Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1870-12-23 (Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, England)

GAZETTE.  57 1.---sPerhapt you may.  gni ;110'.  men within bounds until the, Legislature.was  been passed many years before that was not done under any fear of coercion or by pressure , from without. Parliament was oouvinced that  a wrong had been done to Ireland, and in the face of this admission, set itself honestly to work, to provide a remedy. The sineerity of the motives, and the eminently beneficial nature of those measures, disarmed the hot-headed plotters of their arguments, but not before many of them had brought themselves within the scope of the law for treason, sedition, and murder in their most revolting forms. Irishmen, as a class, are as loyal and warm-hearted as either Englishmen or Scotchmen. But at this unfortunate juncture they were led by a band of the most unscrupulous and unprincipled scoundrels who ever set their heads together to plot mischief. It is on behalf of some of these ringleaders that the royal clemency was so often demanded—and more than demanded, for threats of the most daring kind were made if their demands were not complied with. So long as any interposition of the Royal clemency was asked in this .high-handed mauner, so long was the request indignantly refused. Every one will now rejoice that a different state of matters has been inaugurated. The Peace Preservation Act has done its work, tha Church Bill has set at rest a fertile source of dispute, and the Land Bill is still further leavening the lump, till Fenianism has begun to stink, and those who openly avowed their adherence to it now eschew the company of those with whom they formerly associated in secret conniving. There may be still a scintillation lurking, like the smouldering embers buried among the debris of a great conflagration. But even these flickering sparks cannot be blown into a blaze by the ranting and raving of the national newspapers. The address recently presented to Mr Gladstone, praying for his interposition on behalf of the Royal prisoners, was couched in quite different language, and founded on arguments very different from those formerly used. Mr Gladstone, in his reply to the memorialists, adopts the same spirit; and, while pointing out that the prisoners have only been subjected to the punishment they justly inerited, says that the conduct of their countrymen has been shch, and the strength of the Government so great, that they consider the time has now arrived when the Royal clemency might, with the utmost magnanimity, be brought into exercise on their behalf. In doing so, the Premier has wisely put the case before them so as to disabuse them of false ideas as to any right or claim which they might be supposed to have had on the Royal favour. They neither had the one nor the other; and to prevent any jubilant demonstration or any false impression, certain restrictions are still imposed upon the prisoners. It is to be hoped that this act of gracious clemency will have the desired effect; and that, as a policy of justice has been inaugurated, mercy will be mingled with the determined and -.s impartial administration of justice. n-rester