We note with satisfaction that, as a combined result of
Mr. Ginnell's speech and the sentence passed on the five men by Mr. Justice Wright, the Westminster Gazette finds itself obliged to abandon the "passive policy" advocated by Mr. BirreU, and to assert that the same measure must be meted out to the man who gives the advice as to those who take it. "There comes a point, when if proceeding against Mr. Ginnell gratifies Mr. Ginnell, he must be gratified, or higher interests will suffer. The law which proceeds against Mr. Ginnell's young men and leaves Mr. Ginnell alone will be stamped as an unfair law, and the juries before whom the young men are indicted will have an easy plea with their consciences for refusing to convict." That is clearly and admirably put. The strange thing is that Mr. Birrell should have failed to realise the inevitable result of his policy of " letting ill alone."
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