The split in the Anti-Parnellite party appears to be widening.
In the Times of this day week there was pub- lished a very acrid letter from Mr. Healy to Mr. O'Brien, asking him for proof of the innuendo that he (Mr. Healy) had been conspiring with Mr. Chance to bring about the action for costs which was to end in driving Mr. O'Brien from Par- liament, and offering to submit the matter to an impartial tribunal, of which one member should be named by Mr. O'Brien, a second by Mr. Healy, with an umpire chosen by the two, on condition that if the decision were in favour of Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Healy should forfeit any sum not exceeding £250, or if in favour of Mr. Healy, Mr. O'Brien should forfeit a like sum ; and Mr. Healy concludes thus :—" Instead of taking up this challenge, you will doubtless try to ride off on the untamable squadrons of your eloquent irrelevancies. The chimaeras which haunt the luxuriant jangles of certain imaginations, may sometimes, indeed, become very grisly realities to the minds affected ; but you must allow me in the present case to decline the task of exorcism, except by the methods of definite public and punitive exposure." Mr. Healy as the exorcist of Mr. O'Brien's " familiar spirit," though referring the threat of a pecuniary fine to bell, book, and candle, is a fine ecclesiastical conception.
Previous page
