The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell - Ii

258 CHARLES STEWABT PAKNELL [1890
' To the People of Ireland
' The integrity and independence of a section of the Irish parliamentary party having been sapped and destroyed1 by the wirepullers of the English Liberal party, it has become necessary for nie, as the leader of the Irish nation, to take counsel with you, and, having given you the knowledge which is in my possession, to ask your judgment upon a matter which now solely devolves upon you to decide.
' The letter of Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Morley, written for the purpose of influencing the decision of the Irish party in the choice of their leader, and claiming for the Liberal party and their leaders the right of veto upon that choice, is the immediate cause of this address to you, to remind you and your parliamentary representatives that Ireland considers the independence of her party as her only safeguard within the constitution, and above and beyond all other considerations whatever. The threat in that letter, repeated so insolently on many English platforms and in numerous British newspapers, that unless Ireland concedes this right of veto to England she will indefinitely postpone her chances of obtaining Home Eule, compels me, while not for one moment admitting the slightest probability of such loss, to put before you information which until now, so far as my colleagues are concerned, has been solely in my possession, and which will enable you to understand the measure of the loss with which you are threatened unless you consent to throw me to the English wolves now howling for my destruction.
1 On December 3, at the meeting of the Irish party, Mr. Parnell declared that this sentence should read ' apparently sapped and under-mined.* up Farnoll because Mr. Gladstone has written this letter? * of