The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-04 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—The wide circulation which your journal has given
to the statements of the Attorneys-General for England and
Ireland, in their endeavour to prevail on the muse of
Commons to afford its sanction to relax the exercise of its
great prerogative, namely, that of carrying an address to
the Sovereign, where the rights and liberties of the subject
aro being imperilled, as evidenced on the face of the offi-
cial documents, hitherto withheld (but now insisted on by
the hon. and learned member for the King's County, as
laid Wore the house in my case), will, I hops, induce you
to find space for the following statement.
Suffice it to say, that the bar of Ireland felt the wrongs
inflicted on me so strongly as to forbid my being disbarred.
I feel assured that neither the Right Hon. Mr O'llagan
nor Sir Roundell Palmer would intentionally state any-
thing that they did not believe to bo true and correct ; and
that consequently they had been misled by the documents
which were so recently placed in their hands; but the fact
is surely beyond all doubt that their statements put an un-
true complexion on the whole affair, and misled the House
of Commons.

This manifestly appears not only by the documents now
on record in the House of Commons, and open to the in-
spection of every member, but by the facts which her most
gracious Majesty herself is personally aware of, together
with her noble lords in waiting. I will take a few in-
stances ; first, as to facts, and secondly, as to the law, as
stated and relied upon by the learned functionaries.
The Attorney General for Ireland stated to the house,
that my letter of the 30th September, 1836, addressed to the
law advisers of the Crown, Chief Secretary's Department,
Dublin Castle, clearly proved that my case, as to the missing
letter, was a mere afterthought, and that " I did not
venture to say to the law officers, who prosecuted me, that
they had suppressed evidence."
The Irish Attorney-General will fiad that upwards of
three months previous to the 30th September, 1836, namely,
in May, 1836, the House of Commons had actually printed
in its appendix to 17th report on public petitions, at page
566, my petition, which Col. French, the hon. member for
the county of Roscommon, presented, stating as follows :
"That the suppression of the aforesaid official documents
by the then officers of the Crown in Ireland, so conclusive
of petitioner having had the sanction of said Johnston, was
the committal of a great outrage upon the character, the
feelings, and the liberty of a subject, which ought to he
the object and especial care of the Crown ;" and that
although " I particularly required the production of said
original official letter of the 12 h October, 1834, to said
Chief Secretary from said Robert Johnston, Esq,, which
had the post mark dates thereon, and which letter peti-
tioner discovered the existence of, same was not produced,
nor how the Chief Secretary disposed of same in any
manner accounted for, and only a document, purporting
to be a copy thereof, produced, which had no reference
to the post mark dates thereon,"
Facts are stubborn things, and it is therefore manifest
from the date of the petition, May, 1836, that in the follow •
ing month of September, 1836, the missing letter was not a
mere afterthought, as the Irish Attorney-General so fallaci-
ously assured the House of Commons, and also that I did
say to the law officers of the Crown who prosecuted me•that
they had suppressed evidence.
By the right hen. gentleman directing his attention to
the petition which, in October, 1837, my noble relative, the
Countess of Charlemont, then in waiting on the Queen,
presented, to be laid in the proper constitutional manner
before her Majesty, and also to the petition whielej had the
very great honour of presenting myself to the Queen in
person, at her Majesty's levee on the 20th February, 1839,
he will no that I did venture to say that the officers of
the Crown, who prosecuted rue, did suppress evidence.

I have also now before me a letter which the Earl of
Fingall addressed to me, dated June 9th 1839, stating therein
as follows :—" I recollect perfectly having, as the Lord in
Waiting, at the last levee, read to her Majesty the object
of a petition•presented by you."
If there was one duty in a discussion on such a gravo
constitutional question—than which none could be of higher
import—which belonged to enlightened men holding the
high places of Attorneys-General for England and for Ire-
land, and which affected the Royal Prerogative not to deny
right or justice, it was, that they did not by any licence of
speech or any carelessness, mislead the House of Commons
by a statement of facts, which our most gracious Sovereign
personally and the records of the House of Commons are
able to controvert, or to mislead the house in even one
single point of law,
In dealing with the question of law, a misleading ten-
dency pervaded the speech of the learned Attorney-General
for England, who evidently made a vain attempt to draw
the mind of the house away from fixing itself with becom-
ing intensity on the invasion of the rights and liberties of
the people. The simple point atissue between the servants of
the Crown and myself being, whether the right hon. gentle-
man the Home Secretaryand the Attorney-General for Eng-
land (who, the learned member for the Queen's County so
truly designated, as the real defendants in the case) had a
constitutional right to substitute their own Ministerial
authority in lieu of the proper judicial tribunals of the
country, appointed by law. They would, in fact, decide in
their own favour, without hearing me, although " audi
alteram partem" is a maxim of law as old and aethoritativa
as law itself.

It was scarcely conceivable that so learned and enlight-
ened a personage as the present Attorney-General for Eng-
land, with his knowledge of the law, could imagine that
a subject of her Majesty, who claimed, according to an
act of Parliament (234 and 24th Vict,, c. 34, s, 1), to
rest secure beneath the ample shield of the Lord Chief
Justice of England and a jury of Middlesex, was to have
his lordship's Court closed against the subject by Mini-
sterial authority ?
I complain, too, of the way in which the Attorney-
General for England quoted Blackstone for the purpose
of making out his case, sithout having ventured to con-
trovert the authorities relied on by the learned member
for the King's County. The Attorney-General stopped
short in his quotations from Blackstone, when he came
to that part which had reference to the servants of the
Crown, "for whom the law, in matters of right, enter
tains no respect or delicacy" (but according to Black-
stone, vol. 111., chap, xvii., pp. 233-6), furnishes various
methods of detecting the errors and misconduct of those
agents by whom the King has been deceived, and induced
to do a temporary injustice."

My perseverance for so many years to vindicate my
character from the stain cast upon it. by the suppression of
documents now admitted to be available, is but a duty
which I owe to my sovereign, to my noble relations, to the
bar, to the public (whose rights and liberties are being im-
perilled), and to myself. This duty I shall not cease in
every constitutional manner to discharge, until the genuine-
ness of those documents is proved, and validity thereby
given to the award of the Lord High Chancellor of Eng-
land, who reported to the Home Office, that if those copies
were genuine, " I suffered grievous injustice."
Mr O'Hagan stated " that the opinion of the present
Lord Chancellor was based on the assumption that Mr
Irwin's statement was to be relied on, and that there was
no opposing testimony. He himself, Mr O'Hagan, pro-
ceeding on that assumption, was equally ready to admit that
Mi Irwin was a wronged man." I take Mr O'Hagan at his
word, and with my Petition of Right in one hand, and the
Petition of Right Act in the other, dare him to the combat.
My glove is on this page. That issue is in accordance with
the prayer of my Petition of Right; and I claim therefore
that the documents, now admitted to be available, may be
submitted to the Lord Chief Justice of England and a jury
of Middlesex, for their decision, pursuant to the rights and
liberties of every British subject, and the good laws of the
realm.—l have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient
servant, GEORGE O'MALLEY IRVIN.

August 2, 1864.

MURDER ON THE SEAS.—One of those fatal
affraya which unfortunately have been of frequent
occurrence of late on board ship recently took place on board
the British schooner Florence, of St Kitts, while on a voy-
age from Key West to New York. On the arrival of the
Florence at New York, on June 22, the captain reported at
the British consulate tha; one of the seamen, named Edward
John, had been stabbed duringthe voyage by another of
,
the crew, named Charles Blackmer.]: It appears that shortly
after the vessel sailed some angry feeling —from some cause
not explained—sprung up between Black:lan and Juhn,
and during the first part of the voyage frequee't quarrels
took place between them. On one occasion an alter cation
occurred between them, when Blackman stabbed John, and
although every assistance was given to him, the injured
man died from the effects of the wound a few hours after,
Mr. P. Edwards, acting British consul at that port. know-
ing that the local courts would take no cognisance of a
crime committed under such circumstances, applied at once
to a United States Commissioner, obtained a warrant, and
had Blackman committed to gaol on a charge of murder.
The prisoner was subsequently taken before one of
the United States courts. and on an application being
made to Mr Seward he was ordered to be handed over to
the British authorities under the extradition treaty. He
was given into the charge of Inspector Farley, of the New
York detective force—a gentleman who on former occasions
has rendered good service to the Liverpool police—and by
him taken on board the Cunard steamer Kedar, to be
brought to Liverpool. A telegram was received yesterday
at the detective office that the vessel, with Mr Palley arta
the prisoner on board, was eff Qaecustown, and Detective
Inspector Carlisle and Detective Jones were instructed to
be iu waiting for her arrival, co that the accused might be
banded over to their custody. After waiting some time,
the vessel being detained at the bar owing to the lowness of
the tide, the officers went out in a tender, when the man
was handed over to them, and he was taken to bridewell.
He is a strong-built man of colour, and he seems to look
upon the affair with the greatest nonchalance.
ANECDOTE OF MARSHAL DE MACMAHON, DUKE
OF MAGENTA.—During the Crimean war when in
command of the first division, he received orders to take
Fort Malakoff by assault. After a terrible struggle, in
which his men could only advance by fighting hand to
hand, he obtained a footing within the works. He then
with a pencil wrote ono lino to the commander-in-chief,
which, for simplicity, has never been surpassed. It was-7
"J'y SUiB, etj y restc," which he certainly dia,-21/4e Tai
is
Correspondent of a Morning Contemporary,

frs
dign tiro br

HER MAJESTY,

OSBORNE, 3.
The Queen and Princess Louise, attended by
Lady Augusta Stanley and, Lieut.e.General the
Hon. C. Grey, drove out yesterday.
Their Highnesses the Prince and Princess
of \Vales and Prince and Princtss Louis of Hesse
cruised in the royal yacht Fairy.

His Itlyal Highness the Prince of Wales has
ccntescendcd to inaugurate the statue erected by
voluntary contributions, on the grounds of the Licensed
Victuallers Asylum; Old Kciat-ioad, to the memory of his
illustrious and beloved father, his Royal Highness the late
Ptince Consort, and has named 12 o'clock on Tuesday nes'
the 9th inst., for that purpose. The Prince of Wales sue"
coeds his late father as patron of the institution. The figure
of his royal highness is of pure Carrara, marble, and is up.
wards of eight feet high; pedestal on which it rests being
a solid block of Sicilian marble, the weight of which is tea
ten tons, and its height a little over six feet—the wh°le
standing on a granite base of a foot and a half in thickness:
The memorial itself is consequently little short of 16 file'
in height. His royal highness is represented in the cost
in which he appeared when laying the foundation
stone of the " Albert " wing, and appears in the act of re-
plying to an address which was then presented to hiru—°ll°
hand is resting on part of a Corinthian column, whilst the
other holds a scroll. The whole was designed and execute
by Mr Thomas Earle, of Vincent-street, J3rompton. at
cost of between 630 and 700 guineas.
The Duke of Newcastle has, since his last relapse,
about ten days ago, more or less fluctuated. His grace
base
however, improved within the past three days, saet
e' —„:
continues to regain strength, will remove next w
Clamber.
arrlVea
The Duchess Dowager of Sutherland has
at Ilanover from Berlin.
The Duchess of Sotomayer and family bane
arrived at Matifigy's Hotel from Madrid. left
The Marquis and Marchioness of Lansdowne
town on Tuesday on a visit to their estates in Ireland.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Abercoro a%
left Beaudesert, near Lichfield, for Baron's Court, thefrsea
in Ireland.
The Countess Cowley and Lady Feodorovi°
Wellesley arrived on Monday last at the British 831194651
at Paris, from London.
The Count end Countess de Flahanit and 11!iilli;
Madile de Fahault have left their residence in Piccadilly
for their seat, Nairne Castle, in Scotland.
Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston left town
yesterday for Delapr(i Abbey, the seat of General Bouverie'
in Northamptonshire.
the
Viscount and Viscountess de Vesci and last,
Misses VescyLft Charlton-house-terrace on ts_t_.-T t
en a tour of visits in Scotland, before they go to their

in Ireland for the autumn months.
We may announce that Lady Victoria scot!,
eldest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleue
nest
engaged to be married to Lord Schomberg Kerr,

brother of the Marquis of Lothian. their
Lord and L idy Burghley have taken 11P 013
residence at Ryde, Isle of Wight, for the yachting 6etts-;E:
The noble lord, as vice-commodore of the Royal -Oct°.
Yacht Squadron, will remain to the end of the soss°ll.
The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, _ALP., Store'
tary of State for the Colonies, will continue in tow° tio.
act as Secretary of State during the absence of 12i8
leagues.
The Right Hon. Sir George Grey is detaiued I.ll_
town from delicate health. There is no danger, but Wu
right hon. baronet will remain.

The Prince Consort Memorial at relll4

0
The colossal statue of the Prince Consort, the
inauguration of which her Majesty has agreed
to
attend a week or two hence, is now nearly readY
10
leave the hands of the sculptor, Mr William Bedlei:
R.S.A. Mr Brodie has amply justified the Pert
committee in their selection of a native sculptor for
..
the execution of a Scottish memorial of the lamented
prince. Her Majesty has, we believe, expressed her
warm approval of the work, a photograph of whichhas been laid before her; and Mr Brodie may we,
be proud of the distinction of being the first Scottlw
sculptor whose work has been inaugurated by
royalty in Scotland. The statue, which is nine feet
in height, is carved out of a single and sieigulsril
pure and fine block of freestone from Redboll
Quarry. It will stand upon a pedestal 13 feet high,
the total elevation being thus 22 feet. The site 19
on the North Inch, at the west end of the bridge*"
one of the most prominent and favourable in the
town. The statue represents Prince Albert as attired
4
in the robes of the Order of the Thistle--a dreg
which suits well the requirements of sculpture, see
sets out the tall, manly, and well,.proportioned figure
of the prince. The right hand, which rests ell
square-shaped column or pedestal, holds an °peat
scroll, on which is traced an elevation of the G!'e--,,
Exhibition Building—thus identifying the Prlno,
with that first and best and most original, of induhe
trial expositions. His left hand rests easily
belt of his dress. The legs are both kept well c.cae
of the robe, which falls behind them from noy
shoulders, and the whole attitude is of that 14%0
character in sculpture which suggests a tray'''. is
stage between activity and repose. The figufead.
not entirely quiescent, for that is apt to el" "etiva
flees and heaviness to a statue ; it is not jo itc-„ee
nAotioe, which would be inconsistent with a 1)1.7
feeling of permanence and dignity. The held
finely modelled; slightly raised and turned to b.
the right, the expression at once animated arid e'aoJ
dued ; and, in point of portraiture, both, fee! ;rot
figure are admirable. It may be mentionea; of
Mr Brodie has had the advantage in the 013'f-too
his modelling of many valuable suggestions oil
his Royal Highness Prince Alfred, who took- W
interest in the work, and, during his reside" e
is tit
Edinburgh, repeatedly visited the studio to toe
its progress. There can be no doubt that the sttlivg
will add greatly to the sculptor's reputation, is
e.
in every respect a complete success. —Scotsmaril

wpm,
CRINOLINE AGAlN.—YeBoos.rftneßirTnrdhgas,depldewyech_n;ersereriandiolioat,ll7:4;:cilihs:o;
Dukeh -oo
rfof
of
HarrietCa
‘dl
rr evnoci nen,c
ePsn Saturday
Willis,ut Penton-place,
yep l
chemist,amlc
W.Carter, coroner for East Surrey, held en inquest At do
d
dweoartserviceth
drawing room fire, the milkman called, 'Ltd turning
drawing e, Walwortl., relative to ;
round her cotton dress ignited from Whin a. Nip
speedo,'
and his assistant, hearing the screams of de eetteed,
attended and extinguished the flames. Slat • was, 11°we:1;09
so seriously burnt that she was conveyed t St 'rho':
Hospital, whore, after enduring the most excrucitie.:
agony, she expired at 11 o'clock the same night. The
coroner expressed his opinion that all servan is should
prevented from wearing crinoline. He had ai solished it ;
his family. The jury expressed their wish th, at the hig/3e„
classes of the community would set their faces against sued
a
dress, as the human figure did not require it,, .and return
a verdict of "Accidental Death."
THE GOVAN OUTRAGE.—We undevstad
r
the Glasgow Morning Journal) that Miss .A.ddi e °Dog
making slow progress in the way of recov.ay. it
intended to bring M'Glirichey to trial at the mita° "lot
cuit, as it is unlikely that Miss Addle, even in the /3310-
•
favourable circumstances, will be able to appear in
SePte
ber as a witness. SOO'
REPORTED Loss OF THE CLIPPED.
NETHERBY.—A letter, dated Hong song' °
11, just received in Liverpool, states that much unessill_e
was felt at that place in consequence) of the reported j 0
The
the ship Netherby in the neighbourhood of Formoss• pi,
letter says Accounts from Formosa, elated 18t1'4,1;•eo•
state that there were then at that place a quantity °L b ts
chow tea, and that there were upwards of 1,000
0, to
among the Pescadores shoals. The Chinese state ah°ll;ourl
middle of April a large ship went ashore on the ha''t'ityof
of these islands, and after throwing over a large rltt°tarha
tea, floated off. The Wild Wave schooner lies
Pescadores in consequence, but saw nothing of eel 1-,rge
The tea at Formosa has been identified as a part of the
of the Netherby, which left Foo-shoo for London D9'
th April." t
FIVE BOYS BURIED ALIVE.—An esnthe
held on Tuesday, at Ashlou-under-Lyneo 0,701110
body of Thomas Nally, a boy, aged 7, who with fount" plot
boys, as the evidence showed, was playing on a Pre'
of ground near the railway station. The boys we oder
tending to be navvies, and had dug a large h 0 hen in
which they had tunnelled a considerable depth, "---f the.
moment the sand and earth gave way. T,l°3 were.
children were totally buried, and the three otheo.
sveo
covered up to their necks. Fortunately some woe,
en the
working iu the neighbourhood of the accident, so L. 00t
alarm being given, they immediately rushed t
with their spades, and dug the children out.
wss
was in attendance as boon as possible. Thomas Nally
niletai-
quite dead when got our. John Cunningham W" A
rs reeavere"
Lie for some time, but ho and the
verdict of Accidental Death Was returned.
othe