The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-16 00:00:00

THE FENIAN ORGANISATION.

The organisation of the Fenian Brotherhood, which has
been hitherto kept as secret as the Itosicrucian mysteries,
is well detailed in the Pall Mall Gazette of Tuesday.
The writer has, we have reason to know, peculiar sources
of information, and although some of his statements may
be open to question, there is reason to believe that on the
whole the article is trustworthy. The writer says :
" The present instructions to circles and districts from
the centres are said to be to arm and wait.' No doubt
their arms are not highly finished as to stock and polish,
but they are effective weapons for all that. Their weak
point is neither arms nor numbers, but the loyalty of the
brethren. They are divided in their councils, and a con-
siderable minority is eager to sell the rest. In America
the division seems, for the present, hopeless. Leaving
out subsidiary factions, which are too numerous to men-
tion, the two great bodies which divide the brotherhood in
America are the Senate faction and the O'Neill faction.
The facility with which the Fenians sell each other is
surprising. They are merely dancing in a net in the full
sight of the Government and the police authorities, To
Stephens is due the main credit of the Fenian organisa-
tion. But it is a mistake to suppose, as the Fenians do
suppose, that Stephens was ever in the pay of the Govern-
ment. He is in Paris now, and in poverty ; whereas
Corydon, whom the Government did buy, has his pension
for life. Stephens, 'having lived much in France,
formed his plan on the system of the Marianne'
secret societies, There are districts communicating
with circles," circles' communicating with centres,'
and centres communicating with the head centre, who
confers with the Senate. Few but the head centre and
the Senate know what is going to be done. In fact, the
rise in the brotherhood is very slow from a district mem-
ber to a circle member, and from a circle member to
centre. Yet with all their caution, the Fenians are con-
stantly admitting spies, who only come in to let the
Government know what they are doing. It would, per-
haps, wean many from their guilt and folly, if they
could only know that men high in the Fenian
Councils both here, in Ireland, and America,
are in the pay of the Government authorities.
Some of the most important of these are only known to
the authorities by their initials. It was one of these,
whose warnings are now always attended to, who gave
notice of what was to be done at Clerkenwell, and a simi-
lar warning has lately been given in regard to other
designs which are or have been in contemplation. When
one of the chief informers, who had given evidence at
several trials, was brought to London, the Senate detailed
a man, whom we will call C., to shoot him. In mistake,
however, C. shot a bandsman in the Guards who had a
striking resemblance to the informer. C. got away and is
now safe in America. The Senate next entrusted the
informer's destruction to a man named F. F. used to
follow his desiginated victim home, but never mustered
courage to fire. F. was fainthearted ;he was watched, and
as it was found he had had a good chance of shooting his
man near the Milbank Prison and had not availed him-
self of It, the task was taken from him, and given to
Barrett, the man who was hanged for what the Fenians
call the' Clerkenwell example.' Barrett waited for three
weeks about Scotland-yard, but the informer was fully
warned, and kept away while Barrett was there. It may
be asked why did not the police arrest Barrett at once;
and the answer is very simple. To have arrested Barrett
would have been to disclose the whole source of their in-
formation, and it was a matter of very small importance
whether Corydon shot Barrett or Barrett shpt
Corydon compared with keeping the whole
threads of the plot in their hands unrevealed.
The arms seized at Paddington were never intended for
Ireland, they were meant for use in tho London districts.
How they were to be used we cannot say, but we can say
how they were got together. In the districts the men
composing the members subscribe twopence to sixpence a
week. These subscriptions are forwarded to the circles,
and by them again to the centres, who decide upon the
weapons to be bought and the foremost members to whom
they are to be given.

A shocking case of impalement has happened at a
Fever Hospital near Liverpool. Whilst a man named
Finney was attempting to escape he fell on the spikes,
and met with instantaneous death.
About a quarter of an inch of rain was measured
during last week in Manchester and Liverpool, and
rather more than the tenth of an inch in Sheffield, Hull,
and Newcastle. Scarcely any rain fell in the other
towns.

The agitation for an advance of wages is kept up
by the operatives in the cotton trade. The Bolton Spin-
ners' Association have just forwarded a circular to the
employers in that district asking for an advance of five
per cent. on the present prices.
Le Gaulais states that it is Prince William
Alexander of Orange who is the candidate for the crown
of Spain, spoken of by General Prim. The three months'
interval is to be devoted, says the same paper, to consider-
ing the proposal of an Iberian union.
The Eastern Budget says the electoral meetings of
the German party in Austria have resulted in an agree-
ment to pursue a conciliatory policy towards the other
nationalities, and to agitate in favour of a system of direct
elections to the Reichsrath. This programme is in accor
dance with that of the Government.
The Marchioness of Queensberry has sent another
cheque for £2O to the editor of the Irishman, for the re-
lief of the wife of a Fenian prisoner, and in a letter
accompanying the bequest expresses a wish to see the
union of all Irishmen for the attainment of self-govern-
ment by peaceful means.
Lady. Margaret Brooke, wife of Sir William
Brooke O'Shaughnessy, Knight, M.D., F.R.S., the
eminent telegraphist, and late Superintendent-General of
Telegraphs in India, died on Sunday. Her ladyship, who
was the daughter of Francis O'Shaughnessy, Esq., of
Curragh, county Clare, was born in 1807.

In lieu of the prohibited Christchurch Ball, arrange-
ments haVe been made for an Eton and Harrow Ball, to
take place at Oxford in the Conimemoration week,
namely, on Tuesday, June 21. The Public Schools Ball
will be in addition to those of the University, masonic,
and college balls.

The Attorney-General for Ireland has decided
the question as to whether there should be a new theatre
in Dublin. He considered a patent ought to be granted
under certain conditions, respecting prices of admission,
accommodation, ventilation, &c., and said he would so re-
port to the Lord Lieutenant.

The Eastern Budget understands that the new
Austro-Hungarian Minister: of Finance, M. de Lonyay,
has determined, with the concurrence of the Minister for
War, to make considerable reductions in the forthcoming
Austro-Hungarian military budget. The total expenses
caused by the Dalmatian insurrection amount to about
3,000,000 florins (2300,000).

Rebecca Lady Egeston died on the 11th inst., at
the great age of 90 years. The venerable lady was the
daughter of Mr. Josias Du Pre, of Wilton Park, Bucks,
by Rebecca, sister of the first Earl of Caledon. She
married 14th September, 1804, the Rev. Sir Philip Eger-
ton, of Oulton, and by him had issue a numerous family,
including the present baronet, Sir Philip De Malpas
Grey Egerton, M.P.

The following circuits of the judges have been
fixed c—Western (Mr. Baron Martin and Mr. Justioe
Willer.}—Winchester, Wednesday, July 13; Salisbury,
Tuesday, July 19; Dorchester, Friday, July 22; Exeter,
Tuesday, July 26 ; Bodmin, Monday, August 1; Wells,
Friday, August 5 ; Bristol, Wednesday, August 10.
Home (Lord Chief Justice Bovill and Mr. Justice Black-
burn)—Guildford, Monday, August 8.
Slight rain is reported to have fallen at some sta-
tions, and in the western district the sky continues cloudy.
Temperature materially altered during yesterday. In Lon-
don, at six o'clock in the morning, the thermometer
registered 65 degs., but at noon it had risen to 86 degs. in
the shade. Readings at other stations cre also reported
to have become higher. The wind is still very light and
variable, principally from the south-westward. The sea
is calm.

At an adjourned inquest held by 11r. Humphreys
on the body of Isabella Fuson, aged 25 years, a married
woman who was an actress at the Alhambra Theatre, in
Shoreditch, and who died recently after having prema-
turely given birth to a child, the jury returned a verdict
of wilful murder against some person unknown. Mr.
William Harding, a retired medical practitioner, has been
arrested by the police, and remanded on the charge of
haying caused the death of the deceased.
The shooting for the National Bile Association
Bronze Medal for Middlesex has commenced at Worm-
wood Scrubbs, by the selected representatise marksmen of
the Rifle Volunteer Corps of the county. In addition to the
bronze medal there are twenty-eight prizes in money, in
sums ranging from £1 to £lO, the high.st aggregate
score at the 200, 500, and 600 yards, takng the' bronze
medal and £10; the seeond £7; the third 2€ ; the fourth
and fifth, each £5; the sixth £4; the seventh and eighth,
each £3.