" REMEMBER GWEEDORE! "
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Some of your readers may fail to see the connection between " Remember lYlitcheistown !" and Mr. Martin's murder. Yet it should be sufficiently obvious. Of course, there has always been an outcry in Ireland when rioters have been injured by the police. But this has been much intensified since Mr. Gladstone's remarkable utterance, and police officers who try to do their duty have been attacked with such ferocity in the Press that latterly they seem afraid to adopt stern measures under any circumstances. Poor Mr. Martin, when starting on his dangerous mission, left his revolver in his hotel, lest, as he said, he might be tempted to use it. And when separated from his companions, and assailed by the cowardly crowd of bludgeon-men, he tried to repel them with the flat of his sword. The deceased officer was a tall, powerful man, in the prime of health and vigour, and in the narrow pathway where he was attacked could, if he chose, have cut down his opponents as fast as they approached him. He well knew, however, the terrible persecution to which he would be subjected if he tried to save his own life by taking life. Hoping probably to secure the shelter of the priest's house till the main body of police would come up, he turned for a moment, was immediately felled from behind, and your readers know the rest.
Any one who has witnessed the conduct of the Royal Irish Constabulary when dealing with turbulent crowds, will freely admit that no body of men could show more patience and forbearance under strong provocation. In their humane and courageous discharge of disagreeable and difficult duty, they surely deserve the sympathy of all law-abiding people. When Constable Brett submitted to be shot at Manchester rather than yield up the keys of the prison van, only Irish " patriots " could be found to deny him sympathy, and dub his murderers the " Manchester martyrs." I trust we shall soon see the time again when these same Irish patriots shall be our sole apologists for criminals and crime.—I am, Sir, &c., D.
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