CHAPTER XC. REVIVAL OF PARLIAMENTARY AGITATION IN IRELAND. THE DISESTABLISHMENT. NE other startling event occurred in 1867-the Clerkenwell explosion, but I will postpone the discussion of it to another place, and, skipping a few months, I will take up that period which is marked by the revival of parliamentary agitation. The end of 1867 and all the former half of 1868 were taken up with prosecutions. Assizes and commissions, regular and special, for months kept swelling the army of political convicts. From all parts of Ireland, and many parts of England the recruits were gathered. Presently there came a lull; but hardI had the last sentence been pronounced, hardly was the last felon dressed in his convict garb, when a new voice spoke out from the country, a small weak voice at first, but one which swelled in volume until it clamored in the ears of England's ministers with tones of thunder. Think of it! England had trampled down the Irish people's aspirations, had degraded--so far as she was able—their leaders, and now she found the nation rising up defiantly in the hour of supposed defeat, reiterating the old principle, and paying homage to the old leaders under the guidance of new ones. The movement first took definite shape about November, 1868, but, in fact, in newspaper articles, in general conversation, and even in some public speeches, the demand for amnesty had been foreshadowed. Anyway, in November, 1868, we find the Central Amnesty Committee in regular weekly session at the Mechanics' Institute in Dublin, with various persons in the chair at various times, most notable among them Isaac Butt, the eloquent and statesmanlike defender of the Fenians before the British tribunals, and of the nation. in the British forum-a man whose character and career might, in Carlylean phrase, be described as at once meteoric and fuliginous. I am inclined to the opinion that Isaac Butt cannot in any proper sense be classed among the leaders of the Irish people. I hardly think he ever really led the movements that he headed. But his splendid gifts of imagination, intellect, and speech, and his admirable acquirements, made him a most available man to thrust forward in great affairs, while men of less showy parts and less real genius too, but of more skill in the manipulation of parties, lurked in the background and pulled the wires. But at least, Butt was the first man at this time to proclaim the demands of the Irish people from a public platform in the presence of a great assemblage. He was the first too, who saw with statesmanlike eye, and publicly proclaimed, the true meaning of these demands. The first of a long series of great amnesty demonstrations took place at the Rotunda, Dublin. It was on the evening of January 24th, 1869, and the Lord Mayor presided. Letters from half a dozen Roman Catholic Bishops, and many other clerics both Catholic and Protestant were read, all asking "mercy" from the crown. Mr. Butt moved the first resolution. was this: It Resolved, that it is the persuasion of this meeting that the grant of a general amnesty to all persons convicted of political offences would be most grateful to the feelings of the people of the Irish Nation. The hall was crowded, and those who have seen an Irish political meeting can well imagine the roar of endorsement with which this proposition was received. Butt's right manly and patriotic speech which followed, gave the keynote of the whole campaign. He spoke of the swelling popular tide in favor of amnesty as a great popular ratification of the principles of the prisoners, as a mighty protest against the ignorant, unsympathetic, oppressive government of England. The ball set rolling at this meeting did not soon stop, and as it rolled it gained in weight and impetus. In February, 1869, the first concession was made. According to a Dublin newspaper, published at the time, there were then in prison eighty-one civilians charged with treason-felony, besides many military convicts, and persons charged with murder or other deeds of violence. Of the treason-felony men, fortytwo had been shipped to Western Australia, the rest were scattered among various convict settlements in England. where they were treated with the utmost rigor of the ordinary penal rule. About the end of February it was announced that forty-nine prisoners,-thirty-four in Australia, and fifteen in England, were to receive free pardons. When the names were made known, it was found that Charles James Kickhamnow dead, unhappily,-was the only man of first-rate importance in the number, though James O'Connor, and James F. X. O'Brien might be classed as formidable. The rest were men who had occupied subordinate positions in Mr. Stephens' organization; but, for some unexplained reason, several men equally obscure and unimportant were still held in prison. This half-hearted amnesty may serve me as a bridge to reach another very important series of events which was coming to a climax while the amnesty agitation was only dawning. The disestablishment of the Protestant church in Ireland, the first of the great measures of reform which Mr. Gladstone has bestowed upon the country, was now on the eve of accomplishment. It cannot be said that this particular concession was urgently sought by the great body of the people, nor did it bring them any considerable relief from their burdens. It was a concession to the "respectable element," to the bishops and better class Catholics. No doubt it terminated a crying injustice, no doubt it effaced the last marks of conquest which had served to keep Catholics divided from their fellow-country men of the dominant religion. Still, to the masses the satisfaction was only sentimental; the reform was, of all that might have been introduced, the one which did them least good. { According to Mr. Sullivan's account of the matter,* the singling out of this church grievance was the result of what, in America, we call a "deal," made in the autumn of 1864, between the Roman Catholic bishops and that portion of the English liberal party, of which John Bright is the type man. Denominational education had before been the object of the bishops, but there was no hope of an agreement on this head with the Whigs. Therefore with a facility which should prove instructive to all Irish politicians of whatever stripe, they abandoned their old position from which no advancement could be made, for that new one which promised a speedy victory, fully expecting to return,—as indeed they did, -to their old ground with redoubled strength. The first steps in the new movement were not auspicious. The “National" Association was a failure, and shorty after it was founded,-June, 1866,-the Russell-Gladstone ministry fell, and Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli assumed the reins of government. Under this ministry, all the most troublous events of Fenianism passed. This was the ministry of coercion laws and penal tortures. This was the administration that hanged the Manchester rescuers, and that kept Lord Strathnairn, the butcher of the Sepoys, on hand in Ireland to deal with a possible revolt. The rule of the Tories lasted nominally until December 2d, 1868. While the full excitement of Fenianism prevailed, Mr. Disraeli had been able to hold his own. But now the ferment was subsiding, and the fact remained, made by that formidable movement too plain to be ignored, that Ireland was discontented to the core, and with good reason. Some sop should be thrown at once to the people, but Mr. Disraeli had no remedy ready. Then the old negotiations. between the bishops and the Liberals bore fruit. Mr. Gladstone and his followers attacked at once the Irish Church and the Tories. They defeated the Tories in the House of Commons in May, 1868, soon a series of resolutions, proposed by Mr. Gladstone himself, declarative of the propriety of disestablishing the Church. Mr. Disraeli dissolved parliament New Ireland," Chapter XXV. and in the general election the Liberals swept their adver saries out of the field. But in the course of this election Mr. Gladstone's utterances had been such that when he became prime minister on the reassembly of parliament, no choice remained for him but to grant some measure of amnesty. What he did has been already told. His half-hearted clemency, instead of awakening popular gratitude, raised a tempest of indignation in the country. This is the peculiar fatuity of English statesmen in dealing with Ireland. They give so grudgingly, so scantily that they never win a cordial response from the people. Mr. Gladstone made two mistakes at this time. His amnesty failed to please the people at large, and his Church Act failed to relieve their sufferings. Mr. Gladstone perfected his disestablishment scheme with the greatest possible rapidity. The actual reforms were three; every office in Ireland, except the Lord Lieutenancy, was thrown open to Roman Catholics; all special oaths to be taken by Catholics on assuming public office were abolished; and all pecuniary support on the part of the Government was withdrawn from the Protestant Church,-the vested rights of individuals only, being respected. So far as regards the Protestant Church, the results of this change were most favorable. The hour of political downfall, proved the hour of spiritual revival. A suitable organization was perfected, and as an independent body, the Church is tc day strong, influential, and useful in an eminent degree. The Catholic peasant derived no profit whatever. Reduction of taxation brought no reduction of rents. The money that the landlord had formerly paid to the government for the support of the established religion, he now put into his own pocket, leaving his poor tenants to enjoy the sentimental advantages of Mr. Gladstone's great concession. The actual disestablishment bill was passed May 31st, 1869, and on July 26th, it received the royal assent. It had no effect whatever in checking the Amnesty agitation. When the summer came, a series of great open air meetings was begun. One or more was held near every considerable town in Ireland. |