The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell Vol - I

-ffiT. 36] VIEWS OF ENGLISH STATESMEN 375
would as soon have thought of favouring a plan for the construction of a railway to the moon as of appealing to the moral sense of England. Therefore, when moderate men used to say to him, ' Mr. Parnell, you ought to restrain your people; nothing shocks a law-abiding community like the English so much as lawlessness/ he would simply smile. His one idea of dealing with the English was to put them in a tight place. He felt that English party leaders thought as much and no more of the f morality ' of the ' moves ' in the game of politics as a chess player thinks of the morality o£ the moves in a game of chess. An English statesman was to him an individual who would risk his soul to sit on the Treasury "bench. It was the duty of the Irish agitator to see that the English statesman should sit on the Treasury bench only on Ms conditions. An outburst of lawlessness in Ireland was regarded by Parnell simply with a view to its effect on the national 'movement.' And, in his opinion, at this moment, there was every danger that the extreme wing of his army might, under the evil influences of men who had gained the upper hand while he was in jail, run amuck, which could only end in the disorganisation and collapse of the National cause. Mr. Dillon and Davitt did not see eye to eye with Parnell. The former, as I have said, was of opinion that the land agitation ought still to be kept at fever heat. The latter thought that there ought to be a new development of that agitation in the direction of land nationalisation. Parnell differed from both and would not yield a jot to either. Mr. Dillon was much incensed and threatened to resign his seat in Parliament. Parnell did not want this. He did not wish to see the smallest rift within the lute; but he would not give way. It was about this time that Mr. Dillon went to Avondale to