THIS PARNELL INQUIRY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 452, 8 March 1890, Page 5

THIS PARNELL INQUIRY.

DISCUSSION IN THE COMMONS. SPEECHES BY SMITH AND GLADSTONE. London, March 3. In the House of Commons Mr W. H. Smith, in proposing a vote of thanks to the three judges who formed the special commission, said the Parnellite party had been condemned on many of the grave charges, but the Government would not prosecute them, as the statutory commission had been used only to discover the truth. He hoped that Home Rule never would be founded °on boycotting, inciting to crime, suffering, and misery. The tactics of the Land League he thought certain to end in anarchy.

Mr Gladstone declared it was unprecedented to thank the judges for carrying out their judicial duties. The whole report, he considered, bristled with disreputable matter, and it was unreasonable to ask the House to accept it as a whole. Ireland, he said, was on the brink of famine when seven of the defendants joined a seditious conspiracy, and it was unwise and indecent to censure others for these charges. He contended that a decade of the old agitation had prevented more crime than had been caused, and he regarded Mr Parnell since 1882 as having contributed to the peace of Ireland. In his opinion the overtures of Lord Carnarvon to Mr Parnell had condoned his previous acts, and, in concluding, Mr Gladstone urged the House not to accept the denial of a Minister, even if he was a member of the House of Lords.