The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1865-06-28
Miseellarnyy ii gews.
Do. [From the Cincinnati Commercial.l
d Great Britain on the Punishment of
seH Rebels. a tH.

/ Z fr0ul LDe SlnCluudJl SOllllutICldlsl
Great Britain on the Punishment of
h. tga #W Rebels. s
r If any new evidence were needed Of
the utter unfalrness, meanness and malice
Of the English press toward this country.
we have it in their pleas for mercy to
jeff Davis and his fellow conspirators
Not content with doing all they dared to
aid the bogus "confederacy" when liv.
ing, they now join in a funeral wall over
its remains when dead. To save jeff
lJDavis from the halter he has so richly
merited, seems to be the FIRST wish of the
British organs, both Wing and Tory
The Daily News exhorts us to +" clemen-
cy," and to" "lay aside all thought of po-
ltical Vengeance" while the Times has
the hardihood to point us to examples oI
mercy set by the British Government to.
ward domestic traitors. Unfortunately
4 for its case, the burden Of historical eyi
dencefis all the other way. The annals
of Great Britain are notoriously red with
the blood Of rebels, Shed with circum
stances of cruelty and vengeance which
should render her people the last in all
Ohristendom to complain, should our
Government proceed to the extremity of
the law in the case Of the rebel leaders.
The London Times has even the effron-
terry to say that :" modern Europe affords
but one precedent for capital punishment
in such case-the treatment of Poland
by Russia." Truly, "the most powerful
journal in the world" must be poorly
read in the history of its own empire, or
else totally reckless of the truth when it
has a cause to plead.
We need not speak Of the atrocities
committed by Great Britain in the coun,
tries of the East, after rebelions were
put down-the scores of Sepoys blown
| from the mouths of guns, the hanging of
the Chinese at Pekin, and the cold,
blooded murders of the japanese at Nag
asaki (the latter Of whom were not even
rebels). All these things occurred with
in ten years, but we will recall another
event Of " modern history the Irish
Rebellion of 1913. This was not even
a Serious armed outbreak-ho overt act
of treason was either proved or commit.
ted; the indictments against Smith o.
Brien, John Mitchell, T, +, Meagher,
and the rest, were merely for" seditious
speeches and inaammat0ry 'publica7
tions. Yet forty persons were tried for
high treason, and McManus, O'Brien,
Mesgher, O'Donoghue, and Others were
found guilty, and sentenced to the fol-
lowing punishment: %That you be drawn
,on a hurdle to the place Of execution, and
that each of you there be hanged by the
neck until you be dead, and that qtter-
iCqrd Me head Of each Of you shall be seq
cred from his body, and The body Of each
divided into four quarters, to be disposed
of as her Majesty shall think fit; and
may the Lord have mercy on your
souls !" bid. .t. ann ta.4 .saeodI 4
ia And it was the mere clen1ency of the
Queen which commuted this sentence to
transportation and Imprisonment for life
at Van Dieman's Land. It istrue, these
men were afterward permitted to return
to England, by the Act Of Indemnity of
1856; butthis was eighty afterward,
when the petty political disturbances for
which they had been sentenced to death
were 5long since forgotten. Yet the
Times has the face to tell us that "we
had a rebellion in 1S48, in Ireland, but
we pardoned Smith o'Brien, and Mitch
ell, and Meagher, and we venture 10 pro-
pose to him President Johnson) our own
example" Your own example! In a
two penny rebellion, p where not one
drop of blood was shed; in a " White
boy"linsurrection, the motive power Of
which was one-half denunciations Of
ssthe Union," and the other half whis
ky apd red flags; in mere corruscation
Of mob eloquence, declamatory patriot
ism and gas; in an incipient outbreak
where, mo act of violence was proven,
and no mortal soul ever came within
gun-shot OF the smell Of ofpowder; in that