The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-07-05
The Fenian Convictions in Ireland.

The conviction of General Burke and
others at Dublin, says the Milwaukee Wis
consin, and the sentence that they shall be
hanged is stirring deeply all the liberal
minds of Europe. There is general pro-
test against their execution as barbarous,
inhuman, and disgraceful to England. 1t
has rarely been our lot to read anything
which presents so forcibIy the atrocity of
such as execution as the address Of Victor
Hugo to the people of England. 1t is
magnificent in conception, sublime in
thought and grandly eloquent in expression.
IF these men are executed after the publ
cation of such an appeal, England will be
regarded as the lowest of civilized nations.
Some of the very best men of England
have called upon the Prime Minister of the
| Queen to demonstrate against their execu-
ton, but up to the present time it is I'M
derstood that the British government In
clines to permit the execution of the utmost
rigors of the law upon the Fenians. We
put the appeal of Victor Hugo upon record
as something so memorable and so well
conceived that whatever may be the result,
it will be as immortal as the English Ian
guage:
"There is anguish in Dublin. Senten-
ces of death follow fast one upon another.
A letter now before us says: The gallows
is about to be erected, first for General
Burke next will come Captain M Afferty
and Captain Nj Clure; then three others,
Kelly, Joice, and Culliman. There is not
a moment to spare Women. young girls
implore you. Will my letter leach you in
time? We read and do not believe it
They tell US the scaffold is ready. We say
that is not possible-Cdlcraft has nothing
to do with politics. 1t is bad enough that
he exists apart from it. No; the political
scaffold is not possible in England. When
England hailed Kossuth, it was not that
she might initiate gibbets Of Hungary it
was not for the purpose of renewing the
Garibaldi Else what would signify the
hurrahs of London and Southampton p
! Put an end, if it was so, to all your Po
lish, Greek and Italian committees No !;
England, in 1867, will not execute Ireland.
! That Elizabeth will not behead that Mary
Stuart. The 10th century exists Hang
Burke Impossible Go, copy Taliaferro
killing John Brown, Chacon killing Lopez.
Geffrard killing young Delorme, Ferdinand
killing Pisacane! What, after the Eng
fish revolution! After the French revolu-
ton In the great and glorious epoch in
which we live? So, then, nothing has been
said, nothing written, nothing thought,
nothing proclaimed, nothing done within
the last forty years? What such things
shall be doue in the presence of US who are
more than spectators, and who are witneS-
SEES? What the old savage penalties
shall still subsist? To this hour such SEN
fences as these shall be pronounced Such
a one on such day, you shall be drawn on
q hurdle to the place of your punishment !;
then your body shall be cut into four quar-
tiers, which shall be at the disposal Of her
Majesty, who will command to be done
with them according to her good pleasure !.
hat! on May or June morning. to-day,
20 morrow, man, because he has polit-
ical or national faith, because he has strug
| gled for that faith, because he has been
vanquished, shall be bound with cords,
have black cap drawn over his face, and
be hanged and strangled until death ensue!
No you are not England for that. You
have at present this advantage over France,
that you are free nation. France, as
|
self, and that is sad elimination, gu
pride yourself upon it. Be it so. But
beware. 1t is possible to go back CEN
fury in day TO reccde even to the po-
litical gallows! You'll England Then
erect a statute to JefTreys. Meanwhile, we
will erect a statute to Voltaire. Do you
give it thought? You have Sherman
and Fox who found parliamentary clo-
quence ; you have a Howard who ventita
ted the prison and made punishment mer-
cful; you have Wilberforce, who abolished
slavery you have Rowland Hill, who WV
lied postal circulation you have Cobden,
who created free trade you have given to
the world the colonlzlng impulse: you have
constructed the first trans atlantic cabel i;
you are In full possession of political man
hood; you exercise the right Of citizenship
magnifcently in all its forms; you have a
free press, free speech, freedom of consci-
ence, freedom Of association, free trade,
| household freedom, personal freedom you
are about, through reform, to arrive at
universal suffrage you are the land of the
vote, the poll, the meeting you are the
mighty people of the ha6eas corpus Well,
then, to all this splendor add this Burke
hanged /; and precisely because you are the
greatest of free people you become the
least 1t is unknown what ravagc Is one
drop of shame in glory. From being first
you sink to be last. What means this in
verted ambition? What means this thirst
for degradation ? In presence of these
gibbets, worthy the insanity of George the
Ill, the continent would no longer recog-
nize the august Great Britain of progress.
The nations would turn away their face
A frightful blunder against civilization
would have been committed, and by whom?
BY England Lugubrious surprise Stu
por of Indignation! What more hidious
than sun whence all at once night should
issue? No, no, mol repeat, you are
not England for that You are England
to set an example to the nations of pro-
gress, work, initiative, truth, rights,
reason, justice, the majesty of freedom. :
You are England to present the spectacle
OF life, and not the example of DEATH
England recalls you to your duty. To
speak at this moment in behalf of these
condemned men is to come to the aid of
ireland -nl1 To to bo of