The Home-rulers are greatly excited about a scene which took
place on September 25th outside the Tipperary Court- house. The facts, as usual, are affirmed and denied ; but, according to Mr. Morley, who was present, and who ought to be a competent witness, a small crowd tried peaceably to enter the enclosure round the Court-house, and were wantonly attacked by the police with their batons. Heads were broken, that of Mr. Harrison, M.P., in particular, and that of Mr. Keating, an " innocent reporter." Mr. Morley, who is not perhaps very familiar with Irish shindies, calls one blow on the mouth given to Mr. Keating a " murderous" blow, and rises into passionate indignation and poor rhetoric :—" The resort to batons on this occasion, under these circumstances, was a deplorable outrage, a lawless outrage, a cowardly out- rage, and a wanton and unprovoked outrage. The strongest Tory in this county of Lancashire would have felt just as much disgust and indignation as I did at this brutal and cowardly ex- hibition. And who is responsible for these scenes of unbridled violence, these scenes of blunder and indiscretion ? " Of course Mr. Balfour, who—think of this for an atrocity !—" plays golf." It is alleged, on the other hand, that the mob began the row by throwing stones, that Mr. Harrison had just struck a policeman, and that Mr. Keating had called the constable who struck him a ruffian ; but nothing is certain except that the police charged, as they do occasionally in England,—in the Southampton dock strikes, for example. We shall hear enough and to spare of this incident when Parliament meets, but the impression left on our minds is that the police were possessed with the notion that a rescue was intended, and acted with needless energy. Consequently, it is clear that the British Constitution ought to be made Federal !
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