REMINISCENCES OF MR T. P. O’CONNOR, M.P.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 10

REMINISCENCES OF MR T. P. O’CONNOR, M.P.

[CoPIEIGHT.]

MEMORIES OF "THE FATHER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.” Eights of Publication Secured by the Otago Daily Times. VOL. I. CHAPTER VIII (Continued). The fight on Coercion was not slow in starting. On the very first night of the session Mr Forster gave notice of Lis intention to move his Coercion Bill the next day. There was some skirmishing by Sir Stafford Northcote, his main theme being that the state of things in Ireland was the result of Government i inaction. Mr Gladstone made a powerful and temperate reply, and then I quote with some amusement now the following sentence from the “ Annual Register” for 1881— "Immediately afterwards, the House was practically emptied; and, when Mr T. P. O’Connor rose to speak there were only seven members present.” Parnell, of course,. was the chief spokesman on our side, and he made a speech which a leading Tory like Mr E. Gibson,- the member for Dublin University, described as being “ adroit, intelligent, and sagacious,” and'he contended that the reports of outrages were grossly exaggerated. He admitted .that he had encouraged the people to resist eviction—alas! what remedy was left to them when they were thrown on the mercy of the landlords by the rejection of the Compensation for .Disturbance Bill by the House of Lords! The debate on the Address dragged on, With some dissent from Sir Charles Russell and other Liberals. Sir Charles Russell supported Parnell’s amendment, and summed up what was the latent apprehension of many who were of his way of thinking—that the Government was going to bring in strong Coercion and weak Land Reform. That really was the abiding apprehension which partly explamed the ferocious opposition to Coercion by the Irish members. The debate then dragged on for seven nights, with the result that in a division, while the Government had the big total of-435 supporters, the Irish were able to muster, the respectable minority of 6T, which included eight English Liberal members. Even yet the Address was not voted, and further Irish resources of delay brought the debate over the ninth day. On the tenth day the Irishmen proposed that evictions, should be suspended, this debate winding up with a defiant declaration by Parnell that, If Coercion were carried out, there would be a revolt in Ireland. The settlement of the land question would be taken hands of the Government. The first man that is arrested,” he said, “ will be the signal for the suspension of the payment of all .rent in Ireland.” Even yet the Irishmen had not exhausted their resources. Other members proposed other amendments, and it was not until after 1! nights that Hie first stage in the programme of the Government was reached.

Mr Forster’s speech—as, indeed, all his big speeches—was very well documented, and on the whole the anxiety to hear its proposals, of which the House in genera] had been given no notice,- overcame the bitter passion underneath. Now and then, however, when Forster struck a fierce note in a rancbus voice, there were lond cheers by the Conservatives and violent protests from the small group of Irishmen; but the first skirmish passed by with more tranquillity than might have been expected. But the next manoeuvre of the Government let loose the tempest. This was the proposal of Mr Gladstone that the Coercion Bill sbonld. have precedence of all other business before the House. The Irishmen rushed into debate, speaking to practically an empty House. Biggar ■was named and suspended, and then passions were let Jodse. Irish Member after Member ; proposed amendment after amendment. The debate was continued, but it had become aggravated by a provocative speech from Sir William Harjconrt, who said the Government were determined to go on until the Prime Minister’s motion was carried. It was quite clear soon that the Irish members were determined to persever.% and thud there came the first of the all-night sittings; the House did not adjourn till five minutes 2 o’clock. There was worse soon to come, for this led on to the famous 41 hours’ sitting, which stands out so conspicuously in parliamentary history. It began by the declaration by Mr Gladstone, that they intended to finish the first stage of the Coercion Bill at that sitting. The announcement was received by an ominous cheer. For a while things went on with some tranquillity, and even tamely, until Mr Gladstone replied 'to several questions which were put to him that he had every intention of pushing the Bill through in that sitting. Then the storm was not long in breaking forth, Parnell intervened with one of those'speeches of cold bitterness which he could, on occasion infuse into his utterances. Attempt after attempt was made to get the Government to sotte compromise; but they steadily refused. The English members who had occasionally interfered now lapsed into silence, so Irish member had to succeed Irish member. Appeals after appeals were made to them, but they remained deaf to them all. In succession almost every one of them made a speech.

By this time there was electricity in the air, and there began to be rumours of some drastic and desperate action on the part ,of the Speaker. It is one of the ■mysteries of the House of Commons how these portents of big events, however, carefully an attempt has been, made to conceal them, ' gradually appear. They are part of that crowd-psychology which we must always take into account when appraising the life of the House. ’

The Speaker had left the Chair to take some necessary rest,' and thin added to the sense of dull unreality in which the five or six members, mostly half asleep, speakers, who were repeating the same arguments, almost the same language. My own adventures on this fateful night will give some idea of the life of the small party to which I belonged had to live in those strenuous days. In order to be prepared for the debate, which might go on for several ‘ nights still, I went home to my room in the Westminster Palace Hotel. Sleep at that time was fortunately at my command, no matter at what hour of the day or night, and I was able to sleep quite tranquilly from midnight to close upon 4 o’clock In the morning. I then pulled myself together and got back to the House, to begin to prepare my contribution for, the prolongation of the debate. As a matter of fact, I threw myself down on a sofa In a spare corner of the House of Commons—one could always find a quiet spot in that gallery which is 1 above and behind the Chamber itself. For over two hours again I slept, to prepare myself for my coming effort. When I Went down to the House I found Sexton speaking, Leamy and Biggin were to follow, and it had been arranged that 1 should follow Biggar. I had determined not to be too brief in my speech, and to give to the members, already tired out with their 41 hours of sitting, still several hours more of impatience and waiting. Meantime Biggar had to pause for the replacement of Dr Lyon Playfair, the temporary Deputy Speaker, by Mr Brand. At once it was seen that something porIdntious was toward. It was still very «rly in the morning, and although the

House had been almost empty during the last few hours, the Chamber suddenly became crowded; there was excitement in the very air. Everybody now knew that something very drastic was coming.

The Irish members were still undefeated, except that they knew that a heavy blow was going to he struck at them. The Speaker was evidently perturbed and nervous as he declared that, in view of the continued obstruction, he had decided to put the question immediately. He had the manuscript in his hand, which was visibly trembling. From it he read out the solemn and fateful declaration that he had determined there and then to bring the long debate to an end—in short, to make a coup d’etat.

Never shall I forget the scene that followed directly after. From all sides of the House—except, of course, from our own little group—there was a thunderclap of cheers, louder than any I had ever heard; but that was not all. One could almost detect amohgst the raucous echo'of the cheers the passionate frenzy which our prolonged resistance had created. That very painful moment has always remained vividly in my memory, especially the expressions on the faces of the members of the Tory Party, as they looked in triumph and hate at us, to whom they considered they had dealt a crushing blow. For a moment we were staggered. It was Parnell’s interval of rest, and one of us went over to rouse him from his bed in the Westminster Hotel. We had not yet made up our minds how to meet the staggering blow, and we could do nothing but silently take part in the division that was immediately called. Silently and sullenly both sides trailed into the division lobby. Mr Justin M’Carty, that benign and striking figure, to whom was entrusted the lead during this time of storm and passion, rose to oppose the taking of the next division; the Speaker, however, stood firm. Loud shouts began to come from all parts of the House, and it was evident that Mr M’Carthy was not going to he heard. It was then that Mr O’Connor Power showed that sense of parlia'mentary fitness of which he was always a master. Jumping to his feet, with that pock-marked face of his looking dark and menacing with rage, he shouted “ Privilege 1 Privilege I ” Beckoning angrily to his comrades to follow, he led an immediate retreat, and the Irish numbers walked in a body out of the House. We went straight away to what was then the Conference Room, and scarcely had we got there when Parnell appeared from the Westminster Hotel. He was fresh and smiling and composed, as we were not. Our feelings took expression by the greatest cheer Parnell ever received from his followers for many a long day. In spite of everything wc felt that we had won. It will give some idea of the courage, tenacity, and endurance of the little Irish Party that it received this deadly blow at 9 in the morning; that at 12, when the House reassembled, xnd after in most cases a sleepless and laborious mght, they were once more all in their places. There was no sign of fatigue; still leas any sign of being cowed or beaten. In question after question, in suggested motion after motion, they showed that they were ready once more to go on with the fight. Their voices were, perhaps, shrill; their nerves may nave been a little'jangled; but their spirits were still unsubdued. CHAPTER IX. The fierce passions which had been roused everywhere by the coup d’etat of the Speaker and the 41 hours’ sitting had not yet died down when there came another and even more exasperating cause for fierce temper. I have already told of the part which Michael Davitt had played in the creation of the Land League. It should be noted that Davitt, though he occasionally used menacing language with regard to the part which Irish America might play in the struggle between the people of Ireland and the new Coercion policy of the Government, had steadily set his face against the crimes which were occurring with such frequency. Davitt at the time, perhaps because of this very denunciation, himself had to go in hourly danger of his life; he always had a revolver In his pocket. The great intellectual powers which he had displayed in eloquent speeches, the enormous hold he had established on the confidence and affection of his people, and, in spite of his hot temper, the very warm affection he inspired, had given a new conception of him to that of a mere vulgar ex-convict, which is how ho had appeared to Englishmen after his release from prison. Though he did most strongly advocate the abolition of landlordism, he did so, as a rule, in unexceptional language, except on such occasions as recalled to him h|s early flight from the burning.bouse of his fathers, and us he told of rhat enormous strength of the Irish movement in America of which he had seen demonstrations during his visit to that country. There was one phrase, I remember, on which Sir William Harcourt was able to fasten when, he came into the forefront as an advocate of the Coercion policy of the Ministry; it was a passage in which Davitt spoke of “the Irish wolfhound bounding across the Atlantic.” This language was used at a time when there came into the movement almost an entirely new factor. It wr.s the funds supplied by the Irish-Americans that started the Land League, and it was the funds supplied by the Irish-Americans that kept it going. With every new and violent incident in the House of Commons or on the countryside in Ireland, .these subscriptions got a new stimulus. In a week it would be announced in Dublin that the Irish World, which was cue "of the main agents in raising subscriptions, had sent so large a sum as £4OOO to the funds. - In addition, there had been created all over America as widespread an organisation ns in Ireland. 1 made r tour in America shortly after the period which I have now reached. There was scarcely a town—l might say scarcely a village—in the whole broad spaciousness of the United States in which there was not an active branch of the Land League, and each branch was engaged in fanning the flame and raising hiibscriptions for the Irish movement. .Some of these American journals, besides, used very different language from that of the Irish leaders. In correspondence, if not in loading articles, the suggestion was made that the war between England and Ireland, as they put it, might be transferred from the soil of Ireland to the soil of England. The dreadful word “ dynamite ” began to be employed, und later on me preaching was turned into practice, and dynamite outrages began to be attempted in Eng, land. I need scarcely say that these incidents were a serious embarrassment and danger to the Irish Party, who relied for support on the' organised passive resistance of the Irish countryside, and required no such violent methods—so dangerous not only to them, but to the two millions of Irishmen whose homes and whose livelihood were in' Great Britain. • I remember distinctly at the time that I often left my house in the morning somewhat uncertain whether I should reach it alive in the evening. Such outrages as were threatened and attempted in England might very well have brought bloody reprisals. I must here candidly avow that never was I more surprised, and might even say never more edified, than by the splendid self-control which the English people, including my colleagues in the House of Commons, displayed under these tremendous provocations. One of these outrages bad its scene in the House of Commons. On Saturdays the public are admitted, with freedom and without any scrutiny, to view the House. On one such Saturday two bombs were dropped in the Palace at Westminster; one was laid in the space immediately leading down to the crypt of the House of Commons. It

had very widespread results, for all the vast window facing Westminster Hall was smashed in every pane, and there was also some destruction on the floor of the House itself, some of the seats having been bombed. I went down to the House to see what had occurred, and I remember still my surprise at the perfect equanimity with which this terrible provocation was received. With the kind of speeches that were being made in favour of coercion and. with the tide of public and parliamentary feeling rising against us, this was a surprise, but so it was.

Davitt, in spite of such provocative phrases as that to which I have alluded, was sincerely anxious to keep the Land League within the lines of passive'resistance, which had hitherto proved so entirely successful and had undoubtedly created in Ireland an organisation which could defy all the mighty agencies on the side of the Government. A phrase from Mr Healy, afterwards quoted by Ministerial speakers, stated the case in his own picturesque way; “ The law of the Land League, has beaten the law of the British Government into a cocked hat.”

These were the facta which made the next action of ,the Government the more inexplicable and the more provocative. On February 3 there was again that curious portentous whisper through the House which anticipated some great coup. The House had not long to wait. Sir William Harcourt, the Home Secretary, was asked by Parnell whether it was true that Mr Davitt had been sent back to penal servitude, that morning by the suspension of his ticket-of-leave. Sir William Harcourt. replied that, after consultation with the Law Officers ■ and the Chief Secretary, he had 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.” To a further question by Parnell as to what were the conditions of the ticket-of-leave which had been violated, Sir William vouchsafed no answer. The reply of Sir William Harcourt produced, as was natural, a very different reception in the different parts 'of House. As a portent of vigorous action in dealing with the leaders of the Land League in Ireland, it was received with rapturous cheers by the majority of the Liberals and by all the Conservatives. On the Irish benches it produced violent excitement, and there was the feeling that such a sinister event should be marked by some dramatic expression of Irish resentment. There was a pause for a few moments before anybody took the initiative; but Mr Dillon, whoso eburage and promptitude always rose to such occasions, rushed to the front.'

The business before the House was a proposal by Mr Gladstone for meeting the tremendous obstruction of the Irish members by new rules of procedure. He had risen immediately after the announcement of Sir William Harcourt. Mr Dillon met the situation by standing up with his arms folded. Amid the general confusion, Mr Gladstone was seen standing on one side and Mr Dillon on the other, claiming the right to rise, to a point of order. The House, except the Irish members, shouted for action against Mr Dillon, and the Speaker, in the terms of the new standing order that had been agreed to for dealing with obstruction, “ named ” him as “ wilfully disregarding the authority of the Chair.” Mr Gladstone then moved the consequent resolution that he be suspended from the service of the House for the remainder of the sitting. Thereupon Mr Dillon was asked to withdraw; but he again stood up, again demanded the right to address the House, and wound up by respectfully declining to withdraw except on the exercise of force. This produced a scene somewhat like that which had so often occurred in the struggle over Mr Bradlaugh. When a member disobeys the authority of the Chair, the person who is officially called upon to carry out the order of the House is- the Serjeant-at-Arms, The &erj eant-of - Arm a of those days was a universally popular figure; so popular, indeed, that, according to gossip, an alleged attempt by people .high in authority to deprive him of his succession to the serjeancy and to substitute for him a new man produced such universal resentment that Gossett had been forced into the Chair.

One of the great secrets of his popularly was his creation—a creation that died with him—of what was universally known as the Serjeant's Room. This, of course, was entirely under his own control. It was he who either gave or withheld invitations to become one of the selected members who were free to use his room. It was part of the attractiveness of this more or less secret meeting place that the generosity of his friends always supplied tne Serjeant with the sound liquor that was more necessary then than nowadays to make a company agreeable and keep conversation flowing; and the little circle consisted, as a rule, of men who were in most cases remarkable for their enjoyment of a good joke or a good glass of whisky.

In all his many early experiences, the poor Serjeant had never had to confront incidents such as those which were now presenting themselves with maddening and unnerving frequency. First there was Bradlaugh, and now came the Irish members. The poor old Serjeant in his uniform, the thinneas of hia limbs exposed by the knee breeches he had to wear, and with his sword and his tremulous hands, lent a comic and pathetic feature to these demands upon him to compel the withdrawal of members, many of them like Bradlaugh, young, or comparatively. young, robust, and capable, with a breath, of blowing the poor old Serjeant off his feet. He could, and sometimes did, call in the assistance of the young attendants of the House; and many of these had given him not only effective, but in some cases, it was thought, almost violent support when it came to the conflict with Bradlaugh. The Irish members, however, adopted a different course. Refusing to leave the House except on the exercise of force, they were content to await the approach of the Serjeant. Solemly he tapped them on the shoulder; solemly they accepted this as the force to which they had appealed, and quietly left the House.

Passion, however, had been so moved by the thunderclap of Davitt’s arrest that tlie Irish members all found themselves compelled to follow , the example of Mr Dillon. One after another they came forward with some sort of dilu tory motion. Mr A. M. Sullivan, a very brilliant member of the party, raised a point of order; but before he could go to any length he was interrupted by the Speaker. Mr Gladstone then, who had been viewing the scene witli palpable pain, attempted to resume his speech. But things had gone too far by this time for the Irish members to cease from their violent protest; and Mr Gladstone had only risen when Parnell rushed into the fray with a motion, borrowed from a precedent set by Mr Gladstone, that Mr Gladstone be no longer heard. Thus every time that Mr Gladstone rose there was some such motion from one of the Irish members. Parnell yielded to the force expressed by the tap on the shoulder from the?Serjeant-at-Anns, and left the House amid a hurricane of cheers from his followers.

In turn the other members tried to intervene, and all declined to leave the House and take part in the divisions on the expulsion of their colleagues. Each was named; each was suspended; each refused to leave except compelled by superior force; each was tapped on the shoulder by the tremulous , ■

and each then left the House quietly, with one or two exceptions. Mr Aietgc, a prominent young Protestant landlord, like Parnell himself, was very excited.

and remained in his seat till poor Captain Gossett had to be assisted by the attendants. The next stubborn resister was of a very different type, no less a person than the Rev, Mr Nelson, a Presbyterian clergyman, with white hair, who was some 70 years of age. The spectacle of Nelson, and Gossett—one old gentleman attempting to resist the other—was ludicrous. It should bo added that the Serjeant—the represents tive of force—was a much more benignlooking person than the . belligerent pastor. As the attendants came in single file to assist in the work of expulsion, they suggested somewhat the depressed and perfunctory air of the theatrical super.”

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 32 Irish members had thus 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 avail able 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. 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 afterwards this very man was carrying through the House of Commons his second Home Rule Bill with a vigour that seemed in no way diminished, even by the heavy toll of more than 80 years of life.

While I have felt bound to bring 'out the courage and tenacity of the struggle made by the small body of Irishmen to whom I belonged, I could not forget to note that there was real tragedy in the sight of this splendid parlin mentarian, filled with the best intentions nightly fighting a struggle like this against a body of excited young men. Gladstone should have had a arid a better task, a