of Parnell that the serenity of the negotiations was irreparably
disturbed, and from that moment the movement for peace was merely an
empty show.

Chaos had come again upon the Irish Cause, and the Irish people, who
were so near the goal of success, wasted many years, that might have
been better spent, in futile and fratricidal strife, in which all the
baser passions of politics ran riot and played havoc with the finer
purposes of men engaged in a struggle for liberty and right.




CHAPTER III

THE DEATH OF A LEADER


There is no Irishman who can study the incidents leading up to
Parnell's downfall and the wretched controversies connected with it
without feelings of shame that such a needless sacrifice of greatness
should have been made.

Parnell broke off the Boulogne negotiations ostensibly on the ground
that the assurances of Mr Gladstone on the Home Rule Question were not
sufficient and that if he was to be "thrown to the English wolves," to
use his own term, the Irish people were not getting their price in
return. But giving the best thought possible to all the available
materials it would seem that Mr Dillon's reflection on Parnell's
_bona fides_ was really at the root of the ultimate break-away.