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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 3

[miscellaneous paragraphs]

page 80

The following literary gem is from the Wellington Times: « His life had its fevers, but the Supreme anodyne has been administered, and he is now pluming for a higher flight. » Now, Jonathan! excel that, if you can!

Mr Deasy ought to be thoroughly ashamed of himself. The special commission has investigated his complaint, and it turns out that his letters were neither intercepted nor opened—not even by his prospective mother-in-law. There was not even half-a-truth in his assertion. Like his great leader, he made « a boastful and exaggerated statement, designed to mislead, » which according to our « religious » contemporary, the N. Z. Tablet, is « an artifice commonly employed, and admitted to be completely allowable. »

Some of our contemporaries speak of the action of the Town Council of Edinburgh in deciding (by a narrow majority) to present the freedom of the city to Mr Parnell as a compliment to that gentleman. It appears more like an insult to the citizens. Their votes were taken on the subject, and out of a roll of 43,000 only 3197—one-fourteenth of the whole—voted in favor of the proposal. About half of the citizens did not record their opinion, but nearly eighteen thousand took the trouble to record a formal protest. This is sufficient to account for the Lord Provost's refusal to participate; and the large majority of 14,611 who voted « No, » sufficiently proves that the action of the council is in direct opposition to the will of the citizens of the Scottish capital.

The Pall Mall Gazette sometimes stumbles upon extraordinary mare's nests. Its latest is about the Romanist Bishop Moran of this colony. « He has a substantial grievance to pour into the private ear of the Pope…..He is the only Irish bishop in the country, the other three prelates being English, with no very pronounced affection for Mr Parnell » ! Here is a « grievance » ! New Zealand is a British colony, and is no more concerned with Mr Parnell's movements, than with those of Boulanger or Emin Bey. But the richest part of the paragraph is the suggestion that in the appointment of the papal hierarchy in distant lands, the selection should be not on grounds of ability, orthodoxy, or general fitness, but on the strength of their « pronounced affection » for an Irish heretic! Bishop Moran is not such a Pius Innocent as to make a suggestion of this kind to Leo XIII.

Where are Sir Charles Russell's four hundred witnesses? Each one called since Mr Parnell's extraordinary confession has made the case for the league worse, and it is ten times blacker than even The Times ventured to represent it. So bad is it, that counsel have with one accord thrown it up in disgust. The pretext upon which they retired is too hollow to be accepted. The fact is, that it was more than their professional reputation was worth to be longer connected with men who openly acknowledged themselves to be associated with fenians and dynamiters, and gloried in the fact. Mr Parnell says no human tribunal can deal with the question. Ireland has had about enough of the inhuman tribunals of the league, which exist largely to manufacture « bogus » public opinion by means of intimidation and relentless coercion. If, however, Mr Parnell means that the inquiry should be carried before some superhuman court, he might indicate how it is to be done. Failing this, the human tribunal must do its best. Every one else has to accept justice as administered by fellow-mortals, and it is scarcely reasonable for Mr Parnell to ask for more. At all events, The Times is vindicated; and the ex-Attorney-General, in asserting that it was a party to a « foul conspiracy, » made a statement which he has been unable to support by a shadow of proof.