As the result of my expedition, we obtained some unimportant documents, though nothing that related to Parnell; but the picture of the state of politics in New York, dominated by a clique of conspirators and murderers, in possession of the police of the city, and the telegraph service, sitting as a Vehmgericht in the principal city of the Union, and paralyzing the criminal law whenever its security was threatened, was worth some trouble and expense.  Of its truthfulness there remained no question.  I did not depend on one source of information in my researches, but, having had a confidential letter to the English consul in New York, I applied to him for help simultaneously with my dispatch of the detective, and he ultimately confirmed the report of the detective in every respect, but cautioned me on my first visit against coming to the consulate again, as the surveillance of the Fenians was constant, and if my business with him were suspected it might lead to needless complications, so that I was obliged, in order to consult him, to meet him at some prearranged place, a restaurant by choice, where we could exchange information without attracting the attention of the Fenian spies.

Though the chief object of my mission was not attained, the information I did gather was considered of such importance that on my return to Rome the “Times,” “for the good service rendered,” added to my salary the rent of my quarters, the only advance in my pay ever made from the beginning of my service.  I remained in charge of the two peninsulas, Greece and Italy, as long as Mr. MacDonald lived.  He died in 1889, and though I have never had any ground for discontent at the relation I was in with the office, under either his successor or the change of proprietorship which took place not long after, I felt when MacDonald died that the strongest personal tie which bound me to the paper was severed.  When I joined the staff Delane was the editor, and though, on account of his health, he rarely interfered in the details of the management, and my relations were entirely with the sub-editor, Mr. Stebbing, whose real and hearty friendship was matter of great personal satisfaction to me then and since, we always felt that Delane was over us.  When Chenery succeeded, the relation became one of cordial friendship with the chief, who was a scholar as well as a journalist, of whose sympathy for a good piece of work one was sure.  His death and the accession of Mr. Buckle in no manner changed my situation at the office, but it was another editorial change, while with MacDonald not only had I the relation of a subordinate with a friendly chief, in constant correspondence on every point of duty from the beginning of my service, but there were many and strong ties between us in outside sympathies, and he was as kind to me as an elder brother.  He was most unjustly credited with the Pigott fiasco, but, as I have shown, the evidence of the genuineness of the letter which Pigott