan was and still is a member, 
 have been asked for information in respect to him, resulting in many interesting 
 particulars being made known. It appears that Tynan joined the corps early in 
 1882, and attended the review at Portsmouth on the Easter Monday following. 
 He was not smart at his drill, and required more tuition than the average 
 Volunteer recruit. Still he made better practice at the butts and took a small 
 prize for shooting in the recruit series. On the occasion of the opening of the 
 new Law Courts by her Majesty, Tynan used the utmost endeavours to form one 
 of the guard of honour. He was selected, and was stationed with his company 
 just outside the main entrance to the new Law Courts. The last drill of the 
 corps which Tynan attended was in January last. He was regarded by his com- 
 rades as a jolly good fellow. He was open-handed and sociable, and speedily 
 won the good opinion of both officers and men. His stories of his adventures in 
 
APPENDIX F 557 
 
 America and Africa were told with a racy humour which always secured him 
 an appreciative audience. He occasionally spoke of trips to Ireland, but never 
 touched upon politics or entered into any discussion upon this theme, though at 
 the present time the greatest disgust is felt in the corps at such a character having 
 been associated with them. None are more astonished at the revelations 
 concerning Tynan than the men themselves. The object of a conspirator in 
 allying himself with a volunteer corps is the subject of various conjectures. 
 Whether it was to serve as a blind to his other movements or to obtain again 
 military training is unknown ; but in any case it could not have been to sow 
 sedition among the members of this corps, as beside the high reputation for 
 loyalty it bears, Tynan always avoided any reference to Ireland and political 
 questions. As matters now stand Tynan is still a member of the 13th Middlesex, 
 but no doubt his name will soon be expunged from the roll of the regiment. It 
 has also transpired that Tynan even when in the presence of Irishmen rarely 
 indulged in the expression of extreme views. On the contrary, he often 
 denounced Home Rule with hearty vigour, condemned Mr. Parnell and his 
 party, and fiercely assailed the conduct of those agitators who lived out of 
 Ireland's troubles. Tynan lived in London at 4 Merrow Villas, Avondale Road, 
 Peckham Rye, just six doors from Frank Byrne, with whose family he was 
 on terms of great intimacy." — Irish Times, April 16, 1883. 
 
 The Question of Extradition. 
 
 "It is stated that Patrick Tynan (No. i) is at present living in Brooklyn, 
 and declares that he is ready to surrender himself when required to do so. 
 The counsel acting for Patrick J. Tynan has stated, in answer to inquiries, 
 that his client, though living unobtrusively, has not been in hiding, and will pre- 
 sent himself to the United States Marshal when he receives intimation that he is 
 wanted. The counsel employed by the British authorities state that they have no 
 instructions to take proceedings to procure the arrest of Tynan, whose name they 
 have seen mentioned in the papers, but they have no instructions respecting him. 
 Tynan's counsel said, in conversation with a reporter, that the portrait published 
 in the London Graphic was very like his client." — Irish Times, May 21, 1883. 
 
 ** The Irish refugees in New York, having grown tired of waiting for the 
 British Consul to serve extradition warrants upon them, yesterday made a bold 
 stroke. * Number One,' Patrick Tynan, has come out into the light. General 
 Pryor, his counsel, has thus written to Mr. F. F. Marbury, counsel to the British 
 Consulate : — 
 
 **'Dear Sir, — From newspaper reports, published apparently by the 
 authority of the British Minister at Washington, it may be inferred that the British 
 Government would cause the arrest of Patrick Tynan if he could be found. I am 
 instructed by Mr. Tynan to inform whomsoever it may concern that if he has not 
 obtruded himself on public notice, neither has he been in hiding, and that on 
 intimation to the undersigned he will promptly present himself to the Marshal 
 to do and abide whatsoever the laws of the United States may require of him.' 
 
 ** Mr. Marbury last evening replied as follows : — 
 
 ** * Dear Sir, — In answer to your letter of this date, I have to state that I have 
 no information or knowledge whatever respecting your client, Patrick Tynan. I 
 certainly have received no instructions to take proceedings for his arrest, and no 
 warrant, therefore, has been applied for. Thanking you for your courteous offer 
 to produce Mr. Tynan whenever he is called for, I beg to istate that if occasion 
 should arise I will further communicate with you. 
 
 ***P.S. — There is another Tynan of whom I have seen some notice in the 
 papers ; but as to him I may also say that I have received no instructions, nor 
 taken any proceedings.' 
 
 " General Pryor, at an interview, stated that Tynan first appeared to him forty- 
 eight hours before, and that his client has lived here quietly for months with his 
 
558 APPENDIX F 
 
 wife and eight children. This sudden appearance is no doubt due to a belief 
 among the Irish that evidence in support of a demand for extradition and suffi - 
 cient to procure it will not be forthcoming in any pending case against Sheridan, 
 Walsh, or Tynan." — American Correspondent of Times^ May 21, 1883. 
 
 A Pen-and-Ink Sketch. 
 
 "Some doubt is expressed here about Tynan in Brooklyn being 'No. i,' 
 chiefly because he gives a different name from that hitherto assigned him. 
 I have absolute authority for stating that he is * No. i ' ; there is not a shadow 
 of a doubt of that. When he first arrived here he lived in a house at Green Point 
 with Dr. Hamilton Williams, directly opposite the house of Dr. Thomas Gallaher, 
 the London prisoner. Dr. Williams is an Irish sympathiser who met Tynan in 
 England. Tynan left Dr. Williams' house a month ago, and has been living 
 since under his own name in another part of Brooklyn with his wife and children. 
 He makes no effort at concealment. He attended mass yesterday. There is a 
 slight difference in his appearance from what he was when the Graphic 
 photograph was taken. His hair is short and his whiskers have been shaved, 
 otherwise there is the same general expression, striking like the Graphic 
 photograph. He is a man of medium size, talks with much intelligence and great 
 earnestness, is greatly superior to all the other Irish leaders who have come to 
 America in bearing and intelligence, and would impress any one as a man of force. 
 He was led to communicate with counsel, and offer to surrender himself by his 
 wife, who is worn out by constant anxiety, and since the Dublin executions has 
 been haunted with the constant fear of her husband's arrest." — American 
 Correspondent oi Irish Times, May 23, 1883. 
 
 Praying for the Murderers. 
 
 "Tynan is living at 191 West Baltic Street, Brooklyn. The Irish driver of the 
 carriage who took him there from Dr. Williams' house betrayed him, and put 
 the reporters on his track. Tynan refuses to talk with them. An inmate of the 
 house tells me that Tynan and his family remained in prayer all night when 
 Curley and Brady were hanged, observing the hour of execution exactly, allowing 
 for the difference of time between New York and Dublin. Tynan mentions 
 Curley and Brady with visible emotion. Yesterday he took a photo of 
 Carey to a photographer, and ordered a large crayon portrait to be made from it. 
 Tynan admits that he has brothers who look like him. One is named Harry, and 
 is a doctor in India ; the other, James, is a clergyman in Chili. He says he was 
 in the Queen's Middlesex Volunteers at the time of the Phoenix Park murders. 
 He had a mass said for Curley's soul on Sunday. He has no sympathy with Rossa, 
 Sheridan, or Walsh, and says they are notoriety-seekers who injure Ireland. 
 Tynan is evidently perplexed by the silence of the British authorities. Both he 
 and his wife are suffering from the suspense. The newspapers have been making 
 great efforts to discover Tynan's whereabouts. Several pretended to have found 
 the house, but did not agree as to its position. Alleged interviews have been 
 published, but they are undoubtedly false. Pryor says the published interviews 
 are inventions, and that Tynan will make no statement till arrested. He was 
 firmly convinced when he announced himself ready to surrender that a warrant 
 had been issued for his arrest, and was greatly surprised by the British Consul's 
 assertion that no warrant had been issued. Dr. Williams, who has been intimate 
 with Tynan, says that Carey invented 'No. i,' and was himself the main mover 
 of the Phoenix Park murders. Tynan has been supposed by the British 
 Government to be that ' No. i,' but now they think they have made a mistake. 
 Dr. Williams' testimony must of course be accepted for what it is worth. Tynan 
 undoubtedly believes himself the man Carey referred to. There are many theories 
 about his conduct in offering to give himself up. One is that he thought himself 
 safe after Curley and Brady had been hanged. It will be noticed that he revealed 
 himself immediately after Curley's execution. This may partially explain his 
 course, but I know that the principal reason was his wife's importunity. 
 
APPENDIX G 559 
 
 " Later. — Late this afternoon Tynan sent word to all the newspaper offices of 
 this city and Brooklyn requesting a reporter to be sent to his house. The 
 reporters assembled there in large numbers. When Tynan showed himself he 
 said that on advice of his counsel he had decided to make no statement, though 
 he had expected to do so when he sent for the reporters of the press." — American 
 Correspondent oi Irish Times, May 25, 1883. 
 
 Identification by Photograph. 
 "Mr. Jenkinson, head of the Crimes Department, was shown in London by the 
 authorities in Scotland Yard a photo which was supposed to be that of Frank 
 Byrne, but on his return to Dublin he showed it to Mr. Mallon, Chief of the 
 Detective Police, who said that it was not Byrne's. He took it to the wife of 
 James Carey, who at once said it was the likeness of a man whom she had 
 frequently seen. Mr. Mallon having received further information, proceeded to 
 Jury's Hotel, where he learned that the photo was that of Tynan. He afterwards 
 showed it to James Carey, who declared that it was 'No. i.' Without 
 impeaching the accuracy of these details, it may be stated that the identification 
 of Tynan by the photo was established by totally different and much more reliable 
 evidence— that of a lady who lived in his house in Kingstown, and knew him and 
 his family intimately." — Times, June 7, 1883. 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 THE FORMATION OF THE INVINCIBLES. 
 
 \As described by the Irish Attorney -General in his opening Statement to the Jury 
 at the Trial of Joseph Brady, in Dublin.^ 
 
 "In the latter part of the year 1881 an organisation was started in Dublin 
 amongst persons of the class of Joseph Brady the prisoner — an organisation of persons 
 bound by an oath, and by that which they would regard more than an 
 oath, by their fears of each other, for the purpose of assassinating the 
 officials of the Government of this country. They called themselves the Irish 
 Invincibles, and I presume they thought they were invincible. But the law is too 
 strong for them, I believe, invincible though they may have thought themselves. 
 That was their name, and they were established in the autumn of 1881 — I believe in 
 the autumn or early winter — by persons, some of whom have fled from justice and 
 are not now here to answer for their portion of this transaction— persons of higher 
 station than Joseph Brady, the prisoner at the bar — or any of his immediate 
 associates, persons who had the command of money and who used it, and who in the 
 sight of God and of man's law, are even more responsible for what followed than 
 their misguided tools and dupes, whom it is the duty of the Crown to prosecute, 
 of whom the prisoner at the bar is one. One of the organisers of this 
 Invincible Society was a man called McCaffisrty, who, in conjunction with several 
 other persons who must be named before you, established this association in 
 Dublin. I believe a man called Walsh, who is not here, was one of the origin- 
 ators of it. A person whose name is not publicly known, and was not known to many 
 of those who acted with him, who has been described and will be described as 
 * No. I ' — a person also in a superior position — was one of those engaged in 
 establishing this organisation and I shall not weary you with any details of its 
 earlier conception. But the plan of it was this, that it should consist of members 
 not exceeding fifty — I believe as a matter of fact it does not appear that there 
 were ever more than thirty, if there were so many — who should be under the 
 control of four heads, who might be described as a sort of committee of action in 
 Dublin. The members were of course to be admitted only upon the personal 
 report of these four individuals. They were selected from a body which as a 
 secret society had been popular and powerful here at one time but which had to a 
 certain extent fallen into a state of decay— namely, the Fenian organisation. By 
 
56o APPENDIX H 
 
 this I mean this Invincible organisation was not a Fenian organisation so far 
 as we know, but the members of it were persons who were selected from that 
 body. The first four persons, who were the committee and established this organ- 
 isation in Dublin, were a man called James Mullett and the man Edward M'CafFrey, 
 whom I have named to you ; a man named Daniel Curley, who will be frequently 
 spoken of in the course of this case ; and another man, James Carey. Those were 
 the original four ; James Mullett, Edward M'CafFrey, and Daniel Curley are all 
 now prisoners on the same charge. James Carey was a prisoner and was one of 
 those who were arrested first. That committee had the power of co-opting — 
 of introducing others upon their own recommendation. It appears that the funds 
 of the Fenian organisation had become very low, had got into a state of decay. 
 No money was available and the subscriptions were in arrear ; but the moment this 
 new organisation suggested by men from a distance was started, they never wanted 
 money. Money was plentiful ; fiifty sovereigns came in at a time, then forty and 
 thirty ; and those who were connected as the active working men of this 
 conspiracy had plenty of money to spend to drive about from place to place, 
 calling at various public -houses on their way, and conducting themselves in a way 
 that was calculated to create suspicion. Daniel Curley, who appears to have had a 
 superior position in the organisation of this body — I don't mean in point of station, 
 but superior in point of personal influence — and suggested the names of many of 
 these men. Joseph Brady, the prisoner at the bar, was introduced by James 
 Mullett. The precise mode in which the tyrants were to be removed was of 
 course discussed at the meetings of the organisation. A man called Sheridan, 
 who had been before the public in other capacities, was then in Dublin disguised 
 as Father Murphy — disguised as a priest. It was arranged that he was to supply 
 and send over arms, and arms came in large quantities, including a number of 
 dagger knives, surgical knives. I believe they were intended for surgical 
 purposes for amputating large joints. 
 
 "An event occurred immediately after the 3rd of March which materially 
 affected the position of the prisoner. On the 4th of March, one of those who had 
 been on the committee or directory of the Invincibles, namely James Mullett, 
 was arrested under the provisions of the Person and Property Protection Act, 
 which at that time existed. Being arrested and put into prison — I believe 
 he was in Kilmainham or Dundalk, I believe Dundalk — there was a vacancy on 
 the directoiy, and Joseph Brady, the prisoner at the bar, was appointed to fill it, 
 and from that time he acted as one of the committee of four. " — Irish TimeSy 
 April 12, 1883. 
 
 APPENDIX H. 
 Mr. W. E. FORSTER. 
 The Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. 
 *« Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Forster. Downing Street , October gth, 1880. 
 "I do not see why legislation should mean necessarily only suspension of the 
 Habeas Corpus. We are now, I believe, inquiring whether the law allows, under 
 certain circumstances, of combinations to prevent the performance of certain 
 duties and the enjoyment of certain rights. If it does not, as I understand the 
 matter, we prosecute. If it does, why may not the law be brought up to the 
 proper point by an amending Act ? " 
 
 "Mr. Forster to Mr. Gladstone. Dublin Castle, October loth, 1880. 
 "My remark in my last note about the suspension of the Habeas Corpus meant 
 this : that, as before, so now, we may find that nothing will check the actual 
 outrages but arrest and detention of men on suspicion. When the whole popula- 
 tion sympathises with the man who commits an outrage, he knows that hardly any 
 witness will give evidence against him, and that a jury in his own district will 
 certainly acquit him. On the other hand, this suspension is a most violent, I may 
 
APPENDIX H 561 
 
 almost say a brutal, remedy, and before trying it we must be sure it is the only 
 remedy." — Life of the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, by T. W. Reid, vol. ii. pp. 
 258, 259. 
 
 "The general belief, both in Ireland and in England, was that the framing 
 of the measure would be followed by wholesale arrests throughout the country, 
 and morning after morning people turned to their newspapers expecting to read of 
 a coup ditat which had led to the annihilation of the party of outrage in Ireland. 
 Forster, however, had given his pledge in Parliament that he would personally 
 supervise the execution of the Act which had practically invested him with despotic 
 powers over the liberties of the Irish, and, strange to say of one who had been 
 compared by a fellow-member in the House of Commons to Robespierre, he took 
 
 a strict and conscientious view of this pledge Wholesale arrests 
 
 might — probably would — have struck terror into the hearts of many of the enemies 
 of the law, and from the strategical point of view those who complained regarding 
 the failure to employ the Act in this way were not without grounds for doing so. 
 But how could arrests be effected wholesale when Mr. Forster had undertaken to 
 inquire personally into every case, and to see that the Act was administered with 
 the utmost possible regard for the common rights of the Irish people ? So the 
 opportunity, such as it was, of * striking a blow ' — the favourite resort, be it said, 
 of men whose only resource is brute force — was deliberately allowed to pass, in 
 order that the extraordinary powers created by the Protection Act might be 
 employed with the strictest regard for the rights of individuals, and for the pledges 
 given when the Act was being discussed in Parliament that was consistent 
 with the circumstances." — Life of the Right Hon. W. E. Forster^ by T. W. Reid, 
 vol. ii. page 308. 
 
 Rumours of ''Invincibles." 
 
 ** For some time before this the police had been entertaining grave apprehen- 
 sions as to Forster's personal safety. From various quarters they had received 
 hints of the existence of a Secret Society which was not agrarian, but political in 
 its character, and the object of which was to * remove * by assassination those 
 statesmen and political leaders who were supposed to be obstacles to the attain- 
 ment of the desires of the Irish people. The first man to be thus dealt with was 
 known to be Forster, and there was naturally great anxiety on the part of the 
 authoiities as to his safety. Forster himself was altogether free from this anxiety. 
 To the courage of a brave Englishman was apparently united a certain degree of 
 fatalism. He had his duty to perform, and whatever came to him in that plain 
 path must be right. The religious sentiment too, which was always so real and 
 strong in his heart, whatever might be his intellectual attitude towards Churches 
 and creeds, sustained him with a sense of the Divine presence and protection. Thus 
 upheld, he had no liking for the precautions for his safety which were constantly 
 being taken by the police. In Ireland the matter was very much in his own hands, 
 and he was thus enabled to get rid of the escort which the authorities at Dublin 
 Castle were so anxious to force upon him. The case was different in England, 
 where the supreme authority in the matter was the Home Secretary." — Lifeo 
 the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, by T. W. Reid, vol. ii. page 317. 
 
 An Explosive Package. 
 
 "Mr. Forster used to receive large numbers of threatening letters, many of 
 them evidently mere threats, others of them of more genuine importance. They 
 used to amuse him rather than otherwise, and if by chance a few days passed 
 without his getting one, he would remark upon their absence. On one occasion 
 an explosive letter was sent to him, but as he had left Ireland the day before 
 it arrived, it was brought to the Under-Secretary [Mr. T. H. Burke,] who, 
 rendered suspicious by its appearance, handed it over to the police, with in- 
 structions to get it chemically examined, when its true nature was at once made 
 apparent. 
 
 ' ' More serious, however, than either threatening letters or this clumsy device, 
 
 O O 
 
562 APPENDIX H 
 
 was the infonnation which used from time to time to reach the Government of 
 plots against Mr. Forster's life. Precautionary measures were adopted — at first 
 unknown to Mr. Forster, as he disliked the gine of police protection, but later 
 reluctantly submitted to by him. One morning in the early part of 1882, says 
 Mr. Jephson, on my arrival at the Castle I received a written report giving detailed 
 information of an intended attack on Mr. Forster. The source from which the 
 information came was such that there could be no doubt as to its accuracy, or as 
 to the imminence of the danger. On Mr. Forster coming to his office I brought 
 the report to him to read, and urged on him in the very strongest terms the 
 absolute necessity of his taking extra precautions for his personal safety. He 
 listened rather impatiently to me, and then pushed the report away from him, 
 saying to me, * You may do as you like about it, but I have a presentiment I am 
 noigo\ngtod\eih2ityf2iy.'"— Life of the Right Hon. W. E. Forster ^ by T. W. 
 Reid, vol. ii. pp. 327, 328. 
 
 In Touch with the People. 
 
 "The state of things in the County of Clare was exceptionally bad. The 
 south-west, indeed, was the centre of outrage and resistance to the law. Forster 
 determined that he would himself go down into Clare, Limerick, and Galway, in 
 order that he might see the state of the country with his own eyes. When he 
 first expressed his intention of making the journey, not a little opposition was 
 offered by his colleagues, who were naturally anxious lest he should suffer 
 violence whilst visiting places so notorious in the annals of political and agrarian 
 crime. Their anxiety was increased by the fact that he was determined, as far as 
 possible, to do without police protection. Nevertheless he persisted in his pur- 
 pose, and his journey to Clare, so far from ending in the dreaded disaster, formed 
 one of the brightest incidents in his career as Chief Secretary. There is no necl 
 to dwell upon the personal courage which was shown in facing dangers the 
 reality of which was brought home, in only too terrible a manner, to the mind of 
 the country a few weeks later. Nor is it necessary to add more than a few words 
 to the picture of his journey as it is given in his own letters. He had made up 
 his mind to see the worst that could be shown in Ireland with his own eyes ; he 
 was anxious, too, to come into close contact with the people of a district where 
 the terror of the Land League seemed supreme. So he set forth on his journey 
 with great confidence in an overruling Providence ; his chief anxiety being lest, 
 in spite of his orders to the contrary, a police escort might be provided for him." 
 — Life of the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, by T. W. Reid, vol. ii. pp. 390, 391. 
 
 The Story of his Escape. 
 
 "The most tragical crisis through wliich English rule in Ireland had ever 
 passed was now close at hand ; but no one save the conspirators who were plotting 
 murder in Dublin knew how nearly the tragedy was anticipated on the day on 
 which Forster — as it turned out for the last time — left Dublin Castle in order that 
 he might confer with his colleagues in London. The full truth was not made 
 known until months afterwards, when the country listened horror-struck to the 
 revelations of Carey the informer. Mr. Forster had arranged to leave Dublin 
 by the mail train from Westland Row for Kingstown on the night of April 19th, 
 and his intention to do so had been publicly announced, * While he was eating 
 a sandwich for luncheon,' says Mr, Jephson, ' I asked him if he would not come 
 down to Kingstown by an earlier train, and dine at the Royal St, George Yacht 
 Club, of which he was an honorary member, as it would be much pleasanter there 
 than in Dublin. The club being scarcely a couple of hundred yards from the 
 pier whence the mail steamer started, we could dine quietly there and walk to 
 the steamer, thus avoiding the racket and worry of cabs, stations, and trains in 
 Dublin. He hesitated, but said, ** We'll see how work goes, and whether we 
 can get away in time." At about four o'clock I went to him with the last batch of 
 papers to be dealt with. When he had finished his instructions on them, I said, 
 " Now, sir, that's the last, and we can go to Kingstown if you like." " Capital," 
 
APPENDIX J 563 
 
 he replied, '* let us go ;" and accordingly we left Westland Row Station by the 
 quarter to six o'clock train for Kingstown, dined at the club there, and walked 
 on board the steamer, where we met Mrs. Forster and her daughter, who had 
 come by the quarter to seven mail train, little knowing at the time how dreadful a 
 tragedy had been avoided. At a quarter to seven o'clock, on the platform at 
 Westland Row, there was waiting the gang of desperate men known later as the 
 Invincibles, determined at all hazards to assassinate him, and if he had left 
 Dublin by that train instead of the earlier one, no earthly power could have 
 saved him. "'—Z?/g^//>45 Right Hon. W. E. Forster, hy T . W. Reid, vol. ii. 
 pp. 428 to 430. 
 
 The Nev^ts of the Park Murders. 
 
 *' It was at a reception at the Admiralty that the tidings first leaked out, and 
 it was there that Forster heard of an event which affected him more closely than 
 any other person not a member of the families of the murdered men. His 
 daughter writes in her diary : * I went this evening, after our own dinner-party, 
 with father to the Admiralty — an evening party to meet the Duke and Duchess 
 of Edinburgh. After leaving my cloak, father and I were preparing to enter the 
 drawing-room, filled with people, and a buzzing of talking and lights, but were 
 met by Sir William Harcourt and Mr. Howard Vincent. Sir William took 
 father aside to speak to him, as I supposed, about some question of Parliamentary 
 tactics, and I was left to talk to Mr. Vincent. By the look of father's face as he 
 came towards me, I could see that something was the matter ; but he frightened 
 me when he said to me, " Put your things on ; we must go." As soon as we were 
 outside I entreated him to tell me what had happened, seeing that he had called 
 a hansom, and was, I thought, going to drive oflf and leave me in this fearful sus- 
 pense. But he said nothing, only signed to me to get into the hansom, and left 
 word with the servants that the carriage was to go home. Then he said to me, 
 "They've shot Burke and dangerously wounded Lord Frederick. They've 
 killed Burke," he added. After some minutes, he said, "It'sawful." "I don't 
 understand it," I said. " They find the pressure taken off," he answered ; adding, 
 after another silence, ** I shall go to-morrow, and ask if they'll let me go back." '* 
 —Life of the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, by T. W. Reid, vol. ii. p. 459. 
 
 APPENDIX J. 
 THE STORY OF THE PHGENIX PARK MURDERS. 
 
 \A5 Given by the Irish Attorney- General in his Speech to the Jury at the Triat 
 of Joseph Brady in Dublin.'] 
 
 "Some time prior to that date May 6th, 1882, there had been changes in the Irish 
 Executive. The distinguished nobleman who had until recently filled the high 
 office of Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland had left shortly before that time. He had 
 been preceded by a gentleman, a Cabinet Minister, who until the 27th of April 
 had been in Ireland, and had filled the important office of Chief Secretary for 
 Ireland. His resignation had shortly followed, and they were succeeded in office 
 by Lord Spencer, the present representative of the Queen, and by the Chief 
 Secretary, who had then been appointed, Lord Frederick Cavendish. . . . Lord 
 Spencer and he made, as is usual upon such occasions, a public entry into Dublin 
 upon the 6th of May. . . . After a day spent in taking up the duties of their new 
 station, the Lord-Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary had both at separate times 
 left the Castle to proceed to their residences. The 6th of May was a Saturday. 
 At that season, and even without any exciting cause, such as the triumphal entry 
 of a new Lord- Lieutenant, there was sure to be a considerable number of people 
 in the streets and Park enjoying themselves and welcoming the spring of the year. 
 And it was so on that day. The gentleman who is dead, and who is the subject 
 of this inquiry, Mr. Burke, was also on that occasion busied with his usual duties 
 
 2 
 
564 APPENDIX J 
 
 at the Castle until late in the afternoon. . . . He was an Irishman and a Roman 
 Catholic. . . . Mr. Burke was a hard worker. He attended very closely to the 
 duties of his post. . . . Lord Frederick Cavendish left the Castle on foot, and 
 proceeded to the Phoenix Park unaccompanied. He was seen walking along the 
 main central road of the Phoenix Park upon the evening of that 6th of May at an 
 hour which we may take to be about seven o'clock— a few minutes before it 
 perhaps— but still in broad daylight and in a public place where there were 
 numbers of people about. He felt no apprehension ; he was conscious of no 
 wrong ; and he was walking, I believe, to the official residence which is assigned 
 to the Chief Secretary in the Park. . . . Mr. Thomas Henry Burke was detained 
 a little later in the Castle. He proceeded home towards his residence, which also 
 is in the Phoenix Park. The Under-Secretary's lodge is immediately beyond the 
 Viceregal Lodge on the right-hand side, and having reached the Park gate he took 
 a car in Parkgate Street to drive home, as he was very often in the habit of doing. 
 That car was driven by a man named Nicholas Brabazon. Mr. Burke got on the 
 car. I don't know that ever he spoke, for his habit was well known. The man 
 knew where to drive him, and he proceeded along the main road to the Park. He 
 drove past the equestrian statue to Lord Gough, and driving on a little further 
 than that he saw Lord Frederick Cavendish before him on the left, paid his 
 carman, jumped off and joined Lord Frederick, and the two of them were seen 
 walking onwards. . . . Mr. Burke was a man nearly sixty years of age, but who 
 yet looked much younger. His hair was gray, but he was a man of erect, 
 peculiarly erect carriage, and active bearing. He had almost a military look ; and 
 on the day in question he was dressed in a gray tweed suit. They proceeded along 
 that pathway where they were seen by some who recognised them, and they must 
 have been seen by many who perhaps did not at the time. His Excellency Earl 
 Spencer had ridden on a path off the road attended by a member of his staff. He 
 had been driving in the Park, and if he was not at the scene of this occurrence at the 
 time, it was probably through the cause of accident — he was at any rate very close 
 to it. On the right-hand side as you go up at a place known as the Nine Acres, 
 there was a game of polo going on at the time. On the left-hand side there was 
 a game of cricket at one of the cricket clubs. There were a number of persons 
 about in the Park, and Lord Frederick and Mr. Burke passed on, seen and observed 
 by some probably, and unnoticed by many others. . . . They proceeded past 
 the front of the Viceregal Lodge. On the left side of the road as you go up there 
 is a footpath — a raised path above the road. There were vehicles about in the 
 Park, as at such times there always are. Some of these of course attracted no 
 attention and no observation. There was nothing unusual in cabs and cars moving 
 or standing — loitering about in the Park. When they had gone within a short 
 distance of where the road was leading down in the direction of Chapelizod gate, 
 but before they had reached the turn, a scene ensued which was witnessed by two 
 or three people at least. It will be necessary for me of course afterwards to draw 
 attention more closely to what took place, but a scene ensued which left upon the 
 minds of those who saw it the impression that there was a rough scuffle going on 
 on the pathway. Two men were seen to fall, but no one for a moment dreamed 
 first of anything like violence, still less of open and atrocious assassination. What 
 ensued ? A car was seen to drive away on which some of those engaged in the 
 scuffle left. There was also a cab seen to leave in another direction. Some of 
 those who saw what had passed and seen that two of those who were believed to 
 have taken part in the scuffle were left behind, on going to the spot found two 
 dead bodies— one upon the roadway, within some couple of yards of the green 
 slope, the other that of a man with the gray suit of clothes upon the footpath. 
 Both of them were dead ; both of them were lying weltering in their blood. That 
 was all that was known of this at the time. . . . The medical examination of the 
 bodies disclosed the circumstance that both men had been despatched by the 
 same means. Both of them had been stabbed to death by pointed weapons of 
 great sharpness, keenness, and strength, but not very large, not very wide, and not 
 necessarily more than ten or twelve inches in length. The wound that had been 
 fatal in the case of Mr. Burke, and which, let us trust, was the first he had recci'ved, 
 
APPENDIX J 565 
 
 was one behind his back, which passed there very near the shoulder, traversed 
 right through his body, piercing the pericardium and the heart, and came out in 
 front. But there were many other wounds upon him. I shall not unnecessarily 
 attempt to harrow your feelings by a detail of them. There were many wounds 
 inflicted by a weapon of a similar kind ; but there was one wound — and I shall as>, 
 your attention to this, because you will see the bearing of it upon the evidence — 
 there was one wound inflicted not by a thrust or stab, but inflicted by a cut which 
 was upon the throat. His throat was cut. In the case of Lord Frederick 
 Cavendish, the wounds upon his body were also numerous. The wound 
 from which he died was one under the axilla or armpit — I know not on which 
 arm — which severed the large artery which supplies the limb, and which must have 
 produced death in a very short time by rapid bleeding. There was also an 
 important wound upon his person which I must describe, or to which I must at 
 least ask your attention, because it too has a vital bearing upon the case which 
 the Crown here presents to you. Upon the left arm there was a wound which was 
 not a stab, but which was, as it is described by the eminent surgeon who examined 
 his body after his death, it was a slash. It was a wound which not alone severed 
 flesh and sinew and cut and sliced the bone, but it punctured the bone of the arm 
 with terrific force. It was a wound, not a stab, but a slash, and it must have been 
 inflicted, as you will hear proved from the doctors, by a man of almost Herculean 
 strength, assuming it was inflicted by a weapon not of itself of any great weight or 
 size. That is all I intend to say as to the wounds on the bodies of these gentlemen, 
 and I shall say nothing more. ... I shall now tell you by what process, not of 
 inference but of proof, we expect to bring home to Joseph Brady, the prisoner at 
 the bar the guilt — the actual personal guilt — of both these assassinations. Every one 
 present with part of a common design was just as guilty of both murders as 
 though his was the hand that used the knife. But no such doctrine by inference 
 is to be applied in the case of Joseph Brady, because the evidence will satisfy 
 you — if it satifies you of anything — that his was the hand which murdered both 
 those gentlemen, assisted as regards at least one by another person not now on 
 trial immediately before you. It was perfectly obvious that this crime was the 
 result of a powerful organisation. It was not the sudden outburst of personal 
 pique, malice, or ill-will. Against Lord Frederick Cavendish there could be none ; 
 personal grudge against Mr. Burke there was none, and even if there had been, that 
 is not the way in which personal malice would have operated. The crime was one 
 which could only have been conceived, and could only have been carried out, by 
 a strong, powerful, and brutal conspiracy, bound together under circumstances 
 leading them to rely absolutely on the loyalty or the fear of each other, and of 
 those to whom their influence might be able to extend. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Burke was unknown to those men, even to the extent of their being aware 
 of his appearance. But arrangements had to be made — first of all in the case of 
 Mr. Forster and afterwards in the case of Mr. Burke — arrangements had to be 
 made for his identification. There was a man called Joseph Smith, who is one of 
 those who will be examined before you, who had been employed under the Board 
 of Works as a workman in the Lower Castle yard ; he had been engaged there. 
 In that capacity he had an opportunity of seeing those who were connected with 
 the Government passing in and out to their daily occupation, and he was 
 acquainted with the appearance of Mr. Forster as he was acquainted also with the 
 appearance of Mr. Burke. I believe he had at one time been a member of the 
 Fenian organisation — he was not originally a member of the Invincibles. But it 
 was desirable to secure his co-operation. I shall not tell the mode in which he was 
 secured by a sort of invitation into the Invincibles, which at all events bound him 
 or drew him to them so that he could not refuse to obey their commands although 
 not trusted with much of their counsels. Mr. Burke being destined to take the 
 place of Mr. Forster on the 5th of May, the Friday — an appointment was madt by 
 those desperadoes to waylay him in the Park, and accordingly, on the 5th at 10. 30 
 in the morning, James Carey, who was one of the four, drove to the Park in a cab 
 — driven by a man who will be mentioned frequently in the case, also one of the 
 prisoners, named Fitzharris— and having arrived there he met, opposite the 
 
566 APPENDIX J 
 
 Viceregal Lodge, a number of the active members of the Invincibles. He met 
 Daniel Curley, who was on the occasion of these transactions the leader in actual 
 command — at least I infer that from the evidence ; Joseph Brady, the chief execu- 
 tive agent Pat Delany, also a prisoner at present suffering sentence for another 
 matter ; a man called Thomas Caffrey — not the M'Caffrey whom I have men- 
 tioned, who is a different man, but Thomas Caffrey ; Joseph Smith, the man from 
 the Castle I have mentioned to you, and who was there to point out Mr. Burke, 
 and Tim Kelly, a young man also awaiting trial upon this charge, who will be 
 proved to you to have been along with Brady, the other executioner of the 
 commands of this body. There was also there besides the cabman Fitzharris 
 a car-driver of the name of Kavanagh, who had undoubtedly brought some of the 
 party there, and who will tell you whom, and also that stranger who had 
 directed and supervised their proceedings, who presided at the institution of this 
 Invincible body — Number One — who was there in person upon the field for the 
 purpose of assassinating Mr. Burke. So many of course would not be needed for 
 that object, but unless a large number would be present it would be attended with 
 greater peril than these men, desperadoes though they were, were willing to under- 
 take. And these men were there at half-past ten o'clock in the morning of the 
 5th of May, and waited, loitering about for Mr. Burke as he would come out on his 
 way into town to his office. Then a matter took place which would startle one, 
 if one were not past that, in a case of this kind. Being tired of waiting, being 
 uncertain whether Mr. Burke had gone to town or not, they came actually to the 
 resolve that one of them should go to his gate-lodge and ask for him ; and the 
 man who did that, who left them and who went to Mr. Burke's gate-lodge to 
 inquire if he had left, was Joseph Brady. He was told that he had left, and he 
 proceeded to make inquiries. Such was the overwhelming and surpassing 
 audacity with which this plot was carried out, that he proceeded to inquire 
 of the woman at the gate-lodge as to Mr. Burke's appearance. That woman 
 will be produced before you. We will prove by those associates who were 
 present upon the occasion that he left for this purpose and came back with 
 that message. I don't know whether the woman at the lodge is in a position — 
 whether she is in a position absolutely to identify this man, Joseph Brady, as the 
 man who came to her and asked her this question on that day ; but I believe she 
 will say that the transaction occurred, and that so far as she can form an opinion 
 to be able to tell you as to Brady being that man she will tell you. But however 
 that belief may be, we shall prove by his associates that that transaction actually 
 took place, and that when it turned out that Mr. Burke had left there was no use 
 in waiting or delaying any longer and the parties returned to town, having made 
 an appointment to meet again the same evening of Friday the 5th for the purpose 
 of carrying out their project when Mr. Burke was about to return. . . . 
 
 * ' On that occasion they waited over an hour and Mr. Burke did not appear. 
 But they met and left disappointed and bafHed, making an appointment to meet 
 the next morning, Saturday the 6tli, for the purpose of carrying out this design. 
 And out they were the next morning at ten o'clock, some of them at the same 
 place being there for the same object, and on that occasion also their meeting was 
 unsuccessful. They were appointed to meet at the Kingsbridge, on the bridge, a 
 situation which of course would be available from whichever side of the river the 
 victim came. James Carey, driving to the place in a cab of which the driver was 
 Fitzharris, met on the quay two or three gentlemen, one of whom was, or Carey 
 thought he was, Mr. Burke. . . . James Carey got out of the cab, sent the cab- 
 driver on to inform the men at the bridge that Mr. Burke was gone, and they 
 departed to meet again that afternoon. That Saturday was the day of the 
 triumphal entry, as I have told you. These men were off work, but they had a 
 rendezvous at a place close to Dublin Castle at the public-house of Andrew 
 Wrenn — that opposite Palace Street — a place where theyfrequently met before, and 
 a place which commanded a view of both approaches to the Castle, whether of 
 the Upper or Lower Castle yard. At three o'clock or thereabouts, on that day, 
 Joseph Smith, leaving his work at the Castle, was met by James Carey. James 
 Carey undoubtedly was as thick in this assassination business as any of them. There 
 
APPENDIX J 567 
 
 is no doubt of that. ... He undoubtedly to the very last was one of those actively 
 concerned in this murderous conspiracy. He met Joseph Smith, and arrange- 
 ments were made. The men had all dined. ... It was known of course that day 
 that Mr. Burke would not be going home unusually early. They left that 
 establishment of Andrew Wrenn's in an order I shall describe to you, and which 
 I will ask you to recollect throughout the case. A car driven by Kavanagh, 
 whom I mentioned to you, already was there. The car at the time when it started 
 was either in or close to Sycamore Alley, which runs from Dame Street to Essex 
 Street. The cab which was driven by Fitzharris was round Parliament Street at 
 the corner of Essex Street — whether in Essex Street or Parliament Street does not 
 make the least matter in the case. It was driven by Fitzharris, a man who was 
 undoubtedly in this conspiracy. Whether he was a sworn member or not I know 
 not. Those who left in the cab left, I believe, first. They left at ten minutes 
 before five o'clock, and the occupants of the cab which left at that hour were 
 James Caiey, Joseph Smith and Joseph Hanlon. I ask you to remember those 
 names. The route which they took was along the quay, I believe without 
 crossing the river, until they came to the Kingsbridge. At Kingsbridge they 
 crossed the river ; they drove up to the Park gate straight and entered through 
 the main entrance of the Park, and drove up the main road until they passed the 
 monument. They stopped shortly after that — some distance from there ; it will 
 be pointed out to you. All the occupants of the cab separated to this extent ; 
 Hanlon it is believed went to the left, where there was a game of cricket going on, 
 Smith and Carey went to the right side. Smith, who was the man who knew 
 Mr. Burke, and was to point him out, took his seat upon one of the benches or 
 seats which are there upon the road on the right side, and, after a short time, 
 Carey — knowing, I presume, that Mr. Burke would not be home at so early an hour 
 — strolled over to see a game of polo, which was then proceeding and with regard 
 to which he had some curiosity. The car left Sycamore Alley after the cab was 
 gone. The persons who were on that car I shall also ask you to recollect with 
 unfailing memory, because it is one part of the case that should not be lost sight 
 of. On the car were Joseph Brady, Tim Kelly, Caffrey, and Patrick Delaney. 
 Now those who sat upon the car that day, the car being driven by Kavanagh the 
 driver, were the same who accompanied it until the last we know of it in the 
 course of the evening. The road it took was, I believe, the same as the cab — up to 
 and across Kingsbridge ; and from that point, instead of driving up Park Gate 
 Street and out of the Park, they kept along the Conyngham Road to the left, 
 where the steam tram rails were. They went to the first gate of the Park, and 
 they turned in and went in a diagonal direction along the open public road, keep- 
 ing the Magazine on the left and up along the drive. They went on in this 
 way straight up to the gate of the Chief Secretary's lodge ; they went up by the 
 back of the Phoenix, and then they soon proceeded down the road as if in the 
 direction to meet the cab. Those who were on it got oflf and the car remained 
 there. Now you will observe that Curley was not either in the cab or on the car, 
 but he had been at the place before they started. Fegan was not either in the 
 cab or on the car, but both Curley and Fegan turned up in the Park and Curley 
 was the chief in command. How he got there, whether on foot or not, I am 
 unable to give you any account at present, but he was there undoubtedly. I 
 believe he came to where Carey was at the polo ground. He intimated to him 
 that he had no business to be loitering there or something to that effect. Carey 
 came back from the place where he was watching the game of polo to the seat on 
 the right-hand side where Joe Smith was. . . . 
 
 "A signal was arranged which was to let those who had to perpetrate the 
 murder know of the approach of Mr. Burke, the signal being a white handker- 
 chief. The rest of the gang were at this time, as will be proved to you, 
 scattered about on both sides of the road up near the place where the assassina- 
 tion took place. At times there is no doubt they were lying down. At times 
 they were standing up. There was nothing to attract much attention to their 
 appearance or demeanour ; yet something about them did, and I am not sure 
 that it will not appear in evidence. . . . Mr. Burke was seen approaching. 
 
568 APPENDIX J 
 
 Smith immediately pointed him out. Smith was not in the counsels of this body 
 to the extent of having been actually informed of what it was that these men 
 wanted with Mr. Burke, but he must have known it was for no good. He will 
 tell you that the word being given — ' Hurry up ! Hurry up ! ' — the nose-bag 
 was taken off the horse of Kavanagh, the driver jumped up on the car, whilst 
 Carey and Smith also got upon it, and Carey proceeded to give the signal and 
 told Smith to do so too. And Smith will tell you the horror of his own 
 situation at the time, how he noticed that the carman Kavanagh was as white as 
 a sheet, and appeared to feel in the same condition. They drove rapidly up. 
 There was nothing then to arrest one's attention. They passed two policemen, 
 or a policeman and a civilian like a recruit sitting on the side of the road at the 
 left. There were numbers of other people on the left. They went up, and as 
 they went they left the cab in which Carey had driven to the Park with Smith 
 and Hanlon ; they passed the cab on the right-hand side, not far from the scene 
 where the murder took place. They drove up on the car. On leaping off the 
 two persons who were to do the actual work of butchery were there — Brady 
 and Kelly. Curley was there. He was in command of the operation, and 
 Curley asked, 'Well, is he coming; is he coming?* He was informed by 
 Carey, 'Yes; it is the gentleman in the gray suit.' There were the two 
 together at the time when they had been seen. * It is the gentleman in the gray 
 suit ; don't make any mistake,' or something to that effect. Smhh was there. 
 Smith was not wanted. Carey asked Brady, * What is this man to do ? ' 
 'Tell him to go off to h— 1 out of that,' said he. Smith left and went on 
 farther up the road to the first turn upon the left which leads in the direction of 
 the Chapelizod gate. It was only a short distance ahead. In going up to 
 it he passed the car which had been on in that direction. He went off in that 
 way as if towards the Chapelizod gate, leaving Carey and the rest behind him. 
 Now the persons who were there with Carey beyond all doubt — I mean so far as 
 the evidence is concerned— were these : Brady, 'Kelly, Pat Delany, and Caffrey. 
 These were the four men who had gone upon the car ; Hanlon had gone in the 
 cab, Cuiley and Fegan had gone there by some other mode. Undoubtedly there 
 were others of this gang scattered about ; but these were there on the spot on the 
 left-hand side at that moment, when they were joined by Carey and Joe Smith, 
 and of course there were present both the carman Kavanagh and the cabman 
 Fitzharris within a short distance. After Smith had gone, Carey also made 
 some inquiry as to his part in the work, and he was told he was not wanted. 
 His part was done. He had directed when Smith pointed out and given them 
 such detail that there could be no mistake as to the victim, that they were ready 
 and able to do the rest themselves. Accordingly he went off in a diagonal 
 direction from the spot where they were across the green, through the grove of 
 trees which is there, off in the direction of the gate which is near Inchicore, the 
 gate through which the car had come on that day. As he went he saw the two 
 gentlemen coming up. He saw the erect form and the figure clad in gray of Mr. 
 Burke, He saw the mode in which the assassins had arranged themselves and 
 were drawn up — of course you will take all this from the witnesses. I merely give 
 you an outline of it. They appear to have formed themselves into three groups. 
 There were seven of them. The first group of three consisted of Curley, Fegan 
 and Hanlon. The second, of two, some twelve feet or thereabouts behind ; these 
 were Kelly and Brady. The third group, at some little distance behind them 
 again, consisted of Caffrey and Delaney, and they appear, as I read the evidence, 
 to have faced towards town as if meeting the gentlemen, one of whom was the 
 object of their attack. Whether they actually proceeded to meet them on 
 the walk or whether they just turned and faced them, I know not ; but Carey 
 will tell you that this happened, that seeing the two gentlemen coming along the 
 pathway where they were passed by these seven, he saw the two pass through 
 the ranks of the seven and came to the conclusion that it was another failure. I 
 should have told you that the time that Carey left was exactly seventeen minutes 
 past seven o'clock. We know now the reason why. Some vehicles were passing 
 down the road, and if the drivers could not identify them they would at any rate 
 
APPENDIX J 569 
 
 have carried ihe alarm into town at once. But it was a short respite. After 
 Mr. Burke and Lord Frederick passed through, Carey turned around again when 
 he was at some distance and saw what he described as a right-about movement 
 executed by the last four. Those who had been in the rear were then of course 
 nearest to Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke, and he saw the hindmost 
 of these four — that is Kelly and Brady — come to the front and come nearest to 
 their victims. He saw one of these four come into collision with Mr. Burke, 
 and that one was Joseph Brady. He saw his hand raised. I believe it was the 
 left, but we will have it described otherwise ; he raised the left hand and seized 
 him by the shoulder and stabbed him. The work was then done ; at any rate as 
 far as he could do it. Carey went off rapidly towards town and met the man 
 named Smith, and they got on the top of a tramcar, and Carey took care to show 
 himself immediately after at a public-house in Grafton Street, where he was well 
 known. In the course of the evening he met Curley, who had given the account 
 that was given, and which was proved to have been given not alone by Curley 
 but afterwards by Brady himself, that, having allowed their victims to pass 
 through, owing to the proximity of the vehicles on the road, afterwards he joined 
 them and stabbed Mr. Burke in the way that Carey has described. Lord 
 Frederick Cavendish was probably perfectly unknown to these men. I dare say 
 they did know who he was and had attacked him. But a prize had fallen into 
 their grasp when he was there. I believe they did not know it till afterwards. 
 But at all events, he being perfectly unarmed like his friend Mr. Burke, when he 
 saw this attack called out, *. Oh, you villain ! ' and with his umbrella made a 
 blow at Brady. Not a word more passed. This man left his victim, who 
 probably was despatched already — left him to Tim Kelly, whilst he sprung at 
 Lord Frederick Cavendish — made a blow at him with a knife as he described it 
 himself, and being a man of Herculean power he did the injury which I described 
 to you before, fracturing the bones of the arm, and causing what is called a 
 compound fracture, as well as cutting through the flesh and cutting a piece 
 of the bone itself. Lord Frederick fell on the road, and he despatched him with 
 blow after blow. The execution was then effected. The other men had got on 
 the car — Kelly, Caffrey, and Delany — but Brady, and this was his own state- 
 ment, returned to Mr. Burke to make his work quite sure, and he said himself 
 after that he then and there cut his throat. Recollect the medical evidence I 
 drew your attention before to, the two wounds not inflicted by a stab — that 
 which was slashed upon Lord Frederick Cavendish and that upon the throat of 
 Mr. Burke. Having done that he proceeded to wipe the bloody weapon upon 
 the grass, ran after the car, which was actually in motion — of course it would 
 not go without him. The other assassins disappeared down the road, got into 
 the cab, and drove off at a rapid pace towards the town. I believe that 
 Fitzharris, who was driving, stood up and lashed the horse into a furious speed. 
 They passed the road which would lead to the Zoological Gardens, went to the 
 Gough statue, turned up to the left, went out by the gate there — a course they 
 took, I suppose, so as not to pass the front of the Constabulary Depot, and went 
 on to the North Circular Road, down which they disappeared. 
 
 ** Meanwhile the car driven by Kavanagh, and which carried on it the same four 
 men who had gone from Wrenn's public-house — Brady, Kelly, Caffrey, and Pat 
 Delany — started off at a pace which could only be described as furious. They 
 drove in the direction of the Chapelizod Gate, and along that road they hurried. 
 There is a place near the Hibernian School where the road sinks, where it goes 
 down a steep hill and forms a curve almost like the letter S when you get down 
 to the comer. They hurried down that hill at a furious breakneck speed, but 
 without accident. . . . When passing through the gate they were so hurried 
 that they almost drove over a man who was there — a man called Cahill — and 
 taking the right drove up to Chapelizod. At Chapelizod they were guided by 
 Pat Delany, and being piloted by him through Chapelizod, turned to the left, 
 up along the steep hill from Chapelizod, up towards where the road passes under 
 the Great Southern and Western Railway. They could have gone on by that 
 road, I believe, and gone into town, but at' any rate they did not, and they turned 
 
570 APPENDIX K 
 
 again sharp round to the right and went away in a direction from town ; and after 
 making a long detour of many miles through the open country around Dublin, 
 they came on to Roundtown, and they then went on to Palmerston Road, where 
 Timothy Kelly, I believe, left them by jumping off the car while it was in motion 
 and getting into a tramcar, and in that way went to town. The other three pro- 
 ceeded on the car with the driver until they came through Leeson Park and 
 entered Leeson Street, and there they stopped in Leeson Street at a public-house 
 kept by a person named Davis, where Kavanagh was paid a pound as the portion of 
 his hire upon that occasion. It was a long round they drove, and at the speed at 
 which they went it didn't occupy a very long time. There can be no doubt that 
 it was well done in or under an hour, and they left the scene of the murder at 
 almost or nearly as can be calculated at twenty minutes past seven o'clock, and 
 thus you see by that manoeuvre they reached town within an hour at a diametrically 
 opposite point of the city from that at which the murder had been committed." — 
 Irish Times, April 12, 1883. 
 
 APPENDIX K. 
 THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE JUDGE LAWSON. 
 
 "It was shortly after five o'clock that the judge left his house in Fitzwilliam 
 Square. M'Donnell and Darker took the college side of Leinster Street, crossing 
 Lincoln Place after leaving Clare Street side, Mr. Justice Lawson and his son 
 being on the opposite side. M'Donnell, who had the rank of corporal in the 
 army, is one of the rather large number of pensioners who, with the view to 
 lighten the strain upon the resources of both the Metropolitan police and the 
 Constabulary force, have been employed by the Government for protection duty. 
 M'Donnell was on the outside of the footpath, and Delany, who was going at a 
 rapid pace, jostled him as he passed, by this means attracting his attention to his 
 movements. M'Donnell accordingly looked at him, and Delany, seeing himself 
 observed, touched him on the arm and said in a significant manner, ' It's all right, 
 you know me.' Meanwhile the judge was proceeding along the other side of 
 the street, and just as he reached the Kildare Street Club, Delany was seen to 
 cross rapidly. While he was so crossing M'Donnell noticed that the butt of a 
 revolver obtruded from his inside breast pocket, so he immediately rushed after 
 the fellow and came upon him just as he had stepped upon the footpath and had 
 turned round to meet the judge who was coming on. M'Donnell then struck 
 Delany, saying as he did so, * Here's a man with a revolver.' A tussle ensued, 
 in which the man tried to draw the revolver, and M'Donnell in the attempt to 
 wrench it from him got the back of one of his hands cut, 
 
 " The policeman and his companion coming up to his assistance, Delany was 
 overcome and brought to College Street Police Station. It is a fact apparently 
 of some significance that the revolver is exactly of the same pattern as those found 
 in the public-house in Dorset Street where M'Mahon was shot. . . . The police 
 went to his residence in Cork Street and searched the premises, without however 
 making any discovery of importance. Delany it appears was convicted and sent 
 to penal servitude in the year 1870, not in 1869 as at first reported. One 
 year of the term was however commuted, and he was discharged on ticket-of-leave 
 in the year 1874, and was in consequence under police supervision since that 
 period. He is a rather shabby-looking little fellow, who however scarcely looks 
 his age. The police believe that the prisoner had a number of confederates on 
 the spot, for an attempt was made to stop a Donnybrook tramcar at the moment 
 the attack was about to be made on Judge Lawson in order to create a confusion, 
 profiting from which Delany, after carrying out his atrocious intention, would 
 have been facilitated in making his escape in safety." — Irish Times^ November 13, 
 1882. 
 
APPENDIX L 571 
 
 APPENDIX L. 
 THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE MR. FIELD. 
 
 "Jurors true to their God, their consciences, and their duty gave verdicts in ac- 
 cordance with justice, and Mr. Field and Mr. Barrett were amongst them. The 
 Invincibles thought they could prove themselves superior to the law, paralyse its 
 force, and deaden its arm— they felt perfect safety on account of their apparent 
 immunity after the crime in the Phoenix Park. The night of the 27th November 
 was selected for a double assassination — that of two jurymen, Mr. Field and Mr. 
 Barrett. . . . One detachment of the Invincibles went by order of Joseph 
 Mullett to Westland Row to meet Mr. Barrett, and the other went to Westmore- 
 land Street to attack Mr. Field, Mullett saying it would be a splendid thing if 
 they could perform the double work the same day. Lawrence Hanlon and I'im 
 Kelly went up from Westmoreland Street in advance or close to Mr. Field. Joe 
 Brady and Daniel Delany had gone up to the corner of Hardwicke Street on 
 Kavanagh's car and waited there. Hanlon gave the signal with a handkerchief. 
 Mr. Field was knocked down, brutally stabbed, and feigned death. Then Brady and 
 Kelly escaped 'on the car : Delany and Hanlon escaped by another route, and 
 the whole party met again that evening at a concert. . . . 
 
 **Mr. Field deposed that on the evening he was attacked he left his place of 
 business shortly before six, and proceeded to Frederick Street. When near his own 
 door he found himself caught by the right shoulder, and the words ' You villain ! ' 
 were uttered in a low tone. He looked up and saw two men in front of him and two 
 behind. Immediately afterwards he was stabbed twice in the back and fell. He 
 screamed * Murder.* There were four persons standing at some distance. When 
 he was prostrate several thrusts were made at his heart. He raised his left arm to 
 protect it from the first of these, and the knife* or sword — a three-cornered blade 
 like a sword cane— went quite through his left arm. He continued to cry 
 * Murder,' and another stab was made at his left breast. This he warded oflf with 
 his umbrella. Then he received two wounds, one of which cut his tongue and 
 right cheek and another his left cheek. He feigned death and his assailants ran 
 away. After their departure he staggered home." — /risk Times ^ May 4, 1883. 
 
 APPENDIX M. 
 THE TECHNICALITIES OF EXTRADITION. 
 
 True Bills Found against Tynan, Sheridan, and Walsh. 
 
 '*.... At a late hour in the afternoon the County Grand Jury handed in true 
 bills against O'Brien and Edward M'CafFery for the wilful murder of Mr. Thomas 
 Henry Burke. A true bill was found against Fitzharris, the cabman, for the 
 same murder, as accessory after the fact, and tnie bills for murder were also 
 found against P. J. Tynan, alias *No. i,' P. J. Sheridan, the late Land League 
 organiser, and John Walsh, of Middlesborough, another organiser of the Land 
 League. The grand juries were not discharged, but dismissed for the pre- 
 sent. . . . 
 
 Finding of Special Commission in Dublin, April, 1883. 
 
 **The step taken in presenting bills to the Dublin Grand Jur}' charging Tynan, 
 Walsh, and Sheridan with murder although unusual is perfectly regular. Should 
 true bills be found, and the prisoners not be extradited or surrender, they may, 
 after various writs for their apprehension being returned unexecuted, and after 
 various proclamations, be adjudged outlaws — a process abolished in civil actions, 
 but retained in criminal proceedings. The effect of outlawry is that the outlaw 
 may be apprehended by any one without a warrant, and the sentence of the law 
 
572 APPENDIX M 
 
 executed upon him without further trial unless he can show that there has been a 
 technical irregularity in the proceedings, in which case he must stand his trial in 
 the ordinary form. Meanwhile, whether he is within or without the jurisdiction, 
 his property is foi-feited to the Crown, as expressly reserved by the Abolition of 
 Forfeiture Act, 1870. Moreover, if the grand jury should find a true bill for 
 murder, the position of the Government in demanding a surrender is strengthened. 
 The whole process is a somewhat clumsy equivalent for what is called in foreign 
 countries a conviction m contumaciam^ — Lazv Journal^ and Times, May 4, 1883. 
 
 The Cases of Sheridan and Byrne in America. 
 
 "In reference to the extradition of Sheridan, the peculiarity which distinguishes 
 the Extradition Treaty with the United States from all others should not be 
 overlooked. The proviso excluding surrender for offences of a political character 
 does not occur in the Ashburton Treaty. The reason for the omission is that the 
 only things mentioned in the treaty are * murder, assault with intent to commit 
 murder, piracy, arson, robbery, forgery, or the utterance of forged paper,' and it 
 was not supposed, at least in 1842 when the treaty was made, that the suggestion 
 of a political motive would reduce the enormity of any of these crimes. The 
 Government will have to produce to the examining magistrate such evidence of 
 Sheridan's guilt of * murder ' as would justify his apprehension and commitment 
 for trial if the crime had been committed in the place where he may be arrested. 
 The treaty with the United States does not, like the more modern treaties with 
 other countries, apply expressly to accessories to murder ; but in both countries the 
 crime of murder and that of being accessory to murder before the fact have the same 
 punishment, and are treated as practically the same ; and in the interpretation of 
 a New York statute the word ' murder ' has been held by the Supreme Court of 
 the State to include the crime of accessory to murder before the fact (People v. 
 Mather, 4 Wend, 229). The question therefore of the extradition of Sheridan is 
 a matter for lawyers alone. 
 
 " Entirely different questions arise as to the extradition of Byrne. The treaty 
 with France is very fully expressed, and applies to twenty-five offences, of which 
 murder (including assassination) is one ; and there is a general clause to the effect 
 ' that the extradition is also to take place for participation, even as principles or 
 accessories, in any of the aforesaid crimes.* The fifth article provides that *no 
 accused person shall be surrendered if the offence, in respect of which his 
 surrender is demanded, shall be deemed by the party upon which it is made to be a 
 political offence, or to be an act connected with {connexe ^) such an offence. ' If this 
 clause should be appealed to on behalf of Byrne, the decision is practically at the 
 discretion of the French Government ; but they will have to put on record that 
 they deem the offence to be a political offence, and will be subject to have their 
 decision referred to in any case in which they may ask for the surrender of 
 an accused person from this country." — Law Journal, March 3, 1883. 
 
 ** The fact that Mr. P. J. Sheridan is in America is more than sufficient to 
 rouse public curiosity in regard to the present condition of the arrangements for 
 the extradition of criminals which exist between this country and the United 
 States. The history of the joint arrangement between this country and the 
 United States is not long. In 1794 the two Powers agreed by Jay's Treaty to 
 deliver up to one another fugitives charged with murder or forgery, provided the 
 evidence of criminality was sufficient. This treaty lasted for twelve years only, 
 and was not renewed. From this period until 1842 there were no treaty pro- 
 visions as to extradition between the two Powers ; but it is remarkable that Mr. 
 Clarke in his treatise upon extradition quotes the case of one Daniel Washburn 
 (3 Wharton's Crim. Trials, 473, 4 Johnson Ch. Rep. 106), which shows that in 
 181 9 Chancellor Kent, than whom there is no higher authority upon American 
 law, held that irrespective of all treaties it was the duty of all Governments to 
 surrender fugitive criminals, or persons charged upon sufficient evidence with 
 criminal offences. In a later trial Chief Justice Tilgeman, without going to quite 
 the same length as his predecessor, expressed an opinion that extradition was a 
 
APPENDIX M 573 
 
 national duty which between neighbouring nations was of almost irresistible obliga- 
 tion. In these cases may be seen the raison (Vtlre of the famous Ashburton 
 Treaty, signed in Washington upon the Qth August, 1842, which still remains as 
 we find in Mr. Howard Vincent's treatise, the only law upon the subject of ex- 
 tradition between England and the United States. Amongst other crimes which 
 are enumerated in that treaty as being sufl5cient to warrant extradition are 
 murder, assault with intent to commit murder, &c. Mr. Clarke observes that 
 political offences are not specifically excluded ; but reminds us that President 
 Tyler, in transmitting the Bill to Congress, observed that the Bill was carefully 
 confined to such offences as all men agree are heinous and destructive to the security 
 of life and property, so that political offences and criminal charges arising from wars 
 or intestine commotions might be excluded. The two most important cases 
 which have been decided under this treaty are that of Kaine in 1852 upon a 
 charge of attempting to commit murder, and that of the famous murderer 
 Miiller. 
 
 *'The case of Mr. Sheridan evidently does not come within the terms of the 
 treaty since the strongest charge which could be brought against him, upon the 
 evidence of Carey, would be one of conspiracy to murder. There are, however, 
 strong grounds for a presumption that the Government of the United States will 
 be able to hand Sheridan over to the British authorities. The Ashburton Treaty 
 contains no negative clause. The American Government does not say that it will not 
 surrender persons charged with crimes not included in the twenty-seventh article ; 
 it only definitely promises to deliver to the British authorities persons charged 
 with specified offences. On the other hand, the words of President Tyler show 
 that the spirit of the treaty does not include political offenders, to which the answer 
 is that conspiracy to murder definite persons for political pui-poses is not a purely 
 political offence ; moreover, it is an offence which is regarded as heinous by the 
 law of all civilised nations. From the history of extradition law in America, it 
 may be concluded that the United States Government has a discretion in this 
 matter ; from reflection upon present circumstances it appears probable that the 
 exercise of this discretion will result in the extradition of Mr. Sheridan. The 
 unsatisfactory state of the extradition laws has long been recognised in both 
 countries, and the report of the commissioners appointed in 1878 to investigate 
 the matter contains a proposition that amongst offences sufficient to warrant ex- 
 tradition shall be included all offences against person or property indictable at 
 common law in England. Any treaty in which such a clause is present must of 
 course be reciprocal, and the American Government is not likely to fail to reflect 
 that the present law is of considerable antiquity. Finally, if the American 
 Government felt a doubt whether it ought, on the hypothesis that it has a dis- 
 cretion, to exercise that discretion according to the desire of the English Government, 
 that doubt might be dispelled by these words quoted in Mr. Lorimer's InstiHites 
 of the Law of Nations, p. 346 : 'Les faits, qui r^unissent tous les caract^res des 
 crimes de droit commun (assassinats, incendies, vols) ne doivent pas 6tre exceptes 
 de I'extradition, \ raison seulement de I'intention politique de leurs auteurs. ' " — 
 Law Times, March 3, 1883. 
 
 The Cases of Byrne and Walsh in France. 
 " It appears certain that the Government will not handover to England the 
 Irishmen who have been arrested in France. Not only is the guilt of the prisoners 
 far from being established, but the Ministry means to adhere to the ground which 
 England herself took in 187 1. At that date the London Cabinet refused to ex- 
 tradite the refugees of the Commune, arguing that the charges brought against 
 them were of a political nature. Whan the present state of Ireland is considered, 
 it is hard to deny that the accusations brought against the refugees from that 
 country should be placed in the same category." — Paris Correspondent of the 
 Daily Telegraph, March 6, 1883. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Agitation, hopelessness of, 364 
 Agriculturists, grievances of Irish, 58 
 Albany gives Mr. Parnell the privilege 
 
 of the Assembly, 146 
 Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien, 97 
 Amnesty Association, 30 
 Attorney-General (Irish), extracts from 
 
 speech by, on trial of Joseph Brady, 
 
 Appendix G, 559, Appendix J, 563 
 Aristocratic class founded, 4 
 Arms, seizure of, 71 ; discovery of, in 
 
 Carey's loft, 301 
 "Assize, The Bloody," Appendix A, 
 
 547 
 
 B 
 
 Balla meeting, scene at, 96-98 
 
 Ballina massacre, 250, 473 
 
 Bataille, the, on the Phoenix Park 
 murders, 282 
 
 Beaconsfield, Lord, 98 ; in 1878, 73 ; 
 election manifesto of, 153 ; speech by, 
 on Compensation forDisturbance Bill, 
 181, 182 
 
 Belmullet massacre, 244 
 
 Biggar, Joseph Gillis, the father of 
 obstruction, 43 ; debut as obstruc- 
 tionist, 54 ; speech against coer- 
 cion, 54, 55 ; motion of, 55 ; takes 
 notice of strangers in House of 
 Commons, 58, 59 ; letter of apology 
 from, 68, 69 ; declines Mr. Shaw's 
 leadership, 140 ; resolution of, ac- 
 cepted by Home Rulers, 141 ; ad- 
 
 ' vocates Mr. Parnell as leader, 163 ; 
 speech at Parnell banquet, 165 ; re- 
 
 ference to Hartmann, 165 ; tribute 
 to, 167 ; obstruction, 197, 199 ; at- 
 tends Lord Mayor of Dublin's ban- 
 quet, 342 ; death of, since book was 
 written, 533 ; his attitude towards 
 Invincibles, xviii 
 
 Birmingham gunsmiths, action of, com- 
 mented on, 72 
 
 Blake, Mr., and Mr. Gladstone, 540 
 
 Blennerhasset, Mr. , 36 ; called an Irish 
 renegade member, 208 
 
 Bodyke evictions, 404 
 
 Bolton, George, procures evidence for 
 Dublin Special Commission, 309, 
 
 314 
 
 Bourke, Walter M. , assassination of, by 
 Invincibles, 487, 488 
 
 Boycott, origin of the word, 189 j 
 Captain, account of, 189-191 
 
 Brady, Joseph, panegyiic on, 165, 166, 
 539 ; arrest of, as an Invincible, 301 ; 
 true bill found against, 318 ; trial of, 
 319 et seq.y sentence, 321 ; Mr. Kin- 
 sella the Blackrock station-master 
 on, 321, 322 ; his mother's last fare- 
 well to, 325 ; execution of, 325 ; last 
 interview with K , 515 
 
 Brennan, Thomas, address to Balla 
 meeting, 98 ; flight of, 99 ; arrest of, 
 charge, and remand of, loi ; in com- 
 pany of Mr. Davitt on latter's arrest, 
 201 ; address to Land League meet- 
 ing in Dublin, 207 
 
 Breslin, John, member of sub-com- 
 mittee, attending Mr. Parnell in New 
 York, 106 ; interviewed, 131 
 
 Britain, Ireland never acknowledged 
 rule of, 2 J banditti from, 2 ; rela- 
 tions to colonies and Ireland com- 
 pared, 177 
 
576 
 
 INDEX 
 
 British class, founded, 4 ; destruction 
 of a duty, 8 ; interests need Ireland's 
 subjection, 46 ; Government over- 
 come by obstruction, 66 ; parties,"* 
 hostility of, to Irish patriots and 
 physical force, 420 ; tactics of, to 
 entrap Provincialists, 420 ; interests 
 opposed to revelations implicating 
 prominent Irishmen, 420 ; parties, 
 fears of their motives for conciliating 
 the Provincialists, 421 ; rule in Ire- 
 land, view of, 436 ; invader responsi- 
 ble for hostility of Irish, 437 ; war 
 of extermination, 452 
 
 Butt, Isaac, promises support to Mr. 
 Parnell, 20 ; a convert to Home Rule, 
 30 ; speech of, at meeting of Irish 
 members in 1874, 45 ; amendment 
 to address, 46 ; defeat of Home Rule 
 motion, 47; popularity of, 51 ; in- 
 dignation with Mr. Parnell and Mr. 
 Biggar, 62 ; popularity wanes, 62 ; 
 annoyance at obstruction, 63, 65, 66 ; 
 speech at Home Rule conference, 
 1878, 74 ; contrast between, and Mr. 
 Parnell and Mr. Dillon, 75 ; pro- 
 posed resignation as leader, 75 ; 
 meeting to consider proposed resigna- 
 tion, 75 ; address to committee, 75, 
 76 ; resumes leadership, 76 ; letter 
 to a Limerick elector, 77, 78 ; pro- 
 test against obstruction, 78 ; letter to 
 Dr. Ward, M.P., 78, 79 ; third letter 
 to electors of Limerick, 79 ; and 
 Parnell policies of contrasted, 80 ; 
 illness of, 84 ; death of, 85 ; election 
 committee of Limerick sends depu- 
 tation to welcome Mr. Parnell, 161 
 
 Buttite meetings, 45, 46 
 
 Buttites and Parnellites, feeling be- 
 tween, 76 
 
 Buttism and Parnellism, results the 
 same, 61 
 
 Byrne, P'rank, account of, 236, 237 ; 
 Britain's request to France for ex- 
 tradition of, 329, 330 ; arrest of, in 
 Paris, his alibi, charge against, re- 
 lease of, in America, death of, Ap- 
 pendix E, 552 
 
 Byrne, Mrs., arrest of, Carey fails to 
 identify. Appendix £,552 
 
 Cafifrey, Thomas, arrest of, 310 ; true 
 bill found against, 318 ; pleads guilty 
 and sentenced, 323 
 
 Callanan the informer, account of, 295 
 
 ** Campaign of Shame," in 1880, l6i 
 Carey, James, 99 ; a supporter of Col. 
 King liarman, 33 ; arrest of, as a 
 suspect, 289 ; his dread of being an 
 informer, 289 ; arrest of, as an In- 
 vincible, 301 ; and others failure of 
 first attempts to get information from, 
 307-309 ; how induced to give in- 
 formation, 313 ; a witness for the 
 Crown, effect of his evidence, 315 ; 
 protection of, 331 ; sentenced to 
 death by the Revolutionary Court 
 Martial, 332 ; opinion of, 332, 333 ; 
 movements of, and of his family, 
 watched, 333, 334; a man sent to 
 New Zealand to assassinate, 333 ; 
 and O'Donnell, friendship of, 333 ; 
 at Capetown, 333, 334 ; shot, 334 ; 
 not a leader, 437 ; an officer of the 
 Dublin Invincible Council, 456 ; 
 instructed to signal Chief Secretary's 
 departure from Lodge, 458 ; displays 
 weakness, 459 ; removal of, from con- 
 sultative position on Council, 461 ; 
 watches Mr. Forster's movements, 
 466 ; character of, 474, 475 ; his 
 loyalty to cause unquestioned, 475 ; 
 loyal to his native land, 477 ; last 
 
 meeting with K , 494 ; relieved 
 
 from all duty, 494 ; treason of, 526, 
 
 527; 
 Carey, Mrs., movements of, traced, 333 ; 
 
 return of, on the Garth Castle, 335 
 Carey, Peter, arrest of, as an Invincible, 
 
 Carroll, Dr. William, organiser of 
 Parnell reception committee Phila- 
 delphia, 104 
 
 Catholic Emancipation, charter of, 27 
 
 Chamberlain, Mr., speeches of, com- 
 pared to Mr. Morley's, 43 
 
 Charles!., colonisation in lime of, 4 
 
 Chicago Daily News, Mr. Parnell's 
 letter to, 173, 174 
 
 Churchill, Lord Randolph, a Home 
 Ruler, 70 ; Mr. Parnell's reply to, 
 147, 148 
 
 Citoyen of Pans, the, on the Phoenix 
 Park murders, 283 
 
 Citizen, the, on the Phoenix Park 
 murders, 279 
 
 Clancy, James, release of, 81 ; arrest 
 of, 81, 83 ; charge against, 83 ; 
 sentence of, %2> \ ^ writer ontheiV«y 
 York Herald, 83 
 
 Clerkenwell explosion, 21, 26 
 
 Coercion, 35, 118; Bill, Tory, 51, 53; 
 Bill, i88i ; the debate closed, 199 
 
 Colonisation of Ireland, 3, 4 
 
INDEX 
 
 577 
 
 Colthurst, Col., I\Ir. Parnell's opposi- 
 tion to, 173; return of, for County 
 Cork, 173 ; called an Irish renegade 
 member, 208 
 
 Commonwealth, colonisation in time of, 
 
 4 
 Compensation for Disturbance Bill, 
 
 179 ; thrown out by House of Lords, 
 
 180-182 
 Concessions, result of, in 1893, 533 
 Constabulary entertain P- ■ and 
 
 L , 503 
 
 Constitutional agitation, death of, 200 
 Convention Act, repeal of, 86 
 Coolgreany evictions, 404 
 Cork election in 18S0, 170-173 
 Cork Examiner, the, censured by Mr. 
 
 Parnell, 162 
 Cork Farmers' Club, the, sends a 
 
 deputation to welcome Mr. Parnell, 
 
 161 
 Cox, Constable, shot accidentally by a 
 
 comrade, 507 
 Craigen, Miss Jessie, suggests a Union 
 
 between English Republicans and 
 
 Irish Nationalists, 238 
 *' Crusade of Shame," the results of, 
 
 405, 406 
 Curley, Daniel, arrest of, as a "suspect," 
 
 288 ; arrest of, as an Invincible, 301 ; 
 
 true bill found against, 318 ; trial 
 
 of, 322 ; sentence, 323 ; Mr. Kinsclla 
 
 the Jilackrock station-master on, 323 ; 
 
 execution of, 325, 326 ; panegyric on, 
 
 528 
 Curran, John, 195 ; procures evidence 
 
 for Dublin Special Commission, 307 
 
 D 
 
 Dacey, Captain, rescue of, celebrated 
 
 by Nationalists, 96 
 Daily Express applauds Mr. Gladstone, 
 
 425 
 
 Daily News, the, on Lord Beacons- 
 field's manifesto, 1 55 
 
 Danvers, Sergeant, assists to arrest a 
 Vigilant, 507 
 
 Davis, Thomas, 4 ; Founder of Young 
 Ireland party, 12; on Home Rule, 
 
 389, 390 
 Davitt, Michael, liberation of, 70 ; 
 arrests of, 71, 95, 201 ; words are 
 his weapons, 72 ; address in Brook- 
 lyn, 80 ; at Tuam, 90 ; investiga- 
 tion of charges against, 100 ; trial 
 of, ICO J release of, on bail, 100 ; 
 as peacemaker, 169 ; protest against 
 
 an-est of, 209 ; attends Lord Mayor 
 of Dublin's banquet, 342 ; speech 
 by, 343 ; tiff with United Ireland, 
 360; his letter on the "Nobler 
 Vision," 361; "Fraternisation of 
 the Peoples," 362, 363; effect of 
 arrest of, 425 
 
 Dawson, Lord Mayor of Dublin, 
 banquet to Parnell and others, speech 
 by, 342 ; sneer at, 343, 344 ; cable 
 of, to President of National League, 
 Chicago, 343 
 
 Debates on Home Rule, ^^ ; on South 
 Africa Bill, 64 
 
 Delany, Bishop, declaration in opposi- 
 tion to Mr. Parnell, 150, 171 
 
 Delany, Daniel, arrest of, as an Invin- 
 cible, 301 
 
 Delany, Patrick, attempt to murder 
 Judge Lawson, 303, 304 ; trial of, 
 304 ; sentence on, 305 ; attempts to 
 obtain information from, 305, 307; 
 sentenced and reprieved, 324 
 
 Denman, Mr. Justice, presides at trial 
 of O'Donnell, 338 ; remarks of, 
 hostile to prisoner, 339 
 
 Devoy, John, member of sub-committee 
 attending Mr. Parnell in New York, 
 106 ; letters on the New Departure, 
 
 .130-133 
 
 Dillon, John, speech at Home Rule 
 Conference, 1878, 74; address to 
 crowd on Mr. Davit t's release, 1 00 ; 
 departure for America, 102 ; and 
 Parnell, preparations for reception 
 in America, 103 ; arrival in New 
 York, 104 ; address to meeting in 
 Madison Square Garden, 113 ; his 
 last begging tour, 138 ; attacked by 
 th& Freeman, 152; arrest of, 226, 
 425 
 
 Disraeli, Mr., 41 ; and Col. Taylor op- 
 posed by Mr. Parnell, 15 ; forms 
 new administration, 44, 46 j Ad- 
 ministration of, opposes Home 
 Rule, 47 ; Indignation with Mr. 
 Biggar, 59 
 
 Doyle, Peter, arrest of, as a suspect, 
 288 ; arrest of, as an Invincible, 301 
 
 Dublin Mansion House committee 
 fund, 148 
 
 Dublin Exhibition, scene in, on rumour 
 of murder of Secretaries, 257, 258 
 
 Dublin, panic in, after Phoenix Park 
 murders, 276-278 
 
 Dublin Municipal Council, petty 
 actions of, 376 ; *' Give them another 
 toy," 376 
 
 Duffy, Gavan. 69 
 
 P P 
 
578 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dwyer, John, arrest of, as an Invincible, 
 
 Dynamite campaign in London, 327- 
 329 ; American comments on, 330, 
 331 
 
 Egan, Patrick, address to Land League 
 meeting in Dublin, 207-209; names 
 Irish renegade members, 208, 209 ; 
 Action with regard to Pigott Letters, 
 footnote p. 455 ; his attitude towards 
 Invincibles, xix 
 
 Election of 1880, review of, 174, 175; 
 of 1886, result of, 365 ; of 1885, 
 results of, 368 ; of 1886, mandate 
 of, coercion, 400 
 
 Emmet, Robert, 6 ; a leader of '98, 
 99 ; name of, added to names of 
 Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Parnell, 384 
 
 English interests antagonistic to Irish, 
 35 ; capital not needed by Ireland, 
 loi, 102 
 
 European statesmen on the Irish issue, 
 365. 366 
 
 Evening Maily supports Col. King 
 Harman, 33 j applauds Mr. Glad- 
 stone, 425 
 
 Evictions, description of, 1886, 403- 
 405 ; tables of, for nine years before 
 and after the Land League's creation, 
 408 
 
 Exodus from Ireland in 1893, 540-543 
 
 Explosion in Whitehall, 327 ; effect 
 of, 327, 329 
 
 F , some account of, 449 ; proposes 
 
 K to take supreme control in 
 
 Dublin, 451 ; departure of, abroad, 
 
 451 ; meeting with K , 510, 511 ; 
 
 advises K to see G , H , 
 
 and Q , as to further action, 510, 
 
 511 
 
 Fagan, Michael, trial and sentence, 323; 
 
 death of, 326 ; panegyric on, 529 
 Famine, British rule responsible for, 13 ; 
 of 1879, 84; funds, 148, 149; of 
 1885, 372 
 Farmers, politics of Irish, 56, 57 
 Farm labourers, Irish, politics of, 57 
 Farrell, Robert, arrest of as an Invin- 
 cible, 301 J witness for the Crown, 
 
 309 
 Federation and independence, 136 
 Fenians, actions of drew attention to 
 
 condition of Ireland, 21 ; trials of. 
 
 30 ; prisoners, release of, 44, 70 ; 
 reception of, at Kingstown, 70, 71 ; 
 convention at Wiikesbarre, 87 ; a 
 prominent, interviewed, 131, 132; 
 policy was complete abstention from 
 polls, 133 ; organisation opposed to 
 Provincialism, 137 
 
 Ferguson, John, goes to meet Fenian 
 prisoners, 70 
 
 Field, Mr., attempt to murder, 305, 
 Appendix M, 571 
 
 Finnerty, John F., a Chicago delegate 
 to New York Relief Committee, 
 104; opens an O'Donnell defence 
 fund, 336 
 
 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 81 ; a leader 
 of '98, 99 
 
 Fitzharris, John, arrest of, 310; and 
 Kavanagh, jealousy between, 311 ; 
 true bill found against, 318; trial 
 and acquittal, found guilty of con- 
 spiracy, 324 ; panegyric on, 529 
 
 Fitzsimon, John, gives information of 
 hidden arms, 289 
 
 Flag of Ireland on the Home Rule 
 platform, 38 ; on the federal collapse, 
 76 
 
 Fleming, Father, attends O'Donnell 
 prior to his execution, 341 
 
 Force the only remedy, 93, 94, 123, 
 161 ; arguments for, 425 ; apologj' 
 for, 431, 432 
 
 Ford, Patrick, collects subscriptions in 
 answer to appeal to Irish Americans, 
 234 ; collects subscriptions for the 
 O'Donnell defence fund and for the 
 families of the dead Invincibles, 336 ; 
 engages General Roger A. Pryor for 
 defence of Patrick O'Donnell, 337 
 
 Forster, Right Hon. W. E., proposed 
 as Liberal leader, 53 ; Land Bill of, 
 180 ; reply to Mr. Parnell, 185 ; 
 resignation, and causes of, 247 ; at- 
 tack on Mr. Parnell, 317 ; "suppres- 
 sion " of, volunteered, 440, 441 ; 
 guarded, 452 ; threatening letters to, 
 453 ; movements of, watched by 
 
 K , 454 ; failure of first intended 
 
 attack on, through mistaken signals, 
 460 ; his departure for Kingstown, 
 460 ; failure of second intended at- 
 tack on, 461 ; third intended attack on 
 described, 462, 463 ; failure of, 463 ; 
 fourth intended attack on, 464, 466 ; 
 escape of, 464 ; effect of resignation of, 
 469, 470 ; death of, since book was 
 written, 533 ; the suspension of the 
 Habeas Corpus Act, rumours of In- 
 vincibles, explosive package sent to. 
 
INDEX 
 
 579 
 
 his visit to Clare, his escape, receives 
 news of the Phoenix Park murders, 
 Appendix H, 560 
 
 Freeman' s Journal, the, on the meeting 
 of Irish members, 45 ; on Mr. Glad- 
 stone's "Vaticanism," 53; Mr. Mit- 
 chell Henry's letter to, 77 ; resents 
 attacks on Dublin Mansion House 
 Committee, 149 ; replies to Mr. 
 Parnell's attack on charitable com- 
 mittees, 152 ; censured by Mr. Par- 
 nell, 162 ; report of assault on Mr. 
 Pamell, 169 ; on Mr. Shaw's pro- 
 posed meeting, 174 ; on rejection of 
 Compensation for Disturbance Bill, 
 184, 185 ; on the trials under the 
 Dublin Special Commission, 291 ; 
 comments on, 292 ; letter on the 
 conduct of the jury in the Ennis 
 murder case, 293, 294 ; the editor 
 before the Dublin Special Commis- 
 sion, 295 ; scene in Court, 295, 296 ; 
 sentence, 297 ; on Mr. Gladstone, 
 348 
 
 Froude, Mr., quoted, 150 ; condemna- 
 tion of Mr. Gladstone, 423 ; author's 
 approval of and remarks on, 423, 
 424 ; Ireland's answer to, 423, 424 
 
 G 's message to K , 486 ; a mem- 
 ber of the Invincible Government, 
 487 ; reports murders by Invincibles 
 at headquarters, 488 ; one of most 
 powerful and influential men of In- 
 vincible Government, 495 ; orders 
 investigation of the charge against an 
 Invincible, 496 ; fails to keep ap- 
 pointment with K through fear 
 
 of arrest, 521 ; superintends affairs 
 in Dublin, 524 ; ordered to leave 
 Dublin, 525 
 
 Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, scene in, on 
 rumour of murder of Secretaries, 
 258, 259 
 
 Gallagher, M. D., president of Land 
 League of America, 157 ; a strong 
 Nationalist, 157 ; pamphlet by, 157 ; 
 work of, 158 
 
 Gladstone, Right Hon. "William Ewart, 
 a persecutor, 14 ; Parliament of, dis- 
 solved, 1874, 15 ; advocates dises- 
 tablishment of Irish Church, 21, 29 ; 
 Disestablishment a useful party cry, 
 25 ; at Wigan, 26 ; arguments for 
 disestablishment, 27, 28 ; accom- 
 plishes disestablishment, 28 ; pro- 
 
 poses coercion, 35 ; administration 
 of 1868-1873, 39 ; causes of defeat 
 of, 41 ; dissolution of Government 
 of, 41 ; Government **of blunder- 
 ing and plundering," 41 ; address to 
 Greenwich electors, 41, 42 ; Govern- 
 ment, defeat of, 43 ; resignation of, 
 44 ; declines to release Irish politi- 
 cal prisoners, 44 ; observations on 
 Home Rule debate, 46 ; effect on, of 
 defeat of 1874, 52 ; " Vaticanism," 
 52, 53 ; an obstructionist, 54 ; in- 
 dignation of, 63 ; denounces the 
 Tory administration, 64 ; visit to 
 Ireland, 70 ; Mr. Parnell's alliance 
 with, 99 ; evictions continue during 
 Government of, 118; Irish pro- 
 mises in 1880, 176; in power, 176; 
 "Achilles," 185; visit to Irelan'?, 
 191 ; reception at Kingstown, 191, 
 192 ; Coercion Eill, 1881, 197 ; 
 moves the closure, 202 ; address on 
 Irish question at Leeds 7th October, 
 1881, 213, 215 ; comments on, 215, 
 216 ; speech at Guildhall 13th Octo- 
 ber, 1S81, 222-224 ; announces the 
 arrest of Mr. Pamell, 224 ; too busy 
 about the Bulgarians to think of the 
 Irish, 348 ; Government of, defeated 
 by Irish vote in 1885, 349, 380 ; re- 
 turns to power in 1885, 371 ; Home 
 Rule plans of, 371 et seq. ; hostility 
 to Home Rule schemes of, 373 ; 
 position of, 374 ; his Home Rule 
 scheme a mockery, 375, 376 ; speech 
 on introduction of Home Rule Bill, 
 1886, 377 et seq. ; description of 
 speech and comments on, 378, 381 ; 
 sincerity of, in introducing Home 
 Rule Bill of 1886 questioned, 384, 
 385 ; meetings in United States to 
 congratulate, on Home Rule Bill, 
 385 ; promises of, how kept, 409, 
 410; Irish victims of, 421; action 
 towards political prisoners, 422 ; 
 suppression of Irish debate, 423 ; 
 effect of, 423 ; violation of his pro- 
 mises, 423 ; deceptive promises of, 
 424, 425 ; coercion, 425 ; knowledge 
 of that his actions were arousini; 
 active hostility, 427 ; effect of attack 
 on Mr. Parnell, 427 ; forces the Pro- 
 vincialists to action, 436 ; diplomacy 
 of, 469 ; supported in 1893 from 
 party fealty not for love of Ireland, 
 538-539 ; letter to Mr. Blake, 540 ; 
 policy of, and Morley in 1893, same 
 as Gladstone-Spencer Policy in 1883, 
 543 
 
 P P 2 
 
5 So 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Glenbeigh evictions, 403 
 Golos, the, on the Phoenix Park .mur- 
 ders, 279 
 Goschen, Mr., on Mr. Parnell, 391, 
 
 392 
 
 Government, vigilance of the, 475 
 
 Grant, James, on the British soldier, 
 96 
 
 Grattan, Dr., at meeting of Home Rule 
 Association, 35 
 
 Gray, Edmund Dwyer, Lord Mayor of 
 Dublin, fund of, 139 ; appeal to 
 Mayor of New York, 139 ; repudi- 
 ates physical force, 140 ; inconsis- 
 tency of, 141 ; banquet of, 141, 142 ; 
 attends levee, 143 ; imprisonment of, 
 for contempt of court, 297 ; attends 
 Lord Mayor of Dublin's banquet to 
 Mr. Parnell, 342 
 
 H 
 
 H , one of most influential and 
 
 powerful men of Invincible Govern- 
 ment, 495 ; orders investigation of 
 charge against an Invincible, 496 
 
 H anion, Joseph, arrest of, as an Invin- 
 cible, 301 
 
 Hanlon, Lawrence, sentence on, 324 
 
 Hare mrt. Sir William Vernon, reply to 
 Mr. Parnell, 202 ; on Mr. Parnell's 
 visit to France, 213 ; arrested as a 
 dynamiter, 329 
 
 Harman, Captain Lawrence King, first 
 Home Government Association can- 
 didate, 32, 33 ; supported by Orange- 
 men, 33 ; Evening Mail on, 33 ; at 
 Home Rule Conference 1873, 36 ; 
 death of, since book was written, 533 
 
 Harris, Matthew, in company of Mr. 
 Davitt on laiter's arrest, 201 
 
 Hartington, Marquis of, proposed as 
 Liberal Leader, 53 
 
 Hartmann, Mr. Biggar's reference to, 
 165 
 
 Healy, T. W., in America with Mr. 
 Parnell, 102 ; an obstructionist, 198 ; 
 attends Lord Mayor of Dublin's ban- 
 quet to Parnell, 342 
 
 Henry, Mr. Mitchell, indignation of, 
 at obstruction, 65 ; letter to the Free- 
 man, 77 ; address to Home Rule 
 meeting, 140 ; an opponent of Irish 
 independence, 141 ; an advocate of 
 force, 141 ; called an Irish renegade 
 member, 208 
 
 History, distortion of, 2 
 
 Home Govermcnt Association, 31, 32 
 
 Home Rule, the object of the third 
 Provincial movement, 13 ; move- 
 ment, 31-38 ; objects not to be at- 
 tained peacefully, 31, 32; a Pro- 
 vincialist movement, 31 ; espoused 
 by Liberals, 38 ; efforts, 42 ; debate, 
 1874, 46, 47 ; debate, 1877, 63 ; 
 indignation of members' at obstruc- 
 tion, 65 ; conference, 73 ; resolution 
 proposed, 73, 74 ; manifesto, 79 ; 
 meeting to elect chairman in place 
 of Mr. Butt, 85 ; resolutions carried 
 at meeting in Dublin, 86 ; Mr. 
 Shaw disapproves, ^6 ; Mr, Parnell's 
 annoyance, 86, 87 ; evictions never 
 ceased under Mr. Morley, 118; and 
 independence, 136; confederation a 
 fraud, 137 ; meeting on distress, 140; 
 split in 1880, 140 ; confederation of 
 Great Britain, manifesto of, 156, 157; 
 Irishmen only differ as to the means 
 of obtaining it, 159 ; League sends a 
 deputation to welcome Mr. Parnell, 
 161 ; conference 1880 election of 
 chairman, 175 ; prospects in 1885, 
 355 ; ]Jill of 1886 scene in House of 
 Commons on introduction of, 377 ; 
 accepted by Parnellites as satisfactory, 
 383 ; by Americans, 384 ; by Irish, 
 384 ; praise and congratulations be- 
 fore Bill in existence, 385, 386 ; 
 United States press on, 386, 387 ; 
 extracts from, 387 ; criticisms of, 388, 
 394 ; powerlessness of Irish Parlia- 
 ment under, 3S9 ; criticism of Bill of 
 i«93. 534-539 
 
 Home Rulers, Gladstonian, 33 ; Whig 
 annoyance at course pursued by Mr. 
 Parnell, 77 
 
 Hyndmau, Mr., on Mr. Parnell, 99 
 
 Hynes, Francis, effect of execution of, 
 492 
 
 Imperial Parliament, powers of, 30 
 
 Independence and Home Rule, 136, 
 137 
 
 Intransigeanty the, on the Phoenix Park 
 nmrders, 280 
 
 Invincibles, arrest of, on 13th January, 
 1883, 300; incorruptibiUty of, 306; 
 failure of attempts to get information 
 from, 307 ; trials of, 318 etseg. ; re- 
 ply of, to accusations by the Times, 
 and the Provincialists, 417 ; actions 
 of, an attempted spur to revolu- 
 tion, 420 ; sympathy with fate of, 
 422 ; late of, 422 ; organisation of. 
 
INDEX 
 
 581 
 
 427 ; an inner circle of the Land 
 League, 427; executive of, mostly 
 Pamellities, 429 ; executive of, de- 
 cides on a guerilla war, 430 ; antici- 
 pate combats, 431 ; how and by whom 
 composed, 432, 433 , enrolment of 
 organisers of, 433 ; character of the 
 recruits, 434. ; organisation of, not 
 known to Irish- Americans, 435 ; 
 their origin and principles solely 
 Irish, 434 ; false rumours about, 435 ; 
 no affiliation with irregular organisa- 
 tions, 437 ; and Parnellism one and 
 the same, 439 ; actions and principles 
 right or wrong, 440 ; boasting of, 
 440 ; executive of^ appointed, 442 ; 
 description of three high officials of, 
 
 442, 443 ; Q-7-, J -, and R , 
 
 make preparations for action, 444 ; a 
 lady conveys weapons to Dublin, 
 445 ; dissatisfaction with mode of 
 bringing arms, 445, 446 ; author's 
 condemnation of, 446 ; the Dublin 
 Council, 455, internal organisation of, 
 455 ; obtain information of Chief 
 Secretary's movements, 458 ; concen- 
 trate on the quays to attack Mr. 
 Forster, 458 ; signals, how arranged, 
 458; intended attacks on Mr. Forster 
 described, 459-464 ; re-organisation 
 of council, 461, 462 ; dispositions 
 of, for third intended attack on Mr, 
 Forster, 462 ; stayed by an order 
 
 from K , 463 ; dispositions of, for 
 
 fourth intended attack on Mr. Forster, 
 464-466 ; war to the knife, 468 ; steel 
 replaces revolvers, 468 ; K 's in- 
 structions to, 467, 468 ; instructions 
 from the executive, 470-472 ; the 
 active policy still to continue, 470 ; 
 dispositions of, 472 ; possible en- 
 counters of, discussed, 473 ; strategy 
 of, 476-47S; prepared for all dangers, 
 477, 478 ; precautions and possible 
 emergencies discussed, 476-478 ; 
 assassination of the Secretaries des- 
 cribed, 47 S, 479 ; escape of mur- 
 derers, 479 ; political view of the 
 assassination, 480, 481 ; news of 
 assassination at headquarters, 482 ; 
 conversation in connection with the 
 incident closed, 483 ; Directory order 
 cessation of action, 486 ; organisation 
 in Ulster, Munster, and Connaught, 
 
 487 ; under supervision of G , 
 
 487 ; a fresh band formed, 489 ; 
 arrests of, 490; Executive sends a lady 
 messenger to Dublin, 490 ; testi- 
 monials to, 490, 491 ; Government 
 
 of, orders recommencement of hosti- 
 lities, 492 ; Executive of, abuse Lord 
 Spencer, but refuse authority to strike 
 
 at him, 492, 493 ; K 's inspection 
 
 of, 494; ma'ters of discipline, 496; 
 plans to attack Lord Spencer, 500- 
 502 ; bombs proposed, 502 ; plans to 
 murder Mr. Justice Lawson, 502- 
 504 ; new force to attack Mr. Justice 
 Lawson, 503 ; a .^entinel arrested, 
 504 ; removal of arms to avoid cap- 
 ture, 505 ; deficiency of communi- 
 cations between, 505 ; no connection 
 with Abbey Street affray, 508 ; at- 
 tack en jurors, 508 ; failure of plans 
 for want of explosives, 509 ; wife of 
 imprisoned Invincible alleged to be 
 giving information, 51 1 ; further ex- 
 ploits hampered by arrests, 517 ; 
 
 arrests of, 517; G succeeds 
 
 K in command in Dublin, 524, 
 
 525 ; G ordered away and no 
 
 successor appointed, 525 ; neglect of 
 the prisoners, 525; failure of attempts 
 to raise subscriptions for families of 
 prisoners, 527 ; glorification of, 528, 
 529; still in prison in 1893, 534; 
 Details of formation of, Appendix G, 
 559 
 
 Invincible period, history of, 419 ; 
 knowledge of, revealed by Dublin 
 trials misleading, 419 ; criticisms 
 of movement, 436 ; movement 
 created to take action against Bri- 
 tish, 436, 437 ; organisation, the 
 answer of the Irish nation to the 
 suppression of the Land League, 438 ; 
 Government panic, 523 ; collapse 
 of, 525 . 
 
 Ireland, view of history of, I ; never 
 a wilhng province of British Empire, 
 II ; condition of, 20 ; needs of, 23 ; 
 and Britain separate nations, separate 
 peoples, 23 ; state of, attracted atten- 
 tion of Conservatives, 30 ; demands 
 of, an injury to British trade interests, 
 32 ; justice to, a loss to British com- 
 merce, 34 ; hopes in i88o, 176, 178 ; 
 and colonies, relations to Empire 
 compared, 177; needs national agi- 
 tation, 415 ; state of, in 1893, 533 
 
 Irish Parliament, regime of, 3 ; view of 
 Ireland under, 3 ; not representative, 
 3 ; powers of, 30 ; demand for, en- 
 dorsed by Nationalists, 35 
 
 Irish Church, disestablishment of, 
 21, 29; existence of, no grievance, 
 24 ; a badge of serfdom, 24 ; tithes, 
 abolition of, 24 ; Catholic soldiers, 
 
582 
 
 INDEX 
 
 disaffection of, 27 ; disestablishment 
 assisted by Fenianism, 28 ; disestab- 
 lishment no interference with Eng- 
 lish interests, 28 ; disestablishment 
 combined Protestants and Orange 
 lodges against Mr. Gladstone, 29 ; 
 disestablishment favourable to na- 
 tional cause, 29 
 
 Irish, development of industries, 35 ; 
 interests antagonistic to English, 
 35 ; political prisoners, agitation 
 for release of, 44 ; party organisa- 
 tion of, 47 ; party obstruction, 
 tactics of, 64, 65 ; people, joy 
 of at success of obstruction, 66; 
 Americans advocate sending Fenian 
 members to Parliament, 80 ; revolu- 
 tionary prisoners, release of, 80, 81 ; 
 element in England organised by Mr. 
 Parnell, 91 ; distress meeting for re- 
 lief of, at Newark, New York, 104 ; 
 industries, establishment of advocated, 
 121-123 ; parties, position of, in 
 United States in 1880, 124 ; Ameri- 
 can leaders' negotiations with Mr. 
 Parnell, 126 ; diplomacy defined, 
 1 34 ; American support to Mr. Par- 
 nell, 149 ; hypocrisy, 151, 152 ; 
 National Land League of America 
 founded, 157 ; delegates to, 157 ; 
 meeting of, 157 ; officials of, 157 ; 
 Nationalists, no choice but physical 
 force, 160; not animated by revenge, 
 160 ; party bills brought in by, 179 ; 
 members' panic on suppression of 
 Land League and arrests, 233 ; 
 Government of National Defence, 
 234, 235 ; demonstration in Trafalgar 
 Square, 238 ; demonstration in Hyde 
 Park, 239 ; Crimes Bill passed, 288 ; 
 national government obtain informa- 
 tion of seizure of arms, 302 ; Parlia- 
 mentary party election, manifesto of, 
 367, 368 ; recruits for England's 
 enemy, 414 
 
 Irish Republic, the, and its Staff, 544 
 
 Irish Republican Brotherhood, seizure 
 of arms, 71 ; trials of, 30 ; procla- 
 mation approving the Phoenix Park 
 murders, 272, 274 ; attitude of, 
 towards Invincibles, 431, 433 ; the 
 shooting affray in Abbey Street, 
 506 
 
 Irish Times, the, applauds Mr. Glad- 
 stone, 425 
 
 Irish Worlds the, opens an O'Donnell 
 Defence Fund, 336 ; starts a famine 
 fund, 373 ; on Home Rule Bill of 
 1886,392 
 
 Irishman, the, on Mr. Butt's proposed 
 resignation, 76 ; on the Phoenix Park 
 murders, 284 
 
 Irishmen and Russian Nihilists com- 
 pared, 167 
 
 Irishwomen, hanging and stabbing of, 
 14 J massacre of, 452 
 
 J , description and duties ot, 443 j 
 
 character of criticised, 447 ; visits 
 Dublin, 447 ; receives news of the 
 assassinations, 482 ; disappearance of, 
 
 483 
 James I., colonisation in time of, 3 
 
 K 
 
 K , enrolled an Invincible ; intro- 
 duced by Q and R , 447 ; his 
 
 previous career and motives for join- 
 ing Invincibles, 44.8, 449 ; consults 
 
 his friend F , 449 ; description of 
 
 enrolment of, in Parnell ite Parlia- 
 mentary chamber, 450 ; enrols X , 
 
 450 ; sent to Dublin, 450 ; appoints 
 new member of local council left 
 vacant by arrest, 451 ; report of, 
 on affairs in Dublin, 451 ; accepts 
 supreme control of affairs in Dublin, 
 
 451 ; watches Mr. Forster's move- 
 ments, 454 ; conversation with the 
 Times reporter, 453 ; assumes com- 
 mand of Invincibles in Dublin, 454 ;. 
 his commission read and destroyed, 
 454, 455 ; takes responsibility hither- 
 to vested in Dublin council, 455 ;. 
 reconnoitres, 457 ; movements of, 
 on day of intended attack on Mr. 
 
 Forster, 459, 460 ; meets L 
 
 M and Carey, to arrange 
 
 attack on Mr. Forster, 459 ; his in- 
 structions to Dublin Council relative 
 to morning attack on Mr. Forster, 
 461 ; leaves Dublin, 461 ; enrols 
 two friends, 461 ; returns to Dub- 
 lin, 461 ; his reorganisation of the 
 Invincible Council, 461, 462 ; ar- 
 ranges for attack on Mr. Forster, 
 457-466 ; seeks confirmation by the 
 Invincible government of his orders 
 to suppress the Secretaries, 467 ;, 
 
 orders to M to suppress the 
 
 Under-Secretary, 467, 468 ; reviews 
 his position in consequence of the 
 Kilmainham Treaty, 470 ; applie sto 
 
INDEX 
 
 ;83 
 
 the Invincible Directory for instruc- 
 tions, 470 ; his instructions, 470, 
 472 ; movements, of, 472-474 ; ar- 
 rangements, of, with L and 
 
 M , 472, 473 ; on the Ballina 
 
 massacre, 473, 474 ; describes his 
 feelings, 474 ; receives vital infor- 
 mation, 474 ; seeks James Carey as 
 his messenger, 474, 475 ; calls at 
 Carey's house, 475 ; meeting with 
 Mrs. Carey, 475 ; held no personal 
 communication with the men, 475 ; 
 his movements, 482, 483, 485-490 ; 
 communicates with the Parnellites, 
 483 ; his visit to Carey, 483 ; his 
 astonishment at Parnellite proclama- 
 tion, 484 ; takes precautions for his 
 safety, 485 ; communicates with In- 
 vincibles through P , 485 ; de- 
 parture from Dublin, 485 ; communi- 
 cates with Q , 485 ; meeting with 
 
 Q , 485, 486; and Q pay 
 
 visits together, 486; disgust of, at truce, 
 486, 487 ; communicates with Dublin 
 Invincibles through P , 488 ; re- 
 turns to Dublin, 488 ; his interview 
 with the Invincible officers, 488-490 ; 
 observes want of discipline amongst 
 Invincibles, 489, enrols new recruits, 
 489 ; disappointed at his orders, 492 ; 
 resumes command of the Invincibles, 
 493 ; his visit to P , 493 ; meet- 
 ings with Dublin Invincibles, and 
 orders to, 494 ; reports indiscretion 
 of an Invincible to Directory, 495 ; 
 ordered to judge and execute an Invin- 
 cible if found indiscreet, 496 ; inves- 
 tigates charges and exonerates the 
 
 Invincible, 496 ; meeting with N , 
 
 496, 497 ; obtains revolvers through 
 Q and others, 498 ; conveys re- 
 volvers to Dublin and delivers them 
 
 to P , 498, 499 ; his relations 
 
 with P and M , 499 ; meets 
 
 the *'Red Earl," 499 ; longs to at- 
 tack the Lord- Lieutenant, 501 ; re- 
 solves to attack Lord Spencer, 501 ; 
 arranges for attack on Mr. 
 Justice Lawson, 503, 504; to see 
 
 L with his report, 505 ; narrowly 
 
 escapes arrest in attempting to obtain 
 news, 505 ; orders attack on two of 
 the jurors at trial of Francis Hynes, 
 506 ; steel to be used, 506 ; failure of 
 plans for want of explosives, 509 ; 
 leaves Dublin, 509 ; his interview 
 
 with F , 510, 511 ; attempts to 
 
 consult F , 511 ; proposes to send 
 
 wife of an Invincible out of the 
 
 country, 512 ; decides to return to 
 Dublin, 512 ; appoints a meeting 
 with P and N , 512; consulta- 
 tions with Q and F , and 
 
 farewell greetings, 512; interview 
 with Invincible officers, 512, 513 ; 
 sees Invincible government as to the 
 shells, 513 ; he returns to Dublin, 
 513; his interview with captain of 
 new band of Invincibles, 514; his 
 last meetings with the Invincible 
 officers, 514-516 ; his feelings on 
 leaving his comrades, 516, 517 ; 
 leaves Dublin for last time, 517 ; his 
 
 interview with Q , 517; his 
 
 frantic attempts to procure bombs, 
 517 ; astonished by arrests, 517 ; or- 
 dered to communicate with execu- 
 tive through Q , 518 ; requested 
 
 through Q to leave for America, 
 
 but declines, 518, 519 ; his interview 
 
 with Q , 519 ; he demands an 
 
 interview with G , 519 ; his 
 
 journey to seeG , 519 ; the plans 
 
 he intended to propose to G at 
 
 the interview, 519, 520 ; meets Q 
 
 only at the end of his journey, 521 ; 
 their conference, 521-523 ; he learns 
 that he is "wanted," 521 ; his feelings 
 and decision, 521-523 ; despairs of 
 rescuing his comrades, 522, 523 ; he 
 leaves for the New World, 523 ; his 
 weapons and their fate, 523, 524 ; 
 capture or flight, 526 ; learns the 
 disaster of the cause on his arrival in 
 the United States, 528, disappointed 
 with G and P , 528 
 
 Kavanagh, Mr. Arthur, letter to New 
 York Herald, 109-117; comments, 
 on same, 1 17-123; remedy by 
 emigration discussed, 121 
 
 Kavanagh, Myles, arrest of, as an in- 
 vincible, 301 ; induced to give infor- 
 mation, 31 1 ; a witness for the Crown, 
 312 
 
 Kelly, Colonel, rescue of celebrated, 
 by Nationalists, 96 
 
 Kelly, Timothy, arrest of as an Invin- 
 cible, 301 ; true bill found against, 
 318 ; trial of, jury disagree, 323 ; 
 third trial of, found guilty, and testi- 
 mony as to character of, 324 ; sen- 
 tence, 324 ; death of, 326 ; panegy- 
 ric on, 529 
 
 Kenny John, murder of, 288 ; an 
 I. R. B. traitor, 490 
 
 Kerwin, Michael, member of sub-com- 
 mittee attending on Mr. Parnell in 
 New York, 106 
 
S84 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Kettle, Andrew, Mr. Parnell's candi- 
 date for County Cork, 173 ; Roman 
 Catholic clergy oppose, 173; defeat 
 
 of, 173 
 
 Killen, j. B., at Gurteen, 92 
 Killmallock, Mr. Parnell at, 67 
 Kilmainham Treaty, the, 99 ; effect, 
 
 of, 470 
 Kinsella, Patrick, stationmaster at 
 Blackrock, co. Dublin, on "Num- 
 ber One," ix-xii; on Joseph Brady, 
 321, 322 ; on Daniel Curley, 323 
 Kirk, Mr., M.P., proposes Mr. Parnell 
 as candidate for Meath, 50 
 
 L , an officer of the Dublin Invin- 
 
 cibles, 456 ; description of, 456 ; died 
 a " martyr's " death, 456 ; an active 
 member of the Invincible Council, 
 
 461 ; his hand stayed by K , 
 
 463 ; arrangements with K , 472 ; 
 
 effect of Ballina massacre on, 473 ; 
 asks K for revolvers, 498 ; rela- 
 tions with P and K , 499; 
 
 dines with the constabulary, 503 
 Land League, the, birth of, 84 ; or- 
 ganisation of, 90, 91 ; collection of 
 funds for, 91 ; cable to secretaries of 
 Parnell reception committee. New 
 York, 103 ; sends a deputation to 
 welcome Mr. Parnell, 161 ; meeting 
 in Dublin, 207, 209 ; council protests 
 against the arrest of Irish members, 
 226 ; proclamation suppressing, 232 ; 
 prepares to meet the emergency by 
 force, 234; loss of population caused 
 by, 406 ; movement not improved 
 even condition of farming class, 407 ; 
 suppression of, caused the Invincible 
 organisation, 438 
 
 Land question, 42 ; meetings, 87 ; 
 proceedings at, 90 ; purchase scheme 
 discussed, 119, 123 ; not all the Irish 
 trouble, 151 
 
 Lawson, Mr. Justice, causes of hatred 
 of, by Nationalists. 303 ; attempted 
 murder of, 303, Appendix, L, 571 ; 
 plans to murder, 502, 505 ; his move- 
 ments, 503, 504 ; causes of failure of 
 attack on, 504 ; attacks on, aban- 
 doned, 506 
 
 Liberal persecution, 14 
 
 Liberal Government defeated in 1885, 
 349 
 
 Lloyd, Mr. Clifford, intention to assas- 
 
 4S7 
 
 Lords, House of, author's views on, 
 183, 184; and Bill of 1893, 538; 
 supported by English majority, 53S, 
 
 Lord Lieutenant, arrival of, in Dublin, 
 
 in 1882, 474 ; K longs to 
 
 attack, 501 ; his plan of attack 
 on, discussed, 499-501 
 
 M 
 
 M , an officer of the Dublin Invin- 
 
 cibles, 456 ; description of, 456 ; died 
 on the scaffold, 456 ; chairman of the 
 
 Dublin Council, 461 ; K 's orders 
 
 to, 467, 468 ; desires to follow Mr. 
 Forster to England, 468 ; ordered to 
 suppress the Under Secretary, 467, 
 
 468 ; awaits K 's presence to 
 
 sanction action, 471 ; arrangements 
 
 with K , 472 ; mistrust of Carey, 
 
 475 ; seeks news of K , 4S9 ; 
 
 reports on conduct of Carey and an 
 
 Invincible to K , 494 ; relations 
 
 with P and K , 499 
 
 INIallon, Mr., procures evidence for the 
 Dublin Special Commission, 309, 
 
 314 
 
 Manchester rescue, 21 
 
 Manifestoes, Land League, multitude 
 of, 209 
 
 Manufactures, Irish, decay of 58 ; im- 
 portance of, 58; failure of attempts 
 to establish native, IC2 ; need pro- 
 tection, 102 ; Bill of 1886, 379 ; Bill 
 of 1893, and, 535 
 
 Marlborough Fund, Duchess of, 139, 
 148 ; Duke of, declines invitation to 
 Lord Mayor Gray's banquet, 142 
 
 Marseillaise, the, on the Phoenix Park 
 murders, 282 
 
 Martin, John, 46 ; attends Home Rule 
 conference, "^d ; transportation of, 
 50 ; death of, 50 
 
 Martin, Thos., arrest of, as an Invin- 
 cible, 301 
 
 Maunsell, Dr. , proprietor of the Even" 
 ing Mail, attends first meeting of 
 Home Rule Association, 33 
 
 McCaffrey, Edward, arrest of as a 
 suspect, 28 8 ; arrest of as an Invin- 
 cible, 301 
 
 McCarthy, Mr. Justin, attends first 
 Home Rule Conference, 36 ; de- 
 scribes Mr. Gladstone as a Plome Rule 
 convert for eight years, 37^; on 
 Home Rule, 391 
 
 McCarthy, Colour- Sergeant, liberation 
 of, 70 ; death of, 72 
 
 Meath election, 50, 51 ; candidates, 50 
 
INDEX 
 
 585 
 
 Mej-cury, TheLeeds^ on Mr. Gladstone's 
 Home Rule plan, 372 
 
 Mitchell, John, a devoted patriot, 4 ; 
 founder of Young Ireland Party, 12 ; 
 sketch of, 48, 49 ; death of, 49 ; 
 denunciation of Parliamentary agita- 
 tion, 134 
 
 Moonlighters distinct from Invincibles, 
 
 437 
 
 Morley, Mr. John, 43 ; Home Rule 
 Secretary, 118 ; aids the landlords in 
 evictions, 395 ; recepiion of, by Dub- 
 lin trades and Irish Americans, 395 
 
 Moroney, William, arrest of, as an In- 
 vincible, 301 
 
 Mot cCOrdre, the, on the Phoenix Park 
 murders, 281 
 
 Mullett, James, arrest of, as an Invin- 
 cible, 301 ; trial and sentence, 324 ; 
 panegyric on, 52Q 
 
 Mutiny Bill, Mr. Parnell's opposition 
 to, (>l 
 
 N 
 
 N , one of the Dublin Invincibles ; 
 
 his return and meeting with K , 
 
 496, 497 ; anxious to attack jurors, 
 506 
 
 Nationalist, meaning of term, 6 ; sup- 
 port of Mr. Pamell, 19 ; abstention 
 from elections, 19 ; negotiations with 
 Mr. Parnell, 125; platform, 126, 
 127 ; literature of men ot '48, 134 ; 
 doctrines, 134, 135 ; view of "The 
 New Departure," 148 ; view of Irish 
 leaders' proclamation condemning 
 Phoenix Park murders, 269, 272 
 
 Nationalists, examples of, 6, 8 ; Irish, 
 7, 8 ; of '98, 27 ; and obstruction, 
 iS^j 137 j Irish Americans support 
 Mr. Parnell, 148 ; address to Mr. 
 Parnell, 163 ; reasons of their fav- 
 ourable attitude towards Mr. Pai- 
 nell, 166 ; view of Mr. Parnell, 205, 
 206 ; suspected, imprisoned, 213 ; 
 include Protestants and Catholics, 
 293 ; feeling of, on suppression of 
 Irish debate, 423 ; effect of coercion 
 on, 425 ; cardinal doctrine always 
 physical force, 426 ; hoped that 
 guerilla attacks might lead to open 
 war, 431 
 
 National League, Dublin, meeting of, 
 i6thjune, 1885, 353, 354 
 
 National organisation in Ireland since 
 1867, 124; organisation in America 
 since 1867, 125; Land League of 
 
 Great Britain demonstration in Hyde 
 Park, 235, 236 ; conference in the 
 Parliamentary chambers, 236, 238 
 
 National Zeiiung, the, on the Phoenix 
 Park murders, 282 
 
 Nation, the. Home Rule manifesto in, 
 79, protest against Irish members 
 retiring from Parliament, 79 
 
 Newcastle Chronicle on the Belmullet 
 massacre, 245, 246 
 
 New Departure, the, 128 ; John Devoy 
 on, 130, 131 ; letter in advocacy 
 of, 132, 133 ; Nationalist view of, 
 148; in 1880, 161 
 
 New York, Relief Committee, 104 ; Re- 
 ception Committee, address by, 106 ; 
 reception committee appoints sub- 
 committee to attend on Mr. Parnell, 
 106 
 
 NcM York Herald^ Nationalist com- 
 muniqui to Mr. Parnell, 126, 127 ; 
 Famine fund, 149; on the dynamiters, 
 330 
 
 Netv York Herald, the, Mr. Parnell's 
 letter to, 147, 148 
 
 Neiv York Nation, the, quoted ap- 
 provingly by Mr. Parnell, 150 
 
 Nolan, Captain, 43 
 
 No Rent Manifesto, The, 226, 229 
 
 Northcote, Sir Stafford, announces dis- 
 solution of Parliament, 153 
 
 O , an officer of the Dublin In- 
 vincibles, 456 ; description of, 457 ; 
 appointed chairman of the Council, 
 457 ; removed from chairmanship of 
 the council, 461 ; his release and 
 meeting with K , 497 
 
 O'Brien, William, 45 ; liberation of, 
 70 ; onthestaiFof the /^r^,?;«a«, 149; 
 author's opinion of, 227, 228 ; arrest 
 of, 243 ; letter to the Freeman on 
 the conduct of the jury in the Ennis 
 murder case, 293, 294 ; statement on 
 Dublin Special Commission trials, 
 298 ; attends Lord Mayor of Dublin's 
 banquet, 342 ; newspaper quarrel with 
 Mr. Davitt, 361 ; on "The Bloody 
 Assize," 418 ; on the departure of the 
 Red Earl, 418 ; his previous denun- 
 ciation of, and present friendship with 
 Earl Spencer, 419 ; prosecuted by 
 Lord Spencer's orders, 500 
 
 O'Brien, Peter, Q.C., as *' Pether the 
 Packer," 195 
 
586 
 
 INDEX 
 
 O'Brien, Mr. Justice, remarks on trial 
 
 of Timothy Kelly, 324 
 Obstruction, Mr. Biggar the father of, 
 
 43 ; its effect, 60, 62 ; decided on 
 
 by professed Nationalists, 136, 137 ; 
 
 description of final campaign, the 
 
 Waterloo of, 196-200; 
 O'Clery, Patrick Keys, M.P. Wexford, 
 
 description of, 168, 169 ; Mr. Pamell's 
 
 opposition to, 168, 169 
 O'Connell, Daniel, sketch of, 5 ; the 
 
 parent of Provincialism, lO ; aversion 
 
 to shedding blood, I2 ; policy of 
 
 passive resistance, 25 ; insignificance 
 
 of, 26, 27 ; and Mr. Butt compared, 
 
 62 
 O'Connor, T. P., elected for one of 
 
 divisions of Liverpool, 367 
 O'Donnell, Frank Hugh, on the famine, 
 
 152 
 O'Donnell, Patrick, takes passage in 
 Kinfauns Castle to assassinate Carey, 
 333 ; follows Carey on board the 
 Melrose, 334 ; shoots Cary, 334 ; a 
 prisoner, 334 ; sent to England on 
 H.M.S. Athenian, 335 ; precautions 
 against escape of, 335 ; at Bow Street, 
 336 ; trial of, 338, 339 ; sentence, 
 340 ; attempts for reprieve of, 340 ; 
 execution of, 342 
 O'Kelly, M., M.P., arrest of, 226 
 Opportunist organisation, 125 
 Organisations, open and secret, Mr. 
 Parnell on, 435, Appendix-B, 548 ; 
 irregular, 439 
 O'Shea, Captain, and Mr. Parnell's 
 
 letter, 247 
 Outrages, how caused, the results of 
 British rule, 186 ; manufactured by 
 the English Press, 187 
 
 P placed on Invincible Council, 
 
 462 ; present on receipt of despatch 
 from Invincible Directory, 471 ; brings 
 news of the enemy's movements, 
 
 473; becomes K 's adjutant in 
 
 Dublin, 485, 486 ; informs Lieutenant 
 
 of" Sacred Band" of K 's arrival, 
 
 493 ; his instructions, 498 ; his rela- 
 tions with K , 499 ; approves 
 
 plan to attack Earl Spencer, 501 ; 
 
 introduced to Q , 502 ; and L — — 
 
 dine with police sergeants, 503 ; in 
 general superintendence in Dublin, 
 509 ; arrives in London with message 
 
 from Invincible officers, 511 ; his 
 interview with Q , 511 ; instruc- 
 tions to, 511 ; returns to Dublin, 51 1 ; 
 
 urges K 's return to Dublin, 512 ; 
 
 arranges meetings between K 
 
 and Invincible officers, 514; left in 
 command, 523 ; his two interviews 
 
 with G , 524 ; abandoned, 525 ; 
 
 failure of attempts to raise subscrip- 
 tions for families of prisoners, 527 
 Parliamentary agitation, Mr. Parnell's, 
 
 60, 80 
 Parliament, affairs of, in 1878, 73 ; 
 a citadel open to attack, 79 ; dis- 
 solution in 1880, 153 ; violation of 
 liberties of, 199, 200 ; Irish mem- 
 bers should be elected to stay at 
 home, 415, 416 
 Parnell, Charles Stewart, foremost in 
 provincial struggle, 13 ; Nationalist 
 admiration for, 13 ; Federalist 
 Home Rule candidate, 15 ; opponent 
 of Colonel Taylor, 15, 18 ; appear- 
 ance of, 18 ; defeat of, 19 ; Na- 
 tionalist support of, 19 ; a candi- 
 date for Meath, 50 ; speech to Meath 
 electors, 51 ; returned for Meath, 51 ; 
 dehut as member for Meath, 53 ; 
 speech against coercion, 55, 57 ; and 
 Parliamentary agitation, 60, 80 ; ob- 
 struction, new weapon of, 60, 66 ; on 
 Irish political prisoners, 62, 63 ; 
 withdraws obstruction at request .of 
 Mr. Butt, 63 ; obstruction tactics of, 
 65 ; replaces Mr. Butt as President of 
 Home Rule Confederation, 67 ; re- 
 ception and speech by, at Killmal- 
 lock, 67, 68 ; banquet to, 68 ; re- 
 ception and speech by, at Navan, 
 69, 70 ; amendment at Home Rule 
 conference, 1878, 74; and Mr. 
 Dillon, contrast between, and Mr. 
 Butt, 75 ; and Mr. Butt, policies of, 
 contrasted, 80; tour through Eng- 
 land, 86 ; reorganises the Irish ele- 
 ment, 86, 91 ; re-elected president of 
 the Home Rule confederation, 86 ; 
 annoyance of at Mr. Shaw's action, 
 86 ; calls a special meeting, 87 ; 
 motion by, 87 ; action as to impend- 
 ing famine, 88 ; speech at Tipperary 
 meeting, 89 ; advice to pay no rent, 
 89 ; organises Land League, 91 ; 
 address at Balla meeting, 98 ; asso- 
 ciation with the Nationalists, 98 ; ad- 
 dress on Mr. Davitt's release, 100 ; 
 departure for America, 102, 103 ; 
 and Dillon, preparations for recep- 
 
INDEX 
 
 587 
 
 tion in America, 102 ; arrival in New 
 York, 104 ; interviewed on board 
 the Scythia, 105 ; address to meeting 
 in Madison Square Garden, 107-113 ; 
 comments on, 117-123; remedy by 
 migration discussed, 121 ; negotia- 
 tions with Nationalists, 125 ; accepts 
 **the New Departure," 132; inter- 
 viewed as to Irish national move- 
 ment and Provincialism, 137, 138 ; 
 tour of the United States, 138 ; his 
 last begging tour, 138 ; at Troy, 
 138, 139 ; fund, 139 ; and physical 
 force, 141 ; and the Dublin Mansion 
 House fund 143-145 ; letter to Netv 
 York Herald attacking the Dublin 
 Mansion House committee, 143-145 ; 
 and Dillon, popularity of, in America, 
 145 ; appearance of, in the assembly 
 of Albany, 146 ; and Dillon, mani- 
 festo in America, abusing Dublin 
 Mansion House committee, 147 ; re- 
 ply to Lord Randolph Churchill, 
 147, 148 -y support of, by Irish- 
 American Nationalists, 148 ; makes 
 the agitators his enemies, 148 ; fund, 
 148 ; introduction and address to 
 House of Representatives, Washing- 
 ton, 149, 150 ; on the land question, 
 150; and O'Connell, agitation of, 
 compared, 150, 151 ; inconsistency of, 
 his views on the land question, 151 ; 
 arrangements disconcerted by disso- 
 lution of 1880, 156 ; his supporters 
 cable him to return to Ireland, 156; 
 he hurries back to New York, 157 ; 
 presentations to, on leaving America, 
 
 158 ; departure of, on the Baltic, 
 
 159 ; preparations for reception in 
 Ireland, 159; support of, by Irish 
 Nationalists, 159 ; reception in Ire- 
 land in 1880, 161 ; addresses and 
 deputations to, 161-165 ; attack on 
 the pro- British press, 162 ; arrival at 
 Queenstown, 162 ; Nationalists' ad- 
 dress to, 163 ; banquet to, 163, 
 164 ; speeches at banquet, 164, 165 ; 
 his attitude towards Nationalists in 
 1880, and his subsequent hostility to, 
 167, 168 ; energy of, at election, 
 1880, 168 ; assaulted at Enniscorthy, 
 169; a candidate for Cork, 170; 
 address to the electors, 172 ; oppo- 
 sition to Mr. Shaw, 1 73 ; elected for 
 Cork, Mayo, and Meath, 173; 
 selects Cork, 173 ; letter to Chicago 
 Daily News, 173, 174 ; declines 
 to attend meeting convened by Mr. 
 
 Shaw, 174 ; elected chairman of 
 Irish party, 175 ; amendment to 
 Government Relief Bill, 180 ; ques- 
 tions the Government, 185 ; prose- 
 cution of, 192 ; obstruction, 196 ; 
 "What next. Hector," 201 ; question 
 as to arrest of Mr. Davitt, 201 ; moves 
 that the Prime Minister be no longer 
 heard, 202 ; named and expelled, 
 2C2, 203 ; letter to Land League 
 council, Dublin, 204, 205 ; submis- 
 sion or force, 206 ; letter to Victor 
 Hugo, 207 ; on Mr. Davitt's arrest, 
 209, 210; visits Paris, 212; inter- 
 view with M. Henri Rochefort, 
 212; interview with Marshal Mac- 
 Mahon and Victor Hugo, 213 ; reply 
 to Mr. Gladstone's Leeds speech at 
 Wexford, 9th October, 1881, 217- 
 221 ; comments on, 221, .222 ; arrest, 
 of, 224 ; release on parole, 246 ; 
 letter to Captain O'Shea, 247 ; at- 
 tends Lord Mayor of Dublin's ban- 
 quet and presented with ;!^38,ooo, 
 speech by, 342 ; on Mr. Gladstone's 
 Coercion Bill, 346-348; letter to 
 Chicago Daily JVezvs on election of 
 1880, 364; speech in Mayo, in 18S5, 
 366 ; promise in November, 1888, 
 366 ; position of, 374 ; speech on Mr. 
 Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1886, 
 381, 382-392 ; comments on, 382, 
 383, 392, 393 ; his Cincinnati speech 
 quoted, 391 ; entertained by the 
 Liberals, 401 ; his speech an insult 
 to his countrymen, 402 ; expectant 
 attitude of Irish towards, 425 ; fight 
 or surrender, 426 ; letter to Land 
 League council, Dublin, 427 ; efiect 
 of, 427 ; Mr. Gladstone's attack on, 
 caused organisation of Irish Invin- 
 cibles, 427 ; false rumours of hostility 
 of Invincibles to, 435 ; his denial of 
 accusation in " Parnellism and Crime" 
 commented on, 531, 532 ; death of, 
 since book was written, 533 ; and the 
 two organisations, Appendix B, 548 
 
 Parnell, Miss Anna, stops the Lord- 
 Lieutenant, 5c>i 
 
 Parnell, Miss Fanny, poem by, 196 
 
 Parnell, Sir John, 51 
 
 Parnellism and Buttism, results the 
 same, 61 ; and Invincibles, one and 
 the same, 439 
 
 "Parnellism and Crime," commented 
 
 on, 529» 532 
 Parnellites, and Buttites, feeling be- 
 tween, 76 ; named and expelled, 
 
588 
 
 INDEX 
 
 203; flight of, 210; accept Home 
 Rule Bill of 1886 as satisfactory,. 
 383 ; condemnation of, 390 ; in 
 alliai^ce with Invincibles, 418 ; au- 
 thor's indignation at repudiation of 
 association with suppression in 
 Phoenix Park, footnote, 428 ; deser- 
 tion of the Invincibles, 432 ; facts 
 showing connection with the Invinci- 
 bles, 449, 450 ; responsible for 
 Phoenix Park incident, 470-472 ; 
 abuse of Lord Spencer, 492 ; denial 
 of accusations in '* Parnellism and 
 Crime," commented on, 529, 532 
 
 Parnellite, organisers of the Invincibles, 
 428, 429 ; government, the executive 
 of the Invincibles, 429 ; government 
 decides on force, 430 ; proclamation, 
 482, Appendix K, 570 ; proclama- 
 tion, Invincibles surprised at, 484 
 
 Parties in 18S5, position of discussed, 
 368-370 
 
 Peace Preservation Act, 43 ; read 
 a second time, 394 
 
 Peasant pi-oprietary scheme discussed, 
 119, 123 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, on Catholic emanci- 
 pation, 26 
 
 Phoenix Park, description of scene in, 
 on 6th May, 1S82, 256 ; murders, 
 praise of the assassins, 261, 262 ; 
 effect of murders in Dublin, 257, 
 261 ; murders, Dublin public opinion 
 of, 264, 265 ; an episode of May 6th, 
 1882, 423 ; murders, reasons for, 
 423-425 ; murders, responsibility for, 
 discussed, 470-472 ; sanctioned and 
 ordered by Irish Parnellite adminis- 
 tration, 471 ; murders, story of, Ap- 
 pendix J, 563 
 
 Plan of campaign, the, results of, 
 410-412 
 
 Poland and Wright, Messrs. , represent 
 the Crown on trial of O'Donnell, 
 338 
 
 Police, action of, after Phoenix Park 
 murders, 265, 266 
 
 Political prisoners, 422 
 
 Poole, Joseph, execution of, 342 
 
 Porter, Mr., statement on trial of 
 Joseph Brady, 319 
 
 Power, Mr. O'Connor, 65, S^, 105 ; 
 amendment to address and defeat of, 
 179 ; comments on, 179 
 
 Presse, the Vienna, on the Phoenix Park 
 murders, 281 
 
 Proclamation, Lord-Lieutenant's, after 
 Phoenix Park murders, 267, 268 ; 
 
 Irish leaders condemning Phoenix 
 Park murders, 268, 269 ; Appendix 
 K, 570; Nationalists' view of, 269, 270 
 
 Protection for Irish manufactures, 102 ; 
 arguments for, 121, 122 
 
 Provincialism miscalled Nationality, 2 
 
 Provincialist, meaning of term, 9 ; agi- 
 tation, view of principles of, 9, 14 ; 
 movement, resuscitated by Irish Epis- 
 copalians, 12 ; compromise school, 
 12; third movement, 13, 14; teach- 
 ing, mischief of, 21 ; conference, 36, 
 37 ; resolutions passed at, 36, 37 ; 
 doctrines, 125, 126; denunciation of, 
 134 ; newspapers on Home Rule 
 Bill of 1886, 387 
 
 Provincialists, return of, 42 ; National- 
 ists* treaty with, 126, 127 ; comments 
 on, 127, 128 ; platform, Nationalists' 
 view of, 129, 130 ; victories of, 248, 
 249 ; accusation of, by Times, 418 ; 
 their alliance with the Invincibles 
 and their denial of it, 417, 418 ; pro- 
 clamation of, denying alliance with 
 Invincibles, 418 ; assisted to betray 
 their country, 422 ; feelings of, on 
 suppression of Irish debate, 423 ; 
 effect of coercion on, 425 ; hostility 
 to Mr. Gladstone, 426 ; hostility of, 
 outsteps the Nationalists', 428 ; criti- 
 cism of, 436 ; forced to action by Mr. 
 Gladstone, 436 ; a section of, not 
 consulted as to Invincible organisa- 
 tion, 438 ; responsibility for active 
 movement, 438, 439 ; silence of, on 
 arrest of Invincibles, 527 
 
 Pry or, General Roger A., an American 
 lawyer engaged for the defence of 
 O'Donnell, 337 ; at the trial, 337, 
 339 
 
 Punchy cartoon in, 276 
 
 Q , description and work of, 443 ; 
 
 complaint against R , 445 ; cha- 
 racter of, criticised, 447 ; actions of 
 sanctioned by Parnellites, 449 ; de- 
 putes R to enrol K as an 
 
 Invincible, 450 ; promises K ■ the 
 
 support of the Invincible Executive, 
 451 ; receives news of the assassina- 
 tions, 482 ; congratulates K , 485, 
 
 486 ; expresses anxiety to K , 
 
 490 ; a Parnellite official visits Dublin, 
 490 ; receives testimonials from Par- 
 nellites for actors in Phoenix Park 
 
INDEX 
 
 589 
 
 affair, 490, 491 ; approves orders to 
 
 K , 496 ; meeting with P in 
 
 Dublin, 502 ; armoury of, 506 ; as- 
 tonished by arrests, 517; consultation 
 
 with K , 517, 519; conveys to 
 
 G , K 's demand for an inter- 
 view, 519; his last conference with 
 K , 521, 523 
 
 Queen, the, toast to omitted, 69 ; 
 contributions to Irish distress, 143 
 
 Queen's College, the, sends a deputa- 
 tation to welcome Mr. Parnell, 161 
 
 Queen's Speech, 1880, vague allusions 
 to Ireland, 178 
 
 R , personal appearance of, 443, 
 
 444 ; acts of, in connection with the 
 Invincibles, 444, 445 ; departure for 
 the New World, 445 ; disappearance 
 of, 450 
 
 Radicals attempt to gain Irish support, 
 142, 143 
 
 Kappel, the, on the Phoenix Park mur- 
 ders, 280 
 
 Redmond, Mr., attends Home Rule 
 Conference, 36 
 
 Republicans, English, show sympathy 
 with Irish, 238 
 
 Revolutionary, circles turned into 
 League clubs, 132 ; movement, a 
 true, both constitutional and illegal, 
 
 137 
 
 Rochefort, M. Henri, describes Mr. 
 Parnell, 212 
 
 Ronayne, Mr., attends Home Rule 
 Conference, 36 
 
 Rossa, O'Donovan, interviewed, 1 32 
 
 Rowles, Henry, arrest of as an Invin- 
 cible, 301 
 
 Russell, Lord John, 49 
 
 Russell, Sir Chas., Q.C., defends 
 O'Donnell, 337 
 
 Russia, action of, 73 
 
 Saturday Review, the, on England's 
 weakness, 413, 414 
 
 Secretary of State, the Chief, " suppres- 
 sion " of, decided on 430 ; the office 
 aimed at, not the individual, 431 ; 
 mode of attack on, discussed, 457 et 
 scq. ; abuse of, 475, 476 ; and Under- 
 Secretary, meeting between, in Phoe- 
 
 nix Park, by appointment, 47S ; the 
 subject of their conference, 478 ; the 
 Invincibles come up with them, 478 ; 
 assassination of, described, 478, 479 ; 
 criminality of murder of not admit- 
 ted by France or United States, 
 526 ; Appendix M, 572, 573 
 
 Sexton, Thos., arrest of, 226; attends 
 Lord Mayor of Dublin's banquet, 
 342; denial of accusations in "Parrell- 
 ism and Crime" commented on, 531 
 
 Shaw, Mr., attends first public meeting 
 of Home Rule Association, 34 ; chair- 
 man of Home Rule conference, 36 ; 
 indignation of, at obstruction, 65 ; 
 appointed chairman of Home Rule 
 party, 86 ; disapproves of Home 
 Rule meeting in Dublin, 86 ; address 
 to Home Rule meeting, 140 ; not a 
 leader of the Irish people, 140 ; re- 
 ply to Lord Beaconsfield's manifesto, 
 I55> 156 ; Mr. Parnell's opposition to, 
 173 ; return of, for County Cork, 173 ; 
 circular of convening meeting, 174; 
 Mr Parnell declines to attend, 1 74 ; 
 called an Irish renegade member, 208 
 
 Sheridan, P. J., at Gurteen, 92 ; ad- 
 dress to Land League meeting in 
 Dublin, 207 ; a prominent Fenian, 
 a Land League organiser, flight of 
 disguised as a priest, application for 
 extradition of, American sympathy, 
 proceedings abandoned. Appendix 
 D, 550 J a true bill for murder found 
 against, the question of the extra- 
 dition of. Appendix M, 571 
 
 Smythe, Mrs., accidentally shot, effect 
 of, 463 
 
 Special Commission, the, in Dublin, 
 August, 1882, 290 
 
 Spencer, Earl, Lord- Lieutenant of Ire- 
 land, 254 ; description of his arrival 
 and reception on the 6th May, 1882, 
 256 ; abuse of, by United Ireland, 
 352, 353 ; entertains his slanderers, 
 
 353; abuse of, 492; K 's longing 
 
 to attack, 501 ; plan of attack on, 
 discussed, 499-501 ; intended attack 
 on, frustrated by arrests, 516 ; regime 
 renewed by Mr. Morley in 1893, 543 
 
 " Spread the light," 416 
 
 Star Chamber, the proceedings of, 307 
 
 Stephens, James, 124 ; doctrine of, 134 
 
 Stewart, Commodore, story of, 16 
 
 Strangers, exclusion of, from House of 
 Commons, 59 
 
 Sullivan, A. M., attends first public 
 meeting of Home Rule Association, 
 
590 
 
 INDEX 
 
 34 ; and obstruction, 198 ; defends 
 O'Donnell, 337 
 
 Sullivan, Alexander, cables to Lord 
 Mayor of Dublin, 343 
 
 Sullivan, T. D., seconds Mr. Parnell's 
 resolution in opposition to Mr. Shaw, 
 87 ; attends Lord Mayor of Dublin's 
 banquet, 342 ; speech to National 
 League meeting, 1885, 353, 354 ; 
 comments on, 354 
 
 Taylor, Miss Helen, suggests a union 
 between English Republicans and 
 Irish Nationalists, 238 
 
 Times, the, on Irish ingratitude, 43 ; 
 notices the land agitation, 91 ; on 
 the Phoenix Park murders, 285 ; 
 charges of, against Provincialists, 
 418 ; charges of against Invincibles, 
 418 ; aids British statesmen to cause 
 Irish to assist their diplomacy, 421 ; 
 justifies resistance to oppressive rule, 
 484, 485 ; "Parnellism and Crime," 
 objects of accusation and comments 
 on, 529-532 
 
 Tithes, agitation against, 25 ; war, 
 
 25 
 
 Tone, Theobald Wolfe, a devoted 
 patriot, 4 ; and the Young Ireland 
 party, 12 
 
 Tormy, Rev. Mr., C.C, proposes 
 Mr. Parnell as candidate for Meath, 
 50 
 
 Tory Government proposes coercion, 
 and suppression of the Irish National 
 League, 371 ; defeat of, 371 
 
 Trial of Mr. Parnell and others in 
 Dublin 1880, 192-196 ; of Invin- 
 cibles, 319-326 
 
 Tynan, P. J. P., describes his feelings 
 on hearing of Mr. Parnell's arrest, 
 224-226 ; attends Irish demonstra- 
 tion in Hyde Park, 240 ; watched by 
 a Marine, 301 ; an onlooker of 
 what he relates, 422, 423 ; feels it a 
 duty to truthfully record the Invin- 
 cible history, 442 ; his position in 
 the Invincible organisation ; his iden- 
 tity ; a volunteer ; the question of 
 extradition ; sketch of ; praying for 
 the murderers ; identification of. 
 Appendix F, 556 ; a true bill for 
 murder found against ; the question 
 of extradition of, Appendix M, 571 ; 
 also see K , 
 
 Ulster plantation, 4 
 
 Under-Secretary of State, suppression 
 of decided on, 430 ; the office of aimed 
 at not the individual, 431 ; abuse of, 
 475. 476 
 
 United Irishmen, founders of, 4 
 
 United Ireland, and "compound ven- 
 geance," 135; on Mr. Parnell's arrest, 
 227 ; on landlordism, 241, 242 ; 
 comments on editorial of, 242, 243 ; 
 appeal to Irish Americans, 243 ; 
 suppressed, 246 ; condemns the 
 Phoenix Park murders, 275 ; on 
 Mr. James Ellis French, 345, 346 ; 
 Editor of, sneered at, 346; the "Reel 
 Earl's Run," 351, 352; Editor of, 
 accepts Lord Spencer's hospitality, 
 353 ; on the situation on the 19th 
 June, 1885, 356, 357 ; comments on, 
 357. 360 ; tiff with Mr. Davitt, 360, 
 363 ; on Home Rule Bill of 1886, 
 
 386, 387 ; R in charge of, 445 ; 
 
 "The Bloody Assize," Appendix 
 A, 547 
 
 Vanity Fair on Irish anti-rent agitation, 
 92, 93 
 
 "Vaticanism," pamphlet by Right Hon. 
 W. E. Gladstone, 52 ; comments on, 
 52 ; the Freeman on, 53 
 
 Volunteers, founders of United Irish- 
 men, 4 
 
 W 
 
 Wales, Prince of, withdraws from 
 Strangers' Gallery, 59 
 
 Wallace, Corporal Albert, shot by In- 
 vincibles, 488 
 
 Walsh, John, Britain's request to France 
 for extradition of, 329, 330 ; a Land 
 League organiser, but was not 
 Number One, his alibi, released by 
 French Government, death of. Ap- 
 pendix C, 548 ; a true bill for murder 
 found against ; the question of ex- 
 tradition of. Appendix M, 571 
 
 Washington House of Representatives, 
 resolutions of, 149 ; Mr. Parnell's 
 introduction to, 149 ; Speech to, 
 149 
 
INDEX 591 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, on Catholic eman- Y 
 
 cipation, 26 
 Working classes, British and Irish, y volunteers to suppress Mr. 
 
 hostility of, 395, 396 jr^^^t . ^ McCarthyite 
 
 Working man's vote in 1886 against footnote, 441 ; opinion of as tn in 
 
 discretion by Invincibl< 
 Young Ireland party, 12 
 
 XT T> 1 ^^^ ^«^ footnote, 441 ; opinion of as to in- 
 
 Home Rule, 397, 399 discretion by Invincible, 495 
 
 X , M.P., description of, 450 ; en- 
 rolled an Invincible by K ■, 450 ; Z . a Pamellite M.P., 518 ; urged 
 
 a McCarthyite, footnote, 450 the departure of K ,518 
 
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