New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-21
THE IRISH MURDERS.
RECEPTION AND FIRST EFFECT OF THE
NEWS IN LONDON

u
not easy to describe heard more than ono
man say that nothing like it had been known
since tho Crimean War; or. added, not
since the news of the battle Of the Alma
arrived. The news Of the murder Of Lord Frederick
Cavendish and Mr.. Burke sobered the most frivo-
lous. Your own remark telegraphed over here this
morning. touches phase OF this feeling with un-
erring precision. IL is tho murder of Cavendish"
which has shaken London to ITS centre, that part
of London which is the social and political centre
Of England All tho English adherence Of
cowardly crime, which in Ireland has become
a recognized political instrument concentrated
afresh i'll this awful instance. EVERYBODY knew
Lord Frederick Cavendsn. He was connected by
blood or marriage with half the great families Of
the Kingdom. Though not a brilliant, he
familiar figure in Parliament. His brother, Lord
Harrington, being unmarried, Lord Frederick
stood next in succession to the Dukedom of Devon
| shire, which in point of dignity and fortune is
second to none in Great Britain. The general pub
lie concerns itself less about such matters but the
blow under which Cavendis went down was felt
as hardly other would have been felt by the
arIstocracy of England. Aud the aristocracy, when
all deductions have been made, is still a command
ing class
That, however was but one phase, and certainly
not the most important. The murder raised just as
in the upper. It Is trito to say So il must have
been so, but the way In which the feeling showed
itself was not trite. The manifestations were re-
| markabe among all classes. 1t is not the fashion
of the Englsh to strike attitudes or arrange their
faces with a view to the decorOus expression Of
grief. But faces lcere grave on Sunday. Men went
| about with an air of preoccupation. The people
who sat in the parks had quite lost their Sunday
look of relaxation. The first man you met spoke to
you, whether he knew you not Whatever
change of view reflection may have brought tho
first thought of everybody one met was the same
or rather the first two thoughts. This is the Irish
answer" was the first, and the second was, Who
will be sent in place Of Lord Frederick
Cavendishp Perhaps it may surprise you
| to hear that on many lips tho
name of Sir Garnet Wolseley. Probably no "seri-
| GUS" politician has proposed him. but in
first hours of just anger and wise eagerness for
efficient remedy. what men sought for was q name
| which would mean something. Now Sir Garnet
Woseey is the General to whom it has become the
custom to turn when tough piece of work is to DO
done. &" He managed the Ashantees," observed one
man. grmly he might manage the Irish.'
Two incidents occurred that day which worth
| noting. A club of workingmen somewhere in tho
| North Of London met and resolved to 20 for BIZ.
| Parnell and his colleagues. Perhaps they were not
of their expedition, and stopped But at least
one Englishman conceived the same notion most
seriously. lie made his way into the hotel
| Parliament Houses which is the well-known rem
devious of tho Irish party and nearly succeeded in
getting into the room where some of thom then
| holding counsel It took two policemen and two
walters to induce him to go out. Well-dressed they
! say he was; "a good average specimen Of Brt0u.
| The average Briton would not do the thing,
nor approve Of it a means of retaliation. IL Is
not very dgniied, and il is ludicrousy Inadequate
And yet somehow you don't hear this eccentric pro-
ceedng very sternly censured.
The sober truth IS that the responsibility for,tho
murders was at first laid fully Oh Mr. ParnelL
People did not stop to think 1t intultive. Par
tsans of one sort bracketed another name, not
| Irish, with Mr. Parnells; which will not repeat
| SOquIckly was this state of public opinion OWNED
| that leading Radicals set themselves to check il,
| with their accustomed cleyerness. " 1t is An Anti
Parnelllte move," was the word passed among
| them, and by them, with respect to the murders-
Since the coalition Of last week, the triumph of Mr.
| Chamberlans policy in the Cabinet, and the ap-
| peal to law-breakers to put down lawessness, the
Chamberlain wing of the Liberal party have under
| stood that they were in the same boat with Mr.
Parnell. 1t necessary TO dissociato him at
from all completely with this latest assassination.
that the first notion about Mr. Parncll came to be
snpplanted by the later one. That nothing might
be wanting to the completeness of the view, it
was by and by gwen out that Mr. Parnell himself
would be in danger of assassination should he go to
| Ireland.
The news reached London hbout 10 Saturday
night nearly three hours after the discovery of tho
| bodies of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke.
No reason has been gwen for this delay. Sir WILL
lam Harcourt seems to have been the first no heard
| it, There was dinner party at the Austrian En-
| bassy. Among the guests were Mt Gladstone. tho
Lord Chancellor, Lord Kimberley, and Sir William
| Harcourt-four members of the Cabinet. Shortly
before TO- while the party still at table, dis
patch was handed to tho Homo Secretary. He
opened IT. read it, put 1t in his pocket and shortly
after disappeared, communicating TO nobody tho
contents of the telegram. which announced tho
murder Mr. Gladstone was not told probably be-
cause of the close personal relations between the
Prime Minister aud Lord Frederick. 1t would have
been the announcement of personal calamity as
well as political disaster, and for neither was .
brilliant dinner party the most fitting scene. When
Mr.. Gladstone returned to Downing-st dispatch
from Earl Spencer was awaiting hun.
Soon after this il known in the newspaper
offices and the clubs Some of the papers issued eX-
tras with the news And yet a great many did not
hear of he murders either that night next morn
ing There is pious section of the public which
on Sundays likes to close its and eyes to tho
outer world, and takes Sunday morning paper.
To every tragedy there is grotesque side. About
l. on Sunday morning Lord Salisbury sent note
to Lord Cranbrook one of his colleagues in Lord
Beaconsfel,Ps Cabinet saying that in presence Of
this terrible news it would be well that the leaders
of the Opposition should consult, and proposinga
meeting at Sir stafford Northcotes at hllf-past two.
Lord CranbrooI replied that he would come as pro-
posed. but that neither he nor the Duke of Rich