The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Fenianism has been from the beginning
a compound of audacity and absurdity, but one in
particular the absurdity now predominates very
strongly. We have the benefit, never before enjoyed
in a conspiracy, of seeing and hearing all that one
half of the conspirators either say or do. In Ire-
land the Fenians conceal themselves, but in America
they speak out, and tell us all their successive im-
pressions, plans, and expectations. The latest reve-
lation beats all others in the prodigious depth of its
nonsense. As the suspension of the Habeas Corpus
Act in Ireland has driven apparently even the chief
leader of the plot to despair and flight, the Ameri-
can Fenians argue that the conspiracy ought to be
recognised as practically successful, and that, inas-
much as they have abandoned all idea of war, they
are entitled to the character of belligerents. This
demand, it is said, they are actually pressing on
the Governmentat Washington. They have nothing
whatever to show for it. There is not a Fenian
belligerent anywhere, unless, indeed, it be in the
Fenian Congress in America, where two factions
are undoubtedly ready to fly at each other's throats.
But, excepting this, there are no " forces" of the
"Irish Republic" to be found, nor does anybody
expect to find them. We had lately a good-many
strangers in Ireland,- evidently there for no good,
and in order to keep these visitors from mischief
we removed certain impediments in the way of
locking them up. They took the hint, and those
who escaped the first sweep of the net made the
best of their way to other parts. It was all done
very neatly, but nobody except a Fenian would
look at the proceeding as " virtually establishing"
an independent Republic at war with Great Bri-
tain. The Fenians are indignant at the measures of
the British Government, but at the same time they
are careful to justify them by the most open and
unreserved avowal of their designs. They complain
that we have nullified a constitution which, as Mr.
James Stephens told us, not one of them recognised
as existing, and they are transported with rage at
our injustice in not allowing them a favourable op-
portunity of exterminating us. They sent " mili-
tary officers of distinction to move silently into Ire-
land," and take the command of an insurrectionary
army, of which proceedings they gave us due notice.
Some of these visitors we have now got in prison,
and the Fenians meet to expresssympathy with their
envoys and denounce the arbitrary and unconstitu-
tional conduct of our Government in arresting them.
Their design was to ravage Ireland with fire and
sword, but we had no business to avert the consum-
mation. Our policy is monstrous. We have pre-
vented a sanguinary commotion, which ought to
have come to pass, and which would have come to
pass if we had not adopted extraordinary measures
of protection. The Fenians never so much as pre-
tended to say that we have mistaken their purposes
or that their designs were less than we assume.
They only declare that they might have accomplished
the mischief if we had let them alone, and that our
interference was tyrannical and unjustifiable upon
any constitutional principles. Mr. John Mitchell, too,
hasimproved the occasion to condemn the whole Irish
policy of the British Governmenton precisely similar
grounds. He has stated in a letter that Ireland really
has wrongs and grievances of her own, inasmuch as
Irishmen are not allowed to meet in convention,
or to train themselves to the use of arms,
or •to enroll themselves in Volunteer battalions,
or to regulate the constitution and practice of their
courts of justice. If, says he, Irishmen were not
debarred from these legitimate privileges, their
rights would. soon be secured. The first thing they
would do with their arms would be to exterminate
the English in Ireland, and the Queen's rule would
cease of itself, because no Irish court of Law pro-
perly constituted would find any Irishmen guilty of
any offence against the Crown. Unfortunately,
under the tyrannical system of divorcing Irishmen
from their bayonets, and packing juries impartially
for criminal trials, peace and British dominion are
preserved together; but it is abominable, he adds,
to maintain that Irishmen, under such circum-
stances, are not "exceptionally" governed. Nothing
could surpass the frankness of this public argu-
ment, but Mr. Mitchell has left one point of con-
sideration. It is, indeed, not impossible that if
Irishmen were suddenly released from the control
of Government they might fly to arms. They have
certain national propensities which render this re-
sult by no means ualikely, but it is not at all likely
that their first aim would be the " English gar-
risons." They might, perhaps, attack each other
first, and none know better than Mr. John Mit-
chell the probability of the contingency. He and
his own accomplices in treason quarrelled and fought
in 1848, and the very Fenians themselves are at dag-
gers drawn in the home of their adoption. It is
one feature of our Government in Ireland that it
keeps the peace between rival creeds and parties,
and prevents the war with which Orangemen and
Catholics are perpetually threatening each other.
We wish to see Irishmen united, but the spectacle
of the Fenian camp is enough to show the difficulty
of the conclusion. We do our best to keep them
from open disunion, and we trust some day to see
the benefit of the policy. The two leading doc-
trines of Fenianism were that all Fenians should
love each other and should hate the English. They
have never yet kept the first of these pledges, and
are more likely, of the two, to make war upon each
other than to attack us.
THE " SATURDAY REVIEW " ON THE DEBATE
ON REFORII.--Whatever the merits of the Reform
Bill may be, the debate on it has been lively and
interesting, and has been signalised by some of the
best speaking that has been heard by this generation
in the House. The panegyrists of the Parliaments
which ten-pound householders return may derive
much pleasure from a comparison, if they will take
the trouble to institute it, between the mode in
which the present house is addressed and listens,
and the tone and character both of the speeches and
the audience at the time of the Reform Bill of 1832.
There is much more pith and argument in our
modern speeches, much more comprehension of the
wider bearing of political changes, a much greater
apprehension of the views of opponents, a far
higher respect for the audience addressed, as capable
of appreciating and understanding the best thoughts
as well as the best language that the speaker has to
offer them. It is true that, on the present occasion,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not up to his
usual level. His speech was skilful, for it delayed
as long as possible the key to the great mystery ;
but nothing could prevent the sense of bathos when
the mystery was revealed, and it appears that the
announcement of the new franchise of 7, the fran-
chise that was to work a silent revolution and to in-
spire all Englishmen with a renewed confidence in
the justice and equity of their rulers, was actually
received with much laughter. The mouse that had
been brought forth was so small a one that a sense
of the ludicrous overcame for a moment every other
feeling. In no part of his speech did Mr. Glad-
stone stir his audience, except in his peroration, the