Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 30, 18 November 1887, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.)

Thk c>roner's inqu. st iris practically brought the whole truth about Mitchelstovvn into ligut. We do uot lavmosi stress upocj the evidence of the independent s\ itncsses -ot Mr. (Joubrougb, of Miss Ma iders, of Mr. Ifiniiis. That stands alone sufficient for all c ear-ininded men as a withering pi oof of the wanton and mur lerous conduct of the police. What w« do think phenomenal is the evidence, extracted by the skilful examination of Mr. Harrington, from the police themselves. Such an exhibition of constabulary swearing was probably never afforded to the sight of common men. Every constable who has got into the box tvs given the lie direct to the constable who went before him. One swore that there was no crowd in front of the barrack when the first shot was fired ; another that after the first shot was fired the crowd dispersed, not before ; another that each of the several shots he fired was only fired in response to a volley of stones, and so on. Perhaps the most significant swearing of all was that of Sergeant Kirwan and Sergeant Ryder. The former officer swore that at the inspection of pouches after the firing the latter lent him three cartridges, which he returned when the inspection was over. When Sergeant ftyder came on the table the following passage ensued :—: — " Then it is absolutely false for Sergeant Kirwan to swear that you lent him cartridges ? Quite so. And it is quite false for him to say he gave them back to you after the inspection on parade 7 Quite so." The only thing that all of them have agreed 'n swearing, is that they tried to kill when they fired, and the upshot of the whole evidence so far is, that the police on that day acted as a pack of panic stricken murderers, and, that since they have been acting like a pack of murderers trying to evade the grip of the law. Every fact diagged into light at the Mitchelstown inquest reveals all the more glaringly ttre atrocity of ihe fusilade, and the shameless lying with which it was sought to be bolstered up by its author and his instruments. The apology of the Chief Secretary for the bloody holocaust is now s-hown to have rested upon a tissue of the most abominable falsehoods. His one hundred and sixty panes of smashed glass have dwindled down to six, on the showing of the police themselves ; and of these, three, ihey confess, were broken by their line-muzzles or the bullets they rired from them with such murderous effect. Furthermore, it appears from their evidence that there was not th* smallest danger to the barrack at any time of the disturbance. Some of the men who fired were produced for examination. They were Sergeant Kirwan, Sergeant i>yder, Constable Doran, and Constable Gavin. They gave tneir own versions of the day's woik, and were cross-examined by Mr. Harrington, 8.L., M.P., with great ability. Their bearing towards that gentleman was insolent and bullying beyond all limits of decency. The first-named sergeant (Kirwan) in his evidence gave an idea of the true spirit of the men who embark in such shocking work as thi-, 1 hough armed with a rifle, he admitted he was, whi c engaged in the scrimmage with the crowd, afraid to tire, and ran away, but did fire without fear or hesitation when he got to the barrack door, and when he got upstairs he also fired. He got no orders to do so from anyone. Amongst the wnntsses examined was an English lady who was present at the meeting, Mit,s Manders. She deposed to the perfectly peaceable aud orderly character of the meeting, and the utterly wanton and pre-meditaied action of the police in attacking it. The whole story, as it is slowly unfolded, reveals one of the darkest chapters in the annals ot brutal despotism that the vvoild has ever witnessed. Thy striking fact that every one of the ten independent non-Irish witnesses who happened to be in Mitchelstown and saw from various points of vantage the proceedings of the day, contradict the version oi the police and corroborate the teai imony ot Mi. Dillon is hardly laid sufficient stress on. It is the most important and conspicuous fact by far in connection with this melancholy bus ; ne=s. Tne police have not a single independent witness to support their case. On the irther hand, every independent witness in the town, and there were f n °f them ia all, not counting National members of Parliament, »car out the case of what Mr. Balfour calls "the mob." The most plausible lie that ever was told could not stand up long against such an array of champions for the truth. Way is not Head- Constable o' Sullivan under arrest, instead of walking the streets of Mitchelstown a free man and lord of the town ? The uiurdered boy, Ctisey, made a dying deposition that he was hia murderer. The policeman who had his skull fractured made a deposition declaring that a respectable farmer named Gould had struck him. Mr. Gould was immediately arrested, and bail has been rigorously refused. It would be supeilluous to comment on this specimen of Oastle " law."

Fact after fact drives home with irresistible force the terrible conclusion that the disturbance and the ensuing bloodshed were deliberately provoked. " It would be too humiliating," quoth the Chief Secretary, " for the police-spy on this occasion to adopt what has been the invariable cu?tom,' and to make peaceful application for accomodation at the meeting." •' It was tnis man's right," the Irish Attorney-General gravely stated, " to crush his way at the li^ad of an armed force to the heart ot a peaceful and legal meeting." £^#llensed on this astounding statement, he faltered and went back. in was no precedent, he confessed, tor the monstrous proposition. .*. <&ea<?y to detect running throughjthe artic esin .he Coercion Pn ss a. horrible exultation in the bloody and cowardly woikdonein Mitchelstown. There is a leader in the St. James Gazette, quoted with approval in the Daily Express and Liarish 'Times, which might have bee.i a speech of Mr. Balfour's with such truculent delight does it dwell on the atrocities. "If there be any moral for Mr. Balfour in tue affair," says the infamous journal, " it is to take to heart that excellent remaik of Napoleon's about not firing blank cartridges on a mob." The benevolent writer in St. James is dissatisfied at the limited amount of slaughter: "Defence or apology," he continues, " the authorities do not need, and we trust will not offer, if, instead of two men, two

srore oi two hundred hid been shot down." To this language the Express and Liarish Times gives all prominence in their columns.

The Government ocarcely t .ke the trouble of concealing their purpose, only tot _ ilpable, of maddening Ireland into a rebellion which may brf quenched in blood. The debates all point in the sume direction. Mr. Gltdstone, with the sanction of his genius, his fifty yeais' service of his country, proclaims the Irish leaders ju^t fied ia their vindication of the right of free speech, and denounces the illegal outrages of the police, Mr. Btlfour's answer is the prison and the plank-bed, the baton and the rifle. Let the English people understand these men are criminals in Ireland because they share the views and vindicate the doctrines of Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Balfour can see no distinction ia the matter of degrading punishment between political opponents and pickpockets. He has made the police the juJges in their own case — the irresponsible executors of their own bl >ody retribution. The refusal of a judicial inquiry into the Mitchelstown massacre is explainable only on the one hypothesis that such an inquiry would blow to pieces the monstrous falsehoods of which he was the willing mouthpiece in ihe House of Commons.

The Lanshire Evening Post ot Monday, September 19, contains a report of a religious service of a character altogether unique in the history of the relations bptween this country and England . Ia the Uaitarian Chapel of that town, on Sunday evening, Sdptember 1&, the Rev. W. Sharmau, Unitarian minister, held this service, which was a special one, in memory of the men shot at Mitchelstown, and preached a special sermon on the subject — a sermon full of pathos and deep manly fesling, in the course of which he said — " Wherever the English tongue was spoken, and wherever the exiles of Erin found a shelter, those men were no more nameless, and wherever ta« rites of Christ's Catholic Church were said, the prayer goea vp — Goi rest the souls of Lonergan, Shinnick, and Casey. " ' Chanted in song and remembered in story, Sunk but to rise, like the sun in the wave, Grandly the fallen now sleep in their glory, Sadlj their country now weeps by their grave. Holy their names shall be, Blest by the brave and free, Kept like a saint's day the day when they died.' "

The Coroner's Court is, perhaps, the most ancient known to the law. Consider how it is regarded in England. It works without a hitch. A murder is committed ; the police find a dead body. Straightway the town constable busies himself preparing for the coroner, tammons a jury, musters the evidence, has everything ready when the co "oaer arrives. So it is in Ireland, whenever the coroner has the £>ood 'oHune to enjoy the favour of the R.I.C. The head-con-stable never waits for the coroner's orders to summon a jury ; they are not necessary ; neither are formal written summonses necessary. For this ancient court, which was in being before the English law waa reduced to writing, it is sufficient to summon a juror by word of mouth. When the coroner's' aide-car pulls up opposite the courthouse door, the head constable is in attendance with all the preliminaries settled, and :n five minutes the inquest can begin. But what has happened to Coroner Rice since his court returned a policeman for trial for wilful murder, and since the constabulary boycott was decreed against him 1 Several times he has complained of it from the bench. When he has arrived to hold an inquest he has found no policemen in his court, and no jury summoned. He has had to hunt up the head-constable, and the head-constable has bluntly refused to summon a jury for him until compelled to do so by the coroner's going through every semi-obsolete form of the law. Coroner Rice, ever since the Youghal inquest, has, consequently, had to issue a formal precept to the head-constable before that functionary would budge. He has been kept hours waiting in hia court for a jury. This happened in the case of the present inquest at Mitchelstown. We publish a vital piece of evidence in connection with the Mitchelstown massacre. The pretext for that deliberately planned outrage was the alleged necessity which the police were under of forcing a Government reporter through the thickest part of the meeting under the protection of an armed guard. Everybody knows that the usual practice until Mitchellstown has been for the police quietly to ask the promoters of the meeting for accommodation for their reporter on the platform. But everybody doea not know that this has not only been the practice but the rule which the police were bound to observe, and that in following out that orderly and cotntnonsensp policy they were acting on positive instructions from the Oastle. The following circular, which has been in force for the past seven years, will be read with the deepest interest in connection with the Chief Secretary's statement that he knew nothing of such a rule, and that to lay it down as a course for the Government to follow " appeared to him a most monstrous end unheard of proposition " : — ■"Circular — Land League Meetings. — R.I. Constabulary Office, Dublin Castle, September 30th, 1880. — Referring to circular of the 21st inst., it ia directed that in all cases in which Constabulary shorthand reporters attend Land League meetings the local Constabulary officers are ia future to request the permission of the chairman to afford them accommodation on the platform. If this is acceded to, no truncheon party for their protection need accompany them. — G. E HILLIES, Inspector General." — It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of this document. It disposes of the whole case of the polic '. It throws a white light on the present methods and policy of fi Government. Even the " most monstrous and unheard-of " iguorancj of .the reckless Chief Secretary, which at another time would <>c a^ interesting subject for comment, pales into insignificance bctdiij ..j - issue it laises.

In the first place, we have it v iVi-jhed that the police, in riotously forcing their r porter through luj dense meeting, and thus leading to the tragedy that ensued, were acting in distinct and deliberate violation of a written rule of their own which they had always carefully followed previously. Now, why did they break this ule .it Mitohelstown ? and by whose orders did they act >n breaking it 1 These rire questions which, now that Parliament is not hitting, we trust the English Press and the English people will insist on having answered by the Government, It ia they who are answerable for ta«

Government m the absence of Parliament. It ia they to whom to 1 look to cast the Government oat of power for its crimes and outrages against the Irish people and for its staining of their own honour. I Here i 8 a distinct issue for them. Wny did the police at MLchelatowa Tiolate the rule which they have alwaya invariably observed hitherto, I ?fd whose observance that day would have saved all the bloodshed ? he police cannot plead the ignorancs of the chief ruler of the country. They know the rule. They have been observing it for seven years. 1 Fo'- seven years it baa been the unvarying practice of '• the local constabulary officers" to "request the permission of the chairman to I afford the Go?ernment reporters accommodation on the platform " ; I and wnenever this request waa aceede'i to, as was almost alw-iys the case, "no truncheon party for their protection" was found necessary I to accompany them, (Wbat a tribute this latter instruction of Colonel Hillier is to the peaceable and orderly character of Ir'sh mee'ings 1) Why did *he police disregard this rule that bloody day at Mitchelstown, and by whose orders did they act in disregarding it 1 I We hard our own answers io these queries. The police acted in obedience to an intimation from headqu\rterß, and with the distinct object of provoking rioc md bloodshed. We are as firmly convinced of this as we are « bat the murder of O'H<*nlan at V 'Ughil was the direct consequence of Captain Plunketi's atrocious telegram. The police knew that bl iods led would follow when they made their ruffiinly assault upon the peaceful meeting — only the Tipperary black- I thorns happily preven-ed everything falling out exactly as the; had calculated. The butchery was simply part and parcel of tne " don't-hesitate-to-shoot " policy which the Government, at the instigation of its Plunketts, and driven desperate by the Piaa of Campaign, went in for after Canon Keller's arrest. The object is, by staining the streets of Irish towns with innocent blood, to goad and madden the Irish J people into reprisals and disloOge them from their attitude of passive and coustitutioual resistance. Happily tti^ wonderful pUience and I Belf-control of the people hts foilei this infam >us policy up to this, and, please God, they will be able to f ..ll it to the end. A very mysterious tragedy has taken pi ice outside the favourite tourist report, L sdoonvarna, in the County Clare, tbri'ling that usually scene and decided liule place with horror and excitement, and stirring up all sorts of conjee u<"es as to its meaaing. Wnat is described ftß a moonlight attack wab made on top house of a man named Se*ton, who lives about two nules outside the town, and who is unpopular with his neighbours, it appears, because of some transactions about a farm given up by a mau named Blattery. The attack bad been expected by the local police, and tea or twelve of tnese were in art bush ou the premises. A despirata struggle took place in the kitcoen, but after a quar'er of an tuurs' fighting the moonlighters I were captured. But while this was going on inside, another fijht between the policeman in charge, Head-Constable VVhelehan, and another constable named Oonnell, appears to have been going on outelde, for when tbe police emerged from the house with their prisoners they found tbe head constable lyiug dead and the other seriously injured. This was tbe Btartling tale with which Mr. Balfour began the business of the House of Commons on the d^y of all others when he was called upon to make an apology — no difficult task for him — for the Mitchelsiown assassinations. How came it that such a useful tragedy was ju?t to haud at the very moment it wa« wanted ? There are people alive who probably could tell, if they liked. It is now stated, and not attempted to be denied, that the police about Lisdoonvarna had leng been in possession of the fact that the atiack was intended, and it is furthermoie stated that one of their prisoners is an informer. With our knowledge of wh.it Constable Halloran s >rae time ago attempt id to do in the same county, we are entitled from | all the circumstances to conjecture that there has been some foul work ; here, and, fuithermoie, thai it has been promoted by agents of the j Government for the most nefarious purposes. When unscrupulous i men are at the head of the State, tney will have no difficulty in I finding fitting agents for the carrying out of th3ir evil designs. I The manifest terror in which the coerciouists stand lest the true nature ot the infamous methods wneieby they are endeavour' ng to rule\tn Ireland shouLd be uuderstood by the English mass' s, is not the leasfc-ruslworthy of the many cheering proofs already afforded that the*n&jlifth people as distinct from tne "classes "are not participators in their crimes, but will promptly punish them when opportunity , offers. An incident which occurred at Cork the other diy &hows with what concern the Tory bogus Cromwells view the coming over of inquisitive persons representative of the English democracy, and how anxious the Caatle folk are to discourage such visitors. Amongst tho arrivals at the Southern port were six Englishmen hailing from Somersetsbiie, who bad been deputed by their fellow-workingmen at Tfeovilto make a ten dayB 1 \ our id Ireland, see for themselves the state of the country under a ' resoiu c Government," and report, their impressions when they returned. The troubles and the enlightenment of the investigators — whose mission wag probably known to the police began the moment they pet foot on lush soil, or, to be more accurate, immediately before they had done so— for they were throttled by & posse of detective police previous to landing — had their luggage severely searched, and were themselves subjected to a most offensive scrutiuy. Nor did the insulting attentions of the Castle agents cease when they had satisfied themselves that the "suspects ' ■were not dynamitards but free-boru Britons j they were again followed. Hud watched, and quettiooed. It would seem that the Government are not inclined to repeat their Mitchelstown perform mcc. This ip not owing to any sense of regrtt for the murders they perpetrated, but is owing solely to their consciousness that the English masses have not approved of the slaughter, bit have levolted against and denounced it. At all the meetings which have been held since the massacre at Mitchelstown the police authorities have asked permission for a Government reporter to btand on the platform, and such permission hai been in each case .'ccordeil, but alw.vjs on .'onUiuon that the police should retire to a distance from tbe meeting. This ia a fair arrangement ; but it should be known that the promoters of uitioaal meetings are not bound to accommodate Government reporters on their platforms unless they co please. Where such accommodation is refu-ed, the

reporter will have a rignt to stand in the crow i and take hia notes; but neither he nor the police have any legal right to force a way through the people by puaaing or bitonin* persons who are already io possession of the ground. So much is now practically admitted by the Government themselves. A. public right has been established at Mitchehtown, but its assertion has cost the lives of three man and the blood of m*ny others, Thos>j three men at Mitch ?latown as truly died for Ireland as did the three at Manchester. The League has got its chance at last. The Government, hurrying from blunier to blunder and defeat to defeat, bas adopted the policy of despair. The tlovernmeut cannot hurt the League. The free Bpirit of the people is " As the air invulnerable, And these vain blows malicious mockery." But the League can kill the Government now that at long last it hai caught it in the open. It is a plain, simple policy sketched out by the leaders of the people. Keep on never minding. The result it infallible. Suppose the Government had the hightest triumph possible from the coercion point of view, and had lodged every member of the proclaimed branches in prison. It would be a clean bill of health to meet Parliament with at the end of four months. Ten thousand Irishmen, priests and people, members of Parliament, poor-law guardians, and town commissioners, in prison for the crime of membership of a political association which has the sanction and support of the Liberals of England, and haa won the admiration of the greatest statesman England bas ever seen. An association which was declared on his oatn to bj "the salvation of the people," by Sir Redvers Boiler, the Tory Under- Secretary, who signed the proclamation for its suppression. On Sun lay evening, September 11, as Mr. William O'Brien was seeing off Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Brunner at the Kingstown boat, a metropolitan police-officer in a state of much trepidation informed him that if it was going to E 'gland he was he would have to arrest him. Was he going to England or was he not ? If Mr. O'Brien would Bay he was not goin<jj to England his instructions were to leave him alone, bat if to Ens*ian 1 he was bound, he would have to take him into custody. Mr. OBrten would give no undertaking whatsoever, so luapector Reddy had to take him off a prisoner to the Imperial Hotel. Nothing could be more unlike an ignominious journey to a prison than Mr. O'Brien's experiences from the moment Detective Reddy laid his handn on him in the Queen's name to the time when the gates of the Cork County Gaol closed upon him for the present. It was the experience rather of <ieouqueror than ac*ptive. The vast crowd to which he spoke a few words from the balcony of the Imperial Hotel in O'Connell street nad scarcely done more than resolve itself into its component units ere another considerable gathering was in waiting at the Kingsbridge Terminus to g've hiui a parting cheer and wish him soon safe from the toils of the tyrants. The departure from the hotel took plack at seven o'clock, but early as the hour was a considerable number of Mr. 0 Brien's friends, including the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr. T. Harrington, M.P. ; Dr. Kmny, M.P ; and Mrs. K^nny, had gathered. Mr. T. Harrington accompanied the prisoner on the downward joarney. At Maryborough there was a great demonstration on the platform, and when Mr. O'Brien attempted to reply to the address presented io him by Mr. Median on behalf of the National Leaguers of Maryborough, the policemen behaved with their usual brutality, and endeavoured to pull him from the window, but their efforts were futile. They made a demonstration as though they would like to clear the platform, but the attitude of the people looked threatening, so they desisted, very wisely. There were various other demoastrations en route, but it was reserved for theciiy of Cork to furnish the most extraordinary spectacle of all. At the railway station there was drawn up a force of police and military strong enough to essay the cap'ure of Sisbastopol, while on the popular side, the Mayor, the High Sheriff, nearly all the membeiß of the Town Council^ and a vast budy of leading citizens a waited Mr. O'Brien's appearance. An immense crowd with bands and banners awaited outside the station, and af'er a little time tne whole vast body, with the police and military forming a sort of escort, moved off to the courthouse, and subsequently to the sound of national music accompanied the hon. Member to the entrance to the county gaol, whither lie was sent by the brtce of magistrates brought together to temporarily dispose of him. Tne atrocities at Mitchelstown and the despotism at Ennis hare stirred the indignation of the English Members of Parliament who came over to st c how Ireland is ruled by Balfour and the police. This feeling was expressed by none more strongly than by Mr. Labouchere, the editor of I'ndh. The witty and clear-headed Englishman attended a meeUng ot the Cork Yjung Ireland Society on Saturday night, September 10, under the presidency of Alderman Hooper, M.P. He denounced the action of the Government in proclaiming the meeting at hnnis, and sud he did not hesitate to say that a more foul, more base, or more despicable Government never cursed a country. It was doubly sad wheu oppressed to be oppressed by men for whom they eutertained, and justly, not only loathing, but the utmost contempt that one could ieel for another. Describing that which he witnessed at Mitchelstown, he maintained tbat the proceedings were quiet and orderly vi til the police attempted to force their way through the crowd ; that the police assaulted the people in a coward y manner, and that the resort to fire-arms was moat unjustifiable. The scoundrels and villains who had, he said, r*ared to commit murder in the public streets should be severely punished. Messrß, Biunucr and Elli^, M.P.'s also denounced tne conduct of the police. Emboldened no doubt, by the favour with which fusillades are regarded by a paternal Governm nt, the police have taken to the use of fire-ai ms on a liberal scale, and on the smallest shadow of provocation. The MitoheUtown tiger lias Usted blood, and his appetite seema to be whetted for mor<-. On Sunday night there was an ordinary public hciuae row in Ballyporet-n, a 1 d -i couple ot Ijlowb were struck by the inebriated combatants, without auy one being very much hurt But the Mitchelstown police appealed on the sctne, and immediately began thair usual baton work, Some of the oiowd

struck back, and away ran the police to their barrack, and as at Mitchelstown, op j ne<! fire on the unaimed people. Fortunately they hit nobody, but the houses opposite boie marks of their good intention. Then they sallied foith from their barracks and made four or live arrests.

Mr. Denis Kilbri le, Lord Lansdowne's victim, is now M.P., for South Kerry. He was elected without opposition for that division on WecSiesday. It will be some solatium for the injury and loss he has svuanined at Lord Lmsdowne'shnndss tnat he will in future, in all lib - ho\>d, be enabled to ta^.e part in legislation for clipping the wings of noble predators, like the Governor-General of tne Canadas. In this connection it is higlily interesting to note that the Liberals of Lord Hartington's division, Kossendule, are actively taking measures for an effort to wiu the seat in case the halting Maiquis joins the Ministry. Mr. Arthur Arnold is generally spoken of as the moßt likely candidate.

The great meeting in the Rot undo on Wednesday night, Sept. 14, was a magnificent inauguration of the latest phase of the Saxon invasion — the visit of the deputation of the Home Rule Union. North and South these ladies aud gentlemen pr ipose to travel, studying and seeing for themselves the ghastly work of English rule. This is the sort of thing that should go on all the autumn and winter. No week should pass without a representative of the English democracy placing himself in evidence in Ireland. There can be no greater encouragement, or even protection, to the Irish people than the presence of those " lookers-on in Vienna," before whuse eyes the most hardened coercionist will feel uncomfortable in carrying out his atrocities. Let them come and be a symbol of the co-operation and sympathy that has begun between the two democracies, and learn by actual observation on the spot more sound knowledge on the Irish questiou than they could by years of reading.

English eyes can never be taught to regard evictions, with their attendant horrois, as proper and ordinary incidents in the firm and impartial administration of the law. We Irish, who have grown half callous to these enormities — used to them, no doubt, as cc h are to be fl-iyed — are otten startled at the fresh and lively amazement ami indignation which they excite in the breasts of English spectators. W. B. Gould, M.D.,ror instance,in a reaent letter to tht- Freeman, wastes as much honest and wholesome indignation over the Herbertstown evictions as if the savage brutalities were nut legal :— ■" On Wednesday, '' he wrote, " we were amongst the favoured half-dozen who were allowed inside the cordon of soldiers and police, and wituessed that almost unparalleled scene where the old woman — Mrs. Moloney — close on tour score years old, was dragged on her chaff mattress through the doorway and deposited on a dung-heap. Some idea may be formed of the nature of her restiDg-place when I mention that, being curious to ascertain whether she was shamming or not, I went to examine her and «ank to my ankles in the slush, ishe was huddled up in a lump, and the poor old soul could scarcely speak." He is sufficiently illbred to threaten to tell tales out of school when he icturns to London.

There is special wrath in the coercion Press of England and Ireland against the English Democrats who have committed the unpardonable sin of coming ovtr to see with their own eyes and hear with their own eais the condition of Ireland, and what is worse still, have dared to tell with fite English tongues what they have seen and heard. All the foul language, of which Irish Nationalists usually enjoyed the monopoly, are now lavished upon them. "Agitators," " incendiaries," " jobbers," " rebels," and " inciters to assassination," are amongst the choice epithets with which Mr. Stanhcpe, Mr. Brunner, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Labouchere are pelted. The Liarish Tiities especially lufrles up its feathers like a Cochin China hen in a rage it this " Saxon invasion " To speak plain truth, the invaders deserve the coeicionist indignatiorj. Compared with Mr. Stanhope, Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Biunner, the language ot Mr. Dillon may be described as mild, and of Mr. Davitt as guarded. But when the coercionists have spent iheir breath in foul language perhaps they will vouchsafe us some explanation of the extraordinary fact that every honest Englishman who comes once to view the condition of our country with unprejudic d eyes ends by becoming more Nationalist than the Nationalists themselves.

A Mr. Paul, E. M., who has been servinghis " Queen and country " for so^iime past as the commander of small armies detailed for the pp^Wction of Galway sheriffs' bailiffs on eviction bent, was summoned i^jfore the Ballinasloe justices sitting as an '• ordinary " court for having trespassed with forty policemen on the lands of a farmer whilst engaged in assisting at the eviction of the tenant Bariett. The trespass was proved beyond yea or nay — in fact there was no defence — and the Bench mulcted tne defendant in the crushing penalty of sixpence! Then Mr. Paul, like the law abiding K.il. that he is, blandly informed the Bei eh that he would " act iv the same way again " when it suited him.

General Buller's retirement is a suspicious coincidence, Mr. Balfour'a explanation to the coutiary notwithstanding. Even the General's strong military stomach could haidly digest the utier contempt for his sworn statements displayed in the latest savage vagaries of Mr. Baltour. Geneial Buller declared on oath that the people regarded the League as their salvation. Mr. B.ilfour proceeds to suppress the League on the ground that the people are groaning under its tyranny. General Buller declared that until the League arose the law, what little law theie was, was entirely on ihp side of the rich. In the name of equal laws the Leagne su[>pres> is to be accomplished. Mi. Baltour was very sensitive about arr, sion to the political opinions of peimanent officials. The same dv>\Q< cy was not displayed in regaul to the political opimoub of G< nei.il Buller's predecessor in the post. He derm d tbat Gener .1 Butler had resigned, but on piesaure he confessed that he had lutimated his desire to retire, lheie was no difference of opinion or policy, he explained, between them In the face of the sworn evidence ot the Under-Secretary at the Land Commission, this truly was a suutling statement. Without attaching any superstitious value to the oath of General Buller, we preter it to the woid of Mr. Balfour.

Mr. O'Brien's resolution will bring the questiou ot the treatment of political prisoners into the foiemost place amongst the controversies

of the autumn. In no country in the world, save this, are political prisoners regarded in the light of common criminals. Naples and Austna stood alone many years ago in their savage treatment of political prisoners, and it was these atrocities which, at the call of Mr. Gladstone, aroused the indignation of the whole civilised world against their rule. Mr. Balfour may double bolt his prison gates, but the story of what t 'nc^ires behind them will not be kept from the public pen ; and we are much mistaken, should the brutalities which he contemplates be carried out, if that story does not arouse in the British people a fury of indignation which will sweep him from power like a tornado.

Some of the popular journals in England are using very plain language in reference to the tyrannical policy of Mr. Balfour and the murderous deeds of his police in Ireland. A Norwich paper entitled Daylight quite equals in that respect anything that can be found in the speeches of Irish orators or the writings of the Irish Press. In addition to several editorial paragraphs on the subject, it prints in large type an article over the signature of " Junius, Junior," in which our Tory rulers are handled without glceß. The following is an extract :—": — " The history of Great Britain and Ireland is a record, to a lamentable extent, of deeds of violence, of cruel oppression, and of bloodshed in murderous revenge. Its pages are stained with human blood through every century. Unhappily, history of this dark character is in process of making at the preßent time. In all the records of British rule iv Ireland few events have brought greater disgrace upon the national character than those which happened at Mitchelstown on Friday, September 9, 1887. The Tory Government, supported by a traitorous band of Liberal dissentients, is responsible for the foul and unnatural murders at Mitchelstown." Further on in the same article we read :— " The Tory Government has not hesitated to accept the responsibility in the House of Commons and before the world of the deeds of blood perpetrated by its agents in Ireland, and by defending their cowardly conduct and cruel murders has earned to itself everlasting infamy. Henceforth — for all time — throughout the civilised world this Government will be known in history — a history of its own making— as the bloody Tory Government of 1887 1 " When organs of the English working-classes take to writing in this strain, it needs no prophet to say that the days of Tory rule in England are numbered.

Another mad plunge down the Avernus slope of tyranny I Balfour paid a flying visr, to Dublin last week ending September 17. A meeting of the Privy Council was held, and as a result a proclamation appears in the Dublin Q-azette suppressing at a stroke of the pen every brauch of the League in the County Clare, all branches in the baronies of Leitrim and Loughrea in the County Galway, the barony of Corkaguiny in County Kerry, the baronies of Condons, Clongibbon, and Duhallow in County Cork ; and the barony of Shelburne in County Wexford. Ihese baronies embrace the areas wherein the struggles against Glanricarde, Webber, and Brooke are being fought out ; hence the proclamation of the League is an open and saameless effort to help the landlords to get the rents which the Government by their own legislation have in effect declared to be unjust. But it is highly probable that class partisanship will have precisely the opposite effect from that intended, and that before the fight is over the landlords in whose interest ie is exercised will have good reason to exclaim " Save us from our friends 1"

Perhaps the most significant commentary that could be made upon the monstrosity of this proclamation is that furnished in the action of the Lord Lieutenant's own tenantry. On the very same, day thrit the newspapers announced what the Privy Council had done they contained also a leport of a meeting of the County Down tenants of Little Castlereagh, at which a memorial was unanimously adopted asking for such a reduction in their rents as would enable them to live. The past season has been so disastrous a one for the farmers of County Down, they point out that in many cases the produce of the fields would not do more than meet the landlord's claims — in other words, that economic rent has almost entirely disappeared from the county 1 Where, xhen, they ask, are they 10 look for means to pay the landlord's tribute.

While the furtive Proclamation-writer was concocting his coup in the (Jastle, he was pounced upon by a limb of the law, in the shape of a process-server, and handed a writ at the suit of Mrs. Peggy Dillon, the Galway mid wire, who nas taken an action against him tor defamation. The thing was a complete surprise, and the rage and astonishment of the skulking anstoctat wheu the document was thrust upon him made him for a moment seem to forget the respect due to that law about whose sanctity he is so fond ot prating. He made a movement as though he would imitate Mr. Davitt's example in the matter of (Jastle Proclamations and wipe his patent pumps with the Lord Chancellor's summons ; but, on secoud consideration, he ordered that the Under-Secretary, Sir William Kaye, should look after the matter. Eventually Mr. (Joll accepted service of the writ, and " appeaiance " to it has in due form been enteied in the law courts. Heuce we may in a very short time expect some pleasant distractions from the more serious business with which the slauderei of Peggy Dillon has furnished the country, and waich is certain, eventuate how it may, to cover his name with ridicule as it is already covered with infamy.

Our English visitors of the Home Rule Union seem to bo profoundly impressed with the universality and the heartiness of the reception which they have met, north, bouth, and centre. In Limerick, Tralee, Derry, Bandon, Toomebndge,. jUagtrj.cifol , aud sundry other places, they have been received by the people as men who come with the olive branch and an honest desire to help the people's cause deseived to be received. They expiess the astonishment whicu they teel at the system of rule which prevail^ in lieland, so totally at variance with the belief which haa bet_.i > lung impressed upon English minds, that people in Ireland are g jverned in the same way as people in BnglanJ. They now see wuat the rule of the (Jastle, the landlords, and tne police is like for tue first time ; and tueir testiinouy, when they go back to narrate their experience^, must be a revelation to their fellow-countrymen. Oao ot our visitors, Mr. JLWuuner M.P., has shown his sympathy with Ireland in the splendidlypiacucul way of subscribing a thousand pornds towards the Evicted

Tenants' Fund and towards the promotion of Irish industries. Mr. Labouchere, M.P , also sen Is a contribution of twenty-five pounds for a similar purDoae. Ireland, whatever betide, can never forget the nctiorrof such honest and generous Englishmen as these. ■Jfeneral Buller hardly raises himself in public estimation by the facWthathisißonoof the nameß attached to the latest proclamation of the League. He has been created a member of the Privy Council in Ireland, and his signature appearß in the Gazette as one of the authorities ordering the suppression of that organisation which he not very long ago declared had been, in the belief of the people, their salvation. On the same occasion Sir Redrers Buller stated on his own account that the law waa entirely administered for the benefit of the rich and against the poor ; yet be feels no hesitation in himself taking a psrt in the administration of such partisan law. Therefore, he has condemned himself beforehand out of his own mouth. A sneak thief would hardly, we venture to think, be guilty or. the despicable aci perpetrated, we suppose, in the name of the Local Government Bonrd in Gweedore. On Friday 1 ist a quantity of wool belc eing to the Donegal Industrial Fund, under the management ot Mrs. Earnest Hart, was seized under a distress warrant for unpaid seed-rate, and put up for sale by the Head Constable of Dungloe. Father M'Fadden. who was present at the transaction, protested against it on the ground that the wool was the p-op?rty of Mrs. Hart, but this did not avail to save it. An emergency skulker came forward, as no other bidder could he found, and carried off the sack of wdol for a guinea. Thus, in all probability, many industrious hands will be kept in enforced idleness for some time. From the report of the sale which we have seen, it looks as thojgb it were an illegal seizure as well as a pitiful and contemptible trick; and in that case the grabber may have reason to regret their precipitancy. Mr. John Ruskell, J. P.,under-agent of the Earl of Wicklow.turned three labourers out of their employment and their homes because, having bf»en selected by lot (as murderers are usually selected), they nobly refused to discharge the revolting task of emergency men at an impending eviction, and tear down their fellows' houses with crowbars. The action on ets the whole-souled and enthusiastic approval of Colonel King-Harman. He indignantly repudiated the suggestion of Mr. Srxton that it might be fairly described as boycotting. " No air, he said," I think an employer has a perfect right to demand those in his employment to do certain work,aDd if they refuse, to dismiss them.' But if a farmer refused to employ a land-grabber or a member of the crowbar brigade ; if a (shopkeeper refused to deal with him, that wonld undoubtedly be boycotting, within the meaning of the Coercion Act, and would emi'le the perpetrator to Bix month?' imprisonment with hard labour. This is one of the subtle distinctions that no fellow can understand ; but Colonel Kinp-Harman says it is all right, and tbar mu"t content us. If we had not Colonel King-Harman's word to the contrary, we would be disposed to think that a meaner and crueller piece of petty tyranny was never perpetrated than that of which the F.arl of Wicklow and his agent were guilty. MonsigDor Persico, in continuation of his visit to the south, arrived in Cork last week ending September 17. On Monday he was the recipient of an address from the corporation. The address gave expression to the feelings of love for, and loyally to, the Holy See so common among Catholic Irishmen. It recalled the memory of the occasions on which the occupint of the Chair of Peter made return, by cordial assistance and relief, in the hour of national emergency. A more than usually gratifying incident marked the proceedings. The Protestant members of the corporation were, of course, unable to subscribe to the very Catholic address of their brother-members ; but a resolution of theirs was read by Aldtrman Dale, in which they expressed their desire to join with their Catholic brethren in welcoming the Papal Envoy in their midst. Such action on their part shows how little they are' suspicious of Catholicity. The experience the toleration of Irish Catholicism, and feir and envy have both died out und»r its influence. It is only where hate is maintained by ignorance and misrepresentation ihattheold mistrust survives.