THE STILL-REFLECTING HOUSTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 5, 30 May 1890, Page 29

THE STILL-REFLECTING HOUSTON.

I (Trutft, March 27) published a fortnight ago a letter from Messrs. Wontner, informing me that I had libelled tbeir client, Mr. Houston, and, in any case, that I had been guilty o£ an unwarrantable impertinence in regard to his respected name. Regarding it as a piece of nnwarran table impertineace of Messrs. Woatner to pester me with their opinions of my conduct, I published the letter without condescending to reply to it. Messrs. Wootner concluded tfceir letter with a dark hint as to legal proceedings on the part of their client. This, from lawyers of their eminence, I thought foolish, for the alleged libel was simply a skit upon the gross and criminal credulity (I use the mildest terms) of Mr. Houston, and I should have had no difficulty in proving that the inuendoes contained in the alleged libels were true in substance and in fact, and were published for the public benefit. I have received no further commuDiaation from Messrs. Wontner in respect to this matter, and I confess that I am somewhat disappointed in not having an opportunity to draw from their client under cross-examination a good deal respecting his relations with Pigott, which still remain veiled in mystery. Personally, I have no feeling against Mr. Houston, and if he likes to send me a letter explaining all connected with the purchase, etc., of the letters, I shall be most happy to publish it. What I particularly want to know ia from whom he received the money to purchase the letters ; how he came to have such confidence in Pigott as to send him on a fishing expedition to get hold of letters ; why he accepted and paid for the letters without testing in any way their authenticity ; and finally, why he destroyed all communications between himself and Pigjott when he received a subpoena to appear before the Special Commission. Houston himself seems to have been the instrument of others. He had been employed in some humble capacity on a Dublin newspaper, and he was made Secretary of the Loyal and Patriotic Association, the leading spirits of which were English and Irish Liberal-Unionists. He wished to distinguish himself by making some sort of a coup. He was told that compromising letters would be useful, and he turned to Pigott to produce some. His explanation to the Special Commission of how he first obtained the money to engage Pigott to look for such letters, and how he got the money to pay fur them when produced, was by no means sa isfactory. He said that the money was lent to him. " Lent " seems hardly the right term for the advance. Pigott having haoded him over these letters, and he having paid Pigott, he submitted them to Lord Hartington and to the Pall Mall Gazette, asking for then* an amount in excess of what be had paid for them. Ultimately the Times bought them and published them, without even asking through whom they had been procured. What Houston's precise relations with Pigott were we shall never know, for he destroyed the letters that passed between them. When I last s*w Pigott he told me that he had a number of communications from Houston, some signed and others unsigned. These, he said, were in his house at Kingstown, and he offered to give them over to me. Thinking that he might repent of this determination, no sooner did he leave me than I sent for two men of energy, and told them that I should want them to go over by the night express to Ireland, and to find themselves in Pigott'B house the next morning. They were to tell the servant that he had desired that the letters were to be handed over to me, and, in fact, to come back wuh them. But when I stated what I was aboufc to have done, the legal element was startled, and registered a protest against these quasi-legal proceedings. The directions were therefore countermanded.

In the meantime, Shannon, as agent of the Times, saw Pigott. What occurred at the interview is not known. But the result of the interview is known. Pigott withdrew a portion of his confession. He telegraphed to hia maid-servant to destroy Houston's letters. Ha sent her £30 in notes, which were subsequently traced to Mr, Sjamea. He left the country, and on his arrival at Madrid he telegraphed to Snannon to say that he was there, As Pigott is dead, aad the law does not allow Shannon to be racked, how far all this vrASfost, and how far it was propte?- will never be known.

General von Capriovi, the new German Chancellor, never has a pipe out of his mouth when h3 is awake, except during his meals, and he drinks beer by the gallon. He is a man of considerable ability' and most deliberate in all his proceedm s. He always meditates for a minute or two before answering even the most trifling question. — Truth.

The rule is that unsconsciouaness, not pain, attends the final act. A natural death is not more painful than b rth. Painlessly we come ; whence we know not. Painlessly we go ; where we know not. Nature kindly provides an anaesthetic for the body when the spirit leaves it. Previous to that moment, and in preparation for it, respiration becomes feeble, generally alow and short, often accompanied by long inspiratioDs and shojt, sud ien expiration!, so that the bloed is steadily less and l.'ss oxygenated. At the same time the heart acts with corresponding debility, producing a slow, feeble, and often irregular pulse. As this process goes on the blood is not only driven to the head with diminished force and in less quantity, but what flows there is loaded with carbonic acid gas, a powerful anaesthetic, the same as derived from charcoal. Subjected to the imfluence of this gas, the nerve centres lose consciousness and sensibility, apparent sleep creeps over the system, then comes stupor, and than the end.— St. Louis Republic,