12 FEBRUARY 1881, Page 2

Mr. A. M. Sullivan sends to Tuesday's Times a very

singular account of the Parliamentary contest of last week, iu which he omits the essential features. Ho omits to notice that Mr- Parnell, in holding out the hope that the division might take place on Tuesday, made no attempt to conceal that he dictated that date in order to try his strength against the Government, and not for the sake of fuller discussion, the adjournment of the debate being moved at an unusually early hour on Mon- day, on purpose to show that waste of time was the object.. He omits to notice that during the debate, at least as much time was deliberately wasted by openly irrelevant loquacity, as was used in any pretence of discussing the Bill. And he omits to recall that after the Speaker's coup (rad, he himself attempted deliberately to waste time, remarking to his friends, what " the eavesdropper " overheard, " This will do, as well as anything else." If he were candid, he would admit that but for the resolution shown by the Speaker and the House, the Irish party would be still exhausting every device to stave off action with talk, and that that was their deliberate purpose and resolve. Indeed, that avowal would be far more to Mr. Sullivan's credit, than the attempt to show that the Irishmen were doing nothing unusual, nothing which the House of Commons itself was bound in common self-respect to resent. Revolution, even under a thin mask of precedent, may be manly.. But it is hardly manly to simulate virtuous astonishment and a mental attitude of expostulation, when the mask is pointed out and the real purpose plainly exposed.