The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-20 00:00:00

THE FENIAN RAID IN KERItY.

(Flom the Times' Special Correspondent.)
KILLARNEY, Monday Evening.
The detachment of the 14th Regiment, which was
yesterday pushed on to Killorglin and Cahirciveen,
will be permanently stationed for the present at the
latter place. The Railway Hotel, however, is still
full of troops, while others are billeted in the town.
Tourists who may have stayed here during the sea-
son would hardly recognise the quiet house once
sacred to holiday folk, but now much more like a
barrack than an inn. There is a guard at the en-

trance night and day ; the passages and hall are full
of soldiers, the troops arc mustered in front of the
hotel when detached formountain service, and bugle
calls are sounded at frequent intervals for other

purposes than to awake the echoes of Killarney.
The hotel, a strong stone building, is situated in its
grounds, which are walled, except on the side nearest
to the railway station. It was here that the families
of many of the neighbouring magistrates and gentry
took refuge in the first days of the outbreak, when
the plans and the numbers of the insurgents were
equally mysterious. At the same time all the powder
and arms were removed hither from the shops in the
town ; and the money in the National Bank, which
has a branch at Killarney, and a considerable quan-
tity of plate, were also deposited in the strong roam
of the hotel. The house is so well calculated for de-
fence, and in the short time which elapsed after the
first alarm was given bad been so carefully prepared
with that object, that even the handful of constabu-
lary and the other defenders hastily told off for that
purpose might probably have held it for some time
in case of attack on Tuesday night. Happily, the
prompt arrival of the troops from Cork, who came
into Killarney by special train at half-past two on
Wednesday morning, put an end to all anxiety on
this point.
The telegraph lines between Killarney and Va-
lentia were repeatedly cut during the first four days
of the outbreak. They were always promptly re-
paired during the day, though on one or two occa-
sions the men employed on that duty were threatened;
bat after dark the wires were again cut. Friday
night was the last occasion on which the telegraph
was thus thrown out of working order, but it has
not been disturbed since its repair ou Saturday.
While the wires were cut messages Arriving here
were sent on three times a day by special car to
Valentia.. This involved a delay of several hours,
for there is no railway between here and Valentia.
It' is hoped that the two companies of the 14th Re-
giment who proceeded yesterday to Killorglin and
Cahirciveen will be able, with the help of the troop
of Lancers, to protect the telegraph. It is obviously
impossible that the troops can guard, day and night,
a line of wires extending over 47 miles between here
and Valentia, if mischievous or designing men are
determined to destroy the communication. But the
moral effect produced by the presence of the troops
will be likely to deter Fenian sympathisers from any
such attempts.

According to some of the accounts which have come
in, there are two or three separate parties of armed
men in the mountains. But the information is of
doubtful authority, for the peasantry have a lively
imagination, and it is not safe to trust implicitly
statements made by them. There is better, though
not certain, authority for the statement telegraphed
to you yesterday—that some 15 or 16 strangers,
supposed to be Irish-Americans, and ar►ned
with rifles and revolvers, are trying to find
their way over the mountains to Cahirciveen.
Why they should go back to the place where the
outbreak originated, after its utter failure, it is
hard to tell, except upon the assumption that they
disembarked on the coast there, and may have
some hope of escaping in the same way. It is
doubtful whether these men, or any other members

-- -
of the Fenian force, were in uniform. Some are

said to have been in green, and others in grey ;
but it is not at all certain that any uniform was
worn. In fact, any fugitives, hurried as they have
been day and night by the troops, must now be in
a deplorable condition,both for food and clothes. At
first the Fenian strangers paid the country people
liberally for provisions, but when they werelast heard
of their money had gone, so that their visits are not
in the least welcome to the peasantry. Very few, if
any, of what may be called the local contingent are
now supposed to be left in arms. They have melted
away, and in Cahirciveen and the district the con-
stabulary have arrested 13 men who were recognised
in the Fenian ranks last week. This return by local
sympathisers to their ordinary occupations shows
pretty conclusively that the Fenian game is thought
to be up, at any rate, for the present.
In his sermo❑ at the cathedral yesterday the Ro-
man Catholic bishop here (Dr. Moriarty) strongly
denounced the Fenian leaders, and warned his flock
of the mischievous and dangerous character of the
whole movement. Dr. Moriarty expressed his opinion
that there were few, if any, Fenian sympathisers in
the county of Kerry. But lam afraid that this opti-
mist view of the state of feeling hereabouts is quite
opposed to the facts.

KILLARNEY, Tuesday.

All is quiet here. The troops at Kenmare have
seen and heard of no Fenians. I lez.ve for Cahirci-
veen immediately.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Feb. 19.

There is no sign of a Fenian rising anywhere in
Ireland now. What has occurred in Kerry will im-
press the minds of the conspirators with certain
facts almost as effectually as if there bad been
fighting. The first is that they cannot count ou
the rising of the peasantry, for they have made the
experiment where there was the best chance of suc-
cess, and where they had long been paving the way.
The second is that they cannot count on the dis-
loyalty or the cowardice of a single constable,
though he may belong to the same race and
creed as the Fenians, and though his duty to
his Queen must be performed at the imminent
risk of his life. The third fact of which they must
'be convinced is that the Queen's troops can be
quickly concentrated at any point iu overwhelming
numbers ; and the last is that in any case they are
certain to he betrayed by some of their own party.
Indeed, all these results were so likely to occur that
one is almost persuaded to believe that the move-
ments at Chester and in Kerry are in pursuit of a
system adopted for the double purpose of annoying
the Government here and keeping up the contribu-
tions in the United States, and that part of that
system is giving information to the authorities when
matters reach the point where it is necessary that
something should be done and some real danger in-
curred, the tactics being that then the " insurgents"
should vanish.

The police in Dublin arrested four Irish-Ameri-
cans, named Jas. J. Kirwan, John H. Rogers, Jas.
E. Fox, and Jas. Smith, yesterday, in their lodg-
ings, 27, Summer-hill. The prisoners are supposed
to have belonged to the American army, and have
but recently returned to this country, on, it is sus-
pected, Fenian business. No weapons or documents
of importance were found in their possession. They
were conveyed to Mountjoy Prison.
Five prisoners, who were arrested at Drogheda on
board a Liverpool steamer, were discharged yester-
day by the magistrates, who gave them " passes"
which they might show at the police stations if
taken into custody on their way home.
At the Commission Court yesterday the most im-
portant of the Fenian prisoners, Denis Downey, a
merchant tailor, was acquitted. Six revolvers, two
guns, and 1 cwt. of gunpowder and 1 cwt. of bullets
were found concealed behind the panel of his draw-
ing-room window in Trinity-street. Evidence for
the defence was given to. prove that the drawing-
room had been inhabited in 1865 by a commercial
traveller named O'Flanagan, who had a mechanical
turn, and kept carpenter's tools. He often had large
parcels going in and out, of the contents of which
it was alleged the prisoner knew nothing, nor was
he aware that the arms were concealed on his pre-
mises. Mr. Heron, Q.C., defended the prisoner.
TILE DUBLIN WATERWORKS.
At a meeting of the Dublin Corporation yester-
day, Sir John Gray gave a reassuring account of
the condition of the Vestry Waterworks. In any
case of imminent danger the water might be let off,
at an enormous rate through a sluicing valve, but