ENGLISH NEWS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 555, 27 February 1868, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

The following intelligence is taken! from the London correspondent of the Melbourne Argus:— HORRIBLE OUTRAGE. FENIAN ATTEMPT TO BLOW DOWN A PRISON, There is but one subject now engrossing attention. A. new “Gunpowder Treason and Plot ” lias been discovered in our midst; and its reckless inhumanity has stirred the profoundest indignation from one end of England to the other. It was the afternoon of Friday, 13th December, and crowds were thronging the streets of London in busy preparation for the coming Christmas when we were startled by the report of a terrific explosion. Far and wide it sounded ; and in the centre of the city wc hoard it like the discharge of a can-

non, while the rush of air seemed to break on St. Paul’s, and the huge mass to reverberate at its base. Soon there followed from month to month a rumor that the Fenians had blown down the wall of Clerkemvell Prison. In the busiest thoroughfares men stopped to put together what they knew. “It was a great explosion of gas,” said some ; but this explanation was quickly contradicted by those who came from the scene of devastation ; and that evening there were few in town who did not know that the Fenians bad added to their long black list of outrages another great crime—one almost unexampled in audacity and guilt, and that will probably stand out in infamous distinction to future generations.

Some six weeks ago, two men, named Burke and Casey, reputed Fenian were captured in London, and after undergoing examination before a police magistrate, remanded to custody. The former was -aid to have held a chief command, and to have taken an active part both in America and Ireland ; the latter appears to have been a sort of aide-dc-camp, or confidential attendant—standing in some such subordinate relation as Deasy did to Kelly. Both these men were confined in the Clerkenwell House of Detention; and it was to rescue them that the outrage of which I write was perpetrated. The Manchester exploit seems to have emboldened the conspirators to take more desperate measures; but they were not able wholly to keep their secret,, and so failed in their ultimate object. On the Friday morning the p dice authorities received intimation that a rescue would be attempted, but in what form nobody knew. The neighborhood of Clerkcnwell is thickly populated, and its streets are narrow and tortuous. Within the prison precautions were taken, and prisoners exercised in the morning instead of the afternoon, and in another yard from that usually resorted. Outside, the streets were closely watched by detectives. Several suspicious characters were observed, and more than one person was seen surveying the prison from the top of a house overlooking it; but no one apprehended the nearness of the danger. Corporation Lane is a narrow street, having the prison wall on one side and a row of three storey tenements on the other. Into this lane, at about 20 minutes to 4, a truck was drawn by two men ; on it was a thirty-six gallon beer-cask, which they deposited on the pavement by the prison. Another man—a “ gentleman,” say some of the witnesses —then stepped forward and applied a fuse ; and ; throwing a tarpaulin carelessly on the barrel, the three then made s hurried escape. 1 n league with them was a woman, who had that affernoon obtained admission into the prison to see Casey, and who had been seen moving from point to point, and in anxious consultation with these men. Children were playing in the street at the time. It was nothing new to see a barrel standing 1 against a wall, but the conduct of the men I had been observed, and some curiosity excited as to what they were doing. A vague , fear seems suddenly to have seized some who saw, but before they could do anything a tremendous explosion took place, which scattered death and destruction on every side. A flame of yellow fire leaped i up, and, with the cloud of sulphurous • smoke, mingled the dust and debris of fal* i ling buildings. No words can exaggerate the tenific force of the explosion. It tore down full 40 feet of the north wall of the

Uoii'e of Detention, which is about 20ft. in height. It blow down a house on the other side of the street, utterly demolishing it to the foundation ; and it wrecked fonr houses on one side adjoining this, and three on the other, leaving little more than the bare walla standing. There was a great mass of ruins, which falling pieces made it dangerous to enter; but the first shock over, crowds of people rushed to the rescue of those who were buried. The sbri.-ks of the women, the screams of the children, the moans of those who lay insensible, added to the horrors of the moment. Within the prison the warders stood promptly to their arms, bat no attempt was made to enter the breach. The House of Detention itself was shaken, the skylight all broken, the slates on the roof displaced, bnt its colls remained secure, though the affrighted prisoners made a fearful noise beating with their stools on the doors, exclaiming that it was a fearful earthquake. Without, the police soon gathered in force ; firemen came pouring in from all quarters, and presently, as the nature of the catastrophe became known, a detachment of the Guards was despatched to the spot. From the ruins women and children were dragged out, covered with blood and many of them frightfully injured ; and streams of cabs carried the victims to the nearest hospitals There were few things which excited more horror and sympathy than the manner in which the children suffered. One poor little girl had her face entirely destroyed by fragments of glass forced into the flesh, while other wounds were inflicted on her body by glass driven through her clothes. Death threatened in various forms. One man was killed on ths spot, the bone of bis chest being driven inwards by a mass of brickwork which fell upon him. From sixty to seventy persons sustained severe injuries ; and at the time I write as many as eight deaths are reported. If the explo ion had been a little later, when the children had returned from school, or the men from work, still more lamentable must have been the results. There has beeinuuch specula lion as to the explosive compound employed. The barrel would have contained oCJlbs. of gunpowder, and the balance of opinion inehuea to the belief that gunpowder only was used, though some have argued in favor of nitroglycerine, or at least a mixture of petroleum. > ‘HBEST —? MISOUEAV'T'S It was a great satisfaction to the public, when the first feeling of indignation had found vent, to find that at least three of the conspirators in this fiendish plot had been arrested. Ihese three, bearing the names of Timothy Desmond, Jeremiah Allen, and Ann Justice, were brought to Bow street the next evening, and charged with the wi'ful murder of the tines persons then known to have perished. The evidence associated them with the crime. The woman Justice visited the prison at 1 o’clock, wh’lo Allen waited outside; and when she came out these two were joined by Desmond, and all held a conversation of some length. They were caught by the police while running away after the explosion. One constable seized the women, and very pluck ; ly also laid hold with the other hand on Desmond, as ho was passing, retaining both ti' l assistance came. The woman attempted suicide in her cell that same night, and has since been very ill. Allen afterwards made a statement, implicating some of his companions, as it is understood. On the testimony also of one Vaughan, an approver, four other men have been apprehended, two of whom — William Desmond and Nicholas Edglish —are now included in the charge of murder, as having taken active part in the Clerkenwell outrage. There still remain some obscurities, which the evidence as yet taken does not explain. Meanwh’le the police arrangements by which the explosion shoo’d have been prevented, are severely criticised. meeting of Middlesex magistrates, Lord Ilanelagh brought forward a resolution severely blaming Sir Richard May no for his insufficient precautions, and although he was by urgent representations induced to withdraw it, yet a large body of the public take the same view. If it is ttue that information was received at Scotland-yard from Dublin, and that the plot was known even in Paris, how was it that the arrangements outside the prison walls left so much scope to the conspirators? If, as is said, it was explicitly stated that some attempt would be made to “blowup” the prison, why werenot the police on the spot more fu’ly instructed? And under such circumstances, when a single policeman could in two or three minutes walk round the entire boundaries why was anyone with a barrel allowed to the wall at all? These are questions which the public will insist on asking till some fuller answer is given. It still also remains to be proved whether Burke and Casey had any knowledge oi the attempt to be made on their behalf. Had they really been in the exerciseground as usual at the hour of the explosion it is probable that they and their companions would have been finished, so great was the force with which the broken bricks were hurled across the yard But amongst the ruins was found a white ball, which is supposed to hare been thrown : over previously as a signal. At Bowstreet, the next day, Burke and Casey were both brought up for further examini ation, under a strong escort of police; i and on their being placed at the bar, Dr Kenealy, their counsel, at once came for- , ward, and said, as the prisoners had failed i to satisfy him that they were not con--1 cemed in the outrage, ho felt bound to i withdraw from the defence. “ If prisoners - will have counsel, they most not have rei course to violence; if violence is used, • they cannot have me, at least, for their ( counsel.” Both men, however, strongly

protested tliut no part of the responsibility rested on them, Burke, in cautious and measured language, repudiating the act; Casey, in vehement words, declaring his abhorrence of the “ crime.” THE STATE OF TEE SUFFERERS. The Daily Telegraph of the 16th says— Was it gunpowder or nitro glycerine—a compound of the highest explosive strength —tnat was in the barrel r The question suggested by the smell of the shattered staves, and by other circumstance, was discussed with animation on the spot. Military opinion is divided, but it seemed to weigh rather towards the theory of a liquid explosive. The barrel was such as liquids are stored in ; but that goes little towards any evidence of value ; for, in the first place, it would have been thought necessary by the conspirators to disguise the character of the cask containing powder or other combustible substance; aud, in the next place it may be presumed that, if powder was used, it had not been purchased in such bulk as a whole cask-full but ha l bean made up of less suspicious quantities, and placed together in the handiest receptacle that could be found ; and such a vessel as a beer-barrel would be as likely as anything to present itself to the minds and the hands of the men engaged in the enterprise. A ground for suspecting the employment of an explosive liquid is in the fact that the hair of one of the children whose neck and facj is much lac .'rated by cuts from the broken glass of the window near which she was sitting, and almost immediately opposite the barrel, was damp and smelt strongly of nitro glycerine. Although the hair has been cut from the head of the little sufferer, ihereis still a faint smell, in which Mr Christopher Jealfresor, the resident surgeon of the Free Hospital, and Dr O’Connor can trace the presence of this powerful acid. The child has no fewer than seventeen wouuds, coated so thickly with the dust and dirt of the explosion and the blackened rubbish, that the open lips of each terrible laceration could not be cleansed without difficulty. The little patient, Hannah Maria Thompson, is aged eight years. She bears her pain with a marvellous patience, but makes one sad and err for“ Mother ;” and “Mother is herself lying badly though not dangerously hurt at St. Bartholomew’s. There were two children of this family taken to the Koval Free Hospital—the one wo have mentioned aud a younger sister, a poor, crushed, torn, and horribly charred little creature of some five years, named Martha, who lay with nothing of her face distinguishable until three o’clock yes erday afternoon, when she was mercifully taken from this world. There are lour cases now at the institution in Gray's Inn road; and at eight o’clock last evening their ca-es were thus described .- Arthur H. Abbot aged 5 y.ars, rupture of the right eyeball, and lacerated wound of the face, which is terribly bu nt and blackened—a dangerous case, but doing well; Hannah Roberts, aged 30,.lacerated wounds of arm and scalp, with fractured 1 rib and injury to back—also a dangerous , case, but doing as well as could be hoped : Hannah Maria Thompson, eight years old, whose state, described above, remains much the same; and Humphrey Evans, a man of 66, who suffers from lacerated wounds of the face and back, and from a severe shock to the system, and whose condition, from the first thought dangerous has not improved. Seventeen other persons were brought to this hospital, more or less injured, but they have all been able to leave the building.