RICHARD PIGOTT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1861, 5 March 1889, Page 4

RICHARD PIGOTT.

Many people think that the Times believed in the genuineness of the Pigott forgeries. It is moat extraordinary that other papers know all about it, and the fact that they did can only lead to the conclusion that the Times did not want to know. Houston said he preferred not to know. ThoJ fol : owin.g appeared in the Hew Ford World of the 29ih of December last, so the facts were well-known then, so well that the writer predicted the rosu't. The World says the man who is universally condemned, and who is said to be the forger of these letters, is Mr Richard Pigoit, former proprietor of three Dublin journals—the Irishman, king of Ireland, and Shamrock. Mr Pigott’a appearance on the witness stand is expected to cause a sensation and develop some extraordinary features of the Timas’ malicious attack on the Parnellites. HIS CAREER. The man who is likely to be tho central figure in this investigation has been connected with Irish journalism for years, and is tho son of a worthy and patriotic Irishman, the late Mr John Pigott, an employee and associate of Thomas Davis and Charles Cavan Duffey, the founders *f the old Dublin Nation.

Mr Pigott marie Irish Nationality a business, and a very profitable one. Thinking men in Dublin, ;from their first acquaintance with him, camo to the conclusion that he was not possessed of a single spark of genuine National sentiment. It was well known in National circles that Mr Pigott’s private friends and companions were of that class of anti-Irish shoneen aristocracy that ape English manners and style, and with which Ireland, and especially the metropolis, is infested. It was even said that his habits were expensive, if not extravagant, and that he needed nil the income which National literature brought him. He was foppish in his dress, and duriish in his ' appearance, wearing a single eye-glass, then quite fashionable in the would-be select circles. He is a man of.medium stature, and then wore a full hi mk heard, which has since Turned gray. His eyes had o- peciiar, restless, suspicions glance, as if their owner was in a slate of perpetual fright, HE WAS BANQXJETXED. The executions in Manchester gave Mr Pigott an opportunity to pose as an Irish martyr. The Nationalists held a public funeral in Dublin. It wis one of [the most solemn and imposing demonstrations of the period. The people turned out en masse, wearing mourniog emblems. The late Mr John Martin, the well-known Irish patriot, delivered an oration outside Glasnevin Cemetery. The Irishman and Nation of the foliowing week gave full reports of this National celebration, ineluding Mr John Martin’s speech. The Government prosecuted both proprietors for seditions. Mr A. M. Sullivan was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and a heavy fine, and Pigott, whose paper was considered the organ of the revolutionist?, was sent to gaol for six months, and also had to pay a fin?. The Irish people collected uud paid the fines of these editors, and when Mr Pigott was released at the expiration of his sentence the Nationalists tendered him a public banquet in the Rotunda Dublin as a testimony of their approval of his course and the condemnation of (he British Government. Mr Bigot’s speech at this banquet was written for him by a prominent Nutionist ; he had not the ability to either writs or speak on the po'itical questions he was associated with. It was also evident to many that his inclinations or feelings were r.ot patriotic. Ho was the creature of circumstances through owning a Nationalist paper. BLACKMAIL. Mr Pigott at this time started a cheap weekly paper in connection with (ho Irishman, which nns called the Flag of Ireland, and also a story paper, the Shamrock. Notwithstanding the apparent prosperity of hie new ventures, Mr Pigott appeared to be always in straitened circumstances, and in the winter of 1880 sold his journals and plant to Mr Purnell and Mr Egan, who purchased them as the Irish National Publishing Company. As Mr Parnell’s movement was a coustitutior.nl one, the Ping of Ireland paper changed its name to United Ireland, under which name it still flourishes, guided by Mr William O’Brien, the editor since its foundation as so organ of legal agitation, A short time after selling his newspapers Mr Pigott, m an eager spirit of greed, anight to gut a large sum of money from Mr Parnell and Mr Egan for some letters which ho hinted the Dublin Castle p ople wanted to buy of him. Mr Egan indignantly repelled Ibis attempt at black-mailing, and an angry correspondence ensued, which marie Mr Pigott the bitter personal enemy of Mr Parnell and Mr Egan to the present time. TRUE prophecy. It is stated on the best authority that Mr Pigott manufactured the forgeries which are in possession of the London Times, by tracing over the correspondence in his possession, and constructing sentences by using several letters in the same handwriting. Be this as it may, there is no doubt whatever n the minds of those who know ail ab’iit these forgeries, not only that Mr Pigott forged these letters and sold them to the London Times through the agency of the Landlords or Loyalists’ Association, but that he will be , convicted of the fart out of his own mouth when placed on tho witness stand. Mr Pigott’s manufacture of these spurious letters served two purposes ; it aided his own impecunious position mid helped him, as he thought to a sweeping revenge over Mr Parnell and Mr Egan. BLINDED BY RAGE ft is extraordinary how the London Times, in its blind raga against everything Irish, should allow itself to be so completely duped and swindled in such a transparent manner, as it has been, out of large sums of money. Inspector Moaoly, who came to Hu’s country,as already stated in the , World, permitted himself to be imposed upon by the purchase of manufactured letters. It is hard to believe that :a shrewd Scotland Yard detective like Mosely was really duped, especially when bogus Nationalists were introduced to him as certain Irish political refugees who recently came to this country, and of whose appearance be must have had some knowledge of. He actually paid ! these impostors, it is credibly stated, large sums of money for their spurious correspondence, All of this expense, with Mosely’s costs, came out of the London Times treasury. 'b-a Times has already admitted through its counsel, the English Attorney-General, that it has bean duped by bogus letters,