The Irish Party, as we know it, was originally the creation of Parnell, and was, perhaps, his most signal achievement.  It became, under the genius of his leadership, a mighty constitutional force—­disciplined, united, efficient and vigilant.  It had the merit of knowing its own mind.  It kept aloof from British Party entanglements.  It was pledged to sit, act and vote together, and its members loyally observed the pledge both in the spirit and the letter, and did not claim the right to place their own individual interpretation upon it.  Furthermore, it was a cardinal article of honour that members of the Party were to seek no favours from British Ministers, because it needs no argument to demonstrate that the Member of Parliament who pleads for favours for himself or preferment for his friends can possess no individual independence.  He is shackled in slavery to the Minister to whom his importunities are addressed.  He is simply a patriot on the make, despised by himself and despised by those to whom he addresses his subservient appeals.  There was no place for such a one in Parnell’s Irish Party, which embodied as nearly as possible that perfect political cohesion which is the dream of all great leaders.  There were men of varying capacity and, no doubt, of differing thought in Parnell’s Party, but where Ireland’s national interests were concerned it was a united body, an undivided phalanx which faced the foe.  And by the very boldness and directness of Parnell’s policy, he won to his side in the country, not only all the moral and constitutional forces making for Nationalism, but the revolutionary forces—­who yearned for an Irish Republic—­as well.  He was, therefore, not only the leader of a Party; he was much more—­he was the leader of a United Irish nation.  His aim was eminently sane and practical—­to obtain the largest possible measure of national autonomy, and he did not care very much what it was called.  But he made it clear that whatever he might accept in his time and generation was not to be the last word on the Irish Question.  He fought with the weapons that came to his hand—­and he used them with incomparable skill and judgment—­with popular agitation in Ireland, with “direct action” of a most forcible and audacious kind in Parliament.  A great leader has always the capacity for attracting capable lieutenants to his side.  We need only refer to the example of Napoleon as overwhelming proof of this.  And so out of what would ordinarily seem humble and unpromising material Parnell brought to his banner a band of young colleagues who have since imperishably fixed their place in Irish history.  I am not writing the life-story of the members of Parnell’s Party, but if I were it would be easy to show that most of the colleagues who have come to any measure of greatness since were men of no antecedent notoriety (I use the word in its better application), with possibly one exception, and it is somewhat remarkable that the son of John Blake Dillon, who owed perhaps