PARNELLISM AND CRIME.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1778, 18 August 1888, Page 2

PARNELLISM AND CRIME.

The London correspondent of (he Argu» writing oo July 16th gives details of the trial of the fntnooß libel action' (7'DonDell v. The Times. Mr 0 Donnell was represented by a barrister quitei' unknown to fame, while x>n the other side were the Attorney-General (Sir Richard Webster), Sir Henry Jimes, and three other members of the bar. The case for the plaintif w ■ briefly put. The allegations of The Times.were to the effect that the constitutional leaders of the Irish party, if not themselves guilty of crime, were in close association with men like Egan, Sheridan, Frank Byrne, and otiien.now safely beyond B itish jurisdiction, who, duting tb« iJark days of JBBO-82, were certainly concerned in oriniH. Mr O'Donueli was not"" once mentioned in the articles, and the most serious observation that The Times made respecting him whs in reply to a letter of the plaintiffs :- -" Mr O'DonneJJ is naturally desirous to clear himse f from a charge of associating with murderer*;,'' alluding more particularly to Byrn<. % he claim f<.r £SOOO daniiiges made by the plaintiff was con's' qiieut'y.fmnd io itivjlve the pi oof' of a suggestion th*t Ml O'Donnell waa a constitutional fouler of the Irish p»rty, and heuc; evidein:u was given in tl ix 'dir?cticin by Mr Lucy, Ute uf thu D.i'y News; Air Joseph C'owen,

formerly member for Newcastle ; and Mr Thomas Brirt, M.P., among others, who each, stated in turn that he regarded tlie plaintiff as ■ leader of the Parnellites, and thought tbat he was libelled by the articles in,The Times. At the snme time the witnesses generally admitto'l lhat th»y knew nothing of Mr O'DonneH's status bpyond what they saw in the House of Commons, that they were not in the secret of his relations with the Parnellites, and were ignorant as to his connection with the Land League. Of course, these very serious omissions could have been supplied by tho plaintiff himself and Mr Parnel l . The Irish leader was in Comt, but to the intense surprise of everybody present, after it had been promised tlat Mr O'Donnell should be called, the c«e for the plaintiff was suddenly closed with the very doubtful evidence of the journalists and politicians only. > The A ttorney-Generttl spoke for two days in defence, and nrged that there was no cast to go to the jury, as MrO'Donnell was not a leader of the party, and consequently had not. been libelled by The Times. Nothing but amarng vanity, or something worse, he said, could have induced Mr O'Donnell to bring the action He produced some remarkable correspondence between Messrs Parnell and Egan and Carey, the informer. Certain parts of it made a profound sensation, and aiust produce a feeling of bewilderment wherever they are read. Counsel took care to insist in advance upon the gtnuineness of tho letters. The corre»poridence began in the days of 1881, about si*teen months before the occurrence of the Phoenix Park tragedy. In February, 1881, Mr Parnell was in Paris | with Egan,' and, according to a letter written by Egan to "Mat" Harris, he there agreed to make further advances to what was known as the "fund of the League." He'again mentioned, further, that Mr Parnell and be had met with O'Letry, the Fenian, and that they «ll agreed that prompt and decisive action waß called for. In June of the same year Mr Parnell wrote to the plaintiff, O'Donnell, in reference to another application from Egan to this effect:-"" I.Bee! no objection to giving the amount required, for there is not the least likeli- ' hood of what you are apprehensive of happening." The body of this letter was in the handwriting of Mr H. Campbell, then acting-as Mr Parnell'a secretary, but the signature was that of Mr Parnell himself, and the 'two brief notes from Mr Parnell seemed to relate to Brennan's j expedition to the west of Ireland, fn October, 1881, Mr Parne'l was lodged in Kilmainham, which he shared with Messrs Brenn'ari,;Dillon, W. O'Brien, Sexton, and others. A,few days later, on the 25th of October, Egan wrote as follows to Carey, the informer :—" Dear Sir,—l have by this, post sent «M.'£2oo. He will give you. what you want. When will you undertake to get to work to give us value for our money 1" Ihe AttorneyGeneral suggested that "M.' was the raah'Mullet, who was afterwards sentenced to ten years' penal servitude for complicity in the Pbcenix Park murders. Counsel next read two letters from %a» to Carey, backing Carey in his attempt to get elected to the City Council in Dublin, _and forwarding him money, Then oame the great sensation of the trial in the leading of* the '.follow'njj letter, wid to have been sent out of Kilmainham, and d4ed J»nuary.»th,lß*2: " Dear EgMi,—What are those fellows ; waitir g for 1 This hrdion is inexcusable. Our best men are in prison, and nothing is being done. Let there be an end to this hesitnncy. Prompt action is called for. Yfu undertook to make it hot for old' Foster and Co. Let us have some evidence of your power to do %o. My health iB good, thanks. Yours truly, •'Chables 8. Pabneii." The Attorney-General would.not say who wrote the body of the letter, but he asked the jury t) believe that the signature was what it professed to be. Dealing summarily with the remainder of the speech, 1 may say that counsel showed farther that when Fiank Byrne fled the country to avoid trial on a charge of complicity in the Pheenix Park nurdereri, it was Mr Parnell, who, by sending him a cheque for £IOO, fonnd the fcnd'rti enable him to make good his escapes As soon as the Attorneys General had concluded, the judge declared emphatically that he would not allow the charges agaiast Mr Parnell and other persona not before the Court to be tried in thißcasp, and he shortly added that at present there was no cafe for The Times to answer. He was really surprised that any; man calling himself a man should for his purpose want' to try a case in this It need hard'y be said how the verdict went. The jury instantly found for the defendants, and added in reference to the allusions to the plaintiff,' " We think they weit. justifiable criticisims." Judgment was promptly given for The Times; with costs. ! . Egan has telegraphed from America denying the authorship of the letter* attributed to him. In the Houso of Commons on the night of July 6th, Mr Parnell declared tfcat he attended the law courts prepared to deny the genuineness of the letters read by the Attorney• Genera l , and which he now characterised as forgeries. He ridiculed the ides thai . he had written the letter attributed to | him from K'lmainham, and deniel having ) ever given money to Byrne, except a subscription to his testimonial fundi Mr Jnstin M'Cortby then stated that he had sent Byrne a cheque for £IOO in the way of business in exchange for smaller' cheque* »nd postal orderß receded by Byrne foi the National League of Great Britain, which had no banking account.: ,