NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE United Kingdom has been occupied this week with the evidence of an Irish informer. James Carey, a contracting carpenter, and a Town Councillor of Dublin, who was nearly elected Lord Mayor, who had been a suspect, and who was recently arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the Phoenix Park murders, has been admitted as Queen's evidence. His testi- mony, given on Saturday in Kilmainham Police Court, is astounding. He declares that the Society to which he belongs, called " The Irish Invincibles," was organised in November, 1881, at the instigation of a North-of-England man, named Walsh, to act as agent for a London Society, which had decided on the " removal " of Mr. Forster and Earl Cowper. Large sums were paid and promised, and he, with others, arranged the attempts to murder, which, however, after four efforts, failed. He then, on the instigation of a man known as -"Number 1," and apparently an officer, decided on killing Mr. Burke, and with the prisoners whom he named car- ried out his intention, as the world is aware. The assas- sins had, however, no knowledge of Lord Frederick Caven- dish, and no intention of killing him, the actual murderer stabbing him because he defended his friend with an umbrella. Carey arranged all details, and watched the butchery, which he described, giving revolting details with the utmost sangfroid, and with the minuteness of memory which it is known Thugs invariably display. His callousness, his treachery, and his pretence of piety have created an emotion of horror towards him rarely witnessed in Ireland,—rarely, we must add, so well deserved. The man was the first to write a letter of condolence to Miss Burke, and proposed in the Town Council of Dublin a vote expressing horror at his own crime.
