In August the Bill received the Royal Assent.

Meanwhile in Ireland coercion continued. The Land League was declared to be an illegal body, and its meetings were broken up by the police, often with wholly needless violence. In October, Parnell himself was imprisoned for a speech made in Wexford, and he was soon joined in Kilmainham Jail by John Dillon and others of his party. Michael Davitt had already, some months previously, had his ticket-ofleave cancelled, and was in Portland Convict Prison. The outrages increased in number and audacity, the perpetrators being rarely discovered.

At length the English Government began to realise that nothing but disaster was likely to be the outcome of the course they were pursuing. The Land League, exasperated, was entering into the ways of actual Socialism, and had issued a manifesto advising the people to pay no rent whatever to the landlords.

Gladstone, and some other members of the Cabinet, began unofficial negotiations with Parnell, who, on condition that coercion should cease, that those imprisoned under the recent Acts should be released, and that certain arrangements favourable to the tenants should be made in regard to arrears of rent, agreed to withdraw the "No Rent Manifesto," and generally to restrain the Land League from extreme courses. In consequence of this arrangement, Parnell and his political followers were set at liberty (April and May, 1882). Earl Cowper, the Viceroy, and Forster resigned, their places being taken by Earl Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish. It appeared as if brighter days were about to dawn for Ireland.

CHAPTER XXII

THE RENEWAL OF COERCION. GLADSTONE'S FIRST HOME RULE BILL

The Phoenix Park Murders: A New Coercion Bill.-Never, perhaps, even in the tragic history of Ireland, has a more unexpected catastrophe than that of May 1882 come to dash to the ground the national hopes. On the 6th of the month, the new Viceroy and the new Chief Secretary entered Dublin in state-the heralds, as it appeared, of the new régime of conciliation. Late that afternoon, as Lord Frederick Cavendish was walking across the Phoenix Park in company with Mr. Burke, the Under Secretary, they were set on by assassins armed with knives, and brutally murdered. The criminals escaped, and for a considerable time all efforts to trace them failed. Over the whole of the British Isles there was horror at the news of this terrible outrage. In England there was blind rage, which made no distinction between millions of innocent Irishmen and a mere handful of miscreants. That the Irish Party as a whole, or any single member of it, approved of the deed-still less had any share in it-probably no British statesman believed. Parnell condemned and lamented the murders in a speech in the House, showing an emotion which he rarely displayed. A manifesto was issued, signed by him and by Dillon and Davitt, declaring that they would not be satisfied till the stain on their country had been wiped out by the capture and punishment of the

assassins.

Nothing, however, could still the cry for vengeance which arose from the masses of the English people. Under a democratic government no party will long resist the popular will. Only a few days after the Phoenix Park murders, a Crimes' Bill, exceeding in severity anything that the generation then alive could remember, was put before the House of Commons by Sir William Harcourt in the name of the Government. Under it a large number of offences were to be tried, not before a jury, but by a Commission of Judges. Meetings could be dispersed and newspapers seized. In "proclaimed districts" the police were empowered to enter houses at any time to search for arms or incriminating documents. They might also question any persons found abroad

between sunset and sunrise, and, if their explanations were unsatisfactory, arrest them.

This Bill was strenuously resisted by the Irish Party, but their efforts failed to even delay its passage. In July (1882) it became law, and was at once put into operation. Outrages and murders did not, however, decrease.

New Rules in Parliament: Punishment of the Phoenix Park Murderers: The Ashbourne Act.-During the Autumn Session of Parliament, new rules were drafted and passed to circumvent the obstruction tactics of the Irish Party. Additional powers were given to the Speaker to bring about the close of a debate, when satisfied that "the sense of the House" on the subject under consideration had been ascertained, and to check irrelevancy in the speeches. The right of speaking in adjourned debates was also limited.

In Ireland the Crimes' Act was rigorously enforced by Earl Spencer and by Trevelyan, the Chief Secretary. In order to aid its operations, a statute of Edward III, designed to allow of the arbitrary imprisonment of rogues and vagabonds, was drawn from the seclusion of centuries and used for the incarceration of political opponents of the authorities.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix Park murderers had at last been traced and arrested. They proved to be members of a small secret society called the "Invincibles." All those concerned in the crime were persons of humble station, with the exception of James Carey, who occupied a respectable position, was a Dublin Town Councillor, and had been generally regarded by his neighbours as a well-conducted and even highly religious man. In February, 1883, the trials began. Carey turned informer, and mainly through his evidence the four actual perpetrators of the crime were convicted and hanged, while several of their accomplices were condemned to long terms of imprisonment. The Government gave to Carey a free pardon, and sent him out of the country to South Africa. He was, however, pursued by an agent of the "Invincibles" named O'Donnell, and shot dead. O'Donnell was executed, but no sympathy was felt for Carey, who was rightly considered as in fact far more guilty than the ignorant men whom he had first instigated to crime and then betrayed. It appeared from the evidence that, contrary to what had been at first believed, the design of the assassins had been directed against Mr. Burke, whose severity had rendered him very unpopular. Lord Frederick Cavendish was only included because he happened to be in company with their intended victim. They did not, till afterwards, even know who he was.

Parnell's power in Ireland was now immense. No man since O'Connell had been so revered and trusted by the people. When a

collection was organised to pay off a charge on his property, a Papal Rescript, obtained against the "tribute" by British influence at Rome, did not prevent the large sum of £37,000 from being subscribed. The Irish Party in Parliament, as one man, moved according to his orders. It now comprised in its ranks a remarkable number of men of very fine ability; brilliant orators, keen debaters, learned lawyers. Outside Parliament, some, as T. P. O'Connor, were journalists, or, as T. D. Sullivan, poets, or, as Justin McCarthy, novelists and historians. As a whole, no other group in that historic chamber could match them. They were listened to, courted by some, feared by most, and, in their corporate capacity at least, detested by almost all.

The Irish Party could not, on their side, be expected to feel much affection for the Government which had passed and continued to retain the hated "Crimes' Act." Parnell began to contemplate the possibility of concluding some sort of bargain with the Conservatives, and, when a favourable opportunity presented itself, lending them the support of the Irish vote to oust the Liberals.

In 1885 the desired opportunity came. There had been disaster in the Soudan, culminating in the massacre of General Gordon and the English garrison at Khartoum. Justly or unjustly, the blame fell on the alleged vacillation of the Government. The Irish Party united with the Conservatives, and, in June, Gladstone's Ministry fell. Lord Salisbury came into office as Premier.

The new allies whom Parnell had chosen did not at once or entirely disappoint his expectations. The Crimes' Bill was not renewed; a Land Act, known afterwards, from the name of its introducer, Lord Ashbourne, as "The Ashbourne Act," was passed, by which a sum of £5,000,000 was to be lent to the Irish tenants at an interest of 4 per cent. to enable them to purchase their holdings. The money was to be paid back within 49 years, both principal and interest.

Parnell welcomed the benefits, but he was not satisfied. Like O'Connell, he had come to the conclusion that no gift short of the restoration of her native Parliament could bring to Ireland lasting prosperity and content.

Gladstone's First Home Rule Bill.-The time for a General Election was close at hand, and the leader of the Irish Party made it clear to both Conservatives and Liberals that Home Rule was the price at which the votes of his supporters could be bought. Neither Conservatives nor Liberals, however, dared to risk the alienation of their constituents in England by an express promise. Parnell had, therefore, to decide between probabilities, and his ultimate choice was that the Irish support should be given to the Conservatives. These were, in the event, defeated, but

the Liberal majority was, owing to the force against them of the Irish vote, a comparatively small one, which hampered Gladstone's policy and finally caused his downfall.

In Ireland the Home Rulers were triumphant. The lowering of the franchise by the Act of 1884 had greatly increased their power. They held more than half the seats in Ulster, while, in the other three provinces, the adherents of the two great English parties not pledged to Home Rule captured only two out of a total of seventy.

Gladstone was now Premier. It soon became known that he intended to introduce a measure of Home Rule for Ireland. Such a policy was extremely distasteful to many of the Liberal party, and by adopting it Gladstone severed himself from not a few of his oldest and most trusted political adherents. Those, however, whose knowledge of Ireland was most intimate, generally supported the veteran Statesman.

Early in April (1886), before a House full to overflowing, Gladstone, in a speech of remarkable eloquence, introduced his Home Rule Bill. According to its provisions, the Irish representatives should withdraw entirely from Westminster. In Ireland, a legislature, consisting of one House only, should be set up. But in this House should be two orders, who would usually indeed vote together, but, on the demand of either, separate voting on any question was to be permitted. The lower order was to consist of 203 members, elected for five years; the upper, of twenty-eight representative peers, and seventy-five other members, elected for ten years, by voters possessed of a higher property qualification than that entitling to a vote for the members of the lower order. The Lord Lieutenant could veto any Bill passed by the Irish Parliament, if its contents appeared to him prejudicial to the interests of the Empire. In regard to the local affairs of Ireland itself, the Lord Lieutenant should act according to the advice of his Council, which was to be constituted in harmony with the principles held by the majority of the Irish Parliament as then in being. Thus, there would be a Ministry responsible in some sort to the Legislature; an advantage which Grattan's Parliament had not enjoyed. Customs and Excise were to remain in the power of the Imperial Parliament, the proceeds to be used for Imperial purposes. Ireland was to make a contribution to Imperial expenditure of onefifteenth. This Home Rule Bill was to be followed by a Land Purchase Bill, which aimed at buying out the Irish landlords at about twenty years' purchase of their rentals, and making the tenants proprietors of their holdings.

Both these measures met with violent opposition. The English landed proprietors denounced the intended robbery of their class in Ireland. The Conservatives cried out against the proposed dissolution