The Speaker of last week gives an official account, on
the authority evidently of the Gladstonian leaders, of the rupture in the negotiations between Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Parnell for the reunion of the whole Irish Home-rule Party. It is denied that Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Dillon have ever hesitated in the least as to the necessity of Mr. Parnell's resignation of the leadership. And it is asserted that Mr. Parnell commenced the negotiations by conceding that his leadership had become impossible, and that he was only anxious to buy the best possible terms for Ireland as the equivalent for his retirement. Then, after leading the mediators into a long and intricate negotiation, he threw them over at last on the somewhat im- pudent plea that he must have some engagement concerning the handing over of the Irish Pollee to the Irish Legislature and Administration which would not only bind the Glad- stoniatts when they were in power, but, as we understand the matter, would bind their possible Tory successors as well. All that agrees perfectly well with the impression of pure self- seeking which Mr. Parnell's whole political conduct in the matter has produced upon us, but it does not at all explain Mr. O'Brien's attitude, which was in the highest degree deferential to Mr. Parnell, even after the rupture, whereas if this be the whole account of the matter, it ought to have been marked by indignation and resentment. There is evidently something behind, of which the Gladstonian leaders are not aware.
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