The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-15 00:00:00

IRELAND.

THE VINE.—The gardener of Henry Carew, Esq.,
of Ashford House, cut a splendid dish of black Haw
burgh grapes on new year's day, 1848, after having
supplied the family with grapes for three months from
the vine, which is a most magnificent one. The honest
gardener haying had 24 years' practice on vines, is
natUally Fad of the fest.

DEATH OF ONE OF THE CONSPIRATORS.
DUBLIN, JAN. 13.—A letter from Roscommon, of
yesterday's date, announces the death that morning
from typhus fever of a prisoner named Flanagan,
one of the leading conspirators in the murder of the
Rev. Mr. Lloyd. It clearly transpired in the inves-
tigation before the magistrates, that Flanagan held
Mr. Lloyd's horse and gig w hile the other assassin
was engaged in his bloody occupation.
REPRESSION OF CRIME.

In consequence of a threatening notice having been
served upon Mr. Lloyd, the high sheriff of Tyrone,
a meeting of the masters of the several Orange
lodges comprising the district of Killyman was held
on the Bth inst., when the following very commend-
able resolution was unanimously adopted :
" Whereas we are informed that evil practices,
which disgrace other parts of Ireland, and from which
our district had been long free, have shown them-
selves here, and that skulking assassins and incendi-
aries have dared to come among us, and to disturb
the peace of families, by issuing threatening no-
tices :

" Resolved—That we, the Orangemen of Killy-
man,
will exert ourselves strenuously to guard the
peace of our district. That for this purpose we
solemnly pledge ourselves—first, to use all diligence
in discovering strangers remaining in our neighbour-
hood, as well as vagrants of all descriptions; secondly,
that we will keep a strict watch on all who harbcur
or encourage such suspicious persons ; and, thirdly,
that if the conspiracy which exerts such baneful in-
fluence in the south and west commence its outrages
here, we pledge ourselves most solemnly that to the
utmost of our power we will bring to condign
punishment all whom we discover to be authors,
advisers, or in any way having a guilty concern in
such diabolical proceedings."

IRISH SPECIAL COMMISSION.
(From Saunders' News Letter of yesterday.)
ENNIS, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12.-1 n my letter of
yesterday I mentioned that the Chief Baron was just
commencing his address to the grand jury at post
hour. The following is a substantial report of his
Lordship's charge :
Sir Lucius O'Brien and gentlemen of the grand
jury of the county of Clare,— What you have just
heard read by the officer of the Court has announced
to you that those to whom the executive authority of
this country has been entrusted have deemed it right
to anticipate the ordinary visitation of the law at the
assizes by issuing this Special Commission for the
trial of offenders in certain counties in Ireland, in-
cluding the county of Clare. Proceedings of this
nature have become necessary from time to time.
They are rendered necessary either by the multi-
tude of offences, or by the magnitude and the atro-
city of the crimes. Such a proceeding is essential, with
a view to those objects for which the tribunals of the
country are called into their usual operation. It
is right and just, if there are men charged with
crime, to give such of them as are innocent the
opportunity of freeing themselves from unfounded
I accusation, and obtaining their restoration to their
ordinary pursuits and to the bosoms of their families
and their friends. It is essential also, where crime
has reared its head, to bring at once in conflict with
its perpetrators those powers of the law which are
intended for the protection of the whole community,
and the exercise of which a portion of the community
of which you form a part are called upon to assist by
the administration of justice. We have been already
engaged in proceedings under this commission. We
have had sittings in a county adjoining yours, and I
lament to say, that although many days were engaged
in the performance of our duties in Limerick, and
these duties have not terminated, we shall have to
return to that county in order to try other prisoners.
It adjoins your county—it forms a part of
it—whatever may be the prescriptive boundaries
which for public convenience—for the admi-
nistration of justice; and for other local pur-
poses, have been struck out—constitutes, in truth,
a part of that district—composed of por-
tions of the same soil, and inhabited by portions of
the same population, and I therefore feel bound to
refer to some of the matters that appeared before us in
the course of that commission, as indicating the state
of things which rendered it necessary to engage in
these proceedings. Unhappily we have found in Li-
merick a state of things in which outrage has attained
an extent of daring atrocity which calls for the most
vigorous administration of the law to suppress and
crush it—murders perpetrated—some of them under
circumstances of the deepest atrocity, have appeared
before us—attacks upon dwellings—sometimes for
purposes of intimidation—sometimes for purposes of
plunder—sometimes accompanied by severe injuries
to the inmates—sometimes followed by the loss of life
—all these have appeared before us. Outrage and
crimes which have always a tendency to extend their
operations have led to the perpetration of atrocities
such as these. The means by which these crimes
have been committed require some observations
and reflections with a view to the state in which
society is placed. In many instances—in a great
majority of instances, they are perpetrated not by
isolated individuals—they are committed by armed
bands assembled for the purpose of violating the law.
In many instances they are perpetrated not under the
cover of night,. but sometimes in the open day, indi
eating a species of daring which too often arises from
a sense of continued impunity. Such is the
nature of the crimes which have been brought under
our observation in the course of proceedings in a
neighbouring county. I lament to say that there is
but too much reason for believing, that outrages
similar in character, if not equal in number, have been
found to exist in the county to which you belong. It
is a consolation, however, to consider that they do not
pervade the entire of your county ; but when crime
exists upon the confines of one county it seldom fails
to come beyond the portals. Whether it be from
the contagion of crime itself, or from contiguity of
the districts, or from causes similar, spontaneous,
and concurrent, existing in adjoining counties, it
rarely happens that when a county circumstanced as
yours is found affected and disgraced by crime, that
the districts adjoining it are not subjected to similar
crimes. And so it appears in this instance. The
calendar submitted for oar inspection shows a fright-
ful picture of the state of certain portions of this
county. With regard to the crime of wilful murder,
there are eight instances of the commission of that
crime—in seven of these instances the parties have
been made amenable since last assizes. The persons
charged with this dreadful crime are numerous, and
amount in number to twenty. two. Akin to that
crime is one which, according to the law of this
country, to which I shall before I close have to call
your attention, is punishable with death as well as
the crime of murder itself—that is, the crime of
conspiring to murder. There are two cases
in which this charge is preferred, and there are
two individuals, one in each of these, charged with
the perpetration of that crime. As regards the
other classes o_ crimes—attacking dwelling-houses
—robbery of arms—burglary and robbery—shooting
at the person—and assault and highway robbery, and
other crimes committed through the instrumentality
of arms—l find a list which shows but too clearly
that at least those portions of Clare which adjoin the
county of Limerick, share in the outrage for which,
unhappily, that county is remarkable. Gentlemen,
it appears unquestionable that many of these out-
rages have been applied for the direct purpose of
controlling those who are in the enjoyment ol pro-
perty in the exercise offthe rights in relation
tto
them.
It
property which the law has conferred upon
' undoubtedly does appear that many of these out-
rages have their origin in .transactions connected
with land. If the evil stopped there it would be in
itself of magnitude sufficient to call for the applica-
tion of all the powers of the state to put down a sys-
tem by which the laws are violated, in order to ac-
complish purposes which the law condemns ; and this
not merely for the protection of the particular class
that may be invaded, but for the protection of
all classes of the community ; for if the rights
of one class can be invaded and outraged
with impunity, there is in truth an end
of civil government and of social order. A state
of things such as that involves in it the dissolution of
all social society, and the erection of a sway of anar-
chy and violence in substitution of the Government
and the law. If, then, as I have said, the evil were
to stop there, and one class of the community
alone at present were invaded by these outrages, it
would be the duty of those charged with the adminis-
tration of the law and the maintenance of the public
peace—charged with the responsibility of providing
for the safety of all classes—to arrest crime in the
extent to which it has first made progress, even for
the benefit of those who might afterwards become
involved in consequences of more extended disorder.
But, gentlemen, the evil does not stop there—it cannot,
it never did, and it never will. The spirit which
invades one class of the community will extend :to
the destruction of the rights and liberties of others.
It is the character, the inseparable character of out-
rage, if unpuni,hed, to become multiplied in
the instances of crime—to extend the range
of its operations. Yesterday, the landlord,
the agent, the bailiff employed in the enforcement
of his rights, the process-server in the execution of
the process of the law, by which, according
law those rights are enforced, may be tile
but
To-day the farmer, the person in humbler life,vi
who is an object of different passions, will become
_.
the victim too. I have referred to the proceedings
that have come judicially before us in the scene of
Tie form an i
our labours during the last week.
structive illustration of the general truth that I have
just now given utterance to; and if now called upon
to point out that
class in the community, that in the
county of Limerick,. which we have just left—and,
perhaps, the similarity of circumstances in this
calendar, though I may extend my observations to
the county of Clare--if, I say, I were to point out