At the close of the evening came a desperately furious
attack by Mr. Parnell on Mr. Chamberlain for betraying the secrets of his colleagues in the Cabinet to Mr. Parnell and his friends. In the middle of this attack, the debate stood ad- journed by the arrival of midnight, and before the Speaker took the chair, Mr. T. P. O'Connor alluded in a loud voice to Mr. Chamberlain as " Judas Chamberlain," for which he was called to order by the Speaker. He at once withdrew and apologised for the expression. On Tuesday night, the duel between Mr. Parnell and Mr. Chamberlain was continued, Mr. Chamberlain utterly denying that he had ever concealed from the Liberal Cabinet to which he belonged any of his com- munications with Mr. Parnell, and Mr. Gladstone partially con- firming bim in relation to some of the supposed back-stairs negotiations, though plea'g that as regarded others of them he could not trust his memory. Mr. Parnell appeared to rely chiefly on Mr. Chamberlain's communications to him as to his own personal hostility and resistance in the Cabinet to the renewal of the Crimes Act in 1885, which Mr. Parnell declared to be treacherous to Mr. Chamberlain's colleagues, the proof being, he said, documents in his own hands in Mr. Chamber- lain's handwriting, and not forgeries. Mr. Chamberlain replied that he had made no such communications without the know- ledge of those of his colleagues who took an interest in Irish affairs The whole incident was evidently deliberately intended to divert discussion and suspicion into a new channel, and we are surprised that so admirable a Chairman as Mr. Courtney should have permitted this diversion to take place at all. It was a red-herring drawn across the track of the scent, and the fury seems to have been decidedly melodramatic.
