The Sun. — 1868-05-05 (London, England)

QUEEN. We can understand the murder of Mr. 111.‘GEE; not only was he a leading statesman of the dominion, but he was a very awkward instance for the conspirators of change of sentiment coming from riper and more general knowledge. As a boy he had drunk deeply of the froth and effervescence of the cup which for the most part makes up Irish patriotisaa, and he had found, when he began to analyse the ingredients, that it was producing a momentary exhilaration and—madness. He was too honest not to work on such conviction ; he was too able and energetic not to make his work tell ; and he was too true an Irishman even for the Fenians to be able to sneer away what he said as the words of a traitor, or of the English oppressor. The demagogues in New York, who earn a handsome living by the congenial mode of conspiracy, could find in the removal of Mr. M'GEE an object worth plotting for ; and it appears that the only Fenian bullet that ever reached the right mark was in the case of the Canadian statesman. It must have been an extraordinary circumstance, and to the servant folio wing his master home, a lucky accident, that he was not shot instead. Wherever Fenians have been brought to the bar, Fenian informers have always appeared in the witness-box. The tone assumed by the condemned is uniformly the same, and we freely confess, little as we like their acts, that there is in their bearing a certain degree of nobility. Three points have invariably been made—the degradation and oppression of their country, the purity of their patriotism, and their willingness to die, if the gift of their lives can in auy way save Ireland. They have assume 1 the tone of martyrs sacrificed by bloodthirsty oppressors, and while they have consigned the traitorous brethren who have given evidence against them to a life of ignominy, to be the outcasts of society, the object of the raised finger of hatred and scorn, they have declared that they would firmly meet their fate on the gallows, forgiving all who had been instrumental in bringing them to an untimely end. To listen, is to suppose that you are in the presence of a WALLACE or a TELL, and it shows to what extent false teaching and error may delude. The first question is what are the injuries of which these men complain ? There is an inveterate belief abroad that the laws framed for Ireland differ from the laws framed for England, which is often naively shown; as, for instance, when some English and Scotch were brought before a French Prefect for lighting in Paris. " Leonid understand," said the nrigistrate, Englishmen and Irishmen fighting, but not English and Scotch, who live under the same laws, and have therefore nothing to fight about." What the Irish conspire for is to live under different lawp, not the same, that being the object for which the English strive. England has no other aim than to obliterate every trace of difference between the most Irish of the Irish and themselves. The oppression, of the Irish is the attempt to elevate them into a perfect equality with the ether portions of the empire. It may be that what suits the AngloSaxon does not suit the Celt; but to call the mild and equitable rule under which they live oppres sion is a gross perversion of terms. Now what are the crimes of which these patriots have been convicted ? Generally murder in its worst form, and with it most dangerous objects; to upset society, to disorganize a leading kingdom of the world, and that affording every opportunity for cbtaining by legal means redress for any real grievance. These men use the liberty which the laws of their country gives against that country to stab it in the most vital place, and