The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-08 00:00:00

THE REVIVAL OF FENIANISM.

There is no longer room to doubt that Fenianism is
once more displaying itself in active operation. The cap-
ture of the alleged Fenians, Davitt and Wilson, and their
examination at the Marylebone Police-court have led to
the disclosure of a wide-spread organisation for the col-
lection and distribution of offensive weapons throughout
the -United Kingdom. It would be premature as yet to
pronounce upon the guilt of these men; but it is unques-
tionable that all the evidence collected points to renewed
hostile movements on the Part of the Brotherhood. The
Times gives some particulars on this subject. For some
time past fire-arms and ammunition have been sent to
Glasgow, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Manchester, and Leeds,
and have been forwarded from those places to Ireland.
If these weapons had been packed in cases
such as are ordinarily used by gunmakers, or if
the parcels had been directed to gunsmiths, there
would have been nothing to arouse suspicion ; but
when the police found that a person who was
ostensibly a Waits and soda merchant in Leeds was
receiving and sending away rifles, bayonets, revolvers,
and cartridges, packed in what appeared to be flour-
barrels, herring-tubs, and spirit casks, and directed at
one time to a spirit dealers, and at others to general mer-
chants, to a gentleman from London staying at an hotel, or
to ladies whose occupation was not specified, it was natural
that a feeling of distrust should be excited. Officers of the
detective force were, therefore, set to work throughout the
kingdom in order to trace these mysterious parcels to the
original consignors ; and, according to the evidenc e
given at Marylebone during the examination of the
two prisoners who now stand charged with treason-felony,
the police succeeded about the end of March in tracing
some boxes and barrels containing firearms and ammu-
nition to the prisoner Wilson; who is a gun and pistol
maker in Birmingham. Froth this town the cases were
watched to various Manufacturing towns, whence their
contents were repacked in small barrels and despatchedto
Ireland, where the police finally took possession of them.
From the extent of the operations which have become
known to the police, it is clear that funds of a consider-
able amount are in the hands of the conspirators' agents,
" subscribed," as Mr. Poland said, "by the wretched
dupes of the Fenian movement." Many of the weapons
were of very poor quality.
It may be interesting 'to give some account of the case
as it at present stands against the two prisoners. The
story dates back to the 26th of March. On the afternoon
of that day two detectives were watching a passage in
Caroline-street, Birmingham, which leads to a small
house called " The Cottage," occupied by a man named
Rafferty. A young man, whose name is Meeningham,
brother to one of Wilson's partners, and employed by the
firm, took something in a handcart up to Rafferty's cot-
tage. He was followed up the passage by Wilson, and
in a short time the two came down the passage, and
Meeningham, who ptished the handcart, started on the
run for the receiving-house of the Midland Railway. There
he delivered a large deal box which contained 19 muzzle-
loading rifles, 19 bayonets, one Snider rifle, and one sword
bayonet. The box was addressed " John Wilson, Mid-
land Goods Station, Leeds.—To be called for. From
John Wilson." Two days afterwards the prisoner Wilson
ciaimed the box at the Leeds parcel office and signed a re-
ceipt for it. He then accompanied another man,who wheeled
the box away in a hand-cart,as far as Hunslett-lane,where
he turned into a public-house and was lost sight of by
the detective who followed the man with the cart until
the box Was deposited in a warehouse in Miln's-yard,
Swinegate, Leeds. This warehouse was taken by Davitt,
under the name of W. R. Jackson, on the 28th of
January. He agreed to give £lO a year for the premises,
and to pay a month's rent in advance, representing himself
to be a commercial traveller, who wanted the place as a
store for soda and soap. During the time he was in the
occupation of this place he lodged at No. 22, Oak-road,
near Leeds, with a man who acted as warehouseman, and
who was known by the aliases of Wilson, Rawlinson,
Henderson, and Anderson. This was the man who took
the box from the prisoner Wilson at the Railway-station.
After the box had been placed in the warehouse the place
was locked up for the night. On the following morning
Davitt and his assistant opened the warehouse about 9
o'clock, and shortly afterwards the warehouseman went
away and returned with four or five empty casks. These
casks were filled, and Davitt assisted the man to put them
into the hand-cart, and gave him delivery notes. Four
mots were taken, two at a time, to the railway station.
A fifth cask was taken in the direction of the York-
road, but it does not appear to have been traced. The four
caskstakentothe station were filled with arms and ammuni-
tion. These casks wereaddressed to various persons in Ire-
land, and cards affixed to them stated that they were from
dealers of the names of Rawlinson and Henderson in
Leeds —neither of which persons are known. To return
to Birmingham. There, on the' 29th of March, the de-
tectives on watch saw young Meeninham with the hand-
cart, followed by Wilson, go up to Rafferty's cottage and
take a cask to the parcel receiving-house of the goods
station. This cask contained thirty revolvers and 700
cartridges, made up in 14 packages. It was addressed,
" Matthew Ward, Licensed Broker, 68, Rutterglen
Loon, Glasgow—From J. Johnston," and was delivered
at the shop of a marine store dealer, whose name was not
painted up. From this place it was removed by two men
to the shop of an Irishman, a dealer in old clothes, named
Macnamara, living in Gildie-court, in the same city, and
was there seized by the police. Again, on the 14th of
April, Meeningham, followed, as heretofore, by Wilson,
went up the passage towards Rafferty's cottage with three
apparently empty boxes in the hand-cart. In a short time
the two reappeared, and Meeningham ran with the cart to
the Globe Parcel Delivery Office, where he left the boxes.
The three boxes were despatched to Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, and there taken possession of and kept by the police
who never had any application for them. One was ad-
dressed to "J. N. Kershaw, Glassmakers' Arms, Bailiff-
gate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne," and the two others to " C. H.
Williams, Globe Parcel Express Office." Neither of these
persons was known in the town, the landlord at the Glass-
makers' Arms being a man named Mullens. Each of these
boxes contained twenty-five revolvers. Lastly, on the
16th of April, young Meeningham went up the entry
leading to Rafferty's house, wheeling a hand-cart, and
much the same performance as before was repeated by
him and Wilson. The hand-cart contained two boxes.
One of them was addressed to " Mr. C. H. Williams,
Globe Parcel Express Office, Newcastle-on-Tyne,"
and the other to " Mr. Benjamin Richards,
Globe Parcel Express, Market-street, Manchester."
On the 19th of April Davitt went into this
office in Manchester, and asked if a parcel so directed had
arrived. The man in the office having been told by the police
what to say, replied that he had got notice from Birming-
ham that the box would arrive on the morrow. Accord-
ingly, on the following day, an Irishman named M`Carty
came for the box, paid 3s. for the carriage, and with the
assistance of another man put the box into a cart, and
drove away, followed by a detective in a cab. M` earthy went
first to George Leigh-street, and, leaving the cart in the
care of his companion, entered the house of one
Geoghegan. On leaving this house he drove to
Bengal-street, and stopped at his own door.
The detective then got out of his cab, and im-
mediately he was seen, M`Carty's companion ran away.
He was pursued, but managed to escape. M`Carty, how-
ever, who keeps a beerhouse and grocer's shop, carried
the box indoors, but did not claim it when the police
took possession. This box contained 100 rounds
of Boxer cartridges for Snider rifles, and five and a half
packages containing altogether 1,100 revolver cartridges
marked "No. 12 M. Eley Brothers." The day after this
discovery Geoghegan's house was searched, and on the
premises were found three new revolvers and five boxes,
each holding 25 revolver-cartridges. There can be little
doubt that all the weapons and ammunition seized by the
police in this country would ultimately have found their
way into Ireland, where the Dublin police have stopped
a large number of similar consignments upon their arriva
in the steamers from Holyhead.

The National Debt at the close of the last year
was £748,276,183, and since then the sum'of 27,000,000
has been converted into a temporary annuity. The debt
is now less than it has ever been since 1813. It is no less
than £120,000,000 below the amount it stood at in 1815,
and £70,000,000 below the return of 1857, at the close of
the Crimean war and Indian mutiny.

The Austrian correspondent of the Cologne Gazette
say that complaints arise on all sides of the ruthless man-
ner in which the valuable mountain woods are sold to
speculators and cut down by them. This misfortune has
now reached the Salzkammergut with its lovely woods,
and an earnest remonstrance appears in the New Free Press
on this subject. The woods are recklessly cut down and
the land stripped of its magnificent growth of timber.
On Monday a respectable man named Ward was
assisting a publican on Wash-common, Newbury, to turn
a low character named Brindley out of the house, when
Brindley threatened to "do for ' Ward. He afterwards
attacked Ward in the road and gave him such a fearful
blow on-the side of his head that he died in the course of
a few minutes, Brindley. who is a lazy, dissolute fellow, i.►
in custody.

The Dundee Advertiser gives some account of the
annual supper and ball in honour of her Majesty's birth-
day given at Balmoral Castle. The Queen and the Prin-
cesses Louise and Beatrice were present, and entered into
the hilarity of the demonstration with zest. Besides the
servants of the Queen's household, and the tenantry on
the estate of Balmoral, many of those from Abergeldie and
Birkhall were also present, as well as all the gamekeepers,
gardeners, and foresters on the royal estates.
DROUGHT IN YORKSHIRE. —There is still no rain.
With only 7iin. of rain in 1870, and less than 2in. in April,
May, and June, the condition of the land is one of com-
plete dryness. The whole of the early sown turnips are
lost, and farmers, as a rule, are quite puzzled what to do.
The land is so hot and void of moisture that it is quite
vain to sow afresh, though some have ventured on that
course. Wheat bears the drought well, but everything
else is getting worse. On Sunday, though a brisk east
wind blew, the heat in the sun was 109 deg., and the
barometer rose to 30'50. Fat stock is rapidly rising in
price, and lean cattle are a drug.—Times.

MARK LEMON'S PLAYS.—Among the dramatic
productions of the late Mr. Mark Lemon, we note " The
Adventures of a Gentleman ;" " Bob Short ;" " Captain
Pro Tern ;" " Chimes " (with G.A. a'Beckett) December
19, 1844 ; " Cold Water Cure •" " Domestic Economy ;"
" Don Caesar de Bazan " (with G. A. a'Beckett), October
8, 1844 ; " Fashionable Arrivals;" " Fridolin "
(opera) ; " Gentleman in Black
;" " Grandfather
Whitehead ;" " Gwynneth Vaughan;" "Hearts are
Trumps;" " Honesty the Best Policy;" " Ins and
Outs; "Ladies' Clubs ;" " Love and Charity ;" " M.P.
for the Rotten Borough," " Medea " (Burlesque) ; " Mind
Your own Business," April 24, 1852; " My Man Tom ; "
" Number Nip " (with Shirley Brooks) ; December "26,
1853 ; Peter Wilkins" (with G. A. a'Beckett), April 13,
1846 ; "Railway Belle," November 20, 1854 ; "St. George
and the Dragon" (with G. A. a'Beckett), March 24, 1845
" Sardanapalus (with G. A. a'Beckett), July 20, 1853 ;
" School for Tigers," " Three Secrets," " Wax and
Wonder," and " What will the World Say?"—London