THE O'CONNOR MEMOIRS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20249, 8 May 1929, Page 8

THE O'CONNOR MEMOIRS.

REMINISCENCES OF " T.P."

[GLADSTONE AS A FIGHTER.

A PICTURESQUE FIGURE.

«'THIS SPLENDID OLD WARRIOR."

j (Copyright.) No. XX. During all this time Mr. Gladstone was In the unhappy position of waiting to make his speech in defence of the new rules for dealing with obstruction which had been more or less agreed to between him and the Tory Opposition. Even when thirty-two Irish members had been removed, he had to stand the attack of others "who had come in, and he still had to move the suspension of four others, thus disposing of the whole available strength of the party. In spite of this .very trying experience, Mr. Gladstone's speech was as powerful as usual, and put the case for the restoration of its powers to Parliament with great effectiveness. I notice the speech for two reasons. It.is rather ironical to find that he wound up with these words: "Personally, my prospective concern in this arrangement is small; my lease is all but run out." (Twenty years afterward this very man was carrying through the House of Commons his second Home Rule Bill with a vigour thai seemed in no way diminished, even by the heavy toll of more than .eighty years of life. The second observation I make is that while I Lave felt bound to bring out the courage and tenacity of the strugglo made by the small body of Irishmen to whom I belonged, I could nofc forget to note that there was real tragedy in the sight of , this splendid Parliamentarian, filled with the best intentions, nightly fighting a struggle like this against a body of excited young men. Gladstone should have had a bigger and a better task. s Mr. Gladstone and Ireland.

In the end, like all the members of my party, 1 came for a while positively to detest Mr. Gladstone, and I am still» of opinion that his policy toward Ireland at this period was profoundly mistaken. Indeed, I have the strongest confirmation of this opinion in the revolt against it to which he was driven about j a year afterward, and which involved the sacrifice of Mr. Forster and the transformation of that gentleman from a friend and follower into a deadly enemy. But when I was most indignant with Mr. Gladstone I could not help feeling in my heart of hearts a certain sympathy ■with this splendid old warrior. 1 still remember how, passing in the early hours of one morning through Old Palace Yard, I caught sight of the figure—it was about eight o'clock at the time —of the old man striding down to the House of Commons from his house in Downing Street. Gladstone was a picturesque and appealing figure, with his white locks shaken by the wind, with a look of iron determination on his face, and with his brusque, youthful and quick stride. But fierce political strife can permit no man any bowels of compassion for his opponents; and if there were any sucli [weakening of my ferocious opposition and often ferocious personal criticism of Mr. Gladstone, it would have been destroyed by an event which soon followed the forty-one hours' sitting. Putting Down Obstruction.

The rules for putting down obstruction .were soon frustrated by the ingenuity of the Irishmen. They managed by various devices to keep the debate going, and the second reading of the Coercion Bill occupied four days. This was sufficient to force new rules against obstruction, and these were introduced by the Speaker. At last, the Coercion Bill got into committee, and Mr. Gladstone at once showed the determination of the Government to take advantage of the powers that the new rules conferred upon them. At last the bill was through the House. At a later period some of the substantial reasons which justified the Irish members in resisting it with such force and such unprecedented and brutal methods came to be realised.

The main point made by the Irish party was that this attempt to cripple the Land League, with its comparatively open methods, led, when its leaders were removed, to the rise of other men and other methods. The secret society would take the place of the open; the deliberate and systematic assassin would replace the occasional and, on the whole, not very Ecrious outbreak of crime, beyond that, of course, of intimidation by the employment of the boycott. In a few months these prophecies began to be realised. In the midst of these wild scenes in the House of Commons there came one of those episodes, half farcical half tragic, which alwavs seemed destined to play their parts 'in Irish history. For some reason or other the idea got abroad in the Iri£h Party that the Government intended to imprison Parnell again. Parnell in Temporary Hiding.

Parnell followed a suggestion of temporary flight and disappeared—it was supposed" to Fans. For some days no word was heard of him. And here I must repeat that there was always in the minds of his followers, and even when he was apparently most triumphant, an undercurrent of. apprehension. This suspense could not be borne any longer and several members of the party, including Mr Dillon and Mr. T. D. Sullivan, were sent across to Paris to try to trace the vanished chief. They went to the hotel where it was likely he would Etop; they found there bundles of letters awaiting hirn and unopened. After a solemn consultation it was agreed that Mr. Dillon should J bo nuthorsed to open the letters. It was not long after this process had been gone through that Parnell himself walked calmly in. It was while these rumours of flight and the disappearance of Parnell were at their height that Sir William Harcourt brought about one of the most curious and really amusing episodes of Parnell's life. Sir in defending some portions of the new Coercion Bill, let himself go in one of his boisterous inoods. Alluding to the disappearance of Parnell, he quoted with great effect a parody on a verse of Tom Hood's poem "Ben Battle," which runs as follows: —

Ben Battle was a hero bold. And wars ho -did delight in; But he fled full soon on the first of Juiie, And bade the others keep fighting. Duel Declined by Parnell. This aroused the anger of O'Gorman Mahon —the "Chieftain." as lie was usually called. He belonged to that generation of Irishmen in which the duel was a common episode of political difference, and such an affront in the gospel of his day —to which he still adhered—could only be met by a duel to the death. Parnell had returned, and the first thing that happened was that a meeting was arranged between him and the O'Gorman Mahon. Mr Dillon and myself. The discussion was opened by the O'Gorman Mahon, who passed by any preliminary discussion as to whether a duel was neeescary or not. and entered at once on those preliminaries for such an encounter with •which his experience had made him familiar—as, for instance, where the duel was to take place, who were to be Parnell s seconds, etc., etc. Wo all listened silently until Parnell spoke; and then he announced to the disgust of the 0 Gorman Mahon that hj« did not intend to issue a challenge, he did not believe in the duel. After the passage of two Coercion Acts fhe Government at last brought in a Land Bill. It wa3 a curious and a characteristic Gladstoniau proposal; it went very far, but it stopped short of the solution which might have finished the whole question. Howevei, it was good enough to be accepted by both Houses. jlTo be continued daily.)