302 CHARLES STEWART PARKELL [1881
All difficulties were finally got over, and on August 13 the first number of ' United Ireland ' appeared.
With the passing of the Land Bill ParnelTs difficulties increased. His American allies, as represented by Ford and the ' Irish World/ did not in the first instance wish the Bill to become law; they did not wish to see it in force. Parnell was resolved not to quarrel with his American allies, whose contributions filled the coffers of the League. On the other hand, he determined that the Land Act should not be made a dead letter. Indeed, he knew that the tenants would not permit it. What course, then, was he to pursue so that the farmers might reap the full benefit of the Land Act and his American friends be appeased ? He determined to adopt his old tactics of drawing the fire of the English enemy on himself, believing that while English statesmen and publicists blazed at him from every quarter his influence in Ireland and in America would be unimpaired. Next, he determined that the tenants should be prevented from rushing precipitately into the Land Courts, and from abandoning all agitation henceforth. He had little faith in the Land Court per se. He believed that the reduction of rents would be in exact proportion to the pressure which the League could bring to bear upon the commissioners. 'By what rule/ I once asked an Irish official ' do 'the Land Courts fix the rents ? ' 'By the rule of funk' was the answer. Parnell resolved that the ' rule of funk' should be rigidly enforced. By the ' rule of funk ' he had got the Land Act. By the ' rule of funk ' he was determined it should be administered.1 ' I thought at
1 United Ireland, September 17, 1881, expressed this idea in unmistakable language: ' The spirit which cowed the tyrants in their rent offices must be the spirit in which the Land Commission Courts are to bo approached.*