Above : Portrait Of Charles Stewart Parnell

In 1875, a new member, recently elected for Co. Meath, and who had contested the seat on Home Rule lines, made his first appearance in the House of Commons This was Charles Stewart Parnell, then a young man of 29, the great-grandson of Sir John Parnell, whose opposition to the Legislative Union had cost him his post. Parnell may be considered as having inherited a tradition of Irish public service, but most of his own childhood and youth had been spent in England or abroad.

Above : Picture Of Lord Chancellor

The Irish authorities, office-holders and corporations were, as a rule, far more opposed to concession than were the British Ministers. These indeed, inclined to the belief that, considering the dangerous state of affairs on the Continent, where the progress of the French Revolution had become a serious menace to all the neighbouring states, it was absolutely necessary to endeavour, by a conciliatory policy, to secure the tranquillity of Ireland. The Irish Ascendancy Party, further removed from the scene of disturbance and little concerned with foreign politics, clung with considerable obstinacy to its privileges.

Above : Picture Of James Fitzgerald

From what has been said it will be clear that Ireland, so far from desiring a Union, was, on the whole, very decidedly opposed to it, and that, in order to carry the measure, Pitt would be obliged to make use of every means at his disposal, if not to alter the opinion of the country, at least to gain the votes of those who were supposed to represent it! Efforts were made to influence the public by means of the Press’ Merchants were assured that trade would increase, that English capital would flow into the country. To the Catholics it was suggested that since in a Union Parliament they would be always in a minority, the one great objection to their emancipation would vanish of itself • while Protestants ware reminded that England was their only defence against the Catholic majority, and that, therefore, it would be advisable for them to bind Ireland as closely to her as possible.