I trust that you may be able to continue with ardour and success the patriotic and excellent work among the Irish people which you inaugurate to-morrow; you may be sure that the full sympathy and genuine support of a vast majority of the English people will attend you in the struggle and you may be confident that the dark and menacing thunder-cloud that now impends over your country, almost turning Irish day into night, will soon be dissipated by the brightness of a recurring dawn of a new era of peace and prosperity for Ireland under the enlightened rule of a United Imperial Parliament.
Believe me to be
Most faithfully yours,
Randolph S. Churchill.
J. M. Wilson, Esq.
VIII
MR. JENNINGS’ ACCOUNT OF HIS QUARREL WITH LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
March, 1890.
Mr. Jennings’ Memorandum.
On Friday, the 7th of March, I called upon Lord Randolph Churchill, to tell him my opinions with regard to the Resolution proposed by the Government on the Report of the Special Commission. I told him I thought some express reference should be made in the Resolution to the emphatic acquittal of Mr. Parnell and his colleagues on what I called the ‘murder charges,’ and gave him my reasons. With these reasons he seemed to be much impressed, and after talking the matter over he urged me not to speak upon the main question, as I intended, but to embody my ideas in an Amendment, for then the Speaker could call upon me and I should have a recognised place in the debate. Otherwise I might not be called upon at all, and have no chance of speaking. I said that if any Amendment were drawn up, it should be in the most moderate terms, so that it might avoid the faults and disadvantages of Mr. Gladstone’s on the same subject. He then went to his table and drew up the Amendment, saying, when he handed it to me, ‘I think no one can object to this—there is not a single adjective in it.’ We considered it well, and at one o’clock or so I left him, asking him to turn the subject well over in his mind before we met at the House and to let me know whether he was still in favour of the Amendment. At a little after three we met in the lobby, and he assured me that he was confident the Amendment was the right thing, and that he did not see how any reasonable objection could be made to it. I then went into the House, and after Questions gave notice of the Amendment.
On Saturday night I dined with Lord R. and a party at the Junior Carlton Club, but we did not have much conversation on the subject until the end of the evening, when Lord Justice FitzGibbon came up to us and condemned the Amendment. Lord R. then asked me to go to his house the next morning, and talk the matter over with ‘Fitz.’ I said that it was rather too late to ‘talk it over’ on the line taken up by FitzGibbon, for I was committed to the Amendment and intended to move it; that I should be very busy the next day, and would rather be excused going to his house. But Lord R. pressed me very earnestly to go and accordingly I did so.
On entering his room (Sunday, the 9th), FitzGibbon having been with him some time before, Lord R. said: ‘I am sorry you put that Amendment down; it is a mistake; can’t be defended.’ I was astounded. ‘But,’ I said, ‘it is your own Amendment.’ ‘Yes,’ he said coolly: ‘but I have changed my mind.’ I was silent a minute or two, and then asked him to tell me why he had changed his mind. ‘FitzGibbon has been talking it over with me,’ he said, ‘and I am sure he is right.’ ‘Then,’ I said, ‘I am sorry Lord Justice FitzGibbon was not here last Friday morning.’ I listened to what FitzGibbon had to say—it had all been in the papers before—and as soon as I could, I left. I felt, however, much disheartened at hearing the author of the Amendment which I had been induced to move, denounce it as ‘all a mistake.’