Mr. Davitt,—who seems to us to represent much more truly
the genuinely patriotic feeling amongst the Irish Party than either Mr. Parnell or Mr. Dillon or Mr. O'Brien,—has made a long communication to an interviewer deputed by the _New York Sun, which has been re-telegraphed to England from New York. He thinks that if Mr. Parnell does not retire, Home-rule will be postponed for at least twelve years; and he is in despair at the prospect of Mr. Parnell's holding his place, though he believes that before Monday the opinion of the Irish people will make itself felt in a way that will compel Mr. Parnell to retire. He tells us that Mr. Parnell assured
him personally that he should come out from the Divorce Court without a stain on his reputation, and that this state- ment completely deceived Mr. Davitt, and through him the Irish Episcopate,—who seem, by-the-way, as indifferent to Mr. Parnell's adultery as they were to his support of the policy of boycotting. Mr. Davitt, however, indulges the most earnest hope that Ireland will follow Mr. Gladstone's lead, and throw over Mr. Parnell. We doubt; but if she does, it will certainly be not from disgust for Mr. Parnell, but from the desire to secure the help of Mr. Gladstone. That is hardly a very strong position to take up,—to visit with dismissal from his leadership a man whom Ireland wished to keep so long as she only knew of him what the divorce suit brought out, but whom she now dismisses for the more serious sin of displeasing the English leader.
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