ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP THE LIVERPOOL TOWN HALL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 435, 12 August 1881, Page 3

ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP THE LIVERPOOL TOWN HALL.

The Liverpool Journal says : — The most intense excitement w*n created in Liverpool yesterday morning (June 10; by the report of an attempt to blow up the Town Hall, which was published at an early hour. This most extraordinary outrage took place at a fevr minutes past four o'clock, and the circumstances appear to be as follows :— At a very late hour on the previous night two men, who looked like sailors, were seen to be loitering about in the neighbourhood of the Town Hall. Jt was noticed that they had with them a large sailor's canvas bag, and the first person whose attention was attracted by their suspicious movements was Police-constable 712 (G. L. Reade). A little later on. he and Police-constable 898 (Gh M'Barney) walked up towards the side door of the Town Hall, and they saw the bag on the step leaning up against the door, while the two men they bad previously seen were making off across the flags of the Exchange. Police-constable 712, it appears from the official reports, got hold of the bag and tried to lift it, bat it was too heavy for him. He then dragged it into the middle of the street, and, hearing something " fizzing," as he describes it, he called out to his brother constable to " look out I" and before they had time to step back more than five or six yards a terrific explosion took place shattering many of the windows around, and sending up a dense volume of smoke. The constables then ran after the men they bad seen crossing the flags, and they were quickly joined by Policeconstable 884 (Creighton). They blew their whistles as they ran, and the signal -was heard by Police- constable 553 (Peter Casey), who was on duty in Oldhall street. He joined in the chase after the two men, who turned down a side street out of Oldhall street towards Leeds streets, close to the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Going down the street ha found one of the men, whose name is John M'Kevitt, hiding underneath a lorry, and he at once grappled with him. M'Kevitt had a loaded revolver in his hand, and when he found he could not escape he threw it over the wall, on the other side of which is the canal. Constable Casey held him until the other two constables came up, and then handed him over to them. Casey then got over the wall, found the revolver, and went in search of the other man, whose name is William Robert Barton. He searched in two or three flats which were moored close to, and at last came across Barton, who was crouching down at the bottom of one of the flats. The constable, who still held in hia hand the revolver which he bad picked up, levelled it at Barton, and asked him "if he had anything oE that kind about him." Barton, who was very much exhausted and wringing wet — having, it is supposed, fallen into the canal in jumping from one flat to the other — said to the constable, " Here it is ; take it out of my pocket," and Constable Casey then took hold of him, and found in one of his pockets a loaded eight-chamber revolver, similar to the one belonging to M'Kevitt which he had picked up. The other constables, in response to the whistle of Casey, were quickly on the spot, and both men were conveyed to the Detective Office in Dale street. Both prisoners are said to be unquestionably associated with the Fenian movement. M'Kevitt is a native of Ireland, having been born in Warrenpoint, and Barton, though born in Glasgow, and speaking with a strong northern accent, comes of Irish parentage. He, however, has lived for some years in America, and came over to England only recently from New Orleans. He has lived at 15 Cottenham street, Kensington, Liverpool, for five weeks past, and in his lodging he was joined only recently by M'Kevitt, who, it is Baid, has worked in Liverpool as a dock labourer since 1870. Upon Barton certain papers have been found of a most compromising character, and medals with Fenian devices and mottoes have been found on both. The accused were brought before the stipendiary magistrate and remanded for a week. It transpires that the real name of Roberts is Magrath. On being remanded they were removed to the borough gaol at Walton. Writing from Liverpool, the correspondent of the Irish Times says :—: — The officials at Walton gaol were this morning thrown into A great state of alarm and excitement by what was apparently an organised attempt at the rescue of the two men. About two o'clock, just as daylight was breaking, a member of the county constabulary observed between two and three hundred men marching to the prison, and, coming to the conclusion that they meant a rescue, determined to forstall them. He accordingly proceeded by a short cut to the prison entrance and gave the alarm. The governor was immediately called, and all the warders were summoned out of bed, and armed, with loaded carbines and revolvers. Several of them went outside and saw the men approaching in marching order, and they prepared to give them a warm reception, but immediately the men caught sight of the warders they separated and made off in several directions. Since then sentries have been placed round the prison walls, and to-night warders armed to the teeth are patrolling outside the prison. It is rumoured that the governor, Mr. Concannon, has applied for the assistance of the military. The Liverpool correspondent of the Press Association telegraphs :—: — The Walton gaol authorities deny the alarming story of an attempted rescue of the Fenian, prisoners. It seems that on Sunday a number of men were seen going past the gaol, where just now there is a stionger police force than usual. The men, it is believed, were about to engage in a prize fight somewhere. Another explanation is that the men were Irish labourers who had landed that morning, and were en route to Ormskirk seeking work.

A petition in favour of the Irish Land Bill, presented by Sir Thomas Maclure in the House of Commons, it was stated, is signed by 430 Irish Presbyterian ministers in the province of yister, and representing half a million of people.