The letter written by the Treasurer of the Land League,
Mr. Patrick Egan, assailing those among the Land League who ventured to vote for the second reading of the Irish Land Bill, caused a very bitter little debate on Monday, which Mr. Egan himself, it is said, witnessed. Mr, O'Connor Power, Mr. M'Coan, and other members of the Land League were denounced in Mr. Egan's letter in very violent terms, but the main interest of the evening was found in trying and failing to obtain any opinion from Mr. Parnell on the letter of his friend Mr. Egan. Mr. Parnell did not venture to say that Mr. Egan was right, and still less did he venture to say that he was wrong. The former judgment would have dimin- ished Mr. Parnell's reputation for a cold and thin sort of prud-' once in Parliament, and. the latter would have undermined his influence among the Irish themselves. So he weighed. his words so elaborately that he could not utter them, and, like Sir Oracle, spoke as if, when he oiled his mouth, no dog should bark. Mr. Parnell, thus poised on his see-saw, is one of the most curious and colourless of all those dangerous agitatork with whom it has pleased Providence to scourge unhappy Ireland.
