SEND A GIFT TO PARNELL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 44, 22 February 1889, Page 7

SEND A GIFT TO PARNELL.

(Prom the New York Sun.) It ought to be distinctly recognised that the present brief suspension duiing the holiday season of the sittings of the Parnell Commission offers us the last opportunity of defending the man who personifies the Irish cause against the combined attack of the London Timtt and the British Government. Do Americans intend to let the judgment of the Commission and, what is of far greater import, the verdict of English opinion go by default? If not, it behoves us to bestir oar* selves, and heed the appeals that come to us from those who under* stand how closely the success of the Home Rule movement is bound up with the triumphant exculpation of the Irish chief. The investigation undertaken by this Commission is practically a trial, in which Mr. Parnell and his principal Nationalist colleague! in Parliament are defendants. They stand accused of offences which, if brought home to them, would irremediably strip them of the respect and sympathy which Gladstonians now feel for them, and whiob they have laboured so long and faithfully to win. Their accuser, the London Times, commands almost unlimited pecuniary resources of its own, and in its search for incriminating evidence is, secretly or openly, assisted by the lory Government. Much of such evidence is, no doubt, of a flimsy or fictitious character, but the fact must be demonstrated in a legal way and at tbe proper juncture. Such a demonstration requires an array of expert attorneys and distinguished counsel, besides a multitude of agents employed in uncovering the antecedents of the plaintiff's witnesses and in collecting counter testimony. This means, in view of the huge fees expected by leaders of the English Bar, a vast current expenditure, wbioh in the case of Mr. Parnell is computed not to fall short of 2,500d015. a day, We do not believe that one-tenth part of those unavoidable daily disbursements have been met by Irish- Americans, in spite of urgent and incessant requests for hep. It is a strangely ill-chosen moment in which to leave Mr. Parnell in the lurch. Never since June, 1886, have Irish Patriots stood more in need of American friendship and support. Mr. Gladstone has been forced by the condition of his health to leave England for the south of Europe, and is likely to be absent many weeks. At the byelection held in Stockton last week the Gladstonian majority was cut down almost two-thirds. Tbe Suakim programme of Lord Salisbury hue been so successfully carried out that the Ministers are more self* confident than ever, and their one dangerous critic, Lord Randolph Churchill, may have to fall back on his formerly-announced intention of wintering in South America. So defiant have the Government become of public comment on their invidious relations to the Times, that last week they procured the passage of a resolution that the roll of the House of Commons should be taken before tbe Commission, in the hope of thereby proving the genuineness of Mr. Parnell's signature to certain incriminating letters. The inference is that preparations are now making on tbe part of the Times and its official patrons for a desaerate effort to make good their principal charge, on the re-assembling of the Commission. Such is the stress of the aggression to wuich will be exposed, after the lapse of a few weeks, the man who has come nearer than any other Irishman since Grattan of wringing justice from Great Britain. How do the fervent friends of Ireland in New York propose to üße the interval? Have they no Christmas gift for him who has devoted his life to his country ? Will they send to Mr. Paruell no pledge of hope and of affection for the New Year that is at hand ?