The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-17 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1870.

As if the melancholy ocean and Fenianism were
not enough to disturb the excitable imagination of
her people, poor Ireland has for several weeks had to
endure the episode of Mr. DARCY IRVINE'S
insanity. A country gentleman in the prime of life,
with an income of nearly £B,OOO a year, having be-
sides this personal property amounting to some
£so,ooo—a magistrate, a landowner, the possessor of
a castle, and gardens, and a park, and a saw-
mill, he suddenly goes out of his mind in
the most odd and whimsical way imaginable
with all the appearance of aspiring to the notoriety
of a political agitator, whose aim in life is at one
and the same time—to set the law at defiance and to
vindicate it. His manifestations of excitement bore all
the aspect of insurrectionary demonstrations. He
wielded the pen and brandished fire-arms alternately.
Re appeared in Enniskillen armed with revolvers.
He fired shots into the dwelling-house of
his supposed foe, Captain BUTLER, a neigh-
bouring stipendiary magistrate. He covered his own
place, Irvinestown, with printed placards of the
most incendiary character. He " wired " telegrams
of the wildest description to all kinds of illustrious
personages. Addressing himself to the QUEEN, he
informed her Majesty by telegraph that he was in
possession of what his Sovereign had not—to wit,
the finest lake vi,aw in the country—magnanimously
adding that he placed it entirely at HER MAJESTY'S
command. He informed H.R.H. the Duke of
CAMBRIDGE, as the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-
Chief that he, Mr. DARCY IRVINE, must have martial
law, and no mistake ! He announced to the LORD-
LIEUTENANT of IRELAND and to the LORD
CHANCELLOR of IRELAND simultaneously, and, it
must be said also, incoherently—what? Why nothing
less than this. "I was born," he wrote to them,
"what is called a genius; at seven years I was in
fractious [whatever that meant], and I am the only
gentleman whom I know in this country who dis-
tinguished himself in college." He put himself into
communication, in a manner that must have astonished
them all very considerably, with the Lord Mayors of
London and Dublin, as well as with the Provosts of
Glasgow and of Edinburgh. He apprised the Queen
that he felt ill, and that he deemed it essential for
the sake of the safety of her Crown and Throne and
Sceptre, that her Majesty should make up her royal
mind to interpose without further delay between
himself and his worst enemy, Captain BUTLER
aforesaid, of that otherwise the latter, after
killing him gradually during these last five years
would rob him with impunity by the aid of
Fenian rebels and Ribbonmen.. He " cabled " under
the waters of the Channel to the Queen's Private
Secretary the intimation that the turnkeys were
"rev olters," thereby contributing a new word to the
English dictionary. He despatched an express mes-
sage to the Secretary of the Carlton Club, em-
powering him at once to send across to
the sister island to his aid two first
class cooks, a couple of kitchenmaids,
a butler, a valet de chambre, two under-butlers, and
three housemaids. On the 16th ult. he issued a
wildly declamatory notice or proclamation, thus
expressed :—" Rise !" he cried, "sons of civil and
religious liberty, Orange and Green. Meet in Ennis-
killen on Friday, 20th May, on the Fair-green, in
defence of the QUEEN and her throne; in defence of
your lives; in defence of Irish rights; in defiance of
all party government; in defiance of the police
magistrates who wrote in the press that peaceful
inhabitants are shocked to see loyal men carrying
arms to protect their lives against assassins. United
we stand, divided we fall." Finishing off not with a
flourish, a la Bob Acres, of Odds, Triggers, and
Bullets, but with the superb bathos of " Yours truly,
H. M. D'ARCY IRVINE." The authorities at length be-
ginning to have a glimmering of the state of things,
put him under arrest, when, lo and behold, he instructs
his solicitor to issue a writ against the Crown for the
recovery of damages to the amount of £50,000 for
unlawful seizure and unauthorized detention. A
Commission of Inquiry at length pronounces
him to be of unsound mind—et voila tout.
Sorrowful and absurd though the whole
story is, it has its significance. It is, if you
will, from first to last, like " a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." But it is
for all that intensely and essentially indigenous of the
soil—it is distinctly born of the mad and lawless
follies by which what is called Fenianism has so long
been distracting the imagination of the more empty-
headed portion of the Irish population.

THE public will learn with great dissatisfaction
that the Treasury have put their threat in execution
and arrested Mr. EDMUNDS. He has been taken to
Whitecross-street Prison, having been arrested at
the suit of the Crown for the amount of the award
given against him. This would be all very well,
however hard the course of proceeding might ap-
pear, and however unusual the event might be, were
there not another side to the question. Mr. EDMUNDS
has commenced an action for libel against
Mr. GLADSTONE and other Treasury officials,
when forthwith he is put hors de combat,
and the case is virtually decided against him.
Inquiry was made in the House of Commons con-
cerning the matter some weeks ago, when Mr. LowE
informed the House that he did not mean to "hold
his hand." That promise he has kept with i, zeal
worthy of a better cause, but he may regret the