The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-16 00:00:00

THE FERIAS OUTRAGE.

The Times observes with satisfaction that the
persona already apprehended on suspicion of participation
of the above outrage have been charged with wilful mur-
der ; and, if this charge should be ultimately substantiated
on legal grounds, it will receive the fullest sanction from
the moral sense of the community. The crime removes all
doubt as to the nature of the struggle in which we are now
engaged. Our path will no longer be obscured by the
shadow of political considerations. We are confronted
by a gang of reckless criminals, who respect no laws,
human or Divine, and the government cannot now
hesitate in exerting the utmost vigour of the law.
In another article the Times instances the cessation yes-
terday of the funeral demonstrations as a proof that the in-
stinct of order has not yet died out of the national mind.
We are painfully made to feel, says the Daily News,
that between us and the people who do these things there
is no bond to restrain the impulses of a malignant fanati-
cism. They march straight to their goal, showing no con-
cern for their own lives, and none for us and our children,
when we come in their path. The disregard of consequences
to themselves is a perplexing element in the situation, for
it disappoints the hope that an exemplary act of severity
would teach them a lesson they would never forget. Al-
ready people are remarking that Caleraft's heroic remedy
is a failure. We "hall of course continue to administer it
until we find something better to do ; but confidence in
its sovereign efficacy is gone. No measures the go-
vernment can take can be too strong which are
directed to the detection of the guilty and the
diffusion of a general sense of ease and safety ; but before
proposing measures abrogating our ordinary constitutional
securities it will be well to inquire whether the best use
is at present being made of the powers already at the dis-
posal of the government. At present we are compelled to
' doubt it. If the reports which have been published are
true, this explosion, with all its terrible consequences,
might have been prevented by a little more vigilance
on the part of the police. Meanwhile there is no
fear that a fitting penalty will not be meted out to the
authors of this crime ; and with regard to a provision for
the innocent victims, the Daily New: takes leave to suggest
that the peculiar origin of this calamity marks it as an
occasion when the government itself ought to become the
organ of the national feeling.
The Herald trusts the researches which are now to be
made will bring to light the persons in the background
who pay the cost of enterprises of this kind. There must
be a secret committee in London or elsewhere, a band of
conspirators with considerable funds at their disposal, to
instigate these outrages from what they imagine to be a
position of security.
The Telegraph looks to the catholic clergy for a useful
alliance, and says it will be a great blunder if we give
thew at this moment any offence. It would also be
unworthy of the English nation if its anger against
Fenianisin should render it deaf to the just discontent
of the Irish people against wrongs that English legis-
lation still sustains—an alien church, the creature of
conquest, and the living memorial of the penal laws ;
and a lead system that makes Irish agriculture miserably
poor. We may hang convicted Fenian" with a gcod
conscience, but we should also thoroughly redress these
evils distinctly due to English policy, and still supported
by English power.
The Post dwells on the fresh evidence which has been
given of the incompetence of the London police to deal
with the Fenian conspirators.
The Star cannot bat believe that this deed will produce
a reaction and a revulsion in the feeling even of Irish
rebels. It would be a sin against human nature to suppose
that there can exist anywhere many creatures so utterly
Mee and wicked as they who planned and they who per-
petrated the crime over which now all England shudders.