ore to say. He was unfortunately helped by Mr. Gladstone,
who, instead of listening in silence to attacks grown stale by their
infinite repetition, attempted to correct some of Mr. Chamberlain's
statements. This was especially the case in reference to the famous
speech in which Mr. Parnell is spoken of as passing "through rapine to
dismemberment." Mr. Chamberlain wished to insist that the language had
been applied to all the Irish leaders: Mr. Gladstone insisted that they
were applied to Mr. Parnell alone. This controversy between the Prime
Minister and Mr. Chamberlain gave a little life to a speech that
hitherto had been falling desperately flat, and as such the interruption
was a tactical mistake.

[Sidenote: De mortuis.]

But it brought with curious unexpectedness a scene not without pathos
and significance. In the midst of the thrust and ripost of Mr. Gladstone
and Mr. Chamberlain, a strange and yet familiar voice was heard to shout
out, "They put all the blame on Parnell because he is dead." It was a
startling--even an embarrassing interruption. The memory of Parnell is
still dear to the vast majority of the old comrades who were compelled
to separate themselves from him in the Great Irish Disruption. At the
time when Mr. Gladstone made the speech quoted, Mr. Parnell was the
loved leader of the whole Irish people and a united Irish party; and the
speech was made at a moment particularly solemn and glorious in the
strange life and career of Parnell. The great controversy between the
English and the Irish leader, which Mr. Chamberlain had raked up from
the almost forgotten past, took place at the moment when Mr. Parnell had
gone from town to town and county to county in Ireland, in the midst of
vast and enthusiastic receptions--imperial demonstrations--with salvoes
of cheers, enthusiasm, and auroral hope such as have taken place so
often in Irish history on the eve of some mighty victory or hideous
disaster. And, then, immediately after came Parnell's imprisonment,
which he bore so well--the suppression of the National Land League, and
the era of unchecked and ferocious coercion in which the good intentions
and kindly feelings of Mr. Forster finally were buried. To separate
themselves from Mr. Parnell at that great moment in his and their life,
was a thing which none of Parnell's old comrades could do; and when this
startling interruption came, it was the spoken utterance of many of
their thoughts brought back by Mr