In reply to a question of Sir G. Jenkinson's, in
the House of Commons, on Monday, whether a Times telegram to the effect that- Government intended to pardon the remaining Fenian convicts on occasion of the Duke of Edinburgh's approaching visit to Ireland, had any truth in it, Mr. Gladstone replied monosyllabically, "No." As the opportunity of doing a gracious act in the matter was lost when the leading Fenians were sent abroad to America to. stimulate the excitement there, instead of being liberatedin Ireland, where they would have been really powerless, it is perhaps as well that DO further attempts at graciousness should be made, but the law allowed to take its full course. Yet is not Mr. Gladstone emulating too much just now the curt, contemptuous manner of Lord Palmerston? It is hardly the ministerial role for which he is best fitted.
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