This vivid record of the major crisis of late nineteenth-century British politics comes from the unique perspective of someone who was both a crown official and an active Irish nationalist. It provides an insider's first-hand account of British attempts to negotiate a satisfactory settlement of the Irish question, and is complemented by contemporary official papers and the private correspondence of leading politicians and senior officials in Dublin. These valuable sources illuminate a long neglected aspect of the British Government's response to Irish nationalism during 1884–1887, suggesting that Gladstone's adoption of home rule was more significantly influenced by warnings of incipient revolution in Ireland than has been previously thought.