Butt's Decline and Death (1879)

Chapter V*

Butt’s Decline and Death *(1879)

In April, 1878, Mitchell Henry, M.P. for Galway, a well-meaning Lancashire man (who spent a million on a residence at Kylemore, Connemara), raised in the House of Commons the question of the Galtee evictions in Co. Tipperary. These had been first exposed by Sarsfield Casey, a Fenian released in 1877, whose letters signed “Galtee Boy” infuriated the agent of the estate, Patten Smith Bridge. He brought a libel action against Casey, and the trial engrossed all Ireland. Large subscriptions were raised for the defence, and after a long trial, the jury refused to find for Bridge, who had been shot at and wounded. During the debate unexpectedly raised by Mitchell Henry, Bridge sat “under the clock” beside me, and was much agitated. In the short adjournment for the “Speaker’s chop” I asked him in the lobby, “Are you Patten Bridge?” “Yes,” he said. “Look!” and he pulled up his trousers before all and sundry to show the scars where the slugs struck him - a grim sight in the heart of Westminster. He had been fired on near Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, with his police guard, and his driver, Hyland, was killed.

An old man named Crowe was seized on the spot by the police escort, and, being convicted, was hanged. He was an evicted tenant who became a pauper in the Tipperary workhouse. To shoot Bridge he put away his pauper’s garb, and planned that the deed should take place in Co. Cork, and not in Co. Tipperary, for the Peace Preservation Act of 1875 burthened each county with an *eric *or blood-geld for crimes committed within the County area. Crowe wished to spare Tipperary the mulct which must follow the murder, by shooting Bridge in Co. Cork. After conviction, being asked by the Clerk of Arraigns what he had to say why sentence of death should not be passed on him, Crowe muttered “I knew I had no chance when I didn’t fire at him in Tipperary,” meaning that he would not in that case have been tried in the Cork venue!

On the day of his execution there was led with him to the gallows a Greek youth named Bombos, doomed at the same Assizes for mutiny on the British ship *Caswell *in the South Seas, when its captain was slain. The late William O’Brien, a young reporter on the *Cork Herald *(afterwards M.P.), thrilled Munster by an account of the executions. O’Brien had previously won renown by his *Christmas in the Galtees, *describing the mountain holdings where Patten Bridge wrought havoc.

Bombos was a youth of good family, who left Attica through a love affair, and shipped aboard the *Caswell. *On his first trial the jury disagreed. The dissenting juror was J. O’Mara, then owner of the Royal Hotel, Mallow, who did not believe the seamen’s evidence. On the second arraignment O’Mara was set aside by the Crown, i.e., not allowed to serve, and Bombos was convicted. Then for his soul’s health an Archimandrite of the Oriental rite was brought from Liverpool to Cork to speed the way to heaven. The death-scene was described by O’Brien with telling artistry. He drew a picture of the Greek pope in gorgeous robes intoning canticles in the-tongue of Sophocles and leading his co-religionist to the trap-door to the swaying of a thurible, while Bombos puffed a cigarette. Behind him came a grey-haired Munster peasant in his shirt-sleeves telling his beads in response to the “Hail Marys” of a plainly-surpliced priest. Neither quavered. As the “drop” fell, the representatives of the Greek and Latin rites saluted. Thus flew the souls of Bombos and Crowe into eternity. Their bodies were quick-limed in a common grave in the jail yard, and East and West were in death united.

A sequel which O’Brien could not have foreseen shed another light on the Greek’s execution.

O’Mara, the dissenting juror, told me 40 years later that, seated at dinner in the Grand Hotel, London, he spoke of the unjust conviction of Bombos, whereupon a lady at his table cried out, “I am the widow of the captain, and was on board the *Caswell *when he was kllled. Bombos was innocent, and it was the mate who swore against him that murdered my man. Being his wife I was not called to give evidence. Several other witnesses swore falsely, too.”

At the inquest on the carman, Hyland, shot by Crowe, a woman swore she heard the volley which killed him, but thought it “keol.” This Gaelic word may be translated” sport” or “music,” and is in common use in Irish-English for any kind of fun. The *Daily News *correspondent, a Scotchman named Dunlop, telegraphed to paper that she swore the shots were “music.” The murder had aroused interest throughout Britain, and the *Daily News *was then the mouthpiece of Liberal opinion, so it denounced the witness who swore such a falsehood with “true Celtic impudence.” Dunlop, with Dr. Patten, Dublin correspondent of *The Times *(then editor of the Dublin *Daily Express), *used in that epoch to manufacture English opinion about Ireland. No men did more to inflame or warp it.

When Patten Bridge ceased to harry the Galtees the Lancashire cotton-spinner, Buckley, to whom he was agent, sent a consumptive clerk in his employment to look after his property. Not only did he pacify the people by kindly handling, but the English lad recovered his health, thanks to the sweet milk and sweeter smiles he received in every shieling in the mountains.

Tipperary had been much earlier in revolt. William Scully, when about to evict a family with a sheriff’s posse in 1868, was fired on at Ballycohey. This the peasants likened to the affray at Carrickshock in the Tithe War of the ‘thirties. *New Ireland, *by A. M. Sullivan, M.P., describes the Ballycohey tragedy with the comment that it secured the Land Act of 1870 (Vol. ii, p.364).

Ballad rhymers sang:

At Slievenamon I met a man

who axt, “Is Scully dead?”

I cannot give you that account,

But I hear he’s bad in bed.

He turned my mother out of doors,

But I may meet him still.

We’re bold Tipperary mountaineers,

Says Rory of the Hill.

Ballycohey was the forerunner of the Land League upheaval. Tipperary loosed the storm whose lightnings burst over Mayo in 1879. In December, 1881, I met in Illinois (U.S.A.) a tax-collector who told me that Scully had bought land there, which he let to tenants. So highly rented were they, that they used to urge in excuse for their backward payment of taxes, “We’re Scully’s tenants!

His brother Vincent Scully *(New Ireland, *Vol. ii, p.353) member for Co. Cork up to 1865, in his election address of that year claimed that he compelled Liverpool ships to call at Queenstown for emigrants. Parnell put forward Scully’s grandson as his candidate for North Kilkenny against Sir John Pope Hennessy during the Split of 1890. His descendant did much to make atonement for the sins of his ancestors. He was not only a considerate landlord, but gave large sums to the Irish National League.

Towards the end of 1877 the murder of Lord Leitrim in Donegal made a great sensation in England. Sir Michael Hick-Beach, when Chief Secretary for Ireland, had more than once remonstrated with him privately, but in vain. Beach sensed from local police reports the danger he stood in.

In April, 1878, F. H. O’Donnell in the Commons tried to moralize on the murder, but Colonel King-Harman, a Sligo landlord, availed himself of Biggar’s tactics to “espy strangers,” by which means he prevented public debate. Butt refused to support O’Donnell, and would not even remain in the Chamber. I saw him, after I was turned out of the gallery, pace the lobby round and round, in anger. He spoke to me sorrowfully, and no more realized the surgings of revolt in the new generation than did John Redmond in 1916-18. Yet O’Donnell did not intend to go into the unhappy dealings of Lord Leitrim with the females of his tenants’ families, as King-Harman feared.

My brother’s criticism of my literary lapses now began. In answer, I pleaded:

London,

14th April, ‘78.

“I reach the House about six o’clock, and go into the Strangers’ Gallery and, if there is anything interesting, stay there till 12, 1, 2, 3, or 4 a.m. This doesn’t give me a great deal of time for reading. If there is nothing particular on, I leave the place and go to the City News Rooms (admission one penny) which are about half-an-hour’s walk away; and sometimes I come back to the House about eleven o’clock. On Wednesday I don’t go there. Last Tuesday I had to walk down twice: and if you had to write my “letter,” and get up your facts in the hours after midnight, you would be more lenient on slipshod expressions, and not be surprised that a fellow used the first phrase that came to his mind.

I have had no talk with anyone about the Lord Leitrim debate. I just got in, in time to be turned out. For all Dr. Ward’s opposition to O’Donnen and obstruction, Ward is a decent fellow, and I am sorry he is going wrong. My present mood towards every one but Parnell is that of suspicion, for which I have not the slightest reason. I merely state the fact as a curiosity - though I must say that Parnell’s decency towards me is not the cause of my good opinion.”

A champion of the Gaelic tongue, O’Neill Russell, made friends with me in London.

One evening Russell took me to Cowell’s hostelry in Holborn, whose proprietor was the best speaker of Connaught Irish in London. When they had discoursed for a spell in Gaelic, Russell burst into English, saying, “Ah, man, don’t tear the throat out of yourself!” and left the bar telling me Cowell’s speech was too guttural.

Of Russell I wrote Maurice:

1*st May, *‘78.

“I have come across *the only real Irishman I have ever met in my life. *He is O’Neill Russel, secretary of the Irish Language Preservation Society, and a Protestant. T.D.S. introduced him to me, and I have taken tea with him to-night. He is a genial fellow. I asked him why he didn’t reply to my letter in the *Nation *on Gaelic spelling, to which he answered he had said everything he’d got to say, adding that he could convince me yet of the merits of Irish orthography! The most extraordinary compound of a man you ever met, and I am delighted to know him. He is lodging just opposite us, and O’Connor Power and I are going over to him to-night.”

London,

10*th May. *‘78.

“N. D. Murphy speaks well, and his long speech against Sunday Closing had nothing Biggar-ish about it. In fact, *The Times *paid a half-compliment to his “extraordinary oratory.” He is a man about 60, with white hair and a bald head, or - to be accurate - he has white hair on the part that isn’t bald.

As to my prospects of a berth, Finegan of the Chronicle has promised to be on the look-out. If I had to depend on my own exertions to better myself I should never get 24s. a week. Finegan mentioned that the *Daily News *allows Edmund O’Donovan £1,000 a year and his expenses in Asia Minor. The two of them had been through the French war (I870-1) and in prison together in Germany.

I don’t know what is going to be done about Butt to-morrow. Re-elect him, I suppose, with all the honours. Parnell was saying to me last night he won’t be there, as he is going to Liverpool to see his mother and sister off to America. Parnell said in his business-like way (after having previously “feared he was neglecting me”-which he was not) that he would take care to put me down regularly week after week in future. The “Speaker’s List” Book has to be filled a week in advance, but, if one’s name is not on it, and there is nothing particular doing in the House, a fellow knowing any of the members can always procure an “order” from the Serjeant if there is room, which there always is, by waiting a little.

O’Neill Russell has left “over the way” and gone back to Dublin. He is an extraordinary character, and one of the strangest compounds I ever came across. He wrote *Dick Massey, *which Tom said was good, but I have heard you pitch into it. I told him Tom’s verdict, and he said the book was nothing compared to a later one called *A True Heart’s Trials, *which he presented to me before he left. I have only read a few chapters of it, and think the style might be improved a thousand per cent. by hacking. His notions of Irish pronunciation are amusing. To make the word “whatever” rhyme to “whether” he spells it “wedhdher” - and so on. I haven’t succeeded in “insensing” him into my views upon spelling phonetically, only I think I have left his faith in the old notation shaken. I can see from what he said that he thinks the present spelling with the present number of letters would be hard to improve on without a radical change, except by the introduction of new letters. I gave him my subscription for the Irish Language Society. I don’t think he tries to get anyone to become a member, as his enthusiasm does not lie on the practical side. It was he who got from the *Revue Celtique *and put into the *Nation *last November that bit about the death of Cuhulin, which T.D.S. praised. If I could have an hour’s instruction from such a man every day for a month I would soon know Irish, though I have given no attention to it these six months back. Still, I hope some day or other to master it, only I fear “that some day or other” is only a “weak invention of the enemy.” I don’t have time for study after doing the necessary newspaper reading and attendance at the House of Commons.

My admiration for Parnell increases. Ministers compliment him on his “industry,” but though there is always reason in his amendments, he doesn’t care about anything but wasting time. He boasted to me, setting his teeth, that he would smash up all their business this session. I hardly think they will pass any measure of consequence, and if Parnell and the rest keep on “criticizing” the Estimates, it is not easy to see when they will be passed. The Government don’t care very much… .

If Butt holds on a little Parnell will get such a hold on the country that he will inevitably lead the only men who will be worth leading, and the Conference might soon quicken that idea in the minds of the people.”

No one then could have supposed that in less than a year Butt would be in his grave. As yet in the Courts (if not in Parliament) he was as vigorous as ever, At nisi prius

• sometimes with a bottle of wine before him - Butt was the most successful orator and advocate since O’Connell.. Although a convinced Protestant, his devotion to the Blessed Virgin was such that when a big case had to be argued he drove from his house in Eccles Street to the Four Courts, reciting the “Hail Marys” of the Rosary. In the end his son Robert, an ex-British officer, obtained undue ascendancy over him politically. Robert, when his father died, became Chairman of the “Kensington Parliament.” I wrote my brother:

London,

1st June, ‘78.

“In a discussion with Biggar I urged on him the necessity of his and Parnell’s doing something through the country to wake it up. Their hope lies in getting men returned with the necessary capacity for obstruction; but the most obstructive-minded man in the world would not be any use if he were a duffer. Carrying on the present game requires skill. It is not every fool who can obstruct. As John George McCarthy, M.P., said, it looks very like as if parliamentary business could only be attended to by rich men, or men who live permanently in London.

After the General Election the balance of parties may render obstruction unnecessary, and the fussiness of Mitchell Henry in trying to drive the Parnellites into revolt and splits is regrettable.

My admiration for Parnell grows. Yet O’Donnell’s coolness beats anything. The row about the Police Magistrate inquiry was produced by him just as he strolled into the House after an absence of a quarter of an hour. He opened by asking Biggar for information upon the “question before the House.” His words were not carefully chosen, but their langour was delicious. Ten men like O’Donnell and Parnell would either put an end to the House of Commons, or get put an end to themselves - probably the latter. The place is such that it is no wonder earnestness loses its edge there. If it were not for the ties of friendship and fear of libel, I would like to give some Irish M.P.’s a bit of my mind. Their childish resentment of criticism is extraordinary. I have before expressed to you my amazement that men who live in the heat of politics should be so sensitive of what is said of, or to, them.

Lucy did me the kindness to quote in *Mayfair *a bit of one of my paragraphs about Biggar in the Nation.”

I had not then met Lucy (afterwards Sir Henry), and when I entered Parliament a few years later his Press references to me were usually kindly.

The growing popularity in Ireland of Parnell, Biggar and O’Donnell aroused the jealousy of O’Connor Power, who, being an orator, wished to retain the goodwill of the House of Commons.

To try to avert friction between them, John Barry, at Biggar’s request, consented to mediate. They met in the old “Conference Room” of the House, and I waited distressfully in the lobby. After an hour they emerged looking much upset, for Power not only rejected Parnell’s claims, but, being pressed for reasons, made a retort (unprintable) which Parnell never forgave. I wrote Maurice:

London,

1*st August, *‘78.

“Parnell, as I told you, has a list of men and places that he means to fight, but, from his want of knowledge of these matters, he would make a bad electioneering tactician, and some of the men on his list would not be “sweet boons” - though, of course, better than the fellows now in. Biggar was kind enough to invite me to aspire to senatorial honours (you need not bruit this abroad). I told him I would respond if he gave me a blank cheque with his name on it!

Parnell will take anyone he can get as M.P., so wretched is the present state of things. Anyone would be better than the miserable duffers most of these Home Rulers are.”

The situation for Ireland was unpromising, and the attacks on the Parnell and Biggar policy in the *Freeman *were constant. The Home Rule League organization, which directed the movement, was completely in Butt’s hands, and Butt’s supporters in the House of Commons only wished to “mark time.”

London,

7*th October, *‘78.

“Humbug will carry the day in the Irish representation for some time to come. Butt has refused to call a Conference, saying that he and Egan had been asked to act as a sub-committee to organize a joint meeting of some sort, but Egan is better at getting up inutilities such as Judge Keogh funerals than at work which requires administrative capacity.

I wrote him as to the people on whom the responsibility of battling with the Butt-ites rested. If they don’t choose to act, it is their affair, not ours I shall try to go over to Dublin, but am not sure whether I can do so.”

The allusion to Judge Keogh’s funeral had reference to the plan hatched by Egan, that if the coffin was brought from Germany to Dublin it should be seized at what was then Carlisle Bridge and flung into the Liffey. I loathed such manifestations and went to Ireland in order to understand the situation. Afterwards I wrote Maurice:

London,

*October, *‘78.

“Would it be possible to get up a meeting in Lismore, and invite Parnell? The resolution I moved in Dublin at the Confederation of Great Britain was at his request, upon a suggestion of my own. If he could have O’Connor Power at his elbow continually it would be a good thing, as Power understands the necessities of agitation, and Parnell doesn’t. I hope he will make a good fist of his answer to Butt, though I have never been persuaded that he shines as a letter-writer. Dan Crilly told me Parnell’s first contribution to the *Liverpool Argus *(mentioned in my London letter) was not worth much, and though he promised to insert it, he has failed me.”

O’Connor Power and Parnell were not kindred spirits. Power was an able and eloquent man, reeking of the common clay, at which Parnell’s aristocratic sensitiveness recoiled. Of their differences I hinted to my brother:

London,

24*th November, ‘78.

“*I met O’Connor Power, and he was unaware, until I told him, that his name was down to propose one of the resolutions in Dublin. He expressed disgust, and said he told the Dublin people he would not go over, and that it was only another piece of their cowardice in being afraid to face Butt themselves.

I was aware of the stories told about Power, but what is the use of repeating them? Parnell has been careful to tell me his views about Power (and so has Biggar), but I have defended him to them, and think they should make allowance for his poverty and position. Parnell told Power to his face that he was “a damned scoundrel,” and Power made a coarse reply. It is not safe to say hard things of friends to outsiders, and still less safe to write them, even in shorthand.”

The first attempt to return a parliamentary candidate on Parnell’s side was made in 1878. A vacancy in New Ross, Co. Wexford, led him to induce George Delany, a wealthy Dublin merchant, to stand. Butt, however, preferred the return of the Tory, Colonel Tottenham, and Delany was defeated. Butt managed this by sending down Michael Crean, afterwards a Land Commissioner (father of the late Dr. Crean, V.C.), to announce that Delany was a “Garibaldian.”

Delany had helped some Italian artists, whose sculpture was injured in transit to the Dublin Exhibition of 1865, and for this received a decoration from Victor Emmanuel.

Crean had served in the Papal Brigade, and denounced Delany accepting such an honour. The epithets “Garibaidlan” and “Mazzinian” were then stock phrases to pelt at Nationalists.

Such nicknames captured the majority in New Ross, and the landlord candidate was elected by the handful of voters there who profaned the franchise.

In the sessions from 1874 to 1880 the relations between ministerialists and Butt’s Party were friendly. A. M. Sullivan told me that the Tory Solicitor-General, Sir John Holker, came to him in the Lobby one night with a half-crown in his palm. “Look at that!” said he, “the only honest money I ever earned!” “How so? ” said Sullivan. “Well,” he replied, “your hairdresser came looking for you to get in, and I heard from the police that he was a friend* *of yours, so I showed him round; He thought I was an attendant, and when going away slipped me half a crown. I was delighted, and shall sport it on my watch-chain.”

Holker by his will left £100,000 to benefit students of Gray’s Inn after the death of his wife, and the reversion fell due in 1926.

London,

4th February, 1879.

“It Is evident that, as the General Election approaches, both parties are getting anxious, and if Butt hadn’t quarrelled with Parnell there would be great things in store for Ireland. As it is Butt intends to cling to power as long as he can, in order to give his flatterers value for their money. I don’t know that much good can come of anything this side of the General Election so long as he remains a brakesman to check advance.

Disraeli sees that the Catholics are the natural allies of Conservatism, and means to “educate “his Party up to this point, as it is no longer safe to ignore them, and they are likely to be indispensable. His University Bill should, therefore, be better than Gladstone’s. What I am afraid of is that he will propose a County Franchise Bill for England only, and that the Irish will be constrained to let it pass, while no effort is made to improve the Irish franchise. Butt, with the help of the cry “religion first,” would aid him in this. It is also likely that they will try to pass some New Rules for the conduct of parliamentary business… .

I got Davitt to send that affidavit-letter to the *Freeman *about Pigott. I had much work to discover Davitt’s whereabouts, and at last got his address, under another name, at a Poste Restante, Paris. He returned here on Wednesday and told me that Devoy would send a “crusher” when he replied, exposing Pigott’s financial foibles. My impression is (though not from anything Davitt said) that Devoy was also in Paris.”

On the 8th February, 1879, Butt made his last appearance in public. No one guessed his end was near, and he was only 66. He attended the Home Rule League to hear T. D. Sullivan move, and Biggar second, a demand for a more “forward” policy in Parliament. The late John Dillon, then a stripling, made a galling onslaught on him. He made a spirited reply, but soon afterwards was stricken.

I wrote Maurice:

London,

8*th March, *1879.

“O’Connor Power had a letter from Robert Butt this week, stating his father might recover, but that he was afraid his mind was going.

The Irish Institute, Newcastle-on-Tyne, is doing well, and I am sorry Parnell gave so much umbrage. I attacked Parnell about it, but he said he did the best he could, and was sure, if I had been there myself, I would have thought so. As Parnell was in the chair at the Executive meeting of the Confederation I was unable to do much, for he forgot his chairmanship by using the chairman’s power of interruption.

There will be no lack of candidates at the General Election, but an entire lack of good ones. This is deplorable, as the Tories are certain to be in a minority, and firmness on the Irish side, to resist Liberal overtures, needs to be the greater. No one not actually a witness of what goes on in the House of Commons can form a proper conception of how a dozen intelligent men could work there. Yet, as Parnell said to me, the Irish Party consists, not only of “do-nothings,” but of “know-nothings.” Nine-tenths of them are ignorant.

Davitt was here and says Devoy sent his letter to the *Freeman, *but couldn’t get it printed, as Pigott threatened to bring an action for libel if they published anything reflecting on his honesty. Davitt read the letter for T.D.S., who says it will be a great pity if it is not published. He tried to influence Gray, but Eddy has been on the spree and didn’t think he had got the letter!”

London,

5th April, ‘79.

“O’Connor Power is “eating his dinners” for the Bar, but has not much energy for work. Biggar, who has not been here since before Easter, turned up at the Confederation, and I mildly inquired of him, “what is going to be your title?” Joe smiled at my explanatory information that rumour had it he and Parnell had been “squared.” The truth is that he and Parnell, whose return is also expected, don’t wish to give the Government any excuse over the University Bill, which is being hatched.

Dwyer Gray, with the O’Conor Don and Parnell, has been arranging matters with the Archbishop of Dublin and the Castle I Parnell formed one of the deputation which waited on Cardinal McCabe, who asked him to lessen activities until the Bill passes.

Pat Egan was here chuckling over the idea of spoiling “God save the Queen” at the next “Command Night” at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, by means of some sneezing stuff! Did you ever know anything so childish? The idea of full-grown men engaging in such an enterprise, and talking about it gravely when they are found so unready in every weighty matter! Egan the best of them, and of great personal consideration… .

I read what you wrote on Gaelic notation, and am in agreement with it. To make a good instruction-book there is a great deal in it which could prifitably be brought under the notice of the Irish Language Society. If you embody your views in a letter, the *Nation *will print it, but it will be followed by a wrangle with some lunatic to whom its columns would be also thrown open.

Write an essay on the compilation of an Irish Manual. Avoid attacking existing ones, while making clear defects.

London,

11th April, ‘79.*

*“T.D.S. yesterday wrote that Butt’s intellect had completely gone, and that it was better for him to die.

Justin MacCarthy’s return for Longford unopposed was extraordinary. He had unusual recommendations before he issued his address. Lord Hartington and Lord Granard kept the Greville and Whig interest quiet.

He is an addition to the Party, and brings culture and brains to a quarter which was not overstocked.

I shall be curious to read what Parnell and Biggar say at Monday’s meeting in Cavan. Parnell probably will ultimately go mad if no relief comes to him from Ireland, or break down under the strain. It is a pity he has no head for organisation work outside House of Commons. He is a child in some respects.”

Butt died on the 5th May, 1879. The succession to the Chairmanship lay between William Shaw, M.P., President of the Munster Bank, and Mitchell Henry, M.P., the English notable elected for Gaiway, who had raised the case of the Galtee evictions.

Biggar voted for Mitchell Henry, whose tenure of the Chair was likely to be effective. Parnell voted for Shaw, whom he knew he could oust. So Shaw was chosen. I wrote my brother:

London,

5*th July, ‘79.

“*Shaw’s semi-leadership is all very well so long as there is no crisis in affairs, but his course of action would be just as unsatisfactory as Butt’s. It is, therefore, desirable that men like J. A. Blake should be made to have a distinct feeling as to the leader they were expected to follow, in certain eventualities.”

The Borough of Ennis, Co. Clare, with an electorate of not more than 300, now fell vacant, and I got from O’Connor Power, M.P., this note:

House of Commons,

15*th July, *1879.

My Dear Healy,

“I regret I had not an opportunity of talking to you last night, especially about Ennis. Parnell and I have just been talking about the matter and would like to see you here this evening, if you could manage to come. With kind regards to your brother and J. Barry.”

Ever yours,

J. O’Connor Power.

I wrote my father:

17*th July, ‘79;

“Power’s letter, on which this is written, refers to a proposal made to me in the House on Monday night that I should stand for Ennis! Parnell promised that he would guarantee the expense, and that I should not be put to a penny outlay. I didn’t intend to think about the matter a second time until Power’s letter obliged me to go down to meet them on Thursday. Parnell urged me strongly there and then to wire “my address” to the Freeman so as *to be even in the running with William O’Brien, Q.C., whose “address” we knew would appear in the next day’s paper. Power also was anxious for me to go up, as O’Brien is simply a Whig, whom the *Freeman *and Gray have forced to accept Home Rule to save his bacon. I suggested that we should ask the Dublin fellows what they were doing, as I could only entertain the matter if all Ireland was so “pumped out” that a candidate could not be got to save the seat. I was anxious to get to my lodgings to write my weekly “letter.” We wired T.D.S. and I told Parnell, as it was then midnight, that I would call at his house at 2 a.m. to see the reply. On going there, Parnell was depressed by the uncheering report of the constituency given by T.D.S. in his telegram, which practically would give a “walk over” to Crown Prosecutor O’Brien. Parnell said T.D.S. was a timid man, but I was glad of the excuse for gracefully retiring. I proposed to Parnell, however, that (as I had still a few minutes till the 3 a.m. post to finish my London letter to the *Nation) *he should come to my lodgings in Doughty Street and regale himself with whisky and water while I fished up a candidate.

I knew Finegan got home from his newspaper about 3 a.m., so I went to his rooms, found him, and brought him to Doughty Street, where Parnell was asleep on a sofa. We then flung together any fragments suitable for a patriotic constituency which occurred to our flurried minds for Finegan’s address, and I took them down in shorthand, and away we rushed to the Strand to the *Freeman *office to see if we could have them wired over that night. The *Freeman *London correspondent. like all virtuous men, finishes work before 5 a.m., but we found a telegraph operator, got him to call up the foreman printer in the Dublin office, and were informed that the paper was “at press.” By putting on a little pressure, we got him to take on our message. I read it to the telegraph clerk, who worked it off from dictation, and we were informed it would appear on page 6 of the apostolic *Freeman - *where, no doubt, you saw it yesterday… .

I hope Finegan may win. Biggar who has just called, tells me that Parnell will leave town to-night to support him. John Barry is away, and the Lord only knows what complications T.D.’s telegram prevented as regards myself, for otherwise Parnell certainly would have had the election address signed by that well-known patriot, T. M. Healy, in next day’s paper I

sight of it would have amazed you as the first inkling of my ambitions. Finegan will have to pay his own expenses, Parnell is a considerable saver the exchange of candidates.

I spoke to Finegan on the “Bar” question last Sunday. O’Connor rer says when he was up for his “preliminary” a few months ago the miners were very polite, though he was completely ignorant of several matters. To the question, “Who was Admiral Byng? ” he replied. “I don’t know.” Yet they passed him. Power had been giving all his attention to Latin.”

Finegan was a gallant, handsome fellow, who had served the Army in 1870-1. Parnell promised to speak for him in Ennis the following Sunday with T. D. Sullivan. It was a constituency long canvassed by William O’Brien, Q.C. (afterwards judge), and its voters were not incorruptible. A victory there would be a turning point in Parnell’s fortunes. Yet on the Friday night, when he should have gone to Ennis, he lingered over the Army Bill in the House of Commons. Throughout that day I pressed him to keep his word to Finegan and catch the night mail for Ireland. He forsook us, but under pressure promised to go by the Saturday morning train. Still, I saw that he showed no sign of leaving the House. After midnight I went to Biggar, and besought him to keep Parnell to his word. About 4 a.m. Parnell came to me saying there was no one to “call” him for the train at his flat in Keppel Street. Said I, “Come to my lodgings in Doughty Street, and I will sit up to wake you!” After long parley he consented. I watched beside his bed in my room for the few hours he had to sleep, and before waking him sallied out to get a snack for his breakfast. A butcher’s shop was open, and I bought a steak and came back to light a fire. The grilling of that steak was my first and last essay at cookery. When I supposed it was “done” I roused Parnell, who had slept in his clothes. He ate the steak without reproach. The “hansom” I had engaged stood at the door, and he caught the mail at Euston. I went in it with him to make sure, and he smiled as I handed him *The Times *when the train moved off.

His descent on Ennis with T. D. Sullivan roused the town. The *Freeman *opposed him fiercely, and Nationalists everywhere awaited the result with tense expectation. On Saturday the poll was declared. That evening I dined at Gatti’s in the Strand, and read in the *Globe *of Finegan’s victory. (The poll then closed at 5 p.m.) Leaving my chop uneaten and my bill unpaid, I rushed out to call on O’Connor Power at his lodgings. Power’s only comment was, “What will the bishops say?”

O’Brien, the opponent of Finegan, was so sure of victory that he telegraphed to a solicitor at the Cork Assizes, “Shall be with you on Monday, and member for Ennis.” He had been counsel for Casey in the “Galtee” libel case, and was not unpopular.

When I remembered that I had failed to pay my bill at Gatti’s, I returned there on Monday to do so, but found the manager less concerned with taking payment than with the question who the waiter was, and what table I sat at! He would rather have punished the waiter than receive five shillings from a customer whose thoughts had suddenly reached out beyond the Strand.

On that Monday the *Freeman *published a pretended speech of Parnell at Limerick Junction, in which he was made to call his colleagues “papist rats”! This was a phrase invented by Gray, to ruin the Protestant with his Catholic countrymen.

Next day Parnell reached London, and I composed denials on his behalf to the *Freeman. *I had to frame them so that the words telegraphed could not be turned into “pie” by the editor, with whose skill in running one sentence into another to make nonsense I was familiar. The *Freeman *also alleged that Parnell repeated the phrase at a meeting of the party in London. That its lies were treated as founded on fact by even Parnell’s best backers the subjoined letter shows:

On the 3rd August, 1879, T. D. Sullivan wrote me:

“This Parnell affair is bad. I don’t mean the alleged Limerick Junction speech; that may have been injudicious, but it was, or would be, if spoken, true enough, and it hit only the men named. But the expressions said to have been used at the Members’ meeting in London are a different thing.

If Parnell has flung the word “papist” in the teeth of Irish Catholics the people will resent it. I never fancied Parnell *could *use that Orange epithet. Every one thought he was a man of such mental balance that he could not be betrayed into the public employment of the word.

While in Ennis I noticed a want of caution on his part in one instance, but only in one. I intended to speak to him about it, but the thing went out of my mind. He, Finegan and I were talking at a time when the waiter chanced to be present. Parnell referred to the clergy as “those fellows.” That was decidedly imprudent, but the present affair is far and away of greater consequence. If Parnell can be quite certain that he did not use the nickname “papist.” the sooner he says so, or gets someone to say it for him, the better.

If you could aid in any way towards setting this matter right it would be a good thing. If there is no help for it, oblivion of the unfortunate affair is the best we can hope for.”

Friendly M.P.’s, however, published a denial that Parnell had used the words imputed to him by the *Freeman *at the Party meeting, and T.D.S. wrote me rejoicing:

“Nation” Office, Dublin,

4*th August, *1879.

“The letter of the “members” in the *Freeman *to-day is cheering. It puts Parnell right.

Gray’s manifesto is dangerous. He means harm. It will not do to lose temper and go in furiously for a fight. The Whig game is to break “the party of action” before the General Election. There should be frequent consultation between “the advanced section” till we are through the critical time that has come upon us. Anything that would damage the reputation of Parnell just now, or cool the ardour of the popular regard for him, would be a national calamity, and the allegation of his use of the word “papist” was well calculated to have that effect. The contradiction by those members disposed of the malign fiction; but I am curious to see what the *Freeman’s *London correspondent will have to say to-morrow…

Gray’s manifesto, which appears in this day’s *Freeman, *looks like a deliberate opening of a battery on Parnell and his friends, to give them all the smashing possible previous to the General Election. Some people say Eddy’s design is, after having helped to put Butt aside, now to put Parnell aside,

and make himself a sort of dictator worthy of high consideration from the Liberals when they come into power. I intend to write strongly on Gray’s manifesto, which I consider a vicious piece of work, and one which will not serve Gray. It looks too like spite, brought out by the Ennis election.”

I was then Parnell’s closest counsellor, and never did an assailed man so need friends. In Barry, too, who was a host in himself, he had a seasoned and able ally.

I wrote my brother:

London,

7*th August, *1879.

“I suppose I should begin by stating, my disbelief in the words attributed to Parnell. When his resolution was rejected by the Party (insisting on the postponement of the Queen’s College estimates until the University Bill was seen to be satisfactory) he told me that day privately that he had called Gray “a damned coward.” He was no doubt overwrought by the conduct of the Irish members, and it was the day of his return from Ennis, but no one ever heard anything of the “papist rats “business, either as lobby gossip or in any other form, until the *Freeman *brought it out. Parnell, having to a large extent constituted me his political adviser on points of this kind, I cannot well make reference to them without an appearance of egotism. But it is a fact that for every step he has taken, either over the Gray squabble, or as to the next election, I am more or less responsible. On returning to London Parnell thanked me, saying Ennis was my victory, not his, and I got him to write and publish the letters and thanks to the Meath priests, which you will doubtless have read.”

After describing my efforts to secure Parnell’s support of Finegan, and the publication of his denials, I continued:

“The declaration of the five members produced a great sensation in the House that night, and I was glad to see that A. M. Sullivan was quite congratulatory referring to “our declaration.” Gray saw then there was nothing for it but to brazen it out, and accordingly appeared with his second assertion. On the Tuesday, having my own letter to write to the *Nation, *I spent (at great inconvenience) some hours at the House to take care that O’Donnell didn’t lead Parnell into any mistaken jinks, and after a struggle succeeded in getting his inflammatory style toned down to the way in which it was published… .

It astonishes me how unassumingly Parnell accepts the advice of other people, and places himself in their hands. If it hadn’t been for the business of last night, he would, at my request, and against his later intention, have obstructed the Queen’s College estimates; but Biggar, whom he put up to “mind cool” in the House, fell asleep, and the Chairman galloped through them, as the other Irish M.P.’s pretended they didn’t know what was being done amidst the noise.”

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