ions, and once more enter into confidential
communications with any of them. There was only one guarantee, he said,
that could be of any (M159) value to Ireland, namely the assured and
unalterable fact that no English leader and no party could ever dream of
either proposing or carrying any scheme of home rule which had not the
full support of Irish representatives. This was obvious to all the world.
Mr. Parnell knew it well enough, and the members knew it, but the members
were bound to convince their countrymen that they had exhausted compliance
with every hint from their falling leader, while Mr. Parnell's only object
was to gain time, to confuse issues, and to carry the battle over from
Westminster to the more buoyant and dangerously charged atmosphere of
Ireland.

The majority resisted as long as they could the evidence that Mr. Parnell
was audaciously trifling with them and openly abusing his position as
chairman. On the evening of Friday (December 5) Mr. Sexton and Mr. Healy
went to Mr. Parnell after the last communication from Mr. Gladstone. They
urged him to bend to the plain necessities of the case. He replied that he
would take the night to consider. The next morning (December 6) they
returned to him. He informed them that his responsibility to Ireland would
not allow him to retire. They warned him that the majority would not
endure further obstruction beyond that day, and would withdraw. As they
left, Mr. Parnell wished to shake hands, "if it is to be the last time."
They all shook hands, and then went once more to the field of action.

It was not until after some twelve days of this excitement and stress that
the scene approached such disorder as has often before and since been
known in the House of Commons. The tension at last had begun to tell upon
the impassive bronze of Mr. Parnell himself. He no longer made any
pretence of the neutrality of the chair. He broke in upon one speaker more
than forty times. In a flash of rage he snatched a paper from another
speaker's hand. The hours wore away, confusion only became worse
confounded, and the conclusion on both sides was foregone. Mr. McCarthy at
last rose, and in a few moderate sentences expressed his opinion that
there was no use in continuing a discussion that must be barren of
anything but reproach, bitterness, and indignity, and he would therefore
suggest that those who were of the same mind should withdraw. Then he
moved from the table, and his forty-fou