While the trial of the Phoenix Park assassins was proceeding, another formidable conspiracy was brought to light. A gang of Irish-Americans had come to this country with the object of terrorising the Government by a series of explosions of nitro-glycerine. On the evening of March 15, 1883, part of the Local Government Board Offices in Whitehall was wrecked by the explosion of a canister of dynamite placed inside one of the balustrades. Simultaneously, another explosion took place at the office of the _Times_, in Printing House Square. By the help of informers, the police were enabled to arrest a number of persons in London, Birmingham, and Glasgow, all of whom were brought to trial, and most of them proved to be active agents in a heinous conspiracy against life and property. The formidable power which modern explosives had brought within the reach of secret societies made it necessary to make the law dealing with such crimes more stringent, and Sir William Harcourt, the Home Secretary, on April 9, introduced a Bill to cope with what he termed "the pirates of the human race." He assured the House that the danger was so grave and imminent that the Bill must pass through all its stages on that day. It was read a first, a second time, passed through Committee, and was read a third time, all within little more than an hour. Taken up to the Lords on the same evening, it was dispatched there with equal promptitude, and received the Royal Assent next day--an example of rapid legislation almost without parallel. [Sidenote: Corrupt Practices Act.] A much-needed boon was conferred this year (1883) upon Parliamentary candidates in the passage of the Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill. The old and evil electioneering traditions were put an end to now by the statutory measure introduced by the Attorney-General, Sir Henry James (now Lord James of Hereford); a statutory and moderate limit to candidates' expenses, based on the number of electors in each constituency, was fixed, which might not be exceeded on pain of voiding the election. [Sidenote: The Affairs of Egypt.]