Charles Stewart Parnell, 1846-1891
For more than a decade, writes Robert Rhodes James, until personal disaster overwhelmed him in 1890, Parnell and the Irish Nationalists held the balance in the House of Commons, and by a policy of considered obstruction swayed the course of British politics.
In 1874, shortly after the General Election which had terminated Gladstone’s first great Ministry, a by-election became necessary in the county of Dublin owing to the appointment of Colonel Taylor, the sitting Member, to a government office. There was some difficulty in finding a candidate who would contest the seat on behalf of the Home Rule League, then in its infancy.
At last one was selected, but he distinguished himself so lamentably in the campaign that when one of the leaders of the League at Westminster was asked about the Colonel's increased majority, he exclaimed, “And no wonder! If you’d seen the fool we had for a candidate!”
Apparently the only reasons for the unfortunate choice were the absence of anyone else and the personal advocacy of Mr. Isaac Butt, the genial and greatly loved leader of the Irish Home Rulers at Westminster.
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