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Show CASEMENT'S FATE. It is 'difficult to gauge with unfailing accuracy the siidinients of other" people by our own, but there is a certain uniformity uni-formity of sentiment due to our common humanity which causes us to regard a person, an act or an event in the same light. When we sympathize we feel that most men share our sympathies. When we abhor some deed we are confident con-fident (hat practically all men share in the same revubion. And thus we are led to conjecture that Sir Kuger Casement, despite his condemnation for treason, has won uni-versal uni-versal sympathy and that his execution would prove a shock to humanity. The English executed Robert Emmet as a rebel and a traitor, and never afterward ' could quite convince themselves that he j was anything but a hero and a martyr. . English poets sang his praises and Eng- i I lishmen wept when they thought of his courage, his purity of character and no-1 no-1 bility of purpose. In the United States we are accus-"4! ; tomed to think of Benedict Arnold as a i traitor of the deepest dye, and he was. i ille was a brave soldier, a general of i ability and a famous figure of our revo- j lution, but even in the high tide of his , celebrity he was not regarded as high- minded or purc-hVarted. After the evae- i nation of Philadelphia by tho British he j was placed in command of that city. He ' became involved in a quarrel with the city authorities, was tried by court-mar-; tial for some minor offenses, was con- ! victed and was sentenced to be repri- ' manded by General Washington. This, experience, coupled with some wrongs which he had suffered at the hands of congress, embittered him and he entered into a treasonable conspiracy with the British. His name became anathema all I over the world. Even in England, where he resided after the war, he was despised and shunned. lie could cite soino excuses for his action, but he had committed an unpardonable crime against houor. and from that day to this he has been held up to the just abhorrence abhor-rence of mankind. But tho case of Sir Roger, the Don Quixote of the twentieth century, whose sense of justice was so keon, whose sympathy sym-pathy for the wronged and suffering was so intense that he spent years of his life, while in the service of the English Eng-lish government, as a "knight errant helping help-ing th'c oppressed and the afflicted in various quarters of the globe,' is different. His friends so loved him for his knightly character, as qne without fear and without treproach, that they have not failed to raise their voices in his behalf. Poult-ney Poult-ney Bigelow, son of John Bigelow, the author and diplomat, and himself an author and a correspondent of eminence, emi-nence, has published some of Sir Roger's letters to prove him insane, but somehow some-how the letters do not quite accomplish the object. They reveal Sir Roger as simple-hearted, sincere, kindly and perhaps per-haps a little eccentric, but that is all. Xo court, we believe,, could accept the letters as a demonstration of insanity. I And so it has befallen that Sir Roger ;has been sentenced to death as a traitor. Xo 'one who has studied his case and his career can doubt his absolute sincerity.. sin-cerity.. He thought he was doing right, i And sincerity is such a priceless thing that the world can forgive the man who does wrong sincerelv. |