Our prediction of the result of sending the Fenian prisoners
to America has been very quickly verified. The Philadelphia cor- respondent of the Times says, in the letter published yesterday, " The Fenian liberated prisoners, when they arrive at New York, will have an extensive reception. Besides the Tammany Com- mittee and the Democratic politicians generally, all the Irish societies in New York are making preparations, and the Board of Aldermen of the City Government has also passed complimentary resolutions and appointed a reception committee." Thirteen prisoners have already sailed from our shores to receive these ovations,—and probably, if they visit Washington, to be received on the floor of the House, as Kossuth was, with all the signs of honour that a wish for the Irish vote will induce party-leaders to lavish on them ; and there are more to follow. New York is organized for their recep- tion, and 21,000 dole. (£4,000) has been collected, as the com- mencement of a subscription, to do reverence to these injured heroes. In Ireland, after receiving the pardon of the Govern- ment, they would have been powerless to agitate, but the Irish Administration has hardly the imagination to realize any power of mischief so far off as New York. Mr. O'Gorman, who is getting up among the Democrats this movement to do honour to the Fenian martyrs, is one of the exiles of 1848. Mr. Bryan Dillon has declined the amnesty, not seeing the use of needlessly crossing the sea in an advanced stage of consumption, and his example has been followed by some of the Portland prisoners. Will the Government continue to imprison these ungrateful recipients of its clemency, or remit its condition, which it can hardly do for some, and not for all ? Either way, it is an awkward dilemma.
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