The Fenians

VOL. IX. —No. 461.]

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1865

SINGLE COPIES TEN CENTS.

$4.00 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1865, by Harper & Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

THE FENIANS.

PHYSICIANS say of certain periods, that they are characterized by a predisposition toward certain specific forms of disease, and that as soon as the exciting cause offers all the conditions necessary to the existence of the malady are realized. So in certain countries there seems to be always a predisposition to-ward revolution, which for its full expression only needs some exciting motive front without. Particularly is this the case in Ireland. Let there be unusual tumult any where in the world, and it is sure to be echoed back from Ireland in some outbreak, which is generally as hopeless as to its end as it is ill-advised in its manner and conduct. The American Revolution of the last century was followed by the Irish Rebellion of 1798; and we all 'know how that rebellion ended, in the triumph of the few but well-disciplined English troops after entire counties of Ireland had been devastated. Again the French Revolution of 1818 was immediately followed by another outbreak. And no sooner is the great Southern rebellion put down in this country than it is repeated on a small scale among the bogs of Ireland by the

A. Fenian Pike, having across it a horizontal barb-pointed spike for the purpose of catching the bridles of cavalry.—B. Fenian Pike.—C. Common ring
bayonet in general use.—D D D is inserted as a sample of the weapon of the former rebellion.

Order of Fenians. Long ago England assumed of her own motion the responsibility of governing Ire-land. Her government has consisted in setting up in that country a Lord-Lieutenant, an established Church, and a landed aristocracy, and in levying taxes upon the Irish for the support of all three. She abrogated the Irish Parliament—but what has she given in its place ? She checked the spontaneous growth, which was, Heaven knows ! sufficiently unpromising, but has she ingrafted Ireland with any fruit more promising ? The consequence of British government has been simply this—that a nation's growth has been checked, and where we ought to find abundant agricultural prosperity we find a boggy waste; and where we ought to find a civilized race of men we find a people uncultured, ignorant, and so poor that when their one harvest—the potato-crop—fails them they must either starve or emigrate. The history of Irish emigration to America tells a sad story of English indifference toward the Irish race.

But we find in this indifference no excuse for Fenianism. The revolt is only a stab at Ireland by Irishmen themselves. Better governed, the Irish would be less ig-

SEIZURE OF "THE IRISH PEOPLE" NEWSPAPER IN DUBLIN, AND OF DEADLY WEAPONS IN CORK, BELONGING TO THE FENIANS.