The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-25 00:00:00

SPIRT r C F TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

'TIDIES.—The complete unravelling of the
geld mystery suggests and compels a question of
much greater importance than the actual guilt of
half a dozen men whose hands, it appears, had be-
come used to blood, and who had lost all compunc-
tion for crime. It is a question in which we have
been anticipated by the fanatical yet anxious advo •
cates of Trades' Unions, who at every stage of this
matter have eagerly volunteered extravagant de-
fences. The Unions, these apologists averred, had
nothing to do with the Sheffield outrages. They
were the private acts of violent men, no one knew
whom, upon some provocation or another, no one
could say what. Temper and pique would always
show themselves in the best of causes. The Unions,
it was exultingly pointed out, had challenged in-
quiry, demanded to be examined upon oath, and
even offered rewards, through their officers, for the
discovery of the assassins. Even now, at the very
last, when it has been brought out to the light of
day that all these horrors were committed at the
suggestion and instigation of Union officers, by
Union agents, and with Union money, it has been
asserted as a last resource that the perpetrators and
accomplices were only some half-dozen men, who
kept their villanies to themselves, whose crimes
acembezzle
the d were only a miserable episode in an otherwise inno-
cent
tualalyndto meritoriousf
organisation,uns and tamper and who
withwho thehad
accounts in order to procure means for hiring mur-
derers and to blind the eyes of their f 1 • •
e low-Umomsts.
It was yet not only possible, but even certain, that
in this case an immense number of
tributing the means for the most dreadful atrocities,
and deriving a certain advantage from them,-with-
out knowing anything about them, or having the
least reason to suspect the authors. How far apo-
logy will go we know not; but the preliminaries of
the question are now all before us. There is no
longer the least mystery. The Executive of three
great organisations, one of them a society num-
bering sixty thousand, confesses to a black cata-
logue of murders and other outrages upon per-
son and property, committed with the utmost
deliberation, much counsel, long waiting, and in the
most business-like style. And now we ask, as it
appears to have been surmised long ago that we
should have reason to ask, what is the mental and
moral attitude of the many thousands of persons
repeatedly hearing of the commission of hideous
crimes in their supposed interest, to back up the
laws of their union, and to punish " outlaws?"
They could not but perceive a wonderful agreement
in the character and obvious intention of these
crimes, all of them being as much in a series and on
one code as the successive acts by which a regular
Government maintains its authority and punishes
rebels or other offenders against its laws. It was in
the general interest of the union, and all its mem-
bers, that a man was blown up, that a horse was
hamstrung, that several men were shot, some killed,
others cruelly injured, that houses, engines, and fur-
naces were blown up, with whole families in their
beds, or with abortive but still exemplary conse-
quences. Thesa visitations were not at random, and
though mysterious in one sense were by no means
so in another, for they were not inevitable in that
sense which we intend when we so describe the visi-
tations of Providence. This was not a power which
confounded the innocent with the guilty. It was not
as the bolt of Heaven that falls this day on the mur-
derer, to-morrow on the harmless peasant at his
work, the day after on the bride on her wedding
tour, or the village school-girl returning home
satchel in hand. Heaven may be inscrutable, not
so the Sheffield power. If it hired its agency, it
displayed its system, with all the emphasis and pre-
tence of a present deity. To the understanding of
the simplest unionist or the merest child there
was that which, or there were those who, singled
out with unerring discrimination and struck
with terrible effect all who refused to obey the
edicts and laws of the union. Whoever ventured
to break its pale or touch its dignity was smitten by
its shafts of fire. The canister of powder burst
under his bed, the bullet pierced his brain, or the
bludgeon rendered him a wreck for life. There was
no possible mistake as to the identity of the system,
of which these were the various recurrent manifes-
tations. Then came the fearful question that must
have presented itself to' every mind, and that must
have harassed some with the most painful misgiv-
ings. What was this power ? Was it simply the
wild fire of casual revenge breaking here and there,
as occasion gave it vent, or as the collision gave out
the spark of tire? Was it an evil organisation that
had intruded, as a parasite
Into one that was more
healthy, as a disease
in the Union ? Was it a com-
mittee of safety, administering death and destruc-
tion from the headquarters of the Union, while an
usurpation in a free State? It must have taxed
every reasonable unionist to know what this power
was—as sure, as prompt, and as successful in its
vengeance as any savage ever wished the cruellest
fetish to be. The evidence given before the Com-
mission throws some light on the surmises prevalent
in this community. It was known there were men
ready to do any evil deed, without even the apology
of a motive, for money, and with the excuse of
obedience to a sovereign authority. It was rumoured
that this or that desperado had done it, at a com-
mand from above. Whatever that higher power, it
worked with the Union, usurped the government,
and possessed the whole body. But the plain truth
is, that it matters not what the power be, whether
a conspiracy within the Union or a spirit of ven-
geance pervading its members, or whether the
governors of the Union were themselves the actual
murderers, as they are now proved to have been ;
it is all the same as regards the mass of unionists.
They had come to acquiesce in a system of so-called
protection enforced by outrage. They bad come
to feel their monopoly of employment dependent
on the ready use of criminal and atrocious
means. They had come to sympathise with the
assassin, and exult over bis victim. Why, even
if in their ignorance they had believed some preter-
natural power the dealer of summary vengeance
by seeming accident, or disease, or stroke of death,
on all offenders against a purely selfish code,
that belief itself would have vitiated and degraded
their minds. If this Union—these Unions, we
should rather say, for several were linked in the
operations of Broadhead—had indeed believed that
a power worked for them from above, or from
below,—it little matters,—its religion and its
morality would have been worse than that of Thugs,
or the vilest known savage. Whoever believes,
worships, and obeys is as his god; and if these men
had ever fancied a deity working for them in this
evil fashion, they would still have been assassins,
though fanatical assassins. Of course they had no
such belief. They only knew there was some power
or other working in a way too concurrent with their
interests and their passions. Whatever it was, it
did as they wished ; they rejoiced in its crimes, and
in heart and soul they identified themselves with it;
they reaped its deadly harvest, they divided its
booty, and they became what it was—one of the
most guilty and hideous timings ever discovered in
this island.
THE " WE.4TMINSTER GAZETTE" ON IRELAND.—It
is with truth urged that with the preposterous
Fenian conspiracy of to-day, the higher classes
of society, the members of the learned pro-
fessions, and commercial men, have evinced
no sympathy. On the other hand it has,
with equal truth, been observed that it is not from
these classes that the pioneers of revolution have
ever been selected, and also, that often, when in
the higher classes of society, love of country and
the natural yearning for liberty had declined, still
the fire of patriotism had burned all the more
brightly in the hovel of the peasant ; and, although
the history of the past be thrown aside with eon.

/a
d i tio ''..t:-‘,,,Ct1,N.;:::. \
../4.i47:
tempt by the ;tied
down'trilamils,rnitPca.
tions are .ha
From the evidence,
----- - • ' - rp.l--.;kl ,_'',',..7.
minute and simikle aS ail4s tr.
n...e.:,..ee th:t--1.
some, with
wonithth
jeussetiFeee,niban
be inferred that rapine, murder,
n-n'B7ll3r-44'.----k;oll:o47e'Perit- 7-I'l
extermination of landlords,seif wholesale confiscation,
-aggrandizement of
elivii.otnbjeesscetss
pofrodueed have
7-
ionfdipvriodpnearitsy,caonnidptrilisee'
Thethethol object of the atshsoisciaatiaodev:
tsepsrteaifidedecoonsupceirrancinyg
and exclusively political,the nature of the oath,
upon members. The object‘nthe duties imposedn
toappears to be, purely
England and to establish throw off the yoke of
It is, in fact, but a repetition
native Government.
century, of similar attempts,°ill in the nineteenth
preceding centuries have been )3, which the seven
terized—with this difference, uniformly charac-
natinf, with the Irish at home, that, instead, of origi-
their'brethren and fellow-c it originated with
Between the tone and 3.-.nt. fellow-countrymen in America.
Fenian leader, Burke, in hisiinents expressed by the
and the tone of a letter address to the court,
addressed by a King of
Ulster early in the fourteenth century to Pope
John XXII., there exist
similarity :____,, We cheriails,,a stra!lge and striking
writes this chieftain,
"at the bottom of our heart
produced by leng,thened recollections ;lin inveterate hatred,
by the murders of our fathers, brothers, and
ections of injustice,
nearest kindred, which willnot
in our time, nor in that of our be extinguished
children.
as long as we have life we will fight So that
without regret or remorse in defence them
We will not cease to fight against
anedof our rights.
until the day when they themselves,annoy them,
for want of
power, shall have ceased to do us Karin.
then we will make war upon them l
unto am. Until
death to
recover the independence which is natural
right." Commenting upon this document,our
the celebrated historian of the Norman Conquest,
onquest,
makes the following eloquent and remarkable Ob-
servations :—" This promise
of
war unto death
made ui ' f yet for
tOO years ago, is not '
-
gotte-,f , . - melancholy fact, but
worthy
of remark,'-.,,,, l . • ur days" [he alludes to the
rebellion of '9B j - blood hes flowed
in TrelaPd on
account-of the Old quane: if the Conquest. - The
period in futurity when this
quarrel shall be ter-
minated it is impossible to foresee,
and
aversion
for England, its Government, its manners, and its
religion is still the native passion ofthe
race. From the day of the invasion ' ' the Irish
will of
that race of men has been constantly opposed to the
will of its masters ; it has detested what
they have
loved, and loved what they have detested. This
unconquerable obstinacy, this lengthened remem-
brance of departed liberty, this faculty of pre-
serving and nourishing through ages of physical
misery and suffering the thoughts of that which
is no more, of never despairing of a constantly-
vanquished cause for which many generations have
successively and in vain perished in the field and
by the executioner, is, perhaps, the most extraor-
dinary and the greatest example that a people
has ever given." In these days of political economy
and statistics, the importance of Irish struggles for
independence will, no doubt, be more fully under-
stood and more thoroughly appreciated by refer-
ence to the sums expended by England in their
repression than by any description of circum-
stances or events. The facts are - those which
come nearest to our times and the figures borrowed
from official sources. In the rebellion, during the
reign of Elizabeth, and which terminated with the
battle of Kinsale, in 1601, although the annual
revenue of England was then under £500,000 ;
yet, according to the admission of the Mi-
nister Cecil, to quell it cost no less than
£3,400,000, and, according to Hume, the Irish war
was so expensive that, in addition to the money
granted by Parliament, the Queen was obliged to
exact loans from her people, and even to adopt
other extreme expedients for " raising the wind,"
such as selling the Royal demesnes and Crown .
jewels. Money, at this period, it must be remem-
bered, was about twenty-fold higher in value
than at present. The insurrection so mercilessly
suppressed by Cromwell in 1650 caused an . ex-
penditure of £22,191,258, at a time when the re-
venue was but a trifle more than £2,000,000 annu-
ally. Coming to the next Irish war, that from 1689
to 1691, when the English revenue had increased to
£8,000,000, we find that the expenditure on the
regular forces alone, without any allowance for
the enormous sums expended in subsidising such of
the natives as the Williamites could enlist, amounted
to £9,956,613. Passing from this to 1782, we meet
the celebrated Society of Irish Volunteers, drawn
up in battle array to the number of 100,827 men,
fully armed and equipped, with 130 guns, and pre-
pared to do battle for the independence of their
country, and expressing their resolve in the fol-
lowing resolutions :—" That there is no body of
men competent to make laws to bind this nation
except the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland,
nor any other Parliament which hath any authority
or power of any sort whatsoever in this country,
save only the Parliament of Ireland. That in this
right the very essence of our liberty exists, a right
which we, on the part of the people of Ireland do
claim as their .birthright, and which we cannot
yield but with Our lives." The demand for self-go-
vernment was granted. After this we come to
17.91, the date of the foundation of the Society of
United Irishmen, pledged to effect the separation
from England, and the establishment of an Irish
republic. This body, in its widely-extended organi-
zation numbering 278,000 enrolled members, and in
its contemplated object, may have furnished a
model on which the Fenian association has been
framed. The circumstances also are strangely
similar. Of the proceedings of the United Irishmen,
the Government of the day had been in full posses-
sion by means of paid spies for the space of eleven
months, without however taking any step to arrest
the evil.' Precisely, as appears from the evidence
now brought forward, the Government has through
the same means been fully informed of the Fenian
plans both here and in America, and was thus fully
prepared to put down any attempt at insurrection.
The United Irishmen sought the accomplishment
of their object in the sanguinary outbreak of 1798,
which cost this country 70,000 lives, and a sum
of £20,000,000 sterling, to repress. It is not to be
supposed that the unsuccessful issue of the pre-
ceding wars, had for effect to diminish in any de-
gree the hatred of the Irish for England, and its
Government, or to break the spirit of the people,
no matter how apparent its subjugation. On the
contrary, when all prospect of success at home had.
vanished, the armies of England's Continental ene-
mies (France and Spain) received from Ireland
numerous and powerful reinforcements. 'The

numbers which were drawn from that country to
strengthen the natural enemies of England, may
be judged by the fact that, according to the records
of the 'War-office of France, there died in the
service of that power alone from 1691 to 1745
above 450,000 Irish, and from 1745 to the Revolu-
tion, as many more as would amount to 600,000
men. These figures, incredible almost as they may
appear, do not include the Irish Legion, of four
battalions, in the service of the first Napoleon, and
which was suddenly disbanded in 1816, by Louis
XVIII., at the- bidding of the British Minister.
The insurrection of '9B, being crushed, was followed
up on the part of the Crown by an attempt to unite
the Parliaments of the two countries. In this the
Minister, Lord Castlereagh, was the aggressor ;
Ireland acted on the defensive. The Minister was
openly accused by the late Lord Plunket of
" fomenting the embers of a lingering rebellion,
and of hallooing Protestant against Catholic and
Catholic against Protestant, and of artfully keep-
ing alive domestic dissensions for the purposes of
subjugation." And the late Chief-Justice Bushe
declared " that the basest corruption and artifice
service,si oof a tnhde a humanthe na
ohaeta rdte sr- ea rvee
denteredu
ti
yn
were exerted to promote it ; that all the worst pas-
ll
to
ttlhie°
human intellect was tortured to contrive new con-
trivances of fraud." In the second attempt the
Union was carried by the introduction into nomina-
tion-boroughs of Scotch and English officers quar-
tered in Ireland, but having no species of connec-
tion by birth or property with that country. It
was effected at a cost of £1,500,000, expended in
corruption. After this event, all hopes of brighter
days seemed to abandon the Irish heart. Emigration
to America, which already had existed to some
extent, sufficient to furnish a formidable army,
distinguished at all times for its zeal and valour
in the struggle for American Independence, now
commenced in the gigantic proportions which have
so frequently arrested the attention of the public
and the Legislature, and which still continues
without intermission and undiminished. It is almost

useless to recapitulate the series of Irish struggles
which belong to our day, and of which the present
generation has been a witness. We all remember
that for Catholic Emancipation, the anti-Tithe
war, the demand for Municipal Reform, the mon-
ster agitation for a Repeal of the Union, the at-
tempted outbreak of 1848, and now the Fenian
Association. In opposition to these, who shall
enumerate the laws and measures passed and
adopted by the Government?—the coercion acts,
arms prohibition acts, suspension of habeas corpus
laws, district proclamation acts, promulgations of
martial law, State and criminal prosecution. Eh con-
demnations and punishments. In a word, it LS un-
'
Irish possible not to agree with the American, Dr.
Brownson, when he writes : " The have
„
always been in a state of chronic rebellion.

Mr. G. W. Martin has been confined to his bed
for some days past with an attack of rheumatic fever, and
Is not likely to be able to resume his professional duties
for some time to come, consequently the great choral
meetings to be held at Birmingham, Illtachester, and
Edinburgh are for the present postponed,

_
LIFEBOAT SERVICES IN 1867.—During the 1
Storms of the present year akne the lifeboats of the
National Litebat Institution have saved 443 lives trom vari-
ous shipwrecks and 19 vessels from destruction. The Insti-
tution also expended .£13,862 in the same period on its lite-
boat establishments, hi addition to granting £1,779 tor
re-
wards.
The
übliCommitorttASSlSTANCE toee of the Institutio
enable then eArnestlym
to m APPEeet the
AL to
the pc
continued heavy demands on their 179 lifeboat establish-
ments.
Contfibutions will be thankfully received by th,3 on
L L ond
and country bankers ;; and by the Secretary, 'Richard ewis,
Esq., at the Institution,. 11, John-street, Adelphi, London.

rrIIEA.TRE ROYAL DRURY-LAN E.
Sole I, r.ssee and Manager, Mr. F. B. chatterton.
TH IS EVENING. T Warn RASCAL JACK. to
Hare. J.
R,use, J. C. er ; Mesdames B. Aleyne, C.
Thompson.
To conclude with T U F GREAT CITY. Messrs. C.War
J. er
F. Morton, J. Fitzjames. C. Harcourt, F Villiers, C.
Cowl cr., W. lii`lntyre, J. Rouse, J. Irving, J. B. Johnstone;
Mesdames M. Robertson,Thiere, C. Thomp on.
Commence at Seven.

111- HE AT R E ROYAL, HAYMARKET,
Sole Lessee and Manaztr, Mr. Bucks One.
THIS EVENING, PERFECTIIN. Air. li.t.ndal and Miss
To be followed by A WILD GOOSE. Me,srs. Sothern,
Bucks-tine, lingers. Gordon, White, Vincent, Weathersby,
&c. ; Ale.Waine4 Burke, Hill, Chippendale, Laws, Sidney, &c.
To cono3ude with FISII OUC OF WATER. Mr. Comp-
ton.

GABRIEL, Mayor.—ln a Meeting or AFsembly
of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Liverymen of the
several Companies of the City of London, in Common Hall
assembled at the Guildhall of the said City, on Monday,
the 24th day of June, 1867 a Report from tho Committee
upon te ref
of Liverymen eence from the Common Hall
of the 29th Septemberh, 1866,r relative to the office of Bridge-
master, was read.
Resolved,—
That the report be received, and that the Committee be
requested to proceed in the said reference, and report
thereon to a future Common Hall.
Resolved,—
That the Livery Committee, before making a ftr.al re-
port on the case of the Bridgemasters referred to that
Committee by the last Common Hall, be, and is hereby,
requested to place itself in communication with the Court
of Common Council, in order that a right understanding
may be arrived at as to the position taken up by that
Court with regard to the rights, duties, privileges, and
emoluments of the said Bridgemasters.
Resolved,—
That the Town Clerk he directed to report the above
resolution to the Court of Common Council.
Resolved,—
That inasmuch as the statement handed him by the
auditors does not contain the Bridgemasters' account, the
said statement cannot be received as a correct account by
this Common Hall.
Resolved unanimously,—
That the thanks of the Livery be given to the Right
lion. Thomas Gabriel, Lord Mayor, for the intelligent
exercise of his judgment in presiding over this Common

Resolved,—
That the xvholo of the resolutions passed this day in
Common Hall bo advertised in the usual newspapers.
WOODTHORPE.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
I' HIS DAY.—Morning, 7h. sm.—Afternoon, 7u. 33w.
Ta-blor,Row.-Morning, Sh. Om.—Aftornoon, Bh. 35m

131
' .
i 11-
.444 IV.
N _

LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1867.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday ex-
plained to the House the course which the Govern-
ment had resolved to take with respect to the
Boundary Commissioners; be mentioned the circum-

stances relating to the management of the Com-
mission which undertook the task of revising the
boundaries in 1832. In consequence of some mis-
conceptions that then arose, an idea prevailed in the
public mind that matters bad not been properly
settled, and, in fact, that jobs had been accomplished.

As far as he himself is concerned, Mr. DISRAELI
did not seem to attach much importance to the

notion, because, as he truly added, " Nothing
is more exaggerated than the mutual imputa-

lions; which we make against eich other
that we take advantage of whatever circum-

stances may be under our control in our party

arrangements." Still care has been taken in these

deliberations recently held to prevent any recur- •
rence of the evils alluded to, and obviate the doubts
that then arose, and in some instances marred the
satisfaction produced by the passing of the great
measure of Reform. We think that the Govern-
ment acted very wisely in not appointing a Royal
or Ministerial Commission, which it was quite open
to them to do. They thought that it would be most
unadvisable to proceed after this fashion, and made
it their object from the outset to have the Commis-
sioners "statutory." had they acted otherwise
there might have been some foundation for the
objections made about the business the other night,
but under the actual circumstances of the case they
were as futile as they were impolitic. The number
of the Commissioners has been reduced, and the
public will be glad to hear that Lord. EVERSLE
consented to preside over the Commission. ccY o has
-
ing to the new plan proposed there will be three
Liberals and two Conservatives on the Commission,
but the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that no con-
siderations of that kind have influenced them
in making their arrangements. In order that
some necessary supervision should be exercised the
Secretary of the Committee will be appointed by
the Government, and belong to the Treasury.
Even then Mr. BRIGHT was not satisfied, and said
that he objected to the proposal about the Secre-
tary ; it really seems as if the hon. member for
Birmingham could never be entirely satisfied with
anything but what emanates from himself, and at
any rate other people do not content him.
Mr. GLADSTONE again failed to bring in the
Committee to his way of thinking, and respecting
the consideration of the amendment proposed by

Mr. IIAEDCASTLE he was very eager in his support, 1
but to no purpose. He was assisted in his efforts
by Mr. BERESFORD Hon, and they strove hard to
extinguish the freemen. The Chancellor of the 1
Exchequer objected to the proposal on the ground
that they wished to preserve their bill from the
taint of disfranchisement, and the amendment
was negatived. Another proposed by Mr. HOLDEN
was defeated by a small majority. Mr. COLVILLE'S
amendment, to put copyholders in Parliamentary
boroughs on the same footing as freeholders, was
discussed for some time, and finally rejected by a
majority of 2, and a similar fate befell Mr. VIVIAN
in his attempt to extend the privilege to those who
had long leases. Curiously enough Mr. CARD-
WELL'S proposition to exclude the members
of Oxford and Cambridge Universities from
voting at the borough elections, respecting the occu-
pation of premises in colleges or halls, was sup-
ported by nearly all the members of the Treasury
bench, while the followers of the Ministers were
against it it was carried by twenty-one. The
decisions of last night were more in the negative
than in the affirmative line, but in some sort pro-
gress has been made, since no more time has to be
occupied in the discussion of these matters, and the
committee can turn to other subjects of interest.

Among the many working men's Conservative
associations which the recent successes of that party
have encouraged to spring up in all directions, it is
not surprising to find one in process of organisation
at Chatham. The voters interested in the dockyard
and its belongings are naturally anxious to secure
a representative whose voice may have some influ-
ence with the Government of the day, and accord-
ingly they are looking forward to the time when a
new election shall give the Conservative candidate
another chance. The proceedings on Thursday
evening were chiefly of a political nature, as Ad-
miral ELLIOT, the defeated candidate at the last
election, entered very fully into the claims of the
dockyard establishments on the attention of the
House of Commons. The gallant Admiral declared
his belief that the Manchester school, to which the
sitting member was attached, was altogether opposed
to the interests of the dockyards, and proceeded to
touch upon some of the points connected with their
administration which he thought most needed re-
form. The reduction of the pensions he disap-
proved of, and thought that by an insurance com-
pany, or some such thing, the pension ought to be
made a permanent provision for the dockyard
man and his family. The men, it has been said,
aught to be provident and take care of themselves,
but Admiral ELLIOT holds, that as many of them
are indisputably not provident it is better to pay
them a certain amount, and to insure the rest for
them or for their families. Otherwise there is a
chance of an improvident man finding himself, when
his term of service is out, with nothing to retire
upon. This is a hardship of their own making,
if the alterations in the pay of the men are deafly
explained to them, but if the object is to
benefit the men themselves it may be ques-

tinned if the change is altogether beneficial.
The education of the children of the dockyard men
was the next subject which Admiral ELLIOT