The Sun. — 1867-12-23 (London, England)

FENIANISIII.  The Fenian outrage at Clerkenwell, although fortunate in strengthening order and weakening the power of the conspiracy, will have an injurious effect on the relations between this country and the United States. No person who mixes in English society can deny that there exists a prejudice against Americans. Among a large portion of Irishmen,  this prejudice, strong with the English, almost amounts to a passion. Facts are mis-stated at Fenian meetings iu New York, where a united Ireland with a heart throbbing with patriotic pulses, is represented as burning to throw off the hated yoke of the Saxon. Yet the Emerald Isle is so equally divided for and against the English connection, that th)ugh difficult to predict what would be the result of a ballot, there is no difficulty in predicting what would be the result of a fight, if all men born in Ireland, and they only, were engaged and left free to choose their sides. There are some who ignorantly attribute the Fenian conspiracy to American hatred of England. They believe these outrages to be the acts of foreigners; and they are supported in this opinion by the wide publication given to such resolutions as those intro duced in Congress by Mr. ROBINSON, Mr. CHANDLER, and others. The action and re-action of this feeling keeps alive what we believe to be the most baneful of influences. It has gone on producing its evil fruits, and may yet end in a hideous calamity. England thought that American syMpathy was with Russia when the Western Powers were engaged in that great conflict. America believed that English aid and sympathy were given to the Southern States during the frightful Civil War. England is convinced that the revolt in Canada was wholly the work of America ; and she equally holds that the Fenian conspiracy was born and fostered on the soil of the United States. The people of this island regard that plot as one against life and property—a mere band of Secret Assassins—actuated by the vilest motives. The conviction that even in some degree they owe to America this organisation tends to intensify a feeling which it is of the highest moment to uproot, and it is deplorable that members of Congress should give a colouring of truth to accusations which are, in reality, devoid of foundation. The native American retains little, if any, of that prejudice we attribute to the English. England is regarded with esteem and even  affection. Those who consider Ireland to be au oppressed country hold that the Irish would be justified in a revolt—that is, an open, manly appeal  to arms, when failing in obtaining redress by political agitation. In no other part of the world outside these islands, would such a deed as that  done in Clerkenwell be more indignantly condemned as in America. In Mr. JOHNSON'S words, the American people are distinguished, above all others, for their love of liberty and of law. It is not the  lovers of law who justify an organisation like Fenianisin, and there is an innate sense of right implanted in American minds which leads them to censure more quickly and strongly than other people what they clearly see to be a wrong. Hitherto their sympathies have been accorded to the Irish as sufferers from English oppression ; but once convinced that the English are the sufferers from a  reckless gang who falsely claim to represent Irish wrongs, and a change will be at once effected. gone can better appreciate such deeds than they,  for they have suffered from them themselves. The secret combinations of the li.wless men the United Kingdom has sent to their shores have led to counttess murders in New York and Pennsylvania, to a terrorism in California, to riots between Irishmen  and Negroes, between Irishmen and Germ Ins Irishmen and Chinese, and to that Fenian organisation destined hereafter, we fear, to prove even more disastrous to the United States than to the United Kingdom. It may be asked—Why should America tolerate such an imperinin in imperil)? We reply—lt is here working actively against society, shy do the English tolerate it ?—And the answer is very simple—Because they cannot help themselves. It is, in truth, one of the charges America. brings 4gainst them. You- have misgoverned, they say, a country so as to turn a large portion of its inhabitants into conspirators. You ship them off in tens of thousands to our shores, when we become the victims of the secret machinations to which you have constrained them to resort. Our institutions