Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-24
Commission of Inquiry.
MT. Parnell Insists That Its
 Scope Is Limited.
WILLING TO STAND THE BRUNT.

His Own Conduct aud That Of His Imme-
 diats Followers Is All That the Com
 mission Should Have to Deal With.
 He Talks the House to a StandstIll.
 LONDON, July 24-In the house of com mons MT. Smith moved the second reading of the bill dealing with charges and allega- tions against members of parliament. He said that the government offered the com mission of inquiry upon precedents He con sidered that commission with less authority than was proposed would fail to do justice to all persons concerned The government would not be doing justice to the accused if it did not give them the completest chance to clear themselves He Lad confidence in the proposed tribunal It rested with the house to say how complete the powers of the com mission ought to be. Sir James Hannen would be the president and Justices Day and Smith would be the other members of the commission.
 Mir. Parnell said that he was glad that Mir. Smith admitted that it rested with the house what the powers of the commission ought to be. It seemed that Mir. Smith had friendly hint from the counsel for The Times, in con- sequence of which the inquiry was to be ex- tended, not only into his personal conduct, but into the acts of the league in America, 1TeaaQu and SrSaC bTlUSiln. It was SVlQenC that the case as regards the forged letters was going to break down. He demanded that the government limit the scope of the commission to what MT. Smith originally proposed, namely, the charges against him. self and the other Irish members It would be proved that each and every one of those let ters was bare faced forgery. The allegations against the league could not come before the commission as affecting him. They were the most cruel and infamous charges ever made against a public man. He did not sup pose that The Times would give e1 900 for these forgeries by an ex-member of parlia- ment unless they had been against public man. He could demonstrate to conviction within a week that the letters were forgeries He had never seen Pat Ford in his life As for the scope of the inquiry, it would be in- terminable unless the bill excluded vague allusion to other persons and named specif- cally the commoners charged. Mr. Parnell admitted that he had had communications with John Devoy, but those communications were solely ill regard to political matters and were open to the fullest scrutiny. He also admitted making speech at Ennis in favor of boycotting. He believed boycotting did good then, but he ceased to advocate boy cotting after the passing of the arrears bill of 1882. So far from his action promoting
 
 inquiry judicial the government ought to definitely specify the charges, and ought also to provide for scrutiny of the documents upon which the charges were based. It was of vital importance to the Irish members to see these documents before the commission began to sit
 Here there was an expectant pause, during which calls were raised for the attorney gen. eral No member of the government re- spending, MT. Gladstone expressed surprise that the government did not answer Mr. Parnell, and declared that there must be ar answer. He would vote for the second read ing of the bill but the issues raised must be considered at a later stage, before the com mission was approved He was not prepared to give that unqualified confidence in tht commission which Mir. Smith appeared to en certain. It was in the power of the govern
 nent to make a better selection of commis sioners, selection which would have com manded warm exclamation from everybody The government ought to make definit charges against definite persons. Ther, ought to be no skulking.