Curiosities of Politics: Parnell

It began with a quarrel with a cabman. Captain and Mrs. Dickinson had invited John and Charles Parnell to dine with them. He had been in Cork, and, on his arrival at Kingsbridge Station, found that he was likely to be late for dinner, so he jumped on to a jaunting car, and said to the jarvey, “I’ll give you half a crown, if you get me to 22, Lower Pembroke Street by seven o’clock, or nothing at all if you are a minute after that.” The jarvey agreed to the terms proposed, but failed to get his passenger to the Dickinsons’ house until just after seven. He lost his temper, demanded his fare, and used language such as only a practising Catholic can use. But Parnell held him to his bargain, and left him on the pavement, calling on the saints in heaven to avenge him. The incident was, perhaps, hardly as creditable to Parnell as he imagined, but the jarvey might have got his money if he had kept a civil tongue in his head. It was this affair which provided most of the talk at the table. Never was there a company less likely to discourse on politics in a solemn fashion. But when the cabman’s behaviour had been discussed until they were all tired of hearing about it, the conversation vaguely veered towards the rights of tenant farmers and Mr. Butt’s whole political proposals. Most of the talking was done by John Parnell and his brother-in-law, Charles contenting himself with listening. When the subject had been well argued, Charles suddenly announced that Mr. Butt’s movement would be “a grand opening for me to enter politics.” The announcement startled his auditors, who had never heard him express any political opinions before. 

If they had thought of him as a political candidate, they would probably have thought him Conservative. But he was proposing to join the Nationalists. Hardly had they realised what his proposal was, when he daunted them with the suggestion that they should accompany him that very minute to the offices of the Freeman’s Journal, where he proposed to announce his adhesion to the Irish party to Mr. Gray, the editor. John declined to go, but Captain Dickinson went with him.[1] They did not return to Lower Pembroke Street until two in the morning. Parnell had been rebuffed. Mr. Gray had reminded him that he was high Sheriff of Wicklow, and informed him that he could not become a candidate for Parliament until his resignation had been tendered to, and accepted by, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. To a man of swift decisions this technical disability was excessively annoying.

On the following morning he hurried off to the Viceregal Lodge and offered his resignation to the Viceroy, Lord Spencer, who, however, could not immediately accept it because certain formalities had first to be concluded. The delay meant that he would be too late for nomination for the vacant constituency of Wicklow. Here was something to gall the impatient Parnell. Miserable technicalities prevented him from fulfilling his desires! He resented the Lord-Lieutenant’s refusal to set him free immediately from his shrieval duties, and was in such a state of mind about it that he persuaded himself to believe that the technicalities were devised to frustrate him. He had been slighted by the Lord-Lieutenant! The thought, says his brother, “stung Charley deeply, and left him with a feeling of resentment against the English Government which quickly became a rooted portion of his character.” The cause of the offence seems as trivial as the cause of that which he took when the police impounded his regimentals; but this insubordinate, quick-tempered young man was in the mood to suspect that anything which opposed his will was malignantly-minded. But it was useless to repine. The law was clear. A High Sheriff, who had duties to perform in a Parliamentary election, could not himself be a candidate at that election, nor could he be replaced at a moment’s notice. At dinner on the night of the day when he had interviewed the Viceroy, Parnell announced a new decision. If he could not stand for Wicklow, his brother could, and before the abashed John, whose heart was in his Alabama peach-farm, could successfully marshal his objections to the proposals, he found himself consenting to be the candidate and reading his election address, which Charles drew up. Once more the elder brother, against his wish, was directed by the younger. As it had been in Alabama, so it was now in Wicklow, and was to be until the younger brother died. The address was short and full of point, and read well. It was Charles Parnell’s first political document, and on that account must here be reproduced.

II 

To the Electors of County Wicklow
 

GENTLEMEN,

Believing that the time has arrived for all true Irishmen to unite in the spontaneous demand for justice from England that is now convulsing the country, I have determined to offer myself for the honour of representing you in Parliament.

The principles for which my ancestor, Sir John Parnell, then Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, refused the peerage from an English Government are still mine, and the cause of the Repeal of the Union under its new name of Home Rule will always find in me a firm and honest supporter.

My experience of the working of the Ulster system of Land Tenure in the North convinces me that there is no other remedy for the unfortunate relations existing between landlord and tenant in other parts of Ireland than the legalisation through the whole of the country of the Ulster Tenant Right, which is practically Fixture of Tenure, or some equivalent or extension of a custom which has so increased the prosperity of the thriving North.

A residence of several years in America, where Religious and Secular Education are combined, has assured me that the attempt to deprive the youth of the country of spiritual instruction must be put down, and I shall give my support to the Denominational System in connection both with the University and the Primary branches.

Owing to the great tranquillity of the Country, I think it would now be a graceful act to extend the Clemency of the Crown to the remaining Political Prisoners.

My grandfather and uncle represented this County for many years, and as you have experienced their trustworthiness, so I also hope you will believe in mine.

I am, gentlemen,

Yours truly,

JOHN HOWARD PARNELL

III 

Charles did not permit the grass to grow under his feet. The other candidates were already in the field, and their election addresses were before the constituents. The Parnells must move very quickly if they were to make any impression at all. John found himself hurried to the hustings in a way which made him long more ardently than ever for the leisurely life of Alabama. Charles delivered his first political speech on a barrel in the market-place of Rathdrum during a fair, and was suspiciously received by the assembled electors. What, thought they, were these wild, whirling, Nationalist words doing in the mouth of a landlord generally regarded as a staunch Conservative? Had it not been for the support he received from the parish priest, Father Galvin, he might have been thrown from his barrel and if he had, may we not imagine, knowing what his proud nature was, that his career as a Nationalist would there and then have ended? He was to be assailed a few years later in Enniscorthy, but by that time he had established himself in Nationalism and could see the leadership of the Irish people well in sight. These are the singular accidents of fortune. Had Miss Woods been less assiduous in the reading of romantic literature, she might not have demanded distinction in her husband, and would, perhaps, have married Parnell and have settled him in an agreeable life in Wicklow, with frequent visits to Newport and Paris and London. Had some lout, inflamed as much by patriotism as by porter, flung a damaged apple or a rotten egg at Parnell, gesticulating on his barrel in the market-place of Rathdrum, he might have altered the history of England and Ireland. But these are idle speculations which may not profitably be pursued.

The organisation of John’s candidature was swift and efficient. When the bashful and reluctant candidate descended from the train at Rathdrum, he found himself surrounded by a reception committee of priests, “most of whom did now know either Charley or myself.” A band was strenuously performing patriotic airs, and as soon as the introductions had been made, the candidate, led by his brother and the hypnotised priests, formed a procession behind the robust musicians and marched off, followed by a large crowd, to Father Galvin’s presbytery, where an enthusiastic conference was held. On the next day Charles hurled himself into Hacketstown and West Wicklow, where he was uncivilly received. He did everything that a High Sheriff ought not to do during an election, even registering his vote, which was disallowed, and when he was warned that his conduct would probably result in his dismissal from office, he retorted that that was exactly what he wanted to happen. He was astute enough to know that a little martyrdom would be useful to him when he offered himself for election. When, in his capacity as High Sheriff, he declared the result of the poll, his brother was found to be at the bottom of it. There can be few men in this world who have so thoroughly enjoyed being defeated as John Parnell did, and he took himself as quickly as he could to America away from the dangerous company of his brother. His journey there, however, was saddened by the fact that Mrs. Parnell had lost nearly all her inheritance from her brother in the Black Friday Panic which swept over the American stock markets. She had enjoyed its possession, in theory rather than in fact, for little more than a year.

Soon after his departure, Colonel Taylor, one of the members for the county of Dublin, was appointed by Disraeli to the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, and had to seek re-election. Charles Parnell had joined the Home Rule League, which was anxious to contest the seat, despite the fact that Colonel Taylor was certain to be re-elected, but had difficulty in finding a candidate to fight so forlorn a hope. He offered himself as the Home Rule candidate, but was not received with enthusiasm. Mr. Butt, when the young landlord has gone to him, proposing to join the League, had been delighted with him. “My dear boy,” he exclaimed to one of his friends, “we have got a splendid recruit, an historic name, my friend, young Parnell, of Wicklow; and unless I am mistaken, the Saxon will find him an ugly customer, though he is a good-looking fellow.” Mr. Butt himself was to find him an ugly customer five years after their first encounter, for by that time the tongue-tied, singularly uninformed stripling from Wicklow had ejected Mr. Butt from the leadership and landed him with a broken heart in his grave. Mr. Butt’s enthusiasm for Parnell was not felt by the Home Rule League. The young man undoubtedly had merits. He was able to pay his own election expenses, a fact which probably turned the scales in his favour, and he was a landlord, a Protestant, and an aristocrat.

But he was barely known to the members of the League. Those of them who had met him disesteemed him. His diffidence; his reticence, so unlike the large, lavish manner of Mr. Butt; his complete ignorance of political affairs and seeming inaptitude for them – all these made the Home Rule Leaguers reluctant to accept him as their candidate. If they were to make a demonstration, even in a hopeless constituency, they must make one which would not cover them with ridicule. That was the fate they feared. Mr. Parnell’s political stock-in-trade seemed to consist solely of references to “The Manchester Martyrs”. He talked of them in stutters, and could not talk of anything else. It was as if he thought he only had to mention “The Manchester Martyrs” three times and he had formulated a policy. The Leaguers debated about him. Was he a twister? What guarantee had they that this young landlord was not about to play some crooked game with them? “If he gives his word,” said Mr. John Martin, an old and respected Nationalist, “I will trust him. I would trust any of the Parnells.” But even the support of Mr. Martin did not incline the others towards him. They called him into the conference-room, so that they might inspect and examine him, and he entered, a tall, thin, handsome, delicate young man, with eyes that seemed remote until he was roused, when fires kindled in them, brown fires that scorched those who beheld them. We do now know what he said or did during that period of probation, but we do know that, when it was over, he was the Home Rule candidate for the county of Dublin.

Parnell remained quiet after this election until the sudden death on March 29, 1875, of Honest John Martin, who was one of the members of Meath. Parnell was adopted as a candidate in opposition to two other candidates  - Mr. J. L Naper, a Tory, and Mr. J. T. Hinds, an independent Home Ruler. The poll was declared on April 19, 1875, and Parnell was at the top of it. He received 1,771 votes, as against 902 for Mr. Naper and 138 for Mr. Hinds. One who heard him speaking at Navan during this election says the chairman had to lead him off the platform when he finished his speech, as he was completely dazed, apparently unable to find his way down, and his hands were so tightly clenched behind his back that the nails almost cut the palms of his hands.

IV 

Five years later, “the bloody fool” had driven Mr. Butt from authority to the grave, and was master of Ireland. Eleven years later he was master of the House of Commons, with Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury openly or covertly seeking his suffrages. Sixteen years later he was dead.

[1] There is a slight discrepancy between the account of this incident given by Mr. Barry O’Brien and that given by Mr. John Parnell. Mr. O’Brien, who received his account from Mr. John Parnell, states in the Life that the two brothers went to see Mr. Gray, but Mr. Parnell himself, in his book, states that Captain Dickinson went with Charles, he, John, declining to do so. The Parnells had defective memories, but it is probable that the account in Mr. Parnell’s book is accurate.