After some other speeches, including a few eloquent sentences from
Mr. Cowen in favour of Home-rule, Sir Michael Hicks- Beach rose to reply on the part of the Opposition ; and on this statement of Mr. Parnell's, he said :—" I must, for myself and for my colleagues, state, in the plainest and most distinct terms, that I utterly and categorically deny that the late Conservative Government had any such intention." Mr. Parnell hereupon asked :—" Does the right honourable gentleman mean to deny that that intention was communicated to me by one of his own colleagues, a Minister of the Crown ?" And Sir Michael Hicks- Beach replied :—" Yes, Sir, I do, to the best of my knowledge and belief ; and if any such statement was communicated by any one to the honourable Member, I am certain that he had not the authority to make it." Sir Michael further asked for the name, which Mr. Parnell declared that he could not give, but he would give it with the permission of the colleague to whom he had referred.
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