Mr. Forster deserves great credit for his answer to Lord
'Randolph Churchill's question, on Thursday night, as to Mr. Davitt. Mr. Davitt is a released Fenian, out on ticket-of-leave, and a very able organiser, and. Lord R, Churchill, referring to two speeches, in one of which Mr. Davitt had said that if the Branch Land-League meetings were declared illegal, it would be uecess sary to hold them in defiance of the law ; and in the other, had recommended the two accused Land-leaguers at Tralee for election by the county of Kerry at the next vacancy, asked whether the ticket-of-leave would. not be cancelled. Mr. Forster replied that tickets-of-leave were granted on certain conditions, and that while these conditions were observed, it would be " contrary to all precedent " to cancel them. So far as was known, the conditions of Mr. Davitt's ticket-of-leave had been hitherto observed. The Government bad no evidence of the first speech attributed to Mr. Davitt, and the second was certainly not legally seditious. Considering that Mr. Davitt is probably of as much use to the Land League as a hundred ordinary members of that association, this honourable adhesion to the conditions on which Mr. Davitt was released is creditable to the Govern- ment. They have a hard battle to fight, but nothing will induce them to hit below the line.
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