120 special commission act, 1888 : respondents did not denounce the system of intimidation which led to crime and outrage, but persisted in it with knowledge of its effect.
VII.
We find that the respondents did defend persons charged with agrarian crime, and supported their families, but that it has Supra, p.
93.
n°t been proved that they subscribed to testimonials for, or
were intimately associated with, notorious criminals, or that they made payments to procure the escape of criminals from justice.
VIII.
We find, as to the allegation that the respondents made Supra, p.
95.
payments to compensate persons who had been injured in the com¬
mission of crime, that they did make such payments.
IX.
As to the allegation that the respondents invited the assistance and co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money Supra, p.
118.
from known advocates of crime and the use of dynamite, we find
that the respondents did invite the assistance and co-operation of and accepted subscriptions of money from Patrick Ford, a known advocate of crime and the use of dynamite, but that it has not been proved that the respondents or any of them knew that the Clan-na-Gael controlled the League or was collecting money for the Parliamentary Fund.
It has been proved that the respondents invited and obtained the assistance and co-operation of the Physical Force Party in America, including the Olan-na-Gael, and in order to obtain that assistance, abstained from repudiating or condemning the action of that party.
There remain three specific charges against Mr.
Parnell, namely:— (a.)
" That at the time of the Kilmainham negotiations Mr.
Parnell Supra, p.
56.
" knew that Sheridan and Boyton had been organising outrage, " and therefore wished to use them to put down outrage."
We find that this charge has not been proved.
(b.)
" That Mr.
Parnell was intimate with the leading Invincibles, " that he probably learned from them what they were about when Supra, p.
58.
" he was released on parole in April 1882, and that he recognised
" the Phoenix Park murders as their handiwork."
We find that there is no foundation for this charge.
We have Supra, p.
57.
already stated that the Invincibles were not a branch of the Land
League.
(c.)
" That Mr.
Parnell on 23rd January 1883 by an opportune " remittance enabled F.
Byrne to escape from justice to France."
Supra, p.
93.
We nna^ ^a* Mr.
Parnell did not make any remittance to enable
F.
Byrne to escape from justice.
The two special charges against Mr.
Davitt, viz: (a.)
" That he " was a member of the Fenian organisation, and convicted as such, " and that he assisted in the formation of the Land League with " money which had been contributed for the purpose of outrage " and crime ;" (6.)
" That he was in close and intimate association " with the party of violence in America, and was mainly instru-" mental in bringing about the alliance between that party and the " Parnellite and Home Rule Party in America; "
are based on passages in the " Times " leading articles of the 7th and 14th March 1887.
" The new movement was appropriately started by Fenians " out of Fenian funds; its 'father' is Michael Davitt, a convicted " Fenian."
" That Mr.
Parnell's 'constitutional organisation' was " planned by Fenian brains, founded on a Fenian loan, and reared " by Fenian hands."
We have shown in the course of the report that Mr.
Davitt was a member of the Fenian organisation, and convicted as such, and that he received money from a fund which had been contributed for the purpose of outrage and crime, viz.,
the Skirmishing Fund.
It was
