The operation is being performed the House having just rejected Mr. Gladstone’s Franchise Bill. If it has not dealt its own death-blow, it has had a narrow squeak!
How ill-inspired the lords must be in seeking a quarrel with John Bull, who has no wish to do them any harm! If I were a peer of this realm, I fancy I could make myself the most amiable and submissive being in the world. I would again say to John: “Now, look here, my dear fellow, you know the House of Lords is convenient in one way, because it spares you the trouble of holding two elections. It will always be my endeavour to make myself agreeable. I have forty or fifty thousand a year, and if you think I am going to be angry at anything the Commons may do, why, you make a huge mistake. I know I am a fifth wheel to the State coach, but you are too gentlemanly to remind me of it, if I do not make you feel that a fifth wheel can sometimes play the part of a bâton dans les roues. I will imitate the good example set by the Queen: when you want the Liberals, you shall have them; when you want the Conservatives, you shall have them. You, on your part, must continue to hold me in respect, and call me the noble lord as hard as ever; I shall, as before, take precedence of intellect and wealth; I shall patronise literature and art, by scattering among my countrymen—for a consideration—the valuable libraries and art treasures left me by over-conservative forefathers, and protect the drama by keeping more actresses than ever. Surely, old friend, we ought to be able to rub along together.”
If the House of Lords should succumb, it will have the consolation of knowing that its ruin has been wrought by its most ardent friends, and not by its enemies. For that matter, a Government or Constitution generally does die at the hands of its friends à outrance.
I also said: “The two great political parties are of about equal strength.... The Irish party however, grows more national every day, and the Government may before long have to reckon seriously with it.”[14]
[14] John Bull et son Ile, p. 243.
The failure of the Egyptian campaign has greatly diminished the popularity of the Liberal party, and it is more than probable that, if it obtain the victory in the next election, its majority in Parliament will be reduced to about a score. The partisans of Irish autonomy number forty: it therefore seems pretty clear that Mr. Parnell, the head of the Irish Home Rule party, will ere long be Viceroy of England. Friend John will have to choose between two rather bitter pills: granting Ireland her independence, or conquering the Sister-Isle vi et armis. The prospect is not a brilliant one.
THE END
APPENDIX.
(A.)—At the Dublin Commission Court, before Mr. Justice Lawson, on Saturday, the 7th June, 1884, Brian Dennis Molloy, a wretched-looking man of 45, son of a magistrate for the Co. Mayo, and who, on the death of his father, will become entitled to £1,000 per annum, was indicted for bigamy. The prisoner has married five times, the last person with whom he went through the ceremony being his own first cousin, a lady of about 40, Miss Robertina Greene, who has an income in her own right of £400 per annum. There was only one formal charge against the prisoner. Several of his wives were in court, and towards them he assumed a most amusing expression, pretending affection for them by sighing audibly as he recognised them. He said, “My Lord, might I sit down? I feel very weak; I am not able to stand; I have been in prison for the last two months.” This permission was accorded. Mr. Stephen Curtis, barrister, appeared for the accused.—Mr. M’Caffrey, assistant clerk of the Crown, then read the indictment against the prisoner for having on the 16th August, 1871, at Brownlow-hill, Liverpool, married Elizabeth Mary Clancy while his lawful wife, Jane Molloy (née Murray), was still alive. The latter was in court—a grey-haired woman, who seemed to feel very much her position. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. Mr. Curtis said he would be able to shorten the case, for substantially their defence was that the prisoner was insane. He had always been a person of weak intellect, and had often been in a state of dangerous lunacy, having been four times in lunatic asylums, both in this country and on the Continent. The prisoner belonged to a most respectable family, amongst whom there had been instances of insanity.[15]—Dr. Banks was examined, and deposed that he had been physician to the Prisoner’s family for a number of years. He declined to answer with regard to other members of the family; but with regard to the accused he said that at one time he was labouring under symptoms of insanity, and had been placed in a private lunatic asylum. He also understood that he had been confined in two lunatic asylums in Bruges, and that he escaped from one recently.—Mr. Justice Lawson: What do you think of his mind now? Witness: I think he is an imbecile. He is of very weak mind.—Mr. Curtis: Do you think he is capable of discerning right from wrong?—Witness: Certainly not as regards his matrimonial alliances (laughter).—Serjeant O’Brian:—Oh, we believe the man to be insane; but I never heard of a more captivating character (laughter). No less than four ladies have succumbed to his winning influence. Here Miss Greene, who had been intently reading a newspaper during the proceedings, looked up and smiled, whilst another of the ladies, Miss Cassidy, laughed aloud.—Mr. Justice Lawson: There is no accounting for taste (laughter).—Serjeant O’Brian: You know, my Lord, when men are afflicted women are the ministering angels (laughter).—Mr. Justice Lawson directed the Jury to find that the Prisoner was insane.—The Prisoner was found guilty of the charge alleged, and on the verdict being entered the Jury found that the Prisoner was insane at the time he went through the ceremony of marriage. He was then ordered to be detained in an asylum during the pleasure of his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant.—When leaving the dock Molloy, who himself looked the picture of misery, smiled to each of the women.—An extraordinary passage at arms took place between two of Molloy’s “wives” during the interval when the Court was at luncheon. When the Prisoner was sent down to the cells Miss Robertina Greene, the last of the ladies who changed her name for Molloy, requested permission to speak to her “husband,” but the request was refused. Miss Clancy, another of the ladies, had been on a similar mission, and with like ill-success. She was standing outside the cell, close to Miss Greene, when the latter turned round and poured a torrent of abuse on her. She said that most of Miss Clancy’s clothes belonged to her (Miss Greene). Miss Clancy, a good-humoured looking girl, merely smiled at this statement, several of her friends joining in the laughter.