On Tuesday, Mr. Chamberlain made a very masterly speech showing
that the large powers given to the Commission are absolutely necessary if the truth is to be discovered, and pointing out that in the Sheffield Commission, without these powers Broadhead's machinations would never have been traced. He hoped and believed that the inquiry would fully acquit Mr. Parnell of any responsibility for the letters, or for any complicity in crime; but he thought that the way to attain that result was to welcome the investigation, though he took for granted that the Judges would fix their attention chiefly on crime in the ordinary sense,—crime of the more heinous kind, and not in the sense of boycotting and intimidation. He advocated also giving power to the Commission to defray the expenses to which people might be put in proving their innocence.
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