The Murder of Lord Leitrim.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2897, 29 May 1878, Page 4

The Murder of Lord Leitrim.

In the House of Commons on the 12th April, Mr O'Donnell, member for Dungarvon, and vice-president of the Home" JRule Confederation of Great Britain, moved that the Government's action in regard to the murder of lord Leitrim was unconstitutional, and proceeded to make an attack on Lord Lei trim's private character. A motion to exclude strangers was carried. Mr Gladstone, who yo fed in the minority, was loudly hooted by the Conservatives, and there was a scene of great excitement. Mr O'Donnell's motion was ultimately negatived. . Particulars of the assassination of the Ear! of Leitrim state that the Earl left his residence at Milford shortly after 8 o'clock, accompanied by his clerk, and was driving on an outside car to Derry to meefc his solicitor., He always carried arms. It is supposed that the assassins concealed themselves behind a low embankment between the road and plantation, and that having first shot Lord Leitrim, they shot his clerk and the driver, so that there might be no witaesses. His lordship's yalefr was driving about a mile behind, and on coming up found his master and the clerk lying dead on the road. Life wa3 still in the-driver. 1 he assas- ; sins meanwhile escaped in a boat across Mulroy Bay. The valet drove back to Milford, and alarmed the police, who, coming to the place, found the driver still alive but unconscious. He died shortly afterwards. There is no doubt the mur- : der was agrarian. The relations between ■ the Earl of Leitrim and his tenants were tinfriendly. His was kind and liberal to the poor, but was very particular and exacting in his dealings with the tenantry, visiting with unsparing severity the slightest infraction of the rules of the estate.

The Times in an editorial on the assassination, says—" It is no exaggeration to say that the news of the murder which caused such a profound sensation in the House of Commons yesterday struck this country with as much pain and amazement as an unprovoked declaration of war." Two men named M'Taggart and Hiel have been arrested on board a steamer going from EathmuUen to Londonderry, on suspicion of complicity in the murder.