The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-17 00:00:00

THE FENIAN 011THAOTA.

Assuming that no one is surprised, however
shocked he may be,at the Clerkenwell massacre, the Times
endeavour to explain how this occurs. The thought of
such a crime would never come into the heads of the
worst confederacy of law-breaking Englishmen, but these
Fenian' have done it in as quiet a way as if it were only
taking so many pigs to market. And yet the natural affec-
tions of Irishmen are strong, and in the sacrifices they make
for their relatives they certainly excel the Engliah. The
reason for the detestable villanies they commit the Times
pronounces to be the outrageous egotism, the utter selfish-
ness, the shortsightedness, and the downright folly of an
exaggerated national sentiment. Of coarse, it began with
the tribe, or the sept, or whatever it was called, and
it is only in latter times that local feelings and
antagonisms have almost merged in the national, or
what is thought national. Putting out of count his-
torical and local variations, tho ordinary Irishman
just thinks of the object before him—the land to be
obtained, the tenure to be secured, the quarrel to be
avenged, the nation to be vindicated, the party engage-
ment to be curled out—and shuts his eyes to everything
else in the world. Had the race been one-eyed, to see a
foe alone; one-handed, to do naught but the deed of
blood ; and with that simplicity of reasoning powers to
see one law of life and set of instincts suitable for itself
alone, it could not have been more thoroughly made to the
head of agitators and demagogues.
The Doily News observes that the sense of a shifting and
inapprehensible peril which is the main element in the pre-
sent disturbed state of the public mind, has some excuse,
but is not altogether jastifiable. Much that has occurred
in the Fenian troubles displays a want of intelligence and
promptitude on the part of the police which mars even
their fidelity and courage. The law properly ►pplied is
adequate for the ends of prevention and protection, and to
go beyond it is to imitate the conduct of the Fenians them-
selves. When the ordinary rules of procedure and evi-
deans are laid aside, the most trivial suspicions become
evidence, and the slighter they are the more obstinate is
the credulity which attaches weight to them. If we treat
all Irishmen as if they were Fenian*, or sympathisers with
Fesianiam, we shall do something to make them so ; and
shall Lwow the peril against which it is our business to
guard.

The Herald praises the government for calling out spe-
cial constables, snd looks to see the call responded so alth
alacrity.

The Standard firmly believes that the institution of an
efficient system of street patrolling by a citizen guard,
acting calmly, intelligently, and entirely free from any
exaggerated alarms, would not merely ensure the detection
of Fenian, but would be a sure method of prevention. If
they find that every householder is on his guard, and that
there are constables in every street specially occupied in
looking after them and watching cm/ lurking idler, and
every suspicious act, they will soon find that the game is
up and incendiarism impossible. Moreover, the moral
effect of such a demonstration would be overwhelming.
The Star has no doubt whatever that by the vigilant
use of the police, backed by the abundant voluntary ser-
vile of the public, the government will soon succeed in
allaying all public apprehensions, and removing those
painful impressions of our state which have only too
promptly been created throughout these realms and over
the European continent.

The Telegraph warns the Fenian that they may meet
with Lynch law. English justice is nobly slow in trying
and punishing accused men, but if English artisans are
once roused by the wail of their murdered children, and
the sight of their burning workships, a Fenian incendiary
"caught in the act" may get a very short time to repent.
The Telegraph also prints a communication from the
"London Committee of the Irish Republican Brother.
hood," emphatically disclaiming any connection with
the Clerkenwell outrage, pledging themselves to
do their utmost to discover the perpetrators
and punish them, and expressing the belief that
" it has been the deed of individuals acting from personal
motives and impelled to it by one whom, if our suspicions
be verified, we shall execute without compunction as one
unworthy to live in our own interest as well as in that of
humanity at large." Our contemporary has also received
a number of threatening letters, two of which it prints.
One of them say a :—" Keep the Police ►t a more respect-
full distance, or, if not, your premises, bein; composed
principally of brick and mortar, may possibly came tumb-
ling about your Editorial ears."