NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE outbreak which has so long been threatened in Ireland seems likely to happen at once' some months before its fixed date. The Irish capital, with Waterford and Cork, have just been proclaimed under the District Coercion Act ; a step long urged upon the Government, and now said to have been rendered manifestly needful by very serious information respecting the progress of the Clubs in organization and extension. At Cork some leaders of the Confederation have been arrested : and the attitude of the Government generally is one of armed prepa- ration.
It was full time that Government should take the course which is now adopted. Some time back it might have caused the outbreak to be deferred sine die : at present it would appear more likely to precipitate whatever of open revolt the evil- disposed can muster; for the leaders have gone too far to recede, andif they do not make hay while the sun shines they will incur a doom of ridicule too severe for the most stoical fortitude. And they seem to be quite enough advanced for something like an in- surrection; their preparations, according to their lights, being tolerably mature. , The Clubs are organized throughout a large portion of the country, and cut quite a regimental figure—bar- ring the want of uniform, weapons, ammunition' kit, provisions, discipline, trained leaders, military genius, and all that. They already amount to a formidable army—for an Irish makeshift. Mr. Smith O'Brien "reviewed" a considerable body at Cork. He rode upon the ground with a brilliant " staff," and the men march- ed by in capital order—at least some of them did so, others not 'being so handy with their legs. Smith O'Brien played his part with very solemn self-possession, and was quite like a general or a field-marshal in the peremptory laconism of his speech ; only 'that. he was put to some mortifying trouble in keeping the soldiers from shouting in very unmilitary fashion ; and they would not all of them "salute" as they passed, so that he was obliged to say occasionally, in persuasive tones, "Just touch your hat as you pass." The objurgation is a decided but not dignified infringement on the Wellingtonian duties. An old woman and some other heroic personages hailed the reviewing general "King of Munster,"—the old lady probably being a witch: but the new O'Smith Macbeth somewhat testily responded, "Not yet, not yet!" He will not yet openly assume the title of" Smith the First." However, to crown the solemnity with a truly Irish cotn- bination of accessories, "he mounted a heap of rubbish, and re- ceived an address." At Drogheda, Mr. O'Brien announced a lier use for the Club organization—a revolutionary post, by which letters are to pass from hand to hand; so as to avoid the espionage of the official post. Barricades have already appeared, at Water- ford; but they seem to have been only toys meant to grace the progress of Mr. Meagher. The rebels, then, have their drilled bands; and their plan is said to be, to baffle suppression by simul- taneous movements in every district of the country. If Me. O'Brien has had an opportunity of reviewing his Clubs, so have the public ; and perhaps the English estimate of his ap- parent forces will not be quite so high as his own. An army of soldiers that cannot be kept from shouting is not likely to stand fire with much firmness ; and men who cannot be punctual in the touching of caps will not be very effective in more difficult evolutions. It does not appear that he has any commissariat or any stock of provisions: the corn is not yet brown, the potato is still a luxury. Money does not exhibit itself with any signs of abundance. Napoleon, indeed, could get on without any precon- ceived loaves, or shoes, or cash; but then he was Napoleon, and Smith the First is an O'Brien not Boroihme. To make account of no resource snore substantial than that ofjudgment, we find that
even in that essential the rebels evince no riches : they waste so- lemn attention on trivialities, they babble their conspiracies, and finally they are being forced into the field at the very worst junc- ture of time in the Whole year.
There are promises, to be sure, of Transatlantic support : in the United States meetings are held with chairmen named Tyler or Emmett, and a detachment of "volunteers" has been sent over : but the names belong to nonentities ; the meetings make no ef- fectual subsidies in the way of cash ; the detachment of volun- teers is fliteen strong. Our Government may safely leave the bulk of Irish Volunteers in America to "Native Americanism "— after the election of President. On the whole, the position and resources of the insurgents, that are to be, need not cause much alarm : they have done a real pub- lic service by coming:: out of the bush, so that they may be known and disposed of, quickly and conveniently. On the other hand, Government seems to be wide awake, and is supplied with a strong force. As soon as the struggle assumes a military charac- ter, all the " conveniences " to which we adverted last week—and which are no figments—come into play. Meanwhile, however, Parliament ought not to separate without ascertaining that the Executive Government is in possession of powers adequate to every contingency.* For the sake of speedy peace, in mercy to the ignorant crowds misled by the wretched treason-mongers, the Governor of Ireland should have powers at least equal to those intrusted by the Republican Government of France to General Cavaignac : powers which can be given to Lord Clarendon with the less scruple since an appeal may still lie to constitutional law in England, which was not the case in France. It is unjust to the people of Ireland, that the reviewer of clubs, the pretender to the throne of Munster, Field-Marshal King Smith the First, should go at large : he should be locked up in a place as safe as the cellar in which he was bilged when he defied the Saxon in Parliament. The idea of "going to law" with his Majesty would be as idle as if a bill in Chancery were filed against Cataline, or the Duke of Wellington had gone to Waterloo to serve a writ on Napoleon. The very irrationality of the Irish, which half disarms the indignation excited by their wanton absurdities, demands a large resource of power ready to the hand of the man who is answerable for controlling them un- der the fit of revolutionary madness : it is they who have placed Ireland under martial law, and it should be enforced against them so long as they brave the appeal.
