One hundred years ago
AN EXCELLENT instance of the rebellious feelings of the Irish peas- antry is given in a story now current in Ireland. A man appeared in Kerry, and gave himself out as a murderer. He was received with open arms, and obtained shelter and entertainment for many weeks. At last some one came down from Dublin to "expose" him, and the word went round that "the damned scoundrel was innocent." The outrage thus perpetrated upon an unsuspicious and confiding community was bitterly resented, and the soi-disant murderer had to be rescued by the police from an infuriated mob, who had assembled to lynch the man who was not a murderer after all. It is difficult not to apply the story to the feeling against the Govern- ment now entertained by the Socialists and other extreme Radicals. The Gov- ernment, when they came in, gave themselves out as Jacobins of the red- dest hue, whose policy was, "Down with everything," and were helped and sup- ported accordingly. Now, however, that Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Keir Hardie have exposed them, the Radicals are beginning to regard them just as the Kerry peasants regarded the sham mur- derer.
The Spectator 22 June 1895
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