The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-05-26 00:00:00

THE ALLEGED DYNAMITE PLOTS AT
LIVERPOOL.

At the Liverpool Police•conrt on Saturday DENNIS
DEAf3EY and PATRICK FLANNAGAN, railway brakes-
men ; TIMOTHY FEATHERSTONE, alias O'BRIEN, alias
KEINNEDY, newspaper correspondent ; DANIEL
O'HERLIHY, ink manufacturer' and HENRY DAvroN,
alias JOHN O'CONNOR, were brought up on remand
before Mr. Raffles, the stipendiary, on the following
charges ;—(1) Treason felon ; (2) conspiring together
to damage, injure, and destroy public and other build-
ings ; (3) being in possession of explosives with intent
to commit a felony; and (4) conspiring together to
murder the subjects of her Majesty.
Mr. Marks conducted the prosecution ; Dr. Commins
appeared for Featherstone and O'Herlihy ; Dr.
O'Feely for Deasey and Flannagan; and Mr. Little
represented Dalton.
Mr. Marks said that the•magistrate would remem-
ber that Deasey and Flannagan were on a former
occasion committed by him for trial at the assizes,
where their trial was postponed in order that they
might be arraigned along with the prisoners who had
been arrested. Consequently they were-that morning
taken before him under a writ of habeas corpus. He
proposed, after submitting a very large quantity of
evidence, to ask for the committal of these men
for trial at the assizes on the charges above•men-
tioned. Although these men were charged with a
joint offence, they had been arrested under different
circumstances, and there were different sets of facts
which applied to each prisoner individually, as well as
the general broad facts which affected the whole of the
men connected with the conspiracy. He had no
desire to burden him by opening with the facts affect-
ing Deasey and Flannagan alone, because on a former
occasion they were well placed before him. After
detailing the circumstances of the arrests of the other
prisoners, Mr. Marks called witnesses.

Sub-Inspector Starkie, of the Royal Irish Constabu-
lary at Cork, said he apprehended the prisoner
Timothy Featherstone on the 29th of March, at a
refreshment house. On his being searched there were
found upon him a green document and a letter, dated
the 29th of March, addressed to Messrs. J. Mont-
gomery and Co., ordering four carboys of sulphuric
acid and containing a money-order requisition ; and an
old envelope, addressed "Mr. D. O'Herlihy, 10, Great
George's-street West, Cork." and bearing a Glasgow
post mark of the 19th of February. At his lodgings
was found a glass tube with a cork in it, known as a
teat tube, which corresponded with the test tube shown
in a diagram on the green document.
Head-Constable Vaughan gave corroborative evi-
dence as to the arrest of Featherstone, and said he
arrested O'Herlighy the same evening.
After evidence had been given by manufacturing
chemists as to the purchase from them by the pri-
soners Featherstone and O'Herlihy of large quanti-
ties of ni ale and sulphuric acid, the further hearing of
the case was adjourned till Monday.

On Monday the above-named prisoners were fur-
ther examined before Mr. Raffles, when evidence was
called tracing the carboys from the shipping company
to Deasey, and from him to other persons acting under
his instructions.
Several witnesses gave evidence about the carriage
of the carboys. Witnesses from the Cork Post-office
deposed to the issue of money-orders from a person
purporting to be " D. O'Herlihy, 10, Great George-
steeet west, Cork," for chemical manufacturers at
Glasgow; John Leahy, head letter-carrier, Cork,
identified a written request that letters addressed to
O'Herlihy, as above, bhould he delivered at 77,
Shandon-street ; and letter carriers were called who
deposed to delivering letters addressed to O'Herlihy at
the house in Shandon-street.

Dr. DuprAs, Colonel Majendie, RA., and Lieu-
tenant• Colonel Ford, R.A., testified to the character
of the chemicals and infernal machine.

The inquiry was then again adjourned, but the de.
positions of the witnesses from Cork were read over so
that they might return to Ireland.

On Tuesday the examination of the prisoners was
continued, when the most important witness was
Dr. Campbell Brown, Professor of Chemistry at
University College and public analyst, who repeated
his evidence as to the character of the chemicals
and appliances found in the box which was in
Deasey's possession when he arrived in Liverpool
from Cork. He also stated that documents found in
Dalton's pocket-book referred to the mixing of the
same explosive substances as were found in Deasey's
box. The green document called "the cure for gout,"
was a receipt for the composition of what was known
as "Fenian Fire," and was used for spontaneously
raising fire for incendiary purposes.
In cross-examination by Dr. O'Feely, Dr. Campbell
Brown said the distinction between combustion and
explosion was accurately drawn and recognized in
chemistry. A mixture of potash and sugar was an
explosive, and he should not call it a combustible.
He had measured the tine it took for the mixture to
explode. It exploded much more rapidly than gun-
powder mixture, and it had therefore been discarded
for projectile purposes. As late as last Saturday
morning he exploded some of the dynamite found on
Deasey by detonation or percussion, and also by a
certain temperature. He had not raised the tempera.
ture so high as to explode it by flame. He did not
know that it was the theory of the prosecution that it
was intended to explode this dynamite found in the
box by flame. The mixture of chlorate of potash and
sugar was intended to be the first agent in causing the
explosion, the second or int.rmediate agent, in his
opinion, being fulminate of mercury, mentioned in
Dalton's book.

At ter some further evidence, the examination was
again adjourned.