CHAPTER XIII
SOME CONSEQUENCES OF BALFOUR'S COERCION POLICY
When Mr. Gladstone's Government was defeated on June 9 by 341 votes to 311, the Prime Minister immediately dissolved Parliament, and the General Election was over before the end of July, the Unionist majority being 118. Mr. Gladstone resigned on July 12, before the final returns were sent in, and, when Parliament met again in August, Lord Salisbury was Prime Minister, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Lord Londonderry, Viceroy. The second great Home Rule battle had been fought and lost.
Of course Irish affairs immediately occupied Parliament, but on September 21 the Land Bill, introduced by Parnell, and upon which, he warned the House, the peace of Ireland depended, was rejected by a majority of 95 votes. On October 23, the Plan of Campaign was launched and furiously denounced by the Conservatives in the House of Commons and on every platform throughout the country. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach resigned the Chief Secretaryship on account of his failing eyesight, and was replaced by Mr. Balfour. The first Parliament that met in 1887 was given notice of two measures for Ireland--a Coercion Bill to be introduced in the House of Commons and a Land Bill in the House of Lords. The Coercion Bill was the most stringent of its kind ever introduced. It abridged and destroyed the {358} constitutional liberties of the people of Ireland and created new offences. It withdrew the protection of juries, and gave full powers to resident magistrates of dealing with cases of intimidation and of holding public meetings against the will of the executive. It was proposed, moreover, that the measure should be a permanent one, and not restricted to one or a limited number of years.[1]
Two extraordinary events occurred in that year, in both of which Mr. Labouchere played an important part. They both had their indirect origin in the coercive measures which Mr. Balfour succeeded in passing through the House. The first took place during the spring, when the _Times_, in order to strengthen the hands of the Government, in their remorseless warfare on Irish liberties, published, during the course of a series of articles called "Parnellism and Crime," the facsimile of a letter supposed to have been written by Mr. Parnell to Mr. Patrick Egan in 1882, referring brutally to the Phœnix Park murders. The letter was contained in the fourth article of the series. The reader will easily perceive from the following short extracts the spirit in which these articles were conceived: "Be the ultimate goal of these men (the Parnellites) what it will, they are content to march towards it in company with murderers. Murderers provide their funds, murderers share their inmost counsels, murderers have gone forth from the League[2] offices to set their bloody work afoot, and have presently returned to consult the 'constitutional leaders' on the advancement of the cause," occurred in the first article. The third article declared that "even now" the Parnellite conspiracy was controlled by dynamiters and assassins, and proceeded thus: "We have seen how the infernal fabric arose 'like an exhalation' to the sound of murderous oratory; how assassins guarded it {359} about, and enforced the high decrees of the secret conclave within by the ballot and the knife. Of that conclave to-day, three sit in the Imperial Parliament, four are fugitives from the law." The first series of the articles finished up with this appeal: "Men of England! These are the foul and dastardly methods by which the National League and the Parnellites have established their terrorism over a large portion of Ireland. Will you refuse the Government the powers which will enable these cowardly miscreants to be punished, and which will give protection to the millions of honest and loyal people in Ireland?"
It is very certain that all Liberal Unionists, and even a few of the more educated Tory statesmen, realised that the articles were merely theatrical appeals to the contracted imaginations of those armchair politicians, whose ways of influencing voters in rural districts were all powerful, but it was not to be expected that the man in the street could understand them as such. On him they made a profound impression.
The first article appeared on March 7, the second on the 14th, and the third on the 18th. On the 22nd Mr. Balfour gave notice of his Coercion Bill. "Parnellism and Crime" had prepared the way for him. The Bill was read for the first time in the beginning of April, and on the last day of the debate on the Second Reading, April 18, the _Times_ published its _pièce de résistance_--what has since become known as "the facsimile letter." It ran as follows:
15/5/82.
DEAR SIR,--I am not surprised at your friend's anger, but he and you should know that to denounce the murders was the only course open to us. To do that promptly was plainly our best policy. But you can tell him and all others concerned that though I regret the accident of Lord F. Cavendish's death, I cannot refuse to admit that Burke got no more than his deserts. You are at liberty to show him this, and others whom you can {360} trust also, but let not my address be known. He can write to House of Commons.--Yours very truly,
CHAS. S. PARNELL.
I have before me the photograph of the facsimile letter, used in the Parnell Commission, and also the letters received by Mr. Labouchere at different times from the Irish leader, and it seems incredible, on comparing the general style and caligraphy of the former with the latter, how the _Times_ agents and Mr. Soames could have been deceived for one moment; but I must not anticipate in this place the verdict of the Commission on the forgery, in the obtaining of which Mr. Labouchere played such a characteristic part. The whole of England was indignant when the issue of the _Times_ containing the facsimile letter appeared on their breakfast tables, and even comparatively tender-hearted persons began to think seriously that no treatment of Ireland by the English could be savage enough to avenge the cold-hearted, calculating cruelty of Parnell.
Mr. Balfour's Coercion Bill had not, however, yet become law, and the _Times_ continued its popular articles, which were greedily devoured by the public, the body of the second and third series consisting for the most part of an accumulation of evidence to prove that, in the year of the Land League, the conspirators had succeeded in getting the American Clan na Gael and the Irish Parliamentary party into line. It did its work so well that, by the 8th of July, when the Coercion Bill passed its Third Reading, under which, subsequently, fully one-third of the Nationalist members charged in its columns were put into prison, there were very few English people outside the Radical faction who did not think that Ireland had got no more than her deserts.
It was, in the _dénouement_ of the series of events, following upon the publication of Mr. Parnell's supposed letter, that Mr. Labouchere played such an important part, and, as it was nearly two years before the mystery was completely {361} unravelled, the story of the forged letter must now be left, so as to take up in chronological order the second event of 1887 in which Mr. Labouchere was vitally concerned.
Mr. Labouchere kept himself well in touch with what was going on in Ireland, and the following detailed letter that he received from Mr. T. M. Healy towards the end of 1886, gave him a vivid picture of the state of things there during the first half year of the Conservative Government, and assisted him much in the line of policy he consistently followed then and throughout the ensuing years:
The country is really perfectly quiet, and the misfortune is that the Tories are reaping the benefit of Gladstone's policy, and will, of course, claim the credit for their "resolute Government." Moreover, they are putting all kinds of pressure on the landlords to grant abatements. Buller is Soudanizing Kerry à la Gordon, and giving the slave-drivers no quarter, so that with the stoppage of evictions there, moonlighting is coming to an end and the people believe that Buller won't let them be turned out of their cabins. He has a good man with him as Sec.--Col. Turner--who was aide to Aberdeen during the late Viceroyalty. Turner is a staunch Radical and Home Ruler who sympathizes with the poor, and we know very well that the brake has been put on against the local Bimbashis. They are cursing Buller heartily, and yesterday he had to issue an official contradiction of the undoubted truth that he is obstructing evictions by refusing police. There are more ways of killing a dog than choking him with butter. How they would storm against Liberals if any such officer were sent to Kerry to override the law, and how they denounced Morley for exercising the dispensing power, because of a few sympathetic sentences. What I am afraid of in all this is that the tenants nowhere are getting a clear receipt, and that they will afterwards be pressed for the balances unless there is an Arrears Act. Probably the Tories meditate muddling away the rest of the Church surplus in benefactions to the landlords to recompense their benevolence. Of course only the September rents are due yet, and September and March are much less frequent gale months with us than November and May. The November rents will be {362} soon demanded, and then we shall really know what the landlords will do. I think they will surrender, for if they don't they won't be paid. Every one of them is sick of the fight. Their retainers and bailiffs who made a profit out of evictions, and the attorneys who promoted them for the costs, have not been paid for a long time as they used long ago, and like a stranded vessel on the rocks it is only a question of the fierceness of the gale how soon the entire system will go to pieces. They were in much better blood for fighting in '81 and what have those of them got who stood out? Desolate farms that no one will touch, while the sight of emergency occupants no longer terrifies the tenants, who know that they are costing the master three times the rent and that their labours are as profitless as a locust's. These fellows are the riffraff of the towns who idle away their time in the next public-house or play cards with the police sent to protect them. They burn everything that will light for firing, and their occupation of the premises is about as husbandman-like as that of a party of Uhlans. Such is the prospect for the gentry who refuse abatements, and as they know the people have not got money, I believe they will make a virtue of necessity. Then the Government are known to be against them, and they cannot appeal from their own friends to the Liberals, so what are they to do? They distrust Churchill completely, and believe he is capable of anything. If, however, they hold out we shall have warm work. I have refrained from addressing agrarian meetings so far, though Dillon and O'Brien have gone on the warpath, because it is not clear to me yet what is the best line to take, and besides I think Parnell should give the note, so that nobody may get above concert pitch. What Parnell's views are I don't know, and he is the man on the horse. The consciousness of the people that they have Gladstone on their side would in any case, I think, take all the uglier sting out of the agitation, now that they feel a settlement to be only a matter of time. It is very hard for any one to advise them when the responsibility is directly on Parnell, but if he intervened popular opinion would blaze like a prairie fire.
Thanks for your enquiry about my return to the House. There are now three Irish vacancies, but I don't feel anxious to go in now that I am out of the hurly-burby. It is a heavy {363} monetary loss to me, still, if it seemed my duty, I would stand again. O'Brien hates Parliament and vows he won't go back, but if he would consent so should I. The English have no idea what a beastly nuisance it is, giving up your work in order to live in London, and then to be blackguarded as hirelings and assassins for our pains. I cannot think that there is much chance of turning out Randolph for a long time to come. Even if we could win over Chamberlain, he has few followers, and Hartington could still give the Ministry a majority. I think the pair of them are trying to kill Gladstone, and that this is quite as much a purpose of their policy as to prevent Home Rule. I feel sure that no modifications of the late Bill that we could agree to would induce either of them to come over.
In a Parliamentary sense Mr. Gladstone is a better life than Hartington, as when the Duke of Devonshire dies his influence will abate, and his followers in the House cannot be so well kept together. Joseph and he hate each other too much to agree on anything else than disagreeing with Gladstone, so that I cannot see any land ahead just yet. I fear there is nothing for it but to trust to the chapter of accidents. Cloture cannot, if carried, do us much harm. If used to promote coercion then you will have outrages and, for aught I know, dynamite once more in the ascendant, so that while they may get rid of the pain in one part of the system the disease will break out somewhere else. Every one here wants peace, and the wisdom of Gladstone's policy is more manifest to me every day. There is an entire change in the temper of the people, and it would even take some pretty rough Toryism to make them take to their old ways again.
If the present Government were wise they would take advantage of this frame of mind, but there is little prospect of their doing so.
In the monster demonstration which took place in Hyde Park, after the reading of the Coercion Bill for the first time, Mr. Labouchere had been one of the group of eloquent orators, including Mr. Michael Davitt, Mr. Sexton, Mr. Hunter, and Professor James Stuart, who, from a long semi-circle of pavilions, had led upwards of a quarter million {364} demonstrators, poured out from the Radical Clubs and Associations of London, in protest against the tyrannical methods contemplated by the Government. A short extract from the speech of Mr. Baggallay, made in the House of Commons on April 14, gives an interesting little picture of Mr. Labouchere on the occasion of the demonstration: "I see the member for Northampton in his place," he said; "I am glad to see him back again after his short holiday, a holiday which I was sorry to see that he himself had cut short by unnecessarily making his appearance on a waggon in Hyde Park. May I be allowed to tell him that I was in Hyde Park also, although I was not in a waggon. I am prepared to admit that the crowd there was orderly. It has been asserted that there were a great many rowdies present. No doubt there were, but, for a Bank holiday, and for Hyde Park on a fine day, I think the congregation assembled there was fairly respectable. But, sir, what did they go there for? A great many were out for a holiday, but I believe that a very large number went there in order to see the leader of the Liberal party, or rather the real leader of the Radical party. I was asked over and over again, 'Where's Labby?' There can be no doubt that the point of attraction was the platform at which the member for Northampton presided. The language Mr. Labouchere used in reference to this Coercion Bill was not perhaps quite so moderate as it might have been. He told his audience that the policy of the Government was like the ruffianism of Bill Sikes, and he added that if the Bill became law he hoped Irishmen would resist it." (Mr. Labouchere: "Hear, Hear!") "I do not know if Mr. Labouchere is prepared to repeat those words in the House--(Mr. Labouchere: "Most unquestionably I repeat them.)"[3] And so on.
The protest had, of course, nothing but a moral value, minimised as much as possible by a slashing leading article in the _Times_, followed by a double dose of "Parnellism and {365} Crime." But, in the September of that year, Mr. Labouchere, in company with four other members of Parliament (Mr. T. E. Ellis, Mr. Brunner, Mr. Dillon, and Mr. John O'Connor), went over to Ireland, in order to address the historic meeting at Michelstown.
Everybody knows the outline of what occurred--how the police, escorting a Government reporter, tried to force a passage through a hostile crowd to the speaker's platform, and how they were eventually driven back into their barracks, through the windows of which they fired at random, killing three men and mortally wounding two others. The meeting occurred on September 9, and on the 12th the matter was discussed during the debate in the House of Commons. Mr. Balfour pronounced instant and peremptory judgment, although his information on the subject must have been obtained with incredible rapidity.[4] He told the House that he was of opinion, "looking at the matter in the most impartial spirit, that the police were in no way to blame, and that no responsibility rested upon any one except upon those who convened the meeting under circumstances which they knew would lead to excitement and might lead to outrage."[5] Mr. Labouchere, following Sir William Harcourt and Mr. Balfour, made a characteristic speech, in the course of which he gave an inimitable account of what actually did happen at Michelstown.
"Now, sir," he said, "I was there. I was in a position which enabled me to see very clearly what took place. I am not a novice in these matters. I have been in a great many _ententes_ on the continent. I have been a reporter in some cases, and I have not only been in a position to see, but I have also been in the habit of chronicling what I did see.... We went down, and the train arrived at Fermoy. This is about fifteen miles from Michelstown, and when we were within a mile of the latter place, we were met by a {366} procession with flags and trumpets, and a certain crowd accompanying it.... We entered the town with this procession, and pulled up in the market-place. Michelstown is a very small provincial town with very wide streets and few of them. In the midst of the town there is this marketplace, which is perhaps as large as Trafalgar Square. The market-place slopes, and at the top, is the main street of the village, and--I ask the House to remember this--there are two police barracks. One is the permanent police station ... and the other a temporary police station, used by the police on this occasion, and faces the market-place. When we arrived there we got into a brake, which formed one part of the procession. This brake was mainly tenanted by priests, the Mayors of Cork and Clonmel, and a few other gentlemen. Mr. M'Carthy, a parish priest of the neighbourhood, was appointed chairman, and the crowd naturally gathered around. Mr. Dillon said to me: 'Let us cut this as short as possible: they will send the police and military into the town. They will attempt something, and something may occur if we go on long. I suggest we say a few words and ask the crowd to disperse.' I at once assented. Dillon then got up on the front side of the brake to say a few words, and at that time, or perhaps a few minutes before, I saw a body of police drawn up in a line in the lower part of the market-place. They had a reporter with them, and they pushed their way to within a short distance of the platform.... They could get no further. The people were so tightly packed. I will give an instance of this. When we got there we got out of our carriage, and we were all going on to the brake, which was, I suppose, five yards away. I was delayed a moment, and I was delayed at least two moments trying to get through these five yards, the people being so crowded that it was almost impossible to push through them. How then was it possible for the police, three abreast, without great violence, to push their way through such a dense mass as this? Our brake was at the top of the market-place, {367} the people were all in front. Why on earth did not the reporter go to the outside of the meeting, and down the other side? He could easily have got in that way, and we should have been glad to welcome him there. But the police deliberately tried to force their way right in front where the people were wedged in as much as possible. I then saw these dozen policemen, with the reporter in their midst, stop. I supposed then they were satisfied and saw they could get no further. Dillon made one or two observations, and then the police fell back, and I thought perhaps they were going round. Let me observe we did not see the Resident Magistrate at all. If the Resident Magistrate had shown himself, and said he wanted the reporter to pass, one would have let him pass. The difficulty was that the reporter did not come alone, but with this body of police. Dillon went on speaking, and the horsemen--not this wonderful regiment I see mentioned in the _Times_, but some twenty horsemen--closed round outside the meeting in order to hear. Suddenly, after the advance guard had fallen back, and joined the other police, they (the police) all rushed forward. I am told they came to where these horsemen were, and one of the policemen drew his sword, and wounded one of the horses. I believe Mr. Brunner saw this done. Immediately there was a scrimmage.... The police commenced and continued it. The next thing that happened was that the police ran away. Captain Seagrove may have been amongst them, but it appears he deserted them on this occasion, and went to a neighbouring inn on the right of the market-place.... The police ran into the barracks.... Brunner and Ellis got on the brake, and joined the Mayor of Cork in urging the people to clear the streets for fear of further bloodshed, and I remained on the brake, because I was anxious to see what would take place." He continued his speech, urging with great ability the futility of pursuing in Ireland such tactics, which amounted to nothing in the world but the forcing upon a weaker country {368} the tyranny of a stronger. "The Chief Secretary tells us," he continued, "that, by these means, he hopes to create a Union between England and Ireland. What sort of a Union does he expect to create? Does he expect to create a Union of hearts and affections? Does he hope to create an affection for the English Government? I am happy to see that in Ireland the people are making a wide distinction between the people of England and the Government of England. They know their troubles are only temporary, that a new alliance exists between the democracies of England and Ireland, and that the classes will not be able to hold their own against such an alliance. I hold that the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Balfour) is indirectly responsible for what has occurred at Michelstown, and that those who are directly responsible are R. M. Seagrove and Inspector Brownrigg. I accuse these men of gross and deliberate murder."[6]
After Mr. Labouchere sat down, there was really very little to be said on the other side. Lord Randolph Churchill, however, endeavoured to do his duty by his party, and commented thus on Labouchere's speech, craftily criticising its style and ignoring its substance: "And then, Sir, we had the statement of the member for Northampton, which seems to me to resemble in its nature certain newspapers which are now current, and, to some extent, popular in the metropolis, which convey their news to the public in paragraphs. The statement of the hon. gentleman did not seem to me to be altogether connected. It was really a series of paragraphs, which succeeded each other without much connection as far as I could make out. I put aside the statement of the hon. member for Northampton, because I have difficulty in regarding him as altogether serious in this matter."[7]
It is difficult to see why Lord Randolph Churchill did not regard Mr. Labouchere's statement on the subject as serious. Had he been commenting on Mr. Balfour's speech on the {369} occasion, one might have understood a certain amount of scepticism as to the speaker's good faith.
In the following February Mr. Labouchere, in a speech on Mr. Parnell's amendment in answer to the Address from the Throne, referred again to Mr. Balfour's airy dismissal of any serious consideration of the Michelstown affray: "What the Chief Secretary had stated in the House about the matter was absolutely incorrect. He had always thought that the right hon. gentleman would be especially careful in matters of evidence, for, as a philosopher, he was his (Labouchere's) favourite philosopher. He had sat at the feet of that Gamaliel, he had read his _Defence of Philosophic Doubt_, until he had almost doubted of his own existence. Yet, when the right hon. gentleman became Irish Chief Secretary, he forgot all his philosophy. The reason was that there were exigencies required of an Irish Secretary that were not to be found in the calm fields of philosophy. It was a melancholy thing for a philosopher to be plunged by the exigencies of his position into matters like this--to have vile instruments to carry out his orders, and to believe them or rather to pretend to believe them...."[8]
The note of persiflage contained in all Labouchere's speeches on the Michelstown affair may have deceived his hearers as to the profoundness of his feelings of indignation, but his measured, well-considered utterances in _Truth_ were for all who read them a sufficient guarantee of his good faith. Immediately after the affray, he wrote thus of the head of the constabulary force in Co. Cork: "I came across a person of the name of Brownrigg the other day. The ferocity, the insolence, the brutality of this man never were exceeded and rarely equalled by Cossack or Uhlan in a country occupied by Russian or German. I strongly recommend him for promotion. He is a man after the heart of our Tory despots, for he seemed to me to unite in his person every characteristic that goes to make up an official ruffian, {370} armed with a little brief authority. On this man the responsibility of the Michelstown murders rests. He caused them, either deliberately, or from stupidity and brutality combined. If he has furnished Mr. Balfour with an account of what took place there, he adds to his other virtues the capacity of being one of the best liars that the world has ever produced, for the statement of Mr. Balfour in the House of Commons of the Michelstown affair, from 'official information,' is one long tissue of deliberate falsehoods."[9]
At the inquest which was held upon the victims, the jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against the chief police officer and five of his men. _Truth_ pronounced as follows upon the inquest: "Immediately after the Michelstown meeting I had occasion to call attention to the conduct of Brownrigg, the chief of the constabulary there. This ruffian has given evidence, and his evidence is one long tissue of lies, so impudent that Mr. Irwin, the District Police Inspector, has borne testimony against him. When Mr. Irwin stated what the nature of his evidence must be, Brownrigg, it would appear, called his men together and tried to drill them into perjury, in order to obtain confirmation of his mendacity. I am not surprised at anything which this man may do, for I found him vain, irascible, insolent, and muddleheaded beyond all conception."
Mr. Labouchere's article, called "The Michelstown Murders, "giving in more detail than he had been able to do in the House, the real facts of the affray, is a masterpiece of judicial summing up. It is too long to quote in full, but the following extract will show how close was his reasoning, and how unanswerable his arguments:
Three men were killed, and two were wounded. Two of the men killed received each two bullets. This proves two things: 1. That the police deliberately aimed. 2. That there could not have been a crowd. Never yet was a crowd fired into, and, of {371} the three men killed by the discharge, two each be struck twice. Any one can see that this is mathematically so improbable as to be impossible.
Station No. 1 is a house with an iron door, and iron shutters to the windows. Even if it had been attacked, an unarmed crowd could not have got into it; all the more as there were military within call ready to act, and Captain Seagrove was not in the station, and consequently could have at once called up the soldiers. It is admitted that there are 160 panes of glass in the windows, and that only six of these panes were broken by stones. The police therefore were not in danger of their lives, nor in any danger.[10]
The verdict of the inquest was afterwards quashed (Feb. 10, 1888) in the Queen's Bench on the ground that the coroner had perpetrated certain irregularities of form, and, as Lord Morley remarks, "the slaughter of the three men was finally left just as if it had been the slaughter of three dogs." No other incident of Irish administration stirred deeper feelings of disgust in Ireland, or of misgiving and indignation in England.[11] Meanwhile the _Times_ articles "Parnellism and Crime" seemed to have been forgotten, except by Mr. Labouchere, who had in _Truth_ chaffingly suggested to the _Times_ the appointment of Mr. Brownrigg to write a few instalments of the sensational serial pamphlet. The poison, however, had worked, and goodwill towards Ireland had nearly died in English breasts. Parnell had declared in the House of Commons on the day of its publication that the facsimile letter was a clumsy fabrication. "Politics are come to a pretty pass," he said, "in this country when a leader of a party of eighty-six members has to stand up at ten minutes past one in the House of Commons in order to defend himself from an anonymous fabrication such as that which is contained in the _Times_ of this morning."[12]
{372}
Nobody except his Radical friends believed him, and the affair would probably have sunk into oblivion if a former member of the party, a Mr. F. H. O'Donnell, had not, after mature reflection, conceived that he had been libelled in the famous articles. In the summer of 1888 he prosecuted the _Times_ for damages, and lost his case, for, as a matter of fact, Mr. O'Donnell had not been mentioned in the articles, and it almost appeared that something like a guilty conscience had prompted him to bring the action. But the prosecuting counsel's method of presenting the case not only compelled Sir Richard Webster to reproduce and exhaustively comment upon the "Parnellism and Crime" articles, but furnished him with the opportunity of startling London and the world with a long series of other letters, some of them more damning even than the facsimile letter, five purporting to be from Pat. Egan, the former treasurer of the Land League, addressed to various agitators and felons including James Carey, the informer, and three supposed to be from Parnell. It is only necessary to this narrative to quote one which was read out on July 4, 1888, by the Attorney-General in his address to the jury. It ran as follows:
9/1/82.
DEAR E.,--What are these fellows waiting for? This inaction is inexcusable, our best men are in prison and nothing is being done. Let there be an end of this hesitancy. Prompt action is called for. You undertook to make it hot for old Forster and Co. Let us have some evidence of your power to do so. My health is good, thanks.--Yours very truly,
CHAS. S. PARNELL.
"Dear E." meant Patrick Egan. In January, four months before the Phœnix Park murders, Mr. Parnell was in Kilmainham Prison. Well might the Attorney-General say, as he solemnly read out the letter in Court: "If it was signed by Mr. Parnell, I need not comment upon it." {373} He also made the announcement that the "facsimile letter," as the first one published in the _Times_ has always been called, as well as the ones he had produced in Court that day, had been for some time in the possession of the _Times_. Presumably the _Times_ had kept them in the hopes that the Irish leaders would sooner or later bring an action for libel against the paper, when they would triumphantly have produced the letters and so confounded the whole party. As it turned out, their production at that moment rather resembled the killing of a fly with a sledge-hammer, for Mr. O'Donnell's case was one of such palpable insignificance. An important reason may be mentioned here, for explaining what may seem to be an extraordinary lack of initiative on Mr. Parnell's part. He had not been willing to prosecute the _Times_ because he was firmly convinced that Captain O'Shea had been concerned in the production of the letters, and, to add to his unwillingness, his friends in England had pointed out to him the immense improbability of a jury of twelve Middlesex men, being, at that moment, sufficiently without racial prejudice, to pronounce a verdict in his favour. After the Attorney-General's declaration that the _Times_ would retract nothing, and the implied challenge in his admission that, if false, no grosser libels were ever written, Mr. Parnell took action. On the day of the delivery of the verdict in the case of O'Donnell _v._ Walter, he formally denied the authenticity of the letters, and asked for a Select Committee of the House to enquire into the matter. His request was refused, but finally it was suggested from the Treasury Bench that the enquiry should be entrusted to a Commission of Judges appointed by Act of Parliament. A Bill embodying this suggestion was read for the second time on July 24, and the names of the Commissioners were added in the Committee stage. Sir James Hannen was chosen as President of the Commission, and with him were associated Sir Charles Day, an Orangeman, and Sir Archibald Levin Smith. Mr. H. Cunynghame, a junior barrister (now Sir {374} Henry Cunynghame), was appointed Secretary to the Commission.[13]
Mr. Labouchere had, of course, scented in the whole business a chapter of _chronigues scandaleuses_ after his own heart. He set to work to study it at once _con amore_, and very soon came to the conclusion that all the letters had been forged by one Richard Pigott, the story of whose chequered career was soon to become the property of a marvelling public. "Immediately on the Egan letters being produced in the O'Donnell _v._ Walter case," he writes in his own account of the affair, "Mr. Egan telegraphed to me that he was sending over Carey's letters to him. (Mr. Egan was then in America.) These letters followed. They referred to a municipal election, and, being written at the same time as a forged letter of Mr. Egan to Carey, they proved conclusively that the latter could not be genuine. Whilst the discussion was taking place in Parliament about the Royal Commission, Mr. Egan again telegraphed that he had been comparing the letters ascribed to him in the O'Donnell trial with the drafts of certain letters which he had written to Pigott about the purchase of the _Irishman_,[14] and the letters ascribed to Mr. Parnell, with the copies of two letters written by that gentleman to Pigott in relation to the sale, which copies were in his (Egan's) possession. He said that he had found such a similarity of phrase in the genuine letters and in the forged letters that he was certain that the latter were fabricated from the former. An emissary soon after came over with the Egan drafts and with Pigott's letters (one of which contained that blessed word 'hesitancy'), to which the former were replies, and with the copies of Mr. Parnell's letters. One of the drafts had been {375} published previously as a part of a correspondence between Egan and Pigott in the _Freeman's Journal_, and the copies of Mr. Parnell's letters were in the handwriting of Mr. Campbell.[15] Now it was utterly impossible that the similarities, amounting in one case to three consecutive lines, could be a mere chance. It was, therefore, a mathematical certainty that Pigott had forged the letters, while it was obvious that Mr. Egan's drafts were genuine, for they could have been at once disproved, if incorrect, by Pigott producing, at the investigation, the original of them, which, it was to be presumed, he had in his possession. I showed the Carey letters to Mr. Parnell alone, and the Egan correspondence with Pigott to Sir Charles Russell and Mr. Parnell alone, and then locked them up. On Mr. George Lewis being retained, I handed them over to him, and he proceeded to get up Pigott's 'record,' only a portion of which came before the Court, but a portion amply sufficient to show that he had lived for years on blackmailing, forgery, and treachery."[16]
Mr. Labouchere then went off to Germany for his summer holiday, and, while abroad, a chance conversation revealed to him that the incriminating letters had been already shown by Mr. Houston, the Secretary of the Loyal and Patriotic Association, to Lord Hartington. Houston was therefore immediately subpœnaed, and it later transpired that he had offered them to the _Pall Matt Gazette_ before he sold them to the _Times_. "Two facts were consequently certain," said Mr. Labouchere. "Houston had sold the letters, and Pigott had forged them. Although we were ourselves certain of the latter fact, it was possible that, as we had only the drafts of the Egan letters, it might be said (as indeed it was said, by Pigott in the witness-box) that Egan had written his drafts from the _Times_ letters, instead of the _Times_ letters having been fabricated from the Egan letters.
"About the middle of October," continued Mr. Labouchere, "Mr. Egan sent over here a trusty emissary, with {376} orders to report to me, and to see whether it would not be possible to buy of Pigott the original of the Egan drafts, for he knew his man, and believed (rightly) that he would have no objection to sell anything that he possessed for a consideration. I sent this emissary to Kingstown, where Pigott was residing. The emissary told him that Egan wanted these originals. Pigott declined to deal with the emissary, and said that he must be put in communication with some one whom he could trust. On this I told the emissary that Pigott could see me at my house on a certain evening. I went down to the Commission which was sitting on that day, and informed Mr. Parnell and Mr. Lewis of what had been arranged. It was agreed that they should both be present."
Mr. Labouchere's letter to Pigott making the appointment for this interview has, with its hint to come "by the underground," been so often referred to that it is worth while giving it here in full:
24 GROSVENOR GARDENS, S.W., Oct. 25, 1888.
DEAR SIR,---I shall be here at 10 o'clock to-morrow morning, and shall be happy to see you for a confidential conversation, which, as you say, can do no harm, if it does no good. I will return you your letter when you come. I think this house would be the best place, for it certainly is not watched, and it would be as easy to throw off any one coming here as going elsewhere. Your best plan would be, I should think, to take the underground, and get out at Victoria Station. The house is close by.--Yours faithfully,
H. LABOUCHERE.
It may be mentioned in parenthesis that Mr. Labouchere had misdated his letter. It was really written, as was proved by the postmark on the envelope, on October 24, and the interview took place on that evening at 10 o'clock, as he changed the time of the appointment by telegram.
Both Mr. Labouchere and Pigott were very well aware {377} that 24 Grosvenor Gardens, if not being watched at the moment when the above letter was penned, would be so as soon as Pigott was inside it, for the unhappy forger was dogged in all his footsteps by the _Times_ agents. Mr. Labouchere had, however, nothing to fear, and poor Pigott had very little to lose, and a vague expectation of something to gain. The upshot of the interview was that, in the presence of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Lewis, Pigott confessed that he had forged the letters and suggested that he would give a full confession, and write to the Attorney-General and to the _Times_ that he was the forger, if Mr. Lewis would withdraw his subpœna and let him go to Australia. But it was not Pigott's confession that Mr. Lewis and Mr. Labouchere wanted. It was the originals of the drafts of the Egan letters. Mr. Parnell and Mr. Labouchere withdrew to another room, leaving Mr. Lewis to do what he could with the slippery Richard. "Soon," to continue the narrative in Mr. Labouchere's own words, "Mr. Lewis came into the dining-room, and said to me, 'Pigott wants to come to me to-morrow and give me a full statement. He is going away and wants to speak to you'; adding, 'Mind, whatever you do, don't give him any money; if you do he will bolt.' I left Mr. Lewis with Mr. Parnell, and went back to Pigott.
"That worthy at once came to business, and said that the _Times_ had promised him £5000 to go into the box, and asked what I would give for him not to do so. I replied that I would give nothing, but that Egan's emissary had already told him that, acting for Egan, I wanted the original of the Egan drafts, as these would prove the forgery up to the hilt, and that if he had them and they were satisfactory, I would pay for them. He asked whether I would give £5000 for them. When I declined, he asked whether I would give £1000. I said it would be more like one thousand than five, but that I must first see the documents. I then asked whether the signature of the Parnell letters, which is at the top of a page, was forged, or whether it was an autograph which had {378} fallen into his hands, and he had written the letter on the other side. 'Why do you want to know this?' he asked. 'Mere curiosity,' I replied. On which he said that it was forged. He then left."
Nothing definite as to the original Egan letters was obtained by Mr. Lewis when he called the next day, and neither did he obtain the promised statement. The interview with Messrs. Labouchere, Lewis, and Parnell at Grosvenor Gardens, and the subsequent private one with Mr. Lewis, were reported to the _Times_ agents by Pigott with a fanciful account of what took place at each. He shortly afterwards returned to Ireland, and Mr. Labouchere continued his efforts to procure all possible evidence on behalf of his Irish friends. He was considerably helped by his acquaintances in America, who were able to furnish him with invaluable details and scraps of knowledge about the various witnesses for the _Times_, which came in appositely more than once in Sir Charles Russell's masterly cross-examinations. It is interesting to notice, in perusing many of the curious letters received by Mr. Labouchere at this period from Irish patriots living beyond the Atlantic (what Mr. Labouchere had so often heard from the lips of Mr. Parnell himself),[17] how far from popular Parnell was with most of them. He was too meek and mild for them, and they could not understand his patience under injury and abuse. In one of these letters occurs the following anecdote about the intrepid Irish leader: "I want to tell you," says the writer, "something about Parnell in 1883--ask him: two men called on him when he was in Cork and said (recollect the two were extremists), 'Mr. Parnell, unless you give us £1000 for extreme measures we will shoot you before we leave Cork.' Parnell simply replied, 'Well, I certainly have a choice, for which I am obliged--to be shot now or to be hung afterwards. I prefer the former. You will never get £1000 from me for the purpose you mention.' One and all of these patriots, {379} however, at this crisis of Parnell's career were determined to uphold him, and to allow whatever grievances they had against him to stand over until after his political character had been vindicated in the eyes of the hated English.
Mr. Labouchere remained in communication with Pigott throughout the winter. Pigott dangled before him the possibility of further important communications, and on November 29 Mr. Labouchere wrote to him as follows:
As I understand the position it is this--Mr. Lewis holds that we can prove our case against the _Times_ in regard to the letters conclusively, and this, you will remember, Mr. Parnell told you. We prove it in a certain way. You say that you wish to be kept out of it, and not be called as a witness. If such a course can strengthen our case, and prove it still more conclusively, I do not see why it should not be adopted, for the object is to prove irrespective of individuals. Evidently, some one must know how you propose to do what you want, and what you say you can do. If you like to confide in me, I will tell you what I think, and, if I agree with you, it will be then time for you either to assent or dissent to Mr. Parnell or Mr. Lewis being informed. But you are a practical man--so am I. Mere assertion, neither you nor I attach much importance to, without documentary or some other clear confirmation.
Pigott answered as follows:
ANDERTON'S HOTEL, FLEET STREET, E.C., Dec. 4, 1888.
DEAR SIR,--I have arrived here, and write a line to ask you to make an appointment, as I know that your house is watched--as is also Mr. Lewis's Office--and as I am "shadowed" wherever I go outside a certain limit, perhaps you could kindly arrange that we should meet somewhere else to-morrow afternoon or Thursday, or in fact any other day you choose.--Faithfuly yours, RD. PIGGOTT.
What occurred at the meeting which took place as the result of the above correspondence is best told in {380} Mr. Labouchere's own words: "Pigott came about ten and stayed till one A.M. Again he explained that he had forged, and gave me a good many details about the way in which he had done it, telling me, amongst other things, that he had given Houston three names as the sources of the letters, two of which were efforts of his imagination, and the third a real person. He seemed rather proud of his skill, and by encouraging this weakness I got everything out of him. I asked him how Houston could have been so easily fooled, and whether he was an absolute idiot? He replied that he was clever up to a certain point, but thought himself twice as clever as he was, and that these sort of persons are easily trapped. In this I agreed with him, and he told me that Houston had told him that he wanted letters, because it was intended to publish a pamphlet, and that the letters were to be held in reserve to be sprung upon the Court if there was an action for libel, adding that such an action would be certain not to be brought. Again and again, with weary iteration, he came back to his plan to confess in writing, and then to go to Australia. I told him that he surely must be sharp enough to see to what accusations this would subject me, and how hurtful it would be to our case, which I assured him was of such strength that it would smash him, quite irrespective of anything he might say or do. 'Why, then, do you want documents?' he said. 'Because,' I replied, 'the issue is a political one. We have to deal with prejudiced Tories who have already compromised themselves by pinning themselves to the genuineness of the letters, and consequently our case cannot be too much strengthened. With such people you must put butter upon bacon.' 'What documents do you want?' he said. 'Egan's letters, the original signatures from which you traced those of Egan and Parnell, and a few letters forged in my presence,' I said. 'I have not got Egan's letters: I destroyed them. I have not got the signatures. I gave Houston the letter of Parnell from which I took his signature. I will, if you like, forge the letters in {381} your presence. I will give you the names of the three men from whom I told Houston I got the letters, and I will give you the letters that Houston wrote to me,' he answered. I said that I would not give sixpence for these without the two items that I had mentioned, and he reiterated that he had not got them. 'Why,' I suddenly said to him,' did you write to Archbishop Walsh about the letters?' 'The Archbishop,' he replied, 'has not got my letters; he sent them all back; to reveal anything concerning them would be to violate the confidence between a priest and a penitent.' 'Well,' I finished by saying, 'think it over. I am going out of town. When I return, come and see me again, and in the meanwhile try and find the originals of Egan's letters. I will let you know when I come back.' He said that he would think it over, and, on wishing him good-night, I asked him what he contemplated doing? He said that he was in a terrible mess, but that he saw no other course open for him but to go into the box and swear that he had bought the letters, and that if they were forgeries he had been deceived. 'You will be a fool if you do,' I said, 'but that is your affair, not mine. If I were in your place I should tell the truth, and ask for the indemnity.' 'That is all very well,' he said, 'but on what am I to live?' And so we parted." Mr. Labouchere did not see Pigott again until he saw him in the witness-box more than two months later. Pigott returned to Ireland about the middle of December and the Commission adjourned until January 15. Patrick Egan had written to Mr. Labouchere on December 2 from Lincoln, Massachusetts saying: "I hope you will be able to squeeze the truth out of Pigott in the way you say, as I should dislike terribly to see him profit in any way by his villainy. I do not believe there is a single thing in the suspicion against O'Shea.... The fellow is incapable of playing the role of heavy villain. I am quite convinced that the forgery part of the scheme was the sole work of Pigott. You will perceive that all your injunctions with regard to secrecy have been {382} observed on this side, but everything gets out from London and Dublin. Yesterday we had on one of our Lincoln evening papers a cable (probably a copy of a New York Herald cable) giving all particulars about the watch that is being kept on Pigott and the discovery that C. is doing detective work for the _Times_, that F. was mixed up with the forgeries and other matters."
It must be borne in mind that, when the Commission adjourned in the middle of December, the all-important question of the letters had not yet been touched upon. "The objects of the accusers," says Lord Morley, "was to show the complicity of the accused with crime by tracing crime to the League, and making every member of the League constructively liable for every act of which the League was constructively guilty. Witnesses were produced, in a series that seemed interminable, to tell the story of five-and-twenty outrages in Mayo, of as many in Cork, of forty-two in Galway, of sixty-five in Kerry, one after another, and all with immeasurable detail. Some of the witnesses spoke no English, and the English of others was hardly more intelligible than Erse. Long extracts were read out from four hundred and forty speeches. The counsel on one side produced a passage that made against the Speaker, and then the counsel on the other side found and read some qualifying passage that made as strongly for him. The three judges groaned. They had already, they said plaintively, ploughed through the speeches in the solitude of their own rooms. Could they not be taken as read? 'No,' said the prosecuting counsel, 'we are building up an argument, and it cannot be built up in a silent manner.' In truth it was designed for the public outside the court, and not a touch was spared that might deepen the odium. Week after week the ugly tale went on--a squalid ogre let loose among a population demoralised by ages of wicked neglect, misery, and oppression. One side strove to show that the ogre had been wantonly raised by the Land League for political objects of their own; the other, that it was the {383} progeny of distress and wrong, that the League had rather controlled than' kindled its ferocity, and that crime and outrage were due to local animosities for which neither League nor parliamentary leaders were responsible."[19] The Nationalists were impatient for the real business to begin, for it was felt by every one that, if the letters were proved to be genuine, the case was practically won all round for the _Times_, whereas, if they proved to be forgeries, public opinion on the subject could have but one bias. Indeed, Mr. Chamberlain himself had said: "To lead the inquiry off into subsidiary and unimportant matters would be ... fatal to the reputation of the _Times_--fatal to its success." And again, "If the _Times_ fails to maintain its principal charges, I do not think much attention will be attached to other charges. Any attempt, as it appears to all, on the part of the _Times_ to put aside those principal charges or not to put them in the forefront will redound to their discredit."[19] The delay, however, gave this advantage to the Nationalist side--they had more time in which to accumulate confirmatory evidence against the forger, and the forger was given more time in which to further involve himself, in the net which his fowler had spread for him, by writing foolish letters and telling needless lies. Pigott had promised Mr. Labouchere to return to London whenever he sent for him. Parnell wrote to Mr. Labouchere during the Christmas vacation of the Commissioners:
HOUSE OF COMMONS, Jan. 14, 1889.
MY DEAR LABOUCHERE,--I am anxious to see you before your Irish friend returns to London. Kindly give me an appointment, and let it be if possible after four o'clock.--Yours sincerely,
CHAS. S. PARNELL.
{384}
He wrote again as follows on the 21st:
I do not think you need send for your Dublin friend this time, as the _Times_ will probably do that for you, and you will hear when he is in London. Another forged letter of Egan's was produced in Court last week, and sworn to by Delaney, evidently one of the Pigott series. I am laid up with a cold, but hope to be out tomorrow, when I will try and call to see you in the afternoon.--Yours very truly,
CHAS. S. PARNELL.
The Irish friend was, of course, Pigott, and Delaney was a convict--a witness for the _Times_. He was one of the Phœnix Park criminals, and was described by the _Daily News_ reporter, present in court, as of "over middle height, stoutish in build, reddish-yellow haired, and with features which were more of a Russian than an Irish cast. He wore a short jacket of check tweed, and a big white cravat about his neck." He had been brought up from Maryborough prison, where he was doing his life sentence. His brother was hanged for the Phœnix Park murders, and so would he have been himself if he had not confessed, and, in consequence, had his sentence changed from execution to penal servitude for life. He had sworn to the handwriting of Patrick Egan on one of the letters produced in court. "Are you an expert?" asked Sir Charles Russell carelessly. No, Mr. Delaney was not an expert, but he remembered the signature after so many years, and he identified it when he was shown it "yesterday evening" by the _Times_ agent. He was able to identify it because Carey, seven or eight years ago, showed him three of Mr. Egan's letters.[20]
Pigott had been subpœnaed by the _Times_ as a witness early in December. On January 24, Mr. Labouchere wrote to him saying: "I see that Sir R. Webster talks about soon getting to the letters. When are you likely to be over? If you wish it, I will send your expenses to come over." At the end of the month he sent Pigott £10. Labouchere's letter and the {385} £10 note were confided at once by Pigott to Mr. Houston, who handed them over to Mr. Soames, and, of course, they were produced in court and a rather different interpretation put upon them to the one the recipient knew was warranted.
Pigott was not called into the witness-box, the ordeal which he so justly dreaded, until the fifty-fourth day of the Commission's sittings. He at once gave an account of the way he had obtained the first batch of incriminating letters. It read like a romance, as indeed, it was in every sense of the word--how Mr. Houston had begged him, if possible, to find some authentic documents to substantiate accusations against the Irish leaders, how he had set forth for Lausanne, all his expenses handsomely paid, and had met there an old friend who had told him about a letter written by Parnell which was in Paris, and might be obtained; how he had then proceeded to Paris and by a marvellous stroke of good luck had run up against an Irishman in the street who was able to give him more details about the Parnell letter, and other documents of a similar kind, which had been found in a black bag in a Paris lodging-house. He had not immediately bought the bag and its contents, because there were many difficulties in the way, but he had gone back to London and told Mr. Houston the whole story, and returned to Paris ready to clinch the bargain. But the Irish friend was not easy to bring to terms. He said Pigott must, before he could get possession of the letters, go to America and obtain the permission to buy them from the Fenians there. To America he accordingly went, and returned with a letter from John Breslin to the Irish friend authorising the sale of the Parnell letter (afterwards known as the "facsimile letter") and the rest of the papers. Houston came over to Paris and paid him £500 for the contents of the black bag, and gave him £105 for his own trouble. It must be remembered that all his travelling expenses had been paid, as well as £1 a day for hotels--not a bad remuneration for a needy man such as Pigott was, who, it turned out later, was making what living {386} he could by the sale of indecent photographs and books to all who cared to buy them. Doubtless the black bag was useful to him in his book and picture business, which was why he did not sell it with its temporary contents to Mr. Houston. The said contents, as bought by Houston, were as follows: Five letters of Mr. Parnell's, six of Patrick Egan's, some scraps of paper, and the torn-out leaves of an old account-book. The black bag was supposed to have been left in Paris by an Irish patriot (Frank Byrne or James O'Kelly) and had been taken possession of by the Clan-na-Gael. Subsequently two other batches of letters were obtained by Pigott in Paris, and likewise sold to the _Times_.
The Attorney-General, in the course of his examination of Pigott, drew from him the following remarkable account of his visit to Mr. Labouchere's house on October 24:
_The Attorney-General_. Tell us, as nearly as you can, what passed between you, Mr. Labouchere, and Mr. Parnell, and if, at any part of it, Mr. Parnell was not present, just tell us and draw the distinction--what passed as nearly as you can: how did the conversation begin?
_Pigott_. I think, as well as I recollect, Mr. Parnell commenced the conversation, and what he said was to the effect that they held proofs in their hands that would convict me of the forgery of all the letters, and he asked me, with reference to my statement to the effect that I wished if possible to avoid giving evidence at all, how I proposed to do that. I explained that I had not been subpœnaed by the _Times_ up to that date, that the only subpœna I received was the one Mr. Lewis had served me with, and it occurred to me then that probably, if I could induce Mr. Lewis to withdraw his subpœna, I might avoid in that way coming forward at all. Mr. Parnell was of opinion that that could not be done, that Mr. Lewis could not withdraw his subpœna, that I would be obliged to appear. Then, I think, Mr. Labouchere took up the running, and he was rather facetious.
_The Attorney-General_. What did he say, please?
_Pigott_. He made a proposition to me right out, that I should {387} appear in the witness-box and swear that I had forged the letters, thereby ensuing--entitling myself to receive from the Commissioners a certificate of immunity from any proceedings, legal or criminal. He said that was his reading of the law, and Mr. Parnell agreed with him that such was the case, that it was an extremely simple matter; it was merely going into the box, taking an oath, and walking out free.
_The Attorney-General_. I want just to get this: did the suggestion that if you went into the witness-box, and said that you forged the letters, that you would get your certificate, come from Mr. Labouchere?
_Pigott_. Distinctly.
_The Attorney-General_. What else, please?
_Pigott_. He urged me, as a further inducement to do this, that I would become immensely popular in Ireland, the fact that I had swindled the _Times_ would be sufficient of itself to secure me a seat in Parliament to begin with, and then, if at any time I wished to go to the United States, he would undertake that I should be received with a torchlight procession from all the organisations there. Of course, I could scarcely believe that he was serious, but still----[21]
Here almost uncontrolled merriment burst out all over the court, in which Mr. Labouchere himself joined more heartily than any one.
_The President of the Court_. I must say, whether this is true or not, it is not a fit subject for laughter.
But whether the President would or no, it was impossible to prevent constant ripples of laughter from breaking out all over the court while Pigott was narrating his version of the first meeting at Mr. Labouchere's house. Pigott told how Mr. Lewis had arrived on the scene, and had also denounced him as the forger of the letters--"Mr. Lewis assumed his severest manner," said Pigott. He continued his evidence after some further questions from the Attorney-General.
{388}
_Pigott_. Mr. Labouchere beckoned me outside the door into the hall, and he there said--I forgot to mention that in the course of conversation I stated that I had--I do not know exactly whether I said I had been promised £5000 by the _Times_ or that I had demanded it.
_The Attorney-General_. One or the other?
_Pigott_. One or the other. So referring to that Mr. Labouchere said that they were prepared to pay me £1000--that he himself was prepared to pay me £1000, but, of course, I was not to mention anything about it to Mr. Parnell or to Mr. Lewis.
_The President_. One moment before you go further. "He beckoned me outside"--where was he then?
_Pigott_. That was at Labouchere's house.
_The President_. I know, but where was it?
_Pigott_. Outside into the hall.
_The President_. Was it a whole house or was it a flat?
_Pigott_. It is a whole house. He took me into the entrance hall, the room that we were in was the front room.
_The President_. A dining-room or library or what?
_Pigott_. A library.
_The Attorney-General_. Is that the end of the conversation that then took place?
_Pigott_. Up to that time, yes.
_The Attorney-General_. What did you say to Mr. Labouchere when he said he was prepared to pay you £1000?
_Pigott_. I said I thought it was a very handsome sum; I did not say whether I would take it or not. As well as I can recollect, however, I raised no objection. I took it that he understood me to agree to that sum. Then, on returning to the room, I said distinctly--very distinctly--that nothing under heaven would induce me to go into the witness-box and swear a lie--nothing would. Then Mr. Lewis explained to me the necessity for my going into the witness-box might be avoided by the course that he suggested: that is that I was to write to the _Times_ to state that I believed the letters were forgeries, or that I had forged them myself, if I preferred it. At all events I was to acquaint the Manager of the _Times_ with the fact that the letters were actual forgeries, and that thereupon the _Times_ would naturally withdraw the letters, and the thing would drop, and of course Mr. Labouchere's {389} offer would stand. Well, Mr. Lewis did not say that, but of course I understood it.
Pigott proceeded to give his account of his interview with Mr. Lewis on the following morning. He said that Mr. Lewis had taken notes of what he (Pigott) said, and he (Pigott) had told Mr. Lewis all he had told Mr. Soames with reference to the hunt for and discovery of the incriminating letters in Paris. Mr. Soames's evidence, given in court on February 15, of what Pigott had told him on this subject differed very considerably from what, according to Mr. Lewis's notes, he had told the latter. For instance, Mr. Pigott told Mr. Lewis on October 25 that he had sold the letters to Mr. Houston, never believing for a moment himself that they were genuine. In court, on February 21, Pigott denied the accuracy of Mr. Lewis's notes, made during his conversation with him at Anderton's Hotel on October 25.
All Pigott's correspondence with Mr. Lewis and Mr. Labouchere was then read out in court, with the replies of the two gentlemen to Mr. Pigott. The Attorney-General ended his examination as follows:
_The Attorney-General_. The only other matter I want to put to you is this: these gentlemen told you--Mr. Parnell and Mr. Labouchere--that they had copies of letters, which they had written to you?
_Pigott_. Yes.
_The Attorney-General_. From which it was alleged that you had copied these documents?
_Pigott_. Yes.
_The Attorney-General_. Did they produce any to you?
_Pigott_. No.
_The Attorney-General_. Did they at any time, either at Mr. Lewis's office or at Mr. Labouchere's, offer to show you any of them?
_Pigott_. No.
As the Attorney-General, rearranging his gown, was {390} slowly resuming his seat, a loud murmur of conversation broke out over the court. It stopped suddenly. Scarcely was the Attorney-General seated when Sir Charles Russell stood bolt upright. He had a clean sheet of paper in his hand. There was such a silence in the court that even the fall of a pin would have been heard. Pigott's little day of peace was over. Poor fellow! He had done his best to keep his share of the business in the black shadows where such deeds are wont to skulk, but the gloom was about to be dispelled by the light of truth.
[1] Lord Eversley, _Gladstone and Ireland._
[2] The Land League founded by Parnell in 1879 for the purpose of bringing about a reduction of rack rents, and facilitating the creation of a peasant proprietary. Egan was the treasurer of the Land League.
[3] _Hansard_, April 14, 1887, vol. 313.
[4] Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii.
[5] _Hansard_, September 12, 1887, vol. 321.
[6] _Hansard_, September 12, 1887, vol. 321.
[7] _Ibid._
[8] _Hansard_, February 14, 1888, vol. 322.
[9] _Truth_, September 15, 1887.
[10] _Truth_, September 22, 1887.
[11] Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii.
[12] _Hansard_, April 18, 1887, vol. 313.
[13] The Counsel for the _Times_ were Sir Richard Webster, the Attorney-General, Sir Henry James, Mr. Murphy, Mr. W. Graham, Mr. Atkinson, and Mr. Ronan; Sir Charles Russell and Mr. Asquith, M.P., appeared for Mr. Parnell.
[14] The Irishman was a Fenian newspaper owned by Pigott, and sold by him to Parnell in 1881.
[15] Mr. Parnell's secretary.
[16] _Truth._
[17] See letters to Chamberlain in Chapter IX.
[18] Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii.
[19] Macdonald, _Diary of the Parnell Commission_, July 6, 1887.
[20] Macdonald, _Diary of the Parnell Commission._
[21] _Special Commission Act_, 1888, vol. v.
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