The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The law's delay was, in the opinion of
he Prince of Denmark, one of the thousand natural

ills which might drive a man to shake off the bur-
den of life, unless he were restrained by the fear of
something after death. But this curse, so oppres-
sive to humanity generally, seems to be a blessing
to one particular class—tie political evildoers in a
free country, with a fair supply of money and clever
lawyers to back them. The legal advisers of the
Crown in Ireland, and all who are concerned in the
prosecution of the Fenians, must expect to have a
difficult time of it. If the gentlemen who have
"virtually established" thelrish Republic had shown
as much skill in their political and military arrange-
.

merits as they have in legal proceedings since
ntheir capture they might have given the Gover-

meat much trouble.

The difference probably arises

from the circumstance that their acts were their

own; while their defence has been the work of
their lawyers. At any rate, they are now bent on
proving what endless facilities a traitor has for
defying the law even under the despotic sway of
Queen Victoria. The lesson taught by O'Connell

has not been lost on his more democratic successors.

That agitator used to boast that he could drive a
coach-and-six through an Act of Parliament.
People, with all their respect for his astuteness, and
while giving due credit to the ambiguities of Irish
law, which in glorious uncertainty probably sur-
passes that administered in this island, thought that
he exaggerated, and it was left to the last years of
his life to prove that he had not overrated his
powers. The history of the famous traversers, their
protracted trial, and their final escape are still fresh
in the recollection of their countrymen, who, with

the help of the clever lavyers whom 'Dublin still
maintains, are determined io fight the Government
at all points. The Fenians are not content with de-
fending themselves; they assume the aggressive, and
advance to the attack with a spirit which might well
disconcert their opponents and puzzle the twelve
judges, who have not seen such a flood of political
litigation since they were on the Bench. There are
proceedings against the Lord-Lieutenant, against
the police, against Sir Jahn Gray. Though the
Fenians have all the authoritative and influential

classes against them, though the Roman Catholic
priests denounce them more bitterly than Protestant
rectors would dare to do, though the Freeman's
Journal vituperates them and the Nation describes
the arrest of their chief :n contemptuous terms,
though, above the level of their own deladed fol-

lowers, they have not a friend in the country, yet the

law takes them under its protection, and the insti-
tutions they have vilified and sought to destroy
prevent the strongest Govanment in Europe from
depriving them of a single chance of escape. The
courts are occupied day after day with their proceed-
ings against her Majesty's representative, and it is
even said tharthe case of " Luby v. the Lord-Lieu-
tenant," in which a certiorari was yesterday refused
in the Queen's Bench, will be brought into the Ex-
chequer by the service of new writs on Lord Wode-
house. As there are plenty of Lubys ready and
willing to worry the authorities, it is not impossible
that the Castle will have to stand on its defence
against a whole series of Fenian actions. It is an
interesting spectacle, which we may recommend to
the notice of our critics in either hemisphere. The
Russian organs which compare Ireland with Poland,
and think that the present action of the Irish Go-
vernment is the counterpart of the Russian pro-
ceedings in 1863, will do well to compare the sim-
plicity of General Berg's martial law with the
technical procedure which has just occupied the
three common Law Courts in Dublin. The Special
Commission opens on Monday next. Great prepa-
rations have been made by the Government ; the
cases against the prisoners, we presume, are coin-
plete, and in the natural course of things the trials
might be over before Christmas. But the Fenians
were not all inclined to allow the Government to
get rid of them so easily. A motion was made in
the Queen's Bench yesterday on behalf of Luby,
O'Leary, and Donovan Rossa for a writ of cer-
tiorari to remove anyindictment that may be
found against them at the Special Commission on
the ground that a fair and impartial trial cannot
be had in Dublin. If such a motion had been suc-
cessful, it would, of course, have been useless for
the Special Commission to sit at all, as every
Fenian would have the same right to have his trial
postponed. The grounds on which this modest
request was made were that articles have been
published in the newspapers against the Fenian
body, and also that Archbishop Cullen has de-
nounced their proceedings in a Pastoral. But if
prisoners accused of treasonable practices are to
have their trials postponed, and the Commission
for trying them virtually superseded, because the
public reprobates treason, it is difficult to see how
justice is ever to be administered at all. It is not
likely that three months hence any more than to-
day the heads of the Romish Church and the loyal
newspapers will cease to express opinions adverse
to Fenianism, and as the prisoners are the chief
representatives of Fenianism in the country, and
are to be tried for being so, such expressions of
opinion must continue to prejudice loyal jurymen
against them. In the case of any mysterious and
horrible crime, like that of the poisoner Palmer,
it may be well to postpone the case and send it
out of the county for trial, because in the
neighbourhood the matter has been discussed and
argued with violence and obstinacy, and a great
number of people have expressed opinions on the
evidence which they may, perhaps, shrink from 're-
tracting. Butin such a prosecution as the present
there could be no such reason. Everybody is con-
versant with and takes an interest in the matter,
nor is it likely that one part of the country will be
more or less prejudiced than another. If there be
a difference, it is probably in favour of the greater
fairness and impartiality of the capital, since the
population of a large city is more !nixed, and likely
to yield juries of more moderate principles.
The Queen's Bench, we are glad to see, have
unanimously refused the writ of certiorari, and
the trials will, we suppose, proceed, unless some
new pretext for delay can-be devised. In what-
ever way the prosecutions may end, the object
of the Government and of all quiet people will
be practically attained. Fenianism has failed.
President O'Mahony and his Cabinet may collect
their ten-cent notes, and the Senate may sit in
secret or public session from one month's end to
another ; but on this side of the water the thing is
dead. The recent movement has demonstrated the
good sense and loyalty of the educated class in Ire-
land, to whatever Church or shade of politics it may
belong. Those appeals to the passions of the igno-
rant, of the effects of which we have just had such a
terrible example in another part of the world, are
now, happily, things of the past in Ireland. Every
respectable man, whether he calls himself
i Orange-
man or Ultramontane, now feels that tis his duty to
impress on all whom he can influence the necessity
of living in peace with his neighbours of the rival
creed, and the most extreme of them are less ex-
treme in their acts than in their hereditary opinions.
The efforts cf the British Government to convince
the people of its own just intentions, and of the good
will of the inhabitants of Great Britain towards
them, have made way after thirty years of incre-
dulity. The Irish know they have no burdens on
their industry, no obstacles to their success in life ;
that any constitutional anomalies that remain are
mere relics of the past, with little practical
signi-
ficance, and that even these there is little indis-
position on the part of England to remove.
" THE FARMER " ON AUTUMNAL ROSES.--Some
little discussion has lately been raised by the ques-
tion, "Is the rose a florist flower ?" Unquestion-
ably it is; and, moreover, no plant or tribe of
plants has received longer-continued or more uni-
versal. and careful attention at the hands of florists,
and in none other has the triumphs of floriculture
been more successfully and gorgeously developed.
Our present object is not, however, to inflict a rose
treatise upon our readers, but merely to throw
out
a few plain and simple hints for their guidance in
managing autumnal flowering roses. " The twice
g
bloomin roses of Pasturn" are often referred to in
the writings of Roman authors, but they seem to
have been only single, or at most barely semi-
double varieties, belonging to the highly flagrant