MR DAVITT AND THE TIMES MANAGER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2008, 15 February 1890, Page 2

MR DAVITT AND THE TIMES MANAGER.

Mr Divitt writes to the Pall Mall Gazette:—

I thoroughly concur in the view pu forward by those who believe that the ate manager of the Times made a Simple Simon " of himself in the witness box in order to

SCEEEN A FAB 3IOBE niPOETANT CASE in the Commission drama. The whole truth will come out some day and establish this an undeniable fact. I had many opportunities of studying the character of Mr Macdonald during the progress of the late inquiry. Up to the denouement of the Pigott confession Mac and I were usually close neighbors on the solicitors' bench. I remember one day receiving a warning note from a friendly pressman saying, "Beware! <r! L m m° Blfctmg next y° u is Macdonald ot the Times. He is reading what you are writing." This was very early in the investigation, and it was then only I learned who the old kindly looking individual was who had been watching rcy left-handed scribbling for the few previous days. I satisfied the author j of the warning note that it was this, | and not the contents of my note-book, which Macdonald had been observing It is curious how a daily association . between men of the strongest antagontends to weaken the unnatural feeling of repulsion that is bred from political or kindred misunderstanding. At first POOE OLD MAC and I were in the habit of exchanging' morning salutations in something like the manner of men who looked atTeaeh other with a mutual " You are the villain of this play." This, however, wore off in about a week, and we thea began to adopt a "nodding" good morning. Finally Mac apologised for giving me inconvenience in the matter of note-taking, and from that forward J we became so " friendly" that I was

more than once warned by colleagues in the case that it did not " look well " vi? 1 ! 10 be seen m oc °asional confab with the manager ot the Times—the man who we knew had financed the business of the forged letters. But I lound Mac an interesting study, and we remained on taking terms to the end.

He told me one day that if political considerations could be overlooked he could

WISH SUCCESS TO THE lEISH MOYEMENT AGATtTST LANELOEDISM. He had some experience in early life of Highland landlords, and these were not celculated to make him friendly to the same system in any country. He boasted, too, on another day that his ancestors had fought against the English m the rebellion of 1745, and laughingly remarked that he was ia one sense as tainted as myself in the matter of ancestral treason.

_ It was largely due to the impressions which a study of Macdonald had made upon me that he could never have been the man who undertook the responsibility of negotiating with Houston and committing the Times to the risk of publishing the fac simile letter that induced me to pay my first visit to Paris in search for further information about Pigott's allies and confederates in the forgery conepiracy. I made my first visit to Paris as an amateur detective, and, agreeable to my expectations, I got from associates of Pigott proofs of this conspiracy in which Pigott was the active paid agent Pigott, with his proneness of committing everything to writing, had I communicated (after the bargain with Houston) late in 1885 to a supposed Fenian agent from America a plot to ruin Mr Parnell, "in which Whigs and Fenians" were combined, that plently of funds were available; and, to further indue© the " agent" t© join the conspiracy, Pigott informed him that Parnell had charged him (the agent) with being a spy. I also got —with some gentle persuasion—from this "agent" a letter written from Lausanne after Pigott's visit giving full particulars of his proposal to Eugene Davies. These documents will see the light some of these days. But Pigott had dealings with other men in Paris besides this emissary from America, and to each ©f these agents came afterwards with offers of reward for information that would incriminate Mr Parnell. One of these men made to me the following statement, so late as the 22nd of October - last:-—"I was invited to visit the Times office in the Sue Vivinenue. I went and was received by a representative of the Times. After beating about the bush he said: ' I wish to make you a proposition. It is this: You are a journalist. If you make a statement to me in writing associating Parnell, Egan, and others with the Park murders, you are sure to win any position you desire in connection with the Times. I have been sent specially by Mr Walter to negotiate with you. Nobody else in connection with the Times knows of this interview. lam now prepared to give you a large sum of money for a twritten statement—you will not be required to go on to the witness stand —and your name will not be made public, if you thereby connect the Parnellites with the murder of Cavendish and Burke. And that even at; this length of time, after the confession of Pigott, aud notwithstanding the " apology " offered by the Times, we find these efforts being made at the instance of Mr Walter to make good the accusation which was first embodied in the forged letters. I remember congratulating poor old Mas upon having got out of the witness box when Mr Aequith had done his dissection of " Simple Simon," and the old|man saying it was a terrible ordeal. I shall sympathise with vou just as much as you did with me;" and this was said in a voice that betrayed little of the part of.the simpleton that had been so faithfully played by the man whose death is as directly due to the task which he undertook to perform in connection with the forged letters as Pigott's self inflicted execution was to the revolver with which he blew out his brains.