The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1888-09-15 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THF.RE are no men more honoured in Ireland than Mr Balfour's prisoners. It has been possible to say that for a very long time now Ilas regards the Irish people, but it is not less true now as respects the people of England. Proceedings like theme which took place at Watrford on Monday, when Mr Wm. O'Brien andsMr T. D. Sullivan were presented with the freedom of the city, and when representatives of English Associations offered congratulatory addresses, ought to encourage men like Mr Davitt to be patient. Mr Balfour is not winning although he is putting patriots in prison. It is the policy which made possible such meetings as those held in Waterford on Monday that represents the winning cause. A departure from it and a resort to violent measures would only hinder the triumphant march which during the past eighteen mouths has never received so much as a serious check, and it would only be playing into the hands of the oppressors. Plfr Balfour has ths power to he cruel for the present, but his little day will boon cease to be.  - • Mn M/C/TAEL DAVITT has published an outline of the evidence he intends to give when he appears before the Parnell Commission. There is little in the statement which is new to those who have read Mr Davitt's writings and speeches, but it is important as confirming the view which Liberal Ministers adopted after careful enquiry some years ago that Mr Parnell has had no complicity with crime. That which is proved is that Mr Parnell had deliberately set his face from the outset against violent measures being adopted, and that he incurred the displeasure of the dynamitards, and was in personal danger on account of his advocacy of a constitutional agitation. With re;;ard to the Pheenix Park murders, Mr Devitt states that he saw Mr Pal nell on the morning after the day of the terrible tragedy, and the member for Cork "told him that he had resolved upon sending in his resignation to his constituents in Cork that very day, and retiring for good out of Irish politics. He declared that no man could be safe where irresponsible men in a secret organisation organised deeds of that hind, and aimed deadly blows at a constitutional movement when on the threshold of victory. Mr Devitt succeeded in persuading Mr Parnell to reconsider the matter, and the same day a manifesto condemning the murder was sent to Ireland." Subsequently Mr Davitt had a serious difference with Mr Parnell owing to his refusal to sanction the resumption of the agrarian agitation in Ireland.  Os his own behalf Mr llitivitt has made some statements in proof of his assertion that he has always opposed resort to crime. In 1880 the 1.R.8. expelled him because he was working for the Land League and taking part in a constitutional agitation. O'Donovan PORN& never ceased to single out Davitt for denunciation, and Hossa'semissaris made the position hot for him even in Dublin. Early in 1880 four men visited his lodgings in Dublin with the intention of shooting him, and about the same time an oroinised band of Feniano broke up a meeting at which he was the principal speaker in the Rotunda, the leader of the gang being Jarnes Carey, who was afterwards connected with the Phoenix Park murders. Mr Davitt was arrested again on February 3, 1881, and he declares that during the interval between his enpulsion from the League and his reimprisonment he was constantly denouncing outrage and urging the people of Ireland to adopt legal methods. As late as 1886 Mr Davitt attended the Chicago Corn ention and firmly advocated, in face of unmistakable hostility, Mr l'arnell's pacific policy. One result was that O'Donovan liossit's faction, known as the Council of Dynamitards, met and passed sentence of death upon Mr Davitt, and the reason assirned for condemning him to be shot was that he had "denounced the advocacy of dynamite in Chicago."