The National Register. — London, England, 1811-02-10 00:00:00

__'-'v.- '•-'. ','.W ■ NATIOIIAti Tit ; ° 'l it 4 t r 11 VGISTE THE o • ! t Our hitut, ConOitution, anb RAW. SU.N.DAY, FEBRUARY 10, Pill. N° 163. -. PRICE 9d. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. No. 1.5°. MR. FINNERTY. . . • • . . • r• . i We have frequently boasted of the. excellence of our Constitution. In the pride of our hearts we }nave exulted in the manifest and long acknowledged saperiority which our country possesses in point of laws and liberty, over every other kingdom or em pire in the universe. We spoke from knowledge and from experience, yet adduced the past as illus trative of the present. We now can produce an. instance given by the highest tribunal existing in our days, which proves that the theory of justice is , nim - only now perfectly understood, but its practite e!lorced with a degree of strict impartiality and tignified clemency,' Which the legal proceedinOkif, former ages have never eurpassed. We allude to • the unexampled display Of temper and lenity made by the Court of King's Bench whilst Mr. FINNERTY t' ;;ItteßS44 to: plead in Jr his offente The causes of the prosecution are'well known. Mr.: FINNERTY at his return from I‘'alcheren charged Lord CASTLIIREAGII ) then Secretary of State, with oppression, in a letter signed with his name, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle. A criminal information was filed against him, he now tells us, he was informed that truth was no justification of a libel, and allowed judgment to go by default. Having thus acknowledged himself GUILTY, he employed the time that • passed l:etween Trinity and Michaelaiiis terms, in ransacking every part of Ireland 'tor evidence to eliminate his Lordship still deeper than he had done in his publication. At his return, he receives every kind of accommodation from the Court. fie had spent too much time in courting popularity. among the catholics of Ilancl, to be able to answer the first summons issued for his appearance in Westminster Hall. This . neglect was kindly ex cused, and on account of his state of health, the indulgence of the Court pOstponed his sentence to the ensuing term. How are we to reconcile such an uninterrupted course of judicial leniency, with the complaints uttered by Mr. Finnerty, of the t•f system, of cattakss persecution adopted against ? .But .complaint, like the pettriotit calls for reform, ?raises an individual from the obscurity Vol. Ir NO. CLXIII, ■rli . . iri which he used to vegetate. Like the cry of a lap-dog in a crowd, it first excitessinqUiry whence it came. If it ceases, it is forgotten. If it con- ' ,linue, it is soon magnified into that of a child. In afew ruintftes it is that of an helpless and insulted . woman ; and at last, re-echoed by report; it becOmes ' that of a multitude of both sexes trodden down and expiring beneath the careless foot of a company of • grandees passing by. Consci‘us that such is the power - of complaint, whether founded orUnfoitnited, • . over the credulous mind of the' unreflecting of the ' idle, our modern reformers sound all its • notes, but their'arts are known, and their hopes will be t. disappointed. . if: 7 A4 4 . Notwithstanding the system of " persectitionni adopted towards Mr. FINN vt•ry, he con t inued , to iceive the most consolatory marks of indulgenciT .. : tifrcm • the . Court., When all his preparations were )1. • '7-* !eilded,' and his vottinaes of affidaliits collected, he • at' las tappealicei befc' re the*grAtiggeA of at 4nd, t . • s the_spposed intent 41)teadarig in mitigation' eliaiting declined the assistandeisf€olllll.. scl, he was heard with increased attention and pa tience. His object, however, was soon revealed. It became clear that he had suffered judgment to go by default, not because he felt a proper sense of his guilt, but because had he defended the libel which he had written, he would have afforded. Lord CASr.EREAGH an opportunity of meting his offen sive, instead of dy'ensive arguments on equal grounds, and of rebutting the violent charges made to blast his character. Under the plea of mitigation, he pro duced affidavits, which Lord CASTLEREAGH had not even a right to 'conttadict, and which, had they been admitted and inserted on the files of the Court, • would have formed a, source of futiite libels, armed with all • their poison, towards his Lordship, but whic7i any individual might haVe wielded without fear of punishment, as mere' records of evidence occepted by the first Court in the empire. This in. siduons intention was first perceiVed and exposed by Mr. GARROW, but denied by Mr. FINNERTY, with what justice, however, can be gleaned front his conduct. He owned he knew that truth was na justification for a libel, and yet, after acknowledg. ing himself guilty of such a publication, he brought what be represented to be truth in mitigation of 'his offence. if the statement of truth; supposing it to be so, instead of justifying =otitir act, was, ia • •