124 CHARLES STEWART PAKNELL [1877
Between 1874 and 1877 several English candidates took this pledge and were returned to Parliament.1 ' Did the candidates who took the pledge really believe in Home Eule ?' I asked X. ' Not at all,' he said; ' they took it to get the Irish vote. The first man who took it was Jacob Bright. They wired to him from the central Liberal offices in London not to take it, and he refused at first. But we held him firm; "the pledge or no Irish vote," we said. Then we went to the Tory, Powell, and he took it right off. The Liberals were in a devil of a fix; but Jacob turned round and took the pledge too. Then we were in a fix, because as the Tory promised first we ought to have supported him; but the Irish preferred the Liberals, and they particularly liked Jacob Bright. Butt came and made a speech. He said that as both candidates had taken the pledge, the Irish might go for whichever they pleased. They voted for Jacob and put him in. Jacob was a good fellow, and would just as soon take the pledge as not, though of course he wouldn't take it if it wouldn't get him in. That's all that most of them thought about—getting in. Wilfrid Lawson and Joe Cowen were exceptions. We had practically no influence in Lawson's constituency (Carlisle), but he went Home Eule all the same. He believed in it. We had influence in Cowen's constituency (Newcastle), but it was not our influence that weighed with Cowen. He would have voted for Home Eule anyway. He was thoroughly Irish in feeling. There was another .respectable man who took the pledge—Joseph Kay, of Salford." He took the pledge at the by-election at
* l In 1877 the following were the English Home Eulers in the House of Commons: Barran (Leeds), Jacob Bright (Manchester), Gourley (Sunderland), Hibbert (Oldham), Sir W. Lawson (Carlisle), Macdonald (Stafford), R. N. Philips (Bury), Cowen (Newcastle).