movement as an agitator. He also believed that the IPP put too much stake in parliamentary politics and that it could accomplish more working outside of the system. He had a visceral dislike for Westminster, which he referred to as "parliamentary pentitentiary", and was aware that entering into Parliament alienated his Fenian supporters abroad. Davitt was elected for North Meath in the 1892 general election, but his election was overturned on petition because he had been supported by the Roman Catholic hierarchy. He stood unopposed for North East Cork at a by-election in February 1893, making his maiden speech in favour of the Home Rule Bill in April, which passed the House of Commons but was defeated in the Lords in September. The subsequent retirement of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, who had come to sympathise with Home Rule, delayed the cause for another two decades. Having invested much of his own money into his 1892 campaign, Davitt had to declare bankruptcy in 1893 and resign from the House of Commons. For seven months in 1895, Davitt toured Australia and New Zealand to restore his finances. The trip resulted in his second book, Life and Progress in Australasia (1896), with particular attention to governance and the situation of minorities such as Indigenous Australians and the Kanakas, Pacific Islanders brought in to work at very poor conditions in the colonies. Davitt noted that Western Australia had gotten its own Parliament with a population of some 45,000, while the five million people in Ireland had been denied Home Rule. What was then seven colonies had a substantial Irish population which had contributed to the Land League's efforts, providing an audience for Davitt's message. While abroad, he was returned for both South Mayo and East Kerry; he chose to sit for Mayo as that was his birthplace. On many issues, Davitt supported the British Labour leader Keir Hardie and favoured the foundation of a Labour Party, but his commitment to the Liberal Party for the sake of Home Rule prevented him joining the new party, resulting in a breach with Hardie. In Parliament, he pressed the Conservative government on its plans for improving the ongoing distress in western Ireland. In 1898, Parliament sidestepped Home Rule by granting full democratic control of all local affairs to County and District Councils under the Local Government (Ireland) Act. Davitt then co-founded, with William O'Brien, the United