THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1852. THE MURDER OF THE IRISH SECRETARY.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2522, 9 May 1882, Page 3

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1852. THE MURDER OF THE IRISH SECRETARY.

The Irish Secretary and Under-Secretary have been done to death under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. That the crime was done from political motives there cannot be the slightest doubt, but at the same time it is equally certain that Lord Frederick Cavendish at all events, ■ can have given no political offence. He had been in office only ouo day when he met his death, and hia relationship with Lord Hartington was, previous to his elevation, the only link that connected him with Irish affairs. It was, of course, his connection with the Gladstone Government that brought about hia assassination. Flo had agreed to carry out the Government policy, ■and therefore was to be put out of the way. But why was not Mr. Forster the chosen victim ? It can hardly have been that there were no opportunities of killing him, because ho had personally boon iu tho disturbed districts, and had exposed himself very freely. Moreover, Mr. Forster was evidently a loss lenient legislator than Lord Frederick Cavaudish, for ho was unwilling to accept the later developments ■ of the Gladstone policy. It is this which makes the crime such an inexplicable one. Even viewing the affair from the standpoint of an extreme Land ■Leaguer, why pick out as victim a

totally untried man ? Various hypotheses have been started to explain the crime. Amongst these there is one that it was done by persons favorable to the policy of coercion. With this, we fancy, but few will agree. That party which looks upon coercion as the only means out of the present difficulty has not shown itself given adopting means at all lawless in their nature. It has argued that the Gladstone Government has not realised the position, and that, at the very commencement of its period of office, it showed its want of appreciation of the real state of Irish affairs by dropping the comparatively mild form of coercion previously put in practice by the Conservatives. But the party has never in any way given any indication of acting in a lawless spirit, and it would bo simply phenomenal were it found that the doors of the dastardly act were to be found in that section of the Irish nation. But among the extreme Land Leaguers a contempt for law and an utter disregard for human life or suffering has run riot for many a long day. It is surely among the murderers of landlords and of rent paying tenants, among the houghers of cattle and the terrorists, that the assassins of the Secretary and Under-Secretary will be found. There is indeed one hypothesis that seems to bold water better than others. It is that the most unscrupulous and violent of the extreme party are unwilling that the days of terrorism should cease. The rapprochement effected between Mr Parnell’s following and the Government will not have suited those extremists. Their livelihood depends on the Irish agitation being kept up, for then money pours in from America and other parts, and goes into their pockets. They would naturally look upon a policy of concession with disfavor, and if the Government could bo forced back into more repressive measures so much the batter for these ruffians. A life or two is nothing for such men, and the sacrifice of the newly appointed Secretary they may have argued would be specially adapted to turn Mr. Gladstone out of the line he had marked out. This view of the crime appears to bo a sensible one. Either the reason is the one described, or the murder was committed by individuals who look upon the Government and all connected with it with such hatred that they stick at nothing to gratify their passions. Like all such dastardly acts, the late murder must recoil on the heads of those who committed it and their party. There is no parallel between such an atrocity and the crimes effected by the Nihilists, bad as these latter are. The Russian Nihilists at least hold that they have this apology for their case, namely, that their Government is a despotic one, and that a small minority cannot make itself felt except by secret terrorism. But the English Government is showing itself fully alive to its duties to Ireland, and is willing to grant it even more than a full measure of justice. The Land Leaguers can agitate in legitimate ways, and the system of terrorism adopted by the extrema of that party is adopted in cold blood and under no provocation. The Russian Nihilists have as yet gained nothing, and it may well be inferred that the extreme Land Leaguers, with their infinitely worse case, will gain less than nothing. The opinion of the whole civilised world will rise up against the perpetrators of such a foul . deed as the one under consideration. (

Without ia any way alluding 1 to the general Irish policy of the Gladstone Government, this much may bo taken for granted, that it has not paid sufficient attention to the maintenance of order in Ireland. There was undoubted truth in the accusation of the Conservatives that Mr. Gladstone relied on his Land Act to restore order, and that up to the passing of that measure but little was done, in anticipationof thegood time comingwhen the Act would be in force. But Mr. Gladstone did not reckon on the headway that would be made among the disturbing elements before his great panacea was brought into play. Consequently ho has never overtaken the lee-way made during that period of waiting. From the very first he should have recognised that conciliation is one thing, and the maintenance of order another. The present disorders are certainly the consequences of measures vacillating or badly calculated. The Liberal Government appears .to be plunging deeper and deeper into difficulties as regards its Irish policy. Good will to Ireland is there in abundance, but the firm hand is wanting that is necessary to rule a race, so many of whom are utterly ignorant and prejudiced, and are so easily led by unscrupulous men of the worst type.