FENIANISM.

Grey River Argus, Issue 282, 2 November 1867, Page 3

FENIANISM.

We take the following latent intelligence in connection with the Fenian j movement from tlie*"" Home Newa":^— Tlie adjourned of'Keny, sj)ecially diivot£dvto^|e;jbrial of Fen'an piisonerd, terminated on Saturday, ' August | 10. Three of the principals in the Feb- : ruary movement were brought ujj to receive sentences. The first put forward was " Captain Moriarfcy," as he called himself, but whose real name is Mortimer Shea. He was an-esded on his way to Onhirciveen with despatches from O'Conner, the Fenian general, who escaped after shooting th« police- ' man. The captain was tried on Aug. 8, j and found guilty. Mr Justice Keogh. in passing sentence, denounced the | cowardly and abeminaUe conduct of O'Conner and his confederates. He observed that those who came over from fbreigu shores to disturb the tranquility of the country and delude tlie unfortunate people who were simple-minded enough to be seduced by their misrepresentations were entitled to no sympathy, and ho felt none for them. They must be deterred by adequate punishmentpunishment thab will certainly be inflicted — from engaging in sirniliar enterprises. He sentenced the prisoner to 10 years' penal servitude. Noonan, who took the desperate leap from the railway train to escape from custody, but was recaptured, aud convicted on Aug. 9, was next placed at the bar. He had been recommended to mercy on the ground that he did not' appear to have been a ringleader, and the learned judge stated that- on consideration, of that circumstance he had reducedhis punishment to seven years' penal servitude. The' fact that he was in a comfortable condition of life, with the prospect, of independence and wealth before him, and that he had abandoned it to take part in the conspiracy, made his guilt, in his lordship's judgment, the more heinous, and if it -had not been for the interposition of the jury he would I have imposed the same punishment as in the case of Moriarty, Reily and Golding, two other Fenian convicts, who were concerned in the February outbreak, were sentenced to live years' penal servitude. In pronouncing judgment his lordship commented forcibly upon tlie insane folly of those who had listened to the advice of foreign emissaries, who kept out of danger themselves and left their dupes to suffer, and who appeared ab the table to give evidence against them. The Irish papers quote, as explaining the late " mysterious Fenian landing at Dungarvan," a -paragraph, from the 'New York Herald,' which professes to furnish an account of the voyage across the Atlantic o?the Fenian oarque Plato, 500 tons, which had -just returned to America after sailiug round the Irish coast, successfully eluding British cruisers. This vessel, according to the story, carried a crew of 40 men, two 12-pounders, and 350 Fenian soldiers, and tlie object was to test the practi-. cabiiity of a lauding in Ireland. The Plato escaped detection near Newfoundland by hoisting the American flag. She reached. Ireland in 23 days, aud her leading Fenians landed at various places and had conferences with Fenians on shore. She only set off on her return voyage when provisions ran short. The men landed at Helvic-head, Dungarvan, were bolder than' the rest, ami numbered, by the "Herald's"-ac-count, six,, but in "they were over 20, and the story is so far in disagreement with facts. Landing of suspicious persons, and one arrest of two men on the beach near Sligo, took place, it will be remembered, about the time when an American ship was seen in the Irish Channel. When Plato reappeared in New York, having solved the problem, as the American writer thinks, her armament was taken from her and stored up. Each man on board had been .armed with a Springfield rifle, .and 'she carried about a thousand stand of arms. How much of this story should be taken as true ii is impossible to say.