The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell Vol - I

T. 36]
A DAEK PERIOD
373
ought not to return. You should carry out your original programme of going to Nice and looking after-your health. If you were to come back now you would be certain to be sentenced to a period of imprisonment with hard labour, and in any case the state of your health will be in a better position to face a prosecution when you return than it is now. I hope, however, that the matter will have blown over by then.
' Yours very truly,
'CHAS. S. PABNELL/
Mr. Redmond ultimately joined his brother in Australia. When he returned the matter had blown over.1
The year 1882 marks one of the darkest periods in the land agitation in Ireland. The following table, submitted by Sir Charles Eussell to the Parnell Commission, speaks volumes:2
AGRARIAN CRIME FOR THE WHOLE OF IRELAXD
— Two years, 1880-81. Average for two years. Total in 1882 alone.
Murders . Firing at persons Incendiary fires and arson Cattle outrages . Threatening letters . Firing into dwellings 13J 45J 283 128 1,764 105 26 58 281 144 2,009 117
Totals . 2,338 2,635
1 (I was at Parnell's house, Ironsides, Bordenstown, in 1882,' says Mr. William Redmond, * when Fanny Parnell died. She died very suddenly. One day she went out for a walk. She returned in a great state of excitement with a copy of the New York Herald in her hand. It was the time of the Egyptian war, and there was a rumour of an English defeat. I remember well seeing Fanny burst into the drawing room, waving the paper over her head, and saying, " Oh, mother, there is an Egyptian victory. Arabi has whipped the Britishers. It is grand." That was the last time I saw Fanny Parnell alive. Next day she died quite suddenly.'
2 Sir Charles Russell's speech before the Parnell Commission, p. 204.