ars to reason with the voters of
the kingdom, and when the voter now tells me that he cannot give a
vote for making the Mr. Parnell of to-day the ruler of Irish
affairs under British sanction, I do not know how to answer him,
and I have yet to ask myself formally the question what under
those circumstances is to be done. I must claim entire and
absolute liberty to answer that question as I may think right.

_Nov. 28, 1890._--The few following words afford a key to my
proceedings in the painful business of the Irish leadership.

It was at first my expectation, and afterwards my desire, that Mr.
Parnell would retire by a perfectly spontaneous act. As the
likelihood of such a course became less and less, while time ran
on, and the evidences of coming disaster were accumulated, I
thought it would be best that he should be impelled to withdraw,
but by an influence conveyed to him, at least, from within the
limits of his own party. I therefore begged Mr. Justin McCarthy to
acquaint Mr. Parnell of what I thought as to the consequences of
his continuance; I also gave explanations of my meaning, including
a reference to myself; and I begged that my message to Mr. Parnell
might be made known to the Irish party, in the absence of a
spontaneous retirement.

This was on Monday afternoon. But there was no certainty either of
finding Mr. Parnell, or of an impression on him through one of his
own followers. I therefore wrote the letter to Mr. Morley, as a
more delicate form of proceeding than a direct communication from
myself, but also as a stronger measure than that taken through Mr.
McCarthy, because it was more full, and because, as it was in
writing, it admitted of the ulterior step of immediate
publication. Mr. Morley could not find Mr. Parnell until after the
first meeting of the Irish party on Monday. When we found that Mr.
McCarthy's representation had had no effect, that the Irish party
had not been informed, and that Mr. Morley's making known the
material parts of my letter was likewise without result, it at
once was decided to publish the letter; just too late for the
_Pall Mall Gazette_, it was given for publication to the morning
papers, and during the evening it became known in the lobbies of
the House.

V

Mr. Parnell took up his new ground in a long manifesto to the