, 1889-04-03

A|"NO""y anu asking Shannon to send
"n1' ne nad Promised came from Pigott.
Wy rea.ilng OF The case il this: certain
persons did not lend Houston 1.-THE son
OF "a warder IN the MarAhalsea prison in
Duhlln, and lately employed OH the Dub.
H~ Express at 3Os per week. money,
hut advanced him money to end4ayoHr
to get b I'D of documents comDromiSiun
TO Mr. Parnell aud his friends. Houston
(whcther with their knowledge or with.
our then entered into communication with
PIg"tt, and sent him on a rowing com
mission to procure such documents
Knowing, as Houston must have known
What sort OF Il man Pigott WAS, this was,
a positive premium on forgery. Pigo't
dld ''procure" them. Houston then took
them to Lord Harrington, who would
maze nothing to do with them, and sub-
Srqu"ntly OF red Them 10 the elitor of
the Pal Mall Gazette for 4I.OOl, who
declinel to buy them. Then he went tn
Oh" Times, aud received 81, 100 for them.
how much OF this remained in his pOck.
eF does not appear, except that h. said
III his evidences thar he retained E2OO
for his personal expenses.
Mr., Macdonald was told bv Houston
(after the purchaSe) that the letters had
been obtained through PigOtt, but the
secret seems to have been kept from Mr..
SoameS. and more letters were bought
from PIgott. Eventually Mr.. Soanes was
told. Ii Is pretty clear that the Times
ihtellded to pursue the same tactics in
regard 10 :he Commission as had been
adopted in the ODonnrll case. Mr.. Mac.
donald would have said that he declined
I" give up any names, and the genuine
ness of the letters would have been sought
to be proved by expert evidence alone.
Wh n Houston had been %Subp@naed by
Mr. Lewis, this became impossible NO far
~ Houston was CONCERNED. When sub.
srqnently Pigott was SubpBuaed, and
II became known to Mr.. S0ames that I
had opened communications with the man.
1t also became impossible in regard to
PIgott. But PigOtt had % specific d ON.
lSe that his name would not be reveal.
ed. Mt. SOameS in u letter read in court,
alleged PIg"tts communication with M
m " ground for violating this pledge.
PI@Ott asked for $1,000 az a condition
for allowing it to be revealed. This was
refused. Then Pigo't wrote, on Nov. 7.
TO say that he was absolutely certain that
his evidence would break down in erOSs.ex.
animation, aLd again, on Nov. II. to SAY
that he was bound to warn him that his
testimony would be cArIain to he SO sen.
slbIy weakened in crOSS-examinatiOn ~
seriously t. injure instead of serving the
case. He cOuld hardly more clearly have
stated that his evidence in chief would
not be true. But Mr.. SoAmes would not
be warned. He paid no attention to this
letter, he made no inquiries. and fnallv
1t was decided that Pigott should be
called to swear his story about the let
tiers, whilst he received q promise
that he should not be ruined by his evil
deuce, or, in other words, that he should
be provided tor. So much for SOames.
But ain curiOnS to know whether these
letters from Pigott were shown to the
Attorney General. Ifthey were, Sir Rich.
ard Webster ought not to. have called
Plgott If they were nor, he ought to
throw up the case, for u solicitor was
bound to submit such letters to counsel
employed in the case.
Pig0tt has now killed himself. His de.
termination to destroy himself must have
been a sudden impulse, for he clearly won't
to Spain to live, not 10 die. am SORRY
for the poor hunted aud fnrl0rn creature.
| think that his confession 70 me was
the pain, unvarnished truth. Ny in
dlgnati0n is reserved for H0uS,On aud
SOames. The former engaged him to pro.
vide the Loyal and Pats lotto League with
documents with which to stab the repute
OF political opponents, and exercised no
sort of investigation before buying what
the man asserted hal been procured the