THE LATE CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. A CHARACTER SKETCH.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 7271, 20 October 1891, Page 4

THE LATE CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. A CHARACTER SKETCH.

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poie. The atmosphere of reserve in whioh he shrouds himself ii natural to him. He Ii an aristoorat bora tod bred, and if h« were, like hli predeoea* tor, to beoome a peer of the realm, hi would flod bimieif much more at hoinf in the Home of Lordi thin with the rough and rude demooraoy. Alf K8SENTIALLT CONSERVATIVE FOROE. Eaglieh people are only beginning to understand that Mr Parnell is the great Conservative foroe in Ireland. He is a landlord and an Eogliihman. He has no oonsuming passion for the extirpation of landlordism. It wap no doubt only in joke that he told Michael Davitt that the first necessity for main* taining order in a Home-Ruled lieland would be to olap him (Davi'.t) into gaol. Bat the joke cohered a truth. Davitt is a OeK Landlordism ia to him the devil inoarnate. Mr Far* nell has alwaya been for making oomn promise! with the evil thing. Davitt has been hot for catting it up root and branch, Mr Davitt is the Revolution. Mr Parnell is the Counter-Revolution in Ireland. If Mr Parnell were in offioe at (he head of a majority in a College Green Parliament to-morrow, he would soon be oompelled to govern Ireland by the aid of the Orangemen of the North and the support of tha Viceroy. HIS SERVICES TO THE IMPIRE, From an Imperial point of view, Mr. Parnell is about the most valuable man in politics* He it the man who baa forced federation within the pale^ of practical politics, and while eeouriog the adoption of Home Rule by the Liberal party has gone distinctly ahead of the Liberal leaders in his adhesion to the prinoiple of a federalist Empire. Mr Rhodes, who is probably the most thorough-going Imperialist in the Eng-lieh-apeaklng world, would never have lavished on the Parnellite cause bis magnificent donation of L10,000, had he nob teen that Home Rule under Mr Parnell made for the consolidation not for tbe disintegration, of the Empire. AT HOME. On his estate in Wicklow, where Mr Parnell has an extensive quarry, and employs 250 men, he is very popular. I remember when I was at Lord Fitswiiliam's beautiful seat close by, I was ehown with almost reverential respeot, tbe place where Mr Parnell in his youth used to play orloket. Thoie knew him in the privaoy of his home are maoh attached to him. No one can be more unassuming and simple in his manners. He reads a good deal, especially about meohanics, biography, and history. Imaginative literature Is not his strong point, nor could he ever make nmoh headway with poetry. Onoe, fcqd once only, has he been known to quote poetry in a speech. It waa not of a nature to enoourage him to repeat the experiment. Working up towards his peroration, he declared that they would never rest until tbey had made their country realise tbe poet's dream, — Firit flower of the earth, firat jewel of the tea 1 "Gem, gem!" said a friend at his elbow. "Oh, yes," replied Mr Parcell, " but jewel is a better word 1"

•Years ago,' writes Mi James Payn, ' I knew a gentleman who settled in the South, and beoarno so popular ia his neighborhood that even the 'oounty families' oondeuoendod to risk him, They oould never dieoovor how he made his money, bub were satisfied by htB solemn asauranoe that it was not in trade. Nothing oould exoeed the ordinary gravity of hia demeanor! wbiob, indeed, caused him to be plaoed on tho Commiiaion of petco ; bat now and then, without any apparent provocation, he would butet into such a laugh as no oue erer before heard excopt in one place. Where they oould have heard it puzzled the county families for five aud twenty years, but at laat he was betrayed unooneoiously by his own grandchild, who, after a visit to a travelling ciroui, innocently exclaimed : • Why, grandpa laughs like the clown !' " At many as 1000 people are said to bo Mjcohed'iu the United St»Ui yearly.

A GENTLEMAN WHO SUFFERED From Nervoui and Watting Debility, Lou of Vigor, etc, waa reifcored to health Id ituoh a REMARK ABLE MANNER, after - elij had FAILED, that h» will on reooipt I ieK-addroMod, itmnpod •nvolopo ■•n4 /.omoie uro PRKE to all Mlow wf. foren, Addr«u ."Avlmor," J.P 0. Sydney.

The following interesting oharaoter •ketch of Mr Parnell, written by Mr W. T. Stead, appeared in the Review of Reriews for February, 1890. L (tie oould Mr 8tead hate dreamt when he wrote hia highly aympathetlo sketoh of "the nnorowned King of Ireland" that before the end of 1891 Mr Paroell woald be under a tooial baon, the de* poaed leader of the Iriih party, reviled by bit for oolleaguei', and, last of all, dead. Some t'm-ty years »go a small boy, with curious brown eyea and fair hair, might have been obierved on the cop. ing of the roof of a stUely mnngionhoaae in Ireland. He was all alooe, and was appareut'y too iutant upon what he waa doing to spare u thought for the perils of his position. Ha ha-1 with him on the roof an iron p it, one of those usually employed for bjilmg potatoes, but he had converted into an improTittd brauier, in whioh ha was malting lead. It wai little Charlie Paroell, who, haying heard that the beat way of making apherioal bullets wai to drop molten lead from a Rreat height, had mounted the roof of Avondale, dragging an improvised ■meltingpot full ot burning coals op two high Udders aod across tho sloping roof. What lucoess the boy had in casting ballets tradition sayeth not, nor does it much matter. The marvellous thing waa lhat the boy came down in safety, The incident was typloal of Mr Parnell's subsequent career. The boy waa father of the man The cool daring which led the lad to drag his hlaz ng brazier to tbs copeatone of the topmost roof of Avondale without unking any fuss or phrase, the originality and resource with which he oarried out his eipanment, the calm security with whioh be descended to earth, are all typioal of the Irish leader, who this month it the moi-t conspicuous figure in the political arena. THE PARADOX CALLED PARNELL. Mr Parnell Is an incarnate paradox. He if, to begin with, a Protestant, and yet he is the chosen ohief of the most passionately Catbolio population in the world. Although the uncrowned king of Ireland, he is of English and American deiceot. He is a landlord, but ho has led the tenants to a viotory without parallel in our htn'oy. He is obeyed as no one has ever been obeyed before by an Irish party, but he began his oareer by a mutiny against the author. ty of his leader. His name has been the symbol of a revolutionary movement, agtinsb which all tho reaonroea of civilisation were invoked in Tain, but he is at tho same time the mainstay of conservatism among his own people. He is the Parliamentary chief of the mont vo.uble and eloquent of Eoglish'SptiakiDg nationalities. But when ho m tdo hia debut as a Parli*. tnffttary ctnd'date, be ttaok and could do', gtt through evon the perfunctory maiden tp^eoh of a political debutant, aod down to (his day be has never made a single speech that could by any stretch of oharity be described as an eloquent oration. Imagine everything that the aUge Irishman is lopposed to be, and you have everything Mr Parnell is not. He is neither a oonspirator nor a demagogue; He baa neither fire nor fnry nor passion, nor any of the splendid vices or the bhowy virtues of his countrymen. In the midst of a loquacious and nervounly restless gen ration, Mr Parnell has achieved bis unique success chiefly by the possession of a unique capacity of holding bis tongue. AM ANGLO-AMERICAN IRISHMAN. Mr Parnell ii a type of the amalgamation of races that is going on under the rooftree of our English speech. His forebears crossed ovejr to Ireland after the Commonwealth /rom Congleton, in Cheihire; ooe of the most dis* tinguished of his predecessors, who held hjgh office in an English Cabinet, died as Baron Congleton in 1842. His mother is an Americao, the daughter of the first Admiral in the American navy. He wai educated ai a small boy in a Nonconformist dame'a school in Somersetshire. He matrioulated in Cambridge University. He has been the acknowledged leader of the Irinh tace all over the world ever since ]879; but the type of his political genius more akin to that of the Sootcb than to that of any other nationality under the British flag. A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK. When Mr Parnell's grandfather was newly married, his honeymoon was in* tertupted by a summons to tike the seas against the EnglUh. As he bade his bride farewell he asked, "What prpsent eball I bring you when I come baok V " Brmg me a Britiah fngats !" waa her reply ; for she, too, was of the rtardy English breed which has ever been the boldest and deadliest foe of the British Government when it is false to the true priociples of English libeity. "Bring you one British frg*te1" said Charles Stewart ; "you ibill have two, and I shall wear my wedding uniform in battle." He was a-< good as his word, and hia oapture of the Cyane and the Levant ia one of the most brilliant episodes in the Daval annals of America. A remark attributed to him after the battle was over, when the British captains, as prisoners of war, were disputing in hia oabin as to who was to blame for the loss of the fight, might almost be uttered by bil grandson aa he listens to the recriminations of Liberala and Tories about the coming triumph of Home Rule. " Gentlemen," said be, *' there is no use getting warm about it; it would have been just the same whatever you might have done. If you doubt that, I will put you all on board again, and you can try it over." The last promise, however, Mr Parnell would never have made. He is too oautious to risk the chances of a battle that is already gained. But it was natural that a man with euch ancestors should approach the struggle with the Britiah G •vernmeot in a spirit that could easily be mit taken for intense hatred of England and the Eogl'sh. WITH THE HEAD OF AN ENGINEER Hatred of that sentimental kind is

not Mr Prtrnell's foible. His is not Bontimontalist enough to bate England. His mind is essentially that of a civil engineer. Ho hue «U ways bad a groftt turn for mechanics, and one of the amusements of his youfch was to ondeavor to solve the problem of perpetual motion, lie has always been interested in chemicals ond natural philosophy, and during part of the sittings of tho Commission he appeared with his arm in a sling owing to some accident in a laboratory. Rumor said at the time that he had been testing Homo of the ores of Avondnle for gold, and t< o nitric acid had burnt his hand 'he h.ibit of mind which ho biought to politics wns tho same as that which ?'u John Parnell addressed himself to the milking of oanuls in Ireland WIkmi .-in engineer is making h cutting ho do'H "Ot bwe.u oven nt a quagmire, and Mi- l J .-inell is too intent upon his end to wise tbice in unnbcess.Aiy emotion. - s o in. in hns caused more 8 ormv ebullitions of passion, but pveep ing on one or two memorable occasions, he hns been tis cool as a cucumbor, as collected as a judge. Mis first recorded utterance in tho House of Commons was characteristic It was made in the first great struggles by which the Home Rulers compelled tho hostile parties to admit their right to recognition. In reply 10 fierce objurgations from both sides of tho Houso Mr Parnell said that " they had deliberately adopted this course, ,ind they would stidk to it." Delibora tion in sleeting tho means to bo employed and resolution as immovable as adamant when they were adoptod — dies 'have distinguished Mr i'arnoll's policy from the first to the last. AN HUSH ATIIANASIUS. There are few men of whom the English would be prouder if he had been on the other side. He at least h is shown bis ab liiy to stand alone. Time and again in the early days, when Mr Biggar and Major t 'Gorman acted as tellers, Mr Parnell walked alone in the lobby against a House iiigiuy with impotent indignation. Athanasiua contra mwuluni is always n heroic figure, which, however, is better appreciated by the world when Uhanasius is at a little distance. When the fight is on there is no ouo 0 unpopular. Popular or unpopular it did not matter to Mr Paruell. Ho hud a loug row to hoe, and he went on with liis work, " rain or shine." HOW HE LEABNT THE RULES OF THE HOUSE. This devotion to bis end. not the devotion of a fanatic who is sustained by the glow of passionate enthuaiusni, but the practical, business-like dete - mination of an engineer who ban a certain amount of tunnelling to do, has been one gieat secret of his power. Ifo blundered often when he entered Parliament owing to his inacquaintance with the forms of the House. " How me you to learn the rules of tho House V said a young and im p:\tient followo'-. «« By breaking them," was the laconic but sufficient answer This is tho wuy in which Mr Paruell learned his lesson. SLOW AND STEADV WINS THK RACE. Mr Parnell resembles Lord Harting ton and Mr Balfour in being constitutionally indisposed to very active exertion. " Tho inp rained laziness of his disposition." so his impatient fol lowers call it; but there are times when slow and steady wins the race, 1 ut Mr Parnell is no longor the man he was. Mr Biggar stood the storm and stress of that trying time better than his younger ally. Mr Parnell, when a boy at school, was liid up with typhoid fever, and ho has never quite been in robust health ever since. 1 hree yeais ago he broke down utterly. Since then ho has taken it easy — too easy, some think — for he has hardly kept himself in evidence either in Par liament or in Ireland. But he worked hard at the C< mmission in getting up his ca&e, and he has kept his seat in the siddle as firmly as ever both in the House and out of it. Hi« will tho.o is none to dispute. His authority is as supreme as in the old days when he only got rest when ho wan sent to gaol. Kilmainham, with its horribly dark dungeon walk, was not exactly the best sanatorium for a politician knocked up by tho incessant labors of the Land League, but it was better lhan nothing, and in other ways his imprisonment did him good. Mr Parnell, in his relations with his follow-men, is kind-hearted and nym pathetic. His prison experiences have made him very genial with all who have suffered for the Irish cause. It is a thousand pities that all the occu pants of the Front Opposition Bench could not be passed through the same experience. He is cautious, and never did ho say a truer word than when he said he never was a conspirator. His experience cf Irish conspirators did not tempt him to riak his life and liberty in their hands. HIS CHARACTERISTICS AS LEADER. As a leader he was not an originator. Mr Biggar invented Obstruction before Mr Parnell adopted it. It was Ronayne who first put him up to the idea of making the Irish force a power in English politics. There is nothing original in the adoption of the method of the importunate widow in Parliamentary politics. But while Mr Parnell initiated nothing, he bettered nil his instructions, and improved upon all his master?. Mr Parnell s character is often misunderstood, even by those who stand nearest to him. Nothing, for instance, is more common than to hear him spoken of as a rigid disciplinarian — a kind of lriah Tzai. In reality, he allows his followers to go as they please to an extent that often lands him in considerable difficulties. It is an open secret that the Plan of Campaign would never have been pio« claimed if Mr Parnell had had bis own way. His constitutionally lethargy, reinforced at that time by acute illness, enabled his followers to force his hand. In Parliament he effaces himself to nu extent that few realise. But in one respect only is the popular conception well founded. When Mr Parnell Bpenka he is obeyed. But he speaks very seldom, and always to some pur-

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