New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-14
THE GOSPEL OF@ DYNAMYTEn
From The Londo, Spectntor..

spectator.
+h nc sunday democrat in its eulogy on dynamite as
nsis gr tod instrument of liberty lakes care not to
in those who use it, Is It m%rder TO- XIII or m eoura rage
sIsvsrv S9 92indng you to the earth with chains of
h no say mat you must labor for them and keep
s ana your family go naked and hungry Out upon
tasons of right and justice in favor of bIiahting
u ua Ling insuferable wrongs. Irshmen want
KIND A little dynamite which can he easily anS
t tEsuy carried in the is all the arms
sney need This newlydscovered science has
Pitp,rou NSei1 stronger than million of Russian
soldiers all armed to the teeth and bearded like the
parda II has defied them and laid their despot in
crowned head in Europe but must yield to this i'm
phoyea science before ten years round We are
~ aehes armies it dehes despots; it defes spies
IL Is tile nvnclble arm of freedom in the hands of
trample on their God given rights Dynamite
will free Ireland" Such is the preaching; the
necessary precautions, of course, are conveniently
1t certainly is remarkable fact that this vast in
crease In the power OF destructive agencies should
nave occurred at time when there is also such a
vast decrease in the power of constructive agencies
When cold and defiant unbelief is taking the place
oil all ennobng creedS in the minds of multitudes of
men all over the earth Ii looks almost as if there
were real correspondence between the course of
nnnan passions and the course of human know-
tuee since, Just at a time when tens of thousands
az very many different parts of the earth in the
exact sense "Nihilists" SO far human order is
posNes admirably calculated to annihilate and
ansoIsanze human effort, both by their physical
them. should have been supplied to MS in abup n.
dance,Iand OF course being supplied by science
s sit}sr IN combination with the resources for
elther cowardly or a bold use of them. Eortu-
n nishy Tor the great majority who Nihsts
a,.ner S no or physically the tmid of
aSunc,es OF tnis KIND Is very apt to fail towards
cahnot act alone. They need sympathy to brace
Them mp to any effort, and when they communicates
ther hesitatng devices for destroying others there
someone he cti m
au lrusate their plans That is undoubtedly the
reason why so few OF these clustering Fcnian plots
that Il dynamite were ever to be " herocally ap-
pied Piled 1t could easily be made to produce very
the hands of those who require " clock-work move
ments to project them before they will consent to
Nihists fortunately not Nlhilists Mt ALL so far
~ regards that wonderful machinery which WHITES
persons are destroyed who have no sort of connec-
tioh with Irish politics in any shape long as they
themselves survive the catastrophe. But this
security Tor escape Is most important part of the
science OF dynamite and without it. apparently
inc evangeiists OF the gospel would leave their
i, And not only do the Fenian Nihsts differ from
tue Russian Nihilists in their carefulness not to
expose their persons to the danger which they
confrve for Others. but they differ from them in
tnIs aiso,-that there Is person. one centre
of the present order for them 10 aim at SO that
they arr compelled to dtuse their violence. to aim
NJ killing any persons whatever, il matters not
whom whom it MAY he easiest to reach indeed the
~ " strange enough that Just rs these great in
struments OF Wholesale humiliation have come into
existence, there should have sprung up n If to
meet them hail way, the widey-diused gospel of
NihilIsn. whose first principle II seems to be that
you are quite justified destroying any body if SO
he that you may thereby brighten everybody You
may XIII many, and horrify ALL for the sole purpose
OF shaking the very foundations of q political order
one single consequence Of which you dislike and
disipprove, even though you disapproVe no other
consequence of that order ;-such is the gospel of
DYNAMITE To which the Fenlan code adds that YOU
are not under sacred obligation effect this
as to be bound to endanger your life in the at
tempt and that therefore, II YOU cannot do it with
out being discovered you need not do II at ALL 1t
looks ~ If dynamite must be a sort of pretgurenant
oi the passions which were To use il, except indeed
that dynamite in wrecking other things ALWAYS
annihilates itself: while the passions which use H.
often carefully hug their existence and protect
themselves from the chance of humiliation. Per-
haps the wonderful vivdness with which these
frghtful physical agencies reflect the destructive
the lesson of their true significance and cause
IN multitude of cases that moral Tccoil by which
they may best he reduced TO silence We trust we
may he spared any great catastrophe but if any
great catastrophe should come upon us the
horror with which would realize that wide
spread destruction had been wrought by tho macbi-
nations of Irish anarchists totally devoid of any
clear purpose for Ireland, or any clear knowledge
OF what the Irish people themselves wish.-indeeh
by men desiring nothing clearly except to the
very foundations Of British society shaken 90 their
centre,-would have an effect only too powerful in
crushing out revolutionary sympathics, and setting
mon ON their guard against every trace of these
anarchic emotions.