The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-20 00:00:00

TIM PSNLIN 13TIT1AOR

• o'clockmorning 471114101 nlink fotir
Pie, it are lea Sing members of the Fenian
;BrotlierhOod, were brought to the Police-station in Marl-
ibaroUgh:inein, and formally charged with treason-felony.
,The names of three of the prisoners are respectively
English, EsinOnde, and John Mulvany.
_
Geoige
Smith, the man who was arrested on Wednes-
day night, has been for some time suspected and watched
by the police ; but it was not until Allen gave information
to the police that Smith was supposed to be implicated in
'thesattempt to blow up the House of Detention. He is a
shoemaker by trade, living in Dudley-street, St. Giles's,
and is an Irishman, as are most of the residents in the
street. Several witnesses were brought to identify him on
the night of his arrest. He was placed among a number
of men taken out of the street ; but none of the witnesses
identified him, and he was at length discharged from

custody.
Yesterday Dr. Jenner, physician in ordinary to her
Iktajesty, forwarded to the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's-
inn-road, by special command of the Queen, who is pa-
troness of the hospital, a large quantity of hot-house grapes
and other fruits, for the use of the sufferers from the late
explosion, and also expressed her desire to know how the
sufferers are progressing. Up to a late hour last
evening all the patients were doing well, with the exception
of the old man, Humphrey Evans, who in the opinion of
the surgeons, Dr. Alexander Marsden and Mr. Gant, was
not likely to live through the night. Another sufferer,
Anne Chalice, was admitted yesterday, seriously in-
jured. A letter from Mr. Robert Paget, vestry clerk and
hon. secretary to the Clerkenwell Explosion Relief Fund,
was received in the course of the day by the hospital
authorities, stating that the homes of the sufferers would
be restored to them, and that the committee would do
everything in its power to mitigate the sufferings and repair
the losses caused by the explosion. The gratifying intelli-
gence was at once communicated to the patients. The
damage done in such a place as Clerkenwell by this
explosion is almost incalculable, for within the district the
most costly time-keepers in the world are manufactured,
and the best class of jewellery is to be found here. The
name which Clerkenwell bears for democratic associations
is to be ascribed to its unlucky " green " rather than to
the working population generally, for the workers in
Clerkenwell are as industrious and peace-loving a body of
men as any body of artisans in the kingdom. They have
no trade unions and no rattenings. Clerkenwell is known
as a "poor" parish ; but it is a well-known fact that the
poor who claim the paupers' relief are chiefly of the class
who lodgesin the parish and work in the City, and not of
the staple trades of this ancient suburb.
Among the reports circulated through Westminster was
one that the gasometers at the Chartered Gas Company's
works, Horseferry-read,were in danger of being blown up;
upon this the manager called together the men, the
majority of whom are Irish Catholics and north country-
men, and having addressed them, and endeavoured to
ascertain their political feelings, was pleased to find that
they one and all expressed their abhorrence of the recent
outrages, and volunteered to be sworn in as special con-
stables. In the course of yesterday many were appointed,
under the Act of Parliament, for six months ; so that in
Westminster those first open to suspicion have turned out
the least to be expected and the first to act in any

emergency.
The Irish tailor Desmond, now in custody for the Cler-
kenwell outrage, was one of the journeymen who took an
active part in the late tailors' strike. He was in custody
at the Clerkenwell Police-court, charged with picketting,
and was committed for trial. It was very well known at
the time that what is termed a Fenian Centre was esta-
blished in Soho, and that money was sent from Dublin by
Fenians for the purpose of carrying out the ulterior views
of those who organised the strike.
The ii. ~mbent of Clerkenwell, in acknowledging the
receipt of subscriptions, gives examples of the necessities
created in " the outer circle of this disaster" :—" Women,
he states, who used to gain a livelihood by mangling have
lost their work because their customers will not entrust
their clothes to them, for fear of another catastrophe ; a
teacher of writing (Waterloo-place) cannot gather his class
of boys ; a woman (Woodbridge-street) who will lose her
lodgers if she does not refit the house. I would also men-
tion that as many as sixteen cases of confinement, many
of them prematurely brought on by the shock, are in the
hands of one lady visitor. We send out more than a
gallon of beef tea, strong and good, every day to these.
Nearly all these persons had lost the little clothing they
had prepared for the children when born, and we have
been enabled to supply them with everything abso-
lutely necessary for the occasion, besides nurses to atteno
them."
The vestries of Lambeth, Marylebone, and Paddington
met yesterday, when resolutions strongly expressive
of abhorrence of the outrage, sympathy v ith the victims,
and readiness to as.;ist in the preservation of the peace
by offering facilities for swearing-in special coastal 's,
were adopted. For the last day or two an ad 1.7.253 to the
Lord Mayor of London with reference to the Clerkenwell
outrage has been lying for signature at the Glasgow
Royal Exchange. The address expresses abhorrence of
the crime, and requests his lordship to convey to the sur-
viving sufferers the deep sympathy of the subscribers, and
to apply the sum raised by them in subscriptions of half-
a-crown each towards the relief of distress occasioned by
the catastrophe. When the list was closed on Wednesday
afternoon it bore the names aibf 1,250 gentlemen, the
amount contributed being £l6O.

SPECIAL MEETING OF MIDDLESEX
MAGISTRATES. 1
Yesterday a special meeting of the Middlesex ma-
gistrates was held at the Sessions House, Clerleenwell, to
consider the necessary steps to be taken in consequence of
the recent desperate outrage at the House of Detention
Mr. Henry Pownall in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the business, said they were
all aware of the circumstances of the recent outrage, and
therefore it would not be necessary for him to detain them
with any lengthened observations upon it. On Thursday '
evening, on his return home about six o'clock, he received
a communication from the Home Office, the details of
which he did not think it necessary to state ; but he con-
sidered it of so much importance that he immediately went
down to the House of Correction, where he saw the
governor, and requested him to send some of his warders
to the House of Detention. He then made some arrange-
ments with the governor whereby the safety of the Fenian
prisoners was guaranteed. He had adopted measures
which had defeated the ends of the plotters. In the ordi-
nary course the prisoners would have been exercising in tl
yard at the time the explosion took place.
Lord RANELAGH said he should not have presented him-
self upon any ordinary occasion to the court thus early, but
he wished to draw their attention to some facts to enable
them to come to a right decision that day. Ile trusted
his friend Mr. Henry White would move a resolution
approving the conduct of the governor, the chaplain, and
officers of the prison. In order that they might know
some of the real facts, he would. state, in tie first place,
that the chairman, as he had already informed them, had
received a communication which, he believed, was addressed
to him from the Home Secretary, Mr. Hardy, informing
him of the intended attack. He believed there was a
similar letter sent to Sir Richard Mayne informing hip
that an attack was contemplated on the House of Deten-
tion, and Sir Michard Mayne informed the governor of
the House of Detention of the fact ; and if he was not
wrongly informed, the governor replied that he would
protect the inside of the prison if Sir Richard Mayne
would protect the outside. The information that was
communicated by the Home Office (4 the intended rescue
was received from Ireland. It was known in Ireland, it
was known in Paris, it was known in London at the
middle of the day ; and that being so, he wanted to know
how it was that the Chief Commissioner of Police had not
taken those precautions that were necessary for the safety
of the people.
Sir ALEXANDER SPEARMAN (interrupting) said he should
like to know whether Lord Ranelagh was about to make
an attack upon Sir Richard Mayne—Sir Richard was not
there to defend himself. •
Lord RANELAGII said he should be the last person in the
world to attack a man behind his back, but, at the same
time, there was serious blame somewhere. It was not
with the magistrates, and if it did not rest with the Com-
missioner of Police, he would like to know with whom the
blame did rest.
The CHAIRMAN said that nothine, had occurred that was
not perfectly satisfactory to themselves, to the Homo
Office, and to the public. (" No, no.")
Lord RANELAGII then moved the following resolution :
"That the magistrates of the county of Middlesex, in
cessions assembled, this 19th clay of December, 1867, desire,
after full inquiries into all the circumstances of the cri-
minal attack made upon the House of Detention on Fri-
day last, to express their unanimous opinion that every
available protection within the prison for the safety of the
building and the custody of the prisoners was taken, but at
the same time to record the opinion of this court that
efficient measures were not adopted by the Chief Commis-
sioner of Police to guard the exterior of the prison and the
approaches to it ; and, moreover, that if such measures had
been taken and the previoue information given by the
Home Office to Sir Richard Mayne had been acted upon,
the diabolical attempt would probably have been frus-
trated, and that at all events the chief authors of the
outrage seould have been discovered. This court is of
°Fission that an investigation into the reasons for the pas-
sive conduct of Sir Richard Mayne should be immediately
instituted by the authorities empowered to make such an
investigation."
Mr. W. P. B'
_ ODKIN brought up the' report of the
visiting justices, which stated the facts of the outrage as
Already before the public, They paid agemplipaeut to the