Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/343

 Next day Parnell asserted in the House of Commons that all the letters quoted at this trial were forgeries. The ‘Times’ replied that they were prepared with legal proof of their authenticity. On 9 July Parnell asked the government for a special committee of the house to inquire into the matter. This request was refused, but on the 16th the government introduced a Special Commission Bill by which three judges, Sir James Hannen (afterwards Lord Hannen), Mr. Justice A. L. Smith, and Mr. Justice Day, were ordered to inquire into and to report to the house on the truth or falsehood of all the charges brought by the ‘Times’ against Parnell and other Irish members of parliament. Parnell and the liberals expressed grave dissatisfaction with the determination of the government. It was argued that the incriminating letters alone merited investigation, and the choice of judges was adversely commented on. The bill, after lengthened debate in committee in the House of Commons, passed the House of Lords on 11 Aug. On the same day Parnell began an action for libel against the ‘Times,’ claiming damages of 100,000l.

On 17 Sept. 1888 the special commission sat for the first time to determine its procedure. The counsel for the ‘Times’ (the attorney-general, Sir Richard Webster) was directed to produce the evidence on which he relied to substantiate the charges. On 22 Oct. the trial actually began. Parnell and sixty-four Irish members of parliament, together with Mr. Michael Davitt, were specified by name as the respondents or accused persons. All appeared, and were represented by counsel, excepting Mr. Biggar and Mr. Davitt, who conducted their own cases. The main allegations were that the respondents were members of a conspiracy seeking the absolute independence of Ireland; that they had promoted an agrarian agitation against the payment of rent, with a view to expelling from Ireland the landlords, whom they styled ‘the English garrison;’ that by their speeches and by money payments they incited persons to sedition and the commission of crime, including murder; that their occasional denunciations of crime were known to be insincere, and that they accepted pecuniary and other assistance from avowed advocates in America of murder and outrage by means of dynamite. Until 14 Dec. witnesses testified to outrages and murder committed during the reign of the land league. On the reassembling of the court on 15 Jan. 1889 many speeches of the persons implicated were read, and on 5 Feb. Major Le Caron, the spy, who was a member of the Clan-na-Gael, related a conversation with Parnell in 1881, when Parnell was said to have discussed the feasibility of uniting more closely the land league with the fenian societies. On 21 Feb. Richard Pigott [q. v.], who had sold the incriminating letters to the ‘Times,’ broke down under the cross-examination of Sir Charles Russell; on the 23rd, during an adjournment of the court, he sought unsolicited an interview with Mr. Labouchere, M.P., and confessed that all the letters were forgeries. A few days later he fled the country, and committed suicide at Madrid. Parnell denied on oath the authenticity of the letters on 26 Feb., and the counsel for the ‘Times’ thereupon withdrew them from the case.

The liberal party treated this incident as a complete acquittal of Parnell, and inundated him with compliments and congratulations. On 8 March he and Lord Spencer, who then for the first time appeared with his former foe on the same platform, were jointly the guests of the Eighty Club. Parnell was received with enthusiasm. On 13 March he and Mr. Morley both addressed a meeting in London on the alleged persecution of Irish political prisoners by Mr. Balfour. On 23 April the Edinburgh town council, by 24 votes to 13, resolved to confer the freedom of the city upon Parnell. A strong opposition was organised, but on 20 July the ceremony took place, although the lord provost declined to take part in it. Parnell spoke with studied moderation.

Meanwhile Parnell had moved an amendment to the address in February 1889, condemning coercion, and his motion was rejected by a reduced government majority of 79. In July he proved the thoroughness of his alliance with Mr. Gladstone by voting with the official liberals in opposition to the radicals on the proposal to make an additional grant to the Prince of Wales. In December he accepted Mr. Gladstone's invitation to visit him at Hawarden, and there to all appearance they amicably discussed the lines of a future Home Rule Bill; but Parnell declared later that Mr. Gladstone's proposals ‘would not satisfy the aspirations of the Irish race,’ and it would be difficult for him to secure Irish support for them. According to Parnell's statement, the accuracy of which Mr. Gladstone denied, the number of Irish members at Westminster was to be reduced to thirty-two; the land question was to be settled by the British parliament; the constabulary was to remain under imperial control indefinitely; and the appointment of judges and magistrates for ten or twelve years. On leaving Hawarden Parnell addressed a sympathetic meeting at Liverpool, and accepted a sum of 3,000l. towards the expenses he incurred in defending himself before the special com-