The Home Secretary repudiated most heartily Mr. Parnell's charge that
the Attorney-General had linked his party and the Government with the Times' accusations. The Attorney- General had sedulously kept within the bounds assigned to him by his part as counsel for the Times, and had in no way mixed up the Government with his duty to the Times. But the Government could not possibly limit the investigation to Members of Parliament. The charges brought had affected many others besides Members of Parliament, and the Govern- ment had proposed a Commission because the great scope given to those charges by the recent trial and the Lord Chief Justice's charge rendered it right to take steps for setting the public mind at ease on the subject; and the proper thing to do was to initiate an investigation which would discover the truth, not merely as affecting Members of Parliament, but as affecting other persons, like Mr. Devitt, Mr. Egan, and Mr. Byrne, and the members of the Clan-na-Gael. The Land League, as a Land League, was even more closely concerned in this investigation than its individuals members.
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