The British Quarterly Review

On the 16th of September last, the telegraph announced to these kingdoms that a treasonable conspiracy had been discovered in Ireland, and that some of its leaders had been arrested. In the course of a few succeeding days many persons were suddenly thrown into prison; the documents in the office of the Irish People disclosed the fact that a considerable organisation had been formed in Ireland and America to destroy the government of the Queen in Ireland; and, even at a preliminary examination before a magistrate, the responsible law adviser of the Crown declared that a vast Communistic plot had been hatched in Ireland and the United States, its object being to subvert all order and property in the former country. The state trials which soon afterwards ensued proved that this was not an exaggerated remark, and showed conclusively that for several years an attempt has been made by agents from America, supported by the American Irish, to array the mass of disaffection in Ireland into a league against the rule of Great Britain; that this confederacy, in appearance at least, presented a very formidable aspect, having succeeded in making thousands of recruits, in collecting funds, ammunition, and arms, in sending numerous emissaries throughout Ireland, and in establishing a central administration at New York, and finally that a Fenian Republic, erected upon the ruins of the Constitution, was a vision more or less acceptable to no small a fraction of the Irish people. This conspiracy,' said Mr. Justice Keogh, in a very able and temperate address, 'was formed in this country for a

NO. LXXXVII.

'considerable time-two or three years at least; the object of ' its leaders was to extend it through all classes of the people, but especially the artisans in towns and the cultivators of the 'soil; its ramifications existed not only in this country but in 'the States of America; supplies of money and of arms for the purposes of a general insurrection were collected not only here but on the other side of the Atlantic; and finally the object of 'this Confederation was the overthrow of the Queen's authority, 'the separation of this country from Great Britain, the destruc'tion of our present Constitution, the establishment of some 'democratic or military despotism, and the general division of every description of property as the result of a successful civil 'war.'

Since the termination of the state trials, with respect to which we may say in passing that they were fine examples of the administration of justice, events of deep significance have happened. James Stephens, the principal leader of the movement, whose escape from prison through scandalous collusion excited great alarm at the time, for some time eluded detection, though a large price was set on his head, and, having ultimately escaped to France, enjoys widespread popular sympathy. During the winter several hundred persons, of savage, but bold and soldierlike aspect, were seen haunting the seaport towns; and no secret was made that these men, disbanded from the American armies, were to be the military chiefs of the insurrection. These men,' wrote Lord Wodehouse officially, are Irishmen imbued with 'American notions, thoroughly reckless, and possessed of con'siderable military experience, acquired on a field of warfare, 'the civil war in America, admirably adapted to train them for 'conducting an insurrection here." At the same time most daring attempts were made to corrupt the troops in Ireland; there was hardly a regiment,' said Sir George Grey, in which our enemies did not contrive to introduce themselves with the 'view of seducing the soldiers from their allegiance;' and, though no serious impression was made, it is well known that in too many instances these fatal lessons have found listeners. Moreover, the manufacture of arms in spite of a vigilant and powerful police went on in several parts of the country; a considerable number of guns and pikes have been seized on different occasions; and it is generally supposed that those which have been found are only a small proportion of the whole. In view of these alarming circumstances, it is not surprising that in February last the Government should have applied for fresh powers, and that. Parliament at a single sitting should have suspended the Constitution of Ireland. Since this necessary, but unfortu

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