The case of Mr. Sheehy Skeffington, a Dublin journalist, who,
ft is alleged, was shot without trial of any kind on April 26th— the second day of the rioting—occupied the attention of the House of Commons on Wednesday evening. As the matter is still sub judice we must be reticent in our comments, but it appears to be established by Mr. Asquith's answer that Mr. Skeffington was shot without the knowledge of the military authorities, and that the officer who directed the shooting had been under arrest since May 6th.:--four days before the case was raised in Parliament. All we will say here is that till the facts and the inferences to be drawn from them have been made known, it is a monstrous piece of injustice to assume, as many people seem to have been doing, that the officer can have nothing to say in extenuation of his alleged offence. How Mr. Healy, as a lawyer, could have brought himself to describe a man who has not been heard in his defence as "an ordinary murderer" passes our comprehension.
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