THE APOSTLES OF DYNAMITE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 10, 27 June 1884, Page 7

THE APOSTLES OF DYNAMITE.

(The Sydney Freeman s Journal.') The success of the Paris Dynamitards in London last Friday should at last convince the public that their crime is one o£ no ordinary magnitude. There are criminals for whom we do not altogether lose some sort of respect, however much we may detest their crimes. Crimes committed under the pressure of over-powering temptation may excite our pity, crimes which demand courage in their commission may arouse feelings akin to admiration ; but for these common enemies of the human race, there can be but one teeling of detestation. Had these bad men raised the standard of revolution and met their foe face to face, misguided as the act might have been, even their enemies woulrl have respected their courage. But these skulking area sneaks never risked their hides, they showed no front to an eaemy, they ran no risk when they went forth to deal out death and destruction to the innoceut and the helpless. One is sorry for the rebel who falls in his hopeless cause, or for the hungry wretch who steals, or for the wronged one who slays ; but these wretches had no cause to serve, no hunger to appease, no personal wrongs to avenge —all they had was the opportunity of injuring their fellow-creatures, and that was enough for tJtem, To cause sufferings or death to a few harmless cooks and housemaids ; to blow up a few buildings ; to strike terror into the hearts of women and children— it was by means Buch as these that they hoped to shake the resolution of the proudest and most obstinate race ia the world. If these Continental Dynamitards — of course Ireland repudiates them — were not criminals ripe for the hangman, we would take them for raving lunatics, 'lhey are taking the very surest means of preventing that .which ought to be done. No people and least of all the Auglo-Saxon race, would allow itself to be scared into even reversing a policy of wrong, by such means as these. If justice is to be had for any country, it can, and ought only to be had by rightful means. Political union and combination, and above all the pressure of European and American opinion, will effect that which no crime or assassination can or ought to effect. Whoever these scoundrels are — and all we know of them is that they come from Paris, and that they belong to some secret society condemned by the Church — they are the worst enemies of our land and race.

In estimating the danger to be apprehended by society fiom the commission of such a crime, it is of the first importance to know who and what these criminals are. If they are a mere fortuitous collection of political conspirators they may be dealt with. as the murderers of Lord Frederick Cavendish were, with comparative ease. Ignorant, cowardly, greedy, it would be impossible for all of them to keep their guilty secret. But there is too good reason to believe that these criminals are not of that class. If the Paris correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph of April 2 1 is to be trusted, this conspiracy against law and order has its seat in Paris— that nursery o£ "wickedne s— and the conspirators belong to that motley crew who murdered the Cear, who planned the death of the Emperor William, ami who have threatened our civilisation during the last saven years. " Among the members are Russian Nihilists, and at least four French Communists of doubtful Irish extraction." The crime of Friday last was not the work of ignorant, poor men, but of foreigners whose education and scientific knowledge have pre-eminently fitted them to do their diabolical work. Their organization could only have been conceived and carried out by men of education. Their organisation demands the expenditure of large sums of money, and the money is foitbcoming. It is this that makes the crime so terrible. Hitherto, the crimes of such men as Gomez, Rousakoff, and Brady have been mere national affairs, and terrible as their offences were, they sought the secrecy of criminals rather than the publicity of belligerents. But now our civilisation is threatened by a society compjsed of different nationalities, whose object is not a particular ruler's head, but all their fellow -men who are on the side of law and order. And this has been allowed to grow up, to organise, to hold meetings, to edit papers, to issue proclamations, and to solicit subscriptions in the very heart of European civilisation I What a terrible commentary on the Holy Father's denunciations which men can still be found to fcofi at ! A quarter of a century ago, when Pius IX. issued his famous Encyclical, and condemned the .International, Europe split its sides with laughter, and England opened her ports if possible wider for any Carbonaii or Socialists who wished to plot therein. London has vied with Geneva for the honour of entertaining conspirators. The resul+, long foretold, is now just appearing. Where could the Nihilists and Socialists strike better than in the wealthiest and most populous city in the world ? A few more dynamite outrages, and society will leainin the bitter school of experience that the Holy Father was not so much behind the age as the world thought he wa?.