Rhodes and Parnell.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 15, 10 April 1902, Page 1

Rhodes and Parnell.

Rhodes A rather curious ard interesting episode in Mr. Rhodes S career occurred in 1888, when the 'Diamond King' made a handsome donation to the Irish party for the promotion of the

Home Rule movement. Mr. Rhodes, who was at that time getting £40,000 a year out of the South African diamondfields, sent Mr. Parnell a cheque for £5000, and promised to send him another cheque of the same amount, on the understanding that Irishmen were not to be excluded from the Imperial Parliament in the next Home Rule Bill to be proposed. Various theories have been put forward as to Mr. Rhodes's motive in making this remarkable gift. According to Mr. Stead, it was given ' by way of rewarding the Irish chieftain for his refusal to accept Home Rule on the Colonial, as opposed to Home Rule on the American basis.' Another writer declares that ' what undoubtedly prompted him in this transaction was the expectation that the Irish Nationalist members in Parliament would consider themselves as under an obligation to him* the repayment of which he might demand whenever he needed political support.'

The simple truth on the matter was clearly stated in Mr. Rhodes's letter to Mr. Parnell, in which he intimated that he made the contribution on the ground that he thought Home Rule in Ireland, on the lines he suggested, would open the way to the execution of his great scheme for the Federation of the Colonies. In this view Mr Parnell concurred. •It does not come so much within my province,' said the Irish leader writing to Mr. Rhodes, ' to express a full opinion on the larger question of Imperial Federation ; but I agree with you that the continued Irish representation at Westminster will immensely facilitate such a step, while the contrary provision in the Bill of 1886 would have been a bar.' The idea in the minds of these two tar-seeing men was probably something like this. They anticipated that the concession of Home Rule to Ireland would be followed by Home Rule to Scotland and Wales, and that that again would be followed by the grant of Home Rule to England. Then the Colonies would put in a claim, and eventually the House of Lords would be replaced by a sort of Federal Parliament, in which all the greater Colonies, as well as England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, would be represented. That was certainly Mr. Parnell's idea, and there can be little doubt that whenever Home Rule is granted some such form of Federalism as that just described will sooner or later follow.