MICHAEL DAVITT IN A SHADY CORNER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 340, 20 August 1889, Page 2

MICHAEL DAVITT IN A SHADY CORNER.

[▼U ALBANY.] . London, July 25. o The , P" no, P»l witnese before the Timeerarnell Commission thia week was Michael Davitt, in the course of whose cross exammination several dramatic inoidente occurred. The examination in-chief disclosed nothing new in connection with Davltt's career, but in the early part of tha oroM-ex amination much interest waa excited by Sir Henry James confronting him with a letter that waa produced st his trial for treasonfelony 20 years ago. The letter began Dfiar friend, ’ and wept on apparently to suggest that a certain aumiaation should take plaoe, but that the aesasein should not proceed in the matter until certain permission from superiors hsd been obtained. Thewordt ‘‘Jf you get Jem and Fita’e consent let it be done by all means.” Thia letter was found twenty years ago in the posset, sion of a young man named Forrester. It was produced agaiaat Davitt at hie trial. No explanation wm given at the trial, but' now Sir Henry James pressed Davitt for the name of the man to whom he had addressed the letter. This Davitt refused to give, despite the President’s urging, and ssid “ I have been tried for this Tetter; it wae a stupidly criminal letter, I admit. I have suffered seven years' penal servitude for it. Am Ito be tried for it again 7” Tho Attorney General pressed for an answer, and finally Davitt gave the following explanation of the matter, suppressing all names:—A young officer in the Fenian body took a personal dislike to a brother Fenian and determined to kill him, and Davitt was consulted in the matter. The letter he wrote in answer was a sort of blind, which, while apparently sanctioning the intended murder, was really written to gain time to let the matter cool down, hsnoe the reference to obtaining the pre’lminary sane, tion of the chiefs called Jem and Fits. Davitt swore that he wrote secretly to these two men. both of whom he believed to be < now alive in America, asking them to forbid 1 the intended crime, and that his intention In writing the letter, which ha again oalled criminal, wae to delay and ultimately pre. vent the murder. “If that liter had anything to do with the aMaailuatlan,” he exolained, “I would deserve penal servitude for life.” Nevertheless he would not even give up the names of Jem and Fitz, unless they released him from his obligations, When the point again Cams up as to the name of ths man to whom hs wrote the letter, he exclaimed, “ I appeal from this box where I stand to America to that chief to give the name to their Lordships, and again I appeal to that min to take from my life the stigma I have borne'Jor twenty years,” In answer to the President, Davitt admitted that hie explanation of the criminal doou* ment was not put forward on his trial la answer to further questions, Davitt boldly declared for complete independence, saying that he made the land question and ths movement to exterminate and drive out tbs landlords a stepping stone to this and. Mr Parnell was not for the complete separation of the two countries. “I am," said Davitt, Then, very firmly pressed, Davitt further repeated that he was one of the prlucipaU who were in favor of a general separation, but he would to-morrow, If Mr Parnell’s policy were successful, give his loyal support to It, and the idea of separation, ha believed, might ultimately die out. Davitt admitted that he was on close terms of intimacy with men like Dr Carroll, of Philadelphia, who was a trustee of the Skirmishing Fund, the object of which was to do damage to England whenever possible, and level its greatest cities.