On the part of the Crown, it was observed in reply that the true state of things was that nobody cared about the solemnity of an oath, that no one thought of honour, and that the people all sympathized with the assassins. It was contended that the alibi had been prepared before the attempt was made at all. The Chief Justice, in his charge, left it entirely to the jury to judge whether the prosecutor had an opportunity of identifying the prisoner. In a few minutes they returned into court with a verdict of "Not guilty," which was received with general surprise.

By the side of this trial may be read the story of another which followed it at the Clonmel Assizes, as exhibiting in a striking light the peculiar difficulties which beset the administration of justice in Ireland. A savage murder had been perpetrated on the night of the 25th of November, the victim being a decent, well-conducted man named Lonergan, aged about 50 years, who acted as caretaker on the property of Colonel Charteris. His office is not a popular one, but he was an inoffensive man, and was not known to have excited any personal enmity. On the evening of the murder he left the fair of Cahir, and was returning home when he was overtaken by one Tobin, who, without having received any provocation or having any assignable motive for the crime, murdered him in a barbarous manner, and was tried for the crime. In support of the prosecution the Crown had circumstantial evidence to rely upon. It was proved that the prisoner had also been in Cahir, and had bought a quantity of whisky, which was given to him in a brandy bottle. Near the scene of the murder a bottle was found, containing exactly the quantity which was sold to him and exactly the same quality, as was shown by the testimony of a chemist who analyzed it, and, comparing it with the publican's stock, found the same proportion of water in each. There was also discovered near the spot a dark double outer vest, which was stained with blood. A Roman Catholic clergyman was examined to prove that he gave the prisoner a vest, which he believed to be the same. It was shown by the evidence of other witnesses that the prisoner had travelled part of the journey home on two donkey-carts, the owners of which gave him a "lift," and that he took off his coat and left it in one of them, appearing then dressed in a dark sleeveless vest, with a flannel one underneath, with light-coloured sleeves. He was seen in company with the deceased by other persons, and one witness named Kennedy, whose house adjoins the high road, having had his attention attracted by the sound of loud conversation, came out to listen, and heard the deceased say, as if in a deprecating tone, "Are we not all one, Neddy?" to which his companion replied, “I don't care for that." In a few minutes afterwards he heard distinctly the sound of blows. He went to other houses in the vicinity and spoke to three men, one of whom ran up along with him to a ditch, where they listened while the murder was being committed, but made no effort to prevent it. A woman who also heard the sound shut her door and fastened it. After some time they

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went out, and found the deceased lying in a field with his skull fractured, and three of his ribs broken and driven into the cavity of his chest. Kennedy saw a waistcoat lying near the place, and took it into his house. Poor Lonergan was carried in, but died in a short time. When the prisoner's house was searched, the police discovered a neckerchief with blood stains on it, and it was this which first led them to suspect him. He attempted to escape to America, and took a passage from Waterford to Liverpool in order to sail from there. At Waterford the police arrested him on suspicion, and telegraphed to Clonmel for instructions, but owing to the delay in the transmission of the message they were not received in time, and there being no authority for detaining him, he proceeded to Liverpool. There, however, he was intercepted, the police having received a telegram before the arrival of the steamer. After considerable difficulty the Crown collected the various pieces of evidence, and had information taken by witnesses, but their difficulty was not ended when the chain of circumstances was complete. Two of the principal witnesses absconded, and if it had not been for the Peace Preservation Act, which enabled the authorities to bring them back, their testimony would not have been available. But their flight was not all. When examined in court they refused to swear up to their informations, and varied from the positive statements which they had already made on oath, so that the AttorneyGeneral called on the Judge to commit one of them for perjury. The reluctance of the jury to convict upon the capital charge was clearly manifested on the first day of the trial, and it needed all the powers of the learned gentlemen who conducted the prosecution with equal zeal and skill to induce them to return a verdict of manslaughter, which Mr. Justice Morris suggested that they were at liberty to find.

The evidence taken before the Westmeath Committee was, fortunately, conclusive; and while their advocates were proving to the House of Commons that certainty of punishment had no tendency to discourage crime, some of the ringleaders among the assassins prudently anticipated the operation of the bill by retiring to America.

The debate on the second reading of the Army Regulation Bill was opened by Colonel Loyd-Lindsay, who moved a resolution declaring that the expenditure necessary for the national defences did not at present justify any vote of public money for the extinction of purchase. He reckoned that the cost of compensating officers in full would be 12,000,0007., of which 5,000,000l. or 6,000,000l. should be paid at once; that retirement would cost 500,0007. a year; and that the whole scale of pay and allowances would have to be revised. He spoke in high terms of the English regimental system, quoting the praise bestowed on it by the Duke of Wellington, Field-Marshal Burgoyne, General Trochu, General Blumenthal, &c. Why should this system be changed? Not for want of officers, for there were 500 who had passed examination

waiting for commissions, of which the Horse Guards had only some 300 a year to bestow; and during the last six months 225 young gentlemen had been allowed to note their names to enter the army, not one of whom was over the age of fourteen. It was the fault of the Government if officers were inefficient, but he denied that they were so. The bill, while involving a vast expenditure and disturbing a series of arrangements which had always worked very well, really left the army as badly organized as before.

Colonel White, seconding the motion from behind the Ministry, declared that the latter had studied their own party interests rather than those of England. They proposed to throw away some ten or perhaps fourteen millions to satisfy the "family mania" of the Trevelyans; but he would rather see the country in a proper state of defence than have some day to trust to the member for the Border Boroughs in the part of Gambetta. The purchase-system, he maintained, was popular, not only with the officers but with the men, because it furnished a class of officers whom they were ready to follow devotedly; and, as to the system of selection, he defied any man to work it satisfactorily. With the proposals as to the militia, Colonel White professed himself quite satisfied, but thought sufficient had not been done for the volunteers.

The resolution was also supported by Colonel C. Lindsay, Captain Stanley, Lord Mahon, Colonel Gilpin, Mr. C. Buxton, Major Arbuthnot, General Herbert, and Captain Talbot, the chief arguments against the abolition of purchase being the stagnation of promotion which it would cause and the impracticability of separating selection and favouritism. On general grounds the Government scheme was also opposed, and on the ground of the waste of money for at the most an equivocal advantage. This was mainly Mr. Buxton's ground; he felt convinced, he said, that after spending all this money we should find that we did not gain what we were seeking, and he could not therefore feel justified in voting for the expenditure of a sum of money which, if applied to the reduction of taxation, would so much add to the comfort of the people.

Mr. Davison (recently appointed Judge-Advocate) argued against the motion. He maintained that the abolition of promotion by purchase was an indispensable preliminary to a reorganization of our military service, and, by way of showing that if it were to be done at all now was the time, he read the latest figures of the sums now paid by officers who purchase all their steps. Acknowledging the value of the regimental system, he denied that the abolition of purchase would interfere with it, and defended the system of selection which was to be substituted for it. He declared that the system of overregulation prices had grown, and was still growing, to such an extent that if ever there was to be a time for the abolition of purchase that time was now. At the present time the reform could be effected at a cost of from 7,000,0007. to 8,000,0007. spread over a number of years, but if it was delayed the expense would probably

rise to double or treble the sum, unless a war should intervene, and commissions fall to a comparatively small value. He discussed also the operation of the purchase-system, showing how unjustly and injuriously it bore on the non-purchasing officers, and recommended the change as an absolutely necessary step towards making the service homogeneous.

The Bill was also defended by Sir George Grey, Mr. H. Brand, Mr. Headlam, and Mr. Whitbread. Sir G. Grey held that purchase must be got rid of in order to secure a thorough reorganization of the army. Mr. Muntz and Mr. Headlam were in favour of ignoring over-regulation prices. Human nature (Mr. Muntz said) being what it was, they could not be got rid of permanently; but he would pay down the regulation price at once, raising the money by terminable annuities.

Lord Elcho asserted that for any purpose except the abolition of the purchase-system the measure was an absolute delusion; it was, in fact, a political, and not a national measure; and its only effective provisions had been introduced to silence a hollow sound which arose from the provinces during the winter, and to satisfy a certain portion of the Liberal party. Our duty, he maintained, was to establish such a military system in time of peace as would enable us at a moment's notice to flood the ranks of our skeleton battalions, and give us strength to fulfil our treaty engagements. For this, however, there was no provision in the Bill. The noble lord made merry at the expense of a "young army reformer," who desired to remove the Duke of Cambridge from the Command-in-Chief because he knew too much about the army, and thus made the Secretary of State for War a tool in his own hands; and of a "Radical friend" who, when assured that the Government scheme for the abolition of purchase would cost ten millions down and 500,000l. a year for ever, confined himself to the exclamation, "The deuce;" and while ridiculing the efficiency of the ballot for the militia, as proposed by the Bill, and the regulations proposed to be applied to the volunteers, declared that the amendment of Colonel Lindsay did not meet the necessities of the case, and expressed his intention to walk out of the House when the division was taken.

Captain Vivian replied in detail to the criticisms of the member for Haddingtonshire, whom he bantered a good deal upon his professions of independence; suggesting that if he had been present at the deluge he would have declined to enter the ark, and would have insisted upon paddling his own canoe;" and at the same time reminding him (in reference to an assertion by Lord Elcho that he was the only "unwhipped" member of the House) that when the rod was spared the child was spoiled.

Mr. J. S. Hardy admitted that the scheme for the abolition of purchase dealt fairly with the officers concerned, but as he objected to that step altogether he was compelled to support the amendment. The objections of Mr. Rylands were founded principally upon the payment of the over-regulation prices, and the member for

Warrington suggested, that instead of incurring that expense it would be well to permit the operation of the bonus system.

Colonel Learmonth discussed the question from a military point of view, and, while admitting the anomalies of the purchase-system, maintained that it had acted well, and could not be interfered with without destroying our regimental system.

Sir Henry Storks's first appearance as a debater was entirely successful. His defence of the Government proposals was careful and almost minute in detail, while his reference to the character not only of the officers, but of the rank and file of the army-the officers who under the most trying conditions had always done their duty; and the men who, however obtained, were patient under privations, obedient to their officers, and loyal to the Crown and country-as well as the general tone and temper of his remarks, were cordially recognized by both sides of the House. When he sat down he was congratulated by the Prime Minister and other members of the Government upon the manner in which he had acquitted himself.

Sir J. Pakington protested against the Government measure as a "costly party project and sop to democracy," which would not add one iota to the strength of our defences. He spoke contemptuously of the "trash" circulated by Mr. Trevelyan, who, by dint of continually repeating it, had got to believe it. It was impossible, he held, to have a system of selection without injurious suspicions of favouritism, and practically an adherence to seniority as a general rule. This was the case at the Admiralty. No man could have been First Lord without having his table covered with numerous applications such as this:-"I have always supported Conservative or Liberal candidates "(as the case might be), "and I have a very nice boy, nine years old, whom I want to be a cadet." He defended the Commander-in-Chief against the imputation of favouring men of social rank, and pointed to the fact that one of our field-marshals was the son of a tradesman in the City of London. He was disappointed that the Government had made no provision for a more efficient reserve by connecting the line with the militia, and utilising half-pay officers, and for the adequate equipment and transport of reserves. Sir John promised to vote for Colonel LoydLindsay's resolution.

Mr. Trevelyan replied to the attacks directed against him with characteristic vivacity. He described Sir J. Pakington's speech as an argument not so much against abolishing purchase in the army as for introducing it into the navy. The proposal to abolish the purchase system had been denounced as a democratic notion, but Lord Palmerston said he did not know a more effective way of inducing members of high families to enter the army than by allowing them to get on with greater rapidity than they would by mere seniority. He denied that the military men in Parliament fairly represented the officers of the army; they represented only those who were rich enough to buy commissions and get into the House of Commons. It must not be forgotten how the purchase-system told on men like