rgy;
they were indefatigable; they canvassed at the houses and presided at
meetings; they exhorted their flocks from the altar, and they drilled them
at the polling-booths. The spiritual screw of the priest and the temporal
screw of the league--there was the whole secret. Such was the story, and it
was not wholly devoid of truth; but then what balm, what comfort, had even
the truth of it for British rulers?

Some thousands of voters stayed away from the polls. It was ingeniously
explained that their confidence in British rule had been destroyed by the
Carnarvon surrender; a shopkeeper would not offend his customers for the
sake of a Union Jack that no longer waved triumphant in the breeze. They
were like the Arab sheikhs at Berber, who, when they found that the
Egyptian pashas were going to evacuate, went over to the Mahdi. The
conventions appointed to select the candidates were denounced as the mere
creatures of Mr. Parnell, the Grand Elector. As if anything could have
shown a more politic appreciation of the circumstances. There are
situations that require a dictator, not to impose an opinion, but to
kindle an aspiration; not to shape a demand, but to be the effective organ
of opinion and demand. Now in the Irish view was one of those situations.
In the last parliament twenty-six seats were held by persons designated
nominal home rulers; in the new parliament, not one. Every new nationalist
member pledged himself to resign whenever the parliamentary party should
call upon him. Such an instrument grasped in a hand of iron was
indispensable, first to compel the British government to listen, and
second, to satisfy any British government disposed to listen, that in
dealing with Mr. Parnell they were dealing with nationalist Ireland, and
with a statesman who had the power to make his engagements good. You need
greater qualities, said Cardinal De Retz, to be a good party leader than
to be emperor of the universe. Ireland is not that portion of the universe
in which this is least true.

Chapter III. A Critical Month (December 1885)

Whoever has held the post of minister for any considerable time
can never absolutely, unalterably maintain and carry out his
original opinions. He finds himself in the presence of situations
that are not always the same--of life and growth--in connection with
which he must take one course one day, and then, perhaps, another
on the next day. I could not always run