4 it was
Pius IX. and the Jesuits who had misled his Irish friends. In 1881 the
evil influence was Mr. Parnell.

In the autumn the Prime Minister startled his hearers at Leeds by a
passionate complaint, that--

'a small band of men had arisen who were not ashamed to
preach in Ireland the doctrine of public plunder ... now
that Mr. Parnell is afraid, lest the people of England by
their long continued efforts should win the hearts of the
whole Irish nation, he has a new and enlarged gospel of
plunder to proclaim.'

He went back with a swing to the high-handed policy he had so often
denounced. Irishmen must be made to recognize Gladstone, and not
Parnell, as their true friend. The Land League was dissolved by
proclamation, its principal leaders, including Mr. Parnell, were clapped
into jail, and it was proclaimed at Knowsley that the Cabinet were going
'to relieve the people of Ireland from the weight of a tyrannical yoke.'

These speeches, full as they were of denunciation of Mr. Parnell, were
still on the lines of the Southport speech. They were not declarations
of the opinion of the British community, warnings to Ireland to take
account of the settled judgment of the nation, of which the sister
island must always form part. They contrasted with the manly utterance
of Mr. Chamberlain on this subject, the same month, at Birmingham. They
were angry appeals to Ireland to quarrel with her chosen leaders. Mr.
James Lowther was denounced for stating, that 'the party headed by Mr.
Parnell commanded the support of the large majority of the people of
Ireland.' Mr. Gladstone added, 'The proposition here made is one on
which we are entirely at issue. I profoundly disbelieve it; I utterly
protest against it. I believe a greater calumny on the Irish nation,...
a more gross and injurious statement could not possibly be made against
the Irish nation.'

In the following year it was found that the recognition of Mr.
Gladstone, as the father of the Irish people was still remote; whilst
Mr. Forster declared, that a stronger Coercion Bill was necessary, if
life was to be protected in Ireland. Then came another plunge after the
coveted ideal. Mr. Forster, who had so generously devoted himself to
his party and his leader in the pursuit of a new Irish policy, was
abandoned to the Irish members, and to Mr. John Morley's crusade against
him in the columns of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' Mr. Parnell was called
out