Keeping up their character as a Jacquerie leagued against the
best men in the land, the Irish assassins have picked out an es- teemed Protestant clergyman—the Reverend John Lloyd, Vicar of Aughrim—as their principal victim for the week. The time selected was the sacred seventh day, when the Vicar was returning from the performance of his holy functions. The assassins, two in number, met him in open day, and shot him dead.
A characteristic incident in this case was the flight of a man- servant who accompanied Mr. Lloyd. The frequent recurrence of this trait suggests a very painful alternative,—a general pre- valence of the blackest domestic treachery ; or the more fatal fault (because it is an inherent weakness, not a misguided energy) of cowardice. There were two assassins—two to two. In Eng- land, that a man-servant should thus suffer his master to be mur- dered in broad day, without a manful resistance, is nearly inconceivable. Doubtless there are cowards in England, as in every other country ; but flight would be the rare ex- ception—in Ireland resistance is so. A journal, that once took serious offence at our calling it an Irish journal in London, roundly asserts that the neglect to enforce the law in Ireland is caused by cowardice. It must be confessed that English. ob- servers are not in a position to Conitirlist the avowal. In this country, if a man expected to meet assassins, he would catty arms—and use them. In default; he-would use any weapon at hand; and the butt-end of a riding-whip, manfully wielded, has before now saved to master a. pistol. Lle would resist at all events, armed-or not. The tameness with which men in Ireland submit to a slaughter that is not unforeseen, creates no small sur- prise on this side of the Channel. Among a comparatively timid 'people, he who has the first start in the contest is likely to win. The difficulty, however, in accepting this construction of the Irish customs of submission and flight, lies in the known gallantry of Irishmen in our armies. Is it that the Irishman acquires courage as well as industry only when he is expatriated 2
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