NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AS though the blight on Ireland of murder and terrorism were not bad enough, the Government have made the situation worse by a particular blight of their own composed of vacillation and incoherence. Among all the bewildering shifts of policy and the variations on a futile theme to which different Governments have treated Ireland, we can remember nothing exactly like the incidents of the past few days. In the House of Commons on Tuesday the case of the Sinn Fein prisoners who were on hunger-strike in Mountjoy Prison, and some of whom were said to be at the point of death, was discussed, and Mr. Bonar Law announced that if the prisoners cared to commit the crime of suicide, that was their affair—the Government were determined not to give way. Almost while Mr. Bonar Law was saying these things the Government were making preparations to give way.
