d in the release of Mr. Parnell from
Kilmainham. He had with much difficulty been persuaded to acquiesce in the
renewal of any part of the Coercion Act, and had absented himself from the
banquet in honour of Lord Spencer. Together with his most intimate ally in
the late government, he had projected a political tour in Ireland with Mr.
Parnell's approval and under his auspices. Above all, he had actually
opened his electoral campaign with that famous declaration which was so
long remembered: "The pacification of Ireland at this moment depends, I
believe, on the concession to Ireland of the right to govern itself in the
matter of its purely domestic business. Is it not discreditable to us that
even now it is only by unconstitutional means that we are able to secure
peace and order in one portion of her Majesty's dominions? It is a system
as completely centralised and bureaucratic as that with which Russia
governs Poland, or as that which prevailed in Venice under the Austrian
rule. An Irishman at this moment cannot move a step--he cannot lift a
finger in any parochial, municipal, or educational work, without being
confronted with, interfered with, controlled by, an English official,
appointed by a foreign government, and without a shade or shadow of
representative authority. I say the time has come to reform altogether the
absurd and irritating anachronism which is known as Dublin Castle. That is
the work to which the new parliament will be called."(150) Masters of
incisive speech must pay the price of their gifts, and the sentence about
Poland and Venice was long a favourite in many a debate. But when the
Irish leader now made his proposal for removing the Russian yoke and the
Austrian yoke from Ireland, the English leader drew back. "If these," he
said, "are the terms on which Mr. Parnell's support is to be obtained, I
will not enter into the compact." This was Mr. Chamberlain's
response.(151)

IV

The language used by Mr. Gladstone during this eventful time was that of a
statesman conscious of the magnitude of the issue, impressed by the
obscurity of the path along which parties and leaders were travelling, and
keenly alive to the perils of a premature or unwary step. Nothing was
easier for the moment either for quick minds or slow minds, than to face
the Irish demand beforehand with a bare, blank, wooden _non possumus_. Mr.
Gladstone had pondered the matter more deeply. His gift of political
imagination, his wi