Brett, who remained firm in his refusal, had been looking through a small louvre ventilator in the top of the door when one of the women, two or three of whom had not been locked in the cell, but stood in the gangway which ran from end to end of the vehicle, pulled him away. Allen threatened that if he did not deliver the keys he would shoot him. A pistol was exploded against the lock of the door, but failed to burst it open. Allen again demanded the keys, and almost immediately afterwards thrust a stone into the trap or ventilator, so that it could not be shut, and afterwards fired his revolver at it, shooting Brett through the head. One of the women, in terror for their lives, then took the keys from Brett's pocket and threw them out. The van was entered by two men, who opened the doors of the cells in which Kelly and Deasy were confined, and enabled them to escape across the fields. Allen was heard to say, "Kelly, I'll die for you;" and this was afterwards spoken of as though he contemplated a kind of martyrdom; but of course he made all the efforts he could to get away, and would have done so but for the prowess of a young man named Hunter, who was not only a swift runner, but a bold and powerful fellow. He pursued Allen and ran him down, wresting from his hand the pistol with which he threatened to shoot him. Another of the conspirators was run down by a second athlete in the same manner, and the police having rallied, arrested some others. Several were in custody before the next day. The escaped prisoners were never recaptured. One of them had entered a cottage at some distance, where his companions knocked off his irons with a hatchet, using the stone edge of the kitchen sink for an anvil. Five men out of the number who had been arrested were found guilty of the murder of Brett. Their names were Allen, the leader, Larkin, O'Brien, Shore, and Maguire. The arrest of Maguire was afterwards proved to have been made in error. He was moving about in the crowd, but it was not proved that he had any hand in the fray; and he was able to show that he had served for several years as a marine in the royal navy. He was afterwards not only respited but restored to his position. Against Shore, who pleaded his American citizenship, the evidence connecting him with the actual murder was not altogether complete, and he was respited from the capital charge. Some people attributed this clemency to a desire on the part of the ministry to propitiate the American gov ernment. Allen, with Larkin and O'Brienthe two men who had released the prisonerswere found guilty. They all denied that they had fired the shot that killed Brett, and it was contended that his death was accidentally caused by the attempt to burst open the lock, but the evidence of the prisoners in the van contradicted this assertion. Efforts were again made, by those who still retained sympathy for the political or national protests which were associated with Fenian demonstrations, to obtain a remission of the capital sentence for the prisoners, but the public feeling had undergone a revulsion. Even the proclamation of the American Fenian “senate” or "convention," that the acts of the conspirators were not directed against the English people but against a government which oppressed both the English and the Irish, did not assure the inhabitants of our large towns. To be shot, stabbed, blown up, or seriously injured in person or estate by an appointed agent of outrage, or by a gang of ruffians, or even by a patriot with a craze for murder as a ready means of manifesting political purpose, is not an experience the effects of which are to be dissipated by an expression of regret for an alleged mistake or by an appeal to a common love of freedom. The Fenians here were taking precisely the wrong way to maintain the sympathy which a just cause may evoke till those who profess to uphold it set not only justice but civilization and humanity at defiance. In England there is happily a tolerably firm belief that protection against political and social wrongs cannot be secured except by observing the laws which protect the individual and society. Certain Fenian sympathizers took a very false step when a number of them went in a threatening manner as a deputation to the Home Office to demand an interview with the home secretary (Mr. THE FENIAN ATTEMPT AT CLERKENWELL. Gathorne Hardy), that they might terrify him into advocating a commutation of the sentence of the Manchester prisoners. A letter was handed to their leader (a man named Finlen) saying that no noisy demonstrations would be permitted, and that the home secretary declined to receive them. Finlen then in violent language addressed the mob of his followers who crowded the stairs and the passage, until some police officers came and turned them out into the street. The three men convicted of the murder of Brett were executed at Manchester in presence of a smaller number of persons than might have been expected, who preserved a quiet and even a solemn demeanour. Raids upon gunsmiths' shops and seizure of gunpowder were repeatedly made by the conspirators in Ireland. Their offences were frequently of a kind to provoke indignation, and indignation was daily increasing, when the attempt to blow down the wall of Clerkenwell prison for the purpose of rescuing Burke and Casey, who were still confined there, was attended with consequences which aroused the public temper to a pitch that made it dangerous for any one in London to profess to belong to the Fenian body or to act in such a way as to be suspected of any connection with it. It may perhaps be assumed that there were members of the Fenian conspiracy whose hearts and consciences revolted from the atrocities which were contemplated by their fellows. At all events, on an early day in December the police authorities in Scotland Yard received an anonymous letter informing them that an attempt was about to be made to rescue Burke from Clerkenwell house of detention, that the plan to be adopted was to blow up the wall of the exercise yard with gunpowder at between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, the hour at which this prisoner was supposed to be in the yard for exercise, that the signal to him would be a white ball thrown up on the outside of the wall. In consequence of this information the prisoners were kept in their cells at the time of the day when the attempt was expected, but singularly little care 255 seems to have been taken to keep watch and guard outside that part of the prison where the attack was to be made. Perhaps the authorities thought it probable that the letter was a ruse; but they should have remembered the consequences of leaving the prison van at Manchester to be guarded by only a few constables unarmed, against a strong party of Fenians carrying revolvers. On the afternoon of the 13th of December, two days after the warning was given, all London was startled by a terrific explosion. The Fenian conspirators had proved themselves to be not only capable of atrocities, but of such utter recklessness of the lives of other people, including innocent women and children of the poorer classes, that their blundering eagerness to injure and destroy would have included among the victims the very prisoners whom they desired to release, had not the governor kept them confined to their cells in another part of the jail. Some men and a woman had been seen in a narrow lane, one side of which was formed by the prison wall, the other side consisting of a row of four-storied houses, from the roofs of which a view could be obtained of the prison yard. Several suspicious-looking persons had been seen going in and out of one of these houses during the afternoon, but nobody had been ex、 amined or arrested. Two men and the woman wheeled a truck along the lane, and took from it a 36-gallon beer cask, partly covered with a piece of tarpaulin. This cask was placed against the prison wall, and while one man rapidly went away with the truck the other thrust a fuse, which looked like a squib, into the bung-hole of the cask, lighted it, and ran away, the woman also making off at a rapid pace. All this was done so quickly that before any one could interfere a tremendous explosion had blown down a large portion of the wall, leaving a gap from 30 to 40 feet in width. So tremendous was the force of the charge contained in the cask that a volley of bricks was driven across the exercise yard and made deep indentations in the wall of the prison. The effect upon the adjacent houses was appalling; two were destroyed, five or six were shattered, windows were broken at the distance of a quarter of a mile. Amidst the fall of timber and the crashing of roofs was heard the screams of women and children, the groans and exclamations of wounded men. Fifty-two persons, some of them too aged to be able to make much effort to escape, and others mere infants, were seriously injured, and had to be conveyed to hospitals. One was killed on the spot, and four others, including a little girl, who was fearfully burnt and lacerated, died during the night. It was said that forty poor women, who were about to become mothers, gave premature birth to children, twenty of whom died immediately. The crime produced universal horror, but it was regarded less with fear than with detestation. The fact is worth noting that some military officers who visited the ruins were of opinion that the explosion was caused not by gunpowder, but by some more powerful substance, such as nitro-glycerine. One of the staves of the barrel was found on the roof of a house sixty yards distant from the spot where the explosion took place. Two men and a woman were arrested by police constables, assisted by some by-standers, immediately after the explosion. One of the men named Allen had been loitering about the prison, and had been seen by the chief warder on the top of one of the neighbouring houses. The woman had been accustomed to visit the prisoner Casey while he was under remand, and had taken him his dinner that very day. When Burke and Casey were afterwards brought up to the police court on remand, Dr. Kenealy, a barrister whose name was afterwards to be notoriously associated with another trial, and who had been retained for their defence, at once abandoned their case, since, though he did not believe that they were themselves parties to the crime which had been committed, some of those who had instructed him on their behalf probably were, and he could no longer continue to represent them. Public subscriptions were made for the sufferers by the explosion, and much indignation was manifested. The perpetrators were brought up on a charge of wilful murder, and remanded for further evidence. Rewards were offered for the apprehension of the man who actually fired the match. On the 15th of January, 1868, two men were arrested at Glasgow for unlawfully using firearms on the Green. On being taken before a magistrate they were discovered to be prominent members of the Fenian conspiracy, and were sent to London in custody. On arriving there they were identified for being concerned in the Clerkenwell outrage, and one of themBarrett-was distinctly sworn to as the man who fired the barrel. The capital charge was proved against him, and he was executed, the others being sentenced to terms of imprisonment. There was, of course, much public excitement, and all kinds of rumours kept men's minds in a state of suspicion and alarm. Only a week before the Clerkenwell explosion Her Majesty's Theatre was almost entirely destroyed by fire, and the houses in the Opera Arcade, and those in Pall Mall, were seriously injured. The flames were seen at a great distance, and though the firemen used every effort the building was burned out, and property to the value of £12,000, including scenery painted by Telbin, Grieve, and Callcott, was consumed, along with the grand organ, which cost £800. Madame Tietjens, the famous singer, lost jewelry to the value of £1000, and some very valuable pictures were consumed in the galleries of Mr. Graves, the print-seller, in Pall Mall. This fire originated with the overheating of some flues, but for a time any such occurrence added to the popular agitation, which had unhappily been justified by evidence of the malignant intentions of Irish conspirators. On the 17th of December there came news of the explosion of a quantity of nitro-glycerine, which had been taken from Newcastle to Newcastle Moor, there to be thrown into a waste gully. This substance was declared on inquiry only to have been intended for manufacturing purposes, but it was removed, in accordance with the law, because of the danger of leaving it in the midst of the town. In attempting to dispose of it the substance exploded, and a policeman and the two carters who conveyed it to the moor were blown to pieces; the town-surveyor, who accompanied it, was so injured that he died shortly after ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE DUKE OF EDINBURGH. wards; and the sheriff, who was also present, was seriously hurt. Nitro-glycerine, or, as it was also called, blasting oil, was in use in the Welsh slatequarries and in mining and blasting operations. It was causing some uneasiness. Not long before, a ship in which a quantity of it formed part of the cargo, had exploded at an American port, and with such violence that the vessel was destroyed, a number of lives were lost, and the pier or breakwater was wrecked. It was noticed, too, that the bodies of the dead did not present the appearance of having been burned or scalded. The Newcastle Moor explosion was not shown to have any connection with the Fenian plots; but there were too many offences with which they were obviously associated, and reports were made almost daily of secret meetings in London under pretence of "raffling" watches or on other pretexts. At Queenstown a party of Fenians seized a Martello tower occupied by two coastguardsmen and carried off a quantity of gunpowder. In Cork during daylight and in a frequented thoroughfare eight Fenians entered a gunsmith's shop and stole a large quantity of gunpowder and a number of revolvers. It was scarcely surprising that some calamities which were evidently accidents were at first connected in the public imagination with the conspiracy which was working so much mischief. The blowing up of Hall's powder-mills at Faversham on the 28th of December, 1867, was of this kind. Three of the buildings there were destroyed in succession, and no explanation of the cause of the accident could be obtained. It had commenced in the "corning" mill, and that was all that could be known, for all the eleven men who might have explained it were blown to atoms; it was feared the whole building and magazine would perish, for the powder in the glazing-house lay in heaps, and the walls (six feet thick) were heated and much shaken. The Fenian atrocities, however, were apart from such accidents, nor did they create an actual panic. An enormous procession in Dublin in memory of the Manchester murderers increased the feeling of resentment. People in the large towns began to feel some VOL. IV. 257 thing of that dogged determination which is a British characteristic, and is usually dangerous to conspirators and assassins. In London a considerable number of men of all ranks attended at Guildhall to be sworn in as special constables. It was a time of much distress and hardship among the poor, and injuries like those caused by the ruffians who had apparently taken the lead of the Irish political associations were an additional grievance and aroused feelings of abhorrence. These feelings were soon afterwards intensified by telegraphic despatches which seemed to show that even in our colonies the insane wickedness of the confederates might be unexpectedly revealed. The Duke of Edinburgh had proceeded on a voyage aboard the Galatea to the Australian colonies, to which he had agreed to pay a visit. On the 12th of March he was making excursions in New South Wales, and while at Sydney had agreed to attend a picnic at a place called Clontarf. The entertainment had been proposed partly in his honour; but advantage was taken of the occasion to make subscriptions to the funds of a sailors' home. Soon after his arrival, and in view of a large number of people assembled there, the prince was standing talking to Sir William Manning, while the governor and the lord chief-justice of the colony stood close by. A man was seen suddenly to raise a revolver, with which he took deliberate aim and fired one barrel, the ball from which struck the prince. His royal highness fell forward on hands and knees, exclaiming that his back was broken. Sir William Manning made a dash at the assassin, who threatened him with the revolver, to avoid the shot from which, Sir William stooped, and in doing so lost his balance and fell. The villain pulled the trigger, but the second shot did not explode, and a third entered the ground; for at that moment his hands were seized and his arms pinioned by a person named Vial, who held him till he could be secured. The concussion of the ball, which struck the prince just behind the right ribs, made the injury feel more serious than it turned out to be, the bullet having traversed the course of the ribs superficially, and lodged at no great depth in 80 the muscle of the abdomen. He was conveyed | those inequalities which had grown into bitter to his tent, and though he had lost much blood and suffered from the shock, he felt well enough to send out a message to the persons assembled, saying that he was not much hurt, and should be better presently. Farrell, who barely escaped being lynched, was much mauled and buffeted. After his apprehension it was reported that he was the agent of a Fenian conspiracy, and this suspicion was to a considerable extent supported by the statement of the prisoner himself, who said that he had written an address to the people of Ireland, and had sent it to the printers of two Irish publications, implying that he was one of an organization. He declared, however, that there was no truth in this, and that no one but himself was concerned in the attempt, for which he seemed to be penitent. The prince soon began to recover from his wound, but was advised to leave the colony, the relaxing climate of which at that season was unfavourable. Before he left he called on the governor to intercede for the man who had endeavoured to shoot him; but Farrell was afterwards tried and executed, the governor probably thinking that if he went unpunished there would be some serious disturb ance. If any proof had been needed that the members of the royal family did not distrust the Irish people, but believed in their loyalty and honour in spite of the evil counsels of Fenian conspirators and their wretched followers, it would have been found in the fact that the Prince and Princess of Wales went on a visit to Ireland on the 15th of April, landed at Kingston, and proceeded by road in an open carriage to Dublin, where they were received with enthusiasm. They afterwards visited Punchestown Races, and on the 18th the prince was inaugurated a Knight of St. Patrick. One object of the visit of the prince was to unveil the statue of Burke, and during their stay they made a round of visits and joined in a series of entertainments without displaying apprehension, and with a just reliance on the good faith and good-will of the population. But the difficulty was still there, the difficulty of removing from the government of Ireland wrongs, and had justified political combinations and confederations, which, if they are made in secret, too often grow into conspiracies, under the name of which offences are committed for which there is no excuse, and crimes are perpetrated for which there can be nothing but stern condemnation. Speaking in Lancashire of the condition of the country with regard to Irish affairs and the evil that had been wrought by Fenian outrages, Mr. Gladstone averred that he entertained a deep conviction that the name of Ireland and all that belonged to that name would probably find for government, for parliament, and for the people the most difficult and anxious portion of their political employment for years to come. In referring to what they had seen during the last few weeks be intended to speak as plainly as he could upon the subject of what was known by the designation of Fenianism. In the present state of the public mind, after occurrences so wicked and detestable, he wished to urge upon the public and upon himself these two fundamental cautions-first, that in considering those outrages they should endeavour to preserve an equal temper and perfect self-command; the second was that they should not confound the cause of Fenianism with the cause of Ireland. . . . It was a great advance in modern civilization which had led to the lenient treatment of political offendersan advance of which they had an illustrious example in the proceedings that had followed the conclusion of the dreadful and desperate war in America. Leniency to political offenders he believed to be alike wise and just; but he altogether denied-and he was speaking now not of persons but of acts-that acts such as they had lately seen were entitled to the partial immunities and leniency that ought to be granted to offences properly political. He knew not whom it might please or whom it might offend; but his conviction was that there was a deep moral taint and degradation in the thing which was called Fenianism. He arrived at that conclusion when the Fenian invasion of Canada took place. Canada was notoriously and perfectly guiltless in respect |