The trial of the six Americans charged with the conspiracy
to blow up London buildings with dynamite ended on Thursday in a verdict of acquittal in favour of two of them, and of guilty against four. They were all indicted under the Treason-Felony Act of 1848, and were tried before three Judges, of whom the Lord Chief Justice was one; and the four were, if the evidence could be trusted, guilty past dispute. Lord Coleridge, there- fore, as mouthpiece of the Court, after pointing out that the accused had absolutely, no wrongs to avenge, being "citizens of
a great country in amity with the Queen," sentenced them to penal servitude for life. The sentence is terrible, but so was the offence, which was nothing less than a conspiracy to murder innocent persons, out of enmity to this country. It is notable that one of the prisoners avowed that he knew nothing of the history of Ireland.
