the descent
of a solitary invader upon a remote island on the 12th of April,
heralded by mysterious warnings from the Admiralty to the Irish Command.
No discussion is permitted of the tryst of this British soldier with the
local coast-guards, of his speedy bent towards a police barrack, and his
subsequent confidences with the London authorities.

Only one instance exists in history of a project to profane our coasts
by making them a base to launch attacks on international shipping. That
plot was framed, not by native wickedness, but by an English Viceroy,
and the proofs are piled up under his hand in British State Papers.

For huge bribes were proffered by Lord Falkland, Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland, to both the Royal Secretary and the Prince of Wales, to obtain
consent for the use of Irish harbours to convenience Turkish and
Algerine pirates in raiding sea-going commerce. The plot is old, but the
plea of "increasing his Majesty's revenues" by which it was commended is
everlasting. Nor will age lessen its significance for the citizens of
that Republic which, amidst the tremors and greed of European diplomacy,
extirpated the traffic of Algerine corsairs ninety years ago. British
experts cherish Lord Falkland's fame as the sire of their most knightly
cavalier, and in their eyes its lustre shines undimmed, though his
Excellency, foiled of marine booty, enriched himself by seizing the
lands of his untried prisoners in Dublin Castle.

Moving are other retrospects evoked by the present outbreak of malignity
against our nation. The slanders of the hour recall those let loose to
cloak previous deportations in days of panic less ignoble. Then it was
the Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Oliver Plunkett, who was dragged
to London and arraigned for high treason. Poignant memories quicken at
every incident which accompanied his degradation before the Lord Chief
Justice of England. A troop of witnesses was suborned to swear that his
Grace "endeavoured and compassed the King's death," sought to "levy war
in Ireland and introduce a foreign Power," and conspired "to take a view
of all the several ports and places in Ireland where it would be
convenient to land from France." An open trial, indeed, was not denied
him; but with hasty rites he was branded a base and false traitor and
doomed to be hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. That desperate
felon, after prolonged investigation by the Holy See, has lately been
declared a martyr w