ABSTRACT
The display of power of mind and strength of character makes a great impression on an assembly even if its temper from day to day is inflamed and embittered by violent passions. Patience was needed before everything else, for the fortunes of William Ewart Gladstone’s Irish policy at this moment turned largely on temper. The Parnell party had two grievances against the Government; the first that the Government had passed an Act which deprived Irishmen of the fundamental guarantees of liberty that Englishmen possessed. The Irish temper was naturally suspicious and resentful. Gladstone saw the history of the session in rather a different light. Gladstone made up his mind to attack Parnell, but his first intention was to combine with the attack some sympathetic passages about Irish reform. In Gladstone’s view, the Land Act was the first step towards making Ireland a normal and healthy society, and Parnell was resisting it for that very reason.
