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Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6868, 5 March 1883, Page 4

When the Badioal and Clerical Press of France arc found to be united in denunciation of a particular policy, it may be taken for granted that the policy is widely unpopular in the Republic. It is a pity to have to come to Buch a conclusion with respect to the eurrender of Byrne, who is accused ef complicity in the Pbcouix Park murders. But there is no other course open aa far as we can see. “ ’Tis true, and pity ’tit ’tis true.” Political offenders ore safe against extradition claims ererywhere, as the world has been reminded by the punishment of the British officers who gave np the Cuban refugees to the Spanish authorities at Gibraltar, Bat international law has never yet recognised that there can be anything in any political situation to justify murder. Murder, as all right thinking men must believe, can never be a political offence. When Hartmann was boasting that he hsd attempted the life of the Czar he was compelled to fly from France for fear of arrest by extradition warrant. The United States Government only the other day has shown its good sense by promptly i-suing a warrant for the arrest of Sheridan. We cannot, by keeping to the situation, quite understand the outcry in France against the Cabinet for ita refusal to regaffl murder as. Under any circumstances, a political offence. The reason for that outcry is, we fear, only to be found in the Egyptian question. The French nation, smarting under the sense of cl aims rejected, has developed hostility of criticism. The mail files are filled with the subject, and a day or two ago the cable told ua that Mr Gladstone had thought it necessary to “give assurances ” in Paris on bis way through that city. It Is tmdeniable, then, that the relations between the two nations are somewhat strained.