"Parnell was supreme all the time." This is the complete answer to
those--and some of them are alive still--who said in the days of "the
Split" that it was his Party which made him and not he who made the
Party. In this connection I might quote also the following brief
extract from a letter written by Mr William O'Brien to Archbishop
Croke during the Boulogne negotiations:

"We have a dozen excellent front bench men in our Party but there is
no other Parnell. They all mean well but it is not the same thing. The
stuff talked of Parnell's being a sham leader, sucking the brains of
his chief men, is the most pitiful rubbish."

Time proved, only too tragically, the correctness of Mr O'Brien's
judgment. When the guiding and governing hand of Parnell was withdrawn
the Party went to pieces. In the words of Gladstone: "they had changed
since then"--and I may add that at no subsequent period did they gain
the same cohesion, purpose or power as a Party.

It may be well when dealing with Parnell's position in Irish history
to quote the considered opinion of an independent writer of neutral
nationality. M. Paul Dubois, a well-known French author, in his
masterly work, _Contemporary Ireland_, thus gives his estimate of
Parnell:

"Parnell shares with O'Connell the glory of being the greatest of
Irish leaders. Like O'Connell he was a landlord and his family
traditions were those of an aristocrat. Like him, too, he was
overbearing, even despotic in temperament. But in all else Parnell was
the very opposite of the 'Liberator.' The Protestant leader of a
Catholic people, he won popularity in Ireland without being at all
times either understood or personally liked. In outward appearance he
had nothing of the Irishman, nothing of the Celt about him. He was
cold, distant and unexpansive in manner and had more followers than
friends. His speech was not that of a great orator. Yet he was
singularly powerful and penetrating, with here and there brilliant
flashes that showed profound wisdom. A man of few words, of strength
rather than breadth of mind--his political ideals were often uncertain
and confused--he was better fitted to be a combatant than a
constructive politician. Beyond all else he was a Parliamentary
fighter of extraordinary ability, perfectly self-controlled, cold and
bitter, powerful at hitting back. It was precisely these English
qualities that enabled him to attain such remarkable success in his
struggle with the English.