ventually saved Parnell and
his followers. But the last word on that has not yet been spoken.
Another pen than mine may, perchance before long, tell the whole truth
about that tragic episode, and explain what is still an unsolved riddle
in all dispassionate minds. Without challenging and exciting the
strongest racial prejudices, it will be impossible to lift the veil, and
I have no intention of affording even the slightest preliminary peep
behind the scenes of that dramatic affair. The wheels of God grind
slowly, and they ground exceeding small almost before the absurd
exultation of Nationalist relief over the Pigott episode had abated. It
is almost time to treat the whole affair from the historical point of
view, and then the idol of Home Rule will be pulverised. However, that
is another story in which I have no chapter to write.

My own share in the Parnell Commission was on November 29, 1888, on the
twenty-third day. I was examined by the Attorney-General, the present
Lord Chief Justice, and the most popular and most honourable of men. At
that very time, I have heard, he sang each Sunday in the surpliced choir
of a Kensington church, and I suppose he is the very best chairman of a
committee or of a public meeting of our own or any other time. A
Parnellite once said he had the unctuousness of a retired grocer, but
was contradicted by a more reverent English Radical, who said, 'No, he
has the unction of grace,' whereas, the truth is, he has the platform
manner with him always.

I told the Court I had been a Kerry magistrate for the previous
thirty-seven years, and, after deposing to the earlier state of my
property, I insisted that moonlighting and 'land-grabbing' were unknown
terms before 1880. My examination under the Attorney-General was, in
fact, too practical and useful to provide amusement for latter day
readers.

My cross-examination was begun by Sir Charles Russell, who led off with
a sneer about my being the most popular man in the county, and, when I
adhered to other statements, he added, 'Well, a very popular man. I will
not put you on too high a pinnacle.' (Laughter.) Then for an hour and a
half he plied me with the best balanced statistical questions I ever
heard put in a hostile spirit, and without a note I could answer every
one. After considerable hesitation I admitted on consideration that
there was in Kerry one farmer benefiting by the Act of 1870. I have
never heard since that he was caught and ex