Mr. Biggar, M.P. for Cavan and Vice-President of the Irish
National League, died early on Wednesday morning of heart-disease, after telling for Mr. Parnell's amendment to the Address on Tuesday night. Mr. Biggar was a Fenian who declared that he had joined that body to wean them from the use of physical force. He was one of the most effective obstructionists in speaking against time, of the whole Irish Parliamentary Party, who say that he is entitled to "the grate- ful and affectionate memory of his countrymen." But Mr. Biggar was not one whom even Irishmen can idealise and commemorate as a patriot whose form should be immortalised, and whose achievements should be recounted by Irishmen to their children. Between a William Tell and a Joseph Biggar, the gulf is well nigh impassable even to Irish imagination.
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