Another vacancy occurred in another Wexford seat, the ancient borough of New Ross, and he was returned without opposition at a crucial moment in the parliamentary struggle.
That struggle was not only parliamentary.

From the famine year of 1879 onwards a fierce agitation had begun, whose purpose was to secure the land of Ireland to the people who worked it.

Davitt was to the land what Parnell was to the parliamentary campaign: but it was Parnell's genius which fused the two movements.
To meet the growing power of the Land League, Mr.Forster demanded a Coercion Bill, and after long struggles in the Cabinet he prevailed.
Against this Bill it was obvious that all means of parliamentary resistance would be used to the uttermost.
They were still of a primitive simplicity.

In the days before Parnell the House of Commons had carried on its business under a system of rules which worked perfectly well because there was a general disposition in the assembly to get business done.

A beginning of the new order was made when a group of ex-military men attempted to defeat the measure for abolishing purchase of commissions in the Army by a series of dilatory motions.