The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-30 00:00:00

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LONDON, SALURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1848.

The first of the State trials in Ireland, that of
Mr. SMITII O'BRIEN was commenced on Thursday,
but no progress was made beyond the disposal of
certain technical questions that were raised on
behalf of the prisoner. Those questions were, how-
ever, of considerable interest, and involve consi-
derations of no ordinary importance to the fair and
just adminstration of the law of the land.
The first point raised by the Learned Counsel for
the defence was one which may probably eventually
come before the highest tribunal in the land. It
was simply whether a person charged with the
gravest offence known to the law, whose life may
not only be forfeited if a conviction should take
place, but whose lifeless body may afterwards be mu-
tilated and exposed with every mark of ignominy and
disgrace, and whose blood would be corrupted, so that his
innocent children could not inherit honours or estates
derived through him, should be entitled to the same
rights and privileges, which he could demand if the
trial were to take place in this more-favoured land—
whether in aUnited Kingdom indictments framed on
the very same statute should be tried in dif-
ferent manners, so that the party accused is
deprived of the same means of defence in
one part of the country which he most
undoubtedly possesses in another. The application
which Mr. WIIITESIDE made on behalf of the prisoner
was immediately overruled by the Court ; but the
question was, after some discussion, placed upon the
record in such a form as to enable the party, if oc-
casion should arise, to bring a writ of error on the

proceedings.
We do not by any means desire to impeach the
soundness of that decision. The reasons adduced by
Lord Chief Justice in stating the opinion of their
Lordships appear very strongly to sustain the judg-
ment of the Court, and to show that the statute of
ANNE, by which the prisoner in cases of high treason
or misprision of treason is entitled to have a list of
the witnesses to be produced on the trial, and
a copy of the jury panel delivered to him
at the same time with the copy of the indictment,
and at least ten clear days before the trial, does not
extend to Ireland. It is, however, extremely unfor-
tunate that such a discrepancy should exist—that
there should be any pretext for the assertion that
every degree of fair play was not shown to the
prisoner.
Irishmen are easily excited, and charges and
assertions which have no valid foundation too fre-
quently receive a degree of credence in that country,
and operate upon the public mind in a manner that
can scarcely be conceived on this side of St.
George's Channel. The simple fact that he was
'VSI' denied‘'n list of the witnesses to be produced
against him, that his professional advisers were de-
prived of the opportunity of inquiring into their
characters and previous histories, by which the credi

bility of their statements might be impeached, and
the weight of their testimony materially affected,
will be commented upon in every part of Ireland,
and it will be adduced as evidence, that Irishmen
are not placed upon an equal footing with their
English fellow-subjects, that they do not obtain the
same unbiassed and impartial justice which must be
afforded to every man accused of similar offences in
England. There can be no valid reason why these
absurd distinctions between the countries should be
maintained. If we desire that the bonds of union by
which they are united should be more closely
cemented and perpetuated, no step could be more
effectual than the assimilation in every respect of the
laws and institutions under which they are controlled
and governed. Certain circumstances might exist
to render necessary the temporary enforcement of a
law in one part of the country, which might not be
called for, or in any degree required in the other ; but
there should be no permanent or lasting distinctions,
either in the laws themselves, or in the mode of their
administration. If such were to be the case, the heart-
burnings and jealousies that have so long existed,
and with such injurious results to the kingdom in
general, would also most undoubtedly be perpetuated.
We trust that the attention of the Legislature may
be directed to this point with all convenient speed, and
that early in the ensuing session we may witness the
introduction of measures calculated to effect this most
desirable object, and to make the same laws applicable
to all the European dominions of our most Gracious
SOVEREIGN.

The other questions brought forward related to the
composition of the jury panel, that fertile cause of
complaint and dissatisfaction in Ireland. Two points
were raised in support of the challenge of the array
taken on behalf of the prisoner—the one a question
of law, the other one of fact. The first was grounded
upon an alleged noncompliance by the clerk of the
peace for the county of Tipperary with the statutary
enactments regulating the composition of the jurors'-
book. This, which even if established would only
show a mere informality, was at once overruled by
the Court, who held the objection to be "utterly un-
tenable." The second point was of a graver and
more serious character; it directly impeached the
fairness and impartiality of the array, which
it declared to have been framed with reference to the
religious opinions of the parties summoned. This
was attempted to be sustained by showing that 288
jurors only were summoned in place of 380, the usual
number, and that of those only seventeen or eighteen
were Roman Catholics ; whereas, on ordinary occa-
sions, one-third of the number consisted of persons of
that religion. After hearing some evidence, and
amongst others that of the high Sheriff himself, and the
Sub-Sheriff, the triers appointed to decide thereon re-
turned a verdict in favour of the panel. The Court
was then adjourned until yesterday morning, when
the trial most probably was proceeded with.
After witnessing the loss of time thus occa•
sioned, and the opportunity afforded of charging
partiality against the prisoner, it is deeply to
be regretted that the practice in force in Scot-
land has not been adopted in the remainder of the
British Islands. From the letter of our esteemed
corresponder:t " A. Scottish Solicitor," published in
The Sun of yesterday, it will be seen that a prisoner
shall, fifteen clear days before his trial, be served with
a copy of the indictment, together with a list of
articles (if any) to b 3 produced at the trial against
him. Ile is also to receive a list of the witnesses
and of the jurors, from whom fifteen are to be selected
by ballot to try him. These are indeed admirable
provisions, which afford every fair facility to the
party, and render it impossible to charge any surprise,
or partiality, or other reasonable grounds for
impeaching a verdict. No person either is suffered
to remain undefended because of his poverty ; if unable
himself to defray the expense of obtaining professional
assistance, there are certain agents and counsels
appointed by the Court, from whom he may select
the parties to whose advocacy he is willing to entrust
the defence of his life or liberty. There is also what
Lord BROUGHAM so happily termed the " admirable
institution of public prosecutor," and the iniquitous
system of private prosecutions, against which we have
so repeatedly uplifted our voice, is wholly unknown.
Would that the Scottish system, in these respects,
were introduced into every British court of justice.

However much the friends of M. ODILON BARROT
I may congratulate themselves upon his brilliant display
of oratorical ability in the sitting of Wednesday, it is
certain that thirty millions of Frenchmen will exult
in the utter failure of his arguments. Not thirty
millions only, but numbers infinitessimal ; not the
present generation only, but all posterity. For the
principle advocated by M. ODILON BARROT was
(as applied to the present posture of the country) a
principle directly subversive of the institutions of a
Democratic Republic like France. had not the pro-
ject of Two Chambers been negatived by an absolute
majority of 410, had the National Assembly, in com-
pliance with the demands of M. ODILON BARROT,
decreed a duplex Legislature instead of a Legislature
unique in form, in power, and in operation, we do not
hesitate to say that a flaw would have been struck
in the orb of the Republic which must have
caused it ultimately to split into fragments, and have
left its ruins the sport of ambition or accident. The
truth is that a principle of retrogression under the
mask of Moderate or rather of conservative repub-
licanism has taken possession of the whole soul of M.
TIIIERS and his colleagues. M. ODILON BARROT,
in particular, has recently illustrated the fact of a
metamorphosis more surprising than any that was
ever conjured up in the lively and ingenious imagina-
tion of the author of the Fasti. A Radical Reformer
in the old Chainber of Deputies, he is a retrograde
Conservative in the young National Assembly.
The failure of his pet scheme of a Regency has
soured his political disposition. He owes a grudge
to republicanism, which his self- sufficiency cannot
very easily forget. Hence it is that his allegiance
has the reserve of insincerity, and his language the
acrimony of vengeance.

If, however, the project of Two Chambers has
failed, notwithstanding the talent displayed by M.
OJMLON BARROT in the tribune, the triumph of the
principle in favour of One Chamber is, in a very
great measure, attributable to the logic, the genius,
and the eloquence of his illustrious predecessor, 111.
DE LAMARTINE. Splendid as have been the orations
delivered by this eminent citizen since that moment,
on the 23d of February, when he first proclaimed the
necessity of endowing France with the sublime pri-
vilege of universal suffrage, his speech of Wednesday
must in all essential particulars be regarded as his
masterpiece. Speaking of this great speech the Na-
tional—the organ of the Government—has said, " M.
DE LAMARTINE defended the system of a single
Chamber with that solid democratic instinct, which,
more even than his surpassing eloquence;will constitute
his chief glory in history. Ilia discourse, and above
all its introductory passages, breathed all that gran.
deur of ideas, and all that magic of style, to which
he has rendered us habituated. It is one service the
more performed by him in the cause of truth and of
the Republic." The impression of the National is
the impression of the Government, and the impres-
sion of the Government—that Government which,
although dictatorial, is intimately identified with
the cause of moderate republicanism is
just now the impression of the French mul-
titude. France will feed upon the glorious
truths embodied in the magnificent harangue
to which we are making allusion, and she will recog-
nize in the sentiments expressed throughout its every
sentence, that the tendency of that political reli-
gion—that religion of Government whose cardinal
dogmas are Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity—is the
only spirit which can impart vitality to her Consti-
tution. The orator, in the induction to his harangue,
revealed the insincerity of those who endeavoured to
argue for the establishment of two Chambers by tracing
out an impossible analogy between the political posi-
tion, political wants, and the political institutions of
France, England, and the United States. He
insisted that such an analogy only existed in the
fantastic dreams of those whose intellects were inca-
pable of little more than a servile imitation of the past.
Such plagiarism in legislation, he continued, was un-
worthy of France in its present state of advance-
ment, and particularly unworthy of it, after its
seventy years of experience. Perhaps the most feli-
citous portion of his speech, however, was that in
which he ridiculed the proposition that the popular
representatives both in the Senate and in the Lower
Chamber should be elected by the people themselves.

To demonstrate the absurdity, and, in fact, the utter
impracticability of this proposal, he inquired
what would be the distinctive marks by
which the multitude could discriminate the
capacity of one man for the Senate and another for
the Lower Chamber of the Republican Legislature.
Is it wealth ? said he—that would be a vicious
reference to a material criterion, that would be a
brutal method of tracing out a distinction ; the whole
country would rise up against such a proceeding
with a single roar of indignation. Is it profession ?
that would be a miserable degeneracy to the old sys-
tem of castes, that would be a melancholy imitation
of the:system of the_Orientals, and we, we are in
France, remember, and in France in 1848. Is it
chance ?—but chance is blind, and blindness
can never be a guarantee of safety for traversing
the perilous paths of legislation. Is it age f--but
no ! that would be destroying that beautiful equili-
brium which is observable in nature, that equili•
brium which results from the presence of all ages in
the same generation, from the boy to the philosopher,
from the infant to the octogenarian. It would be
the concentration of all the:wisdom, the calmness, the
dignity, the experience to the one Chamber, and the
abandonment of all the impulse, the heat, the inex-
perience, the rashness, and the uncontrolled enthu-
siasm to the other ; it would be an arbitrary decree
against whatever was venerable in oratory—it would
be saying to FRANKLIN, and to ROYER COLLARD,
" Away ! you are not of the popular Assembly,
you are of the Senate !" In a strain of equally felici-
tous inspiration M. DE LAMARTINE subsequently
apostrophized the evil Demon of Communism as one
of those monstrous ideas which sometimes appear in
the world to affright mankind, but which, like the
monstrosities in the animal or vegetable kingdoms,
have no powers of reproduction. Towards the pero-
ration, again, he broke out into an impassioned strain
of eloquence, warning the National Assemby from
delegating its sovereignty into the hands of a single
man, by the establisment of a personal dictatorship.
" There are two names in history," he exclaimed,
" which are alone sufficient to warn you from such a
proceeding. One name, in England, is that of
Mors ; the other name, in France, is that of BONA-
PARTE." Upon these considerations the orator
repudiated the notion of an irresponsible President
under any circumstances; and voted for a single
Chamber as the most compatible with the unity of
the Republic, the liberty of elections, the equality
of representation, and the fraternity of ideas. Thanks
to his eloquence and patriotism, France is surmount-
ing another crisis—the crisis of legislative retro-
gression.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The National Assembly was engaged on Thursday
in discussing the 28th Article of the Constitution,
which enacts that the places of election for each de-
partment shall be the chief town in each canton. To
this an amendment had been moved, to the effect that
there shall be provided a polling place in each com-
mune (or parish), in order to give greater facilities
to the rural electors to record their votes.

The report of the renewal of the armistice between
CHARLES ALBERT and RADETZKY iS officially con-
tradicted by the Prease, which says that a tacit agree-
ment has been come to that the armistice shall be re-
newed every eight days until the negotiations on the
Italian question shall be concluded. The same organ
of the reactionary party also states (and from the in-
timate connexion subsisting between M. EMILE DE
GIRARDIN and the Bourbon family, we presume
also officially) that the King of NAPLES has accepted
the mediation of England and France in the Sicilian
question, only on condition that his right to the
submission of Sicily should not be questioned.
Banquets were given both at Toulouse and Bourges
to celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of the
Republic, on the 22d of September. These ban-
quets were attended by the Prefects and other mu-
nicipal authorities, and under their sanction Socialist
toasts were given and Socialist speeches were made
of the most anarchical tendency.
The rumour that M. GENT, the newly elected
representative for Vauclause, had died of the wounds
he had received in his duel with M. LEON DE LA
BORDE, is incorrect. lle has had his arm amputated,
and great hopes are entertained of his recovery.
In the sitting of the National Assembly yesterday
the debate in the 21ith clause of the Constitution was
continued, and the amendment proposing to take the
votes in each commune instead of in the chief town
of each department, was negatived by a majority of
626 votes to 271. A discussion then took place on
the affairs of Italy, which had not concluded at the
hour the post left.
VITIER, a distirguished member of M. THIERS'S
party, who held the office of Minister of Justice un-
der the last Ministry of M. TRIERS, has been ap-
pointed to represent France at the Congress, which
is to be held on the affairs of Italy. It is not yet
decided whether the Congress will assemble at Inn-
spruck or at Geneva.