16 JULY 1881, Page 2

Mr. Long offered a "personal explanation" on Monday of his

recent charge against Mr. Parnell, that the latter had raised the rents of his Wicklow estates 70 per cent. above Griffith's valuation. In the first place, the estates to which he had referred were not in Wicklow, but in the neighbouring county of Carlow ; and, in the next place, they did not belong to Mr. Parnell, but to his younger brother. Mr. Long's excuse was that the property referred to was for a few weeks nominally in Mr. Parnell's own name, and that Mr. Parnell had written a letter declaring himself the nominal owner. And this might have been sufficient justification for a temporary error, but it was hardly a justification for repeating in the House of Com- mons a blundering charge which Mr. Long had had several weeks, or even months, to investigate minutely, since it was first made, and for taking so long about finding out his error, even when he bad been positively contradicted by Mr. Parnell. We are not jealous for Mr. Parnell's political reputation in Ireland, but nothing adds more to such a reputation than blun- dering charges prematurely made against him, and then too tardily withdrawn.