HOW PIGOTT CONFESSED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 1, 26 April 1889, Page 29

HOW PIGOTT CONFESSED.

Iv a column and a half letter in the London Daily Telegraph George Augustus Sal* tells the part he played in that act m the great drama in which Pigott made his latest and fullest confession, bala says: — " Last (Saturday, between 1 and 2 p.m., a knock came at my study door, and I wis handed a letter from my old fiiend and near neighbour, Mr. Henry Labouchere, M.P., whosa house is at 24 Grosvenor Garden?, within pistol shot of my flat. The note ran thi^s : — " C*n you leave everyth.ng and come here at once? Most important business. — H.L." 1 told the servant that I would be in Großvenor Gaidens within a quarter of an hour, and ere that time had expired I was ushered into a larg^ library on the grouud fljor, where I found the seni it member for Northampton smoking his sumptuous cigarette." Another, too, was there, "poring over a copy of that morning's issue cf 'he 'Jim i n, going right c'own oie column and apparently up it nga n, taking column after column in succession, then harking back as though he had omitted tome choice paragraph, and then resuming the bcqiwce ti' his lecture, ever and anon tapping that broad frontal bone of hia, as though to evoke memories of the past, whh a little silver pencil case. The hand which held the copy of the Times never cef-sed to shake." Sala recognised the individual as corresponding precisely with a sketch he had seen " in an evening paper," and when Mr. Lubouchere, in his most courteous manner and blandest tone, said — "Allow me to introduce you to a gentleman of whom younouat have heird a great deal," Mr. Sala replied " There is not the slightest necessity for naming him. I know him well enough; that is Mr. I'igott. " Mr. Labouct'ere, in a dulcet voice, c >ntinued— ■" The fact is that Mr. Pigott has come here, quite unsolicited, to make a full confession. I told him that I would listen to nothing that he had to gay save in the preseuce of a witness, and remembering that you lived close by, I thought you would not mind coming here and witius3ing to what Mr. Pigott had to confess, which will be taken down word for word from his dictation in writing. Mr. Pigott, although he screwed his courage to the etickiDg place of saying that he wa9 going to confess, showed considerable taidiness in orally " owning up." So we let him be for about ten minutes, writes Bala. " Mr. Labouchere kindled another cigarette. I lit a cigar and— excuse the vulgarity of the phrase — continued to take stock of the man in the easy chair, still poring over the Tunes — still tapping from time to time his forehead with the penc.l-case, aud still wriggliDg hia one foot and then the other. Perhaps, conscience was growing like gout in his toea. At length be sto<> 1 up. and came forwatd into the light

by the Bide of Mr. Labouchere's writing table. It was very rude, of course to stare at him, but I did stare, and that persistently. He did not change colour. He did not blench ; but what at length— out of the falness of his heart, no doubt— his mouth spake— it was in a low, half-musing tone, more at first as though he were talking to himself than to any auditors. By degrees, however, his voice rose ; diction became more fluent ; it was rarely necessary to halt to reconstruct a Phrase ; and the confession which subsequently found its way into the possession of Mr. Lewis was, from beginning to end, literally and verbally the composition as well as the utterance of Mr. R. Pigott. No pressure was put upon him. no leading questions were asked him, and he went on quietly and continuously to the end of a story, which I should have thought amasing, had I not occasion to hear many more tales even more astounding. Richard Pigott's manner did not in any way resemble that of the ordinary false witness. He was not voluble, but he was collected and coherent. Nor although he repeatedly confessed to fraud, forgery, deception, and misrepresentation, did ha seem overcome with anything approaching active shame. His little peccadilloes were plainly owned ; but he appeared to treat them more as incidental weaknesses than aB extraordinary acts of wickedness. The whole of Pigott's confession, beginniog with the declaration that he had made it uninvited and without any pecuniary consideration, was read over to him line by line and word by word. He made no correciion or alteration whatsoever. The confession covered several sheets of paper, and to each sheet be affixed his initials, finally at the bottom of the complete document he signed his name, beneath which he wrote my name as a witness. When he had signed his confesiion he bade us farewell, remarking that he had suffered much, especially from nervouaoess during hi* examination before tbe Special Commission, and that his appearance there had been the first that he e»er made in a witness-box.