FIRST PERIOD. This was the time of develop ment and definition. From the outset the Home Rule idea was favorably received among the better classes of the Irish people, though ancient reli gious antipathies often blocked the way. Among the lower classes—those particularly in which Fenianism had found its chief support—the new form of constitutional agitation was slow to in spire confidence. Under the direction of Isaac Butt, however, who had made himself popular by his legal services in behalf of arrested Fenians, considerable progress was made, and at bye elections several Home Rulers, including Butt himself, were elected to Parliament. In the fall of 1873 the Home Government Association was re placed by the Irish Home Rule League, a new and more comprehensive organization, whose skillful management secured the return of sixty Home Rulers in the general election of 1874. For the next five years, under the leadership of Isaac Butt. they acted as a distinct party when Home Ride or [risk interests were at stake, but on other questions followed their individual preferences. In
fact, during, this period, outside of Ireland, there was very little interest in the subject, and Eng• lisp Liberal and English Conservative alike had voted against Butt's annual motion for an Irish Parliament. But an awakening was to come. when Parnell, who entered the Commons in 1875. began to advocate his policy of `obstruction,' applying it—aided by a little group of followers —to all questions alike, whether Irish, English, or Imperial. In this course he was opposed by Butt and the majority of the party at that time; but through this policy Parnell succeeded in arousing the English people to a discussion of the subject, and in winning, partly perhaps by means of the hatred he excited toward himself on the part of the old British parties. the en thusiastie support of Irishmen to a degree which Butt's milder course had never done.