The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-21 00:00:00

rage, and of the determination of the people to support the
Government in any measures which might he proposed
for stamping out the Fenian conspiracy. The duty of the
Government in such a crisis is clear, and, fortunately, the
responsibility falls mainly upon men who, like the Stan-
leys, are bound by personal reasons never to forget that
Irishmen are citizens of the empire. That duty is to
maintain a steady, severe, but just system of repression
upon Fenianism: to show its partisans that they are
waging war upon a force indefinitely superior to them-
selves ; to convince its enemies that there is no justifica-
tion whatever for taking the law into their own hands ; in
short, to make the nation supreme, if possible through the
magistracy, but if needful, through the visible and deter-
mined use of the bayonet. That the time for leniency to
Fenianism is past is clear, and the time for fury against
Irishmen ought never to be permitted t..) arrive. There
can be no more processions, or meetings, or any other
combined action in favour of a party which can, even
against the will of its own chiefs, tolerate outrages like
that in Clerkenwell. The Fenian Committee may be, as
they assert, utterly guiltless of that horror, and we aro
willing to acquit them of some of its worst features ; but
they must in their own interest, as well as that of the
empire, bear the obloquy of the insane acts of their own
friends. The Government must now shew itself master
of the situation, or the English and Scotch will terminate
it, with the result of making all improvement in the rela-
tions between the two countries impossible for another
century. If it does not, a feather-weight would now

turn the scale in favour of lynch law. As to the me. 3,
they are those by which every other Government is
compelled to meet from time to time similar outbursts
of fanaticism, by which the French Government has
repeatedly met the more violent secret societies—
steady, cold, scientific watchfulness and repression. The
regular law is amply sufficient for the purpose, or if not,
the regular law must be made stronger. Almost all the
" exceptional legislation" suggested is either unfair or un-
wise. It would be both, for example, to demand pass-
ports from Irishmen, for the Fenians in this last affair
have injured the Irish far more than ourselves. It would
be both to dismiss Irish labourers from the dockyards
simply because amongst them might be men sympathising

with Fenian ideas. It would he both to expel, as one

paper advises, the American Irish under the ancient Alien
Act; unwise as increasing the bitterness between ourselves
and the Americans, ' unfair because we still refuse to
acknowledge that the emigrants have forfeited their
allegiance. The true policy is to increase the police, to use
the soldiers, to call out the people, to watch unsleepingly,
to punish crime relentlessly, but always in obedience to
the law, and through its responsible agents. One failure of
justice, one execution of an innocent man, one instance of
hesitation in restraining any spirit of race hostility, would
do more to injure the cause of order than a lost battle.
There is nothing like calm, steady, but inevitable justice
to put down opposition ; and with twenty-three millions
of people on its side, the Government has full opportunity
and leisure to carry out that policy—the only one which
is just, the only one which, when men are cooler, leaves
behind it none of that vengeful animosity the victims of
injustice are sure to feel. If the police are insufficient,
add more, or call out the people, or supplement both with
soldiers—make it, if absolutely necessary, an offence to be
a Fenian ; but in no case allow the first beginning of a
riot, in no case allow lynch law, in no case let any man be
punished without a full and a just hearing. And, above
all, in no case suffer a Fenian and an Irishman to be con-
founded.

The John Bull, in discuss' ,g Fenianism in its various
aspects, gives this as its worst. Finding all prospects of
an Irish rebellion hopeless, they next resorted to the mise-
rable expedient of creating disaffection in England, aided
by murder and burning, and this with no conceivable hope
of obtaining their proposed object—the political indepen-
dence of Trel and—but, as it would seem, as a mere instru-
ment of malevolence and revenge. Bad as the Manchester
outrage was, yet the system of shooting down single
policemen is morally far worse. It is remarkable how,
in all these outrages, the leading character of Irish law-
lessness and Ribandism, combined with American row-
dyism, shews itself. Brt all this would be comparatively
harmless were it not for the consciousness of comparative
security from punishment on which these wretches seem so
confidently to rely. As far as it went, the Manchester
execution will tend to dispel their illusion, but much more
display of firmness is yet required. We do not mean in
merely executing the de facto murderer. But the impres-
sion exists very largely, both in America and among the
Irish Americans here, that we dare not execute an Ameri-
can subject—either really so or calling himself one.
No time should be lost in dispelling the illusion.
There will be no security for life or property
here if we are to allow Irish Americans to
kill and plunder, or to commit treason before
our eyes, and are then to be debarred from seeking jus-
tice by threats of intimidation from the fr:ends of tile cul-
prits on the other side of the Atlantic, grounded on the
atrocious s _ntiment of their sympathisers here, that it is
better to see our peaceful fellow-subjects murdered before
onr eyes than to embroil ourselves with America. We do
not believe that we should embroil ourselves with the
American Government. We believe that they would then
begin to respect us. But be that as it may, our duty
. clearly is to shew by our acts that the lives of our fellow-
subjects are dear to us ; and that, whatever may be the
opinion and practice in Ireland and America, the English
nation possesses laws for the protection of life and pro-
perty, and that she will enforce them.