The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell Vol - I

Mi. 32] ' JUSTIFIABLE REBELLION' 173
as wide as ever. In October the Home Eule Confederation of Great Britain held its annual meeting in Dublin. Butt objected to this proceeding. The organisation, he felt, ought to confine its operations to the other side of the channel. But the Confederation had come to Dublin for a special reason. By the Convention Act of 1793 no meeting attended by delegates could be held in Ireland. 'But/ the leaders of the Confederation argued, 'we shall hold our meeting in Dublin, and we shall summon delegates from England, and then wre shall present to the Irish and the English public the extraordinary spectacle of an Irish organisation with its headquarters in England summoning delegates from England to sit in the Irish capital, while no organisation in Ireland can summon delegates from Ireland for the same purpose ; and if that does not kill the Convention Act we don't know what will.' I cannot say whether this manoeuvre did kill the Convention Act, but, as a matter of fact, it was repealed the next year.
Efforts were still made to bring about a modus vivendi between Butt and Parnell, but in vain. ' You are in rebellion,' said Professor Galbraith to Parnell. 'Yes,'was the answer; 'but in justifiable rebellion.' 'I do not want you to become an obstructive,' he said to Butt; ' I do not want anyone to become an obstructive ; but there must be a vigorous policy. I am young and active, and I cannot be kicking my heels about the English House of Commons doing nothing. Englishmen will not give me an opportunity of concerning myself about the affairs of my own country, and I mean to concern myself about the affairs of their country.'
' Butt,' he said on another occasion, ' is hopeless.