The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-28 00:00:00

&gum OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,,

1,14 'Times calls attention to the languor which
,chlaitAterised the resumption of the Irish question. This
arose from two circumstances. It has become apparent
that the immediate practical effect of Mr. Gladstone's
:resolutions must be little or nothing. They define the
geope- and objects of the legislation of next year, but,
except so far as they help forward this end, they can
produce no result. There is, however, another circum.
stance more powerfully influencing the present temper of
the debate. It is impossible to fight very energetically
against antagonists who are mere men in buckram. There
are impassable limits to the amount of make-believe of
which men are capable. The defenders of the Irish
Church in and out of the House of Commons are nowhere,
and those who attack it can find no foemen worthy
of their steel. The country has, in the most sluggish
manner possible, refused to be scared by Mr. Disraeli's
phantoms. Those few who sincerely believe in the invio-
lable character of the Irish Establishment, and of whom
we desire to speak with the most profound respect, do not
belong to the class which looks upon politics as a game,
and takes finesse for political wisdom. They would as
willingly trust to the tender mercies of the Opposition as
to the dexterous management of the Ministry. They can-
not confide blindly in the Protestantism of a Government
which proposed to endow a Catholic University, and they
are not without uneasy apprehensions lest Mr. Osborne's
prophecy should one day come true, and Mr. Disraeli
be found despoiling the Establishment of Ire-
land with the support of the Liberal party. It
is not a subject for regret that the debate was by com-
parison languid. The lull of parliamentary excitement
may serve, and, the Times believes, will serve, to bring
out into stronger relief the conviction of the majority that
justice demands the disestablishment of the Irish Church.
The vote before Easter was not an ebullition of transitory
vehemence. That there were some among the majority who
were more concerned for a Liberal victory than for the
removal of an anomaly too long tolerated need not be
'doubted, but Mr. Horsman's elaborate defence of the
;Opposition was unnecessary. The strength of the party
disendowment in the House of Commons does no
more than correspond to the determination of the English
people. Every day makes this truth more clear. The
national will is so apparent and so unflinching that those
who represent it in Parliament may be content to bide
their time; There is no necessity for hurried counsels or
precipitate action. There is no intermittent enthusiasm
to be kept alive lest it should expire, no feeble resolution
to be sedulously nursed lest it vanish away, but a deter-
mination that our hands shall be set free to govern Ireland
with a strong and wise will-- that we shall not falter be-
cause we feel that we demand obedience where we do not
render justice.

The Daily News thinks that the Irish discussion is
exhausted. The fact that many hours were occupied by
a succession of orators to whom the House seldom listens,
and of whom the public knows nothing, is a proof of this.
The Liberals complained before Easter that they were
not met with a sufficiently direct and explicit negative,
but with a declaration that the subject ought to be post-
poned till the meeting of the Reformed Parliament. They
could not, the Standard declares, now repeat any such
complaint. One of their own party, the member for
Stockport, did indeed place on the paper a motion which
substantially repeated that of Lord Stanley, but withdrew
it to make way for the amendment of Sir F. Heygate,
which boldly affirmed the true Conservative doctrine that
while the Union subsists the Church of Ireland ought to
be maintained and endowed with revenues adequate to the
wants of the population.

The Star believes that deliberation is good, but not as
the House of Commons deliberated last night. The Irish
Church question deserved a better revival. That the
House should pass with effusion an address to the Queen
on the attempted assassination of her second son was a
proceeding obviously called for by a circumstance appealing
so poignantly at once to personal and loyal attachment.
The triumph over King Theodore, on the other hand, wav
a topic' upon which the House was as eager to listen as
Mr. Disraeli was well prepared to speak. But there was
no reason why the ceremonial speeches arising out of
these two very different occasions should depress
the spirits of members to so great an extent
as to ruin the debate which was the great business
of the night. Yet for some reason a spirit of dullness
fell upon the House. Perhaps the smirking speech in
which Mr. Watkin withdrew from the false position in
which he had placed himself had a gloomy effect upon the
Conservatives, by proving that there was no fun to be got
out of divisions of the Liberal party. Perhaps the
Liberals were afflicted with a prescience of gloom by the
sight of Mr. Gorat rising at an hour usually dedicated to
mush more experienced and important men. Or, per-
haps, the triumph of Mr. Gladstone's resolutions had been
too well discounted, and the fight against them was too
obviously a sham, for interest to be vigorously kept alive.
Whatever was the reason of it, the greater part of the
evening was, in point of sprightliness, eloquence, and poll.
tical significance, one long dinner hour, and at hardly any
moment was it easy to realise that a great national
and imperial question was being discussed for final
settlement.

The trial of the prisoners charged with the commission
of what is known as the Clerkenwell outrage has ended
in the conviction of Barrett and the acquittal of the rest.
The result, remarks the Post, may probably surprise
many who have watched the progress of the case. Seldom,
indeed, in modern times has any trial been marked by
more remarkable incidents ; seldom has evidence more
conflicting been submitted for the consideration of a jury;
and seldom has the current of opinion in respect to the
guilt or innocence of at least one of the accused been
subjected to such sudden or violent variations. The alibis
set up by Barrett were most singular. It is not impro.
bable that the jury may have based their verdict on the
ground that if the alibis were bond fide the Home Secre-
tary would be able, by inquiry, to establish that fact, and
in that case grant a free pardon, and in the contrary event
the conviction would be a sound one. In the presence of
the evidence advanced for the defence and the contra-
dictions in that submitted on the part of the. Crown,
some inquiry as to whether Barrett was in Glasgow of
not at the time of the explosion has become absolutely
necessary.

The Daily News observes that if the Fenians in this
country have a grain of common sense left they may learn
from this trial to appreciate the value of the institutions
under which they live. There is no country in the world
where persons accused of so monstrous a crime as the
Clerkenwell outrage would have been tried with so
scrupulous a regard for the interests of justice, and where
all those natural feelings which were calculated to preju-
dice them would have been so firmly held in cheek by the
court. English and the Desmonds have been acquitted,
not for any want of evidence that they were Fenians, but
because the crime of murder could not be proved against
them according to the rule and practice of British law. It
is, of course, still open to the Attorney-General to prose-
cute them for the minor offence.

While approving the conviction of Barrett, and net
,complaining of the escape of the other prisoners, the
Herald cannot profess satisfaction with the way in which
;the police have come out of the inquiry. In his very able
,address on behalf of Timothy Desmond, Mr. Straight
,commented forcibly upon the total breakdown of that
!preventive agency on which we are accustomed to rely.
It is now certain that, though we hare had the subordi•
.nates in custody, the prime movers in the plot have
.escaped, and that the explosion was suffered to take
place though the authorities at Scotland-yard were
for days before in possession of information which
should have made them beyond precedent watchful.
As the learned counsel pointed out, the police outside
were forewarned, the warders within the prison were on
guard, the attempt on Thursday bad failed, precaution'
for securing Burke and Casey had been taken. All these
things had been done to prevent the possibility of a sur•
prise, and yet the police, knowing all about it, took their
measures so badly that when the barrel was wheeled of
there wag no one to stop its progress, to stay the hand of
the nineteenth-century Guy Faux by whom the fuse wan
lighted, or to save the unoffending inhabitants from the
doom which was so soon to overtake them. The story it
not a creditable one, and it is not by any means calcu
lated to increase the sense of security in which every Lon
doner would like to sleep, or his willingness to contribute
to those somewhat heavy police rates which he is com-
pelled to pay.

The Telegraph has no fault to find with the verdict
the Fenians. Though the evidence against on
ani
Desmond, Nicholas English, and Timothy Desmond
_was
unquestionably strong, it warranted nothingbeyond
suspicion of their guilt. That they were Fenian is to,.
'questionable, and that they had a hand in the 1 exp os;• s
may be true ; but, on the evidence which was laa•
before the court, the men could not have been sent
to the gallows. Nevertheless, in one respect, tll,
issue of the trial is strangely unsatisfactory. whit
the police charged six persons with the crime
they have afforded proof sufficient to convict
only one. The case against O'Keefe and Aunt
Justice utterly broke down ; and, when thoroughly
sifted, that against the Desmonds and English was seen
to be far from complete. The police have manifestl
failed in some ww. Barrett must have had accomplices,
either in the persons who were arraigned along with him
self, or in others who are still at lihcrty. If his con)
panions in the dock really had a hand in the fell deed
the police have Jrangely failed to mass together the evi
deuce of their guilt ; if those r0,..-n are innccent, Nvis
were llarrett's assistants ? who planned with him tin
scheme to liberate lturke ? who an-angel tl•e system 01
signals ? who helped to bring the barrel to the House of
Detention ? We do not wish to bear hardly on the •
pollee, who have had to perform an intensely perplexing
task, and in some respects have performed it well. But
it Is difficult to avoid the conclusion that they have fallen
into their old blender of sticking too closely to one line of
search ; that they have been content to follow the elm
which they at first obtained; and that they have allowed
the real eulprits to escape, The Cannon-street =Mere:
is still at liberty ; so is the person who shpt tht
bandsman, M'Donnoll and now we have g nest o'
murderers defying our search, It Is Impossible for th,
public to regard such repeated failures of justicewithout
eTave disquiet. - •