27 DECEMBER 1890, Page 2

The fierce contest in the County of Kilkenny has ended

in the return of Sir John Pope Hennessy over Mr. Vincent Scully by a majority of not very far short of two to one. Sir J. P. Hennessy, the candidate of the Bishops and priests, and of Michael Devitt, received 2,527 votes against only 1,365 given for Mr. Parnell's candidate; majority for the former, 1,162. Mr. Parnell, when the contest was over, is stated to have said that be hoped any bitterness of language shown in the con- test would now be forgotten, and that, on the whole, the election had been very tolerably free from bad feeling. Considering that he was supposed at one time to have been nearly blinded by the lime thrown in his eyes,—thongh, perhaps, the deliberate malignity of the motive was exaggerated, like the malignity of the language,—and considering that it is hardly possible to imagine stronger language than was used on Mr. Parnell's side in all the earlier part of the contest,—no doubt it grew cooler as the strength of the opposition grew more evident,— this attitude of Mr. Parnell's appears somewhat singular. Nothing could be more unlike the calmness and reticence of his House of Commons manner than the almost inarticulate fury of his onset in the Kilkenny struggle,—at least, so long as he hoped to win by raising a storm. But there is a good.. deal of calculated passion in these Irish encounters.