a family which, established at Congleton in Cheshire,
had at the time of the Restoration migrated to Ireland, had settled on
an estate in Wicklow, and had produced in every subsequent generation
a person of distinction. Thomas Parnell, the friend of Pope and Swift,
is still remembered by his poem of _The Hermit_. Another Parnell (Sir
John) was Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer in the days of Henry
Grattan, whose opinions he shared. Another (Sir Henry) was a leading
Irish Liberal member of the House of Commons, and died by his own hand
in 1842. Charles's father and grandfather figured less in the public
eye. But his mother was a remarkable woman, and the daughter of a
remarkable man, Commodore Charles Stewart, one of the most brilliant
naval commanders on the American side in the war of 1812. Stewart was
the son of a Scoto-Irishman from Ulster, who had emigrated to America
in the middle of the eighteenth century; so there was a strain of
Scottish as well as a fuller strain of English blood in the most
powerful Irish leader of recent times.

Parnell was born at Avondale, the family estate in Wicklow, in 1846,
and was educated mostly at private schools in England. He spent some
months at Magdalene College, Cambridge, but, having been rusticated
for an affray in the street, refused to return to the College, and
finished his education for himself at home. It was a very imperfect
education. He cared nothing for study, and indeed showed interest only
in mathematics and cricket. In 1874 he stood as a candidate for
Parliament, but without success. When he had to make a speech he broke
down utterly. In 1875 he was returned as member for the county of
Meath, and within two years had made his mark in the House of Commons.
In 1880 he was elected leader of the Irish Parliamentary party, and
ruled it and his followers in Ireland with a rod of iron until he was
deposed, in 1890, at the instance of the leaders of the English
Liberal party, who thought that the verdict against him in a divorce
suit in which he was co-respondent had fatally discredited him in the
eyes of the bulk of the English Liberal party, and made co-operation
with him impossible. Refusing to resign his leadership, he conducted a
campaign in Ireland against the majority of his former followers with
extraordinary energy till November 1891, when he died of rheumatic
fever after a short illness. A constitution which had never been
strong was worn out by the ceaseless exe