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

IRELAND,

DEATH OP 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, thap. Flanagon held
Mr. Lloyd's horse and gig while the, other assassin
was engaged in his bloody occupation.
REPRESSION OF CRIM
In consequence of a threatening notice hying 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 ti:reatening 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 harhcur
or encourage such suspicious persons; arid, thirdly,
that it the conspiracy which exerts such barn:till in-
fluence in the south and west commence its outragts
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 Leiter 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
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 fbrms 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 proce. dings. 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 nut 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 1, eneral
nature of the crimes which have been brought under
our observation in the cctrse 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 i
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 o.ir 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 iu 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 arid high v.ay robbery, and
other crimes committed through the instrumentality
of arms—l find a list which !Aims hut ton clearly
that at least those portions of Clare which adjoin the
county of Limerick, share in the ou.rsge for which,
uuh:.ppily, that count\ is remarkable. Gentlemen,
it appears unquestionable that nelny of these out-
rages have been applied for the direct purpose of
(/), controlling those who are in the enjoy merit o. pro-
t„ perty in the exercise oftthe rights in relation to that
property which the law has conferred upon them. It
undoubtedly does appear that many of these
connected
out-
rages have their origin in transactions c(m
with land. If the evil stopped there it would be in
itself of magnitude sufficient to call for the applies-
" 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 v. hick 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 Einar-
. 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 consequereses 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 unpunished, 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 to
law those rights are enforced, may be the victim.
To-day the farmer, the person in humbler life, but
who is an object of different passions, will beici?me,
the victim too. I have referred to the proceedings
that have come judicially before us in the scene
an in-
structive of
s
our labours during the last week. They
illustration of the general_ f now e4led upon
itruh that I have
a
just now given utterance to; d
to point out that class in tbe community,have just left—and,
unity, that in the
county of Limerick, which we
perhaps, • the similarity of circumstances in this
calendar, though I
may extend my observations to
were to point out
the county of Clare—it, I say, I

with which men came forward to appeal to the laiis
and prosecute the defenders to conviction, and I be-
lieve it at least will be found by that class of persons
themselves that the mischief has gone too far, that it
is necessary at last that they as well as others should
combine for its suppression, and that they are taught
the salutary lesson, that by appealing to the laws of
the land they will save themselves from this species of
tyranny, and that their properties, their liberties,
their families, themselves, all that society can present
for the enjoyment of life, will be secured by giving to
the law that co-operation which the law demands. It
is not merely that such persons are prompted by their
own personal interests to adopt this course—their
own safety compel it. Some instruction has been
given of the danger of connivance at crime. In
one case which was tried under this Commission,
a man, himself a farmer, apparently of a respectable
class, was tempted to harbour a felon when fleeing
fte in justice. No reason, as f r as appeared on the
trial, existed for believing that he was engaged in the
perpetration of the outrage for which that felon was
convicted, and for which he is destined to lose his
lite ; but there is a provision of the law, that he who,
knowing the guilt of a felon, screens that felon and
harbours him, is himself guilty of felony, and of the
crime of the person whom he harbours—if the crime
of murder, he is exposed to the risk of being separated
from his family and home for the whole period of his
life. The man of whom I speak, William Frewen,
was convicted of that crime, and he is now on his
way to the place where he will be separated for ever
from those whom in this world he holds most dear,
because he had not the courage to say No to the
felon who, fleeing from justice, sought his protection.
I trust that this may in itself operate as a waning
to those who may be called upon or tempted to incur
a similar iesk ; and if they are asked by any person,
however connected with them by any tie, even that of
kindred, whom they know to be guilty of any of
these atrocious crimes, they will answer him by
saying, "1 oaneot incur the risk—l will not commit
the crime, lest I may share the law of William
Frewen." [The Learned Judge here read and ex-
plained Barnes's clause in the late Act for the pre-
vention of crime in Ireland, with respect to the power
given of tonig accessories even before the principals
were amenable.] Gentlemen of the jury, 1 have
thought it my duty to make these general remarks
upon the state of crime, upon the features which it
exhibits, and to suggest those considerations which
appear to me naturally to al iee from what has oc-
curred under our own observation. With the causes,
or the alleged causes, of this state of things, or with
any of their remedies, you and we have nothing to do.
' Subjects such as these are not only unfit to be dis-
-1 cussed, but to be considered by you on such an
I occasion. Our duty and our business is to deal with
the administration of the law. - We, in our respective
spheres, are to concur in that administration; and by
its vigorous administraticn, and by its being adtninis-
tered, as it always is, by that mercy w hicb, after all,
is but part of its justice, the result will be the resto-
ration of peace and tranquillity. [His Lordship
next called the attention of the jury to the provisions
of the Act before referred to, as to the appearing in
and possession of arms, the augmentation of the police
force, and the expense of the same. His observations
in explanation thereof were in substance the same as
those of the Lord Chief Justice in Limerick.] I
will not detain you with other matters, which have
been fully adverted to in the charge of the Lord
Chief Justice in a neighbouring county, and which,
most, if not all of you, must be aware of. But the
calendar of this county suggests to me one matter which
it is necessary I should point your attention to, be-
cause I find in it that two persons, at least, are
charged with the commission of an offence which is
not often, although it has been sometimes made the
subject of investigation ; the offence to which I allude
is the offence of conspiring or of'soliciting to murder.
Seine persons have by some mistake, been under the
impression that the provisions of the law with refer-
ence to this crime are provisions of an antiquated
character, and not now in force on the statute book.
This is a great mistake. These provisions, it is my
duty to apprise you, have been long the law in Ire-
land. In the year 1829, when the 10th George IV.,
chap. 34, was passed, repealing a great number of
statutes, constituting the critninal code of the
country, and consolidating the law, the pro-
visions of the Act which relates to the offence on
which I am commenting were re-enacted. [His
Lordship read the clause of the Act relating
to the offence.] So that the soliciting is
punishable by the law of the country as it the crime
of murder itself were committed by the party. In
England the law is not so severe, as the punishment
was mitigated by the Ist Vic., cap. 85. It is bil
offence in the investigation of which in reference to
the particular individual charged great caution and
care are required. It is an offence Corntoitted Of
eeurse in secret—it is an offence of a molt fitroCiOUS
character, and one in which there have been recent
convicui,t
ti,it,).ns
lii(nhireetsl7.l:l places.iinse
b'irTiheefly Its(e-)artege(l.%leiiieaii7
duties of grand jur,rs with regard to the c,ni,:itina-
mil of bills of indictment.

TWURSEAY, JAN. 13.
Their Lord,,hips took their Brats upon the bench
f4is morning, at 12 o'clock.
MURDER OF AIR. JAMES WATSON.—James Hayes
and Patrick Itvan, both little more than thirty vears
of age, were indicted for having in the month of May,
1847, at Ballycorney, in the county Clare, wilfully
and feloniously killed and murdered one James Wat-
son. The indictment charged that a man named
William Ryan actually gave the blow which caused
death, but that the prisoners were aiding and as-
sisting.
The Attorney-General, the I Solicitor-General,
Messrs. Bennett, Q.C., and Plunkett, Q.C., appeared
with Sir Matthew Barrington, Bart., as Crown So-
licitor on behalf of the prosecution ; and Mr. Oliea
defended the prisoners.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL shortly stated the facts
of the case. lie said that the deceased, Mr. James
Watson, of Kilcorney, was the agent of a gentle-
man of the name of Arthur, and the fact of his
being obliged in that capacity to distrain a man of
the name of Crowe, was the cause which led to his
murder. As in almost all the cases of murder which
occurred in the country, this dreadful and barbarous
murder arose out of a quarrel with reference to land,
for when Crowe was distrained, it would appear that,
influenced by feelings of hostility towards Mr.llr atson,
he engaged the prisoner and ar!other, p_erso:,onarned
William Ryan to commit this crime, which ul d
be
proved to their perfect satisfaction. Mr. Wats* and
Crowe lived near one another, and on the day the
murder was committed three men came from the
direction of his house,
.me.t Mr. \v atson on the road
riding, and murdered him in
ithe most brutal manner,
Ryan
by wounding him on t eat y a blow from a
It would appear that a man named William Ryan.
gave the blow, and that the prisoners assisted.
(The first witness was about being examined at
,st hour.)

SEIZING A DEAD BODY FOR DEllT.—Yesterday a
woman waited in great distress upon Mr. Mills tilt,
deputy coroner for Middlesex, and begged his a'dvicQ.
under the following circumstances:—She said that 14
female relative of hers had died, and her body had been
seized for debt, and when the friends had assembled.
that day to bury it, the keepers relused to give it up,
Mr. Mills directed her to make application to the magis-
trate of the district, or to leave the body with the credi-
tors, who would gladly get rid of it by themselves de.
fraying the expense of sepulture.
Sir Randolph Roach bad an interview yesterday
with the Chancellor of the Ephequer.