The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-23 00:00:00

MR. TRAIN IN PRISON.

The Dublin correspondent of the Times writes :—" The
release of Mr. G. F. Train is almost a greater surprise
than his arrest. He was discharged from custody yester

day on an order from the Lord-Lieutenant, communicated
by Mr. Hamilton, R.M., who attended at the county gac'
for the purpose of communicating the intention of tht
Government. It is stated that, as a condition precedent tc
his liberation, he gave an assurance that he had no inteu.
tion of promoting Fenianism in this country. His object
in returning to British soil is, it seems, less ambitious and
possibly more practical than it has been thought—th€
furtherance, in fact, of his one dominant idea—tramways.
During his confinement he conducted himself witL
exemplary obedience to the rules of the gaol. He was
a model prisoner, whose example might be follower:
with advantage by others. He manifested in hi.
adherence to discipline a stern, self-denying virtue, ever
refusing -to accept any other than the ordinary
dietary of the prison. It was not because he resigned
himself to grief and would not be comforted— he is one o(
the last who would be likely to do so—but, if rumour be
correct, he adopted this course with the intention o,
demanding full reparation from the Government for an
insult and injury which with this object in view it was not
for his interest to have mitigated. The police on arresting
Mr. Train took possession of some newspapers which were
found in his carpet-bag. Among them was the Fenian
Volunteer, which contained an article extolling him for hif-
advocacy of the Irish race. There were numerous pam-
phlets, including his address to 500 Fenian C entres, before
6,000 Fenians, at the great Fenian Congress in Philo
delphia, in 1865. On being asked for his autograph in the
police-station, he wrote, in the presence of the police :
" ' Whether on the gallows high
Or in the battle's van,
The fittest-place for man to die
Is when he dies for man.'
Another applicant was favoured with the following :
Tay the Alabama claims, or fight. Release Americar
citizens in English gaols, or war is certain. It is stated
however, that he was never a member of the Fenian con
federacy."
The Cork correspondent of the Daily News says :--
Immediately after his release, Mr. Train drove to the
Imperial Hotel, sent for the American consul, Mr. East
man, and, before ordering breakfast, prepared and for-
warded to Downing-street a claim for £lOO,OOO compensa-
-0011 for the outrage he had suffered. The specific grounds
for this claim are that Mr. Train has been damaged in his
general commercial reputation, and especially in his
capacity as chairman of the Credit Foncier of America--
a company of which he states he is the creator ane
guiding mind. Mr. Train has also addressed the
American Minister, Mr. Adams, whom he expect,
to endorse and insist upon his demand. He says
that he will make the British Government pay and
apologise also for the insult offered through him to
American citizenship. At a litter hour in the day Mr.
Train gave interviews to the, reporters of the leading
local journals, to whom he was most communicative.
furnishing them with full details of his speculations and
political prospects in the United States, his business ii,
Europe, and his intentions as regards his futurfb proceed
ings. Mr. Train denies—and is in this borne out by other
testimony—that any papers of a compromising character
were- found in his possession on his arrest. He hac
nothing about him to excite suspicion but a bundle of
American papers—the Boston Pilot, New York Freeman':
Journat the 'World, and other journals, containing re
ports of hisspeeches on various topics. In some of these
speeches England is soundly rated, and Fenianism
lauded to the skies, but he asserts that, as an Ame-
rican citizen, he had a perfect right, in America,
to express his opinions of England in whatever
language ho chose. In his interview with the
reporters he complained of his arrest as a most
ungenerous as well as unconstitutional act upon the
part of the British Government. ' I have abuse('
England, and the moment I put my foot on British terri-
tory the Government arrests me. Is this generous ?" One
of the documents amongst Mr. Train's papers was a
printed slip, headed ' The Revolution: clear the way ; the
Train is coming,' a title which probably aroused the sus
picions of the detectives. It is, however, a very harmless
matter, merely containing select extracts from his letters
and speeches, and a few of his epigrams. Mr. Train's
arrest has made him a sort of popular hero here, and with
true Yankee 'cuteness he intends to turn his popu-
larity to account, and to make money by it. He pro-
poses to stump ' the country—that is, to give a Berk,
of lectures in various places, beginning with Cork. Th,
discipline of the gaol excited the strongest feelings of dis-
gust in the mind of the captive. He was greatly
astonished to find himself deprived of books and papers
forbidden to send out letters without the permission of the
governor ; deprived of light after a certain hour ; corn
pelled to live on gaol diet, and, in short, to conform to th
rigid and irksome rules to which political. re:s mere ar
subjected. His leisure was occupied chiefly in writing
series of protests against his detention, and letters to
friend of his—Mr. George Bemis, of New York—com
plaiting of the hardships which he was made to endure
In one of these he waxes pathetic : `Make no effort fo
my release,' he says : `let me die here. What matter:
one life?"
rch

Mr. Alfred Tennyson regrets that it is no longer
possible for him to answer the innumerable letters, or 4
acknowledge the MS. verses, which he is in the habit o:
receiving from strangers.