The Sun. — London, England, 1848-10-02 00:00:00

IRELAND. 'PIM STATE TRIALS. es..foNmEL, ' SLIDA Y .—The trial of Mr. W. S. O'lfien, M.P., was this' morning resumed. The exci.teme-Ot-WiiaTiiiii--eihibited yesterday had much increased. The re was a greater number of ladies present in tilt,- gallery, and every part of the court was.crowded. The prisoner remained perfectly calm throughout. Upton the Atdges taking their seats, Mr. Wnr-rmswa syplied to the Court to have the panel recalled et a higher' fine for those who did not attend. The names of those who had not before answered were then recalled, hilt the Lo - ,.11 Chief Justice di reeted it to be done under the same penalty of 101. Only four answered. Wiimestnit then made an application to the Court to have the jury chosen by ballot. He quoted the authority of " The King r. Frost," in which it was allowed, on the ground of the panel having been drawn rAphabetically. In that case Lord Camp bell, then attorney-General, said it seemed to him a matter of flit most perfect indifference. From the ith William 111. to that trial he believed that the calling by ballot had never been adopted, but if their Lordships the .Judges thought it would promote the iodpartial administration of justice, ha would concur w h the counsel for th-_! prisoner and pray a depar turo from the common rule. The ATTORNEY-GiARRAL believed that by yielding to the present application it would imply that he ccn ceived the Sheriff had not fairly and impartially dis .charged his duty in arraying the panel, and he there fore must object to any departure from what had been the rule in both countries as far back as he had an y means of ascertaining the practice. The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE—We cannot, without the consent of the Attorney-General, make such an order. Call the panel. The Clerk of the Crown informed the prisoner that he might challenge twenty of the jurors peremptorily, and as many others as he could show cause against. 'The pane! was then called. R. M. S. Mornsergh and E. C. Moone were then called and sworn as jurors. J. Willington and F. A. Jackson were challenged by the prisoner. On R. A. Riversdale, being called, Mr. WaxrEstun chatiengt•d him on cause. The gentleman did not stand indifferent to the, prisoner, as he was prepared to show: - - The COURT ordered Mr. Mornsergh and Mr. Moone to he sworn as triers of the cause. Mr. WIIIT£SID 13 stated the grounds of challenge. Mr. O'Brien was Member for the county of Lime rick, in which Alr. Phillips held the commission of the {peace. Some time - ago the latter gentleman had a quarrel with a person in that county, and accused him of firing at him. It appeared doubtful which of the two fired the shot in question, but Mr. Willing ton took proceedings against the other, who, being acquitted, thereupon applied to Mr. O'Brien to bring the matter before'the House of Commons, and under the notice of the Chancellor. Mr. O'Brien had done •so accordingly, and the impression on his mind was that Mr. Willington did not stand indifferent to him in consequence. The ATTORNEY. GSNBS AL said that, if there were arty foundation for the statement, and if the prisoner entertained any such notion, he had no objection to let the juror stand by at once. Mr. Willington was passed over accordingly, and Messrs. L. Creaßh, C. Clarke, J. W. Barton, and J. R. Minnitt, on answering to their names, were chal le,nged peremptorily by the prisoner. R. A. Garson was the third juror sworn. Mr. H. Langley was ordered to stand by in con sequence of his statin. , • the Court that he had been present at the origijr examinations before the ma gistrates after tke affray at Ballingarry. Mr. W. 13. Smithwick claimed exemption from service on the jury, because his wife and Mrs. O'Brien were near relatives, and the Attorney-General ordered him to strand by. Mr. J. Goring was the fonrth juror sworn. Colonel H. Dwyer, J. J. Hutchinson, J. Banbury, and R. Phillips ure challenged peremptorily by the prisoner. Mr. W. Going pleaded, as an excuse from service, that he lived in the immediate vicinity of the place in wlich the insurrection had occurred, and was one of the magistrates before whom the information had been sworn. The ATTORNBY-GENPRAL ordered him to stand by. Messrs. W. Briscoe, G. Cooper, G. Gough, W. Smith, J. Sankey, IW. Biddulph, W. C. Gason, J. Alinnitt, W. Ryan, and 0. G. Philips were chal lenged peremptorily by the prisoner. Mr. J. Langley was ordered to stand by on eating he was one of the magistrates before whom the infor mations had been sworn. Oa Mr. S. Monsergh being called he was chal lenged by the prisoner. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL—You have exhausted your challenges, and the Coutat cannot allow you to strike off the name of Mr. Monsergh unless o❑ spe cial cause. Mr. WHITBSIDD said he was prepared to argue that the challenge should be allowed if the assump tion that England and Ireland were under equal laws was correct. In 2d Hale, 267, the common law was distinctly stated to be that a person accused of treason was entitled to challenge peremptorily any number under that of ;three whole juries, that was 35 chal lenges, and this privilege was granted to him infaro • rem •itx because he stood arraigned on a capital charge. The Bth of Philip and Mary enacted that trials for high treason should follow the course of the common law. It remains to be considered whether or not the privileges of the common law were taken away from Ireland ' by statute, and he contended that the Act which was supposed to hare that effect did not apply to the crime of high treason but to that of petty treason, which was a crime of a different nature. The 9th George IV., for the better Administration of Justice in Ireland, in the 9th section, enacted that no person„ arraigned for treason or murder should he tatmitttal to peremptorily challenge over the number of 20, and if he do so that the challenge was not to be alloyed. He submitted, from the context of the Act, that the treason there spoken of was petty, not high treason, and that the offence to which the Act re ferred was but a felony. The Learned Gentleman quoted Hawkins, page 205, and other passages, to Below that the law treated petty treason in the light of a felony, and proceeded to argue that the Act' which was' supposed to strip the subject of his com mon-law right should be construed favourably when doiibt existed, and where his life was at stake, and Mat the prisoner was entitled to the number of pe ramptory oballengee allowed in cases of high treason be the law of England. The ATroae MT • GENERAL submitted that there was no questi.ia to be argued. It was unnecessary to4in qatire what was the common law of Ireland, M by the steteite of the 9th George IV., c. 64, it was en acted that no per-4m aisraignelfor " treason, or mur der, or other felony," should be'permitted to challenge mare than twenty jurors peremptorily. There was such a thine. as petit treason, distinct from high treason, but he never had heard that the word " trea son" did not comprise both. Mr. Feeatosteeen argued that, from the words " other felony," the treason first-named in the statute must Mean that species of treason which had been re duced to felony,snaux,ly, petit treason. The Loan Cli t Er `ausr 13—: We are of opinion that the word." treason," comprises all treasons, and that it cannot be cut down to signify one species. Tile challenge was disallowed. Mr. WHITESIDE wished the disallowance to appear on the record. The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE —The words of the Act are, " the challenge shall not be allowed," let those %verde be followed. Mr. C. Going was then sworn. . The jury stood thus accordingly M. S. Mon rergh (foreman), E. C. Moose, R. A. Gason, J. Going, Johd Lloyd, J :Perry, J. Russell, E. Penes father, •TeSadlier, J. Tuthill, S. Monsergh, and C. Going. The Clerk of the Crown then read the indictment. Mr. FLTZGIALD stated that he and his Learned Friend wished all the witnesses to le,ave the court. The ATTORN2I"-CrENERA L had 0' Objection ; but o - e gentleman, Mi. Hodges, was else' engaged on the part of the Government to rep )rt the proceedings on this occasion. General M`Donald also was summoned by the Crown, as well as Major Urownrigg, end it would hawdly be necessary for them to leave. He saw in court another gentleman, Mr. O'Hara, who waS summoned by the Grown, but, like the other wit nesse% he had no control over him. Mr. Smith O'Brien—l do not object to General 3el`Doreeld. or Major Brewnrigg, but I do object to M. Il fr odgee being present. Ire attended all our meetirtge, representing himself to he simply a _re pealer, and prepared to prove only that certain words were uttered. He now .comas forward, 8.0(1 swears ilaat the words so uttered were seditioaand treason able. r apprehend . therefore, that his character differs fetem that df ar Binary reporter, and I cannot think that tfis report would be a fair report. The Aaeroamme-GENERAL.--Mr. Hodges is to be liCarainectto prore report of speeches of which he took noires. He will be our first witness. Mr. Hodges said he could retia6, as his son would take a note of this Wel. Mr. Wurrisioa.—We ask that the ordinary rule may be folio - vied. Lord Chief Justice DOHERTY.—There is no stern rule—rt is always subject to be modified upon rea,on ilerk circumstances. - The Lou CHIEF JUSTICE.—'dr. Hodges attends in a prafassional capacity. To the other two, General li`Donald and Major Brownrigg, there is no objec 'ion. theprisoner—So.far as I am concerned I do not tfequieece in Itr. liodgee being present. He departed from Nis chaiateter of a rep Ater. We afforded him every accommodation at various public meetings — we treated him as a guest, and now it turns out that he was a spy. I think he has no right to be present. The LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE intimated th there was no established rule for laja_withdrawal. - Trie — p . ri - s - Onei_r am overruled by the Court, but I do not acquiesce in it. Mr. Hodges then withdrew, it being arranged that his son and a gentleman named IPDermott (both of whom are also witnesses for the Crown) should re main for the purpose of reporting the proceedings in thin trial. Mr. LYNCH, the junior counsel for the Crown, opened the pleadings. The prisoner, he said, was charged with high treason. The indictment con tained: six counts ;: the first five charged the pri soner with raising and -levying war against the Queen ; the sixth charged him with a conspiracy to bring and put to death the Queen. The first count found that the prisoner and others named in the in dictment did on the 17th of July of this year, and on divers other days between that and the 30th, at Ballingarry, traitorously levy and make war against the Queen ; and further, that on that occasion they marched through divers towns, villages, and lands, and erected certain obstructions to prevent the march of her Majesty's forces—that they assaulted a num ber of constables, made a warlike attack at Bailin garry, and fired on a large body of constables there assembled. The second count charged a similar offence at Mullinahone on the 26th of July ; the third a similar offence at Killenaule on the 28th of July ; the fourth a similar offence at Farrinrory on the 29th of July ; and the fifth was a general count of assembling in arms; the sixth count charged the prisoner with compassing the death of the Queen, and laid down seven overt acts unnecessary to be stated as evidence of that conspiracy. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL then said that it was his painful duty to state to them the facts of the case, and the evidence he meant to bring forward on the part of the Crown in support of the very serious charge that he had considered it his duty to submit to a jury of that county against the prisoner at the bar, Mr. Smith O'Brien. He was charged with an offence the highest and greatest in contemplation of law which a subject could be guilty of, namely, that of high treason. Fortunately for them all trials for high treason were of very unfrequent occurrence, and therefore it would be necessary for him to do what he was not in the habit of doing in criminal cases —to state to the jury the law of the case, and the evi dence to be brought before them as applying to the case, in order that they should see the nature of the charge they were about to try. In very early times, so far back as the reign of Edward the Third, an Act was passed which defined treason. It was passed in 13.50, and so far as the precise charge now before them was concerned, it would be necessary that he should read a small portion of it. The Hon. and Learned Gentleman then read the section, and pro ceeded. His Learned Friend (Mr. Lynch), in open ing the case, stated that the first count contained the whole of the charge, and that the others were only portions of it. The first five charged him with the offence of levying war, and the question they would have to determine in the evidence, whether his conduct was such as amounted to a levying of war. With respect to what the offence was, it was perfectly set tled by a train of judicial determinations ; and very little doubt or difficulty, therefore, existed as to what constitutes that crime. Judge Foster had done so, and at a subsequent period it was stated by Lord Tenterden, in the trial of Thistlewood. The Learned Gentleman having referred to a speech made by Mr. O'Brien, continued—lt was impossible to hear that speech without believing that his intention was to establish Ireland into an independent kingdom. lie (the Attorney-General) did not mean to read all the speeches of the prisoner, but in that he said that, although he objected before against any force, yet he changed his mind, and recommended young men to learn the use of arms, and also engineering, in order to cut off supplies. Another gen tleman, o❑ the same occasion, cried out that the time was coming when they should up with the barricades, and invoke the God of battles. This occurred so long ago as the month of March, and it may be naturally asked why they were not stopped, or why the Govern ment did not interfere. But they would recollect, that up to the last moment there was a constant con spiracy against the law, and that everything was done by those who so conspired to avoid the consequences. The jury would understand that although at that time the taking the field in arms was high treason, yet seditious speeches were made merely the subject of a prosecution for a misdemeanour. They took advan tage of the law, and the use Mr. O'Brien made of his iiberty was to prooeed to France to present an address tio the French people ; and one of the questions they "'would ha►e to try was, whether the journey he and Mr. Meagher took to France had for its object to obtain assistance from that country ? They went to France in the month of April, and shortly after endeavoured to establish a national guard, which should be officered and drilled in military array. On the 27th of April, 1348, it was thought necessary to pass an Act of Parliament, making it felony what had been previously but sedi tion. It will appear in evidence before them that some weeks after a prosecution was instituted against Mr. Mitchel, for publishing articles, intending to depose the Queen. That gentleman was a member of the Confederation, and the offence for which he was convicted was for a speech made at Limerick, at a meeting over which Mr. O'Brien presided. It will also appear before them out of the mouth of one of Mr. O'Brien's co-conspirators, that discussions and consultations were held, whether it was possible to effect a rising—and whether it could not, and ought not to commence by rescuing Mr. Mitchel, if he were convicted. Some of them were of opinion that he ought to have been so rescued, no matter at what loss of life ; but others thought that as there was no food in the country, they should wait until the har. vest was ripe, when it should be commenced. That decision having been come to, the question then was, what they should do in the meantime. It was ac cordingly arranged that clubs should be esta• blished in every part of the country, the members of which should be prepared to turn out whenever it was found necessary. In the month of July, how ever, Mr. Duffy was arrested on the same charge as Mitchel ; as, according to the arrangements, his trial and that of a Mr. Martin were fixed to take place on the Bth of August ; and it was then determined by Mr. O'Brien and the others, that the rising which was to take place in January previous, was to begin cer tainly in August. Mr. O'Brien then went to Cork, where he said he found two thousand men, as well disciplined as any in her Majesty's service. At the same period the other leaders went in other directions. Mr. Doherty to Carrick, Mr. Dillon and Mr. O'Gor min to Meath, and it would appear from letters writ ten giving an account of what they called their " expedition," that the intention was to effect a rising in various parts of the country at the same time, in order to distract the attention of her Majesty's forces. Mr. O'Brien returned to Dublin about the 14th of July, and a meeting was called of the council of the Confederation, when it was resolved that the rebellion should commence. The gentlemen of the jury, he knew, well understood that those having the responsibility of Government often received information of what was going on, but which would not amount to evidence fur a con viction, and such was the case at present, as he would show them. There was a meeting, as he said, of the council held on the 14th of July, at which delegates were in attendance, when the period for the rising was finally fixed. Some thought at that meeting that a resolution to that effect ought to be come to ; others objected to the time, but there was no second opinion as to the movement itself. The city of Dublin was proclaimed on the 18th of July, which prohibited the possession of arms, and accordingly it was discussed among them whether they were to resist at that period and make the demand for arms the occasion of it. They were probably aware that the Government intended to suspended the Habeas Corpus Act, the nature of which privilege the jury no doubt all knew. By that Act, no person could be ar rested on suspicion, or a private information, no matter how strong, unless parties came for ward to prosecute ; and so, it was hoped, that by suspending it, and arresting the leaders, the country would he spared the horror of a civil war. As he al ready informed them, a meeting was held on the 19th of Juily, and as it was thought that a council of twenty-one was too numerous for war purposes, a second meeting was held on the 21st, when five per• sons were elected in that capacity. Mr. O'Brien was not one of them, for it was determined he should. take the field ; but Mr. Meagher, O'Gorman, Dillon, O'Reilly, and another, whose name he then forgot, were chosen. By a providential event the Govern ment found in the papers of Mr. Lalor the actual balloting papers used on that occasion, and they would produce a witness on the table who was present, and actually, took a part in the proceedings of the tveonty nine persons who took part in the election. That brought him to Friday night, and Mr. Dillon, and other barristers among them, knew that so long as the Habeas Corpus was in existence they could not be arrested ; but that Act being about to be sus pended, they were driven to a more desperate course. Accordingly, Mr. O'Brien left Dublin on Saturday morning, the 22d July, for Enrsiscorthy, in order to break ground. Previous to his departure, how ever and at the time Lord John Russell, the Minister of the Crown, was announcing the fact of his inten tion to pass the Act suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, they were in council in Dublin devising mea sures for the revolution. Mr. O'Brien having left Dublin early in the morning, did not know the fact, nor could he he aware that it would be the law of the land in a day or two after, not one being found in the House of Commons to oppose it. The news was received in Dublin by the proprietor of the Free man's Journal on the Saturday, it being forwarded to hitn by electric telegraph, who communicated it to Mr. O'Gorman, and knowing that if Mr. O'Brien were arrested they would have no leader, it was de termined to communicate the fact to him as soon as possible. Mr. Meagher and Mr. Dillon left Dublin on Saturday evening, in order to do so, to lake the field. They left a Mr. O'Hara's house, near`liings town, being afraid to go into Dublin, lest the Govern ment might arrest them on their resporsibility, and perhaps they were right, but they took the coach at a place called Langhlinstown, and proceeded to En niscorthy. He had not, ofcourse, an opportunity of pro ducing Meagher orDillon to show what the purpose was of leaving town, but as soon as they got to Ennis corthy, Mr. Dillon stated to Mr. O'Brien that the time was come when the rising should take place. Mr. O'Brien resided. while in Enniscorthy, at a place called Ballinkeel, the residence of Mr. Maher, and came into that town in the morning, it being a Sun day, when he addressed the people, telling them that the time was come, and Mr. Dillon, in his presence, said he understood that the people of Wexford always kept their powder dry. The Attorney-General should have also mentioned, that previous to his de parture from Dublin, Mr. O'Brien procured some Ordnance maps of the place of his intended operations, which he carried with him. On the Sunday they proceeded to Kilkenny, where they remained until the Monday, and while there Mr. O'Brien ascended a high tower connected with one of the churches, where he took a view of the surrounding country, with what object it was not necessary for him to state. From Kilkenny they proceeded to Carrick-on-Suir, but in passing through Callan they again called the people together, made speeches to them, in which they said that the time was now come fora rising; and also made observations calculated to hold out the hope that her Majesty's forces and police would join them. At Carrick-on-Suir they took the same course, and at a subsequent period Mr. Dillon, according to the evi dence, was called a colonel. From Carrick they went to Mullinahone, on their way to Killenaule, but he was not able to tell where he slept on that Monday night. At the time of Mr. O'Brien's arrest he stated that a bag of his, or a portmanteau, was at Mrs. Deheny's, in Cashel ; and from that circumstance, and papers found there, he was led to believe he passed through Killenaule on Tuesday, and probably stopped there. It was on that day the actual levying of war commenced, for which Mr. O'Brien was placed at the criminal bar. It was known before his arrival that he was to come ; great numbers of people as sembled—the bells were rang—and on his arrival in the evening great rejoicings were made, when the actual levying of war commenced, treasonable speeches were mide, _and .the usual inflammatory language delivered, to excite the people. Mr. Meagher and Mr. Dillon arrived the same evening, and on the next day Mr. T. B. M‘Manus arrived also. That gentleman resided in Liverpool, and came over in the Iron Duke, with a green uniform. He (the Attorney-General) did not know whether it was that of a club or not, but it looked very like a military uniform. As he took a leading part in Chartist proceedings, he was accompanied by a policeman, who lost sight of him in Dublin, but his trunk was seized, and his uniform got. M`Manus arrived in Killenaule on Tuesday, and, with Mr. O'Brien, proceeded to Mullinahone on the Wednes day. There he was recognised as the future King of Ireland, and took on himself to take up his quar ters on every occasion wherever he pleased, and it was said among the country people that the future King of Ireland was within the walls of Mullina hone. At Mullinahone he stopped :at the house of a man named Wright, and while there pro ' ceeded to the police barrack, where he endeavoured i to induce a man named Williams, and five others of that force in the barrack, to surrender their arms, telling them that resistance would be useless. Ile gave Williams an hour for consideration, but to his credit Williams said he would sooner lose his life than surrender them or abandon his duty. At the lapse of an hour, however, something occurred, and he did not come back to the barracks, as he pro mised, but proceeded to Ballingarry. He should also mention that Mr. O'Brien was armed, having a pike in:his hand and a pairjof pistols in his breast. At Ballingarry Mr. O'Brien procured a body guard, and took up his quarters at a house belonging to John Kavanagh. On that day he was marching up and down with a military array, sometimes with his body guard, and sometimes sending an advance guard before him ; and as many of the people had not arms, he directed that such of the farmers as had arms should be deprived of them. From Ballingarry he proceeded to Killenaule, where he remained on Thursday night with guards mounted before his door, and performed other military operations con stituting an actual levying of war. He stopped in Killenaule on Friday, and while there received infor mation that a troop of dragoons were coming through the town ; and by directions of O'Brien a barricade was erected across the principal street. Mr. O'Brien sent. to him to know if he were coming to arrest him; and as Captain Longinore, who commanded the party had no warrant for his apprehension, and was only going from one town to another, the barricades were re moved, and the troop allowed to pass off quietly. From that Mr. O'Brien proceeded to the commons at Ballingarry, and as intelligence of his movements reached Dublin by this time, a proclamation issued for his apprehension, and accordingly Mr. Trent, with a party of police, was sent to arrest him. Ar rangements were made that his force, consisting of about forty-six men, should be reinforced from the other districts, but they did not arrive in time, and Mr. Trent, seeing the danger of being surrounded by several thousand armed men, retreated to a slate house a short distance from him, which he fortified. Here Mr. Trant gave directions not to fire on the people unless they were fired on, and Mr. O'Brien came up himself and endeavoured to induce the police to join him, and that he would give them better pay. He held a parley with Mr. Trent, and when he did not succeed, if the evidence laid before him was correct, Mr. O'Brien himself gave directions to his men to fire on the house, and they did so. His words were, he believed, " Fire away," or " Slash away, boys," and after doing so the police fired in their own defence, and some few of the country people were killed, and others wounded. When the reinforcement, consisting of twenty-two men, heard that O'Brien was on the common, and Mr. Trant and his party in the widow M‘Cormack's, they in the most gallant manner, with Mr. Cox, who commanded them, advanced to -rescue him. Mr. Cox behaved with great courage, for, although on his coming up the country people determined to fight him, he prepared to oppose them, and after firing a few shots they dispersed. He then went to Mrs. MiCorrnack's, where he released Mr. Trent and his party, and found some arms, consisting of a gun and some pikes. Mr. O'Brien having discovered that he could place no reliance on his expectation that the police would join him, and finding that every man of them was determined to lose his life in the dis charge of his duty, he disappeared, and was not heard of until arrested, some days after. He (the At torney-General) had forgotten to mention one cir cumstance. On the morning of that day a man named Carroll, a policeman, was taken prisoner by the O'Brien p irty, and his horse kept and appro priated by Mr. O'Brien himself; but as Carroll was liberated after the attack on Mr. Trent, he met Mr. O'Brien on the road, riding his horse, and with whom he had a conversation, which should be detailed to them in evidence. He had now stated to them the principal facts of the case ; he had shown that an actual levying of war took place against her Majesty's forces; and what the defence of his able friend, who was undoubtedly an excellent lawyer, would be, he could not of course anticipate. It may be contended by his Learned Friend, that an actual levying did not take place ; but he was in a position to show, from papers found in Mr. O'Brien's possession, what those intentions really were. Find ing he had no chance of succeeding against the mili tary or police, he found himself placed - in a painful and perilous position ; his - irrned followers had de serted him, and although he eluded the vigilant search that was made for him for some time, he was ulti mately arrested on the Bth of August in Thurles, where he came on his way to his own residence in the county of Limerick. He was taken, as they all knew, at the railway stating, and as usual in such cases, his papers seized. The Learned AttOrney-Ge neral then real the documents, one of which was a reso lution come to by a party of Irishmen at Philadelphia; another a letter of \lr. Duffy's urging him to bring about a revolution, and a third letter written to the owners of the mines in Ballingarry the morning of the attack on irr. Trent, in which he declared, that unless better wages were given to the colliers, he should direct them to work the mines themselves. They would probably be told that the letter written in Ballingarry was not written by Mr. O'Brien him self; but did he not act on it ? and in addition, the very intentions of Mr. O'Brien would be proved out of his own lips. If there was not a particle of evi '"deli'je in the case but that lie now laid before them, it was conclusive. That was a letter in his own hand writing, and dated from the Commons, on the morn ing of the 29th of July, when the attack was made on Mr. Tr'ant. There were coal mines in the district where lie was, and those with him were colliers, and as Mr.O'Brien probably thought the owners would object to paying them for not working instead of fighting for himself, he wrote the letter. He had now discharged his duty by laying the case before them, and it that course were supported —as he believed it would be by the strongest evidence—they should find the prisoner guilty ; but if any doubts of his guilt existed, he would implore them to give him the be nefit of those doubts. Mr. Hodges, the Government reporter, was the first witness examined. He deposed to his having gone to a meeting of the Confederation in March, 1848, and communicated to Mr. O'Brien that he was sent by the Government to take notes of their speeches, and to identify the speakers. He was about to prone a speech made by Mr. O'Brien on that occasion, when his evidence was objected to. Mr. WrarzsinE contended that it was not admis- , `., .s ... sible, and that in a charge of high treason the history of a man's life, or an account of proceedings not con nected with the indictment, should not be given. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL opposed the application. If a man committed murder, any statement previously made of his intention would be evidence against him. So, in like manner, the speeches of Mr. O'Brien, showing his ultimate intentions to levy war against her Majesty, were, he contended, proper evidence to be adduced against him on the present occasion. So it was held in Watson's case. The Count decided that it was receivable, not as evidence of an overt act, but of the intention of the prisoner. Mr. Hodges then proceeded to read a speech Mr. O'Brien made on the 15th of March, 1848, on the occasion of moving an address to the French nation ; and another on the 15th of April. His doing so oc cupied some time. General Macdonald deposed that he was in com mand of the troops at Thurles when Mr. O'Brien was arrested, and remembered seeing him in the Bridewell. He did not demand anything from him, but one of the magistrates did so. He saw Mr. O'Brien give up some papers, a key, and other articles. He declined, when arrested, to give up his papers, but when he found who he (General Macdonald) was, he gave them up. As soon as he got the articles, he locked them in a dispatch-box, and forwarded thetn to the Under-Secretary of State. He marked all that he could mark among the documents, and made an inventory of them at the time. The papers now pro. duced were found at the time. The number of arti cles and papers altogether were seven papers five keys, and a ring, some postage stamps, and various things, making up nineteen in all. Cross-examined by Mr. FITZGERALD—There was a great number of troops in Thurles at the time. The money found in Mr. O'Brien's posseasion amounted to 10/. 16s. 2d. • The evidence of this witness, a fine old soldier, having concluded, the Court adjourned, and the jury were sent to an hotel for the night. The trial of Mr. O'Brien will not terminate before Monday or Wed nesday next. Dustisf, Snr'r. al.—With respect to the fatal portmanteau of Mr. Smith O'Brien, a Cashel corrds pondent of the Tipperary Vindicator writes : "There is no doubt that a portmanteau was left Mr. O'Brien with Mrs. Doheny, there not being mo' for it on a car in which he travelled when leaving this for one of the neighbouring towns. That portman teau, with the furiifture, &c., of Mr. Doheny 's house, was removed to some place in the town at the time that Mrs. Doheny left her residence for some days. The removal was effected in consequence of an im pression having prevailed that all Mr. Doheity's effects should be seized by Government. On the night of his arreat in Thurles Mr. Smith O'Brien wrote two letters. One of these was to Mrs. O'Brien, to whom -v$ he has ever been a roost devoted and affectionate hus hand ; the other was to Mrs. Doheny, and it referred to the portmanteau. It was handed to her open by a policeman, and was as follows, as I have seen the ori ginal : "Thurles, August 5, 1848. " Dear Mrs. Doheny,—l have been taken prisoner at Thurles whilst attempting to get home by the rail. way. Under these circumstances I shall feel much obliged if you will allow the bearer to:bring away the portmanteau which I left at your house. " Please to let Mr.-Doheny know that my reason for taking the chances of the railway arose from the panic which prevailed everywhere amongst those who sheltered me, which made me reluctant to place per sons in peril who were so little prepared to encounter danger. "Believe me, dear Mrs. Doheny, your 4 sincerely, ," WILLIAM S. O'BRIEN." The arrest of three American " sympathizers" is thus announced by the Carlow Sentinel:— " On the 23d instant Mr. Anderson, Sub-Inspector, arrested in the town of Borris in this county, three men, who had lately arrived from America to &lie a leading part in the -rebellion. Their names are Alexander Morrison, James Thornburg, and John M'Keague. On the day of their arrest they ar rived from Waterford; and fortunately are deprived of the opportunity of an attempt to ' fraternise' with the population of this peaceable county by the prompt discovery of their treasonable practices.-Mor rison and his colleagues are military men, who were engaged in the late Mexican war, and so far from concealing their rebellious designs, they acknowledged they came to levy war against the Sovereign—ex ulted in their feelings of hostility to her Majesty's Crown and Government—and expressed their disap pointment in not being afforded an opportunity of engaging with her Majesty's troops, with all the cool ness of men acquainted with military strategy I They are natives of Ulster, who had emigrated to America some years since. After their capture they were brought before Mr. C. H. Tuckey, R.M., on the fol lowing day, who committed them for trial at the Carlow Assizes. The promptitude and activity of the sub-inspector, in the arrest of these rebel incendiaries, deserve public approval ; and we have no doubt that the American heroes' who are visiting our shores in search of rebellion will meet with a similar reception in other counties." CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. OLD COURT. TRIAL OF CUFFEY, LACY, AND FAY. Mr. Baron Platt and Mr. Justice Williams took their seats on the bench at ten o'clock. Mr. Baron t'LATT then proceeded to sum up the evi dence and to direct the jury. When an Act of the Legis lature changed the name of a crime in the nature of its punishment, it was their duty to see that it was carried out wisely and properly, and to bring to the considera tion of the entire case minds wholly unbiassed by any prejudice. If they believed from the evidence that the prisoners intended to subvert the constitution as by law established, they must fiad them guilty of the heinous offence imputed to them. The Learned Baron then read the evidence adduced during the trial,' commenting upon portions as he went along. The task occupied, as may be imagined, a considerable time. With respect to the part played by Powell, he said it was not unlikely that he was a silent member of the conspiracy; he took upon himself a task, to sustain which, it was obvious, that he was obliged to act as a member, both in word and deed, in order to blind the other members. Their own experience in life must tell them that this was the course which a man would naturally adopt under such circumstances. He did not ask them to look at that person's evidence with out distrust; but if his story was corroborated by other and independent testimony, so us to leave no doubt that it was not only probable, but strictly true, it would b e _ come their painful province to find the prisoners guilty. He did not think the Government to blame for availing themselves of his testimony, and he did not think the prisoners could complain of it. It did not follow because a person was in the habit of. lying among his shopmates that his testimony was unworthy of belief when given on oath in a court of justice—the more especially since he had no object to gain by coming there to deceive them. This led him to call the attention of the jury to the way in which one of the witnesses—one of Powell's shop mates7--gave his testimony. He gave his evidence with much flippancy, and repeated the blasphemous expres sions said to be used by Powell with a smiling face, whereas no person of well _regulated mind could repeat suchlitnprecations except with a feeling of shame and disgust. The Learned Baron concluded reading the evi dence at half-past three. There was one portion of the evi demi upon which he had not heard any di sc redit thrown. He meant the evidence showing that the streets at the propOsed meeting places and th e co ff ee -houses were crowded on the evening •df the 10th. If they had any reasonable doubt, of course they would give the benet of it to the prisoners; but, on the other hand, if they thought them guilty, he was satisfied they would not hesitate to discharge that duty—a • duty important alike ro themselves.and to their ppuntry. The Learned Judge concluded his address at a few minutes to four. Mr, ICENNALY, in the course ..Of tho summing up, the ury having retired for the pu'r'pose of taking some re freshment, applied to the Court to reserve the points he had raised in the course of Dowling's trial, upon the subject of tho challenge of the jury, and the inadmissi bility Of a portion of the evidence. Ile founded his ap plication .upon the recent statute' for the more . effectual Administration of the Criminal Law. • Baron PLATT said he really did not see how the Court could entertain such an application, made by a Learned Counsel two or three d a y s a fter trial before another Learned Jude. Mr. KI:NEALT said he apprehended this was the very object for which the Act was passed, and it expressly used the words " after trial." • Baron PLITT - did not think the Act intended that such an application should be made to auother Judge who knew nothing of . the case. Lie understood that Mr. Justice Erle had heard the points argued, and over ruled them. Mr. li - nzinaLT--Am I to _understand your Lordship refuses my application ? Baron PLATT—Certainly. ; • ' Before the jury retired Cuffey addressed the Court, and said, " My Lord, it has been said in the course of the case that my son Was pruSent when Tilden came to my house, and that he ought to'have been called —now I beg to say I never had a son, and therefore I could riot call him." The jury retired at five minutes to four o'clock, and at five minutes to five they again came into court, and the prisoners, Cuffey, Lacy, and_ Fey, were placed at the bar. The names of the jury having been called over, and Mr. Streight having inquired if they had agreed upon their verdict, the foreman gave a verdict of Guilty against all the prisoners upon the whole charge. The prisoners did not appear at all surprised at the verdict, and did not manifest the least emotion. Baron PLATT then ordered Dowling, who was con victed on Monday, to be sent for, and ho was placed by the side of the other prisoners. Cuffey said he wished to have his property restored, he meant the banner. It did not belong to him, but he wished it to be given to the _person whose property it was. . Baron PLATT told the prisoner_thatT his conviction had divested him of all property. He therefore could not make any clairn..eo the - banner, butle had no doubt if it belonged to any other person, it would he given up. Cuffey next applied to have his letters delivered up, as he said they might be useful to his wife. Hof l:.i J..r ... Baron PLATT said he had no doubt there would be no objection to this being done. Mr. Streighethen called npon the - prisoners, in—fhe usual form, to state whether they had anything to urge why judgment should not be passed upon them aecord ing to law ? Fay—lt must be evident to everybody that Powell was committing perjury in all he stated. It is useless to say any more. Dowling—l only desire to repel the charge that was made ageing me of acting with duplicity towards the Chartists when I joined them. It is not true, and I never concealed my real opinions, and had no desire to use them for my own purposes, as was stated by the Attorney- General. I was not influenced by any desire for martyrdom or notoriety, and I only sought the good of my country, and was actuated by a feeling of patriotism. Tyrants may declare patriotism to be felony, but that cannot make it felony. I have nothing more to say. Having delivered this address, Dowling leaned his back a4ainst the side of the dock, apparently utterly indifferent to the subsequent proceedings. Leey then addressed the Court. He said, although I certainly approved of the six points of the Charter, I never had the slightest intention to carry them net by violence, and it is well known that I frequently. ex- • pressed the opinion that the Charter would not have any good result unless it was accompanied by other social and moral reforms. Cuffey then addressed the Court with great vehe mence. He said, I say you have no right to sentence me. Although the trial has lasted a long time, it has not been a fair trial, and my request to have a fair trial—to be tried by my equals—has not been complied with. Everything has been done to raise a prejudice against me, and the press of this country, an I I believe other countries too, have done all in their power to smother me with ridicule. I ask no pity. I ask no mercy. Fay (in a violent tone, and striking the front of the dock)—Nor more do I. Cuffey told his fellow-prisoner to be quiet—ho would only increase his troubles by violence. Ho then pro ceeded—l expected to be convicted, and I didn't think anything else, but I don't want any pity. No, I pity the Government, and I pity the Attorney-General for convicting me by means of such base characters. The Attorney-General ought to be called the Spy-General, and using such men is a disgrace to the Government, but they only exist by such means. I am quite innocent —my locality never sent any delegates at all, and I had nothing to do with the luminaries." I have a right to complain of the other spy, Davie, being kept back till the last moment. As to my having a loaded pistol I only carried it for my own protection, as my life had been threatened. This, however, is what I have always suspected. I always thought it would come to some thing like this. lam not anxious for martyrdom, but after what I have endured this week, I feel that I could bear any punishment proudly, even to the scaffold. This new Act of Parliament is disgraceful, and I am proud to be the first victim of it after the glorious Mitchel. Every good Act was set aside in Parliament; everything that was likely to do any good to the work ing classes was either thrown out or set aside, but a measure to restrain their liberties could be passed in a few hours. I have nothing more to say. Baron PLATT—Prisoners at the bar, William Dow ling, William Lacy, Thomas, Fay, and William Cutfey, you have been tried by two juries of your country; you William Dowling by one, and the other prisoners by another, and they have arrived at the only conclusion that could be come to by twelve upright and reasonable gentlemen, upon the evidence that had been adduced before them, that you were guilty of the offences with which yoti were charged. There can be no doubt, it is quite clear you intended to levy war against the Queen, to compel her by force and arms to alter her counsels; and with regard to you William Dowling, it is evident that your object in joining with the others was to dis member the empire and separate Ireland by force and arms from this country. What right had you to set up your understanding against the expe rience of mankind and the result of ancient wis dom ? You have chosen to call that which the con stitution of the country has branded as felony, pa triotism. Was it patriotism for a number of people to conspire in secret, and to endeavour to carry out the misery, wretchedness, and spoil projected by them at theiremeeting on the 15th of August? Could it be said that devoting a peaceful city to flames, destroying inno cent citizens, taking, possession of the government by force and bloodshed, was patriotism? The law said that such acts were acts of felony, and nothing could b s e more clear than that they were so. It is lamentabre to find that persons of education, apparently possessing feelings of manly energy and independence, should have lent themselves to such proceedings with such a desperate object. The jury have found that you were guilty of the crime laid to your charge, and no one who has heard the evidence can doubt, after the proceedings at the meeting on the 15th of August, that you intended on the following day, when the shades of - night descended upon this unfortunate metropolis, that a scene of murder, tiring, and robbery should have filled this un happy city, and that you intended to have assumed the government of the country, and have governed it as you pleased. "You have been convicted of this most daring defence of the law, and the Court would not be doing its duty, either to the law or to the country, if when such an offence was duly established, it did not make a most severe example of all those who were brought within the pale of the law. I therefore feel it my duty to order that you be severally transported beyond the seas, to such place as her Majesty, by the advice of her Privy Council shall direct and appoint, for the term of your natural lives. When the sentence was pronounced, Fay exclaimed, in a loud voice—" This is the baptism of felony in Eng land," and he then looked up to the gallery and called " Good by, my flowers; good by, fellow-countrymen," The other prisoners made no observation. The Court then adjourned until Monday morning at ten o'clock. THE NEW SHERIFFS. On Saturday the new Sheriffs of London and Mid dlesex, T. Quested Finnis, Esq., Alderman of the ward of Tower, and Jacob Emanuel Goodhart, Esq., were sworn in according to ancient custom, with all the usual formalities, in the Court of Exchequer, before the Cursitor Baron, who expressed her Ma jesty's approval of the choice made by the City of London. On presenting the new Sheriffs Ithe Recorder of London spoke as follows : " Mr. Cursitor Baron,—l have the honour to pre sent to your Lordship and this Court Thomas Quested Finnis; Esq., and Jacob Emanuel Goodhart, Esq., chosen by the citizens of London to fill the office of Sheriffs of London and Sheriff of the county of Mid dlesex for the ensuing year. Mr. Alderman Finnis is a younger son of a gentleman of ancient family in Kent. His father was for fifty years a magistrate of Hythe. The elder brother of the Sheriff, Captain Finnis, of the Queen Charlotte, in the Royal Navy, having on repeated occasions eminently displayed the talents and gallantry of a British officer, fell in the service of his country, in an action on Lake Erie, during a state of war with America. Another brother of this gentleman, Major Finnis, is ad vancing in command of the 51st regiment, native infantry, to Moultan, the seat of war in India. To the Sheriff have been reserved the peaceful triumphs of commercial enterprise, the paths of mu nicipal distinction, the rewards of industry and in tegrity, and of the virtues that find room for their exercise in the even tenour of mercantile and private life. But when inquiry shall be hereafter made to what family we were indebted for the direct relations of trade and commerce between the city of Bagdad (in Asiatic Turkey) and the great metropolis, it will be mentioned, to the honour of Mr. Finnis and his nephew, that the first British house of business at Bagdad was established by those gentlemen. In C lB o 3 m 3 m , Mr. C ii o ' u n o ni o t l s o c a l m s e v a memb deputy eof tr o f he the Common of t' Tower. In the beginning of the present year he was, on the decease of Mr. Lucas, unanimously elected alderman of the ward. The livery of London now present him to this Court as the object of their choice to fill the office of one of their sheriffs. His year of shrievalty concluded, he will have acquired the legal qualifications for the office of Lord Mayor. But the demeanour of this gentleman, as a magistrate and in private life, encourages the citizens of London to be lieve the claims of Mr.. Finnis will rest on yet stronger grounds, and that as he advances step by step to Ascend the highest station it is their province to bestow, he will achieve a fresh title to their confidence by new services performed in the career of official duty that is now opened to him. Jacob Emanuel Goodhart, Esq., is associated with Mr. Finnis in the office of sheriff. His family, ori ginally of German extraction, has been established in mercantile pursuits in this country since the year 1752, close upon a century, and the members of that family may justly challenge the distinction of hold• ing an honourable and high position amongst British merchants. For ability, industry, and integrity, none have been in greater repute than our sheriff. An ample fortune has compensated his labours, and placed at his disposal the means of exhibiting a generous hospitality, of dispensing an enlarged charity, and of filling a position he has coveted only to employ it to the benefit of his fellow-citizens and the advantage of society. The mutual interchange of experience gathered in active life, and the cultivation of the best understanding with each other, will facilitate the joint exertions of these gentlemen in the public service, and the example set by their immediate predecessors, cannot fail to direct them in the pursuits of an ho nourable ambition to obtain the meed of approbation of their fellow-eitizens, the just reward of merit in a public station. The RECORDER concluded his address to the Cur sitor Baron by alluding in a complimentary manner to the official exertions of Mr. Cubitt and Mr. Hill, the gentlemen whose Shrievalty has just terminated. In the evening the new Sheriffs, Mr. Alderman Finnis and Mr. Goodhart, gave their inaugural dinner at the London Tavern, the Lord Mayor in the chair. After the usual loyal and patriotic toasts, Mr. Sheriff FINNis proposed the health of the Lord Mayor, who thanked his brother alderman, Mr. Sheriff Finnis, for the flattering testimony to his exertions. The LORD MAYOR then proposed the health of the Sheriffs, whose promptitude in coming forward when others kept back entitled them to the approbation of their fellow-citizens.—(Cheers.) :; - The Sheriffs seTerally returned thanks. Sheriff.GOODHART proposed the health of Lord Mayor elect. Sir JAMES DUKE returned thanks, and assured his excellent friend (Mx. Sheriff Goodhart) that he was determined to keep up in an unimpaired condition the hospitable character of the mayoralty, and that the Sheriffs should have no cause to say at the end of the year that they had served with a shabby Lord Mayor. The health of the City Members followed, which was responded to by Mr. MASTERMAN. The company separated at a late hour. SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS. FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT. TIMES.—The Chartist trials are over at last, and the conclusion is of a more decided character than we are apt to expect from a protracted inquiry. Lacy, Fay, and Cuffey have been found guilty, and together with Dowling, the young Irish portrait painter previously convicted, have been sentenced to transportation for life. This a severe sentence, but a most just one. The guilt of these men is about as great as could be imagined, and if they have pro voked a degree of ridicule, that is owing to the ridiculous insufficiency of their means to their end. Whatever may be thought of the witnesses, no sane person can doubt after reading their evidence that these four men did really attempt to raise an insur rection against her Majesty's servants, authority, people, and person ; and that the three lat ter, at least, attempted to take possession of a part of this metropolis, and defend it by conflagration and slaughter against any force that could be brought against them. After a trial properly conducted this moral certainty has been attained. There could, therefore, be no doubt as to the verdict or as to the sentence. Transportation for life is thought a slight punishment for ordinary cases of arson or attempted murder. The whole metropolis was aimed at in this inatance. It' the crime vastly surpassed the ability of the criminals, it is not the less heinous on that account, or less to be punished. There is already some controversy, and there is likely to he more, about the character of the chief evidence for the prosecution. It is the evidence of approvers and spies. The private motives and sentiments of spies is a point which must be left to themselves and to public opinion. Whether Powell, Davis, and the others felt a perverted curiosity and a hankering after a guilty mystery, whether they did really feel a sort of patriotic impulse to sacrifice themselves to the state by a very dirty piece of public service, or whether they looked simply and solely to the JOs. a week till the convic tion, and after that to a good outfit to the borders of civilization, it is impossible and most unnecessary to decide. The use of spies, however, in such atro cious conspiracies as these, is a disagreeable necessity. There is no help for it. We need not imagine an in stance to prove this, for instances abound. In the spring of 1829 a club of small farmers met from night to night at a public-house in Doneraile, in the county of Cork, to concert the redress of their grievances and the enforcement of an agrarian code by assassination. They solemnly tried the gentry of the neighbourhood one after another. Such as were found guilty were sentenced to death, and arrange ments were forthwith made for the execution of the sentence. But every night they sat there was a spy in their number, who met the necessities of his horrid position by playing the murderer as fiercely as the rest, but who reported everything to the police. In the morning half the gentry of the neighbourhood read at their breakfast tables the arrangements for their assassination at the earliest opportunity. They took care to disappoint the mur derers, accepted beds after dinner parties instead of coming home, varied their routes, and went out well attended. Would th ey no t have been absolutely in • sane to close their ears against the information on which their own existence hung ? Would they not have been equally insane to let the affair run for ever on that perilous footing, always dodging a conspiracy and fencing with murder ? They had no possible choice but to use the private information and even tually the public evidence of the spy. The conspiracy in the present instance was only more extensive, more destructive, and more murderous. But if the spy is generally a viler character than the men he betrays, whose fault is that? The Chartists reckoned on the assistance of 50,000 thieves and rogues. They were assisted by one scoundrel more than they bargained for. The most agreeable aspect of these trials is that suggested by the French pa rallel. Instead of four miserable, wrong-headed fellows, with perhaps a few more to follow, the French Government has to dispose of some eight or ten thousand convicts. With us a mere room full of miscreants stood on one side, and 200,000 men on tl7e other. The trials of the past week record the triumph of the latter over the former. Both England and France, it may be said, are expelling their revolu tionists. What will most strike foreigners is the utter absurdity of the Chartist military calculations. Any doaen French children playing at soldiers in the gardens of the Tuileries or the Luxembourg, under the surveillance of their bonnes or their eldest sisters, would do the thing better than the desperadoes of the Orange Tree public-house, or the would-be insur gents of the Seven Dials. " Physical Chartism is now nothing more than the blackened remains of a squib on the morning after a Fifth of November, trodden under foot and stopped by the rain. It has had an opportunity such as it could never have expected; it has done its best to profit by that opportunity, and has utterly failed. CIIRONICLE.—We have hitherto abstained from noticing the recent Chartist trials. The character of the disclosures which the evidence of each succeeding day elicited precluded any other comment than an expression of disgust; and so long as a judicial inves tigation was actually pending we were reluctant to offer remarks that might tend, even in appearance, to prejudge the case of the culprits. Now, however, that the judge and jury have done their several parts, public criticism resumes its functions, and we may speak unreservedly. It must be almost superfluous to say that we entirely approve, both of the verdict — which is the only one that a sane and honest jury could give—and of the sentence passed on the con victs. The lesson undoubtedly is a severe one, but never was a severe lesson more called for. At last the State has dealt strongly and vigorously with set of men who, under the pretence of " politics," have been daily and nightly plotting against the existence of society itself. At last it is positively decided that men who scheme to assassinate the police and to set fire to London—who for that purpose spend their. spare time in casting bullets, sharpening pikes, and manufacturing tow•balls, soda water-bottle grenades, and other such diabolical implements—it is decided that such men shall pay a heavy and life-long penalty for their execrable de vices. We congratulate society on having made this move towards safety and common sense. We are quite prepared, indeed, even now, to hear a consider able amount of philanthropic and constitutional cant —especially from members of that very class which would have suffered first, and suffered most, had these men's projects been, at any moment, twenty-four hours in advance of official vigilance. But we sup pose we may, on the whole, regard it as finally ruled, that transportation for life is not too much punish ment for persons duly convicted of having planned wholesale pillage, arson, and murder. In every re spect, this lesson is likely to prove a salutary one. The very character of the witnesses whose aid the Government found it necessary to accept will serve to warn all conspirators prepense of the peril they in cur by dabbling in treason. It is well that the Cuffey class of patriots should be thus made to feel that when pikes, bullets, and maps of London, with " barricades marked in pencil," are in the case, there will always be a Powell or two on the " secret" or " ulterior" com:nittee; and that the noisiest zealot of them all is as likely as not to be the very man who has sold them. So it has been, and so it will be, 'to the end of time. The /*cedes latronum is the merest rope of sand. Treachery is an invariable pendant to conspiracy. Men who are guiltily compassing treason against society may take for granted that treason against them is not far off. Traitor and spy go together, like substance and shadow. We presume this very wholesome warning will not be lost on those whom it most concerns. [Laving alluded to this point, we think it only right to say explicitly, that we fully approve of the - conduct of the authorities in availing themselves of the infor mation offered by Powell and the others. The ne cessity is, unquestionably, a disagreeable one. But the secrets of a body of conspirators against the public peace can only he learned, in time, from "one of themselves;' and Governments owe it to society to adopt, in every instance, the best means of crushing plots against social order. We cannot leave this sub ject without suggesting one reflection of more general application, for the consideration of agitators of a far different grade, both in tellectually and morally, from the wretched men now in the hands of the law. Is it quite cer tain, let us ask, that society would have suffered so grievously as it has done during the last six months from Chartist sedition and conspiracy, if the classes immediately above Chartists had been uniformly in the practice of conducting their political movements, or agitations, with sobriety of temper and moderation of sentiment and language ? Is there absclutely no connexion, of the cause and-effect kind, between the oratory of those middle-class political reformers who love to indulge in sweeping denunciations of " aris tocracy," and who systematically put the worst con struction on the acts or omissions of established Go vernments, at home and abroad—is there no con nexion between this, and the licentious demagoguism which we have now seen to ripen into a wicked plot against society? Our own impression is, that had our "respectable" political agitators set a better ex ample, of late years, in the way of moderation and 6elf-restraint, in the public controversies that more immediately_interest thew, we—abould have heard much leiss of these Chartists. ADVERTISER.—The Chartist prisoners have i been found guilty : for that the public mind was pre pared. They have been sentenced to transportation for life : that will not only take the country by sur prise, but produce profound emotions of pain and regret. This journal is the last which will be sus pected of sympathy with physical-force Chartism ; for no journal in the metropolis, or elsewhere, has written more frequently or strongly against demon strations of popular violence, no matter under what pretext they may be made, or what the cause they are intended to serve. But we must confess that we fully share in the feeling of amazement and sorrow, which we know will be universal, at the severity of the sentence which has been passed upon these mis guided men. Far be it from us to attempt, in any degree, to extenuate the heinousness of the crime with which they were charged. It was one of the greatest enormity ; but then, it is to be remembered, that not having succeeded in carrying out their plans, no disastrous results, either to person or property, Ac crued from their machinations. We need not remihd our readers that both law and common sense make a wide distinction between the intention and the actual deed. A man who commits an assault, with intent to murder, is not regarded by the law in the same light as the man who has actually taken the life of a fellow being. Neither is the person who wilfully sets fire to another's house treated by our courts of criminal jurisprudence in the same way as the person who has successfully committed arson. Why, then, should a different principle be applied in the case of the miser able men who stood last week at the bar of the Old Bailey ? If found guilty, it was right they should be punished, even though they failed to inflict any injury on society ; but surely a much less terrible sentence than transportation for life would have met the merits of the case. Two years' imprisonment, with hard labour, would have been, in the opinion of most per sons, a sufficiently severe punishment. But we should not have said a word against the sentence had the punishment been seven years' transportation. Jones, Fussel, and the other Chartists, sentenced some weeks ago to two years' imprisonment, were scarcely less guilty than the Chartist group who last week stood at the bar of the Old Bailey. The tendency of all their speeches, writings, and proceeding, was just the same, though in legal phraseology a different term might be employed to characterise them, as that of the conspiracies of the Cuffey class of Chartists. The country will look on this punishment not as justice, but as the gratification of a spirit of revenge on the part of Government. The result will be, that the Chartist prisoners will be regarded as victims. The severity of the sentence will exclude from men's minds a sense of the enormity of the crime. Public sympathy for the prisoners will take the place of con demnation of their conduct. Henceforth they will be regarded more as martyrs than as criminals. It is 11, most perilous thing for any Government thus to break down the relative proportions which ought to exist between the degree of guilt and the measure of the punishment. But not only does the case of Cuffey and his confederates exhibit a marked contrast to that of the batch of Chartists of whom Ernest Jones was the head : it also exhibits a contrast to the case of John Mitchel and John Martin, the Irish Re peaters. Cuffey and his companions only intended mischief: Mitchel and Martin have done mis chief, and that, too, on the most extensive scale. Cuffey and Co. did not even get up a street riot : the writings and speeches of Mitchel and Martin instigated a large part of the south of Ireland to rise in open rebellion against her Majesty's authority, and led to the loss of life. A handful of policemen crushed the Cuffey conspiracy, which only embraced forty or fifty individuals : the organization in Ireland produced by the writings of Mitchel and Martin, and the other physical-force Repealers, embraced the whole nation, and was of so formidable a nature, that thousands of troops were sent from this country to prevent a universal outbreak. The Cuffey conspiracy was put down at an expense to the country of a few pounds : the extinction of agitation, and the suppres sion of the insurrections produced in Ireland by, the treasonable writings of Mitchel and Martin, will cost the country at least 1,000,0001. Mitchel and Martin not only systematically preached disaffec- • tion to the throne of the Queen, and resistance to the authority of the Government, but they vehemently urged their countrymen to assassinate the Lord- Lieutenant, and to massacre in cold blood the soldiers of the Queen : in the counsels of Cuffey and his asso ciates there was nothing half so ferocious as in the speeches and writings of the former. And yet Mit chel is only sentenced to fourteen years' transporta tion, to a country possessing the finest climate in the world ; Martin to only ten years' exile from his native country; while poor Cuffey and his com panions are doomed to transportation for life I So , glaring an inequality in the infliction of punishment will cause a revulsion of feeling in every well regulated mind. The severity of the sentence passed at the Old Bailey on Saturday caused a shudder wherever it was known. It will be productive of a deep and abiding sense of regret, if not of horror, when the country contrasts with that terrible punishment the comparatively mild sentences passed on the two principal authors of the Irish resistance to the authority of the Queen—men who were the authors of an amount of mischief which never can be fully calculated. What makes the case of the Chartist convicts all the harder, is the fact, that not only is their conviction the result of the grossest treachery by their confederates in treason, but that they were led into their worst crimes against the Constitution by the very men who now turn appro vers against them. So terrible a sentence as that which Mr. Baron Platt has passed upon men who were first trepanned into treason, and then convicted by the evidence of the " s c oun d re l s "— to use the Examiner's epithet—who entrapped them, will be productive of infinite evil, by lessening that reverence with which the people of this country are accustomed to regard our courts of justice. RAILWAY SHARE MARKETS. LIVERPOOL, Styr. 31, STOCK EXCHANOH.—There is a better feeling prevailing in our market this morning, but prices can not be quoted any- higher. The sales are—Caledonian, Preference, 'A die. —Edinburgh and Glasgow, 3 9—Great Northern, 12N dis.— Lancashire and Yo r k s hi re (late Manchester and Birming ham), Fifths, 4% dis.—Ditto, 321. Shares (late Extension), 11 c. dis.—London and North. Western, 109 c..—Ditto, New Quarters, 21s. 3d. dis.—Ditto, Quarters, I 1 c. p.—Man cheater, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, Eighths, 7% dis.--Ditto, M. Pr eference, 9%—Midland Stock, 82 c.—Ditto, New Halves, 101. I Is. 3d. dis.— North Staffordshire, 6 dis.— North Union ( A), 197_ , ,—Shrewsbury and Birmingham, Preference, Is. 3d. p.—York, Newcastle, and Berwick (G. N. E. Purchase), 1 5 4, dii. BIRMINGHAM, San% 31. STOOL EXCIIANGE.—The sales are—Birmingham, Wolver hampton, and Stour Valley, 4I A p.—Birmingham, Waiver hampton, and Dudley, 4 , 4 p.—South Staffordshire, 44 dis. YORh: ' SEPT. 29. Siocx ExcnArron.—The business transacted to-day was as follows: - Great Northern, 4%—North British, 167/ c —. Ditto, Quarters, 3%—York, Newcastle, E. and Berwick (Ex tension, No. 1), 13 1 ,4—Ditto (G. N. Purchase), 6%. GLASGOW, SEPT. 29. STOCK ExcHANor.—The vales are—Aberdeen, 16—Cale donian, Preference, 325. 6d. Edinburgh and Northern, 1014 Glasgow, Dumfries, and Carlisle, sE4—Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr, 61—Ditto, Halves, No. 1,4/. 1 68.—Great Northern, 4 1 / 2 —North British, Thirds, 4 1 / 2 —Paisley, Barrhead, and Hurlet, 20s.—Scottish Central, 22 3—Scottish Grand Junc tion, 3s. 3d. EAST INDIA FLOUR.—The vessel John Macvicar, arrived from Calcutta, has brought 250 sacks of flour as a portion of her cargo. We have before, if we recollect aright, had occasion to direct attention to the importa tion of a quantity of thatr from the East Indies, the pro ductidp of that part of the world, but the supply from that varier is of very rare occurrence, and this arrival is of Mu.At interest and importance. 81RT11,4, On (he 24th ult., the wife of Captain Shortrede, Bombay Army,!of a son. On the 27th ult., at Stowlangtoft-hall, Suffolk, the lady of 11. Wilson, Esq.. of a daughter. At Nirliit more- hall, Staffordshire, on the 28th ult., the lady of Captain It. Mainwaring, R.N., of a son. On the 28th ult., at Felton-park, Northumberland, the wife of J. (;handless, Esq., of a daughter. At Dulwizh, on the 29th ult., the wife of T. Stevens, Esq., of a daughter. MARRIED. On te 28th ult., a t L yn dh urst, N ew F orest, t h e Ri g h t H on. ord Manners, to Lydia Sophia, third daughter of Captaid W. B. Dashwood, R.N. On the 28th ult., at St. George's, Camberwell, Mr. J. N. Keighley, of Edward's -terrace, Camberwell, to Susannah Sapphir.i, the only daughter of Lieutenant William Rule, R. N., of the same place. On the 28th ult., at St. Oswald's, Durham,Francis Marcus, fourth son of the late Rev. Gilbert Beresford, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of W. Green, Esq., of Old Elvet, Durham. On the 28th ult., at Christ Church, Virginia Water, J. Dingwall, Esq., to Elizabeth Hird, of Sunningdale, Surrey, Widow of the Rev. J. S. Hird. On the 28th ult., at St. John's Church, Westminster, G. T. Davis, E•ei , of Canterbury, to Sarah Ann, daughter of the late 4. Farebrother ' Esq., of Westminster. On this 29th ult., at St. George's, Blo,.msbury, the Rey. J. I). Winslow, vicar of Napton on-the-Hid, Warwickshire, to Harriet, eldest daughter of the late T. Gotobed, Esq. DIED. On the 18th ult., at Madrid, J. Henderson, Esq., aged 65, formerly her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General for the Re public of Colombia. On the 24th ult., at Brighton, Henry, third son of the Right Hon. William Yates Peel, aged 19. On the 25th ult., at Marine Parade, Brighton, Anne, widow of J. Tattnall, Esq. On the 26th ult., at High Wycombe, Bucks, aged 71, Mary, relict of Captain W. White, late of the 13th Light Dragoons. On the 27th ult., at Chichester, Mr. E. Miller late of Shanklin, Isle of Wight, aged 28. On the 27th ult., at Polygon, Somers-town, J. Thackeray, Esq., aged 14. On the 28th ult., at Fitzroy-square, Edward Orme, Esq., aged 74, for manyyears a magistrate and Deputy-Lieutena n t of tha county of Middlesex. At Eltharn, Kent, on the 28th ult., Ann Launce, widow of the Rev. Hugh Hill, D.D., late of Southampton. London: Printed and Published by MURDO 'YOUNG, 'a t • No. 112, Strand, Printer, at The sun. Oftiee, Na. 111, _ Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, iD the county of Viddlowax. Monday, October ; 18446 - • I. Bel Bet Bel Bet Bel THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 2, 1848. rr. 111 X