Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-26
THE PARNELL TRIAL.
Graphic Pictures Of Court Scenes.
sIR CHARLES RUSSELL, THE FAMOUS cnoss-Ex.
AMINER.

LONDON, March 49,
It seems an i'll time, now that Pigott 10 in a
suicides grave at Madrid, to be making
sketches Of him ss he appeared in the witness
box under cross-examination. 1t is either too
late or too soon. To forget him is impossible
Should he ever again becomes it is more
han possible he may-the topic of the hour,
those of us who were in court will see as
plainly as ever that heavy, flushed face turn
ing green beneath its red, the muscles tying
themselves into knots, the eyes injected and
turbid, the mouth relaxed, the chin as il dis
jointed; the whole unhappy person of this
strange base figure suffering physically some
OF the mental, or perhaps moral, torture which
Sir Charles Russell constrained him to endure.
The range of the cross-examination, all in
complete as it had to be left was not the least
astonishing thing about it. Sir Charles was by
turns cool and hot stern and playful, business
like and tragic, now addressing the witness in
his most colloquial tone, anon laundering at
him as If from the judgment seat, coaxlng him
one moment, menacing the next, first persuad-
ing, then perplexing, then landing his victim in
the palpable and visible center Of his laby-
rlnthlne maze of lies.
Sir Charles has attitudes of his own as he
cross-examines. The stiff uprightness and
strictly conventional demeanor of the attorney
general. strictly observed through all moods
and phases, is not for him. He stood erect for
one minute at the beginning he put his
famous request to Pigott to take piece of
paper, and pen and ink, and write down the
words, the fatal words, which he would give
him. But he is never erect for long. If he has
a choice of positions, it is with his right foot
on the bench-I do not mean the judicial
bench-his right elbow leaning either on the
knee or the shelf in front, the right hand
raised and holding his gold eyeglass toward
the witness. This might seem ungainly were
it not for the flowing robe of silk which en-
velops his figure and softens the irregularities it
assumes Robeless, he might seem wanting in
respectfulness to the judges in this freedom of
pose. But the robe redeems whatever needs
redeeming. Now and again he takes snuff and
the huge bandana he unfods at the finish of
this operation is like blood-red banner of
war. He drinks early in the morning large
tumbler OF some medical mixture for his
throat. This, too, is red, unlike Mr.. Glad
stones, which, whether in the house Of COM
mons or on the platform, is always yellow.
The gold eyeglass is in constant use, sometimes
for reading, more often a help to the per-
emptory gesture which is as characteristic of
him as anything.
One of Sir Charles arts is to make a witness
retell his story in such a way that the retelling
OF it shall bring out the absurd or incredible or
invented characteristics of it. He delights to
convict a witness out of his own mouth This
1T must be said, went to pieces completely when
first confronted with his own letters to Arch
bishop Walsh, which he believed had been re-
turned to him and by him destroyed. From
that first shock of guilty surprise he never re-
covered. That is one of many mysteries which
have never been cleared up, and now, sup
pose, never will be. Nothing could be more
adroit than the use Sir Charles made of the
letters. He put the first into Pigott's hands,
telling him to identify but not read it. As
hav~ ii IL
into it again further than to give one example
of the method, and that abrdge. The method
was simply to read to Pigott a sentence or part
of a sentence of Pigott's own letter, base
question on it, lead him to deny or affirm some
thing, and then read out the next sentence,
which directly contradicted that the witness
had just sworn to. Thus:
did you know before the publication of them
that grave charges were to be made against
Mr.. Parnell by the Times'"
NO"
You swear that?"
mo mistake about that?'
None"
SIS this your letter."
''Yes"
''The date?'
''March 4, 49,"
''Three days, is it not. before the first article
appeared2'
"Yes"
Then follows the reading of the first part of
the letter in which Pigott writes to Archbishop
Walsh that he knows that certain proceedings
are III preparation to destroy the Parnellite
party in parliament. Then another twist of the
rack.
What were these proceedings?"
81 do not recollect."
Turn to my lords and repeat that answer"
81 do not recollect"
mo"
Listen to this sentence from your own letter
to the archbishop: The proceedings referred
to consist in the publication of certain state
ments purporting to prove the completely of
MIR. Parnell himself and some of his supporters
with murders and outrages in Ireland"
And SO 1t went on sentence by sentence: each
contradiction OF Pigotts oath in the Witness
box coming from Pigott's written statement to
Archbishop Walsh. Such a method, the young
practitioner may say, is obvious when once YOU
have got your witness in the box and his letter
before you. Well, let the young prac titioner
having had his way made plain for him. try it
on the next occasion. 1t was, and il often is
the distinction of Sir Charles RUS ell so to make
use of a method both simple and familiar as to
derive from it the most brilliant results 1t was
by the variety and ever-changing ingenuity of
a continuing yet never the same procession of
questions that he extracted from Pigott at the
end. with the same unfailing certainty as at the
beginning, the self-same self-contradictions.
III you are in a position to watch Sir Charles
Hussells face during these contests, YOU will
perceive that he often wears mask; sometimes
two masks. He has not the one resource which
seems sufficient to the attorney general: the
one unyarying manner Of CHEEKY confidence:
phlegmatic self-confidence which Sir Richard
assumes as SO much armOr. Over mis- sensitive
face expression follows expression; not always
nor perhaps often, answering to the real mood
in which he approaches his witness. but REPRO
ducing to the eye of the individual in the box
the mood which he is desired to believe in for
the time being. AS sat on Sir Charles left, a
little behind him. l could see him turn every
now and then to his learned friend. Mr.. Lock
wood, or Mr.. Reid, or Mr. Asquith. The
left side of his face denoted what he wished
to convey to his colleagues. while the right
side. still III the witness view. continued to
impress upon his trustful nature the same
belief in the same mood as at first. The whole
countenance is curiously flexible. The emo
tons have "A more direct action than usual upon
the muscles. The eyes are both sympathetic
and searching, the mouth is flexible. the long
straight nose Is flexible; what Sir Charles
Russells nose is capable of expressing is past
description. Set i'll his barrister's wig as in a
frame. 1t looks out upon the world from large.
pale blue, inquiring eyes, like the portrait of
some great jurst OF the great days of the Eng
| lish bar. Take away the wig and bands strip
him OF his silk robe-a process to which he
would strongly object-array him in the ordi-
| nary costume of modern civilization. meet him
! in society, listen to the fluent and accurate
| talk, sometimes argumentative, always full.
| you will think him modern as ANYBODY, a
! man OF the world as well as of affairs rather
| too much usp1 To HAVING 81