The unopposed return of John Daly, the dynamiter, still in
prison, for the City of Limerick, where he succeeds an Anti-Parnellite who had, however, no very large majority 'over his Parnellite opponent, is a curious and impressive evidence of the impotence of even the priestly party to teach the people how hateful murderous violence of this 'reckless kind ought to be to a Catholic people. The Anti- Parnellites who generally, we suppose, have the priests with them, did not venture even to contest the seat. The mere reputation of having intended to blow up English men and women at the risk of his own life, has made Daly a popular hero in Ireland. Is this the "union of hearts" which Mr. Gladstone preached to us ? The great Irish party who profess to love Mr. Gladstone and to accept his policy, allow a conspirator against English men's and women's lives and against English property, to be returned to Parliament without even the effort of a contest to show that infernal machines directed against the English are not so popular with the inhabitants of an Irish cathedral city as an Irishman who is endeavouring to bring about the "union of hearts." No augury of the consequences of Home-rule could be more ominous.
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