Wichita eagle., 1888-07-24
ENGLISH PARLIAMENT.

| LONDON, July 23.-In the house of COM
mons today, Mr.. Smith moved the second
reading of the bill dealing with charges
and allegations against members of par
| lament He said that the government
offered the commission of inquiry upon
presidents. He considered that commits
sion with less authority than was pro-
posed would fail to do justice to all per-
sons concerned. The government would
not be doing justice to the accuser if it did
not give them the completest chance to
clear themselves. He had confidence in
the proposed tribunal. 1t rested with the
house to say how complete the powers of
the commission ought to be.
Sir James Harmon would be the presi-
dent and Justices Day and Smith would
be the other members of the commission.
Alr. Parnell said he was glad that Mr..
Smith admitted that it rested with the
house what the powers of the commission
ought to be. 1t seemed that Mr.. Smith
had friendly hint from the counsel for
the Times in consequence of which the in
quiry was to be extended not only into his
personal conduct but into the acts of the
league in America, Ireland and Great
Britain. 1t was evident that the case as
regards the forged letters was going to
break down. He demanded that the gov
eminent limit the scope of the commission
to what Mr.. Smith originally proposed,
namely the charges against himself and
the other Irish members. 1t would be
proved that each and every one of these
letters was a barefaced forgery. The allie
cations against the league could
not come before the commission as
affecting him. They were the most
cruel and infamous charges ever made
against public man. He did not suppose
that the Times would have given &c, 600
for these forgeries by an ex-commoner I'M
less they had been against public man.
He could demonstrate to conviction within
a week, the letters were fogeries He had
never seen Pat Ford in his life. AS for
the scope of the inquiry, it would be in
teminable unless the bill excluded vague
illusions to other persons and named
specifically the commoner's charged
Icbeersl Mr.. Parnell admitted that he
had communications with John Dewey:
but those communications were solely in
regard TO political matters and were open
to the fullest scrutiny. He had also
admitted making speech at
Ennis in favor of boycotting. He
believed boycotting did good then,
but he Gceased to advocate boycotting
after the passing of the arrears bill of 1SS2
it prevented them. To make the inquiry
judicial the government ought TO definite
'ly specify the charges and ought also to
provide for the scrutiny OF the documents
upon which the charges were based 1t
was of vital importance TO the Irish mem
bers to see these documents before the COM
mission began to sit.
Here there was an eNpectant pause dur
ing which calls were raised for the attorney
general. No member of the government
responding Mr.. Gladstone expressed
surprise that the government did
not answer Mr.. ParneIl. and de-
clared that there must be an an
swer. He would vote for the second read
ing of the bill, but the issues raised must
be considered at a later stage before the
commission was approved He was not
prepared 10 give that unqualified conf
dence in the commission which Mr.. Smith
appeared TO entertain. II WAS in the power
of the government TO make better seiec-
ton of commissioners, selection which
would have commanded warm acclama-
tons from everybody. The government
ought to make definite charges against
definite persons. There ought TO be no
skulking. The letters were really the only
new charges. Everything else had passed
the order of dissolution of 1856. [Cbeersl
The letters absolutely constituted the main
charges
Mr. Parneil demanded an opportunity
to examine them and must have il in
order TO face the accusations The gov
eminent doubtless had the right to de-