MR. PARNELL'S ATTITUDE.
(To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—It will materially assist in understanding Mr. Parnell's attitude towards the murders and other outrages perpetrated by the agents of the National party in Ireland, if it be kept in mind that he evidently looks upon them as necessary evils, without which Irish grievances would not obtain attention. And, unfortunately, too good a foundation for this view has been furnished by the selfish and unscrupulous disregard of Irish complaints by the English people, until desperate men carried the war they waged against authority into England itself. Of course, it is different now; but this does not prevent Mr. Parnell and his party looking upon those who suffer for their crimes as martyrs in a good cause, and upon the Coercion Act as a restraint upon that licence necessary to wring concessions from an unfeeling and unjust dominion. The remedy is not in "a firm and unwaver- ing policy of repression," as one of the House of Lords recom- mended ; but, as yon say, in a more tenacious adherence to the policy of justice, as the only hope that the extravagant
demands, which have arisen in the rebound from the depressed state the Irish were in, may by degrees die ont.—I am, Sir, tic.,
Previous page
