The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-25 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, NOV. 25, 1867.

Saturday morning witnessed what has been termed
" the solemn tragedy" at Manchester, and the three
Fenian convicts underwent the extreme penalty of
the law. In some respects it must be admitted that
the intelligence is received with a sensation of relief,
for the state of doubt and suspense into which some
persons had worked themselves concerning the
matter tended to confuse and excite the public mind,
and to make the whole affair more painful than it
naturally was to begin with. The Home Secretary
has, indeed, been placed in a most trying position, and
he has acquitted himself admirably of his responsible
duty. It is long since a Minister of the Crown has
found himself concerned in so involved a case, and
one requiring so much care and discrimination as
that Mr. HARDY has just had to deal with. On
the whole he must be acknowledged by all compe-
tent to give an opinion that he has done all that he
could under the circumstances, and due credit must
also be awarded to those who acted under him.
The whole of the arrangements connected with
the executions at Manchester were most admirably
conducted, and all possibility of a serious
disturbance was thereby avoided. Barricades were
erected in all suitable places, and the police and
military were placed at all commanding points.
One great evil that ensues from the perpetual agita-
tion which some people persist in keeping up when
any criminal is sentenced to death is that it prevents
the unfortunate convict from making up his mind
to the fate before him. The unhappy men who
expiated their crime, so far as human laws can make
them, were under the expectation that a reprieve
would be afforded to them, and hence were not
so fully prepared as they might have been
had no officious intermeddlers intervened. At any
rate the sad business is over now, and it is to be
earnestly trusted that it will not be without its due
effect upon those most immediately concerned.
The many futile efforts that have been made to
show that the death of Brett was not a murder, but
partook more of the nature of a collision, and other
arguments to the same effect, will be soon for-
gotten, and there will remain in remembrance
the awful penalty paid by the three con-
victs who suffered on Saturday last for their grave
offence against the law.
We do not see how the Government could have
acted other wise than they did in coming to a deci-
sion ou this point. Had these men been reprieved or
pardoned, it would have been difficult, if not impos-
sible, for any future offenders on the same sgore to
have been put to death ; and besides this, the cause
of Fenianism imperatively called for a decisive
check, if there was to be any chance of putting
down its murdering-3 and preserving order among
the community. It is to be hoped that this
solemn warning will not be thrown away, and that
the mistaken and misguided men who are led away
by the counsels of desperadoes and conspirators will
for the future take heed to their ways, and not
compromise themselves so fatally in the prosecution
of their illegal schemes. All that leniency could do
has been done by the authorities both in Ireland and
in this country, and mercy had wellnigh set
the decree of justice at nought, in the hope
that better counsels might prevail. As this
humane endeavour was not, however, suc-
cessful in its object, no course remained but to
follow the sterner behests of the law. As respons-
ible advisers to the Crown, and as the agents for
upholding the law intact and inviolate for the
security of the people, we do not see how the
members of the Government could have acted
otherwise than they did. Those who are still in-
clined to persist in their disapprobation of the
executions of Saturday should consider to what
length these conspirators have gone in the
advocacy and furtherance of their extreme
views, and the daring outrages to which they
had resorted. Quite apart from the question of
Fenianism at all, it could never have been permitted
that a body of men should conspire together and
form plans for the deliverance of those whom the
magistrates had sentenced to a term of imprison-
ment, or remanded that their cases might have
further investigation. How is order to be main-
tained, and how are the decrees of justice to be
carried out, if those who minister to them ara to be
the prey of lawless violence, without the prospect of
receiving that protection from the hands of the law
which they have hitherto always received. Regret
fur the sufferings and sorrow for the losses of those
who are faithful to the duties imposed on them arc
quite out of the question with those who take up
the cause of the condemned with so much false judg-
ment and mistaken zeal. We have all had enough of
their indignant protests and sentimental palliations
of direct guilt, and may turn to other matters, in
the full belief and confident expectation that all has
been done that the necessities of the case called for,
and that therefore the public may look forward to
the speedy extinction of Fenianism, so far as it
molests the peace and endangers the safety of her
MAJESTY'S subjects. If such should unhappily not
prove to be the case it will be necessary to take
further measures, but for the present it is not at all
unlikely that we have seen and heald the worst of
this mischievous section, which seems to have be-
come worse in its character, and more reckless in
its contrivances, in proportion as more consideration
was shown to it, and more mercy extended.

A meeting of a very interesting nature was held
on Thursday last at the London Tavern, Bishops-
gate, and, in the present condition of the poorer
classes at the East end of London, it was one of
considerable social importance. The distress and
suffering, which are always more or less chronic in
those districts, have lately, owing to the long-con-
tinued depression of trade and unfavourable seasons,
assumed formidable proportions, and the advent of
winter increases their claims on the sympathy
and assistance of their more fortunate neigh-
bours. It will be remembered that during
the visitation of cholera in 1866, from which
the eastern families sufferel so terribly, a
wise and kindly scheme was set on foot by a lady
whose name is as highly honoured in philanthropic
circles as her husband's is in the financial and com-
mercial:, NV orld. Mrs. GLADSTONE ascertained, when
the first violence of epidemic bad subsided, that
many persons who had recovered from its attacks
had afterwards fallen into bad health, and some-
tieueo succumbed to fatal illueBo for want of claiole