An agitation is getting up for the release of Daly
and the other dynamitards sentenced during Mr. Gladstone's adminis- tration. Their advocates do not plead that they were innocent, but that dynamite was placed at their disposal by officers of the Irish Constabulary, who wished to tempt them to overt acts in order to bring dangerous men within the law. Mr. Manton, Alderman of Birmingham, in particular, believes this charge, apparently on the authority of statements made to him by a police officer. If it is true, it reflects the highest discredit both on the police concerned and on the Home Office of the day, if the Secretary was cog- nisant of such conduct ; but it in no way affects the justice of the sentences passed. Innocent men are not tempted to use dynamite because it is placed in their way. There will, of course, be an investigation, if there has not been a sufficient one already, and we should not be surprised to learn that the police had boasted without reason of "bringing matters to a head," and so raised a false impression that they had passed the line at which needful espionage becomes an indefensible facilitating of criminal acts. Policemen, we fancy, are often more conscientious when doing their duty than when boasting of their cleverness afterwards.
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