The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-13 00:00:00

THE WRIT OF ERROR.

The Cork lixaminer;f Monday says—
" The certificate was signed and sent to the clerk of
the Attorney-General yesterday, and it is not expected
that the Attorney-General will grant his fiat until the
end of the week—perhaps Saturday. When a certifi-
cate bears the signature of experienced counsel, verifying
the goodness of the plea relied on, the fiat is rarely, if
ever, refused:"

The Tipperary Free Press says—
"lt is currently reported that the trials of Messrs.
M‘Manus and Meagher will terminate the Commission
for the present, as several witnesses for the Crown in
attendance here had been subpoenaed as witnesses to
attend the trial of Stato prisoners at the Dublin Com-
mission on the 20th instant, and that, consequently,
the inquest at Clonmel will be adjourned to the 16th of
December."

The same authorities state that the Commission will
cost 500/. a day, and suggests, as the proceedings are
more national than local, that they should be charged
upon the Consolidated Fund.
STATE OF TIPPERARY.

A. Clonmel correspondent notices outrages com•
mitted upon the houses of some of the jurors in this
county. To Bansha, the scene of the recent horrible
murders, an additional police force was sent down
yesterday. The expense of their support is to be
levied off the townland in which the murder was
committed. The tax was to commence from Wed-
nesday.

RESISTANCE TO POOR-RATE.
The King's County Chronicle contains the fol-
lowing :
" Mr. Armitage, collector of poor-rates, proceeded
with a party of bailiffs, on Saturday last, to the house
of one Costoloe, in the immediate vicinity of this town,
and demanded the amount of his rent. Costoloe said
he had paid part of it to Mr. Salmon, the former col-
lector, and that he would now pay the remainder; but
this would not do, as he could not show any acknow-
ledgment for having paid the rate, so the cattle were
driven; but they had not gone far, when Costoloe and
two or three workmen pursued and overtook them
before they reached the town, when a bloody conflict
ensued in which a man named Tierney had his skull
fractured, also Costoloe himself dangerously wounded,
and John Hill, one of the driving party, had his arm
nearly severed from his body by a blow from a reaping
hook ; but, fortunately, no other serious injury oc-
curred, as the drivers decamped, leaving the cattle be-
hind them."

DUBLIN STOCK EXCHANGE.—SaIes at the Commercial
Exchange on Wednesday:—Three per Cent. Consols,
85 85i4 Three-and-a-Quarter per Cent. Stock, 85k
op.; ditto, Money, 85, 85k ; Bank Stock, 1881; Royal
Bank, 10; Wicklow Copper Mines, 8i; City of Dublin
Steam Company, 72 • Peninsular Steam, 55.—Royal
Exchange: Dublin and Drogheda, 24; Waterford and
Limerick, 84 ; City Debenture, Four per Cent., of
921. 6s. 2d., 70i; Royal Bank, 10k.
THE AMERICAN SYMPATHISERS.—I am in a position
to assure, you (says another correspondent), that pe-
remptoryinstructions have been received by the Ame-
rican Consul from the Minister in London, to insist
upon the itpmediate release of the two American citi-
zens•'-arrested-some weeks since on their landing in Ire-
land, and who have since been confined in her Majesty's
gaol of Newgate.
MEETING IN FAVOUR OF MR. O'BRIEN.—The Society
of Friends have called a meeting for this day, to pro-
mote a public expression of feeling in accordance with
the recommendation of the jury in the case of Mr. S.
0' Brien.

PAR.-MEAG HEWS TRIAL.--Allt. P. unoNotiog

Mr. Meagher will nut be brought up for some days, as
I mentioned to you in my last note. The Crown is
still hunting for evidence, not wishing again to produce
Dobbin. The active pursuit they have been engaged
in for the past week more than amply refutes the calum-
nies so industriously circulated against the peasantry, to
the effect that they were tendering the informer's evi-
dence for the infurncer's wages in such crowds that the
Crown knew not whom to select. Several most respec-
table persons have recently been summoned, amongst
them a most respectable Protestant clergyman, to whom
it was intimated that his evidence would be required,
and that he probably has committed himself by some of
the occurrences i❑ O'Brien's and Meagher's presence to
which he was a party. This was a little too much, for
it so happened that the clergyman in question never
saw Smith O'Brien till he saw him in the duck. Meagher
he knew well, but O'Brien he never spoke to. lie will
not be one of the Crown witnesses.

Mr. P. O'Donohoe will probably be arraigned to-mor-
row., tThe Solicitor-General begins his reply at the
opening of the court, after which Mr. Justice Doherty
charges the jury.
The jury cannot retire to consider their ♦erdict before
three o'clock.

A rumour was prevalent through town yesterday
evening that Mr. O'Mahony, for whose arrest a reward
of 1001. has been offered, had been taken up on the
North-wall by the :police, while endeavouring to escape
to Liverpool by one of the boats leaving this port.—
Freeman's Journal.

SPECIAL COMMISSION.
TRIAL OF M‘MANUS.

CLONMEL, OCT. 11.—The Court sat this morning at
halt-past nine o'clock, when the prisoner was placed at
the bar.

Mr. BUTT, Q.C., then proceeded to address the jury.
After urging them to dismiss from their minds every-
thing of a prejudicial character, he said the prisoner was
a stranger in that county; but, if the jury deserved the
character he had heard of them, then would he beat
consult the interest of his client by not flattering the dis-
tinguished Judges who presided over them, but to speak
to them as became the advocate of a man's life. He
would tell them again, that a preconceived opinion of
guilt was not affording an accused man the benefit of the
principle of British law. One other principle which he
asked them to bear in mind was, that no man could be
convicted upon moral probability or presumptive evi-
dence. The rule was, that if the facts proved be con-
sistent with any reasonable supposition of the prisoner's
innocence, they could not find him Fguilty. He would
not undertake to satisfy them that his client may not
have linked himself with designs which loyal men would
say were not free from all blame; but if the evidence
produced did not establish clearly the tremendous crime
charged in the indictment, and the precise charge speci-
fied, they should not find him guilty.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL here stated it was the in-
tention of the Crown to rely upon the first five counts
only, and that he would withdraw the sixth altogether.
Mr. Burr continued—lt was his (Mr. Butt's) wish,
in defending his client, to take his stand upon the most
ancient and unquestionable authorities of the law ; and
he would therefore tell them, not in his own words, but
in those of the greatest legal authorities, the meaning of
this statute of Edward the Third. Sir Edward Coke,
whose name was honoured and revered in the British
law, stated that this statute has not only accurately de-
fined the charge, but the nature of the proof upon which
alone a man can be attainted. It was to be observed,
that the word used was " proveably" attainted—that
was, by direct and manifest proof', and not upon conjec-
tural presumptions, or inferences, or strainings of wit,
but upon good and sufficient proof. Ile (Mr. Butt)
quoted this passage from Lord Coke, not to influence the
i
jury n coming to a conclusion further than this, to call
on them to try his client according to the law ; that law
by which the Queen, who prosecuted in that
case, held her throne, and by which alone the
jury could be empanelled in that box to try the prisoner.
By another statute it was necessary and indispen-
sable that every overt act of high treason must be
proved by two witnesses; and therefore, if one man
came on the table and proved a case of treason against
the prisoner—although his evidence might bring con-
viction to their minds of the guilt of the accused—yet
the law compelled them to find the prisoner not guilty.
The offences charged against his client were spread
through five separate counts. The first of them con-
sisted of a general charge of levying war, and four dis-
tinct overt acts were set out in support of that charge.
The marching of an armed multitude of above 500 per-
sons through the country on a particular day in July
last; the visit to the police barrack at Mullinahone; the
erection of a barricade at Killenaule; and the attack
upon the police at Farrinrory. The jury were
.bound to
take each act by itself, and say upon their oaths
whether the prisoner had actually levied war, and
their verdict pronounced on each act. They had two
questions to try; first, how far the prisoner was con-
nected with the act charged as treason; and secondly,
how far that act amounted to a levying of war. The
levying of war was an attempt to subvert the law and
the constitution. The levying of war must have been
actually carried into effect. They should recollect that
if a man formed &design of assassinating the Queen, and
left his house for that purpose, but repented on the way,
and did not carry his determination out, he was as guilty
as if he had actually committed the deed. But the pre-
sent case was not of that nature, fur no intention,
no conspiracy, no preparation of war would do, there
should be an :total levying of war, positively carried