NEWS OF THE WEEK • T HE cross-examination of Mr. Parnell
yesterday week before Sir James Hannen's Commission, elicited from him that in declaring in January, 1881, that secret societies had ceased -to exist in Ireland, though he had always attributed agrarian crime to the agency of secret societies, he was very probably intending to mislead, and to mislead deliberately, the House of Commons. On Tuesday he attempted an explanation of this confession of cynicism, assuring the Court that on re-reading the speech of January, 1881, he found that he was referring only to the strictly agrarian or Ribbon societies, and that, in his opinion, these Ribbon societies had at that time ceased to exist, though a good many Fenian societies, also secret, still remained. Hence, though he should have had no scruple in misleading the House of Commons in order to prevent its passing Mr. Forster's Habeas Corpus Suspension Bill, he did not think that he had actually done so. For the rest, the sensations of the week have been the brusque refusal of Sir Charles Russell to accept the ruling a the President of the Commission on Wednesday, for which Sir Charles Russell apologised on Thursday; and the examina- tion and cross-examination of Archbishop Walsh as to his reasons for approving the Land League and the National League, and his views on the subject of legitimate and illegi- timate boycotting. His Grace seems to have taken as much pains not to read United Ireland as Mr. Parnell himself.
