The National Register.
London, England, 1821-12-30 00:00:00

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SPECIAL COMMISSION LIMERICK.

CITY COURT, Dye. 21.
Baron MgCivil:mil and ML. Justice Moore 'saving taken
their seats on the Bench, in the City Court housetat halt-
past nine o'clock this morning, Patrick Shaughnessy was
placed at the bar. The pi isoner stood indicted for having
on the. 411 of December, in the 2d year of the present
rein, at Itallinacarra, felonionsly taken lions the person
of Edward Sandwich, it gun, the property of John Russell.
After witnesses had been examined on both sides, Baron
M'Clelland summed up the evidence. and charged the
Jury, telling them that the evidence adduced on the part
of the prosecution appeared to him to be clear, powerful,
and irresistible. The Jury then retired, and returned in
1 about twenty minutes, finding a vet diet of—Guilty.
Sentence was not then pronounced, and the prisoner

was removed from the bar.
After the trial and conviction of Patrick Shanghoessy
in the City Conti, the Judges proceeded to the County

Colort-lions-e.
James Walsh was then placed at the bar. The prisoner
was indicted for a riot in the Boman Catholic Chapel of
Ballybrieken, in the county of Limerick, on Sunday, the
lath day of December, in the 2d year of the present
reign, and al,u for an assault on the Rev. Mr. Cleary.—
Ls idence been adduteed, the Court eruered the
prisonei to find bail, !diesel( in 1001. and two solvent en-
emies iii 201. tacit, for his appearance at the adjournment
of the Commission, and also to be of the Peace.
The Court then proceeded to pronounce sentence on
the pristint•rs that had been convicted.
John Ward, Thomas Lee, Morgan Cregan, G. D'Arcy,
John Main, Thomas Keetle, Daniel Keeffe, P. Enright,
and Patrick Cregan, were then placed at the Bar.
Baron pronouncing sentence, spoke
nearly as follows :--
Prisoners, you have been found guilty of a riot and an
assault, on the clearest and most satisfactory evidence ;
your 'silence was not excited by any sudden impulse of
anger or indignation ; there was nothing to palliate if,
but, on the contrary, it was of the most daring and
dangerous description, and one which would strike at the
very foundation of the jurisprudence of the country. it
appeared, that an unfurtmiate woman came here last
Assizes to give her testimony, and that on her return
to the town of Newcastle, she was assailed by a untidier
of persons, who maltreated and assailed her with stones.
sticks, anti other missile weapons: the wretched as :anon
was needy killed ; you; Jahn Ward, with peculiar atto•
city, in the presence of a peace-officer, indicted malty
blows upon her, and it was no fault of yours if she was
not then killed. What excuse can you otter for su daring
' an mitt age ? None. What was her offence ? Iler (deuce
was that she came here at the last Assizes, as a witness to
take a eulcum oath—to tell the truth. Do you imagine
that such conduct is ill be tolerated ? if you think so, the
example that will be made tit you is ill eons nice those as-
sociates with whom you are connected, that you are mis-
taken, and they is ho date to offend or outrage the laws,
will meet with the condign punishment the law inflicts.—
sot iy am 1 to say, that your conduct has nut only dis-
played the bad deposition that pervades the county, but
your defence has, if possible aggravated your guilt. I
trust :not hope that the example which will be made of
yeti, will tend to resime peaco, good order and tranquil-
lity ; you, John Ward, L select as the worst. You have
shewn a depravity greater than any of your associates—
you have been guilty of inure co (telly and violence; I
therefore sentence you to la months' imprisonment :
and you, Thomas Lee—you, Morgan Cregan—you, Geo.
D'Atcy—you, John Finn you Thomas Kettle—you, D.
liettle--you, Frederick Euright—and you I'at. lregau,
arc to be imprisoned twelve months, anti alt and each of
you, at the termination of your imprisonment, are seve-
rally to find at entities to keep the peace for seven years,
particularly to Catheriue Haasett and David Fitzgerald,
yourselves in the stun of 101. each, and each to hod two
sureties in :tat. each ; and should any of you hereafter
violate the peace, you shall not only be dealt with accord-
ing to the utmost rigour of the law, but yottr friends who
shall enter bail for you, shall be incarcerated for your
future oftences.
Daniel Mai tin was then placed at the bar.
Baron M'Clelland thus addressed the prisoner.—Daniel
Martin, yOll have been found gully of a misdemeanour,
fur mita w hilly and riotously assembling with arms on the
9111 of Octauer. The sentence of the Court on you, D.
Martin, is, that you lie imprisoned six months, and that
ice dill Illg that period, you be publicly whipped thilf
the WWI) Ul Newcastle.
alarm' Glaris-, John Grady, Thomas Kelly, Michael
Kelly, Join) Iftsion, Johu Muilithe, and 'finiothy Shea,
were then placed at the bar.
After caniiig over the names of the prisoners, Baron
el'Clellatel thus proceeded : Prisonet s, you have been se-
vet ally found guilty of crimes winch the law punishes with
death. Where it was possible for humanity to suggest a
doubt, it has been turned to the advantage of the phone',
and some have escaped through the humanity of the Jury.
(Ilere some of the uoliappy men called out, " a long day
your honour, for the love of God.") You, Timothy Shea,
were taken prisoner, after you had been seen w ith a party
Consisting of 80 or 100 men mounted. You were foiled with
a horse, which you had unlawfully taken for your nightly
dapredations; you were armed with deadly weal i a Pa."
was found in your breast, anti a powder horn in your pocket.
You, TIII/Illab Kelly, and you, Michael Kelly, iii the
middle of the Hood (Ma proceeded to the house of the unfoi.
tunate Mrs. Sparing, and plundered it of arms. That old
and respectable lady, who was incapable of resistance, you,
Thomas Keay, snapped a pistol at twice; you snapped a
pistol also at her maid, and eventually plundered the house
01 that unfortunate gentleman, who has since fallen, perhaps
by your halide.
You, John Ilision, and John Mullane, persecuted a poor
industrious man, not only by threats, but by open acts of
violets... You designed his destouction, and told him that
I he should have Spurting's fate, as you expressed it. This case
sheaved the state to is hich society had been reduced at
Newcastle—si hen this unhappy Milli called for relief nut a
door would be opened to him or to his children. You had
affixed a notice on his nesglitiout's door, prohibiting any one
from dating to associate with him, and you threatened one
individual for holding idly communication with him, and
w OM is as his crime? Ile was a Kerry man. That was an
offence, according to your code of laws, not to be pardoned.
You, Nlartin (body, and you, John Grady. have also
forfeited your lives to the offended laws of your country.—
There is soutething more uppallilig
in your case than
in any of the w veeding. - have not attempted to
prove nu alibi by the ordivaty mode, but such bat

been the terror that you have excited, that yon have
actually produced on that table, a wife against the km-
band,a child against the father. litti have produced that
melancholy exhibition—dris en and compelled by your
tyrannical mandates, that man has seen the wife of his
bosom, the mother of his child, appearing against him, to
falsify his testimony, in order to save you, who would
have destroyed them both. These are atrocities not to
be endured in any country.
Baron NM:Miami continued at great length, and con-
cluded by pronouncing the awful sentence thus :—That
you and each of you be taken from the place whet e you
now stand, to the gaol from whence you came, and on a
day hereafter to be named, your irons to he struck off,
and yon and each of you, to the common place of exeen-
tion, the gallows, and there be hanged by the neck until
you are deed, and may the Lord of his infinite goodness
have mercy on your soul.
Baron Wt.:1011;nd, and every individual in Court, were
deeply atter:tett during this awful scene.
After Baron NPClelland had pronounced sentence on
the unhappy men, and they had been removed from the
dock heavily nulled,
The Solicitor General rose to request the Court, that a
young person, named Curtaine, might be discharged from
custody- ; he was charged with the same offence as Histon
and Mullane, and the same evidence which had been
given on their trial would also have applied to him; but
his extreme youth induced the Counsel for the Crown to
make the 'weft, lit application, conceiving that he must
have been misled by others.
The Solicitor-General also requested the discharge of
James Jordan, who had been almost miraculously acquit-
ted of the charge of forcibly taking arms from Mr. Sper-
ling ; and he trusted in God, that those two men might
return to society, as missionaries, preaching obedience to
the laws among their deluded associates.
The Com t then adjoin ned to the I tth of January.