The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-26 00:00:00

A FENIAN CIRCULAR.

A circular, signed in cypher, by a person styling
himself Secretary of External Relations, addressed
to the agents and friends of the Irish Revolutionary
Government, and dated Dublin, Nov. 16, was left
at the office of the Daily News, and published by
that journal. The paper is written with force and
skill, free from ranting and the general spread-
! eagleism of Irish declamation ; no green sods, green
flag of freedom, rising sun of liberty, hated oppres-
sors, and bloated foreign bloodsuckers. It is argu-
mentative, and strength is given by the simple, terse
language used. The rescue of Kelly and Deasy is
detailed ; the necessity for the act at all hazards
stated ; " its probable cost was estimated before-
hand, and the actual cost was less than estimated."
The rescue was acknowledged to bean offence against
the laws of England, which must be broken by in-
surgents, as the oppressor makes these laws to pro-
tect himself. " The insurgent breaks the law at
his peril ; the oppressor enforces the law on the
same condition." Humanity restrains both. The
insurgents have adhered to the moral obligation
refraining in England, Ireland, and in Canada,
where enemies' life and property have been and are
at their mercy. Altiough not acting with equal
moderation, England has not yet put to death any
of her I: lilt political prisoners. But now she seems
disposed to depart from that practice, and some
may be executed at Manchester. "She has an
undoubted right to do so, but the exercise of
that right will leave this Government free to
exercise the right and power of retaliation
which it amply possesses. I am instructed to
say that for every judicial assassination she is
guilty of the life of, a prominent Englishman will be
exacted by this Government, and you will point out
that upon England must rest the odium of having
first inaugurated the policy of assassination in her
present struggles with Ireland."
Oppressed nationalities have ever had warm sup-
porters in the people of England. English aid in
men and money, and more still in thesupport a cause
derives from public opinion, has always been freely
accorded to struggling nationalities by the inhabi-
tants of this island. Foreign Governments have
resented this interference, representing Englishmen
as firebrands, ever ready to aid revolutionary pro-
jects. If England has often acted thus without
due consideration, giving way in many in-
stances to maudlin sentiment, she is now very pro-
perly punished. She has a revolutionary Govern-
ment established in her midst issuing circulars to its
foreign agents, rescuing prisoners by the force of
arms in the streets of her largest towns, decreeing
reprisals, to be effective in case the solemn sentence
of a judge be executed, and openly inaugurating a
war of assassination. Her policemen are shot
down in the courts and alleys of her cities, her
coasts are navigated by ships carrying hostile bands
seeking the most desirable points for disembarka-
tion ; even the ante-room of ber Secretaries of
State in the sacred precincts of Whitehall are in-
vaded by deputations who hold indignation meetings
within car-shot of her rulers, and express in no
measured terms their intention of pitching the
whole gang into the sea, while the police
are fuming on the pavement outside. The
lesson is indeed bitter, but we predict that liberty
will lose more than it can ever gain by such pro-
ceedings. It is fast alienating one of its best and
strongest friends. England learns the hard truth
often before taught to the best of rulers, that there
is no cause, however vile, that in skilful hands may
not he made to appear just —that an honest and
upright discharge of her duties does not save her
from slander, or the inauguration of proceedings j us-
tifiable alone when directed against a Government
which is the enemy, at least, of a section of its people.
It is not a little strange that the Pope should regard
England as the ally of revolution, and the l'ope's
supporters in Ireland should regard England as the
ally of despotism. In Europe she is considered to
be the friend and champion of nationalities ;
in America she is represented as herself a despot,
and the support of despots everywhere. But one
thing at least is certain, she has a great deal of re-
volution in her midst —of what kind it is bard to
understand. The writer of the circular quoted
above, might give to the world a list of the grievances
under which Ireland labours, and a clear statement
of the wrongs his Government proposes to redress.
Those who know something of Ireland being at a
loss to understand the object of Fenianism, in the
absence of any grievance worth fighting for, regard
the conspiracy as a struggle not for empire—for
that would be a ridiculous word to use for so con-
temptible an organisation but for plunder. In
doing this he ought not to tell bold, straight-
forward lies, because they are easily exposed,
and lessen the weight of his otherwise able, and,
it may be, truthful statement. For instance, the
circular represents Allen as having killed Brett
accidentally—when he was in reality trying to
destroy the lock by a pistol shot. Now, it is a no-
torious fact that the sergeant was shot by Allen
taking aim at him through the ventilator. Finlan,
and a crowd of persons holding similar views, re-
present the crime as a misfortune, the perpetrators
not having proceeded to the theatre of the exploit
with any malice against the police officer, or any
fixed plan of taking his life. If such a rule held the
mass of murders would dwindle into manslaughter.
For instance, if a party of burglars planned
the robbery of a house, and, when executing the
project were compelled to kill some obstructive per-
SOU OP the prealiseo who obstinately held to the

Gentletnee,---lleving carefully read the report of
the committee to the bond and stock holders of the
Atlantic and Great Western Railway, and since the
statements there made by Mr. Cave at a public
meeting held in London, I feel it my duty to reply,
as the statements there made are calculated tempo-
rarily to injure the property. At first sight there-
port of the committee is calculated to give the im-
pression that all the works on the line in question
are imperfect, and that vast sums are still requirekt
to make the railway first class. A broad assert:,on
that the embankments are all too narrow, and, the
bridges all uncovered, would naturally give this im-
pression. Ido not propose to call in any evidence
to contradict these statements, and will frankly ad-
mit that some of the cuttings and embankments are
too narrow, and that all the bridges should be
covered. I will state, however, a fact which Icr
at any time prove by figures, that the whole cost of
the earthworks from Salamanca to Dayton bear a
proportion of one-fourteenth part of the whole sum
exp-- on the line; and, admitting the fact that,
a considerable number of cuttingsrand embankme.dts
do require attention, the outlay to accomplish, this
dwindles down to an insignificant sum ; and, when
I further state the fact that the estima'cie made
for the receiver for covering all the bridge amounts
toabout.£3,ooo, the bond and stock-holders will be
able to form a tolerably correct opinion of the object
of the committee, which:seems to me to be a desire
to disparage the whole concern, so as to enable them
to take credit for making a first-class railway in
about six months with an outlay of, say £l,OOO per
mile, of which two-thirds should be spent on extra
rolling stock to develope extra traffic. Having made
these remarks I shall proceed to state why I did not
construct the embankments and cuttings some two
feet wider, and why in several places I put up my
I trestle work in place of solid banks. Almost as soon
as I put the first shovel into the ground the civil
war was upon me, and with 500 miles of railway to
build before me I saw the price of labour run up to
an alarming extent. I therefore decided to adhere
strictly to all my gradients and curves, but to econo-
mise on earthworks as much as possible, leaving the
trestles to be filled up by steam excavators, and
the b inks to be widened from the cuts where needed,
when the track should be completed, and thus vast
sums saved.. In this way I did succeed in con-
structing the whole line at the rate of one mile per
day of working days. I did also provide the
steam excavators, and what is now being done
would have been done more than a year ago
but for the panic in England, which, as all
know, stopped these works and depreciated the
value of the securities of the road to an extent ten
times as much as the value Of the works in question.
When I state that to execute the earthworks I had
to import 90 per cent. of all the labour, and that a
legion of army recruiting agents were hovering
round ine all the time, offering $5OO to $l,OOO per
man bounty to join the army, the difficulty of the
situation will 1.),! apparent to all. Nor must it be
supposed that the line, when opened, was not sub-
stantial. I have only to call attention to our time-
tables of the speed made by our trains almost imme-
diately after the line was opened. There the fact
stands for all time that we did run express trains at
extreme speed in successful competition with other
long-established lines ; and it is also a fact that ex-
tremely few accidents occurred, and that up to the
present time only one passenger has lost his life on
the line.

With reference to Mr. Cave's remarks, as to half
the amount of the capital being applied to extra
lines, I will only state that the actual sums are re-
presented by $151,147 01-100, as follows :
Catawissa Railway
Morris and Essex Railway 69,025 58
Sharon Branch 25,554 41

$151,117 01
I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant,
(Signed) T. W. KENNARD, Engineer in Chief.
New York, Nov. 5.