NEWS OF THE WEEK.
PERHAPS the most truly important event of the week is the arrest, by order of Government, of three Irish agitators against rent,—Mr. J. B. Killen, a barrister, Mr. J. Daly, proprietor of the Connaught Telegraph, and Mr. Michael Davitt, formerly a,
They are all accused of sedition, in Fenian political prisoner. the use of language at a meeting at G urteen, county Sligo, tending to violent resistance to the payment of rent. Mr. Davitt said it was necessary to be done with landlordism ; Mr. Daly advocated resistance to eviction by the people in their thousands ; and Mr. Killen said there had been three con- fiscations in the interest of landlords, and now there should be one in the interest of the people, and that he wished every one had a rifle. The accused were conveyed to gaol nnder escort, but they will of course be tried in the regular way, and by juries. The arrests have produced considerable excite- ment in Ireland, but reasonable men in England think they were nearly unavoidable, that the Government is keeping in the strict groove of legality, and that there is no ground for accusing it of tyranny. The only grave objection to its action is, that it has selected persons not before the world as leaders in the movement.
