A disagreeable onslaught on the Irish Secretary was made on
Monday, in relation to the recent order given to the Constabu- lary to load their guns with buck-shot instead of bullets. Some of the Irish Members treated this as a change for the worse,—a change in the inhuman direction,—and Mr. Parnell even made the disgraceful suggestion that " perhaps they would have explosive bullets next year." He asserted that at Dungannon, on Monday week, "twenty or thirty people were killed or wounded ;" and on Mr. Forster's interposing that only one man was killed, he retorted that" several others, who were hit by the newly-invented and patented ammunition of the Chief Secretary, were expected to die at any moment." Mr. Parnell further re- marked that so far from political processions being a disgrace to Ireland, the disgrace rested on past English Governments, which "had deliberately divided the Irish people, in order to be the better able to rule them." Supposing that to be true, it does not make the party processions at the present day any less disgrace- ful. Mr. Biggar declared in their favour, on the ground that they were the only available means by which the Irish people could give public expression to their opinions. But then whether Mr. Biggar would like to see Ireland really at peace is, we think, extremely doubtful. Mr. Forster and Mr. Childers both declared that loading with buck-shot was much more humane than loading with bullets, and that for that reason only the change had been made.
