THE ESCAPE OF THE FENIAN PRISONERS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 189, 10 November 1876, Page 14

THE ESCAPE OF THE FENIAN PRISONERS.

(From the ' Times.') Th« story -which comes to us from West Australia of the escape of the Fenian prisoners from the convict settlement at Freemantle is in many -ways remarkable. It is not, however, as some Americans seem to think, a humiliating story for this country. It is quite true that the Government of this country, though it could not assent to such arguments aa those by which Mr. Bright the other day endeavored to justify the unconditional release of convicted murderers or military traitors, is not sorry to be rid, by whatever means, of a barren and burdensome responsibility. But to relieve the British Government from a difficulty assuredly did not eater into the motives of the American conspirators, who planned and carried out the rescue at Freemantle. For security against such lawless evasions, we have to trust chiefly to the comity of nations, and to the reciprocity that is enforced upon civilised communities by a Bense of common needs. The American Government and the American people are bound to ask themselves whether it is tolerable that such piratical enterprises directed against the public justice of a friendly State should be allowed to go unpunished. In the meantime the temper of suspicion which such outrages naturally induce may aggravate the hardships of a convict's life. At present detention in this remote place of exile has been compatible with considerable liberty of movement. It may be worth while suggesting to the zealous friends of men whom we hold to be felons and they hold to be patriots that if such enterprises as this at Freemantle are indulged in, those charged with the safe keeping of the convicts may very reluctantly, for their own protection, be forced to curtail the privileges the men now enjoy.