weight to the sentiment
of the Irish in this matter.... He had certain suggestions to this
end, taking the colonial model as a basis, which struck me as
being the result of much thought and knowledge of the subject....
At the conclusion of the conversation, which lasted for more than
an hour, and to which Lord Carnarvon was very much the larger
contributor, I left him, believing that I was in complete accord
with him regarding the main outlines of a settlement conferring a
legislature upon Ireland.(146)

It is certainly not for me to contend that Mr. Parnell was always an
infallible reporter, but if closely scrutinised the discrepancy in the two
stories as then told was less material than is commonly supposed. To the
passage just quoted, Lord Carnarvon never at any time in public offered
any real contradiction. What he contradicted was something different. He
denied that he had ever stated to Mr. Parnell that it was the intention of
the government, if they were successful at the polls, to establish the
Irish legislature, with limited powers and not independent of imperial
control, which he himself favoured. He did not deny, any more than he
admitted, that he had told Mr. Parnell that on opinion and policy they
were very much at one. How could he deny it, after his speech when he
first took office? Though the cabinet was not cognisant of the nature of
these proceedings, the prime minister was. To take so remarkable a step
without the knowledge and assent of the head of the government, would have
been against the whole practice and principles of our ministerial system.
Lord Carnarvon informed Lord Salisbury of his intention of meeting Mr.
(M88) Parnell, and within twenty-four hours after the meeting, both in
writing and orally, he gave Lord Salisbury as careful and accurate a
statement as possible of what had passed. We can well imagine the close
attention with which the prime minister followed so profoundly interesting
a report, and at the end of it he told the viceroy that "he had conducted
the conversation with Mr. Parnell with perfect discretion." The knowledge
that the minister responsible for the government of Ireland was looking in
the direction of home rule, and exchanging home rule views with the great
home rule leader, did not shake Lord Salisbury's confidence in his fitness
to be viceroy.

This is no mere case of barren wrangle and verbal recrimination. The
transaction had co