ONE WAY OF LOOKING AT IT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 9, 20 June 1884, Page 18

ONE WAY OF LOOKING AT IT.

(Dublin Freeman,, April 26.) A BCOEK or so of mysterious notices, on which the words " Invincibles," Revenge," and "God Save Ireland," done in staring red and black lettering, and having « cast" army cartridges, tied with green ribbons, appended to them, Bomewhat after the fashion of ancient seals to State documents, were strewn about Dublin— in the Phoenix Park and through the streets, and a few of them were left, it is said, at a place of business, a private residence, and the door of the Privy Council Office— on Monday night or Tuesday morning. They are n ? w }\ tbe bands o£ the P° lice - The " fiQd "— « y en when it was added that a parcel containing a suspicious material formed part of it— gave food for gossip rather than excited sensation, the general feeling seeming to be that the affair was the result of some half mischievous, half-thoughtless, practical joke. So much is being said and written about dynamite and conspiracy that bogus alarms are what may be almost naturally expected from the idle, especially, perhaps, at the approach of the anniversary of the tragedy in the Park. We are greatly disposed, however, to reject the practical joke theory in this particular instance. In the first place, the affair is too elaborate and daring for any mere amateur practical joking. The consequences of detection are too serious, for such practical joking as that on an entire city— police and people— would be visited with severe punishment if the perpetrators were discovered. The risks of detection would be too great, since everything points to the probability that a number of persons were engaged in it, and it was a work involving much ingenuity, care, and time. The material used in it —army cartridges to wit— are not exactly the playthings which would be ready to the hand of the mere joker. Do we incline to the opinion then, it wiil be asked, that these raw-head -and-bloody-bones notices were distributed by " Invincibles " or by sympathisers with the policy of dynamite 1 With much less difficulty than we have in leaning to the decision that the affair is not a practical joke, we have concluded that it is the work of no such men. If there are persons who mean deeds of the kind threatened, they would be sure to give no warning, to shoot their bolt out of the blue azure— from a clear sky. They would not prepare their quarry for the blow. They would not expose their plot to the danger of being prematurely exploded, and themselves to the terrible fate of discovery and its awful penalty. What, then, is the motive, and who are the contrivers of this irritating alarm ? Reason goes far to show that it is neither a malicious joke, nor yet a solemn warning. The devious paths pursued in the ruling policy and police of the Government of Ireland are so dirk that it must be matter for conjecture and surmise whether they have described a new winding in the maze. Those who remember the disturbed times in '48, or who have read their history caref ally will recollect that there was a blacksmith, for instance, actually supported with a weekly stipend from the Castle to make pike-heads which he was thus enabled to sell at 2s. 6d. a piece to the Young Irelanders of the day and who, taking down the names of his trusting purchasers, brought the list to Colonel Brown, the then chief of the police, every night. We all recollect how Head Constable Talbot went _ about the country swearing in Fenians in order afterwards to convict them. These things may not have been, done actually under the directions of the authorities. They did not direct the man in '48 to make the pikes, but they connived at his trade in return for his treachery. They did not descend to details in Talbot's devices. Iney did not direct him to commit the grossest sacrilege in order to worm himself into the confidence of unsuspecting peasants. But the spirit of the system suggested such resorts, and while the authorities did not trouble themselves about their villany they rewarded them. The officer who had the greatest record of discovered outrage, and crime, and treason knew that he had thus won his promotion. That promotion he too often strove to get by regular treason-manufacture, as instanced in the career of Talbot. Are the same principles, or want of principles, in vogue— in full swing to-day 1 The desire for promotion, we presume, is equally strong. Does the system affoid opportunities for getting that promotion by foul means as well as fair 1 We do not, of course, make any imputation on the officers connected with the present discovery. They, we feel sure, have merely acted with the honest vigilance which the ordinary discharge of duty demands. But there are wheels within wheels in police manoeuvres. It may be necessary just at the present juncture, to u«e W * he . excitement in England. We do not, then, adjudge, this find of Monday night or Tuesday morning either as a practical joke or as a revelation of the intentions of desperate men. We fear that it has to be ascribed to other agencies which cannot be deemed at all innocent. We trust that it will not be attended with evil consequences, and that it will not be made to subserve to selfish ends or to the exigencies of a demoralising system, which has suffered already shameful exposure in the history of tie methods pursued in this country.