The Feilding Star. ASSASSINATIONS.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 89, 10 April 1883, Page 2

The Feilding Star. ASSASSINATIONS.

Tttat a society composed of assassins should exist in modern o'vilised Great Eritain in the present day, is one of the most astounding revelations made almost in the history of the world. Yet that such a society does exi-t, and that all of its members have not. been brought under the lash of the law, is almost as surprising*. It appears ai if all the skill of the detectives regularly employed for the discovery and prevention of the greater crimes, such as felony, treason, and assassination, have been, comparatively speaking, set. ar nought bv criminals of greater ability and cunning thin the " sleuth hounds of the law."' Although certain evidence has been obtained by which a number of persons implicated in recent murders, or attempted murders, in uuhapoy Ireland, have been brought to the bar of justice. Yet it does not appear that the police deserve, the whole credit for this, so many of the criminals and their confidants having been eager to earn the wages of an informer, that the task of collecting sufficient, evidence to justify an arrest has been an easy one. That among the numbers arrested the actual murderers are to be found, there can be no reasonable doubt, but the men in high places who have been, and r> -e, the instigators of the crimes for v.:..cu their instruments will doubtless suffer the extreme pei.nl ty of the law, are still at large. They are yet iree to concoct. lurther schemes of vengance. which they foolishly believe wi 1 tend to bring about a change in the Government of Ireland that will place unlimited power in the hands of an unscrupulous few. 'lbat such a hope is utterly futile should be made evident to the.-e criminal visionaries by the past history of Ireland, with hs miserable tale of bloodshed, famine and disease, mainly caused by misdirected ambition, which, to assist towards its o*vn ends, incited religion against religion and brother against brother. lhe extreme cowardice evinced in every case where assassination has beenat tempted is a remarkable feature, and one that in itself shows now little real belief the actors in the crime have in the justice of their cause. A Kussian Nihilist is far mo* e courageous, because he always expects to die with bis victim, and g-oes boldly forward to his fate. Not so the Irish assassin ; he is merely a paid servant who has a certain du< v to perform for a certain remuneration, and when he has received his hire he is then on the look out to double his earnings bv turning informer against bis associates. Only his miserable associates though ! Those wbo are the i eal criminals are. too high in position and have laid their pl*.ns with too much skill to make a confident ot a clumsy peasant or town laborer. It is said that Mr Parnejol is above suspicion, and that his pride prevents him replying to the bitter attacks made by Mr Gibson, the member for Dublin University. Some of his followers in Parliament have attempted to reply, bnt their speeches have Leen only diatribes on the wrongs of their country. A beginning- bos been made by the arrest of some of the most, prominent in the Phcer.ix Park murders. If the arre-t of the dvtiamite conspirators is -affected, it may be found who are the chief criminals, for there is reasonable hope of tha fountain head bei.ig- reached ere long, when the who e ghastly plot and its developements will be exposed, and the wretched men who have conspired to sheil innocent blood will be extirpated for ever.