Mr. T. W. Russell made an excellent speech in the
Rotunda Lecture Hall, Liverpool, yesterday week, in answer to Mr. Parnell's remarkable fictions as to the tenants established on the Coolgreany estate in Wexford, Mr. Parnell's statements were that the tenants put in in the place of those evicted were not bond-fide tenants or real agriculturists; that these' new tenants had got the holdings at the rents offered by the evicted tenants ; that an old evtploye of Mr. Parnell's had received from himself (Mr. T. W. Russell) 21,000 to start him as an agriculturist on this estate ; that the new tenants had received presents of cattle ; and that the farms had been let on the con- dition that no rent should be paid for the first year. The whole of this tissue of statements was a tissue of error. All the tenants are bond-fide leaseholders, and have had experience as agriculturists, and have capital of their own. The total rent before the "Plan of Campaign" was £3,152; the evicted tenants -offered 22,207, the new tenants pay 22,786. Mr. Russell had never given to any one of these tenants either a thousand pounds or a thousand pence. The Derelict Land Trust lent Mr. Parnell's blacksmith £50 to be repaid in instal- ments with his rent. No tenant had received presents of cattle. No tenant had been excused the first year's rent. Such is the accuracy of Mr. Parnell or his informants ! They agitate on the hypothesis that by condensing a sufficient number of fictions, they can obtain a foundation in fact. But that is a dream. Even a as can be solidified, but a vacuum cannot be solidified.
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