Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 28, 2 November 1888, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From the National paperß.)

MB. Gladstone at Wrexham gave another striking exhibition of those marvellous powers of mind and spirit, and even of body, which render him, as an old man, one of the wonders of the age. He opened a new railway, he inaugurated the Welsh national festival, he delivered a most vigorous and stirring political oration to a great political meeting, and he delivered to the Eistedfodd a non-political address of great literary beauty on the language and nationality of Walep. No wonder after such a day's proceedings that his enemies should be anxious to close his mouth ) This visit to Wrexham was signalised by an attempt on tbe part of the Times, and the Unionists generally, to spoil the visit or stop it altogether, an attempt which Mr. Gladstone rightly accepted as the highest compliment that could be paid him from ench a quarter. The Times had endeavoured to make out that, having agreed to address the Eistedfood as a] non-political celebration, the Liberal leader had no right to address a meeting of a political character in another place in Wrexham the same day. Of course Mr. Gladstone ignored this ridiculous contention, which the local Unionists ■pared no effort to make tbe mest of, and the next suggestion thereupon was to break up his meefr'ng. All their blackguard tactics ended, as might be expected, in miserable failure, and their only effect wac, no doubt, to improve Mr. Gladstone's speech immensely by stirring up that fire in tbe oratoi's breast which always lends a thrilling warmth to his eloquence. Whether this waa the cause or not, the Bpeech was one of more than usual verve and trenchancy.

The opening portion of Mr. Gladstone's political speech at Wrexhim was devoted to the attempt of the Times to dispose cf bis denunciation of the treatment of Irish political prisoners by impaling him with one of Mr. Balfour's tv quoques. It was an effective, a crushing reply, in the coarse of which the speaker harrowed up his hearers' feeling* by a recital of the treatment of Mr. Mandeville, Father McFaddeD, and other Irish political prisoners, which should make a fitting companion chapter to his famous letter to Lord Ancrdeen on the prisons of King Bomba. Mr. Balfour's treatment of his political prisoners, he declared, was a disgrace to the Irish Government, and would be a disgrace to any Irish Government, if ever there was one which did the like. It would be a disgrace to his own Government, he implied, if the contention of his enemies was true, which he conclusively proved it was not. He might have spared himself some protestation had he been aware of the fact which the Freeman pointed out on Tuesday that tboso invaluable remonstrances of Dr. Robert MacDonnell's were addressed not to a Government of which be was the head, but to a Tory Government, and that when the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended in 1866 it was Sari Russell who was Prime Minister. Certainly no Government of modern times ever stripped prisoners naked in their cells and placed them on bread and water in punishment cell* while suffering from diarrhoaa for refusing to take exercise with criminals. It is, indeed, a remarkable comment on Mr. Balfour's administration that people have to travel to Poland under Russia and to Naples under Bomba to find a parallel for its atrocities. We (United Ireland) are sometimes taxed with strong language. We must plead guilty to the charge of serving up the facts hot at d strong to our readers, being less particular about politeness than truth. It is a comfort to find that one sturdy journalist on the other side of the water speaks out with at least equal Ireedom . We take the following passage from the close cf Mr. Labouchere's comments in Truth on Mr. Dillon's imprisonment . — " But in either event, if Mr. Dillon is put to death, Mr. Bomba BalfoHr will not be able to escape the responsibility of having worked for and brought about the event. It is in vain for B. B. to go about tha country with the scalps c [ Larkin and of Mandeville reeking at bis belt, and prate about the ' Prison Board,' and the ' Prison System,' and the * Law of the Land.' The iesponsibility, sole and undivided, is his, Bomba Balfour's. Bomba Balfour is the ' Prison Board." Bomba Balfour is the ' Prison System.' Bomba Balfour is the only 'Law' that remains in Ireland. If Mr. Dillon dies in gaol (or of home comforts just after his release) he will die deliberately slaughtered by Bomba Balfour. just as indubitably as if Bomba Balfour were to go 10 Dundalk and stick a knife into him. If Mr. Dillon is killed, 8.8. cannot cay, ' Somebody else did it.' If it is done, it will be 8.8.'s own doiog, and nobody else's. 8.8. put him into Dundalk Gaol, knowing (we have Mr. Blunts word for it) that he would probably die. 8.8. keeps him in Dundalk Gaol,knowing that he will probably die. If he does die, a verdict of wilful murder against Bomba Balfour is the only verdict which a conscieutious coroner'B jury can by any possibility return." When Mr. Dillon is killed he will assuredly leave the record of a brilliant and blameless life behind him, but he cannot leave a better or manlier letter than the posthumously -published letter of Mr. Mandeville to Mr. Sydney Halifax, which during the past week has made such a stir in the land. From that letter it is quite clear that in killing Mr. Mandeville, Mr. Bjmba Balfour, 1119 infamous underling Barr, and the poor, weakling, over-persuaded Ridley, had to Btruggle agaicst a tine constitution, high spirits, and a most firm and masculine mind. There are no womanish complaints and finicking grievances in Mr. Mandeville'a letter. He finds no fault with prison diet, or the prison accommodation, or the prison rules, fairly and humanely administered. He was quite prepared and willing to

"rough it" in gaol. The only things he finds fault with are, first, the mean and cruel attempt to degrade him to the level of a criminal ; •* itndly, the dastardly system of punishing him with an attack of illBess whenever he refused to allow himself to be so degraded ; and 3rdly, the incompetence (to call it by no worse name) of the medical authorities, who because his symptoms (when be had fas'ei twenty hours) did not present the "rough prison test " of diarrhoea, refused to believe that he had diarrhcKtat all, and after fourteen hours'

suffering certified him as still " fit for punishment," and made him "undergo thirty more hours of it. " I consider," he sayp, •' that I was being savagely ill-treated, ' The world now knewa thai he waa being

slowly and savagely murdered. The punishment bread (less than half-grown, and not more than half-baked wheat) which, in the effort to keep life and soul together, he forced down his ulcerated throat, was to him, in his temporary state of illness, poison, just as efficacious, deadly, and cruel as the ground-glass , which the mediaeval poisoner used to mingle with his victim's food, until the wretch expired from " natural causes."

To appreciate the following extract from a leader in the B.aily Express it is necessary to remember that its editor, Dr. Patton, is on the staff of the '• Forger " as London correspondent, and may therefore be fairly assumed to be in a special manner behind the scenes. Dr. Patton strongly objects to the suggestion that if it is proved that Mr. Parne 1— •' Did not sign certain letters, ' the Times is,' as the saying goes, 'up a tree.' ' Mr. Parncll ia master of the situation, and the issue of the fight means victory for Honae Rale.' We, for oar part," he continues, " have said over and over again that if the letters were proved conclusively to be forgerips we should still be as much Unionists and coercioaiats as wo were before the letters were written, or could have been written. We shall remain Unionists, even if someone is convicted and punished for forging Mr. Parnell's name." It will not do. Tha coercionists will not be permitted by the country to shirk the issue they have themselves raised. If it is proved, as it will be proved, that they have accepted in the last resource the aid of falsehood and forgery to blacknn the characters of the Irish members, to justify coercion and defeat Home Rule, they must abide the penalty of the crime. The Central News informs us that—" Colonel John O'Callaghan, of Newport, on whose Bodyke property numerous evictions were carried out in June laßt, the tenants being reinstated on satisfactory terms six months subsequentely, has now through his agent, Mr. Hosford, come to an amicable arrangement with his tenants on the Miltown and Fortanne estate. A clear receipt was given up to November, 1887, the tenants paying a half-year's judicial rent, less 25 per cent, in every case. By this arrangement £7,632 and one year's rent were wiped out." All this has been brought about by the abominable agency of the Plan of Campaign. Though the beneficent Coercion Government backed the gallant Colonel with horse, foot, and dragoons in his abortive eviction campaign, the irrepressible Plan prevailed in the end. Surely Mr. T. W. Russell and his friends, the landlords, are right in describing the Plan as an unmitigated curse to the tenantry of Ireland 1 In regard to Ireland, at any rate, the over-populationusts may assuredly make tbeir mind easy. Under our present rulers the Irish are flying from the land in the blind and tumultuous panic of despair. Last year saw 82,923 people (of whom whom 75 per cent, were between the ages of 15 and 35) driven across the Atlantic, beggmred and heart-broken. This year is only half gone, but up to the present the record is even worse. In the three month of April, May, and June I (Truth), see in the Nation 42,823 souls were driven oat of Ireland. That is to say, 1.338 more than in the corresponding months of last year, and 5,902 in access of the average exodus in the corresponding periods of the past decade. I observe, too, that a philanthropical circular is afloat (and attracting a good deal of attention), whose author declares he has had applications from 35,000 girls and women, between the ages of eighteen and thirty, eager to get away from the coercion-cursed land. At a cost of £2 per head (if be can only raise it) this philanthropist is prepared to emigrate these 35,000 sources of population, " sink or swim," as the phrase runs. Whether they sink or swim is. of course, nobody's business. The important point is that they Bbonld not remain at home to be the mothers of Parnellites. Clearly, with these facts before him, tbe " over-population " fanatic need be under no anxiety with regard to Ireland. She bids fair soon to be an utterly depopulated country under the rule of the " brave " nephew of the tiuly "terrible Marquip." But for my part, knowing Ireland east, west, north, and south, pretty much as well as I (Truth) know the palm of my hand, and my acquaintance with her being nowadays, I am sorry to reflect, of some considerable standing in point of years, what strikes me most about this flight of " the redundant population " ia that invariably, according to my observation, when the " redundant population' goes, its place is Bupplied exclusively by the rag- weed, the gorse-buob, and the thistle. The land from which the Celt is being driven, as if he were a wild and noxious beast, is not being used, but wasted. Countless acres which I remember to have produced crops (of a sort), aad men and women of a very good sort, now produce nothing but fresh air. If they produced sheep and cattle in anything like the proportion of their capability I would not so much complain. But they don't even do that. Fresh air is their only crop, and except an occasional tourist there is no one to breath it. The landlords have not the capital, or the knowledge, or the energy to put to profitable use the land which they have stolen from the people. Where land has been put under cattle it has been treated, not like a European cattle-farm, but like an American ranche run. It has been asked to grow nothing but the " natural grasses," the most wasteful crop that farmer ever grew, and year by year the "natural grass" has given place to the "natural dock " and the " natural thistle." Of course, the people who have gone away were all Nationalists. But I should have thought that even from the Tory point of view it was more profitable to grow Naiionahsta than to grow nettles. Mr. Bomba Balfour's bag this week (ending August 30) contains only a hen Parnellite, one Mrs. M'Grath, for whom (though she was in fairly good health and spirits previously) the shock of eviction proved too much. Such, at least, was the opinion of the coroner's inqne9t. But Mr. 8.8 , as we (Truth) know, does not care for coronet^ The only judicial officer whose opinion he values is one of hit own. " Removables." No sooner has a temporary stop been put to the operations 0* th© evictor in one part of the land, but they break out afresh in another. A few days ago it was on the Vandeleur domain that the battering ram was at work, now it ia on that of ••devil's work" Clanricarde. Nearly every day last week the district around Woodford has be^n agitated and excited by the movements of the miniature army-corpa and the black batallions protecting the, hideous riff-raff sent dorr^

to cast the oppressed tenants out of their homes. The earlier stages of the campaign were devoted to attacks upon the weaker tenants ; but in no case did the unfortunate people yield up possession without more or less resistance. Many gallant stands were made, and many people arrested in consequence. But on Saterday there was serious work for the crowbar-men and their allies, the police. Formidable preparations for resistance, it was rumoured, had been made at the house of Mr. Tully, boat-buildor ; and the event showed that the report was not without substantial ground. Unusual pains were taken by the emergency fello vb to make a secure attack upon the bouse They advanced agaiost it under the protection of a m/vable ehed, and attempted to plant their ladders against the walls, but were driven back with pole-thrusts and showers of stones. They made several attemptßof this kind, but all in vain. A battering-ram had been provided, but as earthworks had been thrown up around the house as in the case of " Somera' Fort," it doea not appear that any attempt was made to utilise the primeval implement. As the Emergencymen could not succeed in making any impression on the edifice, the police were ordered to advance to the attack. With fixed bayonets they essayed the escalade in great force, but at first with very little success ; for they were tumbled off roof and ladder as fast as they mounted. But numbers at last won the day. Numerous holes had been broken in the roof, and into these the police thrnst their bayonets with savage force, and many serious wounds were inflicted on the defenders. Yet these held their ground defiantly. A desperate struggle took place oa the roof of the house, in the course of which many of the black-coated gentry were sent toppling over, before the plucky garrison was overpowered ; and when at last the police effected an entrance with naked sabres and bayonets the defenders stubbornly held their ground until resistance was no longer possible. Thirteen men and boys and two girls constituted the garrison. Nearly every one of them bore bloody marks of the fray, some of them very serious ones. "Dr." Tully was borne from the field in an ambiance waggon. His injuries appeared to be of an internal character, and very grave. While the emergency carrion were clearing out the place alter the fight was over, one of them brutally illused a sister of Mr, Tully's, who was endeavouring to protect a calf which the fellow was knocking about. He struck her a blow in the mouth which broke some of her teeth ; and so far from this cowardly conduct being prevented or punished by the representatives of authority, it was the woman who was taken into custody, and not her assailant. In accordance with the now usual custom, all these found in the house were arrested, and many of them handcuffed preparatory to being marched off to gaol. It should be noted that the house where this violent seen* whs enacted wasone put up entirely at Tully's own cost, and the Most Iguoble Marquis had not, in strict ethics, a right to a single brick in it. Mr. Davittand Mr. W. K. Bedmond. M.P., were announced to be present at a great public demonstration at Ballygarrett, near Gorey. on Sunday last, but at the last hour the Government took the usual steps to prevaut it. A proclamation notifying the prohibition of the meeting waa posted on Saturday evening, and a large force of police was drafted into Wexlord. to enforce if. But as usual the proclamation was not m thj leist efl'ectuil Mr. Davitt and Mr. Redmond arrived on the scene, and took measures to ho 1:1 their meeting. While the police were cooling their h.«,siu the village ot Ballygarrett. they were taking part in a series ot demonstrations— one m°Gorey, and anctber in Umart ; while at the close ot the day a third wts held in Ballygarrett itself. The immediate object of the originally-intended demonstration was to make a declaration ol public opinion on the question of eviction in general aud the threatened eviction of Mr. Lawrence o"Connor by Ciptain Geoige in particular. Mr. Davitt's speech on the surest was, as usual, trenchant and to the point. He spoke, amoDgst other things, of obedience or resis ance to the Crimes Act, and only repeated what every philosopher of history bus recognised to bj an established axiom in the struggle cf progress against despotism when he declared that it was a higher and nobler duty for a man to resist an unjust law loan to submit to its dictates. Mr Davitt incidentally referred to the part taken by some so-called Nationalists in Wexford in promoting a testimonial to Earl Fitzwilliam, and strongly deprecated any such movement, no matter for how good a landlord. But in the case of Karl Fiizwilham there were very particular reasons why no Wexfordman or Irishman should take part in any presentation t j him. His son waa la'ely the Unionist candidate for a Yorkshire coustituency, and lost no opportunity of trying to forward the cau^e ot Unionism by represenuug the Irish Parliamentary paity as the abettor, of assassiLation and crime. Stand form, Constable Cooper, and go up head ! This eminent pnhlic servant has beaten all previous record* i i his desperate endeavours for promotion. It s 'ems, from a. statement he male at the Cork Police Otlice on F iday last, that he was referred to as oue of " Balfuui's bloodhoui.da ' by a disorderly crowd. The members of this crowd were pen-ous, hoail-ied, ranging in age from ei^nt y^ars to eighteen, lie pioJucul one if this foimidible crowd whom he had succeeded in c.iptunng— a tii.s.-ieam named Bat, Murphy. Ba> appeared in couit under thu piotecuon ot bis motuei ; aud it trant,piml that bis age was neithui eighteen nor eight, but ouly five. The cabe wan scouted out of court by the magistrate, and Constable Cooper depaited very crestfallen at tjis want of appreciation of his high public spiut. The Tory Press by no means relishes the notion that Englishmen and Scotchmen who do not happen to be Tories or Unionists should come over to Ireland to B ee for th"mselve* how things are going on hero. They are sneeitd at as '• strangers " ami meddlers. and whatnot , and it is by no tueaas unnatuial thbt they shuuld be so regarded. Landloidism c^n m longer enact its atrocmes in tne dark, and the clever arrangement by whica the iemal of these atrocities was so long successfully kept out ol the Kng uh papers is no longer pcsnble. The JDadi/ Acn-s is not now served by Mr. Dunlop, but by a special rupieseuiative sent over to writ-} a true account cf what he sets and hears, and those English visitors who come over to witness evictions ate filling the papers on their return with recitals which make every decent Knglis-h roan and woman

tingle with shame that each things can be done in the name of English law. Many English papers are now publishing narrative! of the Olanncarde atrocities last week, which canaot fail to route th« most intense indignation wherever they are read, and to prove that the Ireland presented by Mr. Balfour's cooked official reports, and ihe Ireland that may be seen by unprejudiced English eyes, are two very different things. In some of these letters we find facts related for any account of which we look in vain even in Irish journals. For instance, in the Oldkam Evening Chronicle of Tuesday, September 4, we find a description of the eviction scenes from tha pen of Mr. Buckley, one of the visitors who accompanied Councillor Lea aud two other visitors from Oldham. This letter gives as "• powe rful, but altogether unlaboured account of the chief transactions which came under the writer's observation. He records a piece of shock ing brutality which he witnessed at the hous^ of Pat Page, Bossmor* The house was defended by Mrs. Page, her three daughters, and a boy of fourteen ; and the resistance offered wai dwperate. Mr. Bucklty says :— " After making a breach in the house, the order was given to enter, and one of the policeman, In attemptin;?;tbis, was met full in the face by a pail of cold water, which for the moment dased him, and caused him to fall on the slippery stones. He speedily regained his feet and effected an entrance. I was standing close by at th« time, and was the first to enter the house after him, as I was anxious to see what would transpire. In the semi-darkness of the hut, I discovered the policeman struggling with Mrs. Page on the floor. Bha said that he was murdering her. She said he had nearly throttled her to death. I said, ' Has he throttled you f " She said, ' Yes, sir : and he has bit my arm ; bat I will never let him go till I know his name. What is his name ? ' she enquired of me. Of course I could not tell her, so she repeated the question to several policemen who had now entered the hut, but none of them would tell. She, however, kept anrmgnpof him, notwithstanding his Btruggles to got looße. He then dragged her through the breach in the wall and across the stones and debrxs. In doing 83 they both fell. This was in full view of the crowd on the slope, who hooted vigorously, and called the policemen all sorts of names. When outside, in order to make no mistake. I examined the poor woman's arm, and saw a distinct impression of the cowardly and brutal policeman's teeth. This fact can be confirmed by others, who also saw the teeth marks. One could not help admiring the plucky action of the woman and her three daughters in defence of their humble homesteid. As the evictors were moving from this place to the next houst, I overheard one of the officers remark that he had never seen such a plucky fieht in all bis life." * The death-roll of coercion is swelling rapidly. Last week it was poor old Mrs. Magrath, of Moyasta, who was sent to her accou»t by the eviction specific; this week a respectable younsr mao , named John Fahy, one of a family put out by Olanricarde on Monday, August 31, succumbed to the shock. Poor Fahy, it appears, had been in bad health for a couple of years previously, but the local dispensary doctor would not certify to his unfitness tor removal. The military doctor who accompanied the evicting expedition, expressed his surprise at the refusal of the local doctor to give a certificate, but stated that when be refusei be himself could not give one, although he believed the young man to be in a very delicate state. When the evicting forces appeared, Fahy's partita earnestly entreated to be allowed to remain even a f-w days longer in their home tj nurse their dying son, but the agent was inexorable. The poor young man became quite nervous on being placed against the wall outside his own housj, and never recovered from the shock. La&t week (endiag September 7) Messrs. Michael CusaclTand Thomas Phelan.of Drangan, were released from Ctonmel Gaul, having undergone their full term of three mouth's internment. Every preparation had been made togive them a hearty greeting, but this theastute official mind endeavoured to frustrate, by the familiar dodge of liberating the ll criminals' 1 at an hour not likely to be anticipated. Tbiulittl* ruae was not. however, altogether successful, as a great concourse of leading citizens, headed by the Mayor and most of the local clergy, waited on them during the day to offer their congratulations. The prisoners were entertained first by Mr. Condon, and afterwards by the Mayor ; aod in the afternoon a great procession, headed by the Kickham Band in uniform, escorted them through the town, and a hale having been made opposite the gaol gates, the band played " God save Ireland," and tremendous cheers were given for the l*te prisoners and the Irish popular leader*. A start was then made for Fethard, and outside that town tbe liberated captives were met by another great glai procession and escorted in triumph to the Priory, wheie they met with a hearty greeting fro-n the pitnotic Father Anderson Father By^n, and other gentlemen. Speaking, subsequently, to a large gathering in the Priory grounds, Mr. Cusack declared that, ome what might, he woul i continue to refuse to aid landlordism by supplying goods to its Kmergencymen,and spoke some stirring words with reference to the Kilbury farm and Mr. Pat Mockler. There was anothei joyous demonstration on tli3 arrival of the '• criminals " at Drangan. Tbe pohcj will ( ndeavour to have their innings on Friday at Mullinahone licensing sessions. Thiy intend to oppose Miss (Jusack's license once more, but as all previous like vindictive attempts have failed, there is reason to hope tuat this new one will be equally futile. J The National League reminds one of the old fable of the Pbceaix. Mr. Balfour, by Gazette proclamation, pronounces it defunct, but it always rises in a curious way from the ashes which he decrees it to b« Us 8 ate. In no pIHCc has there been a more remarkable instance of this striking fact than in the " suppressed " barony of Duhallow. Tbe atrest of Father Kennedy and his able lay lieutenants seems to have only added fuel to the fire down there. The curate being put into gaol, tbe parisa prie t steps into the place which Mr. Baifour declares illegal and unsanctified. The usual meeting oE the suppressed branch took paw last Sun lay, an I Father O'E>efle took the chair. Ha was supported by two repieaentatives for Cork county, Dr. Tanner and Mi. Flynn. No attempt was made by any hanger-on of Mr. Bjlfour's to prove that the tranca had a right to regard itself as a noa -extent and ghostly body ; but, oa the contrary, everything went to show

that it was tho Castle which was " suppressed," and not the League inDuhallow. Toe great theme of all the speikers was the brutal treatment of the heroic curate, Patner Kennedy. We must go back to the days of King John to find any parallel for the cruelty of taking a man just risen, like Father Kennedy, from a fever-bed and casting kirn into prison. A circumstance has come to light since this brave young priest was hustled off to gaol which shows the kind of stuff of which such men are made. A movement was staneda short time ago to presant him with a substantial testimonial, but .as in the case of Canon Keller, as soon as he heard of it he intimated his wish that, beyond paying the bare expenses incidental to his illness, the thing should cease. And these are the sort of men tnat Mr Balf our wou.d fain degrade as " criminals " in the eves of the world, while he him■elf pockets over four thousand pounds a-year for doing nothing but defamiug them ! Will the English people but look at things as tbay really are, and not be deluded by specious names and phrases? They aie horrified enough (not one whit too much) at the brutality of moonlighters, who once every six months or so come to the assistance of coercion in Kerry. The picture of men, and women, and children, attacked in their houses— beaten, bruited, and mercilessly maltreated by cowardly armed assailants— sets English hearts in a flame. One such outrage is a windfall that helps coercion newspapers and orators to keep their pity and indignation at burning and melting point for six months. But are the daylight outrages, and attacks on dwellinghouses, commonly called evictions, which are in full swing under this merciful Coercion Government every hour of the day and in eveiy corner of Ireland, one whit less revolting ? Is it less horrible to think of innocent men,' women, and children savagely beaten with batons or crowbars, or prodded with bayonets, their bouses torn down over their beads, because the ruffians who perpetrate these barbarities w«ar the uniform of constables or are in the pay of an absentee rackrenting evictor, and beciuse they are engaged in vindicating the law 1 What a week of barbarous episodes and barbarous anniversaries. A hundred people driven from their homes on a single estate, and to the list cf murdered Irishmen whose corpse lie at Mr. Balfour's door another poor victim adJed. Gangs going to prison— gangs of peasants who have striven to defend their homee, and gangs of priests, and editors, and Members of Parliament who have strive? to defend the peasants. Talk of Kusaia, forsooth ? In Russia there are no Clanricarde evictions ;in Russia the people are now rooted in the soil ; in RußSia there are no longer serts, there is no longer the knout ; in Russia there is no battering-ram. The despotism of Russia to-day ia at least frank, and it is paternal and civilised compared with the despotism of Dublin Castle. If you seek a comparison in Russia you must go back to the Russia of Catherine, when the knout flourished, to find a paralled to the Ireland of Mr. Balfour and his bUtering-ram. The people will need all the sympathy and support they can get during the next few months, and the more English witnesses that are here to see during that period the better. By-and-by, wbta all is over, history will be searched in vain for anything that will match in any one respect the extraordinary chapter which will be known as the '•Parnellism and Crime Libel Commission.' But of all the peculiar features of the episode the things which will stand out moat prominently will be the arrant cowardice and the cynical insincerity of the libel party, Now that the day of judgment approaches, these aie the qualities which the Unionists on all hands are displaying with the candid unnerve of people in a state of blue iunk. Every wretched slandei -monger, big and little, throughout the three kingdoms, who has up to this been contributing his yelps and barks to the bowling chorus led by tie Times, has suddenly taken to diaplay a tendency to hurry away with his tail between his legs and leave the limes all alone in ita glory The smaller cuts may be said to ha\e Jone this m masse the day after Mr. Parnell .filed hie action in theSco'ch courts; though to do the smaller curs justice, it was some of the big dogs who were the first to stampede. It was Mr. Balfour who.cbaractenstically.took the very earliest opportunity ot washing his hands of the Timei libels and discounting the consequences of their breakdown. Mr. Chamberlain presently followed suu. having himself iust experienced a most horrid breakdown, in a little libel controversy conducted againt the Irish leader on hi] own account. Then came the Standard, and then came the St. James* Gaaette, and now conies the Spectator and Pioteesor Dicey. The readiness manifested by all these eminent ex-patrons and ex-beneficiaries of the "Parnellism and Crime" long firm to believe that "Parnellism and Crime" was all the time a huge and fjul libel is a very curious phenomena. The historical moralist by-and-by will doubtless reflect upon it as a singular commentary upon tbe morality of public life in this Victorian, this British Augusian age. It is rather hard ou the Timss, certainly (whom we are almost tempted to pity in its isolation) ; but it is also rather hard on tnobe paragons oi Unionist virtue themselves. The attempt of these people is to persuade themselves — not to persuade anybody else, for they seem to feel that nobody else is likely to be taken in ; the whole effort is aa elaborate operation in eelf-deception— that, in the first place if the Tnnrs libels are bouni to come to smash the whole structure of fradulent Unionism need not necessarily come down with them, and, in the secoad placo, if the structure is bound to come down, too, that they at any rate can manage to stand from under. Professor Dicey wntes in great alarm to the Spectator to warn the Unionists ot the danger that threatens their cause m the uufortunate misconception which is being allowed to take possession of the public mm l regarding the Parnell commission. He bids them rouse up and combat it. " Hie battle of the Union cannot be decided by a forensic duel between Mr. Walter and Mr. Parnell," he exclaims ; Mr. Pencil's "acquittal of every charge brought against him should not in the judgment ot ari Unionist be a decision against the maintenance of National Unity " Poor Mr. Walter is to be left severely alone by these virtuous Unionists ; they hive nothing to do with him. Neither have the charges made by the Times against Mr Parnell anything to do with the Unionist cause. These cuarges aie entirely devoid of political significance ; they are purely personal to Mr. Parnell, and Mr, Par. Nell, as everybody knows, is a private individual, likewise entirely

devoid of politicil significance: Even if he were proved gmlty, o* what consequence would it be to anybody but Mr. Walter and himself ?" To coavict Mr. Parnell of complicity with wrong-doers need not convert Home Rilers into Unionists." It would be amusing if it were worth while to confront these panic-strickea utterance! with a series of extracts from the Bpeeches and articles of the Unionist party during the various perio<iß when Parnellism and Crime was in a state of more or less violent eruption, particularly during the moat recent period, while the Commission Bill was going through the House of Commons. The statements of the Goschens and the Mattbewsei and the W. H. Smiths and their organs in the Press, and the rank and file behind ihera, would form aa interesting contrast in a parallel column. But it is really Hot worth while to go into all this It is too recent; eveiybody remembers it ; and, above all, howl and wriggle as they may, all their coatortioning will be of no avail. When tne mention of Mr Balfour's name was receired with loud hoo ing at a late great meeting, on the grounds of Noeton Park, England, the Lincolnshire seat of the Marquis of Ripon, his Lordship, who presided, pithily remarked, " It is no use booing at Mr. Balf our. What you have got to do is to tura him out, and that you won't do by groaning at his name, but by voting at the polling booth." la other words, the scandal of Mr. Balfour's admin^tratioa is the shame of the English electorate. The members of the West Hull, England, Liberal Club, recently visited Fountains Abbey, on the estate of the Marquis of Ripon. There was a large attendance. A meeting was held on thegroands, and a resolution adopted condemning the Irish coercion policy of the Government, and expressing sympathy with the leaders of the National movement, and " execration " of the inhuman treatment to which many of them had been subjected. The Marquis of Ripon delivered an address, in which he said that when the working classes of this country realised what was going on in Ireland they would make short work of the Government, which was bringing disgrace on the fair name of Engkud before the nations of the world.