The Parnell Commission have had Mr. Soames, Mr. Houston, and
Mr. Pigott before them this week, and the evidence has been in a high degree exciting, and even sensa- tional. It has reached at last the question of the Parnell and Egan letters, all of which were procured by Mr. Pigott, one of the old Nationalists who have never liked Mr. Parnelrs rule. Mr. Houston obtained the letters from Mr. Pigott, and Mr. Soames obtained them for the Times from Mr. Houston, and Mr. Pigott has made a statutory declaration that he was offered £1,000. by Mr. Labouchere to go into the witness-box and declare that he himself forged the letters. So far as we know at present, the whole key of the case as regards the letters is Mr. Pigott, and he states that he obtained them at Paris through Mr. Eugene Davis, a Fenian, who was known as a writer under the name of Owen Rowe. According to the statement of Mr. Eugene Davis, the Fenian Society, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and the Land League were all virtually acting in close alliance in 1882, and Mr. Parnell was consulted about grants of money from the Land League to the outrage-mongers. Mr. Eugene Davis is subpcenaed, and no doubt his evidence will be more closely scrutinised than even Mr. Pigott's. At present it would seem that the Times had not been very careful in sifting the origin of the compro- mising documents before accepting their authenticity ; but as to that authenticity itself, opinion is greatly divided. Mr. Pigott had been making offers to archbishop Walsh in the interests of the Parnellites almost at the same time at which he was making offers to Mr. Houston in the interests of the anti-Parnellites, and of course this greatly discredits his evidence.
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