Historical and Political Addresses, 1883 - 1897. By John E. Red- mond,
M.P. (Sealy, Bryers, and Walker, Dublin ; Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 20s.)—Even the most fervid Celtic oratory is rarely effective served up in cold type, and long after the pas- sionate hour of fiery utterance. But, to do Mr. Redmond only bare justice, these political addresses, ranging over a period of fifteen years, and delivered in every part of the Anglo-Saxon world, are of more than ephemeral interest, and not, indeed,. devoid of a certain historical significance. The future historian, anxious to glean some true conception of the strange personality of Parnell, for instance, would be well advised to read Mr. Red- mond's lecture, delivered in the Broadway Theatre, New York, entitled "Fifteen Years in the House of Commons." Here he would find " character-studies" of Mr. Gladstone, Lord Randolph Churchill, Parnell, and Bradlaugh—four most incongruous but notable Parliamentary figures—and though we gravely differ from Mr. Redmond in almost every instance, we do not wish to. deny the skill of his portraits and—allowing for his stand- point—their essential fidelity. By far the most valuable contri- bution in this book is the lecture on Thomas Drummond, delivered at the Rotunda, Dublin. We do not hesitate to recommend it to the careful attention of every intelligent politically minded Englishman. But we think that Mr. Redmond entirely misreads the moral of Drumraond's story. The young Scotch Lieutenant who, as Under-Secretary to Lord Morpeth in the Melbourne Administration, has left so lasting a name in Irish annals, and was, indeed, the most disinterested of all "Irish patriots," not excepting Jonathan Swift, surely shows that under the Union men will arise from time to time who will work for the good of Ireland. and whose disinterested zeal will bear fruit, if not in, their own day, in succeeding generations. It is to the labours,. often ill-requited at the time, of men like Drummond and Dean Swift that Ireland owes the many beneficent reforms of our own age which, without breaking the Imperial tie, bid fair to bestow upon her so ample a measure of freedom, peace, and prosperity.
Previous page
