The Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Bill has made its way
very slowly, partly owing to the rigidity of the Home Secretary, who has, as we think, refused many most reasonable concessions to the Irish Members; and partly owing to the pertinacity with which the Irish Members, even when they have expressed them- selves as content with the concessions of the Government, have gone on talking hour after hour concerning the amendments proposed. Yesterday week the Government insisted on what we believe to -be unnecessary powers for dispersing dangerous assemblies,— powers which, on producing sworn evidence of danger to life and property, they already have and use, but which they wish to have and use for the future, without the necessity of producing such evidence. On the same evening also—that of yesterday week—Sir W. Harcourt refused every concession in relation to the power of arresting persons found out after nightfall, except the very empty concession that he would require the arrest to be under circumstances of suspicion; but he declined to hamper the Irish Police by defining what were to consti- tute circumstances of suspicion, alleging that the English Police are not hampered by any such definitions. No doubt ; but, as the Irish Members very justly alleged, the English Police are not encouraged by any such statute as this to regard taking a walk at night as in itself a circumstance of suspicion, nor do the English Police suspect everybody, as the Irish Constabulary habitually do.
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