Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/43

 he was wrong. Parnell then took from his pocket, a scrap of paper and read "twenty-seven ounces of gold and five ounces of silver." H. H. replied that this was indeed remarkable, for it exactly coincided with the analysis of Messrs Johnson, Matthey & Co., the famous metallurgists. Parnell then showed the small pin's point of gold he had obtained to H. H. who expressed surprise at his work.

"The fact is," said Parnell, "I take an interest in the matter. I have a small workshop to test the minerals in the mountains of Wicklow, some portion of which I own."

While his hundred of thousands of adherents were fulminating against "The Times," he was quietly working away testing minerals in his laboratory! Among the many famous men who sat in the House when H. H. first entered it, there was perhaps none who made a more vivid impression on his mind than Lord Randolph Churchill. The following letter, marked "Private," was written in the summer of 1887, after his meteoric and disastrous resignation, when the estrangement from his recent colleagues was still wide and unbridged:

"I am not able to make speeches in the country without having given to them beforehand several hours of thought. Now how can I find this time just now?

The study and work necessary to make the Army and Navy Estimates Committee useful absorbs all my time. Further the * * * and Co. lot have behaved so infamously to me, that I cannot bring myself to speak in any part of the country where they may be benefited by my so speaking. When times are more propitious, which they may be possibly B