The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-29 00:00:00

COUNTY TREASURERS (IRELAND).

Mr. O'CONNELL said that as the affairs of Ireland
had taken up so much of the time of the House he
should postpone the motion which stood for to-night, for
leave to bring in a Bill to Regulate the Office of County
Treastuer in Ireland, and to make such treasurer. charge
able with interest in balanc• a held over by them in
certain cases, till after the recess.

Mr. EWART, in moving for leave to bring in a B H
for giving pt isoitet s a full defence by counsel in criminal
c tses, observed, that in consequence of the absence of the
Under Secretary of State, from indimpasition, he should
deter making any observations upon the Bill till another
opportunity, moving merely for leave to bring it in.
Mr. PHILLIPS begged to call the attention of the
Hon. Member for Liverpool to the consequences of his
proposition. He felt no doubt that it had been brought
forward by him with the best intention•, but he
thought that it would be attended with the worst
results.—(Hear, bear.) Such was the mildness of
the criminal administration of this country, that the
slightest defect in the evidence, the merest omission,
the not filling up of the smallest gap, was sufficient
to absolve a prisoner charged with felony, and he
was sure that any person who had only once at-
tended a criminal court, would go along with him in
stating that the utmost anxiety was always manifested
for the acquittil of a prisoner charged with felony. No-
thing short of the most powerful and unquestionable testi-
mony could procure a verdict of guilty on a charge of felony
It was his confident persuasion that if the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman succeeded in hie proposition, he would
bring down the prisoner from the high vantage
ground he at pmsent occupied, and force hint into an arena
of contention on the facts, which would almost
always be against hint. In cases where the prisoner had
a real defence on the merits, he would say at once plainly,
that he would require no speech by counsel. He was
actuated by the greatest possible spirit of lenity towards
prisoners, and he was anxious to introduce any possible
amendment into the commercial law of the country ; but he
did not think that his Learned Friend had sufficiently con-
templated the consequences of his present proposition.
He thought the case of prisoners was much prejudiced by
the right which the prosecutor now had of addressing the
jury ; he was disposed to take away this right, and put
both parties on a level ; but to give the prisoner's counsel
a right to address the jury, would, in many instances, by
ill-judged and indiscreet argument, prejudice his case.
Had the Hon. and Learned Gentleman considered the true
meaning of the verdict—Not Guilty? It was quite con-
sistent with a strong persuasion in the minds of the jury
of his guilt. It was, in fact, an inaccurate expression,
and amounted to the good old See ch phrase, " Nut
proven," and must be understood in reference to the
high standard and rate of criminal evidence ; and he be-
lieved if the Hon. Gentleman's proposition succeeded it
would have the decided tendency to lower that standard,
and assimilate it to that which prevailed in civil
ca-es, and thus endanger most materially the security of
innocence.

Mr. O'CONNELL had not intended to take any part
in the present discussion, but he could not forbe tr ex
pressing his opinion, after some observations which were
made by the Hon. Gentleman who had just addressed the
House; and first he must be allowed to say, that the Hon.
Member had rather unf.irly, and prematurely, commenced
that debate, especially after the Honourable and Learned
Member for Liverpool had distinctly agreed to postpone
the discussion till another occasion, in consequence of the
absence of the Under-Secretary for the Home Depart-
ment. In fact, the 11,in. Gentleman had delivered a la-
bourer; answer, which was quite uncalled for, as
no speech had been made on the other side. The
iftn. Gentleman had asked whether it was not consistent
with the experience or every one at all acquainted with
the proceedings of criminal courts, that it was the general
prevailing anxiety of all in court to p‘ocuie an acquittal
for tne prisoners at the bar. Now, whatever faults
they had in Ireland, they had not at least that fault. He
believed there was no Alember in that House who, unfor-
tunately, was 10 conversant with criminal courts in