NEWS OF THE WEE.
THE week has been full of Fenianism. Government and the police appear to be in the constant receipt of letters, some authentic, some fieititious, describing Fenian plots, or predicting Fenian attacks. Rumours are circulated, probably true, of attempts to arrest a Fenian Council, and others, probably false, of an inten- tion to suspend the Habeas Corpus. The most serious alarms are felt in gas works, which the Fenians are said to intend to blow up, and in Warrington a real plot of that kind seems to have been discovered. The dockyards, of course, are incessantly watched, the great public buildings are under special protection, and the workmen are beginning to arrest men who express Fenian senti- ments for themselves. The Home Secretary has called out the special constables in fifty boroughs, and everywhere every official and soldier is compelled to extra watchfulness. Most of the pre- cautions adopted seem prudent, but the detective force does not yet come out of the affair with much increase of credit. In Clerkenwell it was found necessary for the police to suppress a meeting called by Mr. Finlan, to prevent disturbance, and Finlan himself was protected by constables.
