The Express.
London, England, 1852-02-19 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 19. IK2.

IRELAND AND THE SPECIAL COMMIS-
SION.

(Ras Ur Day MatS.)
We are glad to perceive that ministers are act
pared to fall into the trap laid for them by the
prepared to fall into th. trap laid for them by the
Irish tories, and rashly to tamper with the jury
system in that country. Lord LANSDOWNE success-
fully parried some days ago the importunate curiosity
of Lord RODEN, who eagerly counselled • new coer-
cion bill ; and Sir GEORGE GREY has given
notice in the Commons that, when Mr. NAPIER
moved for • select committee to inquire into tho
late prosecutions at Monaghan, ho will move by
way of amendment "and into the causes which
have led to agrarian disturbance in that and neigh-
bouring counties."

Very different, we must say, is the spirit mani-
fested in this amendment from that which appears to
have animated • weekly contemporary in dealing
with the lamentable occurrences above alluded to.
In a long and elaborate article, the Economist in-
veighs, without reason or reserve, against the whole
Irish nation, and blindly imputes to five or six mil-
lions of people the degree of complicity which sym-
pathy implies in deeds of violence which have all been,
in point of fact, committed in onclimited district, lying.
it is true, partly in three adjoining counties, but the
total area of which is not fifteen miles square. Yet
because several cruel and sanguinary acts have dis-
graced that unhappy corner of a large and populous
realm, our philosophic contemporary rushes to a
sweeping iufereace of barbarism against the entire
community: declares that trial by jury was never
intended for countries where civilisation does not
exist ; and recklessly proposes that persons accused
of serious crimes in Ireland should be brought over
to England for trial, or else tried in their own
country by the judges, without the isterrention of a
jury ! We cannot too strongly deprecate the use of
unthinking and unwarrantable language of this
kind. No interruption of the uniform course of jus-
tice has occurred in Ireland to excuse such an explo-
sion of indignation, on behalf of the baffled imbe-
cility of the law advisers of the crown; and no cir-
cumstances can justify those who profess the name
and principles of liberalism in preaching a crusade
against the most sacred guarantee for pohtical peace
and progress that any nation can ponies.

While the special commission was sitting at
Monaghan, we abstained from making any comment
on its proceedings. Such reserve, however, is no
longer necessary; and, painful as the duty is, we can-
not shrink from its performance. At the instance of
the magistracy of the disturbed districts, government
were induced, without due deliberation, as it now
appears, to send two chief justices and a numerous
staff of crown lawyers to vindicate the offended
majesty of the law, and to restore insubordinate
Ulster to order. We are sorry to be obliged to say
that the notions entertained by the present executive
in Ireland, of the manner in which" law and order"
are to be maintained, reflect but little credit on
the individuals who compose it. The issue of an
extraordinary commission within three weeks of the
period for holding the usual assize, is a measure
which no ordinary cheumstance would warrant, and
which nothing but the moral certainty of success in
obtaining prompt convictions and snaking speedy
examples could justify. There are upon the face of
it grave and irremoveable objections to the proceed-
ing under any other circumstances. Where society
is unhappily disorganised and the sanction of autho-
rity as ordinarily administered is set at nought, no-
thing can be more perilous or pernicious than rashly
to risk a resort to the reserved powers placed at its
discretion by the constitution. To crush all resist-
ance by the presence of an overwhelming force, or to
restore confidence by an effectual resort to the con-
stitutional tribunals of the country, are the only possi-
ble alternatives. The one is instant, but temporary ; the
other more tardy, but, in general, more lasting in its
results. Between the two there is no middle course
compatible with safety, humanity, or justice. Small
additions to the local strength of the military and
police are ridiculous; hasty arraignments of the sus-
pected or accused without due investigation of the
evidence producible, or with the vague and vain sup-
position that the prevailing horror and dread of out-
rage will render jurors less nice in weighing con-
flicting doubts and poseibilities, is something. far
worse than foolish. In a view of policy, it is ruinous
—in a view of principle, it is manifestly wrong.
Yet this is the fault which, under the advice we
presume of their Attorney-General, Mr. Marcum-1.,
the Irish government have committed. Upon a
requisition from the panic stricken magistracy
of Monaghan, a special commissioner was
sent forth, and the chid' adviser of the executive,
accompanied by a troop of professional assistants,
hastened to the devoted county whore soil has re-
cently been stained with blood. In his opening
address to the grand jury, Chief Justice BLACK-
BURNS, one of the most erudite and accomplished
judges in the realm, deemed it to be his duty to warn
them against suffering their minds to be unconsciously
swayed by the righteous sympathy they must feel
for the victims of lawless cruelty, or the anxiety
which they might naturally cherish to see the guilty
punished and tranquillity restored. And in his sub-
sequent charge to the jury of twelve by whom the
prisoner FRANCIS KELLY, accused of participation in
Mr. BATEsofes murder, was tried, the same emi-
nent functionary reiterated his admonition that
the sole question for them was, whether the fellow
being whose life was in their hands had been
clearly and certainly proved to have taken part in
the revolting deed. Long experience in similar
scenes has served to impress the learned judge with
a fearful sense of the danger there exists of undisoern-
ing verdicts in cases where the notorious inoentives
to violence are the real or imaginary hardships
arising out of the tenure and occupancy of land ; he
knows full well that a jury, however fairly chosen
from the vicinage where violence has usurped the
authority of the law, is apt to fall into lamentable
error on matters of the deepest moment; and he
justly desired to avert that most deplorable, and to
society most fatal, of mistakes- he mistake of
the innocent for the guilty. The Cuter loom@
deemed it tight to withhold from the jury by whom
Fatima KELLY was tried his own in viand opinion
of the weight to be attached to the testimony against
him. The main question at issue was easel hisa-
tity ; and upon this no judicial advice or direedon
would probably have appeared suitable. The credi-
bility of the evidence was left to the jury, end after
many hours deliberation they hand it hopeadble to
ogre?. Two days atter, the same mat was opus
arraigned apes the same silage lishre another jury.
The esseset he the pragmatism bed thm whatever
advantage might be supposed to be derivable from
knowieg the prisoner's line of defines, and the eir-
ommtmem d exculpation his &decants@ relied upon.
They bad likewise the advantage et "mewing in what
paints their former evidenee bed Mohan down, and
an opportunity was thus idlbrdad d remedying
its laws. Their principal wham at the first
trial was a butcher's boy, who had never
seen the prisoner before the day on which
Mr. BATEsoN was murdered, and then only for an
instant on the high road as he turned to look after
his companions who had made some idle noise. Poe
many days, though living several miles distant, he
bad not communicated to anybody the fact that
be had witnessed afar off the fatal straggle, and his
belief that he would remember the features of one or
more of the assailants; nor did he venture to identify
the prisoner until alter a large reward had been
pulmely offered, and until he wee brought into the
gaol for the purpose. On the second trial the hesi-
tation and uncertainty with which this witness
gave his testimony was cured, as was supposed, by
the crown lawyers, by the production of a man who,
on cross-examination, turned out to be one of the
worst characters in the neighbourhood, and whose
circumstantial revelations seem to have won as
little credit as they deserved. Another careful and
minute analysis of the evident* from Chief Justice
Motrmuut closed the second trial, and the second
jury. like their predecessors, were after many hours
unable to agree. At the instance of the ATTORNEY-
GENERAL the commission then adjourned sine die,
the blundering attempt to vindicate order and law
having disastrously failed.

What are the consequences? While yet the
abortive commission was sitting, the magistracy of
the three mantles, whose peace had been so long
disturbed, are_ reported to have met under the,
presidency of Lord CALEDON, and to have agreed to
petition parliament—not for the removal of the
known and fruitful cause of all agrarian crimes—not
fur an addition to the military force stationed in their
localities—but for a new Coercion Act, the principal

feature of which should be the sabversion of trial by
jury in all except the name.
It may be all very well for Lord CALEDON and
his brother landlords of Ulster to make use of their
influence with government in order to strike down
this last remnant of legal protection for the rack-
rented occupiers of the soil ; but Lord JOHN RUS-
SELL should not suffer himself to be betrayed any
further in that direction ; unhappily, for his own
consistency's sake, as well u for the peace of Ireland,
he has gone too fur therein already.

DISMISSAL OF TILE MASTER OF ST. PAN-