The Express.
London, England, 1852-12-31 00:00:00

THE CASE OF MR. HIRWA.N.

TO Till 101701 01 Till DAILY NUM.

SIR,—In the ease of William Bourke Kirwan, it
has already been pointed out that there was not a
tittle of evidence that any murder had been Cam.
witted. It was impossible to consider the random
statement of Dr. Hatchell (opposed to the egoism
of every coroner and medial man of any skaadleg)
as evidence, and beyond his ignorant mettle= thin
was not a single circumstance to show that Oman&
was other than natural er accidental. Not ewe of
the twelve jurymen who displayed so reckless an in-
difference to taking upon themselves the guilt of a
murder upon the gallows, would have demi
upon the evidence to have brought in •
verdict of guilty, had Mr. Justice Cramp..
instead of William Burke Kirwan, been vim
the Is'and, and we do but express the
verdict of the public in declaring that the flor are/
the jury was utterly irreeoncileable with the fish
before them, and is to be accounted for only by their
having been carried away by prejudice, and the
manifest and most unwarrantable leaning of the
judge.
the prisoner has been respited, not in the exercise
of mere mercy by the crown, but as an act of jostle,.
But neither a respite nor a commutation of the NSW
tcnce con satisfy the requirements of justice in the
ease. There is no more reason the man should be
transported than hanged upon imagination and as-
sumption. What is needed is farther investigation.
It is not the testimony of Dr. Hatchell alone that,
upon examination, breaks down. There was not in
reality a single reliable point in the entire evidence
against the prisoner.
The facts of the cue an few. The prisoner and
his wife, were lodging at Howth, and had on
several occasions craned over to spend the day at
Ireland's Eye, he as a professional artist in
taking sketches, she in reading, walking about,
and bathing. On the Bth of Sept. they went there
and spent their time, at all events up to 4 o'clock,
when they were both seen as usual. At that hour
Mrs. Kirwan declined a seat in a boat with a party
who were leaving for Howth, and herself told the
linatman to return for them at 8 o'clock. At 20 mi-
nutes before the hoar the boatman left Howth hal*.
hour, and it was close upon 8 when be reached the
island. That we may sot be awned of libelling the
judge who alleirad web intones to pass, nor the
jury who 'NM le =mkt upon it, we m-
ime. the taseteAw k the eery weeds of the mita=
most relied mom by the mom PobiskNost"
nearing the Ishadoalled Ms. Kieft% tart 11188.8tvd•
It was gran way id Ohm. That it was dark
iv. from the Warmed mama, melds aced in view of
this fact yet hewed by the mbar himeel4 and
which, wet inameemtably, thajedipe fa the worming
up omitted to halms spas MI jury. bags the
entire credibility of the whams. Some time was
spent in lessollag, lease in inquiries. Mr. Kirwan and
three of the boatmen then went in search. It was
not contradleted that they were absent fall half an
hour. It wee departs darker thew. Patrick Hanle.
who, by hie ewe assent, had t the half hear
of Mama, Wier g Mr. Kirwan%
sketch-liesk. this eat eat to join the searcheee. It
may le as woe Ma nele. that these le 10(4bl:rams* hie
owa Melmasat le slaw that ha bad lees
se lit Wog the bell law. He awe we how-
ever, Ale coma shoeing with Mr. Kirwan sad the
bottom. They W al Mr been neweasatel.
Michael Mangle, one of the party had, however,
searched in the Leag liehi as far es the water
would let him, but did sot Sad asythise
Mr. Kirwan the proposed the shout realm by
the same way, sad the Loag Hole wee Abed • le-
toed thee. According to the arming Matinee& et
Hr. Imyly, tt.C., it was the. between Imlggeet
aims ea to. deka. The eoadbles of the Me
merapeade with Yet hear. The semehmeek thew
Us, have hied batmen ea bees sad a Woad tem
?awn) and Paidallespite• who lad bat jai thelt
rid tlit "My, batl nem teen dis the Whir
the ant OM the Adobe to assent far. Saw
rem that may haw hem It wee eartalaly Jett he.
tweets hat yeet Mae sad tea, yak as nom dli
Patrick Neel& water the Lea; Heim where. hen •
boor before, his coeds mid see seeing, than "ha
found the lady." Desk *sash it was, he possibly
might, without preview Uw *. of its having
been there, have seine spin the body; bet
it was rather tea my* me it .Nells
Counsel for the mew% see toe page, IWO
it
4a13 ; but for the British public M he expelled Ile
klieve that between half-past KW aad team As
eth of September, and after it hill ben "
aer7 dark for nearly two hours," thieralik
mull hare seen—we give hie own

oathing chemise was up under her arms, and a sheet
was under her ; her head was lying back is • hole,
and her feet were in • pool of water—about the full
of his hat of water, about half a gallon." Nor was
this all Not only could he in the dark so accurately
measure the depth of water in a hole in the rock—a
point of some moment to his after statement, that
]ltr. Kirwan got no wet there, and to the imagina-
tion of Mr. Hayes, Q.C., that the wet came of his
wading into the sea to sin ther his wife with a
wet sheet—but this witness, so gifted with vision in
in the dark, "saw cuts on the forehead and under
the eye, and blood coming down by her ears, from
her side, her breast, and other places." Not a parti-
cular afterwards noted in broad da7light escaped
this Patrick Naugle in the dark. His was the sole
testimony of the position and appearance of the body
wiles found, and his strangely clear vision of them
in the dark wears something of the appearance of his
having known them before ; and it is certainly
within the range of possibility that, instead of look-
ing over Mr. -Kirwan's sketches in the dark, for
what he called half an hour, bat which, as we
have shown, was in reality more than an hour,
this Patrick Nangle might have spent the time in a
search, might have found the body, and have placed
it where he afterwards professed to find it. Nor
need we suppose such a procedure, however strange,
to be altogether without • motive.' He might, in
limiest instance, hays simply lifted the body, then,
sioning the marks and bleeding, the notion of
Misr might have seised him, and he might then
Uwe laid the body in the rock on the Long Hole,
posiibly on the impulse of the moment, and might
have continued to conceal his original discovery,
with the view of testing the goat or innocence
of Mr. Kirwan. Having allowed the matter at the
time to peas without full explanation,he would nate-
mills have avoided explaining it at the inquest, lest
be &cold bring himself into difficulty, and must, as
a matter of course, afterwards, when urging investi-
gation with the police, and in his evidence on the
trial, stick to the original story. But there are other
incongruities in his evidence not so easily accounted
for. He swore positively that Mr. Kirwan sent him
to &particular place to look for the clothes—that they
were not there—that Mr. Kirwan then went himself,
was away three or four minutes, and then again sent
him to a particular rock where on searching before
the clothes were not, but where he then found them.
Not a word of this statement was true. On the con-
trary, Pat and Michael Nangle were both at the
same time searching for the clothes; instead of going
on the rock, they returned along the strand. Mr.
Kirwan then himself set out, not alone, but with
Michael Nangle; went spa the rock, found and
brought back part of the clothes, end then sent Pat-
rick Naugle for the remainder. Now, surely it was
not to De wondered at that Mr. Kirwan should know
where the clothes usually were la when Mrs. Kir-
wan lean : it was not the One they had been
"Cma tip hind, or thst tie ha bathed Ogre.
en sly wore thin globe hemelaseiss
sleeved over by the jags and irwallind by the
jog, but the amningbon eidde Pat Neagh, that no
sae elm was am the hind after ire bat the
Kirwan. rues idea ler weasel apse his alee dema-
nd= that as no esaidinvo gettitin bawl « he
war at the harbear all day." This Ilse WM ikon
apon his owa anithiss, sad yet it wee g
that if he woe at the harbour at maetrla=
not have hosettlismooms. Bat theatsaSwerelthe
verdict ham itself prodaceis
in the public prints, ahoulantthilifirsiMegellilli=
island is to some exist II WO al peat me
possibly be of modem etherot sir
would be rely to ithin Math Harbor 110 Mir
direct and thyligit apes pit, yet Air et
whom it wadi aid eagle for a lady le
in with einsto auk and gym
wain ifts, again lg • Mr. Brady, at lien
ankh eras Ita iimailf was spa
Ihe hiwi, eralayt epee it by en agegagatly 'wpm
Sable landing, certainly shows that kr an
an or other it suits individenis to ran so
einall risks to make good tide Loan_ upon
Ike island at points out at seamyeV& We, how-
ever, but robe to this to prows that so far from the
chain of airansiaasial (Minn being complete,
there was not a limb plat Mahood. Never,
we nature to my, was
411:= awaited on a
awn army protease el It I. maathing
that the (bow, has dipped in to stay the anntila
deb* mown bat it blast Hal the jury
added in aseardene with the e fMase, Mr. Kirwan
snit have boss tmgaitted and ow the Winn not
only is bat i meal
to
the dosastitid to •
et by thatt is
ha aliond be
oned. FAIR PLAY.

SECOND EDITION.