THE TIMES ON FENIAMSM.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 557, 5 March 1868, Page 3

THE TIMES ON FENIAMSM.

We desire to abstain from anj language which could cause an indiscriminating and unreflecting feeling of indignation j but ■we cannot but observe that this crime removes all doubt as to the nature of the struggle in which we are now engaged, our pSiu win so longer be obscured

by the shadow of political considerations. The Fenians have cast the glare of a great moral crime upon the debatable ground that separates us, and we can no longer hesitate in what direction to advance. No man deserving of the name will venture to adduce political discontent in palliation of such an outrage as that of Friday. It excludes all considerations but one, that of protecting by every possible method the elementary rights of humanity. Warfare, however desperate, is not to be wa»od by these means, and if there can be any reasonable and responsible persons still ougageu m ttio .e email conspiracy, tiieyi are as much interested as we ourselves, in putting down such atrocities. It is fair to notice that Burke and Casey themselves, when brought up before the police court on Saturday, protested their abhorrence of the means which had been employed in their behalf. On the most favorable view, however, they cannot shake off the responsibility of having employed agents who have proved capable of such an outrage. If they are proved to have taken part in organizing the Fenian conspiracy, they cannot escape the guilt of having let loose upon the country a set of wholesale murderers. This is the fact we must now steadily face, and which has been indelibly imprinted on the public mind. We are confronted with a gang of reckless criminals, who respect no laws, human or divine. We are far from saying that this is the character of all persons who have joined the Fenian movement, or that no other motive is to be taken into account in estimating its origin. But we are justified in saying that this is its practical issue at this present moment. That and nothing better is what it has come to: and we mu-t also add that those who, after this exhibit ion of the characters who have been called together by the conspiracy, continue to belong to it, cannot be excused from full responsibility for all its consequences, We can have no parley with men in an attitude of menace. We must crush that at any cost. This is the first condition of political life, and is nowhere so essential or so justifiable a principle as in a country like our own. Wo have free constitutional forms by which all classes are placed on an equality, and through which all may make known their wrongs and enforce their rights. To these forms wo refer all appellants, and to these all must be compelled to submit. This outrage, therefore, will at least have the advantage of simplifying the government, and strengthening their hands. They cannot now hesitate in exerting (ho utmost vigar of the law, and they will be justified in doing so, not merely to punish the perpetrators of the worst crime of modem history, but to crush a conspiracy of which such outrages, we cannot hesitate to say, are the natural fruit.