MR. PARNELL AND "THE SPECTATOR."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] in,—Some time ago you made a statement about Mr. Parnell— to the effect that he had never rebuked the party of assassination —which I confuted, unanswerably, by chapter and verse. You did not admit my letter. I have taken in your paper for some thirty years, and have so strong a belief in its honesty, that though I knew I had not overstated the ease, and believed I had stated it moderately, I concluded that I must uninten- tionally have worded it in some offensive way. But since then I have carefully watched all you have said about Mr. Parnell, and it seems to me, if I may be forgiven for saying so, that your hatred of him, or fear of him, or a mixture of the two feelings, bas made you in his one case absolutely unconscious of what is just. In your last number you make the old insinuation, which comes to this. Mr. Parnell checks or harks on murderers and raoonlighters, as it suits its purpose. Now, I venture to say that you have not one shred of proof for any such charge. The Irish extremists have repeatedly denounced Mr. Parnell's policy. You are forced to admit in this very number that Mr. Parnell has "counselled moderation and patience," but when he went on to predict the result of the present Government's action, you carefully by your antithesis point your belief that he intends by his words to bring about the fulfilment of his prediction. Now, in the name of common-sense—not to speak of fairness—I ask you whether Mr. Parnell would act well or ill by Parliament if he suppressed his convictions on the subject. He of all men has the best means of judging the situation. He tells you how it will end, and you say the end is of his making. That is much the same as Ahab must have said when he sent back Micaiah to his Kilmainham. If you could but for an instant imagine that you may be wrong, and that Mr. Parnell may be, what I think him, the greatest leader the Irish party has ever had, and, if constancy were always in this world successful, predestined to win, you would be as fair to him as in nine cases out of ten you are to other people.—I am, Sir, dm,
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