"JUDAS CHAMBERLAIN" PARNELL IMPEACHES CHAMBERLAIN. EXCITING SCENE. London, August 10.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 301, 22 September 1888, Page 4

"JUDAS CHAMBERLAIN" PARNELL IMPEACHES CHAMBERLAIN. EXCITING SCENE. London, August 10.

Tiik most remarkable feature of the discussion in Committee on Monday week anent the Forgeries Commission was indubitally Mr Parnell's impeachment of Mr Chamberlain. Of late, the Irish leader, usually the coolest of men, has been constantly at a white heat. On Monday when he rose he was obviously in a towering' passion, indeed his voice shook whilst he spoke. After sarcastically thanking the member for West Birmingham for his expressions of good opinion in his speech of the previous Friday, he said: —"The hon. gentleman spoke of not long ago, when he said he entertained a better opinion of me than he does to-day. I care very little for the opinion ot the right hon. gentleman. (Cheers.) 1 have never put forward men to do dangerous things which I shrank from doing myself, nor have I betrayed the secrets of my colleagues in council. (Cheers.) My principal recollection of therighthon. gent eman the member for West Birmingham before he became a Minister is that he was always most anxious to put me forward and my friends forward to do work which he was afraid to do himself— (Home Rule cheers) —and after he became a Minister my principal recollection of him is that he was always most anxious to betray to us the secrets and counsels of his colleagues in the Cabinet —(cries of "Oh " and Home rule cheors) —and to endeavour, while sitting beside those colleagues and while in consultation with them, to undermine their counsels and their plans in our favour. (Cheeis.) If this inquiry be extended into these matters and, 1 see no reason why it should not, I shall be able to make good my words by documentary evidence which is not forged." (Loud Home Rule cheei's.) Describing the scene and what followed, Mr T. P. O'Connor, who played a leading part in it, says : It was five minutes to 12 when Mr Parnell rose, and it looked as if he were only going to suy a few common-place words b v\ way of preparing for a division or filling up the time. But the Irish leader was evidently on the war path. Mr Parnell is freer from peisonal animosities than perhaps any man in t>.e House of Commons. In all the fierce scenes in which he has taken so prominent a part, there is scarcely an instance of his having made a personal attack. Ib is known to his intimates, too, that he is forbearing and forgiving to even opponents to a degree that sometimes has looked like weakness. He has been known, for instance, to come out of the House after a savage attack by Mr O'Connor Power, and to make the gentle comment that perhaps O'Connor Power hadn't been treated as considei'ately as he might have been. But there is one quality that Mr Parnell really hates, and that is baseness and meanness ; and as

HE REGARDS MR CHAMBERLAIN AS IGNOBLE, and base, and mean beyond all otliei men of his time, be has for Mr Chamberlain a feeling that almost amounts to loathing. The shameless retreat of Mr Chamberlain from his utterance on the second reading of the Bill brought Mr Parnell's disgust to a climax. He got up and in a bare five minutes' speech managed to crush the most damning and galling indictment ever uttered in the House of Commons. We give elsewhere the full extent of this remarkable speech ; but it is impossible to convey any idea of its effect from its language. You should have been present and heard

THE THROBBING SCORN thab was in every one of Mr Parnell's wordb ; you should have watched the strange thrill that went responsive to the Chamber, at one moment still at. death, at the next tossed with tempestuous cheers ; you should have .^een the great white forehead and white face of Mr Gladstone as he looked straight at Mr Chamberlain with a look of disgust and inquiry, as though to see whether, after all, it could be true that while the two were sitting in council together Mr Chamberlain \va& playing the traitor's part attributed to him by Mr Parnell ; above ail you should have

WATCHED THE FACE OF MR CHAMBERLAJN himself as it grew uglier and more livid every moment under this terrible indictment, pointed, accentuated, exalted by the alternate hush and the wild tumult of the House. He tried to laugh the business off by a smile, but the smile was" deadly sick, and he attempted to carry on conversation with the Marquis of Hartington, but the words seemed to stick in his throat. At last the midnight hour -had come. Mr Courtney rose up to stop Mr Parnell by THE CRY" OF "ORDER, ORDER," and Mr Parnell had to sit down. But the House, and especially the Irish members, still heaved under the excitement ; there were cheers ; and Mr Chamberlain, afraid to pass down the House in front of the solid battalions of his Irish enemies, who remained sitting and 'cheering, lingered in plainly artificial conversation with the Marquis of Hartingt6n. It was in the midst of these cheers that the words "'Judas Chamberlain wei c heard. .They cam e from Mr T. P. O'Connor. , Mr Chamberlain, startled, asked what 'fche 'words wei?e. There were plenty of people eager to tell him. "He called you Judas Chamberlain," said the terrible Biggar, with evident enjoyment of the words. 4 ' Call him Judas Chamberlain again," shouted Mr Labouchere. All this time the House was without i a presiding officer, for Mr Courtney had-deffc. the' chair, and the Speaker had taken ib. There was indescribable tumult. At last the

SPEAKER ENTERED. Mr Chamberlain, pale and disturbed,, go^ up, and complained. He was unusually hesitant, and several times " paused ( as though he cbuld not pronounce the terrible word that had been applied to'him. J Bu't at last it had to come out. He had' been called "Judas Chamberlain." "The words were taken up with ringing cheers, and then there was some skirmishing ;' but' Mr "T. *P. O'Connor ackntiwledged the useiof "the" language, and' confessed' that', what-" evei'were his' feeling's; he' should not-have" employed it in the'Htfuse of Commons.. The J Speaker, who acfce'd throughout with" great dignity and kindliness, declared the incident closed ; arid'so there came to ari end \ one of the most' violentTahd tempestucjus scenes ever witnessed in the House !of Commons. The following night Parnell ronewed i|he attack,' but Joe was not to be'drawn. He said Mr Gladstone" arid, Mr- !Forster .had kndwn arid approved aIF his negotiations with" the Irish* party whilst he' was "a Minister, and the (jLO.M. confirming this statement, the liithmen looked i ; ath"er foolish.

The moa nowhere ! A fossil egg in the Paris Academy of Sciences measures 34Ain. one way aijd 29in. another. The original' is supposed.fco^have been, the egg of a bird three times as big as an ostrich. "'