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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
It is a historical truism that the ‘Irish question’ dominated British parliamentary life during the last third of the nineteenth century. For good reason does Sir Robert Ensor give one of the chapters in England, 1870-1914 the title ‘The ascendancy of Parnell’. Yet it is the custom to treat the Irish nationalist contingent at Westminster as concerned only with Irish questions. It has been observed, to be sure, that the ‘Irish question’ had a highly significant impact upon English affairs. The Irish land acts of 1870 and 1881, for example, have come to be seen as a type of government intervention in economic affairs foreshadowing the twentieth-century welfare state. One aspect of the existence of an Irish third party at Westminster has, however, been curiously neglected, the impact of Irish M.Ps upon essentially English political controversies. It is with one such controversy that this paper is concerned, the notorious Bradlaugh case.
1 E.g., Ausubel, Herman, The late Victorians: a short history (New York, 1955), pp. 73, 75Google Scholar.
2 Eric Strauss, in his Irish nationalism and English democracy (1951), stresses that the Irish M.Ps constituted ‘ the only compact representation of unprivileged classes and subject nations in the British Empire ’(p. 187). He seems little concerned, however, with the effect of Irish votes upon particular English controversies.
8 The letter is printed in The Times, 21 May 1880. The most detailed published account of the Bradlaugh case was contributed by Robertson, J.M. to volume ii of Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner’s Charles Bradlaugh: a record of his life and work (London, 1895)Google Scholar. See also Arnstein, Walter L., ‘ Gladstone and the Bradlaugh case ’, in Victorian Studies, v (June 1962), pp. 303-30Google Scholar.
4 T. P. O’Connor, Charles Stewart Parnell: a memory (1891), pp. 79, 89. Gladstone estimated the number at 35 to 40 in January 1883 (Diary of Sir Edward W. Hamilton, B.M., Add. MS 48633, p. 106).
5 Freeman’s Journal, 9 Feb. 1881, p. 5.
6 O’Donnell, Frank Hugh, A history of the Irish parliamentary party (1910), i. 491 Google Scholar.
7 Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, series 3, ccliii (1880), 513. Hereafter cited as Hansard.
8 Ibid., col. 599.
9 Tablet, 25 June 1881, p. 1014.
10 Oxford, 1957, p. 42. J.H. Whyte has urged that the politicalinfluence of the clergy declined between 1870 and 1890, but in 1880 it was obviously still considerable. See ‘ The influence of the catholic clergy on elections in nineteenth-century Ireland ’, in E.H.R., lxxv(Apr. 1960)Google Scholar.
11 C. Cruise O’Brien, Parnell and his party, p. 28.
12 O’Donnell, Irish parl, party, i. 493; McCarthy, Justin, Reminiscences (1899), ii 4l8, 423, 171Google Scholar.
13 Hansard, ccliii (1880); 657.
14 Hansard, ccliii (1880), 1304-1305.
15 Parnell and his party, pp. 49-50.
16 T. P. O’Connor, Parnell, pp. 170, 171.
17 O’Donnell, , Irish parl, party, i. 464 Google Scholar; Hamilton Fyfe, T. P. O’Connor, (1934), p. 102.
18 T. P. O’Connor, Parnell, p. 91.
19 Hansard, ccliii (1880), 658.
20 Hansard, ccliii (1880), 659; Freeman’s Journal, 24 June 1880, p. 5.
21 Bonner, , Charles Bradlaugh, i, ch. xxv Google Scholar; McCarthy, , Reminiscences, i. 176 Google Scholar; ii, 327-328.
22 National Reformer, 29 Aug. 1880, p. 186. The National Reformer was the weekly journal Bradlaugh edited for many years.
23 Bonner, , Charles Bradlaugh, ii. 35 Google Scholar; National Reformer, 8 Feb. 1880, pp. 81, 83.
24 Tablet, 7 May 1881, p. 737; National Reformer, 19 Apr. 1885, p. 305.
25 Hansard, ccliii (1880), 723; O’Connor, Parnell, p. 90.
26 National Reformer, 13 June 1880, p. 408.
27 Freeman’s Journal, 22 May 1880, p. 5; 24 June, p. 5; 25 June, p. 4.
28 Freeman’s Journal, 26 June 1880, p. 5; Tablet, 3 July 1880, p. 24.
29 Joan Haslip, Parnell (1936), p. 149. See also Leslie, Shane, Henry Edward Manning: his life and labour (1921), p. 436 Google Scholar.
30 F. H. O’Donnell in Tablet, 3 July 1880, p. 24.
31 Freeman’s Journal, 25 May 1880, p. 5; Lucy, Henry W., A diary of two parliaments (1886), ii. 41 Google Scholar.
32 Freeman’s Journal, 2 July 1880, p. 5.
33 2 July 1880, p. 9.
34 28 Apr. 1881, p. 5.
35 4 Aug. 1881, p. 4.
36 Freeman’s Journal, 7 Feb. 1882, p. 5; 8 Feb., p. 5.
37 National Reformer, 19 Mar, 1882, p. 243.
38 Hansard, cclxxviii (1883), 1738, 1464.
39 Hansard, cclxxviii (1883), 1479-1480.
40 Hansard, cclxxviii (1883), 1483.
41 University of Chicago, O’Gorman Mahon MSS, file 17, f. 4.
42 Hansard, cclxxviii (1883), 1780-1781.
43 National Reformer, 13 May 1883, pp. 353, 357; Wolff, Henry Drummond, Rambling recollections (1908), ii. 118 Google Scholar.
44 Gladstone MSS, B.M. Add. MS, 44546, f.. 209.
45 Churchill, Winston S., Life of Lord Randolph Churchill (1906),i. 255 Google Scholar.
46 Northampton Mercury, 5 May 1883, p. 5; Daily News (London),5 May 1883; Scotsman cited in National Reformer, 13 May 1883;P. 359.
47 Cited by Humanitas [William Platt Ball], Bradlaugh, Charles, M.P., and the Irish nation (London, 1885), p. 10 Google Scholar.
48 O’Connor, T. P., Gladstone’s house of commons (1885), p. 335 Google Scholar.
49 Cited by Humanitas, Bradlaugh, p. 12.
50 Healy, T.M., A record of coercion (Dublin, 1882)Google Scholar, cited inNational Reformer, 12 Feb. 1882, p. 108; 4 Oct. 1885, p. 219.
51 Hansard, cclvii (1881), 1265; Division lists, 1881, pp. 81-3.
52 26 Feb. 1881, p. 328.
53 5 May 1883, p. 5.
54 15 Jan. 1881, p. 5.
55 ‘ Working men and the situation ’, in Nineteenth Century, Apr.1881, p. 612.
56 Freeman’s Journal, 20 Jan. 1881, p. 5; 23 Mar. 1881, p. 5.
57 Mahon MSS, file 10, f. 13; G.D.H. Cole, British working class politics, 1832-1914 (1941), p. 86; Hamilton Diary, B.M., Add. MS 48632, p. 137; Freeman’s Journal, 7 Feb. 1882, p. 5.
58 National Reformer, 25 Feb. 1883, p. 115.
59 T. P. O’Connor, Parnell, p. 158.
60 Cited in National Reformer, 19 Feb. 1882, p. 133.
61 O’Connor, T. P., Memoirs of an old parliamentarian (1929), i. 171 Google Scholar.
62 Cited in National Reformer, 13 May 1883, p. 359.
63 Mahon MSS, file II, f. 2.
64 O’Connor, T. P., Memoirs, i. 226 Google Scholar.
65 MSS, Gladstone, B., M., Add. MS 44631, f. 117 Google Scholar.
66 Mahon MSS, file 10, ff. 13, 7.
67 Mahon MSS, file II, f. 2.
68 Cited in Diary, Hamilton, B., M., Add. MS 48632, ff. 137-8Google Scholar.
69 Garvin, J.L., The life of Joseph Chamberlain, i (1922), p. 369 Google Scholar.
70 MSS, Gladstone, B., M., Add. MS 44175, f. 25 Google Scholar.
71 Hamilton Diary, B.M., Add. MS 48635, p. 47; 48634, p. 10.
72 Hamilton Diary, B.M., Add. MS 48635, p. 136.
78 27 May 1882, p. 651; 6 Oct. 1883, p. 419.
74 J.L. Hammond, Gladstone and the Irish nation (1938), p. 313.
75 Hansard, cclxi (1882), 91.
76 Hansard, cclxxviii (1883), 1615.
77 Cited in The Rock 12 Aug. 1881, p. 569.
78 O’Brien, Parnell and his party, p. 54.
79 Hansard, cclxxviii (1883), 937.
80 Saturday Review, 5 Mar. 1881, p. 298.
81 Mahon MSS, file 8, f. 10.
82 Cited in Tablet, 16 Apr. 1881, p. 616.
83 O’Brien, R.Barry, Parnell, ii. 23 Google Scholar.
84 The Parnell of real life ( 1926), p. 59.
85 O’Connor, T. P., Memoirs, i. 74 Google Scholar.
86 Cited in National Reformer, 12 Mar. 1882, p. 209; 2 Apr., p. 272.
87 Healy, T.M., Letters and leaders of my day (1929), i. 167 Google Scholar.
88 28 Apr. 1883, p. 5.
89 The reference in the Davitt MSS was kindly supplied by Professor T.W. Moody .
90 12 May, p.721,
91 Hansard, cccii (1886), 21-24.
92 Cited in Bonner, , Bradlaugh, ii. 196 Google Scholar.
93 Birmingham Oratory, Newman MSS, Affirmation Bill File.
94 The Times, 15 Mar. 1888, p. 9.
