Englishmen, perhaps more than any other nation outside the Iberian peninsula, feel their horror at the Lisbon crime and their sympathy with Queen Amelie and the young Prince who has succeeded to the Portuguese ti.rone augmented by a sense of personal loss. As the Prime Minister pointed out when moving the address of indignation and condolence in the House of Commons, not only is Portugal our oldest ally, but King Carlos was the intimate friend of our King, and Queen Amelie was born among us and was, as Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman said, English in alarge part of her assoviations and in her heart's affections."
The geniality and accessibility of King Carlos impressed every one during his visit to this country in 1904, and the remembrance of his love of sport and such incidents as when he started a bout of snowballing while staying with the Dake of Devonshire at Chats-worth, have impressed us with the appropriateness of the Premier's description of him as a "manly kindly, friendly King." At present, though four days have elapsed since the crime was cou-mitted, we know little or nothing of the conspiracy of which it was the outcome.
It is. pretty clear already, however, that it was not an anarchist out~ rage of the ordinary type, committed by aman obsessed with the idea that every king and ruler ix the human race, bat" polit with a much more definite object.
LAWLESS IRELAND, The first week of Parliament has hardly tended to fulfil the expectation that this is going to be an exceptionally interesting and sensational sessi The House of Commons is still engaged in those abstract debates for which the the Throne alve although the Unionists encouraged by another—_decisiv victory at a by-election—that for South Hereford—ti hardly been have been expected. Certainly some very strong language was used in both Houses about Mr. Augustine Birrell's administration in Ireland. Indeed Mr.
Lonsdale, the Secretary of the Irish Unioniat' Party, declared that there been no more contemptible thuan i Th" wininatetion of ignorance and incapacity." But. the force of the attack was lessened by two circumstances: one is that cattle-driving has now practically ceased. a fact which the Unionists attribute to some corrupt bargain between the Government and the instigators of lawlessness in the Sister Kingdom; and the other ixaspeech which was made by Lord Dudley, who was Viceroy of Ireland in the last Tory Administration. The noble Earl boldly defended the Government. for having acted upon his own principle of governing Ireland according to Irish ideas, and declared that in his own opinion the condition of the country did not justify a resort to the imes Act. The speech made a great sensation, though no Unionist—not even Mr. Wyndham, Jonah who was sacrificed by Mr. Balfour's Government aver this question—has sided with him, "1 won't.
Mr. Birrell made a very effective defence. He declared that he hated boycotting and detested cattle-driving, bat when he was asked to put the Grimes Act in force his answer was, won't." He admitted that juries had refused to convict in cases where the evidence of law-breaking was conclusive, and he evolved an ingenious argument, though he did not pretend was a new ove, for upholding the jury system in spite of this, Juries, he said, give an indication of the feelings of the people. Even in England juries frequently declined to convict in the face of the clearest evidence of guilt because they sympathized with the prisoner. Instead, therefore, of patting the Crimes Act in force he has set himself to remedy the grievance which has led to cattle-driving.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.