The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1888. AN AWFUL CHARGE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1757, 30 June 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1888. AN AWFUL CHARGE.

Last Wednesday's cable news states that the Eight Honorable John Morley, in a speech in the House of Commons, accused the Salisbury Ministry of. having sent Mr John Dillon, M.P., to gaol with the view of killing him. This is the fourth time Mr Dillon has been sent to gaol during the last few years ; and owing to the illtreatment he hs>s received he is in a weak state of health. About two years ago he had to leave the country under medical advice in order to recruit his health, and was absent for a considerable time. He is described as a "tall, thin, frail man. His physique is that of a man who has periodically to seek flight from death in change of air and scene." Imprisonment to such as he must be regarded as a very serious matter, but even his delicate state of health would not have suggested to Mr Morley that the Conservative Government connived at silencing him only for the fact that Mr Balfour has admitted his intention of killing some of the leaders of the Irish movement by imprisonment. This we have on the authority of Mr Wilfred Blunt, an Englishman of large estates and high social position. His wife is Lady Blunt, a granddaughter of Lord Byron, the poet. Mr Blunt says, in a statement published in every paper in the United Kingdom, that he met Mr Balfour at a friend's house, that they had a conversation on Irish politics, and that in the course of the coversation Mr Balfour said that as soon as he got the Coercion Act passed he would kill the Irish inorement by killing the leaders of it in gaol. Mr Balfour has eiplained that what he meant was that he would break or kill their spirit, but Mr Blunt insists that Mr Balfour meant what he said, that is, that he would kill the Irish leaders in gaol so as to get rid of them altogether. This so enraged Mr Blunt that, when Mr W. O'Brien, M.P, was arrested, he went to Ireland, and made known the Chief Secretary's intentions. For this Mr Blunt was sent to gaol for two months, under most extraordinary circumstances. In the whole history of criminal prosecutions there is nothing like that which resulted in condemning Mr Blunt to two months' imprisonment. He was arrested, tried, and sentenced for having been guilty of a certain offence. Against this sentence he appealed to a higher court, but when the case came on he found he had to answer a different charge altogether. The law officers discovered that the Eesident Magistrates who had sentenced him had done so wrongfully, and that the original charge on which he had been convicted would not stand the test of the Appeal Court, and so a fresh complaint was made against him and on this he was sent to gaol. Mr Shaw Lefevre, a member of Mr Gladstone's Cabinet, speaking immediately after the conviction of Mr Blunt, said —" You are undoubtedly aware, gentlemen, that Mr Blunt has this day been condemned by the County Court Judge in language most intemperate and partisan. I would point out that Mr Blunt has been tried for a different offence to that for which he was tried by the. Resident Magistrate, namely, for attending the midnight meeting on October 16." Mr Shaw Lefevre goes on to explain that Mr Blunt was tiied by the Eesident Magistrate for attending the meeting on October 23, but when the case went on appeal I before the County Court Judge, it was altered to the meeting on the 16th. JM"ever, perhaps, was such an outrage committed on justice before, and we hope it never will again, but the prosecution under which Mr John Dillon is suffering imprisonment at present is just as bad. The charge against Mr Dillon is that in a speech delivered by him on the Bth of last April at ft place called Tullyallen he advocated the Plan of Campaign. On that date the district had not be*n proclaimed uuder the Coercion Act, and there was no law against Mr Dillon speaking there, because the Act had not been put into force. In order to understand this it is necessary to say that the Coercion Act is like the Counties Act in th[s colony: in some districts it is brought into force, and in other districts it is not. On the Bth of April, when Mr Dillon made the speech for which he has been sent to gaol, the Coercion Act had not been put into forcu in the County Louth, and oousequenily he committed no breach of it. But the Conservative Government of Ireland not over squeamish about adhering strictly to the letter of the law. On the 13th of April, that is, five days after the date on which th'a offence I'

was committed, they brought the Coercion Act into force in the district referred to, and then arrested Mr Dill-n under it. Some people will hardly believe this, and to satisfy them it is only necessary to quote some of the language used in the warrant under which Mr Dillon was arrested. The language runs thus : Warrant to arrest—The Queen at the prosecution of Edward Joseph McDermotfc, District Inspector, R E.G., complainant; John Dillon, M.P., defendant. Petty sessions district of Mel, County Louth. Whereas a complaint has been made to me on oath, and Id writing, that on the Bth April, 1888, at Tullyallen in the said district and county, being a district since fully proclaimed under the Criminal Law Procedure (Ireland) Act to wit on the 13th day of April, 1888, the defendant, the said John Dillon, did excite certain tenants unlawfully to refuse to pay to the owners of farms rents which the said tenants were, and might become, legally bound to pay." Thus the warraut on which Mr Dillon was arrested shows that the Coercion Act had not been brought into force in the county until five days after the committal of ihe offunce. It is such administration of the.law as this that made Mr Stead, of the Pall Mall Gazette, exclaim " there is nothing illegal in Ireland except the law," and it is such outrageous conduct, backed up by what Mr Wilfrid Blunt has said, that has forced the Right Hon. John Morley to make such an awful charge against the Government as that they w«re putting Mr Dillon in prison so as to kill him. There is no law in Ireland at present; the law of the land h completely set aside and forms never before heard of employed to secure conviction. The judge and jury system is virtually abolished, and creatures of the Government are empowered to convict or acquit as Mr Balfour recommends. Nothing could exceed in point of ridicalouioess aorae of the things that are being done in the name of the law. Tor instance, boys and news agents are suffering imprisonment for selling newspapers. It was for selling newspapers that the Mayor of Cork, who is an alderman of the city aud a member of Parliament, was sent to gaol for two months. His name is Hooper, and, like Dr Tanner of the same city, he is a Protestant, and all the crime he was guilty of was to take under his arm a bundle of nawspapers and offer them for sale. He did this knowing full well that he would be arrested and sent to gaol, and the object he had in view was to call the attention of the English people to the outrageous way in which the people were treated. He knew that his position as a gentleman of high social standing and as Mayor of Cork would draw more attention to the terrorism which was exercised over the people, and for no other purpose he took the course already referred to and was sent for two months to gaol. It is no wonder that the people of England are getting very indignant at their time - honored institutions being brought into contempt in this way. But the worst feature of it is that some Eadicala like Mr Chamberlain support this outrageous conduct, and that it is by their support the Government are able to carry on.