The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1882.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 631, 9 May 1882, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1882.

TOWN EDITION. [lssued at 5.40 p. »•-- j

Within the last few days two other dastardly crimes have been committed in unhappy Ireland, which add to the terribly long list of assassinations and shocking atrocities which have lately fouled that country’s name in the history of civilisation. No sooner are affairs quieted in one part of Ireland than they break out in quarters where the authorities least expected, and at the same time are surrounded with a mystery, appalling to the British nation. The terrible event which occurred on Friday last, in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by which two political servants of the English Government were brutally murdered, just previous to their undertaking the necessary work of reform by a policy of conciliation, calls forth the unrestrained indignation and indescribable horror of Englishmen as well as all other countrymen, at such a crime being committed in a presumably civilised country in the nineteenth century. Lord Frederick Cavendish, the immediate successor of Mr Forster as Chief Secretary for Ireland, and his Undersecretary (Mr Burke) have now fallen by the hands of the assassin. Both had but just arrived in Dublin to carry out a policy, aiming at removing the irrition caused, it is supposed, by their predecessor’s administration; but alas! how soon both were doomed. The suddenness attending this shocking crime leads us to believe that it must have been the outcome of political animus, but not as a matter of course, a charge to be laid at the door of the party, hitherto known as Irish agitators. Indeed, this party, in all reasoning, could not have had a motive so hellish as to murder two men, who came amongst them as harbingers of peace, and whose first public act as such was to cause the liberation of the suspects, and the abandonment of a policy of coercion enforced by their Government a few months previously, and which failed so miserably. No; we are inclined to think otherwise. Under the previous legime afiairs had grown so desperate that these two public men have become the victims, not through any act of their own, but through a panic caused by the sudden revulsion of feeling to a large section of the Irish nation, at the idea of having the released “ suspects ” and leaders of agitation restored to political power in Ireland without hardly a day’s notice. This party favorable to coercion were, without doubt, a large and influential party, and as soon as the policy was reversed they would find themselves in a dangerous position, and could expect nothing but a strong and vigorous array of enemies disposed to treat them without mercy, and hence the hypothesis we have put forward. We are further led to believe that as long as the agitators and suspects were in gaol, and the country under the strict rule of a Minister like Mr Forster, the state of Ireland would have improved, and the last step of the British Government is one that must be condemned. This Minister has addressed the populace in disturbed districts without the aid or presence of a single soldier or policeman, and if he was at anytime the object of their wrath innumerable opportunities were given to fatally sever the connection. Let us, however, hope that the crime was not a party or faction one, but the work of some reckless savages, totally igno-

rant of Christianity, and who, perhaps> have no farther aim than to cause a reign of terror in a country so long, unhappily, the seat of so much misery and dreadful crimes, shrouded in painful mystery. Critical as affairs are now in respect to Ireland, we believe this last tragedy will bring forth its beneficial fruit as time goes

on. Parliament has introduced a new policy, and if life has been saciifxced, we can have no grounds for sav-in”-that the policy is a bad one. The Irish question has been a most difficult one to deal with. Disaster has followed disaster, even under Mr Forster, who was the most popular Minister ever appointed under tlie Gladstone Government, and who resigned his post because he foresaw the risks which the present policy involved —yet we are still hopeful that the difficulties, although apparently increased by late events will be restored with tranquility, if the extreme process has to be resorted to, the result of which it cannot be denied, every “ dear old Ireland well wisher ”in this colony views with pangs of heartfelt sorrow.