IRELAND
As usual, the people of England were, from time to time, startled by accounts of agrarian outrage, and of murders perpetrated under circumstances of savage ferocity hardly paralleled anywhere. Some of the worst criminals were found guilty; generally, juries in the Roman Catholic districts were unwilling to convict, and frequently the prosecution rested on the evidence of informers too infamous to believe. All the old evils which had so long harassed that distracted country remained in full force. The spirit of party, and of religious rancour, raged fearfully. The most terrible exemplification of sanguinary bigotry which, perhaps, the world ever witnessed, occurred in the north in September. During periods of persecution in all countries, man has proved himself swift to shed blood under the influence of intolerance and fanaticism; but seldom, if ever, in cold blood, had so horrible an atrocity been contemplated, as was attempted by the anti-Protestant party in Ulster, on the 15th of September.
The city of Londonderry, it is well known to the readers of English history, made an extraordinarily gallant defence against the army of James II., during the revolutionary war of 1688-9. Ever since it has been customary for the Protestant citizens of Derry to commemorate the glorious event. So it was, also, in the September of 1854. A large number of Protestants, many of whom were Orangemen, residing in Enniskillen and the neighbourhood, resolved to join their brethren of Derry in their festivities. For this purpose they hired a train on the railway. They arrived at Derry, joined in the demonstrations made by “the maiden city,” and resumed their places in a returning train. The hostile party determined to effect the destruction of the whole party. Impediments were placed ingeniously on a particular part of the road, by which one of the two engines that drew the train was thrown down an embankment, and the other flung back upon the carriages. One of the engine-drivers was killed; two were terribly wounded. The Earl of Enniskillen, who headed the party, was on the engine, and narrowly escaped death. Several passengers were injured. It was wonderful that any escaped. The country people could hardly be prevailed upon to render assistance, they sympathised with the murderous purpose which had barely failed. The Roman Catholic party raised a great outcry against the Orangemen for provoking such an outrage. The liberal party in parliament and in the press could not afford to do without the Roman Catholic vote, and took up the same key-note of denunciation of the Orangemen. It is astonishing how little indignation the British public showed at this attempt at wholesale assassination by fanatics. A verdict of wilful murder was returned by a coroner’s jury against six navvies who worked upon the rail. No adequate means were adopted by the government to trace out the offenders, or bring them to the condign punishment so extraordinary an atrocity deserved.