Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1868-02-20
Fenian Troubles ana Traitors.

The proceedings in the case Of the pris
oners in London, charged with partici
patton in the attempted blowing up of tn,
Clerkenwell prison suggest several sub
lects of contemplation, none of which ar,
agreeable to the reflections of free cit.
zen of America. Nine persons. one Of
them woman, are in confinement,
charged with the crime. The fcrocity,
bitterness, and evident determination Of
the British authorities to punish some.
body, right or wrong, for the outrage
reflects anything but credit on English
sagacity or love Of justice. The attempt
to blow up the prison cannot be elassed
under any other head than that OF fiend.
ish and murderous, Will. tendency to-
ward foolishness, and the parties guilty
ofpianning or executing the deed should
be dealt with severely by the law. But
the alarmed and outraged Britishers seem
to care less for finding out who the Gull
prits really are than for furnishing some
body Of known Fenian proclivities
Without a particle of evidence or even Il
probability that Col. Burke, an inmate of
the prison at the time the explosion was
attempted, knew anything of the design
to blow up the bull ding, his counsel, who
had undertaken his defense, throws np
the case of his client, and with heartless
cruelty and unprofessional cowardice re-
fuses further services in his defense
Every conceivable method of unfair in
vestigation, of prejudice and oppression
has been resorted to by the government
to make sure of conyicting some Of the
parties arrested. This is the disagreeable
and disgraceful. government side Of the
picture. But there is another, not less
disgusting and painful, which the London
correspondent of the New York Times.
writing to that paper under date Of Jauu-
airy Goth, thus presents:
Yesterday there were nine persons in
prison charged with the crime of murder
W
they were brought into the little cage of
police Office in Bow street one was mis-
sing. Seven men wore in the dock. and
one woman, unable to stand, was sitting
in chair. Among the men were Bar
rett and O'Neill, brought few DAYS ago
from Glasgow Prisoners, spectators. his
own counsel, looked for. the missing pris-
oner III vain. The Crown prosecutor rose.
and the first witness he called was Pat
rick Mullany. He came into the witness
box, as Queens evidence, ghastly pale
trembling in every limb, and speaking in
so faint voice that the questions were
often repeated. He had been Centre
Centre of tipsy tailors on strike in st.
Giles. He had been introduced to the
leaders of the Fenian movement from
America. lie and his companions had
been mixing Greek fire year ago. They
had dubbed all the money they could
raise, and with great effort collected the
powder to elbow the Clerkenwell Prison
to HI One got the barrel and another
the truck, and muddled with liquor they
carried out their stupid plot, and then
Barrett, who had lighted the fuse cut off
whiskers, changed his clothing, and rot
off to Scotland. That is Mullany's story.
The evidence of other witnesses is as wild
and contradictory az might be expected.
They swear to one prisoner as doing Il GER
tain act, then to another, and contradict
each other; but it seems probable that,
with the aid of the new Queens evidence,
four or five may be convicted
On which al able contemporary re-
marks: Here it is again--the never
failing spectacle of an Irish traitor in ey-
cry Irish plot. This poor wretch Mulla-
ny, is doubtless bribed or frightened into
lying his fellow prisoners into a conyic-
ton that will doom them to the gallows.
or the not less terrible fate, of life in an
English penal institution Why is it, that
in every Fenian enterprise III every Irish
rebellion, spies and traitors are the never
absent, prominent, central, shameful fiy-
uresY Can anybody explain it, WHY
should English gold be more potent with
them than with others Will Ireland
always be sold by her own children Z"
SENATOR EDAuNDs' BILL OK THE VIZ
10 PowER.-A bill reported in the SEN
ate Monday, by Mr.. Edmunds Of Vt,
provides that the ten days within which
the President is required by the Consti-
tuition to return bill not approved by
him, shall be deemed the ten calendar
days Sundays excepted after its receipt,
and shall be computed by excluding the
day on which he receives it, and includ-
Ing the tenth day thereafter The ad-
iouxnnent Of Congress, which shall pre-
vsnt the return by the President Of any