The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-25 00:00:00

kol
THE FENIAN TIMGE.
- .

MANC 11 ESTE R, Tuesday.

"Arrests continue to be made" is the standing
and stereotyped bulletin. There were three last
night ; but one of the pi,onera did not remain
long in custody, the "suspicion" on which lie
was charged being of the weakest. Thee two men
detained are not identified, or at least were not
identified an hour before I beg in this present.
writing. To-day " there have been some trivial
cas s heard in connection with Feuianisin at the
City Police-court. A man
njimed Foley and his
wife were charged with the utterance of treason-
able language and of threats. Foley is a brother
of the man of that name who was among the first
batch of twenty-nine persons sent-to, gaol on re-
mand, after the attack on the prison van. The
couple brought up to-day weir°
_severally bound
over to keep the peace. An Fishman in fantastic
and almost picturesque undress, like the portrait
of Teague in the old farce, besought the magistrate's
assistance and protection. M'Grael was the name
of this wild-looking applicant. To him spake Mr.
Fowler, the stipendiary, " Well, what do you
want ?" " I want," quoth 'Teague, " a pass ;
I'm in danger of my life. It's one of these
Fenians I'm afraid I'll be taken for." " But
why do you ask for a pass ?" the magistrate in-
quired. " Shure, thin, I was arrested at Leeds,
and brought before the magistrates at Oldham,
on Saturday. Give me- a pace, or I'll be stopped
wherever I go." Mr. Fowler advised the man to
ask at the police-station for a pass; and on being
pertinaciously importuned to give one himself,
said, " But I have not the pleasure of knowing
you." MiGrael thereupon handed up a docunient
which he said was his character, written by the
parish priest of Athenry, county Galway. It ran
thus : " I hereby certify that I am acquainted with
the bearer, Master Thomas Mahon M'Grael, from
his infancy, and that I lived in his father's house
while he was a child. He was always a religious
and well-conducted young lad, and is now about 45
years of age." Poor M'Grael, whose head had
been recently shaved, told the magistrate that it had
been " uncomfortable," meaning too plainly the
inside. He had spent a long time in hospital at
Castlebar ; and, having a relation in Oxfordshire
who is practising medicine, he was on his way to
visit his friend when, finding himself especially
liable in a time of excitement to be arrested as a
vagrant, he gave up the intention. 4-31 r. Fowler
strongly counselled him to carry .it out. I have
thought it worth while to give M'Graei's case as
something more than a whimsical grievance. The
crazy applicant for a police pass is not the only
sufferer among the very poor of his countrymen by
the Fenian panic. I read this in to-day's Manches-
ter Examiner—" The following communication has
been forwarded to us from a reliable source, with a
request for its publication :—, In their zeal to cap-
ture all suspected persons, the Manchester police,
on Friday evening, summarily apprehended on sus-
picion a highly respectable young gentleman, a land
surveyor, residing in Stockport. Our officials con-
ceived that he bore a very strong resemblance to
the renowned ' Colonel Kelly,' and it was not until
late on Saturday afternoon that he was set at
liberty—undeniable evidence of his non-complicity
in the outrage having then been established.'" If
" highly respectable young gentlemen" are subject
to this kind of thing, we may easily imagine that
people of humble pretensions are occasionally liable
to something worse.
The arrests which I have already chronicled as
having been made last night were in Manchester ;
but at the same time the county police were en-
gaged in searching districts such as Eccles and
other villages that are out of the city jurisdiction.
Nothing came of it, though the conktdges were as-
sisted by detectives from the c r i..8,1•' -.,-,t- ._ ' tIIC
Town Hall. There is to be At . `-,
meeting, to-morrow morning, of thk= Council,
to receive a report of the Chairma, eftbe City Gaol
Committee, in reference to the notorious insecurity
of the prison. A recommendation iiattached to this
report ; but meanwhile it is understood that com-
, .
munications with Mr. Fairbairn, the eminent en-
gineer, have already been pushed forward to a prac-
tical stage. Though a good deal of secrecy and
mystification is generally characteristic of our Man-
chester oracles, I do not think the most profoundly
taciturn official can find fault
with the publication
of a piece of intelligence which must be known here
quite as soon as the arrival of the London papers.
if the gaol is weak, the Fenians
know its weakness
already ; and it is the duty of the authorities to
strengthen the guard, and to take all necessary pre-
cautions, rather than rely on the feeble old strata-
gem of the ostrich.
Byro the pub-
licity seem to have been wailed at the funeral of
ng force bye,e of detectives openly
poor Brett, when a objections to
advertised their personal appearance, being conspi-
cuously marshalled in the procession next to the
brass band that played the "Dead March in Saul."
A surgeon's
named Baxter, who
strong
errand boy,
was one of the prisoners hi the van attacked by
the Fenians, has made a statement which appears
this morning in the local paper I have already
quoted. The vehicle must have been crowded, for
this lad was accompanied in his compartment by
another prisoner— a
most reprehensible practice,
by-the-bye—and it
would seem that not only were
other captives " doubled" in like manner, but
the central passage was occupied by women. The
severally
boy saps that the box in which he was placed
was last but one from the door, and that Kelly
and Deasey were
each other quite at the end. The door of every
grating ;
box has a wooden in the boxes opposite
and the lad whose
narrative I am now offering, with salt to suit the
various palates of belief, would have been able to
observe, with tolerable ease, everything that took
place in any portion of the
passage except the end
nearest the door, where Sergeant Brett was stand-
ing. He would also hear a good deal of what was
said or done, whether in the van or by as-
sailants outside. Baxter's story is that he
felt the van brought up with a sudden
jerk. At that time there was not much light
in his box or in the
heard was a pistol shot
passage. The first sound he
;then came another, and
then many more. The‘' ext thing was a great
noise on the roof and at the door of the van ; and
prough the grating, he
soon afterwards, looking
saw that the passage waif lighter. The women
made a great screaming. There were five or six
of them. He had.nnt sten Sergeant Brett at all,
and except for whatioon followed he would not
have known he was in.. the passage with the
women. While the harnincring was goit,(epc btoi ythe heard
door wag
and
nd a
going on
against the panels, and the shots were firing out-
side, the women began to% take hold of each other
and pray. The next thingh
voice outside the door say,,)
t your
h e r e
gIT voice thenheboyhoard
said,n
answer
wareth tisii.e prisoners.
krely,hsei
turn 'em up." Then a
out."
salvo
man's voice inside replieciv" I dursn't." Th
l I
The voice
outside said, "If you'll- cup the keys atte WOuit
kill you.'.' To this the answer was it No.il 4;
1 lit..! next
occurrence was the firing of a shot into
The bob subseonere'—, `' - . 1410 van.

it. to C -
..
._...y picked up the ball and gave
..,..,ustable Knox. Before the pistol was fired
the woman said, "vivo up the keys, Charlie, or
you'll be killed." After the shot the same voice
cried "Ife'6 killed." , What the lad next saw was
some of the women going to the wickets of the dif-
ferent boxes oppeitite to his, and looking through
them ; they said, "Tfe's shot dead," and " Char-
lie's .stiff as anything."., At the same time, other
of the women said, 'Dle's got the keys in his
pocket—got them out." .. At that time also he says
there was such a noise aid he thought the door was
broken thropgh, and he has even no idea that it
was unlock . ' 3of the keys taken from
etiilo9l4%
Brett's pocket. It u . Le borne in mind that the
boy could not ECQ what took placo at tho ond of the

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