BOUCICAULT AND THE FENIAN PEISONERS.

Evening Post, Volume XIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1876, Page 4 (Supplement)

BOUCICAULT AND THE FENIAN PEISONERS.

A letter, from which the following ia an extract, has been «ddress«d to Mr. Disraeli, by Mr. Dion Boucicault, " whoiStes that lie^aT withdrawn Th¥ Shaughraun "lest his proceedings may be misconstrued" : — " Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.— Sir,— During the last i

five months we have been representing before the English people in London, a play entitled The Shaughraun. . The work is founded upon ah episode in the Fenian insurrection of 1866. As a literary effort it has no pretension, therefore no poetic clothing disguises its subject — it possesses no wit to divert public attention from this simple f story. A young Irish gentleman , has been tried, convicted and transported to the penal colonies for complicity with the rebellion. He escapes to America, and from thence ventures to visit his home in Ireland. A police emissary discovers his presence; he is re-a.rrested, consigned to prison, from which he escapes, and eventually is restored to freedom by a general pardon, granted — under poetical license — during your Ministry. This pardon is the deus ex machina of the dramas ; I call to witness 200,00 ft of the*people of London who have been present at this representation during 100 nights — I call to witness the press that recorded the result, to declare that I have stated simply and without guile the scenes and "^incidents composing this work; and%ltcall the whole world to witness this spectacle — the Government of England, 'with a full and noble reliance on the loyalty of the English people, authorising and approving the representation of this play, thus inviting daily a jury of 2000 citizens to hear and pronounce their feelings on a great political question. All the leaders of the Fenian outbreak are at large ; a few obscure men still linger in chains, and these are, I believe, the only "British citizens now in prison for a political offence. lam not capable of judging what benefit the spectacle of these sufferers may be ta society, but I can see the detriment occasioned when punishment exceeding; tne measure of retribu.tion makes justicfe appear capricious, land tejttds to^tur# the criminal inji) a martyr. I have seen — and I £now that towards these twelve or fourteen miserable men are directed the sympathies of 20,000,000 of English hearts in American breasts— English hearts that respect the mother--country, and would love her dearly if she would let them. One crowning act of humanity would be worth a dozen masterstrokes of policy; and the great treaty to be established with the United is neither the Canadian fisheries nor the border line on the Pacific Ocean, it is the hearty cohesion of the English and American people. Those who say the time is not come for the exercise of clemency forget that mercy is not a calculation, but a noble impulse — that no man keeps a fallen foe under his heels but a coward who dares not let him up. In reply to such objection i* would answer, if the time has not come for the prudent .exercise of her Majesty's rierrogative,Jety our, noble impatience push forward the hands of the clockits stroke will be heard in millions of grateful hearts, and your own, sir, will not feel the worse either here or hereafter. — Your very obedient servant,—Dion Boucicault."