New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-24
GREAT BRITAIN.
ECCLESIASTICAL.

ECCLESlASIlCALs
LONDON, Monday. Aug. %, 1869.
TIE Bishop of Winchester has resigned.
GREAT FENIAN MEETING.
DRoGHBDA. Monday, Aug. %, 1862
An open air meeting attended by twenty thousand
persons was held here to-day in favor of granting
amnesty TO the Fenians The bands played popular
Fenian airs, and enthusiastic speeches were made.
The resolutions adopted declare that the further de-
tenton of the Fenian prisoners is unwise, impotic
and unjust.
CRIMINAL AND POLICE observation-disclosures
TON AGAINST HOME SECRETARY BRUCE-IHE
BRITISH POLICE SYSTEM.
IRON OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
LONDON, Aug. 6.-The man of all others IN
the Government who must wish himself well out OF
it Just now, is suppose, MI Bruce the Home Secre-
tary He Is q very capable energetic man, much the
superior intellectually, of his Tory predecessor, Mr.
GathOrne Hardy, though far less prominent in the
councils of his party. But the Home Okice is one
which offers peculiar facilities to an energetic man for
acquiring unpOpularity and Mr. Bruce has undeni-
ably made the best use of his opportunities. His de-
cigons in capital cases. for instance have provoked
criticism. They would have provoked nearly as
much probably if they had been reversed through
out only then the criticism would have come from
the Opposite party. Where he has pardoned, and
where he has refused to pardon, he has incurred
eoual blame To take the last case, that off Fanny
Oliver convicted Of poisoning, on the testimony OF
chemist that he had discovered an infnitesimal
ouantty of arsenic in the body of the deceased. 1t
is pretty clear that the woman was guilty OF murder
or innocent of any lesser crime. But the Home
SECRETARY seems to have a mind like the
mind of the average jury. Where the only logical
verdict is guilty OF not guilty but the evidence is
so conflicting that a positive decision is difficult
they compromise and convict, perhaps, of man
slaughter instead of murder. So Mr. Bruce, pulled
this way and that by the popular clamor in the Oil
yer case distracted also by the fact that the accused
is woman could not decide TO hang ner and could
not decide to set her free. He compromised, jury
fashion, by committing the sentence of death into
pepal servitude for life The Communication is absurd
and has the further fault of satisfying nobody Yet
he only follows the traditions of his Office where II
has long been the practice, one critic remarks 10
sentence a person TO life imprisonment by way OF
compensation for having been unjustly convicted OF
murder.
But all this is a trine to the storm of indignation
Mr.. Bruce has brought down his head by his do
ings in the Haymarket police case and this is case
stiu unsettled though Mr.. Bruce has settled it at
least twice already. For nothing can be settled
which the newspapers are resolved TO have over
hauled The newspapers in this are all on one
side and Mr. Bruce on the other, that it nOdi-
emit 10 predict which will win in the end. Mr.. Bruce
has-and think deseryes-the reputation OF being a
pretty obstinate man, but he must be sensible of the
folly of carving on a contest of this kind against
public opinion The case is that would suit the
latitude of Paris better than of London.
About three months ago three young men were ar
rested in the Haymarket, after midnight charged
with being drunk and dIsOrdery, and with resisting
the police who took them into custody. The time,
the Mace and the concurrent testimony OF three po-
lcemen. were all against them, and the absurd rule
of the English law of course prohibited them from
testifyinp IN their own defense know OF no place
in New-York which exactly answers to the IiaymaI-
ket after in the evening. The corner OF Houston
IT. and Broadway perhaps comes; or used 10 come
somewhere near IT, It was at any rate, IN about the
same ill-odor with the police The presumption was
strong against a man arrested in that vicinity
In this case the police that the accused were
drunk and noisy that on being demonstrated Wltl
they attacked the officer that when one was arrested
the others came 10 his and were IN turn seized
by reGnforcemens of police attracted by the row II
- cases out of so il would have gone hard with The
accused on such testimony as that, and the mora