Mr Thomas Sexton was one of the brilliant intellects of the Party at
this period, a consummate orator, a reputed master of all the
intricacies of international finance, and in every sense of the word a
first-rate House of Commons man. But he had in some way or other
aroused the implacable ire of Mr T.M. Healy, whose sardonic invective
he could not stand. A politician has no right to possess a sensitive
skin, but somehow Mr Sexton did, with the result that he allowed
himself to be driven from public life rather than endure the continual
stabs of a tongue that could be very terrible at times--though I would
say myself of its owner that he possesses a heart as warm as ever beat
in Irish breast.

The fate of the Home Rule Bill of 1893 was already assured long before
it left the House of Commons. Like the Bill of 1886 it came to grief
on the fear of the English Unionists for the unity of the Empire. Home
Rule was conquered by Imperialism, and the Ulster opposition was
merely used as a powerful and effective argument in the campaign.

Ireland had sunk meanwhile into a hopeless stupor. The attitude of the
Irish masses appeared to be one of despairing indifference to all the
parties whose several newspapers were daily engaged in the delectable
task of hurling anathemas at each other's heads. Interest in the
national cause had almost completely ebbed away. A Liberal Chief
Secretary, in the person of Mr John Morley, reigned in Dublin Castle,
but all that he is remembered for now is that he started the
innovation of placing Nationalist and Catholic Justices of the Peace
on the bench, who became known in time as "the Morley magistrates."
Otherwise he left Dublin Castle as formidable a fortress of ascendancy
authority as it had ever been. Under conditions as they were then, or
as they are now, no Chief Secretary can hope to fundamentally alter