Even before the arrival of Herr Liest in Washington, O’Halloran, smarting under the memory of British prisons and the wound an English enemy had inflicted on him, had cabled to London a long message, signed by his own name alone, and addressed to “The British Government,” demanding the instant release of certain specified criminals and prisoners waiting trial in British jails, on the ground that they were American citizens. Of course no notice was taken of the message in London; but without twenty-four hours’ delay for the receipt of an answer, if one should be made, O’Halloran ordered the arrest of the British minister then at Washington. The astounded diplomat was informed of the message which had been sent to London, and told that he would be confined until a satisfactory answer was received. If the demand was not granted in full within sixty days, he was threatened with trial by court-martial on the charge of complicity in the Englishman’s assault upon the Irish agitator. He was informed that he might send his Government such account of his imprisonment as he saw fit; and he was also at liberty to add that, in the event of the British Government’s refusal to accede to the Irish-American terms, not only would he (the minister) assuredly forfeit his life, but ships and men enough would be sent to Ireland from American ports to effect the release of the prisoners specified, by whatever force might be necessary. The minister availed himself of the privilege offered him, and sent a long despatch from his cell to the British Foreign Office. The English Government and the English people had been enraged already to the utmost limit of endurance by the unfriendly indifference of the Washington authorities to the dynamite outrages in England, which had been planned in American cities by American citizens, paid for by American contributions, and carried out by American agents. This affront to England’s accredited representative and its flag was more than could be endured for a moment. The Cabinet was in consultation when the minister’s despatch arrived in Downing Street. It was supplemented within a couple of hours by another from the secretary of the legation, corroborating the arrest of the minister and giving the additional particulars that the embassy had been forcibly entered by a band of armed men acting under O’Halloran’s instructions, and all its papers and records removed.