If the Government suspect the authors of the plot, they
keep the secret well ; but Sir William Harcourt, in his explanation on Monday night in the House of Commons, conveyed the impression that as yet they had not traced these barrels of patent " cement " to their origin. In his speech he said, "Week by week, for the last nine months, open threats and public invitations to general outrage and personal assassination have been circulated, and subscriptions for these purposes have been openly collected in the United States, and actually expended. More than one attempt of the kind has been made in England by miscreants hired and despatched from the United States for that purpose, and their work has been publicly claimed by their instigators as a reward for past and a
motive for fresh subscriptions Some silly and inconsiderate people—to use a mild term—have made light of these atrocious teachings, and disparaged all attempts to restrain or punish these incitements to crime ; but her Majesty's Government have not regarded them as things to be laughed at or neglected,"—and then Sir W. Harcourt took credit for the prosecution of the Preiheit. The "silly and inconsiderate people" referred to are probably certain writers in the Daily News and Pall Mall, who are assuredly neither silly nor inconsiderate, but who condemn all prosecutions of the Press, even when directly inciting to crime, as impolitic attempts to shut out the only light we can gain as to the working of the fiercer passions of lawless people. There is great force in that remark. At the same time, we must not forget that what can be, and is, openly advocated from day to day without any legal penalty, demoralises the opinion of those who read it, till they begin to think of it as, at least, one of the tenable opinions of their world. As we do not permit the publication of depraving literature of one kind, is it at all more reasonable to permit the publication of depraving literature of another kind, only because it sometimes gives us timely warning of public danger ?
