Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1888-07-07 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

LATEST NEWS<  " EIRAPALD " OWICR, FRIDAY, 6 P.IL  " PARNELLISM AND CRIME."  THE " TIMES " LIBEL CASE.  IMPORTANT STATEMENT BY MR PARNELL.  Mr Parnell rose in the House of Commons at half-paid two this aftet noon to make the promised statement with reference to the evidence given in the libel action of O'Donnell v. the Neu. He said it behoved him to give a full and prompt contradiction to the charges contained in the series of letters that were read in Court during the trial of the CAM% Be bad attended i Court a portion of the two days in the expectation that he would have been called as a witness, and have been able to answer upon oath the charged made. (Irish cheers.) The unexpected tarn that the Mile 100 k deprived him of the opportunity, and he, therefore, took this, the first, opportunity of making a statement on the subject. The first letter wee one signed by Mr Patrick Egan, and stated that he (Mr Parnell) was agreeable to a further advance for the "A fund." In regard to the letter he had not seen it, bat be is convinced that it was • forgery, and if the Gale bad gone on it would have been proved that it was a forgery. He had no knowledge of the line of defence which would have been adopted, but he believed that Mr O'Leary would have gone into the box and denied the allegation against him if he had been enabled to do so. With regard to the letter purporting to be from Egan to Carey, and which was said to have been found in Carers house in Dublin, Mr Parnell, with much stress on the phrase . pointed out that it was found by the police, the allusion being received with cheers from the Irish members, and be mentioned also that Mr Egan had telegraphed denying the accuracy of the communication. Mr Parnell next spoke of the letter mid to be in the handwriting of Mr Campbell, his secretary, and denounced it as a forgery. He never saw it or directed it to be written, and knew nothing of it still. Another letter in regard to the policy of the denunciation of the Phcenix Park murders in which Mr Parndl was supposed to have admitted knowledge of the assassination was read by the hon. gentleman to the House. This letter, it will be remembered, was published in the Times last year, and was repudiated by Mr Parndl at the moment, and this afternoon he again, in unmeasured termer; held it up am a forgery. The signature to this document, he pointed out, was one that he discarded a considerable time before the date of the letter, and this was, he thought, a very significant fact. As to the other letters read in Court by the Attorney-General, Mr Parnell gave them a general denial. He dealt particularly with Mr Byrne's letter dated " Cannes," and suggested that it might be a genuine one. However he denied ever having. given Byrne a cheque for £lOO, as was stated in that communication. The person who did give• him that cheque was Mr Justin McCarthy, who passed it to him in theordimary course of business.' The great majority of the letters were palpable forgeries, bearing their condemnation on their face, and could they believe that he (Mr Parnell) would voluntarily pat himself within the power of men who had the halter around their necks, and through whom he might be betrayed at any moment? The absurdity of the whole series of letters must be palpable to any fairminded man. Sc ending his speech, Mr Parnell sat down amid load cheers from his followers.  Parnell  Mr Justin McCarthy then rose and explained the circumstances under which he handed to Mr Byrne a check for £lOO in return for a pile of small notes and orders. All that happened was that Mr Byrne asked him for his own cheque so as to relieve him of the small money, and he authorised his son to do him that favour without an idea of the sinister motive. It was out of this small incident that the supposed mystery had been worked up. This ended the incident, which had intensely interested the House, which towards its close was densely crowded. A number of Peers were in the gallery, amongst them being Earl Spencer.