Speeches from the Dock, Part I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 318 pages of information about Speeches from the Dock, Part I.

Speeches from the Dock, Part I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 318 pages of information about Speeches from the Dock, Part I.
successful raid for arms which the Fenians had made in that neighbourhood.  About a month before—­on the night of November 28th—­they had contrived to get into the shop of Mr. Richardson, gunmaker, Patrick-street, and abstract from the premises no fewer than 120 revolvers and eight Snider rifles, accomplishing the feat so skilfully, that no trace either of the weapons or the depredators had since been discovered.  This was what might be called a smart stroke of work, but it shrunk into insignificance compared with the audacious act of plundering one of her Majesty’s fortified stations.

The details of the affair, which were soon known, were received by the public with mingled feelings of amusement and amazement.  The Fenian party, it was learned, had got into the tower by the usual means of entrance—­a step-ladder, reaching to the door, which is situate at some height from the ground.  One party of the invaders remained in the apartment just inside the entrance door, while another numbering five persons, proceeded to an inner room, where they found two of the gunners, with their families, just in the act of sitting down to tea.  In an instant revolvers were placed at the heads of the men, who were told not to stir on peril of their lives.  At the same time assurances were given to them, and to the affrighted women, that if they only kept quiet and complied with the demands of the party no harm whatever should befal them.  The garrison saw that resistance was useless, and promptly acceded to those terms.  The invaders then asked for and got the keys of the magazine, which they handed out to their friends, who forthwith set to work to remove the ammunition which they found stored in the vaults.  They seized about 300 lbs. of gunpowder, made up in 8 lb. cartridges, a quantity of fuses, and other military stores, and then proceeded to search the entire building for arms.  Of these, however, they found very little—­nothing more than the rifles and sword bayonets of the two or three men who constituted the garrison, a circumstance which seemed to occasion them much disappointment.  They were particularly earnest and pressing in their inquiries for hand-grenades, a species of missile which they had supposed was always kept “in stock” in such places.  They could scarcely believe that there were none to be had.  Some charges of grape-shot which they laid hands on might be, they thought, the sort of weapon they were in quest of, and they proceeded to dissect and analyse one of them.  Grape-shot, we may explain to the unlearned in these matters, is “an assemblage, in the form of a cylindrical column, of nine balls resting on a circular plate, through which passes a pin serving as an axis.  The balls are contained in a strong canvas bag, and are bound together on the exterior of the latter by a cord disposed about the column in the manner of a net.”  This was not the sort of thing the Fenian party wanted; grape-shot could be of no use to them, for the Fenian organization, to its great

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Speeches from the Dock, Part I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.