The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-20 00:00:00

1111PORTA,NT FENIAN ARRESTS.

The public will be glad to hear, says the Tunes, that not
the slightest doubt exists in the minds of the police that
they have succeeded in capturing the man Barrett, so long
and so earnestly looked for as the person who actually
fired the powder which destroyed the wall of Clerkenwell
House of Detention and spread death and suffering among
so many innocent r_ople. The capture was made on
Tuesday night, at Glasgow, where none of the local police
who made it seem to have thought at first of the im-
portance of their prize. In fact, the circumstances which
led to the arrest may be regarded as almost accidental. It
is necessary, in the present stage of the search after the
Fenian criminals, to be very guarded in what is published.
What follows, however, may now be stated without fear
of injury to the public service. Before the Clerkenwell
outrage the police had a certain sort of indefinite
information as to something afoot among those suspected
in Glasgow to be Fenians. After that catastrophe all the
energy and astuteness of the detectives were employed in
endeavouring to trace its perpetrators, and it was made
pretty clear that the whole plot was laid and matured at
Glasgow, and that a man named Barratt was, with one or
two others, entrusted to "do the job." Private inquiries
pointed to Barra% and only to Barratt, as the man who
fired the fuse. He was seen by many witnesses, and all
who have spoken of him have given a clear description,
and declare that they are able to identify him
instantly if they see him again. The description given
of him to the police was sent especially to Glasgow,
where he had left the work he had been engaged
upon, and disappeared also from the city itself. On Tues-
day night last the Glasgow police were alarmed at hearing
the sound of firearms in one of the principal streets, and
on hastening thither they found two men, one or both of
whom had been discharging pistols. They were tal:en into
custody, when they gave the names of Michael Barrett
and James O'Neill. The return of Barratt, and his an-
swering the description of the Barratt said to have fired
the fuse in the barrel of powder at Clerkenwell, led
upon consideration to the gravest suspicions against
the prisoners, and a special warrant was given by
Bailie Anderson for their detention while the autho-
rities at Scotland-yard were communicated with by
telegraph. This message brought down Inspector Wil-
liamson, the chief of the detectives, with four of his
subordinates, and these at once recognised the prisoner
from his minute description, and, perhaps, not less so from
the clue they had as to his history, as to why he had left
Glasgow to come to London, and why he bad left London.
At any rate, they were convinced he was the man they
were so earnestly in search of, and on Saturday night
they brought him and his companion, O'Neill, safely to
London.

On Saturday evening another capture of a Fenian
leader, Clancy, who has long been " wanted," was made
in Bedford-square, Bloomsbury. He was recognised, fol-
lowed, and watched by two detectives, who, at what they
thought the proper time, closed with him, told him who
they were, and demanded his surrender. In an instant,
however, Clancy fired twice, without effect, from a
revolver, and tried to fire again, but, failing, ran off, and
was almost immediately caught and overp )werel. It is
said an examination of the revolver shews that the third
ball had jammed in the chamber, and so prevented the
weapon being discharged.

It may reassure the public to learn, when reading of
these arrests, that the police have already seized nearly all
the chiefs who are really " very much wanted," except
two or three who are in close hiding, in the hope of finding
mean to fly the country when the storm has blown over
enough to justify them in risking the attempt. lenianism,
as far as the police can ascertain, is for the present scared
ahno;:t to death in England, and neither in this country
nor in Ireland have the Fenians either leaders or funds.

On Satt.Alay, however, a very daring act—though pro-
bably only a bad joke—was perpetrated in broad day in a
part of the city which is usually crowded, and under the very
windows of the Lord Mayor--the posting of a seditious
placard on the front of the Mansion House, and on that
part of it upon Which royal proclamations are always ex-
hibited. The document was wholly in manuscript. At
the head of it were the figures 186 S, immediately below
which was a pen-and-ink sketch of an Irish harp, sur-
rounded with representations of shamrock, and below that
again the words "God save Ireland !" On each side of
these emblems were the capital letters " I. E.," denoting,
it is presumed, Irish Republic. Then followed this
elegant effusion, some of the words of which were sought
to be emphasised by the use of capitals :
" The Irishmen of America are united ! Irishmen of
England, follow their example ! Unite ; forward, ye fear-

less sons of Ireland ! Stand for the old country !"

In the concluding sentence a sorry attempt is made at
rhyme, thus :

" Oh, that to England nailed Ireland should be.
Preserve her green flag of liberty.
Erin-go-bragh.."
The whole of this production was written upon a mean-
looking slip of paper, and immediately below it another
slip had been pasted, upon which were the words, in letters
nearly an inch long, " God save the Green," which might
at first sight have been taken for the familiar expression of
loyalty with which all royal proclamations conclude. The
question arises how such a document came to be there. To
the police authorities it is an entire mystery, and one to
which as yet they have no clue. The front of the Mansion
House is part of an ordinary beat which a policeman
usually traverses once in a quarter of an hour or twenty
minutes, and the. paper mutt have been placarded there
the coni:table on duty was goilir some other part of
his naiad. City p,lice-consta.t.le Newnham, '577, who
Wa:3 stationed in front of the Mansion House throughout
the day on the sp,eial duty of regulating the traffic there,
d.d not sec the act done, but he hail his attention called to
it sis.rtly afterwards. He saw a crowd assembled, and on
going to inquire the cause he found them reading the
placard. That was about a quarter to three o'clock, a
time of the day when that part of the city on a Saturday
is usually most thronged by people who have been released
from duty by the prevailing half-holiday. The officer
found most of the crowd ridiculing the document they
were reading, and some were attempting to tear it down.
He immediately interfered on becoming aware of its
nature, and, having removed the placard, he took it forth.
with to Colonel Fraser, the City Commissioner of Police.