ESCAPE OF STEPHENS.

Timaru Herald, Volume V, Issue 112, 23 June 1866, Page 2

ESCAPE OF STEPHENS.

The Paris correspondent of the Sunday interview he had with Stephens. After contradicting 1 the statement that Stephens had sailed from the Liffey, he says : — I suppose it would hardly amuse you to leara any minor details of Mr Stephens — that m an interview T found him exceedingly like hi? ' photopraph, and that he has a restless determined air about him, travels with all the copies of fcb»'

late lamented 'Irish People' bound m green morocco and printed on gold-edged paper, and that as for himself he only contributed two leaders, m which flowers are substituted for facta. I was not indiscreet enough to ask him to tell me much, and he was far from being He did, however, venture to express great faith m the success of the present movement, and smiled at the efforts of the Irish Government to capture him. The night after the reward was offered for his apprehension he saw 50 men, any one of whom might have betrayed him. Three weeks ago he had driven 27 miles m the county of Dublin, seated with a couple of other gentlemen m an outside car ; he had never assumed any disguise ; he had found Richmond prisons so Unorganised that he only wondered that any one had consented to remain m it, and the police so inefficient that he deserved no credit for eluding them. I found a strong desire on the part of Mr Stephens, that the Fenian Brotherhood should suppose him invested with supernatural powers ; and perhaps he was practising this art when he related such tales as, that do two bigwigs could talk about him m the Castle but their conversation was immediately reported ; and other Stories of the watchfulness of his secret police. As far as I can see, the Fenian chiefs assembled here have no settled idea of the form of Government which is to replace that of her Majesty. They complain to the French that they have not the liberty of meeting nor liberty of the press ; and yet, as I remarked to them, one of their moat violent pamphlets printed for foreign consumption is published m l)ublin, bean the publisher's name, and is signed by members of a committee. I could not quit Mr Stephens without hoping that, once m America, he would give up his present intention tof returning to Ireland.