IRELAND AND nib OUTRAGES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
Sra,—You say in your summary of news of May 30th :—" If dynamite outrages of Hiberno-American origin are to be multiplied in our cities, and the policy of obstruction is to be deliberately pursued by the so-called Irish Party in Parliament, it is impossible to doubt what the result must be." As an Irishman, I should like to know what you mean by this. Do you mean to tell the agitators that the more disagreeable they -make themselves, the nearer they will be brought to the attainment of their real object—the independence of Ireland, and freedom for themselves to form alliances with your enemies ? Are you prepared, out of mere disgust with clamour, worry, and -crime, to see the Empire broken up, and life over the greater part of Ireland made unendurable for all Protestants and all -owners of property of any conspicuous kind ? And supposing you to make this sacrifice, do you think it would make your cities any safer from " dynamite outrages of Hiberno-American -origin "?—I am, Sir, &c., Belfast, June 5th, 1885. JOSEPH JOHN MURPHY.
[Of course we did not mean anything of the kind. We meant that the result must be civil war sooner or later, and the only possible result of civil war, the military government of Ireland for a time.—ED. Spectator.]
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