n to the police and getting
paid for it. To my own personal knowledge David Murphy held an important
position in the advanced organisation, for I once brought a young friend
of mine, a printer, a sterling Irishman I had known from his early
boyhood in Liverpool, from Wexford, where he was at the time employed,
specially to introduce him to Murphy.

From the information given to the police by Pigott, it would soon be
found there was some leakage, which would, no doubt, be traced to the
"Irishman" office. It would, of course, be Pigott's cue to put the blame
on the shoulders of Murphy, hence probably his attempted assassination.

It was not unreasonable, then, in looking round for the actual forger of
the famous _fac simile_ letter, that I and others who knew him should
single out a man with such a bad record as Richard Pigott as the actual
criminal.

The collapse of the conspiracy against the Irish leaders, and the
suicide of the wretched Pigott on the 1st of March, 1889, are matters of
history.

For the complete way in which the conspiracy was smashed up great credit
was due to the distinguished Irish advocate, Sir Charles Russell. In his
early days I knew him well, and was often thrown into contact with him,
when he was a young barrister practising on the Northern circuit, and
making Liverpool his headquarters. He was a member of the Liverpool
Catholic Club when I was secretary of that body. The Club, before the
Home Rule organisation superseded it in Liverpool, generally supported
the Liberals in Parliamentary elections, but on one occasion there was,
from a Catholic point of view, a very undesirable Liberal candidate,
whom it was determined not to support. Pressure had, therefore, to be
put upon the Liberals to withdraw this man. They were obstinate, though
they had not the ghost of a chance without the Irish and Catholic vote,
which formed fully half the strength they could generally count upon. On
the other hand, _we_ could not carry the seat by our own unaided vote.
But, to show the Liberals that we would not have their man under any
circumstances, it was arranged that if he were willing we should put
Charles Russell forward as our candidate. As secretary it became my duty
to ask him to place himself in our hands. He agreed, on the
understanding that he was to be withdrawn if our action had the effect
of forcing the Liberals to get a candidate more acceptable to us. We
succeeded, and, of course, withdrew our m