But whether Fenians or foreigners were behind them, the absurdity of some ...

But whether Fenians or foreigners were behind them, the absurdity of some of the objectives, and the futility of most of the enterprises, suggests less a concerted attack on order than the exasperated exhibitionism which afterwards characterized the militant Suffragists. With the insane attack on the Royal Observatory in 1895, this spasmodic terror came to an end.

Like the Fenian movement, of which it was an outlier, it had hardened rather than terrified the public; and, like all unsuccessful insurgents, the Trafalgar Square Socialists had alienated more than they had converted, and in the end perhaps amused more than they shocked.

This was not the way.