The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-26
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From the N. Y. Tribune.
In its treatment Of the Irish question the
British Government has made no blunder
more serious within the present generation
than in hanging the three Fenians-Allen,
Larkin, and Gould. These men had under
taken to rescue some of their comrades from
the hands of the police. In the struggle one
Of the officers was shot. The crime was clearly
brought home to Allen, and there was strong
presumption of the guilty completely of the
others, though the proof, so far as it bore upon
them, was not direct. In the eye of the law
the deed Of course was murder. We grant
that it ought to be so regarded, thou gh we
may question what degree of moral criminality
attached to these unfortunate fellows, who
acted in all probability from an honest albeit
unreasoning patriotism, and had no feeling of
animosity towards the man they killed, no
desire even to take his life. We grant that
the jury had no pretext to find any verdict
but one of guilty, and the judge no power
to impose any other sentence than the
one which has been carried out. But punish
ments are just and wise not so far as they are
prOportioned to the offense, but so far as they
are salutary to the public, The penalties in
fioted by human tribunals ought to be not
vindictive but exemplary. Vengeance is the
prerOgative of the Almighty; we have to do
only with the welfare and protection of society.
The opponents of capital punishment condemn
it because, however richly it may be deserved,
they believe that it invariably does harm to
the community. Now, can anybody believe
that the effect of the triple execution in Man
chester will be other than unmitigated evil
Can anybody suppose that the peace of the
United Kingdom will be more secure, the lives
of public Officers safer, the spirit of Ireland
more tranquil or more timorous, because the
law has avenged itself upon these three poor
Wretches
The execution of Allen, and Larkin and
Gould is the most important reinforcement
that Fenianism has yet received. The cause
wanted nothing so much as a martyr; now it
has three. The people had very nearly lost
confidence in their leaders; they had ceased in
measure to give their earnings for prepos-
ferrous campaigns and abortive instructions:
their rebellion was dwindling down into sort
OF guerilla warfare, sustained only by the most
.beadstrong and desperate of their number.
Now it is ten chances to one if the flame is
not kindled again. Confidence may not re-
vive, but enthusiasm will; and enthusiasm
with the Irish is the most powerful of i'm
pulses. The Manchester prisoners will in
spire their countrymen with bitterer bos-
tility towards England by their deaths than
they ever could have inspired by their lives.
Robert Emmet did more harm to Great Britain
by being hanged than he did by his Dublin
insurreotion. If he had been pardoned, or
simply imprisoned, his countrymen in after
years would have remembered him for his
failure; now they are elevated and inspired by
the memory of his heroism. Suppose Smith
O'Brien or John Mitchell had been executed
after the rebellion of 194S; their names would
have been worth more TO the next rising than
hundreds of armed men. What are their names
worth now3 II the sentence of these Man
chester Fenians had been commuted to a long
imprisonment and if then, at some not very
distant day, they had been set at liberty by a
general amnesty, their power for mischief
would have been etfectually destroyed and
good effect might have been produced upon
Irish sentiment. Now Irish rancor has been
intensified, and the three men in their graves
are more dangerous than ever before. Popular
heroes are never so much to be feared as when
they have gone to that other world where
their frailties are concealed from us, leaving
behind them the glamour of patriotic profess
sions, and of suferings endured in the nams
Of their cause.