All praise is due to Coroner, jury, and all concerned in the inquest on the two men killed. The fishermen gave their evidence calmly and soberly; and if we had not already known positively that there was not a Japanese torpedo-boat within hundreds of miles of the North Sea at the time of the outrage we should be convinced of the truth of their story. Counsel for the Treasury warned the jury of the inadvisability of allowing indignation to show itself in their verdict. They refrained from using the manslaughter," and contented themselves with a sober and dignified statement of the ascertainable facts that the men wore killed by shells fired from Russian ships at a distance*of about a quarter of a mile while the trawlers were showing the proper lights and while their distinctive marks as fishing boats were clearly visible. Various stories have been invented to account for the criminal blunder {committed by the Russians; but all we can be certain of at present is that it was due to most_unseamanlike panic, probably intensified by drunkennes
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.