Mr. T. Healy has been horsewhipped, not, however, on purely
political grounds. He has indulged since Mr. Parnell's death in abuse of Mrs. Parnell which that lady, however deeply erring in her relation to the Irish leader, has not deserved, and which would in any assemblage of gentlemen be strongly reprobated. This has excited strong personal as well as party hostility, and on November 3rd Mr. Macdermott, a nephew of Mrs. Parnell, sent a message to him in the Four Courts, Dublin, and on his appearance, seized him by the throat and began whipping him with a light whip. The accounts of the scuffle are hopelessly contradictory, but it seems certain that it continued for some time, that Mr. Healy was rescued by a policeman, and that he declines to prosecute, alleging that his opponent was drunk. He has since, according to the Times, used language even more gross about Mrs. Parnell, declaring that he will not submit to violence and intimidation. Assaults are always to be con- demned, but anywhere on the Continent Mr. Healy would have been challenged; and it is a real defect in our laws, now that duelling has been discontinued, that they contain so little provision for the punishment of insults. The Legislature seems fettered by the difficulty of discriminating between mere vituperation natural to ignorant and abusive persons, and insult with more serious intention. It should be added that while all this is happening, Mrs. Parnell is lying in Brighton, as the doctors believe, in extreme danger,--a fact well known in Dublin.
Previous page
