The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-03-02
PigOtt.

How a great metropolitan news
paper, with its recognized prestige of
generations, its wealth and its wisdom,
its patronage and its power, can be en-
trapped into public blunder no better
if not worse than a crime, is very we'll
illustrated by the collapse of the Parnell
commission and the pitiable hole into
which the pestiferous Pigott has hurled
the London Times. In England this
journal has been for long years popu
larly known as the Thunderer. Its nm
questioned integrity has been the secret
of its power. 1t has reposed serenely in
the past upon the dignity of Its honesty
aud the loftiness of its responsibility.
1t was, of course, intensely English and
was the recognized and trusted head OF
British journalism. But in an unfortu-
nate moment it published series of
savage articles entitled ''Parnelism and
crime" the purpose of which was to
connect the great Irish leaders with the
deplorable crimes OF base men who
were the Jealous but misguided friends
of Irish home rule. These articles led
to the organization of the special Par
nell commission in the English Parlia-
ment, which clothed with plenary
powers, through agents of the govern
ment, produced before it the worst
types OF tricksters, and perjurers to estab-
lish Mr.. Parnell's guilty completely in
the authorship of the so-called Parnell
letters, the evidence to establish the
genuineness of which the Times made
the corner stone OF the prosecution of
Mr.. Parnell and his Parliamentary asso-
ciates. These letters purporting to have
been written by the Irish leaders were
intended to show that the League,
with which they were identified, was a
combination of criminals and not a
league of patriots. That Parnell and
his heroic associates were assassins and
dynamiters. But the structure of guilt,
which the Times has reared, has been
shattered to Its foundation by Pigott's
confession that he himself forged all
the letters secured by the Times, and
which purported to have been written
by Parnell, Egan, Davitt and O'Kelly,
and that he had been guilty of perjury
in his evidence given before the COM
mission. The testimony on which the |
of the letters was supposed |
to rest, has been completely discredited |
and the position of the English govern
ment is scarcely less humliating than
that OF the Times is pitiable, the one
being as deep in the mud as the other
in the mire of public disgrace. A
leading daily commenting on this la
outcome of the commission
truly says that it would puzzle the best
read expert in the literature of "false
witness" from the time OF Annanias |
down, to furnish in all respects parallel
to Pigott, and to the faulty of putting
him on the stand as the principal prop
and pillar of the Government case IN
proof of the Parnell and Egan letters.
We have not been without instances of
operators OF the Pigott brand in our
own country and times. Fabricators
Of documentary evidence and utterers
Of perjury can still be had tor so much
cash paid down, but the dickerine with
such wretches is confined in the man
10 the lowest classes of politicians or
'shyster lawyers, and the putting of
hem in the witness box is almost ex-
in support of the lowest grade
Of scandalous or "blackmailing" cases.
No such thing, however, Is known in
his country as any one connected re-
'ponsibly with the Government of the
United States, or with prosecuting the
pleas of a State, being complicated with
vretches of that kind. The States Of
icers make use of trained detectives
n its own service, and OF spies, lnfor-
ners and criminals, too, when the in
ormation Of these last can be corrobo-
ated by honest and credible witnesses
but with fabricators of evidence and
of false testimony-never.
Nor do we believe that an instance can
,e found of even a third-rate honest
awyer being fooled, as Attorney Cen
raj Webster and Solicitor Soames were
~ such "yarn" as this evidence" of
oigott's. If an American prosecuting
officer should get trIcked or trapped by
UGH witness, the prosecuting officer
would go swiftly into court, and on his
,wn motion denounce him and insti-
ute effective measures 10 punish him.