An atrocious but clumsy attempt was made on Wednesday night
to blow up the Mansion House. At half-past eleven a policeman noticed smoke and fire proceeding from a box placed in a reeess in a window beneath the Egyptian Hall. He ran up, drew out and extinguished the fuse, and found that the box contained about 151b. of blasting powder, with two Ara.crican newspapers, one Irish, and one from Glasgow. On one of the newspapers was an address, No one sleeps in this part of the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor was not there, and the presumption is that the object was to cause a tremendous
" scare," at any risk to human life. If the neighbouring houses had been blown in, scores of lives might have been destroyed, without the slightest effect upon the Government to be alarmed. A more wicked attempt could hardly be imagined, or one which, if traced to Fenians, would be more likely to render it impossible for England to do justice to Irishmen. It is greatly to be feared that the success of the attempt in St. Petersburg has roused the blind blood-thirst which, in all countries, inspires a few half- insane fanatics. There are men, well known in armies, who cannot hear the cannon without firing off something. No arrests have been made, but the police speak, as usual, of a " clue."
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