A startling rumour has arrived from Ireland that the Police
have discovered evidence that the Invincibles used poison. They poisoned, in particular, a hotel-keeper named Jury, who had. accidentally opened a letter which contained information danger.. ous to "No. 1." The story is denied, and seems dreamy, though it is true that Mr. Jury's body has been exhumed, but it has brought out a curious phase of opinion. The Freeman's Journal is horrified at the insult to Ireland involved in the charge. Why is it an insult, any more than the charge, admitted by the Freeman, that certain Irishmen killed certain other Irishmen, on political grounds, with knives and pistols ? Where is the difference, either in morality or honour, between the use of a pistol from behind a hedge or of a knife to an unarmed man, and the use of prussic acid ? Both are murders and both have the same motive. That the character of Ireland is injured by such a charge is true, but so also it is injured by the whole proceedings of the committees of assassination. Are we to have a special version of the Conimandment,—" Thou shalt do no murder bydrugs?"
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