Charles Stewart Parnell. A Memoir by his Brother, J. H.
ParnelL (Constable and Co. 10s. 6d. net.)—The author of this unpretentious memoir aimed, he says, at being a Bourrienne rather than a Carlyle. He describes Parnell's early life as an Irish country gentleman, sharing the pursuits of his class, and chiefly concerned with the management of his estate. He tells us how Parnell, one night in 1874, astonished his family by saying that he would go into politics ; to an earlier sug- gestion he had replied : " I could not, because I would not join that set." Parnell's high-handed treatment of some of his followers is ascribed by his brother to the fact that he was their paymaster and ruined himself to keep the party going. Parnell had, we are told, a superstitious dislike of green, and once refused to shake hands with a lady friend who was wearing a green dress ; he feared, of course, the number thirteen, and hated to see three candles burning ; October he regarded as his unlucky month. On Parnell's political career others have written more authoritatively, but it is interesting to have these glimpses of the private life of that masterful man, whom even his own brother did not understand.
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