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

bilitlT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times reminds us that we have the Fenians acting
against society with remorseless ferocity ; and on behalf
of society we have the police, perplexed as they may well
be with outrages setting all calculation at defiance, hut still
fighting for us at all hazards with no inconsiderable suc-
'yeas. Let the reader just observe what was actually done on
Friday afternoon in the very din and tumult of a shock
scarcely less abrupt or astounding than an earthquake:
The police are incessantly at war, with crime for their
enemy, and in times of conspiracy like these the
service becomes desperate. Feniauism recognises in
the police force its natural foe. It was for murdering
a policeman that the Fenians were hanged at Man-
chester. It was in vindication of their right to
murder him that processions were organised in Ireland.
Duty like this in times like these demands somewhat
more active sympathy from the public than it is apt to
receive. Of course in all this the police are only doing
what they are engaged to do, and what we expect them
to do. We look for the service so confidently, and we
get it msurely, that we take it as easily as we do any
other eervice, and think no more of the courage and
fidelity of the constable than we do of the punctuality
of the postman. It does not occur to us to reflect
that these policemen, who are literally expected,
like a certain famous army, to "go anywhere
and- do anything," are comparatively few in number,
hardly worked, and grudgingly paid. The man who
rushed up to the lighted barrel on Friday afternoon, and
who would be expected and prepared to do the same this
morning, received, probably, 3s. a day. These men, who
are so naturally the mark of assassins that they have at
last been armed for self-preservation, earn about half the
wages of a good mechanic, and their career would be a hard
one were it not that their proved intelligence and courage
open to them other callings of greater promise. As the
representatives of the law, they fight at inevitable disad-
vantage in contending with crime. While their enemies,
the lawbreakers, have neither scruple nor responsibility,
they themselves are under the jealous scrutiny of opinion.
A constable who goes a step too far, or who employs what
may be considered undue violence, is called to a sharp
account. We are careful, like a free people, of our per-
sonal liberties, and though we yield obedience to the law,
we are not always patient under the exercise of authority.
We exact, therefore, from the police a moderation and'
forbearance which it must often be difficult to maintain;
and expect them to encounter the most ferocious violence
with temper, leniency, and caution.
The Daily News complains that the police, although
warned of the Clerkenwell outrage, failed to take sufficient
precautions. It seemed as if the constables really wished
to give the prisoners time in order to seize them red-
handed. If the Fenians cared nothing for the conse-
quences to others, provided Burke and Casey were set
free, the police authorities appear to have taken almost as
little heed of what might happen to anyone else, so that
Burke and Casey were held fast. The desire of getting
evidence appears to have been stronger than the desire
of preventing crime. The police have displayed
throughout the Fenian troubles a fidelity and courage
which cannot be too highly praised. But in the
highest places as in the lowest these qualities have
been marred by want of intelligence and promptitude.
The Manchester blunder was repeated at Clerkenwell.
In both places, proof has been given that with some per-
sons to be forewarned is not to be forearmed. The care-
lessness which allowed the c. cape of Stephens, and the
rescue of Kelly and Deasey, may have given the. Clerken-
well Fenians heart to essay the release of Burke and
Casey. The ascending scale of guilt in these enterprises,
from the bloodless escape of the Head Centre to the
solitary Manchester murder and the wholesale massacre at
Clerkenwell, is not more striking than the uniform inade-
quacy of the precautions of the police. Our contemporary
deems this to be a sufficient answer to those who would
give the Government extraordinary powers to deal with
such cases. Let the ordinary powers of the law first be
used, and then it will be time to consider the demand for
others.

Insurgents in the field, as the Telegraph reminds us, do
not kill and wound the helpless ; nor do they wantonly
destroy private property. The Fenians now " make war"
on us as we never make war on any foe. During the
Crimean campaign we spared Odessa because it was a
commercial city, full of peaceful men, though the guns of
our fleet could easily have razed it to the ground.
Even if a commander finds it needful to bombard a
town, he gives fair notice to the enemy that
non-combatants may be removed to a place of
safety. But the Fenians give us no notice : they attac.:
those who are peaceably inclined with an animosity that
English soldiers only display towards armed men, and witil
a treachery and a policy of no quarter that honourable
soldiers never shew even towards an enemy. It may seem
superfluous to meet ruffianism with reasoning, but it is
well for us to enlist against this new danger, not merely
the baton, the sword, and the doom of death, but the
moral indignation of our whole people, and to shew that
these miscreants who prowl about our streets flinging fire
into our warehouses and homes are not even entitled to the
appellation of rebels.

The Star believes that, in conjunction with the labours
of the detectives, the general calling out of special con-
stables will have the best possible effect. It will multiply
the difficulties of the public enemy; it will cast upon him
everywhere the flashing menace of the eye of the law; it
will provide a ready fund of force for his suppression ; it
will diffuse the atmosphere of preparation and intelligent
confidence, in which it is always found that conspiracy can
breathe less easily. While hesitating to pronounce all
danger past, and fully perceiving that, with desperadoes
of the most formidable character, acting upon the
stage of London for the gratification of a vast theatre of
American admirers and sympathisers, we have, as a
people, an unprecedented and most alarming difficulty to
deal with, we have no doubt whatever that by the vigilant
use of the police, backed by the abundant voluntary ser-
vice 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 Standard says a word or two in defence of the.
course which Dr. Kenealy took in withdrawing from the
conduct of Burke's defence, after hearing of Friday's out-
rage. When first requested to appear on behalf of Burke
and Casey he did not much like the look of their case,
but, yielding to earnest solicitations, he consented to
appear on their behalf. The prisoners admitted that he
had done his duty well, uniting the tact of an able man
with the skill of an experienced one. But, while expressly
exonerating the prisoners themselves from complicity in
the diabolical outrage of Friday night, he had felt it his
duty to call upon those who instructed him 0 satisfy him
that theyhadbeen equally innocent. This they had failed to
do, and therefore he must decline any longer to act at their in-
stance. Thewoman Justice is proved to have visited Casey
about an hour before she was seen acting as one of the escort
in charge of the truck on whioh the powder-barrel was con-
veyed to its destination, and she was taken red-handed the
instant after the explosion had occurred. The question is
whether a counsel is bound to give his services simply be-
cause his fee has been paid, and paid probably by hands
which have since been engaged in the perpetration of a
most cruel and cowardly outrage, by which four persons
have been killed. and fifteen or twenty times as many
seriously injured. There may be some journals which
would have no hesitation in going even this length, or in
asking what business a barrister has to make a fuss about
anything his client's friends may do. It thinks, however,
that a more correct and more elevated standard of profes-
sional duty was indicated by Dr. Kenealy.
The Herald regrets that the imperfect summary of Mr.
Johnson's Message furnished by Atlantic telegraph led it
to place a wrong construction on that part of the docu-
ment which referred to the amendment of the Allegiance
Acts. It takes occasion to say a word about our tele-
graphic system. In spite of all its merits and all its ser-
vices, the electric telegraph, sometimes, has a great deal
to answer for. Errors and inaccuracies apart, its very
nature makes it a constant offender in the way of misre-
porting by suppression, for when messages cost some pounds
per line, there is a natural tendency on the part of the
sender to sacrifice perspicuity to brevity, and to give the
gist of a long paragraph in a single sentence, without
duly considering the effect of qualifying context
upon a broadly stated proposition. Something like this
seems to have happened when the substance of the Ame-
rican President's Message was sent over by the Atlantic
Cable. When commenting upon the summary which first
came to band, we expressed our belief that Mr. Johnson
had been somewhat misrepresented in that particular
paragraph in which he touched upon naturalisation, anti
in which, with telegraphic curtness, he was made to say
that Congress would be asked to legislate, not only for
the United States, but all other nations, and to declare
offhand that naturalisation, according to American laws,
should henceforth, ipso facto, release an ex-patriot from
any obligation of allegiance which he might owe to any
Government under Heaven. the full text of the Message,
however, is much more guarded in its
is ; indeed
it contains very little with which it s possible to find
fault.

What, asks the Poe, is to become of the East of
London ? Is the colony of artisans and shopkeepers which
has been formed there by the institution of great ship.
building yards and factories to pass into the condition of a
pauper dependency ? Are its inhabitants to be maintained
on the borders of starvation by forced contributions of an
impoverished community, supplemented by charitable aid
from the rich West, continuously excited to com-
passionate subscriptions by a struggling and over-
burdened clergy? These are questions that are press-
ing urgently for careful consideration. A settlement
whose population is numbered by thousands, and whose
inhabitants have been earning their living independently,
and would earn it again if they could get work, cannot be
left to die of want or be suffered to become slowly extinct
by destitution consequent on enforced idleness. If the
distressed thousands in part or in whole move, they must
emigrate, and seek in other countries the demand and the
rate of remuneration for their skill and their labour which
they no longer find there. The accomplished confederation
of the various States of British North America has im-
mensely increased in every sense the availability of their
resources.