The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 26,1857.

" ring;" and that " the select committee decided that if firing at an
" enemy they would have continued, as the mortar was not in any way
" disabled ;" and that the " accident will occupy a week to repair." It
is also true that very valuable results, so far as the science of gunnery
is concerned, were gained by the day's trial. The initial velocity of
the projectile, its greatest elevation, its time of flight, were accurately
ascertained, and, stranger still, a photographer present stated that he
had obtained a perfect view of its whole course through the air. However,
we fear that this mortar is destined to be of little practical use in actual
warfare. We do not desire to lay undue stress on the fact th it seven
rounds on one day and six on another have stopped all proceedings,
or upon the circumstance that as no smith can be certain of a perfect
welding, a similar fracture to the last may again occur, even with the
same low charge. But it must be remembered that the construction
of the platform and the putting together of the mortar is a work of
considerable magnitude, which could hardly be completed under a
week, and which could not be expected to escape the observation of
the enemy. Therefore, to insure the weapon comparative safety from
the concentrated fire which would at once be brought to bear upon it,
it would be necessary to erect it at a distance of at least 3,000 yards
from the place to be attacked. Now if a charge of 701bs of powder
gives a range of 2,100 yards, at 3,000 yards at least 801bs. must
be used, but we have seen that the mortar has twice broken down with
charges of 701bs and 401bs. ! The conclusion is obvious. For our-
selves, we would back against the mortar two of the now despised
Lancaster guns, the only serviceable ordnance of largo calibre
yet known which have been secured from the old danger of bursting at
the muzzle, and which at a range of 3,300 yards can hit a line-of-battle
ship eleven times out of twenty shots.

The late Mr. Justice JACKSON was best known in this country in
consequence of a celebrated speech made by him in 1836 on the state
of Ireland under Lord NORMANDY (then Earl of MutortAvE). After
stating one night what the Melbourne Government intended to do
about Municipal Corporations in Ireland, Lord John RUSSELL sat
down, and the House of Commons s aw a comely gentleman rise from
the Conservative benches, and pour forth with singular fluency a de-
tailed account of Lord MULGRAVE'S doings in Ireland. The speec h
produced great effect, and was a success, though his subsequent Par-
liamentary efforts were not quite so effective. He was a gentleman of
very high honour, as was publicly proved by some transactions in his
early life at th 3 Bar. " Mr. Sergeant JACKSON " was chiefly
eminent as a stater of a case in which tho verdict
was to be taken upon facts. He was not an orator, but he
was admitted to be an excellent advocate, and he had intense zeal
fur his client. His voice was extremely powerful, and his presence
was imposing and attractive. After having taken an active part in
politics for many years, the Conservative Administration in 1842
raised him to the Bench, and it was universally felt that a more im-
partial and humane judge never sat in the Irish Judicature. In the
trial of the "Young Irelanders " in 1848 the late Judge was perfectly
impartial. and even the Liberals and Roman Catholics of Ireland ad-
mitted that his conduct was entirely unimpeachable and free from any
bias of partisanship. Ho was a much older man in years than
he appeared, and his death has conic upon the public with sur-
' prise; but we were aware for some time of the state of his health,
though motives of delicacy prevented us from referring to it.
By the usual routine a vacant puisne judgeship can be accepted
in Ireland by an Attorney-General, though in England an Attorney
General always looks for a chiefship. E'hould Mr. FITZGERALD
(Attorney-General) accept the post, there will be a vacancy in the
leading Crown officers, and opinion seems to incline to the point that
Mr. DEASY, the member for the county of Cork, will be either Attorney,
or Solicitor-General. Mr. DEASY is cousin to Lord FERNIOY, an in-
fluential personage in Irish Liberal politics, and is leader of the
Munster Circuit. He practises principally in the Court of Chancery,
and he has the reputation of being a widely-read scholar. Several
other names are mentioned. Whatever disposition of offices be made,
we trust that some consideration will be shown for the claims of the
Protestant Bar in any fresh vacancies that may occur. There are now
only three Judges on the Irish Bench named by the Conservative
party—viz., Lord Chief Justice LEFROY, and Barons PENNEFATHER
and GREENE. The other Judges (including Mr. Justice
CRAMPTON) were all named by Liberal Ministers, and taken from avowed
" Whigs." We refer, of course, only to the " Twelve Judges." Should
Mr. FITZGERALD accent the vacant post there will then be seven
Protestants and five Roman Catholics in the " Twelve." Considerably
more than two-thirds of the practising Bar are Protestants; but the
\Vhigs desire to proportion the number of judges, not to the demar-
cations within the Hall of the Four Courts, but to the ratio of numbers
of the two Churches in the whole population of the country.

The law reports this week of certain journals have been stained
with a mass of unmitigated filth, repugnant to every sense of pro-
priety and purity of feeling Nothing is more immodest, nothing
more unchaste, than the cant which assumes a sense of public duty to
necessitate the publication of such details of criminal nastiness as the
case of •" The Queen v. Robinson " offered. Those journals, too,
which disseminated the filth in its full detail are the first, we remark,
to discourse in terms of virtuous horror upon the shocking depravity of
the case, and to entreat judges and juries to give us no more of it.
Why give us any of it? The publication of such filth is a discredit to
the free press of this country.