Show Before the Parnell Commission LONDON May 29 Maurice Healy memo I her of oparliament was before the Par nell commission today and admit ted that the Cork branch of the league received applications from other branches for a list of the merchants mer-chants who were members of the lea e in order that other merchants might be boycotted boy-cotted Healy held it legitimate to place such pressure upon shopkeepers Joseph Biggar member of parliament testified that he had been a member of the supreme council of the Fenian brotherhood brother-hood but had been expelled ini for advocating ad-vocating constitutional action He joined the land cleague in 79 He declared that the meaning of the speech he made at Cork in the spring of S in which he referred to Anarchist Hartman as having imitators in Ireland had been misunderstood As a fact he only warned the supporters of the Whig irish candidates that the disgust of the peo pIe was likely to result in the use of dynamite wa lkel dY mite In a subsequent speech at Castle town he advised the people r take care that the land they occupied should be of no value to land grabbers He further said that it was no part of the leagues duty to recommend the shooting of landlords but that it was its duty to defend anybody charged with shooting the landlords or their agents He said that because no confidence con-fidence was placed in the administration of the law and he held that the league ought to defend prisoners whose crimes were the outcome of bad laws He and Patrick Egan were trustees of the funds of the league He could not associate either Egan or Sheridan Sher-idan with the outrages Biggar said that he contributed nothing r the Fenian funds His object in joining the brotherhood was to obtain its assistance assist-ance in parliamentary elections Sir Henry James for the Time cross examined Biggar The witness Said he never took part in the work of the leagues treasurer ne never drew a check or saw a bank book He was naturally indolent and left the work to others He did not know where the record of the money dealings of the league were kept nor did he even know why he had been associated with Egan a treasurer Just before the suppression of the land league most of the books were removed Thirtytwo books had been handed to Soames solicitor for the Times Presiding Justice Hannen remarked that this was the first time that he had heard about these books Sir Henry James said It was a mistake and that there were no such books in Soames possession Biggar said that all the important books of the league had been removed to England They were very bulky Ho did not know that any of the books had been destroyed He ha not the slightest notion of what became of the missing documents |