The Government has taken a farther step in its contest
with Irish disorder. The Crimes Act applying to Ireland only, there has been an impression abroad that offenders against it could not be arrested in England, and consequently some of the leaders most implicated in urging the "Plan of Campaign," or otherwise inciting to resistance, have been accustomed to make their speeches and then retreat to England. There is, however, a statute authorising the arrest of offenders against local law in any part of the Queen's dominions, and on Monday Mr. J. R. Cox, M.P. for East Clare, who has been evading the police for weeks, was arrested in London and conveyed to Dublin. A great outcry is raised against this "outrage," but the arrest appears to be quite legal, and the power of making such arrests is indispensable. If it did not exist, no one who broke a law peculiar to Scotland, where the law itself is separate, could be arrested in England, and we should have the Border once again turned into a disorderly "Sanctuary." Scores of Acts besides the Crimes Acts are limited to Ireland, Scotland, or England. Are they all to be broken with impunity because the offender is able to pay for a long journey ? The true desire of objectors is not that the Government should respect the law, but that one particular law should fail, when they would be able to say triumphantly,—' We told you so !'
