Ireland was startled on Monday by a report of the
release of Mr. Parnell. It was believed that the Government had abandoned the policy of Coercion ; illuminations were ordered, and for some hours the excitement was extreme. It turned out, however, that Mr. Parnell wished to at- tend the funeral of his nephew, just dead in Paris, and had offered his parole for ten days. Mr. Forster accepted the offer, and the Irish leader started at once for Paris, rejecting all the demonstrations offered by his followers on the way. He declares his own treatment in prison very good, and says all the suspects object strongly to outrages,—a view which the Govern- ment would doubtless be happy to permit him to proclaim in a public letter. The request for a short release shows that Mr. Parnell no longer refuses to accept favours from a tyran- nical Administration, while the concession will do much to convince observers, especially abroad, of the extreme lenity of the British Government. No foreign Government would have granted such a favour to a leader of "insurrection," or allowed any communication with the external world.
