Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-15
What Shall be Done With the Irish
 Fund in Paris of sI77,5O0a

What Shall be Done With the Irish
 Fund in Paris of sI71,5O0a
 Harold Frederic's Cable to the New York
 Times.l
 Of the s177, 800 which the Messrs. Mon roe admit holding in their bank vaults to the credit of Messrs. Parnell, Biggar and McCarthy as trustees, nearly every cent came from the pockets of men and women of Irish blood in America. It has seemed of first importance to find out all about this big sum of money and tell them how the question of it's use now stands. It will be interesting news to them, to begin with, that Mrs. Parnell, from her home in Brighton, has instructed Kinnersley Hall, an English lawyer in Paris, who is also counsel to the British embassy, to claim the whole amount as her private property. Such acclaim has been formally made in her name. This crowning piece of impu- dence put fitting climax to the cruel and calamitous part which Kitty O'Shea has played in the tragic drama of Irish poli- tics.
 The Nationalist party is represented by Mir Mccarthy, who has also lodged a claim to the money, and has brought friendly suit against the Monroes for its recovery. The first question is, Does English law 3D. ply to the goods of English subjects in Francel If this is decided aairmatively, MT. Mccarthy, as the surviving trustee. would come into contI ol of the whole sum. Ii it is decided that French law governs, then Mrs. ParneIl would have to prove that the fund was private property, in which case Mir. Mccarthy and MT. Biegar's executors and she would get a third each; but 1t IS admittedly not private property. The question then is, Who is the proprie- tori This, it is to be feared, will take the French courts not less than two years to answer.
 The chief difficulty is that since the French revolution French law has not rec ognized trusts. The nearest correspond ing legal idea is the law of mandat ct man dataire, but the application of this in wolves mandate from the original giver. This is not possible because the original giver was a body of many thousands of people scattered all over the globe It is known that MT. Paanell made an exhaus- tive study of these peculiar conditions & long time ago. The terms of the trustee ship were that the money could only be drawn by two of the three trustees, of which two NIT. Parnell shonld always be one. After MT. Biggar's death MT. ParneIl doggsdly refused to allow the party to ap- point trustee in his dead mates place The party continually urged him to assist in or anyway to permit a regularization of the state of affairs at the Monroes' He would never consent
 The fund is all in American railway bonds, with one possible exception. These seem excellent securities. They, however, are all payable to bearer, and in the sb- | nE ! ble condition for the fund to be in could be easily imagined Parties to the patriot suit, however, entertain no misgivings as to the safety of the fund, or the ultimate | success of their efforts to reclaim it for | the relief of evicted tenants In the re- mote contingency of failure in the French | courts, it will be open to them to bring S | friendly suit against the Monroes in New York or Boston, where they have branch houses.
 This statement of existing facts ought | to make it clear that any further sympathy | with Mrs. Parnell from the Irish people | will be grossly and grotssquely misapplied | She never in her life uttered word to show that she had the slightest kindly feel | ing toward the Irish people or the Irish cause. Evidences of a contrary sentiment | are scattered through her letters and re | corded remarks. She now sees no one but young Harrison, a festher-brAined British | young man, whom Mr. Parnell fuisted on the party a couple of years ago, and through him she consents to do all in her power to embsrrass and damage the Irish | patriot party. Her action in the matter of the fund is purely of this spiteful charsc- ter. She is an enormously wealthy wo- man, who keeps some thousands of evict- | ed tenants on short commons during the coming winter, not because she needs the money herself, but in order to do as much harm as she can to the Irish cause
 Meanwhile it is clear that e dissolution and general election must come and go
 before any part of this fund can be libera' ted. This will put an abnormal strain upon the patriot organization. What lit
 tie money they get has to go promptly to | keep the tenants alive whom the old league pledged to support, and whom the
 Psrnellites now brutally tell to make terms
 with their landlords. They will have next
 to no resources whatever with which tc
 meet the coming election expenses. What
 makes this outlook the more bitter is ths
 fact that the Tories are gladly putting uI
 money for the Parnellite campaign ex
 penses. Surely under these conditions th,
 American Irish will have a good deal tc
 answer for if they continue to refuse fnan
 cial aid to the patriot party