NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MR. GLADSTONE has replied to the Limerick Amnesty Association that, anxious as the Government are to carry clemency to the Fenian convicts to the furthest limit consistent with "the supreme consideration" of the public safety, they cannot advise the release of the prisoners. To do so would be to fail in their duty as guardians of the public security and peace. There is no evidence that "these misguided men" have abandoned their treasonable designs, and this is the more important, because the Government know the conspiracy not to be extinct either in Ireland or America. While some of the memorials have been couched in the best tone, others have demanded almost as a right what could only be an act of clemency. The public journals hold a tone of menace and dis- affection. On the whole, it would be obviously unsafe to abandon the policy of firm repression. Mr. Gladstone concludes by express- ing his conviction that new legislation will yet bind in harmony all classes of the Irish people, and declaring his purpose to main- tain by every means in his power the authority of the law and the integrity of the Empire.
