The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-05-13 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

THE HOWL AG \ INST IRELAND. The Phcenix Park murders have, of course, excited a howl against Ireland. Uuder the influen e of excitement even judicial persons have forgotten to be judicial. The coroner who sat on the mutilated bodies is reported to have expressed himself as follows :—" Looking at the wounds received, and at the terrible nature of them, attacked simultaneously in front and rear, unarmed and defenceless, within sight of the peaceful habitues of the Park, it is not too much to say that the attackers could scarcely be called human beings, but demons. I am glad to say that the feeling of the entire community has , been aroused by this terrible act, but it is right that I should also say now that, in my opinion, any person who fails to give even the slightest clue that will lead to the bringing to justice of the cowardly assassins is as guilty as the ' persons (Lam speaking not as a law, er but as a laym al) are as guilty, I say, as the persons who actually perpetrated the deed, and I trust that any person who has any information cf any kind to give will not fail to do his duty. I can conceive that no man not already predestined for perdition would for a moment harbour Or conceal anything that would be likely to further justice in this case." The words thus used were not, perhaps, the most prudent that could have been employed, but they accurately represented popular sentiment, and were, no doubt, spoken under the influence of a just indignation. Of a different character altogether are the shrieks which have been raised with such persistency by hireling scribes of the Tory press. Those preci,,ns individuals are making political capital out of the murders, a proceeding hardly less sickening than the deeds themselves. They hold Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues responsible for what has happened ; they de. clare that the crimes are the natural results of the release of the suspects and the reversal of the policy of coercion. Yet it has been rendered clear that ninety-nine Irishmen out of every hundred regard with abhorrence what has happened; and it is fair to infer that the guilty parties are a comparatively small body of reckless desperadoes. These desperadoes must, of course, be vigorously dealt with ; but is it just that the millions who loathe their misdeeds should be made to suffer on account of their villanies? Should the wrongs of the Irish tenant be permitted to continue to exist because others over whom he has no control commit offences which he detests? The proposition is absurd. A policy is not to be condemned or approved by a gang of murderers, but by the people in whose interests it has been framed. Now, the Irish people have not condemned the new development of the  Irish policy of Mr. Gladstone, .and until they have done so it is the duty of the Government to stand firmly to its guns, and, having adopted precautions necessary to protect life and property, to persevere in the coarse of remedial legislation it has marked out for itself. Fortunately, this is precisely what it has resolved to do, and a very promising Irish Secretary has been found in Mr. Trevelyan.  AN