The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1883-02-06 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

BAILIIOW-IN•FCRNENI3. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1883.  WE have at length a number of men arrainged for trial on a definite charge of the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke on the 6th of May last—in Phtenix Park. As the enquiry before the Magistrates in Dublin proceeds the revelations deepen in interest and the deep seated feeling of the cluntry to get at the bottom of that foul crime becomes profoundly manifest, with a keen and eager desire to arrive at the detection of the perpetrators and their alders and abettors. The proceedings on Saturday had in them something dramatic and terrible. When the knivts with their long, sharp, surgical blades were produced which had been found in the house of the Dublin Town Councillor Carey, and which were said to have still upon them the stains of human blood, a silence of horror fell upon the spectators as they were shown how one of them was just the weapon to produce the terrible stab that penetrated the back, went through the heart, and came out at the chest of Mr, Burke. Again, when a witness and his wife deposed that on the evening of the murder they saw several men lying down in the grass h the Park, amongst whom were two of the men in the dock, one of the two being clearly sworn to by both witnesses, it was felt that an approach was being made to bring retribution upon the assassins. But we in Barrow are bound to change some of our preconceived ideas as to the manner and motives thit brought about the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish. Our present Mayor, at a meeting at the Liberal Club, the week after the assassination, gave utterance to the theory which then seemed the most probable and best borne out by the facts which had been published; 'tat Lord Faderick CavetV'sh had bean waited for on his landing from the Holyhead steamer at Kingstown, had been followed to Dublin and followed into the Park by the assassins on re car, had been seen to be joined by Mr. Burke, who jumped from a car to cross the grass to the Viceregal Lodge with Lord Frederick, which junction of the two gentlemen brought Mr. Burke into the death which had only been 'tended for his companion. This theory of "le procedure of the assassins, which seemed to give such a precision to the plans and such a deadly certainty to the means of acquiring intelligence all over the kingdom to the secret societies, must now be given up. It seems now to be certain that it was Mr. Burke who was the object aimed at that day by the  villains who were lying concealed in the grass waiting for the chancre of his appearance; and that it was the fact of his joining Lord Frederick Cavendish that brought the latter to share in the terrible fate that befel them both. What has so far been disclosed by the evidence goes a long way towards connecting the identified men with the assassination ; but we must wait for further evidence before we can be quite certain that enough can be proved judicially to bring down condign punishment on the men now charged. However strong the suspicion may be that arises out of the evidence already adduced it must always he borne in mind that suspicion alone, however well founded, will not justify the taking of human life. If it be true that one of the men included in the eight who have been brought up for complicity in the crime has offered to make important revelations on certain conditions which the Government do not wish to accede to, it is to be hoped that if his evidence be accepted it will be such as will satisfy the public mind of its intrinsic truth and value, and that it will at least in its most important points be corroborated from some source less reliable to suspicion than that which comes from one who sells his accomplices to save his own cowardly life. One thing seems certain—that these investigations will do something to break up the organisations of those secret societies which had in Ireland grown to think themselves possessed of a power above that of the law, but which are now finding themselves discovered, and their nefarious deeds laid bare to the light of day.